My wife and I recently attended a conference in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida called “Hope For Orphans”. It was probably the biggest gathering of Christian men and women from various organizations and ministries that focus specifically on orphans to ever take place. Represented were people with a passion for foster care, local and foreign adoption, and international ministry to orphans. It was an amazing and refreshing time for us, as we have never been around so many people so passionate about the same things as us. It was exciting to network with others laboring in the fields of the fatherless, and it was fun to hear the same language being talked about- from the church's desperate need to recover the front lines of orphan care (both locally and globally) to the church's need for a solid understanding of spiritual adoption and what it means to be adopted sons and daughters of God. It was also fun to see so many families exemplifying the doctrine of adoption in their own families through adopting children from around the world. Just a glance around the room and one would quickly notice children from China, Ethiopia, and various ethnicities from within America. How beautiful!
Yet, even as I smiled at such beautiful diversity within various families, my heart was yet saddened by one stark reality- the room itself lacked diversity. Granted, there were a few African brothers and sisters in the room, mainly because they work with orphans in Africa, and there were a few brothers and sisters of color scattered here or there, but overall, a good 95% of the people in attendance of this Orphan Summit IV were white American. My heart could not help but feel saddened. Is this really a conference reflective of the church in America in terms of orphan care, concern, and ministry? Where are my African American brothers and sisters? Where are other established minority church groups? Are these church's simply not involved in orphan care or was the conference targeting one specififc ethnic group (white churches)? I don't have an answer to these questions(though I have some ideas), but I've been thinking about it non-stop since the conference. I am really interested in your feedback in this situation, because I think this is a sad reality on a much bigger level than simply this conference.
It also seems to me that a people so passionate about and so committed to the doctrine of adoption and its implications for the church in both life and practice (in terms of the adoption of orphans from various different ethnicities) should be just as passionate and just as committed to pursuing multi-ethnicity in both church life and ministry practice. It also seems to me that the doctrine of adoption provides a paradigm for multi-ethnic ministry (or the pursuit of unity within the ethnic diversity within the body of Christ)- something I'm working on teasing out in an article form (I'll post that when it's done). How beautiful it will be one day when families, men and women, who are passionate about the doctrine of adoption and who reflect the beauty of that doctrine in their own families, form but a small picture of the larger gathered diverse Body of believers, whether gathering to talk about ministry to orphans, or gathering to worship on Sunday morning.
I guess for now, I'd love to hear your take on these things.
Monday, May 12, 2008
Friday, March 21, 2008
Answering My Own Questions
Well, since I haven't heard much back concerning the questions I posed in my last post, I'm going to enter in and offer up my own answers. Let me know what you think.
* Are we born as “literal” children of Satan (is he our natural father?), or are we yet children of God who have rebelled against Him and therefore come under submission to Satan as our “father”?
Jesus spoke to some Jews in John 8 and told them that they are of their father the devil. The Apostle John split the world into two groups, children of God and children of Satan (I John 3:10). The question, then, is in what sense are people actually children of Satan?
First off, we are not Satan's natural children. When Paul was preaching to the Areopagus in Acts 17, he was speaking about God as the maker of the nations, nations that trace back to one man (Adam), nations that God set in place that they might seek Him. He then quoted one of their own poets saying, “'For we are indeed his offspring.' Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver... (28-29).” The implication of what Paul is saying is that though humanity is fallen, God is still the Father of all humanity! Satan is not our rightful or natural father.
Second, when Paul was speaking about our state before following Jesus, he said that we were "dead in trespasses and sins" and at the same time we were "following the prince of the power of the air (Eph. 2:1-2)" who is Satan. So, though God is the TRUE Father of humanity, because of the fall and original sin, we are each born spiritually dead, and therefore we by nature follow Satan, in the sense that we DO NOT by nature follow or submit to God. In a very real sense, Satan IS our father, but it's more of a father by choice through the rejection of our True Father God. This goes back to the failure of Adam, the first "son of God (Lk. 3:38)", and this is where the process of regeneration comes in, where God redeems, justifies, and then adopts us back into His family because of the obedience of the true Son of God, Jesus, who then becomes our brother (Heb. 2:12-13) by spiritual adoption.
* Is it wrong to use language like “orphan heart” to describe the tendencies of a wounded orphan's heart (and thus our own hearts), when it's not Biblical language per se?
I have no problem with the use of language outside of the Bible to describe concepts found within the Bible. For example, the term Trinity is not found in the Bible, but the Trinity is clearly there. In the same way, the concept of the "heart of an orphan" is there in that it is simply the sinful, human heart, but it describes those sinful tendencies that tend to be more specifically at work in the heart and life of an orphan because of the trauma they have faced in life. Though spiritual orphans are never talked about, either, it is assumed within the usage of the term adoption within the writings of Paul, since it is both slaves and orphans that need adopted.
* Why do people have such a hard time applying the Gospel outside the context of “sin”, in terms of the ongoing healing of the heart (psychology term?) through the wounds that we have received from others?
I think most of this goes back to the Reformation and the emphasis that we have had over the last three hundred years on the doctrine of justification (a much needed emphasis by the way!). As a result, the Gospel has been clearly defined, but it has been applied simply in terms of salvation of sins at the cost of understanding the death of Jesus in the defeat of death and Satan. In Uganda this has led to a division of the Gospel into two Gospels, one of salvation and one of deliverance (from Satan/demons). In the same way, here in the West, we have proclaimed our need for the Gospel in terms of salvation from sin, but have failed to present our ongoing need for the Gospel in all areas of life- even where we have been sinned against by others.
* Why does the Christian church throw up flags when emphasis is made on God as Father and our need to relate to Him on the level of “Daddy”?
This one is sort of the "hum dinger" of the questions, since history and the feminist movement come into play with the answer. Without going into those things, I will simply say that Jesus clearly revealed the Fatherhood of God and the access we are granted in terms of the "Abba" cry of Jesus. Most of us naturally relate to God as the King that we have offended, but because of Jesus we are pardoned by Him (again, going back to the emphasis on justification). The result is often a life lived relating to God as a slave or servant, and the fruit is a much easier job relating to Jesus (lover, friend) then to God as Father. The breakdown in fatherhood in our culture also adds to this inability to relate to God in terms of Fatherhood and sonship. Many translations are moving towards the neutral God (Father/Mother) which affirms the cultural outcries against a masculine God and creates more alarm when God is spoken of as He has revealed Himself (as Father).
What do you think?
* Are we born as “literal” children of Satan (is he our natural father?), or are we yet children of God who have rebelled against Him and therefore come under submission to Satan as our “father”?
Jesus spoke to some Jews in John 8 and told them that they are of their father the devil. The Apostle John split the world into two groups, children of God and children of Satan (I John 3:10). The question, then, is in what sense are people actually children of Satan?
First off, we are not Satan's natural children. When Paul was preaching to the Areopagus in Acts 17, he was speaking about God as the maker of the nations, nations that trace back to one man (Adam), nations that God set in place that they might seek Him. He then quoted one of their own poets saying, “'For we are indeed his offspring.' Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver... (28-29).” The implication of what Paul is saying is that though humanity is fallen, God is still the Father of all humanity! Satan is not our rightful or natural father.
Second, when Paul was speaking about our state before following Jesus, he said that we were "dead in trespasses and sins" and at the same time we were "following the prince of the power of the air (Eph. 2:1-2)" who is Satan. So, though God is the TRUE Father of humanity, because of the fall and original sin, we are each born spiritually dead, and therefore we by nature follow Satan, in the sense that we DO NOT by nature follow or submit to God. In a very real sense, Satan IS our father, but it's more of a father by choice through the rejection of our True Father God. This goes back to the failure of Adam, the first "son of God (Lk. 3:38)", and this is where the process of regeneration comes in, where God redeems, justifies, and then adopts us back into His family because of the obedience of the true Son of God, Jesus, who then becomes our brother (Heb. 2:12-13) by spiritual adoption.
* Is it wrong to use language like “orphan heart” to describe the tendencies of a wounded orphan's heart (and thus our own hearts), when it's not Biblical language per se?
I have no problem with the use of language outside of the Bible to describe concepts found within the Bible. For example, the term Trinity is not found in the Bible, but the Trinity is clearly there. In the same way, the concept of the "heart of an orphan" is there in that it is simply the sinful, human heart, but it describes those sinful tendencies that tend to be more specifically at work in the heart and life of an orphan because of the trauma they have faced in life. Though spiritual orphans are never talked about, either, it is assumed within the usage of the term adoption within the writings of Paul, since it is both slaves and orphans that need adopted.
* Why do people have such a hard time applying the Gospel outside the context of “sin”, in terms of the ongoing healing of the heart (psychology term?) through the wounds that we have received from others?
I think most of this goes back to the Reformation and the emphasis that we have had over the last three hundred years on the doctrine of justification (a much needed emphasis by the way!). As a result, the Gospel has been clearly defined, but it has been applied simply in terms of salvation of sins at the cost of understanding the death of Jesus in the defeat of death and Satan. In Uganda this has led to a division of the Gospel into two Gospels, one of salvation and one of deliverance (from Satan/demons). In the same way, here in the West, we have proclaimed our need for the Gospel in terms of salvation from sin, but have failed to present our ongoing need for the Gospel in all areas of life- even where we have been sinned against by others.
* Why does the Christian church throw up flags when emphasis is made on God as Father and our need to relate to Him on the level of “Daddy”?
This one is sort of the "hum dinger" of the questions, since history and the feminist movement come into play with the answer. Without going into those things, I will simply say that Jesus clearly revealed the Fatherhood of God and the access we are granted in terms of the "Abba" cry of Jesus. Most of us naturally relate to God as the King that we have offended, but because of Jesus we are pardoned by Him (again, going back to the emphasis on justification). The result is often a life lived relating to God as a slave or servant, and the fruit is a much easier job relating to Jesus (lover, friend) then to God as Father. The breakdown in fatherhood in our culture also adds to this inability to relate to God in terms of Fatherhood and sonship. Many translations are moving towards the neutral God (Father/Mother) which affirms the cultural outcries against a masculine God and creates more alarm when God is spoken of as He has revealed Himself (as Father).
What do you think?
Monday, March 10, 2008
Orphan Heart and Opposition
Last week in my home church I preached a message on the story of Abraham and Lot and the journey of an orphan heart, tying it into spiritual adoption and the need of us all to relate to God as Father and trust Him alone for our identity, provision, protection and security. Afterwards, one woman came up to me absolutely livid. I was caught off guard by her, since I had just been talking with a woman who was in tears at how moved and encouraged she was by the message. On the contrary, this woman told me that I was on a dangerous path and she pleaded with me to seek God in prayer about the direction I was heading. She likened my teaching to what she called, “Focus on the family and Josh McDowell” Christian-psychology, family idolatry. She began defending the Gospel like I was denying the depravity of man and everyone’s original spiritual state as “dead in sin” and therefore “children of Satan,” claims that I completely agree with. She went on and on with great emotion and passion for the things she was calling me out on.
My initial reaction was to defend myself. I knew that she had misunderstood me and I also knew that I agreed with most of what she said about the Gospel. I also knew that I don't even read Dobson or McDowell, and I wanted her to know it! But that would have been fruitless in that situation, and to my great rescue, along came another man who wanted to encourage me and I was able to turn my attention away from her. When I turned back she was gone.
After that it did not matter how many “well done”'s I got, I was shaken up and hurt. My father-in law pointed me to David's response to Shemmi's stones, and I began seeking my Father as to what He wanted to teach me through this direction opposition. And that is where I want to get your feedback.
* Why does the Christian church throw up flags when emphasis is made on God as Father and our need to relate to Him on the level of “Daddy”?
* Are we born as “literal” children of Satan (is he our natural father?), or are we yet children of God who have rebelled against Him and therefore come under submission to Satan as our “father”?
* Is it wrong to use language like “orphan heart” to describe the tendencies of a wounded orphan's heart (and thus our own hearts), when it's not Biblical language per se?
* Why do people have such a hard time applying the Gospel outside the context of “sin”, in terms of the ongoing healing of the heart (psychology term?) through the wounds that we have received from others?
If you'd like to hear the sermon yourself you can at: http://www.gracecommunitybible.org/listen/podcast.php
Thanks for the help! Keith
My initial reaction was to defend myself. I knew that she had misunderstood me and I also knew that I agreed with most of what she said about the Gospel. I also knew that I don't even read Dobson or McDowell, and I wanted her to know it! But that would have been fruitless in that situation, and to my great rescue, along came another man who wanted to encourage me and I was able to turn my attention away from her. When I turned back she was gone.
After that it did not matter how many “well done”'s I got, I was shaken up and hurt. My father-in law pointed me to David's response to Shemmi's stones, and I began seeking my Father as to what He wanted to teach me through this direction opposition. And that is where I want to get your feedback.
* Why does the Christian church throw up flags when emphasis is made on God as Father and our need to relate to Him on the level of “Daddy”?
* Are we born as “literal” children of Satan (is he our natural father?), or are we yet children of God who have rebelled against Him and therefore come under submission to Satan as our “father”?
* Is it wrong to use language like “orphan heart” to describe the tendencies of a wounded orphan's heart (and thus our own hearts), when it's not Biblical language per se?
* Why do people have such a hard time applying the Gospel outside the context of “sin”, in terms of the ongoing healing of the heart (psychology term?) through the wounds that we have received from others?
If you'd like to hear the sermon yourself you can at: http://www.gracecommunitybible.org/listen/podcast.php
Thanks for the help! Keith
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Though Fatherless and Widowed- God is Father and Husband
My cousin Mike and I have talked much over the years about the fatherless. He has visited us twice in Uganda, so he has not only heard me teach on the fatherless, but he has seen firsthand what it means to labor in the “fields of the fatherless.” He has come to understand God's Fatherhood to the fatherless as unfolded throughout the Old Testament. He has understood what Psalm 68:5 means when it says, “A Father to the fatherless, a defender of widows is God in his holy dwelling.” And he has delighted in the culmination of all that these things point to in the Gospel and the doctrine of adoption, where God Himself adopts spiritual and physical orphans into His family and Himself becomes “Daddy.”
Last year Mike took all that I have written concerning God's heart for the fatherless and the widow and he taught it in a Sunday School class at his church. He has spoken on spiritual adoption to the church and he has been my constant encourager as I've labored to begin writing a book on these things. Yet these are not just things that Mike has “learned” like you would learn that 2 + 2 = 4. No, you don't become passionate about “facts” or “truth” for truth's sake. Mike has become passionate about these things because they have been “revealed” to him and they have affected and changed the way he relates to God.
I am convinced that Mike's ownership of these things, his longing to know God intimately, his realization that though he has had a father, spiritually he was fatherless, but in salvation, in the Gospel, he has been brought into the family of God where God IS his Father, all of these things were preparation for what was coming. When Mike was woken up at 4:30 in the morning to his mother's desperate cries, he knew what was happening. He ran out of his house to find his father, dead. In those desperate moments as shock and pain shot through his body, as he was helpless to do anything to bring his father back, the realization of what Mike had become sank in.
When I called him the first thing he said to me was, “I'm fatherless, my dad is dead.” He went on, “But my Papa's with me, he's the best father in the world, and it's good.” He went on to tell me the horrible story of what took place when he found his father, yet the peace and comfort he had in it all was the knowledge that His Father was with him. Suddenly, what Mike had been so passionate about was more of a reality than it ever had been.
That verse in Psalm 68 also says that God is the defender of the widow. Though Mike's mom, my Aunt Nancy, had become fatherless six months before, she now has to face life as widow, a young widow, and she has the daunting task of forming a new identity apart from the one who's life had also defined her own.
When Mike asked me to speak at the funeral I did not want to at first. How could I stand before my family, all of us full of emotion, and deliver the Word of God. But then God brought me to John 11 and the message I was to speak, so I agreed. I spoke out of John 11- the story of Lazarus. It's an amazing passage relating to death, the depth of pain and grief that we bear, the questions that naturally arise during grief, Jesus' response to these questions, and his entering into our own suffering, as he weeps right along side of us, though he knows the purposes and the results of such tragedy in our lives. What came out powerfully is the great hope of the Gospel for us both in resurrection and life to come, as well as the healing and comfort in life now.
I can not enter into the grief of another and feel exactly what they are feeling, even if I've been through something similar. But there is one who himself as suffered just as we have, and He alone is able to enter in and bring the healing and comfort that we so long for. He is the Father to the fatherless, and the defender, the husband, of the widow. I'm so thankful for those beautiful pictures found in Scripture! And I'm so thankful for His Spirit's help to deliver His message of hope in the midst of such grief.
Last year Mike took all that I have written concerning God's heart for the fatherless and the widow and he taught it in a Sunday School class at his church. He has spoken on spiritual adoption to the church and he has been my constant encourager as I've labored to begin writing a book on these things. Yet these are not just things that Mike has “learned” like you would learn that 2 + 2 = 4. No, you don't become passionate about “facts” or “truth” for truth's sake. Mike has become passionate about these things because they have been “revealed” to him and they have affected and changed the way he relates to God.
I am convinced that Mike's ownership of these things, his longing to know God intimately, his realization that though he has had a father, spiritually he was fatherless, but in salvation, in the Gospel, he has been brought into the family of God where God IS his Father, all of these things were preparation for what was coming. When Mike was woken up at 4:30 in the morning to his mother's desperate cries, he knew what was happening. He ran out of his house to find his father, dead. In those desperate moments as shock and pain shot through his body, as he was helpless to do anything to bring his father back, the realization of what Mike had become sank in.
When I called him the first thing he said to me was, “I'm fatherless, my dad is dead.” He went on, “But my Papa's with me, he's the best father in the world, and it's good.” He went on to tell me the horrible story of what took place when he found his father, yet the peace and comfort he had in it all was the knowledge that His Father was with him. Suddenly, what Mike had been so passionate about was more of a reality than it ever had been.
That verse in Psalm 68 also says that God is the defender of the widow. Though Mike's mom, my Aunt Nancy, had become fatherless six months before, she now has to face life as widow, a young widow, and she has the daunting task of forming a new identity apart from the one who's life had also defined her own.
When Mike asked me to speak at the funeral I did not want to at first. How could I stand before my family, all of us full of emotion, and deliver the Word of God. But then God brought me to John 11 and the message I was to speak, so I agreed. I spoke out of John 11- the story of Lazarus. It's an amazing passage relating to death, the depth of pain and grief that we bear, the questions that naturally arise during grief, Jesus' response to these questions, and his entering into our own suffering, as he weeps right along side of us, though he knows the purposes and the results of such tragedy in our lives. What came out powerfully is the great hope of the Gospel for us both in resurrection and life to come, as well as the healing and comfort in life now.
I can not enter into the grief of another and feel exactly what they are feeling, even if I've been through something similar. But there is one who himself as suffered just as we have, and He alone is able to enter in and bring the healing and comfort that we so long for. He is the Father to the fatherless, and the defender, the husband, of the widow. I'm so thankful for those beautiful pictures found in Scripture! And I'm so thankful for His Spirit's help to deliver His message of hope in the midst of such grief.
Monday, February 4, 2008
Funeral and Family Revival
Act 2:39- “For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to Himself.”
I'm back in West Virginia right now, all alone and missing my family. It's never fun or easy to travel home for a funeral, thoughts and feelings come at you strangely since you are not “there” yet, though you feel the pain and hurt through the distance...but it's still not the same. My Uncle died a couple of days ago, suddenly and tragically, but not altogether unexpectedly, though we all thought he was doing well. He had triple bi-pass surgery and seemed to be improving well enough, though he was having a bit of trouble breathing the last couple of days he was at home.
My family buried my grandfather, my mom's dad, around six months ago. My Aunt Nancy (sister to my mom) was left with a mess to sort through after that death, including baggage from a father who wounded more than he loved, though he did love. In fact, all four of the daughters have been forced to deal with the wounds of a father longed for and lost. When Aunt Nancy found out that Uncle Rick (her husband) needed heart surgery, it was about enough to toss a goat off a hillside. Overall, we were all positive about the surgery, all of us but Uncle Rick himself. His last few weeks were extra hard on Nancy, as she was still grieving her father while her husband was retreating into himself, coming face to face with the reality of death.
But before the surgery came, he gained renewed hope through a meeting with an old buddy who had successfully had the same surgery. The surgery came and went on the day after my birthday. I visited him in the hospital the day after and was stunned by how good he was doing after just one day. After he was brought home he began struggling to breath. My cousin Mike (his son), who is like a brother to me, was not able to visit his dad until the day before he died, because Mike had the ol' stomach flu that was passing around our family. Their time together was sweet- and as Mike prayed for his Dad, praising and worshiping God in the midst of the pain and struggle his father was facing, his Dad was “amen”ing.
That may not sound significant to most people, but I've sat with Mike on many occasions and listened to his own pain and grief for his father, his longing to see a spiritual thirst in his dad. I had never heard of Uncle Rick even uttering an “amen” in the midst of prayer. Mike left after that and the night came. He had been struggling to breath enough that they almost called an ambulance a couple of times, but he did not want to go back to the hospital. At one in the morning, my Aunt Nancy woke up, changed his towels and checked on him. Surprisingly, he said, “Nancy, come and pray with me.” And the words of the prayer, though I'm passing on now third-hand (paraphrased), still cause me to cry- “Dear Lord, I know that you are a Sovereign God, and I know that you are with me, but I'm hurting, and I don't like it. I know that I haven't lived my life for you, and I'm sorry. Please forgive me for the things I've done wrong. Amen.” I'll try to update the exact words when I can get them from Aunt Nancy. Sometime in the next two hours he likely had a blood clot go to his heart or lungs, and he died. I won't go into the details here, but the trauma that both Nancy and Mike faced over the next two hours is somethign I pray I will never have to face with my own father.
As I told this to my own father as we drove to the airport to pick up my sister, he cried and cried. It's what we've all longed for, prayed for, hoped for, for Uncle Rick- that his heart would be turned TOWARD God, and it was. The hardest part for our family was the disappointment for the hope of the next phase of Rick's life, a life lived for something greater than himself, life lived outside of himself, the continued fathering role he would have with his grandkids Austin and Abbey, and a chance for those of us outside the immediate Ervin family to truly KNOW the man. Yet, he has gained new life, a life that non of us would want to pull him away from, where he is free and where death has been swallowed up in victory. Our hope for him is far “less” than the true hope he has gained in new life. We prayed that his physical heart problems would lead to the healing of his spiritual heart, and truly it did. And that was the greatest healing of all.
The first time I spoke with Mike on the phone, I was at a loss as to even what to say. I was stunned too. The first thing he said to me was, "I'm fatherless, my father died. But I have my Papa, and He's the best Father." He is the Father of the fatherless, and in Mike's initial grief, the Father's comfort was with him in a way that truly amazed me. That comfort continues to be with him, even as he cares for his mom who in six months has become both fatherless and widowed. We are praying that she comes to truly know the One who is both Father and Husband, the father of the fatherless and defender of the widow. Onl He can bring that depth of healing.
As I look back over my family during the past 30 years, one thing becomes OBVIOUS- God is redeeming our family. Though we have our issues and struggles and just down right weird aspects of our family, the Gospel is penetrating into heart and lives and changing them. We are being redeemed. In my own family there is a maturity and love for God, for Jesus, that I couldn't have imagined 15 years ago. In Mike's family (the Ervin family) the same work is being done. In cousins, aunts and uncles, hearts are turning toward Him and lives are being lived for him. None of this has been in our time or our way, but in God's timing, the fruit of His consistent and steady work in our lives...much through pain and struggle, just like we are facing now.
I sit here amazed at God's grace in our family, at the redemption He has brought to torn families and the healing He is bringing to deep wounds, and I can only smile. How fun it is to be a part of His work in our family, in our community, and in our world. “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father from whom every family in heaven and earth is named...” We do bear His name, and the promise is for us and our children and all who are far off- as many as the Lord our God calls to himself. I love being a part of family revival...where will we be in 30 more years?
I'm back in West Virginia right now, all alone and missing my family. It's never fun or easy to travel home for a funeral, thoughts and feelings come at you strangely since you are not “there” yet, though you feel the pain and hurt through the distance...but it's still not the same. My Uncle died a couple of days ago, suddenly and tragically, but not altogether unexpectedly, though we all thought he was doing well. He had triple bi-pass surgery and seemed to be improving well enough, though he was having a bit of trouble breathing the last couple of days he was at home.
My family buried my grandfather, my mom's dad, around six months ago. My Aunt Nancy (sister to my mom) was left with a mess to sort through after that death, including baggage from a father who wounded more than he loved, though he did love. In fact, all four of the daughters have been forced to deal with the wounds of a father longed for and lost. When Aunt Nancy found out that Uncle Rick (her husband) needed heart surgery, it was about enough to toss a goat off a hillside. Overall, we were all positive about the surgery, all of us but Uncle Rick himself. His last few weeks were extra hard on Nancy, as she was still grieving her father while her husband was retreating into himself, coming face to face with the reality of death.
But before the surgery came, he gained renewed hope through a meeting with an old buddy who had successfully had the same surgery. The surgery came and went on the day after my birthday. I visited him in the hospital the day after and was stunned by how good he was doing after just one day. After he was brought home he began struggling to breath. My cousin Mike (his son), who is like a brother to me, was not able to visit his dad until the day before he died, because Mike had the ol' stomach flu that was passing around our family. Their time together was sweet- and as Mike prayed for his Dad, praising and worshiping God in the midst of the pain and struggle his father was facing, his Dad was “amen”ing.
That may not sound significant to most people, but I've sat with Mike on many occasions and listened to his own pain and grief for his father, his longing to see a spiritual thirst in his dad. I had never heard of Uncle Rick even uttering an “amen” in the midst of prayer. Mike left after that and the night came. He had been struggling to breath enough that they almost called an ambulance a couple of times, but he did not want to go back to the hospital. At one in the morning, my Aunt Nancy woke up, changed his towels and checked on him. Surprisingly, he said, “Nancy, come and pray with me.” And the words of the prayer, though I'm passing on now third-hand (paraphrased), still cause me to cry- “Dear Lord, I know that you are a Sovereign God, and I know that you are with me, but I'm hurting, and I don't like it. I know that I haven't lived my life for you, and I'm sorry. Please forgive me for the things I've done wrong. Amen.” I'll try to update the exact words when I can get them from Aunt Nancy. Sometime in the next two hours he likely had a blood clot go to his heart or lungs, and he died. I won't go into the details here, but the trauma that both Nancy and Mike faced over the next two hours is somethign I pray I will never have to face with my own father.
As I told this to my own father as we drove to the airport to pick up my sister, he cried and cried. It's what we've all longed for, prayed for, hoped for, for Uncle Rick- that his heart would be turned TOWARD God, and it was. The hardest part for our family was the disappointment for the hope of the next phase of Rick's life, a life lived for something greater than himself, life lived outside of himself, the continued fathering role he would have with his grandkids Austin and Abbey, and a chance for those of us outside the immediate Ervin family to truly KNOW the man. Yet, he has gained new life, a life that non of us would want to pull him away from, where he is free and where death has been swallowed up in victory. Our hope for him is far “less” than the true hope he has gained in new life. We prayed that his physical heart problems would lead to the healing of his spiritual heart, and truly it did. And that was the greatest healing of all.
The first time I spoke with Mike on the phone, I was at a loss as to even what to say. I was stunned too. The first thing he said to me was, "I'm fatherless, my father died. But I have my Papa, and He's the best Father." He is the Father of the fatherless, and in Mike's initial grief, the Father's comfort was with him in a way that truly amazed me. That comfort continues to be with him, even as he cares for his mom who in six months has become both fatherless and widowed. We are praying that she comes to truly know the One who is both Father and Husband, the father of the fatherless and defender of the widow. Onl He can bring that depth of healing.
As I look back over my family during the past 30 years, one thing becomes OBVIOUS- God is redeeming our family. Though we have our issues and struggles and just down right weird aspects of our family, the Gospel is penetrating into heart and lives and changing them. We are being redeemed. In my own family there is a maturity and love for God, for Jesus, that I couldn't have imagined 15 years ago. In Mike's family (the Ervin family) the same work is being done. In cousins, aunts and uncles, hearts are turning toward Him and lives are being lived for him. None of this has been in our time or our way, but in God's timing, the fruit of His consistent and steady work in our lives...much through pain and struggle, just like we are facing now.
I sit here amazed at God's grace in our family, at the redemption He has brought to torn families and the healing He is bringing to deep wounds, and I can only smile. How fun it is to be a part of His work in our family, in our community, and in our world. “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father from whom every family in heaven and earth is named...” We do bear His name, and the promise is for us and our children and all who are far off- as many as the Lord our God calls to himself. I love being a part of family revival...where will we be in 30 more years?
Friday, January 25, 2008
Listen in to the orphan heart
Hey guys, here are some links to some talks I've done on the orphan heart. If you've been reading some of what I've written you'll see some obvious overlap. If you haven't, then no worries either.
The first was a sermon given at Grace Community Chapel (it's their podcast website) and the other two were me sitting down at Shoney's with my buddie Moles who is the pastor of that church. Feedback is most welcome!
http://gracespace.podbean.com/2008/01/22/the-orphaned-heart/
http://gracespace.podbean.com/2008/01/24/lots-orphaned-heart/
http://gracespace.podbean.com/2008/01/24/the-fatherhood-of-god/
The first was a sermon given at Grace Community Chapel (it's their podcast website) and the other two were me sitting down at Shoney's with my buddie Moles who is the pastor of that church. Feedback is most welcome!
http://gracespace.podbean.com/2008/01/22/the-orphaned-heart/
http://gracespace.podbean.com/2008/01/24/lots-orphaned-heart/
http://gracespace.podbean.com/2008/01/24/the-fatherhood-of-god/
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Part 3: Ex 22- God as the Defender of the orphan and widow
Imagine if one of the first things you were taught after professing faith in Jesus was that God wants you to care for orphans and widows. Imagine that you came across James 1:27 while reading the Bible or you heard it preached in church. You might wonder what was so special about orphans and widows that God would call caring for them “true religion.” Perhaps a mature Christian would point out that the command flows out of the Fatherhood of God Himself to us as those who were spiritually fatherless, but have now been adopted into the family of God (Gal. 4:4-7). You would learn very quickly to take seriously the call to live out the faith by caring for the fatherless and widows in your midst. In ancient Israel God wanted to make it clear to His people right at the beginning of their relationship with Him that they had a responsibility to care for orphans and widows in their midst as an outflow of the Person of God Himself as the defender of the orphan and widow.
God’s command to Israel in Exodus 22:22 takes place in the context of His entering into covenant1 with His people, so before we can look at the command itself, we must first understand the context of that command. When God took Israel to be “a people for Himself” in fulfillment of His promise to Abraham, the Scriptures say that He brought them out of Egypt “with a mighty hand” by the Passover and then through the Red Sea to the foot of Mt. Sinai. It is here on Mt. Sinai that Moses then went up to meet with God, and it is here that God affirmed the covenant that He was making with his people saying: “Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (Ex. 19:5-6a).” In Exodus 19 God laid out the fact that he was entering into a covenant relationship with Israel that had expectations and stipulations. They were to be a kingdom of priests (representing the nations to God and teaching them about God), a holy nation (representing God’s holiness to the nations), and they were to obey and keep the covenant (which by faith upheld the other two).
The covenant was confirmed in chapter 24 after the reading of the Book of the Covenant to the people (24:7). When they heard the stipulations of the covenant, the people declared: “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.” This proclamation was then followed by sacrifice and the shedding of blood.2 God then said to Israel through Moses, “Behold the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words (24:8b).” “All these words” were the words of the Book of the Covenant that was read a few verses earlier in the hearing of the people. So what was this “Book of the Covenant” and what does it have to do with orphans?
Up to this point, the Book of the Covenant consisted of those laws that were given in chapters 20-23 after God called Israel into covenant (Ex. 19) and before he ratified the covenant (Ex. 24). It functioned as the initial stipulations of the covenant- what the people were to obey, beginning with the Ten Commandments and then other laws that unfolded the various forms that this obedience would constitute. These laws included various topics ranging from laws about alters, slaves and restitution, to laws about social justice, Sabbath and festivals. At this point in the giving of the Law there was no mention of sacrifices or instructions for the tabernacle (this came shortly after and would continue to unfold throughout the Pentateuch with the Law). Yet these laws were specifically chosen to make up the initial “Book of the Covenant” for a purpose- they revealed God Himself (the Lawgiver) as well as His expectations for His people to reflect His nature through obedience.3
This is the context of our passage at hand. Right at the beginning of His relationship with Israel, within the initial “Book of the Covenant,” God said to His people: “Do not take advantage of a widow or an orphan. If you do and they cry out to me, I will certainly hear their cry. My anger will be aroused, and I will kill you with the sword; your wives will become widows and your children fatherless (Ex. 22:22-23).”
I can remember the first time I read this passage; I gasped! Did God really say THAT! That if orphans and widows were mistreated and cried out to God, then He Himself would kill them, leaving their wives to be widows and their children fatherless! That is what the command says. The question must be asked then: Why such severity? The answer to this question lies within the heart of the Lawgiver, but becomes clearer when seen in the light of the nations around Israel in the Ancient Near East. The protection of the widow and the orphan was the constant claim of the “ideal king” of the Ancient Near East. In their boasting, the ancient kings were portraying themselves as “ideal” in their rule and just in all their ways.4 In a very real sense, without meaning to, these kings were at least pretending to reflect the nature of the one true ideal King.
In Israel (and the world) Yahweh is the ideal King who truly cares for the plight of the widow and the orphan as their true defender and protector. Yet this King has chosen to care for the widow and the orphan through his people- those in relationship with Him, those who will reflect His own character and holiness. If the people fail to care for the orphan and widow, the character of Yahweh’s own nature as the defender and protector of the fatherless would be compromised, as God had called Israel to reflect His own nature in the keeping of the Covenant. Therefore, failure to accurately reflect the nature of God in properly caring for orphans and widows would bring severe punishment!
God made it clear to Israel right at the beginning of His relationship with them that He takes seriously the care for the fatherless and widow! He bound the care of the fatherless and widow right into the fabric of the covenant itself within his covenant expectations of His people. When they cried out with one voice in Exodus 24, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do!”, they understood the magnitude of what they were saying, and the depths of God’s heart toward the fatherless and widows in their midst.
This passage holds three main truths for Christians today, each with very specific application and all three pointing to and unfolding the beauty of the Gospel itself.
1. God Himself is the defender of the Fatherless and Widow. There is something about this group of people that evokes God’s heart above the general category of “poor and needy.” The Book of the Covenant speaks in many places about the poor and needy, but it is here that God’s own character is seen to be linked to the fatherless and widow, where He shows that He Himself will move on their behalf. It will be unveiled later by David in Ps. 68:5 that God is the “Father to the fatherless” and the “defender of the widow” and this passage is the first to point us there.
The Gospel reveals that each of us is born spiritually “fatherless”, dead in sin (Eph. 2:2), and in desperate need of One who will move on our behalf. It is God who has taken the initiative in our salvation and drawn us to Jesus (Jn. 6:37, 44). This is the very heart of the Gospel itself- that God is not watching our pain and suffering, our struggles against sin and injustice on this groaning planet from far away. God is not ill-concerned and removed from our pain. Instead, He is near to us, concerned, and filled with compassion and mercy for those who are in need, especially the fatherless and widow.
2. God’s heart is toward those who recognize their need for Him. This is found in the statement, “If…they cry out to me, I will certainly hear their cry.” If the fatherless and widow are mistreated or taken advantage of but do not cry out to Yahweh then they suffer in vain and without hope. The promise is to those who “cry out” to Yahweh who then Himself will move on their behalf. This is the heart of the Gospel as shown in the Beatitudes. When Jesus says “Blessed are the poor in spirit” and “Blessed are the poor” he is not pointing to blessing for the sake of poverty in itself (whether physical or spiritual), but blessing unto those who know they need God! “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” It’s the same for the fatherless (physical or spiritual). One could say, “Blessed are the fatherless and blessed are the fatherless in spirit, for they shall find their Father.” The blessing is not to the fatherless for the sake of the fatherless, but to the fatherless that recognize their need of God! The same could be said about the widow. The Gospel is not for the righteous, but for those who know they need God (see Luke 18:9-14)!
3. God expects His people to bring His care (His Fatherhood) to the fatherless and widow. God still brings His Fatherhood to the fatherless through those of us who bring His compassion and care to these needy ones. This is the heart of James 1:27 and the heart of the Gospel itself- the very outflow of the person and nature of God being made manifest in us (see II Cor. 3:18). God made it clear to Israel right at the beginning of His relationship with them that they were to care for the fatherless and widow as a reflection of His character, and He makes it clear to us that we are to care for the fatherless in our midst.
The care of the fatherless is more than just a “good thing,” but is grounded in the Gospel itself, the good news that sin, death and Satan have been defeated on the cross and that God adopts us as His very own sons and daughters. This is a greater adoption than any of us could picture even if we adopt a child into our own families (which is great!). May our Father use us to bring His Fatherhood to the many physical and spiritual orphans in our midst, even as we bask in our own adoption as God’s sons and daughters!
God’s command to Israel in Exodus 22:22 takes place in the context of His entering into covenant1 with His people, so before we can look at the command itself, we must first understand the context of that command. When God took Israel to be “a people for Himself” in fulfillment of His promise to Abraham, the Scriptures say that He brought them out of Egypt “with a mighty hand” by the Passover and then through the Red Sea to the foot of Mt. Sinai. It is here on Mt. Sinai that Moses then went up to meet with God, and it is here that God affirmed the covenant that He was making with his people saying: “Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (Ex. 19:5-6a).” In Exodus 19 God laid out the fact that he was entering into a covenant relationship with Israel that had expectations and stipulations. They were to be a kingdom of priests (representing the nations to God and teaching them about God), a holy nation (representing God’s holiness to the nations), and they were to obey and keep the covenant (which by faith upheld the other two).
The covenant was confirmed in chapter 24 after the reading of the Book of the Covenant to the people (24:7). When they heard the stipulations of the covenant, the people declared: “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.” This proclamation was then followed by sacrifice and the shedding of blood.2 God then said to Israel through Moses, “Behold the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words (24:8b).” “All these words” were the words of the Book of the Covenant that was read a few verses earlier in the hearing of the people. So what was this “Book of the Covenant” and what does it have to do with orphans?
Up to this point, the Book of the Covenant consisted of those laws that were given in chapters 20-23 after God called Israel into covenant (Ex. 19) and before he ratified the covenant (Ex. 24). It functioned as the initial stipulations of the covenant- what the people were to obey, beginning with the Ten Commandments and then other laws that unfolded the various forms that this obedience would constitute. These laws included various topics ranging from laws about alters, slaves and restitution, to laws about social justice, Sabbath and festivals. At this point in the giving of the Law there was no mention of sacrifices or instructions for the tabernacle (this came shortly after and would continue to unfold throughout the Pentateuch with the Law). Yet these laws were specifically chosen to make up the initial “Book of the Covenant” for a purpose- they revealed God Himself (the Lawgiver) as well as His expectations for His people to reflect His nature through obedience.3
This is the context of our passage at hand. Right at the beginning of His relationship with Israel, within the initial “Book of the Covenant,” God said to His people: “Do not take advantage of a widow or an orphan. If you do and they cry out to me, I will certainly hear their cry. My anger will be aroused, and I will kill you with the sword; your wives will become widows and your children fatherless (Ex. 22:22-23).”
I can remember the first time I read this passage; I gasped! Did God really say THAT! That if orphans and widows were mistreated and cried out to God, then He Himself would kill them, leaving their wives to be widows and their children fatherless! That is what the command says. The question must be asked then: Why such severity? The answer to this question lies within the heart of the Lawgiver, but becomes clearer when seen in the light of the nations around Israel in the Ancient Near East. The protection of the widow and the orphan was the constant claim of the “ideal king” of the Ancient Near East. In their boasting, the ancient kings were portraying themselves as “ideal” in their rule and just in all their ways.4 In a very real sense, without meaning to, these kings were at least pretending to reflect the nature of the one true ideal King.
In Israel (and the world) Yahweh is the ideal King who truly cares for the plight of the widow and the orphan as their true defender and protector. Yet this King has chosen to care for the widow and the orphan through his people- those in relationship with Him, those who will reflect His own character and holiness. If the people fail to care for the orphan and widow, the character of Yahweh’s own nature as the defender and protector of the fatherless would be compromised, as God had called Israel to reflect His own nature in the keeping of the Covenant. Therefore, failure to accurately reflect the nature of God in properly caring for orphans and widows would bring severe punishment!
God made it clear to Israel right at the beginning of His relationship with them that He takes seriously the care for the fatherless and widow! He bound the care of the fatherless and widow right into the fabric of the covenant itself within his covenant expectations of His people. When they cried out with one voice in Exodus 24, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do!”, they understood the magnitude of what they were saying, and the depths of God’s heart toward the fatherless and widows in their midst.
This passage holds three main truths for Christians today, each with very specific application and all three pointing to and unfolding the beauty of the Gospel itself.
1. God Himself is the defender of the Fatherless and Widow. There is something about this group of people that evokes God’s heart above the general category of “poor and needy.” The Book of the Covenant speaks in many places about the poor and needy, but it is here that God’s own character is seen to be linked to the fatherless and widow, where He shows that He Himself will move on their behalf. It will be unveiled later by David in Ps. 68:5 that God is the “Father to the fatherless” and the “defender of the widow” and this passage is the first to point us there.
The Gospel reveals that each of us is born spiritually “fatherless”, dead in sin (Eph. 2:2), and in desperate need of One who will move on our behalf. It is God who has taken the initiative in our salvation and drawn us to Jesus (Jn. 6:37, 44). This is the very heart of the Gospel itself- that God is not watching our pain and suffering, our struggles against sin and injustice on this groaning planet from far away. God is not ill-concerned and removed from our pain. Instead, He is near to us, concerned, and filled with compassion and mercy for those who are in need, especially the fatherless and widow.
2. God’s heart is toward those who recognize their need for Him. This is found in the statement, “If…they cry out to me, I will certainly hear their cry.” If the fatherless and widow are mistreated or taken advantage of but do not cry out to Yahweh then they suffer in vain and without hope. The promise is to those who “cry out” to Yahweh who then Himself will move on their behalf. This is the heart of the Gospel as shown in the Beatitudes. When Jesus says “Blessed are the poor in spirit” and “Blessed are the poor” he is not pointing to blessing for the sake of poverty in itself (whether physical or spiritual), but blessing unto those who know they need God! “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” It’s the same for the fatherless (physical or spiritual). One could say, “Blessed are the fatherless and blessed are the fatherless in spirit, for they shall find their Father.” The blessing is not to the fatherless for the sake of the fatherless, but to the fatherless that recognize their need of God! The same could be said about the widow. The Gospel is not for the righteous, but for those who know they need God (see Luke 18:9-14)!
3. God expects His people to bring His care (His Fatherhood) to the fatherless and widow. God still brings His Fatherhood to the fatherless through those of us who bring His compassion and care to these needy ones. This is the heart of James 1:27 and the heart of the Gospel itself- the very outflow of the person and nature of God being made manifest in us (see II Cor. 3:18). God made it clear to Israel right at the beginning of His relationship with them that they were to care for the fatherless and widow as a reflection of His character, and He makes it clear to us that we are to care for the fatherless in our midst.
The care of the fatherless is more than just a “good thing,” but is grounded in the Gospel itself, the good news that sin, death and Satan have been defeated on the cross and that God adopts us as His very own sons and daughters. This is a greater adoption than any of us could picture even if we adopt a child into our own families (which is great!). May our Father use us to bring His Fatherhood to the many physical and spiritual orphans in our midst, even as we bask in our own adoption as God’s sons and daughters!
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