Once it’s Out…

³ Set a guard over my mouth, O LORD;
keep watch over the door of my lips.

I will never forget Barry Lord standing behind the pulpit asking for a volunteer.  That is a dangerous thing to do.  He is good with illustrations.  His victim was given a tube of toothpaste and was asked to squeeze the contents into the aluminum pie plate.  Once a good bit out, Barry handed him a spoon and asked him to put it back into the tube.  What a joke!   He had toothpaste on the spoon, his hands, the plate and all over the tube and was never able to put it back.  The truth is – “Once it’s out, it ain’t going back in”.  I wish he had a mouth over the end of the tube.  The truth is so obvious.  When you speak those words, you can never get them back in.  When they are out, they are out.

Today in my scripture passages David was being chased by Saul.  Psalm 141 is a reminder from David for God to watch all aspects of his life.  Chronicles passage was filled with “who begat who” and interestingly enough a discussion on who would be the “gatekeepers” at the temple.  Furthermore, then Jesus sends the men out to preach and make a difference in the world.  I never know just where God will tag my own heart.  Today, it has to be with the gatekeeping activity that surrounds my own mouth.

God makes us like we are.  However, how we are made is no excuse to exercise a lack of discipline, especially in how we use our mouths.  I need a guard?  You bet.  At times I need a muzzle like a dog.  The older I am get the better I am getting at disciplining myself to “think” before I speak and allowing a little more grace to be applied to how I say what I say.   It is days like today that I am reminded again just how much God still has to do in my own life.  I will represent Him today in word and in deed.

The other observation is to remember that I have a Traveling Partner in this life who really does want to be a part of my life.  I am one of God beloved children.  He wants me to succeed and to get as much out of today as possible.  Of all the things that I would perceive God having to do, watching over my mouth would not be one of them.  However, David found real comfort in asking God to stand guard outside of his mouth and watch over this gate of his life.  What a way to start a day!  Talk to God and have confidence in his presence with us in that we would be able to stand watch over my mouth.

My sons introduced me to John Mayer.  Put a guitar in his hands and he can perform magic with it.  Now I know it is not a Christian song, but it goes right along with what I am trying to say.  My Stupid Mouth!  Listen!

My stupid mouth
Has got me in trouble
I said too much again
To a date over dinner yesterday
And I could see
She was offended
She said “well anyway…”
Just dying for a subject change

Oh, another social casualty
Score one more for me
How could I forget?
Mama said “think before speaking”
No filter in my head
Oh, what’s a boy to do
I guess he better find what soon

We bit our lips
She looked out the window
Rolling tiny balls of napkin paper
I played a quick game of chess with the salt and pepper shaker
And I could see clearly, An indelible line was drawn
Between what was good, what JUST slipped out and what went wrong

Oh, the way she feels about me has changed
Thanks for playing, try again.
How could I forget?
Mama said “think before speaking”
No filter in my head
Oh, what’s a boy to do
I guess he better find one

I’m never speaking up again
It only hurts me
I’d rather be a mystery
Than she desert me

Oh I’m never speaking up again
Starting now… Starting now

One more thing
Why is it my fault?
So maybe I try too hard
But it’s all because of this desire
I just wanna be liked
I just wanna be funny
Looks like the jokes on me
So call me captain backfire

I’m never speaking up again
it only hurts me
I’d rather be a mystery
than she desert me

oh I’m never speaking up again
I’m never speaking up again
I’m never speaking up again
Starting now, starting now…

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He had compassion on them…

³⁶When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. ³⁷Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. ³⁸Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

I have been reading Henri Nouwen’s book The Return of the Prodigal Son.  Nouwen was captivated by Rembrandt’s painting  depicting his perspective of the Prodigal, and began to identify with the younger son.  Here is a young man who took all the inheritance that his father gave him after wishing that his father was dead and squandered it in lustful riotous living.  He took the risk of listening to the sounds of those around him who began to demonstrate that there is some kind of life that is greater than the one that is with the father.  His story starts as he leaves home, consuming his life at the bars in the lap of luxury, finds himself in squalor caring for pigs with nothing, and at the end of it all is back in the father’s embrace forgiven, cleansed and now home.  The father’s beloved has come home.

Nouwen was then encouraged to consider the fact that he might be struggling with the whole story of the prodigal because he might relate to the elder son more so than the younger.  The elder son was just as far away from the father as the younger.  Probably mad because he did not have the courage to chase the fancies as did the younger and risk all for the thrill of it all.  He is consumed in anger, bitterness, and like a Pharisee and Scribe, is consumed in being religious and proper.  He is so far away he is not moved by the father’s joy at the return of his younger brother and because of his resentment and the like does not even have a connection with the father any more.

Nouwen develops the story much more of course.  However, a woman encouraged him to consider the possibility “…whether you are the younger son or the elder son, you have to realize you are called to become the father.  …You have been looking for friends all of your life; you have been craving for affection as long as I have known you; you have been interested in thousands of things; you have been begging for attention, appreciation, and affirmation left and right.  The time has come to claim your true vocation – to be a father who can welcome his children home without asking them any questions and without wanting anything from them in return.  Look at the father in your painting and you will know what you are called to be.  We, at Daybreak, and most people around you don’t need you to be a good friend or even a kind brother.  We need you to be a father who can claim for himself the authority of true compassion.” (p. 22)

I look at the compassion of the father and instantly relate to Jesus who demonstrates for me this morning that he saw the crowds and was moved to stop standing off to the side with hands folded, distant and cold to the needs of people and the joy of the father.  He had compassion for them.  Today I am reminded that words like homecoming, affirmation, gratitude, joy and reconciliation have more to do with the heart of God.  I will run into loneliness, dejection, jealousy, and anger today.  I am a pastor and those things are never far away.

Today, God help me get past my issues with the younger and elder sons.  Allow me to live in the joy of my forgiveness and the sweet knowledge that I am home.  Help me to exercise my vocation of being one who can dispense Grace because I have received it by having compassion for others, being an encourager, welcoming people back home and living a life of trust and gratitude.  I am so thankful that you travel with me through this process.  I celebrate that I am your beloved and you are well pleased with me.  Deep inside me I long to live up to that privilege.

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Be Exalted Oh God

¹⁰ For great is your love, reaching to the heavens;
your faithfulness reaches to the skies.

¹¹ Be exalted, O God, above the heavens;
let your glory be over all the earth…”

I am reminded that we are to ask God for our DAILY bread.  My assumption is that we choose every day to depend on God for all things.  It is not YEARLY BREAD…it is not MONTHLY bread…it is not bread for the REST OF YOUR LIFE.  It is Daily.  Daily dependence upon God.  David is running from Saul.  In a cave hiding with his men.  And God protected him again.  Now why that surprises me I haven’t a clue.  God always takes care of us.

The first prayer that made a difference in my life is “God be merciful to me a sinner!”  That prayer from a young eleven year old heart with his head bowed down in the chair in Pastor Gordon’s office secured me a place in heaven.  However, it has not bee the only prayer I have prayed.  Some years later I now join the Psalmist in singing  “¹⁰For thy mercy is great unto the heavens, and thy truth unto the clouds.  ¹¹Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens: let thy glory be above all the earth.” He sings of the mercy of God again.  He never leaves the mercy, truth and the glory of God issues alone.  David is blown away by what our faith in God achieves on the part of the believer.  David steps out of his cave and at the mouth of it begins to sing of the mercy of God and that God would be glorified in all the earth.  He could have easily said as did Pharasees and Scribes how pious he was and the cry of his heart could have been “Be exalted, Oh David, among the heavens.  His heart was set on what brought glory to God.

Asking that God be exalted and that His glory should fill all the earth is no claim to be able to “name it and claim it” on our part.  Extolling God and asking that his glory fill the earth is no relief from being in prison or in a cave, or in some other tough circumstance.  It is our hope that God brings glory to His name in this earth.  He is doing that even though I may not see it.  He is glorifying Himself.

I choose today to celebrate the Mercy and Love of God.  I choose this day to align myself with the Truth.  I choose this day to say to God bring glory to yourself.  Forgive me when I want to take the glory.  My heart is bent to you.  My heart is able this morning to be filled with joy.  I stand in your presence and shout and dance before the Lord because of His wonderful Mercy.  It floods the place.  I am thankful.

He is not waiting for my prayer to declare that into existence.  His Glory fills the earth.  This morning my prayer comes in sync with the truth that already exists.  I join all of the earth and heaven in declaring the Glory of God.

I see the sun beginning to fill the sky.  It is beautiful.  I celebrate the Love and Mercy of God this morning!

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Let Go and Let God have his wonderful way…

⁷ For he has delivered me from all my troubles,
and my eyes have looked in triumph on my foes.

He did it again.  He takes care of his children.  I noticed that David who wrote the 54th Psalm was in trouble.  There were foes –  a simple but obvious discovery.  Tough to live on this side of heaven without them.  Especially if one has a serious thought about the reality of evil and the Enemy.  I noticed that this was not his first rodeo with trouble nor with God’s deliverance. I noticed God was watching, planning, organizing, working His way and will in that whole process even though it was not what we call the very best.  His confidence in God is overwhelming.  God developed a strong confidence in him one event at a time.  I also noticed that there is a big God and a little foe.

Worry is a control issue.  Why am I so prone to want to tell God how to do things when I believe he is in control of all things?  At Midland Park Baptist Church we used to sing a chorus that still rings in my head this morning –

Let go and let God have His wonderful way

Let go and let God have His way

Your sorrow will vanish

You night turned to day

Let go and let God have His way

The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.  Those words come from one of the literary giants in the Bible and of all time the 23rd Psalm.  I was reminded again of what I said last night. As I was preaching on it. The Lord is my shepherd today.  Getting control of worry is a daily choice.  Sometimes it’s a moment by moment choice.  The bad news for you is, there’s no seminar, there’s no pill, there’s no formula there’s no magic shot you can take that’s going to solve the problem of worry for you from this moment on, every day of your life.  It’s something that you have to get control of every day.

Stan Coffey’s illustration was amazing.  I heard about a grandfather clock that had been in a family for many generations and had stood in the hallway of a stately mansion.  He had kept perfect time and one day, he began to be concerned about the future and all the work, he was going to have to do.  He wondered how he would have the strength to continue to keep perfect time.  He said, “You know, I tick twice a second.”  He began to figure, and he said, “That’s one hundred and twenty ticks a minute that I’m going to have to tick.”  He said, “That’s one hundred and seventy-two thousand, eight hundred ticks every single day.”  Then he said, “NO, its sixty-two million ticks a year,” and he had a nervous breakdown.  He went to the clock psychiatrist.  The clock psychiatrist said, “Grandfather what’s the problem?”  He said, “The problem is, the future is overwhelming me.  I just can’t face the things I’m going to face.  I just can’t face all the work I’m going to have to do.”

The clock psychiatrist said, “Grandfather, what’s the problem.”  He told him, he had to tick sixty-two million ticks a year and for many more years.  The psychiatrist said, “Well, how many ticks do you have to tick at a time?”  He said, “One tick at a time.”  He said, “Grandfather, you don’t have to worry about sixty-two million ticks.  You have to worry about one tick.  You go back and stand in the hallway and you tick that one tick and don’t think about anything but that one tick and you concentrate on that one tick.  When you tick that tick, then you think about the next tick.”

Grandfather took his advice and he’s been standing in the hallway not for many years and is happy as can be ticking one tick at a time.

Lord it is your day!  You made it.  I heard you invite me to join you in the day.  I will “Let go…”  Let’s go!

Sidebar:  I love Vocal Band Harmony

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The Apple of His Eye

⁶ I call on you, O God, for you will answer me;
give ear to me and hear my prayer.

⁷ Show the wonder of your great love,
you who save by your right hand
those who take refuge in you from their foes.

⁸ Keep me as the apple of your eye;
hide me in the shadow of your wings

⁹ from the wicked who assail me,
from my mortal enemies who surround me.

Resting.  Busy.  Hiding.  Running.  RESTING!  People were ratting David out.  Folk are getting killed because of God’s touch on his life and David’s journey through this whole “Saul ain’t right” time.  A whole city of priests, their families – men, women, and children are destroyed persuant to Saul’s demented command.  I guess if the Spirit leaves you, one would go completely mental.  He lost his mind and I guess he loaded his gun and went to the post office of their day and opened up on the nearest thing to him.  He went postal.  He was hunting David down like a dog.  Furthermore, what was David doing?  RESTING!

His relationship by faith with the Lord God was unbelievable.  I was caught off guard with the thought of these four verses.  I read about him praying and God hearing.  I read about him being the Apple of His Eye.  David was so certain that he was under the protective wing of God.  His confidence in his relationship with the Father is so evident.  This question came to my mind.  How did he get to that place?  He had to have had it before the spears started being thrown and the swords started clanging together.  What kind of background developed that kind of confidence in God even in the midst of attack.

It is not about church attendance.  It is not about giving money to the church.  It is not about something that I do.  I cannot earn the right to be in this kind of relationship any more than David can claim that his works provided him the chance to be called the Apple of God’s Eye.  I am certain that David was not the only Apple of His Eye.  Those of us who are in a relationship with God through Christ under the leadership of the Holy Spirit have that same confidence, and we can rest in the FACT that we are his child.  By virtue of our relationship Nancy, Jason and Jenn, Jeremy and Kimberly are the Apples of My Eye.  They don’t have to “earn” the right to be there.  They simply enjoy knowing that they are special to me.  They can REST in that fact.  Furthermore, I will act accordingly to guide, protect, provide, or whatever is needed not because they act right, but because we are in a relationship.

He can face Saul because he talked to God, was intimate with God and enjoyed an affectionate relationship with God.  His relationship with God was so big that Saul’s attacks (even though present and personal) were nothing compared to the relationship he had with God.

Conversations about Spiritual Formation were plenty at the conference and still ongoing.  Leading people away from a “works” mentality into one filled with “grace” is one more challenge for those of us whose current assignment is to lead people into a relationship with Christ.  There is a longing in my heart to help people discover that we walk because of our faith in Christ in the GRACE of Christ.  There is a REST that comes to my heart because I am IN CHRIST.  He doesn’t protect me from the stuff of life.  He protects me in the stuff of life.

In Saul’s eyes, he is a dog and a pain.  Out of Saul’s tormented soul, David is seen as the enemy.  He is hated by Saul and all those who surround Saul.  Oh to get to the place where the only voice you hear is the voice of God telling you how special you are to HIM.  All of us are special to God, but when the heat is on – we become aware of just how special – The Apple of His Eye.  Talk about intimacy!  Apple of His Eye and Under His wing.  Both are protected by their parent.  No wonder the Lord’s model prayer starts off by saying, “Our Father who art in heaven…”  He is my Father.  I am His child.  Furthermore, if He had a refrigerator in heaven, my picture would be on it!

And he does that because I am his child and the Apple of His Eye!

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