#EN2010 Afterglow: How to Land Safely

July 26, 2010 by · 1 Comment

Pastor Jojo Henson of Malaysia said something that got stuck in my head yesterday in Victory Caloocan. He mentioned in passing how Peter asked Jesus if they could make tents in the Mount of Transfiguration so they could stay there with Moses and Elijah. You’ve probably heard this a dozen times already but in light of the excitement and afterglow of the EN2010, I think this message never gets old. The idea is that Peter was so overwhelmed with the presence of two prominent Old Testament figures that he wondered aloud if they could just stay there and bask in the glory of the moment.

There was nothing wrong with the request. Peter probably did it in good faith, I mean, who wouldn’t want to just sit back and enjoy the glory of God’s presence? If it were me, I would probably feel the same way as Peter. The fact is that whenever we experience something glorious, our natural tendency is to hold on to it and never let it go.

But as much as we want to make the moment last, a time always comes when we have to step down from our high moments and get assimilated back to our daily realities. EN2010 concluded with a loud bang for most of us. Yesterday, Metro Manila churches enjoyed an extended time with some international delegates as they spent their Sunday with us. The mountain ends there though. Today, a day after all the flurry of activities, we’re back to our offices, to our work stations, to the normalcy of the daily grind. It’s time to roll up our sleeves again and deal with our backlogs.

As I think about these things, I am reminded of Acts 1: 8 and Matthew 28: 19: Jesus said that “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be my witnesses… therefore go and make disciples…”

Powerful encounters with God are meant to fuel us to love God more. They’re meant to drive us to action, to go and carry out His mandate with fresh fire and fresh revelation, not so we could sit back and just enjoy the glow. No, there’s a heaven for that kind of stuff. The sooner we understand that, the lesser the frustration we’ll feel. I’ve seen countless young men and women attend conferences and come home feeling like they are ready to take on the world. Some of them were even so fired up with the euphoria that they vowed to go into full time ministry. When they attend church the first Sunday after the conference, the sing the loudest and cry the hardest. Reality sets in after two or three weeks though. They come down from the mountain and face the gritty realities of the daily grind. Life’s back to normal again.

How are we to land safely then? I mean, after the exhilarating flight of our spirits, after the so-called foretaste of heaven, how do we touch down gracefully? I couldn’t find much clue in the story except the fact that Jesus walked with them on their way down the mountain. Jesus never rebuked Peter’s ignorant prayer to make three shelters. He perfectly understood why Peter longed for that permanence in a glorious place. But He had to take them to the real world again so they could get on with their jobs and their ministries and their callings.

It is such a comfort that the God who shows us His great power and glory is the same God who will walk with us as we go down to the normal, ordinary details of our days. He is alongside us the moment we got back to our work today. He is not just a God of the mountains or the valleys. He is God everywhere.

Filed Under: Every Nation · Tagged With: , , , , ,

Blurt Out

June 24, 2010 by · Leave a Comment

Jesus was in the middle of a very interesting sermon about how the Holy Spirit would help us in times of trouble when out of the blue, someone from the crowd interrupted Him with a totally unrelated question.

“Master, order my brother to divide the inheritance and share it with me!” Luke 12: 13

I chuckled when I read this the other day because the story tells us something very revealing about human nature. First is the fact that there are times when we pretend to listen to people when they talk but in reality, we are just waiting for our turn to speak. This proved to be embarrassing for the guy in the story. With just a few words, he showed the whole wide world his ignorance of spiritual matters and his preoccupation with money.

Second is how he misunderstood Jesus. Instead of drinking in the life giving words of Jesus, he was only interested in resolving his domestic troubles.

Third is the tone of accusation in his voice. He asked Jesus to “order” his brother to do the right thing, IN PUBLIC! It is one thing to ask God to right the wrongs in our families in the privacy of our prayer closet but to broadcast them publicly is just plain wrong. Even if his brother was really on the wrong, he didn’t deserve this kind of humiliation.

Fourth, don’t we do this in our prayer meetings? When we tell the church our prayer requests, don’t we sometimes err on this area?

Lastly,just because you’re the one praying doesn’t mean that you are right. It will never do you any good if you speak against your brother in front of God! Who knows he’s praying too!

Filed Under: Devotionals · Tagged With: ,

Interruptions

June 22, 2010 by · Leave a Comment

Story has it that in the middle of working on another masterpiece, Leonardo da Vinci laid down his brushes to answer a knock on his door. Outside was an elderly man who needed help with his water line. Da Vinci dropped what he was doing, picked up his tools and went out the door to help the old man. We don’t know if he made for a good plumber or if he was even able to finish the job. What we know is that the work of art that he started that day remained unfinished till the day he died.

Interruption. Everyone knows what it’s like. You start a personal project that’s very important to you and just out of the blue, some other things scream for attention and before you know it, you’re reduced to responding to the urgent needs around you. Some years later you realized your project remains unfinished. Where have all the hours gone?

Or maybe you set aside a time to read your Bible at a very convenient time but just when you were about to receive a very important revelation from God, your cellular phone started ringing. You dropped your Bible to check the message and realized it was just a funny Facebook update. You check your computer and before you know it, you’ve been surfing the internet for hours. Meanwhile, your Bible sat on the empty table, unread; and the revelation that would have changed your life vanished into thin air.

But not all interruptions are bad. When Jesus was on His way to Jairus’ house to pray for his sick daughter, a woman who’s been bleeding for 12 years interrupted Him. She crawled through the crowd to touch Jesus’ robes and when she did, she was instantly healed. Jesus stopped in His tracks to investigate the power that He felt came out of Him. We know how the story unfolded but what we often forget is that while this exchange was going on, Jairus was anxiously waiting for Jesus to wrap up His investigation and proceed to his house so his daughter can be healed.

I have a feeling that Jairus wished the woman didn’t interrupt them at all. His daughter was on the verge of death and the woman who interrupted them looked like she could survive a few more hours of not getting her miracle. Why Jesus lingered was simply beyond him. Then the news came and shattered his last hope for miracle. His daughter’s dead, he need not bother the Master! I could just imagine the look of accusation in his eyes. If only the woman didn’t interrupt them… If only Jesus hurried a little…

Few verses later, we learned that his daughter was resurrected from the dead, a far more glorious miracle than rising up from the sick bed. The interruption was intentional in the plan of God. Partly, it was meant to teach us that there are times when we have to give in to divine interruptions just so we can allow God to work out something.

But how do we know which interruption is from God and which one is not? Now that’s something that needs a lot of practice and fine tuning in our part. Learning to listen to the voice of God is not something we can learn from a blog or a book. We’ve got to do it, live it, and learn it ourselves.

Disclosure: This post is inspired by Joe McKeever’s “Interruptions: Blessings and Burdens,” posted on October 28, 2003

Filed Under: Devotionals · Tagged With: , , ,