Candle of Hope

***This is the first in a series of Advent Meditations***

We’ve all heard the quote, “The light at the end of the tunnel.” That phrase signifies hope after a long period of despair. After a time of struggling through, relief finally arrives.

And in a world filled with darkness, we all need a little light.
Whether it’s a great flame that shows us how to win back what we lost,
Or a powerful beacon intended to scare away potential monsters,
Or a few glowing bulbs that reveal to us the hidden truth of our past,
We all need something to help us get through the night,
Even if it’s just the tiniest glimmer of hope.
(from Desperate Housewives)

“The people walking in darkness have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.”
Isaiah 9:2

“In Jesus was life,
and that life was the light of men.
The light shines in the darkness,
but the darkness has not overcome it.”
John 1:4-5

Hope is a light shining in a dark place. As we begin the Advent season and begin lighting candles, we light the first candle and celebrate the light and hope we have at the end of the tunnel. Jesus is our Light and our Hope in this dark world.

Prevaliling Prayer Sermon Part 5-Conclusion

Prevailing Prayer means that prayer permeates our lives. That prayer is a constant from the time we get up until the time we go to sleep. Praying without ceasing is being able to pray in the moment.

I believe that much of the power of prayer is that your heart is changed as much as the heart of God:
When you praise him you begin to understand your place in this world
When you seek His healing your realize that only His power can make you whole again
When you come to Him hurting, you are fully relying on Your heavenly Father to make things better.

Prayer should change us as much if not more than it changes God.

I talked about how prayer is cyclical—that you end up at the beginning again. So I ask you, “Where are you in the cycle?”
Maybe you need to begin looking around at the good in life instead of dwelling on the bad. Offer up praise to the God who is so deserving of it.
Maybe you need a fresh start both physically and spiritually. Come to the Great Physician for the healing that only He can bring.
Maybe you are just hurting so badly from the pain of life. Come to the cross and be comforted. Be reminded of God’s faithfulness in the past and in the future.

The closer we are to God in our prayers, the further we are away from the concerns of the world. God waits to hear from you.

Prevaliling Prayer Sermon Part 4

Psalm 13
How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
and every day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?
Look on me and answer, O LORD my God.
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death;
But I trust in your unfailing love;
my heart rejoices in your salvation.
I will sing to the LORD, for he has been good to me.

Prayers of Hurting:

There are also times when we are just hurting more than words can express. Maybe it is physical pain or maybe it is emotional pain. A nagging pain that just won’t go away. The loss of a loved one. Disappointment with where you are at in life. Ridicule of your faith by coworkers or family members. A general feeling of futility or worthlessness. A feeling that you are always on the short end of the stick. A loss of faith because of your situation. The Psalmist knows what that is like. He cries out, “How long?” How long must I suffer like this? How long must I always be the loser? How long must I go about hurting? How long?

I hurt my back about a year ago. Elijah was only a couple of months old, and as I bent down to pick him up, my back just gave out. It hurt so much that I almost dropped him right there. Fortunately, I didn’t. I fought off the pain and laid him back on the floor. It hurt so badly. I had to call Brett Morton over to help me. I could not walk, pick up a 15 lbs baby, or do anything except lay on the couch. I was in agony, but looking back, I don’t think the pain was the worst part of that whole ordeal. The worst part was how it affected my psyche. I felt useless. For a while, I really felt like I was good for nothing except for keeping the couch from blowing away. I have succeeded in most everything I have tried (except golf), so this was a new experience for me. I like to think that if I am not good at something, I will leave it to those that are. But what was I going to do? Stop being a father and a husband? It was depressing. The pain and hurt was not just physical, but emotional as well. While I was laid out on my back, I had a lot of time to think. And a lot of time to put into practice what this James passage tells us.

James encourages us to pray when we hurt. The psalms teach us to pray what we are feeling. If you are angry, shout to God. If you are depressed, express those feelings to Him. If you think that God is to blame for your state in life, confront Him. God can handle it. He can handle our doubts. He can handle our pain. He can handle our hurting. God is not afraid of our suffering. He will not turn away. Though we might not get answers, I believe that we will get comfort. We will get reassurance. We will be reminded of His faithfulness.

It’s cyclical. Notice it ends right where it starts—giving back praise to God. At the end of that psalm after crying out to God, after asking how long, the psalmist writes: “But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing to the LORD, for he has been good to me.” We can ask “How long” but we might not get an answer. Instead, I believe God gives us that peace, that “Shalom” that surpasses all understanding.

Prevaliling Prayer Sermon Part 3

Psalm 6
O LORD, do not rebuke me in your anger
or discipline me in your wrath.
Be merciful to me, LORD, for I am faint;
O LORD, heal me, for my bones are in agony.
My soul is in anguish.
Turn, O LORD, and deliver me;
save me because of your unfailing love.
I am worn out from groaning;
all night long I flood my bed with weeping
and drench my couch with tears.
My eyes grow weak with sorrow;
they fail because of all my foes.
The LORD has heard my cry for mercy;
the LORD accepts my prayer.

Prayers of Healing:
I can only remember one or two occasions when I was so sick that I could have been speaking those words. One time while I was in college I got extremely sick with plenty of vomiting and diarrhea. I couldn’t hold anything down and I didn’t really want to try. I laid around a lot, well, in between trips to the bathroom. Unfortunately, this happened right during the soccer season. We had a game to play. So I sucked it up, and went out there and gave it a shot. I wish I could say that it was a Michael Jordan experience like when he overcame the flu in the NBA Finals to drop 38 points on the Jazz including the tie-breaking three-pointer with 25 seconds left. But it wasn’t. I played terribly. The team played terribly. We lost 5-0. But I can remember saying, “God, heal me. I am weak and I need your strength.”

I am sure we have all had times when we were so very sick that we just called out to God for healing. That is after all what we are told to do. The James passage says:
“Call the church leaders together to pray and anoint you with oil in the name of the Master. Believing-prayer will heal you, and Jesus will put you on your feet. And if you’ve sinned, you’ll be forgiven—healed inside and out. Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed.”

But notice that the sickness talked about is not just physical—this sickness also includes the need for forgiveness and restoration. We do a lot of offering up prayers for the sick in body. Our prayer list is full of those who need physical healing, and there is no doubt that God can and will heal them. But what about the sick at heart? Many prayers are lifted up for various illnesses and bodily failures, but how about our spiritual health? Why don’t we pray more for sickness of the heart? Our own stubbornness and pride? Our hard heartedness? Our selfishness? Our fear? Our judgmental attitudes? Why don’t we bring these sorts of things up during prayer request time?

I am sure the reasons may vary, but this passage makes it clear that confession of sins is directly linked to healing and wholeness. I don’t think sin or lack of faith causes sickness, but I think that at times there is a correlation. When our spirits are burdened with sin, that causes stress on our minds and our bodies. The result often times is sickness. Have you ever noticed that you get sick at the exact wrong time? When things are the busiest, most stressful, most complicated—those are the times our bodies choose to let us down. It is no coincidence that when we are depressed or weighed down by guilt or plagued by broken relationships that this impacts our bodies. But when our spirits are refreshed, often our bodies follow right along. When there is healing of the soul, the flesh usually doesn’t follow too far behind.

The Jews call this concept “Shalom.” We often translate that word “peace,” but it means so much more. It is wholeness—wholeness of self, between you and God, and between you and others. Peace is just a result of being complete and free from impurity. Such a state only occurs when we offer up prayers of healing, which include repentance, petitions for forgiveness and restoration, and then following up such prayers with action. There cannot be peace if there is animosity between people. Pray for healing. Work for peace.

Prevaliling Prayer Sermon Part 2

Psalm 8
O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?
You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet:
all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field,
the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea,
all that swim the paths of the seas.
O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Prayers of Honor
Sometimes you just feel like singing, or humming, or at the very least smiling. Perhaps you see a child do something entertaining. Or maybe you hit that perfect shot on the golf course. Or maybe you finally finish a project you have been working on for a while. Or maybe you just feel good and can’t explain it. There are just times when you feel like you are about to overflow. That golf illustration hits a little too close to home for me. I decided to start playing a couple of years ago. It has not been that great. 99% of my time on a golf course is spent being frustrated. But boy, when that 1% comes, there is jubilation. When I got by first birdie, I was smiling the rest of the round, even if I did finish with a very poor score.

I think life is often like my gold experience for many of us. The majority of it is full of drudgery, frustration, and disappointment. Or at least we perceive it to be that way. The Pediatrician told Carrie and I to compliment Elijah when he was doing something well. The whole positive reinforcement thing. The more I do it, the more I realize that it is good not just for him, but for me too. Yes, it encourages right behavior for him, but it also allows me to see the good in him. No one likes to dwell on the bad all the time. I don’t want to continually say “No” to Elijah. It gets frustrating and wears me down. I get burdened from always being around him just to discipline him. So praising him helps me as much as it helps him.

I think the same could be said for our relationship with God. If we are always looking at the negative and bringing that before God, it will affect our relationship with Him. That is where prayers of thanksgiving, praise, and honor come in. I once heard a proverb: “The man who looks on the bright side can find his way in the dark.” The James passage says, “Do you feel great? Then sing.” What a great use of our prayer time—taking time out and just offering up a prayer of praise for the times when you see God working in the world.

That psalm outlines just what a prayer of honor entails. The Psalmist looked out and just the sight of the world around him caused him to break into song. He says, “Look at the glory of the heavens. Look at the stars. Even look at humanity. God’s wonderful acts are all around us if we would just take time to look and to lift up our praise to God.” It doesn’t have to be poetic. A simple “God you are great. You change the seasons. You got me up this morning. You kept me from harm. God you are majestic. You are great.” It’s that easy.

And I firmly believe that the more we see God’s grace, then the more we give God the honor he deserves, and the more we become grateful people. God does not need it. We do. As we speak, our hearts are changed. Dwelling on God’s actions in the present strengthens our faith for what he will do in the future.

Prevaliling Prayer Sermon Part 1-Intro

I preached on Sunday about prayer. The next few days will include exerpts from that sermon. Hope you enjoy.
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“Are you hurting? Pray. Do you feel great? Sing. Are you sick? Call the church leaders together to pray and anoint you with oil in the name of the Master. Believing-prayer will heal you, and Jesus will put you on your feet. And if you’ve sinned, you’ll be forgiven—healed inside and out.
Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”
James 5:13-16 (MSG)

What kind of prayer is being talked about? I think most of us would look at the prayer offered by Frank in the movie and think, that wasn’t effective. That wasn’t even a prayer. So what is an effective, powerful prayer? Is it any old prayer spoken by someone who goes to church? Is it a special memorized prayer? Do certain words have to be used? From what we read in the Bible, there are no secret words or tricks that should be used. In fact, using formulaic prayer is often looked down upon rather than celebrated. And as we think about this passage in James, he doesn’t tell us what to say. He just tells us to do it, in whatever form we feel led to use.

I believe that prayer is the link between the spiritual and the physical. It unites the heavenly with the earthly. And when we think about building a spiritual temple, it cannot be done without prayer. It is through prayer that we grow in faith, in trust, and in our relationship with God. When we consider prayer, I think it is important to distinguish the occasion and reasoning for different types of prayer. Though there may be more, but I want to really hone in on 3 types of prayers today—prayers of honor, healing, and help. We will be hearing examples of each type of prayer taken right from the Psalms. May our faiths and prayer lives be bolstered as we encounter the God that hears our prayers and acts.

Health Care Reforms

I just happened to turn on “The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch” on CNN the other night, and the one and only Ted Nugent was on the show to talk about various topics from gun control to his desire to run for governor of Michigan in 2010. Now most people outside of the Michigan Militia consider him a right wing wacko whose ideas are impractical and at times downright dangerous. I clearly disagree with his views on gun control and so I was expecting to be angered by his comments, but he brought up a concept that I found very intriguing.

Basically he stated that smokers should not receive government-funded health care. The logic follows that if people are going to intentionally and continuously damage their health, why should the taxpayers fund their self-imposed destruction? After all, we all know what cigarettes do to the body. There is nothing redeeming from smoking. But the effects of smoking—cancer, emphysema, asthma, etc.—cost millions and billions of dollars to treat even though most are incurable. And if such people knowingly engage in actions that contribute to the overwhelming cost of medical care, they are taking advantage of the system and wasting valuable money—my money.

As I consider such a proposal I think, “That makes perfect sense. Stop the waste. Increase the health of America. Everyone’s happy.” But here’s a problem with the whole setup. If we agree that people who intentionally hurt their bodies should not receive government funded health care, where does this logic end? Should gluttons get heart surgery after they have clogged their arteries? Should drug abusers get detoxed when their bodies are addicted? Should those who go to tanning booths get chemotherapy when they get skin cancer?

I want to say sure they can have it—if they pay for it. Why should I pay for their terrible decisions? Why should those of us who live wisely underwrite an effort to make their lives better when they don’t deserve it? Of course, such questions fly in the face of grace, but I can’t help it. I suppose these questions bring up the concept of justice vs. grace, holiness vs. love, and consequences vs. forgiveness. Can we make such decisions? Should we draw such lines? Or should we just live lives of love and let God deal the rest?

Interpretive Lens

I had an epiphany/revelation/breakthrough of some sort on Friday. Perhaps it is nothing new to you, but it was something to me. I have been wondering for some time now why people do not grow spiritually. Or, to put it more specifically, why don’t people’s understanding of the Bible go beyond a surface level reading? Many people have been in the church for a long time. They have heard countless sermons and lessons. And yet, when a question is asked in a small group all you hear are standard sorts of answers that don’t really mean much—“religions fluff.”

As I considered it, it seems that much of what people are taught in churches is morality. They Bible seems to be little more than a book that contains a blue print of how to live. Though this may be true, it is so much more than that. I think as I look at it that the depth of the Bible is not being taught. In other words, the interpretive lens that is being used by most church people revolves around figuring our right and wrong instead of cultivating a vibrant relationship with God.

So what’s the solution? I’m not sure, but I think it involves giving people a different lens with which they can read and interpret the Bible. Too often people run to the Bible looking to justify their own preconceived notions instead of letting the Bible speak on its own. And at those times when they do come seeking, often they can’t break through the surface of the text to something deeper because they have no concept of context. I guess I am proposing that the church needs to do more education in exegesis. Every church member should be equipped with the tools to understand the background, context, and genre of any given passage. This includes historical stuff. This includes rituals and practices of the people involved. This includes original language information.

At this point you may say, it will never work. Most people don’t care about such things. I disagree. I see how the people respond when someone puts a passage in context by giving just a tiny bit of extra biblical information. Granted, I have also seen preachers ramble on and lose their audience. But when the context is presented well, it opens up minds and illuminates passages. I also know firsthand that people are interested. I teach a small group of Jr. High and High School boys. We have been going through the book of John. I don’t bring awesome hooks and games to our group. I bring a good understanding of background and they eat it up. The ask questions, seek clarification, and desire more. I even have used Greek and they don’t think it’s boring!

But I am doing all the work in that situation. The goal is to get each person to the point where s/he can do the work him/herself. Teaching and applying exegesis is like getting a new lens prescription. It makes things so much clearer, crisper and more enjoyable. Now comes the hard part—making such a dream reality.

Skydiving Adventure

I went skydiving this past weekend. Yes, you read correctly. If you don’t believe me, you can see the full set of pictures on my website. I didn’t tell many people because I didn’t want to hear, “That is so stupid. You are going to die. Why would you jump out of a perfectly good plane?” And so forth.

It was pretty amazing. People ask if I was scared, and I reply, “Not really.” Truthfully, I was not. There were times of fear, but overall it was pretty exhilarating. I was most fearful as the door to the plane opened up, and 2 other guys jumped out on their own. I did not have a parachute on at the time so being 10,000 feet in the air with only about 2 feet between me and a freefall was definitely a scary situation. But they jumped, the door was closed, and I was hooked onto the guy with the parachute.

It was a tandem jump, meaning that I was harnessed to another person who had the parachute on his back. I learned a lot about trust and faith through this experience. Though the guy has had over 2000 jumps, I still didn’t know him from any other stranger. I had to trust him to teach me the correct technique, to pull the rip cord (though there was a backup computer failsafe that would pull the rip cord at 2500 feet), to guide us back to the drop zone, to keep me from breaking my leg on landing. My life was literally in his hands. So, Bob, thanks for delivering me back to the ground safe as can be.

The actual experience was incredible. Free falling was great. That probably took 45 seconds. Then the chute opened, and we gradually fell to the earth for probably 5-10 minutes. I lost track of time as I looked around and admired God’s creation from a completely new and different vantage point. To be honest, it was quit surreal. It didn’t even feel like I was flying since there was little in the way of perspective. Until we were about 500 feet from the ground I didn’t realize how fast we were approaching the earth.

Would I do it again? Definitely, but I think I would like to go on my own. I also think I might enjoy hang gliding as well.
Would I recommend it? Sure. Though putting your life in unneeded danger might be considered foolish, it makes life interesting. I just taught Ecclesiastes to my OT Survey class, and perhaps Qoheleth was right that we should just find enjoyment amidst our toil (Ecclesiastes 2:24).

Finally, on a humorous note, I lost my shoe as we deplaned. As my fellow jumper cleverly put it, “Going skydiving cost you your sole.”