Somewhere, Over The Rainbow…

Whether you’ve committed them to memory or not, I suspect everyone reading this has heard these words:

Somewhere over the rainbow way up high
There's a land that I heard of once in a lullaby.
Somewhere over the rainbow skies are blue
And the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true.[i]

Famous words from a famous song, so why did they pop in my head as I laid down to sleep last night?  I suspect it’s because each night we commit ourselves to God, giving thanks for today and asking for strength for tomorrow.  And realizing without dwelling on it, that each day may be our last here.  After all, who knows?  Haven’t you lost someone too soon?  As a child, I learned the “Now I lay me down to sleep…” prayer.  Talk about frightening!  Kids trying to sleep after praying “…if I should die before I wake…”  What were our parents thinking!!

For some reason, I had never associated the song lyrics above with anything other than Kansas, tornadoes, and flying monkeys!  But there is a land of promise in those lyrics – one where dreams come true.  What kind of dreams?  How about no more sickness or hate.  No tears or pain.  Peace.  Love.  Joy.  And no, I’m not talking about the 60s or the Age of Aquarius!  I’m talking about the perfect peace, love, and joy found only in the presence of the Savior who bought your way into heaven.  There are rainbows there, too:

Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, surrounded by a cloud, with a rainbow over his head. His face shone like the sun, and his feet were like pillars of fire…Then the angel…raised his right hand toward heaven.  He swore an oath in the name of the One who lives forever and ever, who created the heavens and everything in them….  Revelation 10:1,5-6

Somewhere, over the rainbow and beyond the clouds, past the planets and the stars, is a land that I’ve heard of.  NOT a place where “troubles melt like lemon drops”, but a place like this:

(GOD) will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.  And the One sitting on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new!” And then He said to me, “Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true.”   Revelation 21:4-5

Trustworthy and true.  I like that a lot.  No pie-in-the-sky dreams; no I-hope-so wishes; no waiting to see what’s over the rainbow – we already know.  That’s why our Savior is amazing.  When we come to faith, God could give us ruby slippers instead of the Holy Spirit.  But He knows we’d click our heels and be gone!  Instead, we have work to do here while we remain.  I know “there’s no place like home”, but it can wait.  “Someday I'll wish upon a star, and wake up where the clouds are far behind me.”  But not today.

Jacob

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[i] Take four minutes and fifty seconds and listen to the great Israel Kamakawiwo'Ole sing my favorite version of the song.  He died too young at age 38 – maybe someday we’ll hear him sing it in person, somewhere over the rainbow….

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fahr069-fzE

I Don’t Think I Can Do That!

Five loaves.  Two fish.  5,000 hungry people.  Sounds like a problem to me.  And I’m not talking about too many people and not enough chicken and noodles at the family reunion kind of problem.  The disciples faced an insurmountable challenge, presented not just by the circumstances, but voiced by the Messiah, the Creator of all things:

“You give them something to eat.”  “But we only have five loaves and two fish here,” they said to Him.  “Bring them here to Me,” (Jesus) said.  Matthew 14:16-18

The fact that there were hungry people who had been hanging around them all day was quite enough to make them feel guilty.  Now they were being told to solve the problem.  Impossible, can’t you see that?  Have you been there?  Circumstances that are out of your control, yet you feel responsible to fix things that aren’t your fault?  Relationships that have fallen apart but you don’t have the power to piece them back together?  Maybe something simpler, like someone you love that always seems to have too much month and not enough money. It’s not like you’re rich, so why should you be expected to do anything?  Unreasonable.

Why is it that you, a follower of Jesus Christ, are always looked to as the problem-solver in the lives of those around you?  Why do you have to bear that burden?  Because you are connected to the One who CAN make a difference in the lives of others.  What did Jesus say to the disciples when they did a quick analysis of their assets and determined they couldn’t handle the problem?  He said, “Bring me what you have and I’ll show you what can be accomplished.”  I added that last part, but we all know what Jesus meant when he responded to them.  Jesus wasn’t the kind of person to give up or give in, so neither should we.

It’s vital when faced with difficult challenges to understand all your assets.  The disciples had five loaves and two fish.  But they failed to consider their greatest asset – their connection to a God who can do anything.  Ephesians 3:20 says, “God…is able through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.”  The disciples had been with Jesus and yet underestimated their ability to handle the hard stuff.  Is it any wonder that we do the same?  But WE are the agent for change and healing in our world.  We believers.  If we don’t, who will?  We might want to pass the problem off to Jesus like disciples handing over a little boy’s lunch.  But He already passed the torch to us.  Look at just a few of the challenges Jesus gave us in the passage we call the Beatitudes in Matthew 5:4-9:

God blesses those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
God blesses those who are humble, for they will inherit the whole earth.
God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be satisfied.
God blesses those who are merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God.
God blesses those who work for peace, for they will be called the children of God. 

Hungry people.  Hurting people.  Broken lives.  Lost souls.  Who’s doing all that wonderful stuff?  You are.  Tally your assets and abilities and then ask God to multiply them and use YOU.  The crowd is just too big to ignore.

                   

Jacob

Hey, Ewe! Love Your Shepherd!

Let’s establish something up front.  I’m a sheep.  I’m not the shepherd.  I just tiptoe along with the other sheep in our church (perhaps sometimes following too closely) as we, the whole flock, try our best to follow the shepherd who leads us, feeds us, and tries to find some spiritually-safe place for us to rest our wooly bodies.  I know those terms are all metaphors for our day-to-day life as a part of a church, serving alongside an under-shepherd called to lead us, who we HOPE is following the Holy Spirit.  The apostle, Paul, challenged the pastors from Ephesus:

Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.  Acts 20:28

No layperson, no matter how involved in church life they are, can fully understand the burdens of church ministry.  These challenges are unknown to most church members: many pastors work 60 or more hours per week; 77% of those who are married don’t think they have a “good” marriage; three-fourths feel unqualified for ministry; almost 80% of pastors have been fired from at least one church; and nearly 60% would leave church ministry if they had any other place to go!^[1]  Take a moment and read those statistics again. 

If your first thought was, “What a terrible group of shepherds the Holy Spirit has set apart for ministry!”, then you have gotten your sheep nose WAY too close to the sheep in front of you!  While I will grant you that not all who serve as shepherds have been truly called by God; and not all who have been called by God serve in His power; the vast majority of pastors are giving their all in serving our Living God.  The predicament – might I even say the “curse” – they labor under is trying to lead those who don’t understand their responsibility of “followship”.  No, I didn’t spell it wrong.

“Followship”, if I may use that term, implies we sheep have a duty to follow.  Not sure about that? 

Obey those who rule over you, and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls, as those who must give account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you.  Hebrews 13:17

Oh!  Don’t like those words?  Too bad.  I didn’t write them, God did.  So that the statistics in the second paragraph wouldn’t be true.  What if we all followed the leadership of those who direct our ministries?  What if we visited the sick, reached out to the needy, and encouraged those who need the love and salvation of Christ?  What if we nurtured our leaders through acts of kindness and faithfully prayed for them as commanded in Scripture?  How about if we all spoke up about what we love about our leaders rather than whining about what we don’t?  (Good political advice, too, by the way.)  If we did our jobs, they wouldn’t be so burdened and so insecure about their ability to do theirs!  Their preaching would be faith-filled, their marriages would be more loving, and their jobs would be more secure.  Try saying, “I love you, Pastor.”  You may just hear back, “I love ewe, too!”

Jacob

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[1] Krejcir, R.J., Ph.D., “Statistics on Pastors”, Francis A Schaeffer Institute of Church Leadership Development, http://www.truespirituality.org, 2007

What Does “Holy” Look Like?

Be honest.  Aren’t you a bit intimidated by the word “holy”?  How about by passages like this one?

But as the One who called you is holy, you also are to be holy in all your conduct; for it is written, Be holy, because I am holy.  1 Peter 1:15-16

What is it that makes us fear being labeled as “holy”?  I suppose one of our excuses for not wanting to be seen as such is the much-feared “holier-than-thou” label.  The dictionary says that term refers to someone who is “characterized by an attitude of moral superiority”.  The first recorded usage of the term was in the 1850s, which helps explain the “thou” part of the phrase.  I’m sure those words were first hurled at some public figure who was just trying to stand up for God’s viewpoint or, perhaps, they were lobbed at some self-righteous so-and-so who was trying to show how “holy” he was.  But after 150 years, I’d say it’s time to stop fearing the “good” four-letter word.

God didn’t call all believers to be holy to point out our deficiencies.  He called us to be holy to point out our differences – from the un-holy world in which we live.  Holy doesn’t mean we’re supposed to be perfect.  Where did we ever get that idea?  Holy means we are to be “set apart”.  How about a list?  See if any of these words are any more appealing to you than holy: sacred, consecrated, sanctified, hallowed.  I’ll bet you recognize some of those from the pages of your Bible, too!  What they ALL have in common is that they are not this word: secular.  Oh no!  Another word study.  Secular is a word we probably hear more often in our culture than holy.  What does secular mean?  Earthly, worldly, non-spiritual, materialistic, profane.  Doesn’t it make sense that our God, who defines “holy”, calls us to reflect Him rather than the world in which we live?

If I challenge you to think of something that you identify as holy, what would it be?  I’m betting it’s not your reflection in the mirror.  The writer of Hebrews says this about Jesus:

The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact expression of His nature…  Hebrews 1:3

In terms we might all understand, the writer is saying that Jesus is the “spittin’ image” of the Father.  He is God’s exact look-alike, but in human form.  Holy doesn’t mean we must be perfect – we know better!  We need only to reflect the image of God in our lives and actions.  Jesus took care of making us acceptable to a perfect God by His sacrifice.  Our job now is to let everyone glimpse that picture of that perfect God and His Son.  That’s why holiness requires being different from the world in which we live.  Because if our lives reflect what’s going on around us, others will see the same fallen, corrupt, immoral, wicked world in which they already live.  But if they see H-O-L-Y when they look at us, then they can perceive H-O-P-E for themselves. 

Being holy isn’t about our character.  It’s about God’s.  It sounds trite, but when people look at you, they should see Jesus reflected in you.  I certainly have more work to do to make that happen.  Am I striving to be holier-than-thou?  No.  Just holier-than-I-am. 

Jacob

Who Do YOU Want to Be Like?

I can’t believe it’s been more than 25 years since Gatorade debuted the “Be like Mike” advertising line.  For the sports-challenged, “Mike” is Michael Jordan, one of the best, if not THE best, basketball players in history.  Basketball might not be your measuring stick for greatness, but Michael was amazing.  Just like Nike challenges us all now to “Just do it”, Gatorade thought it had struck marketing gold by encouraging us to be “like” the greatest.  How do you feel about that?  Encouraged or intimidated?

It’s not an unlikely occurrence to hear something similar from the pulpit of your church on Sunday morning.  “Be like Jesus.”  Of course, a pastor would say something like that.  They want us ALL to be like Jesus!  And we should!  But hearing it can be either encouraging or intimidating.  Do I have the spiritual capacity to be like Jesus any more than I have the physical ability to be like Mike?  Well, actually yes, but those are pretty big shoes to fill either way!

God always has a way of making things work out for us.  After all, when He knew we didn’t stand a chance of being good enough to spend eternity with Him, didn’t He send Jesus to offer Himself for our salvation?  So, doesn’t it make sense that He also has a plan to help us walk faithfully once we’ve been adopted into His greatest-of-all-time family?  Rather than share all the Scripture that reminds us about our abilities to be great in the faith, I’ll just share a couple.  First from the Apostle Peter:

…Peter, a slave and an apostle of Jesus Christ: To those who have obtained a faith of equal privilege with ours through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ…His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness.   2 Peter 1,3

Whoa.  Peter reminds us that OUR faith has equal privilege with HIS faith and that of the other apostles.  He says we have “everything required for life and godliness”.  So I don’t have to be like Mike, or Jesus, I just have to be like Peter.  Wait a minute!  That still sounds like a trap!  I’m supposed to be like the guy who walked on water and preached at Pentecost?  Doesn’t sound like me!  But then I remember that this was also the guy who began to sink when he took his eyes off Jesus; the one who denied Christ three times; who always spoke before he thought, and hid while Jesus was on the cross.  OK, that sounds more like me.

Still, let me throw in an Old Testament example just for good measure.  How about Elijah, of whom James wrote:

Elijah was a man with a nature like ours; yet he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the land.  Then he prayed again, and the sky gave rain and the land produced its fruit.  James 5:17-18

James says that Elijah was just like you.  Forget that he raised the dead and conquered the prophets of Baal.  He also had his woe-is-me moments; he doubted himself at times.  But Elijah had power through prayer.  Like Peter, he picked himself up after his weak moments and let the divine power of God work through him.  So can you.

Do you want to be like Jesus?  Admirable.  Why not first see if you can be like Peter?  Or Elijah?  While I might not be ready for the NBA of faith, I might be able to handle myself with a bunch of old fat guys in a pick-up game.  Hmmm.  I wonder what the Men’s Group is doing after Bible Study Saturday?

Jacob