VOTD

Lonely in a Church – VOTD.03.28.17

Come to Me, all you who are weary and carrying heavy loads of grief and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you … and you will find rest for your souls. Matthew 11:28,29

Returning to the subject of victims of loneliness in a local church setting, we saw last time that ‘blaming the victim’ is a common ‘solution’ for loneliness. “Well, if they feel lonely they should just minister to others.” “They should volunteer for something” “They should just get over it.” Problem is, the lonely ones are often already doing those things—and it’s not working for them.

Blaming the victim is a familiar ‘solution’ to problems that are embarrassing to admit we have; after all, aren’t churches the place we tell people to come to get connected? A place where they can belong? A friendly place? As I studied the subject, it soon became apparent that if the lonely church-goer was going to be helped, it would be themselves, not others, doing the heavy lifting.

A couple of reasons for that: 1st, it’s the nature of any organization to appeal to the mainstream rather than beating the bushes to solve problems that don’t seem obvious or that are awkward to admit we have. But 2nd, study after study shows that Pastors and other church leaders are usually the loneliest people in the church. If our leaders knew how to help someone who was lonely in the congregation, they wouldn’t be lonely themselves.

So how do victims of loneliness help themselves? As usual, Jesus is the answer. Today’s verse tells us that it is Jesus who does the heavy-lifting, when we cast our cares upon Him (1 Pet 4:7). So how does a lonely person ‘cast’ their loneliness on Jesus? (more…)

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Lonely in a Crowd – VOTD.03.27.17

Do not be afraid. I will save you. I have called you by name—you are mine… For I am the Lord, your God… Do not be afraid, for you are precious to me and I love you and give you honor—I am with you!” Isaiah 43:2,3,4

A Facebook friend posted a secular article on loneliness on Facebook. The illustration at the top of the story showed a man sitting in a crowd with empty seats all around him. At first glance I thought it was a church service—a view from the platform which I have seen scads of times. A closer look told me this wasn’t a church service, but it could have been. The pain of not being connected relationally doesn’t stop at the church door.

Loneliness is a crowd is a very real condition. It’s a state of mind that comes from feelings of separation from other people. The sense of isolation is very deeply felt by those who are lonely. The Old Testament word “desolate” pretty much sums it up: “someone who is solitary, forsaken, wretched.”

There is no deeper sadness that ever comes over the mind than the idea that we are alone in the world, that we do not have a friend, that no one cares about us, that no one is concerned about anything that might happen to us. Mother Teresa described loneliness as the leprosy of the modern world. No one wants to chum up with someone who is lonely. (more…)

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Vision, Farsighted and Perceptive – VOTD.03.21.17

Record the vision and inscribe it on tablets, so that anyone can see it as they pass by. For the vision is yet for the appointed time; it hastens toward the goal and it will not fail. Though it seems slow in coming, wait for it; for it will certainly come, it will not delay.  Habakkuk 2:2,3

Some reading this series so far might think I’m leading up to setting goals and vision statements and so forth. Not at all. That ground has been well trodden over the past many years. When I speak of visions and purpose, I’m talking about something God gives us. A destination and a goal. Something ‘God lays on our hearts’ and gives us a passion for.

God gave King David a passion when he wrote his famous lines: “One thing I ask from the Lord” (Ps 27) and it’s often in the spiritual realm but not always. Nehemiah’s vision was to build a wall. What makes our visions Godly is that they come from God, Himself.

Godly vision consists of a farsightedness and perceptiveness that come from Him. Farsightedness vision allows us to know what is ahead like a telescope. It connects us to the future God has prepared for us. Foresight is the part of a God-given vision that can ‘taste’ the future and gives us the motivation to press on toward the goal God has placed before us (Phil 3:14). (more…)

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Vision, Purpose, Goals – VOTD.03.20.17

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you.  Ephesians 1:18
Where there is no vision, the people perish.  Proverbs 29:18

Vision is the bridge between our present and our future. Without it we perish, figuratively at least…Perhaps emotionally and even physically, too. When we’re without vision we spend our lives avoiding instead of engaging…avoiding risk, avoiding bother, avoiding discomfort.

That makes sense: If we’re not going anywhere, why deal with obstacles and irritations others face in order to get somewhere? (more…)

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Clean Honors Clean – VOTD.03.14.17

The voice spoke to him a second time, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.” Acts 10:15

You’re probably familiar with the story today’s verse comes from. Peter was about to be called to minister to some people who were “unclean” by his estimation, but he didn’t know it yet. To prepare Peter for this major paradigm shift, Jesus sent some animals to him in a vision—these animals were sinful to eat—and told him to eat them anyway. It says this happened 3 times and Peter rebuked the idea all 3 times.

Ahh—what to do when our personal ideas about people are stiffer than Jesus’. God knew what to do—how to prepare Peter for a giant leap into the infinite extent of His grace as it extended to people he considered “unclean”. He didn’t call Peter out, He simply led His ex-fishing buddy to a more complete understanding of the word “Clean”.

If we had even a glimpse of the extent Jesus went to make each of us clean, we might be easier on each other. If we could internalize today’s verse—don’t call impure what God has called clean.

Notice that the Centurion sinner and his family and friends had not even turned to Jesus yet. When Peter showed up at their house they bowed down and worshiped him. Apparently worshiping people was not outside their list of sins. Not great prospects for ministry. But Jesus had already declared them to be “clean”.

Among other things, that meant that all the shaming, guilting, dishonoring that Peter held toward them was missing the point. Jesus still loved them and wasn’t willing to see them miss out on knowing Him, Peter wrote later (2 Pet 3:9). (more…)

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Clean – VOTD.03.13.17

He was handed over to die because of our sins, and he was raised to life to make us right with God. Romans 4:25

Suppose you saw an ad for a laundry detergent that admitted that their product doesn’t get your clothes very clean and suggested the solution is for you not to get your clothes so dirty. However honest the commercial might be, how likely are you to buy that product?

What if instead of improving their product, they gave you a list of things you could do to prevent dirty clothes, like wearing a disposable bib when eating, using better antiperspirants. Wearing dark colors or keeping your children inside, etc.

Yet when it comes to dealing with the problem of sin and falling short of God’s glory, that is how some Christian teachings come across. It’s an example of what is called “blaming the victim”. As today’s verse tells us, that instead of blaming the victim, Jesus became our victim. Clearly, Jesus isn’t blaming the victim. (more…)

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Unity vs Peace – VOTD 03.07.17

Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. Ephesians 4:3

Last time we saw that rather than seeking unity, we should seek love, and then love will be the key to unity. The same thing is similar for peace. When unity becomes the goal, we may end up with some kind of ceasefire, but we will never find true unity (or even real peace).

Often we confuse peace and unity. Peace does not lead to unity; unity leads to peace. When we get this backwards we end up like a church I was a part of for many years. It thought it had unity because it carefully suppressed any problems rather than dealing with them. It ended up disintegrating over time because despite the appearance of peace and unity, the people had little binding them together.

Or another way we confuse peace and unity is when there is no freedom to disagree or have personal convictions. Many cult leaders see ‘no-disagreement’ as unity, so they invoke a no “boat-rocking” policy. You even see this in churches sometimes. They mistake no-visible-dissent for “unity”. To make sure there are no dissenters usually requires that they resort to hardline control-freak tactics. This is often the backdrop for all sorts of scandals and cover-ups, not real unity.

It is so tempting to pursue peace as a means of achieving unity because we mistakenly think unity and conformity are pretty much the same thing. If you and I are Christians and our understanding of unity is askew, then we will soon be pursuing conformity and at that point control/unquestioning submission become the tools of this kind of false unity. (more…)

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Unity vs. Love – VOTD 03.06.17

Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Colossians 3:13,14

I’ve watched churches and individuals struggle with the unity thing for most of my adult life. And I’ve watched the grapple to build unity. If I’ve learned one thing from all this observation, it’s that if our goal is unity, we’re doomed. But if our goal is love, unity will grow out of that.

The key to true unity is to make sure that unity isn’t the goal—love is the goal. So, rather than seeking unity, we should seek love, and then we can let love be the key to unity.

Love forgives when we are wronged. Love chooses to ignore differences of opinion. Love overlooks variations in behavior. When we truly love people, differing political opinions and theological persuasions become all part of the diversity of the Living Organism we call the Body of Christ, rather than opportunity for taking offense which leads to division and strife. (more…)

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Returning to Our First Love in 2017 pt 12 (final) – VOTD.02.28.17

Now therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in your sight, show me now your way, that I may know you, that I may find grace in your sight  Exodus 33:13

Have you ever read a Christian book on rekindling the spark of love in marriage? These books not only show how to diagnose the nature of marital problems, but also give specific, practical steps and activities to help correct the problems. All of this might be helpful, or it might be useless, depending on the readers and their problems.

The same goes for dieting books, exercise, and a myriad of other problem-fix books and programs out there. There is a market for a “simple formula” we can employ to fix our not-so-simple problems. That’s one of the reasons it’s difficult to give a one-size-fits all answer to solving the first-love dilemma.

I think this is what Jesus faced in writing to the Ephesians. He knew a 3-step process wasn’t going to be useful to them. So what does He do? He gives us some broad relationship-improvement ideas. (more…)

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Returning to Our First Love in 2017 pt 11 – VOTD.02.27.17

I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance… Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first. Revelation 2:2,4

Last time we saw that while we might be doing ‘Christian things’ if we are still the center of our vision—if we’re still the definer of our dreams and goals—we are going to waste a lot of time, energy and emotion shackled to fruitless pursuits. We superglue ourselves to futility. We build an insurmountable wall between ourselves and our first love.

That’s because we’re giving Jesus competition in our focus and that’s idolatry. You see, the kind of idol that sidetracks us doesn’t matter; it’s that Jesus isn’t at the bullseye of our vision. Picture an archery target with all its concentric circles and in the center is the bullseye. That target represents all that God is doing.

People who are really not pursuing God at all are shooting off the target completely and we’re not talking about them. We’re looking at people like the Ephesians who Jesus is talking to. Today’s verses show that they’re really doing well, but they’ve got to return to their first love.

So in our analogy, they’re at least hitting the target. Jesus is telling them, that hitting the outer circle will get them some satisfaction, the acclaim of their church-mates, but it’s not where they could be. It’s not where He’s calling them.

You see, the outer circles are what God is doing. But Jesus wants us to get back to the bullseye where we started.

For many of us, our hopes and dreams are in the outer circles. We want to see Jesus’ Kingdom come and we want to be part of it like the Ephesians were. We might want to lead the charge. This is the place where we want to be for a lot of reasons some goodish (look at the needs), some selfish (this where it’s exciting, flashy, and fun). But this is not where we started, in the bullseye. It’s not where we abide in a first-love experience. (more…)

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