I'll Never Be Thankful Enough

I am such an ingrate! It’s not that I want to be unthankful, but I’m so unconscious of the powerful and mysterious ways the Lord is providing for me in my life.

I feel like a 4-year-old child having a birthday party. I’m so enamored with the presents, my friends, the cake, the balloons, and just the sheer excitement of being the center of all this attention. Little do I know that my parents spent hours putting it together for me.

They sent out invitations, bought decorations, baked a cake, made the ice cream, found the time to buy and wrap presents for me. Made sure the camera was ready to capture this memorable occasion. Of course I am not aware of their sacrifices and efforts and all of their thoughtful consideration of me, working behind the scenes.

Our Father delights in the heart of His children. He is constantly working behind the scenes to direct our paths and wants nothing more than joy and life for us. I wonder how He feels when I am completely oblivious of all the things He is doing to bless my life and make it more abundant.

How many times have I been the leper who failed to return and throw himself at the feet of the Lord to thank Him! How many times has He walked right beside me and I wasn’t even aware! He works behind the scenes like no other, yet I am blind to seeing what He is doing.

One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him--and he was a Samaritan. (NIV Luke 17:15, 16)

Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him…They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” (NIV Luke 24:31, 32)

Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. (NIV 2Kings 6:17)

Imposing Questions

If we force our questions on Scripture, isn’t it possible that we may draw the wrong conclusions? For instance, I want to know at exactly what point a person is saved. Is it at confession when a person declares their heart for the Lord, or is it at baptism when a person is buried with Christ and raised in His likeness? When is a person actually saved?

If I look at Scripture as an encyclopedia set containing all the answers I have questions about, then it would be fair to ask this question about the moment of salvation. But did Jesus or Paul or the other New Testament authors write to answer this question? What if they didn’t? Am I now imposing a question on Scripture that may lead me to the wrong conclusions?

Again, asking the wrong questions may lead to faulty conclusions. It would be similar to taking a recipe book from the kitchen and trying to force it to tell me how to change the oil in my car. I have asked a great question (how to change oil in my car) but I have also imposed it improperly on my recipe book.

Perhaps the point of salvation isn’t the issue. The issue is salvation. Maybe confession and repentance and baptism are all part of the mysterious process by which God redeems our lives.

Someone would argue that Scripture answers all of our questions. It is true that the Bible has everything we need for training in righteousness (NIV 2 Timothy 3:16) and God has given us everything we need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3). But does God’s Word give us everything we want?

Think of all of the divisive issues that we bring to Scripture and then walk away with completely different answers than other Christians. We major in minors rather than majoring in love. We are discontent with the mysterious questions of Christianity and we desire so badly to have all of the answers right now.

When we trust in faith that God will lead us to truth and we trust that His grace is sufficient, we walk in love and fellowship with other believers and we look more like the unified body of Christ that He meant for us to be.

You Be the Judge

Christian disciples are supposed to judge others. How else would we be able to discern if people were out to harm us, lie or deceive us, or may be in need of hearing the gospel?

The kind of judging that Jesus condemns is hypocritical, self-righteous, arrogant and conceited judging. I nit-pick at your faults while not admitting the glaring, willful sins in my life. I set myself up on a pedestal and look down and scoff at others, pointing my finger to shame them.

In the same passage where Jesus says “Do not judge,“ He also says “Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs“ (NIV Matthew 7:6). We have to make judgments in order to know if a person is a dog, a pig, or a false prophet that comes in sheep‘s clothing but is a vicious and fierce wolf in disguise (NIV Matthew 7:15). Jesus does say that a tree is judged by its fruit and “by their fruit you will recognize them“ (NIV Matthew 7:20).

Paul passes judgment on an immoral believer in the early church (NIV 1 Corinthians 5:1-13) and says “are you not to judge those inside?” speaking of the church.

Many people are quick to use the passage “Do not judge.” We use it to defend ourselves from someone who is confronting our sin. “Stop judging me!” is a common refrain. We also recite the passage when we want to dismiss our responsibility to confront others or we justify overlooking their sins. “I’m not going to judge them,” we say.

What kind of church do we become when we don’t exercise our judgment? Wolves eat right beside the sheep and no one says a thing. “We’ve all sinned, so how can we judge this poor wolf?”

Intimidated and indecisive, sometimes it seems that we have forgotten how to call a sin a sin. Although, I wouldn’t want to judge anyone…

What Are We Making Time For?

“I’m so busy!” “We’ve been so busy lately.” “I would love to but I’m busy.” “I don’t have time--I’m busy.”

Sometimes in all of the busyness, I wonder what we are missing out on. If life is about relationship, hopefully our busyness is centered around enjoying the blessing of our friendships and families. Not that it is entirely bad to be busy about kingdom ministries, but it seems like our culture has adopted a mindset that the busier we are, the more we must be alive. Even the more we are doing for the Lord, then it must please Him that we are “burning the candle at both ends.” Is that true?

When is the last time you enjoyed a sunset? I don’t mean watching it the last five minutes before dark. I mean sitting back and enjoying time with the Lord, with friends and family. When is the last time you invited friends or family over to enjoy their company or just soak up life? When is the last time you got to church early to spend time with the Lord, preparing your heart to worship and then not rushing home to “get things done”? How much fast food have you been eating lately?

Where is the Lord in all of our busyness? That’s the point. Does He get tired of waiting for us to slow down? Aren’t we missing out on the good stuff that He has to offer?

We reach the destination, but we don’t enjoy the journey. We accomplish success, but we miss out on the relationships in the meantime.

“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” (NIV Luke 10:41, 42)

But the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. (NIV Mark 4:19)

When Beliefs Change

The older I get, the less I know. The questions I once thought were essential have given way to more important ones. I found that I was even asking the wrong questions so naturally I was getting the wrong answers. The things in life that I once treasured are now rubbish compared to knowing Christ.

It’s kind of like when parents raise their second or third child. They do things differently because they have grown in wisdom and parenting and they may have “majored in minors” with their first child and now they see things more clearly.

Jesus upsets the religious world because he comes and asks different questions. The Pharisees and teachers of the law and the highly respected elders are angry and embarrassed to learn that they have been asking the wrong questions and teaching and discipling followers with the wrong answers. Somehow in their zeal for what’s right, their focus has shifted to the nitty-gritty matters of the law and they love to be in the spotlight and receive the praise of men.

When a woman is caught in adultery, the Pharisees ask “Should we stone her?” (NIV John 8:7) Their question breathes condemnation. Jesus changes the question from law to love, from slavery to freedom. He sets the woman free from her accusers and tells her to sin no more.

When a man with a shriveled hand wants to be healed on the Sabbath, the Pharisees ask “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” (NIV Matthew 12:10) Jesus changes their question to “How much more valuable is a man than a sheep?” In other words, ‘Aren’t men and women more important than the law?’

No wonder they wanted to kill Him--He was asking them to change their entire belief system!

The disciples ask "Who is the greatest?" (NIV Mark 9:34) Wrong question. Jesus essentially asks "Who is a servant?" Answer that and you'll be set free from all that competitive bickering, jealousy, and arguing.

It is not that truth is changing in my life. It’s more that the Lord is leading me to the true questions. If I allow Him, He shifts my heart from the trivial to the truth, and truth sets me free.

Second Chances

“But Nineveh has more than 120,000 people who cannot tell their right hand from their left…” (NIV Jonah 4:11)

Jonah knows the wickedness of Nineveh and he is also aware of the abounding grace of God. He decides to run away from this “mission impossible” and finds himself sleeping on a ship headed to Tarshish, the complete opposite direction of Nineveh.

The Lord sends a fierce and violent storm. Imagine. Jonah’s disobedience threatens the safety of other pagan people. Jonah tells the sailors that his God is chasing him and against their better judgment, they hurl Jonah overboard into the water. Peace follows and then pagan prayers ascend to a God previously unworshiped and unknown but now revealed.

Not only do the sailors pray, Jonah gets some quiet time in a fish belly after nearly being drowned by seaweed and dragged to the ocean depths. Sometimes God provides a little downtime for us where all we know to do is pray and cry out to Him for mercy.

The sailors get peace, Jonah gets rescued, and the people of Nineveh receive mercy. It’s startling that the Lord gives Jonah a second chance to do the “mission impossible.” Jonah thinks he deserves the second chance, but he wishes the 120,000 wicked people of Nineveh would be destroyed by God's fury. He even sits outside the city waiting to watch them die.

We all need second chances and isn’t it amazing what the Lord accomplishes through them. He uses imperfect vessels to be His witnesses. He saves the lost while teaching and disciplining His servants. And most of all, He reveals how great and compassionate and slow to anger and abounding in love He is to us.

Heaven's Feast

Chorus

We’re gonna have a feast
Like none has ever known.
Today (this meal) reminds us
That we’re going home

We’ll laugh (ha-ha) and never cry
Always say "hello" and never say "goodbye"
All our loved ones there, will be waiting at the door
They’ll throw their arms around us—an "eternal roar"
        "Welcome home" "Glad you’re home!"

And feet that never walked will dance on golden streets
And lips that never talked will sing songs pure and sweet
Eyes that never saw, will twinkle like the stars
They’ll see Jesus and behold his scars
        Going home, home sweet home

We’ll enter there, like coming in out of a storm
That sparkle in his eyes is the fire that keeps us warm
All the unborn here, who never had a chance
Will run and laugh and play and sing and dance



Thoughts Behind The Music
This song was originally inspired by Thanksgiving when families meet around a table and share a feast. Willard Tate preached a sermon and reminded us that during the holidays, it is not what is on the table that is important, but who is sitting in the chairs.

Heaven will be an uncommon feast. Every Lord’s Supper looks forward to "The Feast" when everyone is gathered around the table in heaven. That feast might look different because of who is around the table. It’s all the people who were blind, deaf, lame or had other diseases and heartaches. It’s all the children, whether babies from natural miscarriages, abortions, or those who suffered on earth and left us too soon. They have new bodies. Everyone. No one will be scolding the ones who leave the table early or never sit down at all. The blind will see Jesus’ scars. The scars remained after Jesus’ resurrection. God suffered like us.

I think it was Frederick Buechner or C.S. Lewis who said that heaven will be like coming in out of the cold storm, putting our coat on the coat rack. It will feel like home. No more storms from the earth. No more of Satan’s painful schemes. We’re home. All of our loved ones who were saved by the Lord will race to heaven’s door with open arms, better than returning home for a Thanksgiving holiday. And as Max Lucado wrote, even God himself will be clapping for us when we get home. He’s the father running from the porch to welcome us home!

Lead Me On

I know there’s more, there has to be
Than wealth and fame or poverty

I look around and all I see
Is death, decay and misery

You’re not through yet, there’s more to do
‘Til the world falls in love with You

Living for ourselves--foolish pain
Own the whole world and what is gained?

Chorus
So lead me on to higher ground
Where servants kneel and peace is found

Where angels sing and love abounds
I dare to tread on higher ground
       Lead me on!


In love with now and brokenness
We find it hard to place our trust

The unseen hand of One who loves
More than we ask or think enough

When people laugh and still can’t see
Through eyes of faith what’s meant to be

People working to save and store
Where moths and rust and thieves destroy

Chorus
So lead me on to higher ground
Where servants kneel and peace is found

Where angels sing and love abounds
I dare to tread on higher ground
       Lead me on!

Prayer: The Good Stuff

She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, and then was a widow until she was eighty four. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying. (NIV Luke 2:36-37)

Think of the words that characterize our society. Stressed. Uptight. Anxious. Worried. Sleepless. High-strung. From a distance I’m sure we look like a colony of ants hurriedly tromping all over each other without much clear sense of purpose.

Would anyone question this servant of the Lord, Anna the prophetess? Does it seem like she is wasting time in the temple? Isn’t the world passing her by and life happening all around her and she is missing out on life? Others probably think that she is an old widow woman, just trying to pass the time. She’s probably lonely so she hangs out in the temple.

But maybe Anna is the one who can see what others don’t see or are afraid to see. Maybe she knows what is more important than the busyness around her.

After living her life, she finds a place that her heart won’t allow herself to leave. A place of worship. Fasting. Praying. The good stuff.

Reminds me of another widow living in a care home, someone I knew through church. She was ninety-seven years old and still praying for the salvation of one of her children. And the Lord honored those years of praying when her child made Jesus Lord. Even in a care home, we are participants in the good stuff if we choose to be.

The Father's Delight

A friend of mine recently was moving his family to a new house in a new city. To help get their 3-year-old boy excited about the move, he was promised a new bicycle. After months of preparing for the move and having to live with their relatives for a while, the little boy continued with anticipation each time he was reminded of the gift that would be waiting for him in their new home.

The Reality

I was with the boy’s dad a week before the move in, helping prepare the house. The dad was so excited about picking out the right bicycle for his little boy. In an empty house, in an upstairs bedroom closet, a brand new purple, yellow, and black bicycle with training wheels already attached, was placed just where the little boy would discover it.

Though I wasn’t there when the family arrived, I heard how excited the dad was as he recounted seeing the joy and excitement in his little boy when he discovered that bicycle. The boy started shaking and jumping up and down, hardly able to contain himself. He could hardly believe his eyes that what was promised was now a reality! And heaven only knows how long that memory will bless their lives.

Doesn’t that remind us of our Father’s delight for the joy in the heart of His child!

If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him. (NIV Luke 11:13)

What joy it gives our Father when He sees us receive His gifts with such thankfulness. Too often, we organize our lives in such a way that we try to provide for ourselves and don’t ask the Lord to provide. We rob the Father and ourselves of the joy and excitement of living in anticipation and witnessing the promises fulfilled as a reality.

He is our great Dad who delights in the heart of His child.

The Secret of Life

In a word--Relationship. Life is all about our relationships with God, our friends, our enemies, and ourselves. That’s why when Jesus is asked what the greatest commandment is, He says to love the Lord our God with everything we have and to love our neighbors as ourselves.

It’s interesting the things Jesus does not say. He doesn’t say don’t murder, steal, lust, lie, or worship idols. All of the other commandments are taken care of when we love. Paul says, “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” (NIV Galatians 5:6)

When they write our eulogies or engrave our tombstones, will they speak of all the possessions we acquired? Will they say, “He owned a 4,000 square foot house and drove a BMW!”? Of course what we hope they will remember is how much we invested in our relationships with people. How we were loving even with our enemies and how we loved the Lord. People are what mattered in his life. He loved.

Don Williams says, “The only thing you will ever have is what you give away.” On a radio money talk show recently, a host reminded the listeners that the graveyards are full of people who died wealthy and never experienced the joys of being generous to others during their lives.

Wouldn’t you rather be known as one who risked on the side of being too generous than the one who was greedy and stingy and didn’t have time to love others?

Our time, money and possessions must all be subservient to our relationships.

It’s all about relationship.

Being Content

However, some of them (Israelites) paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it (manna) until morning, but it was full of maggots and began to smell…Nevertheless, some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather it, but they found none. (NIV Exodus 16:20, 27)

I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength. (NIV Philippians 4:12-13)

How do we measure “enough“? Is it one house or a house, a condo, and a getaway cabin in the mountains? Is it a car or two cars, a Harley and a boat? Is it soup and salad or an eight-course meal? Do you have to eat a rib eye steak or is bologna okay?

The Israelites complain over manna and quail and wish they could return to slavery and die on full stomachs of meat in Egypt. Of course they do eat manna for 40 years. The crowd of five thousand don’t complain over the bread and fish that Jesus serves. Not much left over after that meal when you consider the size of the crowd.

We confuse our wants and needs all the time. Advertising and marketing schemes tell us that we should not be satisfied with what we already have. They dangle the carrot in front of us just out of reach and tell us we will be happy if we only have just a little bit more.

If Christians are to be counter-cultural, isn’t being content one of the more glaring ways that we have to witness to our materialistic world?

Being content and being lazy are separated by a fine line. But my experience is similar to the quote from Will Rogers that too many people are working too hard for too many things that are too inconsequential. Jesus words it another way. “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (NIV Matthew 6:21)

Part of being content is being rooted and grounded in faith in the hand that provides for us. God wants the Israelites not to gather on the seventh day because He wants to remind them that He is the one taking care of them. We find it easier to be like the Israelites and store up a little extra for a rainy day than to depend on God providing. I mean, what if God doesn’t come through? Aren’t we surprised when our savings and treasures are eaten by maggots, moths, and rust.

What are some of your ideas for living the simple life or how can you testify that God will provide?

Until Christ Is Formed In You

You want us to live in freedom.
       We want to return to slavery.

You want us to love our neighbors.
       We want to build taller fences.

You want us to depend on You.
       We want to be independent.

You want to forgive us unconditionally.
       We want to keep remembering our sins.

You want to be our one true desire.
       We want money to be our master.

You want peace and gentleness.
       We want anxiety and restlessness.

You want us to trust completely in You.
       We want to store up treasures on earth.

You want us to live for eternity.
       We want to live in the moment.

You want us to walk the narrow road,
       We want to take the broad one.

You want to lead us to green pastures,
       We want to wander for greener ones.

You want to offer us living water,
       We want to be thirsty again.

You want to give us true relationships,
       We want to live in lust and brokenness.


Lord, help us to want what You want.