Adventures in Wonderland, #8

Hopefully, you read through 1 Samuel 15, as suggested last week, if not do a quick read through to get the gist of the storyline.  Saul has just disobeyed God in a big way, and as a result God has torn the kingdom from Saul’s line.  This whole story ties in so well with everything we’ve pondered, thus far.  The theme of obedience (or disobedience, as the case may be) is the whole focal point of chapter 15. 

There are a few key verses to compare and contrast.  Read carefully and see if you can pick out those things that relate to what we’ve discussed.

Samuel said (to Saul), “Is it not true, though you were little in your own eyes, you were made head of the tribes of Israel.  Your God anointed you king… (1 Sam. 15:17).

And God said to Samuel, “Saul came to Carmel, and behold, he set up a monument to himself (15:12).”

Saul said (to Samuel), “I have sinned, but please honor me now before the elders of my people and before Israel, and go back with me, that I may worship the Lord your God (15:30).

Here are a few of my own thoughts:

1. There was a time when the Lord God was very personal to Saul.  Something happened that this personal God became impersonal and distant.
2. When God was still personal, Saul saw himself with humility (he was little in his own eyes).  He recognized he wasn’t king material, BUT GOD saw something Saul didn’t.
3. Because God was huge in Saul’s life, and Saul was humble, the Lord raised him up to King.  God + me = amazing possibility.
4. It appears, reading between the lines, that Saul “forgot” how he got where he was (this is crucial to humility:  may we never, ever forget how we got where we are).  Saul forgot from where his victory, even his very breath and every heartbeat, came.
5. As a result, Saul’s dependence shifted, his “greatness” was magnified and he built a “monument to himself” to celebrate, not an altar on which to worship the Lord his God.
6. Consequently, Saul's desire shifted from pleasing God to pleasing people.  God is now small, and Saul and others are HUGE.
7. With this dynamic in play, Saul’s mindset and reversal of roles set him up for disobedience.

Here are God’s words to Saul through Samuel (vs. 23):  Rebellion (disobedience) is as the sin of witchcraft.  Insubordination (a lack of submission) is as vanity and idolatry.

There it is:  Pride leads to a lack of submission, a lack of submission results in disobedience.

At the end of the day, the heart of the man, or woman, of God is the issue:  the blackness of the sin of pride and idolatry.  There is a cure – ownership, confession, repentance (turning about-face) and placing God in his rightful place.  There it is in black and white:

Humbly yielding in reverence before the Lord Almighty the giver of every gift; this then, is the drink that turns the key that opens the door.

What a great adventure awaits the one who walks through!

Just one more problem...

Adventures in Wonderland, #7

Review with me a minute – where are we going with all this?

Theme passage: 

In the fear of the Lord there is strong confidence, and His children will have refuge.  The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, that one may avoid the snares of death.

Proverbs 14:26, 27

The Goal:  To walk through door into a land of Wonder (AKA: the Abundant Christian Life).  A door that invites us through to strong confidence, security, freedom from fear, joy, satisfaction, contentment, merriment, wisdom to escape the traps the enemy sets out for me, and, best of all, sweet intimacy with my Savior.

The Bad News:  The door is locked.

The Good News:  There’s a key:  Fear of the Lord.

The Bad News:  Everything’s in opposite order.  To be able to use the key, God must be HUGE in my mind.  Instead, I am HUGE in my mind.  When I am big (or, other people or things are) and God is small, pride, idolatry, and unbelief get in the way.

The Good News:  There’s a bottle on the table that instructs, “Drink Me.”  If I drink, everything reverses in right order.  God is the right SIZE, and I can properly fear Him. 

Well, what am I waiting for, Alice?  Take a swig!  But remember, I’m the one who needs to know what’s in that drink… I’m not going to take too big of a risk.  That’s where Alice and I differ, and this is exactly what I’m exploring right now.  Exactly what is in that bottle?

Humility.  Check.

Submission.  Check.Check.

There’s one more ingredient…and, this one causes almost all of us to hesitate at one time, or another.  It’s the bittersweet taste of obedience.

The three ingredients form a chain.  You can’t have one without the other.  Humility (seeing/knowing God and seeing/knowing myself as He sees me) draws me to submission.  Submission sets me in the proper frame of mind for obedience.  Obedience is easy once the other two have been wrestled to the ground.  With confidence, I can say humility and submission lead directly to obedience without hesitation.  When my kids were little, I was famous for saying, “If it’s not quick obedience, it’s not obedience.”  Sometimes, I wonder if God thinks that way about us.  However, without an attitude of humility and submission, our obedience will be anything but quick.

There’s a great story in the Scriptures that illustrate this point.  The story is found in 1 Samuel 15.  It’s well worth the read, and pondering over.  How about spending the week reading this narrative, taking some notes, and next week we’ll compare thoughts?  I guarantee one thing: there’s a former king, named Saul, who sure wishes he’d taken heed to the principle being presented:  Fully drinking the cup of God’s Will surely opens the a door to a grand adventure in a Kingdom called Wonderland.

Adventures in Wonderland, #6

Second ingredient found in the bottle on the table of which we must drink:  Submission.

If the word submission were a person, I think I’d feel a great deal of pity.  Submission is very misunderstood.  When I think of submission, something inside of me stands up with fists clenched.  I tend to think of submission in the negative – a doormat variety of weakness. 

Truth be told, a submissive individual is one of great courage.  Jesus, showed great courage in the Garden of Gethsemane, when minutes before his arrest, he uttered the five most powerful words ever spoken, “Not my will but thine.”  Five words that changed history.  Abraham showed great courage, when he demonstrated those words, and bound his only son, Isaac, to the altar.  Isaac made evident the same expression when he placed himself on the altar, and allowed his father to bind him there.  Paul said it with these words, “To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” 

Recently, I watched the movie We Bought a Zoo.  The take away quote from the movie is this:  “All you need is twenty seconds of insane courage and I promise you something good will come of it.”  Exactly.  Twenty seconds of insane courage leads to submission.

Twenty seconds to say, “Not my will but thine.” 

Twenty seconds to climb up on the altar (I urge you brothers, in view of God’s tender mercy, to make yourself a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship. Romans 12:1). 

Twenty seconds to surrender. 

Twenty seconds to die to self.

Twenty seconds of insane courage…

The liquid goes down the hatch…

The drink is swallowed…

And something good is sure to follow!  We’re almost through the door to Wonderland!

Adventures in Wonderland, #5

What Humility is NOT.

I’d just written last week’s blog, and put it to bed, when I read the following verse in my morning devotions:

Proud, Haughty, Scoffer are his names, who acts with insolent pride (Proverbs 21:24, NASB).  Another translation renders it this way:  Show me a conceited person, and I will show you someone who is arrogant, proud, and inconsiderate (GNT).

That’s a heap of noun-verbiage.  Each word critical to describing what won’t help us get through the door to experience the adventure in Wonderland.  That made each word worth examination.

In Larry Crabb’s book, Sixty-six Love Letters, God says this about the book of Proverbs:  “As you read Proverbs, expect to feel the shame of exposure.  Many of your ways are foolish.  Expect, too, to feel the appeal of wisdom.  God has given us a heart that wants to walk the narrow road.”

Sometimes, I fear my foolishness is completely bound and tangled up within my heart, especially when I read verses such as the above.

Here are some of the characteristics synonymous with a not-so-humble human (from Word Study Dictionary of the Old Testament, Spiros Zhodiates): self-sufficient, impudent, one who “seethes,” boils over, acts proudly.  Just as water in a pot boils over, so the presumptuous, arrogant, person oversteps his boundaries.  An over-bearing, know-it-all, argumentative and contentious.  Self-sufficient.  A scoffer: one who makes a mouth at, is quick to interpret, to intercede, to mock, imitate, express utter contempt toward, to boast…

This is not a pretty picture.  This kind of charisma won’t keep God huge and me small enough to enter the door to Wonderland…

When last week’s blog ended, I wrote these words:  But, while I desire to drink humility, it can be so hard to swallow…   I want to take those words back.  When I look at the alternative, I’m much more eager to drink the liquid on the table that will get me through that little door!

Adventures in Wonderland, #4

In the fear of the Lord there is strong confidence, and His children will have refuge.  The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, that one may avoid the snares of death.

Proverbs 14:26, 27

In order for Alice to get through the door to experience Wonderland, she had to drink of the liquid that would bring the right “adjustment.”  If I want through the door to so experience the adventures of God’s Wonderland, I’ll drink, too – a smoothie blend comprised of equal amounts of humility, submission, and obedience. 

I’m not real adventurous when it comes to drinks, gotta admit.  I’m afraid I might be handed something similar to what we used to call a “Masai Milkshake.”  When we lived in Kenya, we often traveled through Masai-land.  The Masai are a proud, regal people group and still quite primitive in culture.  One of their favorite “drinks,” which they are honored to share with guests, is comprised of curdled milk mixed with cow’s blood, and served in a gourd purified with cow urine.  Mmmmm…yum! Nah, I want to know what’s mixed in my drink before I consume.

First ingredient: humility.

Sometimes, I confuse this word with another similar-looking word:  humiliate.  Correction: they are not the same.  One comes from people.  The other comes from the Lord.  One comes from those who want to belittle.  The other comes from One who wants to “lift up.”  One comes from the world’s perspective.  The other comes from the plan of an Almighty God who is named Elohim (creator).  One is a lie.  The other is truth. 

Humility.  Seeing God as He is.  Seeing myself as He made me.  Living in the connection of the two. 

Humility.  The opposite of pride and arrogance.  The opposite of self-sufficient.  The opposite of independence.  The opposite of scoffing and mocking.

Humility.  Just like Jesus. Jesus, who did nothing from selfishness or empty conceit.  Jesus, who regarded everyone else as more important than himself.  Jesus, who did not merely look out for his own interests, but also for the interest of others.  Jesus who even though he was God, gave up the right to be God, so that he could serve…even to the point of death (Philippians 2:3-9).  Jesus, gentle, but strong enough to calm the wind and waves.  Jesus, loving, but filled with enough righteousness to hate what sin was doing in man. Jesus, the way, the truth, and the life who chose shameful death…for me.

I. Want. Humility.  Just. Like. Jesus.  But, while I desire to drink humility, it can be so hard to swallow…  

Adventures in Wonderland, #3

In the fear of the Lord there is strong confidence, and His children will have refuge.  The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, that one may avoid the snares of death.

Proverbs 14:26, 27

I know (head knowledge) that all this passage promises is mine to own.  I have in my possession the key (reverent worship), which will open the door to my deepest desires.  However, like Alice in the rabbit hole, there’s a big problem.  Alice is the problem.  She’s much too large to get through the door. 

I have the same problem.  I’m too big. My “stuff” is way out of proportion.  When life becomes more about MY fears, MY insecurities, MY problems, MY anxieties, MY need to please people, then I become HUGE, and God becomes SMALL.   When I’m too big, and all I think about is my own personal drama, then, just like Alice, I can’t get through the door to discover all that awaits me in Wonderland.  I’ve literally swapped places with God.  He’s no longer big enough to handle MY STUFF.  I’m in the way of what I really want.  I’m too big and my God is too small.

What to do?  What did Alice do?  On the same table as the key, sits a liquid-filled bottle with a tag that says, “Drink me.”  Alice does, and she shrinks to the right size for the door.  The “drink” makes me think of Jesus words the night of his arrest in the Garden, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as Thou wilt (Matthew 26:39).”  Later the same night to Peter, “Put the sword into the sheath; the cup which the Father has given Me, shall I not drink it (John 18:11)?”  The drink Jesus referred to, the cup the Father had given him, was the liquid of humility, submission, and obedience (“not my will, but yours…”).

The only answer for Alice…the only answer for myself:  To enter the Adventures of Wonderland, we must maintain a perspective of the GrEAtNeSS of God. However, to fully enter into all that’s available for us, requires humility of heart, surrender, and a willingness to obey.

Meaning, what, exactly?

Alice in Wonderland, 2

In the fear of the Lord there is strong confidence, and His children will have refuge.  The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, that one may avoid the snares of death.

Proverbs 14:26, 27

                  I’m standing at the bottom of the rabbit hole.  The door has a sign on it, inviting me into a land of wonder.  I want what it offers: strong confidence, security, freedom from fear, joy, satisfaction, contentment, merriment, wisdom to escape the traps the enemy sets out for me, and, best of all, sweet intimacy with my Savior.  With everything in me, I want to walk through that door.  The key sits on the table in the center of the room.  The very thing I need to unlock the door is on the table…  The tag on the key reads:  fear of the Lord.

                  What does that really mean (fear)?  I think of the words C.S. Lewis used as he closes out the first Narnia book regarding Aslan (the Jesus figure of the Narnia series).  “He is not safe, but He is good.”  Fear is a two-sided coin:

Side 1:  true comprehension of God’s goodness, his love, his faithfulness, grace, mercy, kindness, long-suffering – the nurturing side of God.

Side 2:  full understanding and awareness of God’s righteousness, his justice, purity – the holiness of God.

Fully seeing, knowing, and believing God puts everything else into a correct perspective.  Of this I am certain:  My God is so big, so strong, and so mighty, there’s nothing my God cannot do! 

                  This, then, is fear – BELIEVING God is who he says he is (truly seeing him with the eyes of our heart), and responding in the one and only appropriate way – in reverent worship.  This is the key that turns the lock in the door.  This is the way to enter into the adventures of Wonderland!

                  But…there’s a problem!