Holy Awe

“Everyone was filled with awe” (Acts 2:43).

Poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote,
“Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God;
But only he who sees, takes off his shoes –
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.”

We were challenged this past Sunday to be a team, a team devoted, like the early church in Acts, to instruction, fellowship, the breaking of bread, and prayer. Devotion is a concept that gets my attention, because the life verse the Lord gave me some years ago comes from Jeremiah 30:21: “Who is he who will devote himself to be close to me?”

So I’ve been trying to learn more and more about this thing called devotion – what it is and what it looks like in practice. And I’ve gotten at least this far: It’s much easier to be devoted to something that fills you with awe. That’s bigger than you, bigger than anything else on the horizon of your life.

The bigger I see God to be, the easier it is to be devoted to Him. The early church was filled with awe (or “reverential fear,” as the Amplified puts it); Am I? Are we? The best description I’ve read of that awe was written by A.W. Tozer in Worship: The Missing Jewel of the Evangelical Church. He writes that real worship is made up of :

Boundless confidence. You cannot worship a Being you cannot trust.
Admiration. Appreciation of the excellency of God… to the point of wonder and delight.
Fascination. Entranced with who God is, and struck with astonished wonder at the inconceivable elevation and magnitude and splendor of Almighty God.
Adoration. To love God with all the power within us… with fear and wonder and yearning and awe.

Do you see how often he mentions wonder? But to make it an ingredient of our worship, we desperately need eyes to see God for Who He really is. We need those eyes opened by His Spirit; we need to turn them away from everything else and focus them on God. As individuals, and as a team.

When that happens, you can be sure that we’ll set our blackberry pails aside, the shoes will come off, and we will worship God together in holy awe.

Tumblin’ Tumbleweeds

“Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong.” (1 Cor. 16:13 NIV)

I’m not sure if Pastor Rick mentioned the word “tumbleweed” when he got to this verse on Sunday, or if it just popped into my head as he spoke, but suddenly I was whisked back to the old Sons of the Pioneer hit song by Bob Nolan, a cowboy tune that I listened to years ago (and it was years ago!), “Tumbling Tumbleweeds.”

See them tumbling down
Pledging their love to the ground
Lonely but free I'll be found
Drifting along with the tumbling tumbleweeds.

A rather romanticized look at the unattached, solitary, drifting tumbleweed, to be sure. A more realistic picture is given by Judy Henning at http://phoenix.about.com/od/desertplantsandflowers/a/tumbleweed.htm

“The tumbleweed is often thought of as the symbol of the American West. Actually, it isn't native to North America at all, but was brought to this country (unintentionally) by Ukrainian farmers. The tumbleweed really is a weed, and its real name is the Russian thistle. Tumbleweeds aren't considered as having any redeeming value except for the fact that they are interesting to watch as they tumble about… [It] is a round, bushy, plant that grows to about 3 feet. At maturity it breaks off at the base and because it is rounded, it tumbles in the wind. There is a natural purpose to this tumbling--the tumbleweed can produce up to 250,000 seeds, and the tumbling serves to spread those seed wherever it tumbles, guaranteeing that there will be more tumbleweeds in the future… Don't try to catch a tumbling tumbleweed. Ouch!!”

According to Judy and other experts, the tumbleweed is truly that – a weed, and a thistly, unfriendly one at that. A curiosity that’s of little real use. And it likes to make more of its own kind!

I think Paul is warning us against becoming (or remaining) tumbleweeds, with our only redeeming value being that we’re interesting to watch as we tumble about. It’s so easy to tumble from church to church, relationship to relationship, job to job. We even tumble from spiritual highs to spiritual lows and back again, constantly, like spiritual boomerangs. Sometimes these changes are good, or at least unavoidable… but not always. And not as a pattern. Often they’re the product of our restlessness, rootlessness, carnality and selfishness. Ouch!

Rather, Paul urges us to “Stand firm. Let God dig that tumbleweed disposition out of you. Root yourselves in the Word and soak up something valuable that God can use to nourish those around you. Bloom exactly where you are planted.”

Then when the high winds come, we’ll remain where God put us, doing what He called us to do. And instead of tumbling about and making more tumbleweeds like ourselves, we’ll be encouraging others to stand firm, too – more like that steadfast believer described in Ps. 1:3…

“He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither” (NIV). That’s no romanticized ideal. It’s really possible for tumbleweeds today.

When a Seed Dies

I know a lot of people are spooked by cemeteries; they avoid visiting them whenever possible. Myself, I’ve always kinda liked them. Especially the old ones with unique tombstone shapes and meaningful – or at least interesting - epitaphs.

I used to stay each summer at a church camp in Pleasantville, and take regular strolls through the nearby cemetery. One tombstone was shaped like a large dog (that guy sure must have loved his pet), a second was heart-shaped, and many others were unique and eye-catching. Under the shade of towering pines, hundreds of graves lay peaceful and quiet (except for the chattering of squirrels and the thump-thump of pine cones falling to the ground).

But some of you are shuddering at the suggestion of finding peace and quiet in such a place. So…maybe it would help if we thought of a cemetery as a garden. That’s what it is, isn’t it? Row upon row of many seeds, planted and awaiting germination.

Edward Markquart, a Lutheran pastor on the West coast, once consulted Dr. Gibbe, a professor with a Ph.D. in plant physiology. Pastor Markquart informed the prof that he was planning a sermon on John 12:24, and asked him, “Can you tell me what happens when a seed dies?.” In a sermon entitled "When a Seed Dies," the pastor shares what he found out:

“He told me that inside every seed is an embryo, and in that embryo is a root which goes down into the ground; and a shoot that goes up into the sky. Every embryo has a root and a shoot; and inside that little embryo, (and this is really a miracle), there is an ‘on’ and ‘off’ switch. I didn’t know that. I didn’t know that seeds have ‘on’ and ‘off’ switches. But they do…

“And when you plant a seed into the ground at 40 degrees for 40 days, that mechanism goes on, but if the temperature is at 20 degrees, the mechanism stays off… Now there is also a thin coat around that seed which protects the oxygen from coming in prematurely. And then when this dormant seed is planted into the ground, for 40 days at 40 degrees, the switch goes "on" and the seed takes in water, and it miraculously begins to expand, and the seed coat is broken, and it begins to mature and produces sugar and protein; and then out comes the little roots and the little shoots, and the shoots produce more seeds which produce more fruit. ‘And that’s what happens when a seed dies,’ said the professor. ‘It's a miracle.’”

What will come forth from that broken, dead seed-coat? The garden gives a hint. Those pink-coated corn kernels my dad and I used to bury in the soil were given new “bodies” – towering, tassled, and ear-laden. Tan seeds, large and flat, came up as golden butternuts squash. And the zuchinni seeds… well, need I say more? It’s all much more, much better, much grander, than what was originally planted.

Which makes the grave of each who have died in the Lord a mystery-filled place, bursting with eternal potential, just waiting for the switch to go “on”… and a split-second germination process to be fulfilled.

Almost makes you want to take a walk in a cemetery, doesn’t it?

See You Later!

When our children were very young, our family prepared for a big move. We were leaving the only home and environment the children had known, packing up and relocating to Erie, Pa. To help make the transition, a friend gave them a book titled “Little Duck’s Moving Day.”

Little Duck was moving, too. He was putting his familiar toys and books and precious possessions into a box, and as he did, he told each one of them goodbye. Overhearing him, his wise mother said, “Little Duck, you will be seeing those things again when we get to our new home. So instead of saying goodbye, why not say, “See you later”?

Or to put it another way…

C. S. Lewis and his friend Sheldon Vanauken often met for lunch at Oxford’s Eastgate Hotel. Vanauken relates that after their last meeting at the Eastgate, “when Lewis had said his farewells and crossed High Street to the Magdalen side, he looked back at ‘Van’ with a big grin and roared across the noise of the traffic, “Besides, Christians never say goodbye!”

They never need to. There will always be another meeting – if not here, then there. That is the direct result of the resurrection of Christ. Because He lives, we shall, too. Eternally. Together. It’s cause to celebrate the risen Christ - and it’s incentive to be praying and witnessing to those who don’t yet know Him.

There are still some big moves ahead for all of us. Some major relocation and separation and transition. But let us not grieve as those who have no hope. Let’s not be putting precious things in a box and telling them a final goodbye – not if they know the Christ we know.

Let’s muster a grin, and shout across the noise of pain and sorrow and temporary separation, “Christians never say goodbye!”

“See you later!”

The Big Picture

I once quizzed a group of teens on Bible history, a quiz similar to the American history questions Pastor Rick referred to in Sunday’s sermon. Questions like… Did the Flood occur in the Old or New Testament? Did the apostle Paul live before or after Christ? Who was the most famous writer of the Psalms? The results were eye-opening and discouraging.

Discouraging, because this was not a group of kids off the street. These were, for the most part, children of devout parents, moms and dads who had brought them to church – and Sunday School - all their lives. These kids had heard all the stories – Moses at the Red Sea, David and Goliath, the Christmas story, the Easter story, Paul and Silas in jail… I scratched my head over their apparent ignorance. Had they been so poorly taught all those years? Or hadn’t they been listening?

And then I remembered that to me, also, these once were piecemeal stories. Accounts I knew very well… but I didn’t know how they fit together. I was probably well into my teens – or beyond – when I saw that the Bible reveals, in orderly progression, God reaching closer and closer to mankind, with a purposeful plan that will culminate in the final closing of the gap between Him and us, forever. The whole thing made a lot more sense when I saw it that way. And, if I might say it, God did, too.

Have you discovered the big picture yet? If not, here are a few suggestions…

Get a Bible timeline. Our local Christian bookstores likely have charts available. Or go to http://www.sundayschoolresources.com/timeline.htm to view one online. It’ll help place biblical people and events in sequence and perspective.

Read the Bible through. Yes, clear through. You can do it. Get an easy-to-understand version, pick it up in your spare time instead of the latest Christian novel, and take it in beginning to end. Or, if this is too daunting…

Find a good, chronological children’s Bible story book, and read it cover to cover. Don’t be embarrassed to read on their level – it might be a lot more fun and informative than you imagined. And you might as well get one with good illustrations!

Why go to all the trouble? Why make the extra effort to know when God did what He did, and how it all fits together? Well, if you’ve been struggling to trust God’s faithfulness, or hungering to know His heart, or wrestling with doubts about His love for you, or feeling insignificant in the overall scheme of things, it can help a lot to see what He’s been up to over the last several thousand years. How much you have been on His mind and in His heart.

Because He did it all to get close to you. It’s right there in the Bible. Read it for yourself – all of it.

The Call to Order

The very word “order” connotes somebody in charge. Somebody with a plan. Somebody with the power to make it happen.

“God is not a God of confusion and disorder but of peace and order (1 Cor. 14:33 Amp).” And He’s always been that way – just look at the creation of the world. He made something out of nothing. Brought order out of chaos. Meaning out of randomness and confusion.

If He’s really that kind of God at heart, that tells me a few things:

1. He doesn’t just want order in our church services. He wants it in our lives, our ministries, our homes, our relationships.
2. Where you and I are concerned, He’s very intentional. He knows where He’s going with each of our lives, if we’ll give Him permission to carry it out. And why shouldn’t we? One look at creation tells us He can be trusted to pull off something better than we could have done – or imagined.
3. He doesn’t need a lot to work with. Our insufficiency doesn’t hamper Him; the improbability of the situation doesn’t hinder Him. He’s got a history of making something from nothing, with no help from anyone else.

If these things are true, then I guess we could bring anything to Him – that chaotic job situation, the hopelessly confused marital relationship, the decision that pulls us in three different directions, anything and everything that breeds disorder and confusion in our life – and expect Him to dispel the ruckus and overwhelming helplessness, and restore order and peace. To implement a plan. To take charge. To change our world – or change us.

So why don’t you and I let Him do it… today?

Constructive Criticism

Pastor Rick acknowledged Sunday that some criticism was almost certain to come his way in response to his treatment of the topic at hand: the gift of tongues and its application in the church today.

I believe that the Lord led him to a balanced, thoughtful, and Scriptural approach, and I don’t have any criticism to offer. However, so as not to disappoint him or others who were braced for it, I do have a two constructive criticisms to offer… on other topics, and not my own observations. You might say they were overheard, and I am passing them on, for whatever good they might do us (for it is said that in every criticism there is at least a grain of truth).

The first came my way some months ago when my husband Dave, still an elder at the time, was give the elder-job of contacting a lady who had stopped attending FAC. (The idea is to let the people know they’re missed, find out what is keeping them away, see if there is anything we can do as a church for them, etc.)

When Dave got off the phone, he shared with me the reason this person had switched churches. “She said we were too serious about our relationship with God.” I smiled. It was constructive criticism, all right, well taken. It constructed in me a gladness that FAC is dead serious about knowing God personally and walking in a way that pleases Him. And it shows when people come to visit.

I overheard the second criticism while sitting in my pew one Sunday morning waiting for the service to start. Two people behind me were discussing Epic Faith, and one commented on an acquaintance who had attended one of their services. “He didn’t like it,” she reported. “He said it was too friendly.”

Once again I jumped for joy inside. Oh, I understand that maybe this man was shy or trying to hang back and check things out, and just wanted to be incognito… but what an encouraging critique!

Too serious about God… too friendly to visitors. Those are charges that shouldn’t be ignored. They should be celebrated! And may the grain of truth in them multiply and be fruitful!