Dig Deep

“He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep.”  Luke 6:48

The parable of the two builders and two houses cannot be understood by merely looking at the purpose and intent.  The floor plans were no doubt very similar, as were the building materials, the timing, skill and general location.  Yet, there were two very different outcomes.  The storms didn’t move the first house; they left the second house in ruins.  The difference was in the foundations.  The house on the rock stood; the one built on the sand collapsed.  The first man took the time to dig deep; the second man supposed that all that digging was a waste of time.  The second man probably built his house in record time.  He may have been finishing up the latch on the front door, or painting the last piece of trim when he looked out and saw that his neighbor was just nailing the rafters into place.  He smirked, “Ha! Levi hasn’t even got his roof done!”  

Let’s cut to the chase.  We’re talking about the real, authentic you.  You are a complex creature.  “Fearfully and wonderfully made.”  You are more than muscle and blood, skin and bones.  You are more than a homo sapiens who walks upright, breathes, eats, sleeps, wears clothes and works for a living.  Inside of you lives a dynamic personality with motivations, desires, loves, affections, drives, beliefs and intentions.  God has a vested interest in your inner person.  “Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.” Hebrews 4:13. Question: How deep are you willing to dig?  The integrity of your house is a function of the depth of your digging.  You can live cheap or you can dig deep!  You can race and lose, or you can painstakingly do the job right and win.  

God has x-ray vision.  He sees hidden things.  That’s why there is a divine invention called repentance.  It represents the invasive process of digging.  Shallow, incomplete repentance seems godly, but it is only an exercise in self-deception.  Shallow repentance stops short of real pain.  Deep repentance drives through the pain because a real relationship with God is worth any amount of discomfort.  And so, the quest, the goal, the mission that each of us has is to get to that place of the inward parts, to keep digging until we reach the solid rock of truth.  

Old Testament animal sacrifices were grisly.  It was such a complete, bloody carving up of the animal that there was no chance it would come back to life.  That gruesome example defines repentance.  When a sensitive subject comes up, some say, “I’m not going there.”  I’m sorry, but you have to “go there!” Dig deep. Get to the foundation rock. Dig into your relationships, loves, habits, weaknesses.  Dig dirty.  There’s no such thing as a nice repentance; it’s gonna hurt.  Dig up offenses, attitudes, hurts, questions about God.  Dig through roots of bitterness, shame, inadequacies, loss.  Dig through the clay of habits, addictions, failures, disappointments.  Don’t build your fancy house on a shaky foundation.  When do you stop digging?  You are not through digging when you get tired, or just because you hit boulder too big for you to handle, or when you run out of time. You are only through digging when you have reached the foundation rock! 

Storms do come.  Loss, sickness, break-ups, accidents, rejection and death.  My parents’ first child died of diphtheria at ten months old.  They not only survived the tragedy, they flourished.  They went on to plant a church, and then pastor another church. They enjoyed forty-seven years of marital bliss.  The key was that they dug down to the foundation rock!  Dig, my friend, dig deep!  The rock is there if you dig deep enough!

Can I Get an Amen, Somebody?

“For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.” Matthew 6:13 

Humans have a tough time trusting one another, so we pack validating qualifiers into our conversations.  “I’m not kidding; I’m positive; Really?; You don’t mean it; I don’t believe it; I’m telling you the truth; Get out!; You’re lying to me!; Stop it!”  When we do answer in the affirmative, we attach conditions to our commitments.  We sometimes give an emotional yes.  We have even written the right to renege into our laws. 

So, what do you mean when you say, “Yes?”  Will you marry me?  What does it mean when a prospective spouse says, “Yes?”  Do you agree to buy this house?  What does it mean to sign on the dotted line?  Do you accept this job?  What does it mean to go to a new job?  Will you agree to this surgery?  What does it mean to sign for an operation?  Saying yes gives power and permission.  It means I accept all the terms, conditions, responsibilities, costs and risks that go along with this agreement.  Your signature says, “I affirm you, and I confirm my acceptance of this proposal.” One party initiates and the other party responds. 

Amen is an untranslated word.  It means true or faithful.  We say amen to affirm and confirm a statement.  When used at the beginning of a sentence, it emphasizes what is about to be said.  Used at the end of a sentence, it signifies agreement with and affirmation for a statement.  The Jews needed to hear God speak by the voice of the prophet and say Amen to their decisions. “And Benaiah the son of Jehoiada answered the king, and said, Amen: the LORD God of my lord the king say so too.”  1 Kings 1:36. Under Old Testament law, if a woman accused of adultery denied the charge, she had to drink the waters of jealousy.  She had to say “Amen, Amen,” as a personal confirmation to her denial.  Amen was attesting the praise of God in response to doctrine.  For instance, when the priest of God declared a truth about God, the people had to say, “Amen,” or “I agree, I concur.” “Blessed be the LORD God of Israel from everlasting, and to everlasting. Amen, and Amen.” Psalm 41:13.  

Note the distinction between Yes and Amen.  Yes, is the DIVINE INITIATIVE.  “Let there be…” Amen, is the HUMAN RESPONSE.  “So be it…” In Jesus, we see both the divine initiative (Yes!), and the human response (Amen!). “For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.” 2 Corinthians 1:20. When God initiated the need for a savior, Jesus became the human response. Jesus was both the Yes and the Amen! He was both the source and the response. 

God is still saying, “Yes,” but who is saying, “Amen?”  The bodily presence of Jesus is no longer here to respond.  That leaves us—the church.  The church is now the answer to the divine initiative.  God is now saying, “Can I get an amen, somebody?”  “And when He had come into the house, the blind men came to Him. And Jesus said to them, ‘Do you believe that I am able to do this?’ They said to Him, ‘Yes, Lord.’ And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly warned them, saying, ‘See that no one knows it.’  But when they had departed, they spread the news about Him in all that country. Matthew 9:28-31.

God has spoken.  He is waiting for your unconditional, eternal, irrevocable, “Amen!”  “Amen” to the Holy Ghost; “Amen” to service to Him; “Amen” to consecration; “Amen” to the Word of God.  Your human response answers to God’s divine “Yes!”

Discovery Among the Familiar

“Tell me, what do you have in the house?” 2 Kings 4:2 

DO YOU READ INSTRUCTIONS?  A well-traveled test in college classes begins with a lengthy paragraph of instructions.  Buried in the instructions is this phrase, “Before you begin to answer the first question, write your name on the top of the paper, turn it into the teacher and leave.”  Most students assume they already know what to do.  Consequently, they labor for an hour or two over problems they never had to work out, had they only read the instructions! Many of life’s problems come from oversight. Have you ever looked into the cupboards and said, “We have nothing to eat?” Have you ever stood at your closet and said, “I don’t have anything to wear?” The problem is that we grow so accustomed to our surroundings that we become blinded to the things that are within our reach. 

Many people suffer from a false sense of spiritual impairment.  Inadequate equipment: “If only I had…”  Impossible adversity: “If it were not for…”Implied unfairness: “If God would just…”  If we feel that God has undersupplied, under-equipped, under-blessed us, and at the same time he has overloaded, overextended and over-commissioned us, we need to take a second look at what we already have!  But, God has fully supplied us with everything we need for the day. The Shunamite woman’s pot of oil was renewed.  II Kings 4:1-7.  Shamgar delivered Israel with an ox goad.  Judges 3:31. These were ordinary items that God used for extraordinary outcomes.  Look at the insignificant, common things God uses: Hagar and a well of water; Moses and a bush and a rod; Israel and a piece of brass, a tree in the water; Balaam and a donkey; Elijah and a raven; Elisha and a wispy cloud, an axe head, a word; Daniel and a prayer meeting; Jesus and a boy’s lunch, a ball of mud, a word, a look, a touch, a fish, a fig tree.  We often search for the amazing, but overlook the ordinary things under our noses. 

What familiar things have you overlooked? The Word of God.  “I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the wicked one.” 1 John 2:14.  The Name of Jesus.  “That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth.” Philippians 2:10. The Spirit of God.  “For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.” 1 Corinthians 2:9-12.

The Galileans stumbled over the familiar. “’Where did this Man get this wisdom and these mighty works? Is this not the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary? And His brothers James, Joses, Simon, and Judas? And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this Man get all these things?’ So, they were offended at Him. But Jesus said to them, ‘A prophet is not without honor except in his own country and in his own house.’ Now He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.” Matthew 13:54-58. 

Are you enamored with novelty?  Do you yearn for the grass on the other side of the fence?  Are you convinced that something yet unknown, something mysterious, some enigmatic process or some astounding fact will appear out of nowhere and sweep you off your feet?  Forget it.  Your treasure is in what you already have. 

Don’t Be Unequally Yoked

This cogent question found in Amos 3:3 cuts to the core. “Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?”  Any relationship that straddles two divergent views is doomed from the start.  Even pacific relationships encounter threats, challenges and obstacles if they are to make it.  Throw in a fundamental disagreement and you have a recipe for war.  While “politics make strange bedfellows,” the thin broth lacks enduring substance.  Once the issue that forged the compromise fades, it’s over.   

Sometimes, partnerships, coalitions and marriages seem so desirable, so pressing, so vital that people sacrifice deeply held convictions to make them work.  Members of political parties are often asked to overlook immoral platforms and planks or unethical practices to maintain their membership. Employees often put up with offensive corporate objectives, obnoxious bosses or nearly intolerable conditions in order to keep their jobs.  The spate of sexual abuse allegations in recent times involved victims who kept quiet either through bribery or threats. The number of high profile individuals whose careers came crashing down underscored the disastrous consequences of toxic relationships.   

But, the more intimate the arrangement, the more critical is the need for oneness.  Marriages can only survive when both husband and wife share the same views about life in general.  The Apostle Paul warned, “Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?” 2 Corinthians 6:14. “Unequally yoked” goes back to Old Testament times when animals were used to plow fields.  “You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together.” Deuteronomy 22:10. The two animals have different instincts and demeanors.  They will not work in tandem with each other. 

In humans, the same principle applies.  Love-struck romantics, however, often cast all care to the wind when they profess their love and commitment to each other.  Unfortunately, their naiveté tanks all too quickly when they really learn what each other is made of. Pre-marital counseling questions should probe the relationship.  “Are you in debt? Are you in trouble with the law? Are you on parole? Have you been convicted of a felony or misdemeanor? Have you ever been committed to a psychiatric facility? Do you have serious health issues? Has your prospective spouse seen your health records? Have you been honest in talking about previous relationships? Have you used illegal drugs? Do you have any dependents that you have not mentioned? How secure is your job?” Questions like these are difficult to ask. People who want a relationship desperately enough will avoid asking them for fear that they will get the wrong answer. 

Even more importantly, questions about spiritual beliefs, child-rearing and basic life goals need to be asked and answered before marriage is even considered.  Certainly, there are instances where these differences have been brooked, but, in almost every case, it has meant that feelings have been suppressed for the sake of the relationship.  This situation amounts to a fundamental change in each person‘s character and worldview. They may forever rue the day that they put their heads in the proverbial sand and chose to be willfully ignorant. Pay now or pay later.  

Saying no to a prospective relationship may sting now, but saying yes may be catastrophic. Do what’s right.  There are things worse than loneliness. 

Alternate Endings.

Alternate endings fascinate us.  What if the hero would have died—or lived?  What if the guy and the girl at the end of the story had gotten married—or not?  Or married someone else?  We could spin endless scenarios to speculate on the outcome if one or two events had been changed.  Any deviation from the plot would affect the entire outcome of the story.  In the “Tale of Two Cities,” what if Sydney Carton would have escaped his executioner at the end of the story and married Lucie Manette? In “Gone with the Wind,” what if Scarlett O’Hara would have married Rhett Butler? What if Sam-I-Am would have eaten green eggs and ham the very first time he was asked?  Either there wouldn’t have been much of a story or else he might have gotten sick and died over eating unborn chickens on an avocado diet! 

In the Bible, we can engage in similar guesswork about people and happenings.  What if Abraham had slain Isaac on the altar? What if Esau had not sold his birthright? What if Isaac had been wise to Jacob’s deceit? What if Joseph’s brothers had not sold him into slavery? What if Samson had not told Delilah the secret of his strength? What if Goliath had killed David? What if?  What if?  It intrigues us all, even though it seems to be a pointless exercise. 

In fact, the Bible itself engages in some alternate endings.  During a time of Jewish captivity, a man named Haman plotted to massacre all the Jews.  Mordecai, heard about Haman’s plans.  He went to his niece, Queen Esther, to put a stop to it.  Esther was a Hebrew, but she had kept her race secret from the king.  Mordecai told Esther what she had to do.  She had to go in before the king, without an official invitation, and plead the cause of her people.  Her bold move might well have ended in her execution.  She had to make a life or death decision.  Esther had an opportunity to take a completely different route than the one she chose.  She could have refused to intervene on the part of the Jews and saved her life.  The fact is that if Esther had not stepped forward to go to the king, God would have found another way to deliver Israel.

There are alternate endings you need to consider. Why?  Because your decisions about your soul and relationship to God are not set in stone.  The church may be predestined to succeed, but you are not.  Your salvation, and mine, are predicated upon our relationship to the church!  The rich, young ruler could have had an alternate ending.  Let’s freeze frame the moment when this young man heard the words of Jesus. Imagine that we could remove that ending and leave it on the cutting room floor. Let’s have him say something entirely different.  Something like, “Rabbi, you are right.  I have become obsessed with my riches and vast holdings.  My possessions possess me instead of the other way around.  I don’t want to be a prisoner to things any longer.  I want to be set free.” But, he didn’t.  He walked away sorrowful.  He walked away from peace, joy and fulfillment.  He walked away from an eternity with God.  

What about you? How is your story line progressing? Do you think it is set in stone?  Does the ending seem inevitable? Are you scripted to end up in jail, the divorce courts, or in a wilderness of rejection and fear?  You don’t have to.  You don’t have to die lonely, racked with emotional pain and shattered dreams. God has an alternate ending written for every person, according to His will.  But God will do nothing against your will. 

You are not a fictional character that God will cross out and forget about.  You can choose a different ending.  Will you be a willing participant in the story change?

A Place of Broad Rivers

“But there the majestic LORD will be for us a place of broad rivers… in which no galley with oars will sail.” Isaiah 33:21. 

Things are not always what they seem to be.  Ancient Babylon seemed to be an impregnable city.  The Roman Empire seemed to be incapable of defeat.  The Titanic seemed to be an unsinkable ship.  It has seemed to generations past that electricity could not be harnessed; that the speed of horseback could not be surpassed; that air could not support a flying machine.  In each case, the suppositions were wrong.  In the economy of God, seemingly impossible situations provide the arena for God to display his supernatural power.  He delights in taking the very things man calls impossible and turning them into monuments to his excellency.  

Most great cities were founded upon a broad river.  Babylon on the Euphrates, Nineveh on the Tigris, Thebes on the Nile, Rome on the Tiber, Paris on the Seine, and London on the Thames.  Yet Jerusalem had no great river.  The Jordan River was a mere stream that connected Galilee with the Dead Sea, and it was still fifteen miles from the city. Without a natural river, Jerusalem had no natural supply route for commerce.  Without a natural river, it had no means of nourishment for the land.  Without a natural river, it had no natural means of defense. 

The secret:  Jerusalem had no natural advantages because Israel was to focus on the supernatural advantage they possessed—the Lord God Jehovah!  The less you rely on the natural resources, the more you will rely on the supernatural resources.  “The glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers!”  

Jerusalem is a type of the church.  The church has been criticized some because it lacks all the things that other great religions of the world have.  Who founded our organization?  What is our history?  What great contribution have we made to the world?  Are we listed in the Who’s Who?  How many adherents do we have?  What great colleges, universities or hospitals do we run?  Church members sometimes get paranoid that they lack all the advantages that others in the world have.   But, those who rely on the ways of this world share the fate of the world. 

Cultivate your relationship with God instead of continually looking for everything you need someplace else.  He will supply your need for commerce or livelihood.  “I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.”  Psalm 37:25 He will supply your need for nourishment as He did for Elijah in 1 Kings 17.  God will supply your need for protection.  

Here’s the kicker: Galleys with oars and gallant vessels were invading ships. They navigated broad rivers to carry out their attacks.  If you choose the broad rivers, you will also choose the means by which you will be overthrown!  Satan may sail in on the very river you thought was so important for your life.  Learn this important principle: trust in your Lord alone—not in geography, pedigree, education, money, connections—nothing but Jesus!  He will be your broad river! 

Hills and Valleys

“But the land which you cross over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water from the rain of heaven.” Deuteronomy 11:11.

Topography significantly impacts Bible history.  Seas, rivers, brooks, wadis, mountains, hills, valleys, plains, caves and deserts weave topographical features into familiar names and stories.  Jacob crossed the Brook Jabbok to dream about his ladder to heaven.  Moses climbed Mt. Sinai to receive the ten commandments.  Aaron and Hur held up the arms of Moses on a hill in Rephidim so Israel could prevail against the enemy Amalek.  Lot chose the well-watered plains of Jordan.  Elijah sought refuge in a cave where God fed him by sending ravens with food.  Moses fled to the backside of the desert to keep the sheep of his father-in-law Jethro. 

The place where these events occurred had a definite effect on whatever happened there.  Life does not happen as a series of random occurrences that make no sense.  The reason God leads us to certain places is because we will learn something there because of the very circumstances surrounding the event. 

I am always surprised that people are so surprised about the things that happen to them in life. Surprise happens when the thing you think is going to happen doesn’t—or its opposite does.  God (it would seem) aggravates people daily with a pathway filled with dips and turns, rockslides and icy patches, potholes and one-lane bridges—all of it simultaneously tantalizing and frustrating.  The pathway plays no favorites. Manufacturers equip motor vehicles with shock absorbers because any attempt to force the pathway to conform to the driver’s expectations meets with bone-jarring jolts. It’s up to you to adapt to the pathway, not the other way around. 

The pathway to a growing life is dynamic, not static. Truth remains the same and principles stay constant, but changing circumstances and an array of variables along the way insure that you will never really figure it all out. It doesn’t matter how old you are or how far you’ve come, you have not been this way before. Your experience has only qualified you to understand yourself to some degree; it has not licensed you to manage your pathway. 

As you negotiate the turns, curves and obstacles that constitute your pathway, you will change. Whether you move on enlightened or angered, helped or hurt, wiser or more puzzled, dead or alive depends upon how you react. Any reaction that suspends the learning experience, like anger or despair, brings your journey to a halt.  You will not progress until you get these reactions in hand, overcome them and go on.  And, when the road that unfolds before you meets the distant horizon, you cannot even be sure which way it goes from there.  You can be sure of only one thing:  another learning opportunity awaits you.

Crying Without Tears

“But he cried the more a great deal, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me.”  Mark 10:48

“A person once told me that crying without tears is the worst form of crying. And they were right- because the weeping of the soul hurts so much more and no one can console you because no one can see, and even if they can they do not reach its tremendous depth. 

This is a tribute to all those who have felt the anguish of tearless sobs and broken spirits. May God guide you through it, and may those you love be there for you when the tears start to fall and every moment after.” (Flickr)

It is a beautiful, moving story. “Jesus heals blind man.” We rejoice! Every story about the miracles of Jesus inspires us. But there is always a story behind the story. How did Bartimaeus find the motivation, how did he find his way out of his darkness to utter his life-changing cry? If you say it was simple, you don’t understand the complicated nature of the cry for help. I know what happens, for example, between a person’s decision to step out from their pew into the aisle and go to an altar of repentance. I know that story. But I don’t always know how that same person got from the parking lot to the pew. What motivates someone to finally cry for help? The greatest struggle is before the cry, not after. 

What is a cry made of? What really motivates a Bartimaeus to escape the suffocating sightlessness of his existence and scream out to God? For every effect, there is a cause. There must be an action before there is a reaction. Bartimaeus was a beggar, blind, penniless, without credibility, powerless.  He cried out for mercy from Jesus, calling Him the Son of David. No one asks mercy from a peer or a subordinate. Mercy must be asked from a person in authority who has the power to determine one’s fate. The crowd told him to be quiet. The blind man was a disturbance. They had no sympathy for him. They represented a barrier between the blind man and his healing. 

Let’s look into Bartimaeus’ soul. This was much more complicated than just a blind man crying out for sight. His condition was not enough to elicit a cry from his soul to Jesus. (Have you ever been frustrated at a person who was in trouble but didn’t tell anyone?) There was more. The pressure for him to remain silent was huge. He had to overcome the voices in his head that tried to silence him. There was the doubt that he could be healed. Today, people educated in this modern system have had many doubts sown into their hearts about the power of Jesus to heal. There was the fear that he would not be heard. Do you know what it is like to finally gather enough courage to say something about your problem and then suffer the ultimate hurt of not being heard? It’s like you have no right, no standing, no worthiness, no purpose, no divine plan for your life. To others, you do not seem to count. There was the possibility that he would not be received. Rejection is one of the worst emotions a human being can experience. Jesus knows the trauma of rejection. 

Your cry for help may be more complicated than anyone—even you—understands. Who knows what voices you hear from your past? Who knows what negative self-images hammer your brain? Who know the depth of your self-doubts, insecurities and fears? What shame lies buried within your heart? What secret pain has never been able to find full expression? How many times have you stifled your cry? We may not have a clue. 

Was there another blind man in the crowd that day? Could he have heard the approaching throng and entertained the fleeting thought that he could receive his miracle? When his opportunity arrived, did he gather his robes around him and shuffle off into the dark night, convinced that things could never be any different for him? Unless you first conquer the enemies within, you have no courage to fight the enemies without! 

Cry out; you will not be cast out!  “All that the Father gives me shall come to me; and he that comes to me I will in no wise cast out.”  John 6:37.