Rest Area Ahead!

I have been thinking about waiting on the Lord and what it means to wait. So often I grow impatient for the fruition of the plan that God vision that God has given me and confirmed for me, especially over the last few years.

I remember Moses who was impatient to be about the task God laid on his heart to be an advocate for his people Israel. Many of you remember the story how he took matters into his own hands and in the process of trying to do the right thing ended up becoming a killer and had to flee the courts of Egypt to save his life. He spent forty years in the palace of the Pharaoh only to spend the next forty years of his life tending sheep in the wilderness. It was only after eighty years had passed that God deemed him ready to lead the nation of Israel out of captivity and begin their journey to the promise land. He led his people for the next forty years of his life. It is interesting to note that a full two thirds of his life was in preparation for the last third of his life.

Then I turned my attention to David and how he waited fifteen years after he was anointed to be the next king of Israel before he sat upon the throne of his tribal family Judah. It took another seven years before he would rule a united kingdom of all twelve of the tribes of Israel.

I have to admit that I feel a little anxious thinking that I might be taking longer then Moses or even David to learn my lessons for the next phase of my ministry. Do you ever feel that way? Anxious for the next thing? Perhaps we are wishing our lives away.

I would encourage you to learn to rest in the Lord while you wait. Yeah I know easier said then done. I’m still struggling with this. Perhaps the problem is that I’m struggling! But I am reminded that God offers everyone of his followers a Sabbath Rest. His rest comes with a heaping helping of His shalom. (We often translate this word into the English word – peace. But it is so much more than that it is a fullness and contentment of the soul that leads to the Sabbath rest that the writer of Hebrews speaks about.)

There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God – Hebrew 4:9

I desperately want to enter into that rest today. To allow cares and worries to fall away and rest in the arms of God safe, secure and at rest being content at what He has for me and for all who seek to find rest unto their souls!

Heading to the next Rest Area

Pastor Val

Out of Left Field

Have you ever noticed how often God answers our prayers in the most unusual way?

Recently I’ve had a number of experiences where I cried out to God for someone in need, in need of help for myself, or even encouragement during an extremely difficult time. He has answered my requests just not the way I expected him to. For those of us who are Christ followers, if we were honest, we would have to admit that more times then not – no make that most of the time God never answers our prayers the way we think he should.

While musing on this fact I started calling it God’s left field answers!

Now the phrase "out of left field" is popular vernacular (first attested in 1961) meaning "wildly unrelated to the subject being discussed", and "out in left field" means "a little crazy". One theory involves the "Death Valley" in Yankee Stadium circa 1923–1988. During this time period, the shape of the outfield in Yankee Stadium roughly approximated an oval, with the "long" portion pointing to left-center. A left-fielder would thus typically be stationed further back from the action than the center or right fielders, as he would have a greater amount of ground to cover. Hence, "out in left field" meant one was furthest from the action taking place at home-plate, and the most likely to draw erroneous, fanciful conclusions about that action. Another, likely apocryphal, theory is that this refers to the popularity of seats in right field at Yankee Stadium while Babe Ruth was playing that position; buying a seat in left field would have been "stupid". Another theory is that this arose at Chicago's second West Side Park, home of the Chicago Cubs from 1893 to 1915. After the Cubs moved to what is now Wrigley Field, the West Side Park property eventually became the home of the University of Illinois College of Medicine. The U of I built its Neuropsychiatric Institute building in what had been left field. A fourth theory is derived directly from the experience of players. A runner attempting to score from third base will have ones's [sic] back to left field, thus a throw to the plate "out of left field" can arrive seemingly out of nowhere as a surprise to the runner. (My thanks to Wikipedia.org)

When I pray I often imagine how I think God should answer my prayers. In fact I find that I often try to plan out all of God’s actions for him. After all I think I’m a fairly intelligent guy and I can’t imagine why or how God could come up with a better solution to the problem then I’ve envisioned. Then God answer my prayer and it rarely happens how I planned it all out!

I’m once again reminded of God’s greatness and his complete otherness to me, and the rest of humanity. I need his gentle (and sometimes not so gentle) reminder of the lack of a vacancy in the Trinity. That his plan is better by far then ours could ever be.

Isaiah 55:8-9 (NIV)

⁸ "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD.
⁹ "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

So Lord please keep answering my prayers out of left field

Pastor Val

Reconnecting to Your Network

This past week I’ve had nothing but computer problems on not one but three different computers! One was a simple fix of renewing my antivirus software. But the website wouldn’t recognize me so I couldn’t login for a couple of days until I could get logged into my account and pay for the renewal.

The second computer caught a bug that stopped me from being able to connect to the internet except for a website that wanted to sell me a fix to my problem that they had caused by their Trojan virus. That took a couple of days to fix with the help of another computer and downloading a free fix that worked when the computer ran in the safe mode. Now in all fairness it could have been fixed sooner but I’m not an expert so it takes me a while to think through everything and come up with an action plan.

My last computer problem was the death of my backup battery for the cmos in the third computer. Now replacing a battery isn’t a big deal but upon reconnecting the computer to all the wires and cords I discovered that I was no longer able to find my intra-net at the office. So for the last few days I’ve been able to use the computer and surf the World Wide Web but I’ve been unable to get to any files on the server or use any printers other than the one directly connected to my computer.

First I tried to fix the problem myself being the great computer guru I am (see my comment above) and after failing miserably I eventually called my friend and computer expert. “Together” we discussed my dilemma over the phone and he tried to help me. There were a number of small but necessary changes that we made to the operating system hoping to get the computer reconnected to the intra net but to no avail. Finally he suggested that I try refreshing my modem and router to see if that might solve the problem.

It DID! I was ecstatic and my friend was able to get rid of my annoying phone call.

Sometimes we forget that we need to refresh our connection with God and with community in general. Have you been feeling disconnected lately, perhaps your battery needs to be replaced, or maybe you have been infected with a virus?

If your battery is low your operating system won’t work and life will not boot up. If you have caught a virus your life will be infected and your life won’t run smoothly and often things just won’t work right. You will need to run a Biblical scan of your life and scrub it clean. Finally if you have had a problem with your life and you are trying to access your heavenly server, don’t forget to reboot your entire system so that you will be able to reconnect with God.

Scanning my life with the Word

Pastor Val

Royal Wedding

This weekend over 3 billion people witnessed (estimate based on yahoo news) the wedding of Price William and Kate Middleton. Almost 2000 guests witnessed the exchanging of vows in Westminster Chapel. What I found interesting was the choice of who was invited to the event and who was excluded. While many high profile people were invited a number of important political people were excluded including President and Mrs. Obama, the president of France and two former prime ministers of Great Britain. Additionally the Syrian ambassador was uninvited to the royal wedding due to Syrian government using lethal force against pro-democracy protesters.

Jesus talks about a wedding banquet and continued to teach on the subject of who is invited and who is ultimately excluded from the banquet in the third book of the New Testament entitled

the Gospel of Luke. You can read the story in Luke 14:15-24. It tells of a banquet where people are invited but are too busy to attend. So the banquet giver invites anyone and everyone who will accept his invitation to come and attend the feast.

The wedding banquet motif is further enhanced with another story Jesus told found in the first

book of the New Testament, Matt 22:1-10. In this story the king throws a party for the wedding of his son but the guests not only don’t want to come they absolutely refuse to come, mistreat the king’s servants and some are even killed. So the king invites anyone and everyone (other than the original invitees) to come and celebrate the wedding. It appears that he goes so far as to even provide garments for some of the less fortunate guests to wear to the banquet.

Both of these stories help to describe the coming Kingdom of God and the wedding feast that will one day take place. There is coming a royal wedding the likes of which will blow away the pomp and circumstance of William & Kate’s.

Bible calls this the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. Rev 19:5-9. The church is the bride and Christ the bridegroom. I’m looking forward to day when the bridegroom comes to take his bride to the party!

The celebration will be epic!

Pastor Val

Who do you relate to in the Easter story?

Each person in the story reacts to the story in a different way and we often relate to one or more of these people and the way they respond to the circumstances they faced 2000 years ago. The cast is large and the responses are varied.

The disciples as usual don’t represent a single unified front to the situation. Nine of them when push came to shove simply melted away in fear and concern for themselves rather for their teacher and his teachings.

The youngest disciple had connections and was able to get into the court to follow the events as they unfolded. Ultimately he was there at the crucifixion and death of Jesus Christ; the only one of his 12 apostles who remained true to the end of his master’s earthly life.

The leader of the disciples tried to defend Jesus but had poor defensive skills and ended up denying out of fear for his own life, not just once but three times before he realized what he had done and fled in disgrace

One chose to betray his leader. Perhaps he became disillusioned by the Jesus because he expected a different kind of leader then Jesus ended up being. Many people were looking for someone who would answer all of their political problems and Jesus didn’t fit into any know political party of his time. Some looked of a military leader who would solve their problems by force but Jesus spoke and taught spiritual peace. Perhaps Judas was just an opportunist and got a better offer from the priests.

The priests were enemies of Jesus for he threatened not only their political power but just as important they spiritual authority. While these alone were reason enough to cause their hatred of Jesus it was the fact that he challenged their very core religious beliefs and understanding of who they were (the chosen people of God) pushed them over the edge.

Mayhap it is the crowd who you relate to. Crowds are unique and can take on characteristics all their own. People in a crowd will do and say things that they will never dream of doing individually. It has been pointed out that the crowd in Jerusalem was rather fickle; first by trying to declare him King and a week later being swayed to demand his death by crucifixion. They accept the guilt of innocent blood not only on themselves but also their descendants.

For political expediency Pilate tries to placate the popular political agenda. And he believes that he can wash his hands of innocent blood, as though by wishing it so he can free himself of his responsibility and guilt.

Now the Roman soldiers were considered the best soldiers in the world. They also were skilled practitioners of torture. For them crucifixion was a normal punishment for anyone who rebelled against Rome. As for the beating of Jesus, well first century punishments were brutal. After all these men were “just obeying orders” even if it was an unfair verdict and false justice.

The Centurion was a man who followed his orders and yet in the end recognized who Jesus was and proclaimed him the Son of God.

The thieves on the cross also reacted to Jesus that day. One thief rejected him and cursed him while on the cross. The other recognized who Jesus was and chose to believe in him and his kingdom. That very day the repentant thief experienced the Kingdom in the presence of the King.

The women at the cross followed their King all the way to his death. Faithful from the start until the end these women not only believed in Jesus and his message they supported this itinerant teacher regardless of his popularity and poverty.

A final person in this drama is that of Jesus, himself. He experienced betrayal at the hand of a close friend, forsaken by his closest friends. He didn’t like his immediate future but chose to be obedient even though it meant separation from His Father, death. He chose to die for your sins, failures and mistakes as well as mine even when we were enemies in rebellion to him and His Father. He chose to express His love in the most incredible way by dying in our stead.

So who are you like? What person best portrays your personal response to Jesus this Easter? Unfortunately I find that at times I find a mixture of all of these characters in my response to Jesus and his death.

But thank God, He raised Jesus on the third day! And by trusting in him and his finished work we are raised with him!

He is risen – He is risen indeed!

Happy Easter!

Pastor Val

Correctly Handling the Word of Truth

I was disappointed today by a favorite author. I have enjoyed this man’s writing and teaching for years. Perhaps I identified with him because he has challenged the old guard in some of their outdated ideas of what constitutes appropriate Christian behavior. Perhaps because he brought a fresh understanding to Scripture passages.

But to day I found a glaring flaw in his writing and I have to say that it pointed out several important truths that I have learned over the years. The most important is that all leaders are flawed and are sinners. As such they all have weaknesses and sins that they struggle with. Being tempted to ignore these flaws has been the ruin of many leaders and their flocks.

As a leader of God’s flock we are commanded to correctly explain God’s word to those who have been entrusted in our care. Woe to the pastor who wrongly teaches their flock incorrectly.

It is tempting to interpret passages through the lenses of our own pet system or our hobby horse. But our job is to correctly handle the Word of Truth.

¹⁵ Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. 2 Timothy 2:15 (NIV)

This means that we can’t take verses out of context, neither can we chose to misrepresent the original language words to suit to “prove” a point. We need to carefully look at the text and correctly exegete the passage. At times this will mean that we will have to change our views on a particular subject rather then do harm to the text or the context.

I’ve had to do that over the years – change my views on a particular subject (or even two). You see that is correctly handling the Bible. It’s called being conformed to His image and transformed by the renewing of our minds. To put it more simply it is living in obedience.

I’m sure that you are wondering what I was reading and what did I find wrong with it. Well let’s just say that isn’t the issue of this blog. There have been plenty of people banging on this guy over his book, some for good reasons and some for wrong reasons.

The more important issue is that we need to be careful with choosing teachers who are honest with the Word of God and for those of us who teach we must be honest with our flock, with ourselves, our study and our God.

With fear and trembling

Pastor Val

Who’s Your Donkey?

We have all heard of how easy misunderstanding can happen in cross cultural events. Sometimes gestures can mean one thing in one country and entirely different in another (sometimes very embarrassing differences!)

This past fall I got to experience a new culture as I traveled to India to teach in a pastor’s training school. I got to experience what I can best be describe as the “Indian head wobble.” Now in America a head wobble means either uncertainty or a response of “so-so” but in India it means OK, yes or I understand.

While I had heard of it prior to the trip I experienced it first hand while going through a variety of security check points. Imagine my uncertainty as an Indian solider looked over my visa and passport and gave me a non verbal response of a “wobble.” I stood petrified like a Medusian statue uncertain if I should move to the next line or not.

During the class session imagine my concerns when asking if they understood a concept and received dozens of “wobbles!”

Now imagine my further chagrin when following a Q&A session I learned that I had blown off a question because I misunderstood the significance of the implications in the Indian culture!

I was asked the meaning of the donkey in the triumphal entry story in Luke and had answered that sometimes a donkey was just a donkey. (How Freudian of me!) You see in India animals are held in different esteem then in the United States. During a break my translator explained some of the significance to me and I insisted that at the beginning of the next session I apology to the class and ask my translator & good friend Naveem (pictured with me) to address the question.

You see even thought the caste situation in India is changing many people groups still feel the effects of being considered inferior. The donkey was a beast of burden that needed to be released and brought to Jesus. In India there are many people who are considered little more than beasts of burden that need to be released by someone and brought to Jesus. These believers were being challenged to seek out those who were still in bondage to the old ways and release them from their burdens and bring them to Jesus.

That day in class Naveem asked them “who is your donkey?” Who is it that Jesus needs you to go and in Jesus’ name release from their bondage and bring them to Jesus?

This Palm Sunday that’s my question to each of us – “Who’s your donkey?”

Have a great and awesome Triumphal Sunday!

Pastor Val