Perspective

I was talking with a friend the other day about abortion.  She was sharing some stats she had heard about how widespread abortion is in Canada.  This post is not about abortion, but I will say both my friend and I would be of the mind that abortion kills a baby and is wrong, even under the most heartbreaking circumstances that some women find themselves in.  


At the end of our conversation, my friend said "Sometimes it really seems like Evil is winning."


So I've been thinking about that for a bit.  I think it is easy for the human mind to take in the world - through the news, through the internet, through looking at our own community, and conclude that Evil is winning in this world.  But my heart says no.  My heart and my spirit say that though this is what I see, I know that God is in control and that He has the victory.  The evil in this world may flaunt how it advances, but God is at work in peoples hearts, turning them towards Himself.  And we know that in the end, Jesus said He will make all things new, He will do away with pain, sorrow, and evil itself.  We just can't see all this from our perspective. 


I was reading in 1 Kings 19. The kingdom of Israel has turned their back on God, and are living in ways that grieve God's heart.  The prophet Elijah has been obedient to God, especially in a few major encounters with the King of Israel.  But at this moment, Elijah is running for his life, and he thinks he's alone.  He says to God, "I've been working my heart out for you, God!  The people of Israel have abandoned your covenant, destroyed the places of worship, and murdered your prophets.  I'm the only one left, and now they're trying to kill me."


Then God comes closer to Elijah, comes in a quiet whisper, and Elijah repeats his worries to God.


God then proceeds to give Elijah some instructions for Him -  a little window into what's coming next for Israel.  But at the end, God says these words:


"Meanwhile, I'm preserving for myself seven thousand souls: the knees that haven't bowed to the god Baal, the mouths that haven't kissed his image."


How different is God's perspective from Elijah's!   Elijah thinks he is all alone, the only one left who cares about honoring and living for God.  He is at the end of his rope, and ready to die.  From his perspective, evil is winning in Israel.  But God not only has everything in control, but tells Elijah that he is not alone, that God has preserved seven thousand others whose hearts are still faithful to God.  


When we look at our lives, we think we see the full picture.  And in desperate times, we think it's over, we think we're losing, we're alone, we're done.  But God sees the bigger picture.  God knows every heart, and is at work in amazing ways that our eyes cannot see.  


Specifically for those of us who are engaged in any sort of ministry, we are not alone!  God delights in hearts that have not turned away from Him, that are faithful and obedient amidst the evil of this world.  If you are in a church struggling through conflict, or you volunteer at a youth group or youth center and all you see is kids with no hope - look again with God's eyes.  God knows which hearts He is preserving for Himself even through the trouble.  Glory to God!

The Author

Let's do a little word study for a moment.
A what study?  Huh?
Word Study!  Let's look at a single word and investigate it a bit.
Ok...  what word?

au·thor

   [aw-ther] 

noun

1.

a person who writes a novel, poem, essay, etc.; the composer of a literary work, as distinguished from a compiler,translator, editor, or copyist.

2.

the maker of anything; creator; originator: the author of anew tax plan.

We generally would think of an author by the first definition - someone who has written something, a book, a poem, a magazine article.  And by this definition alone, an author is an amazing thing.  They put pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard, and produce a written product that did not exist before.  For the purposes of information, of entertainment, of self-expression or of moving ones emotions, authors use recorded words to say something unique, something important.  


But this second definition is very interesting in broadening the scope of being an author - the maker of anything, creator, originator.  If you can produce anything that did not previously exist, you have authored that thing.  If there is an idea that originated in your mind that was not planted there by some conglomerate of other ideas, you are the author of that idea.  


What made me think of looking into this word - Author?


Tonight I was singing a song that called God the "Author of Salvation."  It intrigued me.  Were there any times in the Bible where God was called the Author of something???  I discovered, Yes!  There are!  Only a few, but...

• Acts 3:15 - Paul is preaching on the day of Pentecost and tells his audience "You killed the author of life..."
• Hebrews 12:2, "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith..."

Author of life, author of our faith, author of salvation.  Back up in that second definition, another word for author was originator.  The idea of life originated with God, before Him life itself did not exist and He made it.  Faith originated with God, we did not realize on our own that we should believe and trust in God, but He authored faith, brought its possibility into existence.  


Or how about this...  God had an empty page before Him, and He had a story on His heart.  He wrote the story of salvation, complete with amazing, complex and conflicted characters (you and I), a hero (His own Son, Jesus), conflict (we are separated from God), and an amazing climax and resolution (Salvation - Kingdom bringing...).  It's His story, He authored it.  He is the Author.

Well-Trodden Path

Yesterday I went to visit a friend that lives pretty close by, and the shortest way there takes me through my backyard and through a big empty lot.  I strapped on my boots and made the short trek through the snow, a lot of it through untouched snow, my footprints the first to break the snows surface.  After my visit, on my way back, I ended up walking in my own footprints as a path back to my house.  I remembered how much easier it is to walk through snow when there are already footprints to follow.  


When we still lived in Red Deer, I walked to my work at the bank everyday.  The route I took also took me through a large park where I crossed a big grassy area.  In the winter, I often found myself walking through the snow at this part of the walk.  Once in a while, if I was working early and we had gotten lots of snow overnight, my footprints would be alone.  But more often than not, because this was a well used route by many other people, there would be a full out path in the snow.  The snow would be untouched on either side, but because of the number of people walking through the same place, it was no longer overlapping sets of footprints, but a solid path of packed down snow.  This was much easier to walk on than making your own way through the deep new snow.  


Lately I've been trying to find a way to be more consistent in prayer.  Walking home from my visit yesterday through the snow, seeing my own footprints, I started thinking about this.  I think we make (or don't make) pathways in our hearts and minds towards things like prayer, reading the Bible, quiet and reflection.  And if it has been a long time, it's like making new footprints in deep snow.  It's harder than we think it should be.  We can be tempted not to do it again, and then life will blow over our single set of footprints and take them away, so that if we try again, its just as hard.  But if we choose to walk those paths often, making new footprints over old ones, again and again, we eventually make a solid path of packed down snow, and what used to seem hard to get to somehow has become a part of who we are.  

Christmas Morning

It's Christmas!  The 28th one I have ever gotten to enjoy, my 5th with Kevin, my 3rd with the MRCC, and my 3rd with nieces!  A wonderful day indeed!  But wait, Christmas is not really about me.  It's not even really about spending a day celebrating with family, though we will enjoy that as well.


Christmas is about celebrating Jesus' birth.  But not just the fact that He was born.  We celebrate His birth because of who He was and because of why He was born.  Without these things, why would we celebrate?


This morning I woke up with Silent Night in my head.  I'm even listening to it now.  The last line of the second verse says "Christ, the Saviour is born."  Here is the key to Christmas - it's not just that Jesus was born.  It is that Jesus, the Christ, our Saviour, was born.  


Jesus is the Christ - the Anointed one, the Messiah.  God incarnate.  God, choosing to take on the form of a man to be born as a baby.


Jesus is the Saviour - He came to save us.  He came to suffer, He came to die.  For us.  Instead of us.  


Christmas isn't just about Christmas, Christmas is about Easter!  Already in celebrating the fact that He came as a baby, the "Why?" of Christmas leads us to Easter.  


This Christmas morning I am celebrating and worshiping my Saviour!!  To begin, I'm reading Phil. 2:5-11 -

 You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.  Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to.Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, 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.

All Out of Words

Brian Doerksen has a song on his album It's Time called "More".  It talks about how he needs God more than anything - more than oxygen, food, the warmth of the sun, the passionate expression of song.  It is very reminiscent of Psalm 63:


¹ O God, you are my God;
      I earnestly search for you.
   My soul thirsts for you;
      my whole body longs for you
   in this parched and weary land
      where there is no water.
 ² I have seen you in your sanctuary
      and gazed upon your power and glory.
 ³ Your unfailing love is better than life itself;


Your love is better than life.  I need you more than anything life-sustaining, more than anything beautiful, more than anything that provides fulfillment in life.  I need you and love you more than anything.


This is intense!  But I think a very appropriate adoration of our amazing God.  He sustains our every breathe, He provides the food and water we need to survive.  And His love is better than life!


And then, in Brian's song, there's this moment at the end when he has gone through this wonderful list of things that God's love is better than, where he throws out this line, "I'm all out of words..." And they proceed to go into a sweet instrumental outro to finish the song.


That line defines my worshipers heart sometimes.  You get to a point where you have tried to express in words the beauty and magnitude of God, trying to express through words how your heart responds to this amazing God, and you realize, "I'm all out of words".  And you throw your hands up, and dance, or cry, or just play your instrument with all the passion you can, try to find a way to express the love, the gratitude, the awe that is bursting from the inside out.


Sometimes I have had people ask me why we have to do repetitive songs, just sing the same line over and over.  Or what the point of a high energy instrumental is in worship.  To me, this is why - because sometimes I'm all out of words.  My heart needs to worship but my words just don't cut it anymore.  And I think for me something happens between my own spirit and God's that is outside of the music, that is beyond trying to sing about God's greatness through well crafted words.  My words fail, and my spirit cries out to Him in a way He can understand.

Another Morning

This morning I am thankful for...

• Sleep
• The goodies that start coming out at Christmas time
• The beautiful story of Ruth - love, redemption, faithfulness, devotion, compassion
• Rain in December!
• Christmas music, new and old

Our Story

I've been meaning to post this link for a few weeks but kept forgetting until now.  A few weeks ago in our church we did a series called "Stories that Preach".  Each Sunday someone from the congregation told their story about how God had worked in their lives and then our pastor moved onto a sermon based on that story.  In the final week of this series Kevin and I had the chance to share part of our story.  So below is the link to the recording of our story.  Our part goes until about 13 minutes in, and after that is the sermon.  I'd love to hear what you think.

http://mrcc.ca/node/650