Profile of the Lukewarm

As I was sipping my lukewarm coffee this morning, I was reminded of Revelation 3:16, where God describes the stagnant faith of one of the seven churches. Francis Chan lists out the characteristics of a Lukewarm Christian in his book "Crazy Love" and they are good to reflect on as we can so easily slip into comfortable Christianity.

Lukewarm people:
1. attend church fairly regularly
2. give their money to charity and to the church...as long as it doesn’t impinge on their standard of living.
3. tend to choose what is popular over what is right when they are in conflict.
4. don’t really want to be saved from their sin; they want only to be saved from the penalty of their sin.
5. are moved by stories of people who do radical things for Christ, yet they do not act
6. rarely share their faith with their neighbors, coworkers, or friends.
7. gauge their morality or “goodness” by comparing themselves to the secular world.
8. say they love Jesus, and that He is a part of their lives...but only a part
9. love God but they do not love Him with all of their heart, soul, and strength
10. love others but do not seek to love others as much as they love themselves.
11. will serve God and others, but there are limits to how far they will go or how much time, money, and energy they are willing to give.
12. think about life on earth much more often than eternity in heaven.
13. are thankful for their luxuries and comforts, and rarely consider trying to give as much as possible to the poor.
14. do what is necessary to keep themselves from feeling too guilty.
15. are continually concerned with playing it safe; they are slaves to the god of control.
16. feel secure because they attend church, made a profession of faith, were baptized, come from a Christian family, vote Republican, or live in America.
17. do not live by faith; their lives are structured so they never have to.
18. probably drink and swear less than average, but besides that, they really aren’t very different from your typical unbeliever.

Known By God

I will admit that I have a growing fascination with other languages. Maybe it's because of the exposure I have had to several now, or maybe it's the fact that my eyes are being opened to a depth in the meaning of words in other languages. For instance, in English, we have one word for love, while the Greek language has several words to convey different types of love.
The word that I have been chewing on for a year now is Nolwazi, a Siswati word meaning "God has known her from the womb". I first encountered this word when a young girl that I met last year in Swaziland named her daughter this. God has known her from the womb....this young baby was born as a product of incest and rape, and is destined to live a tough life in Swaziland...yet God has known her from the womb.I have been thinking about it lately, because my new nephew was (finally) born this week, after months of anticipation, and a couple of weeks of impatient waiting! As I have prayed for this little one, I have been overcome by the fact that God has known him from the womb. I love how Psalm 139 reminds us that even before we are born, God has ordained every one of our days! As I have been working on a blanket for my nephew, I was reminded of how the Psalmist continues to talk about the fact that God knit our parts together in our mother's womb. God knows the passions & dreams He will put on my nephews heart; God knows the ways He has wired my new nephew to bring Him glory & tell people about Him!And I am humbled and amazed by this even more today, as I celebrate my own birthday - that 31 years ago, when I was in my mother's womb and my parents were anticipating the birth of a 7lb baby boy, and out came a 10 lb baby girl, God knew me. He knew the unique ways He would wire me, the ways He would pursue me, the ways He would lead me through trials and hardships in order to refine me and draw me closer to Him. He knew me from the womb, knowing all of the days of my life before one of them came to be!
And still, after all of these years reflecting on this, I still am overwhelmed that God knows me. That the God who named the stars, who knows how many grains of sand are on the beaches, who knows all of history and all of the future, who made the sun rise this morning, who created gravity and DNA, who is completely perfect and holy....that God knows me.

"But whoever loves God, is known by God."
1 Corinthians 8:3

World AIDS Day

Today is World AIDS Day, and if you're like me, you sometimes are numbed by the statistics and overlook the fact that individual lives are devastated daily by this horrible disease. Here is a great video that shows a realistic picture of what it looks like to live and die from AIDS in Swaziland.

And here is a woman who died from AIDS while I was in Swaziland...ironically, her (now) 2 year old orphaned son's name means HOPE.

Recognizing My Idols

Money, image, a missionary lifestyle, children, success, marriage, ministry, status, health, education, comfort... I have been convicted lately about how easily I am recognizing the idols in the lives around me while growing numb to the idols in my own heart. As I have been reading in Isaiah lately, I realize I am not alone in growing numb to idols. The Israelites return to their idols over and over even though God warns them over and over through various tests & prophets. God reminds them (and us) through Isaiah that the man-made things we turn into idols are useless.

"All who make idols are nothing, and the things they delight in do not profit...Who fashions a god or casts an idol that is profitable for nothing?" (Isaiah 44:9-10)

Even good things (like family, friends, health) can become idols when they become ultimate things in our lives. We don't wake up in the mornings intent on making idols, but rather take a step down that slippery slope every time we allow anything else besides the Lord of the universe to be THE ultimate thing in our lives. So how do we prevent this?
Here are 13 great questions from an old Puritan sermon that help us to recognize our idols, that we may turn from worshiping created things back to worshiping the only ONE who deserves all of our worship.

1. What do I most highly value?
2. What do I think about by default?
3. What is my highest goal?
4. To what or whom am I most committed?
5. Who or what do I love the most?
6. Who or what do I or depend upon the most?
7. Who or what do I fear the most?
8. Who or what do I hope in and hope for most?
9. Who or what do I desire the most? Or, what desire makes me most angry or makes me despair when it is not satisfied?
10. Who or what do I most delight in or hold as my greatest joy and treasure?
11. Who or what captures my greatest zeal?
12. To whom or for what am I most thankful?
13. For whom or what great purpose do I work?

Suffering: A Means Of Grace In The Hands Of God

"Even suffering is a means of grace in the hands of God. In Judges 3:1-2 God leaves other nations in the promised land 'to teach war' to his people. As each generation confronted hostile armies, it was faced with the need to trust God for itself. Adversity tests, strengthens, and personalizes faith. SInful desires can lurk in our hearts unnoticed because those desires are neither threatened nor thwarted. But suffering stirs the calm waters of latent sinful desires. It reveals the true state of our hearts. It's God's diagnostic tool, preparing the way for the medicine of gospel truth. Deuteronomy 8:2 says, 'You shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart.' Horatius Bonar comments:
'The trial did not create the evil: it merely brought out what was there already, unnoticed and unfelt, like a torpid adder. Then the heart's deep fountains were broken up, and streams of pollution came rushing out, black as Hell...Even so it is with the saints still. God chastens them that He may draw forth the evil that is lying concealed and unsuspected within...When calamity breaks over them like a tempest, then the hidden evils of their heart awakens.'
So suffering always presents us with a choice.
We can get frustrated, angry, bitter, or despondent as our desire for control, success, love, or health gets threatened. Or we can take hold of God in a new way, finding our joy in him and comfort in his promises."

From You Can Change by Tim Chester

Caught In The Middle Of A Morreshet

Middles can be good or bad - people don't like the middle seat on the airplane, but they love the middle of an oreo. We have stereotypes for the middle child, and many times the middle is overlooked. But in most cases, the middle of something is the key link and without it, the whole of that thing would be compromised! Middles are necessary and blessings in disguise. At times there is more pressure on the middle than on the ends, because it often holds things up or holds them together. And as I have been reflecting lately on the role God has called me to be in the middle of a morreshet, I realize how key this middle role is here as well!
Morreshet is the Hebrew word for spiritual legacy, totally separate from their word for a physical/material inheritance. You can imagine how frequently this term was used as the Jews passed down their spiritual legacy from generation to generation. Unfortunately, we have become numb to the responsibility of passing down the spiritual legacy from one generation to another. We underestimate the importance of shaping future generations spiritually, and we will be held accountable for that one day. Yet passing on a spiritual legacy is hardwired into who we are as people and families, and has been since the beginning of creation.

"Hear O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down and when you rise." (Deuteronomy 6:4-9)

My life this month has been a realistic picture of what it means to be the middle generation of passing on a spiritual legacy. I spent a few hours a couple of weeks ago going through some old pictures and mementos of my grandparents. Included in these things were confirmation pictures, prayers, and Bibles. I am blessed to have both of my grandmothers' Bibles, but was captivated by some of the older Bibles I still have. A couple of these Bibles are written in German, and I imagine they accompanied my great-grandparents on their cross-country journey to settle in Colorado. As I look at the tattered pages and faded birth, baptism, marriage, & death records, I am reminded of what Charles Spurgeon said "The Bible that is falling apart usually belongs to the person whose life is not." I can imagine the many nights of hardship during the depression, during the unknowns of traveling across the country by wagon, during the early days of settling on the farm and raising a family...that these Bibles and the God revealed in and through them were the things that sustained my ancestors! I am reminded of their deep faith that called them to help start & build a church here in Loveland that is still standing today. And I am thankful for their faithfulness throughout the years - who knows how much of my life today is a fruit of the prayers they prayed for the future generations of their family.
Yet, I am caught in the middle because there is already another generation of our family, hungry to know the God who created them. I am thankful to live so close to my nieces and nephews, to be able to pray with them and talk with them about God. I love their brutal honesty, and curiosity about God, and their simple faith. And I may never see the fruit of the prayers I pray for them, but I know those prayers don't fall on deaf ears, because God hears each and every one of them, and is faithful to complete the work He has begun in each of them. And as we await the newest baby in our family, I pray that we, as a family, would take seriously and be faithful to the role that God has called us to - to raise this baby to know who God is, what He is like, and that salvation can be found in Him alone. More than learning how to read & write, more than learning how to talk & ride a bicycle, this child needs to learn about the God who created it and who has every day of its life planned out, even though it isn't born yet! May God give us the grace, strength, courage, and wisdom to be faithful to the role He has called us to.

"O God, from my youth you have taught me, and still I proclaim your wondrous deeds. So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to another generation, your power to all those to come." (Psalm 71:17-18)

Every time it snows...

While Denver has continued to stay warm into November, I have been blessed to be up enjoying a few days of winter this week! And I'm constantly amazed (and giddy) as it snows, as it is a tangible reminder that even though we muck up the world and make it dirty & ugly, God can turn it into a wonderland of clean, pure, refreshing whiteness in a matter of minutes. Over the past couple of weeks, in a couple of conversations, I was reminded of the ways that God speaks through His word about how we can compare the purity & completeness of our forgiveness to the whiteness of snow. And as I have been soaking in it (well, actually sitting warmly inside while watching it snow out the window) over the past couple of days, I have been reminded of the complete and permanent forgiveness we have been offered through Christ again.

"Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool." (Isaiah 1:18) "Cleanse me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." (Psalm 51:7)