In a Pit...

In a Pit...

Devotional inspired by the book In a Pit With a Lion on a Snowy Day by Mark Batterson and written for staff devotions at PCGS on 1/18/17.

“There was also Benaiah son of Jehoiada, a valiant warrior from Kabzeel. He did many heroic deeds, which included killing two of Moab’s mightiest warriors. Another time he chased a lion down into a pit. Then, despite the snow and slippery ground he caught the lion and killed it. Another time, armed only with a club, he willed a great Egyptian warrior who was armed with a spear. Benaiah wrenched the spear from the Egyptian’s hand and killed him with it.“ (2 Samuel 23:20-21

Chasing down a lion into a pit. Then, despite the snow and slippery ground, catching the lion and killing it.  Not a scene you see every day, but for Benaiah, a scene that eventually helped vault him into becoming in charge of King David’s body guard and be considered one of David’s mighty men. Benaiah was very likely quite scared of this lion, as he should be, but despite the uncertainty, he still chased after his fear and knew what had to be done with the opportunity that was facing him.

There are going to be figurative “lions” in everyone’s lives; tough situations that we face or go through. They might be situations at school, home, or within the community; tough interactions with a friend, family member, or co-worker; or maybe a nudging to do something drastically different than the current setting you are serving in. Maybe you have faced some big lions in your life already and are wondering when the next one will be coming around the corner. Whatever your life story, realize that these lions are opportunities where God can use you in ways that he has already been preparing you for. He is always using our past experiences to prepare us for the future work he has in store for us. Don’t be discouraged by these opportunities, but instead seek to find what God is teaching you through them.

Prayer:

Lord, we do not always understand the purpose of a certain situation. Forgive us when we think only of ourselves and not what you may be teaching us through the opportunity. Give us clear eyes to see the work you are calling us to do each day and the courage to take the step when we feel uncertain.

Control Beliefs

This post is a post from a discussion forum in one of my graduate classes for Dordt College's School Leadership program. This post is from EDUC 503: Interpreting Educational Research.

Religious perspectives “should be permissible as background beliefs in the academy. . . . not [as] ideas that we would normally introduce into the pragmatic academy as the evidence for our views. For that we would look to other beliefs that we share with persons from differing ideological camps, so that we could argue on common grounds.” (49-50) These beliefs may function as “control beliefs” (Wolterstorff says these function in two ways. Because we hold them we are led to reject certain sorts of theories (e.g. big bang theory) and they lead us to devise theories that are consistent with these beliefs). How would describe your control beliefs? Write your out and share them with us.

Do you think there is a common set that Christian researchers can use?

One control belief that is central to me is the Reformed view of God’s reign over all things and his presence in all things. This belief helps me understand more fully God’s plan and how there are not “boxes” of life where he does not have influence over. Because of his lordship, there is interconnectedness present throughout his creation. This definitely affects my life as a teacher by teaching in this way to the students that enter the classroom.

Tied to the first belief, I also realize that God is in control of my life. As Q&A #1 in the Heidelberg Catechism states “I am not my own, but belong body and soul to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” This definitely a reassuring thought, that I can know I have eternal life through the sacrifice Jesus paid for me on the cross. Decisions I make here on earth need to reflect the fact that I am showing I belong to him.

A third control belief I hold to is from the Westminster Catechism Q&A #1 “What is the chief end of man? To glorify God and enjoy him forever.” Soli Deo Gloria, to God be the glory! I need to reflect the fact that I am giving God the glory, and not being self-seeking, looking for my own interests or personal gain when making choices or decisions.

So…can there be a set that Christian researchers use? As we have read in Marsden and know to be true, there can be a wide range of beliefs and interpretations within Christianity itself. However, the belief of glorifying God through further studying and academics should be a central theme to all Christians. It goes back to the question I addressed in an earlier discussion post: “Why have an academic career?” An academic career opens our eyes to the vast creation around us, to which we should only have one response—thanking and giving God the glory! Christian researchers should be focusing on opening new discoveries his God’s creation and seeing how different areas of life are connected and impact one another.

Crazy Love Chapter 5: Serving Leftovers to a Holy God

Chapter 5: Serving Leftovers to a Holy God

Chan follows up the last chapter of giving the profile of the lukewarm Christian by describing ways we try to make ourselves feel good and about ourselves and make excuses for why we give to God what we do. He starts the chapter by saying it was the hardest one to write and for me probably one of the harder ones to stomach, but one that contains so much good information that needed to be heard. Chan argues that the term "Lukewarm Christian" is an oxymoron. That it has no meaning behind it because if you are lukewarm, you are not a Christian. In Revelation 3, Jesus is talking to the church in Laodicea and he says "because you are lukewarm...I am going to spit you out of my mouth." Those are definitely some strong words, and it is quite obvious that Jesus does not want us to be living a life in which we are not all in for him.

Going into a little more depth with this passage, a colleague of mine shed some light on a possible interpretation of what it may mean. He took a trip to Turkey this past summer and was able to see the area of where the church was in which Jesus was talking about in the Revelation passage. Here is the whole passage before I go into detail:

"I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm-neither hot nor cold-I am about to spit you our of my mouth. You say "I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing." But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see." (Revelation 3:15-18)

Once again, these are some pretty strong words! My colleague who went there, said the verses had new meaning when he went and saw where the city was and the area around it. He said there are 3 towns very close to each other, all within sight of one another if you looked to the right direction. The towns back then were able to get water from a source and for some reason one of the towns had water that was hot, one town had water that was cold and Laodicea had water that was lukewarm.  They have found records of the "hot" and "cold" towns being strong in their faith and their church was thriving, but the same could not be said for Laodicea. They wanted to trust in their own knowledge and possessions and do things their own way. So Jesus was using an object lesson like he has so many times throughout the gospels to get through to the people by describing circumstances that everyone in the area would understand. So if you have struggled with that passage before, maybe this sheds some light on it.

Christians can be good at toeing the line and seeing how far they can go by asking questions to see if their actions will affect their salvation and we make excuses for doing or not doing something. We may wonder how to obey some of the laws set in place today or ones that Jesus commanded us from the Bible. A verse that I have said many times in my life because of participating in Cadets now has a new meaning, looking back to it. John 14:15 says "If you love me, you will keep my commands." We must first love God and then obey, not the other way around. We cannot obey his commands thinking we will be able to go to heaven just by following his rules. We need to love God and develop a relationship with him.

Obviously this is a statement easier said then done. And although the term "lukewarm Christian" probably is an oxymoron, we are not perfect and will always have some characteristics of being lukewarm and not all in for Jesus all the time. So what are some things that can be done? While reading this book, the church I have been attending is going through the Beatitudes from the book of Matthew chapter 5. Right after I read this chapter, the pastor preached on the verse "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for they will inherit the kingdom of heaven." I don't think I ever totally understood that verse fully until only recently. The poor in spirit are ones who empty themselves of all the stuff we fill our lives with. Think of having all the objects and material possessions we like to surround ourselves with in a box. If we start taking all of those things out, the box is then empty and able to hold something else. The same goes for us, only when we get rid of or not let these possessions make up who we are are we able to have ourselves be empty and able to be filled with the Spirit. But before we are able to be filled we must also be able to admit that we mess up. We should not be boasting about characteristics we have or trying to make ourselves look good. Admitting we have done wrong by filling our lives with worthless things and recognizing we are nothing without Jesus will provide the room for him to come in and begin the relationship we so desperately need. The poor in Spirit know they are not able to do anything on their own. In the book, Chan quotes Tim Kizzar who stated "Our greatest fear as individuals and as a church should not be of failure, but of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter." That statement forces you to evaluate how you are filling up your time and energy and what things should be taken out in order to empty yourself and become poor in spirit.

In summary, the cure to being lukewarm is not to just go and start trying harder, it is about letting Jesus into our lives. When we try to do more, we may fall into the trap of trying to earn our salvation by doing good works, and that is obviously not the way we earn our salvation. If you read further in Revelation 3, Jesus says that he is "standing at the door and knocking." Jesus wants to begin a relationship with you to help start making changes. You just need to open the door and and begin forming that relationship.


The following video is part of one of Chan's sermons about the topic of this post.
Francis Chan: Lukewarm and Loving It

Crazy Love Chapter 3: Crazy Love

Chapter 3: Crazy Love

      

I had to put this in here when I came across it! There are so many of these
"Keep Calm" images popping up and this one fits very well with this post.

      

After having initial raised eyebrows about the titles of the first two chapters, the third chapter title comes a little more straightforward considering it is the chapter of the book as well, Crazy Love.

Did you know that God loves you? God wants to have a relationship with you. Love is a hard word/emotion to define, but if you want a “technical” definition, according to Mirriam Webster, love is defined as “a feeling of strong or constant affection.” God is constantly showing affection for us and wants us to see that knowing Him is the greatest good we can have here on earth. We can see this from the last chapter through his wonderful creation. Did he have to make all the things he did? No. But he wanted to show us his glory so we can grow in knowing who He is. The greatest good is not in our finances, job, technology, or family. God is the greatest good we can ever come to know on earth and he wants us to have a relationship with him. Some wonder why a loving God would use things like hell and eternal punishment to force us to love him, but if God is the greatest gift available to us, why wouldn’t He, who loves us so much, want the best for us and want us to come to Him? He is only doing what is best for us and He is definitely looking out for us.

For an example of how much God loves us, think about the Garden of Gethsemane and how Jesus was praying to his Father in heaven. He was pleading with God to not have to go through with the crucifixion the next day, asking if there was any way out. Jesus even began to sweat blood because he was in so much anguish and sorrow thinking about what he must do. God had to say no to his Son and let him go through with his death on the cross. God knew what needed to be done and he showed his love for us by keeping us in mind when His Son was begging Him to allow another way out. Imagine being in the Father’s shoes there. Your Son is pleading with you very earnestly and praying that he may have a way out. He even sweats blood! God had to say no to this, knowing Jesus was going to be crucified. Now, I am not a father, but if the Lord blesses me with a child and that child is pleading with me so hard that blood starts coming out. I don't think I am going to be able to say no! But that just shows how much God loves us. If you are a father, or even not, think of a person you love so much and what it would be like to be in a situation like this.

Returning love back to God is not always an easy thing for us to do. Again referencing back to last chapter, we often go through our day not recognizing God for who he is or what he has done for us. But Jesus gives us the greatest commandment when he says, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” If we can start getting to a lifestyle where we can constantly be thinking of and thanking God by recognizing all the things he has made and done for us, we will have a life filled with prayer, devotion, and praise to God. There is one important thing we need to keep in mind here and check ourselves on though. We need to make sure that we love God and not just his stuff. Don’t just love God because you can avoid eternal punishment, love God because of who He is, what he has done for us and how much he first loved us.  

Crazy Love Chapter 2: You Might Not Finish This Chapter

Chapter 2: You Might Not Finish This Chapter

*This post is not a nice “feel-good” story but instead one that most people would probably rather not think about. Just to let you know...

            When first reading the title of the chapter, I immediately thought that it meant the content of the chapter would be hard to stomach, that it would contain ideas I would not want to hear and I would have to drastically change my life in order to be who I am supposed to be. I thought the chapter would have a “fire and brimstone” feeling to it and I would want to just skip over it. In a way, it does contain some of those elements, but the title of the chapter was not exactly referring to those thoughts, but instead it referred to me personally, that I might not live long enough to finish the chapter. What a somber thought! Chan also mentions the fact that he might die while I read the chapter. Yes, this is some weird thinking and not something that I want to be pondering while sitting in my La-Z-Boy. But it honestly made me scared to keep reading at times, wondering if I will make it to the next chapter, page, or even sentence because no one really knows when it could happen. Going back to my original thinking on the title of the chapter, I found it to also be true in that sense as well. I wanted to just go to the next chapter at times and not have to think about the possibility of death. I wanted to move on and hear more of the nice fluffy sounding parts of Christianity. But the reality is, we need to hear some of these topics and get smacked in the face with it at times.

In a section of the chapter, Chan talks about the fact of “Are you ready?” Are you ready to face God? Your life could go at any time. Any time you drive a car going 55 mph with a vehicle coming at you the same speed only a couple feet away is not exactly the most sure thing in the wolrd if you think about it. There is no reason why today could not be the day you are standing in front of the throne of God and you will see his glory and give an account of how you have lived. Are you ready? Chan quotes Frederick Buechner in this chapter who sheds some more light on this thought:

“Intellectually we all know that we will die, but we do not really know it in the sense that the knowledge becomes a part of us. We do not really know it in the sense of living as though it were true. On the contrary, we tend to live as though our lives would go forever.”

We hear of people dying, see news events on TV, obituaries in the newspaper, we read in the Bible of death, and we read how we will be in the presence of God one day. But do we really take those to things to heart? Will we be ready to see him when that day comes?

This reminds me of an instance that happened at this past Christmas with my family. My niece who is just about 2 years old was looking forward to my other niece coming who is 1 ½ years old. She was saying her cousin’s name all day before she came and was asking when she would be coming. Her parents had done a good job of always showing her pictures of her so she knew what her cousin looked liked, and they even were able to see each other on Skype a few times. My niece had some sort of idea of who her cousin was. The time finally arrived when my other niece arrived. The 2 year old ran to the door and was held up by her dad and looked to see her cousin who was being held by her mother. All morning she had been saying her cousin’s name and getting excited. But in this moment, she was speechless and just stared. She had nothing to say. She had a good preconceived notion about who her cousin would be, but when they finally met face to face, she did not know what to do. Now obviously this story is far from us meeting face to face with God, and children have different minds than adults do. But it does shed some light on this fact though: Are you ready? My niece thought she really knew who her cousin was, but when the time came, she maybe was not as ready as she thought she was when she came face to face with her.

Our lives will not go forever. Are you ready at any given moment to face God and give an account for you life here on earth? Will you be speechless because you are in awe of God’s presence or speechless because you did not live the way you should have? Are you ready? These questions make you think about what you should be doing at this very moment. Often times we stress out about our job, family, money and just life in general. We are caught up in the technology and busyness of today’s society. But what should our focus be on? We are an extremely small speck of dust when compared to the eternity of creation. Chan states, “In fifty years (give or take a couple decades), no one will remember you. Everyone you know will be dead. Certainly no one will care what job you had, what car you drove, what school you attended, or what clothes you wore.” What will matter is what we did with our little time here on earth. Were we concerned with pointing everything in life to God? The whole story of the Bible is about God’s plan for His people and how he guided them. God created, God sent the flood, God directs them through the desert, God sends judges and prophets, the Son of God is sent to earth, dies, and is resurrected, God sends his Spirit, and one day, Jesus will come again and we will see God seated on the throne. And we sometimes get upset when we don’t know what clothes to wear on a given day or we don’t know what to eat when we have a fridge will of food??? How selfish of us to think some of these petty things should be made a big deal of.

            “God wants to be glorified, because the whole thing is His. It is his (story), His world, His gift.” Our lives are short, and some much shorter than others. What are you doing with your life? Are you concerned with getting compliments from others or are you remembering that the whole story is about God?

Are you ready?

Crazy Love Chapter 1: Stop Praying

The book I am reading, Crazy Love by Francis Chan, is one I have read a few years ago, but wanted to read it again because I remembered I loved reading it, but have no idea why. That is in part why I started writing this blog. I want to take time to stop and think about what I have read.

Chapter 1: Stop Praying

            Stop Praying. What a great chapter title to start a book on how to grow in a relationship with God, huh? Prayer is something we do every day, most often before every meal as well as in the morning and at night before we go to bed. But sometimes our words are cheap and excessive. We often pray the exact same kind of prayer every mealtime and every day. It is very easy to get stuck in a rut when praying in the sense that you might be saying the words, but not actually focusing on what you are saying or more importantly who you are saying these words to. So before you start praying, we need to step back and first look at who God is and stand in awe of who he is.  

            First, just watch this video and stand in amazement at the creation God has made! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ya12I036lg. There are many videos on YouTube that show an overhead view of a town, zoom out to state, then the USA, earth, solar system, galaxy and then end up showing the many galaxies that are out there. There are billions of galaxies and we sit in one town in one of them. Watching these videos never cease to amaze me, no matter how many times I view it or knowing beforehand that they are going to end up viewing the different galaxies. It is extremely difficult to wrap our brains around a concept that big! Most people are able to comprehend the idea of the sun and different planets because they can be seen. Not to diminish their extravagance by any means considering the sun is 93 million miles away! But trying to grasp the idea of millions and millions of galaxies in the universe nearly gives you a headache! Once you have almost (but not really ever) grasped that concept, you really start to see how small you are. Then take into consideration how many years have been on earth and how many people are currently on earth and your head starts aching even more than it did from before. Going the other direction, look at some of the smaller things in life that are mind-blowing. Did you know that a caterpillar has 228 separate muscles in just its head? Or the fact that a spider is able to make 60 feet of web in one hour? Or that there are 3,000 different species of trees per square mile in the Amazon? These are some crazy number facts and are only 3 pieces of God’s wonderful creation that you could stand in amazement of! You could go on and on calculating how many muscles there are in all of the caterpillars heads on earth, how far a spider could go in a day, or how many kinds of trees there are in the whole world. Or think of all the pieces of your body working together to keep you alive every second without you even having to think about it. Just sit for a minute and stand in awe at some of these things.

Picture of MANY galaxies!

With that as a background, how do we respond to God sometimes prayer? We often pray with words that do not have much depth to them, or we do not acknowledge the beauty and vastness of creation at all because we are distracted by our jobs, electronics, and our different hobbies. We go through our days minding our own business and being concerned with our own problems that we miss out on so many opportunities to give praise and glory to the Creator of all that is around us! We were put on earth to bring praise and glory to God, and with all of creation speaking of his glory, it should not be so hard to do just that. Unfortunately though, it is harder than it should be. There are many things that take our attention away, so it is important to make time to intentionally focus and marvel at God and how amazing he is.

As much as we can take time in our days to focus on God, we will never be able to fully wrap our minds around who he is. This can be a frustrating thought, but in this chapter Chan puts it into perspective when he says

It is ridiculous for us to think we have the right to limit God to something we are capable of comprehending . . . If my mind is the size of a soda can and God is the size of all the oceans, it would be stupid for me to say He is only the small amount of water I can scoop into my little can. God is so much bigger, so far beyond our time-encased, air/food/sleep-dependent lives.

The same can be said about trying to wrap our minds around the size of the universe. We just cannot do it, but we can realize God’s glory through it. Chan ends the chapter by looking at two accounts of God seated on his throne. This again is something human words cannot even come close to describing what it actually looks like. Human words cannot fully describe the glory and majesty of the Creator of the universe, but at least they can help us stand in awe of who he is. The accounts in Revelation 4 and Isaiah 6 will cause shivers to run through your body if you really see what they are saying. The Revelation account includes all of the following: a trumpet voice, a throne, someone with the appearance of jasper and ruby, a rainbow that looked like an emerald, 24 other thrones, crowns, white robes, lightning, thunder, lamps blazing, sea of glass, living creatures and the following words:

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come. You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.

Wow! This would be quite the sensory overload! And again take into consideration this is being put into human words, which cannot fully grasp who God is.

            So, stop praying for a second and marvel at God and how huge and extravagant he is! Think about all the intricate details he put throughout creation: the butterflies, flowers, snowflakes, and cells in your body. Then think of the vastness of creation: the billions of people on earth, the many planets, the stars, and the millions of galaxies. Give yourself a new perspective to prayer by stopping and recognizing who it is you are praying to. Taking all of this into consideration, prepare yourself to pray to the Creator of all of it who deserves the praise and glory and is seated on his heavenly throne. Start Praying.