MISCHIEF MANAGED!

Malachi 3:1-4:6; Revelation 22:1-21; Psalm 150:1-6; Proverbs 31:25-31

“The Lord Almighty says, ‘The day of judgment is coming, burning like a furnace. On that day the arrogant and the wicked will be burned up like straw. They will be consumed—roots, branches, and all. But for you who fear my name, the Son of Righteousness will rise with healing in his wings. And you will go free, leaping with joy like calves let out to pasture. On the day when I act, you will tread upon the wicked as if they were dust under your feet,’ says the Lord Almighty.”

‘No longer will there be a curse upon anything. For the throne of God and of the Lamb will be there, and his servants will worship him. And they will see his face, and his name will be written on their foreheads. And there will be no night there—no need for lamps or sun—for the Lord God will shine on them. And they will reign forever and ever…. The Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come.’ Let anyone who hears this say, ‘Come.’ Let anyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who desires drink freely from the water of life.”

“Praise him with a clash of cymbals; praise him with loud clanging cymbals. Let everything that breathes sing praises to the Lord! Praise the Lord!”

“Charm is deceptive, and beauty does not last; but a woman who fears the Lord will be greatly praised. Reward her for all she has done. Let her deeds publicly declare her praise.”

Harry Potter, the hero of J.K. Rowling’s delightful and creative series of novels, has a secret. He is the owner of a magical Map. The Map shows him various routes around his school, but more than that, it shows one who knows how to access its secrets where potential adversaries and allies are located along the way. This allows Harry to detour around problems; to more carefully plan his arrivals and departures; and, in general, just makes life easier. The incantation to turn the treasure back into an innocuous piece of parchment is known to every Potter fan: “Mischief Managed!” And that, Dear Friends, is not a bad metaphor for the conclusion of this journal. The mischief Satan was doing in my life has been managed… for now. Ol’ Slewfoot will be back, no doubt. I will be better prepared for him next time.

When I began this, the Devil had secretly gotten his talons in my heart and in my head. I’m not sure exactly how or when it first happened, but in retrospect, I’m pretty sure it began when I let my guard down a little. It did not take much. I was still reading and teaching Scripture, but my purpose was aimed more at others than my own spiritual health. (This is just one way our good becomes the enemy of God’s best….) Then, prayer became more of a sometime thing. In turn, this led to greater self-reliance and related, greater vulnerability to Lucifer’s deceptions and attacks. So the spiral went, right toward the drain. Before I had any idea what exactly was happening, I found myself struggling and out of control. Anxiety and uncertainty ruled.

Now, the blog is done. For the moment, the struggles are a whole lot less daunting. Mischief Managed! No, life is not perfect and never will be this side of heaven. I’m no better looking and no smarter in the intellectual sense of the word. However, I do feel somewhat wiser, and I have a whole lot better sense of the obstacles and pitfalls in life. The main one is a lack of discipline, followed closely by plain old rebellion, or disobedience. When I am undisciplined, I naturally drift away from the Lord’s direction. That’s both why and how I get lost. Not inconsequently, discipline and obedience have been the primary fruits of this journey. I have a much deeper appreciation of their benefits, and I now understand that I fail to practice them at my eternal peril.

I don’t have any amazing final revelation with which to close this blog. Life is still very much a work in progress, as are the things the Spirit has taught me in these pages. Like fine wine, some will take a while to fully mature. The good news is that the adventure begun here is far from over; it’s really just starting. What is most on my heart is appreciation and love for how far the Lord has brought me already.

I am grateful beyond words for this endeavor; for the Lord’s constant companionship through it; and for the love, tolerance, perseverance, wisdom, integrity and patience of my accountability partners. Most important, I have come to appreciate even more deeply the steadfastness and grace of my loving wife. Without complaint, she willing sacrificed a year of evenings and early mornings with her husband so he could grow a little closer to the man God created him to be. (Sweetie, I hope your investment in our future pays great dividends. May the Lord recognize your sacrifice and multiply your blessings as a result!) Each person contributed unique perspectives and insights to what the Lord has given us. They, too, committed time and study and prayer to this opus. I hope and pray that what they received as a result was as worth the effort as I found it to be. Love you, guys and gals. Thanks so much for traveling with me! You will never know how many times the Lord’s answer to why I should not stop was your support. Together, at least for now, we have managed Satan’s mischief, and we have done so in the power of Christ. Not a bad year’s work. We can be justifiably proud, in a good and humble way, of where we’ve been and how far we’ve come!

Finally, of course, for whatever has occurred this year, for whatever wisdom may be found in these pages, and for whatever blessings may grow out of this study, all praise, glory and honor goes to the Father, the Lord Jesus and His Holy Spirit. Few, if any, of us will ever truly grasp the enormity of His blessings. Yet, let us remember each breath as a reminder we were created for a purpose. We have a Friend whose power and love truly does pass all understanding. We can never say thank you enough. We can, however, live in such a way as to at least make others curious about Christ. If nothing else, I pray those who explore these pages in the months to come will find something intriguing. I encourage them to hold onto that feeling and go deeper into the Word. Anyone with a needful and open heart will find they are not alone. There is One who has gone before who is fully capable of showing us the way out of any wilderness.

Tetelestai! It is finished. In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, may the peace of Christ be with you. Come, Lord Jesus!

Amen, and Amen!

WHAT'S NEXT

Malachi 1:1-2:17; Revelation 21:1-27; Psalm 149:1-9; Proverbs 31:10-24

“You say, ‘It’s too hard to serve the Lord,’ and you turn up your noses at my commands,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.... Are we not all children of the same Father? Are we not all created by the same God? Then why do we betray each other, violating the covenant of our ancestors?”

“I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, ‘Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.’ And the one sitting on the throne said, ‘Look, I am making everything new!’ And then he said to me, ‘Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true.’ And he also said, ‘It is finished! I am the Alpha and the Omega—the Beginning and the End. To all who are thirsty I will give freely from the springs of the water of life. All who are victorious will inherit all these blessings, and I will be their God, and they will be my children.’”

“For the Lord delights in his people; he crowns the humble with victory. Let the faithful rejoice that he honors them. Let them sing for joy as they lie on their beds. Let the praises of God be in their mouths, and a sharp sword in their hands.”

“Who can find a virtuous and capable wife? She is more precious than rubies. Her husband can trust her, and she will greatly enrich his life.”

In his absolutely wonderful book, Travels With Charley, John Steinbeck made one particularly insightful point I have carried with me for well over thirty years now. Every journey has an end. It may simply lead into another beginning, but there is nevertheless always some point at which the old passes away and the new begins. The actual road we are on may not even change, but in some way, we still come to recognize one trip as complete. Then, in that simple realization, the character of our ongoing, overall voyage necessarily changes. For Steinbeck, his journey across America ended several states shy of his house. The rest of his trip was simply “hurry up and get home.” By his own admission, during that leg, he saw little and enjoyed almost nothing, until he was reunited with family and friends. For the Christian, as attractive as “hurry up and get Home” sounds, odds are, if we are alive, another adventure lies just ahead, ready or not. The culmination of one journey simply prepares us for the next. This is one reason the Israelites’ 40 years in the desert weren’t all bad. It kept them from putting down roots that would have prevented them from taking the next step toward the Promised Land. We actually saw this “root damage” in one of the original twelve tribes, when they chose not to cross the Jordan but to plant themselves on the known, safe side. Other than a few passing references to them in later battles, they soon disappeared from the divine manuscript altogether. I most certainly do not want that to happen to me. I want to be part of God’s plan, the Creator’s adventure, for as long as I have breath. I only hope and pray this journey has adequately prepared me for the voyage which is sure to follow.

Last week, I was having lunch with the same wonderful Christian pastor who first inspired me to begin this blog odyssey. As we talked about where it has taken me and how I’ve changed as a result, a question arose which I’d been thinking a lot about recently. My family may well choose it as my epitaph, too: “What’s next?” I spoke of how I really had no feel at all for my next Big Thing. That’s unusual, and normally, quite frustrating. In this case, though, I’m honestly content to let life come to me in the Spirit’s own good time. Frankly, I hope to just rest a bit and enjoy my own family and friends while I wait.

My friend pushed back from the table with a laugh. “You know,” he pointed out, “’What’s next’ is exactly the question you asked me a year ago. (“Huh?” I thought.) But what a difference in the way you are asking it today! No desperation. No frustration. No anxiety. Just patient confidence. That’s a good thing. You’ve come a long way to get back to the beginning.”

Ah, he’s right. It’s not just the beginning, though; it is a new beginning. I don’t know much, but that is obvious. I’m simply not the same anxious, fearful, insecure and fundamentally vulnerable person I was 364 days ago. Looking back, the one and only positive I could find to hold onto was that we are all created in the image of God. What an obvious cliché that is! But a wise person once recognized that the reason things become cliché is because they are so often true. That one small anchor became the very firm foundation of this year long expedition through the Bible, and the lynchpin that changed my very human weaknesses into something that is starting to look a bit like spiritual strength.

Here is my suspicion. This has been a year of obvious re-creation and preparation. I have no idea what I am being prepared for, only that there is, somewhere out there, an actual thing or activity I will be called to which I could not – or would not - have done, or been capable of doing, a year ago. Christ, in His Grace, allowed me to struggle this year because I needed to struggle, to understand better how to struggle productively, and to learn that I really could come out the other end stronger and more complete and secure than when I started. Simply, I needed to learn to trust Him. In that transition, I learned a whole lot more, as well. I was reminded, time and again, of God’s love. I was supported – even when I did not know it – by the prayers and thoughts of beloved friends. I was challenged, daily, to become more real and, however difficult it was, more transparent. Mainly, when I finally recognized my self-reliance just would not carry me where I had to go, I was taught the mega-blessings of putting my absolute trust and confidence in Christ. I am continuing to learn how to move ahead in faith, without tripping over my own thoughts, opinions and fears of failure.

What’s next? Don’t know. Wait. That’s not precisely true. Because I do know, at least a little: what’s next is an even closer walk with Jesus and His Spirit. Then, the next challenge. But I’m OK with that, because God is here. He really does make His home with and in us. We truly can rely on Him, and even bet our lives on Him. He is worthy of our hope and our praise. That, I think, is all I need to know… for now.

LIVING IN THE LIGHT

Zechariah 14:1-21; Revelation 20:1-15; Psalm 148:1-14; Proverbs 31:8-9

“Then the Lord my God will come, and all his holy ones with him. On that day the sources of light will no longer shine, yet there will be continuous day! Only the Lord knows how this could happen. There will be no normal day and night, for at evening time it will still be light. On that day life-giving waters will flow out from Jerusalem, half toward the Dead Sea and half toward the Mediterranean, flowing continuously in both summer and winter. And the Lord will be king over all the earth. On that day there will be one Lord—his name alone will be worshiped.”

‘And I saw a great white throne and the one sitting on it. The earth and sky fled from his presence, but they found no place to hide. I saw the dead, both great and small, standing before God’s throne. And the books were opened, including the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to what they had done, as recorded in the books. The sea gave up its dead, and death and the grave gave up their dead. And all were judged according to their deeds. Then death and the grave were thrown into the lake of fire. This lake of fire is the second death. And anyone whose name was not found recorded in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire.”

“Let every created thing give praise to the Lord, for he issued his command, and they came into being. He set them in place forever and ever. His decree will never be revoked.”

“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves; ensure justice for those being crushed. Yes, speak up for the poor and helpless, and see that they get justice.”

Give thanks to the Lord for He is good; His steadfast love endures forever… which is a lot longer than our troubles will last. Folks, that is truly wonderful news! God will outlast everything and everyone that stands against Him. What encouragement! In the midst of strife and difficulties, it is so tempting to give up, lose faith and feel like the sun will never shine again. Pain has a nasty way of lengthening our days and limiting our perspective. But Scripture declares, once and for all, that the Lord will always rise to the occasion. He is resurrected. There’s just nothing, nothing that can or will ever overcome Him. In Him is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. When we come to the end of our own ropes, we have a standing invitation to grasp His, and allow Him to carry us all the way to eternity.

When Christ does finally lead us through Heaven’s Gates, we will enter unending day. We will be shed of the twilight that blurs the distinction between right and wrong. Not only will our troubles fall away, but we will finally know that our faith was worth the effort and the uncertainty. All of life’s mysteries will be solved (except, perhaps, for those which never really mattered in the first place, which may prove to be the majority). There will be no more darkness, physical or spiritual. We will be healed of all infirmities. We will be given all knowledge. We will truly experience what it is to think with the mind of Christ. Most important, we will be joined together as One, the Bride of Christ, with each of us knowing all the others, as we will be known. We will live forever in Sonlight in the divine Now, in complete fellowship with our fellow believers and our Father, as He always intended life to be. No doubt, we will wonder why we ever strayed into the darkness in the first place.

Light is potent medicine, and when it is wielded by the Creator, it completely overwhelms darkness. Even a little light does serious damage to the blackest night, but the eternal Day of Heaven will cause darkness to become a forgotten thing altogether. It is definitely something worth looking forward to. But it also is probably why so many will choose to remain behind, heedless of the eternal consequences. Like vampires, they suck the life out of others and so are not comfortable in the daylight, where their actions can be seen and addressed. They need their secrets. They do whatever it takes to protect them, even if it means getting dragged into the Lake of Fire in the process. For them, the Light of Christ will be terminal at some point, unless they change their ways.

I understand how darkness of the soul works, and I’ve seen the damage it can do. Many years ago, I worked with a young man a few years older who started out as a real good guy. Over the next few months, though, he began to experiment with the dark side of life. Underaged, he began drinking. Overly hormonal, he took stupid risks. Believing himself above the law, he began stealing. Claiming “street smarts” he most assuredly did not have, he pushed his luck. In just a matter of months, this young man’s character was all but completely eroded. He had no family life, no friends, no one to care for him or help him over the rough spots in life. Anyone who tried to bring even a little light into his life was forcefully rejected and ridiculed. In short order, this child-man was trying to swim with sharks who were a whole lot tougher, bigger and more experienced. He could not see himself clearly until it was too late because he’d cloaked himself in darkness. The police’s best guess was that, one night, he simply stole a tape deck from the wrong car. They found his body at the bottom of a shallow lake, miles from home, battered and bloodied.

There is a reason light and dark don’t mix. They are plainly incompatible. We need to get a lot more serious about living in the light, and we need to practice. Nothing will be hid from the Master; nothing can be hid. If we have nothing to be ashamed of, the transition from twilight to daylight will probably be a whole lot easier.

MANIFESTATIONS OF LOVE

Zechariah 12:1-13:9; Revelation 19:1-21; Psalm 147:1-20; Proverbs 31:1-7

“They will look on me whom they have pierced and mourn for him as for an only son. They will grieve bitterly for him as for a firstborn son who has died.”

“Then I saw heaven opened, and a white horse was standing there. Its rider was named Faithful and True, for he judges fairly and wages a righteous war. His eyes were like flames of fire, and on his head were many crowns. A name was written on him that no one understood except himself. He wore a robe dipped in blood, and his title was the Word of God. The armies of heaven, dressed in the finest of pure white linen, followed him on white horses. From his mouth came a sharp sword to strike down the nations. He will rule them with an iron rod. He will release the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty, like juice flowing from a winepress. On his robe at his thigh was written this title: King of all kings and Lord of all lords.”

“He takes no pleasure in the strength of a horse or in human might. No, the Lord’s delight is in those who fear him, those who put their hope in his unfailing love.”

There are a lot of portraits of Christ painted throughout the New Testament, but probably none are on more opposite ends of the spectrum than today’s views from Zechariah and Revelation. On one hand is the Suffering Servant; on the other, the Victorious Messiah. Folks who look for a one dimensional Savior are out of luck. Jesus comes to us in many iterations because we have many individual needs. He comes to us as we need Him most: sympathizing with the widow; laughing with the children; in anger and discipline when we deliberately stray; forgiving and loving those humble enough to confess and repent. As multifaceted as the personality of Jesus is, it’s no wonder some people have difficulty grasping the complexity of His nature. However, that’s not the real problem.

The real problem comes when, in our unsuccessful efforts to “pin Him down,” we become frustrated with Christ and therefore reduce Him to the point He becomes a creation in our image, rather than the other way around. To be more specific, when I need mighty, divine intervention in my life, the Suffering Servant is not likely to speak to me or reach my heart. I’ll be looking for an Almighty Messiah – and I might just miss the answer to prayer God would give me in an unexpected view of His character.

I never realized how my own mental picture of Jesus framed my expectations of Him and, subconsciously, limited His power in my life, until I read a book pointing out that, according to Isaiah, there was nothing good looking about Him. Now, I’d read that Scripture over many times - every Christmas, in fact. I’d heard the words. Still, when at last they finally sank in and I realized all those idyllic, Sunday School portraits were nothing more than well-intended lies, it gave me pause. Do Christians worship an ugly guy? I know it should not matter, and I did not worry about it at the time. But then I read The Shack, a book that describes God, among other ways, as a large, rotund African-American woman, and the issue once more demanded attention. I had to face the truth. The way I see God to some extent determines (more accurately, limits) how much I will trust Him, and the ways in which I will allow Him to minister to me. As I began to take this line of thinking further, I soon realized that no one image of Christ could possibly cover all the ways we need Him in our lives. Finally, that lead to the ultimate realization. What I most often look for is a “quick fix” Messiah. What Christ wants to be and needs to be is a long term friend, guide and confidante. There is only one character trait that needs to be absolute in the way we see Jesus. The one absolute constant in our Redeemer is – and must be – that no matter how and when He makes His presence known, the effect and impact of that knowledge always leads us back to the Throne of Heaven.

If, then, we are to be as Christlike as we are called to be, even in the throes of everyday life and our own multiple personalities (e.g., father, son, husband, attorney, friend, to name just a few), we need to be sure of our personal orientation to the Holy Spirit first. Then, we need to use whatever aspect of our personality best works to reach others for Christ in the given situation. I’ve seen many so-called disciples whose real desire was simply to form a group they could lead. For these individuals, their position of leadership was more important that getting folks to Christ. But Christ should never be just a tool we use to build and grow our own peer group. He is the end, not the means. If He is not our ultimate goal, and the goal of those we hope to lead, somebody is seriously off course, and it is not Jesus.

True strength is not what we think it is. Numbers of followers do not establish it. Catchy slogans do not define it. Even the financial and other support and gifts given us by others do not prove our capacity or our credibility. True strength is found in only one place, and can be attained in only one way. We must fear the Lord and put our hope in His unfailing love, in every and any way it comes to us, trusting that, when it comes to manifestations of love, the Spirit really does know best. To be clear, though, “fear” in this sense has nothing to do with terror. It is instead the type of fear Moses felt when he was told to remove his shoes on Sinai, for he was on holy ground. It is the original, and only real, “awesome.” We stand in silence before our God not because we are scared of Him, but because there really are no words to explain His glory or to describe the depth of gratitude we should have for His grace. Once we understand it is OK to be a bit mystified by all God is, putting our hope in His unfailing, and multidimensional, love is the easy part.

BY HIS POWER

Zechariah 10:1-11:17; Revelation 18:1-24; Psalm 146:1-10; Proverbs 30:33

“By my power I will make my people strong, and by my authority they will go wherever they wish. I, the Lord, have spoken!”

‘Come away from her, my people. Do not take part in her sins, or you will be punished with her. For her sins are piled as high as heaven, and God remembers her evil deeds. Do to her as she has done to others. Double her penalty for all her evil deeds. She brewed a cup of terror for others, so brew twice as much for her. She glorified herself and lived in luxury so match it now with torment and sorrow.”

“Praise the Lord! Let all that I am praise the Lord. I will praise the Lord as long as I live. I will sing praises to my God with my dying breath. Don’t put your confidence in powerful people; there is no help for you there. When they breathe their last, they return to the earth, and all their plans die with them.”

“As the beating of cream yields butter and striking the nose causes bleeding, so stirring up anger causes quarrels.”

If I remember only one thing from this year, I hope it will be that my strength truly does come from the Lord. That is not intuitive for me. I am not one who naturally depends on others, even when the “other” is Jesus Christ. However, somewhere along this journey, I have gained a sense of how much time I waste with worry and anxiety over things that have not happened yet, and ultimately never do occur. I see far more clearly how easy it is to exhaust myself with busywork just to fuel my sense of personal worth, and how tenuous that feeling is outside the influence of the Holy Spirit. I’ve also come to recognize that, when it comes to “works,” I tend to set the bar higher than the Father does, and I confess I do so, both consciously and subconsciously, in what is easily identifiable in retrospect as an obvious attempt to claim some of the glory for myself. (Of course, with such an attitude, there is little glory to be had at all.) That’s the bad news.

The good news is that I’m beginning to really understand that constant striving – even after excellence – is not the way God would have us live our lives. Remarkable as it sounds, Jehovah designed life, first and foremost, for His children to enjoy. The Lord wants us to be friends, have fun together, celebrate and be joyful. To do so, we have to let go of our obsessive compulsions. And that’s OK, because when we do, we are offered a whole new value system that begins with the fundamental premise that we do not have to prove a thing to God. He already knows us inside and out better than we know ourselves. He knows our doubts and concerns, and He knows the sources of our happiness. But most important, He knows our tolerances and our capacity. He understands we can never be truly joyful as long as we persist in trying to live beyond or outside the potential and capabilities of the people He created us to be. He just wants us to recognize that as clearly as He does.

This is almost certainly why the Lord allows us to fail so freely. Once we understand and experience our limitations, we are usually far more willing to look outside ourselves for the additional wisdom, experience, gifts and talents we need. The relevant Christian cliché goes something like this: we are never more victorious (or stronger, I forget which, but it works either way) than when we have been driven to our knees. Our loving Father longs to lift us high, but as long as we think we are standing on our own two feet and by our own power, we don’t often allow Him a good grip. It’s not usually until life has knocked us down that we allow Jesus to pick us up.

Oh, but the best news is that it does not have to be that way. Christ is at all times ready to stand beside and support us in grace, power and love. Even in situations where we don’t think we need Him, His desire is to show us there is an easier way to live. There is simply no logical reason – aside from egoism – for any of us to stubbornly insist on living life on our own, or limited to our own strength. The Lord is just waiting for us to make the first move by asking Him to share His Power with us.

Which brings us back to humility and which, in turn, clarifies an awful lot of things. No matter how I slice it or try to dress it up, my stubborn independence is really nothing more than pride. I don’t know how I got it in my mind that I could do anything better on my own than my Creator could do with and through me. Time and again, though, I find my main problem in life is denying the Holy Spirit the chance to use me as He sees fit. I rebel at the very thought of allowing Him sovereignty over my life, ignoring that, as Creator, He not only deserves it but should have it. We were designed to work best only one way: His. Like a car driven on kerosene, we may be able to move ahead a little under our own power, but never as efficiently, effectively or as smoothly as when we are fueled and inspired by the Spirit.

I’m tired of driving over the rough spots in the road of life under my own power. The older I get, the more disruptive I find the potholes. I am sure, now, that Christ knows a smoother road. The problem is, it’s really narrow. I have no hope of staying on it on my own. I’ve got to give the steering wheel to Him. But that is a long way from becoming a bump on a log myself. Christ does not take us where He wants us just so we can stand there and enjoy the view. Whatever His ultimate destination for us may be, no doubt, He’ll make a lot of stops along the way to let us get out and stretch our legs and maybe even pick up some extra passengers. It’s the ultimate Road Trip. Living in the Power of the Spirit is not about becoming His pawn. It’s about becoming His friend.

THE HOME STRETCH

Zechariah 9:1-17; Revelation 17:1-18; Psalm 145:1-21; Proverbs 30:32

“Because of the covenant I made with you, sealed with blood, I will free your prisoners from death in a waterless dungeon. Come back to the place of safety, all you prisoners who still have hope! I promise this very day that I will repay two blessings for each of your troubles…. On that day the Lord their God will rescue his people, just as a shepherd rescues his sheep. They will sparkle in his land like jewels in a crown. How wonderful and beautiful they will be! The young men will thrive on abundant grain, and the young women will flourish on new wine.”

‘The ten horns of the beast are ten kings who have not yet risen to power. They will be appointed to their kingdoms for one brief moment to reign with the beast. They will all agree to give him their power and authority. Together they will go to war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will defeat them because he is Lord of all lords and King of all kings. And his called and chosen and faithful ones will be with him.”

“I will exalt you, my God and King, and praise your name forever and ever. I will praise you every day; yes, I will praise you forever. Great is the Lord! He is most worthy of praise! No one can measure his greatness.”

“If you have been a fool by being proud or plotting evil, cover your mouth in shame.”

There is a well-recognized phenomenon in running circles. The closer we get to the finish line, the faster and harder we go. It’s called a kick, and as I’m nearing the end of my one year journey through the Bible, I must keep reminding myself to stay on pace and not race ahead. In the heat of the “kick,” I don’t want to miss anything, even as badly as I want to finish. I’ll be honest. I’m ready to be done. My wife will appreciate having the two hours a night back to talk and be with me. (Throughout all of this, she has been an absolute saint, allowing me guilt free time to complete what we both somehow knew I had to do.) Other opportunities have arisen which will require the time I’ve been giving this project. But mainly, I just need a bit of a break, a rest from the intensity of analyzing and applying Scripture so intentionally on a daily basis. I just want to enjoy reading again. And I think God’s perfectly OK with that, because God is about discipleship and action, but God is also about contemplation and sanctuary. The Lord does not view success as we do. He values balance more than we do. He recognizes what we frequently forget: at the end of the day, if we care more about finishing than being close to Him, something is terribly wrong.

I’ve known a number of folks who have labored well and long, only to lose focus in the home stretch and compromise their entire mission as a result. Most often, this results from simple careless born of rushing the job. Fatigue can also ensnare us. But whatever the physical cause, it almost always comes down to the same thing – a lack of continued consideration for the particulars of the journey. There is such a thing as becoming too centered on an ultimate goal. If we focus only on the finish line, like as not, we will stumble over some nondescript obstacle we could have easily avoided had we remained intentional about just putting one foot in front of the other. Conversely, we can misjudge the distance to the finish line and run out of steam before we run out of race.

I’ve seen several pastors fall victim to this very syndrome. Young and enthusiastic, each one had a vibrant and effective start. They quickly won the hearts and souls of their flocks. They developed visions of their own church, a career in the conference office, maybe a shot at bishop, and even loftier accomplishments. However, the more they became enchanted by the potential of future success, the more they came to resent all the little steps they had to take to get where they wanted to be. Their desire to leap over character development and patient maturity directly into unquestioned leadership, book deals, grandiose missions and whatnot led them down the road of eventual ruin. What they never understood or saw in themselves was that the more they resisted the process, the more bitter about the individual steps they became. Finally, one day, they each found themselves at complete odds with organized religion as a whole. Pretty clearly, the resulting spiritual entrepreneurialism is largely responsible for the proliferation of non-denominational churches and pastors who are not accountable to any larger organization, and that is not an entirely bad thing. However, I often wonder why, if what they found in denominational theology was so troubling, they did not stick it out and try to fix it instead of just doing their own thing. Changing courses is no way to win a race, but you can sure get lost in a hurry.

Christ teaches that everything happens in its time. He promises that, if we will trust Him in this, we will end up knowing and experiencing more than we ever dreamed or imagined. There is only one caveat. Don’t rush it. Every little thing along the road of life is there for a reason. We jump to conclusions at our peril, and may also jeopardize others in the process. But mainly, when we rush to finish, we often miss the richest part of the journey. Education builds on itself. If we want to lay claim to all the blessings the Father would bestow on us, the best way to do it is to savor them one at a time, each in its turn, even down the home stretch.

THE DANGERS OF "NUMBERS" CHRISTIANITY

Zechariah 8:1-23; Revelation 16:1-21; Psalm 144:1-15; Proverbs 30:29-31

“This is what the Lord Almighty says: All this may seem impossible to you now, a small remnant of God’s people. But is it impossible for me? says the Lord Almighty. This is what the Lord Almighty says: You can be sure that I will rescue my people from the east and from the west. I will bring them home again to live safely in Jerusalem. They will be my people, and I will be faithful and just toward them as their God. This is what the Lord Almighty says: Be strong and finish the task!”

‘Look, I will come as unexpectedly as a thief! Blessed are all who are watching for me, who keep their clothing ready so they will not have to walk around naked and ashamed.”

“Praise the Lord, who is my rock. He trains my hands for war and gives my fingers skill for battle. He is my loving ally and my fortress, my tower of safety, my rescuer. He is my shield, and I take refuge in him. He makes the nations submit to me.”

“There are three things that walk with stately stride—no, four that strut about: the lion, king of animals, who won’t turn aside for anything, the strutting rooster, the male goat, a king as he leads his army.”

Being part of a remnant usually has a negative connotation. It suggests that, while we may have fought the good fight, the enemy prevailed. It may imply time and fashion have passed us by and made our mores obsolete. But if we look at Scripture carefully, it’s pretty clear that being part of a remnant is not necessarily all that bad a place to be. God has never dealt particularly well with majorities. Anytime the Lord’s people have had the upper hand, history teaches they begin to either turn inward to self-indulgence and pleasure, or they turn away, casting their lot with the pagan idols of the conquered. In turn, their foundations eroded, they make themselves susceptible to attack. There is a spiritual cycle to life, just as there are economic cycles. We should take courage from the fact that Christianity is not as mainstream as it once was. It’s pretty clear the Holy Spirit has always done His best work in small, vocal and passionate minorities.

This is certainly not a typical viewpoint, but I don’t find society’s current swing away from all things Godly as either surprising or particularly disturbing from an eternal perspective. Sure, it predicts a lot of people will perish without knowing or accepting Christ as their Savior. But Revelation tells us that much. The fact remains as it has been from the beginning: Christianity was never meant for everybody. Many are called, but few are chosen. Salvation is a free gift to be freely offered to all. Yet salvation clearly will not be accepted by everyone. Some willing choose another path. Thus, while we can certainly mourn their decision, we must not become discouraged. Lack of obvious results is no excuse for giving up on discipleship altogether; it’s more an indication we are focused on the wrong endpoint. Simply stated, our job is to inspire others to seek God. It is His job to actually shepherd them into the fold. Therefore, if we do not see immediate conversions as a result of our evangelism, it should simply inspire us to redouble our efforts. We also should remember that not all evangelism is a matter of salvation. We have just as important a call to encourage those who will help build the Kingdom to get started on their personal missions.

In today’s society, Christians may be a remnant, but that does not mean we have to be weak. Quite the contrary. Our strength has never been solely in numbers, but in quiet, confident commitment to simple obedience. We are to do what we are to do and not worry about end results. End results are Christ’s business, not ours. We are never stronger than when we act in faith upon those two facts. Because when there is no failure to fear, we are freed from our tendency to rely on our own strength and are free to act in fuller reliance on the power of the Spirit.

This concept is one of the toughest hurdles for the new disciple to clear. We all lose enthusiasm when efforts to bring others to Christ don’t bear obvious fruit. It’s enough to discourage the heartiest soul. But we should not be discouraged. Because conversion is the exclusive prerogative of the Holy Spirit, and not everyone is going to make the team, regardless of our efforts. The Lord will ultimately decide who will have ears to hear. Hard as it may be to accept, we are not to get bogged down in the details and, certainly, we are not to take spiritual scalps.

One of the most destructive things that can occur within the Body of Christ – other than the compulsion to seek a mainstream Christianity which, by definition, must be so watered down to appeal to the masses that it lacks any real spiritual power – is the taking of spiritual scalps. Every church has members who proudly point to the number of souls they have brought to Christ. They see others’ salvation as a human accomplishment they have a right to claim. This special breed of Pharisitism is not only disruptive to the Body and clearly contrary to Scripture; it is self-delusional. It gives us an inflated opinion of ourselves and our works. In short, it’s hard to be humble when one sees himself or herself as responsible for the eternal destinies of others. Yet many so-called disciples come to feel exactly this way, and they never realize they are only fooling themselves. Such lofty goals are completely beyond human capacity.

“Numbers Christianity” is a very destructive gospel in any iteration. Christ is looking for quality, not quantity. He requires commitment, not lip service. Talk is cheap. Only those dedicated to actually doing something with His Gift are likely to get it. Our main job is to encourage the members of that remnant to be strong and finish the tasks they have been given.

LEARNING FROM OUR MISTAKES

Zechariah 6:1-7:14; Revelation 15:1-8; Psalm 143:1-12; Proverbs 30:24-28

“This is what the Lord Almighty says: Judge fairly, and show mercy and kindness to one another. Do not oppress widows, orphans, foreigners, and the poor. And do not scheme against each other. Your ancestors refused to listen to this message. They stubbornly turned away and put their fingers in their ears to keep from hearing. They made their hearts as hard as stone, so they could not hear the instructions or the messages that the Lord Almighty had sent them by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. That is why the Lord Almighty was so angry with them.”

‘And they were singing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb: ‘Great and marvelous are your works, O Lord God, the Almighty. Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations. Who will not fear you, Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship before you, for your righteous deeds have been revealed.’”

“Let me hear of your unfailing love each morning, for I am trusting you. Show me where to walk, for I give myself to you. Rescue me from my enemies, Lord; I run to you to hide me. Teach me to do your will, for you are my God. May your gracious Spirit lead me forward on a firm footing. For the glory of your name, O Lord, preserve my life. Because of your faithfulness, bring me out of this distress.”

“There are four things on earth that are small but unusually wise. Ants—they aren’t strong, but they store up food all summer. Rock badgers—they aren’t powerful, but they make their homes among the rocks. Locusts—they have no king, but they march in formation. Lizards—they are easy to catch, but they are found even in kings’ palaces.”

My son has just left for a semester abroad in Ecuador. No doubt, the experience will be a defining moment for him, but it is also a defining moment for me. On one hand, it has caused me to look again at the way I think of my son, not as a child but – gasp! – as a man. No longer do I have the ability, much less the right, to tell him what to do. He is, literally and figuratively, beyond my control. I have to adjust to these ideas, no matter what my paternal instinct says. He is fine with all the changes and the independence, thank you very much. My problem is my problem. Letting go, however, is only half of it. The rest is that I’ve been given the chance to review my role as father, and I am not terribly pleased with the job I have done. Don’t misunderstand. The son has become far more than the old man could have dreamed. What troubles me is that, to some extent, I think his successes have mostly been in spite of, not because of, my example and how I raised him. Looking back, I know I said and did things that were completely inappropriate in my role as parent. I emphasized the wrong points. And I made discipline more about me than him. Retrospectively, I can only give thanks to God that He gave my son such incredible resiliency, and that my son has such a forgiving spirit.

But there’s also another thing I can do. I can learn. And so can he. He does not have to perpetuate the precedent I established. He can be a better father than I have been. History does not have to repeat itself. The Lord Himself has said so. I may be the best bad example I know. But I can allow my son to learn from my mistakes. I can be sure he understands they were mistakes. In a word, I realized I had to confess my failings to him, not just for me, but for him. I cannot expect him to break the mold if he does not understand its limitations in the first place.

Finally, the time came. My son asked me to smoke one final cigar with him on the back porch before he left for his trip. His treat. That doesn’t sound like much, and may even be off putting to some, but for us guys, cigars in the backyard are something of a ritual. When the cigars come out, it means serious business is about to get done. Maleness, and independence, are recognized. Problems, hopes and dreams are shared among peers, not parent-child. I’m not really sure how we came to this, but in a strange way, cigars on the porch have become a right of passage, a sign of maturity claimed and recognized. They have become, more often than not, sacred moments.

So, I took the opportunity to confess my failings as a father and to ask my son’s forgiveness. It was not that I was telling him anything he did not know. After all, he’d been there, an unwilling participant. It was that, in a real way, I was offering him myself in a way I never had done before. Transparently flawed, I laid my regrets before him, and left him with a decision every man must confront at some point: what will you do with your father? I had no expectations, did not really know what his reaction would be. I only knew it was a decision he had to intentionally make if he was ever going to be his own man. And it was important that he understand he was making a decision when he responded.

Incredibly, there was not a word of criticism in his reply. He spoke instead of the good examples I’d set, the times when my own perseverance gave him a model to help him work through his own problems. He told of the ways I’d inspired him and been a light that allowed him to find his own way home. Sacred moment? You bet it was! But it was more than that; it was a conversion moment. It was the very second when my son became a real man. I will be forever blessed that my heavenly Father allowed me to be there to see it and give testament to it.

I learned from my mistakes that day, but the lesson I took from the experience was not the one I expected. My mistake was that I thought I’d behaved in an unforgiveable way. I thought I would reap what I’d sowed. I did not give my son enough credit for compassion or understanding. He’d already learned all he needed to know from my bad example. He’d learned how to forgive it, and how to grow through it in the inexplicable and irrational love that only the Holy Spirit can provide. I mistakenly thought the guilt I felt for my shortcomings was a burden I’d need to carry to the grave, praying just that it would not warp my son. What I learned from my mistakes, though, was something entirely different. We are so focused on our sins as we bring them to the altar of Christ. We place them with fear and trembling at His feet, bound up with anxiety not just about our own guilt but the fates of those we’ve hurt along the way. What a blessing it will be to finally learn that Jesus’ “final answer” for His Children’s sin will not be one of surprise, but accommodation. We worship a God so good that He truly can make all things work to good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose, however flawed those people and their actions may be.

SMALL BEGINNINGS

Zechariah 4:1-5:11; Revelation 14:1-20; Psalm 142:1-7; Proverbs 30:21-23

“It is not by force nor by strength, but by my Spirit, says the Lord Almighty…. Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin….”

‘Then I saw a white cloud, and seated on the cloud was someone like the Son of Man. He had a gold crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand. Then another angel came from the Temple and shouted to the one sitting on the cloud, ‘Swing the sickle, for the time of harvest has come; the crop on earth is ripe.’ So the one sitting on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the whole earth was harvested.”

“I cry out to the Lord; I plead for the Lord’s mercy. I pour out my complaints before him and tell him all my troubles…. Then I pray to you, O Lord. I say, ‘You are my place of refuge. You are all I really want in life.’”

“There are three things that make the earth tremble—no, four it cannot endure: a slave who becomes a king, an overbearing fool who prospers, a bitter woman who finally gets a husband, a servant girl who supplants her mistress.”

More often than not, I spend life looking forward to my next big project and worrying about when and if it will actually happen. It’s probably inevitable to some extent. We’ve all been trained to look at life as a series of major milestones ever since we were old enough to take our first unsteady steps. But on the other hand, such a perspective overlooks a lot of beauty, joy and opportunity. Major awards and recognitions suggest the little things leading up to them don’t matter. “Event ministry” detracts from the consistent discipline of daily study and prayer. All in all, we live in a second-place-is-the-first-loser society, and that’s too bad. It quashes creativity and originality and never recognizes the small victories of everyday life. Taken to extremes, it can lead us to disregard contributions made by anyone who does not cultivate the limelight.

The fact is, the world needs more servant leaders, people who aren’t afraid to lead through sacrifice. The Kingdom needs saints willing to decrease so Christ may increase. The Church needs to make a better effort to recognize and encourage those who give of themselves to bring others closer to Jesus.

I don’t stop to think about any of this nearly often enough, but when I do, it is always overwhelming to realize just how many people have selflessly given of themselves to help me. God has sent these “angels” throughout my life. Some have been recognized, but others have not. Numerous volunteers happily worked into the wee morning hours to assure we would be ready to present quality dramatic productions when the lights went down and the curtain went up. A piano teacher patiently taught me the joy of music, and persisted in that small triumph even though I refused to practice and never learned to really play. A coach was not afraid to also be a friend, and so kept several of us out of trouble. A Youth Pastor weathered heavy parental criticism to do what was right for the kids he shepherded. A teacher took me under his wing, leading to academic scholarships and a career as an attorney where I also have the chance to minister in various ways. A friend simply holds me accountable. None of these people asked for recognition or a share in any of the accomplishments to which their sacrifices led. They might even be embarrassed to be so recognized now. But their contributions have been indispensible; without them, I simply would not be where I am. I am exceptionally grateful for each one of them. I only wish I’d said so more often when I had the chance. For their part, they are content merely knowing that, in the Father’s eyes, they have played their parts well.

Big deals and events never just happen. They are almost always the culmination of a lot of behind the scenes sacrifice and support by those who will never see the stage. If the devil is in the details, success is also found in the little actions aimed at addressing those very same details in a proactive and productive way. In short, every big success has its start in a number of small beginnings. Let us never overlook or take for granted any of the work others do so that we can shine for our Father. For anyone who has not taken time to thank their supporting angels for their love and friendship, today would be a really good day to do so. No better use could be made of any Sabbath.

FRUITS OF THE RESURRECTION

Zechariah 2:1-3:10; Revelation 12:18-13:18; Psalm 141:1-10; Proverbs 30:18-20

“The Lord says, ‘Shout and rejoice, O beautiful Jerusalem, for I am coming to live among you. Many nations will join themselves to the Lord on that day, and they, too, will be my people. I will live among you, and you will know that the Lord of Heaven’s Armies sent me to you.’”

‘Then the beast was allowed to speak great blasphemies against God. And he was given authority to do whatever he wanted for forty-two months. And he spoke terrible words of blasphemy against God, slandering his name and his dwelling—that is, those who dwell in heaven. And the beast was allowed to wage war against God’s holy people and to conquer them. And he was given authority to rule over every tribe and people and language and nation. And all the people who belong to this world worshiped the beast. They are the ones whose names were not written in the Book of Life before the world was made—the Book that belongs to the Lamb who was slaughtered.”

“O Lord, I am calling to you. Please hurry! Listen when I cry to you for help! Accept my prayer as incense offered to you, and my upraised hands as an evening offering. Take control of what I say, O Lord, and guard my lips. Don’t let me drift toward evil or take part in acts of wickedness. Don’t let me share in the delicacies of those who do wrong.”

“There are three things that amaze me—no, four things that I don’t understand: how an eagle glides through the sky, how a snake slithers on a rock, how a ship navigates the ocean, how a man loves a woman.”

Maranatha! Satan may have been cast down to earth for a season, but the Lord is coming! We are not without hope. Indeed, the hope that is within us is greater than the fear Satan would put there. It is the hope of redemption and regeneration. Things will not always be as they are. For a time, we all must be tested; that much is clear. But those who remain steadfastly grounded in the Lord will prevail. We cannot do it on our own, but praise God, in Christ, we are more than conquerors. We are to be bold examples, fruits of the Resurrection drawing all men back to the Garden of God.

I’m not sure where that metaphor came from. It surprised me even as I typed it, because I had never thought of Christians in quite that way before. But it works, and it’s encouraging. In the fruit of His adopted sons and daughters, the Lord is doing a new thing. He is bringing beauty and nourishment into a parched and starving world. He is providing seeds for a new generation, a new Kingdom. He is recreating, even as Satan is busy destroying. The fact that He so far has stayed His hands from a complete makeover does not in any way mean the Creator has stopped creating altogether. There is still hope because there is still life, new life and resurrected, recreated life.

It remains for us to determine the quality and substance of our lives (our fruit), and that, in turn, always resolves around what we actually choose to do with them. Actions matter; indeed, they are a divine imperative. Christ commanded, “Go!” We are to invest ourselves, even as the Lord invested Himself in us. Perhaps the best analogy is the parable of the talents. Metaphorically, the wicked servant did nothing more than bury his life in the ground, waiting on the Master’s return, afraid of losing that which he had been given. The other servants took some chances, invested in life and were able to present the Master with more than He’d given them. This is not necessarily as easy to do as it sounds. Paul is clear that we will be battling against dark powers far beyond our imagination as we try to spread our unique brand of life to a hurting and dying world. But we will not be working alone, either. Do not miss that in the talents parable. The first and second servants may have thought they were investing themselves independently, but in the end, the harvest all came back to the Master. It is easy to get discouraged when we think ourselves in a ministry of one. But we are all fruits of the same Vine, and the seeds we plant will grow similar fruit. If we are in Christ, we are never alone for long. As His fruit, we are nourished even as we nourish and encourage others.

High in the Guatemalan mountains, native peoples live in a small settlement called Uspantan. The government has been exceptionally hard on these individuals, driving them out of the lush valleys and accessible places until they have almost nowhere else to go and no good way to get there. As a result, their access to medical care historically was almost nonexistent, and inbreeding gave rise to all sorts of genetic weaknesses and other medical problems. The rate of infant death, for example, was exceedingly high. Several years ago, I joined a medical mission team in those mountains, serving with my wife on the kitchen team. In such primitive conditions, nothing was easy. The doctors in surgery sometimes faced insurmountable odds, and the losses depressed them. All the stress and uncertainty put a tremendous load on our pastor. At times, he was completely overwhelmed. A baby died. A team member took ill and had to be evacuated. Toward the end of a particularly trying day, our pastor walked up to a mother waiting on the results of surgery on her young son. Both people were emotionally and physically drained, and neither could communicate well with the other. In broken words and motions, our pastor asked if he could pray with and for the mother and her son. He was a bit offended when she politely declined…, until she reached out to take his arm as he turned away. Without a word, she put her hand atop his head and gently pushed him into a kneeling position. Then, even in the midst of her own pain and uncertainty, she took time to pray for the pastor. After that simple yet exceedingly profound experience, our pastor was pretty much good for the rest of the week. He had been the beneficiary of one person’s investment of themselves in him in the name of Christ, and he received new life as a result.

Satan would like us to believe we have lost his war of attrition. He wants to blind us to the hope of our Lord’s return. Most important, he wants us to think we have nothing left to give, because he knows when we get to that point, we are pretty much out of defenses. But we are never to forget we are part of a larger Vine. We are fruits of the Resurrection, because Jesus has invested Himself in each of us. He willingly gave us His own Body so that He could more perfectly live and be multiplied in us. This is a grand and glorious thing! We are vulnerable to Satan only to the extent we do not intentionally and proactively claim the Power the Spirit would give us to fight against Lucifer’s schemes together.

THE DARK PRINCE LIVES

Zechariah 1:1-21; Revelation 12:1-17; Psalm 140:1-13; Proverbs 30:17

“Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. Don’t be like your ancestors who would not listen or pay attention when the earlier prophets said to them, ‘This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: Turn from your evil ways, and stop all your evil practices.’”

“Then there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon and his angels. And the dragon lost the battle, and he and his angels were forced out of heaven. This great dragon—the ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, the one deceiving the whole world—was thrown down to the earth with all his angels. Then I heard a loud voice shouting across the heavens, ‘It has come at last—salvation and power and the Kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters has been thrown down to earth—the one who accuses them before our God day and night. And they have defeated him by the blood of the Lamb and by their testimony. And they did not love their lives so much that they were afraid to die. Therefore, rejoice, O heavens! And you who live in the heavens, rejoice! But terror will come on the earth and the sea, for the devil has come down to you in great anger, knowing that he has little time.’”

“O Lord, rescue me from evil people. Protect me from those who are violent, those who plot evil in their hearts and stir up trouble all day long. Their tongues sting like a snake; the venom of a viper drips from their lips.”

“The eye that mocks a father and despises a mother’s instructions will be plucked out by ravens of the valley and eaten by vultures.”

One of the primary reasons bad things happen to good people is because there are a lot of really bad people in our world more than willing to do bad things. On some level, we all pretty much understand this fact of life. It’s why Home Depot can economically support an entire aisle of locks. No intellectually honest individual could spend any time on the news websites or in front of the TV and not be convinced of this simple reality. As in the days of the Old and New Testament, there are folks who just make a personal decision to throw out their moral compass and live consumptive lifestyles, devouring everything and everyone they think might add to their immediate pleasure. These people are much more that parasites; they are piranha. They regard others as little more than food. We deny or disregard this at our peril.

If the existence of affirmatively evil people is so very plain, why is it that so many still have a problem admitting the existence of affirmative evil itself? Now, I’m not talking about a cartoonish devil in a red suit with horns and a pitchfork (though I do wonder where that character came from). No, the real Prince of Darkness is far more subtle and much more powerful. Given the chance, he will rule our lives with an iron fist. He will beguile us into believing we are only exercising our own free will, but all the while, he is working to destroy conscience completely, and to turn our hearts to doing only his bidding. It is incomprehensible that we can stand by and watch his minions do their worst and yet still deny Lucifer’s existence.

Then, of course, there’s the whole debate about Hell. Here is where the logic of many a poor soul completely breaks down. They simply refuse to believe in Hell. Some argue there’s enough Hell on earth to go around, but those folks in the main have no concept of any kind of eternity. They can’t have any, really. To believe in eternity means that souls have destinations. If souls have destinations, then there can be no Heaven if there is no Hell. For there will never be, cannot ever be, any comingling of Evil with the Divine in eternity. Like matter and antimatter, the two are just too repellent, too mutually exclusive, to coexist for eternity. Without Heaven and Hell, the very concept of eternity can be no more than a murky, muddy, meaningless purgatory of sorts, a landfill for departed souls. Arguably, such would not be eternity at all, but just a sloppy, lingering death.

The Lord cries out for His people to wake up! Eternity will not be like earth. Allegiances must be declared. Judgment will be meted out. Satan is a real, scary guy! Those who refuse to acknowledge, recognize and avoid Evil in this life are destined to spend an eternity getting to know it up close and personal with an intensity they never dreamed possible.

Here, too, belief has no bearing on reality. We cannot wish away the reality of Hell or of Satan, any more than we can limit eternity by our opinions. Even on this side of death, there is more than enough evidence to convict Beelzebub of existing. Indeed, for those with eyes to see, he can actually be something of a showboat. However, that is not his normal modus operandi. He is successful in the main because, at least for now, he has learned to prefer anonymity. Here is his true genius: as long as he can convince people that the evil they do and see is really no more than human invention, the Devil will be laughing all the way to the fiery pit which is his destiny. I am not about to attribute every bad thing in this world to the workings of Lucifer. But we dare not throw out the idea in its entirety, either.

Affirmative evil does exist – in people, in a nearly-eternal Being, and in a Place. Disbelieve, if you will, but understand that, in this respect, no amount of disbelief will make any of it go away. It makes a lot better sense to be a touch fearful of the Evil One, and certainly of Hell, at least to the extent of prudence. We can, and should, engage in some measure of self-preservation in the face of evil. It makes even more sense to be positively united with Christ. Without His guidance and protection, we are quite likely to become Devil’s food, because at some point, we are likely to be outsmarted on our own.

Today, I read an article that reaffirmed the subtle workings of Satan. It was about a very talented high school athlete who did not think the rules of good and evil applied to him. State record after state record fell beneath his cleats, and he was awarded a full tuition football scholarship to a major college. Alas, though, he had a fatal flaw. He allowed himself to indulge in affirmative evil, and he was never able to escape its clutches. Today, he has been kicked out of more colleges than most folks apply to. He has a child, but no wife and no job and no real prospects. Even those who know and love him best admit he is physically and spiritually wasted. But in all probability, there’s another, deeper diagnosis for the legion of ills that plague him. He got spoiled; he toyed with affirmative evil; and it ate him alive. He is now solidly in the camp of the Enemy. Yet still, he is blinded to his eternal peril. Ask him, he just got a few bad breaks. No one understands him. He’s still in control. Hearing all this, Satan just laughs. Not loud enough for anyone else to hear, just to himself. Let people think this young man made his own mistakes. Because the Lord of Darkness remembers anonymity is his greatest weapon.

THE BUSINESS OF CHRIST

Haggai 1:1-2:23; Revelation 11:1-19; Psalm 139:1-24; Proverbs 30:15-16

“’Be strong, all you people still left in the land. And now get to work, for I am with you,’ says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. ‘My Spirit remains among you, just as I promised when you came out of Egypt. So do not be afraid.’”

“Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices shouting in heaven: ‘The world has now become the Kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever.’ The twenty-four elders sitting on their thrones before God fell with their faces to the ground and worshiped him. And they said, ‘We give thanks to you, Lord God, the Almighty, the one who is and who always was, for now you have assumed your great power and have begun to reign.”

“O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me. You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts even when I’m far away. You see me when I travel and when I rest at home. You know everything I do. You know what I am going to say even before I say it, Lord. You go before me and follow me. You place your hand of blessing on my head. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand! I can never escape from your Spirit!
 I can never get away from your presence!
 If I go up to heaven, you are there;
 if I go down to the grave, you are there. If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me.”

“The leech has two suckers that cry out, ‘More, more!’ There are three things that are never satisfied—no, four that never say, ‘Enough!’: the grave, the barren womb, the thirsty desert, the blazing fire.”

Alleluia! The Lord reigns!

“The world has now become the Kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever.”

“My Spirit remains among you, …. So do not be afraid.”

“You go before me and follow me. You place your hand of blessing on my head. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand!”

It is easy (sometimes, even tempting) to forget Jesus actually is in control and knows and lives with us. That’s His business. However, we have made such a mess of things, and there are so many dangers and disasters in the world, we tend to fall back on the idea of every man for himself. Of course, the Lord’s sovereignty in no way negates this exercise of our free will; it was the Creator Himself who gave us our ability to disobey Him. We can try to get by without His wisdom and power. We should remember, though, that when we first attempted it in Eden and bollixed things up so badly, we opened a Pandora’s Box that has stayed stubbornly open ever since. You’d think we’d learn, but we don’t. Among other things, our willful independence has caused us to lose our focus on the saving graces of the Spirit. Generally speaking, we end up working too hard at life as a result. We get frustrated when life does not conform itself to our desires, instead of remembering that the Almighty has given us the capacity and creativity to roll with the punches and adapt ourselves to life.

Jesus Christ died to give us a reason for eternal optimism, and to free us to work for Him. When we forget or reject that, it leaves us with a pit in the middle of our stomach, searching for something to fill the void besides the hunk of anxiety that is already there. So we tend toward one of two extremes: isolation; or overwork. The former is obviously a dead end. We were created for fellowship, and when we deny ourselves that opportunity, we not only deprive ourselves, but also others, of the blessings of shared ministry. Loneliness is a disease we do well to eliminate from our lives completely, as it tends to feed on itself, and us.

Overwork, on the other hand, is a much more accepted and socially acceptable strategy for dealing with spiritual emptiness. I’m not suggesting for a second a strict adherence to the old “let go and let God” cliché. That is far too passive an approach to the real adventure that is a life of faith. If we are not actively putting ourselves at risk for Christ, we really aren’t giving Him much to work with. Nevertheless, before we work ourselves into a tizzy, it is equally important to establish a fundamental base of operations. No team of explorers climbs a mountain without first building a base camp to return to, a rallying point if things get rough. Spiritually, we are foolish to rush into busyness without first taking time to establish and remind ourselves of our deep and abiding faith in Christ. It will at least give us a lot more hope in the long run.

More important, though, if we are ever going to be truly, transcendently victorious, we must first have a relationship with the Holy Spirit that inspires, if not compels, us to engage first in His business, to act in the best interests of the Kingdom. This may mean sacrificing ourselves. When we reverse the order, however, and rush to sacrifice ourselves on the altar of misguided action without first assuring ourselves of the Spirit’s guidance, even when motivated by some well-meaning sense of responsibility or charity, all we usually end up doing is using up ourselves. Worse, in an eternal sense, our sacrifice is wasted because it is not properly directed; it does not lead anyone any further than to admiration of our own human effort and courage. As admirable as that may be, when the focus stays on us, we offer nothing to the Lord.

This is the danger of acting without a base camp in Christ. We lose sight of the Creator and His purposes in our very zeal. As I was writing this, I initially mistyped the word “busyness” in the bold sentence above as “business.” Now, I am not so sure that was a mistake. I am sure the sentence works either way. We have a lot of business to attend to, and we take a lot of self-image from our jobs. Nevertheless, we are also foolish to rush into any business without first taking time to be certain that it is, in fact, the Lord’s business we are about.

THE FATHER'S CHALLENGE

Zephaniah 1:1-3:20; Revelation 10:1-11; Psalm 138:1-8; Proverbs 30:11-14

“Gather together—yes, gather together, you shameless nation. Gather before judgment begins, before your time to repent is blown away like chaff. Act now, before the fierce fury of the Lord falls and the terrible day of the Lord’s anger begins. Seek the Lord, all who are humble, and follow his commands. Seek to do what is right and to live humbly. Perhaps even yet the Lord will protect you—protect you from his anger on that day of destruction.”

“Then the angel I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand toward heaven. He swore an oath in the name of the one who lives forever and ever, who created the heavens and everything in them, the earth and everything in it, and the sea and everything in it. He said, ‘There will be no more delay. When the seventh angel blows his trumpet, God’s mysterious plan will be fulfilled. It will happen just as he announced it to his servants the prophets.’”

“I praise your name for your unfailing love and faithfulness; for your promises are backed by all the honor of your name. As soon as I pray, you answer me; you encourage me by giving me strength.”

“Some people curse their father and do not thank their mother. They are pure in their own eyes, but they are proud beyond description and disdainful.”

A couple of weeks ago, I had the opportunity to join with a group of men from our church as we concluded thirty days of prayer for our church, including staff, finances, facilities and members. Those four-plus weeks began with a marathon, 24 hours a day, continuous oral reading of the entire Bible and included a weekly fast and daily Scripture readings. It was a real blessing to listen as the guys talked about the most impactful moments of the month. One fellow spoke of how the experience made him feel like a truly valued member of the Body – for the first time. Another guy told about his son taking the Bible from him to read aloud himself. A man even discussed, calmly and rationally, a vision he had of all the children who would pass through the door of a classroom as he prayed for them with his hand on the doorframe. It was a moving, though surprisingly unemotional, experience. These were guys talking about facts, not feelings. Granted, the facts discussed were not garden variety pragmatics. But there was not a soul in that room which did not accept the testimonies given at face value and as completely real. In one way or another, we discovered the Living God truly had made His Presence known to each of us at some point during the month. It actually happened. We’d all felt the touch of the Master’s Hand, and the shared experiences encouraged every man there. It was as if the Lord was reminding our little fellowship that the best is yet to come, and giving us new inspiration and power to disciple others.

Now, if the Spirit can still convince a group of crusty guys of the reality of His daily presence and workings in the world, there must be something to it. There were a lot of left-brained folks in the room, but not a single skeptic. We did not just believe the Son had visited; we knew it. We did not, however, just know it because others said so. We knew it because the Spirit held us together that night until one message became crystal clear: the Lord expected us to do something about the fact that we knew what we knew. He commanded that the time of anxiety, complaining and contention was at an end. He challenged us in no uncertain terms to get back to what made our church great in the first place. We are to turn our attention outward and return to the business of making disciples.

It’s an easy thing to forget, isn’t it? In a world that continuously attacks us from all sides, we have to intentionally fight against the very human tendency to just circle the wagons and focus on self-preservation. But let us never forget that down that road lies the way to dusty death. Life is only found to the extent it is shared with others.

So, the good news is that there is still time to get this discipleship thing right. We still have the chance to gather together in fellowship and prayer. There are others out there God is empowering to help build His Kingdom and pave the way for His Return. We can stand by and watch and wonder… and completely miss the joy. Or, we can ban together and throw ourselves into the Lord’s work with audacious abandon and see what happens.

Scripture is plain: those who would lose their lives for Christ’s sake are the only ones who will truly find the lives God has intended for them since the beginning of Creation. They are the ones who will be remade and share in the Glory of the Lord. They are the ones who will finally experience the wholeness of actually living out their divine purpose as a vessel of the Holy Spirit, the ultimate reason for their creation. Christ does not call us to necessarily physically die to find the life He intends for us. He calls us to die to self for the greater good. He asks us to give Him full control over our lives so He can most fully use us to draw others to Him. And He promises, PROMISES, that, in the end, He will have His way, and our reward is certain.

Thirty days or so ago, Jesus challenged a group of guys to gather in prayer, fasting and Scripture reading, just to see what would happen. He asked for our unquestioning obedience. We were not to concern ourselves with the end result; our call was simply to be more intentional about our focus on Him. We learned, however, that such things seldom end there, because as we focus on Christ, our vision improves dramatically in all areas of life. God has a job, a purpose, for each of us. There is still time to carry it out. But the door will not always remain open. It is best to walk through it now. Christ is counting on us to live His Message and to share it with the world by giving of ourselves, confident in the knowledge that we will never out give God.