Crowds and people

When you see a crowd of people, what do you feel?  When you go to a concert or a movie or take public transportation, what emotions run through your mind about the people around you?  Is it mild curiosity?  Annoyance?  Perhaps indifference?

I'm probably a combination of all three.  I love people watching so there's always a part of me that's curious about the stories of the lives of the people that I see on the street.  But the majority of me is simply indifferent, followed by annoyed if any of them happen to get in my way or make life in any way unpleasant or uncomfortable for me.

I think that's a natural human reaction.  Here in Korea, it is very common, indeed.  While Koreans are famous for going above and beyond the call of duty with their friends, they're also famous for being incredibly rude to the people that they do not know.  They don't care about you, they're indifferent to your circumstances, and so they push and shove and ignore strangers with little or no disregard for their well-being.

That's why, if we contrast Jesus' behavior with ours, His reaction is all the more shocking.  Jesus looked at crowds and had compassion for them.  He saw masses of people and felt, no indifference or annoyance, but love.  After reading about this in Matthew 9, I tried to go to my school and see my huge classes of students as individuals worth loving, not as a homogenous whole.  It's a difficult, if not impossible task.

Perhaps that's why we're supposed to ask God for help on this journey of ours.  He knows that we cannot do it, and so He also knows that when we succeed because of His presence in our lives, that His name will be glorified and His plans further established, not ours.  That is, after all, the purpose of our existence, isn't it?

As you go about your day today, I encourage you to pay attention, looking for groups of people that you typically mentally homogenize.  Ask God to help you see them as people, not just groups, and to show you how to love them and have compassion on them, even if you don't know them.  Ask God to make you more like Him.  Ask God to teach you how to love.

Matthew 9:35-38

 ³⁵ Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. ³⁶ When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. ³⁷ Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. ³⁸ Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

Live with urgency

One of my students came to me in tears yesterday.  She had gotten a B on an exam, and was very, very upset.  In Korea, grades are everything and university entrance is extremely competitive, and a low grade on a single exam could be the difference between gaining admittance to a top university or not.

Nevertheless, I couldn't help but think that her worries were slightly...well, silly.  Now, don't get me wrong, I value good grades just as much as the next person - probably more than the average individual, actually - but to get completely stressed out about a single high school exam?  It just seemed a little frivolous to me, like her priorities were a bit out of whack.

But then again, don't we all do that?  We live our lives completely disconnected from eternity, as if the present life and the afterlife are two separate beings, that cannot affect each other.  We focus all of our energies on getting a nice car, a pleasant friendships, a comfortable life...all the while, never even realizing that our eternity - as well as the eternity of everyone around us - hangs in the balance.

Most of us are given 70-80 years on this earth - which, in itself, is not very long.  And we are not even promised that.  Many people's lives are snatched away with astonishing and unexpected rapidity.  And then, after our short time in this world, we have an eternity in the next.  Doesn't that make you want to go out and win people to Christ?  To glorify Him, to work for His kingdom, to make His name known?  Don't put it off until tomorrow.  You don't know if you'll even be around tomorrow.  Time is short.  Life is unpredictable.  Don't put off living for the Lord until tomorrow.  Live with urgency.

Luke 16:19-31

¹⁹ “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. ²⁰ At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores ²¹ and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.

   ²² “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. ²³ In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. ²⁴ So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’

   ²⁵ “But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. ²⁶ And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’

   ²⁷ “He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, ²⁸ for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’

   ²⁹ “Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’

   ³⁰ “‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’

   ³¹ “He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”

Walking the walk

Have you ever heard Jeremiah 29:11?  The chances are, that if you've been a Christian for any amount of time, or had any sort of Christian graduation or coming of age ceremony, that this verse has been quoted at you on more than one occasion.  But there's a problem with quoting just the one verse.  The rest of the chapter is often left out.  People fail to take into account the context of the verse, to understand what God was really saying.

The Israelites were in exile when this chapter was written.  They had been there for years, and it did not look like they were going to be able to return to their homeland any time soon.  So the Lord told them, that after seventy years, He would bring them back out of exile.  That is followed by the famous Jeremiah 29:11 - "'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.'"

So already, the context of the verse has changed.  It goes from a happy-go-lucky promise of a wonderful, perfect life with the Lord, to a promise of a fulfillment of His word...after 70 years!  That's more than an entire generation!  Already, they had to have been wondering what God was thinking.  But then, it gets even trickier.  The Lord says that He will listen to them - when they call upon Him and pray to Him.  He says that they will find Him - when they seek Him with all of their heart.

Jeremiah 29:11 is not a promise of an easy life.  It's not saying that we can just sit on our laurels, basking in our "Christian-ness," and that the Lord will give us a happy and prosperous existence.  God wants us to seek after Him with all of our hearts....and then He will bless us.  And He wants us to seek Him through the bad times too, not only the good times.

God has promised to keep His promises to us - but in His timing, not ours.  For an entire generation of Israelites, that meant that they lived their whole lives without seeing the fulfillment of His word.  Did that mean that God didn't love them?  No, of course not.  It just meant they had to learn to be patient and wait on His timing, not their own.  It meant that they had to learn to truly walk the walk, not only talk the talk - to depend on Him and trust in Him and commune with Him.  Even when it may not have seemed like He was really looking out for them, they had to trust that He was, anyway.

Jeremiah 29:1-14

This is the text of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders among the exiles and to the priests, the prophets and all the other people Nebuchadnezzar had carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. 2(This was after King Jehoiachin[a] and the queen mother, the court officials and the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the skilled workers and the artisans had gone into exile from Jerusalem.) 3 He entrusted the letter to Elasah son of Shaphan and to Gemariah son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent to King Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon. It said:4 This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. 6 Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. 7 Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” 8 Yes, this is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “Do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you. Do not listen to the dreams you encourage them to have. 9 They are prophesying lies to you in my name. I have not sent them,” declares the LORD.10 This is what the LORD says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. 11For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”

The heart of prayer

The Lord's prayer has often perplexed me.  Jesus says that "this is how we should pray," and yet I have heard countless times by countless preachers, professors, and mature Christians that there is no magic formula for how you should pray to the Lord.  So which one is it?

Well, I think that Jesus in Matthew 6 is not trying to give us a script of exactly what to say to the Lord when we pray, but rather an example of the priorities that our hearts should have.  Let's look at His prayer one line at a time.

"Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."  First, above all and before everything else, our priority should be on the kingdom of God, on the glory of God's plan, and on the fulfillment of His plan.  If we're focusing on that, then everything else is going to fall into place - for His glory, mind you, not ours.

"Give us today our daily bread."  God knows what we need.  But He wants us to ask Him for it, anyway.  He wants a dialog.  He doesn't promise to give us all of our desires - Jesus doesn't say to give us today our daily iPad - but he does promise to give us all of our needs.  All you have to do is ask Him for it.

"And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors."  Holding onto bitterness and grudges is no way to live a fulfilled life.  The only way that you can truly move on and live your life, knowing that your sins and faults have been forgiven by the Almighty God, is if you don't turn around and hold onto the faults that others have committed against you.  Let go and let live, and let God do the judging.

"And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one."  One of the biggest mistakes that Christians make is to forget that there is both a God and a devil - either that, or they picture him as a little man in a red suit with a pitchfork, not like the roaming lion waiting to devour us, as he is pictured in the Bible.  Don't make the mistake of ignoring him, thinking that you'll be alright if you don't protect yourself against him.

That's what Jesus really wants us to pray.  Not His specific words, but rather His sentiments.  Prayer should first and foremost worship the Lord.  It should ask God for the things that are burdening your heart.  It should ask forgiveness of the wrongs that you have committed against God and against others.  And it should beg protection from the attacks of the evil one.  Don't get so hung up on the words of your prayers; focus on the heart of it.

Matthew 6:5-15

⁵ “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. ⁶ But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. ⁷ And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. ⁸ Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

   ⁹ “This, then, is how you should pray:

   “‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
¹⁰ your kingdom come,
your will be done,
   on earth as it is in heaven.
¹¹ Give us today our daily bread.
¹² And forgive us our debts,
   as we also have forgiven our debtors.
¹³ And lead us not into temptation,
   but deliver us from the evil one.’

   ¹⁴ For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. ¹⁵ But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

God's great things

I was given a priceless gift, as well as a much-needed reminder, from the Lord today.  Let me explain.  I have been running myself ragged for the past few weeks.  School has taken up a lot of my time - between lesson planning, getting the school English newspaper published, creating a new curriculum, making name cards and memorizing students' names, teaching extra night classes, beginning-of-the-year projects, and writing hand-written notes to all of my approximately 300 students, I've been working between 60-70 hours a week lately.  On top of that, I've been dancing, playing sports, seeing my friends, and leading Sunday morning church service and a Wednesday night Bible study.  So yeah, I've been stretched a bit thin these days.

Today was really bad.  I was up too late last night, so I started off sleep-deprived - not a good start.  Strike one.  Then, classes were awful, and I had a night class to boot, so I didn't leave school until after 7:00 pm.  Strike two.  Plus, I barely had a second to breathe during the day, having devoted all of my spare time to getting the English newspaper published before my deadline in 2 days.  Strike three.  Needless to say, by the time I got to the Bible study at 8:00, I was frazzled and exhausted.

But, I had convinced myself that it was ok that I was so tired.  My reasons for being tired were good reasons, so that means that my exhaustion was acceptable, right?  I was pouring myself into my students, being a diligent and exemplary worker, and teaching other about God while learning more about Him, myself.  Those are all good things, right?  Yes, they are.  But life is not really supposed to be a contest of who can do the most "good things."  Somehow, I get the feeling that there's more to it than that...

So back to my story.  Finally, after a long, exhausting day, I made my way to the Bible study that I lead.  And no one showed up.  Not one person.  After waiting for a while, I headed back home, so worn out that I could barely walk.  And as I was stumbling through the streets, struggling to keep my eyes open, God gently whispered into my heart, that this is not the kind of life that He wants for me.  God doesn't want us to do a lot of good things.  He wants us to do His great things, and to do them with excellence.  Even if that means doing less....to God, it's quality that matters, not quantity.

See, by taking on too much, I had rendered myself less effective to everyone.  My exhaustion from trying to do everything had turned me into a teacher with little patience for her students, a co-worker constantly rushing to make deadlines and squeezing projects in under the wire, a friend with a short temper, and a Bible study leader who doesn't take the time to sit down and properly study the very thing that she is expected to teach.  I may be just an amateur at this thing called Christianity, but somehow I get the idea that that's not the image of Christ that we're supposed to be emulating.  God wants more than that.  He wants more than we can give, which is why we must rely on Him to help us give it.  Can you imagine what would happen if, instead of doing too many good things, Christians started focusing on doing God's great things?

2 Timothy 2:14-15

 ¹⁴ Keep reminding God’s people of these things. Warn them before God against quarreling about words; it is of no value, and only ruins those who listen. ¹⁵ Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. 

Your two-fifths of a second

My church is semi-famous for making movies.  We're "that church" - the church that makes movies on a shoe-string budget that are professional enough to be distributed nationally and world-wide.  And my claim to fame, if it can be called that, is that I was in one of those movies.  Now, before you get all excited, please let me clarify that statement.  I was in the movie - sort of.  I was an extra - my screen time equaled the amount of time it took to walk past an open door.  I would say that it was roughly two-fifths of a second.  Maybe less.

Anyway, the point is, that I can by no means say that this movie was about me.  I had an incredibly brief role, hardly even noticeable.  Just imagine what people would say, if I had rented out an entire movie theater on opening day and then invited all of my friends to come see "my movie."  They would have laughed their heads off at me!  Anyone in their right minds would know that I cannot plausibly claim even remote ownership of this movie.

So why is it, then, that every single one of us has a tendency to do just that?  Consider the movie of life.  In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.  Then, when His creation rebelled against Him, it was God who flooded the earth.  Throughout the history recorded in the Bible, God uses people like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Mary, Joseph, and the prophets to fulfill His perfect plan.  Then, when humanity had thoroughly screwed everything up again, it was God's Son who came to save us one and for all.  And, at the end of the story, it will be God whom we will all be standing in front of, waiting for His judgement.

Do you see a pattern here?  So often we want to claim our lives as our own, insisting that we are the main actors.  But we are not.  This is God's story that we are living in.  He is the main character.  We are not even supporting characters.  We are brief extras, whose total screen time is similar to mine, roughly two-fifths of a second.  Does that throw life into a different light for you?  It surely does for me.  So often I waste the day, reassuring myself that I have plenty of time, that I can finish it tomorrow, that it doesn't matter if I waste time today.  But if I knew that I really had less than a second left, you can bet your life that I wouldn't be wasting mine!

In our heads, we all know that we are mortal.  We all know that we will eventually die.  But we don't really believe it.  We are not living in a way that shows that we believe it.  If we truly grasped the frailty of ours lives, we would live with such a fervor, such a passion, that people would stand back and stare and us in wonder, that they would constantly be asking us what our secret is.  Frederick Buechner writes that "Intellectually, we all know that we will die, but we do not really know it in the sense that the knowledge becomes a part of us.  We do not really know it in the sense of living as though it were true.  On the contrary, we tend to live as though our lives would go on forever."

Don't waste your 2/5 of a second.  Be a history maker; be a catalyst for change; take hold of your life.  Give God your everything, no matter how brief your time may be.  When your screen time ends, don't find yourself standing before the Almighty God having to explain to Him why you did not glorify Him with the time that He had given you.

James 4:13-17

 ¹³ Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” ¹⁴ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. ¹⁵ Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” ¹⁶ As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. ¹⁷ If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.

Incidentals and essentials

I have a habit of getting really busy.  Really, really busy.  Let me illustrate the point for you by giving you an outline of my current schedule, which is an easy par for the course in my life.  I work an average of 50-55 hours a week, I have Korean class twice a week, I lead a Bible study as well as Sunday morning worship, I go to dance classes, I play ultimate frisbee once or twice a week, and I volunteer, all while trying to getting a teaching certification, helping plan a friend's wedding, and preparing for grad school.

Please don't misunderstand me.  Such a busy schedule is not a source of pride for me.  I have packed my life so full of things to do, that there is no room for any aberration from the schedule.  I don't have time for a change of plans, or for spontaneity, or sometimes even to help someone in need.  

I wonder, if the Good Samaritan in Luke 10 had been as busy as I, would he have stopped to help?  If he had had jam-packed appointments or important meetings, would he have taken the time out of his busy schedule to help someone who needed him?  Some people think that it is their responsibility to help everyone in the world.  They never say no, they take on too many projects and responsibilities, they spread themselves too thin, and eventually, while trying to help everyone, they end up effectively helping no one.  

We are not called to help everyone in the world.  But we are called to help the people that God places in our paths.  Do you have enough wiggle room in your schedule to be able to help the people that God wants you to help?  Are you listening hard enough through the noise of your jam-packed schedule to even hear God telling you that He wants to speak through you into someone else's life?  Don't let your schedule get so full with incidentals that you miss out on the essentials.

Luke 10:25-37

²⁵ On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

   ²⁶ “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”

 ²⁷ He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

   ²⁸ “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

 ²⁹ But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

 ³⁰ In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. ³¹ A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. ³² So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. ³³ But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. ³⁴He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. ³⁵ The next day he took out two denarii^[e] and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

   ³⁶ “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

 ³⁷ The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”

   Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

Your first love

Remember when you first met that "someone special?"  That boy or girl who could make your heart flutter at the mere mention of their name, around whom you would re-arrange your entire schedule just so that you could see each other for a few minutes?  Do you remember talking on the phone for hours and hours, until way too late and night?  Perhaps sending each other little love notes and gifts, just to remind each other that you were thinking of each other?  Or talking about about them to anyone and everyone who would listen, because they were just so amazing that they had to be shared with everyone you knew?

Were you ever like that with God?  Did you ever get light-hearted and dizzy at the mere thought of spending time with Him?  Did you ever gasp with excitement when He revealed more of Himself to you through prayer or reading your Bible?  Was there ever a time when He was all you could really think about?  When you re-arranged your whole schedule so that you could spend some time with Him?

And, if you were once like that...are you still?  Are you in passionate about God?  Do you want to be with Him?  Is He your lover, your special someone?  Ohh, dear ones, how God wants to lavish His love on us.  He wants to show us everything about Him, everything about His magnificent care, His extravagant love for us.  He wants nothing more than to shower us with His affections, to cradle us in His arms and never let us go.  But do you let Him?

If there was ever a time when God was truly the love of your life, but that is no longer the case, I pray that He restores you to Himself.  And, if you have never experienced that intimate, passionate, obsessive love for being in the Father's presence, I pray that you will find it.  Because loving God is really, when it comes down to it, the point of life.  If you're forgotten how to love Him, then you're really missing the whole point of life.

Revelation 2:1-5

¹ “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write:

   These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands. ² I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. ³ You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary.

   ⁴ Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. ⁵Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.

A people of unclean lips

Did you ever have heros when you were young?  People whom you you idolized, who you looked up to and almost worshipped because of how wonderful you thought they were?  We all have people like that, people for whom we would do almost anything to be in the presence of and have a conversation with.

Few of us, however, actually get to have that opportunity.  I, however, did get the rare chance to meet one of my idols when I was younger.  I remember standing there talking with her, being completely awestruck with who she was and what she had done.  I was so blown away, that I could hardly think of the words to say.  It was inspiring and humbling to be able to talk to someone who I admired so much.

That's what we should feel like when we talk to God - except on a much bigger scale.  Yesterday, in Revelation, we read about John's vision of the throne of Heaven.  But Isaiah, also, was given a vision of God's throne, and his account gives a much more personal revelation of the thoughts and emotions that were going through his mind as he approached the throne of God.  "Woe to me!" he cries, "for I am a man of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the LORD Almighty."

Isaiah understood the gravity, the enormity, of a mere mortal being allowed to talk to the Almighty God.  Standing in front of the LORD, he realized just how unclean and insignificant he really was.  He should not have been allowed to be in the presence of such holiness.

But he was allowed, anyway.  The LORD cleansed Isaiah, and allowed him to approach the throne of the most high God uninhibited.  He has done the same for you and I.  Can you imagine?  The creator of the universe, of things as huge as the galaxies and as intricate as a strand of DNA, the Alpha and Omega, the one who exists outside of even time itself....he wants us to talk to Him.  He has paid the price and purified us so that we can do just that.  I don't know about you, but to me that seems like something worth celebrating.

Isaiah 6:1-7

¹ In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. ² Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. ³ And they were calling to one another:

   “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty;
   the whole earth is full of his glory.”

 ⁴ At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.

 ⁵ “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.”

 ⁶ Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. ⁷ With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”

The gravest question

A.W. Tozer writes that "what comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us...worship is pure or base as the worshipper entertains high or low thoughts of God.  For this reason the gravest question before the Church is always God Himself, and the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like."

When I say the word "God," what do you think of?  When you picture Him, what comes into your mind?  Is it a kind fatherly or mentoring figure, similar to someone you have in your life here on earth?  Is He like Zeus, the ancient grecian mythological god of the sky, who was just as flawed as the subjects he ruled over?  Maybe your god is more of the genie-in-a-bottle variety, one whom you can summon whenever you need something, and then put him away and forget about him until his services are needed again?

Or perhaps, when I say "God," no image at all springs to your mind.  Perhaps all these years, you have praying praying to air, to a being whom you don't really have any concrete idea of what he is like.  Your prayer time has consisted of far more praying at God than praying with Him, having a conversation with Him.

The Bible calls God magnificent, glorious, incredible, the Lover of our souls and the Redeemer of our spirits.  If God is so wonderful, then why is it so easy for us to fall into a rut, to take Him for granted even while we are trying to pray and spend time with Him?  Why is it so easy to become a luke-warm, half-hearted Christian?

The core problem, I think, is that we have forgotten who God is.  He is not a trinket that we can place on our mantle or hang around our necks, and bring out when the time calls for it.  He is a jealous God, and He demands everything from His followers.  Not only that, but He deserves everything.

The next time you go into His presence, read Revelation 4.  Take a long, hard look at God before you speak another word to Him.  He is radiant, shining like the sun, more brilliant than gemstones, more breathtaking than rainbows.  His glory is such that the only thoughts of any being around Him is to worship Him.  "He is worthy," they say, "to receive all glory and honor and power."  That is the God that we worship.  It is His presence that we have been invited into, His heart that He wants to share with us, His lips that want to speak into our lives.  What a humbling, awe inspiring thought.  All I can say to that is, holy holy holy is the Lord God Almighty.

Revelation 4

The Throne in Heaven

 ¹ After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” ² At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. ³ And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and ruby. A rainbow that shone like an emerald encircled the throne. ⁴ Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads. ⁵ From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. In front of the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits^[a] of God. ⁶ Also in front of the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal.

   In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back. ⁷ The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle. ⁸Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under its wings. Day and night they never stop saying:

   “‘Holy, holy, holy

   is the Lord God Almighty,’

   who was, and is, and is to come.”

 ⁹ Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, ¹⁰ the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say:

 ¹¹ “You are worthy, our Lord and God,
   to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
   and by your will they were created
   and have their being.”

Broken relationships

I often say, half-jokingly, that my life is a soap opera.  And, although I generally say it in jest, there is a ring of truth to that statement.  My life, it seems, has been once big series of relational drama and broken friendships.  I am the biggest drama magnet you've ever seen.

Which really, is quite an ironic statement, since I hate drama with a fiery passion.  And yet, it stills seems to follow me wherever I go.  As much as I disliked it, I had finally accepted it as a rather unfortunate but unavoidable fact of life.

But what if broken relationships were avoidable?  What if they were meant to be the exception, not the rule?  If you knew there was something you could do to save the relationship, would you do it?  Even if it was difficult, painful, or embarrassing?

God's word doesn't promise that we will always be happy with everyone in our life.  Relationships are not a yellow brick road with a skittle rainbow waiting for you at the other end.  They are sticky, messy, and uncomfortable.  But they are not impossible.  And in the end, they are worth all of the effort that they take to keep.

Do you have relationships in your life that you need to make right?  Someone you need to forgive who has wronged you?  Or perhaps you need to ask the forgiveness of someone that you have wronged?  Don't wait until tomorrow to do it.  Do it today.  Ask God to show you where to start, and just start.  I know it will be difficult.  I know it will be uncomfortable.  But it's worth it.  Don't wait another day to give or ask for forgiveness.  Don't allow excuses or finger-pointing to delay you.  Begin to heal those broken relationships today.

Mark 11:22-25

²² “Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. ²³ “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. ²⁴ Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. ²⁵ And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.”

Our gift

I inherited a Bible study this week.  The previous leader of the group left the country, and so I was left to pick up the reins and carry on where he left off.  His departure was not unexpected - his contract had ended, and it was time to move on.  Such is the case with "gap year" teaching jobs in South Korea - nobody comes expecting to stay forever (although a few end up doing just that), and nobody is surprised when you leave.

But nonetheless, I am now in charge of a Bible study which I haven't a clue how to lead.  It's one thing to write my own personal thoughts down every day.  People can choose to read them, people can choose to ignore them, and either way it doesn't really have any impact on me.  But leading a Bible study is different.  I'm responsible for not only my own personal growth, but the growth of others, as well.  It's a big responsibility, and I'm feeling grossly unequal to the task.

But the Lord reminded me today, that it's not really my job to make them grow.  I have to nurture my own relationship with Him, and it's the Holy Spirit's job to speak to their hearts and to help them grow, as well.  I'm just one of the voices He chooses to use to speak through.  We have all been given a priceless gift, a gift to edify ourselves and to share with each other, the gift of the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit working through us is what cleanses us, what softens our hearts, and what prepares us to become humble, useable vessels for His kingdom.

Don't hide that gift inside of you.  Let it out.  Let others see it.  Let it nurture your spirit, and edify the souls' of those around you.  Don't kid yourself - only God can change someone's heart, can grow someone's faith.  But wouldn't it be great if He used you to do it?

Acts 1:4-84 

On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5 For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”6 Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

The evidence

I spoke with a missionary to South Korea today.  She's been here in the country for years, has seen dozens and dozens of converts, but is beginning to wonder if they've really came to Christ.  These new converts go to Church, they tithe, they don't swear or sleep around, they do all of the "churchy" things....but when it comes down to it, there's no real change in their lives.  They haven't been fundamentally transformed by Christ.

I wonder how many of us are in the same boat as these Korean Christians.  How many of us have intellectually responded to the Good News, but our hearts remain just where they've always been?  We do all of the right motions, but there is no emotion, no feeling behind them.

A life with Jesus is not a casual, Sunday-morning affair.  It's something that affects you deeply, that touches your very core.  It affects not only your heart, but everything and everyone around you, as well.  Ask God to reveal the truth to you about your life.  Examine the fruit of your heart, look at the evidence of your life.  Is God in it?

2 Corinthians 13:5-10

 ⁵ Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test? ⁶ And I trust that you will discover that we have not failed the test. ⁷ Now we pray to God that you will not do anything wrong—not so that people will see that we have stood the test but so that you will do what is right even though we may seem to have failed. ⁸ For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth. ⁹ We are glad whenever we are weak but you are strong; and our prayer is that you may be fully restored. ¹⁰ This is why I write these things when I am absent, that when I come I may not have to be harsh in my use of authority—the authority the Lord gave me for building you up, not for tearing you down.

Checklists

If you have been a Christian for any length of time, I'm sure that you have heard someone say on at least one occasion that the Christian life is not a check list, not a bunch of boxes that you have to complete before you can get into Heaven.  And that's true.  I am by no means trying to downplay the significance of a real, living, breathing relationship with the Creator of the Universe.

But let's play devil's advocate here for a second.  What if, hypothetically speaking, we DID have a checklist to complete?  What if there really WERE things that God wanted us to do as a part of our relationship with Him?

If that was the case, what areas would you fail to check?  Would your failure to use your God-given tools of revival - prayer and God's Word - be found to be hindering your spiritual growth?  Would your pride and inability to confess sin be a hindrance to God moving in your life?  Would your lack of obedience to God and honestly to others be a stumbling block?  Or would your uncheck box be something simple, something as basic as your reluctance to truly repent from your sins and ask for salvation by placing your trust in Jesus Christ?

It's true that your life should not be a checklist...but it should be a constantly changing, growing life.  If you are stuck in the same old patterns, and not seeing any growth in your life, there's a problem.  Take the time today to pray and ask God to show you where the points of stubbornness and stagnation are in your life.  And keep praying, keep coming before Him on your knees, until He has rooted out the evil in your heart.  C.H. Spurgeon  said that "If your faith does not make you pray, have nothing to do with it.  Get rid of it, and God help thee to begin again."  How much praying have you done lately?

Psalm 28

¹ To you, LORD, I call; 

   you are my Rock, 

   do not turn a deaf ear to me. 

For if you remain silent, 

   I will be like those who go down to the pit. 

² Hear my cry for mercy 

   as I call to you for help, 

as I lift up my hands 

   toward your Most Holy Place.

 ³ Do not drag me away with the wicked, 

   with those who do evil, 

who speak cordially with their neighbors 

   but harbor malice in their hearts. 

⁴ Repay them for their deeds 

   and for their evil work; 

repay them for what their hands have done 

   and bring back on them what they deserve.

 ⁵ Because they have no regard for the deeds of the LORD 

   and what his hands have done, 

he will tear them down 

   and never build them up again.

 ⁶ Praise be to the LORD, 

   for he has heard my cry for mercy. 

⁷ The LORD is my strength and my shield; 

   my heart trusts in him, and he helps me. 

My heart leaps for joy, 

   and with my song I praise him.

 ⁸ The LORD is the strength of his people, 

   a fortress of salvation for his anointed one. 

⁹ Save your people and bless your inheritance; 

   be their shepherd and carry them forever.

4 points

Revival is a word tossed around all too commonly in the church these days.  Everyone talks about having a revival - a personal revival, a spiritual revival, a community revival.  And, while I wish that all of those claims were, in fact, real revivals, real movings of the Spirit of the Living God, the evidence is simply not there to support it.  There is no fruit of a revival, no drastic individual or regional transformations.  The term "revival" has become almost as common and overused as "love" or "hate."

So what is a true revival?  What starts a real, living breathing of the Holy Spirit into our ordinary lives?  The key is not in the size of the congregation.  The answer is not to be found in the amount of funds you donate to the church, or even in how many times a week you go to a worship service.  The secret lies in your heart.

In the early 1900's a young minister, Evan Roberts, preached a short, 4-point sermon to 17 of his peers in a small church in Wales.  That started a revival of astonishing proportions.  Within 6 months, over 100,000 people had professed a new-found faith in Christ.  So what happened?  What were Roberts' 4 point, that they had such power to move such masses?

These were his points.  He said that, in order for revival to come, you must: 1) put away any unconfessed sin, 2) put away any doubtful habits, 3) obey the Holy Spirit promptly, and 4) confess Christ publicly.  That's it!  Simple-sounding enough, but as history revealed, those words had the power to change thousands of peoples' lives, a country, even history itself.

I encourage you to analyze your heart, analyze your life.  Which of those four points is keeping God from starting a revival in you?

Isaiah 55:1-3 

 ¹ “Come, all you who are thirsty, 

   come to the waters; 

and you who have no money, 

   come, buy and eat! 

Come, buy wine and milk 

   without money and without cost. 

² Why spend money on what is not bread, 

   and your labor on what does not satisfy? 

Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, 

   and you will delight in the richest of fare. 

³ Give ear and come to me; 

   listen, that you may live. 

I will make an everlasting covenant with you, 

   my faithful love promised to David. 

The right heart

"Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth...let the King bring me into his chambers."

I tell you what, there's nothing that will wake you up and grab your attention quite so much as a romantic, passionate opening line.  Song of Soloman is often referred to as a "lover's" book - it is a passionate dialog between two lovers, who speak openly and in detail about their love for each other.

At least, that's how I've always heard it referred to.  Seeing it as an analogy of the relationship that we should have with God, however, is a new interpretation for me.  It seems strange to think of God wanting to kiss me on the mouth, and vice-versa.  Aren't kisses supposed to be reserved for lovers?

But the thing is, that's exactly what God should be to us.  He wants to be our lover.  He wants our heartfelt prayers to mimic the passion that we have for Him, the insatiable desire to follow Him that should overtake our very beings.

Song of Songs is, in it's most basic form, expressing the devotion and passion that exists between 2 entities.  Shouldn't that be what our relationships with God are like, too?  Does the fact that He is not a physical being mean that we cannot have a passionate relationship with Him?  Indeed, it does not.  Regardless of the intangibility of God; He should be the one person in the world with whom we feel the closest, not the furthest from.

So, if the idea of God kissing you, or you kissing back, seems strange and awkward to you, maybe you should check your heart.  It could just be that you've got some spiritual things that need to be set straight.



Song of Songs 1:1-4

¹ Solomon’s Song of Songs.

 ² Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth—
   for your love is more delightful than wine.
³ Pleasing is the fragrance of your perfumes;
   your name is like perfume poured out.
   No wonder the young women love you!
⁴ Take me away with you—let us hurry!
   Let the king bring me into his chambers.

Your life on trial

What is bravery to you?  Is it leaping from a plane?  Running into a building to save a small child?  Perhaps it is something not quite as dramatic, like standing up for someone who is being bullied, or participating in a protest against something that you know is wrong.  Everyone, it seems, has different definitions of what defines bravery, different thoughts on what constitutes a brave act.

Most people, however, would not consider committing an act that sends someone to prison a very brave thing to do.  For many, it seems that the word "prison" causes an instinctive, knee-jerk reaction.  Like Pavlov's dogs, we have been conditioned to assume that any ex-convict is a bad person, who has done something horrible, or at least unsavory or immoral. 

But numerous times in the Bible, people were sent to jail for no other crime than preaching the Good News of Jesus Christ.  And even prison did nothing to slow them down.  They preached before their arrest, during their imprisonment, and after their release.  Being confined in a small, dank, windowless cell was nothing compared to the unimaginable horror of keeping this precious gift of Jesus to themselves.  They burned with a single, obsessive objective - to share the Gospel with as many people as God put in their paths.  When that is your life's ambition, it little matters where you live - a prison cell is simple another sphere of influence for you to illuminate with God's light.

That got me thinking...what kind of offender would I make?  If I were charged with spreading God's word, would there be enough evidence to convict me?  Every single one of us will one day be on trial.  Our thoughts, our actions, our passions, our ambitions - our lives will be judged by how passionately we loved our Lord and followed His commandements.  Take an honest look at your life.  If you were to be judged right now, what do you think the verdict would be?

Acts 25:13-21

¹³ A few days later King Agrippa and Bernice arrived at Caesarea to pay their respects to Festus. ¹⁴ Since they were spending many days there, Festus discussed Paul’s case with the king. He said: “There is a man here whom Felix left as a prisoner. ¹⁵ When I went to Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews brought charges against him and asked that he be condemned.

 ¹⁶ “I told them that it is not the Roman custom to hand over anyone before they have faced their accusers and have had an opportunity to defend themselves against the charges. ¹⁷ When they came here with me, I did not delay the case, but convened the court the next day and ordered the man to be brought in. ¹⁸When his accusers got up to speak, they did not charge him with any of the crimes I had expected. ¹⁹ Instead, they had some points of dispute with him about their own religion and about a dead man named Jesus who Paul claimed was alive. ²⁰ I was at a loss how to investigate such matters; so I asked if he would be willing to go to Jerusalem and stand trial there on these charges. ²¹ But when Paul made his appeal to be held over for the Emperor’s decision, I ordered him held until I could send him to Caesar.”