Let Us Run

Our God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob - Israel. He is the God who declared His Name on Mount Sinai. He is the same God that announced the New Covenant in the Sermon on the Mount. 

He has given us a holy charge in the Gospel of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us run the race set before us. Let us not crawl. Let us not walk. Let us not dawdle - but let us run. Let us run with passion. Let us run with His Message. Let us run to be well-pleasing and faithful to Him. 

When it is bright and sunny let us run. When it is dark and cloudy let us run. 

When there are others with us, let us run.

When there is no one else with us, let us run.

And as we run let us carry the Torch of the Gospel, knowing that others are running with that same Torch. They have run through the centuries; through fire and flood and prison and rejection. They are running now, though we may not see them with our natural eyes, we can see them with the Eye of the Holy Spirit.

Let us run, and as we  run let us shout, let us shout the shout of the King for He is in the camp. 

Let us carry the Ark on our shoulders...let the glory of the LORD be upon His, for as our Lord said, "The glory which you have given me, I have given to them."

Let us not deny that glory in the midst of the darkness around us, but let us allow that glory, His glory, to shine upon us, and within us, and through us. For darkness shall cover the land and gross darkness the people, but our Father's promise is that His glory will arise upon us and that nations shall come to the brightness of rising.

In Jesus' Name...Amen.

Language and the Soul

If we could see our soul perhaps we would be circumspect in our language, for language forms the soul and the soul forms our language.

Those who say that a word is just a word fail to recognize that language is a gift, a creative gift, and that our words create and destroy, belittle and build up. Those “name it and claim it” folks, and positive mental attitude tribes, cheapen language in that they make it a currency, just as an American dollar or an English pound. They fail to recognize that language is formative and that to appreciate language is to recognize that it can either work deep character in our souls or it can tear them down, shredding them into sound bites and hashtags.

Twitter and texting with their brevity and shortcuts reduce us to frogs and toads who jump when touched – we need not think, we need only react…and react we do, responding in kind.

When language is reduced to the pragmatic are we any different than animals who are taught to respond to commands?

As we destroy thoughtful and formative language, we distance ourselves from the Word, the Word that brought creation into existence, the Word that desires to redeem us, the Word who desires to reform us into His Image.

I happened to observe some people watching a television show in which it seemed every other word was “beeped” out. Is not this the equivalent of an animal grunting and snorting? This is not formative, this is destructive. These grunts and snorts not only reduce the soul of the one who grunts and snorts, it reduces the souls of those who receive the grunts and snorts. We have exchanged swimming pools for cesspools and we revel in our sewage.

Of course I cannot conclude this without apologizing to animals, I mean no offense to them, for the sounds they emit they emit naturally, according to their nature. The grunts and snorts we emit are not natural, at least not natural according to our original nature; we who were made in the image of God are descending much lower than the animals.

Fractured language promotes fractured thinking; fractured language fractures the soul; fractured souls are at the mercy of their surroundings. We do not think complete thoughts. We seldom see complete images. We glory in our shame, and we think this is normal.

I wonder what the first word that Adam spoke sounded like.

I am afraid that the last sound we emit will be a grunt.

Chesterton Perspectives

"Do not look at the faces in the illustrated papers. Look at the faces in the street." G.K.C.

Perhaps today Chesterton would say, "Don't look at the faces on television or social media." Video, video, everywhere - and yet we walk by one another everyday and do not see one another. Why, I see this on Sunday mornings too; I've been in places called churches in which I am a stranger to everyone and everyone is a stranger to me. How can this be?

I have seen corporate executives visit branch offices and ignore everyone but the person they've come to "see". I've seen customers in stores not see the workers, and workers in stores not see the customers. I've seen receptionists in doctors' offices not see the patients, and patients not see the receptionists. I've seen government workers not see citizens and citizens not see government workers.

Tragically, I've witnessed husbands not see wives and wives not see husbands and I've witnessed parents not see children and children not see parents.

But we still manage to see video, video, everywhere - and our minds and souls are filled with video, sound, noise, images - most of them false, misleading, and blinding. Our souls are desensitized to the faces we pass everyday. 

Alas, video, video in churches too - perhaps it has its place, but perhaps not. Can we not have a respite from the pixels? From the sound? From the images assaulting us? 

Might we not speak a word to the face next to us? Might we not ask how the face is doing? Maybe there is a person behind the face? But again, perhaps we'd better not risk it - it might demand something of us...and it may make us late for lunch.

And yet, if God formed me (Psalm 139), then perhaps he formed the person I do not "see" - it might be interesting to actually meet another person who God created in His image. Perhaps I should show some respect and interest in God's work, in His image, in those for whom Christ died.

Perhaps, just perhaps, living faces are more important and vital than pixels on a screen. 

Chesterton Perspectives

"An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered; an adventure is an inconvenience rightly considered." G.K.C.

How often do our agendas blind us to God's Divine appointments? 

The check-out line is too long, the customer in front of us has an item without a price, or the customer's credit card won't process - and our impatience soars. We become so inconvenienced that we ignore the person behind us, the cashier, and the customer in front of us. We petulantly cry within ourselves, "Hurry up!" We do not hear the prompting of the Holy Spirit saying, "Slow down, pay attention, who can you touch with Christ?"

We have a long "to do" list for the day. A friend calls to talk, but it's really more than to just talk, the friend needs a friend. Will we be a friend or will we hurriedly end the conversation so that we can "get on with life"?

Am I looking for adventures, or am I seeking to avoid inconveniences? Am I praying to be open to the Holy Spirit and to God's interruptions, or am I living with blinders on?

Are we learning to experience each day sacramentally? That is, are we learning to receive God's grace through the mundane, the everyday, the minute detail which comprises so much of our lives?

Does it make any difference if we are using a self-serve scanner or are being served by a living person as we pay for our items in a store? If it doesn't really make any difference, what does that say about us? About our society? Do we think it makes any difference to Jesus?

As Reepicheep says in Narnia, "Let's take the adventure that Aslan gives us!" 

Remembering as G.K.C. might say, "Adventures come packaged as inconveniences." 

Speed Kills

Speed kills.

Not just on the automobile highway.

It kills on the highways of our hearts.

In our relationships.

In our prayer lives (lives of prayer).

In our meditation in God's Word.

I received an email from an acquaintance here in the States who is working with international folks who are here for 2 - 3 months; the acquaintance told me that she is busy, busy, busy.

It reminds me of the saying, "I'm running like a blind dog in a meat house."

I thought, "I hope she doesn't infect our international visitors with the American way of life." 

I wrote her back, "Speed kills."

Is it killing you? 

Chesterton Perspectives

Let's see what G.K.C. has for us today:

""Impartiality is a pompous name for indifference, which is an elegant name for ignorance."

I think this is often the case, especially in our present society in which any and everything goes, everything is a matter of opinion, there is no good or evil, right or wrong. God through Isaiah says that a time will come when men will call good evil and evil good - we are certainly there. Yes, yes, we have been there before, but I'm not sure that we've been there in the global sense we are today. It is exponentially worse. We are disoriented in so many ways, within and without the professing church.

We are like turtles who refuse to come out of their shells, if we don't stick our heads out (literally and figuratively) we can remain "impartial", "indifferent", and ignorant - thus taking no risk. Except the risk of becoming like a turtle in our moral, ethical, spiritual, and cognitive functions. (With apologies to turtles). 

Chesterton Perspectives

"The act of defending any of the cardinal virtues has today all the exhilaration of a vice." G.K. Chesterton

What would G.K.C. say today?

"A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it."  G.K.C.

Are we living or dead? Are our churches living or dead? If we go with the flow we'll be flushed down the toilet - then we'll be stinky. 

"Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions." G.K.C.

Much in the professing-church is fashionable; and we keep churning the fashions out. Our attention spans are so short that we demand fashion after fashion in Christian marketing - after all, if we stopped being entertained we might actually have to come face-to-face with the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ. 

Keeping a Close Watch

Command and teach these things. Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers. (1 Timothy 4:11 - 16 ESV).

Are we, by God's grace, keeping a close watch on ourselves? Are we in relationships with other brothers and sisters who are keeping a close watch on us? Are we keeping a close watch on one another? 

Are we keeping a close watch on our teaching and our thinking? Does what we believe and teach matter? 

How can we possibly save ourselves and others, by God's grace, from the chaos of this world, from the false teaching so prevalent in the professing church, from the mass confusion permeating the professing church and society, if we are not keeping a close watch on ourselves and our teaching? 

A warship navigating waters that have been mined by an enemy keeps a close watch. A ship sailing icy waters keeps a close watch for icebergs (unless its captain assumes the arrogance that his ship is unsinkable). A convoy in time of war keeps a close watch for enemy submarines. Doctors and nurses treating patients in an epidemic keep a close watch. We keep a close watch that poisons are kept separate from food.

Are we keeping a close watch on our entertainment? On the so-called "news" we watch and listen to? On the words we use? The thoughts we think? The things we desire? 

Are we keeping a close watch on the Word of God?  Are we looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith? 

"As the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to Yahweh our God, until He is gracious to us." (Psalm 123:2). 

We are called to keep a close watch on ourselves and our teaching not only for our own sake, but for the benefit of others. It is essential that we lay down our lives for others, that our lives be lived for Christ and others.

How are you keeping watch on yourself and your words, your thoughts, your teaching? 

There is no short-cut, and no long-term possibly of us keeping a watch on ourselves and our teaching without "immersing" ourselves in the Word of God and in our Lord Jesus Christ...and I think in the koinonia of the saints. 

Am I living an immersed life? 

What about you?

Transformation

If we are not being transformed into the image of Jesus Christ, we are being transformed into the image of the world. (Romans 12:1 - 2).

If we do not gather together to present our bodies, indeed our souls, as living sacrifices, then would it not be better to go enjoy a nice brunch in a fine restaurant?

Ponderings

This is not the time for pedantic posturing – this is a season for passionately declaring that, “The whole head is sick and the whole heart is faint,” (Isaiah 1:5).  

Woe be to the neighbor who, when his neighbor’s house is on fire at 2:00 A.M., lightly taps on the front door of the fiery house, lest he startle awake his neighbor.

I suppose it is difficult to have a prophetic Word in the Church if we are worried about its financial repercussions.

You have to be willing to die if you are going to live; otherwise you find yourself taking counsel of your fears in decision-making; including what to say, how to live, what to teach, what to preach.

Is it even possible for a seminary, even a seminary with a “high view” of Scripture, to be prophetic when it would result in loss of revenue?

The love of money makes us cowards; we cannot speak truly, we cannot live truly, we cannot truly follow Jesus Christ.

You have to be willing to be poor, to lose everything, if you are going to live; otherwise you find yourself taking counsel of your bank account in decision-making; including what to say, how to live, what to teach, what to preach.