Blessed on Father's Day

 God is sovereign but much of who I am and what I have are dumb luck from my perspective.  

Have you thought about that?  Have you considered just how much of your blessings are due to things you have little to no control over?  Have you pondered what your life would look like if one decision went the other way or one circumstance had occurred differently?

Today is Father's Day and I write today in a spirit of extreme thankfulness.  I want to look at two verses from Psalm 16.  If you want a fuller look at this wonderful psalm click here to hear what my pastor had to say about it.

"The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup;
you hold my lot.
The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance." Psalm 16:5-6

If you read the book of Joshua you will read about the lots cast to determine where everyone would live.  The portion of the land inherited by people was determined by the roll of the dice.  The Israelites trusted that God was sovereignly in control of the roll and the lots cast were not chance but providence.  Don't try this at home.  Only a fool sees this practice as prescription and not description.  Our God is not a god of gambling, but from our perspective much of our lives seems to have been determined by happenstance and chance.

I had no control over who my parents are.  I did not choose them.  I did not ask for Christian parents; it was simply my lot.  I had zero control over when I was born.  I was born in 1987 and not 1087 and I had nothing to do with that.  I was born in a time without world war, famine or pestilence and I did not choose that; it was simply my lot in life.  I did not ask to be born in the United States of America instead of North Korea.  I didn't choose to be born in Iowa.  I did not choose to live in Fairview, Spencer, Pittsville, Marion and Springville, my parents did; it was simply my lot in life.  I tried very hard to have all sorts of good looking girls like me.  I wanted very badly to have a relationship before I met my wife, but I never did.  I didn't choose to meet my wife but she just so happened to; I guess it was my lot.  I didn't choose infertility.  I didn't choose to wait as long as we did to have our first child; it was simply my lot.  I didn't choose which sperm would pair with Christine's egg the first, second, third, fourth or fifth time.  I had no control over who my children are; it was simply my lot.

God holds my lot and the lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.

On Father's Day I have been reflecting on how good God has been to me.  Of course the best He is for me is Savior and Father, but He's blessed me in so many other good ways.  My lot in life is so good.  My job, my community, my wife, my children, my parents, my neighbors, my nation, my ______, etc is so, so, so good.

Fathers, this world is not yet our final and best home, but today I look at what I have and say I am blessed.  Today I look at my lot and wonder how good it will be when I experience the LORD fully as my portion and my cup.  

Fathers, count your many blessings and expectantly hope and wait for the even better land your Heavenly Father has in preparation for you today.

Blessed Are the Outcasts

 My resolution for this calendar year is to read a psalm a day.  Yesterday I completed my first run through of the 150 psalms.  As I reflected on the many themes, one came to the front of my mind.  This theme is certainly not the foremost theme of all the themes in the entire book, but it is the one that my mind landed on as a theme as I talked with my wife about my finishing my first run through the book.  This theme, though not the main theme of the five books that make up the one book we call Psalms, is a theme that runs throughout the entire Bible.

God is for the down and out and humble and against the oppressor and and proud.

To take a single example, let's look at Psalm 146 and how it talks about God:

"... who executes justice for the oppressed,
who gives food to the hungry.
The LORD sets the prisoner free;
the LORD opens the eyes of the blind.
The LORD lifts up those who are bowed down;
the LORD loves the righteous.
The LORD watches over the sojourners;
He upholds the widow and the fatherless,
but the way of the wicked He brings to ruin." Psalm 146:7-9

Or look at Psalm 101 as King David writes about those he will avoid:

"A perverse heart shall be far from me;
I will know nothing of evil.
Whoever slanders his neighbor secretly
I will destroy.
Whoever has a haughty look and an arrogant heart
I will not endure." Psalm 101:4-5

And there are plenty more passages like that in the Book of Psalms and the Old Testament and the New Testament.  The Bible is flooded with it from Moses to Jesus to James.

Jesus said in the sermon on the mount in Luke 6:20-26 that the poor, hungry, sad, and persecuted are blessed and then offered woes to the rich, the full, the happy and those thought of well by others.  Jesus said in Matthew 5:3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit..."

So, given this is a theme in the Bible (my brief overview about is grossly inadequate.  Please explore the texts yourself more fully). And given that Psalm 146 in particular talked about the theme, I asked myself a couple of questions in my journal.

1) Do I love and serve like my Father does?

Psalm 146 says that God loves and serves: The oppressed, the hungry, the prisoners, the blind, the bowed down, the righteous, the traveling foreigner, the widow and the fatherless.  Do I?

Do I overlook these people and even exploit them or do I love and serve them?  Is my heart soft for these people?  Do I hear and see the news about these people and feel moved to compassion?  Do I do anything to help them? 

Many of us jump straight into the question of what the government can and should do for these people.  That's not a wrong thing to think about.  In fact, since government in a free society is our collective will, we should think well about this.  But do we, ourselves, do anything to positively affect any one of this list of kinds of people our Father expresses a particular, caring love for? 

A Christian can be measured in maturity by how he or she loves and serve these people.

2) Do I count myself among these?

Jesus in Matthew's account of the Beatitudes says "Blessed are the poor in spirit."  Do I know my own depravity?  Do I know that I am a prisoner and a slave to sin without Jesus redeeming me?  Do I know I am blinded by Satan until God removes my blinders?  Do I know I am a little one in need of heavenly adoption?  Do I ever hunger and thirst for things to be right?  Do I know that every crumb of food comes from God to me?

"Only with difficulty will a rich person enter the Kingdom of Heaven.  Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of Heaven." Matthew 19:23-4

None of us are actually rich. We are all beggars in the cosmic scope.  But many of us trust in our riches and perceive ourselves to have all we need.  This can't be true for a Christ follower.

No haughty and prideful person will be in the Kingdom of Heaven.  Only those who humbly understand their need and cry out for help will be in the Kingdom of Heaven.  This is a theme of the Bible: The proud and wicked are attacked by God.

Ask yourself today these questions.  Do you love and serve the outcasts? Do you count yourself among those who desperately need God's salvation?  Think about those questions today.

The Gospel According to a Mother's Lap

 When I was a young boy laying my head on my mom's lap was comforting.  There was many a Sunday when I was little that I laid down in the pew during service while my mother softly scratched my back.

Now I have kids and when they are needing comfort they run to their own mother to sit on her lap or be held as she stands.  Our fairly recently weaned toddler loves to play in the same room as her mom.  She is especially content when Mom is on the floor near her as she plays.

God is not our mother, but rather He is our Heavenly Father.  Yet, the best of motherhood displays and reflects His goodness.  We are made, male and female, in God's image (Genesis 1:28) and it is in the best of motherhood and fatherhood, the best of masculinity and femininity, that God is most clearly displayed.  

"O LORD, my heart is not lifted up;
my eyes are not raised too high;
I do not occupy myself with things
too great and too marvelous for me.
But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
like a weaned child with its mother;
like a weaned child is my soul within me.

O Israel, hope in the LORD
from this time forth and forevermore." Psalm 131

How many of us get worked up thinking about things that are far beyond our control! 

For example: I am, and we are, in the last many years especially, overly concerned with politics.  I fully believe that being an informed and engaged citizen is imperative for a functioning democratic republic.  I cherish and will help defend the right to speak out and protest and/or vocally support a cause.  That said, too many of us give our peace away when we have very little control over something.  The number of us that lose patience and sleep and nerves sweating every detail in our overly political culture is extremely high.

It's not just politics either.  It's a host of things like health, our kid's athletic performance, the forecast for the upcoming picnic... the list goes on and on.  We occupy ourselves with things that are simply out of our control.

King David said that he won't play that game and he wrote a song to help others avoid it, too.

Instead of arrogantly looking constantly at the big, bad issues all around us we are to calm and quiet our souls.  We are to be like a toddler who is just so calm and content because of the presence of her loving mother.  We are to be like I was with my head on my mom's lap while her fingers gently scratched my back until I fell into a peaceful semi-consciousness.

Your soul isn't made to constantly rue over the affairs of the world.  It isn't able to fixate on all the things out of your control.  Your mental health can't take it.  Our minds and souls are breaking in this day and age of constant alarm bells because we just can't take it.  So, don't.  Rather, hope in the LORD.  Hope in God.

Hope looks like calm.  One who hopes can rest his soul.  In fact, Jesus commands us to trust in the goodness of our Heavenly Father instead of dwelling in nervous anxiety (Matthew 5:25-34).

Our God is good.  Do you believe that?  

He is our good, good Father and He has all the best qualities of our wonderful mothers perfectly.  Therefore we trust Him.  We go on with our business and our playing without fear and anxiety because we know God is in this place and our minds and souls are quieted and calmed.  

Trust in God like a good father or mother today.

Righteous Ripples

 There are few metaphors more cliché than that of pond ripples.  The rock that makes a small splash yet produces wide roaming ripples is a super common analogy.  Yet, it's the analogy that I want to use.

Let me begin by asking what kind of family you were born into.  Would you consider it more Leave it to Beaver or Married... With Children?  Was it like Bluey or the Simpsons?

None of us get to choose the family we were born into.  We're simply born into a family and that family either functions or doesn't function well.  That family is a church-going family or it isn't.  That family is either loving and safe or hostile and cold.  Yet, what a massive impact a family has upon a child.  What a massive impact a childhood has on the adult life.  And all of this is simply good or bad luck from the perspective of we humans.

That brings me to a wisdom psalm, Psalm 112.  In this 10 verse song on wisdom we see an amazing truth about families.

"Praise the LORD!
Blessed is the man who fears the LORD,
who greatly delights in His commandments!
His offspring will be mighty in the land;
the generation of the upright will be blessed." Psalm 112:1-2

We see from this brief passage a wonderful rule of wisdom.  Note this is not a wonderful, stone-cold guarantee of wisdom, but a glorious rule of wisdom:

Righteousness ripples.

The man who fears the Great I Am affects his descendants.  The person that loves the ways of God blesses those downstream of him.  Righteousness ripples.

I have seen this in my own life.  Every other year we do a Ray reunion.  It has struck me every, single time how blessed I am and why I am so blessed.  It occurs to me that many of our righteous habits were inherited, not created.  Part of the reunion at the cabin is a family church service.  We sing, pray and one of us preaches.  We tell of the blessings of God and we pray for each other.  And every single, time that we've done that I am struck by how abnormal the practice is.  Generations gather together bound by common blood and the common blood of Christ.  And much of that is because of who my Grandpa Ray was.  

I love my other side of the family but we don't do this.  There's much divorce and brokenness in the family tree and a peaceful reunion every two years just sadly isn't in the card.  Part of the reason the Rays do what we do is because Thomas W. Ray loved Jesus with all his heart, mind, soul and strength and because he loved Margie A Renschen Ray until the day he died and they raised five children in the fear and admonition of the Lord.  

Righteousness ripples.

So, what do you want to see ripple from you?  On both sides of my family I have a legacy of faith passed down to me. On one side I saw ripples of divorce and on the other ripples of lasting love.  I looked at that and said I want to keep many of the ripples going and I want to start other ripples and I want to stop the ripple of divorce and create the opposite.  

Maybe you're like our son Jamari who had a much tougher past and more destructive ripples headed his way.  He, thank God, I'm proud to say is dedicating his life to make a new splash and give the generations following him a legacy worth passing on.  If that's your story, then I applaud you and encourage you to send out some righteous ripples.

See, our obedience to the Word of God and our passion and love for Jesus and His ways is about so much more than us.  Chaos and calamity send out shock waves of trauma and sin (Exodus 20:5) but righteousness also ripples. 

Live with wisdom and make a splash with your life that sends out righteous ripples for generations and generations to be blessed today.

Are You a Student or a Proof-Reader?

 Is the Bible infallible and inerrant or is it fallible and at times errant?

I recently read a piece arguing that the Bible was fallible just as Jesus in His humanity was  fallible.  That got a reaction out of me and very likely will get a reaction out of you.  

So called "conservative" Christians and so called "progressive" Christians debate on a great many things and this is one of them.  When it comes to the labels "Progressive" and "Conservative", whether it be in theology, morality, politics or whatever the word following the label may be, it is important to think about what is being conserved or toward what are we progressing.  There are a great many things I want to progress toward and a great many things I am glad those before me progressed toward.  There are a great many things I want to conserve and a great many things I am glad were conserved for me.

When it comes to the issue of Biblical inerrancy what is being conserved?  When it comes to the notion of a fallible Bible what is one progressing toward?

Let me start by saying that some in the "conservative" wing of this debate can at times miss the ball.  In the name of conservatism there are some, mostly not a thoughtful bunch, that would ignore that sentences are in paragraphs, paragraphs are in sections, sections are in books with a genre and a point trying to be made, and the book is in the cannon of Scripture.  Some in this camp will say, "It says what it says" without bothering to actually discover what is being said.  It may be uneducated or simply lazy reading.

That said, the conservative approach to this, the one that says that in the original language and manuscripts the Bible is without fault and is the very Words of God as penned by a human author inspired by the Holy Spirit, is worth conserving.

The question that sticks with me is this: Am I a student or a proof-reader when I come to my Bible?

When one reads the Bible are they over the Word or under the Word? Do I come to the Bible to seek and understand what it says and what it means or do I come to decide whether or not I think it to be right?  

This is no new concept.  Martin Luther in the Large Catechism said, "I and my neighbor and, in short, all people may err or deceive.  But God's Word cannot err."  This is no new concept.  500 years ago Luther and all the reformers stood on this as fact and it has been conserved to this day.

If we leave Biblical inerrancy and infallibility toward what are we progressing?

Well, if all come to the Bible to decide what in it we find to be true and what in it we find to be false then we come to the Bible as a god and not a disciple (which means learner).  If we come to our Bible in this way then we get what the book of Judges (21:25b) said caused great darkness, "Everyone did what was right in his own eyes." 

But you say that this is an overreaction.  Everyone won't do what is right in their own eyes.  And here lies much of the issue: You would have everyone do what it right in your eyes.  You would be a god or at least have your tribe be the gods.

I encourage you to think this through.  I encourage you to take the Bible for what it is and what it claims to be (2 Timothy 3:16): inerrant and infallible.  Resist the urge to eat the forbidden fruit and claim to be like God knowing good from evil and instead to take the bread mentioned in Deuteronomy 8:3 and Matthew 4:4 and be sustained by it and to put yourself under it today. 

Good Fathering Hurts

 I was a father of little kids before I became the instant father of a teen.  My wife and I had not really even considered what it might look like to parent a teen because we had many years before our naturally born children would be teens and in our plans fostering a teen wasn't something we were going to do.

Well, God changed our plans on an August day and I instantly became the father of a 14 year-old.

I made a lot of mistakes.  A lot.  One of the biggest mistake we made was the mistake of trying to parent him like we parented our little kids.  We had rules and we fought to enforce them.  We banged our heads against the wall trying to make him do what we knew was best for him.  

Well, it didn't work well.

He would leave our home after five months and we had time to reflect on what we did.  Long story short, he came back to live with us about a year later and we once again became parents of a teenager.  I was once again the father of someone who needed to become a man in short order.  We had to change our strategy.

Our first strategy was to make a list of rules and have him sign a contract to follow it in order to live with us like he had requested.  We sat with him and explained the fairly simple expectations we had for him.  We wanted him to choose like a man.  We wanted him to be a participant in the process.  

We were sure this strategy would work well.  

Well, it didn't.  

He broke the rules he promised to follow.  For example, he stayed up later than the covenant that he signed said he would.  It was so late that we couldn't enforce it without exhausting ourselves and becoming ineffective in our work as parents and employees.  We were frustrated that simple and even liberal rules weren't being followed as he promised to do if he wanted to live with us.

We needed a different strategy and we decided upon natural consequences. 

Stay up too late: Be tired at work and school.  Show up late for school: Fail.  Not come down for supper: Be hungry.

We decided that to parent a boy into a man we would let him get hurt.  We would, in effect, let him find out that the stove will burn.  We let the natural order of the universe as designed by God do the work of punishing for us.

While this may sound like lazy parenting let me tell you that it was hard.  It was hard to lead a horse to water only to watch him leave thirsty.  It wasn't easy to watch failure happen.  It hurts your heart to watch foolishness harm your child.

Psalm 81 tells us that God uses this same strategy with His children and that He feels this pain, too.

"Hear, O my people, while I admonish you!
There shall be no strange god among you;
you shall not bow down to a foreign god.
I am the LORD your God,
who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.

But my people did not listen to my voice;
Israel would not submit to me.
So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts,
to follow their own counsels.
Oh, that my people would listen to me,
that Israel would walk in my ways!
I would soon subdue their enemies
and turn my hand against their foes.
Those who hate the LORD would cringe toward Him,
and their fate would last forever.
But He would feed you with the finest of the wheat,
and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you." Psalm 81:8-16

Israel had made a covenant with God.  They had done it enthusiastically.  They had promised to follow God's righteous and wise ways and they were well aware of the consequences.  

When they strayed from their promises God warned and warned and warned until He left them to natural consequences.  

The people of Israel experienced pain and suffering.  A lot more pain and suffering than getting an F or being tired at work.  This hurt their Heavenly Father.  See all the times in the above verses that He exhales His grief.  "O Israel" "Oh, that my people would listen to me".  

God is a good father.  He hates when we hurt, especially when we hurt from stupidity and foolishness.  He would have us be blessed, but He will leave us to natural consequences even though it pains His heart.

God is our good, good father, but He isn't in the business of raising forever toddlers.  He wants us to experience blessing but He's raising us into maturity.  He wants us to mature into righteous men and women and He will let natural consequences help us become that.

Our son I wrote about earlier has grown into a great young man.  It hurt my heart, but I am glad that natural consequences played a role in maturing him.  

God's statutes are for our good and for our blessing.  Follow them.  Don't be stubborn.  But when you are and discomfort arises please remember that even that is love and that God's heart is pained and longing for you to repent today.

Not Just There but VERY There

 Are you going through something right now?  

Maybe it's political stress.  Perhaps a health crisis. Economic stress weighing you down and causing you worry?  Or, what may be even worse, your children are going through something hard that you can't fix.  

What is stealing your sleep?  What is robbing your joy?  What's gobbling up your headspace?  What is it that is threatening you?

Is the earth underneath you shaking?  Do you feel like your life is on the edge of a cliff in a mudslide?  Do you feel like you're in a wave pool or sea and timing every wave wrong so that whenever you need a breath you get dowsed instead?

If your world is all as it should be, then good for you.  You can stop reading or you can save this for a future need, but this post is for those who are in a bind.  This, based on Psalm 46, is for those of us who need help.

Look at Psalm 46 and be encouraged:

"God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble." Psalm 46:1

I love this verse.  I have been reading through the psalms this year and 19 days ago I read this and it has stuck with me and I am glad for this.

Do you need help?  God is your help!

God is our refuge.  He is the tank we can be safe in as we go through the battles of life.  He is the brick house, not a house of straw or sticks.  He is our strength.  When I am weak, He is strong.

And my favorite part: God is a very present help in trouble.

When you are going through the junk of life and need help He isn't just there He is VERY there.  Are you in trouble and need help?  God is not just with you, He is very with you.  He's not just with you; He is there to help.  Help isn't on the way; help is very there!

The ESV is what I quoted above.  The NASB says God is a, "very ready help." The NIV says He is an, "ever present help."  Put these together and this is God: He is very there, very ready and, in fact, He was always there even before you shouted for help.

Why do I harp on God being VERY present?  Too often I pray to God like I talk to an imaginary friend.  I must take this verse to heart and believe it to be true and act accordingly.  God isn't an idea, He is my refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.  He actually, honestly, truthfully and very much is with me and you in our trouble.

So, what do we do in light of this truth?  

"Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way,
though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,
though the mountains tremble at its swelling." Psalm 46:2-3

God is our tank in the battle, so we roll forward unafraid. God is our strength, so we don't act as though impotent but we act in light of the omnipotent power source we possess.  God is very much with us in the trouble, so we just ain't afraid.  

When we understand verse 1 we can live verse 2.  This isn't just poetry.  This isn't just a song.  This is really, truly who our God is.  He is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

Go back to that thing that you said was bothering you, was tormenting you, was threatening you, was snatching your sleep.  It. Is. Real.  But so, and even more so, is your God and Savior.  Meditate on that truth.  

Let's turn now to the end and let it be our benediction and prayer:

"'Be still, and know that I am God.
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth!'
The LORD of host is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress." Psalm 46:10-11

The sons of Korah, the writers of this song, leave us with two reminders and so will I. 

1) The God of angel armies is with us.

2) The God who loves cheating scoundrels like Jacob is our protection.

And the final word of the psalm is Selah.  Selah is a Hebrew musical term that likely means rest or pause.  So, selah.  Know this beautiful truth, meditate on it and then rest in it. Rest.  Lean into this wonderful truth about your very there God and relax today.

Can You Pursue Humility?

 I don't think anyone has an easy time being humble. Certainly some have this virtue and necessary quality come easier, but I would doubt it comes easy to anyone.

That said, I think about my struggle for humility and feel stuck.  

One of the desires in my soul is to be known and to be known for the right things.  My reputation is something I protect and I don't think that it's wrong. Proverbs 22:1a says, "A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches..."  

Plus, as a radio broadcaster my position is public.  Sometimes the job is called "Radio Personality".  My job is to be heard and known.  I somehow have to humbly think everyone should listen to me and then work to make that happen.

Can you see my plight?  I want humility and at the same time my soul wants to be known as humble.  Is that desire even humble? Can you relate even if your job isn't to hope more people tune in to listen to you today than yesterday?

What a confusing thing.  I guess what I'm trying to wonder is: Can one aspire to humility and, if so, how?

"Humility is so shy.  If you begin talking about it, it leaves." -Tim Keller

Humility is a mysterious thing to pursue.  This is especially true when it feels that humility runs further away when you focus on her.  And if she isn't running she begins to feel less like you and more foreign to all you are.  And can you even know she's been attained if you do indeed catch her?

"... smuggle into his mind the gratifying reflection, 'By jove! I'm being humble', and almost immediately pride... pride at his own humility... will appear.  If he awakens to the danger and tries to smother this new form of pride, make him proud of his attempt... and so on, through as many stages as you please." -C.S. Lewis in The Screwtape Letters chapter 14.

The cycle exists in my life.  The moment I see humility in my life she magically is replaced by her ugly and unwanted houseguest of an opposite, Pride.  

"Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?" Romans 7:24

Perhaps, pastor Rick Warren was right when he synthesized Lewis' Screwtape Letter on humility into a favorite sentence of mine: "Humility is not thinking less of yourself but thinking of yourself less."  Perhaps, thinking about humility is good but thinking of my humility is wrong.  Maybe the way to pursue humility is to only pursue it in the person of Christ. 

"Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.  Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.  Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself taking the form of a servant..." Philippians 2:3-7a

See, this humility is only mine In Christ Jesus.  Looking for it on its own is a chasing after the wind.  And even though I see and know this truth getting and displaying humility is still a struggle.  

Perhaps my strategy of should be less one of chasing humility and more of evicting Pride so her more beautiful opposite, Humility, can shine in that strange, unassuming beauty that is hers and hers alone.

"And He said to them, 'This kind (of demon) cannot be driven out by anything but prayer." Mark 9:29

I in the fourteen years of writing in this blog have tried to end with some sort of a charge toward you, the reader, to do today.  Though I'm betting your desire for humility and struggle for her feels a lot like mine, I won't end with a charge but a request for a favor.  Pray for me to have humility and pray that God will be gentle in helping me evict pride today.