Seismic Shift
When the mountains and valleys slide
When the whole world’s waters collide
The quaked fountain glides in the yard
Stone cats guard while real sheepdogs sleep
Stretched out across the dreaming deep
Mary weeps breaking jars of nard.
From his book A Pastor Prays for His People
Blessed Redeemer, beautiful Savior,
Author of all grace and comfort.
We approach you with the deepest reverence—
not with any presumption, nor with servile fear—
but with respectful boldness—because of your gracious invitation.
In the days of yore, you met the invited penitent at the mercy seat.
There the sprinkled blood was a covering for sin.
Today, our needed blessings are to be found at the throne of grace.
Here it is that we find grace in every—every—every! time of need.
It is easy for us to elaborate our needs, as trouble upon trouble piles up on us:
fragmented friendships,
hostile relationships,
adversarial conditions,
financial roadblocks,
family nightmares,
unanswered questions.
Some of these heartburning situations have plagued us without relief,
and we have pled with you to alleviate—
yet still we wait for a divine answer.
Lord, we have nowhere else to go but to you,
and so we again cast ourselves upon your mercy.
Maybe you delay because of the insidious sins
we tolerate or turn a blind eye to!
Galatians tells of good old Barnabas and influential Simon Peter who were
captured by flagrant hypocrisy.
Maybe that’s our sin today—protection of self—
desiring the approval of the crowd rather than God.
Father God, it will take a detergent as strong as the blood of Jesus Christ
to wash away that sin.
We confess with tears all the times we played the hypocrite
and curried the world’s favor—in the world’s place—
and tried some face-saving, self-serving falseness around God’s people.
Forgive us, Lord, as we pray now for deliverance from such sin.
Thank you, Father, help us to never again indulge in hypocrisy.
In the name of Jesus, the way, the truth, and the life.
The element of surprise on each of our STAMP trips to Russian summer camps was the campsite itself. There was the camp at a school where the water was turned off every afternoon. Or the camp in an old Soviet Young Pioneer camp with huge fallen trees resting on rickety cabins (including ours). Then there was the site which was simply an open field in rural Russia. They called it "Russia extreme" and many of the camp leaders were curious to see how we American Christians would handle it.
At this camp, without running water period, the camp cook cut the bottom off an empty five-gallon water jug, turned it upside down, lashed it to a tree, filled it with river water, and created a handwashing, dishwashing station—you just had to remember to open the cap exactly right to prevent water from gushing out.
Considering what happened next, it's a good thing that jug was fillled with river water, not drinking water.
I headed to the water station to wash my hands after arts and crafts, waving to the cook prepping the evening’s meal under the food tent. At the station, I unscrewed the cap. Oh, oh, just a bit too far lefty loosey. I quickly tightened the cap and tried again. Oh, oh, more water poured out.
It was in between attempts number four and seven, as I quickly closed off the makeshift tap, trying to spare the precious water for uses other than my hands, I began to laugh each time the cap fell into my hands and more water poured out. As amusing, embarassing and clumsy as it was, I figured my hands were clean, so I did a grand puddle stomp in the mud puddle I created, looked up, waved goodbye to the cook and went on to join the next activity.
That evening, the camp director (a friend from our previous STAMP trip) mentioned the washing station incident to me. She had heard about it. An apology for wasting water was on the tip of my tongue, but she continued, “The camp cook watched you the whole time, waiting for the American to get impatient and angry about the water. Instead, he saw you laughing at yourself. That impressed him. He said that Russians have a hard time laughing at themselves.”
I think it’s more universal than that. Adam’s fallen race doesn’t like to laugh at itself. When we laugh at ourselves, it’s a blow to our self-importance; it’s a blow to our pride; it’s a blow to carefully crafted reputations.
The apostle Paul didn’t write “laugh at yourself” to the Philippian Christians, but he did write, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or empty conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.” (Philippians 2:3)
Self-importance, pride and reputation aside, sometimes, honestly, I'm unintentionally funny. There's general acceptance that laughter is good for our physical and emotional health. It's good medicine, but it isn't the cure for Adam's fallen race. The cure came when Jesus "emptied himself of all but love, and bled for Adam's helpless race."
One closing note on laughing at oneself—according to my mother, if we laugh at ourselves, we always have something to laugh about. There are days when I am a never-ending source of comic relief.
Two prayers from Prayers for Every Occasion by Ellen Elwell
World Leaders
Sovereign Lord, you are God over all the nations of the whole world. . . and yet you are personally engaged with each one of us. This brings us comfort and hope—not just for our personal circle of family, job, friends, and activities, but also for world events. When we hear about developments in countries we're not familiar with, we're grateful you wield supreme power there, too. You hold the whole world in your hands as lovingly as you hold each of our individual lives.
This prompts us to pray for world leaders around the globe. You created each of them, Father, and you alone know their hearts and minds. History records heads of governments who followed you and were instrumental in bringing your righteousness and justice to various situations. History also records leaders who didn't know you, yet whose hearts were directed by you nonetheless.
Please help each of these select few to make wise choices that ultimately honor you and honor the people they serve. And even if they don't make choices that seem wise, we acknowledge that you remain supreme Ruler of the world. Thank you, Father, that you are always in control.
National Leaders
Sovereign God, you are the ruler of all nations and all people. No king, prime minister, president, or other authority governs without your consent. History is full of both good and evil rulers, and that is the reality of our nation's legacy too. Thank you for leaders of the past who submitted to your will, people who valued justice, mercy, and service as their high calling.
Lord, I pray for those who lead our nation today. May they guide with wisdom, understanding, care, and humility. Move in their hearts in ways that only you can. Give them a desire to serve, fortitude to stay true and honest, and wisdom to gather knowledgeable advisors around them. Remind us of our duty to pray for and submit to these authorities, even when we do not agree with their beliefs and policies. Should times come when we must obey you rather than our rulers, give us courage to stand up and wise words to speak. You have promised to give us your help in such times.
May our nation flourish under godly leadership that only you can provide. In Jesus' name, amen.
The first commandment is a pretty direct imperative from our Lord.
“You shall have no other gods before me.” (Exodus 20:3)
A clear vertical command, no other gods before me. It doesn’t leave a lot of wiggle room.
The thing is, I like a little wiggle room. The competitors for space in my soul, the place where God wants to reside fully and freely, are more welcome there than I care to know or admit. I’ll confess, there are many, and all are horizontal, encroaching on God’s first commandment space. Yet I persist in thinking that they are all good.
And most of them are. Good books. Reading. Good coffee. The best chocolate. Late summer harvest. In terms of time, the creation and consumption of media. These are just off the top of my head.
I started thinking about this in relation to the first amendment of the U.S. Constitution. I'm not sure what brought it to mind, probably all the political reporting. The first commandment and the first amendment. I liked the juxtaposition, the pairing of the phrases and it got me thinking.
A quick civics class refresher of the first amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
This is a good thing. There is much to love about it. For a news junkie and one who is sometimes mistaken as a member of the press, freedom of the press is kind of a thing for me. This is especially true when I monitor the persecution of Christians in countries where the press is not free to report. Free speech is definitely not a universal right, but one that we and our neighbors all enjoy and maybe even take for granted.
And the freedom of religion—I find great hope that our forefathers did not establish an official religion. That means I can freely believe and follow Jesus, as can other people. Seeing majority religion countries enshrine one religion as official leads often to them aiming their ire at minority Christian citizens and churches. Established state religions so often seem to turn faith into history, regular people seem to abandon them in daily lives. These are cautionary reflections when I look in the mirror and see myself and my home.
In the course of our political and social upheaval these days, I wonder if my citizenship in the country where I was born carries more weight in my heart than my citizenship in heaven, where I am a son of the most high (and humble) king. I hope not.
You may have seen the campaign signs “Jesus 2020” on the internet or in social media, maybe even in your neighborhood. This is a strange mixing of the horizontal and vertical. I kind of like it and I kind of don’t, but it’s interesting.
The idea came from some women at the Sampey Memorial Baptist Church outside Montgomery, Alabama, when their community was in COVID-19 quarantine. They wanted to make something that would point people to Jesus.
“We don’t see Jesus' name out there,” said Joyce Hubbard, one of the women in the church who made this happen. “We’re going to put him out there. He’s the one that doesn’t lie to you, who keeps his promises.”
This church gave away more than 7,000 signs and then the website they set up sold 30,000 more across the nation (as of three weeks ago). They don’t mean for us to start a write-in campaign. It’s not literally political. They're trying to point people to Christ.
It's the secular and sacred, the horizontal and vertical, constantly colliding. Life gets messy like that.
Lorraine and I got into the car one Sunday afternoon a few weeks back, and the classical music station WFMT was on. As we drove, I interrupted Lorraine’s talk. “Isn’t that a hymn?” I asked.
We turned up the volume.
“It is,” she said. Sure enough. It was a contemporary setting on piano of “I Surrender All.”
It brought back memories of altar calls and televised Billy Graham Crusades, walking the aisle to give everything to Jesus, to surrender everything over to the loving Savior.
All to Jesus I surrender
All to Him I freely give
I will ever love and trust Him
In His presence daily live
All to Jesus I surrender
Humbly at His feet I bow
Worldly pleasures all forsaken
Take me, Jesus, take me now,
I surrender all
I surrender all
All to Thee my blessed Savior
I surrender all
All to Jesus I surrender
Make me Savior wholly thine
May Thy Holy Spirit fill me
May I know Thy power divine
Surrendering all to Jesus is more than an item on my Saturday to-do list It's a faiithful choice to focus on the Savior of the world instead of the things of the world. In last Sunday’s sermon, Pastor Ben Panner said, “In our hearts there is spiritual adultery against God. …He demands and he deserves full allegiance, full devotion, full loyalty. …God will not share space with anyone.”
Jesus, why do I let so many idols in when you gave everything that I might have your peace, your life, your all-devouring grace. Help me surrender over the spaces of my heart to make more room, actually, to make all the rooms of my life, open and filled with only you, not the cares of this world, the little sins I like, the good and noble causes I fight for, or my favorite coffee in the world.
(It’s Kenya; thank you, Jesus, for making it.)
As we scroll through the news, it’s easy to feel that everything is falling apart, until we remember who God is.
A prayer by Wendell Hawley
Majestic God, who extends mercy,
We acknowledge your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ,
as our only Savior, the Preeminent One.
He is the Creator of the earth
and all that lies therein.
He is the governor of the universe,
Judge of the living and the dead,
Head of the church,
Savior of sinners.
Sovereign Lord, your greatness is unsearchable.
Your goodness is infinite.
Your compassion unfailing.
Your mercies, ever new.
You are altogether lovely—superior to all things.
You are our only refuge,
our only foundation,
our only hope,
our only confidence.
Grant us, in our brokenness and fear,
to gather courage from the fact that you hold all things together.
Open our eyes to see the fullness of your excellence.
Remove the lopsided and distorted images of Jesus
that weaken our worship
and hinder our obedience
and prevent our growth.
We try to shoehorn our desires and wishes into circumstances and attitudes
that are ill-fitting to those who claim your sovereignty.
We are afraid to let go of that which we mistakenly think we control for fear
everything will fall apart—
when in reality, you, the Supreme One, hold all things together.
Help us to grow in the knowledge and conviction of your preeminence,
letting you take reign—
in our home,
in our business,
in our plans,
in all our relationships.
We pray, O Lord, that as we confess our sins,
your wonderful forgiveness will wash over us,
cleansing us from all unrighteousness.
Thank you, Lord Jesus.
Four children are a far cry from the forty we typically welcome the first Sunday of the school year. But we still had Kindergarten Bible school this past Sunday—not play time, not childcare, but real live Bible school, masks and all.
We made a cotton ball sheep craft, searched for lost coins, watched the Gospel Project’s story of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son. We had some help from Fred the sheep in retelling the story, sang a song and and started telling the missions story about a boy in a land with no Bible. The only thing missing was the Goldfish crackers.
On Friday, we came full circle to a different reality.
Glenn Deckert, who serves with his wife, Ann, Lorraine and me in organizing the Friday prayer meeting for the persecuted church, began his prayer sheet this week with some jarring prayer requests.
1. Children in war-torn lands like Syria and Yemen or those of displaced families as in Nigeria and Burkina Faso who have missed years of schooling as they have had to move from place to place.
2. Children in places where they are forbidden to have religious education of any kind as in China and Tajikistan.
3. Children who have lost one or both parents as in Syria and Mali, and those who have lost limbs or eyesight from bombings and devastating Islamic attacks.
4. Those who as early teenage girls have been kidnapped, forcefully converted to Islam, and sexually abused and/or married to much older Islamic men, as in Pakistan, Egypt, and Nigeria.
These requests for children hit hard as I read through them and kept seeing the faces of the children we had the joy of teaching for the first Sunday since March 8.
In the King James Version, Luke 18:16 reads, “Jesus said ‘Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not; for such is the kingdom of God.’”
Suffer little children. No, Lord, we don’t want little children to suffer these atrocities. Suffer, no, Lord, we don’t want anyone to hinder these little ones from coming to you.
And then another dimension of this hits me with new force in an email from one of our persecution-focused ministries. They reported:
Boko Haram Is Recruiting Young Children in New Drive
09/15/20 Nigeria (ICC) Boko Haram continues to plague Nigeria and the Lake Chad region with extremism and violence. Recent research has shown that the group is increasing its efforts to recruit children. They recruit younger children to act as suicide bombers, and older children, many of whom are already victims of the group’s violence, as soldiers or suicide bombers.
HOW TO PRAY
• Pray for protection for vulnerable children in this region.
• Pray for Boko Haram leaders to come to know Christ.
• Pray for protection for local Christian communities from attacks.
Horrifying. But the prayer request for Boko Haram leaders to come to know Christ is worth taking seriously. Imagine all those lost sons in Nigeria running into the Father's open arms, repenting and receiving forgiveness. And as we pray for this kind of faith and repentance, why limit our prayers only to Boko Haram?
Let us pray for China and its President Xi Jin Ping and North Korea and Kim Jong-un and his sister Kim You Jong.
Let’s pray, too, for the Christian families in places like China and Tajikistan, who face the dilemma and challenge of teaching their own children about Jesus and being charged with a crime.
As contentious and difficult as our pandemic situation is, our children are free to come to our church and learn about Jesus. We are free as Kids’ Harbor leaders to teach them about Jesus. Parents can point their children toward Jesus. It’s rough going for us with school options this season, but we were free to teach our children the glorious truths of Scripture last Sunday. And with that, there is much joy. (Parents, we're ready for your kids! In eight days, all grades open up.)
As we enjoy the freedom to openly teach our own children at College Church, let us give thanks to God for each one of the little hearts for theirs is the kingdom of God. And not our kids only, but the hearts of children facing so many different challenges across the globe.
Jesus is not far from any of this. He had words of woe for those who do harm to the little ones. KJV "suffer" means allow them, don't forbid them; yes, children, come, come. Good Shepherd love—a harbor, a refuge, a light for every child in every country.
“Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.”
Pray with me. May revival come soon. Yes, Jesus loves them.
Logistics. Details. I love the planning. I love it when a plan comes together. I know it might be labeled under the category of really weird, but I also know there are others who get what I’m saying and are, right now, mentally raising their hands and saying, “That’s me.”
On my commute to work, I often listen to my audio Bible. I push play as I back out and start to listen as I drive. On one recent commute, I was making my way through the books of Leviticus and Numbers, and even I get bogged down with the details, the numbers, and dare I say, the boring logistics? Most of us might skip past these chronicles of logistical significance. I know I have on several attempts.
The counting of the males over the age of two months for the purpose of numbering Israel by tribe or tallying the number of men over 20 who can fight for Israel. Or the exact measurements of the tabernacle and the tabernacle furnishings, colors, type of fabric or metal, weights. And what about all the commandments and ordinances that Moses passed along to the Israelites? The “do this” and “don’t do that” commands. The many types of offerings (burnt offering, grain offering, sin offering, wave offering, fellowship offering, peace offering and yes, I googled to name just these—too many to remember); the multiple festivals; offerings for the individual, for the family and for the tribe; which parts of the animals were clean versus unclean; how to offer them and under what circumstances. I’m overwhelmed. I could never remember every detail!
About halfway to work, I start to wonder how would you move a crowd this size? The order of the tribes as they marched out of camp to follow the cloud of God by day and the fire by night. The men alone numbered over 600,000, so adding in women and children, it would be like moving, at a minimum, the population of DuPage County (over 922,000 in 2019) at a moment’s notice. Moses, are we staying here for the day or for the next month or the next year? Can you imagine the logistics of providing food and water for a crowd of this size?
So, as I plow through these two books of the Bible, I wonder why do we need these specifics recorded for us? I plan and write out my plans for an event or a project, but I certainly don’t expect them to be passed down through time. Matter of fact, completion of a project heads to the paper shredder. So, why?
Three things come to mind as I ponder.
God is a God of order. The examples I’ve mentioned boggle my mind in terms of keeping order, and yet highlight to me the importance of order to pull off something so massive. Plan your work; work your plan. He is a God of details, right down to the tedious, to the very fiber of each tabernacle curtain. How this gives me comfort as he orders the details of my life.
God is a God of provision. As God laid out the laws, he gave protection through his commands about what foods to eat and not eat, sometimes just to expect obedience, but also to protect the Israelites from illness and death. He provided laws which governed a vertical relationship with him and horizontal relationships among the people as a whole and in the family. He provided them with the land on which to live and assigned them according to the sizes of their tribes and what the land could sustain. He provided his people with leadership to guide them in his ways. He provided sustenance and the clothing on their backs and shoes on their feet. He provided a means by which the Israelites could be spared from their sins—through sacrifices and offerings.
God is a God of grace. It’s this that becomes an overarching theme for me. I am humbled by the staggering requirements placed on God’s people at that time. As much as I enjoy details, I cannot get my head around all that they had to remember to offer sacrifices pleasing to God, to gain his favor, to satisfy the holiness of a jealous God. And I think that’s the point.
The standard is impossible; the burden too great. We can’t do it on our own. I am awed by the gift of a perfect sacrifice who paid it all for me. I don’t have to remember when and how and what, but I do need to remember the who and the why. My sinful nature requires atonement that allows me to stand in the presence of a holy God.
My God has ordered the universe to provide his Son as the ultimate sacrifice that extends incredible and amazing grace that saves me from me and provides for my eternal home.
This is the real answer of why—his immeasurable, overwhelming and awesome love for me, for his redeemed people.
I arrive at work, but stay in the car for a few more minutes awed by God's unbelievable work over the ages, but more specifically, for me as I start this day.