Tag: faith

Posted in Through the Bible Devotions

How about a little more dancing?

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Andre Hunter on Unsplash

After being reprimanded by his wife for leaping and dancing half-naked before the Lord, David replies,

“I will celebrate before the Lord. I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes” (2 Samuel 6:21,22).

Everyone is shouting, blowing trumpets, and escorting the ark of the Lord into the City of David. It is a time of unfettered celebration and worship.

Most worship isn’t like that, is it? Rather than celebratory, undignified, and humiliating, our worship is meditative, measured, and staid.

Someone told me that humility isn’t thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less. In this case, this would mean thinking more of God than myself in worship.

Which is typically not the case. I want worship to be convenient and comfortable. I want the music I enjoy in an inspirational setting. I want a message that addresses the world’s ills without getting too close to mine. I want to sip on coffee, snack on a donut, park near the entrance, and get a pen with the church’s name printed on it to take home. I want the church to be fully staffed so I don’t have to worry about volunteering.

Okay, not exactly. But there’s more truth there than you or I like to admit. Should worship be easy? Or should it take some effort? Should we work up a sweat?

Whether I look out from the pulpit or around me in the congregation, I’m astonished to see folks sitting there who don’t sing or participate in liturgy. Only listen. They don’t smile. Only grimace. Don’t engage in conversation. Only enter and exit.

To be fair, I don’t know their story. They may have had a rough week. They might have a lot on their mind.

How about we worship in the presence of God instead of in front of a mirror? Let’s listen to what he thinks of us (a little Law and Gospel) and a little less about others or our own insecurities.

Just know what you’re in for. Grace has a way of loosening us up. Before you know it, you might be dancing, too!

Posted in love

God is love. Love is God.

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Jamez Picard on Unsplash

In church yesterday, the pastor tackled “God is love” (1 John 4:16). It’s part of a series about the nature of God.

Afterwards, I thought about how I would approach that divine attribute. We use adjectives to describe God. God is powerful. Gracious. Just. Merciful. All-knowing. Unchanging. Eternal.

But we don’t use the word love as an adjective. It’s a feeling. I “love” something or someone. Or it’s accompanied by an action. Christ loved us and gave him for us. Or it’s a noun. God abounds in steadfast love.

So this is very different. At first I thought, “I don’t know how I would come at this.”

But then I thought, “What if I turned it around?” What if I start with “Love is God”? Like Paul’s description of love. “Love is patient. Love is kind…” (1 Corinthians 13:5-8). No one truly loves like that. No one but God.

So we learn what love is by observing God. And then we know God because we have seen his unconditional, sacrificial, and unending love.

Love is not just an attribute of God. It surrounds and permeates every other attribute. When God justly judges sin, it’s because of his love for us. He doesn’t want it to destroy us. God reveals his power because of his great love for us. We need a God who can do more than we ask or imagine. An unchanging God reveals his unchanging love for us. No matter what we do or don’t do, he doesn’t change and his love doesn’t change. God’s knowledge is complete. He knows everything about me. And yet he still loves me.

So once you grasp what love really is, you get a glimpse of God. And then you realize he is the essence of love. He is love.

Posted in Through the Bible Devotions

The Significance of Incense in Worship

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Anup Ghag on Unsplash

“Make an altar of acacia wood for burning incense” (Exodus 30:1).

“Aaron must burn fragrant incense on the altar every morning when he tends the lamps. He must burn incense again when he lights the lamps at twilight so incense will burn regularly before the Lord for the generations to come. (Exodus 30:7,8)

Why was the altar of incense and the daily burning of incense such an important part of tabernacle, and later, temple life?

My first experience with incense was at my first pastoral conference in Ashaway, Rhode Island. We gathered for evening prayer in a retreat center chapel. The chaplain for the conference leaned towards high church traditions, and had filled the chapel with thick clouds of incense. It was dense, fragrant, stifling, and intense. That night’s worship was unlike anything I had ever experienced.

Many years later, I was asked to preach at the anniversary of a colleague’s ordination. He also leaned towards high church traditions, and would walk through his church sanctuary leaving a lingering aroma of incense an hour before Sunday worship.

My only other encounter with incense was at the funeral of a good friend’s mother. She was Roman Catholic, and the priest prepared to walk around the casket with incense. To his dismay, there was nothing to light the incense. I watched with interest and amusement as various people did their best to make it happen.

The best explanation of incense may be from a psalm:

“May my prayer be set before you like incense” (Psalm 141:2).

As the smoke of incense rose upward, worshipers would follow the smoke’s upward ascent. Their attention would be focused upward towards the one who is worthy of all honor and praise.

How much of worship is about us? Or me? Plenty. I could use a good reminder that it’s about him, the one, God. He’s the only one worthy of praise.

How could I forget that? When I’m distracted, self-absorbed, and indulgent, the smoke of incense rising up might remind me that it’s about him.

Posted in Through the Bible Devotions

Familiar lyrics

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Rochelle Leader on Unsplash

Where did you come from, where did you go?
Where did you come from, Cotton-Eye Joe?

If you’ve been to a wedding reception lately, you’ve heard and possibly danced to “Cotton Eye Joe,” along with “Shake It Off,” “Sweet Caroline,” “Boot Scootin’ Boogie,” and “Cuban Shuffle.”

But did you know these lyrics came from the bible?

“The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. And he said, ‘Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?'” (Genesis 16:7,8)

Hagar gets caught in the middle. She’s a maidservant Sarah picked up in Egypt. It was her idea for Abraham to have a child with Hagar since Sarah wasn’t able to have children (so far). Abraham goes along, Hagar has a son they name Ishmael. The two women end up despising each other, so Hagar runs away to escape the abuse.

That’s when she encounters God. He asks, “Where did you come from, and where are you going?”

Hagar knows where’s she from. She’s running away. Where is she going? God only knows.

And that’s the key. God says, “Go back home. It won’t be easy, but you’re going to have a lot of descendants, more than you can count.” God knows exactly where this is headed. He sees her and he sees her future.

He sees our future, too. No matter where we’ve been, our future is in his hands. Those are good hands. Strong hands. Gracious hands. Reassuring hands.

It’s okay to take a look back, to see how far you’ve come. God helps us catch a glimpse of where we headed. We can trust him to take us places we could never go ourselves.

Posted in Through the Bible Devotions

Ask hard questions

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

God took Abram outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”

Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

He also said to him, “I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it.”

But Abram said, “Sovereign Lord, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?” (Genesis 15:5-8)

So one moment Abram takes God at his word. But the next, he’s got a question: “How can I be sure?”

I think it’s interesting that faith and doubt go hand in hand. Faith doesn’t always displace doubt. Zechariah wanted assurance that an old man could still have a son (Luke 1). Gideon wanted some fleece signs (Judges 6). The apostle Thomas wanted to see the resurrected Christ with his own eyes (John 20). Mary wondered, “How can this be, since I am a virgin” (Luke 1)?

Well, that’s a relief. My questions don’t negate my faith. I can still ask God, “Are you sure?” “How are you going to do that?” “Are you serious?” “You want me to do what?”

Actually, doubts and questions are a wonderful sign of faith. You know God loves you so much you can ask him anything. Anything. He knows. He knows you have questions. He knows you have doubts. He knows his commands and promises are out there. Way out there. He knows it’s not going to be easy to trust him. It doesn’t bother him at all.

Just trust him enough to ask. He wants to hear from you. He wants to hear your questions. He wants to walk with you through your doubts.

Do you trust God enough to ask him hard questions?

After teaching a class, I usually ask, “Any questions?” If there’s silence, I wonder, “Was anyone listening?” I’m not the greatest teacher. And you’re all not ideal students.

Humor me. Just ask.

Posted in Through the Bible Devotions

A faith journey

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Karina Syrotiuk on Unsplash

I was today years old when I learned some things about Abram I had never thought about before (from Genesis 12).

  • When the Lord said to Abram, “Leave your country…and go to the land I will show you,” it wasn’t the first time he spoke those words. According to Acts 7:2-4, God gave him those instructions when he was in Mesopotamia. In Genesis 11:31, the family only made it to Haran. The Lord gives them another nudge, and they finally settle in Canaan (12:5). I wonder why they didn’t go the whole way the first time?
  • The Lord said, “Leave…your people” (12:1). Abram mostly did, but took his nephew Lot with him (12:4). Lot would trouble later when Abram had to give him part of the land (13:5-9), and later when Abram had to rescue him from captors (14:16). Maybe he should have left him home.
  • Then, when there’s a famine, Abram goes to Egypt to find food. While there, Sarai acquires an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar, whom she would hate when Abram fathers a child with her (16:1). Maybe they should have trusted God to provide for them in Canaan.

Even though childless, Abram believed God’s promise to make him the father of a great nation. He’s the poster child of faith: “Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness” (15:6). But rather than a heroic faith, Abram had a growing faith. Abram made some questionable choices, but always circled back to square one, built an altar, and called on the name of the Lord (12:8; 13:18). His actions had consequences, but nothing can derail God’s plans. And along the way, Abram learned how to trust God.

Posted in Through the Bible Devotions

Good and evil

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Dominik Van Opdenbosch on Unsplash

The Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die” (Genesis 2:16).

When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it (3:6).

We’re not adept at discerning good and evil. Things that feel good, look good, smell good, and taste good aren’t necessarily good for us. Plus, it’s an ever-changing standard. Things that used to be good for us turned out to be bad, and vice versa. Eggs used to be bad. Now we need them for essential fats. Butter used to be bad. But then we discovered that substitutes like margerine were worse. Coffee? That’s like the weather. Good one day, bad the next. Some cut salt out of their diet only to discover their sodium levels are dangerously low.

People who dress nicely and command respect aren’t always good people. Those who look a little rough around the edges turn out to be the nicest people you’ve ever met.

And then there’s the assumption that if something is good for us, more of that will be even better. Most of the time, that’s not true. Too much of a good dose might just be harmful to your health, if not lethal.

The knowledge of good and evil takes us down a rabbit hole of trying to figure out things that are far beyond our understanding rather than trusting God to point or lead us in the right direction. We usually get it wrong. And God knew that this would only result in suffering, death, and separation from him.

God wasn’t surprised by their disobedience. He knew about the tempter, the temptation, the disobedience, and the consequences. The need and his plan for a Savior was in place before creation (Ephesians 1).

As Jesus would later say, “There is only one who is good” (Matthew 19:17). We don’t have to figure it out. He’s the one.

Posted in holy week, Jesus

Some Good Friday thoughts

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Paul Keiffer on Unsplash

I’m going to ramble a bit on this Good Friday. My mind is filled with an assortment of thoughts and memories.

First, I doubt that many, if any, of us can imagine what Jesus suffered at the hands of the priests and the Roman soldiers. The physical violence started with the high priest, teachers of the law, and elders who punched and slapped Jesus. After Pilate handed Jesus over the to the soldiers, they beat him with a staff, flogged him, put a crown of thorns on his head, drove nails through his hands, and crucified him.

When one fighter overwhelmingly beats and bloodies the other in an MMA octagon, the referee stops the fight. With Jesus they don’t stop, but dish out more and more punishment. We wince at the “little pinch” of a flu shot, make sure we’re numbed up before the dentist fills a small cavity, and groan when we get up after sitting too long. Jesus has the flesh on his back torn open with a whip, spikes driven through his hands and feet, and is left to hang by his arms to slowly suffocate . The bell never rings ending the round. There no pain relief, other than the drugged wine Jesus refused. There’s no time out. There’s no tapping out. The pain only stops when Jesus dies.

No painting, drawing, or representation of the crucifixion captures the gruesome horror of Good Friday. Crucifixion was a public execution. Some of those who saw it loved Jesus. Others hated him. I wonder if any of us could watch Christ suffer and die. I would turn away.

We gather for worship on Good Friday, at noon, in the afternoon, or in the evening. Our services are adored with beautiful music, encroaching darkness, descriptive words, and silent exits. The only reason it’s not so bad (good?) for us is because it was terrible for Jesus.

A Good Friday Tenebrae (“shadows” or “darkness”) service will conclude in darkness as the last candle is extinguished. The only way out is through the shadow of death, a valley Jesus traverses with us.

I remember my last Good Friday as a pastor because one grandson lit and another extinguished the candles, surrendering the room to the darkness. I took the huge family King James bible my mom gave us at our wedding, raised it high over my head, and slammed it down on the altar with all my might, to remind all of the stone settling into place, sealing Jesus in the tomb.

It’s a powerful worship moment. Everyone who’s been there before knows what’s going to happen. Yet everyone still gasps when it does.

That book was only called into duty once each spring. But it took a beating, the binding barely holding together when I handed it over to my son to use at his church on Good Friday.

The apostle Paul wrote, “We preach Christ crucified.” This is our message. It’s terrible. And yet it’s wonderful. It illustrates how bad we are and what we deserve. It also proclaims how much God loves us anyway.

Posted in faith, Food

There’s so much more to come

Posted on by William Douthwaite
  • “Food distributors announce recalls. Do you have any of these products in your pantry? Details right after this.” You keep watching through two minutes of commercials, hooked by the announcer’s teaser.
  • The first thing you see at the restaurant is the appetizer menu. Looking down the list, you’re suddenly a lot hungrier than you were when parking the car.
  • As you browse the new fiction at the library, the paragraphs on the inside cover flap catch your attention. You want to find out more about a mysterious character in an intriguing situation.
  • A glimpse of a mom or dad gives you a clue what a young woman or man will look like in twenty years. For better or worse, that’s the DNA they’ve got to work with.

All of the above comes to mind when the apostle Paul describes the Holy Spirit as “the deposit (down payment) of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it” (Ephesians 1:13,14). The faith-working Holy Spirit in us is a reminder that there is much more to come. The world around us seems to unravel more each day. People let us down. Nothing seems to last very long. We too quickly lose the ones we love.

On the other hand, God holds the universe together. He’s faithful and eternal. Nothing can separate us from his steadfast love that never ceases. His new morning mercies make us stay tuned for more details, create a craving in us for more, lead us to read the book, and imagine what we’ll be like one day.