“What you call sin, I call freedom.  You disgust me.”  

This line is spoken by one of the pagan characters in Noah’s day in the video shown at the Ark Encounter.  It’s spoken by a burly man with a loin cloth and a spear, with primitive tattoos, and strange and archaic piercings.  And it’s been repeated by man throughout history.

As a matter of fact, I hear variations of this line everywhere I go.  The definition of sin being muddied and slurred, what is and is not sin being assaulted on every front.  It is the substance of our everyday lives.

The first chapter of Romans paints a picture of a people so lost and depraved, so fully committed to resistance to the Almighty that God “gave them over in their sinful desires.” So often I have read Paul’s description of that life and society and pictured the men in their loin clothes, with their spears and archaic tattoos and piercings.  I picture what Paul saw, the nature of the society that he called home.  

Then I set out to study the message God had for me in that letter and found the usefulness of God’s Word is not just in increasing my understanding of history, but of enlightening my awareness of my present reality. It isn’t difficult at all to envision those combatants, those of impure hearts and motives, those prone to disrespect, and those who have exchanged the truth of God for a lie.  

Back to the Ark Encounter.  I found it so insightful that scientists are in general agreement that there was some sort of flood on the planet Mars.  They looked at the current condition and were able to ascertain information about a historic occurrence.  They followed the evidence.  And all the evidence pointed to a planet-wide flood.  

That same evidence is in existence on planet Earth.  If the Bible had not first stated that such a flood had occurred here, then all science would likely state the fact themselves.  But the Bible did.  And in their hubris, they will defy the knowledge and wisdom they have in order to cling to the lie they must live with.  

Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools.                                                                                                                       Romans 1:22

Then there’s this obsession we have today with God’s creation.  The human body has become a work of art that must, at all cost, be perfected, displayed, appreciated, honed.  Plastic surgery, excessive physical rigor, provocative dress and all manner of eating disorders speak to the reality of man’s current obsession with the human body.  

They …worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator.                                                                                        Romans 1:25

And I cannot even begin to touch the realities of societies devastating infatuation with sex.  We are destroying our own children, our own honor, our own families, and all the while voicing some pious outcry that someone should do something about the consequences of our own depravity.  

God gave them over to the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another….They invent ways of doing evil…they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy.                                                                                                                          Romans 1:24, 30, 31

Why do we need note these realities?  That the intensity of our situation may be inflamed, that we may see with greater fervency and alarm the place in time in which we now stand.  That the need may be more pressing, that the grace may be more amazing.  We need to be reminded that we are on a clock, it is running down, we are indeed called to a job that is not yet complete.  And we need to be moved back into that place where grace and mercy, freedom from the bondage we have known, is so gripping, so overwhelming, so consuming, that our knees are calloused and our heads are low in humble gratitude for that which we can only call indescribable.

The times are dark and the message is urgent.  This isn’t a history lesson, it’s a call to an awareness of a present condition.  Be fervent, be alert, be humble, be wise, be prayerful, and be not deceived.

We do so much in the name of godliness.  We serve, we listen to the right radio stations, we decorate our houses with Scripture, and we take no major decision lightly but pray over it fervently before action.

How many acts of obedience do you think you’ve missed because you spent too much time asking if you should do it?

Sometimes it’s even more veiled, you don’t leave home because you’re not sure God’s told you to and so you never know what all you missed. You weren’t there to see the opportunity at all.

We don’t want to make any mistakes, right?  So we do what a good Christian should and we make extra certain that we have heard Him right before taking hasty action.  In the name of being diligent and submissive, we far too often miss the whole point.

There are times in life when God just wants us to get in the car.  Let’s ride, let me drive, can you just trust that I’m taking you to the right place?

I used to say that I trusted Him implicitly, it’s me I’m not so sure about.  I will tell you what I have come to discover about that line:

It’s a cop out.

If He’s sovereign, even I can’t screw up His plans.

I have to trust in the counsel of those He uses to lead me.  I have to trust my own abilities to discern His hand.  I have to trust that if I’m hanging with Him then I’m in the right place.  I have to trust that He can lead me and His purposes will prevail-even when I’m not sure, even if I haven’t got it all just right. I have to trust that the work He does in me daily is equipping me to succeed at the tasks to which He calls me.

Lives of obedience are ones in which moments of quiet study and surrender give rise to movements of decisive action.  You sit down to listen.  You get up to act.

Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.                                       Proverbs 29:18  (KJV)

The word vision here is the same word used in Isaiah and Nahum to describe what God revealed to them about what was and what was to be.  

The word perish can also be translated chase or run wild, to be without restraint.  

This verse is not just for ministries looking to find their parameters or churches trying to figure out their niche. It is a truth that applies to young people attempting to discern their careers and life plans.  It is for parents as they make decisions for their children.  It is for the wealthy as they budget their money.  It is for the poor as they assess what their lives are actually rich in.  It is for every one who has a decision to make today.  

We might make those decisions based on any number of variables; what do I like, what do I want, what can I afford, what do I see as being ‘good’ or ‘bad’ for me, for my family, for my bottom line, for humanity. All of those variables are moving scales of my own vision.  They are attempts at discerning for myself what would be good for me. And every aspect of my own vision must be relegated to a reliance on His.  If I desire to save myself from the chasing and perishing of Proverbs, the ‘vision’ I have to live with isn’t mine. When chatter of my vision is gone, I’m open to hear about His.

Isaiah can lend to our understanding here.  He saw ‘visions’ about Babylon. Babylon is one of two cities that have a role in the entire human story.  It shows up in Genesis 11 and is still around in Revelation 19.  And, yes, it is still around today. Isaiah’s vision was well into this historical city’s existence.  The story was already well under way.  It didn’t start with Isaiah, he just jumped into a story that already was.  

If people can’t see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves; but when they attend to what He reveals, they are most blessed.                                                                                                                              Proverbs 29:18 (Message)

The decisions that we make are not made in a vacuum.  They affect other people, they are intertwined with all the world around us, and they influence the stories of others that are already being written.  

It is vital that we catch the vision.  It is imperative that we discern what God is already doing.  Without that, we flounder, we stumble, we become the walking perished.  

There will always be the temptation to cast our own vision, to make decisions that fall in line with what we see or desire or even expect of or for ourselves.  It’s like back seat drivers.  Everyone in the car that isn’t driving is quick to gauge what they would have done differently from the one who is driving.  We all want to be in that seat.  You know what you end up with if everybody is out on the road of life driving the way they see fit, taking the wheel on every issue in which they have an opinion?  Bumper cars.  If you make decisions based on your own vision for your life, you are a lone bumper car in that padded oval on the fairground of your days.  

God calls us to be a little less like the chaotic and destructive bumper cars and a bit more like the elegance and precision of synchronized swimmers.  There is a grand and unified design to life, not just our lives, all lives.  And when we discern the workings of God around us and join into that dance that is already in motion, we glide and we rhythmically sway in the eternal story of His glory.  We must find our place in what has long been established.  And our own designs for our lives and those of our children and families must not trump our attention to His.  

It isn’t hard to look around our country, even our homes at times, and see this bumper car mentality.  We collide, we crash, we cause damage, we end up with cuts and bruises and wounds that we won’t slow down enough to let heal.  

It’s the difference between life and perishing that we see what God is doing.  It is vital to true living that we catch His vision rather than cast our own.  There’s a dance that’s been going on for the ages and to crash into it recklessly damages us and all we encounter.  

Save that stumbling by seeing.  But we must not stop at seeing.  We must ‘attend.’ Relegate all other plans and desires and attend to that which He reveals.  It is then that we will be most blessed.

God called me to be a Bible teacher about 12 years ago.  When I was younger, I’d thought I would teach on the college level, but not Bible…maybe history or business.  I was actually quite stunned at the command because I honestly didn’t see it coming.  

Over the years I have found I had much faulty thinking about what it means to teach God’s Word.  The one I have in mind today is this: preachers and teachers live on spiritual mountaintops, it’s how they always know what God wants them to say and how they deliver that word with passion and conviction.  

Not true.  It’s not at all true. But I have come to see that somewhere in me I must have long believed it was.  

Early on in my teaching I was spiritually ‘wound up’ I guess you might say, just euphoric that I could be used this way–and it’s exhilarating to finally do one of those things for which you discover you were made.  Until.  Until I was scheduled to teach and I was in a spiritual valley and the passion wasn’t thrilling and the connection wasn’t so tight and I felt far too far away to be able to ‘transmit’ with any degree of accuracy.  I felt too distant from the Lord to be able to hear Him clearly for myself, much less for those under my care.

The problem was that I did, in fact, have people under my care.  

It was in that moment that I discovered my inaccurate presumption: teachers aren’t always on the mountain. Nor are they called to be. Our lives are not lived on mountains and yet we’re called to commune daily with the Lord. There must be a way to be near even when He feels far away.

In subsequent years, I have found that some of the greatest lessons I have ever delivered have come when all I felt I had to give was my presence.  But I was willing to give that.

What I have discovered in this journey is a sad but glorious reality: I’m never in a good enough place to do God-size work.  When I ‘feel’ like I am, I’m probably less likely than all!  It truly is in weakness that great things begin to happen.

That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties.  For when I am weak, then I am strong.                                                                                                                                        2 Corinthians 12:10

I believe this may mistakenly be one of those lines where we think God was exaggerating to make a point.

All of this is something of a round about to say ‘hello again.’ I’ve been gone a while, but have been reminded of another particular call God has placed on me, and that is to write.  I have enjoyed both mountains and valleys in my absence.  All the while I have wondered if this particular venue was a part of the ‘call’ or just my delight.  (I’m not entirely certain there’s a difference.)  However, in my wondering, God has been so gracious yet again in revealing to me in a moment of deep humility of the soul that in this too He might like to show Himself mighty. So while I may at times have little more than my presence to offer, in His hands I’ll expect greatness of biblical resemblance.

There is no greater joy than to walk into a task feeling bereft, without even the most meager of anything to offer and finding it was just what He wanted.  To open your mouth without a thought in your head and find beauty on your tongue!  Just incredible.  

When you lack love yet find your heart moved to tears.  When you lack patience only to find hours have passed in the wait.  When you have no energy to finish the task but look up and see you’ve labored the whole night to see it through.  When we come to the end of ourselves, we find that’s where we should have started to begin with.

To God be all glory as we each offer the only thing He really wants:  hearts of surrender.

Enliven the eyes of your minds with me for a moment.

There is a grand feast.  The setting is like that of a fairy tale; a palatial castle, cool evening air, a long cobbled drive, an inviting glow wasps over the estate.  An open gate stands at the entrance and joyous noises of friendly reverie billow from every open window.  

Within sits the table, an imposing, charismatic, and inviting King at it’s head.  All around the table sit friends, men and women of boldness, confidence, and renown.  They exude a sense of joy. They delight in the pleasure of the company and the richness of the bounty.  Each has brought in their own splendor.

In the corner sits a timid, urchin-like young girl.  She wears a tattered dress and looks continuously with a longing in her eye toward the Head at the table.  Every once in a while, she scoots ever so slightly toward the feet of her target before looking down again at her ragged self and sliding back once more toward the wall in the distance.  She wears a look of angst, desire, longing, need, self-loathing, and dismay.  She dares not dream of advancing closer, she simply can’t belong.

At the gate outside sits an old pauper.  He watches the festivities through the well lit windows and imagines himself inside.  He awes at the lightness of the mood, the freedom of the interactions, the peaceful merriment of the occasion. He never stirs.  He dreams and wonders, but never even considers moving toward the door.  

Which one are you?

I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business.  Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.      John 15:15

To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father.   Revelation 1:6

The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.  The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it.       Revelation 21:23-25

To all who have believed and call him Savior and Lord:

He has called you friend.  He has made you royalty.  

You have splendor.  Bring it to the table.  

Yes, this is for you dear urchin friend.  Step up, He’s holding your place.

There’s a story in the Old Testament I just really don’t like too much.  Judges chapter 11.  A foolish judge makes a stupid vow and, even more stupidly, upholds it.  The whole thing makes my heart hurt.  It makes me question God, question the man, question…just question.  

The story goes like this:  a judge named Jephthah makes a vow to the Lord that if He will deliver the Ammonites into his hands, he will sacrifice as a burnt offering whatever comes out his door to meet him upon his return from battle.  

Moron.  

I’d like to know how many chickens and sheep live in this guys house that he obviously believes are going to hear him coming and rush out to greet him after his long absence!

No shocker here:  his only child, his daughter, comes out to meet him.

He gives her time to grieve with her friends and then, “he did to her as he had vowed.” (Judges 11:39)

Why?  Why on earth would this guy think that the Lord would find this a pleasing offering to Him?  Read Jeremiah 32:35, God doesn’t like this kind of stuff, it’s “detestable” to Him.  Upholding a vow, now that’s a good thing, God’s pretty clear on His likeness of that (Psalm 15:4).  Not making vows to begin with, He wisely counsels in favor there (Matthew 5:33-37).

You just have to ask, what made Jephthah think this was something pleasing to the Lord?

I’m going to give you the scary answer:  Cross Contamination.

Ever heard the name Molech?  He (I use that term loosely) was the god of the Ammonites.  He’s the one you read about in Jeremiah 32, he’s the one to whom the pagans offered their children in sacrifice.  He’s the type of evil little god who would like that sort of thing.  

Remember who it was Jephthah was fighting against, who God gave him the victory over?

The Ammonites.  The same pagan people who worshiped this awful god Molech.  

The Ammonites shared some property with the Hebrews.  The Jews owned it, the Ammonites didn’t like that, that’s what the war was over.  They all lived right there around one another and they weren’t getting along.  

They lived among one another.

Their cultures mixed.  

Jephthah’s views of what his GOD would like took on some of the colorings of what their gods would like.  

Jephthah knew about the God of All Creation.  He writes a nice long letter detailing some of His activities of old.  He didn’t, however, seem to know Him at all.  What he knew was some contaminated version of old stories and cultural traditions.  He had allowed the world around him to reshape God Himself.  

Rick Burgess of the Rick and Bubba Show last week used the phrase, “hippy Jesus.”  It’s this idea that we can change who God is by just believing something different.  We can mold Him into any sort of god we choose, but notice, at that point He is no longer GOD, but just a god we’ve contrived.

The God of the Universe, the Alpha and Omega, the Creator, Sustainer, the Almighty is, was, and will always be.  He is constant and unchanging, the same yesterday, today, and forever.  That, my friends, means that we cannot change Him.  We cannot choose who He will and will not be.  

Jephthah had grown up hearing of the human sacrifices, he knew about vows and altars.  He allowed the world around him to push God into a mold.  HE doesn’t fit molds.  

Here’s the really scary part, he believed he had to do this.  It never occurred to him that his daughter would come out the door.  He was heartbroken, but felt so sure that this was something he must do that he did it through tears and agony.  He really believed this mess.  He had no idea that what he believed about his offering was not at all what God had in mind.

Test everything.  Hold on to the good.                                I Thessalonians 5:21

Everything.  Test every world view you hold.  Test every tradition you ascribe to.  Test every opinion you stand by.  Test every motivation that moves you.  Test everything.  Test it by the standard.  Test it by the unwavering, unchanging, ever true and consistent Word of the Living God.  

Like a game of grapevine, the original word was delivered and over time, through the biases and opinions and natural propensities of fallible people, the word gets contaminated.  In the end it doesn’t sound much like the original at all.  

Go to the Original.  Test your words, thoughts, ideas, perceptions, inclinations by the Original Word and the solid standard Who Breathed It.

I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand.           Colossians 4:18

There has been much discussion throughout history of Paul’s “thorn in the flesh.”  This phrase in Colossians, Galatians 6:11, and others have opened the door for many theories concerning his eyesight.  

I believe that every other time I have read one of these strange little side notes, my mind has turned to this.  What of Paul’s affliction, what was wrong with his eyes, was it degenerative, did he die blind?  The investigative side took the words and went down that road.  

Today the Lord, as He beautifully does, took something I’d read so many times and allowed me to see it from another angle.  What of the men who wrote for him?

Paul was called to such inconceivable greatness in the Kingdom of God.  He was used so mightily and so expansively–his work made my faith possible!  None other had considered that Christ’s sacrifice might have been enough for me too.  Paul was pivotal in God’s plan of worldwide evangalization.  

And he couldn’t even see to write.

Wouldn’t you imagine that at some point God said he needed to be careful with those letters he desired to send, that correspondence he’d like to maintain because those words would go down in history as God’s own.  For a man who couldn’t write a legible word, wouldn’t he have thought, “You want me to be your pen through all of history and you haven’t even given me the ability to see the words on the page?”

I believe I would have questioned my ability to hear, I would have doubted His genius in the matter, I would have wondered how much easier it might be if I could just sit down and do all these great things He’d called me to.

So why couldn’t he?  Why did God inflict him with a thorn that seemed to be a deterrent, an obstacle in the job God Himself had given him to do?

You will never accomplish all that God has for you without a few ghost writers on your path.

Could self-sufficiency speed things up? Sure.  Could it flow better and save arguments and hours of compromise discussions if one person could just buckle down and do the task with the blessing of God’s time?  It does make sense.  

However, God will never call you to anything for which you must isolate yourself from other believers in order to accomplish it. Some roads must be walked lonely, some calls and some stands may feel like they happen solo, some decisions must be made that leave you the odd man out.  But in order to fulfill all your greatness, all the wonder for which He made you, He will never have you totally self sufficient.  Humility is in need.  Only in that will we give Him His due.

For any call He has on your life, there will likely be a gap or two in the chain of ability.  There will be some part of the plan that you are simply unable to accomplish or accomplish sufficiently.  There are aspects of your own life and purpose that require the participation of other believers.  Some jobs you are not equipped to do.

For all Paul’s confidence and influence, God kept him in a place of humble need.  It may well have been this imposition which led to Paul’s absolute delight in the unity and camaraderie of the Body of Christ.  No one in history seems to have enjoyed companionship in the Kingdom like Paul.  Perhaps it’s because, in his need, he saw clearly the value of it.

What have you been called to?  What role might you need to turn to others to fulfill?  What burdens are meant for a team of oxen? Just because God has called you to great and awesome tasks for His glory does not mean that He has called you to accomplish them without others willing to grab their pens and write for you.

In the grand human tradition, we, like children, cling to our own side of the Christmas story.  It is beautiful and sweet and tender and brings us life and peace.  We are the recipients of the greatest of all gifts, intimacy with the One who both made and bought us.

As parents, we know that there’s another side to gift giving though.  For every gift received, there is a gift given.  And that giving isn’t free.

The world received her King.

Heaven felt the loss.  The Almighty knew the pain of Easter’s sting the night the angels ‘sang.’  

Think of others in this age old story: Elizabeth, Zechariah, and John, Mary, Joseph, all the moms and dads of the little tikes of Bethlehem.  For all the joy of this season for us today, they knew the price tag this wonderful gift carried.

Elizabeth longed for this son.  He was her one and only.  Yet the moment he became hers, he walked into the wilderness and onto a harsh, lonely, and quiet road toward demise.  All a mother’s desires for her son, Elizabeth knew she would never have those.  She surely wanted comfort and success and longevity and greatness.  He knew too well that was not his call.  She gave the gift of a herald.  And the cost to her was a son.

Mary’s gift to us was a Savior, the cost to her was everything.

She gave her reputation, her security, her comforts, and her health.  Joseph wasn’t there later in life, gone sometime between Jesus’s 12th and 30th years.  She must have done much alone.  She watched her firstborn suffer enormously.  She knew of His greatness and had to stand silently as the world so grievously misunderstood Him.  Our gift, her part of the price.

All those moms and dads.  That tragic night in Bethlehem when all the town mourned their losses.  All those precious futures, those sweet toddling voices, tender sleeping faces, and tiny bear hugs.  All that possibility, all those hopes, all the desires of any parent for their children.  All part of the price.

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying…     Luke 2:13

Ever notice that.  Do you even see it now.  

We sing it, we celebrate and turn it into a chorus.  The angels, however, spoke it.

They do know how to sing.  They are known to do it often.  But this doesn’t seem to be the right time for that.  This news was glorious, but it was somber.  I believe they knew the tomorrow that this today would bring.  

The gift we rightly celebrate this season, it was not free.  Just as a parent longs to see gratitude in their children on Christmas morning, so our Parent surely longs for the same.  This glorious gift held a hefty tag and there were many who were called on to pay a price.

There’s a tough lesson in that for us all.  Today the recipient, tomorrow the gift giver.  Are you being called to submission and sacrifice or to thanksgiving and praise today?  It is certainly to one or the other.

I’m one of four girls, the youngest.  And one of my sisters is a doctor.  

I’ve never been much of one for going to the doctor and don’t tend to worry much about potential medical maladies.  Every once in a while I’ll call her up, say “Will I die from this?”, get my answer and move on.  I know her, I know she has the answers I’m looking for at the time, and it just makes sense to ask.

Suppose you know a doctor.  You see them around here and there and one night you’re in the same place and you’ve had a medical issue you simply have some questions about.  It may be something major.  Maybe you’re a worrier and you’ve been fearing it is.  You may have something that needs attention or you may have something that isn’t really so bad.  The doctor knows the answer.  

It would just make sense, if you are close to this doctor, to ask them your questions, to let them warn you of potential areas that need attention, or to relieve your anxieties about questionable areas. All this makes sense. By asking someone who knows, you can have direction, have clarity, relieve stress, fear, and anxiety.  Why wouldn’t you seek the counsel of someone who has all the answers you’re seeking.

Now, what questions do you have tonight?  What direction do you need, what fears are you harboring, what pitfalls might you need advance notice of?  

King of Kings.  Commander of Heaven’s Armies.  Creator of Heaven and Earth.  The Almighty.  Wonderful Counselor.  The Great Physician.

You’ve been roaming around the same gathering all night, mingling with the One who has all the answers to all the questions you will Ever have.  It just makes sense to ask Him.  

Our God came near.  You don’t approach someone, especially not from that distance, unless you actually want to be near them.  This Doctor doesn’t mind us asking work questions because He’s never off duty.  No point in giving Him a rest, He doesn’t need one.  It just makes sense.  Why stress, why worry or fret, why wonder or debate? He knows the answer and in this season so long ago, He came near that we might hear it.

Why to we so lowly, Lord?

So many reasons, Child.  In this moment, I became as you, the Shepherd, come near to abide with my flock.  I needed the world to see, to turn their eyes to the picture of what I had come to do, what I had come to become to you.  Perhaps I came to you so dearly because I share your heart, a deep and abiding love for those who are so very lost, so very wayward and helpless.  I, like you, am here to give up my life for those in my care.

As a shepherd abides with his sheep, lives among them, so–at this very moment– have I come to do.  And you, just as sheep, you may feel the abiding presence of the Great Shepherd in your midst.  You may know the peace of resting in my loving embrace, you may experience the provision of my mighty hand, you may follow the direction of my all-knowing gaze, and you may embrace life in the fullness of being called mine.

In watching you, the world may come to know my heart.

But there’s more.  I came for you all.  I came for the middle class business man.  I came for the rich and the learned.  And I came for the lowly, in lot and in life.  I knew you’d be least likely to believe that the King would come to you.  I knew you needed to know: I came for you.

This story is not one of shepherds abiding.  It is one of the Great Shepherd who on this night came forth to forever abide.  

It is to the lowly, the lonely, the downcast, the outcast, it is to the common and the lost, the wanderer and the downtrodden that the Mighty One came.  It is to you.