I surrender all to the promises you made,
Because I believe in you.
I believe that life with you is better than any possible life without you.
Because I have seen that you fulfill your promises.
You fulfill them abundantly.
I surrender all to the promises you made,
Because your promises fulfill all my needs.
You promise yourself.
That is what I need.
That is what I long for.
My hope is in you.
If you fail me, I am lost.
If you fail me, I will tear myself apart.
I need you.
However, you will never fail me.
You are you.
You are what I need.
You cannot fail me.
I love you. I love you.
Dear God, I love you.
I surrender.
I surrender all to you.
I love you.
Monday, October 5, 2009
Streaming Up
Yesterday, I was with a youth group here in Japan and the message was about Isaiah chapter 2. In chapter two, it talks about the mountain of the Lord’s temple being raised above the hills and becoming the chief mountain. Then it talks about the nations streaming to it.
The image was fascinating to me. The nations are streaming up to the mountain of the Lord’s temple. They are streaming up. Most of the streams that I have come across stream down. Water follows gravity downhill. Rivulets, streams, and rivers flow downhill. However, the nations will flow up to the Lord’s temple in the last days.
Sometimes our marketers think that they need to appeal to our baseness in order to attract us. So they appeal to our greed or our broken sense of sexuality or our insecurities in order to sell their products. Then their competitors find ways to do that even better. The spiral continues to work its way downhill as tactics become more and more desperate and disgusting. However, the world says that sex sells, consumerism sells, and, if you do not want to be left behind, you do what it takes.
But, the stream of those who follow Jesus has always flowed the opposite direction. The Lord’s temple will be on a mountain. You have to take an uphill path to get there. It is not the path of least resistance. Yet, the nations will stream up to it. Fascinating.
It will be on a mountain. It will be easy to see. People will not have to worry about losing the path on their way to the temple of the Lord in the last days. It will be right there. They will be able to see it. It reminds me of what Jesus said about being lifted up and drawing all men to Him. The nations stream up. The nations stream up.
That will be a beautiful day.
The image was fascinating to me. The nations are streaming up to the mountain of the Lord’s temple. They are streaming up. Most of the streams that I have come across stream down. Water follows gravity downhill. Rivulets, streams, and rivers flow downhill. However, the nations will flow up to the Lord’s temple in the last days.
Sometimes our marketers think that they need to appeal to our baseness in order to attract us. So they appeal to our greed or our broken sense of sexuality or our insecurities in order to sell their products. Then their competitors find ways to do that even better. The spiral continues to work its way downhill as tactics become more and more desperate and disgusting. However, the world says that sex sells, consumerism sells, and, if you do not want to be left behind, you do what it takes.
But, the stream of those who follow Jesus has always flowed the opposite direction. The Lord’s temple will be on a mountain. You have to take an uphill path to get there. It is not the path of least resistance. Yet, the nations will stream up to it. Fascinating.
It will be on a mountain. It will be easy to see. People will not have to worry about losing the path on their way to the temple of the Lord in the last days. It will be right there. They will be able to see it. It reminds me of what Jesus said about being lifted up and drawing all men to Him. The nations stream up. The nations stream up.
That will be a beautiful day.
Respect the Train Culture and Eat Your Rice
I wrote these suggestions to my family members that are coming to Japan for the wedding:
1. Enjoy.
2. Relax. Things do not work the way you expect them to. Things do not have to work the way you expect them to. Different is not bad.
3. Do not get angry. Showing anger is a quick way to break a relationship here. Relax. Enjoy.
4. Respect the train culture. Things work differently on trains here than they do inside our cars. People try not to draw attention to themselves on the train. Listen. Watch what people do around you.
5. Observe. Learn. Absorb. This will probably be the reality that my children spend much of their life in. You only have a week, but the more you understand, the easier it will be to relate to them. I want you to be able to relate to them well.
6. Ask questions. There is much here that you will not be able to see and understand. You will have to ask. Ask the questions that seem like stupid ones. You won't know unless you ask.
7. Smile. You communicate alot with a smile.
8. Be yourself. Relax. Enjoy. Observe. Ask questions. Smile.
9. Do not fear silence. You might feel like there is an awkward pause that you have to suddenly fill, but the Japanese do not fear interpersonal silence like we do. Silence does not mean someone is being cold and it does not mean you must say something. Relax. Enjoy the silence. Then ask your question.
10. Eat your rice. If you do not finish everything else, but you finish your rice, you will have been respectful. It will not be terrible if you do not finish, but it is very good if you do eat all your rice down to the last grain. Parents tell their children here that the leftover grains represent the tears of the farmers who worked for a year to produce that rice. If you can not waste rice, don't. Even so, relax. Enjoy. Respect the trains. Do not fear the silence. Smile.
11. Try. You do not have to succeed. You do not have to do something you do not want to. However, try. You will feel better if you try.
12. Just be here with me. I have felt the lack of you for the past few months as I have gone through this process. Just be here with me. Try. Enjoy. Relax. Observe. Do not fear the silence. Eat your rice. Respect the trains. Smile. Ask questions. Do not get angry. Relax. Enjoy. Relax. Enjoy. And just be here with me. Just be here with me, because that means so much.
1. Enjoy.
2. Relax. Things do not work the way you expect them to. Things do not have to work the way you expect them to. Different is not bad.
3. Do not get angry. Showing anger is a quick way to break a relationship here. Relax. Enjoy.
4. Respect the train culture. Things work differently on trains here than they do inside our cars. People try not to draw attention to themselves on the train. Listen. Watch what people do around you.
5. Observe. Learn. Absorb. This will probably be the reality that my children spend much of their life in. You only have a week, but the more you understand, the easier it will be to relate to them. I want you to be able to relate to them well.
6. Ask questions. There is much here that you will not be able to see and understand. You will have to ask. Ask the questions that seem like stupid ones. You won't know unless you ask.
7. Smile. You communicate alot with a smile.
8. Be yourself. Relax. Enjoy. Observe. Ask questions. Smile.
9. Do not fear silence. You might feel like there is an awkward pause that you have to suddenly fill, but the Japanese do not fear interpersonal silence like we do. Silence does not mean someone is being cold and it does not mean you must say something. Relax. Enjoy the silence. Then ask your question.
10. Eat your rice. If you do not finish everything else, but you finish your rice, you will have been respectful. It will not be terrible if you do not finish, but it is very good if you do eat all your rice down to the last grain. Parents tell their children here that the leftover grains represent the tears of the farmers who worked for a year to produce that rice. If you can not waste rice, don't. Even so, relax. Enjoy. Respect the trains. Do not fear the silence. Smile.
11. Try. You do not have to succeed. You do not have to do something you do not want to. However, try. You will feel better if you try.
12. Just be here with me. I have felt the lack of you for the past few months as I have gone through this process. Just be here with me. Try. Enjoy. Relax. Observe. Do not fear the silence. Eat your rice. Respect the trains. Smile. Ask questions. Do not get angry. Relax. Enjoy. Relax. Enjoy. And just be here with me. Just be here with me, because that means so much.
Vows
There are some things in life that must begin with a vow.
There are things that you cannot know until you believe.
In a wedding, the bride stands at the back of the church and she has a choice. She can walk toward the groom and the commitment that awaits or she can walk away. She does not know what the future will hold. She does not know what the struggles and heartaches to come will be. She does not know what the joys will be either. She stands with a choice: walk toward or walk away.
Without that vow, she cannot demand that he love and cherish her with his whole being and he cannot demand that of her. He cannot love her like that until she allows him to love her like that. She cannot receive that love until she opens herself to it.
With a vow, both people must drop all their barriers and trust the other person. In marriage, one person commits to the other and depends on their partner to do the same. They bind themselves into the only situation where truly uninhibited love can exist: without knowing what that will be like. Their hope is their belief in the other person.
It is interesting that the Bible tells us that all life is preparation for a wedding. We all stand at the point of a choice to walk toward or away.
When I think about it like that, it is so easy to understand why it hurts God so much when we choose to walk away from Him.
Sometimes people demand that God show Himself to them so that they can know before they commit. But that demand seems so much like someone demanding a show of love from a person they do not love. How can we expect the God of the universe to enter into a love relationship with us when we do not trust Him and do not choose to enter from our side? We have to choose to walk toward. That is what it means to believe. That is what it means to trust.
However, God did show Himself to us. When humanity chose to walk away, God came running after His bride and opened His arms to her. Jesus came and showed us how far God would go to love us. He is the One who can love us best, and He wants us to know that love. Yet, we are the ones who have to trust Him. We have to turn around.
Hell is never knowing the Love for which you were made.
God loves us, that is so true; but the love of God will not force Heaven upon us.
Even if there was a perfect man for a woman, it would be wrong for him to force her to marry him. She has to walk toward him.
Some things must begin with a vow.
There are things that you cannot know until you believe.
In a wedding, the bride stands at the back of the church and she has a choice. She can walk toward the groom and the commitment that awaits or she can walk away. She does not know what the future will hold. She does not know what the struggles and heartaches to come will be. She does not know what the joys will be either. She stands with a choice: walk toward or walk away.
Without that vow, she cannot demand that he love and cherish her with his whole being and he cannot demand that of her. He cannot love her like that until she allows him to love her like that. She cannot receive that love until she opens herself to it.
With a vow, both people must drop all their barriers and trust the other person. In marriage, one person commits to the other and depends on their partner to do the same. They bind themselves into the only situation where truly uninhibited love can exist: without knowing what that will be like. Their hope is their belief in the other person.
It is interesting that the Bible tells us that all life is preparation for a wedding. We all stand at the point of a choice to walk toward or away.
When I think about it like that, it is so easy to understand why it hurts God so much when we choose to walk away from Him.
Sometimes people demand that God show Himself to them so that they can know before they commit. But that demand seems so much like someone demanding a show of love from a person they do not love. How can we expect the God of the universe to enter into a love relationship with us when we do not trust Him and do not choose to enter from our side? We have to choose to walk toward. That is what it means to believe. That is what it means to trust.
However, God did show Himself to us. When humanity chose to walk away, God came running after His bride and opened His arms to her. Jesus came and showed us how far God would go to love us. He is the One who can love us best, and He wants us to know that love. Yet, we are the ones who have to trust Him. We have to turn around.
Hell is never knowing the Love for which you were made.
God loves us, that is so true; but the love of God will not force Heaven upon us.
Even if there was a perfect man for a woman, it would be wrong for him to force her to marry him. She has to walk toward him.
Some things must begin with a vow.
Yet
It is amazing how much the landscape that we grew up with becomes imprinted on our memories.
There is something about the rolling hills and dark, little woods of Ohio that is burned into my being.
I was in the Japanese countryside, away from Tokyo, and I was reminded once again how much I miss that land.
I can try to love the countryside of Japan; I can try to enjoy the convenience of Tokyo.
But, it is like trying to love your aunt the same way that you love your mother.
It is not the same.
Something in my soul still expects to walk through a field and find a rusty barbed-wire fence on the edge of an overgrown forest.
Instead, I walk out into the rush people, the scraping concrete, the screeching train.
There is little in the city left to heal the soul.
So, when I happen upon a landscape that reminds me that all the world is not a man-made jumble
yet,
The thirsty man inside of me weeps as water softens his swollen tongue.
There is something about the rolling hills and dark, little woods of Ohio that is burned into my being.
I was in the Japanese countryside, away from Tokyo, and I was reminded once again how much I miss that land.
I can try to love the countryside of Japan; I can try to enjoy the convenience of Tokyo.
But, it is like trying to love your aunt the same way that you love your mother.
It is not the same.
Something in my soul still expects to walk through a field and find a rusty barbed-wire fence on the edge of an overgrown forest.
Instead, I walk out into the rush people, the scraping concrete, the screeching train.
There is little in the city left to heal the soul.
So, when I happen upon a landscape that reminds me that all the world is not a man-made jumble
yet,
The thirsty man inside of me weeps as water softens his swollen tongue.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Voice of God
I was watching a movie the other day and the main character was struggling with depression and the voices inside his head. I suppose we all know the type of voices he was dealing with, to one degree or another. These are the voices that say, “You are not good enough. You are nothing. You are worthless. Why are you even alive?” This is the voice of the internal monologue that walks hand in hand with our failures, our depression, and our lack of self-worth.
The movie made me ask, “How do we tell that voice from the voice of God?” Is what that voice is saying true? Sometimes it seems like people who give up on Christianity have only heard a voice that says, “You are guilty. You are guilty. You are a sinful worm. You shouldn’t do that. You shouldn’t have done that. What’s wrong with you? You are a mess.” They struggle and struggle under the burden of this voice and it steals all of their joy. There was a point in my life when I could not understand God any better than that. He was more like a great pagan idol in constant need of appeasement than the God of the Bible. However, if that is the way you view God, when you read the Bible it is hard to see anything besides this angry, crushing god.
Now, I would also be loathe to say that the voice of God is the other extreme. The voice of God is not the passive, permissive voice which some who would like to live with their life free of any moral check say that they believe. There is nothing weak or paltry about the voice of God. It is the voice that is speaks worlds into existence, that thunders from mountain tops and pillars of fire, a voice that people beg to stop hearing for fear that they will die. It is the voice that spoke through the prophets to condemn the wrong and bring people back to the right.
Sometimes the voice of God is as unavoidable as a natural disaster. Sometimes it comes to His prophets like a fire in their bones. There is something inescapable about it. At the same time, the voice of God sometimes comes like a still, small voice, like to Elijah; a whisper that reveals the presence of the divine. Whether it is a thundering voice or a small voice, there certainly seem to be many people in the Bible who ignore the voice of God. That much is obvious. Humanity has a knack for ignoring or deliberately disobeying the voice of God in whatever form it comes: spoken, written, incarnated.
So, is this voice that runs through our heads and says, “You are a guilty, worthless, sinful worm,” the voice of God that should be accepted? We are all sinners. We have all messed up in life. We have all ruined things to the point that we cannot fix them on our own. God does not want us to be in that mess. The Holy Spirit does point out sin in our lives. However, I think we can tell the voice of God by the ends.
God is not trying to destroy us. His voice is not trying to drive us to despair. Darth Vader is not God. For this I am very thankful. God is not a man with a black mask and a lightsaber standing over us ready to force-choke the life out of us every time we mess up.
If the voice says, “You are worthless,” then it is not the voice of God. You are so valuable to God.
If the voice says, “Maybe it would be better if you were dead. Why are you even alive?” then that is not the voice of God. God is not trying to drive you too despair. He knows why you are alive. He has purposes for your life. He gave you life for a reason.
If the voice is just an endless, crushing mantra of “Guilty,” after you have repented, that is not the voice of God. When we follow Jesus and ask for forgiveness, God throws our sins into the sea of forgetfulness and remembers them no more. That condemning voice is not His.
In Dr. Hamilton’s class on Jeremiah, we studied that passage in Jeremiah 3 and 4 where God is speaking about His people like a husband. Some people say that the way God is represented in the Old Testament is vindictive and blood-thirsty, but it is hard for me to see that when I read Jeremiah. Dr. Hamilton points out how many times in the passage the word for “return” is used in chapters 3 and 4. The picture in Jeremiah is of a husband who has been betrayed, not once, but many times. He has been cheated on in the worst possible way. He is past the point that many husbands would give up and be quite justified in giving up. What do we find the voice of God saying in the face of so much deliberate wrongdoing?
We find that the God of the entire universe is not too proud to beg. He is a husband pleading with the wife that He loves to come back to Him. “Return to me. Return to me. Return to me,” the voice of God pleads through Jeremiah. There are consequences to sin, there are consequences for doing evil, but God does not want to see us destroy ourselves. He does not want to see us come to ruin. The voice of God is pleading, “Return to me. Return to me. Return to me. I love you. Return to me. Please, return to me.”
When we return, we do not find Darth Vader. We find the Father running toward us with His arms open wide, interrupting us in the middle of our confession to talk about celebration preparations. We find joy. We find guidance. We find strength and hope. We find healing. Does the voice you hear say, “You are my beloved child. I love you”? Does it say, “Your sins are forgiven. Go in peace”? Does the voice say, “Come, follow me”?
I fear that there are many people who have mistaken a voice that only crushes and condemns for the voice of God. When God speaks, the goal is not destruction, the goal is healing. Even when a prophet like Jonah enters the city of Nineveh and tells them they will be destroyed in 40 days without giving them any hope of reprieve, God is more than willing to forgive the people when they turn to Him. God does not desire destruction. He wants us to turn to Him so He can heal us.
“Return to me. Return to me. I love you.”
“‘If you will return, O Israel, return to me,’ declares the Lord.” Jeremiah 4:1a (NIV)
The movie made me ask, “How do we tell that voice from the voice of God?” Is what that voice is saying true? Sometimes it seems like people who give up on Christianity have only heard a voice that says, “You are guilty. You are guilty. You are a sinful worm. You shouldn’t do that. You shouldn’t have done that. What’s wrong with you? You are a mess.” They struggle and struggle under the burden of this voice and it steals all of their joy. There was a point in my life when I could not understand God any better than that. He was more like a great pagan idol in constant need of appeasement than the God of the Bible. However, if that is the way you view God, when you read the Bible it is hard to see anything besides this angry, crushing god.
Now, I would also be loathe to say that the voice of God is the other extreme. The voice of God is not the passive, permissive voice which some who would like to live with their life free of any moral check say that they believe. There is nothing weak or paltry about the voice of God. It is the voice that is speaks worlds into existence, that thunders from mountain tops and pillars of fire, a voice that people beg to stop hearing for fear that they will die. It is the voice that spoke through the prophets to condemn the wrong and bring people back to the right.
Sometimes the voice of God is as unavoidable as a natural disaster. Sometimes it comes to His prophets like a fire in their bones. There is something inescapable about it. At the same time, the voice of God sometimes comes like a still, small voice, like to Elijah; a whisper that reveals the presence of the divine. Whether it is a thundering voice or a small voice, there certainly seem to be many people in the Bible who ignore the voice of God. That much is obvious. Humanity has a knack for ignoring or deliberately disobeying the voice of God in whatever form it comes: spoken, written, incarnated.
So, is this voice that runs through our heads and says, “You are a guilty, worthless, sinful worm,” the voice of God that should be accepted? We are all sinners. We have all messed up in life. We have all ruined things to the point that we cannot fix them on our own. God does not want us to be in that mess. The Holy Spirit does point out sin in our lives. However, I think we can tell the voice of God by the ends.
God is not trying to destroy us. His voice is not trying to drive us to despair. Darth Vader is not God. For this I am very thankful. God is not a man with a black mask and a lightsaber standing over us ready to force-choke the life out of us every time we mess up.
If the voice says, “You are worthless,” then it is not the voice of God. You are so valuable to God.
If the voice says, “Maybe it would be better if you were dead. Why are you even alive?” then that is not the voice of God. God is not trying to drive you too despair. He knows why you are alive. He has purposes for your life. He gave you life for a reason.
If the voice is just an endless, crushing mantra of “Guilty,” after you have repented, that is not the voice of God. When we follow Jesus and ask for forgiveness, God throws our sins into the sea of forgetfulness and remembers them no more. That condemning voice is not His.
In Dr. Hamilton’s class on Jeremiah, we studied that passage in Jeremiah 3 and 4 where God is speaking about His people like a husband. Some people say that the way God is represented in the Old Testament is vindictive and blood-thirsty, but it is hard for me to see that when I read Jeremiah. Dr. Hamilton points out how many times in the passage the word for “return” is used in chapters 3 and 4. The picture in Jeremiah is of a husband who has been betrayed, not once, but many times. He has been cheated on in the worst possible way. He is past the point that many husbands would give up and be quite justified in giving up. What do we find the voice of God saying in the face of so much deliberate wrongdoing?
We find that the God of the entire universe is not too proud to beg. He is a husband pleading with the wife that He loves to come back to Him. “Return to me. Return to me. Return to me,” the voice of God pleads through Jeremiah. There are consequences to sin, there are consequences for doing evil, but God does not want to see us destroy ourselves. He does not want to see us come to ruin. The voice of God is pleading, “Return to me. Return to me. Return to me. I love you. Return to me. Please, return to me.”
When we return, we do not find Darth Vader. We find the Father running toward us with His arms open wide, interrupting us in the middle of our confession to talk about celebration preparations. We find joy. We find guidance. We find strength and hope. We find healing. Does the voice you hear say, “You are my beloved child. I love you”? Does it say, “Your sins are forgiven. Go in peace”? Does the voice say, “Come, follow me”?
I fear that there are many people who have mistaken a voice that only crushes and condemns for the voice of God. When God speaks, the goal is not destruction, the goal is healing. Even when a prophet like Jonah enters the city of Nineveh and tells them they will be destroyed in 40 days without giving them any hope of reprieve, God is more than willing to forgive the people when they turn to Him. God does not desire destruction. He wants us to turn to Him so He can heal us.
“Return to me. Return to me. I love you.”
“‘If you will return, O Israel, return to me,’ declares the Lord.” Jeremiah 4:1a (NIV)
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