GOD IS NEARER STILL
But you are near, O Lord, and all your commandments are true. Psalm 119:151
When someone is outside the house, on your property, meaning to do you harm, you want the policeman on the inside of the house with you. Safety would be closer in proximity than harm. No matter where the threats are today, trouble can not separate me from God’s presence. He is around me. He is inside of me. And with Him comes not only comfort, but aid.
INTO THE GOSPEL MESSAGE
Timothy has come to us from you, and has brought us good news of your faith and love; that you always think kindly of us. I Thessalonians 3:6
The one who preaches the full counsel of the Word to us, the one who is not afraid to address issues like our sin, submission to authority, and absolute obedience to God, can often be despised for daring to rock our boat of self-obsession. If we are out to indulge in the pleasures of life and suffer minimal risk for the kingdom, we will resent not only the message, but the message bearer. What makes or breaks such a pastor is whether the truth is brought in humility, in the context of a loving relationship with his people.
My ministry for several decades has been to encourage women to build a sure foundation for their faith by exploring the unwavering love of a Heavenly Father who calls them His beloved. I have been passionate about defending, and then highlighting, God’s character. Daughters of promise have been encouraged to live in the kingdom and learn how to sit, daily, at the feet of the Rabbi .
Over the past five years, my calling has changed to include expansive teaching. I bring a deeper message that says, “Now that we know we’re loved, here’s what God is asking of us.”
HOW CAN I BE WHOLE?
The Lord has a case against the inhabitants of the land because there is no truth or mercy or knowledge of God in the land. Hosea 4:1
Truth, mercy and knowledge are all three connected. When there is no knowledge of God, truth and mercy are non-existent. Truth has to be rooted in something more than personal opinion and mercy goes beyond self-interest. In this post-modern society, and a biblical illiterate society for the most part, each person is left to define truth as he perceives it to be. Whatever he thinks is right, is supposedly considered right for himself. Feelings and logic determine his own brand of truth.
Without a plumb line for morality, immorality abounds. Lawlessness begins to permeate a society and God takes issue with a nation that defies His law. People to whom truth and mercy are foreign are also personally lost. On difficult days, they’re angry and disillusioned. On good days, they party hard and are dissociated from their soul’s cry for meaning.
Knowledge of God is always more than just information. It is a ‘knowing’ as in the context of intimacy. Technically, I can become intellectually informed about the person of God and say I have rubbed shoulders with truth. Continue reading “How Can I Be Whole?”
SEEING JESUS UNDER PRESSURE
Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord; also his mother, who has been a mother to me as well. Romans 16:13
Rufus was the son of Simon of Cyrene. This is the same Simon who carried Jesus’ cross through the streets – to the hill of Golgatha – when Jesus was too weak to do it himself. Simon was a Jew and would have grown up despising the Romans who oppressed them. To be commanded by Roman soldiers to carry the cross of a condemned man must have been bitter. He had to comply without a fight.
But on that journey, Simon saw Jesus under the greatest pressure of his life. There was no swearing. No vows to get even. Even in agony, Jesus was full of grace. There is no way to view a man’s darkest moments and not get a sense of ‘who and what’ he is really made of. There is a saying, “Who a man is under pressure is who a man is.” Continue reading “Seeing Jesus Under Pressure”
GOD MUST OPEN MY EYES
Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. And she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink. And God was with the boy, and he grew up. Genesis 21:18 ESV
I’ve had the experience where I’ve accused someone of not being there when I needed them. Later, I found out that they had not been absent at all. They reached out, they did something anonymously, and I just didn’t know. I have learned, quite humbly, to be slow to point the finger.
Hagar, while praying for water, couldn’t see the provision of God though it was right in front of her. God had to open her eyes to it. She was too overcome with grief to see the well of water that would save their lives.
While physical provisions are often necessary, what I need most are the provisions God offers in Himself. Wherever I feel deprived, I grieve, but there stands my Father with His arms out. He is everything I’m longing for but my eyes can’t see Him. His Words are empty because spiritual blindness keeps His intimate disclosures from penetrating my soul.
My greatest need is to see God and experience the power of the Word. Both are right in front of my eyes but I can’t see them without God helping me. He must open my eyes to the spiritual treasures found in Himself. I am a victim of the Fall and my flesh continually limits me without the salvation of the Lord.
Perhaps the very thing I need today is right in front of me, Lord. I stop now and ask You for spiritual sight. Amen
Journal Question: How would you answer the question, “I know God says that He is _____________, but I never feel it.” Ask God to touch your heart, open your eyes, and cause You to feel the warmth of His presence and His power.
I’M NUMB. I CAN’T EVEN CRY!
So Abraham rose early in the morning and took bread and a skin of water and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away. And she departed and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba. Genesis 21:14
What was it like when you got the worst news of your life? Someone did or said something and you felt your stomach fall to the floor. “This can’t be happening to me,” you said to yourself. “I have to be dreaming and any minute, I’ll wake up.”
Hagar, homeless? Her life with Abraham gave her security. Surely someone who loves and serves God wouldn’t be sending she and her son out to the wilderness to die! Family doesn’t act like that!
What feeds unbelief is that what has always seemed impossible has just fallen upon me.
I’ve been the recipient of earth shattering news, several times. I was numb for weeks before the tears set in. Did Hagar weep as she left Abraham’s camp or was she also numb, walking but not feeling her feet?
The very time I need God is the time I can turn away from Him. My theology takes a bad turn. I conclude He’s on vacation; doesn’t see, doesn’t care, and has turned into someone who breaks His promises. If I could gently take you by the shoulders today and look into your eyes, I would tell you this. “This is a grand opportunity for faith, a time pregnant for the power of God to be on display. Put up your shield of faith despite how things appear.”
There is no end to my life’s story unless You declare it over. As long as I breathe, You have a plan for me; one that offers a future and a hope. I’m looking up instead of down. Amen
CAN SOMEONE ELSE RUIN MY LIFE?
So she [Sarah] said to Abraham, “Cast out this slave woman with her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac.” And the thing was very displeasing to Abraham on account of his son. But God said to Abraham, “Be not displeased because of the boy and because of your slave woman. Whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for through Isaac shall your offspring be named. And I will make a nation of the son of the slave woman also, because he is your offspring.” Genesis 21:10-13
There are so many things that happen to me that tempt me to believe that my future is ruined. Betrayal, whether it be family or friend, can render me penniless and it would appear that I’ll never gain my financial footing again. Can a disowned son or daughter have a golden future? Does financial ruin write the end of my story?
And how about this? Does the demonic and emotional residue of abuse break me half? Do I believe I’ll never stand up straight again? The over-arching question is this, “Can God triumph over the cruelty of others?”
If there were victims in the story of Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar, it would be Hagar and her beautiful son. As a slave, she took orders from her master’s wife to sleep with Abraham. Getting pregnant wasn’t her fault. It wasn’t her ambition for Abraham to father her child. She was wronged; no doubt about it, and her child bore the stigma of all children born outside of wedlock.
Ishmael watched the celebration of Isaac’s birth. He felt the favor of God on his half brother and felt his father’s joy over the promised child. Bitterness set in. When Isaac was weaned and a party was thrown in his honor, Ishmael mocked and laughed. In a swift overreaction, Sarah commanded Abraham to throw Hagar and Ishmael out of the house. Oh, the cruelty! If Sarah hadn’t instigated the plan of infidelity in the first place, she would have no ill feelings on this day toward Hagar. There would be no Ishmael to remind her of her fatal mistake. Instead of bearing up well under the consequences, she threw family out of her camp.
Does God triumph over cruelty, over rejection, over injustice? Oh yes. Though it appeared to be the end for Hagar and her son, God saw her plight and pledged His blessing. They would not starve and die in obscurity. God would bless them in spite of the wrong done against them.
How many times have I thought, ‘This is the end!’ But You’ve turned all ends into beginnings. Oh, how mighty You are. Amen
IT’S ALL SO FRAGILE
I hold my life in my hands continually, but I do not forget your law. Psalm 119:109
What makes you faint today? Physical danger, serious illness, a bitter confrontation, treachery? David understands. For many years of his life, he faced things that make grown men fall to their knees. Hunted down by friends, even family, he faced death daily. Rejected by his closest companions, he experienced betrayal at their hands. He knew what it was like to hold the essence of his life in his hands and see how fragile it was. In spite of that, in spite of the high alert and consistent adrenalin rush, he made much room for God’s law. He pushed other matters to the side so that internal space was reserved for what gave him the courage to live. God and the words God speaks. Continue reading “It’s All So Fragile”
WHEN TWO PARTS OF MY LIFE COLLIDE
And the child grew and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, laughing.
Genesis 21:8-9 ESV
Sarah laughed for joy when Isaac was born. But Ishmael laughed in scorn when Isaac was weaned. A great party was thrown in Isaac’s honor and the scoffing of the elder son dampened the celebration.
If only Sarah could have done things differently years before. When God’s promise of conception didn’t occur for next 25 years, she concocted her own solution. She told Abraham to sleep with Hagar in order to produce a son. Oh, how that haunted her on this day as Ishmael, a son whom she also loved but conceived out of God’s will, mocked her Isaac. Paul described the dynamics well. But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now. Gal. 4:29 ESV
I can be sure that whatever I make happen in the flesh will collide with what God is doing through my spirit. Dead works and Spirit-breathed endeavors strain against each other. One is of God. One is not. Children even perceive the difference. Cruel things are said on the playgrounds as Christian children are despised and taunted.
Where is there holy conflict today? Perhaps your church is a mixed bag. There are righteous pockets of activity, places where God’s Spirit is breathing abundant life into those who are spiritually hungry. This, unfortunately, co-exists alongside fleshly ministries that are birthed through ambition instead of prayer. Enthusiasm is mistaken for holy fervor. Know this ~ that whatever is of the flesh and what is of the Spirit will create sparks. There will be a kingdom clash that no amount of mediation will be able to fix. What is the remedy? Things of the flesh need to be exposed and repented of at the altar. Dead works are for the fire. Cold hearts need the fires of revival. Oh, that our churches would cease being divided kingdoms.
Show me where Your Spirit is working and where holy activity is simply being mimicked. If I can do something about it, give me the courage to step up to the plate. May Your kingdom come to the messes of my own making. Amen
Journal Question: What are you trying to unify that needs to separate? Ask God for the wisdom to do what needs to be done.
WHEN PROMISES TAKE A LONG TIME
The Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised. And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him, Isaac. Genesis 21:1-3
I look at Abraham and Sarah’s life in retrospect and it’s plain to see that God fulfilled every single promise. He did it in ‘His appointed time’, not theirs. From their perspective, He took a long time. As they waited, they doubted, blamed, and took matters into their own hands. It’s hard when promises take a long time to materialize.
When others look at my life in retrospect, they will also see that God was true to every promise He made. It is only I, in the midst of waiting, who struggles. Because some promises don’t come true when I think they should, I am tempted to distrust the One who made them. But I cannot live my life as an island. I must place my story into the whole context of scripture, the mega-story, to learn about the nature of the Promise-Giver. If He has never, ever, broken His Word, would He really start with me?
From the time God first promised the birth of Isaac to the time Sarah became pregnant was 25 years. I can groan at the thought of such waiting. Yet, that’s nothing. The ‘appointed time’ for the birth of Abraham’s greater offspring would occur 2,000 years later – in the birth of Christ. God is never in a hurry and never feels pressured to make things happen because I’m unhappy.
I sometimes judge my life and my effectiveness by worldly standards. The prime of life, supposedly, occurs in one’s thirties. By the time I’m fifty, others believe I’ve lived my dreams and am working toward retirement. It’s hogwash. God didn’t even make His promise about Isaac until Abraham was 75. Some of the most effective trailblazers for the kingdom didn’t even warm up until their later years. When God promises fruitfulness, we can’t feel pressured by age, education, ability, or human weakness. When God calls a man or woman, they are equipped. Period. His promises will be fulfilled ‘at the appointed time’ and that is right on time. In this I rest – as I wait.
You know what I still pray for ~ and in what promises I stand. I adjust my clock to Your calendar. Amen
Journal Question: What promise has God made to you that you’re still waiting to see fulfilled? What is your posture? If it’s anything but hopeful expectation, talk to your Father about it.
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