Month: April 2015

Unveiled Faces

There is controversy around the world regarding the wearing of the “veil” by women. While women in some countries are fighting for the right to wear a veil as an expression of their belief, there are others who simply want the freedom to choose whether or not they should have to wear one.  https://www.facebook.com/StealthyFreedom

Many people do not understand the significance of a veil covering the face from a Christian perspective. The Bible first mentions it in Exodus 34. Moses had been up on Mount Sinai for forty days and night receiving the law and commandments from God.

29 When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God.30 Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses, and behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him… 33 And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face.

34 Whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he would remove the veil, until he came out. And when he came out and told the people of Israel what he was commanded, 35 the people of Israel would see the face of Moses that the skin of Moses’ face was shining. And Moses would put the veil over his face again, until he went in to speak with him.

So in Moses case, the use of the veil was not to protect a woman’s modesty, obviously. It was because being in the power and presence of God caused Moses’s face to glow to such a degree that he scared the people! “Dude your face is glowing! Cover it up! You’re freaking me out!” (modern interpretation)

In 2 Corinthians 3:4-18 the writer, Paul uses this incident to illustrate the difference between being under the law in the time of Moses, to being under grace through Christ.

4 Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. 5 Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, 6 who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter (law) but of the Spirit. For the letter (law) kills, but the Spirit gives life.

7 Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone (law), came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses’ face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end, 8 will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory?…

12 Since we have such a hope, we are very bold, 13 not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. 14 But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. 15 Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. 16 But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. 17 Now the Lordis the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

It is that last verse that I would like to focus on with this blog.  We can be transformed by being in the presence of the Lord! We do not have to veil our faces in His presence.  We can come boldly before God in prayer.

Hebrews 4:16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

When we spend time in His presence, the very Creator God of the Universe who spoke light into existence shines into our hearts!

2 Corinthians 4:6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

I have watched a group of women as they left a time of prayer together.  I have seen that light and glory on their faces! It reminds me of the gospel song,

Surely the presence of the Lord is in this place.
I can feel His mighty power and His grace.
I can hear the brush of angels’ wings.
I see glory on each face.
Surely the presence of the Lord is in this place

Wouldn’t it be amazing, if rather than using a veil to hide ourselves from the world, we instead had so much of the glory of the Lord radiating from our face that we had to cover it because it overwhelmed people with the power of God?

Working in the Garden

It is no secret that I love gardening. From my earliest memories toddling along behind my grandfather, I have loved being outdoors, feeling the soil and mostly, watching things grow. 

From the very beginning, this was the task God first gave to humans. Genesis 2:15 “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it.”  It has always seemed to me that followers of God should be the most committed to the care of the planet, but that is a topic for another post.

Jesus took the concepts that the farmers and shepherds of his day were familiar with and used them to teach spiritual concepts.  In particular concerning ministry and outreach to others.

In Matthew 13 the farmer sows the seed that falls on the path, the rocks, among thorns and on the good soil. He explains that where the seed falls represents the various responses of people to the message of Jesus.

In the same chapter, he talks about the weeds that an enemy might plant among the good grain. Revealing that judging who is a true follower and who is a “weed” is not for us to determine but will be dealt with in the coming day of separation.

John 4:35-38 is where I would like to focus for this blog.

35“Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. 36 Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37 For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”

Anyone who has ever had a garden knows that it is WORK! There is labor involved. In our instant society, we often want to pay and instantly receive.  That is not the way of the gardener or of ministry. As verse 38 indicates, if someone responds to your message and comes to know God, you can be assured that either you or someone else has put some labor into it.

I am not a gardening expert by any means, but I know that before you plant, the soil has to be prepared.  It has to be broken up and softened, rocks, weeds, and other impediments have to be removed.

Often when you approach a person or a new ministry, it is the same.  Their hearts have to be softened in some way; the hurts and misconceptions that they have about God have to be removed. The weeds of worry, fear, and doubt must be uprooted.

It is not just a matter of what must be removed, but also what must be added.  Like soil, some people have become depleted and leached by life.  Their lives must be enriched with love, acceptance, truth, and compassion. This restoration can often require years of labor before enough trust is restored for there to be a harvest.

My point is that you cannot reap a harvest of faith with a person or group without WORK! 

My youngest son and I have been building a garden on a rocky hillside. This effort has required hours of hauling rocks to build garden beds, multitudinous bags of soil and mulch, and so far, the destruction of two wheelbarrows and a shovel. It has also cost blisters, sore muscles, sunburn and other minor inconveniences. Though often reluctant, my good son has “entered into my labor” with me.

In ministry as well, we need to be working together, entering into one another’s labor lest we become weary in well doing.  It is especially important that we involve the younger generation.  They need to work beside us in ministry.  Not so much to learn techniques, but rather to absorb the work ethic of the kingdom.  How do we go about loving, caring, and keeping people?

In the Genesis passage, God said Adam needed to tend the garden and “Keep” it. This is an area of ministry where we have often failed.  The grapes and olives, and even the poor fig tree of Jesus time were long-term, even lifetime projects.  Our ministry and outreach needs to have a long-term caring-keeping focus.  How can we care for our spiritual gardens so that they will continue to bear fruit, growing stronger and more productive year by year?

Paul gives us the answer in Ephesians 3:14-19 “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

All of our efforts have only one design in mind.  Harvest, fruit, growth, beauty.  The result is always more than worth work.

Psalm 126:5-6

Those who sow in tears
shall reap with shouts of joy!
6 He who goes out weeping,
bearing the seed for sowing,
shall come home with shouts of joy,
bringing his sheaves with him.

When the Body Suffers

The apostle Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, 1 Corinthians 12: 24-27 “But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it,that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.

Paul was not referring to an actual physical body, but rather to the body of all believers.  We who follow Him in some mysterious way become part of a whole, which he refers to as the “body of Christ”.  We are not all in the same location nor do we have the same function, but we are in the body.  Lately it seems there have been repeated blows to the body.

Romans 14 says it even more directly “7 For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself.  8 For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. 9 For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.”

Lately, our hearts are broken for those who have died for the Lord.  Either directly because they carried the name of Christians or indirectly because the calling on their lives has sent them to places where they will be hated or despised simply because they cared enough to want to meet the needs of those in distress.

For years, it seemed we needed to drag out Foxes Book of Martyrs to discuss those who were willing to die rather than renounce their faith. Not so anymore, we only have to turn on the news.  It is not that these instances did not occur in the meantime. It is rather that we did not know or maybe even did not care to know the degree to which the other members of our body were suffering.

I confess to feeling a tremendous amount of empathy for the family of the young aid worker killed recently.  Because she came from my country, she was of my race; she was the age of my children or because I have a family member who travels to that region for nearly the same reason; I can identify.  However, that ancient family of believers, the Coptic Church, now has widows and fatherless children who will have to live with trauma and loss as well as continued threats to their own lives. The young girls kidnapped in Africa who are now slaves or forced to ‘marry’ their terrorist captors. Are they as often in my prayers?

Even, if I may step into dangerous territory here, if I had been as concerned for those innocents killed who are not of my faith, my country.  Whose simple, humble lives have been destroyed by bombs and drones and terrorists for reasons that, lacking internet and access to the outside world, they cannot possibly understand. Death came through no fault of their own. John Donne wrote many years ago.

No man is an island, Entire of itself,
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thy friend’s
Or of thine own were:
Any man’s death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind,
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee.

Do I truly feel that any man’s death diminishes me? Could it ever be that the death of innocent school children in Pakistan is as traumatic for me as a school shooting in my home town? When Jesus cried over Jerusalem, he wasn’t just concerned for his own followers.  “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem… How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!”

It is Lent and on this Ash Wednesday I feel the need to repent for the callousness of my petty concerns.  Even for the amount of my prayer time that is consumed by myself and my small world.

Lord, what part of your body is hurting, even facing death? Please be close to that one! What innocent child is away from Your body that You long to gather to Yourself? Please have mercy on that one!