Thoughts of a quote, from a letter, used to clarify a misquote…

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One of the awesome parts of getting to be in YWAM is the emphasis on continued learning – that learning may come through, schools, reaching out to people older than you, listening to people younger than you, and, one of my favorites, paying attention to what goes on around you.

Ok, maybe that is my take on learning, but this is a cool movement of folks to do that alongside of.

In that spirit I was reading a Christianity Today article sharing about a book to be released sometime next year, titled, the Misquotable C.S. Lewis. You can read the article for your self here. As I read through the list I found the insights interesting, but when I came to number seven, something in its explanation caught my eye.

The quote in question was this, “There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind.”

Now, the article explains, if you drop the “far, far”, it does read as written by C. S. Lewis. However, its context is a little unclear. The writer explains that it is more than just a suck it up moment or quotable phrase, its context is that it was written to a lady that feared her own coming death. The quote is preceded by this, “Has this world been so kind to you that you should leave it with regret?”

As I process this there is a deep calling inside myself that what was questioned and said is true. Has this world been so kind that I should leave it with regret?

This isn’t just a broken way of thinking, questioning existence, but it feels like this is a question processed in experience, with heart. I am not an expert on C. S. Lewis at all. Though, what I do know of him is that he is held in high regard as a writer and a thinker. I also know of him as the young man who went to World War 1, the man who lost his wife, and the man who served through the bombing raids against London. Even in all this he is famous enough that a book would get written of the misquotes attributed to him.

We live in an amazing world created by an amazing God, don’t get me wrong, I am very grateful for that, though, I am much younger than C. S. Lewis and I can see that this world is not as it was intended. We ourselves are not often inline with what God desired. He saw the World Wars and we have seen some of the world created by them. War is seemingly unending. Peace is short-lived. We live in a broken world.

What then should be our response?

This may be a divided opinion, and each of us may be called by God in different directions, but I find my place in embracing the brokenness in hope that God will show up and turn it around. I have incredible hope for northern Iraq and for people in the middle-east. The places that are the worst and the hardest get my attention. There is no human answer for the difficulties that we face other than our cooperation with God.

In my humanity I can show preference and value one beautiful thing above another to a fault, that is something that God needs to change in all of our hearts, and there are times that I’ve looked back and saw that. Yet, God does keep working on that. Having hope for another nation (let alone state) is something that God did in my heart.

When I reread C. S. Lewis’ question to the lady approaching death, “Has this world been so kind to you that you should leave it with regret?”, my response is no – this world hasn’t been kind. There have been kind people, incredible moments of beauty, but it hasn’t been kind. The greatest kindnesses have been shown by God who has continued to stand kind and beautiful when this world failed to do so. And, in return, I press into God and seek out ways to champion that kind and beautiful world. There is no regret in that.

God has put a call on each of our lives to Him and each other, it is a real privilege to get to do that in Youth With A Mission. Since coming out my own heart for God, people, and the nations have increased. I encourage you to ask God if the life of full-time service is for you as well!

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?

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.

In the presence of The Lord

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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.