From My Study - Seeking God With All Your Heart, November 17, 2010

God's Ways vs. Our Ways

Hello everyone! I trust your summer is going well. Teresa and I had a great vacation, along with our children. Since we've been back, I have been trying to focus on getting "caught up" with things left undone for too long, so I have not blogged much, but I will get back into the groove, soon.

Here's a quick quote I heard yesterday that I thought worth passing on by a man named Del Way,

"Jesus may not lead you the way you want to go, but He will get you where you need to be!"

Which brings to mind a beautiful Bible passage from the prophet Isaiah,

"8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. 9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." (Isaiah 55:8-9, NIV)

Sometimes I am tempted to try and tell God which way to lead me, but He doesn't need my advice. As the Apostle Paul put it in the doxology of his letter to the early Christians at Rome,

" 33 Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! 34 “Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?” 35 “Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?” 36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen. " (Romans 11:33-36, NIV)

Whenever I read those verses, I have to sheepishly reply in my heart, "At times, I have tried to be His counselor." The truth is, though, He has never needed and has rarely heeded my ill-formed advice! The longer I live, the more I understand that the wisest thing I can do in all of life is put into practice the principle proclaimed in the following Psalm,

"3 Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed." (Proverbs 16:3, NIV)

I encourage you to do the same!

Blessings to you on this sunny day in Dallas!

Weeping for the World

When I was a very mixed up teenager back in the 1970's, befuddled by the potent mix I had drunk of secular humanism and rationalism, served to me by popular media and more serious philosophy, Francis Schaeffer's writings took me to task and pointed me down the road back home to God. In Learning to Cry for the Culture, posted yesterday on Christianity Today magazine's website, John Fischer writes,

Francis Schaeffer was hard to listen to. His voice grated. It was a high-pitched scream that, when mixed with his eastern Pennsylvania accent, sounded something like Elmer Fudd on speed. As freshmen, unfamiliar with the thought and works of modern man, we thought it was funny. As seniors, it wasn't funny any more. After we had studied Kant, Hegel, Sartre, and Camus, the voice sounded more like an existential shriek. If Edvard Munch's The Scream had a voice, it would have sounded like Francis Schaeffer. Schaeffer, who died in 1984, understood the existential cry of humanity trapped in a prison of its own making. He was the closest thing to a "man of sorrows" I have seen.

I grew up with a Christianity that was predisposed against sorrow. To be sad was to deny your faith or your salvation. Jesus had made us happy, and we had an obligation to always show that happiness. Then Francis Schaeffer came along. He could not allow himself to be happy when most of the world was desperately lost and he knew why. He was the first Christian I found who could embrace faith and the despair of a lost humanity at the same time. Though he had been found, he still knew what it was to be lost.

... Schaeffer was the first Christian leader who taught me to weep over the world instead of judging it.

... Schaeffer was a rare Christian leader who advocated understanding and empathizing with non-Christians instead of taking issue with them.

Francis Schaeffer was not afraid to ask why, and he did not rest until he had an answer. Why are our most brilliant thinkers in despair? Why is our art so dark? Why have abortion and euthanasia become so easy on the conscience of a generation? What process of thinking has led to this ultimate denial of the value of human life? Though some may disagree with his answers, no one can gainsay the passion with which he sought them.

The normal human reaction is to hate what we don't understand. This is the stuff of prejudice and the cause of hate crimes and escalating social evil. It is much more Christ-like to identify with those we don't understand—to discover why people do what they do, because we care about them, even if they are our ideological enemies.

Jesus asked us to love our enemies. Part of loving is learning to understand. Too few Christians today seek to understand why their enemies think in ways that we find abhorrent. Too many of us are too busy bashing feminists, secular humanists, gay activists, and political liberals to consider why they believe what they do. It's difficult to sympathize with people we see as threats to our children and our neighborhoods. It's hard to weep over those whom we have declared enemies.

What powerful, penetrating words...! And how so very much like Jesus, of whom Luke declared,

"As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it..." (Luke 19:41 NIV)

Two of the quotes that have always gripped my heart were attributed by those that referenced them to Frank C. Laubach, a missionary statesman from yester year,

"Let my heart be broken with those things that break the heart of God."

"Lord, forgive me for looking at the world through dry eyes."

What God is looking for, of course, in our response to the needs of those who do not know Him is action, not emotion, but it sometimes does us good to weep over the world, especially if it moves us to reach out our hands to others in Christ's name.

May His compassion move us to action...!

The God of the "Not right now...!"

A few moments ago, my five year old son came running into the living room - he rarely walks these days - carrying a sale ad from the Toys-R-Us store with his finger mashed down hard on a picture of a toy scooter. It's the kind any healthy, rambuctious, red-blooded boy would love to careen on around the concrete sidewalk in our backyard, with one foot firmly planted on the running board, and the other pounding the pavement.

He loudly announced, "I want THIS for my birthday...!"

Since that particular date is still a good ten months away, I responded in my best, all-knowing, parental tone, "Well, we'll just have to wait and see."

He doesn't yet know the peculiar role of four-letter words in the English language, but his reaction to the "W" word was predictably visceral: "Daddy, I want it NOW!"

The subject kept coming up throughout breakfast between bubbly bites of Cheerios, and I am sure it will punctuate much of our dialogue throughout the rest of this sunny Monday morning here in Dallas, as I try to explain to his earnest, impatient mind that there is a time and a season for everything, and that there are no birthdays in the Brand household during the month of March.

I am sure God sees some of his conversations with me through the lens of what just took place in our family room and kitchen. I often go to Him in prayer with needs that seem pressing, even earth-shaking in their urgency, convinced of His inherent goodness and generosity, fully expecting a quick response. Sometimes I am stunned when His Spirit whispers these words back to my inner being: "The time for that will come one day, but not right now. Later."

When His ancient people stood poised on the banks of the Jordan River, ready at last to cross over and enter into the destiny He had repeatedly promised them in glowing terms as a place of unbelievable abundance and fulfillment for every family, their leader, Moses, brought them the word of the Lord, prophesying incredible victory over their enemies,

"27 “I will send my terror ahead of you and throw into confusion every nation you encounter. I will make all your enemies turn their backs and run. 28 I will send the hornet ahead of you to drive the Hivites, Canaanites and Hittites out of your way. 29 But I will not drive them out in a single year, because the land would become desolate and the wild animals too numerous for you. 30 Little by little I will drive them out before you, until you have increased enough to take possession of the land." (Exodus 23:27-30, NIV)

Imagine the thrill that went through the heart of every warrior as they heard the Lord Almighty spell out the terror and confusion He was going to wreak on their enemies by His own, outstretched hand! Then came the words they did not want to hear, "But I will not drive them out in a single year...Little by little I will drive them out before you, until you have increased enough to take possession of the land."

God's "little by littles" in my own life have often taken much longer than I would have chosen. Like most every child that has ever lived, I was certain I was ready for my destiny far quicker than my Heavenly Father. In His infinite wisdom, though, He has always known how to perfectly pace my progress. My challenge has been to neither lag behind Him or nor run out ahead of Him as He unfolds His plan for my life in His own, good time.

Let me encourage you to begin this new work week with the principle of Exodus 23:30 hidden in your heart. Little by little, He will fulfill His promises. He is with you, His eyes are upon you, and He has promised to work for you, and through you as you walk with Him. Dare to trust Him enough to establish the when as well as the what and the where of your destiny. He is never late. He is never early. He is always right on time!