Looking at the hebrew words used in the creation story, you see that God was creating beauty out of darkness and chaos. He was involved in this process with a tender heart, just like he does with the chaos and darkness in our lives. God isn’t far from the messiness of life or confusion. Sometimes, we create the chaos and sometimes others do it for us. Some storms surround us just as a way to show how big God is in brining us out of it. No matter how we get into a mess, God’s heart is for restoration.
When you step back and look at Israel’s transition from life in Egypt to life in the Promised Land of Canaan, you can see that God was not only trying to transition the location of his people but he was transitioning the very core of their identity. Have you ever considered how to take a slave and make him a ruler? This was the task at hand for God to fulfill his promise to Abraham and his descendants.
Even in the holy writ of scripture Solomon says there are things that just don’t work, they can’t “bear up” and “make the earth tremble”: a servant who becomes king, and a servant who displaces her mistress (Proverbs 30:21-23). In both situations the person moves into a position or “land” if you will, where the person’s inside is smaller than their outside. The earth cant hold up under it. It’s like a poor person winning the lottery. It ruins their life because their is no internal structure to support the enormity of the complication that comes with a large sum of money.
God had the task of bringing Israel, who were owned by Egypt into ownership of a land he had promised them. I believe this is the same work the Lord is attempting in us. We were slaves to sin and he has made us a kingdom of kings and priests.
God wants to make us as big on the inside as the plan he has for us on the outside.
As the disciples walked the dusty roads in Jesus steps they couldn’t help but to be impressed with his life. After all, they followed. At some point, I think they made a connection between his inner life and his outer life. On one hand he prayed much and addressed God affectionately as “papa.” On the other hand he spoke with authority, demonstrated the miraculous, and moved with an uber sense of clarity.
In a logical next step, his pupils asked, “will you teach us to pray.” I like this question for two reasons. One, though they’d known prayers since they were little, they were willing admit that they had missed something in Sunday school. Secondly, there’s hope for me. Maybe, I can ask the same question and learn.
Occasionally, I take “prayer days,” where I go somewhere remote to decompress and talk to God. Recently, I literally went to the end of a dirt road in Randolph Co., AL to my childhood hunting camp. I was armed with a load of journals. Journaling isn’t something I did before I 
was a Christian but a few years into my journey as a follower I began writing down what God was showing me. I wrote down prayers and other things I wanted to remember. I ended up spending a lot of time on this prayer day reading my past observations and prayers. One selection that was particularly impacting was a reading from 1996 when God was doing some tremendous things in my life. I was making trips to the Brownsville Revival and spent the summer in Louisiana working in the cotton fields and as a youth pastor. As I read, I literally began to feel the Lord’s presence like I did at those Brownsville meetings.
I usually journal little more than a couple times a month. Taking just that little time, however, to write down what God is saying and doing in me, writing my dreams, thoughts and prayers, has had a tremendous impact on my faith walk. I wanted to pass on a few thoughts that might encourage you to document your own history in God.
Writing my thoughts gives me clarity.
When we write we have to think the thought on a level that is at least somewhat comprehensible. Writing moves our thoughts from ambiguity to articulation, or as Dawson Trotman says, Thoughts disentangle themselves when they pass through your fingertips. Writing helps you find the words.
Writing my prayers gives me a voice.
The psalmists were probably some of the most emotionally healthy people on the planet because they learned the art of expressing their emotions without accusing God. Psalm 142:2 I pour out my complaint before him, before him I tell my trouble. Journaling our thoughts, burdens, and prayers is another form of meditation. When you write a prayer, follow the example of the psalmists: remember to write first how you feel, but always end with truth. “Life is hard right now, it seems like everyone is against me….but I know you are good and I will praise you.”
Writing my dreams gives me memory.
Job 33:14 says this For God does speak–now one way, now another–though man may not perceive it. Yes, God speaks through dreams. We need to “perceive it.” Scripture is riddled with examples of God communicating to his people in dreams, even about the birth of his own son. Click here if you want to hear an entire teaching on dreams. John Paul Jackson says that “dreams are written in disappearing ink,” that’s why its great to write them down.
Writing my prophecies gives me get up and go.
Aren’t you glad the prophets wrote down what God was telling them? In fact the difference in the major prophets and the minor prophets was how much they journaled! God sends prophetic words into our lives to encourage us towards specific ends, to clue us in on what he is up to and to help us understand how we are designed. Writing these down not only shows you patterns over time, but they give great encouragement when you read them. Write the vision so you can run when you read it. Habakuk 2:2 And the LORD answered me: “Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it. (ESV)
Writing my goals gives me the next step.
Writing down what we want helps us to think about what we want. Solomon put it so well in Proverbs 14 when he said “it is the wisdom of the wise to give thought to their ways.” When we think about our life and take intentional steps grow it will start to show. “The path of the wicked,” Solomon also says, “is like deep darkness, they did not journal.” Ok, it really says “they do not know what makes them stumble.” Maybe they weren’t giving thought to their ways. Goals help me crystalize what I want and then move toward them.
I have life goals that I’ve been working on for sometime. I use these goals to make more specific seasonal goals (a good activity for a prayer day). Though, I never do all of them, I am usually amazed at how many of them I did get done simply because I wrote them down.
There are many great reasons to take a few minutes and write things down. I hope you are encouraged as you write and read what you have written.
Below is a talk where I go a little deeper into the subject of journaling. If you think it will help someone please pass it on.
I had a great Easter, dressed up a little and thought about what the Cross means for my life right now. I wanted to talk at church a bit about the cross so I decided to look at some videos of “The Passion of the Christ” on vimeo. They messed me up. Honestly, some of them seemed too graphic to show at church. I could hardly watch the scourging.
I cried as I watched the depiction of his suffering, while trying not to be too loud (our kids were asleep). I was moved. The thought that I can’t get away from is regarding what it means now. The Cross means that there is absolutely nothing standing between me and God. I spent some time just laying in the living room floor and thinking about this thought. Needless, to say it didn’t take long to literally feel God’s presence. It was light and loving. It was bright and inviting. It was real. Why? Because, the Cross means there is nothing that is keeping us separated.
At the Cross, Jesus initiated the great exchange: sin for forgiveness, wounds for healing, curse for blessings and rejection for acceptance. Applying the power of the Cross is step one to living in the power of the resurrection.
The first chapter of Colossians says that through Jesus’ death, God made peace with all things. He’s already made peace with us. I think he’s just waiting for us to make peace with him by accepting what he’s done.
Hope…mmm, it’s a word that feels good to say.
It seems like our family has been in and out of sickness for the last two months. In the midst of some really great things happening for us, we feel like we’ve been in a sickness fog. I’ve been snotty the last couple days, even. So, I’m reachin’ into a nugget of truth regarding hope that I felt like God was highlighting for our church a couple weeks ago.
If you are breathing, then it is safe to say that at sometime you will experience disappointment. As disappointment builds it can freeze us from moving forward. I think hope is like God’s “first responder” to disarm disappointment. Hope in God is a force that connects where we are to the good pasture God has picked out for us.
What disappointment does:
-Stops our progress
-Limits our vision
-Makes our heart sick
-Sucks
What hope does:
-Helps us dream again
-Helps us risk again
-Gets us un-stuck
-Moves us forward
Hope is a choice with a voice.
When David was feeling blue, he made a decision to hope in God and then talked to himself about it. “Why are you so downcast, O my soul, put your hope in God.” (Psalm 42:5) If we want to move forward we have to choose hope and speak hope. Consider the trajectory of your words presently. Are they leading the direction you want to go or the direction you are wanting to leave. Too often I’m trying to choose one direction but continue to nurture the place I’m trying to leave with my words. I’m trying to adopt other phrases from David’s example like “I will see the goodness of God in the land of the living.” Now that feels good to say.
Hope comes from God.
Maybe you didn’t make the team, get the girl or win the lottery. Maybe you got burned or blew it again. There’s hope. Paul prayed an incredible prayer for the family in Rome, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” It’s like he was saying as we make the choice to trust in God, our hope can overflow by God’s power. We choose, he fills. I like.
In the wake of three miscarriages a few years ago, Ginger and I were pretty bummed. Together, we made a calculated choice to hope in God (not easy). God renewed our hope when friends of ours prayed for God to do what only he can do. Score! Asher our oldest was soon accompanied by our little double portion, Elisha, then Mercy, our little girl. We have also had the opportunity to see God do some supernatural work in the baby making business of our friends too. God not only fulfilled our hope, he gave us hope to believe for the miraculous in others too.
I hope your day gets a little brighter as you hope in Him. Thanks for tracking with me. Here’s the talk if you want to listen (or the feed if you prefer).
I’ve been roughly tracing my talks from late here in my blog. It’s good for me to rehash the thoughts from Sundays back here with you. I hope to do more than simply talk about family. Writing about it helps me get it a layer deeper in my gut. Thanks for going there with me.
Finding Life…
The way the world works most of the time is like this: you see something you want such as a dream, a new car or a candy bar, then you go for it until you get it. Interestingly enough personal fulfillment doesn’t seem to come that way. Seldom if ever do we experience fulfillment when that’s explicitly what we are looking for. Jesus said if you try to find your life (as an end goal) the then you will ultimately lose the life you are trying to hold on to. On the other hand, if you will spend your life on him then you will find life.
The best question you can ever ask yourself is how you fit into God’s purposes in the earth (v/s how he can fit into yours). He always calls us into his purposes by being part of his family first. It is from there that we discover what part he made us for. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about family and destiny and here are a few more thoughts that I believe will help us come alive in the family.
Three Pursuits that Will Make You Come Alive
1. Pursue a goal that is bigger than personal fulfillment. God, how do I fit in your plan?
2. Discover the part of the family that God has designed you to be (more on this coming soon). Our purpose makes more sense in the context of the family just like a thumb makes more sense in the context of the hand. God, how do I fit in your family?
3. Help other’s discover who they are. The essence of spiritual gifts according to Paul’s diatribe in Cor. 12 is for the purpose of helping others. It is in this spirit that we help other find out who they are. God, how can I help others find where they fit?
Jesus came to give us “abundant life,” and wants that for us now. I’m glad he also gave us a head’s up on how to and how not to access that life.
Here’s a little more….
I thought this was a cool rendering of “the story,” in spoken word.
If you don’t see the video, here’s the link.
In a fallen world, authentic relationships are not automatic. We have to be intentional if we want to experience the connectedness that God dreams of. Simply put, we have to fight for it. When you experience the battles associated with belonging don’t be surprised. It’s just part of the territory God has given you to conquer.
Five battles that you will have to fight to “feel” connected to the family.
1. The Fear Battle
The fear of rejection is familiar to us all, especially when were a newbie. Most of the time you have to fight through moments/seasons of awkwardness, fear of rejection and fear of looking stupid before you begin to connect with others.
2. The “Don’t Know How” Battle
We did not come out of the womb as experts on friendliness or relationships so we all have to learn. Better get started.
3. The Business Battle
I once heard that relationships happen in moments, in seasons and in a lifetimes. We don’t have friends for life with out friends in seasons and we don’t connect with people in seasons without connecting in moments. If we are too busy for moments, we are too busy. Right?
4. The Compromise Battle
When Adam and Eve dorked out on God, the natural response was to withdraw from him. We tend to do the same with his family when we are walking in darkness. A neat verse in 1 John says that keeping ourselves in the light = great fellowship. Ahhh, nothing to hide means enjoying the ride.
5. The Battle of Offense
I’ll be honest with you I don’t like pain. Rejection, misunderstanding, betrayal…all hurt. You can be hurt the most by family because you love them the most. And the pain doesn’t go away quickly. BUT, it seems to me that the term “hurt by the church” has become a trump card of sorts that makes it ok to nerd up. Offense builds a fence and we don’t do family too well through fences. So lets settle it. You will be hurt by the church. I suppose the Lord Jesus himself is regularly hurt by the church. Thankfully, he hasn’t given up on love even though he has been burned before. You can do it.
The Reward
Connectedness and belonging are rewards in themselves and worth the battle. In Psalm 133 the Lord give us a great insight to another benefit of connectedness. He says it is there, that place of connectedness, that “he bestows his blessing.” Walking in connection and walking in blessing is a double whammy of good living.
Here’s a talk I gave on this thought hosted by the good folks at Vimeo (http://www.vimeo.com/8810611).
I’ve been thinking about what I want our church to look like as it grows and “family” is one of the best words I can come up with. When we give our lives to God, we are adopted into his family. We become children who not only believe but who also belong. Here are a few thoughts on what family means to the Christian Church.
Being in the family means…
1. You are not alone.
2. You really know others.
3. You allow yourself to be known.
4. You celebrate other’s victories.
5. You don’t stop being family when you are disillusioned or offended.
6. Our bond is Christ (a opposed to the thin bonds of style, preference, personality, opinions, etc…).
7. You are accountable because of relationships and not because of rules (ie every sin is always a sin against relationships).
8. You call God “Papa”.
Verses to Enjoy
Romans 8:15-16 You received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.
Ephesians 2: 19 So now you… are no longer strangers and foreigners… You are members of God’s family.
Here’s a more unpacked version on this thought that I shared with our church last Sunday: http://vimeo.com/8681515
See also:
