The Highest Call

Job 9:32 - 35 "He is not a man like me that I might answer Him, that we might confront each other in court. If only there were someone to arbitrate between us, to lay his hand upon us both, someone to remove God's rod from me, so that His terror would frighten me no more. Then I would speak up without fear of Him, but as it now stands with me, I cannot."

I got a taste of the cost of real intercession this past week. When you take upon yourself someone else's burden, it wipes you out. Sitting in the home of a family devastated by the death of their daughter, I prayed to God to allow me to be one who could lift their arms for them. For as it stood with them at that point - they could not, and I felt the weight and I prayed in a way that I've rarely prayed before. And it was very heavy.

I believe that intercession is the highest call a Christian can have on this earth. The call to stand in the gap for the one who cannot stand on their own. To cry out for the one who has lost their voice. To carry the burden of the one who has fallen beneath the load. It's not enough to simply say "Get up!" to the person who can barely breathe. You have to breathe for them.

Romans 8:26 "In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we out to pray for, but he Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express."

I am amazed at what Christ did for me - interceding for me - breathing for me - when I was dead in my sins, unable to make even the slightest move towards Him. The heaviness He must have felt makes me love Him even more. It is our call now, as the movable Temples of God, to be this intercessor for those who have been knocked down.

It's hard work, that's why so many Christians follow the paths of their own choosing. When you intercede, you take on the burden of the other person, their pain and suffering, their groans of agony, and it can really wipe you out. But there is no other way.

Lord, The One You Love Is Sick

When Mary and Martha sent word to Jesus that Lazarus was dying, their words were very telling: "Lord, the one You love is sick."

I can't get this out of my head right now. The world is sick. Creation is groaning. People are dying. Kids are killing themselves out of hopelessness. "Lord, the one you love is sick."

Remember, for God so LOVED the world, not hated it, that He gave His Son. Sickness is not a sign that He has withdrawn His love and favor, as the Pharisees of Jesus' day suggested and as the prosperity preachers of this day echo in their calls for money. It is a sign that our free-will decisions out of our flesh nature have engrossed this world and now the "rain" is falling on the just and the unjust. This sickness has spread like an infection into every aspect of our lives.

(If I sound angry/discouraged, it's because I had to do the funeral of a 15-year old former student this weekend. And I'm mad about that. Not at her. At me. And the church - for not being an agent of healing for these kids. We, the healed, know that these kids are sick.)

A huge aspect of the atonement is to bring healing. Using us. We are The Plan. We have to get our lives in obedience to His will and in surrender to the Spirit so that we can be a part of this healing process. We can no longer have our testimony be that of the prodigal son, forever falling and begging for restoration. We are called to be agents of healing - for others, and we can't do that if we are always the one on the doorstep crying for help. (Read Joshua 7:10 - 13)

It's time to break the cycle. The Cross is the cycle breaker. All sickness dies upon it. He is risen with healing in His wings.

Lord - the one You love is sick.

The Person or the Preference

Last Sunday I faced a dilemma: my 4th grade son Luke was playing in the semi-finals of his travel basketball league. I love basketball. He and I spend hours working on drills in the driveway and he's a lot of fun to watch. Even at his age (I'm bragging) he works harder than most of the college teams I used to coach.

But . . . at the same time my 6th grade daughter was having a clarinet recital. Hmmmm.. . . . . . (picture me holding my hands up as if weighing the options).

You know what? I went to the recital. Not because I'm such a great dad. Not because of any great reason, except this: I love my daughter more than I love basketball. It's that simple. The person in my life is greater than my preferences.

I hope you love your brother more than you love a praise song. Or a hymn. Or style of music. Or the drums. Or not the drums. Or stained glass.

As I stated in the last post, we are never to sacrifice the truth for our brother. But preferences? They have to be cast aside so we can worship as one.

Tenets or Tenants

Who/what is more important in our Christian pursuit?

What good is truth if people are left in the wake? Are the tenants, the ones living in this faith, the reason for the truth in the first place? Or does the truth exist apart from the people.

This may seem like a foolish question, but to be honest, it's one that almost sank me in the early stages of my emerging faith. I found too many Christians clinging to their (particular) brand of truth as people's lives remained shattered around them. I didn't want to be a part of any movement that lived its truths out this way.

However, as I grew in my faith (and love for the people) I also realized that the truth cannot be compromised. The tenets matter, the truth always matters. And to some degree it is more important to maintain that truth over the feelings of people. If every whim (and even every hurt) was a cause for the adjustment of the truth, then it wouldn't be any good to anyone. The distinction in the notes (I Corinthians 14)is necessary, because it is this distinction that draws people to the Lord. And only He can bring the healing to the people that are hurting.

Sometimes it feels like the church is a dog chasing its tail.

The Man Behind the Filter

So, does Obama really make fun of people with special needs when no one is around? Who is the man behind the 'filter'? (and yes, that's a pun on his smoking habit.) To be honest, I don't hold his comment against him or as a revelation of some hidden issue with the Special Olympics. I think it was what it was - an unwise joke at the expense of himself, something we've all done and paid the price for.

However, it does beg the question: Who are you when the 'filter' is off and you are left to your own thoughts? I really believe that this is a question we need to constantly be asking ourselves, because the Cross is a change from the core of our being, not a superficial covering. Where our mind travels when it's left to itself is a pretty good revelation of how deep that change is. If you drift, it doesn't mean that NO change has occurred, just that it's not to the depth that we would like.

Because the goal is eventually to not have a filter at all, but the mind of Christ.

Really?

So I take my kids to the Dollar Tree this morning. I get bumped around by everyone scrambling for their dollar items. (They should call this the "I Dollar Tree" for the way these cheap man-made things are sought after !)

Anyway, everyone looks crazy. After I get pushed aside by an old lady while getting in line (she saved herself 20 seconds with that move - well worth it)- I looked up and asked God: "So, really . . . .this was THE PLAN?"

Once in awhile that thought crosses my mind. I see the angry mob and I wonder how this could be the part of some kind of divine plan. What God in their right mind would do that?

Not to get all Max Lucado on you, but then I looked down at my precious little children - with huge smiles on their faces as they held plastic bugs and Gummi-Bears, and my mind was re-focused to the heart of God. And maybe a little bit of love toward that lady who knocked me into Aisle 2.

The Final Resting Place

For any cycle to stop, someone has to take the final blow, the last hit. In the story of Samson there is an endless cycle of lust and revenge. Samson gets mad at the Philistines. They demand to know the answer to the riddle. They mess with his wife. He gets made and leaves. Her father gives the bride away to someone else. Samson gets mad and burns the field. They get mad and try to kill him. And so on. The hits just keep on coming until everyone is destroyed.

Again - a cycle will never end until someone takes the last hit - or better yet, lets the last hit rest on them. There is only one thing that has fully accomplished this: The Cross.

The cross is the final resting place for revenge. That’s why it’s such a violent scene, because all of the violence of revenge comes to a screaming halt upon it. The ‘hits’ end there and the cycle is broken. Christ takes the final blow and does not retaliate. The last hit rests upon His broken and bloodied body. And by taking the final blow, He disarms Satan, who lives off violence and revenge.

This frees us and allows us to take the ‘hit’ from the brother and end the cycle of violence on earth. We do not have to return blow for blow. We can turn the other cheek and walk the second mile - and to make it even more amazing, we can do this with pure intentions: the redemption of our enemy.

I do not have to return the blow. I can become a resting place.