Ifs, Ands, and Buts...

Philippians 1:6, "...being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of  

Christ Jesus." 

"If." It's a pretty small word but what a powerful one. It can be a powerful positive word or a powerful negative word. 

"I wonder...if...we could do this?  If we perhaps do this I wonder if it would work? If this lines up then it should go through." 

Used in this way the word "if" becomes this powerful word of possibility. 

I like being around people with a positive "if." They open up a world that I am often blind to and they give me hope. They allow me to see the creative wonder of God through his people and through his creation. 

Too often, however, I live in the negative "if." It's the world of regret, a world of speculation, of worthless imagination. 

What if I had done this?  What if I would have gone there? What if I would have met this person or chosen that career? What if I would have said, "Yes" or what if I would have said, "No"?

When I was in my 30's and going back to college I was often wondering why God called me into ministry so late. What if God would have called me when I was a teen? Then I would be, could be, should be... 

Someone has figured out that 40% of our anxiety comes from thinking about the "what if" that will never happen and 30% of the "what did happen" that can never be undone. It's a futile "if"and it robs us of the blessing of the moment.  

It is an attitude of discontentment that drives the mind away from the present blessings and realities of a loving and sovereign God. 

Think about this for a moment:  If God lovingly created you and called you to himself, not only for a deep, abiding relationship, but so that you might live with purpose, then why would you think there could be miss-steps in your journey?

What "if" everything....everything in your life has been placed there for the great purposes of glorifying God and bringing your life into it fullest completion and joy? 

What "if" there are no miss-steps, no wrong turns, no wrong choices. What if God does indeed have this incredible plan for your life that draws you into the cosmic fabric of his pre-planned tapestry?

Honestly, it's relieved a lot of stress in my life so that I can sinfully worry about other things. God has not called me to be anything else than what I am - today. And I will be exactly what God wants me to be tomorrow. 

Through the good times, the troubled times, the poor times and the rich times, through times of deepest sorrow and times of deepest joy, through times of obedience and times of disobedience, through absolute certainty and absolute uncertainty  -- God's loving plan is unfolding. 

We wonder "if" because we cannot see the end. But I am confident of this one thing: that at the end of my life I will know that the one who began a good work in me was, indeed, able to complete it until the end. No "ifs," "ands," or "buts." 

Oh...and...

I was captivated this week by a statement from Francis de Sales (1622 c.). 

"Now tell me frankly, would you rather not have been in the dark stable which was full of the baby's crying, rather than with the shepherds, ravished with joy and gladness by sweet heavenly music and the beauty of this marvelous light?" 

I don't know about anyone else but this stops me in my mental tracks and causes me to be honest with my view of Christianity. 

I look for the experiential in my faith. I long for the experiential in my faith. Oh...and...a good experience by the way. Nothing really hard or difficult to endure. I like my Christianity pleasant and smelling nice. 


I spent half my life around farms. I know what a barn filled with animals smells like. It's going to take a lot of Johnson's baby powder to make such a place an enjoyable stable memory. But yet, is this not the point of de Sales words? 

The times I usually get lost spiritually are those connected to my quest for things other than Jesus. The times I get the most deceived are when I look for the experience rather than the person. I have convinced myself that Jesus can only be found in a multi-million dollar facility with a professional praise team and a pastoral rotation of Billy Graham, Louis Palau, Ravi Zacharias, Charles and Andy Stanley, John MacArthur, and David Jeremiah. 


When I go to church on Sundays, I must confess that my worship "experience" is not often what I'd like it to be. I get a little bored. When that happens I internally reason that the "babe" must be in another stable somewhere in town. I'm in the neighborhood but just haven't found the right address. But what is my focus? Was it on how something was not done according to my preference? Perhaps I didn't like a worship song or something wasn't executed the way that I would like it done. Perhaps it was...it doesn't matter...I think you get the idea. 

Francis reminds me that it really is all about Jesus. Surely the angelic light show and concert would be really great to see but the shepherds didn't run into town and focus on the angelic presence.  Luke 2:17 tells us, "....they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby who was lying in a manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about the child." 

The angelic experience was certainly part of their story but they rushed to see Jesus. 

It doesn't matter where I am - a stinky barn or the open hills of Judea. Just give me Jesus. And if you could take the crying children out when the preachers preachin' that would be nice. Oh.. .and the piano needs tuned. Oh...and..please turn your cell phones off - off, not on vibrate. We can still hear you. Oh...and...make sure a vision of Jesus is somewhere in there as well. Perhaps a painting will suffice. Sarcastic but unfortunately true. How quickly we revert to our distractions. 

God of all creation, transform our hearts until all we really need and seek is Jesus. Let all the distractions fall away. Let all the disruptions drive us deeper into his arms. Let us celebrate the song in the hills but may our hearts yearn for the cry in the smelly stable.


If you have time today, listen to "Give Me Jesus" by Jeremy Camp. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_SwjzlMGhw.

May our worship be filled, not just on Sunday, but each day, with Jesus. 

Grasshoppers

Joel 2:25-27, "25 'I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten-- the great locust and the young locust, the other locusts and the locust swarm--my great army that I sent among you.  26 You will have plenty to eat, until you are full, and you will praise the name of the LORD your God, who has worked wonders for you; never again will my people be shamed.  27 Then you will know that I am in Israel, that I am the LORD your God, and that there is no other; never again will my people be shamed." 

I turned 50 this year. I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to do with that. If the Lord would be so kind as to tell me if its the middle of my life I could have a crisis and buy a sports car or an infra-red sauna. My life insurance goes until I'm 100 so perhaps that's the surest thing to base it on right now. 

Every 50 years in the Bible is a Year of Jubilee. It's when God does His own financial leveling/wealth redistribution and restores property to its divinely assigned owners. He does it fairly, based on the years of crops left on a field. He does it to show his mercy and to remind us that whatever playing field we are on, we need to treat each other with respect and dignity. My first 50 might be as a servant; the last might be as the owner of the house. Serve well. Treat well. 

It's hard to figure out how that all works today, given the fact that there are no 12 recognizable tribes occupying specific territories in the land of Israel and...I'm not Jewish. But I'm claiming my Year of Jubilee with the Lord anyway. 

There has been something in my spirit even prior to turning 50 that has prompted me to pray and ask for that which has been stolen by the enemy, taken through life in general, or in my sinful state, willfully given over for a bowl of red stew. I'm praying for its return. 

It would be really easy to run to all those financially bad decisions or the ones where people were simply deceptively wicked. In other words, "God, restore my money." 

It would be easy to write down all the names of people that I have hurt or that have hurt me; relationships that are strained or non-existent. "God, restore my relationships." 

I have to admit those things are in my prayer package but they aren't what I desire the most. 

The thing I pray for the most is a return of my innocence; my simple, child-like walk with the Lord when I was young. Somewhere in the last 40 it's become complicated and muddy. 

I pray for a return of child-like faith; one that is not ruined by reason and the deep desire for theological understanding. 

I pray for a return of child-like thinking that is not saturated with impure images or ungodly thoughts. 

I pray for a return to having the world around me provoke me to spontaneous praise of my Creator like the many times I was led to on the farm. 

I turned 50 this year and I know the key to this return. "'Return to me,' declares the Almighty, 'and I will return to you."(Zech. 1:3). Does that mean my stuff too? Just joking, Lord! Sort of. 

Mercy or Grace

Matthew 5:48, "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect."

1 Peter 1:15-16, "But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: 'Be holy, because I am holy.'" 

I quit. This "being" is just too hard. Of course it feels this way because trying to be like God will only happen if God enables one to do it and if one has the desire to receive it. 

I had a good friend named Kenny who came from a difficult home life; one that even the darkest imagination could not conceive. He quickly became involved in criminal activity and hung out with some very unsavory people.

Kenny is one of those stories that I draw strength from because somehow God drew him to himself. Kenny received Jesus as his Savior. The problem was that Kenny had no compass on how to live "saved." In his own strength he poured himself into being perfect and holy. The outcome was predictable.

One day I get a phone call. "Pastor Danny, I quit. I can't do this. It's too hard. I don't know how to live in this world without going back to the old ways of doing things." 

I wish I could say that statement was for the Kenny's of the world. You know...for other people. But if I were honest with myself I think God has recorded for the one thousandth time my, "I quit," or to my shame, not said it, but lived it. 

I have lived most of my life thinking that I am always in the category of "mercy" with God; that some how I must earn his favor. Every good thing in my life was clearly received because of God's goodness to me, not because of me, a sinner, condemned, unclean. This may be an accurate view of my heart but I think it cuts away at the heart of God. 

Today I want to see the good things in my life as gifts from the Father of Lights who dwells in inapproachable light and yet loves me, cares for me, and simply loves to surprise me with his grace.

He's not tabulating my failures, my lack of faith, my stubborn heart, my worldly thinking, or any other sinful issue that is already in his omniscient awareness. He just loves me and wants to demonstrate that in tangible ways.  

Following Jesus is difficult at times. But perhaps a balance of mercy  and grace will help us have hope and provoke us to look more at the heart of God than dwell upon our own. Perhaps dwelling on the heart of God will actually change our own. 
  

Angels Unaware

Jeremiah 33:3, "Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know." 

I often think about the absurdity of my faith. I am praying to a God that I cannot see and one that I often don't treat as if He actually exists. 

Here are a few quotes from a book I'm studying called, "The Existence and Attributes of God" by Stephen Charnock (c. 17th cent.). 

"Truth:  no man is exempt from some form of atheism whether it be in belief or in action due to the deprivation of his person. Cf. Rom. 3:12 (good) and 18 (fear)."

"The apostles spent little time in urging this truth [the existence of God], it was taken for granted all over the world, and they were generally devout in the worship of those idols they thought to be gods; that age ran from one God to many, and our age is running from one God to none."

I say this to my shame because my Father showed me that a simple 

prayer request could be answered in the most divine way. My faith 

was strengthened this week and I hope by reading this, yours will be 

as well. 

It started with a simple prayer request as I was doing my 

devotions this past Tuesday morning. "Lord, let me have a divine 

encounter with someone today." 

We were flying out of Midway in Chicago, heading home to 

Portland, and I just wanted God to show up. Perhaps your like me 

and like God high and lifted up, transcendent rather than imminent. 

In other worlds, I want a big God not a "Bud" God. But sometimes 

its just nice to know that He still has his eye on the sparrow and he 

watches over me. (I should probably put that down in song). 

Anyway, our flight was cancelled and rescheduled and what was to 

be a romantic flight home, husband and wife locked into a small 

space for 5 hours with 250 of our closest friends became love at a 

distance as Deb found herself 10 rows back. The ticket agent was 

able to move her one row ahead of me by the window and we 

figured we could still hold hands and glance back lovingly from that 

distance. But undeterred I asked the guy sitting next to her if he 

could swap places with me so that I could sit next to my bride. He 

gladly obliged.

Here's where things get interesting. The flight was completely full 

except for the seat next to me and I though how wonderful it would 

be to have the stretching space but God was about to answer my 

prayer in the most heart provoking way. Into the plane comes a 

man in his 50's in a wheelchair being pushed down by the flight

attendants. And yes, he is going to sit right next to me. 

Now I sinfully pride myself on being a godly man but I was thinking 

"No Lord, not here. Not on the aisle.We will be stuck here for 3 

hours with no bathroom breaks and...well...he's clearly had a stroke 

and...he's in sweat pants and...I've already had to help them get him 

seated. This is going to be a long and awkward ride." 

I am so stupid and blind. (Please, no Amens) We began to talk and 

he told me that he had come to know Jesus while he was in the Air 

Force in thee most incredible way. He spoke of how God again 

grabbed a hold of his heart while in Iceland and it was there that He 

committed to being a fully devoted follower of Jesus. He asked if 

we could pray together, to pray for his health, to pray for broken 

relationships. He prayed for Deb and me. I guess God had to get me 

to 36,000 feet to remind me that He is still a God who hears 

prayers.

The weird thing was that he was slated to sit in row 26 initially -the 

same row that Deb was initially to sit. So God, in his divine 

sovereignty, moved Deb, moved me, and moved Curtis, so that we 

would all be in the same row, and to give me something "simple" - a 

divine encounter. 

I'm pretty sure Curtis wasn't an angel (I think) but he sure was an 

answer to prayer. And more importantly, he reminded me that there 

is nothing to small for my big God. My God answers prayer.  Let's 

not wait until we are 36,000 feet above the earth to be reminded of 

such a wonderful truth.