Jeff Adams

Almost everyone has heard of and used checklists. The most common image in many minds is the pilot’s checklist that must be completed prior to takeoff. Checklists are also incorporated into many medical protocols to prevent error in critical and complex procedures.  Even church services in larger churches like ours often employ checklists for audio or lighting settings or for following a complex order of service that involves many different elements.

I often use a checklist when I have errands to run or as a way to keep track of multiple tasks. Some people use a 3X5 card or scrap of paper. I use a nifty little bit of software called Remember the Milk that syncs with my PC and my BB.

Does anyone out there know the origin of the checklist? It is a fascinating bit of history that my friend Tina recently dug up. Check out her research here.  Here’s a hint – it all has to do with B-17′s.

So, do you use checklists? If you do, what for? And, what type of checklist? A 3X5 card or something more sophisticated? Any helpful hints for the rest of us?

That’s a question Lee asked in reply to my most recent post. I thought it was a great question and worthy to be considered. In fact, it reminded me of something that happened when I first arrived back in Kansas City as senior pastor.

A young man then on our staff had a wonderful wit, and one day he commented that he heard many people in church exclaim, “Well, bless God!” He thought that expression was hilarious.  God is the one who blesses us, he remarked. How could we possibly think that we could bless him?

I’m not sure how well this young pastor had read his Bible at that time in his life.  If you would just take your favorite Bible software and look only in the Psalms for where the words Lord and bless appear together, you will be amazed at how many times the psalmist exclaims something like Bless the Lord, o my soul! (Psalm 103:2).

Back to the point – exactly how do we bless God? Or, how do we give God joy? I think this is a wonderfully insightful question because all too often our image of God is of a stern, austere, inaccessible,  even angry God sitting on his throne in Heaven just waiting to zap into oblivion anyone who dares to sin. Rather than focus on how to stay out of trouble, wouldn’t it be better to concentrate on how we can bring joy to God? If we spent more energy aiming to please God and give him joy, we probably wouldn’t find as many opportunities to sin.

Basically, I believe we could all begin to explore the answer to this question by simply asking ourselves how a child brings joy to a parent. Sure, parents love for their kids to obey. But it is much more than that, isn’t it?

Let me list just a few of many scriptures that could be mentioned as examples of ways that we can give God joy.  You can look up the verses for yourself, and I am sure you can give many more examples in addition to these.

• God loves it when we obey him not just because we have to, or because we are afraid what will happen if we don’t, but simply because we have given ourselves to him, heart, mind and soul. Deuteronomy 30:8-10
• The intimacy of our relationship with God fills him with unspeakable joy, just like the intimacy of bride and bridegroom. Isaiah 62:5
• God rejoices to save us, solve our problems, fix things for us, and make us feel secure. Zephaniah 3:17
• God loves it when we genuinely respect and trust him so completely that we always hope in his mercy toward us. No matter what, we know that he ultimately loves us. Psalm 147:11
• What gives God joy is to see that we are filled with joy. Isaiah 65:19
• It gives God joy when we do good. Jeremiah 32:41

Could we not say the same thing about how our children give us joy? Or, is this not how we gave joy to our own parents?

If  you were at Tuesday night Prayer Ministry (and if you weren’t, where were you? … just kidding!), you heard me talk about reading a friend’s book and being moved and convicted. The book is Prayer: The Timeless Secrets of High-Impact Leaders and is by Dr. Dave Earley, a fellow member of the Christar board. Dave founded and was pastor of New Life Church of Columbus, Ohio and is currently Chairman of the Department of Pastoral Leadership and Director of the Center for Pastoral Leadership of Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary and Liberty University.

I was finishing the book on the plane yesterday as I flew to our Christar board meeting. Wow! We’ve go to get this guy to come to KCBT and share some of this stuff! Pray about that!

Here’s a small sample that happened to thrill my little mind.  Speaking of the need to pray as specifically as possible, Dave wrote,

Jesus taught the value of precise petitions when he told the story of the friend at midnight. Notice that the man did not request “some food.” Instead he asked for “three loaves”: “Then he said to them, ‘Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to hi at midnight and says, Friend, lend me three loaves of bread …’” (Luke 11:5), emphasis added).

Jesus said the man’s boldness in asking specifically, along with his persistence and willingness to come at midnight, would cause his friend to “get up and give him as much as he needs.” (Luke 11:8).

Have you ever wrestled (as I have) about whether or not it is appropriate to set out a “fleece” before God as Gideon did? Do you remember when God commissioned him to deliver Israel from the Midianites? This was such a daunting task Gideon wanted to be certain that this was indeed what God wanted him to do. So he placed a wool fleece out one night and asked God to confirm his instructions by causing only the fleece to be wet with dew and the surrounding ground would be all dry. That’s exactly what happened as Gideon awoke to dry ground and fleece wet enough that he wrung a bowlful of water out of it (Judges 6:36-38).

Here’s Dave’s comment.

Before you get hung up on the legitimacy of putting out a fleece, realize this: Gideon had prayed a very definite prayer and received a definite answer. In essence he had done exactly as Jesus would later instruct, asked for “three loaves” or in this case, “one wet fleece.”

Lord, teach us to pray!

I continue to slug my way through Ezekiel. What a fascinating book! A few days ago I made some comments about God’s mobile throne. If you missed that, you might want to check it out here in preparation for what I am going to say.

Ezekiel’s current vision began in chapter 8 as he sees the cherubs and God’s mobile throne that had appeared to him earlier.  Babylon’s “final solution” for Jerusalem has not yet been executed and many are holding on to the slimmest thread of hope.  Their hope, however, is nothing more than self-deception at best and outright refusal to listen to God at worst. God’s words to Ezekiel leave no doubt about the certainty of judgment to come.

In the vision, Ezekiel has sees the cloud of God’s glory moving out of the temple and departing. No one could have imagined that God would ever move out of his own house! But, God has made it abundantly clear that he will not co-exist with the filth and abomination of Israel’s sin. This is the setting for the closing words of this prophecy.

Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Although I have cast them far off among the heathen, and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet will I be to them as a little sanctuary in the countries where they shall come. Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will even gather you from the people, and assemble you out of the countries where ye have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel. And they shall come thither, and they shall take away all the detestable things thereof and all the abominations thereof from thence. And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh: That they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God. But as for them whose heart walketh after the heart of their detestable things and their abominations, I will recompense their way upon their own heads, saith the Lord GOD. Then did the cherubims lift up their wings, and the wheels beside them; and the glory of the God of Israel was over them above. And the glory of the LORD went up from the midst of the city, and stood upon the mountain which is on the east side of the city. Afterwards the spirit took me up, and brought me in a vision by the Spirit of God into Chaldea, to them of the captivity. So the vision that I had seen went up from me. (Ezekiel 11:16-24)

We could easily excuse anyone for absorbing these words like a kick in the gut. God promises to bring Israel’s sins right down upon their own heads. The glory of God departs and moves out toward the east.  If this were all, the anguish would be unbearable.

What amazes me, though,  about these closing words is the incredible grace, hope and promise that God holds out to his people.  Many are in such a state of denial they undoubtedly missed the message of hope amidst the call for the coming calamity.

To these Jews who shunned Ezekiel’s message, the city of Jerusalem and its temple were everything – their very identity.

Perhaps this is a large part of the problem. They had forgotten the God of the city and the temple.

Here, in this catastrophic moment, the God of the mobile throne tells them that he himself will be their “little sanctuary”. Some see this as a prophetic view of the synagogue, never spelled out in scripture, but obviously blessed of God for the Jewish disaspora. That could well be.

However, let’s not miss the main point – no matter where we are, no matter whether buildings stand or fall, God himself is our sanctuary. The God of the mobile throne is himself our mobile bunker, our fortress, our castle, our refuge.

As if this were not enough, God promises them that they will one day return to a literal land, city and temple. He says that he will give them a new spirit and a new heart.

Many in Jerusalem were fighting the wrong battle. They thought the Babylonians were the enemy. They thought nothing could be more fatal and final than to lose the city and the temple. They should have been more concerned to lose the presence and power of God Almighty. The cloud of his glory was departing.

All this causes me to wonder if sometimes we are guilty of the same. I love this country and am grateful for all God affords us here. I hear the panic-filed screeches of those who give the impression that this bill or that, this political move, this politician or this issue will be the demise of the nation, the loss of our liberties and the fall of civilization as we know it. If the nation falls, the world, of course, will come to an end.

The truth is, God was at work in this world long before this nation was born, and he will be around long after this nation is gone. And, as good as it is, this nation cannot and will not endure forever. We should defend it, love it and be thankful for it and those who serve and protect. But, if the Bible instructs us to put our focus on things eternal that can never be moved, how should that be reflected in the priorities and attitudes of our daily lives?

I wonder if we should be a bit more concerned about losing God’s power and presence in our lives – especially those of us who already have new hearts and spirits.

I know that Labor Day is over and gone for another year, but I have been reflecting a bit on the meaning of this holiday. I didn’t make this post yesterday, because I was taking a day off from my labor.

Labor Day was first celebrated in 1882, inspired by a similar celebration in Canada and with the aim of bringing an end to a violent series of labor conflicts in the United States. I won’t bore you with the details because you can Google it yourself. Besides, we all know that the real meaning of Labor Day is that it is the unofficial end to Summer.

Seriously, my thoughts on Labor Day were inspired as I reviewed what I said Sunday about being the type of person to confront obstacles. I talked about the choice we have to be a victim or a victor and used several examples from people who have overcome tremendous obstacles. I was careful to use examples without specifically mentioning the individual’s great faith in God. In fact, one of the examples I used was of a vocal atheist. Some of the people I mentioned are believers, but that was not my point. My point is that if some people can confront and overcome obstacles by virtue of their own spirit, how much more should those of us who profess faith in Jesus Christ be able to do the same and more!

I see an attitude that has infected even many professing followers of Jesus – the thought that one is entitled to everything without having to work for it. If I need something, it should be up to the government, or my employer or even the church to make sure that I get it.  If one or another of these institutions does not come through for me, then I will sit and whine and complain that I am being victimized.Whatever happened to getting up and working hard to provide for what we need?

Sometimes we hear people use the phrase work ethic.  It used to be common to say Protestant work ethic, a phrase coined by Max Weber in his book The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism written in the early 1900′s. While some of his ideas have been criticized, Weber’s thought was to connect a strong work ethic to the teaching of Luther, Calvin and other leaders of the Protestant Reformation who taught the obligation of hard work as the sign of people under the grace of God. They did not teach hard work to earn salvation or favor with God, but as the testimony of those who have been saved and blessed by the favor of God’s grace.

Sometimes the ethic was called the Puritan work ethic as a testimony to the hard work of Puritan believers. Another group with this same type of testimony was the Moravians who sent missionaries around the world in the 1700′s and afterward from a small local church in Germany comprised primarily of farmers, artisans and common laborers. They believed that if one stopped working, he or she would simply die. They saw hard work as part of life’s calling upon a believer.

In this current economic climate, if we have jobs we should indeed be grateful for them. Perhaps Labor Day can be a  reminder of our responsibility to do our jobs to the very best of our abilities, to work hard, to live out the life of Christ by the way we go about our business.