As I've mentioned in my recent set lists, we just finished a series on 1 Peter.  The whole series was great, but there's one particular passage from a couple of weeks ago that has really been working on me:

"But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander."
                                                         -1 Peter 3:15-16

This is such a great picture of evangelism, but how often do we miss it in the evangelism culture of our churches?  As I read it, Peter has two instructions for us here:

1.) ALWAYS be ready to talk about our faith
and
2.) Do it in a respectful, non offensive way.

It seems to me that most Christians are fully engaged in one or the other of these two points.  Many folks are ready to talk about their faith any time, day or night, with anybody.  The problem is that they don't approach it in a respectful way.  In their eagerness to share the "reason for their hope", they offend the very people they are sharing with!  On the flip side are folks who are utterly concerned with the "gentleness and respect" that Peter speaks of, but find themselves unable or unwilling to share their faith because of it.

In truth, Peter calls us to do BOTH.  We are to be constantly ready to answer for the hope that we have in Christ, and we are to give that answer in a sensible, informed, respectful way.  In my opinion, what Peter is telling us here is that we should be dialoguing with the world around us about our faith.  What a different culture of evangelism we could create within the church if Christians and churches everywhere started taking this approach!  An evangelism culture that seeks to dialogue with others about our faith, a culture that desires openness and honesty and sharing of beliefs... I strongly believe that such a shift would not only improve Christianity's relationship with the rest of the world, but in the process expand our mission field in a way we can only imagine right now.

God, please help us to be Christians that are always ready with an answer, and respectful in the way we give it.

Last week I read a study.  That study said, among other things, that 23.8% of children in Ohio under the age of 5 are "food insecure".  That's a really nice way of saying that they don't have enough to eat.  Only Louisiana and North Carolina have larger percentages.  So why am I mentioning this?  Because of this:

"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.' Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?' The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'"
                                                -Matthew 25:34-40

This is only one reference, but this passage and others make Jesus' opinion on this passage pretty clear - we are to care for the poor and feed the hungry.  I think a lot of times, though, we overlook the fact that a lot of those hungry people live here, right outside our doors, in our own neighborhoods.  We're acutely aware of hunger and poverty in other countries, and I'm not saying that we shouldn't support those folks - we absolutely should.  But what are we doing about hunger in our own communities?  Just a little "food" for thought today.

For our small group this past Wednesday, I was asked to teach about the differences between Old Testament law and Christ's "new covenant" in the New Testament.  In the end, it ended up being very appropriate for this Holy Week.  I want to share the last section of that teaching with you all today:

I do want to discuss one incredibly important change that came out of the new covenant, and it is one that gains particular significance in our thoughts at this time of year.  I’m talking of course about the way we as humans are able to relate to and communicate with God.  The Bible states that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23, NIV), but OT believers were left largely to their own merits to achieve redemption from that condition.  God was certainly present and working in their world and in their lives, but most of ancient Israel’s direct contact with God came through intermediaries, specifically animal sacrifice and interaction with the Levites (priests).  Access to the inner courts of the temple was extremely limited, and the central room (the Holy of Holies, which contained the Ark of the Covenant) was off limits entirely except for the head priest, who was allowed to enter once a year.  (It should be noted that this was not a job you wanted – the other priests would tie a rope to the head priests ankle so that they could pull him back out if he died… which happened more than once!)  With Christ’s death on the cross, God changed this forever, and He did it with a striking visual display:

“And then when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.  At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.”
                                                          -Matthew 27:50-51 (NIV)

I would give almost anything to have been in the temple that that moment – the moment when God literally removed the barrier between Himself and His people.  From that moment on, anyone who has believed in Christ has been cleansed of their sin and given the honor of being able to stand in the presence of God, both now and forever.  The sacrificial rituals and intermediaries of the OT are no longer necessary, because we now have a “direct line” through Christ and the Holy Spirit, and that is the essence of the new covenant – forgiveness and fellowship with God in love.

I haven't been around much lately, and I apologize for that.  It's been a crazy week!  Lot's coming down the pipeline, though, so stay tuned!  For today, I just want to share a passage that came up in my daily readings last week and has stuck with me.  I absolutely love the language here... beautiful poetry from King David.

Psalm 39 (New Living Translation)

For Jeduthun, the choir director: A psalm of David.

1 I said to myself, “I will watch what I do
      and not sin in what I say.
   I will hold my tongue
      when the ungodly are around me.”
 2 But as I stood there in silence—
      not even speaking of good things—
      the turmoil within me grew worse.
 3 The more I thought about it,
      the hotter I got,
      igniting a fire of words:
 4 “Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be.
      Remind me that my days are numbered—
      how fleeting my life is.
 5 You have made my life no longer than the width of my hand.
      My entire lifetime is just a moment to you;
      at best, each of us is but a breath.”
                         Interlude
 6 We are merely moving shadows,
      and all our busy rushing ends in nothing.
   We heap up wealth,
      not knowing who will spend it.
 7 And so, Lord, where do I put my hope?
      My only hope is in you.
 8 Rescue me from my rebellion.
      Do not let fools mock me.
 9 I am silent before you; I won’t say a word,
      for my punishment is from you.
 10 But please stop striking me!
      I am exhausted by the blows from your hand.
 11 When you discipline us for our sins,
      you consume like a moth what is precious to us.
      Each of us is but a breath.
                         Interlude
 12 Hear my prayer, O Lord!
      Listen to my cries for help!
      Don’t ignore my tears.
   For I am your guest—
      a traveler passing through,
      as my ancestors were before me.
 13 Leave me alone so I can smile again
      before I am gone and exist no more.

Many times I've heard people say that they wish they could hear the Psalms in their original musical context.  I've said it myself.  The lyrics of the Psalms are so moving, it's impossible not to draw a mental picture of God's people worshiping passionately.  I'd like to hear that.  A couple nights ago, I saw another fascinating example of Biblical worship while reading Matthew:

Then Jesus left Galilee and went north to the region of Tyre and Sidon.  A Gentile woman who lived there came to him, pleading, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David! For my daughter is possessed by a demon that torments her severely.”   But Jesus gave her no reply, not even a word.  Then his disciples urged him to send her away.  “Tell her to go away,” they said.  “She is bothering us with all her begging.”  Then Jesus said to the woman, “I was sent only to help God’s lost sheep—the people of Israel.”  But she came and worshiped him, pleading again, “Lord, help me!”  Jesus responded, “It isn’t right to take food from the children and throw it to the dogs.”  She replied, “That’s true, Lord, but even dogs are allowed to eat the scraps that fall beneath their masters’ table.”  “Dear woman,” Jesus said to her, “your faith is great. Your request is granted.” And her daughter was instantly healed.
                                                              -Matthew 15:22-28 (NLT)

"But she came and worshiped him, pleading again, "Lord, help me!"  What did that worship look like?  What actions and words did she use in her worship that caused Jesus to reconsider His response to her?  One woman, alone on a road with Jesus, worships Him and He hears her cry.  I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall for this conversation.

May God grant us the type of passionate faith and moving worship that this woman had.

Our world is a very crazy place.  And getting crazier.  Everywhere we go, we're bombarded by advertising and other messages.  We're told we have to work longer, harder, faster if we want to "get ahead".  And we listen - pulling all-nighters and pushing ourselves to the point of exhaustion.  At least I do that... I hope that not all of you do!  Since Christmas Eve, I've put over 1200 miles on my car... and most of that was "vacation" time and I never left Ohio!  And yet the Bible tells us to listen to the "still small voice" of God, the gentle whisper that makes it's way through the chaos.  It's hard to remember to listen sometimes.  I decided a while back that the answer to making sure I was getting my time with God everyday was to absolutely refuse to go to bed until I had gotten into the Word.  And that has worked pretty well.  Even though it's often 2 or 3 AM before I open the Bible.  Even though that pushes bedtime back even a little farther than it already was.  It's absolutely worth it to stop, reflect on the day, take a deep breath, and get serious with God for a while.  I sleep better for that.

This year I decided to do something different.  Folks on a few of the blogs I read were talking about reading the Bible through in a year.  Now I had done the follow the reading plan in the back of the (insert trendy teen study Bible here) and read the Bible in a year thing in high school, and honestly, it didn't do much for me.  I've found an awful lot of relevence for my life by leaving my daily readings up to forces beyond me.  But this year, I wanted a little more discipline to it, so I decided to check it out.

I've been following the year-long plan over on youversion.com.  It's not like the plan from that old teen study Bible.  It takes you through the whole Old Testement and the New Testement twice over the course of the year, and you read from several different books each day.  I have to say, it's been really refreshing.  It's only been 8 days, but I think this was a great idea, at least for this season in my life.

Which reminds me - there are still 357 days left in 2009, so it's definitely not too late to play a little catch up and join me... think about it.  It's a great deep breath each day.

We're working through 1 Kings with our men's Bible study right now on Tuesday mornings.  This week we worked on chapter 18... which means last week we did 17, and next week we'll be doing 19.  I've written about this passage before, but these three chapters are among my favorite scriptures, so I thought I would once again share a few thoughts...

(Read 1 Kings 17-19 here.)

The reason that I love this passage so much is that it shows us God's grace and providence in our inexperience and doubt.  If Elijah, who was not only greatly blessed by God but also spoke on His behalf as His profit, struggled with these issues, should we really be surprised that we have trouble today?  Let's take it one chapter at a time:

Chapter 17 is a perfect picture of God's willingness to provide, and a passage that I come back to again and again when I'm having a tough time... it's also a huge trust building exercise for Elijah!  God tells Elijah to go out into the wilderness (essentially) and eat whatever the ravens bring him.  Now, I can only imagine having to trust birds for your dinner... but they did bring him food.  Until the brook dried up.  See, God had just sent a drought over the land (using Elijah as his messenger).  So God talks to Elijah again.  This time he tells him to go to a village called Zarephath, which he does.  There he finds a widow, who, despite having no money and no food and a son to care for, agrees to feed him.  Again God is faithful, providing a seemingly neverending supply of flour and oil.  Elijah even gets to bring the afformentioned son back from the dead.  Pretty cool.

It seems that by Chapter 18, God thought Elijah was ready for the real task that was ahead of him... he sends Elijah back to King Ahab to say that rain is coming... and to challenge the prophets of Baal to a little contest.  Long story short... Elijah wins that contest in a BIG way (with some major help from God) and the prophets of Baal end up... well... dead.  On top of that, God does send rain... amazing!  God has delivered on everything he said he would... seems like Elijah should be feeling pretty good right now, right?  Wrong.

He runs away... he runs all the way to Mount Sinai and hides in a cave.  And then, when God asks him about it (we're into 19 now), he has the audacity to doubt God's faithfulness (God had even provided him with food to aid him in his journey to Mount Sinai!).  Elijah thinks he's all alone in his virtue and faith (which we know isn't true).  The incredible thing is that even after all of this, God still shows patience with Elijah... He still has work for him to do.  He puts on a pretty good show of wind and earthquake and fire... but then he comes to Elijah in the gentle whisper that so many Christians now refer to as the still, small voice of God.  He gives Elijah his instructions, and Elijah goes.

My point is this: Elijah was an extraordinary man who lived an extraordinary life and was used by God in extraordinary ways.  And yet he doubted himself and God all the time.  God always provided anyways.  God took care of Elijah because he was doing His (God's) work.  God still calls us to trust Him for our needs.  He may not ask us to wait for ravens or widows to bring us our food, or to stand up to one of the most powerful people in the world, but He still expects us to rely on Him for our strength and provisions... and He still provides.

...And yet we still doubt.  We still wonder if God will really come through for us.  We still try to rely on ourselves.  And we wonder why we don't succeed?  God is still whispering... we just need to step back from ourselves and from our lives and listen.  We need to get our instructions, find out where and how our needs will be met, and then go!  We never lack a plan, only the ability to find and trust in it.

Last night I was reading from the end of John.  I was reading the NLT, and apparently I've never covered this particular passage in this translation.  I love what it says (though Bible Gateway leads me to believe that these verses were reworded for the second edition):

"(24) This is that disciple who saw these events and recorded them here.  And we all know that his account of these things is accurate.  (25) And I suppose that if all the other things Jesus did were written down, the whole world could not contain the books."
                       -John 21:24-25

"The whole world could not contain the books" - what a powerful idea that is!  For all the wonderful things that Jesus did, for all the miracles and teachings recorded in the four gospels and the other books of the New Testament, there was so much more.  So many things not written down that to have done so would have been impossible.  Incredible.  And what if we take into account that John's gospel was written almost 2,000 years ago, and that Jesus has continued to work in our world since that time?!  How many more books would be required to share the things that have happened in our lives, our families, our friendships, our churches?  Our God truly is an awesome God!