King David's Example

I've been reading the Psalms quite a bit lately. And while I realize that David did not write all of them, he did write around half...which is quite a feat. I remember listening to a Piper sermon talking about, "Songs that Shape the Heart," and the sermon addressed our privilege of always finding ourselves in the Psalms. No matter where we are or what emotion we are experiencing we can constantly find the words to articulate it in the Psalms...and that is an amazing and precious gift.
As I've been thinking on David's ability to articulate emotion and thoughts better than most of us; the thing that consumed my thoughts was his brutal honesty. David never hesitated to let everyone know what was going on in his life. He was the kind of guy you would never ask more than once how he was doing if you didn't want the real answer. If you disagree see Psalm 40:12, a Psalm that was sang in the temple as worship:
"For troubles without number surround me;
my sins have overtaken me, and I cannot see.
They are more than the hairs of my head,
and my heart fails within me. "

Can you imagine singing those words? In any case...that is far from my point. In every Psalm no matter what the emotion or reason for writing we always see the name of God being praised, and the Psalter has faith that God will deliver him or her from whatever the particular circumstance. I chose David for this reason: David's life in 1 and 2 Samuel is marked by tragedy, trial, adversity, and mourning. The man endured more pain and sorrow than most of us could imagine- and yet in the midst of all his pain and suffering he could turn to God and speak endlessly (about 73 Psalms worth) of the goodness of God. No matter what the circumstance or situation David never refused to acknowledge the greatness of Yahweh...there was no doubt. While he may temporarily feel forsaken his assurance was in God- his fate rested in the hands of his God who has never failed, will never leave him nor forsake him, and who created him and placed him in the midst of whatever struggle and pain he was currently enduring.

Throughout history the Christian church has been marked by an ability to suffer nobly- and the reason for this is those people who suffered long and endured most were granted a portion much greater than whatever they faced in this day. They knew Jesus- and that was all that mattered. I find myself so often complaining about where I am in life; wanting more; unhappy- and quite honestly a whiner.

Oh wretched man that I am. How glorious is God that He would look on me with love? Give me grace to walk this path Father- and I pray that I would suffer greatly in order to make your name glorious to whoever may see.

Prophetic Untimeliness

"...an unprecedented Christian pursuit of relevance has led directly to an unprecedented Christian irrelevance. (p. 45)" Prophetic Untimeliness- Os Guiness

I'm reading this book. You should join me...it is a quick read, and frighteningly accurate. As I move through the pages I see more and more of the church (myself included) and the words ring true. The point: Evangelical Christians today are in desperate pursuit of relevance and are willing to sacrifice most to gain it- including Scripture, truth, faithfulness, and the Gospel. At one point Guiness writes that we have moved from Solo Scriptura to Solo Cultura. Culture has become the point that defines what we talk about, what we do, and how we act in Church. We have moved from only Scripture- meaning that the Word of God is sufficient and all satisfying, to a world where our church goers have to be entertained. Good teaching is no longer enough- we have to be cutting edge.

I'm not preaching irrelevance...clearly that is not the solution to this. But I do hope and pray for a return to reverance and fearful respect of Scripture. The inspired Word of GOD will never be irrelevant- it has withstood the trials of fire and time for thousands of years- and to think that we can revise and replace the Bible with our own "better" and "more relevant" thoughts is outright stupid.

The Reality and the Return

It has been a much needed reprieve from the world of blogging recently...most of the "bloggers" I know have joined me in the absence from internet release and I can't exactly say it was all for the same reason, but I can speak for myself in saying that it has been greatly utilized as a period of restoration in my heart. So I come to you, fingers placed neatly on home row, back slouched slightly, ears attentively hearing my good friend Jimmy Needham plucking the guitar strings and singing love songs to God; and I'm inspired...

I found myself in the "pulpit" of our junior high service on Sunday, a place I am certainly familiar with and have grown to love. I enjoy being with the kids, sharing the gospel with them, trying to make them laugh...but this week we talked about giving. Giving. Can you think of a topic that makes Christians and non-Christians alike so uncomfortable? After giving my own version of a sermon on giving I enjoyed hearing Pastor Dale Oquist speak on the same subject with wisdom and charisma...but parting the church yesterday I was left with afterthoughts. I am by no means trying to undercut anything that was said Sunday...I believe it whole-heartedly. It is hard to give...but we have to do it. But my thoughts on the subject sort of unfolded this way:

1) At some point I'd like to hear the story of someone who gave to God and didn't have enough to keep their house...but through it all God was enough.

2) Do we really do "automatic withdrawals" from our accounts because writing a check in church is too difficult?

3) Somewhere along the way I think we lost the attitude of giving as an act of worship.

Again, I want to state that these thoughts are not mutually exclusive from the sermon on Saturday, nor are they contrary at all to what was said...I just want to clear some things up. I do believe that when we give to God He will provide for us and that provision will be exactly what we need. But sometimes what we need isn't what we want- i.e. we want to keep our house even though we can't afford it; so in turn we stop giving. I always hear stories about people who wanted to keep all their stuff and still give and they always had just enough. Praise God for that...but some weird part of me longs for a story of a man who gave his tithe and his offering and couldn't afford his house or his car or his HDTV so he sold it all...but ultimately was more satisfied with a deepened and richer walk with Christ than everything he possessed. I think sometimes when we focus on giving as, "God is going to provide for me so let me put this out there and see what the return is..." we are left with an undefinable awkwardness. That's not the call, giving is not only our responsibility, it is our great joy to give to Christ- and it makes Him look glorious which increases the joy we experience. So with our new heart and desires we help others and we push back darkness and God is the center of those actions- not ourselves. That's why we don't "let our left hand know what our right hand is doing." God is made to look glorious when we give in the midst of economic turmoil and struggle with a joyous heart...

With all due respect to everyone who reads this blog (whoever you are- the one lone soul) I hate electronic withdrawal tithing. Ugh...it turns my stomach. Giving is worship- musical worship has hijacked our worship language and so we think of singing as worship- and when we don't even know when our tithe and offering are removed from our account I think we are missing the point. God doesn't need our money but our giving out of obedience and in joy glorifies Him. And to miss that opportunity for worship is stupid to me. Sorry if you are offended...

I'm pretty opinionated.