RESTLESS

     Augustine of Hippo (354-430 AD) prayed, "You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you."
       I think our (U.S.) culture and WORLD has seen enough of this restlessness: of all the things we try after rejecting or losing sight of the truth that ONLY JESUS offers REST for our burdens, STRENGTH for our weakness, HEALING for our brokenness. We think we know better in our culture of Political Correctness and Death, but what has it gotten us? Higher rates of death as a result of high blood pressure, obesity, drug addiction, sexually-transmitted diseases. We have become a culture that says ANYTHING goes, and it HAS: our MORALITY, our sense of RIGHT and WRONG, our ability to DISCERN TRUTH over FALSEHOOD!

        In our rush to not wanting to "offend" anyone, we have brushed aside every  kind of personal and spiritual/emotional boundary that God gave to protect ourselves and our nation from spiritual and emotional suicide.  We are  indeed restless, but have forgotten what we are restless for.
We have become a nation lost in "recovery" but think that that consists of talking about our addictions, hurts and lostness endlessly, rather than of seriously searching for a - the -  ultimate cure to our restlessness and (inner as well as outer) strife - the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, of the Bible - whom we have casually - if not malevalently tossed aside, but who is yet constantly calling us back to Himself - back to true love (as opposed to lust and superficial feelings, which is what we major in as a society). C.S. Lewis once said that we don't want more love but less. By this he defined "more love" as the sculptor working his creation until it is what s/he sees it to ultimately become, not a thumbnail sketch, but the statue of DAVID! If that creation were to speak, it would often cry out, "OUCH!" as it was being molded carefully into the masterpiece it was intended to be.

        We want to be - or say we are - those "masterpieces" - but with the painless work that creates a thumbnail sketch! More love is the masterpiece that requires a LOT of painful & uncomfortable work, which we reject and disdain. But that is the kind of love that God gives: not the superficial, five minute, "how to be happy in 3 steps" approach of our culture, but the painful stretching, the uncomfortable molding of our character that produces true rest and recovery! I'm speaking to myself as well - believe me! As Paul said, "Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me... I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." (Phil. 3: 12 - 14).

       Until we have this character in ever-increasing degrees, how will we be able to offer hope to others in this lost and dying world? That doesn't mean we have to be perfect before we influence!  No!  Just that we are increasingly willing to cooperate with His Spirit so that there would be "less of us and more of Jesus" for the world around us to see our difference in order to ask how to find that peace they see in us, so that we may share how they too can be relieved of their restlessness.

Meeting UP to Pray and Break Walls DOWN - The Time is NOW!

 Earlier this year, there was a gathering of a NUMBER of churches in the Shoreline, Washington area where I live.  It was a TREMENDOUS BLESSING, as I’m sure believers  who met  together to pray  all OVER this nation similarly experienced!  I heard there, comments from MANY people, that they wished we could “do this more often!”

   How long has it been now?  I say LONG ENOUGH!  How would it be if we did it AGAIN, but on a larger scale, breaking down barriers,  maybe, of race, of denomination or others  – realizing that it is not US but JESUS who does the work of unifying!  If we are WILLING to get ourselves to one location physically, then I believe that Jesus will do the “heavy lifting” (as He promised in Mt. 11:30, among other passages) among us spiritually!

 It was  Jesus’  High Priestly Prayer for us (John 17)  to be UNITED IN HIM & TO SEND US as the FATHER had sent JESUS -  to bring as many as would receive Him to eternal life!  THEN the world will at LAST SEE HIM who DIED to SAVE  THEM.

But so that they wouldn’t rush off in their own power, when Jesus was ascending into Heaven,  He instructed His disciples to WAIT for the GIFT of the Holy Spirit to come on them, and THEN the action would BEGIN GOD’S WAY!  There are plenty of churches that teach on the Holy Spirit, but STOP at speaking in tongues during their services!  They never  step outside their own doors to meet the STAGGERING NEEDS of those who would never darken those doors.  At the same time, there are churches that go “whole hog” with social programs that eventually burn themselves out and none of the hurting learn about God’s love to eternal life through Jesus’ INCREDIBLE SACRIFICE on their behalf!   Both have missing something .

I get the impression from Isa. 61: 1-2, which Jesus first preached from in his local synagogue,  when he said, after reading the passage (quoted in Luke 4:18, 19):  “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind,  to release the oppressed,  to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor,”  that preaching the Gospel , healing and ministering to people’s social and emotional needs are more like two sides of the same  coin. And the ministries are done through His gifts in the lives of individual believers,  done in Jesus’ name  and in the power that He wants US , too, to wait on Him for – not because the Holy Spirit  hasn’t yet come – He HAS, but I think it is more so that we know it ISN’T from US but BY His Holy Spirit,  with HIS strength, and in PARTNERSHIP with HIM, which is our HONOR and JOY, giving us HIS strength “to soar on wings like eagles,  to run and not grow weary, and walk and not faint” (Isa. 40: 31), so that we don’t crash and burn.

I don’t know about anybody else, but in a season where we are surrounded by darkness on every side,  I ‘m sensing a fresh breeze of hope on the horizon, and it is a direct RESULT of a new emphasis on REPENTANCE  and PRAYER  and WAITING on God’s Spirit .  It’s not always easy – we want to revert to “Automatic Pilot,”  (and “help God along”!), and many have gone that way but end up veering off in one way or another,  “having a form of godliness but denying the POWER”  (2 Tim. 3:5) but when we DO wait on HIS direction and power, if we don’t give up,  then we EXPERIENCE  the “Holy Mystery”  of the unity of Christ’s Body, and  MIRACLES  that ONLY HE can bring about when the world sees us as He has willed us to be! 

The question is:  are we READY to blow the dividers, the race baiters, and others who want to keep us apart, the PC Police, and all those who gain from our divisiveness OUT OF THE WATER?!  Are we READY to BE the United Body that Christ had called us to be, in order to take this world by STORM?!   They see us as weak, and surely they are right when so many lesser breezes  can so easily cause us to be distracted  from  the GREAT job Jesus has entrusted to us!   But ONCE we have been RAISED UP like the ARMY that was once a valley of DRY BONES (Ezek. 37: 1-14), we WILL be a HURRICANE in REVERSE!   Instead of destruction,  we will bring His POWER to offer His PEACE,  instead of hatred, we will offer LOVE,  instead of division, we will SHOW the world the power of Christ’s  Ministry of RECONCILIATION! 

What is KEEPING us from being  READY?  What can God’s Spirit and Presence cannot overcome?!   Are we ready to give up on pride, unforgiveness,   loyalties that are more important than loyalty to God and HIS ways? Suspicion of others who are different  from  ourselves?  Without such repentance, we are NOT ready to be God’s hurricane!  But WITH it,  we WILL TURN OUR CITIES & NEIGHBORHOODS BACK RIGHTSIDE UP!  Are we READY?   Let’s get together!  Will it be easy?  No, probably not  in some ways.  Will we see eye to eye always?  Not in every way, no!  Do we HAVE to?  NO. (Even married couples don’t  so why would we?)  But if we don’t meet and talk, then we let the enemy win! And we DO have an enemy, but it is NOT flesh and blood!  We all KNOW who he is, and his fruits: to steal, kill and destroy!  And he also works through people.  It’s not too hard to see and recognize those he works THROUGH, in our neighborhoods, cities,  nations, and unfortunately even churches.  He always has his “moles,” we all know ThAT!    He and his people don’t want people to talk because they know that TALKING means HUMANIZING  the “enemy,”  and God knows,  they don’t want THAT! 

But God PRIZES RELATIONSHIP and RECONCILIATION, as I said before.  And THAT happens, in most cases, through face to face CONTACT and COMMUNICATION.  Not much can happen without it.  It happens when we CHOOSE to love instead of hate, and that often looks like serving , not feeling (feelings often follow,  just to warn you!).  It involves DOING what is in the highest & best interest of someone,  whether that means working side by side on a project ,  tutoring children after school,  doing  home repairs,  bringing food to the needy,  standing together against gangs that destroy lives, or whatever is needed.  And praying together, which is where we have to start and continue in to get God’s ongoing direction to proceed.   So who’s going to be the first to lay down the gauntlet and pick up the phone?   Can I get one or two pastors in the Seattle area to start?  I know there are a lot of EXCELLENT ones out  there!   Pray and lead the way… and share  - not out of pride but to let everyone see the progress of what can happen in Jesus’ name!