The Still Small Voice

One of the great stories in the Old Testament is of Elijah, weary from "power ministry" and afraid for his life in the face of the wrath of Jezebel, he flees to the desert and hides in a cave.
An interesting interview ensues (my paraphrase from 1 Kings 19):
"What are you doing here, Elijah?"

"I've been killing myself working for you.  But all I can see is the enemy winning by wiping out all of your servants.  I think I'm the only one left!"

Of course we know that God calls him to get out of the "cave of depression" and stand before Him. And even though he sees tornado, earthquake and firestorm, he realizes that God is not speaking through them.  Instead, God's voice comes through the gentle breeze--His quiet whisper.

The interview then repeats itself word-for-word.  Why?

I think that Elijah's first response was in the form of a whimper, a whine, a complaint.  Woe is me!

When our focus is on ourselves, we can't really hear God's answer.  We're just complaining.

But the storms of life are meant to get our attention off of ourselves so that we begin to really listen to God's answer.

That's when we realize that He was speaking to us all along.  We heard it, but we didn't really "hear" it.  That is, the words registered, but we didn't really take in the meaning.

"He who has ears to hear, let him hear" (Mk. 4: 9).

Do you want God to speak to you?  He probably already is.  Shift your focus from yourself to Him.  He still speaks in a quiet whisper.

Becoming a Disciple of Jesus

For many years, I considered myself to be a dispensationalist, although I was not a cessationist.

That means that I bought into the idea that God's redemptive program could be viewed as being "dispensed" differently during periods of history.  Moses initiated the dispensation of Law.  Jesus introduced the Kingdom, but was rejected, thereby delaying that period until his second coming.  Instead, the dispensation of Grace has intervened.

What bothered me for many years was that most dispensationalists taught that the period of charismatic activity that Jesus and the Apostles exhibited ceased with the writing of the New Testament (cessationism).  I always believed this was not exegetically supported, nor was it consistent with the dispensational paradigm.

But when I arrived at the Vineyard in 1985, Kingdom theology upset my dispensational apple cart.  The book, The Gospel of the Kingdom, by George Eldon Ladd, professor of New Testament Theology at Fuller Theological Seminary, was simple, straight-forward, and gave me a thoroughly biblical basis for my theology.

What is more, I became aware of how dispensationalism had drained Jesus and the Gospels out of my Christian worldview.  You see, I was taught that Jesus came at the end of the dispensation of the Law, presented the dispensation of the Kingom, but was rejected.  The Kingdom Age was set aside for the future and the mysterious age of Grace had intervened.  Therefore, so I was taught, Jesus' ministry and teaching were largely irrelevant for today.  It was the epistles, especially Paul, that were written to us.

Listening to John Wimber, the founder of the Vineyard movement, teach from the Gospels and give me a model for Kingdom ministry straight from the Master Himself was refreshing.  If we are Jesus' disciples, then let's study Jesus' ministry.

In his Great Commission, Jesus commanded his disciples to "teach [the disciples they were making] to obey everything I have commanded you."  Jesus' teaching and ministry are not only relevant to us today, they are VITAL.  He is the Master.  We are his disciples, his "apprentices in Kingdom living" (The Divine Conspiracy, Dallas Willard).

Let's study the Master and seek to obey everything He taught His disciples.

Heal the Sick

I love the fact that Jesus sent us to preach the "Good News" of the Kingdom of God.

But read more of the instruction:
"As you go, preach this message: 'The kingdom of heaven is [at hand].' Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give" (Matt. 10: 7-8).

The command to preach the good news is only part of it.  We are also to heal the sick.  Notice it does NOT just say to "pray for the sick" but to "heal the sick."

You might argue, "Well, this instruction was given only to the apostles and only for the time of Jesus' minsitry."

In Luke we find that he also sent out another 72 with the same commission.  And then, at the end of Matthew, He gave the Great Commission to all the disciples who were present.  Part of His commission then, just prior to his ascension, was to "teach [the disciples you are making] to OBEY EVERYTHING I HAVE COMMANDED YOU" (Matt. 28: 20).

In other words, the command to "heal...raise...cleanse...drive out" are to be obeyed by everyone who wants to be Jesus' disciple.

But I don't have the power to heal, only God has that power.

Bingo. That is why we must be filled with the Holy Spirit.  So that we have the power, not just to say the words, but to do the works of Jesus.

When I pray for the sick, I feel totally inadequate.  And the truth is--I am totally inadequate.  But God is not.  The command to heal the sick should bring me back into a total dependence on God.  It should cause me to cry out to Him for the power to obey. And it should fill me with gratitude when He does through me what only He can do.

Big Hairy Audacious Goals

In 1996, James Collins and Jerry Poras introduced the idea of a Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG).

"A true BHAG is clear and compelling, serves as a unifying focal point of effort and acts as a clear catalyst for team spirit. It has a clear finish line, so the organization can know when it has achieved the goal; people like to shoot for finish lines" (Collins and Poras, 1996).

I think one of the greatest examples of a BHAG in the corporate world is Google: "Organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful."

In my November 11, 2010 post, Simple Instructions, I said that Jesus summarized the moral code of the Torah in two simple commands: Love God and Love People.  We often call this "The Great Commandment."

In Matt. 28: 18-20, Jesus issued another simple instruction to the church--what we often call, "The Great Commission."  Go into all the world.  Make disciples from all nations.

Imagine what chutzpah it took for Jesus to tell this rather small, ragtag group of followers, "Go and change the whole world."

In Acts, Jesus adds one more instruction: wait.  Wait for what?  For power from on high.

Yes, Jesus has left us with a Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG).  And yes, it is totally presumptuous of us to resolve to go out and accomplish that BHAG--in our own flesh.

So, how about resolving to do a couple more things this year?  Wait on God to be filled with power from on high.  Then join with the community of faith as we go into all the world and make disciples from every nation.

Love's Pure Light

Another favorite Christmas carol of mine is Silent Night.

This last Sunday morning, as our church celebrated Christmas by worshipping to many of our famous carols, we sang the third verse to Silent Night.


"Silent night, holy night.
Son of God, love's pure light."

I had never noticed the apostrophe in the word "love's" before.  I had always thought that it was the conjugated verb, to love.  I had thought it meant that the Son of God was in love with pure light.

But this missed the point of the line and what makes the whole verse a theological gem.

You see, love is meant as a noun.  And the noun is a metaphor for God Himself.  "God is love," John tells us in his first epistle.

The Son of God is "Love's pure light."  As it says in Hebrews 1: 3, "The Son is the radiance of God's glory, the exact representation of his being..."

Read it with the rest of the verse:
"Son of God, love's pure light.
Radiant beams from thy holy face,
with the dawn of redeeming grace,
Jesus, Lord at thy birth,
Jesus, Lord at thy birth."

Jesus, at his birth, is like the dawning of the rising sun.  God radiates his presence through the Son.

"...the rising sun will come to us from heaven
to shine on those living in darkness
and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the path of peace" (Luke 1: 78b-79).

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen is one of my favorite Christmas Carols.  But do we really understand what this first line means?

This 500-year-old song first became popular outside of the church.  It was not written in Latin, but the common language of England.  And the tune was so upbeat that people could dance to it.  No wonder that the reform-minded author, Charles Dickens, mentions it in his wildly popular novel (and one of my favorites as well), A Christmas Carol.  Although he changes the word "rest" to "bless."

Because of its outsider, populist status, it wasn't even published until 19th century Victorian England.

According to Ace Collins in Stories Behind the Best-Loved Songs of Christmas (Zondervan, 2001), the word "rest" means "make or keep" and "merry" means "great or mighty." By adding a comma after "merry", the meaning becomes: "God make you mighty, gentlemen."

But I believe this still requires a little further cultural translation so that we can get to the heart of the sentence:

 "God greatly bless and encourage you, gentlemen."

In other words, the story of Christmas, the story of the birth of the Son of God, is an encouraging and uplifting story for all men.  "Be encouraged, gentlemen, for Christ was born on Christmas day, destroying the power of Satan and bringing hope for all mankind."

We have a message of great hope and joy for the world.  What better time to share that message with the world than at Christmas?

"Oh tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy!
Oh tidings of comfort and joy!"

Waiting for the Sunrise

In the final prophetic book of the Old Testament, Malachi promises a Day of the Lord where God's light will rise to vindicate the faithful.  The metaphor of a sunrise is powerful:

"But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall" (Mal. 4: 2).

"Advent" is the season of four weeks preceding the celebration of Christmas, the birth of the Messiah. It is the season during which we await his arrival.  With his birth, came the rising of the sun of righteousness.  The arrival of the Son of God is like the rising of the morally pure sun in a world dominated by the morally corrupt darkness.

During this season, we can get preoccupied with preparing for the material events--special gatherings and meals, decorations, and gift-giving.  These are all actually rather morally-neutral activities. Whether or not they are "good" things depends on our hearts as we do them.

Perhaps we need to make sure we also get engaged in the spiritual event that we are celebrating--the advent of the Son of God--while we are still doing the material events.  All it takes is a slight "tweak" to what we may already be planning.  While we're doing our decorating, let's allow our souls to be delighted with the beauty of it all.  When we sit down to a meal together, give people a chance to share a word of appreciation to everyone else.  When we exchange gifts, let's begin with a prayer of thanks for God's Gift to us.

"For God so loved the world that he gave...Jesus!"