Psalm 119:124 Loving Master

Deal with your servant according to your love
and teach me your decrees.

Psalm 119:124

It's so easy to read this verse and picture my self sitting in my Father's lap as He lovingly teaches me His decrees.

Experiences tells me otherwise.

Sure, there have been many times I've felt snug and comfortable in my Father's loving arms as I study the Word. But most of my best learning experiences regarding the decrees of God have come the hard way.

For every epiphany experienced while studying, there have been lots of lessons learned by stumbling into them.

As often as I've garnered sudden insight while deep in thought, I've just as frequently gained flashes of wisdom while up to my armpits in trouble.

This is because, as much as I strive to be a disciplined apprentice to the Master, I have a strong tendency toward being a stubborn student who earns my fair share of discipline at the hands of the Master.

There is one important nugget of insight I've earned through both studiousness and stubbornness.

Without the steady application of study, the school of hard knocks can too often teach the wrong lessons. The experiences that come from trials are best understood as they give flesh and life to the things I've learned from study of the Word.

Which makes the reverse equally true. Without the experiences learned by throwing myself out into the world to be tossed about, my book learning remains theoretical and sterile.

The Father loves to teach me to think like He thinks, and He loves to use any method available to make sure my education is well-rounded.

Writer's Notebook: Dave Embree, part 1

Dave Embree (cchonthe.net)

I've known Dave Embree for more decades than either of us wants to admit. I've admired his approach to campus ministry for just as long. That's why I was so pleased when Mike Mack, my editor at Christian Standard magazine, gave me the go ahead to interview Dave for the August 2019 issue.

I met up with Dave at the Missouri Christian Convention in late March and spent an hour talking about campus ministry. My wife had rattled off a list of other people I should keep an eye out for who I could also talk to if I needed to get quotes about Dave. She was concerned I wouldn't get enough from our interview.

"This is Dave Embree," I said. "He loves to talk!"

And he did. The transcribed interview notes came to about 6,500 words. My assignment was to produce an article with 1,200 to 1,500 words.

I encourage you to read the slightly-less-than 1,500 word interview at ChristianStandard.com.

Over the next three weeks I'm going to post some of the parts that didn't make it into the published piece. Starting with Dave's answer to my question about how he got started with the campus ministry in Springfield, MO.

Remember, I warned you. He likes to talk.

**********

In the late 60's, early 70's, Christian churches were planting campus ministries rather rapidly.

Based upon what they had seen take place at Columbia and what had already taken place at Rolla, Christians from churches around Springfield and the Lebanon area started coming together to plan a campus ministry. Woody Wilkinson had actually tried to do some things on campus himself and found out that at that point the university was pretty averse to particular churches doing outreaches on campus. So Woody kind of backed off and threw his support behind people coming together.

So initially people from probably five Christian churches in Springfield and the Southern Heights church in Lebanon came together to form a board of directors and charter in 1977.

At that point they started holding bible studies on campus. They wound up purchasing a house, because their model was Columbia, a couple of guys on the board having been Mizzou alums, and they just knew that’s what you do.

They decided they could at least partially finance the campus ministry by renting to students. So they had purchased a house, and renovated it in order to hold the maximum number of students in not all that really big a house.

In the 1977-1978 school year they had preachers coming in to do Bible studies on Thursday nights and had had maybe five students living in the house.

This was at a time when there was a lot of town/gown conflict and the neighbors didn’t really want students living there. And they technically were out of the proper zoning area, so the city came in and said you can’t have this many unrelated people living here, which made it less financially feasible.

 At the Missouri Christian Convention over Christmas break, I was going to school at Joplin at that point, and had come up to the convention because my parents were there.

I saw this display for the SMSU [Missouri State University was known at the time as Southwest Missouri State University]  Christian Campus Ministry, and a friend of mine from Ozark was actually setting it up. And I said, "Hey, I didn’t know there’s a campus ministry at SMS."

He said, "There isn’t really, we’re just getting it started."

I said, "That’s great, I really support campus ministry, having grown up near Columbia and Roy Weece having already impacted my life." And that’ all I knew about campus ministry."I think that’one of the best things going right now."

He said, "I think you should apply for the job."

I said, "Well thanks, but I’ve never really spent any time on a university campus and I’m going for a 5 year degree here at Ozark and I’ve only completed four years of it, and I just don’t think I’d be any good at that."

He said, "It would really be good for you to go through the process of applying for the job, even if you don’t expect to get it."

And I said, "Yeah you’re right, I ought to do that."

But I didn’t.

I saw the same guy at a youth ministry conference on the OCC campus, and he said, "Hey Dave, I never got anything from you about the job."

I said, "Well, I’m doing youth ministry right now and I'm in school and I'm married and there’s a lot going on and I’m not sure I’ve got time to be applying for a job."

He said, "I've been talking to the board about you and how you do youth ministry, and we think we’re interested in you."

I said, again, "I have no experience in this. I know nothing whatsoever."

He said, "Why don’t you just trust God and submit an application and see what God says about it."

And I said, "That’s a really good idea."

But I didn’t.

And then in February, I see the same guy at the preaching and teaching convention at Ozark, and he said, "Dave, been waiting for your application."

I said, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's been winter and I just haven’t gotten it done."

He said, "I’ve been talking to the board and they’d really like to meet you."

I said, "I’d like to talk to these guys and tell them what a great job they’re doing, but I just don’t think I can work it in."

And he said, "Would you think about applying?"

I said, "I’ll think about it and pray about it."

But I didn’t.

And about the first of March I get a phone call, and he said, “Dave, we’ve been pursuing people for the campus ministry, and every door we’ve opened has been slammed shut in our faces, except for you. And you keep kind of nudging it shut, but you haven’t slammed it. Would you come up and talk to us?

And I was really ashamed. I’d said to him three times I would send him something and I never had.

And I said, "Yes, I will come up and talk to you."

So a week later I drove up to Springfield and they were great people, and they had such a great vision and I loved talking to them. And they talked to me and asked my ideas about discipleship and pastoring and all sorts of things and they liked what they heard.

At the conclusion of that meeting I said, I think you guys are on the right track. I think you’re going to have a wonderful ministry here. I'm not the guy for it, but I trust that God will send you the right guy."

They said, "OK, OK. Could you come back next week and bring your wife?"

And I said, "You realize, I'm not the right guy for this job."

And they said, "Well can you come back and bring your wife?"

And I said, "OK."

I brought Joyce up the next week. And they talked to her and she talked to them and they we all talked some more together and at the end of that meeting, I said, " I just praise God for your vision and commitment. I will be praying that God will send you the right person."

They said, "would you pray about you coming?"

I said, "Well sure, but I don’t have any training for this.  I haven’t finished my degree at Ozark. I'm just absolutely not what you're looking for."

They said, "Just pray about it and talk to us again in 2 or 3 weeks."

Couple weeks later I get home from a church board meeting.

Joyce was gone, but there was a note on the table that said, "Had to run to the store. Will be right back. Oh, the board from Springfield called. They asked if you were still interested in the job. I told them Yes. They’re voting on you now. Call them back."

I thought, They’re voting on me? How can they be voting on me? I thought we had another week.

 About that time Joyce comes back and I said, "They’re voting on us?"

She said, "Yeah, I didn’t know if you’d talked to them and maybe told them something."

I said, "No. We've talked about this and prayed about it."

She said, "I don’t know if I can live in the middle of noisy Springfield right by the campus. I'm a small town girl."

I said, "I still don’t know that I know anything that I would need to know to do that."

About then the phone rang and he said, "Dave, we just voted unanimously to hire you. Will you come?"

I said, "Just a second", and I put my hand over the pine, and said, "Joyce, they voted for us, what do we do now? "

And she said, "If this doesn’t look like God railroading us into something, I don’t know what it would be."

And I said, "So you think we ought to go?"

She said, "I don’t think we have a choice."

And I said, "So I guess we’ll go."

So we came.  On July 1st, 1978, we moved to Springfield.

And all I knew was, Roy Weece is a good campus minister and I can try to do some things I know he does, and that’s it.

Psalm 119:123 Free Range

Cattle should not be in the middle of the road.

I realize that in some parts of the world, including some parts of this country, it's not all that uncommon to find a rancher taking a herd of cattle or sheep down a road. It's a generally accepted practice and drivers are used to waiting for the road to clear.

But where I live, coming upon livestock in the road is neither expected nor accepted. It's obvious something is wrong if a cow is in the road.

Most recently I came across chickens wandering about on a street in a residential neighborhood here in Columbia. I had seen chickens in this family's yard before, behind a fence, but to come upon them in the road was not good.

The chickens, however, were enjoying themselves. They were doing what chickens do, which is to wander about wherever they can. They were expressing their chosen identity as free-range chickens.

I've no doubt the owners of this flock have a different concept of what chickens are supposed to do. Chickens aren't supposed to wander into the city street, free range or not. It's not good for the chickens and not representative of the owners' intent for their chickens.

My eyes fail, looking for your salvation, looking for your righteous promise.

Psalm 119:123

God created all of us to have free will. It's up to us to choose whether to be his servants or not.

Some of us, though, think of ourselves as free-range servants. Our personal definition of righteousness is different than God's. We grab hold of the freedom He offers and start making up our own rules of what a servant of God is supposed to be and do.

And then we find ourselves in places both unexpected and unacceptable.

Do you ever find yourself way too preoccupied with the ways other people are falling short of your definition of righteousness?

Are you spending too much time in a whirlpool of self-recrimination, obsessed with guilt (either real or imagined) over every little thing?

Do you linger too long in the past, unable to forgive others - or yourself?

Are you wandering about, trying to find salvation and acceptance in clinging to the right opinions rather than righteousness?

The righteous servant of God finds their true home in the righteous promises of God.

Psalm 119:122 Squeezed

Ensure your servant’s well-being; 
do not let the arrogant oppress me.
Psalm 119:122

Who ensures the well-being of God's righteous servants?

Judging by the conversations and social media comments of many Christians, they're putting their hope in elected leaders. Great tragedy will apparently befall both the church and the nation if the wrong people are elected to office.

And it appears "the right people" are the ones who agree with particular political points of view, regardless of whether they are righteous servants of God. In fact, some of the people championed most by Christians look, to my eyes, more like the arrogant oppressors than servants of God.

Arrogance is almost a prerequisite for politicians here in the 21st century. The more arrogant a person is toward their opponents, the more attention they get and the more votes they garner.

Has the church wandered so far off the path that its people are frightened for their future if certain political platforms and parties are successful? Are we really building our house on the sinking sand of politics and personalities?

Oppression means literally to be pressed down, pushed, squeezed. When we allow politics and politicians to push us off the path of righteous servanthood and squeeze us into the mold of our neighbors who don't know Christ, we've transferred our loyalty from God to the oppressors.

Psalm 119:121 Opressors and Offenders

I have done what is righteous and just;
do not leave me to my oppressors.
Psalm 119:121

The 21st century American version of this verse would go something like this:

I am right. I just am. Do not leave me to those who offend me.

It's our obsession with being right,as opposed to doing what is righteous, that makes us so easily offended.

If I'm actively spouting off my opinions about the topics I'm convinced everyone else is wrong about, I can naturally expect others to take offense at my arrogance and respond with words that offend my sense of self-importance.

But if I'm actively doing the things that reflect the righteous character and purposes of God, I can naturally expect people will try to oppress me: silence me, interfere with what I'm trying to accomplish, undermine me.

I expect God would be pleased if we model our prayers after David's, asking God to not leave us at the mercy of our oppressors. I also suspect God would be less pleased if we pray for protection from the people who offend our sensibilities.

Psalm 119:121-128 Ayin

I have done what is righteous and just;
do not leave me to my oppressors.
Ensure your servant’s well-being; 
do not let the arrogant oppress me. 
My eyes fail, looking for your salvation, 
looking for your righteous promise. 
Deal with your servant according to your love
and teach me your decrees. 
I am your servant; give me discernment
that I may understand your statutes. 
It is time for you to act, Lord; 
your law is being broken.
Because I love your commands more than gold, 
more than pure gold, 
and because I consider all your precepts right, 
I hate every wrong path.

Psalm 119:121-128

Much of American Christianity has gotten off track in the 21st century. Many have given themselves over to the post-modern concept that truth is fluid, dependent entirely on the perception of the individual. Others have retreated into centuries-old legalism and judgmentalism.

Both of those extremes have their roots in self-centered attitudes. It's all about me and what I think is true or right.

We've lost our grip on two important attitudes David talks about in Ayin: A servant's heart and a righteous heart.

Without a servant's heart we fall into the habit of telling other people what to do, because we're confident we know best and should be in charge. If we nurture a servant's heart, we interact with others based on what we understand God's priorities are, confident that he alone knows best and he alone is able to make each person stand before him (Romans 14:4).

Without a heart of righteousness, we fall naturally into self-righteousness and mere rightness. The self-righteous person tells himself he is the arbiter of what is righteous. That self-centered definition of righteousness usually boils down to "I'm right and you're wrong". It becomes more important to defend what we think is right than to pursue the righteousness of God.

Righteousness and servanthood are a matched set, both focused on submission to God's character and God's mission.

Psalm 119:120 Trembling

Winter's Bone

I recently re-watched one of my favorite movies, Winter's Bone, starring a very young looking Jennifer Lawrence. Her character, Ree Dolly, is responsible for feeding and raising her young brother and sister because her mother has mentally checked out of the world and her father is almost always gone. And now he is missing.

Ree's efforts to find her father and thus save their home is complicated by the pervasive code of the Ozarks where she lives. Jessup, her father, is a meth cooker, a fact known and accepted by everyone. One person in the movie even says, matter of factly, that "everyone cooks crank." It's just become part of the culture, as the best way to make good money.

Turns out, though, that the code of the hills means no one wants to tell her anything that could help her find her father. She is chastised repeatedly and beaten more than once when she refuses to stop asking forbidden questions. In spite of her fear of stepping across the wrong lines and angering some very dangerous people, she fears more losing her family's home and losing her ability to care for her brother and sister. So she persists, leading toward a chilling conclusion.

I love this movie because I know people like Ree Dolly and the people she encounters. I've met them behind the walls of a women's prison in Missouri. I can see their faces now as I write about them, young women who found themselves entangled in the culture of the Ozarks drug business and caught up in the legal traps of law enforcement. Some of them had real difficulty comprehending what they had done wrong, because they were simply following the only set of rules they'd ever known, the only "laws" that made any sense to them.

And yet, still, they were in the wrong. And now they were in prison.

My flesh trembles in fear of you;
I stand in awe of your laws.

Psalm 119:120

Everyone lives in some sort of community of culture that exists in a cobbled together cage of accepted rules and practices. The people who live in that cage of their own making often don't even realize how different they are than the people in other cages. This is what they know and this is how they live.

They love what they love and they fear what they fear because they've convinced themselves those things are important to love and to fear.

When I was growing up in the church, I was scared to question the doctrines I was being taught from the pulpit, in Sunday School, and youth group. Our church culture made it quite clear that doubting the officially accepted teachings of our non-denominational denomination was as sinful as doubting God Himself.

We loved the laws of the Bible. We stood in awe of them. They were the building blocks from which our way of religious life was constructed.

We allowed them to become a cage that held our faith.

The way out of the cages of fear that restrict us is to find a better target for our love and more genuine object of our fear.

The reason David stands in awe of God's laws is because he stands in awe of the God he loves. He doesn't make the mistake of loving God's laws more than God himself - or more than God's people.

Never get overly comfortable and lackadaisical about your relationship with the Word. Check yourself regularly to make sure you're keeping it in the proper perspective.