Lent, Day 4: BECOMING LIKE CHILDREN

Matthew 18:1-7

In today’s reading we come face to face with a foundational issue of faith.  Jesus calls His people to “become like children.”  That’s a hard thought for adults to think.  After all, we spent eighteen years trying to go out of being like a child. Now Jesus is calling us back.   What are we to make of this?  It might be more of a challenge than we think.

A child in the ancient world was a person without status or rights, and completely dependent on the generosity and guidance of others to care for him or her.  The first hearers of Jesus’ statement would know exactly what Jesus was saying.  When it comes to faith, we must be “converted,” and turn away from our self-dependency and self-sufficiency.  That’s a tough one for adults.  Yet, Jesus drives it into our hearts when he says, “unless…you become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Then Jesus defines what he means.  He calls us to humility. He calls us to voluntarily let go our pride of self-sufficiency and independence, and to come within the embrace of God so that God might be the ultimate provider for our lives.  Maybe this is what Jesus meant when He taught us to pray, “Your kingdom come.  Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10).  

For what kingdom do we live, ours or the Father’s?  I would suggest that for most of us, this might be a place of battle.  We want the Father’s will but we want our own will, too. We want to follow Jesus but becoming like a child; that’s a little much.

Lent is a good time to quiet our hearts before God, clear our minds, and admit that many times we want to be the one who calls the shots.  In fact, if we’re really honest, at times it is difficult to know how to follow Jesus.  When should we be like a child that can’t act unless the parent gives permission, or like an adult whose been around awhile and knows the ropes.  

Perhaps, Jesus is simply calling us to bring our lives under the umbrella of His redemption, and live under His Lordship.  God has given us gifts and talents and skills that are best utilized when one is within the embrace of God’s amazing grace.  Perhaps,  Jesus is calling us to bring all that we are and lay everything on the altar, and let everything we have and are, belong to God.  Maybe our prayer and our lives should reflect this wonderful prayer from John Wesley,

I am no longer my own, but yours. Put me to what you will, Rank me with whom you will;  Put me to doing, put me to suffering. Let me be employed by you, or laid aside by you, exalted by you or brought low by you. Let me be full, let me be empty. Let me have all things, let me have nothing. I freely and heartily yield all things to your pleasure and disposal…. Amen.

Lent, Day 3: LETTING GOD BE GOD

Psalm 51:10-19

King David’s prayer was that God would be God in his life. When he awoke to his un-Godlikeness, it was an awakening that drove him into the very heart of God, and caused him to hunger for more and more of God in his life.  He prayed, “Do not cast me away from Your presence and do not take your Holy Spirit from me” (vs. 11).  He meant it.  He came clean before God and wanted to stay clean before God.  He had tasted forgiveness, and he would never turn back.

As we journey to Good Friday and the Resurrection, may we, on the one hand, never forget from whence we come, and on the other hand, never forget the glorious taste of forgiveness.  For David it meant praying, “Create in me a clean heart…and renew a steadfast spirit within me” (vs. 10).  As A. W. Tozer prayed, “O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more.” 

Isn’t this the way of grace?  It satisfies and yet makes one hungry for more of God.  It satisfies so fully that a person wants to go as far with God as one can go.  Here is another song from my childhood.

Marvelous grace of our loving Lord, 

Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt! 

Yonder on Calvary’s mount outpoured, 

There where the blood of the Lamb was spilt. 

Grace, grace, God’s grace, 

Grace that will pardon and cleanse within; 

Grace, grace, God’s grace, 

Grace that is greater than all our sin!  

                   Julia Harriette Johnston (1910)

With a grace and mercy that is difficult to comprehend, God reached out to me one day and flat-out changed my life.  I didn’t deserve it, I didn’t earn it, and it caught me totally off guard. He took my brokenness, sin, shame, fears, and nailed them to the cross.  That’s why I sing even at this late date in my life,

Marvelous grace of our loving Lord, 

Grace that exceeds my sin and my guilt! 

Yonder on Calvary’s mount outpoured, 

There where the blood of the Lamb was spilt.

David didn’t understand these things in his time, but in HIS time, God has made them known.  Please, please, take the grace, and let God be God in you.

Lent, Day 2: THE INNERMOST BEING

Psalm 51:1-9

It takes a person of character to admit weakness, failure, and shortcomings. We just don’t want to confess to anything that might show weakness.  Nevertheless, King David of Israel did just that.  He seem to know himself, and not to hide behind the visible.  So, he prayed, “Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin” (vs. 3).  He confessed, “I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me…I have sinned and done what is evil in your sight...” (vs. 3-4). He prayed, “Purify me…and I shall be clean; wash me and I shall be whiter than snow…” (vs. 7).

It is quite a sight, seeing a king admit to this kind of humanity and human weakness.  King David, wasn’t an ordinary king, however.  Yes, he had his weaknesses and shortcomings and failures but he would not hide behind some sort of veneer that would serve as a cover up for his broken interior life.  

Psalm 51 was a prayer David prayed after he was confronted about his sin with Bathsheba.  When confronted, he didn’t hide or spin it some way.  He owned it.  David told Nathan, the man who confronted him about his sin, “I have sinned against the Lord” (2 Samuel 12:13). At this point, David took to his knees, admitted to his sinful act and the condition of his heart.  He opened up his life to God and prayed, “Blot out all my iniquities” (vs. 9).  

Years later, as recorded in John 8:31-32 Jesus would say to some Jewish folks who had come to believe in him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”  Perhaps this is thrust of it all – knowing the truth by continuing in the living Word of God.  

None of us is perfect.  I certainly am not.  We have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God (see Romans 3:23).  That’s not the issue.  The issue is what we will do when the reality of sin is made known it us.  Will we deny the truth and run from it or will we own the truth, embrace it, and come to be free because of the grace that is found in the truth of God?

Once I was bound by sin’s galling fetters, 
Chained like a slave, I struggled in vain; 

But I received a glorious freedom, 
When Jesus broke my fetters in twain.

Glorious freedom, wonderful freedom, 
No more in chains of sin I repine!

Jesus the glorious Emancipator, 
Now and forever He shall be mine.

--  Haldor Lillenas, 1917

Glorious freedom.  May we daily seek the face of God in prayer that He will show us our true selves, and in this may we be reminded, time and time again, that Jesus is the Glorious Emancipator.

A Devotional For Ash Wednesday -- "REPAIRERS"

Isaiah 58:1-12

In a broken world, the people of God are not to be a part of the problem but, rather, the presence of God’s righteousness in the world.  When we are not the presence of God’s righteousness in the world, then we are not who we say we are.

Ancient Israel had all the trappings of spirituality, but they were far from the heart of God.  They had fallen so far that they used their religion as an excuse for justifying their disconnection from the realities of the people around and in their midst.  They had their worship but they virtually had no respect for people around them.  They even had their discipline of fasting but had no heart of the people around them.  God called their condition, “transgression…and…sins” (vs. 1).  They went through the motions of seeking God, but they had no “righteousness” (vs. 2).  In fact, God says, “They had forsaken the ordinances of their God” (vs. 2).  They asked God for His blessings on them, but did nothing indicating that God was their first love.

And, now I ask myself.  Is God my first love?  Am I a part of the problem in the world or perhaps one who lives as a “repairer of the breach” (vs. 12).  How seriously do I give myself to feed the hungry, to give shelter to the homeless, to clothe the naked, and “to loosen the bonds of wickedness, to undo the hands of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and “break every yoke” (vs. 6-7)?

Jesus said to His disciples then and now, “You are the salt of the earth…You are the light of the world” (Matt. 5:13-16).  When many people were walking away from Jesus, the apostle Peter said to Him, “You have words of eternal life. We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God” (John 6:68-69).  After Pentecost, Peter and the disciples picked up the call of Jesus, took it seriously, and changed a world.  

In 1762, Charles Wesley wrote a song a part of which has these words.  They have become a prayer for me.  

To serve the present age, 

My calling to fulfill: 

Oh, may it all my pow’rs engage 

To do my Master’s will!

Isn’t it true that faith is not something we simply hold dear?  Faith is something we do.  If we believe it, we will act on it.  If God is our first love, we will act on it.  We will live and conduct our very lives in that first love.  We will be a presence of God’s righteousness in the world.  We may not be perfect but until the day of our death we will seek to live for our God.

Go today, and seek to be a repairer.

GOD IN THE PRESENT TENSE

Introduction To This Lenten Devotional Series

Growing up in the San Joaquin valley of central California, I saw the hard and underappreciated work of the migrant worker.  It did not surprise me, when out of the shadows came a spokesman who sought to set things right.  His name was Cesar Chavez (1927-1993). Many of the people were poor migrant workers who had little or no voice in how they were treated. Chavez’s tireless efforts on their behalf improved working conditions for thousands. After his death, he became an icon for the Latino community.  To this day he is either loved or hated, depending upon your audience.  I always felt he simply wanted fair wages and working conditions.  To that end, when he prayed what came to be called the “Prayer of the farm workers’ struggle,” it resonated in my heart.  Here is that prayer.

Show me the suffering of the most miserable; So I will know my people's plight. Free me to pray for others; For you are present in every person. Help me to take responsibility for my own life; So that I can be free at last.Give me honesty and patience; So that I can work with other workers. Bring forth song and celebration; So that the Spirit will be alive among us.Let the Spirit flourish and grow; So that we will never tire of the struggle. Let us remember those who have died for justice; For they have given us life. Help us love even those who hate us; So we can change the world.  Amen

The Christian’s season of Lent draws me back to this prayer, and the call of God to be a voice for the voiceless, and an advocate for the poor.  It draws me back to a season of introspection and self-examination, seeking to be open and receptive to the call of God for His people to reflect the mind and spirit of Jesus.  It calls me to pray another prayer as I seek the face of God, 

Investigate my life, O God,    find out everything about me; Cross-examine and test me,Cross-examine and test me,    get a clear picture of what I’m about; See for yourself whether I’ve done anything wrong—See for yourself whether I’ve done anything wrong—    then guide me on the road to eternal life.  (Psalm 139:23-24, MSG).

I am praying that as you and I journey through the Lenten season on our pilgrimage to Good Friday, and Easter Sunday morning, we shall let the Holy Spirit work His work in us.  May God cleanse away anything that is not of Christ in us, and may we be open to be led down the “road to eternal life.”

May God help us not to be shaped and molded by the culture around us, but shaped and molded by the very life of God who, in Jesus, “Emptied Himself of all but love, and bled for Adam’s helpless race” (Charles Wesley, 1738). 

AN UNSOLICITED TESTIMONY

They called it Super Bowl LIV (54), and the world stopped for a few hours and watched a football game.   The number 54 means more to me, though.  It was 54 years ago today that I preached my first sermon (February 6, 1966).  I was 17 years old, terrified, and didn’t know if I could go through with it.  The Holy Spirit helped me, though, and the congregation didn’t fall apart.  It turned out to be a very good Sunday.

February 6, 1966 was one of a few life transforming moments in my life.  It was this event that helped me realize that maybe the call I felt in my heart was really real.  It catapulted me forward to go to college and to learn all I could learn about life and Scripture and God.  I’m still learning even at this late date in my life.

I am not a multi-gifted man.  I am a very ordinary man, called into a mission I do not deserve.  Years ago, I read words that have been helpful to me.  The sage simply said, “God does not call the qualified. He qualifies the called.”  Over the years I have not felt qualified; just the opposite, in fact.  I’ve always felt that I was the least qualified person in any meeting of pastors I attended.  I still do, to this day.

I’m so glad, though, that years ago Jesus whispered into my ear, “Get over it. It’s not about you. I called you.  I will qualify you.  I will use you as I will. Trust me. I’ve got this.”  And what a ride it has been.

Today, I just want to thank my God for His love, for His faithfulness, and for His strength.  I believe the words of the Psalmist to be true, “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty” (Psalm 91:1). 

I don’t know how much time I have left, but I want to use it to the glory of God.  I’m sure you do, too.  I love the chorus of Steve Green’s song, “Find Us Faithful.”  He writes,

Oh may all who come behind us find us faithful

May the fire of our devotion light their way

May the footprints that we leave

Lead them to believe

And the lives we live inspire them to obey.

I love the words of Deuteronomy 31:6, Joshua 1:5, and Hebrews 13:5, where God says, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you…”. I say, “Amen.”

Forward still, fellow Believers.  Forward still.