The LORD is my Peace

We live in a culture that places "visionary leadership" at the top of the ladder of personal achievement. We highly esteem men and women who are in command, who are on top of things, who can control and direct with a great degree of authority and efficiency. And we are told that if we are to be valuable, we must also develop these traits, we must also throw off the shackles of weakness and self-doubt. We must live up to our potential! We must be self-actualized! We must all be the heads of major corporations, the go-to guys at work, the speaker in the assembly, the leader of our group! Otherwise we have somehow failed as people, as Americans, maybe as Christians. And so we scramble and sweat and live our lives in a turmoil to be all that we can be, giving in to the seduction of leadership and power, selling out to the lie that we have to somehow prove that we are the best at everything if we are to be considered valuable as people, valuable in God's sight--maybe that we have to show God that we can do great things for Him, all the while failing to let God be God, failing to really rely on His power, sometimes failing to believe that He really has power at all, failing to rest in the peace He offers.

The story of Gideon offers a complete (and refreshing) reversal of this very American syndrome of self-actualization. The story begins with yet another period of disaster following decadence in the history of the Israelites. In its prosperity, Israel has once again turned away from God, and God has sent an invading force, the Midanites this time, to turn the hearts of His people back to Him. Israel cries out to God, and God goes walking through the land, finally stopping to rest for a time next to a winepress in which a young man is inefficiently threshing grain. God leans against the tree to watch, and when Gideon notices Him, God exclaims, "The Lord is with you, mighty warrior!"

There is a certain amount of incongruity to this statement. It does not seem to have been the case that Gideon was a warrior at all, mighty or otherwise. In addition, the fact that Gideon is cowering in a hole in the ground, trying to get the harvest in before the Midianites ride by and steal his grain shows that he's not exactly a candidate for the Navy SEALs. And by his own admission, he's the weakest guy from the weakest clan from the weakest tribe in what seems to have been at the time the weakest nation in the world. By American standards, Gideon is a failure. But God is not through with His weak people, or his chosen standard-bearer, Gideon.

And we know how the story ends: God convinces Gideon (who takes a good deal of convincing) to muster an army to fight the people from Midian. God trims the army of 32,000 down to 300. God throws the Midianite camp into confusion at Gideon's signal. God brings peace at last to His people. This is not a story about Gideon's hidden talents that God brings out, or his latent leadership ability, or his secret well of vision, waiting to be tapped by God. At the end of the story Gideon is still Gideon. The story is about the power of God--a God who is ignored in the good times and the scramble for control and the lust for leadership, a God who is belittled when times are bad. At the end of the story, the inescapable truth is that God is in control, God is the winner of the battle, God confers worth on people, and it is God who grants His people peace.

In the midst of our struggles with the rat race, our drive to get ahead, maybe, if we are not as successful as this culture deems we should be, our battle with self-doubt and inadequacy--we need to remember that Gideon's God is our God. We need to re-learn the lesson we learned in Sunday school, the lesson that we have to learn and re-learn time and again: God is in control, our worth comes from who we are before God and not who we are at work, God is our peace, and God is certainly able to fight and win whatever battles come our way. Let's learn to clear away the clutter and wait to hear the Angel of the LORD say "the Lord is with you, mighty warrior!" remembering that the real warrior is and has always been the LORD.

I am the LORD, who makes you Holy

Coming face to face with the Holiness of God can be a terrifying thing--just ask Isaiah. In Isaiah 6, we have a record of the prophet's encounter with the Lord--angels are flying around calling "holy, holy, holy is the LORD almighty, the whole earth is full of His glory," the temple is filled with smoke, the doorposts are shaking, and Isaiah realizes that he is most definitely not holy, and that this meeting with the perfect Lord of the universe might just be the last thing he ever does. But in the midst of his despair, God sends an angel with a coal from the altar to touch Isaiah's lips, declaring that his guilt has been taken away and he has been made holy by the Lord.

I think that this is one of the most beautiful stories in scripture, and it is one example of a truth that flows throughout the history of God's interactions with His people--the holy God, who requires that His people be Holy, set apart, blameless, is the very One who makes them Holy. God, who could condemn Isaiah for his "unclean lips" instead chooses to cleanse him and make him holy. God, who could reject all people because they are unworthy to come before Him, instead chooses and people to make into His holy nation. And in the part of the story we are most familiar with, God, bent on offering salvation to all people, sends His only Son to die to make the most unholy of us holy, pure, blameless before Him.

As we track through these stories, an essential aspect of God's character begins to come to light--God desperately desires a relationship with us, an unholy people, and He is willing to go to incredible lengths to make us holy and make that relationship possible. Our response here should be profound gratitude, and a willingness to live each day as part of His holy people.

The LORD is my Banner

I wonder what it would have been like to have been a wandering shepherd in the deserts of the Sinai Peninsula about 3000 years ago. Imagine riding a camel across the barren wastes, moving your sheep from one hidden spring to the next--springs too small to support more than a few dozen animals. Suddenly, as you cross over a small, rocky ridge, you are shocked to discover, winding from one horizon to the next, a broad, trampled highway in the sand--the tracks of thousands upon thousands of men, women, children, and their animals. Startled, you ride closer. As you approach, this out-of-place highway begins to appear stranger still as you start to notice that the path is strewn with quail bones and bread crumbs. Dismounting to study the tracks, you observe splotches in the sand where water has been spilled. Looking around you see, fifteen feet away, lying in a small trough in the ground, a sword--an Amalekite sword. There has been a battle, and the losers have left their weapons on the ground and fled. Who are these people? Where did they get all this food? Where did they get so much water that they could afford to spill it on the ground? The nearest major water source is two weeks' ride south of here! How did they manage to defeat the Amalekites on their home turf? Something strange is going on in the Sinai deserts.

The Israelites' experience in the desert was far from normal. Deep in the wilderness, they are being forced to rely on God to meet their most basic needs. When they needed water, they were forced to depend on God to provide it. When they needed food, they had no alternative but to turn to God. When they were attacked by enemy forces, including the Amalekites, they only achieved victory by the hand of the Lord. And the amazing thing, the really beautiful thing, is that each day they awakened to find bread from heaven on the ground, and each evening the Lord drove flocks of quail into the camp. Each time they needed water, God gave them all they needed, and God gave them the victory in the battles they fought. Slowly, painstakingly, in the crucible of the deep desert, where there is no food and no water and no military help other than what was provided by the Lord, the Israelites were learning that they served a God who could and would provide for them. And when Moses, overjoyed at the defeat of the Amalekites, built an altar to God and named it "The LORD is my banner," he was proclaiming what the rest of the nation was only just beginning to realize--that it was the Lord's strength behind the victory, and it was the Lord who was providing for His people.

In a country of supermarkets and clean tap water and peace it is sometimes difficult for us to understand what it would be like to daily rely on the Lord for food and water and protection from our enemies. I wonder sometimes if we could stand to learn the same lessons the Israelites were being taught out in the desert--that God really can and really does provide for His people.

I am the LORD, who heals you

Tucked away just after the great, sweeping accounts of the ten plagues, the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, and the parting of the Red Sea which ultimately ends in the destruction of Pharaoh's army and freedom at long last for the Children of Israel, just after Moses and Miriam sing their song of triumph and praise to God, is this stark but telling verse:

"Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea and they went into the Desert of Shur. For three days they traveled in the desert without finding water." (Ex. 15:22)

We are used to reading through the text at a rapid pace--quickly turning the pages, leaping from story to story, from exciting conclusion to exciting conclusion, spanning hundreds of years with a single flick of the wrist--but when we allow ourselves to slow down for a minute and enter the story, I think we begin to get a truer, more vivid picture of the events taking place. Imagine with me for a moment: the confetti, the streamers, party hats and noisemakers used in that great celebration of the defeat of the Egyptians at the Red Sea have long since dropped to the ground and been forgotten. The songs of triumph and praise have been replaced by the silence of the deep desert. The only sounds now are the crunch of camel's hooves on sand covered rock, the groans of hot and weary travelers, and the never ending wind. For three days now you've been wandering in the desert. The water is almost gone, and the joys of freedom have been overwhelmed by the desperation only terrible thirst can bring. Suddenly there is a shout at the front of the column: water! You find yourself running along with the multitudes, carried along by the common desire to get at that one substance your body cries out for above all else. You reach the pool and plunge your face below the surface, drinking deeply. Without warning, however, your smile fades and your body contorts as you begin to retch, spewing the once welcome water out on the sandy shore of the pond--the water is too bitter to drink! As the cry of disappointment and anger rushes like wildfire through the community, growing to an unbearable crescendo, Moses, leader of the newly freed nation, turns his eyes towards heaven.

As we move back out of the story, we begin to see what is really at stake here. God has begun to reveal Himself to His people, bringing them along through signs and wonders--defeating the armies of Egypt, freeing His people in the most spectacular way possible--helping them begin to understand just exactly who He is and who they are in relation to Him. But all these miracles will be wasted if God allows His people to die of thirst in the desert, if He will not, or cannot, provide them with the water they need. But God's revelation of Himself to His people is not yet complete. As their groaning reaches its peak, God shows Moses a stick which Moses then tosses into the water, making it sweet and drinkable. And as the assembly drinks their fill, God reveals Himself by a new name "I am the LORD, who heals you," promising to bring healing and health to the Israelites if they will follow His laws. Then He leads them to an oasis, a place called Elim, where there were 12 springs and 70 palm trees, and there He gives them rest.

As God's people, we also have our seasons of dryness and doubt. But we have a watchful God who knows our needs, who will keep His promises, who will not abandon us in the desert, a God who will, in His time, lead us, like the Israelites, to rest. He is the LORD, who heals you.

The God who Provides

On Sunday mornings in the R&B Youth Group we have been learning about the different titles and names for God. Through scripture, God has introduced us to Himself as "Elohim--the creator," "El Shaddai--Almighty God, who keeps His promises," "YHWH--THE GOD WHO IS," God's personal name which He revealed to Moses at the burning bush. We hope that learning about the names through which God has made Himself known to us will help us better understand who He Is, and help us better relate to Him, pray to Him, worship Him, and understand who we are as His people.

Yesterday we talked about the "binding of Isaac" in Genesis 22--that well-known story of God testing the faith of Abraham by asking him to sacrifice his only son. One of the astonishing things about the story is that Abraham from the very beginning maintains the conviction that God will provide--that one way or another, by providing a substitute sacrifice or by going so far as to raise Isaac from the dead, God will keep the covenant He has made with Him to raise up a great nation through Isaac--even though God never mentions that He will provide a substitute! In fact, God is mostly silent throughout the story. From the opening lines: "Take your son, your only son, whom you love..." to the moment Abraham raises the knife, God does not utter a word. But through all of this, through what must have been three agonizing days of travel to the mountain, three sleepless nights filled with worry, Abraham maintains the conviction he has learned through long years spent walking with the God who has never before let him down: God will provide. And when the Angel of the Lord stops his hand just before he offers his only son, and he looks over and sees the ram that God has provided as a sacrifice in place of Isaac, Abraham names the top of that mountain the only fitting name he can think of: "YHWH-Jireh--the Lord will provide."

I think we probably all experience times like Abraham's three-day march to the mountain. Passages of time where the demands of life or the tasks God has given us seem to cut off any hope of a happy ending, and when God seems to have left us alone to walk the road by ourselves. This was the time for Abraham when the faith that had slowly taken root during all those years walking with the Lord was finally able to shine, and I think that it is during these times in our lives where our own experience with the God who will never leave us must carry us through.

The Good News is that Abraham's story has a happy ending, because far from deserting Abraham, God does provide for him, and God raises Him up through Isaac to be a great nation, just like He promised. And the Good News is that even when we feel alone and abandoned, God is right there with us, and in His good time He will provide for us as well. And one day we can also, along with Abraham--maybe in a hospital room, or at work, or in a relationship, or at home--name those places and moments in our lives where God has provided for us. The best News of all, of course, for Abraham and for us, is that the story was repeated--this time with a different Father and a different one and only Son. But this time the Father didn't look around for a ram caught in the bushes, but offered that Son so He could provide His ultimate gift--a restored relationship with Him and eternal life in heaven.

Youth Group Covenant

On Sunday morning, the Youth Group signed the Youth Group Covenant.

Covenants have been part of our experience as the people of God almost since the beginning of time. In Genesis, God makes His covenant with Noah, promising never again to destroy the earth by water, and then makes the great covenant with Abraham that sets the stage for the rest of human history, declaring that He will make Abraham into a great nation, through which all the nations of the earth will be blessed. As time progresses, God makes a new covenant with His people, sealed with the blood of Christ, promising to never leave us and to someday bring us home to be with Him.
But God is not the only actor in the great covenants He has made with us. In order for the covenant relationship to continue, God's people had to keep their end of the bargain--if they kept the terms, then God would bless them, if they did not, God would bring upon them the covenant curses (which is eventually what happens in the exile). Far from seeing this as some sort of authoritarian rule, however, God's people rejoiced that God, who really didn't need them at all, would show them such love as to come down and build up a relationship with them. And this is still the covenant we live under--God pursuing us to build up a never-ending relationship with Him.

So, what does this have to do with the Youth Group? Besides the fact that the members of the Youth Group are also in a covenant relationship with the God who loves them, we also began a covenant relationship within the Youth Group on Sunday morning. Our covenant consisted of me making some promises to the Youth Group, like promising to work hard to provide them with a great Youth Group experience, promising to listen, and promising to love and care for them, while they kept their end of the bargain--treating me, one another, the youth room, and the rest of the congregation with respect. If they keep the covenant, we will have a great relationship. If not, there are some covenant consequences they will have chosen. And while we didn't initiate the covenant OT-style, with smoking firepots and sacrificed animals, we all did sign a copy of the covenant, which I will keep in my office.

I hope that this agreement will help me to have a great relationship with the Youth Group, and I hope it will help the members of the Youth Group build great relationships with one another and with the rest of the congregation. If you would like a copy of the Youth Group Covenant, I would be glad to give you one.

Welcome to the R&B Youth Group Blog!

Welcome to the blog! I hope that this will keep you--parents, youth, and children--in the know about what's going on in the youth group and children's ministry at Rockwall and Brin Church of Christ. This blog is primarily for communication with parents, and most posts will concern what we are talking about on Sunday mornings and Wednesday evenings to provide you, the parents, with discussion starters for conversations with your High School and Junior High students. I'll also try and include updates on events and activities in the Youth Group and Children's Ministry, as well as thoughts and musings that I'm pondering as I plan classes and activities.
Youth Group, even though this blog is mostly intended for parents, it's also a great place for you to give me feedback and to begin to dig deeper as you think about the topics we're talking about in class.
Also, this is one of my first attempts at publishing a blog, so please be patient with me--I may not post every week. I may also try to publish the blog through the church website eventually, but right now my main priority is just getting it started. I appreciate your constructive criticism, and I hope that this proves to be a good way for us to stay in touch! God bless you!