Insta Flock

Psalm 78:52 “But he brought his people out like a flock; he led them like sheep through the wilderness. He guided them safely so they were unafraid.” The other day I wrote about the importance of taking spiritual risk. Bill Johnson says that the key to all the supernatural miracles they’ve experienced at Bethel Church is crying out to God in private, and taking risks in public. It might seem like a small thing to very visible pastors like P Bill, but for me one of the biggest risks I’ve taken has been sharing this devotional. When God first asked me to open source my quiet time, I resisted. “Can I really be authentic if I’m sharing to a broader audience? What if a founder or an investor finds my website and gets offended by some of my writing? God, is this really a good idea?” But as often happens, He didn’t reveal the full picture before inviting me along for the ride. When God speaks, I’ve learned to listen, and so I faithfully obeyed this time too. Since then I’ve received plenty of encouragement from folks, but I’ve also managed to offend some others, and even some members of our own church. I love them all dearly, and I think we’ve largely managed to reconcile, but you can imagine why I was resistant when God asked me to take another step and share the devotional on Instagram. “I’m quite comfortable leaving these posts in a remote corner of the internet. I have old friends on Insta who are going to think this quite weird. God can’t I just leave it as it is?” But again he made the invitation, and again I obeyed. I don’t claim to have the full picture yet, but just in the last week of posting I’m so moved by some of the responses I’ve received. I’ve connected with strangers and old friends, going through good times and bad. I’ve had a chance to pray and to receive prayer. Perhaps most surprisingly for me, the posts seem to be resonating with Christians and non-Christians alike. I guess God spoke in scripture to all sorts of people across different faiths, and there’s no question that he wants us all to draw closer to him and experience his love. Lord, thanks for inviting me to take spiritual risk. Thank you for guiding me safely, so I can be unafraid. I’m honored to be part of your flock. In your son’s name, Amen.

Redemption & Lift

Luke 4:18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Today I read Randy Clark’s writing in The Essential Guide to Healing. He relayed that God empowers us to bring “salvation in its fullest sense to people – including forgiveness, healing, deliverance and the ‘redemption and lift’ of the poor.” I had never heard of this “redemption and lift” concept, so I looked it up online. It ends up that families that come to faith often in one generation experience a positive shift in their socio-economic standing. The term was first coined by Donald MacGavran and more recently sociologist Rodney Stark provided statistical evidence for the phenomenon in “America’s Blessings.” We must be careful to avoid a transactional relationship with our father in heaven. God is not a vending machine. But I do believe, and the data seems to show, that blessings follow as an overflow of an intimate relationship with a loving father. It’s not always a straight line. There will be ups and downs. But I guess those tough moments are an opportunity to exercise our faith. Lord, thank you for an opportunity to know you. Thank you for giving us healing, recovery and restoration. Thank you for redemption and lift. When the world screams that all is not ok, I choose to believe that the end is always good. If it’s not good, it’s just not the end yet. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Infinity Stones

1 Peter 1:4 “This inheritance is kept in heaven for you.” The other night we watched the first episode of the new Marvel series called Loki. Our star after whom the show is named, finds himself caught in a strange new world of the Time Variance Authority, an agency tasked with monitoring the flow of time. In perhaps one of the most memorable moments of the show, Loki finds some infinity stones casually strewn about in a desk drawer. In the universe he knows, the stones are scarce (only 6 of them), powerful (can destroy whole planets), and therefore valuable. However, in this new world they are plentiful, powerless and therefore used as paperweights. We got a discussion going afterwards with the boys about value and what that means across worlds. “Scripture tells us that we are to store our treasure in heaven, because all the stuff we care about on earth doesn’t really last and won’t really matter in eternity.” I asked the boys what they valued currently and Kyan said without hesitation “money! I want to use it to cryogenically freeze myself.” [I have no idea where that came from.] Luke said “I value my brawl stars score. I can use in app purchases to get more brawlers and increase my standing in the leaderboard!” [Brawl Stars is a popular video game with 8 year olds these days.] “Right! Gaming is a perfect example of this idea,” I replied. “If you get new brawlers, you can’t bring them into another game like Minecraft right? And the city you build in Minecraft has no value in Brawlstars. It’s just like how infinity stones are valuable in one world but useless in another.” Then Kyan interjected “yes but with blockchain gaming you can actually own something in one game that continues to have value in another game.” I guess a relationship with God is like that. Infinity stones in the Kingdom are really infinite… good across all time and space. Lord, thank you for bridging heaven and earth through the gift of your son. Thank you that we can have a real, intimate relationship with you. Thank you for giving us a glimpse into the next life so we can build up our treasure in heaven. In your son’s name, Amen.