recovery from sickness

Well, I meant to get on here a while ago, and chat a bit about my foray into Lent, but I found myself with a nasty fever/flu last weekend that put me out of commission for a 3 days, and slowed me down for another couple. All the catching up and recuperating have kept me busy elsewhere.

I'm feeling just about 100% now, which is very exciting. I'm grateful for all of you out there who pray for Jen and I; Jen has been spared this nasty thing. Thanks be to God!

Just a quick encouragement regarding prayer, in general: we serve a God who responds to the cries of His people! You're probably familiar with the idea of God as the "Unmoved Mover", which is a nifty philosophical idea from Plato and friends. The unmoved mover is not the God revealed to us in Scripture: the God who heard the cries of Israel and delivered them for Egypt, who relented in His anger against that same Israel at the intercessions of His servant Moses, who rescued Hezekiah from his deathbed and granted him 15 extra years of life after Hezekiah prayed and cried to Him after Isaiah's prophecy that the sickness would end in death (2 King 20).

Our God is one who wants to hear His people pray, not because it makes Him feel important, and helps us remember Him, but because He has chosen to act in the Earth through humanity from the beginning. When you pray, God moves. When you cry out like the psalmists, God is moved and responds.

Jesus told us to pray anything in his name, and it would be done for us. Let's shake loose of all our elegant theological reasons why we should not expect God to actually give us what we pray for, and just take Jesus at his word.

Amen!

~newsletter is in the making

Nano-riffic

So, I've gotten myself an iPod... I've wanted one for all kinds of silly and vain reasons for quite some time, but I finally put together some good reasons, and so I got one. I got the new Nano, which has video capabilities. However, I primarily got it because I can plug in this little device to the Nano, and another device to my Nike running shoes, and it tells me how far I've gone, how fast I'm going... all kinds of cool stuff! And the nifty part is, I actually run faster when I use it :)

Also, I get to listen to good stuff while I'm running. I've been listening to lots of sermons so far, as I do not yet have an mp3 version of the Bible (can we say Christmas list). I've listened to several messages from Mars Hill Bible Church in my home town of Grand Rapids, MI, a few from Dr. Earl Creps, and now a few from East Coast Chi Alpha: 1 from Mike Godzwa, and a couple by Shawn Galyen - soon to be missionary to Spain.

One thing Shawn said, has struck me, and really rung true: People who seek to follow Jesus will suffer on their career path, absolutely.

Those who put Christ first in their work will live and work with different priorities, and different character than the world around them: sometimes that may give them reward and respect, other times it may give them ridicule, or set them back in the line for promotions, or even make enemies for them.

In America today, we do not face bodily harm for our life of faith, but persecutions will come. The New Testament makes that a guarantee. (Mark 10:30; 2 Timothy 3:12)

My Sister is Having a Baby

While I type my little sister, Farrah, is going through labor to bring her first child, my first nephew into the world. Weird.
And exciting.

Jen and I are flying up to see the little drooly thing next week, and change some of his first chocolate-y diapers. But tonight, I'm surprised at myself. My dna is rejoicing, and I feel almost giddy. It's ridiculous, yet foolishly perfect...holy.

I've never been a baby person. I've always marveled at friends and relatives who become dads, how quickly they become different people. I thought maybe I was programmed differently, after meeting my niece this past year (Jen's sister, Sarah, had Savannah Belle in Jan '06). Savannah's a doll and all, but I didn't feel any special googliness around her...but, thinking of my sister pushing out that little boy-thing...

I'm programmed just like everybody else. God did something to our dna. We want to see it replicated at some deep sub-conscious level. It's a knowledge that resides in the body, not the mind, not the brain. It makes me feel animal, but it also gives me an appreciation for the love of God-the self-giving love of God. God knows His own goodness, and longs to see it replicated. He marked us with that goodness, and even though we've marred it, we still know the longing to replicate it.

Breathe, Farrah, Breathe!

Sermons Online

We have a few sermons recorded from churches we've spoken at over the years. I just uploaded the first one to the web. You can check it out!

http://www.archive.org/details/ChiAlphaWindowAndChooseLifeSermon

this second one is from 2005: http://www.archive.org/details/BeingAGodlyFriend

I just found this one: http://www.archive.org/details/MattDeGierGodlyFriends
This is the same message as the 2005 one, but preached later. I can't remember where this one was, but it's shorter, because I preach it alone, rather than as a tag-team with Jen like the first time.

Devotional Classics

**more Haiti tomorrow of Friday**

This morning I read the first reading in Devotional Classics compiled and edited by Richard Foster and J.B. Smith; I think I'm going to love this book for many years to come.

The first reading is put together from excerpts of C.S. Lewis's classic Mere Christianity. The focus of this section is "Giving All to Christ."

This quote has grabbed a hold of me:

The terrible thing, the almost impossible thing, is to hand over your whole self--all your wishes and precautions--to Christ. But it is far easier than what we are trying to do instead. For what we are trying to do is to remain what we call "ourselves", to keep personal happiness as our great aim in life, and yet at the same time be "good". We are all trying to let our mind and heart go their own way--centered on money or pleasure or ambition--and hoping, in spite of this, to behave honestly and chastely and humbly. And this is exactly what Christ warned us you could not do.

And this reflection question has been banging around my head all day:

In Luke 14:25-33, Jesus encourages those who would follow him to "count the cost" of being one of his disciples. What has being a Christian cost you?

I hope they provide some spiritual challenge for you, as well.
Let us press on to know the Lord!

Fire Insurance: part One

When I was 14, I attended a small youth group of about half a dozen kids. At the time, we were meeting at the pastor's house of a small church plant that only survived about 4 more years. The youth leaders, Ryan and Tracey Westphal, had a profound influence on my life over the next couple of years. One Wednesday night they asked a question to our small group that has stuck with me more than a decade. That question, I believe, put a seed in my heart that would bear much fruit later on...it still bears fruit today.

The question was a simple one: "Why do you believe in Jesus Christ?" or "Why are you a Christian?"

At the time, I thought this was a silly, and simple question. My answer seemed obvious, "I don't want to go to hell." D'uh, why wouldn't I believe in Jesus? Who wants to roast in an oven of wrath and anguish for eternity?

The Westphals responded: "Is that it? Jesus is just fire insurance for you?"

I kinda mumbled a reply, but I can't remember what I said. I was confused, honestly. I remember thinking to myself, "what more is there?"

That's my question to you today, readers. What more is there to trusting in Jesus? Or, is there anything more to it than a ticket to heaven?

Please post some comments. I'd like to make this a real discussion. I have a direction, I want to go with this, but am hoping to learn more along the way.

ps: Please pray for Jen's MawMaw (paternal Grandmother). She is very ill in a hospital in St. Louis.

Give as feely as you have received!

Jesus sent out his disciples with this charge:

Go and announce to them that the Kingdom of Heaven is near. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cure those who have leprosy, and cast out demons. Give as freely as you have received!”[i]

Some recent reading[ii] I’ve done has called me back to reconsider my expectations regarding signs and wonders: miracles. Like many Christians, I believe miracles are real: Jesus did miracles, the apostles performed miracles in his name, and God still does miracles today. However, also like many Christians, I don’t expect to see physical signs and wonders in an average day, in an average week, or even an average decade. Why is that?

I along with many have claimed that we must not seek signs and wonders, but seek the way of the suffering Messiah, the way of service and humility. There is truth in this claim: Jesus promised that those who follow him would receive no better treatment than he had—trials, persecutions, suffering.[iii] However, why do we consider it disobedience to not proclaim that the Kingdom is near, yet think little or nothing about our failure to follow through on the subsequent commands: “heal the sick, raise the dead…cast out demons”?

I know I have let words like these from Jesus fade from memory with disuse. I think I’ve developed a kind of color blindness to the New Testament: the colors of miracles, signs and wonders tend to be less vibrant, more background, less imperative. This weak reading of Scripture has developed in response to experience; experience is not supposed to determine our interpretation of Scripture!

The experiences that have led me away from supernatural expectation come both internally and externally. Internally, I’ve grown disappointed. I pray for someone to be healed and nothing happens. I pray for another, and the same result. It’s easy to start rewriting your theology after a few dozen…or hundred of these experiences. Externally, I’ve seen some weird stuff. I’ve seen some mass hysteria passed off as ‘the move of the Holy Spirit.’ I’ve seen ‘prophets’ so self-important that they have body guards, and TV people giving away miracles through the screen while living posh, disgusting lifestyles at the expense of the poor ‘sowing seed’ into their ‘ministries’. It’s easy to get disillusioned.

Disillusionment and disappointment make a powerful tag-team to pin us to the mat of unbelief, but what about Jesus’ words? He commanded his disciples to do miraculous, supernatural things! The great commission commands all who follow Jesus to obey and teach everything that Jesus commanded. Do we get to pick and choose which commands we like and don’t like?

If this little passage from Matthew was somehow out of character for Jesus, we might find room to question its demands on us today. But, Jesus pointed to the signs and wonders he performed as living proof to his identity.[iv] Paul considered supernatural gifts from the Holy Spirit, including healings and ‘miracles’, something followers of Jesus should eagerly pursue.[v] James declared that when the elders of the church (the leaders) prayed over the sick, the sick would be made well.[vi] Jesus told his disciples that they would even do greater works then he did on the earth[vii], which is hard to imagine being that he healed innumerable diseases, and even brought the dead back to life!

My point in all of this is that I need to reexamine the Scriptures, and my faith, and I think there are many like me that ought to do the same. I don’t want to be a crazy person, but I do want to obey Jesus Christ. If obeying him means I end up looking crazy at times, I must be willing to pay that price. And, if obeying him means I put faith higher than disillusionment and disappointment, so be it. If the Bible is true, I ought to expect a lot more evidence of the Holy Spirit’s empowering presence in my life than I see today. I refuse to become infatuated with signs and wonders; Jesus labeled those types wicked and adulterous.[viii] I also ought to refuse a compromise with comfort that leaves me disobedient to a direct command of Jesus. Miracles confirm the identity of Jesus, and display his glory[ix]; I want to declare the identity of Jesus, and display his glory.

Who’s with me?

---

[i] Matthew 10:7-8 NLT

[ii] Bill Johnson, When Heaven Invades Earth. Treasure House, an imprint of Destiny Image Publishers, Inc. Shippensburg, PA. 2003

[iii] In fact, as he continues his charge to the disciples to proclaim and perform miracles he tells them that they will be hated, arrested, flogged, and implies that they may be killed: Matthew 10:17-42.

[iv] See Matthew 11:2-6; Luke 4:18-19; Luke 9:1-6 (parallel of Mt 10); John 10:31-39

[v] 1 Corinthians 14:1

[vi] James 5:13-18 – This passage contains a reference to the prophet Elijah as an encouragement to the supernatural power of faithful prayer.

[vii] John 14:12-14

[viii] Mathew 16:4

[ix] John 2:11

a continuation from Matt's talk Monday

Some exciting things happened at the Gathering Monday. I'll be posting about that soon. In the meanwhile, here's something I typed up for students, as I reflected on the message I shared Monday night:
---------------------------------------------------------------

At the Gathering on Monday, I talked about faith. Sole fide: only by faith can we be pleasing to God; only by faith do we have meaning, because God alone can make our lives worthwhile.

I struggled toward the end of the talk to bring the point of it all home to the everyday. I challenged everyone there to do everything by faith: go to class by faith, to work, to sleep, to prayer… Yet, I still felt I was missing the tangible examples to make the point real, not merely abstract. This bothered me, because I’m a firm believer that the material world of our everydayness (eating, sleeping, working, playing, relating, and mating) is the place for true spirituality to work out: “Faith without deeds is dead.¹”

Yesterday, while talking with a student, I got what I was looking for.

“Seek first the Kingdom of God and [everything] will be added to you.²” --Jesus

In our lives, we have goals, dreams, and ambitions. Some of these come from ourselves, some from our families or society at large, some even come from God. We make plans, and work those plans to accomplish these exciting possibilities. We get seriously happy when they are realized. We are devastated when it all goes to pieces.

“Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.³”

Good ol’ James knows how to lay it down.

The point is: our work will not accomplish the dreams of God, the only dreams that really matter. The dreams we make, the ambitions of our world and our friends and our families are all too narrow, lack justice, and fail the test of eternity.

It’s a great goal to hope to graduate with a 4.0gpa, but whose goal is that, and at what expense will you pursue it?
It’s a great goal to be respected by your co-workers, known as the one who always puts in extra time, but whose goal is that, and who will suffer as you prioritize work over others?
It’s a great goal to build a sweet resume in college, but, again, whose goal are you pursuing? What opportunities will you miss, God-devised opportunities, because you’ve over-committed yourself? The list goes on and on.

“Apart from faith, no one can please God.⁴” This is where we are. I believe with all my being that God’s economy works. God instituted the practice of tithing: the first 10% of our income belongs to God. No one will ever live as well on 95% or 98% or 100% of their income as the one living on 90% devoting the first ten to God. This principle applies in every area of our lives.

Say we dream of attending a prestigious law school after undergrad, so we work to build a stellar resume and a perfect gpa. Kudos to you, my friend, but the person who has prioritized the Kingdom of God (seeking to know God and obey His commands), and missed a few resume builders, and got a few B’s will find realization to her heart’s desires first.

Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.⁵

Better is a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and turmoil with it.⁶

Better is a little with righteousness than great income with injustice.⁷

Notes

1. James 2:17

2. Matthew 6:33

3. James 4:13,14

4. Hebrews 11:6

5. Psalm 37:4

6. Proverbs 15:16

7. Proverbs 16:8