Waiting

I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits,
    and in his word I put my hope.
 I wait for the Lord
    more than watchmen wait for the morning,
    more than watchmen wait for the morning.

Psalm 130:5-6

Waiting on God.  What a strange idea. It's as if the God who is beyond time would ever be late, but we wait.  We wait for his answers, his provision and his arrival.  It seems that all of the Christian life involves waiting on God, but it's more than that...it's about our focus, our dependence.  It's about his provision.  Waiting on God keeps my focus, my dependence, my eyes on him...waiting for him to provide, to help, to come, to work...waiting on the one who always meets our needs.  And yet, we wait.  It seems to me the waiting is more about trust than about timing.  Often, when I'm honest, it feels that God is late, but how could he be?  He knows my need, he knows me.  And so I trust, I watch, I wait...I wait for the only one who can help me...the God of all creation.  He's never late.

Even in old age

You got me when I was an unformed youth,
God, and taught me everything I know.

Now I’m telling the world your wonders;

    I’ll keep at it until I’m old and gray.

God, don’t walk off and leave me

    until I get out the news

Of your strong right arm to this world,

    news of your power to the world yet to come,

Your famous and righteous

    ways, O God.

God, you’ve done it all!

    Who is quite like you?

Psalm 71

Even when I'm old and gray.  I read these words as a youth and never imagined they would apply to me, but those days came much quicker than I ever thought they would.  Now I'm old and gray.  Now, more than ever I want to proclaim the great goodness of God!

Having known him for more than 50 years I'm only beginning to understand how wonderfully good he is, how kind he is and how patient he has been.

If there has ever been anyone God should have struck dead for their sins it would have been me!  No, they weren't "bad" as you would imagine sin, but they were in the face of God...fully knowing what he wanted from me and choosing sin anyway.  And now I come to old age realizing that this amazing good God has been far kinder, far more gracious to me than I can ever deserve.

Now, as the old man with white hair...at least the little that's left...I must declare that God is good!  He has demonstrated his lovingkindness to us in measures far beyond anything we will ever understand, beyond all we could ever deserve.

God is good!  If you don't know him you are missing out on the most important things any human will ever experience- his unconditional love, his extreme mercy, overwhelming grace and wonderful provision.

If you think that life indepent of God's is the good life you are the greatest of fools!  You are missing everything that really matters!

Ordinary

It's a simple word really.  

Ordinary. 

It speaks of the unnoticed, the normal, average, life as it's lived every day.

But what if it spoke of how we should really live out the Christian life?

A friend and fellow pastor, Brent McKinney, wrote this as a suggested mission statement, "Ordinary people in ordinary places doing ordinary things to the glory of God."  I love that vision!  It imagines living out faith in even the little events of life, the things that we think unimportant...the ordinary.

We all have to do the ordinary things, get groceries, sweep the floor, wash dishes, eat a meal and a hundred other things that are the mundane ordinary things of living, but what if that is where God touches our lives and the lives around us? What if those are really the important things?

Really, if we are honest, few of us will be great, famous or successful, but all of us will do ordinary things...simple things...what if we did those things to the glory of God?  I wonder...could it be that these will be the things that God can best use for his glory?

Last words...but not here....

I realize my last post described last words....but I didn't mean that for this site.  Sorry.  I've been a bit too busy and honestly have little rolling around in my head to share....I guess I am doing a bit of a reboot.  I'll be back when I know what's going on with me.  Thanks for your patience.

The first word and the last

The last words of a person are often immortalized.  Their final words, especially if they know they are dying, are significant. 

But the first recorded words can be just as important. First words give us insight into what a person thinks most important, what that person is becoming.  

Scripture gives us several examples of each, but let me focus, for these thoughts, on just 4.

First words-

Samuel, "Speak Lord, your servant is listening."

Early in 1 Samuel the young prophet is awakened from sleep by God.  God has a word for this young man, but he's never heard from God before and doesn't know his voice.  When he finally knows it's God these are his words to God when he comes to the young man.  Open ears and an available life are key to this response and from these first words we watch the life of this young man morph into one of the most important prophets in Israel's history.

Jesus, "Why are you looking for me, didn't you know I would be in my Father's house?"

At the age of 12 these are the first recorded words of Jesus.  What a fascinating place for us to start in his life.  Already he knew who his Father was.  Already, he had an intimacy with God that few of his Jewish brothers understood or dared emulate.  

Final words-

Mary (Jesus' mother), "Do whatever he tells you."

These are Mary's final words recorded in scripture. What a great closing message for us as Christ followers.  What a simple description of what it means to be a Christian.  I can't imagine a better last word from the mother of Jesus than this.

Jesus, "It is finished."

These are, I'm sure, the most famous last words ever recorded.  They speak volumes and in fact volumes have been written about them.  I will simply let Jesus' last words stand without further comment.  They brilliantly tell us about the completion of everything he can to say, be and do....and now, in his final words, he tells us he did it, he accomplished all the Father sent him to do.

These are just a few brief thoughts from first and last words.  Both tell us something about the life of those who spoke them.  Both reveal a vision, a passion, a heart.

If today recorded your last words what would you want them to be?  What words would you want others to remember from your lips?

God, giants and me

It's easy to feel small.  If you don't feel that way already the world around you will make you aware of how small you really are.  And, of course, there are always those pesky giants to deal with.

My first encounter with the giants was in middle school (or, as we described it, Jr. High School).  I had never encountered giants before that time, but I ran into them there.  It surprised me at first because they didn't seem that big, but as fear grew of the bullies and their stories, these little giants became bigger and bigger.

Most of the giants I have encountered over the years have not been big in stature as the world would describe a giant, but they were big to me.  These giants caused fear, anxiety and the threat of harm or hurt if I got in their way or crossed them.

Today we each live with giants all around us, giants we fear and giants we avoid.  Others may not see them but we do!  They define our lives and challenge our faith. 

The reason the story of David and Goliath is so fascinating to us, especially when we were children, is that we all knew about other giants in our lives and to see someone like David slay his giant thrilled us and gave us hope.....maybe the giants can be beaten, maybe I don't have to cower in fear all my life.  Maybe I could slay my giants.

David gave us hope and a new vision of how to look at giants because he saw someone greater than the giant in front of him.  He saw and trusted God.  And when we trust God it makes our giants much smaller than we think they are.

One of my childhood giants was a boy up the street. He was my age, my height, but he was a bully...a giant.  He would sit on the roof of his garage after school and harass us as we walked home each day.  One day, for no reason at all, he hit my younger brother in the stomach.  When I heard of it and saw my brother's tears this giant had to be conquered.  In a rage of anger I went down the street and quickly dealt with my giant.  He never bothered us again. Never.

My giant killing days as a child were all done in a rage of anger, but the giants of our adult years are much bigger and anger, fists and a good fight will not conquer them.  Now, to deal with our giants, we need a big God.

When fear of the giants comes realize it's simply because you are not looking at a big God.  Giants can only grow in size when we lose sight of the God who is Lord of our lives.  When I see God right sized I've always discovered the giants seem to become much smaller than I ever imagined them to be.  When God is in your sights giants simply become target practice for our slingshots.

Will you trust me?

Will you trust me? 

It depends on who's asking.

But, what if God asked you that question?

What if you heard him clearly say, "Will you trust me?"

How would you respond?

It's a critical question for anyone who 

claims to be a Christ follower.

In that question are a whirlwind of other questions I have to answer first.  Do I know him well enough to trust him?  Have I trusted him before and found him faithful?  What about the time I trusted him, but it seemed he failed?  How will I know what I should trust him with?  What does 'trust him' even look like as I live my life?

"Will you trust me?"

It's a question that forces me to deal with HIM....who he is, what he says and decide....CAN I trust him?  And if I did what would that look like today?  

Those four simple words force me to deal with God in a way I may have never done before, but if I will it could change everything!

Now the bigger question is this-  Will I trust him?

Simple comfort

"The Lord reigns, let the earth be glad." Psalms 97:1

"The Lord reigns, let the nations tremble."  Psalms 99:1

The Lord reigns.  But as look around me and watch the news it appears no one is in control!  Chaos rules, men live in fear of the coming events and yet, above it all there is a good God fully in charge of everything.  That should give us comfort that even when it seems everything is falling apart he is fully in charge and events are moving toward his wonderful destination.  

A verse I think of often talks of this.  It's hidden is the early Psalms when David wrote,

"The Lord sat as King at the flood, the Lord sits as King forever." Psalms 29:10

As you watch the chaos swirl around you remember, God reigns!  It's all under control and a loving good God is at the helm making sure this ship of humanity arrives at its appointed destination.

Chosen

"But you are the ones chosen by God, chosen for the high calling of priestly work, chosen to be a holy people, God’s instruments to do his work and speak out for him, to tell others of the night-and-day difference he made for you—from nothing to something, from rejected to accepted." 

1 Peter 2:9

If you have trusted Christ as your savior you are one of his "chosen ones."  Chosen for a task that will change the world.  In our day few have clarity of what they were saved for, but it's not just to get YOU out of hell and into heaven, it's to be his priest, his people, his instrument, his voice to speak to a dying world and tell them where you found life, where they can find it as well.

How odd it is that we Christians have no idea of our tasks, our calling. Many of us live like everyone around us and have no idea, no vision of what God has designed us to do.  But his new identity for us is one that changes eternity in the lives of those we speak to about him.

Do you know that you have been chosen to be part of a plan that changes the eternity of those around you?  Do you realize how important that job is?  How could we think it's just about getting our sins forgiven and not about changing the world? 

You were chosen to be part of God's amazing plan designed from eternity past.  Do you realize how glorious that is, how wonderful it is?  And you thought you weren't that important, didn't you?  

But God has chosen you to be part of a plan that will change eternity!