Living in Doxology

Gratitude.  We all know we should be thankful for the things that we have.  We have all been blessed by God in countless ways.  I know it is hard to see that sometimes, especially when everything around us is falling apart.  Even in the worst of times there is much to be thankful for.  The air we breath, a roof over our heads, or even the fact that we opened our eyes this morning can all be attributed to the great grace of God.  Yet, we often forget or neglect to offer him thanksgiving and praise for all that he has done for us.  I think that this is a serious issue in the church.  Every week in a number of churches a doxology is sung:

Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Or if you prefer:

Yet, I wonder if we are really paying attention to the words.  Do we really believe that that all blessings flow from God?  If we do believe that how often do we thank Him privately and publicly. Do we allow the gifts of his grace to change how we live?  Do we bear witness to what God has done and is doing in our lives?  In other words, are we living our lives in doxology?

Think about Psalm 116:12-19

What can I give back to God
for the blessings he’s poured out on me?
I’ll lift high the cup of salvation—a toast to God!
I’ll pray in the name of God;
I’ll complete what I promised God I’d do,
and I’ll do it together with his people.
When they arrive at the gates of death,
God welcomes those who love him.
Oh, God, here I am, your servant,
your faithful servant: set me free for your service!
I’m ready to offer the thanksgiving sacrifice
and pray in the name of God.
I’ll complete what I promised God I’d do,
and I’ll do it in company with his people,
In the place of worship, in God’s house,
in Jerusalem, God’s city.
Hallelujah! (The Message)

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Stuck on the couch

Image by SimplySchmoopie via Flickr

For the last several days I have for the most part been stuck on the couch dealing with severe back pain because of a herniated disk.  Because of this I have been in a position that I don’t much care for — depending on others to help me.  My wife has been an  amazing help to me through this as have a number of people from our church.

This is such a tough place for me to be.  I hate to rely on others for my care.  It feels unnatural to allows others to do for me what I should be able to do for myself.  The truth is,  at the moment, I can’t do for myself so I must do what comes so unnaturally to me… allow others to help. I hate it, but God is teaching me something significant here.  While I am stuck on the couch, the world has not come to end.  God has raised folks up to help me in a number of different ways and to continue on in my ministry where I have been unable in the last couple of days.  Perhaps I should pay more attention to what God is capable of doing in my weakness instead of what I can do in my strength.

Consider 2 Corinthians 12: 7-10

Because of the extravagance of those revelations, and so I wouldn’t get a big head, I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations. Satan’s angel did his best to get me down; what he in fact did was push me to my knees. No danger then of walking around high and mighty! At first I didn’t think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that, and then he told me,

My grace is enough; it’s all you need.
My strength comes into its own in your weakness.
Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ’s strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size—abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become. (The Message)

You are Loved

I know I posted this video awhile back, but I was thinking about how much God Loves us and this song came to mind.

I hope you remember that you are loved today!

Yet again, got my butt kicked by Tozer today

A. W. Tozer managed to work me over pretty good today. I read the following passage and was challenged to think about what  little effort I put into my pursuit of God.

“The idea of cultivation and exercise, so dear to the saints of old, has now no place in our total religious picture.  It is too slow, too common.  We now demand glamour and fast flowing dramatic action.  A generation of Christians reared among push buttons and automatic machines is impatient of slower and less direct methods of reaching their goals.  We have been trying to apply machine age methods to our relations with God.  We read our chapter, have our short devotions and rush away, hoping to make up for our deep inward bankruptcy by attending another gospel meeting or listening to another thrilling story told by a religious adventurer returned from afar.

The tragic results of this spirit are all about us. Shallow lives, hollow religious philosophies, the preponderance of the element of fun in Gospel meetings, the glorification of men, trust in religious externalities, quasi-religious fellowships, salesmen methods, the mistaking of dynamic personality for the power of the Spirit: these and such as these are symptoms of an evil disease, a deep and serious malady of the soul.” (The Pursuit of God)

I am personally guilty of reading a chapter or two saying a a prayer and rushing off to some other task whether I have encountered God or not.  I can’t say it any better than Tozer, so I will let his words speak for themselves save this.  Perhaps our lives are hollow because we fill our lives with hollow things.

James 4:8:

Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

Maybe, just maybe, God feels distant, because we have not done what we need to come near to him.

The Greatest American Hero…

This is perhaps my favorite of the TV Theme songs…hopefully no introduction will be necessary.

The Greatest American Hero is a story about a teacher who happens upon an alien suit that gives him super powers when he is wearing it.  Admittedly, I wish I had a suit that gave me super powers.  It would be a bit of a dream come true.  Anyhow, in each episode, our hero bumbles through saving the day.  He makes some mistakes along the way but eventually gets the job done.

There is one particular line in the theme song that speaks to me:

“It should have been somebody else.”

This reminds me of another hero named Moses.  Check out Exodus 4:1-17:

¹ Moses objected, “They won’t trust me. They won’t listen to a word I say. They’re going to say, ‘God? Appear to him? Hardly!’”² So God said, “What’s that in your hand?” “A staff.”

³ “Throw it on the ground.” He threw it. It became a snake; Moses jumped back—fast!

^4-5 God said to Moses, “Reach out and grab it by the tail.” He reached out and grabbed it—and he was holding his staff again. “That’s so they will trust that God appeared to you, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”

⁶ God then said, “Put your hand inside your shirt.” He slipped his hand under his shirt, then took it out. His hand had turned leprous, like snow.

⁷ He said, “Put your hand back under your shirt.” He did it, then took it back out—as healthy as before.

^8-9 “So if they don’t trust you and aren’t convinced by the first sign, the second sign should do it. But if it doesn’t, if even after these two signs they don’t trust you and listen to your message, take some water out of the Nile and pour it out on the dry land; the Nile water that you pour out will turn to blood when it hits the ground.”

¹⁰ Moses raised another objection to God: “Master, please, I don’t talk well. I’ve never been good with words, neither before nor after you spoke to me. I stutter and stammer.”

^11-12 God said, “And who do you think made the human mouth? And who makes some mute, some deaf, some sighted, some blind? Isn’t it I, God? So, get going. I’ll be right there with you—with your mouth! I’ll be right there to teach you what to say.”

¹³ He said, “Oh, Master, please! Send somebody else!”

^14-17 God got angry with Moses: “Don’t you have a brother, Aaron the Levite? He’s good with words, I know he is. He speaks very well. In fact, at this very moment he’s on his way to meet you. When he sees you he’s going to be glad. You’ll speak to him and tell him what to say. I’ll be right there with you as you speak and with him as he speaks, teaching you step by step. He will speak to the people for you. He’ll act as your mouth, but you’ll decide what comes out of it. Now take this staff in your hand; you’ll use it to do the signs.” (The Message)

Verse 13 jumps right out at me.  Moses asks God to send someone else. Moses had all sorts of reasons why God should put the responsibility in the hands of someone else.  He didn’t feel up to the challenge laid before him by God.  Honestly, I can relate.  I have often thought to myself, “Let someone else better qualified do the job – I’ll just mess it up.” I have often bumbled my way through things just like the Greatest American hero not because I felt like I was the best person, but because I knew God wanted me to do it.   God doesn’t make mistakes and if God places a call on your life he means for you to do it.  You are uniquely and wonderfully created and if you have any doubts about answering God’s call upon your life take into consideration this verse from Ephesians 2:10:

“For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (NIV)

What is God calling you to do?

More Than Meets the Eye…

When I was growing up in the 80′s there were a number of great cartoons.  There was G.I Joe, Voltron, and Mask.  These were great, but my all time favorite was Transformers.  I couldn’t tell you why I liked it better than the others exactly, but I knew I would follow Optimus Prime into battle without hesitation.  For those who don’t know transformers, which seems unlikely but not impossible, the idea is that giant robots turn into things like cars, trucks, and planes.  There is more to it, but that is enough for the idea. Now…lets see what what me might learn from their theme song shall we.

I think the phrase that sticks out the most to me this morning is “more than meets the eye”  Just as the transformers hide in plain sight, I think people do it to. We put on our public persona’s and when asked how we are doing we may answer with fine or good when the reality is our life is privately a mess.  We all wear masks.  We hide behind them with the hope that nobody will be able to see how broken or messed up we really are. In fact, we do this so often that sometimes we forget who we are and begin to believe the things we tell others.  I think this is why honest self-examination is so important to us. There is more to each of us than meets they eye, sometimes more than we realize about ourselves.  If you have been hiding behind your masks, then consider this from Psalm 139:

²³ Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.

²⁴ See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.

May we allow God to search the very depths of our soul and reveal to us what is behind the masks that wear…may He show each of us what is hidden in our hearts that He might transform us to be more like Jesus.

Cheers…

I am working on something a little different.  At CCO New Staff Training, I was reminded that I have watched a ton of TV in my lifetime.  I was also reminded that I know a lot of TV show theme songs.  I have been giving this a great deal of thought and have concluded that there are some really cool things we can learn from TV show theme songs if we are willing to do some thinking.  So, with that in mind, I am going to be posting about TV show theme songs and what they can teach us about God and the human condition.  It sounds weird I know, but come along for the ride anyway and see if we can’t learn something together.  Lets start with one most all of should know pretty well:

Now there is a lot in that minute that we could chat about (perhaps I’ll deal with some of it in a later post), but I want to focus on the phrase “sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name”.  I think this taps into one of, if not the greatest of human desires.  We all want to be known and to know others.  We want to be loved for who we are without fear of rejection or condemnation.  Unfortunately we put up walls and wear masks to hide who we are and if we want to know others we work hard to break through the walls and masks that they put up.  I think Cheers was so popular because people could relate to the idea of a place where they were accepted quirks and all.  That show is so relateable even after it has been off the air for so long, because it rings true to us…we all want to find a place where we are known and surrounded by a community of people who love us.

If this rings true to you…if you want to be known and to know, there is one who knows you more deeply than you can imagine…consider Psalm 139:

^1-6 God, investigate my life; get all the facts firsthand.
I’m an open book to you;
even from a distance, you know what I’m thinking.
You know when I leave and when I get back;
I’m never out of your sight.
You know everything I’m going to say
before I start the first sentence.
I look behind me and you’re there,
then up ahead and you’re there, too—
your reassuring presence, coming and going.
This is too much, too wonderful—
I can’t take it all in!

^7-12 Is there anyplace I can go to avoid your Spirit?
to be out of your sight?
If I climb to the sky, you’re there!
If I go underground, you’re there!
If I flew on morning’s wings
to the far western horizon,
You’d find me in a minute—
you’re already there waiting!
Then I said to myself, “Oh, he even sees me in the dark!
At night I’m immersed in the light!”
It’s a fact: darkness isn’t dark to you;
night and day, darkness and light, they’re all the same to you.

^13-16 Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out;
you formed me in my mother’s womb.
I thank you, High God—you’re breathtaking!
Body and soul, I am marvelously made!
I worship in adoration—what a creation!
You know me inside and out,
you know every bone in my body;
You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit,
how I was sculpted from nothing into something.
Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth;
all the stages of my life were spread out before you,
The days of my life all prepared
before I’d even lived one day.

^17-22 Your thoughts—how rare, how beautiful!
God, I’ll never comprehend them!
I couldn’t even begin to count them—
any more than I could count the sand of the sea.
Oh, let me rise in the morning and live always with you!
And please, God, do away with wickedness for good!
And you murderers—out of here!—
all the men and women who belittle you, God,
infatuated with cheap god-imitations.
See how I hate those who hate you, God,
see how I loathe all this godless arrogance;
I hate it with pure, unadulterated hatred.
Your enemies are my enemies!

^23-24 Investigate my life, O God,
find out everything about me;
Cross-examine and test me,
get a clear picture of what I’m about;
See for yourself whether I’ve done anything wrong—
then guide me on the road to eternal life.  (the Message)

May you find grace and peace in the God of all creation.

James 5:16…

During New Staff Training for my new CCO job, we have been leading college students through the book of James during a Bible study.  As I was preparing for the Bible Study last night, James 5:16 stuck out to me.  I have been pondering this passage since last night and have a few thoughts.  The passage reads:

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed.  The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective. (NRSV)

My first thought is this.  I have no desire at all to confess my sins to anybody.  It is hard enough to own up to my sin with God.  There is nothing in me that wants to confess and put myself out there in such a vulnerable way.  And yet there it is.  James is telling us to confess our sins to one another.  I don’t think James is suggesting we blab to everyone about everything we do.  But, I do see the value in having a small group of people in my life that I can confess to and who will pray for me.  If I am honest, I just don’t don’t want to do it.  So then, to use another phrase James uses a couple of times, I am finding that I being “double minded.  In James 4:7-8 we learn the answer to being double minded is to “submit yourselves to God” and to “Draw near to God”.  I guess I have some work to do.

My second thought here is that I am challenged to think about how I pray and what effects the outcome of our prayers.  I am not an expert on prayer, in fact I am left with some questions to ponder.  How might our prayer lives be changed when we are intentional about confession?  How might this change the dynamic of our relationships and our communities?  What might change if we took James seriously in his charge to confess and to one another and pray for one another?

Send Me on My Way…

I was listening to the Rusted Root song Send Me on My Way this morning and it got me to thinking about this passage in Isaiah.

Isaiah 6:1-9a

¹ In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. ² Above him were seraphs, 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 seraphs 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.”

⁸ Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”
And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”

⁹ He said, “Go and tell this people:

I know the song has nothing to do with this story about Isaiah, but I couldn’t help but think about  “Here I am.  Send me!”  in verse 8.  In this passage Isaiah’ sins are atoned for and his response is to answer God’s call.  I wonder how many of us respond to the forgiveness and atonement of our sins as Isaiah has here.  I know there have many time is my life where I have chosen to respond by saying “Not me God, send someone else.

In verse 9 God directs Isaiah to “Go and tell this people:” and then gives Isaiah a message to deliver in the following verses.  Each of us that have responded to the call to follow after Jesus have been given a message to deliver…we have been sent out to bear witness to the risen Christ Jesus.  Have you responded to that call by saying “Here I am.  Send Me” as Isaiah responded to his call, or have you responded by saying “Not me Lord, send someone else.”

Our message may be different from Isaiah’s, but God has sent each of us on our way to share the Gospel.  May we all respond with faithfulness as Isaiah did before us.

Oh…and in case you are unfamiliar with the Send Me on My Way song.  Here is the video.

Jesus died for the bad guys too…

I was taking my kids to pre-school this morning and my son Colm suggested we play a game.  I asked him what he would like to play and he said we should all take turns saying something about Jesus.  He started by saying that Jesus lived in his heart and on my turn, I said that Jesus died on the cross for us.  Colm responded by saying, “Jesus died for the bad guys too”.  I am amazed at the insight of my kids sometimes.  He understands at 4 years of age a concept that most adults never seem to be able to grasp a hold of.  I was exceptionally proud in that moment.

Colm understands that Jesus didn’t come so that good people could somehow earn their way to Heaven by doing enough good things to outweigh the bad things that are done.  Jesus came because each of us is in need of a Savior.  Nobody can ever be good enough to earn their way into Heaven.  Jesus died for each one of us…even who the world would deem the worst of us. The truth is, we are all broken and in need of Jesus no matter how bad we think we are…or how bad others think we are.  Scripture tells us that we all fall short of God’s glory.   It means what it says…all of us fall short.  Colm understands something profound…may we all have the same insight that he does…that each of us needs Jesus.