You Follow Me

“You follow me.”  -Jesus

These words have been rattling around in my brain these last few months. 

I’d be lying if I didn’t tell you that these have been some very difficult few months for me personally.  On top of that, let’s add the contentious political season we just went through (who’s kidding who, it’s still going).  Social media was just as bad as the attacks the candidates were running on each other (it was worse in some ways).   The church that I belong to and pastor, Calvary Chapel in Silverdale, is part of a network of churches that are also going through a challenging time as well.   Not an easy season of life.   

The political season has been difficult for many reasons.  One reason in particular is seeing friends that have been sexually assaulted in the past, friends that have been made to feel like second class citizens, and those who are silenced and demeaned by the actions of individuals who are just as aggressive and mean in their rhetoric as President Elect Donald Trump.  The election of Donald Trump to the highest office in the land seems to reopen these wounds that affect them so deeply.  It's very hard to watch. 

Calvary Chapel was founded by a man named Chuck Smith in the late 1960’s.  God used this man to turn one church into a global movement of over 1400 churches, various Bible Colleges, a University, and countless para-church organizations.  Pastor Chuck Smith passed away in 2013.  Since then, there has been an inability of those entrusted to guide the organization of churches to be unified in their methodology of carrying out the distinctives that make Calvary Chapel what it is.  It’s difficult to see these particular men, who are entrusted with the ministry of reconciliation, having an inability in doing this among themselves.  

It is easy to sit on the sidelines and cast judgements and pick sides.  One of the temptations in doing this is to mischaracterize someone’s hurt, concern, or feelings and then minimize it.   The reason this happens is because it’s easier than actually listening, being vulnerable, and having a conversation.  It’s been an observation of late that we have seemingly lost the art of civil disagreement.  In other words, to agree to disagree and still love the other, though there is a disagreement. 

Jesus’ words to Peter are simple, “… you follow Me.”  (John 21:22).   In a time where it is easy to react to those things that strike a deep nerve, the command of Jesus should ring in all of our collective ears, “…you follow Me.”  This should translate to us denying ourselves (our self will and need for retaliation), picking up our cross (crucifying our fleshly desires), and following Him (being obedient to His word).  Our greatest commandment is to love Him and love others. 

May we seek to love God, in all circumstances.  May we seek to love those that bless us and those that hurt us.  That is what our Master did, He loved you and me while we were still sinners; going to the cross for us despising the shame because of the joy that was set before Him.   So the next time someone says something or does something that hurts you, if you have the ability in the moment, love them and pray for them.  If you don’t have the ability to love, walk away praying for your heart and theirs… this too is love.  If someone is hurting, don’t try and fix it or minimize their pain. Sit with them and let them know they are not alone.  Love them by just being there. 

This isn’t easy and nor is it intuitive.  It’s learned.  May the Lord richly bless us as we seek to follow Him.

God Does Not Always Deliver

What an amazing thought.  The ‘God of the Universe’, the ‘Almighty’, the ‘Alpha and the Omega’, the ‘Beginning and the End’, the great ‘I Am’ does not always deliver.  

The other day, friends of mine asked for prayer for a relative who was grieving at the passing away of their two year old boy.  The toddler was found face down in the pool, having been there for sometime, they were able to resuscitate him.  It looked good for a few days.  He was doing really well.  But then he crashed, he crashed hard.  He didn’t recover.  His mom, hates God.  Why did this boy regain consciousness and have marks of improving only to die shortly thereafter.  God did not deliver.  He certainly could have.

He did deliver a one year old boy from Escherichia coli, commonly known as E-coli.  A few years back our church prayed for a young boy to be delivered from this awful bacteria.  He was healed.  Two years later, at 3 years old, this same boy found himself in an fast moving aqueduct in his backyard.  The nanny took her eyes off of him for two minutes and the little boy found himself swept down the deep water way that feeds the farms in central Washington.   The nanny, once she realized what happened, jumped in and swam after the boy looking for him frantically.  Under barbed wire, through culverts, and down the aqueduct, she spotted him hanging on to a bush on the side of the embankment. 

When she got to him, alone hanging on to a bush, she asked him how he was able to grab the bush and keep from being swept down the fast moving aqueduct.  He said a lady named Jewel lifted him out of the water and had him hang on to the bush.  This is central Washington where it is flat.  The nanny didn’t see anyone for miles.  Not to mention, how many of us if we had rescued the boy from the fast moving water would just walk away in that moment?  None of us.  But yet, God delivered this little boy through an angel named Jewel.   Why him and not the boy from the pool? 

We might find ourselves struggling with the ‘why’.  We might even note how unfair our circumstance is.  We have a disease or debilitating illness, our life is falling apart before our eyes, we are fired from a job we were good at, we see our children suffer before our eyes and we can’t do anything about it, our parents hurt us, we are affected by others bad choices, and the list goes on.  God, why don’t you deliver?  Aren’t you supposed to be good?  Why, why don’t you deliver?  

I’m reminded of the words that three men once spoke boldly before a world ruler.  As their own life was threatened by being burned in a furnace, they said these words, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter.  If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”   Daniel 3:16b–18

Yes God can deliver, and He does.  Sometimes though, He does not deliver.  These three men understood this.  In verse 18 there is the pivotal three letter word, “But”.   This three letter word takes the phrase or sentence before it and negates it with what follows after it.  So what one of these three say is that no matter what happens, they are being true to who they are and the convictions they have. 

God is holy.  God is true.  God is good.  God is love.  God is righteous.  These three followers of God knew this.  Therefore they were able to stand under unimaginable scrutiny, and in the face of death, still be obedient to the Word of God.  We still talk about this story though it happened thousands of years ago.  Think about that. Their act of obedience in the face of death still is told on Sundays and through out the week thousands of years later. 

God takes our situations, our dispositions, our circumstances, and uses them to glorify Himself.  He doesn’t always tell us the why. He doesn’t have to.  May we understand that His love for us in unfathomable.  And in that love for us, we can stand in our circumstance and know that God can deliver us.  BUT, if He doesn’t, He is going to use it to magnify and glorify His name.   It’s not up to us to figure out how or why, it’s up to us to be obedient in the journey.  

The apostle John in his gospel account records a conversation between Jesus and Peter.  Peter wants to know what John’s role will be after His resurrection.  So, Peter asks, “Lord, what about this man?” Jesus said to him, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!”    John 21:21–22

Wherever we find ourselves, His word to us is, “You follow me!”.  He does not always deliver.  But in whatever circumstance we find ourself in, He will glorify and magnify Himself, therefore we will follow Him.  The first question in the shorter catechism of faith, based on the Westminster Confession of Fatih is this:

Q. 1. What is the chief end of man?

1. Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.

May He be glorified through our life in whatever circumstance we find ourselves in, whether He delivers or not.  Sola Deo Gloria.

Who Is My Brother?

Who is my brother?

I’ve wondered this in the past when I would come upon it in my Bible regarding some sort of command or action geared towards my "brother".  Is my "brother" different than my neighbor? Is it literal, figurative, or is there a secret meaning?  Don't judge me, you've thought that too, haven't you? 

Looking at the current political and social climate in my country, I don't even think many Christians understand or know who their "brother" is.   When groups disagree ideologically, they don't tend to treat each other nicely, let alone even with civility.  

Many times, consciously or even subconsciously, I’ve always considered my "brother" as Christians as I myself am a Christian.

Upon further reflection and discovery, and maybe now with even the greatest of conviction, my brother has to mean every human being. 

From a Biblical Christian worldview, we (every single human being on planet Earth) are all literally sons and daughters of Adam and Eve.

We are all related, made in the image of God. 

What now becomes the global realization that we are all family?  

Yes, there are great passages in Holy scripture that speak to the poor, hungry, homeless, and those without to whom Jesus identifies with (“the least of these”).

But that person that makes our blood boil or we think they are stupid, does it change our interaction and feelings towards them if we take into consideration that they are our brother/sister? 

The LGBTQ community, the politician, the social justice advocate, the dead-beat dad, the ignorant person on social media spewing hate and division, or the terrorist who wants to destroy you, how does your heart change knowing they are your brother/sister?  Shouldn’t it?  Shouldn’t it at least change your prayer life for them… you do pray for your family, don’t you? 

You may not run out to embrace the terrorist (except to knock them out and subdue them), but shouldn’t our hearts be moved for them as our brother/sister? 

That’s the mandate Christ gave us… “Love your neighbor”, “love one another”, “we ought to lay our lives down for the brothers”, “…sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?”

As we pray in the way that Jesus taught us, “…thy Kingdom, thy will be done, on Earth as it is in heaven…” may we see love abound.

The Heart of God: Love Your Neighbor

This post is going into further detail on a point that I made in a sermon given on February 21, 2016.  You can access the sermon here... look for Jonah: God is Love (2/21/16)

There is an interesting discovery that takes place in Jonah chapter 4 when we read a conversation between Jonah and God.  We find that Jonah’s flight from Israel in chapter 1 was because he had a gut feeling that God might relent from judging Nineveh, if they repented at the message he was supposed to preach.  Sure enough, Jonah's gut feeling was right. The end of chapter 3 concludes with God relenting from judgment after the people of Nineveh repent at Jonah's short message.   In Jonah chapter 4 we read the following… 

“But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry.  And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.”  Jonah 4:1-2

Jonah is angry because God relents from His judgement at the repentance of Nineveh. He knew God’s heart and it stands in contrast to his own heart towards the Assyrian people. I made the comparison in my sermon that I found some of the Christian attitude towards the current refugee crisis that we are seeing in the US, draws a few parallels to this story.  I’ve seen and heard some of the current conversation taking place in parallel of Jonah/Christians being angry, afraid, and hateful towards Nineveh/Refugees. 

I won't pretend to understand the complexity of the immigration issue.  So, while I will refrain from commenting what our national policy on immigration is or isn’t, there is a deeper issue for the Christian that affects us in relationship to our neighborhood and local community.  Is our heart for the refugee the same as God’s?  Is our heart for our neighbor the same as God’s, whoever they might be?  

God’s heart for the one who is a foreigner that walks with us (the refugee) is this…

“When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.”                    Leviticus 19:33-34

For the New Testament believer, the apostle Paul reminds us that we are also sojourners in this place, 

“But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,”  Philippians 3:20

If we hate and have hateful feelings towards the refugee, the immigrant, or whoever our neighbor is, we will find our hearts in contrast to God’s.  If our hearts and feelings are based out of fear on what could happen having a refugee family or group nearby, that is in contrast to the spirit that God has given us (2 Tim 1:7).   While I believe that the immigration policy is complicated and involved, I have no understanding of how the politics work or play out effectively in this arena.  What I can control and do understand is my responsibility in yielding my heart to God and conforming my will to His (Luke 6:40).  

This was thought to be an early creed of the church.  Paul writing to Timothy says this, 

“The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners...”   1 Timothy 1:15a

God’s desire is to save as many people from their sin that will believe, that is, the salvation from sin as the result of believing in the perfect and finished work of Christ on the cross.  Many refugees coming into this country are fleeing unspeakable horrors and circumstances.  Many of these circumstances and situations are the very reason the Church is not going into these regions.  Who is to say that God is not bringing them to our community that they might hear and experience the wonderful gospel of Jesus Christ?   God’s desire is for people to be saved. This is why He sent Jonah to Nineveh, that they might repent at the message He gave to Jonah to preach.  Who is to say that we are not here for such a time as this? 

An issue that is of real concern is one of safety when bringing in a group of people that can’t be vetted or background checked properly.  While this issue is also real complicated and involved, this I believe is the job of government to take care of it’s citizens.  We are instructed to pray for our leaders and that God would give them wisdom in navigating these situations (1Tim 2:1-4).  This is also where each believer can put their faith in the leading of the Holy Spirit to cast their vote (each persons civic responsibility) for their electable official.  A vote that is considered through much prayer and as much research as they can possibly do on the candidates.  

As believers we ought not be motivated by fear, but feel compassion as Jesus was with the masses who were compared to sheep without a shepherd (Matt 9:36, Mark 6:34).  We ought to pray for God’s heart for those who are without a shepherd, those who “do not know their right hand from their left” (Jonah 4:11).  As we are able to affect our communities, seeking to bring God’s tangible kingdom here on Earth, we will affect our cities in a positive way.  As we affect our cities, our counties take notice and we have potential to change culture.  As I understand history, this type of “grass root” movement is what can bring about real effective change on the national level.   If we focus on that which is right in front of us, it’s exciting to think how that might eventually change the national conversation.  Our government is a reflection of it’s people.  Let’s be a people seeking to reflect the heart of God and seeking to be about the will of God being done here on Earth, as it is in heaven.  

All scripture is quoted from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2001). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.