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Showing the Way Out

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When your brain is french toast, sometimes it’s good to let someone else take over. In this case, it’s Uncle Mikey, a reference that us old Kairos faithful will understand while the rest of the world calls him Dr. Mike Glenn:

“I’ve long joked that sympathy is overrated. When things are going bad for me, I really don’t want someone to tell me they know how I feel. I want someone to come and say, “Yes, I know how you feel and I know the way out.”

I think we forget how completely sin messes up our lives. Sin not only messes up our lives, it messes up the way our minds and bodies work. Ever talked to people trying to justify their addiction? In their minds, they’re making complete sense. That’s what happens. Sin destroys relationships, bodies, minds, and souls.

That’s why telling someone what they’re doing is wrong without offering to help them get out of it is, well, pretty much a waste of time. You may feel better, but the person you’re talking to won’t. What’s more, they’ll probably just get mad and walk away, more committed to their destructive choices.

Jesus shows us another way. First, Jesus never confronted anybody without giving that person a way out. The religious leaders of the day, Jesus pointed out, were quick to make a lot of rules but never helped anyone keep them. Jesus would always point the person to the way out of bondage.

Second, Jesus walked with sinners as they found their way. The scandal of the incarnation is that God loves us so much that He came into our world. He walked into our lives and told us if we’d follow Him, He’d show us the way home.

Whenever I talk about abortion, I always mention our partnership with Hope Clinic, a crisis pregnancy center in Nashville. I always want people to know there are people eager and ready to help, no matter what situation they’re facing.

Since the beginning of time, God has been on a Divine rescue mission. We, the local church, are extensions of that work. Finding the lost is great, but telling them the way home—and then walking it with them—is even better” (Dr. Mike Glenn).

Learning to Pray

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This one is from Dr. Mike Glenn (but for all the Kairos folks out there, he will always be Uncle Mikey):

“In Luke 11, we have his version of the Lord’s Prayer. To introduce the prayer, Luke tells us the disciples came to Jesus and asked Him to teach them how to pray.

I’ve always been fascinated with their request.

For one thing, I’m not sure it’s what I would’ve asked Jesus.

Knowing me, I would’ve asked Him to teach me to walk on water (we know how that worked for Peter) or to raise the dead. I would’ve gone for something impressive, something flashy.

But this isn’t what the disciples wanted.

Why?

I think they could tell there was something powerful yet intimate in the way Jesus prayed. Things happened when Jesus prayed. People changed when Jesus prayed.

And the disciples knew if they could learn to pray like this, they would be able to do more than they had ever imagined.

Too many times we treat prayer casually. It’s something we do before we go to sleep or before we eat, but we rarely pray knowing there’s potential in our prayer to change the world, to change someone’s life.

This is what the disciples wanted to learn how to do.

It’s what we in the postmodern church need to learn as well.”

Prayer isn’t a last resort when all else has failed. It should be first on the agenda of any major (or minor) undertaking. As Oswald Chambers said, prayer isn’t preparation for great and mighty spiritual battles. Prayer is the battle. Everything else is akin to cleaning up the spoils after the victory has been won.

Jesus, teach us to pray as you taught your disciples. Let us always remember the words you taught them so that we can use them to guide our own requests and petitions or simply fall back on them in time of need:

“Our Father in heaven,
Reveal who you are.
Set the world right;
Do what’s best—
    as above, so below.
Keep us alive with three square meals.
Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.
You’re in charge!
You can do anything you want!
You’re ablaze in beauty!
    Yes. Yes. Yes.” (Matthew 6:9-13, The Message).

Prayer for a Faith that Never Fails

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“Perhaps it is written in the tablets of your eternal purpose that we shall soon end this mortal life and die. It is well if this is so, for then we shall see your face that much sooner and drink gallons of eternal bliss. But if you have appointed for us grey hairs and a long and weary time; only grant us grace that, by infirmity, our faith may never fail us; but when the windows are darkened, may we still look out to see the hope that is to be revealed; and when the grasshopper becomes a burden, still let our strength be as our days, even to the last day.
Amen” (Charles Spurgeon).

The Apostle Paul said that to live is Christ and to die is gain. Both are good. To die is to immediately be in the presence of Jesus and to be free from sin, death, and every form of suffering. But to live is to have one more day here because God still has a purpose for you and a meaning for your life.

To die for the faith is good and noble, but to continually die to self in a million small ways while still living in this world is way more difficult. To hold on to faith in a world that celebrates everything that is contrary to what we believe is hard. It’s like constantly swimming upstream when it would be so much easier to give up and go with the flow, as so many have.

But to hold on and keep believing is to cling to the promise that one day our faith will be made sight. One day we will see all the worship songs we have ever sung come alive in full 3-D 4K Technicolor glory. Whatever heaven is, it will make whatever hardships and loss we experience here seem light and momentary compared to the joy that awaits.

Whether God calls you home or wakes you up for another day, it’s worth celebrating. Either way, you are held and loved. Nothing has the power to remove you from God’s love or harm you apart from God’s sovereign plan that still works all things together for good. No matter what, it’s gonna be a good day.

Instruments of the Potter

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“Everything about which we are tempted to complain may be the very instrument whereby the Potter intends to shape His clay into the image of His Son–a headache, an insult, a long line at the check-out, someone’s rudeness or failure to say thank you, misunderstanding, disappointment, interruption. As Amy Carmichael said, ‘See in it a chance to die,’ meaning a chance to leave self behind…”(Elisabeth Elliot)

A quote like this seems to be so far removed from current American Christianity as to almost be another religion. Actually, it’s a lot closer to New Testament faith than what a lot of churches and professing believers hold to.

But it’s not easy. I have a well-developed sense of injury. I don’t like it when people mistreat other people, especially when that other person is me. I want instant vindication. I say I want justice but what I really want is more like revenge.

But seeing an insult as a chance to die to self? That seems like a foreign concept. But it wasn’t to Jesus. Look at how He kept quiet during the farce that passed for a Sanhedrin trial. He was unjustly tried, convicted, and murdered, but not only did He accept it as from the Father, He forgave the very people who killed Him while they were in the very act of killing Him.

If Jesus did that for me, surely I can suffer inconvenience and insult. I can handle a headache from time to time. But it all starts with the right attitude and the right perspective. Philippians 2:5 says for us to have the mind or attitude of Christ and goes on to list a downward trajectory from heavenly throne to earthly manger, from human to slave, from rejected to murdered.

To die to self is to come alive to Christ in me. That’s the real life anyway. Not me hanging on to my perceived rights and nursing grudges and bitterness, but choosing the way of forgiveness and acceptance as from the very hand of God, seeing it as God’s way of shaping me into the very image of Christ.

Thankful for Grace

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“O God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, we hope in thy Word. There we see thee, not on a fearful throne of judgment, but on a throne of grace, waiting to be gracious, and exalted in mercy. There we hear thee saying, not ‘Depart ye cursed,’ but ‘Look unto me and be ye saved, for I am God and there is none else.'”

I’m thankful for that throne of grace. I know I deserve the fearful throne of judgment. If I’m honest, there’s no way I could hope in a million years for mercy. If I got what I deserved, I’d hear the words “Depart ye cursed.” But I hear the words “Look unto me and be ye saved, for I am God and there is none else.”

The question isn’t why aren’t there more ways to be saved than through Jesus. The question is why do I get to be saved at all, considering what I’ve done and what thoughts go through my mind and who I could be apart from the very grace of God.

The question isn’t why bad things happen to good people, because we know there aren’t any good people who have never sinned. As R. C. Sproul once said, bad things happened to a good man only once because He volunteered for it. He chose the nails. He chose the cross. That’s why I can be declared righteous.

I remember people used to say things like “If anyone deserves to get into heaven, it’s . . .” fill in the blank with any upstanding citizen. But truthfully no one deserves to get into heaven. Not one. Not you. Not me. None. Only Jesus deserves to be in heaven, but He left His throne for the likes of you and me so we could get there, not by our own efforts but by His own shed blood.

I’m thankful that salvation belongs not to the strong or the fast or to the intelligent or the clever. Salvation belongs to those who humbly repent and place their faith in Jesus as Savior and Lord. That’s it.

Implicit Trust

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“If a man will resign himself in implicit trust to the Lord Jesus, he will find that He leads the wayfaring soul into the green pastures and beside the still waters, so that even when he goes hrough the dark valley of the shadow of some staggering episode, he will fear no evil. Nothing in life or death, time or eternity, can stagger a soul from the certainty of the Way, for one moment” (Oswald Chambers, Run Today’s Race).

That’s what I want — implicit trust in Jesus, no matter what. Lately, I find that my faith comes and goes like the ocean tides advancing and retreating, rising and ebbing. One moment, I am calm and collected and the next I am inwardly freaking out. Too often, my faith is too tied in to my emotions.

But the true saint of God has a steady faith. Or at least he or she is moving toward one. The hindrance to the necessary resignation of the soul to the ways of the Lord is the illusion of control that we cling to. The more I think I somehow can help God out or speed up His timeline, the more inclined I am to fret and worry.

I still love Corrie ten Boom’s imagery of staying on the train that’s going through a dark tunnel. Of course, you don’t leap off the train in the middle of the tunnel. You sit still and trust the engineer. But in the midst of life’s dark passages, it’s easy to want to go AWOL on God. But what’s the alternative? Lostness and the dark?

Lord, grow my faith. Help me to take my tiny mustard seed faith and put it in Your hands so that I can rest in Your promises and plans for me. Help me to know with my whole being that You are still working all things together for my good. Amen.

The Process of Holiness

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“We have seen what we are not, and what God wants us to be, but are we willing to be battered into the shape of the vision to be used by God? The beatings will always come in the most common, everyday ways and through common, everyday people. This means living the realities of our lives in the light of the vision until the truth of the vision is actually realized in us” (Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest).

I’m sure you’ve heard of the song about how everyone wants to go to heaven but no one wants to die, right? Well, this one’s called “Everyone Wants to be Holy, but No One Wants to Pay the Price for It.”

Not quite as catchy. But most believers want to be like Jesus. At least most say they do, including me. But far fewer are willing to do what it takes. More accurately, far less are willing to submit to the process that God uses to shape us into holy people.

The process looks a lot like taking a block of stone and chiseling it into Michelangelo’s David. Or when a silversmith purifies silver by sticking it into red-hot flames. Or when God puts hard circumstances and unkind people into our lives to teach us perseverance and patience.

I want to be used by God, but I’m less keen on being battered into shape for it. I’d rather skip right to the usefulness part and skip all the unpleasant part about God molding me into somebody useful.

A lot of it has to do with perspective. The way I look at the interruptions, delays, inconveniences, and hardships in my life says a lot about where my maturity level is. If I see them as hindrances, then maybe I need to grow up a little more. If I see them as the hand of God shaping and guiding me toward a greater purpose, then I’m getting closer to becoming who God created me to be in the first place.

“I’ve learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances. I’m just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little. I’ve found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty. Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am” (Philippians 4:11-13, The Message).

My Favorite Ending

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“And as He spoke, He no longer looked to them like a lion; but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before” (C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle).

That’s what I think heaven will be like. It won’t be the same old same old. It will keep getting better. We won’t just sing the same old songs about God. I believe that there’s so much to learn about an infinite God that we will still be learning new attributes to His character and singing new songs throughout eternity.

Sometimes I envy those who have gone to glory because their faith has now been made sight. They behold with their eyes what they had prayed about and sang about and wrote about and longed for with all their might. I know for me it’s just up the road and around the bend a bit. Whatever happens from here, heaven will be so amazing that whatever I go through to get there will have been worth it.

And Jesus will be there. As much as I long to see those I love who have gone before me, none comes close to the longing in my heart to behold my Savior face to face and hopefully hear the words “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

Sinking Boats and Community

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 “When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and lower your nets for a catch.” Simon answered “Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing! But at your word I will lower the nets.” When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets started to tear. So they motioned to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they were about to sink” (Luke 5:4-7, NET).

I believe God spoke to me this morning during the sermon. What He said wasn’t part of the sermon, but it was in the text that my pastor was reading. It had to do with the disciples in the boat as they obeyed Jesus’ command to cast out their nets.

I believe that this text shows the importance of community. Without the other boat nearby, Peter’s boat surely would have capsized. If he didn’t have the support of fellow disciples, there’s no way he could have brought in that catch of fish.

That’s how it is with modern disciples. Often, it’s not our failures that sink us but rather our successes. I think that is worthy of a repeat: it’s not when we fail that can cause us to go under as much as it is when we succeed without a proper foundation or framework underneath us.

We need community. We need people who will tell us the truth and not always what we want to hear. We need people who can help us put both failure and success into their proper perspectives. So many times, a believer alone can take his or her eyes off of Jesus when there’s an unexpected failure or success. We can focus on the event rather than on God. We need people around us reminding us to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, not what’s right or what’s wrong.

Lord, help us to lean on each other in community so that we won’t give up when we fail or get puffed up when we succeed. Keep us in the humility that doesn’t make us think more or less of ourselves but rather helps us think of ourselves less and the people around us more. Amen.

If It’s Good Enough for Paul . . .

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“Because of the extravagance of those revelations, and so I wouldn’t get a big head, I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations. Satan’s angel did his best to get me down; what he in fact did was push me to my knees. No danger then of walking around high and mighty! At first I didn’t think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that, and then he told me, My grace is enough; it’s all you need. My strength comes into its own in your weakness. Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ’s strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size—abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become” (2 Corinthians 12:7-10, The Message).

Sometimes I wish I knew what Paul’s affliction was. I’ve heard all the possibilities, like poor eyesight and epilepsy. But there’s nothing in Scripture that explicitly spells out what Paul’s thorn in the flesh was that He begged God to have removed. All we know is that God didn’t remove it for a reason.

My takeaway is that God sometimes uses what we think of as our biggest weakness to show forth His perfect strength best. The part about our story or the aspect of our bodies that we most prefer to keep hidden is the very thing God will use to demonstrate His ability to use even our flaws for His glory.

What keeps me humble is that God doesn’t always use what I think He should use in my life. Often, He goes past what I consider my greatest strengths and focuses on what I’m least good at. He magnifies Himself most through my efforts that come across often as the least successful. At least in my own mind.

A true disciple knows that it’s all about God getting the glory, not me. That means that I don’t choose how God uses me as the vehicle for His purposes. That means that I don’t get to be God’s PR man when it comes to how I want others to see me as a servant of Christ. I don’t get to put a spin on how God uses me.

The ultimate point is that God uses His people to point others to Jesus. God uses His people to draw people to Christ and bring more into the Kingdom where He can in turn use them to draw even more. That’s what matters in the end, after all.