Creating space for God- Gideon part 8

Creating space for God- Gideon part 8

Posted on by Matthew Laker

Text: Judges 6:17-24

Series: Gideon

 

We all desire to hear from God.

 

Gideon likely never thought to hear from the God of his forefathers outside of the tabernacle. Gideon, at the same time, was angry and frustrated with why had God let so much suffering happen in the life of his community.

 

He still wanted to hear from God, even though he was convinced God had left him. He was struggling with confidence in himself and God.

 

In our passage, Gideon ends up building two altars to God. The idea of an altar may seem strange and what takes place in these moments may seem strange. However, altars are a place to worship and hear from God.

 

In verse 17 Gideon is still not sure if it is God, so he asks God to wait so he can build an altar. The world view was he brings an offering to the Lord and if it is accepted by God it is a sign for Gideon that God is with him.

 

Gideon brings an offering and God accepts his worship. In this moment, Gideon is taking steps away from fear and into faith. In this moment, Gideon understands now he has been meeting with the Sovereign LORD. In this moment, God shares with Gideon “do not fear,” and gives him peace.

 

We are nothing without the presence of God, and nothing is more important than experiencing the glory of God.

Altars are found throughout the Old Testament and New Testament. In the New Testament, it is less about a physical structure and more about pausing in a certain space.

Altars serve as a place to meet with God, a time where we focus ourself to hear from God. Alters serve a number of purposes, from worship, acts of repentance, the witness of God’s work, as well as places to be still and know God.

 

If we do not build altars to meet with God, he cannot honour us with his fire (presence).

 

If we want God to lead and speak in our life, are we creating space to hear from him? Are we using the lens of scripture to view life circumstances? The building of the altar is a metaphor for creating space to worship and hear from God.

 

The image of an altar has been helpful in my journey with Jesus. I understand some may struggle with this image, but it is a place, a moment to meet with God. Yes, God is with me wherever I go. Yes, I can speak with him throughout the rhythms of life and we need to. Yes, there may not be some major revelation or signs and wonders every time, but there does not need to be.

 

We are like an engine piston. As it goes up it takes in oxygen and gas. Then it compresses it. The altar moment is a time where we are taking the gospel in and letting the spirit compress it, then in the Spirit’s timing, he ignites us and power comes. From there we go and engage the world.

 

We are nothing without the presence of God, and nothing is more important than experiencing the glory of God.

 

How are you in creating space to meet with God? Where can you do that this week?

Entering The Story of God – Gideon-Part 7

Entering The Story of God – Gideon-Part 7

Posted on by Matthew Laker

Text: Judges 6:15-16

Series: Gideon

When we understand that God has sent us out to be part of his work we may ask a similar question that Gideon did. In Judges 6:15-16, looking God in the face, Gideon points out how he is the weakest and lacks experience.

“But Lord, Gideon asked, “How can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the lest in my family”

This question from Gideon enters into the conversation when God is revealing to Gideon a mission he is sending Gideon on.  The mission consists of Gideon calling his people back to him and dealing with some international relationships and the problem of sin.

 

As Jesus followers, we are all ambassadors of Christ. We are called to join God’s work in this world.  How that looks is different for every one of us.  However, the excuses are as old as Gideon.  Actually, you can even go back to the great Moses as he had the same reason why God should not use him.

 

Gideon is just honest with God.  Gideon shares , “God I am the weakest among my people. ”

 

Gideon’s statement that he is the weakest is a loaded statement. He shares he does not have enough power, skill, influence or control over the situation. By saying this, he is in essence saying, God I know better than you do.

 

It is funny how our understanding of success does not always align with who God is or how God sees life.  It is in some of the messiest situations that God works.  This means God is at work in our life, your life. It is in you and through you God chooses to work and reveal himself to the world.

 

God’s response to Gideon is simple:

“I will be with you, and you will…”

 

One of the big tensions in the story of Gideon is how God is not with him.  This is the third time God has reminded Gideon he is with him.

 

The implication because God is with us, we can go.  Because God is with us we can step out of fear and embrace faith.  Because God is with us we can step out of fear and the unknown and enter, and engage and experience the life we were created for.

 

God has not called us based on what we will do.  He has called us based upon who we are in him and who he is and for his glory.  God has called us based on how he see us and not how we see ourselves.

 

Are you letting the weakness and challenges you see in life stop you from moving forward?

 

If God is with you what difference does that make for you to move forward?

 

Gideon was challenged to put his faith in God.

 

Gideon was challenged to turn to this great God and enter the story of God.

 

It is there in the story of God that he will experience, enter and engage the story he was created for.

 

Take a moment and go back and read Judges 6:15-16.  What is your response to God as he invites you to join his work in this world?  What is God’s response to you?  Meditate upon that today.

My Top Three Books

My Top Three Books

Posted on by Matthew Laker

My Top Three Books from 2016

I have found that reading is a great way to push myself and expand my thinking.  The best part about reading is that it stirs my thoughts and helps me think through situations or circumstances I find myself in.  It also has a way of relaxing and energizing me.

 

book 7Many may not call reading a spiritual discipline, but many times in my life it serves as a road to align my life with Jesus. It helps me connect with Jesus.

2016 was a year of transition for me and the first part of the year provided extra time for reading. As a whole, 2016 was a big year of reading for me.

 

My top three books this year had to be:

The Art of Being Broken by Aaron Mark Reimer

Discipleship Shift: Five Steps That Help Your Church to Make Disciples Who Make Disciples by Jim Putman

Emotionally Healthy Spirituality by Peter Scazzero

 

Each book, in their various ways, helped me think deeper about my work and helped in understanding myself and others better.

Another book called Recovering the Scandal of the Cross, was in the running for top books for me this year as well and perhaps you could say it is number four. It has been a while since I’ve read a more direct theological book; it pushed me on how I communicate about Jesus, and to re-look at what the significance of Jesus’ death to our culture is.  I suspect I will come back to this book again as I wrestle with its topic.

 

The book I think that may take the number one spot for me this year is Emotionally Healthy Spirituality.   I did a write up of my take away from Emotionally Healthy Spirituality here – http://matthewlaker.com/emotionally-healthy-spirituality-by-peter-scazzero/

 

I meant to have written my takeaways for the book The Art of Being Broken, but never had the chance to.  I actually know the author, which is really cool.  The book came into my life in the beginning of 2016 and at the time, I needed its message.  There’s a good chance this is why it was in my top three. Maybe you need its message too.

 

I have also listed below other books I completed reading this year.  Perhaps there is one there for you in the year ahead.  Do you have any recommendations for me?

It should be noted these are affiliate links below:

 

The books I read in 2016

 

The art of Being Broken by Aaron Mark Reimer

Discipleship Shift: Five steps that Help your Church to make Disciples who make disciples by Jim putman and Bobby Harrington.

Emotionally healthy Spirituality by Peter Scazzero

The Give to live: The freedom of being generous with your life  by Stan Toler

“Living Forward: A proven Plan to Stop Driving and Get the life you want” by Michael Hyatt, and Daniel Harkavy

Following the movements of the spirit. – spiritual formation by Henri Nouwen with Michael j. Christen and Rebecca J. Laird.

Glorious Mess: Encountering God’s Relentless Grace for Imperfect People by Mike Howerton

Thriving in Babylon: why Hope, Humility, and Wisdom matter in a Godless Culture” by Larry Osborne

Cracking your Church’s culture Code: Seven Keys to Unleashing Vision and Inspiration by Samuel R. Chand

4 keys to hearing God’s voice by Mark Virkler

The Subtle art of not giving a fuck by mark manson – I never did finish this one

The Road Back to you: An enneagram journey to self-discover by Ian Morgan Cron, Suzanne Stabile

The Power of Blessing by Kerry Kirkwood

The Jonah Complex: Rediscovering the Outrageous Grace of God by Greg Haslam – I did not read it all

Jesus speaks: Learning to recognize and respond to the LORD’s voice by Leonard Sweet, Frank Viola

Recovering the Scandal of the Cross: atonement in new testament and contemporary context by Mark d. baker and joel b. green

Gideon joining the work of God- part 6

Gideon joining the work of God- part 6

Posted on by Matthew Laker

Series: Gideon

Text: Judges 6:14

How we view ourselves is important to understand.  One of the great challenges for us all comes down to the question who am I.

We live in a world with many competing voices declaring who we should be and how we should live.  Our choices and circumstances often lead to shaping our identity and our view of ourselves.

When we look at the story of Gideon and his journey of walking away from fear and embracing faith, it is a journey of understanding himself through a new lens. As God speaks to him, God meets Gideon where he is at (Judges 6:11).  When he speaks to Gideon it is in a manner as to how God see Gideon and what Gideon is created to be not as Gideon sees himself.  The same is true for us.

 

Eph. 2:10- For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

 

In Judges 6:14 God says to Gideon ” Go in the strength you have..”

 

Could the LORD have already given us the strength we need to step out of our fear and embrace faith?

 

The source of the strength comes from two places.

 

First, it comes from Gideon.  God has created him, gifted him.

 

Second, in the second part of the verse God asked: “am I not sending you?”  It is a question with an implication.  If God is sending us we can do it.

Sometimes we just need 20 seconds of courage to step out of the fear and embrace faith. The foundation of that courage is truth that God is with us.

 

In that moment of reminding Gideon that God is sending him, he calls Gideon to look upon who God is and what he is doing.  It is when we understand who God is and what he has done that we understand who we are and what we are to do.

 

The truth is God is sending Gideon; God is with Gideon.  The question then is if this is true what changes in Gideon’s life.  What changes to how he spends his time? What changes to how Gideon views himself?  What changes as to what Gideon is to do?

 

The question for us is if Jesus is with us and sending us, how does that change how you live and see yourself?

God is calling Gideon to step out and embrace his work in the world.  What about you?

 

Gideon’s first question to God was really “where have you been?” and “are you really with us?” God’s response is “I am with you, now go.”

Where is God? – Gideon #5

Where is God? – Gideon #5

Posted on by Matthew Laker

Series: Gideon – Gideon #5 (text- judges 6:1-13)

Has God abandoned you?

 

Is it possible for you to make such dire choices that God will just write you off and give up on you?

 

Have you ever had doubts that God is with you?

 

As followers of Jesus we often say to others in the midst of challenging circumstances “God is with you, he will get you through.”

 

However, for many, they do not believe it themselves. The question of where is God? is one that all of humanity asks in one way or another. It has been a question throughout history. There is so much hurt and brokenness we wonder just where is God. The truth is some have been affected by so much hurt it has scared them in deep ways. For some, it has blurred their perspective on life and driven them away from God. For some, it has had the opposite effect and it has driven them toward God.

 

In the story of Gideon, he believes that God has abandoned his people.

 

In Judges 6:13 Gideon responds to God physically showing up in his life by asking a great question– a question we have all asked or thought at one time.

Gideon asks:

“If the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us?”

 

Gideon has assumed that God has abandoned them because of all the bad things that are taking place in their life. We have all been there. Suffering is part of the human experience, none of us are alone in this matter. For some, they feel as a result of suffering or a personal failure that God must have abandoned them.

 

In the Old Testament, God gave a promise for his people. This promise is not there for us who follow Jesus, as we are under what the bible calls the new covenant. However, it helps us understand Gideon and our own journey today.

 

God promised, if they followed God, they will not have any nations ruling over them and their farms will succeed. The problem was this was not their experience at the time. They also came to believe that to not obey God meant God left them. This would not be so.

 

We know in the passage that some of the circumstances they found themselves in came as a result of not listening to God, ignoring the road he called them to live (Judges 6:10). God is like a life-giving fountain, and since they have stopped drinking from it, they have become confused and lost. In this confusion and suffering, they blame God for the circumstances, even though they did not want anything to do with him.

 

Here is the key, even in the valley God is there. Even in dark circumstances that he could have stopped but did not, he still loves and cares for us. This is hard to understand at times. In the midst of brokenness and hurt and earthly failure, Jesus is calling us to follow him and journey with him. He is calling us to his road of life and has not given up on us even when circumstance may feel like he has.

 

Jesus said I will never leave you (Matthew 28:20). Jesus is a reminder that God is with us. Jesus is our great shepherd who left the 99 sheep to find the one who got lost. This great shepherd, we are reminded of in psalm 23, he meets us in the dark valley sometimes and just sits there with us.

 

Our bad or good circumstances are not a determining factor of if God is with us or not. This is what we see here in the story of Gideon. Even though they wanted nothing to do with God, he is still working a way for them to come back to him and experience the flourishing life.

 

At times I, like Gideon, ask where is this Jesus that has performed signs and wonders? Where is this power of the Holy Spirit I see and read about in scripture and other local bodies of believers? Where are all his wonders that our fore fathers told us about. God must not be in this because I do not see it.

 

Yet the story of Gideon reminds us that God is there; he does not abandon his people. Jesus reminds us that storms will come and if we build our life on him, the storm will not destroy us. We see throughout the book of Judges that God is at work in both the larger picture and the small picture.

 

So we live in this tension. The tension of our emotions, challenging circumstances and declaration from Jesus that he is with us. Somehow through that restoration will come.

 

The issue for the people in Gideon’s time was they stopped listening to God. In the midst of the circumstances you find yourself in, what characteristic of God do you need to remember and trust in this moment? It is in listening to God that we are led to life and restored to living as we were created to be. It is a journey, but this is a foundational truth.

 

Though your circumstances make you feel like God has abandoned you, fix your life eyes on Jesus and live the life you were created for.