Jesus in the SuperWalmart of Religion.

Currently in our culture, there is an abundance of spirituality (ad nauseum) but sadly a woeful, colossal, neglect and famine of truth. Spirituality today has become the SuperWalmart of religious preferences where you can go anywhere in the store and pretty much get what you want at a good price…and get more of it, too! Honestly, I prefer the regular, non-industrial sized Wal-Mart (my favorite store btw). I get lost in the Super Wal-Mart, frustrated seeing so much of everything when all I want is a little of something. I get easily seduced into wanting what I don’t need that sometimes I behave like the sailors in Homer’s epic, The Odyssey, who were ordered to stuff wax into their ears so they wouldn’t lose their reason or lives to ruin by listening to the immediately pleasing but ultimately fatal song of the Sirens. Their leader, Odysseus, almost went insane by allowing himself to be lashed to the ship’s mast, ‘wax-less’, so he could experience their seductive serenade.

In the religious world, there has been a seductive serenade sung for centuries and is still on the top 40’s charts of pop religion. It’s the whole notion that truly enlightened thinkers abandon the archaic and faulty presuppositions of Christ as presented in the Bible, and instead to evolve to the more sophisticated view that Jesus, although special, was no more special than Buddha, Muhammad, Confucius, Krishna and Oprah! For many proponents in this elite group of patrons, Jesus Christ holds a prestigious, nigh unto egalitarian status among a pantheon of religious leaders whose teachings are all pretty much the same and accomplish for mankind results that are also pretty much the same.

Aside from the fact that any serious reader of these leaders’ philosophies and teachings will discover startling contrasts that make it fundamentally impossible for them to be on the same dais, as a born again believer in Christ, I cannot ignore the startling truths and principles of Scripture, particularly, the following:

Colossians 1:18-19 (ESV) And he [Jesus] is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,

He is preeminent in everything! “Preeminence” means supreme in authority, priority, and superiority. “Everything” means everything! How does one reconcile that One who is supreme can also be equal to one who is not? In America, we pride ourselves on the ideal that all men are created equal and that is indeed true, but that cannot apply to One who claimed and has been acclaimed as One who is, in His very essence, “uncreated”? That’s a whole different category that can in no way be seen as similar to anything else on any aisle or shelf in the religious SuperWalmart! Theologians refer to Jesus having an “infinite qualitiative distinction” to any other religious figure.

Crude example. It’s ludicrous to tell me that having $2 is the same as having $2 million. If I went into a Dollar Store to spend $2, I walk out with 2 items. If I go into that same store with $2 million, I walk out with everything in that store including the racks, shelves, plastic bags, windows, roof and foundation! The lesson: what you come out of the store with is determined by how much you go into the store with! Jesus Christ cannot be and must never be put on the same shelf, in the same aisle or anywhere in the same store as all the others! His own claims and the claims of Scripture make that impossible. He is supremely preeminent with infinite transcendence. It is to our great ruin and His great displeasure for us to consider Him in any way less.

The quality of our worship is related to how we are affected by the reality of Jesus as exclusive in His divine supremacy or supreme divinity. Since the kind of worship God is after is that which is  done in spirit and truth (John 4:24), to see Jesus as anything less than He is or as anything equal to other religious figures is to be disqualified from the kind of worship worthy of God. We must come into the arena of worship with the conviction of the true character of Christ as revealed from His lips and affirmed among the pages of Scripture. True worship cannot happen where Jesus is not truly revered as Supreme Lord. Consider the words of the startling prophecy of what Christ would be considered:

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. -Isaiah 9:6 (ESV)

Look carefully at the titles the ancient prophet foretold Jesus would be called! Among the title, He will be called, Mighty God and the Everlasting Father! To that I can legitimately and rightly exclaim, Oh, My God! Such a One can never be lumped into a club of even the best of humanity and considered equal.

Let me be clear. This is not a militant, hyper-protective, imperialistic diatribe intending to whip up the Christian masses into a wild-eyed, angry collection of religiously intolerant conquistadors seeking to “Take America Back!” (Hardly anyone reads my stuff anyway!) On the contrary, my hope is to affect as I have been affected and to call true professing Christ-followers to celebrate the supreme foundations of our faith in the trans-human, God-incarnate, Jesus, and then to move about in the world with absolute gentleness and respect for others but with resolute intolerance for mixing the foundations of our faith with any other religious haz-mat. It’s a call to purity in our faith and charity to those who don’t hold to our views.

I have already confessed the ways I treat Jesus as less than God. (It wasn’t the first; it won’t be the last!). Right now I am so grateful for a profound sense of awe for a greater regard for Christ in response to His Word to us. May you find that same reverence in response to Him, far above my feeble words!

Going Deep!

“Going Deep!” is a favorite term for pass plays in the game of football that are meant to hopefully advance the team many yards from the line of scrimmage. It’s intended result is at least the gain of a significant amount of yards well beyond 1st down yardage, and at most a play ending in a touchdown.

“Going Deep” is the title of blog by Bryan McLaughlin written about the twin Voyager space probes as they prepare to leave our solar system and enter interstellar space and open a whole new vista of deep space exploration, familiarizing ourselves with more of this incredible universe.

“Going Deep” is also a term used by Christians that characterize their hunger and pursuit for greater depths of truth and insight into the wide open frontier of God’s Word, the Bible. This is where superficial simplicity of Scripture is bypassed and the excavation of profound spiritual truth is probed and personalized. For at least one person, the teacher, this is usually facilitated by accessing extra-biblical resources that give contexts and textures to the words on the pages within Scripture. I have always found great joy and satisfaction in the use of Bible Dictionaries, Word Studies, Interlinear Bibles and Commentaries as tools to help me plumb the depths and probe and transcend the boundaries of naked eye observations of the living, inspired Word of God.

However, today, I came across another use of the concept of “going deep”.

In the classic work of Richard Foster, “Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home“ is the chapter, “The Prayer of Examen” where he describes the need for us to practice the prayer of turning inward, not outward or upward but  in a movement directed to the God who is closer to us than we are aware — not to the God in Heaven, or the God far off. With this prayer and movement,

“…we bore down deeper and deeper as a drill would bore down into the bowels of the earth. We are constantly turning inward…in a very special way. I do not mean to turn inward by becoming more introspective, nor do I mean to turn inward in hopes of finding some special inner strength. …No, it is not a journey into ourselves that we are undertaking but a journey through ourselves so that we can emerge from the deepest level of self into God.”

He quotes Madame Guyon in noting that this is where the Lord naturally draws us more and more to Himself until our soul “gradually falls towards its proper center, which is God.” This would tell us that this movement is not only one we take to God but one that is directed by God.

King David reminds us that God desires truth in the inner parts and that He teaches wisdom in the inmost place. (Psalm 51:6). This speaks of a God who really wants us to welcome Him to “Go Deep” with us.

Here is my take on all this: Sometimes we Christians cry the legitimate need to go deeper and that usually about depth of knowledge and insight into the Word, will and ways, even wonder, of God.  We can, however, miss the complimentary need to go deeper into that undiscovered country of our own being, saturated with needs and wants, fears and failures, dreams and nightmares, delights and despair, (and a host of other ‘stuff’). Maybe, we bypass, most importantly, the realm of our identity – – who we are, how we see ourselves, and who we hope to be, all a process under divine leadership and the gracious illuminating light of God’s presence and purpose.

It also strikes me that God is probably not as interested in our explorations into the depths of Scripture if all it produces is knowledge that keeps our real selves at a distance from the life transforming reality of the truths we encounter in our excursion. If God desires truth to go deep, to the inner parts, and Jesus tells us that He is the Truth, then how can we not conclude that God’s desire for us when we “Go Deep” in the Word is anything other than that Jesus will be a greater reality in us and that we live with greater depth in Him?

Bottomline: there must be a harmony between being available to the richness of God’s truth in Scripture and being honest in ourselves with God about where that truth is needed to continue the work of transformation at the very place we must live out our faith from: the heart. For me personally, there is usually more wrestling at this level than musing, but then again… I’ve got my issues!

May our pursuit of depth into the Word, ways, and wonder of God be a welcome and encouraging companion in our pursuit of depth of the ways of God in and with us in our journey with Him.

Touchdown!

Romans 12:1 Launch Pad for Worship

Romans 12:1  Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.

If the living of our lives is to be inspired by a thorough view of the mercies of God (Rom. 1-11) then our corporate worship should display those same mercies with similar import and impact.

Consider: When was the last time you got a good look at the mercies of God? Was that, maybe, one of the last time you really worshiped God?

Beware #2

Beware speaking with people about God BEFORE speaking with God about people!

Beware #1

Beware spending more time in God’s work than with God in worship!

Observations: 1 Chronicles 29

Interesting observations of worship elements/dynamics from 1 Chronicles 29:

1. Vs. 9 – the leaders’ generosity and attitude inspired joy among the other worshipers. How are we leaders leading with the kind of attitude that inspires the worshipers of God?
2. Vs. 20 – the people praised God from a posture of bowing. For us praise is usually done upright with hands raised. How often do we practice bowing as an act of praise in our gatherings?
3. Vs. 21-22 – their sacrifices were also used to fund their hearty party and fellowship together before God. Man, what a great idea! You can’t tell me that this didn’t put a smile on God’s face! How often do we gather together to party hearty before God?

Improving Our Approach

(This one post especially for those involved in the ministry of worship and arts leadership and service)

3 Who may ascend the hill of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? 4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false. Psalms 24:3-4 (NIV)

I was seated in our den recliner (my throne!) for a morning devotional when I heard this strange scraping sound outside on my porch. When I got up I found out it was made by our dog, Buster…wiping his feet prior to coming inside the house! Turns out, my wife, frustrated with the dirt Buster would track indoors, had taken time earlier, to stop the dog on the back door mat, bend over him and manually swiped his feet, all four, on the mat, knocking off the dirt and then letting him inside. (No, I am not making this up). She did this so many times that Buster began doing it himself! I was dumbfounded!  My dog was becoming cleaner than the humans who lived there!

I see a parallel with this and the way we approach God in our corporate worship experiences. We have done so much in our contemporary churches to remove barriers from people entering in. We have altered architecture, symbols, music, clothing and our overall environment to facilitate better accessibility for people to enter our worship services to engage God. Some of this needs to happen and needs to continue.

But I fear that although we have taken people’s inhibitions to heart, we may have neglected God’s conditions in our approaching Him in worship and these conditions have not changed. No one comes to the Father but through Christ and the necessary admission of their spiritual need for Him as our sole, soul’s spiritual resource. Such an exchange can wonderfully affect our environment and ‘response-ability’ to worship God in spirit and truth. Throughout the Scripture, those sincere members of the faith community consistently responded to the presence of God with reverence and humility. In many cases, however, our casual worship services may miss the depth of that kind of reverence.

This devotional is not a criticism of the church but a challenge to those of us who serve in this powerful ministry of worship. Prior to our “ascending the hill of the Lord” (this includes singers, instrumentalists, AV technicians) and leading others to do the same, are we “wiping our feet”? Are we keeping the holiness of God in mind and heart? Are we confessing our sins before the God who provided His Son who is absolutely not a door mat, but is the One through whom sins against God are resolved and our relationship with God restored? Do we recognize that He expects only the holy to stand in the holy place and that we are to pursue holiness even as He makes us holy?

True holiness makes all the difference in the world. Jesus teaches that the pure in heart are the ones who see God. It is therefore the pure who are in the best position to help others see Him. This is not about our being perfect. It is about our commitment to remain in the process of being made perfect. We must approach our ministry responsibilities and our opportunity to worship God in spirit and truth with a profound awareness of His righteousness and His holy expectations for us. As we hold instruments in our hands, our guitars, keyboards, organs, faders, switchers, mics, hymnbooks, bibles, etc, with hopes  of effective responses, may we recognize with awe and wonder that we are being held in the Hand of God who desires us to respond to His desires for His glory. May we serve and worship as holy vessels — broken but holy.

Father, You are worthy of our very best, not only in performance but also in lifestyle and character. Help us to make sure to take time before placing our hands on our instruments and our feet in the “holy place”, to confess and repent of our sin, receive Your forgiveness and restoration, and renew a corresponding passion to live free from the power of sin and in the power of Your righteousness. May we be instruments of holiness always before You, whether on or off the stage. Always for Your eternal glory, in Jesus’ name, Amen.”