The Rest of Summer

What a hiatus! Not that anyone really missed my blogging, obviously, but still! We've been so incredibly busy with everything at NEXT, Providence, and life, in general, that blogging has been an afterthought for the past months. Well, since March, as you can see. Now, with summer gradually winding down and us Wileys finding a new rhythm to life and family in our new home in McKinney, I'm finding more time to posit thoughts.

"The Rest of Summer" may appear to be the title of an article about what's going on with Carrie, Laura Kate and I the rest of this fine summer of 2009, but it's certainly not that. Summer, as far back as I can remember, has always been a time of rest from the usual grinds of school and whatnot. Even in ministry, when you have to kick it into a higher gear because of all the events you do during the summer (mission trips, camps, weekly contests, etc.), there is this weird sense of things being at relative rest.

This summer, though, has been anything but restful. From the move to NEXT trips to raising support to meeting with men from Providence on a weekly basis and teaching, things have been stressful, tense, and trying. There has been none of the relative ease of most summers, and it's something that I've missed. Most summers have the feel of a sip of cold sweet tea... everything just kind of slows down a little bit. How I pray for this feeling for the rest of the summer!

I don't want things to necessarily slow down or want to slack off, but I (and many of us) need to remember Matthew 11v.28 - "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." Christ is speaking from a spiritual perspective, when it comes to religiosity, but how desperately many of us need to be reminded that this peace and rest is for every facet of our lives. The peace that Christ gives his people is for every part of their life. So, if you are swamped with business, you have peace in Christ. If you are worried about financial problems, you have peace in Christ. If things are not going well in your family, your energy bill is through the roof, you're not getting enough time to get away and relax... find peace in knowing that we are secure in Christ and that, ultimately, we have rest in him.

Easier said that lived out and practiced, but it's always good to preach these things to yourself!

Benevolence / Mercy

Zecheriah 7v.8-10: "And the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, saying, "Thus says the Lord of hosts, Render true judgments, whow kindness and mercy to one another, do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor, and let none of you devise evil against another in your heart."

Benevolence and mercy are all over the Bible. Old Testament, New Testament... we see acts of benevolence and mercy throughout. Of course, the ultimate showing of mercy is God giving us Jesus Christ as Saviour and ultimate sacrifice for our sin. But then, we also see showing kindness towards widows, orphans, the needy, aliens, servants, leaders, and everyone we come in contact with.

Benevolence and mercy are two things that should come naturally to the regenerated heart. These are not natural, however, to the heart of the unrepentant. Why is this? Because, when still mired in sin, we only look out for the one we think is tops in our own minds, "Numero Uno..." ourselves.

We must be vigilante about remembering what Christ did for us in His limitless mercy, and desire to show that exact same kind of mercy in our daily lives.

Justice

Jeremiah 22v.3 says, "Thus says the Lord: Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place."

The idea of "justice" has become more of a post-Modern, "Do what you think is right." statement in the world that we live in. Whatever the individual thinks about justice MUST be justified, right? I mean, that's there personal stance. And yet, how much injustice runs rampant throughout the world based on these flimsy ideas of everyone coming up with their own idea of what real justice is?

Justice is something that far too many of us won't take a stand for, for fear that the injust could come back around on us. We are weak and pathetic little people. The whole "...deliver from the hand of the oppressor..." part of Scripture gets left out of our lives because so many of our lives are based entirely on fear.

And yet, we are the most blessed BECAUSE OF injustice. It was not "just" (humanly speaking) that Christ should die for us. It was not "just" that He took the place of His elect. What is just is that the wages of sin is death, eternal damnation and separation from God, and that we're all headed to Hell without the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

So, yes, fight against those who rob, murder, kill and steal. Take a stand against SOMETHING! And give thanks that we are not justified of our own merit, but rather by Jesus Christ. 

A Dangerous Presumption

A lot of us tend to live in this lingering cloud of presumption. We have been taught from very early ages that Jesus loves us "just the way we are." But, isn't there a problem with this, whenever we're constantly bowing to the World and worshiping other gods? Does God love it whenever we put our jobs, money, sports, material possessions or (gasp) even kids and family in front of Him? I beg to say that, although these are all great blessings and show God as being our ultimate Provider, He does not like the fact that the majority of us tend to put these things in front of our worship of and walk with Him. Jesus doesn't love us just the way we are when we're committing idolatry. In fact, He's beating down the walls of the World that we are content to be penned in by. Like a bunch of cattle penned in a trodden, dry, corral (ripe with our own droppings), Christ breaks down the posts and leads us to the lush pastures of the Kingdom.

This really struck me as I was reading through Psalm 19, this morning. The very last verse says this, "Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer." King David does not live under the presumption that his words and meditations are already in accordance with the things of God. No, far from it. David knows what truly lies in a man's heart... sin and death. Our natural inclination is not one of love towards the Almighty, because we are hell-bent on doing things our way. A lot of us fall into presuming that, because we're Believers, that every single time we open our mouths or think about God, that we're just super-spiritual people and that we are always a pleasing aroma. The fact is that a lot of us are still content with the putridness of the World.

King David prays that his words and meditation WILL BE acceptable in the sight of the Lord. Not that they are already. Not that he already knows that his prayers will be pleasing. Essentially, he is praying that the Lord might put the words into his mouth and guide his heart to the correct meditations; he doesn't presume that he's already arrived at that point.

In a world where far too many of us live under the dangerous presumption that we're just such great people and that we're always blessing the Name of the Lord in all that we do, it is wise for us to step back and continually be in prayer that what we do in the future tense will be pleasing to the Lord. "Pride goeth before the fall." This is true in the spiritual life especially. Let us repent of pridefully thinking that we have already arrived at a spiritual stopping point and pray, beg God to continue to mold us, refine us, and hammer us into vessels that continually praise Him in all areas of life!