WHY I LIFT MY HANDS WHEN I SING

I am very thankful to Sam Storms for his insights on the subject. 

In several of the churches I have visited on island, I have noticed sometimes hardly anyone but me lifts up their hands when they sing. I'm not really used to this because in San Clemente, in the church I pastored as well as the churches I visited, most people regularly worshipped in that it posture. When I worship, I like to stand and lift up my hands. On more than one occasion I’ve been asked: “Bill, why do you lift your hands when you worship?” My answer is two-fold.

First, I raise my hands when I pray and praise because I have explicit biblical precedent for doing so. Consider this smattering of texts.

“So I will bless you as long as I live; in your name I will lift up my hands” (Psalm 63:4).

“To you, O LORD, I call; my rock, be not deaf to me, lest, if you be silent to me, I become like those who go down to the pit. Hear the voice of my pleas for mercy, when I cry to you for help, when I lift up my hands toward your most holy sanctuary” (Psalm 28:1).

“Every day I call upon you, O LORD; I spread out my hands to you” (Psalm 88:9).

“I will lift up my hands toward your commandments, which I love, and I will meditate on your statutes” (Psalm 119:48).

“Lift up your hands to the holy place and bless the LORD!” (Psalm 134:2).

“O LORD, I call upon you; hasten to me! Give ear to my voice when I call to you! Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice!” (Psalm 141:1-2).

“I stretch out my hands to you; my soul thirsts for you like a parched land” (Psalm 143:6).

“Then Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of all the assembly of Israel and spread out his hands. Solomon had made a bronze platform five cubits long, five cubits wide, and three cubits high, and had set it in the court, and he stood on it. Then he knelt on his knees in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands toward heaven” (2 Chronicles 6:12-13).

“And at the evening sacrifice I rose from my fasting, with my garment and my cloak torn, and fell upon my knees and spread out my hands to the LORD my God” (Ezra 9:5).

“And Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God, and all the people answered, ‘Amen, Amen,’ lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground” (Nehemiah 8:6).

“Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven” (Lamentations 3:41:41).

“I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling” (1 Timothy 2:8).

I think this gives a biblical warrant for this kind of posture when we sing. Let me ask you who still are skeptical about expressive raising hands in worship. Why do you assume that the appropriate place for your hands is at your side and you need an explicit biblical warrant for raising them? Wouldn’t it be just as reasonable to assume that the appropriate place for one’s hands is raised toward heaven, calling for an explicit biblical warrant (other than gravity or physical exhaustion) to keep them low?

The second answer I give to the question, “Why do you lift your hands when you worship?” is: “Because it is freeing to use all my body to express my love to God." We are to worship God with our whole being. Paul couldn’t have been more to the point when he exhorted us to present our “bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is our “spiritual worship” (Romans 12:1). Paul also exhorts us to honor God with our body in 2 Corinthians 5:20. 

We are both physical and spiritual beings who are commanded to love to love God with all our being, body, soul, and spirit (Matthew 22:37). Someday we will have glorified bodies forever in which to honor and adore our great God. If we are commanded to dance, kneel, sing and speak when we worship, as we find throughout scripture, what possible reason could there be for not engaging our hands and arms as well?

The human hand gives visible expression to so many of our beliefs, feelings, and intentions. Our hands speak loudly. When closed or repressed, we tuck them with crossed arms under our armpits. When angry, we clinch our fists, threatening harm to others. When guilty, we hide our hands or hold incriminating evidence from view. When uneasy, we sit on them to obscure our inner selves. When worried, we wring them. When afraid, we use them to cover our face or hold tightly to someone for protection. When desperate or frustrated, we throw them wildly in the air, perhaps also in resignation or dismay. When confused, we extend them in bewilderment, as if asking for advice and direction. When hospitable, we use them to warmly receive those in our presence. When suspicious, we use them to keep someone at bay, or perhaps point an accusing finger in their direction.

Does it not seem wholly appropriate, therefore, in the most positive way, to raise them to God when we seek him in prayer or celebrate him with praise? So again, why do I worship with hands raised?

Because like one who surrenders to a higher authority, I yield to God’s will and ways and submit to his guidance and power and purpose in my life. It is my way of saying, “God, I am yours to do with as you please.”

Because like one who expresses utter vulnerability, I say to the Lord: “I have nothing to hide. I come to you open handed, concealing nothing. My life is yours to search and sanctify. I’m holding nothing back. My heart, soul, spirit, body and will are an open book to you.”

 

Because like one who needs help, I confess my utter dependence on God for everything. I cry out: “O God, I entrust my life to you. If you don’t take hold and uplift me, I will surely sink into the abyss of sin and death. I rely on your strength alone. Preserve me. Sustain me. Deliver me.”

Because like one who happily and expectantly receives a gift from another, I declare to the Lord: “Father, I gratefully embrace all you want to give. I’m a spiritual beggar. I have nothing to offer other than my need of all that you are for me in Jesus. So glorify yourself by satisfying me wholly with you alone.”

Because like one who aspires to direct attention away from self to the Savior, I say: “O God, yours is the glory; yours is the power; yours is the majesty alone!”

Because as the beloved of God, I say tenderly and intimately to the Lover of my soul: “Abba, hold me. Protect me. Reveal your heart to me. I am yours! You are mine! Draw near and enable me to know and feel the affection in your heart for this one sinful soul.”

Please understand: I’m not telling you how to worship, but simply sharing how I do and why. I’m at that point in life where I honestly couldn’t care less what the immovable evangelical is thinking or the crazy charismatic is feeling. What matters to me is that God have my all: my mind, will, feet, eyes, ears, tongue, heart, affections, and yes, my hands.

No, you need not raise your hands to worship God. But why wouldn’t you want to? I am happy and free with uplifted hands to my Lord and Savior.

Pastor Bill

DELIGHTING IN A HAPPY GOD

One of the most life changing moments in my life was when I read from the word with new eyes after reading John Piper and Jonathan Edwards. I discovered that God is the happiest of beings. So often I used to think of God as non-enthusiastic or even gloomy. The god of religion is cold, calloused, cantankerous, mean-hearted – in a word he, is just plain unhappy – and he is out to make your life miserable. But the true God of Scripture is revealed as being “the happy God”!

Unlike the religious views of God, our God is truly a God of joy. He is not an old angry man with a scowl upon His face. He actually is a happy God, and we have Scripture that teaches us this wonderful truth! He loves to be God, He takes great pleasure in all that He does, and He is enthusiastic about serving His people and working for their welfare. For example, God says in Jeremiah 32:41, "I will rejoice in doing them good." Jesus said in John 15:11, "These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you." And Paul writes in 1 Timothy 1:11 of "the glorious gospel of the blessed God." Blessed (makairos in Greek) can mean happy. So Paul is saying: "the glorious gospel of the happy God."

When I say God is happy, I mean that He is supremely or infinitely happy. He is the happiest being in the universe. God is infinitely happy because he is infinitely glorious and the good news is that He invites us to enter into his happiness. Did you know that God is happy when He thinks about you and the work He is doing in, to, through, and over your life? Do you believe this? Perhaps if you did, it might launch your life into dimensions and levels of joy and delight previously unknown in your experience.

Here is what Piper writes in The Pleasures of God

"It is good news that God is gloriously happy. No one would want to spend eternity with an unhappy God. If God is unhappy then the goal of the gospel is not a happy goal, and that means it would be no gospel at all. But, in fact, Jesus invites us to spend eternity with a happy God when he says, ‘Enter into the joy of your master' (Matthew 25:23). Jesus lived and died that his joy-God's joy-might be in us and our joy might be full (John 15:11;17:13). Therefore the gospel is ‘the gospel of the glory of the happy God."
 What makes God so supremely happy? Well, I'm sure there are many contributing factors. Here are a few:

God Delights in Himself
First, God is happy because he delights in himself. He finds happiness in Himself. One of the best ways to think about God's immense happiness is to think of it as the delight he has in his Son who is the image of His glory. When Jesus entered the world, God the Father said, "This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased" (Matthew 3:17). When God the Father beholds the glory of his own essence in the person of his Son, he is infinitely happy. "Behold my servant whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights" (Isaiah 42:1). God is happy because he delights in himself, especially as his nature is reflected in his beloved Son.

God Is Sovereign

God is happy because he is sovereign. Psalm 115:3 says, "Our God is in the heavens; he does whatever he pleases or brings Him pleasure." What this verse implies is that God's sovereignty is his right and power to do whatever makes him happy. Our God is in heaven—he is over all things and subject to none. Therefore, he does whatever he pleases—he always acts to preserve his maximum happiness. God is happy because his righteous acts, which are always done out of love to his own glory, can never be frustrated beyond his will. Isaiah 43:13, "I am God, and also henceforth I am he; there is none who can deliver from my hand; I work and who can hinder it?" Isaiah 46:10, "My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose." Daniel 4:35, "He does according to his will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, 'What doest thou?'" We may be sure, therefore, that God is infinitely happy because he has absolute right and power as Creator to overcome every obstacle to his joy.

It's worth asking as a parenthesis here how a good God can be happy when the world is shot through with suffering and evil. It's a huge and hard question. Two things help me. One is that it doesn't help much to save God's reputation by saying that he is not really in charge. If someone had tried to comfort me in April 2010 when my wife decided to divorce me, by saying, "God didn't will this to happen; you can still trust him; he's good," I would have answered by saying, "My consolation does not come from thinking that God is so weak he can't divert my wife from deciding to leave me" My God is sovereign. He let her leave me in his appointed time; and I believe now and someday I will see that it was good. For I have learned in Jesus Christ that God is good. The biblical solution to the problem of evil is not to rob God of his sovereignty.

The other observation that helps me with this question is that God's attitude toward tragic events depends on the focus of the lens. God does not delight in pain and evil considered simply in themselves. When his lens is narrow and focused just on that, he can be filled with abhorrence and grief. But when he opens his lens to take in all the connections and effects of an event, even to eternity, the event forms part of a pattern or mosaic which he does delight in, and which he wills. For example, the death of Christ was the work of God the Father. "We esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted . . . Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief."(Isaiah 53:4,10).

It used to seem reasonable for a God who knows every problem -- even when a sparrow falls, or a hair is lost from a head -- to be quite serious. So I have not pictured God as someone who would have much joy or laugh much. Certainly God is not uncaring, or not touched by our problems. Yet it seems that He walks in faith and rejoices because He knows He will eventually solve every problem and make everything right. Therefore He is not burdened down with sadness and woe, but instead is able to laugh and rejoice.

Surely as God the Father saw the agony of his beloved Son and the wickedness that brought him to the cross, he did not delight in those things in themselves. Sin in itself and the suffering of the innocent in itself is abhorrent to God. But according to Hebrews 2:10 God the Father thought it was fitting to perfect the Pioneer of our salvation through suffering. God willed what he abhorred in the narrow view because in the broad view of eternity it was a fitting way to demonstrate his righteousness (Romans 3:25-26) and bring his people to glory (Hebrews 2:10). When God in his omniscience surveys the sweep of redemptive history from beginning to end, he rejoices in what he sees. Therefore, I conclude that nothing in all the world can frustrate the ultimate happiness of God. He delights infinitely in his own glory; and in his sovereignty he does whatever he pleases.

God's Happiness in His Mercy to Us

God's happiness spills over in mercy to us. Can you imagine what it would be like if the God who ruled the world were not happy? What if God were given to grumbling and pouting and depression like some Jack-and-the-beanstalk giant in the sky? What if God were despondent and gloomy and dismal and discontented and dejected and frustrated? Could we join David and say, "O God, thou art my God, I seek thee, my soul thirsts for thee; my flesh faints for thee, as in a dry and weary land where no water is" (Psalm 63:1)? No way!

Perhaps some of us relate to God like little children relate to a gloomy, dismal, discontented, frustrated father. They can't enjoy him. They can only try to avoid him and maybe try to work for him to make him feel better. Children cannot enjoy the company of their father if he is gloomy and dismal and frustrated. But not God, He's the happiest of all beings.

We have a God who is the opposite of the gloomy, dismal, disinterested father. Consider this encouragement from Jeremiah 9:24, "'I am the Lord who performs mercy and justice and righteousness in the earth, because in these things I delight' says the Lord." God shows mercy because it makes Him so very happy!

Listen to the heartbeat of your happy God in Jeremiah 32:40-41,

I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them; and I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me. I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul.

God does good to you because he enjoys it so much! He pursues the business of loving you with all his heart and with all his soul.

"Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." (Luke 12:32)
Oh what a happy God you have! Listen to these words:Isaiah. 62:5, “as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you.”Psalm 35:27, "The LORD be exalted, who delights in the well-being of his servant."Psalm 149:4, For the LORD takes delight in his people; he crowns the humble with salvation. ”
Psalm 147: 10-11, "His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse, nor his delight in the legs of a man; the LORD delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love."
Zephaniah 3:17, "The LORD your God in your midst, The Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing." ".

So, enjoy life! Wake up every morning and bask in the goodness and grace of “the happy God” Who loves you and lives in you. Embrace His happiness throughout the day, regardless of the situation or circumstances in which we may find ourselves.

Whoever trusts in the Lord, happy is he (Proverbs 16:20).

Happy in His happiness,
Pastor Bill

WHEN GOD'S "SUDDENLIES" COME

"When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance." Acts 2:1-4 ESV


The past few weeks I have seen God suddenly give me opportunitiesto minister after almost seven months of nothing. It reminded me today again that our God is the God of suddenlies. What is a suddenly? A suddenly is something supernatural! It is something birthed out of God's sovereignty and manifested in His divine providence. There is always something supernatural with God's suddenlies - either for good or for disaster - but always supernatural.

In the book of Acts we read a powerful narrative about one of God's suddenlies. Jesus had told His disciples right before He ascended to heaven in Acts 1:8, "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." But there was the absolute sovereign promise and God's timing of the providential fulfillment of the promise. So after Jesus Christ ascended to heaven we see the disciples living their lives, waiting on the promise, and faithfully praying together.

The text says "when the day of Pentecost arrived." We live out our days and God has His day. We don't know when that is, thus we must live by faith, trust, and obedience to what we know we are to do. This is not always easy when times get tough or God seems slow. Sometimes He seems to me as slow as molasses! The days go by and nothing happens or things get worse. But never forget that God has a day in the midst of the days that we wait. god had His specific day planned for the fulfilment of His promise: the day of Pentecost.

There are two different Greek words for time in the Bible - chronos and kairos. Chronos is defined as "time indefinitely or a certain time, period, season or space of time." Kairos is defined as "the right season, the right time for action, and the critical moment." Chronos is linear time; the normal day-to-day, week-to-week, year-to-year passage of time. In chronos times, our walk with the Lord is characterized by our daily faithfulness and obedience to follow His voice. Change is measured as we look back over our lives and see how the Lord’s hand has guided us faithfully one step at a time.

However, at specific times in history, God suddenly and sovereignly steps from eternity into the earthly timeline with a suddenly to effect His perfect plan and purposes. Normal rules that govern time and change are suspended. His supernatural becomes our natural. The intersection of eternity and earthly time produces sudden acceleration that propels us forward into His purposes.

That is what we see here in Acts 2 on the day of Pentecost. On that day something happens, God's "suddenly"! "And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance." (Acts 2:2-4) I focus on this word “suddenly” to drive home the point that the Holy Spirit is free and sovereign and not bound to any one's timing or technique for will to the timing of His power and purposes. We are to bank on his daily, indwelling presence and grace, walk in the obedience of this faith, and yet pray day and night for the outpouring of power from on high. But we cannot make the Spirit come. When he comes, he comes suddenly. He will never become any one's bellhop. God keeps his own hours. He knows what is best for us. His suddenly birthed the church 2000 years ago and it is still going strong.

God’s ‘suddenlies’ are always dramatic. “Suddenly means that in an unexpected manner, something will happen without us being notified. Suddenlies are hard to understand because of the surprise element. The surprise element creates an emotional response in us. Many times is our waiting for God to move we get weary of looking for a suddenly.” In that context, the word ‘suddenly’ is just so exciting – think about it: one moment, a routine, a trial, a hopeless situation but the next moment that situation can be completely overtaken by events. In fact, God had taken over and is now controlling those events in the most dramatic fashion.

In my own life I have experienced so many wonderful suddenlies of God. I had been a Christian for only a few months when I experienced in the most supernatural way a calling to the ministry. I was lying on a hammock on a hot Mexican day at a beautiful point called Punta de Mita when suddenly God came to me and called me at the age of twenty-two to the ministry. I heard this voice in my head that told me to turn in my Bible to Jeremiah chapter one. I had never read Jeremiah, by the way. So I read the account of God’s call to Jeremiah and when I was finished reading, a voice said to me in my mind, “Bill, you will be my Jeremiah, and I will make you a Pastor.” At that point all I could do is argue with God about how this wasn’t possible and laugh inside at the absurdity of it all. I had barely graduated from high school, I had never held a job for more than a few months, had done drugs for seven years, and my only goal in life had been to travel and surf all over the world. Not to mention the fact that since I had become a Christian I had not even been to a church! Suddenly the whole course of my life changed! Here I write thirty three years later having been a Pastor now for thirty one years. Praise be to God!

Another time I was working as a catamaran repairer for Hobie Cat. one day I was sanding a hull when suddenly I received a vision form the Lord of me praying over a Mexican man in a church surrounded by other Mexicans. I was moved and wondered what it meant. Thirty days later I experienced another suddenly received the exact same vision a second time. As a result my wife
and I went on the mission field to Mexico in 1976. Several months into the trip I was invited to speak in a Methodist church in Puerto Vallarte. So I went to preach and after the sermon I asked people to come up for prayer. One of those who came forward was the man I had seen in my vision and the exact vision was fulfilled with me praying over him and surrounded by other Mexicans.

Oh how often the scripture speaks of God's suddenlies:

In Job - "While he was still speaking, yet another messenger came and said, "Your sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother's house, when suddenly a mighty wind swept in from the desert and struck the four corners of the house. It collapsed on them and they are dead, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!" (Job 1:18-19).
In the Psalms - "Surely you place them on slippery ground; you cast them down to ruin. How suddenly are they destroyed, completely swept away by terrors!" (Psalm 73:18-19)

In Proverbs - "A man who remains stiff-necked after many rebukes will suddenly be destroyed-without remedy." (Proverbs 29:1)

In Isaiah - "I foretold the former things long ago, my mouth announced them and I made them known; then suddenly I acted, and they came to pass." (Isaiah 48:3)

In Daniel, Habakkuk, Malachi, Matthew, Mark, Luke, Acts, Thessalonians and the list goes on and on. These "suddenlies" are God's way of showing His awesome power. Just when we think that things will continue on as they have before, just when we think today will be no different than yesterday, just when we think things are hopeless, God shows up and sends us showers of blessings, suddenly. It is one of His favorite things to do.


In the summer of 1871 two women of Dwight L. Moody's congregation felt an unusual burden to pray for Moody "that the Lord would give him the baptism of the Holy Ghost and of fire." Moody would see them praying in the front row of his church and he was irritated. But soon he gave in and in September began to pray with them every Friday afternoon. He felt like his ministry was becoming a sounding brass with little power. On November 24th, 1871 Moody's church building was destroyed in the great Chicago fire. He went to New York to seek financial help. Day and night he would walk the streets desperate for the touch of God's power in his life. Then suddenly, Moody wrote, “One day, in the city of New York -- oh, what a day! -- I cannot describe it, I seldom refer to it; it is almost too sacred an experience to name . . . I can only say that God revealed himself to me, and I had such an experience of his love that I had to ask him to stay his hand. I went to preaching again. The sermons were not different; I did not present any new truths, and yet hundreds were converted. I would not now be placed back where I was before that blessed experience if you should give me the entire world -- it would be small dust in the balance”. He prayed and he obeyed and he waited. But he did not make the Spirit come. He came suddenly. When the Spirit comes in power he comes suddenly -- on his own terms and in his own time.

During the first Great Awakening and the great outpouring of the Spirit in North Hampton, Massachusetts, under the preaching of Jonathan Edwards, Gilbert Tennant, and George Whitefield (1734-1743), over 25 to 50 thousand people were added to the churches in New England. This was over 7 to 14 percent of the population. One woman who had been infamous for her immorality was suddenly converted in December 1734. Her life was so radically changed that the whole town was amazed at the power of God’s grace. During the next 6 months 300 people out of a town of 1,100 were converted!

Oh dear reader, remember the God of suddenly. God is not in a hurry, but He is the God of “suddenlies!” Our God is a god of "Suddenlies!" God can suddenly break an addiction. He can suddenly heal your body. He can suddenly give you that promotion. The enemy's goal is to steal your hope. He wants to get you down and discouraged so you will give up and settle for less than God's best. Don't be deceived! No matter how many disappointments you've encountered, God can turn things around for you in a split second of time! One touch of His favor can suddenly restore relationships! One touch of His goodness can solve that problem you're facing today! Just one touch from Almighty God can instantly change your life! When you tell someone about your future and about the plans God is working out for you and they tell you it won’t happen overnight just smile and say, “My God is the God of suddenlies and even while I wait patiently on Him He’s working out those suddenlies for the appropriate time in my life.” I've seen it this week :)

Feeling that God is going to do one of His suddenlies for you as in the Book of Acts Ch. 2,
Pastor Bill

THE DESPERATION ZONE

Have you ever been to the desperation zone? Its a place precious to God, but dreaded by many. It can drive us either to prayer or it can drive us to despair. The desperation zone is the place where all other courses of action have been eliminated, where you stand at the edge of the abyss, where you approach God with empty hands and an aching heart.

Psalm 107:23-30 describes it like this,

"Some went down to the sea in ships, doing business on the great waters; they saw the deeds of the Lord, his wondrous works in the deep. For he commanded and raised the stormy wind, which lifted up the waves of the sea. They mounted up to heaven; they went down to the depths; their courage melted away in their evil plight; they reeled and staggered like drunken men and were at their wits' end. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. He made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed. Then they were glad that the waters were quiet, and he brought them to their desired haven."

The sailors were in a desperate situation. There was a great storm and all of their seamanship skills were useless. The Psalmist describes their plight as being "at wits end". In short, they were in the desperation zone. So what did they do? They prayed! They cried out to the Lord who heard their desperate pleas and did for them what they could not do for themselves.

It seems for most of us that it is the desperation zone that forces us to pray. The times we often resort to prayer is when we have no other recourse, no where else to go, when we feel inadequate, helpless, and desperately need Gods help and intervention. 

I think this is the heart of true prayer and the place where true prayer is launched. We cry out from our heart in desperation to the only one who can help meet and satisfy our deepest needs. DL Moody once said, "whenever I am in trouble I pray. I'm always in trouble so I always pray." Moody had prime property in the desperation zone.

God offers this promise to those who live in the desperation zone in Psalm 50:15, "and call upon me in the day of trouble, I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.” It does not take much to make us desperate.Each of us have a nerve that once touched, drives us right to our knees.

Desperate people pray because they have no other choice. They pray because the are starving; they pray because they are dying of thirst; they pray because they are being persecuted. It is pray or go under, prayer despair, pray or die.

Remember some of the people like you and me who lived in the desperation zone?
Jairus, who's daughter was sick and could not be cured, and no amount of his wealth could save (Mark 5:21-24). A woman with the I curable blood disorder prayed because no doctor had been able to cure her (Mark 5:25-34). They were desperate and Jesus so kindly heard them and answered there
desperate cry.

I have learned over the 39 years of praying how desperate I really am. Jesus said in John 15:5, "Apart from me, you can do nothing." Oh, how I deeply agree. I am so aware of my inadequacy in every area of my life. I have come to see that God is my only hope, my last resort, my one chance, my only solution.

I'm not saying that I always live like this. But whether I always feel or live it, my need for God is infinite and absolute. The desperation zone compels me to pray to God with the attitude, "if I don't pray, I won't make it". My need for God is as great as my need for air, water,food, and sleep.

 Without God, I am dead. So I pray and pray and pray and pray and pray. God help me, provide for 

me, heal me,strengthen me, save me, have mercy on me. 

Life is a journey and on it there are moments and places that feel safe, easy, comfort, and secure. But they are all an illusion and fleeting. As much as I'd like to stay in those places,we are never able to stay there. Inevitably we face new dangers, threats, troubles,and challengs, that bring us right back to the place called the desperation zone.

It is the place where God lives closer to,you than you could ever imagine. Will you join me there?

To be continued...

THOUGHTS ON WHEN GOD SEEMS TO NOT ANSWER MY PRAYERS

I warn you about this weeks blog. I will be speaking about things that perhaps many of you have felt but dare not talk about with other Christians for fear of glib answers, rejection, or condemnation. I want to share my struggles and questions not to raise doubt, but to help with faith in regard to serious matters of the Christian life.

Do you ever feel that God does not pay attention to your prayers? Why does the bible tell me to pray yet when I do He often times seems silent, distant, and unwilling to answer me? I am not talking about trivial prayers like asking God for a parking place. I'm talking about sincere prayers in moments in times of desperate need. I have deeply wrestled with this the past three and a half years. I have been rocked with disappointment by my wife's and my own unanswered prayers.There have been many cries for help, believing earnestly that God would answer yet ended up feeling unheard. What do I do when I really believe that God is able and willing, yet in regards to my prayers, He seems the opposite.

I ask this serious question because I am a man of prayer. I take it seriously and have made prayer a default response to trouble as well as a way of life. Prayer for me is a habit, a reflex, and also seems to get results. I have experienced countless answers to my own prayers over my 39 years as a believer and I have seen numerous supernatural healings, Prayer is central in my life. I believe God hears and answers prayers.

Now with all that said,  I still wrestle with unanswered prayer. unanswered prayer has hit some raw nerves for me. As I said, I pray because I believe that God hears and answers my prayers. I tell God my needs and He seems distant and aloof to my cries.

I have always taught others that God answers every prayer according to His will with a yes, no, or wait answer. It provides a rational, easy, simple, and workable answer to this troubling question. But...deep inside I have found this really hard for me to accept. Sure, there are many prayers that are not difficult for me to understand why God does not answer. I have witnessed my wife 
begging God to heal her terribly crippling disorder, yet she still suffers. I asked God for many years to do a certain thing in my own life and when I rejoiced at His seeming answer for several years, 
suddenly, the whole bottom fell out. What about your own unanswered prayers? Do you find yourself frustrated and crushed because no matter how earnest, no matter how hard, no matter how 
believing, and no mater how long, God does not seem to answer. Sometimes God's. seeming silence is deafening.

Why did not God answer? I have given and heard many well meaning answers:
God has a plan for you
You need more faith
Perhaps there is unconfessed sin in your life
You must not be praying according to Gods will
You have not been tithing (heard that recently)
Your motives are wrong

Now there is undoubtedly some truth or half truth at times in all of those in regards to answered except the tithing one). But are any of those really helpful? Do they really help us to pray?

Then there are the promises the bible makes that are so huge and God does not seem to keep them a
that further exasperates the problem.

"And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened." Luke 11:9-10

"Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will 

do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. Ifyou ask me anything in my name, I will do it."

John 14:12-14

My simple reading of these texts tells me this: If I pray. God will answer. So what do I conclude
when God does not answer my prayers? I pray because God tells me to pray and I pray because god promises to answer my prayers. We have the assurance of answered prayer from our Savior Jesus, Himself.

So what happens when my prayers are not answered? Is there anything that I can do about it? Is it my motives that is the problem? Could it be the ongoing sin in my life? Could it be that something is wrong with my faith? Could it be the way we say our prayers? Of course motives, faith, and the right words are important. But these also lead me into so much introspection and reflection that can paralyze my prayer life. Am I to blame every time? The fact is my motives are not perfectly pure ever. My faith is never perfect. And sometimes I don't say things so well. So the question that disturbs me is this, does God only answer the prayers of those with pure motives, perfect people, with perfect faith, and words spoken properly? 

I cannot live with that kind of burden. It would paralyze my ability and desire to pray. 
In fact, as far as I am concerned, it contradicts the very reason that we pray. 
We pray as desperate, poor, broken, helpless, and needy people.It would seem to me to be unreasonably demanding if  in order to be heard and answered by God I had to prove myself worthy by perfect living, motives, faith, and words. This is a burden that none of us can carry.

Jesus said in Matthew 17:20, "Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

This is His way of saying that little faith is required. Quantity is not the issue. The object of our faith is everything. Jesus is a mountain moving God. So faith is not the key, the object of who we put our tiny, minuscule faith is everything! 

Faith trusts not in self but God. Faith comes poor, desperate, lacking self confidence,empty handed, insufficient, needy, empty, and lacking. Faith assumes we being nothing to God and need everything from God.

We must dare to pray even as we doubt, are disappointed, wavering, defeated, frustrated, and empty, just as the desperate father cried, "I do believe, help my unbelief," Mark 9:24

True faith is tiny little light that rises up when darkness surrounds us and threatens to overwhelm us. I pray to this God I love and trust because He is God and I have no one else to turn to and know where else to turn. Yes, I am dissapointed. Yes I don't understand. But...I keep on praying.

I think of the sincere prayers so many have made that seemingly were not heard or answered. What went wrong? Was it sin, wrong motives, lacking faith or sincerity, wrong words? Why did God not answer my prayers? It's all a mystery. I'm not sure I'll ever know why or understand it. But this I do know: unanswered prayer is not the end of the story for you and me. Not as long as God is God.

Next week I'll share what I mean :)

 

THE MOST PRECIOUS PROMISE OF JESUS

"...behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." (Matthew 28:20).

I truly treasure the promises of Jesus. The apostle Peter spoke of the promises this way,
"His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature..." (2 Peter 1:3-4)

Don't you love what Peter says. "Great and precious promises"? Our God is a promise maker and a promise keeper. When Jesus rose from the grave and right before He ascended into heaven, He made a most precious promise. No promise of Jesus has meant more to me this promise "Behold, I am with you always to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:20). The promise had been given precisely in the context of the Great Commission: "Go and make disciples of all nations . . . and behold, I am with you always to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:19-20). More than any other promise, this one has brought Jesus close and real to me in all my trials. How I praise and thank Jesus for it, and rejoice in it!

Without the abiding consciousness of the promise,the presence, and the power of Jesus, nothing else in all the world could have preserved me from despair and giving up.

Jesus, with all authority over every enemy and every disease and every calamity and every futility, promises to be with you. So that we can face the worst threats and say with the apostle Paul in 2 Timothy 4:16-17, "Everyone deserted me, but the Lord stood by me and gave me strength." Who speaks this to us? The risen Jesus who has all authority in heaven and on earth and says  I am with you.

Jesus says in  Hebrews 13:5, "Be content with what you have, for he has said, 'I will never fail you, and never forsake you.'"

How long will He be with you? Specifically, to the end of the age: "Behold I am with you always to the end of the age." As long as the world lasts, Jesus will be with us in this world.

John Paton, the great missionary to the South Pacific wrote about what this promise meant to him.
More than any other promise, this one brought Jesus close and real to John Paton in all his dangers. After a measles epidemic that killed thousands on the islands, and for which the missionaries were blamed, he wrote: "During the crisis, I felt generally calm, and firm of soul, standing erect and with my whole weight on the promise, 'Lo! I am with you always.' Precious promise! How often I adore Jesus for it, and rejoice in it! Blessed be his name."

The power this promise had to make Christ real to Paton in hours of crisis was unlike any other Scripture or prayer:

Without that abiding consciousness of the presence and power of my dear Lord and Savior, nothing else in all the world could have preserved me from losing my reason and perishing miserably. In his words, "Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world," became to me so real that it would not have startled me to behold Him, as Stephen did, gazing down upon the scene. I felt His supporting power. . . . It is the sober truth, and it comes back to me sweetly after 20 years, that I had my nearest and dearest glimpses of the face and smiles of my blessed Lord in those dread moments when musket, club, or spear was being leveled at my life. Oh the bliss of living and enduring, as seeing "Him who is invisible

“I am with you” means that Jesus can help you right now! Jesus knows and is watching you. He is not just any person, He is the risen Savior, the Son of the living God and creator and sustainer of the universe and your life! In fact, He is watching over you to protect you.

What if you face a different struggle today? What if you feel overwhelmed with loneliness and fear, inconsolable grief and sorrow, feelings of abandonment and betrayal? Let's not get religious here. Christan's feel and experience all of these things don't they? Listen again to the sweet, kind, empathetic, compassionate, merciful voice of Jesus: “Behold I am with you always.” 

When I really hear that, and take it to heart, I know That I am not alone. I am safe. I am secure. I am loved. I am comforted. I am helped. I will not be abandoned. I will not be rejected. I have a friend. I have help. I have someone who knows me and understands me, yet loves me anyway fully and completely. He will never reject me or forsake me.

"BEHOLD I AM WITH YOU ALWAYS"

Let these precious words be on the forefront of your thoughts, your meditations, your drive to work, as you lay in bed, where the battle rages, and in your loneliness, fears, anxieties, pain, and sorrows. Let these words begin filling your soul with comfort, assurance, peace, faith, and joy.

Try this week to get alone with Him in a quiet place and come into his presence and begin to release to Him all of your past sins, all of your present burdens and temptations, and all your fears and anxieties and worries about your future. Then begin allowing His word to fill your mind, your heart, and you soul with the comforting words BEHOLD I AM WITH YOU WITH ALWAYS. Don't rush, allow the reality of His presence fill you with a sense and awareness of His presence with at this moment. Listen to Jesus kind and loving voice breath assurance, faith, and hope like rivers of living water:

BEHOLD I AM WITH YOU RIGHT NOW. I AM HERE FOR YOU. I WILL HELP YOU. I LOVE YOU.

Pastor Bill

FROM DULLNESS TO SIGHT:THE LORD IS IN THIS PLACE!

"Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, "Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it.But he was also afraid and said, " what an awesome place this is! It is none other than the house of God, the very gateway to heaven.!" Genesis 28:16-17

So often in my life I feel like Jacob. I look out at nature and see nothing. I read my bible and the account of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples and I find myself dull to the familiar story I have read numerous times and see nothing. In short, I find myself blind to stupendous realities. Blind because I didn't know how to see. Blind because I was too busy and hurried. Blind because my mind was caught up in myself. Blind because of living in the world I call "someday". Have you ever lived in the world of "someday"? To live in "someday" is to be so busy trying to get to where you want to be that you forget where you are and what is being offered by the kind grace of God at this present moment. Living for someday has often caused me to miss a lot of "today's".

How much have I missed because I have been so blind? Have much have I missed because I was just too busy to look? In my case it has been both. I am not alone. Jacob said, "Surely the Lord was in this place and I did not see" (Genesis 49:16).
T.S. Elliot wrote,

"Earth is crammed with heaven and every bush is the dwelling place of God,
but only those who see take off their shoes,
the rest just sit around and pluck blackberries."



Have you ever passed a bush plucking raspberries and thinking raspberries were all that was there? How many times have we failed to see the heavenly blaze in earthly bushes we brush by on our way to somewhere else?

John Piper spoke of being around Clyde Kilby who he described in this way: “When he spoke of a tree he saw on the way to class in the morning, you wondered why you had been so blind all of your life…I sat there and for the first time I saw things. I felt. I was drawn into the bright day of wakefulness out of my self-preoccupied, adolescent slumbers”.

Oh to see things! Oh to be awake! Oh to be alive to God and life! Jacob said when he became aware of the presence of God, "what an awesome place this is! It is none other than the house of God, the very gateway to heaven.!" (Genesis 28:17). That moment, that place, was none other than a gate into heaven. For Jacob, everywhere was gates and windows and he did not even know it. It's the same with me. Everywhere if I would listen, look, notice, think, contemplate, and see, there is beauty and wonder to see, savor, and experience.
We miss so much every moment don't we? Oh how we waste and lose so many precious moments in this short life while just sitting around plucking the blackberries of boredom, distraction, familiarity, ingratitude, self preoccupation, and spiritual dullness. Oh to see and live!

Are you alive, amazed, and astonished at God, His creation, His Word, and life? James 1:17 tells us, "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change." God offers us one of the greatest gifts—amazement at what we see.

There is no time, no place, no moment, no event, that God is not there and is not speaking something for me to hear and showing me something for me to see. Our lives are full of stupendous realities aren't they? But these moments will go unnoticed if we do not take the time to stop, look, and listen. C.S. Lewis wrote,

"To see what is in thee moments we first have to stop, and then we must look and go on looking until we see exactly what is there."

In Psalm 19:1-6, David writes of what he sees when he looks at nature,

The heavens declare the glory of God,and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech,and night to night reveals knowledge.There is no speech, nor are there words,whose voice is not heard.Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun,which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber,and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy.Its rising is from the end of the heavens,and its circuit to the end of them,and there is nothing hidden from its heat."
David tells us that every day God is speaking through the ordinary things of His creation (That is , if you can ever call creation ordinary!)."Day unto day pours forth speech, and night unto night declares knowledge." The observation here very simply is that knowledge of God can in one sense come through nature, day and night. At night, the night sky speaks. In the day, the day sky speaks. Or to be precise, speech pours forth. Nature does not whisper—it shouts, and it shouts continually.

Living a simple and quiet life in West Maui has given me much time to see beauty in God's creation. Whenever you see water falls, mountain peaks, granite walls, and awesome sunsets, they are but a representation, a picture, a reflection of the beauty, the glory of God. The Lord has ordained in His great plans and purposes ways to express His beauty and makes His glory known. David celebrates the fact that as he looks up in the sky, that nature is one way by which God's glory would be made known.
Oh how I pray that you would become alive to wonder! To look at the sunrise and with say with an amazed smile, “God did it again!” I want to see what is there in the world—things which if we did not have them, we would pay a million dollars to have, but having them, ignore. I want to be convicted of my callous inattention and inability to enjoy God’s daily gifts. I want God to awaken my dazed soul so that the realities of life and of God and heaven and hell are seen and felt. I want to God to effect my eyes in such a way that life and this extraordinary world is a precious gift.

Most of all, I want God to awaken me to the reality of the glory of Christ in His Word. Owen Strachen and Doug Sweeny in their wonderful new book Jonathan Edwards on Beauty (Which I most heartily recommend!) say,

"God exists as the resplendent one, but did not content Himself with mere self-appreciation of His beauty. Instead, He set in motion an arc of glory that began with Himself, moved to creation, continued with the incarnation of Christ, moved next to the church, the bride of Christ, and is consumated in heaven,Where the Holy Trinity dwells."
What I see in Jesus Christ and in the universe because of Him, through the lens of Scripture, is more breathtaking than anything I have ever seen in Maui or on this earth. (And that is not hyperbole)!

All study of Jesus Christ in scripture should not lead to a dead end dogma but should speed us down a one way street to worship, joy, and deep gratitude.To see Jesus Christ in the scripture (for example in feeding 5000 people), after you catch your breath, is described this way by John Piper,

...the refreshment that you get from this high, clear, Christ-entranced air does not take out of the valleys of suffering, pain, and sorrow in this world, but fits you to spend your life there for the sake of love with invincible and worshipful joy.
What steps can we take to help us fruitfully meditate on the glory of Christ until we see? One essential biblical answer is pray: Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things (Psalm 119:18). Or as Paul prays: Enlighten the eyes of our hearts (Ephesians 1:18). Understand that unless God does the decisive work of revealing (Matthew 16:17), none of our work of meditating will succeed in seeing and savoring

My prayer for you and me is that God will give us fresh, new eyes to see him, others, and His world with childlike awe and wonder for what is right in front of our eyes. May we stop picking blackberries and take off our shoes because every moment is truly sacred and we stand on holy ground.

The great poet George Herbert prayed this way,

Teach me, my God and King,
In all things Thee to see,
And what I do in anything,
To do it as for Thee.

Oh Christian look up at the sky, look at nature and beauty all around you, open up the scripture and see the self-authenticating beauty of Jesus Christ. Until our hearts are freed from the blinding effects of sin,spiritual darkness, and self centered narcissism it is our duty to "Set our minds on things above, not on things of this earth" (Colossians 3:1)
If you would do this and look and reflect and enjoy the beauty of God you will experience what Jonathan Edwards so profoundly asserts:

“The enjoyment of God is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied. To go to heaven, fully to enjoy God, is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here. Fathers and mothers, husbands, wives, or children, or the company of earthly friends, are but shadows; but God is the substance. These are but scattered beams, but God is the sun. These are but streams. But God is the ocean."
Learning to see,
Pastor Bill