THE FURNACE...

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.
-- 1 Peter 4:12

TV preachers who talk of happiness and abundance as the true results of faith, tell only part of the story. We cannot appreciate abundance without knowing lack. We cannot be happy unless we've known joy in the midst of pain.

Through $30,000 smiles and caked makeup, they tell a half-true story. But where there is half-truth, there is falsehood.

I've always wondered how their message would sit with the Apostle Paul. "Paul," they might say, "if you truly have faith, you should be on a yacht and not in a dungeon. God wants you to be rich and happy." Paul might smile to himself - or cry - and continue writing the words:

I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. 

I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. 

In any and every circumstance, I learned the secret 

of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. 

I CAN DO ALL THINGS 

THROUGH HIM WHO STRENGTHENS ME.  

-- Philippians 4:11-13

Yes, God does want us to know joy. Jesus is the embodiment of joy. His presence is the fullness of joy. As one (non-makeuped) preacher put it... KNOW JESUS, KNOW JOY. NO JESUS. NO JOY. 

Yes, God does want us to experience abundance. And sometimes with that abundance comes wealth. But wealth measured in only stuff and money is not true wealth. 

When we buy what the half-truth-tellers sell, we pay the consequences. We are surprised by trial. Worse, we feel deceived or defeated by trial's mere presence.

If you will allow an old preacher to preach for a moment (through morning-coffee teeth and with a new blemish on my cheek (who gets those at my age anyway?) - in other words, no $30K smile or makeup)... 

The fire of trial will not defeat you. It may burn away some things that, though painful, ultimately hold you back. But it will not consume you. The fire of trial will REFINE you. It will FORGE your character. It will make you who can be. And in the midst of the heat, you will find the presence of JOY. 

I can't say that I have learned to look forward to trials. I don't necessarily embrace them (before or during). But I am better for the pain. And I bear the scars with an odd joy (and almost pride). I don't look forward to my next fiery trial. But I fear it less. Because within every furnace I've walked, there has been one who walks with me.

God, you have always been with me through the fire of trial, refine me. Forge me...

For now...

D

Explain yourself...

... always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect...
-- 1 Peter 3:15

Explain yourself.

When necessary use words. 

There is A HOPE within you; and within me. This hope is a person, and everything he is, stands for, has done, and promises. Peter calls it a LIVING HOPE.

Others should take notice of this hope within us - if it is there. I do not mean to imply that we are to drum it up in some way. Theatrics repel. Authenticity draws. And if the hope is real, there is no need for theater. If hope is authentic, it will demonstrate itself.

How? In what we do (and how we do it). In what we say (and how we say it).

LIVING HOPE within produces actions (and behaviors) that match our words; and words (and attitudes) that match our actions. The Christian life is an equation that must be balanced on both sides of the equal sign (=).

WORDS = ACTIONS

ACTIONS = WORDS

(If I recall 8th grade algebra, I believe it is the Communicative Property... kind of. Maybe it's part Associative, or Distributive. I don't know. What I do know is I've now led you WAY off  track.)

Peter tells us to ...always be prepared. Prepared to DO good... prepared to SAY good. (Not good grammar, but I think you get it.) To do so, we must train. We must train for actions and train for conversations.

This little blog is not a "How To..." In reality, we know "how to." Our problem is usually less a problem of "how to," but of "want to."

Prepare yourself. Today you will have opportunity to present hope... to reveal the living hope that is within you. Act on it. Speak about it. In doing so, you will find joy. In doing so others my find life.

God, you are my LIVING HOPE.

For now...
D

What we do...

For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. 
--1 Peter 2:15

What we say matters. What we do matters even more. 

How can a mind be changed? How can a heart be won? How can a culture be healed?

Right words are important. Right ideas expressing truth, spoken with right attitudes, are vital. But without right action, words fail.

Doing good pleases God. Doing good builds our character. Doing good brings light into darkness. And a by-product: doing good silences ugliness.

There is enough ugliness in our world. There is too little good. Allow me to rephrase, there is overwhelming good. But there must be more doing good. That is you... that is me... today.

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
-- Micah 6:8

God, you made me good in Christ, now help me to have the guts to do good.

For now...
D

Red, Yellow, Black and White...

As you have, I've read many opinions, responses and rants on the recent tragic events in our country. The following is simply an observation from church this morning... nothing more (or less). 

This morning I was moved during worship. I often fight back tears during the music at church nowadays. I don't know if I'm just getting soft, or if it has more to do with the journey of life. Like many of you, my path has not been the expected one.

This morning, as the lights were down and during a particularly moving worship lyric I looked ahead a few rows and across the aisle. Facing me (actually not me, but my direction) was a woman signing the words to the song. Facing her was a large man singing/signing. I was struck. His worship was a beautiful thing. And I'm sure angels were moved... and the Father smiled.

At that moment, the man was not a Deaf-American or Hearing-impaired American; there was only one label that described him in the moment. He was a child of God. A brother. A worshiper singing to his King.

Like I said, just an observation. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Oh, and when the lights came up later I noticed this worshiper, this child of God, happened to have a skin color unlike my own.

It changed nothing. As a matter of fact, in the light of worship, I couldn't tell.

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, 

there is no male and female, for 

you are all one in Christ Jesus.

-- Galatians 3:28

For now...
D

A Hope with Scars... (Trials... just one more)

So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while.  
-- 1 Peter 1:6, NLT

Perseverance has a point. Trials have purpose. In a word, it is hope. And hope is an incredibly powerful thing.

Paul writes:
We rejoice in hope... not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does put us to shame (does not disappoint, NASB)...
-- Romans 5:2-5

Rejoicing (in hope) is easy when it is easy. But there is a depth of hope that comes through fire. It is an unshakable hope. Hope with muscles. Hope with scars.

Persevering through trials deepens and refines character. Who we truly are - and are becoming - is both forged and revealed in the furnace of difficulty. And the hope that is easy in the easy times becomes an experienced commodity. It becomes a part of who we are. It IS who we are.

The hope of (and in) God NEVER DISAPPOINTS!

God, I will hope in you.

For now...
D

The Joy of Trials

So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a little while.  
-- 1 Peter 1:6, NLT

We tend to think of enduring as not only a means, but an end. It often seems the best we can muster. But this is not enough. Surviving and thriving are vastly different things.

Peter writes that we are to be truly glad because, there is wonderful joy ahead. Jesus' brother James put it this way, Consider it pure joy... when you face various trials (James 1:2).

There is art and faith necessary to thrive even in the midst of trials. Required is a steely-eyed willingness to acknowledge the reality of the giant standing before us; mixed with a childlike - almost silly - belief that the giant will fall.

It would be inauthentic and possibly damaging to dismiss our trial. It is real. But just as real, realer if you will allow me, is the joy beyond. And the One who stands behind the giant of our trial is gianter.

We must learn to look to the far side. Christ himself endured the trial of the cross by focusing on the joy set before him (Hebrews 12:2).

And here is the key: the joy beyond, is our joy in the midst. If I were preaching, I'd pause, then slowly enunciate those words again. The God who stands behind the giant also stands beside us as we face the giant. His shadow overshadows every giant. (Yep, I'd repeat that one too.) And, in his presence is the fullness of joy (Psalm 16:11). So as we face the trial, we recognize the joy on the other side and we realize (as in experience) the joy of his presence even in the fog of trial.

I saw the movie Everest the other day. It is the story of the catastrophe that surrounded the May 1996 expedition attempting to summit the highest pinnacle on the planet. There are many analogies and lessons that I will save for later. It is one statement made by Doug Hansen that impacted me. "Suffer a few more days, and for the rest of your life you'll be the guy who got to the top of Everest."

Endure because you must. Survive because you can. But thrive because because there is a joy... a joy on the far side... a joy that is also here, now.

God, as Nehemiah said, "The joy of the Lord is (will be) my strength."

For now...
D