The sermon that I heard at church this morning has just really stuck with me since then. No matter what I'm doing I have thoughts and ideas and Scripture from it rolling around in my head. So, I decided to write a bit about it and see if that helped me make sense of it all. That being said, I make no promises about this post making a lot of sense. I hope that it will, but I'm not sure because I'm still thinking this through as I write it.
At church right now we're coming close to the end of a series in the Sermon on the Mount. It's been a really good series. Today was on Matthew 7:7-11.
Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! (NIV)
The pastor this morning was talking about how we can often take just the first two verses out of context and see them as saying that God will give us anything we ask for. But if you look at the rest of this passage and the rest of Scripture it's quite clear that that's not what Jesus is saying here.
Jesus is talking about how when we ask God for good things, He gives them to us. God wants to give us good gifts, but we have to ask Him.
If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given to you. John 15:7
You do not have beacuse you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with srong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. James 4:2-3
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6
The key in our asking things of God is that we be connected to Him - that we be acknowledging Him in all areas of our lives. Then what we ask Him for will be things that He wants to give us.
The part that really struck something with me was when the pastor started talking about how one of the things Scripture tells us to ask God for is the nations - that they would come to God and be restored.
May the peoples praise you, I God; may all the peoples parise you. May the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you rule the peoples justly and guide that nations of the earth. May the peoples praise you, I God; may all the peoples praise you. Psalm 67:3-5
The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to persih, but everyone to come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9
If my people who are called by name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked way, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7:14
God desires for us to pray to Him and ask for the nations to return to Him!
That seems like a huge goal and a huge request. And it only happens as we allow ourselves to be completely transformed by God so that we can make a difference in our corner of the world - in our school or workplace or apartment building or neighbourhood. As we allow ourselves to be transformed, we change to world around us.
We are called to not only allow ourselves to be transformed, but we are also called to pray for our world. Nothing is impossible for God . . . what we need to do is ask!
So, this is where I've been thinking since this morning. How am I doing at praying for the salvation of the world? Of the city and region that I live in? Of the people in my apartment building?
Honestly, it's not something I've thought a lot about ever. But, the more I think about it, the more I realize that this is what I need to be doing. World transformation and salvation happens through the people of God getting on their knees and praying - asking God to do it! It doesn't happen by anything we can do on our own!
I must say, this morning really challenged me to make this a part of my prayer time regularly. Rather than something that I just think of from time to time, it needs to be a part of my journey with God . . . because that is how the world will be changed!
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Friday, April 11, 2008
hiding
Lately I've been thinking about the whole idea of hiding. Not so much in the physical sense . . . but in terms of hiding true selves from others.
Growing up I often felt like I had to hide who I really was when I was around "church people". I grew up in a family where how we appeared to other people at church was very important. I remember many a Sunday morning where we would argue and disagree all morning, but about a block from the church we stopped and it was smiles on everyone's faces and everything was "good" if someone asked. It was normal for me. And, as I've learned for a lot of my friends at the time too. It also meant that when you were struggling with something you couldn't really talk about it with people, except in fairly general terms.
As I got older, this "hiding" of how I was really feeling and how I was really doing became so normal for me that I didn't even have to try anymore. I just did it. To this day, there are still some weekends when I'm heading to church or Alive that I fall into the same pattern of everything begin fine even when I've had a awful day or week. It's been ingrained in me since I was a little kid. It takes some serious time and work to change something like that.
I first realized how hard a facade like this could be to keep up when I went to Briercrest and lived in dorms. Not only did I live on a hall with 22 other girls . . . I also shared my room with one of them. For the first month or so I really did keep up my facade 24/7. It was how I was around other Christians . . . up to that point there were very few people who had gotten to know who I was underneath everything I put up at church.
But, after about a month of living behind this front, I came to the realization that I couldn't live for another seven months like this and then come back the next fall and do it again. It's tiring to always pretend that everything's good. I also had some girls on my residence hall who really weren't happy with my "I'm fine" answer everytime they asked how I was doing and they lovingly pushed to get past that . . . and as a result became some of the best friends I have from my time at Briercrest. My two years at Briercrest taught me a lot about allowing others to see the real me and know what was really going on in my life.
And I hoped that would change things when I got home. And it did for a while. But, back in familiar territory and with my family around again and still operating this way much of the time, I pretty quickly fell back into old habit. The only real difference being that now I craved those friendships where the other person knew what was really going on. And so I sought out a few friendships like that and continued to learn and grow in it all. But, I could always escape back to my parents' house (where I was living) and no one would really have to know what was going on if I didn't want them to.
Almost six months ago though, I found myself in a living situation more like what I had at Briercrest. I moved into an apartment with three friends. Three friends who knew more of what was really going on under the facade that I could put up, but they still didn't know it all. Not only that . . . my current roommates are three people who know how to read me even when I'm pretending that everything's fine. Needless to say, it's really hard to live behind a facade in this situation. And, while it drives me crazy at times, I know it's good for me.
So, all this has got me thinking about how good we, as the church, have gotten at hiding. Think about it for a moment . . . how many people sitting around you in a church service are really doing "fine" even though that's what they tell people . . . probably fewer than would admit it to someone else. We live in a culture that prides itself on being self-sufficient individuals and we don't want help from others with anything.
But, this journey that we are on as followers/disciples of Christ was not meant to be made alone. We were created to live in real community with one another. The kind of community that comes when we give people permission to really enter the mess that our lives are - when we allow them to be a part of our struggles, of our battles with sin, of our sorrows, of our joys. This doesn't happen when we hide behind a facade at church. This happens when we honestly answer the "How are you?" question. When we say that we are not doing very well, if that's the truth. When we say that we are doing well, if that's the truth.
Obviously, we don't have to pour out our entire life story to every person in the church. But, we need to stop being afraid of being real - of being honest about where we're at. All this hiding really does us no good. It causes us more harm because we're left to deal with everything on our own and sometimes it's just too big for us to carry it all on our own.
Growing up I often felt like I had to hide who I really was when I was around "church people". I grew up in a family where how we appeared to other people at church was very important. I remember many a Sunday morning where we would argue and disagree all morning, but about a block from the church we stopped and it was smiles on everyone's faces and everything was "good" if someone asked. It was normal for me. And, as I've learned for a lot of my friends at the time too. It also meant that when you were struggling with something you couldn't really talk about it with people, except in fairly general terms.
As I got older, this "hiding" of how I was really feeling and how I was really doing became so normal for me that I didn't even have to try anymore. I just did it. To this day, there are still some weekends when I'm heading to church or Alive that I fall into the same pattern of everything begin fine even when I've had a awful day or week. It's been ingrained in me since I was a little kid. It takes some serious time and work to change something like that.
I first realized how hard a facade like this could be to keep up when I went to Briercrest and lived in dorms. Not only did I live on a hall with 22 other girls . . . I also shared my room with one of them. For the first month or so I really did keep up my facade 24/7. It was how I was around other Christians . . . up to that point there were very few people who had gotten to know who I was underneath everything I put up at church.
But, after about a month of living behind this front, I came to the realization that I couldn't live for another seven months like this and then come back the next fall and do it again. It's tiring to always pretend that everything's good. I also had some girls on my residence hall who really weren't happy with my "I'm fine" answer everytime they asked how I was doing and they lovingly pushed to get past that . . . and as a result became some of the best friends I have from my time at Briercrest. My two years at Briercrest taught me a lot about allowing others to see the real me and know what was really going on in my life.
And I hoped that would change things when I got home. And it did for a while. But, back in familiar territory and with my family around again and still operating this way much of the time, I pretty quickly fell back into old habit. The only real difference being that now I craved those friendships where the other person knew what was really going on. And so I sought out a few friendships like that and continued to learn and grow in it all. But, I could always escape back to my parents' house (where I was living) and no one would really have to know what was going on if I didn't want them to.
Almost six months ago though, I found myself in a living situation more like what I had at Briercrest. I moved into an apartment with three friends. Three friends who knew more of what was really going on under the facade that I could put up, but they still didn't know it all. Not only that . . . my current roommates are three people who know how to read me even when I'm pretending that everything's fine. Needless to say, it's really hard to live behind a facade in this situation. And, while it drives me crazy at times, I know it's good for me.
So, all this has got me thinking about how good we, as the church, have gotten at hiding. Think about it for a moment . . . how many people sitting around you in a church service are really doing "fine" even though that's what they tell people . . . probably fewer than would admit it to someone else. We live in a culture that prides itself on being self-sufficient individuals and we don't want help from others with anything.
But, this journey that we are on as followers/disciples of Christ was not meant to be made alone. We were created to live in real community with one another. The kind of community that comes when we give people permission to really enter the mess that our lives are - when we allow them to be a part of our struggles, of our battles with sin, of our sorrows, of our joys. This doesn't happen when we hide behind a facade at church. This happens when we honestly answer the "How are you?" question. When we say that we are not doing very well, if that's the truth. When we say that we are doing well, if that's the truth.
Obviously, we don't have to pour out our entire life story to every person in the church. But, we need to stop being afraid of being real - of being honest about where we're at. All this hiding really does us no good. It causes us more harm because we're left to deal with everything on our own and sometimes it's just too big for us to carry it all on our own.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
spiritual disciplines
So, I've been think a lot about what we call spiritual disciplines lately. It was spurred by a book I just read called Contrarian's Guide to Knowing God. The premise of the book was that maybe, for some people, the way that we have typically told them to spend time with God doesn't work for them because they don't think or operate that way.
It really got me thinking. I'm one of those people for whom the read a passage in your Bible, maybe journal about it a bit, and spend some time praying works for most of the time, because that fits with my personality. But, I think about my sister . . . trying to do that is just about impossible for her. She can't sit still and concentrate on something like that for any significant amount of time.
Or take the sermon portion of our services . . . how many people do you know who can really sit there and listen for that long and do nothing else? I can probably about 75% of the time . . . the rest of the time I have problems with that. And my sister . . . forget it! And she's grown up in the church and has done it all her life. But, I talk to her and she's never gotten anything out of those sermons when she's had nothing else to do but listen. So, then she starts drawing or sketching while she listens to a sermon . . . and gets something out of it for a change . . . and someone tells her that it's disrespectful for her to do that during a sermon. Excuse me! I've seen her drawings from when she's listening to a sermon . . . they very often relate to the message and are her way of making sense of it and learning from it . . . same idea as those who take notes during a sermon. What is wrong with this? Different kinds of people learn different ways. We have realized that in schools . . . why can't we realize and accept that in the church? Our one-size-fits-all approach doesn't work. Will we ever learn?
OK, end of rant.
The thing that came up when I was reading this book that really got me thinking was when the author started talking about the whole idea of some spiritual disciplines being helpful for a season and then not as helpful for a while. As I look at my own life, I can see that as true. There are some things that I have done for a time that have been tremendously helpful then, that I don't do anymore because they aren't as helpful to me right now. Not that there is anything wrong with these spiritual disciplines . . . just that they aren't how God is speaking to me for this time.
I have often wondered why we took something that is not specifically commanded in the Bible and made it the basis by which we measure spiritual growth. Yes, the Bible talks about and emphasizes our need to grow and develop in our relationship with God. But, it doesn't lay out a prescriptive course of action that we are to follow to a "t". The Bible describes what people did and emphasizes the importance that we don't try and do it all alone. But, no where does it say that to grow spiritually we have to get up early in the morning and spend a half hour or an hour in Bible reading and prayer. Are there examples of people who did that? Yes! Does it say that we have to do exactly the same thing? No!
Can I just challenge you today to think a little bit outside the box? Rather than trying to fit everyone into the same box when it comes to how we relate to God and grpw in our relationship with Him, let's allow people to do that in a way that works for them. Provide them with encouragement and ideas, but don't try to prescribe for them what they should do. It doesn't work.
It really got me thinking. I'm one of those people for whom the read a passage in your Bible, maybe journal about it a bit, and spend some time praying works for most of the time, because that fits with my personality. But, I think about my sister . . . trying to do that is just about impossible for her. She can't sit still and concentrate on something like that for any significant amount of time.
Or take the sermon portion of our services . . . how many people do you know who can really sit there and listen for that long and do nothing else? I can probably about 75% of the time . . . the rest of the time I have problems with that. And my sister . . . forget it! And she's grown up in the church and has done it all her life. But, I talk to her and she's never gotten anything out of those sermons when she's had nothing else to do but listen. So, then she starts drawing or sketching while she listens to a sermon . . . and gets something out of it for a change . . . and someone tells her that it's disrespectful for her to do that during a sermon. Excuse me! I've seen her drawings from when she's listening to a sermon . . . they very often relate to the message and are her way of making sense of it and learning from it . . . same idea as those who take notes during a sermon. What is wrong with this? Different kinds of people learn different ways. We have realized that in schools . . . why can't we realize and accept that in the church? Our one-size-fits-all approach doesn't work. Will we ever learn?
OK, end of rant.
The thing that came up when I was reading this book that really got me thinking was when the author started talking about the whole idea of some spiritual disciplines being helpful for a season and then not as helpful for a while. As I look at my own life, I can see that as true. There are some things that I have done for a time that have been tremendously helpful then, that I don't do anymore because they aren't as helpful to me right now. Not that there is anything wrong with these spiritual disciplines . . . just that they aren't how God is speaking to me for this time.
I have often wondered why we took something that is not specifically commanded in the Bible and made it the basis by which we measure spiritual growth. Yes, the Bible talks about and emphasizes our need to grow and develop in our relationship with God. But, it doesn't lay out a prescriptive course of action that we are to follow to a "t". The Bible describes what people did and emphasizes the importance that we don't try and do it all alone. But, no where does it say that to grow spiritually we have to get up early in the morning and spend a half hour or an hour in Bible reading and prayer. Are there examples of people who did that? Yes! Does it say that we have to do exactly the same thing? No!
Can I just challenge you today to think a little bit outside the box? Rather than trying to fit everyone into the same box when it comes to how we relate to God and grpw in our relationship with Him, let's allow people to do that in a way that works for them. Provide them with encouragement and ideas, but don't try to prescribe for them what they should do. It doesn't work.
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