"I was all the time tugging and carrying water, but now I have a river that carries me." Dwight Lyman Moody.
D. L. Moody (1837 - 1899) has a great life story. Left without a father at the age of four, helping his mother and his eight brothers and sisters put food on the table was more important than education. Like my own grandfather, a sixth grade education was about all you needed. You could read, write, and do arithmetic; in other words, you could survive. Now it was time to get to work.
He would leave his home for Boston, Mass. and his uncle's shoe store where he would find his talent as a salesman. He would also be led to a saving knowledge of Jesus by a faithful Sunday school teacher in the back of that store.
Not long after, he felt limited and so left for the great city of Chicago. It was great in opportunity but horrid in corruption and morally bankrupt in character. He would write to his mother and describe the almost unbearable unChristian environment. But the smallest light is able to dispel the greatest darkness.
He would start with showing the love of God to children of the street. At one point he had over 1500 children in his Sunday school program. He would teach them to read and write using the Bible and make sure that each child knew they were loved by God.
He would become the head of the Young Men's Christian Association and head up an organization to minister to Confederate captured prisoners. You would think that he would be pleased with all his accomplishments but instead he was tired and missing something.
Two small old church ladies would sit in the front pew of his church on Illinois Street and pray through the whole service. One day he asked them what they were praying for. They said, "We are praying for you." Mr. Moody replied, "Why don't you pray for the people." They said, "We are praying that you will be empowered by the Holy Spirit." He said, "I thought I had the power of the Holy Spirit." After all, he had the largest church in Chicago and an incredible influence in the city. But he knew something was missing. He had the Spirit [the water] but he was tired in spirit. He had been carrying the Holy Spirit instead of the Living Water carrying him.
And so God helped him with his desire. He sent the Chicago fire and burned up everything that he had and owned. The house, the possessions, the church, the businesses that supported him -- all gone. He left for New York and as he walked on the city streets his attention was on one thing: the filling, the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. Then one day on those city streets God revealed himself to his heart in such a way that he could not contain it. His love was so strong that it overwhelmed him. Moody says that it was so overwhelming that he had to ask God to stop. The spiritual container was overflowing and could not contain any more.
Moody said that his sermons were not any different; he did not present any new truths, but hundreds were converted. It was after this that his soul was set on fire and God would use him in great ways in Great Britain and again back in the United States.
My point is not to enter into a debate on what the filling of the Spirit means [some calling it the baptism of the Holy Spirit] but to address the fact that many, including myself, need to recognize good hearts with tired spirits from carrying the water. It was never God's intention for us to carry the water but that the water should carry us.
This means that I need to put down the water buckets and get in the boat. It means that I need to put away my own agenda and desires and let God move me and carry me to the various divine destinations that he has for me.
Are you tired in the Lord service? Perhaps your just doing too much and need to scale back. But perhaps you're doing the right things but in your own strength. Leave the buckets for the servants. The boat is for the sons and daughters of God.
Psalm 20:7, "Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God."
Last week began the new lunar year for those in Asia. For those of you non-Asians, the lunar year begins the reign of a new animal. Last year was the year of the snake. This year is the year of the horse.
This year I have been entrusted to sing "Happy New Year" in Mandarin to the tune "O My Darling." Complicating matters, there seems to be numerous ways to say, "Happy New Year" in Chinese (both Mandarin and Cantonese). Once again I find myself in the position of public embarrassment, trying hard to be confident while internally wishing that I can get it out with an understandable mumble.
As I selected the key verse for my closing "talk" I became acutely aware that I am often on the wrong side of this verse. It manifests when I am asked to do things outside of my comfort level. I trust in my chariots. I trust in my horses. It's why I worry about how this will all turn out in the end. At present my horses are all out to pasture and my chariots are in the shop for repair.
Actually, I know in my heart that any attempt at speaking the Chinese language will be welcomed. Any time I have made an effort to move into my church family's cultural world it has been met with great appreciation. I just feel badly that I cannot verbally engage with them more regarding their "heart" language. God grant me the gift of tongues!
Psalm 20 is a psalm that specifically speaks of saving the king, the anointed one. And in this psalm the people are not denying that chariots and horses are needed to win the battle. But they are conveying that at any given time there are actually two battles raging: one physical and one spiritual. In the physical, the psalmist is recognizing that chariots and horses are only successful if they are the instruments in the hand of a much larger power. And without that much larger power it doesn't matter how many chariots or horses you have. Defeat will be coming your way.
The Apostle Paul eloquently stated this in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5: "For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." The weapons of the Christian are prayer and the Word of God.
I believe this psalm is teaching me that my ultimate strength, my ability to live victorious in this life must be found in the Lord. I am to use the gifts that God has given me to serve him and others well but in the end I need to realize that it is the Lord who will win the battle. It actually makes me appreciate my personal abilities more. They are the tangible instruments that God uses to actually fight the battle. A sword is simply a combination of metals, but in the hand of an expert swordsman, it is a deadly instrument.
So if my Chinese comes out incoherent this Saturday look around for a little horse poop somewhere close by. It means that I have once again went to the stables rather than the Creator. The battle belongs to the Lord.
Happy New Year!
Xin nian hao ya!
