On Asking and Receiving the Power of God

Last night my daughter asked for lunch money for school for the week. Without a thought I opened my wallet, plucked out ten dollars, and handed it to her.

Now I want you to understand that my youngest child is a wonderful person. But she isn’t perfect. In fact, right after I arrived home from a recent trip to Canada she reported on her progress on certain tasks I had assigned her for the week: “I got this done and that done but I didn’t clean out mom’s car yet like I promised.”

It didn’t matter. I gave her the ten bucks anyway. You can tell where this is going right?

Now think back to the last time you felt like you failed God in some way. You failed to give your offering at the worship service, or you missed the service altogether. You skipped your devotions but somehow had plenty of time for your favorite TV show. You got exhausted and cranky and hurled invective at some one else who failed. You’re nodding your head aren’t you? We’ve all “been there done that.”

Jesus told a parable on prayer for people like you and me. It’s about a man who receives a late night visitor but has nothing to offer his guest. So he goes next door and asks his friend for bread. It’s recorded in Luke 11:5-13. The most well known verses are 9-10: Ask and it will be given you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks the door will be opened.

But the lesser known verse, the one with the message we often miss, is verse 8: I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man’s boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs. (Emphasis mine).

Jesus concludes: Which of you fathers, if you son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!

Here’s the bottom line on answered prayer: You don’t have to be perfect to receive the power of the Holy Spirit necessary to live the Christian life. You just need the boldness to believe that God is a better parent than you are. God does not answer our prayers for his power because we’ve been regular in our devotions; or because we are faithful tithers; or because we’ve faithfully taught, or sung, or served in some other way for so many years. He answers them because he is good.

So be bold, ASK, even when you feel like you don’t deserve God’s power. He gives it because he is good.

TORNADO OF LOVE

As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" "Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life… (John 9:1-3 NIV)
…Having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man's eyes. "Go," he told him, "wash in the Pool of Siloam" (this word means Sent). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing. (John 9:6-7NIV)

“How can a good God who loves us allow tragedies like the Tuscaloosa tornado happen?” It’s one of the most challenging questions posed when we talk about a loving, personal God who cares for his creatures enough to send his Son to pay for our sins. The technical term for the answers that theologians offer to such questions is theodicy, from theo – meaning God and the Greek dike – meaning justice.

Theodicy is an important part of the work of the apologist. But the truth is that John 9:1-7 is about as close as Jesus ever came to answering it. “…this happened that the work of God might be displayed in his life.” And from that day to this, whenever natural disaster, sickness, war or any other kind of tragedy comes into human life the followers of Jesus have stepped in to relieve suffering.

That’s what happened last week as a tornado struck FCC member’s Eric and Desiree Shaffer’s farm. The photos here don’t do justice to the damage nor to the recovery effort. But here are just a few brief facts: Sharon Stratton, Desiree’s Mom, was spared when two massive trees fell on her house; Eric, Desiree’ and the children were spared the destruction of their home and only escaped injury by mere seconds as all the windows on the back of the house were blown out and every tree in the immediate vicinity came crashing down. Eric’s father and step-mom Ed and Rose Shaffer were uninjured as the roof was lifted off their new home. That was the first tornado.

The second tornado was the tornado of love that poured out of the hearts of FCC’rs and others who spent the next four days supplying food, water, shelter, cars, trucks, tractors, chain saws and lots of heavy duty work to help them crawl out from under the wreckage and begin to rebuild. The work was so complete and so rapid that even though the Shaffers were grateful when the Red Cross showed up the legendary service organization didn’t have much to do. As Eric said, “I’ve learned a lot of things this week. But the greatest thing is that my worst nightmare has turned into the greatest blessing of my life.”

WHO ARE YOU?

WHO ARE YOU?

When you stand and look in the mirror what kind of person do you see? Who are you?

Some of us see people we are really disappointed in. Some of us see people who “haven’t lived up to expectations.” Some of us see failures. Some of us see the unlovely and unloved. But that is not what God sees. Consider the following scripture passages, what they say about you and what God thinks of you when you become a believer.

· Col. 2:13 - You have been “made alive with Christ” and are no longer “dead in trespasses and sins.”

· Col. 3:1 – You have been “raised with Christ” and your life is now “hidden with Christ in God.”

· Heb. 10: 10 – You have been “made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Christ once for all.”

· Rom. 5:1 – You have been justified – completely forgiven and made righteous in the sight of God. (See also 5:19)

· Rom. 8:1 – You are free forever from condemnation.

· 1 Cor. 1:30 – You have been placed into Christ by God’s doing.

· 1 Cor. 2:12 – You have received the Spirit of God into your life that you might know the things freely given to you by God.

· 1 Cor. 2:16 – You have been given the mind of Christ.

· 1 Cor. 6: 19-20 – You have been bought with a price; You are not your own; You belong to God.

· 1 Thess. 1:4 & Jude 1:1 – You are loved by God, chosen by him and called by him.

You are a righteous, complete, accepted, beloved and chosen person. This is what God says is true of you and every believer. This is what Easter accomplished for you and me. We have been forever changed, our status before God forever altered by the work of Jesus Christ, his death, burial and resurrection. But some of us have a hard time accepting that. We see ourselves as something less than God sees us, something inferior. And that has a negative effect on what we can become because: What we believe about ourselves determines who we will become.

What You Believe Determines Who You Will Become –
Proverbs says, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” That’s wisdom.

Tom Friends of The New York Times asked Coach Jimmy Johnson what he told his players before leading the Dallas Cowboys onto the field for the 1993 Super Bowl.

"I told them that if I laid a two-by-four across the floor, everybody there would walk across it and not fall, because our focus would be on walking the length of that board. But if I put that same board 10 stories high between two buildings, only a few would make it, because the focus would be on falling."

Johnson told his players not to focus on the crowd, the media, or the possibility of falling, but to focus on each play of the game as if it were a good practice session. The Cowboys won the game 52-7.[1]

So if a Christian sees himself – focuses on himself - as unholy, unlovable, unworthy and incompetent, what kind of man or woman is he/she going to be?

Depressed, insecure, resentful and angry. Why? Because life for a defeated Christian feels like a game you can’t win, a role where you can never remember all the lines, a set of expectations that are impossible to meet. It feels like a two-by-four you have to cross that’s ten stories high. Jesus didn’t rise from the dead to leave us feeling like that!

Depressed people don’t dream dreams. Insecure people won’t take risks. Angry people can’t build lasting friendships.

But what happens to a man or woman who begins to believe in his worth, his value, his competence, and his goodness? That man or woman becomes a world changer. That person will invest himself in life, in dreams that change things and make life better for everybody.

So let me ask it this way: What does God think of you? Is he proud of you? Does he love you? Who are you?

Musings on the Resurrection

The last scene in Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ is nothing if not brief. It lasts all of about two minutes. But those one hundred and twenty seconds, coming as they do on the heels of the betrayal and violence of Jesus’ last few hours on earth, are heavy with meaning.

Sunlight streams into the tomb, cascading down its walls as the stone, just off camera, rolls quietly out of the way. The light lands finally on the linens slowly collapsing on the ledge, no body in place now to fill them out. The camera pauses there and then slowly zooms out to the foot of the ledge, taking in the profile of seated Jesus, eyes closed, face to the light. His eyes open, looking up into the brightness, reflecting recognition, vulnerability. They close again, quiet, composed. Then they reopen, slightly narrowed, focused, horizontal, purposeful. He rises. The camera catches one last fleeting glimpse, the top of a nail scarred hand. Then in one stride he is gone, out of the tomb and into history. The scene is brief but the message is unmistakable. Nothing on earth, not even brutal death, is as it seems.

I spent some time musing on that this week. I hope that you will too. Here is what came to mind. I’d appreciate it if you would share what comes to yours.

The world as we know it, with all of its chaos and confusion, greed and brutality, disaster and tragedy, is not all there is. There is more, so much more goodness and peace, order and kindness, prosperity and joy that in the Apostle Paul’s words, we cannot even begin to imagine it.

The tiny glimpses of Jesus, the moments of spiritual clarity that have come during times of worship and prayer and meditation; the consciousness of the Presence, transcendent power manifesting itself in ultimate stillness as if one were sitting at the foot of the Red Sea watching the fish swim as Moses and the Israelites walked through on dry ground, feeling the weight of the wall of water yet not fearing it; that all of these things have been but the briefest shadow of the magnificent Power that watches over us flitting across the soul. The reality waits on the other side.

The Word of God, with all of its predictions, all of its promises, all of its wisdom and all of its judgments will ultimately be fulfilled to the wonder and awe of all the earth.

I will see Mike again, and Steve and Joseph and Dad.

And we – all of us - will see Jesus no longer, “through a glass, darkly” but face to face, and that will be enough.

THE PROSTITUTE AND THE PHARISEE

It’s a simple story told in Luke’s characteristically lucid style. Jesus is dining with a Pharisee named Simon. A woman who has obviously heard Jesus’ preaching steps into the room. Her name is not given but it is not needed. Everyone knows her, the town prostitute. But she is not composed, not there to impress or seduce. She is weeping with gratitude, on her knees over the feet of the reclining rabbi from Nazareth, pouring out years of pent-up guilt, little rivers of happiness, down upon his ankles and between his toes. She bends further now and wipes the watery dirt away with her hair. Then she withdraws an alabaster jar of expensive perfume and empties it on his feet, rubbing it in with her hands as the sweet aroma fills the room.

Simon is aghast. The Pharisees were known for their righteousness, their religious purity and high moral character. They were the successful middle class evangelicals of their day. They didn’t hang out with sinful people and didn’t approve of those who did. Scenes like this were too much for such men. “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is…” he groused within.

Jesus heard Simon’s thoughts. He knew exactly what she was, a broken woman who had experienced forgiveness and freedom through her faith. But Jesus also knew something else: exactly what kind of man Simon was, a successful man in need of humility, a man every bit as lost in his pride as the prostitute had been in her immorality. The only difference between the two was that the woman knew her sin and knew she needed a savior. Simon’s success blinded him to both things in his life.

Jesus tells Simon a story of two forgiven debtors, one who owed eighteen months wages and one who owed about two months. “Now which of them will love the forgiving moneylender more?”

Simon can’t help but answer, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled.”

Then Jesus said the most important thing in the whole story, the thing that reveals who he really is. “Correct!” He looked at the woman. “See this woman? I came to your house yet you have not offered to me the least of common courtesies. But she has not ceased, since the moment I walked in, to show me the greatest love and devotion. Therefore I tell you, her sins which are many have been forgiven, for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.”

In other words, “Simon, in the grand scheme of things I’m the lender, I’m the one that everyone is indebted to. I’m God. Your achievements in life and religion matter very little. Your relationship to me is all important.”

And as if to put an exclamation point on it he said to the woman something only God has the authority to say, “Your sins are forgiven. Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

It isn’t what we’ve done or not done in life that determines our salvation. It isn’t how religious we’ve been or how irreligious. The only thing that matters is our ability to acknowledge our sin to the one who “holds the note” on it and trust him to forgive it. Then every room we enter will be filled with the aroma of our love for him.

THE BIBLE, THE KORAN, AND THE KING HEARINGS

Congressman Peter King (R) New York is the chair of the Homeland Security Committee who’s recent hearings —"The Extent of Radicalization in the American Muslim Community and that Community's Response"— stirred great controversy. One of the reasons that they were controversial is that America is a pluralistic country. We accept all faiths. And most Americans would like to think that there isn’t much difference between one religion and another. But there are significant differences and the confusion over the differences is more widespread than you would think.

This came home to me forcefully one day when I was sitting in our local radio station office, explaining the differences between Christianity & Islam to the station manager and a friend. One statement that stuck with me was, “Hey, one religion is as good as another. The Bible and the Koran are essentially the same kind of book.”

The truth is very different. Christianity and Islam are entirely different religions and the Bible and the Koran are completely different books. But imagine that you are sitting in the office or shop of a friend and that topic comes up. Would you be able to say anything in reply? Would you be able to offer, in simple language that anyone could understand, what distinguishes these two books that are the basis of two of the world’s great religions?

I’d like to make one observation about authorship quickly and then spend more time on the impact of the two books because of its relevance to Mr. King’s hearings.

The Authorship is Different
The Koran was dictated by an illiterate man over the course of twenty-three years who claimed that he was hearing the voice of an angel. The Bible was written by dozens of men over more than a thousand years who claimed to be moved by the Spirit of God to write. Some were scholars, some poets, some Kings, some shepherds, some were priests, and some were prophets. Yet all had a uniform message: That God would save his people from their sins. The Bible is thus connected to thousands of years of human history. The Koran is connected to three decades in the 7th Century. Muhammad believed that he was reciting a book that already existed in heaven. It is like an assortment of instructions and advice not specifically tied to any historical event. The Bible, through all of its authors, tells one story of God’s work over time through actual historical events, most of which have been validated by research.

But most importantly for the King hearings, the impact of the two books is different.

The Impact is Different
In 2006 England arrested 24 suspects in a plot to blow up 10 U.S.-bound passenger jets with liquid explosives. In 2007 German authorities broke up a “massive” bombing plot against American interests in Germany. And of course, no one will forget the Fort Hood murderer or the would-be Times Square bomber. All of these actions were perpetrated by Muslims in the name of Islam.

Not everyone who reads the Koran ends up being a terrorist. But that’s not the issue. Why would anyone - why do so many who read it - end up believing that God authorizes terrorism and murder?

I’m a conservative, evangelical Bible teacher. That means I believe the Bible is God’s word and that it is my authority for faith and practice. It also means that I’m very careful about interpreting it. I use the historical, grammatical, critical method of interpretation. I’m looking for historical context – who was the author? When did he write? To whom was he writing? What did he actually say (vocabulary, grammar)? What did it mean then? How does that meaning apply to our cultural context?

Because of what the Bible teaches people from our church and many others participate in: Habitat for Humanity, Samaritan’s Purse, The Good Samaritan, Hurricane recovery, Crisis Pregnancy centers and countless other acts of love and service.

That’s the impact of the Bible – properly interpreted and taught - in our culture. Why does the Koran not have the same affect? I’ll let my friend Samer, a former Sunni radical and now a Christian missionary to the Islamic world, conclude.

"As Christians we must be very emphatic that Christians have and continue to do many shameful things in the name of Christ, BUT the issue is this: Christians who use violence in the name of God to destroy their enemies have no justification for their actions from Jesus Christ, his life and teachings as found in the New Testament. Whereas, Muslims who are engaged in violence and destruction of anyone who opposes Islam, have ample justification for their actions from the Qur'an (using the same Historical /Grammatical /Critical approach to interpretation that I would use were I interpreting the Koran D.S.) and the life and sayings of prophet Muhammad…it is beyond doubt that the prophet of Islam did encourage the killing and intimidation of his enemies, not just in self defense as it is commonly reported by Muslims, but in the promotion of the cause of God and the spread of Islam. Needless to say, the actions of the prophet were in direct contradiction to the teachings and actions of Jesus Christ and his disciples. So the point is not that Christians have never resorted to violence and other horrible atrocities. They have indeed committed many horrible acts, but when they have done this, they have betrayed the very person that they claim to follow. But when Muslims commit such acts, they can in fact claim that they are following the example of their prophet and thus fulfilling the will of God and promoting His cause. That, certainly, is a big difference!"

So hurray for Mr. King, I’m glad that he had the courage to investigate. I hope the rest of us will be as thorough in our thinking about Christianity and Islam.

Where Is God When Disaster Strikes?

Recent stories in the news bring to light how unexpectedly, how quickly disaster can strike. I listened with sadness last week as the morning news reported the beating death of a 28-year-old pastor in Texas and worse, the loss of seven children from one family in a house fire in Pennsylvania. Then Friday I watched in horror as the tsunami swept over northern Japan, carrying all away before it. As Phillip Yancey poignantly asked: Where is God when it Hurts? (That book is worth your while by the way).

The Bible is clear about the ultimate source of suffering – (See Genesis 3:17-19; and Romans 8:18, 22-25). Briefly, it teaches that we live in cursed bodies, with cursed psyches (souls) and cursed spirits, on a cursed planet under a cursed system in a cursed time. Men will commit crimes against one another. Accidents will burn houses down. Even the earth will oppose us and challenge us at every turn until we return to dust.

The Bible is clear about all of that. We should therefore adjust our expectations accordingly. We may not like the answer. But the question is not whether we like it. Rather, does it make sense of reality, as we know it? I believe that it does.
But all of that is abstract. Suffering is very personal stuff. I want to spend the rest of this article being personal.

God’s ultimate answer to suffering is the Cross of Christ.

Nine years ago last month I accompanied my friend Phil Ramsey to the spot where his 18-year-old son Joseph had just died in a totally inexplicable car wreck. My heart wrenched as I watched my friend implode in grief. I spent the next three months so angry with God that I could not speak to him except on a professional basis. How could he let that happen?! Two years later I buried one of my best friends, Steve Kotter, victim of a car hitting his bicycle. Two years after that I answered the phone late one night to the wails of a grieving friend. I then buried her twenty-year old son, a drowning victim. Last August I buried my brother, dead of a sudden heart attack. There was no explanation for any of these losses that made any sense to me. I grieved to the bottom of my soul, just as you do in your losses.

What is God’s answer to that? Where is God when that kind of stuff happens to us? Philosophers offer two basic answers: Either there is no all powerful all loving God. Or there is an all powerful God but he just doesn’t care.

But the Bible offers a third alternative. We can hear it in one of the most important, yet overlooked things Jesus ever said, one of the last things he said before he died. Theologians call it “the cry of dereliction,” something Jesus wailed aloud from the cross: “My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me!?” (Matthew 27:46).

This is God’s answer to our suffering. He is not ‘up there’, distant, aloof, impassive while we suffer. He is ‘down here’ suffering with us. He has taken every single pain, every ounce of tragedy, every shred of injustice, each moment of mindless terror, ‘rolled it into a ball and eaten it, tasted it, fully digested it, eternally.’ (Peter Kreeft, quoted in ‘The Case for Faith’ by Lee Strobel, pg. 63). God is in Christ, suffering with and reconciling the world to him self. (2 Corinthians 5:18-19).

Where is God when we suffer? Suffering with us.

The Cross is the most stunning proof that God cares about our pain. It is the universal image of Christianity. The problem is that we are so familiar with it that we forget how violent, how brutal it was. But the Cross is one of the vilest tormenting and barbaric forms of cruelty and death the world has ever known. Our word ‘excruciating’ comes from the Latin for crucifixion. Yet we wear it around the neck like a trophy. Mel Gibson’s ‘The Passion’ met with much criticism because it portrayed the Cross in all its X-Rated gore. “Modern day executions are quick and sterile things. This one stretched on for hours in front of a jeering crowd.” (Yancey, Phillip. ‘Where is God When it Hurts?’ p. 231) In his death Jesus, God in the flesh, fully identified with our suffering. He didn’t have to do that. He chose it. He chose full identification with suffering humanity.

When tragedy strikes the promises of God often seem empty. Words on a page, or even from a friend, can’t fill the breach in our souls. Surely the words of Jesus to his friends must have seemed like empty promises as he hung there and died. They hung back in the crowd and slowly dispersed. It was after all, an empty hope they had clung to.

But that was Friday. Easter Sunday was yet to come. When it did come, the world, suffering, life and death itself was turned on its head. The Cross tells us that God fully identifies with all the suffering of the world. The resurrection tells us that one day he will turn it on its head.

This has had a profound effect on me. It reawakened within me a truth I once knew, a knowledge I once held dear. God, my God, my heavenly father, is not holding me at arm’s length. He is not a careless cosmic thug. He is embracing me. He is beside me holding me up. He is weeping with me. He knows the emptiness of my grief the hollowness of my soul. He knows these things and shares these things with the whole world of suffering. On the cross he absorbed it and through us he absorbs it still.

This knowledge restored my hope in God. It did something else too. It renewed my understanding of the uniqueness of Christianity. If you take the Cross out of the center of Christianity you remove that which makes it peerless among religions. It becomes just another system of morals and principles. But if you embrace the Cross you find a God there who is unlike any other, a God who will go to unimaginable lengths to commune with his creatures. He will commune with us to the death on Friday so that we can conquer death with him on Sunday.