July 5, 2009

The Bare Necessities

Shaking off the Excess to become free to do ministry

"Whether they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a rebilious house) they shall know there has been a prophet among them."

God was clear to Ezekiel as he was in the day when Jesus faced his harshiest critics in his home town - the Word stands clear and proclamation rests on the ears of all people. The ability to truly hear the Word was dependent on whether or not those listening could shake off that which confined them from truly hearing the good news.

A long memory of who Jesus was - a boy in a carpenter's shop, someone they had watched grow up among them - it was too much for some to get past. Could they hear the proclamation or where their minds fixiated on whom this boy was? What prevents us from hearing the Word and embracing it? Is it the fear of the lables that come from hearing the conviction of the law?

Claude Swanson, late governor of Virginia, made a particularly long and rambling speech at a banquet one evening. An old lady came up to him afterward to shake his hand. "How did you like the speech?" asked Swanson. "I liked it fine," she replied, "but it seems to me you missed several excellent opportunities." Swanson looked puzzled. "Several opportunities for what?" he asked. "To quit." she snapped.

What are the things that inhibit our ability to hear the good news? Can we truly hear Jesus today?

Key Verse: "He called the 12 and began to send them out two by two and gave them the authority over the unclean spirits. He ordered them to take nothing for the journey except a staff, no bread, no bag, no money in their belts: but the wear sandals and not to put on 2 tunics."

Applying the Word to Daily Living

1. God will speak to us - are we ready to listen?

Good listening is like tuning in a radio station. For good results, you can listen to only one station at a time. Trying to listen to my wife while looking over an office report is like trying to receive two radio stations at the same time. I end up with distortion and frustration.

Listening requires a choice of where I place my attention. To tune into my partner, I must first choose to put away all that will divide my attention. That might mean laying down the newspaper, moving away from the dishes in the sink, putting down the book I’m reading, setting aside my projects.

As Paul stated, "a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from being to elated." What thorns in our flesh keep us from truly focusing on what God is speaking to us? Can we tune into the Word and hear it for what it declares?

2. Be ready to move!

"He began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard where astounded. They said, 'Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him?"

"He called the 12 and sent them out"

What happens to us once we have heard the Word, been stirred in our spirits, and feel something prodding us to move out with the Gospel? We feel compelled to do something - then the everday comes and we quickly surcome to the pressures of living.

"For whenever I am weak, then I am strong." Not of my own strength - from the song Jesus loves me, yes we are strong.

3. Be ready to face rejection - Jesus did.

"And they took offense at him. Then Jesus said "Prophets are not without honor except in their hometwon, and among their own kin, and in their own house. And he could not do no deed of power there, except he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them."

"I will not boast except in my weakness."

June 21 - "No Fear - Believing, Trusting, and Leading in Faith"

No Fear!

Believing, Trusting, and Leading in Faith

To have faith in the midst of things we cannot understand.

Do we question where is God? Do we have a Job moment and shake in our boots wondering where this great God is.
When we have faced a job loss, when farming just isn't working out, when there is a tragedy in our family...
"Teacher, don't you care that we are perishing?"

5-year old Johnny was in the kitchen as his mother made supper. She asked him to go into the pantry and get her a can of tomato soup, but he didn’t want to go in alone. “It’s dark in there and I’m scared.” She asked again, and he persisted. Finally she said, “It’s OK—Jesus will be in there with you.” Johnny walked hesitantly to the door and slowly opened it. He peeked inside, saw it was dark, and started to leave when all at once an idea came, and he said:

Jesus, if you’re in there, would you hand me that can of tomato soup?”

Fear does something to us. It stirs alive the doubt the lingers and displaces the promise God placed in our hearts. The call from God's Word today challenges our notion of running and hiding under the covers. It stands directly in front of our tendency to scream out - "Hey Jesus the boat is sinking, the waves are crashing in, and we are getting wet with our fear." Can we see what God is up to in these moments when our faith is tested. When we are left naked with our fears and faith is not yet fully understood. What will we do?

As a parent we are always challenged by the fears of our children. I can remember being asked to "check under the bed for monsters" and to "make sure that the basement isn't harboring any unwanted guests". When I was a child my father was asked to explain the physics of a thunderstorm to me - often late at night when he was facing a 6 am alarm clock. Now - in all of this we are shaken out of our fears with the brilliant flash of God's might Word today - albeit a word which sounds down right fatherly.

Applying the Word

1. God has the power to displace our fears and give us new life - now is to time to believe!
1. "Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up your loins like a man, I will question you, and you shall declare to me."
2. Not sure what would displace fear - the booming voice of God come down from heaven after a long rant about feeling jaded by the God who was suppose to grant favor, peace, and love.
   
3. "Thus far shall you come, and no further."
   
4. Job had drawn out his fear clearly. His fear had taken over leaving little room for faith. We have been in his shoes - some of us are here today waist deep in fear - crying out for just a glimmer of faith - something to hold onto before we loose our grasp and fall.
   
5. God challenges Job to displace his doubt with the facts - "Where were you when I lad the foundation of the earth.? Tell me, if you have understanding." If the God who laid the foundations of the earth is present in the here and now to grant us freedom from fear - then be full of peace and good courage to know that "even the hairs on your head are counted.
6. When our fears are pushed out we are granted the opportunity to BELIEVE that the same God who rescued Job in his doubt is the same God who acted by the hands of His Son to still the storm - IS the same God who stills the storms of our lives and grants us peace beyond all earthly measure. Do not be full of fear, "Peace be still."
   
2. God grants us the freedom from our fears to trust in his grace.
1. It takes trust to believe that Dad can go ahead and remove those training wheels. It takes trust and a lot of prayers to believe that your child is ready to drive the car for the first time. It takes trust to believe that our spouse is going to be OK even the doctor has declared that medical science offers nothing more. Can we trust God and allow our fears to subside? If we walk forward in faith who will catch us if we stumble in fear and doubt?
   
2. "As we work together with him, we urge you also not to accept the grace of God in vain. For he says, 'At an acceptable time I have listened to you, and on a day of salvation I have helped you.' Now is the acceptable time; see now is the day of salvation."
3. There is an old story of a father who took his young son out and stood him on the railing of the back porch. He then went down, stood on the lawn, and encouraged the little fellow to jump into his arms. 'I'll catch you," the father said confidently. After a lot of coaxing, the little boy finally made the leap. When he did, the father stepped back and let the child fall to the ground. He then picked his son up, dusted him off, and dried his tears. 'Let that be a lesson," he said sternly. 'Don't ever trust anyone."
4. There are many voices in the world that bid for our ultimate trust - "trust the government" yet I am still waiting for my stimulus check. "Trust the market will turn around" yet my retirement account and my daughters Iowa 529 account will take years to recuperate after the last 10 months. If we leap out in faith whose arms do we want catch us? Do we want to jump out in the shaky sinking foundation of sand that so defines the fleeting truths of this world - or a Savior who has the power to "still the storms" of our doubt and fear."
5. So they thought enough to "take him with them in the boat just as he was". Did they ever think that Jesus would be so assured in the grace of God that he would be "asleep on a cushion"? When we are shaking in fear and doubt. When we can barely stand because the realities of sin have left us in feeling we have failed God and our brother - we can cry out with all our breathe or even the faintest cry "Lord save me!"
   
6. Remember the "day of salvation has come" in that we can claim the cross which adorns our necks. We can claim the peace that stills the storm. We can TRUST God and allow his grace to form us into shinning lighthouses which point not to our own means of finding peace in the storm but to THE one who calms and stills the weary heart.
3. God calls us to be bold in leading others to discover that which anchors us and grants freedom from fear.
1. "But as servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way; through great endurance, in afflections, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger, by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; in honor and dishonor in ill repute and good repute."
   
2. IN ALL THESE THINGS AND MORE WE ARE MORE THAN CONQUERERS THROUGH CHRIST WHO SAVES US FROM OUR FEARS, OUR DOUBTS - AND GRANTS US NEW LIFE.
3. As gardener I have enjoyed seeing my tomato plants germinate from tiny plants that looked like they had no life in them after hanging out at Home Depot for far too long. Now they are beautifully adorned with the first signs of "the assurance of harvest" Faith is much like this as Jesus declares in the Gospel - "Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?" Or a direct literal translation of the Greek - "Have you still not yet faith?"
   
4. To see all that they have seen - healing and miracles, tansformations - how could they have any fear or doubt that even though the storms may rage around us and in our boats God would save them?
   
5. We are called to "open wide our hearts and have no restrictions in our affections." Paul mentions this not once but twice!
   
6. To be open in our hearts leaves us vurnable to attack. What if we get hurt again? Can we trust the other? Can we trust God?
7. "Normal fear protects us; abnormal fear paralyses us. ... “We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear. Martin Luther King Jr.
8. What is our courage today? What gives us the freedom to jump into the arms of our blessed Savior? To declare - "Who then is this that even the wind and sea obey? That even the storms of doubt and despair are silenced?
   
9. The faith of crisis and the faith of the every day.
10. "You stilled the storm to a whisper and silenced the waves of the sea."

11. When at last I near the shore,
     and the fearful breakers roar
     'twixt me and the peaceful rest,
     then, while leaning on thy breast,
     may I hear thee say to me,
     "Fear not, I will pilot thee."
    

Awaiting

Today is the first day of July. For most would consider this the official "start" of summer. There is a county fair going on somewhere this weekend. There will be fireworks somewhere within an ear shot. The dazzle and amusement of summer is close at hand. What are we then still waiting for?

Many of us have felt the direct pinch and squeeze of this down turned economy. Either by job loss, pay cuts, or loss in retirement securities. Good news is hard to come by in these times. What are we awaiting - a new economy, promised stimulus, another gospel according to the American dream?

An old hymn states rather clearly, "In times like these we need a Savior." Sounds good to me. So when we are awaiting the hopes and joys of summer we know that deep in our hearts there is true hope to quenched. There is a possibility of change. Now to be waiting for it with anticipation.