Your Face

We often sing about seeking God's face. I was thinking about this aspect of our relationship to God recently when I tried to imagine what His face is like. In my mind's eye I saw the light of His face. It was shimmering with wavelengths of light substance imperceptible to the physical human eye. His face turned toward me and I am unable to describe what my imagination saw.
One time while I was away from home I tried to remember the faces of my family. The outcome was what one might expect. I remembered most easily those which I had known the longest. I need to seek God's face more if I want to remember Him in times of difficulty... times when I feel He is distant.
I recently had a career change. My former employment was composed of a lot of phone work, with minimal face to face interaction. In contrast, my new situation requires a relatively large amount of interpersonal communication. I observe facial expressions and I realize that my own face is likewise registering expression. But Is it expressing what I want it to express?! Or has my former occupation compromised my facial communication?
Our spiritual growth is dependant on fellowship. Jesus said, "whatever you do for the least of these... you have done it unto me,"Mt 25. We need interaction with people in order to develop our ability to relate to God. That relationship, which is opened only by our faith in Jesus' sacrifice, is kept clear by regularly seeing the faces of fellow believers. Maybe its just the nod of a head as I relate a prayer request, or the observation of a tear at the description of a trial or testing. Maybe its a quizzically raised eyebrow that tells me that I need to come back to earth.
Whatever the facial expressions may be, they are each an indicator of my relationship with God. I need to praise Him for the expression of confident resolve that I've observed when before there was doubt. I need to ask forgiveness because of the hurt expression that I caused on the face of a fellow pilgrim. I must pray for that one whose sorrowful expression I only observed from a distance. I must dig into God's Word for correction or confirmation when a quizzically raised eyebrow tells me I'm out in left field.
Someday I will see God face to face... I wonder whether my face will register shock, shame, awe (of course), regret, or the greatest serenity and fulfillment imaginable.

Faith is?

"... And without faith it is impossible to please God" What does that look like? Does it mean jumping when we don’t know what is there to catch us... how we will pay the bills, what we will do for employment? Or does faith mean living life in the turmoil of doubt and difficulty that we struggle with here and now, but with the knowledge that God has a purpose in it? Or is faith something that is, as of yet, foreign? Just fooling ourselves... being the “say so” believer... having prayed a prayer but without the sincerity necessary to attain to true faith? ... It’s good to air out the mind... shake it like a dirty rug. Dirt stings your face as the fringe snaps. Resolution is what is needed, resolution that comes from the sources of wisdom over which God alone presides. Reading His Word we're distracted by the desire to come up with answers. The Answer whispers “come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden,” but eyes are closed. Return to the nightmare of fear. It's more comfortable here. Stir the mind lest it find rest. Sleep is foreign, and exhaustion, reality. The ultra long distance runner, days on his feet, falls asleep mid stride. He awakens seconds later, still running, three hundred miles done, fifty to go. Aiming at a destination that is really no destination at all, a mere finish line, he acheives only a title. He is the Great Struggler. There’s a comfort in the title, a perverse pride in martyrdom. God raise us up instead as examples of grace, testifying of Your love in spite of doubt, in spite of troubles. Your glory shines all the brighter when we are weak for then we rise solely in Your strength. Today we must satisfy ourselves with this hope. Focus on that day when a reward will be given, when hands which poin to the Savior from Nazareth will grasp His hand that wrought our salvation.

Reflections on Jeremiah 29:11

• God boldly declares His knowledge of what is hidden to us... the future.





• God is utterly and magnificently sovereign over our experience. He is outside the realm of cause and effect, our tedious one dimensional timeline. His perspective upon the universe is from outside... not just spatially but also chronologically. He knows the end already... not because He can see ahead but because He can see from above and from below, from behind and from other dimensions of which we cannot conceive. Isaiah succinctly describes God's perspective in this way: "My ways are higher than your ways."






• God is not apologetic about His works. He made all that is and He said it was good... then we came along. What He made is still good but it is tainted in every place by the effects of that three letter word that is not "P.C."






• His plans are not thwarted by our sin. God actually planned for that eventuality. Repeated examples in the Scriptures and in our own experience give credence to this idea. A few Biblical examples that come to mind are: Adam and Eve, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph and his brothers, David, Solomon, Jonah, Judas Iscariot, Peter, and Paul. Our own lives are innumerable testimonies to God's triumphant sovereignty. When one comes face to face with this reality it ought to cause a staggering back, a sudden gasp of realization.






• This God, who created all we see and presides over all that is, is the one who makes our future secure. Paul puts it this way: "He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?"






• The hope that God speaks of, He makes sure in Christ Jesus. Any hope that we have is in Him or it is no hope at all. To say it in another way: God, who breathed Jer. 29:11 also breathed John 14:6 and Acts 4:12.

Our first run together last spring... Morna and I are looking forward to running again this season. We won't crowd anyone at the front of the pack. Last year we enjoyed huffing and puffing right in the middle of the 5k crowd. Maybe this year we'll edge into the 8.30 pace... and try some other distances too.

Sharing in His Sufferings

Washington Times journalist David R. Sands was prophetic in his article today on the release of the Afghan Christian convert Abdul Rahman. Commenting on the effects of the Rahman trial on other Afghani Christians he wrote: "The p[er]secution posed an excruciating problem for the fledgling Karzai government..." Wittingly or not, he used the word which conveys just the right meaning. "Excruciating" comes from the combination of two roots: ex, meaning "from" and crucia, meaning "cross." Therefore the literal meaning of his statement was that the persecution of these Afghani Christians is a painful problem... a problem so painful that it can be compared to the pain which comes from being crucified on a cross. He connects the persecution of Christian believers to their Lord and His cross. Reading this news item today, I was comforted that whether or not this journalist knew what he was describing, God certainly does. He is sovereign in the affairs of men and He knows when His own are suffering. I was reminded of Paul's words in Phil. 3:10 "I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death...." May God's presence be with those who suffer in the name of Jesus. May He be with our Afghani brothers and sisters. And may we join with them in His sufferings so that we may know this fellowship and share in the knowledge of Christ and the power of His resurrection. I have not attained anything but I have been attained by God, praise Him! Whatever was to my profit I consider loss that I may gain Christ. And I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

FBC Minneapolis/ Lakeshore Mississippi/ Hurricane Katrina

I was asked by a skeptic prior to our departure: "what can you possibly hope to accomplish in only five days in Mississippi?!" If only I had known then how God's people were mobilizing. They were coming from Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, and elsewhere. We were but a cog in the wheel of God's purposes. Some tend to acknowledge only the physical evidence of improvement, but the people of Lakeshore, Mississippi assured us again and again that our presence was a ministry far beyond mere physical provision. As a glass of water is poured from a supply received through our hands, we may be remembered. We may be remembered because of the coat of paint that was applied to the floor of one family's home or because of the delivery of a new washing machine to another family (that's a story for another time). But a kind of heavenly mathematics multiplied our feeble efforts. Therefore, what was seen in Mississippi was not merely a group of eight scraggly gnat bitten Minnesotans, but servants of Jesus showing the love of God. So that, dear skeptic, is what was accomplished in only five days in Mississippi.

The Portal

The Portal


Flanked by the forces of evil, I tremble. No sound betrays its approach. Eyes forget their purpose, freezing on a point of nothing. Fear envelopes as death's odor escapes pores already spent. It approaches, wanting more than death. Bent on unmaking, it would tear at the very joint of soul and spirit. The realm of the mind is its obsession, the incessant grinding of the mill of regret. On the threshold of eternity the memory of mere physical pain is like an old song, sung with friends. Loneliness, once self-made myth, is now defined in utter helplessness. Evil approaches, consuming. Destruction its meat, agony slakes its thirst. Its footsteps are the ripping of hopes and the crushing of dreams. Hopes and dreams disintegrate at its approach. I am its progress, my defeat, its summit. It advances on the staircase of my soul, climbing the remnant of synapse, a deformed spider on the web of thought. Terror grips and a scream escapes. His name, my only hope as a broken and empty vessel is exposed to eternal destiny. Before me a dim and narrow road, the hint of a door and hope is illumined. Clarity and truth fill spiritual eyes. The form is familiar. I behold the man, His robes gleaming like a beacon, an arch carved from a single great pearl. The sun is shining through Him. No! The sun is in Him. He is light and my fear is banished. Reborn from the darkness into His light, I hear Him speak my name, thrilling at the sound.
He says, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. My sheep know my voice. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand.”
I stutter, “... I was dead... in evil’s grip! I screamed...”
He soothes, “you called my name, and you are mine, enter and behold things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard and which have not entered the heart of man. All this God has prepared for those who love Him.”
Mt 13, Jn 10, Rom 10, 1 Cor 2

“This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil...” Hebrews 6:19

The crazy things that Christians do show that they fear God more than man. There is a future judgment in which God will hold all people accountable for their life’s investment. And there is a daily life lived before God which brings Him glory. Some give away money even though they are struggling with their finances. Some have a screaming desire for solitude, yet they go meet with others that have a need for fellowship. In an age of say-so love, some show their love in amazing ways, like caring for incapacitated spouses, children or friends. Some give away everything for which others grasp, leaving their comfort zones, stepping out where only the arms of God can bear them up. Some would love to seek out entertainment. Yet, having their hope in God, they forgo popular culture, setting their minds, instead, on things above.

These are examples of one side of the coin of hope. We’ve seen the other side of this coin and it isn’t pretty. Every time we look at the paper or see the news we observe the conduct of those with no hope. We see the results of those who place their hope in false gods. The Bible tells us of the judgment that befalls a people who have no hope. “So God said to Noah, ‘I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them...’’’

An end is coming that will make Noah’s flood look like a day at the local water park. A train track is a dangerous place to rest our head. In the same way we ought to be cautious about becoming comfortable in this world’s culture. Judgment is fearful not something to flirt with. We don’t place our hope in the day of judgment, rather we place our hope in Him who presides over that day, our Heavenly Father. As we wait in hope, we do so humbly, as to a light burning on a hill. It lights the way for the wanderer. In the dark there is no hope. But when the light is lit, the wanderer becomes a pilgrim. Suddenly there is a destination. Glory be to the ancient of days! May we point to Him in all that we do and say.

What is Hope?

The marathon was an illustration of the promise of heaven. A long race, like life, is experienced by yourself but in a crowd. Some people stand out, some blend in. I’m such a good example of the latter group. As I readied myself before the start I was puzzled as I noticed that some of the runners had written their name on their shirt, arm, leg, or hat. Later, during the race, I realized that some spectators love to call out encouragement... sometimes urging on specific runners by name. Running the same pace as “Mandy” was great. Her name was in bold relief in green on the front and back of her shirt. Though the encouragement was actually being called out to her, it had an effect on me as well. “Go Mandy!” “Stay strong Mandy!” “You can do it Mandy!” I was grateful to get an uplifting “looking good 5495!” But the greatest encouragement, the biggest inspiration as I pushed through the pain, was the finish line. I knew it was up ahead. I knew that there were finishers up there. They had fought through the pain and they were resting. In my mind there was the pervasive knowledge that my family would be there waiting for me. Their hopes were set on seeing me there healthy and strong. When cramps invaded my muscles and I hobbled to the curb to stretch out, I was not tempted to lie down and give up. I pressed on because of the hope that I had in me. It carried me on as God whispered in my consciousness, “You are mine” and “I am here for you!”

“Our hope,” as the song says, “is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.” It is also fortified by the faith of those who have gone before us. Spend each day in the hope of the finish line... its closer than you think! He is there for you, waiting to pronounce that cherished benediction, “well done good and faithful servant!”