Loud, Childlike Faith

THIS WEEK I'm in Miami after a long day of traveling and preparation for the VBS we're about to do with Bridge Church of Miami. I'm very excited about this. I feel the Holy Spirit moving and uniting my team, and I know God is about to use this event to make an eternal difference in these kids' lives. We already have a motto that we keep praying: "We aren't coming to bring a program; we're coming to bring His Presence!"
This week for me is going to be about children. I get to watch over them and teach them. Our very important theme is quite simply "Trust God!" We have them say it with us many times every day, so that by the time they leave they'll know God is someone they can trust and who loves them. But I learn from these kids too. On the way down here I was reading the first few chapters of Paul E. Miller's A Praying Life, which discussed the way Jesus encouraged His own disciples to be like children.

Matthew 18:2-4 "And calling to Him a child, He put him in the midst of them and said, 'Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdome of heaven.'"
It stood out to me that the point isn't to be childish, but to trust God like a child trusts his father. It's the unashamed acknowledgement of dependency on Him. For a lot of people, when we're small we think our dads can do anything. He's a man with no limits. The difference with God is that He is actually limitless, and we don't always look up to Him like that's the case.
I don't think I'll ever forget how Liana, the littlest girl on my first VBS team, related to her daddy. One day when he left her with me, she was desperate in tears because she just loves him so much, and she was scared to be away from him. Another day, when she saw him as he came to pick her up, she started jumping up and down in pure, sunny joy, shouting "Daddy!" over and over.
There's something about children that God finds very precious and admirable. They have something that we're in danger of losing as we get older and wiser. It was easy to see the first time we did this VBS. They have joy in the presence of their parents who love them. They have a certain loud, persistent faith that lets them keep asking until they gets what they need. A little girl named Rebeccah, who was on my team two weeks ago, often needed to go to the restroom. I'd usually tell her at first to wait a minute, because we were busy and I had so many kids to watch. We were in the middle of learning. But she would keep asking until she got to go. She doesn't know she has a secret to prayer: she trusted me as the person who was looking after her, and as a result she knew I was going to do my best to give her what she needed as soon as possible.
The funny thing is that when everybody else saw that she got what she asked, they wanted to go too. Everybody seemed to share a bladder. It showed me that when we openly ask until we receive, other people's faith in the Provider will be strengthened.
Children don't make long, flowery statements and beat around the bush. And they don't easily doubt. They see where their help comes from, and they aren't shy about saying what they need. And when they don't understand what's happening, they say so. Miller pointed out that Peter was always quick to say what he thought, to make declarations of loyalty or doubt or shame, to put the microphone to the bottom of his heart. A little boy on the team named Coran was that vocal. He wanted the extra bracelts on my arm. He wanted to be my extra special helper. He wanted the chance to do anything, to be in front, and to be a part of the game.
Children are meant to grow up and gain some sort of tact. But what God wants us to take from the loud, thoughtful voices of children is the ability to be straightforward with Him, to call Him Daddy, to say "I don't get it!" and "Why can't I have it now?!" but also to say "You're my Daddy! This is what I need, and I know you will take care of me, and I love you so much!" And more than anything, to jump up and down ecstatically when we see that He is near, because whatever He's up to, it's for our good.
I read this one day this week: Psalm 8:2, "Out of the mouths of babies and infants You have established strength because of Your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger." He makes His praise come even from people with little understanding and experience, even from loud and trusting young ones, so all His enemies will be speechless.
That's what it looked like when a little hero named Natalie on my team got up from dinner tonight and started passing out VBS fliers to people at other tables. Faith combined with action make change.
This week we'll be promising a new group of kids that they can trust God, and training them to take their natural faith and run to Him with it. But I think every time we shout "Trust God!" it will be as much for me as for them, to tell me to look around and gain the same childlike gleam of trust that I see in the eyes of these kids who are discovering a faithful God. To remind me that His children are never grown up and independent of Him, and He always wants to hear us crying out to Him.

Fatherhood

THIS WEEK it's Father's Day, and we're celebrating dads. It's a day that elevates the men above the boys. A day when we remember what it takes to go beyond being the male parent of a child, and be a man who stands tall. Not everybody, especially in America, has a good man for a dad. I've been blessed to have a great one. A great man and dad is one whose life glorifies his Heavenly Father. Nobody else can teach him how to do the job right. A great man reflects the way God is a Father to us. His undying faithfulness to keep His promise, His unchanging love and constant mercy, His firm discipline, His concern for His children's wants and needs. I've been reading about David, whom God called a man after His own heart, who would do all His will. Because he sincerely loved and revered Him, He wanted him to become king in place of Saul, who had repeatedly disobeyed Him. Saul wanted to kill him, and David had more than one chance to take him out. But he didn't, solely out of respect for God. 1 Samuel 24:10 "Behold, this day your eyes have seen how the Lord gave you today into my hand in the cave. And some told me to kill you, but I spared you. I said, 'I will not put out my hand against my lord, for he is the Lord's annointed." David, the anscestor of Jesus, was a great man because he thought it was more important to honor God than to take an opportunity that would give him an advantage. He was brave but respectful. God chose him to be king because he wasn't looking to be a king, but to glorify his King. Not every boy grows up into a man. Many boys grow up into bigger boys, who want to be kings. They run away, or tell lies, or let people down, because nothing is ever quite as important as himself. Men are getting rare. Men know when to be on their faces praying, and when to stand up and turn faith into action. They honor their King above themselves. Any grown-up boy can have a kid, but not every one is man enough to be a father. God is a Father who loves forever and doesn't go away. In John 10:29-30 Jesus says, "My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all, and no one is able tosnatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one." And in John 14:18 He promises, "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you." God is the model Father, and a great dad like mine tries to be like Him so that when his children see him, they will know what God is like and what it means to honor Him. In faith, love, charity, finances, discipline, every responsibility he has, he strives to be like the Father, and he raises up Christlike children. He puts what we need above what we want, balances fun and discipline, work and home. He puts on a tie and works all day, then homes home and straight away puts on his pajama pants to just be with us. He makes sure we have a good school and a great church. This week he got a tooth pulled, and the very next day he was driving around the city with my Mom helping her with a cake delivery, and today he went shopping for groceries. He does his all of his jobs, and he doesn't let people down. He shows me what God is like, and what kind of man I'll want for myself one day. I'm thankful to the Heavenly Father for giving me a dad like that, who can help me see what He is like.

A Pain in the Neck

THIS WEEK I have a story of praise to tell. God is so good! It's yet another testimony to how faithfully He answers prayer. On Tuesday night after the sermon at my church's college ministry, we prayed for everybody who needed healing of any kind. They lined up in front for the speaker and others to lay hands on them. All kinds of pain and anxiety and injury were healed in Jesus' name. This is what the Body of Christ is supposed to do. Insomniacs walked away freed of their anxiousness. Broken hearts received the healing love of God. Particularly cool to me were the physical healings: improvements for a girl's painful lower back and increased mobility for a man with complications of a broken arm. My favorite was the healing of a girl with a bad knee - and the other wasn't great either - and who was having trouble standing straight. She walked away with zero pain. Praise God! We prayed over these people in Jesus' name. The name of the One who bore our sicknesses and lifted our burdens. We claimed His promise that He will answer, and that we'll have what we ask in His name. It works. When I left the church, I was inspired. I feel like I want the rest of my life to be full of that kind of Spirit action. I just love seeing the movement of the Holy Spirit in response to our faith. My mom had come to pick me up from church. For almost two weeks she had been suffering from intolerable pain in her neck, back, and right shoulder blade. She has a pinched nerve from a car accident she had a long time ago. Her fingers were going numb, although her thumb is usually a little numb to begin with. And this hard working lady just kept about her every day business and did what she had to despite the pain, taking medicine and holding bags of frozen vegetables behind her neck. Amazed by what I'd seen that night, during my personal Bible Study I wrote down my prayer for her. Something dared me to go ahead and write it down. I asked God that when my mom would wake up in the morning, she would be healed. All better. No pain. Everybody had begun to pray for her, because her pain had been going on and on and not getting any better. She was getting worse. My mom and I are very close, and when one of us is in any kind of pain, so is the other. We need each other's happiness. Jesus asks us to trust Him with these things. He demonstrated, many more times than the gospel writers could record, that He is the Healer and that He will move in response to our faith. Isaiah 53:4-5 famously prophesies that Jesus would bear our burdens for our freedom. "Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His stripes we are healed." Jesus Himself promised that His name is power in our prayers. John 14:12-13 "Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in Me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in My name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it." So I asked! The next day my mom came home at 11:30. She was supposed to be at her chiropractor appointment, which she'd broken down and set up the day before when she wasn't getting any better. I asked her why she was home, and she said she felt better. I was so amazed and happy that I brought her my journal to show her what I wrote. God answered my prayers and our friends' prayers for her. She was back to normal. She felt how she'd wished every morning she would feel waking up. She said she felt "like a new person." Her thumb's still a little numb like usual, and I'm still praying she won't get worse again. But no bag of frozen vegetables has been on her neck since. God answered my prayer when I asked in Jesus's powerful name. I am so grateful and excited about this, and I hope and pray I'll always be seeing God do things like this.

Mighty Man of Valor

THIS WEEK has been different. No, I'm different. You see, God talked to me in a funny way last week that has given me a lot of joy and peace. I mean, I had joy and peace before, but I feel that "blessed assurance" that we sing about. And on top of it, I read a story that I really connected to. I read the story of Gideon, who was the nobody of nobodies in Israel when it was being harassed by the Midianites. He was a humble, timid guy. But God called him to drive out the Midianites. Judges 6:15-16 "So he said to Him, 'O my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house.' And the Lord said to him, 'Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man.'" What I notice about Gideon is that with every step to his calling, he acted in obedience but with fear. He was terrified. He made a sacrifice to God when He visited him, and when He revealed His glory he thought he was going to die. God told him to break down the neighborhood idols, and he had to do it in the dead of night for fear of his neighbors. But God knew this about Gideon. Nevertheless His first words to him when He visited were "The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!" I wonder why this statement was not enough to make Gideon see himself as a mighty man of valor. Whatever the reason, God knew that before he went to the hill of Moreh to face the Midianites, he needed something more to encourage him. Gideon had 32,000 men, but God said that was too many. Judges 7:2 "And the Lord said to Gideon, 'The people who are with you are too many for Me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel claim glory for itself against Me, saying, 'My own hand has saved me.'" So the number went down to ten thousand. That was still too many, so the number went down again to 300. Plus Gideon. Also, they were going to war each armed with a trumpet, a torch, and a pitcher. God knew His servant was scared. So He told him to grab his servant Purah and go spy on the Midianites: Judges 7:11 "'and you shall hear what they say; and afterward your hands shall be strengthened to go down agaist their camp.' Then he went down with Purah his servant to the outpost of the armed men who were in the camp." This is the part that I really love. It's where the fearful, self-doubting Gideon becomes the mighty man of valor that God called him from the start. v. 13-15 "And when Gideon had come, there was a man telling a dream to his companion. He said, 'I have a had a dream: to my surprise, a loaf of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian; it cam to a tent and struck it so that it fell and overturned, and the tent collapsed.' "Then his companion answered and said, 'This is nothing else but the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel! Into his hand God has delivered the camp of Midian and the whole camp.' "And so it was, when Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, that he worshiped. He returned to the camp of Israel, and said, 'Arise, for the Lord has delivered the camp of Midian into your hand.'" Barley bread is a symbol of poverty, because barley was the most affordable grain for the poor to use for bread. He could have sent a bulldozer, but He sent a barley loaf. That's why it took so much to convince Gideon: why wouldn't God send a king? Why would He send an average guy hiding in the winepress from the Midianites? The same reason He sent away most of his men: the victory would be for the glory of God alone. It's amazing what assurance can come from a few revealed words from God. What can make a man braver than hearing that God has revealed him as victorious, even to his enemies? I don't know why it is, but He knows that sometimes we need to hear it from more than one source. That's why I relate to Gideon this week. The blessed assurance I mentioned comes from a few words spoken by my new friends on my mission team. We asked God to give us each a word or a picture that would help encourage each member of the team. God used this occasion to give these people, most of whom I'd never met before that day, words that really touched my heart. All of the words they shared were personally relevant, but especially the phrase "light in a dark place." I needed God to tell me this, because just the night before I'd been confessing that I didn't know whether I was doing any good in leading my friends to Him. My school was the dark place. This told me that even if we cannot see it, God is doing more with His people than we can imagine. It gave me hope that I will indeed "see His goodness in the land of the living." I can begin to understand the assurance Gideon must have felt when he heard how his enemies were already trembling. The next day, the 300 men surrounded the camp and blew their trumpets, and they won. v. 21 "And every man stood in his place all around the camp; and the whole army cried out and fled." Comrades killing each other, fleeing from the valley. Gideon called other Israelites to track them down, and they won. After that moment when God revealed his plan through a stranger, we never see Gideon afraid again. He acted in boldness, as the "mighty man of valor" God called him to be.