Take Words With You

This morning as I was drinking my coffee and reading the bible I looked over at my four youngest children who were eating their breakfast in silence.  Usually on Saturday morning I let them sleep in and then watch a cartoon.  It's a tradition that stretches back to my own childhood when cartoons only aired on network television on Saturday mornings.  Today I woke them earlier than usual.  I wondered if they would be ornery but they weren't.  They were just quiet.  They had no words.  I looked down at the passage I was reading again.  

"Take words with you and return to the Lord.  Say to him; 'forgive all our sins and receive us graciously, that we may offer the fruit of our lips'".  Hosea 14:2. 

I think about my children frequently throughout the day.  My main concern is their faith and walk with God.  So this morning I took the opportunity of their silence to invade their thoughts and direct them to Jesus.  I asked them, "When do you worship?".  Amidst the chewing and dazed looks there was a glimmer of thought behind their eyes.  Even Camon, who is seven, looked instantly curious.  But no one could really answer.  I suspected this.  I didn't really expect them to be any different than I was as a child.    

My husband is a pastor so this may sound scandalous to some when I admit that I don't always feel like I'm worshipping at Church.  I learn.  I pray.  I repent.  But worship...that's harder to define.  When I asked my children if they worship at church they did the thing with their eyes where they look like a cartoon character for a moment....you know the one; the side-to-side, deer caught in the headlights look.  They seemed momentarily uncomfortable when I asked if they worshipped during service or if they pretty much just endured the experience until the last "amen".  They all pretty much agreed that it was the latter.  I thought as much.  It was just the same for me.  I'm glad they owned to it.  It doesn't do anyone any good to candy coat the truth.  It is what it is.  I'd rather have them admit to me the truth than feel like they have to pretend. 

In Hosea 14 the people of Israel are told to "take words" with them.  It goes on to encourage repentance and surrender to God, looking to Him as the source of goodness and blessing and it finishes off with the words, 

"Who is wise? He will realize these things.  Who is discerning?  He will understand them.  The ways of the Lord are right; the righteous walk in them, but the rebellious stumble in them." 

I can model a righteous life for my children and teach them scripture, encouraging them to hide it in their hearts so they do not sin against God.  But I feel like modeling worship is difficult.  It's so personal that modeling it might actually turn out to be nothing more than a show.  But being thankful and teaching them to surrender with thankfulness I can do.  Being thankful is a crucial part of worship. I can teach them to be repentant because worship does not happen without repentance and humility.  I can also teach them how to "take words with them and return to the Lord".  Helping my children to know who God is and notice how benevolent He is gives them the tools to formulate their own words of thanks and repentance.  I could try to put words in their mouths but their worship would not be authentic.  No, I want them to have the ability to take their own words with them when they return to God.  I want them to be able to see for themselves how good He is to them.  I want them to see that He fills their lungs with breath.  He gives them bodies that function properly.  He gives them beauty, strength, food, shelter, clothes. He meets all their needs.  God says in Hosea,

"I am like a green pine tree; your fruitfulness comes from me."

What do we have that we have not been given?  Not one thing.  Our ability to blink...comes from God.  Our ability to sleep and wake up...God's gift.  We think, walk, talk, swallow, breath, hear, see, enjoy taste....every good and perfect gift comes from God!  This and so much more I can teach my children to see.  In doing so, if they are wise, it will be inevitable that they will "take words with them when they return to the Lord".  God wants to hear our humbled hearts praise and thank Him!  Whether we sit in a pew or on our front porch drinking our coffee if we are humble before God, repentant for our sin and filled with thanksgiving we will find what it means to worship Him and songs of praise will come.  I believe that when we bring this attitude with us as we gather in church, our worship does rise before God as one voice.  May God give us all the grace to see that quietly enduring 'till the last "amen" does not have to be our Sunday morning church experience.  

A Portion Of The Story

Like many of you, I like a good story.  I like romance and intrigue, suspense and believable dialog, just for starters.  But, aside from my fictional interests, I have a greater passion for Truth.  Which brings me to scripture.  Unlike other books, the Christian bible seems to have endless layers.  It's content spans throughout all time, even to that which has not been.  No earthly author has yet to write a book that is it's equal.  

How is it that I can read a passage and feel like I know it, only to one day read it again and discover something new?  This phenomenon is humbling for me.  God through the years has condescended to teach my slow-to-comprehend mind, allowing me the time to let a passage simmer until suddenly my eyes are opened.  If you could see the party that takes place in my spirit when this happens you would put on a hat and celebrate with me.  But the amazing thing is, He allows me to revisit the same passage later on and He shows me more!

Knowing this helps me to listen to a sermon in peace even when the pastor takes it in a direction that might be different than I would have gone, because I know that what a Godly pastor shares in any given sermon is just a portion of the story.  

Some of you know that my husband became a pastor about four years ago after having taught in the public school system for seventeen years.  It was a big leap for us.  And I confess it was a VERY big leap for me.  I've never really been a fan of church and I've always had a difficult time with sermons.  The reason is that I wanted sermons to be tidy, wrapped up, inclusive of all pertinent details so as not to give way to misunderstanding should any young or non believer be listening.  My compulsion to round out the theology of every sermon was exhausting and rather than feeling blessed by the pastor's knowledge I felt like I'd been in a battle every time I went to church.   But the fact is, sermons are just a portion of the story!  It's such a great story that it takes time to do it justice in it's telling and not everything can be covered in it's entirety in every sermon.  So we lay the foundation of faith and build on Christ...not forgetting Christ as we build.    

It's true that I have an easier time listening to my pastor husband.  It's likely because I can grill him after the service. (Ha!)  Knowing that this particular pastor is approachable and that I won't be labeled a rebellious woman for questioning his sermon sure does afford me a measure of confidence.  But what about everyone else?  There may be some who have a difficult time listening to my Paul as he takes a passage of scripture and draws out things God has shown him.  I have a lot of grace for those who struggle in this way because I can relate very well.  

What I can offer to those who deal with these matters is a reminder;  My Paul, or any other pastor can only share a portion of the story during one sermon....or even several.  The bible being as deep as it is can not be summed up or laid out in tidy fashion so as to satisfy every listening ear.  Unlike Paul Harvey, who gives "The Rest of the Story", my Paul is only capable of giving a portion of the story.  My prayer is that we will continue to listen and receive God's word with patience, allowing for Him to teach us through men like my Paul, who most often speak with fear and trembling, knowing Whom they represent.  

The Practice of Powerless Love

Some make the claim that our human empathy for others is the result of our evolution.  In fact, just yesterday someone I know excused evil by making the assertion that we are really nothing more than animals.  Of course I don't believe that.  I believe that mankind was created by God with a proper sense of right and wrong, good and evil and kindness and empathy.  With the Law of God written upon our hearts and His Love as the pattern for our own love, I do not wonder where humanity's basic ability to show compassion comes from.  But in spite of mankind's out workings of this basic compassion, there is a powerlessness about it, an insufficiency that is felt by everyone but understood by few.  It lacks eternal worth. 

I'll be honest, I don't have much hope for our world.  We are on a downward spiral that will not be interrupted by any sudden "evolution" of the hearts of men.  Now it's likely that if you are an Atheist reading this post you are thinking, "How sad.  What a negative perspective".  But if you are a Christian who knows what Jesus said about the end times you are likely nodding your head knowing that He said it would be as it was in the days of Noah.  

  

In the days of Noah,

" The LORD saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time." Genesis 6:5

It's been an interest of mine to search this verse out because I find it intriguing that the thoughts and inclinations of the human hearts were ONLY evil ALL the time.  That means that the love that the mothers and fathers had for their children and vice versa was considered evil.  That means that the love a man had for his wife was also considered evil.  And good works anyone at that time did, such as bringing someone a meal, having a kind encouraging word for someone who was grieving etc. was EVIL.  There were no good intentions, in spite of man's natural and basic motivation to love.  How can this be?  How could their love have been so powerless?  

I hope by the time you are done reading my words you will see that I'm not being cynical but that I am a believer in what Jesus said.  I believe we are getting closer and closer to the last days and one of the most convincing evidences to me is the increasing practice of powerless love, even by those in the Church.  

Powerless love is the poorest reflection of God's love there is.  What makes it powerless is man's tendency to deny God and leave Him out of it's practice.  In the same spirit Paul referred to the "form of godliness" of those who live in the end times.  

2 Timothy 3:1-5 says,

"…But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.  For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.…"

What makes a man's godliness worthless is the same thing that makes a man's love powerless.  When Christ is denied or left out of the equation our works are nothing more than worthless chaffe that will be burned away.  

Now don't get me wrong.  I am not faulting non-Christian people for their humanitarian efforts.  They are to be commended for at least responding to God's will in it's most basic form.  But the sad reality that I am addressing today is that many of those in the Church, who know God's love and power offer nothing more than the same basic love that the godless have to offer, because they are afraid or too timid to step out in faith and share the Truth of what they know.  Their encouragement to those who grieve or to those who grapple with sin or to those facing difficult challenges in life amounts to nothing more than powerless love simply because they refuse to couple their good works with the Truth of God's word and their confession of Faith.  They refuse to acknowledge God.   Christian artists, authors, missionaries, philanthropists, public figures, teachers...so many people likely intending to have a positive effect on those around them in reality, are deluding themselves.  Because of their denial or refusal to step out in faith and acknowledge Christ, their efforts are nothing more significant than the basic love the World has to offer, nothing more significant than wood, hay or straw.  And when God's revealing fire burns these powerless offerings of love away, there is nothing to show for all that wasted effort.  No souls saved, because they never combined their knowledge of the Truth with their good works and kind words.  

Love is not meant to be powerless.  It only becomes powerless (and evil) when Christ is denied and replaced with good humanitarian intentions.  The World is the only one resigned to such feeble offerings, not God's children.  Let your love be filled with the power of Christ.  Let your works, your counsel and your benevolence be rooted in Christ's love and say so.  Because it is Jesus that gives everything it's worth.