Highs and Lows

This has been an interesting past seven days for me. I had one of the greatest weekends of my life on many levels, followed by a mid-week 'low' due to being burdened by different things, then a phenomenal 'high' full of the joy of the Lord that has now brought me back to my usual norm (loving life in Christ). It's a roller coaster that I'm not used to riding, but I am eternally grateful for some of the lessons that I've learned and am excited to share them.

Don't be surprised if a valley follows a mountain-top experience.
It's so easy to get caught up in the "high" that you lose sight of reality. You might try to stay grounded in what life is usually like so that the descent isn't too great, but you never can. Nor should you- it would lessen the joy you have in the mountain-top experience!

Having spent a few hours climbing Mt. Chimborazo, one of the highest mountains in the world, I know what it is to have a literal mountain-top experience (see the above picture, taken on Mt. Chimborazo). It's an unbelievable experience! You can see for miles and miles and you can't help but be overwhelmed by the greatness of God in His creation.

But something else that happens at 16000+ feet above sea level is that you start losing your sanity. The air is very thin and you can't climb more than 100 feet without needing a break. Unfortunately, I've found that this tends to happen in our spiritual "mountain-top experiences". We go from saying "God, YOU are amazing. Why in the world would You ever choose to use me? How is it possible?" to saying "God, You have made ME amazing... thanks for Your awesome creativity and power." to saying "Wow- I'm amazing. God is good." It is in these mountain-top experiences that we need to be tremendously careful that we keep our eyes "fixed on Jesus" (Hebrews 12:2) and humbly recognize that apart from Him we "can do nothing" (John 15:5).

In the valley we can rediscover the greatness of God... with the right perspective.
I have had some excellent conversations about how amazing God is these past seven days with believers and non-believers. One of the topics that has come up is the tough times of life. In my life, I've found that sometimes God strips away all of the worthless things to help me see that all I need is Him- He's my greatest joy and desire. But what if you are already maintaining this correct perspective before the valley and during the valley?

Is it just of God to allow us to descend into a valley even when we're already focused on him? Let's look to the Old Testament Scriptures for our answer:

Job- honest, God-fearing man who repented not just for himself but for his children on a regular basis (Job 1). Even when the Lord took away nearly all of what was most precious to him, he still said "Blessed be the name of the Lord" (1:21). He stayed faithful to God, but when his friends and he questioned God's justice and reason in allowing this valley to happen, check out a part of the Lord's response in chapters 38-41:

Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind and said: "Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Dress for action (*or Gird your loins) like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me. Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements- surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it?... (38:1-5)

Have you commanded the morning since your days began, and caused the dawn to know its place, that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth, and the wicked be shaken out of it? (38:12-13)

Is it wrong to question God? Pray about that and see what God speaks to your heart, but understand that there's a chance the LORD's response to your questioning will be something similar to what Job received.

The person from whom we should draw inspiration during our time in the valleys is King David. Here are a few examples of his attitude during valleys:

"I waited patiently for the Lord; He inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the LORD." (Ps. 40:1-3)

"Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God. ...by day the Lord commands His steadfast love, and at night His song is within me, a prayer to the God of my life." (Ps. 42:6a, 8).

"Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in deep mire, where there is not foothold; I have come into deep waters, and the flood sweeps over me. ...Answer me, O LORD , for Your steadfast love is good; according to Your abundant mercy, turn to me.... I will praise the name of God with a song; I will magnify Him with thanksgiving. ...When the humble see it they will be glad; you who seek God, let your hearts revive." (Ps. 69:1-2, 16, 30, 32)

See a pattern here? Though David finds himself in quite a few valleys (many by his own doing), his focus stays on the Lord and He doesn't cease to hope in Him, trust in Him and give Him praise and adoration. He also remembers the Lord's faithfulness from the past and this adds to his hope and trust in the Lord. While we're walking through "the valley of the shadow of death", we should "fear no evil, for You are with me." (Psalm 23)

It's also comforting to know that the Lord truly desires the BEST for His children. Isn't that mind-boggling? Although we don't deserve even the smallest act of love or kindness from our Heavenly Father, He still works for our best according to what He knows is best. Check out Romans 8:28- "all things" work together for good for those who love Him and are called to His purposes. And what about Matthew 7:7-11, where it is described how if a son asks his father for something, won't his father give him "good things"? The craziest part of it all is that He knows that the best thing for us is Himself, so the greatest thing He can do for us is give us is Himself. But we'll tackle that in more detail another time...

Finally, we all have different mountain-tops and different valleys, but let's try to take them all with a right perspective: this week, fifty-seven Somali refugees drowned trying to flee the fighting of their home country when their boat capsized. My "valley" doesn't begin to compare to the valley of the sole survivor who lost his wife and three children and had to swim an entire day to reach the coast of Yemen.

In the same waters, four believers who were sailing the world and distributing Bibles were killed by Somali pirates. The burdens and "suffering" I feel don't begin to hold weight in comparison to the burden and suffering of the families who lost parents and grandparents.

Pray for those experiencing valleys all around the world. Trust in the providence of God and walk through the valley in confidence of the hope that the Lord knows what is best for us (Himself) and is working "all things" to this end for His greatest glory. And remember the immortal words of Marvin Gaye, there "ain't no mountain high enough... ain't no valley low enough... ain't no river wide enough" to keep Him from getting to us "babe".

In His strength alone...

Luke

War Time

Growing up, I was in a children's church called "C4C" or "Champions For Christ" that was a TON of fun. We had lots of games and we would win prizes, etc., while learning about the Bible and Jesus, etc. Unfortunately, I can't remember very much from it other than one thing that has stuck with me until today: whenever the leader would say "what time is it?!" All the kids would shout: "GAME TIME!" They would do this a few times to get us riled up and then we would play games.

To this day, whenever someone even softly asks the question "what time is it?" my initial response (always internally, sometimes verbally) is "GAME TIME!", and in my studies this morning I'm reminded that we should carry this attitude with us into the Christian life, with a twist: our response to "what time is it?" should be "WAR TIME".

Here's the first passage: 2 Corinthians 10:3-6 (ESV)

"For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete."

What power in the Word of God.

Ladies and gentlemen, in case you didn't know this already, we are in a battle. A spiritual battle. Every day we're faced with choices- am I going to glorify God and exalt Him in this task/decision/conversation/etc? Or am I going to please the flesh and live for myself? Whether it be schoolwork, time management, relationships, work, the fight for joy, etc., we must not take this battle lightly. Why not, you ask?

Because the devil doesn't take it lightly. 1 Peter 5:8 says "Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour." Paul calls us to put on the "whole armor of God" to resist the devil's schemes and advances (Ephesians 6:11). He is stoked to get at us and tear us apart. It's a testament to the immeasurable greatness of Christ in our lives that we are NOT bombarded every second with the devil's schemes (Piper). Think you can resist them on your own? Think again. One of the best, if not the greatest, way the devil fights us is by disunifying us. Yup- I just said "disunifying", which is not being recognized as a word by blogger (and probably isn't).

Paul stresses the importance of unity in the Body of Christ in 1 Corinthians 12... yet we seem "whatever" towards it. The devil loves to use deceit, also- check out this passage in 2 Corinthians 11 (verses 3 and 4):

"But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough."

Does this not describe the Church today, especially in America? The idea of "another Jesus" might sound outrageous to you, but how many of us have minimized Jesus to fit into our own little box? John Wagler of Commonwealth Chapel loves talking about this, and it's also found in the book "Radical" by David Platt. We take the Jesus described in the Bible and try to figure Him out and understand Him per our own terms. Don't like that part about Jesus? Don't think about it or worry about it.

Want to read about the real Jesus? Here are just a few passages to check out:

Philippians 2:5-11; 3:21

Colossians 1:15-21

Revelations 19:11-16

Yup. That's the Jesus Christ the Messiah we're called to exalt and live for. Why should we live for Him? Because He is WORTHY of being lived for and worshiped. If He never did anything for us He would still be worthy of worship, just because of who He is.

Paul describes the Corinthian church in these terms: "...if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus other than the one we proclaimed... you put up with it readily enough." He's saying, 'come on, guys- there is NO FIGHT in you. You don't test the words to see if they're true... you just go with them because they sound good.' When we listen to people, even the greatest of speakers, preachers, pastors, etc., we should pray for discerning ears and hearts. Acts speaks highly of the Bereans in 17:10-12, saying that they "received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so." They didn't just take Paul at his word, but tested it against the Scriptures to make certain it was true.

I pray that you will take any words that I write here on this blog and test them against the Scriptures, because I am far from faultless in my writing (much less my speaking, teaching, etc). My prayer is always that the Lord would write through me and that those who read it would have open hearts and minds to see what He has to say to them.

Going back to the first passage, recognize that we cannot fight this battle with the flesh, because it's not of the flesh. We need to equip ourselves with the "divine power" spoken of in verse 4. If you were going to fight as a gladiator in the Coliseum at Rome, wouldn't you want only the best armor and weapons before you go to battle? In the same way, we need to be equipping ourselves with spiritual weapons of warfare that are readily available: growing in the Lord through studying, memorizing, treasuring and praying through His Word, being discipled and discipling, fellowshipping with other believers, and loving God and loving others, among other things...

So, in summary, we're in a battle. The Corinthian church was described as "[putting] up with" the false teaching "readily enough", and I fear that we as a Church today are doing the same thing. We're not discerning the Truth but accepting what we hear as truth (if we like it) and then minimizing the King of Kings and Lord of Lords to a finite "Jesus" that we can comprehend. We need to recognize the battle, recognize that "apart from Jesus, we can do nothing", equip ourselves by investing in Him, and then fight the good fight in His strength so that He alone gets the glory.

What time is it? War time. Are you pumped and ready to fight for the glory of Christ in your life? Regardless if you are or not, the devil is more than ready to fight against it. Let's battle because He is worthy.

1 Peter 4:11

Luke

Praying for the hallowing of His Name

I have found myself thinking of 'profound things' in terms of "my next blog will be about..." and then fail to write a blog about them. Oh well.

I have been tremendously blessed by the power of prayer recently. The Desiring God conference (www.desiringgod.org) had the theme of prayer this year and speakers such as Jerry Rankin, Francis Chan and John Piper gave great messages concerning prayer. Chan's was especially interesting because he talked a lot about how the Lord has answered many prayers in his life.

John 14 is a passage that I have been trying to memorize and verses 12-14 read as so: "Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my Name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my Name, I will do it."

Many believers love to take just verse 14 ("If you ask me anything...") and try to use God as our personal genie, when clearly, in the verses that precede it, God is saying that this is just so that "the Father may be glorified in the Son." When you pray, do you have this in mind?

Consider when you pray for others... it's not wrong to pray for someone's healing or for the Lord to provide them with a job if they're unemployed, etc. But in praying for someone, don't you want to be praying for their best?! God struck me with this thought: in my prayers for others, I should be praying for their eternal benefit, not just their temporal pleasure. If someone's sick, James 5 gives instructions on how to pray to get healthy... but why not also pray (primarily) that they may know Christ better in their suffering? Isn't this what our ultimate goal is- to worship and know Christ in every part of our lives? Or is the ultimate goal to 'live long and prosper'?

I had to question myself- when I pray for my friends and family, how am I praying? For their eternal benefit- that being that they may worship God more fully so that His glory is revealed even more through their lives? Or for their temporal pleasure- that they might be happy and far from sickness, suffering, and trials? That's not how we were taught to pray (Matthew 6):

"Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your Name.

Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever amen." (The last part is included in some manuscripts but often recited in churches today)

Be careful to distinguish that "deliver us from evil" does NOT mean "deliver us from suffering and trials". And the first line is SO important, as John Piper points out in one of his messages:

"I am urging you from the Lord’s prayer that you go to God for bread, and for healing of relationships, and for the overcoming of besetting sins, and for the doing of God’s will, and for the seeking of God’s kingdom—all of it, all the time for the sake of knowing and hallowing, reverencing, honoring, valuing, treasuring God’s name (God’s being, God himself) above all things."

So we should go to God for all of our needs "for the sake of knowing and hallowing... treasuring God's name above all things". And this is accomplished when we pray for others in a way that eternally benefits them- for the sake of the Name of Christ.

Note: please understand that I'm not trying to bash praying for another's health. I have prayed that prayer many times myself and I believe God does want us to give all of our desires, fears, concerns, worries, etc to Him (Philippians 4:6-7, 1 Peter 1:6-7). But I hope that when we pray for their health, we pray with a Christ-centered mindset, keeping in mind that our ultimate goal in life isn't to have a long, prosperous life full of temporal pleasures. That shouldn't even be our secondary or tertiary or last goal in life. We have been created to worship and exalt the Most High King and so we should pray for our friends and family, much more ourselves, in a way that seeks to accomplish this purpose.

For the sake of His Name...

Luke