Remember

I had a great view from my hospital bed last week. The sky was a gorgeous bright blue with big, fluffy white clouds. The tops of the tree tops were a full of different shades of green. Breathtaking! I made several comments about it throughout the afternoon. Later that evening, the clouds had dissipated, the bright blue was starting to dull, and the sun started to appear in the corner of the window. The sun made its way across the sky, and my window, and I was reminded of the many California sunsets I enjoyed on the west coast as the giant ball of fire slowly falls to below the earth’s edge. As I soaked up the sun shining in my eyes, God brought Psalm 103 to mind. There were only about three verses of the psalm I could remember, and my cell phone was almost dead. Fortunately it wasn’t long before Jeremiah returned with my Bible. I didn't even have to ask him to bring it; he knew I would want it.

I wanted to share one of my favorite Hebrew words from this psalm with you. Barak. It means to bless or to kneel. You have probably heard me say before the Hebrew is a very picturesque language. This means that the word pictures created in the Hebrew can help us better understand what the author is saying to us. When we bless someone, it is as if we are bending our knee toward them. This picture gets lost a little bit in our culture. We don’t bow before kings or queens. Kneeling is an act that recognizes you are submitting yourself to, honoring, or at the service of the one you are kneeling before. A man kneels before his girlfriend with a marriage proposal to serve and honor her.

If you are reading the NIV, it will translate barak as praise. This isn’t a bad translation, I simply think bless is a better translation. Take that for what it is worth. A vast majority of the time in Scripture, “bless” is used to talk about us blessing God. That is exactly what is happening in Psalm 103. However, we love to use the word “bless” to ask God to give us something. Remember the word picture, blessing someone is as if we are bending a knee to them. We are asking God to bend His knee toward us to serve us. I hope that makes you as uneasy as it does me. Is there anything wrong with asking God to be with us or help us? Absolutely not! He says he will do those things. Will God bless us? Absolutely! There are uncountable ways that he has.

Psalm 103 always reminds me who is on the throne and that regardless of circumstance, I bless God and God alone. It causes me to ask myself if I’m asking God to bless me more than I am blessing God. My challenge to you is to let Psalm 103 speak to you. Perhaps you could even literally bend your knees and make this psalm your prayer.

“Bless the LORD, O my soul;
all my inmost being, bless his holy name.
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits—
who forgives all you sins
and heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,
who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like eagle’s.

The Lord works righteousness
and justice for all the oppressed.

He made known his ways to Moses,
his deeds to the people of Israel:
The LORD is compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger, abounding in love.
He will not accuse,
nor will he harbor his anger forever;
he does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great isis love for those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
As a father has compassion on his children,
so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;
for he knows how we are formed,
he remembers that we are dust.
As for man, his days are like grass,
he flourishes like a flower of the field;
the wind blows over it and it is gone,
and its place remembers it no more.
But from everlasting to everlasting
the LORD’s love is with those who fear him,
and his righteousness with their children’s children—
with those who keep his covenant
and remember to obey his precepts.

The Lord has established his throne in heaven,
and his kingdom rules over all.

Bless the LORD, you his angels,
you mighty ones who do his bidding,
who obey his word.
Bless the LORD, all his heavenly hosts,
you his servants who do his will.
Bless the LORD, all his works
everywhere in his dominion.

Bless the LORD, o my soul.”
Psalm 103

Wilderness People (Repost)

“Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her.” Hosea 2:12

In July of 2014, I had the opportunity to travel to Israel and Turkey on a study trip with some of the staff and students from Impact Campus Ministry. In a few weeks, another group will be going and I really wish I was joining them. After some recent conversations about the trip, I started re-reading my journals and blog posts from around the trip. I found a blog post that challenged me and I thought I would update it a little and share it with you.

Hiking is one of my favorite ways to connect with God; exploring His creative work, quieting my heart and listening to His voice. I spent a ton of time hiking when I lived in California even though there was a horrible draught the entire time I was there. The hills were always brown, and there was never much green to be seen. The trails were rocky and dusty. It wasn’t very pretty to most, in fact some days it made me miss the green forests of Michigan. But it always reminded me that God’s people were wilderness people.

The wilderness, or desert, is a land of “just enough.” There is just enough water and rain for the vegetation to survive. There is just enough vegetation for sheep and goats to graze. There is just enough shade to provide an overheated shepherd relief from the hot sun.

And because there is just enough and not too much, there is plenty of room to trust. There is plenty of room to trust you’ll have just enough food to survive the day. Plenty of room to trust you’ll have just enough water to survive the day. Plenty of room to trust you will have exactly what you need, exactly when you need it. It is not what I would consider comfortable, but it is exactly where I want to live my life.

One evening I decided to hike my regular route backwards. I do this sometimes just to have a more difficult hike and sometimes I just like the different perspective it gives me. That evening as I made my way up the final climb to the bluff, I was reminded of one of my wilderness moments and one of the hardest moments in my life, my battle with depression.

During that time, I was convinced the wilderness I was in was not a land of just enough but a land of no where near enough. Not enough of God’s grace to handle my weaknesses. Not enough of God’s love to love someone like me. Not enough second chances to try again after I messed up. Not enough reasons for me to even be alive. It was a very dark time. It was in the book of Hosea and the Psalms where I found any glimmer of hope. If Hosea could marry a prostitute and still follow God each day and rest in His love, surely I could handle another day. If David could tell God how broken and sad he was and write about it, surely I could tell God too.

Hosea 2:12 was one of the verses I clung to during those years. My life felt like the toughest, driest desert to ever exist, but it was in the desert that God spoke to His people. Most days it felt like He wasn’t speaking or listening at all. There were brief moments where I heard His voice. Brief moments where I knew He was there with me. Those moments sustained me. Those moments healed me.

Now I make it a habit to go to the literal wilderness to remind myself of what God has done. To remind myself that just enough is more than enough. To remind myself God is present. I sit in the wilderness to listen to His tender voice.

When the snow arrived this last winter, I did everything to avoid the outdoors. It was far too cold. However, I haven’t returned to my practice of heading to the wilderness to be still and listen. This post reminded me of how critical that is for me. Where do you hear God speak to you? Have you gone there to be still and listen? Make some time this month to create space for the Lord to speak to you.

Controlling Your Summer

Our new series will help all of us remember the things that really matter this summer.

 Can you believe June is here already?! Soon half of 2016 will be behind us. Time seems to pass  faster and faster each year. We have a limited amount of time and our priorities dictate how we spend that time. However, sometimes what we say our priorities are doesn’t actually match how our time is spent.  We allow time to control us, instead of us managing our time well.

Summer makes this even more difficult. Family vacations change our routine. The warm weather calls to us to enjoy the beach. The grass demands to be mowed. There is always something more to do. Before we know it, summer is gone and the things we intend to do never happened. Unfortunately, all too often practicing our faith falls into this category.

We started our year as a church family making a New Year’s Resolution to be the Church. In May, we recommitted to being members of Bangor Church of Christ and living out the purpose God has given our church family. These commitments take great intentionality. Following Jesus ought to be our highest priority. Our decision to be disciples of Jesus is the greatest commitment we can make, yet it quickly falls to the back burner once summer arrives.

This summer don’t let time control you. Manage your time well and make sure your highest priority is lived out during the summer months. Jeremiah has been studying and preparing a great sermon series to help us take our next steps after the commitments we have made as a church family. Make Sunday morning a priority so you can learn more about some of these next steps. In this month’s Carillon is a handful of lists that can help you make sure you are growing as a disciple this summer.

Make the decision now before summer is gone. The sun is here and I intend on enjoying as I pursue God. Let’s keep taking steps toward Jesus together!

Special Service Coming

By now you should have noticed a pretty strong theme in our corporate worship times this year. If you haven’t, you might be sleeping during service or simply not coming. Let me give you a clue…the big metal letters on stage that spell CHURCH. As a church family, we made a New Year’s resolution to be the church God has called us to be. Every Sunday since then we have looked to Scripture to understand what that means. This month we have narrowed our focus to want it means to be the Bangor Church of Christ. Our Leadership Team has given us a single statement that helps us remember who we are called to be. We call that our purpose statement.

    Bangor Church of Christ is committed to
    LOVING God and loving our neighbors by
    WORSHIPING together in unity;
    EQUIPPING Christians to serve others; and
    LEADING others to a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ.

Love. Worship. Equip. Lead. If remember these four words, we can easily remember who we are as a church and how we should be living. These four words help us define our priorities. These four words help us understand how to use our time, our talents, and our treasures. These four words help us live out our identity in Christ. These four words help hold us accountable to being the sons and daughters of God that we were created to be.

Our all church worship gathering on May 1st at 11 AM is a very important gathering for our church family. This service is an opportunity for us as a community to declare to God that we want to be obedient to Him and be the Church he has commanded us to be. It is time for us as church family to put our faith into action again. It is time for us as a church family to take one step closer to Jesus. It is time for us as a church family to allow the Holy Spirit to move in, through and among us.

I want to personally ask you to make every effort to attend this service. I strongly encourage you to be in constant prayer for this service. I believe that God has incredible things in store for our church family if we will chose to be obedient to him and surrender our lives to him. I’m in! Will you join me?

A Story Worth Living

 I recently attended a bridal shower where neither the bride nor the groom remembered their engagement. They remembered around what time of year it happened and a few details about the event. It had only been a year since the groom had proposed, and I was completely amazed at how little they remembered about such a significant event. Jeremiah proposed to me well over a year ago and I can remember the event very well. It was a moment that would completely reshape the rest of my life. It was a moment would mark the beginning of a new chapter in my story.

Moments like this get repeated over and over again. When I returned home to California after that visit to Michigan, I was asked several dozen times to tell the story of how he proposed. It is a great story and because it was such an significant event, I was happy to tell it over and over again. I drove home from this bridal shower completely perplexed at the idea of forgetting something so important so quickly.

Last week a high school friend and I were corresponding about another story of people quickly forgetting. Joshua 2:10 says, “After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel.”
Read that a few more times and let that sink in a little.

God delivers the entire nation of Israel from the oppression of the Egyptians. Moses leads a generation of people in following God through the wilderness, learning to hear God’s voice and what it means to be His people. They are commanded to tell and retell the great Story every year at Passover. The next generation comes along, Joshua marches them into the Promised Land as God gives them the great land He swore to give their forefathers. Joshua and the elders of that generation pass away and then no one knows the Story. You’ve got to be kidding me! Two generations in a row bear witness the incredible power, love and faithfulness of the Lord Almighty and the next generation grew up without knowing about it.

It doesn’t take long for a story to die. It simply stops being told. We are a generation that has heard the great Story of the Exodus and the redemption of God’s people through the blood of Jesus. Are we telling the Story to those who don’t know it? Are we living the Story in such a way that the next generation with grab hold of it? Will people write that this generation of the Bangor Church of Christ passed on and the next generation knew nothing of our Lord?

Good stories get told and retold. This is the absolute best story ever written or to be written. I’m afraid that far too often we choose to silence the Story because it is inconvenient or difficult. We can’t be bothered to gather each week to remind one another of the Story. We can’t be bothered to share the Story with our neighbors or invite them to come celebrate the Story with us on a Sunday morning. That simply unacceptable. I refuse to be known as the generation that let the Story be silenced. What about you? Are you in? Will you join me in sharing the Story so generation after generation may know about the goodness of our God?

Tell the Story. Live the Story. Don’t let it be silenced.