Tag Archives: obedience

Basic Principles, Covid-19 Nuggets of Hope, Worship

Nuggets of Hope 28 – Gotta Serve Somebody

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In 1979, Bob Dylan surrendered his life to Jesus Christ. References to the Bible, Jesus, and God’s Kingdom began to appear in his concerts. His conversion was marked with a new freshness in his music and the release of a new album, Slow Train Coming. The track “Gotta Serve Somebody” became Dylan’s first hit in three years.

I had not been a huge fan of Dylan up to this point, but I loved this album and this song. It was hard-hitting, fresh, and focussed, with this repetitive, driving refrain :

It may be the devil, or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.

As the COVID-19 pandemic wears on, even with the partial lifting of lockdown restrictions, everybody’s life is affected. Whatever the details of our circumstances, we can easily become slaves to the pandemic. It can start to dominate our thinking.

I have found that to navigate these times, I need to step back, get perspective, and remind myself of who I am and where I am going. The COVID-19 pandemic is a circumstance that I cannot control, but I can choose how I am going to look at life. I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. I do not live without hope, direction or focus. I have a purpose. I am living for the Kingdom of God.

This morning I started my day with a walk around my neighbourhood. I prayed the ancient words of the Lord’s Prayer. I asked the Father to show me what it would mean for His name to be hallowed in my life. I prayed for His Kingdom to come on earth. I prayed for my neighbours and myself to hunger and thirst for His righteous rule in our lives. I thanked God for His daily provision, His forgiveness and His deliverance from evil.

I wasn’t made to live for myself. I was created to belong to the One who made me. I have been redeemed – set free at a high cost – so that I might serve Him and give Him glory with my life. In fact, living for yourself is an illusion – a costly mirage that leads to sorrow, emptiness, death and eternal loss. As Dylan wrote back in 1979,

It may be the devil, or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.

Over many years of learning to follow Jesus, I have found that living as His servant and friend has given me a liberty that I did not have when I was trying to set my own direction and have my own way.

If you already know what I am talking about, let me encourage you to remember the Lord and reset your focus on Him today and every day. If you don’t know the freedom of belonging to Jesus, but want to talk about it, leave me a comment and I’ll contact you.

God bless you.

 

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Seasonal Thoughts

Are you ready?

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A few days ago, our friend Shannon recounted a wonderful story about her twenty year old son James. Driving to work on a cold December day, he stopped to help a young woman whose car had spun out of control on the snowy roads. He calmed her down, gave her a warm place to sit (in his car) and waited with her until the police came, before continuing on to work.

When James saw this scenario playing out in front of him, he didn’t have to work out what he ought to do. He knew how to respond, and he did it without hesitation.

James was ready. He had been prepared for this moment. His character had been shaped by a lifetime of training. When the time came, he knew what to do.

Two millennia ago, in the village of Nazareth, a young Israelite of the tribe of Judah, a carpenter by trade, was engaged to be married. Joseph was most likely looking forward to a quiet life as a family man and respected tradesman in his village. Both he and Mary were descendants of the great King David, but there was nothing to suggest that their life would be out of the ordinary. Then one day Joseph learned that Mary was expecting a child, although they had not yet come together in marriage. Understandably perplexed by this news, Joseph considered his options.

Before he could take action, an angel appeared to him in a dream, explained the situation, and gave him very specific instructions. Joseph’s response was immediate and unquestioning. The gospel writer records that when Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him.

Joseph was ready. He had been prepared for this moment. His character had been shaped by a lifetime of training. When the time came, he knew what to do.

God did not choose just anyone for this assignment. He chose someone who had been carefully prepared. We are perhaps more used to thinking this way about Mary, but it’s equally true of Joseph. Imagine the thoughts that must have been going through his mind. I am going to be the father of the Messiah?

This would not be an easy task. Among the many character qualities that would be of key importance in this mission – integrity faithfulness, compassion, humility, patience – surely one of the most important was Joseph’s responsiveness to the voice of God. Having heeded the angel’s direction to take Mary as his wife, he would again have to be quick to obey so as to protect his young son from the murderous King Herod.

Joseph was ready. When the time came, he knew what to do.

Only a few people in Bethlehem recognized the Messiah at his birth. It was the same throughout his lifetime. Many were affected by him but most continued to follow their own agendas. But to those who received Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God.

Our Christmas celebrations are so often focussed on the trappings of the season rather than on the Person at the center of it all. He is coming on the clouds, and every eye will see him. But when He appears a second time, there will be no time to change our minds about Him. Now is the time to give Him the central place in our lives that is His by right. Now is the time to pay careful attention to Him, and respond daily to His voice with willing obedience.

Are you ready?

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Intimacy with God, Reflections on Life

Exposed

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The young man across the table from me was dead serious. “Tell me about your prayer life”, he asked me. “I want to know how you pray”.

Sam was a pastor’s son from a part of Africa that had seen much turmoil and suffering. He had come to Canada seeking opportunity. He was a young man with an excellent spirit – committed to excellence on the job and in his relationship with the Lord.

I had met Sam at church, and had discovered that we worked in the same building. I offered to have coffee with him thinking that I might be able to encourage him spiritually. I soon realized that although I had years of experience and had learned some valuable lessons, none of this made up for my young friend’s zeal and passion for a consistent, fruitful walk with God. He wanted to learn from a faithful model. He thought I was that model.

As I listened to my own response to Sam, it began to dawn on me that my prayer life at this point in time was in some respects not the best model to emulate. Oh, I still prayed. In fact, I prayed much of the time. I was in almost constant dialogue with God. This part, of course, was good. I also read the Bible several times each week. But I no longer followed a structured, consistent approach to Bible reading or prayer, and my prayer life was often lacking in depth, passion and focus as a result. My malaise went deeper than this, though. I didn’t have what Mike Bickle describes as a “bright spirit”, at least not consistently. I thought I loved God, but looking back, I see now that I needed to rediscover what loving God really meant.

As I described my spiritual condition to Sam, I offered a half-hearted explanation about having moved from legalism to freedom. It sounded lame even to me, and I hope he saw through it. Sam’s question had exposed my heart, and I didn’t really like what I saw.

Anyone who has been happily married for twenty years or more will tell you that a good marriage takes effort. If you really want to have a relationship of true intimacy (tenderness, faithfulness, trust), you won’t just fall into it. Yes, you can “fall in love” with the man or woman of your dreams, but that’s mostly about attraction and desire. The attractional aspect of love is not a bad thing, in fact it’s a gift of God and an important part of any marriage, but it can be quite self-focussed, and it won’t carry you through the days when you feel miserable and everything is difficult. To truly love that man or woman will require a lifetime of costly choices. It’s no different in our relationship with God. If anything, the stakes are even higher, the choices more costly. You can get into Jesus’ Kingdom for free, but if you want to be great in his Kingdom, it will cost you your life.

To be brutally honest, the Christianity that is common in our culture sets the bar very low when it comes to the effort required to cultivate a fruitful relationship with God. When you live in an environment that is mostly cold, dark and hard, your perception gets dulled until you think that this is normal. So, maybe I do have a more vital prayer life than many people around me. I don’t know, I can’t measure that. What I do know is that compared to Jesus, my prayer life has a long way to go. But the last couple of months, Marion and I have been sensing a call from God to go deeper with him, and having reapplied myself to a more diligent pursuit of God, I am already discovering the rewards. The Word of God is more alive to me, I can hear His voice in my spirit more easily, my heart is becoming softer, I am more thankful, more peaceful and more content – and I want more.

One of the ways I have been responding to this call is by following a Mike Bickle teaching series on the Sermon on the Mount. When you are being taught on prayer by someone who has been spending hours a day in prayer and the Word for over thirty years, you get challenged to go deeper. Mike’s teaching is not complicated. In fact, it’s remarkably simple, straightforward and uncluttered. It is also very honest and comes from a place of deep humility. That’s why I find it hard to argue with. Mike has not been talking down to me. He has been appealing to my heart, and my desire for God has been stirred up.

Jesus said that the first priority of our lives is to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. He also said that if our eyes are clearly in focus, our whole body will be full of light. I want my life to be bright with the light of God. When I stand before God on that Day, I want to give an account of wholeheartedness, not halfheartedness; single-mindedness, not double-mindedness. The One who gave his life for me is worthy of nothing less.

The world will soon be treated to the spectacle of the Olympics. World-class athletes have given years to the pursuit of an extremely high level of fitness and athletic skill. It’s a notable pursuit, one we can’t help but admire. Physical fitness does have some value, which is why I ride my bike several times a week. But that’s not the goal of my life. I have devoted my life to running a different race, one whose outcome has eternal value. I want to pursue the prize of knowing the Maker of the Universe. It is amazing to me that the One who hung the stars in place would be interested in having a relationship with someone as small as me. But since he says he loves me, and has invited me to be his friend through Jesus Christ, the only thing I can say is “Yes” – with my whole life – again, and again, and yet again.

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Faith and Politics, Reflections on Life, Workplace

Mind your own business

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Did you ever stop to notice how much of the conversation that goes on around you every day consists of judgment and criticism of other people?

Consider a very common scenario.  You’re hanging out with friends, workmates or schoolmates, and the focus of the conversation shifts to someone who is not present.  Everyone has something to say, and very little of it is constructive, positive or complimentary.  On the contrary, most of what is said consists of putdowns, mocking humour, and complaints.  This tendency is especially common when the person we are talking about is a recognized figure who has attained some success in business, sports or entertainment, or who has some influence or control over our lives – a boss, manager, teacher, parent, spiritual leader or politician.

I grew up in what was in many respects a wonderful family.  However, we certainly weren’t immune from this very common tendency to find fault with others; in fact it was part of the daily bread on which I grew up.  We were a very opinionated bunch, and somehow it seemed we always knew what was wrong with everyone.  On Sunday afternoons after church we would often have roast pastor for lunch.  So, when I surrendered my life to the Lord at age 34 and the Holy Spirit began putting his finger on the areas in which my thinking and behaviour needed radical surgery, one of the first areas to go under the knife was my well-developed tendency towards sarcasm, criticism and judgment.  I’m very grateful to God that before long I was introduced to a form of prayer ministry that helped me to go to the root of these issues, looking deeper than the outward behaviour and addressing the hidden motivations and reasonings of the heart.

Prayer ministry taught me much about my own heart and much about God’s wisdom.  I learned that this tendency to be critical of others may be fuelled by bitterness, resentment, insecurity, inferiority, superiority, or a toxic mix of all of these and more, but the core issue is always the same.  At the root, it is a form of rebellion against God.  Whatever our reasoning, we assign ourselves the right to judge someone who is not accountable to us.  This is always an illegitimate exercise and can never lead to any good.  In the words of the Apostle Paul, Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. In other words, mind your own business.  You and I have enough to do looking after the areas that God has assigned to us, without troubling ourselves with someone else’s failings – perceived or real.

One factor that probably feeds our tendency to be critical of leaders is the fact that we live in a democracy.   We are raised on the idea that public criticism of leaders is part of how we protect ourselves from bad government.  Well, democracy is not actually a Biblical idea, but like all political systems it can be used by God.  One of the keys to making democracy serve God’s purposes is the recognition that all leaders are appointed by God.  Even if He is simply allowing us to have the government we have chosen, in the end our leaders are accountable to God, not to us, and our role is not simply to push for our preferences but to seek leadership that will further God’s Kingdom.   We do this, in part, by honouring and praying for the leaders that God has either caused or allowed to be put in place, even if we don’t always agree with them.  There is, of course, a place for constructive criticism, but one of the keys to keeping it constructive is humility and submission to God.  Even in extreme situations (Nazi Germany, Stalinist Russia, Mugabe’s Zimbabwe) where a monster rules and must be actively resisted, we still need to guard our hearts.  Ultimately God, not you or I, is qualified to judge.  If we forget this, we become monsters ourselves.

But what about the areas closer to home – work, family, church?  The more experience I have of being in leadership, the easier I find it to forgive the failings of the leaders in my life.  Admittedly, even the best leaders have faults; and I’m not suggesting we should simply turn a totally blind eye to these things.   At times we may be called by God to make an appeal to one of the people who gives leadership in our lives.  If we are given the opportunity to do this, and we can do it with grace and humility, we may be used by God to help the leader be more effective.  A wise leader will welcome open discussion of issues in a constructive spirit.  However, I’m far more likely to be trusted by a leader who can see that I haven’t got an axe to grind or a point to prove.   If at all possible, I need to make it my aim to work with the leaders in my life to help them succeed.  In the process, I too will be blessed, and so will all those around me.

In the end, the remedy is simple.  Guard your tongue, and guard your heart.  Why complicate your life by making it your job to identify and address everyone else’s failings?  If you want to do this, the Devil will give you lots of ammunition, but you won’t be giving glory to God and your relationships will be stormy at best.  If I can learn to mind my own business – keeping my gaze focussed on trusting and obeying God, recognizing that He has assigned a sphere of responsibility to me, doing the best job I can to be a good steward of what He’s put into my hands, and recognizing that everyone around me will answer to Him just as I will – life becomes a lot simpler, less aggravating, and much more satisfying and productive.  Who wouldn’t want that?

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