This, for now, is the end of the Bible Blog.

Maybe forever.  I really don't know.

I feel God telling me that I need to cut loose this blog and the podcast that goes with it and focus on family right now.  If He wants to have me pick this up again then He will in His time. 

Thank you to everyone who has read this and I hope that it encouraged or challenged you somewhere along the line.

(Listen to the Podcast at www.bibleblogpodcast.com or subscribe at iTunes.)

One of the many misconceptions that many Christians have is that they can set up their hopes and dreams and that God is going to bring them to you if you just stay faithful in praying for them.  It's a belief that many hold onto because of the passage in Psalm 37:3-4 (ESV) that says "Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart." It's easy to take that passage and then say that you love the Lord and you love His ways and His will but you cling to that which you want to do and think that just because you're feeling it that it has to be the Lord's will for your life.

It's understandable...there are so many devotions out there (and one would have to assume it's been taught in many Bible studies) that tell you to grab on to your dreams...the "name it and claim it" kind of thing...and that your will is automatically God's will if you love Him.  The problem is that's not the whole picture of Scripture and God is not some Holy Online Shopping site where you pick what you want and He sends it to you priority mail.

The next verse...verse 5...says "Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act."  That means we have to give God everything and that includes our hopes and dreams.  It's entirely possible that what we think we want is not at all what we really need in our lives and that God has something different in mind for us.  It's entirely possible that what God wants for us is what we would consider horrible suffering.  There's no promise in the Bible that we're going to have a safe, comfortable life where we get luxuries and the things the world considers "great" things.  If you look at the lives of many people who followed Christ in the Scriptures their lives were anything but what we would call "happy" in terms of how the world defines happiness.  We can't let that mindset enter our mindset with Jesus.  Only when we get our will in line with God's will we have any chance at attaining true happiness.

Now, it's very possible that God could bless you with your dream...but in that case your dream was really His dream.  The more we set up expectations of God that he's going to do X, Y and Z for us the more we're going to feel disappointed and disillusioned when those things do not come to pass.  The enemy is going to use those moments to try and make us feel as if God doesn't care about it when in reality we brought it on our ourselves by not focusing on Him and His plan for us but our own plan.  Making ourselves our god instead of God.

It's hard to give up your dreams because we don't like the phrase "give up."  It makes us feel like we're quitters or that we don't have what it takes to endure for what we want to attain.  However, if what we want to attain is God's plan in our lives we have to give up all that is not of Him.  That means sometimes you have to take the desires of your heart and give up on them so that if they're not what He wants He can replace them with something else.

(Listen to the Podcast at www.bibleblogpodcast.com or subscribe at iTunes.)

First, thank you to everyone who sent notes of support and encouragement after yesterday's blog.  It's been a very trying 24 hours for us and your prayers and other support has been very welcomed and very appreciated.

What's interesting in this is that Satan has used this opportunity to attack.  I guess it shouldn't be a surprise that he would try to pounce on us at a time of tragedy to make us feel anger and resentment toward people but it's still an interesting situation to be aware of what he tries to do and then watch it as it happens.

Mostly it's been of the "why hasn't this person called you" variety.  It seems to be one of the enemy's quickest weapons in a time of tragedy to try and make it appear that someone else just doesn't care when they're someone...a pastor, a close friend, a family member...who should at the very least be making a phone call to make sure you and your family is doing well.   In times when you're facing tough situations, the minutes seem to magnify and can lose all sense of perspective so it seems like someone who might just be out of town or hasn't heard the news yet is actually avoiding you or ignoring you in a time of trouble.  Maybe that person is trying to find time to see you personally instead of an e-mail or phone call.  You have no idea of knowing but the enemy will come in and try to make it appear like they're just oblivious to your family's needs in a time of sorrow.

It makes me think of John 8:44 (ESV) where Jesus says "You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies."  It does no good to lie when everyone is ready for it and knows you're not telling the truth.  Lies work when someone's in a place that the subject of that lie seems to be real and true.  Thus, when you're in a time of tragedy and someone expected to be there makes no appearance, you can begin to think things about them or any organization they're with that may be completely opposite of what is really happening.   You start to wonder if the church that does tons of outreaches but is too busy to help a member's family who lost their home in a fire is really fulfilling their obligations to their fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.  Satan will be all too ready to fan those flames of anger when it's possible that person just simply doesn't know or can't get to you yet.

Just like the tragedy that faced you wasn't something you planned to have happen so too is it unexpected for them.  They could have planned to be out of town for something for a few days and found out what happened while on the way to the event.  They can't break away and they don't want to call knowing they'd only have two minutes to talk.  There could be a thousand valid reasons for them to have not contacted you and you cannot buy the lies that Satan throws at you when he thinks you'reat your most vulnerable.

Now, I'm not going to say this is a blanket excuse for people dropping the ball or simply neglecting the call of Christ in our lives to comfort one another in times of sorrow.   You might be in a church where the pastor simply is just too busy to call a member of the church when they've lost a loved one or they've lost their job or lost their home.  (That may say something about the size of their church that something as monumental as a death isn't important enough to rise to the pastor's day planner but that's a whole different blog!)   In those cases, at least someone from the pastoral or elder staff should check on the family and make sure there's no need the church could help fill.  It's NOT something that should be left to a small group leader or someone that organizes a weekly Bible study.  

You'll automatically take note of who took the time to show concern and who didn't without having to work at it.  In the weeks after whatever you're facing when you start to think about these things try to keep it in perspective of the entire sitaution.  If the pastor is on a mission trip to Mexico and doesn't call you the first week they're back in the US it's probably because they've been overwhelmed with the trip.  If the same pastor's out playing paintball with the youth of the church and doesn't call in a week...then maybe you have a point. 

Most of all, just pray and seek God in this time regardless of how hard things are going to be.  Dismiss the negative thoughts right now and don't dwell on any of that because it won't help your healing. 

(Listen to the Podcast at www.bibleblogpodcast.com or subscribe at iTunes.)

It's 3:30 am and I'm just getting home from the hospital.

We lost the second baby in less than a month.

I know that I usually these blogs are more informational or inspirational or try to teach a lesson rather than give you a "blog" about my life.  I may tell stories involving my life but I try to put a Scriptural lean to it so that the lesson gives you something to consider when thinking about God but right now I can't think of a good way to do it.  So I'm just going to ramble and if you want to go along then go along.

July 7th was supposed to be a day of celebration and joy for those connected to the Daily Audio Bible.  We were remembering the move of God on 07-07-07 by setting aside the day to walk with God.  I had taken the day off work and I went on a 22 mile prayer walk just to spend time with our Father similar to what I had done the year prior (although that was only 17 miles.)  I expected God to meet me and that we would have a day where I would praise Him and just allow Him to move in my life.  I expected joy and encouragement and an uplifting day as I've seen in the praise reports of those at the DAB who dedicated the day to the Lord.

Unfortunately, that day has been the start of a trial period that has pretty much killed me.

At the opening of the walk, I had a phone call at the prayers of my ex-wife had been answered for a job that was two hours further away than she already lives with my two sons.  This means that I wouldn't be able to be at every baseball game or parent teacher conference or choir recital.  God had asked me months prior if I would give up my children for Him and I said if I knew it was Him I could do it.  Well, He obviously asked me because He knew this was going to be happening.  I know that it's a good thing for my children and that my ex-wife has given her life to the Lord and is following His leading in her life.  I can't stand in the way of God's will for her life and that of my sons.

Still, that wasn't easy for me nor was it something that I considered joy.  I love my sons and I take my responsibility of being their father very seriously because the Lord entrusted me to be the earthly father to those children.  But God saw fit to take them further away from me.  It hurts.

But that wasn't the biggest bomb to drop during my prayer walk.

With two miles left to go in the walk, I get a phone call from my wife.  She was asking me about what I had planned to do for the rest of the evening and we chatted about it.  She said that she really needed to spend time with me that night but wouldn't tell me why on the phone.

When she picked me up at the end of my walk, she informed me that she had a miscarraige just before she had called me to see where I was on my walk.

So the result of my day dedicated to the Lord, seeking His will for my life, seeking direction for my future, seeking to see if He really was calling me into ministry was to have my two sons taken further away and to have one child completely taken away.

That was the start of what I've been calling a Holy Radio Silence.  God's basically just stopped talking to me and has left me to wander in a very deep, very dark desert.  I kept doing this blog and the podcast because I didn't really feel that I was supposed to stop doing it but then I really wasn't feeling anything from God.   That really was the driving force behind the blog last week where I said I really didn't have anything to say.  I felt empty, I felt dry, I felt as if things were being ripped away from me again like I was in the sequel to Job.  And like Job, God wasn't telling me why these things were happening.

Not that it's our place to demand to know why if God doesn't want us to know.   We're to trust that His plan is perfect and that we'll find out what we need to know.

Two days ago, it seemed like perhaps the desert was coming to an end and that God was starting to move again.  We had something happen where my wife would have ended up along a highway out of gas if I didn't go with her at the last second because she didn't have money with her to fill the tank.   It seemed like a God moment and we thought perhaps this season of trial and silence was ending.

Then we had what seemed like a miracle about to happen...my wife had a positive pregnancy test.  You see, even after the miscarriage she was having reactions in her body as if she was still pregnant.  She originally was pregnant with twins and lost one.  One friend of mine called it a "miracle baby" and we were starting to allow ourselves to think that God was blessing us after all.

Then Sunday arrived.

I sat in church and listened to a missionary and heard the pastor talking about the call of the Lord.  In the midst of the confusion I've been feeling and the pain and anguish over whether or not the Lord was really calling me or if all this time I've been merely chasing my own thoughts toward serving Him.  At the end of the sermon, the pastor said that if anyone was feeling the Lord calling them into ministry that they should follow that urging and come forward to be prayed for by the elders of the church.  Well, I won't go into the details of what happened because I'm already emotionally shredded but let's say that God made it clear He doesn't want me coming into His service in some kind of full-time ministry capacity.

That pretty much crushed my spirit.  Crushed it down into powder.  But...if God doesn't want me in full-time ministry then I don't want to do what He doesn't want me to do because it would only do more harm than good.  So now I have no idea what the Lord wants from me if anything at all.

So after having that weighing down on me all day...the feelings of anger, despair, frustration, confusion...my wife starts feeling pain in her lower regions around 8pm.  Within in an hour, it's so bad I had to put her in the car and take her to the emergency room.

At 2am the doctor informs us that we've lost the second baby.

I had a friend last week make a reference that I'm truly understanding the book of Job now and I can't dispute that anymore.  The thing I take away is that God never told Job why anything happened to him.  He blessed him at the end but He never said "Job, this is why this happened..."  I sit here typing this knowing that I am not going to know why these things have happened and seem to keep happening to me.  There's an odd peace that comes when you realize that God's just not going to tell you and so you can't dwell on it.

But where I go from here, I don't know.  It's not like I can walk away from God because I know the truth.  It's like Peter said in John 6:68-69 (ESV) "Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”   God's taken two children from my wife and I yet I cannot walk away from Him because I know all of this to be true.

I'm having no choice but to live Proverbs 3:5 (ESV) "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding" because right now I have absolutely no understanding why the Lord would take two children from us.  I don't understand why He would tell someone who wants to give their life to Him in full time ministry service "no, I don't want you doing that."

I also know that Isaiah 55:8-11 says : "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.  “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but sit shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it." 

I'm at the place of faith without logic, trust without security.  And it's not fun.  Not at all.  Even when I know there is some reason for this in God's perfect and Holy will. 

I'm sorry I'm not wrapping this up with some tidy little lesson for you to take away.  I'm sure that there are those of you reading this who are in much worse shape than I am in (although there are more things that what I have shared with you here.)  All I can say is that when you really let the truth of God's word sink into your heart you'll find that it really is a foundation that cannot be moved because you realize that no matter what happens and whatever God throws your way there is nowhere else you can go.

So I'm going to close this written blog, record the podcast and try to lay down and sleep although I don't feel like I can rest at all.  I'm exhausted but not tired.  Ironically, my spiritual self feels that way as well.

(Listen to the Podcast at www.bibleblogpodcast.com or subscribe at iTunes.)

I was listening to a song by Nichole Nordeman while outside working and a story that she shared at a concert just kept coming into my head to the point I felt like I had no choice but to come inside and write it down and share it with you.  It's the story of a song from her "Brave" album called "Hold On" that if you look at the lyrics is dedicated to a woman named Meredith. 

When I heard Nichole tell the story about the song and why it was dedicated to Meredith I was at a concert where she was opening for Casting Crowns.  She said that Meredith was a woman that had come on tour with her as part of another group and that since they were the only women in the tour Meredith latched onto her.  Without spending pages writing the whole story, let's just say Meredith's clingy nature finally landed on Nichole's last nerve and she basically asked to be left alone which Meredith apparently went and did for the rest of the tour.

When Nichole returned from the tour she had forgotten all about Meredith when a business associate called and asked if she had heard about Meredith.  Nichole said she answered with something along the lines of who was she annoying this time.  Nichole said that there was a minute of silence on the phone and then the person she was talking to said that Meredith had killed herself.

Immediately the guilt fell heavy on Nichole and she thought about all the things that she would have said had she known Meredith was in a desperate place.  Then she looked back at the time they had spent together and realized that Meredith was showing that desperation all along.

But this blog isn't about the story of Meredith (no matter how tragic and no matter how much we can learn from it.)

No, this blog is about the reaction of the crowd at this concert as Nichole was telling the story.

I was listening to the story and it was just resonating so deeply with my soul because I know that one of the major problems in churches today is that people really don't care about each other beyond the superficial.  They don't want to invest themselves in another person because their lives are hectic or they have a lot of stress or the kids are driving them up the wall and they just don't have the energy to stop and see that someone near them (a friend, family member, co-worker, church brother or sister) is feeling like there's nothing left for them...not even God.

So as Nichole was talking about Meredith and the tragic lesson that she learned when Meredith ended her own life I looked around the concert arena.  Hardly anyone was paying attention to what Nichole was saying on the stage.   The teenagers behind me were looking at their Casting Crowns CD that one of the band members had apparently signed for them or was going to (I didn't care to listen that closely.)  People were talking among themselves and you could see people streaming for the concession stands and product booths.  A couple thousand people were having someone lay out in front of them a very stern but politely worded warning that right now you could know someone who is planning to end their own life because you're too busy to even give them any attention that says they matter as a human being.

Note that I don't say that they matter to you.  That they matter as a human being.  That they're not just a bunch of cells that are there solely to serve your purposes or just help convert oxygen into carbon dioxide.  That feeling of abandonment is going to go so much deeper than just rejection by humans...they're going to have that translate into feeling abandoned by God and that's when people take desperate and fatal actions like Meredith had done.

You see, we are God's hands and feet.  We're called to show compassion and love to each other and not just when it's convenient for us or when it doesn't get on our nerves.  We're not supposed to be showing a passive kind of love and concern that only reaches out to help if someone makes an appointment or happens to be standing near us when we have a free moment and the whim of actually helping someone strikes us. 

Look at these scripture passages:

"“Finally, brothers, rejoice. Aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.” - 2 Corinthians 13:11 (ESV)"

Note that it doesn't say "comfort one another until you get tired of them being in pain and then just tell them to find a counselor and go watch Oprah." 

“Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.” - Colossians 3:12-15 (ESV)

Compassion, patience and bearing with one another.  Again, the Word doesn't tell us to do that until we feel annoyed by the fact his person seems to be in a pit and they just won't pull out of it when you tell them Jesus loves them and that they need to rejoice in their situations 'cause that's what Paul said to do. 

I'll bet that most of the people who ignored Nichole Nordeman's story that night believe in the theory of compassion to a point.  I can't prove that and I can't claim to prove it but if the story of a woman killing herself when those around her basically discarded her and said with their actions that she was too much of a hassle to befriend doesn't make you want to stop and think rather than go buy a soft pretzel before Casting Crowns hits the stage then I would bet compassion for others isn't high on the priority list. 

And it needs to be.

So I'm not going to forget Meredith either although I never met her.  I'll remember that she taught me a lesson through the impact she had on Nichole and also from the complete lack of impact it had on almost everyone I could see at Nichole's concert.

(Listen to the Podcast at www.bibleblogpodcast.com or subscribe at iTunes.)

There's a fine line between welcoming someone and completely humiliating them.  The problem is that as believers we have to do the first one while being careful not to do the second and know that the line moves for each person that we face.   It would be great is we had a one size fits all solution so that we knew if someone visited our church or small group or other ministry event that we could do X, Y and Z to make them feel welcome without feeling embarassed or put on the spot.  Unfortunately, that's a sliding target and ask anyone who target shoots how much more difficult it is to get a bullseye on a moving target.

If someone shows up and we just go about our business and let them alone you'll have a few that are grateful no one made a scene but the majority will leave wondering why no one bothered to say hello to them.  They'll wonder where the love is that Christians are supposed to be showing to the world and it will be magnified if they see people being openly friendly to others they know (likely previous members of the church or group) while not saying a word to the "new" people.  Chances are they'll leave and not only have a bad impression of that group but also Christians in general.

Likewise, if we go too far in the other direction, we can scare people off.  The world tries to hard to paint Christians as some kind of "cult" that is trying to "indoctrinate" people that those who haven't set foot inside a church building come in with a mountain of reservations.  If they walk in and every person is running at them to welcome them, tell them about the church's programs, invite them to every small group, rush them over to introduce them to the pastor, point them out during the service to welcome them and then shove mountains of printed materials in their faces you'll like have them never come back if they actually stay to the end of the service itself.

So what do we do when it comes to "new" people at our church, our forum, our small group, etc.?  As trite as this is going to sound I think we should take what Paul says in Romans 12:9 and live it..."Let love be genuine." (ESV)  Some will say I'm taking the verse of out context but in reality the verse is very simple...we're not to fake love for the sake of "showing" love.  We need to be real in what we do. 

So if you're at your group and someone new is there and you feel down or stressed or you're barely hanging on yourself then don't go over and force yourself to greet them.  If you don't feel the Spirit leading you to do it then you should follow the Spirit's leading and trust that someone else in the church or the group is going to be lead to do it.  If you do feel lead, come at them with something like "Hi, are you new?  I don't mean to jump on you if someone else has already welcomed you but I didn't want you to feel left out."  If you take that approach, even if someone is feeling overwhelmed it defuses the situation a bit because you appear to them as just wanting to make sure they weren't ignored.  People can appreciate someone making sure they're not ignored.

Yes, it's a fine line.  Yes, it's a moving target.  I wish I could give you a one size fits all answer for this but ultimately it's our listening to the guidance of the Holy Spirit that will help us make the right decision in each of these situations. 

(Listen to the Podcast at www.bibleblogpodcast.com or subscribe at iTunes.)

Most long time readers know that I love music (and if you didn't, the fact I just wrapped up my fifth song lyric week recently would be a hint) and there's a song by Weezer that just stuck in my head from the moment I saw it...."Pork and Beans."  Now, the song itself is catchy like their other hits but what really put this over the top for me was the video.

If you haven't seen it, they've made the video look like something from YouTube and it contains many of the people who've had the more popular YouTube videos like the "Leave Britney Alone" guy and the ones who set off the two liter bottles of Mentos and Coke.  They even wrangled Miss South Carolina who had a little trouble with a question during the Miss Teen USA pageant to make an appearance to badly lip sync along with the song.

It struck me what people will do to gain exposure on a wide scale.  These folks will have these clips running around and haunting them forever but they're reveling in their fifteen minutes of fame and the feelings of love and acceptance that they think are coming their direction from the people who view the clips and tell them how much they love to watch them.  Once the novelty of these things wear off these folks will go back their regular lives and there's going to be a huge void left behind.  A few will come through it just fine but others are going to have problems from self-esteem issues to anger issues because they want to regain that moment of glory they felt because a million folks watched them on YouTube.

Riches is so often thought of in terms of money but riches can also be in accolades or other kinds of objects that provide joy and satisfaction on some temporary level. These in and of themselves are not sinful but when you place them ahead of Christ and serving Him is when you're going to run into problems.

Paul wrote to Timothy talking about the financially rich but I think if you take a bigger perspective of riches you can see a lot of meaning in 1 Timothy 6:17-19 (ESV): "As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life."

There is nothing as uncertain as the riches of popularity.  All it can take is one person to spread a nasty rumor on the internet and you could go from hero to villain overnight.  The one thing that doesn't change is that God is in control of all things and He can provide you with things that satisfy without having to worry about it fading if the neighbors don't want to see it anymore. 

So we need to take hold of that which is truly life...Christ...and realize that while other things in life are nice they aren't necessary.

(Listen to the Podcast at www.bibleblogpodcast.com or subscribe at iTunes.)

When I write these blogs I try to be completely honest about what I'm thinking and feeling and how God's word is changing and shaping my life.   Every day when I sit down to type out the blog or record the podcast I just have something come into my head and I start writing it down.  Today, I really don't have anything coming to you.  I feel as empty as a clay pot in the middle of the Sahara.

I pour myself out every in these blogs, in the lives of co-workers and church members and friends and it just seems that I've reached a point where there's nothing left to give.  When I wrote yesterday's blog, I wrote as much for myself and the persepective of being someone at the end of the chain.  Someone who is wondering when they started fliming Job 2 and when I was cast in the lead role.

My brain is screaming to not type this and to not post it and share this with you because a Christian leader is supposed to be someone who has it all together and completely trusts in God and never wavers in their faith.  They're someone who is a solid rock that you can build a megachurch upon and then throw the service on a satellite so it can run on your local television stations at 3am.  I have these feelings like if I tell you that I feel as far from God as you can get without actually not believing in Him that the four of you who subscribe to this podcast will cancel that subscription and start listening to Joel Osteen podcasts.

I'll be honest.  I just don't care.

I can't sit here and type a blog and record a podcast that says everything is beautiful and I'm dancing around singing hallelujah.  That's not where I am right now and I have no doubt that there are others out there feeling the exact same things that just don't want to say anything because we're afraid someone will think less of us.  We have to stop thinking that we cannot admit weakness to each other because somehow that's a mark of not being a believer in Christ.

We read passages of Scripture that talk about weakness yet we as Christians in the modern day try to hide every single weakness because the world pounces upon weakness as if it's a bad thing. Yet look at Paul from yesterday where he talked about being in despair to the point of really regretting that he was still alive.

Look at this passage from 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 (ESV) where Paul is talking about the thorn in his flesh that he begged the Lord to take from him: "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."

Yet do we boast of our weaknesses?  I know that I don't normally although today I'm taking the step of actually doing that.  Fighting those feelings that anyone who admits weakness has that people will think you're just looking for an ego stroke or crying out for attention because that's the only reasons you would admit being weak.  Until we admit and embrace our weakness then we really cannot understand the full power of God and that includes laying down our pride enough to admit that we're just barely making it through the day.

And I know that I'm not alone in this.  Right now there are pastors and teachers and elders and deacons and speakers and housewives and auto mechanics and Pepsi machine restockers that are feeling that same weakness where they're crying out and screaming to our Father and for some reason His perfect plan is that they face hardship and trial and what we convieniently call the "desert times" or "time in the valley."  I know that what Solomon shared in Ecclesiastes is right on the money and that these are the times of growth and learning.  These are the times when God really shapes our hearts and molds us into more of what He is going to want us to be.  That doesn't make it suck any less. 

I find it funny that thirty minutes ago I sat here feeling like I had nothing to say and now I have a decent sized blog and probably a five or six minute podcast already done and I feel like I could keep on going about this.  Talk about how it's not a sin to feel this way.   Talk about spiritual warfare and how it's going on all around us and that when we feel these things it could simply be God allowing those evil spirits to challenge us much like he allowed Satan to go after Job.   Talk about how it's unfair for those of us in churches or who support other ministries to put pastors and leaders on such a pedestal that they can't admit their times of weakness for fear of losing a job or audience. 

But I'll stop here for today with just a simple word of encouragement to those who feel like me that they're at the end of their spiritual rope and someone coated the knob at the end of the rope with WD-40.  It's OK to feel what you're feeling right now and it's not shameful in any way to reach out to others and tell them that you're having a rough time.  And if you're in a ministry or church and they punish you for admitting it then perhaps that might be part of your problem in the first place!  We need to be real and be transparent about our walks with Christ even during the times we feel like we're laying face down in the dust and crawling along by our lips. 

We're allowed to be weak so He can be strong.

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I was watching a video of a pastor giving a lesson on Ecclesiastes 3 and he was speaking about the times in our lives when things just keep going wrong.  He was teaching about how Solomon's wisdom tells us that we cannot even try to comprehend the greatness of God's plan for our lives and that we shouldn't even try.  That we should eat and drink and enjoy life regardless of the circumstances because God is sovereign and that He will take everything and use it for His good.

He also talked about the ways that we grow in the faith and grow in our trust in God is the times when we're experiencing painful situations.  I can't refute any of that but as I sat and listened to him talking tonight I had a loud thought resonate through my head.  Nothing this man was saying would be of any comfort to someone who is going through the trials that would grow them.

Here's a large part of the text he was using for his sermon...Ecclesiastes 3:11-14 (ESV): "He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man. I perceived that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people fear before him."

I had never realized how little comfort it could be to tell someone to "eat and drink and take pleasure." When someone is facing a trial in their life when they're in such despair and anguish and loneliness that they're about to walk away from God telling them that they need to enjoy their pain because it's making them grow drives that wedge between them and God a little deeper.

What you need to realize is that when someone who is a Christian...possibly even someone you saw as a strong believer...is at the point in their walk where they're in the deepest valley or the widest desert that telling them what they already know does little but fuel the despair.  These people KNOW the scriptures.  They know what this pastor was teaching them but that knowledge of the truth of God provides no comfort when you're walking through those times.  It may give them one last little thing to stand on when it seems the sand beneath them keeps shifting but it doesn't comfort them at all.

These are the times when you need to pray for the wisdom to know what to say and what not to say.  These people are usually in a place where God is stretching them to the breaking point and then beyond.  Now, I know some Christians try to say that God would never give us more than we can handle and quote 1 Corinthians 10:13 (ESV) to back it up: "No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it."  But if you look at the verse, it's talking about temptations and not the stresses of life and the desert times when someone might feel that death is preferable to life because at least if they were dead they'd be in heaven.

That might shock you.  But keep that in mind and look at what the Apostle Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 1:8-10 (ESV): "For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again."

If Paul, one of the strongest followers of Christ in history, had a point where he was in despair of his life then how can we sit there and give a chippy cheer up comment to a brother or sister in Christ being stretched in the same manner as Paul?  We need to recognize that these times of depression and despair are of God and that for us to try and dismiss them in an attempt to raise someone's spirits might be running counter to God's purpose.

Yes, it could very well be God's plan for someone to feel that pain and despair.  That doesn't mean it's any easier on them but it could be what needs to happen.   However, that doesn't mean you necessarily should be contributing to it and all the while this trial is happening Satan is going to be there to try and steal that person away from the Lord.  If you come in and in the midst of telling them things like "God won't give you more than you can handle" (which is only true in the case of tempation) this person might just turn around and say "well, then God's not doing anything for me so I don't need to mess with this Christian stuff anymore" and they'll walk away.

So when you face a brother or sister facing a trial where it looks like they're going to be walking away from their faith or that they're drowning in despair fight your first urge if that's to try and cheer them up or to rush in with strong instruction from the Lord.   What they really need is someone to come alongside them and understand.  To tell them that what they're feeling is not a sin or a bad thing.  Bring up the passage in 2 Corinthians where Paul was talking about being in despair for his life but then mention that Paul endured because he knew that God would deliver him just as God had done numerous times.  Show them how Paul felt like he couldn't take it anymore and that the burdens can seem too much to bear.  Yes, that might not be much comfort either but at least it will take away from the condemnation and feelings of burden that can hang on someone who's in the midst of despair. 

They don't want to be a burden on others and are looking for people to say condemning things...make sure you don't do that.  Just like Ecclesiastes 3:1 (ESV) says "For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven" and that includes feeling like everything is too much for you to take and that everything is about to crush you. 

Help someone see the joy by allowing them to experience all the feelings and by not condemning them as sinning by questioning God's plan.  We will never understand it but God will be able to handle our crying out in our pain because we don't understand why things are happening.  Romans 8:26 (ESV) says "Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words."  We need to tell someone they can let the Spirit intercede for them and that they can just lay there and cry. 

Allow the Lord to work within you to help them by knowing when to come at them with teaching like I heard at the start of this blog and when to come at them with a box of Kleenex, a Hershey's chocolate bar and something mellow for the radio.   Most of all, go in with your heart open and realize that sometimes God's word isn't going to provide the comfort you think it will always provide and be ready with other words to bring comfort to someone...or be ready tosit in the silence that sometimes speaks louder than anything you could say.

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I was watching an episode of the Fairly Oddparents with my children.  The main character, Timmy, was giving his friend AJ a new computer as a gift.  Timmy gives it to him and AJ thanks him but that the computer was obsolete for twelve seconds because a new version came out that featured tint control.  AJ thanked Timmy for the high-tech doorstop.

Now, you might not think someone could get a Bible lesson from the Fairly Oddparents, but I was struck by how that little exchange highlights so much the way many of us chase the hot, new item.  If we have something we're very happy with...a television, a computer, a car, a spouse...we feel the urge to trade them in for something hot and new and fancy.  We crave those things that we really don't need but we have that discontent about our lives that unless we have the "new" thing we're not going to be happy with our lives.

It's hard to reach a point where we really don't care about the physical possessions in our life.  We're called as believers to be content in every situation and that means even if we don't have the things in life that we want we need to rejoice in the love of the father that we have the things that we need to live.  When we're not in that mindset, we start to get unhappy with everything including our relationships with others and our relationship with God.

Paul wrote in Philippians 4:11-13 (ESV) "...I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need."   That secret is a simple joy in trusting the Lord and knowing that all things are within His hand and all things are His to give and take away.   When you reach the point where you can honestly say all is His and that you do not worry about the physical needs of this world then you can truly be content regardless of circumstance.

Now, I don't know anyone who has reached that point.  I don't know a single ministry that has never asked anyone to give them some kind of support for their efforts.  That's not a knock on them in any way but the way I read the Philippians passage it seems to be the ultimate goal would be to get to the point that we would never ask anyone for a dime because we know God will just provide it through His people. 

But think about how freeing it would be for us to be able to live in that kind of trust with God.  It's a ruthless trust that would take over our lives and transform us more into the way Christ calls us to live.

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Sometimes on Fridays I like to do what I call a "Quick Hit"...a small, little nugget to bounce around in your brain through the weekend.  I haven't really done that with Song Lyric Weeks because most of the time there's just too much in a song to break it down into a few paragraphs.  However, today's wrap up for Song Lyric Week 5 is going to be a quick hit because the small segment of the song I'm using is pure truth in four lines.

The song is called "Unforgivable" by Plumb and it from their debut CD in 1997.  It really sums up the entirety of God's grace and forgiveness in plain, easy language:

No matter what I've done
Or is done to me
Nothing's unforgivable
Or unable to be set free.

We want to complicate salvation and forgiveness and grace so many times that we can lose sight of the fact it's really that simple.   Nothing that you've done...or has been done to you...is something that cannot be forgiven by God.  There is no addiction, no bad memory, no item of guilt that cannot be set free through the power of Jesus.

As it says in 1 John 1:9 (ESV) "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

What do you need to let go today?

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When I was a teenager I was not a believer in Christ.  Well, I believed in God and knew all the church things but I had not accepted Him as my savior.  As a result, I was seen as a prime target for many of the Christian kids that grew up in my hometown.  They would routinely try to witness to me and tell me about how great life was when you listened and followed Jesus.  It was the standard rap most churches try to indoctrinate upon their youth so that they sound like walking MP3 players repeating a recording of their youth pastor.

There's a great song that was put out years ago by Grover Levy that takes on this idea first hand called "If You Want To Lead Me To Jesus."   Check out the opening part of the song...

Your message is clear you sound so sincere your intentions are good
The forgiveness of sin life without end I'd believe it if I could
But I've watched from afar and I've seen how you are with the people you're around
And I don't see a trace of the love and the grace you talk so much about
If you want to lead me to Jesus you'd better find a better way
'Cause your life is speaking so loud I can't even hear a word you say

Sometimes I'm amazed the song was ever played on Christian radio because that's about as in-your-face a take of a non-believer toward a Christian as I've heard in a "Christian" song.  It's basically a song saying that you're a complete hypocrite and that you're a horrible witness for Christ.  And...he would be right if that's the way you were living your life.

When I hear this song I think back to a time when I was a teen and invited by some Christian kids to take part in a Christian retreat.  This group of kids had a band and their drummer had up and bailed on them a few weeks before the camp was due to start.  I wasn't a Christian...in fact, I often ridiculed Christians...but they were in a bind so they asked me to fill in.  I loved to play (and to be honest, had a serious crush on the girl singer) so I decided to go ahead and join up with them.

Over the whole time we were practicing, several things happened that completely undermined any attempts on their part to witness to me.  First, they were writing a song and I tried to make a suggestion regarding it.  The lead guitar player turned to me and said "you're not a Christian so you can't contribute."  My response was less than enthusiastic about the warmth of the Christian experience.  Instead of taking an attitude of saying "well, do you understand what we're writing about" the response is exclusion.  That spoke very loudly...even louder than his words.

Then they took me to a "Christian" rock concert because they thought it would be good for the whole band to go.  I went and I know now that I was feeling the presence of God there.  I didn't know what it was at the time but I remember telling them that I felt something weird while I was in the concert.  Did they follow up?  Nope.  No one said a word to me about it.  So it seemed to be that what I felt and wondered wasn't important.

The week before the event I went to the house of the guitar player for practice.  I met two other band members outside the house and we knocked with no answer.  One of them just opened the front door and we all walked in calling the name of the lead guitar player.  We made our way upstairs and threw open his bedroom door...to discover him and the female singer in the band on the floor on a sleeping bag sans apparel.  He jumped up and quickly shoved us out the door while she tried to cover herself.  When they came downstairs to practice not a word was spoken about any of it although she couldn't look anyone in the face the whole time.

Then there was the day of the actual event...I was at a Christian youth retreat in my Metallica T-shirt.  I saw well over 100 kids at this camp that knew I wasn't a Christian.  Did any of them bother to try and witness to me?  Nope.  None of them said anything.  Did any of the pastors or those in attendance say anything to me?  No.  In fact, they had dinner while I was setting up my drum set and no one bothered to even bring me a plate of food or tell me that everyone was eating.

Now...the songs they were singing were all about Jesus.   They were making themselves out to be ministers through music and great witnesses for Christ and if you heard them talking you would have thought that they were kids who really had it all together.  As for me, all of their words rang hollow because of the things that I saw them do...and not do.

1 Peter 2:12 (ESV) says "Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation."  The world is watching everything you do and matching it up against what you say to them.  If you're conducting yourself in a less than honorable way people are going to remember this and it's going to be brought up against you at the times you want to point people to Christ.

Paul wrote in Romans 2:24-25 (ESV) "You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law. For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”"  Now we know as believers we are not under the law but under grace.  Yet when you run around telling those who aren't Christian that "you can't do this, you can't do that" it sounds like rules and regulations and in many cases you break in your daily life.  How can you really be a witness for Christ if you do those things in an unrepentant manner?

We all stumble and we all fall.  We'll all do things that are going to look hypocritical and the whole crux of the matter is what happens when we face those situations.  If we humble ourselves and admit our shortcomings it can go a long way especially in a world where people routinely avoid personal responsibility in their times of mistakes and weakness.

Just remember...what you do can speak a lot louder than what you say.  If you want to lead someone to Jesus, you can't do it by just talking.

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Every time I hear the song "Hanging By A Moment" by Lifehouse start to play my inner air guitarist comes alive.  When the band rips into the chorus of the song it's air riff enjoyment to the highest level.  The song itself also has a really powerful message o

The chorus of the song says:

now.. i'm falling even more in love with you
letting go of all i've held onto
i'm standing here until you make me move
i'm hanging by a moment here with you

i'm living for the only thing i know
i'm running and not quite sure where to go
i don't know what i'm diving into
just hanging by a moment here with you

It's such a wonderful allegory for the Christian life and so many people think it's a love song to a woman!  When I hear this song I want to shout out the words because it's a declaration of how we