O Lord, what is man that you regard him,
or the son of man that you think of him?
Man is like a breath;
his days are like a passing shadow.

This right here should start us on a track toward proper worship of God. By worship I mean both corporately (in church, singing, preaching and praying) and privately (singing, studying and praying). I believe that all of these are of the same substance. We should approach them with the same sentiment, language and posture. One does not boogie dance to music, look pious and clingy in prayer and then studious and critical in study and claim a consistency of understanding of what worship really is. In support of this argument, one of my all-time favorite verses:

Romans 12: 1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

This post will be sort of ramblish again in quality, but I’m trying to capture the point of an important subject. Notice: I’m not targeting CCM or Standing-up-hands-raised or other controversial practices (I have no good judgment to offer on these in general). I’m targeting the Mentality, not the Mode. Correct the approach to worship and the mode of worship should fall right into place. Once we’re looking at God the right way, we’ll see the right way to worship him and we’ll be more suited to discern between the man-pleasing pop that’s making people ooh-ah and what makes God say “Exactly Right, faithful servant.”

Think about that. What would God say in return to appropriate praise? If we got it right, would he go “awwwww!? soooo special, good job baby!” Or would he simple nod gravely and affirm it, “Precisely, child, you have cast me in the right light and I am pleased to hear you.”

I’m thoroughly convinced (convicted and intellectually inclined) that our God approves most, if not exclusively of reverence, humility and awe in our worship. He is not “Buddy Jesus” who wants us to pal around with him and “draw close” in a familiar sort of way.

Based on my own antinomian, health&wealth tendencies (I think many of us have these no matter how hard we strive not to), I cannot say I am completely converted to the proper form of worship. And, though God can certainly with no trouble at all fix this, I ‘m pretty sure I’m not gonna be truly “falling on my face in worship and humility” before our Lord until I’m actually in His presence in heaven.

Here is what God is looking for in the practice of worship: Holiness.

What does holiness mean?

Here’s the Dictionary.com answer:

I found this at Precept Austin:

The Hebrew word for holiness is  kadesh which means something which is cut off, separate or set apart.

And this is quoted from Tozer at the same site:

Holy is the way God is. To be holy he does not conform to a standard. He is that standard. He is absolutely holy with an infinite, incomprehensible fullness of purity that is incapable of being other than it is. Because he is holy, all his attributes are holy; that is, whatever we think of as belonging to God must be thought of as holy

That basically means to me that when we worship, we pray, praise, revere and examine the qualities of God. We call upon him for our sustenance, our hope and our faith. He upholds us and we depend on the greatness of him, which is his immutability, eternalness, omniscience, omnipotence and so on all of which is HOLY. It is to be feared and revered. We trust him and believe in him and love him with a reverence that has no comparison to the things we love on earth. We don’t love other people like this. That love for other people is closer to our love of things and ideas than it is to a true love of God.

When we worship God, we are worshiping the Creator of all things who was not made. All other things we “worship” are just that — things. They are created. People, toys, money, all are creations. So there should be a marked difference, a FANTASTIC difference between how we relate to God and how we relate to everything else.

Our prayers, our singing, our spoken praise and our approach to the Word of God must be with clean hands, clean hearts, the weight of God’s immense glory bearing us down to the ground, on our knees, faces to the ground. We should be coming to him in a sense of profound awe at our state of being forgiven, the Thing he has done for us, the things he has promised us. We should be struck dumb at the awesomeness of God.

I suggest these for a little bit of an idea:

You’ll see that worship is not filled with anything that’s mushy-gooshie like the love junk that’s passes around most days in our churches. In a sermon recently, our pastor referred to the god who entertains such garbage as the huggy god.

I think a proper (high) view of God demands a proper view of worshiping him. In the Bible, here’s what that looked like:

2 Chronicles 29: they sang praises with gladness, and they bowed down and worshiped.

Nehemiah 8: they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground.

Nehemiah 9: they made confession and worshiped the Lord their God.

Job 1: Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped.

Matthew 2: they fell down and worshiped him.

Matthew 14: those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

Revelation 5: the elders fell down and worshiped.

The Lord’s prayer is the example provided upon request by Christ. That should suffice enough for the prayer portion of worship, in content and structure. We can follow its progress through without crossing the line of impropriety and outright disposal of the absolutely prostration-worthy glory of God. OBTW: I really like the King James Version for this one.

Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

They did NOT sing the sentiment-dripping seeker-sensitive drivel that we hear on the Christian Self-Help Radio today. Here’s a quote from an article on singing from Sproul’s website, ”

These “Jesus-is-my-boyfriend” types of songs can be sacrilegious or profane. While it is true that Scripture portrays the church as the bride of Christ, that imagery is collective, apocalyptic, and creational. It is not romantic, erotic, or sentimental, as such.”

How can we get sentimentally mushy over a God who is the Most Holy One, Creator of Heaven and Earth? What drives us to reducing our speech and song to childish gibberish, foolish repetition and silly puns before him? We don’t grovel and snivel at his feet, licking and murmuring with self-serving promises of fealty as Golem did with Frodo at the brink of Mordor and we don’t sidle up to him with a “side-hug” just fresh from the locker room and go “Good game!”

David did this one in Psalm 139:

Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me.
If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light about me be night,”
even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is bright as the day,
for darkness is as light with you.

This passage has remained one of my favorites. Even before I was saved I held onto this (though I had no clue why, at the time). My friend, Steve Smith turned me on to a group called the Violet Burning when we were teens and they had a powerful rendition of part of this verse. I believe it is a good picture of how we can dare to come before the throne.

At night I hear the sound
Of two hearts breaking
In the light I see the scars left behind

Through my tears I know
One thing remains
You, always you

I’ve held the hand of fear
In the night I was shaking
I drank the cup of sorrow
The taste so sweet on my lips

I am nothing
I am nothing
Unless you make me more

If I descend into the depths of hell
You will find me
And if I climb above the stars
You are there

Through my tears I know
One thing remains
You, always you

I am weak
I am nothing
I am tired
I am torn in two

I’ve seen the lonely people
Crying out in the night
Screaming out for shelter
From the storms of this life

There is just one thing
That remains
You, always you

If I descend into the depths of hell
You will find me
And if I climb above the stars
You are there

Through my tears I know
One thing remains
You, always you

A couple things brought me to think for a few about our mission here on earth. Brief forays into some popular evangelists and recent studies at church and home have brought me to this:

What is the chief and highest end of man?

Man’s chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully to enjoy him forever.

Romans 11:36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

1 Corinthians 10:31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

Above is the Westminster Larger Catechism’s first question and answer. Two reference verses are provided along with the answer.  If you’re interested in more about this, hit the link: Westminster Larger Catechism.

I’ve heard discussion that Catechisms and Confessions are way to Catholic or that they are Man Made or Legalistic junk. This is simply not true, though applications of these resources can certainly be Legalistic with little effort. The facts are that the Catechisms and Confessions are the same thing as if God gave us a written test that required us to put into our own words the Truths he has provided in the Bible. They are a distillation of doctrines that are found, widespread, throughout the Bible.

So, back to the subject at hand, I did a simple search at the ESV website (because that is a Bible translation I find to be as plain English as possible without going funky, cultural or relevant in the process) on glorify.

Click here: GLORIFY

The search found:

23 verses containing glorify.

And all those references were God and Jesus, just for extra credit.
Men glorified God because of what God did to them or for them. Men were commanded to glorify God in their bodies, in all that they did. Christ glorified the Father; the Father glorified Christ. Men glorify God because of his mercy, the Gospel, because of salvation, because of God’s deliverance, because God alone is worthy.

So my conclusion is…

Is God glorified through me? Is his glory evident in my life?

Am I seeking my own glory?

There are a number of evangelists and churches out there who teach about a God who is glorified by glorifying his people. These preach a message that, in essence, God is not glorified more than when his people are prospering, shiny, happy, self-sufficient, healthy, well-dressed, affluent, positive, sparkling.

Wait.  That last one was a reference to some vampire thing, I think. Did that slip in there somewhere? LoL. Side humor, I guess.

Back on topic.

Too many are churches and preachers who are glorified by the numbers they amass to themselves; who are communicating the disease of self-glorification through use of the Name of the Most High One. Too many of us believe that we bring glory to God by doing stuff that generally improves our personal situation and lives. This has two effects on the people who do not believe.

1. They are attracted to the show and treats offered by these self-help, family-improvement institutions and become well polished pieces of art, pock-marked by flaws that are glossed over with the diamond-hard shellac of superficial self-glorification. Look great, feel great, shot full of holes and dying. They come seeking and find what looks good on the outside and conceals horror on the inside

Matthew 23:27-28 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. 28 So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.”

2. They are repulsed by the completely apparent stupidity of a faith group that claims to be God’s Children, who cannot defend their faith, falter under the first heavy storm in life, clearly fake the miracles, love people to death in hugs and money but do nothing for the soul. Some seekers seek the truth, and they are graced enough with sense to see the absolute inconsistency and corruption when they see it.

Matthew 23:27-28 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. 28 So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.”

I, we, are still under this spell, I think; us post-modern/post-baby-boomer/generation-Y children. We instinctively seem to expect that God will provide, make a way, sugar-coat our lives.

B.S. and I mean it. We have it backwards. Look at the verses again. We’re not doing God a favor by pursuing Glorifying. We’re not getting paid for it.

Romans 12:1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

We owe, not for payment for Services Rendered, but because it is our role as creation. God made us for that purpose.

A friend ran this through the media stream in my direction:

“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” (Galatians 5:22)

This stuff, right here, is not decoration to make us prettier (though it does just that), nor is it meat that makes us more substantial (though it also does just that). This stuff, the fruit of the Spirit, is what glorifies God, for it is the very characteristics that we should have as the righteous, properly conformed-to-his-original-design creatures that we should be.

Here’s the rub: We can’t do these things on our own and call it glorifying God. God installs these things within us. He takes our intellectual grasp of the fruits, which we vainly attempt to bring about on our own. He takes the understanding and brings it alive in us (re: Holy Spirit) so that we realize the real reason and method and application of the fruit. He makes it clean and pure fruit; sweetness and fragrance directed solely at Him.

No longer do we love others so that we can get their love in return. No more happiness based on those around us. No peace, patience, kindness, gentleness so we can get along well with others. No more goodness, faithfulness based on our own capacity and definition. There is freedom from legalistic and self-flagellating self-control.

Because we love others only because we see God’s love for them and how it glorifies him. Because we find happiness within our relationship with God, which transcends all worldly and bodily hardship. Because we find that peace, patience, kindness and gentleness only serve to Glorify God who alone has the right to vengeance and has demonstrated, through his own works, especially through Christ, that these are greater than fire and hell. Because goodness and faithfulness are found in God, through God and by God’s definition and point directly back to him. Because we constantly strive to limit ourselves from our sinful tendencies in order to glorify God more as the fruit of the Spirit fills the void left by our tidied minds and souls.

In summary: We must find a church, a preacher, a pastime all that focus not on the numbers or the miracles or the benefits of this pseudo-gospel; instead pointing entirely to God, calling us to holiness and the real Gospel which produces people devoted to glorifying the Most High.

As a pastor said, back in Cuba: “O Lord, that they see less of me and more of Thee.”

Short prayer, though I’m not so into praying over the intertubes.

Lord, I can’t seem to make this fruit thing work. I think I understand, through your Word, that I cannot, though I am sure to go back and try again with my own power. Lead me, through my failures, to turn to you for the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control that should be apparent in my life. Lead me, through my successes, to realize that all of it is of you, through me, but entirely of you, for your glory and nothing more. Make my poverty your glory, my destitute spirit rely upon you for all things because all things must glorify you. Keep me from me and turn me to thee.

Lead me to be

what my beloved most needs

what my children most learn

what my church most should have

what the world should most see

Lead me to be

a lover of you

a servant employed

with but one chief end

your fame my sole joy

A very quick two-point-3 thoughts for today.

PART 1:

An article I read inspired a single question: Where is the reverence that should accompany any interaction with our God? Why, when we do whatever it is that we do in the world, is God at best considered a buddy with whom we share the popcorn bowl in front of the idiot-box. Of course, more usually, we don’t even acknowledge his existence when we kneel at the altar of our worldly garbage. Duh. Because he’s not on the throne, the garbage is. Even more depressingly real is that, when we are directly involved in God’s things (Church, Bible study, prayer) where is that which should accompany the Most High, the Alpha and Omega, the Author and Master?

Incredible that Tolkien could muster up such feelings in his masterpiece, the LOTR; or the Catholics in their incredible cathedrals and whatevers. But we have seemingly none of that in 99% of our daily lives.  Who’s first here?  I’m ashamed.

I mean, what’s this happy-go-huggy thing we have for God? He doesn’t do coffee with us. To my understanding, Moses didn’t pal around with the Voice in the burning bush, or do some belly dance thing as he tried on the veil before getting down the the serious business.

Genesis 3:14 – God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”

Where is our sense of wonder?  Like when you see the Grand Canyon or Pike’s Peak?  Or out in the middle of the Pacific without land for hundreds of miles, under the stars?  God is bigger than all that, and greater.

And the seriousness of the cross.  We don’t take that up daily, do we?

I’m not getting into some sort of self-beating mood here, where it all needs to be serious all the time with a bunch of penitent station-walking, bead counting misery and humiliation.  I’m just saying that there’s a lot of that reverence and holy-silence sort of thing missing.  The clutter is really building up and the sanctuary is getting hard to find in all the swap-meet trappings.

PART 2:

The pastor unpleasantly reminded me of two things that have bothered me for a long time. I’ve slipped into a semi-comfortable oblivious state regarding them.

The abomination that we are planning to officially, openly embrace in our miltary. I am obligated to obey the commands of those appointed over me. They are becoming increasingly closer to what we should consider unbiblical. Repeal of the Don’t Ask-Don’t Tell is a clear statement, clearer than ever before, that it’s okay and we all condone homosexuality as acceptable and right. For the record: I don’t.  For the record:  the job has brought many disappointments, but this latest one? I’m ashamed.

Yep. I understand that it’s not a Christian organization. I get that in regards to citizenship we are all, regardless of etc. etc. etc. supposed to be free to whatever.

I suspect that things are going to change drastically and the clash is gonna be more than we’re ready for.  I know this is yet another attack on the integrity of the faithful.  And it’s not cool.  Even so, Lord, come quickly.

I am trying to imagine my feelings when they tack the First Servicemember to get an award for celebrating diversity or for support of LGBT efforts “reflecting great credit upon him/herself and in keeping with the highest traditions of the U.S. Navy.”

Finally, part 2 of part 2:  Prayer in the Service. Tell a representative of the One True Faith that he cannot pray in the name of the source of that One True Faith. Plain English: Why, again, can’t we pray in the Name of Jesus Christ? Once more, of this institution, I am ashamed.

I am convinced, though many insist this is a Christian Nation, we are not.

I’ve been reading Sproul, Schaeffer, MacArthur, Paul, Peter, Luke and a bunch of other stuff.  I listened to Chuck Colson on the radio, along with Chuck Swindoll, John MacArthur, R. C. Sproul, Dr. David Jeremiah and a host of others (Though I think the local Christian radio station essentially stinks here, being negligent in their commercialism and foul in their screening of advertisers, they do feature the above teachers on their daily casts).  I’ve seen a bit of internet blogging and video as well.   You could say I’m really looking for some answers.

One answer that I feel is most important, so much so that if one were to stop reading this post after the next two sentences, all would be complete.  I have found there is a need for people to hear this and hear it good:

“You are going to argue; you, are going to argue, with WHO?  The Creator of the universe took the time to specially design you, personally pen you a complete, unobscured revelation of Himself, suffer for you on the cross, die for your sins, you profess to believe all this (or not, either way is moot), and you.  actually.  intend.  to disagree with His viewpoint?  Beg pardon?”

Basically, I’m feeling an itch on my foot and it sure seems to be inclined toward shaking the dust off…

I have seriously begun to try wading through the apparent morass of dispensational vs. covenant theologies, and I don’t think I’ve got far with that.  The basic reason for this theological dissection is that I’m from a pretty much dispensational baptist sort of background, intend to attend a reformed presbyterian church (PCA, not PCfrUitS-And-nuts) and I’m informed of the serious difference in ecclesioeschasoteribaptiologies.  There is so much scholarly work on both sides and I can’t seem to make sense of either one.  I am suspicious that this whole debate must be over a mystery that the Lord has not yet uncovered for our amazement or that we just can’t get along.  One thing I will note is that in my reading so far, the dispensies seem to be leading the way in meanness, but that doesn’t mean much since I may well have just not come across their covenant peers-in-arms.

I have seriously continued to try wading through the personally discouraging morass of learning how to love others as the Lord commands.  This has such miserably limited tangible results that I count myself a fairly washed-up washup.  I don’t think I know how to do it.  I pray.  I try it all with as much peace and patience as I can muster, and leave the rest to the Lord.

I see less worth in the worthless things around me.  I see more worth in that which brings less worth in this mortal span.  I am broker than broke, but His richness surpasses my sorry state.  I am tired and feel lost, but when I look to him, which is not often enough, I am alive and feel strong.  I need prayer and not just from those praying for me, but my own prayer.

Why?  Prayer isn’t a magic wand, getting us what we want.  It isn’t a toolbox that, when the right words are pulled from the drawer, gets the Lord convinced to help us out.  Prayer isn’t a self-motivation exercise that allows us to help our selves so that God will help us.  Prayer doesn’t get us those things just cause we do it.

Prayer is a continuous dialogue with our Creator and Master who has deemed it worthwhile to join us in conversation that flows from us in words of praise and adoration, desire and dream, penitence and remorse, fear and devotion, reflecting back upon Him the glory, sovereignty, omnipotence, grace, love and perfection that He already is, only this through our recognition, which essentially magnifies and glorifies Him all the more.  We get what we want not because we want or we need but because He is gracious, sufficient, loving and capable of providing.

We pray this each night before bed, and I strive to take this literally, with the fullest I can grasp of its scope and magnitude:

Our Father, (There is only one, this one, no alternative, not just God, but our Father that surpasses all fatherliness on this planet; the sole example of what father really is.)

Who is in heaven, (Holy and separate from us yet we know where you are.)

Hallowed be your name. (So holy and separate, revered even at just the mention of your name.)

Your kingdom come (Not that it should or that we want it eventually to get there, but that it already has, and will continue to come, acknowledged and awaited.)

Your will be done (Let it be done, make it so, we know that it is and has and shall be, and we acknowledge it with welcome arms.)

On earth as it is in heaven. (Let there be no difference, let us see it here and believe it here and with no question that there is any difference between your methods there or here.)

Give us to day, our daily bread, (For what more can we ask, those daily things that prove our breath and our pulse; and let us keep our mind on these simple things, knowing that all else can be counted as waste on our bellies.)

And forgive our sins (For we are sinners, no doubt that we are, and we have no recourse but to turn to you, you for forgiveness, for restoration, for fitting back onto the course when we have fallen.)

As we forgive those who sin against us. (May I never, never ask for your forgiveness, when I have not let go those offenses against me.  I make your sacrifice, your salvation, a mockery when I in my self-righteousness come to you for that which I will not give my neighbor.)

Lead us not into temptation (Take us far from it as the East is from the West.  Drive us from temptation  with every step we take.)

Deliver us from the evil one (Let me never worry that I have fallen into his nefarious grasp, rather, prevent me from my inclinations toward his ways.  Prevent me from denying you, from placing myself before you in authority, in reverence, in motive.)

For yours is the kingdom (Always and forever, there is no other.)

And the power (There is no power in existence that can twitch even a flicker of a shadow upon your supreme sovereignty.)

And the glory (And there is no glory but your glory, and may I take my need for pride solely  in that fact, that you are my God and your glory is my chief aim in my existence.)

Forever and ever (None of what I have just prayed shall ever change in tone or in value for all eternity.  While I am here on this earth and there in your presence, what more is there to pray?)

Amen. (And that’s final, period, I can say this prayer again, but it really does have the finality of it all built right in)

I have seriously been struck by my lack of discipline, lack of reverence and plain lack of obedience in my little life.  I’ve seen the light in some major areas and am a Penitent Man therewith.  There is a sense of authority that has been welling up in my life that is not my own, but that of the Lord.  I, on the other hand, feel that my ability to control, to will, seems so feeble that it rather hurts.  I haven’t reached a definite point here, nor can I get my head wrapped around it all yet.

Something I heard quoted by Chuck Colson today, which I’ll paraphrase and embellish lalala, resounds in my head like one of the Korean bells from when I was there in 1992, clear and vibrating like nothing else:

Consider the Lord, when surveying the whole of creation, from the great whirling galaxies and the gemstone planets, the trees, the waves, the men and the goats, the grains of sand and the DNA proteins, when he surveys all this, one thing can be heard, his own voice, crying out through all space and time…

“MINE.”

Waking up on weekends is sort of a challenge.  It has always been so, which makes me wonder why it really is such a challenge.  Friday and Saturday nights are usually concluded with prayer, tuck-ins and a reminder to try to let Mommy and Daddy sleep in.  The true joy of a weekend is that, once in a while, it works out and sleeping in happens.  This is rare, but just like Christmas and Easter and Birthdays, the rarity makes for so much more sweetness when it does happen.

This is not really the occasion for the post.  It’s all mornings I’m blathering about.  Nearly every morning, when I’m up with the kids, sleep-in or no, there’s a sort of let-down.  It’s very Very VERY hard to face kids in the morning.  It really hurts when the first fight, disobedience, mess or other discipline opportunity comes around.  It always feels like I’m starting the day off on the wrong foot when I have to assert the rules and God’s commands first thing.

And there’s plenty of guilty feelings that come with it.

“You! Please don’t torture your sister!  We need to start our day right, with love and kindness!”

“Hey! You need to get your stuff ready for school, not torture the cat!”

“Kid! PuhLEASE don’t yell at each other.”

Lalala, on and on, neverending story…

Can’t I just give them a break this weekend?  Let them off the daddy-hook just this once and we can all just ignore this rough start, hoping that the rest of the day will be fine?  Maybe we’ll all be at peace, settled differences and everything by lunch?  Wouldn’t that alleviate my disappointment with myself, with them?  Should I just let it slide on Saturday mornings?

No.  I sure wish.  But no.  I can’t let up.  I only have them for so long.  There’s a deadline I have to meet, not in progress, but in effort.  I owe my girls every ounce of help I can muster and maintain.  Which is actually pretty depressingly limited overall.  My oldest could be leaving home in FOUR years.  She’s currently due to graduate when I’m 39.  I have only so many weekends left, and every chance I get, shouldn’t I be communicating what is right and good for our Lord?

They’re not going to honor their Father and Mother unless that role worthy of honor is maintained.  We preach the commandment to our kids all the time, but rarely have I heard anyone preach the reverse.  What do we do as parents to maintain a position worthy of honoring?  And I’m painfully aware that there’s nothing worth honoring in me, being a broken, selfish sinner myself.  But as Christ has freed me and I am declared righteous, so should I do my utmost to live that way.

And therefore a mystery exists.  Imperfect as I am, God has set up the relationship in our family so that honoring Father and Mother, obedience, respect, acceptance is the rule.  All The Time.  Should I break from that mandate on Saturday mornings, doesn’t that introduce an anomaly, a dual-mode that is false and misleading?  It’s like pretentiously dressing up to the nines for church to make our outward appearance appear holy and pure when our lousy hearts turn on when the intro starts and shut off right about the time the invitation ends in service.

I can’t stop fixing, much as I’d like to.  There are too  many occasions when I just plain fail to daddy my girls right anyway.  I sin against them almost daily in one way or another, through negligence, over-reacting, tolerance or whatever.  I place my case before His throne morning and night, asking forgiveness and grace just to make it through another day.  Which includes being a better daddy for my girls.

No, I will not give up mornings, much as I detest the first fire that must be put out.  I pray they all will have something to honor today and when tomorrow comes, I dearly hope they’ll look back and see there was something worth honoring.  When they graduate, when they marry, when we gather together, I hope to see love and respect in their expressions, recognition that I tried my best and it was noticed.

With all that is going on, peace is what I need in me right now. Fear is the mind-killer. Wisdom is His, not mine. I have to give Him praise for even these unseen things. Maybe my little world is changing. Maybe it isn’t. I don’t think I’m even wise enough to know that much.

So I pray for Your guidance, o Lord. I ask for Your peace, Your grace. Let my love be. Let it be just like yours. Let me show it and it be without reproach. I’m a cracked vessel, but You told me You will use me anyway. That’s more honor than I deserve, more grace than I know how to ask for. More than I can grasp with this tiny mind.

Make me the husband and father I need to be.

Psalm 23

The LORD Is My Shepherd
A Psalm of David.
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness
for his name’s sake.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD
forever.

Detained

Let loose this graveyard in my mind
Or, forbid, let it become and I recede

Let these tears flow in rivers
Or vanish into the desert forever

Let the prints of my fingers weld to the rails
Or pry them and lift me into the wind

Whisper me the secret of your stifling shadows
Or mute my ears until I hear not even my own breath

Cleanse me from my depths
Or fling me into them with no tender

For this is emptiness
Or pregnant mystery

As I wait
For this child
This fade
This curtain closed

Or pulled back
Take my silent prayer
Or I roar in terror

I’m going to give church studies a try this time.  Thessalonians is a pair of ecclesiastical letters written by Paul.  I’ve done a little reading in Constable’s notes (www.soniclight.com) and in my MacArthur commentary too (conveniently built into my study Bible), just so I can get a little smarter.  Mostly, this will be a personal series, however, since I’m not much in tune with church or pastors (having an unhappily small experience with either during the span of my New Life).

Why Thessalonians?  Ben led me right with Deuteronomy, and I know he just went through Thessalonians recently, so I’m going to go where I can certainly get some feedback on what I pull out.  And, since I’m keen on finally getting settled into a church, I should take a look at one of Paul’s church related writings.

So here it goes.

This letter is from three people, actually: Paul, Silvanus (a.k.a. Silas) and Timothy.  It appears all three were a part of the beginning of the church in Thessalonica.

I love how Paul opens up his letters.  Very direct.  I think it’s Greek standard to open with “From, To, Via” in the beginning, just like a formal memorandum today.  Mostly, I really enjoy his blessing.  It sets a sort of tone in the letter that I wish was more common today.  It’s poetic and just ties the Lord right into the communication first thing.

“To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:  Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

When is the last time you read that in a book or letter?  Not common.  I don’t think it’s all that common in church, IME.  Beautiful, though, isn’t it?  We’re joined in this communication through the Father and the Son.  Paul is speaking with the Lord in mind from the very start, and he continues with a prayer of grace and peace, all in the same breath.  Might be worth putting on a stamp or seal for church communications, or hand-written on the weekly newsletter, eh?

I’m taking a note here to remind me to plug this sort of greeting and prayer into my communications.  To share that simple truth with the fellowship.  Remember, when Paul wrote this, it was no simple quick greeting.  This was heartfelt and honest, especially considering the experiences of the early churches and especially those of Paul and his partners among the Thessalonians in the beginning.

This letter isn’t a lecture.  I like that it’s personal, that Paul is writing on the spiritual things as would a pastor, but also as if he was a brother (he calls the church “brothers” several times in the letter).  He prays for them, praises them, and shows knowledgeable approval of their activities.

O that I could be faithful and loving and patient like these folks must have been long ago.  They stuck to the faith that Paul preached to them with amazing vigor.  The Thessalonians appear to have made a pretty big impact on the region around them with their faithfulness and spreading of the Gospel.  One thing I read in the notes was that that part of the world didn’t cotton to plain rhetoric, but more to “walking the walk” as well as doing the talk.  Nowadays, it does not seem as though it’s quite as important.

I was talking to my friend the other day about this sort of thing, and thought it was funny that reputations and ethics have gone out the door in recent years.  Whole huge companies seem more interested in making a buck than preserving a good name (see multiple blogs on this subject in regards to the current financial fiasco).  This extends to individuals too.  Many of us are more interested in getting what we want than maintaining the respected quality of character and trustworthiness.  It looks like Paul was praising these people for sticking to the truth and way of life that he had brought to them at the start.

“We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers, remembering without ceasing your work of faith, labor of love , and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of our God and Father…”

And there’s more about this further down the chapter.  But Paul is praising these people for the three main principles of the walk with God.  Faith, love and hope.  I should be working on the same thing.  Practice and build my faith, practice and build my love, rest securely in my hope.  See how it’s work, work and then rest?  Pretty neat formula.  I should be doing 2 parts work to my one part rest.  God wants me to trust Him, Love Him (and my brother) and then enjoy the hope He provides through Christ’s atonement – my salvation.  Simple.  Simple.

It always seems hard for me to keep things simple.  Sometimes I think I need to work at it harder, buy more books to help explain things better, wrangle with the text until my eyes are crossed.  Sure, there are places in the Bible where wrangling is required, but there are more places that, though they are so simply simple, I still can’t seem to be able to minimize my research program and just look at the code.  Simple rules.  Faith, Love, Hope.  It is the child-like thing again.

Faith in my Daddy.  Faith that He’ll carry me through, that His way is the right way, that if I do it, He’ll make good on His instructions.

Love for my Daddy.  Love for the things He made.  Love for His family and knowing that loving Him means loving His things.

Hope.  When Daddy promises something or says something is going to be just so, then simply trust Him and wait on that blessed day when His promise comes about.

And yet I fail on this one.  I did it as a kid with my earthly Daddy.  He said to do it, so I did.  He loved his family, so I did.  He promised something, and I simply believed it.  Granted, this was imperfect, me and my Daddy both being sinners, Him being saved and me still counted among the unsaved (it took 29 years, but I’m here now, Dad).

Back to the walk-the-walk thing.  In verse 4, Paul speaks of the gospel he’d brought was not just word, but power.  He was observing how the gospel had not only convinced the people by reason, but by powerful, life-changing conviction.  The Thessalonians didn’t just assent to the truth, they acted on it.  The Holy Spirit was in their comings and goings, and apparently the church was very successful.

I want to grow into that quality.  I want faith and love, work and results for God to be first.  I want to find my true comfort not in the comfort of money and security here in this time frame, but in the eternal one to come.  I want to fear no persecution, to quit viewing my little temporal trials (finances, career, transportation) as persecution and look to the greater threat out there as my real challenge.

The Thessalonian Christians were entrenched among Jews and Greeks who were politically and religiously attacking them.  Things were violent, political, pressurized more than I face today in my little bubble.  I want to be fearless and forward-leaning like the people from those days.  I understand that God worked things in a pretty distilled fashion back in the days of the early church, for there was no complete Bible, no well-trod tradition or strong foothold of the catholic (whole) church.  So God’s methods were rather thunderous and forceful.

But I don’t see that my approach to my Christ-like life should be much different.  Circumstances may not look the same, but the underside, the temptation, the pressure and the need for faith and love are still just as strong.  That’s my prayer for today.  I want to meet up to Paul’s standards as he sent them to the Thessalonians in this letter.  Worthy of his remembrance, his prayers, his title of “beloved brother” used so frequently in the passages.  Most especially, I’d like to think he would refer to me with the certainty of words that he used with the Thessalonians.

With Paul not being available for consultation in person, I should seek that from God.  That confidence.  The recipe appears to be, once again (with feeling): Faith, Love, and Hope. Those things pursued, maybe someday, Paul’s words can apply to me too.

Final note: I believe that Hope isn’t a verb here.  It’s a noun.  A noun to be possessed.  I. Have. Hope.

This list has grown since the first post back in February and I think it might be good to feature as a regular post sort of like the Good Reads Rollup.  It is wonderful to look back at recorded prayers that turn to praise.  The blessing of prayer is that every time I “send” word to God, I’m committing to His mercy and sovereignty and it’s just a relief sometimes to let it go to Him.  I think I said it before somewhere here on LAH, that faith is practiced, not just existent.  Prayer is willful practice of faith in a very solid sense.  Sometimes it seems the only course to take in life is to find a quiet corner, put face in hands and pray, hard.  I don’t know what to do most of the time, but I have to believe that God does.  Action that isn’t prayerful doesn’t usually seem too faithful, in my short experience.  In fact, un-prayerful action often seems to turn out to be selfish action instead.

So here is the rollup for my prayer-history of the last 7 months:

I went to the doc.  It was almost a let-down.  I was all set to be scheduled for surgery.  I figured I’d be limp-lame for a few months with a busted foot and everything.  Instead, I got a bikini for my big toe and a trip to physical therapy.  The podiatrist said I had a “limited mobility” problem with my toe which was causing some sort of osteo-arthritis whatchamacallit and that that was what was calling my “irregular” growth of bone or cartilege or whatever so I need to immobilize the joint and then work on getting the mobility right.

Ultra-sexy pictures to follow so you can all see my risque dreamy lingerie for my foot.  It’s positively nummy!

The real trauma was the drive.  Picture me, king of all drivers, taking a mini-van all by myself (on 1/4 tank of gas) through the towns of a COMPLETELY FOREIGN country that has no sense of signs or traffic processes as the U.S. has had for years, and get him to a destination 10 miles away (give or take) and 15 or so turns through congested, under-construction roadways and expect him to make good time.

I made a total of 6 wrong turns, and an overall time of 4 hours to make it to and from a 15 (FIFTEEN) minute podiatry appointment.  And, by the time I got back, the tank was on empty, so one of the wrong turns was involved with missing the gas station for which I had no money (the wouldn’t take my credit card) and barely gas to get back from there.

I’ve said it many times before, and I’ll just take a moment to say it again:  Just because I can get a ship where it needs to be in a bazillion square miles of ocean and take on a badguy travelling faster than the speed of sound does NOT mean I can handle driving.  My girl can attest to that.

Next time, in about a month when I get to my follow-up appointment with the podiatrist?  I’m getting a driver.  NEVER AGAIN!  AAAAAARGH!

here’s some more I want to engage here before moving on. This will be more like a synopsis and a theme I’ve gathered from the first three chapters and little bit of #4 so far. It’s come to light as I returned from work today. Bear with me on this one.

Motivation. This is what everything is about. What makes us move? What is the force that drives us to act as we do? I believe that every single man and woman must take a deep look inside to figure this out repeatedly in life. This is not a take-stock-and-look-back sort of look that happens every ten years or so, nor is it an annual sort of thing such as the old (and worn-out) New-Years’ resolution thing.

Examining our motivation is a daily event. It requires pondering beyond a quick look in the mirror before heading out the door. Herein I find the real significance of morning devotions or prayer. I find that my days are governed by the first actions of my morning. But I’m not here to establish principle on morning ablutions as such. I’m talking about motivation.

Moses, in all these words, is talking about motivation. Get this. He reviewed a generation of history (40 years) to his people. He didn’t just do this for a history lesson. Our own history lessons in High School, in college, are often approached from the wrong perspective as well. We don’t need to know history for its dates and details. We need to know history, just as the Israelites needed, for its lessons, for the purpose of generating motivation. We learn the past to know what to do, what not to do and why. Why Why Why. I am confused why this generation is called the Y generation when so few of us young bucks don’t see any point in the answer to our why-questions.

Moses recanted the events of the wars, the wanderings, the conflicts and the peaces. He regaled the great moments of faith and those of failure to his people. He didn’t do this just to talk. He didn’t do this just for posterity so that it would eventually (over 1400 years later) begin collation into what we call the Bible right now (a word unheard of in Moses’ day). Moses told these stories to define the motivations of the people. He told his children what they needed to know for both positive and negative feedback so that they would correctly know the ideal motivation to continue in their mission.

What was their mission? It was the same as ours is today. Glorify God and enjoy Him forever. What was the motivation? Immediately, the motivation was to receive the blessings and avoid the punishments that God had ready for them. God is the parent, ready to lovingly adore and bless, and ready to lovingly chastise and direct His people. The people knew this. Moses knew this, but He had the final, most grave opportunity to tender a lasting motivation to the Children of Israel.

How does this apply to us? Here’s the Moses of our day: The Holy Bible. Every day we have access to the lasting testament to our motivation. We have the very words of Moses before us. We have the fount of motivation that is Peter, James, Paul, John, Luke, Isaiah, David, Samuel, Solomon, many men, ultimately Jesus Himself in our hands, and that motivation is clear and absolute.

We have more. As priests, we have the joy, the honor and the obligation to commune with our Lord God Almighty at all times in our days. We have the ability to put our thoughts, dreams, fears and confusion at His feet. We have Him, immediately and directly, to align our motivation.

What is our motivation? Is it success? Breaking out of the monotony of this usual sort of life? Is it “making a difference?” Is the motivation money? Is it converts to Christianity? Is our motivation a good image, untarnished in public? What is the motivation of a Christian?

I’ll bet any reader here can identify a dozen excellent motivations for Christians. I’ll read your mind right now:

• Give all that I have to the Lord, that He might make great use of it, be it money, time, things or my skills.
• Win souls for Him.
• Lead other Christians in the way that they should go. Commit myself to my family and ensure that my spouse and children are faithful, God-fearing Christians.
• Dedicate my time to my church, serving in any way that I can.
• Go overseas to the missions fields and help the hurting, showing them God’s love and grace.
• Commit myself to knowing God through study, prayer and fellowship with other Christians.
• Be an example of Christ-like integrity, honor and love in my career, serving loyally and rendering unto Caesar as I should without sacrificing my service to God.

There, I got a pretty good list.

Which one is which? What’s the right motivation?

Look, here’s what I’m getting at. We must hit this charthouse daily. A charthouse is where the navigation starts. It’s the room where all the maps and directions, guides and planning are put together for a voyage. Additionally, in the course of navigation on a voyage, all the data for that trip is set up, put out in front of the navigator who is piloting the ship. It isn’t studied and then left in the charthouse, but kept at hand, reviewed, updated and scrutinized regularly. On my ship, we checked the charts hourly, sometimes every 30 minutes, even every 15 to 30 seconds in tight situations. If a navigator on a ship must do this, should not a Christian before his God?

We must shuffle through the files and see our situation. Know what is going on around us and determine what it is we face. I used to think (and still fall into it from time to time) that I could just pray for health and faith and wisdom and the blessings as God wished to lay upon me. I would pray for my family and friends, the unsaved, the saved, and for help with my daily routine. That’s a great sort of prayer example. It’s showing a care for family and others, for God’s will and all that. But it wasn’t really communicating.

When you put a message in a bottle, what do you do? (Don’t bare fangs, this will make sense, prayer is not just a message-in-a-bottle)

Do you write “Hi!” on a yellow sticky, slide it into the bottle, seal it up and let it head off to sea? Do you write “I hope all goes well today.” and off it goes? Or do you express content that will mean something, pertinent something, to the eventual recipient? “Hi, I’m alone on a desert island. It’s very nice here, except I would like to have my family here with me, or at least let them know I’m okay, so heres where I am and how to get in touch with them. Oh, and I’m always thirsty. There’s not much water here and I could use a new fishing pole.”

Practical. Explicit. Clear. Involved. Engaged. We find our motivation in being clear to God what motivation we need. Of course we are to glorify Him and enjoy Him forever. But how do we go about this from moment to moment? We keep Heaven in our sights, but we live in today, so how do we handle today?

I have since learned (and found reinforcement tonight), that my prayers, my studies and my thoughts need to be on the immediate motivations as well as the over-arching grand ones. What am I here for today? What am I still up against that hasn’t been resolved yet? I must know my history so that I know what God has already demonstrated as His likes and dislikes, His ideals and His bans. I must know what is going on around me, in my own mind and in the place where I am, be it work, family, church or whatever, so that I can ask my Lord for His wisdom in that place at that time for access to my motivation.

I have a tough time at work here (this is where I get into my real-life situation). My desire is to shake the foundation, for I perceive a problem. My limit is lack of the influence and backing to do so. I am surrounded by a mass of differing characters and motivations all of which do not necessarily share my desires and dreams. And I’m in a place where I cannot just walk away, either. Notice that I didn’t use the word “motivation” anywhere in there. My motivation is what I need defined so that I can find the tack to take. What does My Lord have for me here?

• Am I to simply observe, as this is a lesson I must learn (I have much to learn from this) and thereby honor Him by my patience and endurance?
• Am I to strive to make the moves to change things, to bring to light that which I know is the better way, and thereby honor Him through courage and wisdom?
• Am I to quietly maintain as I am, and abandon this apparent challenge which so engrosses my thoughts, and honor God in obedience and peace?

Or is there more? What is it that I must do? I need to know, but my motivation for my action is what makes things right, not that action itself. So there is a need for direction. I need to have that moment of analysis, and regularly, for numerous tempting situations rise up around me frequently during each day. When do I bring up an issue? When do I sit on my hands? When do I depart in haste?

If I don’t keep a hand on my motivations, my thoughts in line with God’s will, I will take on the motivations that are unacceptable, those which compromise my integrity, my devotion, all those things which I am to be in Him can be tossed to the side in one fell act. I must start fresh each day, end fresh each night and stop during the day, frequently as needed, to recap what’s going on around me, what I need to do, why I need to do it, why I did what I just did. And I need to bring it, specifically, clearly, to the Lord so that He might have His say.

God isn’t prone to just reaching out through the Ethernet with an email or texting a quick note to me on the cellphone. He waits for me to call upon Him through the most technologically advanced medium ever invented. Prayer. It’s instant, it’s immediately beneficial and it’s unfettered communication. God wants us to clear the air between Him and us. He wants us to claim our dependence on Him. He wants to help us, but He’s left it to us to take the steps toward Him. Like a father and his baby on the first steps, He’s but inches away, waiting for us, His children, to reach out to Him so He can help us to stand. And as soon as we all start to remember that we’re going to be doing this with Him for the rest of our lives here on Earth, the more we’re going to gain from this relationship.

Far off the track from the Moses stuff? Nope. Read through again. How many times does Moses say “and God said…” or “The Lord God heard…” and so-on. There’s no doubt that communication with God is key in Moses speech. In fact, since he didn’t take much time to elaborate on the importance of prayer, I would suspect that Moses considered it fairly well understood by his people that prayer was inherent in all this history junk.

Motivation. We have to recharge. We have to consider. We can’t drive out until we know where we’re going. And we have to have gas and a maintained engine. We have to know the lay of the land, the will of the Lord and the condition of our actions before we move an inch.