I just finished the book "Tortured for Christ", by Richard Wurmbrand. What a fabulous book and I certainly recommend it to anyone reading this. In fact, you can get this book for free at The Voice of the Martyrs website. Please order a copy and read it. This book will inspire you to share you faith in a tremendous way. Let me read you an excerpt from the book about a girl who loved Christ more than anything on earth:
"One of our workers in the Underground Church was a young girl. The Communist police discovered that she secretly spread Gospels and taught children about Christ. They decided to arrest her. But to make the arrest as agonizing and painful as they could, they decided to delay her arrest a few weeks, until the day she was to be married. One her wedding day, the girl was dressed as a bride-the most wonderful, joyous day in a girl's life! Suddenly, the door burst open and the secret police rushed in.
When the bride saw the secret police, she held out her arms toward them to be handcuffed. They roughly put the manacles on her wrists. She looked toward her beloved, then kissed the chains and said, 'I thank my heavenly Bridegroom for this jewel He has presented to me on my marriage day. I thank Him that I am worthy to suffer for Him.' She was dragged off, with weeping Christians and a weeping bridegroom left behind. They knew what happens to young Christian girls in the hands of Communist guards" (Wurmbrand 37-38)
What happened in those camps?
"I have seen Christians in Communist prisons with fifty pounds of chains on their feet, tortured with red-hot iron pokers, in those spoonfuls of salt had been forced, being kept afterward without waters, starving, whipped, suffering from cold..." (Wurmbrand 55)
I warn you the next story is graphic, but it demonstrates the horrible persecution endured, and the beauty of the suffering Christians:
"A pastor by the name of Florescu was tortured with red-hot iron pokers and with knives. He was beaten very badly. Then starving rats were driven into his cell through a large pipe. He could not sleep because he had to defend himself all the time. If he rested a moment, the rats would attack him.
He was forced to stand for two weeks, day and night. The Communists wished to compel him to betray his brethren, but he resisted steadfastly. Eventually, they brought his fourteen-year-old son to the prison and began to whip the boy in front of his father, saying that they would continue to beat him until the pastor said what they wished him to say. The poor man was half mad. He bore it as long as he colud, then he cried to his son, ' Alexander, I must say what they want! I can't bear your beating anymore!' The son answered, 'Father, don't do me the injustice of having a traitor as a parent. Withstand! If they kill me, I will die with the words, "Jesus and my fatherland."' The Communists, enraged, fell upon the child and beat him to death, with blood spattered over the walls of the cell. He died praising God." (Wurmbrand 34)
What a story. I will be blessed to meet that boy in heaven. This entire book is a hard call to love God, spread the Gospel, and pray and support your brothers and sisters around the world. Please read this book, it will have a positive effect on not only your spiritual life, but hopefully the lives of persecuted Christians all over the world.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Monday, November 16, 2009
The Beatitudes, Part 3
This third part of the beatitudes are a sad reality that leads to a glorious end. It brings us face-to-face with our biggest fears, telling us that we will be persecuted, but Jesus reassures us that we will gain a reward in heaven.
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
‘Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
-Matthew 5:10-12
We are not so quick to pray for these qualities. I admit that, will reading and praying over this I felt a reluctance to pray for persecution. It doesn’t seem to make sense to pray for persecution. Yet persecution is listed right along with a pure heart, meekness, and peacemaking as attributes a Christian should be. So how does persecution benefit a Christian?
People have spent whole books trying to answer the above question. My personal favorite is John Piper’s Desiring God, in the chapter entitled “Suffering”. The bottom line is that suffering drives the Christian to Christ. Job, a great sufferer in the Old Testament, saw God as never before after his suffering: “I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you” (Job 42:5). Job saw God in his suffering. Humans throughout the Bible have realized this truth. “Count it all joy, my brothers, why you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness” (James 1:2-3) “Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:8-10) “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.” (1 Peter 4:12-13)
We as Christians will suffer, but this suffering brings us closer to Christ our Savior. Remember that this life is all about Christ. “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Philippians 3:8). “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” (Philippians 1:21)
Why do we as Christians want to suffer? For the glory of Christ our King. It is through him that we can “rejoice” in suffering, for we share in what he has done, and he will reward us for it.
I encourage you to read Desiring God for a more in-depth look into why we suffer. Great passages on suffering in the Bible are 2 Corinthians 12, Hebrews 12, 1 Peter 4, James 1, Job, Psalm 6, and Philippians 3. (There are many others)
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
‘Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
-Matthew 5:10-12
We are not so quick to pray for these qualities. I admit that, will reading and praying over this I felt a reluctance to pray for persecution. It doesn’t seem to make sense to pray for persecution. Yet persecution is listed right along with a pure heart, meekness, and peacemaking as attributes a Christian should be. So how does persecution benefit a Christian?
People have spent whole books trying to answer the above question. My personal favorite is John Piper’s Desiring God, in the chapter entitled “Suffering”. The bottom line is that suffering drives the Christian to Christ. Job, a great sufferer in the Old Testament, saw God as never before after his suffering: “I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you” (Job 42:5). Job saw God in his suffering. Humans throughout the Bible have realized this truth. “Count it all joy, my brothers, why you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness” (James 1:2-3) “Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:8-10) “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.” (1 Peter 4:12-13)
We as Christians will suffer, but this suffering brings us closer to Christ our Savior. Remember that this life is all about Christ. “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Philippians 3:8). “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” (Philippians 1:21)
Why do we as Christians want to suffer? For the glory of Christ our King. It is through him that we can “rejoice” in suffering, for we share in what he has done, and he will reward us for it.
I encourage you to read Desiring God for a more in-depth look into why we suffer. Great passages on suffering in the Bible are 2 Corinthians 12, Hebrews 12, 1 Peter 4, James 1, Job, Psalm 6, and Philippians 3. (There are many others)
Friday, November 6, 2009
The Beatitudes, Part 2
After laying down the essential to the Christian life in the first three beatitudes, Jesus gets more specific. A real quick recap on the first three beatitudes: Jesus wants us to realize we are poor of spirit, that is, we are totally lost away from Christ. Along with this realization comes a godly mourning of our sins and our inability to reconcile with God, this mourning, however, drives us to repentance and acceptance of Christ. Finally, we must be meek. A very misunderstood word, being meek is not being a weakling, but it is a total acceptance of God’s sovereignty. Trusting that He is in control and accepting that all His dealings are good. Jesus now gets into more specifics for a Christian to practice; being hungry and thirsty for righteousness, being merciful, having a pure heart, and being a peacemaker.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be comforted”
Matthew 5:6
This an amazing metaphor Jesus uses. We all know what it feels like to be hungry, so hungry that all we desire is food. You’ve been on a road trip where all you want to do is eat at the next McDonald’s; we complain and grumble and the hunger infects our entire attitude. Same goes for a time where you were just thirsty, you can’t think of anything but a cool glass of water. Your dry mouth affects your speech, your mindset, and even your money, if bottled water is near. Now imagine having both of those extreme feelings at once. Your stomach is roaring for food, your mouth is as dry as a desert, and your head can only think of water and food; a mighty meal. This would affect your entire life. You would put off anything you were doing, you would forget about the cost, you would go any distance. You would get a meal. What if we had this feeling for righteousness?
To hunger and thirst for righteousness is a longing to conform to the will of God. A sincere desire to do what is right in God’s eyes. One Psalmist explains it like this: “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.” (Psalm 42:1) Do not rest until you are righteous. Just like you are desperate for food when you’re hungry or water when you’re thirsty, be desperate for God. Put off all that you are doing that opposes this supreme desire and really long to conform to the will of God. A funny thing about this is that only God can allow us to do it. John Piper says it like this: “Only God can make the depraved heart desire God.” (“When I Don’t Desire God: How to Fight for Joy” page 14). If you want to desire God and righteousness like you desire food, honestly ask God for it. Only by the help of the Holy Spirit can we achieve this deep desire.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy”
Matthew 5:7
When I think of mercy I think of the middle ages. I imagine a king who caught a thief stealing from the market and mercifully does not chop off his arm. That is not the type of mercy Jesus is talking about here. This mercy is not just pity. When used as an adjective in greek, the word mercy is “not simply possessed of pity but actively compassionate” (Vine 404). An active compassion. A pity that strives towards an action towards a person. Being compassionate is hard. We are wronged every day by people, even if it is a small thing. You see, Jesus made it perfectly clear that our love and mercy should not just extend to those who are good to us (Matt. 5:43-48). We are to extend this mercy to all; even those we bitterly hated. I say hated because, as a Christian, we no longer hate, but love. God has already given us the greatest mercy the universe will ever know. Why do we find it so hard to extend such small mercies such as forgiveness or acceptance?
Jesus tells a story later in his ministry to deliver this point in greater detail (Matt 18:21-35). It is a story of a servant who owed a king a fortune. He owed back more than he possibly could pay back; the language Jesus uses implies that the servant could never, ever pay back such a debt. He was hopeless. Yet the king had mercy on him and, instead of sending him to prison until he could pay it back, cancelled his debt. How great a mercy!That same forgiven servant then goes out to another servant who owes him money. This is small amount of money, about what a man would make in a day. However, the man who owed this small amount couldn’t pay back the forgiven servant. Furious, the forgiven servant has the poor servant thrown in prison. When the king finds out of this he summons the servant he forgave and rebuked him. So mad is the king that he throws the forgiven servant in prison until he could pay back his debt. His fate is prison until he can pay back a debt he can never pay back. Prison forever all because he did not show mercy. The king says an eerily similar thing to this condemned servant that Jesus said in the beatitudes, “And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?” (Matt 18:33) God has given us the ultimate grace, it is a small thing for us to extend mercy to others. Pray to God you may be merciful as He is merciful.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
Matthew 5:8
Being pure in heart is impossible by man. We are all lost and our hears are black with sin. Having a pure hear is to be cleansed by God from your sinful nature. This is impossible for a man to do. Peter realized this once and asked Jesus “Who then can be saved?”, Jesus answered by saying “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:25-26). Pray to God to create in you a pure heart. A heart that is cleansed from its old ways, and only desires God. This heart is imperative for all of the other beatitudes to be possible. David says, after he sins with Bathsheba “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” (Psalm 51:10). As a side note, Psalm 51 is a great example of the beatitudes being manifested in David’s life. He realizes his own poor spirit, mourns for his sin, and asks for a pure heart. The Psalm illustrates that we must rely on God to create a pure heart in ourselves, we cannot create it on our own. No matter how much we volunteer at church, read our bible, or pray, only God can create a pure heart. I pray daily that God would give me a pure heart, as I hope you do.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God”
Matthew 5:9
Again, this peacemaking must be spread to our enemies, as well as our friends. Jesus says to not only love our enemies, but “do good to those who hate you” (Luke 6:27). This means keeping peace with not only friends but enemies. Remember that this will not be easy. The word peacemaker suggests that there was not peace before, until you make it. First examine your life and make sure you are at peace with everyone; if you are not peace make. After you set yourself in order, then you can help others do the same. Many times we think peacekeeping is only for others, not in their own life. Set yourselves in order first.
An interesting point in this verse is “they shall be called sons of God”. For a long time this stumped me. I didn’t know what that meant. After a long time of meditation a light bulb went off. It says “be called”. Called means that someone has given you that title. Like an avalanche of thought a realization came to me: our peacemaking should be so amazing and outstanding that the only explanation to those around you is that it is by God! Francis Chan once said “Live you life in such a way that it demands an explanation”. Does your life demand an explanation? Do you live in such a way that the things you do can only be explained by a faith in God? If not, then ask yourself why. Are you living just like everyone else, and just saying your a Christian? Where is the faith in that? Be a peacemaker to the point where it demands an explanation. Live like a Christian to the point where it demands an explanation.
So I encourage you to pursue these four areas in your life. Ask God for a desire for righteousness like your desire for food or water. Be merciful to those who don’t deserve mercy because God gave you mercy when you didn’t deserve mercy. Ask God for a pure heart, that you may follow God completely. Be a peacemaker to the point where it demands an explanation.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be comforted”
Matthew 5:6
This an amazing metaphor Jesus uses. We all know what it feels like to be hungry, so hungry that all we desire is food. You’ve been on a road trip where all you want to do is eat at the next McDonald’s; we complain and grumble and the hunger infects our entire attitude. Same goes for a time where you were just thirsty, you can’t think of anything but a cool glass of water. Your dry mouth affects your speech, your mindset, and even your money, if bottled water is near. Now imagine having both of those extreme feelings at once. Your stomach is roaring for food, your mouth is as dry as a desert, and your head can only think of water and food; a mighty meal. This would affect your entire life. You would put off anything you were doing, you would forget about the cost, you would go any distance. You would get a meal. What if we had this feeling for righteousness?
To hunger and thirst for righteousness is a longing to conform to the will of God. A sincere desire to do what is right in God’s eyes. One Psalmist explains it like this: “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.” (Psalm 42:1) Do not rest until you are righteous. Just like you are desperate for food when you’re hungry or water when you’re thirsty, be desperate for God. Put off all that you are doing that opposes this supreme desire and really long to conform to the will of God. A funny thing about this is that only God can allow us to do it. John Piper says it like this: “Only God can make the depraved heart desire God.” (“When I Don’t Desire God: How to Fight for Joy” page 14). If you want to desire God and righteousness like you desire food, honestly ask God for it. Only by the help of the Holy Spirit can we achieve this deep desire.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy”
Matthew 5:7
When I think of mercy I think of the middle ages. I imagine a king who caught a thief stealing from the market and mercifully does not chop off his arm. That is not the type of mercy Jesus is talking about here. This mercy is not just pity. When used as an adjective in greek, the word mercy is “not simply possessed of pity but actively compassionate” (Vine 404). An active compassion. A pity that strives towards an action towards a person. Being compassionate is hard. We are wronged every day by people, even if it is a small thing. You see, Jesus made it perfectly clear that our love and mercy should not just extend to those who are good to us (Matt. 5:43-48). We are to extend this mercy to all; even those we bitterly hated. I say hated because, as a Christian, we no longer hate, but love. God has already given us the greatest mercy the universe will ever know. Why do we find it so hard to extend such small mercies such as forgiveness or acceptance?
Jesus tells a story later in his ministry to deliver this point in greater detail (Matt 18:21-35). It is a story of a servant who owed a king a fortune. He owed back more than he possibly could pay back; the language Jesus uses implies that the servant could never, ever pay back such a debt. He was hopeless. Yet the king had mercy on him and, instead of sending him to prison until he could pay it back, cancelled his debt. How great a mercy!That same forgiven servant then goes out to another servant who owes him money. This is small amount of money, about what a man would make in a day. However, the man who owed this small amount couldn’t pay back the forgiven servant. Furious, the forgiven servant has the poor servant thrown in prison. When the king finds out of this he summons the servant he forgave and rebuked him. So mad is the king that he throws the forgiven servant in prison until he could pay back his debt. His fate is prison until he can pay back a debt he can never pay back. Prison forever all because he did not show mercy. The king says an eerily similar thing to this condemned servant that Jesus said in the beatitudes, “And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?” (Matt 18:33) God has given us the ultimate grace, it is a small thing for us to extend mercy to others. Pray to God you may be merciful as He is merciful.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
Matthew 5:8
Being pure in heart is impossible by man. We are all lost and our hears are black with sin. Having a pure hear is to be cleansed by God from your sinful nature. This is impossible for a man to do. Peter realized this once and asked Jesus “Who then can be saved?”, Jesus answered by saying “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:25-26). Pray to God to create in you a pure heart. A heart that is cleansed from its old ways, and only desires God. This heart is imperative for all of the other beatitudes to be possible. David says, after he sins with Bathsheba “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” (Psalm 51:10). As a side note, Psalm 51 is a great example of the beatitudes being manifested in David’s life. He realizes his own poor spirit, mourns for his sin, and asks for a pure heart. The Psalm illustrates that we must rely on God to create a pure heart in ourselves, we cannot create it on our own. No matter how much we volunteer at church, read our bible, or pray, only God can create a pure heart. I pray daily that God would give me a pure heart, as I hope you do.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God”
Matthew 5:9
Again, this peacemaking must be spread to our enemies, as well as our friends. Jesus says to not only love our enemies, but “do good to those who hate you” (Luke 6:27). This means keeping peace with not only friends but enemies. Remember that this will not be easy. The word peacemaker suggests that there was not peace before, until you make it. First examine your life and make sure you are at peace with everyone; if you are not peace make. After you set yourself in order, then you can help others do the same. Many times we think peacekeeping is only for others, not in their own life. Set yourselves in order first.
An interesting point in this verse is “they shall be called sons of God”. For a long time this stumped me. I didn’t know what that meant. After a long time of meditation a light bulb went off. It says “be called”. Called means that someone has given you that title. Like an avalanche of thought a realization came to me: our peacemaking should be so amazing and outstanding that the only explanation to those around you is that it is by God! Francis Chan once said “Live you life in such a way that it demands an explanation”. Does your life demand an explanation? Do you live in such a way that the things you do can only be explained by a faith in God? If not, then ask yourself why. Are you living just like everyone else, and just saying your a Christian? Where is the faith in that? Be a peacemaker to the point where it demands an explanation. Live like a Christian to the point where it demands an explanation.
So I encourage you to pursue these four areas in your life. Ask God for a desire for righteousness like your desire for food or water. Be merciful to those who don’t deserve mercy because God gave you mercy when you didn’t deserve mercy. Ask God for a pure heart, that you may follow God completely. Be a peacemaker to the point where it demands an explanation.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
The Beatitudes, Part 1
I've recently begun a personal study on Jesus's Sermon on the Mount. The first section of this sermon is found in Matthew 5:2-12 and is commonly known as the beatitudes. I have read this passage countless times in my life, whether in Sunday School, church, or even other personal reading. But I never realized the sheer beauty of the passage till recently. I always thought it was simply a shout out to those who suffer for God. A kinda “at a boy” to those who would suffer for God. Jesus was talking about missionaries in Africa, Christians persecuted in communist Russia, or the Apostles being thrown to the lions; not about me. Yet it is aimed at every believer. John MacArthur said “In the beatitudes Jesus describes the character of the Christian faith.” (“The MacArthur New Testament Commentary”, page 39). In other words, the beatitudes describe what a Jesus says a Christian should be. That sheds a whole new light of importance on it doesn’t it. So I decided to delve deeper and really understand what each of the attributes mentioned are and how I can apply them. I have divided them into three sections. I call the first three beatitudes the humble beatitudes.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”
Matthew 5:3
I always thought this was an odd thing for Jesus to say. Doesn’t God want those strong of Spirit? The heroes, like David and Moses. He doesn’t want some weakling who mopes around all day saying “woe is me”. But that is not what Jesus is saying at all hear. This one verse, in essence, describes the whole Gospel. The poor in spirit are those who realize the depth of their own depravity, in other words, the ones who realize they are evil. The ones who realize they need God, or will die. If you are a true Christian, you are poor of spirit. Are you sure that you are? Being poor of spirit is the opposite of self-sufficiency. Are you reliant on God for everything, are you no longer self-sufficient, but God-sufficient? Do you hope in nothing but Jesus Christ? Do you trust in your job, your money, your family, your friends, your spouse, your car, you drink? Or do you trust in your God? Those who solely rely on God are the poor in Spirit. Jesus says that these receive “the kingdom of Heaven”, that is, salvation.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted”
Matthew 5:4
This beatitude I flat out did not get. Why did God want sad people? I don’t want to mourn, that would be a horrible life. This is not a normal type of mourning however, it is a holy mourning. The difference is best explained by 2 Corinthians 7:10: “For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, wheras worldly grief produces death.” This verse helped me understand this beatitude on a whole new level. Jesus didn’t mean worldly grief, the hopeless sadness type of grief that “produces death”. He was talking about a godly grief, a grief over our sins that leads us to repentance. A grief that brings realization to our ugliness before a Holy God and drives us to salvation. A grief that allows us, once we find salvation, to throw off all regret. It is a grief that separates us from our own life and brings us into a life dedicated to Jesus. This is greatly tied to the first beatitude; the elect mourn for they are poor in spirit, so they turn to Jesus, who comforts them and bring them to His Heavenly Kingdom. What a glorious mercy.
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth”
Matthew 5:5
I admit, when I read this, I had no idea what the word “meek” meant. I envisioned an old, weak man who had to walk with a cane. I thought of weakness, both spiritual and physical. But being Biblically meek is actually an amazing quality. Meekness is mentioned throughout the Bible in a positive light, although many times is translated differently. The greek word Jesus uses here can also mean humility, or gentleness. In Colossians 3:12 meekness is listed in attributes that help with forgiving and bearing with other Christians; 1 Timothy 6:11 talks of it in the sense of fighting “the good fight of the faith”; James 3:13 talks of the “meekness of wisdom”; Jesus describes himself with the same word in Matthew 11:29 when He says he is “gentle and lowly in heart”. So what is the underlying definition of meekness? “It is that temper of Spirit in which we accept his (God’s) dealings as, and therefore without disputing or resisting is.” (W.E. Vine “Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words”, page 401) In other words, it is a complete acknowledgment of God’s sovereignty. God is in control, who are we to say how things ought to be; this is the attitude meek Christians should have.
What is the reward for this? Jesus says that you will inherit the earth. What does this mean? If you are completely meek you will take over the world with an army full of fellow meek people? Of course not. What I think it means can be found in the Old Testament reference Jesus was quoting from. Psalm 37:11 says “But the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace”. What will meekness get you? Abundant peace. You know God is in control, so why should your life be in turmoil, stress, and pain? Your life is in the hands of a loving and sovereign God, why should you fear? Christ has overcome the world. Be meek, and inherit peace.
So what should we do about this in our own lives. The most important would be to make sure you are truly poor in spirit. Have you realized your own inability to achieve fulfillment? Only Christ can give you that fulfillment, you simply must realize your own poorness of Spirit. Also mourn for that poorness of spirit. Mourn to the point where it brings you to repentance. Check yourself Christian, that you are still mourning. We do not become perfect once we repent. Keep godly mourning alive in your life, make your mourning turn you to repentance, and there you will find comfort. The last application is perhaps the most important. Be meek. This is so hard. Look in detail at your life, where are your troubles? Once you have found them, realize that God is in control of all of these situations. He knows about each trouble in your life, he has put you where you are at this exact moment. Find peace and surrender to God. I encourage you to pray about all three of these things. Ask God to make you realize you are poor in spirit, ask that you might mourn your sin, and that you might be meek. I can speak from experience that praying over these things will give you an amazing peace, and a new understanding on life. When I prayed I realized God had saved me from my poor soul, that He would comfort me when I mourned to Him, and that He was in control of all the world, I have nothing to fear. God is Good.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”
Matthew 5:3
I always thought this was an odd thing for Jesus to say. Doesn’t God want those strong of Spirit? The heroes, like David and Moses. He doesn’t want some weakling who mopes around all day saying “woe is me”. But that is not what Jesus is saying at all hear. This one verse, in essence, describes the whole Gospel. The poor in spirit are those who realize the depth of their own depravity, in other words, the ones who realize they are evil. The ones who realize they need God, or will die. If you are a true Christian, you are poor of spirit. Are you sure that you are? Being poor of spirit is the opposite of self-sufficiency. Are you reliant on God for everything, are you no longer self-sufficient, but God-sufficient? Do you hope in nothing but Jesus Christ? Do you trust in your job, your money, your family, your friends, your spouse, your car, you drink? Or do you trust in your God? Those who solely rely on God are the poor in Spirit. Jesus says that these receive “the kingdom of Heaven”, that is, salvation.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted”
Matthew 5:4
This beatitude I flat out did not get. Why did God want sad people? I don’t want to mourn, that would be a horrible life. This is not a normal type of mourning however, it is a holy mourning. The difference is best explained by 2 Corinthians 7:10: “For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, wheras worldly grief produces death.” This verse helped me understand this beatitude on a whole new level. Jesus didn’t mean worldly grief, the hopeless sadness type of grief that “produces death”. He was talking about a godly grief, a grief over our sins that leads us to repentance. A grief that brings realization to our ugliness before a Holy God and drives us to salvation. A grief that allows us, once we find salvation, to throw off all regret. It is a grief that separates us from our own life and brings us into a life dedicated to Jesus. This is greatly tied to the first beatitude; the elect mourn for they are poor in spirit, so they turn to Jesus, who comforts them and bring them to His Heavenly Kingdom. What a glorious mercy.
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth”
Matthew 5:5
I admit, when I read this, I had no idea what the word “meek” meant. I envisioned an old, weak man who had to walk with a cane. I thought of weakness, both spiritual and physical. But being Biblically meek is actually an amazing quality. Meekness is mentioned throughout the Bible in a positive light, although many times is translated differently. The greek word Jesus uses here can also mean humility, or gentleness. In Colossians 3:12 meekness is listed in attributes that help with forgiving and bearing with other Christians; 1 Timothy 6:11 talks of it in the sense of fighting “the good fight of the faith”; James 3:13 talks of the “meekness of wisdom”; Jesus describes himself with the same word in Matthew 11:29 when He says he is “gentle and lowly in heart”. So what is the underlying definition of meekness? “It is that temper of Spirit in which we accept his (God’s) dealings as, and therefore without disputing or resisting is.” (W.E. Vine “Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words”, page 401) In other words, it is a complete acknowledgment of God’s sovereignty. God is in control, who are we to say how things ought to be; this is the attitude meek Christians should have.
What is the reward for this? Jesus says that you will inherit the earth. What does this mean? If you are completely meek you will take over the world with an army full of fellow meek people? Of course not. What I think it means can be found in the Old Testament reference Jesus was quoting from. Psalm 37:11 says “But the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace”. What will meekness get you? Abundant peace. You know God is in control, so why should your life be in turmoil, stress, and pain? Your life is in the hands of a loving and sovereign God, why should you fear? Christ has overcome the world. Be meek, and inherit peace.
So what should we do about this in our own lives. The most important would be to make sure you are truly poor in spirit. Have you realized your own inability to achieve fulfillment? Only Christ can give you that fulfillment, you simply must realize your own poorness of Spirit. Also mourn for that poorness of spirit. Mourn to the point where it brings you to repentance. Check yourself Christian, that you are still mourning. We do not become perfect once we repent. Keep godly mourning alive in your life, make your mourning turn you to repentance, and there you will find comfort. The last application is perhaps the most important. Be meek. This is so hard. Look in detail at your life, where are your troubles? Once you have found them, realize that God is in control of all of these situations. He knows about each trouble in your life, he has put you where you are at this exact moment. Find peace and surrender to God. I encourage you to pray about all three of these things. Ask God to make you realize you are poor in spirit, ask that you might mourn your sin, and that you might be meek. I can speak from experience that praying over these things will give you an amazing peace, and a new understanding on life. When I prayed I realized God had saved me from my poor soul, that He would comfort me when I mourned to Him, and that He was in control of all the world, I have nothing to fear. God is Good.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life
Lots of books are good, some books are great, and then there are a few books that effect your life on a daily basis. Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, by Donald Whitney, falls into that last category for me. The book goes into detail on the spiritual disciplines in such a real way that it really challenges you to evaluate your own habits. The disciplines that he explained that were of most value to me in my spiritual walk were the disciplines of meditation, memorization, evangelism, fasting, solitude, and journaling.
When we think of the discipline of meditation we normally think of Hindus or Buddhists sitting in a weird indian style position with their eyes closed and humming along to a silent song. This is why most Christians don’t practice meditation, it sound too, well, weird. If you think about it though, we are called scripturally to practice it. Psalm 1 says of the blessed man “his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night” (Psalm 1:2). We don’t have to sit in a special position or even hum to really meditate. Meditation “involves filling your mind with God and truth” (Whitney 47). Yet just thinking about it, or filling your mind with knowledge isn’t the only facet of meditation: “The outcome of meditation should be application” (Whitney 54). This is of course true with any activity. If you don’t use your knowledge to change something in your life, then your knowledge is useless. Meditation is essential for effective Bible reading as well. In fact, meditation is so important that Whitney goes so far as to say, “Read less (if necessary) in order to meditate more” (Whitney 55). The bottom line is that you must not just read the Bible, but meditate and apply what you learn from it throughout your day. I can tell you by recent experience that by doing this everyday you will far advance your chances in spiritual warfare.
Memorization is a thing that is admired but rarely practiced. For a long time I had thought the same way; it would be nice to memorize lots of scripture, but I just can’t do it. Whitney claims rightly that this is absurd, we memorize thousands of little things. We memorize song lyrics, social security numbers, phone numbers, addresses, food prices, and yet we can’t memorize the words of the living God? The real problem in memorization is discipline and action. These are essential. This discipline is also linked hand and hand with meditation. Whitney points out that a good place to start is passages that deal with a struggle you have in your life. That way, the verses that you memorize can be found useful in your life fairly easy. From there you can branch out to verses about God glory, beauty, mercy, etc. Because of my reading of this book I have now undertaken the task of memorizing one scripture verse a week. This week I successfully memorized Ephesians 4:29. It can be done, by discipline.
Evangelism is a spiritual discipline that I have struggled with for a long time. I’ll be honest, I love God with a passion, but I have never flat “evangelized” a person. I have never sat down and explained the gospel to a single person. I’ve spoken to a crowd about the gospel, and hopefully my life style has shown the gospel to nonbelievers, but I want to be able to evangelize in a one-to-one basis. Whitney has encouraged me in this assignment and I pray daily that I might have an opportunity to talk to someone about Christ.
Fasting is another of those disciplines, like meditation, that we shy away from for its “fanaticism”. Yet if we look at almost every Biblical hero (Jesus, Paul, Peter, Moses, Elijah to name a few) they fasted. Whitney explains the reasons for fasting and why it shouldn’t be the a thing we fear but something we embrace to deepen our spiritual walk. Please read the book to do it justice, but the main points that Whitney points out is that fasting can be done to strengthen prayer, to seek God’s guidance, to express grief, to seek deliverance or protection, to express repentance to God, to humble oneself before God, to express concern for the work of God, to minister to the needs of others, to overcome temptation and dedicate yourself to God, and to express love and worship to God. After reading the chapter I decided to have a fast sometime in the next few weeks for one of the reasons stated above.
Monks use to spend full months, years, or lives in silence. Although Whitney doesn’t call for this type of dedication (in fact he calls these extremes severely mislead, if not down right sinful), he does call for a time of silence in the life of a christian. Both short periods of time, maybe only a minute or ten, and longer periods, like a day, or sometimes a weekend retreat. This discipline is tightly tied to memorization, meditation, prayer, and Bible reading. In fact, one of the most profitable effects of silence is creating the best possible environment for those four disciplines. In response to this chapter in the book I make sure everyday that my daily time with God is in complete silence and I plan to take a day in the future to be alone with God in silence for an entire day.
One of the unexpected disciplines that I have adopted as a result of reading this book is journaling. In a sense, journaling is simply a written record of your other disciplines. The benefits of this are obvious; if you can organize all your thoughts into a single journal entry, your understanding will only deepen. Also, you can revisit the lessons you’ve learned in the future. A benefit Whitney pointed out that I didn’t realize was that you leave your wisdom for the next generation. So compelling was Whitney’s rationale for a journal that I have now undertook a daily journal of my own spiritual progress. I encourage you to read the book and do the same.
Reading this book has been a most profitable experience for me and I enthusiastically recommend the book to anyone. It will open your eyes to disciplines you didn’t realize you needed, restart your passion for disciplines you’ve been neglecting, and enhance the disciplines you do practice. This book has inspired me to memorize, meditate, be silent, and journal regularly, all things I did not do before reading. I want to thank Donald Whitney for this amazing book and once again encourage anyone who is reading this to read this book and undertake some new spiritual disciplines as I did. You will not regret it, I promise you that.
When we think of the discipline of meditation we normally think of Hindus or Buddhists sitting in a weird indian style position with their eyes closed and humming along to a silent song. This is why most Christians don’t practice meditation, it sound too, well, weird. If you think about it though, we are called scripturally to practice it. Psalm 1 says of the blessed man “his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night” (Psalm 1:2). We don’t have to sit in a special position or even hum to really meditate. Meditation “involves filling your mind with God and truth” (Whitney 47). Yet just thinking about it, or filling your mind with knowledge isn’t the only facet of meditation: “The outcome of meditation should be application” (Whitney 54). This is of course true with any activity. If you don’t use your knowledge to change something in your life, then your knowledge is useless. Meditation is essential for effective Bible reading as well. In fact, meditation is so important that Whitney goes so far as to say, “Read less (if necessary) in order to meditate more” (Whitney 55). The bottom line is that you must not just read the Bible, but meditate and apply what you learn from it throughout your day. I can tell you by recent experience that by doing this everyday you will far advance your chances in spiritual warfare.
Memorization is a thing that is admired but rarely practiced. For a long time I had thought the same way; it would be nice to memorize lots of scripture, but I just can’t do it. Whitney claims rightly that this is absurd, we memorize thousands of little things. We memorize song lyrics, social security numbers, phone numbers, addresses, food prices, and yet we can’t memorize the words of the living God? The real problem in memorization is discipline and action. These are essential. This discipline is also linked hand and hand with meditation. Whitney points out that a good place to start is passages that deal with a struggle you have in your life. That way, the verses that you memorize can be found useful in your life fairly easy. From there you can branch out to verses about God glory, beauty, mercy, etc. Because of my reading of this book I have now undertaken the task of memorizing one scripture verse a week. This week I successfully memorized Ephesians 4:29. It can be done, by discipline.
Evangelism is a spiritual discipline that I have struggled with for a long time. I’ll be honest, I love God with a passion, but I have never flat “evangelized” a person. I have never sat down and explained the gospel to a single person. I’ve spoken to a crowd about the gospel, and hopefully my life style has shown the gospel to nonbelievers, but I want to be able to evangelize in a one-to-one basis. Whitney has encouraged me in this assignment and I pray daily that I might have an opportunity to talk to someone about Christ.
Fasting is another of those disciplines, like meditation, that we shy away from for its “fanaticism”. Yet if we look at almost every Biblical hero (Jesus, Paul, Peter, Moses, Elijah to name a few) they fasted. Whitney explains the reasons for fasting and why it shouldn’t be the a thing we fear but something we embrace to deepen our spiritual walk. Please read the book to do it justice, but the main points that Whitney points out is that fasting can be done to strengthen prayer, to seek God’s guidance, to express grief, to seek deliverance or protection, to express repentance to God, to humble oneself before God, to express concern for the work of God, to minister to the needs of others, to overcome temptation and dedicate yourself to God, and to express love and worship to God. After reading the chapter I decided to have a fast sometime in the next few weeks for one of the reasons stated above.
Monks use to spend full months, years, or lives in silence. Although Whitney doesn’t call for this type of dedication (in fact he calls these extremes severely mislead, if not down right sinful), he does call for a time of silence in the life of a christian. Both short periods of time, maybe only a minute or ten, and longer periods, like a day, or sometimes a weekend retreat. This discipline is tightly tied to memorization, meditation, prayer, and Bible reading. In fact, one of the most profitable effects of silence is creating the best possible environment for those four disciplines. In response to this chapter in the book I make sure everyday that my daily time with God is in complete silence and I plan to take a day in the future to be alone with God in silence for an entire day.
One of the unexpected disciplines that I have adopted as a result of reading this book is journaling. In a sense, journaling is simply a written record of your other disciplines. The benefits of this are obvious; if you can organize all your thoughts into a single journal entry, your understanding will only deepen. Also, you can revisit the lessons you’ve learned in the future. A benefit Whitney pointed out that I didn’t realize was that you leave your wisdom for the next generation. So compelling was Whitney’s rationale for a journal that I have now undertook a daily journal of my own spiritual progress. I encourage you to read the book and do the same.
Reading this book has been a most profitable experience for me and I enthusiastically recommend the book to anyone. It will open your eyes to disciplines you didn’t realize you needed, restart your passion for disciplines you’ve been neglecting, and enhance the disciplines you do practice. This book has inspired me to memorize, meditate, be silent, and journal regularly, all things I did not do before reading. I want to thank Donald Whitney for this amazing book and once again encourage anyone who is reading this to read this book and undertake some new spiritual disciplines as I did. You will not regret it, I promise you that.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Meditations on Ephesians 4:29
I’ve recently been reading a book on spiritual disciplines entitled “Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, by Donald Whitney. One of the disciplines that this author stresses is memorization and meditation. These two things I have greatly neglected in my spiritual life. I’ve memorized verses in AWANA and Sunday School, but I’ve never memorized simply for my personal benefit and growth in my relationship to God and my battle against sin. This author emphasizes that a few key Bible verses are not enough. He references Ephesians 6, where it talks about the sword of salvation, that is the Word of God, the Bible, in saying that one of the reasons we fail in many spiritual battles is that we are ill-equipped for battle:
“The Word of God is the ‘sword of the Spirit,’ but the Holy Spirit cannot give you a weapon you have not stored in the armory of your mind. Imagine Yourself in the midst of a decision and needing guidance, or struggling with a difficult temptation and needing victory. The Holy Spirit rushes to your mental arsenal, flings open the door, but all He finds is a John 3:16, a Genesis 1:1, and a Great Commission. Those are great swords, but they’re not made for every battle.” (Whitney 44)
So I decided to equip for battle. But simply putting to memory is just not enough. I want to meditate on it day and night, like the Psalmist in Psalm 119. I want to have these swords polished and sharpened for the days that they are needed. One of the important things in starting out on memorization is to find verses that will pertain to your struggles. I picked Ephesians 4:29 as my first verse to memorize. I struggle with saying things that are stupid, or mean jokes, or taking things too far. So, I decided to memorize a verse that would remind me to not do these things. Below is the verse, and my meditations on it.
“Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.”
Ephesians 4:29
The first thing I noticed when I meditated on this verse was the usage of the word “Corrupting”. This word appears to be important, it describes the type of talk we should stay away from. Some translations use the word “unwholesome” or “harmful” (the version above is the ESV), but I like the word corrupting. The word suggests that there was something that worked, something that was good, and then got messed up somehow. It implies that the sin of “harmful” talk is something that has corrupted what was good. This shows us the attitude we should have toward Christianity. The Bible is not about do’s and do not’s, it is about restoring what sin has corrupted, the human soul. Only God can slowly restore what has been corrupted, first through the shedding of blood (Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross), Salvation, and then the work of the Holy Spirit, Sanctification. This verse deals with the second aspect, the Holy Spirit will help us throw off any corrupting talk from our mouths.
The next phrase in the verse is also interesting: “but only such as is good for building up”. This leaves no doubt about what kind of talk is corrupted: something that tears down. How hard is it to always build up? This seems like an impossible command if you look at it like always having to complement, or always having to be cordial. It doesn’t mean what you say always has to be nice, or soft. Building someone up can sometimes be hurtful for a while to the other person. Wouldn’t you say that a parent being stern with his son after he has stolen something from the market is a good thing. What about the best friend who tells her friend to break up with her boyfriend because he is not a christian? These situations are not compliments, but they are building up. Building up can be done in so many ways other than compliments, that is where the second part of this phrase comes in.
“...as fits the occasion...”. Another great phrase. We must be sure that our building up fits the occasion. Whether we need to be stern, kind, loving, tender, tough, brotherly, fatherly, motherly, self-controlled, angry, or any other attitude is reflected by the occasion. We must be sure our building up fits the occasion. How do we know if it fits the occasion? If it is helpful. Some translations say “profitable for building up”. This might emphasize the point better; we must build up in a profitable way. I think the best way we can prepare for this is to pray that the Holy Spirit might give us wisdom to discern profitable building up in all sorts of occasions we might find ourselves in. (See James 1)
Why do we do all this? “...that it may give grace to those who hear.” We should build up to show grace. Grace is a most unusual thing, an amazing and glorious thing! Jesus showed us the most amazing grace in history with His death and resurrection, all to redeem us from our sin. For nothing we did; we did not deserve it to any extent. We were lost, ugly in our sin, whores and slaves to unrighteousness, a dead people. God loved us however, and he saved us from ourselves. He showed us the most amazing grace that has ever and will ever exist. This is the beauty of Christ. We are recipients of a Divine Grace that we do not deserve, why should we not pass along this great gift through our mouths. Let no corrupting talk come out of the mouths of those who have been given a grace that has restored their souls! Give grace because you have received it! What a beautiful way to talk, what a beautiful way to live, what a beautiful Savior to give us the chance!
“The Word of God is the ‘sword of the Spirit,’ but the Holy Spirit cannot give you a weapon you have not stored in the armory of your mind. Imagine Yourself in the midst of a decision and needing guidance, or struggling with a difficult temptation and needing victory. The Holy Spirit rushes to your mental arsenal, flings open the door, but all He finds is a John 3:16, a Genesis 1:1, and a Great Commission. Those are great swords, but they’re not made for every battle.” (Whitney 44)
So I decided to equip for battle. But simply putting to memory is just not enough. I want to meditate on it day and night, like the Psalmist in Psalm 119. I want to have these swords polished and sharpened for the days that they are needed. One of the important things in starting out on memorization is to find verses that will pertain to your struggles. I picked Ephesians 4:29 as my first verse to memorize. I struggle with saying things that are stupid, or mean jokes, or taking things too far. So, I decided to memorize a verse that would remind me to not do these things. Below is the verse, and my meditations on it.
“Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.”
Ephesians 4:29
The first thing I noticed when I meditated on this verse was the usage of the word “Corrupting”. This word appears to be important, it describes the type of talk we should stay away from. Some translations use the word “unwholesome” or “harmful” (the version above is the ESV), but I like the word corrupting. The word suggests that there was something that worked, something that was good, and then got messed up somehow. It implies that the sin of “harmful” talk is something that has corrupted what was good. This shows us the attitude we should have toward Christianity. The Bible is not about do’s and do not’s, it is about restoring what sin has corrupted, the human soul. Only God can slowly restore what has been corrupted, first through the shedding of blood (Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross), Salvation, and then the work of the Holy Spirit, Sanctification. This verse deals with the second aspect, the Holy Spirit will help us throw off any corrupting talk from our mouths.
The next phrase in the verse is also interesting: “but only such as is good for building up”. This leaves no doubt about what kind of talk is corrupted: something that tears down. How hard is it to always build up? This seems like an impossible command if you look at it like always having to complement, or always having to be cordial. It doesn’t mean what you say always has to be nice, or soft. Building someone up can sometimes be hurtful for a while to the other person. Wouldn’t you say that a parent being stern with his son after he has stolen something from the market is a good thing. What about the best friend who tells her friend to break up with her boyfriend because he is not a christian? These situations are not compliments, but they are building up. Building up can be done in so many ways other than compliments, that is where the second part of this phrase comes in.
“...as fits the occasion...”. Another great phrase. We must be sure that our building up fits the occasion. Whether we need to be stern, kind, loving, tender, tough, brotherly, fatherly, motherly, self-controlled, angry, or any other attitude is reflected by the occasion. We must be sure our building up fits the occasion. How do we know if it fits the occasion? If it is helpful. Some translations say “profitable for building up”. This might emphasize the point better; we must build up in a profitable way. I think the best way we can prepare for this is to pray that the Holy Spirit might give us wisdom to discern profitable building up in all sorts of occasions we might find ourselves in. (See James 1)
Why do we do all this? “...that it may give grace to those who hear.” We should build up to show grace. Grace is a most unusual thing, an amazing and glorious thing! Jesus showed us the most amazing grace in history with His death and resurrection, all to redeem us from our sin. For nothing we did; we did not deserve it to any extent. We were lost, ugly in our sin, whores and slaves to unrighteousness, a dead people. God loved us however, and he saved us from ourselves. He showed us the most amazing grace that has ever and will ever exist. This is the beauty of Christ. We are recipients of a Divine Grace that we do not deserve, why should we not pass along this great gift through our mouths. Let no corrupting talk come out of the mouths of those who have been given a grace that has restored their souls! Give grace because you have received it! What a beautiful way to talk, what a beautiful way to live, what a beautiful Savior to give us the chance!
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Picking Flowers
Most people would agree that parenting is defined in the large crimes of a child; I would disagree. Now, sure it takes great parenting to deal with the times you find pot in a ziplock bag under her pillow, or a Playboy magazine under his bed, but these moments might never come if you are a champion parent in the small crimes. My dad taught me this lesson one Sunday in early April.
I was nine or ten, a kid. We lived in a town called Apple Valley, my dad was the pastor of a small Baptist church. You’re probably picturing some town in Vermont with hills filled with the scent of freshly grown apples as a cool wind blows north from the orchard. You would be wrong. The name Apple Valley is a lie. Located in California’s Mojave Desert, probably the only Apple tree in Apple Valley was grown by an eighty-something lady in her last years. The San Gabriel mountains separated us from the palm trees and beaches of Southern California; we were the nowhere outside of somewhere. Instead of wooded hills we had fields of dirt and sand filled with tumble weeds and Joshua Trees. Nothing green grows in Apple Valley except by costly irrigation and constant care by a green thumb. Flowers are rare.
On a particular April Sunday the service had contained my youthful energy to a breaking point. Once the final song had been sung, me and my gang trotted out of the sanctuary into the spring sun. I had three main friends back then. Tim was the tall one in the group; he had black hair and a five o’clock shadow by the time he was ten. Kevin was skinny and was the fastest, also the most full of energy. Kev could run a mile and not even return winded. Troy had a hilariously high pitched laugh and was the rebel of the group. I was the hands down leader of our little group; I usually came up with the things we would do to fill up time.
That particular day we just sat in the front of the church building. The church’s concrete courtyard was surrounded by a blacktop parking lot on one side and the upside-down dixie cup-like church building on the other. Flanking the entrance doors were two squares of dirt, supported about three feet from the ground by four walls of stone slabs. On these small walls is where we found ourselves that Sunday; probably talking about Star Wars.
Temptation entered our little minds when the desert wind began blowing across the courtyard. Like the apple to Eve was a strong desert wind to four bored boys. A weird trick of architecture created a swirled wind against one side of the church. If you threw something into this whirlwind, whatever you threw swirled up to the heavens before flying out to desert. We had plenty of time to kill before our parents finished their after-church conversation hour, so we began looking for things to throw.
Now to understand the depth of our rebellion you have to know two things. First, remember what I told you before; we lived in a desert where green things are discouraged. Two, you have to know Ray Harris.
The first thing you noticed about Ray Harris was that he was big. Maybe over 350 pounds. He had a grey and black peppered beard that might have belonged to Abraham, and his breath always stank. His voice was deep and raspy when he taught the mysteries of Revelation to my Sunday School class. Ray Harris was a great and old man. He cleaned and gardened the Church and the Christian School for next to no salary, or maybe for free; I can’t remember. What I do remember is the many times I would be in my dad’s office and hear Ray coming in from watering what plants the church had, heaving his bad breath all over the hallway. Everyone in the church loved Ray Harris.
Going back to that windy Sunday afternoon in April. Ray had just planted beautiful pink and purple flowers around the single bushes that grew in either plot of the dirt flanking the church doors. He had probably spent his whole Saturday afternoon crouched over, the desert sun beating down on his old body, raking those plots of dirt into submission. The same plots of dirt that four bored boys sat around after church, looking for something to throw into the gusty wind. The flowers were the obvious choice; bright so you could easily follow their flight and light enough that the wind could easily give them wings to fly away. I can’t even remember if I had a second thought about Ray Harris, or about his hard labor or his lost Saturday; I just picked those flowers right out of their prepared soil. The flowers did indeed take off on the whirlwind, swirling around and around and around until flying high into the cloudless sky and disappearing towards the mountains. We picked and picked those flowers till nothing was left of Ray Harris’s handy work but a few roots and tilled soil.
And that was it, I thought.
Once the fun of flowers and wind had been exhausted, we probably played tag or some such game till our parents took us one by one into vans and SUV’s back to our homes. I was taken home in our green van without having a second thought of my crime. The Sunday afternoon then progressed normally: football and food. Until, that is, my dad asked me the question. I don’t know if he noticed the flowerless garden or someone saw us in the act and ratted us out. All I know is that my innocent Sunday was disrupted by the question my father asked me: “Did you pick the flowers out front of the church today?”
I was truthful. The story spilled out of my mouth; from picking to whirlwind I told all. I don’t know if any of my friends got in any trouble over the flower incident, but I sure did. My dad rarely got mad at me, rarely. I didn’t get in trouble much, but I got in trouble that Sunday. I believe it was the last time I was ever spanked.
It wasn’t that I had picked and thrown flowers, that wasn’t the crime; it was that I had picked Ray Harris’s flowers and thrown them. Respect. It was all about respect. My dad wanted me to have respect for everyone I ever met. Ray Harris had worked hard at those flowers, and I had destroyed them for my own pleasure. I had placed my interests above Ray Harris’s. That little flower picking was an expression of a selfish soul. My dad saw this and put a stop to it. Put other’s needs ahead of your own and respect others; these values my dad made sure I remembered.
For years afterward I wondered why my dad was so heated over such a small thing. He never got mad at me, but something about that flower incident got him worked up. Later, though, I recognized the beauty of my dad’s parenting; he solved big problems at little times. My dad understood that if I could respect something as small as Ray Harris’s flowers, I could respect my mom enough to be back by curfew; I could respect my teachers enough to do my best in class; I could respect myself enough to decline an offered bag of weed. My dad understood this. Ray Harris’s flowers may have saved me from many a sinful path.
Parents listen up: enough small crime lessons learned, and the big crimes might never come.
I was nine or ten, a kid. We lived in a town called Apple Valley, my dad was the pastor of a small Baptist church. You’re probably picturing some town in Vermont with hills filled with the scent of freshly grown apples as a cool wind blows north from the orchard. You would be wrong. The name Apple Valley is a lie. Located in California’s Mojave Desert, probably the only Apple tree in Apple Valley was grown by an eighty-something lady in her last years. The San Gabriel mountains separated us from the palm trees and beaches of Southern California; we were the nowhere outside of somewhere. Instead of wooded hills we had fields of dirt and sand filled with tumble weeds and Joshua Trees. Nothing green grows in Apple Valley except by costly irrigation and constant care by a green thumb. Flowers are rare.
On a particular April Sunday the service had contained my youthful energy to a breaking point. Once the final song had been sung, me and my gang trotted out of the sanctuary into the spring sun. I had three main friends back then. Tim was the tall one in the group; he had black hair and a five o’clock shadow by the time he was ten. Kevin was skinny and was the fastest, also the most full of energy. Kev could run a mile and not even return winded. Troy had a hilariously high pitched laugh and was the rebel of the group. I was the hands down leader of our little group; I usually came up with the things we would do to fill up time.
That particular day we just sat in the front of the church building. The church’s concrete courtyard was surrounded by a blacktop parking lot on one side and the upside-down dixie cup-like church building on the other. Flanking the entrance doors were two squares of dirt, supported about three feet from the ground by four walls of stone slabs. On these small walls is where we found ourselves that Sunday; probably talking about Star Wars.
Temptation entered our little minds when the desert wind began blowing across the courtyard. Like the apple to Eve was a strong desert wind to four bored boys. A weird trick of architecture created a swirled wind against one side of the church. If you threw something into this whirlwind, whatever you threw swirled up to the heavens before flying out to desert. We had plenty of time to kill before our parents finished their after-church conversation hour, so we began looking for things to throw.
Now to understand the depth of our rebellion you have to know two things. First, remember what I told you before; we lived in a desert where green things are discouraged. Two, you have to know Ray Harris.
The first thing you noticed about Ray Harris was that he was big. Maybe over 350 pounds. He had a grey and black peppered beard that might have belonged to Abraham, and his breath always stank. His voice was deep and raspy when he taught the mysteries of Revelation to my Sunday School class. Ray Harris was a great and old man. He cleaned and gardened the Church and the Christian School for next to no salary, or maybe for free; I can’t remember. What I do remember is the many times I would be in my dad’s office and hear Ray coming in from watering what plants the church had, heaving his bad breath all over the hallway. Everyone in the church loved Ray Harris.
Going back to that windy Sunday afternoon in April. Ray had just planted beautiful pink and purple flowers around the single bushes that grew in either plot of the dirt flanking the church doors. He had probably spent his whole Saturday afternoon crouched over, the desert sun beating down on his old body, raking those plots of dirt into submission. The same plots of dirt that four bored boys sat around after church, looking for something to throw into the gusty wind. The flowers were the obvious choice; bright so you could easily follow their flight and light enough that the wind could easily give them wings to fly away. I can’t even remember if I had a second thought about Ray Harris, or about his hard labor or his lost Saturday; I just picked those flowers right out of their prepared soil. The flowers did indeed take off on the whirlwind, swirling around and around and around until flying high into the cloudless sky and disappearing towards the mountains. We picked and picked those flowers till nothing was left of Ray Harris’s handy work but a few roots and tilled soil.
And that was it, I thought.
Once the fun of flowers and wind had been exhausted, we probably played tag or some such game till our parents took us one by one into vans and SUV’s back to our homes. I was taken home in our green van without having a second thought of my crime. The Sunday afternoon then progressed normally: football and food. Until, that is, my dad asked me the question. I don’t know if he noticed the flowerless garden or someone saw us in the act and ratted us out. All I know is that my innocent Sunday was disrupted by the question my father asked me: “Did you pick the flowers out front of the church today?”
I was truthful. The story spilled out of my mouth; from picking to whirlwind I told all. I don’t know if any of my friends got in any trouble over the flower incident, but I sure did. My dad rarely got mad at me, rarely. I didn’t get in trouble much, but I got in trouble that Sunday. I believe it was the last time I was ever spanked.
It wasn’t that I had picked and thrown flowers, that wasn’t the crime; it was that I had picked Ray Harris’s flowers and thrown them. Respect. It was all about respect. My dad wanted me to have respect for everyone I ever met. Ray Harris had worked hard at those flowers, and I had destroyed them for my own pleasure. I had placed my interests above Ray Harris’s. That little flower picking was an expression of a selfish soul. My dad saw this and put a stop to it. Put other’s needs ahead of your own and respect others; these values my dad made sure I remembered.
For years afterward I wondered why my dad was so heated over such a small thing. He never got mad at me, but something about that flower incident got him worked up. Later, though, I recognized the beauty of my dad’s parenting; he solved big problems at little times. My dad understood that if I could respect something as small as Ray Harris’s flowers, I could respect my mom enough to be back by curfew; I could respect my teachers enough to do my best in class; I could respect myself enough to decline an offered bag of weed. My dad understood this. Ray Harris’s flowers may have saved me from many a sinful path.
Parents listen up: enough small crime lessons learned, and the big crimes might never come.
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