Highly Favored - Part 2

[i]

Friday, December 23, 2016

A few days later Mary hurried to the hill country of Judea, to the town where Zechariah lived.  She entered the house and greeted Elizabeth.  At the sound of Mary’s greeting, Elizabeth’s child leaped within her, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.  Elizabeth gave a glad cry and exclaimed to Mary, “God has blessed you above all women, and your child is blessed.  Why am I so honored, that the mother of my Lord should visit me?  When I heard your greeting, the baby in my womb jumped for joy.  You are blessed because you believed that the Lord would do what he said.”  Mary responded, “Oh, how my soul praises the Lord.  How my spirit rejoices in God my Savior!  For he took notice of his lowly servant girl, and from now on all generations will call me blessed.  For the Mighty One is holy, and he has done great things for me.  He shows mercy from generation to generation to all who fear him.  His mighty arm has done tremendous things!  He has scattered the proud and haughty ones.  He has brought down princes from their thrones and exalted the humble.  He has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away with empty hands.  He has helped his servant Israel and remembered to be merciful.  For he made this promise to our ancestors, to Abraham and his children forever.”  Luke 1:39-55^(NLT)

Perhaps both Elizabeth and her niece Mary naively misunderstood everything.  They certainly couldn’t forsee all the pain that was on their horizon.  Elizabeth’s child would be imprisoned and beheaded; Mary’s child….well, you know.

But, their misunderstanding was well-placed.  Elizabeth’s and Mary’s words recorded in this text are words of utmost faith in Jehovah.  It was like a flash mob, extemporaneously gathering and exploding with praise on that Judean hillside.  Elizabeth was filled with God’s Spirit and bubbled over with praise for God’s kindness in bringing about the fulfillment of the long-awaited promise of Messiah. 

Mary, also, is seized by the Spirit’s joy and her Magnificat (song of praise) proclaims that everything in life is about to be turned upside-down:

·       Those with reason to be proud will be humbled

·       Those proud because of their riches will end up at the soup kitchens

·       Those who pridefully occupy thrones will be powerless

This is the future about which Mary and Elizabeth prophesy.  Everything is turned on its ear, and God sets it all straight.  So what have Mary and Elizabeth missed here?  What is misunderstood?

C.S. Lewis called Mary’s song a terrible song, playing on the Latin “terribillis” which means dreadful, frightful, fearsome[ii].  It seems the birth of Jesus will fiercly shake the very foundations of society and change everything. 

Children will do that!  When our first child, Jennifer, came along we were so thrilled, and so very naïve about how life was going to be so perfect.  The pain of childbirth, it is said, fades into memory past, leaving the joy of relationship.  But, in truth, childbirth also obscures the pain of the future.  Scraped knees and assorted “boo-boos” aside, this dangerous world (particularly to children) is a labyrinth of trouble.  There are places like the Twin Towers, Columbine, and Sandy Hook!

Mary sang over her firstborn, a perfect child – future king; but she missed entirely the shadow which the cross cast across that manger!  But that is how it is when you serve God.  When, like Mary, you commit to being His slave – your life will never be the same again, predictable and comfortable.  There is no such thing as safe obedience. 

Mary and Elizabeth…powerless, little hope for a secure future…lives of dead ends.  And, suddenly….God!  That’s how it is when you’ve got something new swelling your insides.

For You Today

Sometimes that so-called dead end you face is the beginning of God’s highly-favored blessing!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day, and a most blessed and highly-favored Christmas celebration this weekend!

Go to VIDEO

NOTES

---

[i] Title image: Andrea del Sarto [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

[ii] Scott Hoezee, The Center for Excellence in Preaching 

Fingers With a Brain

[i]

Monday, October 31, 2016

“What good is an idol carved by man, or a cast image that deceives you?  How foolish to trust in your own creation—a god that can’t even talk!  What sorrow awaits you who say to wooden idols, ‘Wake up and save us!’  To speechless stone images you say, ‘Rise up and teach us!’  Can an idol tell you what to do?  They may be overlaid with gold and silver, but they are lifeless inside.  But the Lord is in his holy Temple.  Let all the earth be silent before him.”  Habakkuk 2:18-20^(NLT)

My bride, Elizabeth, introduced me to a concept of which I’d never heard before.  Quite some time ago when I was pastor in McIntosh, Florida, she travelled the 18 miles daily to the University of Florida where she was studying piano performance.  She and a friend, also a music student, were talking about dreading the drone of practice times; the friend told her to bring a magazine or book.  Elizabeth assumed she was referring to taking a break to read, but she was serious; read a magazine while you’re practicing Brahms!   My wife gave it a try and, she said it was amazing, as if her fingers had their own brain!  She practiced piano while reading a magazine, and her finger muscles learned, and she enjoyed the latest edition of home decorating styles.

This is a particularly weird idea to someone like me who must focus like a laser if I’m to accomplish anything.  I’m not much of a multi-tasker.  When I’m studying for writing a sermon there has to be complete quiet, or I will retain nothing of what I read; I might as well be pouring over Sanskrit or Egyptian hieroglyphics.   I once blamed a bummer of a sermon on the ant that walked across the room; his stomping broke my concentration.

For any beneficial (albeit “offbeat”) practice, there is a cousin which is not so beneficial.  In worship, for instance, multi-tasking distraction is like worshipping a carved stone idol; not much is going to happen between the worshipper and that god!  God rather flatly stated he would not entertain anything before Him.  Frankly, your grocery list, or where you’re going to eat lunch after worship, and how you’re going to slip out quickly to beat the Baptists to that restaurant…is uninteresting to God, and rather contrary to the purpose for which church exists in the first place.  It ought to be approached single-mindedly!

When King David was passing the torch of leadership to his son, Solomon, he had these words of caution about worshipping and serving JHWH:

“And Solomon, my son, learn to know the God of your ancestors intimately.  Worship and serve him with your whole heart and a willing mind.  For the Lord sees every heart and knows every plan and thought.  If you seek him, you will find him.  But if you forsake him, he will reject you forever.  So take this seriously.  The Lord has chosen you to build a Temple as his sanctuary.  Be strong, and do the work.”  1 Chronicles 28:9-10^(NLT)

Take it seriously with your whole heart – there’s no such thing as multi-tasking this relationship with your God; you are either in or out.

I have seen the “out” when people are counting the ceiling tiles in a worship service.  Granted, there are times when any minister will fail to make the service interesting or creative.  But we must always remember we’re not there to worship the minister’s creativity or style of presentation; we are there to connect with holy God.

We live in a culture that bows down at the altar of multi-tasking productivity and honors new and exciting.  Perhaps it’s time to slow it down with the kind of Sabbath that allows your soul to breathe.

For You Today

When you next enter the sanctuary of worship, try keeping silent before the LORD; He really is in that place, you know! 

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO

NOTES

---

[i] Title Images: By Raych Hatashe (Own work), via Wikimedia Commons

The Doily

[1]

Thursday, March 10, 2016

VIDEO

O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me.  You know when I sit down or stand up.  You know my thoughts even when I’m far away.  You see me when I travel and when I rest at home.  You know everything I do.  You know what I am going to say even before I say it, Lord.  You go before me and follow me. You place your hand of blessing on my head.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand! 

I can never escape from your Spirit!  I can never get away from your presence!  If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the grave, you are there.  If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me.

I could ask the darkness to hide me and the light around me to become night— but even in darkness I cannot hide from you.  To you the night shines as bright as day. Darkness and light are the same to you.  Psalm 139:1-12^(NLT)

You know how “family stories” are; something happens that’s weird or funny and for the next forty years all you have to do is mention the first word of the story at a family gathering and everyone is suddenly grinning. 

My bride has provided us with more than a few of these moments.  One such time that she often tells on herself (and which I would be most foolish to reproduce here were it not for her permission) is about the doily.

Elizabeth is a “clean freak”.  She was called The White Tornado by our children for years.  Even though the house is always in order and could pass a military inspection, when company is scheduled to come, it’s all-hands-on-deck until it all shines!

Once, when guests were almost due, our daughter, Jennifer, was finishing off the dusting.  As she picked up the lace doily from the piano, she noticed a tear in the pattern and yelled to Elizabeth in the next room:  The doily on the piano has a hole in it.  Without skipping a beat, the Tornado yelled back:  Just turn it over!

I don’t know why the thought of hiding one side of a hole by turning it over to expose the other side of the hole, can turn our family conversation to the absurdly funny…but that is one that never fails!  Turn the doily over!

The Psalmist had that kind of revelation about hiding from God.  God knows everything about us.  Like a doily, it does not matter which way we try to hide or bury our innermost thoughts and the most secret of our deeds – the holes in our character cannot be hidden by turning a different side to the light.

And He is always there.  If we run to the uttermost remote parts of the universe, God is there first; morning, evening or the dead of night, our God is ever present.  We can try to hide in our memories, or busy ourselves with the present, or promise better behavior in the future – but our lives are transparent to an all-knowing God; every stitch of our existence is illumined to the Lord…on every side.  You can turn over that doily of your life’s doings all you want to make it seem different or better than it really is…but, as the old saying has it…you can run, but you can’t hide; not from Him!

And that brings us to the main point – confession!  The word “confess” in Scripture means to say the same.  It means to look at what our thoughts, words and deeds have been and tell it like it is – to name it as God calls it.

In our culture confession has become obsolete – replaced by excuse, or worse – explanation which lays the blame at someone else’s feet. 

But that simply turns the doily over; it never mends the holes!

For You Today

Remembering that the Father already knows all about you, don’t turn the doily over.  Why not start the day with saying the same – confessing your sin, and being forgiven?

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road today…and have a blessed day!

---

[1] Title Image:  By Blanka Luppová, via Wikimedia Commons