Sweet, sweet hymns

Over the past 9 months or so, thanks mostly to the influence of one person, I've developed a love for old hymns. So much theology, so much comfort, so much fellowship with the experiences of believers in days gone by-- I appreciate today's choruses for what they are, and I think they have their purpose, but there's just something about hymns.

God met me in hymns tonight. I was feeling a little overwhelmed with life, and especially with one situation. He prepared me for it in a beautiful way, and He has helped me to meet it with courage and faith in His faithfulness, but I am still human and prone to be overwhelmed from time to time. Tonight I was tired and discouraged and not feeling particularly inclined to continue on with the good fight, but:

Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed,
for I am thy God, I will still give thee aid!
I'll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,
upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand.

When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie,
My grace all-sufficient shall be thy supply.
The flames shall not hurt thee, I only design
thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine.

The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose,
I will not, I will not desert to its foes.
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I'll never, no never, no never forsake.

Sweet comfort.

We rarely quote Titus

"For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say 'No' to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope-- the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for Himself a people that are His very own, eager to do what is good."
Titus 2:11-14

That pretty much sums it up. My worldview, what I live for, what I base my life on from day to day. This passage (and others like it) is my filter for word and deed alike-- what's yours?

Sabbath

"Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during the plowing season and harvest you must rest."
-God to Moses to the Israelites, Exodus 34:21

We don't really like to rest. Here in modern-day America, the land of the 60-hour workweek and the million hobbies, we've lost sight of sabbath. We're a pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps culture, and you don't get ahead by taking a day off, especially not on a regular basis! But it's repeated over and over throughout Scriptures, and I see very few reasons to argue with this one.

You need rest. It's a fact of life. Your relationships need you to rest from the daily grind. Your walk with the Lord needs you to slow down from time to time. Your work will improve if you set it aside and come back later. And, I guarantee you, whatever is so urgent that it demands all of your time will most likely burn away as chaff in the scheme of eternity. Money, hobbies, the pursuit of anything other than the Lord-- they are all good things, but only when they are in their place. Even in the busiest season, it will be worth your time to give some of your time back to the Lord.

This commandment is probably the least touchy of all of them: "Take a day off." Who gets upset when they hear that? And yet, somehow, we lose this one. Are not all of the Lord's commands for our own benefit as well as for His glory? Are they not all worth following?

A pleasant aroma

From Proverbs 12:
"Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing."
"Truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue lasts only a moment."
"An anxious heart weighs a man down, but a kind word cheers him up."

I have a quick wit and a gift for sarcasm. I have often been proud of this, but lately I've been spending a little more time wondering what the real benefits of that are. Don't get me wrong, I love to laugh. I love to make people laugh. Laughter is absolutely a gift from the Lord. But there is more to life than having the last word, and sometimes I struggle with that.

Coming into this year (and actually for quite a while now), it's been a goal of mine to talk a little less and listen a little more. I'd like to learn to ask questions and to really hear what people say. I'd like for the words that come out of my mouth to be choice words of healing, truth, and kindness. I fear that if you graphed out the words I speak in a year, the vast majority would be spent either talking about myself or aiming low to get a laugh. I've always struggled with giving genuine compliments and heartfelt thanks. We all know people who are just an encouragement to be around, the type of people who walk away and leave you feeling blessed, those people who are "the fragrance of life" (2 Corinthians 2:16). I'd like to be one of them.

"Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen." Ephesians 4:29

Satisfaction

"God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him."
-John Piper

I've been noticing within myself a deep sense of satisfaction lately. An absence of murmur, worry, preoccupation. As I have sought God more, He has "been found" by me (Jeremiah 29:14), and I have been the one to benefit. My circumstances are not perfect. There are certainly areas of my life that I would like to see changed, healed, or grown by the hand of God. Nor have I lost my ambition-- I still have hopes, dreams, and plans for my future. Satisfaction is not synonymous with complacency. But at the end of a day, when I am alone with my thoughts, myself, my situation, I am satisfied. Are you?

"The Lord is my portion." (Lamentations 3:24). Interesting and important to note that this is not a pithy statement written by a man with an easy life. The author makes it clear that he has his troubles, but he maintains a posture of quietness, waiting on the Lord, who is to be his everything. He can be, if we will only let Him.

Fellowship

I spent most of the day today at a worship retreat for church. Most people on the worship team are people I know, but none of them are people I know particularly well. Six hours of meetings (sandwiched between four hours of meetings for something else) could have been a very long day. Instead, I came out of it refreshed and amazed again at the depth of fellowship to be found within the community of believers, regardless of any outside factors.

"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin." (1 John 1:7)

There are no prerequisites for deep bonds of brotherhood within Christian community. Jesus is everything, the best and deepest of bonds, and if we are found in Him we are found side by side with one another.

Deliverance

The women's Bible study group at my church is currently working its way through the book of Daniel, accompanied by Beth Moore's study of the same book. (I had never read/seen any of Beth Moore's stuff before this. I like her. She's a nut. She's also theologically sound.) In her exploration of the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and the fiery furnace (which was before I was a part of this study, but she referred back to it today), she made this point:

When we, as God's people, face a trial, the outcome will be one of three possibilities. We can be A) delivered from the fire, B) delivered through the fire, or C) delivered by the fire into God's arms. What really struck me today was our misplaced priorities and our bizarre perspective on life.

Generally speaking, in most situations that could be defined as a trial, we would opt for choice A. God is glorified by His ability to keep us completely safe, and we don't have to deal with any pain or struggle. Win-win, right? B and C, we're much less excited about.

But stop and think about the other options! If Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had been delivered from the fire ("Hey guys, I changed my mind, don't throw them in there after all..."), they wouldn't have found fellowship in the fire with one that "looks like a son of the gods" and they wouldn't have had the opportunity to stare, amazed, at their unharmed bodies, hair, and robes. They didn't even smell like smoke! What a miraculous affirmation of the truth upon which they had staked their lives!

Should we so eagerly seek immediate comfort in place of the opportunity to know the One who gives all comfort, even in the most dire of circumstances? And if the best experiences in this life are the ones where we come a little closer into His presence, shouldn't we, as Paul, long for the day when we will be delivered into His arms? Shouldn't we bless the trial that will make us ready for that day, and doubly bless the trial that will escort us there at last?

Fasting

"[...]Fasting, which so many dislike, which requires faith in God, since it makes one feel weak and poorly, is really a Divinely appointed means of grace. Perhaps the greatest hindrance to our work is our own imagined strength; and in fasting we learn what poor, weak creatures we are - dependent on a meal of meat for the little strength which we are so apt to lean upon."
- Hudson Taylor

For a long time, fasting was one of those facets of Christian tradition and discipline that I never quite understood. I also never gave much thought to it. To me, fasting was what you did if you were especially holy, especially sinful, or especially in need of something. It represented a mastering of the body. It was a physical manifestation of self-denial or self-control. And... maybe it made your prayers more potent? I never really understood that part.

This year, as part of a commitment I made around the new year, fasting has become part of my life. I've been fasting in combination with praying for a specific situation, but I have been amazed to find how much there is to be learned simply from the experience of cutting off the ties to food for a day. Hudson Taylor's quote above rings so true to me now-- it's not often in our privileged American lives that we are brought to a point of awareness of our dependence on God. We build up a buffer, a nest egg that will keep us safe from having to depend on the hand of God. In exchange, we lose the joy of knowing that we are nothing without Him, that we cannot go on feeling invincible for even a day without the gifts of His hands. This is a great pity, because along with knowing our weakness comes the incredible comfort of comprehending something more of His strength and faithfulness.

No guarantees

A few different conversations and happenings brought this thought to the forefront today: we are mortal. That is, in this form, this lifetime, this unresurrected body, we are mortal. The days of this life are limited. Do we live that way? The things we pursue, the goals we chase after at all costs, are they what we want defining our life?

"How you spend your days is how you spend your life." -Unknown

"Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom." -Psalm 90:12

"This is your life; are you who you want to be?" -Switchfoot

This isn't a practice run. We only get one shot. It's easy to forget, when you're young and strong and healthy, that it will fly by and be over before you know it. What will it take to remind you of your mortality? Food poisoning? A car accident? A seven-story fall? Are you living for this life or for the one that lasts? The way you spend your days now defines the way you will spend the rest of your earthly life, and it defines the way you will spend eternity. Are you awake?

The purpose of Israel

I've struggled from time to time with the purpose of the people of Israel throughout the Old Testament. It has always seemed a little arbitrary to me-- was there something so great about Abraham that led the Lord to choose him as a father for the chosen people? Was there some redeeming characteristic about the people of Israel that caused the Lord to rescue and redeem them time after time? The various times I have read through the story of God's relationship with the people of Israel, what has stood out to me is not any great quality about Israel, but rather their persistent unfaithfulness. Then why? Why choose these people? Why stick with it for so long?

Abraham was a righteous man. There are instances throughout Genesis where God tells him that because of his faithfulness in various situations, he will make him a great nation. But I think that's only part of it. As I have been reading through the Old Testament again for the past few weeks, I have been struck by the way it all points to Jesus. From the very entrance of sin into the world, God is working out a plan for the redemption of the human race. He makes a promise, He chooses a people, He does everything to keep that people holy to Him, and all of it is to make the path straight for Jesus to enter the world and save it by His ultimate sacrifice.

The Old Testament stories are powerful on their own, and there is plenty to be gleaned from each of them, but most powerful to me this time around has been the centrality of Jesus to it all. From the very beginning ("In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God," "Through Him all things were created...") Jesus is everything. After the fall of man, through the whole story of God sanctifying mankind back to Himself, Jesus is everything. In the gospels, Jesus is everything. In the accounts of the early church and the letters written within it, Jesus is everything. At the end, when all things are summed up, the answer is still the same. Jesus is everything.

Quiet times

Pretty much any mature Christian will tell you that quiet times are important. Work it into your schedule, a time where you are reading the Word, praying, meditating, just being quiet before God. It's not really a disputed topic. If you want to get to know a person better, you spend time with him. The same principle applies here.

Most mature Christians also have a standpoint on what that quiet time should look like, and when it should take place. Some are staunch supporters of the morning routine, others tend more toward the reflective, end-of-day routine, and still others have found a time during the busy schedule of the day that works for them.

Two people that I respect very much in the faith have given me these words of advice:
"Give God your first, give Him your best, and then give Him more."
"[Quiet time should be] your first, best time."

I don't think there's a time that is necessarily holier than other times. I do think that in this, as in so many other things, the heart is key. Are you scheduling your time away with God first as you place things into the day's agenda, or are you putting it wherever it will fit in? Do you intend to do it at one time and then really do it whenever you happen to remember? Did you plan to have it be a reflective time at the end of the day, a time where you could go back over the day's happenings in a prayerful mindset and weigh them all against Scripture, or were you just too lazy to get it done any other time of the day?

I struggle with this. Sometimes Jesus got up early in the morning to pray (we have a lot of scriptural examples of this), sometimes he stayed up late to wrestle with God (think Gethsemane), and sometimes the idea was to take the disciples away to a quiet place and just rest in the Lord. Again, I don't think there's a time of day that is by nature holier or more conducive to spiritual thoughts for everyone, but there probably is one for you. It probably won't be all that easy to make it happen. But it's important.

All of that said, I am going to go have some quiet time. After 1 a.m. And no, this was not intentional.

What is required of us?

I like to plan. I never really thought of myself as that much of a planner, and I never really wrote it all out and put it in concrete terms, but I really like to have a plan. This has become more evident in my life these past few years as less and less things have been certain about the future. I continue to plan out the way I think everything will unfold (the way I would like it to unfold...), to imagine it and count down the days until whatever plan comes to pass.

This is changing, slowly.

"In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps." (Proverbs 16:9)
"Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails." (Proverbs 19:21)

I don't think there's anything particularly wrong with planning. I think we're called to be wise and to number our days. But when plans become an idol, something to cling to and repeat to ourselves when things seem uncertain, we've gone too far.

I couldn't really tell you what my life will look like more than about 4 months out at this point. I could guess, but that's where I fall back into planning again. But as the Lord gently pries my plans out of my fingertips, He does not leave me empty-handed:

"He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." (Micah 6:8)

I don't know where I'm going, and I don't know what it will look like. I do know that I am to love justice and mercy and to walk humbly with my God, and that is enough.

I am second

I just spent my afternoon and evening watching all of the videos at iamsecond.com (following an exhilarating and exhausting weekend of camp). I would do it again. What an incredible blessing, to be able to benefit from the stories of God's work in the lives of other people! There are some incredible testimonies of His faithfulness told in beautiful ways there, and I highly recommend the site to any of you.

Doing hard things

I just spent about an hour reading quotes from famous believers throughout history (I was looking for one quote in particular and ended up on rabbit trails... funny how that works, isn't it?), and there are quite a number of them that caught my attention. I'll stick with one that follows the theme of winter camp for now, though.

"It is folly to conclude that a thing ought not to be done because it hurts. There are powers to be born, creations to be perfected, sinners to be redeemed all through the ministry of pain, that could be born, perfected and redeemed in no other way. "
-George MacDonald

We're reading the book Do Hard Things, challenging the kids to do hard things, praying that lives would be changed and people would be formed who would make a lifestyle of doing hard things, and we can't emphasize it enough. Will we take the easy road and miss so much birth, so much of the process of perfection, so much redemption that could be had if we would just fix our eyes on the cross and push forward along the narrow path?

Burning bushes

There's an Andy Gullahorn song that I love. The chorus says, "I’m praying for a miracle to let me know you’re listening, waiting for a lightning bolt to strike. I'm walking through a garden of a thousand burning bushes, looking up to heaven for a sign." This is so true for me, so often. I go through life in a state of near-constant uncertainty, ready to doubt God as soon as I feel a little bit distant from Him.

But what has He done in my life? How much has He given me? How many miracles have I seen worked in my own life and in the lives of those around me, not to mention the stories I read and hear told second-hand? How far down did He stoop to pull me out of the mud and mire, and how firm is the rock on which I now stand? When I stop to consider, it's not long before I sing with the psalmist, "O Lord God Almighty, who is like you? You are mighty, O Lord, and your faithfulness surrounds you!" (Psalm 89:8)

What are the burning bushes that we ignore in our lives today as we look up to Heaven for a sign?

You or your generation?

In studying Daniel today and then reading the story of Noah in Genesis, I was struck by the impact of these men who stood firm in the midst of entire generations that had turned their backs on the Lord. Daniel refused to partake of the over-the-top luxuries of Babylon, Noah and his family remained faithful to the Lord while all of their neighbors fell away, and there are a great number of other people like this found throughout the Bible and throughout the rest of history. It wasn't easy for the prophets to proclaim, day in and day out, the truths of the God they served while being beaten and shunned. I'm fairly certain Daniel didn't turn down the riches of Babylon because he really just preferred simple foods, and that Noah didn't just have a distaste for the sins in which his neighbors chose to engage. Nonetheless, these men stood firm on what they believed, and the Lord was glorified in their lives.

Are we more concerned with what our generation is up to or with our own standing before the Lord? I do not believe that we will be judged on a curve. I have very strong doubts about the likelihood of the holy God of Israel saying, "Oh, well, I suppose in comparison with them you did pretty well after all..." Are we ready to stand alone, "blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which we shine like stars in the universe as we hold out the word of life?" (Philippians 2:15-16)

After Christmas

"When the song of the angels is stilled, when the star in the sky is gone, when the kings and princes are home, when the shepherds are back with their flocks, the work of Christmas begins: to find the lost, to heal the broken, to feed the hungry, to release the prisoner, to rebuild the nations, to bring peace among the people, to make music in the heart." -Harry Thurman

The work of God through Jesus didn't stop with a baby born in a manger, it didn't stop with a man who grew up to be a good teacher, it didn't stop when that man died on the cross, and it didn't stop with his resurrection from the dead or ascension into Heaven. The work of God through Jesus continues in us and through us today as we surrender to his good, pleasing, and perfect will, and as we love the people around us and proclaim healing and redemption into the brokenness of this world.

Merry Christmas, all year long.

Substitution

I've had Watchman Nee's The Normal Christian Life sitting on my shelf (both in Chicago and in TL) for about 6 months now, and I've tried to start reading it a few times-- the problem is that even by reading the first 5 pages I can tell it's a book that's going to challenge and convict me, and sometimes it's hard to get motivated to dive into one of those. I'm working on it again, though, and within those first five pages that I have read Nee brings up a point that seems obvious enough, but that I had never quite heard put into words.

He writes: "God makes it quite clear in his Word that he has only one answer to every human need-- his son, Jesus Christ. In all his dealings with us he works by taking us out of the way and substituting Christ in our place. The Son of God died instead of us for our forgiveness: he lives instead of us for our deliverance. So we can speak of two substitutions-- a Substitute on the Cross who secures our forgiveness and a Substitute within who secures our victory."

The longer I live and serve God, the more I realize that there is really not much of anything we ever do or can do in this life. Our only part is to seek the face of God, to ask that he would reveal more of Christ to us, to ask that he would crucify us and help us to set aside our own selves. And the mystery of it all is that it is here where I begin to find fulfillment. When I set aside myself and let Christ live in place of me, I find who I am without the bonds of sin and the weakness of the flesh, and I live through Christ (or he through me) the fullest version of the life I was born for.

Power

"His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. Through these He has given us His very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires." 2 Peter 1:3-4

In this season of ambitious resolutions, how is that for a promise? "His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us..." I came across this passage this week, and it struck me as so powerful in light of the lessons on 2 Timothy 2:22 from winter camp last week. As we flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, we are not alone and destined to fail at these pursuits as at so many resolutions. We are called (by the compound glory and goodness of God), and He also provides with everything we need for life and godliness, with great and precious promises of freedom from everything that holds us back from Him. Hallelujah!