Meditation: What Captures God's Heart?

The Creator of the Universe is not easily impressed. Some theologians suggest that because God knows everything, he cannot be moved, but I think some things can capture God's heart. Not power or intellect--those are the things that impress fools like us. But imagine the King of the Universe sitting up and taking special notice of you because something you thought, said, or did stirred his heart. I think it's possible.

Based on my reading of the scripture, here’s my simple list of what caught the Lord's attention. I’ll bet you could add a few more:

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Monday's Meditation: What I Saw at Church

Yesterday at church I saw heaven breaking into earth here and now.

I saw signs and wonders: children in sparkling tennis shoes that flashed multicolored lights as they danced in worship. I saw a four year-old offensive lineman soaking in the Spirit of Christ, unaware of how strong his body will grow or how he will use it to glorify God. I saw the Woodstock generation worshipping next to generations unborn. I saw the unlovely, enraptured by the bridegroom and made beautiful by the sight of of him. They became beautiful in my sight as well. I saw a rage-oholic find peace as he stood in the back of the room. He drank it in--the only peace he knows each week--in the Father's presence. 

I heard voices normally used in the everyday business of life blended together in the unison of praise. Voices which sang without words, making new paths of melody, expressing what their hearts knew but their minds did not. I heard songs so new that no one had ever heard them but the singer herself, followed by the songs of saints dead a hundred years or more. I heard the sound of heaven surge through tongues, lungs, and throats of flesh and blood, like fountains made pure by the very water they released.

I tasted bad coffee. It was somehow made better because it was shared in common. I savored the sacred elements of donuts and fruit, muffins and juice, sanctified by people receiving the sacrament of family. I tasted and saw that the Lord is good.

I caught the fragrance of the unwashed who had been embraced by the Rose of Sharon. I discovered that his aroma overpowers theirs: the aroma of life to those who are being saved, and the stench of death nowhere in the place.

I heard the Holy Spirit whisper secrets to the pastor, who announced them to the church. I watched as the people miraculously flashed the inspired words around the world even before the sermon had ended. I saw sojourners who had no home find a place to call home, if only for an hour.

I saw in the church the fulness of him who fills every thing in every way. I discovered the pillar and support of the truth as they put the wisdom of God on display--not for themselves, but for the powers and principalities in heavenly places--unaware they were being watched.

Yesterday at church I touched all these things and more. What did you see?

Monday's Meditation: Experiencing His Presence

One night God came to dinner with me and five of my friends. We’ve never been the same.

We were a team of six college students who found ourselves unexpectedly joined together because our backyard Bible study had blossomed into a small church. Our ragtag group of believers were like the Lost Boys in Peter Pan--not a true adult among us. We sang silly songs and engaged in Bible teaching, even though we ourselves knew nothing. We had seen our fellowship grow into 120 people, but the only thing we knew for sure is that the six of us were called by God into mutual commitment to him and one another.

Alone in a church basement, around the scent of roast lamb rising from our plates we celebrated what God had done between us. We ate a covenant meal and expressed our commitment to one another.

What happened next changed my life: God became present in a tangible way. He was in the room with us. We stopped praying and sat in silence. The room was heavy: the air lay upon my shoulders like a weight. None of us dared speak. The silence was so thick it seemed like a substance. Each of us knew that God had joined us. We felt small and insignificant even while we also felt eternity welling inside of our very bodies.

After he left, we sat together stunned, and shared our experiences. My tiny mind knew that, technically, God was everywhere all the time, but in that moment I experienced his presence for the first time. In the decades since I have encountered God again and again, now aware that there is a difference between the knowledge of his omni-presence and the experience of his presence. 

I’ve listened to other people speak of their experiences as well: 

“God met me in a hotel room one night;” 

“God visited me in my childhood as I looked out my bedroom window;” 

“The presence of God filled the room like a cloud as we worshipped.” 

I know their accounts are true simply because I have eaten at the same table and sipped the same wine. I’ve read the accounts of people like Jacob the slickster, who awoke one night and gasped, “‘Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was not aware of it.’ He was afraid and said, ‘How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.’” (Genesis 28: 16-17)

This week’s Meditation is a two-fold invitation to this community of readers: 

• If you’re never experienced the presence of God in a tangible way, ask him to come and open yourself to the possibility.
• If you have experienced his presence, click on the comments below and share your story. Let deep call to deep so we might all hunger again for that banqueting table.

One True Thing: Worship

This week is vacation time for the Hollenbach clan, so we invited friends to stay in our home and we hit the road: 13 states in 10 days (3,000 miles!). So this week is retro-post “One True Thing Week,” in which I share previous posts about the truest things I know. Today: Worship.



From September, 2010: Worship in the Midst of Doubt

Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.  (Matthew 28: 16-17)

Why doesn’t everyone include verses 16 and 17 in the “Great Commission?” I suspect because these two verses include topics rarely discussed in the lives a disciple: obedience, worship, and doubt. Can we worship in the midst of doubt?

Imagine the scene around the resurrected Jesus: his best friends giving him worship in a private setting, yet in some minds and hearts there was still doubt. Yet their doubt did not disqualify them. He still received them, and he gave the “Great Commission.”

Doubt is a solitary struggle. Most expressions of worship are outward: we sing, kneel, pray, dance, bow, read, listen, and fellowship. Others see our actions, but this passage reminds us Jesus knows our hearts and thoughts as well. What kind of doubts did some of the disciples have? Matthew does not tell us. We are left to speculate: perhaps, “I don’t belong here . . . I denied the Lord . . . Have I gone mad? . . . Is this really Jesus? . . . What will he require of me?” I believe their worship was sincere; so were their doubts.

The doubting disciples had obeyed. They had made their way to Galilee, just as Jesus instructed. Jesus did not turn away the doubters, he received their worship and included them in his mission. Disobedience would have kept them from hearing his voice; doubt did not.

What if worship is giving all of ourselves to God--even the parts that struggle to believe, to trust, to surrender? Perhaps that day the doubters discovered Isaiah’s description of Jesus was true: “A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.” (Matt. 12:20)

Earlier in his ministry Jesus told his friends, “true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.” Some people have interpreted "truth" to mean "doctrine," but what if Jesus also meant the truth about ourselves? Here’s a meditation worthy for the week: can I bring my doubts as an act of worship?

The Truest Things I Know (So Far)

When something you discovered twenty years ago can still overpower you with tsunami-strength, you know you’ve found one of the truest things you know.

Truth varies depending on its degree of impact. Two plus two will always equal four, but such truth does not lift my heart or draw me closer to Jesus. Jeremiah warned us, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure” which is certainly true but it doesn’t move me to worship or action. Some truth is practical: my father taught me: “Never play cards with a man named Slick.” It has saved me tens of thousands of dollars, but it’s hardly a life-mantra.

God’s truth, like his creation, is infinitely-faceted. It fills the universe and moves the hearts of men and women. While I am not moved by the structure of numbers, the mathematician extends his arms in worship for God’s order, majesty, and wisdom. The Father has made all things beautiful in their time. I believe he has also made each of us individually to marvel at certain aspects of his revelation. If we discover just one breath-taking aspect of his truth for each decade we live, we will go to the grave with as much wonder and worship as a child who has first discovered mother-love.

I still have some decades to go, but I’d like to share five of the truest things I know. The kind of things that can still cause my heart to skip a beat, like the first time I saw my wife.

Thankfulness is the doorway to God’s presence. Eugene Peterson says “Thank You” is the password to God’s presence. G.K. Chesterton became a believer by recognizing impossibility of feeling thankfulness apart from having Someone to thank. I have been a father for twenty-five years: when one of my children expresses gratitude, my heart leaps inwardly--not because it strokes my ego but because I know it is the key their advancement in the Spirit. Thankfulness opens the way. Won't you come in?

Worship and sanity walk together. You should come, too. For some people the 30-45 minutes of praise and worship on Sunday mornings is the only time of the week in which they are in their right mind. Music is song-voice of mathematics. Lyrics focused on Jesus is the true end of language. That our mouths and ears can be simultaneously focused on him is to surround ourselves with truth.We needn’t wait until Sunday: some people are wise enough to worship at every free moment of the week. They are saturated in adoration. They are the sober ones in a world drunk on selfishness.

The gospel is “the gospel of the Kingdom of God.” I’m grateful for my Evangelical roots, but I’ve discovered that the gospel of go-to-heaven-when-you-die differs radically from the gospel of the Kingdom of God. Isaiah saw the Kingdom as a present reality. John the Baptist proclaimed the Kingdom. Jesus did the same. The story of the early church opens and closes with the Kingdom of God. The irrepressible E. Stanley Jones declared the secret of the universe is the Unshakable Kingdom and the Unchanging Person. I am following the trail Dr. Jones left behind. You should come, too.

God created time for our benefit. This is the most recent discovery for me: life is daily because the Creator set it up that way. The creation-song of Genesis repeats the chorus over and over: “there was evening, and there was morning, another day.” Do not set these lyrics aside a no-brainer. It is the revelation of God’s wisdom for his children: we cannot live in the past, the future is beyond our understanding, we were made to live in the moment--with Him.

Forgiveness is perhaps the most essential life skill. “Unforgiveness is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.” St. Augustine’s counsel is still wise today. Jesus not only forgave the sins the world, he modeled forgiveness so that we should do the same. Who could disagree? The challenge is in the doing. “Every one says forgiveness is a lovely idea, until they have something to forgive.” Forgiveness contains so many other truths: we are sinful people; we live in a sinful world; sin hurts us all. Yet the One wounded most by sin is the One who demonstrated the only way through: Forgive.

In fifty-plus years I have a handful of the truest things I know. Perhaps, by the grace of God, I will end up with two hands full.

What about you? What has found its way into your hand? Why not leave a comment and share the truest things you know.

Monday's Meditation: Worship in the Midst of Doubt

Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.  (Matthew 28: 16-17)

Why doesn’t everyone include verses 16 and 17 in the “Great Commission?” I suspect because these two verses include topics rarely discussed in the lives a disciple: obedience and doubt. Thursday we began to discuss doubt. This week why not meditate on worship in the midst of doubt?

Imagine the scene around the resurrected Jesus: his best friends giving him worship in a private setting, yet in some minds and hearts there was still doubt. Yet their doubt did not disqualify them. He still received them, and he gave the “Great Commission.”

Doubt is a solitary struggle. Most expressions of worship are outward: we sing, kneel, pray, dance, bow, read, listen, and fellowship. Others see our actions, but this passage reminds us Jesus knows our hearts and thoughts as well. What kind of doubts did some of the disciples have? Matthew does not tell us. We are left to speculate: perhaps, “I don’t belong here . . . I denied the Lord . . . Have I gone mad? . . . Is this really Jesus? . . . What will he require of me?” I believe their worship was sincere; so were their doubts.

The doubting disciples had obeyed. They had made their way to Galilee, just as Jesus instructed. Jesus did not turn away the doubters, he received their worship and included them in his mission. Disobedience would have kept them from hearing his voice; doubt did not. 

What if worship is giving all of ourselves to God--even the parts that struggle to believe, to trust, to surrender? Perhaps that day the doubters discovered Isaiah’s description of Jesus was true: “A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.” (Matt. 12:20)

Earlier in his ministry Jesus told his friends, “true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.” Some people have interpreted "truth" to mean "doctrine," but what if Jesus also meant the truth about ourselves? Here’s a meditation worthy for the week: can I bring my doubts as an act of worship?

Everyone's Entitled to My Opinion: About Dialing it Down

I keep a dreadful secret from my friends at church. You see, where I worship, if you think the music’s too loud, you are definitely too old. The drugged-out neighbors near our building call the police to complain about the volume. The Kentucky Academy of Pediatrics has labeled the Vineyard the number one threat to children’s hearing in the state. Baby Boomers bring ear plugs to church. All the guitar amps go to 11.

But deep in the recesses of my iPhone, where no one can see my music collection, I have a playlist of gentle music. At my desk, I put in the ear buds and secretly dial it down. The fools--they think I'm still rocking it out! But God lives in the still small sounds, too.

So if you promise not to let this get back to the hometown gang, I’d like to recommend quiet music for quiet times:

• Chant, The Benedictine Monks of Santo Domingo de Silos.  These guys have been rockin’ it old-school for 1500 hundred years. Careful--people might mistake you for a closet Catholic.
• Chants of the Russian Orthodox Church. Still quiet music, until the chimes and bells go nuts. These guys get a little rowdy--the Benedictines to the south think of this music as punk.
• Love Came Down, Brian Johnson. A thousand years and a ten thousand miles from the monks comes an album from the Jesus Culture rockers. Don’t even call it unplugged. It’s sweet and gentle, and a pathway to His presence

Perhaps my opinion today is not for everyone. On Saturdays I recommend books, movies, even porches. In my opinion everyone oughta dial it dial down from time to time.