Battle Song

What a terrible and beautiful picture! The severity of it strikes deep in the heart. Men of war, going to war. Their leader a moment earlier had stared at the great adversary, far greater than they would be able to have victory over. For a moment he stood with fear in his eyes and hesitation in his stance. Suddenly, though, the king is awakened from his trance. Ride on! He calls to his men and his horse. They all burst onto the battlefield with their leader always before them. Then come these lines...

"For morning came, morning and a wind from the sea; and darkness was removed, and the hosts of Mordor wailed, and terror took them, and they fled, and died, and the hoofs of wrath rode over them. And then all the host of Rohan burst into song, and they sang and they slew, for the joy of battle was on them, and the sound of their singing that was fair and terrible came even to the City." J.R.R. Tolkien, Return of the King.

Singing in battle! What a terrible thing to behold! One day, Christ will ride on his white horse. He will look upon what seems a great enemy as all the kings of the earth will gather. He, like King Theoden, will lead his men into war. He will call and his people will answer. He will swing his sword and shield and claim his rightful throne. He will invite his followers to fight along side. And then, I imagine, they (we) will burst into song, and we will sing as we slay, for the joy of the battle will be upon us. Our song will be fair and terrible and heard even to the ends of the earth, for our king will lead us to victory.

Thoughts on Lent

This year for lent, I decided to give up something and to add something. The subtraction sugar, the addition memorizing the book of Romans. I want to share my journey and conclusions thus far.

I have given up sugar before and found it so helpful and so beneficial. Seeing as it is my drug of choice the decision to give it up was pretty automatic. I give a version of it almost every year (chocolate, dessert, candy, or sugar all together like this time). Normally, I have three days of torture where all I can think about is that sweet. But then around day four I find the cravings slacken and I can live normally. Around day fifteen I feel healthy and alive. Then the last three days bring a new torture, the craving, the desire to quit, and the thought that I have held out for so long, I would love to finish.

 This year totally different. Almost everyday of lent has been filled with craving, desire, longing, obsession for anything sweet. I have done okay at fending it off, but it has been a constant and persistent craving. So I read Made to Crave (I didn't really want to, for I hate reading books that are popular, however...). I read it in a weekend, zoomed through it. I was struck down. My issue is not with sugar, my issue is with control. My issue is with idolatry. Like the Israelites I have been bowing down to a craven image. My god has been my stomach. Reading that book jarred me. It shook me. It changed my thought process. I knew all of the truths it mentions. I have been down this road before. But I love how God makes it new. I was made to crave Him. I was made to worship Him. When I replace Him with any idol, I exist and don't really live.

Since reading this book, I have had real victory over my cravings and obsessions. Yesterday, I got two giant bags of mini-twix in my box at school. Twix are my favorite. I asked God what to do with them; He told me to give them away. I did and didn't eat a single one. I knew I was too weak to eat one, for it would have led to eating ten. So the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.

The addition: Memorizing Romans. This has also proven to be a wonderful challenge. I am completion driven. I hate missing deadlines. Easter is a week away and I have memorized four chapters out of 16. God spoke to me yesterday and said that the knowledge I have gained, the time I have spent in silence in order to create the margin for this challenge, has been invaluable. It has been the process that He is using to transform me, not the goal. Eventually, I will memorize the whole thing, but I am and have to be okay with not meeting my goal. What freedom there is in releasing myself from the tyranny of doing things for God. Instead, I just get to be with Him and so indulge in His words pouring over me like a salve. Words like: "This righteousness is from God to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and have been justified freely through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Him as a sacrifice of atonement through faith in His blood. He did it to demonstrate His justice, because in His forbearance He left the sins committed beforehand unpunished. He did it to demonstrate His justice at the present time so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus."

Dr. Cooper's Cups

My advisor in college presented me with an analogy that has stuck with me ever since. Here is a synopsis.

Our heart is made up of different cups. We have a husband cup (gentlemen you have a wife cup), kids cup, friend cup, ministry cup. These cups begin empty, and nothing can fill them but the recipient of the cup. Nothing but a husband will fill my husband cup. Nothing will fill my kids cup but kids. Nothing will fill my ministry cup but ministry. The unfortunate thing is that people are flawed, so sometimes though the position is filled, the cup is still empty. We are a people that long, as long as we have empty cups we long to have them filled.

What keeps these longings at bay and our hearts from exploding when the cups are empty, is the giant God-cup we all also have. This is the only cup that can be satisfied, fully satisfied. When we ask God to fill our God-cup He does. In fact, He fills it to the measure of all the fullness of Christ. That means that our God-cup not only can be filled, but there is always more of God than can fill the cup. He is a never-depleted source. The intent I think God had in mind is that He would fill our God-cup so full that it would overflow in such abundance so as to spill out and fill the other cups. Granted, the recipients of the cups are still meant to fill the cups, but God can fill them with Himself in a different way, a way that fully satisfies though the longing is still there.

Romani

This summer I am going on a mission trip to Romania. The reason is to be for the Roma people. I wanted to give a little information on Roma Gypsies, so that you who read this blog could join me in prayer.

Roma Gypsies call themselves Rom which comes from a Hindi words that means "a man of low caste who gains his livelihood from singing and dancing." What a description! Gypsies have their roots in India. During the tenth century, they began a large-spread migration westward, most settling in the Balkan mountains. Many lived then and still continue to live now as nomads. To non-gypsies they have appeared a mysterious and strange people. It is because of the mystery and strange ways that prejudice, bigotry and hatred first sprang to life and continues today.

In the past, gypsies were not allowed to own land which furthered their nomadic lifestyle and their unique choices of occupation. They are fortune-tellers, horse traders, vendors, entertainers, acrobats, metal and wood workers.

While they are often known as beggars and thieves, they also have great acumen with music. They are wonderful musicians, singers and dancers. They are people who love life. They value family and will do anything to keep family intact and close. They wear clothes to entertain, as a costume or statement, and have a flare for the dramatic and eccentric. They are an uninhibited people.

The answer

In life we struggle with sin. It is a constant that cannot be shaken. However, there is victory! There is a way to look sin and flesh in the face and laugh at it, no longer giving it the control it so easily usurps. The solution: Jesus, well actually fixing our eyes on Jesus. Jesus was there the whole time. I find in Romans 7's epitome of the struggle the focus is on Me and on My sin. The thing before my eyes is that which I am trying to subdue. All this attention feeds it like a ravenous dog, and it grows in intensity and ferocity. The solution  is to fix my eyes not on myself, not on my sin, but on Jesus. It is through Him that we can say "thanks be to God who has delivered from this body subject to death."

A sprinter does not stop to take notice of the scenery. He does not stop when he feels out of breath. He does not stop when his shoes are untied. Instead he locks in view the goal, the tape marking the end of his race. He fixes his eyes on it, and runs toward it. That is solution. Like a sprinter we fix our eyes on Jesus and He makes us more than conquerors.