Have you ever read Isaiah 53 from The Message? It’s powerful…

Several days ago,  I saw Los’ suggestion to check out this song, “Healer”. So I went to the link and heard the song, and watched the video about the story behind it.

And then I watched the performance of it.

…over and over and over again.

At the beginning of the song, the artist reads the first half of Isaiah 53 from The Message, and made more sense to me than it ever has.

Check it out:

1 Who believes what we’ve heard and seen? Who would have thought God’s saving power would look like this?

2-6 The servant grew up before God—a scrawny seedling,
a scrubby plant in a parched field.
There was nothing attractive about him,
nothing to cause us to take a second look.
He was looked down on and passed over,
a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand.
One look at him and people turned away.
We looked down on him, thought he was scum.
But the fact is, it was our pains he carried—
our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us.
We thought he brought it on himself,
that God was punishing him for his own failures.
But it was our sins that did that to him,
that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins!
He took the punishment, and that made us whole.
Through his bruises we get healed.
We’re all like sheep who’ve wandered off and gotten lost.
We’ve all done our own thing, gone our own way.
And God has piled all our sins, everything we’ve done wrong,
on him, on him.

7-9 He was beaten, he was tortured,
but he didn’t say a word.
Like a lamb taken to be slaughtered
and like a sheep being sheared,
he took it all in silence.
Justice miscarried, and he was led off—
and did anyone really know what was happening?
He died without a thought for his own welfare,
beaten bloody for the sins of my people.
They buried him with the wicked,
threw him in a grave with a rich man,
Even though he’d never hurt a soul
or said one word that wasn’t true.

10 Still, it’s what God had in mind all along,
to crush him with pain.
The plan was that he give himself as an offering for sin
so that he’d see life come from it—life, life, and more life.
And God’s plan will deeply prosper through him.

11-12 Out of that terrible travail of soul,
he’ll see that it’s worth it and be glad he did it.
Through what he experienced, my righteous one, my servant,
will make many “righteous ones,”
as he himself carries the burden of their sins.
Therefore I’ll reward him extravagantly—
the best of everything, the highest honors—
Because he looked death in the face and didn’t flinch,
because he embraced the company of the lowest.
He took on his own shoulders the sin of the many,
he took up the cause of all the black sheep.

I was reading in Luke 6 this morning. After Jesus pronounces His ‘blesseds’, He pronounces His ‘woes’:

24^(AS) “But woe to you who are rich,^(AT) for you^(AU) have received your consolation.

25“Woe to you who are full now, for^(AV) you shall be hungry.

“Woe to^(AW) you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.”

And I asked myself, “What’s fundamentally wrong with being rich?”

And I responded (to myself), “Because all rich people know some poor people, and that means that they are withholding their riches at the cost of their friends’ comfort and provision.”

And then I thought, “Well, most people seem to agree that all Americans are pretty much rich by the rest of the world’s standards. So, who are the poor people that we know?”

And then I thought, “Well, pretty much the rest of the world.”

And that’s kind of funny

…for about 5 seconds.

And then it’s disturbing and overwhelming.

I’m typing this on a computer that cost more than many people will make in the next 5 years.

What kind of steward am I being?

What kind of steward are you being?

Brace yourself.

For the first time in a while, I’m making some time to write something somewhat meaningful here.

It’s strange. Although these past couple of weeks have had me busier than ever (lots of driving back and forth between Greensboro and Creedmoor and working really hard to get up to speed at work, plus focussing a little bit more on church stuff), I seem to be experiencing more clarity than I have in a while.

I don’t know. Maybe it’s just ’cause of the John Mayer song. Actually, I hope not. (Isn’t the point of that song that as soon as you realize that you’re having a moment of clarity it’s too late, because that realization will take away the clarity?)

But I digress…

To be honest, it’s not nearly that complicated. I think the bottom line is that I’ve had at least 2 1/2 hours a day to sit in a car and think and listen to some fantastic teaching from guys like Mark Driscoll and Francis Chan. And at least equally importantly, God has been doing some amazing things in Stephanie’s life too. She might not even realize it, but she’s more beautiful than ever — in every way. I feel more encouraged and supported than ever, and that makes more difference than any woman will ever understand.

So, all that rambling because I want to ask for some feedback. I had a rare moment this week when a Bible story became completely new to me — the meaning and value for my life right now came through in a way it never has before.

In our ‘Spiritual Gifts’ Bible study that our men’s group is studying through at work, the author makes a point using the life of Moses, and he focusses specifically on the story from early in Moses’ life where he kills the Egyptian. The author challenged me to consider the question: “Why did Moses kill the Egyptian?”

It seems like a simple enough question, but the answer is powerful for me: I think Moses killed him because he was beginning to get a grip on God’s calling for his life. God put in Moses’ heart a burden for His people. Moses felt God’s compassion and righteous anger towards the conditions of the Israelites.

And before he probably realized that God had put this in his heart, and certainly before he consulted God about it, he did something rash and chalked it up to passion.

The result: a man died, and Moses spent 40 years hiding out in the wilderness.

And I got to thinking: Did it really have to be that way? If Moses had realized that his passion came from God, and asked God for direction on how to act, and then waited, could it have played out better? What if God was ready and willing to lead the people out in 1 year? What if those 40 extra years of toil and death that God’s people experienced weren’t necessary?

But then again, God is sovereign. Someone in our discussion put it this way: What if God planned for everything to happen just the way it did? What if He wanted Moses to go out to the wilderness so that He could mold him into the redeemer of His people that He wanted him to be?

This definitely seems reasonable. Think about all the people who spent time in the wilderness before God really fulfilled His calling in their lives. There’s Moses, David, Paul, John the Baptist… even Jesus it seems to some extent.

So all that leaves me in a funny place because I have such an overwhelming passion for God’s church. I seriously feel the Gospel like fire in my bones and everything in me screams to give my whole life to see the world changed by the Gospel. I want to spend my life being poured out for the Bride of Christ in America until She is a true reflection of Him, and truly cares about His bride around the world. And I try to wrap my head around the story about Moses, and how God seems to send His servants into long seasons of waiting where He prepares them, and I try to think about how that applies to me, and I just don’t know what to take away.

In the sermon I listened to this morning from Francis Chan, he said that in Uganda alone (I think — that part wasn’t clear), 43,000 children are orphaned every day, and 29,000 orphans die every day.

Every day.

Part of me fights God about that.

“What can You teach me in 5 or 10 years that is worth so many wasted lives?”

I know. It’s an audacious question to ask the Creator. I ask it respectfully. I know that I have so much to learn that I don’t even know how much I have to learn.

But what’s the balance in the meantime? How do I stir up the passions God has put in me and take full advantage of what’s available for me to do in THIS season, while simultaneously resting in God’s sovereignty and just waiting for His leadership?

I guess I already know what I would tell someone if they asked me those questions… but all the same, what do you think?

15But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for^(A) many. 16And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For^(B) the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought^(C) justification. 17For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness^(D) reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.

18Therefore, as one trespass^[a] led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness^[b] leads to justification and life for^(E) all men. 19For as by the one man’s^(F) disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s^(G) obedience the many will be made righteous. 20Now^(H) the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased,^(I) grace abounded all the more, 21so that,^(J) as sin reigned in death,^(K) grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday, while working, I listened to a message by Rob Bell on Philippians 2:1-2 called “One Mind” (click here to download the mp3 :: click here to view the past 12 sermons from Mars Hill Church).

The talk was very interesting and certainly kept my attention. Rob even played highlight films of Larry Bird (a great basketball player from when I was a kid).

At one point during the talk — and I think you could reasonably say that this is the thesis of the message — Rob makes this statement:

“What if the cross was God’s way of asking, ‘What do I have to do for you to get along?’ ?”

At first I thought, “Wow, that’s powerful.”

But then, the more I thought about it, the more my eye brows went up…

what do you think?

JDGreear from the Summit Church in Durham, NC, has a post titled “The Book Besides the Bible to Take If You Get Stranded On An Island”.

He begins like this:

G. K. Chesterton was once asked what one book he’d take if he were stranded on an island. He said a book about shipbuilding.

Other than that, and the Bible… this is what I’d suggest you take: Tim Keller’s new The Reason for God.
If you read one book in your LIFETIME, THIS SHOULD BE IT. I know this sounds like I’m exaggerating, but this really is the absolute best book I’ve ever read at interpreting the Gospel for our culture.

He later goes on to write:

One depressing thing about reading this book is I realize how little many “evangelical” churches preach the actual Gospel (seems to me). I’m thinking even of those places that have high “conversion” numbers. People are moved to pray salvation, come-to-Jesus prayers and get baptized, but you don’t see a people falling in love with Jesus…

Ummm… yeah. I just said almost the exact same thing at Bible study Wednesday.

I believe I have identified that next book I’ll be looking to get.

I noticed this scripture in Acts 13 for this first time this morning:

(38) Let it be known to you therefore, brothers,^(CL) that through this man^(CM) forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, (39) and by him^(CN) everyone who believes is freed^[c] from everything^(CO) from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses.

I spent some time looking at the Scripture this morning for the first time in several days. It’s so easy to let that piece of my day get away when I get busy. Somehow the logic goes, “I have to work 10 hours today so I need my extra sleep so that I can have a good attitude and be a good witness to the people I’ll work with.”

And there’s some wisdom in that. But not when it’s the usual case. My soul can’t survive long without meditating on God. No one’s can, I believe.

This morning, I decided to wait until I got to work to get into the Word, so that the drive in could wake me up a little bit. When I got here, I realized that I don’t have my Bible, so I used BibleGateway instead. I haven’t used that site for much in a while, but they have really made it useful!

So this morning, I was read Acts 11, and a line really jumped off the page. The context is that Peter is getting a bunch of crap from the religious people because he spent time with, and ate with non-Jews. Basically, these were the bloggers/watchdogs/jealous wannabe ministry guys who chose to criticize Peter for what God did through him because they were jealous that He didn’t use them instead. (The amount of time that is spent each week writing blog posts criticizing Mark Driscoll really comes to mind here)

In verse 17, Peter is in the middle of giving his defense, and he asks, “Who was I that I could stand in God’s way?”

Let that question sink in for a minute.

Let me tell you what it means to me.

“God I really want to be a good husband and I want to lead Stephanie well and I want to do better with our finances and I want to love better and I want to make our home a restful sanctuary and I want to keep making progress towards being in full-time ministry some day…”

“And God I don’t like my job but my heart really goes out to the people here and I want to see them come to know you and I don’t know how to balance all this very well and they make me work these long hours and how are they going to know how much I don’t like it if I’m always smiling and loving them and when are You going to give me a job where I can do what I love all day and…”

“And God I love my family and there are so many who are still far from you and I want to be really intentional about reaching them and I want to see a church planted in Henderson and I want see awesome things happen in my own church and… and and…”

pause

(picture large, beautiful Lion with a gentle grin)

Who am I that I could stand in God’s way?

Thoughts?

So, as I mentioned before, I’m going through the ‘10 Questions For the New Year‘, and this is number 2:

Question: What’s the most humanly impossible thing you will ask God for this year?

Answer:

Wow! Good question. Note that it says ‘humanly’, because with God, all things are possible.

Honestly, I need to pray more about this. So my answer here is sort of tentative, but two things come to mind:

My sister and her family – I’ve written before about my sister Jennifer. Her and her husband, Moses, are trying to raise 5 kids in the very pricey southern Californian economy with very little income. Her story is amazing, and I believe that God is just getting started with her and that family. But they really struggle. Financially and spiritually. And I feel really helpless being so far away. I dream of what this year would be like if they lived 10 miles away, but they live 2,600 miles away. So, I want to ask God to explode in their world. Of course, that isn’t very measurable, so I want to pray about a better way to put that… but there’s one that I’ll continue to prayerfully flesh out.

Raise global awareness in my church – God is doing amazing things at our church. Amazing! I have never been more excited about ‘church’ in my whole life. But I want us to see outside the walls of our building, and outside the walls of our country. And I want our community to see how incredibly wealthy we are. I want people to spend their time/money with opportunity cost in mind. I want people to spend their $50 a month on cable with the understanding that it could provide for all the needs of two kids for a month — two kids who might die without it…

I’m not sure how to approach this one either, but I’m praying about trusting God to rally our body to dig three wells in Africa this year. And I don’t just want to raise the money, I want to really and truly rally people. And I don’t want the money to come out of tithes… I want it to be sacrificial.

I’m still praying about this one, and I’m open to any ideas…