Jesus Stills the Storm –OR– How to Have a Good Night’s Sleep No Matter What’s Going on in Your Life

“Who is this, that even the winds and sea obey him?” That was the disciples’ question after Jesus commanded a storm to be still and the storm obeyed. Jesus had been sleeping in the back of the boat when a storm arose – a storm severe enough to make seasoned fishermen frightened for their lives. As the storm raged, Jesus continued to sleep. The terrified disciples woke Jesus, crying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing!” First Jesus rebuked the disciples for their lack of faith, and then he rebuked the storm. The disciples had seen Jesus heal people and cast out demons, but when the very Earth obeyed his command, a new sense of awe overcame the disciples. (Matthew 8:23-27)

While people draw many different lessons from this episode, the thing that strikes me is that Jesus was able to sleep in the middle of a storm. If you ever have difficulty going to sleep at night because of some turmoil in your life, you probably (like me) would like to know Jesus’ secret for sleeping right through storms.

The secret is in Jesus’ intimate relationship with the Father. He knows that his ultimate safety always lies with the Father. “I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.” (Psalm 4:8, NIV)

While we have a reconciled relationship to God the Father through Jesus Christ, while we intellectually know that because of the death and resurrection of Jesus, God looks on us as his own dear children, living in that peace that lets us sleep requires that we cultivate that relationship with God.

Jesus had at least five habits that we all need in order to live close to God and, therefore, be able to sleep peacefully even in difficult circumstances.

1.  Jesus kept a weekly Sabbath.  A Sabbath is a day in which we intentionally put aside temporal concerns such as work to focus on our relationships with God and other people. We need to remind ourselves regularly that earthly life is a temporary journey and our ultimate home lies with our heavenly Father.

2. Jesus often engaged in solitary prayer. While we benefit from participating in group prayer experiences such as worship services and small group Bible studies, we need to relate one-on-one with God for him to get into the deeper parts of our soul.

3. Jesus knew the scriptures. While Jesus had an edge, being the Word of God incarnate, knowing the promises of God helped him ward off temptation. Those same promises can bring peace to our hearts in the troubles of the world and our own life.

4. Jesus engaged in faith dialog. As young as twelve years old, Jesus was questioning the teachers in the temple. We all have questions buried inside of us, like little dark spots in the light of our souls. When unacknowledged and not shared, those little dark spots fester. Engaging in authentic faith dialog with others creates spaces for those little dark spots to percolate naturally to the surface. Once they are out, their power to power to steal our peace is diminished.

5. Jesus lived in obedience to the Father. If you know what God would have you do and you don’t do it, you can’t really expect God to give you his peace, can you?

For a Christian, these habits exist under the umbrella of Grace. We are saved by grace, not by works, so that no one can boast. But failure to live out habits that connect us with God can lead to a sleep-deprived Christian. When we look at Jesus in the boat, we see a man sleeping through a storm. Jesus sees a child asleep under the watchful eyes of a loving Father. As you cultivate these five habits, you, too, will more and more see yourself not as a human trying to make it in this world of changes and chances, but as a child of God, falling asleep under the loving eyes of a heavenly Father.

February is the "Love" month

Here comes February, the Hallmark… uh, I mean, “love” month, the month in which celebrate Valentine’s Day. For some time already I’ve been seeing ads encouraging people to get an early start ordering their flowers. According to the Greeting Card Association, an estimated one billion valentine cards are sent each year, making Valentine's Day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year. (An estimated 2.6 billion cards are sent for Christmas.)

It’s a little bit odd that our season of sentiment started out as a commemoration of two (maybe three) Christian martyrs named “Valentine” who died around AD200-AD300. The feastday of Saint Valentine was placed on the official calendar of the Catholic church in AD500, but was removed by Pope Paul VI because, “Though the memorial of Saint Valentine is ancient, it is left to particular calendars, since, apart from his name, nothing is known of Saint Valentine except that he was buried on the Via Flaminia on February 14.”

The migration of Saint Valentine’s Day from a feastday commemorating martyrs to a day designated for declarations of love is lost in the fog of history. It seems clear, however, that by the 1600’s Valentine’s Day was associated with love in the popular view. In Shakespeare’s play, “Hamlet,” Ophelia speaks of her desire to be Hamlet’s valentine as Saint Valentine’s Day approaches. Nowadays, whether it’s due to the increasing interaction between cultures or just plain ol’ marketing, Valentine’s Day is celebrated in much of the world.

So what does this most Hallmark of holidays have to do with our Christian faith in 2011? Would God send you a mushy, sappy Valentine’s Day card, declaring his undying love for you? I think he would! I think he has! He calls us his bride. He tells us that nothing in all of creation can separate us from his love. Three words: “Song of Solomon.” Need I say more? Humanity is the ultimate ‘damsel in distress,’ so loved by Jesus that he confronted our captor, Satan, with a daring swap: his death for ours. Then he busted out of the prison of death, destroying forever death’s grip on us, his beloved bride. Our hero!

To offer oneself up to death in the place of another, now that’s true love! Perhaps the union of the martyrdom of Saint(s) Valentine with the modern day celebration of Valentine’s’ Day is at its core a more appropriate marriage than it would appear. Solomon wrote, “Love is as strong as death.” Jesus brings love and death together in a most intimate fashion, declaring that death is, in fact, the height of love: “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13 (ESV))

While laying down one’s physical life might be considered the ultimate test of love, living out love day by day—I’m thinking here of the “agape” type of love (a decision to treat someone lovingly) as opposed to mere affection or attraction—is a kind of daily death. When you choose to be patient, kind, not jealous, boastful, rude or self-seeking, it is a kind of dying to yourself and your ‘rights.’ But, this is the kind of death that brings life.

Jesus said, “…whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” (Matthew 16:25 (NKJV))

In the narrow sense, this verse refers directly to our commitment to Jesus as Lord, but the scriptures teach us that love for our fellow man is inseperable from love for God. “…he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.” (1 John 4:20 (ESV))

So the real question for Valentine’s Day is this: are you dying daily to yourself to live out Jesus’ love for those around you? If we put you on the scales to measure your love—remembering that “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.” (1 Corinthians 13:4–6 (ESV))—how would you measure up? Of course you wouldn’t measure up like Mary Poppins, “Practically Perfect in Every Way.” That’s why we need a savior! But still, as one who desires to follow Jesus, how are you doing? It’s a good question to reflect on this Valentine’s Day because it’s a question that leads you toward life, and Jesus came that we might have Life and have it abundantly!
 
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Pastor John

LOVE — the mark of Christian community

Jesus said that people will know we are disciples if we have love for one another. And that can be a problem. Because “love” is one messed up word, let me tell you!

Most often in our culture “love” means “like a great deal.” I love pizza. I love my car. I am in love with a girl. If you ponder this way of looking at “love” for a moment, you will see that it basically has to do with me. It means that something makes me feel good. Pizza. My car. The girl I’ve started dating. Why do I love them? Because they make me feel so good!

Imagine trying to build a community (or family, or marriage, for that matter) on everything making me feel good. It may sound attractive, but so does being able to fly through the air just by thinking hard enough… and both are equally as likely.

Lucky for us, our feelings are not what Jesus is talking about when he says “love for one another” will be an observable mark of his disciples.

Can you imagine a community where people are patient and kind? Where people aren’t envious, boastful, rude or arrogant? Where people don’t insist on their own way? Where nobody is irritable or resentful? Where people believe in you, don’t keep a record of wrongs, and bear with you? That would be an awesome place! I am smiling just thinking about it.

A place like that would be a place where people have decided to treat each other well, sometimes in direct opposition to how they are feeling. That would a place where love, as the Bible talks about it, is the driving force and have I got some good news for you! That is exactly the place God wants the church to be.

There are over 60 references in the New Testament to how Christians are to treat each other. The message series beginning September 12 at Journey of Life will be exploring how God says we are to treat one another. We will also have 5-week small groups to further explore and grow in how to treat each other well.

You can listen to or view the messages on Journey of Life's Blip.tv channel (http://journeyoflife.blip.tv/). The are usually posted by Wednesday morning, and are often posted on Sunday afternoon following the service. We're also going to take a crack at having a virtual small group, so if you are not in Orlando and want to participate, just let me know. (john@journeyoflife.org).

I got cussed at yesterday... very strange

Here's what happened:

Yesterday, part of my day was spent putting out roadside signs for a Financial Peace University preview class our church is hosting this weekend. As I was walking away from putting a sign on the corner of an intersection, I heard someone yell, "Go f--- yourself!" I looked up. A young man was leaning out of the window of a large late model pickup truck that had turned right and was pulling away from the intersection. He yelled again while hanging out of the window looking in my direction, "Did you hear me? Go f--- yourself!"

He could have been yelling at someone else, but I didn't see anyone else around.

I have encountered some harshness toward my faith (though very little). But these signs don't even mention our church, except the web address, which also doesn't indicate it's a church (http://www.journeyoflife.org/). Several churches do put signs out like that in our area, so maybe he assumed it was for a church.

What I don't understand is what, in his mind, is the point? Does he think saying, "F---" to me is goint to hurt my tender ears? Offend me? I guess he is publicly expressing his opinion, which can be somewhat cathartic. Really, though, I just don't get it. Not only did it not bother me, I found it, for some strange reason, mildly entertaining.

Upon reflection, though, I am a little bothered by the incident. It occurs to me that he must not have been wearing a seatbelt and, while cussing out the window is just silly, not wearing a seatbelt is dangerous.

Postmodernism... Sort of

I've been exploring worldviews, truth, etc. for a sermon series on "Reframing Your Worldview." I stumbled across a page that randomly generates short academic papers based on stock terms and phrases. It's quite fun. There is also an adolescent poetry generator linked from that page.

Check it out at:
http://www.elsewhere.org/pomo

Grace and Justice in Society

I was at a friends how the other night playing poker (gasp!). One of the things I love about poker is that it is so interactive. If you are simply playing for chips, or even nickel and dime poker, you can have several hours of great fun getting to know people more deeply for less than the price of a movie with popcorn.

Regardless, this blog is not about the poker game but the conversation after the poker game. It was great. It was political. It was great because it was political. I think that the devil (forces of evil, etc.) have scored a great victory in defining polite conversation. What two topics are off limits in polite conversation: Religion and politics. These are are two of the most important subject a group of people could ever talk about. Our relationship with God and our societal relationships with each other. By moving religion and politics out-of-bounds, we have virtually ensured that we will continue to have greater conflict and deeper misunderstanding because we can't or won't discuss two of the things at the very roots of our lives.

So the game ended and the conversation turned to politics. The political leanings of the people around the table varied significantly. I will probably talk about my own political leanings at some point. Not tonight, however.

One person at the table said he was a Democrat because he believes that they are more grace-filled. Bear in mind that this is a table of Lutherans. We believe that the three cornerstones of our faith are grace alone, faith alone and scripture alone. So his following the party that seemed to offer more grace into people's lives makes sense.

Here is my struggle: is 'grace' the proper posture for a government? Will a grace-filled government lead to a more grace-filled society or to a more chaotic society? In the sphere of Christian faith, individuals are absolutely called to -- even obligated to -- be grace-giving toward others because of God's grace to us. Is this the sphere in which the government operates, however. This especially needs to be thought through in a country like the U.S. wherein the government is constitutionally prohibited from establishing a religion.

My current thinking is that grace is not the government's job. The government's job in the US is to protect us from external enemies and maintain justice within our country irrespective of a person's color, creed, social status, etc. I would call on people everywhere to be gracious, to feed the poor, etc. But to do it voluntarily. As soon as we, the citizens, recruit the government to do our charity (that is our loving of others), it ceases to be love because it is compelled. By using the government to feed the poor, we institute a system of compulsory charity (an oxymoron if I've ever heard one). It is possible that this compulsory charity actually makes our society meaner. Instead of people having to face the poor among us, we can be sure that there is a program somewhere to care for them and as long as we pay our taxes we are doing our part. Instead of having to think about others and make decisions about charity (about love), feeding the poor becomes one more deduction on the pay stub, not worthy of consideration because there is no choice in the matter any way.

Criminals are another matter for another time.

May you recognize God's blessings in your life.

BOOK: "Rumors of Another World" by Philip Yancy

Just finished reading "Rumors of Another World: What On Earth Are We Missing?" I really enjoyed it. It's sort of a post-modern look at natural theology (natural theology is discerning the existence and character of God simply through our observance of thing in an around us and without primary reliance on any sacred scripture as authoritative).

Unfortunately or fortunately, I have a fairly skeptical nature. This often pokes at my faith. In "Rumors," Philip Yancy takes a look at what we see in the world to see if it matches what the Bible teaches. He also looks at several "natural" phenomena -- such as sex, guilt and altruism under horrific oppression -- and sees in them rumors of the spiritual world around us which is not available to direct observation.

One great point in "Rumors" is how to view the commandments of God. If we live a purely materialistic existence, many commands of God seem on the surface to be dictates of the cosmic killjoy. If we only look forward to our spiritual existence in heaven, then we are putting off today's pleasures for tomorrows joys. Yancy's assertion is that this is generally a false dichotomy. God's instructions come to us not only -- or even primarily -- as rules defining sin but more as instructions toward the best life. God made sex. God wants us to have the best sex possible. Sex is best experienced in marriage. Guilt (properly) is a sensitivity in our soul alerting us to areas of brokenness or weakness just as pain in our physical bodies is a gift from God that keeps us from damaging ourselves further. God's instructions bring the best life in every sense, not just in the 'spiritual' sense.

The end result of this book is Yancy's assertion that we need to see life with "stereoscopic vision." The question is not whether earthly live matters more or heavenly life matters more. They are both intricately intertwined. We can see this when we have eyes to see. Both worlds exist. Both worlds matter. We live in both worlds right now, even though we see one with our eyes and one with our spirits.

I highly recommend "Rumors of Another World" by Philip Yancy. If you are in the area, you may borrow my copy.