Domination and Submission

We spent – for the first time since we had kids – Thanksgiving alone this year. Having the extra time off (and not driving) was a real blessing and I’m sure that both Lyn and I found some of the sleep that we had been missing.

We sat up late on Thanksgiving night and channel surfed; while we talked the TV ended up on Charlie Rose (a late night talk show on PBS). The show was interviewing chefs who had given recipes or thought to a book called “The Last Supper” (which asks the question: if you were going to eat one last meal, what would you eat and who would you eat it with?). The book seems interesting enough – but at some point, Rose reads from (I think) the introduction, a passage that goes something like this:

Being a chef is the ultimate act of domination. You select the ingredients and lead a crew until you have forced several individual parts into one dish. And, if that is so, then ...

Eating is the ultimate act of submission. Allowing yourself to be served, and forced to the whim, the skill and loves of the chef.

This immediately reminded me of one of my grandmothers (I’ma – pronounced Ah’maw). She was a country lady who cooked some of the best food I have ever eaten. She cooked all the time; but never sat to eat (at least when anyone could see her). No matter what anyone said to her, she rarely sat and enjoyed the fruits of her own hand.

In this area, she lacked the ability to submit. As this thought was rolling around in my mind, I started to realize just how many areas I have trouble submitting.

Sunday morning, PJ asked someone else to lead worship. As we began to really get to some of the wonderful places, I looked up from my place at the piano and saw him, flat on his face; then later on his knees; then later: jumping up and down with joy.

It touched my heart that he was willing to submit to the leadership of another worship leader; and the move of God. It blessed me to be able to minister to him (as part of the team); even as we were ministering to God and receiving ministry from God.

I can’t help but wonder how great it would have been to have served my I’ma a meal. To show her just how much we loved her by lavishing upon her the very thing that she loved to give us. I think that we all missed something wonderful there.

I am also reminded of Jesus. Who came not to rule; but to serve. But, even He allowed Mary to serve Him. Breaking that precious bottle of perfume over His feet and then wiping His feet with her hair.

Happy December everyone.
Andy

Oh: to play the Last Supper game. I’d like fried chicken; a slice (or 5) of Papa Tim’s home-made country ham; I’ma’s cream corn; fresh snap beans; Lyn’s broccoli casserole; a bottomless glass of sweet tea and (for dessert) I’d like this chocolate layer cake that I’ma used to make and a glass of milk to wash it down. I’d eat it with Lyn, Tim, Mack, and my mom and dad (I’ma would be too busy cooking to come and sit down).

My Last Supper

Tim's Big Day

Saturday evening: Tim was one stinky kid. He’d been playing outside all day and really needed a shower. So, I threw him in there. He was busy washing and getting clean. When he said a most wonderful thing to me. He said, “Dad – I’d like Jesus to be my best friend.”

I was thrilled, but – as Tim is only 5 – I wanted to know that he knew what he was doing. We (Tim, Lyn and I) talked for a while about it. He seemed to be have a decent grasp on what he was asking. He understood that he did “wrong things” and the Jesus would forgive him. He understands that, since Jesus is his best friend, he can talk to him and Jesus will talk with him.

I told Tim that – if he really meant it – he would have to tell people that Jesus was his best friend. That would mean going in front of the church and saying it. He agreed.

As I thought about Saturday night, I came to the conclusion that the abstract things would come as Tim grew older. God gave me great peace about this.

Sunday morning: Tim told PJ (my Pastor) what he had decided and asked if he could tell the church – and PJ agreed. At the end of the service, during the alter call, I ran down to the kids room and grabbed Tim and ran back upstairs.

For the benefit of full disclosure: last year, Tim had said the same thing and we had gotten to the top of the stairs when he freaked and locked up his little body. I was waiting for that to happen this time. We turned the corner and started walking up. Tim hesitated, but kept on walking (I was *so* proud).

He made it to the front of the church and PJ put a (live) mike in his hands and asked what he wanted to tell everyone. Tim – froze. I stood behind him and asked a couple of questions. Still, nothing. PJ asked Tim to come to him (he was standing near the pulpit). Tim look one look and dove behind the pulpit. Hitting his knees (not in an act of prayer, but in an act of getting as small as he could) and sliding as far under the pulpit/fort as he could. He then said – as everyone laughed – that he wanted Jesus to be his best friend.

Only God, PJ and I heard that, so PJ asked him again. Tim said that he wanted Jesus to be his Lord; and that he wanted to follow Him for all his life. I was laughing and crying at the same time: totally proud of my boy, full of praise of my Savior.

Father’s Day – a week early.
Andy

PS: If you’re interested in watching the International House of Prayer’s 24 hour-a-day/7-day-a-week prayer service. God TV is streaming it (currently for free). You can watch it at www.god.tv/theprayerroom it’s really something. I recommend only doing this with a broadband connection – as it takes up pretty intense system resources.

The Harvest

Since Easter, my church has been part of a 50 day, 24 hours a day prayer watch over and for our city (Lynchburg, VA). While it is officially over on Sunday, tonight we had a celebration gathering in honor of the prayer vigil. My time was normally 9 to 10 PM on Saturday night.

It was great to see all the various churches who participated in the event. There were believers from many different traditions – all of whom were putting tradition aside for the better part of unity. It was a wonderful time of celebration, worship and togetherness. I will miss the 50 days when it’s over (my last hour is Saturday). Being alone with God – especially in a place where none of “my stuff” or my kids/wife could interrupt me – was something special.

During the service, one of the speakers said something that spoke to me. Jesus said “pray the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into His harvest.” In the verse before Jesus said that the “harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.”

I have always been told that I needed to pray for “the lost” (the harvest). But, should I be praying for the laborers even more? The harvest is already there; it’s white and waiting to be taken in. All it needs is laborers.

So – while I don’t think it’s error to pray for the lost; I think that I need to be adding into my prayers for laborers (including myself) to be sent into the lives of these people. God has already ripened their hearts; all they need is someone to bring them in.

Something to think about – Andy

Something else: If you don’t know about this, I recommend going there and praying to see if God wants you to join the fast. http://fastandpray.com/ also see www.thecall.com.

This Is My Father's World ... But it's mine too

I was listening to the radio recently and I heard some preacher saying that we didn’t need to worry about the world because Jesus is coming soon and He’s going to make everything new again.

It’s not the first time that I heard this; but it’s the first time that it bothered me.

In Genesis, God gives man dominion over the earth. We’re – for lack of a better analogy – the gardeners of the earth.

Gen. 1: 28-30 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” And God said, “See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food. Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food”; and it was so.

That language seems pretty clear, God gave us the earth and all that it contains.

Flip over to Matthew 25 and the Parable of the Talents. In verse 26, the Master derides the wicked, lazy servant for burying his talent instead of using it. Imagine how angry the Master would have been had the wick servant destroyed the talent rather than just burying it.

As followers of Christ, we have an obligation to care for and protect the earth: fish, birds, every living thing. I am not a fan of generalizing, but when you compare Christians (especially more conservative Christians (like my church) against other religions (New Age, Pagans, Buddhists, even humanists), we fall behind them in our perceived (and I think actual) care and treatment of the environment.

I’m not (really not) advocating worshiping the trees or the earth-mother. All I am advocating is that we begin to see and live up to our responsibility and take our proper authority over the earth.

Is your church recycling the paper that it uses? Mine isn’t. When was the last time you heard a sermon on the importance of caring for our environment? Environmentalism – like many other politically liberal issues – seems to be out of favor with most conservative Evangelical churches. And I believe that we are missing a spiritual principle.

We should be looking for ways to make the trees, rivers, oceans better. Not just dump our crap into them and use them without thought for the future. We should be turning the earth that God gave us into something ten times better.

Something to think about: Does our* trashing of the environment have anything to do with the way our society is falling apart? Taking care of the earth is the first command that God gave us. Does not submitting to that command somehow influence everything else that we try and do? Would anyone treat their spiritual environment the way that they treat their physical one?

Just something to think about on this Earth Day Week.

Andy

Epilog: On a similar and much more personally painful tact, this same message goes for our physical bodies. When we are judged, when the Master returns and asks what we have done with our bodies – how will we answer? That’s certainly a wake up call for my not-so-narrow butt.

* Our – America’s, western civilizations, man’s: pick the one you like the best. Either way, it’s “us”.

Listening to: Jeremy Camp, This Man