We had hiked nearly half the day and with little more than a few sips of water and some dried beef and fruit we had arrived. The falls were beautiful and exceeded every expectation and description. We played in the water, climbed to the top and slid down the God-made waterslide. We sat beside them and allowed the rushing sound to overwhelm our senses and lull us into daydreams. We ate the remaining food portions of our day pack next to the falls as we communed with nature and with each other. Our time at the falls could not have been anymore enjoyable, relaxing or fulfilling. Eventually, without anyone of us saying anything you could see that we all were positioning ourselves to leave. Some were packing up, one had already strapped on his backpack others were standing afar off in the direction from which we had come. Then someone voiced what we all had been thinking, “Where do we go now?” It sorta brought the waterfalls “thing” to a close and got us rallied for another leg of the journey. In unison it seemed we all started away from the falls then turned as if to take a mental photo to be framed for display on the wall of our memory. There were a couple of other sights to see along the way back to the van but other than that we all knew that the answer ultimately was back from whence we had come. Bummer!
“Where do we go now?” This is a great question and begs the even more obvious question, “Why do we need to leave?” At Blaise Baptist, we need to ask ourselves these questions. We have been at a good place. It has been fulfilling and good for the soul but we are becoming restless. A bit of discontent here and there, criticism, lack of committment and some that are falling by the wayside are the tell-tale signs that many are packing up their stuff and looking for the next stop. And unless someone answers the question for them they will venture off in their own direction. Figuratively, I would suggest that we go back to the van in principle but press on to higher adventure in process. In other words, get back to real prayer meetings, real visitation, real evangelism efforts and allow God to lead us to the next attraction of beauty and awe on our journey as His church. More to come………………………..
Where Do We Go Now?
Occasionally as a child my dad would take me with him to work late on Fridays. Beside my dad’s business was a drive-in movie theater. There was a 8 ft. high wooden fence around the drive-in to keep rascals out. I never did go in and watch a movie but I saw a handful of movies from the roof of dad’s shop. I really had no other chance of seeing what was going on the other side of the fence unless I could see over it. The roof gave me a clear view of the screen, patrons and activity that was a mystery to me otherwise. I could hear the cars, voices and audio of the movie but could not make sense of it all without an elevated position.
There were a few Friday nights that I just sat and listened with electric curiosity. But one Friday, while dad was engrossed in his work, I could stand the mystery no longer. I walked around the shop scraping and foraging for something that would help me see over the fence. There it was in the weeds, grown over and hidden an old ladder that had been used to fix the sign at the shop. I dug it out and stood it up next to the building but it wasn’t tall enough to get me on the roof. It was tall enough to get me on top of the big box truck that was parked next to the shop. From there I was able to step over on the roof. My heart raced as I ascended the slope of the roof to the peak. Little by little the mystery that was behind the fence was revealed to me as I climbed higher.
What is God doing in your life to give you an elevated position? Have you sought hard for the ladder hidden in the weeds? A broken body, a pile of bills, a damaged marriage, personal doubts, a devilish onslaught, a wayward child or a haunting past all are just rungs on the ladder of God’s grace. God cannot reveal to you the thing he is doing unless you attain to a higher place. Take your particular trial, struggle or event of pain and step up on it by faith. Own it and use it to go where no man has been. The view is spectacular and pleasant to the soul. And you will begin to make sense of some things that otherwise are but a mystery. The fence to God’s drive-in is not to keep the rascals out as much as it is to make His children ascend to a higher place in order to know more of Him.
K
Notice the paradoxical nature of truth in the economy of God. Happy are the sad. Rich are the poor. Greater are the lesser. Wise are the foolish. Loved are the hated. Established are the pilgrims. Weak are the strong. Paul stated in 2 Cor. 12:10, “Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak then I am strong.”Thank you Paul! Thank you for reminding us of Christ’s strengthening power. The humility and brokeness that comes from stressful and emotional taxing situations are not for naught, but rather work to serve a higher purpose. Have you exhausted yourself financially, Jesus is strong. Your teeager keeps you on pins and needles, Jesus is strong. Your parents expect much from you, Christ is strong. The very person you respect and love hurts you, Jesus is strong. My friends seem to ignore me, He is strong. My rights have been violated, He is strong. My good intentions have not been well received, He is strong. “If I have to boast, I will boast of what pertains to my weakness.”2( Cor. 11:30)Who are we seeking to glorify and satisfy? Many times, upon careful examination, we will find that we only boast in our strengths that we may be glorified and our egos satisfied. Tell people about your weakness that Christ may be exalted. Dare to expose an area of weakness, failure, or distress in your life that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves. My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” (2Cor. 12:9)
When the weight of the burden is intuitively acknowledged it will begin to bend the soul. This bend is not bad but good. Everything about the man begins to answer to the burden whether intentional or not. Each relationship is subconciously evaluated upon encounter as to its help or hindrance concerning the burden. Every project is assessed in light of its contribution to or distraction from the burden. Every bible passage is interpreted with the burden in mind. Marriage, parenting, job, finances and prayerlife become slaves to the burden. Some have suggested that this is the fetal stage of a man’s personal vision. Though this may be true, it must be handled as such for sure. The burden must be allowed to develop and mature. It is just as precious as a baby and the choices are just the same, abort, endure and lament or embrace and nurture. When we embrace and nurture the burden it redefines our whole life. But we can only embrace it when we have been thoroughly broken in will, mind and soul. Broken in such a fashion as to forsake all that is of self. Not that we can forget all but we can give up the relentless, mind-boggling, flesh-pleasing, self-conceived pursuit. This is the fruit or evidence of brokenness. This is the cross. You will know that you have the burden when you feel the mystical weight of it on the back of your wounded soul. You will know that you are broken under it when you have been willingly nailed to it.
K
Because of modern psychology and pharmacology believers have been conditioned to mediate or medicate the burden of the Lord. Many times we believe the burden to be a bad or less than premium condition. When God is speaking to His children there is a solemn and heavy nature to the moment. Ps. 29 is very descriptive concerning the voice of the Lord: “The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty. The voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars; yea, the voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars of Lebanon. The voice of the Lord strips the forest bare and makes all cry, Glory!” How can we manage about with such a whimsical and flippant attitude when this burden is upon us. How can we live under the weight of it and show no sensitivity to it? Only if we see it as some medical condition or psychiatric state that can be forestalled with a pill or busyness or immorality or you fill in the blank. This may be why David wrote in Ps. 46:10, “Be still and know that I am God.” The previous 9 verses in Ps. 46 describe nothing less than cataclysmic events that would wreck the emotional state of the most stoic personality. Which may be the point of the whole matter! What will it take to break me? What will it take to break you? Why will we not yield under the burden? I am confident that all He wants for some of us is to just, “Be still.” For He has promised that a broken and contrite heart He will not despise.
How do we mediate our way around the burden? How does medication short circuit the spiritual growth process? More later……………Meanwhile……………ssshhhhhhhh just take some time and be still.
K
The rain was really coming down at 3:00 this morning. And not just at 3:00, it rained steady and hard nearly all night. The very thing that would usually put me right to sleep was the only thing that I could hear hour upon hour and yet I was far from sleep. Periodically, I have this type of night. I laid still but my mind was traveling the course of life and eternity. Dave the Zealot would tell me that a sleepless night means there is some sin in my life. More times than not, he was right. But this night was different. This night I did deal with some sin. Beyond the sin I sensed a burden that is difficult to identify. As of yet, I am not sure what the burden means or even how to discern it. However, through the examples of Nehemiah, Noah, Job, Paul, Daniel, Moses, Elijah and a host of other saints of old, I know the next step. Brokenness……….I’m not sure if the burden is ever identified before the brokenness comes. One must be willing to accept and even facilitate the brokenness in order to know the burden. Brokenness is the mechanism for subduing the flesh which rejects in total the burden of God. Once brokenness comes then comes the blessing. Oh, to know the pleasure and purpose of God. Sleepless nights are a small price to pay to become sensible to burdens, susceptible to brokenness and subject to the blessings of God.
K
And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. (Luke 9:23-24)
Saved at the age of seventeen (1920) as a college student, he turned all over to God. His education and subsequent hopes of financial security pushed aside that Christ might be all in all to him. Watchman Nee became one of the most powerful evangelists and Bible teachers in China. By the 1940’s, his teaching and service to God had so conditioned the church that communism could not stomp out the true church. Today the church in China is one of the fastest growing even though death for a believer is a very present danger. As a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ, Watchman Nee suffered through severe poverty, ill health, and denominational opposition. Falsely accused and imprisoned by the communists, Watchman died in a communist labor camp twenty years later (1972). He is author of , The Normal Christian Life, a book which was born out of his Christian experience as he remained obedient even unto death. The following is a stanza from a hymn that Watchman translated into Chinese:
Not by gain our life is measured.
But by what we’ve lost ‘tis scored;‘
Tis not how much wine is drunken,
But how much has been outpoured.
For the strength of love e’er standeth
In the sacrifice we bear;
He who has the greatest suffering
Ever has the most to share.
John the Baptist was appointed to task while in his mother’s womb. He came to preach repentance and that there was One coming who was greater than he. Christ even stated that there was none greater than John. John pointed to Christ and then proclaimed, “Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.” John even baptized Christ and heard a voice from heaven say, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” Through divine revelation John knew that Christ was the Messiah. However, when John was imprisoned he began to doubt. Hours of isolation removed him from the “information highway.” John began to doubt in the dark the things that he had learned in the light. His memory was failing him and God seemed far from him. So he sent some followers to ask Jesus if He was the One or if they should be looking for another. Jesus’s answer is the same criteria we can use today to discern whether or not Christ is doing the work. Christ didn’t say, “Tell John I said.” Christ said, “Tell John what you have seen and heard.” The work of Christ is not something that needs to be argued for or against. You need only to observe and see whether or not sin-sick souls are being healed and if the Gospel is being preached to those who are despairing and poor. Where Christ is working people are being delivered from the grip of sin and the poor are being told the Good News. Is Christ working in Blaise Baptist? Yes John, He is the One whose way you were to prepare!
There have been many influential forces in my life, such as my education, friends, enemies, experiences (bad or good), church, my wife, and my parents. Reflecting back over the years, I believe one of the strongest influences in my life were the people with which I worked. Usually the people you work alongside 5 or 6 days a week know you better than you even know yourself. Co-workers know your strengths, weaknesses, habits, temper, language, hangouts, problems, and what is valuable to you. In a like manner, we are co-workers with God. Not so that He can get to know us, He knows all about us. Rather that we would get to know Him more intimately. When I began working (15 yrs old) I had a tendency to imitate the lifestyle and habits of my co-workers. (This is one reason I believe it is very important for parents to know the character and lifestyle of the people their teenager is working with.) Let’s be well reminded of who we are working for and with and begin to imitate Him. The Christian walk is an apprenticeship. We follow after One that is worthy of our effort to imitate Him but even as we learn to die to self He accomplishes the work through us and we get the credit.
During the Civil War, Confederate government officials made a plea to the people of the South to turn in their coinage and other metallic items. There was a shortage of healthy metals that could be used to cast weapons, ammo, tack and much needed tools and utensils to keep the war machine going. Most of the coinage in the South was U.S. coinage from the years prior to the war. And the coinage was still considered valid currency in the North and the South. The Confederate officials propagated the idea that Union currency would be of no value soon enough and the South will establish it’s own economy and currency which will take precedent over old coinage. As you can imagine there was very little coinage turned in for this purpose. As the need became more and more desperate they began to beg the population but very little coinage was ever turned in even though the need was very great. The people would turn in implements and railroad rails but no coinage. Near the end of the war the people were taking the bells out of the church towers and turning them into the refineries for melting. After the war, it was discovered that there was an enormous amount of coinage in the South that wasn’t turned into the refineries. Two questions: Why were people more than willing to rid the church of its beckoning ring but not personally sacrifice their own finances? What are we willing to personally sacrifice in order to keep the beckoning call of the Gospel ringing from Blaise Baptist throughout Mocksville to the whole world?
