Instructions for the Bride

God uses the concept of which I have some understanding to bring to light something about Himself and His love for me. When I begin to get a better grasp of that, I begin to learn through better understanding His love, how better to love. In other words, my understanding of the human concept he used to reveal Himself is deepened through His revelation of Himself.
An example of this, I think, is Jesus as the Bridegroom and the church (of which I am a part), as the bride. Though I, as a man, may be reluctant to think of myself as a bride, I do have some knowledge of her role in a relationship with the groom. Perhaps even, as a man, I have strong, deeply felt ideas of what I expect my bride to be. I therefore have a better understanding of what Christ expects of me as His bride. A woman contemplating this spiritual relationship is helped by her desires of how deeply and purely her ideal groom would love her. She more deeply understands Christ's love for her because he used her ideals to explain it to her.

Now that the human concept of marriage has deepened my understanding of Christ's love for me, that understanding teaches me to apply His example to my own marriage. "Husband's love your wives as Christ loves the Church." A deeper understanding of His love for me, teaches me to love in general more deeply and unselfishly. "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all of your soul and with all of your mind and love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments". So when asked what was the greatest commandment in the law, Jesus gave that reply. Does that not mean that the single most important thing for us to learn from scripture is how to love Him, and from learning that, how to love our neighbor? Isn't it fascinating that God uses our love for our neighbor to teach us of His love for us and how to love Him; and He uses His love for us to teach us to love our neighbor. That is why these two commands are presented as the answer to the question as to the single most important command. Not only does one not truly exist without the other, each is required to grow in other. "Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness".

©2002 by rod lewis

bassoons, cigarettes, firewood, and relationships

We really don’t have all that much in common. True, I like some of the things you like, but for different reasons. We both like ice cream sundaes, but I suffer the nuts to enjoy the fudge while you pick the nuts to savor first. We both like taking long Sunday drives, but I enjoy the feeling of freedom and the scenery while you just enjoy being with me.
Yes we even dislike many of the same things, but for different reasons. Neither of us appreciate arrogance, greed, or selfishness. I’m offended by these because of the people who are stepped on by the arrogant, greedy and selfish. You, on the other hand also feel sorry and hurt for the arrogant, greedy and selfish.
We so often respond to the same things - I’m offended, you grieve; I’m angry, you hurt.
I really want to grow into a relationship in which we have common reasons for our things in common. I want to like the things you like for the same reasons you like them. I want to hate the things you hate for the same reasons you hate them. I want to share your emotions, not just be emotional at the same situations. I don’t know why you put up with me; maybe it’s the ubiquitous, “I can change him”. Well, if anyone can change me, you can. I’m just constantly trying to make you more like me, while you’re constantly trying to make me more like you. In my heart of hearts, I want to be more like you.

©2003 rod lewis

Skil and Opportunity

This summer I got a new tool out of necessity. I had to replace the door sill under the old house because the previous owner had satisfied the termite inspector by laminating the wet board and thus covering it up while it continued to rot during my tenure in the house. My termite inspector wasn’t nearly as accommodating. My work under the door, under the house led to a whole chain of events and spiritual lessons learned (these began upstairs, ironically, while working on another repair required by another inspector, Dave shared with my grumbling self, 1 Cor. 6:7). These lessons led to my own more detailed inspections to which I responded with a growing fix it list and completed improvement of which the new owners were, to my shame, exceedingly appreciative. But I digress…
The new tool was a sawzall. a 7.5 amp, reciprocating dream-come-true . The sawsall was the only choice short of dynamite to remove the old door sill, and it did its job on the nearly unreachable 2 x 8 in a matter of seconds, simultaneously endowing me with a feeling of power and accomplishment seldom rivaled by ordinary power tools.
Next day… my string of fixits led me up to the door frame on which I pried, banged, bent, etc. until I decided to once again employ the skilled Skil. Immediate success. A quick run from top to bottom between the frame and the wall and the door frame was no longer a problem.
Fast forward…
My past is full of frustration concerning the disassembling of that which needs replaced. I’ve spent hours, days even, taking apart something on my car or truck which took me only minutes to replace. I will never again spend time beneath the truck prying on the exhaust hangers. Friday morning I sawed them off in 5 seconds each. Duct tape and WD40 are for the older generation. I have a come-along and a sawzall. I don’t take nothing from nothing no more. You happily obey my request for removal or I’ll saw you off. I’ve got a brush blade, a hacksaw blade, a wood blade and a finger on the trigger. I’ve got 200 feet of extension cord and 7.5 amps of pure power. Man, I don't avoid confrontation with unmovable objects anymore. I'm looking for stuff to cut. Don’t mess with me, I’ve got no time. I’ve got to get on with it.

© 2003 rod lewis

Help is on the Way

Don’t we all struggle? Any healthy believer does. The old preacher adage was, everyone is either in the midst of a trial, coming out of a trial or going into a trial. I don’t think this is the same kind of struggle that I’m talking about. Jesus, apparently, was never coming out of a struggle. He was always in the midst of struggle – His own, and that of others. He was always heading closer to the ultimate struggle with which He grappled to the point of great drops of blood in the garden. It would seem that the God of the universe, when in human form, struggled to stay on task. Twice this is evident in the scripture. In the garden, Jesus asked that there be another way for the task to be accomplished, that the very reason He came be changed. In the wilderness after His baptism, He struggled with giving it all up for immediate power and glory.

So were these instances struggles or trials? I guess it doesn’t matter what you call them except to differentiate between different seasons of life. We are called into struggle. Jesus asked us to take up our cross daily and follow Him . To follow implies to do what He did. Struggle. Our mission, given by Jesus, is a struggle. We will continually struggle with the necessity of it, with its value. We will constantly meet with resistance – Jesus Himself did all these things.

But the trials are extra. Often huge road blocks thrown in to avert our eyes, divert our attention, to draw us inside ourselves – physical and emotional obstacles to get in the way of our mission. The darkness of these trials can be overwhelming as they weaken us for our normal struggles. Some of you struggle in the midst of the trial with whether you brought this upon yourselves – are you suffering the consequence of your sin? For others, your uprightness brought these trials upon you. Others, because your purity is a danger to the enemy, have been led to be more greatly tempted toward sin. Often these trials are brought upon you by someone else’s sin. God did not intend men and women to be islands. Now fallen, we live in a fragile ecosystem of sin. A drunk driver kills a family on the interstate. An innocent spouse and entire family are destroyed by the other spouse’s sin or mere neglect.

At this moment some of you have walked directly into an unexpected place and have no idea what is to come before you recognize the path again. Some of you have turned the corner in the darkness and can see a dim flicker to mark your direction. Some of you have come upon dense fog in the dark and any light that you still shine seems to be bounced back in your face. I don’t have any answers for you. I am terrified to risk sending you happy sentences and bible bullets that make you feel worse when they don’t work. I do promise that I am praying for you and that I am praying to One who has felt betrayal and abandonment far greater than any you or I can fathom. Please hang on while I go get help.

Deliriou5?

Walked in an hour ago from a 7 hour drive back from West Virginia. Rained the whole way. The kids and I listened to music all the way home. I have been so challenged and moved by songs all day, as I drove I thought about how to bring it all together for myself into a blog for tonight. Well it all would have been a part of a big blog about the weekend, but when I came upstairs to begin, I read Greg's blog . The weekend blog will have to wait, because I'm about to blog Greg style.

Those of you who know me well know where my burdens lie - where my gaze is set - where frustration has beset. To you, these snippets that spoke to me may make sense, have meaning. Perhaps you can share in the culmination of my weekend, the 7 hour mobile church service in the rain, with the choir in the backseat and the king of fools driving the truck.

Sanctify, I want to be set apart, right to the very heart
Prophesy to the four winds and breathe life to this very place.
How long will it take?
How long will I have to wait?

Can I be used to bring about growth? to set about directed passion, relevant ministry? I feel intense vision and direction, only to be caused to question it. My answers invariably lead me back, but the struggle!

I want to go deeper, but is it just a stupid whim?
I want to grow weaker to be a help to the strong

Each year, for several, I've been growing increasingly optimistic about the students who've come across my path. Here are people whose faith is their own, whose faith has been strengthened through struggle, whose resolve is solid from responding to a non-resolute culture. But the established norm has responded negatively to them.

You may not hear it on the radio, but you can feel it in the air.

How can a sinful man, a non-leader, teach purity and help lead a generation into leadership and kingdom focus?

With You I'm washed as white as the snow, and all crimson stain becomes just a shadow
You know I would be blind without You so light up my way?


Finally, I stop asking questions for a while and just worship.

Keep me, keep me, keep me, keep me-

How I love You, all I am is You
King of love, I bow.

Jesus, friend forever.

Kingdom Business

Being about Christ's business means getting outside our Church doors as well as being fed inside. Often there is kingdom work needing done outside at the same time that something is scheduled inside. But be careful, no one inside will see you reaching people outside. They will be concerned that you are not being spiritually fed. Boldly do what Christ has asked, don't cast aside corporate study and worship, and fellowship with other believers, but don't allow it to move your focus off kingdom business. Assure the skeptics that you have food about which they know nothing.
We have become so deceived, misdirected, insular, and selfish that we think that Christ's church exists to preserve our idea of style and entertain us with what makes us comfortable.
But that's just my rant, I'm sure you have yours. I will keep doing my little thing, looking for who I can reach, doing what I can to reach them, ride on the prayers of those who share my burden and pray for those who don't.

©2003 by rod lewis

H. S. Link o' Chain

I wonder if the Holy Spirit forms prayer chains. Suppose there is someone you don’t even know that is in great need of prayer. They have a friend that you know. You feel an overwhelming compulsion to pray for your friend though you don’t know why. As it turns out, the overwhelming burden that you sense in your friend is in fact, a burden for his other friend of whom you are unaware. The awesome thing here is that you pray for the burden that your friend is carrying, so that ultimately you are praying for his friend. But, if you knew about his friend, and were praying for him, you wouldn’t be praying for your friend who is sharing in his burden. Meanwhile, the Holy Spirit, Who instigated the whole chain, is acting in both lives in response to the prayers that He prompted you to pray.
Afraid of bringing someone else’s burden into your hectic, stressful life? I’ll bet that the Holy Spirit would be willing to prompt someone to pray for you as you share the burden of your friend, who is sharing the burden of his friend.
Pray for me. I need it and my friends need it. I’ll pray for you.

© 2003 rod lewis

For they shall see God

Jesus said, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."
I like the explanation that pure of heart means single minded in PURSUIT of Christ likeness. That's why I feel that one is where he is supposed to be when he is moving toward that goal; not only when he has attained it. That can't happen in this life. To be within God's will, to me, at this point, means single minded, pure of heart, focused on Christ. Also, I've recently entertained the notion that Christ didn't just die for me, but also for Himself, because that is the only way that I could be brought back into the relationship for which I was created. Our having been created for a relationship with Him predates our need for salvation, therefore His role as friend predates His role as savior. Doesn't that mean that His plan for our salvation is just a means to an end that is to bring us back to friendship with Him, and that His friendship with us is the ultimate goal. Past tense salvation (being saved from hell) is just the first step. Our growing relationship with Him (present tense salvation) is the goal. So many are just locked into past tense salvation and never get to know God. That's why so many are concerned with not doing the wrong thing, instead of "doing the right thing". It's not just semantics. It's a matter of heart and motives. One who is stuck at past tense salvation remains selfish; his desire for Salvation is only fear of hell. And while it is of Ultimate importance, living with the purpose of staying out of hell keeps our focus on ourselves and avoiding eternal damnation. Living victorious in Christ means that our desire for Salvation starts us on a growing friendship with God (his plan all along). This takes us beyond that first step and into a freedom that causes us to forget about us and strive only for Him. Then we do the right things for the right reasons. Like David, we may still do the wrong things, often even, but they are less detrimental and debilitating to our walk because our sense of morality was not focused in avoiding them. If I walk with the sole purpose of not falling down, when I fall down I will have failed. But if I walk with the purpose of getting somewhere, when I fall down, I just get up and keep going. I've not failed if I get to where I'm going. Trying not to do the wrong thing is a distraction to God's will for us. If our focus is on doing right, then wrong is merely a mess-up, not a failure; and like David, we can trust God, accept His forgiveness, get past it and go on toward Him.
Being victorious in Christ does not mean that we are enjoying having been victorious. (Paul says, "not that I've attained, but I press on toward the mark of the high calling of Christ"), but are in the process of being victorious each day of our lives.

©2003 by rod lewis

Fear and Trembling

For some time I've been dealing with the passage from Philippians 2:12, 13. "Work out your Salvation with fear and trembling" It seems to me that this passage could cause one to rely on his goodness for retention of his salvation, and thus lead to legalistic ideas and behavior. C. S. Lewis refers to the passage when he says that it is only by trying harder and harder (and failing) that we can come to the place where we truly realize that we cannot possibly keep God's law. It is at this point that we look to Him and say, " You have to do this, I can't" . Ah, yes, that is what the rest of that passage says, isn't it? "for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose".
I love this commentary on those verses. It speaks to salvation in the past tense for one who is reaching a point of complete surrender and dependence on Christ for his salvation; but it also speaks to salvation in the present tense, for one who is growing in Christ and being changed into His likeness.
This idea of "being" must be understood. I am reminded of another passage from Paul that uses this terminology. In 2 Corinthians, 2:15, 16, Paul writes, "for we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing". Here, being could be read as if there are many people in succession are coming to know Christ. "There were many people being saved." It could also be read as if each person was being saved. " He was being saved". The latter implies that salvation is a process that takes place over time. This means that salvation is not completed at the point where Jesus blood is applied to one's condition and his name is written in the Lamb's book of life, and that his being made into the image of Christ does not necessarily immediately happen at that point. Salvation is bigger than that.

©2003 rod lewis

God Bless America

While it is very important that we, as Christian Americans, be devoted to and love our country, it is not our home. We are on a journey, and by God's grace and mercy, we've been born or brought here temporarily. We who know Christ and are bought by His blood are on our way to heaven.
All too often it seems that we develop an attitude that we are blessed by God because we are Americans; or that we deserve God's blessing because we are Americans. We forget that God has given us what we have and He has created who we are. God doesn't give to us because of what we already have or we are. In the Old Testament, God created a nation out of His people, He didn't choose a nation and call them His people. We sometimes seem to be saying, "God, look at us, we are America, bless us." We find pride in that Godly people founded our nation on Biblical principles and expect that we are assured God's continued blessing on our nation. I don't believe God wants us to turn to Him for the sake of our nation. I believe that our nation can be blessed for our sakes. Our nation will be strengthened when we are a God-seeking, praying nation of believers. It is for the sake of God that we should seek Him, not for what He can do for our country. When we as a nation seek God, He will bless us. When we desire God rather than blessings, we will be blessed. When we seek God, we will find grace and mercy.
It seems that if we are moving toward God and our heavenly home, and realize that all we have here, including our country, is temporary, then we will find more pleasure in the temporal. God will reward us along the road that leads to Him; but He must be the goal. All the blessings along the way are by-products of hearts that are pure and single-minded in pursuit of God.

©2003 by rod lewis

Got Jesus?

... continued
Christians like to claim that "all you need is the Word", an unfortunate application of "sola scriptura" to evangelism. In fact, if this interpretation of the doctrine were true, Jesus would never had said ?go into all the nations preaching the gospel and making disciples. We see billboards emblazoned with a stolen advertising slogan, "Got Jesus"? Or "Jesus, He's the real thing", or with bold letters, "John 3:16". Since all you need is the Word, we've done our part to fulfill the great commission. We never have to actually do what Jesus did and get to know, create trust, show true burden and compassion for people. We just spout out clever sayings or scripture references and claim "they are without excuse". We put plastic stick-on fish outlines on our cars and think we are witnesses. *

This would probably have been effective ministry 150 years ago when people behaving badly were often feeling guilty about it because they knew better. I've often heard older people make comments like, "Oh, what could one little nip hurt?" Or, "when you've sawed as many logs as I have, one more is not going to make any difference". These statements imply a conscious decision to behave in opposition to what they believe is right. To behave "badly" implies that there is a right way to behave. These people often felt, "I should clean up my act and get back into the church where I belong." In this culture, clever reminders of their straying might be enough to prod them back.

Welcome to a culture without a conscience. This does not necessarily mean that they are so "bad" that they don't have a conscience. It means that they don't know the "right" that opposes their "wrong". They are not being rebellious. That implies a conscious act in opposition to right. They are behaving according to what they know and believe. To approach this generation with behavior oriented preaching, runs the risk of neglecting the Truth that causes people to act rightly.
The challenge to Christians is to love those whom we thought were the enemy; to show our burden and concern so that they will trust what Jesus said to be true. We must stop saying to ourselves, "if only we could cut down all those weeds, we would be able to go out there and preach the gospel". All those weeds are the harvest, my friends. They are not the obstacles to the harvest. They are not the enemies, the enemy is Satan who wants us to believe that the enemies are the very ones we need to reach.
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* In the first century, Christians used the Icthus to identify one-another, not win others. While I am encouraged when I see another Christian with a fish on his car, I don't expect that people are coming to salvation because of it. Probably as often, they are gesturing inappropriately as they pass us on the highway.


©2003 by rod lewis

Who is my Enemy?

For the first time in history, there are people in our own neighborhoods that fit the evangelical description of missions rather than evangelism. If evangelism means sharing Jesus with those who don't believe in Him, and Missions means sharing Jesus with those who don't know there is a Jesus to believe in. Now there are folks living down the street from you who don't know there is a Jesus to believe in; especially college age and younger. Their parents were apathetic about the gospel and like an unimportant anecdote from childhood, they've never passed it along.
We teach cultural difference and tolerance so as to prepare potential missionaries in the foreign field while we condemn the culture in our own country and grow angrier by the minute with the behavior of our neighbors. We see "them" as the enemy rather than the harvest.
To continue to teach evangelism in terms of convincing people to behave according to what they already know is right, is outdated and no longer effective. Almost invariably, I hear people talking as if those with whom they are sharing already believe what we believe, but just have to be convinced to behave accordingly. Why else would we be so angry with non-believers when they act like non-believers? Why else would we not see them as the harvest? We have got to realize that these people are not consciously behaving contrary to their beliefs, but in fact, see nothing wrong with their lifestyles. We assume that they share our beliefs. I am constantly offended by bigots who spout off to me with all kinds of racial slurs and comments as if I too feel as they do. I see it as arrogant, uneducated, and simple-minded. I recently saw a bumper sticker that read, "Don't assume I share your prejudices". I want that bumper sticker. I also saw a bumper sticker that read, "Jesus, save us from your followers".

We ask, "Do you believe that Jesus is the only way to God"? And we argue, "but Jesus said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, no man comes to the Father but by me". This argument is cyclic, a strange loop, and to someone who doesn't believe either, neither statement proves the other. My training to be a teacher taught me that I can't use procedures that don't serve my objective. I can't convince someone of something they don't believe by arguing something else they don't believe. My training to be a learner has taught me to see everything as a symptom of a problem rather than the problem itself. Then I will trace the symptoms to the root. It is much easier to treat a symptom and pretend we've fixed the problem. We argue against specific sins with scripture. That assumes that the specific sinner believes scripture. We stand on the street corner and tell them that they will suffer God's wrath. We assume they believe in God and therefore are concerned about His wrath. We have to treat behavior as a symptom so that we can identify its cause. I can't imagine a doctor who would say, "get rid of that itch and come and see me so we can treat your poison ivy". Of course we know that the itch is caused by the poison ivy and that treating it, will rid us of the itch.
We don't let people see our burden for them because we don't have a burden for them. People "heard" Jesus because they felt that He truly cared for them. They responded to His love, and therefore trusted what He said.

©2003 rod lewis

Amber and the Cubans

Today I got a most refreshing comment from a student. For a teacher, it is a major encouragement when a student applies a concept to a relationship that is not connected to that with which it was explained. The context involves Cuban music. Hear it in your mind’s ear. Here’s the quote, “the whole country sounds like that – not just the music, that’s the sound of the culture.” Wow! What a compliment to a culture, that identity could be so strong that your music is an honest expression of who you are; that you are recognized in your music.
Here in America, we are more often an expression of our music. We don’t express our struggles, joys, beliefs, and convictions through music, instead, it shapes how we think, what we like, how we talk, what we wear. Some styles of American music express struggles, but they have become so stylized that the strugglers of the original expression are almost patronized and we now express what our struggles, beliefs, and dreams would be if we had any.
So how could I expect mainstream Christian music to be any different? Its role is completely reversed so that it is no longer shaped by who we are, but we by it lest we hear it and begin to struggle with the same faith growing issues as the writer of a song. Our art is no longer our second hand creation spurred by our being creatures of God. Our art has become entertainment that shapes us rather than it being shaped by God through us. As a result, our music has become less true. The Bible is full of stories about real people through whom we see the power of God, but our music is devoid of those opportunities. We don’t allow our music to represent who we are, we are not recognizable in our music. After hearing Christian music, no one is ever going to say, “the whole Christian culture sounds like that!”
Christian music is the only music categorized by lyric content. What’s more, the lyric content that allows the categorization is extremely narrow. It seems that certain specific words are required rather than meaning, message, or concepts.
I want to be a man whose identity is Christ. I want everything about me to reflect my identity. May my involvement in music cause change in others because of who and what I represent. May I only be changed by others’ music that reflects Christ in their lives.

© 2003 rod Lewis

Art, Worship and Entertainment

Art and Worship can be friends because creation or expression of art can be an act of worship. Viewing or hearing art can inspire worship. But entertainment finds no place here as a goal. Sure, one could be entertained by art, but that must be a by-product. If one seeks to be entertained, he will reject any art that doesn’t entertain him, he will miss the gift that was given him and play with the box.
As a worshipping musician, I have problems with being asked to package either my art or my worship in such a way as to satisfy the entertainment consumer who evaluates his worship experience like a new single on Bandstand . Its got a good beat, I give it a 93.
That mentality is fine for bandstand because that is what the music was created for – for people to like. Darn the day we started calling the music “worship”. Darn the day we started calling entertainers “artists”. Its easy to see how this happened. At some point the music existed as a worship vehicle so we called worship worship. Many thought that the term referred to the vehicle and so we stopped calling the vehicle “music” and started calling it “worship”. Music still means music, but worship no longer means worship. So when we evaluate “worship” we are reading the market and deciding if our product is still in demand. Yes? Then we miss whether the result is worship. No? Then we tweak the product until the answer is yes and we miss whether the result is worship.
G. H. would say, “read my lips”. G. W. would say, “make no mistake”, I am not willing to sacrifice even my music for entertainment purposes, let alone my vision for a worshipping congregation who no longer believes that I am trying to play a style of music that makes them emotional, nostalgic, or causes them to dance. I would so much sooner lead worship without music than continue to let music confuse the call of God to the foremost activity He has given man.
Who do you blame? There is a whole culture malnourished because they’re curbing their hunger with candy. They are so busy procuring what they want that they don’t even notice what they need.

© 2003 rod Lewis

Invisible Man on First

Quiet time. Time spent with God. Prayer. Why is it all so hard? This relationship often seems to be one in which two people try to force themselves to like each other – like we’ve been introduced at a family reunion and left to spend the day as if we have something in common. Seems that if we could learn to be comfortable with God as our Father and Friend, we would be more comfortable with having to go to Him for guidance, help, forgiveness.
I remember childhood friendships that never required coaching. I remember spending hours playing wiffle ball with a friend without a curriculum. You topped the bat toss, you hit first. No acrostic to help us remember what to talk about. Invisible man on first. Do you think Tony Perez could beat Tony Dorsett in a game of make-it-take-it? Could the Cowboys beat the Reds in basketball?
No specific location where all is just perfect. The tall pine tree is a home-run. The boxwood is a foul ball.
Yes, we need intentional, planned, routine quiet time with God, but when that gets so forced that it seems like an exercise - when we dread it like we should dread the idea of not being with God, we need just to relax and be with Him the way friends can just be together. We need just to enjoy Him. I believe He is glorified in this.
I used play guitar with friends for hours. Hang with the baseball team in the dorms playing guitar for hours. How can my guitar playing for God become so theoretical? Why do I have to justify it as worship?
I know what I mean by it. God knows my heart. Why do I have to worry about what someone else doesn't understand?
I’ve learned that approaching God this way provides an astounding realization. His willingness to let me count Him a friend somehow leads me to the knowledge of my unworthiness to be counted His friend. I realize how He is meeting my real needs, and so I begin to relax and have fewer perceived needs. I feel a peace that only He can provide. Yet He has asked me to come to Him as a little child. As a child who is well taken care of, I ask what any kid would ask of his dad, “Wanna play some wiffle ball”?
“Invisible Man on first”!

© 2003 rod lewis

Scouting the Congaree

This evening I rode down to the Congaree swamp to “scout” location for my advisor/advisee prayer day on Wednesday. Two rivers in two days. I go down there about once a year and walk around the boardwalk. Its about an hour walk for 2.4 miles of some outrageously beautiful sights and sounds. This is one of the largest intact stands of old growth forest in the country. It also sports some of the tallest trees with some world record Loblolly pines measuring 174 feet high.
I’ve seen incredible birds, deer, snakes (I once had an encounter with a “cotton mouth” in a canoe that would take all night to tell about), and even a herd (?) of wild pigs. Tonight I saw a squirrel with a black raccoon face. He asked me what I had for lunch and I lied and told him a baked potato. Ok, I made up the part about lunch.
So, having found the perfect location for Wednesday’s deal, I sat and watched and listened and thought. We will be talking about being alone with God. What a great place to be alone with Him. Here are 22,000 acres of protected old-growth forest. On Wednesday afternoon, there will probably be no other humans in the park.
As I sat under a tree dripping moss, staring down the creek and listening to the birds, and crickets and tree frogs, I thought about all God’s creation praising Him. The cypress tree: “raises his ams in a blessing for being born again”. Thou burning sun with golden beam, thou silver moon with softer gleam, ye lights of evening find a voice. I remembered 20 years ago sitting at the fire beside the Cranberry river at about 2:00 am with Travis, the river playing a constant background against the night sounds. Travis asked me if I thought the river made any noise when no one was around to hear it. It occurred to me that it wasn’t for me that the river was singing, I was just fortunate to enjoy the song that it sang day and night for its Creator. When no one is around, there it is, alone with God, singing praises.
Let all things their Creator bless and worship Him in humbleness. O Praise Him. O Praise Him. Alleluia.

©2003 rod lewis

By the banks of the Lower Saluda

The water is cold off the bottom of the dam. It is like an air conditioner sending cool air up the banks. What a difference from 3 miles up stream, crossing the dam, the temperature is at least ten degrees warmer from the top water holding the day’s warmth.
Now its just the perfect destination for a night ride.
Hope Ferry Landing. The name indicating what has been lost can be regained with a little quiet time with Him who stands at the gap between the low spots and the high waiting to carry us across.
There are two owls just behind me in the trees. Who? Who? Who? I know Who. Its so good to be asked, to be reminded.
I am so tired. Where is the light at the end of the tunnel? Who? Who? Who?
Then I notice them; tiny specks of light all through the woods, flickering, growing brighter, dimming. Almost elusive, but finally found. Little, flat, rigid glow worms. Everywhere glowworms.
Who? Who? Who? The light in the darkness.
It is good to be reminded.

©2003 rod lewis

The Kid on the Back

I took my son on a bike ride. We were cranking and banking through some fun turns around the lake when it occurred to me how much he has to trust me to sit back there hanging on to my waist. I began to remember moments from my own childhood – scary times with Dad, driving up a snow covered logging road to go hunting, or even just sitting by a fire in the dark woods on a camping trip, my child’s imagination going wild in the wilderness. I remember what I thought at those times. I always felt that Dad wouldn’t put me in a situation where he wasn’t in control. I felt that probably he needed me to be safe even more than I did. I thought – and this is going to sound weird – that if I went, Dad went with me; and I found my identity in him, so I had no reason to be protected if he wasn’t. I think the summary of all that is that trust didn’t entirely mean that I felt safe from harm. It meant that I knew Dad was with me and in control. Whatever happened when I was with him was ok.
Well then of course I want to have this reliance as a grown-up on my heavenly Dad. Who in fact, is in control in ways that I can’t comprehend. I know that He doesn’t promise physical protection, but spiritual protection. I know that whatever I go through, He has gone through and is doing it now, with me. When He takes me into a dangerous situation, He does just that - TAKES me. He doesn’t SEND me on my own.
Though He slay me, yet I will trust in Him, because His protection reaches beyond what I know here. My name is carved in His hands, written in His heart.
His hands are on the brake and throttle, I’m just riding on the back, cranking and banking and hanging on.
© 2003 rod lewis

Just Do It

Worship is a specific thing that we do intentionally at a specific time. Worship is a lifestyle. Unless we embrace both these realities, I believe we fail to walk with God the way He intends. What so many of us do though, is choose one as an excuse for the other. We forgive our own neglect of a time alone with God by telling ourselves that it’s how we live our lives that counts. I want to submit that we can’t possibly know how to live our lives unless we spend intentional, focused, time alone speaking with and listening to God. “Lifestyle worship” doesn’t exempt us from intentional “closet time” where we confess, adore, seek, and listen; where our prayers aren’t crafted for the benefit of others, when we don’t face the largest part of the congregation or wax poetic in our public supplication. On the other hand, spending intentional, closet time with God doesn’t give us license to go about and live Godless lives the rest of the time. More often, this is probably the problem.
Many of us have embraced the terminology that calls church music “worship” to the point that we’ve not only separated that “worship time” from every aspect of Monday to Saturday life but even from the other elements in the Sunday service.When pressed, we are ready to consider everything from tithing to taking out the trash, worship. At the same time, we call singing worship, separate from communion, offering, sermon. We've quite broadly defined the term "worship" in inverse proportion to how narrowly we've defined the method by which it is carried out. Worship is something that we do, that we give.Worship is not something that we should expect to experience.Worship is something that God experiences. We, in turn, can experience God.If we have obediently poured ourselves out to Him, and have recognized Who He is and how filthy we are, we will have left ourselves open to hear His voice.Our expectation of an emotional experience from music to facilitate worship, can blind us to the actual “God experience” He had planned for us. Perhaps the “God Experience” is simply feeling His pleasure. But we must not approach God for the experience.We must approach Him for His sake, in reverence, contrition, awe, thanksgiving; we will be further awed by His gift back to us. Then when we open our mouths to sing, it will be in response to Him in our lives.We won’t sing in hopes that it will put us in the mood to worship, but as a result of having been worshiping.

© 2003 rod lewis

Relevance

I’m beginning to think that the single most important criterion for relevance is struggle. The best teacher is a learner. And maybe even one who stays but a few steps ahead of his students. For it is only in learning that a teacher can know why the material is relevant to the learner.

Most of us struggle. Problem is, we’ve always avoided talking about or teaching from our struggles. We’ve dared not to address questions for which we’ve not yet found the answers. Instead, we choose safe topics with which we’ve never struggled or have long since conquered, so that we have no idea of the problem or have forgotten the severity.

The emerging culture will no longer put up with self-help books written by self-help book writers, or generic how-to sermons written by generic how-to sermon writers. The emerging culture will not listen to someone who plugs himself in as an illustration of someone else’s second hand insight. This culture says show me what you’ve learned from your own struggles and I might gain some insight into mine. You want to know how to seem irrelevant to me? Cause me to feel that you have no insight into my struggles, strengths, weaknesses; that you’ve just chosen what direction you will lead me with no knowledge of where I’ve been or where I was headed before you came along. I’ll feel that what you have to say is equally inapplicable to all of us and we’ll probably all look elsewhere to have our questions heard.

© 2003 rod lewis