Jeff Adams

I believe every word of the Bible and hold to it as the absolute authority of truth in my life. That does not mean, however, that I have all the answers. The Bible is divinely-inspired and, as such, is a book that is infinite in its depth. I’m not. Intelligent, thinking people often disappear from churches and Bible studies where the preacher or teacher gives the impression that he or she knows it all and has all of God’s truth neatly tucked away in little plastic containers. Face it. There are some tough things to understand in the Bible — and in life.

Reading through Judges the past few days has reminded me of these hard questions. Today I was looking at Judges 14, part of Samson’s story. You probably remember that Samson is a pretty despicable character. From his youth he was rebellious and disrespectful toward his parents, friends and society in general. He was a hot head, a womanizer and a murderer. Definitely not Sunday school teacher material.

In spite of his nasty temperament, between Judges 13 and 15 it is said five times that the Spirit of God came upon Samson. In today’s reading I found Samson killing a lion and then 30 men in a fit of anger. Yet it says that he did this as the Spirit of the Lord came on him. How can we possible reconcile these two apparently contradictory aspects of Samson’s life?

If you don’t find this story troubling for a number of reasons, you probably need some sensitivity training – either that or just some basic honesty. I certainly don’t pretend to have all the answers as to what God is doing in and through this sad and messy story, but I do offer a couple of observations as I reflected on this today over a nice skinny latte.

• God can and does use whoever and whatever to do whatever and whenever he wants. After all, he is God. God used Baalam’s ass and even uses you and me. This is a place to speak of God’s providence and sovereignty. God has a plan and he will see it through. He will do this in ways that sometimes confuse and amaze us and at times using people that we find repulsive. It’s the message, not the messenger. If you are still wondering why in the world God would use someone as vile as Samson, it’s probably just because you weren’t available at the time.
• There is a major difference between God’s Spirit coming upon someone for a specific purpose and someone who is filled with or controlled by the Spirit. God wanted to accomplish some things in Samson’s day and chose him to do them regardless of his carnality and pride. One who is filled with the Spirit is one whose life is totally filled with God, is in complete submission to him and who gives evidence of a transformed life as characterized by the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23).

There is no doubt that God can use me anytime and any way he wants. After all he has done for me, I don’t want to be just his blunt object. I want to be his sharp instrument to perform his soul surgery in the lives of those he loves. I want to be filled with the Spirit in every part of my life, not just one upon whom the Spirit falls for a moment in time.

Most of us know what it is to be under heavy attack. In fact, those seem to be the times when most of us shine the most. What derails us is the unexpected or seemingly unimportant – the sneak attack or the Trojan Horse routine.

A great example of this is found in Joshua 9. Can you imagine anything more spectacular than to see God supernaturally cause the wall of Jericho to come crashing down? Talk about a major victory, this is about as big as gets. The nation took a false step when they went against the tiny city of Ai by thinking it was too small to pray about. Wrong! This was another gut check for both Joshua and his people It wasn’t long, however, before they won this victory, too.

It’s hard to blame the nation of Israel for feeling a great deal of relief and a tendency to let down a bit in the aftermath of the Jericho and Ai victories. This was also the cause of a major defeat for Israel – not on the battlefield, but in their own minds and souls. No sooner had the dust settled, the people were blindsided.

Some nearby neighbors, the Gibeonites, figured they must be next on the list to be eliminated. They were certain their defense budget had not been high enough to field an army that could withstand the approaching Israelite advance. What was it that Dad used to say? If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em! They dressed up in old clothes, worn out shoes and carried moldy bread to give give the impression they had traveled from a long way off. Add to this the fact that they came singing the praises of Israel and how they wanted to join with them because of their many impressive victories.

And the men took of their victuals, and asked not counsel at the mouth of the LORD. And Joshua made peace with them, and made a league with them, to let them live: and the princes of the congregation sware unto them. And it came to pass at the end of three days after they had made a league with them, that they heard that they were their neighbours, and that they dwelt among them. Joshua 9:14-16

They should have prayed about it – again. They shouldn’t have let down their mental guard. They shouldn’t have let this secret enemy’s praise inflate their egos and mess with their better judgment. These are all valid points. Here’s another – there are many people who are good to resist the frontal attacks of life, but they can’t handle deception.

In the Revelation, there is a coming time of Great Tribulation forecast to come upon the world. During this time John predicts the rise of two world leaders that are called in his prophecy the Beast and the False Prophet. The Beast is an enemy who crushes his opponents with direct attack. The False Prophet is the master of deception. They work together.

When Paul was saying his good byes to the leaders of the Ephesian church, he warned them of wolves who would attack them from without and others who would rise up from within the church and lead some astray (Acts 20:29-30).

The moral to this is to never lose your focus, never cease to consult God in prayer even for the seemingly insignificant things of life. Don’t be like the baseball player who doesn’t run hard down first base line on pop ups. Don’t be like the football player who plays focused only on one out of two plays. Do be like the boxer who lets down his guard when he thinks he has his opponent on the ropes.

There is a pattern emerging. We must be prepared not only for life’s hard, direct and frontal attacks, we must also maintain our focus to be alert for those attacks that come from within, from those who profess to be our friends, or others.

Here’s how this works in life. Maybe your terrible boss is not your biggest threat. You have held up to his or her unreasonable demands and furious temper. But, it could be that your co-worker who loudly and repeatedly sings your praises and professes to be your friend is busy cutting the floor out from underneath you.

I just came back from Prayer Ministry tonight. It’s easy to remember to come to Prayer Ministry in the time of crisis. We need to remember to pray even when we have no urgent, emergency requests. These would be good times to pray for and with those who do have great need.

I thought summer was supposed to be a relaxed time to sit around and drink iced tea, read a book or talk with friends. So far my summer has not turned out like that. It’s been crazy! I don’t even have time to list some of the stuff that has me running ragged. There’s just enough time to tell you about something I did the other day that I think is going to be both fun and helpful. I finally broke down and bought a Blackberry.

That’s right. People are lined up in stores to buy the newest iPhone and I buy a Blackberry. That’s just like me to be swimming up against the current. Why did I do such a thing? Well, not buying the iPhone was easy. Not even tempted. Yes, it’s pretty and does cool things, but most of the features are entertainment features in my opinion. Not that I am against entertainment!  The real deal killer is the fact that it is not a quad band (international) phone yet.

I’ve talked to two friends recently who do a lot of international travel and seem to have needs much like me. They are both very content with their Blackberries. So I started doing some research and took the plunge. It’s two days and counting and I’m very happy so far.

Getting organized

First, it helps me get organized. My former phone had very poor software and never really was able to sync with my Outlook. I loaded Blackberry software onto my laptop, hooked up the Blackberry and immediately the two were conversing as though they went to school together. All my contacts, calendar, notes, and tasks are identical on laptop and phone. I can dial directly from my contact list.

All my email accounts come directly to my phone when I’m not on my laptop. I have a couple of email accounts that are web-based and my KCBT account that is one a Microsoft Exchange server. I was a bit concerned that it would be tricky to hook up with the server. Nope! I had IT, a couple of ambulances and a firetruck on standby, but I did it myself before I knew it. The phone asked me if I wanted it to pass on my email to me.

“Sure!”

“What’s your email address?” it said. I typed it into the nifty little Blackberry keyboard.

“OK, now give my your password” I was beginning to trust it now, so I did.

“Thanks! You’re all set. Want to add another?”

“That’s it?”

“Sure.”

So, I entered in another and it was just as slick. I mean that’s all I did. How would it handle the more complex issues of interfacing with an exchange server?

“Give me the email address,” the phone prompted.

But, that’s the same thing you asked me for the simpler, web-based accounts, I thought. Surely there will be more to this. I might as well start here, though.

“OK, now the password.”

“Well, sure, but don’t you want to know something else? Don’t you want some complex code, or one of those strange numerical value keys that’s buried about 5 menus deep into the control panel? Look, I’ll give you the password, but don’t you think that should come later. We hardly know each other”

“No,” the phone replied in a very professional way. “I know you don’t really understand all this stuff. Just give me the email address and password and I’ll take care of all the arrangements. Trust me with this one.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” I was just about to say when the first email popped up on my little screen that had come directly to me through the exchange server. Once I read and responded, it asked me if I wanted to delete it only on the phone or both phone and computer. I was sitting in front of my laptop and said, “Sure, go ahead and delete it on both.”

“Not a problem,” said the phone, and I watched with wonder as the message disappeared from my laptop before my very eyes. Cool. No IT dude had yet touched my Blackberry. I was not reading from a manual. I was simply conversing with my phone and following what was intuitive.

Everything is working and working well and I did it all myself. Well no, that’s not quite right. I just answered a couple of questions and the phone is doing the rest.

Getting Light

After the first day my load was considerably lighter. My PDA is history. I was really only using it to read my Bible and to add or look up an occasional date. The Bible is no problem. I just ordered a 4 gigabyte memory card for the Blackberry. This is another reason I went this route – there is a whole community of Blackberry geeks out there in a cave somewhere writing applications of all sorts. Bibles? No problem. I’ll be able to load both English and Spanish Bibles.

Did I mention it has built-in GPS? Good bye to my stand-alone Garmin. It served me well and now lives in Cheryl’s car. My Blackberry not only maps out my route, talks me through it and tells me when to turn, it also does real time traffic and construction updates as I travel along. I like this. Also, I no longer have to type in addresses; I simply speak into the phone and tell it where I want to go. That’s it.

Oh, I also lose my mp3 player. The Blackberry plays music, has a standard stereo headphone jack so you can use the finest headphones you have. It does movies, too. Oh, and it’s got a very nice 2.0 megapixel, 5X zoom lens camera with flash. My current car charger works on the Blackberry, a standard Motorola type plug, and the AC charger doesn’t change either. My bluetooth headset works even better with this than the phone for which I bought it. If I wanted to get picky I could mention that it doesn’t have a video camera. I’ll live.

As for International functions, it is a quad band phone and I got a plan that allows me to send and receive unlimited email in over 140 countries around the world. Not only that, all this comes in a package that is not very much bigger than my former Motorola Razr v3. I feel much lighter already.

Once again reading Acts 7 and the account of Stephen’s final sermon and martyrdom, I was remined of Stephen’s historical narrative form of preaching. This, one of history’s most powerful sermons, was built around a core of three great historical cornerstones in the history of Israel — Abraham, Moses and the Temple. Each of these major historical periods shares the commonality of great failure of faith and spiritual rebellion.

So much of the Bible is historical narrative. Even before the Law, the Hebrew people were careful to pass down from generation to generation the key stories and events of their history. Several of the Psalms are classic examples of retelling history with powerful conviction. Jesus used this same approach. Paul understood the importance and power of historical narrative. Say what you might about Israel’s failings through the centuries, they have done an amazing job of perserving their history and identity.

Over Memorial Day weekend in May our church heard from all three senior pastors in our history. The previous two spoke via video tape and I then finished in person. The response from the congregation was great! Many people were totally unfamiliar with my two predecessors and expressed much satisfaction at learning some of the history and heritage of our church. I took mental note — we need to be sure we continue to do things like this from time to time. People need to know their history. When we don’t we are in danger of losing our bearings and ending up adrift.

How does your family pass down information and tradition to upcoming generations? How do you contribute to sharing the history of your church with youth? What can you do to learn more about your family history or church history? Just sharing the testimony your life, your conversion and spiritual growth is a story that God can use powerfully when told correctly and humbly. We should learn to be good at doing this.

I’ll confess right up front. I am a sucker for anything Circ du Soleil. From the moment I caught a glimpse of a performance on television, I resolved to do my best to see a show in person if I ever had the opportunity. Two or three years ago one of the Circ du Soleil shows came for a brief visit to Kansas City, the now retired Delirium. Cheryl and I were there. Loved it!

Last night we were five rows from the stage for Saltimbanco. This is the oldest of the company’s shows and retired from the tent version two years ago to be revived as an area show. If you are thinking the type of circus your parents took you to as a child, your vision is far too limited!

I don’t know this firsthand, mind you, but I am thinking that Circ du Soleil is about as close to a psychedelic, illicit drug-induced, hallucinogenic state of being as is possible. The quality, talent and skills of the troop establish the gold standard of excellence. What sets Circ du Soleil apart, though, is pure, unabashed artistic creativity of the highest order. Take the elements of exceptional skills, athleticism, comedy, drama, live music, lighting, media, costumes and makeup as works of art and weave them together around an imaginative theme or story and you begin to get an idea of the multiple layers that explode in a star burst of colorful creativity that makes up Circ du Soleil. If you can’t get enough from the above link to the official website, just check out the many Circ du Soleil videos on YouTube.

There have been some times in history when believers were on the cutting edge of artistic creativity. Unfortunately, some generations have done their best to stifle and stomp out any hint of originality, personality and creativity. I pray that the current generation of believers coming up will break through this barrier and allow God’s Spirit to anoint them to utilize their gifts in supernatural proportions.