The Voice of God

[1]

Friday, May 25, 2018

Honor the Lord, you heavenly beings; honor the Lord for his glory and strength.  Honor the Lord for the glory of his name.  Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness.  The voice of the Lord echoes above the sea.  The God of glory thunders.  The Lord thunders over the mighty sea.  The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is majestic.  The voice of the Lord splits the mighty cedars; the Lord shatters the cedars of Lebanon.  He makes Lebanon’s mountains skip like a calf; he makes Mount Hermon leap like a young wild ox.  The voice of the Lord strikes with bolts of lightning.  The voice of the Lord makes the barren wilderness quake; the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.  The voice of the Lord twists mighty oaks and strips the forests bare.  In his Temple everyone shouts, “Glory!”  The Lord rules over the floodwaters.  The Lord reigns as king forever.  The Lord gives his people strength.  The Lord blesses them with peace.  Psalm 29:1-11^NLT)

The Psalmist describes the voice of God as mighty and cataclysmic – something not to be denied or ignored.  His voice echoes above the sea, splits gigantic cedars, shakes the mountains as if they’re dancing in reply, sends lightning flashes, and stirs quakes in the quiet wilderness, making everything shout-out the glory of God.

After all that imagery the poet peels back the façade of storms and natural disaster to reveal the majestic Lord reigning as king forever, the One who gives his people strength and…peace!

Peace?  How does peace enter into all that earth-shaking and shattering?  Where is the peace in all the clammor of today’s constant arguing, partying, and killing?  Peace?

I cannot imagine anyone not wanting to live at peace, and in peace.  Of course this assumes people who are mentally healthy.  Anger, conflict, confrontation, and a general sense of in-your-face attitude are so alien to what my soul craves, it makes me cringe just to think about all that.  I don’t want to be around people who are at war, literally, or merely in their own minds; they spill-out bile and vengeance into their relationships.  There is little sense of peace or well-being there, or even just considering that picture.

I heard it said once that there are two types of people who are on the positive side of peace; there are peace-lovers, and there are peace-makers.  For me that’s too simple. 

Here’s what I mean:  Loving peace and making peace are as night and day different as passive and active.  Loving peace only requires an attitude – a desire to not have a fight going on.  Making peace sometimes (even often) requires the willingness to have a fight in order to end the fight.  Again, that’s too simple.

The complexity that enters this picture is when people who really aren’t in a healthy place enter the equation (people who are not sound of mind).  These are terrorist-seeds looking for a place to root.  Their literature claims peace as the motive for their “holy war” but goes no farther than throwing-off the blame for their warring ways on the higher power.  There is really not a desire for peace; there is only a lust for aggression.

So, how can you tell the difference between a really strong soldier whose target is peace, and a really strong terrorist who only craves the frenzy of war?  There are lots of variables in the answer to that question, such as the peace-making soldier who loses sight of peace being his target.  But my insides tell me the one true test is whether or not one is willing to trust.  Trust is the ability to lay-down the weapons and engage with words.  That is a first step in moving towards peace; without that first step, there is no chance to go anywhere but to the grave.

And isn’t that the crunch?  War and graves go hand in hand; only those who trust, people who are willing to lay down their anger, war and hurt are candidates for peace.  You need a quiet moment to hear the voice of the Lord.

For You Today

True peace lovers are also peace makers; and the other way around too.

Are there any weapons in your arsenal that need laying-down?

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day. 

Go to VIDEO

---

[1] Title Image:  Courtesy Pixabay.com

Getting to the Heart of the Matter

[1]

Friday, January 26, 2018

“Write this letter to the angel of the church in Pergamum.  This is the message from the one with the sharp two-edged sword:  “I know that you live in the city where Satan has his throne, yet you have remained loyal to me.  You refused to deny me even when Antipas, my faithful witness, was martyred among you there in Satan’s city.  “But I have a few complaints against you.  You tolerate some among you whose teaching is like that of Balaam, who showed Balak how to trip up the people of Israel.  He taught them to sin by eating food offered to idols and by committing sexual sin.  In a similar way, you have some Nicolaitans among you who follow the same teaching.  Repent of your sin, or I will come to you suddenly and fight against them with the sword of my mouth.  “Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches.  To everyone who is victorious I will give some of the manna that has been hidden away in heaven.  And I will give to each one a white stone, and on the stone will be engraved a new name that no one understands except the one who receives it.  Revelation 2:12-17^(NLT)

The church at Pergamum was willing to suffer persecution for the cause of Christ, and the message John was given to give to them was:  you have been faithful!  Yet, even with passive willingness to suffer, the Lord wanted them to be pro-active in resisting the sinful influence of unfaithful people.  The Nicolaitans brought a lack of discernment as well as a like for sexual perversity into the life of the church, even teaching God’s people to participate.  God informed them that this is intolerable and they were doing nothing about it.  He told them to repent – which doesn’t simply mean a trip to the altar, a quick prayer, and change nothing.  It means to change your behavior…and pronto!

Many of us who were raised in a culture that is Christian-based were also taught to be nice.  Does this sound familiar:  If you don’t have something nice to say, say nothing! 

The problem with that, measured against the LORD’s message to the church at Pergamum, is saying nothing when sinfulness is being taught to your children in Sunday School, or is being flaunted by church members, accomplishes worse than nothing; saying nothing validates behavior.  He who is silent is thought to consent!

Now, speaking-up, especially when it means confronting another with what you perceive to be sinful behavior, is like walking in a minefield.  In a culture where even the slightest offense can wind up in hate-crime court, the Christian must choose carefully how to address issues; the bull-in-a-china-shop approach isn’t effective!

So how do you speak up?  The heart of this matter is prayer, making certain of your intentions and methods.  Notice how Paul counseled leaders in this respect:

Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path.  And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself.  Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ.  If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself.  You are not that important.   Galatians 6:1-3^(NLT)

For You Today

The Golden Rule applies in speaking-up; speak a word of kindness, steeped in truth, humility, and Godliness.

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

                                        

Go to VIDEO

---

[1] Title Image Courtesy of Pixabay.com

Silent Hope of the World

[i]

Wednesday, January 11, 2017

“Look at my Servant, whom I have chosen.  He is my Beloved, who pleases me.  I will put my Spirit upon him, and he will proclaim justice to the nations.  He will not fight or shout or raise his voice in public.  He will not crush the weakest reed or put out a flickering candle.  Finally he will cause justice to be victorious.  And his name will be the hope of all the world.”  Matthew 12:18-21^(NLT)

Quoting the prophet Isaiah, Matthew the tax collector calls the name of Jesus the hope of all the world.  It’s something out of character for a tax collector to be quoting Scripture, let alone naming an executed political prisoner the hope of anything.

By the time Matthew wrote his Gospel account, he had to work hard to recall the pitiful scenes of Jesus’ passion.  There was that night when Jesus was arrested in Gethsemane and everyone but Jesus fled for their lives; He let them take him!  He was beaten unrecognizable in public, spat-upon, and mocked and convicted in a sham trial.  All through this ordeal Matthew’s hero doesn’t even speak-up for his innocence.  He takes it all and is silent.  Finally they nailed him to a cross raised on the town garbage dump, and he bleeds, suffers, cries out to forgive the ones who did this to him, and…dies.  What kind of hope for all the world is that?

Of course the answer is it’s the God-kind of hope we needed most of all.  And it is so different from what we are accustomed to calling “power” or “justice”.   We can easily miss why the name of Jesus is our hope.  Our culture looks to leaders who are powerful people with a loud voice, always confident, and always in control – the threat of consequences at their fingertips.  By comparison, silence is seen as weakness.

But Jesus was anything but weak.  Rather he was “meek” – another misunderstood word, implying impotence or fearful submission.  Rather the word “meek” in Scripture means the kind of power you see in a magnificent stallion, only under control.  It is the right use of power to do what must be done.  Horses can be out-of-control, and when that happens, the strength of their body can be powerfully-destructive.  But a horse under the control of the bridle and reins is powerfully-useful.

The Silent Jesus was the later, powerful beyond measure, able to still the storm’s raging with a simple word, heal the sick, raise the dead, and even conquer death after three days in the tomb.  And yet, that power was silent standing before the world as humankind cried CRUCIFY.

Isaiah looked down the corridors of time and called this silent Messiah the hope of all the world.  To Matthew and the other disciples who fled the scene to save their skins, it may have looked like all hope had been nailed to that cross, shattered by the blows of fate.  But God isn’t interested in what it looks like to us; God is more interested in what our souls look like to Him.

There were several times in the last thirty-seven years when it seemed like, for us, all hope for staying in ministry had been snatched away.  But God wasn’t interested in how it looked to me or anyone else.  He was busy (silently) working behind the curtain to bring all things together for good[ii].

And if there’s any hope at all in the universe, it will not be in the noisy, political plans and schemes of the ones who appear powerful; rather it will swing on the hinge of the name and power of the One who is our sacrifice: Jesus Christ, silent hope of all the world.

For You Today

In all you do, or attempt to do today, your power will not be found in physical, emotional or intellectual strength; your power will be found in the still, small moments as you listen for God’s voice. 

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

Go to VIDEO

NOTES

---

[i] Title image: By Cigoli [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

[ii] Romans 8:28