Discovering the Real Jesus in Monroe

(Monroe)

Proverbs 3:5-6 states: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.â€

“Lean not on your own understanding.” Don’t put too much weight on what you understand. Why not? Because: what you and I understand is phenomenally small.

Some years ago when I was in Chicago I stopped at my all-time favorite bookstore which is adjacent to the University of Chicago. It’s in the basement of an old building, and it’s filled with books you’d never find at Borders or Barnes & Noble. This bookstore is an academic wonderland of brilliance. On this particular day as I wandered around this store I had a sense of of my own great ignorance. I’m not trying to be humble now. The truth of how very, very little I know was revealed to me. I felt like the self-made man in Sartre’s novel Nausea, whose goal was to read every book in the library beginning with the ‘A’s’ and working through to ‘Z.’ At the end of his life he hadn’t gotten out of the ‘A’s’ because more books with titles beginning with ‘A’ kept being published. I looked at all these old and new scholarly books on every subject you can think of, and realized I’ve read hardly any of them. And if I did read them I wouldn’t come close to understanding them all. If ever I thought I understood a lot of things, this bubble got burst that day.

If you live long enough the time will come when you will face a situation that no human understands. I meet people in such situations all the time. Drug addicts, sex addicts, terminally ill people, impossibly broken-down marriages and families, and the dirt-poor. The collective wisdom of humanity cannot help. So where can one turn? And as they come to me for answers, where can I turn when all understanding fails?  My experience is that we are not left hopeless here. Here’s the answer of Proverbs: 1) Lean not on your own understanding, precisely because there’s not much there to lean on anyway; 2) Instead, trust in God. Place your trust in God today.

(Monroe)

As you read this Christians are being persecuted in India and in Iraq.

Here’s a quote from nytimes.com re. India:

“The family of Solomon Digal was summoned by neighbors to what serves as a public square in front of the village tea shop.

They were ordered to get on their knees and bow before the portrait of a Hindu preacher. They were told to turn over their Bibles, hymnals and the two brightly colored calendar images of Christ that hung on their wall. Then, Mr. Digal, 45, a Christian since childhood, was forced to watch his Hindu neighbors set the items on fire.

“ ‘Embrace Hinduism, and your house will not be demolished,’ †Mr. Digal recalled being told on that Wednesday afternoon in September. “ ‘Otherwise, you will be killed, or you will be thrown out of the village.’—

And on Iraq:

Thirteen Christians have been slain in the past two weeks in the city, which is located about 420 kilometers (260 miles) north of Baghdad.

At least 900 Christian families have fled in recent days, reportedly frightened by a series of killings and threats by Muslim extremists ordering them to convert to Islam or face possible death, Iraqi officials said.

A CNN report is here.

(Monroe)

One of my favorite Bible passages is Proverbs 3:5-6, which says: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.â€

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart.” Rely on God with your entire being. This means, among other things, that a person who really believes in God will live their life in full reliance on God. This is not just about the words we say, or what we say we believe in. It’s not about belief in God in the sense of someone who says “Yeah, of course I believe there’s a God.” It’s much more than that. For someone who actually, really beliueves in God will, necessarily, live a life of God-reliance. Because: God is the all-powerful, all-knowing, all-loving creator of the universe. Who wouldn’t place their life-trust in him?

We must distinguish between theoretical God-belief and a life of radical dependence on the living God. For me, many years ago, I converted from theoretical God-belief to actual belief, which meant that I now desired to live each day in reliance on God and in touch with God. I mean, if God is for me, who can be against me, right?

Real followers of Jesus are whole-hearted towards God. Are they perfect? Of course not. Do they actually trust in God all the time? I know I still fall short of doing this. Have they made God the thing they trust in when it comes to their existence? Yes. This makes all the difference to me. God is my hope. In the middle of a world where things come together and fall apart all the time, God becomes the anchor to attach one’s heart to.

The struggling global economy is both out of my control and beyond my understanding. This makes it doubly troublesome for me. There are some things I can understand and yet are out of my control. I understand what inoperable cancer is and humanly I can do nothing about it. My understanding makes the thing for me seem a bit easier to handle. But since I’m not a global economist the fact that it’s both out of my control and I am vastly ignorant about it tempts me to fear and despair. What can I do?

I’ve been in situations like this before in the sense of being both unable to understand something and unable to affect the situation. Like being with someone I love who is dying, such as my mother a few years ago and my father some years before that. And, I lost a son many years ago. To be honest, and I do not mean to trivialize the present moment or minimalize its effect on people, I’d gladly go through an economic depression if only I could have my son David back with me. In fact, this week I’ve talked with some friends of mine who are, as I write, fighting issues of physical life and death. For them the economic situation is not their first area of concern.

Thinking like this puts some things in perspective for me. I have spent the last 38 years of my life learning what it means to place my trust in God and not in outward circumstances. I’m not saying this is easy. But note that, if you are a follower of Jesus, you see this all over the Scriptures, from Israel wandering for 40 years in the wilderness, to the prophets telling Israel to trust in God and worship Him only when they are in Babylonian captivity, to the disciples freaking out in the boat during the storm on the Sea of Galilee while Jesus is sleeping, to the apostle Paul telling us that there’s a way to live this life and be content in all circumstances. Can I say that again? ALL circumstances. Is that possible? If so, that would be freedom!

I say it is possible. The alternative for me would be that my faith in God is not real. From this faith-in-God perspective the current declining economic circumstances test me. I cannot believe that my God-faith is supposed to go up and down with the global economy or anything for that matter. If it does, this tells me something about where I’m really placing my trust.

Let me try to be clearer about this. I say with my mind ”I trust in God.” The arena where such trust is placed is: ”in all circumstances.” Intellectually I believe in the God who, as Genesis 1:1 says, created the heavens and the earth by just uttering a word. Could such a God be trusted in today? Of course. But I need this truth to descend from my mind into my heart so that it becomes an experiential reality. Another way of saying this is: I want to “know” God in the sense of experiential immediacy, and not simply as an intellectual belief or theory that only actually works when things are going well for me.

I believe God exists and that we can trust God today. For what? That God will repair the global economy? I don’t think so. What, then, can God be trusted to do if we rely on him? I understand the answers as follows. Put your trust in God and you can be sure that God will be with you in all circumstances, even in the valley of the shadow of death. You can be sure that God will love you. You can be sure that God will morph you into greater and greater Christlikeness. You can be sure that God will free you from the love of Money and captivate you by the real treasures of heaven (read Matthew chapters 5-7 for what this means). You can be sure that God will want to use you to help set people free from oppression, to include the oppression of poverty. You can be sure that God will free you and free others from all social hierarchizing that rank-orders humanity in terms of rich and poor, popular and unpopular, loved and despised. In short, God will reveal his beautiful Kingdom to you and make you fit for that Kingdom and work through you to influence others into that Kingdom. Jesus said that his Kingdom was not of this world. That means Jesus has not come to repair existing earthly kingdoms but to bring in the Kingdom of God.

As that happens, the values of this world we live in will be turned upside-down. We will experience his Kingdom coming now, on earth, as it is in heaven, not completely so, but as a taste of heavenly realities. The problem is not the economy. The problem is us and what is of ultimate concern to us. I’m choosing to place my trust in God. Please pray that I do so, as I will pray for you also.

(Munson Park)

Proverbs 3:5-6 says: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.”

Trust in the Lord. Trust… in God. Everyone trusts in someone or something. Everyone has someone or something they place their ultimate trust in. Many years ago Bob Dylan wrote a song that said everyone has to serve somebody. I think that’s true. The question is not to trust or not to trust. The question is: who or what do we place our trust in. Do we place our trust in our own self? In other people? In money? In sex? In power?

If God did not exist then all we’d be able to trust in are finite things. The problem then would be that finite things have their limitations, breakdowns, inconsistencies, and failures. Place your trust mostly or entirely in your own self and you’ll quickly be disappointed. Should we place our trust in people’s abilties to manage the global economy? Should we place our trust in money and the stock market? I’m not saying the market won’t rebound. But I don’t know. My understanding is that even economists don’t know for certain. If someone has placed their trust in the economy then I think that trust is now being eroded. What can a person do? Where can one place their trust today?

The most solid thing a person can place their trust in is God. And what do we mean by “God?” I mean: 1) creator of this universe; 2) a Being whose essence is to exist (God cannot not-exist; and therefore is a-temporal and unchanging); 3) an all-powerful Being (God can do everything that is possible to do); 4) an all-knowing Being (a being who knows everything that is possible to know); 5) an all-loving Being (God IS love; God’s essence is to love; God - within his being - is relational [here's the Christian idea of the Trinity]); 6) the source of objective moral values (if God did not exist, all moral values would be merely subjective, and thus matters of personal taste, and thus non-binding).

Many years ago I chose to place my trust in God. The immediate result at that time was that I got out of a drug lifestyle and never turned back. To me, this was amazing. I attribute this to God. This set me off on a life-long pursuit of God - to know about God, to know God, and to be known by God. The result to this point is that, as best as I am able, I give every day to God. I trust in God. My trust is in God. I’ve found God to be trustworthy, or worthy of placing my trust in.

(Monroe)

As Jesus-followers God calls us to pray for our government leaders. As I read the Bible this means to pray for ALL government leaders. To me this means I also am to pray for all who are running for office. Paul instructs Timothy to pray for “kings and ALL those in authority” (I Timothy 2:1-6)

It’s instructive to note that the kings and government authorities at the time Paul was writing were Roman pagans, not followers of Jesus. Instead of criticizing these non-Christian leaders, Paul instructs Timothy to pray for them! How should we Christians do this today?

When I went to the State Capital on September 19 to open the State Senate with prayer, I was asked to pray for only 1-2 minutes, and to pray in such a way that is not offensive to people of other faiths. I honored that request. I’ve done this kind of thing before. My own belief is that prayer is effective, and God knows what He is doing as we lift our prayers to Him.

On that day I prayed the following things for our State Senators: for their marriages and families, that pride would be removed from their hearts and that they would have humble hearts, that they would have great love for the people they serve and that God would make them into great servants, and that God’s power would be displayed in their midst that day so they would recognize God and give glory to God.

What if, instead of criticizing and demonizing our political leaders and candidates, we just took the Bible seriously and prayed for all of them? I say these words to all who believe Paul’s instructions to Timothy apply to us today and who9 believe that prayer makes a difference. As this election approaches I am taking Paul’s instructions to Timothy as from-God to us. Will you join me in praying for our government leaders and all who are running for office?

(Monroe sunset)

One of my very favorite parts of the Bible is Proverbs 3:5-6, which states: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.”

I find so much wisdom in these words that I don’t know where to begin in explaining them. When I became a Jesus-follower many years ago someone showed these verses to me and, like many others I suspect, they became part of my spiritual DNA.

“Trust.” This is a heart attitude that cannot co-exist with “control.” Every time a person trusts, they let go of controlling. This is a challenge, since for many “control” is their DNA-default-setting that overrides trust.

One might ask, why not just control everything? My response is: the parts of our life and experience that we control amount to maybe 5%, if even that? We don’t control the weather, the stock market, other people (though many try here), our physical bodies, what others think of us, insects, diseases, hurricanes, our solar system, the global economy, …  and of course we don’t control God (though some treat God as their servant, which he’s not).

Everyone trusts something. Everyone has to trust something. The question is not “to trust or to control?” The question is: “What do I place my ultimate trust in?”

The answer is: God.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Monroe)

In I John 2:3-4 we read that “We know that we have come to know him [Christ] if we obey his commands. The man who says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him.”

These two verses show us the difference between someone who really is a follower of Jesus and someone who’s not; the difference being between an authentic Jesus-follower and an inauthentic one. The difference is: obedience. But note what’s not being said. It’s not that if someone merely obeys Jesus that they are a follower of Jesus. It is being said that if one knows Jesus, obedience inexorably follows. Obedience in itself can be a mere religious thing, something done because it’s what a “Christian” is supposed to do. Obedience as a knowing-relational thing will happen. Let me further explain.

Years ago, as a young guitar player at age 8, I’d already taken lessons for three years. But I didn’t want to practice. I did practice, but my heart was not in it. One day I told my guitar teacher “I quit.” Both the teacher and my parents said this was OK. They knew my heart was not in it. Years later, I picked up the guitar again. Now I’m 13, and I wanted very much to know the guitar. Practicing followed inexorably. What the heart loves issues forth in obedience re. the beloved. As Thomas Merton once wrote, “Desire without discipine is an illusion. Desire always leads to discipline.

It’s not for me to judge another person’s heart. I’ve made my share of mistakes about this in the past, and I’m not interested in making any more. But I know the words in I John remain true. And for me it makes all the difference in the world. Someone who “knows” Jesus in the sense of having personally encountered the love of Jesus will “obey” Jesus, and will find such obedience to be the path to life. A mere legalistic-religious rule-following is a dead thing. That’s the person who goes to church because they have to but doesn’t have it in their heart.

Here is Monroe I’m sure we have both. We have many true followers of Jesus who find his commands lightness and not heaviness, and we have many who are going through the religious motions. The truth of our faith is that you don’t have to be religious to follow Jesus. He loves you, he died for you, he wants you to make your life in him. Discover this today and find him to be your Savior as an experiential reality.

(Monroe)

That God asks us to pray is, I think, a stroke of genius. I define prayer (following Dallas Willard) as: talking with God about what we are doing together. This raises the question, in my mind: why would God want to collaborate with you and me about anything? That would be like Einstein giving me a call and asking me to work with him on the theory of relativity. At one point in history God asks the prophet Isaiah, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” If I were Isaiah I think I’d respond back to God, “Why not send Yourself?” Wouldn’t that be a whole lot more effective than sending a mere human?

Maybe. Probably. OK - certainly it would. But God doesn’t do it this way. He wants us to co-labor with him. Why? Because God is love. Love requires relationship. God loves us, and is on a mission to develop his character in us. More than just wiping out the dark forces that work against him, God is shaping a people that morph into his own heart.

Once, when one of my sons was very ill, so ill that we wondered about his life, I personally researched his illness, looking for a solution. My son’s doctor was THE neonatal surgeon of mid-Michigan, a brilliant man I respected very much. I met with him once, the fruit of my research in my hands. I presented an idea I had found to him, one which I thought would help resuce my son. He said, “No, that doesn’t apply.” I shared a few more ideas, to which he responded - “No, those aren’t applicable to what’s hurting your boy.” Then I presented another thng I’d found. He paused. He said, “Hmmm, I am interested in that.” And he took the information I found and used it to help save my son’s life. I will eternally thank him for that. I am amazed that such a great surgeon would even listen to me and allow me to help in the process of saving a life. My son is alive and well. I got to be a part of it, and that did a lot for me.

I think God is like that. Yes, maybe he could do it all. But if “doing it all” includes the development of a people that love him and know him, then I think it’s outrageously brilliant that he would incorporate our assistance in the process. He invites us to pray. Prayer is talking with God about what we are doing together. Which is very, very cool.

(Sterling State Park)

I’m flying to Chicago today to connect with my colleague Clay Ford. Clay and I will be the speakers tomorrow and Saturday at a conference for pastors and Christian leaders. We’ll be speaking on the power of God and living in God’s Kingdom. We’re looking to proclaim the good news of God’s Kingdom, and then looking for God to demonstrate his power in our midst.

Maybe I’ll be able to have some phenomenal pizza while I’m there. Southeast Michigan pizza doesn’t come close to Gino’s East, Giordano’s, or Lou Malnati’s in Chicago. (But I do like the pizza the Hedke’s serve up at Mancino’s in Wyandotte, and Pizza Papali’s in Greek Town and Uno’s compare with Chicago pizza.)