A Lamp Shining in a Dark Place

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I will never forget when my son-in-law decided to take cell phones away. He was helping lead an Oceans Kingdom Encounter trip for a group of students from the high school where he works.  We try to limit phone use on the trips, but the pull to stay connected and watch a favorite feed is often too great of a temptation.

I give kudos for the courage it took for my son-in-law to make this call. You could see the anguish in some of the faces of the students as they reluctantly handed over their phones as if their very life depended on it. But, by the end of their trip to South Africa it was those same students who were in tears not wanting to leave because of what the Holy Spirit was doing in their hearts.

Last week I shared about the book “The Anxious Generation,” and how studies reveal that smart phone usage has led to an epidemic of addictions, loneliness, despair, and mental health concerns. Prayer was one of the steps suggested to break the bondage of anxiety. Right along with the power of prayer is spending time listening to the voice of the Father, through His Word.

The Apostle Peter, calls the Word “a lamp shining in a dark place,” 2 Peter 1:19. One of the enemy’s goals is to keep us so distracted by other voices in our minds that we miss the greatest voice of all, and that is the Father’s voice. When you and I try to live off the voices of others and our culture it often leads to a slippery slope into dark and hopeless places.

Our whole goal in the Kingdom Encounter experience is for teams to hear the voice of the Father during our time together. Knowing that if young people can learn to hear the Father’s voice, it will help break the stronghold of the lies of the satan, who desires for God’s children to live and dwell in darkness.

I challenge you to pick up your Bible and read 2 Peter 1 and notice how Peter masterfully demonstrates the importance of being in the Word of God and daily encountering His voice by means of the Holy Spirit. This Word will be “a lamp onto your feet and a light unto your path.”

Peter illustrates this by sharing the experience he, James and John had on the Mount of Transfiguration. They were eyewitnesses to the majesty of Christ glowing with the glory of God in His being.  They heard the Father’s voice shouting out:

“This is My beloved Son with whom I am well pleased!” (vs. 17)

These words of love from the Father are the summary of all Scripture. I believe all of the Bible is pointing to what these words reveal. Words hat the Father wants His beloved children to hear.  Jesus, the True Word from Heaven, came to earth as the Father’s beloved Son, to open our hearts through His life, death, and resurrection, so we could be transformed by the Father’s voice of love.

I recall those students, who were not happy handing over their phones, being transformed by their encounter with the voice of the Heavenly Father. His life changing words ,  “you are My beloved child!”  caused their faces to beam with His heavenly light.

The chains gripping this anxious generation can be broken by prayer and daily listening for the Father’s voice in His Word given to us through Christ and the Spirit. Hear His voice lovingly reminding us that we belong to a loving Father and are His beloved children. This Lamp is what we need our lives to depend on. This Lamp can shatter the darkness and give us hope.

The Answer for an Anxious Generation

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Recently I read the book “The Anxious Generation,” by Jonathan Haidt. My kids recommended this New York times bestseller book a while ago and once I started it was hard for me to put down. It definitely captures the modern day crisis spurred on by smart phones and social media.

Haidt does a masterful job laying out the facts about the epidemic of teen mental health issues seen worldwide. His research depicts how childhood development drastically changed with the introduction of the smart phone in 2010. He presents many mechanisms by which the great rewiring of childhood has interfered with children’s social and neurological development, covering everything from sleep deprivation to attention fragmentation, addiction, loneliness, social comparison, suicide, perfectionism, and extreme anxiety.

Oceans Ministries has been working with many who have grown up in this generation and can testify to the truths of Haidt’s research, as we have seen first hand the adverse impact social media has had on young people. Even youth who have grown up in Christian homes and Christian Schools have not been exempt from this epidemic.

Jonathan Haidt would call himself an atheist and yet when he probes for solutions to deal with technology and the next generation he turns to spiritual practices as one of the answers to bring healing to wounded minds.  He quotes from the famous French philosopher Blaise Pascal who said, “there is a God-shaped hole in every human heart.” How we need spiritual practices to help fill that hole that the phone based life use will block.

As a solution the author suggests to practice the following: shared sacredness; embodiment; stillness, silence, and focus; self transcendence; being slow to anger, quick to forgive; and finding awe in nature.  I applaud Haidt for being courageous enough to include this in the book-though he  also includes how various other religious traditions will benefit.

As he goes on to define what these spiritual practices look like I would argue that each one of them finds its roots deep in Scripture from the heart of our Father God. Who sent His Son Jesus to to fill the “God-shaped hole” in our searching hearts.

This past Sunday I was blessed to preach on the Parable of the Persistent Widow and was challenged by the words of Jesus and His answers to help an anxious generation:

“And He told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.” Luke 18:1

Because of the finished work of Jesus we have been given the gift of prayer. No matter what set of circumstances or storm we may face we can always go directly to our loving Father. At any time we can knock on the door of heaven knowing He will hear our cry for help and answer us with the gift of His Holy Spirit who gives us His perfect peace.

We live in an anxious generation and it is not just young people but senior saints and everyone in between as well. Our phones and social media feeds just make it worse. But Jesus shows us one spiritual practice which will fill the longing hole in our heart and give us the peace and belonging we are so desperately longing for. Jonathan Haidt does a masterful job defining the problem BUT Jesus gives us the only true answer that will heal the problem.

I have been challenged by both the book and the words of Jesus to “pray always” and fill my needy heart with His presence, which is the only hope for an anxious generation.

“Do not be anxious about anything, but with prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” Phil. 4:6-7

 

 

Beauty will save the world

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Have you heard the saying, “Beauty will save the world”? It comes from a novel “The Idiot” written by the famous Russian author Dostoevsky. In his novel Prince Myshkin, a Christ figure, goes against the norm of the rich and famous of his day and chooses the path of love.  Myshkin is mocked as an idiot, for believing true beauty can change one’s heart.

I’m not sure what verse in the Bible Dostoevsky was thinking about when he coined that phrase, but the other day I was reading through Psalm 27, and when I got to verse 4 I thought this may be where he derived the idea.

“One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek Him in His temple.”

David’s number one prayer request was to be at home in the presence of the LORD just to “gaze on His beauty!” I these words could be why God called David “A man after His own heart.” We all know David struggled with a boat load of sins, yet he always found His way back to the Father’s heavenly home and gazed on the Beautiful One who loved Him and forgave Him.

And we all know the Father rewarded David’s seeking after true beauty by bringing through His family line a Son who would overcome the darkness of sin and all the demonic powers that seek to destroy true beauty.

We constantly encounter beauty breakers at break neck speed through media feeds which pump out fear and seek to seduce our hearts with false beauty. The idols of quick fix false beauty may be: money, pleasure, sex, self promotion, etc. and keep us locked in a cave of darkness groping around searching for some glimpse of the beauty our soul longs for.

As I pondered David and Dostoevsky the light went on. They are right… True Beauty is the only hope for our world to be saved. When we see a intricately designed flower, gaze on the glory of the Rocky Mountains, hold a new born baby, laugh and cry with our spouse, get a phone call from a concerned friend, we encounter the work of the Creator who wants us to know His beauty.

But because of the seed of sin that distorts our souls from seeing true beauty, the Creator entered His creation to reveal the source of all beauty. The paradox of it all is that the most beautiful experience of true beauty is found in the most vile of events, Jesus crucified on the cross. A blood, beaten, perfect God/man dying for sinners is the epicenter of beauty that saves the world. Here we have a picture of what perfect beautiful love looks like.

And three days later the empty tomb invites us to live in the beauty of perfect love for all eternity. That love we are offered is indescribable. When we receive such love, it awakens within the soul the beauty of God dwelling in us-which results in the beautification of His children. The more we His children gaze on His beauty the more we reflect His love to the world around us. Our hope is to become His beautiful light and love to a hopeless world.

Yes, the Beauty of Jesus’ love in us is the only hope for our hurting world. I challenge you to make Psalm 27:4 your One Thing, don’t take your eyes of Jesus. Let His beauty in you give hope to our world.

 

 

 

 

A Spiritual New Year

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I have always loved the fall. The heat of summer begins to retreat as crisp mornings and cooler evenings emerge. Trees slowly turn  color and all of a sudden glow like fire. A new school and church season kicks off and of course football games.

In the Jewish Calendar it is the beginning of the Spiritual New Year, the 7 month. It is Rosh Hashanah.  In fact this coming Friday night this most Holy season embarks. It is a time of reflection, introspection, and confession of sins before the most Holy Day in the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur. The day when once a year the high priest gathered the blood of the spotless lamb and poured it upon the Mercy Seat in the Holy of Holies.

Last month, Oceans Ministries hosted a retreat in Michigan with a group of high school students who recently returned from a Kingdom Encounter in South Africa. During our time together we practiced one of the rituals which takes place during Rosh Hashanah called “casting your sins into the deep.”

During this ceremony a religious congregation will meet at a river or stream. Here special prayers of repentance are recited from a paraphrase of Micah 7:19b-20:

“You will cast all their sins into the depth of the sea, and may You cast all the sins of Your people, the house of Israel into a place where they shall be no more remembered or visited or ever come to mind.”

After the prayer the people would shake bread crumbs from their pockets and toss them into the water. This action symbolized  their sins being removed and remembered no more.

In our ceremony, we didn’t use bread crumbs but instead found pieces of wood or leaves and used a sharpie to write down our sins and spiritual battles. Many also wrote down fears, anxieties or anything else we may have been struggling with, things we wanted to let go of before a new school year started.

Personally, I found a big stick in the woods because I had lot to write down. And as I walked in the beautiful forest a phrase kept bouncing in my mind, “Let go and enjoy the ride!” So when it came time to throw my stick covered with black ink of my sins and fears I did so with joy as I watched it flow down the river and out of sight.

It was so good to reflect on Jesus, both our great High Priest and the perfect Lamb of God, who sacrificially brought His own blood and placed it on heaven’s mercy seat. My sins are gone.  Because of Jesus I stand in His perfection before my loving Abba Father.

This blog would not be complete without sharing about one of the free times when the students jumped into the river and floated down it in tubes. No doubt it was loud, filled with laughter, and lots of splashing as the students relished in God’s beautiful creation. Such a great picture of what happens when we let go of our sins and believe in the miracle of salvation. We can float in The River of His amazing grace with joy-trusting in the Father’s love to carry us to His eternal purpose for our lives.

Perhaps you need to find a river to toss all your sins, worries, and fears into it and let the River of grace fill you with joy so that you can daily live into your Spiritual New Year.