by RobertCummins | May 2, 2016 | 18. The Cross
In my early grades at a Catholic elementary school in Long Beach, California, I went to the weekly Catholic mass. I would sit in the pew looking about, standing, sitting, kneeling on queue. Then the homily or the sermon would come while we sat looking up to the elevated pulpit. In this church, St. Barnabas, there was a Scripture in large letters above the pulpit—a reminder. It was quoted from James 1:22 “Be you doers of the Word and not hearers only.” In that early age, I, like a child lost at sea, did not know what it really meant. All these decades later, that Scripture has stayed with me, and…I think…maybe I am getting it. And like that Bible verse, I have discovered that what we learn along the way—to our surprise—comes out later.
Two weeks ago Kalyn and I were in Beirut visiting Mary and Drew and our 3 glorious grandchildren. They and their team have been reaching out to the Lebanese people and the Syrian refugees for several years. Their team is passionate in their desire to see Jesus become established in many broken lives. With first hand knowledge, we know that Jesus changes desires, brings favor, creates opportunity, heals hearts, and gives new direction. While in Lebanon, we had the opportunity to visit those hurting families that Mary and Drew have been sowing into in the Syrian camps.
In Lebanon, like Africa, the ideal for mission-minded folks is to find someone who is hungry for the truth in Jesus, someone who is ready for a dramatic life-change that will bring risks, and hopefully someone who has a desire to impact his family, friends and neighbors. Drew and Mary and their team have been reaching out to the needy in Lebanon.
Sitting with Mahmoud, with his wife and children in their canvas tent in the makeshift refugee camp in the Becha Valley, here I was, once again, stepping into a foreign culture with truth for every man. But our visit was neither random nor an accident. We knew. We had been here before, but in different settings and with different faces. And as before, we “felt” our hearts in play. I listened as Drew translated Arabic. Mahmoud was a successful entrepreneur with 25 employees before the Syrian revolution. Because of his success, he was targeted and captured. Escaping, he had to leave home and everything behind, as he fled with his family across the border to Lebanon. Sitting with Drew & Mary, Kalyn, and the kids, we listened to the journey of his heart. As I listened and Drew translated, I thought, “His home, his city has been destroyed; his livelihood gone; his living circumstances radically, unexpectedly altered. Though their crisis is one of millions facing this horrible plight, our paths had now crossed. We were sitting with them. It was now personal. Why was I hearing this story? What could I possibly do to help? Again, we had been in this situation before and we had processed these questions before, so our confidence and faith was up.
Because of our experience, we also knew that it was no accident we were there. We understood that we were representing the King who sends His ambassadors to speak into situations to bring hope, alter vision, and breathe life. As I listened, I heard a seeking man, asking questions, intrigued with the Scriptures, wanting meaning and purpose to wrap around all that He had suffered and lost. He took his time explaining in Arabic to Drew engaging questions about the Scriptures—and their importance to him. He was wrestling with Kingdom things.
We listened and discerned. After hearing his struggles and discoveries, from this kind of experience, I knew that it was time to step up, to speak up and deliver words that have life. I carefully reminded him of the chosen ones in the Old Testament—Abraham, Daniel, Joseph, Moses, and others who had ended up in foreign lands through troubling and dramatic circumstances. From our experience we have witnessed how words can explode into revelation in the Father’s timing. So it looked like words, but the power of Jesus does something to words. Words have power. Words to hopefully create vision for his new season, words to create a picture of sustainable hope, “that he would be an elder at the city gates where many would come for his wisdom.” I felt a heart connect with him. Our intention was to bless and bless. Towards the end of our time, he sent someone to purchase two chickens and other food items in order to bless us. The power of a blessing.
The Syrian hospitality in their obvious needs humbles us. But the right thing to do—is to receive with gratefulness and thanksgiving. And then literally pray specific blessing into their lives. It was no accident that we were there. We know that the Lord is moving in their hearts in bigger ways than what we can measure. It was obvious how much they enjoy and love Mare and Drew and their kids. Sharing the hope of the life-changing Jesus only comes through genuine relationship. Meeting Jesus is not supposed to be a quick fix; transformation is a metamorphosis. It takes time, “line upon line, precept upon precept,” as new desires and new identity form and take shape.
Having been here before, receiving sacrificial blessings in tangible form from the Syrians moved me to give what I was able to give: praying in a specific blessing. This is an important opportunity that we have learned. If I have nothing to give, I should not be bothering them. We represent the King. We are to give and bless them in their needs. Often we pray for safety where there is danger, or financial provision where there is lack, or peace in the family where there is conflict. We have heard the testimonies of these kinds of prayers. We pray specifically so they can see the Father’s hand in their lives. We give something essential for their sustainable lives, and in so doing, point them to the power of Jesus.
Two months ago I was invited to speak to a group of struggling Africans who had been taking a course on “job readiness.” It is a program to teach what is important in terms of being an outstanding employee—positive attitude, work ethic, teachability, and other values. They wanted me to speak about the hope and vision of the gospel to these unemployed Africans looking for a better opportunity. I had spoken many times about “job readiness” in the States, but this time I asked the Lord for His Word in this season for these needy Africans.
I felt that the Lord wanted me to speak about how “words have power,” “the power of being a blessing.” In a culture of serious needs it is easy to focus on want and need. I shared how we are called to be givers, blessers in our circle of relationships. And that we can only do that as we align our hearts and minds to that of Jesus because He is the source of blessing and giving. He gives us truth, wisdom, and grace to give away. Life-changing truths. We are to be pro-active with our words. I kept using the phrase “words have power.” When the session was over, I did not realize the implication of what I was saying to this particular African group. In their culture it is a supernatural culture where curses can predominate. Often it is a “scolding culture,” “a culture that verbally beats up” those around them—their children, their relatives, and their neighbors with words that tear down. I inadvertently was challenging them to stop the generational line of curses toward those who do not agree with them, but to speak life. It surprised me when one of the group came up and repented and asked God to forgive her for the way she had been speaking to her children that morning. Words have power. And she decided to change, to be a carrier of a blessing and see the lives that she cares for change around her.
During family life in our home in Tulsa on 54th street, we discovered a fresh opportunity to change thinking and emotions. On a given night, with our 5 kids around the dinner table, we would say, “Tonight let’s each one of us say what they really appreciate about mom.” On another night we would choose one of the kids. Then we would go around the table with each one of us blessing the targeted family member for that night. It was refreshing and life-giving word of affirmation. It required us to stop, reflect then articulate what was unique and powerful in our family member. In retrospect I see how words have power. And what I learned at the family table, over the decades, I have been using in Africa. Words have power. Words with the Spirit of Jesus in them create vision, bring hope, change desires, lift up, refresh, and motivate. He calls us to be ready to step up, speak out, as He is the Word of Life.
In His Life,
mike and kalyn
Father, (this is Rob again) Help us to see that, in-Christ, the power of life is in us and that it transforms everything. Help us to reassess what we have perceived as real in the light of resurrection-reality. Until we are animated by your life, may we be silent. As we walk in your spirit may we raise our hands—giving voice to our personal reports of Your Life within us and among us. Let this be.
by RobertCummins | May 1, 2016 | 17. Undone
After a decade of marriage and three babies, my wife was nearly done with me. I didn’t know why at the time but I do now; she felt little love from me. What had happened to our precious love and friendship? We were both in the dark on this question and in profound pain. To this date, I believe my personal blind spots were greater than hers (if she even had any).
She carried her pain to her family (and mine) and friends who were not in my fan club. In this section of the bleachers, I was the cause of my wife’s pain, pure and simple. If she left me, they would not weep; instead there would have been applause with a few standing ovations. To say I was bitter toward this crowd would be gross understatement.
I carried my pain differently. I dreamed and I worked, believing that God was about to bring me into a place that vindicated my claim that He had been leading me – another area where my wife had her doubts. However, my vision had been strained due to setbacks that I just knew would soon work themselves out; after all, God was in control! Events were about to transpire, by God’s grace, that would put things right.
Things were also strained because of serious accidents I had recently experienced. I joked (not really) that my protective angel was either off the job or had been replaced by a bungling hit man angel. While waiting for God to show up in my vocational life (which had ties to ministry), I had three whopper accidents in the span of a year. I had even been the cause of another. “Why?” seemed like a very fair question to me. My prayer had become:
“If God is good and God is great then why am I experiencing such a cruel fate?”
I was having nightmares that would fascinate mental health experts. I would awaken in the middle of the night, haunted and harassed by a host of dark thoughts. There was so much tension in my head, my jaw eventually locked shut. But there was hope. There was the big contract with the Air Force that had come through, which would put my business on the map.
Like my ministry project, this contract had divine origins. It was in the bank. Money had been borrowed from family, friends and the ministry. The contract was being fast-tracked. Production was underway. The red carpet had been rolled out and I was being escorted to the front of the line as a sole-source vendor. All of my life had led providentially to this point. It was the only hope on my horizon. Then, the phone rang.
In about 60 seconds, the red carpet (the divinely appointed one) was jerked suddenly from beneath my feet, and the earth started spinning. The Air Force had cancelled my contract. My powers of speech left me. I got in my truck, drove into the woods, hiked for miles and lay down in a pile of leaves. I wept and then slept.
I did not know why my life had devolved into this ongoing calamity. I had been following Jesus as best I knew how (at least this is what I had told myself). Following God had become a living nightmare yet, I knew (and I hated Him for it), He was up to something. I had no place to go but to Him who would not explain Himself or apologize for the hell my life had become. Since God was sovereign, He was either the perpetrator an accomplice to this train wreck. My prayer (although less articulate) resembled Jeremiah’s (and I was yelling it);
Remember my affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and bitterness. Surely my soul remembers and is bowed down within me. (Jeremiah 3:19-20)
No one could begin to speak into the devastation of my heart. I recall pleading with God, “Please do not let me pass through this season without getting Your point. The motive behind this prayer is that I did not believe I could live through another earthquake of this magnitude. It was impossible at that moment, but in retrospect, it is easy for me to say;
The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the person who seeks Him. It is good that he waits silently for the salvation of the Lord. It is good for a man that he should bear the yoke in his youth. Let him sit alone and be silent since He has laid it on him. Let him put his mouth in the dust, perhaps there is hope. (Jeremiah 3:25-29)
The events that transpired as I was bearing my yoke, sitting in the dust with my mouth shut forever altered my understanding of the ways of God. It turns out, my bitterness was no small matter to him. Neither was the pain I had unintentionally inflicted on my wife. Another red carpet, of sorts, was rolled out to me, giving me an opportunity to deal with my unforgiveness and my bitter heart. God had gone to radically extreme measures (at least by my yardstick) to deal with my heart. I had given it to Him without any holdback clauses a decade earlier. As a good Father, He was simply holding me accountable to the heart-standards of a new creation in Christ.
Why would God cause (or allow) me, or anyone, to suffer like this? I am not 100% sure but I can say with great assurance that there is always hope. That is why we must persevere. In Christ, there is redemption. Our worst nightmares are the staging ground for His most profound victories. Through perseverance, our stories become His stories. Even though it is a hot mess, if we will press on in trust we will come to know the Lord and discover something invaluable about His ways;
where sin has increased, grace may abound all the more (an adaption of Romans 5:20)
Those who know me, know that a flood of blessing has overtaken my life since this season of undoing. Today, I can say with Jeremiah;
The Lord‘s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I have hope in Him.” The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the person who seeks Him. (Jeremiah 3:22-25)
I would not want to give the impression that my perseverance was some heroic exertion of courage. It was actually very messy. Neither was my perseverance about my clinging to God. It was about coming to a point of surrendering my strength, surrendering my notion of obedience and piety as causation. (If I am obedient, then good will transpire; then, everyone will live happy Christian lives.) One of God’s points was that I was safe with Him based on His keeping power, not my clinging power. Our clinging power equates to nothing more than religion.
Having made it through this season, God did not confer a spiritual Master’s Degree in Perseverance (an M-DiP) upon me. It turns out this was just Orientation to God’s Life 101. I was privileged to take another related course in my late 50’s. For some, suffering of one kind or another, may always be a part of the curriculum. In this life, suffering is destined to remain an ongoing part of the mystery.
Father, as we live along side those who suffer, may we comfort them with the comforts with which you comfort us. In word and deed, may our lives convey that Your lovingkindness never ceases and that Your compassions never fail. May the substance of our lives prove that we are content, no matter what our circiumstances, with You as our portion. May our stories reveal the grand news of Your life, as we learn to wait and hope. May the world see Your goodness through us. Amen.
by RobertCummins | Apr 30, 2016 | 17. Undone
When I think of being Undone (courtesy of the Alpha and Omega) what comes to mind is a cinematic memory from Raider’s of the Lost Ark. I thought Stephen Spielberg did an admirable job of undoing a greedy Philistine who thought he might co-opt the Ark’s power to his own end. Silly boy. Turns out that made Mr. P.’s version of Yahweh very angry.
Things do need undone though don’t they? Mankind does need a super hero to deliver him from his super-problem – sin. We actually have our hero in Jesus Christ who came to undue what the world the flesh and the devil have constructed and mislabeled as civilization. Listen to the apostle John as he describes Undoer.
I saw one like a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and girded across His chest with a golden sash. His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been made to glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters. In His right hand He held seven stars, and out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword; and His face was like the sun shining in its strength. (Revelation 1:13-16)
John, who had once laid his head upon Jesus’s chest, appraised what he was seeing and decided to not try this again, just now anyway. Instead, he…
fell at His feet like a dead man (from 1:17)
Is John’s revelation of Jesus the same as ours? What are we to do with another’s revelation of Jesus when we must have a personal relationship with Him, requiring, preferably, a personal revelation of Him? We must live by faith. Our spirit’s can grasp what our eyes have not seen and our ears have not heard. The Spirit-filled heart will say “amen” upon hearing John’s account. It may just initially be an agreement with what another has experienced but it will not remain second hand.
Eventually God will share with us kingdom circumstances through which we must persevere. We won’t be on Patmos on the Lord’s Day; we will be wherever God has placed us, walking in the Spirit, confident that in each new day His mercies and presence are as fresh as they were to John. Undoer simply has chosen to not to frighten us out of our wits. Nevertheless, I believe we will eventually say, if we persevere;
And He placed His right hand on me, saying, “Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades. (Revelation 1:17-18)
We won’t have to reference McArthur, Piper (or whoever) for our revelation because it will have become our own, no less effectual than the apostle John’s. God doesn’t light someone up just because he’s a favored son. He simply chose John as a reference point for us who have the added benefit of living by faith in harmony with benchmarks such as himself and Paul.
Behold, God still stands at the door and knocks. Those who open this door ultimately discover the same awe and intimacy that the great men of scripture knew. Our reborn spirits have the capacity for communion with God in Christ. The Holy Spirit is central to this revelation. For those of us who have not been taken up into the third heaven, there is our hearts, where Christ lives. Our understanding of what God has done in that space, making us temples and new creations, has the potential to transform us into the lights of the world we were called to be.
It is our place to be still. If we are, we will eventually hear a voice. It will likely not come from behind but from within. It may not blair like a trumpet, it may be the softer notes of a flute. It may even be a very quiet whisper but it will come. We won’t have to necessarily report what we have heard to any churches (or we might). We will simply share our lives with those on the islands where we have been exiled (excuse me; I mean sovereignly placed), those in our households, our neighbors, our friends and co-workers.
Father, please light up our hearts with Your life. Breath upon the embers. Fan them into flames of awe and intimacy, for Your Name’s sake. Amen.
by RobertCummins | Apr 29, 2016 | 17. Undone
What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? (Hosea 6:4)
I am convinced that one of the greatest heartaches a human being can know is that of having wayward children. Watching the child growing obstinate and indifferent, making choices the parent knows will cost him beyond his purse is nigh unbearable. Love for the child is profound. The desire to extend grace and mercy is intense. All parenting seems to have been for naught and the slide continues. This is where God is with Ephraim and Judah. What is God (the Parent) feeling? What will Parenting look like now?
These questions are elementary for the hyper-Calvinist. He calculates, “God hated Esau and apparently hates Ephraim and Judah as well.” He confidently reasons, “Their rebellion proves they were simply not among the elect. For His own reasons, God has hardened their hearts and they will get what they deserve… Now, let me tend to my land.” I cannot think of a doctrine (or attitude) more desecrating to God’s Father-heart.
I’m betting my life that God’s heart is broken for all His wayward children; that He brings discipline to bear in the most efficient way in order to rescue us from fates unknown. I’m believing that it is painful for God to do this, but His love demands it. To withhold it is to doom the child to a tragic end. If He must discipline this child out of His jealous love, Hosea speaks;
Come, let us return to the Lord, for (even though) He has torn us, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bandage us. He will revive us after two days; He will raise us up on the third day, that we may live before Him. (Hosea 6:1-2, parenthesis and amendment mine)
God is the Creator and Ultimate Arbiter yet, as presumptuous as it may sound, God is also (and is primarily) our Father. When God has children whose …
loyalty is like a morning cloud and like the dew which goes away early. He may have to hew them in pieces by the prophets; He may have to slay them by the words of His mouth. If He does, His judgments on the disciplined are like the light that goes forth. (an adaptation of Hosea 6:4-5)
It is my belief that when God’s Old Testament discipline seems severe to us, it is only because we do not know the depth our sin and the horrific consequence it will yield, left undisciplined. Even behind the harshest judgements recorded in scripture, there is a Father whose heart and circumstances are far far beyond our fragile intellectual grasp. In His judgements, He wasn’t wringing His hands, delighting in the misery He had dispersed. His heart was broken because His children were broken. I believe every act of God has been driven by the idea of dispersing mercy without compromising His expectations as a Father. Hosea (a man who intimately knew unfaithfulness) gives us counsel, in light of our Father’s heart;
So let us know, let us press on to know the Lord. His going forth is as certain as the dawn; and He will come to us like the rain, like the spring rain watering the earth.
To all of us who are trusting exclusively in Christ, God is our Father. Jesus Christ is our older brother. He is the first in a new race of beings. We are members of an eternal family and citizens of a new and never-ending kingdom, by way of His marvelous and incomprehensible grace. Therfore it is essential that we understand that God …
delights in loyalty rather than sacrifice, and in the knowledge of Him rather than burnt offerings. (an adaption of Hosea 6:6)
Where the knowledge of God as Father is unknown, man inevitably reverts to sacrifice. It may not be burnt offerings, but he will come up with something and all of his somethings add up to religion – the things man imagines he might do to make and keep things right between God and himself. Religion is a desecration of all that is truly holy because it imagines something man can do (or give) amends the problem. Our problem is light years more complicated than anything we might imagine. Only God could deal with it. And He did so by coming in person and absorbing His wrath upon Himself. Of Hosea’s contemporaries, perhaps Isaiah was seeing the Father’s heart most clearly;
But the Lord was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; if He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand. As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; by His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities. (Isaiah 53:10-11)
My dear family, if there was a big bang (and I suspect their was), its core was not just unstable matter, it was the Father’s heart.
Father, that we might grasp the depth of our deformity and the targeted height of our transformation; that our hearts would be steeped in humility and yet in confidence. May our hearts be saturated in gratitude and celebration. To You Almighty, All Holy, Father and Friend. So be it.
by RobertCummins | Apr 28, 2016 | 17. Undone
The Lord sent Nathan to David.
Oh that we each had a Nathan – some prophetic wise man with the courage to confront. There are reasons we don’t; self image and social capital are at risk when confrontation is undertaken. “What will they think of me? I will be rejected if I tell it as I see it.” On-the-give and on-the-take, some of us have confirmed this in personal experience. We ran directly into the flesh’s amazing capacity for self-self-decepetion. Nathan-like intentions have backfired and wrecked the shallow peace of many a relationship. The security of social connection is then gone. This is usually unacceptable.
David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, “As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this must die! He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.”
It is an astonishing thing that our flesh can be totally indignant at another’s sin while being guilty in some unacknowledged yet identical way. What is it that awakens a sleepy conscience? A word from God and a bold messenger is a good place to start. Feedback this stout usually costs anywhere from $25 to $100 per hour, depending on what type of counselor you choose. How sad that we do not have the pastoral gift flourishing in the body of Christ. I’m not referring to the job: “Pastor.” In the average local church, this title operates for between $25 and $75,000 per year. Of course, if you can bring in the numbers, Pastor might be paid more. Because; numbers = cash flow.
Pastor, as a title. is not what I am referring to. I’m referring to the pastoral gift which was never meant to be thought of as merely a job description locatable on an organizational chart. I’m referring to that empathetic ear coupled with that insightful, caring heart which is always jealous for God’s best in others. Oh that we each had brothers and sisters in Christ near us with the pastoral and the prophetic gifts in play.
Professional religious workers were sparse in the New Testament account of the early church. Why is this? I believe it was because those who were called to be overseers equipped faithful men and women who in turn did the same. The Spirit operating in individuals, through varieties of gifts must have been adequate to deliver those timely and courageous words which have always been essential in the nourishment of Christ’s Body. The Spirit’s presence, interactive in early Church communities, must have been one of the reasons for there radical expansion and influence. Or, shall we credit Constantine and the Pope’s?
The inner workings of the local churches I know function far more like businesses than families. They deal with pastors just like corporations deal with CEO’s, hiring and firing them based on their performance. Even in my small circles I know churches who are quietly preparing to punt the pastor. I know other churches where the senior pastor has taken great care to avoid any hint of a coup. My family and friends must ask, why do you bother to critique the local church; it is not going to change.
I bother because of imagery planted in my heart;
that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. (Ephesians 5:27)
“Come here, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me … Her brilliance was like a very costly stone, as a stone of crystal-clear jasper. (Revelation 21:9-11)
I bother because of the same sentiment David had after he repented. He washed his face and explained himself to those inquiring of his behavior.
Who knows? The Lord may be gracious.
