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.
Monday, August 31, 2009
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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