The Voice

Rain, Rain, Go Away

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  “When you face stormy seas I will be there with you with endurance and calm;
        you will not be engulfed in raging rivers.
    If it seems like you’re walking through fire with flames licking at your limbs,
        keep going; you won’t be burned.
    Because I, the Eternal One, am your God.
        I am the Holy One of Israel, and I will save you” (Isaiah 43:2-3, The Voice).

I never thought I’d say it, but I’m actually relieved that the weekend is just about over.

It has rained literally all weekend long and Monday promises to bring sunshine, so I say bring on Monday!

All this rain reminds me of nearly seven years ago when Nashville had a long period of substantial rainfall that turned into a flood that significantly impacted the city and surrounding areas.

I still remember not being able to get out of my subdivision due to the road being flooded. I remember seeing parts of the city underwater and seeing portable school buildings floating down the interstate.

I remember above all a promise God made to never again flood the world, accompanied by the sign of a rainbow given to Noah and all who would follow after.

I remember that God told us not to fear even when the waters rise and the flames come because He said He’d be with us no matter what.

Thankfully, this weekend hasn’t been nearly that dramatic. No floods or flames, just rain. The worst I had to deal with was getting wet while walking to my car in the rain.

I take great comfort in knowing that no matter what happens, even the worst case scenarios that we all occasionally fear, nothing can separate me from the love of God. I have a Redeemer who knows how to walk on water to get to me.

 

Hope

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“Hope is one of my favorite emotions because of its humility.
It’s not like gladness or joy, which stick around just for the good stuff.
Hope is my heart’s missionary. It humbly seeks fear and shame and hurt and befriends them.
Hope enters the very dustiest parts of my heart, cleans out the cobwebs,
and whispers of the promise of eternal perfection . . .” (Maggie Lindley)

“Do not forget to rejoice, for hope is always just around the corner. Hold up through the hard times that are coming, and devote yourselves to prayer” (Romans 12:12, The Voice).

Don’t lose hope. God is at work. The best is yet to come.

The Ultimate Longing 

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“For all my wanting, I don’t have anyone but You in heaven. There is nothing on earth that I desire other than You. I admit how broken I am in body and spirit, but God is my strength, and He will be mine forever” (Psalm 73:25-26 VOICE).

Ultimately, that’s it. No matter how you are at the moment or how well you think you’re doing, the real victory is living out of God’s strength instead of your own.

Every desire of mine, whether I acknowledge it or not, finds its ultimate fulfillment in God.

I see more now that all those unfulfilled desires and unrequited dreams really all were longings for what only God could grant.

Even when I got exactly what I thought I wanted at the time, it always turned out to be less than satisfactory because a thing can never deliver the true joy and happiness that God can.

That’s my prayer for you– that you understand more deeply that when a longing is denied or a dream gets dashed to pieces, that the deepest yearnings at the heart of those desires are all rooted in the person of Jesus.

May you find that God is more satisfying and gratifying than anything and everything this whole world has to offer. You find true contentment when you finally grasp that God Himself with nothing else added is enough.

That’s what Lent is truly about– abstaining from good things to find joy in the best things and making room in your heart and soul for God to speak and breathe and inhabit.

I’ve managed to make it through one whole day without any social media and I live to tell the tale (even if there was a little bit of withdrawal). If I can do it, I know you can.

 

 

What Does God Require of You?

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“No. He has told you, mortals, what is good in His sight.
    What else does the Eternal ask of you
But to live justly and to love kindness
    and to walk with your True God in all humility?” (Micah 6:8, The Voice).

A lot of people spend lots of time wondering what God wants from them. They pray and fast and read the Bible in search of God’s will for their lives.

I think a good place to start is this verse in Micah. What does God require of you? John Thomas, quest speaker at Kairos, mentioned three things based on this passage.

  1. Live justly toward the poor and needy. That includes widows, orphans, refugees, outcast, and strangers. Note: it does not say to see whether they measure up to certain qualifications and prove deserving of our aid. It says to live out justice and kindness toward them.
  2. Love mercy by showing God’s ultimate example of mercy in Jesus’ ultimate sacrifice. That means evangelism. That means sharing your faith and living out what you believe.
  3. Walk humbly with your God, following in His steps and always ready to listen to what He says to you.  Never get too busy doing that you neglect being with God and learning to tune your life to His voice.

I think I was more convicted by this than I’ve been by anything in a while. If I live in the middle of affluence and plenty and see the need around me while doing nothing about it, I’m in direct disobedience to what God requires of me.

I also can’t help but think that if we start turning away refugees, will we look back and see that we turned away Jesus in disguise because He looked too much like an Islamic terrorist? Will we renege on our duty to care for the least of these because of fear?

Let God’s love be stronger than any fear as we learn how to live out a little more each day what God requires of us.

 

The Love of God

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“Because of this, the love of God is a reality among us: God sent His only Son into the world so that we could find true life through Him” (1 John 4:9 VOICE).

It’s really easy to take it all for granted, especially if you’ve heard it so many times like I have. I’ve been hearing it since I was very little.

But if you can take it for granted, it means you’ve taken it in vain. You’ve assigned it less value that its inherent worth. By the way, that’s what taking God’s name in vain really means– to treat it as less than it’s truly worth.

To take the love of God in vain means that you  stop being awed and amazed by it. You stop being overwhelmed by the notion that an infinite and holy God should shower His love on undeserving people not just once, but time and time again.

To truly appreciate the love of God means that you understand that you will never get to the bottom of it or ever really fully comprehend its vastness and breadth and scope.

May you always wake up every morning flabbergasted that God still loves you. May you open your arms wide to receive it, knowing that trying to contain it is like trying to contain the oceans in a thimble.

May you know that this love–all of it– is for you.

 

Come

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“Eternal One: If you are thirsty, come here;
        come, there’s water for all.
    Whoever is poor and penniless can still
        come and buy the food I sell.
    There’s no cost—here, have some food, hearty and delicious,
        and beverages, pure and good.
     I don’t understand why you spend your money for things that don’t nourish
        or work so hard for what leaves you empty.
    Attend to Me and eat what is good;
        enjoy the richest, most delectable of things.
     Listen closely, and come even closer. My words will give life,
        for I will make a covenant with you that cannot be broken, a promise
    Of My enduring presence and support like I gave to David.[a]
     See, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander among the nations.
     Now you will issue a call to nations from all over the world—
        people whom you do not know and who do not know you.
    They will come running, because of Me, your God
        because the Eternal, the Holy One of Israel, has made you beautiful” (Isaiah 55:1-5, The Voice).

That’s the invitation: come.

It seems like our economy is based on envy and dissatisfaction. Just about every ad promises to fulfill a deep need and satisfy a fundamental urge if only you will buy their product.

You can be truly happy and content if you will only buy shampoo or deodorant or a luxury car or these gins knives (remember them from the informercials?)

God in Jesus offers true and lasting joy and contentment for free.

FOR FREE.

The only requirement is that you come, taste and see that the Lord is good.

You can be one of those radical counter-cultural people who can say when faced with the never ending assault on the senses of commercials, “No thanks. I’m good. I have enough.”

Come, taste, and see that God is enough to satisfy.

 

24/7 Gratitude

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“To be grateful for the good things that happen in our lives is easy, but to be grateful for all of our lives-the good as well as the bad, the moments of joy as well as the moments of sorrow, the successes as well as the failures, the rewards as well as the rejections-that requires hard spiritual work. Still, we are only truly grateful people when we can say thank you to all that has brought us to the present moment. As long as we keep dividing our lives between events and people we would like to remember and those we would rather forget, we cannot claim the fullness of our beings as a gift of God to be grateful for.

Let’s not be afraid to look at everything that has brought us to where we are now and trust that we will soon see in it the guiding hand of a loving God” (Henri Nouwen).

I’d only add one thing. This kind of gratitude only happens when we learn to find God in everything. It happens when we seek and see God’s hand in the good and the bad, the easy and the hard, the pleasant and the painful.

I don’t believe that God causes the bad, the hard, and the painful, but I do believe that God is at work through those times and can turn even the worst of them into something way better than we could ever have dreamed of with our small finite minds.

Being grateful in everything even includes those awkward, in-between times when it’s not quite terrible but it’s not close to being awesome either. It’s hardest of all to give thanks in the hallway between God closing one door and God opening another, but that’s where you find so many little things to be thankful for that add up to a heart brimming over with gratitude.

“Celebrate always, pray constantly, and give thanks to God no matter what circumstances you find yourself in. (This is God’s will for all of you in Jesus the Anointed)” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, The Voice)

Still Sick and Tired of Politics

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Warning: this is one of my rare soapbox posts, so if you’re looking for posts about fluffy kittens or rainbows, this ain’t it.

Here it is. Jesus said to love your enemies. Period.

That includes people who voted for Donald Trump. That includes Donald Trump.

That includes people who voted for Hillary Clinton. That includes Hillary Clinton.

Jesus didn’t make it optional. Jesus didn’t put in an escape clause. There are not ifs or buts.

He said, “Love your enemies.”

He didn’t say that loving your enemies meant that you suddenly agree with everything they say and stand for.

He didn’t say that it meant you suddenly become best buddies and hang out together all the time and share bonbons.

He did say to love them.

Loving your enemies means not readily believing the absolute worst about them without even checking to see if it’s true or not.

Loving your enemies means not speaking hatefully about them and wishing them harm.

Loving your enemies means to love them like Jesus once loved us when we were His enemies. Jesus didn’t read us the riot act or shun us and write us off. He showed a kind of love that went to the uttermost extreme lengths to prove itself– even to death on a cross.

“For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!” (Romans 5:10, NIV).

I truly believe that there are decent people on both sides of the political spectrum. I refuse to believe that someone who acts, thinks, and votes differently than I is stupid or evil. I will never shame or belittle anyone who disagrees with me, no matter how far apart we are in values and beliefs.

This is the ultimate standard that we should all strive to follow in the power of the Holy Spirit: “I tell you this: love your enemies. Pray for those who torment you and persecute you” (Matthew 5:44, The Voice).

 

New Year’s Adam 2016

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It’s New Year’s Eve Eve, also known as New Year’s Adam, or just another excuse to go get a McRib from McDonalds. I’m fairly certain that no actual cows or ribs or anything involving actual meat products were harmed in the making of those sandwiches.

I know a lot of people are bashing the year 2016 for taking so many beloved celebrities.  I agree that it seems like more than the usual number of famous people have died in the  past 12 months, many in tragic and sudden ways.

But I wonder how many real unsung heroes die every day, those whose deaths go virtually unnoticed. How many soldiers, police officers, firefighters, EMTs, and others sacrifice their lives in the line of duty each and every day?

I for one am thankful for 2016. It was a year where I saw God faithfully provide time and time again. It was a year where I got almost nonstop reminders of God’s providence and sovereignty.

That said, I’m excited for all the possibilities in 2017. I believe it will be a challenging year that calls me out of my comfort zone in many ways, yet it will be a year that will see some spiritual breakthroughs.

My prayer for you in 2017 is the same as my prayer for you in 2016 (and probably the same prayer from 2015). It’s from Ephesians 3:14-21 from The Voice translation of the Bible:

“Father, out of Your honorable and glorious riches, strengthen Your people. Fill their souls with the power of Your Spirit so that through faith the Anointed One will reside in their hearts. May love be the rich soil where their lives take root. May it be the bedrock where their lives are founded so that together with all of Your people they will have the power to understand that the love of the Anointed is infinitely long, wide, high, and deep, surpassing everything anyone previously experienced. God, may Your fullness flood through their entire beings”