Monthly Archives: November 2015

Oh the Reasoned Hell of Vain Worship

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“BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME,TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF MEN.”

(Jesus quoting Isaiah in Matthew 15)

Vain worship is not an act of ignorance performed in darkness but a carefully distilled product of Man’s reasoned logic boldly set forth in brilliant humanistic display. Vain worship has qualities that replicate the form of true religion because it is based upon thoughtful conclusions. Though it seems the right way to a man it still lands one in a dark hell cut off from Eternal Light fully equipped with a powerful argument that dies upon the resounding closure of the prison doors.

The fallacy of vain worship is our normative acceptance of rational, cultural arguments that minimize the significance of or our transition beyond, (and then the subsequent denial of), the revelation of the righteousness of God, especially as “He has spoken to us in His Son in these last days.”

A reasoned argument based upon a relative religion expressed and experienced in an aesthetically pleasing manner may assist my conscience to be quietened and my mind to be convinced I have discovered an acceptable alternative to homage of the King’s Son. This will perish into the wisps of vanity it is “as all together we are lighter than breath” as we bow our knee and confess with our lips that Jesus Christ is Lord of heaven and earth.

Priorities

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“Let me hear Thy lovingkindness in the morning;
For I trust in Thee;Teach me the way in which I should walk, For I trust in Thee.

Psalm 143

We are the better to prepare for the day than to simply resort to repentance of the day after the fact of ill-prepared failure. Accuse me of legalism if you will but why should a new creature in Christ not early hunger and thirst after His presence in preparation for the struggles against our three-fold enemy who has risen to rush toward us with designs to crush us in mortal, spiritual combat?

Spiritual disciplines affirmed by the Carpenter of Nazareth at an introductory minimum would require “rising early, departing to a lonely place and praying there.” (Mark 1:35)

The old legalist that I am… this is my only hope. God is faithful to covenant love; God is faithful to normative principles. The Father sees in secret and subsequently rewards openly those who know their God in secret. They shall do exploits in His name.

The quality of gathering with the community of believers is limited by the preparation and condition of the heart. “We cannot give that which we do not first possess.” (Lewis) The Church alone can’t fix what one hides as perverted or broken by secret sin. If the fire of love for Jesus does not burn within the inner recesses of the breast then pretense will be the garment worn in public. The perversion of doctrine and lack of power in preaching in the contemporary pulpit can often be traced back to a mere academic pursuit that sacrifices devotional purity and worship of the King in secret. “The things my hands have handled and my eyes have seen… these things I make known to you…”

And that is the glory and joy of seeing His face even in midst of sorrow and struggle which we all know and that without honest exception. He is the Friend and Savior of sinners and I am glad. Yet He does not endorse that which is not changed and requires us to die daily to His glory. 

“When all around my soul gives way,

He then is all my hope and stay.”

Oh to Cure the Malady of Prayerful Silence

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Irony was discovered lurking at the end of Session 6 of the Prayer Conference when the pastor’s request for closing prayer was greeted with resounding silence. Uncomfortable silence. Twitch inducing silence.

Thankfully, yet sadly… the paid professional flinched first.

Why does the church struggle with prayer? Is prayerlessness the auditory evidence indicative of a larger problem hidden beneath the spiritual waters? Do we fail to pray for we are unfamiliar with our God? The guesses could become endless. Some elementary notes:

  • Prayer is work.
  • Prayer is joy.
  • Prayer is essential.
  • The Lord inclines his ear to hear our prayers.
  • Prayer is learned.

The response of silence to a given opportunity to practice what we were just taught is not unique to this church or that church. Not in my experience. Moreover the distinguishing mark of churchmanship we long for is that rare assembly become many where the men trip over themselves to seek God in public for they are much acquainted with Him in private.

“Brethren, do you pray? Do you seek God in secret?”
#AH

Preaching & Prisoners & Prayer

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When prisoners of #CCC (Caddo Correctional Center) crowded round in response to the Gospel message there was joy as God made His move at the end last evening’s chapel service. They soberly entreated prayer for felt needs and tangible fears. You see they have no hope nor help unless God acts, and they daily live in the driven reality of this constraint. That is not all bad. It can turn redemptive by Divine design.

“Dust and rust, thy life’s reward? Slay the thought! Believe thy Lord!” (A Carmichael)

Ideally this present life of imprisoned restraint could actually become the narrow neck of the funnel that rapidly propels the prisoner toward that unique avenue that opens into the flowing River of Life. Part of my role as “shade-tree” pastor-counselor is to first isolate their location and then encourage their escape out of the difficult place they live by entry into the path of possibilities filled with Gospel promises. This great escape can only be offered without promise of immediate change in circumstance and with no pretense of anything beyond God’s presence and approval in the final analysis. This is not really a “hard-sell” to the inmate if they are apprehended by the God who delights to build His new house upon the very foundation that their sin constructed. It rings with a clear, full tone of eternal truth and hope. Otherwise their life seems destined for destruction. 

Simply stated their surroundings are at work to sharpen their spiritual acuity as their visual perception becomes focused upon an ever-narrowing experience of reality. The fluff and stuff of life are gone. These disappeared into Neverland with the resounding clang of the prison doors. Four walls now encroach upon their existence. Their experience is confined to the consequential grind of old life choices come home to haunt them. We on the outside easily neglect and even stumble over that which they have come to value as true needs in their distilled, simplistic world. Our affluence becomes a distortion… an idol… of our perceived reality, and we easily miss what they learn, where they live, what they value, and why this is Truth that screams incessantly to Conscience. 

In retrospect I think the real obstacle in this opportunity of prayer is to draw their attention to prayer’s reality, not as an “abracadabra magical-method” to swish away all troubles. The goal is the challenge to unmask prayer’s mystique. The prisoner must begin to embrace prayer as quiet communion with God as an elementary exercise God affords to teach us to entrust our cares and burdens to the wise, personal, powerful God who knows our needs before we even think to ask.

So my real goal in prayer with any inmate is for us to seek God together, not to the end of audible clangs of the cell doors as they rattle and swing open; rather my prayer for them is answered if I point them to a God who is near to the broken-hearted and a God who is willing to forgive the debts of those now crushed in spirit.

The Divine Designer’s Treasure Trove Entrusted to Flawed, Dusty Earthen-Ware Vessels

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2 Corinthians 4:7

“But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves…”

I am ever so aware of my earthiness. Ten thousands of witnesses who know me can testify the same. Earthiness is merely a sophisticated human way to say “we are but dust and to dust we return.” And if this is so I see an argument for eternal God: That He is. Dust lacks creative capacity apart from a visitation, an intervention of the Outside into the inside. Otherwise dust doesn’t do much but cause sneezes and sniffles, and dry irritated eyes. It hangs out in inconvenient places and gets stirred up at the least breeze. Apart from divine glory acting it remains innately of no estimable value.

Though we know we are dust and it is to dust we return, natural man glories in his dustiness. Most are therein content. In contrast the shameful reality of our earthiness is to be embraced via repentance as cause to glorify God, and not man who drifts lower… the dust that he is. God made us and crowned us with life and glory as image-bearers of God. Our distinctive earthiness argues this in honest comparison to other creatures of dust created but none suitable as replicas of the Almighty. It is rumored that He has made us but just lower than God.

God is the One who delights in bestowal of transforming power upon and through the ordinary microbes of assimilated dust. Common dust becomes extraordinary stuff by calling and association with greater purpose. Our union with God is extraordinary. This redemptive union is remarkable. The gospel is His particular word and power unto the remolding of the common into treasure vessels to hold the catch of the ages, the Glory itself.

Earthy wares are always flawed. They are common. They lack luster and are rather dull when viewed in their natural habitat. They must be raised up. Brought near Light. Imperfections appear. Restoration requisitioned. Repairs must begin. Purpose bestowed. All those who meticulously peruse their surface still see cracks and fault lines, and those who look more intently may notice rough imperfect areas even within the inward regions that touch the treasure catch itself.

God is never hindered with preexisting flawed earth-wares. He embraces ordinary as the skilled Potter renown to refashion a story. He reveals glory. He bestows glory. Dust and flesh never share intrinsic glory, nor can they steal Creator’s glory; but they by design receive and reflect what is rightfully His alone.

If God gives no pause and declares He shall never cease His labor upon the earthy, why should the earthy cease their labor on behalf of the Heavenly irrespective to faults? Even so this offers no comforting excuse to remain a cracked cistern leaking refuse from revealed imperfections. The revelation of the reality of the earthy is grace-calculated to produce gospel drive to be cleansed as a vessel, fit for honor in the Master’s hand for glory… containers refashioned into the Master’s Treasure store.

Our greatness is correlated only to His power demonstrated upon our earthiness… our inherent, persistent weaknesses that bring Him glory as in His rescue as He entrusts the extraordinary Treasure for safekeeping and distribution by living dust who finally begin to see and touch glory and know life eternal.

Alternate Plans: A Non-Option Cast aside by the King of Glory

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But turning around and seeing His disciples, He rebuked Peter & said, “Get behind Me, Satan…”

The strength of Christ’ response to Peter’s proposed alternate plan demonstrates the legitimacy of the claim, “He was tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin…” Since the alternative was folly and death with no opportunity of life for the sheep the force of the rebuke resounds the truth to answer a fool as his folly deserves.
Our worthy high priest knew that life without death, was nonexistent. The grain must die for the fruit to be yielded. He alone had capacity to bear the fruit of perfection and the ability to crush the head of the one who owned the power of death. The King must come but He must come by blood of the cross and the crown of life bestowed by the Father of lights.