Lions Gone Mad!

To me, Monday mornings are a time for sleeping in, lazing around, and easing into a new week.  Not so today, as evidenced by the following entry I just penned.  Enter the world of my waking thoughts turned to prayer.

Horrible, horrible dream!  Lions gone mad.  Lions everywhere.  In our neighborhood.  On our walking paths.  In our yards.  In our own homes!  Hunting.  Stalking.  Attacking … us!  Screams everywhere.  Corpses of dear ones dragged away where they are suffocated, ripped apart, eaten.

I awoke, glad for my safety, my bed, my blankets, my wife breathing deeply next to me, my dog doing the same next to out bed.

Poor Trinity (the name of our three-legged boxer).  She would be an early victim in the lion apocalypse.  Heart and disposition to defend herself and her people, yet unable to do so long or effectively because of her disadvantage.  Strange how frequently I am moved to melancholy, almost mourning, thinking of her dying – but that’s another tale.  She would tragically be such easy prey.

Easy prey the weak and defenseless.  Like children.  Children.  Grandchildren.

O dear God!

⁸ Be serious!  Be alert!  Your adversary the Devil is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour (1 Peter 5:8).

Lions!  Lions everywhere!

“5:22 AM.  Relax.  Pull the covers up.  Adjust the pillow.  Get comfortable.  Go back to sleep,” he purred.

The foe purrs, and my heart shakes.  Fool!  Lazy, self-centered, reckless, feckless fool!

She was right.  I used to rise early and often to plead for strength and wisdom.  Why do I no longer rise to my knees and fight so for my family?  Years now wasted away in a few more hours of slumber!

⁹ Resist him and be firm in the faith, … (1 Peter 5:9a).

Father, forgive me!  Jesus, what a poor clanging noise bucket I have been.  My own children have been hunted.  My son.  My daughter.  They are dragged off while I opine oh so reverently!

Who will resist him?  Who will pray?  Who will battle?  Who will protect Evangeline and Judah?  Who will be engaged for our children and our grandchildren’s sakes?

This is our call!  This is our place!  This is our post, beloved!

Lions everywhere!  Where are the warriors?  Where are the guardians? the protectors armed and armored in battle attire and arrayed on their knees?

⁹ Resist him and be firm in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are being experienced by your fellow believers throughout the world (1 Peter 5:9).

In the Lake Moraine subdivision.  In Brighton and Hartland and Howell and Highland and Holly.  In Detroit and Ann Arbor.  In Windsor and Washington.  In Canada and Mexico.  In Europe and Asia.  In Myanmar – Yangon, Theinzeik, Thaton, Mawlamyine.

Late and weak and ashamed I come, Lord.  Forgive my ignorance and insolence.  Protect and preserve Your people.  We are too frail.  So easily distracted and divided.  Such easy prey.

Spirit of God, open the eyes of my heart – of our hearts – and grant that we may hear the lions’ roars.  Then, rather than quake or panic or pull the covers over our heads, move us to mercy and to resolve to pray for our children, for one another and with one another.

¹⁰ Now the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ Jesus, will personally restore, establish, strengthen, and support you after you have suffered a little.  ¹¹ The dominion belongs to Him forever.  Amen (1 Peter 5:10-11).

Father, restore in me a right spirit, a clear vision, a soldier’s integrity and purpose and resolve, a servant’s heart and constitution – like that of my Lord.

Establish, strengthen, and support us, Spirit of the living God.  Grant that we – Donna and I, our family, our faith family – would see again what really matters and what is truly at stake. 

What did Jesus do when Satan sought to sift Simon Peter like wheat?  Jesus prayed for His man.  Can we do any less for one another and especially for the most vulnerable among us when we perceive the dragon lurking at the gates?  Dear God, move us to march out and on together on our knees!  (I’m looking at you HCC).

If it must be, stir us from our sleep even with the terrible howl of the predator and the desperate screams of his victims.

Lord Jesus, save and keep safe our children our grandchildren, our brothers and sisters, our neighbors, and the nations!

Thank You!  Thank You for sounding alarms in my spirit while I yet have breath to do something about it.

Thank You for Your personal commitment and investment to accomplish Your purpose in, through, and for us.

Make Your church, Lord Jesus, a window to the world, a station where we are increasingly more bound together by Your heart than by our whims, and an instrument made ever more useful in Your work to populate Heaven with our family and friends, with our neighbors and the nations.

-->

Soli Deo Gloria!

My Words, My Heart

In a talk with a dear brother today, a thought dawned on me.  Think about the words we us –  not the words we necessarily plan to use but those that routinely pop up in our conversations or slip out in our confrontations.  What if those spontaneous words reveal the deep waters of our heart?  Jesus Christ says:

⁴⁵ The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of his heart his mouth speaks (Luke 6:45, ESV).

Get that?  Whatever is in our heart finds its way out of our mouth.  So, what are the words that cover the landscape of your speech?  You might want to ask a friend or family member to join you in a word inventory.  Begin to take note of the words or phrases you repeat often.  They say something about your inner being.

A few years back, my wife caught herself finishing many of her sentences with the phrase “Does that make sense?”  We talked about it, and she concluded that perhaps she was operating from a base of insecurity, at least in her ability to communicate clearly.  Her words revealed an issue in her heart, an issue she translated into a desire to find security in God’s love and His promises.

Here are some words or phrases some of my friends repeat often, almost assuredly without any deliberation:

“I am afraid that …”
“I worry about …”
“I am so glad …”
“This is so exciting!”

What might their words tell us about their hearts?

“I am afraid that …”   à        They have a fearful heart.
“I worry about …”       à        They have an anxious heart.
“I am so glad …”         à        They have a thankful heart.
“This is so exciting!”   à        They have a joyful heart.

If the words that escape my lips flow from what fills my heart, what then do my words reveal about my heart?

Father, fill my heart with Your love so that my words overflow with praise and thanksgiving.  Fill my heart with confidence and assurance and faith so that my words are words of life inspiring my family and friends to hope and trust in You.  Fill my heart with truth and purpose so that my words are direct and honest.  As the psalmist sings:

¹⁴ Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
    be acceptable in Your sight,
    O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer (Psalm 19:14, ESV).

On Hearing and Belonging ... or Not

Our Lord, our Savior, our Shepherd says: "He who belongs to God hears what God says" (John 8:47a).  I like that.  I like that because I like to think I always hear God clearly; therefore, I must belong to Him. 

Well, like all sheep, sometimes I wander a bit too far from the Shepherd’s voice.   Still, despite my tendencies to stray, I am overwhelmed by the love and grace and mercy of God that He continues to speak and to draw me to Himself.   How amazing that even when I fail to listen for a night or a season, if I will repent and be still, I can hear Father calling me back to Himself.  That’s how I know not only that I belong to Him, but also, that He loves me with an everlasting love.  I am crazy glad that God still speaks by the Lord Holy Spirit through Scripture, prayer, His church, and my circumstances to reveal Himself, His purposes, and His ways.

Jesus follows up that sweet word of life, "He who belongs to God hears what God says," with this candid warning: “The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God” (John 8:47b).  This is a dire but much needed word.  The stakes could not be higher.  If we do not hear God, it is because we do not belong to Him.  One very real danger here is that we can actually begin to think it is normal not to hear God speak and weird for anyone to claim they do hear Him.

My heart has been especially burdened of late for some precious friends who love God, who long to know Him more intimately, and who live to make Him known more intentionally, but who have recently discovered their passions are not reflected or even shared by a substantial number of their own church family.  I am convinced the root issue dividing that local body is a shallow view of the kind of love relationship God wants to share with each and every one of His children.  Consider this observation from Henry Blackaby:

… We can trust more in our plans and in our reasoning abilities than in God.  We may be able to achieve all of our goals and yet be far from God’s will.  Planning is a tool God may lead you to use, but it must never become a substitute for trusting Him.  …

This can be honestly said of many “good” things we all-too-easily substitute for the “great” thing.  Planning, logic, structure, common sense, keeping the peace or maintaining status quo at the expense of allowing God to interrupt our plans to call us to trust Him … It just occurred to me that there is no such thing as an authentic love relationship with God that does not include us deepening our dependence upon Him.  If we can do anything in our lives or with brothers and sisters in Christ that does not call us to trust Him more, the likelihood is that is an activity that would wrestle us out of His arms like restless infants crawling away from their parents embrace.

Blackaby continues:

Your relationship with God is far more important to Him than any planning your will ever do.  … God want us to follow Him daily, not just follow a plan.  …  God created us for an eternal love relationship.  Life is our opportunity to experience Him at work (Experiencing God, Unit 5, Day 3).

What do we do when we find ourselves butting heads with people who claim to belong to God but whose lives do not give immediate evidence that they are actually hearing His voice, truly and wholeheartedly trusting His ways, and finding complete satisfaction in the knowledge and affirmation of His love for us?  

1.     Pray for ourselves that we are pure and honest and humble.

2.     Pray for those folks from whom we justifiably expect partnership but receive disdain. 

-->

If they, or we, are not hearing from God, then Jesus Christ asserts, they, or we, do not belong to Him.  I cannot think of a more treacherous and horrible state than that!