Live With God

Or, A Song of Penitence. This is a wonderful prayer. One I thought would be good to share:

“O Lord and Ruler of the hosts of heaven, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and of all their righteous offspring: You made the heavens and the earth, with all their vast array. All things quake with fear at your presence; they tremble because of your power. But your merciful promise is beyond all measure; it surpasses all that our minds can fathom. O Lord, you are full of compassion, long-suffering, and abounding in mercy. You hold back your hand; you do not punish as we deserve. In your great goodness, Lord, you have promised forgiveness to sinners, that they may repent of their sin and be saved. And now, O Lord, I bend the knee of my heart, and make my appeal, sure of your gracious goodness. I have sinned, O Lord, I have sinned, and I know my wickedness only too well. Therefore I make this prayer to you: Forgive me, Lord, forgive me. Do not let me perish in my sin, nor condemn me to the depths of the earth. For you, O Lord, are the God of those who repent, and in me you will show forth your goodness. Unworthy as I am, you will save me, in accordance with your great mercy, and I will praise you without ceasing all the days of my life. For all the powers of heaven sing your praises, and yours is the glory to ages of ages.”

Amen.

This comes from The Book of Common Prayer.

Blessings.

Earlier, I posted this question on FB: “If you have a question about God that can be answered by the Bible what would that question be?” I am asking any and all to send their questions to me on FB either on my wall or in a personal message. Confidence will be honored.

Now, here’s the reason why. In March & April I’ll be preaching a sermon series that will, for the most part, cover the entire story line of the Bible. As we go through this series it is my hope that most of the big questions we have about God will be discussed from the Bible. I would like to consider your questions I prepare.

In large part, this series will be based on the book The God Who Is There, by D.A. Carson.

Also, if you’ve read this far, I’d like to ask you another question. Again, you can answer on FB on my wall or in a personal message. Here it is: If you are not a Christian, and you have a friend who is, would you be willing to discuss the first question with them if they asked it of you in a loving, respectful way?

Thank you for all your input. I genuinely look forward to hearing from you.

My two favorite stuffed animals as kids were named Rags & Jo-Jo. Rags was a white dog with red ears & legs too short for his body. Jo-Jo was a sock monkey with a red Kool-Ade stain on his upper lip because I believed him thirsty after a particularly long wagon ride.

With the aid of my dad, Rags & Jo-Jo would wake me every morning for school with the words, “It’s time to get up, time to get up, time to get up in the morning. We’re all in our places with bright shiny faces. This is the way to start a new day.” I would answer, without fail each morning, “I don’t want to go to school.” School was not worth getting up for. It did not deserve that honor. It was neither bright nor shiny.

I might expect the words from Proverbs to be leveled against me: “So how long are you going to laze around doing nothing? How long before you get out of bed?” (Proverbs 6:9, Message). And I might answer, “As long as there is no cause to which I will give myself today that will disturb long-lived complacency. As long as there is no one for whom I will sacrifice and lose in straightforward love. As long as there is no way of life that makes these beneficial or right.”

Drudgery. Everyday. Same coffee. Same time. Same family. Same job. Everyday. We are still moving & breathing. Still doing things. But they are just that. Things. Lifeless. Motions. No breaking, blood, passion, battle. “I don’t want to go to school.”

How did someone ever find life, real life, every morning something anticipated: “Wake up, soul! Wake up, harp! wake up, lute! Wake up, you sleepyhead sun!” Where did this life come from? New life. Life of that way. How does that life infuse us to our toenails and shake a fist at the humdrum?

“I’m thanking you, God, out loud in the streets, singing your praises in town and country. The deeper your love, the higher it goes; every cloud is a flag to your faithfulness” (Psalm 57:9-10, Message). God. Humdrum says get up and try to get your way today. It never happens. Do you know what happens everyday without fail? God. His way.

Eugene Peterson has said that waking is essentially prophetic. You do not have to await the resurrection to experience it.

This song is beautiful. Go and listen to it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVQ_gAVNEpk&feature=grec_index

Now, here’s this guy, Josh Garrels. He can play guitar. He can sing. But more than anything, I think, he can write great songs.

In this song, “Ulysses,” he’s really made something beautiful. He’s used his talent and brought something beautiful into a broken world.

Josh is a Christian. He believes in God. He believes he is a new creation. Remade. Filled with the Spirit. Bringing light into the darkness.

He’s taken the stuff that God has given him, his voice/guitar/creativity, and God through Him is putting broken things back together.

He is free to love. Free to serve. Free to bless. Living free in the life that God has given Him.

Isn’t that what we are all supposed to be about? Every moment. Every day. Living free: to love, to serve, to bless. With the stuff God has given us where we are by His Spirit in us God puts broken things back together.

He brings light in the darkness.

He makes something beautiful.

See you Sunday.

I remember when I was a kid, maybe in the third grade, I read a book about a boy who got lost in the wilderness and had to survive on next to nothing. In this book there were directions given on how to make a fish hook out of elements you’d find in nature. I decided I would make one for my dad. I don’t remember what it was for, birthday or father’s day maybe, but I know it was a special occasion.

He liked it. I know he liked it. He told me he liked it. He kept it in his roll-top desk in plain sight. He may even still have it today. But this is not enough.

“What? What do you mean?” you might be asking. Here’s what I mean: as a child I wanted to be valued, to be adored. I wanted to be validated as important, as irreplaceable. Part of my giving the gift of the fish hook was to receive value from my dad in the form of recognition of my thoughtfulness and hard work. This may sound selfish but I believe it to be a part of who we are. We want to know that we matter. That someone rejoices in us. But no matter how many people tell us this, how many compliments we get, how many thanks we receive for gifts, it is never enough. Try it. You may be living out this struggle right now. It is endless; fruitless.

Ultimately, my validation as a person, one created in the image of God, my value, my importance, can only be spoken into me by One: his name is Jesus. He lets us know a bit about how He feels about His people (it’s pretty amazing, really) in Zephaniah 3:17: “he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.”

People, this is your God. Our value is found in Him. And He likes to sing.

Thursday, yesterday, was Ascension Day; the day the church remembers the ascension of Jesus into heaven. This day is recorded in the book of Acts in chapter 1:6-11. Jesus tells his followers to wait for the Spirit. Then he ascends. They are looking up into the sky and angels end up asking them, “Why are you standing here?”

Jesus entered into this world. He came to bring the light, to drive back the darkness. He came to peel back the shadow that settled over this world the day sin entered. He taught. He healed. He blessed. He peeled back the shadow. Then, he rose into heaven.

But we are here. And the Spirit is in us. He said we would be empowered by the Spirit. The Spirit dwells in us. Jesus has ascended. We are here.

Yesterday, Ascension Day, a group of folks in the church went to Joplin to help out. They cleaned up the property of a church, moved water to be refrigerated, and helped tear down a house that had been rendered unlivable. The amount of destruction, shadow, is staggering. But I think, as they worked, the shadow was in retreat. People of God, empowered by the Spirit, turn back the shadow.

Andrew is old enough now that when he succeeds in a task and understands the feeling of accomplishment, or, when he is set on his will to the point of disobedience and then feels the gravity of his decision I can clearly remember doing the same things and feeling the same way. It helps me as a parent to guide, love, and discipline when I know I’ve done the same sort of thing before. I’ve been in his shoes.

Our youth in the church led us in a message concerning a person who had lost their way. They did not know God and were walking further away from Him. One of the students remembered the love of God for those lost and His desire to chase after them. The student, guided by God, remembering God’s love for them, showed the love of God to the lost student.

It feels good to be the one who has been found; to remember our “foundness.” We can walk through our homes & jobs feeling good that God loved me enough to come running out to greet me when I came home. But what about the person in the office next door? Did you hear what they did last weekend? Do you know what’s going on in their family? Man, do they have issues. Look at him. Listen to her. His life is a mess. She is losing it. I’m sure glad I’m found.

Remember…you were not always. You were running, lost, trying to pull it together, figuring out how to patch things up again and you couldn’t. People were talking about you, too. Elder brothers scorn those who need the mercy of God. Those who remember mercy love with the mercy they have received.

I really like our family dog. His name is Big Red. You can guess what he looks like. Initially, we kept him in a pen in our back yard. Since we lived on the highway we were fearful he would, out of curiosity, explore in every direction around our house and find his way to this place where certain death would be realized if he lingered.

Eventually we let him out, hoping that the lesson from life in the pen had been learned: this is home. Stay here. Remain here. Do not try life beyond the bounds that have been set. In truth, beyond the bounds life will not be found. He ran, explored, avoided us for three days straight. And then, he stopped. He sat on the porch. He realized where life was. He decided to remain.

Daily, God’s people decide to remain. Remain in the ways of God: love, truth, sacrifice, hope, joy, peace. Remain by living faithfully to our spouses, our kids, our families. Being a blessing to those working around us, holding up the line at the coffee shop, and those who seem to have taken on as their purpose in life, making you miserable. Life does not truly exist outside of the bounds where, by the power of God, we do remain.

And it is that power that causes us to live faithfully and to remain in the life of God. It is that power that will cause us to remain, not just here, but into eternity. “And it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to do all this commandment before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us” (Deuteronomy 6:25).

Last Sunday we talked about how we live in the life of God by doing these three: Hear. Learn. Obey, from Deuteronomy 5:1-3. But do we ever fear obedience because we know, without a doubt, we are going to fail. We are not going to obey God’s law perfectly. We are not going to be able to live His way all the time. You will fail. I will fail. We are failures.

Isn’t that nice? Well, yes. Our failure to obey God’s law perfectly points us to the One who never fails and teaches two important truths. 1) We are led to Jesus by failure and we learn that God is merciful. We fail, yes. But God is merciful and forgives us. Indeed, He loves us despite our failure. 2) We are led to Jesus by failure and we learn we can’t accomplish obedience on our own even if we tried. We are only able to obey & live in faithful obedience before God by the power of His Spirit within us.

So as we obey this week in loving our spouses, teaching our children, worshipping with the church, reading the word, praying, visiting with and blessing our coworkers, telling stories, having fun with friends, telling the truth, and living generous and thankful lives, let us accept our failure and learn the great mercy and providing presence of God.

See you Sunday.

The three women who came to Jesus’ tomb on Sunday morning did the right thing, I think. They fled. They fled from the tomb. Jesus wasn’t dead in the ground like they expected to find him. He had risen. He was alive. He was going to meet them, the angel said. So, they fled. They took to the road. They went back to their towns, families, and friends. Why stay at the tomb? Jesus did not belong there. Nor did they.

Life changed for the women on that day. Life has changed for us. We’ve taken to the roads. We are living in our towns, eating dinner with our families, visiting with our friends. Jesus is alive and living in and through us this week as we live, eat, love, talk, teach, hang drywall, repair equipment, drive trucks, and help the sick. The life of Jesus. Tombs are no place for the living. Take to the roads.

See you Sunday.