My Yoke is Easy…

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matt. 11:28-30)

Ahhh-hummm…Excuse me? Easy and light, you say? In the words of Dr. Lennox, “Or am I the only one who…” has thought this might be a little out of sync with my experience? Ok, ok, MAJORLY out of sync. Yet the truth of this statement calls to me. It beckons my heart to come and lay my weary burden down.

I’m going to make the honest confession that lately I have gotten out of step. It started well, I’m sure, but somehow I have found myself mired down with a spiritual to-do list that was about to take me under. I was breaking at the impossibility of achieving that which I sought, when His gentle Spirit intervened. In an effort to sound like I have it all together (intellectual pretense is everything in blogging) I am writing as if I really do have it all figured out and that I am skipping under my new-found light and easy yoke. No such luck. Despite my dashing good-looks, charming personality, and dazzling intellect, I learn spiritual lessons at the speed of lesser mortals.

I confess, somewhere in my desire to draw nearer to the Lord and to serve Him whole-heartedly, I switched into “Law Mode.” Spiritual disciplines became ends in themselves. Thoughts of the future were plagued with the fear that I would settle for less than the best, and end up simply a mediocre Christian. I think I might still be there…not to fret though, I’ll drag myself out of it, if it’s the last thing I DO… (I’m a hopeless Martha.)

In all seriousness, Lord, I truly want to know: What do You do, and what’s my responsibility? Lord, I don’t want to end up a mediocre Christian. I want to be passionately in love with You. I want to spend myself in service to You. I want to make the right decisions about the major opportunities that are presenting themselves to me in these next few months. And yet, Lord, above the din and racket, I hear you say, “Come to me.”

“My faith has found a resting place,
Not in device or creed;
I trust the Ever-living One,
His wounds for me shall plead.
I need no other argument,
I need no other plea,
It is enough that Jesus died,
And that He died for me.
Enough for me that Jesus saves,
This ends my fear and doubt;
A sinful soul, I come to Him,
He’ll never cast me out.
I need no other argument,
I need no other plea,
It is enough that Jesus died,
And that He died for me.”

(Classic Hymn "My Faith has found a resting place.")

Blessed Be Your Name

Today in chapel, we entered to some lame pop-ish contemporary worship song. The lyrics of which were about as valuable as the melody was to the history of world music. A friend in front of me sat down, in protest to the vast and profound theological misconceptions portrayed in the song. Though I try to avoid cynicism, I too did not join in singing because he had a very valid point—the song was terrible in every way. (For those of you who don't think theology should be involved in music...I remind you that Jesus says that true worshippers will worship in Spirit and in TRUTH.)

After we were seated, we began to watch a series of video clips related to the Asian Tsunami. The clips were truly heart-rending. I pray that the Lord will never allow me to grow numb to this, nor any other such tragedy. But I can’t dwell on this thought, for this blog is dedicated to something else. After several minutes we were asked to stand. We began to sing the song, “Blessed be your name.” While at first I was resistant to the way we glibly transitioned from sad imagery to pop, feel good music, I did approve of the song choice.

Blessed be Your name when I’m found in the desert place,
Though I walk through the wilderness Blessed be Your Name
Blessed be Your name on the road marked with suffering
Though there’s pain in the offering Blessed be Your Name.

As I sang these words, I was confronted by the thought: “You don’t even have a clue. You have not tarried in the wilderness, nor trekked long on the road marked with suffering. Keep singing, this is truth. But remember that you have no clue.”

It’s all true. I honestly haven’t suffered much. The contrast is made so clear by the disasters of late. I have never lost all but one family member. I have never been left with only the clothes on my back—completely dependent on foreigners from around the world to feed and clothe me. I have not had much opportunity to praise the Lord amidst my hurt and pain. Perhaps my praise should rise all the more fervently because of that fact. (Lord, truly, I do thank You for Your marvelous protection of me.) Yet, at the back of my mind and from deep in my heart, the challenge arises, “Remember these lyrics, so that you truly can say Blessed Be Your Name, in the day of your suffering.” Lord, prepare me for that. May my life pour forth blessing to you when “the world’s all as it should be” or “when the road is marked with suffering.”

There is time to kill…

Nestled between the intriguing and challenging thoughts of Deuteronomy 6 and 8 is a chapter that is fairly disconcerting. Yup, you guessed it….chapter 7. Allow me to set the stage first.

At the beginning of the Fall Semester, I randomly picked up a book at Borders. The title caught my eye immediately. “We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families.” It is the story of the 1994 Rwandan genocides. The book was, simply put, profound. My heart grieved the fact that so many (myself included) are ignorant of the injustice and evil around the world. How can we sit idly by while one people groups exterminates another? 800,000 people were hacked to death with machetes, and America and the UN did nothing. The time and busyness of the semester soon took the edge off those thoughts.

Then over Christmas breaks, two events brought me back to those thoughts. First, the December Tsunami, which has currently claimed at least 150,000 lives. I reeled at the thought that as I sat safely home during Christmas, others lost everything they had, including family. My heart ached for them. Oh Lord, how I long for the day of Your return, when this world will be set aright and death shall be vanquished. And then I saw the movie “Hotel Rwanda,” which is based on the book I mentioned previously. It visually recalled the events of the book, and flooded back those same thoughts and emotions.

Through all of this, I have felt the prodding of the Holy Spirit to be conscious of the world around me. To feel deeply for those who suffer world-wide, and to respond in the ways that I can. I realize that death and destruction are not the Lord’s desire. They are not how He wants this world to be. They are a result of sin, the corruption of the universe, and the reign of Satan in this world.

So when I arrived in chapter 7, I didn’t read anything new—I was quite aware of these events. Yet this time I was conflicted? How could the same God who was prompting me to have this heart from the world, say to His people Israel, “ and when the Lord your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy. (7:2)” ??? Lord this is a hard teaching.

I understand the desire to keep Israel pure…and that the Lord may have been pouring out judgment on these other peoples because of their idolatry…but this picture doesn’t line up with the picture of the God I love and serve. Lord, instruct my heart. Give me understanding. Teach me more about Yourself and Your character. Why this command Lord?

I invite anyone reading this blog to respond. I would love to hear your thoughts.

Deuteronomy 6 & 8

I am no expert on blogging…as you can see by my entry dates, I write pieces few and far between. However, the common theme I’ve noticed is that most intelligent writers stick to one topic and explore it through detailed writing. Well I am about to defy those rules. My dear friend Adam Thada commented that I wasn’t doing such a great job at “nursing perspective.” So, here are the enticing thoughts of the day.

Deuteronomy 6:10-12. “When the Lord your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give you—a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant—then when you eat and are satisfied be careful that you do not forget the Lord who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.”

Perhaps we would do well to heed this caution. “Be careful that you do not forget the Lord…” Among the opulence of the land you inhabit, do not forget Him. When your stomachs are full and you aren’t desperately seeking the Lord for your next meal, do not forget Him. The danger is real.

Chapter 8 elaborates: “(10) When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. (12-14) Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. (17-20) You may say to yourself, ‘My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.’ But remember the Lord your God for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today. If you ever forget the Lord your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed. Like the nations the Lord destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the Lord your God.”

Let us not allow money and wealth to become a god that we place in prominence above our God. I fear this is the situation among many, many Christians in America. Even those who haven fallen prey to this god are certainly tempted. How often are job choices dictated by money and not by the Lord’s leading? You may not agree with what I say here, but I really wonder if Christian college students shouldn’t spend a large amount of time considering the motivation in their major selection. Perhaps if we all honestly evaluated and then chose on correct motives, we would find more people in ministry-related fields?
Bottom-line: With fear and trembling we need to evaluate the effects of wealth on our lives.

The Pattengale Theory

According to Dr. Pattengale statistics show the MOST successful students doing the following:

(The following suggestions appeared in a study manual for one of my classes)

• Never miss class (16hrs/week)
• Average 3-4 hrs of study per class hour (4 x 16hrs/week)
• Get 7-8 hrs. sleep per night (8x7hrs/week)
• Never work more than 20hrs per week (20hrs/week)
• Eat 3 well balanced meals per day (7days x 2hrs/ week)
• Have personal quiet time daily (7x 1hr/ week)
• Have a cheerleader. Talk and share often (5hrs/week??)

The above calculations were added by myself.

Successful student= 16 + (4x16) + (8x7) + 20 + (7x2) + 7 + 5 = 182hrs/week

Hours in 7 day week= 7x24= 168hrs/week

Hours in an actual week MINUS Hours in successful student’s week = -14hrs

Successful student = Logical impossibility

**I believe our beloved President (George W.) would say something like, “Seems like fuzzy math to me, Al.” Somebody must know something I do not. I have not yet figured out how to add hours to my week. I am going to hire a personal cheerleader though because I could definitely use more hours in my week.
Keep in mind, we haven’t factored in anything in regards to necessities such as communication with others (family, friends, etc), going to the bathroom, bathing (successful students=stinky!) going to church (or chapel for that matter), extra nursing (or class) meetings (we all know they exist!!), and the list rolls on. AND we haven’t even begun to think of having fun…you can forget that as a successful student.
Also keep in mind, Dr. Pattengale makes the following recommendations which didn’t make the above time calculations:
· Successful students show initiative: their desire to excel makes them do MORE WORK THAN IS REQUIRED
· Never assume that the same effort they expended the year/semester before will earn equally high grades this semester (PROGRESSION CALLS FOR MORE EFFORT!!!)

Well you can count me out. Sounds like success comes at to high a price for me. I’ll settle for being the best student I can, while I depend on the Lord to lead me and show me where to best invest my time.

Here’s to a “successful” semester: Cheers!

Missions Calling

A.B. Simpson (founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance Church) says (of CMA missions):

"We want men and women who can live simply, endure hardship, deny themselves, put up with every discomfort; who do not want things 'just so' for their wardrobe; who are willing to go to the nations just as they are getting on at home, if necessary; who do not need two or three trunks and a great amount of baggage; who can travel with a knapsack like a solider and sleep in their boots and will not grumble about it either, but enjoy it for Christ's sake; who have got over the romance and novelty of travel and are going to the nations for one thing only, and that is to win souls for Christ, to please HIm and hasten His coming!"

Lord, as You "carry [this good work] on toward completion" in me, may this be an accurate description of my life.

Possession

A certain uneasiness has laid heavily upon my heart as of late. It is the curious feeling that I am possessed. I assure you that this possession is not the demonic sort, but it very well may be a foe equally as dangerous. To be cliché, I fear that the things which I possess have come to possess me. Have I been duped—convinced by the leaders of my day and culture that the things I own are mine to enjoy? They are a gift from God; I have but to mumbled “thank you” and He will make them a source of endless delight. (Let us not confine our thoughts to simple material objects, I believe freedom, safety, rights, and the life of ease can be equally, if not more, dangerous.) Have I blithely accumulated the best things this world has to offer, only to realize with horror that the treacherous beasts have stuck daggers into my spiritual life? I have decorated the throne room with many a treasure unwittingly usurping Christ’s complete reign in my life.

Galatians 4 paints the beautiful picture of Christ delivering us from the bondage of sin and adopting us. “So you are no longer a slave but a son.” I believe that this deliverance is complete—efficacious for loosing the chains no matter how stubborn and numerous. So my fear is not that Christ won’t heal me from this disease; I am terrified that I won’t want Him to...
When the sower plants seed, some does fall among the thorns. The thorns never kill the plant, they simply choke it, rendering it fruitless. In the same way, “the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth” will not kill the spiritual life, they will simply render it useless. Am I soothed by the voice telling me, “You will not surely die”? Do I not perceive the danger here? Or do I foresee the pain of the cure? I do not know. I do know that my heart cowers at the thought of going any further with this train of thought.

I have arrived at this point of thinking before, but mercifully I always recall the importance of attitude. ‘As long as my attitude is to serve the Lord first, it doesn’t matter if I have nice things. I know many rich Christians who have a solid relationship with Christ.’ Yet such arguments have never completely satisfied me. Let me make clear two points.
First, the disposition of the heart should be evident in the actions. This may not be a fail-proof test but is generally true. The tree will be known by its fruit, and the attitude of heart will be known by the actions of the man. So when the Christ-ruled heart learns that a brother is in dire need, it should gladly sacrifice all the excess it has to meet the need. In this world, it would seem that American Christians should be sending thousands, perhaps millions of dollars overseas to meet the needs of Christians who don’t know where their next meal will come from. The American Christian should gladly lay aside the life of ease if the life of strife will advance the Name of Christ here on earth. Furthermore, we should abandon rights and freedom if we know that our own oppression and slavery will honor our Lord. Safety should be sacrificed so that those who live in areas of violence and darkness may know the precious light of the Gospel. Does this stand to reason?

Secondly, I have vowed in my heart not to make the latter a standard by which I will judge other Christians. Perhaps there are those whose hearts are not lured by possessions. Indeed, to reach the rich, one must have some means to do so. And perhaps the Lord must deal more severely with my heart. Maybe my missions-calling will call me to levels of sacrifice not demanded by others. Conversely, I will not judge myself according to the lives of others. I will not look at a fruitful Christian and adopt their standard of living as my own. My lifestyle will be determined by the Lord.

That being said, I will say the following, which I believe to be true of many in American Christianity and certainly true of that which is sinful in me. We lack simplicity. We live cluttered lives, and our view of Christ, our brothers and sisters, and the lost and dying world around us is obscured because of it. When it comes to sacrificing for the Lord, we are cautious investors, putting on the line only that which will make little difference when lost. We are more like the servant who buries the talent, than the two who risked it all to please their ruthless master. And perhaps we are scared to find Christ to be just that, ruthless. Maybe we are afraid to see the rage and ruthlessness with which He will clear the change tables from the courts of our hearts in order to allow for uninhibited worship. Our God is a jealous God, and His fury against that which prevents His children from knowing Him fully, caused Him to sacrifice His Son. We are mistaken if we believe that He will not call us to sacrifice things as near and dear to our hearts, so that we may purely love Him. It is time to take up our crosses.

I have here only touched the tip of the issue, or maybe just simply pointed at the problem from a distance. And I say all this, all the while my heart still cowers, begging me not to allow Christ to convict, convince, and work.

So Lord Jesus, all intellectual posturing aside, I ask Lord that the light of Your Holiness will convict my heart. Lord grant me wisdom so that I may know the grip possessions have on my life. Free me Lord, whatever that takes. Give me strength and courage to pick up my cross. The cross is ruthless and painful, but it is effective. May the throne of my life be wholly Yours. In the Son’s precious name I pray, Amen.

Removing the Veil

I will not pretend that the title of this blog is original. I shamelessly borrowed it from a mind far more capable than mine. I've been reflecting a lot on thought, reason, faith, knowledge, and their interplay. In fact, this whole blogging scene is based on a lot of that. It is the interchange of ideas and knowledge, and retrival of agreeing and opposing points of view. The sharpening that occurs in this process is largely what drew me to start reading blogs and then to create this blog. I should clarify my previous point to include the fact that many use blogging as nothing more than a place to spew emotions, feelings, and giddy nonsense. While I hold a respect for the proper use and expression of emotions, I'm not sure I respect public display of every deep feeling and thought onto a web page for all your friends to read. I'll try to be man enough to express my feelings to my friends in person, so that I don't totally loose touch with reality. I fear that we could be entering a time when couples will break up because one partner is having an emotional affair with his/her blog page (or would that simply be himself??).
I place high value on thinking correctly. Perhaps never more than this year, when I have begun to understand that the diligent and right use of knowledge affects the very course of my life and indeed my relationship with God.
"What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. The history of mankind will probably show that no people has ever risen above its religion, and man's spiritual hisotry will positively demonstrate that no religion has ever been greater than its idea of God. Worship is pure or base as the worshiper entertains high or low thoughts of God." (AW Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy.)
So, given the capacity, however limited, to know, to apprehend, and to learn, I will seek to love the Lord my God with all my mind. Yet, there has been a quiet discontent with this position that has occasionally boiled up and out of my heart onto the surface of my mind over the past month. However, allow me to continue this discussion in a later blog. For now, let us consider the ramifications of sharpening the mind, of knowing correctly, and actively seeking others input. By nature of being created with a mind capable of reason or by nature of being commanded to love God with all our minds, are we called to know as much and as best we can? If so, what should our sources of knowledge be? Should I continue reading the blogs of people I think sharpen me? Should I dive into books written by Church Fathers? Should I stay current with World News, Politics, and the fine arts? And where do I begin to find the time to do this?

Welcome

Shouldn't I have something profound to say at the beginning of this new blog page? Sure, I think saying something profound might be ideal...but who has time for that? I've got a Bible study to prepare, a test to study for, and lots of nursing paperwork. Yet, that is always the case I seem to find myself in. So welcome to my page. I offer here a (hopefully) honest look at my life and thoughts. And I even hope to keep it current. (We'll see about that.) So it is with this quote (the most profound thing I've read all day--and trust me, I've been reading) that I leave you:
"Missionaries will convert the world by preaching, but also through the shedding of tears and blood and with great labor, and through a bitter death." ---Ramon Lull (Early 1300's missionary)