3 Grands - Mike, Dan and Sarah

I'm thinking about the paradox of living in two worlds - one of spiritual reality and the other of material reality. Knowing that Jesus is Lord, that He lives in me, that He rules and reigns, that the Kingdom of God is a present reality, and knowing that I still have to go to work every day and spend the majority of my waking hours worrying about bits and bytes, brings home the dichotomy of this Christian life.

How I'd like to be off somewhere in a monastery or some secluded spot in the woods engaged with my Beloved. Instead, I'm sitting here in my cubicle with a "to-do" list that's getting longer by the hour and a "done" list that's getting shorter.

But I have found that Jesus is present with me here in my cubicle, and that He is able to help and to cheer and to guide. I'm not free from the realities of life but I'm free in Him from the pressure, from the "terror that flieth by noonday," from worry and fear, from "what-if's" and "if only's," from office politics and the uncertainties of working for a company that's shutting down.

If Jesus isn't Lord in my cubicle then He's not Lord anywhere. If He doesn't know the answers to my problems then He couldn't create a universe. But He is here, He does know, and I'm asking for grace to continually turn my heart to Him, to focus my gaze on His wonderful face, and to open my ears to the sound of His voice. "The voice of my Beloved, lo, He comes."

The Baby Born in a Barn

Were He born in palace instead of a barn, then only the privileged would have access to Him, only the monied and fortunate would be able to come into His presence. But the angels announced the good news to some shepherds working the night shift, out in the fields. Not to the priests, not to the aristocracy - but to poor shepherds the angels came.

That means there's room there for the lowest of the low and the poorest of the poor. That means that everyone can come to stand before the baby born in a barn - from the highest to the lowest, from the richest to the poorest, from the highly educated to the ignorant and out-of-the-way.

There's room there for you and me, and whosover will may come. Let's come before Him in praise and worship, now and forever. Our God has made the way.

Happy Thanksgiving

We're off to Boston on Wednesday to spend Thanksgiving with number one son and his family. He works in high tech and has been laid off more times than he can remember, so he doesn't have a whole lot of sympathy for my plight. We're looking forward to seeing our two granddaughters (both in their 20's); they both speak Spanish fluently, so I guess their parents will be left out of the conversations.

Comunidad, our latino church, is growing. Each of the last 3 Sunday nights it's been packed out and we have had to get more chairs to seat the people. A lady who had headaches worse than migraines for 7 years was delivered from them; her family is now on fire for God. They were all coming to church before that but now they have a fresh zeal and desire for God.

Pat has started a ministry for the latino children during the Sunday evening service. They really enjoy it and it frees the main meeting up so the parents can focus on the Lord.

I'm off work this week. I'm enjoying the weather with the leaves falling and the wind blowing - real fall weather that brings the holidays with it.

On Thanksgiving, remember - you are what you eat!

The King Is Dead

In chapters 1 through 5, Isaiah declares woe on the nations round about. In chapter 6, he changes his tune. He has had a revelation of God.

"In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and lifted up ..."


Uzziah was Isaiah's benefactor, mentor, and patron, so his death must have impacted the prophet greatly. Gone were his support, his inspiration, his encouragement. When he was at his lowest, Isaiah lifted up his eyes to his only remaining support and saw the Lord of Glory in all His majesty, His train filling the temple.

Defeat and discouragement are never the end. When we get down low enough, when we can go no lower, it is then we look up and it is then we see God. The God of the mountains is still God in the valley, the God of the day is still God in the night.

It has always been thus. Job came to the end of himself and the beginning of God (if God has a beginning). Moses' great calling seemingly got blown away with the desert winds when he saw the burning bush. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were in the midst of the flames when they saw the fourth man. Joseph was rejected and in prison for so long a time when he came into the fullness of God's plan for him. Our Lord Jesus was crucified, dead and buried but raised to newness of life and glory for ever.

There are no sad endings, no dead ends, for the child of God. Our King is not dead - He rules and reigns and He carries us with Him on His great journey to Zion. I want to go with Him, and I shall. We shall see Him as He is.

Still Human

This is Oswald Chambers for November 16. This is wonderful. So often we equate success with God as ministry, when really it should be a life lived for Jesus.

. . whatever you do, do all to the glory of God
—1 Corinthians 10:31

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In the Scriptures, the great miracle of the incarnation slips into the ordinary life of a child; the great miracle of the transfiguration fades into the demon-possessed valley below; the glory of the resurrection descends into a breakfast on the seashore. This is not an anticlimax, but a great revelation of God.

We have a tendency to look for wonder in our experience, and we mistake heroic actions for real heroes. It’s one thing to go through a crisis grandly, yet quite another to go through every day glorifying God when there is no witness, no limelight, and no one paying even the remotest attention to us. If we are not looking for halos, we at least want something that will make people say, "What a wonderful man of prayer he is!" or, "What a great woman of devotion she is!" If you are properly devoted to the Lord Jesus, you have reached the lofty height where no one would ever notice you personally. All that is noticed is the power of God coming through you all the time.

We want to be able to say, "Oh, I have had a wonderful call from God!" But to do even the most humbling tasks to the glory of God takes the Almighty God Incarnate working in us. To be utterly unnoticeable requires God’s Spirit in us making us absolutely humanly His. The true test of a saint’s life is not successfulness but faithfulness on the human level of life. We tend to set up success in Christian work as our purpose, but our purpose should be to display the glory of God in human life, to live a life "hidden with Christ in God" in our everyday human conditions ( Colossians 3:3 ). Our human relationships are the very conditions in which the ideal life of God should be exhibited.

At All Times

So much of our conception of praise is oriented around the public meeting - we have a worship time with a worship team where we sing worship songs. That's all well and good, but does our thinking become structured around that event and not encompass all of life?

The same God I draw close to in those intense times of worship is the same God in the rough-and-tumble of daily activity. My circumstances are not uncontrolled events or happenstance but come directly from the hand of my all-wise, all-knowing, and all-powerful Lord; praise is as much in order at 8:00 on Monday morning as it is at 10:30 on Sunday morning.

Perhaps I don't feel as comfortable stuck in rush hour traffic on I-485 or South Boulevard as I do in a worship service, but God hasn't changed any. Maybe - just maybe - He arranged that situation to show me my impatience and my short fuse (I'm sure you don't huff and puff and pound on the steering wheel in a traffic jam, but I do). At that time I should praise Him for loving me enough to reveal my true self to me so that I can bring it before Him and ask Him to change me. Instead of asking where the driver in front of me got his license, I could be praising God for sending him my way to bring out this side of me.

Every circumstance is an opportunity for praise. Let's praise Him at all times and in all places, because He is worthy. Let every complaint be cut off before it leaves our lips - even before it can form in our hearts. Let God be justified and glorified in every situation, for He certainly deserves it.

BTLAU

(Back to life as usual.)And now I'm back from vacation and back in the regular day-to-day happenings of my life, which are, if you're interested: work, sleep, eat, and church. I don't sleep enough, I eat too much, I don't do church enough, and I work too much.

I'm looking forward to the Johnny Cash movie coming out Nov. 18. I grew up listening to country music, and he was one of the best. He toured for 38 years. He came to know the Lord and even made a movie called "The Gospel Road."

One of my favorite songs is his recording of "I Saw A Man," written by Arthur Smith, another country music legend who lives right here in Charlotte. (Smith also wrote "Dueling Banjos.") The song touches me because the character in the song says a man came to him in a dream, and it was the Lord. When he awoke, the Man was still there. "He said 'If I be lifted up I'll draw all men to me;' and then I saw the nail-scarred hands that bled for me. I touched the hem of His garment that fell 'round Him there; my heart, my life, my soul are in His care."

Many years ago I worked with an inmate in a prison for insane criminals; he had asked for ministry, and a friend of mine who was a guard there brought me in to speak to him. Turns out the man had seen two lights at the foot of his bed several nights before; he told me "One of them was Jesus, and I didn't care who the other one was."

He was saved, and his life changed, and the Lord blessed him to the point where he was released within a year and went back home to live with his mother. I had the privilege of sharing the love of Jesus with him for his remaining time in prison.

He sets the prisoner free.

He's Still There

I've been away at the beach for a week so I haven't been able to post anything. But I can report that the ocean's still there, the waves still break on the shore, the sand still feels good between my toes, the gulls still circle and wheel in the sky, the pelicans still dive for fish, the sun still feels good on my face, sea shells still look pretty, there's nothing quite as good as a cup of coffee on the beach watching the sunrise, the smell of salt and sand is worth a million bucks, and God's still in His heaven and all's right with the world.

Passwords and PINS and Personal Protection

I have so many passwords and PINS that I can't remember them all. Different systems at work require different passwords, and each web site on which I'm a member requires a password. Some of them cycle and some of them don't, so they're all different now.

I keep track of them in my electronic organizer in a "personal notes" section which is - you guessed it - password controlled.

Modern life has given us not only phone numbers, area codes, zip codes, social security numbers, account numbers, ID numbers, drivers' license numbers, etc., but passwords and PINS for our personal protection.

Security's a good thing, don't get me wrong. The last think I want is for someone to steal my identity (although I've had trouble enough with it as it is).

The Kingdom of God is password controlled, too. All of heaven's riches are ours with a single password; it's not a secret, and it never changes. That one word brings to us all the fullness of the Son, all the overflowing plenty of the Holy Spirit. That one word is the entrance into the life more abundant. That one word, whispered in heartfelt devotion, catches God's attention. That one word carries more weight than all the words we have spoken in idleness.

That word, of course, is "Jesus." His Name is higher than any other name and unlocks the coffers of the Kingdom. Utter that name in the depths of the valley or on the heights of the mountain and instantly you're on holy ground. Speak that name in pain or plenty and you'll never want again.

We can't come in our own name, but an abundant entrance is ours in Jesus' name. Whatever we ask in His name will be granted to us; corn, wine, oil, joy, peace, love - it all waits simply for the mention of that name.

Up The Mountain

I paused on my climb up the mountain
And gazed at the valley below,
At the plains and the grasses and meadows
And the lakes and the rivers that flowed.

So pleasant and calm, it was calling
To return to the safe and secure,
To descend once again to the valley;
I nearly succumbed to its lure.

But I turned and gazed back up the mountain,
Through the mists that surrounded it there,
And I knew that I had to go higher
And breath of its rarefied air.

Something was calling me higher
To places that I could not see,
Calling me onward and upward
To somewhere I knew I must be.

So I turned with a resolute spirit
And set out for the summit again;
My destiny calling me upward,
I could not go back where I'd been.

The briars and brambles tore at me
And tortured my frail human flesh,
But I persevered to go onward;
To stay where I was would be death.

The fog and the rain whipped around me,
The chill wind reached into my bones;
But I persevered and went onward,
Battered and tattered and blown.

The pathway was steep, rough and rocky,
My feet fain could not take a hold;
With my arms I reached out for a handhold
And climbed on through the clouds and the cold.

'Til at last I climbed onto the summit
Where the sun shone in dazzling array.
The clouds were no more and I basked there
In the light of a new, perfect day.

Oh, say, are we not climbing upward,
To the mount of the house of the Lord?
Stay not but press onward and upward
And soon we shall see our reward.

'Tis the face of the One we've been seeking,
Of Jesus, the One we adore;
We'll find that it all has been worth it
As we live in His love evermore.

We are climbing to a place we've never seen, and we long to look on One who is invisible. Yet there is something that calls us continually on, and we could no more stay where we are than we could deny Him outright. We will find that the pain and the pressure were a small price to pay for the glory that shall be revealed.

Captain of the Host

"...and Joshua went unto him, and said unto him, Art thou for us or for our adversaries. And he said, Nay; but as captain of the host of the LORD am I now come." (Joshua 5: 13, 14)

Joshua saw a man with a sword and asked him if he was on Israel's side or the enemy's side, and the man responded that he wasn't on anyones's side - he was the captain of the Lord's host.

We have our causes. We work to see righteousness wrought in this or that arena. We struggle with those of an opposite mind. And we firmly believe God is with us and for us because He is righteous and we're doing righteous things.

But I see in this scripture that God is on His own side, He has His own agenda. And when we get in line with God's agenda then all the other things will be taken care of.

God is a man of war - He's a lot stronger than we are. We need to join in His battles and He will vanquish all our enemies.

Before I came to know the Lord I held views and opinions entirely different from what I believe now. What made the difference? Salvation. When I received a new nature, it came with it's own beliefs, and they became mine. No one struggled to convince me that this or that was right or wrong - I walked in a new light which gave me new vision.

Jesus called twelve men and they turned the world upside down by preaching the Kingdom of God. They didn't have television or newspapers or books or CD's or DVD's -they had Jesus. There was as much flesh, world and devil in their day as in ours, but they had a single message and wrought wonders with it.

I'm glad there are activists fighting for good causes, but we need to advance the Lord's cause. We need to spend time with Him as did the twelve, to become thoroughly familiar with His ways, and we need to be inundated with the Spirit as were the 120 in the upper room. Then, and only then, will we be equipped to do the work set before us as as the church.

The Apostle

One of my favorite movies is "The Apostle" with Robert Duvall. A lot of people didn't like it because he portrayed a preacher who was a bit of a scoundrel - a guy with some problems. I liked it for that reason - it didn't sugarcoat anything; it came across as very real, not with the saccharine sweetness of so many Christian films. Maybe some day we'll be open and candid and admit that we have problems - we're not the perfect people we dress up as on Sunday.

That was Duvall's goal - to do a movie showing real Christians in real settings. The extras were real Christians from real churches; he told them just to be themselves and do what they do, and if they made a mistake, why, that would probably be better than what he had planned for them.

What really got to me was that he kept going in spite of setbacks. He lost his church and his family and had to hit the road (he was hiding out from the law). But he had a vision in mind of a church God wanted him to build and he ended up building it. He just didn't quit.

Even in the final scene, after he's in prison, he's on a road gang but leading the other prisoner/workers in praising the Lord.

I'm not saying that we should be hard-nosed in driving at a goal when God may be trying to change our direction - that happens, too. But this is what I took away from the film, that if the vision is from God, He will bring it to pass in spite of everything to the contrary.

It wasn't a perfect description of Christianity. Can you show me a movie that is? But it held for me that pioneering spirit, that desire to serve and love Jesus in spite of everything. That's what kept him going. That's what keeps me going.

Four Faces

Ezekiel had a vision in which he saw a magnificent cloud and a fire and four living creatures. Each of the four creatures had four faces - of a man, a lion, an ox and an eagle. All four creatures moved together.

The prophet saw beyond his day to the advent of the God-Man, Christ Jesus, and saw Him in all His glorious aspects. Ezekiel saw Christ as the man who walks with us, the lion king who rules over us, the ox our burden-bearer, and the eagle who takes us into the realm of the Spirit.

We must know Him in all His aspects together (for so it means that the creatures moved together). We can't walk with Him, or ask Him to bear our burdens, if we don't come under His king-ship; nor can we soar with Him in the Spirit if we don't allow Him to cleanse and heal us. We can't fulfill His purposes for our lives if we don't follow Him into the Spirit-realm.

The four gospels echo Ezekiel's vision as they describe the One who came in fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies. Our lives pick up the song as we enter in to this full-orbed life in Christ, allowing His full working in every circumstance to bring us to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

Outsourcing

Most everyone these days is familiar with outsourcing, the practice of contracting work to another individual or firm who can do it better, or for less cost, or with less risk, etc. My own company oursources IT operations and development.

Outsourcing is nothing new. It's common in a market-driven economy. The South has recently lost a lot of employment to foreign firms who operate at lower cost, but was itself the outsourcer on those jobs a century ago when lower costs took the jobs from the North.

But outsourcing is still older than that. God is the original outsourcer:

"Being confident of this very thing, that he which has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." (Phil. 1:6).

"I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts." (Jer. 31:33)

The essence of the New Testament is that God Himself will do His work in the lives of believers. Often times we think that we have to be really good at this or at that, or that we have to try really hard to do something just right. That is law; the law came by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.

Basically, God has outsourced to Himself the work of transforming our lives. We try to take it back but find out we can't do it. But when we allow His Spirit to invade our hearts in a particular area, confessing (not admitting) our sins, He can do a complete work.

There's an old saying that says "If you want something done right, do it yourself." That just about sums it up from God's viewpoint - if God does it, it will be done right.

This is one time that outsourcing is OK.

Sowing And Reaping

"Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap." (Gal. 6:7)

This concept of sowing and reaping has been hijacked by profiteering, self-serving ministries that use it to dupe ignorant Christians and garner riches to themselves. If they really believed what they were saying - that God will return ten-fold to those who "sow into" their ministries - then they wouldn't need to make such requests; they themselves would give and wait to receive the increase from God.

The next verse makes it clear that Paul is talking about that which we receive into our own spirits - if it's of the flesh we'll reap corruption, but if it's of the Spirit we'll receive life.

I grew up on country music - Hank Williams (the real one, not Jr.), George Jones, Kitty Wells, Faron Young - the list goes on. I still love the sound of a fiddle and a steel guitar. But if I listen to that tear-stained, beer-stained, whining, wailing, blues-soaked, booze-soaked music, that's what I walk away with. I come away with that self-pitying, lowlife view of things - nothing's working out, poor-poor-pitiful me, I might as well go out and drink.

My soul has an automatic, built-in jukebox, and it has automatic replay. I don't know if yours works that way, but mine sure does. When I take into myself that which is of the world, that's what echoes in my soul. I sowed and I reaped. That's a far cry from where I want to be, on the mountain with the King.

But if I fill my soul with praise music, if I feed my spirit on the songs of Zion, then I reap a harvest of corn, wine, and oil - the good things of the Lord. If I seek His face early in the morning, then His touch is upon my life even in the heat of noonday. I sow, I reap.

I need to walk with Him - if I don't have Him, I die. Even though I'm under grace and free to do all things, all things are not expedient for me. A farmer wouldn't plant onions if he wanted to grow corn; neither should we plant crops we don't want to grow.

We should cry out like baby birds for bread from heaven, living water, hidden manna. If we sow to the the Spirit, we shall reap life.

Crucified With Him

How is it that I can be crucified with Christ? I wasn't there 2,000 years ago and I didn't hang on a cross next to Him, yet this is tremendously important to my spiritual life if I am to decrease and He is to increase. God's plan is not to make me better but to get me out of the way through death, and to make a new me through resurrection. I can't do it on my own, so I must go through the way that God has made for me.

It is linear thinking to see spiritual history in a timeline from then to now. But God is eternal and has a different perspective. If I view this history in a timeline I see it like this:

+ ( the cross) ........................... \o/ (me).

This way, I'm separated from Christ's death on the cross by 2,000 years. But if I view it in God's eternal perspective it looks like this:

+
.
.
.
.
.
.
\o/

So now I can see how it's possible for me to be aligned with Christ's death, even to be a partaker in it; whatever happened to Him happened to me since I am in Him. And that is possible because that's the way God sees things. Thus I can reckon (count/affirm/attest) myself as crucified with Him.

Does that mean that Christ is continually crucified? No - that was once and done. But God sees me as in Christ and Christ as eternal.

Jesus was my substitute - He took my sin upon Himself there. But He did so much more; He took my place, yes - but He also made a place for me on the cross, so I can truthfully say with Paul "I am crucified with Christ." Grasp that - you and I were on the cross because of what Jesus did there; He made a way for us.

Similarly, I can say that through baptism I am buried with Him and I can also say that I am risen and resurrected with Him (Col 2:12), and mean it - it's a reality, not a wishy-washy theological supposition.

This is not reformation of character - this is death and resurrection. Something more happened to me in baptism than getting wet - I was buried! I was in that tomb, in Christ. And when the stone was rolled away and Jesus stepped forth, I came forth with Him. With Him - all the way!

This is not suppressing my desires but allowing the Son of God to vanquish me in every area. This is not living for Jesus, but Jesus living in me. This is not walking the walk, but limping like Jacob and leaning on the arm of my Beloved.

So no longer do we have the option/privilege of living our own lives; instead we are called to usher in the King of Glory in all His beauty and all His splendor, to prepare the way of the Lord, and to participate with Him in the dawning of His Kingdom.

Are you ready for that?

Jesus Is

Jesus is

... the friend you always wanted

... the wish you were afraid to wish for because it seemed too good

... what you always thought life should be like

... the answer to all your questions

... like the sun rising in your heart

... the one who says "I'll take your part when times get rough"

... the place to hide

... the one who watches over you

... a river of clear running water

Buenos amigos - Robert, Bruno, Marta, Javier, and Sergio 

Our team and a few friends.