A Brick in the Valley

What season is it in your life? Are you living in July? Or, is it late February full of slush?

I remember an Easter morning when I must have been about 10 years old. We were waiting upstairs in our farm house for the Easter Bunny to finish hiding candy when my sister Shelley spotted a robin in the back yard. The Brauns crew erupted. We yelled down to my parents, “We saw a robin.”

Why the excitement over a common bird? It wasn’t like we were great nature lovers. To be honest, if my brothers and I had been outside with a 410 we might have even take a shot at it.

For that matter, a robin isn’t a particularly incredible bird. A pheasant is bigger and brighter. A cardinal is more vivid, bald eagles are more spectacular. But, you know why we were excited. A robin in the Upper Midwest is one of the first signs of Spring.

I still smile when I see the first robin of the year. I know if Spring doesn’t show up with the robins, it won’t be far behind.

No robins yet. In fact, they’re a few weeks out and it’s about an ugly a time of year as we have in the Midwest. The snow that remains is gray slush. But, it will only be a few weeks and the first brave robins will fly north and freeze for their tail feathers off for a few days before the warm spring rains arrive.

Life is seasons. There are warm summer days in July, and, flaming maples in October. There are tulips and geraniums. But, there is also late February. And, on those gray days, spring seems decades away.

It may be that your life is in the month of February. If you look out the window of your circumstances, all you see is gray slush and icy rain. But, be assured of this. If you know Christ, Spring is not far away.

Go to your window right now. Open up your Bible and read the Psalms. Listen to Christian music. You may be surprised to see a robin. And, even though Spring may not come at exactly the same time as the robin, it won’t be far behind.

Look to Christ for Spring.

"Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul (Psalm 143:8)."

I think the reason many are depressed over the holidays is because they do not know how to interpret the yearnings of their soul.

I don’t suppose that there is anyone who has not experienced yearnings or longings of the soul – Augustine said that he experienced them when he read Plato – -  he felt as though he was looking at a peaceful valley from a wooded ridge – -  a nostalgic feeling — that there was a beautiful place that he couldn’t quite access.

Lewis wrote a great deal about these longings and and called them “joy’ – -but, he didn’t mean simple happiness, but rather a yearning.

“The experience is one of intense longing. It is distinguished from other longings by two things. In the first place, though the sense of want is acute and even painful, yet the mere wanting is felt to be somehow a delight.” See Pilgrim’s Regress, page 7.

The Germans call this longing Sehnsucht (ZANE-zoocht): yearnings and searchings of the soul (Plantinga, Engaging God’s World, 4).

I haven’t heard Bono talk about it recently, but at least in the 80’s U2, “Still hadn’t found what they were looking for.”  That was a song about “sehnsucht.”

Plantinga (page 3) gave this example of sehnsucht, “certain people feel a kind of delicious sadness on what seems to be the last day of summer.”

The Stones called it “satisfaction” and from the sounds of things were very angry they couldn’t get it.

Most feel it at Christmas time, and my point here is that the reason so many are inconsolably depressed is because they don’t know what to do with Sehnsucht: the longings of the soul. 

Borrowing from Lewis, if you don’t know what I am talking about here – – move on to a different blog – – because this one isn’t going to make any sense.

But, if you do know what I mean by these intense longings – – then you will probably agree that more than any other season, at Christmas time we have a yearning for something wonderful that seems just beyond our reach – -

And, it is imperative that these yearnings be properly interpreted.   We must realize that these longings of our soul are a longing for God and they will be ultimately fulfilled only on the New Earth.

So many get in trouble at this time of the year, because they convince themselves that these can be fulfilled now – – and when the yearnings of their soul are not satisfied, then they find themselves mired in depression.

You want to see someone depressed (or sometimes mad)?  Find someone who thought that the longings of their soul would be satisfied by having Christmas done in a particular way – – then when they couldn’t get “any satisfaction,” they looked for someone or some circumstance to blame.

Here is what we must do.  Recognize the longings of the soul for what they are. . . they are not needs that can be met in Christmas 2007 by circumstances or relationships within Creation – – rather, they are signs pointing us to Christ – – as Yancey said, they are “Rumors of Another World.”

Lewis’ testimony is all about how he finally figured out sensucht. . . not that he ever got over it.

“I believe (if the thing were at all worth recording) that the stab, the old bittersweet, has come to me as often and as sharply since my conversion as at any time of my life whatever. But I now know that the experience, considered as a state of my own mind, had never had the kind of importance I once gave it. It was valuable only as a pointer to something other and outer. While that other was in doubt, the pointer naturally loomed large in my thoughts. When we are lost in the woods the sight of a signpost is a great matter. He who first sees it cries, “look!” The whole party gathers round and stares. But when we have found the road and are passing signposts every few miles, we shall not stop and stare. They will encourage us and we shall be grateful to the authority that sets them up. But we shall not stop and stare, or not much; not on this road, though their pillars are of silver and their lettering of gold. ‘We should be at Jerusalem.’ Not, of course, that I don’t catch myself stopping to stare at roadside objects of less importance.” C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy.

Know this at Christmas: Your soul will only find rest in Christ (Psalm 62); what you are longing for is God.  Savor him now – – and be excited on that morning when we will open the present of a New Creation and eternity in his presence (Revelation 21:3-5).

Reposted.

Most of us know what it takes to kill something.  You have to be vicious. One day when I was mowing my yard I saw my neighbor run out of his garage with a shovel in his hand.  He ran into the flower bed by his house and began pummeling the ground.

I didn’t see for sure what he was hitting, but I have a working theory.  I think that while he was cleaning his garage a mouse or some rodent surprised him.  And, my neighbor who does not wish to share his garage with mice, much less be surprised by them, decided to pulverize his uninvited guest with a shovel.  My guess is he was trying to kill it.

I know that at any given time, there are many dead mice in the world.  But, I can assure you that none of them are deader than this one.  It met a violent end.

The Apostle Paul said that Christians should do with sin what my neighbor did with that mouse.  Paul said it baldly.

“Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.(Col 3:5-6).”

My neighbor didn’t make friends with the mouse.  He didn’t try and reason with it.  He didn’t invite it into his home.  He killed the thing.

So many times we befriend things that belong to the earthly nature.  Maybe we don’t approve and yet we invite certain television programs into our home or look at the wrong things on the computer.  We cultivate materialism and greed.

But, the Bible teaches that we are to kill sin, not make friends with it.  Let’s pick up a shovel and beat it to death.  Because of such things, the wrath of God is coming.

*Reposted from October of 2007.

If you’re on the schedule to be doing working this Christmas Eve, I can relate.  In my growing up corner of Iowa, barely out of Missouri, and a half our west of the Mississippi, we did farm work, what farmers always called “chores,” even on Christmas Eve.

When my parents first started farming, my dad had a second job, so at 8 years old I was responsible for taking care of the animals in the evenings. It was especially hard during short winter days. I can still feel the cold, dark evenings, my boots crunching through a crust on the snow, the wind cutting into my face and wire bucket handles digging into my fingers.

In my mind I can still walk the same path.  I would bundle up and waddle like the Michelin man, out of our farm house, down through our lots, alongside our moon lit corn crib, climb the fence, and slip into our barn.  It was cold and even scary outside, but, once I stepped in the barn it was a different world. You probably think of pigs as dirty, but in a farrowing house where sows are having little pigs there are clean rows of sows with litters of pigs the size of puppies. Each sow had a separate crate and the pigs would lay in little pink piles of ears and tails under their heat lamps.

Our pigs ate (and did other things) 365 days a year, so we did chores, even on Christmas Eve.

When I think about cold winter evenings and warm barns full of straw, watching over our flocks by night, and my very ordinary childhood and life, it means more that the Angel of the Lord appeared to shepherds and God wrote them into the Christmas story.

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid (Luke 2:8-9).

We still have plenty of ordinary jobs. Maybe you will be working this week when most people are home with their families: driving a semi, ringing up groceries, or mopping a floor.  If so, savor the truth that God that wrote ordinary folks like us into the Christmas Story, “There were in those days shepherds, keeping watch over their flocks by night. . .”  They were doing chores.

Suppose I asked you to name the greatest miracle that ever took place? If you know the Bible you have lots to choose from. God rescued three from a blazing furnace. He closed the mouths of lions and demolished the walls of Jericho. Blind men saw; lame men walked. God parted the Red Sea and the children of Israel walked through on dry ground. But, none of these are the greatest miracle. Even God speaking creation into existence is not the greatest miracle.

The incarnation is the greatest miracle that ever took place.

The incarnation was when Jesus, though God Himself, was born as a baby in Bethlehem. God became humanity without in any way ceasing to be deity.

According to theologian Wayne Grudem,

“[The incarnation] is by far the most amazing miracle of the entire Bible – - far more amazing than the resurrection and more amazing even than the creation of the universe. The fact that the infinite, omnipotent, eternal Son of God could become man and join himself to a human nature forever, so that infinite God became one person with finite man, will remain for eternity the most profound miracle and the most profound mystery in all the universe (Grudem, 563).”

Paraphrasing John Murray, “The incarnation means that God who never began to be . . . as God, began to be what he eternally was not (Murray, Vol. 2, 132). It is the most amazing, the most incredible miracle that will ever happen.

And, the reason Christ became humanity was that He might win the victory and deliver His people from sin.

The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. . . Amazing.

Below are two messages that parents of young children should memorize.

The Bible instructs parents to love their children. But, the Bible does not define love as squishy sentimentalism that gives children whatever they want whenever they ask for it.

In fact, Scripture says, “He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him.” (Pr 13:24) Parents who truly love their children consistently discipline them.

As the parent of four children, I do not enjoy disciplining my children. But, one sentence I learned early on is very helpful. In the context of discipline I have learned to say and think:

Message #1: I love you too much to teach you that you can make bad choices without any consequences.  As someone has said, “Choose to sin, choose to suffer.”  Don’t be deceived God cannot be mocked.  You reap what you sow.  (Galatians 6:7-8).

Or, when my children are upset with me because they think I am too protective, I say and think this:

Message #2: All your life, I have been willing to die for you. I can honestly tell you that it came down to your life or my life, I would give up mine on your behalf. So, if I am willing to die for you, then having you upset with me because I am protecting you is a relatively small thing in my world. If protecting you, means you being mad at me, then so be it.”

Parents, if you are unwilling to discipline your children then you are being unloving to them.

“He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him.” (Pr 13:24)

Here is a word of encouragement for living the Christian life. “Don’t let failure give way to failure.” Perhaps there is an area of your life where determined to do better. You prayed that you would have victory. And, yet you find yourself continuing to stumble. So, you are tempted to just say, “Oh forget it.” I will never be able to get a handle on this.

If that is where you are at, then hear this verse from Proverbs 24:16,

For though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again, but the wicked are brought down by calamity.(Pr 24:16).

The verse does not say that the righteous never stumble or fall. No, the difference is that even though a righteous many may stumble seven times, he still gets up again.

If you are a Christian you do not need to let failure give way to failure. The book of Lamentations tells us that the mercies of the Lord are new every morning. So, even if you have stumbled seven times, get up again. Find a mature Christian who will keep you accountable. Get help in finding victory.

As C.S. Lewis encouraged:

No amount of falls will really undo us if we keep picking ourselves up each time. We shall of course be very muddy and tattered children by the time we reach home. But the bathrooms are all ready, the towels put out, and the clean clothes in the airing cupboard. The only fatal thing is to lose one’s temper and give up. It is when we notice the dirt that God is most present in us, it is the very sign of his presence.” C.S. Lewis quoted in Garland, David E. Colossians/Philemon The NIV Application Commentary, ed. Terry Muck. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1998.

Don’t let failure give way to failure. Get up off the ground and press forward for Christ’s glory and your joy. Have the same attitude as Paul when he said:

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.(Php 3:12-14)."

If you’re looking for a Bible passage to read together as a family this Thanksgiving, then you will do no better than Psalm 67.  This is a harvest Psalm that describes the right sort of motivation for praying for God’s blessing.

Nearly every week, I close our service in Stillman Valley with a biblical benediction that is thousands of years old: “The LORD bless you and keep you. The LORD make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The LORD turn His face toward you and give you peace.”

I am sure many of you have received that same benediction. What a wonderful thing to think that God would make His face shine upon us. It seems like almost too much to expect. Is it okay to ask God to be with us and guide us in such an intimate way? How we can we legitimately ask God for such a wonderful blessing?

Psalm 67 answers the question. The Psalm begins with this same benediction asking that God would be gracious and bless us and make His face shine upon us. But, then the Psalm continues, “That your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations.”

According to the Psalmist, the legitimate reason for asking God to bless is that we might tell the whole world that God is great. The proper motivation for praying for the smile of God on our lives should be that we might proclaim Christ to all nations.

Many of you listening today would agree that God has made His face shine upon you. If that is the case, then make sure you are doing all you can to make the name of Christ known throughout the whole earth. What can you do to tell people about the greatness of the Triune God across the street and around the world?

God knows everyone of you who will hear this spot. For all of you, “The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord turn his face towards you and give you peace.”

One of the things I love most about how God works is that he often uses small efforts on the part of his people for big results.  I call this “divine leverage.”  Because God is sovereign, God, and all-powerful, he can take some minor effort on our part and weave it into a major result.

My first grade music teacher invited my family to church.  And, I assure you, it was not that she saw some promise in my music ability.  It was because she cared about my family.  It did not take her five minutes to do.  And, it did not cost her a thing.  Yet, 37 years later here I am as a pastor.

God also leverages prayer.  Get down on your knees and ask God to change a life – – even if you only pray for 5 minutes, you might be amazed at what God will do.

God is great.  He doesn’t need something big on our part.  He uses small things, whether  widow’s two mites, David’s small smooth stone, or seven loaves of bread and a few small fish, God leverages small efforts for great results.

So, here is what you do.  Today make some small effort for the cause of Christ.  Write a note.  Pat a person lovingly on the shoulder.  Sign up to work in your church nursery.  Hold a baby and pray for him or her, and God may use that effort to change a life.  Read one chapter of Scripture.

You never know how God might put the lever of his power on the small fulcrum of your effort and make an eternal difference.

*Reposted from 2007.

There is nothing like the life giving power of the Word of God.

Several years ago my wife and I invited a group of young adults into our home for dinner. About half way through our meal one young lady asked what our church believes. To answer that question, I just began talking through the Psalm 19 beginning in verse 7. I said,

“We believe that God’s Word is perfect: reviving the soul. We believe that there are people who are dead inside, who feel like they have nothing left, and God’s Word is what the Spirit uses to give life.  (See Psalm 19:7-11)

I continued,

“We believe that the Word of God gives joy to the heart. In Christ, and through His proclaimed word, we can find unsurpassed joy and happiness.

We believe that God’s Word is radiant, giving light to the eyes. That for people who need direction, God’s Word shows them a direction to go. . .” And, in this day of wars and complex medical decisions and broken relationships, we so need the light of the Word.

It was not a long answer. But, within a minute or two of talking about Psalm 19, I noticed that the eyes of the young lady who asked me the question were shining with tears. So, I said quietly to her, “Tell me a little about your story.” Without hesitation she began to describe how she had grown up knowing nothing of the power, sweetness, and hope of God’s Word.

Listen: The Truth is our need. We need to hear from God. We need to be revived in our souls; we need to see God’s truth come into intersection with life. God’s Word is more precious than gold, it is at once powerful and precise. Best of all, it is focused on our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.