Cosmic Hide and Seek

This week’s blog is tied to one of the Songs of the Week; “Waiting Here for You” by Christy Nockels.  Great song.  Take a moment to listen to it.  I don’t know about you, but for me, waiting is tough!  I hate to wait.  Why is waiting so hard?  Because waiting implies that you do not have control over your circumstances or the timing of events in your own life.  We like to think that we own our destiny, yet if we are honest we would admit that we can barely see beyond today.  We might have plans and dreams, but really, today are you where you thought you would be 5, 10, or 15 years ago?  So who is to say where you will be in another 5, 10, or 15 years?  Only God knows that.  In my experience, He usually remains rather silent on the issue of disclosing the future.  He allows us to walk day by day and sometimes those days seem to drag out.  Whether there is something we really want to do, or even when we feel like we have no direction whatsoever, the times and seasons of our lives can become unbearable.

Can become unbearable, if we let them.  Psalm 27 is a wonderful Psalm that can help us through those difficult unexplainable times.  In this passage David is expressing angst over the adversaries in his life but he also lets the deep cry of his heart come out.  It is a cry that is centered on his desire to simply be with God.  Verse 4 says, “One thing I have asked from the Lord, that I shall seek; That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the Lord and to meditate in His temple.”  More than anything, David wanted to be with the Lord.  Verses 8 and 9 continue the thought: “When you said, ‘Seek my face,’ my heart said to You, ‘Your face, O Lord, I shall seek.’  Do not hide your face from me, Do not turn Your servant away in anger; You have been my help; Do not abandon me nor forsake me, O God of my salvation!”  The Lord had given David the challenge – “Seek my face.”  David understood the challenge and knew that sometimes, seeking God’s face is easier said than done.  Why?  Because as was mentioned earlier, our plans and dreams don’t always turn out as we expected.  Sometimes, God plays a cosmic game of hide and seek.  Finding Him is not as simple as it may seem.  It takes work to find God because He knows all the best hiding places.

David closes the Psalm with a great encouragement.  Verse 13 says, “I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.”  There was a firmly rooted conviction in David’s heart – no matter how tough, bizarre, or long the days seemed, he knew he was going to see the goodness of God in his life.  Holding fast to this truth allowed him to endure and, quite literally, changed the rules of the game from “hide and seek” to “wait and seek.”  David goes on to say in Verse 14, “Wait for the Lord; Be strong and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for the Lord.”  If you believe that God has good things for you, you will be willing to wait for them.  Your courage will give you the strength to wait for God while you seek him.  Sounds like a contradiction, doesn’t it?  Just like in the real game of hide and seek, everyone wants to be found.  Those in the best hiding places will eventually reveal themselves if the seeker is patient.  If by faith you are seeking God by waiting for Him - even as the song says, “Waiting here for you, with our hands lifted high in praise” – He will inevitably come to you.

Father's Day - A Real Relative Holiday

I know, the title seems like a bad pun, but there is a real truth to Father’s Day being a “relative” holiday. I can think of no other way to describe my father than to say that he is a good man – in every sense of the idea. I love him dearly and look up to him in every way. If I can be half the man that he is, well, that would be an accomplishment indeed. However, I know that everyone has not had the benefit of such a relationship with their dad. Some have never known their father because of his untimely passing. Still others have been neglected, abandoned, even abused in the most horrible ways by their father. I cannot express how deeply sorry I am for those that have had to suffer at the hands of the one man that is supposed to provide for, take care of, and model who our Heavenly Father is.

That is why not only is this holiday so relative, but the way we approach God is so relative as well. It is easy for me to accept how good God truly is because I have such a good dad. However, when a person has had to endure life instead of living it because of their dad, is it any wonder they have a difficult time approaching God as Father? Yet the Bible says, “Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.”[1] Every good thing we have, we experience, or we enjoy comes from our Heavenly Father. A relationship with God truly is as simple as understanding that He loves us and only wants good for us. For some, our earthly father has clouded and distorted what a true father is supposed to be like. But even as that verse says, there is no variance or shifting shadow in Him. The goodness of God is a constant. He does and always will love you. The good gifts and things in your life are evidence of that. Reach out to Him even as He reaches out to you, and discover what a wonderful Father God is.

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[1] James 1:17 (NASB)

The Spirit of Caffeine

My first senior pastorate was in a small church which required me to have outside employ to put food on the table.  The first job I had during this time was at a bank.  Across the street from this bank there was a gas station that had a great cappuccino machine (no, there weren’t any Starbucks in our town 15 years ago).  The other employees at the bank would send me over to get coffee for everyone from time to time.  The owner of the station was a Muslim man and as I got to know him I began to reach out to him with the good news of Jesus.  Over the weeks and months we spent time sharing our religious views with each other.  I let him know there was a standing invitation for him to come to church any time as my special guest.  Occasionally I would go to the station on my way to church to get some coffee and talk with the man.  I’m not a big coffee drinker, but I will say the coffee this man had was good and stopping by to get some made for a great excuse to spend time with my friend.

                Even though he never came to any of our services, my coffee outreach had an interesting side effect.  After about a month or so my wife and I had a discussion at home after church one Sunday.  She wanted to know what was going on.  I wasn’t sure what she was talking about.  She proceeded to tell me that my sermons were a bit more “energetic” than usual.  The messages were going longer and longer even though I was talking faster and faster.  There seemed to be an almost out of control element.  I couldn’t understand what she was complaining about because I felt great.  It was then that I realized that my consumption of a large cappuccino before church was affecting me in ways that I was unaware of.  To me, the last few weeks of church had been awesome; for everyone else it had been a bit unbearable.   

                This brings me to what I would like to talk about; the real presence of the Holy Spirit.  Today is Pentecost Sunday, the day we celebrate the birth of the church through the empowerment that came with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.  The whole story can be found in the first and second chapters of Acts.  Jesus told His disciples to go and wait in Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit to come upon them.  They would need the fulfillment of the promise of the presence of the Spirit to give them the power to undertake the great commission.  Carrying the gospel message of Jesus’s death and resurrection to the world would necessitate the Holy Spirit’s power and the supernatural signs He would bring.  As the mission of the church remains the same so does the need for the presence and power of the Holy Spirit.  

                When God shows up supernaturally, it can be really exciting, just like on the first Pentecost.  As the Holy Spirit arrived all kinds of supernatural signs and wonders took place.  Would I like for Him to show up like that at every service and blow the roof off the place?  Of course!  But that doesn’t always happen.  The Holy Spirit cannot be commanded or conjured.  Too often I have seen some outrageous shenanigans in the church as people fired themselves up and said it was the Spirit; much like my cappuccino fueled sermons.  It wasn’t the Holy Spirit; it was the “spirit of caffeine.”  When He genuinely shows up you’ll know it.  In the meantime, do what the disciples did and simply wait in expectation.