Anchor Down

Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither-whatever they do prospers. Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away. Psalm 1:1-4

First off, about the title. No, not talking about Vanderbilt here. (Although I AM a fan, much to the chagrin of many in my family. If any of you family members need to know what chagrin means, just let me know *snicker*.)

I'm thinking rather of an actual anchor, used to hold a ship in place, regardless of the tempest around it. We have had some rather extreme situations put upon the world in the last few weeks, and it's easy to be swept up in the chaos. (But hording toilet paper?? Really?? Come on!)

The trouble in going with the chaos is that once you give in to it, it will carry you wherever it wants to, spinning round and round like a whirlpool and sucking you down, everything moving so fast there's nothing to grab hold of. We need to drop anchor, and not be tossed by the waves around us.

So what do we anchor ourselves to? Obviously, not anything of the world. By this, I mean money, power, ego, politics, absolutely nothing that is man created or man perpetuated is immune form the turmoil in our world, not now, never before, and will not be after. All these things are temporary and have no real substance. (All is vanity-Ecclesiastes) (Heaven and Earth shall pass away - Mark 13:31)

So what do we hold on to?The rest of that verse in Mark gives the answer: "but my words shall not pass away". Is this just referring to what Jesus spoke? No, not just this, because Jesus IS the living, breathing Word of God. He is eternal, He is steadfast. He is our rock and mighty fortress. If we hold on to Him, though life be whirling like a tornado around us, we can make it through. Psalm 91 has been popping up a lot lately in response to this crises, and I've gone to it often myself in times of trouble. I would suggest, when life seems out of hand to anchor down and pray this Psalm for yourself and those around you. You may be surprised at the peace there is in giving God control, and putting yourself in His hands. They are strong enough to hold you and gentle enough to love you.

As a last note, I listened to a little bit of Don Finto's message last Sunday from Belmont Fellowship. He said there is bad news and good news. The bad news is, there are bad things happening around us. The good news is, there are also GOOD things happening around us! And God lets those grow together, until He separates the wheat from the weeds. (Matthew 13:30) So hold on, there is also goodness out there.

Also- Go 'Dores!

Peace In the Midst of the Storm

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” John 16:33 (ESV)

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,     I will fear no evil,
for you are with me; your rod and your staff,  they comfort me. Psalm 23:4 (ESV)

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:7 (ESV)

What a year the last couple of weeks have been! The Sunday after the tornado, my wife and I went walking around our Little League park, and watched so many children and their coaches practicing and running and throwing and hitting and laughing. One field even had adult men and women training to be umpires. Training. To. Be. Umpires. Who knew that was even a thing?

A week later, those fields are deserted. Seasons suspended. What a tornado couldn't do, a pandemic has. It's like we've been thrown into a giant Jumanji game. People working from home, or as I like to put it "Working from houses to antagonize their spouses"! Everyone knows someone or three that has either contracted or been exposed to COVID-19. And places of worship, normally a haven of peace in a time of turmoil, are suspending meetings in order to stem the spread of the virus.

What are we to do? The verses above offer some guidance, but seem to stop short of God taking the problem away. "you will have tribulation", "through the valley of the shadow", "surpasses understanding". In all of this, God is not the author of pain and suffering, but promises to be there with us through the suffering. Remember Job? It wasn't God who sent the troubles, but rather watched and waited with Job as he came through to the other side of those troubles. So we know that God is always there, ready to take our hand and lead us through as soon as we ask. (Which Job didn't by the way. Just sayin'.)

Even so, it is very easy to feel isolated and alone. How do we reach out? This is where social media, so much of a isolating presence in modern society, can actually become useful for something other than cat videos. 

Pastors, do you have access to a phone with video? Live stream your worship service, however downsized it my be. Continue to share the Word and Heart of God. 

Church members, does your church have a Facebook or Twitter account? Use it to connect with each other, encourage each other, pray for each other, share each other's needs and sorrows and joys. We could actually become more like a "family" of God than we ever have been, and not just spectators. 

A.W Tozier once said, "Worshipers never leave church...we carry our sanctuary wherever we go." There is also a hymn in the United Methodist hymnal that goes "I am the Church. You are the Church. We are the Church together. All of God's people, all around the world, yes, we're the Church together." Now is the time to show it.

If you have been quarantined (self or otherwise) then another verse may apply.

"Be still, and know that I am God." Psalm 46:10 (ESV)

In our busy life, we often go non-stop until we drop. Now is the time to rest. Now is the time to relax in Him. Take the time to read, listen to music, study, pray. Or as a friend of mine once said, "Sometimes, you have to just sit and watch the cobwebs grow."

In all things, God promises to make good come from the bad. We can't see it because we don't have the view God has. We can only see darkness and sorrow. But joy comes in the morning. Amen. Even so, come quickly. Amen.

02/25/1960

February 25, 1960. A huge snowstorm has Nashville covered, and the city pretty much shut down. The top 20 playlist has everything from Percy Faith and Mark Denning to Dinah Washington, Marv Johnson and Lloyd Price. JFK took office just a month ago. At 6:18 am, Frances Mills has a baby boy, kicking and screaming with a mop top of red hair. (Me, not her.) 

A lot has changed since then. Snow hardly ever falls, but we do get slush. The Top 20 playlist is so homogenized every song sounds the same. We lost JFK before he even finished office, and Vietnam went into high gear. As for me, I don’t kick and scream so much as stand and groan. And the hair? Definitely not red, and unless you count my back, not nearly as much as before.

Things change. It is the way of life. CS Lewis remarked that we are made for both stability and change. God shows us change by the seasons of the year, but stability in that they follow in the same order. (In Tennessee, that is sped up somewhat from yearly to weekly!) To not change would be to not grow. To not change would be to not live.

Our Christian life is the same way. We start at the beginning as children, learning from and leaning on Jesus for our every need. As we start to take our own steps, growing in our faith and knowledge, we begin to stand separate from, but still with, Him. Our problems begin (and this is a universal problem with us) when we think we have reached completion, and can hold our own with God. We no longer feel we have to grow or learn, and think we know everything we ever need to know. 

Children of God, we will NEVER reach that point. We are of Adam’s seed, and we will always fall short of God’s glory. We will always need to rely on His guidance, not ours. Our mission is not to judge others who do not match the qualities we think we have achieved, but have not in reality. Our mission is to love others, faults and all, just as He loves us.

Yet there is, just like the seasons, stability in our lives as well, and that stability is in God alone. His love is never ending. His Peace passes understanding. He is steadfast, faithful and true. All love comes from Him. He is love, He is goodness and He is light. If our goal is to grow into His likeness, then our path is to love. Love others, all others, as He loves us. To do less is to deny the truth of God’s love. To judge others, is to pass that same judgement on to ourselves.

We must continue to grow in knowledge and love, and continue to depend on our Savior as little children. The older we get, the more we need to remember the child in all of us, and others. Love, grow, forgive. Love.

The Other Side of the Coin

"But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for those are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do."

Galatians 5:16-17

I want to tell you about one of the greatest literary villains of all time. Once a champion of good, but tormented and twisted into a thing of evil. Harvey "Two-Face" Dent. Raised by an abusive, alcoholic father, who would toss his lucky two-headed coin to determine whether to punish or spare his young son.  In spite of the background, Harvey grew up to be a fine upstanding young man, eventually becoming District Attorney of Gotham City, prosecuting evil criminals in the courts, working closely with both Batman and Commissioner Gordon. During the trial of a Mob Boss, acid was flung at him in the courtroom, burning the left side of his face, creating such torment that the evil nature his father had instilled in him finally found voice. From that point on, both evil and good struggled within him, often to the point that he would flip his father's coin (one side scratched off) to determine yes or no, right or wrong, life or death.

Pretty awesome for a comic book, right? But unlike Jekyll/Hyde (which inspired Bob Kane's creation) the torment was continual. Mr. Hyde would be there sometimes, Dr. Jekyll others. Two Face was both at all times. Both sides in continual battle for the soul.

It is the same with us. Evil and Good constantly at war within each of us. Each of us capable of saintly charity or satanic vice. And we must choose between them, but no coin can decide this outcome. The Spirit of God is always there, always waiting on our choice, but so often we don't choose Him. We fall. We fail. You would assume that would be our end. Yet over and over God's grace is greater than our sin. Relentlessly He continues to pursue us, fight for us, waiting to be our choice. It is a continual struggle. Daily, hourly, sometimes minute by minute, we must choose to follow Him. Yet even when we don't...

"I will never leave you or forsake you. Hebrews 13:5

"Neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our LORD." Romans 8:38-39

And one of the best...

"The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, His mercies never come to an end, they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness." Lamentations 3:20-23

The struggle is real. Life or Death in the balance. Heads or Tails.

We have only to choose.

Love and Obsession

     I listen to a lot of audio books on my commute from and to work – I mean a lot! About 21/2 hours a day is spent going back and forth, and these books lead me to some semblance of sanity. Which is helpful since I have so little to begin with…sanity, that is.

     My current travel companion is by writer Patti Callahan, “Becoming Mrs. Lewis”. It is a novelized account of Joy Davidman and her friendship, then love, to writer C. S. Lewis. As I near the end of the book, and the cancer that takes her life, it is becoming bittersweet, in a “Love Story, Lifetime Movie” kind of way. Nevertheless, an excellent book I recommend.

     There is a scene in the book where she and Lewis are going over ideas for the book to become “When We Have Faces”, Lewis’ take on the Greek myth of Cupid and Psyche. At one point, discussing why it was tragic, Lewis said “When love becomes a god, it becomes a devil.” The idea being that any love to obsession turns from love to possession and corrupts the soul. Think of it this way. All that exists in this world God created and called “good”. It has never stopped being so. The overindulgence of those things taken or done in the wrong way leads to obsession and addiction. That love, given the highest place in our heart which should be God’s, has instead become a devil.

     The bible is full of references to this. 

“You cannot be a slave of two masters” (MT. 6:24) 

“If you love the world you cannot love the Father” (1 Jn. 2:15) 

“Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Mt. 6:21) 

     and of course the BIG ONE 

“Thou shalt have no other gods before me” (Deut. 5:6). 

     The jist of it is, true love to God requires total sacrifice, but total sacrifice to anyone or anything other than God cannot co-exist with Him.

     Total sacrifice to anything other than God becomes a confinement. A slavish obsession to more and more rules and regulations trying to please, until we cannot move for fear of rebuke, or scorn, or worst, a withdrawal of love. So, are we to all be celibate, self-flagellating little monkeys in a cage, released only to show our failures and punished by a harsh task master? NOT IN THE LEAST!

     Total surrender to God becomes freedom and release from slavery. Rather than forced servitude, we have joyful obedience coming from God’s love rather than our failure. Since it comes from God’s love and is carried out by God’s strength, then we are free to give ourselves to others fully, because we are NEVER without His Love. “I will never leave you or forsake you.” (Heb. 13:5) It’s the ultimate covering of protection. We cannot run so far, fall so deep, or hide so well, that God does not always see us. And always love us.

     So guard your heart, my friends. Be guided by God’s love in you. Even in hurt and pain, which comes to all, you are loved. Remember, He also totally sacrificed for you. He is “all in”, just for you. Rest in His love, His freedom, His Joy.

     I think my next book will be “When We Have Faces”. Probably not an audio book, though. C.S. Lewis can be deep sometimes, and I’d probably crash trying to use a highlighter on the car stereo.

Depth of Mercy - Charles Wesley, 1740

     I have this odd thing I do (well, one of many, but never mind that), I enjoy reading old hymnals. I love to gather the wisdom of the musicians and lyricists as they try to give tone and rhythm and understanding to the life of Christ and the life IN Christ. I ran across this Charles Wesley lyric just today, and thought this a beautiful picture of us in Him.

Depth of Mercy
Depth of mercy! Can there be mercy still reserved for me? Can my God His wrath forbear, me the chief of sinners, spare?

I have long withstood His grace, long provoked Him to His face, would not hearken to His calls, grieved Him by a thousand falls.

I my Master have denied, I afresh have crucified, oft profaned His hallowed name, put Him to an open shame.

There for me the Savior stands, shows His wounds and spreads His hands. God is love! I know, I feel; Jesus weeps and loves me still.

Now incline me to repent, let me now my sins lament, now my foul revolt deplore, weep, believe, and sin no more.

     It is incredible to me, and yet I am as guilty and more, that we can be the recipients of such mercy and grace, and still act the way we do. I can speak only for myself, but I know the darkness that I see in me. It is there, covered only by a thin layer of whitewash. And even with what I see, I know that God knows the depths of my sin even better than I do. How I can stand at even the mention of His name is beyond my comprehension. And yet, even knowing me as He alone can, there is mercy and grace even greater than all my sin, than all the sins of all the world from the beginning of time till eternity. 

     Read those last two lines of the song again. Romans states this fact of grace abounding over and over, just for the asking. There is nothing that can separate us from God's love. He is always there, never leaving or forsaking, even now at our sides. We need only to look and see and believe. As to the sin no more, no one save Jesus Himself ever achieved that. That is why it is so amazing that WHEN we fall (as we will) His grace is still sufficient and more. God is love! I know, I feel; Jesus weeps and loves me still. Praise His Holy Name.

The Bride

     Author’s note: I experienced two events in the last couple of weeks. One was watching on web cam a Koinonia Reunion Concert on Facebook, honoring the recent historical marker placed on 16^th Avenue. Koinonia was an incredible place, whose sole purpose was to bring God’s light and love into the world. The very next day while coming back to my car in a store parking lot, I saw a glossy paged magazine printed by the Tony Alamo Foundation placed under the windshield wiper. Just seeing again the name of this vile false prophet made me sick to my stomach, and sick that our current world situation even allows his kind of hatred to crawl out from under the rocks, even after his death. The dichotomy of these two events has prompted the post below.

As to the directness of its language, I recall being told when much younger in the Lord that I had the soul of a prophet…and about as much tact. (They were always getting thrown into pits, dungeons, lion’s dens and the like. Never invited to the best dinner parties.) That being said, read on.  MDM

Lamentations is one very sad book. The prophet Jeremiah pours out his soul for Jerusalem, for her loss. It is the mother of all broken-hearted sobs. Spilling out of him like a soap opera actor on steroids. All is desolation. And then, out of nowhere it seems, in chapter 3 he says…

“But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope. The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness.”  Lamentations 3:21-23 (ESV)

The church today, at least in America, is under tremendous turmoil. It is a turmoil of her own making. The Bride of Christ has become soiled, deflowered. She has become a prostitute in the hopes and dreams of power. She has traded in her robe and veil for clubs and guns and signs and swastikas. Such vile hatred spews from the mouths of God’s children, in all forms of media. They are no longer the love of Christ on this earth, but seek to be an avenging angel, not for the freedom of salvation, but to enslave others in chains. Dear Church, Jesus does not need an avenger. We are strictly forbidden from being so. Romans 12:19 says…

Beloved, never avenge yourself, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written ’Vengeance is mine, I will repay says the Lord’” (also Deut. 32:35) (ESV)

And further in verse 20…

“To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him, if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.” (ESV)

When is the last Facebook post you saw recommending that?

Read Lamentations through. It was not only for that day and time, but will be for us soon. Even now we see it at the door. But there is an answer. Just as in Lamentations, there is a hope. It won’t come from left or right or party or government or laws, but from Jesus, the Beloved, the Bridegroom.

“If my people, who are called by my name, humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from Heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14 (ESV)

Note a couple of things. This has nothing to do with changing a government, or laws, or even about anyone other than ourselves.

“If my people…humble themselves…pray…seek my face…turn...”

THEN…

“I will hear…will forgive…and heal” (Emphasis mine)

We, the Bride, must become humble, lose the arrogance that seems to be so prevalent.

Pray, not at but for others, and ask forgiveness for ourselves.

Seek His face, for when looking at Him, no thoughts of control and hate and fear can abide.

Turn, don’t just say fine words to God then spew filth and hate at your brother and sister. Walk the walk.

Then, and only then, is there hope. It is up to you, Bride. Return to your Beloved and be clean again. Only you can. There is no other.