September 24: Tuesday Refocus

‘No matter how much we suffer

No matter our doubts

No matter how angry we get

No matter how many times we have asked in desperation, ‘how long?’

Prayer develops finally into praise.

Everything finds its way to the doorstep of praise.’ – Tim Keller

We maneuver, strive, fight and expend ourselves hoping to strong-arm our circumstance into submission.  Hoping that our changing circumstance will give birth to praise.

But the doorstep of praise can be this very moment. 

Because the doorstep of praise is an altar of revelation and response:

‘…I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up… And I said: ‘Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!’ (Is 6:1,5)

This is an altar where we offer our whole self – not just the best parts of us – but even our suffering, doubts, anger and desperation (Rom 12:1, Matt 22:37).

We come to this doorstep of praise, this altar, when we recognize who God is and who we are:

‘…God is in heaven, and you are on earth, therefore let your words be few.’ – Ecc 5:2

Lord, help us to cease from our striving and offer everything back to You upon the altar, the doorstep of praise.  You are worthy of no less than all we are, and all we have, even the hidden places of contempt can be offered back in view of Your mercy.  Here we are, Lord.  In Christ name, amen.

Offering,

AB    

September 17: Tuesday Refocus

‘It looks like I’m going to have to let go of what I expected and enter a mystery.’ – Eugene Peterson

There is a desirable clarity in an expected life. 

Black and white. 

Easy to measure and manage.

But the life of faith lets go of the seemingly certain, and clings to the Rock that is higher than I (Ps 62:2).  The life of faith is entering a mystery.

In this mystery we see a God whose voice strips the forest bare, but also speaks tenderly to His people (Ps 29:9, Hosea 2:14).  We see a God who is good, and does good, and can even turn evil for His good purpose (Ps 119:68, Gen 50:20).  We experience God – not as distant, but One who dwells in the heart of all believers through faith (Eph 3:17).

Lord, let us be people who walk by faith into the mystery.  Deeper into the beauty of Your heart, and deeper into the brokenness of the world.  Thank You that you have chosen to reveal Yourself at all.  Let us cling to You, not our expectations, in Christ name, amen.

Entering the mystery,

AB

September 10: Tuesday Refocus

If I’m honest…

…What I desire is not a life of service, but of being served.

…What I desire is a life that does not require more of me than I am willing to give.

…What I desire is a life free of prolonged suffering, pain, discomfort or discouragement.

…What I desire is a life of immediate joy and instant gratification.

These desires sent roots deep into the heart of humanity with our first parents in a garden fall so long ago (Gen 3).  And if we’re honest – these desires have only sown the wind, and reaped the whirlwind (Hos 8:7).  We have found everything utterly meaningless – twice over (Ecc 1:2)

‘And the world is passing away along with its desires…’

We cling, hoard, and hedge our bets, only to see our life deform and dissolve.

‘…but whoever does the will of God abides forever.’ – 1 Jn 2:17

It is clinging to the cross where we find true life.  Dying daily brings forth the life we desire (Col 3:5, Matt 16:25)

If we’re honest – truly honest – what we desire is not some sin-warped shadow, but the Creator Himself.  He has given Himself to us in death that we may have His life (1 Jn 5:11). 

‘I died in Your death my Lord
Glory, glory to Your name
Buried in the grave with You
Glory, glory to Your name
And I arose with You my Lord,
Glory, glory to Your name!’ (Nathan and Christy Nockels)

Hallelujah, what a Savior!  In Christ name, amen.

To live,

AB

September 3: Tuesday Refocus

‘He who is armed with the power of God will not tremble at the noise raised by the world.’ – John Calvin

Creation groans –

natural disaster

polarization

war

poverty

technology

refugees

anxiety

mass shootings

power imbalance

oppression

celebrity

…and not only the creation, but we ourselves… groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies (Rom 8:19-23).

The chaos of sin birthed a noisy world. 

A noisy world perpetuates a frenetic people.

But children of God are not born of flesh, but born of the Spirit (Jn 3:6).

And those born of the Spirit are born again to a living hope (1 Pet 1:3-9).

These children are given hearts of flesh in exchange for stone hearts (Ez 11:19).

This life in the flesh is now a life of faith, loved by the given Son of God (Gal 2:20).

‘If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.’ – Rom 8:11

Lord, You have empowered by Your Spirit to live and stand in our noisy world.  Would you enable us to carry the peace, presence and life of Christ to our homes and neighbors, schools and workplaces, communities and cities, social media platforms and the ends of the earth.  For Your glory and our good.  In your powerful name, amen.

Standing,

AB

August 27: Tuesday Refocus

‘…whoever says he abides in Him ought to walk in the same way in which He walked.’ – 1 John 2:6

When we walk in His way, we follow a path of radical obedience.  We share in His sufferings as the One who was despised and rejected (1 Pet 4:13, Is 53:3).  This path is self-giving service to others, and surrender to God.  It claims all our heart, soul, mind and strength.  When we abide in Him, He may slay us, but we can still say ‘not my will, but Yours be done.’ (Job 13:15, Lk 22:42)

In the path of Your judgements, O LORD, we wait for You; Your name and remembrance are the desire of our soul. In Christ name, Amen.

Walking,

AB

August 20: Tuesday Refocus

‘Show me, O God, where to look, that I might see You.’ – Augustine

Where can He not be found?

He is the beginning and end (Rev 22:13).

He is in the height and the depth (Ps 139:8).

In the universe created and sustained (Heb 1:3).

In the Word made flesh (Jn 1:14).

He turns idol worshipers into fathers of faith (Gen 12:1).

He is with the orphan and the widow (Gen 16:13).

He bends evil intentions of men for good (Gen 50:20).

He uses cowardly leaders for His purpose (Ex 4:13).

He is in the wandering (Deut 8:2, Hos 2:14).

He is in the unexpected provision (Ex 16).

He makes all things beautiful in their time (Ecc 3:11).

He is with us while we sleep (1 Sam 3:3-4, Ps 4:8).

He sees us when we are the last, least and forgotten (1 Sam 16:11).

He is with us in captivity (Ps 137).

He is with acquainted with all our grief (Is 53:3).

He has become our sin (2 Cor 5:21).

He remembers our sin no more (Is 43:25, Heb 8:12).

He is in the whisper, and He is in the storm (1 Kings 19:12, Ps 50:3).

He is the voice calling from behind, guiding (Is 30:21).

He keeps company with the unlikely (Mk 2:15).

He calls a people unto Himself (Deut 7:6).

He inhabits the praises of His people (Ps 22:3).

He does not forsake the work of His hands (Ps 138:8).

He pursues His enemies (Lk 19:10, Rom 5:10).

He is in the prison cell (Acts 12, Acts 19).

He is with His persecuted Church (Acts 7:55-56, Jn 15:18).

He is the Word living and active (Heb 4:12).

He is the Lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world (Rev 13:8).

He is the sacrifice, perfect and complete (Heb 10:14).

He has died (Jn 19:30).

He has risen (Matt 28:6).

He sits at the right hand of the Father (Eph 1:20).

He has come (Jn 1:9).

And He is coming again (Rev 1:7).

‘And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.’ Col 1:17

Oh Lord, show us where to look for You.  In cubicles and broken appliances.  In early mornings and sleepless nights.  In mundane errands and long conversations.  In loneliness and fear.  When we have sinned, and when we have been sinned against.  In unexpected turns, and abrupt endings.  In grief and in joy.  In tears and callused hearts.  In transitions and long stretches of sameness.  In time moving too slow, and in time moving too fast.  In prayers too apprehensive and sacred to be uttered.  In our zealous apathy.  In hope deferred and desires only realized in part.  In the creation You have made, and in Your image emblazoned even upon our enemies.  Lord, give us eyes to see You in all things.  We believe that there is enough grace for this moment, because You are here with us in this moment.  In Your gracious name we pray, amen.

Looking,

AB

August 13: Tuesday Refocus

Love asks for a total disarmament. – Henri Nouwen

Our God always goes first.  He commands us to love our enemies (Matt 5:44).  And He has first loved us (1 Jn 4:19) – once enemies now heirs (Rom 5:10).

Christ has disarmed himself of glory, and in so doing God has disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in the open arms of Christ (Phil 2:7, Col 2:15).

Open arms are a symbol of disarmament.  

And this is the way Christ lived and died.

Open arms to receive from His Father (Lk 22:42).

Open arms to suffer and die at the hands of those He came to save (Lk 19:10).

Like all things in this upside down kingdom, open-armed enemy love feels like death but is actually life. 

Life in Christ is first death to self.  

It carries a cross.

It seeks the disarmament of my agenda for the good of the other, and the glory of God.

But we are never left to walk alone, Christ has gone first.

God, thank You, that You always going first.  Thank You that You loved us while we were Your enemies.  Give us the mind of Christ.  Embolden us with His obedience.  Enable us to love our enemies with open arms.  In Christ’s name, amen.

Learning to love,

AB

August 6: Tuesday Refocus

‘I do not whip up my will into worship; my grateful heart can do nothing else.’ – E. Stanley Jones

I have never met someone who comes by gratitude naturally – a genuinely grateful heart is hard-fought, battle-worn, and undeterred by circumstance. 

Like the ‘sinful woman’ grateful hearts respond with worship because they see clearly all is grace and gift:

‘Therefore I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven; that’s why she loved much.  But the one who is forgiven little, loves little.’  Then He said to her, ‘Your sins are forgiven’’ (Luke 7:47-48, CSB, Emphasis added)

Fuel your gratitude with the reality of the Gospel:

We deserve death, but we have been given the life of Christ (Rom 6:23, Gal 2:20).

We were enemies, strangers, and orphans, who have been welcomed as heirs (Rom 5:10, Eph 2:19, Rom 8:15, 8:17).

Nothing can separate us from the love of God our Father (Rom 8:39).

Nothing can snatch us out of the hand of Christ (Jn 10:28).

We are never forsaken (Heb 13:5).

God is conforming us to the image of His Son (Rom 8:29).

God is working all things for our good and His glory (Rom 8:28).

He is faithful even when we are faithless (2 Tim 2:13).

We are loved with an everlasting love (Jer 31:3).

Gratitude sends us in peace to worship.

Lord, we confess our entitlement and cynicism.  We are quick to forget that we have all we need in You.  And all things we desire are but warped desires – shadows – of our need and longing for You.  Thank You that You have graciously given us all things.  Form our hearts in the trenches of desire to flow with deep, lasting, immovable gratitude.  For Your honor and our good.  In Christ’s name we pray.  Amen.

With gratitude,

AB

July 30: Tuesday Refocus

‘Let us desire nothing else,

let us want nothing else,

let nothing else please us and cause us delight except our Creator, Redeemer, and Savior,

the only true God,

Who is the fullness of good,

All good, every good, the true and supreme good,

Who alone is good,

Merciful, gentle, delightful, and sweet,

Who alone is holy,

Just, true, holy, and upright,

Who alone is kind, innocent, clean,

From whom, through whom, and in whom

Is all pardon, all grace, all glory

Of all penitents and just ones,

Of all the blessed rejoicing together in heaven.’ – St Francis of Assisi

There is no end to things we desire.  Some desires are God-given.  All desire has been warped by sin:

‘What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you?  Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?  You desire and do not have, so you murder.  You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel.  You do not have because you do not ask.  You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spent it on your passions.’ - James 4:1-3

In our sin-distorted desire we love to use Psalm 37:4 as a means to our selfish end: ‘Delight yourself in the LORD, and He will give you the desires of your heart.’

But it has never been money, sex or power that we truly desire – but God Himself.  The One who is good and does good (Ps 119:68).  The One who opens His hand and satisfies the desire of every living thing (Ps 145:16).  He is our greatest desire, and this desire is never left unfulfilled because He gives us Himself (1 Tim 2:6).

Lord Jesus, let us desire nothing else, want nothing else, let nothing else please us, and cause us delight except You.  In your name, amen.

Desiring Him,

AB

23 July: Tuesday Refocus

‘My heart is like a country but half subdued, where all things are in an unsettled state, and mutinies and insurrections are a daily happening.’ – John Newton

The topography of our heart is vast, varied, and largely unexplored.  There are corners of unreached people groups, languages, and cultures we do not understand.  Indeed it is true, ‘I’m a mystery to myself…’ (Rom 7:15, TPT).

To ourselves, we are a mystery.  To God, nothing is unknown:

‘O LORD, You have searched me and known me!

For You formed my inward parts; You knitted me together in my mother’s womb.

My frame was not hidden from You when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.  Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in Your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.’ Ps 139:1,13,15-16)

As we step into the mystery of our own hearts, we follow the God who makes known to us the path of life (Ps 16:11).  He does not ravage, or colonize, He invites us to bring our half subdued, unsettled states of mutinies and insurrection into submission to Himself (James 4:7).  Submission to Christ is the exchange of our death for His life (Matt 10:39).

‘For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.’ Galatians 5:1

Lord, You have searched and known us.  We are not a mystery to you.  There is no hidden part of our heart that You do not pursue with Your kindness.  Help us, by Your Spirit to bring every corner of ourselves into submission under Your rule and reign.  For Your glory, and our good.  We love You, in Christ’s name, amen.

Known,

AB

July 16: Tuesday Refocus

‘All places are places of worship to the Christian.  Wherever he is, he ought to be in a worshiping frame of mind.’ – Charles Spurgeon

As Christ was torn on the cross, so was the curtain (Matt 27:51).  Christ was torn and God’s people are welcomed through Christ into the presence of the Father (Eph 2:18).  Worship not in a location – but in Spirit and Truth (Jn 4:24).

Every Christ follower is now a sanctuary of worship, because we are Christ’s and Christ is God’s (1 Cor 3:23).  Every sorrow and joy becomes an altar of sacrifice – a fragrance of gratitude and awe.  And every inch of earth becomes holy ground, for we are surrounded in song, followed by goodness and mercy, and pursued by the endless delight of our Father (Zeph 3:17, Ps 23:6).

Jesus, it is You that we worship.  And it is through You that we worship.  Would you open our eyes to the sacred spaces of worship today – for You are worthy.  In Your name we pray, amen.

Worshiping,

AB

July 9: Tuesday Refocus

What delight comes to the one who follows God’s ways!
He won’t walk in step with the wicked,
nor share the sinner’s way,
nor be found sitting in the scorner’s seat.
His pleasure and passion is remaining true to the Word of “I Am,”
meditating day and night in the true revelation of light.
He will be standing firm like a flourishing tree
planted by God’s design,
deeply rooted by the brooks of bliss,
bearing fruit in every season of his life.
He is never dry, never fainting,
ever blessed, ever prosperous.
But how different are the wicked.
All they are is dust in the wind—
driven away to destruction!
The wicked will not endure the day of judgment,
for God will not defend them.
Nothing they do will succeed or endure for long,
for they have no part with those who walk in truth.
But how different it is for the righteous!
The Lord embraces their paths as they move forward
while the way of the wicked leads only to doom.

Psalm 1 [The Passion Translation]

What delight comes to the one who follows God’s ways! 

This path of life, is illuminated by Christ, and leads to fullness of joy in His presence –pleasures forevermore (Ps 16:11).

This is not an easy path, but we never walk alone (Matt 28:20).

This may be a path littered with suffering, but we join the Suffering Servant – and will rejoice and be glad when His glory is revealed (Is 53, 1 Pet 4:13)

This life may require us to endure many things, but if we endure, we will also reign with Him (2 Tim 2:12).

But we can take heart on this path because, ‘…suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.’ (Rom 5:3-5)

Lord Jesus, we walk with You, we walk toward You, we follow after You.  Knowing that You are the ultimate prize and desire of our hearts and lives.  Thank you that You hold our lives secure.  We await eagerly for You, Your name and Your renown are the desires of our hearts.  In Your name, amen.

Walking,

AB