Where Were You God?

We often find ourselves living lives distant from God. And when things go bad, we ask, "Where were you God?" Maybe you can relate to that sentiment and feeling of disconnectedness. You may have stepped out on faith and everything seemed to have crumbled. You may have done something you felt you were called to do and didn't see any fruit from your labor.

The Old Testament prophet Elijah sure could relate. He was serving God. The miraculous story of God proving Himself on the mountain top had just happened. He had raised a boy from the dead. He had predicted a drought and predicted the coming rain. And then Jezebel wanted to kill him.

If I was Elijah, I probably would have thought that the great signs and miracles would bring people to the Lord. You may feel that way in your personal life. "God, I gave up such and such for you. Yet I'm still struggling. Where are you? I spend time trying to draw close to you. Where are you?"

Here was Elijah, hiding in a cave, scared for His life, all because He had served the Lord.

He gives a good self-pity prayer. You've probably been there before. In your own cave. In your own despair. In your own pride and self-pity.

He said, “I have been very jealous for the LORD, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away” (1 Kings 19:10 ESV).

He's saying in modern terms, "God I did what you wanted. I am following you. I am the only and best Christian. And now they want to kill me. For serving you, they want to kill me."

"And the word of the Lord said, 'Go out and stand on the mount before the LORD.' And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake.  And after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper." (1 Kings 19:11-12 ESV).

God was in the whisper. Despite exhibiting himself in the fire when God proved Himself on the mountaintop just a little bit before this, He wasn't in the fire again. God cannot be put in a box. God's not what you expect. Previously, He was in the fire. But not this time. This time He was in the whisper. 

We expect the fruits from our labor, like Elijah expected the fruits from His labor. But God responds with the message, "I am in the whisper. Do the things that I want you to do. Be faithful. But if the fruit isn't what you wanted, do not be discouraged. Do not be dismayed. Are you faithful? Then that is all that matters. Remain faithful. Be still and listen. I am in the whisper. But remember, the whisper also doesn't contain me. We miss out on God because of our preconceived notions on how serving Him is supposed to be and how seeing Him is supposed to look. 

So often, we miss out on seeing God because of our preconceived notions on how serving Him is supposed to be and how seeing Him is supposed to look like. We can't shape our Lord. Our Lord must shape us. God always moves in unexpected ways. And if we aren't listening to Him - if we aren't living in Him - we will miss him.

Lawson Stone, a professor at Asbury, said in a lecture the other week. "For good or ill, however risky and troubling it may seem, God has entrusted the maintenance of justice and the protection of the helpless to human communities and their leaders, to you and me. I am my brother’s keeper. Where is God in abuse and violence? How is he present to those who suffer? Here's the unwelcome news: He's in us, expecting us to be the bearers of his presence. When we ask God 'Where were you?' He replies, 'Where were you?' God calls upon us to create the kind of community where power does not mutilate, but fosters thriving."

Jesus now comes to our world through His Spirit and through the church. Through people like you and me who live in relationship with each other and Jesus.

We pray, "God, feed the hungry of the world."

And the Spirit answers back, "Go, feed the hungry."

We pray, "God, house the homeless."

And the Spirit answers back, "Go, house the homeless."

When we pray "God, please." It is usually echoed with a "Go, be."

And then you are his reflection.  A reflection who feeds a hungry. A reflection who gives school supplies to those in need. A reflection who brings a pizza as a thank you. A reflection who houses the homeless.

So when we ask, "Where were you God?"

He answers, "I was in the friend you were ignoring. I was the person you were fighting with and alienated. I was the helpless person you refused to help. I was all around you, yet you failed to see me. "

Where is God? He is everywhere.

But because of our lack of being in touch with the Spirit and our preconceived notions, we don't see Him. We say, "God must come like this and He must look like that."

There  is no book. There is no building. There is no belief. There is no box that can contain God.

Let us help unleash God in this world.

The Key to Evangelism and Our Lack of Excitement in Christ

The key to evangelism is to be excited about Jesus and what He is doing. This will lead to us naturally telling others about Jesus in our conversations. If we are not excited, we will be totally ineffective. Excitement might not look the same in each of us; some of us are more exuberant while others are more reserved.  Despite the differences in personalities, excitement cannot help but spring out of our lives. Excitement is contagious. Our love for Jesus should be filled with excitement, overflowing and contagious, not just for what he has done, but what He is currently doing.

Have you ever been in a church service where they want you to cheer for Jesus like you would cheer at a sporting event? With the same excitement and fervor? It’s a little awkward. We are being asked to celebrate an event in the past. I’m an Ohio State fan, and if you told me the story of how they won the National Championship in 2002 by Maurice Clarrett running for a 5-yard touchdown in the second overtime - a great story mind you - I’m not going to cheer. I would appreciate the good memory and experience a moment of pride in being an Ohio State fan, but that is about it. But if you were with me watching that game on January 3, 2003, when Clarrett entered the endzone, I was uncontrollably jumping, cheering, and probably trying to clap all at the same uncoordinated time. I didn’t care how foolish I was, I was celebrating; I was excited.

Why do we lack excitement for Jesus like we do for sporting events? That’s the questions speakers try to remedy when they want us to cheer for what Jesus has done. But I think they are missing the point. All too often, we leave the work of Jesus in the past and expect excitement to come as a result of past facts rather than present blessings. He died on the cross, established the kingdom, and showed us how to live – all awesome stories. More than just awesome, they are life changing, but we don’t celebrate with exuberance events in the past.

What needs to happen for us to become excited is to allow the Spirit to work in the present. When we do that, our excitement will be natural, spontaneous, and unstoppable. If we suffer from a lack of excitement and claim to be followers of Jesus, it is because we have left Jesus in the past, whether as a historical redeemer some 2000 years ago or in the past of our life where we experienced his forgiveness for the first time or his miraculous provision in some way; if we lack excitement, we are not currently experiencing Him because experience inevitably breeds excitement.

God is the God of the present, just as much as he is the God of the past, and he honors our seeking him. We will continually encounter Him if we seek Him with all of our heart, soul, body, and mind – with our whole being. To experience Him, we have to live a life of risk and live dangerously. We need to tackle those issues we have doubts with and seek answers from God. We need to step out where we are uncomfortable and rely on His sustenance. We need to be willing to look like a fool for Christ. We need to experience God for ourselves, in the present, wherever we are. This builds excitement like nothing else. This will result in us being great evangelists of His message along with the added benefit of living life more fully.

The Church is not a Collection of Perfect People, The Church is a Gathering of Seeking Sinners

After Jesus told the Samaritan woman the secrets of her life, she asked him a theological question she was hung up on.  Like the Samaritan woman, we need to not be afraid to ask the questions that frustrate us or make us have doubts.  Christians need to be people who are willing to talk about the tough questions of faith, but too often we avoid those topics and ignore those who want to talk about them.  People who get frustrated and do not want to have an honest discussion over an issue are typically people who have not thought the issue through and are standing on sandy ground.

We need to be people who don’t look down on people when they are struggling with religious issues.  It is only through struggling that we will find the truth.  Too often in the past, the church has been a place where you have to pretend to be perfect and pretend to believe all of the right answers.  That just should not be.  Church should be a place where broken sinners gather together to encourage one another to love their neighbors and help each other along in their struggles and doubts.

The church is often labeled a bunch of hypocrites.  The only way to stop being labeled that is to acknowledge that we are a collection of fallen sinners who are trying to follow Jesus to the best of our ability through the strength he provides.  We are hypocrites when we try to appear perfect, so let us be transparent about our sinfulness.  We are Christians saved by grace when who are trying to following Jesus to the best of our ability.  Unfortunately, we frequently fail. 

Let us throw off the tendency to put on our superChristian disguise, the one where we have all of the right answers and present a façade of perfection.  That’s dangerous.  Let’s not ignore the problems in our faith.  We need to hit them head on and wrestle openly with them.  Let’s not lie to ourselves about the problems in your life.  If we do, these unaddressed problems will slowly sneak up on us until we are worship with faithless motions while living a powerless faith.  We need to go to God with our spiritual dilemmas, whether it is for divine guidance or revelation.  That’s part of seeking.  All too often we are willing to accept a paper Jesus, one we have constructed, rather than the real Jesus who will challenge our thoughts and actions.  He does not always fit perfect in our nice, religious box, but he does bring freedom.