Return To Me...

I have just finished reading through the Old Testament for the first time this year. As I came to the final two books (Zechariah and Malachi), I noticed for the first time an exact quote/theme from both the prophets. It refers to the time they lived in. Judah had returned from exile and were in the process of resettling and rebuilding Jerusalem. People were living as best they knew how but evidently ignoring God's ways and God's laws. It might have been out of ignorance. It could have been from choice. Nevertheless, both prophets issued warnings and encouragements to return to God individually and as a nation. The quote is more specifically,...

"Return to Me and I will return to you" says the Lord of Hosts (Zechariah 1:3; Malachi 3:7)

God's statues and laws were being ignored. This turning away from God's laws had the consequence of placing a barrier between God and His people. His exhortation was for the nation of Israel to "return to Him" in order that He would return to them. Interesting...

Does God move away when we don't follow His leading or His laws? Or is it us that moves from God through our choices whether conscious or sub-conscious?

Can this be applied to people today? Are communities, here in the US and all around the world, choosing to move away from God by choosing their own rules for living?

I look at the majority of huge issues in the world today such as hunger, poverty, war, human trafficking, etc. I see a correlation between high indices of these things with areas of the world that are still non-Christian. While I am sane enough to recognize that the "christianized" places of the world have their own problems, it seems more than coincidental that the "non-christian" places bear the bulk of the world's chronic problems.

Some might call this the luck of the draw. Others might see it as proof of the oppression of the "have nots" by the "haves". I tend to see it as simply the blessing (or lack of blessing) of living life by God's design.

My personal theology is wired to the believe that God doesn't move. He never changes. He always seeks the best for His children. When we are "far" from God, it is not because He has taken up a new residence; it is because we have.

I tend to be a simple person and believe that the laws of the Lord are perfect and good. They revive and refresh the soul. As Creator and Sustainer of all, He is the only One who has the words of life for us to live by. A fool says in his heart, "there is no God" and consequently chooses to live his/her life as if they believed so. A wise man and a wise community/culture/people is the one who finds the One true God of the Bible and places their trust in Him and His plan for their lives.

So, when I see the quote, "Return to Me and I will return to you...", I am led to believe that our returning to God is more of us moving back to Him who has been there all the time. It wasn't He who moved...it was us.

I am Jean Valjean...

Last night, I finally finished my second time reading of Victor Hugo's, "Les Miserables". I had read it in high school, had seen the recent Hollywood version and picked it up again (it was free from Kindle books). I have to confess that one of the side benefits of re-reading the original version was that I did not have to listen to Russell Crowe sing. :)

As I read, I realized once again why this book is such a classic. The character development and the tragedy motif built into their lives are captivating. None more so than the main character, Jean Valjean.

Jean Valjean is a criminal. He steals some bread to feed his sister's hungry family. In doing so, he relegates the rest of his life to being labelled a criminal. He is angry at the system that made him so. He lashes back but finds redemption in an elderly priest who shows him kindness. After another chance encounter, he vows to live his life for the good of others and leaves behind his name and identity. But he can never escape it not only due to the relentless pursuit of a police inspector named Javert, but also due to his own inner conscience.

The main parts of the book are Jean Valjean remaking himself, under various names, showing unbelievable kindness to those less fortunate and yet still struggling with his own identity. The denouement of the story comes rather early in the book where he attends the trial of supposedly the recaptured criminal Jean Valjean who is really no more than a local simpleton. When he can bear it no longer, he steps in front of the court and confesses to everyone, "I am Jean Valjean!"

There are many more plots and sub-plots to this literary classic but in the end, it is an epic struggle of a man and his identity. In the end, he dies as a man who truly knows who he is and in the arms of people who have come to learn who he truly was.

I wonder how many of us really know who are are? I wonder how few of us would want the world to know our true identities; those things deep down in our heart and minds; those things hidden from the casual eye?

As followers of Christ, we are known. We are known so intimately by God that there is nothing hidden from His sight. And the more we grow into Him, the more we become conformed to the image of His glorious Son Jesus, the more that we are able to bare ourselves and identities to the world.

Jean Valjean's story is a wonderful story of redemption. Ours is as well.

To be able to stand and say to the world, "I am _______"...Only you can fill in the blank.

Selah!

God Makes His Glory Known...

Over and over in the Old Testament, you can see statements made by God through His prophets like these...

"I will display My glory among the nations..." or "I will make My Name known..." or even, "I will not share my glory with another..."

It seems on the surface rather self-centered that our God's primary driving force is to make His Name known to all. We as followers of Christ are taught and value servant leadership. "The Son of Man did not come to be served but rather to serve..." And all of us have heard that, "...pride goes before destruction." So, why is our God so self-centered?

Here's the bottom line (to use a great western economics metaphor):

Whose glory would God promote if not His own? Who is there worthy other than He? Who is the One who created all, sustains all, moves and breathes in all? Or, even simpler, whose story is this world and all of life (and even eternity) about?

This life, everything we have, are or do, is really God's story, not ours. We somehow come to the self-delusion that the universe revolves around us, don't we? It is easy to fall into the trap of asking, "why did this happen to me?" or "why am I suffering" or worse. Things in our lives go so well that we pass the day or even days without a thought of the One who it is really all about.

God is a self-promoter. There is no one other worthy of promoting. There is no one or ones worthy of receiving our praise and honor other than God Himself. When we give glory, consciously or subconsciously, to anyone or anything else, we pervert and devalue the sole worthiness of God Himself. And to be honest, this is not to God's detriment as much as it is to our own.

God's plan is to make His Name known to all. In the end, His Name will be exalted, praised and worshipped above all. For one day, every knee shall bow and tongue confess. And on that day, every people, tongue, tribe and nation will be gathered around God's throne praising and honoring none other than Him.

So, God is self-centered. He calls us to be God focused and God-centered. Furthermore, all of history is moving towards this great and mighty worship of God when one day, He will receive His full glory.

I want to be a part of that, don't you?

The Ego Reminiscence Ratio...

Yesterday, I read a great thought from one of my favorite author's on community development named Robert Chambers. In a recent publication, he talked about the propensity of older people (like myself) to talk about things in the past by starting out conversations with, "I remember when..." or "When I was a kid..." It is basically what he calls the Ego Reminiscence Ratio (ERR) and is generally higher among men than women, increases with increased age, higher in the evening than in the morning and, according to Chambers, rises sharply with the consumption of alcohol. Since I meet all the criteria with the exception of one (alcohol consumption), I think I have experienced it.

Sometimes, I find myself thinking about the past. I think about how good it was to be a newly arrived young person in the Philippines working with rural development. I think about those early days of raising our family in a rural, third-world village setting and how exciting it was to be doing "hands on" relief and development. I often find myself thinking, "those were the good days..."

However, I have to come back to the reality that all of us have seasons in life. Things happen for a time and God places us in in those locations and roles usually for a time as well. It doesn't mean that what we did years ago was good and what we do today is bad, it just means that as we grow, God tends to bring not only more responsibilities to our lives but also new opportunities. If we grow in Him, we tend to move from doers to disciplers, makers to mentors and technicians to teachers/trainers.

My mind is tempted to long for those days when I did less of the teaching and administrative things that I do today. I tell myself, "it was easier back then" or "it was more fulfilling." That's when my Ego Reminiscence Ratio is in high gear.

But then I get a whiff of the Spirit and He gently reminds me that...

"Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God's heavenly call in Christ Jesus..." (Philippians 4:12-13)

And...

"...since we have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus..." (Hebrews 12:1-2)

Still...

"So we must not get tired of doing good, for we will reap at the proper time if we don't give up..."

I think it a bit ironic that the acronym for the Ego Reminiscence Ratio is "ERR". I pray that I do cherish and learn from past experiences. But I also pray that I do not "err" and become content with those or even hold them up as the perfect example of what life should be. I pray that I do not become weary in well doing and I pray that I forget those things behind and press on towards the only thing worth pressing on towards: the high calling of Christ in my life.

Selah!

Profaning God's Name...by our actions?

I run in a small circle even though I work with a global organization. Most of my relationships are with godly people, lovers of Jesus Christ, who would never think of or ever utter a profane word against the name of Christ or God the Father. It is a small but good crowd.

However, as I was reading through the book of Jeremiah this morning, I read a passage that struck me. It is Jeremiah's warning to the king and nation of Judah just before their destruction. It is a reference to a promise that Judah had made to God. They had promised to live by His laws and decrees. They promised to do things such as freeing their fellow Israelites who had become bond slaves in their midst. They had promised right action towards their neighbors, brothers and sisters. But Jeremiah notes...

"But you have changed your minds and profaned My name...You have not obeyed Me by proclaiming freedom, each man for his brother and for his neighbor. I hereby proclaim freedom for you - to the sword, to plague, and to famine!....I will treat them like the calf they cut in two in order to pass between its pieces." (Jeremiah 34:16-18)

While pretty much everyone I know would be horrified to even think about profaning the name of God verbally, I wonder if our profanity of actions (or lack thereof) are any less of a profaning? Judah was cited for profanity in that they failed to do what they had promised to God. What about us?

* What about when we do not do the things we know are right?
* What about when we turn our backs on the homeless, hopeless and hurting?
* What about when we tread on God's grace by willful and conscious sin?
* What about when we have a chance to speak up for justice and remain silent?

I have never once (until today) thought about myself as a profaner of God's name. However, if our actions or lack of actions can be interpreted that way, I am walking a dangerous line. My mom (and yours probably as well) always said that our actions speak louder than our words.

I wonder what my actions say about my walk with God? I wonder even more what my actions say about my regard for His Holy Name?

Finding True Knowledge...

The writer of the Proverbs early on in his book tells us that true knowledge starts with a reverence and respect of God. Conversely, he adds that the way of destruction and futileness is initiated when one ignores God. He basically then uses the remainder of his book to expound on results of listening to God's wisdom and the folly of choosing ones own way.

I realized last night listening to a debate on television between a young man wanting to hold up the traditional idea of marriage and family with a popular TV host and his guest who were ridiculing him for his outdated beliefs that what I was witnessing was not a clash of moral values but rather basic world views. Both sides were passionate about their particular points of view (traditional marriage versus same-sex marriage) and both passionately were arguing their case. The debate became more and more heated by the minute.

The more I watched, the more I realized that there could be no amicable resolution, no middle ground where the two could meet. For they were coming from two completely different world views. They had each started their journey of their view of the world from two divergent vantage points and on those paths, there was no common ground or even a place where those two ways of thinking would ever cross paths.

You see, the young man started from the vantage point/world view that God, as Creator, has a plan and a purpose for a husband and wife (male/female) marriage and the children that result from that union. Furthermore, His plan and their union is to be mirror and even foreshadowing of the relationship that He desires to have with us and will one day at the culmination of the ages.

On the other hand, the popular TV host and his guest started from the vantage point that there are no such things as God's law, God's plans or God-ordained models for the family and that people, who are pretty much the pinnacle of everything we know, should be able to choose whatever they want as long as it makes them happy.

A voice began nagging at me...

"There is a way that seems right to man..."

I do not condemn any person for their view on things such as same-sex marriage. I don't want to and I don't have to. I do, as the young man in last night's debate did, proudly stand and recognize God's authority, His plan and His purpose for things such as a man and woman and the family. What I choose to believe and follow is what I think to be true in God's Word. Nothing more. What others choose to think and follow is their own decision. But I do know one thing...

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and discipline..."

If you don't start with a Biblical world view, a "God" view of things, there's no telling where one can wind up.

The God of Unseen Footprints...

I often talk about seeing the "fingerprints" or "footprints" of God in our world. We see them in nature when we behold an indescribable sunset. We see them in that moment we hold a newborn child, especially our own, for the very first time. We even see them in the midst of poverty and suffering in the smiling face of a child or empty stare of an older person. But this morning, I ran across an interesting verse in the book of Psalms regarding unseen footprints...

In the seventy-seventh Psalms, the Psalmist urges the reader to have confidence in God even in a time of crisis. He recounts all of the good things that God has done for Israel. He urges the reader to remember the Lord's work and His provisions. He extols the holiness of and greatness of God. He then tells how God always went before Israel and how the waters saw Him and His thunder was in the whirlwind while His lighting lit up the world. But then he makes a short and almost over-lookable comment (Psalm 77:19) when he says...

"...but your footprints were unseen."

Even when God's footprints are unseen, He is still leading and caring for His people. Even when we turn our eyes off of Him and to our own ways, He continues to go before us and desires to lead us like a flock. Definitely there are consequences when we rebel or stray to the right of left, but nevertheless, He is still there before us, beckoning us back into His way.

An old prayer says, "I believe in God even when the sun isn't shining..."

Maybe a new paraphrased one should be, "I believe in God even when I don't see His footprints..."

Selah!