You Shall Have a Song!

For my reflection today I'm simply going to list things that stand out in my mind as I look back over the service.  These are in no particular order.

• Ben Tompson's negative response to my singing.  ( I think I finally won him over when I got to singing "A, B, C, ...."
• Sybal's wonderful work with our LTC choir.
• The beauty of sign language.
• The joy of seeing so many faces at church that I have not seen in a awhile.
• Holding my 8 week old granddaughter to greet people after the service.
• Marveling over that long list of scriptures I read at the end of the sermon.  (I hope it wasn't too long.)
• Rejoicing with those who rejoice and weeping with those who weep during our Family Prayer Time.
• Watching our beautiful children and listening as they told the story of Jesus' death and resurrection.
• Having all my children and their spouses at home at the same time attending Easter services with us.
• Reflecting on the great work of so many who devoted themselves to making our Easter worship a meaningful time of celebration and thanksgiving.

A Spiritual Food Pyramid

Ever since I was baptized 37 years ago I have been in love with the Bible.  I remember when I was a senior in high school taking one of those tests designed to help you know what to do with your adult life.  The job I ranked highest in was "priest."  I know that happened because several of the questions had to do with the Bible.  On each one I had checked "highly interested" or whatever the highest ranking was.  What else could a person like that become if not a priest?

Since I'm a naturally disciplined person by nature, I loved the challenge of reading through the Bible in a year or studying a subject like prayer through the entire Bible.  I've enjoyed digging deeply into God's word to understand a particular book or topic.  Early on in my Christian walk I learned how to use the Psalms as a prayer book and later developed the practice of praying the prayers of Paul (and others). 

In the past few years I've discovered the ancient practice of Scripture meditation.  I was excited to be able to share this with the congregation both in the Bible class and sermon today.  I loved the exercise we did in class meditating on Psalm 1.  I practiced the exercise at home yesterday and felt an immediate draw to focus on the tree mentioned in the passage.  In class others were drawn to different parts of the Psalm.  One person focused on the word "delight" and another on the word "meditate."  Another said meditating on the Psalm brought to mind a grapevine in his garden that he thought was dead.  However, when cutting off the dead parts he discovered that there was still life in the root.  He made application to his own life and spiritual journey.  How wonderful that the Holy Spirit can speak to each of us in unique ways when we take our time, focus on Scripture, and listen. 

Meditation does not do away with other types of Bible reading or study.  Instead, I believe, it can enhance such work.  We still need to get a grasp on the big picture of the message of God as occurs when we read the Bible systematically.  We still need to know what the individual authors were communicating to their original audiences as can be understood through Bible study.  Grounding such work as Bible reading and Bible study on the proper foundation makes all the difference when it comes to meditation.  No matter how I'm looking at the Bible my ultimate goal is always to cooperate with God's Spirit in the formation of my life into the image of Christ.  When this is our purpose and goal, we can be assured of enjoying rich times of meditation on the unchanging but ever new Word of God.

Don't Forget to Breathe

Of all the great lessons Mr. Miyagi taught Danielson, arguably the most important was, "Don't forget to breathe.  It is very important."  As we learned in our sermon today, prayer is the breath of our spiritual lives.  There are certianly some techniques and exercises that teach us how to experience deeper and richer communion with God through prayer.  But in the end, I still find the best advise to be what I said near the end of the sermon, "Pray as you can, not as you can't."  I don't know who first uttered that simple sentance, but it brings great relief to people like me who contantly wonder what there is about prayer that I have not yet learned to practice.  Do what you can NOW but keep  learning.

Everyone loves a story.  I received a number of comments after the sermon about the stories I read about "Aunt Sally" from Mark Thibodeaux's book, "Armchair Mystic: Easing Into Contemplative Prayer."  For those desiring to go deeper into the final stages of prayer that I talked about this moring, I would consider this book a wonderful first step.  I wrote a brief review a couple of years go that you can find if you click here.  (Scroll down the page to find my review.)

I have heard that the best exercise is the one that you actually do!  The same is true for prayer.  Learning about prayer is wonderful; Praying is more wonderful still!

Finding Your Rhythm

As I reflect on today's sermon I find myself amazed at how simple life should be.  The sun rises and falls every day, the tides roll in and out over and over and over.  Summer follows Spring which comes right after Fall and Winter every year.  Flowers always bloom in spring and trees always lose their leaves in Fall.  We could say it's like clockwork, but in reality, the clock is made possible by the rhythm God has set in the universe. 

If life should be simple, why does it feel so complex?  The short answer would be that sin has entered into God's perfect creation and caused an element of chaos to be present.   This explains why sometimes the rolling waves can become a  highly destructive tsunami!  For many, however, the chaos is not an occasional event but has become a lifestyle.  We choose to live frantic, harried, haggard, crazy lives.  How do does one get off the treadmill? 

I must credit Henry Nouwen for the three point outline I used today to describe how Jesus lived according to God's rhythm.  The concepts of Solitude, Community, and Ministry have helped me a great deal to slow my life down and follow the leading of God's Spirit.  To read Nouwen's insightful article click here.  Life really can be much simpler than many choose to live around us.  Look to Jesus and he will show you the way.

Belong, Believe, Become

Today's youth led worship reminded us again of the value of family.  I was particularly impressed with the sheer number of people involved in leading our service.  The obvious, "up front" people were the praise team and the different speakers.  There was also the eight teens that gave the drama demonstrating the value of being connected with one another.  There were several Bible readers both up front and reading from the pews. There were also the boys who passed the collection plates.  But the most meaningful part of the service for me was watching the various families passing communion. 

As Jeremy reminded us, meal time is a great point of connection for a family.  It is sad to say that the family table is now often only a nostalgic memory in our fast-paced, over-committed lives.  It is worth the sacrifice, however, to slow down a little to sit together and eat a meal as a family.  How appropriate, on this day when we were reminded that we are all family in Christ; we would have individual family units serve the various sections of the sanctuary.  David Layman handed me the trays and near to him were his wife and his two daughters all working together to see that their designated section was served.

In a healthy family, everyone serves using whatever they have to contribute to the whole.  Today, we were blessed to be served by our teenagers and their families. Many of those teenagers have been served by this church for many years while they were growing up.  That is the cycle of love and service that builds strong, healthy families.  May we continue to love, to serve, and to build each other up.

Are You Being Saved?

After the sermon this morning I had a conversation concerning the extremes that we Christians seem to continually battle.  On the one hand, is the extreme of legalism where no matter what you do, or how much you do, it is never enough.  At the end of the day you feel unsure of your salvation knowing that you could have done more and that you could have done better than you did. 

The other extreme is libertineism (or more popularly known as "cheap grace") where you don't worry about about a thing since God's got everything covered.  The consequence of living in legalism is that you are continually either proud of your accomplishments or guilty for not achieving enough.  Either way you become a very poor reflection of Christ who opposes the proud and sets the guilty free. 

The consequence of living under "cheap grace" is that you ultimately live anyway you want to so that there is no discernible difference between you and someone who claims no belief in Jesus.  This is, of course, an unacceptable option for one who claims to serve Jesus as Lord. 

The concept of salvation we talked about this morning is a grateful acknowledgment of how Jesus has supplied all we need for life and godliness AND a working out of that salvation through repentance and growth in the Holy Spirit.  It is truly a marvelous concept that absolutely must be recovered if we would be the transformed people of God living as Christ in our communities. 

I must give credit for the "garden tools" illustration to Marjorie Thompson and her marvelous book, Soul Feast.  These are her words which sparked my illustration, "Spiritual disciplines are like garden tools.  The best spade and hoe in the world cannot guarantee a good crop.  They only make it more likely that growth will be unobstructed.  The mystery of maturation lies in the heart of the seed, and the outcome of planting depends largely on the vagaries of weather.  Still, tools are important in helping to ensure that planted seeds will bear fruit.  Tools can remove stones and roots, aerate the soil, weed and water the garden.  Disciplines like prayer, spiritual reflection, and hospitality have the character of garden tools."

For those who might like one good book introducing the concept of spiritual disciplines I would recommend Soul Feast.  There is plenty of depth so that the book is not simplistic, but it is also extremely practical with thought provoking questions and many easy to learn exercises. 

Seven Disciplines of Jesus

You realize that every sermon I preach to the Clear Lake Church I must first preach to myself.  Often while I'm standing up front preaching I'm still preaching to myself.  How can I teach anyone anything unless I myself am a student.  When it comes to examining the seven disciplines of Jesus we talked about this morning, I find myself in the disciple who said, "Lord, teach us to pray." 

The most profound statement I made to myself in this week's sermon was an insight I think I got from Dallas Willard's book, The Spirit of the Disciplines.  It was the idea that we often try to obey Jesus' teachings while living like the rest of the world, instead of following the disciplines of Jesus' life.  I read that statement and thought to myself, "Of course!"  How can anyone possibly obey Jesus unless they live like Jesus?  It was then that I knew I needed to preach on the disciplines of Jesus' life.  The discipline comes first, obedience follows.  

Spiritual training in God's gym follows this order: Exercises, Discipline, Habit, Lifestyle. How often we want to follow the lifestyle of Jesus without learning the disciplines of his life.   This morning in class we learned one small exercise to develop the discipline of prayer in our lives.  What would happen in your attitudes this week if you simply said the "Jesus prayer" as you drove to work each morning?"  What would happen if you said the prayer as you fell asleep each night this week? 

We will be learning several such exercises to help us focus on the Lord and grow in our obedience to all of his commands.  And as John reminds us, "his commands are not burdensome" (1 John 5:3).  Jesus' commands are designed to set us free, to allow us to really live!  But first, we've got to get our mind's right.  We've got to allow the Master to train us in God's gym.