Switchfoot. Restless.

This past Monday,  my wife and myself got to 'rock out' at the Switchfoot Concert when they played at "The Orange Peel" in Asheville, NC.  I am amazed at the quality of play of these musicians, but I am even more amazed at some of their lyrics and poetry that Jon Foreman brings to the table.  The Song below was the inspiration for the name of this blog and is honestly the inspiration for the christian life it seems.  Just take a moment to read and meditate on the beautiful words below that describe our restless and unsatisfied souls. Till....they find their rest in thee (Augustine). 




I am the sea on a moonless night,
Calling, falling, slipping tides
I am the leaky, dripping pipes
The endless aching drops of light
I am the raindrop falling down,
Always longing for the deeper ground
I am the broken, breaking seas
Even my blood finds ways to bleed

Even the rivers ways to run
Even the rain to reach the sun
Even my thirsty streams,
Even in my dreams

I am restless, I am restless
I am restless, looking for you
I am restless, I run like the ocean to find your shore
I’m looking for you

I am the thorn stuck in your side,
I am the one that you left behind,
I am the dried up doubting eyes
Looking for the well that won’t run dry

Running hard for the other side
The world that I’ve always been denied
Running hard for the infinite
With the tears of the saints and hypocrites

Oh blood of black and white and gray
Death and life and night and day
One by one by one
We let our rivers run

I am restless, I am restless
I am restless, looking for you
I am restless, I run like the ocean to find your shore
Looking for you

I can hear you breathing,
I can hear you leading
More than just a feeling
More than just a feeling
I can feel you reaching
Pushing through the ceiling
'til the final healing
I'm looking for you

Until the sea of glass we meet
At last completed and complete
The tide of tear and pain subside
Laughter drinks them dry

I’ll be waiting
Anticipating
All that I aim for
What I was made for
With every heartbeat
All of my blood bleeds
Running inside me
Looking for you

I am restless, I am restless
I am restless, looking for you
I am restless, I run like the ocean to find your shore
I'm looking for you

I can feel you breathing
I can feel you leading
More than just a feeling
More than just a feeling
I can feel you reaching
Pushing through the ceiling
'til the final healing
I'm looking for you
I'm looking for you

It Was the Night Before Easter...

As I scroll threw the channels on the television this evening I just had to post a blog of what I found.  It seems every Easter you can find Charlton Heston and Yul Brynner's "The Ten Commandments" on as a tribute to the heralded holiday.  But, is this what Easter is about?  Why are we showing the "Ten Commandments" and not "The Gospel of John"?  Now, I haven't seen the Gospel of John and cannot attest to its work, but the point is why at Easter are we celebrating the Law?  

Now I am not anti-nomian (against the law), but Paul makes his case in Romans 8 for what Jesus did in contrast to the law (ten commandments) when he says, "² For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. ³ For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴ in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. "

The Ten commandments are referred to as the law of sin and death.  Why?  Because the ten commandments show me my sin.  They act as a mirror or a high definition camera to reveal who I truly am.  This law though good reveals how sinful and dead I am.  YET, there is another law, the law of the Spirit of life!  For God has done what the law could not do!  The Ten commandments cannot save me! 


 I believe we show this movie every year possibly to throw a bone to the Christians, but more than likely its because deep down we are all trying to swing to the other end of the pendulum away from anti-nomianism towards legalism.  We desperately want to save ourselves!  We want to be captains of our own ship.  This is why the Pharisee's crucified Jesus.  He told them they still weren't good enough!  

So, God did what we could not do.  He lived life without sinning.  He was spotless.  He sent his own son for sin, became sin, and condemned sin in the flesh.  Though spotless he was condemned.  This can only mean He took on MY sin and the sin of the all who should believe in him.  Yet, that's not all.   The righteous requirement of the law is now fulfilled in us!  I am seen as if I lived Jesus' life.  I am seen as the second Adam for all eternity!  The requirement of a spotless life is fulfilled in us because Jesus gave his righteousness to us.  He imputed it to us.  He gifted it to us.  He declared NOT GUILTY and declared RIGHTEOUS.  

Praise the Lord!  Not for the law of sin and death, but the law of the Spirit of life!  So, I am happy for the law for it shows me 1)God's character, 2) my sin and need for a savior, and 3) how i shall now rightly live.  Yet, I think we ought to adjust what exactly we are celebrating at Easter....it's not death....but life.  

Thank you Lord! Thank you for your death that we may have life.  Let us remember what you've done.  Amen.  

Surprised by Injustice

As one reads through the book of Judges, one is quickly reminded that this book is not your typical Children's story you read to the young ones right before bed.  No, in fact Judges feels like your watching an R rated movie at times, and can get pretty scandalous very fast.  As one can become calloused to all the violence and warfare we watch on TV, the same sort of dullness can set in when you get to the later chapters of the book.  So, when thousands of men are killed, we think okay, move on, tell me what's the point.

However, as I was reading Judges 17-19 (I like to read 3 chapters at a time), I found myself ANGRY, and almost in tears for the way chapter 19 ended.  In Judges 19, a Levite and his concubine (that's a story for another day) were traveling across the country side of Ephraim.  His concubine was then unfaithful to him and runs away to her father, so the reader starts to think she is the villain and this Levite is the hero.  Yet, the Levite tracks her down, and stays at her father's place for much longer than he anticipated.  The father in law seems to have known that something terrible was looming on the horizon.  So, he kept trying to keep his son in law and his daughter at bay.

But finally they leave and sojourn to city called Gibeah.  While there, an older man has grace on them and lets them sleep at their house.  However, the men of Gibeah came to the door of this old man demanding, "Bring out the man who came into your house, that we may know him."  This seems eerily reminiscent of the account with Lot in Gen. 19.  Now, one might expect the Lord to intervene and save these people from this terror.  Yet, the Levite and the old man hand over the concubine to these men, and lock themselves back in the safety of the house.  And the scriptures reveal the depravity of our nature when it says, "And they knew her and abused her all night until the morning. And as the dawn began to break, they let her go.  And as morning appeared, the woman came and fell down at the door of the man’s house where her master was, until it was light." 


What horror.  Where is God?  Why did he let this woman be treated like this?  Where is this so-called hero?  It gets worse.  As you read on, the the man sees her the next morning lying there and tells her to get up, but no response....she dies right there on the door steps.

This was the end of my reading for devotions.  WHAT!  I can't stop here.  Where is the justice?!  Where are you Lord!  ... This is our cry today.  When pain, terrors, and crisis hits us we want to know, "Where are you Lord?!"  We don't have another chapter to read, we live in the moment.  We don't know what's next.   I had to keep reading, and learned in Judges 20, the men of Israel team up to take down the men of Gibeah.  And for us, we may not know what the next line is in our story, but we do know the end.

May we always keep the end in sight, may we remember we have the person of Jesus as the Judge of the world and as our Savior, and as Paul reminds us in Philippians 3, that their end is destruction, but our is a citizenship in heaven.  He will not tolerate this injustice.  He will go outside instead of offering you to the wolves.  He will protect and love and care the way this Levite should have.  While we are stuck in the middle of death and life and night and day, may we look forward to the sea of glass and the trumpet sounding, "Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready;" (Rev. 19:7)


Amen.

Stuck in the Middle

The whole idea of 'already and not yet' has become more and more real to me as of late.  I am seeing how all the wells on earth are running dry very fast.  I am finally seeing the epidemic that has been here all along.  Though we are already saved, though we are fully bound for glory, I am seeing the painful reality that glory is not here yet.  And until that day comes, I will never be satisfied fully.  Because my heart continually longs for more and more to fill it.  In every facet of life the that which once settled my heart is now numb and needs more the next time.  Just as an addict needs more drug to get the same high, our hearts need more stimuli to feel at rest.  This is a truly dangerous thing, as we will never be filled.  We live in the tension, the middle, the conflict, of the Not Yet.

But, we can't forget about the Already.  My heart is as St. Augustine put it, "restless, till it finds its rest in thee."  Our hearts are indeed restless, but I can't ever forget that there is a well that won't run dry.  There is an ocean that has no bottom, there is a love that is endless.  Jesus Christ marries heaven to earth with himself.  We may not be fully there yet, but we have been given an engagement ring from Jesus.  This ring reminds us of the Wedding to come, of the blessings of the union that is ours even now.

So, while in this middle, restless, vanity, wind chasing world, there is a savior.  We have the 'already' from Jesus life, death, and resurrection.  We have been given the deposit of the Holy Spirit to keep us until that great Feast to come.  We have been given hope.  Paul tells us that Faith, Hope, and Love remains.  Thank Jesus that these remain.  Remain in Him, and you will find faith, hope, and love...even in the middle.