When Sarah Laughed: a reflection on faith and the sanctity of life

I've begun this year by exploring the faith of Abraham and Sarah, whose sojourn is exemplary for us. "Look to the quarry from which you were hewn. Look to Abraham and Sarah," says the prophet Isaiah.  We are made of the same stern stuff, justified by grace through belief and inheriting the promises of God through faith and patience. To turn from pagan gods to trust God, to leave their homeland and go to a land they did not know, to trust that God could give them a child in their barrenness and old age; all required remarkable faith. Faith that I want to imitate.

I find to my relief though, that their faith sojourn was a faltering one. "Abraham did not waver in faith but grew strong as he gave glory to God?" (Romans 4:16) I doubt it! In one sense, I suppose, they were unwavering. They never returned to their pagan gods. They never returned home. They kept living as pilgrims in tents even when God brought them to their new land. Their faith trajectory was up and to the right, as they say, growing stronger with the passing years. But there were some notable dips in the upward trajectory. Abraham lies about Sarah being his sister out of self-protection, allowing her to become one of Pharaoh's concubines. Sarah tells Abraham to sleep with Hagar her slave, because she becomes impatient with God's promise of a child. Abraham obliges and Ishmael is born. 

Yet, God is faithful. After Ishmael is born God changes Abram's name to Abraham - from father of many to father of many nations. This, to a man who has fathered only one illegitimate child! The whole name change is not only  incredulous to us.  Abram literally falls on his face laughing at God when he hears about his new name. It wasn't a good kind of laugh. The Hebrew here means to mock or scoff. Still, God seems undeterred. In the next chapter, God speaks to Abraham at his tent door, reassuring him that within a year his wife Sarah would have a baby boy. Sarah overhears this and laughs to herself. The same Hebrew word! She scoffs silently at God's promise. Apparently, unbelief is contagious. 

Abraham doesn't hear Sarah laugh, but God does. This time He is unimpressed and holds Abraham accountable. "Why did Sarah laugh?" He asks. When Abraham confronts Sarah she lies and denies it. Apparently, unbelief morphs into other forms of sin. Abraham stands his ground. "No, you did laugh." An awkward, unresolved tension because Abraham knows he is culpable.

And yet God is faithful. "The Lord came to Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what He had promised." She bore a child within a year and they named him Isaac. Sarah laughs again, but this time it is a laugh of pure, unadulterated joy. "God has made me laugh, and everyone who hears will laugh with me," she exclaims. 

How gracious is our God! They laughed at Him, yet He kept His promise to them. 

Of course, this raises the tension between God's sovereignty and our responsibility. If God is going to be faithful despite our faithlessness, why does our faith even matter? While God's faithfulness is clearly decisive, our faith certainly does matter. Otherwise, God would not have confronted  Abraham about the doubtful scoffing. Faith pleases Him and unbelief displeases him. We have a responsibility to a grow a culture of faith in our souls, our families, our friendships and our churches. It's become tragically hip to be cynical and pessimistic. In many ways, our world doesn't give us any good reason to be otherwise. Life is hard. Disappointment abounds. But God, who calls us to be a peculiar people in this world provides us with a peculiar hope against hope. This passage is not merely about faith though.

During a week in which abortion protagonists celebrated NYC's passing of a law permitting abortion of  unborn children up until birth, this passage is a powerful contrarian to a brutal cultural deception. Before Sarah even conceives, God tells the parents  that the child will be a boy and that they are to call him Isaac, which means 'he laughs!'  God sees the child with gender, personhood and personality before he is even in the womb! The Scriptures are saturated with the sanctity of  the unborn child.

Take heart if faith is at times faltering for you, like it is for me. If God was gracious with Abraham and Sarah's faltering faith, He will be gracious with yours. God, in His sovereign grace, can turn our cynical scoffing into a deep belly-laugh of joy, like He did for the mother of our faith. God will always have the last laugh.  And He will be laughing with us, not at us. 

Running with Perseverance towards the Turbulence: why we're still training leaders and planting churches 20 years on.

The first time Rynelle and I visited Southlands it was 1999. We were in our mid-twenties and our first-born son Asher, was just ten days old. Some people told us we were crazy to take him when he was that young, but in retrospect, we're glad we didn’t listen to them! The rookie parents and their son survived the trip. Asher loves the fact that his first visit from the hospital was to go and get his passport photo taken. The nations are in his heart and travel is in his blood. One day, a few years later when he was old enough to speak, he was buckled up in his car seat and I drove over a big speed bump. "Dad, we got turbulence!" was the seasoned little globe-trotters response from the back of the car. That trip set us on a trajectory to the nations that we will never regret.

But I digress. That first trip to Southlands in 1999 was for a Leaders Training Conference that emphasized the importance of churches planting churches. The atmosphere was intoxicating. Passionate worship, uncompromising preaching and a resolute call for churches to make healthy disciples by planting healthy churches. What we may have lacked in wisdom, we made up for in faith and sacrifice.  There was much good about those days.

But much has changed since '99. Our world has become more connected, less communal and more volatile. Western culture has become more fascinated with the spiritual yet more hostile to the gospel. The Western Church has become comfortable and nominal, in stark contrast to our culture's radical commitment to seek political and social change. We still have turbulence, Dad! I wonder whether we will run towards it or away from it?

Southlands has changed too. We moved from Diamond Bar to Brea in 2009. There was a leadership transition in 2010. We now gather in four cities and are part of a different church planting network. We've worked hard to preach the timeless gospel in timely ways to our changing culture.  We've not only wanted to win away games by planting churches in other cities and nations. We've also wanted to win home games by building healthy communities on mission that aim to make radical disciples of Jesus in Southern California. We've not arrived by any means. We feel completely inept at times, yet humbly grateful for every inch of ground that the Lord has given us. We feel thankful for the heroes who have gone before us, but we're trying to discern the times and respond to what the Spirit is saying in our day.

But the essence of those heady days of '99 remains the same. We are still passionate about making disciples of Jesus in  the nations of the world, amidst the turbulence. We still believe the Lord has called us, in the midst of 'the nations that rage,' to 'ask of me and I will give you the nations as your inheritance." (Psalm 2) We  remain committed to training leaders and planting churches for the sake of the Great Commission. Perhaps we're looking for a more sustainable pace and approach, but we never want wisdom to equal playing it safe. And so, we are hosting another leadership conference almost 20 years later. The theme is, "Leaders that Last." I don't think it's coincidence that I find myself speaking on Building a Culture of Lasting Multiplication. I'm believing that what happens will help many to press on with faithful endurance. I'm also trusting that it so captivates other young leaders like myself back in '99, that it shapes the trajectory of their next 20 years.

It was amazing to kick things off  this past Sunday with my friend Tom Tapping speaking, who by the way, was in that conference back in '99! Tom and Una have been married 40 years, have two children who are both leading churches and have planted 3 churches on three continents. They epitomize the phrase, 'leaders that last!' I'd also love it if you would  consider joining the other 230 leaders who have flown in from around the nation and beyond next week from 24th-26th October. The Thursday night is free and open to all. 

Southlands, it's time to run towards the turbulence. 

Our Longing for a Thin place.

 I’m not sure if you’ve ever heard of the term Thin Place? It sounds to me like a health club serving kale smoothies or a beach where skinny people hangout, but it’s not. The Celtic Christians had an ancient saying that, “Heaven and earth are only three feet apart but in thin places they are even closer together.” They spoke of remote, wind swept regions like the Isle of Iona as Thin Places. They were sacred spaces where the presence of God seemed nearer and they felt like they had come home. Have you ever been in a place like that? You might feel like Yosemite or the Santiago Trails or the Himalayas are thin places.  Perhaps it's somewhere closer to home like the Fullerton Trails or San Onofre Beach. For some mysterious reason the veil between heaven and earth seems more flimsy in these places. Until other tourists discover what we've discovered, that is, and then we have to find a new thin place. Perhaps at the heart of our wanderlust is our yearning for a thin place.

More than a place per se, we are hard wired with longing for the presence of God, which makes us restless creatures. It is not enough for us that God is generally present in the world. We want God to show up in His special presence. Augustine, the 1st Century Church father prayed, "Almighty God, you have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in You." The presence of God is our greatest need. It is the need beneath our felt needs. More than a better job, a bigger house, a healthier marriage or a fitter body, we need the presence of God. We yearn to walk with God in the cool of the day like our first parents did in Eden. 

The problem about our yearning is that our first parents were banished from the presence of God after the fall. 'He drove out the man, and at the East of the Garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.” (Gen 3:24) As sons and daughters of Adam and Eve we find ourselves East of Eden, exiled from the presence of God, restlessly trying to find our way back home. John Steinbeck who wrote the book East of Eden, often explored this theme of exile."As humans we have an incurable virus of restlessness, the urge to be Some Place Else."

This is why I love the building of the Tabernacle in the book of Exodus. The word tabernacle means dwelling place. God had redeemed and rescued His people out of Egypt. He'd given them his Law at Mount Sinai. But now He was coming to dwell with them in a ram skin tent. "Let them make me a tabernacle that I may dwell in their midst."(25:8) The God of Passover blood, Red Sea rescue and Mt. Sinai fire came to dwell with His people in the tent of meeting.  

The Tabernacle became Israel's thin place. After it was set up a cloud rested upon it that was visible to all of Israel.  At night the cloud had a fire within it. Whenever the fiery cloud moved on, Israel would break camp and follow it. Their thin place was not in one place.  God's presence dwelt with them and they moved wherever it led them. 

When Jesus came to earth, John's gospel proclaims, "The Word became flesh  and tabernacled among us." (Jn 1:1) God took up a tent, not of ram skin and purple yarn, but of flesh and blood, of bone and beard. He came to dwell among us, sharing in our weakness, temptations, limitations and grief. His body torn on the cross tore the curtain between the holy place and the holy of holies, so that everyone might come in to the presence of God. Jesus is our new sacrifice, our priest and our tabernacle, making the old ways obsolete. 

Because of Jesus, we will never again be exiled from the presence of God. But we will be sent with the presence of God. J.T. English said that the mission of God is the presence of God in all of creation. God wants his people to make thin places whenever they gather and wherever they go; places where the veil between heaven and earth is flimsy. Can Southlands be such a place and such a people? God is Re-Edening his world with his presence through us. "Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations...and surely I will be with you to the very end of the age."

If you missed Sunday's message on the Tabernacle you can click below to view it.

"Where can I find the presence of God?"