Do You Not Know?

"Taken" and Security

2009-02-28T16:01:00.003-06:00

Oh, wow! My 16-year-old daughter and I just went on an afternoon date. She got to choose where we went. I have to brag a little bit. I’d have been okay watching "Paul Blart Mall Cop" or "Madea Goes To Jail."

She chose to see "Taken," staring one of my favorites, Liam Neeson. Big mistake. The movie was excellent and I’d highly recommend it, but the epidemic portrayed in the movie is VERY real and sad. From now on she’s not allowed to go farther than the mailbox in front of our house.

Okay, seriously, this movie drives another point home to me. The father, played by Neeson, has misgivings about his 17-year-old daughter going to Paris with a friend. While his fears and paranoia are confirmed, it drives another point home to me. No matter how hard I try, I cannot protect my family.

I can thump my chest, declaring what a grizzly "papa bear" I am. Ultimately, however, I’ve come to the realization that my family’s safety and security are not in my hands. My family’s safety rests in the hands of a God who loves them more than I can.

He is Jehovah-jireh, their Provider, Jehovah-nissi, their Banner, Jehovah-Shalom, my Peace, and Jehovah-shammad, always Present with them! My God is a Strong Tower (Proverb 18:10), in whom they are safer than I can ever keep them. My God is a Rock on whom the enemy can crash without effect. A Fortress on whom the enemy’s assault will not prevail. A Deliverer! (Psalm 18:2)

This isn’t a series of platitudes. It’s reality I’ve witnessed. God provided the means for my two oldest kids to minister in South Africa, once on a brief youth mission in ’06 and then on individual mission internships for several months apiece. He’s also used each of them on various missions, including several places in and out of the United States. All of this, He did before they entered college.

I came to the realization quite a while ago that I wasn’t keeping them safe. He was going to have to handle their safety. Do I know they’ll be uninjured, out of danger, or away from the fire? In a word, "No." All I have is His promise that they will not be outside of His authority or love. They will not be alone. Like Daniel’s buddies told the king, "…He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But even if He does not…" (Daniel 3:17-18) The most important part of this declaration is "even if He does not!"

I am aware that sitting around singing hymns and quoting verses will not keep my family from being touch by the enemy. Serving a living, loving, always present, all ways powerful God, means that He can do all things. But even if He doesn’t keep us comfortable, unscathed, and un-inconvenienced, He has (past tense) delivered us from the enemy’s grasp. (Check out Job’s testimony.)

Where is YOUR SECURITY?
John 10:28-30 "and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one."

Resetting Sea Level

2009-01-18T16:01:00.014-06:00

All my life I’ve enjoyed participating in events that left me closer to my Creator and His Bride. They might have been camps or retreat weekends. The common denominator was the piqued sensitivity to His Spirit and my relationship with Him.

Inevitably, a well-meaning grownup would caution me with the same message: “This is a mountaintop, but you know you have to go back and live in the valley – the real world.”

You know, I’d never really questioned that sage admonition. It makes sense. Picture the lush valley and the cold, windswept, barren mountaintop. If “this” is a mountaintop, you’re right, I don’t want to live up there where not much grows and food is hard to find.

The youth from our church and many other churches in our area just completed Reality Weekend ’09, with David Nasser as the featured speaker. Reality Weekends – some groups call them D-Now or Winterchill – are times set aside for the youth group to meet in small groups and huge corporate gatherings, with a unified objective. The kids disconnect from Facebook, cell phones and texting, even homework (yeah, that’s a hard sale to make), anything that would distract them from connecting with God.

During corporate times, worship is intense and free. Bible study is direct, relevant, and sometimes candid. The participants are engaged, even liberated in their worship. Back at host homes between corporate times, small groups gather to build relationships, discuss the Bible study – and anything else relevant to the group. Again, the participants are engaged and hopefully the small group leader is mentoring and leading them.

Amidst midnight bowling and eating until they puke, walls begin to come down. Walls between cliques weaken. Silo walls of fear and anger around hurt, alienated kids begin to crumble. Kids so self-absorbed during the prior weeks that they barely spoke to their families, looked outside themselves to think up and execute “Service Projects” in the community. Those projects involved helping seniors citizens and neighbors and raising money for Compassion International.

Returning home, the kids are EXHAUSTED but energized with spiritual sensitivity and renewed commitment. They are “returning from that mountaintop,” according to tradition.

Here’s a thought: instead of settling for a return to life in the valley, redefine “sea level.” You see, in the physical world everyone knows sea level is …well… sea level. In our spiritual universe, however, different laws apply. I challenge you, if you’re returning from such a time, to seek to maintain this sensitivity to Him. Seek to make this your everyday level of relationship with Him.

I WANT TO CHALLENGE YOU:
Purpose not to let walls reconstruct. Purpose to care more about what He thinks of your worship than the person sitting behind you does. Purpose to keep (or find) accountability with others. (Ecc. 4:9-10) Purpose to keep your own silo walls broken down, so you don’t return to walking through life in your little bubble of “you.”

Purpose to redefine your spiritual sea level. Grow FROM here, instead of hoping to return TO here. Don’t slide back down the hillside, looking back over your shoulder, sighing about how great the mountaintop was! Make today simply a rest stop in your journey, not the peak or even THE highlight.

Haven’t You Heard?

2009-01-12T06:42:00.008-06:00

As a kid, I'd read and found encouragement in Isaiah 40:31:
31Yet those who wait for the LORD Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.

A number of years later, I read the preceding verses to find its context. Verses 28 and 29 jumped off the page at me!
28Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth Does not become weary or tired His understanding is inscrutable. 29He gives strength to the weary, And to him who lacks might He increases power.
At that time in my life – and far too frequently since – He was calling me, drawing my back from rebellion. I imagined what frustration my life must be causing a holy, loving, Heavenly Father. And then I read this and here’s what I heard:
Don’t you know? Haven’t you heard? I, the Creator of the ends of the Earth, am understanding (and loving) beyond anything you could conceive. I CHOSE YOU and don’t get tired of you! Not only do I not get tired of you, but I will infuse you with strength. I know you don’t have the power to overcome the sin and rebellion in your life right now. That’s okay. I’ll give you the necessary power to overcome.

That the One who created the universe would even notice me is beyond my understanding. That He has this kind of love for a rebellious, stubborn, stupid, arrogant, punk like me just totally blows my mind.

If you think you have done something, been someone that’s beyond His forgiveness, reread verse 28. His understanding is inscrutable. “No one can measure the depths of his understanding.” (NLT)

Introductions Are In Order...

2009-01-11T18:56:00.005-06:00

My name is Vance Walker and I am NOT a regular blogger. While putting my opinions out in front of others is nothing new to me, offering them in this venue is totally stretching me.

Since early 2002, I’ve been a manager for Terminix. Yes, I can kill bugs with the best of them, but mentoring, developing, and training others is what really gets me excited. This means (a) I don’t make my living writing and (b) I am not a professional Bible student. I love when I see someone “get it” – whether “it” is work, personal, or spiritual-related. When they excel as a direct result of something I contributed to their lives, it makes my day!

In May, 1985, I was blessed to marry my high school sweetheart! (Insert obligatory “Aw! That’s so special.”) Nearly twenty-five years! I wish I could tell you about the romantic bliss we’ve enjoyed over the last two and a half decades, but I don’t want to start off this blog by lying to you. During that time Deb and I have been through various and sundry trials, tests, tribulations, and – on occasion – through total hell!

Please don’t misinterpret that description. That is not a complaint or whine (though I’ve done my share of both), but a simple statement. You need to know something about us to know what to read into whatever follows on these pages and something you need to know about us it that we’ve “been THERE.” In the spirit of full disclosure, I need to state for the record that I personally was responsible for many…most of those situations.

True to His Word in Romans 8, “God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” He has absolutely worked our history and all we’ve walked through for our good. It is my earnest prayer that it is also to His glory.

Finally, I hope you can tell already that I don’t take myself too seriously. Many things – marriage, personal Christianity, Sooner football – warrant SERIOUS attention. I’m just too messed up and confused to take myself seriously. So be warned – take my thoughts with a grain of salt. “Test the spirits” that you don’t follow me instead of Him.