SQUIRREL...!

We have been looking at Nehemiah for the last few weeks focusing for the most part on the nature of his prayer and perseverance. It seems at every difficulty he turns to God in for strength and direction. The last chapter we tackled dealt with some pretty neat problems solving principles about staying focused on the task at hand. One of my favorite movie characters comes from the movie Up. It is the dog, Dug, who can talk. This dog is beautiful illustration of our first principle: staying focused on the goal. It seems everytime Dug gets some traction, something grabs his attention, "Squirrel!" This of course is funny for the audience, but we all know how this can happen. In Nehemiah 6:1-2, Nehemiah is tempted to get sidetracked from what he knew was God's vision for his life. Something that looked really important was placed before him. Maybe it was important, but was it really God's best for him? That is the question we need to address on a daily basis, maybe multiple times. The writer of Hebrews tell us to fix our eyes on Jesus (Hebrews 12:2). Many other times in scripture we are told to maintain our focus on God's word and ways then we will know His will. How easy is it to become short sighted and loose track of the vision? I would say extremely! This is where Nehemiah gives us another principle to guide us through tough times. Sometimes the focus is directed from an outside force. In the case of Nehemiah, it was a few people making false accusations about him. There were two types accusations made about Nehemiah, both are destructive if not dealt with correctly. The first was an exageration which made him look better than he was. The second was designed to make him look bad. In both cases, Nehemiah faced them with the truth. He knew what the truth was, but not only that, the people around him trusted him to tell the truth. Look at the first lie: the wall is complete. Nehemiah was being tempted to lie to himself and others and believe the wall was done, when it was not. Now it seems a tiny oversight, but if Nehemiah agreed with the lie, the next lie, the one intended to bring him down in front of all his people would have been a hard one for all to get over. Facing any lie with the truth is important. If someone is going to lie when the going is good, how much more will they lie when things are going bad? Look how this all connects: Good things said about us exagerating our abilities can lead us to think more highly of ourselves and get us off track with God's vision. This is in the same way degrating gossip can lead us down to self-destructive tendancies getting us off track yet again. How do we deal with all of this you may be asking? This leads us to the next practice of Nehemiah: prayer and dependancy on God. This is the only way to keep a healthy perspective on life in this deceptive world in which we live. Our daily prayer for strength and wisdom should lead us in the direction of Christ and not away from Him. One final thought, 1 Corinthians 1:30-31 give us the nature of where we should focus. Our wisdom and hope needs to be in Him who has become both for us, Christ Jesus. If you are going to boast, boast in the LORD.

Honesty, Chaos, and Other Things

As I sit and contemplate the past week of my study in Nehemiah, one thing hits me: how easy Nehemiah takes everything. I'm not saying it is easy for him, don't get me wrong. There had to be a time, maybe not captured in his account when he felt alone and isolated (even among his own people). From the account however, he seems to have unswerving faith in the God of Heaven. In this week's readings from chapter 6, one idea I looked at was the simple act of honesty. Part of me goes back to the song by Billy Joel and know its such a lonely word, but what we need in this world. Honesty in the little things seems to be the easiest to break. Those little white lies we tell so not to hurt feelings or show how scared or worried we might be. I have to tell you: those might be the easiest to tell, but they are also some of the most difficult to recover from. Take Nehemiah; in the first verse of chapter 6 his opponents say the wall is complete. The truth of the matter was the wall was not complete and Nehemiah faced that lie with his first words by telling the truth, "the gates have yet to be put into place." He could have entered into the lie and continued the lie, but at what cost? I think the hope and prayer from Nehemiah was that God would bless the decision made to correct the lie and so bless the construction of the wall. Makes sense to me. So what does this do to the everyday? When we look at the reasons why we compromise the truth and inflate reality to make ourselves look better what does it really do? We may think it doesn't harm anyone but ourselves, but what is the fallout. The other night I watched the original Jurassic Park. I really loved the book and the movie was great too, but I was taken aside by the mention of the Chaos Theory. I will admit, when I read the book I got really hooked on this Theory's idea of everything being intertwined. In the movie, Malcolm is trying to explain the theory to another scientist. He says something along the lines of, "a butterfly flaps its wings in Brazil and it causes a rain storm in New York." Now, this is not exactly what he said, but get the point here...the little white lie you tell someone through the course of your day could eventually lead to the destruction of the relationship to the person you lied to. That little compromise leads to bigger compromises. I looked at King David and his act of indiscretion with Bathsheba(2 Samuel 11). Not an act of indiscretion, but sin led him to a cover-up scheme, then to a murder, and to another cover-up scheme. Each time the lie escalated to a greater sin. It was not until Nathan rebuked David did he seek forgiveness. If David had been honest with the temptation the beginning, he would not have needed to deal with the sin in the first place. He is still human as one young lady would tell me in my church. Yes indeed! Back to Billy Joel's words about honesty...it is such a lonely word. Sometimes when we stick to the truth it is unpopular and causes us to feel like we are all alone with no where to turn. I know by experience and trusting in God, He will honor the truth every time. Yes it may not be the most popular thing, but it is the only thing. As we finish Nehemiah 6, there is a rumor started about him making plans to become king and people are coming to kill him. Now I assume word got out about this, but because Nehemiah faced the truth at every turn, it was stopped and people did not believe the rumors. He was not willing to compromise what he knew to be true from God. It was not easy to stay true for Nehemiah, but it is some much easier to keep track of the truth and trust God's got his back. I think it would be a better place to live in this life if we all kept our eyes fixed on the truth. The undeniable truth of God.

Getting Started with Nehemiah

Restarting my blog after a number of years has been a difficult thing to do. Its always been out on the web, but a place I just never go. Earlier this year, I did a study in the Gospels just before Easter. I also wrote a complementary devotion and study to go along with it. Many of the individuals participating did not want it to end. However, trying to keep up with writing a daily devotional for 30 days was hard to keep up. But lately I have been feeling the urge to begin again, just not on the grand scale I was keeping up before. So, here I am. A little different format, but I will keep up at least once a week. I have been reading preaching and teaching a study in the book of Nehemiah. He is one of the greats when it comes to leadership in both the Bible and the world. It has been a good number of years since I last did any teaching out of Nehemiah, and I have gained much insight in the present study. One of the amazing things I don't think I picked up on before was Nehemiah was not a church leader. He was a normal business guy doing a job for the king. Minding his own business, when someone called on him. At this point in the book, it was not God who called on him personally. It was a few of his countrymen who brought a problem to Nehemiah. Whether or not he could do anything didn't seem to be the question. The Scripture says when Nehemiah heard the report of how terrible his homeland was falling apart, he sat down and wept, mourned, and fasted (Nehemiah 1:4). He did not stop there. The next step was to take it to the LORD in prayer. I am teaching about Nehemiah the man of prayer and perseverance. This is what defined him as a leader and should define us as followers of Christ. Many times in his own teaching, Jesus told his followers to persevere and stand up under trials and difficulties. My favorite of these passages is John 16:33: "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." There is so much more the book of Nehemiah will tell us, but most importantly to take everything to the LORD in prayer first. I guess to follow prayer, is to wait expectantly for an answer. We have to keep in mind the answer is sometimes yes, sometimes no, and many times wait. There are other answers, but for me the hardest is the waiting.

If you have been keeping up with the Olympics the past two weeks, you have certainly seen some really great feats of athletics. There have been victories and heartbreaks; gold medal celebrations and silver medal sadness; vows to return and some to retire. It is fascinating to me all of the athletes who talk about their four years of preparation for this single moment in time. Take the 100 meter race for instance: Usain Bolt trained his whole life to run for just 9.63 seconds. Even in the 200 meter, at twice the distance and time, we might call his behavior over the last four years as insane. Let just speculate a little: even if he just trained a normal 8 hour day for six days a week (taking the Lord ’s Day off), he trains 172,800 seconds a week just on a run that takes less than 10 seconds. Obsession…I think so. We could calculate this out for all of our Olympic hopefuls and we would come up with much the same story for all the athletes and how they train. What is it like to come in second? To be just off the pace enough to be what many would call the first looser? I watched a short segment on the NBC coverage of the Games and to me it was a bit disturbing. When asked of the Silver placed winners how they felt to take second place, many responded with how awful they felt and disappointed of themselves they were. Then they brought in the Bronze medal winners and their attitudes were totally different. They were very thankful for the chance to be on the podium and represent their country at the Olympic Games. All that training and sacrifice and it come down to three individuals on the podium receiving medals; I would think that the athletes would just be happy they get to take home anything. With so many athletes competing for just those three medals, I sometimes wonder why they do what they do. Is it for the chance to stand on top of that podium and hear your National Anthem, or is there something more. There are more than 10,000 athletes competing more than 300 different events (about 900 medals given out). It has to be more than just winning medals. All this talk about the Olympic Games, takes me to the Hebrew analogy of our Christian walk: “Run with endurance the race marked out before you.” The word there used for endurance means patiently and consistently keep going. I found a little encouragement in the Silver medalist words that their race wasn’t good enough, and they will keep training until that Gold medal is around their neck. Paul is quick to remind us of how important it is to run the race well: Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize (1 Cor. 9: 24). Many people get caught up in the Olympic spirit so much that when it is all over, they will experience a sort of post-Olympic depression. Much of the reason is there is nothing left on the television, but much of it is that we forget we are all in a race. God has marked out the race before us. Are we going to run the race worthy of the prize? Or are we just going to sit on the couch and watch the others run their races? Paul uses this language in many different places, and never states that resting is an option. Keep going, never letting your guard down and run your race.

As we go along in our busy lives worrying about the world’s problems and how we are going to make it through this latest heat wave, we may often forget about the need for reaching out to others in their times of need. In most churches across the country, there are members who for one reason or another cannot get to worship service on a regular basis. We try to include them in many ways. For example, CD ministries, TV/ radio programs, phone calls and the list can go on. I believe all of these ways to stay attached are important and not to be forgotten, but nothing seems to work better than the face to face visit with those who need to feel attached to the body of Christ. I know it is easy to forget about those who don’t make it out to our worship services. As I go about my days, it is not always a priority to me to see those that are shut in and unable to get out on a regular basis. There is always a great reward for me when I visit the needed, whoever that may be. I am reminded of Jesus’ emphasis of this in Matthew 25, "For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me." They also will answer, "Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?” He will reply, "I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me." I hear good things from our North Grove family about visiting. There are many in the family who get out on a regular basis and make it a point to visit, shop, or bring a meal for those who are in need in our family. There are a number of things we can do, not just the above listed, and I think we do an okay job of keeping connected. What we have looked at as the elders and myself is we need to be more deliberate in our approach to taking care of needs. It seems to be easy to give money to something and hope that someone else will do the work, but money is only part of the process. We need to get involved on a personal level. Paul tells us in Romans 12 to rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn. In other words, get involved! There are many of us who have the gifts of mercy and hospitality who enjoy going to visit, talk or even just listen to those who need to feel attached to the body of Christ. I urge you to pray about this. I have given a bit of information on this issue and two people have come forward to express interest in participating in this type of ministry. Is God calling you to be a helper? Let me know as I continue to pray.

“But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.” Luke 8:15 God can instantly do many things for us, but most often, the work of God involves waiting, patience, perseverance, and a span of time. It’s a lot like physical conditioning. We all want a magic pill or some belt to wear while sleeping, when in fact, it actually takes time, perspiration, and intentionality. There are no shortcuts or drive-thru lines with God or for our mid-life bellies. We have to put in the time. Since entering my 40s, I am paying more attention to my health. I exercise five days a week. Most days, I do not feel overly motivated or excited about the putting time in doing the exercise experience whether at the gym or at home, but out of discipline, I put in the time. I know that if I eat less fried food and more green and orange stuff, I will feel better and live longer. Day by day, week by week, over the course of time, I feel the benefits, though not always instantly. As Americans, we tend to lean toward the instant, just-add-water methods of health. We want our fitness like we want our food - packaged and ready right now. In fact, most of us would probably starve to death if our driver's-side window ever broke. We worship microwaves, but God tends to lean toward marinades. It is only in the last 50 years that Americans have lost touch with this idea. Our ancestors understood the process of food production and were less bothered when a restaurant actually cooked the food after it was ordered instead of retrieving it from a rack under a heat lamp. Waiting was not seen as a curse; instead, the chasm of time actually allowed people to relax and talk while others cooked and served. It was a treat to get a reprieve from kitchen duty. The crop Jesus mentioned in the above verse came only after someone had plowed the soil, planted seed, waited patiently for the rain, diligently pulled the weeds, and then was willing to wait patiently for germination. Waiting on the unseen takes faith, and that is exactly why God does not always give us the answer in an instant. He wants us to put in the time and then trust Him when His work is seemingly invisible. We must allow due time and space for worship, working, and unhurried conversations with those we love. The way to the harvest is most often in a waiting room and less often on a freeway. I cannot guarantee flat bellies for everyone, but I can guarantee that God is always faithful, especially to people who are willing to persevere. As we have been going through the faithful in Hebrews, I think it is wise that we take time to notice just how long some things can take, but in Gods’ time, He works all things together for good for those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.

The Walls Between Church and Community

In Matthew 23, Jesus tells his disciples: “Be careful so that you don’t build a religion and in the process build walls.”

Having started the New Life Community Center, I have been doing a lot of reading and research on the different walls between church and community. Some we didn’t even know we were building. Here are three types of walls we have to tear down.

#1 The Wall of Weirdness: Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 1:18: “The Message that points to Christ on the Cross seems like sheer silliness to those hell-bent on destruction, but for those on the way of salvation, it makes perfect sense.” We think it makes perfect sense to people, but from their perspective, it’s just weird. Stories of guys being swallowed by giant fish. Red Sea being parted. Virgin birth. Jesus being crucified somehow forgives sins?

Levi, also called Matthew, one of Jesus’ disciples, figured out a simple way around the Wall of Weirdness. He threw a party for his friends who were not following Jesus. In fact, Jesus’ reputation was tarnished for even attending this party with so many people known as the worst sinners in society. (Luke 5)

We might say that we don’t discriminate and that the people in our sphere of influence are always welcome, but are we being proactive?

We’ve created networks to remove the walls between our community and us. We gather for social events, learning opportunities, and to work together to meet spiritual and physical needs in your immediate vicinity. Medium size groups are a more natural place to connect with people. They are spiritual families. Networks are all about helping you do what you really want to do – remove the church weirdness for you and your friends.

#2 The Wall of Hypocrisy: In ancient Greek societies, hypocrites were actors. Rather than having a large cast to perform a play, there were only a few actors, but they switched multiple masks in order to play various roles. A hypocrite is someone who wears a mask, who preaches one thing, but does another. Church hypocrisy bugs people who are outside the walls.

We represent Jesus to those near us. In Matthew 5:14-16, Jesus says: “You are the light of the world so let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”

Wall #3 – The Wall of Indifference: We never meant to create a wall between the church and the community, but the more we ignored real needs right in front of us, the higher the wall towered between us. James 4:17 reminds us: “Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.” When you have a strong sense of the right thing to do, but you equivocate, you leave it for someone else to do and walk away, you’ve violated your conscience. The pain of other people is our business!

In Matthew 10:5-8, Jesus says, “God intervened in your broken life; now it’s time for you to get involved in the brokenness of others.” With our families, small groups, and networks, we can make a difference in the lives of others far beyond what we could do on our own.

There are real walls between the church and the community. We don’t notice them because we are so used to being on the inside; we forget what it’s like on the other side of that window. Tear down the wall of weirdness. Decimate the wall of hypocrisy. Break through the wall of indifference.”