Know Your Place

I live and operate near an area of town that is known as a “rich” area. The Starbucks I frequent (VERY often…) always has Escalades, Land Rovers, Audi’s, and BMW’s parked outside it. My wife works in a job that involves customer service and interaction in the same area. Frequently, we observe an attitude of entitlement present in those who have enjoyed worldly success. What one person sees as something that would be nice, another person sees as something that’s due them. Jesus warned that money and knowledge so often foster pride and arrogance in our hearts.

But oh how often I do this too! Most often this has to do with waiting—we get upset if there’s more than 1 person in front of us at the sub counter. I get annoyed at the person relating all the days events to the bank teller while I just want to deposit my check and get out of there. When I worked at a small office at Grace, I would get so uptight when all the spots next to the building were taken and I had to walk—God forbid!—another 100 feet to the front door, or park in the tightly laid out spots where there was risk my car door would be banged and scratched by someone else’s car door.

The attitude can be present and operating no matter how much money one has. When I was a meat cutter my fellow coworkers complained about those customers who “thought their you-know-what didn’t stink.” I myself had the thought today, “What is a rich man but a poor man with lots of money?” While this is true, by such thoughts, are we just trying to promote ourselves as better than the rich person? Are we just wishing the tables were turned, because then we would be happy?

My friend and pastor Mike Adkins used the term “appropriate smallness” a few weeks ago in a sermon. This is the opposite of entitlement. It is seeking re-orienting my heart to the recognition that the rest of the billions of people on the planet are created in the image of God as I am, and have dignity, worth, concerns, struggles, and things to do. It’s recognizing that God is the Creator, and I am the creature, and am no better than the next person, whether I’m redeemed by Jesus’ blood or not.

Jesus said it this way: “Blessed are the poor in Spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Happy, fulfilled, and satisfied are those who recognize their place in the world and in the kingdom of God. Who find their hope and comfort and identity in the sovereign grace of Jesus, and live with gratitude. Who know that whether poor or rich (and I know that I am immensely rich by most of the world’s standards), we are blessed by God.

Behind the Music: Love Like Fire

This morning in worship at Grace Orlando we sang a song from Hillsong "Love Like Fire" (available here). As I was engaged in worship and singing, a stream of thoughts began flowing through my mind, which I wanted to share with you. These thoughts do not reflect the main message of the lyrics of the song, but they are where my mind and heart went this morning particularly.

As a side note, one of the things I find so helpful in my personal worship, that is beginning to seep more and more into my everyday experience and relationships, is my theological training. I guess $50,000 and 10 years is worth it for a rich experience of God that I can bring to my ministry.

We must begin with the reminder that our God is love. There are countless verses in Scripture that make it abundantly clear. In fact, not too many people would argue otherwise. So in my mind the jump I am making is to sing thinking of God the person (God is love, but love is not God, as Mark Driscoll recently pointed out [I don't know where]).

In the Old Testament, the book of Exodus, God begins to manifest himself visually to his people through different representations of fire, starting with the burning bush, then moving to where he leads the whole congregation into the Sinai plain with his presence being represented by a pillar of fire. One that burns for all to see.

When Israel saw it, it was to them a constant knowledge of the presence of God with them. When Israel wasn't hiking across the plain and had their tents set up, God's "portable church" was also set up in the center of the camp, and there the fire would rest, representing his presence with them.

Fast forward through 1300 years of redemptive history to Acts 2. When the Father sent the Holy Spirit, it says that visually what happened is tongues of fire came down--this represented the presence of God entering every person who surrendered their lives to God, who believed on Jesus for Salvation and asked God to reign in their lives. Every person who "loses their life" to find it again in Jesus is given the gift of the Holy Spirit. The overwhelming significance of this is that the God whose presence was represented by a huge pillar of flame in Exodus now resides not in temples made with human hands but in the HEARTS of every believer.

So now, when we say God’s love is like a fire burning for all to see, it does so in an of itself (God displays his character in many ways apart from man's input), but in part he does so through us, as we bring Him to the world. When we sing songs like this in public, it is one way of publicly declaring his name to those who he has yet to bring into his family. The more his love consumes us, it can't help but be seen and touch the lives of the people around us.

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P.S. When we sing we want to worship at his feet, what helps is to remember that God is ALWAYS present, and every moment is an opportunity to worship at his feet through prayer, through activity, through service of others, or a host of other ways of inviting him into our daily activity.

Happy First Birthday to Brendan David

A year ago today I was working with a friend from church all day building stage props for Grace Orlando (big signs that said "GOD"). Early in the day, Anne called to just let me know she was starting to feel some contractions, that I could finish up my day's work, but we'd probably be heading to the hospital later that day.

After wrapping things up that rainy afternoon, I stopped by 4 Rivers BBQ, knowing that for the next 3 days I'd eat hospital cafeteria food. Everything went as planned, things were SOOOO much less chaotic than they had been with Aidan. Anne was admitted, nurses did their thing and we went to surgery prep, (required a C-section) everything was done with a sense of peaceful expectation... so different from the chaos of labor with Aidan leading to emergency C-section. At 1:23 AM Brendan emerged.

That was a glorious day, and all this past year God has brought so much life into our home through Brendan. Brendan is full of joy, rambunctious, always getting into everything. He recently learned to walk, which makes him SUPREMELY cute as he waddles around the house, frequently trying to go as fast as he can and tripping over himself.

God has used Brendan to show me just how much He loves me. No matter what Brendan does, I am just crazy about him because he's my son, and I care for him, I'd do anything for him, and even when he messes up it doesn't make me love him any less.

Happy first birthday, Bubba... I love you so much my little man, and I'm VERY blessed, overwhelmed with joy, to be your dad. I thank God for the incredible gift that is you. I look forward to all the wonderful times ahead, I pray many things for you, especially that you would live in HIS love all the days of your life.

All Creatures

For Christmas Anne and I decided to invest in a PS3, which of course is made by Sony allowing them to build in their own blu-ray player. Along with it, Anne got me several blu-ray movies and collections, including Planet Earth. We've watched nearly all of the discs over the last couple weeks, and I just have to say it is so humbling and overwhelming at times.

The intricacy with which every square inch of this world was created is astounding. One of the interesting things is just how much in the series is being filmed in rather "uncharted" territory, places where man never ventured to until the last 10-20 years. Places in the great deep, places far underground. If you've seen the series, you know just how amazing some of the sites are that they have found there: great caverns with delicate crystal murals, blind creatures in the Mariana trench seen a pressures that our greatest submarines could barely take, and endless forests in the Arctic tundra built for providing the oxygen for billions of people.

I've also been looking at the APOD app on my iPad. It contains many pictures of far distant galaxies that were unknown to man before Hubble came along. How amazing and perfect these distant worlds are.

When you consider that for 1000's of years (or more...) these things have existed without our knowledge, one must conclude that the Creator made them simply for his own pleasure, simply because he is God and must make his creation equal to his splendor. He spoke, by the Word of his mouth, they came to be.

So the only fitting response to such overwhelming beauty is doxology. We join with the song in Revelation 4: "You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being." Another translation is "For thy pleasure." Simply because they bring joy to Him. God also created you and me for his glory and pleasure. Yet, since the fall, the story has been tarnished. But Scripture promises his glory and pleasure are still the theme, they are still God's aim for all things.

A couple weeks ago we were singing "All Creatures of our God and King" in worship at Grace, and the song took on such new meaning and significance in my heart with all this background. The rest of creation worships and honors God so much better than I do sometimes. It simply does that for which it was made. The sun was made to shine, and so each morning it explodes on the scene in such astounding beauty (thanks @KellyAdkins).

My part is simply to join in, to encourage it, to worship Him as humbly as creation does: "Let all things their Creator bless, and worship Him in humbleness, Alleluia..."

Hear the Angels

So I know Christmas is already fading in everyone's mind, but I've been listening to this song over the past few weeks. The musicality of it, the originality really struck me, and when that happens it often leads the listener to re-consider the lyrics. What struck me most was this verse:

And ye beneath life's crushing load,

Whose forms are bending low;

Who toil along the climbing way

With painful steps so slow:

Look now! For glad and golden hours

Come swiftly on the wing!

Oh rest beside the weary road

And hear the angels sing!

At the end of the song, Sara tags what it was the angels were singing: "Glory Hallelujah, Peace on Earth..." There is something about the tiredness, the weariness that we feel as we toil and labor and go about our days. No matter how much we may enjoy that which we do, there are times where we our in touch with that inner ache that exists simply because of being human between the Fall of man and the final return of the Savior.

The coming of the king into a dirty manger in a cave in Bethlehem was so utterly unexpected. He came to those who were able to admit and connect with that ache, those who were hungry not just for food, but for True Nourishment. His inauguration of the kingdom announced the coming of "glad and golden hours." They are STILL coming swiftly. I pray that you and I will take moments this holiday season to REST beside the weary road, just like the young dirty shepherds who guarded Him, and listen, maybe even join in with the song the angels sing.

In the Name

This is from Paul Miller, A Praying Life, pg 135:

"Imagine that your prayer is a poorly dressed beggar reeking of alcohol and body odor, stumbling toward the palace of the Great King. You have become your prayer. As you shuffle toward the barred gate, the guards stiffen. Your smell has preceded you. You stammer out a message for the Great King: 'I want to see the King.' Your words are barely intelligible, but you whisper one final word, 'Jesus. I come in the name of Jesus.' At the name of Jesus, as if by magic, the palace comes alive. THe guards snap to attention, bowing low in front of you. Lights come on, and the door flies open. You are ushered into the palace and down a long hallway into the throneroom of the Great King, who comes running to you and wraps you in his arms.

"The name of Jesus gives my prayers royal access. They get through. Jesus isn't just the Savior of my soul. He's also the Savior of my prayers."

Why Brendan David?

A little over 19 months ago our first son was born, and I wrote about Aidan's name here. Our second son Brendan David is now 36 hours old, and doing very well.

The name Brendan we settled on in keeping with Irish first names and felt that it fit well after Aidan. Brendan means "prince." And what is a prince but a son of the King? Brendan is first and foremost a child of God, the King.

Also since I first heard the album Beyond These Shores by Iona have had some interest in the story of St. Brendan, an Irish monk living around 500 AD. It has been hard for historians to verify the details, but legend says he sailed off from his home to uncharted waters for 7 years in search of a land of paradise. The idea of being wholly devoted to God and setting off into sea is a great picture of the kind of life God wants us to lead, the kind of life I hope and pray Brendan will lead. One of the prayers of St Brendan goes like this:

Help me to journey beyond the familiar
and into the unknown.
Give me the faith to leave old ways
and break fresh ground with You.

Christ of the mysteries, I trust You
to be stronger than each storm within me.
I will trust in the darkness and know
that my times, even now, are in Your hand.

Tune my spirit to the music of heaven,
and somehow, make my obedience count for You.

I LOVE the second half of the first paragraph! Similarly, the lyrics of the last song on the Iona album:

Beyond these shores
Into the darkness
Beyond these shores
This boat may sail
And if this is the way
Then there will be
A path across this sea

And if I sail beyond
The farthest ocean
Or lose myself in depths below
Wherever I may go
Your love surrounds me
For you have been before
Beyond these shores

Beyond these shores
Into the darkness

And now for the middle name, David. It means beloved, and the Biblical man David was known, dispite all his failures, as a man after God's heart, the greatest King of Israel in the Bible. His love for God is evident in the Psalms. We want Brendan to know that he is a "Beloved Prince."

Your mom and I are so blessed to have you, dear son, and so excited to see who you become!