When Promises Become Mine

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Your promise is well tried, and your servant loves it.  Psalm 119:140

The Word is not some new Word that has no track record.  When I stake my life on God’s promises, I am doing so with full knowledge of the ways it has been tried and tested down through the centuries.  No one ever reached the end of their life and said they were sorry they trusted God because it had been in vain.  In fact, just the opposite.  The longer God’s children walk with Him, the more grand their endorsement.  Most will pay with their lives to honor the One who has never failed them, never lied to them, and always kept His promises.  With humility, they admit that such love was undeserved.

Since all that is true, I ask myself why I’m not living more confidently at times.  I find myself kept up at night by things I fear.  I preach to myself at 3:00 a.m. and say, “You know God will be faithful to take care of this!  Why are you churning about it?” I know His promises are true, yet fear can still get the best of me.

I do believe that the answer to that question is that the severity of my faith tests escalate as I mature.  God allows a trial, then I’m called by the Spirit to press in and stand in the Word and its promises.  If I pass the test, the trial eases, and should that particular trial come again, I’ll know how to handle it.  The problem is, it probably won’t come again just like the first time.  What comes will be a new challenge that will test the fabric of my faith at the next level.

God is all about growing my faith.  It won’t grow without customized testing in the areas where I faint, not where someone else faints.  Each of us wears armor with chinks in places specific to us and our story.  I may know His promises intellectually but they really aren’t mine until I’ve stood in them and clung to them for dear life through the graduated stages of life’s problems.  I can know that Abraham found God’s promises to be true but that doesn’t make them true for me until I also push through fear and uncertainty to stand in them.

No guilt today for where I faint.  Fainting provides the doorway for faith.

I can be so hard on myself.  Abraham battled his thoughts and fears all the way up the mountain with Isaac.  I battle my fear, at every stage, with Your Word.  Amen

He Saw Him ~ But Only With Faith

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Your ancestor Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day; he saw it and was glad.  John 8:56 

This quote by Jesus was not meant to convey that he roamed the earth when Abraham lived.  This is a statement about faith.  When might Abraham have seen Jesus?  Perhaps it was when he took Isaac to Mt. Moriah and waited for the provision of a lamb.  Though God ultimately provided a physical lamb to sacrifice in place of Isaac, when Abraham’s arm was poised to come down on his son, clutching the knife,  perhaps the eyes of Abraham’s spirit saw Jesus, the ultimate sacrificial lamb.  Jesus said that Abraham saw him and believed.

Abraham didn’t see Jesus on the way up the mountain.  He didn’t even see him as he built the altar upon which Isaac would be sacrificed.  He had to see obedience through to the end, to come to the moment where there was no turning back, in order for the lamb to come into view.

Over what do I feel desperate today?  I may be stressed, momentarily pressed to the limit, but perhaps I’m only making my way up Mt. Moriah.  I’ve not reached the top yet.  I’ve not yet built the altar and taken the knife in my hand.

One thing is sure.  For the one who lives by faith, the provision of salvation is sure.  Just like Abraham, I can live with spiritual eyesight, one that looks ahead and sees a Savior who promises deliverance.  I can listen in that still small place inside and hear the promises of the One who is faithful, even when our own flesh and blood are on the line.  The end of my rope is the beginning of God’s.

Help me see with the eyes of faith.  Amen

Preserve The Stories

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Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart.  Psalm 119:2

    How many, and how powerful, are the testimonies of God’s people through the ages.  Blessed are those who preserve them.  To ‘keep’ is to guard something and preserve it with dignity.

    I can be more preoccupied with preserving a family recipe, a family tradition, a family story of heroism than I am preserving the stories of my spiritual family which give God the glory He deserves.  Do I make much of the song of praise the children of Israel sang on the other side of the Red Sea?  Am I amazed by the first version of the Magnificat that Hannah (barely a young woman) wrote after she was delivered from barrenness?  Do I feel the deep gratitude of David when God repeatedly spared his life and ushered him to his day of coronation safely?  Does my spirit feel the thrill when I read about the walls of Jericho coming down after a seven day march and a trumpet blast?  If these stories make my heart pound, I will preserve them and guard their veracity with a vengeance.  If I hear them ridiculed or minimized in public, I will rise to defend them.  If I am engaged with the characters beyond mere interest, I will count the days until I can tell them to my children and grandchildren.

    I am ashamed to say that I can be more emotionally engaged with stories where people I know are the heroes rather than those where God is the center of attention.  I can sit in church, hear the text about to be preached, and think…”Oh, that story!”   Thinking I know the plot well, I sit back, doodle, and coast through the service.

    To be changed by scripture is to emotionally engage with it.  To read in order to study is of little benefit.  To read in order to walk in another’s shoes and feel the dust of Capernaum between my toes, that is another thing.    Ten years ago, I took a year to live inside the skin of the characters from the book of John.  It got so that I couldn’t talk about Peter without crying.  I couldn’t tell the story of Mary taking hold of Jesus feet after her brother died without feeling her broken heart.  That kind of heart engagement with my spiritual ancestors changed me.  Each one interacted with Jesus, saw His glory, and had a visceral reaction.

    God promises that those who guard the testimonies of the saints will be happy.  I can most assuredly promise you that it’s true.  When I get to stand up before a group of women and tell the Shunamite woman’s story from II Kings, I am chomping at the bit until the time comes.  I can hardly sleep the night before for the anticipation of it.  Every time a decoration committee of some event offers me a stool to sit on to teach, I never take them up on it.  I’m always way too excited to sit down.

So many more stories.  As I learn them, I will guard them, and then tell them.  Amen

The Truth Of Jeremiah 29:11

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For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11 

My life is measured by minutes as well as years. If you asked me how I was at 2:30 last Saturday, my answer might be different than if you asked me what this month has been like. Devastation can characterize one moment in time while joy describes the month surrounding it.

Never is this truer than when thinking about God’s sovereignty. God is able to zero in with a bird’s eye view to share a single event of my life. When He does, He is a High Priest who is touched by what moves me. If I’m sad, His tears mingle with mine. But when He backs away to see my life in full panoramic view, His response is altogether different than mine. He sees redemption’s story and how my life begins and ends gloriously within His divine goodness. What causes me to weep today is only a blip in the fullness of time. While I must wait to see my entire life in the rear view mirror, God already sees it. The hands of time move at a snail’s pace for me, not for God.

Jeremiah 29:11 is a lifeline to so many children of God today, including me. It is the sound of hope ringing in my ears. It is the overarching banner of faith that carries me beyond agonizing moments. I know that if I define my life by the momentary, I will be as unstable as shifting sand. I can’t depend on my self-interpretation of today’s events.

For every prayer that has yet to be answered, for every injustice that is awaiting God’s vindication, for every hope yet to be fulfilled, for every disease waiting healing, the truth of God’s panoramic view bolsters my momentary faithlessness. I know that my eyes are dim where perspective is concerned while God eyes are sharp and all encompassing. He not only sees the beginning from the end, He’s Alpha and Omega. He has authored the beginning and the end!

There are no mysteries with the One who holds my life so securely. I can say, despite the moments that threaten to undo me, that His plans for me are good. I have a future and a hope that will culminate in celebration.

Grace for the moment. Faith for the future. I need both, Lord. You know. Amen

Stop Fighting Me!

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Be still and know that I am God. Psalm 46:10

The focus of our church this summer is Psalm 46. Our pastor has strongly encouraged all of us to memorize it ~ even to the smallest child. He has not required something of us that he is not willing to do either. This past Sunday, he recited it at the front end of his sermon. He didn’t make a big deal out of it. It was a quiet, thoughtful delivery. We all knew that he was moved by what came out of his mouth.

He made some extensive comments on the famous verse, ‘Be still and know that I am God.’ My view of that scripture changed. He first recited it as if it were coming from a God intending to soothe and lull His child to sleep, like whispering in a child’s ear. He admitted that this is what he always believed to be the context; like comfort for the fearful. But in studying, he discovered it was not meant to be a whisper to soothe the soul.  Rather, it was a rebuke. What?

So, I went digging for myself. Sure enough. In the chaos and confusion, in the heat of battle, in the striving and fury of activity, God is telling His children to stop fighting Him. They are playing God. They are trying to control what He controls. The cry for them is to be still, to surrender, and to remember who is God. Now, that changes everything, doesn’t it?

Surrender is the hardest thing to do until I’m out of strength. Before I’m willing to lay down my arms and trust God, I have this need to fix things myself. I want to put everything in place so I can feel secure. Only when I’m spent and out of options do I turn to God. Oh, that my initial response would always be surrender! When I acknowledge God at the beginning of my day, at the beginning of my crisis, and when I remember who has the power, then I will be confident and peaceful.

I put my whole trust today in a God who so easily moves things around with His finger and a puff of air.

Many of us are hearing you say today, ‘Stop what you’re doing! Surrender!’ We lay down our arms and relinquish control. Amen

Hippies

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Some of the teachers of the Law of Moses were Pharisees, and they saw that Jesus was eating with sinners and tax collectors. So they asked his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus heard them and answered, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor, but sick people do. I didn’t come to invite good people to be my followers. I came to invite sinners.” Mark 2:16-17

Many were upset about the company Jesus kept. The Jewish elite had become ingrown. They were blind to their own spiritual need but pretended to know the spiritual needs of others. You would think that would have sparked their compassion but it didn’t. Jesus went where they were unwilling to go. He went to where the sick could be found.

Though I grew up in a country Baptist church, my parents were not stereotypes. My mother reached out across our community of 900 with acts of mercy. Nurturing, baking, sitting with the dying; these defined her ministry. My dad broke the mold as well. He was a principal, then guidance counselor, in our local public high school. (Yes, my sister and I couldn’t get away with anything.) He watched the emergence of the hippie movement. I was a teenager at the time. Moved with compassion instead of judgment, he found a way to reach out to them after school hours. He went a couple of times to their local meeting place, an abandoned house in the middle of town, and spent time talking to them. After they called him ‘cool and groovy’, he asked if they’d like to learn the book of John from the Bible. They were accepting to the idea and considered that a ‘cool and groovy idea’ as well. For a year, he met with them weekly. A few came to love Jesus and they walk with him to this day. One is a pastor in Boston. They are all in their 60’s now. Many live locally and still tell stories of how this cool principal came to find them.

Have you ever noticed that when one believer breaks the mold, he leaves the warm acceptance of the fold? Just like Jesus. He entered a no man’s land. The religious elite wasn’t comfortable with him nor did his lifestyle match the sinner’s lifestyle. Nonetheless, He was willing to be solitary and take the Gospel where it was needed.

Dad did it right, too. He didn’t draw attention to his ministry. He didn’t scold others in the church for not caring. He went about his life quietly. When his outreach cut across the grain of others’ pride, I never remember him lashing out. He was a gentle soul.

Today is my day with my grandsons. The day started sitting at the kitchen table with my grandson, Andy.  He asked me if I knew what hippies used to say. (I was surprised he had heard of them.) I asked, “Hmm, what did they say?” He answered, “Groovy!” I laughed. That sparked many stories from my adolescence, including the story of my father teaching hippies the scriptures in their local hangout. Andy sat wide-eyed. My father’s legacy lives on and challenges descendants he never even got to meet. How ‘cool and groovy’ is that!

Let Dad’s generational legacy live on, Lord. Make Andy a fisher of men, casting his net among the spiritually sick. Amen

The Physical Impact of Words

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“Didn’t our hearts burn within us as He walked with us?” Luke 24:32

Does my heart burn when Jesus speaks? Does it burn with conviction, but more often, does it burn as having been affected by a supernatural influence? Have I known a series of life-changing moments when the heavens opened and all became clear?

On the very day that the tomb of Jesus was found empty by Mary Magdalene, two men walked from Jerusalem to Emmaus. Both disciples of Jesus, they were in deep discussion about the report that Jesus was alive. Incredulous, they couldn’t imagine it was true. At that moment, Jesus appeared and walked with them though they didn’t recognize Him. He challenged their unbelief about the resurrection and began to remind them of Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah’s life, death, and rise to glory. His words were so dynamic that when it was time to leave them, they begged Jesus to stay longer. Later, when He broke bread with them, their eyes were opened, and He disappeared from their sight.

Then they had this conversation. “We should have known. Didn’t our hearts burn within us as He walked with us?”

When Jesus speaks, His words are potent. I’m stunned. A bit dissociated. Unable to connect with the mundane. Sleepless due to the excitement I feel. Voraciously hungry for more. Convicted of my sin. More alive than I’ve ever been. Wordless to describe the experience. This is the aftereffect of hearing the Rabbi’s voice.

Like the old hymn, “He walks with me and He talks with me, and He tells me I am His own.” Any given day could be an ‘Emmaus Road’ day. There are seasons of revelation. Sometimes Jesus gives me an ‘open heaven’ day and other times He is silent. I must live off the memories of His last visit. But one thing is for sure ~ His words bring physical, emotional, and spiritual impact. David knew. “My heart grew hot within me, and as I meditated, the fire burned.” Psalm 39:3

What is the most important spiritual skill I can cultivate? To hear the voice of God. If I live the breadth of my Christian life trying to model the principles of the Bible as if it were a self-help book, not only won’t it be exciting but it won’t sustain me when storms hit. Oh, this is not how it’s supposed to be. I am to feast on true companionship. I’m praying that you will have a ‘burning moment’ today, a supernatural appointment with the Spirit of God. Set your heart in listening mode.

I don’t even have to wait for You to show up on my journey. You’re inside. My heart is ready. In Jesus’ name, Amen

A Saving Ache

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Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom!”  And Jesus said to him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.” Luke 23:42-43

Spiritual blindness and spiritual sight are a supernatural phenomenon.   Whether or not Jesus is recognized is totally dependent on Holy Spirit enablement. Some traveled with Jesus for three years and failed to see who He was. Some brothers and sisters grew up with him and never understood who shared their home. But other times, in a mere instant, others knew. Simeon’s heart leapt at the mere presence of toddler Jesus. Elizabeth’s spirit leapt at the proximity of pre-natal Jesus. And the thief on the cross recognized Jesus as King when he saw a suffering Savior. He said to him, ‘Remember me when you come into your kingdom.’

There is a certain thing your heart does when you recognize Jesus in a person. There is an instant ache, then joy, and then wonder. At our last church conference gathering, that moment occurred for me. Our congregation had just taken a vote whether to build a new sanctuary. The vast majority voted for it and there were a handful that voted against it. When our pastor announced the results, he did not break into celebration. He withheld his excitement and addressed the few who had reservations. ‘I want to speak to any of you who weren’t able to give your support for our new building. I hear your voices. I would love to meet with each of you in person and learn from your wisdom. There may be blind spots you’re able to share with me. How you feel is important to me.’ When he transitioned to acknowledge the victory, he didn’t treat it as something that was won at others’ expense.

A Jesus-moment. The most important thing in the meeting was not the vote for a new building. It was shepherding the people. Our pastor, a humble-sensitive soul, put his people first. The reality that there would be a new sanctuary paled in importance.

Spiritual recognition happens more often when someone watches another suffer. When they sing through their tears, when they bear the hurt of mistreatment, when they praise God for the opportunity to share in Christ’s suffering, God’s glory is revealed. Someone watching will step back and realize that this is an otherworldly moment. For the thief on the cross, it was probably the moment Jesus prayed to forgive those who were causing his affliction and enjoying it as if it were a sporting event. It was not too late for this thief to see God’s Son revealed and to believe. If you are reading this, it’s not too late for you either. Now is the time for salvation. Only the Spirit of God can cause you to recognize Jesus. Ask him.

Shine through me, Jesus. When it’s hardest for me to trust you, those are probably the moments that hold the greatest evangelistic potential. Don’t let me despise what is painful. Amen

A Breath Away

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Again Jesus said to them, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent Me, so also I am sending you.” When He had said this, He breathed on them and said, “Receive the HolySpirit.  John 20:21-22

When the disciples were despondent after the crucifixion of Jesus, Jesus appeared, told them to be at peace, and then breathed on them.  “Receive the Holy Spirit.”   They went from there to burn brightly for the kingdom.

Christ, in God, breathed at creation too.  When He did, life erupted.

Adam was just a physical man, made of the dust of the ground.  He was not a spiritual being until God moved from on high.  Adam’s soul would not be made of earthly materials.  It would come to life only by a God-breath.

Job knew this too.  He said, “The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.”  Job 33:4

Ezekiel knew it as God said, “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.”  Ezekiel 37:9 In a vision, nearly dead bodies came to life, stood on their feet, and became a great army.

The world at the end of the tribulation will know it when the two witnesses, the prophets Satan kills, come back to life with a breath.  “But after three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood up on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them.”  Revelation 11:11

And we knew it at the time of salvation.  God breathed over us and our spiritual blindness was cured.  We looked up and saw a Savior; we looked inside and saw our sin.  “Unless a man is born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”  John 3:5 

I think of the phrase ‘the living dead.’  It refers to the meaningless existence of a person who is technically alive but soulfully checked out.  That never need describe any child of God.  The Spirit of God, the breath of God, is within us.  He longs to rise up and infuse us with eternal life.  The outgrowths are security, calmness, spiritual power, and the feeling of being wonderfully alive.  Many are waiting for heaven to experience the abundant life but, right now, it’s a breath away.

I look to no one else for life.  I feast on Your Word.  I drink of You deeply.  I breathe of Your Spirit.  So breathe over me.  Amen