A New Tune - Pt 1

In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest: “Thus says the Lord of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.” Then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes.” (Haggai 1:1-5 ESV).

If you read some of the previous devotionals (“Mountain Roads”) you know Mary and I have recently returned from an extended trip where we flew to Washington DC and drove home. Of course, we took the route leading through the Smokies! How could we resist that! You may also know that part of the reason for this trip was to acquire a “new” car. Our youngest son, Aaron, who also lives and works in DC, has had a 2006 Mazda Tribute since it was purchased new. He rarely drives and when our leased vehicle came due to turn in, he offered to give us his car. The savings to us is enormous and it is nearly new sixteen years later. It only has 90K miles on it and has been mechanically and cosmetically kept pristine. You can tell from the picture that the only things we had to do were to add an Aggie sticker and a Smoky Mountains emblem. Of course, we had to do a few practical things as well. It did need new tires, since the others were six years old and had begun to dry rot from a lack of driving; and, of course we needed to have it inspected and tagged in Texas. Well, “Delilah” (the car’s name, and don’t ask “why?”) passed inspection with flying colors. She is now truly a Texan! She is also a “new tune” for us. There are some things about this car that are different from our 2016 vehicle just off lease. Mary’s one big adjustment is the absence of a back-up camera. We do have a long up-hill driveway to get to the street, so it is a bit more inconvenient, though that merely requires backing the old-fashioned way. All of this reminded me of a relatively unknown and unread little book in the Old Testament. It is Haggai. Tucked near the end of the Old Testament, third from last on that biblical road-less-traveled called the minor prophets, it’s one of Scripture’s shortest books, and one of its best for singing this “new tune” in life. Haggai helps us understand the ingredients for a fresh start. It is not with willpower or determination, but faith-filled resolve. We’ll look at some ways to do this in the next few days. Today, simply pray for the wisdom and strength to sing your new tune!

A Post-note to Christian Hedonism

Send out your light and your truth; let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling! Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy, and I will praise you with the lyre, O God, my God. (Psalm 43:3-4 ESV).

I hope you have been encouraged and challenged with the last few devotionals focusing on the topic of “Christian hedonism.” It certainly has prompted more replies than usual! With that in mind, I thought it might be of benefit for us to look at a post-note in regard to this concept. Two basic principles are true: one intellectual, the other emotional. We will have to be convinced intellectually that the objections to Christian Hedonism are not valid, and we will have to awaken new and powerful emotions in our hearts for God. Let me address four objections to Christian Hedonism as it relates to worship. 1. First, Christian Hedonism does not mean that God becomes a means to help us get worldly pleasures. The pleasure of any believer must be found in God himself. He is the end of our search for joy, not the means to some further end. He is our exceeding joy, not the streets of gold, or reunion with relatives, or any other blessing of earth or heaven. God cannot be seen as a divine vending machine. 2. Second, Christian Hedonism is aware that self-consciousness kills joy, and therefore kills worship. As soon as you turn your eyes in on yourself and become conscious of experiencing joy, it’s gone. We must know that the secret of joy is self-forgetfulness. We must set our whole attention on the object of the source of our joy, and not on our emotions. Therefore, in worship there must be a radical orientation on God, not ourselves. 3. Third, Christian Hedonism does not make a god out of pleasure. It says that you have already made a god out of whatever you find most pleasure in. Therefore, seek the one true God, who is the Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ. 4. Fourth, Christian Hedonism does not put us above God when we seek him out of self-interest. A patient is not greater than his doctor because he comes to him to be made well. A child is not greater than his father when he wants the fun of playing together. Suppose on December 21, I bring Mary fifty long-stemmed red roses to celebrate our 50th anniversary. And when she says, “They’re beautiful, thank you,” I respond, “Don’t mention it. It’s my duty.” With that word, all moral value vanishes. Yes, it is my duty, but unless I am moved by a spontaneous affection for her as a person, the very exercise of my duty belittles her. Worship involves a radical orientation on God, not ourselves. That is what has to be changed in our lives. We belittle God when we go through the outward motions of worship and take no pleasure in his person. The chief end of man is not just to glorify God and enjoy him forever. The chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying him forever. And if we don’t enjoy him, we don’t glorify him. Therefore, I hope you will become a worshiping people who cannot tolerate anything less than the presence and power of God in a personal and pervasive relationship.

Happy Birthday, Mary!

The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. (Numbers 6:24-26 ESV).

Birthdays are a wonderful experience, especially for loved ones. They are a glorious moment in which we celebrate the anniversary of our birth and give thanks for another year of life! They're also an opportunity to give our love to family and friends by sharing heartfelt gifts and words of appreciation. As you know if you have been following Morning Devotionals for any time at all, it has been my practice to celebrate the birthdays of my immediate family with Scripture and some teachable moments. Today is Mary’s birthday! You may know, or simply surmise that Mary is my wife (almost fifty years now), and my friend, confidant, and partner in life. I do wish that I had the space to detail all of the memories we have made together over these five decades of life together. Some of them surround the events of our children and grandchildren; some of them are centered in the incredible places we have visited all over the world; and, still others are at the heart of the ministry we have been called to over the years. I would like to be able to share all the incredible things of these years, however, space cannot be given to the incredible life I have been blessed with as she has been beside me. These times were not always free of challenge. We have had health challenges, and seen the hand of God in each; we had experienced financial challenges, and God has always provided us with all we could need. Through each experience I have come to treasure each moment... there never seems to be enough time fir each! It is not by coincidence that the one song that resonates most in my memory is the one performed by Jim Croce, just a few years after we were married. It is titled, “Time in a Bottle.” You may listen to it at the following address: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dO1rMeYnOmM. The first of the lyrics are: If I could save time in a bottle The first thing that I'd like to do Is to save every day 'Til eternity passes away Just to spend them with you. Happy Birthday, Mary! I pray for many more decades together!

Christian Hedonism - Pt 6

I will extol you, O Lord, for you have drawn me up and have not let my foes rejoice over me. O Lord my God, I cried to you for help, and you have healed me. O Lord, you have brought up my soul from Sheol; you restored me to life from among those who go down to the pit. Sing praises to the Lord, O you his saints, and give thanks to his holy name. For his anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning. (Psalm 30:1-5 ESV).

When I was much younger (and some would argue much dumber), Mary and I took the boys to Disney World. One of the first rides we took was Space Mountain. I can’t imagine a time in my life when I would voluntarily allow myself to be strapped into a series of cars to ride off into the darkness up and down and all around! Perhaps I was tricked into the ride by the incessant requests of my children who said, “Come on, Dad! It will be fun!” It was certainly different from being ferried from one cherubic scene to another as happy children sang “It’s a Small World!” I had ridden roller coasters before, so, how bad could it be? I followed the family trustingly behind. Blind trust accurately describes the only reason I remained in that serpentine line winding slowly past signs that warned If you have a heart condition, do not ride this ride, and If you are prone to anxiety attacks, panic disorders, or fainting spells, do not ride this ride. Not even the sign that said Secure your hats and glasses prior to entering clued me in to what was ahead. Finally it was our turn, and the attendant directed me to the front seat in the front car. My new husband sat immediately behind me. I buckled in, the attendant checked my seat belt, and I settled back for the ride. Must be a constellation show, I thought, noticing that the room on the other side of the small doorway through which we would soon travel was dark. And, that’s the last pleasant memory I have of Space Mountain. Life often chugs along smoothly. We have money in the bank, our bodies are healthy, and our relationships with friends and family are strong. But sometimes the sky grows dark. Uncertainty looms. The bottom drops out from under us, and we wonder if the slender cord we’re trusting in is enough to hold us. Worse yet, we wonder if the One in whom we’re trusting might not be worthy of our trust. Even worse, we wonder if it was He who buckled us into the very car that will carry us to our destruction? Have we been tricked? Blindsided? Betrayed? Thankfully God’s Word answers these questions for us: Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning (v. 5). If you feel like you’re on a roller coaster in the dark today, I pray these truths will comfort and encourage you. When all is said and done, and we have reflected on as many wonderful biblical realities as we can, and we have cried out with David for the restoration of our joy, our biblical lot is to wait for the Lord. We are not to despair. That is the way of the Christian Hedonist… and it works! He will get you to the end of the ride perfectly safe and secure, forever in heaven!

Christian Hedonism - Pt 5

You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book? Then my enemies will turn back in the day when I call. This I know, that God is for me. In God, whose word I praise, in the Lord, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me? (Psalm 56:8-11 ESV).

God gathers our tears in a “bottle” (v. 8). I must confess I do not know all of the meaning of the psalmist in making this declaration. However, I do know that it is indicative of how we are to view our relationship with the Lord. He will never be indifferent to our pain and suffering, whether it is a result of our actions or not. There are times when we cry from the sorrows of life. At other times we cry at the remembrance of a significant event in our lives. At times it is the intense physical pain we may be enduring at the moment that brings tears to our eyes. And, of course there are the tears we shed at the thought of some hurt we may have caused to someone through our sin. We should consider this understanding of the tears of contrition and the tears of sorrow carefully. I have known many people who have sought my help as they confess that when their joys go down, they simply feel bad. It is this miserable emotion that prompts their tears. Often they also confess that, although their deepest desire is to have joy, they simply cannot find a way through the thick fog of guilt. They want to read their Bible with gladness and happiness and thankfulness and strength, and they simply don’t. That may be the place you find yourself today. These are what have been called the tears of the fruit of languishing joy in Christ, impeded by weariness or weakness or sin. In other words, when joy fades and you feel sorrowful and contrite and brokenhearted because of this fading joy that you should have in Christ, is not the feeling of sorrow. It is the feeling of regret and the feeling of contrition evidenced by the fact that your soul is the kind of soul that has a taste for the goodness of God, the sweetness of God in Jesus! This should be an encouragement to rejoice. Thus, these tears are evidence that we are born of God. They show that our soul has been made into the kind of soul that will never be satisfied apart from God. Even when joy has gone away, there is an aftertaste of joy that is weeping, and the weeping is the aftertaste of joy giving evidence that our soul is the kind of soul that will have joy forever. Relish these tears. They are significant enough that God notices, and collects each one, saving them as a memorial to our relationship. You see, Christian Hedonism is not the seeking of pleasure; however, it is the seeking of our God who brings us pleasure through redemption and relationship! Celebrate that!

Christian Hedonism - Pt 4

For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. (2 Peter 1:5-10 ESV).

It is essential that we make a distinction between the absence of intense joy in Christ on the one hand, and the presence of intense joy in sin on the other. It is possible for our spiritual affections to weaken without this being the sign that our carnal affections are triumphant. Of course, we should be concerned with becoming cooled toward Christ, because that could lead to the destruction of our lives if we fail to confirm our calling and election (v. 10). But we should not assume that the cooling of our affections on any given day is the same as the flaming up of insubordinate rebellion against God and his ways. It could lead to that. But it need not. In God’s mind, fervency, zeal, or passion aren’t descriptions of how emotive we are. They’re gauges that display what our heart treasures, and therefore what fuels our lives. Just like God is far more impressed by sincere prayers in secret than longwinded public prayers (cf. Matthew 6:5-6), he is far more impressed (or not) by what truly enthralls us than by any outward emotional exhibition. For what enthralls us determines how we prioritize our lives. We’ve been living in our present home nearly three years. This is the first house I have had a dedicated space for my woodworking equipment to remain set up. I can walk out the door to the garage (the converted workshop) and begin working on a project immediately. Someone earlier in the week came by and saw me working on a specific project and asked, “Is this your therapy?” My first reaction was affirmation. However, as I began to think about it, that is a recipe for disaster. What if we were forced to do something different with the space; or, what if we no longer could afford that use of the space? The circumstances would change, and with that change my emotions would also change negatively. It is wonderful to have this convenience, but my happiness cannot be determined by such an outward circumstance. That means I simply need to change what I “treasure.” The same is true in our Christian lives. We do cool off in our passion; however, reignite your fervency through relationship, not experiences.

Christian Hedonism - Pt 3

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. (Psalm 51:10-12 ESV).

Today we’ll begin looking at some practical ways to move forward. So far it may seem like I’m advocating for a smoother road, or a life without the “rollercoaster” of emotions initiated by the wild swings of circumstance. The truth is that the Scripture clearly teaches the truth that the heroes of our faith have always experienced seasons when clarity and joy and spiritual sensitivity weaken. Sin is the preference of the heart getting the upper hand over our delight in God and his ways. Our reading is a psalm of David. He cries out to the Lord, “Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.” The background of the great king’s cries to the Lord is significant. His sin with Bathsheba resulting in his sexual failure and the murder of one of his most loyal generals in an attempt to cover-up his sin cannot be understated. However, what is most important to note is the wild swing of emotion. The accusation of the prophet has provided David with one of the most painful circumstances imaginable. What he desires is not more knowledge; he desires the restoration of his joy that was rooted in his relationship with the Lord. Others provide a similar example. Paul would not have come to the end of Romans 7 with the words “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24) had he not felt the emotional pain of his failures. If these feelings were not important, Jesus would not have taught us to pray every day, “Forgive us our sins” (cf. Matthew 6:12). After all, sin is merely the preference of the heart getting the upper hand over our delight in God and his ways. We cannot be caught in a cycle of measuring the ups and downs of our affections for Christ as though there were a standard of perfection in the Bible. They are not. We all struggle with ups and downs, strong affection one day, weak affection the next day. So, the key is not in disconnecting the caboose in our train; but, it is found in the reliance we place in the engine. Circumstances wax and wane. Sometimes these low points are directly related to our sin, at other times, they simply are a part of our journey. The point is they come and go. God does not! It is His consistent presence that allows us to be happy. We may have abundant life in Him. Take pleasure in your relationship with Him. That brings glory to Him. And, that brings happiness to us.