Normal School Day or Field Trip?

 

Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”

—Luke 9:23

Most teachers in elementary schools designate these late May or early June days as “Field Trip Days.” Students and teachers alike look forward to time away from desks, pencils, tests, and stuffy classrooms. They eagerly anticipate interesting visits to the world outside. Field Trips break up the monopoly of the routine and add interest to the old and mundane.

What would you think of a teacher—if she had the financial means—who planned field trips every school day of the year? She would have her class spend every hour away from the books and regular curriculum. The children would never have to listen to boring lectures, do endless drills, complete reading assignments, take quizzes and tests, or tackle any of the kind of activities that occupy a normal classroom experience.

In a devotional by Beth Moore, she compares the assignments that God gives us, and the call to discipleship, with the difference between field trips and normal classroom times. She explains that most often, the assignments God gives relate to our abilities and individual gifts. We may feel the “call” to a certain mission or task. We love the “ride” and enjoy the unique position we may feel suits us best.

However, we need to take caution, in order to guard ourselves from assuming that these times of special service will last all throughout our lives. Instead, God may call us to tasks or responsibilities that we would never say relate to the unique giftings He has given us.

God may expect us to care for an elderly parent for a few years. He may ask us to take charge of cookie baking for a church event. He might even ask us to spend a season on a sick bed. None of these activities may fit in with the gifts He has given us. We may ask ourselves, “What about God’s call?”

Beth Moore points out that God “calls” us to discipleship, to obedience, and to service. His call comes to us whether that means using the gifts He has given us or not. Sometimes He allows us to spend many years on the “field trips” of exciting ministry. And then, sometimes we are called back into the day-after-day unglamorous life of the routine classroom.

Here’s how Beth Moore sums up her devotional: ¹

The Twelve were called to be Christ’s learners or pupils. They also were designated apostles, meaning they would be sent forth. What would His pupils be sent forth to do? Whatever He told them. In our human need for the security of sameness, we tend to want one job assignment from God that we can do for the rest of our lives. He’s far more creative than that!

Remember the meaning of disciple: pupil, learner! We can’t keep skipping class—our time with God in the Scripture and in prayer—and expect to know when He’s scheduled a field trip!

God looks for servants ready to obey. He needs His true disciples to follow where He leads. He expects those whom He has called to His service to eagerly learn what He has to teach, whether it fits into the category of a class assignment or an exciting field trip!

______________________

1 Moore, Beth. Portraits of Devotion. Nashville: B&H Publishing Group, 2014. p. 218.

 

 

The Oak, the Olive, and the Palm

 

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“They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.”

—Isaiah 61:3

I like trees. Even as a child, when my dad knew a tree was dying and needed cutting, I remember feeling sad about it. Old, large trees seemed to have so much character and shed so much shade. Their leaves played in the sunshine as I lay on the grass underneath, caught up in the views on summer days. They held my swings on which I spent countless hours singing and daydreaming.

The oak, known for its strength and endurance, has popularity around the world. As a symbol for American independence, the oak was selected as the “American National Tree.” People love to consider this great tree, as a symbol for power and maturity.

Oaks, unlike many other trees, take many years to mature. Even its seed, found within the acorn, takes six to eighteen months to mature. Each large, beautiful sturdy oak sees many harsh winters and many hot summers. It resists pests and disease in order to survive.

Among the earth’s longest living trees, we find the olive tree, with origins in the Middle East. Olive trees are known to live for several centuries and to remain productive for that long, if they receive proper pruning. Like the oak, they grow very slowly.

The olive branch has become a symbol of abundance, glory, and peace. Olive oil and the olive berry have nourished countless generations. Though never tall and towering, these sturdy trees spread their branches widely and tolerate drought well because of their sturdy, extensive roots.

King David refers to the olive tree in Psalm 52:8, as he contrasts his life with that of those who do not trust in God:

But I am like an olive tree flourishing in the house of God.

The word “flourishing” seems to indicate that David saw himself as one full of health and steeped in productivity for the sake of his God.

Another tree in Scripture symbolizes strength and beauty within God’s household. In Psalm 92:12-13, we read:

The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green, proclaiming, “The Lord is upright; he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him.”

Palm trees, in a diversity of forms, can be known for their height. The date palm, typical in desert oases, has provided nourishment for weary travelers for centuries. Palms grow in the tropics, and generally thrive in most habitats where they are planted. Again, such a tree provides us with a beautiful picture of a mature and godly person, with a graceful erectness in the honored place of God’s courts.

These trees give us such an example of the kind of character God wants for his mature followers: strength, endurance, beauty, productivity, health—all qualities possessed by God’s people as examples of the grace He wants to produce in all of us year after year.

These trees represent, not an easy life, but a life of sturdy character brought about by the winds and storms of adversity. And, for what purpose do such lives exist? They exist to flourish in God’s house.

Praise God for His ability to create, by His grace, a beautiful “planting” for His glory from our lives. Thank Him for those we see around us whom He has also blessed with fruitfulness for His glory!

 

 

A Hole in My Bucket

 

My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.

—Jeremiah 2:13

I remember teaching the conversational folk song:

There’s a hole in my bucket,
dear Liza, dear Liza.
There’s a hole in my bucket,
dear Liza, a hole.

This statement of the folk song is answered with these words:

Then, mend it, dear Henry,
dear Henry, dear Henry.
Then, mend it, dear Henry,
dear Henry, mend it

The song then goes through a long list of possible ways to mend the hole. Eventually, having exhausted every possible solution, the song comes back to the reality of the original problem: “There’s a hole in my bucket.”

As Christians, just like Liza and Henry, we often must realize that we are carrying water buckets full of holes and leaking the contents everywhere we go. Even with the best of intentions, we cannot live the Christian life and carry the Water of Life in our own faulty buckets.

In John 4:1-30, we read the story of Jesus meeting the Samaritan woman at the well. Jesus asks her for a drink, knowing full well that her “bucket” is full of leaks and that she has never even tasted what He has to give her. She needs His Living Water. He explains in verse 14:

“Whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

What does that mean? In John 7:37, Jesus explains that on the last and greatest day of the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem:

“If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive.

We see plenty of people carrying around buckets that appear quite useful. But in fact, those buckets have leaks and the supply water will soon drain away. When we look at ourselves, even those of us who have tasted the Living Water, we must admit to God, like a Puritan prayer ¹ expresses:

My mind is a bucket without a bottom,
with no spiritual understanding,
no desire for the Lord’s Day,
ever learning but never reaching the truth,
always at the gospel well but never holding water.
My memory has no retention,
so I forget easily the lessons learned,
and Thy truths seep away.
Give me a broken heart
that yet carries home the water of grace.

May the Lord, have mercy. May He cause us to thirst for the Living Water that only He can give us. Then, may we carry that Living Water in solid, unspoiled buckets to others: God’s refreshment and new life.

______________________

1 Bennett, Arthur, Ed. The Valley of Vision. Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust, 1975. p. 72.

 

 

On the Road Again

 

By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promised. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

—Hebrews 11:9-10

I admire Abraham. Nowhere does Scripture say that Abraham decided to leave Haran in Mesopotamia for a new place to live. He didn’t decide to “retire” to a Mediterranean villa where he could put his feet up and enjoy his old age.

In Genesis 12, Scripture does tell us that God called Abraham and told him to leave his country, his people, and his family, in order to go to a land God would reveal to him. At the time, Abraham was seventy-five years old. He was well-established in Haran, with a large accumulation of possessions.

I admire Abraham. From the day he left Haran, he never had a permanent home again. As Genesis 18 describes:

“He lived in tents.”

I don’t know about you, but the older I’ve become, the more I want my “creature comforts.” Starting over, traveling in less than ideal conditions, living in a tent, just don’t appeal to me anymore.

Somewhere in the last year or two, in response to the specific physical location of my church, I formed the phrase, “Ever on the road—never home.”

We all crave stability and the comfort of home. Yet, too often we resemble the restless swallow of Psalm 84 that flits around looking for a place to have her young and often discovers that place near the altar of God’s house.

Yes, I admire Abraham. He obeyed God and set out in faith, not knowing where he was going. He did not have the provision of the Scriptures we have, the richness of the Psalms to encourage him, the stories of other heroes of faith we see described in the Scripture passage at the beginning of this blog post. God commended Abraham for a good reason.

When I don’t know where I’m going or how long the journey will be, I, too, need to follow in faith, regardless of my age. Moses, probably also an old man, penned Psalm 90 which begins:

“Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations.”

Moses also knew an old age full of wandering and trusting God.

The Apostle Peter knew what it meant to feel “Ever on the road—never home.” In his first letter, he referred to Christians in 1 Peter 2:11 as:

“… aliens and strangers in the world.”

Similarly, the old gospel song states:

This world is not my home,
I’m just a passing through.
My treasures are laid up
somewhere beyond the blue …

Even if we have a sense of home and stability in our lives, we must remember that God never meant us to completely settle here. We can rejoice that He has given us a real home, where some day we will all come to:

… a city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

On that great day, we’ll never be “on the road again”!

 

 

The Voice of God

 

Listen! Listen to the roar of his voice, to the rumbling that comes from his mouth. He unleashes his lightning beneath the whole heaven and sends it to the ends of the earth. After that comes the sound of his roar; he thunders with his majestic voice. When his voice resounds, he holds nothing back. God’s voice thunders in marvelous ways; he does great things beyond our understanding.

—Job 37:2-5

Children can usually tell what a parent or teacher wants, merely by listening to the volume and timbre of the voice speaking. They know a playful voice, a stern voice, an angry voice, and the loving comfort and reassurance of a caring voice.

In human terms and with my human ears, I would love to hear the voice of God. In various places in Scripture, we read about the different expressions of God’s tones. I can only imagine the power and majesty of His voice.

In the very beginning of creation, I try to picture the way the whole formless waste took notice of the resounding order, as recorded in Genesis 1:3:

“Let there be light!”

We read about the roar of that same voice—the voice of the Creator—in Psalm 29:3-9:

The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the Lord thunders over the mighty waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is majestic. The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars: … The voice of the Lord strikes with flashes of lightning. The voice of the Lord shakes the desert … The voice of the Lord twists the oaks and strips the forests bare.

Do you think that God used His powerful voice when He identified Jesus at Christ’s baptism with the words found in Matthew 3:17?

And a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

Those words were again used in Matthew 17:5 at the Transfiguration of Jesus, when God spoke.

The Gospel writers also note that Jesus’ last words from the cross came as a “loud voice” and we read those last words in John 19:30:

“It is finished.”

At the moment that Jesus had cried out, Matthew tells us in Matthew 27:51 that:

“… the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.”

Was ever a voice more powerful?

Yet, God does not always use this kind of tone when He speaks. In the account found in 1 Kings 19—the story of Elijah—we read that after the noise of the powerful windstorm, the rumble of the earthquake, and the roar of the firestorm, God spoke with a “still small voice” using a comforting and reassuring tone, like that of parent or mentor.

In Zephaniah 3:17, we read:

The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.

In John 10:2-5 we read of the beautiful relationship between Jesus and His people. He connected with these chosen ones like a Shepherd connects with his flock. They are known to each other by their voices.

The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.

When you hear the sound of thunder, may it remind you of the power of our God over all creation. When you experience the terror of some emotional hurricane, earthquake, or fire in your life, and then know God’s comforting words to you regarding what you have experienced, may it remind you that God is always present overseeing what happens to you.

And, when you know God as your personal shepherd, confirmed deep in your spirit by the voice with which He leads you, be at peace, knowing that you can rely on that beautiful voice of authority and the deepest love there ever has been, or ever will be. Praise Him!