On Preparing for Worship

 "When we meet with our kinsfolk and acquaintance, let it be our prayer to God that our communion may be not only pleasant, but profitable. Let us pray that we may not merely pass away time and spend a pleasant hour, but may advance a day's march nearer Heaven and acquire greater fitness for our eternal rest!" — C. H. Spurgeon

10:45 a.m. is the deadline to meet my friend. I hustle down the highway ready to be on-time. I take a phone call on the way to be efficient with my time. As the phone call ends, I am on the highway nearly fifteen minutes out of the way. The exit missed. The highway drive so routine that I neglected the exit. In our routine attendance of gathering with God’s people, sometimes we miss the exit, neglecting the ultimate end of why we’ve gathered.

For those of us who gather for worship week-in and week-out, we must vigilantly guard our hearts for worship. Guarding our hearts for worship might be one of the greatest gifts we can give to God, ourselves, and others. Why is guarding and preparing our hearts and minds for worship so vital? Our hearts have a propensity to become dulled by the routine or distracted by extracurriculars, especially as unhindered sin abounds in our hearts suppressing the Holy Spirit in and among us (Ephesians 4:30; 1 Thessalonians 5:19). In other words, we forget why and how we gather for worship. Or we become distracted by tertiary issues that are insignificant compared to meeting together in the presence of the Spirit of Christ.

How we come to worship informs our expectations of meeting with God. A dulled or distracted state at best veils us from meeting with the Lord and at worst divorces us from meeting with the Lord. As I stood at the altar on my wedding day, Paige joined me at the altar to covenant together in marriage to “strive side by side for the sake of the gospel” (Philippians 1:27). Her face, veiled. Enthusiastically, I anticipated the veil’s removal when I could see Paige in her beauty. Can you imagine if the veil remained? Access to her would be limited. When staring into her eyes, I would not see her purely but only through the veil. So also, our distractions and dulled affections veil us from the presence of God and at worst divorces us from the manifest presence of God in our life. 

I cannot imagine living life separated from Paige. She is joy embodied and a delight to my soul. Yet when we live distracted from one another or in a state of conflict, our relationship is not at its best, not what it is intended to be. It is distorted and digressive. I am imagining how marriages can move from intimacy to separated-ness. Unresolved conflict, distractions, and digression in marriages lead not only to unhappy marriages but also into emotional, spiritual, or physical separation and isolation. We may still live together but not be intimately connected. You may still be eschatologically saved, but not connected in abundant relationship to God or to the manifest presence of the Spirit of God.

God wants us to be connected “in this present evil age” in abundant relationship to himself presently and to live in an ongoing, active relationship with him mediated through King Jesus and empowered by his Spirit. The apostle Paul encourages us to “look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:15-16). How then can we make the best use of my time with the gathered people of God in abundant worship? Experiencing abundant worship with God’s people and the presence of God among his people begins by evaluating ourselves.

How then can we care for ourselves and one another in our preparation to gather with God’s people in worship of the Father, Son, and Spirit? We prepare our hearts through worship and evaluating the 4 P’s:

• our presence,

• our perspective,

• our posture, and

• our participation.

Presence: Am I alert to God's promised presence with me and among his gathered people?

 At 7:30 a.m. every morning a little guy makes himself known in our house. He wakes up happy, but he desires to be held, feed, and changed shortly after waking. From 7:30 a.m. until 8:00 p.m., he desires presence. Presence to be known. Presence to belong. Presence to be cared for. Without such presence, he withers. He withers physically. He withers emotionally. He withers from a lack of connection and nourishment. Our own souls dehydrate when we move away from or live apart from the presence of the Lord.

From the expulsion out of the garden, mankind has moved “away from the presence of the Lord” (Genesis 3:23-24; Genesis 4:16). Yet the Lord continued to reveal himself as mankind moved away from his presence. The Lord met mankind where they were. This is the grace of the Lord— Jesus meets us where we are and transforms us through the presence of the Holy Spirit.

As we survey the New Testament writings, various writers warn God’s people to be watchful (Matthew 26:41; Hebrews 2:1; 1 Peter 5:8-9; ). Why? Because even though God’s people have been transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of the Beloved Son (Colossians 1:13-14), we still wrestle with sin (Romans 7:15-20; Hebrews 12:1). The apostle Paul not only warns us to be watchful but also to not distress and suppress God’s Spirit (Ephesians 4:30; 1 Thessalonians 5:19). As we are watchful, our responsibility is to be filled with the Spirit of God, which is substantiated by the we approach one another, addressing one another in worship to God and by the fruit of the Spirit (Ephesians 5:7-21; Colossians 3:12-17; Galatians 5:16-26). 

What I am saying is that God’s presence in your life shapes your attitude, your words, your actions toward those with whom you gather. When you are alert to God’s promised presence, it changes the way you engage others and the content you bring to others. A person filled with God’s presence and with the fruit of the Spirit is sensitive to the wellbeing of others. This person may bring a word of scriptural encouragement or a needed scriptural challenge. This person may be attuned to another’s struggle with a life circumstance or sin. Whatever the result when this person gathers with God’s people it is immensely profitable to the soul, and the profitability this person brings is from an encounter with the presence of God by being filled with the Spirit herself.

Perspective: Is my heart focused on making much of Jesus rather than myself and my way?

Unfortunate real-life stories have been told about individuals in the church that demand their way over the good of others, the church, or community. On one occasion, a deacon stood in my office and declared, “I don’t care what the congregation wants, I’ll do what I want.” This neither cared for people he committed to serve nor made much of Jesus. It made much of himself. It was a declaration of war against God’s kingdom in the local church and in our community. This egocentric, self-interested response is not always so directly acknowledged. Often this attitude is exemplified in attitudes and responses more subtly, but nevertheless when it rears its ugly head it roars against others.

Addressing egocentric, self-interested attitudes, especially within our own heart, is fundamental to preparing our heart for worship and to prepare ourselves to encounter the Living God. In a world rattled by sin and chaos, this can be a difficult task especially when the gospel culture in the church is seemingly suppressed by self-interested attitudes or worse— apathy. With a self-focused, everything-but-Jesus perspective, proper perspective is absent from our worship.

Having proper Christ-centered perspective is transformative in the life of a church family and within a community. When our hearts prioritize making much of Jesus rather than ourselves, our kingdom impact becomes exponentially greater, because in a real sense we embody and participate in God’s kingdom, which is pushing back the darkness in the world by the power of God’s Spirit at work in us.

Talking about our favorite hobby or sports team is a wonderful starting place for engaging in conversation, but it is not the end. God’s Spirit in us defies the kingdom of this world by “stirring up one another for love and good works” (Hebrews 10:24). This materializes through prioritizing gospel care in our conversations. Gospel care is when we meet someone in their life situation with encouragement, counsel, and/or deeds that reflect truth about who Jesus is and his redemptive work applied (think, life application of the gospel in us). Paul talks about how we relate to our conversations with other believers in this way: “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear” (Ephesians 4:29). Walking away from a conversation without an idea about how to pray for, care for, or give grace to a person might at times be lacking. Walking into a conversation with a Scripture to encourage a brother in Christ in their life situation builds up Christ’s kingdom. This is why the Apostle Paul says, “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you” (Colossians 3:5). For while death does not have the final say for us as followers of Jesus Messiah, in our mortal flesh the kingdom of the world is still at war within us. This is why Jesus tells his disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41). So then as we watch and pray, we also to “let the word of Christ dwell in [us] richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in [our] hearts to God. And whatever [we] do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Colossians 3:16-17).

The result of a perspective that focuses on making much of Jesus is the word of Christ dwelling in us richly and the love of Christ controls us. We’re thankful. We act in love towards others. We’re saturated in the Word of God. We’re filled with the Spirit of God. So, we speak not of ourselves but of Christ. This results in “stirring up one another for love and good works” (Hebrews 10:24) and the “building up of the body” (Ephesians 4:12-13, 16, 29), helping one another fix our eyes on Jesus, the founder and perfector of our faith (Hebrews 12:2).

Do you see why our perspective entering worship or gathering with God’s people matters? It’s an issue of us expressing to one another our relationship to God as his sons and daughters. If we aren’t his, we do not act like him; but if we are his, we live like him. When is the last time you have checked your perspective and thoughtfully engaged a person with thankfulness in your heart and with a word from the Lord that encourages their walk with the Lord? The genuineness of our worship of God bleeds to the way we engage others (Matthew 22:37-40).

Posture: Am I willing and able to hear and respond to the voice of the Lord with humility and vulnerability? 

While teaching through how to share your faith relationally, I asked a group to share about how they met Jesus for the first time. After we shared those stories, the group shared recent impacts Jesus has made in their lives. Strikingly, some could not describe how Jesus has changed them to be more like Jesus in recent days, months, or years. A few could only recall when Jesus met them at their conversion. Of that few, one was able to articulate a transformative experience with Jesus during a difficult medical season decades ago. I wonder why this is: why people cannot share transformative experiences with Jesus outside of a conversation experience or an intense mountaintop experience? I think each of the four Ps adds value to the answer: Presence (i.e., not actively seeking the Lord’s presence regularly), Perspective (i.e., looking for the earthly rather than the things of Christ); Participation (i.e., not walking in faith to enact God’s kingdom), and Posture (i.e., not hearing and responding to the Lord with humility). In this case, these people performed for Jesus, but their perspective was of this world and their posture was pride and presumption; thus, they had not experienced the manifest presence of God in their lives in any substantive and transformative way since a day when they walked in humility and submitted to living like King Jesus. So, I would like to take a moment to unpack how posture affects our worship.

 Commonly, posture is thought as the way a person holds his body when sitting or standing. For instance, when I stand, I naturally slump my shoulders forward without thinking; and when I sit, I relax with my legs crossed or kicked up on an ottoman with little thought. When we talk about posture as a metaphor in ethics, we are thinking about a deep-seated tendency to think, feel, or act in a particular way. While our posture is fundamental and developed display of our character, at times it may be contrived and insincere. Ultimately, even fabricated postures will be disentangled though it may come at the great eschatological judgment (Revelation 20:11-15). Presently, I want us to set aside the notion of fabricated postures. As believers in Christ, I think when we examine our heart with the help of others and the Holy Spirit, we will discern our basic posture before the Lord and others.

Two postures that are pervasive in the human heart are pride and humility. On numerous occasions in Scripture, God reveals these postures in the human heart and their outcomes (Psalm 51; 2 Chronicles 26; Luke 22:54-62; Philippians 2:6-11). One Scripture that gives clarity to God’s viewpoint on pride and humility is found in James 4:6. Citing the Greek edition of Proverbs 3:34, James says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Our posture towards God and others affects God’s action toward us in this way: God resists those who are proud and gives favor to the humble. So, when we come to worship our posture affects how we engage God and engage others. God may resist our worship because our heart is oriented toward presumption and pride rather than obedience to him (1 Samuel 15; Luke 18:9-14).

Our willingness to hear God’s voice and respond in obedience is more significant than we may realize when engaging in worship. And it might be more necessary that you to think to prepare your heart for worship through an evaluation of your posture before the Lord. In 1 Samuel 15, King Saul claimed obedience to the Lord, yet he left the best of the sheep and the Amalekite king, Agag, alive after God demanded total destruction. Saul’s posture before the Lord was presumptuous. Saul thought he knew better than the Lord, and in his presumption and pride he considered himself obedient while the Lord considered Saul as rejected.

Your ability to hear the Lord and properly respond to him with humility and vulnerability— as when Isaiah declared, “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts” (Isaiah 6:5)— matters. Can you imagine if you prepared Saturday night or Sunday morning by asking yourself and assessing, “Am I willing and able to hear and respond to the voice of the Lord with humility and vulnerability,” and then asking the Lord to uncover rebellion in your heart that might prevent you from responding properly to the Lord. Abiding in the Lord is an invitation to bear the fruit of the Lord (John 15:1-17; Galatians 5:16-26).

Participation: Am I willing to step out in faith to enact God’s kingdom on earth as in heaven?

There is a pendulum that exists in the local church: pew warmers and ministry idolaters. Both are forms of self-service. The pew warmer comes to church to feed herself. The ministry idolater finds his validation and self-worth in working forthe Lord, prioritizing effectiveness over faithfulness and serving over relational health with the Lord. Neither is healthy in God’s economy.

 Fruit-bearing participation is vital for healthy worship and a healthy walk with the Lord. Genuine belief is always coupled with faith-action, whether its faith and repentance when we first believed or faith and post-conversion obedience. (In case you miss it, repentance is an act of obedience.) There is no separation between faith and obedience in God’s economy. James 2:17 says, “So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” The fruit of obedience is the visibility of faith. Faith is never isolated from obedience. Obedience shows where your faith is.

Participating in Christ’s kingdom is more than showing up to church on Sunday morning; although, it is a first-step signpost and demonstrates care for the things the Lord and God’s people. It is an opportunity to “stir up one another for love and good works…encouraging one another, and all the more as the Day draws near” (Hebrews 10:24-25). For this purpose, the Holy Spirit has given Jesus followers spirit-empowered gifts to serve God’s kingdom for the benefit of all (1 Corinthians 12:7, 11). You have been given a gift to serve Christ’s fellowship (Romans 12:3-8; 1 Corinthians 12; Ephesians 4:7-16). What gifts has the Holy Spirit given to you to serve Christ’s church? How will you actively participate in the ingathering of God’s people and throughout your life when scattered in the world?

How you respond to the Lord and participate in his kingdom matters. When Jesus said to someone, “Follow me.” The person requested to first go bury the dead. Jesus responded to the person, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Jesus further responded to another, “No one puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:57-62). In other words, Jesus teaches us to value most the kingdom of God and our participation in it, because it is in God’s kingdom that we commune with God.

Participating in God’s kingdom is more than just “doing” or working for the Lord, participation is stepping in faith to follow the voice of Christ in service and walking in active relationship with the Lord. That may look differently than you expect. It may be with a people that you didn’t expect. And while that may be challenging to you, it will be for your good and others’ joy. It will be a kindness to those who are recipients of God’s grace through you. But it begins by walking by faith not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). It begins with “yes, Lord.” It begins with “how do you want me to be a light to others today?” And the surprising work of the Spirit will bring great tidings of great joy to this broken, hurting world through you, yourself a fragile jar of clay.

Anticipating A Prepared Heart

Can you imagine how the Lord could use you to shape his church family for his glory and their good through you actively preparing your heart for worship and the ingathering of your local church family? Can you imagine how the Lord could cultivate your own soul through actively caring for your soul through preparing your heart for worship and gathering with God’s people? The Lord is a generous God who gives good gifts to his children, gifts that awaken our affections and our imaginations to his beauty, holiness, and glory. And this is an invitation to come to Jesus as you are, when you are heavily burdened or full of energy. This is an invitation to be like Martha, sitting at the feet of Jesus to learn his way. The beauty of life in a dynamic healthy relationship with Jesus is that he is gentle and lowly in heart. He is one who gives rest to the weary soul and re-ignites our affections toward him without hindrance or worry (Matthew 11:28-30; Luke 10:38-11:13). May the Father be honored in how we prepare our hearts for communion with him and our beloved family in Christ.

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Afterthought: Other Questions To Ask Yourself Before Gathering with God’s People

Here are six other questions to answer that I would suggest to our church family to prepare our hearts as we gather with the saints for corporate worship:

1. How do I anticipate God’s Spirit will speak to me today?

2. What thoughts, attitudes, or sins may hinder me from worshiping freely through the Holy Spirit?

3. Is there anyone I need to forgive for offending me or seek forgiveness where I may have offended?

4. How will I actively engage in worship? (i.e., in joyful fellowship, in thankful worship, in intentional intake of the message, etc.)

5. Who will I encourage in the Lord? What encouragement will I speak into their life?

6. How will I be full of faith for your church family? (i.e., seek the good of others, be positive about the Lord’s work among us, etc.)

An Advent Reflection

As a product of the fast-food, instant gratification age, waiting was not my forte as a child. When Christmas season rolled around, I was the first among my brothers to snoop for hidden Christmas gifts in my parents' house and at their business. Once my parents would leave the house I would often take Christmas gifts under the tree and gentle unwrap the gift to discover what was coming on Christmas morning. This became such a problem that my mother would use symbols or wrapping paper to distinguish between our gifts. We (my brothers and I) just could not wait.

God characteristically positions his people to wait on his promises. God is not a god of instant gratification. When God promised an heir to Abraham, Abraham waited 25 years for his son Isaac. Joseph went through 13 years of slavery and imprisonment before God gave him a position of leadership to care for his family during a famine. For 430 years Israel was in Egyptian captivity before heading toward the promised land. Throughout the period of the judges, God's people went through cycle after cycle of waiting for deliverance and God delivering. David waited some 15 years between his anointing as king and being crowned king with much of that time on the run in the wilderness from Saul. Israel was exiled to Babylon for 70 years before God would return them to the land. In every case, God was doing a renovating work in people for his glory and their good.

Waiting can be weary and hard. People we look up to in the Bible knew this. Failing to believe God, Abraham took action into his own hands, sleeping with Sarai's servant. While Joseph walked righteously before the Lord, the Lord took him through a season of hardship and waiting to be in the right place to care for his family during a famine. Israel spent 40 years in the wilderness as one generation who refused the voice of God died before entering the promised land.

These heroes of the faith often aren't so much different from you and I. They wrestled and struggled to wait on the Lord, just like you and I. They went through difficult seasons of hardship and affliction. Yet what sets them apart from others is that even in their weakness and moral failures, they trusted God's promises even if they waited on the Lord inadequately.

This is true in every aspect of our lives, including church. I recently read a church revitalization specialist say that health church revitalization takes around 7 to 10 years. Can you imagine that? In an instant world, this is quite shocking. You would think instant turn or at least within a few years. But this is often not how God chooses to do things in the church or in our hearts. Often it is a slow reformation of the heart.

After Paige and I were married, we took a work trip to Miami for Paige to attend a conference. I loved the buzz of Miami. One night, I decided to secure a reservation at a nice seven-course restaurant. (I spent more money on that meal than I could've ever imagined possible!) We sat and ate, one course after another. We lingered over each bite and each taste. The meal was not a grab-and-go; it was a culinary and artistic experience. The meal was enjoyed and taste profiles discussed. We lingered delightfully in the moment and experience.

The Lord's slow reformation of our heart is like going to a seven-course restaurant, not McDonald's drive-thru. God oftentimes takes his time, graciously and patiently and gently confronting us with our sin and transforming us into the image of King Jesus. The Lord wants you and all that you are for his glory and your good, and he's willing to take time shaping you into the person he desires for you to be.

Waiting is not passive; it's active. Our lives still move. Time does not stop. Our lives do not stop. When we wait, we ask God, "What do you want from me? How can I honor you today?" When we wait, we steward our lives looking for God in the details-- opportunities to trust and follow him or opportunities to share him with others or opportunities to allow him to work through us and so forth. When we wait, it's active. Waiting on the Lord is seeking the Lord and patiently following (obeying) his voice as he speaks and acts.

Let's not attempt to unwrap what God has for us before he gives it to us. Let us pause and wait on the Lord who gives good gifts in his timing.

The Surprising Work of Grace: Thanksgiving

“So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully.” - Luke 19:6

Last week, I was driving our old car down a county road when I side-swiped a mailbox. It’s embarrassing to admit to the home owner and even now. (How do you hit a mailbox in broad day light? Distraction and a scattered mind. Inattention.) I stopped at the home owner’s house to take responsibility. A woman answered the door hospitably and received the news in stride. Forwarding my information to her husband, I waited for my scolding.

We live in a world where there seems to be no margin for error, no opportunities for failure or faulty decision-making. Just recently, a house cleaner was shot to death through a door in Indiana for attempting to enter the wrong house. Earlier this year, a friend of mine was jumped in a parking garage by a man who was irritated that traffic wasn’t moving. If you’ve been on busy highways, you’ll see inconsiderate drivers and maybe worse, road rage. This is the unfortunate realty of the world we live: graceless and joyless.

One of our values at First Baptist Church is celebrating Jesus. Celebrating Jesus is the joyful effect of the gospel in our lives cultivated by the Holy Spirit who energizes our attitudes, words, and actions. It’s difficult to celebrate in a no margin world. We see this in our lives, and we see this in the Bible. The religious leaders in Jesus’ day often grumbled when Jesus gave margin to sinners and outcasts. But when Jesus gave margin of grace to the sinner and outcast, they often responded with joy and gratitude. Zacchaeus received Jesus joyfully (Luke 19:1-10). When Jesus grace extended to Zacchaeus, Zacchaeus celebrated with repentance and gratitude while the grumblers grumbled. The effect of the gospel of grace in our lives, like Zacchaeus, is joy, thanksgiving, and celebration. It is the only proper response to God’s kindness toward us. Zacchaeus’ response to Jesus— receiving him joyfully with repentance and gratitude— is the natural outflow of gospel at work in us. Anything less than that should drive us to examine how the gospel is presently impacting our life and the degree to which we are responsive to the Holy Spirit and his fruit in our hearts. 

It surprised me when I discovered how Scripture regards thanksgiving and gratitude as integral response to our ongoing reception of the gospel and its ongoing application in our life. For instance, those who are futile and foolish in their life characteristically do not give thanks or honor God even though they acknowledge God (Romans 1:21-23). In the positive sense, the Apostle Paul encouraging the Colossian church (Colossians 3:1-17) about our new personhood in Christ on three occasions within about 70 words reminds us to be thankful. In other words, a core part of our identity in Christ is thankfulness and gratitude. For Paul, the outward expression of the peace of Christ ruling, the word of Christ dwelling, and being ourselves in word and deed in Christ is thankfulness. This is the way of Christ: who for the joy set before him endured the cross (Hebrews 12:2).

Whether in moments of quiet or in moments where the is no margin, may we be still and give thanks. For Jesus has said to us, “for I must stay at your house today” (Luke 19:5). It is there that we have the opportunity to “lay aside every burden and sin which clings so closely” (Hebrews 12:1). In this high-anxiety Martha-riddled-world, it is there that we sit at the feet of Jesus with Mary to learn from our heavenly brother who gives good gifts of great joy (Luke 10:38-42). May your Thanksgiving be filled with the grace and joy of Christ.

How I Strive to Shepherd: A Few Modest Principles

A few modest precepts without explanation for how I strive to shepherd God’s people under my care:

• as an under-shepherd of the Chief Shepherd, King Jesus, submissive to his leadership. (1 Peter 5:1-4; Acts 20:17-38)

• to the best of my ability, making much of the grace, gentleness, and kindness of Jesus in the midst of our brokenness. (Matthew 11:25-30)

• as one who makes mistakes yet relies on grace, forgiveness, and the power of the Spirit. (Colossians 3:13)

• with patience and humility according to the grace of the Father. (Philippians 2:1-11)

• with the intent of drawing others toward an intimacy with the Father and an outworking of their Spirit-given gifting. (Ephesians 4:8-16)

• collaboratively. (1 Corinthians 12:4-7)

Taste & See the Goodness of King Jesus: A Meditative, Theological Homily for 2024 Delivered on NYE 2023

“Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!” — Psalm 34:8

There are few things greater than walking into our home at dinnertime. The aroma is fresh. Yumminess is in the air. I delight in Paige’s cooking. I delight in fresh food. Whether it’s the stuffed mushrooms at Cadillac Pizza, the Chicken Fried Steak at Harvest McKinney, a hamburger from Kelly Family Farm Stand in Fairview, Pam’s moist brownies, Gina’s flavorfully balanced Chicken Spaghetti, or Paige’s tender slow-cooked chicken, good quality, fresh food is a delight to the soul and even worship-inducing— because it points us to the God who created all of these diverse, rich flavors and textures to be enjoyed by humans.

Smelling and tasting delicious food is balm (medicine) for the body and the soul that breaks down relational barriers, subsides anxieties, and is a bearer of joy embodied. I don’t know if you have ever experienced food in this way. If you have only eaten out of necessity and pragmatism…If you have never experimented and lingered in the preparation and/or the eating of your food, take a moment to linger with the smells and the everchanging taste profiles. If you linger with deep fried fast food, there’s a good chance your experience will be just want it is— blah.

Take coffee for example. (And before I start…I am an equal opportunity drinker. I drink our church’s Folger coffee every Sunday. I drink TXB’s coffee when I see Dave and his early morning buddies, but…) Coffee exemplifies this point immensely. My experience with Folgers or Community or Maxwell House or Starbucks is categorically different than my experience with Sey, Nomad, Manhattan, and La Cabra coffee roasters. I am not contesting that your favorite roaster’s blend isn’t your best preference of coffee. What I am contesting is that what you drink (experience) between let’s say Folgers and Black & White Coffee is categorically different. The complexity of Black & White’s coffee produced by Brayan Alvear has tasting notes of strawberry, milk chocolate, and peach. Folger’s tasting notes? Bold and bitter. (Kidding…kind of.) The complexity of the cup changes for a host of reasons: market distribution, bean origin, roasting time, grind setting, processing method, and so on. When I drink a delightful cup of coffee, I am anticipating encountering the thing itself: coffee for what it is, what it can be, coffee in its unique form. I delight in lingering with a delicious cup of coffee with friends and strangers alike, enjoying the company and the cup, because as we linger with the delight of the cup we linger to the Creator of the Cup and testimonies of his goodness.

When we are honest with ourselves, we all desire to encounter, linger with, and experience those things which bring delight. Yet so many of us treat God like a fast-food run through Chick-fil-A. We neither linger with him, encounter him, or experience the delight he is. Yet it is with him the psalmist says blessed are we when we dwell and take refuge. Tasting the goodness of the Lord is a generous gift from above that many of us take for granted. Yet we wonder why our lives are stale and tasteless. We wonder why churches are in decline. We wonder why all of our good deeds aren’t adding up to more people at church or why our marriages and family feel lifeless and unenriched. All the while, we’re missing the delightful aroma of Christ, missing ongoing encounter with the Spirit of the Slain-Yet-Risen Lamb, the Spirit of Christ. We, yes us believers in Christ, neglect to eat at the table of God, exchanging our seat at Jesus’ table to eat at the table of religious pragmatism and legalism in the so-called name of Christ, declining an ongoing encounter (relationship) with the Father, Son, and Spirit. We neglect to eat at the tables of God, exchanging our seat at Jesus’ table to eat at the table of our passions of the flesh (innate, instinctive reactions inconsiderate of the good news of Jesus) and faithless logic (that God will not intervene).

Whether Christ follower or non-follower of Jesus, the mandate is the same: Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good and that the Lord is Christ Jesus (Psalm 34:8; c.f. 1 Peter 2:3). Our encounters with the Living God himself is an aroma of delight, transformation, and provision. Yet so hastily abandoned for the convenient and the immediate. How have you recently encountered the Spirit of the Living God? When is the last time you have in all humility and hunger eaten at his table? How have you tasted and seen the Lord’s goodness momentarily? When is the last time you shared your taste of the Lord’s goodness to believers near and unbelievers far off?

We share what we have tasted and encountered. I know nothing of three-star Michelin chef Alexandre Couillon’s La Marine in Paris, France. I cannot speak of his daily trips to the fish market and his fresh vegetables from his garden. I cannot testify to the beauty or the goodness of his food. I can attest to the deliciousness of— as I have already mentioned— Pam’s moist brownies or Gina’s son’s mango habanero hot sauce.

In this psalm of thanksgiving, King David testifies to what he encounters: the goodness and nearness of the Lord amid his difficulty. He says to the hearer, “Oh taste and see that the Lord is good.” Psalm 34 addresses the nearness of YHWH to those who fear the Lord, challenging our notions of how and when we encounter the Lord. King David invites us to taste and see that the Lord is good.

In the modern world, we are indoctrinated by a materialistic worldview. In other words, there is no supernatural world. The world is a closed continuum, as Rudolph Bultmann would argue in the mid-twentieth century. The physical world is all we have, some would assert. Or as Fredrick Nietzsche declared, “God is dead”, critiquing the erosion of religious belief in the Enlightenment (aka the Age of Reason), a period of Western cultural history whereby senses of evidence, separation of church and state, and natural law are prioritized, heavily influencing the modern (and postmodern) world in which we live.

This materialistic worldview influences the way we relate to the world around us: technology, medicine, consumerism, industrialism. It influences the way we relate to one another and the ways in which we relate to the Triune God.

In some moments, you and I believe and act as functional deists. A functional deist believes in a far off god who does not act within human history or in contemporary time and space. In other words, we believe “in God” but do not *actually* act as though we will *encounter God* in the here and now. We believe that God created the world, but we do not live as though he is near and present in the world. We believe that God *can* be a benevolent god, but do not live expecting or anticipating his benevolence. We pray, but without expectation that he *actually* will act in our midst. We are functional deists because we assent to a creating deity who we assert to be the Christian god, yet do not expect the Spirit of Christ to encounter us momentarily in time and space.

Can you imagine how imminence (nearness) changes the way we live— the way we walk in the fear of the Lord?

What I want to continue to draw your attention to and to what I want to draw your affections toward today is lingering in this phrase, “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!”

Our refuge in him is intended to be ever-present as the Spirit of Christ is ever-present with those who fear the Lord. Our refuge in the Lord isn’t intended to be only those moments of great obstacle and disaster in our lives. I wonder if we really understand the necessity of refuge in everyday life. We live in a rather industrialized, developed country with false illusions of security and sufficiency. We feel safe, so we don’t think about the safety needed when those illusions of security fail us.

A safe place meaningful to me is my grandparent’s lake house. As a high school and college student, I would deliberately not bring acquittances who I thought would ruin my safe place. It was a place I would retreat for comfort and refreshment. A place I would linger for days enjoying the lake, the animals, the plants, and the skies above. It was my refuge from life in a chaotic world, where my fears and failures would silence.

Finding refuge in the Lord is not like what Ernest Hemingway in Death in Afternoon describes as querencia: the preferred locality of safety a bull finds in an arena during a bull fight. Querencia still leaves a place of safety to be desired. But the Lord’s refuge is a place of eternal safety and trust. A place where “those who fear him have no lack” (Psalm 34:9), or as the apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 6:10, “as having nothing, but possessing everything.”

The Lord’s refuge is different than any other refuge you might experience because it is embodied by believers in Christ even in this “present evil age”. Yes, indeed, we have been raised with Christ and your life is hidden with Christ, who is our life (Colossians 3:1-4). You, oh Jesus follower, are hidden with Christ.

Hidden with Christ is your life. This language is similar to the Hebrew concept of refuge: hidden, concealed. And as your life has been hidden with Christ in God, so you feast with Christ— you taste and see that he is good, because your life is united with his. You have the Spirit of Christ in you.

This is a moment for us to pause and ask seriously important and beautifully profound questions about our frequency and ability to taste and see the goodness of King Jesus: What is my present awareness of the Spirit of Christ in my life? What is my present relationship with the Spirit of Christ in daily, weekly, monthly moments? How is the Spirit of Christ manifestly present in moments of my life?

Whether you are young or old, you have not arrived in God’s all-encompassing holiness. There is more of Christ to taste in your life. And King David on the run from Saul knew this. He saw how Christ was at work behind the scenes protecting him from his enemies, even when he ran to his enemies.

There is yumminess in the air, because the Lord is near and he bears good gifts for those who fear and take refuge in him. Verses 8-10 explicate this theme on four occasions.

• Taste and see that the Lord is good. (vs. 8)

• Blessed is the man who take refuge in him. (vs. 8)

• Those who fear him have no lack. (vs. 9)

• Those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. (vs. 10)

Why? Because “The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry” (vs. 15) and “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit” (vs. 18).

The Lord is near and brings good gifts. Have you seen him in grace and truth? Have you seen that he is kind and compassionate? Have you seen how he heals and transforms? Have you seen the good gifts which he brings as he fulfills the Scriptures: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18-19; Isaiah 61:1-2; Psalm 146:7-8 // Isaiah 42:7; Leviticus 25:10).

Take heed and be glad. “Oh, magnify the Lord with me, let us exalt his name together” (vs. 3)! The Scriptures say (Psalm 68:8; Ephesians 4:8), “When he ascended [from the dead] on high he led a host of captives, and he gave good gifts to men.” “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love” (Ephesians 4:11-15). He gave good gifts of liberation from the chains of this present evil age, and he gave good gifts that “we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10) for the good of his kingdom on earth for his glory and honor in every circumstance.

Likewise, Peter says, “So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good” (1 Peter 2:1-3).

In other words, these good gifts from the Father in Christ point us toward Jesus, grow us into imitation of Jesus, and building us together as a testimony of God’s goodness in the world— “if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good” (1 Peter 2:3). Tasting & seeing the goodness begins by receiving “gift of God”, of which Jesus says to the Samaritan Woman, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water” (John 4:10).

You must first taste and see that Jesus is Lord. You know that’s what I find interesting about Peter’s use of Psalm 34 in his first letter. The language coming directly from the Greek Old Testament say, “χρηστὸς ὁ κύριος” (translated “the Lord is good”). Yet one syllable change in χρηστὸς adds more robust meaning. This syllable change leads to some scribes copying First Peter to translate “the Lord is good” to “Christ (χριστός) is Lord”. Indeed, Christ is Lord and indeed he is good. Have you tasted the goodness of his salvation? Have you tasted the goodness of a life hidden in him?

King David definitively did, even despite his fears, failures, and doubts. He drank not merely once but continually from the waters of the Living God. For he says, “I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth” (Psalm 34:1) and “The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing” (Psalm 34:10).

Oh, how often do we forget that the Lord gives good things when earthly things consume our hearts and minds, when we neglect to set our minds on the heavenly things (Colossians 3:1-4) and to set our eyes on “Jesus, the founder and perfector of our faith, who for the joy before him endured the cross” (Hebrews 12:1-2).

Look to the Father in Christ to give good gifts. The Spirit says through the Holy Scriptures, “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him” (Matthew 6:11)! James clarifies that “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions” (James 4:3).

Yet when we taste and see the goodness of the Lord our affections are (re)oriented to the things of Christ. This is why the Apostle Paul can say, “Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:11-13).

It is the one who is near and good that strengthens him. Once again I ask, “What is your present awareness of the Spirit of Christ in your life? What is your present relationship with the Spirit of Christ in daily, weekly, monthly moments? How is the Spirit of Christ manifestly present in moments of my life? And when have you shared and bore witness to the presence of Christ to build up the body of Christ and call unbelievers into relationship with King Jesus?

King David experienced the Lord in unexpected and in non-miraculous ways. This psalm written as a psalm of thanksgiving to the Lord for protecting him from the enemies to whom he ran as he fled from King Saul (1 Samuel 21:10-15). He ran into the very town from which Goliath grew up. The very town that had heard the saying, ‘Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his ten thousands’?” Yet the Lord protected him as he fled Saul and as he eventual fled Gath. This psalm was written as a thanksgiving to the Lord when the Lord protected King David in an ordinary moment.

In every day, ordinary moments, we have experiences and encounters with the physical world, with our spouses, with our children, with nature, with food, but how often are you aware of the presence of Christ in your midst? King David invites us to taste and see that the Lord is good (vs. 8) and to magnify the Lord together (vs. 3).

Can you imagine a community of Jesus followers who share the sweetness and yumminess of the Lord to one another and their town? Can you imagine a church family who is built up because of individuals tasting and seeing the goodness of King Jesus in their individual and corporate lives? Can you imagine how your daily encounters with the Lord, with the Spirit of Christ impacts not merely our church family, but the community of Trenton, because you taste and see the kindness of the Lord routinely?

We can be a community of Jesus followers who taste and share. We can be a community of Jesus followers who lead people to something better, more delicious than Paige’s slow cooked chicken or Pam’s moist brownies or that delightful cup of Black & White coffee with notes of strawberry, milk chocolate, and peach. Will you linger with me in 2024 in regularly tasting and sharing the goodness of King Jesus among us? And as the “peace of Christ rule in our hearts” and “word of Christ dwell in us richly” (Colossians 3:15-17), may we be a people in 2024 who taste and share the goodness of King Jesus to one another and within our spiritually decaying community. To our God and Father, who by the power of His Spirit in Christ has graciously allowed us to taste his goodness, be the glory. Amen.

Infirm Yet Raised to Grace: A Brief Contemplation

As he walked past me on a sidewalk, a man generously said, “I hope your legs heal.” What a generous and compassionate wish.

I thanked him, was filled with joy, and continued along the way.

This is not the first time that someone has petitioned on my behalf for my body to be healed. I have had many strangers wish and petition on my behalf from well wishes as this gentleman to others actively pleading with the Lord in prayer, yet in my pain or suffering rest comes in the presence of Christ, the grace he imparts in the suffering.

The brokenness of my body is a daily, momentary reminder of the brokenness of humanity and my own sinfulness. As I live with a dull pain, I am reminded that Christ’s grace in me is sufficient (2 Cor. 12:9-10). Christ not I, upholds my being (Col. 1:17)

I am grateful for the lame body, for in its weakness I am compelled to taste the lifegiving waters of the Father’s grace and the power of Christ. The weakness of my body diminishes my own sufficiency, my own pride, my own ego; for Christ not I, upholds my being.

I am confident my body will be healed in the resurrection (Ro. 8:23; Rev. 21:3-4). Until then, I longingly rest in the grace of the Father’s provision through the Spirit of Christ in me.