allelujah

I took this photo of Christ the Redeemer in Rio five years ago.

God just returned me to Brasil two weeks ago.  How precious the return was.  Like Samuel at Mizpah, I raised my Ebenezer and said, “Thus far has the Lord been with me.”

When I first went to Brasil and experienced the extraordinary, fervent worship, packed churches, multiple altar calls, the fire of the Spirit, I was in a wounded place.  It was new.  There was much to absorb.  But, this time when I went back, I was able to relish the experience and dive in wholeheartedly.

Where do I even begin to relate all that happened – the signs and wonders and the preaching of the gospel.  The changes in people, healing, rejoicing, worship services lasting hours.

But, one little Methodist church – a poor, little church seemed to capsulize it all.

We joined this church, Igreja Metodista Rio d’Ouro on a hot afternoon out in the streets.  We Americans were each paired with a Brazilian and then several of us walked together through the streets.  To say “streets” is to be generous.  There were narrow, dirt alleys running between cramped brick block apartments.  The alleys were strewn with trash and puddles.  People, sitting at tables outside of bars, were already on their second, third, fourth bottle of beer or other alcohol.  We handed out small tracts to them and our Brazilian friends invited them to worship that night.

I was paired with a lovely man named Sandro.  He didn’t speak but a few words of English and I know only a few in Portugese.  But, we managed to laugh and point and gesture.  At moments, he would grab my hand and we’d jump over puddles or cross a narrow bridge over a creek.  It was clear that the Brazilians were a little shy about the street ministry and how they would be received, just as we were shy about it too.  The neighborhood looked rough, a little ominous.  But together, we were light-hearted and bold as lions.

We went back to the church and they put out a feast for us – such an honor for them to go to such expense.  Their building is unfinished.  Light bulbs hang down on wires.  There was no air conditioning.  The sweat flowed freely on us all.

We proceeded to the very small sanctuary after dinner.  It was packed.  The windows had no glass – just open air.  Our worship leader said in Portugese and Claudio, our marvelous cook and translator, began to translate, “We have different languages, but there is a word we share, “Allelujah.”  Let’s sing together.

And so Brazilians and Americans began to sing, “Allelujah, Allelujah, Allelujah, Allelujah.”  Oh, I could feel the sweetness and the power of the Lord’s presence.  I could hardly stand up, feeling the power and anointing at the altar.  The pastor, a gentle and lovely man, stood up afterwards and said, “Let us read Psalm 133 together…’Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers and sisters to dwell together in unity!”

I could feel the pleasure of the Lord – with our unity and the love being expressed between us, but with our love for others that would take us out into the streets to reach those unfamiliar with church and with Christ.  The worship service continued like that – the pastor reminding people that they could worship in freedom, that the Spirit was present.  Betty, our bible teacher, preached on the baptism of the Holy Spirit – the promise from the Father that is meant for all who follow Christ.

Sandro and a group of men got up and sang wearing t-shirts that said, “Project Restoring Lives – I Participate.”  The Brazilian percussion instruments that they used and the rhythms they created just called us to dance before the Lord.  In fact, we ended the service with such joy dancing back and forth to a song with a title meaning “All Your Blessings.”

I pray for this kind of freedom, joy, and love in our American churches.  Come, Lord Jesus, come.

i thought i could, i thought i could

Many people encountered the story of the little train trying to make it up the hill when they were children. 

The train encouraged itself by saying, “I think I can…I think I can.”  And through the power of that positive thinking, the train made it to the top of a hill and over.  A great story.  Perseverance and positive thinking.  You can’t go wrong with that, except if you’re a person trying to live the Christian life.

The Christian life is impossible sung to the tune of “I think I can!”  Jesus said, “Apart from me, you can do nothing.”  He said, “Unless you become like a child, you will in no way enter the Kingdom of God.”

This is hard stuff for us achievers to take.  We think we can.  We think we can.  The moment of blessedness comes when we realize that we are at the end of our rope.  All our ways of trying to get to God on our own have failed or are failing.  But, the good news is that at the end of our rope is God’s address and He begins to teach us the lessons of grace that we only thought we understood before.  God so loved the world that He GAVE His only Son that whoever believes (receives, trusts, depends upon, leans on, surrenders to) in Him will not perish but have eternal life.

Too many Christians are still trying to get to God through their own righteousness.  They become exhausted and petty in the process, unable to gracefully receive others.  They become like the older son in the tale of the Prodigal.  Relief comes when we know our need and hold out our hands like a child.  He is faithful to give even to the crankiest, upright, uptight Christian.  He makes the heart of stone a heart of flesh and enables us to love like Him.  Tenderly, gracefully.  Only He can do it.  We are helpless until we let Him have His way.  Praise God.  Praise God.  Praise God.

for what do you hunger?

A friend from a former church once said that you will always have time, money, and energy for the things that are really important to you.

I thought about this as the winter snows threatened to bury us – it seemed people managed to get through at least some of it in order to see family and friends and go to Christmas or New Year parties, but when it came to gathering as the church, their hearts went cold like the snow.  It became too hard to get to the church and oh so easy to say, “Now we need to stay home and be safe.”  For what do you hunger?

Thinking of this makes me admire  the wise men all the more.  It was quite a trek to get from the area of modern day Iran to Jerusalem – and what a fool’s mission.  Some sort of celestial event and perhaps the writings of Jewish prophets and sages like Daniel as their calculator for the birth of this Messiah.  They had their own gods, but were strangely admiring of the Jewish one perhaps and for this, they traveled over hill and dale to get to the house where the now toddler was staying. (Matthew 2:1-12)

They also had to get through Herod and his court and all Jerusalem to do it.  The bible says that when they arrived in Jerusalem, they asked, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews?  For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.”  Now, the wise men of Jerusalem, the chief priests and scribes readily could answer the question.  Herod called them together and HE asked where the Messiah was to be born.  They said Bethlehem, based on a prophecy of Micah.  Isn’t it stunning that both Herod and the elders of Jerusalem lived with the knowledge that a Messiah was to be born – one sent from God for God’s purposes?  They talked about it with familiarity, but they could have cared less.  Not one of the elders stirred himself to go to Bethlehem with the foreign wise men.  Herod would ultimately send out his military to kill this Child.  This group was not only indifferent, Herod was murderously hostile.  Later, his council would have the same attitude towards Jesus the grown man and would crucify Him through the Romans.

Only the wise men from the east set out with their costly offerings of gold, frankincense and myrrh, having already given their energy and their time to get to Jesus.

How about you – did you find it easy to stay home and ignore Him this season – or did you expend your time, treasure and energy to get to Him and worship Him?

We’ll always have time, treasure, and energy for what really matters to us.

“The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid again; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.  Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.” Matthew 13:44-45

a simple word of hope

In the play Fiddler on the Roof, there is a wonderful theatrical device employed.  As Tevye, the Jewish peasant father, comes to grips with his three girls marrying in ways that do not follow tradition, everyone in the scene “freezes,” and Tevye begins to reason out loud with himself and with God, “On the one hand…on the other hand,” and then the action begins again when he has reached a conclusion.

I think about this device when I think of the effect Christmas has on us.  Why is it that we bake cookies, watch favorite movies, light candles, put up trees with odd things hanging on all the branches?  What causes us to get so caught up in this holiday?  Even the atheists may go buy gifts and attend a party or two, though they might be loathe to admit it.  How is it that this stirring comes about in us…this nostalgia…this moment when our daily life freezes, time stops all around us, and we experience not a moment of reasoning like Tevye, but instead an unreasonable moment  of something that is incredibly sweet?

Yesterday, as we met in the prison, my partner in the bible study brought a lesson on the wise men as told in the gospel of Matthew.  She talked about the difficulty, the harshness of the Roman empire, the brutality of Herod, who killed family members and the baby boys of Bethlehem.  She was trying to lead the inmates to the point of acknowledging that life was hard back then as it is for them now, but our God is a mighty God who fights for us.  She wanted these weighted, world-weary women to feel their situations were not the only hard ones that have ever happened – the holy family’s was too –  and have them see that God is all-powerful, able to overcome the darkness.  “The first Christmas was tough too,” she said.   “It’s not like all those pretty Christmas cards.”  This did not cheer them or reassure them however.  The world is too much with them.  The reminder of its evil  then and now was not the Christmas message needed.  She knew it as she left.  “I was, perhaps, too heavy.”  It is a hard thing to teach, to try to bring a word from the Lord.  She meant well.  She wanted to see them lift up their heads by connecting their suffering to others’. 

But, I’m wondering if the first Christmas was like all our pretty Christmas cards – at least for a moment.  A brief snippet of time where everything froze around the manger gathering and yes, there was the sweetness and the dignity, the radiant Light our cards portray.  In the recent movie, the Nativity, the gritty shepherds quietly draw near; the exotic, yet learned wise men bow  reverently to the Child and set their costly gifts before Him; peasants, Mary and Joseph, watch all with awe; and there is a sense of extraordinary peace.  I wonder if it wasn’t like that – at least,  just for a moment. 

Yes, I know, Jesus was born a poor child, into a roughed up little nation subject to empires, at this time, the Roman one.  Herod, not even a Jew, was their king and a ruthless scamp.  There was cheating and tax collecting and crosses and barbarism, false religion, heartlessness, wickedness, slavery.  Yes, it was a rotten time.  Paul tells us, however, that it was just the right moment in history (Gal. 4:4).  Jesus was born in the fullness of time and many look at the roads connecting the empire and the Greek language spoken “world-wide” and we see how the Gospel could be spread with relative ease under those circumstances.  But, it was a time of darkness.  Still, with the heavenly hosts’ chorus and a brilliant star, the quietness of the stable nursery, did a meteoric flash of hope pierce the darkness, a glimpse of a glorious future burst into our world, itself, groaning to be born into new life?

I believe it was like that for I see that wherever that same Christmas spirit takes hold of the human heart, even today, for a brief moment, life becomes miraculously tender and kind and we have a foretaste of the world to come.

Many have heard the story of the WWI Christmas truce of 1914 – the story of German and English soldiers who came out of their muddy, wretched trenches to exhange food and simple gifts, even play soccer in No Man’s Land between the two forces.   Some Germans had put Christmas trees with candles on the edges of their trenches.   Carols had started and at moments were being sung together in both languages.   By morning, enemies were out of their trenches, exchanging simple gifts, laughing, and playing soccer.  The truce ended as Christmas passed, but what a miracle, that Christmas seized their hearts and they, for a moment, laid down their weapons for a day.  The action froze around them and they were at peace with one another for a moment in time.

I read recently of a man in solitary confinement in prison, a man serving 15 years in Florida.  Through the vents in his cell, he could hear another man’s invitation to take turns singing Christmas carols on Christmas Eve.  One song led to another, sometimes to duets.  They could sense the other men listening.  For a moment, Immanuel was in their cells, time was suspended as was their bleak reality and hope and peace reigned once again. (Roy Borges, “O Holy Night,” (Today’s Christian, November/December 2006), p. 66.

No, I am convinced that what we see on our Christmas cards holds truth.  It was peaceful.  Animals, humans, rich, poor, men and women, a picture of the blended family God is creating gathered around what was most humble and vulnerable, the Form God chose to take, a Child, demonstrating the self-emptying of real Love.  For a shining moment, there was peace on earth and because of it, that peace continues to break in every time we turn our attention to Christmas and its hope.

My prayer is that we experience this once again this year and know that it is a foretaste of the reigning, enduring peace of God’s kingdom that is coming, that is now, but not yet.  It is because Jesus was born that we feel what some call the “magic of this season.”  Let us never fail to make the connection.  Jesus brings the tenderness, the exaggerated acts of kindness, the feelings of deep peace however fleeting they may be.

May the peace of God which passes all understanding guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.  Amen

For He said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.  I do not give to you as the world gives.  Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”  John 14:27

the shepherds kept watch

We’ll light the last Advent candle this Sunday.  It is the candle of the shepherds – at least we are calling it that.  The meaning of each candle can be toyed with a bit depending on the themes of Advent preaching.

This year I have been drawn to talking about the “foolishness” of God.  Some in the church family raised their eyebrows at first until I pointed out that this was a biblical phrase and not irreverent:

“For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.”  1 Corinthians 1:25

The passage goes on to say that God “chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise: God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.  He chose the lowly things and the despised things – and the things that are not – to nullify the things that are so that no one may boast before Him. 1 Corinthians 1:27-29

Throughout the Bible and particularly in the Christmas story of Luke, runs the theme that God loves the humble and the lowly people.  He cast them as the “players” in the first Christmas scene.  It is to the shepherds that the first announcement of Jesus’ birth and identity are made and by the whole heavenly host, no less.

The gospel of Matthew tells us that the learned men who were aware of the Child’s birthplace being prophesied as Bethlehem didn’t move a muscle when wise men from the East arrived in Jerusalem and said they were seeking the Child via a star and were on their way to see Him.  (Matthew 2:5)  What a difference between these learned, privileged men and the rough, humble men alert and at their posts in the fields around Bethlehem who ran to the manger upon hearing the angels’ announcement.  Aside from that, their practices and vocation would be the metaphor for the Good Shepherd, Jesus, who would tenderly watch His flock.  Isaiah wrote prophetically:

He tends his flock like a shepherd, He gathers the lambs in his arms, He carries them close to his heart; He gently leads those that have young.  Isaiah 40:11

Yes, God has a special option for the poor, but I can’t help but think these shepherds who were privileged by grace to see the Babe also had a particular spirit about them – watchful, ready to believe and receive, ready to praise and glorify God.  How lucky they were that nothing stood in the way of their experiencing God to the fullest – not materialism, not intellectualism, not greed or self-interest, false religion, and so on.

“For this is what the high and lofty One says – he who lives forever, whose name is holy: ‘I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.” (Isaiah 57:15)

Blessed Christmas….

the blind side

The movie, The Blind Side, is turning into a surprise box office hit, I hear.

I don’t want to ruin the story for anyone, but it’s about Michael Oher who was once a homeless black kid and is now an NFL pro making a lot of money.  In between that homelessness and the happy ending was a Christian family who took him in and made him their son and brother, tutored him and loved him like crazy and helped him overcome the pain and brokenness of his origins.  Oh, and they were white.

I’m bringing this up because I’m struck by the number of searches on the internet for symbols of strength.  My own blog gets a lot of visits by people searching for symbols of strength.  I wonder what that looks like to the searchers and what their needs are.  To me, a primary symbol (ironically) of strength is the cross and it  connects with what that white family did (their name is Tuohy) in laying down their lives to lift up another.  The ultimate exhibition of strength and power is to be able to utterly forget yourself and your own needs for the sake of someone else.  That’s really being powerful, not weak.  Which is what Christ did for the whole world.

I once heard a sermon by Michael Durso, the pastor of Christ Tabernacle in New York.  He spoke of Elisha bringing the Shunammite woman’s son back to life.  The details of the story can be found in 2 Kings 4:8-37, but the main point of the sermon was based on the fact that Elisha “got on the bed and lay upon the [dead] boy, mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands.” (v. 34)  Pastor Durso’s comment on this manner of healing was that many times, we also must get so deeply involved and connected with people to help “bring them back from the dead” (out of situations of extreme brokenness).  We cannot be hands off or self-protective and see miracles occur.  It’s challenging to say the least.  But, oh so life-giving…also for them.

It gives one much to think about.

stop craving safety

My daughter came home and among the countless delightful gifts she left behind (what a giver!), she left Francis Chan’s book, Crazy Love.

Thank you, Francis Chan, for speaking for me and others.  I am so tired of safe, bland Christianity – or cranky Christianity, or gossipy Christianity.  By the way, if you don’t know that all of those phrases are oxymorons, you have not been introduced to the real thing – Christianity, that is.

It is not safe.  And yet, there is no safety like it.  Dwelling in our Strong Tower, under the wings of the Almighty, knowing the peace that passes all understanding… But, in terms of becoming involved in extravagantly loving God and people and saving the world, sometimes that just might kill you or drain your fortunes – and, yes, that is what it is supposed to be about.

Then He said to them all, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me.” Luke 9:23

As Francis Chan writes, and it is paraphrased on the book’s back cover, too many people think Christianity is about “going to church, singing songs, trying not to cuss”…then “feeling guilty and distant from God” when you fail to “fight your desires.” (p. 20)

Christianity was and is meant to be an extraordinary love affair with our amazing and holy and all-powerful God who came to us in Christ and fills those who love Him with His Spirit.  Out of the overflow of that love and relationship with the Beloved, our life blooms with the fruit of His presence.  No longer do we fear to tread where angels tread – we go into the roughest and most challenging situations amply aware of our weakness and deficiencies still needing work, but trusting Him to express Himself and His love through us that healing and redemption might occur. 

Oh God, free us from ourselves, our pettiness, and our cowardice – our need to be center-stage and our inability to see need and crave to respond to it.  Heal us and we shall be healed.

And then we shall be bold and daring, not afraid to fall if the fall is for the sake of the Kingdom of God and all its righteousness.  Amen

the kingdom of heaven

A home in the favelas

“Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven….Blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth.”  Matthew 5:3 and 5

Then Jesus said to his host,

“When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid.  But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind and you will be blessed.  Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” 

 

Jesus said,

“A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests.  At the time of the banquet he sent his servants to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now prepared.’

 

But they all alike began to make excuses.  The first said, ‘I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it.  Please excuse me.’  Another said, ‘I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out.  Please excuse me.’  Still another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’ 

 

The servant came back and reported this to his master.  Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’

 

‘Sir,’ the servant said, ‘what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.’

 

Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full.  I tell you not one of those men who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.’”  Luke 14:16-24

God has been showing me a contrast lately between the haves and the have nots and their response to Him.  After praying with one poor soul at the prison, not only for the most obvious need, but sensing some other issues, she fell out of line to walk beside me as we left to say thank you and how much it meant to her to have us come.  These women, separated from their children, even one right at birth, ashamed of their failures, but trusting God for forgiveness, give me the greatest joy.  Jesus saves!  They believe it.  The Word of God is living and active.  They believe it!  Seek FIRST the Kingdom of God – for them, their faith is not an hour-long hobby on Sunday (take it or leave it).  It is life and breath now – they must have Him.

Others who have more are often so busy and so quick to find fault.  They are like those in Luke 14:18-20.  I am finding myself refreshed among the poor, the prostitutes, the obvious sinners.  It is where His Blessed Presence so often is…where the Great Banquet will be.

“He who testifies to these things says, ‘Yes, I am coming soon.’ Amen, Come, Lord Jesus.” (Rev. 22:20)

The commentary in the Life in the Spirit Bible says this:

“Those who initially accepted the invitation but then refused to come represent those who have accepted or have appeared to accept the invitation of Jesus to salvation, yet their love for Him and the heavenly kingdom has grown cold…Such people have ceased to set their goals by heavenly standards…They have rejected the Biblical admonition to set “their minds on things above, not on earthly things.”  Their hope and life are centered on the things of this world, and they no longer long for “a better country – a heavenly one.” (Heb. 11:6)

take that, discouragement!!

We’ve just finished a brief study of Nehemiah in our church.  So much more to say, so much more to learn but Nehemiah contains wonderful life lessons for keeping on with courage and hope in the midst of very trying circumstances.

Nehemiah went back to Jerusalem in the 5th century B.C. to rebuild the broken down, burned up wall around the city.  He had to rally people who were discouraged and disinterested, people who were mistreating each other and making “deals with the devil” (a guy named Tobiah who was one of the opponents against the rebuilding of the wall!)  Nehemiah got everyone going on the rebuilding of the wall.  He stationed troops at the weak points, the breaches where the enemy could get in.  He had the builders hold a tool in one hand and a sword in another and keep going.  The workers even carried their swords when they went to get water and they worked from dawn to night with guards posted at night.

They were pretty serious over rebuilding this wall once Nehemiah got them started.  It’s not easy to fight the discouraging voices around us, even those in our own head – and it’s not easy to do the right thing – be responsible, keep on going, do the hard, unglamorous tasks when others are doing other things that are easier.

But, I have learned a beautiful thing about discouragement – God is most present when we are enduring the worst and hoping for the best.  He is there, sparkling in the darkness.

So, pick up your sword – by the way, that’s a metaphor for prayer and the Word and asking God for a fresh anointing of His Spirit.  Keep on.

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in your weakness.”  2 Corinthians 12:9

only two sons, only two thieves

As I continue to read Yochelson’s and Samenow’s book, The Criminal Personality: Volume II, The Change Process, I find myself feeling increasing conviction and humility.  The old saying, “There, but for the grace of God, go I,” lingers in my mind.  So many of the traits the two doctors describe as being characteristic of criminals are in all of us!!!!  Deception, resistance to doing the responsible thing, blaming others, cooperation only to gain what it is that we want vs. true surrender.  How does anyone think that they are morally superior?    Ah yes, I know most of us have not engaged in armed robbery or murder – but Jesus gave a rather broad new definition to criminal behavior.  Remember when He said:

“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’  But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment.  Again, anyone who says to his brother, ‘Raca,’ (fool) is answerable to the Sanhedrin.  But, anyone who says, ‘You fool! will be in danger of the fire of hell.

Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar.  First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.” Matthew 5:21-24

Jesus called us to a higher, deeper, richer understanding of what it means to be good and He told us that “apart from Him, we could do nothing.”  John 14:5

So, it has struck me afresh lately the paradox of being God’s child through Christ, able to say, “Abba, Father.”  (i.e. papa – not that God is man or woman, but the point is we can speak with such intimacy and sense of safety to Him), but that we were once sinners who had to be redeemed.  And we still need correction from sin as we go from “glory to glory” and become more like Christ.  I have told people that as I read the story of the two criminals on either side of Jesus at the crucifixion – there are only two.  One said “yes” to Jesus and the other rejected Him all the way to death.  (Luke 23:39-42)  There are no other categories of people in that scene.  We are all criminals due to the Fall, but we are all pardoned in Jesus, if we’ll but accept Him.

Remembering this keeps me from smugly seeing myself as a good person and disdaining others who are “bad.”  I do not want to be like the Pharisee in Luke 18:9-14 who was confident in his own righteousness and who looked down his nose at the humble, repentant tax collector praying respectfully in the back of the temple.  I want to remember that it is by GRACE that I have been saved and not by my own works so I will not boast or be full of myself.  Only God will get the glory.

Likewise, there are only two sons in the parable recorded in Matthew 21:28-32, the one who said “yes” to the Father and did not obey and the one who said “no” and then went on to do the Father’s work.  Jesus then summed up His meaning by presenting the story of these two sons (again, only two categories of people):

“I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you.  For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did.  And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.”