"Let Me See Your Glory!"

The passage from Exodus 32-34 is so rich with insights into the person and character of God that we could spend weeks on just three chapters. But I direct your attention to a prayer/conversation between God and Moses in Exodus 33:12-23 as Moses prays fervently for Israel’s protection and for God to forgive them. And once God grants forgiveness and restoration, Moses throws in an additional request: “Let me see your glory!”

Wow! What nerve! What gall! What chutzpah! And God loves it!!! Granted, in order not to kill Moses with His overwhelming holiness, He only grants Moses a sliver of His glory. But what a prayer! It is a reminder to not stop asking for big, potent exposures to God’s presence. Israel had been willing to settle for a golden calf—something you might find in a tacky furniture store—compared to the glory of God. And it seems they were content to pray inane, useless prayers to it.

But Moses gives us so much more in his example! You want a nice, portable deity that looks like a “Dirty Santa” gift? Then pray wimpy, flimsy prayers that are filled with trite expressions and clichés that say nothing and ask for nothing. But, if you want to start experiencing a God with a face, then pray big, bold prayers that engage Him and His priorities and just see what happens!! Show us Your glory!!

Communication - Going To School On Our Politicians

What a sad state of affairs for our country! Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church, decided to not have his presidential Q & A this year like in 2008 because the tone and civility is so bad between the two parties and the pundits. I have to say, I have not seen anything so ugly as this election. I have seen a Paul Ryan look-a-like shove an elderly woman over a cliff to describe his views on Medicare. I watched a conservative commentator shout over every statement her liberal counterpart tried to make in what was supposed to be a dialogue. Words and phrases like “felon”, “war on woman”, “racist” and “animal abuser” have been slung around like…well, mud. One ad portrayed Mitt Romney as complicit in someone’s death. Others have continued to badger Barack Obama about the legitimacy of his U.S. citizenship.

So how do Christians respond? How do we enter the public arena of ideas without descending into this breakdown in communication? I don’t know. How do you have an honest conversation when one side is throwing out talking points and all you can do is defend and counter? Or should you? Perhaps a starting point for the people of God is to go to school on the pundits and politicians. Perhaps we start with what NOT to do when engaging in a dialogue of ideas as we watch them demonstrate the demonic art of demagoguery. Here are seven that I have gleaned from the mudslinging that seem so basic and yet, have slipped away from the collective mind so easily.

1. Take turns and listen. Not only do we have to stop trying to shove our comments in at every possible crease in the conversation, but listening also means not reloading your next round of arguments while the other person talks. After all, you would wish for your points to heard and pondered before a rebuttal, wouldn’t you?

2. Don’t assume the worst. Your counter-part is not bad because he or she disagrees with you. They may be wrong and yes, they may even be bad, but don’t assume they’re bad because their opinion is different than yours. When you assume the worst about someone, it leaves little reason to listen to them, much less share with them.

3. If you know it’s your opinion, don’t pretend it is fact! This is simply cheating in an argument. I have both seen, and committed, this foul in debates with people (even my wife) about issues well beyond politics or ethics. If you are cheating, you cannot be trusted to have a fair dialogue because you are only in the argument to win it, by fair means or foul. So why talk?

4. Strive for clarity, not necessarily agreement. No one said that we all have to agree. Everyone CAN’T be right. Some opinions are demonstrably wrong, but how can you honestly come to any conclusions if no one is listening and understanding?! Who wants to talk to someone who will assume what you really mean is X when you are clearly explaining that you mean Y? Who wants to talk to a person who is intentionally going to distort your position because they don’t want to know what your position really is? If you are going to disagree, at least know what you disagree on.

5. Treat people with respect because all humans are image-bearers, even the worst of us! This is a uniquely Judeo-Christian truth. When you shout down other people and their views, you are inherently seeing them as without worth and thus they have nothing to say. But we are all image-bearers. We all carrying the stamp of God’s handiwork and thus deserve respect even in a heated dispute.

6. Treat people as you wish to be treated in terms of dialogue! The Golden Rule (Matthew 7:12; Luke 6:31) applies to the way we talk to each other. Our politicians, by and large, don’t get this one. Politicians apparently sees conversations as opportunities to advance an agenda and make someone else look bad by slipping in the zinger. But a Christian conversation starts with this principle. How would you wish to be treated in a dialogue?

7. If you are wrong, admit it. If someone else is wrong, don’t batter them over the head with it. If people see that you can admit the weakness of your argument or position, if they know you won’t use their weaknesses to bludgeon them with it, there is a greater likelihood that you can have an honest conversation. It is safe to be wrong in this environment. It is safe to point out weaknesses because weaknesses are not an opportunity to create a weapon. And there is an opportunity to come to a better understanding, if not even a resolution of sorts.

I have had to learn these lessons the hard way, but I cannot think of a time more apropos to deal with how to fight fair, how to dialogue and how to be civil. Thanks, Rick Warren, for bringing this issue to a head!

Re-Orient

For our family (like many families), this week has been something of a re-orientation. The kids are back in school. Football practices and open houses are requiring new strategies to divide-and-conquer. Lunches need to be packed. Puppies make a break for it when the kids head to the bus. Oy! And yet, this need for re-orientation is part of the larger story of God.

One-third of the Book of Exodus is devoted to a detailed description of the Tabernacle because the place of God’s dwelling is a major priority for God. And then the Book of Exodus closes with the presence of God invading the tent and forcing everyone out (Exodus 40:34-38) until the Book of Leviticus re-orients the people in terms of how to re-enter God’s presence (Leviticus 1:1 starts, literally, with the words, “And then the LORD called to Moses…”. Why start with “And then…” unless Leviticus is picking up where Exodus left off?). There is another shift (and another re-orientation) in 1 Kings 8 when the Tabernacle is replaced with the Temple.

But the New Testament presents us with another shift, another re-orientation; one that we still do not fully comprehend. Jesus is pictured as the new tabernacle (John 1:14) and the new temple (John 2:19) until He shifts His presence over to the church. You and I are a new temple (1 Corinthians 3;16-17)!! All who are in Christ are the new dwelling place of God’s presence! Can you imagine what the significance of this means? Just the thought calls us to ponder what it means to be the new “Holy of holies”. Time to re-orient again!

5-Hour Energy

Last week for my family’s vacation, we drove down to Florida.  And on the way, I discovered a product that really opened my eyes…literally.  It was a 5-Hour Energy Drink.  We drove through the night on the way down and at about 1AM, we needed to refuel.  I also needed to wake up, so I tried this energy drink and I was wide awake all through the night!  It’s funny how when something works, when something is the real deal, we cannot help but talk about it. 

That really caused me to think about the Christian faith.  Do we brim to talk about our faith because it is the real deal, because we have truly experienced freedom and joy and new life?  Or has it gotten stale or ho-hum because we have forgotten what it meant to receive Christ and experience that first gust of energy and renewal?  Or have we never actually tasted the goodness of God and settled for a Jesus-Lite substitute? 

I encourage you to take some time this week to reflect on the goodness of God and the greatness of the Cross and resurrection and ask the Spirit of God to renew you again.

The Power of God

There are some movie scenes that I never get tired of: the rally speech in Braveheart, the reunion of Red and Andy in The Shawshank Redemption, the frozen flagpole licking scene in A Christmas Story.  But, I have to say, I am a sucker for the moment in both The Ten Commandments and The Prince of Egypt when Moses splits the Red Sea!  Or should I say, when God splits the Red Sea? 

It is the power of God coursing through the weak human flesh of a servant that just pulls me out of the ordinary and routine and reminds me again of the majesty and awe of God.  Isaiah understood this well!  In Isaiah 51:9-11, he pictures the splitting of the Red Sea in terms of a war between God and the forces of chaos.  And the New Testament pictures the splitting of the Red Sea as the onset of the Christian life (see 1 Corinthians 10:1-2). 

I hope as you read on your own this amazing story, that you will pause for a moment and relish in the greatness, the power and the salvation of God Almighty!

The Mission of the Church

The Book of Exodus is so critical to understanding the mission of the church. There is a split about what we are called to do and what the gospel is. Are we merely called to preach a message of personal salvation? Are we merely to attend to the needs of others?

Exodus 5-12 fleshes this out for us—it is both. It is what the Bible teaches in Exodus when God frees His people from real slavery and when He proclaims His covenant to the people in chapters 19-24. It is what the Bible teaches in the gospels when Jesus proclaims the kingdom and heals people of oppressive maladies (and commissions His disciples to do the same. It is what the Bible teaches in James when we are to proclaim God’s grace and show it through acts of care and compassion, for faith without works is dead! It is what we see in the Book of Acts as the church goes about proclaiming Jesus and seeing people surrender their lives to Christ (Acts 2:36-41) and taking care of the weak (Acts 6:1-6; 20:35).

When Stalin took over Russia, he did not outlaw Christianity. He simply took away their ability to meet people’s needs. That duty now belonged solely to the State. And the church in Russia almost died.

View the six-minute video at http://youtu.be/RohCIHXBZxY and see some of the work of the International Justice Mission in the life of a Ugandan woman named Grace. The cross was already a part of Grace’s life. And now the kingdom is having a tangible effect on her plight too! Such is the mission of the church!

"Who am I?" "Who are You?

I have to say, I am so excited about our Exodus series.  It is one of the books that made me truly fall in love with the Old Testament early on in seminary.  I still remember a lecture from one of my profs, Ray Ortlund Jr., on Exodus 32-34 that just echoed within me for years. 

As we come to Exodus chapter three, I would like to share one thought that I had to edit from the final draft of this morning’s sermon (I assume no one wants me going 90 minutes+, hence the editing J).  Moses had two questions for God when God called him to be His delegate to Egypt in order to free the people: “Who am I?” and “Who are You?”.  And here is the interesting thing about the answers - God never addressed the “Who am I?” questions (which were really excuses for why God should pick someone else).  God only addressed the “Who are You?” questions.  God told Moses, “I am the One who will be with you”, “I am the One who will give you power”, etc….  The absence of any comments to Moses’ “Who am I?” questions is an answer in and of itself. 

It doesn’t matter how weak or insignificant you feel.  It is about the power of God to work in and through us according to His good pleasure!