Third Advent Meditation: Everlasting Father

 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name will be called

“Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6

He is Everlasting Father.

I'm exhausted by this world's constant obsession with change and upgrades. We have lost appreciation for consistency, longevity, and dependability. If you are 3 or 4 versions behind the latest mobile phone then you are made to feel like you're still living in the dark ages. If your reluctant to get in a car that drives itself then your lumped in with the horse and buggy crowd. I recently rented a car, and it took me five minutes to figure out how to get it started. I'm either an idiot or this world's worshipful focus on change is leading us into confusion.

But our Heavenly Father is Everlasting.  He is the same yesterday, today, and forevermore. God is not old-fashion or an antique. He is powerfully the same for all time because His sameness is enough. Only on this side of eternity is change needed or desired. The chase of something "better" is for those who haven't found perfection - it's for those who are still searching for meaning, purpose, and hope. But when Christ comes and takes residency in our hearts, the searching ends because we have the Everlasting Father. We have the One who makes everything else "rubbish," and He doesn't need to change.

Now this is the place where you are probably expecting me to write something about our need to still appreciate technology, modernity, and the benefits of the 21st century. But I'm not going to do that. I'm confident you can figure that out between you and the Father (I mean I am writing this blog on a laptop and posting it on the web!)

So do something wild and crazy today: Simply be still and know that the Everlasting Father brings consistency, longevity, and dependability to all who desire Him.

Ex nihilo,

R.J. Rhoden

  

Second Advent Meditation: Mighty God?

 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name will be called

“Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6

He is Mighty God?

Of the four Names this is the one that is most confusing. We often wrestle with what appears to be the absence of His mightiness in everyday life instead of its constant presence. We proclaim it yet privately wonder where it is. 

My sister suddenly got sick and died but God is Mighty
My breast cancer has returned but God is Mighty
My son's addiction is out of control but God is Mighty
My marriage ended but God is Mighty
My depression won't go away but God is Mighty
My family is estranged from one another but God is Mighty
My adult children are away from the Lord but God is Mighty

My _____________________________________ but God is Mighty

Sound familiar?

The frequent disconnect between our circumstances and the mightiness of God is typically taboo to discuss in church circles. Wanting to avoid the label of doubter we quietly suffer alone wondering if anyone else is feeling the same way. 

Well, I have some Good News to share:

First, you are not alone, and God is not put off by your questions. Struggling in this area is an expression of faith not faithlessness. Faith is believing that God is Mighty but wondering where He is. Faithlessness is no longer believing that God is Mighty or that He even exists. The presence of struggle is actually evidence of faith.

Secondly, the mightiness of God must always but understood in the context of the divine restraint of God. His Ways are embedded in an extraordinary Love that is greater than any word we have to describe it. He acts or does not act according to this Love even when it doesn't feel like love to us. Jesus experienced this moment on the Cross when He cried out to the Father, Why have you forsaken me?

Thirdly, familiarity can produce a lack of appreciation in us. Is it not mighty that God woke us up again this morning? Or that He is once again ushering us from the Fall to Winter? Or that we once again arrived safely on our trip? Or that we once again ate a meal? Or that we once again enjoyed our shelter? Many people in the world are trusting Him for these basic needs, yet we take them for granted. When was the last time you looked to the night sky in awe and said, Who is like you, Mighty God? 

Fourthly, most of the mighty acts of God done on our behalf are unseen. Can you imagine all the divine intervention it takes for God to order our steps? For Him to number our days ensuring that we are born at the precise moment and leave this earth at the precise appointed time? And to do that for all of us simultaneously for all time? Who are we, Mighty God, that you are mindful of us? All power, glory and honor be to you.

And finally, God is with us. This Mighty God chose to come as a baby; to grow up; and to walk among us. God incarnate and yet also Mighty. Those two don't usually go together. How can full divinity and full humanity co-exist in One Person? Is there anything more mighty than this? Does anyone else hold the words of eternal life like Jesus? And all of this, to be with us - Emmanuel.

I'm wondering today if Mighty God can reclaim His rightful place in your heart no matter what you are facing? There is Good News: He is ready to be with you.

Ex nihilo,

R.J. Rhoden  

 

First Advent Meditation: Jesus is Speaking

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name will be called

“Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6

He is Wonderful Counselor. Two observations: 

First, this is the only one of the four names that includes a verb.  The other three names consist of nouns and an adjective.  Counselor is actually a verbal participle. The emphasis is on the action. It is not - wonderful is the counselor (though that is also true) but more specifically - wonderful is the counseling.

And secondly, the word wonderful had a different connotation for Isaiah. For us today we can enjoy fresh baked cookies from the oven and declare, "They are wonderful!" - meaning that they are very much and very easily to our liking. But Isaiah uses the word peh'-leh which means something that is hard to understand yet is good. In other words, there is a kind of good complexity in Jesus' counsel that makes it wonderful but not always simple.

So why is this important to know?

1.Jesus is speaking - Are you listening?

Jesus' counsel continues to speak to our hearts. His sermon on the mount is as relevant for today as it was for His first disciples. His question, "Who do you say that I am?" continues to be asked and requires an answer from every person. His final declaration to be His witnesses in all the earth has not changed for 2,000 years. Jesus is speaking; He is giving counsel, and His words are good. But are you listening?

Many people spend most of their lives telling Jesus what they want rather than listening to what He wants for them. Jesus is not a counselor that sits back and passively listens to you, hoping you will feel better. He counsels us - able to pinpoint the heart of the matter immediately. For many that can be frightening. But for those who are courageous enough to listen and receive, it is life-giving.

I'm wondering today if you think Jesus has become silent in your life but actually the problem is that you have stopped listening to Him? 

2.Jesus is speaking - Are you confused?

Isaiah tells us that His counseling is hard to understand. It is Wonderful. It is good but requires faith to walk in it - trusting that He is unfolding purposes that are beyond our ability to comprehend. 

Jesus does not delight in keeping us confused. It's not a manipulative head game. Rather, He delights in holding us through the confusion until clarity emerges and peace, once again, floods our hearts. The wonder and mystery of Jesus is there to constantly remind us that the One who is above and over all things is fully sufficient but not always fully understood.

I'm wondering today if your confusion can become access to Jesus instead of a barrier to Jesus? If that which you have been interpreting as bad is actually a hard-to-understand-but-good path back into His loving and outstretched arms?

He is a Wonderful Counselor.

Ex nihilo,

R.J. Rhoden

Enough

Is Emmanuel (God with us) enough? The culture of outcomes, deliverables, ROI's, and consumerism is crushing our souls - invading our spaces of worship and sacred practices like a hostile take-over. No wonder we are spiritually malnourished and far from being whole.

God told us upfront that He would be with us always - a rare promise in Scripture for all for all time. Why is it not enough? It flows from our lips with responses of "Amen" from our listeners but then bounces off our hearts. Perhaps our obsession with tangible empirical results cloud our ability to truly enjoy His Presence?

It has for me. And I want to change. I want to know the joy of being with Him without immediately wondering how that might translate into "wins" for the Kingdom. He has already won.

Emmanuel is not an excuse to be lazy or guilty of poor stewardship. We have a Great Commission that is action oriented. But He proclaimed Emmanuel before He proclaimed the Great Commission. We tend to proclaim it in the opposite order. Rightly practiced, our steps should be birthed out of His Presence. But mostly practiced, our steps are great in number long before we consider His Presence.

I have a long way to go before I fully develop this spiritual practice. But it is essential that I do. Maybe for you too? 

May Enough be reclaimed in our hearts and in the hearts of our churches.

Ex nihilo,

R.J. Rhoden

   

 

An Ex-Expert on God

In the beginning I believed that my study of God would make me an expert on God. That my submission to His refining fire and discipline would get me access to the inner workings of His Rule and Authority. That I might even be summoned at times to give spiritual insight and explanation of the Lord's Ways. God, of course, needs another Daniel, right?

But it's now 35 years later.  And the outcomes I anticipated are different from His outcomes. In retrospect my original desired outcomes were purely self-serving.  They put me at the center of it all rather than the Lord. I was quietly, even somewhat unknowingly, hoping that I would increase and He would decrease - the very opposite of what is supposed to happen.

Apart from the gift of Salvation, one of the greatest expressions of grace and mercy from our Lord is His patience in allowing our secret motives to change. He steadfastly grants us space and time to fully and truly move Him to the center of our lives - even though we spend years proclaiming He is already there. In the spirit of confession, I even struggle as I write this, to wonder if I'm writing it for personal affirmation or to purely affirm His Lordship in my life.  Maybe you can relate to that tension?

So where does this leave me/you? First, my pursuit and desire to know God has not lessened in the least bit.  If anything, it is intensifying with time.  But my understanding of all this is coming more into alignment with His desires not mine. Specifically, His Process in me is becoming more important than an obsession with His Purposes for me. Process-First faith seems to always keep Jesus at the center while Purpose-First or Performance-First faith seems to always keep me/you at the center. Process, Purpose, and Performance are all important and good as long as Process leads to Purpose and Performance - not the reverse. Otherwise, we have hearts that will continually drift towards self-promotion.

Secondly, God is not asking us to become an expert on Him. He is telling us that He is an expert on us. That He created us; loves us; knows us; and receives us because He paid a Ransom for us.  He is telling us that we can enjoy spiritual intimacy with Him that will then give birth to all we need as well as keep us away from all that we do not need. Father, may that be enough. May we resist the temptation to blend temporal and worldly additives to the purity of Your Presence.

Thirdly, there is a kind of powerful clarity and comfort in the mystery of God. While most of the time mystery leads to confusion, it need not do so with the Lord. His mysterious ways are not for the purposes of cruelty, as are the powers of this world. Rather, they are due to His Greatness and Love for us which invite us to be enveloped by that which is magnificently bigger and better for us - even when it doesn't feel that way. Thank you, Father, for your Glorious Mystique.

And finally, God does not want another Daniel.  He wants another you - the one He created and designed while you were in the womb.  The one He loves and desires to walk with as He once did with Adam and Eve. The one who is not here by accident but by His Grace.  The one who will continually experience uprootedness apart from Him.  The one He is, right now, patiently in Process with for your benefit.

From one Ex-Expert on God to another.

Ex nihilo,

R.J. Rhoden