The Better Compass

"...a light-radiant cloud enveloped them, and sounding from deep in the cloud a voice: 'This is my Son, marked by my love, focus of my delight. Listen to him.'” (Matthew 17:5, The Message)

Listen...for wisdom.

Before making any decision.

Before choosing any direction.

Before taking any opportunity.

It may all feel right.

Or wrong.

But there is a much better compass...

"Can you hear the Voice of wisdom?...

At the place where pathways merge,

At the entrance of every portal,

There she stands, ready to impart understanding."

(Proverbs 8:1-3, Passion)

"Every happening, great and small, is a parable whereby God speaks to us, and the art of life is to get the message."

- Malcolm Muggeridge

The Lord Is...

…Not could be, might be, perhaps under certain conditions, or in theory. Is. When the Bible says, and says so countless times and in countless ways, that “God is…” or “The Lord is…” it means just what it means in everyday life:

To “be.” 

Some definitions say it even better, with clarifying words like “present.” The Lord is…as in not a far-off, aloof, go-figure-it-out-yourself-and-call-if-you-need-anything God, but a “God with us” 24/7 God. And then there are some jaw-dropping "is" synonyms that are much more than just clarifying words...

Abide

Act

Breathe

Continue

Do

Endure

Hold

Inhabit

Last

Live

Move

Obtain

Persist

Prevail

Remain

Rest

Stand

Stay

Words can be amazing. But a picture paints a thousand words. And so the veil of familiarity and casual head-nodding dissolves once and for all while hiking through favorite brookside woods and fields. The accompaniment, which seems to come out of nowhere (yeah, right), is a familiar Psalm but set to a different tune…

"The Lord is…my best friend and my shepherd.

I always have more than enough.

He offers a resting place for me in His luxurious love.

His tracks take me to an oasis of peace, the quiet brook of bliss.

That’s where He restores and revives my life.

He opens before me pathways to God’s pleasure
and leads me along in His footsteps of righteousness so that I can bring honor to His name.

Lord, even when Your path takes me through

the valley of deepest darkness,

fear will never conquer me, for You already have!

You remain close to me and lead me through it all the way.

Your authority is my strength and my peace.

The comfort of Your love takes away my fear.

I’ll never be lonely, for You are near...

...You become my delicious feast

even when my enemies dare to fight.

You anoint me with the fragrance of Your Holy Spirit;

You give me all I can drink of You until my heart overflows.

So why would I fear the future?

For Your goodness and love pursue me all the days of my life.

Then afterward, when my life is through,

I’ll return to Your glorious presence to be forever with You!"....

“I am the Alpha and the Omega—the beginning and the end,” says the Lord God. “I am the one who is, who always was, and who is still to come—the Almighty One.”  - Revelation 1:8

A Heartbeat Away

“Make your life a prayer.”—1 Thessalonians 5:17, Passion

It can take a lifetime to dispel the image of prayer as being folded hands and closed eyes in a hushed atmosphere. Sure, it can be that. But more often than not, prayer seems to take you by surprise in the practical way that it just happens—with eyes wide open, while minding your own business, and seemingly while you’re on the way to doing something else…

…I was running late to an early morning meeting and determined that stopping for coffee as usual was out of the question. Even five minutes to run in and run out would be five minutes too long. And yet a stronger impression within kept saying, “stop anyway, just to say hi.” A few months earlier, when stopping for coffee as usual and carrying on smalltalk with the employees, one of them responded to “How’s life?” with “Not great. I found out that I have congestive heart failure and that only a small portion of one of my chambers is functioning properly. I can’t go to work for awhile."

At a loss for words, I think my response was something along the lines of “well, hang in there, kid. I’ll be praying. God can do anything.” And while walking across the parking lot to my car, I remember telling God that I would pray, and in fact I did right then and there, not very loudly or eloquently, with eyes wide open while on the way to doing something else, but admitting “wow, this is a big one, but I’m going to pray that you give them a new heart.” Transplant was not what I had in mind…

…so, five minutes that I really didn’t have to spare to stop in and say “hi, how’s life?” Might as well grab that coffee after all. And while pouring, the employee with the broken heart who had been out of work but was back again responded, “I’m feeling great! I went for a checkup with my cardiologist the other day, and I hadn’t even gotten out of the driveway when my phone rang. It was him. He said, ‘are you sitting down?’ And I laughed, ‘well, yeah, I’m driving!’ And he said, I can’t explain it, but that chamber is now functioning at 50 percent!”

And there was much “Woohoo!”-ing, and high-fiving. I made the sign of praying—hands together pointing upward, and said “amen” to the employee’s casual “by the grace of God” comment. And while walking across the parking lot to my car, I remembered that prayer from months earlier and said thanks, but then quietly pushed the envelope once more: “still believing for a new heart, but I’ll take 75 percent for now.” ….

And all the while, common sense keeps tapping you on the shoulder: "Is this even biblical?!"

Jesus, we are told in the Gospels, would often get away by himself to pray—to talk with and listen to and be with His Father. He told His disciples it’s a good thing to pray in a secret place with no distractions. But Jesus also told His disciples to always pray wherever they are and never give up, and not only that but to believe for seemingly impossible things like telling fig trees to wither and mountains to get up and move.

Come on, who can do that?

But Jesus also said that our faith needn’t be huge or loud, just activated, always knowing that “with God, all things are possible.”

Jesus also gave a pattern for praying when the disciples asked for one, but never do we read about Him following up with, “so, how are you guys doing with studying those books on prayer and the course manual?” Helpful tools as they are, the Master’s day-to-day example from His coming and goings and routine encounters with people and situations seems to have been more supernaturally natural prayer—putting into practice an overflow of Heavenly conversation and relationship that works well beyond Sunday mornings.

Something you take with you on your way, even to being late for a meeting.

“And as you go, proclaim this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’”—Matthew 10:7, NIV

Because you never know when the answer to your activated, feeble-faith, “just getting coffee" praying for seemingly impossible things could be just a heartbeat away for someone in need.

“I don’t know how people pray who don’t believe in the sovereignty of God to do the impossible. Because all the things I want to happen are impossible. If they’re possible, I’ll do them.”—John Piper

If You Build It...

“The main thing that God asks for is our attention.”—Jim Cymbala

It’s been said that if you attend a conference of a million topics and come away with just that one takeaway that you can apply to your own situation, then it was worth it.

Sometimes, that takeaway can be for a lifetime.

Several years ago, sitting at the back at a packed conference of church worship musicians, leaders, and pastors looking for fresh ideas and that one takeaway that could take their ministries to the next level, a lone voice shook the room. The topic was about platform layout—how to set it up to look pleasing and uncluttered, and especially how to make that layout most effective for helping to lead the congregation in worship based upon the amount of people and equipment that needs to fit on that platform.

There was much buzz in the room. You could almost hear the wheels turning inside the heads of hundreds of participants, dreaming how they could make things work better when they got home. Until with one raised hand, everything changed…

“I have a question: What if you don’t have all these instruments and equipment and people? At my church, our platform has one upright piano. No microphones. Me and maybe a couple other singers.”

The seminar leader could have encouraged the questioner to go recruit more musicians or put in a budget request for this piece of electronics or that one. Instead, with the same heart of Jesus spoken to the woman at the well in John 4, the leader replied:

“Then give it all you’ve got.”

“Believe me, dear woman, the time has come when you won’t worship the Father on a mountain nor in Jerusalem, but in your heart…From here on, worshiping the Father will not be a matter of the right place but with the right heart. For God is a Spirit, and he longs to have sincere worshipers who worship and adore him in the realm of the Spirit and in truth.”—John 4: 21, 24 Passion Translation

Takeaway.

Instruments and equipment and technology can all be helpful and powerful communications tools that help worshipers in a modern society better “connect” to the God of the universe who put those ideas for powerful communications tools into man’s heads in the first place.

But that lone voice that shook the room at that conference many years ago has stayed with me. In a good, re-calibrating, what-really-matters sort of way every single Sunday morning.

That if one Sunday you walked in to church and all of that good stuff was gone, could you still worship? Would you?

If there was no buzz or a pump-it-up vibe, would you be afraid that people would go elsewhere next week?

If you found out that, until further notice, church would held be in some local community hall with uncomfortable folding chairs and nothing but a piano on the platform, could you still worship? Would you?

Even if there was no overhead projection that fed you all the scriptures being read?

Even if the coffee would be instant instead of fresh-brewed?

“If you build it, they will come,” so says the oft-quoted promise to Roy Kinsella (Kevin Costner) in the 1989 movie “Field of Dreams.”

A logical argument for having all the conveniences and gadgets known to modern man. Except, after all these years in trying to prove a point, we’ve gotten that line all wrong. The lone voice that shook an Iowa cornfield was “he,” not “they.”

Which seems to make the line a lot less powerful and motivating. Or maybe, more powerful than ever.

Because whether we are blessed with church services filled with the latest and greatest, or with just very limited resources, as long as the Gospel is being preached and people are seeking to "follow Me," then Jesus’ response to the woman at the well in John 4 and the seminar leader’s response to the worship leader are what matter most—even on the first Sunday of Daylight Savings Time when it would be easier to stay home and recover from one hour of lost sleep...

“If you simply build your lives on My life, I will come...

So give it all you’ve got.”

Where Hope is Alive

"Direct my footsteps according to Your Word..." - Psalm 119:133

It sits on my kitchen table every day, waiting, as if to announce: "Your day begins here."

Often it does.
But truth be told, not always.

And at the end of those days, I wished I had.

Because whether it's that one,
Or the cool ones with a gazillion language flavorings on my phone, 
It is life to my soul.

And so much more:

A road map.

A fountain of wisdom.

A source of peace and comfort.

A banquet meant to be devoured.

Beautiful in its phrasing.

Raw and honest in its content.

Where men and women unabashedly live their love for God.

Where men and women are unafraid, in their humanity, to yell at God and get angry or frustrated.

And know that when they do, He's still there.

Some pages of the one sitting on my kitchen table are dog-eared, heavily underlined, and dotted with coffee stains.

Some pages are crisp and white, which probably means they are filled with invisible question marks.

Sometimes, its voice is so loud, the letters and phrases explode within.

Sometimes, its voice seems to be speaking to anybody else but me.

Until that day you are reminded one more time that it's not the words, really, anyway.

The power is in the One behind the words.

The One who alone is faithful and true, the God of all comfort and wisdom, the giver of Life;

When all other people and things and stuff in our lives fall short of the mark;

When nothing makes sense, when confusion is everywhere, when all around seems unhinged.
Where hope is always alive...

...Especially that day in the midst of months of darkness that seemed to have no end,
When that Voice that seemed to be speaking to anybody else but you,
Suddenly, spoke so loudly that the letters and phrases on the page exploded within:

"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." —Romans 15:13, NIV

A hope that is not wishful thinking but anchored in the only One with a perfect resume;

A hope that is not "out there somewhere: but that becomes as real and as close as your next breath.

The perfect theme song for this wonderful, often-crazy-unpredictable Journey;
The kind of tune that is good to have stuck in your head.

A hope that restores...joy!

And peace.
And trust for putting one foot in front of the other.
Over and over again.

An incomparable kind of hope that makes that which sits on my kitchen table every day

"The best-selling book of non-fiction" of all time.

"Hope is the music of the whole Bible—the heartbeat, the pulse, and the atmosphere of the whole Bible.”

—A.W. Tozer

[Adapted from 2017, 'Theme Music"]

Pressing the Right Buttons

"After all, the gift of language combined with the gift of song was only given to man to let him know that he should praise God with both Word and music..."—Martin Luther 

This seems like a strange prayer to send your way, but here goes:

Let today remind you that the good religious, formulaic boxes we are prone to make are continually being blown apart by an uncontainable, awesome God…

...“You need to start your day, every day, with a quiet time before God.” Probably one of the first and wisest words of counsel every Christ-one received following the moment we said “yes, I believe.” For following well, good habits are good. Guidelines can keep us from wandering off-course. Methods can be really helpful in the madness of life. 

Except on those days when the nice, tidy formulaic box of “If I do this then this will happen”…OK, well, it doesn’t work. When despite all good intentions, your brain is stuck in the fog of that 4 a.m. weird dream, your eyes itch, your mind wanders to the projects of the day demanding attention, and the good words of the Word in that nice, tidy box of a quiet time seem to go in one ear and then disappear into outer space….

“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

—Isaiah 55:9, NIV

…Good habits, remember, are good. And so on one quiet time “doesn’t work” morning this week, when a cold rain did nothing to lighten the atmosphere, I pulled over to the favorite spot for a coffee for the commute. Coffee always helps. Not today. And so, before pulling out onto the highway to the 9-5, I turned on the radio and started pressing all of the presets looking for relief of some kind. But even the presets were not in the mood:

Instead of something soothing, the classical station happened to be playing a symphony so loud and chaotic it would make you want to drive into a ditch.

Let’s check the news. station…“Bad. Bad. That’s bad, too. Really bad.”

OK, how about the usually upbeat station with the latest traffic updates…”Don’t go there. What a mess. If you don’t have to be on the road today, stay home.” (Kind of liked that idea.)

The sports station should have been basking in the afterglow of the Super Bowl, but instead it was complaining about something or another that didn’t really matter…”wah, wah, wah…”

Surely, the station that broadcasts messages of faith would be different. But on this day, the speaker mumbled in uninspiring monotone as if the God we serve and Love is totally boring.

Only one other option. Which maybe should have been the first: Plug in the USB and put on some music that praises God, that inspires worship, that maybe, just maybe, would speak truth and refreshing into a weary, boxed-in soul…

“…David took a harp and played it with his hand; so Saul would be refreshed and be well…”—1 Samuel 16:23, Amplified

While the circumstances that brought on Saul’s torment are not to be envied (see 1 Samuel 15-16), the promise of the songs of the Lord played to a weary, boxed-in-devotions heart, is unshakeable and undefeated. And as if on cue, as Truth and blessed assurance broke through once more, the atmosphere within the car seemed to change. The sun seemed to come out even while it was still raining. More importantly, the weary, boxed-in “gotta do the quiet time thing the same way every day” heart was refreshed and awakened once more in Love.

It reminded me that three times in the past couple of weeks when praying for men and women who were weary of heart in their own way, they all said the same thing: “When I turned on the praise and let the truth sink in, everything changed. God met me. That’s what got me through.”

Because sometimes, God would rather break out of our preconceived “do it this way” box of discipleship and meet us at our point of need instead. To reach us and grab hold of us through the back door so that we can hear His voice. And often, it is here where that Word that only hours ago seemed to disappear into outer space suddenly comes alive while you’re on your way through the day, encountering people and situations where it is needed most.

Shockingly, out of the box. Perhaps as God intended it all along...

...Sometimes you just have to press the right button.

There Must Be More

A great conversation yesterday awakened a long-simmering longing for a Christ-following lifestyle that goes beyond Sunday mornings. And in the midst of it, realizing how easy it is to get sucked into living from Sunday to Sunday—everything that matters happens there and then, and then everything in between is to be endured until Sunday rolls around once more.

Somehow, I don’t think this is what Jesus had in mind in building His Church—that how I live “out there” Monday through Saturday is somehow inferior to or less sacred than how I live on Sundays. What kind of “light” is that?

Of course, Sunday and all of its goodness does matter. It means refueling and refreshing and repentance and encouragement and hope. It just doesn’t end there. And that’s an against-the-current swim that is easy to quit on because the cultural-traditional pull is so strong. But it’s one that must be pursued nevertheless, day by day, little by little, until the fullness of being fully alive in Christ begins to come out your pores wherever you go, whatever you’re doing, with whomever you encounter. Naturally, yet somehow supernaturally...

“So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him…”—Romans 12:1, Message

Boxing Christianity into an all-out Sunday package is not unlike reading the passages about Jesus’ birth only in December. His birth, His life, His victory are so much bigger than one season. Consider:

“For unto you is born this day…” (Luke 2:11, ESV)

Unto you.

A reminder that, like living from Sunday to Sunday, the Jesus you know, love, and follow is much more than a season, more than a warm, feel-good, traditional story, more than a moment in history that is nodded at and then closed until it’s nodded at again next December.

Instead, it’s an astounding invitation to you to love Christmas, to love Sundays, but to not camp out there and to instead launch out all over again every Monday morning to seek to live life to the fullest, in the unique way that he has made you.

To receive the Good News, to Believe it, to serve others, to give yourself away with all of Heaven’s Love that is within you.

It is never too late, or only for the young and strong. It is always on time and for every generation who hungers and thirsts. For every Christmas story that invites you to more than a Christmas story, and for those who have that mysterious, never-ending, deep-seated longing this Sunday within that says “there must be more than this,” ancient words from Martin Luther cheer us on:

“What more do you need if indeed you know Christ, if you walk by faith in God, and by Love to your neighbor, doing to him as Christ has done to you? This is, indeed, the whole Scripture in its briefest form: That no more words or books are necessary, but only life and action.”