Death Comes Quickly

By now, no doubt, we are all weary of the seeming avalanche of celebrity reports in the news related to the high profile deaths in Hollywood as of late – Jackson, Fawcett, McMahon, Malden, Mays, Travalena, Storm… These deaths bring to mind the quick passing time scroll that we call life.  In some ways we think that time is paralyzed in movies and pictures and with those whom we haven’t seen in quite some time. How often have you run into someone you haven’t seen in years and suddenly find yourself in shock that they look so different?  Time is the ferry that waits for no one.

God tells us that our expiration date has been sealed in heaven for “there is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven–A time to give birth and a time to die; A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted. A time to kill and a time to heal; A time to tear down and a time to build up. A time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance.” (Eccl.3:1-4)  While our end is fixed we are not given the hour or day of our departure (Deut. 29:29); instead, we are firmly told to redeem the time we are given here on earth wisely for we do not know what tomorrow’s events may bring.

As James tells us in his epistle, “…you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that. But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.” (James 4:14-16)

Thinking that tomorrow is ours is evil. Not acknowledging God’s providence over each inhale and every exhale is arrogant boasting. Our lives are indeed in His hands.  As we age, we become acutely aware of our inevitable stop. Our ‘vaporism’ is revealed. Skin loosens. Bones ache. Our frailty is made more and more evident as we ante up more frequent co-payments and attend more frequent funerals. The ferry plows on.

Death’s immediate impact on us is directly proportional to how close it is to us relationally.  The impact of a Sudanese dying in England whom we’ve never met is not even close to the impact of our spouse or parent passing. According to the U.S. Census bureau, there are approximately two and half million deaths per year in the United States – that’s five deaths per minute.  Interestingly, we don’t live as though this is the case; taking each day more precious than the next.

As you continue through your activities this weekend, remind yourself of these passages and another truth from the book of Ecclesiastes – “It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, because that is the end of every man, and the living takes it to heart.” (cf. 7:2)  May we take life to heart as the gift that it is and may we continue to warn those who are in danger of losing it forever.

The Soothing Soul of Music

Music is a gift from God that soothes our weary souls. Naturally, an aesthetic switch flips on in our minds whenever certain musical packages are unpacked. Ever since Jubal’s first chords on the lyre and pipe (Gen. 4:21), music has always had an ethereal substratum floating in between each time signature creating a vibe and groove and providing us with audio medicine.  Even ungodly musicians recognize that something else is at work in musicology.  As creative artists, they understand that while they train and learn various techniques, scales and theories; there is a supernatural component to well-written pieces.

Many of us have the experience of curling up to favorite songs in order to reject distress and cope with loneliness.  Certain tunes are cathartic remedies that carry us through hard spots in life. Carefully crafted harmonies and grooves can create an endorphin rush that coats worry with a melodious membrane when the right songs are sung to us during depressing circumstance.  The right tune can uplift our spirits and put a tattered mind to rest. Sweet melodies tame beastly constitutions and can sedate tense infractions that invade our day.

In the book of Samuel, music’s panecean virtue is seen when David refreshed Saul and drove away an evil spirit with a well-played instrument proving that power rests in the flow of tones and string.

“Saul sent to Jesse, saying, “Let David now stand before me, for he has found favor in my sight.” So it came about whenever the evil spirit from God came to Saul, David would take the harp and play it with his hand; and Saul would be refreshed and be well, and the evil spirit would depart from him.” 1 Samuel 16:22-23

There is no denying the emotional, spiritual, physical, and mental intermingling that exists between staff and heart, beat and rhythm, note and piece.  Mothers have known this truth for quite some time as they, for centuries, have sung lullabies to relax restless infants as they lay in their arms. Friedrich Nietzsche is accredited with having said that “without music life would be a mistake.”  Indeed. God makes no such errors.

The universality of music’s ability to soothe our stress and be our symphonic sensei overreaches borders and cultures and peoples of all time. Just as God ordained the calming sounds of a fresh brook He has given us the seven-strings of a great jazz guitar. For us, as those who have received such wonderful and useful gifts, we must learn to handle this treasure rightly. We must learn how to first understand it and then secondly, to discern our way through it. To fail to do so will ensure that we end up malnourished; feeding on stockpiles of stale and poisoned tunes.

May you find beauty, solace, refreshment, and energized motivation through the right use of song and piece. Amen.

Living Created Canvas

All around the skyline His paintbrush colors in hues. Bright blue and golden clouds are alive, drifting in paced succession.  At each turn we see atmospheric sculptures floating like parade balloons overhead as beneath our feet the ground bristles with active paintings and plays.  Scurrying insects amazingly designed for specific purposes crawl over and under shelter food. Each micro-functioning organism a display of greatness and artistry even in their corrupted form.

If this is the groaning creation that longs to be redeemed into a new fullness then what will the renewed lillies and life be like when we live in perfected radiance?

If  the fallen beauty brings in intense awe then what unimaginable incrediblness awaits us in the New Jerusalem valley?

While we wait for the final consummation God’s mosaic patterns swirl and breathe before us each day. His power and majesty are seen in the forms and features of the very things that He has made.  Let us rejoice and be glad in it!

Bringing Glory to God in the Workplace

Many believers are under the misconception that they must be teaching Greek in a seminary class or pastoring a flock of sheeple in order to be a significance in the kingdom.  “If only I were a missionary in Thailand or Bangladesh, THEN I would be reeeeally serving God fully!” This would be true if only God had not called each of us to varied and diverse callings.  Not only does the Body of Christ function together as a cohesive organic community of multi-purposed parts it also functions outside of its corporate gathering in the same way.

By doing all that we do for Him alone, the common work of an ordinary occupation can radiate His glory as a reflection of the work of redeeming grace.  Through us, as willingly obedient and joyful vessels, the beauty of the Lord’s work in the gospel penetrates normally dismal cubicles and office complexes into vibrant places of salt and light living.  Here is a story written by Calvin Seerveld about his father’s work.  It demonstrates the point quite well.

My father is a seller of fish. We children know the business too having worked from childhood in the Great South Bay Fish Market, Patchogue, Long Island, New York, helping our father like a quiver full of arrows. It is a small store, and it smells like fish.

I remember a Thursday noon long ago when my Dad was selling a large carp to a prosperous woman and it was a battle to convince her. “Is it fresh?”

It fairly bristled with freshness, had just come in, but the game was part of the sale. They had gone over it anatomically together: the eyes were bright, the gills were a good color, the flesh was firm, the belly was even spare and solid, the tail showed not much waste, the price was right–Finally my Dad held up the fish behind the counter, ?Beautiful, beautiful! Shall I clean it up??

And as she grudgingly assented, ruefully admiring the way the bargain had been struck, she said, “My, you certainly didn’t miss your calling.”

Unwittingly, she spoke the truth. My father is in full-time service for the Lord, prophet, priest and king in the fish business. And customers who come in the store sense it. Not that we always have the cheapest fish in town! Not that there are no mistakes on a busy Friday morning! Not that there is no sin! But this: that little Great South Bay Fish Market, my father and two employees, is not only a clean, honest place where you can buy quality fish at a reasonable price with a smile, but there is a spirit in the store, a spirit of laugher, of fun, of joy inside the buying and selling that strikes an observer pleasantly; and the strenuous week-long preparations in the back rooms for Friday fish-day are not a routine drudgery interrupted by rest periods but again, a spirit seems to hallow the lowly work into a rich service, in which it is good to officiate.

When I watch my Dad’s hands, big beefy hands with broad stubby fingers each twice the thickness of mine, they could never play a piano; when I watch those hands delicately split the back of a mackerel or with a swift, true stroke fillet a flounder close to the bone, leaving all the meat together; when I know those hands dressed and peddled fish from the handlebars of a bicycle in the grim 1930’s, cut and sold fish year after year with never a vacation through fire and sickness, thieves and disasters, weariness, winter cold and hot muggy summers, twinkling at work without complaint, past temptations, struggling day in and day out to fix a just price, in weakness often but always in faith consecratedly cutting up fish before the face of the Lord: when I see that, I know God’s Grace can come down to a man’s hand and the flash of a scabby fish knife.

In his book, The Other Six Days,  R. Paul Stevens writes, “…the biblical doctrine of vocation proposes that the whole of our lives finds meaning in relation to the sweet summons of a good God.”(p. 72)  We are called BY someone before we are called the do something. We musn’t allow a poor understanding of vocation in occupation rob us of our Ephesians 2:10 exercise of faith. Surely, mere living ‘right’ and ‘purposed’ before men will never convert them for faith comes by hearing the Word of God; however, He has called us to live differently in all that we pursue.

I pray that we would meditate more on the role of work and occupation and instruct our children well before we find ourselves into an irreversible clench of time, resource and wasted gifts.

It’s a Little Life

Right after Katrina I met Brad Knull, an Ohioan with a big heart.  Little known to me, he is also a wonderful videographer and even more unknown to me, he writes songs. This song “Little Life”  is simple and moving.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Another version is here:  http://www.myspace.com/bradknullmusic

Techno-Evangel

I’ve done quite a lot of traveling over the past few weeks – over 2,500 miles of driving through nine states followed by a week in the Texas sun learning new building and construction techniques.  On the way to San Antonio, we flew through Houston and as always, I had that awkward experience associated with plane flights.

As I made my way through x-rays and security arches and long tile corridors with echoing loudspeakers, I noticed that most individuals carry gadgets and gizmos that preclude social interaction.  Ipods, cell phones, laptops and books occupy the majority of available arms as everyone shuffles off to wherever they are going; yet, they rarely seem interested in conversation. Earbuds say “I’m listening to something else other than you right now.” Faces buried in intense reading broadcast a “Do not disturb” door hanger to all within ten feet and hurried tapping on computer keys tells everyone that you are busy.  It is interesting how the very same technologies that aid us and help create new social venues also facilitate a new type of virtual cocooning.

This techno-inwardness has peculiar implications in evangelism for even though we seem to be more connected it is harder to meet naturally.  Electronic webs seem to be strewn over once interactive spaces and despite being inches away; we don’t talk to each other anymore. The nuances of body language and inflective speech have been overtaken by ‘crackBerries’ and a new texting code has emerged as standard communique.  This same phenomenon exists inside elevator cubes as well, where small crowds stand together as tall pines and yet most hardly ever mumble a word.

Finding a way to enter the silence becomes evermore difficult when chitchat seems to be dying a quick wifi-death.  On the plane, I did manage to speak to a man who was reading a book by Hitchens entitled God is not Good. As he bowed his head into the pages, I curiously asked questions about the title and engaged him in an irenic conversation about life, the true nature of God and social justice.  It is possible to naturally penetrate the ever-growing social techno-cubists and the interesting part is that we do so in the same fashion that Christ, Paul and the other early evangelists and believers did – we exercise humble boldness, true compassion, and listen while we speak the truth of the Gospel in love. Communications and societal paths may change, but the Truth never waivers.

A Reflection on Amazement

Our God is amazing. From the smallest quantum particle to the largest earth mammal, nothing escapes His grip. Every divine attribute cascades over all creation like a perfect fountain, blanketing each movement and course. In God’s tremendous mercy and infinite wisdom, He has revealed Himself to us through the Scriptures even though we should feel as mere ants would, staring up a hill at the One who is completely and utterly unlike us. God alone is righteous. He alone is sovereign. He alone answers prayer.  He alone inhabits eternity. And He alone is faithful.

God’s unique purposes are fixed in the heavens – “Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things which have not been done, saying, ‘My purpose will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure.’ ” Is. 46:10

Who else can make such claims? We may attempt to pierce the veil of prediction but only find ourselves lying flat again, for although we make plans and plot our ways, the Lord is sovereign over our journey. We indeed choose what we will do, but nothing ever erodes, alters or thwarts God’s purpose.  This is perhaps the grandest truth of all for it is the highest attribute in His many characteristics.  His sovereignty is also the hardest of all things to accept and comprehend, given our time/space restraints and limited knowledge.

Circumstances arise, but God is not unaware.  It must occur to us that nothing has ever occurred to God. The beauty of divine sovereignty comes in knowing that we serve an Almighty Redeemer of pure amazement who rules over every atom in the universe and that those molecules, planets, peoples and events all move forward in history’s footpath to the cadence of His will alone.   James spoke about God’s controlling ordinance and complete sustaining grace in our lives when he wrote, “Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit. Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.’ But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.” James 4:13-16

If the Lord wills it, we shall live in accordance with what we have decided. As Christ emphasized while tutoring His disciples in prayer, we must seek that His will be done on earth as it is done in heaven, for He is the pinnacled purpose of existence.  Faith in God’s promised decrees, goodness, mercy and ultimate justice is the lens we must peer through no matter how foggy and desperate it may seem. As Job said long, long ago, “Though He slay me, I will hope in Him.” Job 13:15

Too often in dealing with our discontentment we are trapped between two garbs –the stoic robe and the religious jacket. One is lined with prideful linens and the other with clichéd ribbons and fare. Yet, like a lead-infused coating hanging on our flesh, the truth of God’s amazing sovereignty begins to weigh upon us and we drop the spurious in favor of the divine. We settle back before the throne of the Amazing One where true peace penetrates our souls and completed joy fills all space. We rest in Him. He, who alone we adore.

God’s Word is True

From Eden, the strategy of the Enemy has been to discredit what God has said.  At our current point in history we see no relenting of that course as skeptics and textual critics dissect and mutilate what is simple.  The declaration that the Bible is not knowable and irreversibly altered screams through best-seller books and talk shows; even sadly, from within some church bodies.  Hyper-critics juxtapose and conflate biblical text against biblical text in an attempt to play ‘battle Bible’ but their arguments expose a gaping fallacy.  For example, what was written as narrative was written as a continuum; a story to be heard in its context just like any other historical work.  Yet, the skeptics pick apart the Scriptures breaking them into ’sound bytes’ as if a retelling can be chopped into mixed-up pieces and still maintain its coherency.  It is not as if God hasn’t spoken clearly, man just, at times does not want to listen.

Piecemeal critics hide their agendas under academic blankets and calls for open-mindedness. The perspicuity of Scripture maddens the unregenerate knights who gallop through agnostic pastures for they hand out opaque windows to the gullible and uninformed and ask them to see clearly. Apostates line the streets cheering them on while multi-million dollar book tables feed willing crowds. But for those who by the grace of God through faith can now see; Scripture is simply beautiful.

Written to us through His prophets and apostles over centuries, God has breathed out His eternal decrees, commands, guidance, and wisdom to mankind by the ministry of the Holy Spirit.  His Word remains pure and uncomplicated despite there being some difficult-to-understand pieces of the whole.  These difficulties and variances do not render us without understanding anymore than any other discipline that requires patience and study.

Divine truth cannot be silenced. When God speaks; we should listen. Do we really think that the Almighty is at a loss to effectively communicate with His creation in both clarity and purpose? Faith comes by hearing the Word of God and it is not mumbled through broken glass. It is spoken plainly and precisely and it is able to cut right down to the joints and marrow of our hearts. Scripture is the encapsulation of what God has said to mankind and part of its beauty is its unending depth.

Scripture is like an endless mine shaft that extends deeper than deep itself. Each time we take our mining cart down the tracks we find new gems and more rails to explore. It is as if God has rewritten certain passages for us as, over time, we reread portions of the text and see new illuminated insight and intention. God’s Word is alive in our newborn hearts as the continuing work of the Spirit matures and fine tunes our understandings in parallel to our learning, wisdom and application. Consequently, studying Scripture is not an option for if we are to grow in our walk with Christ we must rightly divide the Word.

Stand fast and hold firm saints for not only can nothing separate us from the love of Christ; nothing can gag God when He speaks.

Hope Has Risen

Normally when a family member discovers an empty tomb there is distress, sadness and a mad dash to call the authorities. But when we, the members of God’s redeemed family, see our Savior’s empty grave, we rejoice, for why would we seek the living among the dead?

Apart from the attraction of chocolate bunnies and egg hunts and other cultural festivities surrounding Easter weekend lays the heart of our hope – the resurrected Shepherd. If Christ did not rise from the dead, then all that we do in our church life is mere vanity and our faith is worthless. And if all we have ever done is to hope in Christ in this life only, we are pitiful, pitiful men indeed. (1Cor.15:12-19) But our hope is not in this life.

The supernatural validation that authenticates our faith is the resurrection of Christ. It is God’s signature on the redemptive canvas of Calvary’s suffering sacrifice where the King of Glory died in our place so that we, along with Him, might live in eternal perfection. The angel told us to not be afraid for Jesus rose from the dead just as He said he would -“He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay” (Matt.28:6) Therefore, we are not to be pitied, but rather we can and must rejoice! (Phil.4:4)

Christ’s resurrection represents the Godhead’s conquering victory over sin and death through the foreordination and decree of the Father, the obedience and work of the Son, and the will and power of the Holy Spirit. In this Triune work of great salvation we find renewal and comfort and a new life that purposes to please God. We now have the privilege to walk rightly and obey Him as our Lord and Savior when previously we were dead in our sins and trespasses incapable of satisfying God. Through the triumph of Lamb, death has lost its sting and life eternal belongs to us. Mercy has been shown to the undeserved! Grace beyond description has been given to the rebellion. Love is our new signature.

On his missionary journey to Greece the Epicureans and Stoic philosophers met up with the apostle Paul in Athens and heard him preach about the wonder of the resurrection.  They thought he was a strange babbler coming to proclaim peculiar gods in their city.   But as Paul spoke to them in the Areopagus, he instructed them about the God who is there. “He”, Paul declared, “has overlooked the times of past ignorance but is now declaring to everyone everywhere that they must repent, because God has chosen a future day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through Christ’s return having furnished proof to all men by raising Jesus from the dead.” (my paraphrase -Acts 17:16 ff)

As you look up to the skies today remember the One who is risen.  As you contemplate the newness of spring forget not the victorious King.  As you pray to God in His will remember His glory. See heaven. Worship the Lamb!

Mercy Weeds

I looked out towards the front ditch and saw them; little blue and white buds swaying in the noonday sunlight on fragile stems as the spring winds came in from grassy angles.  Tiny yellow cups soon joined in the dance, wrapping themselves around each other like old friends on a picnic in June.  Their florid movements resonated beauty and wonder in my mind as these small flowers bore witness to their Creator “for since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they [mankind] are without excuse.” Rom. 1:20   When we view God’s creation we clearly see His divinity and majestic power, even in the smallest of things.  Even in weeds. Even in mere grassy columns that get mowed down each week as part of our lawn maintenance rituals.

Last week, my six year old daughter proudly marched inside the house with a fist full of weeds.  Each of them yanked from the same front lawn area by our drainage ditch and each of them a beautiful display of creation.  Ruby quickly gave them to her mother with a childlike grin saying, “Here mom! These are for you! I picked them all by myself.” We promptly put them in a vase and centered it on the table while her older sister walked in and barked loudly, “Those aren’t real flowers, they’re weeeeds!” Weeds indeed; but these seemingly worthless ditch flowers are a gift from God designed to teach us about His mercy for they remind us that even in the discarded grass His love towards man blossoms.  Even in the temporary flora and soon-to-be-destroyed greenery we can see His provision and compassion.

Jesus spoke of the grassy flowers while giving us an antidote to anxiety and worry in Matthew’s gospel. “And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life? And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith!” Matt. 6:27-30

God’s earthly provision in grace amidst a temporal and sin-cursed life can be found in a mere weed.  In the easily overlooked grass He is showing us His majesty and His mercy.  The voice of the ultimate sacrifice of His only begotten Son at Calvary’s cross rides providentially on the winds that blow through the common places that we drive past each and every day.  As the author of the book of Hebrews exhorts us, “If today you hear His voice… harden not your hearts.”