Give It a Rest

Give It a Rest

This blew me away at lifegroup last night. Hacking through the 1st half of Acts 11. Peter returns to Jerusalem after the Gentile, Cornelius, has the Holy Spirit fall on him and gets baptized. He is immediately set upon by Jewish Christians for daring to mingle with a Gentile. So, Peter recalls the whole story, and it says at the end of his telling of it, his critics "quieted down."

What we found interesting is that this same Greek word is used in Luke 14. Jesus is out walking around on the Sabbath, following by a bunch of lawyers and religious leaders looking for Him to make a mistake. Jesus sees a man suffering from dropsy in front of him. He turns to the religious types and asks them whether it is lawful to heal on the Sabbath. The scriptures say that they kept silent. "Kept silent" is the same word as "quieted down" in Acts.

In Luke 23, after Jesus' crucifixion, the women saw Jesus' tomb and how His body was laid. And they returned and prepared spices and perfumes. And on the Sabbath, it says, they rested according to the commandment. The word "rested" is the same word translated "kept silent" and "quieted down."

Putting these all together, what do you get? Maybe resting in the Lord has a lot more to do with shutting up for a change. Before the God of all the Universe, the Creator of all things, the One who sees the end from the very beginning, the Merciful and Just God who knows us better than we do, perhaps we'd be wise to be as savvy as the Pharisees and just give it a rest. Realize we have nothing to say that really matters. There's no defense we can make. No excuse that works. No argument that sounds wise. No plans or strategies that impress.

Maybe we should just give it a rest. Maybe if we shut up, He'll have a chance to talk to us. Maybe He'll tell us what to pray for. Maybe He'll tell us how to pray for it. Maybe He'll rip our hearts open, as He did mine last night, and show us areas of us He doesn't yet posses but wants to.

So, for 13 minutes last night, we just allowed Him the opportunity to have His way, to have the floor, our hearts a quiet pool to stir with his finger. To be truthful, we didn't find it easy. Maybe the joy of transforming lives will give us perserverance. So, we're writing down what we heard. Our boldness move next week is to share that.

Dangerous stuff. Feel feel to try it.


Dwaine Darrah
McLean Campus Pastor

On That Day: A DocuDrama

Stephen and I have a lot in common. We grew up in the same town. Went to the same church growing up. Came to believe in the same Jesus. Saw the same miracles.

Died on the same day.

That day began like most others in Jerusalem. Job was going fine, had my health. I also was a new Christian. In fact, my whole family had come to know this Jesus guy and call him Lord. And He was changing us from the inside out in amazing ways. And the teaching. . ..AWESOME. Best sermons on the planet. The church was happening, man. We were seeing incredible things. Like, some days, thousands of my friends and neighbors became followers of Jesus. It was pretty sweet.

Well, mostly sweet. Up to that day. Should have seen it coming. Just wasn't looking. Man, they got Stephen the same way they got Jesus. Had some dudes invent lies about what he was saying, stirred up a mob, and just murdered him. Not cool at all. So, I think it's right that Stephen gets written up in the bible. What he laid on the religious leaders in his defense was for the ages.

Me? I don't make it through the day, either. I'm just a footnote, like everyone else who bought the farm on that day when all hell broke loose against the church.

I had a lot of questions, for sure. You would have, too. I mean, to stop breathing on that day was not in my five-year plan. I double-checked. Not there. There were still more people with whom I wanted to share the gospel, more things to learn, more changes to make, more tithes to give, more impact to have. Dying on that day? Just didn't seem to make a lot of sense. Why did this happen? Why would God allow it? Does He know what He's doing? Is He really in control? If not, can I trust Him?

Things happened so fast after Stephen's death that I didn't have a chance to get good answers to these questions. The mob just turned immediately on anyone who was a Christian. It looked like leaving town would be the only option, but we didn't have time to pack before they dragged us off.

So, here I am. Looking down on the earth I used to walk, trying to figure it out. I've got this incredible eternity to look forward to. Not particularly bitter. Just wanting to make sense of why I was at all. What purpose was there in my life down there, and what good did I accomplish? I was only a Christian for a couple of months. Seems like such a waste.

But sitting here, I'm reminded that Jesus told us we would be His witnesses not only in Jerusalem, but in Judea, in Samaria, and in the remotest parts of the earth. While I thought I'd leave Jerusalem someday and spread the gospel, seems God's idea was that I was to serve as the catalyst for others to make that journey. Wasn't easy to accommodate, but it seems I was supposed to die there in Jerusalem. It wasn't some fluke, an accident. My death forced those whose job was to move out and spread the gospel to get on with it.

Ok, I'm still pretty sure I would have written a different role for myself in this saga, but I'm getting it that God knows exactly what He's doing. I also got it just how much of my relationship with Jesus revolved around my expectations of what He'd do for me, how He'd make me happy, and how He'd give me this or that thing or experience, how He'd make me notable or great or something. You know, I thought my mindset was eternally focused, but in reality I had way too much stock in life down there. Maybe I'd have seen things more clearly if my life revolved less around my happiness and more around seeing how every situation was an opportunity to give Him glory.

So, for those of you still down there, maybe you're wondering about hard times, illnesses, disappointments, whatever. Maybe there's something bigger afoot. Are you looking for it? Maybe it's not going badly. Maybe it's just going godly. And, on that day--you know, when you get here--it'll be fun to compare notes.

Want to read some more about this stuff, cull through Acts 1:1-8; Acts 6:1-8:4.

And That's the Truth

What is.

That was my answer. And it was my answer every time.

I don't know where the kids' fascination with the concept originated. A story read to them? Sunday School? Discussions about lying? Who knows. I just know that at some point they asked the question, "Daddy, what is truth?" My response was "Truth is what is." They thought this was so amusing that it became a ritual. Any time they had friends over, they'd drag 'em to me and say "Daddy, tell Billy what truth is." And they wouldn't stop until I'd say "The truth is what is." Then they'd run off howling. Yeah, I've got weird kids.

At first glance, you'd think that everyone was as interested in truth as my kids were. I mean, juries want you to testify and tell the truth. It's important enough that you have to swear to do so. More than 15 countries have instituted truth commissions of one kind or another to get to the bottom of some issue haunting their past. One of Malcolm X's exhibits is title "A Search for Truth."

I've found, however, that sometimes, we're not that interested in the straight up truth, because it can be hard to swallow. My sister-in-law is wanting truth to go far away right now. It's not because she's a bad person. She just wants to suppress the truth because she's in pain. My brother-in-law's been battling cancer, and the doctors are now saying that even though it's in remission right now, it's still there and will take him within 5 years. She doesn't want "what is." She wants something else.

Sometimes, even when you want to deal with the truth, it seems beyond your grasp. Ask someone addicted to drugs or alcohol or sex or whatever. They know it's killing them, destroying them. But suppressing the truth persuades you to do it again, expecting somehow that it'll turn out alright this time.

And then there's me. The Bible tells me straight up in the early part of the book of Romans that when I decide to do my own thing, believe something that God doesn't believe, that I am suppressing truth. Oh, sure, I'm not gonna call it that, but I want what I want even though God tells me it's bad for me. But I suppress that, choosing to believe a lie--that somehow my good will result from it--to justify my own selfishness. The BIble even goes so far as to say that I can be so blinded by my selfishness that I can't even think straight. I know this is true. I've done it more times than I care to remember. I can con myself so well that I forget I'm conning myself and believe this thing I know is bad for me is actually good for me.

The Bible makes a pretty bold claim. Not only does Jesus have the skinny on some truth. It goes beyond that to say that Jesus is actually truth. Jesus Himself says that. And it that's true, then if I really want to know the truth about what will bring me happiness, or the truth on how to find meaning for my life, or the truth about what I'm doing that's working for my good or ill, or the truth about how to understand my own heart and my own desires, or the truth about how to make sense of the stuff that just seems to happen all around me, then I'd better get to know Jesus. Not know about Him. Not memorize facts about what He did, where He went, what He said. Really know Him.

Realizing this has made me zero in more on walking and talking to Him like the real person He is, rather that studying about Him like He's some great art work or something. And it's made all the difference.

Reflecting back, truth really is "what is." But what really is, is Jesus.

No lie.

Dwaine Darrah, McLean Campus Pastor

Great Expectations

Last week at lifegroup, we challenged ourselves to be more bold. This week, we all wanted, of course, to forget that we had prayed about that and to just keep on plowing through Acts. I mean, it's all about getting more Bible facts in our brains, right?

Sadly, reminded that the Bible tells us not to be like people who look in mirror and then forget our appearance when we turn away, we went for it. We went around the room to tell what happened. All I gotta say was that it was AWESOME!!!! I'll mention no names to protect the innocent, but here are the stories:

One guy teamed up with another Christian at work to start having lunch with this particularly troubled person no one wants anything to do with. When they raised the idea of getting together with this person to a couple of other non-Christian colleagues, it's caused all kinds of discussions to break out.

One gal told of a young couple who are sort of distant relatives by marriage with whom she's had some recent conversations. The young woman just told her that her boyfriend is moving and has asked her to move in with him in the new location. The way she mentioned this, it was almost like the young girl is inviting a conversation on the topic. So, doors are opening.

One guy had a conversation with a neighbor. As soon as anything about church was mentioned, the neighbor clammed up. So, we kicked around ideas for helping jump start the conversation again.

One gal is moving toward getting into a crafting club to meet people to start conversations.

One guy noted that his neighbors, who have been separated on and off for years are back together. He is determined to strike up a conversation with them this week.

One gal, who was an a vowed atheist before accepting Jesus, has singled out a close friend who is still an atheist, to bodly reach out to.

Some points worth noting. Doing this together was incredibly encouraging. The people in the room are just like me - just people living life, working, eating, sleeping, having the same pressures I do. There was a "we're all in this thing together" feel in the room.

I left feeling like I could do this! I could persevere! These guys have my back!

I also found the accountability rewarding. To have people who know you and love you anyway holding you accountable feels a whole lot different than having it done by some impersonal "boss type." It was a lot of fun.

Finally, it was incredibly helpful. As we shared, others threw out ideas that might work, things that might be said to break through the barriers. And the real benefit was that these comments came often from people with backgrounds similar to those some of us were trying to reach. They had insights into how those people think and how they would respond that I did not.

In the end, I left more equipped for the task this week, feeling like I was part of something much bigger than me, and encouraged that I was not in this alone.

If you're not in a lifegroup, all I can tell you is that you are missing out big time.

I know it's possible that you are just growing and growing, and starting conversations with your unchurched neighbors, and leading people to Jesus all the time. But I know it's more likely that you aren't.

We're gonna be talking about what it means to be on Jesus' team on Sunday at McLean. Team certainly implies connecting. Why not check out the lifegroups, make the time, and be there.

Oh, and you can study up on Jesus' team in Matthew 10 if you want a leg up for Sunday.

Generating a Little Fear

It's the day after the white supremacist, the Jew and Black hater, opened fire at the Holocaust Museum in DC. I'm in DC today helping my daughter with the twins. As Jackie and Amy head to the grocery store, I decide to walk to McDonald's, two blocks away. Amy's not happy. That location is notorious as a center for drugs and gangs. I'll have to walk by the place where, in broad daylight a few weeks ago, a young kid was shot dead. I'm a man, after all, and thus too stupid to know anything. So, I walk. But, I gotta say that I was on high alert and the eyes behind my Oakley's didn't miss a thing. I soldiered through because I was hungry, pressed ahead despite the risk. Got my burger, walked back the two blocks, and downed it safely.

Reminds me a smidge of lifegroup this week. It's the early chapters of Acts. Peter and John heal a lame guy, and the crowd goes wild. But the authorities don't and haul them off to jail for the night. All the brass gather the next morning, which, for all Peter and John knew, could be their last. They give an impressive testimony that Jesus Christ was behind the miracle. Unable to crack these guys, worried about the crowd reaction, and reconciled to the fact that an actual miracle had occurred, the brass let Peter and John go, ordering them to not mention Jesus' name again. Implicit in the order is "Or else." Peter and John say "No way, dudes" and head off to meet with the church.

What happens next is interesting to me, because in the face of the threat, the whole church unifies behind this prayer, and I'm paraphrasing: "Help us overcome our fear and testify boldy of You, Jesus." And to the thousands already saved since Pentecost, multitudes continued to be saved.

So I'm thinking, maybe we're not afraid enough yet to pray for boldness. Maybe that's why we've not filled our auditoria yet to the brim. The church in China, under attack and underground, is and has been experiencing exponential growth for years.

So, I'm thinking, can we get a proper fear going without having to rely on the government to persecute us? Can we be fearful of our family members spending an eternity in misery? Can we be fearful of our friends spending an eternity in misery? Can we be fearful of our neighbors spending an eternity in misery? Can we be fearful of Americans spending an eternity in misery? Can we be fearful of the nations spending an eternity in misery?

Can we be fearful of people living lives of misery and purposeless right here on this planet? I mean, fearful enough to get on our knees and pray for boldness to testify of Jesus Christ?

Our lifegroup took on the challenge this week, with a commitment to hold ourselves accountable. I've got to go into that room next Tuesday night, and as the pastor, I'd better have a story. And the pressure just got worse. One guy in the group told me the very next day of a "boldness" story. Geez, who'd have thought they were all serious???

So, ok, I'm not afraid for my life, but I'm hoping the fear of being embarrassed at not living the life I say I believe in will propel me to my knees and that the Holy Spirit will lead me into action. Cause it'd be cool if this turns out not to be just a fad, but a lifestyle.

Coming Attraction: Transformers

I saw the Star Trek movie this week, and I only have one question.

William Shatner? Where were you, dude?

Oh, and a comment.

Uhuru and Spock? I don't think so.

But enough about the main attraction, how about one of my favorite parts of every movie experience... the coming attractions!

This time it was all about the new Transformers flick. I am glad they're making a sequel; perhaps the director will have gained familiarity with the concept of character development.

Still, it got me thinking.

Some of the cars and trucks and bulldozers transform into good guys; some transform into bad guys.

It is what's going on in the deepest part of the machines that determines everything. Same with us, it seems.

In Ezekiel 7:19-20 it talks about how it's possible for us to transform things beautiful into that which is abhorrent.

Doesn't have to be that way. Check out Romans 12:2. It's possible that we can be transformed from the inside out in a way that proves just how good and perfect and pleasing God is.

Is it an unfair question to ask you to ponder which path you're pursuing? Look back 5 years. What do you see?

To encourage you, we'll be hearing from two people on Sunday who will tell us their stories of transformation on the second path. No, they're not angels. Just imperfect people like you and me, still a work in progress, but who are finding hope and joy we all want.

Tired of just hearing all about what God could do? Come and see what He has done and is doing!

It'll bless your socks off--good thing we're an informal bunch, eh?

11:00 a.m., Sunday at 1988 Kirby Road, McLean.

Help from the Other Side?

Everywhere you turn, there's another news story that suggests God is getting beat down.

From the porn movie broadcast at the University of Maryland, to the 10 Commandments being removed from government property, to redefining what a marriage is. There was even criticism of Rick Warren's prayer at Obama's inauguration (how dare he mention Jesus!).

You'd think that all of America had come to the same conclusion--God isn't.

Despite this, Americans have this fascination with the spiritual? It's everywhere; not just on Oprah.

Ghost Town - a jerk dentist survives a near-death experience and see ghosts.

Ghost Whisperer - Jennifer Love Hewitt's character aids troubled spirits.

Supernatural - two brothers hunting demons.

Medium - Allison Dubois helps the police solve murders through visions and contact with the dead. Interestingly, this week, she concludes that her gift was given to her by God.

We could go on (Touched by an Angel, Joan of Arcadia, Ghost, The Others, Sixth Sense, A Haunting in Connecticut, The Gift), but you get my point!

Oh, there's also a great book on the supernatural. It's called the Bible. It's author might know something about this subject.

Now, the story it tells doesn't read anything like what we're getting from Hollywood.

But, hey, if you think Hollywood has a bead on all things spiritual, I've got a bridge in New York I want to sell you.

Want to compare Hollywood's take with God's? Visit us at 11:00am this Sunday at 1988 Kirby Road, McLean, VA.

It might make your head spin--but probably not 360 degrees.

Want to ponder in advance? Try Galatians 5.