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The Evening News

Wednesday, March 31st, 2010 | Author: Skip Moen

And they continued in amazement and great perplexity, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” Acts 2:12

“What Does This Mean?” – Sometimes a culturally significant expression goes right by us because we read it with different eyes.  You’ve probably read this verse dozens of times, but you probably never considered why these men asked such a strange question.  They don’t ask the question we would ask.  They don’t ask, “What’s happening?”  They ask something else.

You’re part of the Jerusalem news team.  You’re on the scene for the festival at the temple.  Suddenly more than 100 people begin praising God in the languages of foreign visitors.  Swinging the camera toward the talking-head reporter, you hear him say, “But what does this mean?”  Ah, the question is perfectly legitimate, but it’s not very Greek.  Our questions are about what happens.  We want to know who, what, where and how.  Jewish questions in the first century had a different focus.  The questions these men asked were not about who was speaking, what they were saying, how this happened or where they came from.  The question they asked was about the meaning of the event.  The Jews thought about why.  Why did they think this way?  Why was their perspective so different?  Neusner explains:

“. . . in Midrash compilations the past takes place in the present.  The present embodies the past.  And there is no indeterminate future over the horizon, only a clear and present path to be chosen if people will it.  With distinctions between past, present and future time found to make no difference, and in their stead, different categories of meaning and social order deemed self-evident, the Midrash transforms ancient Israel’s history into the categorical structure of eternal Israel’s society, so that past, present, and future meet in the here and now.”[1]

Yeshua has the same orientation in the incident with the man born blind (John 9).  The disciples want to know who was responsible.  Yeshua points them toward why the blindness happened.  This distinction marks a huge difference between our view of history and the Jewish view of history.  What matters for us is the correct order of events, the cause and effect relationships, the accurate reporting of the situation.  What matters for the rabbis is God’s perspective.  “What does this mean?”  In order to ask this question, we must have a different perspective on life.  What actually happens is not nearly as important as what God is doing in the midst of our events.  Our focus must shift from chronos to kairos.  The most important answer is not the explanation of the event.   It is the meaning of the event.  That meaning can only be understood when we connect God’s hand with our lives.  If we don’t know what God reveals in an event, then we don’t know anything about the event.

Do you suppose your view of life would change if you started looking for the meaning of events and stopped trying to find cause and effect explanations?

Topical Index:  ask, meaning, Acts 2:12, why?, Neusner

[1] Jacob Neusner, Judaism and the Interpretation of Scripture, p. 6.

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Priorities

Wednesday, September 30th, 2009 | Author: Skip Moen

One thing I have asked from the Lord, that I shall seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to meditate in His temple. Psalm 27:4

One Thing – What is the most important thing in life? What must be the absolute goal if life is to be worth living? Before you quickly supply an answer about the relationship with God, consider what the world would say. If you asked the average person what’s the most important thing in life, what do you think you would hear? Undoubtedly, you would listen to the same list of priorities found in Ecclesiastes – with the same result. In the very end, it’s either God or a gun to the head. With Ecclesiastes’ observation in mind, let’s look once more at David’s single-minded focus.

“One thing I have asked from the Lord.” In Hebrew: akhat sha’alti meet-YHWH. The first word is from ehad. You’ll recognize it in the Shema. The Lord is one. Of course, if we were doing rabbinic exegesis, we would connect these two instances of the word. The one thing I ask is from the one Lord. In fact, I ask for the Lord’s uniqueness in me.

Sha’ul paints the pictograph of control, strength and what consumes. In other words, to ask is to control the strength of what consumes – to have authority over someone or something that can provide what you want. If you’re going to ask the Lord, then you better know what you really want. He can provide, of course, but you are presuming on His benevolence by asking, so you must be sure that what you ask is worthy of the request. David understands this, so he asks what the Lord cannot deny – he asks for time in the presence of the One. David desires one thing. He desires to be with the One true God.

Did you notice that the most important thing in David’s life is not the accumulation of stuff, the preservation of power or the reputation among peers? The most important thing isn’t even a relationship with a personal savior. David’s one thing is to be where the Lord is and to contemplate who the Lord is. There is nothing here about asking for me. The entire focus is on worshipping God in His presence.

Our age is defined by its passionate preoccupation with self. Even in our religion, the focus is often on what God can do for me. It might not be as naïve (or heretical) as the prosperity gospel crowd, but it is ever-so-subtle to turn even religious zeal into self-improvement. We want God to make us better servants for His cause or to improve our understanding of His word or to develop our spiritual gifts for the church. Even with God-language, the focus is still on us. But not for David! David just wants to be in God’s presence, to delight in God’s glory and to meditate on the goodness of the Lord. Don’t you suppose that God will honor such a request without delay? What could please Him more? I turn away from the frightening clamor of those deep, dark recesses within me by shifting my focus from me to Him. Want out of the dungeon? Follow the light.

Topical Index: ehad, sha’al, ask, one, Psalm 27:4

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Community Requirements

Saturday, August 29th, 2009 | Author: Skip Moen

“And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God demand of you?  Only this:  . . .” Deuteronomy 10:12

Demand – We don’t like the sound of this, do we?  What God demands doesn’t sound much like the gentle, compassionate God we hear about in church.  We would rather have this Hebrew word translated asks.  In fact, that’s what the word usually means.  It is sha’al and it is used almost two hundred times in Scripture for asking.  You will find it in God’s instructions about the questions children ask of parents, about asking for help, about asking the proper form of worship or legal proceedings and dozens of other uses.  But here the translation of the Jewish Publication Society has decided sha’al should be translated “demands.”  Why did they choose something so harsh?

The answer begins with the context.  Moses has just recounted the history of the people of Israel in the desert experience.  It is a rather sad history of disobedience, revolt and hard-heartedness.  In spite of all that, God graciously provides a land for the people.  He promised it to Abraham and He does not break His promises.  But circumstances for the people have changed.  They are no longer under the authority of Pharaoh.  Now they belong to God.  He is their sovereign ruler, and like any ruler of any kingdom, He has expectations of His citizens.  In fact, these expectations are more than just kingly desires.  They are conditions of occupancy.  If you want to live in the land of the King of kings, you must submit to His demands.  It might sound harsh to a people who is used to voting on the rules they live by, but in the 10th Century BC, it would have been so common no one would have lifted an eyebrow.  We don’t live in the time of Moses, but maybe we should.  All our protests about God’s demands might fade into the desert sand if we just understood that the Kingdom is a monarchy and its citizens are under the direct rule of the King.

Of course, sha’al isn’t usually about stern demands.  It’s usually about reasonable questions and requests.  I think God’s demands are always questions and requests.  That doesn’t mean God isn’t demanding.  He is.  The Ten Commandments are demands for certain kinds of behavior and attitudes.  But beneath those demands is the goodness of God.  His demands do not rest of dictatorial authority.  They rest of loving creativity. God loves His children.  Therefore, God can expect – and demand – behavior of His children.  This is the meaning of divine jealousy.  So put away the backdrop of the divine moral policeman or the heavenly judge.  Yes, in some sense God really is the Judge of all mankind and we must be constantly aware of His right to judge.  But God is kind.  He says of Himself that He is compassionate, merciful and long-suffering.  That does not give us opportunity to trample on His authority, but it does give us a chance.  He doesn’t ask or demand more than we can do.  He shows forbearance (what a wonderful word).  But most of all, He loves.  Celebrate His goodness buried inside His demands.  The King has spoken and His words are joyfully received.

Topical Index:  demands, sha’al, ask, love, Deuteronomy 10:12

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Putting It In Practice: Financing God’s Way

Tuesday, July 07th, 2009 | Author: Skip Moen

Deuteronomy 23:20.  No interest.  Help to brothers and sisters in desperate times.  It’s an obligation in God’s community, not a option!

So, At God’s Table has some money for this.  Therefore, I want to do what God commands.  Recently the blog site revealed several members of our community who need financial help.  Now At God’s Table can do something about this.  We (all of us who contributed) have $10,000 in the fund.  Let’s loan it, no interest, to those who are desperate.  When they pay back, it will be used again for the same purposes with other people.  I don’t know who needs it most and I don’t know how to do all this – so I will simply trust each of you to ask if you are in real trouble and let God lead us all in serving each other.

Hey, we’re doing something really different here.  This is a charity that GIVES BACK!

Do you have a critical need?  Do you want our help?  Ask, knock, seek.  Jesus can answer the door through someone else’s hand.

Skip

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Praying

Wednesday, March 04th, 2009 | Author: Skip Moen

Why do you pray?  No, really.  It’s not a stupid question.  Why do you pray?  If you’re like most of the people I talk to, your answer will be something like this:  “I pray in order to ask God to take care of needs in my life and in the lives of others.  I pray for strength, healing, provision and enlightenment.  I pray because the Bible says I should.  I pray in order to communicate my feelings and circumstances to God so that I may know what He wants me to do.”

That seems reasonable, doesn’t it?  After all, we are taught that prayer is communication with God.  We are taught that God wants us to share all of our concerns with Him.  We are taught that prayer changes things; that prayer unleashes the power of the divine.  Of course we should pray.  We want blessings and victories and comfort.

There’s just one tiny problem.  Most of the people that I know who speak about prayer in this way admit that a large percentage of their prayers are not answered.  I don’t mean that they are told, “No” or “Not yet.”  I mean that they simply get no response at all.  That is definitely not what the Bible tells me about prayer.  The Bible says that God answers prayer; that He hears the cries of the righteous and responds to them.  The Bible tells me that the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.  Things happen!  Jesus, James, John, Paul, Peter and many others are examples of men who expected and saw real results from prayer.  I can’t imagine reading a verse in the Bible that says, “God only answers prayers when He feels like it so get used to it.”  If the Bible anticipates that God answers, then the problem with my prayers and the prayers of those I know can’t be on God’s side of the relationship.  There must be something wrong with what I am doing.

In the last few days, several close friends have really tried to come to grips with this issue.  It started over a request to pray for the healing of a little girl who was hit by a truck.  If anyone seemed to need prayer, she did.  Lying in a hospital bed, her life hung in the balance.  An entire community of believers gathered in prayerful vigilance.

“Lord, if it be Your will, please heal Kaley.”

But that’s the problem.  Instead of praying to know God’s will, we pray for God to fulfill our desires.  Prayers that are not self-serving are still about our desires, even if those desires are the completely rational, altruistic desires to see this little girl healed.  “If it be Your will.”  That phrase is a sort of caveat in prayer.  What it really says is this:  “I don’t really know what you have in mind, God, and so I’m going to prayer for what I have in mind and if it’s the same thing that You think, then it will happen.  But if it’s not what You have in mind, then this prayer won’t result in what I want, and I accept that too.”

Now I ask you, “What kind of prayer is that?”  It’s prayer that doesn’t really believe anything in particular.  It’s a kind of plea to the clouds in the sky that whatever will happen will happen and I hope it’s what I want to happen.  How can that be effective prayer?  This kind of prayer doesn’t really know what it believes.  “Lord, just in case You are going to heal Kaley, then I will pray for Kaley to be healed.  But since I don’t really know if You want to heal Kaley, then I will hedge my bets by saying, “if it’s Your will”.”

Maybe the reason that we don’t hear from God as often as we would like is that we don’t really pray with faith.  We pray with one foot in heaven and one foot on earth, just in case things don’t quite work out the way we want.

I don’t mean to suggest that somehow we should get more faith.  One of the subtle and seductive lies of the enemy is that faith is sort of like gaining weight.  If I want to see god really work, then I have to add a few pounds to my spiritual dimension.  Most of this mythology comes from not understanding the whole idea of faith.  Faith is not something I accumulate.  It is not a “something” at all.  Faith is a verb!  It is acting on the basis of what God has already done and Who God already is.  I can’t build up my reserve of faith or add to my faith bank account.  Faith is doing things according to God’s perspective.  So, when Jesus says that all we need is faith like a mustard seed, He is not suggesting that we collect a jar full of seeds.  He is saying that we need to start breathing, moving, living, acting according to God’s point of view, regardless of the apparent mountains in front of us.

The prayer of faith is the prayer that leads me to act as God would act.  This is the prayer that says, “Lord, I know what You would do in this situation and therefore I am going to do it.  Now take this step with me!”  Pharaoh called for Moses in the midst of the seventh plague.  While the lightening and hail crashed around them, Pharaoh repented.  Then Moses said something amazing.  “As soon as I go out of the city, I will spread out my hands to the LORD; the thunder will cease and there will be hail no longer” (Exodus 9:29).  What’s amazing about this statement?  Moses did not ask God for His plan to stop the lightening and hail before he announced it.  He told Pharaoh that God would do what he, Moses, asked.  That is faith!  Do it and expect God to be there.

But you complain, “I have prayed that way.  I have asked God to answer, expecting that He will, and then nothing happens.  How come Moses is different?”  Let me tell you.  Moses could walk out of the city, lift up his hands and ask God to stop the lightening and hail because Moses already knew the mind of God before he asked.

If you want to pray for results, you must first know God’s mind about the things you ask in prayer.  Don’t be a coward.  Stop praying, “If it be Your will.”  Know what God’s will is, then pray accordingly!  Throw yourself on the ground and plead for God to reveal His mind about the matter.  Don’t quit until you know what God thinks.  Then stand up and pray according to His will.  Nothing will prevent that prayer for being answered exactly as you ask for “no plan of His can be thwarted” (Job 42:2).  Moses walked out of Pharaoh’s palace with the mind of God in his head.  Of course he could ask for the storm to stop.  He knew what God wanted to do.  Jesus stood in front of the tomb of Lazarus.  Do you think that He had any doubt about what God wanted to do?  Did Peter have any doubt about what was no God’s mind when he said, “Stand up and walk.”  Our prayers are anemic because we have forgotten the first step:  the effective prayer begins with knowing God’s purpose before we ask.

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