Do you have a tent of meeting like Moses did? Exodus 33 tells us that he had a tent to which he would go and meet with the Lord. The people knew when he was going out there and they would all stand at their own tent doors and watch until he entered the tent of meeting. In that place Moses was alone with God and the people knew it. They knew that they could trust him because they knew that his leadership came from having spent time with God and hearing from him.
I am craving a tent of meeting and I think I need to let people know when I'll be there and what God is saying to me in that tent. I need more time alone with God. I spend time hiking and praying but the reality is that I also talk on the phone when I hike, I allow that time to be interrupted. It is often rich and God speaks to me there but not as rich as it ought to be, certainly not as rich as God wants it be.
I have a kneeling bench in my house that is supposed to be my tent of meeting. Have you ever bought exercise equipment like a treadmill. stationary bike, bowflex or some other multi-purpose device? Did you or do you use it much or does it collect dust or do you hang clothes on it? The kneeling bench collects dust and good intentions primarily but it's time to start using it and develop some spiritual muscle. Where is your tent of meeting?
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Monday, March 26, 2012
Evangelism, Simplified
Sometimes we make missions and evangelism too hard. We think of it as something that requires us to go somewhere we ordinarily wouldn't go to do something we ordinarily wouldn't do. I think for most people it is much simpler than that, it is a matter of thinking about all of life, every relationship, whether intimate or casual, in an evangelistic way.
If you have a job, family, kids whose activities bring you into contact with others, hobbies you share with others, gym membership where you meet other people in any way, if you go to the grocery store, eat in the same restaurants regularly, anything you do that brings you into contact with other human beings who are created in the image of God, you have an opportunity to share the Gospel in some way.
The old saying is that we should talk to God about our friends and then talk to our friends about God. That is good advice and a good place to start your evangelism. If, as I do, you believe in the sovereignty of God and you believe that it is the movement of the Holy Spirit operating in someone's life that brings them to saving knowledge of Jesus is there a better way to start evangelizing than praying that God will move in that person's life? The most important thing we can do for others is to pray for them, asking the Lord to manifest Himself to them, and then asking Him to grant you the grace to be whatever part in that process that He deems fit.
The other really important thing we can do is to be distinctively Christian wherever we are. That requires thought and it requires a knowledge of Scripture and of Jesus. Being immersed in the Word, both written and in Christ, is key to effective evangelism. If we allow the Word to dwell richly in us and we abide in Him then we are more likely to live Christian lives. It also helps to have tight relationships with other Christians who love you and whom you trust who can hold you accountable and speak into your life when they see something in your attitudes or actions that is problematic.
Are you already praying, already in the Word, already in accountability relationships? If so you are on the right road to be evangelistic. Now you just have to begin doing all those things, prayer, study and relationships purposefully for the kingdom. Simple, isn't it?
If you have a job, family, kids whose activities bring you into contact with others, hobbies you share with others, gym membership where you meet other people in any way, if you go to the grocery store, eat in the same restaurants regularly, anything you do that brings you into contact with other human beings who are created in the image of God, you have an opportunity to share the Gospel in some way.
The old saying is that we should talk to God about our friends and then talk to our friends about God. That is good advice and a good place to start your evangelism. If, as I do, you believe in the sovereignty of God and you believe that it is the movement of the Holy Spirit operating in someone's life that brings them to saving knowledge of Jesus is there a better way to start evangelizing than praying that God will move in that person's life? The most important thing we can do for others is to pray for them, asking the Lord to manifest Himself to them, and then asking Him to grant you the grace to be whatever part in that process that He deems fit.
The other really important thing we can do is to be distinctively Christian wherever we are. That requires thought and it requires a knowledge of Scripture and of Jesus. Being immersed in the Word, both written and in Christ, is key to effective evangelism. If we allow the Word to dwell richly in us and we abide in Him then we are more likely to live Christian lives. It also helps to have tight relationships with other Christians who love you and whom you trust who can hold you accountable and speak into your life when they see something in your attitudes or actions that is problematic.
Are you already praying, already in the Word, already in accountability relationships? If so you are on the right road to be evangelistic. Now you just have to begin doing all those things, prayer, study and relationships purposefully for the kingdom. Simple, isn't it?
Thursday, March 8, 2012
A lesson in prayer from The Godfather
The movie, The Godfather, opens with a funeral director making a plea for help to the Godfather, Don Corleone. It seems this man's daughter has been raped and at the wedding of Don Corleone's daughter this man is appealing to the Don for "justice" for his daughter. Clearly he wants the man or men who did this to be killed and the Don rightly points out that this man is asking for more than justice, his daughter is still alive. Odd to be getting ethical lessons from a mafia boss but he is right, the man seeks not justice but vengeance.
What got my attention when I watched a portion of the movie for probably the tenth time, was the Don's response to the request: " We've known each other many years, but this is the first time you came to me for counsel,for help. I can't remember the last time that you invited me to your house for a cup of coffee, even though my wife is godmother to your only child. But let's be frank here: you never wanted my friendship. And uh, you were afraid to be in my debt."
How often God could say that to me. For many years I considered myself a Christian because I believed that Jesus had died for my sins but my prayer life looked like this, when I had some trouble in my life I went to the God-Father and asked Him to deal with the trouble for me. He wanted relationship and I wanted protection and one who would come against my enemies, those who had wronged me. I still don't invite Him for coffee as often as I should and I don't think of Him as friend often enough.
He has already something greater us than we could have imagined, forgiving our sins, making us not only friends but His children. We can know that truth, however, and still not be His friends and children because we are afraid to be in His debt. We take for granted that He can do things for us so we keep Him close enough to ensure availability but no closer. That attitude is described in the letter to the church at Laodicea in Revelation 3, it is being lukewarm and God doesn't like lukewarm or tepid. We are made for real relationship with Him, friendship. Why do we settle for acquaintanceship?
What got my attention when I watched a portion of the movie for probably the tenth time, was the Don's response to the request: " We've known each other many years, but this is the first time you came to me for counsel,for help. I can't remember the last time that you invited me to your house for a cup of coffee, even though my wife is godmother to your only child. But let's be frank here: you never wanted my friendship. And uh, you were afraid to be in my debt."
How often God could say that to me. For many years I considered myself a Christian because I believed that Jesus had died for my sins but my prayer life looked like this, when I had some trouble in my life I went to the God-Father and asked Him to deal with the trouble for me. He wanted relationship and I wanted protection and one who would come against my enemies, those who had wronged me. I still don't invite Him for coffee as often as I should and I don't think of Him as friend often enough.
He has already something greater us than we could have imagined, forgiving our sins, making us not only friends but His children. We can know that truth, however, and still not be His friends and children because we are afraid to be in His debt. We take for granted that He can do things for us so we keep Him close enough to ensure availability but no closer. That attitude is described in the letter to the church at Laodicea in Revelation 3, it is being lukewarm and God doesn't like lukewarm or tepid. We are made for real relationship with Him, friendship. Why do we settle for acquaintanceship?
Monday, March 5, 2012
Transformation
What I am slowly realizing is that my thinking needs to change at a very basic level. In that last post about re-racking weights I began with the idea of creating or transforming a culture and ended with the realization that what most needed to be transformed was me. My attitude towards people was in dire need of change, it was far worse than the behavioral modification I wanted to impose on those who didn't re-rack their weights.
Jesus had a lot to say to the Pharisees about their attitudes towards people. He called them white-washed sepulchres, fine looking on the outside but filled with dead men's bones. He said that murder was more than the physical act of killing people, it involves hating them and speaking evil of them.
It took about three years for Him to get my attention that the real problem was in me not in others. I don't need a strategy for dealing with the problem of getting people to re-rack their weights, I need a strategy for dealing with the nasty mess that is in me.
Paul told the Roman church, " Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." Conforming to the world begins at the level of the mind. I have to learn to think differently about everything if I am to have the mind of Christ.
The Beatitudes (Matthew 5.1-12) set up Jesus' statement, “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet." The teachings in those first twelve verses tell us what salt is and the virtues He extols there are not worldly virtues at all, they are completely counter-cultural. They do, however, take reality seriously. They tell us that we aren't to accept the way things are, we are to mourn that fact, to be as heart broken over that reality as God is and to pursue the way things ought to be.
It all begins, however, with pursuing the way things ought to be in my own life. Until I am ready to see the way things are in my life the way God sees them and to mourn over that, I am not ready to pursue change. Sometimes it takes a long time for me to see the real need for change because I am a Pharisee.
Jesus had a lot to say to the Pharisees about their attitudes towards people. He called them white-washed sepulchres, fine looking on the outside but filled with dead men's bones. He said that murder was more than the physical act of killing people, it involves hating them and speaking evil of them.
It took about three years for Him to get my attention that the real problem was in me not in others. I don't need a strategy for dealing with the problem of getting people to re-rack their weights, I need a strategy for dealing with the nasty mess that is in me.
Paul told the Roman church, " Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." Conforming to the world begins at the level of the mind. I have to learn to think differently about everything if I am to have the mind of Christ.
The Beatitudes (Matthew 5.1-12) set up Jesus' statement, “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet." The teachings in those first twelve verses tell us what salt is and the virtues He extols there are not worldly virtues at all, they are completely counter-cultural. They do, however, take reality seriously. They tell us that we aren't to accept the way things are, we are to mourn that fact, to be as heart broken over that reality as God is and to pursue the way things ought to be.
It all begins, however, with pursuing the way things ought to be in my own life. Until I am ready to see the way things are in my life the way God sees them and to mourn over that, I am not ready to pursue change. Sometimes it takes a long time for me to see the real need for change because I am a Pharisee.
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