Thanksgiving in the Day of Distress

2009 has been a difficult year.

In Sioux Falls, applications for food stamps is up 48%.

At church we have given helping hand funds at a pace that has been unprecedented in our 15 year history.

This morning a friend shared an email exchange between her extended family members. The exchange was rather tense and each writer was sure that their life was more stressful than the life of the other and that the other had better be nicer. (sounds like a fun family Thanksgiving!)

Life is stressful! Talking with as many people as I do, it seems like life is inundating folks at an outlandish level. If you are not in this category, you’ve got things to be thankful for! But if you are in the “Life is really, really hard right now” group, Thanksgiving might seem ill-timed this year.

These feelings of frustration or ingratitude or simply at a loss to find anything to be thankful for build huge amounts of guilt in the Christian heart.

But that is the enemy! God knows exactly how you feel. Jesus was human and felt emotions too.

When these thoughts hit me, I go straight to the Psalms. If David, a man after God’s own heart, could say things like “God, why do you stand far off and hide yourself in the day of trouble?” (Psalm 10) or
“How long, O Lord, will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?” (Psalm 13) or “O my God, I cry out by day and you do not answer; and by night I have no rest.” (Psalm 22) Then we as followers of Jesus can cry out too.

The thing that must counter balance it all is found in Psalm 42:5,11. “Hope in God for I shall again praise Him.” It is ok to say, “Lord here I am in the midst of a mess and it is really hard to be thankful and praise, BUT I promise that I will praise you again. I will go “along with the procession to the house of God, with the voice of joy and thanksgiving”. (Psalm 42:4)

Psalm after psalm after psalm declares the troubles and tribulations of the psalmist, but the psalmists never end on the bad note. Psalms provide the contrast of here’s where I am now, here’s what I am expecting God to do.

This is hope. This is faith.

Loneliness – It’s Not God’s Will for You to Go Through Life Alone

Genesis chapter 2 continues to tell us that God didn’t think it would be good for Adam to go through life alone. That’s one of our key principles around Church at the Gate. There are opportunities to plug into Life Groups and ways to serve. Over and over again, I find that if I am dealing with loneliness or depression that it makes a real difference to me to get around people. I have to force myself sometimes, but when I do, I get a better perspective on my issues. Serving others who are worse off than I am makes a difference too.

Our maturity in Christ is demonstrated best in the way we relate to others. Are we able to forgive and not take offense are we able to love even when it is difficult and be vulnerable when we’ve been hurt before?

But this is exactly the type of “preaching” I wanted to avoid in these posts. Nobody who’s lonely wants to hear how to fix it. They just want the pain to go away.

BUT…here’s the main thought I have on this topic. People are just people and if your hope and trust and dependence on others is where you are putting your cure for loneliness…people are going to disappoint. There is no spouse that at some points won’t disappoint you. There is no friend or family member that at some point won’t hurt your feelings or just not be available when you feel the greatest need. There is no pastor, teacher or mentor who will ever get it all right.

The book I’ve been slowly working my way through all year (The Gospel According to Job) puts it this way:

Nevertheless, even in a good church people experience a certain measure of isolation, a certain poverty of human fellowship, and this is not without purpose. For this loneliness, this place in our hearts that no other human being can touch, is the place reserved for God alone, the place that only He can fill. No human being can love us as God does. No other person can speak to us from the bottom of our own hearts as the Holy Spirit does. No one else can plumb the mystery of our character and discern our peculiar needs and gifts as clearly as we ourselves can by the Holy Spirit’s light. Accordingly, all of us must discover what it means to have no other comfort except the comfort we draw from our God in the lonely privacy of our own prayers.

Don’t go through life alone…Go through life with the One who loves you so much that He gave it all.

Loneliness – From the Beginning

**My deepest apologies for not getting this post out in a timely manner.**

Then the LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.” Out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him.

Genesis chapter two details for us Adam’s life just after the creation. Genesis chapter three details Adam’s fall. The very interesting part of this for me is that Adam was lonely before the fall. Loneliness in itself is not fully because of the fall of man. So how do we understand this condition of the human heart?

If Adam was made in the image of God, then God’s character qualities should shine forth in Adam’s unfallen state. Adam was a worker v.15, “put him into the garden to cultivate and keep it”. Adam was creative – just think about the name aardvark, that’s even kind of funny! But Adam was lonely. Loneliness did not come after the fall or as a result of sin. Adam, created in God’s image, desired companionship. This is not a Plan B, but the Plan A as set forth by God from the very beginning.

“God used loneliness to cultivate something in the heart of Adam. God created longing in his heart and made Adam endure a rigorous process of recognizing his lacking. Loneliness became the birthplace for longing and desire. Aloneness presupposes desire and longing. Without the longing for something else, loneliness is impossible…desire for a companion grew within Adam. This was God’s ultimate object lesson for Adam to understand something of God, himself. Adam was a creature of desire and intimacy, made in the image of his Creator. God stamped his own longing for communion on the very nature of human beings.” Alan Hood – The Excellencies of Christ.

So what difference should this make to me when I am lonely. God knew that the fall would happen, so He introduced longing so that we would find our way back to Him. Today we run from loneliness like the plague, while in fact it is the Divine invitation to run to Him who longs for us.

Luke 5:16 tells us that Jesus OFTEN withdrew to a lonely place to pray. How interesting is it that He knew the best place to commune with His Father was in the LONELY place.

So not that my introvert side needs more help, but I am seeking out the lonely places lately and God has been meeting me in ways that I have not seen before.

Your heart was made for Him. And when you are lonely, the person you might just be missing is your Creator and coming Bridegroom. Seek Him and He promises to allow us to find Him. Loneliness, itself, is not what we seek, but in loneliness we find the One for whom our hearts were made.

Desire for God will cresendo at the end of the age, because wait…a wedding is coming. Think of the cry and anticipation of a Bride for a Bridegroom. “And the Spirit and the BRIDE cry, ‘Come.’” The cry of a bride is one of joyful longing.

Loneliness

Once again, God has taken one topic and highlighted it a couple of times and in different ways to me.

At lunch on Sunday we were talking about the “connectedness” people have through social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, yet with all these “friends” and “followers” who has true face to face friends? Isolation breeds loneliness, through many technological methods we have found a hollow candy coating to disguise the true state of our hearts.

Even if you are surrounded by people you can be utterly and devastatingly alone. A wise woman told me years ago that the loneliest place in the world can be the space between a husband and wife in bed. Just doesn’t matter if it seems like life has given the greatest support system, family or friends. Others can look at your life and have no idea how isolated your life might be.

I’ve known and know loneliness. It pops up at the most unlikely times. And in this post, I’m not knocking my husband, kids or friends, but I’m learning to look at loneliness in a new way. My thoughts here are just the beginning of my processing. So jump in and comment over the next couple of entries.

I’m not interested in the lectures about “getting out there” or getting involved in activities, because I think I’ve found some amazing new teaching on the subject of loneliness. And I won’t write about the guilt producing, finger pointing solutions to loneliness at all. But I think I’m learning that loneliness can be something to be embraced and something that can actually enrich my life.

What I’m Reading – Year of Living Biblically

A few weeks ago, Steve mentioned this book in his sermon. He did mention also that he was keeping the book as “bathroom” reading. This is NOT where I read this book!

The Year of Living Biblically is the story of AJ Jacobs’ quest as he puts it “follow the Bible”. For his project Jacobs’ had an advisory panel made up of Jewish and Christian teachers, rabbis, and preachers. They helped him compile a list of all the rules and regulations he would need to follow. Jacobs worked diligently to follow all the rules. Things like not cutting the corners of his hair, or his beard. Eating kosher. Observing the Sabbath. Giving a tithe. Daily prayer. Etc. Etc.

In the end, he seems to have felt better about himself, found somethings he really embraced, some he totally rejected. He had a few moments where he felt that he almost touched the Divine, but never quite found God.

A few days ago, I was filling out a profile and it asked for my activites. My brain fired off…”my life revolves around church activities.” WAIT!!!! My first response should have been…”my life revolves around Jesus.” Immediately my thoughts turned to this book. I think that the problem Jacobs encountered was that his life revolved around the rules, not the relationship. Any of us can have a life that is according to MacBeth “full of sound and fury, but signifying nothing”. Or as Ezekiel 37 tells us the great noise of bones coming together, but “there was no life in them”. Without the breath of God in us, following rules is just following rules: it doesn’t matter if they came from the Bible or not.

God, grant us the intelligence to see when we are oriented around anything – even if it is very, very good – that takes our focus off of you.

What I’m Reading – Yep, There’s More

I know, I know, I know.

Seems like I must spend all my time with a book in hand, and I’ll confess to a little reading gluttony of late. But here’s my rationalization.

1) The two month sinus infection really wiped me out. Holding very still was about the only way to cope with the constant headache. TV is just not that big a deal, so I read.

2) In Europe this summer, I had to ration myself on reading. I didn’t pack enough books with me to start with. Then of course there was the whole problem that book stores only carried books in German. Go figure! German books in Germany and Switzerland – kind of like the grocery stores with labels in German.

There was one point as we were driving from Berlin to Martin Luther’s hideaway at Wartburg, that we passed a massive warehouse out in the middle of the country side. It was an Amazon.de warehouse. But it only made me sad, since I figured that once again I would be frustrated by the fallout from the Tower of Bable. Surrounded by water without a drop to drink.

So to my frivolous reading…
If you’re looking for just a fun fiction adventure mystery with no swearing and no explicit PG+ situations, you can’t beat Clive Cussler. You’ll have to read this one closely and a few others, but I’d probably bet on the fact that I think that the author is pretty conservative and pro-life.

Anyway, no profound insights. Just a fun read.

What I’m Reading – Safely Home

I would have to say of all the books I’ve read in the past year this one may be the book that has made one of the deepest impact on my heart and mind.

Back in September, a wonderful lady at our church had been touched by Steve’s sermons on the cloud of witnesses and gave us a copy of Randy Alcorn’s book. What a gift!!!

Safely Home is a story of the persecuted church in China and the cloud of witnesses in heaven that cheer us on and pray for us.

We have no idea what life is like for those who live in constant danger imprisonment, torture, losing everything for the testimony of Jesus. I have been particularly moved by the lack of Bibles for believers. And super convicted over my lack of time in the word. The main character of the book makes the point that when a person goes into solitary confinement the only things they take with them are the things that they have studied and know.

The other aspect of this story is the cloud of witnesses. The church has lost the reality of heaven and that life may end here on earth, but there is MORE!!! We have a hope that we never spend anytime meditating on.

Page after page is filled with little gems of wisdom and I will quote a few here. Just one caution…have a box of kleenexes close by when you read this book. You’re going to need them.

- The longer the night lasts, the more men dream of the dawn.
- True gold fears no fire.
- No man can serve him perfectly, but they can serve him faithfully.
-”Tell them if they wish to help, send us Bibles. And pray for us. Pray thost those winessing our suffering will that Jesus must be real in order to sustain us. Pray that the rotten food will actually taste good to us. He has performed this miracle for me many times. Pray that the rags we prisoners wear will keep us warm. Pray that the beatings and torture will not weaken us, but strengthen us in our faith. And that the enemy will not overcome us and our families with despair and discouragement. Pray that prisons all across China will become centers of revival, and that Christians in registered churches will be bold, and house churches will be invisible to the police but visible to everyone else. Pray our sons and daughters will not be ashamed of their fathers and mothers in prison.”
-There will come a day when the King of All says, “NO MORE!”

What I’m Reading – Left to Tell

I’ve had several people lately ask me what I’ve been reading and so I thought I’d devote a few blog posts to the things that have been impacting me lately.

Sorry about the abrupt ending to last week’s call to prayer. My two month sinus infection came to a crisis point and I spent a few days in bed. Ahh…but the blessing in that was a book that I devoured in just a few short hours.

Left to Tell is the story of Imaculee Ilibagiza’s life in the horror of the Rawandan genocide. And really it is a book about prayer and the power of forgiveness.

The genocide in Rawanda started on April 7, 1994. Imacculee spent 91 days hidden in a tiny – 4′x3′ – bathroom with 7 other women. Hutu death squads came repeatedly looking for any Tutsis who might have escaped previous notice. The bathroom, in the house of a Hutu minister, was hidden from the eyes by divine intervention. During her time in hiding, Immaculee discovered the how to pray and to hear the voice of God. Most importantly, she learned the power of forgiveness. The horror of the graphic details of the murders of her family members were recounted to her when she had moved out of the bathroom and into the protection of French UN forces. Later when confronted with the jailed murderer of her beloved brother, she simply said to him, “I forgive you.”

This book is a must read for those who are concerned for godly justice in the earth, for those who know that there is more to prayer than they understand, and for those who have been traumatized by life in any way. Only the way of forgiveness leads to life.

The title of the book reflects Imaculee’s understanding of her purpose in life. She was left alive to tell her story. God’s got a purpose in her message. I think we should listen.

Last Call Prayer – Thursday

“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” Luke 19:10

One of the priorities of our Last Call service is to offer an offbeat time for folks to catch a weekend service. Ahhh…to be able to sleep in on a chilly, fall Sunday morning. Even thinking about that made me smile. Missing a Sunday morning just seems to catch up with most folks every once in awhile. So, here’s to Last Call being the chance to connect with the CATG family and God before the start of a work week.

As much as that has been commented on, my main focus has been that this service is one more chance for the lost and hurting to have an encounter with the Living God. Way back in CATG history when we were still Harvest Church one of our mission statements was: We exist for those who are not yet a part of us. Yeah! Bring that on again!

Here’s some church planter wisdom: Every new service reaches 75 new people the church was not reaching before adding a service.or another way of saying that is: The same church with two services reaches 75 less people than the same church with three services.

So who should we reach? People that already have a church home? My hope is that Last Call will draw people who need the love of Jesus to go on with life. People who need hope in a season of difficulty.

Today, the Last Call mailing will arrive in homes around Sioux Falls. The people who know these things tell us that each piece of direct mail gets 1.5 seconds in a person’s hand before it is tossed in the trash. WOW! That’s really short! Pray that God will highlight this unique piece of paper to hearts that are seeking solutions for their live.

Last Call Prayer – Wednesday

“So the priests and Levites consecrated themselves in order to bring up the ark of the LORD, the God of Israel.”
1 Chronicles 15:14

One of Pastor Steve’s recurring analogies talks about a weekend service like a baseball game. The goal of the game is to get the players around all the bases and safely “home”. For us “home” means that by the end of the service those in the congregation will have had an encounter with the Living God and have received a message that challenges them to a greater depth in the LORD. But if the only means to get to that end is the message preached – the task is extraordinarily difficult.

There are two vehicles that make the job so much easier. First is prayer. And the second is worship. When these two are under the anointing of the Holy Spirit worshipers are coming around second base. They hear the message with the momentum of prayer and worship behind them and the Spirit can quickly impress on their hearts the things they need to hear.

We are so blessed with anointed worship at CATG. Kathy and her crew lead us to the throne room. They are an obvious target for the enemy. Now as an extra worship team is raised up for Sunday nights, we need to agree in prayer for their protection and the movement of the Spirit of God on their hearts as they select music, practice together and then lead worshippers to the throne.

Pray for all of them this week as they prepare and consecrate themselves to the service of the LORD.