Hidden Gold

Sometimes, no matter how well things are going, you can feel a little empty.

This often happens to me after a good, full summer.  I recently spent a month with a great community of people where God was continuously, obviously at work.  I knew that coming back to a place away from that community, and away from my family, and away from some vocational dreams I’ve pursued would be hard.  And it is.

Yet God has reminded me that there is gold.

I’m not talking about the gold of the Olympic games.  (Although, winning an Olympic gold would be sweet.)   Michael Phelps has won his fair share (21 as I write this), and he admitted that outside of the pool he had wondered his own worth. (Phelps article)

I’m talking about hidden gold.

Ravi Zacharias, in his book, Walking from East to West, describes it:

“There is a beautiful story by F.W. Boreham that reflects this.  He tells of a woman who was sitting beside him on a bus.  As the journey progressed and the conductor came around to check the tickets, the woman was dismayed to realize that somewhere during the ride someone must have dipped into her purse and stolen two gold coins, along with her ticket.  Boreham reacts by saying how embarrassed he was because he happened to be sitting next to her and she kept giving him a look of suspicion.  But thankfully, he said, the problem was resolved quickly when, digging her hands deeper into the purse, she found the coins.  Promptly and with a red face she apologized, saying that it was her birthday and this was a new purse her daughter had given her.  ‘The compartments of the purse were more elaborate and ingenious than she had noticed,’ he said.

"Boreham, in his inimitable way, titled his essay ‘Hidden Gold,’ reminding the reader in the following words:  ‘Now this sort of thing is very common.  We are continually fancying that we have been robbed of the precious things we still possess.  The old lady who searches everywhere for the spectacles that adorn her temples; the clerk who ransacks the office for the pen behind his ear; and the boy who charges his brother with the theft of the pen knife that lurks in the mysterious depths of his own fearful and wonderful pocket.’  Often we are not aware of how close we are to that which we need but we think we do not have.  In His grace, God has placed some hidden gold somewhere in all of us that meets our need at a desperate moment.”  (p. 46)

Wherever God takes me, He has provided.  And He often places delightful things – like hidden gold – everywhere if I only look for them.  But I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the most precious thing that no matter where I go, I possess.

In the fictional (yet enlightening) book by C.S. Lewis called The Screwtape Letters, the demon Screwtape makes this statement:  “And all the time the joke is that the word ‘Mine’ in its fully possessive sense cannot be uttered by a human being about anything” (p. 247).

But is that true?  Can a human really not say “Mine” about anything?

Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine;
Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine!
Heir of salvation, purchase of God,
Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.

-          Fanny Crosby

I have become convinced that the only thing I can truly claim to be mine in this life is Jesus.  And that’s just plain hard to believe.  The Creator, the Sustainer, the One who died on the cross to take my punishment…that Jesus is Mine!  (And I gratefully share him with anyone else who has accepted His gift of salvation :).) 

That, my friends, is gold enough to fill any purse.  Or any soul.

Heav’n above is softer blue,
Earth around is sweeter green!
Something lives in every hue
Christless eyes have never seen;
Birds with gladder songs o’erflow,
Flowers with deeper beauties shine,
Since I know, as now I know,
I am His, and He is mine.
- George W. Robinson

Tears and the Metanarrative

The following is from a brief talk I gave to the women at Summit TN Session 2, 2016.  Like most good things, many of the ideas I shared are borrowed from other thinkers – and I desire to give them credit as I type this out. 

We are glad that you are here at Summit!  We have people here from all kinds of backgrounds – some who are excited to be here and some who are not as excited.  J  But we, as a staff, are excited to have you here, regardless of where you are in your journey. 

We have two goals for tonight:

1.       To love you

2.       To invite you into the Great Story…because you are wanted.

Josh Bales has been walking us through the Great Story, the Metanarrative, during worship each night.  He has talked of Creation, Fall, Redemption & Glorification.  Whether we realize it or not, the Bible is the story of a loving God, not a vindictive one.  A God that pursues us.  So, let’s do a brief overview of the story of the Bible…and see how God wants to interact with people.

·       CREATION:  God created Adam & Eve, and it was good.  God walked with them in the garden.  They enjoyed perfect communion with Him.

·       FALL:  But then, because God gave them free will, they decided not to choose Him…and the relationship with God was broken as they disobeyed Him.  A Holy God cannot live with evil.

·       ***From this point on, the story of the Bible is a record of God reaching out to restore that relationship.

o   He chose Abraham and the nation of Israel to reveal Himself.  It wasn’t because Israel was better than anyone else, but He wanted to use them to reach the world.

o   He gave Moses the design for a tabernacle so that He could actually be present with His people as they traveled.

o   He had Solomon build a temple, a more permanent place for His name to dwell with His people.

§  But because God is a gentleman and doesn’t force Himself upon us, He allowed His people to yet again not choose Him.  And when they didn’t, He had to leave.  But He did so slowly…giving so many chances for them to change.  Ezekiel 10 is the record of the glory of the LORD leaving the temple.  First it leaves from above the cherubim, then goes to the threshold, then to the east gate, then to the east mountain. 

o   In Luke 2, God's glory returned to the temple again...this time in the form of a baby.  Jesus came in the flesh to restore our relationship between us and God.  He paid the debt we owed on the cross (REDEMPTION).  ***God coming in flesh?  What?!?!?

o   Jesus returned to heaven, but sent the Holy Spirit, so that God no longer just dwells in a tabernacle or temple…but He dwells in each of us.  The church is where God dwells now.

o   Eventually, the Bible tells us to look forward to GLORIFICATION, when all things are made right.  Listen to the words in Revelation 21:1-5:  “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.  I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.  And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now (at last!) the dwelling place of God is with men, and he will live with them.  They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.  He will wipe away every tear from their eyes.  There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.’  He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new!’”

God is a loving God who pursues us…who exclaims at the end of time “At last!” because He has wanted to be with us since time began.

When God lives inside us (as hard as it is to fathom) – we are in the process of becoming more like him.  But our own flesh gets in the way, and we live imperfectly.  We, as a staff, are imperfect – but our goal has been to notice you, to find you, to make you feel like you belong, and to show you how you fit into this Great Story.

This story has a great ending that’s described in Revelation 21.  We get to be with Jesus…and He will wipe away every tear from our eyes. 

Tears are important.  Every tear contains a story, a memory.  In that day, when He wipes them away, He will tell us the rest of the story.

I heard a beautiful illustration from a sermon by Tom Hendrikse on January 31, 2016. (http://riovistachurch.com/message-series-archive-living-in-the-rhythm-of-grace/)  These are essentially Tom’s words verbatim…but not all of them.

“There is a beautiful illustration in the 7^th book of the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling.  It is the scene in which Professor Snape dies.  Professor Snape is one of the most heroic characters in the series – and no one knows it until after this scene.  He was considered the bad guy the whole time. 

Snape is lying on the floor dying from the bite of a poisonous, magical snake…as he lies there, slumped against the wall dying from the repeated bites of the snake, Harry, Ron and Hermione come in and Snape points to the tears streaming down his cheeks.  He says, “Collect them.  Collect them.” 

Harry gets a bottle from Hermione, and he presses it against the cheek of Professor Snape.  The tears stream down into the bottle and Snape says, “Take it to the Pensieve.”  The Pensieve is a magical ball in which you can literally re-enter your memories.

Harry takes the tears and pours them out into the Pensieve and discovers that they contain the memories, the stories of Professor Snape.  He enters into it…and everything makes sense.

Everything in Harry’s life suddenly makes sense – the rest of the story is revealed. 

Is it possible that J.K. Rowling borrowed this idea from Psalm 56:8?

Psalm 56:8 tells us that God collects our tears and keeps a record of them...of their story.

Why?

So He can sit down with us in the new heaven and new earth and pour them out into His magical pensieve (if you will) and enter into them with us…and walk through them with us and say,  “I know you didn’t think I was here, but I was right here.  Do you see me now?

I know you had no idea what I was doing in this, but let me show you what I was doing.  I was doing this over here with this person.  I was doing this over here with this person…I know that you could not possibly conceive of how this could be good – but I am the God who delights and reveals His glory by bringing good out of the things that you can’t conceive…ways for them to be good. I’m going to wipe that tear away now for forever because for forever now you will praise me for what caused you to cry it….”

Can you imagine that?  It’s hard to imagine… Shouldn’t that be the case, though…as finite creatures of an infinite God?”

We, here at Summit, are aware that we all have brokenness in our stories.  We all have a bottle of tears.  Some of you have cried tears while you’ve been here.  Some of you have kept yourselves locked up for protection.  We understand.  And regardless of if you really let us into your stories, tonight we do want you to experience a bit of the love that we’ve gotten to experience as part of the Great Story.

Each of your small group leaders is going to take you tonight and love on you by sharing the beautiful and excellent things that they’ve seen in you.  Too often our tears have come from believing the lies that culture and sometimes, sadly, the church tell us.  We realize that, for some of you, talk is cheap because you have been burned by family, friends, church, etc.  But we, at Summit, believe that your true identity will only be found in recognizing your worth in God’s sight.  You are equally made in the image of God – yet uniquely gifted to be athletes, wives and mothers, politicians, teachers, nurses, landscapers, cooks, etc. 

We have noticed you.

We want to call out the good in you and affirm you.

And although we will do this imperfectly, we serve a God who loves each of us perfectly.  We want you to get a small taste of that tonight. 

We love you.

We are “all in for the cause of Christ in you.”   

God's Will

After working amidst high school and college students for years, I have realized how deeply we all want to know the answer to one simple question:  What is God’s will for my life?

But it’s not just high school students asking for God’s will about which college to go to.  It’s also about single people of any age wondering who God wants them to marry.  It’s about graduates (and those who have been in the work force for years) pondering what job God wants them to take and where in the world God wants them to live.  It’s about older adults nearing retirement trying to figure out what God wants for them next.  Big life decisions don’t stop after you choose your college major.  In fact, they just seem to grow in number and magnitude. J

I felt like I had a pretty good answer for anyone who asked me about finding God’s will.  As had been shown to me, I directed people to some of the verses in the Bible that specifically state what God’s will is

B.A.G.S.

Believe – John 6:40

Abstain – I Thessalonians 4:3

Give thanks – I Thessalonians 5:18

Submit & do good – I Peter 2:13-15.

If we follow what God asks us to do in the simple things, our hearts will be in the right place and we won’t miss the direction He wants to lead us.

I still agree with what I would have said.  But in these past few weeks, God has been reminding me that I have much more to learn. 

You see, here’s my issue.  I believe all of that.  But if God doesn’t show me on my time table…I start to stress out and worry.  Whenever I think about any decision, I often just say, “God, I really just want to do what you want.  If you show me clearly – I’ll do it!” 

The desire to do God’s will is not wrong.  However, by asking God for neon signs in the sky (yep, I did that…a few times J) I have been skipping over the process and just asking for the product.

I want an answer without any transformation.

It has taken thoughts from Elisabeth Elliot, the story of Abraham, Kevin DeYoung, and Rex Trogdon to remind me of the truth:  God doesn’t want me to just ask questions about His will; He wants me to KNOW Him.  In knowing Him, I will become more like Him.  And then His will will not be elusive. 

So, in case you’re like me and need a reminder of the truth, please allow me the privilege of sharing a little bit of what God has taught me in the past few weeks.  (Okay, maybe a lot a bit.  I’ve never been accused of having too few words. J)

From Elisabeth Elliot & Abraham

A few weeks ago, the world remembered the 60^th anniversary of the deaths of Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, Pete Fleming, Ed McCulley, and Roger Youderian.  They risked everything to tell the Auca and Waodoni people of Ecuador about Jesus.

In commemoration of that event, Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth re-aired a talk that Elisabeth Elliot (Jim’s wife) gave to a group of college students about endurance.  She asked three main questions: 

What do you live for?

How do you get it?

Is it worth it?

You should definitely listen to the whole talk if you have a chance, to learn about the term “Yunga” and the A.U.G. degree Jim Elliot desperately wanted to have.  It’s a convicting message.

Elisabeth used examples of men who considered knowing Christ and obedience to Christ as a higher call than anything else.  She spoke of her husband, Jim Elliot.  She remembered Eric Liddell, the Olympic gold medalist.  And she also spoke of Abraham in the Bible.  She noted that Abraham was asked by God to do a hard thing – to offer up his son, Isaac.  Elisabeth points out that the Bible never says, “Abraham struggled.”  He just rose early in the morning and did what God asked.  As she stated:

“Sometimes ‘struggling’ is a nice word for postponed obedience.”

Abraham has come up many times since then in my personal Bible study.  Here are some of the things that I’ve learned:

1.       Abraham was characterized by immediate obedience, whether or not he fully understood.

a.       Genesis 12:  God asked Abraham to “leave your country, your people, and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.” 

                                                               i.      Umm…where?  I would want a little more direction. 

                                                             ii.      But verse 4 says, “So, Abram left…”

b.      Genesis 17:  God asked Abraham to circumcise the males in his household as a sign of the covenant between them.

                                                               i.      Umm…ow?  There was no mistaking this command.  I might have wanted to postpone something painful like this.

                                                             ii.      But verse 23 says, “On that very day Abraham…circumcised them, as God had told him.” 

c.       Genesis 22:  God tested Abraham by asking him to sacrifice his son.  His promised son.  The one he had waited for.

                                                               i.      Umm...seriously?  After waiting YEARS for that promise to be fulfilled?

                                                             ii.      But verse 3 says, “Early the next morning, Abraham got up and saddled his donkey…”

2.       The process of obedience purified Abraham’s faith.

a.       Abraham wasn’t perfect.  He messed up royally, like many people in the Bible.  But when God told him that He would do something, Abraham believed.  He even believed that the sacrifice of his son would not stop God from fulfilling His promises (Hebrews 11:17-19).

b.      A.W. Tozer had another take on this story in his book, The Pursuit of God, “…God let the suffering old man [Abraham] go through with it [sacrificing Isaac] up to the point where he knew there would be no retreat, and then forbade him to lay a hand on the boy.  To the wondering patriarch he now says in effect, ‘It’s alright Abraham.  I never intended that you should actually slay the lad.  I only wanted to remove him from the temple of your heart that I might reign unchallenged there.  I wanted to correct the perversion that existed in your love…’”

c.       God used tests to “sift” Abraham’s heart and show Abraham what was most important.  Those tests helped him correct what was wrong in his loves.  And after the test on the mountain, Abraham wasn’t bitter at God.  He was thankful, and called the mountain “The Lord Will Provide.”

From Kevin DeYoung

A friend of mine (thanks, Jen!) lent me a book called Just Do Something by Kevin DeYoung.  It’s great.  Here are some of my favorite quotes:

• “Obsessing over the future is not how God wants us to live, because showing us the future is not God’s way.  His way is to speak to us in the Scriptures and transform us by the renewing of our minds.  His way is not a crystal ball.  His way is wisdom…We should start looking to God – His character and His promises – and thereby have confidence to take risks for His name’s sake” (p. 41).
• “Wisdom is the difference between knowing a world-class biologist who can write your papers for you and studying under a world-class biologist so that you can write the kind of papers he would write.  Too many of us want God to be the world-class scholar who will write our papers and live our lives for us, when God wants us to sit at His feet and read His word so that we can live a life in the image of His Son.  God doesn’t tell us the future for this simple, yet profound reason:  We become what we behold.  God wants us to behold Him in His glory so that we can be transformed into His likeness (2 Corinthians 3:18).  If God figured out everything for us, we wouldn’t need to focus on Him and learn to delight in His glory.  God says, ‘I’m not giving you a crystal ball.  I’m giving you my Word.  Meditate on it; see Me in it; and become like Me” (p. 93-94).

From Rex Trogdon

And just yesterday, as I was biking at the gym, I read from Rex Trogdon’s book, He Touched Me.  It seemed to pull everything together I’d been learning the past few weeks.

“Now, wait just a minute, you say.  You mean God’s will is more about how I live than where I live?  That is right.  God’s will guarantees us the best plan for our lives:

• Eternally – Salvation (John 1:13, 1 Timothy 2:3-4, 2 Peter 3:9)
• Outwardly – Sanctification (1 Thess 4:3) and how to suffer – for doing good and not evil (1 Peter 3:17)
• Inwardly – Thanksgiving (1 Thess 5:16-18)

…Do you want to know God’s will for your life?  You’ll find it in God’s word” (p.34-36).

Conclusion?

As I mentioned before, I will doubtless encounter the question of “What is God’s will?” again in my life.  I will either be asked for advice on it or have to process through it myself in a decision.

But as I knew before, God has some very specific things in His Word, the Bible, in which He asks me to be obedient. 

And then, there are things He doesn’t address in His Word.  Like…what college to go to, who to marry, what job to have, and where to live. 

For those “non-moral” decisions, God has reminded me that the best thing I can do is spend time with Him.  Read His Word.  Pray. 

And as I become more like Him because I have spent so much time “beholding Him”, I can step out and do something without second guessing my every move.  (and not end up like the fictional Walter Houston. J)

Isn’t it refreshing to know that God’s will is not as complicated as we make it? 

Let’s just spend time with Him.