You Gotta Serve Somebody

Sooner or later our wills must yield allegiance to some force greater than their own, either God or the devil.
-- Oswald Chambers

(14) "So honor the LORD and serve him wholeheartedly. Put away forever the idols your ancestors worshiped... Serve the LORD alone. (15) But if you are unwilling to serve the LORD, then choose today whom you will serve. Would you prefer the gods your ancestors served...? Or will it be the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live? But as for me and my family, we will serve the LORD."
-- Joshua 24:14-15 (NLT)

Who we gonna serve? Bob Dylan wrote and sung "Gotta Serve Somebody." The raw lyrics are very convicting. Here is Nicole Nordeman's remake of that classic and soul-searching tune:
Click > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcUpYKpNpE4

The Lord’s Suffering Servant: (13) See, My Servant will prosper; He will be highly exalted. (14) Many were amazed when they saw Him—beaten and bloodied, so disfigured one would scarcely know He was a person. (15) And He will again startle many nations. Kings will stand speechless in His presence. For they will see what they had not previously been told about; they will understand what they had not heard about. -- Isaiah 52:13--15 (NLT)

Let us serve the Suffering Servant, King Jesus, The Nazarene.
Grateful

Who's Your Daddy? God or the Devil?

1 John 3:1-10 (NLT) is direct and powerful. Sounds like John is basically asking Who's Your Daddy? God or the devil?

(1) See how very much our heavenly Father loves us, for He allows us to be called His children, and we really are! But the people who belong to this world don’t know God, so they don’t understand that we are His children. (2) Yes, dear friends, we are already God’s children, and we can’t even imagine what we will be like when Christ returns. But we do know that when He comes we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He really is. (3) And all who believe this will keep themselves pure, just as Christ is pure. (4) Those who sin are opposed to the law of God, for all sin opposes the law of God. (5) And you know that Jesus came to take away our sins, for there is no sin in Him. (6) So if we continue to live in Him, we won’t sin either. But those who keep on sinning have never known him or understood who He is. (7) Dear children, don’t let anyone deceive you about this: When people do what is right, it is because they are righteous, even as Christ is righteous. (8) But when people keep on sinning, it shows they belong to the Devil, who has been sinning since the beginning. But the Son of God came to destroy these works of the Devil. (9) Those who have been born into God’s family do not sin, because God’s life is in them. So they can’t keep on sinning, because they have been born of God. (10) So now we can tell who are children of God and who are children of the Devil. Anyone who does not obey God’s commands and does not love other Christians does not belong to God.

IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
Grateful

"Does It Hurt God?"

Never become attached to anything that continues to hurt God.
-- Oswald Chambers

1 Thess. 5:19 -- Do not quench the Spirit...

IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
Grateful

We Can't Even Imagine

"No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined
what God has prepared for those who love Him."
-- 1 Corinthians 2:9 (NLT)

My Loving Lord, Your Word is my mind's inspiration for the present, flooding my soul with anticipation for the future. Yes, even now, Heaven comes down and glory fills my soul. I can't even begin to imagine Your wonderful works underway for those who love You, so I quite simply but very sincerely give thanks in Your matchless name, my Jesus. Amen.

IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
Grateful

Love God. Stay Close.

Love God, all you saints;
God takes care of all who stay close to Him,
But He pays back in full
those arrogant enough to go it alone.
-- Psalm 31:23 (The Message)

My God, You are My God Who knows me, cares for me, loves me and waits for me to trust You completely. Help any human unbelief that may still exist in my life to be changed to holy belief. In Jesus' name. Amen.

IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
Grateful

Seven Verbs for Revival

Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and heal their land. -- 2 Chronicles 7:14 (NLT)

Could it be that God's simple, yet profound formula for revival is all written down in the form of seven verbs in 2 Chronicles 7:14?

In this verse there are four verbs for us and three for God:

If we will...
(1) humble (2) pray (3) seek (4) turn?

God says He will...
(5) hear (6) forgive (7) heal!

IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
Grateful

Pure Light

1 John 1:5 from the Message Paraphrase of the Holy Bible contains these eternally bright words:

God is light, pure light; there’s not a trace of darkness in Him.

Lord, let Your pure light come and shine in and through me. Yes, that I might BE LIGHT! GO SHINE! ... Your pure light to Your world. Amen.

IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
Grateful

Our God Untangles the Knots

The plain paraphrase of Isaiah 45:2 from the Free Translation of the Holy Bible gives us reason to be encouraged as we hear this powerful promise from our Holy God:

I will go before Thee and unwind the snarls (untangle the knots)...

IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
Grateful

"Help My Unbelief!"

It was just before midnight. Because of snowy roads, I was driving my 22-year-old son to his night shift at the local radio station in my four-wheel-drive. We had a sacred and soul-searching talk about the Lord as we rode. Just before I dropped him off, and in light of our conversation about faith, my son asked: Dad, why do we tend to struggle trusting God concerning the future when He's always been so faithful in the past?

Mark 9:24 (NKJV) -- Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, "Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!"

This is my prayer and desire for me and my family, Lord:

For Your present and future favor, we ask!
In Your past and present faithfulness, we bask!

IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
Grateful

"Let Us!"

Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. Hebrews 10:25 (NIV)

If you don't understand my unique love for gathering with the people of God (* regardless of the weather), you just have no idea how contagious my Granny Margery's love for the Lord and the local church impressed and still inspires her grandson. Often, I remember her coming across the yard between her home and ours early on Sunday mornings to catch a ride with us to church. She had a heartwarming glow on her face, her Holy Bible in her hand, God's tithe and her offerings in her purse and always Psalm 122:1 on her lips:

I was glad when they said to me, "Let us go into the house of the Lord." (NKJV)

IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
Grateful (for God, Granny, and God's House)

* Because of inclement weather, of course sometimes we cannot meet together as the local church. I understand that reality, but it makes me sad when it happens. Gathering together makes me glad.

A Private Audience With God

A hostile world! I call to God,
I cry to God to help me.
From His palace He hears my call;
my cry brings me right into His presence—
a private audience!
Psalm 18:6 -- The Message

IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
Grateful

The Essence of God's Call to Go

From the story of Abraham, we hear God speaking the essence of His call to go for Him. Then the LORD told Abram, "Leave your country, your relatives, and your father’s house, and go to the land that I will show you." (Genesis 12:1 NLT)

IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
Grateful

A Love-Hate Relationship

The latest definition for holiness that has quickened my heart is: A Love-Hate Relationship -- A Love God and Hate Sin Relationship.

Psalm 97:10a (NLT) -- You who love the LORD, hate evil!

IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
Grateful

The Name of Jesus

From a prison cell the Apostle Paul penned these words in his "Book of Joy" -- Phillipians 2:10-11 (NIV): ...that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in Heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

And in Romans 14:11, these words are given to us from the same Apostles pen: "'As I live and breathe,’ God says, every knee will bow before me; Every tongue will tell the honest truth that I and only I am God.’" (The Message)

Yes, one day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. I choose to kneel and confess this day and everyday day-after-day until That Day.

The Name of Jesus has taken on a whole new power in my life this week. The lyrics of this old hymn make great poetry to pray. I invite you to join me in praying in Jesus' name:

Take the Name of Jesus with you, Child of sorrow and of woe,
It will joy and comfort give you; Take it then, wherever you go.

Precious Name, O how sweet! Hope of earth and joy of heaven.
Precious Name, O how sweet! Hope of earth and joy of heaven.

Take the Name of Jesus ever, As a shield from every snare;
If temptations round you gather, Breathe that Holy Name in prayer.

O the precious Name of Jesus! How it thrills our souls with joy,
When His loving arms receive us, And His songs our tongues employ!

At the Name of Jesus bowing, Falling prostrate at His feet,
King of kings in Heaven we'll crown Him, When our journey is complete.

ALL... JOY TO YOUR WORLD!
Grateful

Feeling As If God's Forgotten You?

(-: MY LONGEST BLOG POST YET! CONSIDER YOURSELF WARNED! :-)

If you are feeling as if God's forgotten you, can I invite you to read the Old Testament Book of Job, yes the whole book, and read it if you can from the the Message Paraphrase of the Holy Bible. It is powerful, humbling, and helpful, especially if we want to somehow get a view of our human seasons of seemingly undeserved suffering from God's All-knowing perspective.

Here's Eugene Peterson's Introduction to the Book of Job from His Message Paraphrase of the Holy Bible just in case you want to take a few minutes to whet your appetite? It's a little long but a lot enlightening.

Job suffered. His name is synonymous with suffering. He asked, "Why?" He asked, "Why me?" And he put his questions to God. He asked his questions persistently, passionately, and eloquently. He refused to take silence for an answer. He refused to take clichés for an answer. He refused to let God off the hook.

Job did not take his sufferings quietly or piously. He disdained going for a second opinion to outside physicians or philosophers. Job took his stance before God, and there he protested his suffering, protested mightily.

It is not only because Job suffered that he is important to us. It is because he suffered in the same ways that we suffer—in the vital areas of family, personal health, and material things. Job is also important to us because he searchingly questioned and boldly protested his suffering. Indeed, he went "to the top" with his questions.

It is not suffering as such that troubles us. It is undeserved suffering. Almost all of us in our years of growing up have the experience of disobeying our parents and getting punished for it. When that discipline was connected with wrongdoing, it had a certain sense of justice to it: When we do wrong, we get punished.

One of the surprises as we get older, however, is that we come to see that there is no real correlation between the amount of wrong we commit and the amount of pain we experience. An even larger surprise is that very often there is something quite the opposite: We do right and get knocked down. We do the best we are capable of doing, and just as we are reaching out to receive our reward we are hit from the blind side and sent reeling.

This is the suffering that first bewilders and then outrages us. This is the kind of suffering that bewildered and outraged Job, for Job was doing everything right when suddenly everything went wrong. And it is this kind of suffering to which Job gives voice when he protests to God.

Job gives voice to his sufferings so well, so accurately and honestly, that anyone who has ever suffered—which includes every last one of us—can recognize his or her personal pain in the voice of Job. Job says boldly what some of us are too timid to say. He makes poetry out of what in many of us is only a tangle of confused whimpers. He shouts out to God what a lot of us mutter behind our sleeves. He refuses to accept the role of a defeated victim.
It is also important to note what Job does not do, lest we expect something from him that he does not intend. Job does not curse God as his wife suggests he should do, getting rid of the problem by getting rid of God. But neither does Job explain suffering. He does not instruct us in how to live so that we can avoid suffering. Suffering is a mystery, and Job comes to respect the mystery.

In the course of facing, questioning, and respecting suffering, Job finds himself in an even larger mystery—the mystery of God. Perhaps the greatest mystery in suffering is how it can bring a person into the presence of God in a state of worship, full of wonder, love, and praise. Suffering does not inevitably do that, but it does it far more often than we would expect. It certainly did that for Job. Even in his answer to his wife he speaks the language of an uncharted irony, a dark and difficult kind of truth: "We take the good days from God—why not also the bad days?"

But there is more to the book of Job than Job. There are Job’s friends. The moment we find ourselves in trouble of any kind—sick in the hospital, bereaved by a friend’s death, dismissed from a job or relationship, depressed or bewildered—people start showing up telling us exactly what is wrong with us and what we must do to get better. Sufferers attract fixers the way road-kills attract vultures. At first we are impressed that they bother with us and amazed at their facility with answers. They know so much! How did they get to be such experts in living?

More often than not, these people use the Word of God frequently and loosely. They are full of spiritual diagnosis and prescription. It all sounds so hopeful. But then we begin to wonder, "Why is it that for all their apparent compassion we feel worse instead of better after they’ve said their piece?"

The book of Job is not only a witness to the dignity of suffering and God’s presence in our suffering but is also our primary biblical protest against religion that has been reduced to explanations or "answers." Many of the answers that Job’s so-called friends give him are technically true. But it is the "technical" part that ruins them. They are answers without personal relationship, intellect without intimacy. The answers are slapped onto Job’s ravaged life like labels on a specimen bottle. Job rages against this secularized wisdom that has lost touch with the living realities of God.

In every generation there are men and women who pretend to be able to instruct us in a way of life that guarantees that we will be "healthy, wealthy, and wise." According to the propaganda of these people, anyone who lives intelligently and morally is exempt from suffering. From their point of view, it is lucky for us that they are now at hand to provide the intelligent and moral answers we need.

On behalf of all of us who have been misled by the platitudes of the nice people who show up to tell us everything is going to be just all right if we simply think such-and-such and do such-and-such, Job issues an anguished rejoinder. He rejects the kind of advice and teaching that has God all figured out, that provides glib explanations for every circumstance. Job’s honest defiance continues to be the best defense against the clichés of positive thinkers and the prattle of religious small talk.

The honest, innocent Job is placed in a setting of immense suffering and then surrounded by the conventional religious wisdom of the day in the form of speeches by Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar, and Elihu. The contrast is unforgettable. The counselors methodically and pedantically recite their bookish precepts to Job. At first Job rages in pain and roars out his protests, but then he becomes silent in awestruck faith before God, who speaks from out of a storm—a "whirlwind" of Deity. Real faith cannot be reduced to spiritual bromides and merchandised in success stories. It is refined in the fires and the storms of pain.
The book of Job does not reject answers as such. There is content to biblical religion. It is the secularization of answers that is rejected—answers severed from their Source, the living God, the Word that both batters us and heals us. We cannot have truth about God divorced from the mind and heart of God.

In our compassion, we don’t like to see people suffer. And so our instincts are aimed at preventing and alleviating suffering. No doubt that is a good impulse. But if we really want to reach out to others who are suffering, we should be careful not to be like Job’s friends, not to do our "helping" with the presumption that we can fix things, get rid of them, or make them "better." We may look at our suffering friends and imagine how they could have better marriages, better behaved children, better mental and emotional health. But when we rush in to fix suffering, we need to keep in mind several things.

First, no matter how insightful we may be, we don’t really understand the full nature of our friends’ problems. Second, our friends may not want our advice. Third, the ironic fact of the matter is that more often than not, people do not suffer less when they are committed to following God, but more. When these people go through suffering, their lives are often transformed, deepened, marked with beauty and holiness, in remarkable ways that could never have been anticipated before the suffering.

So, instead of continuing to focus on preventing suffering—which we simply won’t be very successful at anyway—perhaps we should begin entering the suffering, participating insofar as we are able—entering the mystery and looking around for God. In other words, we need to quit feeling sorry for people who suffer and instead look up to them, learn from them, and—if they will let us—join them in protest and prayer. Pity can be nearsighted and condescending; shared suffering can be dignifying and life-changing. As we look at Job’s suffering and praying and worshiping, we see that he has already blazed a trail of courage and integrity for us to follow.

But sometimes it’s hard to know just how to follow Job’s lead when we feel so alone in our suffering, unsure of what God wants us to do. What we must realize during those times of darkness is that the God who appeared to Job in the whirlwind is calling out to all of us. Although God may not appear to us in a vision, he makes himself known to us in all the many ways that he describes to Job—from the macro to the micro, from the wonders of the galaxies to the little things we take for granted. He is the Creator of the unfathomable universe all around us—and he is also the Creator of the universe inside of us. And so we gain hope—not from the darkness of our suffering, not from pat answers in books, but from the God who sees our suffering and shares our pain.

Reading Job prayerfully and meditatively leads us to face the questions that arise when our lives don’t turn out the way we expect them to. First we hear all the stock answers. Then we ask the questions again, with variations—and hear the answers again, with variations. Over and over and over. Every time we let Job give voice to our own questions, our suffering gains in dignity and we are brought a step closer to the threshold of the voice and mystery of God. Every time we persist with Job in rejecting the quick-fix counsel of people who see us and hear us but do not understand us, we deepen our availability and openness to the revelation that comes only out of the tempest. The mystery of God eclipses the darkness and the struggle. We realize that suffering calls our lives into question, not God’s. The tables are turned: God-Alive is present to us. God is speaking to us. And so Job’s experience is confirmed and repeated once again in our suffering and our vulnerable humanity.

ALL JOY!
Grateful

Yes! The Son of God in the Old Testament!

Did you know that the Good News of God having a Beloved Son is not just unfolded in the New Testament, but it is also enfolded in the Old Testament? Here are two obvious Old Testament references revealing the Reality of God's Son:

Psalm 2:12 (NIV) -- Kiss the Son, lest He (the LORD) be angry and you be destroyed in your way, for His wrath can flare up in a moment. Blessed are all who take refuge in Him.

Proverbs 30:4 (NIV) -- Who has gone up to Heaven and come down? Who has gathered up the wind in the hollow of his hands? Who has wrapped up the waters in his cloak? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is His name, and the name of His Son? Tell me if you know!

I TESTIFY! HIS NAME IS GOD! AND WHAT'S HIS SON'S NAME? JESUS!

Want some homework? See if you can find The Son of God in the Old Testament Book of Daniel, chapter 3? :-)

ALL JOY!
Grateful

Our Living and Loving God

Reading Hebrews 11:6 we discover that our God lives and our God loves. Let us pray that our faith goes far beyond believing that our God exists to the sacred grounds of knowing that our God cares, too. Yes, our God reigns and our God rewards. Indeed, He is our compassionate Creator God.

Hebrews 11:6 (NLT) -- So, you see, it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to Him must believe that there is a God and that He rewards those who sincerely seek Him.

ALL JOY!
Grateful

The Passage of Time

James Taylor sings a song titled Secret of Life. One line from the old tune says: The Secret of Life is enjoying The Passage of Time.

Well, I'd agree that's at least one secret of life. But the greater secret, or mystery to me is The Passage of Time itself. It seems just days ago that my son and daughter were little children, Now, all of a sudden, our "little" son is a 22-year-old college graduate and beginning his chosen career in radio broadcasting. Our "little" daughter is 20 and already a university junior as a fashion marketer and living three-and-a-half hours from home. It's unbelievable how fast time has rushed past our family.

This morning as I had my usual quiet time on the front porch, our neighbor was playing with his little four-year-old boy on the sidewalk next door. Listening to his young son's little-boy-laughter penetrated my heart and reminded me of the mystery, yes, the mystery of The Passage of Time.

I am reminded of these words from a poem my wife and I used to incorporate in advertising when we were full-time photographers. It was an effective sales pitch that encouraged or warned parents to have their little children remembered in portraits before it was too late. Listen to these 13 words:

Whatever happened to yesterday?
It picked up our children and stole them away.

Now, rest assured, I have enjoyed The Passage of Time, but I am still confounded by it all. James Taylor's song advice may be very close to some of the the best counsel we can get about the mystery of life's brevity: Enjoy the passage of time. That is, enjoy the passage of time by being present in your present and by being up-to-date in your relationship with God and your relationships with others, especially your own family members.

Another old Gospel song by the Gaithers said it this way:
We have this moment to hold in our hands,
and to touch as it slips through our fingers like sand.
Yesterday's gone and tomorrow may never come,
but we have this moment... today.

The time that remains is very short... 1 Corinthians 7:29 (NLT).

ALL JOY!
Grateful

Note: This blog entry specifically spells out in part my life's joy-description, which includes, but is not limited to, these 7 words:
Live to help others minimize future regrets.

Fearful? A Love Prescription!

...perfect love drives out fear... 1 John 4:18 (NIV)

If you haven't read prayerfully and carefully through "the love chapter" (1 Corinthians 13) lately, it's a great God-prescription -- especially helpful for the fearful. When you read 1 Corinthians 13, each time you see the word "love" replace it with the name "God" and see how powerful of a prescription "the love chapter" really is.

Afterall, God is (perfect) love. 1 John 4:16 (NIV)

ALL JOY!
Grateful

What More Could God Do?

For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. -- John 3:16-17 (NIV)

After reading and reflecting on John 3:16-17, I ask, What more could God do to prove His Love for us than He has already done?

ALL JOY!
Grateful