I had finished my message for Sunday morning when I ran across this great column by Mark Galli. I wish I had come across it before writing my message. I could have printed this off and just read it!
My text for the day is Luke 2:22-40, the story of Simeon and Anna. Here are two people who simply wasted time with God. No big results. No huge ministries. No great accolades. They simply worshiped. They hung out with God. And in that hanging out time, they were incredibly privileged to hear the voice of the Spirit speak to them one day in the Temple. In that moment, the voice could speak because they could HEAR, and that voice pointed them to a young couple with a little baby. The voice could say, “That one,” and they KNEW what it meant.
We need to be better time wasters with God. No agendas. As a pastor, I resonate with Galli’s frustration. People sometimes get frustrated with me if I don’t give enough “how to” in my message. Well, I must confess I get frustrated trying to tell everyone “how to” do something! Just hang out with God! Find out for yourself! It’s a great journey! Frustrating at times, but FUN.
May I waste tremendous amounts of time with God in 2010!
We made the trek to my family in Kansas a day early (Tuesday as opposed to Wednesday) because we were leery of the travel conditions in Iowa. Now, on Christmas Eve, we were certainly glad we made the choice because weather is horrible every mile of the journey between our home and Kansas. Our hometown of Minneapolis is getting hammered with snow and Iowa is snow and ice. We are thankful for small decisions the Lord helps us make. Now… to see if we can get BACK to Minneapolis!
There has been a strange interweaving of stories in the past few days in my life. Over the past week I have studied I Maccabees in the Apocrypha and preached on Hanukkah and the Maccabean Revolt. I posted earlier on lessons learned from Mattathias and the Maccabeans.
At one point in time I remember reading that living prophetically as a Christian is having a Bible in one hand and newspaper in the other. Well, both are readily available online, so maybe our hands are freed up to raise them to God in intercession.
In preparation for my Old Testament survey course I teach in the spring, I want to express my thanks for those who have given me wonderful ideas for OT passages to memorize.
New Year’s resolutions are tough. Yet, there are some spiritual exercises I want to increase in my life.