Month: August 2023

Repose in the Arms of Jesus

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My heart is not proud, O LORD, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me. But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me.  Psalm 131:1-2

One of my all-time favorite songs is Be Born In Me.  It’s sung by Francesca Basttistelli.  This lyric arrests me.  Did you wrap yourself inside the unexpected – so we would know that love would go that far?    Yes, He sure did.  Because when unexpected events come, my love for God can be stretched.  I wonder if my love will go as far as my fears.

The unexpected can encompass something I fear might come true.  Worried, I keep entrusting my misgivings to God and then I rest because I believe He will take care of i.  But if God doesn’t spare me, will He no longer be a refuge?  Will resting no longer be possible?

It takes effort to disentangle myself from the conflict of my soul and to go home as a ‘weaned child rests against his mother.’  (Psalm 131) Consider it from Eugene Peterson’s, THE MESSAGE. God, I’m not trying to rule the roost, I don’t want to be king of the mountain, I haven’t meddled where I have no business or fantasized grandiose plans. I’ve kept my feet on the ground, I’ve cultivated a quiet heart, like a baby content in its mother’s arms, my soul is a baby who is content.  

God told us throughout scripture that we are in a war and we are not home yet.  Resting lets me catch my breath in God’s arms while the wind blows.  Resting lets me settle my soul in His embrace. Resting lets me collect my thoughts for my next steps.  Resting reminds me that, even in the worst of things, He will have the last word.  Resting helps me remember to cling to the Victor when it appears Satan is winning.  Resting facilitates focus in chaos.   

I rest in the character of God, not in the expectation that He will deliver me from all pain. Peace is found in the security of One all-knowing and wise.  He sees what I cannot, and as it was for Jesus, God’s plan is redemptive even when a plot line appears senseless.  My life is hidden in Christ and is destined for glory no matter how things look on this calendar day.

You are my firm foundation in confusion, my rock of refuge in sinking sand.  Amen

The Author of Chaos

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The law of the LORD is perfect, refreshing the soul. The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy, making wise the simple. Psalm 19:7

Suppose an intruder came to your house and wanted to vandalize. They emptied every kitchen cabinet and left piles all over the floor. Then they opened flour, sugar, and spices – and just dumped the contents. What chaos. Would you walk away and just leave it all, live life like nothing happened, or would you put everything back in order?  Seems like an elementary question but I’m always surprised by the level of chaos, externally and internally, that has taken a person over and become their way of life.

God introduced confusion as a judgment. The peoples of the earth had come together to build a tower for their own gain.  There was order and unity but for an unholy agenda. To cripple their efforts, God separated them by many languages. If they couldn’t understand one another, they wouldn’t be able to work together.

I find that chaos and chaotic thinking are still signs of evil. One who is in the grip of the evil one devises a logic that weaves webs. No matter how much you try to understand them and their behavior, the more tormented you become. You just can’t ever get to the bottom of the issue. The best thing anyone can do is stop trying to make sense of what is senseless.

I heard someone say that at Babel, God pronounced judgment on evil by using many languages to confuse. At Pentecost, He brought blessing and kingdom advancement by taking many languages and creating order.

Anytime I am swirling in the midst of confusion and think God is the author, I have attributed something to God that is not His. He is simple yet deep, profound, clear, and concise. The kingdom is well-ordered. His statutes are written in pristine legal language.

Help me step above the chaos to the serenity of Your order. Amen

The Best Promise Of All

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The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God.  Psalm 14:2

God sent Jesus to be the Savior of any who want Him.  It may be a Rabbi of a rural town in Israel.  It may be an Imam in Pakistan.  It may be a Chinese government official who, at this very moment, arrests pastors in his village.  And it may be young people who, at this moment, are so infected with the darkness of our age that their spiritual condition appears hopeless.

God’s longing to be the God of all peoples prevails.  My heart must adjust accordingly – humbly – to rejoice in such unbiased love.  And my heart must hope in a God powerful enough to touch the one I consider most unlikely to believe ~ especially in these desperate times when it seems more likely people’s hearts will turn God-ward.  Wherever there is a seeking soul, God’s attention is arrested.  Wherever there is a cry for help, God is aroused to answer.

Is my Gospel inclusive? It is easy to be standoffish with those I don’t understand, with those whose culture is so unlike my own.  I am repelled by their violence, their practices, and shake my head in disbelief when I see their stories portrayed in the media.  They are so far from God and the gap seems insurmountable.  Yet, God is revealing Himself right now to a modern-day Saul, to someone who kills Christians, whose passion is to destroy every vestige of their faith.  He appears to the likes of Saul in visions, and he wakes up exclaiming, “Lord Jesus!”

God’s love is global.  The relevance and need for the Gospel is also global.  If my heart beats like God’s heart, my passion for the nations will be tearful and earnest.

I will align my heart and rejoice over heaven’s stories.  Amen

Nuggets For The Child

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My soul melts away for sorrow; strengthen me according to your word!  Psalm 119:27

God’s agenda for me is to strengthen my faith.  Satan’s agenda is to destroy my faith.  He will do it by using pain and pleasure.  The pleasures tempt me to believe that there is something more desirable than God.  The pain lures me to believe that God is not good nor caring.  I don’t know which catalyst, pain or pleasure, is more dangerous.

David knows that when he is grieving and about to break under the strain of something heartbreaking, his greatest need is a strength that comes from God’s Word.  The hug of a friend may be nice, a good listening ear is valuable, a meal brought in when I’m too sick to make one for my family can be an overwhelming relief, but none will save my soul from melting away in the fires of grief.  What is saving and stabilizing is a word from God.

Come face to face with a pain deep enough and there will be few words from others that dull the throbbing.  That ‘thing’ is all-consuming, bubbling beneath the surface of our smiles.  Unless someone knows us well, they might be fooled by the subtle sighs and far off looks that tell the truth of our great heaviness.

God’s Word comes to us in this helpless childlike state.  We may be older, but when hurting, we feel like children.  God’s children. It is not the wordy discourse on pre-destination that will comfort us when we are in great distress.  It is the Word in bite-sized nuggets that chip away at our fear and penetrates the darkness.  “I know.”  “I care.”  “I will weep with you.”  “Do not fear.”  “Rest in me.”  “Trust my heart.”  “I’m here, now.”

Little nuggets for little children.  With each one, a big hand takes a little one and trust is momentarily restored.  There is radical grace, inexplicable, for the moment.

 I need You. Whisper to me like a child and I will be saved.  Amen

Save

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Beyond Ambivalence

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I hate and abhor falsehood, but I love your law.  Psalm 119:163

God is rarely ambivalent.  He loves truth and He hates falsehood.  David spent enough time in the Torah and enough time in worship that God’s appetite rubbed off.  How our culture needs more like him.  There are far too many prominent Christians in the spotlight who, when asked where they stand on current issues, fail to answer the way God would.  Their tolerance makes them palatable to the masses but it erases their saltiness.  They have confused loving people with condoning what people do.  They have abdicated their chance to speak the language of the kingdom in order to draw others onto the narrow pathway that leads to eternal life.

Having grown up in legalism, I was used to a regular diet of dogmatism.  A church or Christian organization defined themselves by what they were ‘against’ rather than what they were ‘for’.  They had a poor track record when it came to loving people.  Perhaps some of our ambivalence on critical issues is an over-correction to legalistic Christianity.  In our collective responses to rigidity and gracelessness, we have made opposite choices that are equally as detrimental to the advancement of the kingdom.  The cure for any of us who fail to speak clearly about what we love and what we hate, whether it is rooted in fear or poor theology, is time with Jesus and time to immerse ourselves in His Word.  Christian education, in the context of relationship, cures ambivalence.

Today, I follow Jesus who ate with sinners, put his arm around the broken and repentant but, simultaneously, spoke clearly about righteousness and unrighteousness.  His speech was so clear that his audience saw no ambivalence.  They left everything to follow Him or they picked up stones to murder Him.  If others fail to react to me in the same way, my speech is diluted and I have a ways to go to look like, and sound like, my Savior.

Sharpen the sword of my mouth with the sword of the Word.  Clearer speech, compelling speech, in the remainder of my life.  Amen

The People Of God And Politics

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By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion. On the willows there we hung up our lyres.  For there our captors required of us songs, and our tormentors, mirth, saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”  How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?  Psalm 137:1-4

Not all Psalms were written by David.  This one was written by a Jewish exile living in Babylon.  Having seen his homeland destroyed and having been taken as a captive into the foreign culture of the Babylonian Empire, he struggled to find his voice and get his spiritual bearings. 

His new homeland was corrupt and excessive.  The people of God stuck out like sore thumbs.  They were invited to sing their simple songs of faith to the taunts of the crowd, not unlike the Jews who were made to perform in the camps for the military tyrants who despised them. 

In another year, our song will be rendered just as peculiar against the backdrop of the next presidential election. I’m holding my breath for what will come, but that is a carnal and short-sighted response.  God is encouraging each of us to breathe, to breathe in the oxygen of His Holy Spirit.  Grace will enable us to stand and sing the songs of the exiles. The lyrics will reflect our allegiance to the King of Kings, His kingdom, and its culture of holiness. 

Though we are made to feel like outsiders, and though we bear the brunt of society’s scorn, our voices must not be silenced.  The noise of evil must not prevail over the praises of God’s people. It’s not time to close the piano lid or retire the pen of the poet. Never has the music of faith been more important, and never are songs sweeter than when saints raise their joyful voices with tear-stained faces. 

Let my hope sing. Amen