Last Sunday in Sunday School we watched a video. The purpose of the video was to help us understand God’s bigness and our smallness. The man who was speaking gave fact after fact about the size of our universe, the complexity of it all and quite frankly, most of it went way over my head. When you tell me that something is 5.8 million light years away, I really have no concept of that number.
But then at the end of the video he showed a picture taken from the space shuttle Voyager I as it neared the edge of our solar system. NASA sent instructions for the shuttle to turn back towards the earth and take pictures, which it did. It took months for the images to make their way back to earth, but when they did, what they revealed was breathtaking.
I sat in stunned silence as I realized that we were not, in fact, the center of all importance. This world that had seemed so large only moments earlier was suddenly reduced to the size of an insignificant speck – a pale blue dot.
Yet it was to this pale blue dot that the Lord of creation came. For the insignificant inhabitants of this speck, He did the unthinkable – He joined us in our speckness. The meaning of Philippians 2:8 “He humbled Himself” now explodes in my mind.
I feel that there are multitudes of words that want to come tumbling onto the page – yet somehow only silence seems appropriate.
I recently took some time off from work to be alone with God. I went away to a place near the water and spent a lot of time outside, reading my Bible, praying, loving Jesus.
In the evenings I would eat supper outside, watching the beautiful colors of the sunset. Each evening a group of about five birds would appear and they would fly above the tree tops. They would flap their wings a few times and then catch a current of air and be lifted and soar. There didn’t seem to be any purpose to their flight. They weren’t going anywhere, but seemed to just circle around and around, as though they were enjoying the ride.
And as I watched them I thought “They were made for this and look how great a delight they take in it.” And I imagined that this brought God much pleasure.
There are things that God gives me opportunity to do, and in the doing I realize “I was made for this.” In these things my heart is lifted and I feel as though I could soar there forever. And my delight in God nearly explodes in my soul and I sense His pleasure in it.
“Now there were set there six waterpots of stone, according to the manner of purification of the Jews….: John 2:6
Jesus is in Cana and there is a wedding taking place, but our attention is directed not to the ongoing festivities but to the waterpots. These waterpots were used by the Jews for their ritual washings. Always washing, always trying to make themselves clean. And now the waterpots stood empty. Had their contents been exhausted by the washings of the wedding guests? There they stood waiting for a man to refill them. Always needing a man to refill them so there could be more washings. If someone had come needing that water of purification, what would he do? There was no more.
Into this scene, Jesus speaks – fill them up. And man once again fills the waterpots with water, for this is all he can do. But Jesus does what man cannot do, and changes the contents to wine. “Draw some out now, and take it” He says.
In our human tendency to try to cleanse ourselves and make ourselves acceptable to God, we have filled and emptied the waterpots of religion times without number. Always washing, yet never clean. But in a moment, Jesus frees us from the endless self-washings by one washing in His blood and He changes the water of dead religious activity into the living wine of His Holy Spirit. This truly is the “wine that makes glad the heart of man.” (Ps 104:15) And now we have something suitable to offer the world as Jesus says to us “draw some out now and take it.”
How I cheat not only myself, but the world as well, when I will not be filled with the Holy Spirit. For then I have nothing to offer but the water of religion, a bland and tasteless thing that they can find on every corner. It is only the wine, which is only given by Jesus, that is fit to be drawn out and given to the world.
So let us be filled and then, from the abundance of what He has given, let us draw out and give to the world.
One of the youth in our church felt led by God to organize a group to go downtown street witnessing. Yesterday about 20 of us paired up and walked the streets of downtown Baton Rouge to see what the Lord would do as we sought to share the gospel. I was paired up with Shana, an absolutely delightful young lady with a real heart for sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. The first man we encountered was on the levee, sitting on the concrete steps that descended into the Mississippi river. We sat next to him, one on either side, handed him a gospel tract and began to share the gospel with him. Tears began to flow down his face as he told us that he was recently homeless and had been feeling so much despair that at that moment he was contemplaing jumping into the river to drown. He felt like God had sent us to him. We spent a long time with him, encouraging him to trust Jesus and just being with him while he cried. We prayed for him and could see a visible change in his countenance when we left. We are continuing to pray for him – Paul – and believing that the Lord will water and give increase to the seeds that were sown into his heart that day. Shana and I walked away from him feeling very joyful to have been able to share the gospel with him, yet sorrowful that we had not been prepared to help with any practical needs or direct him somewhere he could obtain food and shelter.
Later that day we came across 2 men who were leaning against a fence leading to an event center. They looked like they may have been security guards. Shana and I both felt led to stop and talk to them. As soon as I began to share the good news with one of them, his attention was immediately focused on what I was saying. So much so that it was startling. He had just lost his wife and child due to a divorce and seemed to be reaching out to God as best he knew how. We encouraged him to continue all the way to salvation and a full surrender to Jesus.
At the appointed time we assembled with everyone else to prepare to leave. As we were waiting for the last few stragglers from our group to reappear I noticed a man walking towards us on the sidewalk. As he passed I handed him a gospel tract and when I looked into his face I realized that I knew him. Three years ago he was one of my clients, a business owner with a beautiful wife and he was on fire for the Lord. He would come to my office to drop off information and we would have a wonderful time sharing about what the Lord was doing. Now he had lost everything and was homeless. And away from the Lord. He stood and talked with me for about 15 minutes as I reminded him of what he had lost by walking away from Jesus. As he walked away I broke down in tears over this fallen brother.
As we drove back to the church, Keith Green’s “Asleep in the Light” was playing. I thought my heart would break.
Do you see, do you see, all the people sinking down,
Don’t you care, don’t you care, are you gonna let them drown,
How can you be so numb, not to care if they come,
You close your eyes and pretend the job’s done.
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Oh Bless me Lord, bless me Lord, you know it’s all I ever hear,
No one aches, no one hurts, no one even sheds one tear,
But He cries, He weeps, He bleeds, and He cares for your needs,
And you just lay back and keep soaking it in, oh, can’t you see it’s such sin?
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Cause He brings people to your door,
And you turn them away, as you smile and say,
God bless you, be at peace, and all Heaven just weeps,
Cause Jesus came to your door, you’ve left Him out on the streets.
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Open up, open up, and give yourself away,
You’ve seen the need, you hear the cry, so how can you delay,
God’s calling and you’re the one, but like Jonah you run,
He’s told you to speak, but you keep holding it in,
Oh, can’t you see it’s such sin?
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The world is sleeping in the dark,
That the church can’t fight, cause it’s asleep in the light,
How can you be so dead, when you’ve been so well fed,
Jesus rose from the grave, and you, you can’t even get out of bed,
Oh, Jesus rose from the dead, come on, get out of your bed.
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How can you be so numb, not to care if they come,
You close your eyes and pretend the job’s done,
You close your eyes and pretend the job’s done,
Don’t close your eyes, don’t pretend the job’s done.
Come away, come away, come away with Me, My love,
Come away, from this mess, come away with Me, My love.
“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold Him guiltless who takes His name in vain.” Exodus 20:7
I had always associated taking His name in vain with words – whether profanity or a carelessly tossing around of His name in casual conversation. However, something different is beginning to appear from this verse.
When we speak of taking someone’s name, we think of marriage. Of a woman taking a man’s name. This is an outward acknowledgement of the legal covenant she has entered into. But this covenant involves much more, because after the taking of the name, the identification of the two as now one, there must be a continued investment in the emotional/relational aspect of the commitment. Otherwise she has taken his name in vain because there is no substance to the union. It is a mere outward form. Something that gives her a measure of comfort and security, but provides no real or lasting joy for either. This is not commitment, it is convenience.
This indeed is a danger we must be aware of. We who are believers have taken the name of Christ. We have identified ourselves with Him and as His. But this becomes empty and worthless if there is not a cherishing of His Person, a delight in His Presence and a longing to know Him even as we are known. A daily communion is needed and should be desired.
Lord, please do no ever let me get to the point that I have taken your name in vain, merely as a convenience, a balm to soothe my conscience. But may my heart be fully engaged in a lifelong pursuit of ever deepening fellowship with You.
Ezekiel 24 is a very difficult passage for me to understand. The prophet’s wife died and the Lord did not allow him to grieve for her. What must it have been like for Ezekiel to obey that command? How is such a thing even possible? But Scripture records “and at evening my wife died, and the next morning I did as I was commanded.” Ezekiel 24:18
Even in his time of sorrow, the prophet was expected to represent the Lord and be faithful to his calling. There are no vacations for those who have separated themselves to God. All of life becomes focused on presenting Him to and representing Him before lost humanity.
Lord, I am too easily moved by my emotions rather than your commands. You would have me put your desires above my own, yet so often I do not. I feel the need, and even the entitlement, to indulge my feelings. Even when I know they run contrary to Your word. This is not the life You have called me to.
For you have called me to obey, in love, without reservation. You have called me to live for the One who gave all to purchase me. You have called me to forget myself and count all things loss – for You. This is the life You have called me to.
“meanwhile praying also for us, that God would open to us a door for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in chains.” Colossians 4:3
There was a time when I thought it was very important that God should open a door for my “ministry”. I prayed for this and believed for this. I look back on that time in my life now and am ashamed of myself. How utterly selfish and self-seeking those prayers were. I did want Jesus to be glorified….as long as it happened through me. And of course I would certainly remain a humble servant while being celebrated as an anointed woman of God.
As ridiculous as that sounds, that really was the essence of my thoughts at one point in my life. While I might have prayed for God to open a door for the gospel, I really wanted Him to open a door for me.
The Lord rescued me from this mindset through a great disappointment that left me hurting and heart broken for a very long time. Today I can look back at it and thank Him from the depths of my heart for it.
I still pray for God to open doors, and He still does. And while I have the privilege of walking through those doors, I understand now that they are not for me. They are for the furtherance of this great gospel of Jesus Christ.
He is my Delight 