My associate pastor made the decision to start a new church. To this day I am not aware of anything that I had done to drive him away, but he said he felt that God had told him to start a new church. Hmmm. . . When someone tells you, “God told me,” you really have only one of three choices. You can affirm that God has spoken and bless him in following that decision. You can question the decision, and ask him to reconsider. You can say, “No, I think that you have not heard the voice of God and here are the reasons why.” I told my associate, “It may be that the Lord is calling me elsewhere. If so, the people of this church would probably want to call you to be their pastor. Would you consider staying, if I leave?” He thought for about three seconds and said, “No.” Clearly he felt that God had called him to leave. I chose to bless him and send him on his way. Ministry always follows relationships. About 1/3 of the church left with him.
Others within the congregation were unhappy with the way in which I had been leading. They seized upon this opportunity to declare that I had driven off the associate. “Unless we bring the associate back, this church is a sinking ship. Unless pastor john goes, we go.” was their war cry. Another third of church left. We were now one third the size we had been a few months before, and we were left wounded. Where was the loyalty in this? Why couldn’t my associate have felt enough loyalty to me and the church to bring me and the elders of the church into the decision making process of discerning the will of God? Where was the loyalty of those who were unhappy with me and demanded my resignation? Where was my loyalty in pursing all that I could in order to preserve the bond of unity in peace?
Micah says to these ‘men of valor’ from the tribe of Dan, “You have taken away my gods which I made, and the priest, and you have gone away.” Aside from the commandment, “You shall not steal,” everyone involved in this struggle has violated the first and second commands of the Ten Commandments, yet none of them seem to bear any guilt. What’s up with this? How can this grandson of Moses (as some Rabbin have suggested) have drifted so far from the faith? When one has abandoned the first and second commandments, violation of the rest is not far beyond. Could it be that at the center of a lack of loyalty to each other lies a greater lack of understanding the glory of God?
Within the Godhead there is a tremendous loyalty to each other that we really do not grasp. The Three-in-One created the universe. He created us. The Father intensely loves the Son, The Son intensely loves the Father. The Son intensely loves the Spirit. The Spirit intensely loves the Son. The Spirit intensely loves the Father. The Father intensely loves the Spirit. Yet the Father asked the Son to become human so that He might die in our place. The Son willingly did that because of His love for us and for the Father. The Spirit empowered the Son in His human walk because of His love for the Father and the Son and for us. It was loyal love which motivated it all. We were created to reflect that loyalty. Maybe we do not really understand or embrace the glory and unity of the Triune God.
Micah, Jonathan and the men of Dan knew just enough of Yahweh to use Him as a talisman to improve their lives but not enough to empower them to live as ones who would lay down their lives for each other. For when we truly understand and embrace the Glory of God, that is what we do; we lay down our lives for each other. Jonathan’s sons were priests until the day of the captivity of the land. This heresy and lack of loyalty lasted at least 600 years. Matthew Henry draws this conclusion, “See how dangerous it is to admit an infection, for spiritual distempers are not so soon cured as caught.”
The lack of loyalty to each other really stems from a lack of grasping the glory of the love within the Triune God and letting it fill our lives. We treat ministry as a talisman to build a religious community which makes us feel at home, but that ministry does not call us to lay down our lives for each other, as the Son did for the Father. Church becomes something that makes us feel comfortable, perhaps that with which we grew up, or first found Christ. If that loyalty should call us to lay down our traditions, then we abandon the loyalty for what makes us comfortable. It is really rooted in not truly grasping the greatness of God’s loyal love. We have created idols of our own making and have worshipped them. After all that is much easier than laying down our lives for a love which we think may not be returned.
Jesus on the other hand, laid down His life for us. He did it for the love of the Father, which He knew would be returned. He also did it for the love of us, which is frequently not returned. He calls us to understand and embrace His love. I think the degree to which I really understand His loyal love and trust in it is the degree to which I can offer the same kind of loyalty to others. Do I really believe in a glorious King who calls me to lay down my life for Him and for those who may not return my love? Indeed we serve a glorious King. Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john
PSALM 35
Of all people who could legitimately claim that he was being hunted down without a cause, David is probably one of the foremost in history. He had been fiercely loyal to Saul, yet Saul sought to destroy him. After Saul’s death, he had sought to unite the kingdom, yet the northern tribes rejected him for Saul’s general. For seven years his men fought battle after battle until the enemy capitulated. Absalom should have been grateful that his father somewhat restored him to the kingdom, yet he undermined his father’s power base and started a revolt seeking to kill David. Finally there was Sheba who led a rebellion after Absalom. David had more than his share of unjust opponents.
What is going on here? Shouldn’t one who sought after God with his whole heart experience a road marked with less opposition and suffering? That might be the case in our expectations, but in real life the one who seeks God experiences opposition. That is why Paul says in 2 Timothy 3:12, “Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.” So much of this Psalm is David’s complaint and his request for God to pay them back. How does David handle it? Obviously, he brings his complaint to the Lord. The Lord apparently invites our complaint, as long as it is done respectfully and in a manner that does not cast blame upon Him. But notice that while the majority of the Psalm is complaint, the last strophe of the Psalm ends in praise.
Notice in particular that He says, “Let the Lord be magnified, Who has pleasure in the prosperity of His servant.” Does God really have pleasure in the prosperity of His servant? Then why did He allow David to run from Saul for more than ten years? Why did He let David be pursued by Absalom? Why did he permit Sheba to rebel? I think God defines prosperity differently than we do. Yet, He does take pleasure in my prosperity. Even in the most humbling of circumstances, His goal is our prosperity. The model is Jesus, as is recorded in Philippians 2:1-11. That is what God delights in. He is not stuck in one moment in time in order to define prosperity. Rather His is an eternal view. My problem is that I am such a creature of time. He created time. He defines prosperity from an eternal viewpoint. Lord, help me to rejoice from your eternal viewpoint! Indeed we serve a glorious King. Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john
EZEKIEL 3
It is the glory of the Lord that He should reveal Himself to humans, that He should give them a vision of Himself, that He should send them to other humans to proclaim His word, that He should empower them to do so. Lord, let me be so enraptured with your glory that that becomes true of me. Let me see Your glory! Let me be changed by Your Glory! Let me be controlled by your glory! Let me proclaim Your glory! Let your glory be my first thought in the morning and my last thought at night! Let Your glory be my constant meditation and conversation! Help, for I cannot produce this on my own! I need Your Spirit to enter me and lift me higher than myself so that your glory would be seen first. Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john
ROMANS 7
We were born married to the Law. To be married to grace is spiritual adultery. It would be wrong to be united to another. Ah, but through Jesus, we died to the law. It no longer has a claim upon us. I am free to be married to grace. I can be free from sin and death through Jesus. Now I can live a righteous life, not in order to become righteous but because He declares me righteous and lives in me to empower me to be what He has declared me to be. That makes Him glorious. What I could not do and cannot do, He does! Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor John
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