Joshua 4:1-7
New International Version 1984 (NIV1984)
Joshua 4
1 When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the LORD said to Joshua, 2 “Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, 3 and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan from right where the priests stood and to carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight.”
4 So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, 5 and said to them, “Go over before the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, 6 to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ 7 tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.”
When we had first moved to Minnesota in 1995 our stated goal was to take a vacation every two years back home to Maine. That is a tradition we kept to until the last four or five years as both sets of our parents continue to age anddeal with various health issues. Now we come home every summer and one week of the winter Patty heads to her parents and I to mine.
Every year we go home we always think it is the last year the kids will come home with us. Yet this year was more of the same. Morgan, recent graduate from college, recently licensed as a minister with the Assemblies of God, and recently engaged, wanted to bring her fiancee, Levi, home to meet the family and to see the sights. Jordan, entering his final year of college, brought his girlfriend, Abby, home for the same reason. (Let me say before going further my children have chosen well).
There is something about going back home and every year we hit the same places: the beach, the mountain, Queechee Gorge, the golf courses, Martell's Ice Cream, Two Lights and on and on. We never get bored when coming home.
This year we all attended service at Emmanuel Assembly of God in Portland. Emmanuel Assembly holds a special place in my heart for it is there that God dealt with my me and persuaded me to enter the ministry full-time. It is also there that God gave Patty and I Pastor Ken and Beth Wilcox who invested in us, helped us grow in our faith and prepared us for what lie ahead in ministry. My "pastor template" is fashioned after the care, compassion and sense of duty Pastor Wilcox displayed in front of me. It is no mistake that I still call him Pastor because, in many ways, he still remains so.
We head back to Emmanuel Assembly every year not just to visit old friends. In all honesty, not many of the people we fellowshiped with from 1990-1995 are still there. Many have passed away, many have moved on to other churches. But I can go to Emmanuel Assembly of God and go to the spot at the altar I had knelt one Sunday night and I finally gave in to God's call on my life.
The passage from Joshua is important because God instructed Joshua to put up a reminder of God's goodness and faithfulness and provision in getting to the Promised Land. This pile of stones was not to be placed there for that generation but for the future generations who would see the stones and ask "What is that?" And the response would be the wonderful story of God leading them out of Egypt.
All of us have stones in our life that we can take our children, our grandchildren, our friends to see. It may be a picture, it may be a place, it may be a building but it will be a reminder of when God was faithful to us and a reminder that he will be faithful again. It will also instill in the future generation the truth that if God spoke to Dad, provided for Dad, healed Dad then God will be there to do the same for them.
This is why it was important to bring Levi and Abby to Emmanuel Assembly, for it is there it all started. If Emmanuel Assembly never happened, we would never have moved to Minnesota and Morgan would have never met Levi and Jordan never would have met Abby.
Thank God for the stones that bring back not just the memory of his faithfulness but the hope of who He still is.
Monday, July 25, 2011
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Vacation Edition: Re-writing History
John 8:31-33 "To the Jews that believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you really are my disciples. Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free." They answered him, "We are Abraham's descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?
As I sit in the Appalachian Trail Cafe in downtown Millinocket, my vacation has officially started. I have treated myself to a helping of chopped tots and onions, a cup of coffee, and the buzz and murmur that is the hometown diner. And with it come memories.
I love my hometown, as any other person does. The memories are as strong as the coffee, but like a good cup of coffee does from time to time, memories can give me heartburn and keep me up at night. Not all the memories of growing up in the Magic City are magical yet they are part of my heritage, a part of my past, a part of the legacy I pass on to my kids.
It is interesting looking back on my youth. Most of the memories that keep me up at night are now seen through adult eyes and with adult sensibilities. I realize now the moments when I was a jerk, the people I hurt, and the true motives behind some of my actions as a youth. Some of them are particularly cringe-inducing. If one of my kids had acted like I did growing up, I would have slapped them into the next week.
We all have memories we would change if we could.Yet, mingled with those memories are the things that I would never change. The memories that keep me up at night for a good reason. The ones that bring a smile and a laugh and pride in accomplishment.
Good, bad or indifferent my history plays a key role in what I pass onto my kids. My legacy includes both the good and bad memories and the lessons learned from both. To re-write my history to ignore the more painful parts would diminish what I have become today. To ignore the moments I was less than perfect or to explain away certain actions because of "youth" would dishonor God and the place he has brought me thus far.
Christ's famous "...and the truth shall set you free" is spoken in the above passage. But the reaction of those listening is what catches my imagination. They are re-writing their past. "We are Abraham's descendants and have never been slaves of anyone!" is a statement both true and untrue at the same time.
Though it is likely this particularly group of men listening to Christ have never been slaves to anyone (though they find themselves under Roman rule) they changed the perspective when they bring up their heritage. Their people certainly were slaves to the Egyptians. And the story of God's provision and escape at that time has carried the Hebrew nation through thick and thin. To forget that particular past, no matter how painful, means to forget where God stepped in and that is a dangerous thing.
Somewhere along the line these group of men lost the correlation of the God of their past with the God of their present. To forget they were slaves at one time and God set them free means they have forgotten the God that set people free be it from tyranny or sin. The Hebrew nation could have been long forgotten if not for God's intervention.
To re-write our history, no matter how painful the history might be, means we may write out God in the process. When we wipe God from our past it means we do not pass on to our children the God who has changed us, set us free and intervened in the worse moments of our life. To re-write our past means we re-write God to being only an icon in a stained-glass window or a bed-time story on par with the Easter Bunny or Good Night, Moon.
To re-write our history means our children do not see the God who is active in all parts of our lives. To tell the story that God saved me, delivered me, or changed me means, at one point, I needed saving, delivering and changing. And though those things may be painful to dredge up, it is also a testimony of a great God who is there not just when things are going well, but is there, ready to free me in my times of slavery.
I can think of no better legacy to pass on than what God has done for me in my past. Faithful in my past, God has proven faithful in my present and will prove faithful in my future.
I encourage you to embrace your past in full, even the painful parts, and look back on it with adult eyes and sensibilities. If we do so we will see how God has changed us, where God has intervened for us, and has shaped us to be who we are in Him.
As I sit in the Appalachian Trail Cafe in downtown Millinocket, my vacation has officially started. I have treated myself to a helping of chopped tots and onions, a cup of coffee, and the buzz and murmur that is the hometown diner. And with it come memories.
I love my hometown, as any other person does. The memories are as strong as the coffee, but like a good cup of coffee does from time to time, memories can give me heartburn and keep me up at night. Not all the memories of growing up in the Magic City are magical yet they are part of my heritage, a part of my past, a part of the legacy I pass on to my kids.
It is interesting looking back on my youth. Most of the memories that keep me up at night are now seen through adult eyes and with adult sensibilities. I realize now the moments when I was a jerk, the people I hurt, and the true motives behind some of my actions as a youth. Some of them are particularly cringe-inducing. If one of my kids had acted like I did growing up, I would have slapped them into the next week.
We all have memories we would change if we could.Yet, mingled with those memories are the things that I would never change. The memories that keep me up at night for a good reason. The ones that bring a smile and a laugh and pride in accomplishment.
Good, bad or indifferent my history plays a key role in what I pass onto my kids. My legacy includes both the good and bad memories and the lessons learned from both. To re-write my history to ignore the more painful parts would diminish what I have become today. To ignore the moments I was less than perfect or to explain away certain actions because of "youth" would dishonor God and the place he has brought me thus far.
Christ's famous "...and the truth shall set you free" is spoken in the above passage. But the reaction of those listening is what catches my imagination. They are re-writing their past. "We are Abraham's descendants and have never been slaves of anyone!" is a statement both true and untrue at the same time.
Though it is likely this particularly group of men listening to Christ have never been slaves to anyone (though they find themselves under Roman rule) they changed the perspective when they bring up their heritage. Their people certainly were slaves to the Egyptians. And the story of God's provision and escape at that time has carried the Hebrew nation through thick and thin. To forget that particular past, no matter how painful, means to forget where God stepped in and that is a dangerous thing.
Somewhere along the line these group of men lost the correlation of the God of their past with the God of their present. To forget they were slaves at one time and God set them free means they have forgotten the God that set people free be it from tyranny or sin. The Hebrew nation could have been long forgotten if not for God's intervention.
To re-write our history, no matter how painful the history might be, means we may write out God in the process. When we wipe God from our past it means we do not pass on to our children the God who has changed us, set us free and intervened in the worse moments of our life. To re-write our past means we re-write God to being only an icon in a stained-glass window or a bed-time story on par with the Easter Bunny or Good Night, Moon.
To re-write our history means our children do not see the God who is active in all parts of our lives. To tell the story that God saved me, delivered me, or changed me means, at one point, I needed saving, delivering and changing. And though those things may be painful to dredge up, it is also a testimony of a great God who is there not just when things are going well, but is there, ready to free me in my times of slavery.
I can think of no better legacy to pass on than what God has done for me in my past. Faithful in my past, God has proven faithful in my present and will prove faithful in my future.
I encourage you to embrace your past in full, even the painful parts, and look back on it with adult eyes and sensibilities. If we do so we will see how God has changed us, where God has intervened for us, and has shaped us to be who we are in Him.
Friday, July 8, 2011
AMEN....
If you were to attend Hill City Assembly of God this weekend, you would see a new addition to the interior decoration. Above our main doors is a cut slab of wood engraved with the word "amen". This piece of wood came from a sawmill one of my parishioners frequented and it hung in his home for many, many years. For the 10 years I knew Wayne, I never noticed it in the house.
Wayne passed away a couple years ago and my memories of him are fond. There is a significance to the "amen", which we added to the wood. Wayne was afflicted with Tourette's Syndrome and was diagnosed when he was nine. He lived to the age of 70.
One of the characteristics of Tourette's is the vocal outbursts that take place. Usually they are vulgar and filled with profanity, but not with Wayne. When he had an outburst the words "That's right!" or "Praise the Lord!" or "Amen" would be expressed. It was quite encouraging to a young picture to be "amen-ed" so vociferously.
Amen is an interesting word. Many of us think of it as a word that connotes the end, or a finish because we relate it to the end of our prayers. But I would say that Amen is more a beginning than an end.
Amen means "So be it." It is a word of affirmation that what has been said is true. This is why Amen is shouted out as encouragement to preachers. It is saying "That is good!" or "That is right!"
Amen is also a word of faith. When we pray and finish with Amen, we are stating that what has been prayed to God has been heard by God and God will answer. We pray "Thy will be done" and finish with "So be it."
I like to relate amen to Jean-Luc Picard's catch-phrase. For those of you who do not know, Picard is the captain of the Starship Enterprise in Star Trek: The Next Generation, and is the best of all the captains run out during the franchise. (FYI: Picard, Kirk, Janeway make the top three)
After Picard would gather information and assess the situation he would ask opinions of Ryker, Worf, Data or Laforge and when he came upon a solution he would bark this command: "Make it so." The crew had to take some responsibility in "making it so."
So it is with prayer. If we were to pray for the poor we must take some responsibility for the poor. If I am to pray to become more devout in study, I must take some responsibility in becoming more devout. Pray to be a better husband? I must take some responsibility for that improvement.
Obviously, there are some prayers that only God can make so. But even as we pray for the healing of a small child, can't we do our part to encourage and affirm the child and the family that not only have we prayed but we care?
Amen does not end the discussion, it is the beginning of God's action and our responsibility.
So when the people of my church see the piece of wood with Amen on it, I hope they will remember Wayne. I also hope they will take what they heard from God that day and take responsibility for it and apply it to their hearts and lives.
When we say "Amen" we are partnering with God to "make it so."
Wayne passed away a couple years ago and my memories of him are fond. There is a significance to the "amen", which we added to the wood. Wayne was afflicted with Tourette's Syndrome and was diagnosed when he was nine. He lived to the age of 70.
One of the characteristics of Tourette's is the vocal outbursts that take place. Usually they are vulgar and filled with profanity, but not with Wayne. When he had an outburst the words "That's right!" or "Praise the Lord!" or "Amen" would be expressed. It was quite encouraging to a young picture to be "amen-ed" so vociferously.
Amen is an interesting word. Many of us think of it as a word that connotes the end, or a finish because we relate it to the end of our prayers. But I would say that Amen is more a beginning than an end.
Amen means "So be it." It is a word of affirmation that what has been said is true. This is why Amen is shouted out as encouragement to preachers. It is saying "That is good!" or "That is right!"
Amen is also a word of faith. When we pray and finish with Amen, we are stating that what has been prayed to God has been heard by God and God will answer. We pray "Thy will be done" and finish with "So be it."
I like to relate amen to Jean-Luc Picard's catch-phrase. For those of you who do not know, Picard is the captain of the Starship Enterprise in Star Trek: The Next Generation, and is the best of all the captains run out during the franchise. (FYI: Picard, Kirk, Janeway make the top three)
After Picard would gather information and assess the situation he would ask opinions of Ryker, Worf, Data or Laforge and when he came upon a solution he would bark this command: "Make it so." The crew had to take some responsibility in "making it so."
So it is with prayer. If we were to pray for the poor we must take some responsibility for the poor. If I am to pray to become more devout in study, I must take some responsibility in becoming more devout. Pray to be a better husband? I must take some responsibility for that improvement.
Obviously, there are some prayers that only God can make so. But even as we pray for the healing of a small child, can't we do our part to encourage and affirm the child and the family that not only have we prayed but we care?
Amen does not end the discussion, it is the beginning of God's action and our responsibility.
So when the people of my church see the piece of wood with Amen on it, I hope they will remember Wayne. I also hope they will take what they heard from God that day and take responsibility for it and apply it to their hearts and lives.
When we say "Amen" we are partnering with God to "make it so."
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
What God has joined together...
Matthew 19:6
King James Version (KJV)
6Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.
Tonight, a young man asked for my daughter's hand in marriage. I was not surprised because both Morgan and Levi have been talking in "we" terms for quite awhile; they have explored ministry positions as a couple and have been planning their future together.
Yet it was a wonderful moment. Again, I knew this day was coming and had planned all sorts of witty rejoinders to make Levi sweat a little. But in the moment none of those came to mind. All that I could say is "Yes." And in the end I said, "All I ask is that you take care of her."
Levi may not know it but he is an answer to prayer. Ever since Morgan was a little girl my wife and I have prayed for the man she would marry. We have prayed that he would be a strong man of God. We have prayed that he would complement Morgan and that the two would have a strong impact for God, whether full-time ministry would be in the works or not. We prayed for a man who would be strong enough for Morgan, who is a strong person in her own right. We prayed for a man that would have a heart for God and a heart for our daughter.
Levi is that and more, by all accounts. He has a great sense of humor that is dry and sarcastic, which should serve him well with both the Valley and Wilson side of the families. He loves sports. He is a musician. I have yet to hear him preach, so I will hold off giving him an A-plus until then (or until he takes me to Wrigley, then I don't care how he preaches).
Here is the one thing that clinched it for me: Whenever Morgan is with Levi she has the look about her that she is safe. A father could ask for nothing more than that his little girl will be safe.
As perfect as Levi is, he and Morgan will have their share of rough moments. Moments when they will have to choose to love when they do not feel like love is in the air. Ministry can bring a couple closer but it can also drive a wedge between two. They will learn the ups and downs and the balance that will be needed to sustain a marriage, a family and a life together. A lot of things will try to "asunder" them, but the key will be the first part of the verse.
Morgan and Levi have an advantage because God has joined them together. They both are seekers of God and in turn, God has sought them out and put them in the place they are today. I do not believe they are together by chance or circumstance but they are together because a loving God has put them together and they were both sensitive enough to the Holy Spirit to listen when He spoke.
As kids are wont to do, they will forge ahead with the life that is ahead of them-with the life that God has for them. I could give them plenty of advice and let them reap from the harvest of my experience, but that would be slim picking indeed. Knowing the plans they have already, they will be moving even farther away from us which makes Dad excited for what is ahead but a little melancholy.
But now my task is to pray not just for Morgan but for Morgan and Levi (and any little grandkids that may come along---hint, hint). I am pleased. God has answered my prayer.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)