Friday, March 10, 2023

Soul Surfing


Whatever it is you’re facing today, no matter how exhausted, discouraged or disadvantaged you might feel, those things are only limitations when you rely upon your own strength. Take it from Bethany Hamilton and Nick Vujicic, with God all things are possible (Mark 10:27)
So stop fixating on your limitations and look to the One who gives you strength. And then enjoy the ride.

 

Wednesday, February 22, 2023

WAITING ON THE LORD

This is Nick. Several times a week, I see Nick sitting in the same spot in Back Bay with his camera, waiting for the birds to come. Where as I go tromping all over the place with my camera, chasing the birds (or chasing them off), Nick waits patiently for them. He sits quietly and lets them come to Him.
Nick reminds me of the students in Ashbury University who have been experiencing an outpouring of the presence of God. They didn’t go running all over the world searching for Him. They simply felt led to wait upon the Lord, to put themselves into a posture of patience, and wait for the Lord to come. And He did. He met them where they were at, overwhelming them with His presence, convicting them of their sin, lavishing them with His lovingkindness, and spilling over into the surrounding community.
So often, I think pastors like me make the mistake of thinking we need to coax God out of hiding, need to attract Him into our church buildings through louder worship sets and more eloquent messages. But if the outpouring of God's presence that we're witnessing on Ashbury's campus (and now spreading across the country) teaches us anything, it's that we can't force God to show up. And we don't need to go running off across the world chasing after Him. He's as present wherever you're reading this as He is on Ashbury's campus. He is the Creator and Sustainer of this Universe. Our world is saturated with His presence. We simply need to slow down long enough to recognize it.
I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope;
my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning,
more than watchmen for the morning.Psalm 130:5-6

Saturday, February 18, 2023

Heaven Come Down

 

I can’t stop thinking about what’s happening at Ashbury University in Kentucky. A week ago, a routine chapel service at this little Christian college ended, but a handful of the students weren't ready to leave. They hungered for more of God's presence, so they stayed and kept singing and praying. Soon, more of the student body felt compelled to return to the chapel and the worship service continued. It's been going non-stop for 14 days so far, and now people are flying in from all over the country (and the world) to be part of it.

What is so striking is that there are no big-named personalities leading this. No fog machines or slick lighting schemes. There's not even an order of service. What is left is a group of students who are hungry for God. Not for more information about God.
God Himself.
Within the Christian community, we speak of our longing for revival, but most of us haven't witnessed it. Often, we don't even know what we're praying for when we pray for revival, we just know we hunger and thirst for more of God.
More of God.
That seems to be the hallmark of revival. In fact, Duncan Campbell, an Scottish Evangelist, defines a revival as "a community saturated with God." Not with good teaching about God. Not with cutting edge worship music. Saturated with the presence of God Himself.
I've now heard from a number of people who traveled long distances to attend the worship service on Ashbury University. They speak about how underwhelming the worship service is from a production standpoint, but how overwhelming it is with the presence of the Holy Spirit. And that makes sense. How else could you explain its longevity? When we are here for a show, we will quickly grow bored. But when we’re here for God, the quality of the singing or the message really doesn't matter. Even silence can be saturated in the presence of God. In fact, what's happening in Ashbury has long stretches of silence, but that doesn't seem to matter.
Too often, I fear the church compensates for a lack of the presence of God by fixating on the quality of the music or the message or even the mood lighting. Churches split over arguments about these secondary things. But when God shows up, those things don't matter nearly as much. They fade into the background as everyone turns their eyes to the King of Creation. As an old hymn declares, "the things of this earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace."
Here's the best part: we don't need to travel to Kentucky to step into the presence of God. The King of Creation isn't contained within a place. He pervades this world He created, and He is fully available to any of us who hunger and thirst for Him. He is no more present on Ashbury’s campus than wherever you are reading this. And that means you can have an encounter with Him here and now.
"The Lord is near to all who call upon Him,
To all who call upon Him in truth." Psalm 145:18

Thursday, January 5, 2023

LIVING UPSIDE DOWN

 

Following Jesus is not for the faint of heart. Contrary to what you may have heard, his greatest goal is not to give you your best life now. He doesn’t call us to comfort. He calls us to come and die: die to our selfishness, die to our self-sufficiency, die to ourselves so that we might find new life in him. 

There’s a reason why the way of Jesus seems like foolishness to those who haven’t yet decided to follow him. The life he calls us to seems so contrary to how the rest of society tells us to live. Jesus calls us to bless those who persecute us, pray for those who curse us, care for those who can do nothing for us in return. What’s more, according to Jesus, the greatest in His kingdom are the servants, and we need to be willing to lose our life if we hope to find it. In other words, if we truly hope to live, we must first be willing to die to the ways we’ve learned to live. 

Welcome to the upside down Kingdom of God. 

Though, on second thought, perhaps we’re looking at it the wrong way. After all, God’s the rightful King, we’re just the stewards that He entrusted with the care of His creation. So maybe His kingdom isn’t the one that’s inverted. Maybe we’re the ones living upside down, we’ve just grown so accustomed to it that we don’t notice it anymore. 

Consider for a moment the crooked ways of thinking we’ve normalized: we are taught to win at all costs, even if in winning we hurt our neighbors and neglect our families. We are taught to idolize the powerful, even if they use their power to benefit themselves rather than to help others. We are taught that in order to rise up, we need to push others down. We are taught to celebrate our freedom to do whatever we want, even if the vices we run to end up enslaving us. The prophet Isaiah had a stern warning for people who lived in this upside down sort of way:

Woe to those who call evil good and good evil... Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight. Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine and champions at mixing drinks, who acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny justice to the innocent. Therefore, as tongues of fire lick up straw and as dry grass sinks down in the flames, so their roots will decay and their flowers blow away like dust; for they have rejected the law of the Lord Almighty and spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel.” (Isaiah‬ ‭5‬:‭20-‭24‬)

Isaiah’s warning is worth considering. Those who live contrary to the way of God will not prosper, at least not for long. Though they might blaze brightly for a moment, they will be destroyed by the very things they are most proud of, their so-called freedoms will enslave them. As Solomon noted ‬, “There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.” (Proverbs‬ ‭14‬:‭12)

It's ironic that the way of the world which seems so very comfortable and safe ultimately leads to death. Meanwhile, the way of Christ that calls us to take up our cross and die to ourselves leads to life that is truly life. We each have a choice: Which way will I go? To which Kingdom will I pledge my allegiance? Whose values will will shape my values? It's the most important decision you will ever make. 

Choose wisely.

Sunday, January 1, 2023

ENJOY THE JOURNEY

 

The person who loves walking will go farther than one who is focused on the destination. When you are fixated on getting to the goal, the journey becomes an obstacle, something to get through as quickly as possible. But when you love the journey itself, both the milestones and the setbacks are a part of the adventure. 

When you’re focused on the destination, failure can be debilitating. But when you love the journey, you’ll recognize that failure is a natural part of the path each of us needs to pass through. So try something new, fail at it, learn from your mistakes, try again, get better at it and one day people will come to you for advice on how to do what you do. 

In a way, the journeys we embark on are a form of metamorphosis. In the end, the person who arrives at the destination will not be the same one who set out to reach it. So don’t begrudge the journey, because it’s not just leading you to a new destination. It’s producing growth in you that would have never happened had you simply stayed at home.

Friday, December 30, 2022

WASTING TIME WITH GOD

We often talk about spending time with God, but it's one of those things that can easily feel like a chore, something that we have to do rather than yearning to do. It's not that we don't want to connect with God. No doubt we long for greater intimacy with Him. But then why does that quiet time still feel like a chore? 

Perhaps it's because that time doesn't feel productive. We don't come away with a profound insight about God or ourselves. We don't get immediate answers to our deepest questions, so that time can feel pointless, like we're wasting time we could otherwise use more productively. It just doesn't feel like an efficient use of our time. 

But, as David Benner points out, "productivity and efficiency miss the point. What God wants is simply our presence, even if it feels like a waste of potentially productive time. That is what friends do together - they waste time with each other. Simply being together is enough without expecting to "get something" from the interaction. It should be no different with God." (The Gift of Being Yourself, p.19)

I wonder how our perspective of quiet time would change if we stopped looking for the payoff and instead looked at it like spending time with a close friend. What if we stopped carrying an expectation of getting something from Him and instead simply came with a longing to be with Him? 

This week, try approaching your quiet time like you're coming to hang out with a friend, and see how that changes your perception of that time.

Saturday, December 24, 2022

The Shepherd's Story


It was a quiet, peaceful night on the outskirts of Bethlehem. The sky was clear and the air was heavy with dew. Several flocks of sheep were scattered throughout the fields, sleeping contentedly despite the bitter temperature. At least the cold night air gave them a reprieve from the flies that incessantly swarmed during the heat of the day.

Eli gazed out over the field, his eyes accustomed to the darkness. Though the moon was hidden below the horizon, the scattering of stars in the heavens provided just enough light to see by.  This was Eli’s favorite time of day: the sheep were resting contentedly and the earth still held a bit of warmth from the afternoon sun. 

He was laying on the ground, wrapped in his heavy wool cloak, using a stone for a pillow. His son lay nearby, curled up under his heavy outer cloak. They boy shifted uncomfortably in his sleep. At 7 years old, this was his first year in the fields and he was not yet accustomed to sleeping in the dirt. He would get used to it soon enough.

Eli contemplated waking his son to help him keep watch. After all, this was the time of night when the predators were on the prowl. But he decided against it. “Let the boy sleep,” he thought. “He’d earned it after a long day of chasing down stray sheep.” Eli remembered how exhausting it had been his first year in the field helping his own father tend the flock.

A cold breeze rustled the tufts of grass that sprouted from the rocky soil.
Eli pulled his cloak tight and began to reminisce about his own childhood.
He never chose to become a shepherd. Truth be told, he hadn’t much of a choice in the matter. His father was a shepherd, as was his grandfather. In a way, he was born to be a shepherd. But Eli didn’t mind. He loved being under the stars, surrounded by the sheep.

Admittedly, shepherds were looked down upon by city-dwellers. They treated them like dirty, uneducated outsiders. But he’d love to see one of those “civilized” folk give up the comforts of their straw-lined beds to spend even one evening out here in the dirt.

Even the local priest gave him a hard time for failing to darken the doorway of the synagogue, but someone had to watch the sheep. And besides, these sheep were being raised for the Feast of Pentecost. In a way, keeping them safe was his act of worship. Eli smiled at the thought.

Suddenly, he was startled from his reverie by a blindingly bright light in the night sky. It was as if the heavens had split opened to reveal a being clothed with sunlight. Eli could hear startled gasps from the other shepherds tending their flocks nearby, so he knew he wasn’t imagining this. But the sight of this radiant man caused his heart to freeze up in fear. In all his years, he’d never seen anything like it. He must be an angel, an emissary of Yahweh.

The angel spoke with a deep, powerful voice that broke the silence of the night: “Don’t be afraid. I come bearing good news that will cause great joy for all people.” Pointing towards Bethlehem, the angel continued: “Today, in the town of David, a Savior has been born – He is the long-awaited Messiah, the Lord of Life. Go see for yourself. This is what you are to look for: a baby wrapped in a blanket and laying in a feeding trough.”

Suddenly, a great angelic choir filled the sky. If Eli thought the first angel had been bright, this crowd was blinding. He used his hand to shield his eyes from the radiance. As he and the other shepherds watched in trembling awe, this angelic choir cried out in a joyful chorus:

Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to those on whom his favor rests.”

Then, as suddenly as they appeared, the angelic multitude disappeared.
Eli lay there in silent shock for several moments, his heart racing in his chest. Whenever he closed his eyes, he could see angelic silhouettes burned into his vision.

“Abba, what was that?!” his son timidly asked, his voice heavy with sleep.
Eli looked over at the boy, not sure how to answer. After a moment, he admitted, “I’m not sure, son. Stay here with the flock while I go find out.” With that, Eli quickly made his way over to the center of the field where the rest of the shepherds were congregating.

But none of the other shepherds had an explanation. Even Jacob, the oldest of the shepherds, admitted he had never heard of anything like this happening. But one thing was certain – the angel had told them to go to Bethlehem to find a baby wrapped in a blanket and laying in a feeding trough, so that’s what they would do.

Eli made his way over to the flock and, with the help of his son, they roused the sheep and began to quickly make their way back towards Bethlehem.
It was slower going with a flock in tow, but he couldn’t just leave the sheep in the fields unattended. So their journey into the town was accompanied by the confused bleating of sleepy sheep.

As the shepherds led their flocks through the narrow streets of Bethlehem, they began to knock on any door with its oil lamp still burning in the window, hoping someone knew where to find this child laying in a manger. But nobody seemed to have any idea what they were talking about. Door after door was shut in their face, and as they moved deeper into Bethlehem, they left scores of irritated people in their wake grumbling about drunken shepherds disturbing the peace.

It wasn’t until Eli knocked on the door to the village inn that they finally caught a break. The inn-keeper admitted that he’d turned away a pregnant woman and her husband earlier that night, but he said they might be sleeping in the stable where they housed the guests’ livestock. Eli quickly turned and motioned for the other shepherds to follow him around back.
He didn’t even notice as the inn-keeper abruptly slammed the door shut, a look of contempt on his face.

When Eli rounded the corner, he found a small cave cut into the hillside that was being used to stable the livestock of the inn’s guests. And there was light inside. Eli and his son left their flock with another shepherd so that they could come closer. As they drew near the entrance, they saw a man tending to a young woman who was resting in the hay. Next to them was a wooden feeding trough that had been converted into a makeshift cradle. Just as the angel had said!

Surprisingly, there were no other visitors, no dignitaries there to welcome the long-awaited messiah. Not even the local priest, who Eli figured would have been the first to find out.

They entered the stable slowly so as not to frighten the new parents.
People were typically standoffish towards shepherds on a good day,
let alone a young couple with a newborn baby in the dead of night.

The couple was surprised to see them, but Eli quickly explained that they’d been commissioned by an Angel of the Lord to come see the one born to be the Messiah. He also told them that their child’s birth had been celebrated by an angelic choir. Eli would have laughed at the surprised look on the young parents’ faces if he hadn’t been so overwhelmed himself by everything he’d seen tonight.

As he spoke, Eli’s eyes kept drifting back to the tiny, olive-skinned baby laying in a feeding trough. Was this really God’s chosen redeemer, the one the prophets of old had had spoken of? Eli found it ironic that for centuries, the people of Israel had been waiting for this night, for this child’s arrival, and when he finally came the only ones there to greet him were a bunch of uneducated shepherds!

He couldn’t help but wonder why God would have sent His angels to share the good news with them. Or why Yahweh would allow His redeemer to be born in a stable instead of a palace!  It was unexpected to say the least, but Eli couldn’t argue with what he saw before him. It was just as the angel had said.

Not wanting to overstay his welcome, Eli thanked the young couple for their hospitality and then he and his son began to drive their flock back through the streets of Bethlehem. But as they went, they didn’t go silently. That night, they shared what they’d seen with anyone they met in the streets. And as they made their way back out to the fields, they joined with a heavenly choir, glorifying God and celebrating the birth of His son, Jesus, the Messiah.

Soul Surfing

Whatever it is you’re facing today, no matter how exhausted, discouraged or disadvantaged you might feel, those things are only limitations ...