Joshua 9:25 – “And now, behold, we are in Your hand: as it seems good and right unto You to do unto us, so do.”
Genesis 32:24-27 – “And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. When the man saw that He did not prevail against Jacob, He touched his hip socket, and Jacob's hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with Him. Then He said, "Let me go, for the day has broken." But Jacob said, "I will not let you go unless you bless me."
Those who split hairs in order to prove a point can be irritating.God made me to be a “headline” thinker and I often find myself surrounded with “fine print” thinkers.Sometimes we irritate each other because I want them to simplify and they want me to amplify.Interestingly, when both types of people operate under the power of God’s Spirit some pretty incredible teamwork can occur.Today, I’m going to don the hat of a fine-print-pilgrim and talk about the difference between holding on and being held.
I have little doubt that every single person reading this is being challenged today in some area of life.Some of you are worried, some are hurried and some feel buried.If you have been endowed by God with some giftedness in the area of intellect and action you have likely been spending time spinning your wheels in a desire to fix your current dilemma.Fixes don’t come easily these days in my own world, probably not in your world either.When testings, trials, challenges or attacks intrude into our private paradises we begin to respond.Often the response yields no result so then we begin to react.
When reactions also fail to produce the desired outcome we begin to recoil until we are tempted to ultimately resign.People see our downcast countenance and say, “Thine face appeareth as such a one who hath partaken of bushels of lemons.”Or, in modern tongue, “Yo, dude, you look so sad that you might want to send yourself some flowers.”Our response in those times to the unyielding reality of our lives might very well be, “Tough days, indeed.I’m just holding on.”
Just holding on…how’s that workin’ for you?
Someone told me recently that their favorite definition of faith was “a simple refusal to panic”; the Apostle Paul might want us to go a little further with that definition but it illustrates the point that some of us are stoic in our faith.The 747 took off from Atlanta Hartsfield airport and nobody noticed that you were eating a brown-bag lunch on the wing’s tip.Now at 20,000 feet we’re “just holding on”, exercising faith via a simple refusal to panic.May I suggest something?Life sometimes is panic-worthy.Cancer diagnosis.Pregnant teenage daughter.Armed thug approaching with a handgun.Two years before retirement a smug manager twenty years younger than you tells you that the company has to let you go.Your spouse walks in and says that he/she is over it all and will be filing for divorce.I appreciate your counsel to just hold on but my knees are giving out, my head is swimming and my palms are sweating if news like that ever finds me.Holding on assumes strength…what if the latest sortie of attacks just sent you sprawling against a big wall and you don’t have any more strength? Holding on?Sounds spiritual but your ability to do so isn’t guaranteed to last longer than what is intimidating you.That’s why I’m learning to embrace option #2 – Being held.
I love to hold my kids.I’m doing it as often as possible because I’m a runt and they will both be bigger than me by the time they are thirteen.I like to kiss their faces and hold their hands.Alicia will still crawl into my lap now and then and Landon does so also…except he supplements the lap crawl with a host of improvised karate chops to the groin and/or Adam's apple.Regardless, my precious children bring me delight when I’m blessed to hold them in my arms.Most parents have carried the sick or fatigued child in their arms.Helpless, they lay there – sometimes unaware that we are transporting them from the couch to their bed.They don’t fight us in those moments.They don’t make demands.There are no interrogations.In moments like I’m describing there is only a precious yieldedness of a child to his father or mother.It’s not the same thing as them holding on to us.When they hold on to us it expresses FEAR…when they let us hold on to them it communicates TRUST.
“Be still and know that I am God.” – Psalm 46:10.Anybody besides me wrestle with that command?Command me to fight an enemy, preach the Word, sacrifice a Benjamin Franklin for a just cause…but please don’t ask me to be still and do nothing as I let God hold me.I’m not always good at that.Maybe you aren’t either.Hey…maybe that’s why God keeps putting stuff in our lives that cause us to repeatedly face the reality that He likes to hold us while we lay there still and trusting.Let’s consider that our frenzied moving might be prolonging the very thing we’re afraid of.Perhaps we’re not frenzied but we’re strangling God in some silly attempt to get our arms wrapped around Him so we will sense security.“Don’t move, God – I’ve got You! There we go, I’m holding on to the eternal God of Heaven in the precise way that brings me relief.God, be still and know that I am Me.”
Sound irreverent?Then let’s stop doing it.
There’s probably only a handful that read this that are going to really get what I'm scribing.It may be a hair-split but I’m learning that this is an essential issue and I want the right side of that split hair.All of you do-ers out there might want to risk getting small, still, and painfully honest about your limitations.He didn't make you to cling but, rather, to rest. You’re getting weary with holding on and, at the precise moment your final strength ebbs away, you are going to lose your presumed grip.When you do so, open your eyes and you will see that He caught you.At that point close back your eyes, yield to His omnipotent arms, and learn what it means to be held by God. He prefers it that way...you will learn to.
May God grant you today the ability to hear His voice and become sensitized to His presence.
May you be unable to ignore your personal need for His affirmation and may you be victorious in the temptation to seek that affirmation in anything else; even good things like family, ministry or good deeds.
May God smile greatly upon you so that anything you lack will be measured against all that you have been generously provided.May the result be overflowing gratitude in your heart as you recognize that you have it so much better than you deserve.
May the Almighty God over all protect you from every lie of Satan, every powerful lure from this world system and from every leaning of your flesh toward the forbidden.
May God sovereignly increase your heart’s longings for Him and all that He has determined to be a part of your life.May you (and I) eagerly embrace from Him that which brings us pleasure and that which brings us fear.May we see all of life’s currents as coming from the fount of Him who is deeply concerned with and faithful in all that happens to us.
May you remember that His throne is still occupied – no matter what you see before your earthly eyes.
May you rise up today and be proactive in your faith.May you resolve to be aggressively good.May you be free from the paralysis of analysis and not complicate the pilgrimage you have been entrusted with.May simplicity rule your heart today.
May the Spirit of God empower you to seek the highest good of others today.May you be unwilling to meet your own desires before you are confident that theirs have been met through you.
May you speak much less today than yesterday.When you do speak, may it be words of substance meant for the ears of the omniscient God of Heaven.
May you smile when you think of Jesus today as He smiles when He thinks of you, His beloved.
May you be so heavenly minded that you are able to employ a Christ honoring perspective on all this world and life offers you.May you pass over the temporary so that your hands are free to take hold on the eternal.
May the Lord bless thee, and keep thee:the Lord make His face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee:the Lord lift up His countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.(Numbers 6:24-26)
“My eyes are ever toward the LORD, for He will pluck my feet out of the net.Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted.The troubles of my heart are enlarged; bring me out of my distresses.Consider my affliction and my trouble, and forgive all my sins.” Psalm 25:15-18
Scripture is filled with the calling out of the completely unworthy ones unto the Supremely Worthy God over all.Clearly the Bible details that all of us are sinners in need of the greatest of mercy and the broadest of grace from God.If there is a problem, it is that we minimize our dependence in this area.Somehow the human heart can convince itself that it is worthy of God’s best.Most often we do this by establishing a case before God based on what we do or do not do.We may err by comparing ourselves with others who are obviously less worthy (in our proud opinion) of God’s graces.We keep precise records of all of our virtues and toss the wadded notes of our sins into a shoebox which we keep on the top shelf of our closets (in the furthest corner possible).Yet God is too kind to allow us this foolishness. God is so supremely committed to our acknowledgment of His grace that He will work uniquely in each of us to show us the depths of our depravity so that we might exult in the heights of His grace.The shoebox full of our failures can indeed be done away with, but not before we present it to Him with the top taken off. Yes, He wants you to know your own sin and unworthiness but only as a means by which you may also know the riches of His grace.
David writes in the opening Psalm above of his dire need for God to do something to remedy a troubling situation.Prior to the verses I listed above he had written of his awareness of his sin.He is, in summary, saying ‘God I’m pitifully unworthy of what I’m asking for but…I’m still asking.’David had been pressure washed.The encroaching trials, testings, challenges and pains of his current circumstances had brought him to a time of confession of sin and declaration of dependence.Though he could enumerate his sins and follies, He allowed them to be obscured by the magnitude of God’s immense grace, covenant, and love.In effect, David shows us what Paul would write centuries later: Where sin abounds, God grace abounds more.
For any and all who are enduring trials and afflictions today, may we join together in welcoming the pressure washing?If we cannot change our circumstances, may we change our minds about some things?Can we acknowledge that we still have things far better than we deserve?Let’s praise God for being transcendent beyond our horizontal struggles – let’s go vertical with our attitudes.If there is sin that must be confessed, now is the greatest time to do so.He has promised never to despise your brokenness and contrition.You have been enlightened and empowered to trust His saturating grace and, yes, it does apply to your current state.Call on him this morning in an abandon unprecedented during days of greater ease.Don’t avoid the pressure He is ordaining, cooperate with it.Invite Him in it (He is already there) and lay low until the washing is completed.
I love David’s words because they give us permission to be desperate before God.If we are honest, most of us live there 24/7.
A benefit of a sustained personal walk with Christ is that you receive the wonderful gift of a gained perspective over the years.Some of you have enjoyed a relationship with God for many years and you have the privilege of looking back over your life with Him and recognize His work at various seasons in you and through you.Times of pain which you once thought would kill you as they were occurring have now been classified in your heart as valuable learning seasons in life. You would not go back and change the experience even if you could. You can also look back and recognize times of relative ease where you enjoyed the lightness of burden and easiness of Christ’s yoke.These were days of refreshment and enjoyment that brought great affection to your heart for God. I truly believe that perspective is a great tool that empowers the Christian to keep his head about him when present day circumstances seem unclear.
Thinking along those lines this morning I thought of two extremes that I have felt as realities during the sixteen years I’ve enjoyed the treasure of being saved.I classify them in two ways and reluctantly admit that both have seemed to be realities in my life at various times.I wish I could say that only and always has the second extreme been my experience but I’m here today to deposit some potential help to you and it requires me to address the fact that I've experienced some fluctuations in my journeys with Jesus.
The first of these experiences has been unpleasant, even frightening.
** Ichabod – taken from the disastrous setting of 1 Samuel 4:7-22 this name given to a baby born into trouble signifies something dreadful.The name means “no glory” and it was given to a child by his dying mother as she gave birth to him.God’s once mighty presence was seen to have vanished from Israel and the result was that they felt that they were all alone.No blessing, no protection, no power, no joy and no guarantee that things would ever change.I cannot imagine a worse fate.In essence, hell is the place of eternal Ichabod.The hellishness of hell is not the presence of fire and darkness and madness- what makes hell unspeakably horrible is not the presence of these things but the absence of God.Ichabod signifies a reality in which God cannot be experienced. Most of us have felt at times that God had marked our lives with a denial of His presence. Maybe we had sinned. Maybe calamity found us and we assumed it was a token of God's displeasure. We usually think that "bad things" indicate God's disfavor. Honestly, sometimes they do. At times of consternation in life we may suspect that we have been temporarily tattooed with Ichabod. God's glory in us is no more.
The second classification of certain seasons in my spiritual walk is nothing but sheer delight.
** Emmanuel – mentioned in Matthew 1:23 this word conjures up sentiments of Christmastime.We have heard this name sung, this name preached and we have read it countless times in Yuletide cards sent by friends.The name, of course, is one of the precious names of Jesus - it means God with us.Its usage stresses the awesome and joyous reality of God Almighty with man.Let me personalize it:God with you, in you, around you, behind you, over you and…for you.The amazing reality that we, unworthy as we are, can experience the manifold delight of God’s very presence is a staggering thought.He who is creator of all and ruler of all has stooped in grace to look you in the eye and affirm the truth to you that you are deeply loved by Him.He tells you that He will not leave you.You need never be concerned again that you will be orphaned – He is committed and you are as precious to Him as any other human who has ever stumbled along earth’s terrain.By way of application, the sense of His presence is something that every child of His craves.Our theology of His presence is good but we sense the need to personally experience His presence.Quite frankly, we long to feel Him nearby because there is nothing on earth that quite satisfies us like this.We can lose our wealth and still sing if we are experiencing Emmanuel.We can struggle with heartbreak and abandonment if we are confident of Emmanuel.Our bodies can fail us and our minds condemn us as long as the hand of Emmanuel soothes us and the voice of Emmanuel assures us.Emmanuel is the experience for which we long.In the end, it is the climax of our inheritance.You see, Heaven is nothing more than being with God.We would not even desire Heaven were it not for the promise of Eternal Emmanuel.Who would want streets of gold and gates of pearl if God were elsewhere?No, my friend, we crave the experience of God’s nearness.What more could be desired?
Today I wonder where you are.I think on where I am.Have we forfeited the delight of intimacy with our Savior by chasing the plugs of this world?Are we close to sensing some form of Ichabod that leaves our souls desperately thirsty?Do we fear that His glory has all but vanished from our hearts?Know that it is possible, dear one.It is possible to entomb ourselves in this world and find its darkness has blinded us to the blazing perfection of God.It need not be so and the return of the experience of His glory in your life may only be one soul-rupture away.He promises that He will not despise a broken and contrite heart.He calls for your brokenness as you call for His presence.And then we have this delightful hope in Emmanuel.God with us in our home.God with us in our duties.God with us through our challenges.God with us in our pain and confusion and disappointments.Let us not forget that God wishes also to accompany us in our successes and joys and dreams.When He commits to be with us it is His intention that we never lose our sight of Him.He does not wish to be vaguely around you but supremely within you.He has paid an immense price so that you would be as near to Him as His only begotten Son.He is never an arms-length God.He’s an arms-around God.
Ichabod or Emmanuel:Which shall it be? God has chosen the latter for us and I exhort us all to mimic His preference.
Securing, faithful, powerful, kind and eternal God – thank You for loving us this day.Thank You that You are not permanently repulsed by our weaknesses, sins, and failures.Thank You that You are a far greater Father than the best father who ever lived on earth.Thank You for undying patience, lavish provision, constant education of our souls, and precise work done by Your omnipotent hands.Thank You for the laughter of children, the wisdom from the aged, the hope of a better tomorrow.Thank You for an awesome sunrise today- knowing that Your Word reminds me that Your faithfulness is more of a guarantee than the rising of our sun.Thank You for not trampling the weak; You stoop in grace and carry the bruised and fearful.You know how to humble the proud and You are aware of the approaching footsteps of every enemy bent on our hurt.You are the strong tower to whom we flee.You are my shield from the darts of Satan.His accusations remind us daily of what we were and You speak above Him by reminding us of who we will one day be.
You are our confidence in this shifting world.You’ve reduced our appetite for the paltry offers of temporary riches and caused us to delight in Heaven’s treasure.You’ve caused us to thirst and hunger for grace and mercy and compassion.We treasure these things above our daily food along with wisdom, faithfulness, holiness and zeal.We could not love others properly if You did not first love us.It is Your Son who has shown us what it means to sacrifice and it is Your Spirit who has empowered us to do it.Your children have never heard Your majestic voice condemn us – all we know is Your gracious pardon.We were once rebels and enemies and indifferent towards Your immaculate love for us.We spurned You and were oblivious to our impending ruin.We ran from You as one runs from an enemy– loving our sin and hating Your will and ways!You ran faster! You pinned us until we could wrestle against You no more.When we thought You had caught us in order to end us, we indescribably delighted in finding that You had wept over us in love and exercised every possible effort to bring us face to face with You.We found life in Your countenance.You granted us repentance and faith and made us new through faith in Jesus our Lord!Gone was our filthy garment and we arose from our humbled state to see that we had been gloriously clothed in garments of alabaster perfection.When daily sins threaten to ruin these robes of righteousness we cry out to You in despair over our transgressions and find the robes still white – as white as your own Son’s garments!You have done all things well, our Lord and our God.
Help me this day to rise to the high call placed upon me as Your child.Remove every trace of selfishness, bitterness, fear and pride.Purge me from the dreaded leaven of unlawful longings.Eliminate in my heart the last vestiges of the self-life and create in me a heart that pumps with holy joy.Rip from me my propensity to be ungrateful and then fill me full of wondrous praise.Show me the beauty of eternity that the angels have seen and then double its value by wrapping it in the awareness that I am a recipient of grace that no angel will ever experience.Answer Your Son’s prayer in John 17 that I might experience the fullness of oneness with You though Him.Rob me of any and all delights that rest in a need for this world.Give me the ability to treasure every good and prefect gift which comes from You, O Father!Help me not to create gifts of my own that promise much and deliver nothing.You alone are worthy of my affections and intentions.You have my mind today – keep it fully fixed upon You.Speak louder than the cries of this world.Rise higher in me than the gravitational pull of my own flesh which seeks to bind me to earth.Cause me to hear the voice of gladness and mirth and open my eyes that I may behold wondrous things from Your Word. Eternal One, take time with me today and show me favor undeserved.
My hand is extended to you, my God.There’s nothing in it.See it there, reaching up to You and know that it is a gesture of a hungry heart longing for Your touch today.Hold my hand, Almighty God.There is nothing I treasure more.
“But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer. And above all things have fervent love among yourselves: for love shall cover the multitude of sins.” - 1 Peter 4:7-8
It’s been a while since the precious words of First Peter have owned my attention.So much of God’s word has a special place to us.Sometimes it speaks sentimentally to us and reminds us of an occasion where it powerfully ministered truth to our hungry souls.At other times it cuts deeply, convicting us of present deficiencies in our walks or sins in our hearts.There are other times where the reading of a passage is like the parting of clouds which welcomes the much desired beams of light proceeding form the illuminating of eternal counsel.God’s Word is good…all good.First Peter is no exception and it whispered to my heart this morning. Rarely do I post a direct dissection of a passage as a blog;please allow me to do exactly this on this Monday morning so as to throw a little seed your way in case you are hungry.The verses above are quite simple.In fact, every Christian can obey these commands and I believe it will make a difference in you and also through you.Let’s take a quick look.
Know something:“The end of all things is at hand…”Peter was writing to some desperately persecuted believers.His whole letter is seasoned with the concept of abiding faithfully under duress while holding to the confidence that your Shepherd is unswervingly faithful.He can draw no other conclusion than that there is a call for his readers to recognize that the only thing they should be looking for is the return of their King.When the Bible speaks of “the end” it doesn’t usually refer to the chronological conclusion of events.It usually speaks of the end in terms of consummation or goal of something.Peter is characterizing his generation as being part of the last days and telling his readers that they should affix their hearts on the return of Jesus.If it was true in Peter’s day, how much more should we be convinced that things are soon to climax with the Second Coming of Jesus Christ?Knowing this will empower the Christian to keep his head about him when this temporary world falls into further chaos.
Adopt something:“…be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer.”Peter is telling a mass of Christian pilgrims to sober up.He’s exhorting them to become wise and serious-minded in light of the day in which they were living.Frivolity and excess were to be put away and replaced with a lingering gaze on the most essential of things.This command from the Apostle carries with it the idea of simplifying life, maintaining an eternal perspective concerning temporary trials, being spiritually intelligent and precise in thoughts and actions;Peter might well have said to them all, ‘Don’t play around and waste the rest of your days!Be serious about how you are living your life.This world has become ruined – make sure that you do not!”Peter did not here implore them to become frenetically engaged in immediate activity.Though Peter spent his life for the proclaiming of the Gospel, his counsel to his readers here is that they would quickly and lastingly engage in extended prayer.I love this!Fires of persecution were burning, suffering was being experienced by many of his readers, tensions were riding high in every aspect of life in the Roman Empire and Peter commands the Christians to invest in long nights of intense prayer.They needed to adopt the mindset of pursuing and petitioning God.They needed His wisdom.They were dependent upon His deliverance.They were bound to His intervention or they would perish!Is it any wonder that Peter taught them to move all else aside and to ensure that their voices were heard in heaven’s hallowed halls?May I risk the question to you:has God heard your intense and focused prayers lately?Prayers are not meant to be the child’s game of patty-cake: sweet, simple and quickly completed.Christian prayer is often the unscripted moan of a weighted soul whose life is much bigger than her strength. Prayer is the confident calling out to the God who delights in hearing it. Prayer is not religious at all, prayer is the single most practical component of victorious Christian living. It should be no wonder that the enemy fights it as he does. We avoid the kind of prayer that is expected of us.Peter requires it.
Give something:“And above all things have fervent love among yourselves: for love shall cover the multitude of sins.”Perhaps this is the part of Peter’s counsel that least fits with modern day Christianity.We are such a pragmatic and problem-solving lot of people. There are complexities today in our world.There is taint in our churches.The visible representation of God’s church today looks really messed up as we split over and over again over the things that serve to divide (and weaken) us.If Christ doesn’t come back soon we will likely have split so many times into smaller denominations that the end result will be that each of us will be our own church!Christ prayed that we would be one in Him and we have politely suggested our alternative.We have abandoned selfless love and sacrificial service and retreated behind our self-created walls of individualism and personal preference.
That sound you just heard was me retching.
Peter exalts the call for Christians to love one another above everything else in these verses.Interestingly, in the Gospels Peter does not come across to me as super-loving.He’s naturally brash, impulsive and quick to speak.He doesn’t seem to listen well and he jockeyed for position on more than one occasion.He denied Christ, abandoned his calling and went AWOL on God’s enlistment of him to help impact the world for The King.
Then came Pentecost and the filling of the Holy Spirit.
Peter was amazingly changed that day.He would continue to be changed and his epistles were written when he was older and wiser and more clarified in the priorities of Christ’s Kingdom.He understood that loving his fellow Christians was essential.The persecution that the Church was enduring had a way of exposing the ridiculous banners we often fly.When your Christian neighbor disappeared in the night against the backdrop of the loud footsteps of Roman soldiers…you weren’t really concerned that he had offended you a day earlier with his particular view on the timing of Christ’s return.When Peter’s readers met with orphaned children whose parents had been fed to lions in the arena it would have minimized the issue of whether wine or grape juice should have been used in the observance of the Lord’s Supper.You see, fervent love prevents a multitude of possibilities that would otherwise have been manifested as sin.If I love you, I will endure your follies.If you love me you will keep a right perspective on the areas where we differ.If I love you I will pour the last of wine and oil into your wounds and put you up for a night in the hotel so you can heal.If you love me you will pray for me rather than talk about me.Loving someone can be defined simply as seeking their highest good.Peter tells us to give that to all other believers.Do it because you can.Do it while you can.
So these two simple verses load my wagon enough to start my week.I hope you will consider them carefully.Stop playing around in life if you happen to be guilty of doing so.Christians are to take this journey more seriously than all.Let God hear your voice today.And tomorrow.More than once a day.I assure you that you will begin to hear His voice.Then I encourage you to become aggressively loving.Don’t put in a dash of love – take off the lid and dump it all out.Stink up your sphere of influence with and overdose of seeking others’ highest good.I think you will find that your life can begin to change.
And let us all remember: It doesn’t need to be complicated to be spiritual.
Most believers have experienced spiritual funk. This occurs when you wake up one morning and realize that your thoughts are colored gray (or grey for my friends in the UK). Motivation ebbs, joy slumbers, faith extends its vacation somewhere else under sunnier skies. It's just you and your thoughts and your thoughts are walking in slow circles with a languid limp. Have you been there? Of course you have. Are you there today?
Well, if you were hoping for me to give the 3 step snap-out-of-it recipe then you will be sorely disappointed. I used to tell people (when I knew little and was oblivious of it; now i know little and am humbly aware of it) to read there Bible and pray through and the skies would be blue again. Basically it was a "rescue yourself" formula which reduced the remedy to the frail human psyche to reading inspired words on paper and engaging a heart willing to tell God that He could now fix the troubling issue(s). Interestingly, that seemed to regularly work for me fifteen years ago. Emotional clouds would blow in, I would detect them, I then employed the formula of prayer and Bible gulping and - poof! - the funk would fizzle and I would be back on my mountain breathing the fresh air of resurgence. I told every hurting person I encountered that this is what they should also do. When they continued in their own private funk, I was suspicious that they just weren't sincere in there desire to achieve "overcomer status". Pride set in during those early years of mine with Jesus and I found a consistent supply of smugness concerning those around me who perpetually struggled.
In God's mercy to me He allowed me some dark skies which stayed dark. In the year 2000 He shut every door of ministry opportunity for me. I found myself for 52 weeks stuck in an office cubicle (a church office cubicle is no more refreshing than a cubicle at a Sewage Treatment Plant) answering phones, running errands, gaining insights that I was not allowed to use...and daily experiencing moves of God in my heart for which there was no outlet. I heard threatening thunder every day and I learned what it meant to throw away formulas and wait on God. I learned how much He loved me but how little He needed me to accomplish His awesome work. I learned how to be happy at others who were being blessed while I was accumulating dust. I took joy in little things because they were all that was being afforded to me. I made the most out of my cubicle pilgrimage and waited for the eventual rain that I knew would someday proceed from the clouds overhead. I started to become aware that my religious box was empty and God had never even been inside it. I started looking for a bigger God and found that He was very active in the lives of hurting people who had been handed religious formulas from people like I had been.
I repented. I have never regretted it.
Recently I found myself in a prolonged funk (personal, not devastating, but very discouraging). Out of nowhere the cloud blew out and I breathed a little easier. I felt like a very hungry man who had received a small, pale cracker. The cracker was hope. I ate it and, though it appeared bland in my hand, it tasted great to my soul. Like Elijah, I plan to go in the strength of that hope as long as I can (1 Kings 19:8). I have no formula to offer you, no marketable advice to enlighten you, but I will say this: for every spiritual funk there is a cracker of hope. Appreciate it when God offers it to you no matter how unimpressive it may appear to you on His tray. Eat it slowly and gratefully; it might be a word in a book, a lyric in a song, the still, small voice in your heart, or the words of a little child whose life is not as complicated as yours. Whatever the cracker may be, make sure you keep your hunger and fully digest it when God's strong hand places it right before you.
“But Zion said, ‘The Lord has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me.’Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.” - Isaiah 49:14-15
The stoutest of faiths will occasionally experience the deepest of shaking.Over and over again the Scripture magnifies the holiness of our Supreme God.He is merciful, loving, The Almighty, unblemished in His nature, never-failing, inseparable from His holy love, perfect in justice, active in compassion, steadfast in patience, and accomplished in all His purpose.We, on the other hand, are embarrassingly shown to be the opposite in Scripture:selfish, fearful, deceived and deceiving.We are unapologetically categorized as dead in sin, defiled in motive, disqualified in character and decrepit on our own.We are shallow and straying and sinful and soiled; unholy, unloving, unworthy, ungodly, unmoved and undone.What is one to think about this great gulf fixed between man and His God?
Then, in a fixed moment in time, we are awakened unto the glorious good news of the Person and purpose of Jesus Christ.We are quickened in faith and hear our own voice calling out upon this One named Jesus whom we have never seen.In that grand moment we want nothing more and count life up to that point as a filthy garment fit for nothing but discarding.We must have Him!He must be crowned as Lord of our lives and Sovereign over our wills.It is never that we have found Him for He was never astray!Yet, when He has found us, it seems to us that we have found Him because we become overwhelmingly aware that we had been looking for the very effects that He has now brought to us.We simply searched in all of the wrong places only to be tracked by His omnipotent purpose and to be caught by His omnipotent rescue as He secures us in His omnipotent salvation.We have been redeemed.Hallelujah, what a Savior!
Yet, in all of our confidence that it is now well with our soul, are we not prone to regular shaking?Whether it be the pressures of this life, the frailty of our commitment to Him, the unpredictability of circumstance, the aggression of our enemies or the awareness of our unworthiness…Christians are subject to bouts of doubts.It is in these moments that too much of trust has been misplaced upon an object unworthy of its weight.Misplaced confidences ultimately betray us. Money will not sustain us, but we worry when the funds run low.Our physical bodies were made to fail, allowing for our escape to Heaven one day, yet we cringe as it becomes increasingly clear that our tabernacles will fold some day.Our enemies should be under our Father’s foot yet they seem, at times, to be aided by His hand as judgment of them is deferred.The preacher speaks to us of the good life, the blessed life, the anointed way and all of its Heavenly endowments…yet we sit in church with others who smile as we hope they do not notice that we are not experiencing what the man in the pulpit declares.
Doubts: Perhaps God has forgotten you.Perhaps He failed to clarify some undefined boundary you crossed.Worse yet, perhaps He has learned how weak and vacillating you are and chosen to move on to others who do not struggle as you.Your theology tells you that He is your sole constant…but your current experience questions even that.
“Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.”
I really ought not to seek to add more to God’s answer to the fragile heart.Every mother knows the impossibility of resisting that inner urge to meet the need of her helpless, hungry baby.Simply put, it is inextricably woven into her nature to meet that child’s need.It is not simply that she HAS TO…it is that she LONGS TO.Christian friend, God is not incidentally committed to you, He has passionately obligated Himself to you according to His compassionate and loving paternity.He is your Shepherd, you are His sheep.He is your King, you are His subject.God Almighty is your Father and, though your earthly father may have miserably failed you, Godisnothim and He wants you to remember that you are His child.Do not slight Him today by being suspicious of His goodness.Do not deny Him your praise by doubting His current plan.Magnify Him in what you know and what you have learned and what you believe.Trust Him tenaciously with all of the unknowns and sing a new song of Him today.Defy your doubts by building an altar of certain praise.Worship your Father and bow before His glistening throne as one who has been eternally won to His heart of grace.
When I was about twelve years old it became readily apparent that I was the recipient of my mother's side of the family DNA. My friends sprouted and I sputtered. Pubescent boys grew taller all around me and I simply grew...louder. I remember my dad telling me around age eight that I would be taller someday. I misheard him and believed that he had said that I would be taller Sunday (this really happened) and I was greatly grieved for a few consecutive Lord's Days when I continued to resemble a hobbit. I gave up hope in ever becoming taller while still in my teens and I immediately lept into body-building. The gym was my home for at least five days each week for about three to four hours a day. Something in me was looking for substantiation and the gym provided a forum to make me feel good about the way I appeared. The seed of vanity had well taken root and would not be removed until many years later when I found myself utterly devoid of peace and happiness while staring at a fairly well toned physique. I was thin and ripped but spiritually lost and I found the unavoidable truth that physical pursuits never result in inner contentment. Jesus rescued me during that season of life and I found a fulfillment and power that the gym had never afforded me. My physical appearance would no longer be an indicator of who I was or how I felt about myself! Christ was all in all and His affirmation of who I was would be my constant rest! Ripped abs? Who needs 'em! Well defined traps, quads, glutes, intercostals, biceps and pecs - could I have ever been so shallow? Yeah, who cares about all that stuff anyway?!!
Then today I realized that I turn 40 years old next Wednesday.
The following observations may be disturbing for sensitive readers. Proceed with caution.
I'm beginning to resemble Danny Devito. Mr. Devito is Italian and I'm Germanic but I think I saw him in my bathroom mirror this morning. Never ever do the following: pop out of the shower and get a sideways view of yourself in the mirror without looking away. Your eyes will never forgive you. When a man does this he will typically suck in his gut a little to encourage himself about what he could look like if he just lost a few pounds. I sucked in my gut for this purpose this morning and all that happened was my face turned red and I got dizzy. My stomach never moved. I now know what a lower case B looks like with wet hair. If I were ever to become pregnant I have a comprehensive visual of how my physique would change duing gestation. I don't drink beer but I could easily pass for a Nascar fan who has spent a few decades tailgating on the infield with his best friend Bud Heineken. Suddenly, all of the denunciation of the vain desire to posses a fit physique seemed to mock me. I have to admit it: I started looking for an allowance for lyposuction in all of my Christian devotionals. Even with all the ridiculous things being put out in the name of Christianity today, not one single writer had jotted down a vision wherein a heavenly authorization was granted for me to get the fat sucked out of my stomach. I was really sad at this. I thought immediately of beginning to lift weights but...they're so heavy. I have a bicycle in the shed out back but if I start riding it regularly what will I prop up my lawn tools on? Finally I remembered that we invested in a Wii Fit console for entertaining exercise in the comfort of your own home. Eureka! That would need to be my ultimate solution. Yet something inside me told me that it was unspiritual to utilize expensive electricity while exercising on the Wii Fit when there are missionaries out there who don't even have the funds to buy new Ipods. I bowed my head and realized that I would need to make yet another sacrifice for my beloved missionary friends. Once again, my spiritual enlightenment had conquered my temporary vanity.
It feels good to be spiritual today. I shall remain chubby for the sake of the greater good. I'm doing my part, how about you? I've got to run now, Danny Devito and I have lunch plans down the street.
"We have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it." - Hebrews 12:9-11 {ESV}
What does God use to instruct you concerning your own relationship with Him?I hope you can swallow this:I believe God is a very creative teacher.His interactions with His children do not always come in the form of a Bible study where the Holy Spirit enlightens us and applies Scripture's meaning to our minds by way of some didactic technique.Though He employs this method often, it is not always a personal lecture hall that serves as the mode of life's instruction from God. He uses the visible and invisible, the material and the mist, the spoken word and the shapeless feeling.God is God and cannot be pigeonholed as concerning technique nor topic.He has a lot to say to you and me.
Yesterday He instructed me through my son...again.
Landon is so different from his big sister.Alicia has been compliant since the womb.She longs to please, particularly her father.She has a sensitive heart and an eagerness to be spot-on in all that needs to be done.She cries over her failures and has a strong sensitivity to sin.She loves to be praised and it motivates her to excellence.Honestly, she has been an easy child.She is going to make some God-blessed man a wonderful wife some day.Landon...well, Landon is a gladiator fueled by Red Bull wearing a blindfold and swinging a mace while living life on a merry-go-round with no regulator situated in a fine china shop.He's a lightning bolt splitting in nine different directions. On his most potent days he makes thunder quiver. The boy is omnipresent and wakes up with a plan that he is confident will trump any plan that you might dare to submit. Landon is the type of little boy who would make Mike Tyson frown and mumble, 'That little boy needs to relax.'My nearly-five-year-old brings great joy to my heart because I see greatness in seed-form in his little life.He's been made for something and I sense a deep responsibility to groom him for it.
Does anyone know how to groom a gladiator for greatness?If so, please email Landon's mother at holdingontomysanity@exhausted.com with any and all suggestions.
What did God teach me yesterday through my boy?God taught me how it breaks His heart when we ignore Him.You do know that you ignore God sometimes, right?We are all guilty of turning a deaf ear to the very One who spoke light into the darkness.His voice commanded disease and death and demons to flee and, yet, His own children pretend that we sometimes don't speak his language.Landon decided yesterday would be the picture perfect day to sin at a heightened level.The particulars are private for our family but know this:He didn't speak his daddy's language yesterday and sought to enforce some directives of his own which went against all that he knows is right.As I sat on his bed with him an hour later (he had been exiled to the dungeon of his bedroom as punishment) I softly instructed the little warrior-man concerning what had happened, why I had to spank him, and why there would be some denials to him for the rest of the evening.As I spoke to Landon, God spoke to me with something He said in Palestine two thousand years ago: "Pay attention to what you hear: with the measure you use, it will be measured to you" (Mark 4:24 - ESV).Jesus gave the principle that we will be evaluated according to the rule that we evaluate others with.Instantly, this near forty year old was a first-year student in class wondering how he was doing on the test.If my own heart is hurt by my boy's age-appropriate sins, how must my own Father respond to my own transgressions?Though it does not seem to be validated in Scripture that God delights in our chastisement when we sin, that is not to say that He will not do it.In fact, He promises that He will. I was feeling the heartbreak of a spurned father and experienced a nano-fraction of what god must feel when I deny His leadership of my life.
God must deal with us in accordance with His purpose to shape us into the likeness of Jesus.He works in a myriad of ways to achieve this inevitable result.He adds by way of blessing, instructs by way of His applied word, empowers through His Spirit...and chisels through chastisement to knock off chunks of our fallenness which obscure the image of His Son in us.He will prick us from time to time and this will certainly gain our attention.My son understood that his father was at least two things last night:merciful and mighty.To his little mind there was an element of fear because daddy is bigger and in charge; Landon ended up on the unappealing side of my authority last night and suffered the consequences (side note: been there and done that with my Father in Heaven).In the end, however, I hope that the little lad remembered my mercy more than my might.I trust that he learned that my purpose was more enduring than my pop .My son must be convinced that my paternal love saturates any paternal authority I exercise.If he knows I love him he will understand what I'm doing when I correct him.
Despite the little man's pleas for receiving the very object of his desire which led to his initial punishment, he later went to sleep unfulfilled.He put his head in my lap and soaked up reassurance that daddy was still daddy, got up and apologized to a forgiving mom and sister, and in his own little way accepted his fate.Before he did all of that I had the heart-assuring joy of watching him close his little blue eyes and say, 'God, I'm sorry for what I did.Both things.Amen.'
When he opened his eyes from that confession and looked up at me he was smiling.The gladiator softened before his God.Actually...both gladiators did, father and son.
Ephesians 1:10-11 – “That in the dispensation of the fullness of times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in Him:In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will.”
Colossians 1:16-18 – “For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him, and for Him:And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist.And He is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things He might have the preeminence.”
I thought on the end of time this morning.Yes, I know, a rather impractical and lofty topic for such a pragmatic people like we.I let my mind drift past oil spills and conflicts between armies.I zoomed past the bloated calendar of meetings on my desk.I let my children’s lives flash before my mind and saw myself and Amy as old, finishing our journey together.My sanctified imagination crept past the days when I will no longer be the voice of a pulpit or the writer of glory-intentional words.There will be no mp3’s to offer or TV ministries to lead.I will not be needed in those hours, others will be the people entrusted with the ministry of a generation. While contemplating this, I heard the last song of earth’s church be sung - there will be a final day among a final people with a final opportunity to shine His light on earth, you know?The horrors of the tribulation went past and the creation of the new heavens and earth became the eternal reality.All that we knew and know was then gone forever, from then only recorded as history because the greater and more glorious truth had swallowed them up.Everything was over and the first book closed and now God allows us to be confident of the first line of the next book, a book alluded to but exhaustively experienced by none as of yet.It is the never to erased nor forgotten book of His own chief aim of the ages:He, the Glorious One, has summed up all that ever was or will be in the effulgence of His immeasurable glory.Yes, in the end, we will be bathed in the ecstasy of fully comprehending that it all has always been about Him... and how unimaginably worthy He is to receive the end of that eternal purpose.Jesus Christ.Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ.He is our everything.
All of time and eternity, all that was created and has ever been, all manifestations of light and darkness, all tangible matter and each intangible thought, every prayer and all praise, each pain and all pleasure, both demon and angel, sinner and saint, all children of darkness and each child of the light, every speck of dust and every gaping galaxy, each earthly king for all of time and every forgotten peasant that time ignored, the strong and the infirm, the wise and the fool, the noble and the degraded, the intelligent and the feebleminded…yes the entirety of the known cosmos and the realm of the not-yet-known created order will all be summed up together in an unstoppable acknowledgment of the highest and most glorious truth that Jesus Christ is the Supreme and Sovereign Lord over and above all that ever was and ever will be.
Impractical today? Maybe. Enduring for all eternity? Undeniably. We declare that He was the beginning but let us NEVER forget that He is also the end.
What overwhelming words of stunning assurance: "That in the dispensation of the fullness of times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in Him… He is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things He might have the preeminence.”
“And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever.” – Isaiah 32:17
The renowned Hebrew prophet was given the task of putting into words what he received from God.Warnings of impending judgment and future restoration were penned by Isaiah with the delegated authority of God Almighty.In chapter 32 of the book which bears his name, he speaks of a time when the manifest presence of God would be undeniably poured out through the Holy Spirit.The verse given above characterizes the effect of the ruling presence of God’s Spirit.Though I believe there is a particular fulfillment that strictly interprets this prophecy, I want to affirm it also as a principle that must be evident in the lives of the present day followers of Christ.
As one who has been made postionally righteous by faith in Jesus Christ, and also as one who is being made practically righteous by virtue of this same faith, do you experience the three results mentioned above in Isaiah 32:17?Take a panoramic view of your life first; as you qualify your life in Christ are you able to say that it can be described with the words “peace…quietness and assurance”?Have you experienced the rest of soul that Jesus promised and that the Holy Spirit empowers?This does not question the certainty that you have experienced trouble in life; the issue is what you are experiencing within the experience of your troubles.These are trying days for believers and I believe they will become increasingly more so before God grants the ultimate deliverance.Yet the Word of God says that righteousness’ work will result in peace, quietness and assurance.Am I presumptuous to expect that to be my own personal experience?I need to ask myself (and the reader) an even more probing question: if I cannot see these three effects in my life could it be due to a lack of practical righteousness in me?Let me share what I’m pondering.
The Bible mentions that our actions could have three possible negative effects in regard to the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives:grieving the Holy Spirit (Eph. 4:30), quenching the Holy Spirit (1 Thess. 5:19) and blaspheming the Holy Spirit (Mt. 12:31 – attributing the work of the Holy Spirit to Satan which is not a possibility for true believers).Leaving off the third option I want to briefly consider the other two.Scripture indicates that my response to the will of God and leadership of the Holy Spirit can result in a possible offense of Him.A continuing resistance of His authority in my life will grieve Him and can lead to the point when His empowering fire in my life is quenched.The result of this is not a loss of salvation which is granted by virtue of what Christ has done (not what I do) but, rather, a loss of God’s blessing in my life.It is a forfeiture of fellowship with God as I, the offending party, have chosen my own will and way above that of my Lord.Should we expect God to bless a life thus characterized?If then God withdraws the benefits of our fellowship with Him due to our disobedience, pride, rebellion or indifference, could we not clearly expect to miss the experience of peace, quietness and assurance of soul?If we have chosen to walk independently of God then we should certainly understand that He will not send the most cherished of His affirmations along with us as we go from Him.The stark, cold reality is that He allows us to experience the hollowness of heart that accompanies a self-willed life.He will pursue us and work diligently to bring us to repentance but, if we linger in our waywardness, we cannot experience the work of righteousness which is peace, quietness and assurance.
I believe that each and every sin committed by a believer has the potential to forfeit the blessings and benefits of God’s presence in that life.I know by way of experience what it means to grieve and quench the Holy Spirit in my life.I also know the unspeakable relief that results from repentance from those times of rebellion.In the pastoral ministry I have also been allowed the heartbreaking experience of watching the process whereby God pursues His wayward children…yet they will not return in full contrition and repentance before Him.They choose bitterness over forgiveness.They elect greed of sacrifice.They exalt self above others.They cleverly cultivate the ability to assuage their consciences from the pinprick of conviction until a callous forms over their hearts.I’ve watched many lives like this fall apart incrementally until there is nothing remaining but a faint hope that, in the end, their eternal soul may be actually delivered. I know of several right now who are walking this fraying tightrope and who believe that they will be the exception to the law of spiritual gravity. They cannot see themselves as fallen even as they are falling.
May I ask you as your brother in Christ how your level of peace, quietness and assurance is today?Have they diminished in intensity?Do they ebb and flow like the ocean tide?Are they deepening in a fuller measure in spite of what Providence is allowing in your experience?Dear saint, cherish the blessing of God’s empowered contentment in your life.Hazard it for nothing!Conviction from above is not given to laden you with guilt but to deliver you from it.God can be grieved but He will also be delighted in those who approach Him in humble trust and obedience (Zephaniah 3:17).To go another hour without the precious gift of spiritual calm is an unnecessary potential.Jesus Christ did all that He did to allow for the experience of your nearness to God.Fear is of the world, the flesh and the devil.Suspicion and distrust of God are indicators that there is a conflict between your will and His glorious own.Even for the long-struggling saint the promise remains that if you will enact your will to draw near to God, He will immediately close the gap you previously created by walking independently of Him.Herein is a most cherished component of grace for the believer.
May God grant us all a hunger and thirst for righteousness – Jesus said that this is the key component to being filled.
Dear Heavenly Father, today I come to You on behalf of my friends - my brothers my sisters and Jesus Christ – as I know how often along my own journey I've longed to know that someone was calling out to You for me in my hour of need.In those moments when I discovered that a saint who understood my burden was calling my name before You, I was filled with great relief that the weight had just been halved.This morning, Father, thank You for the privilege of calling out for those who are struggling – if they have my heart this morning, how certain it is that they have Yours.Some today are beaten up, some today have failed, some today are painfully aware of how far short they fall of Your glory.Satan uses it against them to ruthlessly buffet and to keep them down and defeated.His accusations come quicker than they can fend off.He aims to take them under, suffocating them with falsified guilt. I pray today Lord that they would find Your grace ALL sufficient, for our enemy has no answer for this. I pray that they would dare to agree with their enemy who accuses them and let them say with a loud voice that they clearly understand their unworthiness but that they militantly stand, not in their own presumed value, but in the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ which is fully theirs by faith!I pray that the accusation of the enemy will fall back to him unaccepted by Your forgiven child - flung at his feet as the worthless rag that it is. I pray that the word of God would find good ground in the hearts of believing saints and that they would take refuge in the righteousness of Jesus Christ which is granted them by your grace.Let the truth of their inability and unworthiness only serve to propel them to You for defense and assurance.
Others today, Lord, are deeply discouraged.They are doing their very best as they are seeking Your presence, Your power - they are seeking Your face as the passion of their hungry hearts.These are waiting on Your hand to move yet they find stillness and silence from the God that they know loves them.They are filled with confusion, desperate and wanting badly not to distrust Your worthy Self.Lord, some today are wondering why their prayers are falling on seemingly deaf ears and yet they know deep in their soul that You hear every word.They know that You love them.They understand that You are committed to them - they cannot deny it because they see the cross of Calvary! So for this day I pray that You will lift up their eyes to the hills from whence cometh their help. I pray that they will remember their God! I ask that You will convince them that, as You have given Your Son first for them, You will surely never withhold all lesser things from them when they find themselves in the time of need. I petition You today that their faith will not falter nor ever fail; when they would struggle in their own weakness I pray, Strong Father, that You will be there overshadowing and undergirding.Surround them on every side, Lord, that there will be a ray of light that will burst through the clouds of their circumstances. I ask that they will sense Your smile of affirmation – for this is Your child’s deepest longing. I pray Your omnipotent finger will wipe away the tears of their distress and weariness.May the power of their God infuse them and meet them at the very point of their need!Please, Father, do not lessen their load but strengthen their spirits instead.Do not take away from them this present challenge but abundantly grant unto them the power to endure; let them glorify You by patiently waiting on You and declaring that their God is good even when their circumstances are bad.
Finally, Lord, I pray for those who are struggling with sin.Some of Your very own are struggling with dreaded division of heart.Some of those who have committed their lives unto You have given way- inch by inch - to Satan their enemy, to the flesh, their enemy, to this world system, their enemy. I pray and am confident, Lord, that You will convict their hearts this very day and, if necessary, that You will discipline them so that they may learn not to stray, never again to wander, no more to walk away from the God who shepherds their souls. I pray, Lord, that they will humbly bow before You with tears and fruits worthy of repentance. I pray that the very moment that they do so that they will sense their Father coming towards them with the ring, the robe and instructing that the fatted calf should be slain as there is cause for celebration in heaven over the return of the wayward son or daughter.Lord, grant that they will not be held in jeopardy nor will they be placed on self-imposed probation, but that they will find their reality of a full pardon - as cold waters to a thirsty soul so is this good news from a far country! God make Your children as we should be.Do not allow us to be anything less than what the blood of Your precious Son has provided for us to be.Help us to rise to the potential that You have granted us.Let us embrace the full measure of what You have afforded us in Jesus Christ. Let us aim very high so that, Lord God, we might bring great glory to You who are the highest of all.Help us to believe You, to trust You, to love You, to lean upon You, to receive from You and, Lord, most importantly to hunger after You as this is the essential catalyst for every joy to be discovered in You.Let us be certain that we will see Your face soon! Help us to guard the treasure that this promise remains the climactic and glorious reward that we have given our hearts unto. We will see You!Thank you for giving us this grace.Thank you for being God when we least expect it.
In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and for His glory in our lives, I pray.Amen.
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