Flaming Out for God

I love the Fall in Idaho. Growing up in Northern Florida I didn't really understand how beautiful and how inspiring a true change of seasons can be. We basically had two seasons in Florida - hot and not-so-hot. I'm grateful for the warm summers here in Idaho, but I sure enjoy the crispness in the air and the brilliant colors that Autumn brings with it.

The other day I was on a walk in our neighborhood and I was completely surrounded by brilliant reds, oranges, yellows and the enduring beauty of evergreens. It was like someone had taken paint and splashed it on the canvas of creation. "Wow, I thought, this is incredible!" Yet, those colors are so short lived - in fact, after a windy weekend this past one, they're mostly gone. Have you ever asked yourself, "Why?" Do you ever wonder why the trees and shrubs produce such vibrant foliage this time of year? Yeah, I know, there are all kinds of scientific reasons that explain the loss of chlorophyll as they go into dormancy, etc. But so what - I mean some trees just go drab brown and really all of them presumably could do that and accomplish the same end result. But instead, they're absolutely stunning!

Maybe, just maybe, their Creator endowed them with this ability so that as they prepare to sleep for the long winter ahead they go out with a bang - one last shout of praise to the one who made them. What a shout it is!

Psalm 96 puts it this way:

¹ Sing to the LORD a new song;
sing to the LORD, all the earth.

² Sing to the LORD, praise his name;
proclaim his salvation day after day.

³ Declare his glory among the nations,
his marvelous deeds among all peoples.

⁴ For great is the LORD and most worthy of praise;
he is to be feared above all gods.

⁵ For all the gods of the nations are idols,
but the LORD made the heavens.

⁶ Splendor and majesty are before him;
strength and glory are in his sanctuary.

⁷ Ascribe to the LORD, O families of nations,
ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.

⁸ Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name;
bring an offering and come into his courts.

⁹ Worship the LORD in the splendor of his ^a]">[a] holiness;
tremble before him, all the earth.

¹⁰ Say among the nations, "The LORD reigns."
The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved;
he will judge the peoples with equity.

¹¹ Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad;
let the sea resound, and all that is in it;

¹² let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them.
Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy;

¹³ they will sing before the LORD, for he comes,
he comes to judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness
and the peoples in his truth.

Let's not let the trees out-sing us - in Fall or at any other time of the year!!! I don't know about you, but I don't want to go out with a dull brown whimper. I want to flame out for God!!!!!

A Walk of Worship & Prayer

I did something today I haven't done in a long time - I walked to work! It's 4 miles door-to-door from our home to the church. I needed some exercise and the forecast called for temperatures that were a little cooler than they had been the previous several days, so I set out and left the truck in the driveway to hit the road with a backpack and my iPod. I put on some worshipful music and began my journey.


A funny thing (or a lot of them) happened on my way into work this morning. . .
Standing at a busy intersection's crosswalk waiting for the signal to change so I could cross, the sounds of the busy roadway competed with the soothing worship music in my ear. "How fast we live," I thought! It seems we're constantly racing from one thing to the next. Suddenly I felt a great joy in the pace of a walk to work in place of the daily grind of commuting to work.

My walk soon took me past subdivision neighborhoods and my heart was drawn to prayer. I imagined the people and families that call those houses home and I wondered what life was like for them. I envisioned the hopes, the dreams, and the disappointments of people who lived there. I saw marriages struggling to survive, someone rushing out the door on a Monday morning to face another day on the job, kids with lots of stuff in their lives - yet still bored. I saw a stay-at-home mom sitting at her kitchen table with a morning cup of coffee staring out the window to the backyard and thinking about her life and wondering, "Is there anything more to life than this?" Even though I didn't know the people who lived in those homes, I know people like them and I know they're loved deeply by the Father - so I prayed: for blessing upon them and that they would find their greatest hope and joy in knowing the Father.

About halfway through my journey I came upon a fast-moving irrigation canal. Surrounded by dry, parched ground that is so characteristic of the high desert in mid-Summer, the Lord whispered in my ear, "I am the Living Water, the one who drinks of me will never thirst again." As I grew hot and tired around mile three and that irrigation water looked more and more appealing, the words of the Psalmist came to mind, As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? (Ps. 42:1-2) How often my heart and life are like that parched ground - dry and in need of refreshment.

When I rounded the corner and headed down the homestretch my body began to complain all the more. "This is crazy," I mused, "it's only a 4 mile walk - Big Deal!" Yet, as my once lively step slowed somewhat my thoughts turned to the women and children of the developing world who daily walk that far and farther with jugs full of water on their head just so that they can have a small amount of clean drinking/cooking water. It seems we have it sooooo good in this land of ours'. We have much to be thankful for. Jesus reminds us, "anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to Christ will certainly not lose his reward." (Mark 9:41) "How can we," I wondered, "bring more cups of water (spiritually and physically) to people who are thirsty in Meridian and beyond?"

Finally, I arrived and boy was I glad to be at my destination. One day, how amazing and fantastic it will be to arrive "home" in the presence of the Lord!!!! I look forward to that day with a deep longing! How 'bout you?

Well, those are just a few thoughts from my walk of worship and prayer on the way into work this morning.

Have you ever wondered about some of these things?

• How fast you're living - what would it take to bring some greater sanity to your schedule?
• The people who live around you - maybe the next time you take a walk in your neighborhood you could make it a prayer walk for your neighbors
• The state of your spirit - are you "dry" and "parched" or "well-watered?" Is Jesus your "Living Water?"
• The needs of others - especially those who are struggling. What are you/we doing to serve the needs of people around us? Because, isn't life more than just what "I want" or what "I need?"

What do you think????

Blessings,
David

Admirer or Follower?

If you have any knowledge at all of human nature, you know that those who only admire the truth will, when danger appears, become traitors. The admirer is infatuated with the false security of greatness; but if there is any inconvenience or trouble, he pulls back. Admiring the truth, instead of following it, is just as dubious a fire as the fire of erotic love, which at the turn of the hand can be changed into exactly the opposite—to hate, jealousy, and revenge. Christ, however, never asked for admirers, worshipers, or adherents. He consistently spoke of "followers" and "disciples."

—Søren Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher and theologian (1813–1855)

It seems like these days that there are many "admirers" - of spirituality, of religion, and even of Christianity, in particular. At the same time, though, it appears that fewer and fewer people want actually to be followers, i.e., persons who have to "do" something with their spirituality.

For Christians - the word itself implies being a follower - you cannot separate the two. If someone is really a Christian (literally a little Christ) and not just giving lip-service to some amorphous, unaccountable spirituality then their lifestyle will look increasingly like Jesus Himself. To be a Christian is to follow in Jesus' footsteps. In fact, one of the chief complaints that skeptics make of Christians is that they may be good admirers of Jesus but seldom follow Him.

It stands to reason, then, as Kirkegaard claims, that admirers are quick to jump ship when the going gets tough. Jesus referred to folks like this as those in whom the seed of God's kingdom is planted in rocky or thorny soil - it soon withers or gets choked out.

On the other hand, a follower has left all behind in order to follow. Like Cortes burning the ships, the one who would be a follower forsakes all options of turning back.

What do you think? Are the skeptics justified in their critique? Are you more of an admirer or a follower? If you're more of an admirer, what would it take for you to become a follower?