The nature and being of God is the foundation of all true worship and life.
The biblical principle behind this is that God made everything for His glory, so that this worship or devotion to Him is absolutely necessary for real life in us. We are in the words of John Owen:
…in our hearts, minds, and souls, to admire, adore, and love him; his praises are we to celebrate; him [are we] to trust and fear, and so to resign ourselves and all our concernments unto his will and disposal; to regard him with all the acts of our minds and persons, answerably to the holy properties and excellencies of his nature. This it is to glorify him as God; for seeing “of him, and through him, and to him are all things,” to him must be “glory for ever,” Rom. 11:36. [1]
[1]Owen, J. Vol. 3: The works of John Owen. (W. H. Goold, Ed.) (65). Edinburg: T&T Clark.
As this thought matures in us as the people of God, his own sons and daughters, we should find ourselves more alert to the things around us that do bring glory to God. Those things should cause us to join in that circle of praise that always and forever surrounds his throne and his person. We join that circle, not just when we verbally praise him in song or word, but when we do his will in this world:
Hebrews 13:15-16 (ESV)15 Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.16 Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.
The sacrifice of praise includes a life devoted to God along with an attitude of thanksgiving and adoration. Yes we should praise him with our speech but notice the author of Hebrews says that our works are sacrifices pleasing to him.
In a devotion by C.H. Spurgeon this week I was clearly reminded that a life like this will involve separation from the values and idols of our present culture. He also reminded me that it will be worth it.
In his words "O professor, too little separated from sinners, you know not what you lose by your conformity to the world. It cuts the tendons of your strength, and makes you creep where you ought to run. Then, for your own comfort’s sake, and for the sake of your growth in grace, if you be a Christian, be a Christian, and be a marked and distinct one." Spurgeon, C. H. (2006). Morning and evening : Daily readings (Complete and unabridged; New modern edition.) (October 14 PM). Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers.
May our communion with The Father, Son and Holy Spirit mark us as distinct in an age where everything is becoming blurred.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
What a glorious morning, the thunder and the lightening showing forth His glory. What a difference is all of creation when we see His mighty loving hands behind the way things are, even if those things are broken. Blessing and Glory and Honor be unto the One Who Sits on the Throne, and to the Lamb, and to the fullness of the Mighty Spirit who so evidently does as He pleases.
Isaiah says:
23 Sing, O heavens, for the Lord has done it;
shout, O depths of the earth;
break forth into singing, O mountains,
O forest, and every tree in it!
For the Lord has redeemed Jacob, and will be glorified in Israel.
24 Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, who formed you from the womb:
“I am the Lord, who made all things,
who alone stretched out the heavens,
who spread out the earth by myself,
This song of Glory is all around us at all times. We have to listen to hear it and look to see it with ears and eyes opened by the Spirit of God. Yet this speaks some of what C. S. Lewis refers to as the “Deeper Magic.” That order of things which are at the root and ground of all Creation and the basis for Redemption. The heavens sing of his mighty acts, what he has done. All these things are founded, not on some random chance, nor do these things make themselves. The LORD makes all things. He stretched the canvas of the Earth and he painted on it what he liked. He redeemed us from sin that had an infinite penalty because it was sin against an infinitely holy God. He is still drawing our story and we get to color in the picture. He is worth singing about.
Isaiah says:
23 Sing, O heavens, for the Lord has done it;
shout, O depths of the earth;
break forth into singing, O mountains,
O forest, and every tree in it!
For the Lord has redeemed Jacob, and will be glorified in Israel.
24 Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, who formed you from the womb:
“I am the Lord, who made all things,
who alone stretched out the heavens,
who spread out the earth by myself,
This song of Glory is all around us at all times. We have to listen to hear it and look to see it with ears and eyes opened by the Spirit of God. Yet this speaks some of what C. S. Lewis refers to as the “Deeper Magic.” That order of things which are at the root and ground of all Creation and the basis for Redemption. The heavens sing of his mighty acts, what he has done. All these things are founded, not on some random chance, nor do these things make themselves. The LORD makes all things. He stretched the canvas of the Earth and he painted on it what he liked. He redeemed us from sin that had an infinite penalty because it was sin against an infinitely holy God. He is still drawing our story and we get to color in the picture. He is worth singing about.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
September 13 Sermon
What follows is the essence of Sunday's Sermon. Our recording equipment failed so here are my notes.
Today we remember. Today we follow a long standing biblical practice of remembering how the Lord has accomplished deliverance for us. This remembering is not always pleasant or easy. It is not necessary to only remember the good stuff. Yet we are to see the salvation of the Lord in the thing we remember. Why did God send us Ike? I am not sure we can have all the answers yet there are clues if we look at the time leading up to Ike and the time since Ike. We will examine some of them in light of this scripture from Isaiah in which the Lord first points out the futility of idols and then points us to a place where He can be found.
Isaiah 57 (ESV) 13 When you cry out, let your collection of idols deliver you! The wind will carry them off, a breath will take them away. But he who takes refuge in me shall possess the land and shall inherit my holy mountain. 14 And it shall be said, “Build up, build up, prepare the way, remove every obstruction from my people’s way.” 15 For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.
On the road to Ike we saw the hand of God moving preparing us for what was to come. We were praying for revival. I in particular had been led to pray God would shake those things that could be shaken so that only those unshakable things would remain. I believe we desired that God would do a work in us and in our city and, while I do not now believe that Ike was the complete answer to that prayer, I do believe it was part of the answer. What I deeply believe is that God desires communion with His people. The one who Isaiah describes as living in a high and holy place desires to dine with you. The obstacles to that are both His holiness and our distraction.
The distraction is idolatry. We expect fulfillment in the wrong place. We look for it in things that do not satisfy. Our idols are multitude. We seek approval. We seek security. We seek popularity. We seek prosperity. We seek to have our wants and desires met, regardless of the cost to us or others. We seek power over others with wealth, sex, intelligence, manipulation, fear, etc. We seek to cure our aloneness, insecurity, need to be loved, need to be admired, need to feel beautiful, by bowing down to things that cannot finally meet and satisfy those needs. We choose those far away idols like security or prosperity to meet global needs. We choose those nearby idols like money or pornography to have something we can control. Whatever your idols may be, when the storm hits they are impotent. God tells the people of Isaiah’s day: When you cry out, let your collection of idols deliver you! The wind will carry them off, a breath will take them away.
The real test of an idol is whether it can deliver what it promises in a lasting way.
Most of what we choose to trust in cannot save us in the storms of life. God goes on to say: But he who takes refuge in me shall possess the land and shall inherit my holy mountain. 14 And it shall be said, “Build up, build up, prepare the way, remove every obstruction from my people’s way.”
The irony is that when we actually trust in God we find that those things we were pursuing may just be part of His plan for us. The difference is in what we really worship, what we really trust in. I can usually tell what I am depending on when it is absent or access to it is deferred. What kind of reaction does it cause? Do we have the same reaction when we miss time with God? Usually that will tell us something.
We are afraid to try to get to the place God dwells and we often allow other things the place only God can have. So what does God do since He loves us and desires to restore us? He reminds us in this passage that there is another place He can be found.
and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.
God lives in the place of a contrite heart.
דָּכָא
crush, harm, i.e., apply pressure to an object, which if alive, will hurt, bruise, or kill (Job 4:19; 6:9; Ps 72:4; 89:11[EB 10]; 94:5; 143:3; Isa 3:15; 53:10; La 3:34+), see also LN 19.43–19.54; (pual) bruised, formally, crushed, i.e., have a wound on the body due to a violent pressing motion (Isa 53:5+); 2. LN 88.51-88.58 (nif) contrite, formally, crushed, i.e., pertaining to being humble and unpretentious, as a figurative extension of an object in a low position due to pressure placed on it[1]
There is real glory here. The LORD, the King of Glory, dwells in the place of a heart that is crushed. But not only does he dwell there. He lives there for a purpose, to revive that heart. חָיָה the simple Hebrew root for live, to give life, to revive, to nurture. God moves in to a bruised heart to make it truly live.
My heart is more alive to the truth of God now than it has ever been. I know that I have not tasted the real depths of despair but I know now that the things that needed shaking were mostly in me. What God desires for us is that we see His glory and that we admit our need is for Him. Look at these words from Isaiah:
Isaiah 6 (ESV)1 In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” 4 And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. 5 And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” 6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.” 8 And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”
Communion with God will include cleansing by God and mission from God. We must be ready for the mission
Clay Thomas
For the love of the Father
Made by the Son to be ours
Applied by the Comforter’s power
Is the Love that we share
As the body and bride
For Him and for all of his own
And this Love, our reflection
Of Trinity Love
Is Love that makes us all one
Revelation 4:8 (ESV)
8 And the four living creatures,
each of them with six wings,
are full of eyes all around and within,
and day and night
they never cease to say,
“Holy, holy, holy,
Today we remember. Today we follow a long standing biblical practice of remembering how the Lord has accomplished deliverance for us. This remembering is not always pleasant or easy. It is not necessary to only remember the good stuff. Yet we are to see the salvation of the Lord in the thing we remember. Why did God send us Ike? I am not sure we can have all the answers yet there are clues if we look at the time leading up to Ike and the time since Ike. We will examine some of them in light of this scripture from Isaiah in which the Lord first points out the futility of idols and then points us to a place where He can be found.
Isaiah 57 (ESV) 13 When you cry out, let your collection of idols deliver you! The wind will carry them off, a breath will take them away. But he who takes refuge in me shall possess the land and shall inherit my holy mountain. 14 And it shall be said, “Build up, build up, prepare the way, remove every obstruction from my people’s way.” 15 For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.
On the road to Ike we saw the hand of God moving preparing us for what was to come. We were praying for revival. I in particular had been led to pray God would shake those things that could be shaken so that only those unshakable things would remain. I believe we desired that God would do a work in us and in our city and, while I do not now believe that Ike was the complete answer to that prayer, I do believe it was part of the answer. What I deeply believe is that God desires communion with His people. The one who Isaiah describes as living in a high and holy place desires to dine with you. The obstacles to that are both His holiness and our distraction.
The distraction is idolatry. We expect fulfillment in the wrong place. We look for it in things that do not satisfy. Our idols are multitude. We seek approval. We seek security. We seek popularity. We seek prosperity. We seek to have our wants and desires met, regardless of the cost to us or others. We seek power over others with wealth, sex, intelligence, manipulation, fear, etc. We seek to cure our aloneness, insecurity, need to be loved, need to be admired, need to feel beautiful, by bowing down to things that cannot finally meet and satisfy those needs. We choose those far away idols like security or prosperity to meet global needs. We choose those nearby idols like money or pornography to have something we can control. Whatever your idols may be, when the storm hits they are impotent. God tells the people of Isaiah’s day: When you cry out, let your collection of idols deliver you! The wind will carry them off, a breath will take them away.
The real test of an idol is whether it can deliver what it promises in a lasting way.
Most of what we choose to trust in cannot save us in the storms of life. God goes on to say: But he who takes refuge in me shall possess the land and shall inherit my holy mountain. 14 And it shall be said, “Build up, build up, prepare the way, remove every obstruction from my people’s way.”
The irony is that when we actually trust in God we find that those things we were pursuing may just be part of His plan for us. The difference is in what we really worship, what we really trust in. I can usually tell what I am depending on when it is absent or access to it is deferred. What kind of reaction does it cause? Do we have the same reaction when we miss time with God? Usually that will tell us something.
We are afraid to try to get to the place God dwells and we often allow other things the place only God can have. So what does God do since He loves us and desires to restore us? He reminds us in this passage that there is another place He can be found.
and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.
God lives in the place of a contrite heart.
דָּכָא
crush, harm, i.e., apply pressure to an object, which if alive, will hurt, bruise, or kill (Job 4:19; 6:9; Ps 72:4; 89:11[EB 10]; 94:5; 143:3; Isa 3:15; 53:10; La 3:34+), see also LN 19.43–19.54; (pual) bruised, formally, crushed, i.e., have a wound on the body due to a violent pressing motion (Isa 53:5+); 2. LN 88.51-88.58 (nif) contrite, formally, crushed, i.e., pertaining to being humble and unpretentious, as a figurative extension of an object in a low position due to pressure placed on it[1]
There is real glory here. The LORD, the King of Glory, dwells in the place of a heart that is crushed. But not only does he dwell there. He lives there for a purpose, to revive that heart. חָיָה the simple Hebrew root for live, to give life, to revive, to nurture. God moves in to a bruised heart to make it truly live.
My heart is more alive to the truth of God now than it has ever been. I know that I have not tasted the real depths of despair but I know now that the things that needed shaking were mostly in me. What God desires for us is that we see His glory and that we admit our need is for Him. Look at these words from Isaiah:
Isaiah 6 (ESV)1 In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” 4 And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. 5 And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” 6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.” 8 And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”
Communion with God will include cleansing by God and mission from God. We must be ready for the mission
Clay Thomas
For the love of the Father
Made by the Son to be ours
Applied by the Comforter’s power
Is the Love that we share
As the body and bride
For Him and for all of his own
And this Love, our reflection
Of Trinity Love
Is Love that makes us all one
Revelation 4:8 (ESV)
8 And the four living creatures,
each of them with six wings,
are full of eyes all around and within,
and day and night
they never cease to say,
“Holy, holy, holy,
Monday, August 31, 2009
I lost a good friend this week. George MacDonald was more than a friend and I do grieve the loss for myself and for his family. Not for George. He has simply changed addresses. He has begun to receive what God has planned for all of us that are His.
We have inherited some great things as the people of God. We are baptized in his Spirit. We are anointed for His service. We are given gifts for that Service. We are adopted into a new community in which we serve. All of this is but a taste of that which is to come. We live in a place of tension between that which is already ours in Jesus Christ, and that which is yet to come when Jesus, Himself, returns. We experience the kingdom of God now anytime we see the triumph of truth, justice, compassion, and love. These things are produced by faith. But we have to learn to live with the tension that these things are not complete yet. We are not complete yet. We still sin. We still do not desire the right things. We have ears and do not hear and eyes and refuse to see.
The good news in this story is that hearing is possible and seeing is possible, even in a dry and thirsty land, a land longing for rain and growth. Isaiah points us to the real source of this miracle, it is a king.
Isaiah 32:1-3 (ESV)1 Behold, a king will reign in righteousness, and princes will rule in justice. 2 Each will be like a hiding place from the wind, a shelter from the storm, like streams of water in a dry place, like the shade of a great rock in a weary land. 3 Then the eyes of those who see will not be closed, and the ears of those who hear will give attention.[1]
[1] The Holy Bible : English standard version. 2001. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.
The reign of Jesus is now and not yet. Now, Paul says, we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face. We are becoming, changing, growing. Yet there are times in personal growth and in the history of the Church that God breaks in and fills our thirst and we experience hearing and seeing and there are strange and wonderful things that happen.
Revival of His people
What God offers when we respond was often called revival in the past. God hears the soul-cry of his people and he responds. Yes it is about living in His truth and removing our deceptions but there is more. There is the pouring out of His Spirit which we cannot demand or control but which we are to desire and long for as we would want water in the desert. Our experiences are as different as the way we wear our hair or even more so. Each of us is in a different place in the story God is writing that includes us. Only you can examine your own thirst, you own deception, your own indifference to God. But I do believe that we are connected as well. God may revive one person; that is true. But he offers this to His assembly, His Body, His church.
Look into your own heart today. How dry are you? What do you desire? What wells are you drinking from? How does that other water taste and how long does it satisfy? Return He cries, return to the true Shepherd and overseer of your souls. This is His legacy and His future. Listen to His word.
We have inherited some great things as the people of God. We are baptized in his Spirit. We are anointed for His service. We are given gifts for that Service. We are adopted into a new community in which we serve. All of this is but a taste of that which is to come. We live in a place of tension between that which is already ours in Jesus Christ, and that which is yet to come when Jesus, Himself, returns. We experience the kingdom of God now anytime we see the triumph of truth, justice, compassion, and love. These things are produced by faith. But we have to learn to live with the tension that these things are not complete yet. We are not complete yet. We still sin. We still do not desire the right things. We have ears and do not hear and eyes and refuse to see.
The good news in this story is that hearing is possible and seeing is possible, even in a dry and thirsty land, a land longing for rain and growth. Isaiah points us to the real source of this miracle, it is a king.
Isaiah 32:1-3 (ESV)1 Behold, a king will reign in righteousness, and princes will rule in justice. 2 Each will be like a hiding place from the wind, a shelter from the storm, like streams of water in a dry place, like the shade of a great rock in a weary land. 3 Then the eyes of those who see will not be closed, and the ears of those who hear will give attention.[1]
[1] The Holy Bible : English standard version. 2001. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.
The reign of Jesus is now and not yet. Now, Paul says, we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face. We are becoming, changing, growing. Yet there are times in personal growth and in the history of the Church that God breaks in and fills our thirst and we experience hearing and seeing and there are strange and wonderful things that happen.
Revival of His people
What God offers when we respond was often called revival in the past. God hears the soul-cry of his people and he responds. Yes it is about living in His truth and removing our deceptions but there is more. There is the pouring out of His Spirit which we cannot demand or control but which we are to desire and long for as we would want water in the desert. Our experiences are as different as the way we wear our hair or even more so. Each of us is in a different place in the story God is writing that includes us. Only you can examine your own thirst, you own deception, your own indifference to God. But I do believe that we are connected as well. God may revive one person; that is true. But he offers this to His assembly, His Body, His church.
Look into your own heart today. How dry are you? What do you desire? What wells are you drinking from? How does that other water taste and how long does it satisfy? Return He cries, return to the true Shepherd and overseer of your souls. This is His legacy and His future. Listen to His word.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Reflections on Reserve Chaplaincy
Dear GBC Family,
I have been encouraged of late to share with you some of the aspects of ministry that are accomplished through your continuing support of my service as an Army Reserve Chaplain. I regret that my reports on this ministry have been sparse and I thank those of you who have gently admonished me to share about this important ministry in which we participate together. I want you to know I appreciate your willingness to sacrifice on behalf of our soldiers and their families in the Army Reserve. A chaplain does many things but the core of what we do is to: care for the living, comfort the dying and honor the dead. I work to accomplish these things of behalf of the Lord Jesus with the full intent of ministering the gospel to as many soldiers and their families as possible.
First I would like to share how blessed I am personally for this opportunity to take the gospel to our soldiers. I am able to be unashamedly a person of conviction and faith with them and to proclaim the genuine word of God in the worship services I conduct. I have a hard time expressing how connecting with these soldiers (most of whom are 18 to 30 years of age) energizes my own life and service to Jesus. One of the main testimonies to the connections I have made with soldiers is the number of them that have included me in their personal lives. Often this is done by asking me to perform their wedding or to conduct funerals for their loved ones. I truly feel that through this ministry we extend our church to encompass and bless the lives of those who serve.
Second I would like to give you more of a detailed report of what I do as a chaplain. On a typical battle assembly weekend (formerly known as drills, these are the monthly training sessions that all Reserve and National Guard soldiers attend) I participate in numerous events. I conduct chapel services, counsel with soldiers and sometimes their spouses, visit the various training events and simply talk with them about their lives. I also train with them in the skills that are needed to be a soldier in today’s world like, combat lifesaving, understanding different cultures, using a radio, etc. During these times I just get to know them so that they feel free to talk about their lives and share their struggles. I also train and conduct life enrichment weekends (retreats for soldiers that are getting ready to deploy or have recently returned) for both couples and single soldiers. I usually do two of these weekends a year. I really enjoy these opportunities to speak in to the lives of soldiers. To try to quantify what I do, over the last year I have visited with 600 different soldiers. I have individually counseled with 70 on various issues confronting them. I have conducted 10 worship services, two enrichment weekend retreats and numerous briefings for the soldiers. I also am called on frequently to serve on an honor guard for the funerals of service members who request military honors. Some of the tougher things I do involve crisis intervention. In this year alone I have spent a lot of hours on the phone, and many in person as well, helping soldiers in crisis. I cover everything from PTSD, where I work with my command to get them into the best treatment possible, to personal counseling on relationships that are splintering. These interventions are usually made possible because I have developed a relationship with a soldier and they feel open to talk with me.
Third, I serve as a staff officer to a command. In my duty as a Chaplain on the staff I advise the commander on issues of religion, morals and ethics, morale related to religious issues, and some cases of soldier discipline. In this role I become the voice of faith amid the stress of command decisions. It is my job to speak for the soldier in matters of freedom of religion and to help steer a path that is moral and ethical without compromising the mission we have to accomplish.
Finally I want simply to say thank you again. By allowing me this privilege you participate in serving those who have offered to make the ultimate sacrifice in a free nation. These Reserve soldiers come from all walks of life, they are teachers, firemen, police officers, salespersons at Home Depot, nurses, doctors, mechanics, students, doctors, contractors, carpenters. Just look around you some time and you will find those who have dedicated themselves to the preservation of our way of life. They are citizen soldiers many of whom have already served multiple tours of duty in harm’s way. I am blessed to serve them and to call them my friends.
I have been encouraged of late to share with you some of the aspects of ministry that are accomplished through your continuing support of my service as an Army Reserve Chaplain. I regret that my reports on this ministry have been sparse and I thank those of you who have gently admonished me to share about this important ministry in which we participate together. I want you to know I appreciate your willingness to sacrifice on behalf of our soldiers and their families in the Army Reserve. A chaplain does many things but the core of what we do is to: care for the living, comfort the dying and honor the dead. I work to accomplish these things of behalf of the Lord Jesus with the full intent of ministering the gospel to as many soldiers and their families as possible.
First I would like to share how blessed I am personally for this opportunity to take the gospel to our soldiers. I am able to be unashamedly a person of conviction and faith with them and to proclaim the genuine word of God in the worship services I conduct. I have a hard time expressing how connecting with these soldiers (most of whom are 18 to 30 years of age) energizes my own life and service to Jesus. One of the main testimonies to the connections I have made with soldiers is the number of them that have included me in their personal lives. Often this is done by asking me to perform their wedding or to conduct funerals for their loved ones. I truly feel that through this ministry we extend our church to encompass and bless the lives of those who serve.
Second I would like to give you more of a detailed report of what I do as a chaplain. On a typical battle assembly weekend (formerly known as drills, these are the monthly training sessions that all Reserve and National Guard soldiers attend) I participate in numerous events. I conduct chapel services, counsel with soldiers and sometimes their spouses, visit the various training events and simply talk with them about their lives. I also train with them in the skills that are needed to be a soldier in today’s world like, combat lifesaving, understanding different cultures, using a radio, etc. During these times I just get to know them so that they feel free to talk about their lives and share their struggles. I also train and conduct life enrichment weekends (retreats for soldiers that are getting ready to deploy or have recently returned) for both couples and single soldiers. I usually do two of these weekends a year. I really enjoy these opportunities to speak in to the lives of soldiers. To try to quantify what I do, over the last year I have visited with 600 different soldiers. I have individually counseled with 70 on various issues confronting them. I have conducted 10 worship services, two enrichment weekend retreats and numerous briefings for the soldiers. I also am called on frequently to serve on an honor guard for the funerals of service members who request military honors. Some of the tougher things I do involve crisis intervention. In this year alone I have spent a lot of hours on the phone, and many in person as well, helping soldiers in crisis. I cover everything from PTSD, where I work with my command to get them into the best treatment possible, to personal counseling on relationships that are splintering. These interventions are usually made possible because I have developed a relationship with a soldier and they feel open to talk with me.
Third, I serve as a staff officer to a command. In my duty as a Chaplain on the staff I advise the commander on issues of religion, morals and ethics, morale related to religious issues, and some cases of soldier discipline. In this role I become the voice of faith amid the stress of command decisions. It is my job to speak for the soldier in matters of freedom of religion and to help steer a path that is moral and ethical without compromising the mission we have to accomplish.
Finally I want simply to say thank you again. By allowing me this privilege you participate in serving those who have offered to make the ultimate sacrifice in a free nation. These Reserve soldiers come from all walks of life, they are teachers, firemen, police officers, salespersons at Home Depot, nurses, doctors, mechanics, students, doctors, contractors, carpenters. Just look around you some time and you will find those who have dedicated themselves to the preservation of our way of life. They are citizen soldiers many of whom have already served multiple tours of duty in harm’s way. I am blessed to serve them and to call them my friends.
Friday, August 21, 2009
Life in the Storm
Ephesians 3:14-19 (ESV)14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. [1]
[1] The Holy Bible : English standard version. 2001. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society
(Emphasis Mine)
So we are the new people of God. We expected comfort and got a hurricane. Not Ike per say but a storm nonetheless. God wants us to hunger and thirst after more than new toys to distract us, more than superficial friendships that never challenge us, more than the success of this world or the fulfillment of our flesh or the or the enticement of the devil’s schemes. He wants us to hunger and thirst for him.
The unexpected thing we will find in salvation is that God will come. 35 Therefore stay awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning—
Yes, Jesus is referring in Mark to his return but there is more about the character of God in this. He will show up when we are not expecting it in our lives right now. Since he desires that we desire Him above all things, he may either let us get to the real end of those things we are pursuing which will taste like dust and dung when we grasp them, or he will remove them, even our brilliant but misguided ways we think we will serve him, secretly desiring the glory rest on us for a while. He will show up in places that would cause us to cringe or cause us to hide our faces in shame. He may show up in the words of a faithful friend who shines the light of truth a little too sharply on our anger. He may show up in a way that causes us to fall to the ground as one who is dead like Daniel did or to tremble in fear as Moses did. He may show up at any time and bring us home. Or he may show up now and cause us great discomfort. We are to be awake, watching, listening, perceiving, praying, being filled with the Holy Spirit so we do not miss the voice whether it is a shout or a whisper. God is not content to be the object of our study or even the object of our praise. He wants to be the center and ground of our being. All our work, play, celebration, joy, rest, love, failure, success, and hope are in Him.
He is the storm and the peace. Just as Cornelius Plantinga Jr. reminded me this week, his peace is a peace we are to take into battle. [1]
[1] Cornelius Plantinga Jr.. Beyond Doubt : Faith-Building Devotions on Questions Christians Ask. (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2001). Page 207.
[1] The Holy Bible : English standard version. 2001. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society
(Emphasis Mine)
So we are the new people of God. We expected comfort and got a hurricane. Not Ike per say but a storm nonetheless. God wants us to hunger and thirst after more than new toys to distract us, more than superficial friendships that never challenge us, more than the success of this world or the fulfillment of our flesh or the or the enticement of the devil’s schemes. He wants us to hunger and thirst for him.
The unexpected thing we will find in salvation is that God will come. 35 Therefore stay awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning—
Yes, Jesus is referring in Mark to his return but there is more about the character of God in this. He will show up when we are not expecting it in our lives right now. Since he desires that we desire Him above all things, he may either let us get to the real end of those things we are pursuing which will taste like dust and dung when we grasp them, or he will remove them, even our brilliant but misguided ways we think we will serve him, secretly desiring the glory rest on us for a while. He will show up in places that would cause us to cringe or cause us to hide our faces in shame. He may show up in the words of a faithful friend who shines the light of truth a little too sharply on our anger. He may show up in a way that causes us to fall to the ground as one who is dead like Daniel did or to tremble in fear as Moses did. He may show up at any time and bring us home. Or he may show up now and cause us great discomfort. We are to be awake, watching, listening, perceiving, praying, being filled with the Holy Spirit so we do not miss the voice whether it is a shout or a whisper. God is not content to be the object of our study or even the object of our praise. He wants to be the center and ground of our being. All our work, play, celebration, joy, rest, love, failure, success, and hope are in Him.
He is the storm and the peace. Just as Cornelius Plantinga Jr. reminded me this week, his peace is a peace we are to take into battle. [1]
[1] Cornelius Plantinga Jr.. Beyond Doubt : Faith-Building Devotions on Questions Christians Ask. (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2001). Page 207.
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