Jesus' journals - Finishing the Psalms so we can pray and sing them

"These commands I give to you today are to be upon your hearts" (Deut 6:4). 
"Hear, my son, your father's instructions" (Proverbs 1:8). 
"It seemed good...to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus" (Luke 1:3). 
"To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi" (Philippians 1:1). 

Every book of the Bible is written to an audience like you or me - with the exception of the Psalms. I mentioned Sunday to all the saints in Christ Jesus at the the Harquail Theater, Seven Mile Beach: To have read your sister's diary when you were younger is to better understand the psalms. The psalms weren't addressed primarily to you or me - they were addressed to God. We look over-the-shoulder of an author as he pours out his heart (and ink) to God. It's like peeking into someone's private journals.

What we find when we peek into these journals is nothing short of tumultuous. Every conceivable emotion known to mankind seems find expression through these prayer-songs.  Sometimes these mood swings are from psalm-to-psalm, but often times they occur, inexplicably, mid-psalm. At one moment, the psalmist is basking in God's radiant love, the next: Exasperated from crying out in cold isolation. At one moment celebrating fellowship when brothers dwell in unity, in another asking God to contend with those who contend against me (even visiting violence on their family). 

Yesterday morning, our elders were reading through Psalm 139, where we found expression of God's nearness until, as one elder put it: "the bizarre bit in the middle" (which it seemed we might go ahead & skip over). 

These are cries of those wishing to trust a good God yet do so from a world that is falling apart around them. For psalmists living in B.C., it seems every victory is momentary and every promise of hope a bit hazy.

Momentary & Hazy - that is until one gets to know Jesus. Only in a relationship with Jesus (praying the psalms through Christ as it were) does the unresolved tension between trust in God and a world falling apart find certain victory and a concrete hope. Through Jesus, the psalms are opened wide! Apart from Jesus, the psalms are incomplete, an unfinished journal. When the famous novelist Charles Dickens died in June of 1870, he had been working his final literary work: The Mystery of Erwin Drood. The work was considered to be quite complex - beautiful in prose, a soaring treatment of mankind's complexities, authentic in displaying more of Dickens himself (a man otherwise unknown and rarely autobiographical). He had masterfully created a classic whodunit mystery...without an ending! Since then many have been inspired to take up the pen and finish the tale. It's been adapted into everything from a staple BBC period drama to a Broadway Play. To read the psalms apart from Jesus' finishing work is to agree, as with Dickens' unfinished work, the psalter is beautiful, soaring, authentic and yet cries out to be completed. 

Through his life, death, resurrection & reign, Jesus finalizes every hope in the psalms and finishes every victory. Thus, Jesus finishes these otherwise unfinished journals. Indeed, the psalms can be best understood, prayed and sung as Jesus' journals. Let's take a look as to how Jesus of Nazareth finishes and then restores to us these amazing prayer-songs.

Jesus finishes the psalms through His life.  In the gospel accounts, Jesus quotes from eight different psalms (Psalm 8:2; Ps. 118:22-23; Psalm 110:1; Ps. 118:26; Psalm 22:1; Ps. 82:6; Ps. 41:9; Ps. 35:19) . Based on this alone, one can imagine how often he used the psalms to pray when he was alone with his Father (Mark 1:35; Luke 5:16; Luke 6:12, Matthew 14:23). Why did Jesus so often pray and quote the psalms? Jesus, fully man, experienced and thus needed to express the full range of human emotions yet, fully God, never sinned in doing so. Consider how astounding that is compared to our expression of emotion, which is typically self-centered. When I weep: It is usually for my loss. Jesus wept for Lazarus, over the tragic effects of sin and death in this world, over Jerusalem. His sadness was utterly other-centered. When I get angry: It is usually because I am being deprived. When Jesus got angry (see temple courts), it is because everyday worshippers people were being subtly deceived by religious priests into temple-worship versus God-worship. So Jesus got angry on behalf of people deprived of genuine worship and on behalf of His Father being deprived of genuine worship. So when a Christian now prays-sings a psalm, he or she does so through a human who also experienced the very same emotion yet offers it to the Father free from the stain of self-centeredness because He prayed it purely while on earth. The Father thus hears our prayers through the sanctifying work of Christ and can both justly and generously respond. 


Jesus finishes the psalms through His death. In his suffering and death, Jesus endured every sinful emotion so the righteous anger expressed in the psalms wouldn't be expressed towards us. I admit that when I try to pray: "Oh God, slay the wicked" (Ps. 139:19) or "I loathe those who rise against you" (Ps. 139:21), I sometimes pray it sheepishly - wait a minute: "I art the man." Some Sundays I've preached on selflessness only to be short with my family the rest of that Sunday, telling myself: "You deserve to rest and be pampered." Wicked! "God, I think I'll do this project, meeting, relationship my way." Rising against You and Your ways! On the one hand, it is right to vent about the injustices we witness in this world trusting our Father to justly make right all the wrongs. On the other hand, I am one of the wrongs! So Jesus endured the mocking, the flogging, the anger, the humiliation, the grief in his suffering and death - saying "Father forgive them" - to demonstrate that he likewise endured both our sinful emotions and the righteous anger of the Father toward them. So recognizing am no longer the object of what would be just anger, I am liberated to authentically and without shame express frustration, impatience, even anger in the right way - to the Father, through the psalms, because of Jesus.

Jesus finishes the psalms through His resurrection. Take a moment to briefly read and maybe even say out (or whisper if in a public space) Psalm 43. 

After you pray the end (verse 5) and then rewind, you recognize the psalmist has previously experienced God as his hope and salvation. Now however history seems to be repeating itself. He's the victim of deceit and injustice (v.1). He feels rejected by God (v.2a). Takes about a 90-degree turn: Wait why am I so sad? Because of another human?! (v.2b). Please deliver me again (v.3). I know this will end with me filled with overflowing joy that results in praise to You (v.4). So in summary: Why am I so sad? (v.5a). God will again save (v.5b).

This resembles how many relate to God. Things are bad, woe is me, I better pray so God will make the bad things go away, I'm happy and back in church. Having hoped in God for a little while, rinse & repeat. 

When Jesus rose from the dead - he vindicated us with finality! Nothing can separate us from His love (Romans 8:38-39), whether it be the accusations of others, ourselves, or even the threat of death. He is not a temporary refuge from which we and our souls can escape but through simple faith our lives are "hidden with Christ" on high (Colossians 3:3). No matter what we do or anyone else does, He will surely bring us to His Holy hill and to His dwelling - "that where I am there you may also be" (John 14:3). Jesus pioneered the path to heaven through his resurrection that we might follow in his footsteps. So now when we pray the psalms: All the wondering, questions and shifts in mood caused by a hazy hope and changes in circumstances (does this mean God is no longer for me?) are answered with finality through the resurrection of Jesus. The penalty of sin is paid, the power of sin is daily lessening, the presence of sin will one day be eradicated - because Jesus has risen finalizing all the deliverances & joys of the psalms. The risen Jesus is the AMEN at the end of every psalm!

Jesus finishes the psalms through His reign. Many of the psalms celebrate God as king, yet it seems difficult to recognize his kingdom on earth "as it is in heaven." Psalm 24 captures this tension well: "The earth is the LORD's and the fullness thereof" (v.1). It's his world and yet: "Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? And who shall stand in his holy place?" (v.2). The kingly line of God's people certainly did not demonstrate "the clean hands" or "pure heart" required but for anyone that did there remained: "blessing from the LORD and righteousness from the God of his salvation" (vv.4-5). This psalm concludes with a question repeated in such a way that the psalmist expects God to one day answer it:

Old Testament scholar Bruce Waltke notes that the songs in the book of Psalms that celebrate the king are like "royal robes." They are like the robes "with which Israel drapes each successive son of David at his coronation." But none of Israel's kings has shoulders broad enough to wear them. "The Psalter's giant robes hang loosely" until in the fullness of time - King Jesus comes. "Here was a son of David with shoulders broad enough to wear the Psalters magnificent robes."


These who first prayed the Psalms looked forward to the day when the King of glory might walk through the doors of this earth to reveal Himself. He has in Christ Jesus. So every time Christians pray about the majesty, royal rule, kingly authority, we can picture what true majesty, rule, authority looks like. And so as every psalm eventually meanders - twisting and turning - to its finish line, the finish line of the psalms is King Jesus. When we pray from the psalms to further witness and experience his majesty, rule, and authority, we can trust that we will - in-breaking spheres of His rule and reign through salvation, healing, and justice today even as one day we see all these things in full.

Oh may your kingdom come and will be done!

What can you do for Persecuted Christians?

The 2nd & Final Return of Jesus to this earth is especially good news to those whose lives are filled with bad news. He will finally return to restore everything to its rightful place. Those with us on Sunday saw that Jesus' teaching in Mark 13:31-37 (echoed later in the Garden of Gethsemane - Mt. 26:38-45) leads us to stand with those who long for that Day. Applying Jesus' repeated (x3) admonition to "stay awake" encourages those of us whose lives are not characterized by bad news to "stay awake" and "keep watch" as alert intercessors with saints who do suffer to the point where Jesus' return is truly their "blessed hope" (Titus 2:13). 

Those who suffer most for the gospel are persecuted Christians. They suffer precisely because they place their hope, their treasure, their very lives in neither false gods nor empty philosophies - but in a God-man who lived the perfect life they could not and then died the death they deserved, so that he might offer to us a free gift of reconciliation to God. How might we "stay awake" and "keep watch" with those who suffer because of this message - the glorious gospel?

Jerusalem-based journalist Lela Gilbert here offers 6 suggestions (I've summarized 4 below):

1. Be as informed as possible. With the rise of ISIS and its extreme persecution of Christians in Iraq and Syria, especially, there is a lot of information circulating "out there." You may have received to your Inbox or smartphone calls to pray with, albeit, sometimes contradictory information. The most up-to-date and accurate website has been put together by the Hudson Institute's Center for Religious Freedom: www.persecutionreport.org. Reports are grouped by continent. Tab it and check it out regularly . 
2. Support organizations that aid persecuted Christians. Voice of the Martyrs, Open Doors, Christian Solidarity International are among those who do. Open Doors has an gift catalog from which you can send out various helps of your choosing (starting at $5 US). You can also write words of encouragement to those who are imprisoned because of their love for Jesus.
3. Pass the word via social media and email - perhaps start with this blog post, the above article, or suggest to your Community Group following through with #4.
4. Pray. On the same weekend as the Int'l Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church, SCC will be holding a 12-hour prayer vigil to stay alert & stand watch with those who need strength to endure, boldness to witness, and final restoration from suffering. 

• Saturday, November 1st. Stay awake and stand watch with us!! Sign up here for at least one hour. Share also any requests of suffering saints you know for which the church body can be praying. Jesus' words in the Garden have been deeply convicting to me: "Could you not watch with me for one hour?" (Matthew 26:40). 
• Traveling to the U.S. between now and November 1st? We could use your help. I'd love to have a this pack of global church reports, commitment to pray brochures, and banner on hand to assist our intercession on November 1st. If you feel led to purchase, pick up, and bring these items back to Grand Cayman, that would be an awesome blessing!
• You can also pray individually. Voice of the Martyrs sends out an email every Friday with prayer requests, which they also regularly update. I've found this to be a regular fixture on my Fridays and have proved a great source of praise as you discover that God has used your prayer to deliver comfort, relief and restoration to a fellow saint thousands of miles away.  

Let's commit to stay alert & stand watch with those who experience bad news because of they love His good news!

Creative Activity to Engage Kids in Prayer

Over at the Verge Network, Karen Hardin has relayed to us a fantastic, creative, and get-off-your-behind way to engage your child(ren) in prayer. Namely, as she puts it, you can use your child's tendency to see differences to foster gratitude and a habit of prayer. Who doesn't want to do that and who doesn't have a child who has complained "Brother, sister, Bobby, Sally has more/better ______ than me" ?!

Read here: "Turning Your Child's Focus Inside Out."

I will be trying to implement with our boys this week and can let you know how it goes. I can imagine this becoming a weekly prayer activity or maybe doing 1 or 2 of the ten "stations" per night along with regular worship & Bible Reading. Even though they are now getting a bit older, there are some nights my kids just have a hard time sitting - thus, this station-to-station idea may on such nice prove a nice alternative to exasperating "Ah, forget it, just go brush your teeth and get ready for bed."

May God use this wisdom to help your child engage with the God who can empower all of us to cease looking outward to compare but rather look outward to behold the goodness and glory of Jesus who can transform us toward love (II Corinthians 3:18).

Providence or Parasite? (Sun Am Follow-up)

Sunday morning I had the privilege of leading our people to consider and apply Mark's version of one of Jesus' most famous and beloved miracles - the Feeding of the 5k (I can only assume because everyone loves food especially when super-sized miraculously!! Hollywood made their own version of miraculous food multiplication but Jesus' is the original). Mark's version focuses intently on the need for rest or, more broadly to include fun & play, "leisure" (6:31). Disciples of Jesus Christ are called to work hard and be used by Jesus (6:7-13), risk much for Jesus (6:14-29), but also plan to rest with Jesus (6:30-47). However, along the way, to increase our trust in Jesus, he may plan to satisfy you with a season of more work or more rest. The point is: Doing His will & letting his will, whatever it may be, satisfy you is the best R&R we can get. It was out of trust in His Father that Jesus himself said when his disciples were encouraging him to rest & eat: "My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to accomplish his work" (John 4:34). 

So plan for work for and be used by Jesus, plan to rest with Jesus, but satisfy yourself with whatever Jesus brings your way.

The set-up. That's about as far as I could get on Sunday. But I left out an important question when it comes to "whatever," or more specifically, "whomever," Jesus brings your way. Some thing or, rather, some ones come between the prospect of rest and the reality of more "work" for the disciples:

"Now many of them saw [the disciples and Jesus retreating by themselves to a desolate place] and recognized them, and they ran there on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them" (Mark 6:33). 

Some of you know this scene from your own life. Understand, due to the position of the Sea of Galilee set in a bowl from which you could see people heading down from the hills and the relatively small size of the Sea, the disciples were watching as in slow motion the reality ahead of them developing. Tired, having given all you can give, people - perhaps some of them the same people you just ministered to - are U-turning back your way to ask for more. Is such a person part of God's providence - His gracious plan for every thought, action, and member of His creation - OR parasite - someone who has begun to look to you and depend on you for what only Jesus can provide them? Providence or Parasite?  (**Please note: I recognize each person as inestimably valued by God and created in His image - only that some persons begin to function parasitically in certain relationships)

Fleshy hearts are always the right start. Something happens when you trust your life to Christ and begin to walk with him: You wish to pass on the same love with which Jesus has loved you. You are not only gifted with a new kind of love but a totally new heart: 

Ezekiel 36:25-27   ²⁵ I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.  ²⁶ And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.  ²⁷ And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

You may have cared for people before, but there always a hint of selfishness - whether it be to 'have that good feeling,' elicit a response from another, or what at the time seemed like a wholly altruistic purpose but now you recognize: "that was mostly for me." When Jesus invades your life, you learn to love freely because He puts His free love into this free heart given to you. Something else happens: You learn that growth as a Christian continues along as you begin to help another along to further trust and grow in Jesus. It was as a young Christian I heard Dr. Howard Hendricks say: "We begin to grow when we begin to take responsibility for another person." All of this is good and right. But there is a seedy underbelly for taking responsibility for growth of others that begins to show itself when (not if) others exploit it. Please hear me: As a Christian you can't avoid being exploited and used - when you offer to others in word & deed a message of a free gift apart from works - some will take the free gift and rob your works. However, I'm talking about the occasional person you will run across who takes and takes and takes. How can you tell such a person apart from them being someone God has providentially put in your path?

Understanding shepherds. I think our first clue in answering this question comes in Mark 6:34: "When [Jesus] went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things." Jesus had compassion. Though the crowd was filled with liars, cheaters, hypocrites, users-of-people, holier-than-thous, it is toward such (like us) Jesus has compassion. Compassion is a fantastic word - the Gk. is splangnizesthai which lit means "a longing from the bowels." This suggests that Jesus' physical constitution was affected - their pain literally makes him sick to his stomach. Again, the tender, responsive, fleshy middle - where the heart is located - is exemplified in Jesus. Why is Jesus splangnizethai'd? "Because they were like sheep without a shepherd." So Jesus will be their shepherd, right? He will hold them in his arms, cuddle closely, feel the warmth of his heartbeat against theirs. Except that would entirely misunderstand what Jesus means here by "shepherd." The shepherd/sheep metaphor in the Old Testament is indeed a rich one, but also perhaps misunderstood. James Edwards notes in his commentary on Mark: 

"As a metaphor, the shepherd of sheep was a common figure of speech for a leader of Israel like Moses (Isa. 63:11) or more often of a Joshua-like military hero who would muster Israel's forces for war (Num 27:17; 1 Kings 22:17; II Chronicles 18:16; Jeremiah 10:21; Ezek. 34:5; Ezek 37:24; Nahum 3:18; Zechariah 13:7). It is, in other words, a metaphor for hegemony, including military leadership and victory. In his compassion, Jesus sees a whole people...without a leader." 

In other words, these aren't people looking to mooch off the disciples, tell their sob story for the umpeenth time hoping someone will finally take them in as their own, nor be adopted as the sole and consuming pet project of one of the disciples, nor stop by every so often fishing for affirmation and compliments - these in Mark 6 are looking for a strong leader to lead them that they might become strong. Another way to put it: Some are looking to stay coddled lambs always nursing on newborn milk, but not here - these are looking to be healthy functioning, and productive sheep - dare I say: Strong Rams. Such people approach you in weakness but also seek guidance toward deliverance and change. 

Don't get me wrong, these are all wonderful images of Jesus that you may find in any church nursery built in the 1970s.

Teach us to care through prayer. Jesus leads others to himself by teaching them "many things" (v.34). This is how he begins to shepherd people looking for genuine change. While teaching truth about Jesus has a critical place, we can begin to lead others to the Shepherd through prayer. One reason prayer I have found prayer not just spiritually but also practically so helpful is that early on in an encounter or relationship prayer begins shed light upon whether the person has come to find life or to rob it. 

A busy man once relayed to Oswald Sanders: 

"Up to some years ago, I was always annoyed by interruptions...then the Lord convinced me that He sends people our way. He sent Philip to the Ethiopian eunuch. He sent Barnabas to Saul. So when someone comes in, I say, 'The Lord must have brought you here. Let us find out why He sent you. Let us have prayer.' This does two things. The interview takes on new importance because God is in it. And it generally shortens the interview...pleasant but brief." 

What I have found fascinating is that often times people don't really want prayer - they get antsy when I suggest it or, upon saying "Amen," immediately continue on with the complaint right where they left off as if prayer were a sneeze or a yawn mid-sentence that has no bearing on one's stream of thought - not to mention attitude or perspective. Prayer then either: (a) Brings the person to the One who can give life, sustain growth, and transform weakness to strength; or (b) Exposes an unwillingness to change. I've found great assistance from the Psalms so that I'm not just praying my own words but God's and subtly teaching the person to develop their own prayer language with Him also. I've also found it helpful to have a "go-to" Psalm. Mine is Psalm 130 (It gives a person words to the need for both help from circumstances and forgiveness from sin, truth that God alone can forgive, insistence on how we are to wait upon the Lord, and why God alone satisfy us - all in 8 verses!). Sometimes I'll pray it out loud but if I have a second Bible handy I encourage the person to look and pray with me.

Eugene Petersen wrote a brilliant article years ago, which was also a chapter title in a book of his, called "Teach us to care, and not to care." His thoughtful expose really helped me answer the question: How do you help people who wish to be helped and how can you tell who those people are? I'll leave you with this lengthy excerpt:

I do not mean simply praying for people, although that is involved. I mean teaching them to pray, helping them to listen to what God is saying, helping them to form an adequate response. Teaching people to pray is teaching them to treat all the occasions of their lives as altars on which they receive his gifts. Teaching people to pray is teaching them that God is the one with whom they have to deal, not just ultimately, and not just generally, but now and in detail.

  Teaching people to pray is not especially difficult work — anyone of us can do it, using a few psalms and the Lord’s Prayer — but it is difficult to stick with it, for we are constantly interrupted with urgent demands from family and friends to, as they say, “do something.” And it is difficult to get the person who has asked for help to stick with it because there are a lot of other people in the intersection, offering short-cut approaches for providing care, shortcutting God and promising far quicker results. It is difficult for all of us to stick it out, for often in the confusion and noises of wasteland traffic, it is hard to stay convinced that sin and God make that much difference.

   But difficult or not, this is our calling. Whatever else we are doing is with our hands, with our feet, with our minds — bandaging, directing, giving. This is the core of what we are doing, getting them in touch with God, with neighbor, receiving love, grace. If we do not use these occasions of need to teach people to pray, we cave in to the pressures of care in which there is no cure.

YOU can help someone who is hurting

While Grand Cayman is both remarkably diverse in the six different continents with a strongly represented presence and assuredly contemporary in its features and amenities as compared with other Caribbean islands, we are still but a small-town population of only 55,000 persons...give or take (which is why I like to describe Cayman as an urban nation with a rural population).  

So when tragedy hits our small community, it often hits hard. A young man, just 15 years old, took his own life just a few days ago. And, as if that fact wasn't tragic enough, it seems that bullying directly precipitated this tragedy, as footage of the bullying act was posted and went viral. 

This has especially affected the Oelschlager family as we were afforded a small window into this young man's life. His best friend used to live across the street from us. Both were avid basketball players. And as a dear family had recently donated to us a basketball goal, they were over in our driveway a lot playing with Mason, Gage, and myself. The young man of whom I speak was especially and unusually kind, for a 15 year old male, to our boys. He would remember their names and even shoot hoops with them while I had to work on something in my adjacent office. We saw him last this past December at a basketball clinic. He bent down on one knee to say hi to Gage, whom he always called "Gabe" (understandably). Tears were shed, young questions were asked, & prayers were prayed at the Oelschlager dinner table this past Tuesday.

One of the local schools asked me to come in today to assist some particular students through grief counseling. There is never a time, even for a so-called "trained" pastor, when this is not a daunting challenge. But God's Spirit was sweetly present and ever gracious as I met back-to-back-to-back with a handful of young men.

Here's what I wish to share with you: Helping someone who is hurting isn't rocket-science. Just a little preparation, a tentative plan, and I lot of reliance on God. That's what it took today. Allow me to walk you through:

Preparation. Pretty simple prep. Two things. First, I remembered that in the midst of suffering, the goal is to point the person toward the only God of human history (and only purported God of any major religion) who became human and opened himself up to the worst that human suffering had to offer. Point the person to the God who has suffered - Jesus Christ. Second, I called to mind and prayed one of Jesus' precious promises to his disciples: "When you are brought before synagogues, rulers, and authorities, do not worry how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say" (Luke 12:11-12). It's good to think through a couple things but even more so to remember that the Holy Spirit wants to use us in these pressure-packed moments as we rely on Him.

Tentative Plan meets Holy-Spirit-helped Execution. Here's a basic outline of how I handled the conversations with teenage boys most of whom I had never really met.

1. To the hurting person: (a) Share with me a little of how you knew this person; (b) what are some memories of him that stick out to you?
>> I find this allows the hurting person opportunity to affirm out-loud the value and impact of the person's life. That their life was not in vain. 
>> This also helped me to share a little of my responses to these two questions.

2. Share a little yourself about valuing a life lost.
>> In this case, I had opportunity to share about how I valued the same person whom they loved. 
>> Especially in cases where you might not know the hurting person very well, the Spirit can use this I think to help earn the person's trust. They know you care and have a certain genuine depth of feeling also.

3. To hurting person: (a) Describe for me some of the feelings you are feeling. (b) Have you spoken with anyone else about these feelings?
>> Affirm the health of doing so if and when they have spoken to others.  

4. To hurting person: Everyone does something with their hurt, sadness or anger. Some bury it but it will cause them to harden, maybe become bitter. Some look for an escape: Perhaps partying; a hobby/activity/sport they can pour themselves into; or their work. What would you say are you doing with your hurt?

>> Bring Jesus into equation. 

5. To hurting person: You know if you haven't or feel like you can't talk with anyone else about how you are feeling or what you want to do about it, you can always talk to God. Especially the God of the Bible. Can I tell you why? The God described in the Bible is the only God who claims to have come down from his lofty throne in heaven to earth and suffered the worst pains of being human.  [I don't quote Scripture per say but give a few Bible facts in plain terms]

• He's a God who was born into a people defined historically not by power nor by royalty but by their suffering (Hebrews/Israelites/Jews).
• He's a God who was born into questionable circumstances - who's the father? (no human father, "illegitimate" birth).
• He's a God who was immediately born into an assassination attempt upon his life (see Herod's killing off of all children in Bethlehem Jesus' age - Matthew 2).
• He's a God who was betrayed by his friends, cursed by his enemies, and suffered the most painful and humiliating form of capital punishment known up to that point in history.
• None of that equaled the punishment of suffering He took on for us. The just punishment each of us deserves for living life his/her own way not God's way. That's why Jesus died on a cross - he died in our place, the death we deserved.

6. PRAYER: Would you mind if we talked to Him now?
>> In prayer, I keep pointing to the God of suffering - whether it's the need know & trust Him as the person in front of me suffers, the reality that He understands what other loved ones not present are going through, or the forgiveness He offers even to those who caused His suffering (should there be persons involved in the matter at hand who bear some degree of blame and, thus, need forgiveness).

7. To hurting person: Is there anything else you feel you need to say or get off your chest?
>> So often God uses the prayer to soften the person to the point where now they wish to offer something more that they need to express. 
>> That certainly occurred today - and, through the prayer and the Holy Spirit urging me to follow-up with the above question, He may just have saved an angry young man from going down the path of becoming a bitter old man.

YOU too can be used by God to help someone who is hurting.

Mailing it in

Urbandictionary.com defines Mailing it in as: slang for doing the least amount of work possible to produce a adequately finished product. 

I want to be honest with those whom I am privileged to serve as their pastor - I mailed it in this past Sunday. 

I continually get to experience the grace of God (His love for me made active through a undeserved gifts) - and last week was no different. I had some wonderful times of fellowship with folks in the church and Katie and I were led one sweet night last week to stop our busy-ness and spend an evening giving thanks and praise to Jesus. But basking in the glow and a spirit of contentment, I mentally/spiritually felt myself begin to mail it in as it pertains to Sunday worship. Joshua 9 contains such a straightforward and practical message about seeking the Lord in prayer when making important commitments - I felt I had a pretty good handle on the passage (pride!) and decided I'd focus on enjoying my kids and the beautiful back half of the week/weekend (the best time of year weather-wise in Cayman has begun - breezy & cool). So while I worked on the sermon, put together an order of worship, and coordinated with other key Sunday Worship co-laborers, I sort of just trusted the Scripture passage and my heart to get in the right place in the nick of time. But upon arrival Sunday morning, I felt distanced from others and everything going on -- this distance continued during and after the service as well. So, first of all, I'm sorry dear brothers and sisters of the Sunrise Family. I did not serve you well. I also don't mind saying: If Sunday's message encouraged, convicted, or produced fruit through you, then it is entirely by the grace of God!! Praise be to Him!

I don't know if you've experienced a similar phenomenon - your heart begins to distance itself ("prone to wander, Lord I feel it" as the great hymn says) from what God has called you to do and how he has called you to work - as an employee, as a husband/wife, as a mom/dad, as a member of a community, as a volunteer. I have too. And I've had better moments, where God helped me to stop mailing it in before it started. 

Here are three strategies I've found helpful for putting a stop to a mail-it-in moment:

(1) Pray for those whom you serve and those with whom you work.

I don't know the nature of your particular line of work or vocational calling. Some of you serve others fairly directly in your work- nurse, teacher, HR, sales, pastor, etc. But for those of you whose work affects other companies with a very slow trickle down effect to real people, even still you recognize your work affects more directly those with whom you work - your example of working hard and working hard so they never feel they have to pick up your slack. 

One of the ways to stop a mail-it-in moment in your work is to care so deeply about persons involved to the point that you would desire and believe your work would provide significant benefit and/or growth in their lives. 

How do you care more about persons you serve or with whom you work? It's not a matter of thinking of other people more. According to a report published by the U.S. National Scientific Foundation, our brains produce somewhere between 12,000-50,000 thoughts per day. Of these thoughts, 10-25% are directly fixed upon other persons. This means that at least 1200 thoughts you have per day are about other people. And yet you don't necessarily walk away from a thought caring about that person more. The thought just passes by. 

The apostle Paul gave us a great example of how to care about such persons more - taking an otherwise passing thought and praying it. For Paul, prayer would lead to love and love would lead to prayer - a cycle of praying passing thoughts about others whose GDP is love. Listen to how Paul's prayer for the people of the church in Philippi lead to love and then love leads to prayer:

[Notice a thought...a 'remembrance' leads to prayer] I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from this day until now. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. [Here comes love!!] It is right for me to feel this way about you all because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. [love that now leads to prayer] And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more...(Philippians 1:3-9).

It's easier to persevere in the work your doing when your love increases for those who stand to potentially benefit from the work. 

(2) Make sure you enlist others to be prayerfully invested in your work.

When I pray for something for someone, I am invested. I wish to know what happened. What did God do? How did something I got to be a part of turn out?

You might not believe it, but a simple weekly request of your Community Group or a group of close friends to pray for you will help them become more invested in your work - even if you have, in your opinion, the most boring job in the world (#3: Construction Flag-Traffic Person; #2: Exit Sign Designer; #1: Pillow filler). 

And when you know others are praying, it gives you more confidence that God is at work in your work. He is helping you, using you, and doing things in and around you which you previously never even thought or conceived of.  

In the above passage from Philippians 1, notice Paul had enlisted the Philippians who were "all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel." Paul's life work was a defense and confirmation of the gospel. The Philippians were prayerfully invested. As were the Ephesians, whom Paul also enlisted: "Pray also for me, that words may be given me so that I might fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I might declare it fearlessly as I should" (Ephesians 6:18-19). 

I have enlisted a few key individuals, who showed interest in praying that God's Spirit would powerfully use my preaching, the worship, greeter teams, audio-visual volunteers, children's ministry workers to greatly glorify Himself on Sunday Morning. They have now begun to gather about 30 minutes before the service to labor in prayer. I have a higher level of confidence knowing that my persevering in my work will be worth it - it is going to be used by God as it prayed for by friends!!

(3) Work hard and expect second-hand results

Christ's hard, literally excruciating work on the cross for us produces in us a surety about our spiritual status before Him (we are in the Family!!), which in turn produces great contentment and deep joy. Yet He asks us to respond to His work with work of our own. This response, thus, does not include: "Let go and let God." This was my mistake last week - I understood God's work for me but misunderstood what was the proper response. I let go and let God -- and so let my work go. 

The Bible says I ought to work hard on my growth as a Christian (Philippians 2:12), to work hard at the mission God has assigned me (Colossians 1:28-29a), and work hard at my job (1 Corinthians 15:10c). So I should expect to work.

But as I work, something funny sometimes happens: I trust that my hard work ought to produce results. Such that, if those I serve or with whom I work don't immediately respond to my work, I am prone to become insecure some times, depressed at other times, and embittered at still other times. Such that I am tempted to mail-it-in next time around. 

Our Father knows the human heart, however. So He reminds us of something else - there is Someone else working with and through us. So the Apostle Paul completes all the above thoughts about hard work: 

• It's "God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13)
• I struggle to live out the mission God has assigned me "with all his energy that he powerfully works within me" (Colossians 1:29b).
• When working hard at my job, I'm reminded with Paul: "It was not I, however, but the grace of God that is with me" (1 Corinthians 15:10d). 

In each case, the Lord is faithful to show up in my hard work - to give me strength to do the work and the grace to produce results that possess a certain authority and finality. I'm reminded of Joshua, who in between inconvenient, mundane obedience (circumcision and observing Passover - Joshua 5) and daunting but thrilling obedience (marching around a city while singing with friends while they waited for the miracle of crumbling walls - Joshua 6), has the pre-incarnate Christ visit him in the form of a Warrior, sword in hand. Help with the very task with which he needed help and results. Jesus present to initiate, then join, then win the fight! Jesus produces second-hand results as Joshua works hard. Jesus is the second (and most important) hand.

A slightly more modern person who exemplifies this tension of hard work and second-hand results is George Mueller. Mueller preached in a local church every week for over six decades in 18th century Bristol, England. But he most is famous for his tireless work with orphans. Through Mueller's work and influence, the care of orphans in England skyrocketed from 3000 to over 100,000 by the end of his life. Mueller famously said about work: "Work with all your might, but trust not the least to your work." 

In other words, don't expect your work will secure for you anything or yield results in-and-of-itself. Unless the grace of God goes with you, does the work, and produces the results, it will be in vain. And Mueller lived out this saying. He never (never!) solicited charitable funds for his orphans. He simply prayed and relied totally on the grace of God - monies would show up, often anonymously, at his doorstep and often just as the last shilling had been spent. He didn't trust His own efforts but for God to work.

You do your part, trust Jesus do His. We are freed to persevere well in our work when we can trust God to take care of giving us the strength to do it and producing the results to win the day! If people don't respond to your work, well, that's His problem. 

Bothering Prayer - 4 minutes of encouragement for Prayer

If you're like me and struggle to pray, it's good to be reminded that even the writers of the Bible conceived of it as a struggle - but are nevertheless steadfast on carrying on with it.


Below is 4 minutes from Matt Chandler on prayer - including how it's a labor & a bother (but not a bother for you and I). Best 4 minutes on prayer I ever heard...

George Mueller: How to ascertain the Will of God

This past week I had the privilege of preaching from Ecclesiastes 5:1-7 on the topic of "Listening and Hearing from God." While I reading & prepping I came across a short tract by George Mueller (1805-1898), called "How to ascertain the will of God." Mueller preached at his local church for six decades and built five large houses for orphans in England. I have never read of or run across another human in the last millennia for whom I have more respect in the areas of discerning God's will & specific, bold prayers. I hope you find this brief & straightforward piece of wisdom as instructive as I have:

I seek at the beginning to get my heart into such a state that it has no will of its own in regard to a given matter. Nine-tenths of the trouble with people generally is just here. Nine-tenths of the difficulties are overcome when our hearts are ready to do the Lord's will, whatever it may be. When one is truly in this state, it is usually but a little way to the knowledge of what His will is.   2. Having done this, I do not leave the result to feeling or simple impression. If so, I make myself liable to great delusions.   3. I seek the Will of the Spirit of God through or in connection with the Word of God. The Spirit and the Word must be combined. If I look to the Spirit alone without the Word, I lay myself open to great delusions also. If the Holy Ghost guides me at all, He will do it according to the Scriptures and never contrary to them.   4. Next I take into account providential circumstances. These often plainly indicate God's will in connection with His Word and Spirit.   5. I ask God in prayer to reveal His Will to me aright.   6. Thus, through prayer to God, the study of His Word, and reflection, I come to a deliberate judgment according to the best of my ability and knowledge, and if my mind is thus at peace, and continues so after two or three more petitions, I proceed accordingly. In trivial matters, and in transactions involving the most important issues, I have found this method always effective.

Great Quote on Prayer from Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

"There is nothing that tells the truth about us as Christian people so much as our prayer life. Everything we do in the Christian life is easier than prayer." -Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones

Now let it soak.

Summer Reading & Summer Pics

I don't know about you, but Summer Reading used to immediately bring to mind: "Come on, do I really have to read Where the Red Fern Grows?!" (Incidentally, I think my best summer reading experience was the Summer I read Hatchet  - 13 y. old survives a plane crash and survives for 45 days in the wilderness using only a hatchet - he was the original Bear Grylls). Anywho, nowadays the summer reading experience is something I look forward to. So I thought I'd sally forth what I read this summer along with description - feel free to post back with any gems from your list.


#1 - Jack: A Life of C.S. Lewis by George Sayer. 464 pages. I've read so much of Lewis but have never read a full-length biography of his. Sayer knew Lewis well. Things I learned about Lewis - He was one lusty bloke before he put his faith in Christ. Sayers goes into this in some detail. Honestly, had Lewis been in his 20s while living in our era, he'd most likely be attracted to some hard core stuff on the web (if you know what I mean). He was so attracted to beauty, especially the beauty of a woman, that he greatly indulged in it vis-a-vis his thought life. When J.R.R. Tolkien explained Christ as the reality behind the beauty (or "myth"), Lewis found his heart's true home. But it was his penchant for passions and the constant struggle to focus on Christ as the object of His passions and pleasure with which I could most relate to Lewis. He struggled with co-dependency, was an incredibly faithful friend, and tirelessly, but quietly, cared for those in need. And, if you've ever watched the movie Shadowlands (Anthony Hopkins) which chronicles the end of Lewis' life dealing with the death of his wife, the book provides a more accurate and detailed handling of that time period (In the movie, Lewis is nebulously portrayed as having given up his faith, whereas in real-life, his struggle was more like that of the Psalmists - moving from despair toward hope and thanksgiving).

#2 - A Proverbs-Driven Life by Anthony Selvaggio. 201 pages. I read Proverbs in conjunction with 1 Corinthians over the Summer (the theme of wisdom being paramount in both). Thus, this book was a handy guide. Great chapters on friendship, making wise choice of a spouse, marital faithfulness, and childrearing. 


#3 - Autobiography of George Mueller, or a Million and a Half in Answer to Prayer. George Mueller is known for setting up scores of Orphanages throughout England in the early to mid 1800s. But what's truly remarkable about this man is his prayer life. I kept writing in the margins: "Didn't leave God alone" "Didn't leave God alone" (x20). And as a result, God did not leave George Mueller alone. If you want to be inspired in your prayer life with both a lofty and authentic example, try this on for size. You can also read a shorter version which has compiled "highlights" of his autobiography - it's called Answers to Prayer. And, yeah, he had a neck beard...and pulled it off!

#4 - The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson.272 pages. I don't just read stuff from the Family Christian Book Stores (besides, those places are kind of a rip-off, unless you like "Testa-mints"). I love to read about what makes people tick - why people do/think/feel as they do. Does your boss (or pastor??) demonstrate: Glibness/superficial charm, Grandiose sense of self-worth, Need for stimulation/proneness to boredom. These are the first three items on the Psychopath Test developed by Bob Hare and utilized around the world to help identify psychopaths and sociopaths. Jon Ronson, a journalist who also wrote The Men who Stare at Goats, is hilarious as he attempts to hunt down and speak with psychopaths, tries to figure out what's legit in the madness industry, attempts to ascertain if he's a psychopath, and discovers that CEOs of the Fortune 500 companies are far more likely to be psychopaths than your average Joe or Josephine.


Okay enough of that, I promised the peeps of Sunrise Community Church some pictures from our Oelschlager Summer Adventures (Grandiose sense of self-worth??):

Ziplining with Katie's side of family (Yes, all those people are related)

Mason's first time surfing.

Katie tubing on North Carolina's Dan River. Gage overwhelmed by life preserver.
River-tubing in the U.S. South has quite a clientele let me tell you.

Boogie-board Racing with my Dad
(he had a head start..I eventually won...should I really be writing about this?)

At one point, there were 10 children in this inflatable pool which was tenuously held up by duct tape
as the children continuously (and joyously?) walked in a synchronized circle.

U.S. Independence Day Celebration (4th of July).
We never really seemed to ride the bikes - just walked them along in a hot, slow death march.
Yes, I'm related to a (young) Uncle Sam

Bros.

Hindering people because of my Annoyance

I can relate.

Upon the disciples shoo'ing away children whom they considered were pestering Jesus, Luke tells us the following:

But Jesus called them to him, saying, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them" (Luke 18:16).

As I read this verse I began to think of children approaching Jesus or any relatively benevolent authority figure, for that matter, with their problems. Children don't come with the biggest problems but they come with real problems. And, to them, such are the ones that really matter most.


A childish example. Thursday Night is typically the one night a week I don't eat dinner with my family. Last night I walked in to my youngest son, Gage, attempting to surprise me (which typically involves wearing a batman costume, eyes encased by those experimental goggles you're forced to wear for 11th grade Chemistry class, and a purple feather boa loosely affixed). He did nothing but plead his case over a dilemma: "Daddy, you're not putting us to bed, are you?" I typically put our children to bed every night (shower, brush teeth, etc.) and we have a good time. But they frankly take advantage of their mother when she performs the nightcap as it takes 3x as long and often turns into Cirque de Soleil on the bunk beds. So...yeah, they prefer that. So I assured Gage that, yes, Mommy was putting them to bed. But my mere presence on the scene, just minutes before bedtime, still disconcerted him: "Daddy, you're not supposed to put us to bed tonight." Seriously, even though I agreed with his statement, it took 8-10 times to convince him of this minor dilemma. But, for him, this problem was an obstacle to life itself.


The Annoyance. Are you like me: Ever just get worn down by others' seemingly minute problems and complaints? The couple that really shouldn't be together -- the woman knows it, the guy has latched onto her -- but she keeps lapsing back into the relationship and asks for prayer for setting up boundaries ("I don't want to not be around him. But needs to be limited."). Someone who asks God (and you) to pray they'd get more time to spend time with God or more time for church, yet has packed their schedule with stuff that entertains them. Or what about the couple who asks for prayer for more time together yet are never willing to leave their kids alone (you know, with like a babysitter). Okay, that's probably enough...you can sense my annoyance plenty.


The conviction.  (I speak the following not really as a pastor but as a Christian and brother-in-Christ). But if and when I convey half-hearted interest, if and when my prayers begin to wane for that person, and if and when I fail to hold out the same vibrant hope in the gospel of grace as I would to a seeking non-Christian, am I not hindering children from God's throne?  Avoiding such people in possible moments of encouragement or avoiding them by leaving off their names and concerns before the throne of God, seems to highlight a heart that's...well...okay with hindering -- because while such problems may not be the most important, to the person affected, they are very real. 


After all, my problems may be trite and annoying to someone else, but I hope they bring them before "the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need" (Hebrews 4:16).