No Time To Cower

This is a timely word. Hear it and move ahead. ~Jon

No Time to Cower
When days are desperate, be bold and move forward, for Jesus' sake.
Gordon MacDonald posted 11/17/2008 07:21AM

Wild times lead people to pursue spiritual realities. Look for an uptick in prayer, spiritual friendships, greater curiosity about what the Bible says about life's priorities. Wild times humble the arrogant and acquaint us with the struggles of the poor. Compassion and generosity take on a new meaning. That's not too bad.

There are two possibilities here. One is that I simply don't know what I'm talking about, and it's full steam ahead into business-as-usual. The other? That these conditions do indeed call for a courageous response like Foch's approach to turbulent times: "I attack." A bold advance.
That's what I pray the Christian movement will do. Not retrenchment! But a bold advance involves dramatic change: in leadership, in ways of doing Jesus' work, in innovative new thought about the meaning and impact of the gospel. Again, I say: attack!

What could that possibility mean to people of spiritual influence in these days? Several experimental ideas:

Let's go back to the Bible and rediscover what godly people said and did when the sky was falling in their generation. New insights, possibly?

Let's make sure we have something substantial to say to those who are victimized by this economic tsunami: those losing their jobs, those who thought they were economically secure in their old age and discovered they aren't, and youth who might be fearing that there's no dream out there for them.

Let's reappraise our priorities of generosity and make sure that the giving-dollar goes to efforts that advance Christian ministry in enduring and deepening ways. Enough of the silly ways the Christian-dollar has been raised and wasted.

Let's think repentantly about how a lot of us have allowed ourselves to be caught up in a global financial system that was largely based on greed and falsehood. Lots of Christian organizations are crying about what has been lost because of this flawed financial system. But we ought not to forget it was that same system that helped those organizations get a lot of what they had. What goes up often comes down.

Maybe it's time to seek new ways of doing Christian service, ways less dependent upon money and bricks and mortar and more dependent upon unadulterated spiritual power. The early Christian movement, it seems to me, knew a lot about this.

We need to ask ourselves if we have any kind of message rising from the words and life of Jesus that would be significant to those in our larger world who thought they had a better way than Jesus' way. Revival time?

Confession: I have never been a great proponent of "revivals" because too many of them (the modern ones anyway) seemed contrived. But maybe—just maybe—we're at the brink of a real one.The great 1859 revival that touched America and large parts of Europe was anything but contrived. And that revival was framed in an economic disaster that was as bad as this one, maybe worse.

An American by the name of Jeremiah Lamphere suggested opening the doors of churches at noon each day for people to come and pray. Soon churches were flooded by people on their knees. Many found Jesus. You could say that they organized their lives around Christ, not cash.
In a sense Landphere said, "I attack." Maybe Marshal Foch got his idea from him.

Gordon MacDonald is editor at large of Leadership and interim president of Denver Seminary in Colorado. Copyright © 2008 by the author or Christianity Today International/Leadership Journal.Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal

When God's Will Doesn't Make Sense

This is a hard word. Especially if you have prayed for one thing and gotten something else. I don't claim to understand God's way, but I know He is good. So I choose to stand in awe of Him and rejoice in who He is even when I don't understand.

Praising The King Who Reigns,
~Jon


When God’s Will Is That His Will Not Be Done
Meditations on 1 Samuel 2:22-25
By John Piper June 10, 1997

1 Samuel 2:22-25
"Now Eli was very old; and he heard all that his sons were doing to all Israel, and how they lay with the women who served at the doorway of the tent of meeting. And he said to them, “Why do you do such things, the evil things that I hear from all these people? “No, my sons; for the report is not good which I hear the Lord’s people circulating. If one man sins against another, God will mediate for him; but if a man sins against the Lord, who can intercede for him?” But they would not listen to the voice of their father, for the Lord desired to put them to death."

It was too late for Eli’s sons. They had crossed the line of no return. The sentence had been given by the Lord. They were to be slain by the Lord. And they were slain, according to 1 Samuel 4:11. There are three implications of this text for our lives.

1. It is possible to sin so long and so grievously that the Lord will not grant repentance.

That is why Paul said that after all our pleading and teaching, “God may grant them repentance”—not, “will grant them repentance” (2 Timothy 2:25). There is a “too late” in the life of sin. As it says of Esau in Hebrews 12:17, “He found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears.” He was forsaken; he could not repent.

This does not mean that those who truly repent even after a whole lifetime of sinning cannot be saved. They certainly can be, and will be! God is staggeringly merciful. Witness the thief on the cross: “Today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). Jesus said, “The one who comes to me I will certainly not cast out” (John 6:37). But no one knows where the point of no return is. The deciding factor is not a set number of years of sinning or a particular kind of sin. God alone knows in the case of each person where the line is crossed. This is a call for making haste to reconcile with God (Hebrews 3:15), and a call to be vigilant against willful and protracted sinning (Hebrews 10:26).

2. God may not permit a sinning person to do what is right.

“But they would not listen to the voice of their father, for the Lord desired to put them to death.” Listening to the voice of their father was the right thing to do. But they would not. Why? “For the Lord desired to put them to death.” The reason given for why they did not obey their father was that God had other purposes for them, and had given them up to sinning and death. This shows that there are times when the will of God’s decree is different from the will of God’s command. He commanded, “Children, obey your parents.” But in this case he willed that instead of obedience they persist in their sin and be slain. God is not sinning in this will of decree. He is ordering things so that sin continue for holy and just purposes, which is not sin on God’s part.

3. Sometimes our prayers for God’s revealed will to be done will not be done because God has decreed something different for holy and wise purposes.

I suppose that Eli prayed for his sons to be changed. This is how he should have prayed. God commanded that children obey their parents. So we should pray that they obey. But God had decreed that Hophni and Phineas not obey, but rather be slain. When something like this happens (which we do not ordinarily know ahead of time) while we are crying out to God for change, the answer of God is not: “I don’t love you.” Nor is it, “I don’t hear you.” Nor is it even, “I don’t approve of your prayers. I do!” Rather the answer is (even when we can’t hear it): “I have wise and holy purposes in not overcoming this sin and not granting repentance. You do not see these purposes now. Trust me. I know what I am doing. I love you.”

Submitted to God,
Pastor John

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Move

This morning when the alarm went off (for the 3rd time) :) Switchfoot's song, Dare You To Move came on the radio. I have heard the song hundreds of times, but God allowed me to hear these lyrics with fresh ears this morning.

"...Everyone's here
Everyone's here
Everybody's watching you now
What happens next?...
...Welcome to the fallout
Welcome to resistance
The tension is here
The tension is here
Between who you are and who you could be
Between how it is and how it should be

I dare you to move
I dare you to move
I dare you to lift yourself up off the floor
I dare you to move
I dare you to move
Like today never happened
Today never happened before"

When I came into the bonus room, I picked up our copy of The Valley Of Vision and read The Mover (pg 12-13). God continued to speak.

"O Supreme Moving Cause,

May I always be subordinate to Thee,
be dependent on Thee,
be found in the path where Thou dost walk, and where Thy Spirit moves,
take heed of estrangement from Thee,
of becoming insensible to Thy love.

Thou dost not move men like stones,
but dost endue them with life,
not to enable them to move without Thee,
but in submission to Thee, The First Mover."

Lord, in You "we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28a). Let me see You move today so I can know where we are going. I will go with You.

~Jon

Do Not Be Afraid

I read this great little article on the Desiring God blog today and it ties in nicely to yesterdays post. Also, throughout my time at TRBC, we repeatedly were reminded through what God did through Jehoshaphat that He truly fights our battles. Our job is to recognize and celebrate who He is in our situations.

~Jon


Do Not Be Afraid
November 13, 2008
By: Jon Bloom
Category: Commentary


The armies of Moab, Ammon, and Edom were on the move. Destination: Jerusalem. They were relatives of the Israelites; Moab and Ammon were descended from Lot and Edom from Esau. But this was no family reunion. This was a slaughter in the making.

These three nations bordered Israel and Judah on the east and south. And since the reigns of David and Solomon, they had off-and-on been subject to the kings of Israel, paying a tribute tax and providing forced labor for Israel.


But it had been over 60 years since Solomon’s death and Israel had split into two kingdoms. Their strength was divided. And the northern kingdom was weakened from its battles with Syria. The time was ripe. If they joined forces now, they could crush the army of Judah and plunder king Jehoshaphat’s wealth. After that, maybe the northern kingdom.

Jehoshaphat caught wind of the impending attack. It didn’t take a Pythagoras to do the math. His army was like a sandcastle facing a large wave about to break right on it. The kingdom of Judah would be swept away unless he got some very strong help.


Now, forget for the moment that you know the fairytale-like ending to the story. What would it have been like to be Jehoshaphat? A brutal death for himself and everyone he loves. Tens of thousands of his people were bearing down on him. Everyone was looking to him to do something to save them. Imagine the pressure.

Jehoshaphat really did trust the Lord and believed his promises. He did believe God could rescue Judah. He wanted to honor God by his trust. And, in this case, he didn’t have many alternatives. Sometimes that is a great mercy.


He must have remembered his father Asa’s mistake. As a younger king Asa had cried out to the Lord for deliverance when his small army faced one million Ethiopian soldiers and God had miraculously answered him. But in later years he abandoned that trust and forged an alliance with Syria. And God disciplined him severely for it.

So Jehoshaphat gathered the people of Judah in Jerusalem for a fast. They stood before the temple, and the king, in an act of great leadership, pleaded their case before the Lord and then said this:


“We are powerless against this great horde that is coming against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you. (2 Chronicles 20:12)

Isn’t that a beautiful confession? It is so child-like in its humility and faith. It is, in fact, another Old Testament picture of the gospel. We are powerless to save ourselves. But when we look to God and call on him for deliverance from the impending judgment, he brings about a salvation beyond our wildest imagination.


The reason God orchestrated Jehoshaphat’s predicament is the same as his design in the tribulations and crises in our lives: he want us to increasingly find freedom from fear.

You see, real freedom is not the liberty to do what we want, or even the absence of distress. Real freedom is the deep-seated confidence that God really will provide everything we need. The person who believes this is the freest of all persons on earth, because no matter what situation they find themselves in, they have nothing to fear.


But the only way for sinners like us with a bent toward unbelief in God to find this kind of freedom is by experiencing repeatedly God’s delivering power and his faithfulness. That’s why we are to count it all joy when we meet trials of various kinds (James 1:2). They are making us free.

There are a lot of temptations to fear right now: political change, economic calamity, natural disasters, all on top of personal hardships. If you're feeling the wight of these things, you may be helped by the message, “Fear Not, I Am With You, I Am Your God.” In this sermon, John Piper unpacks Isaiah 41:1-13, one of his favorite texts, and gives us what he calls “the key to overcoming fear.” Remember that all these difficult things are working together for your good and for your ultimate freedom and joy.


God answered Jehoshaphat’s faith-filled prayer in a spectacular way. He threw the Ammonites, Moabites, and Edomites into confusion and they slaughtered one another. Jehoshaphat and his choir-led army never had to lift a sword. And it took them three days to carry the plunder back home.

God’s word to us through this story in all the crises we face is this: “Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed at this great horde, for the battle is not yours but God’s” (2 Chronicles 20:15).

God Is Still In Control

I haven't posted anything recently. These last two weeks have been very unique for Suzanne and me. On October 31, I officially received word that due to continued financial difficulties, my position at Two Rivers was being eliminated. So, what that means is that tonight will be the last time that I lead a rehearsal with the choir at TRBC. God is so good to me, though. He has allowed me and my family to experience His presence in a unique way with a band of brothers here. We have been encouraged with many eternal friendships. These are the friends who have, and continue to point Suzanne and I back toward what is eternal and unseen. This has been a gracious gift from our Father and we praise Him. Although we are uncertain of what our next assignment will be, He is already there. I came across this article today and I think it is extremely timely and relevant. As the old TRUTH song says, "Take heart and know God is in control."

~Jon


God Is Still in Control
Barbara Rainey


“These are times that try men’s souls.” Thomas Paine, 1776.

These past weeks we have been dealt an economic blow most of us were not expecting. And it is spreading around the globe, threatening every nation. It seems impossible to lock out the incessant reports of bad news from the media. It seeps into our thinking and leads us to depression and discouragement. The result is often fear, panic, and inaction. We feel helpless under the assault of all that seems so bad. Our normal routine has been upset.


All of us feel these trying times. Dennis and I are watching investments fall and donations to FamilyLife drop dramatically. We are thinking hard about how and where to cut spending both personally and at work.

But do we forget in our fearful response to bad news that God is still in control? This has not caught Him by surprise. He knew it was coming just as He knows all that is yet to happen.
And not only does He know, but is it possible that He caused it or allowed it for our good? “Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?” Job 2:10


Is it possible that He in His sovereign will and providence wants us to learn new wonders about Himself as we are forced to trust Him in ways we never have? Might He want us to have the joy of seeing Him provide in ways we did not expect?

One of my favorite heroines of the faith is Corrie ten Boom who, with her father and sister, hid Jews in their home during World War II because they believed God wanted them to preserve life. And how did God reward them for doing these deeds of courage and sacrifice and love? He allowed them to be hauled off to Ravensbrook concentration camp in Germany to experience depravity and a depth of suffering none of us knows. It was far worse than our current economic crisis. And yet in the midst of that suffering they experienced miracles of God’s presence, His provision, His grace and mercy, and love and forgiveness in ways not possible in the comfort of their ordinary lives.


God is always more concerned about our character than our comfort, our faith than our feelings, and our love for Him rather than our love for things. God is not afraid to use a little pain or even a lot of pain so that we might have the privilege of knowing Him and seeing Him at work.

Romans 8:28 tells us that “all things work together for good to those who love God and who are called according to His purpose.” May we remember He always has our good in mind. And may we, in our response to this present difficulty, be like Job about whom the Bible says in Job 2:10, “In all this Job did not sin with his lips.” It is good to give thanks to our God.

Play With Confidence

Article #7 from Ron Bergthold deals with a much misunderstood idea...confidence. Those without a biblical worldview equate confidence with cockiness. This is not the confidence of the follower of Jesus. The confidence we embrace comes from Who we belong to and Who controls us. The Spirit of Jesus fills us with the confidence of Jesus and empowers us to live the life of Jesus out in our daily existence. I Surrender All becomes our theme song. It's then that we can live with God-confidence. Be blessed by this word and my apologies to any bari-sax players. ;) ~Jon


Play With Confidence
by Ron Bergthold

How do you make a chain saw sound like a baritone sax? (Answer: Add vibrato.)

Shaky, wavering, tentative, thin – these are not words we like to hear describing our tone, but they often describe the sound initially produced from beginning students (except maybe from a bari sax). New instrumentalists are usually not confident, simply because they have no reason to be! Though they start badly, they hopefully gain confidence as they improve. A lack of confidence can interfere with a student’s progress, or even plague seasoned players when there is no reason for it.

Thus one of the first and fundamental skills needed to be developed by good musicians is playing with confidence. This involves knowing what you are capable of and believing that you can reproduce this capability in the piece you are about to play. If you know you can do it right, you probably will. If you are not sure, chances are you will not play it well, and certainly not with the desired musicality and passion. Of course, many reasonably believe too much confidence is the gateway drug to pride, and that, given the stern Biblical warnings against this evil, we should only play with meek and humble passivity.

Jesus’ disciples, when confronted with the revelation that one of them would betray Him, reacted with at least two emotions (Luke 22:23-24). The first emotion reflected a lack of personal confidence. Might he be the one capable of such a deed? We are often the very first to question our own abilities. Self-doubts and fear of what others will think of our playing comes naturally. Even the most talented players question whether they have what it takes to give a truly great performance sometimes. Fear of failure rules many lives, producing wide-ranging effects, from the “I won’t even try it” to the “I will not let myself fail” obsession and its accompanying perfectionism.

The second emotion that quickly took over the disciples’ initial thoughts appears much more sinister. A surge of over-confidence quickly overwhelmed their personal self-doubts, creating a full-fledged battle of who among them was the greatest! They went from zero to ninety on the pride scale in a matter of minutes, if not seconds. How could that kind of shift take place? How do we stop that kind of roller-coaster turn of direction?

It was actually not a turn, but rather acceleration in the same wrong direction. Both self-doubt and pride focus on us, when God clearly and jealously desires our entire attention. Even when we are pounded by circumstances that demand our self-preservation and raise our biggest fears and doubts, we must instead completely trust in God and His Word. David wrote Psalm 27 in the midst of extreme life-threatening opposition, but was still able to state in verse 13 that he was “…still confident in this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” The “land of the living” meant right here on earth, not later in heaven.

Every minute of our lives, we choose for whom we will live and play. It is indeed the most important choice we make and continue to make. Proverbs 3:5-6 encourages us to choose wisely: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.” Confidence in God means He alone is our audience. Play for Him with utmost confidence IN Him!

For the TRBC Orchestra on October 22, 2008

Playing The Rest

Here is the next installment in Ron Bergthold's series (#6) and he continues to challenge us using these metaphors from the orchestra and connecting them to our lives in Christ. This one hits on God's invitation to rest. Here in America, we don't really have a grasp of this. We tend to fill our "days off" with just as much activity as our work days. The idea of Sabbath, commanded by God, seems to be lost on us. For most, rest = leisure. This is not the heart of what God is calling us to. Leisure's focus is entertainment. His rest is a place of ceasing from activity and enjoying Him. A time where we are connected to Him through a radical departure from the noise and kinetic activity of our day to day lives, and lest you try to make this about a specific day of the week or some observance of ritual, check out Hebrews 4:9-11.

"So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from His. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience." (ESV)

He is calling us to cease our activity that is not empowered by Him. He is saying, "Rest in Me, and I will work through you." Lord, we hear You. Help us rest in Your work and fulfill our destiny in You.

~Jon

Playing the Rest

by Ron Bergthold

Did you hear about the violist who bragged she could play a 32nd note? (Answer: The rest of the orchestra did not believe her, so she proved it by playing one).

The climax of a musical piece can actually be marked by a unified silence, a grand pause, when every person plays a deafening rest. Grand pauses can generate a masterfully dramatic effect, unless someone accidentally plays a note within it! As we all know, it can be more difficult at times to not play a rest than to actually play the notes. From the dotted sixteenth rest to the triple-digit bar naps, everyone knows they will need to cease playing at some point.

Although at times some composers mercifully place a few rests for the brass to recover their lips, most do not arrange rests simply to allow alternating players to relax. The main intent is to bring to the listeners’ ears a different sound by eliminating one instrument or another completely, allowing others to rise to the forefront. In order to get just the right effect, the trumpets must be silenced so the flute melody can soar. The simple rest is a vital tool of the best composers, used expertly for balancing instrumentation and providing variety and life to the music we enjoy.

Spiritually when we think of rest, we often think of a Sabbath rest, where we refrain from routine work and focus on God. This is a refreshing gift from God that is as often overlooked today as it was overworked by the Pharisees in the time of Christ. They had defined work in such exacting physical detail that maintaining a “restful” mode was so burdensome that one could not enjoy the true rest which God intended.

The Old Testament hinted at true rest in Exodus 33:14 when God told Moses, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” Jesus built on this thought in Mark 6:31 when He told the apostles, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.” Jesus then explained in much more detail in Matthew 11:28-29, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” The source of true rest is being in the presence of God.

We must learn to play the rest by ceasing our own performance and instead learn and listen to God’s solo, often coming as a still, small voice that may not be heard while we are playing our own tune. We don’t cease from playing entirely though. God still wants us to produce music, but He intensely wants us to listen to Him and connect to His part so well that the listener will hear a beautiful duet. The overall composition will always have a unique style which is “gentle and humble” in heart and restful to the soul.

I can’t help but note a future rest that will occur. The biggest of all grand pauses is found in Revelation 8:1, “When He (Jesus) opened the seventh seal, there was silence for about half an hour.” Can you imagine complete silence anywhere for 30 minutes and the effect it would have on all who participate? The unifying declaration of all God had done in history to reconcile man unto Himself will be contemplated, and the beginning of a whole new era for creation will be anticipated! And how will this majestic silence be broken? The rather obvious answer can be found in Revelation 8…..

For the TRBC Orchestra on October 1, 2008