Who's Right?

“I think it is God’s will for us to break up,” she said.
“Well, I think it is God’s will for us to keep going together,” I answered.

Quite a conversation to have in the backseat of a VW bug with your roommate and his girl friend in the front seat! To make matters worse, the girl in the back seat wasn’t Carol, and the girl in the front seat was Carol’s cousin!

The issue, however, wasn’t who, but how did we know God’s will for our relationship! She thought one way, and I thought another. Who was right? Do you ever find yourself in a situation like that? You feel very strongly God is leading toward accomplishing some hopes and dreams. Leadership, friends, family all feel God is leading differently. Does God speak out of both sides of His mouth, or is one of you not listening?

This is especially dicey when it comes to things like jobs (your boss lays you off, you get fired), your favorite ministries (you think it is a wonderful way to serve God, but the leadership hears God’s voice to ax it), or your favorite way of doing church (things take a direction you don’t hear God’s voice saying, but others do).

So, what do you do when you are both listening to God and He is saying two different things? Certainly, this was the situation Paul faced in Acts 20 and 21.

AC 20:22 "And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. 23 I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me.
21:3 We landed at Tyre, where our ship was to unload its cargo. 4 Finding the disciples there, we stayed with them seven days. Through the Spirit they urged Paul not to go on to Jerusalem…8 Leaving the next day, we reached Caesarea… AC 21:10 After we had been there a number of days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. 11 Coming over to us, he took Paul's belt, tied his own hands and feet with it and said, "The Holy Spirit says, `In this way the Jews of Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.' "
AC 21:12 When we heard this, we and the people there pleaded with Paul not to go up to Jerusalem. 13 Then Paul answered, "Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus."

Certainly Paul heard the Spirit warning him about trouble in Jerusalem. And, so did all his friends from multiple places. However, they reached opposite conclusions. Paul heard the Spirit compelling him to go to Jerusalem and all the warnings were to get him ready and prevent his discouragement: Acts 20:24 However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me--the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace. His friends heard the warnings and thought the Spirit was saying “Don’t go” because it will be hard, dangerous, and perhaps even deadly. Who was right?

Paul seemed sure of the Spirit’s leading and took the recurring warnings as the Spirit’s reassurance that even though bad things would happen, God was still in control. He would need that reassurance when everything went south on him. Difficulties take us somewhere, which was exactly what God later told Paul… AC 23:11 The following night the Lord stood near Paul and said, "Take courage! As you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome."

Too often we want those we love and care about to avoid pain and struggle. God, however, is often in the pain and struggle (Romans 5:3-4; 2 Cor. 12:8-10). Trying to get them to avoid it would be to distract them from God’s mission, much like Peter in Matthew 16:22. It would be like Mordecai telling Esther, “Don’t Go!”

Who is right? The one who is following God’s call! I’m glad to say that my former girlfriend was right. I’m also grateful that my wife’s cousin never told her about that conversation in the back seat of the VW!

When Disunity is the Road to Unity

William Barclay calls it tragic—Paul and Barnabas’ split in Acts 15:39 They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company. Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus, 40 but Paul chose Silas and left, commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord. 41 He went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches.

Paul wanted to revisit the churches in Asia Minor. Barnabas agreed, but right there things ended. They both wanted to do mission work. They just weren’t agreed on who should be on the team. Mark, the Mama’s boy, Paul didn’t want. Barnabas saw potential. Paul saw problems. Who was right? The Bible doesn’t say. However, I think they both were right. This was a case where disunity was the road to unity.

They were unified on the mission: strengthen the disciples they had led to Christ on their first missionary journey. Both accomplished the mission. They just did it separately rather than together. Did God say they had to work together? Or, did God just give the assignment? Did they go on badmouthing the other? No. Only positive things were said after this, even about Mark. Barnabas had been successful in reclaiming the lost disciple (who eventually gave us an entire gospel). Paul opened Europe to the good news. God was in it!

Their separation was really unity…because it wasn’t division, but multiplication. Now there were two mission teams where before there had been one. That’s the genius of discipleship. The one becomes two, and God moves them in separate paths, continuing to spin off new teams. When you agree on the “what” but not the “how” or the “who”, go ahead in unity to the “what”…separately. Disunity can be the road to unity…if you are agreed on the "what". Too often we try to keep it together in a church, in a group, in a business, and wind up tearing each other apart. God may be in the kerfuffle if it's about multiplication.

When I was an early teenager, our small country church eight miles from town lost our pastor. He had been a “drive out”, a student who drove out the 29 miles from Portland to our old school building in Chapman. Our small church (30 people, including kids) asked the denomination for a new pastor. They, however, felt that the 30 people couldn’t support a pastor. “We’re gonna close the church. Drive the 8 miles into town where there is a sister church.”

Our church leadership felt that God wanted a church in our little rural community. So they contacted the American Sunday School Union (now the American Missionary Fellowship) for a missionary pastor. The main missionary himself came out and began to hold services, prayer meetings (the only time I ever saw my Dad on his knees praying was at one of those prayer meetings at our house on the hill).

About six months passed and the denominational executives, looking for church growth in Scappoose, found none and asked, “What happened in Chapman?” When they discovered that we were all still meeting out there, they sent out another pastor to take over. Now our church leadership had a problem. We had two pastors and one congregation which couldn’t support even one pastor. Part of the group felt a loyalty to the ASSU missionary who had helped us when we needed it. Part of the group preferred the denomination.

The church split…tragically it seemed. For, how could 15 people support a pastor? However, six months later, there were 2 churches of 30 people in the little community. God’s goal was to reach people for Jesus, not keep people in the same box. Our disunity was unwitting unity…for we were accomplishing what God wanted. Division was really multiplication!

So, when you are facing problems of disunity, ask the question: Are we both trying to do the same thing, only in separate ways or with separate people. Focus on what we have in common…the mission. Allow for diversity in accomplishing it. That’s unity!

Strawberry Morning

I’m an early riser. Several times a week I exit the house at 6:30 AM on my way to the road for my morning jog/walk (I walk up and down the hills and jog on the flats pretty much…so, since I live on a hill, I guess it is a walk/jog, not a jog/walk). That early hour is so quiet…birds chirping, the sun still behind Whiskey Ridge. And, the hour, the chirps, something about the feel of the morning and the sun not quite but almost up, takes me back to 12 years old.

We were early risers. Often we’d be on the road at 6 AM in the old Nash Rambler heading over the hill as a family to the strawberry patch. Or, we’d be on a 30 minute drive up the Columbia to Sauvie’s Island to pick beans. Often the entire family picked in the fields. We'd start early to escape the heat.

This morning it’s a Strawberry morning.

It’s misting lightly. And I remember the berries through the bushes. Today my hands wouldn’t get stained as much as normally. We’d use lemon juice at home to get the stains off. Today, it was like God was giving the berries a light pre-packing rinse. The mist was coming down, and before we were 10 feet up the row, we would be wet up to the elbows from pawing through the plants looking for those juicy red strawberries.

It was in the berry patch that I learned how to work. My friends went there to play…but then their mom wasn’t in the next row. I learned to make a game out of things: like who can pick the most, and who can eat the least strawberries in a season (in the field of course, not at home where Mom would put that lip-smackin’ shortcake on the table). I remember that in a good season I could earn a hundred dollars…enough for school clothes and, one year, that coveted electric train set from the Sears Roebuck catalog (still have it after it circulated through my nephews and my son).

I remember the red berries rattling into the boxes in the carrier (a carrier held six boxes each about 5 inches square and 2 inches high, arranged 2 x 3, with a wooden bar handle you could lean on when you got up from the row, or with which you could carry the 6 boxes down the row to the check in stand.) You soon learned to carry 4 carriers each trip, filling them one at a time, but leaving them in the row behind you. However, you had to keep your eyes on them and not get too far or they would take “legs” and “walk” away. Six boxes made a carrier and 12 boxes a flat, in which they were stacked and trucked to the packing plant.

When it rained, the mud would cake up on the bottom of the carrier. And, if it rained too much, you’d be carrying as much mud as berries. And, of course, with too much rain, the berries would get mushy.

So, by now it is no longer misting. It is not just sprinkling. It is raining, and I’m in the old Nash, or maybe it’s the old 51 Studebaker (its front-end looked something like an old jet). We’re huddled in the back seat, waiting for the rain to let up so we can go back to the patch…at least some of us in the car are waiting. I know I’m not waiting. I’m praying! I’m praying for a rain-out, so we can all go home and go back to bed.

By now I’ve nearly finished my 33 minute route across into Tuscany and up the hill behind it near the new high school (where we used to get our Christmas tree every year). I’m nearly home and now it isn’t misting, it is drizzling, and maybe even close to raining.
Guess I won’t be mowing the lawn this Strawberry morning .

Lamentations 3:22 Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. 23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 24 I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him." 25 The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; 26 it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.

It's A Team Sport

At first glance, distance running (the sport of my youth) is an individual sport. It’s just you against the clock and the other runners. It is up to you. If you let up, you’re the loser. If you slack off in practice, you alone lose conditioning which will impact your race.

However, for nearly every race I ever ran, I ran on a team: how I placed impacted my team’s score. This was especially true on distance relays…where I had to pass the baton on for the team to win. If I let down on my leg of the relay, I impacted the time of the entire team. If I dropped the baton, the team was disqualified, not just me. The only race I never finished was a gimme NCAA medal…there were 6 places and 5 runners, and I was unable to finish. How that must have hurt the team! All I was thinking about, however, was how bad I was hurting from taking 6x6 barriers across the shins before I went headfirst into the water (I was running the 3000 meter steeplechase) and how my pride was hurting from the crowd laughing at me as I sat on the next barrier and swung my legs over. I was only thinking about me when someone asked me, “Do you think you can make it?” I dropped out and my team lost the points.

In a society that values individualism and entitlement, we tend to think that life is about me and that I deserve a break. We think that as long as it impacts only me, it is my business. However if we look at the book of Romans, we discover that church is a team sport. It is not just about me. If I let up in living out my faith in Christ, I’m not the only loser. What I do impacts everyone else!
RO 14:13 Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother's way.
RO 14:19 Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. 20 Do not destroy the work of God…
RO 15:1 We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. 2 Each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. 3 For even Christ did not please himself…
That’s why Paul says…
1CO 9:24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. 25 Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 26 Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. 27 No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

Yes, we will all stand before the judgment seat (I Corinthians 3) as individuals.
But, we will be evaluated on how we impacted our team.
Christ-following is a team sport!

It Doesn't Depend on You

The phone rings. “Can you?” They catch you in the hallway, “Can I meet?” You get the email, “Can I schedule?” Or, perhaps it is more about “Can you help here?” “Can you volunteer just this once?” “Can you provide?” We can screen telemarketers, but we can’t escape the “Can you’s?” of our days.

Let’s face it. We are flooded with requests…for appointments, for giving the time and money God has trusted to our care, for helping. And, I want to help everywhere. I want to be a foster parent. I want to be the counselor who dispenses amazing insights. I want to help in the kids program. I want to be at every family event and never miss one Facebook invitation. And, then there are old friends who come into town and the picnic reunion beckons. And, the truth is, too often I want to be the Messiah.

So, in the midst of these competing demands, I hear God’s voice from Acts 18, “David, you can’t do it all. Paul couldn’t do it all, and neither can you.”

Paul was on his way to Jerusalem. He had a layover in Ephesus, on the west coast of what we call Asia Minor, and dropped into the local synagogue for a friendly discussion about the Messiah with the Jewish population of that cosmopolitan city. Acts 18:20 When they asked him to spend more time with them, he declined. 21 But as he left, he promised, "I will come back if it is God's will."

Paul had other commitments calling. The ship was sailing. He had to say “Not now.” There are times when we have to be willing to say, “Not yet.” But, who will do it if you don’t? What do you do when a “yes” here means that you break your commitment and say “No” to the other person on your agenda? Too many times I say “Yes” to someone, and at the same time say “No” to the person to whom I’ve already committed that same time. I’m hoping for forgiveness, maybe for a “no show”, or just that they will understand that I’m not the Messiah.

So, if God is calling me elsewhere, as He did Paul, what does He expect me to do with all those requests when I say “Not yet.” Do I just callously walk off and let them fend for themselves? What did Paul do when he had to say “Not yet?”

He recognized that God had provided someone else for this task. In fact, Paul had already arranged for a pair of his disciples, Aquila and Priscilla to stay on in Ephesus (verse 19). He could say, “No” with confidence because he knew God had others in place to do the work.

So, when you can’t be the Messiah, when you have to say, “No”, be aware that God has other disciples He can use. In fact, you might be thinking ahead, trying to pour into disciples' lives so that they will be ready to do what you can’t do. When you have to say, “No, I’m already committed,” think like Paul. Ask someone else to be there in your place.

When I used to greet at the door after a sermon, I’d be torn between the person speaking to me and the new person gliding past ungreeted. I couldn’t listen effectively while I was thinking about the new person. I couldn’t greet the new person while I was listening to the person in front of me. I had to do two things: 1) turn my back on the other people so I could listen (say “yes” to them); 2) trust that the others around me would catch God’s heart for the stranger and connect with them.

After all, it doesn’t depend on you. It depends on Him.