We are His

The heavens are yours; the earth also is yours; the world and all that is in it, you have founded them. Psalm 89:11 ESV

The heavens are His. The earth and all that is in it is His. He made them. He made us. As Christians we'd all acknowledge that intellectually, and yet how easy it is in this self-focused society and Gospel we often hear to shift that around and not even realize we are doing it—to "sell" God like a product based on His benefits, or come to God for what He does for us. Or to look around and to say, "I have this and that and I have God and I have a family and I have a car and I have . . ." lumping Him in with everything else we "have."

But there is a reality that we must come to realize if we are ever going to truly surrender to Him. It begins with realizing—meditating on—that before all "this" around us was, there was God and God alone, perfectly complete and sufficient in the Trinity. Spend some time simply imagining and reflecting on that—God and nothing else. God, completely complete. Perfect. In need of nothing.

To often we ask questions that suppose there is a purpose for God or for the Trinity or that God came to be or took a certain form for a reason. The true place to begin and to realize is that God doesn't exist for a reason, or He is not the Trinity for a reason, He simply is that way and always has been. He is the start of everything. It all begins in Him. There was nothing that created Him, or came before Him, so any question that implies there is a reason for God or for the form God takes is wrong because it presupposes there was cause for God or a decision in how God would be—that God serves a purpose. (For an excellent discussion on this read Chapter 2 of Fred Sanders book The Deep Things of God: How the Trinity Changes Everything.)

God simply is, in the form He is, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, from everlasting to everlasting. He is, and always was, and always will be. EVERYTHING else finds its origin and start and beginning and life and source in Him, from Him. And, realizing that He is totally COMPLETE and WHOLE in and of Himself we realize He needs nothing . . . therefore EVERYTHING He does is from His desire and pleasure, not because He needed something and had to.

Beginning in this place—having had that reality go from our head to our heart through pondering on it—we then realize that the ONLY, the SOLE, the SINGLE reason we exist is that at some point (after He had already existed for eternity without us) He decided and wanted to create us. That is it. There was God, and being God He needed nothing. He didn't have to create us. He wasn't incomplete without us. He was God, perfect, complete, eternal. And from that place, as a free gift, He DECIDED to create us and all that is around us. Every one of us, and everything around us, exists SIMPLY and ONLY because He decided it would, for His own reasons or pleasure. There is not a single tiny thing we offer to God that He needed that obligated Him to make us or left Him imperfect without us. It was 100% His free desire.

When I can reach that point where I realize this—that the only reason I exist is because He decided to create me for His own desire or pleasure—I then realize that, logically, because of that, I am His. He is my Creator and He created me for Him. I am the clay and He is the potter. He made me, formed me, designed me, molded me, breathed life into me. From that realization it is then a tiny step to realize I am not my own, but I am His, and He has all rights to me.

This RIGHT of God to all of us makes perfect sense and takes hold of our heart when we fully and completely realize that there was NOTHING that obligated Him to makes us or that He is indebted to us for. There isn't even a tiny iota of anything that made Him have to make us. We are ENTIRELY His creation of HIS own free gift and choice. And realizing that helps us to internalize at our core that being His entirely—our entire existence depending on and drawing from His gracious free-will gift—we are truly His, for His pleasure and will. To say it again—from that realization comes the realization that He has ALL rights to us. It is not a two way street. We don't also have rights or any basis of leverage or demand on God. Our existence is entirely one way which means we have no claim on it. We are His, and His alone. May we live as surrendered vessels recognizing that right of His over us. It will be the most joyous place we can ever live when we stop kicking against the goads and surrender.

Surrender . . . Lay it Down

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. My guess is that for many, now, the Christmas music and movies and decorations are starting to come out . . . or at least you have a plan for it. I know we have already watched a few Christmas movies and we are starting to think ahead to when we might go into the hills and cut a tree, about our local church family coming over next Sunday for an open house fellowship at our home, about visiting with others, etc.

I know for myself, and I would assume that for most Christians, I hope that this Christmas season I can show Christ to, and share Christ with, others. I long to have Him be the center of my heart, life, thoughts, awe, wonder, thanks, words, and deeds. And, I think that this is a lot more simple than sometimes I make it as I too often tackle the issue with all this self effort, trying harder, trying to do more, etc. I think that it is, simply, found in surrendering.

Think, for a moment, about one of the most amazing realities of Christmas. It is Immanuel—God with us. Jesus came in the flesh and walked among us. He lived completely reliant on the Holy Spirit and completely surrendered to the Father. His words and deeds were so much the Father's through Him that He could say, "If you've seen Me, you've seen the Father."

Then something even more amazing happened. He died, rose from the dead on the third day, ascended into Heaven after 40 days, and now comes, as the Holy Spirit (God Himself!) to dwell inside every believer. If you have surrendered your life, in faith, to Jesus and received His work on the cross in your place as the basis of your salvation you are born again, a new creation, with God Himself living within you!

The Bible tells us we are the body of Christ, His hands and feet, and He is the head. How does a human body best please and represent the mind (head)? Not by its members running off on their own self effort driven attempts to do good, but by simply surrendering to the head and letting the head dictate its wishes and direction to them. It doesn't mean they are lazy or not doing anything. It does mean they are letting the head live out through them. That's a body fully functioning in the simplest human sense, and in the body of Christ sense.

God lives in us and, just like Jesus modeled in His relationship to the Father, He desires to live through us. What He needs from us is surrender. Basically, to get out of the way in a sense. Paul wrote in Galatians 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." That is the reality. As Christians, Christ lives in us. He simply wants to live through us.

How does Christ, living in us, best live through us? When we surrender and let Him. When, in faith, we rest in His presence and voice in us and let Him lead us and guide us into His plans and purposes and words.

When will the world see the image of Christ in us? When we let Him live through us and they see Him and not us at work.

This Christmas I want to get out of the way. I want to live aware of His voice and leading and nudging, and then to obey and follow them. I don't want to be so consumed by my own good ideas and self effort that I have no room, or silence, to hear His voice and sense His leading. No matter how good my intentions the world still only sees me when I am the one leading. It may even be big, religious stuff I am doing and still not be Him. Only when I let Him truly live through me will they truly see Him and not me.

That is my hope this Christmas and my guess is that, if I am able, my other great hope for this Christmas will be realized. This hope is that the awe and reality and wonder and gratitude of God coming to earth for me, and living (and dying) among us for me, would captivate my heart and break through the walls of numbness I sometimes feel to the amazing truths I preach. I long to be overwhelmed and awed and captivated by the reality of His love, and majesty, and holiness, and presence and my guess is that I will most achieve this when He is living most fully through me as, then, not only will others—but also myself—be most close to seeing the image of Christ and experiencing Him most fully.

Stealing

This blog was never intended so much as a place to teach—there are a wealth of fine teaching blogs and sites out there—as much as a place to share my thoughts, reflections, slices of life, things God is showing me, etc. That being said, last Sunday I had one of those moments that really affected me, and I wanted to share it with you.

During our fellowship's Sunday morning gathering I was in the back kneeling during one of the songs, reflecting on the words and the concept of following Jesus and of God as my King. Suddenly I had this realization that I often don't live as if my life is truly His to do with what He will, but I weigh His leading and decide if I want to follow or not. It struck me that, if I am really His, when I do this I am stealing what is His each time I take myself for myself. Hence the questions I left you with in my last post:

Questions:
1. When was the last time you stole something?
2. When was the last time you looked at something that wasn't yours and gave serious consideration to taking it for yourself?
3. When was the last time you took seriously the idea you might steal, or do what you want, with something that was someone else's, without their permission?
4. How would you feel inside if someone accused you of stealing and said you were a thief who had no qualms about taking what wasn't yours for your own selfish needs and reasons?

Consider the following verses, the themes of which came strongly over me last Sunday morning during the music. They are verses/themes I am sure most Christians would intellectually agree with:

1 Corinthians 6:19-20  Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

1 Peter 2:9  But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession . . .

Rom 14:7-8  For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's.


Gal 2:19-20  For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

These verses (and many others) make it clear. As a Christian I am His. He bought me. He redeemed me from Satan's lawful ownership of me and made me a citizen of His Kingdom, a son of His. He paid for me with His blood and life, and when I, by choice, accepted that gift in faith, I became His. He owns me. Yet . . . over and over again I, who would not consider for a moment stealing another human's possessions or money, far too often feel a nudge from God or know something I should be doing and I don't. I hem and haw, delay, weigh, self-justify, and sometimes do it and sometimes not. When I do this I am stealing. I am treating another's possession (me, His possession) as my own to do with what I feel like doing.

I love God, and from His worthiness and my love for Him, which stems from His love for me, I want to please Him and be a surrendered vessel through whom He might live and express Himself. It really pierced my heart to see this whole thing in this way. I've often recognized that I sense His leading and don't always want to do it, and don't always do it, but it was never so blunt and so strong to me as it was last Sunday. I am a thief. I steal. And I do it from the One I love the most. I don't know if that affects you at all, but it sure has given me pause for reflection this week. I am so glad I am loved and forgiven by Him, and that I can, knowing I am loved, begin to process this reality and start to align my life more closely with His heart. After all, I am His, and I love the security of the part of that which means nothing and no one can take me from Him. May I become better at the other half of being His . . . letting Him do with me as He will.

God bless you.   —Erick

Light and Darkness, Part 3

I highly encourage you to read Paul Ellis' 8/16/11 post on his Escape to Reality blog called "12 Infamous Examples of Walking After the Flesh in the Bible." This post dovetails beautifully with my prior posts in this series—in which I shared how "darkness" and "wicked deeds" are not defined by our moral measuring stick, but by God's presence in them or not (and how this realization affects our understand and sharing of the Gospel, especially with "good" people). The comment I left on his post was: This is one of the best posts I have ever read. Thank you for teaching and reminding us that even our “good” ideas and leadings, apart from Him, are sin. I have been finding in my recent studies and teachings such an amazing revelation in Jesus’ talk with Nicodemus. When He tells Nicodemus that the light comes in to the darkness but men love the darkness because of their wicked deeds I shared with our church how this applies even to our friends and family who don’t do “bad” things, but even do charitable things and “good” things. Clearly, Jesus defines darkness and wicked deeds differently than we are tempted to do with our moral measuring stick. The conclusion I have come to is that darkness and wicked deeds are anything separate from Him. I really, really appreciate this post. I am going to share a link to it on my blog. I hope that is OK.

Palm Sunday

Though the task ahead was one that would bring indescribable pain to our Lord, and we can't even fathom what it would have been like for the sinless Creator to have to carry our sin and to be mocked by His very own Creation, Luke 9:51-53 tells us that:  When the days drew near for him [Jesus] to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers ahead of him, who went and entered a village of the Samaritans, to make preparations for him. But the people did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem.

I am struck by the repetition of the expression that His face was set to go to, or toward, Jerusalem. There is something so concrete and steadfast in that expression, ". . . He set His face to go to Jerusalem." Wow! It challenges me to ask myself, "What have I set my face towards?"

In Daniel 1:8 in the New King James translation it says, "But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank; therefore he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself." He purposed in his heart. The English Standard Version says he "resolved."


I know that I won't know the extent of God's plans for me all right now, nor even what my life will look like in months, let alone years, but I must ask myself, "Have I set my face, have I purposed in my heart, that the Lord's work and will is going to be done through me—that I will present myself before my King as a yielded vessel that He might find pliable and surrendered to His heart and work?"

I get the sense that for Jesus, and Daniel, there was resolve to let nothing distract them from the course. We read this theme of not getting entangled with sin or the cares of the world throughout the Bible. We see it in Abraham's steadfast march with his son Isaac toward the mountain of sacrifice. I wonder what my true determinations are . . . not what I "say" they are, but what my life and my priorities and the use of my time "reveal" they are.

Have I set my face? Have I purposed my heart? Is my King's (and Father's) will the determination of my mind, and the goal of my life? May He find me ready, willing, dependent, poured out, led by His Spirit, and joyous in the days ahead—may I set my face to that goal, and always remember the new mercies every morning He offers when I stumble and fall.

As recorded in Numbers 6:24-26, may, "The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace."


God bless you all. Thanks for reading.
Erick

Kingdom Teaching

I hope that this finds each of you having a wonderful end to a wonderful week filled with reminders of God's amazing love and power. Tomorrow morning at church, God willing, I will be giving the sixth teaching in a series on the Kingdom of God that began, in my heart, many, many months ago—if not a year ago or more. I can not describe to you how much this teaching is impacting me as I study this subject, this "gospel" of the Kingdom that Jesus and the early church declared. There is no way I can even begin to put a fraction of the insight and background and evidence in this blog, I can only offer the audios of it. I put them on the website of the church I pastor by the middle of the week following each teaching. They are in mp3 format, between 40–45 minutes each, usually about 20 MB each, and totally free! There is a link to our fellowship's audio resources page below, and you'll find them listed, in reverse order, under the "Current Series: Kingdom of Heaven" section. (Kingdom of Heaven Audio Teachings)

I know that we are all busy, and that God may be leading each of you to other topics or places of study, but I say with all humility that, if you are able, I believe you will be blessed by starting at the beginning and following this series through. I am finding that the "Kingdom" lens, or "glasses," has changed the way I read the epistles and understand the parables. It was the message John the Baptist declared, the message Jesus declared, the message He sent the disciples to declare, the message He taught them between His resurrection and ascension, and the message taught throughout Acts, including in the last verses of Acts with Paul in prison. The epistles were written to people who had been taught about the Kingdom of Heaven/God . . . and Jesus, the disciples, and Paul were very familiar with its immediate power implications in the here and now, as well as its simultaneous realities of being both a future event and also a place called Heaven now. The study I am giving is focusing mainly in the third aspect of the Kingdom—the part Jesus said was in our midst now, the part Paul walked in knowledge of and had confidence in . . . and Jesus said that it was the gospel of the Kingdom that would be preached to all the world before the end would come.

I believe that the presentation of the Kingdom good news changes the entire focus of the Christian life from simply an emphasis on getting saved and to "Heaven" in the future, to living a life submitted to a King now. It changes the way we see ourselves, and how we carry ourselves as Christian. As we understand the war our Kingdom is in against a kingdom of darkness, as we understand the power both kingdoms bear (and which is superior!), and as we understand the reality that receiving Jesus as Lord means submitting the entirety of our lives to His Lordship, I believe that we will find our Christian life rocked. I believe that lukewarm Christianity finds its antidote in the Kingdom understanding, and that it is the true understanding we must have. When Colossian 1:13 tells us that, through Jesus, God has, ". . . delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son" it is telling us about much more than a future reality of Heaven, but also about a present reality of being born again as citizens, soldiers, and ambassadors of one Kingdom, now here in the midst of another kingdom with which we are at war.


I could go on for pages upon pages about why I feel this is important, and why I feel it is true, but I will just trust God to move you from here in the direction He has planned for you. I am excited about the study, and I covet your prayers and feedback on it. I have no interest in pursuing it for "gee whiz" knowledge, or simply for the sake of theology, but rather that I may grow in my walk with the Lord, and I would welcome any prayerful thoughts and insight you may have, as well as any questions. May we all grow together closer and closer in to His image, that He may more fully display Himself through us. May He bless you and keep you and pour His Spirit upon you.

Kingdom of Heaven Audio Teachings

Total Dependence . . .

While reflecting on thanksgiving I was struck by the fact that in the first three Gospel accounts of the Last Supper (and in Paul's 1 Corinthians sharing on it as well) Jesus gave thanks before partaking of the bread and wine. I have passed over that so many times in my reading of those accounts without ever really giving it a pause, but this time it made me sit back and go, "Woah. There is something powerful there!"

We read, of Jesus, in John 1:,3 "All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made," and in Colossians 1:16-17 it says of Him, "For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together." These are statements so powerful about Jesus that they rock our minds when we realize what they are saying, and yet . . . He gave thanks to the Father for the most simple of things while on earth.

What does it say to us that the One through whom, and for whom, all things are made lived on earth, as one of us, choosing to live so surrendered of His rights and so dependent on His Father that He even gave thanks for bread? I have a sense that the thread of thought and example we could follow in this would take us to a place so deep that our entire Christian life could change if we were to internalize it. Jesus made all things, and Jesus had all rights, and Jesus could have done whatever He wanted . . . but He did not grasp those rights, or that place, bur rather laid it at the Father's feet and lived a life so dependent on the Father, and so surrendered to the Father, that He would say that He could do nothing apart from the Father, that He cast out demons by the Spirit, that He only did or said what He saw and heard the Father doing or saying, etc.

If Jesus could so lay His life down and let the Father live out His will through Him, to the point of even thanking the Father for bread, what example does it give us about surrendering our rights and life to the Father who gave His very Son's life for us? We are dependent on God for every good thing in our life—and James assures us that every good thing indeed comes from the Father. I also know that, as God's children, we have tremendous rights and authority in this dark world—rights and authority that come from the Father Himself and our identity in Christ. But, something I have wondered about for some time and have not ever really voiced outside of Mary Ann, is if the reconciliation between these two things comes in our choice to surrender. Here is what I mean, and I'd love your thoughts:

We have tremendous rights and promises from God. The Bible is clear on that. Some teachers teach on that almost exclusively, about standing in faith on our rights, and promises, etc. But, then, comes Jesus' example. Philippians tells us that He didn't grasp His right as God, but surrendered it and humbled Himself and gave up His rights to allow His Father's will to be done through Him. I wonder if it is not true that, while we have those rights and can stand, on faith, receiving them . . . if there isn't a place beyond that we could go where we give back to God the very rights He gave us, where we surrender them back and say to Him, "Here, Father. I know my rights on this earth as Your child, but I give them back to You. Let my life be Yours to do with as You will. I choose not to stand on my rights, or even to Your promises, but to surrender it all so that you might have free access to my life no mater the cost. I choose to live so that it is You alone who live through me, and I choose to live so dependent that I recognize even your love and gift in a simple slice of bread."

The "Rest" in Work . . .

Last night at Youth Group, and this morning at Family Worship, we talked about God's call to Moses from the burning bush. In Exodus 3:2 it says, "And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed." (Moses is in the desert because he fled Egypt for killing an Egyptian and Pharoah wanted to kill him.)

The account tells us that Moses turns aside to check it out and God speaks to him from the bush and tells him that He has seen the plight of His people enslaved in Egypt, and heard their cry. So far, so good for Moses, I would imagine. Then God says in verse 10, "Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt."

Up to this point I imagine Moses is really glad God has seen and heard the people's problems and situation . . . but suddenly when God wants him to be the solution things suddenly aren't so good. You probably know the rest—Moses gives reason after reason why he's not the best guy for the job, and God replies to each one basically the same things:

1) I will be with you.
2) I am sending you.
3) I will take care of what you need (power, signs, words, etc.)

Towards the end, when all of that is not enough, God gets angry at Moses' fear and doubt and reminds him of Aaron, and Moses reluctantly goes ahead with it all.

The thing that always intrigues me in this is that God never answers Moses' question, "Who am I?" He simply says, "I'll be with you." As I told the youth (many of whom have been on the school softball team I've coached), "If I sent you in to a critical position in the field during a game and you expressed doubt about yourself I'd build you up, remind you of all you have practiced, pump you up with encouragement, tell you how amazing you are, etc." But, God doesn't do that—He says, "I'll be with you."

What more do we need to know? Really? Knowing God is sending us, and we are doing His work, what more do we really need to know? This is the God who saw simply a vast void of blackness. He envisioned a universe with galaxies and nebulae and cosmic swirls and asteroids and infernos called suns; and He envisioned an earth with amazing coral reefs and sea life, with birds that fly with hollow bones, with crazy creatures like giraffes and hippos; and He envisioned a man with a mind more amazing than the most amazing computer and an eye more complex than the most complex telescope . . . and He envisioned that and, with simply a word, He brought it into existence from nothing. He is so completely awe inspiring and amazing and worthy of our praise and worship that when we know that He is at work through us (which obviously means He is with us) what more do we, truly, need to know?

The whole key is going where we are sent—doing what we are told to do. Because when we are yielded and He is working His work through us as His hands and feet and mouth we don't have to wonder if He is with us, because it is His work He is working. As Philippians 2:13 says, "for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure." God places His desires in us, for what He wants to see done, and when we yield to those it is in fact He who is doing the work to bring His desires to pass. That means, of course, that He is with us, and that His full resources are working through us—and we can "rest" in that, because . . . what more do we really need to know?

Two Lessons from Joshua . . .

In our Family Worship time this morning we were looking at the next event after the fall of Jericho and two things spoke to me strongly from it.  As a background to it, God told the people that when Jericho fell, ". . . And the city and all that is within it shall be devoted to the Lord for destruction. . . . But you, keep yourselves from the things devoted to destruction, lest when you have devoted them you take any of the devoted things and make the camp of Israel a thing for destruction and bring trouble upon it. But all silver and gold, and every vessel of bronze and iron, are holy to the Lord; they shall go into the treasury of the Lord." (Joshua 6:16-19).


Then, in the next chapter, it tells us: But the people of Israel broke faith in regard to the devoted things, for Achan . . . took some of the devoted things. And the anger of the Lord burned against the people of Israel.

Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai . . . and said to them, "Go up and spy out the land." And the men went up and spied out Ai. And they returned to Joshua and said to him, "Do not have all the people go up, but let about two or three thousand men go up and attack Ai. Do not make the whole people toil up there, for they are few." So about 3,000 men went up there from the people. And they fled before the men of Ai, and the men of Ai killed about thirty-six of their men and chased them before the gate as far as Shebarim and struck them at the descent. And the hearts of the people melted and became as water.

Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell to the earth on his face before the ark of the Lord until the evening, he and the elders of Israel. And they put dust on their heads. And Joshua said, "Alas, O Lord God, why have you brought this people over the Jordan at all, to give us into the hands of the Amorites, to destroy us? Would that we had been content to dwell beyond the Jordan! . . ." (Joshua 7:1-9)


The two points that speak to me strongly from this are:


1) The tremendous cost to the whole body of Christ when one member does not walk as God calls him or her. I believe that we take the "body of Christ" wording too figuratively. We are integrally linked as Christ's body, with Him as the head. Only ONE man hid goods from Jericho against God's command, and the whole nation suffered a defeat from an enemy they should have easily beaten.

What one of us chooses to do, or not to do, dramatically affects far more than we realize. We saw this much earlier in Joshua's life when there was nothing wrong with either his or Caleb's faith, but they wandered for forty years with the others, outside of their destiny, because of the unbelief and fear and sin of the body/family they were integrally linked to. We may think our little sin, or our staying home from church, or our holding back our first from God, or our grumbling or negative expectations, or whatever that thing is that we are doing apart from surrender and yielding to Him is just about "us" when, in reality, our whole family and local body is affected by it. We are no longer ours. We have died and been born again in Christ. We are his, and when a part of anyone's body rebels or acts independent of the head the whole body is affected, whether or not they realize it.


2) There is tremendous cost in calling "good" or "OK" what God has deemed otherwise. It cost Saul his kingdom, and it cost Israel its victory in this account. Joshua and the people, not yet knowing someone had kept goods from Jericho, had every reason to cry out in confusion and fear and bewilderment. Unlike their parents, they had chosen to trust God and His promises and to enter and take the land HE was giving them! And here they were, routed and humiliated, by a wimpy army they should have destroyed! What about God's promises? What about Him going with them? What about being strong and courageous? How they must have cried out and been confused.


But, one of them had compromised. He had deemed OK what God said to destroy or do otherwise with, and it had crippled their power against the enemy, and it caused God to pull back from them. Achan kept objects that had been set apart for destruction or the Lord, by the Lord. As such, he brought the destruction of those vessels upon himself (and the "family/nation" he was a part of), and Israel became powerless against her enemies.


I believe the spiritual lesson in this is huge. Both as individuals, and as corporate bodies in regions, we battle the hosts of darkness regularly—just look at Jesus' life and ministry if you doubt that. We have God's authority and adoption. We have tremendous promises of victory against the hosts of darkness. The enemy seeks to steal, kill, and destroy, but Jesus gives us His authority and works through us against those forces, and greater is He is us than he who seeks to destroy. But, when we compromise, when we allow to remain in our life something God has said to get rid of, we cripple our authority and power against the enemy, and we hamstring the chance of victory for us and others we are linked to. The cloak and silver and gold Achan kept must have seemed miniscule compared to the wealth of Jericho—something that wouldn't even be noticed . . . but it cost a nation a victory, and 36 men their lives.

What, in your life, are you allowing that God has said to purge? Is it thoughts, is it entertainment, is it language, is it a hobby or way you spend your time, is it fear, is it a eating habit? What, if anything, have you deemed "OK" that God has said to remove? I know it is not easy, but we MUST not get casual with what God has called us to purge. We are in a war—we must never forget that! Our enemy is real, and lives and marriages and hearts are the what is at stake. We must—we must—yield ourselves to God's Spirit in total surrender because, only then, when we walk in the Spirit, will we crucify and put to death the works of the flesh.

Who Did the Work?

As our family goes through the early pages of Joshua for Family Worship time, I asked some questions of the girls this morning:

Q: Who parted the Red Sea? A: God (that's right, all they needed to do was go through it)

Q: Who made water come out of the rock? A: God (that's right, Moses just needed to obey)

Q: Who brought food from heaven and provided for the Israelites? A: God

Q: Who parted the Jordan? A: God (that's right, they just needed to obey)

Q: Who brought the walls of Jericho down? A: God (that's right, they just needed to obey some instructions that were completely silly to the "trained" mind)

The point becomes clear through repetition—God does the work, our job is to obey. Now, the first time (at the Red Sea) it was easy (or, easier). You have an army bent on death and slavery behind you, and ahead of you the water just parted in a miracle. Walk on!

But, the second time, at the Jordan . . . now you are not walking away from an enemy army—but toward one! Now, it requires faith to leave the place of comfort and provision (and "existing," not occupying or driving out the enemy).

But, the same God is there and our job is just the same. Obey. In Joshua 3:5, the day before crossing the Jordan, Joshua tells the people to consecrate themselves (or sanctify themselves) because "tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you." When something is consecrated, or sanctified for a purpose or use, it is set apart and made available strictly for that use. Joshua is telling the people to cleanse themselves of all else, to set themselves apart for God's work and purposes, to be simply available for His use.

That is our job. To be available. To be surrendered. And to obey and rest. God does the work. He always has. In fact, the time Moses got in trouble was when he, in anger, worked from the flesh and not the leading and struck the rock. It was a costly move for him!

When we are doing God's work (or, He is doing His work through us) His full resources are at work. We do not need to worry or be anxious, but rather we can rest in peace and joy. (It is amazing how hard it is for us to rest!) In doing God's work, we might be physically working hard, but the real work, and the movement of the impossible, is God's to do. We can't, and we  must rest in that He will and depend and count on that. Now, if we aren't sanctified (set apart) and doing His work, obeying Him, then we can't rest or count on that because we are on our own. But, when we are surrendered and obeying then we are colaboring with the One who parts oceans and topples the walls of the fortified cities of our enemies and "does wonders among us." And that is a great partnership to be in!

A Sacred Moment . . .

I am in Los Angeles visiting family (please pray for our trip home tomorrow). I had, this morning, a sacred moment down here which I wanted to share . . .

I took a walk up a street this morning to a hardware store to get some tools for a project at the home we are staying at. I don't remember consciously asking God for an encounter on the walk, but I have been studying a lot about the surrendered life and simply letting Jesus live through me. I was so caught off guard by what happened next that I don't even remember the exact order, or details.

I was on a corner with some other people (it was a bus stop). I think I was waiting to cross the street. I don't even remember if I noticed the heavy set, sort of dirty man on the low cement wall a little behind me or not. I may have smiled at him as I went past, but I don't remember. All I know is that he asked me if I would pray for him. He had a Bible with him and I had a little trouble understanding him, and I thought maybe he was asking if he could pray for me. But when I went to him and leaned closer and apologized for not hearing what he had asked, he asked if I could pray for him. He then began telling about how he ended up at that spot and was staring at a fire truck across the street and he didn't know why it was there (it had some meaning to him). He asked how he could know how to be in heaven and he said that I looked like a man who could help him.

I have to say that I was caught so unexpectedly that I was not sure what to make of it, but I soon began to realize it was a divine encounter. I had a decision and, while a part of me wanted to move past and on my errand, I remember thinking that it was likely that Jesus wanted to use me—to be Himself through me to this man. I thought, "This is what I have been studying about. Simply resting and surrendering and being available!"

I stood next to the man and listened to him, sometimes having to ask him to repeat himself. It became clear he was seeking spiritual truth and that, while he'd had some church background somewhere in the past, he was confused and needed answers.

I ended up sitting down next to him on the wall he was sitting on. We talked as the traffic and people went past. His name is Daniel, and he says that people have told him he's crazy. He has started to believe it. I told him that Jesus was bigger than all that and that Jesus could take care of him and set him free, no matter what was at work.

I explained the Gospel to him, and shared about what it means to not just say some prayer, but to surrender our life to Jesus' Lordship. I talked about faith instead of works for salvation. We talked about God's Word, and about Jesus' power, and about Satan's attacks. He then, almost abruptly, said he wanted Jesus and he bowed his head and prayed. He did great! I didn't need to coach or anything, he just poured out his heart to Jesus, asked Jesus' forgiveness, told Jesus he was sorry about things he'd done, and asked Him in to his life. At one point, while he was doing that, he cried out real loud, "Jesus, come in!" I had my head bowed, but I am sure that if I was looking around I'd have seen the people around us at the bus stop all looking and maybe stepping back. I chuckled and told him, "Daniel, you don't need to yell. Jesus has good ears."

When he was done I put my hand on him and prayed over him. I asked Jesus to pour out upon him, and for His power to come against anything wrong with Daniel or attacking Daniel, and to lead him in truth and to help him find a wonderful circle of Christian friends and church. (It bothered me how afraid I found myself as I prayed of how churches would react when he walked in with his dirty clothes and hard to understand speech . . . it is sad to think how many Christians, myself included, often judge or avoid those who drew close to Jesus).

Before I left, I told Daniel what the Holy Spirit's voice will sound like as opposed to Satan's. I taught him about responding to the enemy's voice in authority, and about reading God's Word to learn to recognize God's voice—about finding a good church—and some other stuff. I asked him how he'd ended up in that spot and he said he'd come there to pray (he lives down the street in a boarding house). He said he'd stopped in that spot because the homeless people farther up the street didn't want him there. I told him that I thought God had stopped him there so we could meet and he lit up and smiled and said something to the effect of, "Yeah! I think so, too!"

It was a sacred moment. I can't explain the radiance in my heart and the moment. I hadn't done a thing to bring it about, other than, maybe, being available. I was walking down the street in a town not even my own and a man, out of the blue, asked me to pray for him as I walked past. A man confused and seeking and wanting to know about heaven. A man who looked like the kind you often walk around and hope they don't talk to you. A man who, for some reason, thought I, of all the people passing by, looked like a man who could help him.

I can't explain the moment in any words that are adequate. I share it only because this is my personal blog, and this is my place to share about me and my life and my God, and because if you read my blog you probably care about these things and about me. It was truly amazing to be walking down the street, and 15 minutes later to be leading a new brother to Christ on the corner of a busy intersection, surrounded by people going in and out of a business and waiting for a bus. I don't know how to capture it. It was holy. Even as he yelled out loud I didn't mind. God was there and He was moving.

As I left and walked on my way I marveled. Then, I started to doubt—the voices coming in telling me he was just making me his next mark . . . but then I realized he'd not asked me for a thing, other than prayer and answers. He hadn't told me he needed anything, other than assurance. He hadn't even shared that he lived in a boarding house down the street until I'd asked.

I looked for Daniel on my way back, to just give him a hug, but he was gone. I realize I love Daniel in a strange way. I miss him already. He is my brother. He came to Jesus . . . on a street corner . . . holding his Bible like a treasured possession . . . shirt and pants dirty . . . humbly and simply praying in a prayer so beautiful it made my heart sing . . . and he looked up when he was done with such a smile and an eagerness to read His Bible and do the things I suggested to him.

If you are a Christian, you have a new brother. His name is Daniel. Please pray for him. I stand in awe at my awesome God. If this is what it means to live surrendered and available, resting in God and not striving, simply being there for Him to use, then I want more of it.

“Surrender” is a Beautiful Word . . .

Dad and me.

I want to share an example that I believe God gave me this weekend when the youth camped at our home. I believe it illustrates the Christian life in such a powerful way that I shared it in my Sunday teaching at church as well. May it bless you . . .

I love my dad. He is a wonderful, supportive dad and I am blessed to have him. I miss him when we are apart, and I look forward to the times we are together. I admire him and his dedication to what he feels is important. He loves history and he is an author, and he has a passion for preserving history in written form and passing it, and his love for it, on to others.

Over the last 2–3 years he and I have spent countless hours on my days off working on his latest book (a revision of a book he wrote years ago on the Monterey/Cannery Row sardine industry that caused the waterfront to become famous through it and the writings of men like John Steinbeck). I probably need to back up and say that, before I started pastoring full time, Mary Ann and I used to do computer typesetting—taking author’s manuscripts and art and turning them into print-ready format.

This book is my father’s book. It is his vision, his desire, his goal. It is not mine. I have other things on my heart to do. I did not wake up those days saying that I wanted to work 6–10 hours in front of the computer on a book about Cannery Row. It is not that the book, or Cannery Row, is bad in any way. It is just not my desire or priority.

But, what is a greater truth is that I love my dad, and this is a gift I can give him—and that is, at that moment, my greatest desire and priority—my desire to love my dad is a greater desire than to do my own thing. I can be his hands, positioning words and pictures exactly where he wants them, moving and adjusting them at his word, giving him a level of control he couldn’t get otherwise. I can sit with him and keep working and changing until my father says, “I like it!”

I did this, and I did it gladly, because I love my dad. When this book is finally on the shelves of bookstores (sometimes we wondered if it ever would get there!), it will be a total reflection of my dad. When people look at the book they will see him, because it will be the expression of his desire. He often made choices of typefaces and positioning I wouldn’t have made, but it wasn’t my book. Had I pushed my desires the book would have reflected me and not him. It’s not my book, it’s his, and as such it should reflect him. I would only get in the way and cloud that reflection by pushing my desires and preferences on him.

What did it take? It took surrender. A surrender birthed in love. I woke up those mornings and gladly surrendered my plans and desires to my father’s heart, for my father’s work. I did it gladly because I love him, and it is my great pleasure and joy to give him that gift. In the end, no one will stop me on the street and say, “You are the one who typeset that book!” And, they shouldn’t. I was just the hands to bring my father’s vision and work to completion, in exactly the way my father wanted it. But, in the end, people do stop my dad on the street and say, “I love your books! I have them all!” and they say, “Your books changed my child. History is now their favorite subject.” And that’s the way it should be. I am just his hands—he is the one with the vision, and when I do the typesetting I am simply doing my father’s work . . . or, rather, he is doing it through me—he is moving a word, or changing a picture, using my hands to do it. It is his, and that is how it should be.

The parallel to the Christian life should be obvious. If I want to say that I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who live, but Christ in me, it requires surrender. It requires me setting aside my plans and my desires and, in love and honor for my Father in heaven, surrendering to His work and His plans. And then, as I let my light shine before men that they may see my good works, they glorify the Father in heaven. As it should be. He deserves it. If I do it my way, then they see me. If He does it through me, then they see Him. I am merely His hands and feet, letting Him work through me to bring to pass His desires and vision. He alone deserves the glory and praise . . . and because I love Him, that should bring me the greatest joy and be my greatest pleasure. Surrender is, truly, a beautiful word.

Immanuel . . . Alive Through Us!

The day after Christmas I got a Christian magazine in the mail with a purple cover and lead ins about New Years Resolutions, and not a drop of red or green on it, nor a mention of Christmas. As I drove down Vine Street in Paso Robles (a very decorated street for Christmas!) two nights ago some people were already taking down their Christmas decorations. There is nothing wrong with any of that, it just sort of jars me because I work so hard to wrap my heart around the majesty and awe and wonder of Christmas and all that is wrapped up in our God of wonder who holds a universe in His hand coming to earth, and it sometimes seems like there isn't even a slow descent from a Christmas focus afterwards, but rather a plunge off of a cliff!

There are, actually, many aspects of Christmas that never end and which we should rejoice in and celebrate and participate in all year long. For instance, every day you enjoy your salvation you enjoy the Christmas message proclaimed by the angel to the shepherds, which is the good news of great joy of a Savior. Then there is our role in the unfolding eternal plan of God which was initiated with Jesus' birth and which we participate in by spreading the Gospel until the day of His return—a day all the hosts of hell can not stop! Every day you follow God's lead and share the good news of a Savior you share the Christmas message and participate in the "Christmas plan" of saving a people until He returns.

Then there is the one I find most stunning to me given my intimate awareness of my failings. It is the role I play in the continuance of Immanuel, which means, "God With Us." At its most basic level Immanuel obviously refers to Jesus (God) being born of a woman and living among us. Then there is the continuance of it in which the Holy Spirit comes and dwells in us as our Comforter, Counselor, Helper, and seal of our adoption as God's children. But, then there is the natural extension of that which really causes me to step back and evaluate my life and how I live it, and the priorities I choose for it.

I am a part of the body of Christ. I am His hands and feet. While He operates sovereignly at times, He very often chooses to wait until His children (His body) are obedient to do His will. I, as God's adopted child, indwelt by His presence, serving as His hands and feet, am His vessel for bringing about His will and for showing Him to the world. Just as Jesus represented the Father on earth and was His image and modeled Him for the world, Jesus then sent us as the Father sent Him. As His disciples we are to walk as He walked. More than that, we carry His presence. We are the new dwelling place (temple) of God.

Stop and let that melt in to your heart for a moment. If you are a Christian, you carry the presence and image of God in to a lost world around you. You bring His presence and power with you wherever you go, you have the access to His wisdom and favor those around you need, and your actions should show them the love and forgiveness and servanthood and authority and power He embodies. You are His child, you are being transformed in to His image, you carry His name, you exercise His authority, He tells you the secrets of His heart, He beckons you to hear His voice and carry out His will—you are His body, you are the vessel He chooses to use.

You are, in a sense, to the lost around you, Immanuel. Now don't take that wrong, or blasphemously, because that is not how it is intended. We are not God, but we carry God with us. We are not God, but we reflect His image. We are not God, but we reveal God and point people to God. As His children, in whom He dwells, when we are with a person who is lost He is with us so He is, inherently, with them! You have brought to them the presence of God in you, and you are His hands and feet and mouth to follow His leading and show them His ways and speak His prophetic words to them. So, in that sense, which is humbling and awe inspiring, God has chosen you and I to continue Immanuel. Every time you carry the presence of God in to someone's "space" you live out the Christmas message of God with them. I don't know why God chooses to use frail vessels for such an awesome job, but He does, and it is pretty amazing to think that through me the Christmas message is lived out tangibly and physically every day I am among people who are lost. May every day of the year His presence in me, and my surrender to Him and His will, draw them to Him—the great Savior whom Christmas proclaims.

The Surrender in Christmas . . .

Hello All! I hope that this finds you well and your hearts being prepared more and more each day for the amazing day we call Christmas. We had a nice couple of days last week visiting Mary Ann's family in the Los Angeles area for a homeschool trip we took with the girls (and, yes, rest well, I was able to spend some good time studying in a coffee shop near her mom's house). We got to visit the La Brea tar pits (the outside grounds because there was a power outage and the museum itself was closed) and the Griffith Observatory (our family must have looked pretty funny counting to three and then jumping up and down as hard as we could to try and get the seismograph to register our movement!).

I put a few pictures here from our trip for you to enjoy it with us. They are: 1) The girls in front of the La Brea "lake" display, 2) Mary Ann and the girls at the observatory model of the size of some stars—our sun would be the size of one of the tiny yellow dots straight above Abigail's head if the large yellow and red balls represented some of the giant and super giant stars out there, 3) Me next to the scale that informed me I would weigh over 500 pounds on Jupiter (I think I'm staying home!).

Christmas is almost here, and as I shared with our fellowship yesterday, I just can't grasp or wrap myself around the fact that the God who breathes out stars and holds the universe in His hand is also the baby in the manger . . . that the baby in the manger is also the Lion of the tribe of Judah and the One before whom demons tremble . . . that God is surrounded on the throne by the multitudes of angels and hosts of heaven worshiping Him in the glory He deserves and yet He came to earth, laid in a manger, greeted by shepherds, hunted, mutilated, murdered—by choice, for us, His rebellious creation.

I can't grasp that. Any words fall so short of its majesty and love. But one thing that I do grasp about it comes from Philippians 2:5-8 which says: Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Surrendering our rights is a hallmark of Christianity and the only true way we can, I believe, reflect Christ's image and truly model the heart that made Christmas. It is not easy in a society that prides itself on individual rights, but that is probably why it stands out as such contrast from everyone else when it is done. It is hard because, by the very nature of the word, they are our rights. But Jesus, who had every right as God, didn't hold on to His rights but surrendered them and came to earth as one of us to be subject to our same temptations and limitations and dependence on the Holy Spirit. He who had every right to judge us, to stay in heaven where He was worshiped and recognized, to obliterate His attackers, gave it all up, by choice, of His own free will, in love. He laid His rights down at His Father's feet that His Father's will might be done and His Father glorified.

I don't think we can truly capture, or model, the heart of Christmas until we capture, and model, the heart of surrendered rights. Yes, we have a "right" to be apologized to, a right to freedom, a right to be acknowledged, a right to be heard, a right to be comfortable, a right to justice when we are wronged, a right to . . . but until we are willing to lay our rights down at the Father's feet we will never live as Jesus lived. This doesn't mean, say, as parents that we contradict other parts of God's Word that tell us to be heads of our home and to train up our children, or that we contradict other parts of His Word, but it does mean that if we are to truly show the world Christ, and Christmas, we have to be willing to say, "Yes, that is my right to ____, but I chose to surrender that right and humble myself, in love, for my Father and for another." It is only when we let go of our tight cling to this life and its comforts and "rights" that we will truly live a life focused from heaven, to earth, as Jesus did. The only way to show heaven to earth, and to show the Father's heart to man, is to live as in heaven and as the Father, and that is modeled, in Christmas, with surrender.

Note: Please still consider answering my request to you in the post: So, You've Been Given the Pulpit . . . Christmas. I would truly treasure your answers, and I believe others would be blessed by them as well as you being blessed by the prayer and thought it would require.