Reserving time (for God)

Posted on June 18, 2014 by Robert Franklin

underweightLord, if you kept a count of my sins I would be crushed under the weight of my own rebellion. The number would be like the national debt, running up and up. You offer not to keep track instead. You do this so that I may stand, mouth agape, heart trembling, eyes not able to comprehend the magnificence of your character. You want me to be so overcome by your grace that I shudder at the thought of violating your forgiveness by how I live my life. Because of who you are, I can depend on you. The only ‘counting’ done in our relationship is my counting on you. You are free from any kind of deceit, so I trust everything you say. My hope is not the wisp of a dream but the assurance of a ‘done deal.’

Today I took the liberty of paraphrasing Psalm 130:3-5 and sharing it here. One of the ways to engage God’s word is to put it in ‘my words.’ There is a certain amount of danger in doing this, I have a heart that will mess me up if I don’t keep it submitted to my Lord’s direction. Sometimes paraphrasing robs the Word of all its transformative power. We do this when we cause it to say something it does not because it suits us or makes us feel better. Yet this tool can also add an immense depth into our reserved time with God. When I speak back to God my understanding of what He says, in my own words, often the Word becomes the ‘sharp, two-edged sword’ it promises to be.

Such was the case with this portion of the song. I was struck by the pun (in English only, not the original Hebrew) of not having my sin ‘counted’ but being about to ‘count’ on God. I was also challenged by my lack of awe. I take God’s grace for granted. It does not cause jaw-dropping awe in me as it should. For this I must repent, daily.

Rick Warren, in 40 Days in the Word, suggests the following when paraphrasing a passage:

  • read the verse or passage over and over
  • think about what God is saying to you
  • put it into your own words
  • search your heart to see how this verse applies to you
  • talk to God about it.

Which passage of God’s Word have you written down as you understand it? How has it changed how you live?

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Reserving time (for God)

Posted on June 17, 2014 by Robert Franklin

working outHear my cry, O Lord. Pay attention to my prayer. Psalm 130:2 (NLT)

I wonder at the brute honesty of this portion of the song. The climb from the ‘depths of despair’ is commenced and the first thing we hear from the traveler is the cry, ‘listen to me.’

I try to keep fit as best I can. Currently I am ‘working out’ by myself. Sometimes, during a particularly strenuous part of an exercise, I will vocalize the difficulty with a groan or, if I am in significant pain, a cry. I am glad nobody is around to hear. The psalmist counts on the opposite. He depends on the Sovereign of the Universe to not only ‘be around’ but to ‘pay attention.’ The idea of God ‘hearing’ and ‘paying attention’ is too big for me to comprehend. What right do I have to demand God’s focus?

Lord, if you kept a record of our [Robert’s] sins, who [could Robert], O Lord, could survive? Psalm 130:3 (NLT)

The lack of my ‘right to be heard’ is furthered by the confession of inability to survive in the face of the record of sins. For my part, the answer to the question is simple: I cannot survive based upon my own merit. There is no just way to cancel out the enormity of my sin debt, even if every good I could own were placed on the balance sheet.

There is a highway of hope in the word ‘if.’ The song does not say ‘since you keep a record…’ or even ‘when you keep a record…’ It is simply ‘if…then.’ The ability of the singer to cry out, ‘listen to me’ is a nod to the understanding that God chooses not to keep the record of sin without remedy.

Today I chose one powerful but simple way to study God’s Word. I “personalized it” by inserting personal pronouns or my own name where appropriate. Another way I applied this portion of the song was to “pray it” by taking ownership of the content of the text. Both methods are explained well in Rick Warren’s 40 Days in the Word  resource.

What did God show you today in your time with Him? What portion of His word will you commit to memory this week?

 

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Reserving Time (for God)

Posted on June 16, 2014 by Robert Franklin

sentryYesterday my family at Main Street “pictured” Psalm 130:6 together. A Vietnam veteran came to me after the worship gathering and described standing guard at night. He and three other men faced out into the darkness, each one stationed at a corner of the camp. His description of the jungle, water buffalo, heat, rice paddy, the 500 men sleeping under his watch trusting him with their lives, cast even a deeper vision in my mind of what it means to long for the Lord.

I long for the Lord, more than sentries long for the dawn, more than sentries long for the dawn. (NLT)

This morning I suggest using Rick Warren’s “Pronounce It” method to engage Psalm 130:1 as we reserve daily time to meet with God.

Don’t forget to be quiet for at least a minute.

Ask God to give you wisdom to understand His Word.

From the depths of despair, O LORD, I call for your help. 

“From the depths” serves a double meaning. The heading to Psalm 130 says it is a song for the pilgrim to sing as he or she walks up from the valleys surrounding Jerusalem to the city itself. The ‘valley’ referred to in this song isn’t just any geographical depression, it is a hole, a well, a pit.

From the depths of despair, O LORD, I call for your help.

The ‘low’ state of the pilgrim cannot be described merely as the ‘depths.’ Here the songwriter employs what we may call a bit of a ‘blues lyric.’ In the blues we can be ‘down’ or we can be ‘low’ but if we want to convey how much we really hurt, we sing about being ‘down low.’ The writer of this lyric doesn’t simply want to complain about the difficulty of the ascent. The song isn’t about climbing a hill. This song is about facing the mountainous challenge of life in all of its ugly reality and difficulty. The ‘climb’ is neither ‘from the depths,’ nor ‘from despair,’ it is from the ‘depths of despair.’

From the depths of despair, O LORD, I call for your help.

The reason ‘Lord’ is in all capital letters is to signify to the reader that God’s proper name is being used in the song. This lyric is not directed simply to the Authority of the Universe, or to the personage ensconced in the heavens. This song will only work if the ‘I AM’ is addressed. No lesser god could possibly be of help from the depths of despair. This song is for the ears of  ‘the One and Only, who was, and is, and is to come.’

From the depths of despair, O LORD, I call for your help.

There are different kinds of songs we sing. Some are just tunes we hum. Others are soft melodies. If we are in a car or shower, we may sing out from ‘the top of our lungs.’ This song is none of the above. It is the song of the slave, working in the heat and oppression of the field, calling out for rest, calling out for relief, calling out for release from the burden of being.

From the depths of despair, O LORD, I call for your help.

The most experienced and well-resourced climbers in the world rely on local guides called ‘sherpas’ when attempting the peak of Mt. Everest. The song writer calls upon the One who made the mountain peak in the first place. This is a confession that God did not create mountains in our lives in order for us to prove we could best them alone. He walks with us, in us, as we take the difficult road.

I do not know if it was the author’s intent but this first line of the song creates an image in my mind of a young boy faced with an impossible task requiring strength and skill he is yet to find. As the boy examines what is required of him, he bursts into unmanly tears of frustration over his own inability. He does well, however, to find his voice and call out to the only one truly able to come to his aid.

And so the song may continue…

What do you see in these words? How is God speaking to you as you stop and consider each phrase in the opening line of this song? What does God want you to remember for this day, and for tomorrow? Write it down.

If you would like post your insights below or post on my Facebook page.

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Restored

Posted on March 27, 2014 by Robert Franklin

RestoredQuite a few years ago, I found myself peering through the office window of a close friend’s shop and I spied a forlorn 1955 Pontiac Chieftain parked in his back lot.

“Whose car is that?” I asked without giving any detail as to which one of the thirty cars in the lot I referred.

“Don’t know, it was abandoned, we towed it in a few days ago,” he replied without looking up from his desk. “No title on record.”

“Can I buy it?”

“Do you want it?”

1950’s pasty baby blue mostly rust-free exterior, completely rotted out interior upholstery, several pieces of body chrome haphazardly strewn in the back where a massive bench seat once rested, it was a nearly 17 foot long, 1,500 lb., um, project.

$150 for the tow and I was the proud owner of my own piece of Detroit.

My wife, to her credit, did not express out loud any objection. She did ask what I was going to do with it, but only nodded attentively and politely as I gave her my vision of what the car would look like after our son, Ryan, and I were finished ripping the poor vehicle completely apart and putting it back together again. A few pictures of what other industrious, and far more talented, fellows had done to their ’55 Chieftains and excitement was actually beginning to build at our home.

It was an insane notion. What possibly could be wrong with an otherwise fairly reasonable human being to deliberately desire to restore a massive piece of junk some one else literally threw away?

Good question.

I believe the whole urge to restore is actually one of the myriad of “thumbprints” God puts on us, marking us as His creation. Restoring the abused, broken, obsolete, forgotten, abandoned, unsightly, and rejected is just the sort of work God does moment by moment.

Jesus exulted in it. He said crazy things like,

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. (Luke 4:18, ESV)

And,

But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you… (Luke 14:13–14, ESV)

And,

…the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up and the poor have the good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.

And…

So much more. God’s work is not satisfied until all that can be restored is restored, even re-created. This message is one followers of Jesus are commanded to proclaim, “There is forgiveness of sin for those who repent in Jesus’ name!” and “The Son of Man [Jesus] has come to seek and save that which was lost.”

This is the focus of our preparation for celebrating Resurrection Day (Easter) this year at Main Street. Week by week we will gather and learn more about what it means to restore and be restored.

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Week 1 of the 7, The Mutiny Project

Posted on January 31, 2014 by Robert Franklin

7_wide_tThis week my friends and I entered into a “Mutiny Project” together. We decided to take up Jen Hatmaker’s challenge to look at seven key areas of our lives and see if we relate to those areas from a more Biblical, Jesus-centered perspective.

This week’s project considered how we connect to food. I proposed that we all look at food through the lens of how our consumption impacts other people. For too long, Christians have treated our diet (meaning what we eat and drink) as a personal and individual practice which does not impact others. This cannot be further from truthful living. God made us to function in community, and even the choice of what, where, how much and when to eat impacts a sphere of relationships far beyond our own bodies.

In this past week’s message I used my own struggle against hypoglycemia as an example. When I allow my blood sugar to get too low because of what I eat, I am grumpy, suffer headaches, am prone to depression. All these things impact others in my life. There is no way my choice to eat sugar remains a purely personal thing. Most of us do not have something that is so easily identifiable as impacting others, but if we think about it just a little bit, we will soon find our food choices introduce consequences far beyond the limits of our own stomachs. I suggested three of many areas to contemplate.

  1. How does my consumption of food impact my overall health? How is my health impacting those in my life?
  2. How does my consumption of food impact my ability to give to others? Is the place where I eat and type of food I eat limiting my ability to be generous with those in my life?
  3. How am I connected to how food is produced? Is there some way I can reconnect to food production that may be used to make friends or bless others?

The specific project challenge we are taking up this week is to limit consumption of food to seven items or to eliminate seven things from this week’s diet which we would normally and regularly consume. The purpose of this kind of “fast” is to get us to think about what we eat and to listen for the prompting of the Holy Spirit. I have been privy to responses from both the “subtract from” and the “limit to” camps and the project so far seems to be opening doors for the Holy Spirit’s work.

For my part in the project, I chose rice, farina (malt o’ meal), greens, banana, apple, orange and nuts as my seven foods for this week. Here is what I have learned so far:

  • I learned that I actually forgot a lesson I gleaned from an extended fast last year, much to my chagrin. Somewhere along my path I neglected to remain grateful for the ease with which I get food. Most the rest of the world labors just to get their “seven.” I just go to my kitchen and abundance reigns. This is not an appeal to guilt, rather it is an opportunity to be deeply thankful to God for my place in this world. I am going to work diligently to submit to God’s changing my mindset permanently in this area.
  • I can eat and still be hungry. I have children in Uganda, with whom I have a good relationship. They have often described being hungry in a way I could not comprehend, in spite of my best attempts. I think I now have a sliver of understanding of what it is like to have food available, but still feel like it is not enough. The limit to seven gave me a kind of empathy even a total fast from food has not brought me in the past.
  • My food choices do indeed impact others. My wife, Michelle, wasn’t able to help plan for my seven challenge due to being really sick last week. Since we are the only two at home at present, my choice of seven foods wasn’t exactly the choices she would have made. It has been awkward at moments trying to figure out what we are going to eat. She is a good sport about it, but it is a practical reminder that I am in community, even if it is just with my spouse.
  • I like variety. While I normally choose to eat from a near meat-less diet, I do like the ability to throw different vegetables (other than greens) and even the occasional animal protein. I really miss the ability to do so this week. Access to the spectrum of spices I take for granted seems much more important to me than it did last week.
  • I am still addicted to sweets. The first three days of this fast found me thinking regularly (craving ravenously really) about sweet things I could find at home (and eat, of course) but that were not in my “seven.” I have since found a deeper appreciation for the sweet taste of my apple, banana, and orange. If I had covered over these naturally sweetened foods with sugary foods I could eat instead, I would not be as sensitive to the joys of what God put in food from creation.
  • Lastly, I have learned from others who are sharing their “seven” experience with me. Our culture lost our collective ability to see food both as personal sustenance and opportunity for connection between each other. In listening to people’s extraordinarily varied responses to the project, one theme remains consistent: we are all ruled by our appetite in one way or another and pay little attention to the consequences unless there is some encouragement from the outside provided.

It is my prayer that as this week comes to a close, the larger community connected to those in the project will see in us a movement of the Holy Spirit in our relationship to food. May it be that we are more thoughtful about what we eat and with whom, reflecting whenever possible that is a good thing to share our Lord’s Table.

Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you [all]? God will destroy anyone who destroys this temple. For God’s temple is holy and you [all together] are that temple. 1 Corinthians 3:16-17, NLT

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Psalm 119 story…chapter 11

Posted on September 30, 2013 by Robert Franklin

Your eternal word, O LORD stands firm in heaven. Psalm 119.89, NLT

I had the privilege of playing high school tackle football for just one year. footballThe coaches liked my speed and lower body strength so middle linebacker was the assignment for me. I’ll never forget playing against the David Douglas Scots. Their left tackle was, by far, the biggest man in our conference.  He stood probably 6′ 7″ and weighed no less than 260 lbs.  During warm ups before the game that one massive young man dominated the fearful thoughts of our entire defensive line. One of our team’s sets had the middle linebacker line up against the left tackle. The coach’s call for that set came to me from the sideline and I can remember thinking to myself, “This is going to really, really, really, really, hurt…me.”

The snap count drug on, intensifying my dread, until finally the football moved and I sprung across the scrimmage line with all the power I could muster against a foe I was now fully convinced would soon stand over my limp carcass, pound his massive chest and triumphantly belch out the poet’s barbaric yelp.

That didn’t happen.

I immediately found myself enveloped in a gargantuan mush of humanity. Underneath all the intimidating football wear was nothing but fluff. I drove hard into the man. His body gave way so easily I thought I would momentarily feel his spinal cord on my face mask; that moment never came. That play ended with the Scots losing ground. Back in the defensive huddle one of my teammates asked if I was hurt after facing the giant. I replied, “No problem, he’s a marshmallow man!”

Many could tell their own story of fearing something that only turned out to be an apparition, a figment of an over-active imagination. Unfortunately, this self-assurance is often misapplied when awe is appropriate. The establishment of God’s Word is one such misapplication.

God’s word is eternal. Its burden is the breath of the eternal One who speaks it. What can we say, write, or think, that will stretch beyond the lifespan of this planet? Nothing. Everything God says bears such weight. Out of the eternal came the statement, “Let there be light!” and time began marking the events which culminated in our intersection with the eternal Word.

God’s word stands firm. There is no marshmallow man hiding his softness. We see standing firm the monument of perfected speech, magnificent in its completeness and absent of even the shadow of weakness.

God’s word stands in heaven. Humans throughout history drag the gods into our own ditches so we can consume them with our petty temporalities.  What glory it is that far away from the grubby hands created for a lessor but significant splendor, God’s word remains unassailable and unchanging.

To remove such words from their rightful place and insert them into the writhing, ever-changing filthy vapors we exhale is far too much to comprehend. Yet that is just what Creator Redeemer God did, and does. By virtue of the words handed down generation to generation and by virtue of the Spirit who still speaks into us, the eternally firm word in heaven becomes His faithfulness poured into earthen vessels.

What can a clay pot do but tremble with joy for the treasure contained within?

If your instructions hadn’t sustained me with joy, I would have died in my misery. 119.92

Even perfection has its limits, but your commands have no limit. 119.96

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