Feb 08

3 Questions to Ask in the Silence of God

Christian Life, Desperate Days (Job) 2012, Spiritual Disciplines, Theological Musings No Comments »

An excerpt from “The Silence of God” message in our Desperate Days (the Book of Job) series

How do we respond when God seems silent? There is something frustratingly mysterious about the silence of God. I don’t have any easy answers for you. I don’t have a plug and play formula… do this or that and God will show up. But I do have 3 Questions to Ask in the Silence of God. They won’t erase the tension and frustration, but they may help guide you through the fog.

1. Is my suffering caused by my sin? While Job’s suffering was not caused by his sin, and while not all of our suffering is caused by our sin, there are times when our suffering is a result of our sinful choices. God designed life to be lived within His life-giving and life-sustaining boundaries, and when we choose to live outside of those boundaries, consequences, discipline, and suffering results. The Apostle Paul instructs us, “Do not quench the Spirit” (1 Thessalonians 5:19). When we choose to sin and rebel against God, we quench the voice of Jesus through the Holy Spirit. At times, God allows the consequences to come to bear. And it seems as though He’s silent. He’s actually giving us what we wanted… life without His “interference.”

When I was a senior in college, I was arrested for a DUI. After spending the night in jail, I spent the next year cleaning up the mess I created. And there were times, even when I prayed to God that He would resolve things, I sensed His silence. I wholeheartedly believe God is a God of love, grace, and forgiveness, but I also believe He lets the consequences play out. At times, it feels like the “time out” we give our kids. They want to do their own thing. So we put them in their room for a time. We don’t stop loving them, but they do experience our silence. Honestly evaluate whether your suffering caused by your sin?

2. Am I over-dependent on the experience more than the relationship? You’ve likely heard the term “dark night of the soul.” St. John of the Cross wrote about God allowing us to experience the silence (and what feels like His absence) to see whether we’re longing more for the experience of being in relationship with Him more than we’re actually longing for Him. Will we still love God, worship Him, and live by faith when we’re not experiencing the warm fuzzy… when the experience and the passion is lacking… when we feel like we’re in the desert? Let’s be honest. At times we want the water more than the Fountain… the warmth more than the Flame… the green pastures more than the Shepherd. We want the blessing more than the Blesser. Suffering and the silence of God reveal our motives and desires.

3. Will I choose faith? Job spoke this affirmation of his faith in God in the middle of the toughest crisis of his life (Job 19:25-27):

As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives,
And at the last He will take His stand on the earth.
Even after my skin is destroyed,
Yet from my flesh I shall see God;
Whom I myself shall behold,
And whom my eyes will see and not another.
My heart faints within me!

Job says, “As for me, I know my Redeemer lives… even when my heart faints within me. Even in the confusion, the crisis, and even in my complaints that God seems silent and absent, I choose faith. I choose to believe when there’s no logical reason to believe any more.” That’s faith… a faith that hangs in there at any cost. It’s been said, “Job’s faith cannot be shaken because it is the result of having been shaken.” At the end of the day, when you feel the silence of God, when your personal perspective and pain tell you that God is absent and disinterested, will you choose faith? Will you trust His promises that He will never leave nor forsake you… that He will cause all things (yes even His silence) to work together for your good and for the good of those around you? Will you choose faith?

I’ll close with a quote from Philip Yancey’s Disappointment with God:

You could read Job’s story, puzzle over The Wager, then breathe a deep sigh of relief: Phew! God settled that problem. After proving His point so decisively, surely He will return to his preferred style of communicating clearly with His followers. You could think so—unless, that is, you read the rest of the Bible. I hesitate to say this, because it is a hard truth and one I do not want to acknowledge, but Job stands as merely the most extreme example of what appears to be a universal law offaith. The kind of faith God values seems to develop best when everything fuzzes over, when God stays silent, when the fog rolls in.

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Dec 12

Focus on Jesus This Christmas Season

Christian Life, Christmas at the Movies, Spiritual Disciplines, Theological Musings No Comments »

“Adoration of the Shepherds” by Gerard van Honthorst, 1622

The Christmas season can be a frenzied, frantic season. With all of the festivities, shopping, and family events, we easily miss the opportunity to slow down and focus on the marvelous mystery of Immanuel, God with us. Choose to intentionally focus on Jesus this season. To do that, here are some ideas for you:

1. Memorize a verse or passage that talks about the incarnation: Isaiah 9:6, John 1:14 or Philippians 2:5-8.

2. Read the Christmas story from either Matthew or Luke’s Gospel at least once during the Christmas season.

3. If you have children, have them act out the Christmas story.

4. Whether you have children or not, read the story of the real Saint Nicholas.

5. Read and meditate upon a couple of Christmas carols this season, appreciating the beautiful, worship theology of the incarnation.

6. Be generous. Find a way to combat the materialism and consumerism of Christmas.

In addition to choosing a couple of these things to do during the Christmas season, one of the best ways you can focus on Jesus is to invite and bring someone to Northshore for one of our Christmas events (Family Christmas Festival, Christmas at the Movies series, or Christmas Eve). We all have people in our lives who need to know that God has come. And because He has come, we’ve been offered the life-changing gift of life, peace, and hope in Jesus Christ. And you can help them focus on Jesus – “the reason for the season!”

Merry CHRISTmas,

Pastor Jonathan

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Dec 07

I Gave Away My Favorite Bible

Bible, Christian Life, Spiritual Disciplines, Theological Musings 14 Comments »

I gave away my favorite Bible this morning… and by favorite, I mean favorite. I drove down to Fort Lewis (now called Joint Base Lewis McChord) to pray with a soldier and his wife who was having surgery to remove a tumor behind his ear. As we prayed, I asked his wife if she had a Bible with her to read while her husband was in 7+ hours of surgery. She said she didn’t. So I gave her my Bible. As I left Madigan Army Hospital, I got a little tearful. It’s not that I was having “giver’s remorse.” It was this… in that moment I was simply overcome by how much God has loved me, spoken to me, and guided me through that particular copy of His word. I’ve preached hundreds of sermons from that very Bible. Its margins are filled with a decade’s worth of notes, observations, and quotes. I’ve read, prayed, and journaled through book after book of that Bible. I’ve read story after story from its pages to my son. I’ve clung to it for dear life in some of my darkest days. Some of its pages are stained with my very tears.

Please hear me. There’s nothing sacred about that particular copy of the New American Standard Bible. I’ve never set up a little shrine in my office and burned candles to my black leather Bible. But there is something absolutely sacred and life-giving about God’s word. As I said “goodbye” to the couple and my favorite Bible, I realized how truly living and active God’s word is (Hebrews 4:12). I prayed that His words would jump off the page and into the heart of that young wife as her husband was under the knife.

As I returned to my office, I immediately went online in search of a new Bible. In a couple of days it will show up with clean, note-less margins. And once again, God will love me, speak to me, and guide me though His holy, beautiful, life-changing word. He will show me the power and glory of Jesus. He will call the Spirit to clearly illumine His heart for me, for my family, for my neighborhood, for our church, and for our world.

I’m looking forward to the new adventure…

 

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Nov 16

Get off the Fence!

Contending (Jude) 2011, Spiritual Disciplines No Comments »

This past Sunday in our Contending series (the letter of Jude), I talked about “Contending for Lordship.” What does it really mean that Jesus is not only the Savior but also Lord and Master. Jesus’ lordship confronts those who sit on the fence… people who are trying to live in two worlds with two values systems led by two masters.

Jesus has some harsh words to say to fence sitters in Revelation 3:15-16: “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.”

Bottom line: Get off the fence!

I’ve lived on the fence. After college, Jesus convicted me that I had been riding the fence for far too long. And it was a process of asking myself (and others asking me) some hard questions about why I attempted to live in two worlds. Here are a couple of questions that I processed through, and I hope you’ll take the time to do this as well:

1) What are the values, actions, or patterns of sin that “compete” with Jesus’ lordship in my life? Why?

2) Are they ultimately satisfying? Do they ultimately satisfy the deepest longings of my heart? Why or why not?

3) If I continue to live with these values, actions, and patterns of sin, what’s the result? What do I lose?

4) What’s the result of being “lukewarm” (I.e., living on the fence)?

5) What do I gain from surrendering full control and lordship to Jesus? (see Luke 9:24)

For further exploration of contending for and following through on Jesus’ lordship, read “Cross Bearing: Choice, Vision & Follow-through”

If you’re on the fence, here’s my heartfelt prayer for you: “Lord, help my friend climb off the fence. Give them the grace and courage to say ‘no’ to sin and the values of this world. Help them to see that You truly are their greatest good… that as they delight in you above all else, the deepest longings of their heart will be satisfied.”

I’m praying for you as you contend for Jesus’ lordship in your life!


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Jun 28

The Profiles of the Fool & the Humble

Proverbia, Sermons, Spiritual Disciplines, Theological Musings 2 Comments »

As we continue in our summer series Proverbia: Where Life & Wisdom Intersection, it’s crucial to discern and distinguish between pride and humility, folly and wisdom. Pride leads to folly, but humility leads to wisdom. How do we know what pride and humility looks like in our lives? Here’s what the proverbs tell us:

The antidote to pride is humility. And the best way to “weaken pride and cultivate humility” (to borrow a phrase from C.J. Mahaney’s Humility) is to:

Reflect in wonder at Jesus & the Cross

“There is only one thing I know that crushes me to the ground and humiliates me to the dust, and this is to look at the Son of God, and especially contemplate the cross.

When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss
And pour contempt on all my pride.

Nothing else can do it. When I see that I am a sinner, that nothing but the Son of God on the cross can save me, I’m humbled to the dust. Nothing but the cross can give us this spirit of humility.” (Martyn Lloyd-Jones).

How are you weakening pride and cultivating humility?

 

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Jun 07

The School of Jesus

Bible, Christian Life, Spiritual Disciplines, Theological Musings 2 Comments »

Yesterday on my monthly day of prayer and solitude, I spent time reading and meditating upon Ephesians 1:3-23. Take a moment and read it. It’s well worth your time.

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love 5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight 9 He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him 10 with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. In Him 11 also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, 12 to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory. 13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.

15 For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you and your love for all the saints, 16 do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers; 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. 18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might 20 which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

As followers of Jesus, those who have enrolled in The School of Jesus, we see the “cosmic” view of what God is up to through the person and work of Jesus Christ. It is so powerful yet so personal. Jesus’ work is out-of-this-world yet for this world. Here are some lessons I learned yesterday in the school of Jesus.

  • Redemption (v. 7) means that I am forgiven. I no longer have to struggle with guilt and shame. The old has passed away, and the new has come.
  • Adoption (v. 5) means that I am loved. I am a son of God. And sons and daughters are loved extravagantly so.
  • Sanctification(v. 14) means that I am growing. Jesus is changing me. He is healing me. He is fixing the broken places in my life through the grace of His Holy Spirit.
  • Resurrection (vv. 20-23) means that I am empowered. There is a power that is outside of me that works inside of me. This fills me with hope because many a day, I feel so powerless

What is Jesus teaching you as a student in His school?

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May 16

Physics, Inertia, and God’s Will

Christian Life, Spiritual Disciplines, Urban Legends No Comments »

I received this great thought from a friend today after preaching Urban Legend #3: “God Has a Blueprint for My Life” this past Sunday.

One of the great lessons I know both from physics and also as a stumbling, bumbling follower of Christ is that it is easier to steer a moving object than it is to start moving an object at rest. Do something, anything, in the name of God, and if it isn’t quite on target, He will honor your heart’s desire and help you make the necessary adjustments. But if you just sit there like a stump, it’s much harder for Him for move you in the right direction… because you aren’t moving!!!

Are you moving forward or paralyzed toward inaction because you’re trying so hard to discern and divine God’s will of direction for your life?

For a great book to read on knowing God’s will, see Kevin DeYoung’s Just Do Something: How to Make a Decision Without Dreams, Visions, Fleeces, Open Doors, Random Bible Verses, Casting Lots, Liver Shivers, Writing in the Sky, etc.

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Mar 03

Generosity: Choosing a Life of Overflow

Generosity 2011, Northshore Baptist Church, Spiritual Disciplines 5 Comments »

Generosity begins with a generous God. “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son…” God is the most generous of givers and as followers of Jesus, we are to become like the God we serve.  And in the joy and act of giving, we are most like God when we give and serve like God. People who have experienced the transformation of Jesus through the Holy Spirit choose to live a life of overflow, freely giving their time, talent, touch, and treasure. But it’s something we have to learn…something we have to live…something we have to commit to.

In our Generosity series during the month of March, we are going to see what the Bible has to say about generosity. We’ll discover biblical pictures of what it looks like to be people who choose a life of overflow with our time, our talents, our treasure, and our touch.  It’s about transformation, not transaction.  And through this series, we’ll learn the heart of sacrifice…giving up something we love for something we love even more.

Generosity is such an important topic and principle for our lives, our church, and our mission to the world that we’ve developed a Generosity Study Guide for this series. We have also developed Children’s Ministry and Student Ministry curriculum, which will mirror the weekly messages in the worship services.

In the study guide, you’ll find an overview and review of Sunday’s message. You’ll also be given questions to discuss in your small group community. During our Sunday services we’ll celebrate stories of generosity, discovering what it looks like in the real world to live out each week’s generosity value. You’ll also find prayer points to pray through so that you might begin and continue to live generously. Lastly, there are also some ideas for families to discuss with children so that we can teach and model generosity for a lifetime.

As you live and experience generosity and choose to live a life of overflow, I’d love to hear your stories. You can send them to generosity@nsb.org.

If you’d like to listen to the four messages on Generosity, here’s the link.

I pray that God would teach and train us to be people who live generously like our Savior does. I pray that God’s generosity would shine through our lives, our families, and our church. And I pray that we’d be changed in the process to become a people and a life-transforming community that lives, looks, and loves more like Jesus.

Welcome to the journey of generosity!

Pastor Jonathan

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Feb 21

Effective Prayer

Christian Life, Gospel of Mark, Spiritual Disciplines, Theological Musings 1 Comment »

From The Struggle of Prayer by Donald Bloesch…

“The efficacy of our prayers is tied to the discretion of God. He will answer the prayers of the faithful, but He will answer in His own way and in His own time. He will often give us beyond what we ask for. As Luther phrased it, ‘We pray for silver, but God often gives us gold.’

Yet God may also answer with a refusal. He will not reject our prayer, but He may well reject the way we wish our prayer to be answered. We must not insist on our solution after it becomes clear that God chooses to impose another solution. There is a time to resist and there is a time to submit. God may delay His answer in order to secure our humble dependence on Him. We need to wait for the right time, which is known only to Him. It was seven years before William Carey baptized his first convert in India.

It is well to recognize that there will always be a tension and sometimes a contradiction between our desires and God’s will. The reason is that sin still darkens the minds even of believers, so that we do not always know or desire what is best for us. God is infinite, whereas we are finite; He is the Creator, we are only creatures. This immeasurable gulf between God and man is vividly portrayed by the prophet Isaiah: ‘My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts’ (Isaiah 55:8-9).

The paradox of prayer that is not answered according to human expectation but that is fulfilled in the perspective of eternity is admirably set forth in the following poem:

He asked for strength that he might achieve;

he was made weak that he might obey.

He asked for health that he might do greater things;

he was given infirmity that he might do better things.

He asked for riches that he might be happy;

he was given poverty that he might be wise.

He asked for power that he might have the praise of men;

he was given weakness that he might feel the need of God.

He asked for all things that he might enjoy life;

he was given life that he might enjoy all things.

He has received nothing that he asked for, all that he hoped for.

His prayer was answered!

In our prayers we will not always get what we expressly desire, but we will receive what we need.”

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Feb 07

The Servant Prayer

Bible, Gospel of Mark, Spiritual Disciplines 2 Comments »

In Mark’s Gospel, the first ten chapters cover the three years of Jesus’ earthly ministry. And the final six chapters cover one week, the Passion Week. Up to this point, Jesus has been training the twelve disciples, teaching them His heart and His kingdom values, and showing them what happens when the rule and reign of God shows up in the lives of people. Before we enter into the final week of Mark’s Gospel, Jesus has one more lesson for the disciples and for us… a lesson that’s the culmination of His heart and His mission for this world. The heart of Mark 10:32-52 calls us to pray and live out the Servant Prayer:

#1 To know what You have done for me

“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). Jesus doesn’t give His life simply as the supreme example of servanthood. Something much larger is happening… something much more significant. When Jesus dies on the cross and gives His life for us, He pays a ransom. He’s paying the price to free us from the penalty of our sin and rebellion against God. Jesus giving “His life a ransom for many” is the clearest statement in Mark’s Gospel about the redemptive purpose of God in Jesus’ death.

On the cross, Jesus dies in our place as a substitute. We deserved death because of our sin and treason against God, but Jesus takes it in our stead. We are freed from and forgiven the penalty of our sin. Understanding this is crucial as we press into the remainder of this Servant Prayer. It is the heart change that Jesus accomplishes as He pays the penalty for our sin that enables us to then live out Jesus’ heart of servanthood.

Pastor Tullian Tchividjian wrote in his book Surprised by Grace:

It’s the gospel (what Jesus has done) that alone can give God-honoring animation to our obedience. The power to obey comes from being moved and motivated by the completed work of Jesus for us. The fuel to do good flows from what’s already been done. So, while the law directs us, only the gospel can drive us.

It is only as we grow in our understanding and application of what Jesus has done for us that we begin to grow in our understanding and application of serving the people and world around us.

#2 To seek greatness in serving

Each year USA Today honors overlooked and often unappreciated football players by naming them to what the newspaper calls its All-Joes Team. Now in its 19th year, the All-Joes award celebrates men who sacrifice their egos for the good of their team. USA Today writes:

Our Joes are not average or even sloppy, but rather unheralded, unloved and, sometimes, underpaid since the one prerequisite for being an All-Joe is that you cannot have a Pro Bowl on your résumé. The NFL’s stars wouldn’t succeed without the adjacent All-Joes. They would never make the Pro Bowl minus those who perform the grittier tasks. That’s one reason the All-Joe team doesn’t allow Pro Bowl picks on its roster and it lends bitter truth to its motto: If you work hard, good things will happen — to someone else.

The motto of the All Joes team really is applicable to those who are servant-hearted: “If you work hard, good things will happen… to someone else.” I’d tweak it… if you live in the grace of Jesus Christ, good things will happen… in and through you… to the people in your world as you serve them in the name of Jesus. We serve others because Jesus first served us. And the Servant Prayer calls us to seek greatness in serving others. While the world entices us with the idols of power, position, and prestige, Jesus invites us to pick up the towel and basin and wash feet. D.L. Moody once said, “The measure of a man is not how many servants he has, but how many men he serves.” Seek greatness in Jesus’ His kingdom by serving.

#3 To follow You with spiritual eyes

The Servant Prayer ends by asking Jesus for the spiritual eyes to follow Him… asking Jesus for the gift of seeing people and the world around us the way He sees people and the world around us. It is asking Jesus to give us the spiritual eyes to be people who are servant-hearted and kingdom-minded. It is asking Jesus to give us the spiritual eyes to see through the deception of the world’s values and to give us the spiritual eyes to live with kingdom values. Jesus, please grant me the faith to follow You with spiritual eyes… with eyes that know what You have fully done for me… with eyes and a heart that seek greatness in serving others.  Jesus, please grant me the faith to follow You with spiritual eyes as I deny and surrender myself and daily pick up my servant’s cross and servant’s towel and follow after You.

When we pray the Servant Prayer, we’re transformed by Jesus’ great grace to be people that follow Him and serve the world around us with His eyes. We become people who are servant-hearted and kingdom-minded.

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