The right time

Romans 5:6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.

It was 1976, and we were visiting my aunt Dora in Orlando, Fl. The day had started out with a bang with my first visit to Disney World. It was sensory and sugar overload pushed to a new level with rides, characters and candy. Somewhere in Frontierland, my brother Chris and I picked our the one toy we could buy with our allowance, pop gun rifles. The minute we got back to my aunt's apartment, we begged our parents to let us go out and play "hide and seek shoot out", where we tried to out flank the and "shoot" each other. Finally they relented with the words "be careful" and "stay close".

We were having a ball running, ducking and shooting at each other like the actors we saw in Frontierland for quite a while. Then something weird happened. I went to hide in a new place expecting my brother to move along the same direction for our next showdown, he just never showed. I waited for a while, but Chris was no where to be found. Then it started getting dark. It was at that point that I looked around to realize that I had no idea where I was. The fun and bravado of the shootout was replaced with weakness and fear. I was six years old, in a city I had never set foot, with no clue which way to go. So I do what all boys do in that spot. Wander around and cry. This went on for what seemed like hours, but was only about 30 minutes in reality. Groups of kids that lived in the apartments would just look at me wandering and crying, and quickly move off or go back to their games. It was now pitch black and quite scary. I didn't know my aunt's address, phone number or anything except she had a blue Kharmann Ghia, lived on the second floor and there was a spot of bubble gum about 2" around smashed into the concrete, on the stoop near her door.

By the grace of God, at the perfect time, one of the older teenage girls that lived there, ad compassion on me and came and asked me why I was crying. Thankfully she took me to the lady who ran the apartment complex who knew everyone who lived there. The lady asked me who my aunt was and I kept saying "Dora Quarles" over and over and it wasn't ringing any bells. As it turned out, I had wandered across a busy road and into another apartment complex. The lady figured it out, and offered to drive me through the complex to see if I could recognize anything. Immediately as we entered the complex, I started recognizing landmarks and the fear ebbed a bit. Then I spotted the baby blue VW and joy struck my heart. The lady took me up to the door, and as we approached, I saw the bubble gum blob and knew I had been rescued. We knocked but no one answered. Uh oh. As we turned to go down the stairs, my parents, brother and Aunt drove up as they had been out searching for me. My mom hugged me in deep relief. After a tongue lashing about wandering off, we went up to Dora's apartment and ate some supper. I am thankful that God put that teenager and lady in the right spot, at the right time.

Paul, in Romans five above, has that same emotional praise for Christ when he says, " at the right time Christ died for the ungodly". The whole Old Testament clearly painted the picture of man's need for a Messiah to save men from their sin. The Old testament revealed God's Holiness, man's sin, and the need of sacrifice to satisfy the wrath of a God who demanded Justice. There was a clear gap between God and His creation that needed bridging. Prophets for hundreds of years painted pictures of the coming conquering King and suffering savior. Then perfectly at the right time, in Gods' redemptive timeline, Jesus shows up with the whole world on His shoulders as a baby born in a barn. He lived a righteous life and committed that life of faithfulness to God on the Cross. That perfect life serves as the atoning sacrifice for all who submit to His loving reign in our lives. What a God we serve!

Jesus has pursued each of us that call him Lord, Savior, and Treasure at the right time and place as well. Sealed with the Spirit, we are able to approach God as Daddy. As we get closer to Him we start seeing the markers of Christ all around us that draw us closer to Him, just like the bubble gum spot and the baby blue Kharmann Ghia drew me closer back to Dora's house. Take time this Thanksgiving day to praise God for his pursuit of all men at the perfect time on the cross, and you individually as he pulled you into the sheepfold. As we enjoy mounds of food and fellowship, let us not forget to intercede in prayer and deed for others who are starving in their stomachs and souls for the Grace of God. Pray that God would lead you to specific people and places, so that he might use you just like he used that teenage girl in my life as a part of His divine plan of redemption.

Afternoon Delight

Psalms 37:4 Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.
Psalms 37:23 The steps of a man are established by the Lord, when He delights in His way. 24 though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong, for the Lord upholds His hand.

One of the biggest one hit wonders of the 70's was a rather cheesy song called Afternoon Delight. It was a light and lively little ditty, with overtones of sexual satisfaction In line with the tension as Song of Solomon.
Check it out:

Gonna find my baby, gonna hold her tight
gonna grab some afternoon delight.
My motto's always been; when it's right, it's right.
Why wait until the middle of a cold dark night.
When everything's a little clearer in the light of day.
And you know the night is always gonna be there any way.

Sky rockets in flight. Afternoon delight. Afternoon delight.

Thinkin' of you's workin' up my appetite
looking forward to a little afternoon delight.
Rubbin' sticks and stones together makes the sparks ingite
and the thought of rubbin' you is getting so exciting.

Sky rockets in flight. Afternoon delight. Afternoon delight.

Started out this morning feeling so polite
I always though a fish could not be caught who wouldn't bite
But you've got some bait a waitin' and I think I might try nibbling
a little afternoon delight.

Sky rockets in flight. Afternoon delight. Afternoon delight.

Please be waiting for me baby when I come around.
We could make a lot of lovin' 'for the sun goes down.

Obviously the song is about a sexual encounter in the afternoon, not about communing with God so lets get that out first. I do believe that God wants to redeem all things for his glory, so lets pull out nuggets to be redeemed. Notice the longing desire and deep emotional captivity that this coming delight has. A hunger, sparks igniting, tempting bait all paint a picture of butterflies in the stomach anticipation of the delight that lies ahead. There is a strong longing, positioned at the deepest level of the soul that we all have felt that trumps every other thought called desire to be delighted. The object of desire in the song is pretty straight forward and doesn't need a lot of explanation.

Take the thread of a deep desire for delight in a relationship and apply it back to Psalms 37. There is the same deep soul captivating delight, it is just a Holy longing for God, not a temporal sexual encounter. What we delight in and desire will drive our lives and actions, as it holds our attention and heartstrings. Much of what messed me up in life was a church life that was a prescribed routine devoid of passion and desire. It was almost like passion and desire were bad words. I knew what to do, I was just unable to go there deep in my soul as other things gave me a deeper delight than this routine I was supposed to play before God. Passion and desire will always overcome us. It is a war we all face. I now know that it is only when God's grace highlights the joyful satisfaction we find in living our lives in communion with Him that we are set free from the captivity of being controlled by sinful and wrong desires. Oh baby - what joy this brought to my soul. Delight and Christianity weren't two parallel paths that never touched, life in Christ occurs when God's hand of grace pulls us into deep satisfaction with Him.

God built us to be overcome by our passions and delights in Him. Sin has bent those desires towards other objects to lead us away from God. Religion becomes Redemption when the Heart of a man or woman finds a true delight in the Lord and starts to see the absence of satisfaction in the things of this sinful world.

So what is your personal relationship with God like? Is it a routine? A routine coated with good theology and Church activities? If your desire and delight is not weaved into your walk with God, then your heart is somewhere else and you know it. I lived in that miserable spot for about 30 years. Ask God for a delight in Him and strive towards His arms.

Each night I pray for God to give me and my family a stronger desire in Him as he draws us closer to Himself. A deep delight in the Lord anchored in the grace of Christ is the greatest, deepest delight and joy we can ever know. And unlike the "afternoon delight" It never ends.

Is Jesus Enough?

Hebrews 13:5 Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” 6 So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear;what can man do to me?”

The pharma times reported today that more than 20% of the US population took some sort of mental health drug last year. For women that number is more like 1 in 4. 30% of Americans abuse alcohol and almost 1 in 10 are illegal drug users. The CDC reports that 1 in 3 Americans are obese.

Why? The answer underneath all of the effects is that we are not content with Jesus, as the author of Hebrews challenges us to be. I know that there are specific traumas in which specific meds maybe helpful for a specific time, but I meet people all of the time that appear to have everything that one could want (except Christ) and are turning to chemicals and alcohol for relief. I used to be one of them. People turning to alcohol, illegal drugs or over eating, are all looking for something to heal their soul and provide a divine contentment that the world's challenges can not remove. The text above challenges us to be deeply anchored into Christ and receive a peace and contentment that plow through fears, trials and challenges like an ice beaker. Only God working through His spirit can provide that for any of us including yours truly. Do you belief that Jesus is enough?

One of the primary reasons that we are scrambling for things other than God that provide a temporary chemical or metaphysical peace, is that our culture is buried in debt as we again have ignored God's revealed wisdom to "keep our life free from the love of money (and stuff by implication)". Recent studies show that around 80% of Americans are in debt to creditors, and that as a whole the American consumer base has borrowed 119% of their incomes. So as we blindly ignore God's word, and want and buy more and more stuff, we sink deeper into the quicksand of debt and our anxieties and depressions mount. The oh-so temporary great feeling about the new car, home or couch is soon replace by the reality of having to spend your life paying back banks and credit card companies. This debt enslavement is getting heavier for many Americans leading to depression and for some to even take their own life.

So let's examine our hearts to see how content we are with Jesus. If we are content in our identity with Him, our love for Him will trump our love for money and stuff that drive us deeper in debt. Once we see our resources as God's, to build His kingdom and not ours, we can experience the Joy of obedience financially and be freed from the yoke of debt that is choking us.

Their are some who are reading this that the Lord's spirit has touched by His word. How do you start to unwind this wicked blend of debt and depression/anxiety? Start with asking God to forgive your disobedience to Him, and ask Him to draw you nearer to His heart and provide a divine contentment with Him. Without that anchor and peace, your temporary efforts to find true freedom in Christ will look like someone trying to stop a raging forest fire with a water gun.

I want to be clear that there are times where borrowing done responsibly is clearly justified. I also know myself and others around me to know that the vast majority of stuff purchased in the US is a result of a lack of contentment in one's life. I pray that we all find that contentment in Christ alone as the Holy Spirit points us to through the author of Hebrews.

Credentials

Genesis 41:15 And pharaoh said to Joseph, " I have had a dream, and there is no one who can interpret it. I have heard it said of you that when you hear a dream you can interpret it. 16 Joseph answered Pharaoh, "It is not in me; God will give pharaoh a favorable answer"

We live in a society that is all about building a resume and gathering successful credentials. Whether it is the burning passion for kids to be the best at their activities, the brand name of the clothes we wear, or our street address and the status label it gives us we are all pretty good at puffing ourselves up in the eyes of others. We are masters of evaluation and separation of people based on performance and rewarding those who do best when it counts. Since our society seems to revolve around that axis, it seems that there is an unspoken rule of aggregating the things that we all do well and keep a running list of credentials that validate our employment, activities, roles and selves. When needed we can break this list out and tell the world how worthy we are to accomplish whatever it is that is being asked of us.

Contrast Joseph, a great man of faith, with our culture. In Genesis 41 above he is having a conversation with the most influential figure in the World at that time, Pharaoh. Pharaoh addresses Joseph as the interpreter of dreams and asks Joseph to clarify what his dreams mean. So at the time when Joseph can bring glory to himself and say "Why,yes, pharaoh I am the dream machine and I can indeed help you", he elects to do otherwise. His words are "it is not in me". Joseph is saying, "I can not do it". He then follows it up with " God will give pharaoh a favorable answer." He is simply being honest. It is when we are at this point in our ministries that we can be effective for Christ. If you take time to go through Hebrews chapter 11 and examine the lives of the faithful men and women listed there you will find that they all came to the ends of themselves before they were used in effective ministry. No one in Hebrews 11 believes that it is half God and half them, they have met Him and seems themselves clearly and therefore no better. This is the same as PAul in the New Testament saying , "I am chief among sinners".

In a day when we are productive achievers and believe deeply in our abilities to accomplish much, we must not ignore this biblical truth. We will be tempted at every turn to believe that we are essential, when we are not. God alone is essential and if the Devil can convince us that we are then he has us exactly where he wants us, imitating Him. We don't want others to assign worth to us, we want them to give glory and praise to Christ alone.

It is where we end and Christ begins that our faith becomes real and advances His Kingdom.