Loving People On a Not-So-Lonely Mountain

 I hear crickets. Dogs call to each other across the ridges. A turkey gobbles off in the distance. The huge leaves of the banana tree my hammock is perched in on the side of this mountain rustle with the never ending breeze. After a scorching week in the sun the coolness of the continuous flow of wind borders on miraculous. It has been a week of weeks. Our team has been outstanding. They work and play with an energetic tenacity on par with their vivacious faith. Grace drips from these people like the sweat they have shed for seven days.

We have been to school after school playing with kids, performing skits, praying, speaking, loving. We have visited small churches, in the remote places of the Guatemalan Mountains where our people have preached the love of Jesus. We have given away food. We have built a wall. We have built a road. We've been busy. It's been good.

Busy and good are not always words I like to put together—but accomplishing the work, sharing the good news, and serving my friend Greg's ministry are both. Because busy can be good when it is purpose driven.

As I lay in my hammock staring out across the expanse of darkness at the closest ridge I can see the humble twinkle of distant village homes. The places that house the beautiful people of Guatemala.

I can rest full of faith in the one who sent us. I can sleep soundly satisfied in our pursuit of purpose. I never enjoy leaving my family behind—and under different circumstances would probably bring them—but even in my homesickness I can rest in the peace of God.

In Matthew 5:14-16 Jesus declares his followers to be as a shining city on a far dark night. That's our job. To take hope with us. We partner with powerful people of God in needed places. We are Gondor in the midst of Mordor. We are beacons among burdens—and bonfires among chilling darkness.

I have burned in my heart the desire to go to far places and far people because, as A.W. Tozer penned, "if my fire is not large it is yet real, and there may be those who can light their candle at its flame."

Easy & Light

  

I was thinking about this passage today during my time alone with God.

For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. (Matthew 11:30)

A yoke is still a yoke. A yoke is used for something. It has purpose. It's for accomplishing an end. Jesus never said it would for real be easy. It is necessary. It's work. Doing stuff takes stuff. The yoke was made for doing stuff. 

We read Matt 11:30 and think that means it should be a walk in the park but then we forget that all of his disciples were martyred. Even John had multiple attempts made on his life. The kind of easy Jesus was speaking of was altogether different than the connotation of the word we drag up in our comfortable 21st century minds.

Paul talked about being a slave to Christ. It's hard sometimes. And ministry life can be really hard at times—but it beats the hell (literally) out of the alternative.

To live is Christ, to die is gain. (Philippians 1:21) 

Paul said that too. 

A burden is still a burden. There's a big difference in the burden that Jesus brings and the one sin brings. Jesus brings a burden of peace, compassion, kindness, forgiveness, love, understanding, consideration, and justice—all wrapped in grace. Sin brings a burden of brokenness, wretchedness, insecurity, deception, blindness, stubbornness, and fear—all wrapped in death.

The burden Jesus brings is a burden. But it's light.

It is easy to carry in respect to the death that is the alternative. The yoke is light but it is a yoke. It is quite simply a great relief to your soul in regards to the death that is available should you choose to shackle yourself to a yoke of your own making.

Jesus is better. Believe it. 

December 11 - Approved Persecution

Acts 12:1-5

About that time Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church. (Acts 12:1 ESV)

James was John's brother. He was one of the first disciples. He was also one of the first martyrs.

Herod arrested a few leaders from the young church. He saw how it pleased the jealous Jews and so he smelled blood in the water. He began a campaign of terror against the Christians, seeking to gain approval from the countrymen that had shunned his family's rule for so long.

It had little to do with beliefs. It wasn't about money, not for Herod. It was about popularity. It was about political power.

The wheels of opinion have long since shifted in America. Once secularist ideas have become commonly held world views. Things that shocked and stunned a few decades ago, are now embraced, promoted, and legitimized. As this trend continues there may come a day, some would argue that it is already here, when Christians are outright persecuted. It may happen simply so a politician can gain, or keep, the spotlight.

The possibility of persecution will not thwart the authentic followers of Jesus. It will instead galvanize the Bride of Christ to shine with the true love of Jesus. It will shine bright. It will draw people away from darkness and into the family of God.

July 12 - Seeing Jesus

Matthew 20:29-34

They said to him, "Lord, let our eyes be opened." (Matthew 20:33 ESV)

The two blind men sat on the roadside, probably much like they always did, and heard the crowd stirring. Jesus was passing by. They had heard about Jesus. He was the miracle worker. The guy who had been causing such a big stir with his healings and controversial teachings.

The blind men began to call out to Jesus. The crowd tried to deter them and silence them, but they would not be quieted. They cried out all the louder. And, Jesus took notice. He stopped. He asked what they wanted. They answered. And he aHealed them.

Now, imagine you were one of those guys. The first sight that you had perhaps ever seen was the image if the one that had enough mercy to reach down and touch you and heal. The first face you would eve know. The first bit of light to ever penetrate your world of perpetual darkness was that of Christ Jesus.

Much in the way the miraculous healing changed their physical blindness it changed their spiritual blindness as well. From that day forward they followed Jesus. Jesus does the same for us as well. He opens our souls to see him clearly. He opens our hearts to love clearly. He opens up our strength so that we can serve fully. He takes us from a world of broken darkness and despair and interrupts it with his wonderfully marvelous light. And it all starts by seeing, truly seeing, who he is. It all starts by seeing Jesus.

February 17 - Shine

Read: Isaiah 9:1-7 & Matthew 4:12-17

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined. (Isaiah 9:2 ESV)

Early in his ministry Jesus's cousin John was arrested for boldly declaring King Herod as a sinful ruler. Shortly after Jesus left his hometown of Nazareth and made his way to Capernaum, a place which would become his headquarters for much of his ministry. It had been prophesied hundreds of years prior by Isaiah. The messiah would be for all people. He would shine as a light into darkness.

For the Christian, Christ has exposed our inner darkness and returned us to a place of restoration and salvation in him. For the unbeliever that has yet to happen, but Jesus still illuminates. He still points us to our need for him. Because in truth we do all need him.

As a believer what do you do with the light of Christ? Do you allow Jesus to shine through you? Do you allow him to work in and through you in a way that illuminates our deep need for him?

It's not always easy. The darkness is no fan of the light. But it is necessary. We are all people who walk in darkness without Christ. In Christ, we are to shine a light which is the hope for the world.

February 13 - The Light

Read: John 1:6-13

The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. (John 1:9 ESV)

Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were all inspired by the Holy Spirit to record the events of Christ's life, and each account bears its own uniqueness. However, John's gospel stands among them as being distinct in content, not because it is contradictory, but because its author had a special perspective about Christ.

When John wrote about Jesus he regularly used the word Light. It is a fantastic use of scriptural imagery. Jesus came to illuminate sin, to expose evil, and to dispel darkness. He is the Light. John's knowledge of this light was not merely academic or theological, it was personal.

What about you? What is your knowledge of the Light? Has Jesus worked in your life to illuminate the things that don't belong. Has he exposed the secret hurts that maybe you suppressed, ignored, or forgot about? He can. He does. He will. It's what he came to do.

January 21 - Way of Peace

Read: Luke 1:67-79 because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace." (Luke 1:78, 79 ESV)

At the birth of John Zechariah lifted up a beautiful song of prophetic worship. This was not merely the jubilant singing of an elated new father, this was a demonstrative work of the Holy Spirit in the elderly priest's life. He boldly and worshipfully declared the calling John would fulfill as the forerunner to Jesus. Look at what this devout man declared about our savior.

Because of the tender mercy of our God... Jesus was sent because of God's mercy. The sunrise shall visit us from on high... Where Jesus goes there is warmth, light, and life, not because he showers us in material things but because he gives light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. Only Jesus gives light and life to those lost to darkness. Only Jesus rescues from the clutches of death's shadowy embrace.

He came to guide our feet into the way of peace because without Jesus there is no peace. We may live lives free of obvious conflict, but without him there is no true peace to be had. There is no eternal overcoming of the great conflict of our soul. He brings resolution, restoration, and redemption.

January 2 - The First Gospel

Read: Genesis 3 and Galatians 4

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel." (Genesis 3:15 ESV)

In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba! Father! So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. (Galatians 4:3-7 ESV)

Adam and Eve's sin brought a curse upon creation, and in that moment God revealed to them a promise for the future Messiah, Jesus. 4,000 years before the birth of Christ he was promised to come and bring about an eternal victory over the schemes of the enemy.

There is great comfort for the soul in knowing that a life lived with, by, through, and in Jesus is free from the slaving sin of this fallen world. All of us have sinned. All of us have missed the mark. But Jesus came in the fullness of time to set it right. To make us right. To restore, to seek, and to save all that had been lost.

Placing your faith in Jesus means placing your faith in the God who knows your tomorrow, forgives your yesterday, and abides in your today.

January 1 - In the Beginning

Read: Genesis 1 and John 1

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:1-5, 14 ESV)

Everything starts at the beginning. Everything except God. Both Genesis and John's Gospel speak of beginnings, not because God has a beginning, but because at the beginning of human history God was already there. Jesus was there. As you start this new year, this new beginning, resolve to live a life that follows where Jesus has already been. He was before our beginnings.

Not only was Jesus there before, but he was present during our creation. And in time when the created needed the intervention of the Creator to right our wrongs it was Jesus, God the Son, who stepped from eternity into history to shine his eternal light upon a dark world. No darkness of this life can swallow, stifle, or dispel the Light of Christ.

As creation was birthed by the Word of God, from within the grace of God came the Son of God to light the way for you and for me. Resolve this year to draw closer to the Living Word, the Light of the World, the Son of God. Let your resolution be to spend a year with Jesus.

The Missing: Light

In the years before laptops, e-readers, and iDevices dominated my technological library, reading most often required possessing actual physical books. I would lie in bed at night snuggled deep in my blankets, with my lamp on, book in hand, consuming the paragraphs, pages, and principles being communicated through the written word. My wife and I are completely different when it comes to our lighting and lamp preferences. I would always point the lamp above my head so that the light might reflect off of the wall and illuminate the object of my concentration, whereas Jamie prefered the light to shine directly on whatever she was reading. Recently we decided to rearrange our bedroom to accommodate the impending birth of our firstborn son. A result of this new arrangement is that my side of the bed is now right next to a window. A window covered by a curtain. A window covered by a curtain that doesn't reflect light very well. I found this out firsthand tonight as I crawled into bed with an old book I've been revisiting. It was too hard to read in that light, and considering earlier in the night I had spent a significant amount of time in the first chapter of the Gospel of John, thoughts of light were fresh on my heart and mind.

And it hit me. Not for the first time. That a lot of what we're missing in our "modern" worship gatherings is light. The Light. Capital L. The kind of Light that John writes so beautifully about in that first chapter. The same John which the authors of the other gospels label as the "disciple whom Jesus loved." The same John which wrote three incredible epistles. The same John God chose to author the Book of Revelations.

John, above every other human author of scripture is uniquely qualified to describe Christ as the Light. We know light as this miraculous wave of energy which radiates from a high energy source and reflects off of stuff, and is then interpreted by our eyes, and processed into what we see. John knew light as the Light. He knew him by name, Jesus, by the sound of his laugh, the heft of his handshake, and the depth of his incredible love for the wayward and marginalized. He witnessed his wisdom, marveled at his miracles, and basked in his presence. For us light is a description of electromagnetic energy whereby we see, but for John Light is a description of his friend, teacher, Savior, and God. We see via the reflection of light. John saw via the experience of Light.

I can't help but feel like a lot of what is going on in many churches today, or at the very least, many of the ones I have attended, is way too similar to me trying to read by the poor reflection of my little lamp shining upon the curtain. We need more of the Light, and less of our feebly manufactured substitute. We need to be a people of the Light, living in Light, shining forth the incredible love and truth of Christ to the darkness around us.

The best and easiest way for us to become that kind of people and for our churches to change into launching points for light bearers instead of bomb shelters where we attempt to hide from darkness, is for us to experience the Light for ourselves. Not a manipulative, crocodile tear inducing, guilt driven experience that happens around the front of a sanctuary after someone gives a stirring (or not so stirring) oration; but a day-by-day exposure to the absolute truth, person, power, and love of Christ. Miracles can happen in a moment, but disciples take time. John knew the Light because the Light was the Word and the Word became Flesh. John loved and lived in the context of Christian community with Christ.

We need a return to Christ-centered discipleship that offers a context of authentic Christian community. We need to see the Light of God, experience the light of God, and be the Light of God for those around us; anything less is unacceptable.