Holy Expedition II

Holy Expedition II

Happy (Blessed) are those whose strength comes from you, who are eager to make the pilgrimage to Mount Zion. As they pass through the dry valley of Baca, it becomes a place of springs.

Psalm 84:5 & 6a Good News Bible

In Holy Expedition part one we talked about the idea of traveling with God. How we are fully satisfied not by our accomplishments or by the things we buy, but by being fully at peace with God because we are in His presence. When we travel this life with God, we usher in the opportunity for others to know Christ. And when we do this, we fill the dry and barren with the living water of salvation.

I know people that when they walk in the room, you can sort of feel the unease. Just hearing their names conjures feelings of grief. But I was once treated to a wonderful gift. I was speaking to one of my sisters on the phone. She told her kids that I was on the line. All she said was my name and they roared with laughter and good cheer. This begs the question as to what do we carry from place to place? Do we live with sorrow, so we bring sorrow or do we live with joy and bring joy? As the word says, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” - Romans 10:15

I think that our travels, when purposed by the Lord, are filled with many ups and downs. But the blessings tend to outweigh the trials. And when treading a path with God we should always leave in our wake a sense of joy, peace, understanding and an air of hope.

Holy Expedition

Holy Expedition

Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have their hearts on pilgrimage. 

Psalm 84:5 NIV

By choice a person can live in a state of blessing or of destruction. If a man chooses to live by his own counsel, by his own power, does all of this without God, he is, even if he is wealthy and healthy, cursed. Ignoring the Lord will be his undoing. But if a man were to trust God and make a daily pilgrimage to Him in his heart, then he is blessed, that is, fully satisfied in God.

The blessing that God wants to give each person is a settled mind. We were once at war with God in our minds. We proved that we were struggling with God by the things we did with our bodies and how we resisted Him in our thoughts (Colossians 1:21). But now, we are blessed. Now we have been reconciled and settled in our minds because we hope in Christ! When we walk with God we are always in the process of removing our sin stained clothes and exchanging them for holy clothes, for righteousness. He is always leading us, whether into teaching times or into grace, or into a dark valley or into freedom; He is always preparing us for good works and for eternity.

It is peculiar how many of us are on a path to find something in God, not realizing that the real gift is that of proximity. Our blessing is not having done this thing or that thing in the Lord’s service. The real blessing is to have done this thing or the other with God at our side. The expedition is not the blessing or the service per se; it is having lived side-by-side with the creator of the Universe. He is our great expedition.

Bread and Wine

Bread and Wine

This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me. 

Luke 22:19 NIV

In reference to the community of believers and communion, Dietrich Bonhoeffer said; "It is ‘our’ daily bread that we eat, not my own. The one bread that is given to our community unites us in a firm covenant. Now no one must go hungry as long as the other has bread. Whoever shatters this community also shatters the community of the Spirit."

Now, I readily admit that I sometimes struggle with the idea of Christian community. I have trouble seeing the "community" of believers when I take notice of certain things in ‘the church’; impenetrable cliques, racism and other prejudices that continue seemingly unabated. There are even individuals in my own church that do not reply when I greet them. How am I to see Christ in this? Where are the ‘community’ and the ‘Spirit’ in these things?

All of us may feel light-years apart from time to time. And that, I imagine, is quite normal. But the communion table is our gathering place. When the bread and the cup are in front of us we stop being greater or lesser, black or white, poor or rich, commoners or royals and are unified in our need for salvation. When we take communion we are looking back and remembering the cross work of Christ and we are also looking forward to the time when we say, "Blessed is the one who will eat bread in the reign of the Lord." Luke 14:15

We may have prepared on a personal level for communion. But have we readied ourselves for the bread and wine as a community?

The Gifts at Work

The Gifts at Work

There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. All of these are the work of the one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.

1 Corinthians 12:4, 5 & 11 NIV

I'd like to think that I am a teacher of God's word and an intercessor, praying for others in their time of need. At least, that is my opinion of myself and what I think my gifts are. But what is also true is that the Spirit decides when and which gifts he wants to use in you for service to others.

I was in the pre-op area of the hospital, waiting behind a curtained area with my wife. We could hear the complaints and sobbing of the patient across from us. She was alone, concerned about her illness and deathly afraid of needles. Ursula said, "Go talk to her, she needs help." So I walked over and peaked behind her curtain. I asked if I could sit with her and she immediately reached out her hand. All I did for the longest time was sit there, holding hands with a stranger. After a time, I asked her if it was okay if I prayed for her. She accepted and I whispered a prayer and closed with the name of Jesus. After a few more minutes she said, "You're really good at this. I don't feel a sense of impending doom any longer." We both chuckled and kept holding hands.

I look back at that moment and think that I could have tried to convert her, or be hyper-religious and “claim the victory” in Christ name over her illness. But all I did was hold a stranger’s hand, whisper a prayer of healing and of peace and then reminded her to pray because when she calls out for Jesus Christ, she will NEVER be alone. The moment Emily "complimented" me I knew she was actually speaking of the presence of God, not necessarily that I was a bringer of peace. At that moment, I got a bigger picture of what the Spirit does if we allow him to lead and use the gifts he deems necessary.

In His presence

In His presence

We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body,
and to be present with the Lord.
2 Corinthians 5:8 Holman Bible

My friend Al recently suffered the loss of a grandchild. It is not such a radical idea to suggest that the child is now enjoying the presence of Christ himself. Jesus said, "Let the children come to me. Don't stop them! For the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to those who are like these children." (Matthew 19:14).

Now, what is a more radical idea is for an adult to leave this world and be present with the Lord. As grown-ups we have already done, said and thought enough things to be excluded from any audience with God. And yet, Christ gives weight to this far-reaching proposal by saying to a hardened criminal that, “Today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43).

Even more recent was the passing of a dear brother in the faith at my church. To speak with Brother Aaron was to find one’s self inevitably talking about the faithfulness of God. Now if you were to ask me if he is present with the Lord, then I would say “Yes” based on his faith in Christ. And I’ll go further and say that like Al’s grandchild, Brother Aaron is also at peace, filled with joy and overflowing with praise. Here’s the thing though, one day we will all gain an audience with God. But the manner in which you approach His throne is up to you. You can stand before God searching your mind for a loophole or vainly hoping that you have some kind of righteousness that far exceeds that of Christ’s blood. Or the other option is to start trusting, believing and obeying Jesus Christ and the entire word of God so that when you approach the throne you can do so with confidence. And not a confidence in yourself, but assurance in what Christ has already done for you.