How Great is our God?

I'm reading through the Bible again this year, but using a different format. It takes me through an Old Testament book, then a New Testament book while, at the same time, taking me through Psalms, Proverbs and Isaiah. My reading this morning was from late in Genesis where Joseph is being reunited with the brothers who sold him into slavery. In the meantime, Joseph has become second only to Pharaoh in Egypt.

When he finally reveals himself as the brother whom they had long assumed was dead, he makes the profound statement, three times, that God had sent him ahead of his brothers to make sure they would survive the wide spread famine. ("God sent me before you to preserve life." "God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth..." "..it was not you who sent me here, but God.")

God is able to use even our worst sins and worst intentions and worst decisions as part of the fabric of His plan and purpose to bring about good and His glory. That does not make those sins, intentions and decisions good. It makes our God great. His purposes will not be hindered, even with our waywardness. Don't ask me to explain the intricacies of how this all works together. I know I sin. I know God works all things together for good without being the author of my sin. That is as close as I can get to explaining the providence of God as it relates to my free will.

Our God is great who "causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:28 NASB)

Happy Anniversary to Me

It was one year ago last night that I was meeting with my Home Fellowship Group on the Central Coast of California. We were listening to a Hugh Hewitt CD. He talked about the importance of Christians engaging their culture. Hugh is big on blogs and suggested every pastor should have one. My group looked at me and I caved. I went home that night, set up blog and wrote a brief introduction to the process. The next day, one year ago today, I wrote my first "real" blog. After a few weeks I was discouraged by the lack of response (I thought surely millions would engage me in dialogue about the pithy, erudite comments I had written.), but then I realized this process was more for me than for those who might read it. By the very discipline of putting my thoughts, random as they are, down on the electronic page, I was able to see more clearly what I had been thinking about and what God had been doing in my life.

So, I continue to write. It's only about once a week (with that long break between October and May when the transition hit the hardest), but it helps me. If you've read something that helps you, too, that's an added blessing.

Better Together

Having been recently uprooted from long-term relationships and ministry connections, I have become even more aware of the importance of "life together." My wife and I are plotting a home group where we can know and be known by a small group of Christians who will be able to encourage and challenge us in our relationship with Jesus. We need other believers who will help keep us from lying to ourselves about how we are doing spiritually, emotionally and relationally. It is possible, even with close relationships with brothers and sisters in Christ, to hide what is going on in our lives. But it is more difficult.

When God created mankind, He said that it was not good to be alone. I know the primary application of the passage refers to a marriage relationship, but as the redemption story unfolds in Scripture it is clear that God also had in mind the community of faith, the family of God, who will walk alongside us in this journey. I believe it was Augustine who said that a person cannot have God as his Father who does not have the church as his mother. We were meant to be in relationship with God in the context of a relationship with other children of God. It is the rare and difficult situation where a Christian is an "only child." It happens in countries in which Christians are persecuted or who are geographically isolated. But this is not the norm in God's Kingdom. T.S. Elliott wrote, "What life have you if you have not life together?" As I often say, "The Christian life was meant to be personal, but it was never meant to be private."

Being 90

My mother-in-law turned 90 a few weeks ago. Last weekend we held an extravaganza in her honor. She rode in on a large motorcycle, driven by one of her sons-in-law. She had a decorated faux leather jacket and decorated tennis shoes. She is everyone's hero. But for me, what sets her apart is not so much her longevity, as impressive as that is, but her faithful walk with Christ. She's been through a lot in her 90 years, but she has held on to Jesus because she knows He is hanging on to her. She doesn't doubt that her Savior is ever present to her. She doesn't doubt His goodness, even when the circumstances seem to point to the contrary. She doesn't doubt His love for her, even when the people around her act unlovely and sometimes even unlovable.

Yes, Anina is my hero. Not for the length of her life, but for the depth of her faith.

Ways and Means

This will come as no surprise to those who know me. I'm reading a Eugene Peterson book. This is the latest in his series on Practical Theology and is entitled, The Jesus Way. I'm only part way through, but already I'm having to think once again about this life God has called us to. Here are some passages I've underlined that are causing me to look again at "church."

"A Christian congregation, the church in your neighborhood, has always been the primary location for getting this way and truth and life of Jesus believed and embodied in the places and among the people with whom we most have to do day in and day out.

A Christian congregation is a company of praying men and women who gather, usually on Sundays, for worship, who then go into the world as salt and light...God means to do something with us, and he means to do it in community. We are in on what God is doing, and we are in on it together.

The great American innovation in congregation is to turn it into a consumer enterprise...If we have a nation of consumers, obviously the quickest and most effective way to get them into our congregations is to identify what they want and offer it to them...this is the best and most effective way that has ever been devised for gathering large and prosperous congregations...There is only one thing wrong: this is not the way in which God brings us into conformity with the life of Jesus and sets us on the way of Jesus' salvation. This is not the way in which we become less and Jesus becomes more. This is not the way in which our sacrificed lives become available to others in justice and service.

Only when the Jesus way is organically joined with the Jesus truth do we get the Jesus life."

Fridays are the new Monday...Sorta

For many years, while serving the Santa Margarita Community Church, I took Mondays as a day of rest. Not a day off, as we Americans think of it (running errands, mowing lawns, doing chores, etc.) No, this was a day of disconnecting from the normal everyday experiences of life in order to connect with God and my family.

Since the move to Orange County, this has been difficult to duplicate because of the two part-time ministries. The demands and unique schedules of each are such that it has been difficult to carve out an entire day.

I still haven't found an entire day, but I've found a half day. Friday mornings. I read. I pray. I listen to music. I blog. I unplug from the usual demands of life in the twenty-first century. To some it may seem a "waste" of time. But at the beginning of the twentieth century, Charles Spurgeon, the prince of preachers, wrote:

"Rest time is not waste. It is economy to gather fresh strength. Look at the mower in the summer’s day, with so much to cut down ere the sun sets. He pauses in his labor — is he a sluggard? He looks for his stone, and begins to draw it up and down his scythe, with a rink-a-tink, rink-a-tink. Is that idle music? Is he wasting precious moments? How much might he have mowed while he has been ringing out those notes on his scythe! But he is sharpening his tool, and he will do far more when once again he gives strength to those sweeps which lay the grass prostrate in rows before him. Nor can the fisherman always be fishing; he must mend his nets. So even our vacation can be one of the duties laid upon us by the kingdom of God."

Eventually I hope to have an entire day again. But for now I'll take what I can get. It brings new meaning to "Thank God it's Friday."

Why...

Some of my friends wonder why I would leave a 16 year ministry where I have great friends and supporters to move to Orange County to work with a local church as interim pastor and with my denomination's District ministries. The primary motivation for the move was to be close to my mother-in-law who turns 90 next week. The reason for taking the two positions is found in the following statistic.

Residing between San Diego and the LA metropolitan area, there are over 20 million people, and only 15% (www.theamericanchurch.org/facts/8.htm) claim to attend a church on any given Sunday.

Both of my positions allow me to be part of the bigger thing God is doing. Missions used to be what we did outside the borders of our country. Now missions is what we do within our own zip code.

In both positions my primary responsibility is to ask "Why?" "Why do we do what we do?" "Why do we do what we do the way we do it?" "Why do we not do what we don't do?" These questions, among others, help us to keep the Kingdom priorities in view. God never changes. The way we relate to our culture changes daily.

Traveling man

When I took my new position with the denomination I serve, I was told I would be traveling about once a month. When Sharon and I discussed that dynamic, she said, "You like to travel. This will give you more opportunity." What I've discovered is that I enjoy travel under two circumstances. My wife is with me OR I only travel a couple times a year. The travel itself isn't always that fun. For instance there are times when "No Smoking" rooms in a motel seems to refer to the fact that no one has smoked in that room...for the past five minutes, or "Free Wireless Internet" means that it is wireless internet free (their router is down so there is no internet connection), or the motel you chose is a half hour away from where it should have been.

What God does once I get there is great fun and great to be part of. I've seen God work throughout California, Arizona and Texas (the states I've traveled to, so far). He uses different people in different places under different circumstances, but through us all (and in spite of us all) He is building His kingdom, enlarging His family.

There's a lesson here for me. The journey may not always be great. But what God is doing is great. What a privilege to join God as He works in individuals (including me) and as He builds His church.

Sin and the Wife Who Loves Me

After reading my last post, my wife asked me if there was anything going on in my life that had specifically prompted the topic on which I wrote. I had to think back to what I had written. It was about the struggle against sin and the power of the resurrection working in us as God's children. I was happy to report to her (and now to anyone who reads this blog) that while there was the usual self-centeredness and self-absorption going on in my thoughts and actions, there was not a recent sin that ranked high on the sin-o-meter that we use to rank the heinousness of our thoughts and actions.

That got me thinking. While I am glad that there was no "huge" indiscretion to have to confess to Sharon, there seems to be a sliding scale we all use to judge how we're doing in this thing called practical sanctification or holiness. I guess it is normal (and I think I could go to examples in Scripture to suggest it is also biblical) to rank sins according to their effect on us, those around us and our relationship with God. In Scripture, for instance, some sins seem to rise to the level of needing to be disciplined by a local church. Others are those we need to confess, commit to avoiding, and move on. John Stott has been helpful in weighing this by suggesting that private sins need to be confessed and dealt with privately (unless they become life dominating sins, even if no one else knows about it). Personal sins (against one other person or a small group of people) need to be confessed and dealt with personally. Public sins need to be confessed and dealt with publicly.

The point of today's musing is two-fold. One is that, while there may be more noticeable consequences to some sin, all sin affects me and harms my relationship with God and with those with whom I have relationship. From God's point of view, as the one who is completely holy, there is no sliding scale, no sin-o-meter, no greater or lesser breach of His standard.

The second is that my wife loves me enough to ask the tough questions. Think about it a minute. There was an answer to her question that she really didn't want to hear. But she loved me enough to risk hearing it so that if she heard it, she could point me to Christ and to accountability and to whatever steps I might need to take to repair my relationship with God, my biological family and my church family. That is a great love.

The Power of His Resurrection

There is a Russian devotional classic entitled The Way of a Pilgrim. The first line reads, “By the grace of God I am a Christian man, by my actions a great sinner…” Certainly this anonymous 19^th century Christian was echoing the words of Paul in Romans 7 where he confesses, “I decide to do good, but I don't really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don't result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time. It happens so regularly that it's predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God's commands, but it's pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge. I've tried everything and nothing helps. I'm at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn't that the real question?”

Paul goes on to answer the question. “The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.”

The answer, it turns out, is found in the events that took place in Jerusalem a couple millennia ago. We are only days away from focusing on the life, death, burial and bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is in Jesus that we find the ultimate answer to our moral dilemma. Paul referred to it in his letter to the Christians around Ephesus. Early in his letter Paul prays that they would know “what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.” The resurrection was proof that God had accepted, as payment in full, Christ’s sacrifice of himself in our place. In so doing, he secured forever the salvation of those who respond to God’s grace by faith.

We will all continue to struggle between the “now and not yet” of knowing that we are fully saved by Christ’s sacrifice and yet living on in these limited, sin-conditioned bodies with minds that have years of experience in choosing what we think is in our own best interest. This is one reason Paul had to tell the Philippian believers to “Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.” I’ve always appreciated Paul’s candor. “Not only.” Paul knows we need no command to look out for our own interests. What we need to do is not stop there. We also need to look to the interests of others. The power to do that comes from being in a responsive relationship with God the Father through the Holy Spirit who lives in us.

A bit later in Paul’s letter to the Roman Christians he writes, “In his Son, Jesus, [God] personally took on the human condition, entered the disordered mess of struggling humanity in order to set it right once and for all. The law code, weakened as it always was by fractured human nature, could never have done that. The law always ended up being used as a Band-Aid on sin instead of a deep healing of it. And now what the law code asked for but we couldn't deliver is accomplished as we, instead of redoubling our own efforts, simply embrace what the Spirit is doing in us. Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life. Those who trust God's action in them find that God's Spirit is in them—living and breathing God! Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life.”

As we look forward to Resurrection Sunday, we need to be reminded that it is not just a Christian form of celebrating Spring. The bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ affirms that our sins are forgiven and because our sins are forgiven, we are given the power of the Holy Spirit to move us from what we are to what we can be. May we all know the power of His resurrection.

Messy, but worth it

I currently finished Eugene Peterson's book, Under the Unpredictable Plant, for probably the fourth time. In it I discovered a section that I hadn't underlined before. The context is how messy ministry is, but his analogy from the experience of marriage is powerful in its own right.

"Lovers quarrel, hurt and get hurt, misunderstand and are misunderstood in their painstaking work of creating a marriage: apologize and explain, listen and wait, rush forward and pull back, desire and sacrifice as love receives its slow incarnation in flesh and spirit. In any creative enterprise there are risks, mistakes, false starts, failures, frustrations, embarrassments, but out of this mess--when we stay with it long enough, enter it deeply enough--there slowly emerges love or beauty or peace."

What a deep joy for me to know, by experience, the truth of these words. Sharon and I are approaching our 33rd anniversary. Our marriage, like most, has been messy and challenging and a lot of hard work. It has also been full of amazing, deep and abiding love, "the slow incarnation in flesh and spirit." Daily we commit to staying with it long enough and entering it deeply enough to be there as love emerges. My prayer is that more and more couples, especially those who know Jesus, will also learn the joy within the mess.

Hanging with my kids

I have said on more than one occasion that I would write my book about parenting after I see how my grandchildren turn out. I am still convinced that would be wise since I won't know, for sure, how transferable my parenting was until I see the next generation. But having said that, (a tip of the hat to Bernie S) I must pause and say how pleased and amazed I am that my children grew up to be adults I like to hang out with. All three of my children (now adults) are the kind of people you want to spend time with. All three are all the kind of people you look for when searching for a friend. And probably the best thing, at this season in my life, is that they seem to like hanging with me, too.

I'm Baaaack

My last blog is dated October 24. I guess that is when the impact of the transition from Santa Margarita to Huntington Beach and from pastoring a church for 16 years to being a part-time interim pastor and part-time District staff member took its toll.

Since October I've 1) learned to make minor changes to a website, 2) learned how much I miss preaching regularly, 3) had a daughter get married, 4) become a frequent flyer on USAirways, and 5) realized how much I appreciate routine.

Today is one of my required monthly PRD's. PRD is a TLA (three letter acronym) for Personal Reflection Day. This is a day on which I unplug from my District role and spend extended time with my real Boss. At the end of the day, I am asked to reflect on what I've heard from the Boss as it relates to my ministry with EFCAWest. Today I was reminded of the importance of something Eugene Peterson writes in his book, "Under the Unpredictable Plant". "[It is] critically important to pay more attention to what God does than what I do, and to find daily, weekly, yearly rhythms that...get that awareness into my bones."

So for those of you who know me, here's two things you can hold me accountable to: 1) Take a half day every Friday to read and pray and blog and 2) to take my PRD during the last week of each month. These two disciplines will help put the rhythm back in my life.

A Man for My Season

Recently I was asked to beta test a web-based tool for students to study and interact in the area of theology. Since I oversee credentialing in the district I serve, I thought it would be interesting to participate so that I could a) learn and b) see if this tool would have applications for my role as director of credentialing.

So far what I have learned mostly is that despite my being technologically savvy, I prefer reading theology from a book, not a web page. Flipping from "page" to "page" on-line is not like flipping from page to page in book. The touch of pages on one's fingers is more satisfying than touching keys on a keyboard. And web pages do not have a distinctive smell. I have books published in the 18th century, but even those printed in the 20th century have an ink and paper smell that is, obviously, lacking in the virtual world. These two sensory experiences of touch and smell have been, for many generations, intimately associated with study.

I look forward to continuing the on-line course, but I have to admit the experience so far has been underwhelming. That says more about me than it does about the web or those who have created this tool. I am a definitely a child of my time.

I miss my family

It happened yesterday afternoon. I was sitting in the office of the church where I currently serve as interim. Without warning the tears began to form. No wracking sobs, just quiet, almost unnoticed sadness.

Frederick Buechner writes: "Tears. You never know what may cause them. The sight of the Atlantic Ocean can do it, or a piece of music, or a face you've never seen before. A pair of somebody's old shoes can do it. Almost any movie made before the great sadness that came over the world after the Second World War, a horse cantering across a meadow, the high school basketball team running out onto the gym floor at the start of a game. You can never be sure. But of this you can be sure. Whenever you find tears in your eyes, especially unexpected tears, it is well to pay the closest attention. They are not only telling you something about the secret of who you are, but more often than not God is speaking to you through them of the mystery of where you have come from and is summoning you to where you should go next."

Where I've come from is a congregation that knows me, loves me, and who put up with me for 16 years. Where I am going next is becoming a new member of another branch of God's family. It reminds me of those early years of marriage when I began to know the family I had married into. They did things different. They talked different. They ate different. They worked different. Not bad. Just different. The same is true in this season.

The new family will become dear to me over time, but in the meantime, I miss my family.

Keep your soul diligently

Working my way back through the early chapters of Deuteronomy, I am once again impressed with how often Moses emphasized the need to pay attention. Phrases like "take care" or "keep your soul diligently" or "watch yourselves very carefully" occur over and over again in the context of their relationship with YHWH. Moses understood what Eugene Peterson was referring to when he said, "Nothing is more common in the life of the Spirit than to begin right and to end wrong."

Missing my Margin

Life is a funny thing. For years I've prided myself on having margin in my life. I'm good at setting boundaries. (Saying "no" some things in order to say "yes" to others.) Then the current transition happened. (You will notice it has been almost two months since my last post.) All those principles of boundaries and margins work great if you have a holy rhythm to your life. But when everything is turned upside down and inside out, it is much tougher to live out those principles. To all those who to whom, over the years, I've made it sound easy to have boundaries and margins I apologize. It's not as easy as it looks when life throws a curve. It takes a lot of work. I will get back in rhythm. It'll just take some time. Life is messier than I remember.

Disturbing interruptions

Henri Nouwen writes, “[This] is the great conversion in our life: to recognize and believe that the many unexpected events are not just disturbing interruptions of our projects, but the way in which God molds our hearts and prepares us for his return.”

Honor your father and mother

After 16 years of pastoring a wonderful church on the Central Coast of California, we are leaving to move back to Orange County. You see, honoring one’s parents not only means “don’t sass back” when you are young, it also means seeking ways to enable them to live with as much independence and dignity as possible when they are older. To that end, we are moving closer to my wife’s mom so that we can be of service. For me the move also means changing roles from full-time pastor to part-time interim pastor and part-time ministry administrator. Juggling schedules is not new, but this combination will prove to have some extra challenges to it.

All this to say, knowing and doing the will of God is the best thing. It’s just not always the easiest.

Best bone of my body

I’m still working my way through “John Ploughman’s Talk” by Charles H. Spurgeon. In his chapter on “A Good Word for Wives” I found he had described my wife Sharon. Spurgeon writes, “A true wife is her husband’s better half…his flower of beauty…and his heart’s treasure. He says to her, ‘I shall in thee most happy be. In thee, my choice, I do rejoice. In thee I find contentment of mind. God’s appointment is my contentment.’ In her company he finds his earthly heaven; she is the light of his home; the comfort of his soul, and (for this world) the soul of his comfort. Whatever his fortune may send him, he is rich so long as she lives. His rib is the best bone of his body.”