Broken Hallelujah

Broken Hallelujah

I downloaded a new Christmas album on my IPhone, Sunday morning and over cereal I listened to the main reason I purchased the album. I wanted to hear the group, Pentatonix, remake, Hallelujah, by Leonard Cohen. I don’t believe I had ever heard the whole song, but the chorus is beautiful. I listened, as very secular verses were sang to a chorus of Hallelujah. The song brought tears to my eyes and then streaming down my face as I thought of people searching for joy in other things. Searching for happiness and only finding temporary pleasure. This, after some research, is some of what this song is about. The artist wanted to show that, it is not just worship of God that can bring a Hallelujah to someone. What his song said to me was that we have so much work to do.

Later in church, I found myself reading from Philippians 2. I felt that the two go together, somehow. While this song represents joy in things of the world, this scripture gives us encouragement while on this earth in the knowledge of and the relationship with Christ.

If then there is any encouragement in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship with the Spirit,

If any affection and mercy, ² fulfill my joy by thinking the same way

, having the same love, sharing the same feelings, focusing on one goal. ³ Do nothing out of rivalry or conceit,

 but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves.

 ⁴ Everyone should look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.

Philippians 2: 1-4

There is a line in the song mentioned above that says, “It doesn’t matter what you heard, the holy or the broken hallelujah.” This line is what made me begin to think of the world and sadness that it can bring. In the fourth verse of the scripture above, Paul tells us to look out not only for our own interest but also for everyone else. How often do we as, followers of Christ, put the needs of others ahead of our own? Do we, do things without expectation? Without hope of recognition? Looking for a way to shine above others? In verse 3, Paul tells us to do nothing out of rivalry or conceit, but in humility.

Once a quarter, the team of people I work with goes out and does something good for our community. Last month, we fed people waiting in line for financial assistance and them we sorted donations for 2 hours. I found myself disappointed that I was a few minutes late and missed out on the picture that will be posted on our company internet. I should be disappointed in myself. Those people were grateful for what we were doing and I, after all that good, was disappointed over a picture. Now, I’m glad that I will not be in the picture. It will be a reminder to focus on the task and not the recognition.

As followers of Christ, we have an example to live by. Though we can never live up to Him. We are to love one another no matter where we are in life. We are to love the sinner, because after all, we are all sinners.

⁵ Make your own attitude that of Christ Jesus,

⁶ who, existing in the form of God,
did not consider equality with God
as something to be used for His own advantage.^[a]
7 Instead He emptied Himself
by assuming the form of a slave,
taking on the likeness of men.
And when He had come as a man
in His external form,
⁸ He humbled Himself by becoming obedient
to the point of death—
even to death on a cross.
⁹ For this reason God highly exalted Him
and gave Him the name
that is above every name,
¹⁰ so that at the name of Jesus
every knee will bow—
of those who are in heaven and on earth
and under the earth—
¹¹ and every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord, ^[b]
to the glory of God the Father.

Philippians 2: 5-11

Read verses 6 and 7 again and then pause and let it sink in. The only person that has ever walked this earth that was equal to God, did not consider equality with God as something to be used for His own advantage. He, instead, emptied Himself by assuming the form of a slave. How powerful are those verses. Now, read all of it, starting with verse one, again. Take a moment to ponder what it is to be truly, Christ like?

Now, think about the line to the song that I referenced above. Christ, hears our broken hallelujah’s just the same as He hears our holy and reverent ones. The broken ones, are the ones that we, as His hands and feet should be on the lookout for. The broken hallelujahs are from those that have no hope and only short lived joy that comforts only as long as the feel good moment they are in. People are broken and they run from us, because they are afraid of judgement. They don’t want someone else telling them, they are wrong. What they need is love. Love heals the broken and mends the defeated.

I ask you, to go back and read Philippians chapter 2 again. Really search the scripture and figure out how you can humble yourself and listen for the broken hallelujahs.

Father God, I thank you for the broken hallelujah that led me to you. That in a moment of tears, I sought you and you were there to dry my tears and give me eternal life. I pray, Father, that we don’t pass by those that are in need. Help us to see the person and not the life-style. Help us to love the person and look past the choices. Give a heart to love the broken. Amen.

Face Down

Face Down

A few weeks ago I drove by a church and I saw  man lying face down in the park lot. No other cars were there and he appeared to have been walking. A back pack lay close beside him and his head was on his arm. I turned around and drove by again. He appear to either be hurt or praying. I didn’t feel the Lord asking me to stop, so I turned down a side street and called 911. I told he operating that the man was either hurt or praying. As I drove back by, I watched as a fire truck turned in and two men on a motorcycle had stopped and they were talking to the man. I realized, that I had been right, he was praying. Tears were streaming down his face and the look of despair brought tears to my own eyes. I began to pray for the man. I still can’t shake the question of what would bring a man, face down in a church parking lot, to pray. The backpack makes me think he could be homeless. Maybe he has nothing left and he found himself walking by a church and lay face down to pray to God. I don’t know and may never know. I do know that the men that stopped were at that place at that moment to do exactly what they were doing. I know that God allowed me to witness it and he is preparing my heart to help those in need.

The Lord helps all who fall, He raises up all who are oppressed.

Ps 145:14

I don’t have a devotion planned out for this week. The one I am working on is not complete, so I thought I would share this quick story with you. Who knows, maybe it will turn into a devotion one day. I do ask that if you can, to give a little more this season. Christmas is a time to celebrate our Savior and what better way, than to care for his children

Father God, thank you for eyes to see the work that we have to do. So many in need and so few hands to help them. Give the church a heart for those in needs. Bless the man I saw Lord. I pray he has found help and his life if improving. I pray he finds Salvation and the joy that comes with a relationship with you. Amen.

Merge

Merge

Recently I heard a radio DJ talking about a survey that showed, people that merge late in traffic and people that don’t allow those merger in, are what contribute to most back-ups. A story like this never would have caught my attention 6 months ago, but now that I commute to work, daily, I found myself agreeing. I am no longer an aggressive driver. I don’t know if that comes with age, wisdom, or the most likely, watching one of my babies become a driver. I watch every afternoon as cars to the left, ignore the warning signs that tell them the lane will end. It infuriates me to see a car in the safety of one far left lane that is not ending, to get back into the ending lane, because their lane is moving slow. They wiz past 10 or more cars and then expectantly turn on their signal to be let, back in.  It burns me up to watch, as I slowly progress in the middle lane, safe from the stop and go in the far left, and protected from a last minute merge. Most of the time I shake my head and wonder, what makes them better than me, that they think they can by-pass all this traffic and then swing into the safe lane, last minute?

For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard.

After agreeing with the workers on one denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard. When

he went out about nine in the morning, he saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing.

To those men he said, ‘You also go to my vineyard, and I’ll give you whatever is right.’ So off

they went. About noon and at three he went out again and did the same thing. Then about five

he went and found others standing around, and said to them, ‘ Why have you been standing here all

day doing nothing?” “Because no one hired us, ‘they said to him. ‘ “’You also got to my vineyard, ‘

he told them.

Matthew 20: 1-7

The early morning workers remind me of the folks that stay in the right hand lane all the way to their destination. They don’t worry about the lane merge because they have a safe shot all the way. Then there are those like me in the middle lane. We know that we may have to weave in and out, but we get to go at a faster pace and the exit ramp isn’t too tough to get to. Then, there are those that wait until 3 and 5. Those are the, mergers. The folks that want to wait until the last minute to get over. They go through life fast, trying to by-pass all the rules and then when the lane ends, they expect to get over in front of the rest of us.

When evening came, the owner of the vineyard told his foreman, ‘ Call the workers and give them their pay,

starting with the last and ending with the first. ‘When those who were hired about five came, they each received one denarius.

So when the first ones came, they assumed they would get more, but they also received a denarius each. When they received it, they began

to complain to the landowner. These last men put in one hour, and you made them equal to us who bore the burden of the day and the

burning heat!

Matthew 20: 8-12

God revealed to me that some people live their life like they are in the merging lane. They drive fast through life and know that the end is near, but they wait until the very end to accept Christ. For some, it may seem unfair that their reward is the same as those who gave their life to Christ at a very early age. I do believe some will be shocked in Heaven when they see the mergers walking the same streets of gold as them. Honestly, I hope not. My prayer is that in Heaven, we finally understand Jesus’s lessons on love, but that is a story for another blog.

It takes some longer than others to accept that Christ loves them. They want to live their life free and without restriction. To some they just do not believe that they are worthy of Christ free gift and for others, they just don’t understand and believe it’s all a fairy tale. We, the workers, need to stay busy doing God’s work, so we can bring more into the vineyard with us. If they see us working hard and in love, they will want to join us. For some, that means a nice long road with no bump ups, but for others, it means a merge at the last minute.

So what happens to those that wait too long to merge? Well for me, it normally means longer traffic jams, because a wreck has happened and prayerfully the car is the only thing damaged. For Christ, it means the opposite. They waited too long and now eternity is lost to them.

The next time you see someone trying to merge last minute, let them in with a smile. It may be their last chance.

Father God, thank you for your mercy that saved a sinner like myself. That brought me out of the fast lane and allowed me to merge over to a safer lane. I pray Lord that you allow us to show love to those hurting in the world, that they will merge with us. Amen.

One of my Favorites

Why would a loving God….

How long, Lord, must I call for help and you do not listen or cry out to You about violence and You do not save?

Why do You force me to look at injustice? Why do You tolerate wrong doing? Oppression and violence are right in front of me. Strife is ongoing and the conflict escalates.

This is why the law is ineffective and justice never emerges. For the wicked restrict the righteous; therefore, justice comes out perverted.

Habakkuk 1: 2-4

The lobby was packed full of customers on a busy Friday afternoon. This was before Wi-Fi connected at every store and direct deposit was required by most every employer. Customers still walked into the bank to make deposits, open accounts, and apply for loans. I sat with a man, trying to make heads or tails of his checkbook, patiently, I helped him as the clients piled up. Once we were done, I started to stand to hurry him from my desk and help the next customer. He remained seated and began to talk about his wife. My wife, he said, is the one that always handled the bank book, but she has been sick and I’ve had to take time off from work to take care of her, he explained.

This man smelled of many cigarettes smoked over many years, his skin was like leather and his hands showed hard working years with callouses upon callouses. He wore a well, worn plaid shirt with an equally well, worn pair of jeans. His hair had not been cut in a while and he shook a little as we talked. He began to tell me of his wife’s illness and how there was no hope of her recovering. They were in the final days and he had left her side for a little while to refill her medicines and get things to make her comfortable. I began to shuffle in my chair, not sure what to do. We were in the middle of the lobby and others were impatiently listening to our conversation as he spoke of his wife like we were the only two there. He began to look past me as he spoke, no longer speaking to me, just speaking. I listened until I could no longer make the others wait and stood. I told him I would keep her in my prayers and patted his arm.  

It was at that moment his thoughts came back to the lobby and he ask me a question I could not answer and one I have never forgotten. I still hear his broken voice, “What am I going to do? She’s the only woman I have ever loved. “With that, he turned and left. I found it hard to swallow and made my way to the next couple that had been waiting. My eyes filled with tears and I apologized as I looked away for a moment and made time to watch him leave.

Have you ever been ask, how could a loving God allow bad things to happen? If you haven’t, just wait, you will. The Profit, Habakkuk, ask God these question. Why Lord, How long Lord? All questions, I myself ask when the storms roll in. How long Lord, will you allow this oppression. Why, God, do you allow the wicked to prevail? It seems that we are not the first to ask God these questions.

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age,

against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Ephesians 6:12

I do not have the answers you seek with this with this blog. I do not know why one woman can bear children, while another cannot. I do not know why people die young, and others live to be 100. I do not know why bad things happen to some and others seems to have a golden life. I can tell you that this is not our permanent home. This land we live on is the Principality of the enemy and he will stop at nothing to make followers of Christ miserable.

 The enemy uses others to come against us. Try looking at the person causing you pain as a person being used by the enemy. That will make you pray for that person a lot differently. I had a Pastor, tell me stop envisioning the person hurting me, as flesh and start seeing that person in a way that would cause me to pray for them. Now when I pray for someone coming against me, I see them covered in a dark tar, choking them and preventing them from seeing the light. The tar represents the evil spilling out over them. I being to pray that the Light break through the dark, thick, tar and allow them to be used as vessels of the King, not the enemy.

Why do bad things happen? Look at the scripture. Bad things happen because we fight against powers, rulers, and spiritual hosts in wickedness. There is a lot going on in the heavenly realms. God’s forces are surrounding us to protect us. When I go through a storm, I try to remember how much worse it would be without God’s hedge of protection around me and my family. There is a reason for everything we go through and a testimony waiting to help another.

I encourage you to read the book of Habakkuk. It is a great read that goes through a conversation with God.

Lord, I lift up those asking you, why? I pray for those that seek answers for the bad things that have happened in their lives or the lives of those around them. I pray as they seek answers, they find peace in knowing that you have already won. Lord thank you for the opportunity to minister to others. May these words touch someone, today. Amen