cry of the oppressed

Egypt, the superpower of its day, was ruled by Pharaoh who responded to the threat of the growing number of Israelites in his country by forcing them into slavery.  They had to work sunrise to sunset without a break making bricks, building storehouses for Pharaoh.  Egypt is an empire built on the backs of slave labor; brick by brick.

Imagine a little slave girl living in Egypt during this time asking her father why he has a bandage on his arm.  And he tells her that he was beaten by his master today.  She is of course inquisitive as to the reason.  He explains that his recent quotas have been changed and he is now required to make the same amount of bricks as before; only now he must gather his own straw.

He tells her he has been falling behind on his brick production and that is why he has been beaten.  She asks why the master couldn’t just let it slide – Why the beating?  He explains that if his quotas aren’t met then his master will be beaten by his master, and if his master doesn’t meet his quota then his overseer will beat him and so on up the chain of command all the way to Pharaoh.  The father tries to make his daughter understand that yes – the beating came from one particular man, but that man is just a part of a larger system, a complex web of power and violence and industry that exploits people for its expansion and profit.  The bandage on the father’s arm is from a wound inflicted by one man, yet it is from an entire system of injustice.  This girl’s family is facing an evil in the individual that has gone unchecked until it gathered a head of steam and is now embedded in the very fabric of that culture.

But right away in the book of Exodus there is a disruption.  Things change; and the change begins with God saying,

Exodus 3:7

And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows;

The Israelites are slaves, they are in misery, they are suffering and they cry out.  They are starved, beaten, oppressed.  Their children are mistreated.  Their wives are second class citizens in a foreign land.  They live in poverty and degradation.  The culmination of 400 years of growing oppression at the hand of a tyrant dictator.  They begin to make their supplication known and the bible says that God hears.  This is central to who God is: God always hears the cry of the oppressed.

It is this cry that inaugurates history. It kicks things into gear.  It shakes things up and gets things moving.  The cry is the reason God moves.  The plea of his people is what attracts the involvement of God. We focus on the miracles, the signs, and wonders of deliverance.  We focus on the joy of deliverance but before they are carried on eagle’s wings to deliverance there is a cry of desperation.  There is a voice of pain and weeping.  The cry is the catalyst, the cause and the reason a new story unfolds.  And it is all because of the cry of the oppressed.

Think about your life.  What are the moments that have shaped you the most?  If you were to pick just a couple, what would they be?  Periods of transformation, times when your eyes where opened, decisions that you have made that have made you the person you are today.  How many of them came when you reached the end of your rope?  When everything fell apart?  When you were confronted with powerlessness?  When you were ready to admit your life was unmanageable?  When there was nothing left to do but cry out?  For many people it was your cry that set in motion your deliverance.  It was their desperation, their acknowledgement of their oppression; that was the beginning of their liberation.

When we are on top, when the system works for us, when we are capable of managing our lives ourselves we have very little for God to do.  But when we have exhausted all tangible resources the trajectory of our complaints begin to shift.  When there is only one option and no other alternative, you lift up your head and raise your voice and begin to cry unto the Lord and he will doubtless deliver your life from destruction.  It took Israel 400 years of back breaking oppression to finally cry out to God.  It is a testimony of human dependance  and self reliance.  Shift your posture and realign your cry; stop complaining and cry out to some one who can actually do something about it.  He always hears the cry of the oppressed.

Here!

Great afternoon spent at the school.  Megan sang at honors day for her school and she did a fantastic job.  Looking forward to a great weekend with family and friends.  Speaking in Humble, TX next weekend for pentecost sunday and starting to get pumped about that.  Shaping up to be a busy summer and that is a two-edged sword.  Cool to be busy but at times stressing as well.  Will be back soon… have a productive friday.

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progression

I had a very stimulating conversation with one of my mentors today about progression.  Progress in church, ministry, friendship, ect.  Progress seems to be a very catchy word in our vocabulary and as well it should be.  Progress – every one claims to desire it, some strive to reach for it, but few really pay the price for it.  One thing that I have discovered in seeking progress, is that no matter how hard I try, how much vision casting I engage in, how long I wait for some to catch the call, inevitably some one always gets left behind.  No matter how hard you pull and push there are those who are satisfied to stay behind.

Let us consider God’s first church – Israel.  They started on the journey of progress led out of bondage by God’s man Moses.  No one is left behind; all are wanting to leave Pharaoh’s land of bondage.  We seem to trend much easier to going forward when we are leaving pain and injury. No complaints are heard the morning after the death of Egypt’s first born.  But the true test is leaving our sphere of comfort.  Especially when we are enjoying a measure of success – like survival!  It amazes me the amount of people who are satisfied with simply surviving. They seem to be tethered to this invisible ball and chain that restrains them from going to higher heights and deeper dimensions in God. The hardest lesson in progressing in God (that I have experienced to this point) is learning that a tangible move of the spirit in my life does not equate spiritual progress.

They had genuine, tangible, real moves of the spirit every day of their lives.  The pillar of cloud and fire was present every day for 40 years.  Undeniably that was a move of God.  I don’t see those when I wake up each day.  When the dew ascended there was manna in its place.  No matter how far they traveled there was a rock that gushed water every stop along the way.  In fact, it followed them for 40 years.  God never failed to provide for them.  Their shoes grew with their feet and never wore out.  They had a real move of God.

But one by one each of them died in the wilderness.  It is apparently possible to have genuine, tangible moves of the spirit and never make progress.  I have preached in churches that shouted and danced and there was no mistaking that God was there but they were at exactly the same place as they were 40 years ago. Passing by the same spiritual landmarks week after week and revival after revival.  I believe it is possible to have a move of the Spirit and never allow the Spirit to move us.

There is no substitute for a move of the Spirit (in fact don’t recommend living without one), but don’t accept the mentality that is still present today that you must have revival over the same square mile patch of ground and never conquer new territories in the Spirit.  That is surviving; I’m seeking progression!

weekend

Tremendous weekend!  Bro. Keith Clark preached two of the best messages that I have heard in my life.  2 more rec’d the Holy Ghost and we are continuing on in revival.  I can’t wait to see what else Jesus has in store for us.  Love to all!

Brandon

adaptation

While I do not believe in the evolution of man from a lesser life form to the superior being that he is today, I do believe that human beings have the uncanny ability to adapt to just about any situation.  For instance, humans have colonized the arctic regions in frigid temps and for thousands of years people have lived in rain forests along the equator.  We have the ability to adapt and flourish in less than ideal circumstances.

Even in the social realm we can adapt and learn to live in a myriad of situations and still live somewhat productive lives in different social climates.  And while this speaks well of people in one sense, this can be tragic in a spiritual sense.

I Samuel 16 finds King Saul groveling at the feet of God’s priest and prophet Samuel.  He has Agag the King of Amalek behind him, the bleating of Amalek”s sheep are also within earshot, and he has just been informed that the God of Israel is now his enemy.  Clasped in his hand is the torn fabric of Samuel’s anointed mantle;  a symbolic gesture that his kingdom as about to be taken from his hand and given to another.  Samuel describes a very different Saul than the one that is before him now.  ”When you were insignificant in your own eyes, God exalted you to the throne of Israel…”  Now that man is only a memory.

How does a man of such paramount potential reach this place of a spiritual derelict.  Hasty, unsanctioned sacrifices, never enquiring about God’s ark of the covenant, refusing to build a personal altar, substituting the voice of the populous for the voice of God, and on and on.  For some reason Saul reached a spiritual place that he felt as though he no longer needed a spiritual encounter in his life.  He learned to adapt.

I read a book recently called “Jesus wants to save Christians” and in the book the author says that 95% of church activity can be accomplished without the Holy Spirit.  Crazy you say – let us take inventory.

Most of us have never had to use our spirit for anything before you came to God.

And many of us come to church for weeks and weeks and weeks and though I’m sure your pastor is glad to see you, you come in and sit down on a pew for an hour and a half and get up and drag your body back home, disengage your mind, never use your spirit and the issue arises have you ever really had a worship experience.  I am alarmed that a great many people do not have a good working knowledge as to what worship really is.

It is not just dressing up, putting on your nice Sunday clothes and coming out to the place of your choosing and letting the church entertain you in a religious connotation or with an upbeat, evangelistic service.  Worship is not that. Worship is not just the recitation of song or a hymn or the repeating of a scripture or the bowing of your head or the lighting of a candle or skipping or dancing or however you express yourself.  It is more than that.

Worship is not an external issue at all.  It is a matter of the heart, it is an issue of the spirit, it is the deepest part of you reaching out to the deepest part of God and it is very challenging because there are no other parts of out lives that ask us for what worship asks of us.  Many cultures and religions feel that worship is clamorous movement, but the moving of the body doesn’t necessarily constitute a turning of the heart.  In fact in Joel, the Lord told Israel to “rend your hearts and not your garments”.  God said I want to see your heart twisted and not your flesh.  I’m not so concerned about your externals as I am about your spirit having a vibrant touch of the spirit of God.

And after years and years of worshipping in every kind of church imaginable beside all cultures, races, denominations and ages I am convinced that very few people have ever had a real worship experience.  I am of the opinion that there must be a constant flowing of the spirit within our churches.  But many believers have adapted their lives to operate with motivation other than God’s spiritual direction.  Our theology should have more depth than to try to teach people how to live a semi-productive spiritual existence without the Spirit in constant operation our lives.

In the name of relevance the church adapted in many areas (many of which are needed).  We must be progressive in everything we do.  But we must do more than just carve out a niche’ for the Holy Spirit; it must be the driving dynamic of our existence.

Revival 2-nite!

Ladies and gentlemen,

We are kicking off with Keith Clark tonight @ 7:00.  Come charged, come prepared, come engaged for worship and the word.

See you there…

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What you want to do!

Hey Guys.

Talking with our evangelist I was reminded of this powerful axiom once again – People will do what they want to do!  It doesn’t matter what it is.  A former Pastor of mine had a statement that he used to describe the same fundamental truth.  He said, “You can tell what is most important to a person by the appointments they refuse to cancel”.

It has become more apparent to me as I deal with people week in week out that excuses are nothing more than insights into the things that are most important to people.  There are things that people chalk up as just the way it is, when in reality we have complete control of the things and in fact empower the things that often hold us hostage.

Time is a valuable commodity (understatement of the new century) that we never seem to have enough of.  Not enough time to spend with our families, not enough time to seek our Lord , not enough time to witness, you get the point.  And yet we can (and I am just engaging the culture in which I live) get up on our only day off at 4:00 am, freezing cold, light rain, spend $ we don’t have and get out do what we want to do.  But those same people will allow minute, microscopic things to come between them and the things that really matter.

I am all for recreation and fun but some things matter more than others.  One of those things that matters most is our relationship with God.  And yet the areas of life that require the most attention are always the areas that received the least.  If we are to be saved it will require everything!  If the righteous scarcely be saved…we are not running far ahead of what is required.

All of us admit we need to do more for the advancement of his kingdom but when do we intend to get around to it?  We all admit that there is a need for more giving, loving and commitment and yet we continue to be greedy, cold and complacent.  The Apostle writer admonished the church that what they were doing was needed but as they saw the day (the end) approaching that they should intensify their efforts even more.

Our world needs more; more love, more time, more compassion, more of the church.  Will you excuse yourself as you have in the past, soothe your conscience with phrases like, “I would-if I just had the time”?  Or will you reevaluate your life, recommit to following his heart and decide that I was saved to make a difference?  If there is anything we all know – We do what we want to do!