In Exodus 24:12 The LORD said to Moses “Come up to me on the mountain and stay here…” (NIV)
The phrase “come up [to me on] the mountain and stay here.” * Can be most accurately translated as “come up on the mountain and then BE on the mountain.”
When read that way, this sentence seems a bit redundant; to me at least.... I mean, of course if I climb the mountain, I will then- as a result- BE on the mountain. There's no real way around it. Thats, um, kind of the way it works. Simple cause and effect... So the "and then be...." command is understood, and therefore, unnecessary. However, I believe dismissing the latter half of this command given to Moses as mere repetition is nothing less than a huge exercise in missing the point. You see, one can be somewhere, but still not actually BE there. This happens all the time- and we usually do it without even realizing it. We are out to dinner with friends, but not really. Where we really are is at the football game on the television above the bar. Or maybe I'm at my daughter's soccer match, but I'm really at work setting up appointments via social media or my Yahoo inbox. I'm there, but I'm not really there.
...and that is why God is instructing his servant to come up the mountain and then actually BE there with Him– God knows us, our capacity for selfishness, and our easily-distracted, humanistic tendencies very, very well. After all, He did create us…
It is a very sobering realization to think of the tremendous amount of time, resources and energy we can spend planning and preparing a climb up “the mountain.” Just to get to the top and immediately begin thinking about and planning our hike back down without ever truly enjoying the view. You see, we can be on the mountain, and yet never really BE on the mountain.
I love that in Psalm 23 the psalmist writes that "He makes me lie down in green pastures."*
Like: you'll bow, or you'll bow. You are not the center of the universe, and neither am I. Life does not revolve around us. This is one of the most freeing acknowledgements we can make, and with it comes a peace that can bring restoration to our exhausted souls.
My prayer is that we would all seek to slow down and give ourselves over to being fully present… wherever God has us… and that we would acknowledge how expansive and amazing the grace is that allows us the right and privilege to approach it’s throne with boldness* and expectancy which we could never be worthy of.
Slow down. Stop. Listen. Enjoy the view. BE PRESENT.
Be
HERE
Now.
*Scripture Reference:
Exodus 24:12
Hebrews 4:16
Psalm 23:2
Monday, June 15, 2015
Fix Your Focus
(Hebrews 12:2,3 NIV (emphasis added)
(Romans 7:18,24,25 NIV)
(2 Corinthians 4:16-18 NIV)
Like most followers of Jesus I know, I have encountered more times than I’d like to admit in which the messiness of life and the struggles of the day-to-day grind have left me exhausted, bruised, and limping. On days such as these, words like “discouraged” and “depressed” seem like understatements at best, and when I reflect on the painful moments of my journey, the thought of throwing in the towel and raising the white flag seemed- at the time- like a very attractive option… However, as I peer into the rearview mirror of my life, I recognize that it was during these hardships and struggles that God was growing and cultivating my character, teaching me important life-lessons, building my testimony, bestowing wisdom, and ultimately transforming and refining me into the person He created me to be according to His perfect will and ability to work all things together for His glory and our good.
That being said, When these times of resistance were at hand, and the mountains I stood before seemed to have inflated to such colossal proportions that I simply could not see past them- Despite the countless hours I had devoted to the study of scripture, the hundreds of sermons I had heard preached, those I had preached myself, the Bible studies I had attended, prepared, and led, the Greek and Hebrew word studies that I conducted, the passages of God’s Word that took me days and weeks to memorize, exegete, meditate on, and teach, and even after the innumerable times that I had witnessed God- with my own two eyes- move, heal, transform, and work undeniably in my own life and in the lives of people around me…despite all of this– I could seldom be observed viewing these moments of yuck (my precise theological commentary: yuck) in the light of God’s perfect plan, will, or timing when I found myself attempting to navigate the complexities of life’s curve-balls unsuccessfully. My proclivity, rather, in the thick of it, was to allow my thought patterns to begin the toxic drift into self pity and despair because I too often bought into the false notion that it was my own strength, ability, or intellect on which I must rely to fight the battle and emerge victoriously. Before I knew it, I would begin reverting back to a lesser-enlightened, foolish, and self-absorbed mindset which would inevitably spawn and fuel an attitude that was all the more toxic and potentially devastating…..
This flesh-driven attitude wherein I somehow possess the ability to convince myself that the world exists for me and that I have somehow been cheated or short-changed out of something better and that God is holding out on me, and therefore, cannot possibly be “good,” is one we are all acquainted with and have the potential to be in bondage to if it is not actively and intentionally prepared for, recognized, and counter-attacked in some serious active warfare because the simple truth of the matter is that we (you and me and everybody else on this planet) were born into a sinful nature- what The New Testament refers to as the “old self”, “old man” , or our “flesh”-and this sinful nature is opposed to the things of God. Even after we are born again by grace through faith into the new life Jesus offers and become a “new creation”, our sinful nature wants desperately to creep back up and cause us to live, once more, for the things of this world and to gratify the desires of the flesh, and will make every attempt to convince us to give-up.To quit the race. Throw in the towel. Retreat from the good fight of faith. To compromise our integrity and distrust the promises of God that we have built our foundation on… and oh! how embarrassingly swift the descent can often be from the Throne Room of God experiences (or “Ah Ha” moments- if you will) to hitting rock-bottom in the deepest of darkest valleys where one can begin to feel as if God has forsaken and forgotten and that there will be no end to the pain and hopelessness that accompanies such a sense of abandonment.
If you, like myself and many other Jesus-loving, Bible-believing followers out there, have spent any amount of time in the ring with your own sinful flesh and it’s worldly desires, you are undoubtedly aware of the tiresome roller-coaster ride this can be. I personally spent years trying to change, grow, learn, achieve, and fight- arguably for all the right reasons and always under the “Jesus” banner- but always to no avail…. For me, the one fatal error that I was habitually making was not found in my motivation, source of information, or desire for transformation, but rather, inwhom I was directing my focus…
You see, I wanted more than anything to change. I was well aware of what the Bible has to say in regard to the importance of the personal change, growth, maturity, etc. of the believer. Not to mention that I had a spouse who was (understandably!) growing increasingly more impatient waiting on me to get my act together, become the head of our household I was supposed to be and own my God-ordained role as spiritual leader to our family all while she herself was experiencing spiritual growth in (what appeared from my point of view to be) leaps and bounds, thus leaving me behind in a cloud of her spiritual-overachiever dust….. It seemed, however, that the more I focused on my flaws, shortcomings, and imperfections and the harder I tried to tackle and improve these undesirable areas of my character and the poor habits I had become so accustomed to, the worse I got and the MORE I needed to change! I was in a vicious cycle that looked something like this:
Honest self-evaluation/and-or/convicting “motivational-speech” from extremely persuasive wife, get really motivated to be a better man, try hard, work harder, do more, overload mind with information, do more, see minimal improvement-or none, do more, get discouraged, ask God why I can’t seem to change, worry, despair, self medicate with drugs or alcohol, cry,worry, cry more, stay exhausted, consider giving-up, repeat…..
The problem wasn’t my desire, work-ethic, motivation, or willingness. I began to view my situation much in the same way the Apostle Paul did in Romans 7:18 which reads: “For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.” and later, in v 24, He goes on to add: “What a wretched man I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” I know how you feel Paul. I know how you feel…
No, the culprit which was reducing my efforts to little more than an a carousel of complacency and desperation wasn’t my willingness or motivation. Neither was it my lack of persistence…It was my FOCUS -or, more precisely, whom my focus was on… Notice in every step of that counter-productive cycle- where was my focus? ON MYSELF. The harder I worked, and the more I tried to change- to fix myself- the more I seemed to get worse, and the more I found myself needing to change. As a result, I stayed exhausted and discouraged most of the time, which eventually gave way to worsening addictions, deepening bitterness and resentment, and a whole new bag of character issues that came along for the ride.
It was during one of the darkest hours of one of my toughest battles for sobriety that God entered into my mess, met me right where I was, and spoke directly to me through Hebrews 12:2,3 and changed the way I thought, believed and understood the scriptures and, more importantly, Jesus’ centrality in the Biblical narrative…this revelation and paradigm shift was the beginning of my healing process, which ultimately changed my life, saved my marriage and prevented me from reducing everything I cared about to rubble in the wake of my brokenness and destructive behaviors.
***now,I want to clarify; I am not saying that these were the magic words that made life easier all-of-the-sudden, nor that I became magically transformed instantly and lived happily ever after, riding off into the sunset to some picturesque utopia- not yet anyway… I am still very much imperfect and I still struggle with more than I’d like to. I still have more questions than answers and I suppose that I always will on this side of Eternity…it has been a long, painful journey from then until now, but it was only after I got my head wrapped around the crux of this passage that I began to improve, change, and experience spiritual growth***
“2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.~Hebrews 12:2,3 NIV (emphasis added)
Let us fix our eyes on JESUS….. what a fantastic suggestion that someone should make!
That’s why I love my Bible, because the Bible points me to Jesus, and it is in Jesus alone that I am truly free. When I finally stopped looking at myself–At my problems. At my failures. At my shortcomings. At my inadequacies. At my yuck– And instead began to shift my focus and fix my eyes on Jesus, I learned something very, very quickly; Time spent in the presence of The Savior will ALWAYS result in personal transformation. Being in close proximity to our Creator and Redeemer will inevitably overflow into every area of life- and cannot but result in positive change. When this shift happened in my own life, I began to notice that all my junk- all the burdens I was trying so hard to shed by my own futile attempts at living out what I thought the scripture was instructing ME to do- began to fall away. When I stopped going to the Bible for the purpose of finding myself– “where do I fit into the story, what is it saying to me, and what it it instructing me to do?”– and began approaching the text simply to seek Jesus and enjoy the rest He offers in His presence, I began to notice- literally all throughout scripture- how often the responsibility/burden/attention is shifted from me and onto Jesus, where it belongs. In fact, the gospel is made mention of right alongside every one of what Biblical scholars refer to as the “Imperatives” in Paul’s New Testament writings. Why? Because Paul can’t write about the need to forgive one’s neighbor without pointing to how Jesus has forgiven us, or command that a husband love his bride without reminding us how Jesus loves His bride, The Church…
That is why I believe we seriously need to ditch the “Bible as instruction manual ” metaphor. For until we stop treating the Bible as if it were about us and what we are to do, rather than about Jesus and what He already did, we will always read it wrong. As well as minimize The Holy Word of God to merely another glorified self-help book from the camp of some bad form of humanism.
Self-improvement for Jesus is not the same thing as improvement because of Jesus, and operating in the first will inevitably leave us feeling weak and discouraged. But if we resolve to fix our eyes on Jesus, Hebrews 12:3 says that we will not grow weary and lose heart. 2 Corinthians 4:15-18 expresses the same truth differently and has become what some would call my “life verse” for this particular season of my journey. It is the words of these verses that I shall leave you with. I pray that they would encourage and strengthen you deep within, and that you will continue to chew on them in the days to come:
16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (NIV,emphasis added)
further resources:
~Galatians 5:16-18
~Philippians 2:13, 3:12-14, 4:8
~Colossians 3:1-4
~John1:36
~”Changing Change” Sermon by Pastor Judah Smith of The City Church in Seattle, WA http://youtu.be/qOXp2Mpecvw
(Romans 7:18,24,25 NIV)
(2 Corinthians 4:16-18 NIV)
Like most followers of Jesus I know, I have encountered more times than I’d like to admit in which the messiness of life and the struggles of the day-to-day grind have left me exhausted, bruised, and limping. On days such as these, words like “discouraged” and “depressed” seem like understatements at best, and when I reflect on the painful moments of my journey, the thought of throwing in the towel and raising the white flag seemed- at the time- like a very attractive option… However, as I peer into the rearview mirror of my life, I recognize that it was during these hardships and struggles that God was growing and cultivating my character, teaching me important life-lessons, building my testimony, bestowing wisdom, and ultimately transforming and refining me into the person He created me to be according to His perfect will and ability to work all things together for His glory and our good.
That being said, When these times of resistance were at hand, and the mountains I stood before seemed to have inflated to such colossal proportions that I simply could not see past them- Despite the countless hours I had devoted to the study of scripture, the hundreds of sermons I had heard preached, those I had preached myself, the Bible studies I had attended, prepared, and led, the Greek and Hebrew word studies that I conducted, the passages of God’s Word that took me days and weeks to memorize, exegete, meditate on, and teach, and even after the innumerable times that I had witnessed God- with my own two eyes- move, heal, transform, and work undeniably in my own life and in the lives of people around me…despite all of this– I could seldom be observed viewing these moments of yuck (my precise theological commentary: yuck) in the light of God’s perfect plan, will, or timing when I found myself attempting to navigate the complexities of life’s curve-balls unsuccessfully. My proclivity, rather, in the thick of it, was to allow my thought patterns to begin the toxic drift into self pity and despair because I too often bought into the false notion that it was my own strength, ability, or intellect on which I must rely to fight the battle and emerge victoriously. Before I knew it, I would begin reverting back to a lesser-enlightened, foolish, and self-absorbed mindset which would inevitably spawn and fuel an attitude that was all the more toxic and potentially devastating…..
This flesh-driven attitude wherein I somehow possess the ability to convince myself that the world exists for me and that I have somehow been cheated or short-changed out of something better and that God is holding out on me, and therefore, cannot possibly be “good,” is one we are all acquainted with and have the potential to be in bondage to if it is not actively and intentionally prepared for, recognized, and counter-attacked in some serious active warfare because the simple truth of the matter is that we (you and me and everybody else on this planet) were born into a sinful nature- what The New Testament refers to as the “old self”, “old man” , or our “flesh”-and this sinful nature is opposed to the things of God. Even after we are born again by grace through faith into the new life Jesus offers and become a “new creation”, our sinful nature wants desperately to creep back up and cause us to live, once more, for the things of this world and to gratify the desires of the flesh, and will make every attempt to convince us to give-up.To quit the race. Throw in the towel. Retreat from the good fight of faith. To compromise our integrity and distrust the promises of God that we have built our foundation on… and oh! how embarrassingly swift the descent can often be from the Throne Room of God experiences (or “Ah Ha” moments- if you will) to hitting rock-bottom in the deepest of darkest valleys where one can begin to feel as if God has forsaken and forgotten and that there will be no end to the pain and hopelessness that accompanies such a sense of abandonment.
If you, like myself and many other Jesus-loving, Bible-believing followers out there, have spent any amount of time in the ring with your own sinful flesh and it’s worldly desires, you are undoubtedly aware of the tiresome roller-coaster ride this can be. I personally spent years trying to change, grow, learn, achieve, and fight- arguably for all the right reasons and always under the “Jesus” banner- but always to no avail…. For me, the one fatal error that I was habitually making was not found in my motivation, source of information, or desire for transformation, but rather, inwhom I was directing my focus…
You see, I wanted more than anything to change. I was well aware of what the Bible has to say in regard to the importance of the personal change, growth, maturity, etc. of the believer. Not to mention that I had a spouse who was (understandably!) growing increasingly more impatient waiting on me to get my act together, become the head of our household I was supposed to be and own my God-ordained role as spiritual leader to our family all while she herself was experiencing spiritual growth in (what appeared from my point of view to be) leaps and bounds, thus leaving me behind in a cloud of her spiritual-overachiever dust….. It seemed, however, that the more I focused on my flaws, shortcomings, and imperfections and the harder I tried to tackle and improve these undesirable areas of my character and the poor habits I had become so accustomed to, the worse I got and the MORE I needed to change! I was in a vicious cycle that looked something like this:
Honest self-evaluation/and-or/convicting “motivational-speech” from extremely persuasive wife, get really motivated to be a better man, try hard, work harder, do more, overload mind with information, do more, see minimal improvement-or none, do more, get discouraged, ask God why I can’t seem to change, worry, despair, self medicate with drugs or alcohol, cry,worry, cry more, stay exhausted, consider giving-up, repeat…..
The problem wasn’t my desire, work-ethic, motivation, or willingness. I began to view my situation much in the same way the Apostle Paul did in Romans 7:18 which reads: “For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.” and later, in v 24, He goes on to add: “What a wretched man I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” I know how you feel Paul. I know how you feel…
No, the culprit which was reducing my efforts to little more than an a carousel of complacency and desperation wasn’t my willingness or motivation. Neither was it my lack of persistence…It was my FOCUS -or, more precisely, whom my focus was on… Notice in every step of that counter-productive cycle- where was my focus? ON MYSELF. The harder I worked, and the more I tried to change- to fix myself- the more I seemed to get worse, and the more I found myself needing to change. As a result, I stayed exhausted and discouraged most of the time, which eventually gave way to worsening addictions, deepening bitterness and resentment, and a whole new bag of character issues that came along for the ride.
It was during one of the darkest hours of one of my toughest battles for sobriety that God entered into my mess, met me right where I was, and spoke directly to me through Hebrews 12:2,3 and changed the way I thought, believed and understood the scriptures and, more importantly, Jesus’ centrality in the Biblical narrative…this revelation and paradigm shift was the beginning of my healing process, which ultimately changed my life, saved my marriage and prevented me from reducing everything I cared about to rubble in the wake of my brokenness and destructive behaviors.
***now,I want to clarify; I am not saying that these were the magic words that made life easier all-of-the-sudden, nor that I became magically transformed instantly and lived happily ever after, riding off into the sunset to some picturesque utopia- not yet anyway… I am still very much imperfect and I still struggle with more than I’d like to. I still have more questions than answers and I suppose that I always will on this side of Eternity…it has been a long, painful journey from then until now, but it was only after I got my head wrapped around the crux of this passage that I began to improve, change, and experience spiritual growth***
“2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.~Hebrews 12:2,3 NIV (emphasis added)
Let us fix our eyes on JESUS….. what a fantastic suggestion that someone should make!
That’s why I love my Bible, because the Bible points me to Jesus, and it is in Jesus alone that I am truly free. When I finally stopped looking at myself–At my problems. At my failures. At my shortcomings. At my inadequacies. At my yuck– And instead began to shift my focus and fix my eyes on Jesus, I learned something very, very quickly; Time spent in the presence of The Savior will ALWAYS result in personal transformation. Being in close proximity to our Creator and Redeemer will inevitably overflow into every area of life- and cannot but result in positive change. When this shift happened in my own life, I began to notice that all my junk- all the burdens I was trying so hard to shed by my own futile attempts at living out what I thought the scripture was instructing ME to do- began to fall away. When I stopped going to the Bible for the purpose of finding myself– “where do I fit into the story, what is it saying to me, and what it it instructing me to do?”– and began approaching the text simply to seek Jesus and enjoy the rest He offers in His presence, I began to notice- literally all throughout scripture- how often the responsibility/burden/attention is shifted from me and onto Jesus, where it belongs. In fact, the gospel is made mention of right alongside every one of what Biblical scholars refer to as the “Imperatives” in Paul’s New Testament writings. Why? Because Paul can’t write about the need to forgive one’s neighbor without pointing to how Jesus has forgiven us, or command that a husband love his bride without reminding us how Jesus loves His bride, The Church…
That is why I believe we seriously need to ditch the “Bible as instruction manual ” metaphor. For until we stop treating the Bible as if it were about us and what we are to do, rather than about Jesus and what He already did, we will always read it wrong. As well as minimize The Holy Word of God to merely another glorified self-help book from the camp of some bad form of humanism.
Self-improvement for Jesus is not the same thing as improvement because of Jesus, and operating in the first will inevitably leave us feeling weak and discouraged. But if we resolve to fix our eyes on Jesus, Hebrews 12:3 says that we will not grow weary and lose heart. 2 Corinthians 4:15-18 expresses the same truth differently and has become what some would call my “life verse” for this particular season of my journey. It is the words of these verses that I shall leave you with. I pray that they would encourage and strengthen you deep within, and that you will continue to chew on them in the days to come:
16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (NIV,emphasis added)
further resources:
~Galatians 5:16-18
~Philippians 2:13, 3:12-14, 4:8
~Colossians 3:1-4
~John1:36
~”Changing Change” Sermon by Pastor Judah Smith of The City Church in Seattle, WA http://youtu.be/qOXp2Mpecvw
Perhaps
***I originially wrote this for the church's blog at www.Ulifechurch.com, but I believe the truths looked at in this article are universal and therefore relevant to the masses :)
(1 Samuel 14:1, 4-7 NIV, emphasis added)
1 One day Jonathan son of Saul said to the young man bearing his armor, “Come, let’s go over to the Philistine outpost on the other side.” But he did not tell his father. 4 On each side of the pass that Jonathanintended to cross to reach the Philistine outpost was a cliff; one was called Bozez, and the other Seneh. 5 One cliff stood to the north toward Micmash, the other to the south toward Geba. 6 Jonathan said to his young armor-bearer, “Come, let’s go over to the outpost of those uncircumcised fellows. Perhaps the LORD will act on our behalf. Nothing can hinder the LORD from saving, whether by many or by few.” 7 “Do all you have in mind,” his armor-bearer said. “Go ahead; I am with you heart and soul.”
….So the Philistines had assembled -nearly 10,000 strong we learn when reading the account of this epic battle in its entirety (which I strongly encourage all to do)- and were preparing to attack Saul and the army of Israel, who, as a result, were busy hiding out on the outskirts of town under a pomegranate tree, most likely discussing their limited options, and attempting to construct something of a battle plan all while trying to hide the fear and anxiety that had undoubtedly gripped each one of them with the realization of the overwhelming tactical disadvantage Israel was faced with being as outnumbered and out-gunned as they were. You see, we read in verse 2 that there were only around 600 men with Saul on the day this event took place, and to make matters worse, Saul and his son Jonathan were the only two among them who actually had a sword. The rest of the soldiers were armed with old farm tools that had been sharpened for use in battle: plowshares, mattocks, pitchforks, sickles and the like. The Philistines were without question a far more powerful, more equipped, more experienced, and better prepared fighting unit than King Saul’s young army…..
This, however, did little to discourage Jonathan, who had evidently grown weary and restless from the inaction and idle discussion of the others and so he secretly set off to make trouble for their enemy with only his young armor-bearer in tow. To put it another way, and bring it into our specific context, I imagine that Jonathan’s thought process was something along the lines of “While these guys sit around and talk about ministry, I think we’ll just go and actually DO ministry…”
Now, on either side of the pass in which he and his armor-toting sidekick had to travel in order to reach their destination was a cliff (I love that the text says “the pass that Jonathan intended to cross.” Because he obviously didn’t know for sure if he would make it across alive or not). One was named “Bozez” and the other “Seneh.” In the original Hebrew, Bozez means “slippery” and Seneh translates to “thorny”. How often it is that when we are pursuing God’s will for our lives the road that we must journey to get there is slippery, dangerous, and filled with thistles, thorns and briars just begging to inflict pain, slow us down and encourage us to re-route to a path of lesser-resistance! No matter who we are or what we believe, there is a certain amount of hell that each of us will inevitably encounter and endure in this world during our time under the sun. We were never promised a life free of trouble, on the contrary, Jesus all but guaranteed that in this world we WILL experience hardship, resistance, and conflict but what He did promise is that we would never have to face these troubles alone. He is and will be with us always, even to the very end of the age, and it is in Him alone that we may have peace. (Matthew 28:20) (John 16:33) Indeed, it is in these valleys of life where our faith and character are most effectively cultivated and refined.
When Jonathan and his armor-bearer were close to the camp of their enemy, the prince decided it would be a good idea to share with his subordinate the nature of his plans. He makes no grand speech to raise morale or give inspiration. He pulls no punches. No, the young ambitious prince gets directly to the heart of the matter by uttering a simple and straight-forward statement. More of a suggestion to be considered than a order to be carried-out. Two simple sentences with astronomical implications, and just one subtle word in the middle of them that was so unexpected and loaded with such a significant amount of uncertainty that whole sermons, commentaries, and blog posts have since been derived from this one simple word from an arguably obscure Old Testament passage…
6 Jonathan said to his young armor-bearer, “Come, let’s go over to the outpost of those uncircumcised fellows.Perhapsthe LORD will act on our behalf. Nothing can hinder the LORD from saving, whether by many or by few.”
Perhaps…
Perhaps.
Perhaps?!?
If I am Jonathan’s armor-bearer, I’ll be honest, I am fairly certain that I am going to need a bit more than a “perhaps” on this one. First of all, Johnny-boy, there’s just two of us… two. and of that number, only half of us have a sword. Secondly, I’m not certain exactly how many “uncircumcised fellows” there are in this particular detachment, but I do know that there’s way more than 20 of them, and we are on their turf. Also, If things start going badly for us, there’s no back-up coming to bail us out…. We came here in secret, remember? Oh, and did I mention there’s only two of us….?
As ridiculous as Jonathan’s idea seems at first glance, the faith that the young zealous prince displayed with a single word is humbling at the very least. Even with such high stakes, and with so much on the line, Jonathan was willing to move forward in spite of the crippling odds against them. He was willing to jump-To go for it- To lay it all on the line because “perhaps” God would act on their behalf. Jonathan was aware of an eternal truth that we would do well to learn and remember: World changers are risk takers. … The fate of not only the two of them but also of the entire nation of Israel would likely be determined by the outcome of what would follow, and Jonathan was willing to take that chance. He had the courage to declare “perhaps”…. He embraced the maybe, and ultimately it was counted to him as faith.
However, this story could have gone much differently if Jonathan’s young, unnamed armor-bearer would have been as hesitant and doubtful as I would have been in the same situation. He could have easily pushed back and made all the valid arguments I have pointed out and more in order to avoid what appeared to be an extremely fool-hardy endeavor… but this was not his response at all. Lets look at his reply:
7 “Do all you have in mind,” his armor-bearer said. “Go ahead; I am with you heart and soul.”
……and of course, God did act on their behalf. He worked a miracle through Jonathan’s faith and as it is recorded in V. 23- “The LORD rescued Israel that day”
The bottom line, United Life Church, is this:
Knoxville doesn’t need another church. Knoxville needs a move of God. Pastors Terry and Amy didn’t move to Tennessee to start just another church, they desire to lead a movement of Christ that will change the world in their generation, leave a legacy for their children, and will see many, many lives changed for The Kingdom…A movement of people who are united under the gospel to bring hope, extend grace, and demonstrate love to an increasingly lost and dying world. A people that, when gathered, create an atmosphere and environment where the lost are found, where disciples make disciples,where captives are set free, the sick are healed, where families stay together, men are spiritual leaders in the home, the broken are restored, where people mature spiritually and give generously. However, even with all the vision that they have and the heart that God has given our senior leaders for this community, The Nelsons did not begin this journey with any Guarantees or a back-up plans when they uprooted their family and left all they knew to parachute-drop into an unfamiliar city hundreds of miles away trusting that this is where God was leading them… What they did have was the courage and audacious faith to say “Perhaps God will act on our behalf.” Perhaps.
So Church, The question for you and for me is:
Will we be the kind of people who say “Do all you have in mind. Go ahead; I am with you heart and soul.”
May it be so.
Grace and Peace! A<><
(1 Samuel 14:1, 4-7 NIV, emphasis added)
1 One day Jonathan son of Saul said to the young man bearing his armor, “Come, let’s go over to the Philistine outpost on the other side.” But he did not tell his father. 4 On each side of the pass that Jonathanintended to cross to reach the Philistine outpost was a cliff; one was called Bozez, and the other Seneh. 5 One cliff stood to the north toward Micmash, the other to the south toward Geba. 6 Jonathan said to his young armor-bearer, “Come, let’s go over to the outpost of those uncircumcised fellows. Perhaps the LORD will act on our behalf. Nothing can hinder the LORD from saving, whether by many or by few.” 7 “Do all you have in mind,” his armor-bearer said. “Go ahead; I am with you heart and soul.”
….So the Philistines had assembled -nearly 10,000 strong we learn when reading the account of this epic battle in its entirety (which I strongly encourage all to do)- and were preparing to attack Saul and the army of Israel, who, as a result, were busy hiding out on the outskirts of town under a pomegranate tree, most likely discussing their limited options, and attempting to construct something of a battle plan all while trying to hide the fear and anxiety that had undoubtedly gripped each one of them with the realization of the overwhelming tactical disadvantage Israel was faced with being as outnumbered and out-gunned as they were. You see, we read in verse 2 that there were only around 600 men with Saul on the day this event took place, and to make matters worse, Saul and his son Jonathan were the only two among them who actually had a sword. The rest of the soldiers were armed with old farm tools that had been sharpened for use in battle: plowshares, mattocks, pitchforks, sickles and the like. The Philistines were without question a far more powerful, more equipped, more experienced, and better prepared fighting unit than King Saul’s young army…..
This, however, did little to discourage Jonathan, who had evidently grown weary and restless from the inaction and idle discussion of the others and so he secretly set off to make trouble for their enemy with only his young armor-bearer in tow. To put it another way, and bring it into our specific context, I imagine that Jonathan’s thought process was something along the lines of “While these guys sit around and talk about ministry, I think we’ll just go and actually DO ministry…”
Now, on either side of the pass in which he and his armor-toting sidekick had to travel in order to reach their destination was a cliff (I love that the text says “the pass that Jonathan intended to cross.” Because he obviously didn’t know for sure if he would make it across alive or not). One was named “Bozez” and the other “Seneh.” In the original Hebrew, Bozez means “slippery” and Seneh translates to “thorny”. How often it is that when we are pursuing God’s will for our lives the road that we must journey to get there is slippery, dangerous, and filled with thistles, thorns and briars just begging to inflict pain, slow us down and encourage us to re-route to a path of lesser-resistance! No matter who we are or what we believe, there is a certain amount of hell that each of us will inevitably encounter and endure in this world during our time under the sun. We were never promised a life free of trouble, on the contrary, Jesus all but guaranteed that in this world we WILL experience hardship, resistance, and conflict but what He did promise is that we would never have to face these troubles alone. He is and will be with us always, even to the very end of the age, and it is in Him alone that we may have peace. (Matthew 28:20) (John 16:33) Indeed, it is in these valleys of life where our faith and character are most effectively cultivated and refined.
When Jonathan and his armor-bearer were close to the camp of their enemy, the prince decided it would be a good idea to share with his subordinate the nature of his plans. He makes no grand speech to raise morale or give inspiration. He pulls no punches. No, the young ambitious prince gets directly to the heart of the matter by uttering a simple and straight-forward statement. More of a suggestion to be considered than a order to be carried-out. Two simple sentences with astronomical implications, and just one subtle word in the middle of them that was so unexpected and loaded with such a significant amount of uncertainty that whole sermons, commentaries, and blog posts have since been derived from this one simple word from an arguably obscure Old Testament passage…
6 Jonathan said to his young armor-bearer, “Come, let’s go over to the outpost of those uncircumcised fellows.Perhapsthe LORD will act on our behalf. Nothing can hinder the LORD from saving, whether by many or by few.”
Perhaps…
Perhaps.
Perhaps?!?
If I am Jonathan’s armor-bearer, I’ll be honest, I am fairly certain that I am going to need a bit more than a “perhaps” on this one. First of all, Johnny-boy, there’s just two of us… two. and of that number, only half of us have a sword. Secondly, I’m not certain exactly how many “uncircumcised fellows” there are in this particular detachment, but I do know that there’s way more than 20 of them, and we are on their turf. Also, If things start going badly for us, there’s no back-up coming to bail us out…. We came here in secret, remember? Oh, and did I mention there’s only two of us….?
As ridiculous as Jonathan’s idea seems at first glance, the faith that the young zealous prince displayed with a single word is humbling at the very least. Even with such high stakes, and with so much on the line, Jonathan was willing to move forward in spite of the crippling odds against them. He was willing to jump-To go for it- To lay it all on the line because “perhaps” God would act on their behalf. Jonathan was aware of an eternal truth that we would do well to learn and remember: World changers are risk takers. … The fate of not only the two of them but also of the entire nation of Israel would likely be determined by the outcome of what would follow, and Jonathan was willing to take that chance. He had the courage to declare “perhaps”…. He embraced the maybe, and ultimately it was counted to him as faith.
However, this story could have gone much differently if Jonathan’s young, unnamed armor-bearer would have been as hesitant and doubtful as I would have been in the same situation. He could have easily pushed back and made all the valid arguments I have pointed out and more in order to avoid what appeared to be an extremely fool-hardy endeavor… but this was not his response at all. Lets look at his reply:
7 “Do all you have in mind,” his armor-bearer said. “Go ahead; I am with you heart and soul.”
……and of course, God did act on their behalf. He worked a miracle through Jonathan’s faith and as it is recorded in V. 23- “The LORD rescued Israel that day”
The bottom line, United Life Church, is this:
Knoxville doesn’t need another church. Knoxville needs a move of God. Pastors Terry and Amy didn’t move to Tennessee to start just another church, they desire to lead a movement of Christ that will change the world in their generation, leave a legacy for their children, and will see many, many lives changed for The Kingdom…A movement of people who are united under the gospel to bring hope, extend grace, and demonstrate love to an increasingly lost and dying world. A people that, when gathered, create an atmosphere and environment where the lost are found, where disciples make disciples,where captives are set free, the sick are healed, where families stay together, men are spiritual leaders in the home, the broken are restored, where people mature spiritually and give generously. However, even with all the vision that they have and the heart that God has given our senior leaders for this community, The Nelsons did not begin this journey with any Guarantees or a back-up plans when they uprooted their family and left all they knew to parachute-drop into an unfamiliar city hundreds of miles away trusting that this is where God was leading them… What they did have was the courage and audacious faith to say “Perhaps God will act on our behalf.” Perhaps.
So Church, The question for you and for me is:
Will we be the kind of people who say “Do all you have in mind. Go ahead; I am with you heart and soul.”
May it be so.
Grace and Peace! A<><
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