Things are not always what they seem

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Have you ever felt as if no matter how much you prayed, hoped or trusted in God, He wasn't listening; or even worse - He wasn't going to get involved? It's frustrating when you pray and are doing your best to believe in God's willingness (and ability) to change your situation, but still see no changes taking place.

According to the Reuters News Service, in September 2004, David Page of Norfolk, England held onto a rusty piece of metal that he thought was a bomb for four hours. He was convinced that it was unexploded ordnance from WWII and would detonate if he let it go. He was working when he dug up the device. He immediately called the emergency operator on his mobile phone. She immediately dispatched fire, police and ambulance crews.

“The woman police operator kept saying it would be OK but he kept saying to her, ‘You’re not the one holding the bomb’." The father of five cried as he told her: “Tell my parents and the children that I love them if anything goes wrong.”

When the bomb disposal crew arrived, they told him his “bomb” was nothing more than part of the hydraulic suspension system of a Citroen car. Things are not always what they seem!

In Exodus 14, we find Pharaoh looking down on the Israelites. He had allowed them to leave because of the plagues, but now he was just plain mad! He thought he had them cornered, with their backs against the Red Sea… but things are not always what they seem!

In 1 Samuel 17, we see David facing off against Goliath. As Goliath looked down on this teenager, he mocked him. He thought he would quickly crush David… but things are not always what they seem!

In Luke 24, Satan thought he had Jesus conquered. He thought He had succeeded and God’s Messiah had failed… but things are not always what they seem!

In each of these stories, we find that people overestimated themselves and underestimated God. They weren’t smart enough to realize that God was working behind the scenes.

Perhaps you feel forgotten or overlooked. In 1 Samuel 16, David’s own father overlooked him. He thought David didn’t have the makings of a king, or seemingly of anything important, for that matter… but things are not always what they seem.

I’m sure the Israelites felt abandoned by God on the very night Jesus was born. That same night you could probably hear people singing songs of lament, hoping that God would remember His people. But things are not always what they seem. The Bible says,

“But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman…” – Galatians 4:4 (emphasis mine)

In January 2001 the small handful of teens at Rhema Bibel Gemeinde in Bonn, Germany prayed for a youth pastor. They asked God to send them someone. Since this was a new church plant, there wasn’t yet anyone to work with the youth. The teens later told me that many of them felt as if nothing happened when they prayed… but things aren’t always what they seem. One month later God told Robin & I to move to Germany to be the youth pastors at RBG Bonn.

God is not only willing, He is also well able to coordinate events and move people to bring His plan to pass. Let me encourage you not to give up on your prayers or your dreams. God is alive and well… and He is working behind the scenes. He is faithful. He can be trusted. We need to remember that just because we don’t see Him doing something doesn’t mean He is apathetic or uninvolved.

Tweet This: God is alive and well. He is working behind the scenes. #faithful #trustworthy 

But what if it takes awhile to see the answer to your prayers or the fulfillment of your dreams? If you give up, you’ll never see them. It took Joseph 22 years to see his dreams come true (See Genesis chapters 37-46), but it was well worth it. And Abraham had to wait 25 years to see God's promise come to pass (see Genesis 12). So don’t give up… keep praying, keep serving, keep dreaming. God rewards those who diligently seek Him (Hebrews 11:6)! And remember: Things are not always what they seem!

Dear Church Diva...

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I was reminded today of a bad experience I had while visiting a church a few months ago.  And probably because I didn't get enough sleep last night, I felt compelled to write this.  I do have a favor to ask of my readers: Please don't passive-aggressively post this on someone else's wall in the hopes that they will read it and change.  That's not the point.  If you want someone in your circle of relationships to read it, the best way to accomplish this without being rude it to share it on YOUR Facebook page.

After visiting a church recently I have some advice for the "Church Diva" that sat behind me.  You know the type... they want everyone to notice them, whether it's because of their clothes, their actions or their attitude.  Well this guy must have thought the Sunday morning service was his chance to audition for American Idol, and that I was one of the judges.  Now God has blessed me with a powerful set of lungs (read: I'm loud), but I almost couldn't hear myself sing over the sound of his voice.  To be fair, he did have a decent voice.  But to be honest, I don't think anyone around him was as impressed with his voice as he was.

Sacred People (part 4)

In this series of articles we're examining the life of Jesus to see what a truly Sacred Person looks like. And it may not be the most spiritual or holy person, although that's what we've been led to believe.  The answer may shock you.

Sacred People (part 1)
Sacred People (part 2)
Sacred People (part 3)

Unholy people

So far we've talked about the need to be authentic and to begin to allow God to expand our small-minded thinking.  And we saw in Acts 10 that we need to treat everyone as if they are created in God's image... because they are!  As we finish up this series we'll look at ways to practically apply these truths.

When we look at the life of Jesus, we see the will of God in action.  He lived a holy life.  His disciples record God speaking from heaven about Him:

And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” - Matthew 3:17

God was well pleased with Him because He always did those things that please God.  He lived a life that was fully devoted to God.  This is the definition of a sacred life.  Jesus was truly a sacred person!  And by looking at the life of Jesus we can see how sacred people should live.

Enemy of the State

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So often we miss the contextual details of the biblical narrative.  Most people don't know the cultural context of 1st Century Palestine.  We forget that Jesus and the New Testament writers were real people that lived in the real world.  We must never forget that the Bible was written in space and time.  Unfortunately much of this cultural context is lost on us.  Take, for instance, the following example...

Then Jesus called the crowd, along with his disciples, and said to them, “If anyone wants to become my follower, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.  For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and for the gospel will save it.  For what benefit is it for a person to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his life?" - Mark 8:34-36

The interesting thing about this passage is that his audience knew exactly what it meant to "take up your cross.’’  Crucifixion was regularly used by the Roman occupation force as a means of keeping the Jewish population in line.  It was a gruesome/tortuous method of execution, almost always committed alongside major travel routes for maximum exposure.  It was reserved for serious offenders - a way of punishing its enemies.  When Jesus used this phrase His hearers understood exactly what He was implying.  It meant dying as an enemy of the State.

What does that have to do with us?  We can’t expect everyone to like us as we follow Jesus.  This goes against the part of us that wants to be liked.  But we have to understand that as our culture wanders farther from God, genuine followers of Christ will be more counter-cultural.

Our insecurity drives us to seek affirmation.  We want to be loved, liked and accepted.  But Jesus was telling His audience that in order to follow Him they would end up as counter-cultural enemies of the State.    The good news is that the darker the world around us grows, the brighter Christ’s light shines through us.  And that’s a good thing because the light is supposed to shine in the darkness. (John 1:5)  We need to let our light shine brightly!

Facing Reality

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Reality - what a painful word for leaders.  It refers to the status quo we live in.  It speaks of the circumstances we are currently experiencing - the inconvenient truth we probably aren't happy with.

A good friend of mine worked at a large church in the Midwest a number of years ago.  This church had been plateaued for awhile, and was starting to head into decline.  So they made a smart decision: they brought in an outside church consultant.  This brings in a fresh set of eyes and removes the emotion from decision-making.  A consultant has nothing to lose by being honest.  He/she can talk about "the elephant in the room" without fear of consequences.

This church hired a very well-known church consultant to identify problem areas so they could make the appropriate adjustments.  They paid a good sum of money for him to analyze everything they did and define their current reality.

Sacred People (part 3)

In this series of articles we're examining the life of Jesus to see what a truly sacred person looks like. And it may not be the most spiritual or holy person, although that's what we've been led to believe.  The answer may shock you.

Sacred People (part 1)
Sacred People (part 2)
Sacred People (part 4) 

Unholy people

So far we've talked about the need to be authentic and to begin to allow God to expand our thinking.  This time we're going to look at the turning point for the burgeoning Church (found in Acts 10).

As we also learned last time, the Jews sought to maintain their focus on God through isolation.  They wouldn't even eat with non-Jewish people.  But God wanted to invite "outsiders" in!

A Missed Opportunity

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Our family checked out a nearby church this past Sunday.  One of the privileges of this season of our lives (searching for a pastoral position) is being able to visit a lot of churches.  Because of our experience as church planters, pastors and in associate pastoral roles over the past 25+ years we know churches inside and out.  But because of what we have learned in secular (unchurched) Europe we view every church through the lens of outsiders, especially Millennials and others that are far from God.

In visiting this church on Sunday we saw some things that were really good and things that would cause an unchurched person to never come back.