From the Sequoia Grove

Can you see me with my arms up? These trees are HUGE!

Last week, I was blessed enough to have the opportunity to travel to Yosemite National Park in California with my dad. All week we stood in awe of massive cliffs, the tallest waterfall in North America (and dozens of others), flowing streams, abundant wildlife, incredible rock formations, and enormous trees. Though all of it was breathtaking, there was something special about spending the day in the sequoia tree grove in the southern part of the park. Being in the presence of the sequoia trees triggered a deep and almost supernatural feeling of smallness and humility. For most of the day that we spent there, I couldn’t come up with words to adequately describe the way that being there made me feel. They inspired awe, wonder, and mystery.

As my dad and I spent more time in the forest and more time contemplating and discussing the trees, we began to see incredible spiritual truth pouring from these mysterious woodland giants. We discovered some facts and had observations of our own that all speak truth into the lives of believers. Here are a few of them that I hope you can benefit from:

Sequoia Trees…

-      Struggle the most for the first 2 years of life. The conditions must be right for them to grow. After a commitment to Christ, the first 2 years are often the hardest. New Christians should surround themselves with the right conditions in order to grow healthy. Sequoia roots grow rapidly and deeply into the earth in these first 2 years, so that they are not swept away by external forces.

-       Grow upward faster than any other tree until they are about 300 (human equivalent would be about 15 years old) and then they grow out, while still growing vertically. Christians must be perpetually growing upward, increasing in love for and knowledge of the Lord. Once they reach a stage of life where they have a firm enough foundation and enough strength, they begin to grow outward. Christians, when they are ready and have a firm foundation, must grow outward as well, toward other people.

-       Have roots that, though they are not overwhelmingly deep, spread overwhelmingly far underground. Their roots often spread up to 1 acre underground. This wide base is critical to their foundation. Christians must have a wide, firm base – one spreading out across a series of key foundational principles like prayer, scripture reading, being discipled, and discipling others.

-       Plant thousands of seeds every year. Most mature trees have about 11,000 cones on them at any given time, all containing thousands of seeds. Christians must also be planting seeds regularly. Speaking gospel truth into people’s lives daily.

-       Rely on fire and other methods of conflict for growth. Without fire, the trees would all die. Fire refines Christians. Struggles and trials refine our faith and character and are necessary for growth.

-   Grow faster as they get older. Once all of this has happened and they reach the later years of life, they do not stop growing. In fact, they begin to grow faster and wider than they ever have before. Mature believers should be growing faster and wider than ever as they get older.

Constantly be looking for God’s truth in nature and his creation. Hopefully these truths from the sequoia grove have helped you understand a little more about the Christian life. They have certainly helped me! 

Yet I Will Rejoice

One of the hardest things to do in life is to pour everything you have into something without it benefitting you in any way. Throughout our lives, we are faced with choices to do many difficult things. If you are like me, when this happens your first thought is, “How is this going to benefit me and is it worth it?” We are always weighing and measuring the cost-to-benefit ratio of the choices that we make. If we plug it into the equation and realize it will give us more than we put in, we do it. If we realize it will be difficult, strenuous, stressful, and there will be little or no benefit for us, we don’t usually do it. What does this say about our character? What does it say about who we really are and what we really care about?

In the OT, it was often communicated to the people of God and the prophets that if they followed and obeyed God, things would go well for them. If they disobeyed God and turned to idols judgment would come. In a situation like this, most of us today would probably have begrudgingly obeyed God, if such a thing is even possible, in order to remain free of judgment and full of blessings. We have measured the cost-to-benefit ratio and found it in our best interest to follow God so we don’t die. In one of the most powerful verses in the Old Testament, the prophet Habakkuk makes quite a statement:

Though the fig tree does not bud
 and there is no fruit on the vines,
 though the olive crop fails 
and the fields produce no food,
 though there are no sheep in the pen
 and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will triumph in Yahweh; 
I will rejoice in the God of my salvation! Yahweh my Lord is my strength;
 He makes my feet like those of a deer
 and enables me to walk on mountain heights!

-       Habakkuk 3:17-19

What kind of obedience is one that obeys begrudgingly? What kind of worshipper of God are we if we only do so when things are good? What kind of follower are we if we only do so when the path is easy and filled with fruit, food, sheep, cattle, wealth, and pleasure? The power in Habakkuk’s statement is obvious if we look at it from this perspective. He was struggling deeply with God’s action in his world and the world around him. He was often confused, struggling, and sickened by what God said and did in spite of his obedience. He didn't turn away because he was suffering. He didn’t give up on following God when things got hard. Instead he made this powerful statement that even if there seems to be no visible evidence that he had trusted well, he would continue to trust. Even if there is no benefit for him personally and he must endure pain and hardship, he would continue to have faith and obey God.

We must learn from Habakkuk. We must learn that a true worshipper of God does not only worship when things are good. He does not only follow God when there is a clear benefit. We must be willing to obey, suffer in spite of it, and continue to obey anyway. Even when we run out of food, the fruit is non-existent, and we have nothing to take pleasure in, we respond by declaring, “Yet I will triumph in Yahweh; I will rejoice in the God of my salvation!” 

The Lord's Requirements

Have you ever been given the opportunity to meet someone famous? Maybe you bumped into them, met them through a strange set of circumstances, or simply paid tons of money to shake their hand. If you knew you were going to meet that famous person, you probably spent a good amount of time planning what you were going to say and how you were going to act around them. Something about that person that is so special to you for some reason is awe inspiring to the point you don’t know how to react when you are in their presence.

As Christians, we often act the same way in the presence of God. Sometimes, we don’t really know how to act around him. What we’re supposed to say or how we’re supposed to act. We make sure we look acceptable on the outside. We tell God about all the great things we have done this week. We make excuses about the bad things that we have done and submit a half-hearted apology. We ask God what he wants us to do – if he wants us to pray more, or give more money, volunteer more time, or read our bible more. Whether or not we genuinely want to please God, we think it is these types of things that will impress him when we are face to face with him.

The Old Testament prophet Micah addresses this very issue:

 

What should I bring before the Lord
 when I come to bow before God on high? Should I come before Him with burnt offerings,
with year-old calves? Would the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams 
or with ten thousand streams of oil? Should I give my firstborn for my transgression, the child of my body for my own sin?

            - Micah 6:6-7

By asking these questions, Micah is shedding light on the beliefs of the people at the time. They thought that all God wanted was their sacrifices and rituals. In other words, in order to please God, they had to make sacrifices and offerings of immeasurable quantities. But then Micah says this:

Mankind, He has told you what is good
 and what it is the Lord requires of you: 
to act justly, 
to love faithfulness, 
and to walk humbly with your God.

-       Micah 6:8

Micah is saying, “Listen everyone, it isn’t your sacrifices that God is interested in. Your sacrifices will never be enough. What God really wants from you is to act justly, to love faithfulness, and to walk humbly with God.” So what does God really want from us today? Are praying more, giving more money, serving more, and reading our bible more all good things? Of course! Is it a good thing that we want to please God? It's a GREAT thing! But at the core of everything, God is interested in the way we live and walk with him. He wants us to act justly – to serve the needy and love the poor. He wants us to love faithfulness – to stay focused on Him and the message of hope. And he wants us to walk humbly with himself – to acknowledge our lowly and sinful position and to seek holiness and sanctification through daily walking with him. God doesn’t want us to try to impress him – he wants us to know who we are, who he is, and what it means to truly love him. 

Pure Worship

For a long time now, I have been struggling. I have been struggling with the way that the American Church has lost sight of the true calling of believers. We have lost sight of the face of God. We sit in our multi-million dollar buildings, seeking revival, planning our next outreach event, raising money for the addition to our new building, attending the next big conference like Passion or Urbana, and trying to create a worship band with talent and energy. These have become our focus. We can’t worship without the big rock music band, we need yearly conferences to “light a fire” in us, and without the powerful sermon of the superstar preacher we don’t get our daily bread. Our worship has become polluted by these toxins.

This isn’t a new problem. The Old Testament prophet Amos brought God’s word to the people of Israel with frightening contemporary relevance:

“I can’t stand your religious meetings. I’m fed up with your conferences and conventions.
I want nothing to do with your religion projects, your pretentious slogans and goals.
I’m sick of your fund-raising schemes, your public relations and image making.
I’ve had all I can take of your noisy ego-music. When was the last time you sang to me? Do you know what I want? I want justice—oceans of it. I want fairness—rivers of it. That’s what I want. That’s all I want.”

-       Amos 5:21-24 (The Message)

God is not pleased with our religious meetings, our conferences and conventions, our religion projects, our pretentious slogans and goals, our fundraising schemes, our public relations, or our noisy ego-music. He cannot stand it! He’s sick of it! He’s fed up! He wants nothing to do with them! All he wants is for us to unashamedly sing to him. All he wants is our pure worship.

When was the last time you sang to God alone? He wants you to seek after him, the Holy One, rather than the holy place. He wants your focus on him. He wants justice, fairness, and righteousness. The reason we exist as a body of believers is to sing to God, to worship him. Without the desire to be made righteous by the power of God, any offering or sacrifice of praise to God is one he cannot stand. God will have nothing to do with the empty, distracted, repulsive sacrifices that we bring to him through our noisy ego-music, conferences, or religious meetings if we are not only seeking his presence. Not only does God reject impure or tarnished sacrifices, he hates them. Cast aside the impurities of your sacrifices to God. Leave behind the hollowness of your perceived worship. Reject anything that is distracting you from God himself or he will reject your worship.