The Joy of Words

Till We Have Faces by CS Lewis

“To say the very thing you really mean, the whole of it, nothing more or less or other than what you really mean; that’s the whole are and joy of words.”  C.S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces.

A great quote from a great book written by a great author.  I read it and a question stirs in my mind.  Have we lost the joy of words?

Txt.  Text.  Text message.

Personally, I find the joy of words when I practice the art of words.  The art of words is expressing exactly what you mean, nothing more or less.  And that is hard to do.

In Ecclesiastes Solomon tells us that the words of the wise are gracious but fools only multiply their words.  Rambling endlessly, they never express what they actually mean.

I don’t know if this is the case for you, but it is a chore for me sometimes (actually quite often) to really discern exactly where my heart and mind are at.  Instead of taking time to quietly reflect, I have the habit of talking until I either express myself satisfactorily or I utterly confuse my listener.  Despite my dilemma, I know there is a solution.

Take time to rest and reflect.  Use that time to pray and seek.  Write things down.  Try and use as few words as possible to fully express yourself.

When we don’t do any of those things to practice the art of words, we lose the art of words.  Language is a blessed gift from the Lord, and it is overwhelmingly the biggest tool we have to express ourselves.  Don’t waste it.  I don’t want it to waste away.

How To Subdue An Army

Ben led a great Bible study last night over this passage!

Samarian Tell
"and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha"

2 Kings 6:8-23

8 Once when the king of Syria was warring against Israel, he took counsel with his servants, saying,  "At such and such a place shall be my camp." 9 But the man of God sent word to the king of Israel,  "Beware that you do not pass this place, for the Syrians are going down there." 10 And the king of Israel sent to the place about which the man of God told him. Thus he used to warn him, so that he saved himself there more than once or twice. 

11 And the mind of the king of Syria was greatly troubled because of this thing, and he called his servants and said to them,  "Will you not show me who of us is for the king of Israel?" 12 And one of his servants said,  "None, my lord, O king; but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedroom." 13 And he said,  "Go and see where he is, that I may send and seize him."  It was told him,  "Behold, he is in  Dothan." 14 So he sent there horses and chariots and a great army, and they came by night and surrounded the city. 

15 When the servant of the man of God rose early in the morning and went out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was all around the city. And the servant said,  "Alas, my master! What shall we do?" 16 He said,  "Do not be afraid,  for those who are with us are more than those who are with them." 17 Then Elisha prayed and said,  "O  Lord , please  open his eyes that he may see."  So the  Lord  opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of  horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. 18 And when the Syrians came down against him, Elisha prayed to the  Lord  and said,  "Please strike this people with blindness."  So he struck them with blindness in accordance with the prayer of Elisha. 19 And Elisha said to them,  "This is not the way, and this is not the city. Follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom you seek."  And he led them to Samaria. 

20 As soon as they entered Samaria, Elisha said,  "O  Lord ,  open the eyes of these men, that they may see."  So the  Lord  opened their eyes and they saw, and behold, they were in the midst of Samaria. 21 As soon as the king of Israel saw them, he said to Elisha,  "My father, shall I strike them down? Shall I strike them down?" 22 He answered,  "You shall not strike them down. Would you strike down those whom you have taken captive  with your sword and with your bow?  Set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink and go to their master." 23 So he prepared for them a great feast, and when they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away, and they went to their master. And the Syrians did not come again  on raids into the land of Israel. 

 
      Elisha was a prophet during a spiritually dry season in Israel.  The nation had been divided into two kingdoms after Solomon’s reign and its people were struggling to keep the faith.  Jesus tells us in Luke 4:27 that although there were many lepers in Israel during this time, the only one who was healed was a man named Naaman who was from Syria (2 Kings 5).  It’s strange because although God was working in Israel, many people lacked the kind of faith it takes to trust Him completely.  This is the culture and people God was using Elisha to speak to.

During this time (around 850 BC) Israel and Syria were often at odds with each other.  Elisha’s servant didn’t have it easy the morning he woke to find an army encamped around them.  Fear welled up in his heart as he turned to his leader, asking what they would do.  Elisha wasn’t afraid though because his faith assured him that God’s power far out-matched that of his enemies.  When Elisha prayed he first prayed for his servant, asking that the Lord’s armies be revealed to his servant.  Once those armies and chariots of fire were revealed to the young man his faith was reassured but I’m sure he was also struck with fear.  If I had eyes to see the Lord’s armies, mountainsides covered in horses and chariots of fire, I wouldn’t be at ease.  I would tremble at God’s power and might, filled with the kind of awe that demands respect.

Elisha, remaining steadfast in the face of his enemy, prayed that they be blinded.  He didn’t pray that they be annihilated.  He didn’t even pray that they would also see the Lord’s armies (I think I would have prayed this).  Just the sight of the horses and chariots of fire would have sent the Syrian army into a retreat.  No, Elisha didn’t pray for those things.  He prayed for blindness.  At first it seems strange, but when Elisha prayed that the enemy would be blinded he was actually praying that they would come closer to him, so that he could lead them closer to God.

Imagine you’re blind.  Think about being in a pitch black room before.  Your other senses are heightened and on alert, especially the sense of hearing.  If you hear a voice, you pay close attention to it.  You figure out where it’s coming from and decided if you should move closer or farther away.

“Follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom you seek.”  The man’s voice beckons you to follow.  He seems innocent but it could still be a trap.  Since you can’t find your way back you realize that you’re helplessly vulnerable to this man and you’re forced to follow.  Things remain dark but you keep walking.

"O  Lord ,  open the eyes of these men, that they may see."

Then all of a sudden light breaks through.  You rub your eyes and struggle to find your vision and make out your surroundings.  Things are blurry at first but you soon realize the man has led you into the heart your enemy’s territory.  This is the place and these are the people you set out to conquer, except now they have the upper-hand.  Will they kill you now?

Your fate doesn’t look bright when you hear the king ask “Shall I strike them down?” but Elisha resists.  Instead of giving orders to have you killed Elisha invites you to the dinner table.  A feast is prepared and you eat and drink your fill.  This is definitely not what you imagined would happen.  You may even remain skeptical until the release you to return home freely on your own.  As you walk back you remember that Elisha prayed to the Lord and that the Lord responded to every prayer.  And then you remember that Naaman, the old commander of your army, was a leper until he traveled into Israel peacefully and followed the instruction of Elisha “Wash and be clean.”  Naaman left Israel healthy and full of faith, exclaiming "Behold, I know that  there is no God in all the earth but in Israel; so  accept now a present from your servant."

Your heart stirs toward the Lord because you have seen His love and compassion at the hands of His servant.  You also are leaving Israel healthy and full of faith.

Grasping For More

Here’s a test.  Think about what gives you the most comfort.  What motivates you and keeps you going?  Are those things spiritual or physical?

“He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.”  (Ecc. 3:11)

Each of us entertains the physical world and the spiritual realm.  These two modes of existence are constantly intertwined and can often be at odds with one another.  Take some time to think about it.  Anything meaningful is both physical and spiritual.  It’s physical and occupies space.  It’s spiritual and occupies the soul.

Popular culture is sick.  It’s diseased with the idea that the only solution to our discontent and apparent emptiness is MORE, and with greater intensity.  It infuriates me that a YouTube video of a young girl in a tutu singing Super Bass (a song saturated in sex) draws millions of viewers exclaiming “How cute!”  It’s not cute.  It’s depravity, and the blame falls on every enabler because the child does not understand enough to know better.  Do you see what I’m saying?  The reason our culture is saturated with sex is because intimacy was replaced with intensity.  Sex went from private to public because WE WANTED IT THAT WAY.  It’s not just sex though.  It’s wealth, it’s ambition, it’s individualization.  If a person has forgotten or lost the ability to find contentment they will forever seek their own satisfaction at the detriment of others.  In the end the biggest thing that suffers is our joy.

Do you know how much Scripture there is to verify this depravity?  The ENTIRE story of the Old Testament is a story about the majority of the culture falling victim to selfish discontent while a few faithful ones are pointing them back to God, back to the place where physical and spiritual desires and needs are joined together in peace (shalom, wholeness).

Jesus came to earth to fulfill His Father’s Kingdom.  “God is Spirit” but God is glorified in His creation, the place where what is spiritual joins together with physical expression.  How easy is it to miss the spiritual side of things?  Ask Jesus his thoughts on the Pharisees and he would tell you “They know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a miraculous sign” (Matthew 16:1-4).  Jesus, God’s saving grace to us, was speaking directly to these people but all they did was demand more signs.  They had put all their energy into maintaing the physical world around them (laws and regulations, etc.) that they completely missed Jesus and His mission to complete the work His Father had for him.

God created you with a heart that knows His ways.  Eternity was written on your heart because God created you for relationship with him.  Do not be fooled by the liars and fools in this world who would have you trade intimacy with God for intimacy with yourself and with the world.  They promise you intensity is the solution to your happiness but that promise always falls short and even they are slaves to their own foolishness.

Ask yourself this.  Am I finding my joy in things that are perishable?  If what I gain leaves me wanting more, what kind of existence is that?  Will you listen to Jesus’s words when he says “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”

Will you trust him, even for a moment, and experience the blessing of peace?  Will you pray?

You can have all this world, but give me Jesus.

Following Jesus

Let’s dive into John 6.

To set the stage, Jesus has just fed the five-thousand.  People are amazed and captivated by this man, but “Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself” (John 6:15).  Jesus didn’t seek his own glory because he knew that when the time came, his Father would glorify him.

Crowds followed Jesus again the next day.  They surrounded him expectantly, but Jesus didn’t feed them again as he did the day before.  He said “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst” he said (John 6:35).  This upset some of the Jews because Jesus was claiming to have been sent from heaven.  Jesus knew their calloused hearts and knew their grumbling minds, so he responded directly.  He gave a hard message to digest.  “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you” (John 6:53).  As if it didn’t hit hard enough the first time people heard this, Jesus repeated this message several times, until people began leaving.  Even those who claimed to be Jesus’ disciples left him, until only twelve men remained.

Jesus worked miracles and amazed people with signs, but he was uncompromising in the words he spoke.  His message never changed, but was always poised to make people respond.  Typically those who gathered around Jesus would either devote themselves to his teaching and commands or they would reject him entirely as blasphemous.  If Jesus was hoping to gain a bunch of followers, why did he always give such uncompromising messages?

Jesus’ goal wasn’t to gain followers.  Jesus was actually a follower himself, a follower of God the Father, who sent His Son to be our savior, our priest, our redemption.

Jesus was most concerned in following His Father’s will, knowing that the Father would glorify the Son.  He says “For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day” (John 6:38-39).

After this [message] many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the Twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”  (John 6:66-69)

It can be a hard thing to grasp, but if even Jesus sought His Father’s glory before his own, shouldn’t we do the same?

Be reminded that it is not God’s desire that you should glorify yourself.  Let Him guide you in life and lead you into His glory, when you are “raised up on the last day.”  In your speech, your deeds, your thoughts, your prayers, seek to bring glory to God and He will lead you into the greatest joy you could ever experience, which is His ultimate, eternal glory.

Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me" 

(John 8:54)

Thailand Update

        For man to know himself, he must first know his Creator.  The human experience is fleeting and fluid, ever changing in our enjoyment and perception of it, but God is absolute and a solid foundation to our flimsiness.  Truth remains absolute.  God’s Word is truth.  We are the relative ones, wavering in our understanding and devotion.  But even if everything fades and everyone is unfaithful, God is faithful.

Before we can be convinced of our purpose in life, we must be certain of our life in Christ.  But there are indeed many things that would steal our attention away from this foundational truth.  “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.  I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (Jesus, John 10:10).  “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:16-17).

And for me, before I can be convinced of my purpose in my work, I must be certain of the purpose and power in which God performs His work.  This was made evident to me while in Thailand because before God revealed anything to me about what I might do in the future, He revealed to me the power with which He works in the present.  I was part of a project and purpose much more pressing than my own desires and concerns for my future.  My attention was, by God’s grace, diverted from myself.  By God working in this way, He opened my heart to experience and understand finally that God will accomplish His will.  God will accomplish His will.  His purposes will not be thwarted.  That is the truth we can stand on, and we relate to it by our experience with God and His work.

Before

After

It was a rainy day in northwestern Thailand.  That’s no surprise because it was mid-September and during the swell of the rainy season.  We had traveled there to work alongside volunteers and the Karen people.  Their mission is to build a jungle hospital inside Burma to provide relief for the villages and peoples being terrorized and attacked by the Burmese Army.  This hospital needs to be bullet proof, inexpensive, and able to be constructed with local materials and lightweight things that can be carried discreetly across the border.  Special training is needed so that the building is constructed properly and remains strong.  It was the second day of training and the rain was coming down so hard that the progress had come to a halt and the work was actually becoming undone.  What do you do when it’s the rainy season in Thailand and you can’t finish the building if the rain won’t stop?  You pray and watch God work.

First two people stepped aside from the work to begin praying about the rain.  For a moment it seemed that the downpour relented a bit.  Then a few more people joined in the prayers.  Within seconds the rain began to cease and before long it was gone.  It didn’t return until over a week later, after the project had been completed!  The sun came out and the work continued.  The next day it was so sunny and so hot that working a 12 hour day seemed too difficult to do.  Heat exhaustion was in the near future.  But the work progressed with enthusiasm because we were so thrilled that God had held back the rain.  Confident that God desired for this building to be built, some of us prayed for cloud cover and a breeze so we’d be more comfortable!  Admittedly, those prayers were slightly humorous, but nevertheless God answered them.  For the majority of the project we worked in either reasonable heat or with a breeze and cloud cover!

The work was progressing well, but things were taking longer than we had planned for.  It seemed that the project wouldn’t get done in time.  Our team decided to stay and work extra two days and take a day to rest on the Sabbath.  On that Sabbath day we enjoyed worship and prayer with our Karen family and then were blessed to take an incredible trip up the river that separates Burma and Thailand.  We visited a refugee camp just inside Burma and were able to see the people we were working for.  They are the friends and families of many of the medics and volunteers who work with Free Burma Rangers and live sacrificially.  Their enduring spirit and sacrifice provides a light to thousands of people who live under the constant threat of danger and death.  To me, it was a light that shone to the darkness of my own heart and devotion.  It is a light that humbles me in the Lord’s presence.

God provided for the work to be completed and the people worked, so it was completed.  The project really came together those extra two days that we stayed.  Not only that, but if we had gone back to Chiang Mai when we originally planned, we would have arrived in a city covered with a few feet of flood waters.  By the time we actually arrived in Chiang Mai most of the flooding had subsided.  The day after we left the project site, having completed the work, it rained and the bridge we used to leave was washed out.  

God will accomplish His will.  His purposes will not be thwarted.  We are the instruments of His work and we need to keep seeking Him, take time to listen, and be flexible to change as His Spirit leads us to the places we never thought we’d go.  Things are better in those places because where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

I find comfort knowing that God’s plan for my life isn’t something I have to have figured out from start to finish.  It’s something that’s uncovered step by step, and only by continually looking toward Him.  “For your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.”  I’m in awe of where the Lord has led me thus far - it’s totally His doing because I couldn’t think up some of this stuff!  Keep the faith.  Stay faithful to the present, confident in the future.

This Day in Thailand

Sunday, September 25, 2011

On the border

This is the day that the Lord has made.  I will rejoice and be glad in it.

So far we have spent four 12 hour days working on the building.  Work is going slower than expected but still at a fast pace.  We’ve taken on an incredible task, but I am convinced that the Lord wants this work to be done, so it will be done.  We’ll have to extend the working part of the trip a bit longer, but that was a great decision to make because of what we were able to do today - honor the Sabbath.

The Sabbath was given as a day of rest for us.  (If you want some good Scripture to study, go to Genesis 2:2-3, Exodus 20:8-11, Mark 2:23-28).  It’s interesting that when the Lord gives the Ten Commandments, He spends the most time discussing the Sabbath.  Most other commandments are one-liners but the Sabbath gets an entire dialogue complete with explanations and methods for application.  It’s almost like God understands how difficult it can be to keep the Sabbath holy.  That was the dilemma our team was at yesterday as we surveyed the work that still needs to be done.  Thoughts of working a half day on Sunday began to circulate.  Thankfully it was resolved not to work on Sunday and instead stay an extra two days.  God definitely had His hand in that because He had some great things to show us today on our Sabbath day.

Local transportation

Today after starting with a service of prayer, reading, and worship, the team headed out for the Thailand-Burma border.  We hired a boat and headed up the river to a refugee camp inside Burma.  I’m not sure how things work politically, but this particular camp which is home to 7,000 refugees remains marginally safe from attack from the Burmese army because it is a public enough and large enough place to cause a huge uproar in the world opinion if the Burma army attacks and destroys it.  That could change at the drop of a hat though, but these people remain in the camp because they aren’t allowed to register for refugee status in Thailand (weird gap in the bureaucratic system).  Once inside the camp, we walked around and met the people.  We couldn’t talk much but had a good time playing with a volleyball and random stuff.  It was really just a great opportunity to step foot into the realm of the conflict and see some faces of the people living under the threat.  I’ve been praying that God would give me a heart for His people worldwide, especially those who are oppressed and suffer.  God is good and these people have a light and life that God gives freely all over the world.

Karen school with Scripture on the board

As we were heading back ‘home’ God placed it on my heart that there are great opportunities to share the gospel even with some people on the team.  There are two people who I believe have yet to experience the light and life that only Jesus gives.  God spoke a lot of things to me today, but as I was reflecting on some Scripture out of 2 Corinthians 3-4 here are some phrases that stuck out to me.

“Such is the confidence that we have in Christ toward God.  Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant.”

“Since we have such a hope, we are very bold... But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.”

“Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart.  But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways.  We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.”

“But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not us.”

This is the day that the Lord has made.  I will rejoice and be glad in it.

Getting to Thailand

So my team made it all the way to Chiang Mai, Thailand, and tomorrow we are headed to the site!  There's a ton of work to do, but I'm so excited to be a part of something that's much bigger than myself or my team!

I was thinking this morning - Our lives are eternal in scope but not duration.  We are a brief moment in time on this earth but that can reach into eternity.  We're so blessed to be surrounded by the love of God and love of others - I hope everyone knows that!  Will you allow God to lead you to the places you never thought you would go?

So here it is, the trip so far.......

Flying into Korea - the airport is on an island (I think) 

...at the airport in Seoul - he's a king somewhere!

The Riverside Inn - our home for two days in Chiang Mai

Morning devotion with people from FBR and JSoM

Going over the plans with the team

Our transportation was legit

Materials shopping at the local HomeDepot!

Doing to mock screens and tests and such

This EMI team is partnering with Free Burma Rangers (FBR) and Jungle School of Medicine (JSoM) to design and build a refugee home for the Karen people.  Further designs could include one for a clinic where they educate and prepare teams to render aid to the people being attacked by the Burman armies.

Here's a video about FBR (Caution because it is GRAPHIC at times)