Being Chosen

Recently reading once again in the Book of Deuteronomy, an amazing thing jumped from the pages into my eyes - as if I had discovered a truth for the very first time:
After 40 years of wandering in the desert and in the sight of God's presence, only two people survived; Joshua and Caleb.
This tells me that being one of God's chosen does have its personal cost.

And we find this to be true today.
Many times Christians suffer and it doesn't make sense to us; sometimes, we never know why a person has numerous tumors throughout their body even though they have lived for Christ.
Sometimes we can't explain why infants drop their toys and are forced to struggle with the Iron Grip of death.
Sometimes we just don't know why bad things seemingly happen to good people while the wicked go unpunished.

We cry for God to show Himself, to make Himself known with vengeance and eradicate injustice, revealing His truth to our understanding.
Yet, though He loves us, many times we hear nothing but silence from the heavens.

The nation of Israel was constantly in the presence of God; what we routinely ask for from God, they experienced - whether it was by signs, audible voice, a miracle or through nature. There was no question among the people that God was present among them.
Yet, even though they knew fully God's will, they found it nearly impossible to live in the presence of our Holy God.
You see, though we clamor for answers to our diseases, solutions to our problems - wanting God to come and make all things right; we often fail to look to the history of our faith to discover that here are some disadvantages to direct acts of God and living in the full presence of God.

When you look to Israel, they had experienced 10 Awesome Miracles in Egypt - the Plagues. It never touched them, but it put Egypt on her knees. They saw the smoke and fire of Mt. Sinai; they witnessed God's Law written by His very finger, followed His cloud, watched His pillar of fire and heard His voice audibly.
But being the Chosen of God also meant the lack of any personal freedom. God gave them a list of 613 Laws with Blessings and Cursings that went along with them. If they followed the Law, they were blessed; if not, God's wrath would fall.
Sounds pretty simple how it was all to work - but it didn't work out well for the humans involved.
God's Law micro-managed freedom - sexual relations, the very content of the fabric of their clothing, even their diet fell under God's purview. 

Even though God supplied all their needs, as He does the modern Christian; Israel back then, like us today, though blessed, still found a way to complain. In fact, petty complaints persisted and even bordered on the absurd.
Several times their trivial complaints in the camp were compared to their 400 year period in slavery!
REALLY???
Can any suffering be compared to slavery?
And what was their complaint? At this particular juncture it was Manna, which literally means, 'What is it?'
Later God gave them quail to eat in the evenings, the attempt of the food was to help them trust God for their needs; but the Scriptures tell us even while they had meat in their teeth they were complaining.
And from my perspective, the more God drew near to His Chosen People, the further they fell away.

Today, we speak of not a strict obedience because we have to; but rather, an obedience because we want to due to the fact that Christ has changed our hearts and nature.
We speak of a personal relationship with God through Christ; the Israelites had no concept of this. They didn't even want to enter the Tabernacle nor hear the voice of God out of fear they would die.
If our hearts are truly changed, we do want to seek Christ and be in His presence for the right reasons; not vindictive reasons, not reasons that would explain suffering.
You see, life in Christ is not a mystery to be solved but an experienced to be lived by faith.

Many years ago a genius named Isaac Newton tried an experiment where he stared into a mirror while looking at the sun. I call him a genius but I have to wonder what in the world he was thinking.
After several minutes, the predictable happened; Newton was blind.
This blindness was only temporary, but if he'd stared much longer it would have been permanent. 

I tell this story because we should be thankful for those times when we experience the mystery of God's hidden absence. 
Christians are the Chosen of God, but like the Israelites, we would struggle constantly in His presence unless we are changed from within. That change will happen at the Resurrection when we are perfected in Christ - and not a day before.
In the meantime, we may mentally struggle with why God allows things to happen or not happen in our lives, but the truth is, His absence as we perceive it is not forsakenness. 
It is however a faith growing endeavor for the Child of God.

Until next time, try to win one for the Good Guys.

The Message & Messenger

In the last week, I have seen several examples of Christians being Christians in the world. If our main purpose in life is to emulate Christ, then our actions should be quite telling: 
- One minister was seen in the streets with protesters of a recent judicial verdict; social equality and racial justice phrases written on poster boards and being shouted from the lips.
- A Christian nurse frustrated over lack of care of her superiors on some patients in the hospital.
- A person testifying to the evident kept promises of God - he had sowed financial seed and God had greatly blessed him personally and financially. His conclusion was that all people should give more to the particular ministry he supported.

But a question remains - Which of these advanced the faith?
May I submit that none of them did because none of them are about the faith; rather, they are about what the individual believes, not what God has said.

True faith is a testimony in our hearts and lives as to what God has said and what God has done. 
The Christian is a witness; we are not attorneys. A witness tells what He knows; an attorney argues a point. A witness need not argue.
True faith therefore, from the witness of truth, brings the message of eternity to a finite world for all to hear.

What we speak of God and how we act must speak to the world in which we live of our Holy God. 
It must be timeless and on time - an eternal truth with a personal application and meaning for today. 
But this is a problem for us today because our message and our messengers of God's truth isn't what it use to be; or rather, it is what it use to be and that is the problem.
Many Christians have not yet adapted to this generation.

With this adaptation, it does not mean that we sacrifice the truth of God, the holiness of God or any other attribute of God; it does mean that these things come in a way or in a medium which can be accessed by today's generation.
That is why you see these words in a blog from the internet and not a pamphlet on a street corner. 

I caution all Christians not to reject the new because it is not the old way; I also caution not to accept the new simply because it is new and different.
No - we must speak in an appropriate, solid, even, manner and refrain from jumping to fad after fad. God never changes - nor should we in values or in our faith in the absolute truth. 
Yet, we must make the truth understandable and readily available in this generation.

With that said, it should be cautioned and pointed out that we have lost or are losing one of the most valuable thoughts we have ever enjoyed - a lofty concept of a Holy God.
It seems that in the last 20 or so years, a high, lofty concept of God and His matchless majesty has been substituted for a lower one.
And this low view of God is responsible for many of the other things we have seen take place within the realm of Christianity.
- Priests that have been removed from parish to parish because of inappropriate sexual activities; this was the solution rather than prosecution.
- Evangelists who are more of entertainers than preachers, guiding their 'show' from town to town; but when they leave, local pastors have deal with the hurting, confused seekers of God that are left behind.
- Pastors who remove church money or use a church credit card for their own personal items; or even using a church's non-profit status to buy themselves a car.

Each of these show a lack of integrity and holiness as God is Holy.
This new Philosophy of a low view of God has caused us to have more open and informal worship, which is good; but it has also caused us to lose the awe of the Divine Presence when we worship - and that is bad.

When a minister of any flavor or stripe defiles the sanctuary of God and God's people, we stand amazed, hurt, betrayed - and we never really gain the trust back like we once had in our hearts.
In fact, due to such publicized activities - modern churches have trouble producing Christians who can enjoy a Spirit-Filled life walking with God.
The sad truth is that few ministers and even fewer parishioners know what it means to walk with God.
When in trouble, God has said, 'Be Still and know that I AM God...'
Those words mean next to nothing to the modern, bustling, self-confident worshiper of today.

So many churches today, especially in larger areas, are experiencing the phenomenon of what it means to be 'mega.' There are churches who have had greater gains in the last 20 years, than some churches have had in the last several hundred years.
Sadly, many have gained outwardly but have lost inwardly.
We have grown numerically in many ways but spiritually we have become big time losers.

The decline of the holy has caused all types of problems - sexual failings, moral earthquakes, and financial struggles, as well as ethical nightmares.
If the church regularly deals with these issues among its own, what does that say for the rest of society?
The message must be of Christ and the messenger must always be true to Him.

If you are having trouble with this or of your view of God - a rediscovery of God's holiness and majesty will go a long way in your life.
The simple truth is that erroneous thoughts of God will lead to erroneous living.

If Christians were reading the saints of old such as Augustine or of John Calvin, we would not be in the condition that we are in today.
But Christians aren't reading anything much at all, and certainly nothing that would take heavy concentration. The modern mind is full of knowledge, but dying of starvation from lack of the Bread of Life.

As a Christian, you are the Messenger of the eternal Message of the Gospel.
Our greatest joy should be honoring the Lord through our lives - and if we do that repeatedly, our lives and our hearts turn more to God.
And that will produce more good, more of an understanding of who God is and what it means to be a Christian, than the labor it took to deliver the Message.

Until next time, try to win one for the good guys.

Here We Go Again?

Several months ago, God healed me of Stage-4 cancer; I had been given six months to live at the time of the diagnosis. 
It wasn't that the doctors were wrong it is the fact God is fairly persuasive in His decisions about who will live and who will die - and He is the One who makes those decisions, not mankind.

Having said that, it has often come to my mind as to why I was given this road to walk. 
Once I was healed and walked out of the Cleveland Clinic, I pretty much thought I was on the road to recovery and soon I'd be back to my normal self if there is such a thing.

I was wrong.
There seems to be yet another chapter in this unfolding saga of 'Cancer with Christ.'

Today, I began a genetic test with a simple blood draw to determine if I have the genetic disease called 'Von Hippel-Lindau Disease.' 
This condition sometimes evidences itself with hair-trigger temper flares, racing hearts, or high blood pressure. 
It attacks the body through tumors, such as an adrenal cancer; but not just one tumor, many. These tumors tend to attack the Central Nervous System and plague the victim.
Now, I may not have this disease, but all indications and symptoms (which are more than I have listed) point that direction.

So, let's reflect  on the past.
When I was diagnosed with cancer, I was fairly certain how it was going to end and I was wrong. 
Yet, however it ended, I had enough trust and faith in God that it would end appropriately and for His glory - on that point, I was right.
And so it will be with VHL, whether I have it or not it is still going to end appropriately because God is on His throne in heaven and has never, not once, lost control of His Creation.

And that brings me to the question of 'Why?'
I imagine the most asked question of pastors is 'Why?' 
It is also one of the most difficult.
'Why Pastor, did my wife treat me this way and leave?'
'Pastor, if God is so compassionate, why did we lose our baby girl?'
'Why if God wants to bless me, did I get fired?'
'Why....Why...Why?'

The simple truth is that your pastor doesn't have all the answers to those questions - but we wish we did.
We wish we knew all the questions that plague your heart so that we could put your mind at ease, help you sleep better and begin to heal the wounds the world caused.
We wish it was that simple, but many times we don't have the right words and we pray that God will use us in our lack of words, or lack of knowledge, or lack of everything.

When people hit a difficult time in their life, and by difficult I mean tragic; in general, we all ask the same questions.  The questions are universal - 'Why did God allow this to happen, it isn't fair?'
'What is God's Will in this situation?'
'Why doesn't God show up and tell me what to do?'

Do any of those sound familiar?
These are usually uttered in some way by someone who is hurting; this is especially true if that person is a Christian.

Many times, a Christian will struggle with God being Fair.
I know this may sound odd but it is true - millions of people struggle with God's fairness. We wonder why good things happen to bad people and bad things happen to good people. That question is nearly as old as history itself and played itself out in the Biblical Book of Job - which ends without giving a real answer to the problem.
Before the birth of my son, my wife and I lost one child in a miscarriage. I didn't think that was fair, especially when I saw people on the welfare roles sucking up tax dollars and having more children by multiple partners than a dog has fleas. 
There are many who struggle with God's fairness in a similar manner - and those small unspoken struggles begin to chip away at our faithfulness to God over time. It begins to put doubt in our head because we can't understand the infinite mind of God in our finite world.

Sometimes we think if God would just give us a set of rules to follow, whatever happened to us would have to be fair and just because we would know all the rules and things wouldn't be haphazard as they seem right now in life.
Well, let's just think about this for a second.
If I'm not mistaken, I believe God has already done that and it didn't work out too well.

In the Old Testament, God gave His people a law of 613 Laws. It was comprised of ceremonial rules, religious practices, ethical behavior and universal/moral law.
With each law, there was a stipulation - God would promise, 'If you do this....I will bless you. If you do not do this....punishment.'
That was the basic system of the Old Testament and it was wonderfully fair; but the problem is that mankind just couldn't keep the Law. Let's be honest, mankind never even came close.
Therefore, most of the Old Testament is about the failure of God's people.
Ouch.

At other times, we don't so much wonder about God's fairness as we do about His Will in our lives. Personally, if I were to guess, I would say this is the one most people wonder about - How in the world can we be sure of God's Will in our lives?

I knew a woman once who struggled greatly over whether or not to divorce her husband. Her husband was guilty of adultery, battery and a host of other nasty ailments. He just wasn't the greatest person to be around, not as a spouse and not as a person.
Yet, deep down, she loved him and struggle with divorcing him because she saw herself as the only person who could help him.
The main thing she struggled with? She was trying to discern what the will of God was in this situation because her decision would effect so many other people. It was a heartbreaking experience to watch.

Searching for the will of God can be heartbreaking at times; it can hurt.
And when we struggle with finding God's will we want God to give us obvious signs as to what we're to do and how we are to follow. Then we think to ourselves, 'Man, that sure would be nice.'
Really?
Again, I believe this has happened once before.

As Moses led the Israelites out of captivity, God made it clear what He wanted them to do.
Before them was a cloud during the day and a pillar of fire at night. In the morning if the cloud had moved, the people moved because they knew that was what God wanted them to do. If the cloud stayed put, so did they.
God told them, through Moses, when to fight, when to make peace, when to travel, when and what to eat. And guess what happened?
They failed miserably - fighting when God said it was a time of peace and making peace with those they were suppose to fight.
Following God's will from Egypt to the Promised Land, even thought they knew exactly what God wanted, DID NOT work out well for them.

Then there are those extreme situations or thoughts where we think we want God to show up and tell us exactly what we're supposed to do in our lives.
I have actually heard people say, in times of anguish, they want a personal appearance from God Almighty. Now, don't get me wrong, this would be cool to the nth degree and certainly would give me bragging rights at the Pastor's Conferences - but that's not the point.
Seeing God in person would be awesome but also terrifying because the simple truth is that I am not yet fit for the Holy Presence of God.

In fact, those same Israelites that hoofed it through the desert with Moses - they rejected the idea of meeting God on a personal level. Instead, they insisted Moses meet with God alone because they were afraid they would die.
And Moses met with God all the time; even to the point where his face had to be covered with a veil after their meeting. Their intimacy was so close that Scripture tells us that Moses spoke to God as if He was a close personal friend. 
Truthfully, that's the relationship I want with God - a friendship as Moses had.

But what is amazing is that the Children of Israel had seen so much of God in personal experience and yet, they still didn't do too well.
They had seen the plagues in Egypt, but were untouched by them all.
They had crossed the Red Sea on dry ground, then watched the pursuing Egyptian Army drown by God's command.
They had seen manna fall from the sky in the morning and captured quail in the evening, eating out of the very hand of God twice a day.
And yet, with all of this evidence, the very first time God communes with Moses for any length of time in solitude, Moses returns to find God's People dancing around a Golden Calf as if the image was anything but an expensive imagination deduced from their personal sinful yearnings.

The simple fact is that we are misguided in wanting God to do these things with us in our lives; the Israelites had each of them but it didn't help.
Instead of helping them keep the faith, these instances actually deterred their faith.
And I think the reason is because in this type of system, you don't need faith - you only need perfect obedience for it to work. 
And since mankind cannot adhere to the perfection God desires from us, we can't have the obedience we're to have before Him.

In the New Testament, we see an amazing break with the tradition of the past. Instead of the Apostles pointing to the Old Testament and the Children of Israel as our example to follow as Christians, the Apostles do the exact opposite.
They hold the Children of Israel up as an example of how to do everything wrong.
Instead of perfect obedience, the Apostles insist we need a system of mercy, forgiveness and grace - which is all given to us by faith in God's Son, Jesus Christ.
In Jesus' New Covenant, we have Mercy, Forgiveness and Grace.

The truth is that we don't really want God to be fair - fairness would mean getting what we deserved. I don't want what I deserve; I want God's mercy to forgive me of what I deserve.
And we don't really need to see God and we don't really need to know the entirety of His will. As great as these things may seem, the truth is it would all backfire on us.

We wrongly believe that if we had these elements, we would have no doubts about God. 
That is true, but we would also have little faith.
You see, in life, to have faith - you need a few failures.
To have faith, there needs to be a small degree of doubt.
Where there is no room for doubt, there can be no room for faith.

Therefore, if you are going through a tragic trial at this point in your life and you find yourself filled with doubt at times - that isn't necessarily a bad thing.
God loves to dispel doubt - whether it is about a marital situation, about cancer or on just about anything in life; but He must be given a chance.
The Bible teaches us that Christ came in the fullness of time; in the same manner in the fullness of time in our lives, God does reveal Himself, His Will, and His Way. As He does, the doubt we have is dispelled and faith takes root to become a triumphal victory in our lives.

I may very well have VHL and a recurrence of malignant tumors.
If true, so what? 
It will be no match for what God has planned for my life through the situation.
Remember, God works all things to the good of those who love Him.

Until next time, try to win one for the good guys.

Losing Faith

He is the Lord, God Almighty.

It is that simple and certainly true; being so - how do believers not lose their faith?

Amid the trials and difficulties of life, the pain that comes physically with age and emotionally through time's experiences, when confronted that we do live in an imperfect world where God does not always move on our behalf, does not always act like we believe He should and seemingly abandons us to our circumstances (or so we believe), how do we not lose faith in the Lord, God Almighty?

It is a difficult question; one that should be asked and considered - not in halls of theological discussion but in a real way; a way that renews our personal commitment and life for Him.

With physical pain and suffering, questions tend to surround the victim of pain. 
'Why do bad things happen to good people?'
'Why doesn't God just take me out of this pain?'
'What have I done to deserve this severed leg?'

These are but a sampling of physical issues that confront believers, but we tend to grasp some type of understanding with them. We can see cause and effect.
Sometimes, there seems to be no reason at the time for someone to physically suffer and then later find out there was indeed a reason present; God just revealed it at a later time.

With these things, we can cope - but it is much harder when it comes to emotional pain.
It is the pain of feeling you have been betrayed; it is feeling that God has let you down.
And when we feel this way we struggle, we struggle with being disappointed with God.

Let me give you some fairly strong examples of believers feeling abandoned by God.

There was a woman who was pregnant; she and her husband spent months readying the home for their new arrival whom they considered a blessing from God. The shower was given, the nursery prepared in soft, baby-like colors; family and friends alike were rejoicing with them.
The woman never had an ultra sound or anything else that would indicate a gender or a problem with the child in her womb. And the pregnancy had gone unbelievably well for the new, expectant mother.
But when the baby arrived, although arriving in a world of love from the mother, it was found to have one extra chromosome and diagnosed as having Down's Syndrome.
The couple had prayed for the child before it was even conceived; yet, they couldn't understand why they didn't have a child like all the other children in the hospital ward.
As time went forward, the child had other medical issues and the mother, who was now stressed and worried, spent herself into bankruptcy.
The relationship with her husband also went into default; he left several months into the new family he had fathered. Maybe it was jealousy over the amount of time with the child she spent, maybe it was feeling he had failed, maybe it was anger at God - but it didn't matter, he left never to return.
And while all of this was happening, the woman grew disillusioned with her faith until she gave it up completely.
Simply put, she just couldn't believe that a loving God would 'bless' her in such a way.

And what about the man who struggled with depression for most of his adult life while listening to sermons about 'living triumphantly?'
He was embarrassed to even admit he was depressed.
Admittedly, he had a fantastic job, a great family and conceded that he had no reason to be depressed. Still, daily he struggled to get out of bed and then it was only to struggle with suicidal tendencies.
He prayed and prayed and tried to 'confess' his reality - but he still had those tendencies anyway; soon, he felt God wasn't answering and later he felt there was no God at all.

These type of struggles seem to make the proclamations of many evangelical churches silly. 
The root of each of these situations we face in life where we feel despair is - 'IS GOD TRUSTWORTHY?'

Often, we hear evangelicals preach a sermon or repeat lines that basically tell us that God wants us to be healthy, happy and prosperous. Anything less than this ideal is because you lack faith; therefore, whatever is wrong in your life must be your fault.
On the other extreme is trying to rationalize praying and thanking God for the safe arrival, ministry and return of missionaries to Iraq, while other missionaries were caught, tortured and beheaded and we can only pray for their families.
If God is to be glorified for one, why is He not blamed for the other?

If all Christians are to be healthy, happy and prosperous, what does that say for the solid, elderly woman who has served the Lord her entire life - but is now suffering because cancer has riddled her body and placed her in constant pain?
Is our lack of faith the cause of the world's multiplying tombstones?

I think not.

You see, what we believe really, really matters.
God does sometimes act in puzzling ways and sometimes, He doesn't act at all.

Here on Earth, we expect God to act and move and do what we have seen and read Him do. When He doesn't move or act the way we think He should, we are sharply disappointed and begin to lose faith, one grain of sand at a time.
At times, we even feel betrayed; and betrayal in our emotional state is as bad as murder in the physical realm.

So, what are we to do about this?
Well, it begins with thinking rightly, because what we believe really matters to our life.

You see, what we revere the most about God is what we will value about God- it is also what we will become; that's what it means to be a 'follower.'
No civilization in the history of the world has ever risen above their image and thought of God, not in morality, or ethics or spirituality. 
No faith has ever been greater than their idea of God.
For the Christian, if you serve the Lord, God Almighty, then there can be no greater thought than your thought of God.
So, the real question is - Right now, what do you believe about God?

One of the problems we have today in the Church is the fact that so many have a very low idea of God. 
There is no one culprit, although some blame contemporary Christian music; others blame the loose morals of the publicly exposed evangelists; still others blame corrupt religious denominations that function like political machines.
This cannot be because each of these is a 'thing;' 
Christianity involves people with a personal relationship with the Lord. The blame on music, immoral preachers or immoral/unethical/doctrinally unsound churches is misplaced because the greatest blame lies with those who have let degeneracy continue.
None are guilty in and of themselves but rather, all Christians hold the blame for this low view of God because we have gained outwardly while watching ourselves deteriorate inwardly and spiritually. 
As a result, over time, we have sacrificed the holy for a 'common' approach to God.

It is important to think of God how He really is - not how we want Him to be. 
If you will study the history of the church, you will find that if God's people believe rightly, many of our temporal problems are solved.
These problems are also solved when the one, main problem is solved - the eternal problem that each person has with their soul.

In the Bible, whether it is speaking of Israel or a pagan nation, the degrading passionate acts and fleshly desires of worship began first with idolatry. 
And idolatry is a substitute for the real God.
When people believed perverted notions of God, it soon rotted the religion in which it appeared. 

The first step down is the surrender of a high view of God.
The next step is surrendering God altogether.

What are we to do about it? 
How can we preserve our faith and not go by the wayside or despair and disappointment?

First - we must never give up a high view of God; He is the Lord, God Almighty. We should never bend this view, and when others disagree with us, we can defend our belief but always in love.

Secondly - You must make the decision not to give up on God.
I know emotional challenges, depression, despair and loss are just as painful as physical ailments. I know because I have experienced them. It is hard to persevere.
But don't give up.

I have heard of people giving up and abandoning the faith because they could see what happened to Job in his book and their life didn't have a happy ending to it at all. So, they walked away from God.

If nobody has ever said this, let me be the first - it doesn't always work out that way. The truth is that some of the most precious saints I have ever known have endured some of the most difficult trials in their life and some of them without relief.
And sadly, I can't explain this and I don't know why this is; but I do know that God has used their faithfulness to bless others. Maybe that was the purpose; maybe it is something I cannot yet see.

Either way, don't give up on God.

Finally - Remember who He is and who you are.
He is the Lord, God Almighty; you are His. Nothing will ever change that fact if you are a Christian.

When I was dying of cancer, my faith did not waver; it actually grew stronger.
I did not know why I had the disease, but I had it anyway. 
Though I did not like the prospect, I accepted early on that I was probably going to die; but I was going to die rightly. I held to the truth that there were only two escapes; one was death and the other was a miraculous healing.
I was healed.

Yet, if it had went the other direction and I had died, I was OK with it because I knew who God is and who I am. 
If I had died, the worst thing that could have happened to me was heaven; my main concern and prayers were for my family, but I digress.

The point is that regardless of how thing are working out in the present, God is still on His throne and if you are a Christian you are still His child. 
And friend, there is a lot of comfort in that relationship.

In closing, I want to stress the importance of a right view of God; a holy view; a high view. 
A view that He is the Lord, God Almighty, maker of Heaven and Earth.
It is to Him, that I preach each week and witness of daily.
It is Him who is to have No Rivals in our lives and No refusal in our hearts.

And it is to Him that I speak of when I testify and ask you -
Until next time, win one for the good guys.