I’m home. I got in yesterday at 7:30am and spent a great day with my family. Today is a family day too. Next week I will get back in the saddle with everything, and part of that will include some blogging about what I learned on my trip. If you want to see the pictures from each day you can click here. But, for today, here is a thought that really struck me out of the Word today.

In Job 20:22 Zophar, Job’s friend, is speaking of the wicked and says,

In the fullness of his sufficiency he will be in distress, the hand of everyone in misery will come against him.

How true. When we are fully sufficient, when we have it all under control, when we have erected our perfect little world all by ourselves, that is the time that we are truly in distress, usually without even knowing it.

That verse can also be translated as “In the accomplishment of his sufficiency…” The problem is, of course, that we can’t accomplish that. We can’t fill ourselves up. We can work out every detail of every moment of every day. We have to rely on God for everything, realizing how little control we really do have, and handing over the reins of our lives to Him.

One thing that I learned in my travels to Israel is this; God is much larger and more majestic than my mind can come close to conceiving. Therefore, I must place my trust more and more in Him every moment of every day, giving up all that I am, to become more like Him.

The last two days I have really been reminded about how giving in to small temptations and conceding in small areas will ultimately make you lose the war. Sunday we were studying Nehemiah 13 and it is shocking how far the nation of Israel was able to fall away from God in such a short amount of time. Over a short span of years they went from respecting the Sabbath so much that they wouldn’t buy anything on it to working on the Sabbath themselves. They went from cleansing themselves of foreign (ungodly) influences in the beginning of the chapter to embracing those influences near the end of the chapter. The shift is remarkable.

As I was teaching this I was reminded and convicted about how we need to guard what we value and doggedly fight against anyone or anything that tries to get us to make small concessions. In the church planting world this is called being mean about the vision, where you are willing to fight and defend the vision that God has given you. Sometimes that means having difficult conversations, sometimes that means stepping on people’s toes. But, guarding the vision that you value so dearly is worth paying those small prices so that later it will yield the great dividends that God has in store.

If you think about it, we need to hold everything we really value in this way. We need to doggedly guard our families by guarding our time, our attitude, and even our outside relationships with friends. We need to guard our faith and relationship with Jesus by being in His word and spending time with him. We need to guard our health and not make concessions for every desert that makes goo goo eyes at us.

I am convinced that each and every one of us must know what we hold most dear and fight for it daily, making sure that we give nothing away, and that we don’t lose a single moment to wasted time and opportunity.

Just a thought… any thoughts from you?

Last night in our Home Gathering we were studying Nehemiah 8 and had a decent amount of discussion about verses 8 and 9. It says:

They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading. And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, “This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn or weep.” For all the people wept as they heard the words of the Law.

For most of the people gathered (in Nehemiah 8), this was the first time they had heard God’s word and actually understood it, and their response was amazing; they were so moved by the Word that they all wept.

When is the last time you read your Bible and it so deeply affected your heart that you wept?

I read this passage and I want that. I want to be so moved by the Bible that my heart is pierced and broken. I want to be so moved that I am forever changed by each encounter with the text.

If the Bible really is God’s message to His people, if it really is living and active, if it really was inspired by Him that brought everything into existence simply by speaking a word, then why are we so rarely moved to tears when reading it? Shouldn’t we be humbled every time we read a verse? Shouldn’t we be in awe of how each word has been so miraculously preserved and translated so that we can actually understand it?

In my home I have a least 10 Bibles. Before the invention of the printing press a village was lucky to have one. So I have to ask myself, how would a Christian in say 400 AD respond to having their own copy of the Bible? I think they would read it for hours every day. They would drink it deeply, absorbing it to a depth that few of us can imagine. They would memorize whole chapters and books, not just verses that make them feel good. But what really gets to me is that they would take is seriously, as a tremendous honor to be able to read and understand God’s word to His creation.

I hope and pray that I can have that kind of passion for my Bible. And, I can only hope that my heart will be broken by it as well.

So, when was the last time reading your Bible made you weep? What passage touched you in that way?

I have decided that I don’t like eating breakfast while reading through Leviticus. For those of you that think that sounds odd, here is a taste of this mornings reading from Leviticus 7:

“This is the law of the guilt offering. It is most holy.  In the place where they kill the burnt offering they shall kill the guilt offering, and its blood shall be thrown against the sides of the altar. And all its fat shall be offered, the fat tail, the fat that covers the entrails, the two kidneys with the fat that is on them at the loins, and the long lobe of the liver that he shall remove with the kidneys. The priest shall burn them on the altar as a food offering to the LORD; it is a guilt offering.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t find that to be the most appetizing reading. The truth is, there is some stuff in the Bible is just nasty. There is a lot of stuff in it that is hard. And, it calls us to do all kinds of nutty, counter intuitive stuff as we follow Jesus.
Maybe its time that we stop looking at the Bible as the “Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth” (just typing that made me more nauseous than Leviticus ever has), and  embrace it for what it is; God’s plan for all humanity and His difficult call to live for Jesus. The call is messy and hard, but following Jesus is so worth it!

This morning I was reading Matthew 13 and was struck by verses 16-17:

But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. For truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.
Matthew 13:16-17 (ESV)

I read this passage and one thought hit me, all of the prophets and righteous people of the Old Testament longed to know what we know about Jesus and likely would have given their life to learn the  teachings that I take for granted.

I love my Bible, but in truth, reading it sometimes becomes a chore and a duty rather than a thrill and a passion.

Too often I read the words but am left unchanged as though God weren’t present within His living word. Too often I have allowed someone else to teach me as an inactive participant rather than opening my mind and heart to His life changing message as an engaged worshiper. Too often I have read His word without remembering or embracing the power and authority that it holds. And, too often I have allowed the business of this life to fool me into thinking that I don’t have time to read the very words that bring life.

I can’t / won’t do that anymore. I find myself longing to see and hear. Yearning to know and understand just a little more of God than I did before. My line is drawn, I am moving forward.

Let me start by saying…I’m tired. I have three jobs, two kids (in diapers), one (loving) wife and an insane amount of things that need to get done by next Friday. My guess is that many of you can feel my pain. Even though I’m sure the pressure that you feel is different, my guess is that it is likely to the same degree.

The fact is, we work in a very fast paced world that is performance oriented and demanding without apology. The fact is that somewhere inside of this craziness that we call life, God has a plan for us and we must seek to follow Him. So, how do you follow God’s plan for your life in the midst of a high demand, performance oriented, suck-the-life-out-of-you society? Well, basically I think you just suck it up and follow Him.

Let me explain from Haggai 2.

At this time in Jewish history the Jews have just come out of Babylonian captivity. They returned to Jerusalem and started to rebuild the temple (knowing it was first priority). They flaked out, became selfish, and now 16 years later the temple is still in ruins. Then Haggai comes on the scene as the first prophet in about 85 years and kicks them around a little in chapter one. Now, in chapter two they have started to rebuild the temple again. They are only four weeks into a four year building project and they are already burning out because there is so much work to do. Here’s what Haggai has to say.

Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, declares the LORD. Be strong, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the LORD. Work, for I am with you, declares the LORD of hosts, according to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt. My Spirit remains in your midst. Fear not.
Haggai 2:4-5 (ESV)

Be strong. Or as I read it, suck it up.

God calls us to tough things. If following God were easy, we would have no need for His guidance or the presence of the Holy Spirit. But, God asks us to think big, to live large and to follow His plan.

When following God’s plan for our lives gets tough my advice is, be strong and keep going, fueled by the very presence of God that drives out fear and despair.

Check out this post on the need to stay strong. I happened on it after beginning work on this post, funny how God works.

It is hard to hear God. I listen, but it seems like sometimes I miss the message and find myself grasping for direction. I recently heard someone say that ministry is as simple as listening to God. I think this is true, and I think this explains why ministry is not easy.

A few days ago I was reading in 1 Kings 19 when an alternate translation of verse 12 captured my attention. This is the account of Elijah waiting to hear from God.

And he said, “Go out and stand on the mount before the LORD.” And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper. And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And behold, there came a voice to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
1 Kings 9:11-13

The alternate translation of verse 12 replaces “a low whisper” with “a thin silence”.

The words “thin silence” help me imagine Elijah standing in stark silence with a keen awareness that there is something deeper and more powerful present. I think understanding this means realizing that the silence isn’t empty space between activities, but an opportunity to cut through the distractions of this world and hear the very heart of God.

Thinking of God’s presence in this way helps us to remember that He is continually present and offering direction. It is our job to break into, and then listen through the thin silence so that we can hear and follow His leading.