Dear Prayer Warrior,
Secular or Sacred
There is one verse in the Bible that makes me worship more than all the others.
"Therefore, wait for Me— this is the Lord’s declaration— until the day I rise up for plunder. For My decision is to gather nations, to assemble kingdoms, in order to pour out My indignation on them, all My burning anger; for the whole earth will be consumed by the fire of My jealousy." Zephaniah 3:8
It's all gonna burn. The temporary things, the earth is going to experience wrath because mankind has taken the sacred and traded it for the secular. God will bestow revenge.
Most people see the world as secular because they cannot grasp a Creator as easily as they can analyze their senses. I remember seeing the world as secular, not sacred. The deception of the secular worldview is ancient. I admit it is hard to grasp the sacred when living in this fallen world. It's a place where the food chain exists, where violence can bully. A secular mindset has no ability to worship the true God, or give credit to Him. Littering, Natural disasters, genocides, and divorce are all bummers officially. Secular humanism will comfort us a little by letting us know that at least we are all in this together.
Perhaps I’m just a tree-hugging Coloradan when I say that the sacred is obvious to me when I look at nature. Or maybe like Paul describes, the scales of my eyes were removed upon submission to Jesus. Either way, vast landscapes with infinite detail, clear fresh breezes, a still forest, all contain God’s creative, sacred beauty. There is a semblance of eternity in nature because much of the landscape will outlive me naturally. Here littering, Natural disasters, genocides, and divorce can destroy but not without God’s permission and His promise to settle every account with justice in His time.
The special revelation of the sacred comes through Scripture not nature. The Bible assures us that where we are, where we find ourselves, is completely sacred. I love the passage in Romans 8:20-21 that says that all of creation is subject to futility, groaning waiting for the sons of God to be revealed. Which ultimately means that creation is waiting for the Creator to return to rid the world of the illusion of the secular.
A secular worldview gets confronted when God appears to Moses and says that the ground he is on is holy. It's holy because God is there. isn't God everywhere? Another challenge to a secular viewpoint occurs when the Seraphim proclaim to Isaiah that the whole world is full of His (God’s) glory. Not just certain areas of the world have God’s glory, but all of it and it is full.
So in the context of my tiny life before the Almighty complete with suffering, loss, disability, mental illness and trauma I choose to see the sacred in my trials. There have been spiritual attacks, there are mysteries around my children that I can’t answer. the secular understanding suggests to abandon the Lord because it’s not adding up to a “blessed” life. It would make sense to turn inwardly, to lick my wounds, and emote in dysfunctional pride because I withstood loss and sadness. I reject such recompense because there is no dependence on God in those resolutions. Jesus is the author and finisher of my trials. He is the Redeemer of a sacred worldview.
Yahweh purposes all things. God is behind my trials far more than Satan. Yes I have journeyed through the sadness, through the endurance of caretaking and prayed for outcomes that never came. But my faith, informed by the bible, tells me that the Keeper of Time is producing His purposes through this. Suffering, death is horrible to endure but completely necessary and meaningful in my case. Holy Jesus offers His company, His tears and mourning as I open up to Him in prayer. I am convinced that there is no greater thing that i can do then to obey and depend on God. Believing is my orientation, obeying actuates. I choose to look for this in my days to come: “He satisfies you with goodness, your youth is renewed like the eagle” Psalms 103:5. May the Currat’s experience a revival of goodness in the land of the living as the Lord wills. Should it not come, I will continue to worship.
John, Forrest, and Charity my Christian Pop Culture Landscape of Late
I got some minor ripples from the Johnny Mac splash. To me, John McArthur always gave off an unapologetic, deadpan look. He seemed cold in impression and less than compassionate, this made me hesitate to dive deeply into his writings or sermons. By contrast I think of sunny John Piper and his deep sense of awe and enthusiasm for the Word, it was no wonder I listened to John Piper’s much more. Even so, I’ve got a notable John McArthur story: At my Target in Chicago, I was asked by a friend and coworker to officiate her wedding to her female fiancée. To validate her reasoning, she called me her “man of God” amid her circle of friends. I never considered doing it, but I spent a long time considering what to say as I declined her invitation. As I prayed about it over the following days, I came across a John McArthur comment that really helped. He stated that the most loving thing a Christian can do for their unbelieving friends is to not “play along” and overlook their sins that will cause eternal separation from their loving Creator. Suddenly passages about one man and one woman were not even part of my reply. Instead, I let her know how much I sinned and assumed it was no big deal to God because I made up my own version of who god was to me. I let her know that a true “man of God” is someone who leans on God's understanding. Which is God's Word. he learns who God is according to His Word.
I loved and cared for my coworker by telling her what sins I committed that I thought weren’t an offense to God and how that changed over the years as I got to know the Scriptures. I learned that knowing God and what he likes and doesn’t like is done by reading the Bible rather than making stuff up.
John McArthur’s advice remains a great tool of evangelism. Too often, today even, I look at my unbelieving coworkers and permit their cursing and the use of the Lord's name in vain around me. Their gender confusions, obsession with carnality and comfort were never my business. I overlook these things and say “you can’t expect a pagan to talk like a Christian.” But how many chances of sharing the love of God have I missed because I permitted their vulgarity and allowed the depravity into conversations by others? I resign to silence far too much. Let’s pray for a change here among my coworkers.
Providentially, on our wonderful Joni and Friends retreat, we were greeted with a welcome bag. There were toys for the kids, snacks and the book Slave by John McArthur. I have been in it for a while and the great “cover-up” that the book exposes is that New Testament authors and early church fathers all understood their relationship with Jesus as his slave mostly. Modern Bible translations have for centuries replaced “slave” with “servant”. it is challenging to see myself as a slave of Christ. Ever since November 10th 2006, I see my life as being in relationship with Jesus. Dependent on Him, but having a list of things I would like our relationship to consider. He is the author; I am his new creation. That isn’t quite the posture of a slave to their master. Maybe the potter and clay is a better metaphor of a slave/master relationship. “Woe to him who strives with him who formed him, a pot among earthen pots! Does the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’ or ‘Your work has no handles’?” Isaiah 45:9 “Master help me silence my backtalk at You and my agenda.”
Another pop culture thing that happened that has edified my faith is Forrest Frank’s apparent supernatural healing. Imagine a young version of Toby Mac, doing beat-heavy Christian music with honest, relatable lyrics, and creative metaphors. Forrest broke his back skateboarding in multiple places and documented his journey on video. To paint a picture of who he is, he authored the song “God’s got my back” while lying in bed with his broken back. Two weeks after the break he woke up pain free, played with his son and was bouncing him up and down. Waking up to the miraculous realization that he’d been healed, he went to urgent care to x-ray his back and there was no evidence of a fracture at all only two weeks later. He has posted videos of the x-rays. In spite of it all, I am shocked at how glossed over this occurrence has been received.
Lindsey and I had a date night last week to see Charity Gayle in concert. We humorously felt our age as the music blared and the distractions mounted. It was worshipful but heavy on our senses. The slow part of her set was shared with her husband Ryan and they gave glory to God with the story of their first-born son who was a NICU baby, unable to breath on his own. But God brought breath and might amid their surrender as parents. Hallelujah!
After the show, Lindsey and I conversed about whether or not that was a “trial” since it was so brief and miraculously resolved. Of course it was, but in light of our perseverance with God’s plan for Anna, we couldn’t help but be envious a bit. God in His grace reminded me that we also experienced NICU healing of the supernatural, providential nature. When it was a matter of life and death with Anna God stabilized her blood pressure after the medicines were not causing the response they were hoping for.
On some level acute miraculous healing is not the meat and potatoes of a faith filled life, it’s more like the maraschino cherry of it. I am enjoying the cherry of Forrest’s healing, and the triumph of Charity and Ryan’s son. I have been praising the Lord and ascribing these miracles to Him as they point to Jesus. God still heals supernaturally. Let’s not forget that complete healing for all who believe is a matter of time regarding all suffering. In the meantime there is the Spirit’s equipping and Jesus’ shepherding.
Praise the Lord for:
-Our healing. We have our first child to “normally” experience the 1st grade. She may be the third born but Renee is blazing a trail bravely as school is underway. We are going to experience the first grade! (Simon died the summer before 1st grade. It hurt us how very prepared and excited we were). It feels as a sort of emergence from our loss. A neat detail is that I can attend to help Lindsey during the CO-OP day because my work wants me to close the store that day.
-His equipping. We received a home lift to transfer Anna from her bed to chair. We also received her new wheelchair. We ordered a new bath chair and eye gaze device. We are entering into the less talked about struggles of caretaking as we should not be lifting Anna anymore because she is about 75 pounds. This requires more time and planning.
-My mother! I am enjoying time with her. She is tired mainly but better than two years ago. Being wheelchair bound has stabilized her and UTI's have 'ot been present. Please pray for her eyes to improve she has constant pain in one of them.
Please Pray for:
-our unity, to share stresses and fatigue amid our family’s demands. We are asking for wisdom, planning and sharing the workload as much as possible. Perhaps the church body can help, though I don’t know what that would look like. I have a knack for adventure and spontaneity that might need to rest on the back burner during this season.
-the goodness of the Lord to satisfy us. As Lindsey and I are learning what it means for our love to “bear all things, hope for all things, and endure all things.” We still find a sense of defeatism to our thinking and plans primarily from trauma. “why get my hopes up when disaster can strike…” type of thinking. May God “wow” us into dreaming again in Him.
Thank for reading, encouraging us and praying,
Nic, on behalf of Lindsey, Anna, Simon, Renee and Victor
