Multiplying the Magnificent Glory of God

Psalm 22:1-5

Lord God,

You do not forsake the hurting, the suffering or the afflicted.

You are enthroned as the Holy One.

You are the one we praise.

You are the one our ancestors put their trust in.

You are the one who delivered them.

When they cried out to you.

You saved them.

When they put their trust in you.

You did not disappoint.

As I think about this passage, how will others know I cried out to you and that you saved me? How will others know that I trusted you and you answered? How will people know the Lord is faithful unless I share it with them? How will my faith strengthen the faith of those who follow? The only way for you to receive long term glory for the work you have done in my life is by me telling of it to others. My story of your faithfulness needs to not only live in my life, but in the lives of others.

When I tell the story of your working in my life, this brings you glory.  Also, when I tell the story of another person’s faithfulness and your working in their life it brings you glory. First, you received the glory from answering their prayer. Second, you get glory from them sharing how you answered their prayer when they share it with others. Third when the others tell others of your work in their lives, you receive glory. This is how to expand the glory of the Lord.

Here is an example of it in action. My wife has been having a difficult transition at her work. She switched departments over the summer and it did not go as smoothly as she had dreamed it would go. She was discouraged and when she found out her new assignments, it was not what she was told it would be. This was very disappointing and disheartening. However, she continued to pray and trust that her decision to switch was the right one.

She felt forsaken and forgotten. She understood the challenges of the transition, but didn’t know how difficult it would be. However, now the payoff is starting to happen. She is having colleague after colleague come up to her and tell her how excited they are that she is with them. She is seeing this as a direct answer to prayer. Yesterday, the husband of a colleague randomly told my wife that his wife, a colleague of hers, is excited that my wife is now part of her department. For this man’s wife, my wife is an answer to prayer for his wife and she is looking at how much energy and insight my wife will bring to the people she works with and influences.

God is working in and through my wife. God is displaying himself to her. By her sharing that story with me, she is expanding the glory of God and bringing honor to him. Now, by my sharing the story, I too am expanding his glory. I am calling this the multiplication of the magnificent glory of God.

So today, my prayer is that I would hear from someone today an answer to prayer. Then I would remember it and share it with another person. That I would magnify the magnificent glory of God. This way God is glorified in multiples, not just in the single answer to prayer. 

Amen.

Lessons from the Tunnel

 My wife and I went on an amazing bike ride in northern Idaho.  We rode on the “Route of the Hiawatha”.  In the olden days, this was once a railroad track that went from Seattle, Washington to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In the 1980’s the train stopped running on the track as people found it much easier to fly on a plane than ride on a train.  It sat in disrepair for years but over the last few years, parts of it have been converted into a bike path. I believe the goal is to convert the entire trail to a bike path in the coming years.  On this particular ten mile section of the trail there are seven trestles and nine different tunnels.  The trestles are beautiful works of engineering art. It is amazing riding over their curved arches and hearing the rivers in the valley below ripple and splash. The tunnels are incredible to ride through. Some are short and some are mid-length where your eyes get adjusted to the dark long enough before the light starts to filter in at the other end.  However, there is one long tunnel.  It is called the St. Paul Pass Tunnel. This tunnel is over 8750 feet long (1.66 miles). This tunnel takes close to ten minutes to ride through.  Ten minutes of absolute darkness and quietness.  The only thing I could hear was the splashing of my tires against the mud on the path and the dripping of water that penetrated the cracks in the ceiling and fell to the ground.  The only thing I could see was about 20 - 30 feet infant of me as my bike light penetrated the darkness just far enough for me to make out the path before me.  Other than that, I could see nothing else and hear nothing else. 

As I rode my bike in the darkness of the long tunnel, I thought of a few lessons I could share. 

First, tunnels were made by others, trust the path of those who went before you. The writer of the book of Hebrews says, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witness….” (12:1). This verse comes after an entire chapter of saints who lived by faith. These saints all went through the dark tunnel of faith.  On our path of life, we can choose to enter the tunnel or to go around it.  While going around it looks enticing, it is much, much more difficult. Don’t avoid the tunnel, trust those who have gone before you. Those who entered the tunnel of faith “were all commended for their faith, yet none of the received what had been promised, since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect” (Hebrews 11:39, 40).  They made the tunnel on purpose, but a tunnel unused is a useless tunnel and the workers who made it work will go unperfected.   

Once in the tunnel, it will get dark.  Trust the light on the path before you and keep moving forward.  Don’t turn off the light, the amazingness of utter darkness will only last for a moment, then you will quickly realize how dependent you are on the light. Don’t try and explore. You are in a tunnel and there is only one way in and one way out. Don’t get turned around and end up exiting where you started.  Don’t look back because you will see nothing, literally nothing. Trust the light on the path before you and keep moving.  Without the light, it is extremely easy to get disorientated.  Psalm 119:105 says, “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.”  When I was in the darkness of the St. Paul Pass Tunnel I knew I had to keep peddling. I knew it was only by illuminating the path before me that I would go forward and find my way to the end. 

Because it is such a long tunnel, I had time to think.  I thought of what would happen if I turned off my light.  First, I would become disorientated and crash.  Then I would pick myself up and move in a direction. My journey would become slow, very slow as I found a wall and then very slowly inched my way out of the tunnel. This is a horrible way to live.  To live in the darkness when I have a perfectly good light is foolishness at best. Don’t enter the tunnel of faith and then try to live it on your own power. Get into the word of God and let him illuminate you path.  When you are riding with the light of God’s word going before you, the tunnel of faith becomes exhilarating.  It is difficult, it is long, it is cold (it was so cold in the tunnel as the ice water dripped from the ceiling from the snow covered mountain above me that my hands ached in pain.) and it is worth it!

Never enter the tunnel alone. We were designed to be in relationships.  We need Intimate relationships (Genesis 3), family relationships (Most of the book of Numbers is about family lines), partners (Peter and John, Paul and Barnabas are examples) and community relationships (the church as community gathering together to encourage, support, and pray for one another) to fulfill all that God has intended us to experience.  In the tunnel of faith, have a partner.  When I was riding in the tunnel, I was riding closely behind my wife. I could see her light shining ahead of me. It helped me know and find the way.  Then we would trade spots and I would ride in front.  It was great journey to share together. It helped having another person in the tunnel together.  This is a truism for life.  Don’t do the spiritual life alone.  Do the walk of faith with someone next to you experiencing it together. 

We live in a world where our best friends are just numbers on a social media screen. They are people who curate their personalities and pleasures, picking out the best moments and pasting them for every to see.  This is OK, I guess, but real friends walk next to each other. They work together. They suffer, share, and sacrifice for one another. Be connected with others and be in a community with others.  The tunnel of faith works best with a line of faith filled lights illuminating the path before and behind you.

The light at the end of the tunnel is further away than you think. It is not a quick journey. It was so deceiving when I first spotted the light at the end of the tunnel. I could see it, but I had no reference as to how far away it was at the time. I thought I would get to it quickly and that it was much closer. I was wrong.  It took a long time to finally enter the fresh air of the other side of the mountain. I knew that all I needed to do was simply peddle and endure the bitter cold.  If I kept going, I would eventually reach the end. While it took longer than initially believed, I did make it out of the tunnel. We know that one day all of the pain and suffering of life will end. We know one day we will see the light of the Lord Jesus in his full and wonderful awesome glory. We know that a new creation is in the works.  There is light at the end of this tunnel of faith, so keep peddling, working, and sharing the light with others.  One day it will be all worth it. 

Being United

Philippians 2:1

If I find any encouragement from being united with Christ.

The word “united” is the same word Jesus uses when he speaks of a husband and a wife being united in marriage (Matthew 19:5).  When a single man and a single woman say “yes” to each other at the alter, they become united as husband and wife. Their words, their world and their ways all become interconnected.  The two are no longer considered independent, they are considered one.  When people interact with me and my wife is not around me, they know that everything I do is also connected with my wife.  I can’t leave for the weekend and not tell her. I can’t do things that offend her. I can’t just “hang out with the guys” and live as if she does not exist. Nor can I simply use her for my personal gratification.  She is not there to simply fulfill my wants, desires and expectations.  We are united as one, therefore we constantly live our lives in the reality that we are married and are one.  Our goal is to help one another, to serve one another and to encourage one another till death does us part.  If either of us has a need, the other one of us will do all we can do to help meet that need. We share life together. We share our experiences together, even out experiences we had when we were not together.

Being united is not a temporary situation, it is a permanent situation.  It is the leaving of all others and being connected to Christ.  Jesus made the decision to be united with me a long time ago. He decided he wants to have a permanent relationship with me. He said “Yes”.  Then he demonstrated how serious he was about it by becoming human, even though he was in the very nature God. He made himself nothing. He took on the nature of a servant. He humbled himself. He became obedient to death, even death on a cross! (Phil 2:6-8). 

This must be encouraging news.  The God of the universe, the creator of all things personally died a humiliating death so that he could have a relationship with me.  God made the first move, the second move and every move he could possibly make so that we would be united.  He offers to forgive all my sins and then to fill me with His Spirit. It gets better, he offers me a fantastic destiny, a permanent place in his kingdom, a life filled with abundance. All I have to do is accept his offer and live like I am married to Christ.

Being married to Christ is more than saying “Yes” to Christ.  It is now about living out this relationship in a way that constantly strengthens the relationship.  My goal is to glorify, to enhance the reputation of Christ. He already served me through his obedience. He already gave everything to me through his humility when he did not consider equality with God a better advantage.  Now, I get to express my love for him in humble service. I get to live my life in such a way that everyone knows that everything I do will be filtered in and through my marriage with Christ. 

So, today I will live with the knowledge that everything I say and do needs to bring glory and honor to Christ.  May he be honored through my words and my actions today. 

Lessons from Zion

Lessons from Zion

The Zion National Park is a journey into awesome towering rock walls, beautiful trees, crystal blue skies and a refreshingly cold flowing river. The further you travel up the river, the closer and closer the rock walls get until you are forced to either forge the river or abandon the path and turn around. Unfortunately, because I was unprepared to forge the river, I had to to stop my forward progress and turn around.

This amazing natural wonder took my breath away. As I reflect on my journey into and out of the National Park, I learned a few lessons.

Beauty can come from disaster

The first is that beauty can come from disaster. The Zion valley is a result of a giant flood that encompassed the whole area eons ago. The water slowly etched away at the rocks and the beauty and wonder of what we have today is a direct result of the receding waters. Disaster often seems like it is the end of the world. As a Christ follower, I see this example best in the life of Christ. His disciples felt the disaster of the cross. They were flooded with failure, foolishness, and fear. Everything they worked for came to an end with the burial of Jesus in the tomb. Then, three days later, the "waters" receded if you will, the most beautiful event in recorded history was revealed. The tomb was empty. Jesus was not dead, he rose from the grave and is alive. The empty tomb changed the disciples lives in the most dramatic way possible. Now everything made sense. Now they were filled with purpose and not despair. The Zion National Park is a monument to the reality that disasters can turn out beautiful, if we simply entrust the moment into the Master’s hands.

Beauty is hidden in the desert.

I have driven up and down the 15 freeway from Las Vegas to Saint George, Utah many times. This is the first time I turned off the main highway and headed deep into the desert. The drive along the 15 at the Zion National Park is unimpressive. It is one sage bush after another. It is flowing sand and distant mountains. It is brown, rocky and generally a place to pass through, not stop and wander. However, this time my wife and I stopped. We exited the highway and drove on the road further into the desert. When we got to the park I was filled with wonder and awe struck at the beauty I had never seen. How could such a beautiful place be located in such a desolated location? How could I have missed it all these years? It is just over five hours from my house and I have never seen it before. I missed it because I never stopped. I never went looking for it. I missed it. I wonder how many other things in my life have I missed because I have simply been too busy going from one point to another point in my life? How many times did I not take a break from the urgent to examine the amazing? Life gets busy. There are deadlines to meet, challenge to address and mundane but necessary moments that take all my time. My lesson from this journey is to turn off the path every now and then and be awestruck by the beauty. I found it off the road in the desert.

Beauty can be copied

Humanity can only copy what God did it first. There was a section of the walk in the Zion canyon where it looked fake. It looked like I had seen it before in a museum or at Disneyland. The plants were in perfect shape as they were imbedded into the moist rock wall, the colors were amazingly vibrant, and even the man made fencing was simple. It took me a moment to realize I was looking at the original. Everything else I saw before was a copy of this section. I was in the priceless artwork. I was walking through what movies, museums and murals all have tried to duplicate. What was at one time in my mind only a 2D image, was in reality real as I took each step. This masterpiece could be touched, felt, sensed. Human’s didn’t create this, God did. We just copied what he did first.

It gets even better, one day there will be a new heaven, one filled with perfection, not stained with sin. I was only looking at the remnant of the garden. One day I will see the garden in its completeness, its fullness, its completeness. From destruction comes beauty, hidden beauty that we can only copy.

So today, I will relish in what I saw and experienced. I will remember its glory and I will look forward to the day where I can walk through the renewed garden with the creator of it all.

As a Priest

Holy are you, O Lord Jesus.  You are the One who is, and who was, and who is to come. You are Lord of the church. You are the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead. You, O Lord, are the ruler of the kings of the earth (Rev 1:4-5).  You love me. You freed me from condemnation (Rom 8:1), from separation (Rom 8:35) and from individualism (Rom 8:14) through your blood. You grafted me into the place of great privilege to become a priest in your kingdom.

As a priest, I come to you personally and enter into your sanctuary. I ask for the forgiveness of my sins.  I don’t bring a bull or goat, but I bring the cup and the bread. With these, I remember that night that you paid the price for my sins. I remind myself that I am forgiven. I am free from sin and guilt. With the freshness of this reminder in my mind, I fall on my knees and worship you with gladness. I exalt you for your love, mercy, grace and kindness.

As a priest, come to you with my personal requests. I ask you to work in my family.  I look at the glassy see before your throne and hear the echos of the angels praising you and I boldly ask you to continually draw my family closer to you. Protect them from the evil one and Provide for them today all that they will need to live and thrive.  I pray for the church I serve. I pray for new believers to join the family, to grow in faith. I pray that we would demonstrate miracalous love and grace for one another beyond our natural ability to love and enjoy one another.  May they know we are Christians by our love for one another.

As I priest, after I get done worshipping you, I then take the requests others have asked me to make on their behalf and I present them to you.  I pray for those issues that are on the hearts of those I represent. I ask you to work, to heal, to restore and refresh.  Bring their children to faith, heal their pain, renew their strength and strengthen their faith.

As a priest, I represent you to the people.  Help me today to wear the priestly garments of righteousness, grace, truth and joy. Help me, Lord Jesus, be a reflection of you. Draw people closer to you through my words, through my actions, through my way of life.  I don’t want anyone to say, I don’t want to believe because Paul is a believer and if he is a believer I want nothing to do with His God.

Finally, one day Lord, I will cry out, “Look up!  Wow!  You’ve got to see this!  It is absolutely amazing.  Look!  Can you see it!!  I will jump for joy! I will dance in the street. Tears will run down my cheeks with the realization that my faith was right. It is all true.  One day, I will look up and I will see Jesus coming on the clouds.  I will celebrate with great joy.  May I not do it alone.  May I have people next to me, with me, beside me all engaged in amazing joy as I see you riding on the clouds returning to collect your faith-filled faithful ones.

Lord, God Almighty, come soon.  Until then, may I be found diligently doing what you have asked me to do as a priest, representing you in my life to everyone I come in contact with today.  Amen.

Restore Us

Praise the Lord!

Psalm 80

It has a beautiful refrain that is repeated multiple times throughout these verses.

Restore us, O God; make your face shine on us, that we have be saved (3)

Restore us, O God; make your face shine on us, that we may be saved (7)

Restore us, O God; make your face shine on us, that we may be saved (19)

“Restore us.” In other words we were in good condition, but like a tarnished antique serving cup we lost our shine. We are like an old coffee table made of beautiful hand crafted hardwood we have been painted over, played on and placed in the attic that now is in need of being restored. We were good, but now we are thrown out. We were beautiful, but now we have lost our luster. Restore us.

“O God.” The shepherd of Israel (1). The One who sits enghroned between the cherubim (1). The LORD God Almighty (4). God Almighty (14). The One who answers and does not answer the prayers of his people (4). The One who’s anger has made his people the object of mockery (6). The One who worked in their history and blessed them in the past (8-11). The One who owns the vineyard (14, 15). The Psalmist recognizes that God has invested significantly in his people, the vineyard of his choosing. God rebuked his people, now it is time to let the grapevine sprout new growth, but that growth will only come about as the Lord revives and restores.

“Make your face shine on us.” His face was turned against. He could not look at the sinful, disobedient and rebellious behavior. God could no longer make eye contact with Israel and the life she lived. He turned his face away. The psalmist asks for the Lord to return His gaze. We are broken. We need your help. May your face shine on us. Don’t look at us with sadness, with regret, with anger or with coldness. May your face shine on us like long lost friends seeing one another after a long absence. May your face shine on us like lovers separated by time who reunite and whose faces beam love and connection toward one another. Lord, make your face shine toward us, look to us with love and joy.

“That we may be saved.” Unless you restore us we will be put out for a yard sale, or forgotten in the attic. Unless you shine your face upon us we will be forever lovers lost wondering what if… We are powerless in this moment. It is all up to you. We are once again seeking you. We know we need to be restored. We know we need to be forgiven. We know we are powerless to reconcile this relationship. It is up to you, O Lord.

“Save us.” We can’t do it on our own. We are utterly dependent on you to save us. Look at the mess we have caused. Look at our damaged condition. Look at our situation and help us.

Heavenly Father, as I turn to you today, as I look to you to restore me back to my original condition, I recognize that there are stuff marks in my life, there are gouges of sin that have deeply scarred me. Restore me. As the Master Craftsman, restore me so that I can be displayed in your presence as a trophy of grace. Save me to use me today.

Reflecting Beauty

Praise the Lord!

You are amazing, Lord God.

When I stop and actually look at what is before me, I am amazed. From this little garden spot in my backyard, I see small clusters of lavender flowers each one pushing up through the stem of the next as if one cluster gives birth to another cluster to another cluster, each reaching and stretching higher and higher on their thin, wispy stalk. I see of long bright red miniature trumpet flowers with their horns shooting out from the branches. I see small tight clusters of bright variegated flowers going from yellow in the very center to deep red on the outside peering up toward heaven. I see a few tiny blue flowers hiding among the leaves clinging tightly to their stems shyly displaying their beauty. I see a massive group of flowers that resemble miniature pineapples with the top stem in vibrant pink boldly exploding from small tightly gathered stems and leaves.

Lord, your amazing. Why all this color? Why all this uniqueness? Why all this variety? This is just a small section of your work. You have made each different simply for your glory. What is true of the flowers of the garden is also true of humanity. We reflects your ascetic beauty. All of us are unique and different. Each of us reflect your glory, bear your image. Lord, God, your image is so unique. Just I can recognize a flower as a flower, I can recognize your image reflecting in others. Just as one flower does not need to look like the other flower, one person does not need to look the same as everyone else, yet I still recognize your imprint of love, grace, mercy, patience, faithfulness, justice and a host of other qualities you exhibit in the lives of others. You are beautiful and amazing.

Lord, forgive us for corrupting your image. Forgive us for replacing your image with images of our own making. We want a god we can understand, so we create a god that resembles us, it reflects our fears, and enhances our thrills. It acts like us in our worse, therefore it is a scapegoat for us to blame when things go wrong. It enhances our thrills, so we must worship it in order to participate in its pleasure. We can’t explain the uniqueness and the complexity of your creation, so we dumb down our god to our own understanding and make everything the same. We are fools living in a foolish land, thinking we are wise and mighty. We have broken the first and second commandments (Ex 20:3-6). Forgive us Lord.

Help me Lord worship you, the Almighty God who parted the sea, who fed the thousands, who defeated death. Lord, God Almighty, may you be my God today. Give me strength face my fears, to “get up” and stop mourning over my rejection and your rejection and go anoint and empower others to accomplish what you have called them to do and be (1 Sam 16:1). Lord, help me reflect your beauty, so that the mature grow together with the new constantly changing and displaying your glory.

Amen

Heaven

Praise the Lord.

My father, who dwells in heaven, holy is your name.

To us mere mortals, heaven is a fearfully awesome place. It is a sparkling crystal vault of praise. It is filled with the peaceful sounds of rushing water and as well as the powerful rumblings of a mighty army. It is filled with beauty and splendor, and power and authority. It has brilliant lapis blues and gold woven together in the temple walls. It is a place of awe and wonder.

When Ezekiel noticed God, he fell on his face (Ez. 1:28). When Isaiah had a vision of the Lord, he cried out, “Woe to me! I am ruined. For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty!” (Is 6:5). When John turns and sees the resurrected Jesus Christ, the one whom he loved, dressed in a rob touching his feet, with a golden sash around his chest, hair white like snow, eyes like blazing fire, feet like glowing bronze, and a voice like that of rushing water, holding seven stars, and his face shining like the son in all of its brilliance, John falls at his feet as though dead (Revelation 1).

When Joshua with his sword in his hand encounters the commander of the Lord’s army, he falls face down on the ground in reverence and asks, “What message does my Lord have for his servant?” (Josh 5:14). When Gideon realizes he is speaking to an angel of the Lord, he exclaims out of great fear, “Sovereign LORD! I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face!” This the angel says to him, “Peace! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die.” When Moses encounters God, he hides his face because he was afraid to die (Ex 6:6). Later when God reveals his glory to Moses, the Lord covers Moses’s face so that Moses will not die (Ex 33:20). When Zachariah encountered the Lord in the temple he was “startled and gripped with fear” (Lk 1:12). The Apostle Paul was “caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things”, but he was not allowed to tell anyone about what he had seen or heard.

Lord, God, as I dwell on the encounters that men of old had with either you personally, or with your angelic servants, I give you praise. Lord, reveal your glory to some saints here on earth. Help us see you for who you truly are. Help us start our prayers “Our Father who is in heaven, holy is your name.” May we fall on our face with reverence, fear and awe. May we never go where you don’t lead us. May we always obedient go where you do lead us.

Thank you Lord for today.

First Blog post

Praise the Lord!

God is still in control. He is still king, Lord, and Creator. Nothing, nothing can remove him from his position. Nothing can take it from him. He is all powerful. His will will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

I write that inspired from both the difficult times that I have gone through and reading about the difficult times that others have gone through. Honestly, sometimes I lose sight that God is Lord and that neither sin, laziness, or Satan and his partners can dethrone the Lord of glory. They might possess people to do evil things, but that does not threaten the throne. They might tempt people to elevate themselves to god like status, but that does not threaten the throne. People might submit to earthly temptations, sensual desires, or selfish cravings, but that does not threaten the throne of Heaven.

Jesus left the throne of heaven. He came down to earth. He lived a human life. He walked among us, ate with us, prayed with and for us, was beaten for us and ultimately died for us. But none of that ever threatened the throne. In fact, it established the throne more strongly.

The Holy Spirit came upon a unique people. A people who sat locked in a room, living in fear and hope. Not knowing what to do next. They sat waiting in expectation and then received what they did not expect: the powerful presence of the Holy Spirit in their lives. They already had the Spirit because Jesus gave it to them earlier. It to them through the breath of Christ in John 20:21 when Jesus breathed on the the Spirit.

Now in Acts 2, the Spirit comes upon the gathering in a powerful way. He comes as tongues of fire. Fire has always represented the leading of God. The Lord passed through the sacrificial covenant with Abraham as a pot of fire. The Lord led the people of the Exodus as a pillar of fire by night. The burning bush was a symbol of fire. The fire came down from heaven on Elijah’s sacrifice. Now, that fire of judgement, of leading, of connection, of the promise lands on the disciples head. And they proclaim to the world that Jesus is Lord. That he is in control. That he has all authority to make claim to the throne because death could not hold him back.

Praise the Lord. God is in control today, as he was yesterday and as he will be tomorrow.

Lord, fill me with the power of your Spirit to proclaim this powerful truth.