He's Just My Dad

For some he is your pastor or interim pastor or leader or author or colleague, but for me he's just my dad.  Sometimes the word just is not used in a complimentary way.  It implies that something or someone is less than - He took a bite of the juicy red apple and said, "It's just ok.  Not the sweetest I've ever had."

But there is another way to use just.  It can be used to focus on the essence - She searched for the right religious experience and finally discovered the answer:  It's just Jesus!

So to be clear, he's just my dad is about essence not less than.  Here's how:

• He taught me how to throw and catch a baseball
• He taught me how to swim:  reach, pull and kick
• He was always the scorekeeper at my little league games
• He taught me how to mow the grass (something neither of us enjoy or do anymore)
• He had "the talks" with me about the birds and the bees
• He showed me how to tie the Windsor knot when I stopped using clip-on neckties
• He introduced me to mixing my grits with over-easy eggs and other culinary combinations
• He was a Dallas Cowboys fan in the 70's and 80's so I was too 
• He taught me to drive (I actually had to unlearn a couple things to pass the driving test)
• He told me stories from his childhood
• He told me to be on time
• He showed me how to balance a checkbook
• He taught me the principle of compounding interest
• He always said, "Give to God first."
• He modeled that it is ok to cry.
• And most importantly, he, in word and deed, has imparted to me the greatest lesson of all:  A life built on the foundation of Jesus - the author and perfecter of our faith.

There are good dads, and there are bad dads.  There are great dads, and there are no dads.  There are confused dads, and there are regretful dads.  There are dads still with us, and dads that have gone on to eternity.  I don't know which one you are thinking of today, but I do know this: we all need a dad.  Not to run our lives but to do life with us - to model and to show and to teach and to impart.

All the complexity surrounding fatherhood in our times makes it impossible for this day to feel the same for everyone.  But there is one Truth that can unite us:  We all share a heavenly Father whose love covers every situation with an unmatched ability to bring about redemption, hope, and peace. I pray that all of us would know and receive that gift from Him on this day. 

I want to know my heavenly Father in a deeper way.  I want to be the kind of father that speaks life and blessing into my kids' lives.  And I am proud and delighted that so many of you know my dad in other ways, but I am beyond grateful that he's just my dad.

Ex nihilo,

R.J. Rhoden

Repeat Them In Our Day

Lord, I have heard of your fame and your deeds, and I am in awe of you, Lord.  Repeat them in our day. Make them known in our day.  In wrath remember mercy. ~Habakkuk 3:2

Towards the end of the prophet's conversation with God, he asks something of God that all of us have either asked or thought at one time or another.  Let me break it down for you:

• A Plea to God
• What I've Heard
• Your Fame
• Your Deeds
• My Response
• Awe
• My Ask
• Do it again
• Make it known again
• But, Please
• Be merciful

1. What I've Heard:  We hear all kinds of things daily - good and bad things; true and false things; revised and deconstructed things; political and non-political things; filthy and wholesome things; sacred and pagan things; and clear and confusing things.

We live in a day where diligent work is needed in order to hear of all God's fame and deeds of old.  Yes, we have much access to Scripture, but we are constantly subjected to some leaders of the Church who are discarding - even denouncing significant parts of Scripture that don't fit their contemporary, secular narrative.  

The prophet pushed out the voices of destruction and confusion and ushered in the Voice that is above every other voice.  He was a discerning hearer of the things of God.  It was a discipline.  It was a joy.  And he is challenging us to do the same.

2. My Response:  Awe is not angst or paralyzing fear.  It's the opposite.  It's a condition that floods our souls with the greatest of hope, the greatest of respect, and the greatest sense of duty.  Awe does not inflict legalistic lists or self-condemnation.  It brings about worshipful acts of obedience and an awareness that we are received and loved despite our unworthiness.  Awe compels us to the Father's Heart and constantly reminds us that He desires to dwell with us.  And that is "the awe" that is the prophet's response to the fame and deeds of God.

3. My Ask:  Repeat them in our day!  Repeat them in our day! Repeat them in our day!  And make it known again.  The prophet's ask to God has the feel, both grammatically and contextually, of a yearning - a repetitive longing and crying out to the Lord with a sense of urgency.  Arise, oh Lord.  We are in desperate need of you to show up again in a profoundly powerful way.  Heal.  Deliver.  Save.  Fill.  Set free.  Protect.  Awaken.  Refresh.  Transform.  Convict.  Do what only you can do so that we can be the people you desire us to be.

4. But, Please:  Finally, the prophet does not have a romantic notion of what he is asking.  He is well aware of the historical acts of wrath and vengeance by our Lord.  And so he concludes with a plea to God to remember His mercy.  God is merciful and kind and is slow to anger.  "Don't forget that, Lord," I can envision the prophet saying.  A day of wrath and judgement is coming, but we are still in the age of the Church - the age of the Body of Christ where opportunity abounds for those that are in darkness to come into the light; for those that are lukewarm to become fire hot again; for those who have bought into shallow, self-help Christianity to enter spiritual maturity and depth; and for those who are praying big prayers to see the power and presence of the Lord manifested in a might way.

Repeat them in our day, Oh Lord!

Ex nihilo,

R.J. Rhoden  

Barn Story Three: The New Altar

In the summer of 1987, as a young 17 year old hungering for more of God, I knelt at an altar bench in a small prayer room in the Chapel at University of Richmond and experienced the baptism in the Holy Spirit.

From 1988 - 1992 I often found myself experiencing more of God as I positioned myself at the altar in the chapel at Bethany Bible College in Santa Cruz, CA.  Those times at the altar came at the end of chapel services, during the day, or even late into the evening.

From 1992 - 2005 the sanctuary at West End Assembly of God became another altar for me.  Frequently, I would go and sit to ponder and pray.  Sometimes I would walk the sanctuary or kneel at the front.  God would always meet me in that space.

From 2005 - 2015 the little church building at the corner of Park and Meadow in the historic Fan District of Richmond, VA became my new altar.  The old floor would creak as I walked in that space.  It was a place of refuge with the Lord, renewal in the Lord, and re-baptisms of the Spirit - all needed for fresh strength, power, and focus for the day.  It was in that space that I also began anointing with oil and praying over chairs, instruments, door posts, and the pulpit.  I wanted there to be a lingering residue of God's Presence there.

From 2015 - 2019, for the first time ever in years of ministry, I had a huge office.  It was actually too big.  But I made it my new altar.  I would walk in it; pray in it; not answer the phone in it; study God's Word in it; rest in it; and dream God-sized hopes in it.  

Today, the barn off Route 250 has become my new altar as well as an altar for all who gather on Wednesday evenings to pray and worship together.

God can help you find an altar anywhere.  An altar is a sacred space where you mute the crazy voices of life and listen to only One Voice.  His Voice.  The only Voice that knows everything about you and yet still desires to speak life, hope and goodness into you.

Altars are spaces that we travel to.  We walk to or drive to. Sometimes we run to.  They are spaces where we externally and internally surrender ourselves unto Him.

Altars are spaces where we delve deep into the abiding Presence of the Lord.  We cry out.  We experience healing or strength to walk in a season of struggle.  Altars are places that we never forget because our lives are altered at altars.

I now have the joy of traveling often on weekends to minister in different churches.  I love the ministry of Ascent College and Potomac School of Ministry and am so appreciative of the opportunity.  On the drive back to Richmond, as I ponder all the ministry that has taken place on that given day, I inevitably plan my next trip to the barn - to the new altar in Goochland, VA that God has provided.  To the new space where His Presence is re-baptizing people in the Spirit, renewing hope in the discouraged, and reminding us to continue practicing the presence of the Lord.

The barn is the new altar - a phrase I never thought would be spoken from my mouth!

Ex nihilo,

R.J. Rhoden

Join us every Wednesday night at 6:30pm to pray in the barn.  For more information you can contact me at 804.239.0032 or robertrhoden1970@gmail.com.