Win or Lose

originally posted on www.crosswalkchurch.com

When reading Scripture, do you ever put yourself in the shoes of the writer? Psalm 22 is considered to be one of the Psalms of Lament with it's authorship attributed to King David. What I love about this Psalm is the insight it gives us into the heart of a man whose primary drive was being in a relationship with the LORD. Look how raw and real David is as he starts his prayer:
¹ My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
Why are you so far away when I groan for help?
² Every day I call to you, my God, but you do not answer.
Every night I lift my voice, but I find no relief.

I love that David doesn't hold back; he is frustrated, he is complaining, he doesn't understand. We all feel that way sometimes, don't we? But how often do we go to God with our frustrations? Even more telling, is how David follows up the frustrations with praise even though he is in a dire situation:
³ Yet you are holy,
enthroned on the praises of Israel.

And the weaving of frustration and praise continues throughout this and several other Psalms. Frustration, complaint, grief. Praise! Frustration, complaint. Praise! How often does our own prayer reflect that? The intertwining of complaint with praise? It was such an integral piece of worship for Israel, and yet for us, we see it as a negative. We often tell ourselves to praise God in spite of the frustrations and sadness instead of embracing it as part of God's gift.

Part of what stands out in David's incorporation of laments and praise is the openness in his communication with God. I think part of why I personally struggle with some of it is because it does not come across as humble before God. Last week, my own understanding of humility was reshaped by Richard Foster in the book Prayer: "...humility means to live as close to the truth as possible: the truth about ourselves, the truth about others, the truth about the world in which we live... It does not mean groveling or finding the worst possible things to say about ourselves." I used to be one of those people who thought that self-depreciation equaled humility. But that isn't humility at all. Humility is not inflating oneself, but being honest with ourselves and not thinking of ourselves as nothing either. The truth is, we are nothing compared to God, but that doesn't mean that we are worth nothing. God sent His only Son to die for our sins. Our worth must be so great to Him for such a gift. Our complaints and frustrations are part of who we are, and who we are is loved by God. Even in David voicing his frustrations to God, he shows humility while still being honest with how he feels.

In Psalm 22, David is surrounded by his enemies, and he is not concerned about winning or losing the battle. Throughout David's crying out to God, throughout his praise to God, he never pleads with God to get him out of the situation or kill his enemies. He lays out the circumstances as he perceives them, he is truthful with God and himself about how it makes him feel, and his only plea to God is for God to stay near. Throughout it all is praise.

If you are a Bay Area sports fan, there are two major events to be excited about right now. The Warriors are in the NBA finals and are leading in the best of 7 series. And meanwhile in hockey, the San Jose Sharks are in the NHL finals and on the brink of elimination. Last year Stephen Curry posted this quote and to me, it is one of the better quotes I have seen from an athlete, he gets it. "Being a Christian athlete doesn't mean praying for your team to win. God doesn't give an edge to those who pray over those who don't; hard work does that. Being a Christian athlete means competing for Christ, in a way in which you always give your all for Him, & win or lose, you thank Him for the ability & opportunity to play. It means giving all the glory to God, no matter the outcome, because you trust in His plan for your life."

So as you go about your week, good or bad, win or lose, praise Him throughout it.

Show Me Your Faith

originally posted on www.crosswalkchurch.com

Do you ever get a specific piece of Scripture stuck in your brain? And once you do, you see challenges and opportunities for it everywhere? This past week James 2:18 (NLT) has been hitting me: Now some may argue, "some people have faith; others have good deeds." But I say, "How can you show me your faith if you don't have good deeds? I will show you my faith by my good deeds."  On my initial reading, it seemed so basic I did not think about it too much. But the next few times I read it through I realized it is basic, but it has great depth as well. And it became more of a challenge. First, notice that James is talking about showing faith. Showing does not mean to prove it, but rather to exhibit it. Next, note how James doesn't say "I will show you my faith by attending a church" or "I will show you my faith by avoiding sin." It is good deeds which exhibit faith. Of course attending church and avoiding sin are important, but they are just a part of the response aren't they? Works don't earn us eternal life, but they are important to who we are and who God wants us to be. In his book James: Faith that Works, Kent Hughes notes: "Faith and works are like the wings of a bird. There can be no real life, no flight, with a single wing, whether works or faith. But when the two are pumping together in concert, their owner soars through the heavens."

Here's the thing, James isn't saying anything we don't already know is he? I don't think there are many people living in America, Christian or not, who doesn't think this is a major part of what Christianity is. Or should be. Our faith in Christ reflected in what we do and who we are. And yet are good deeds what Christians are known for in the US? How can we show our faith to the world if it is not? To show someone our faith does not mean to prove it with words. It means to exhibit it through actions. To demonstrate it. Now the media doesn't help a whole lot, you can't turn on the morning news without seeing negativity and Christians seem to generate our fair share if it. But on the other hand, if Christians were better about doing good deeds, perhaps people would think about some Christians they know and dispute the negativity. 

Want an example? Remember a few years back when people decided to boycott Chick-Fil-A because they did not support gay marriage? The big Christian response was to organize nights to eat chicken sandwiches as a show of support. Imagine for a minute if the Christian response was to take all that media attention and organize nights to feed the homeless. Buy THEM a Chick-Fil-A sandwich. To show America that whatever we feel about homosexuality is just a small part of who we are. To show America that what defines us is our love for God, our faith in Him, and what that response looks like. (And what it looks like is much more than spending money to feed ourselves.) To be known for what we stand for, not what we stand against.

So now you are probably asking yourself "well what good deed is Crosswalk doing?" It's simple, we are trying to help create opportunities for the church (all of us together) to do good deeds in ways you may not normally have access to: This Saturday is another Refuge where we will be serving food and holding a worship service for the hungry at Washington Park. E-mail Pastor Gabe if you want to volunteer. Pastor Angel is training people to visit prisons and equip inmates for reentry to society. E-mail Pastor Angel for more information. Our annual Trick or Treat is coming at the end of the month. This is a service to the community to give kids a fun, safe place to trick or treat and have fun. It is something for the entire church to get involved with. This Sunday we will have sign ups in the parlor and bins to collect wrapped candy for the kids. There is a team of Crosswalkers who visit people who can't leave their homes - email John Strole if you would like to be trained for that. Even within the church we have opportunities such as food prep on Wednesday nights and serving coffee on Sundays. E-mail me if you can help there. And with the holidays coming up, there are lots of great opportunities: We will be partnering with Sunnyvale Community Services to provide food and gifts for people in need (more information on that will be coming soon.) Know someone alone for Thanksgiving? Invite them to your house. Have some spare blankets? Go to St. James park in San Jose and give them to someone sleeping outside. There are Crosswalkers who volunteer time with several non-profits in the area. Just this morning I saw someone pray with a crying child. I love it, the opportunities are everywhere!

I have no doubt this Scripture was stuck in my head for a reason. The passage before it, James 2:17 says, So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless. I don't feel challenged about whether I do enough good deeds, but rather if my faith produces good deeds. Neither faith nor its resulting good deeds can be forced. Good deeds should not simply be about attending this event or that event, they should be an outward reflection of our heart for God. Something that is constant in our lives. They aren't for show. They aren't to gain entry to heaven. They aren't out of obligation or duty. They start with faith. Faith in Jesus produces good deeds. What is your faith producing?

Trying to Follow,

Mark

The Heart of Worship

originally posted on www.crosswalkchurch.com

What does it mean to choose sacrifice? It is one of the guiding points of our vision statement and probably my favorite of the bunch. But it's also the toughest for me. Choosing sacrifice is not about putting other people before yourself. It is about choosing to follow what God has in store for your life instead of all the things society teaches us to want; to sacrifice our worldly and selfish wills and pursue God's will for us. It is cultivating a mindset that doesn't say "it's all about me and what I want." I don't think many people have that mindset intentionally, but I think it is an underlying thought process which guides many of our decisions.

Take worship for example. Often times I look around when worship starts and think "where is everyone? They are missing the best part!" I think worship is an integral part of what you experience on a Sunday. Why? Because it is about God and not about us. One thing I appreciate about Pastor Dave is that his heart is not to perform for us on Sunday, it is to lead us in our worship of the LORD. Worship is not about us hearing great music, it is about lifting up our voices together in community to celebrate and praise our God and Father. I think of worship as an opportunity to let go of all our concerns, troubles, and distractions in our lives and just focus on God and His greatness.

A few years ago I heard Pastor Mike Pilavachi of Soul Survivor church speak about worship and his experiences. If you have not heard of Soul Survivor, it is a large church in England where worship leaders/composers such as Matt Redman and Tim Hughes got their start. Pastor Mike spoke of a time where he felt the congregation and the worship band had lost their way. He did something drastic, he eliminated the band and sound system. It was just the worship leader, Matt Redman singing a capella. It was a challenge from the pastor for the congregation to engage with God during the time of worship and to do so with their hearts instead of their eyes. He challenged them to be "participants" in worship instead of "consumers." He asked the congregation “When you come through the doors on a Sunday, what are you bringing as your offering to God?” At first the congregation and the leader struggled and there were moments of awkward silence, but eventually they got it and the band was slowly reintroduced.

This experience was not just for the congregation. The worship leader Matt Redman was affected - you can read about his perspective of it all from an article on the Christianity website. From this experience he wrote the song "The Heart of Worship" which illustrates how the "me" thought process can invade our lives, and the importance of worship to be all about Jesus. The importance of choosing to sacrifice oneself.

When the music fades, All is stripped away
And I simply come, Longing just to bring
Something that's of worth, That will bless Your heart
I'll bring You more than a song, For a song in itself
Is not what You have required, You search much deeper within
Through the way things appear, You're looking into my heart
I'm coming back to the heart of worship
and it's all about You, it's all about You, Jesus
I'm sorry Lord for the thing I've made it, when it's all about You
it's all about You, Jesus.

What a beautiful illustration of his experience and his heart for God which we can all learn from. Worship has been on my heart a lot lately, especially as we look through the Psalms in our current teaching series. I look forward to the opportunity to worship the LORD along with all of you.

Trying to Follow,

Mark

Pray for Me

originally posted on www.crosswalkchurch.com

Prayer can be funny because it messes with your pride. I admit it, I have a hard time asking for help. Asking God to change me is tough enough, asking others to pray for God to change me is something I don't do. I may ask others to pray for my circumstances, but to pray for me to change is tough because that involves admitting to other people I need to change. It is a vulnerability which is tough to face. But last month a group of us Crosswalkers went to a missions conference in San Diego and everything changed for me because of Matthew 9:36-38: When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.  Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field."

In this passage, Jesus is traveling around sharing the Good News and there are crowds gathering to hear Him. As it starts in verse 36, it is important to note that Jesus had compassion for the crowds - that is where it starts, He cared about them and wanted to help them. They needed guidance, they needed leadership. He knew His short visit to these lost sheep would not be everything they needed. He wanted to provide them with guidance because He cared for them. He wanted to "send out" workers who could be with the crowds. Important to note that the word used here for "send out" is the Greek ekballo and "send out" is not nearly strong enough. Ekballo is to violently throw, to cast out. This isn't sending out an e-mail. Some translations use "release" - but this is not release as you would a fish. Ekballo is like an athlete releasing a javelin; like a pitcher hurling a pitch. Think of that imagery for a minute and what Jesus was conveying by using ekballo. I don't know about you but I see a missionary being sent like a weapon towards the enemy.

Now, Jesus could have easily stayed with the crowds and been the shepherd they needed. Or He could have told the disciples to do so. But what is interesting is that He told them to ask God for workers to ekballo to the fields. Why does He tell His disciples to pray? Why doesn't He pray Himself? A prayer from the Son of God is certainly more effective than any prayer the disciples could have said. And isn't the Lord of the harvest aware of the need already? If not, isn't it "on God's time"? I don't know the answer to that. But I do know that Jesus knew prayer was needed and would help - and it is not just a request, it is a command.

Author and missionary Andrew Murray says this about the Matthew 9:38 prayer: "Without this prayer, fields ready for reaping will be left to perish. And yet it is so. The Lord has surrendered His work to His Church. He has made Himself dependent on them as His Body, through whom His work must be done. The power which the Lord gives His people to exercise in heaven and earth is real; the number of laborers and the measure of the harvest does actually depend on their prayer." In other words, the number of workers in the field is directly related to our prayers. We must pray in order for the harvest to be plentiful. So the question becomes "are you praying for workers?"

Now this is great but what does it have to do with my pride and prayer? Well, as many of you know, my wife Alise and I are drawn to being missionaries internationally. We have essentially structured our lives towards this future goal. But we also feel like God is holding us back for now, which is fine because we love being here and workers are needed everywhere. In this time of waiting and preparation though, we have not asked many people to pray for us. It's a tough thing to ask for. It's not easy to admit that we need prayer. We all love to pray for other people because often their problems seem more significant than our own. Maybe we even think that we can do it on our own. But that isn't the case - the workers need your prayers. And as followers of Christ we are all workers in His field. So here I am asking that while you pray to God to ekballo workers, please include us in your prayers. The workers of the fields need your prayers.

Trying to Follow,

Mark

Prayer, Fasting, and Intimacy with God

originally posted on www.crosswalkchurch.com

To close out the series "The Art of War", we invite everyone to fast and pray on Thursday 11/20. We will cap the day off with a time of prayer in the worship center between 6:30 and 7:30 pm. As excited as I am to fast with all of you, my brothers and sisters, I have to admit it has not always been that way. When I went to school for theology, one of the first books I was assigned to read was "The Spirit of the Disciplines" by Dallas Willard. I remember before that point I had fasted a few times, but really had no clue about what I was doing. I half expected God to impart on me some revelation about my life, as if fasting were some Christian version of peyote. I was excited to read a book about the disciples and get to the bottom of what fasting was about and how to do it right to get the results I wanted. I was sorely disappointed. I remember talking to another student about how unsatisfied I was: we were halfway through the book and it was all about why we should practice the disciplines and where our heart should be instead of how to practice the disciplines. My friend replied with "maybe the author is making a statement about what is really important." And he was so right. I think that is the number one thing to know about disciplines such as fasting and prayer. It is about the condition of your heart. Being closer to God is a process - prayer and fasting can aid us greatly in it. The purpose of fasting in particular is not to get what we want from God. It is to change us and train us to be closer to Him and more like Jesus. Jesus made it a point to fast before he began his ministry. Why? Not because it is some legalistic step he had to take to have a successful ministry, it is because it brought him closer to the Father. That is the first thing to know about disciplines such as fasting - they are about bringing you closer to God. 

Spiritual formation is a process, being more like Jesus is a process. They take practice and consistency over time. This is another reason to fast; it is like being an athlete. Being a great baseball player takes practice and hard work in preparation and training long before a game. Closeness to God is similar. My approach to prayer and fasting has changed over the years and I get so much more out of it now than I used to. Dallas Willard says this about fasting: "it teaches us a lot about ourselves very quickly. It will certainly prove humiliating to us, as it reveals to us how much our peace depends upon the pleasures of eating. ...fasting confirms our utter dependence upon God by finding in him a source of sustenance beyond food." In other words, by denying ourselves of what we want, but don't need, we practice self-denial - which is especially rare in this culture. Taking one day off from food, or technology, or whatever it may be that we fast from, shows us how much our bodies and desires drive us - and gives us an opportunity to practice denying those urges.

I have never experienced a time when fasting has been easy. But that is part of the beauty of it. Each time I feel hungry I pray. I pray to God to help me listen to Him rather than my stomach. I try to focus on God instead of myself. This is warfare, the enemy will try to distract you from the one in charge. This is why practicing prayer is so effective in concert with fasting. Food is the traditional item to fast from - but it does not have to be. For example, some people are so into video games that they forget to eat. For them, it would be much more effective to fast from video games for a day. We are asking everyone to fast from something on Thursday - be it technology, food, games, TV, music. Look at fasting in terms of self-denial. Things you think you need in life, but can actually give up for a day to focus on God. But also make sure it is something which you will miss. If you have a peanut allergy and choose to fast from peanuts, it probably won't make you rely on prayer so much. Nor will you have the opportunity to joyfully suffer.

Prayer is powerful, do not doubt that. God changes us through prayer. We can understand God better through prayer. We get closer to God through prayer. This is why we come together to pray Thursday. But don't spend the day telling God everything you want or need. Prayer is conversation. Spend the day asking God what He wants from you. Ask God how to rely on Him. Pray for discernment over the lies of the enemy. Then pray the same for your brothers and sisters in Christ. And the community. Please specifically pray for our governmental leaders. Pray that God will change them too. That God will give them discernment over the enemy. Pray for Liberia - that people will unite to aid them instead of run away in fear. Most of all, pray that all of us grow closer to Jesus, to learn to be like Jesus, and to align our lives with God's will.

Trying to follow,
Mark

What is Love?

Recently I had the opportunity to really study the meaning and concept of the word love. So much of our lives are centered around and/or searching for love. We live in a culture today in which "love" is mainly an emotion or a feeling. "Falling in love" is not seen as a choice you make, but as something that happens to you. Like something which comes and goes as it pleases. 

But love like that, simply emotion, is not what the Bible says love is. There are three Greek words for love used in Scripture and all of them are less emotion and more choice - a way of life rather than a feeling one gets. Which is an especially important point when it comes to marriage. One of the most important parts of a marriage are the vows and promises. But promises cannot be made about feelings; feelings come and go, honestly, there are days when I may not be as emotionally attached to my wife because I am more focused on other things. No, nothing is wrong with our marriage. What I am trying to say is that love in the Bible, love in marriage, love in relationships, is based on actions. The choice to care for and be a blessing to each other even when we don't "feel" like it. Actions are things we can make promises about. (And so does God.) It may not always be what we want or expect, but that is our fault, not God's.

God built within each of us a natural tendency to love - and His desire is for us to show love to each other. In John 13:34-35 (NIV) Jesus flat out says it: "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." Wow, read that again. According to Jesus (who I like to try to listen to) the defining characteristic of His followers is how much we love. Not how often we go to church, or if we memorize Scripture (which are important, no doubt) but the primary desire of Jesus is that we love one another. There are times I have been struggling with this lately. I admit it, I get caught up in all the things I need to do for Sundays to go well. I let feelings and emotions get the best of me - and as a result, I am not acting out of love. I'm not saying I don't love, I am just saying that other things get the best of me and other things become my goal over love. And for those of you on the wrong end of that I apologize and hope you can forgive me.

I bring this up because right now we are starting a new series: "The Art of War" about Spiritual Warfare. There is no denying that Satan is attacking us constantly. This is a good thing - Satan wouldn't care if we were on the wrong track. But the best defense is a good offense, and in the case of Spiritual Warfare, a good offense is acting in love. This is how we get closer to God. This is how we understand Him best. 1 John 4:7-11 says "Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us." Think about that the next time you are upset at or annoyed with one of those people Jesus died for. I'm not saying don't get angry; Jesus got angry. What I am saying is, ask yourself where your actions are coming from. If the answer is anything other than a place of love, you might want to think about that some more. Choose love. Make it your way of life. Let people see that you are a follower of Christ by how much you love.

Trying to Follow,
Mark