Serving A Complicated World

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I recently posted an article from Christianity Today in our Campus’ Facebook group and I wanted to follow up on that. You can only throw so much out through a Facebook post, you know.

The article took a quick look at Myanmar, the government landscape, the religious landscape, several people groups, and shared about how all of those in the country and out of the country interact. There are refugees involved, the chances of persecution, the Pope is also mentioned, but realistically his part in the article is just a part of a much bigger story.

You an read that article here – Can Pope Francis Help Myanmar’s Muslims Without Hurting Its Christians?

One thing of note about the article, for me, is that this story isn’t new. It’s not even a little bit new. Yes, the people are different and the arguments only sound similar to me, not exact, but this a human story.

The day after sharing the article I sat down to keep reading through Acts and I started in chapter 22. What Paul experiences sounds very similar to the article.

There is the question of religious nationalism, something that we may as well point out. It is increasing around the world and people (both Christians and just about everyone else) are becoming refugees of it. The people group mentioned by name in the article is Rohingya – Muslim refugees. You can read more about their plight here in CT. About half of their total population remain as refugees in neighboring Bangladesh. You also see pressure from different places. In Acts you have the Roman officials – some trying to figure out how to act rightly in the situation and others hoping to profit from it, trading favors with the other parties. It would make for great fiction, but its not. This is what we are like when we get together without respect and honor for one another.

This is the world that Jesus walked into when He came so long ago. This is the world He prepared His disciples for. This is the world that He died for. And, this is the world He sent Holy Spirit into.

In the chapters following 22 Paul gives a defense for the charges brought against him.

Paul shares that everyone back home knew what he was like, strictly following the rules and persecuting the believers of Jesus. Then, he met Jesus on the road to persecute more of Jesus followers. This Jesus called Paul follow Him and share His good news. Now, everyone knows that Paul does this.

As Paul declares his faith in the resurrection to King Agrippa, the same faith he says the prophets and Moses speaks of being fulfilled in Jesus, the Roman Governor interrupts him, yelling, “Paul, you are out of your mind!”

Paul responds in respect and kindness, sharing his intent that he would have everyone hearing this be the same as he is – except for the chains.

Once again, this would be beautiful fiction, filled with intrigue, repeated characters, back story, etc., only, it is all those things and true.

We see this story repeated throughout the history of the church and those who follow Jesus. The irony of it is that this apparently powerless citizen is looking at the powerful authorities before him. Neither of them created their respective powers, they were both present in another’s achievement. For Agrippa and Festus this is the great Roman empire. For Paul this is Jesus and His resurrection.

Only one of those movements still stands and moves today, and is no less miraculous. Rome is not known for an emperor of great military might, but a Pope seeking mercy on behalf of others.

Likewise,  as followers of Jesus, we can all seek after God and do so on behalf of others. We can pray, we can learn, we can go. The Rohingya is one group of refugees among many and Myanmar is one country among many.

May God’s favor and miraculous grace rest on those seeking to help, those in need, and all of those present and watching from afar. May God bless the Rohingya and Myanmar.

About Discipleship Training School

This January and in the coming years we are offering the DTS in Ogden, UT. What God did through the DTS changed me from a person who only cared about his own state and country to a person who cares about the nations.

You can read more about that here – Utah Discipleship Training School.

Devotions on Grace

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Hello!

This last week a couple of us from Ogden headed over to YWAM Salem for leadership training and visiting friends and family. If you are looking for a place to do a DTS or take some training as a YWAMer they have a lot of opportunities over there! I’ve benefited from their team out there a few times now and love the whole lot of them.

Grabbing the Grace We Need for Leadership

One of the speakers on my DTS, just for a night, was Jim Stier – he and his wife were some of the first YWAMers to Brazil and gave leadership to the pioneering process of YWAM there – he spoke about quiet times. The next time I heard him speak he also spoke about quiet times. At other times, he led discussions at big leadership meetings, I remember him challenging us to go before God in our quiet times. And this last week was really one big corporate quiet time. Each time he taught there was a depth to the topic at hand, but it always comes with the challenge to take time out of you day to intentionally spend time with God.

The point of the leadership gathering was that if we ourselves are not actively seeking God’s grace for continued grace we are going to run ourselves dry. We processed the question of how do we seek God’s grace and it was a fun discussion that caused us all to do a lot of processing.

The big point that I felt God drawing us to is that we find grace when we find Him.

Finding Him may look different for each of us, but it should be real. When Jesus came He really did come. When He sent the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit really did go. He’s created each of us, uniquely demonstrating the image of God, and each of us have really been created. We found God when He revealed Himself to us – it wasn’t by our own effort, bloodline, or spiritual heritage – and when we found God it turned out that He was full of Grace and Truth. He is still filled with Grace and Truth today. As we continue to serve Him, He shows up and changes the desire of our hearts from evil to love.

We can tell when it is real or not – when it is by our effort that we try or when it is by His presence that our heart undergoes its transformation from a heart filled with darkness to a heart ready to love His light.

That’s coming from John 1:1-18, Luke 17:5-10, and several passages of Paul’s letters.

Walking away from the conference, I’ve found that it helps me put both my own commitment to quiet time and walk with God into perspective – and it helps inform what I am looking for in outreach.

Try it out!

We spent our time looking at scripture, asking God to speak into our lives, and then sharing it with the group. Jim would give commentary and share pioneering stories, add some depth to the topic. It was something that was really good for me to reflect on again. There were lots of take away points, but it started with John 1:1-18.

If you’d like to check it out, I’d challenge you to read through that bit of scripture a bit slowly, ask God what He’d like to share, and check back in on the insights I’ll write down below. I’ll share what I got and it will be fun.

Ready?

Jesus, through whom God created the world, who John the Baptist spoke of, came among us.

The people who received Him and believed in His name – to them He gave the right to become children of God.

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us … full of grace and truth.

The Law was given through Moses (which was true), grace and truth came through Jesus (because that is who He is!).

What are some of the things that stood out in a special way to you?

Fear

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What comes to mind when we think of fear?

Is it a reaction? Is it a way for our body to respond to something that startles us or maybe to protect us from imminent danger? If this is the first thing that comes to mind, then, no, that is not the sort of fear that I am thinking about. That sort of fear is healthy, and if you push it a little bit it might even get fun. It is definitely something that God gave us for our benefit.

This was the only definition of fear that I knew about growing up, though, the world of reality around me seemed to share that there was something more out there. This sort of feeling is often brushed off.

In the first couple chapters of Genesis we see the creation of the world and the creation of mankind in God’s image. We are created, breathed into, spoken to, given instruction, given responsibility, wondrously made not alone – this was what God desired for us. There was something special about these people He created. He had already gone above and beyond for is by creating us in His image, but to be a part of our lives – this is what he wanted.

Inside of that creation fear hadn’t been felt by the first of mankind and it was beautiful.

But, that was about to change. One of the instructions given by God included one simple request, “you may enjoy every tree in the garden except for the tree of knowledge of good and evil.” The first of us heard this, they understood it, but when another came and questioned the words of God they disobeyed the one request.

Up until this point they had only each other and God, everyone had been good to them. Perhaps this really was a hard test. How many of us have heard some one say something negative about someone else? It is certainly within us at this point for our heart to give pause and question someone, even a friend, just by hearing the words of another.  The first of us followed this other’s voice and disobeyed God.

The response was immediate and terrible – the words of God were true! At that point fear, shame, and guilt flooded into the lives of those who had sinned. Their relationship with God was separated, driven apart by disobedience, and the fear, shame, and guilt bore fruit in their lives. They hid from God, they were ashamed of being naked, they accused one another to shift the blame away from themselves.

These three things that had no authority in their lives were now present and wreaking havoc.

When we step away from God’s instruction and desire for our lives death follows in the wake of our decisions. We may think we can master it after it has come, but that isn’t the case. The only thing on our part we can do is say no while we still can, but we were past this point in the story.

When God reveals Himself He shares what will now happen and the world begins to change. It isn’t what He had hoped for, but the changes in the world are for our own good. He addresses the other in the conversation as well, the serpent in the story that had accused God, to the serpent He promises defeat – that someone from the woman would come and defeat the serpent. It is a loaded statement, a prophecy that takes the rest of the Bible and mankind’s history to reveal in its fullness.

Today, we are still having a hard time because of this moment – fear, shame, and guilt are still present in this world, but that victory that God spoke of has come and is still coming in its fullness.

There is certainly that sort of fear that God has given us, the startled jump or the burst of adrenaline that can keep us safe from danger, but there is another fear that we experience in our lives – it isn’t a fear that God desired, but it is present. In Christ, we can master it, but it does take mastering. It is difficult to explain, but one of my teachers shared it this way, “When you are afraid it’s not that you are feeling fear, but it is fear feeling you.” In our own disobedience we can give such a vile sort of fear authority in our lives.

As a child this was the sort of fear that bit at the edges of reality, as I grew this was the sort of fear that could incapacitate incredible young men and women from making right decisions, on outreach this was the sort of fear that showed up when you went to speak and couldn’t find your ability to speak. It is strange, but this is the reality I’ve seen over and over again.

However, there is hope!

One of these hopes is that God is fulfilling His promise through Jesus Christ – as we stand near to Him, as we cling to His Spirit in intimacy, we find ourselves surrounded by His authority. This returns us to a second hope – we are still created in the image of God! One of the instructions God gave us in the beginning was to aggressively defend the creation He was giving us. We still have that command and it can be found again in our relationship with Jesus.

In this world we will need to stand against all sorts of fear – the fear of sharing our faith among them, fear of rejection included, the fear of what others think but don’t say. This isn’t our fear to deal with – we can stand with Jesus to reject that fear’s authority and bring something better in its place.

Let’s not wait around for fear to show itself – we can take the fight to fear on the ground that God desired for us, in relationship with Him and in good relationship with each other!

Communication in Genesis

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In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth – earth had no form, it was empty; the Spirit paused in ready anticipation for what was to come next. Then, God spoke light into existence.

And so the story goes.

The first section of Genesis has always been one of my favorite portions of scripture. It is simple and it speaks poetically of things that will have ripples throughout our human history. The incredibly powerful God speaking things into existence until He comes to mankind. He takes dirt into his hands, forms us, breathes life into us, and creates us in His image. His masterpiece that He gives such strength to is small, weak, and frail compared to the creatures, trees, oceans, planets, and stars that He has just spoken out of Himself, but this one is special in a different way.

In our frailty we show of His nature, being just an image of it. In our freedom we have the we have the opportunity to share His character with each other, the families that we create, and the world that we form.

Our history is enough to show that our story could have been better than it now is, but it also shows a God who is willing to keep speaking life into His creation to bring us back to Him. When we hear His words and live by them we get to walk in that original hope and bring His life and beauty to a world that is broken. When we reject Him and His words we add to the destruction of everything we love until there is nothing left to save. We are able to justify ourselves in this until we look just like the very enemy of God.

This battle of communication starts in Genesis and continues throughout scripture. God speaks life – it is accepted with blessing or it is rejected with destruction. This happens with the first of mankind, the nations that spring up following the great flood, and over and over again through to present day. This is still the world that we raise our children in – the world where they will grow up in, find husbands and wives, create families, and form their part of world in the love of God or in the rejection of Him.

This communication is what Genesis is all about. We get to see God’s heart in intimate detail as He addresses sin with Adam and Eve, when He pleads with Cain to choose the good and reject temptation, when He shares His broken heart with Noah, when He consults with Himself at Babel to preserve mankind, and when He speaks a blessing and a promise over Abram that will put the words of God into the family of Abraham.

We enter into this battle when we speak.

Do we speak words that are true to God’s heart? Do we speak with His heart and with His passion? Do we seek His values in the world around us?

Whether we speak plainly or poetically, with common sense or intellectualism, our words will leave ripples in the lives of those around us, in the families that we raise, and in the world that we are forming. The best place to start learning the difference is in the Bible and in His presence.

I’ll share more about that later.

ACTS: Multiplying YWAM

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Throughout the history of the Church we see it spreading through multiplication – not just addition – it grows where people make sacrifices and give their hearts to Jesus. We read about this in the book of Acts.

The Risk

For my part I felt that God had given me an incredible vision for my home.

Michigan was where my family was,  it was where all my relationships resided. Everything from the roads that we drove on to the kinds of grass that grew along them helped me know who I was. I won’t even get started on the fields and trees. A year before I couldn’t even imagine leaving my county let alone my country for a foreign land – missionaries were the crazy ones. Now, I was one of them.

I was considering leaving all of this again so that I could bring something back. Taking the discipleship training school with YWAM was incredible. I wanted the people in Michigan to experience that too. And, I wanted to be a missionary.

In the back yard of my family’s home I prayed again.

Before me was the opportunity to take a school that would help me become a pioneer – someone who would go where there wasn’t already a YWAM base and start one.

My friends had invited me to come back to India to take the school, it was their second time running it and the first time it would be in India. For twelve weeks we would learn from speakers that had already pioneered. We would work together to build our pioneering projects and then we would head out. It sounded kind of easy, but in reality pioneering something new is at least as difficult as they all said it would be. I didn’t know that yet.

At some point during my night of prayer I felt God say to go for it.

Looking back on that night I can say it changed my life, and I am grateful for that.

The Sacrifice

The Church, in its many forms, has consistently grown when people who love Jesus give up what they know for what they do not. It grows when we take risks. It grows when we hear God say to do something that doesn’t make sense, but in our heart we know it is Him saying it and we do it anyway.

We do not always get to conform to the culture around us, hardly so at times, and we will be considered crazy. That is not a bad thing because so was Jesus, and He turned the world upside down by listening to His Father’s voice and doing what His Father said too.

Now, I am not in my home state of Michigan.

I am in Utah, the home of many other people. I have been setting out on this path for the last nine years to make it back home to do what I headed out to do. During that time God has been faithful. He has shown up in the nick of time and provided for us. He has been faithful to give me time to learn and the time to enjoy the people around me. I have a family that He has given me.

Utah is the home of other people, but I remember my heart for my home and it has multiplied to make room for this place too. It has multiplied to make room for India. It has multiplied to make room for the Syrians who I first started paying attention to five years ago.

As often as I hear His heart break my heart multiplies to make more room for His.

When we make a sacrifice God is faithful to multiply it.

The Response

What is on your heart that you are carrying with God?

How is He telling you to go for it?

There are no small sacrifices in the kingdom of God – He is faithful to see it. If you stay true to His path He will keep showing you where to go next. If this is the life that God has called you to then I challenge you to take that first step with Him – it is worth it, and even more, He is worth it.

Discipleship Training School – Apostolic Catalyst Training School 

Let there be light!

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“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1, NIV). This is how our Bible starts. A clear introduction, that by itself could be enough. But it doesn’t end there. This is just the beginning of the wonderful account of how God first created the world out of nothing, followed by His relentless pursuit of the human heart after we decided not to trust in Him. One concept seems especially important in this account, the concept of light:

And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light ‘day,’ and the darkness he called ‘night.’ And there was evening, and there was morning – the first day. (Genesis 1:3, NIV)

Light; the first thing God created. We don’t always think much about the importance of light in our lives. Usually, it is just there and, if it is not, we turn on a lamp. Around this time of the year, however, when the seasons change and we start waking up while it is still somewhat dark outside, we are reminded of the light in a way that we are not when it is more readily available.

It is also the time of the year where other things can remind us of the necessity of light as well. Halloween is coming up. Though most of us still like to celebrate this holiday, as Christian’s we are aware that Halloween is not by nature a celebration of light. While dressing up, often as darker creatures, with symbols of death abounding around us, light too begins to become more important. But this time we hope for a different type of light; a light that penetrates the darkness from the insight out.

In John 8:12 it says: “When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (NIV). It is a wonderful promise, but it might lead us to wonder: Could this be true? Could we truly walk with Jesus in such a way that the darkness has no effect on us? And could we instead affect the darkness around us? Jesus says that this is possible and he showed it with his life. Wherever he came he brought healing, hope, and life. Could we really follow in His footsteps?

So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and the one who knocks, the door will be opened. (Luke 11:9-10)

Ask. Ask for more of Him and seek relentlessly for His light. For it is there, all around us. From glimmers of hope in a dark situation, to the good we see in a person that we didn’t thought could have anything good going for them. Jesus is active in this world.

I challenge you this season to look for it. Look for His light, in even the darkest of situations and ask Him to use you to increase the light you see in the world around you. And though some things may remain dark around you, I pray that you may always be reminded of the light.

The Beauty of Duck Valley

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What do you think of when you hear the words “Indian Reservation”?

Most of the time, I find myself thinking about all the bad things first – racing from experiences to images, words people have spoken, hate and curses, racism, political ideas that were once considered good, people who I have listened to who defended the use of force, and stories from people of what that use of force looked like. A whole legacy of ideas and their consequences.

Mixed throughout all of them, however, are moments of beauty.

Laughter – sweet, rich, and joyous laughter.

Kind faces that show far more hospitality than I deserve.

Story on top of story that shares of God’s unrelenting desire to pursue His loved ones.

These are the memories mixed in with everything that I remember when I hear those words – Indian Reservation. Given the lessons and wisdom that many first nations people have taught me I am indebted to them for the life in Christ that I get to live.

Duck Valley

One of the places close to my heart are the lands of the Shoshone-Paiute people. It is little place, set in the high desert of Idaho and Nevada. The hills are deceivingly tall and distant when coming from central Idaho, where the mountains are much more abrupt, as a friend and I discovered when we tried to go “just a little ways.” Though it is high desert it is also filled with water for irrigation. And yes, there are certainly a lot of ducks.

I have only been there twice – once eight years ago and the second time just a couple of weeks back.

Both were special and this last trip taught me several lessons that I’m taking to heart as we move forward in ministry.

The first was to trust God when He speaks.

I was so stressed out while trying to put things together. I didn’t have anything set up like I wanted to and it felt like I was going to run it all into the ground.

However, God worked in His ways and He led the outreach.

What does that look like?

Favor where you least expect it; divine appointments; relationships; hospitality; and sometimes just saying “yes”. Wherever there is openness to relationship there is an opportunity for God to move in and open doors.

The second was related to that – look for relationships.

Does this sound like common sense?

I mean, it probably should, but I find it so abstract at times.

God Himself relates to us relationally, we relate to others relationally, but as we step forward to move this kingdom of good relationships forward, it can seem tempting to rely on non-relational methods. I doubt that most of those methods are wrong. Though, when we employ a method in the place of relationship our testimony suffers.

An example of this came on the day I headed home from Duck Valley.

The night before, we were enjoying dinner at the local diner when one of the cooks introduced us to one of her relatives. It turns out that Duck Valley is also home to a lot of beef cattle and the annual branding is something to be invited to – and we were invited.

Now, I’ve never gone on an outreach where you could call a branding day a “method” to build relationships, but it certainly was a place of relationships, with lots of hard work, yelling, smiles, and laughter.

Jesus was also getting invited to all sorts of places.

The wedding in Cana was one such event where I’m sure there were a lot of relationships happening. He was often invited into the homes of others and when He showed up to a town it seems like his first place to stop was the home of a friend. We see Jesus focusing on places of relationship. Sometimes there is a method to open up the possibility of relationships (in our case it was baskets filled with supplies, food, and fun things for kids), but our focus needs to be on the relationships opening up – not the methods bringing an opportunity.

So what holds us back?

Is this all common sense or actually countercultural?

I know that in my life it is often countercultural to rely on others, to ask for help – to look at a very good relational moment during ministry and not weigh it in the scales of productivity.

How are we all doing at this?

Are we focussed on relationships or on the methods we are employing?

What is our first thought when we think about sharing Jesus with someone? Is it the amazing relationship that we get to introduce to another person? Is it the little relationship moment that is happening as you greet a person that has been created in the image of God?

Or is it a thought of productivity? Do we think of a system of verses, a certain way of doing it, figuring out the right angle, how long until I get to go home?

These questions might be rough, but both the good and the bad reflect my own heart – I can remember a time for each one of them.

Do we see the beauty that is right there in that person, created in God’s image; do we see the beauty that is there in that moment, a relationship that is humbling itself like Jesus humbled Himself to the point of death?

Relationship or method?

Beauty or an invitation to more beauty?

I know that my own heart will generally choose to shy away from those questions, but as God cares about us He will be the one to ask them eventually. In 2007, I attended the Discipleship Training School and God used that time to ask a lot of those questions.

If you are looking for a time to settle some of the questions I’ve included here or you have more of your own – I would like to invite you to consider that DTS. The next DTS starts on August 22nd.

…

P.S.

I would also invite you to read more about my friends. They are a family committed to relationship and inviting others into relationship with our creator. They have taught me a lot about valuing relationships over methods.

The Red Road

Also, I am sure my friends at Cowboys With A Mission would like to share that working with cattle is a perfect time to build relationships and share the gospel.

Cowboys With A Mission

Whoever has ears…

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“Again Jesus began to teach by the lake. The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, while all the people were along the shore at the water’s edge.” (Mark 4:1)

One of the stories that Jesus told to this big crows was the story of a farmer who went out to sow seed. Depending on where the seed fell, some bore fruit while others didn’t. When Jesus was alone with His disciples, he explained this story (or parable) to them.

“Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable?

The farmer sows the word.

Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them.

Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.

Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.

Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown” (Mark 4:13-20).

This morning we talked about this story at our Bible School in Idaho. It is a story that many of us have heard, perhaps multiple times, and yet it can leave us with questions. We might look at this story from the perspective of the farmer and ask ourselves: ‘Why does he sow in places that will never bear fruit?’ Or we might ask ourselves how this teaching applies to us doing ministry.

Though these questions and perspectives are valid, we often overlook the context in which Jesus was telling this story. Jesus was talking to a multitude, so great that He had to get into a boat to address them. Though He did not explain the meaning of this story to all these people, He did tell all of them this parable. In the very immediate context therefore, we can say that these people where the different types of soils and Jesus was the farmer sowing the word among them. But He knew their hearts. He knew that even though many had come, not all of them would receive His message and bear fruit from it.

“Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.” (Mark4:9b)

That is how Jesus ends his parable for this multitude.  And though we know the explanation of the four soils, while the multitude did not, perhaps this is a challenge for us as well. Where are we at? Are we troubled by the things that come against us? Or are we taken up by everything life has to offer? If so, just be careful that it doesn’t overtake the work that God has been doing in your life.

I know it can be easy to loose heart or to get distracted. Let’s make sure that we try to be there for each other and pray that God will continue to bring our minds and our hearts back to Him no matter what is going on in our lives.

To God be the Glory!

“Intentional Living” & Love your neighbor as yourself.

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“If you want to be successful, you need to every day: value people, belief in people & unconditionally love people. If you do these three things every day, you will not only be successful in life, but you will have a life of significance.” – Advice John C. Maxwell got from his dad.

As I was listening to a broadcast on his book “Intentional Living” by John C. Maxwell, it was this advice that stood out to me most. We all want to live a life of significance. But though this advice seems simple enough, I know from my own life that it can be very hard to do all of these things every day. Some days we are too busy, at others too resentful, too lazy, too … Whatever it is, there can be a lot of things standing in our way of truly valuing people, believing in them and loving them unconditionally.

Yet, this is exactly what God does for us every single day, and He too has asked us to do so for others, though with slightly different words.

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all you mind; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself,’” is the correct summary of the law the law-expert gives to Jesus in Luke 10:27.

Our love for others flows from the love we have for God, and out of the love that He has shown us. By reading the Bible, we can be reminded of this. But the Bible also challenges us to love people who we may rather not “value, belief in & love unconditionally.”

    

One specific group that God calls the Israelites to love is foreigners living among them.

Deuteronomy 10:19 says: “And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.” Even more, Leviticus 19:34 says: “The foreigner residing among you must be treated as native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.”

This must not have been an easy task for the Israelites, even at the time that God spoke these words to them and it became more severely tested in the time that the Samaritan’s lived among them. The Samaritan’s were Israel’s natural enemies. And yet, when the expert of the law asks Jesus “who is my neighbor,” in Luke 10: 29b, Jesus answers in the form of a story that shows the Samaritan’s are indeed to be loved as their neighbors. (Luke 10:25-37 – The Parable of the Good Samaritan)

Who are your neighbors? Who are our neighbors? Have we justified anyone to be excluded from God’s command to love others as ourselves? Perhaps someone who has wronged us? Or perhaps, like the Israelites in Jesus time, we have a hard time loving the foreigners that seek refuge in our country?

Whatever it is, God can help us. He is an expert in loving those who hated Him. He even died for them. And on Christmas, we again celebrate the fact that Jesus came to live with those who loved and with those who hated Him; calling all of them back to the Love of the Father. Who can we share this news with this Holiday season? Who can we value, belief in & love in ways that we may never have before?

Ask God to challenge you. And I am sure that you will find both value and significance. Good luck!

In the presence of The Lord

Posted on by ywamutahcampus

If you have ever been to Salt Lake City, you may have noticed that in the very heart of the city, there where the lowest road numbers all come together, stands the LDS Temple (LDS = Latter Day Saints, or Mormonism). And just like the temple is found in the heart of the city, so temples in general still have a central place in the LDS faith.

As found on Mormon.org on 11-12-2015, the Latter Day Saints “Belief nr. 10” states that “Temples are the house of God on earth, holy places where we seek guidance and become closer to our Father in Heaven.”

As Christians, we don’t have temples made by human hands. John Bevere describes why this is as follows in chapter 6 of his book ‘The Fear of the Lord – Discovering the key to intimately knowing God’:

“Chapter 6 – A new sanctuary

Under the old covenant God’s glorious presence dwelled first in the tabernacle, then within the temple of Solomon.
Now God prepares to move into what was always His desired dwelling – a temple not made of stone, but the temple found in the hearts of His sons and daughters.”

He also references 2 Chronicles 6:16 “For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: ‘I will dwell in them and walk among them.'”

The Old Testament tabernacle and temple were indeed a place where God lived among the people – as long as they kept His commands – but it also showed the clear separation between a Holy God and His people. In contrast to the garden where God could walk with Adam and Eve in the cool of the evening, it was now terrifying for most people to be in close proximity of God. We can see this in the Israelite’s response when God shows himself at Mt. Sinai.

Exodus 20:18-20 “Now all the people witnessed the thundering, the lightning flashes, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood afar off. Then they said to Moses, ‘You speak with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die.'”

And God agrees (Deut 5:28-29), because in their lack of Fear of the Lord, God’s presence would indeed consume them.

The Tabernacle
When the tabernacle was built according to the exact blueprints that Moses received while meeting with God on Mt. Sinai, God’s presence descended on the tabernacle.

Exodus 40:34-35 “Then the cloud covered the tabernacle of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tabernacle of meeting, because the cloud rested above it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.”

When God’s presence descended, even Moses couldn’t go in.

Now we know that God’s presence didn’t rest this strong on His house all the time, but there remained a separation between the Holy God and His sinful people. This separation was made very obvious by the division in the temple. The Most Holy Place, could only be accessed once a year, and only by 1 person.

For years this went on. Sadly, we can see as we read on in the Old Testament that whole generations turned away from God. Many times the temple wasn’t even used to seek God anymore and in the end, the temple got destroyed.

The veil was torn
And then, years after Solomon’s original temple had been rebuilt, the impossible happened. Jesus came and when He died, He made everything that had happened in the temple to that day obsolete.

Hebrews 9:12 “Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.”

Jesus Himself became the New High Priest. Hebrews 7 speaks of an eternal Priesthood, in the line of Melchizedek. A priesthood that will never stop, that will never be passed down, and that will never end. Jesus is our high priest forever. And no other priest could do what Jesus could by His own sacrifice.

No more separation?
So according to the Bible, we no longer have a need for priests, temples or sacrifices – as Jesus is the high priest, our bodies are the temples, and Jesus death on the cross was the one sacrifice that is sufficient forever.

But perhaps this revelation is more scary than if we could keep some separation between us and God. If we could have priests, temples and prophets to stand in between of us and the Holy One. To still be able to say: No, you please go, but if we would be in His presence any longer, we would die. (Ex. 20:18-20 paraphrased)

People, the veil was torn! We do have access to the Holy One and He wants relationship with us. But like Moses, our hearts have to be in the right place. We need to grow in our understanding of who God is and what this Holiness looks like. In addition, we too have to grow in our understanding of the Fear of The Lord.

Jesus Himself understood this – Isaiah 11:1-3 “A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him – the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of knowledge and fear of the Lord – and he will delight in the fear of the Lord.”

It is a choice
But it is still a choice – James 4:8 “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”

Just remember: God = Holy & God = Worthy.

And though He accepts us as we are, we have to be willing to let Him transform us when we go into His presence. We need to be willing to let go of anything that we might be holding onto, and be convinced that He is both Worthy and Trustworthy – so that we don’t have to be afraid. (No: Fear of the Lord IS NOT being afraid of God)

One last question

Q. Would you want to live eternity in heaven, with those you love, even if God wouldn’t be there?
Sadly, many people would answer yes to this question. But if you do, you may not know God for who He really is.

If on the other hand, you know deep down that no matter how good your life, or the afterlife might be, that it would be empty without God – then you are really ready to grow into a deeper relationship with Him. Ask Him – He is not far from those who seek Him, and I pray that you may find Him and realize that the more you get to know Him, the more wonderful He is.

Recognition: Do you want to grow in your understanding of The Fear of the Lord? Consider reading “The Fear of the Lord” by John Bevere.