Isn't It Ironic?

 

Nancy Fleming and I noticed this police car parked across the street from the church a few weeks ago. It struck us as humorous that a police car, on an otherwise completely empty street, would park in the one place he wasn't supposed to. Why is that? And yet how often do we do likewise?

What is it about the one illegal parking space we find so alluring?

Pondering...

Where Are People Like This Today?

Monica and I just returned from a Black Hills weekend yesterday. I was struck by Mount Rushmore. I know these old, stone-faced guys weren't perfect either, but when I listened to the national bailout hysteria coming home and the mind-numbing presidential campaigns swirling around, I find myself wondering where our leaders went. These old guys certainly had their detractors of course (and for good reason!), but they seemed to share a moral clarity and courageous sense of conviction it seems to me we find sorely lacking today.

George Washington walked away when the people wanted to make him king. The idea revolted him. I don't know...that just impresses me.

Learnings From A Facebook Friend

A friend found this posted on somebody else's blog and posted it to Facebook. Well worth reading I think...

I've learned that you cannot make someone love you. All you can do is be someone who can be loved. The rest is up to them.
I've learned that no matter how much I care, some people just don't care back.
I've learned that just because someone doesn't love you the way you want them to, doesn't mean they don't love you with all they have.
I've learned that it takes years to build up trust, and only seconds to destroy it.
I've learned that it's not what you have in your life but who you have in your life that counts.
I've learned that you can get by on charm for about fifteen minutes. After that, you'd better know something.
I've learned that you shouldn't compare yourself to the best others can do but to the best you can do.
I've learned that it's not what happens to people that's important. It's what they do about it.
I've learned that you can do something in an instant that will give you heartache for life.
I've learned that it's taking me a long time to become the person I want to be.
I've learned that you should always leave loved ones with loving words. It may be the last time you see them.
I've learned that we are responsible for what we do, no matter how we feel.
I've learned that either you control your attitude or it controls you.
I've learned that regardless of how hot and steamy a relationship is at first, the passion fades and there had better be something else to take its place.
I've learned that heroes are the people who do what has to be done when it needs to be done, regardless of the consequences.
I've learned that learning to forgive takes practice.
I've learned that there are people who love you dearly, but just don't know how to show it.
I've learned that money is a lousy way of keeping score.
I've learned that my best friend and I can do anything or nothing and have the best time.
I've learned that sometimes the people you expect to kick you when you're down will be the ones to help you get back up.
I've learned that sometimes when I'm angry I have the right to be angry, but that doesn't give me the right to be cruel.
I've learned that true friendship continues to grow, even over the longest distance. Same goes for true love.
I've learned that maturity has more to do with what types of experiences you've had and what you've learned from them and less to do with how many birthdays you've celebrated.
I've learned that you should never tell a child their dreams are unlikely or outlandish. Few things are more humiliating, and what a tragedy it would be if they believed it.

Specks of Great Joy (Psalm 19)

In the summer of 1981, I preached my first sermon. I was serving on an evangelism team holding outdoor campground services in parks throughout the Rocky Mountains. For a wide variety of reasons, I was only given 15 minutes to prepare my message. It had been raining all day and so when I sat down to prepare that evening, I prayed three things. I prayed for the words to share, I prayed for an end to the rain and I prayed for lots of people to come to our service. Within five minutes of saying amen to that prayer, I had my Scripture text, sermon outline and illustrations nicely written down and ready to go. I couldn’t write the stuff down fast enough to keep up with the thoughts flowing into my head! Then the rain stopped and the people started showing up. By our 7PM start time, we had more people in that service than in any other service all summer long. I knew God had something special planned.

I don’t remember what I preached that night, but I sure remember what happened afterwards. The people responded warmly. I was asked to go pray with a man about his son’s brain tumor. But when I approached this string tied, snap-shirted man in cowboy boots and enormous belt buckle, before I even said a word, he looked directly into my eyes, grabbed my hand and said in a very quiet Texas drawl, “You know God is calling you to preach, don’t you boy? You know that, don’t you?” I completely lost my train of thought! There was something about the whole evening, about the way he looked at me and spoke to me. For some reason, I couldn’t speak. But then just as I was about to respond, the rain came back with a vengeance and we all had to run for our tents. I was upset I didn’t get to talk more with the guy, but even as I thought that, the Spirit seemed to say not to worry. I would see him again.

And sure enough, two weeks, hundreds of miles and countless mountain passes later, who should appear in another congregation but this very same man. Billy Jones, my quiet, cattle ranching, cowboy friend from East Texas! I couldn’t wait to speak with him. There was just something inescapable and compelling about him. I spent two hours sitting around his campfire that night, listening. He didn’t seem to like talking much, but there was one thing he said that night I will never forget. We were talking about the mysterious “fear of the LORD,” (is it awe or is it fear?) something I’d been studying that year. When I asked for his opinion on the matter, he said, “Well Kevin, you know, one starry night a few years ago I was out walking through one of my cow pastures. The night was so peaceful and the stars so blame purty I just started praying and praising God, you know? I went on that way until it just seemed like the presence of God Himself started to fall all around me. And eventually, it was all just so blame perfect and good, I had to quit cause all that perfection would have just up and killed me. I got scared; it was all too good. And now I know exactly what it means to fear the LORD.”

I still don’t know quite what to make of that story. I don’t honestly think Almighty God would have allowed my friend to die by drowning him in spiritual goodness, but I sure know what my cowboy friend meant by experiencing the glory and beauty of God in the heavens.

When was the last time you allowed the glory and beauty of Almighty God to overwhelm you? When was the last time God left you speechless? Turn with me to Psalm 19.

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun, which is like a bridegroom coming forth from his pavilion, like a champion rejoicing to run his course. It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other; nothing is hidden from its heat.

The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes. The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever. The ordinances of the Lord are sure and altogether righteous. They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb. By them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.

Who can discern his errors? Forgive my hidden faults. Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then will I be blameless, innocent of great transgression. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.

I believe King David must have been having sort of a Billy Jones, East Texas moment. David was overwhelmed by the sheer joy, beauty, provision and perfection of the LORD.

We’re talking this month about the joy of the LORD; about real rejoicing in the midst of an increasingly joyless, crabby world. Where do we find enduring joy when hurricanes, both in Texas and on Wall Street, leave such fearsome devastation in their wake? Last week in our study of Nehemiah 8, we watched as the Israelites experienced the joy of the LORD during a great Bible conference. They were fully exposed by the Word of God, God met that exposure with grace and they all went away rejoicing as a result. Our lovely song for the choirmaster this morning from the psalms describes a similar experience, except David spends more time talking about the exposure leading up to his repentance. If we seek to experience the full joy of the LORD in our lives, we would do well to see the same three things David sees in this psalm.

The first thing David sees is the glory of God. I see the heavens. Dear LORD, I see the sun you made to run its race like a satisfied bridegroom or a champion around the track. Look at the universe around you, people! How do you honestly think all this got here? Aren’t you at least a little curious about all this? David asks basically the same question the prophet Isaiah would ask years later, “Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.” David is saying basically the same thing the Apostle Paul will repeat many years later in Romans 1:20-21. “Since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” Look around you, folks! Forget all the theories about how it all got there for a moment; can’t we just agree that the order and design in the universe is remarkable? Isn’t it all glorious?

Oh my goodness, is it possible God did all this?

Dr. Richard Swenson, in his fantastic book More Than Meets The Eye, talks about the perfection and planning of the universe in wonderful detail. He talks about the 30 billion stars we can see just from earth and the microsurgical precision of the sun’s perfect placement and power to sustain life on earth. He quotes astronomer Allan Sandage, who began his scientific journey an atheist, saying, “It was my science which drove me to the conclusion the world is much more complicated than can be possibly be explained by science. We can’t understand the universe in any clear way without the supernatural.” Poet Gerard Manley Hopkins says, “The world is charged with the grandeur of God.” When we spend any time looking deeply at the glory, order and beauty of the universe, it ought to at least make us curious.

But forget everything all the scholars and smart people argue about for a moment. When was the last time you made a point of really looking at the universe? When was the last time you noticed the lengths to which God will go to impress us? When was the last time you really smelled the salt air or listened to all the noisy birds? Have you ever wondered what the cuddly panda bears are looking at or where they got their designer sunglasses and friendly, fat faces? How often do we stand up and look around at what God is doing? I know it’s a religious cliché and everything, but do you notice the colors of the flowers? What is the deal with that? This is extra! This is unnecessary! Doesn’t it make you at least a little bit curious? Don’t you think it might just be possible Almighty God is peeking out at us from everywhere in creation?

David sees the glory of God. David sees God’s hand everywhere in the world around him. David is overwhelmed and driven by the glory of God…I know this doesn’t scientifically prove anything. I know there is only so much we can discover about God through a bunch of pretty pictures, but it ought to make us curious. It ought to drive us to ask more questions.

And so because David sees the glory of God, he goes running to God’s Word for clarity, more insight and explanation. And David sees the Word. The more deeply David digs into God’s Word, the more deeply, profoundly and obviously he falls in love with it. But please notice David doesn’t describe what he sees in God’s Word in negative, legalistic or religiously duty-bound ways. There is no boredom here. David describes a book he adores. David sees perfection. David sees certainty, righteousness and absolute purity. David sees truth and preciousness. David sees value, warning and reward. David sees the Word. David finds in Word a well of wisdom and explanation he needs for Glory! His curiosity is satisfied.

And in seeing the Word of God for what it is, King David is reminded the universe is not just glorious, beautiful and exquisitely designed. David comes face to face with the personality of the universe. In Word, David is reminded this universe is personal. Ultimately, it is a Person.

Many years ago, a Calvin & Hobbes cartoon caught my attention. In the first frame, Calvin stares up quietly into the starry sky until, in the second frame, he screams, “I’m significant!” Then, after another moment of quietness, he says quietly, “Screamed the dust speck.” But Calvin misses the point. The point of seeing the glory of God is not so we will be depressingly reminded of our own dusty speck insignificance. The point of seeing the full glory of God is to drive us to the Word, where we will shockingly discover our incredible significance. In seeing the Word of God for all it truly is we hear Almighty God shouting significance to us!

You’re significant, Calvin! You matter to me, son! I love you, my daughter! I created all this gorgeous, glorious, fun and funny stuff for you to fully enjoy! I did this for you! Can you believe that? Can you trust that? I’m telling you all the things I’m telling you in my Word only to help you understand how incredibly precious and important you are to Me!

Spend some time in my Word, Calvin. See how very personal all this truly is.

And when David does that, when David allows the Glory to drive him to the Word, the rest of the conversation is easy. David sees the Glory of God. He sees the personality of God in the Word of God. And when he sees those things, he sees himself as he really is. And just like our dear Israelites at the Bible conference back in Nehemiah, David is exposed and his reaction is utterly predictable. But unlike those Israelites, David sees the Glory and Word so clearly and vividly, he doesn’t just end up being exposed for all he is; he begs God to expose him for all he is. David sees God’s Glory and Word so clearly, he wants nothing more in the world than to remove any thing that might possibly taint his experience of Glory and Word.

Oh dear Father, forgive me my hidden sins. Keep me from willful sins. I want to be blameless and innocent. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer!

Oh Father, I want as much of your glory as I can stand! I want my life as perfectly aligned with your Word as it can be! I want to know myself in the way you know me. I want to know every ounce of the joy I was created to enjoy! Wash me and I will be whiter than snow. Teach me, train me, show me how to live so that I might enjoy Glory and Word even

I am not some insignificant speck of dust in the universe. Almighty God created and sustains the universe just for me. I may literally be a dust speck dimensionally, but that is not what I am spiritually. I am a speck of great and powerful joy! I may be nothing but a quiet, East Texas cowboy standing in a cow pasture thanking God for a “purty” night, but the LORD of the universe knows my name. The LORD of the Universe wants me to enjoy His Glory and fully understand His Word. He paints the stars in the night and the sun by day, He puts the orange on the birds, extra on the flowers and brown eyes on my Monica and He does all this for me.

And that ought to make me happy, don’t you think? Come what may; this stuff ought to make me very happy indeed. May we all know Glory, Word and Ourselves as God knows these things! May the Glory, Word and Joy of the LORD be our strength and song!

Amen.

What Is This Hog Shadow Thing?

“When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance and said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.” ~ Exodus 20:18-19 (NIV)

I am way cool now!

I have my very own Facebook page. My Tesia went back to college last Friday and both she and Maria use this Facebook thing, so I thought it would be good to give it the old Army try. I’ve also heard lots of conversations with people here at Elim about making friends on Facebook and I surely need some new friends, so I plunged right in. And it has been loads of good fun! I’ve made contact with a bunch of people I haven’t spoken with in years and enjoyed some laughs with people here at Elim who are glad to see me enjoying cyberspace with them. I passed funny notes back and forth with Tesia last night as she was studying some boring, snooty Biology book and caught up with my friend Larus in North Carolina last Saturday afternoon as he and I were both still sitting at our computers working. It has been great. I’ve got 38 friends so far and I’m not even trying real hard! Tesia tells me it is bad manners to refuse a friend request on Facebook unless it’s from some creepy, middle aged, bald man you don’t know. So this thing should be totally friends galore for me, since all the creepy, middle aged, bald men are probably just all former college roommates of mine!

So now that I’m a Facebook mover/shaker, I thought about this blogging thing going around. Since I’m supposed to be developing a blog on the new Elim Church website going online in a few weeks, I thought I’d better figure this blogging deal out too. How hard could it be? Much to my surprise, it wasn’t very difficult at all! This blogging stuff holds even more great potential than Facebook. Not only is it a great way to share and discuss ideas among friends, but I can also share sermons, outstanding newsletter articles (like this one!), lists of great Bible study books and cheap places to get them, links to good Christian websites, an easy, accurate map to the church and all sorts of other resources as I wish. And the best part of it all is that it is almost completely free. So now I’m a cool blogger too! But please, please, please be merciful in your comments; I am a total novice at this stuff.

But why the “Hog Shadows” name you ask? I know all you sophisticated, Facebook friendly, blog savvy people out there are asking that right now. I know you’re all just dying to know, so I’ll tell you…

I am a ground hog. I was born on Ground Hog’s day; some cruel women in my life say I even slightly resemble one! But I like ground hogs. There is something innately friendly and cheerful about a chubby animal that digs in the dirt and hides out from winter with a good book and a bag of Cheetos. I’ve used the email moniker “groundhogpastor” for years for this reason. It ain’t flashy, but it’s easy to spell and remember!

Yet ground hogs are most famous for the supposedly wise, mythical abilities of their shadows. Seeing their shadow is supposed to mean something to the world around them. And that makes me think about my role as a Christian and a pastor in the world. I don’t want to stretch the ground hog metaphor too far, but perhaps the shadows cast around you and I by God’s glorious light are supposed to mean something to the people around us too. In a way, aren’t we all sort of just God’s chubby, cheerful ground hogs? And if, as in our Scripture passage above, people are still afraid of approaching God directly, perhaps God might use the shining shadows cast from our lives in the same way God used His shadows cast on the life of Moses.

I like that idea a lot. I like the idea that God might use my experience of His sunshine to speak to others still too afraid to approach God for themselves. And so that’s where the blog name comes from…

Interestingly, after I finished putting my blog together, I did some research on the name “hog shadows” just to make sure I wasn’t stealing some other crazy, chubby pastor’s idea. I found something very interesting. I discovered that one of the many nicknames for U.S. Marine Corps snipers is HOG, which grimly stands as an acronym for the phrase “Hunters Of Gunmen.” There is even a recently published book available entitled, “Hogs In The Shadows” about the experiences of Marine snipers in Iraq. How ironic is that?

And yet this sober, Marine Corp HOG acronym is also an interesting metaphor for what I believe we’re called to be in the world. Jesus says clearly in Scripture that the “gates of hell will not prevail” against the church. And since everyone knows gates are used purely as a defense against attackers, this Scripture clearly implies the church of Jesus Christ is supposed to constantly be on the offensive. The devil, the gunman if you will, is supposed to be on the run from us! But we aren’t “hunting the gunman” with the angry weapons and ways of this world; we’re hunting like the humble ground hogs we are. We hunt the gunman best by allowing the warm and brilliant sunshine to cast God’s shadow around our lives.

So that’s also what the hog shadows are about… Isn’t that neat?

May we all fully enjoy the sunshine! May the shadows of the sunshine warm and reveal our wonderful LORD to the world around us!

Amen.

The Elim Project

Last Saturday evening, the Elim Praise Team hosted an official CD release party for its first recordings complete with music from the album, good conversation and really delicious root beer floats. It was a wonderful evening and it is a great CD to take home. Here's where you can get one. You can also purchase song sheets at the same website. How slick is that?

Waterwalking 101 at Elim Church

Remember that Bible story about Peter walking on the water towards Jesus during a big storm? When was the last time any of us took a walk like that? On Sunday mornings for the rest of September and most of October here at Elim Church, the Merrymakers class is discussing some of John Ortberg's ideas on this Bible passage. This is an exciting discussion; anyone is welcome and encouraged to come. Drop me a note for more information.

Oooo, Daddy Like!

Please buy and listen to this album immediately! Mike Farris is a bluesy guy who knows what it is to fail and get back up. This album is a breath of fresh air for all of us who often forget what it is God has done for us.

Holy Discontent

Do you ever wonder why some things seem to bug you more than other people? Do you suppose God might intend for you to be doing something about those things? In a very simple, approachable book, Bill Hybels explores the idea that our discontent is perhaps supposed to lead us somewhere. The book is filled with fascinating and inspirational stories wonderfully told. I'm not a monster church guy, but once again, Bill Hybels displays for us all why God has chosen to use him so dramatically. This is very thought-provoking read.

Bible Dictionaries for Inmates

From time to time for the past five years, various Christian friends have occasionally helped me purchase Bible dictionaries for the prison inmates I correspond with. My sermons are snail-mailed to about 140 people each week, many of whom are inmates. Many of these guys want to study the Bible more deeply, but can't afford study resources on their very limited incomes. I can send them a nice dictionary for about $20 each ($25 w/shipping), but I only send dictionaries when I have people on the outside willing to pay for them. That has always been the deal.

I now have three fellows waiting for Bible dictionaries. If you would like to help out with this project, drop me a note and we'll work out the details.

Thanks.

Joy For The Journey (Nehemiah 8:8-12)

How frequently do you tell lies in church? How often do you recite Scripture verses, say prayers or sing songs expounding great, joyous truths you know your life does not express?

For the past several weeks, I’ve had a campfire song running through my mind like a virus. It is a song we’ve all heard before, driven by one great line from our Scripture passage for today. I’ve been meditating on this gorgeous line from Scripture for weeks now and yet, as I hear the song in my head, there is a disconnection between my song, my life and my world.

The joy of the Lord is my strength;
the joy of the Lord is my strength,
The joy of the Lord is my strength;
the joy of the Lord is my strength.

Do you see the problem? Do you know what I’m talking about? We sit in our churches singing cheerfully about the strength of joy and yet we live in a world without much joy. We live in a world of angry, broken and sad faces. We sing our perky campfire songs over and over and over without noticing the meaning they contain is not our reality.

The joy of the LORD is my strength! Have you ever truly stopped to fully consider what this verse (and others like it) mean for the sad, dark eyes of this world? Open your Bibles to Nehemiah 8:8 (page 444 in your pew Bibles). In our story today, the Israelites have returned from their punishment in exile and rebuilt the wall around the ancient city under Nehemiah’s guidance. They stood strong and united against stiff opposition and lots of difficulty. And now they’ve gotten together for a Bible conference. Let’s listen to what happened on that day…

They read from the Book of the Law of God, making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people could understand what was being read. Then Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who were instructing the people said to them all, "This day is sacred to the Lord your God. Do not mourn or weep." For all the people had been weeping as they listened to the words of the Law. Nehemiah said, "Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is sacred to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength." The Levites calmed all the people, saying, "Be still, for this is a sacred day. Do not grieve." Then all the people went away to eat and drink, to send portions of food and to celebrate with great joy, because they now understood the words that had been made known to them.

What gets us through the day? What gets us out of bed in the morning? What truly sustains us; what gets us past the inevitable sadness and difficulty of this life?

Is it family? Is it friends? Is it the adoration of the masses, the approval and popularity we receive from the world around us? Is it money? How many of us try to buy our way to joy? Or maybe it’s work; maybe all our joy, satisfaction and significance comes from a job title or duty description. Or perhaps our life is simply about our duty; joy isn’t supposed to matter that much. Maybe we feel a sense of indebtedness or simply view life as nothing but a discipline to be practiced. Or maybe we find our joy and significance in being the smartest kid in the room; answering all the questions others have difficulty answering. Or maybe we honestly don’t like our lives much right now and the only thing getting us out of bed in the morning is a dream of a better day to come. Or maybe life is just a drudge to be endured until the weekend finds us.

What keeps us going? How many of us can honestly say the joy of the LORD is our strength? Honestly? How many even understand what that really means? If you don’t feel like the joy of the LORD is your strength, if you don’t understand what that means, then this great Bible passage is for you today. This passage is a very simple three ingredient recipe, a three ingredient prescription for strong and sustaining joy. So what are these three ingredients?

The Exposure

The first one is found in verse 8. “They read from the book, from the law of God, translating to give the sense so that they understood the reading.” The first ingredient of our joy is exposure. The people were exposed to the Word of God and the people were exposed by the Word of God. They read from the book, the book was translated and exposited to them, the book was understood by them. And whenever that fully and genuinely happens, as the old Reformers and Puritans used to say, whenever the mirror of God’s Word is properly held up to people, the exposure taking place is always threefold. We see the mirror for what it is, we see ourselves for what we are and we see whatever is immediately around us for what it is. When God’s Word is properly exposed, we are exposed. Everything is exposed.

When I hear the Apostle Paul telling husbands to “love their wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her,” God’s standard for marriage is exposed, my inadequacies as a husband are exposed and the miserable marriages around me are exposed. When Jesus teaching us to “love our enemies” is properly translated and understood, there is three-fold exposure taking place. Whenever the Word of God is properly understood, there is exposure.

And we know exposure has taken place because someone, somewhere will immediately say something like what Isaiah cried out many years ago, “Woe to me!” I cried. “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.” My eyes have seen God’s mirror! My eyes have seen myself! My eyes have seen the nastiness around me! I am ruined and unworthy!

Exposure and clarity like this must take place or we will never know joy. A.B. Simpson tells the wonderful story of a little boy once telling “his mother that he was six feet tall. When she doubted the statement, he assured her that he had just measured himself. His calculations were right but his ruler was not; it was only about six inches long. This is the sort of rule by which many Christians measure themselves.” Folks, there is only one rule against which we will all be measured; the Word of God. Only our exposure to and by this rule will lead us right.

The Sacred

But if this exposure happens, as it does here in Nehemiah’s day, our God immediately swoops into the situation with the second ingredient of His strong joy recipe. Look again at verse 9. “Then Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who were instructing the people said to them all, "This day is sacred to the Lord your God. Do not mourn or weep." For all the people had been weeping as they listened to the words of the Law.” When exposure genuinely happens, when we finally recognize God’s standards and our terrible unworthiness, when we finally weep and grieve over our condition, Almighty God graciously steps into the situation and proclaims it sacred. Three times in this short passage, God declares the sacredness of the day. Almighty God sees our exposure, sees us naked and ashamed in the Garden and He covers us with His holiness. At the deepest point of our unworthiness, He offers us purity. He offers us fatty meat and sweet wine! He gives us and even the poor people all around us a party when we deserve nothing but pain and punishment! He runs down the road to the nasty prodigal, fully exposed in his sin, and says, “No son! This day is sacred! Kill the fatted calf, bring a ring and robe because this son of mine who was dead is now alive again!”

This day is sacred! This completely exposed and often painful day is not at all about your brokenness; it is about new beginnings! Can anyone name any place in all of Scripture where God did not offer sacred grace and holiness to the exposed, grieving and suffering? You cannot because such a thing doesn’t exist. This day is sacred. This is the day of exposure the LORD has been waiting for. The Father of the prodigal has been standing at the end of the road longing for this day to come. This exposed moment is not about suffering; it is sacred.

The Joy

And when any of us finally and fully experience this gracious offer of sacred celebration, this is where the strong, sustaining joy we need to carry on enters the picture. When we are fully and painfully exposed as the humbled Israelites were here and Almighty God covers our exposure with His precious offer of sacred celebration, we will be overwhelmed with joy. Any other response is inconceivable! Look again at verse 12 of our passage. “Then all the people went away to eat and drink, to send portions of food and to celebrate with great joy, because they now understood the words that had been made known to them. Once we understand what we truly are, once we understand what we are truly being offered, we will find our lives bathed in a strong and sustaining joy beyond all we could ask or imagine.”

Almost exactly 10 years ago, the Texas murderess Karla Faye Tucker was executed by lethal injection for the drug-crazed, brutal pick-axe murders of two people. Many of you will remember her case because, after her conversion in prison, she was such a sweet, completely transformed and joyous person even traditional death penalty advocates couldn’t imagine killing her. A few weeks before her execution, she was interviewed by Larry King from death row. Throughout the interview, it was apparent Larry King couldn’t understand her strong, cheerful, joyous and serene demeanor. Finally, at the very end of the interview, Larry commented about her strange upbeatness. He said, “You have to explain that to me a little more. It can’t just be God?” Karla Faye Tucker quickly, with sparkles in her eyes and tears beginning to well up, said, “Yes, it can. It’s called the joy of the Lord. When you have done something that I have done, like what I have done, and you have been forgiven for it, and you are loved, that has a way of so changing you. I mean, I have experienced real love. I know what real love is. I know what forgiveness is, even when I did something so horrible.” I have been completely and utterly exposed for all I truly am. I have been exposed to the world as truly “the chief of sinners.” And yet God has not met my exposure with disgust and rejection. God has proclaimed this exposed moment, this exposed person sacred. Almighty God has given me a party when I deserved punishment and pain. You tell me; how can I possibly not be joyous?

At the risk of exaggerating the point or being insensitive to the genuine life struggles represented in this room, if you are not sustained and strengthened by the joy of the LORD today, you are either not allowing yourself to be fully exposed by the Word of God or you just don’t understand the sacred celebration God is offering you. It is as simple as that. The joy of the LORD is our strength. Those are not idle, idealistic or poetic words. They are life to us!

My friend Pat McCurdy has some real challenges in his life. Many of those challenges come as a direct result of sinful choices made years ago. Pat has been fully exposed and, like all the rest of us, is in the process of fully embracing the sacred celebration God offers us. But sometimes things get hard for Pat, just as they do for all of us. A few weeks ago, Pat went up to Ely to get away, get refreshed and spend some time with some of our friends there. He had a wonderful time. One afternoon, while walking through the woods, Pat asked God to give him something special to take pictures of and remember. No sooner did Pat pray this prayer than a huge dragonfly landed on Pat’s sweater, posing long enough for Pat to take as many pictures as he wanted. As Pat studied the little thing, it almost seemed as if it was just sitting there smiling back at him as some sort of buggy, cheerful messenger of joy from God. One week later, on another walk, a large grasshopper did almost exactly the same thing, landing in almost exactly the same place on Pat’s sweater. Only this time, the goofy, buck-toothed grin on the joyous grasshopper’s face was unmistakable! Just in case you missed the point last time, Pat…I love you, son! I love you more than words can say!

Pat doesn’t deserve special favors like this from God. Pat doesn’t deserve this sort of love. Whether we call it a miracle or just cheerful coincidence, my friend Pat doesn’t deserve it. None of us do. We don’t deserve a quiet walk in the woods with dear friends. We don’t deserve the blessings we receive. We don’t deserve the smiles and the sunshine. We don’t deserve anything sacred or precious from God. And we certainly don’t deserve what Jesus did.

But Almighty God says this day is sacred. This exposed moment is special. Call out all the peaceful dragonflies and all the grinning, goofy, buck-toothed grasshoppers, kill the fatted calf and bring out the best wine, because this day is sacred. My child has come home.

That ought to make us happy! That ought to fill our hearts with such strong, sustaining joy we can face anything this world can throw at us. The joy of the LORD is my strength.

We can sing that song honestly now, can’t we?

Amen.

Take My Yoke (Matthew 11:29)

In chapter 6 of the ancient book of Jeremiah, the prophet was calling out warning and harsh judgment on the sinful, rebellious city of Jerusalem. Recognizing a pivotal, crossroads moment of Hebrew history, Jeremiah called the people to stop for a moment and look closely at the path they were following. His words sound very similar to the passage we began studying last week. I like the vivid way the New Living Translation handles the passage…

This is what the LORD says: "Stop at the crossroads and look around. Ask for the old, godly way, and walk in it. Travel its path, and you will find rest for your souls. But you reply, 'No, that's not the road we want!' I posted watchmen over you who said, 'Listen for the sound of the alarm.' But you replied, 'No! We won't pay attention!'

What road do you want? What alarm are you paying attention to?

Last week we began a simple conversation about what it means to truly be and become Elim Church: An Oasis In The City. I shared my deeply held belief that being oasis means this must be a place where we, and anyone else coming here, find rest, refreshment and sweet release. We focused our attention last week primarily on just one verse, Matthew 11:28, where we were reminded that we must come only to Jesus, come humble (humbly willing to admit our dripping wet, broken down and sitting on the floor neediness) and come fully expecting Jesus to give us the rest we need. The degree to which we come only to Jesus, the degree to which we offer only Jesus is the degree to which Elim Church will become a genuine place of oasis rest.

But what does coming to Jesus look like? Did you ask yourself that last week? How do we move from moments of good rest into genuine refreshment? I don’t need just a nice, cool glass of water once a week. I can’t survive on that. I need more than that. I need clean pipes and good plumbing; a constant, flowing, fresh water supply not only for myself, but for all the thirsty people around me. We need more than just the offer of salvation rest, we need the refreshment of sanctification. What exactly did Jesus mean when he said come to Him? Let’s read the very next verse in the passage (page 889) and see if that clarifies anything…

At that time Jesus said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things [the enormous oasis value and true power of the kingdom] from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure. All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. Come to me [and only to me], all you who are weary and burdened [humble enough to admit your need], and I will give you rest [expect it!]. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

This is a weird metaphor. I’m coming here to the oasis looking for rest, refreshment and release and you tell me to “take your yoke” on my neck? That’s a really pretty picture! That’s an image I’m sure will really appeal to my already exhausted friends! What a mixed up metaphor…

Don’t feel bad if you’re confused. In the Old Testament and first century life prior to this, a yoke was almost always a very negative idea. The ancients used a yoke as an illustration of bondage and foreign oppression. It was a vivid, painful picture of the terrible weight of sin. Eventually, a yoke even became a powerful metaphor for the heavy burdens and bondage of the Law, with its countless traditions, interpretations and oral additions. A yoke is a lousy illustration of refreshment. Don’t you think?

Or maybe it isn’t. Maybe it’s the perfect illustration. While there might be no rest or meaningful refreshment found in the word “yoke,” when we place that heavy word on the lips of Jesus, when Jesus calls us to take up His yoke…well, that changes everything, doesn’t it?

Take my yoke upon you. Make no mistake; it is a hard yoke we are offered here, folks. This yoke is a bloody, cruel cross before a mocking crowd of Roman soldiers. It is the very most disciplined, demanding and difficult challenge we could ever possibly embrace in this lifetime. It is the pursuit of perfection as Jesus Himself is perfect. It is pressing on toward the highest calling. It is dying to ourselves and living for Christ. It is supernaturally offering the world love beyond anything we could ever manufacture. It is stunning righteousness exceeding that of the scribes and Pharisees. It is absolutely the very costliest grace. This is a yoke.

But this is Jesus’ yoke. One side of this yoke is born by our gentle and humble Jesus Himself. This is not a gruesome load we’re ordered to carry alone; this is not supposed to be a life in which we do the heavy lifting! We are not the strong partner in this enterprise! Do you see? This is Jesus’ yoke we are called to take up and that makes all the difference in the world.

Think deeply about these things…

Do you see what Jesus is saying here? Jesus is saying the same thing Jeremiah cried out to the people of Jerusalem all those years before. Find and follow the ancient way, walk in God’s way, do what I do, live as I live and you will finally and fully find the rest and refreshment you seek. Only in taking this Christian yoke upon ourselves can we discover the refreshment we’re looking for in this life and the next. As Matthew Henry put it so wonderfully in his very old commentary years ago, “Jesus offers us a yoke only because He longs to offer us a crown!”

If you want to move past mere moments of salvation rest into a fully, more wonderfully sanctified lifestyle of refreshment and renewal, pressed down, shaken together and overflowing to the restless world around you, then take up this Jesus yoke. Drink deeply of Jesus at every opportunity. Allow the LORD Jesus to teach you in prayer, Bible study and fellowship with other similarly yoked people. Embrace all the classic spiritual disciplines of the Christian faith. Find and follow the ancient way. Do whatever Jesus does. Don’t fight the gentle and humble yoke of Jesus; embrace it. Allow Him to lead you and “learn you good!” Listen to the warnings of the watchmen and women He places into your life. Realize this road, this yoke is you want.

But most folks today don’t want to do that, do they? Just like the ancient audience of Jeremiah, most people today shout no to this yoke. Most people ignore the shouted, loving warnings…and because of that, we live in an exhausted, tragically restless, increasingly dying, unrefreshed world. We live in a world of very little rest and even less refreshment.

Sadly, this world doesn’t realize we are all playing the ultimate zero sum rest and refreshment game. We are constantly, every moment of every day, in the process of either embracing or rejecting the yoke of Jesus. We are either moving along the road with Jesus or we are pulling against Him. But we are all bearing some sort of yoke. We always do.

And so as we quietly move toward communion together this morning, there are three simple, reflective questions I believe the LORD would have us ask of ourselves and pray about.

What Yoke Are You Bearing?

First of all, what yoke are you bearing? Are you still burdened down, bound up in your exhausting, painful, cancerous sins and broken habits? Or are you bogged down in some very well-intended, but completely hopeless, legalistic attempt to earn your own way into God’s favor and grace? Are you exhausted by some heavy, depressing yoke of rules and religion? Are you trying to do this Jesus thing on your own? Many of us embrace the idea of Jesus, instead of embracing Jesus. We have a polite, religious form of godliness, but lack its power because we’re trying to carry the yoke ourselves. We are trying to carry everything ourselves.

Larry Chell, in an old issue of Leadership, told the story of how once, “In the Philippines I heard a local pastor use a parable to illustrate Christ's offer of rest and the response of people who won't trust Jesus completely: The driver of a carabao wagon was on his way to market when he overtook an old man carrying a heavy load. Taking compassion on him, the driver invited the old man to ride in the wagon. Gratefully the old man accepted. But after a few minutes, the driver turned to see how the man was doing. To his surprise, he found him still straining under the heavy weight, for he had not taken the burden off his shoulders.” The man was on the truck, but he still hadn’t put his burdens down. He was still carrying the weight. He was still bearing the burden alone. He found some rest, but he had not found refreshment. We can’t properly take up the yoke of Jesus until we lay our burdens at His feet.

It is truly great that we’re all here this morning, but being here isn’t enough. There is rest here, but we need more than just a few moments of rest. We need the full refreshment only taking up the yoke of Jesus can bring us. We will still be thirsty and restless without that.

What yoke are you bearing?

What Are You Learning?

Jesus called us not only to take up His yoke, but as we do so, allow Him to teach us. Jesus called us to learn from Him. Are we doing that? What are we learning? We are always learning something. And while Almighty God has slobbered His glorious truth all over this wonderful world and we can learn all sorts of things from all sorts of people, places and things, are we filtering everything through our gentle, humble Yokefellow Jesus? Are we learning all we know from gentle, humble Jesus or are we ignoring Jesus? Are we allowing Jesus to lead us into rest and sanctified refreshment or are we settling for what is neither rest nor refreshment?

What are you learning?

Susan Moser told a great story years ago of how, “several weeks into the school year, I asked my first grader what he thought of school now that he was a seasoned pro. "Oh, I love school, Mommy" he said. "It's great!" But then, after a brief hesitation, he added, "Well, except for one thing ... I don't really like it when Mrs. Decker tries to teach us stuff.’”

But learning is a big part of what we’re here for!

Last Saturday, the Minnesota portion of my family gathered in Willmar to celebrate my father’s 83rd birthday. While I was there, we were down in my father’s woodshop looking at one his latest projects. As we were there, my dad gave me a nice, new Leatherman tool he was given as a prize for something. My father gave it to me because he’s a nice guy and, as a truly master craftsman, he really doesn’t have much need of it. But I also suspect he gave it to me because he still remembers the summer of 1976. In 1976, my friend Larus Maxwell and I decided we would build some speaker cabinets for some old console television speakers we found in a dump. My parents were away that afternoon and the project went fine until I drilled a hole in my stomach with my dad’s power drill. Concerned that my parents would come home from their outing, find the blood and sawdust, but no happy teenaged boys, we politely left a blood-smeared, sawdust covered note on the dining room table. It read, “Dear Mom and Dad, drilled small hole in my stomach, went up to the hospital to get it looked at a little. Don’t worry!” My dad might be 83 now, but I don’t think my father has ever forgotten that note.

Elim Church must be an organization fully aware that it doesn’t know how to use all the tools in our father’s workshop. An oasis like this is a place where even the master craftspeople among us fully understand there is always room for improvement. Just before my parents left for their outing in the summer of 1976, my worried father poked his head into the wood shop and said, “You be careful now!” Arrogantly, I responded, “Dad, I’m sixteen years old…I know what I’m doing.” Elim Church must be a place where nobody ever says that! We are always in the process of learning and relearning what we’re doing. We never know what we’re doing! And that’s why this place ought to be such a fun, exciting place to be!

Dear ones, learning is an enormous part of what we’re here for! Learning is a huge part of the oasis refreshment for which we gather.

What are you learning?

What Refreshment Are You Finding?

Then third and finally, the most relevant, rubber meets the road question; beyond a moment of rest here and there, what true refreshment are you finding in life? Please notice that, once again this week, Jesus wonderfully closes with a promise of rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Jesus promises us true rest and truly sanctifying refreshment that will sustain and endure through this life and the next. Jesus promises us not just salvation but gloriously full sanctification! Are you experiencing that sort of increasingly, further in and further up sort of sanctified lifestyle of refreshment? Or are you just as exhausted, broken and burdened down as the next person? Are you trying to find rest and refreshment in what gives neither?

What rivers of refreshment sustain you; are you experiencing Jesus’ promise?

This little oasis in the city we call Elim Church must be a place where we come single-mindedly to Jesus. This oasis in the city must be a place where we come to help each other truly take up, truly embrace the yoke of Jesus and learn refreshment from Him together. This oasis must be a place where people slowly but surely begin to joyously, ironically discover that the more fully we take up the often-challenging yoke of Jesus, the more restful and wonderfully refreshing that yoke becomes. As a matter of fact, the more time we spend under the humble yoke of Jesus, the more that glorious yoke begins to feel like something else entirely.

Do you see?

This is what Jesus wants for you!

This is what the yoke of Jesus, the sanctified, growing, further in and further up lifestyle of refreshment for which we were born, is supposed to feel like, even in the worst storms of life.

It is my deepest prayer that this place, this Elim Church family of believers, would move far past nice moments of salvation rest into powerful lifestyles of sanctified refreshment. May we help each other truly take up the yoke and learn all the refreshing stuff we need to know!

Amen.

My Yoke Is Easy (Matthew 11:30)

As a young boy growing up in a large, mostly musical family, we had great Christmas Eve traditions. For many years, we had our own little Christmas musicals. Two of my sisters played violin, my little sister played viola and I played the cello. My brother wisely chose not to play an instrument and was exempt from our often low budget shows. We would dress up nice, play a few simple Christmas songs, my father would read the Christmas story and then we would dig into our presents. For many years, this tradition was carried out in the basement recreation room my father and brother had remodeled from trailer factory scrap paneling and carpet strips. It was our favorite room. But one year, as we were bringing our instruments down the steep, carpeted stairway to the basement, I slipped and fell down the stairs, bouncing my expensive, rented cello across the concrete basement floor and stair landing. While my sweet grandmother Gilma was worried about the health of her dear, little bespectacled boy, my parents showed virtually no concern for my health. They knew I was a durable kid! They knew I bounced well. They were furious with me for two reasons. First of all, I’m sure they were concerned about having to pay for repairs to the cello, which could have been financially devastating for them. But secondly, they were angry with me because they knew exactly why I had fallen down the stairs. I was wearing the shiny, slippery, patent leather shoes I had been told repeatedly not to wear anymore. While those shoes looked incredibly cool with my white bell bottom pants and bright red shirt, the fact was those shoes didn’t fit me. I don’t remember if they were too big or too small, but my mother told me repeatedly not to wear them.

But I didn’t listen and so I bounced down some stairs and broke a cello…

I think about that clumsy moment as I study our Scripture passage for today. We have been talking for the past couple of weeks about what it means to be oasis. While we can all give our own oasis definitions, I’ve argued that being oasis simply means this is a place where we find rest, refreshment and release. We find rest as we come humbly and exclusively to Jesus, expecting Him to give us the rest we need. We find refreshment as we take the yoke of Jesus upon ourselves and learn from Him how we are to live our lives. And now this morning, we come to the issue of release. Let’s return to our Matthew 11:25-30 passage once again.

At that time Jesus said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things [oasis truths of the Gospel] from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure. All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. Come to me [and only to me!], all you who are weary and burdened [humble enough to admit it], and I will give you rest!. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

A popular Twin Cities morning radio host was joking about his constant weight struggles and his co-host asked him what size pants he now wore. The radio host laughed, saying, “Well, I can still wear my 32 inch pants, but I’m much more comfortable in a 38!” Amen, my brother!

Is your life truly comfortable? Do your shoes truly fit? Or are you just trying to wedge yourself into a life that isn’t right for you; a life that leaves you bouncing down the basement stairs, angering people and breaking stuff? Our Lord doesn’t want us to settle for occasional moments of salvation rest or even a genuinely sanctified experience of refreshment. Those steps are good but our LORD ultimately longs to release each one of us into perfectly tailored, perfectly fit places of service. Being an oasis people means we understand this wonderful life we share together means much more than just our own rest and refreshment, salvation and sanctification. Being oasis means we’re released into service; into lives that truly fit us.

Jesus isn’t asking us to take up His yoke just so we can stand around with it displayed on our shoulders. Isn’t that just obvious? We take up His yoke because there is a field to be plowed. There are goods to be taken to market. There are stumps to be torn out and heavy things to be lifted. There is work to be done. Jesus wants to release us into service.

And in order to understand how this releasing life step happens, we need to understand something important about the word picture Jesus uses in verse 30. Last week I began our Bible conversation by saying I thought a yoke was a lousy metaphor for rest and refreshment; yet because Jesus is offering us His yoke, it is actually the perfect picture of refreshing life. But in our Scripture text today, Jesus uses an even more confusing, contradictory phrase. “My yoke is easy.” Easy? How in the world, even under the most hyper-spiritualized circumstances, could any Jesus yoke ever be easy? Even placing this yoke in the refreshing, Jesus context we discussed last week, how can we use the word “easy?” What does Jesus mean here? Newer Scripture translations present the biblical phrase slightly differently; they say, “My yoke is easy to bear.” This helps a little, but I believe we need a better understanding of the phrase.

If we do careful word and commentary studies, we learn that the word translated “easy” in our Bibles is the Greek word, “chrestos.” My zygos [ox yoke] is chrestos. This is a familiar phrase that might very commonly be found on the lips or public advertising of a first century carpenter. As a matter of fact, several commentators cited an ancient legend which said Jesus was well known throughout the Galilean region as the best area carpenter of ox-yokes. It has been suggested that the sign above His shop door may well have read: “My yokes fit well.” Cool, huh? It may well be Jesus was using a common, well-known phrase to make a point.

Do you see the point?

This Carpenter knows the shape of your shoulders. This Carpenter knows the strength of your legs. This Carpenter understands the size of your heart and the capacity of your brain. This Carpenter, more than any other, knows how to make proper and perfect use of you. This Carpenter knows what fits you. My yokes fit well! This Carpenter, who has given you the rest and refreshment you need, knows exactly how and when to properly release you into service.

Sinfulness and selfishness are shiny shoes and tight pants that just don’t fit anymore. Isn’t it just obvious we weren’t born to live trapped in some sort of tedious, sinful, legalistic, dutiful, religious bondage? All the burdensome yokes the world offers just aren’t comfortable; they don’t fit right. They chafe our shoulders and bruise our backs. They are too heavy to bear and wear us out. They are designed to cause suffering, not progress. Pinching, not pleasure. We might be able to wedge ourselves uncomfortably into other yokes for a while, but eventually we all have to admit the devil just doesn’t know our shape like the Carpenter does. We don’t know ourselves like the Carpenter does. Only the Carpenter can make a yoke that fits well.

My yoke fits well!

We aren’t following Jesus here at Elim Church simply for our own rest and refreshment. We don’t exist as a place of oasis fellowship simply to provide moments of rest and lives of refreshment, as important as those things are. We follow this Carpenter because we long to be released into meaningful places of service and purpose. We long to become an oasis place where we are all helping each other find good service and purpose. And we understand only the Carpenter can perfectly release us into that sort of meaningful service place or position in life. Only the Carpenter knows how to make perfect use out of whatever we offer Him.

We enjoy this glorious, oasis release into service only when we faithfully and obediently give Jesus whatever we have to give Him. In John 6, do you remember the inspirational story of that unnamed boy with just five loaves and two fish? In the prayerful, powerful hands of the Carpenter, those five loaves and fish became a delicious, satisfying meal plus leftovers for well over five thousand people. The Carpenter took the humble stuff a boy had to give and used it gloriously. And that is all Jesus wants to do with you and I. He alone knows what to do with whatever we have to give Him. He alone knows how to use us. His yoke fits well.

In Warren Wiersbe’s autobiography, he said, “If life is to have meaning, and if God's will is to be done, all of us have to accept who we are and what we are, give it back to God, and thank Him for the way He made us. What I am is God's gift to me; what I do with what I am is my gift to Him.” As I happily learn to accept and take up the well-fitted, well-shaped yoke of Jesus, only then can I properly, purposefully give back to God and others. Only the Carpenter properly releases me to become all I was born to become. Only the Carpenter’s yoke fits well.

And yet many of us fight this idea.

We allow the devil and his minions to convince us we have nothing to give, that our LORD Jesus has no use or place for us, that the challenges around us are too big for us or any one of a hundred other foolish, sinful or selfish ideas. We waste our lives dreaming and wishing instead of enjoying a life of doing. As the ancient Teresa of Avila used to say, “Many people completely neglect the task that lies at hand and content themselves with having wished to do the impossible.” We’re not supposed to sit around wishing we could do the impossible. We mustn’t waste our lives wishing things were different in the world, wishing this great church were different or wishing we ourselves were different. We can do something! For our own sense of health and well-being, we must find purpose and places of service. We have big and little tasks to accomplish! We have been released from the dreaming, sinful, selfish yokes of this world. We have been released from the idea that anything is impossible for us! We bear the Carpenter’s yoke; we are powerful! We have been released from our own worthlessness!

And because we bear the perfectly shaped yoke of Jesus, we no longer waste our time comparing ourselves to the shallow or exalted standards of this world. Our value, purpose and usefulness are not determined by the world, but by our LORD. We have been released from the burdens of popularity and people-pleasing. We are rested and refreshed daily and we are constantly and joyously released into meaningful, purposeful service. We are set free to enjoy what we are and not whine about what we are not. The feisty evangelist D.L. Moody reportedly said, “I know perfectly well that, wherever I go and preach, there are many better known and better heard preachers than I am; all that I can say about it is that the Lord uses me.” Moody was not interested in being the best preacher ever heard. He wasn’t motivated by selfish, sinful desires to impress. He was released from all that worldly garbage and shallow thinking. Moody simply wore the perfectly tailored yoke the Carpenter made for him. He liked the yoke he wore!

And a properly yoked, properly released person also doesn’t care what job is assigned. We are released from the tyranny of job status. All service becomes meaningful. All service can be purposeful and rewarding. As the preacher Henry Ward Beecher said years ago, “The world must be cleaned by somebody; you are not called of God if you are ashamed to scrub.” A properly yoked person is released to serve whole-heartedly however called upon to do so. As I was writing these very words, Bonnie Johnson came into the church office to tell us rainwater was leaking into a preschool classroom downstairs. It seems a downspout fell off outside and rainwater was draining down the wall and leaking into the building. And so I spent the next few minutes climbing up to the roof and stuffing plastic into the drain pipe until we could come up with a more permanent, more intelligent solution. Beecher’s blunt words came immediately to mind – you are not called of God if you are ashamed to stuff rags, mop heads and plastic bags into drain pipes at a moment’s notice! Can I get a witness, my brother?

A properly yoked and released person understands the importance of all service. A released and yoked person isn’t going to let anyone say his or her service isn’t important. That very same, sometimes controversial and frequently very human preacher Henry Ward Beecher, when challenged about his emotional, demonstrative preaching style, said that as a young man, he made the decision “to speak as if I was the only the arrow in the bow the Almighty draws.” No; I’m not going to worry whether people consider my service important or not. I have been released from the tyranny of that sort of yoke. As we speak or do whatever we do in His name, we wear the perfectly fit yoke given us as though everything depended on how we wear it. We serve as though we are the only soldiers in the army of the Almighty! Whatever we do, in word or deed, we do all to the glory of God! We have been released from the tyranny of timidity! We understand the importance of the tailor-made yoke we have accepted. All service matters!

Being oasis is not just about finding our own personal rest and refreshment, salvation and sanctification in Jesus. Being oasis means this must be a glorious and gracious place where people are released into meaningful lives of service and purposeful sacrifice.

During the search process last year and several times since, I’ve told a crazy Army story about the absolutely pivotal day in my life twenty-three years ago when I got four haircuts in one day. My unit had a commanding general’s inspection the next day and my company First Sergeant was a military monster. He failed me for my first perfectly good haircut that day and failed me for my second and third haircuts as well. And when I finally passed his ridiculously picky inspection after my fourth and final haircut, after almost a full day walking back and forth wasting money at the barber shop, I was so steaming, screaming angry with the situation, I could no longer control myself. I balled up my sweaty fists and, through gritted teeth, stood at attention at his desk and blurted out, “First Sergeant, with all due respect; my very first haircut today was well within the Army regulation!” (Good idea, Kevin! Teach Army regulations to SGT Killer! Good plan!) I thought for a moment he might just murder me on the spot, but instead he surprised me. He looked up at me for a moment, slowly shook his head and then sadly and quietly said, “That’s the problem with mediocre soldiers like you, Hanson; you kids just haven’t figured out yet that this Army stuff is no fun at all if you’re only here to do the minimum.”

He was completely correct about me! I closed my mouth, went out to the cab of my pickup truck where no one could see me, and I bawled like a baby. That man laid my soul bare! That nasty, pagan, completely unfair and ridiculous First Sergeant and his four, stupid Army haircuts had just surgically described the deadly disease afflicting my soul. That man helped me to see the heavy, ugly and clumsy yoke of mediocrity I’d spent my life settling for…

How many of us are having no fun at all with this following Jesus stuff, this being oasis stuff, simply because we’re only here to do the minimum?

Don’t do that! Don’t accept that sort of ill-fitting, uncomfortable, second best yoke…

Finding rest and refreshment in Jesus is wildly important; it is truly two thirds of our conversation. But it is only the very bare minimum of what Jesus longs to give us. Our LORD Jesus has a perfect place of service, a yoke tailor made for each one of us; a purposeful yoke of service and sacrifice that perfectly and uniquely fits. Our LORD Jesus longs to see each and every one of us released to serve; to wildly and wonderfully do much more than the minimum.

May this place continue to be oasis! May we find all the rest, refreshment and release into the significance and service we were created to enjoy!

Amen.

And I Will Give You Rest (Matthew 11:25-28)

Every week as we take our places in this gorgeous room, we sit beneath lovely stained glass images of oasis. Our church name, the slogan on our bulletin, newsletter, website and much of our thinking revolve around the simple idea that this church is “an oasis in the city.”

I adore the metaphor. But what does it mean? Originally, the biblical oasis at Elim was just a quiet place mentioned in Exodus 15 and Numbers 33 where the Hebrew people found twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees and rested. It was the second campground the Israelites chose after crossing the Red Sea. The oasis at Elim isn’t mentioned or explained much in Scripture beyond this. My very best Bible dictionary doesn’t even have an article on the place! So how should this simple little reference define us as a church and as followers of Jesus Christ? What does it mean that we call ourselves Elim Church: An Oasis in the City?

I suspect there are as many different types of oasis and as many differing definitions and passionate perspectives on what it means to be oasis as there are people here today. And I’m sure this oasis stuff has been discussed countless times since this church came to be over 120 years ago. But for the next three weeks, I’d still like to give you my humble take on things.

I’m willing to risk this sort of silly preaching redundancy because I believe way too many people in the world are making this church and following Jesus stuff way too complicated. The gorgeous, gracious, oasis faith once entrusted to fishermen, tax collectors, untrained and unlearned people with their humble, sometimes even salty reputations is now often controlled by the same sorts of wise, learned, prideful and religious people with whom Jesus had such difficulty. An oasis is supposed to be a place of rest, refreshment and release. And yet instead of being restful, refreshing and releasing places of oasis, our faith and churches often become dinky, dull and drudgery driven opponents of oasis. We don’t ever want or intend for that bad, depressing, dead religion stuff to happen in our lives or in our churches, but unless we are very intentional about clinging to “the simple oasis things we did at first,” it frequently does happen.

I don’t want to oversimplify the discussion but, as I see it, each and every desert oasis must offer three very obvious things; rest, refreshment and, eventually some sort of meaningful release. This morning I would like to look at the first and most important of those three; rest.

How can we find the glorious salvation rest Jesus promises us in Scripture? And how can we meaningfully offer this soul-satisfying, salvation rest Jesus to the world around us?

Open your Bibles to Matthew 11:25-28. In verses 20-24, in a staggering declaration of His own spiritual importance, Jesus very sadly pronounced woe on three ancient cities refusing to repent and enter into His salvation rest. Then, in chapter 12, immediately following our passage, He directly confronted the religious power structure of the day with His very counter-cultural, challenging perspective on Sabbath rest. Tucked in between these other salvation rest stories is our scripture passage for today; a moment of enormous oasis, resting value. Jesus offers us all rest. Listen carefully and prayerfully to what He said…

At that time Jesus said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things [the enormous oasis value and true power of the kingdom] from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure. All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

I believe that final verse, verse 28, gives us almost everything we need to know about finding rest in this world and the next. If we long to find oasis rest ourselves, if we long for this church to become an oasis of rest in this city, then there are three simple things we need to do.

And the first is the most important, the most controversial and yet most simple. We must come only to Jesus. We only find meaningful rest in Jesus. We only offer rest to this city when we offer only Jesus to this city. I know it sounds very intolerant and politically correct, but there is only one person in the universe capable of offering the rest we all seek; Jesus Christ of Nazareth. We must come only to Jesus. We are here to bring others only to Jesus.

My good friend Pat McCurdy started coming here to Elim about the time I started preaching here. We haven’t discussed it directly, but I suspect He came here at least partially because of our friendship. That’s great. He’s been a good friend for many years and I’m glad he’s here. But if that’s the only reason Pat comes here, if that’s the primary reason Pat remains here, I can almost guarantee Pat will not find rest here. Pat is a good friend and I’m trying to be a good pastor, preacher and teacher, but I can’t offer Pat the rest he needs. Only Jesus can. My friend Pat and I will only find rest in this place to the degree we seek only Jesus in this place. Pat and I will only find rest in our lives to the degree we seek only Jesus in our lives.

In your constant quest for rest, are you seeking Jesus or something else? Did you start coming to this church years ago because you were excited to be part of a church willing to give women equal opportunities to lead? That’s great, but that isn’t where rest is found. Are you coming here because you have years of history here; because your friends and family are here? That’s wonderful, but that isn’t where true oasis rest is found. Are you coming here because you deeply believe in a church intentionally committed to staying here; an often messy church committed to being and becoming a truly multigenerational, multiethnic, intentionally diverse urban neighborhood church? That’s fantastic, it really is, but that isn’t where rest is found. Are you sitting in this lovely room because you find the beauty of this old sanctuary, its wood and windows and the skills of its musicians inspirational? Me too, but that isn’t where rest is found.

Do you see? This isn’t just good theology or pious-sounding babble. It is oasis. It is rest. Only Jesus can possibly offer any of us and this city the rest we all seek. Jesus didn’t tell you and I to come to a certain church, to come to a certain school, to sing certain songs, to read certain books or to maintain certain religious relationships in order to find rest. Jesus arrogantly, intolerantly called us to come to Him; Jesus bids us come only to Him for our rest.

I know it’s a cliché, but we are not maintaining religion here; we are deepening our relationship with Jesus. We must come to Jesus alone or we will find ourselves constantly restless and alone. We aren’t here to listen and evaluate our pastor and his musical buddies this morning; we are here to prayerfully listen for the still, small voice of Jesus through the hopefully Scripture and Spirit-driven, yet often stumbling words of those leading us. We aren’t sitting down to consume and evaluate the show; we prayerfully, passionately come to Jesus.

Folks, please hear me and hear me well; the degree to which all we do in life revolves around Jesus is the degree to which we and the city we love will find rest in this life. Jesus is not a product to be consumed; Jesus is a person to be loved. Unless we understand this, we will never find rest. We will continue to restlessly change churches like we change our socks.

Come to me…and I will give you rest. Only in Jesus can we find rest.

But not only must we come only to Jesus; we must come humbly. This is the second action step we must take if we hope to find rest. Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Unless we humbly realize and admit our weariness and the terrible burdens of sin and struggle we’re lugging around, we will never properly come to Jesus. We will never find rest in Jesus until we humbly dump all our stuff on Jesus. We will never find rest in this place until we come here humbly admitting our need for that rest.

Yet all too often, we’re like bratty little kids trying to talk their parents into letting them stay up past bedtime. Our eyes are red and puffy, we’re crabby and irritable, so exhausted we can hardly hold our heads up and yet we continue to fight Mom and Dad. Only those people humble enough to admit their weariness and burdens will ever find rest from those burdens.

Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

In 1992, there was a one-hit wonder rock band called Right Said Fred that did a satirical, silly little song about egotistical, self-absorbed models and the fashion industry entitled, “I’m Too Sexy!” Remember it? It was the kind of song that sticks in your mind like an itchy, annoying fungus. And yet, I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who actually knows all the words to that dumb song. Personally, I think we should put sunglasses and a t-shirt on Rick Dischinger and have him give us his take on the tune. But I digress…

About a month or so ago, Monica and I were out walking yet again. We were on our way downtown one Saturday afternoon continuing our perpetual quest for the perfectly far away lettuce sandwich and bowl of soup. As you all know, my dear wife Monica just hates long, grueling walks, so, on this particular marathon, I was singing to her just to keep her from getting grumpy. And since I take my marital comedian responsibilities seriously, on this particular occasion, I was singing the “I’m Too Sexy” song to her as we walked along, complete with totally excellent, totally whack, totally fat Scandinavian pastor dance moves. And, since I’ve never bothered to ever learn the words to the song, I was just making them up as I went along. I was way too sexy for way too many things that day.

But just as I was truly getting into my 1990’s Right Said Fred creative, comedic groove, just as this Baptist Mack Daddy was truly getting down, an MTC express bus went zooming by, hitting a very large, very slushy puddle on the road beside us and soaking me, head to toe, with icy, brutally cold and very muddy curb water. Suddenly, I was no longer too sexy for much of anything! Strange and perversely, Monica found this moment humorous. Strangely, I sensed in my deeply sensitive, deeply pastoral spirit that God Himself found the moment humorous!

That is me. That is what I am. Don’t for a second be confused by my best efforts to convince you to the contrary. I am that try hard to be sexy and smart guy dripping with curb water from head to toe. I am as soaked, weary and heavy laden as anyone can ever be. And I know that unless I come to Jesus on my knees, unless I come honest and humble about my dripping wet sinfulness, I am not going to find the rest I seek. And I pray you know that too.

As I got to this very place in my sermon study on Thursday of this week, the time came for me to leave my office to attend my first Northeast Ministerial Association meeting. Since I’d never met any of the other neighborhood pastors, it was my plan to quietly attend the meeting, listen to the clergy interaction and just get through a simple lunch without saying or doing something to embarrass myself. Unfortunately, just after I finished my dainty salad and very polite, little portion of soup, the bottom of the chair I was sitting in fell completely out on the floor. I was dropped instantly and without any warning, straight down onto the floor as if the whole thing had been perfectly planned. And as I sat there on the floor, completely uninjured, staring out across the table at that august gathering of clergy, my nose at the table line and my armpits trapped by the frame of the chair, the only thing I could do was laugh. LORD, you already gave me my humiliating sermon illustration! Enough already! God can be such a joker!

I’m too sexy for this chair, too sexy for this priest, too sexy for my soup…

But I’m not! I’m not anything. I’m dripping wet, on the floor, weary, heavy laden guy crawling toward Jesus because I know I’m not going to find the rest I need anywhere else.

I’m coming only to Jesus and I’m coming humble. I’m coming here today needy…

But I am also coming expectantly. This is the wonderful, third and final oasis rest action step we must take. Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Folks, do we realize the last phrase, the last six words of this verse, are a promise from our Lord Jesus? If we will come exclusively and humbly to Him, He will give us rest. He will meet us precisely at the point of our deepest need. It doesn’t matter how sinful, broken, weary and heavy-laden we might be, Jesus Christ will give us rest. A bruised reed He will not break!

Do you believe that? Did you come here today expecting to find and savor His rest?

I have a theory about this expectations piece of our conversation. It is my theory that we usually receive from God whatever we most expect to receive from God. While Almighty God always loves to surprise us and give us far beyond whatever we expect or imagine, usually we receive from God only what we are willing to receive from Him. We only accept the rest from Jesus we are willing to accept from Him. To be completely honest, I believe Almighty God’s offer of rest is always on the table. It is always everywhere waiting for us to receive it.

Many years ago, when I was pastoring in Waconia, a man approached me after the service with an adamant compliment. He pulled me aside at the door of the sanctuary as I was doing my grip and grin thing, and he said, “You know pastor, we’ve visited 22 churches in this area and this is the first church we’ve found that actually preaches God’s Word!” And even as I tried to be thankful, I thought to myself, “I wonder how long it will take before we become church number 23?” Sure enough, after just a few months, that family left the church. While I don’t know what churches that family visited in the Carver County area and I don’t know what was preached in any those churches, but I would bet my bottom dollar he didn’t go to any of those churches with a genuine sense of coming to Jesus humility or expectation. I don’t know anything about his experiences, but I’ve been to all sorts and sizes of Christian churches over the years and, even in the shallowest spiritual waters I’ve known, I almost always hear Jesus sharing something useful with me. I receive rest from Him because I am fully expecting and wanting to receive rest. I receive rest because I understand I have been promised rest.

And yet some of us are so busy testing this wonderful promise, so busy with our proud judgments and selfish expectations, we make it almost impossible to receive the rest offered us.

In 1982, the Christian rock band Petra included a snippet of back-masked lyrics at the beginning of its song Judas Kiss on the album More Power To Ya. Remember back-masking? Some secular rock bands would record evil demonic messages backwards on albums in order to satanically program impressionable youth into smoking marijuana and cutting classes at school. When a few of my Christian nerd friends and I heard what sounded like back-masking on our new Petra album, we just had to check it out. We found somebody at Bethel with a pricey turntable we could run backwards and discovered we were exactly right. Petra had recorded back-masked lyrics. But do you know what the back-masked message on that song was? We played it over and over again just to be sure. Clear as a bell, we heard the lead singer from Petra asking, “What are you looking for the devil for when you oughta be looking for the Lord?”

I love that!

Folks, while the devil is a truly a nasty, roaring lion looking for whom he may devour, while it is absolutely true we must be spiritually wise and discerning in all we do, we must never allow our proper spiritual wariness to steal away the rest Jesus wants to give us. Whether we approach our Lord Jesus in the quietness of our own home or we come to Him while visiting some friend’s strange church, we must come expecting Him to give us the rest He has promised us. If we aren’t looking for rest, if we aren’t expecting rest, chances are we won’t find rest.

We are Elim Church, sweet oasis in this city, offering rest to anyone willing to humbly and expectantly seek Jesus here with us. May we find rest here! May we offer rest here! May we come to Jesus, come humbly and come expectantly. May we find and offer oasis. Amen.

Polarizing Jesus

“I love you, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I call to the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and I am saved from my enemies.”
~ Psalm 18:1-3

I got my Arizona vacation pictures back yesterday and I was thrilled with them. (Ah! Hiking with my baby through Arizona in long, cold February! I could get used to this!) There aren’t any award winning shots or anything, but I loved the way many of the pictures turned out. I won’t bore you with all of them or give you any sort of travelogue, but there was something I noticed about my pictures this year I thought was interesting.

This year I used a polarizing filter on my 35mm camera. I don’t pretend to completely understand the science of it, but a polarizing filter sort of does for your camera what sunglasses do for your eyes. It takes away a lot of the sun’s glare and allows the photographer to see colors and other things much more clearly and easily. Chuck Wick inspired me to give it a try after his Oregon trip years ago, but I never did until now. I wish I hadn’t waited so long…I could have been taking much better pictures. I don’t think I’ll ever take this filter off my camera! Even in black and white, the pictures look pretty good…

As I was thinking about the gorgeous, vivid colors and clear detail in these pictures, it occurred to me that my faith in Christ is a lot like my polarizing filter. My faith in Jesus wonderfully filters my world and helps me to see things more vividly and clearly. My faith in Jesus truly allows me to see the world for what it really is. Much of the world’s harsh glare is taken away and I can see my surroundings better. Lush and beautiful things become even more beautiful. Ugly or dangerous things become much more obvious and avoidable. My spiritual eyes do not tire, burn and water as they once did. And it is much, much easier for me to spend more time in even the harshest of this world’s glare.

Let Jesus filter your world. Let Jesus put the gorgeous blue skyline and vivid detail back into your vision! Take full advantage of all the things we’ve been learning in this great Fire & Reign series from the BGC. Spend time studying God’s Word, devote yourself more fully to prayer and time alone with God. Let Jesus show you the world as it really is!

Doesn’t that sound like a nice idea? I sure think so.

Amen.

Would You Notice?

“…the Spirit helps us in our weakness.”
~ Romans 8:26 (NIV)

If the Holy Spirit did not exist, would you even notice? Would your experience of daily life in Christ be much different? I wonder. The late Dr. A. W. Tozer, prolific author and pastor, said, “If the Holy Spirit was withdrawn from the church today, 95 percent of what we do would go on and no one would know the difference. If the Holy Spirit had been withdrawn from the New Testament church, 95 percent of what they did would stop, and everybody would know the difference.” I don’t know exactly where Dr. Tozer got those startling percentages, but I sure know where he got his argument. It probably isn’t good to generalize, but I truly suspect most of us in the church today do not depend on the Holy Spirit as we should. We are neither aware nor reliant on the power and presence of God. And because of that, we are far weaker and less effective than we should be.

Martha Garrett told a humorous story about the Spirit in an old Christian Reader magazine years ago. She said, “My daughter's station wagon coughed and choked all the way to the Christian bookstore in the mall. While we stood at the bookstore counter, Connie moaned, “I'm not sure we can make it home in the station wagon. If only Dave had driven the station wagon and left the Dodge Spirit for us!” At that moment she glanced outside the store and happened to see her husband, Dave, rush by on his way to a restaurant next door. “Dave! Dave!” she called from the doorway. “Help! We need the Spirit.” The clerk came to the counter just at that moment. Thinking she had just overheard a devout and desperate prayer, the clerk’s opened wide--until Connie and Dave exchanged car keys.”

We do need the Spirit. And we need the Spirit desperately…

We’re going to be studying the Holy Spirit in our worship together for the next couple of months. We’re going to study the first six chapters of the book of Acts. We will use the spiritual experiences of the first century church to challenge ourselves with tough questions about our own experience of the Holy Spirit. Please make a point of being here for this important conversation. And on those Sundays when you can’t be with us, be sure to get a tape or manuscript copy of the message. This series, like all our studies together, matters deeply.

May the Holy Spirit invade our hearts and our fellowship in the coming weeks!

Amen.

Flipping Switches

“…you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to countless thousands of angels in a joyful gathering. You have come to the assembly of God's firstborn children, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God Himself, who is the judge over all things. You have come to the spirits of the righteous ones in heaven who have now been made perfect. You have come to Jesus, the One who mediates the new covenant between God and people, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks of forgiveness instead of crying out for vengeance like the blood of Abel. Be careful that you do not refuse to listen to the One who is speaking.”
~ Hebrews 12:22-25 (NLT)

Monica and I had a wonderful day today. We took the train from our condo here in Carlsbad, California down the coast a little ways to the USS Midway aircraft carrier museum in the harbor at San Diego. For those of you unfamiliar with this enormous, historic ship, it is an aircraft carrier decommissioned in just the last few years and is now on permanent display. And what a display it was! It is a museum filled not only with fighter planes and military technology, but 50 years of U.S. history.

But what struck me more than anything today was the staggering enormity and sheer impossibility of this ocean dominating monster. Talk about a beast! The ship was served by a crew of 4,500 sailors, consumed 100,000 gallons of fuel and over 10 tons of food every single day! By the way, how would you like to use 260 gallons of fuel per mile? Not exactly a hybrid car! The Midway has 18 separate decks, over 4 acres of 3 inch thick flight decking and more airplane varieties than can possibly be described. Enormous is a word doesn’t even begin to do it justice. And this ship doesn’t even compare to the bigger ships used by today’s active duty sailors!

Yet buried deep in the bowels of this enormous ship is a radio room through which the ship communicates with the world around it. At the heart of this radio room are floor to ceiling panels of dials and switches. I don’t know exactly how many there are, but if you can see the picture I’ve enclosed, you can see there are hundreds of them on just one wall. Walls and walls of nothing but dials and switches! And if all these dials and switches aren’t set correctly, guess what? The ship does not receive its orders. The ship doesn’t know what to do or where to go next. It cannot properly communicate with its commanders, fellow warriors or airplanes already in the air. Without a properly operating radio room, the USS Midway is just another big boat with no where to go.

This radio room, with its walls of switches and dials, is a pretty rich metaphor, don’t you think?

It is a picture of what Jesus did for us. Adam messed our radio room up something awful and Jesus came to properly reset all the dials. Only the Risen Jesus allows us to communicate again with our Commander. Only the Risen Jesus gives our big, old boat somewhere to go and something important to do on the way.

But the USS Midway radio room is also a great picture of what Elim Church should be. Our sweet, Bible soaked and Spirit-led fellowship should be a place where people come to get all their dials and switches reset by Jesus. This should be a place where people of all sizes, shapes and sorts learn to communicate with their Commander again; where we together discover we have somewhere to go and something important to do.

We’ve got some good radio room training coming up here at Elim. This month we’re going to discuss what it means to “be oasis” in more than just our oasis church name. We’ll talk about the resting, refreshing and releasing radio room functions of the church. And then after this short conversation, we’re going to begin a long, reflective study of the first few chapters of the ancient book of Acts. Those folks got all their radio dials reset very nicely by Jesus; hopefully we’ll learn some things by studying their experience. Then later on in the year together, we’re going to discuss this strange thing we Christians call “prayer,” truly the ultimate radio room conversation. I’m looking forward to all this! Our Commander is speaking – let’s get properly tuned in!