day no. 12,957: are you an unmarked grave?

Luke 11:44

“Woe to you! You are like unmarked graves; the people who walk over them don’t know it.”

 

Are you an unmarked grave?

 

Are you dead and you are too afraid or too proud to tell anyone?

 

My challenge for you today is to put up a tombstone. Declare that you are dead, needy and buried under your troubles. Make a public profession of your neediness. In this God is quick to restore and establish. A broken and contrite heart He will not deny.

 

People pass by you day in and day out and they don’t know that you need Jesus because you spend most of your day acting like you don’t need Him. You have it all together. You’ve got this.

 

Woe to you!

 

You are like an unmarked grave.

 

You are dead and no one knows it.

 

Not even you.

day no. 12,954: garden variety‏

I was thinking about Genesis 3 the other day.

 

When Eve sinned, God came looking for Adam.

Genesis 3:9

So the Lord God called out to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”

 

This doesn’t seem fair.

Eve started it.

But Adam was responsible.

 

Whether or not he wanted to be in charge, he was.

 

Maybe he liked being in charge when it meant naming stuff whatever he desired, but when being in charge meant giving an account for the state of his garden and the people therein, he blame-shifted.

 

Adam had done wrong. He had failed to protect the garden. He had failed to defend the truth. He had listened to the voice of his wife rather than the voice of God.

 

Adam had real sin to account for and instead of confessing, he attempted to justify himself and his actions based on the circumstances surrounding his sin. His end game was this: it’s not really my fault.

 

The first Adam was from the dust and to the dust that Adam returned. He is who we are.

 

Jesus was from the Adam from Heaven. Jesus never sinned. He did nothing wrong. He is who we ought to be.

 

And yet He takes full responsibility for His people and says, “Punish Me.”

 

He doesn’t blame-shift. In His case, it wouldn’t even be blame-shifting. There was no hammer coming down on Jesus. He didn’t deserve any pain, suffering, maltreatment or death.

 

And yet He took upon Himself intentionally, on purpose the pain, suffering, maltreatment and death of the cross.

 

Jesus reversed the curse by being the Adam we all need because of the Adam in us that has fallen short.

 

Jesus took responsibility for us.

He did what Adam was too lazy or afraid to do.

He owned our sin.

 

2 Corinthians 5:21

 

He made the One who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

 

Not because He had to, but because He wanted to.

Not out of duty, but out of devotion to the Father.

Not out of compulsion, but out of love.

 

Praise God!

day no. 12,953: the difficult lesson of sink or swim‏

(this is essentially part 3 of this saga now reflecting upon the ordeal altogether. if you haven't read Tuesday or Wednesday's posts, they will help fill in the rest of the story)

Matthew 14:30

But when he saw the strength of the wind, he was afraid. And beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me!”

 

I should have yelled, “Lord, save me!” loud enough for my friends to hear and take note of my weakness and God’s goodness.

 

Instead, I sent an email the equivalent of saying, “I’m drowning. It was nice knowing you.”

 

Rather than an obituary, I should have sent an S.O.S.

 

I should have said, “I’m drowning. Please help me!”

 

Luckily for me, I have friends and family who love me enough to reach down into the pit and pull me out.

 

While I was all too content to allow myself to be sunk lower than the grave, my friends believed in God enough for me, enough to come get me, enough to believe He was enough for me if they could get the message through the muck.

 

God blessed their rescue mission and I am on solid ground again.

 

“Lord, save me!”

 

May all who know me hear me often say it.

day no. 12,952: arms raised in praise‏

(this almost serves as a part 2 to yesterday's post. so if you didn't read yesterday's post, please do to set the context)

 

Do you remember when Moses was helping the Israelites fight by raising his staff?  His arms got tired and when his arms fell, the Israelites would begin losing the battle and when he lifted up his hands they would begin winning the battle (EX 17:8-13) .

 

“Then Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side and one on the other so that his hands remained steady until the sun went down.”

 

God gave the victory through Moses receiving help from attentive friends and family coming to his side.

 

My friends Paul and Jenni and my wife Paige recently worked hard to persuade me to allow them to help me lift my hands.

 

I recognize that when my hands are up, God is working.

 

I also recognize that I get tired and cannot keep my hands up as long as I like.

 

My feelings were telling me that better men would hold their hands up higher.

 

Maybe that’s true.

It is quite likely true.

 

Even still, my feelings used this to persuade me to put my hands down altogether.

 

All OR Nothing.

 

Paul, Jenni and Paige were good to remind me by God’s grace that His work is accomplished by me and in me and through me in receiving help from Him and His people as an utterly dependent, weak man.

 

I am ready to be weak again.

 

I am tired of trying to be strong on my own.

day no. 12,951: stick a fork in the road in me, am i done?

(this is a preemptive P.S. stating that this was written a few weeks back when I was feeling particularly worn out.  God has since refreshed my heart and head.  That isn't to say that ministry isn't still difficult, but to say that God provided some encouragement from His children for me that persevered me through this period of exhaustion. I don't know if anyone can compete with horses.  But with God's help and by His grace, He strengthens us to keep running with whomever and whatever He brings onto our race track)

Jeremiah 12:5

If you have raced with runners
and they have worn you out,
how can you compete with horses?
If you stumble in a peaceful land,
what will you do in the thickets of the Jordan?

 

The answer is rhetorical: you can’t.

 

If you can’t keep up with people, you won’t keep up with horses.

 

If you can’t walk well on flat land, you will not walk well when the road gets bumpy.

 

Jeremiah was grouchy that life and ministry were not turning out the way he had hoped they would.

 

I can relate to Jeremiah.

 

In contrast to Jeremiah, however, my disappointment is not with God or the people around me: it is with me.

 

Don’t get me wrong, I do get frustrated with people when they prove more difficult than I had hoped, but I am more disappointed with how incapable and unqualified I often feel in addressing the mess of ministry.

 

I am left wondering.

 

Am I tired because I am not meant to compete with horses?

 

OR

 

Am I tired because I am training to compete with horses?

day no. 12,950: stand up for manhood‏

My friend, Joel Vint, sent this to me today.

This may be my new favorite King Jamesism taking the place of “shew thyself approve” and “certain lewd fellows of the baser sort.”

 

I looked it up. The KJV is legit on this one. It literally is “against the wall any that urinate” in Hebrew.

 

Why does any of this matter?

 

There is something emasculating about forcing a man to sit down to piss.

 

It’s weird and unusual.

 

It’s not sin per se, but it’s wrong on some level.

 

Manhood and being male are two different things for sure.

 

Lord knows I am still trying to receive and live out of a manhood defined by God through Christ.

 

I’m not a man among men, but I do pisseth against the wall.

 

I’ll be punching that on my man card.

Grows a beard? Check

Pisseth against the wall? Check

 

It’s not a long resume, but it’s the manliest stuff I got to date.

day no. 12,949 continued... especially those that labor in preaching and teaching

I spent the morning preaching at Oak Grove in Shellsburg and I will spend this evening being affirmed as an Elder at Candeo.  This is the first group of Elders affirmed at our young church and it is coming after 7 months of training and vetting.  What an honor to be included in this group of godly men.  May God equip me for the task at hand.  Who is compotent for such things on their own?  No one.  To God be the glory.  May I lead and serve and live in a manner worth following as I follow Jesus.