We turn our gaze for a spell toward Him who not only died and rose again, but who reigns in eternal majesty.

Sorry I went a bit long on this one, hopefully it will be worth it to you.  Again the cutting wouldn’t work so you have a bit extra on beginning and end…

Happy Easter!  He is Risen, He is Risen Indeed!

In this final lesson of the People of the Passion, we look through the eyes of Peter at a path we all and often tread.  May we each find ourselves blinded by the glories of the dawn of this Resurrection Sunday!

My kids forgot to trim the first and last so you get a few seconds of …extra 🙂

We look again through the eyes of people who experienced the first Passion week in hopes of seeing ourselves in their lives and encounters and finding ourselves also at His feet.

I’m trusting this was the word that God had me to deliver and that it will bear fruit.  I say this because it certainly appeared as though the enemy wasn’t liking it being heard.  I believe you can hear me well enough but there are plenty of distracting noises that might attempt to draw you away.  May God be glorified and you be blessed.

As we approach Easter Sunday, let us take the opportunity afforded us in these forced but quiet moments and attempt to glean all the awe and wonder of this Passion Week!

Over the next three days it is my hope to look at various aspects of the story of Easter through the lens of the biblical figures who played a role in them.  I hope you’ll find the following video is an appropriate beginning to a truly meaningful encounter with our Risen Savior!

I return this week to a somewhat lesser known Biblical figure with whom we might well relate in seasons of unrest and fear.

Thank you all so much for the feedback from last weeks lesson and hopefully any issues raised have been remedied.  If you find other impediments to your viewing and hearing, please let me know!

It would be advantageous to read 2 Chronicles chapter 20 before beginning the lesson and be sure to have your Bible on hand.

We are travelers here.

We are not meant to call this home, get settled in our comfortable lives, rest in the realm of the known.  Hard to do when you’re home bound.  Hard not to do when you don’t have a clue what tomorrow will look like.

Every once in a while God will splash a little cold water and ‘hmmm-hmmm’– that little nod that is meant to remind us to keep moving in the right direction.  In this season, God is calling many of us to do things that push us beyond comfort and familiarity.  Things that feel like cold water against the contented face of human stupor.  Here is mine.

Today I begin a bit of something new.  While I love to write, we all know I am inconsistent at best.  These times call for something more from me anyway.  The need of the day is that you watch a lesson rather than read one.

So here goes.

This is the first of what may be a handful or a bevy of lessons…in keeping with the spirit of the lesson itself, I do not know and am content that I do not now need to.

Let me know if there are glitches I can work on before another lesson is filmed.  I know the volume is rather low, hopefully you can hear it if you ‘jack it up real good.’

Prior to watching the video, it would be advantageous for you to read the scriptural context – Judges 13.  Enjoy and let me know of any needed adjustments.

There has always been a nagging question in one of my favorite chapters of Scripture.  I’ve always said the 19’s are just so good.  Revelation 19 gives us a vision of God the Son.  I Kings 19 reveals God the Holy Spirit.  And then there’s Exodus.  Exodus 19 gives us a glimpse of God the Father.

But within Exodus 19 there is an exchange that has never made sense to me.  Until last week.

And the Lord said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow…Put limits for the people around the mountain and tell them, ‘Be careful that you do not approach the mountain or touch the foot of it.'”   

The Lord descended to the top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the top of the mountain.  So Moses went up and the Lord said to him, “Go down and warn the people so they do not force their way through to see the Lord and many of them perish….”  Moses said to the Lord, “The people cannot come up Mount Sinai, because you yourself warned us, ‘Put limits around the mountain and set it apart as holy.'”     Exodus 19:10-12, 20-23

Our God has a short memory only for our sin, not for commands He gave ten minutes earlier.  The conversation between Moses and God is inexplicable to me.  Why does God repeat Himself?  And what He repeats is something that proved to not need to be said even once.  The people were terrified.  They didn’t try to come toward the mountain, they tried to get away.  They ended up pleading with Moses to be their go-between as they feared the Lord too much to be so near to Him.  And yet God, in all his might and wisdom, had Moses climb up and down that mountain to tell them not to come rushing toward Him?

Last Sunday our chapel choir sang the song Only God.  It was breathtaking.  As I listened to the words of awe and adoration I began to see with sad clarity why God’s concern was blatantly evidenced and why it had previously been so hard for me to understand.

As the choir sang, I was given an inkling of how truly amazing our God is, how awe-inspiring and majestic.  There is a draw in each of us toward that which is beautiful and alluring.  In that reverential moment, He was the most beautiful and alluring thing I’d ever witnessed.  He was irresistible.

It’s like a kid and candy or a jewel thief and a diamond store.  Some things so attract us that we simply cannot stay away, like the forbidden love of a teenager or the draw of the perfect car, house, or necklace…we just have to have it and will work our hands to the bone to get it.

God is it.  He is the One thing that we would give everything to have. He’s the pearl of infinite price, the prize worth striving after.  If we ever see Him in all His fullness, allow ourselves as we have been allowed to come into His throne room and gaze upon His glory, He will become that one thing we would do anything to have.  

God knows that this is true.  Thus the boundaries on Mount Sinai.  He knew that if the Hebrews really saw Him for what He is, they would take off running to His Presence and not care what it cost or where it left them!  He knew that if even one of them quieted their anxious and temporal minds, they would see the majesty of what was before them and abandon all logic, control, and self-restraint to be nearer the One who showed up in such glory!

That’s the God we serve.  One who is alluring and beautiful, powerful and enticing, majestic and all-encompassing, able to enthrall us to the exclusion of any other desire, longing, or need.

There is, however, the sad part.  No one did.  No one ran up to the mountain.  No one gazed in desire and delight at the mighty One before them.  

That same God is still on His throne. Which way am I running today? All boundaries have been removed.  Access has been eternally granted.  And the greatest prize, the most amazing spectacle I might ever witness sits enthroned between the cherubim awaiting the audience that takes the time to gaze upon His great glory.

Both of my parents are really good with plants.

The apple fell far–very, very far–from the tree.

I kill everything. Including the plants that are said to be unkillable, like succulents.  They may be able to live in the harsh desert, but under my care is far more frightening a prospect.

I received a set of four succulents in a shared pot for Christmas last year (that’s 2017!) that I am proud to say are almost all almost alive.  I’ll let you be the judge.

Here’s the thing about this particular plant.  To the right of this picture is a bank of windows that stream in sunlight all day.  Directly above the plant is a light that stays on for hours each day and night.

Let’s look at each of the two little (sad!) plant parts in turn.  The first looks like it attempted to go upward toward the lightbulb above but after a while it gave up and just flopped over, straight down.  It actually still has quite a few signs of life to it.  The overarching picture, however, is not one of good health. The second headed for the door as soon as it broke ground!  It never seemed to be fooled by that artificial light from above.  It wanted the real thing and made a beeline to the window to get it.  

This is not just a picture of plants, but of believers as well.

Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.    Philippians 3:14

We have an instinctive draw toward something beyond ourselves, we strive after things, or people, or goals, or whatever.  We set our hearts on these things and strain to reach them.  We, like the second plant, should know what to strive after and be unwilling to chase anything lesser.  The Son is all we want, all we need, all we press toward.  

But.  Artificial light can be tricky.  We often misplace the honor of that drawing potential.  We strive after those artificial lights that tempt and lure us.  In the end, just like the first plant, they leave us unhealthy and sometimes we struggle to not give in on the heels of longing and starvation.  Even a plant knows that artificial light isn’t the same.  It may make us feel warm and nurtured for a while, but it doesn’t produce the vitality and life that we seek.  

There are many artificial lights in our world today.  People strive after all manner of artificial satisfiers.  In the end, they will always leave us a bit low and hungry.

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.  Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.         Colossians 3:1-2

Sonlight is the only light that we are to set our hearts on, press on toward, strain after, strive for.  It is also the only light that leaves us well nourished, fruitful, vital, and healthy. We’ve been called heavenward, let’s strain toward it even now.

One day last week I had one of those days, sandwich days they’re called.  I knew I needed to start it with Jesus on the sidewalk, so I began the day with a run.  It didn’t slow down much from there and I didn’t find the time to change out of my running clothes until late afternoon.  It was one of those days where you pull out a 1980’s typewriter as the only possible solution to a business problem.  Plan’s A and B cave and by the time you get to Plan F even the 80’s have something to offer.

Late that afternoon as I went to shower and change out of those running clothes I discovered that I had been wearing my pants backwards all day.  It was only then that I recalled having noted how odd that they’d put a company logo right there in the front.  

Fast forward just one week.  I took my time getting laundry going and answering emails.  I piddled around the house slowly before getting ready to go for that run.  I was, therefore, a little bit later in running than I might normally be.  Each morning I get the sheer joy of watching 13 geese breakfast on the lawn.  On this particular morning I saw something I had not seen before.  They sat down.  I’d never seen them sitting on the lawn like that.   That’s when it occurred to me: for everything there is a season.  For every season where you’re too slammed to realize your pants are on backwards, there’s a season when you’ve worked over that breakfast long enough to sit and enjoy the morning sun.  

He has made everything beautiful in its time.      Ecclesiastes 3:11

My sandwich day was lovely.  My late run with resting geese?  Lovely.  

There is a season for everything under the sun.  The trick is realizing which season you’re in and calling it beautiful.

In any endeavor, there is His Story and then there are the Side Stories.  When we walk with the Lord and plan our days around His agenda, we jump into His Story.  The greatness and enormity of our God, however, ensures that His story always breeds Side Stories in the lives of those involved.

The goal is His glory.  His Story is all about His glory.  It’s about God being portrayed for all the greatness He is.  That’s what glory means, to accurately reflect the One glorified.  So His Story is all wrapped up in His being known, His being respected, His being exalted, His being revealed for all the wonder that is the I AM.  

He’s the big picture, He’s the main thing.  

The existence of Side Stories, though, creates this pull to give overdue attention to the thing that isn’t the main thing.  We stare too long at the peripheral and the primary falls out of focus.  

If you endeavor to bring God glory, if you attempt to accurately reflect the greatness of God’s Story, there will be countless Side Stories of how that endeavor affected the lives of those who encountered His glory there.  

Take these writings.  I do this because God has told me to.  He’s impressed it on me that one of the tools He has entrusted to me by which I might bring Him glory is through the written word.  So this is about His glory.  But then the Side Stories exist for me and for anyone who might read this.  My own Side Story might include how the study and the writing bring me nearer to Him, how He might enlighten my understanding of myself and others as a result of having thought through something for the purpose of writing on it.  It might include what I want to accomplish and the type of writer I want to become, where this writing moves me and whatever next step it may lead to.  

I pray there are Side Stories beyond this as well.  I pray that mine is not the only Side Story, that there are others who are moved, affected, convicted, blessed, strengthened, encouraged, edified by my having done my part in God’s Story.  

While the me and you of all this can be beautiful and beneficial, it can be purposeful and nurturing, as I pray it is, the main goal–again–is not in the Side Story.  The main goal, the primary focus remains, “Has God been glorified here?”  

If you attempt to do something for the Lord, by His power, and for His glory, the goal must be His glory, His Story.  The Side Stories, mine and others, must be just that, side items, not the main meal.  

For me today, this is huge.  It means that when I gauge the ‘success’ of my offering, the variables aren’t whether or not I ‘did good,’ or whether or not this person showed up or seemed impacted.  It can’t be based on how it looked or was perceived, whether the numbers were right or the dollars met the quota.  It can’t be measured by tangibles on a graph or even emotions in the room.  

There is only one measure of success with His Story:  Has God been glorified here?

No matter what the Side Stories do or do not entail, we rest in the greatness of His Story being accurately portrayed through our offerings.  And leave the rest in His care.

For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.           Colossians 3:3