Out of Quarantine

Psalm 118:5 “Out of my distress I called on the Lord; the Lord answered me and set me free.” I’ve spent four out of the last five weeks in quarantine, and was very blessed to the see the light of day today. So I felt God leading me to meditate on freedom and what that means in the context of my faith. The Psalmist in today’s verse proclaims that the Lord set him free as translated in the English Standard Version. But the original Hebrew translation is closer to “brought me into a merhab” or “wide, roomy, open space.” I guess it’s natural as I go from a confined space to more open space, I feel a sense of freedom. But then I’m reminded of a missionary friend who was imprisoned and tortured in North Korea. In the midst of what seemed like his demise (he was given the death penalty at one point), he sang hymns of praise and showed Christ-like love to his prison guards. He did not let the close quarters confine him, because his freedom came from the Lord. By the time I came to visit this friend, he had set up a school that had educated thousands of North Korean students. At a dinner banquet we sang Amazing Grace together with North Korean communist party members. Freedom doesn’t come from circumstances. True freedom comes from God’s love and a transformed heart. And as I head back into worldly freedom today, I feel reminded to focus on what really matters. Lord, thank you for speaking. Thank you for a very blessed trip, and thank you for a blessed return. I want to keep my eyes upon you and you alone. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Getting Through The Rough Patch

Luke 1:37 “For nothing will be impossible with God.” My friend gave me a call the other day asking for some counsel. He had a bit of a rough patch with his company, and I think that led to a bit of a rough patch with God. He didn’t go into detail, but I sensed there was a bit of anger, disappointment and hopelessness, which is natural. Thankfully by the time we spoke he had gotten into a better place. We talked about his situation, and at the end of the call, he asked me “Hey John. How can you be so positive when your dad has cancer?” So I replied “Well what you believe is a choice. And there’s a lot of research out there that shows if you believe good things and think good thoughts, then good things happen to you. It’s why top athletes visualize themselves winning competitions. So if I can choose to believe in a loving and all-powerful God, who always has the best for me, why wouldn’t I?” Even if you wanted to engineer from scratch a system of thought that helped get positive outcomes, I don’t think you could come up with anything that beats what I objectively believe to be the truth. Jesus came, healed the sick, cast out demons, fed 5000, raised the dead, then told us that we’d do even greater things than these. Meditating on that sure beats some visualization exercise. God always challenges us to have more faith, not less, because he wants the best for us and coming into line with what is true helps drive better outcomes in our lives. Lord, I love you and I praise you. Thanks for being such an awesome God. Thanks for inviting me into a greater faith today. I come into alignment with the truth. Nothing is impossible with you. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

God & Technology

Hebrews 13:8 “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” Some years back, I started to spend a bit of time in our church office and I realized that a lot of the tech best practices that startups use could also be used by the church to get people closer to God. This seemed like such a new thing, because technology is changing so rapidly, and churches, in general, aren’t seen as the most innovative of institutions. But then on a visit to the Billy Graham Library, I realized that I was totally mistaken. Millions of people gave their lives to Jesus at Billy Graham’s crusades, and his sermons reached billions around the world. After seeing pictures of him with every US president since Truman, as well as world leaders like Deng Xiaoping and Kim Jong-Il, we walked into a room with pictures of Billy Graham in various TV and radio studios. Our guide said “See in his day, most pastors believed that technology and media were evil. People within the church said ‘oh we can’t go to Hollywood. That’s the devil’s domain.’ But Billy Graham believed that we needed to use the cutting edge technology of the era to get the gospel to people.” In subsequent weeks and months, God revealed to me that he had not only been working through technology in Billy Graham’s era, but really since the beginning of time. See technology is effectively our ability to store, process and transfer information. Every 18 months or so, our speed in information processing doubles, a phenomenon known as Moore’s law. This is what allows innovative churches today to use Instagram to reach the lost. It’s also what allowed Billy Graham to use radio and TV to do the same. The internet, computers, television, radio, the telegraph, the printing press, paper, and even the invention of writing itself were all innovations that God used to get more people into relationship with him. Jesus did the miracles, but it was the authors of the gospels who brought the good news to the masses. Only 3% of people knew how to read and write then, which means that Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were the software developers of their day. That feels funny to us because almost everyone knows how to read today, but in the same way, almost everyone will know how to code in a decade or two. Churches will be holding amazing virtual reality services with billions of simultaneous attendants. AI assistants will help us in our quiet time journey. Advancements we can’t even begin to imagine await right around the corner. Lord, you are the same yesterday, today and forever. You have always been using technology to bring people into relationship with you and you’re only accelerating that today. I believe you’re bringing another billion believers to know you in our lifetime. I submit all my plans to yours, and I just want to come in line with what you’re already doing. I love you. In Jesus’ name, Amen.