This is Your Moment

Posted on April 13, 2020 by Joe Chambers

“There is a tide in the affairs of man which must be taken at the crest.” – Shakespeare

What does soul-intimacy with Jesus look like to you? Have you ever imagined what that kind of relationship with Jesus might feel like? Can you imagine hearing the One with a Galilean accent speak your name and explain life to you? Do you desire that kind of relationship with Him?

I wonder if during these days of isolation some of us have an opportunity of a lifetime. I wonder if there might be an echo from the eternal that says to our souls that this is the time to be still and know that he is God.

This season of physical distancing and isolation might be the time to develop a different way to live. I want to suggest a couple that have worked well for me and have continued to feed my soul.

Reflective Reading of Scripture.

I’ve been doing this for years. When I read a passage aloud and slowly from the Gospels, I ask Jesus to “quicken” a word or phrase to my soul. When I see that word “shimmer,” I ask Jesus what he might want to say to my heart from that word or phrase. I sit and silently wait for an impression from Him.

This is very personal to me. This is what a lover might say to their beloved. This is an endearing word from the One who has captured my heart. I hold that word or phrase and read the passage again out loud and very slowly.

With that word or phrase held loosely in my spirit, I try to imagine what it would have been like to be in the story. I engage my God-given imagination. If it is a story set beside the Sea of Galilee, I hear the lapping of the waves, I feel the wind prickle my skin, I smell the wet mud and decaying reeds on the shore.

With my feet firmly planted in the story, I wonder what Jesus might be inviting me to do with the word or phrase He has given me. I try to imagine living the day before me stepping into that invitation.

Then I read the passage one more time aloud and rest in the story.  Just sitting with it.

Write out my prayers.

Again, this is a practice that has sustained me for over twenty years. I don’t write for anyone’s eyes but mine. Most often they are in the form of a prayer. My regrets from the previous day, my hopes for those that I love, my longings for tomorrow.

My journal has become a kind of altar. A place I do business with myself and God. I’m honest, blunt, and brutal in my journal. Both with myself and with God. It is where I list out the names of those that Jesus has put upon my heart. I write those names and whisper them to the Father.

I pray what is in my heart, not what ought to be in my heart knowing that God sees down in there anyway.

Sit in God’s Presence.

This is often done in complete silence early in the morning. The only sounds are the birds beginning to sing outside the window. Or the creaking of my old house as the temperature begins to heat up the wood. Sometimes I will put on some reflective music without words and just be with God. Letting my heart feel. Letting my mind wander.

If something comes to mind that needs to be captured, I try to discern whether it is whisper from God for my ears only or is it something I should jot down in my journal for later processing.

I do other things, but these are the ones I do with some constancy. I’ve practiced them for a long time. They have sustained me, along with my long wandering prayer walks in the woods.

What are you going to do with this forced “time out” that God has allowed us to experience? This is an opportunity that might not have your attention again in your lifetime.

There is a lovely verse in one of the Old Testament prophetic books that speaks of the tender wooing of our God.

The Lord your God in your midst…
He will rejoice over you with gladness,
He will quiet you with His love,
He will rejoice over you with singing.”  Zephaniah 3:17

During this pandemic, is this your moment to turn up the quiet and listen for a song from your heavenly lover?

I met Lynette on a blind date 39 years ago this spring. We came to love each other very quickly. Leading up to our wedding day I debated whether not to surprise her by singing to her on our wedding. Because I had never sung in front of anyone before, I left it open-ended as to whether or not to do it.

The plan was that during the pastor’s prayer, someone would hand me a microphone, my brother would leave the grooms party, and go to the piano so that when everyone raised their heads from the prayer, I would have a microphone in my hand and my brother would begin to play the piano and I would begin to sing my first and only solo before a crowd in church.

All during the prayer, I kept thinking “Don’t do it. You will make a fool of yourself. You don’t sound good. You will forget the lyrics. You will sing off-key. You will start balling like a baby. No one will know that you didn’t sing except your brother. Play it safe. Don’t do it.”

Another part of me kept thinking “But this moment will only come along once. You will never have this opportunity again to tell her in this way at this important moment how much she means to you.  No one will remember if you were on key or if the lyrics were right, but they will remember that you took advantage of the moment and sang to the love of your life.”

The pastor said, “Bless this couple as they begin their life together. In Jesus name, Amen.”

Everyone’s head rose. I looked into her beautiful eyes and began to sing,

You happened to me just in time
To save me from me
I have surrendered myself
Saying what will be will be
Then you came like the touch of a raindrop
To a dry withered rose
You happened to me just in time
God only knows

That was my moment.

Is this your moment to renew or begin a more intimate covenant relationship with the one who calls you “Beloved”?

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Causes Me To Tremble (Good Friday Meditation)

Posted on April 11, 2020 by Joe Chambers

The soldiers stretch His arms across the coarse-grained wood. A soldier straddles His chest. Two others straddle His arms. Two others, His legs. They expect a struggle. No struggle comes.

The spiker bends on one knee, the pockets of his leather apron bulging with nails, an iron-headed mallet filling his hand. He places the spike just below Jesus’ wrist. The clank of metal echoes off the stone walls. One sharp rap to penetrate the arm. One more to penetrate the wood. One rap on the other arm. Then another. And the job is done.

Four soldiers lift Jesus’ crossbeam and two steady His feet. Two others hoist it with ropes that run through a groove in the upright timber.  The spikes scrape against the bones in His wrists, and the shifting weight of His body tears the skin and muscles in His arms. But He does not cry out.

A soldier on a ladder steadies the crossbeam into the notch of the upright. As the beams are jostled into position, they rasp the open wounds on Jesus’ back. The pain is excruciating, but the only anesthetic is the gritting of His teeth.

The bored holes in each beam are aligned, and a peg is driven through both to join the timbers. Once the crossbeam is secure, Christ’s right leg is pulled over the left, and the spiker drives a single nail through both feet.

Six hours later, Jesus was dead. To make sure, a soldier takes the point of a spear and counts His ribs.  Between the fifth and sixth rib, he positions the point. With a short thrust, he punctures Jesus’ heart.  A confluence of blood and water streams from the wound.

WHAT CAUSED THE WOUNDS?

Sin.

Jesus was the fairest of ten thousand, the Bright and Morning Star, the song says.

Peter said he went about “doing good.”

Pilate said three times, “I find no fault in this man.”

Hands that never hurt anyone–hands that touched the open wounds of a leper and brought cleansing–hands that touched the blind and brought back sight–hands that had blessed little children were now nailed to a cross.

What kind of sin would do that to Jesus?

Two kinds:  yours and mine.

  • Lies wounded Jesus.
  • Hate wounded Jesus.
  • Greed wounded Jesus.
  • Lust wounded Jesus.
  • Arrogance wounded Jesus.
  • An unforgiving spirit wounded Jesus.
  • Racial prejudice wounded Jesus.
  • Abuse wounded Jesus.
  • Legalism wounded Jesus.
  • Sin wounded Jesus.

Think about who stood around that cross.

The military power structures were there. The political power structures were there. The religious power structures were there. The upper class; the middle class; the lower class, everyone was there on that hill.

It reminds me of that old spiritual,

Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?

Were you there when they nailed him to the tree?
Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
Were you there when they nailed him to the tree?

I have to say, “Yes, my hate, my anger, my lust…it was all there on that hill!”

Just like the prophet said hundreds of years before Jesus was hung on that cross:

He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.

And as John would record for us these words from the lips of Jesus himself, Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.

Amazing love that would not change, no matter what happened!

DEATH DIDN’T GIVE UP WITHOUT A FIGHT!

From the moment the angels sang, ” ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!’ “  Satan dogged Jesus’ trail all the way to Calvary and stood at the foot of the cross. There he lied, he ridiculed, he falsely accused–he used rejection, he used betrayal and denial…everything to seduce Jesus to abandon God’s plan. It wouldn’t work.

The demons of hate, jealousy, envy, pride, and self-centeredness got together and said, “We’ll put Him on a cross and let Death have Him.”  I imagine Death on that hill, waiting to get its wraithlike hands on Jesus.  Every time Jesus would speak, Death would reach for Him.

Then Jesus said, “It is finished!”  Death now embraces Him, and Jesus says His last words: “Father, into Your hands I commit my Spirit.”

There on that hill, as the sky grows dark, death takes the body and puts it in a tomb–keeping it there all Friday night…Saturday and Saturday night.

Were you there when they laid him in the tomb?
Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
Were you there when they laid him in the tomb?

THAT KIND OF LOVE DEMANDS SOMETHING FROM ME

It calls for a response. It demands that I love Jesus with my best. With all that I am. I want to please Him. I want to so live as to bring a smile to the face of my Lord. When I think of the wounds, I want to worship Him. I want to sing, I want to laugh, I want to cry! Somehow, I want to say to Jesus, “I love you!”

One day a little girl was combing her mother’s hair leaned over and said, Momma, you know I love you don’t you?  The mother said, “Yes, I know.”

“Momma, I love to comb your hair with these little strands of gray but so full and so beautiful. I love to comb your hair.  Momma, I just love your voice. Your voice is so sweet. I love to hear you sing. As far back as I can remember your lullabies would gently put me to sleep. I love your voice.

“Momma, I just love lookin’ at your eyes as they sparkle and the dance with delight. I just love lookin’ into your eyes, they mean so much to me.

“But Momma why did you let your hands get so scarred and so rough? Why didn’t you get you some lotion on your hands? Why didn’t you take better care of your hands?”

There was a long moment of silence.

The mother reached around and caught her little daughter’s hands and pulled her around, picked her up and set her on her lap.  And said, “Mary, I’ve got something to tell you; maybe I should have told you this before now.

“What is it, Momma?”  Mary asked.

“Mary, there was a mother who had prayed to God to give her a baby girl. And the Lord answered her prayers. She loved sewing, knitting, and making clothes for her daughter.

“One day while this mother was ironing clothes, she remembered that she needed something from the drug store just down the street. She looked at her daughter asleep in the crib and thought, ‘I’ll ease off to the drug store and get these articles and get back before her nap is over.’

“So, she set her iron down on the ironing board, put her shawl around her shoulders and stepped out into the afternoon sun. She got the things she needed and was making her way back home when a fire truck passed her with its lights flashing and siren blaring. It was a common sound in her part of the city. But when she got to the corner and looked; the fire truck was parked in front of her apartment. And the ladder was reaching up to the third floor—her floor. And smoke was coming out of her window.

“And suddenly, she remembered that when she was ironing and had decided to go to the drug store, she had left the iron turned on. And it was her apartment that was on fire and that her little girl was in there!

“She began to run, and the firemen pulled at her to try to stop her, but she pulled out of her coat and ran up the stairs and opened the door to her apartment. And as she moved across the floor she looked and flames were reaching out to embrace the baby, so she raced over to the crib grabbed her little girl, pulled the baby to her bosom just as the flames of fire were reaching for the little girl, but the fire burned the mother’s hands.

“And, Mary, I want you to know the little girl was you.”

Tears began to roll down Mary’s cheeks. She began to weep and wash those hands with her tears.  She began to kiss them and said, “Oh Momma. Oh, Momma. Oh, Momma. How I love your hands! Because your hands saved me!”

When you look at the wounds of Jesus you remember,

He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.”

I don’t know about you, but I love Him.

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Palm Monday

Posted on April 6, 2020 by Joe Chambers

So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, shouting,

“Hosanna!
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord—
the King of Israel!”

Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it; as it is written:

“Do not be afraid, daughter of Zion.
Look, your king is coming,
sitting on a donkey’s colt!” John 12:13-15

The word “blessedness” and “shalom” are the same basic words. Shalom means complete thriving and flourishing. That is what the people were aching for on the first Palm Sunday. They were longing for everything to be made right. When they waved the palm branches, they were looking forward to the day in which the palm trees wave their own branches.

When I go for my walks in the woods beside my house at the base of Mt. Princeton and the breeze moves the pine boughs in sighs of wonder and contentment, I am reminded of that verse in Isaiah that says, And all the trees of the field shall chap their hands.

And that is a constant promise to me of the coming King of Kings.

When the true king comes back and puts everything right, everything in nature will work again. There will be complete harmony, and complete peace. It’s the end of death, disintegration, and decay; it’s the end of sickness—the end of Covid-19. It’s the end of everything that’s wrong with the material world. Someday the trees themselves will literally dance and sing.

What’s the significance of the donkey colt?

One of the things that everybody who knows anything about beasts of burden is that you can’t just jump on one of them and expect to ride it. They have to be broken. The colt was too young to be broke. That means it submitted to the Lordship of Jesus.

Jesus didn’t have to break the animal. He’s Lord of nature; he’s the Lord of all and under his hand, nothing but harmony and peace comes about. The donkey knows and loves its true master for who he is.

This is a foreshadowing then of the complete healing of all nature under the future kingship of Christ.

As I watch how many people respond to this pandemic, I see a lot of defiance towards the “left-wing media,” the government, and scoffing at the science. I also see a lot of fear that we may never be able to survive this economic shut down much less the effects of the virus on our population.

Can I remind you that Jesus is your King? He’s the one you seek. He’s invincible. He’s a lion heart, and he will give you a lion heart. You don’t have to try to be strong on your own. In fact, you don’t have to be strong at all. That’s not your job. Our job is to walk so close to Jesus that his courage becomes our courage. We don’t have to do anything except love this good earth and cooperate with him to make His prayer come true…

Your kingdom come.
Your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.

The renowned author, journalist, and Christian apologist GK Chesterton was the inspired mind behind a short poem that puts a new spin on Palm Sunday. Titled simply The Donkey, it narrates, in the voice of the colt.

When fishes flew and forests walked
And figs grew upon thorn,
Some moment when the moon was blood
Then surely I was born;

With monstrous head and sickening cry
And ears like errant wings,
The devil’s walking parody
On all four-footed things.

The tattered outlaw of the earth,
Of ancient crooked will;
Starve, scourge, deride me: I am dumb,
I keep my secret still.

Fools! For I also had my hour;
One far fierce hour and sweet:
There was a shout about my ears,
And palms before my feet.

I imagine this little donkey got up on the Monday following the Triumphant Entry on Palm Sunday and said, “Boy, this is going to be a great day.” He walked into the marketplace and said to everybody, “Here I am,” and nobody looked at him.

So, then he walked on down a little bit further and came right into the local religious gathering place, and he said, “Here I am.”

Everybody said, “What are you doing here? Get that donkey out of here!”

And they threw things at him and they pushed him away. He came on back to his mother and he said, “I don’t get it. I just don’t get it. Just yesterday everybody …”

And she said, “Silly child, without him you can do nothing.”

You see, it depends on who’s riding you. It depends on who your king is. It depends on what’s driving your life. It depends on what you’re living for. Great kingliness will come into your life if you make him the King.

On the first Palm Sunday, he came meek and lowly, riding on the foal of a donkey. The next time he comes back he’ll be riding on a cloud. The first time he came to be torn; the next time he will come to tear apart all evil.

And that gives me hope on this Palm Monday 2020.

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The Beautiful Book

Posted on March 22, 2020 by Joe Chambers

I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Also another book was opened, the book of life. And the dead were judged according to their works, as recorded in the books. Revelation 20:12

Christians, for two Millennia now have said, as an essential part of the Christian story, that we believe on one great day, Jesus will return and in a climactic act, He will judge the living and the dead once and for all to make all things right and all things new.

Is the COVID-19 God’s judgment on America?

Lynette told me about a Facebook post that said that this coronavirus is God’s way of sending us all to our rooms for a time out.

Maybe so.

Is this God’s judgment?

“Yes” and “No”.

According to the biblical narrative, there’s a brokenness in this world that’s existed since ancient times. Since the fall from Grace — the turning away from God in the Garden of Eden — all the bad stuff we encounter entered the world: disease, death, destruction, murder and a whole list of sins is the reality of the world we live in. But which means he’s in control. And His greatest priority is our welfare. But disasters will happen.

This current national disaster is an opportunity for us to wake up and pay attention to God. So, there’s a sense in which all these kinds of disasters are a judgment, but a judgment that’s not on the people who are suffering.

But the real question is not, “Is this God’s judgment?” But rather, “Is God the One to whom I look to and trust in when bad things happen?”

In Revelation 20:12, John the Revelator talks about there being two sets of books. One might be called A Book of Merit. That is a book with your name on it, your picture on the back cover, and its 100 percent accurate. It contains everything you’ve ever done, everything you’ve ever said, and every thought you’ve ever thought. That book exists in the mind of God. If that was the only book we’d be in serious trouble.

But there is another book. John calls this one The Book of Life. Your name is in the book if you know Jesus, and it is filled with the good and beautiful deeds of your life along with the intimate love relationship you have with Jesus. And if your name is in that book—you have nothing to worry about. It will be filled with the absolute reality of your future life when the good Judge puts everything to rights and “makes everything sad come untrue” in the cosmos.

The prophets had pointed to that day for thousands of years. That there is coming a day when a King, a true King, a true Judge will come back and restore this sin-infected cosmos.

“For you shall go out with joy,
And be led out with peace;
The mountains and the hills
Shall break forth into singing before you,
And all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Isaiah 55:12

Up There Comes Down Here—THE LORD REIGNS IN ZION!

One fair morning I’ll wake up in a celestial city. And maybe I’ll go walking down the street for a stroll. I’ll walk upon a woman who has a wagonload of roses. I’ll reach to get one and discover there are no thorns on those roses.

I’ll say, “Ma’am, where did you get these roses?

“I grow them out there in the desert.”

“What?” I ask.

“Haven’t you heard? The Lord reigns in Zion.

And the desert shall rejoice and blossom as a rose.” (Isaiah.35:1)

Little further down the street, I’ll step into a pet shop. There, I hear a man say, “I want to buy that cobra for my little boy.”

“What?” I ask.

“Didn’t you know? The Lord reigns in Zion.

And the lion shall eat straw like a lamb and the sucking child shall lay upon the nest of the snake.” (Isaiah 11:8)

Little further I say to a man, “Where is your police department?

He’ll say, “We haven’t got any!”

“Well, where are your soldiers and military academies?”

“Haven’t you heard? The Lord reigns in Zion!

And they have beat the swords into plow shares and their spears into pruning hooks and the nations have learned war no more!” (Isaiah 2:4)

“Well, what about the home for crippled children?”

“We don’t have any. And the lame shall leap in that day.” (Isaiah 35:6) The Lord reigns in Zion!

“What about your home for the deaf and dumb?”

“Don’t have any of those either!” “The tongues of the dumb shall sing in that day. And the ear of the deaf shall be unstopped in that day. (Isaiah 35:6) The Lord reigns in Zion!”

“I want to go to your hospitals and visit some of your cancer patients.”

“We don’t have any.”

“You don’t?” I ask.

“No. Not since the Lord began to reign in Zion! The inhabitants in this land never say, ‘I am sick.‘” (Isaiah 33:24)

“Well, what about your funeral homes and cemeteries?”

“Not any of those in this land. For the Lord reigns in Zion!”

“Well, where do you folks go to church?”

“We don’t have a church. Haven’t you heard? Up there has finally come down here and we all go up to the New Jerusalem and worship the great King!”

And I look up, and there I see the Lord high and lifted up. And the great choir begins to sing:

“All hail the power of Jesus’ name!

Let angels prostrate fall;.

Bring forth the royal diadem,

And crown Him Lord of all!”

Jesus is the good and beautiful Judge and King of Kings. And you can absolutely trust him to have your best interest at the core of his being.

And the King is coming!

Soon, I hope.

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No Tender Voice Like Thine

Posted on March 9, 2020 by Joe Chambers

I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me. – Jesus

If he’s the Good Shepherd, he knows us completely. I can do nothing to surprise him. When I cry out to my Good Shepherd, there is never a time where God looks at me and says, “Joe Chambers? Name sounds familiar. Gabriel, pull the file on Chambers and let’s see what his story is.”

He knows me and he calls me by name.

Do you know why the greatest force for changing me is my wife Lynette? It’s because she has seen me at my very worst. She has seen the darkness of my soul and when very nearly everyone had given up on me—she stepped towards me and said, “I’ve seen the real you. I’ve seen you at the bottom, and I know you are an idiot. But, by God’s grace, I will love you anyway.”

Have you ever known the glorious release of realizing your Shepherd knows you to the bottom and yet loves you to the skies?

At the Colorado Baptist Convention in 2018

Back in the nineties I served on the board of trustees for Lifeway Christian Resources. (Back then it was called The Baptist Sunday School Board.) I served there for several years and got to know the President, Dr. Jimmy Draper. He always remembered my name and asked me about my wife and boys.

Due to my sinful choices in 1999, I resigned my pastorate in Littleton and from the Board of Trustees. It was a dark time for all of us.

Over the last twenty years Lynette and I have worked hard on our relationship and have tried to help many ministry leaders along the way.

Last spring, I was invited to speak and minister to Church planters and their wives in the Pacific Northwest. Lynette and I both spoke to this gathering of leaders. The denominational paper for the Northwest Convention wrote an article about what we shared. It was very honoring.

About a month after we returned, I got a letter in the mail and inside the envelope was that article that had been torn out of the magazine and a handwritten letter was paper clipped to it. It was from Dr. Jimmy Draper.

Here is what it said,

Joe,

Great word you gave to the church planters in the NW! Always proud of you and praying for you! God’s best blessings in 2019 to you and Lynette!

Jimmy Draper

Jer 9:23-24

If my family, my wife, and a man I greatly admire are willing to see me at my worst and call me by name and step towards me in grace and love, how should I live every day knowing that my Shepherd calls me by name and I am in his hand, and I will never be in danger there—how shall I live for this Good Shepherd?

Here’s how: I live moment by moment in complete and intimate dependence on my Shepherd. Why? Because he is good and I am a sheep.

I am learning to rest in him, and I find myself singing, if not praying these words,

I need Thee every hour,
Most gracious Lord.
No tender voice like thine,
Can peace afford.

I need Thee, oh I need Thee
Every hour I need Thee!
Oh, bless me now, my Savior,
I come to Thee!

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Spiritual Blindness

Posted on March 2, 2020 by Joe Chambers

“Surely we are not blind, are we?” John 9:40

Blindness can take many forms. For instance, I don’t obey the rules very well. That is especially true about wearing seatbelts. There were only two circumstances in which I would actually wear a seatbelt: One, when the car had an incessant alarm system that would not ever cease going off until you buckled up. Just to shut up the irritating and incessant alert, I would put my seatbelt on. The second reason I would buckle up is when my wife would ride with me—for the exact same reason as I have already stated above.

Then about six years ago, I got a phone call when we lived in the Pacific Northwest from a church member who frantically told me that her daughter, Hannah, had been in a car accident a block from my house and asked if I could be there for her. I ran down the street and saw a ragtop jeep on its side, Hannah was in the back of a police cruiser, and the sheet-covered lifeless body of her boyfriend was lying on the shoulder of the street.

According to Hannah, they were taking the corner too fast on a rainy night and the Jeep rolled over, throwing her boyfriend, who was not wearing a seatbelt, out and then the Jeep rolled over the top of him. He died instantly.

My primary mode of transportation at that time was a ragtop jeep. Do you know what I started doing from that evening on—even when Lynette was not in the car with me? I buckled up.

Did I learn anything new that night that changed my behavior? New statistics? No. What happened to me? I realized I was being dumb. Did I learn something new? No.

Look at that word realize. What does realize mean? It means it got real to me.

Those of us who have spent decades in the church and have gone to Sunday School all our lives have a real danger of growing spiritual cataracts. We have been looking at the Bible since before Kennedy was president. We have been singing the hymns since they were played on the harpsichord. We have a huge advantage and with that advantage comes the danger of religious arrogance. And the more religious arrogant I am, the blinder I am to my own sinfulness.

Several years ago, I lost everything about my life except my family. That was when the emptiness of my faith got real to me. I had a religion, but I didn’t have an intimate relationship with Jesus. And I learned, the hard way, that religion without intimacy with God causes spiritual blindness.

It is so much harder for a birthright Baptist to admit that there are specific areas of distorted and unspiritual thinking present in our lives.

I talked with a counselor friend of mine recently and we discussed how the people that can actually be helped the most by Biblical counseling or soul care are those that are in deep pain in their life. Do you know why? Because they realize that life is out of control and that their best thinking has gotten them in the mess they are in and all of their illusions have been shattered.

I have to admit I’m blind in order to get the help I need because my deepest blindness is the blindness to my own blindness. Without some sort of activating event, that usually takes the form of pain, I will never realize what God is trying to say to me about my life.

I love what Frederick Buechner says,

God speaks into our personal lives, if he speaks anywhere at all. And if we were not blind as a bat we could hear him.

I need to hear from the Holy Spirit if I am ever going to see anything. And if I live for anything other than Jesus, I will fumble around in my spiritual darkness because I can’t see things clearly. I can’t see myself clearly. I can’t see the world clearly.

I need the anointing balm from the lips of Jesus on my spiritual eyes if I am ever going to see and live the life I desperately want.

I hope you realize that.

Dear Lord,

Because I spend so much time in the things of faith, I get jaded to the stillness of your sweet voice. I elevate the Bible to the fourth person of the Trinity. Sometimes I love the book more than I love the author. Forgive me, Lord. Anoint my eyes with the vital truth that I am your beloved son. That sometimes you would just sit in silence with me and enjoy my company. Help me to see that.

Amen.

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I Will Change Your Name

Posted on February 3, 2020 by Joe Chambers

I will give a white stone, and on the white stone is written a new name that no one knows except the one who receives it. Revelation 2:17

Nearly thirty years ago I was asked to give a devotional to the Executive Board of our state denomination. It was a high honor for such a young pastor like me. I wrote out what I thought was a touching ten-minute tribute to our Lord, Jesus Christ.

I wanted it to have a powerful ending and decided that I would close the devotion the way one of my preaching heroes, Chuck Swindoll, sometimes would do by starting a familiar chorus and then when the congregation caught on, go sit down.

My first concern was what song did I know that this mostly older group of men would also know that they would recognize and sing along so that I wouldn’t be singing a solo. I decided on a Gaither song that I was confident everyone would know.

My second concern was being able to remember the words and the tune of the song. My brother got all the musical talent in our family. He can sing and play several instruments. I can play the radio.

I stood up and delivered my touching tribute to Jesus and when it came time to close I said, “Now, I want you to bow your heads and close your eyes and join me in singing this song to our Lord.”

Everything was going so well, just according to plan.

“Sing with me,” I said.

“Jesus. Jesus, Jesus.”

Nothing but silence from the men.

“Jesus. Jesus. Jesus.” I sang in the most monotone, flat, off-key voice ever uttered before God and man.

No one could recognize the tune.

“Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!” I droned. “There’s just something about that name. Master, Savior, Jesus…”

Finally, they recognized the words, if not the tune, and finished the song for me as I slunk red-faced to my seat.

My friend, Andy Hornbaker, leaned over to me and said, “I’d don’t believe I’d a done that if I were you.”

Jesus, there’s just something about that name.

I love that place where God named his Son, sending a message to him and to the world what his purpose would be in his life.

…an angel of the Lord appeared to (Joseph) in a dream, saying, “…you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” Matthew 1:20-21

Jesus began with his name and purpose untrammeled. Me and you, not so much. We often need a name and course adjustment. It has happened before.

God changed Sarai’s name to Sarah, Abram’s name to Abraham, Jacob’s name became Israel, Simon’s name to Peter by saying, “This is the kind of ministry I’m going to give you. These are the kinds of gifts I’m giving you. This is the kind of service I want you to have.”

People are always asking, “What am I supposed to be doing.” But there is a question that goes before the “what”…it is the “why” question.

When we fully understand our “why” then the “what” or the “how” comes pretty easy. Years ago, I began to see an emerging pattern in my life of restoration. Then there came a time when I needed my own restoration. I’m even living in a mountain cabin that is in constant need of restoration. My “why” is restoring God’s world, one soul at a time.

I have been restored and restoration is my life’s calling. Whether that is marriages, churches, ministries, or souls. The “how” can take shape in lots of different ways: Storytelling, listening, prayer, writing, teaching, or just sitting with someone as an empathetic witness to what God is doing in their lives.

It has taken years of reflection to notice this pattern. And lots of cul-de-sacs along the way.

A few years ago, my brother and I were having a conversation and he told me about a crisis time in his life. He was struggling with his significance, so he went on a retreat in the mountains. After fasting and praying, he felt as if God revealed to him: “You are my artist.”

I was impressed by that. I wanted that kind of term of endearment from God.

I didn’t go to a mountain cabin and fast, but I prayed and prayed. I wanted to hear from God a word that was so intimate and so unique. I got nothing. That hurt. I felt as if I didn’t measure up and that somehow, I was inadequate; maybe even damaged goods.

Then one evening my wife and I were entertaining friends in our home, and after a wonderful meal, we began to share stories with our friends.

We laughed a lot and cried a little.

Suddenly my wife started to tell a story and then turned to me and said, “You tell it. You’re the storyteller.” Later that night I asked God if that was my purpose. Was I his storyteller? I got a deep sensation that seemed to say, “No.”

My heart sank.

Then I felt that He said, “You are the story.”

God is writing a story out of my life and I get to tell about it. How amazing is that?

Author Ann Voscamp tells the story of a…

Tribe in Africa called the Himba, and when a woman of the Himba tribe knows she is pregnant, she goes out into the wilderness with a few friends and together they wait till they hear the song of the child to come.

Because they know that every heart has its own unique beat … it’s own wild purpose. And when the women attune to the song of the coming child, they sing it out loud.

And then they return to the tribe and teach this child’s unique song to everyone else.

Then when the child is born, the Himba tribe gathers and sings the child’s song to him or her. When the child begins school, when the child passes through the initiation to adulthood, when the time comes to get married, at each milestone the village gathers and chants the child’s song.

To the African tribe there is one other occasion upon which the villagers sing to the child. If at any time during his or her life, the person commits sins, falls short, or loses her way, the individual is called to the centre of the village and the people in the community form a circle around them. Then they sing their song to them.

They sing their song to them because the Himba believe that change most happens when we remember who we are — remember our identity — Whose we are… that change most happens when you are named out of the chaos, when your name is sung into the cosmos.

I don’t know anyone who doesn’t want a new name at some deep level. The good news is that you have one. You are the Beloved of God.

Let this old song wash over you for a couple of minutes:

Jesus.

There’s just something about that name.

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The Sacred Journey and Soul Care

Posted on January 13, 2020 by Joe Chambers

For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses (misplaces) his own soul? – Jesus

Christian leaders are in trouble. And when the leaders are in trouble the church is in trouble. Our culture, both inside and outside the church is grinding down Christian leaders.

According to Thabiti Anyabwile one of the pastors of Anacostia River Church in Southeast DC, in an article he wrote for the website 9Marks back in 2014:

50% of the ministers starting out will not last 5 years.

1 out of every 10 ministers will actually retire as a minister in some form.

4,000 new churches begin each year and 7,000 churches close.

Over 1,700 pastors left the ministry every month last year.

Over 1,300 pastors were terminated by the local church each month, many without cause.

In my view, if the church is going to thrive in our post-Christian age then soul care is going to be essential for the ongoing vitality of the leaders of our churches.

My specific denomination has put a great deal of emphasis on the Great Commission found in Matthew 28: 19-20,

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen.

Historically, we have been all about the Word of God, evangelism, and missions. And the Great Commission has driven all of that. And, by no means, would I want to dismiss that axiom. It is our calling card as a denomination.

And yet what do we do with the Great Commandment found in Matthew 22:37-40?

Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

If the statistics cited above are true, we are not doing a very good job at this commandment. Especially if our neighbor is a minister of the Gospel.

I believe Soul Care could be part of the solution.

While I completed my two-year certification program called The Soul Care Institute at

Potter’s Inn, I was introduced to the following soul care model and I owe my avocational ministry called The Sacred Journey to these concepts. This is my personal spin on these ideas.

:: Discipleship

This discipline is about basic doctrine, theology, and practices of the faith. In many cases, this is an information transfer from a person who is a veteran in the ways of the faith and Bible to a novice. However, would it surprise you to know that I have encountered several ministers who believe in their head that they are saved by grace through faith, but spend almost all of their life feeling like they need to earn their standing with God? Would it surprise you to know that many pastors don’t know how to pray, read their bibles for soul nourishment, tithe, and even to share their faith in a relational way? I see it a lot.

:: Life Coaching

This discipline is primarily around life management skills. Things like conflict management, interpersonal communication skills, and goal setting. It might include analytic decision-making skills and assertiveness training. Certainly important tools for your toolbox.

:: Counseling

Often a presenting issue disrupts the functional life of a person causing stress and they want relief. Here is where family of origin issues may need to be processed. Is the person increasingly becoming self-aware? How does emotional intelligence come to bear in life? In counseling is where addictions are addressed, obsessions uncovered, and personal identity struggles explored. And many other areas of felt needs would be properly analyzed and solutions pursued.

:: Spiritual Direction

This discipline is a bit of a misnomer. Because in spiritual direction there is very little, if any, actual directing. Spiritual direction is more about being a witness to what God is doing in the soul of another person. It’s about asking probing questions. It’s about sensing and discerning what is being triggered in the soul. It’s about being present to someone as they pursue an intimate relationship with the Almighty. It’s about prayer and discernment. This is a vital and missing piece of the journey of most of the ministers with whom I work.

Soul Care is Different

Soul Care is the confluence of all of those disciplines. It is a hybrid of all four. It is not one thing. There is an amazing amount of overlap because it is not just the compassion of Spiritual Direction, it also might be the doctrinal or heteropraxy correction of discipleship. It sometimes is the thinking through a father-wound that goes back decades. It might be coaching through how to resolve a conflict with a church or family member. It might be an extended prayer for healing from past church-wounds or toxic relationships.

Soul Care is a holistic approach to being an empathetic witness to what God is doing in the deep places—down where the knobs are—of a person’s heart.

Our ministry at Sacred Journey is about helping the helpers. It’s about shepherding the shepherds. It’s about praying with and for those that pray. It’s about reminding ministers who have spiritual attention deficit disorder that they are beloved of God and are saved and kept by grace. It’s about sharing our stories of how we found the abundant life Jesus promised.

It’s about showing the way to an unhurried and reflective life.

A life of flourishing.

A life of shalom.

A life others would want to live.

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Encountering Jesus

Posted on January 3, 2020 by Joe Chambers

“You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas”   – John 1:42

Sometimes you encounter someone in your life that you know you will never forget.

A little over a year ago, Lynette and I boarded a plane in Denver and flew to Munich, Germany. The first leg of our trip to Israel. I was stuffed into a middle seat and my knees were shoved into the kidneys of the person sitting in the seat right in front of me for the nine-hour flight. I felt like a size 14-foot stuffed into a pair of size 9 stilettos.

When we boarded our flight from Munich to Tel Aviv, our assigned seats were right in front of the exit row for that 5-hour flight. Again, a huge man in a little seat.

In the exit row sat a pint-size woman dressed in a long flowing black robe and habit. She had a window seat next to the exit door with no seat in front of her. She had enough leg room for Shaquille O’Neil.

I remember thinking, Dear Lord, what have I done to displease you on this flight to your homeland? Why does she get a seat with leg room she will not need, and I get stuck in the size 9, kidney-crushing, knee-bruising seat?

She said, “Sir, have you said your prayers today?”

I said, “Yes, I have spoken to God.” (thinking about my whining poor-is-me thought a moment before)

“Well, I am the answer to your prayers today,” she said.

Then she got up and gave me her seat and took mine beside Lynette. I stretched out, and despite my chagrined heart, fell asleep.

Lynette learned that she was from California and her twin sister was an actress in Hollywood. Her name was Mother Catherine and she served at The Church of Mary Magdalene which is a Russian Orthodox church located on the Mount of Olives, near the Garden of Gethsemane in East Jerusalem.

When we got off the plane in Tel Aviv, she invited us to have lunch with her at the Church of Mary Magdalene. She said the tour will take us down the route Jesus took on Palm Sunday and we would walk right past her church.

“Just knock on the big green door and ask for me and we will have lunch together,” she said.

Sure enough about a week later we were walking down that road and walked past a large green gate that was ajar and I asked one of the ladies inside if Mother Catherine was available. The lady said she didn’t know who I was talking about until she said, “Oh, Mother Katarina! No. She was unavailable right then.”

I asked her to tell Mother Katarina that a very large American man and his beautiful blond wife wanted to say hi and to thank her again for her generosity on the flight from Munich to Israel.”

She promised she would.

That is an encounter I will never forget with a woman who reminded me of Jesus.

In the New Testament, there is a place where Jesus meets the Apostle Peter for the first time.  When He looks at Peter and more than that—looks into Peter—he says in essence, “You have been called Simon all of your life but from now on I am going to call you Peter.” 

In the ancient near east names defined and described your life. They could be descriptive, or they could be prescriptive.

The name “Simon” meant “shifting sand.” It was a descriptive name depicting a man who vacillated and was highly impulsive. Over and over in the New Testament, we see that Peter is often the very first one to speak and the last one to think. He was often wrong, but never in doubt.

But Jesus looks Simon full in the face and gives him a prescriptive name, Cephas or Peter which means “Rock.” Peter must have gulped at the thought of becoming something so stable and strong as a rock. He understood what Jesus was doing. Jesus was saying to Peter that intimacy with me is going to change who you are. And that is exactly what happened to Peter.

Sea of Galilee

Peter started out with such promise and possibilities and yet at the end of the Gospels, we find him dejected, defeated, depressed over his failure of failures in denying Jesus three times. And then on the shores of the Sea of Galilee Jesus offers him breakfast and says to him once again: Follow Me.

By the end of the story of Peter’s life, we see somebody who has become a church leader, we see someone who possesses a calm humility and deep confidence in Jesus. We see somebody who is willing to stick his neck out for the Christian story. And then at the end of things we see somebody who eventually lays down his own life for his allegiance to Jesus.

When Jesus encountered Peter for the first time he easily could have said, “Simon Peter, have you said your prayers today? Because I am the answer to your prayers.”

Dear Lord,

I get easily gigged by so much in this world. My emotions run hot and often I speak before I think. I want to encounter you at such a deep level that my thoughts are your thoughts and my words are your words. Come deeper into my life so that I can avoid the firey darts of the evil one and the arrows thrown by our culture that cause me to react in ways that dishonor the grace you have given me.

Amen

 

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My “Wants” for 2020

Posted on December 31, 2019 by Joe Chambers

You ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.”  – James 4:15

Predictions for the coming year are often fun and interesting. My friend Jamie Greening has written a delightful article about his predictions. You can read it by clicking on the link below.

Predictions for 2020

I’m not good at that stuff so I am going to set down a few of my “wants” for 2020.

10. That I will hold in my hand a finished and printed copy of my cowboy novel about two young men who are just discovering their sexuality and how their friendship develops in spite of their sexual confusion.

9. I want to hike the Rainbow Trail from Music Pass to Poncha Springs. And I want to bag a couple of fourteeners along the way.  The wilderness calls my name. I love the sense of accomplishment and the simplicity of the trail. Not to mention the fascinating people you meet along the way.

8. I want to interview someone who works with their hands (a plumber, farmer, or mechanic) about their journey with Jesus on the Potter’s Inn Soul Care Conversation podcast.

7. I want to be a gentle yet bold prophetic voice to white evangelicals who have lost their way and call them back to love of character and decency. And I am going to spend more time in prayer for white evangelicals and myself in order to minimize how much I get triggered by them.

6. I want to increase my soul care practice for ministry leaders, especially young pastors.

5. I want to hold my newest granddaughter, Cora Lee Chambers,  in my church on Mother’s Day for her baby dedication.

4. I want to read more novels this year.

3. I want to love and serve my wife in such a way that she thinks that I finally got religion and she feels deeply loved down to her bones.

2. I want to develop my Galilean accent so that with every laughter, conversation, prayer, lament, and sermon I utter—folks will wonder.

1.  I want to live my life in such a way that people who know me will hunger and thirst for more of God.

I can’t predict if any of those things will come true, but I will arrange my life in such a way that they have the best possibility to occur, Lord willing.

#ComeAtMe2020

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