AND GOD SPOKE

As I searched for God the other morning, I heard Him speak. I know that always causes some feelings of angst amongst people. Some don't believe it, others wonder why it doesn't happen to them. I don't have all the answers, but I can share my experience. Maybe He'll speak to you through the words of this email.

I was looking through Scripture and stumbled across this verse, a message from God to His people through the prophet Isaiah...

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55: 9-10, ESV)


As I read, I wonder, "What are His thoughts? What is it that God thinks most about?"

So I look elsewhere in Scripture for the words, "Lord or God" and "thoughts." I find the Psalmist David reflecting on this same thing. He says...

How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand. And when I wake up, you are still with me! (Psalm 139: 17-18, NLT)

The next day, as I listen to a audio version of one of my favorite books, Steps to Christ, I hear...

"When men go forth to their daily toil, as when they engage in prayer; when they lie down at night, and when they rise in the morning; when the rich man feasts in his palace, or when the poor man gathers his children about the scanty board, each is tenderly watched by the heavenly Father. No tears are shed that God does not notice. There is no smile that He does not mark."

And I conclude what God is trying to tell me. He's trying to tell me that His thoughts are of me. He watches over me and every moment of my life because He greatly cares for me and what happens to me. That thought is not only endearing, it is what I needed to hear. I needed to hear about a higher power who loves me in a way that is deeper and more real than anything I can imagine. That His thoughts are with me and of me. That He is with me.

The good news is, His thoughts are not just of me but of ALL His children...those that know, love and serve Him and those that don't. Regardless of how we spend our days or the things we do, His thoughts are of us because we are His precious and dearly loved children.

I hope that truth can turn your attention to Him for a moment and that in that moment you would realize that He's been with you all along. Courage for the close of the quarter and the journey of the day!

DREAMING AGAIN

In a couple of weeks, my son and I are embarking on what I call, "A Coming of Age Tour." He's turning 10, and when he was born I made a commitment that at 10 years old he and I would go on a long drive, have some fun, and talk about the things that matter most...baseball, relationships (birds & bees stuff), and Jesus. I am humbled by this task and excited at the same time. I pray for the Spirit to guide my words and fill our conversations with excitement, love, and wisdom.

This weekend, as we were planning our trip, I was lamenting over the cost of gas and how I wished the prices would drop before we leave. Ayden began "dreaming."

He said, "Daddy, how much would it cost us if gas was only $1.00/gallon?" I did the calculations and told him we'd save around $600. He didn't stop there. With eyes bulging out of his head, he said, "Daddy! What if gas was only $.01/gallon? What would it cost us then?" Resisting an eye roll, stuck in reality, I mustered out, "I guess that would only cost us about $20.00."

Then he said something that really hit me. He said with a sense of pure joy in a tone that children bleed so well, "It's fun to dream isn't it Daddy?"

You know what? He was right. It is fun to dream and I had been guilty of raining reality on his parade. When I let go and really joined in the fun of dreaming with him, we had a great time.

I don't know what your reality is today. Maybe it's painful and dreaming hurts (my heart sank as I wrote the prayer requests today...reality can really hurt). But I believe that it's in the dreaming that we meet with our Creator; after all, it was His "dreaming" that brought you and I into existence. It was His "dreaming" that saved the human race. His "dreaming" that conjured up an unimaginable plan to become human in order to save us from our sins. It sounded too crazy, too unrealistic. The God of the universe coming down to earth as a baby, wrapped in swaddling clothes, but He did it. He dreamed and His dream saved us.

Maybe today, we all need to dream about what could be. Maybe what could be will be, maybe it won't, but one thing is for sure; A day is coming when our deepest and most meaningful dreams will come to fruition if we can but cling now to the One worth dreaming about.

May we all be able to "dream" with our Lord and Savior. May those dreams wake us up to a new reality on this earth where we live in the joy of the Holy Spirit until the day when His dreams and are dreams are one. Courage my friends! Have fun dreaming!

OVERCOMING FEAR

I'm pretty sure you haven't lived until you've seen a four or five-year old overcome their fear of diving boards.

Last week, I was watching my own children participate in swim lessons at the WWU pool, when I caught a glimpse of a little girl up on the diving board. All week she was frightened of the looming horizontal plank. Her parents had told her that her teacher may ask them to jump off the diving board. This warning inflicted much worry on her tiny heart all week. Little by little, day by day, the teacher scooted her class towards the diving board in hopes that each one would take the plunge. The teacher knew they would be safe, she could see the bigger picture. She also knew that more than likely the child would love taking the risk and would want to do it again after she jumped.

On Friday, it was her day. With a life-vest on, she slowly crept out onto the diving board, shaking from cold and fear. All of the parents neglected their own children to cheer on this little girl. Slowly, even more slowly, she inched out to the edge of the diving board. The teacher was in the pool, ready to catch her. Her parents were armed with cameras, but barely breathing; I don't think any of the parents at the pool were breathing. She stared down at her teacher, for several minutes, with tears in her eyes. Then finally, she jumped.

The crowd of onlookers erupted in cheers, the parents celebrated, the teacher praised the student, the student could barely believe it herself, and God simply smiled.

Throughout Scripture, one of the most common phrases is "Do not be afraid." Again and again, God has to remind us to not fear. He has to remind us that we don't see the whole picture, only He does, and in His arms we are more than safe. We need to realize that God is standing there, waiting to wrap us up in His arms and whisper in our ear, "Well done, good and faithful servant." All the while the angels are off in the distance cheering.

I'm not sure what fear you may be holding onto today. I'm not sure what it is that scares you; a job transition, a bad economy, an opportunity to witness or reach out to someone, a request, a relationship, a call to serve. But in the words of Mike Yaconelli, I hope you can learn the "joy and abandon of running and jumping and playing hard-without worrying about what "might" happen." For His arms are always long enough to save (Isaiah 59: 1).

Go in peace and joy and trust in Jesus to be there for you, arms wide open, to receive you unto Himself for whatever you face today.

Friend of God

This past weekend, I had the privilege of officiating at my cousins wedding at Belknap Hot Springs in Oregon. The hot springs and the gardens that surrounded it’s landscape were absolutely breath-taking, but what impressed me even more was the friendship and camaraderie shared between my cousin and a group of guys he has grown up with.

These guys met each other playing rollerblade hockey when they were 8 and 9 years old, and they haven’t stopped hanging out since. They have drained pantries and fridges together, gone on dates together, journeyed through high school and college together, and laughed and cried together. Without even knowing this group of gentlemen, one could easily tell that they were close, more like brothers than friends. During the toast, the bride talked about how accepted she was by this band of brothers and how she knew that no matter what the need and no matter what time of day or night, she could call on them and they’d come running. What a picture of friendship!

I think it’s something we all long for; to belong to a group and to know that no matter what happens in life that someone has our back. Done right, it actually sounds like a healthy picture of church.

In John 15, Jesus tells His disciples, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.”

Jesus calls us friends. The God of the universe calls us friends. The alpha and omega, the almighty, all powerful one calls us friends. And He promises that no matter the need or the time of day, we can cry out to Him and He will be with us (Isaiah 14: 14). He will never leave us. In fact, He’s such a good friend that He even knows what we need before we ask (Matthew 6: 8).

So we belong to the love of the Trinity, but we also belong to this community of faith. Students, teachers, administration, staff, we are all brothers and sisters in Christ. We are a part of His family, we make up His church, and together we bring Jesus to life for this community. If we have a need, day or night, we should be able to call on each other. If we need a shoulder to cry on or an ear that will listen, we should be able to call on each other. If we need to share a laugh, we should be able to call on each other. If we desire to go deeper in our walk with God, we should be able to call on each other.

My prayer is that this community would realize that in Christ we have not just a Savior, not just a Lord, not just a King, but a friend, and that in realizing the power of that friendship we would reach out to all of those around us with the same love and passion that Christ extends to us. When we do that, Jesus comes to life on the campus of WWU!

Belonging

The word, belong, is defined by Websters in the following ways: To be in the relation of a member. To have the proper qualifications, esp. social qualifications, to be a member of a group:

When I was seven years old, I played in little league. In fact, the picture in this email is of my actual jersey. I don’t know why I kept it, other than I loved being on that team. We were a good team of friends, and we had lots of fun. I can remember showing up in a sea of people, but I could pick out my team because we wore the same jesrsey. They were where I belonged. We played together, we enjoyed cream soda after the game together, and we had a great summer together. It feels so good to belong.

I thought about this last week when I woke up with a sense to look up Romans 14: 9. Here’s what it says, “For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.” You may ask the same question I did, “What reason?” Well, verse 8 says, “If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.” So read that in the correct order and you get the idea that Jesus came so that we might belong.

The book of Romans is full of this type of theme. We are all born with the same jersey filled with the stains of sin. We are all sinners (Romans 3: 23) and we are all justified freely by His grace (Romans 3: 24). Romans 8: 16-17 says that we are all children of God and because of that we are all “heirs of God and co-hears with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.” Romans 10: 12 says that “there is no difference between Jew and Gentile – the same Lord is LORD OF ALL and richly blesses ALL who call on him…”

So it seems to me that sin gave us one jersey, but Jesus came and lived and died that we might have another (Isaiah 61: 10); that we might belong to Him. He left the perfection of heaven, that we might belong. He was born in a manger, that we might belong. He became familiar with hunger, suffering, pain, that we might belong. He wrestled with the powers of darkness that marred Him beyond human likeness (Isaiah 53) that we might belong. And He rose from the grave and conquered sin and death, that we might belong.

You and I belong to Him that died for that very reason. And because we belong, we can join our hands as brothers and sisters and Christ. We can encourage one another when we stumble and fall because we all know what that’s like. We can pray for one another in any hardship because we’ve all had hardships. We can rejoice with one another when the blessings flow because we all have had the blessings flow.

So let us join our hands together, and with our hands our hearts, and let us seek the one who made it possible for us to belong to the Kingdom of Light, of Love, of Mercy, and of Grace. Amen!