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.”