A 'Nevertheless' Moment

“Nevertheless we made our prayer unto our God, and set a watch against them day and night, because of them.” (Ne 4:9 AV)

We have had an evangelist with us this week.  Last night, he preached on the times the word ‘nevertheless’ occurs in the scriptures.  Not all of them, mind you.  Or we would still be in church this morning.  Rather, he picked out four times the word is used.  The word represents a point of decision that defines the person from that event forward.  Above, we see one of Nehemiah’s ‘nevertheless’ moments.  The enemies of Israel were doing everything they could to end the construction of the wall around Jerusalem.  They even sent letters containing lies back to Mede, accusing Israel of ordaining a king among them.  They accused the Jews of rebuilding the wall so they could reestablish the kingdom as it once stood under David and Solomon.  These were all lies.  Sanballat and Tobiah did everything they could to frustrate Nehemiah and end the work.  Nehemiah, nevertheless, went to pray, made his stand, and left it with God.  He was not dis-swayed from what God called him and the nation to do.  They can take their best shot, but they were going on for God.  Prayer was the strength that kept them on that wall.  Nehemiah’s nevertheless moment was his instinct for prayer.

Prayer should be a pattern of life and habitually instinctual.  Prayer is not something we must set aside and check off when accomplished.  Prayer is having a conversation with God.  Just as my wife and I do not plan our conversations, so too should the prayer life of the believer be.  It should be instinctual, every present, and sincere.  I have to chuckle when I hear couples say they need to schedule a date night.  To me, that is funny.  I know what they mean.  They need to get away from the kids and make it a time exclusively for them.  Those times are needed.  But life happens and when the context of interaction between a husband and wife is around normal events, it is no less real than a candlelit dinner and a table for two.  Yes, these things are needed.  But the conversation they have on the way to pay the water bill is no less real.  Their relationship is a twenty-four-hour a day interaction, whether it involves roses or rhubarb.  It is no less real if they are folding laundry, watching something on TV, or on a couple’s retreat in the romantic hills of the Appalachian Mountains.  The more instinctual the conversation, the more real and sincere it is.

Prayer should be planned.  That is what I am doing right now.  In a moment, when the words stop appearing on the paper, prayer will take its place.  But if we are to have a nevertheless moment of prayer that forever changes our lives, we have to treat prayer as instinctual and not merely planned.  Sure, I plan on talking to my Lisa when she comes home from work.  There will be mutual things we need to accomplish today.  But the vast majority of our conversations are not planned.  They are instinctual.  They happen.  The same should be true of our prayer life.  There should be thirty minutes a day, and that is it.  No.  The Bible says to pray unceasingly.  That is instinctual prayer.  It is a God-consciousness that never ends.  It doesn’t matter if we have a list in front of us, or we are simply thanking Him for the beautiful day ahead.  Prayer should be planned.  But it should be more instinctual than it is planned.  If our prayer life was instinctual, then it would be far more difficult to fall into sin.  If we are in the habit of praying unceasingly, then falling into sin would require we break that fellowship first.  However, if we have compartmentalized our prayer life by a schedule, then we have already broken fellowship with God and sin becomes much easier.  Our nevertheless moment should be the permanent decision to make prayer instinctual!  That is what Nehemiah did, and the wall was completed.

Praise God for the Unknowable

“O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable [are] his judgments, and his ways past finding out!” (Ro 11:33 AV)

There are several take-aways here.  First, the depth of who God is contains riches beyond our imagination.  Learning of God’s wisdom and knowledge is greater value than all He has created.  The riches of the universe pale in comparison to who and what God is.  The student who takes the time to study and learn about God will not be disappointed.  Secondly, it is impossible to discover the depth of who and what God is.  No matter how hard we study or how smart we are, we can but scratch the service of who and what God is.  Our finite human mind cannot begin to comprehend the nature of God.  We know only that which is revealed in the Bible.  To some, the attempt to understand God is a source of arrogance.  To others, frustration.  Rather than responding in this manner, one should choose the correct response as revealed above.  One of wonder!  To know we can never search out the depth of the wisdom and knowledge of God is both humbling and comforting.  If we could figure out God, we would be God.  Praise the LORD we cannot!  What a great thing!

I get bored rather easy.  When I reach my limit on what I can learn, I move on.  In my younger years, I fished a lot.  Growing up as a Boy Scout, I had plenty of opportunity.  When I was a boy, TV was in its infancy.  There were only three channels.  So, if we sought entertainment, we found it through hands-on activities.  One of mine was fishing.  It would not be out of the ordinary for my friend and me to get on our bikes and ride miles to fish in a pond or the Erie Barge Canal.  That was back in the day when your parents didn’t have to worry about your safety.  Especially during the summer, he and I would pack lunches and then ride five to ten miles to a remote pond and spend the day fishing.  Later in life, I became spoiled.  I graduated from shore fishing to boat fishing.  My father-in-law had a boat, and we lived very near one of the finger lakes.  We would hit the water when we could. Some summers it was frequently.  My brother-in-law had a boat as well.  He and I would to a bit of line wetting.  Then there were the many times I fished from docks and shoreline.  The thing is, when I figured out the pattern of what the fish were doing, I got bored.  Seeing as how I didn’t eat what I caught, catching them was the sole purpose.  So, once I figured out where the fish were hiding and how to catch them, I lost interest.

Praise the LORD for being unfathomable!  The LORD is so good to us.  He really is!  He is a wonder every time we pray, read of Him, meditate upon Him, and simply exist in His love.  What a comfort to know there is someone infinitely greater than I will ever be.  His knowledge and wisdom are without limit.  He is in all places, all the time.  He can do all that a holy and infinite God can do.  He is God Jehovah!  I know that even in the infinite time of eternity, I still will not come close to understanding Him.  And I am so glad it will be that way!  The simpler I am, the better!  May God always be above my thoughts.  May He always be more than I can comprehend.  May He always hold that place of wonder in my eyes.  Like a little child who looks up to his father as bigger than life, that is the God I want.  I want to see Him and behold Him as someone who will always be bigger than all of creation.  I want my God to be so full of wonder that I am taken aback every time I gaze upon His glory!  The God whom I will one day meet face to face will be new every morning.  Just when I think I know Him, there will be another element of who or what He is that will blow the mind!  We praise God because we worship a God who cannot be understood, calculated, figured out, etc.  Praise God for who and what He is!

Desperate Measures for Desperate Times

“Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river of Ahava, that we might afflict ourselves before our God, to seek of him a right way for us, and for our little ones, and for all our substance.” (Ezr 8:21 AV)

The circumstances for this fast are rather important.  Ezra was tasked to return to Jerusalem by Cyrus, king of the Medes and Persians, to rebuild the temple.  Cyrus had offered financial and material assistance, but Ezra declined on the premise that the God of Israel could quite meet their need.  A need did arise of which they could not meet, so Ezra proclaimed a fast, so that the God of Israel would be proven sufficient for their cause.  The right way of which Ezra speaks is the right way to traverse through Jerusalem, the manner in which to gather the materials, and building of the temple.  They also faced threats to their cause by the Gentiles that had come to dwell in Israel.  Ezra wanted God to be glorified without the need to go to unbelievers for help.  Desperate times require desperate measures.

The extent we are willing to inconvenience ourselves reveals how much we desire what God desires.  God does not make faith and obedience easy.  Why would He?  Faith and obedience, by design, take effort.  We have to deal with a nature that does not want to do either.  We have to deal with the world that wants to see us fail.  We have to deal with Satan, who wants nothing more than to see our destruction.  We have to face great adversity on our journey of faith and obedience.  Seeing that faith and obedience are difficult, the measure of our integrity is the price we will pay to live in faith and obedience.  To what extent are we willing to go to see God pleased?  This was Ezra’s point.  God called them to be a separated nation.  He gave them a little space to repent and do it right.  Again!  They returned to Jerusalem to repair and rebuild the Temple and wall.  This opportunity cost them.  They traversed by foot to Babylon to Israel, taking with them what they would need to make the trip.  Once there, they had to gather the materials needed for the project.  Cyrus returned a portion of the precious metals taken when Nebuchadnezzar invaded.  But Ezra refused additional supplies to do the job.  His integrity would not allow the Gentiles to supply the resources for their obedience.  It was Israel that failed and it must be Israel that pays the cost.

Rather than take a shortcut, Ezra took the only option that would glorify the LORD.  He proclaimed a fast throughout Israel.  If they were going to do this, they needed God’s help.  They would not compound the error by accepting grace not meant for them.  They would not take a sinful out to further obedience.  No way!  They were desperate, in part, because of the integrity of their leader.  This is a good thing!  Their leader would not bend to compromise and this caused hardship.  Rather than accept the charity of those who knew not God, he put all his eggs in the basket of God’s provision.  Fast and pray.  That was the only option he could take.  What did God do?  God proved Himself more than capable and supplied all they would need without the help of the Gentile king.  Desperate times require desperate measure.  But desperate times are desperate because of the integrity of God’s people!  Glory!  May we have more of them and may we respond just as Ezra did.  Fast and pray and see what God can do!

What A Desire!

“This [is] my rest for ever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it.” (Ps 132:14 AV)

This verse is referring to the temple in Jerusalem.  David is speaking of his desire to have a permanent place for the Ark of the Covenant to rest.  David’s dream was to build a permanent temple to replace the temporary tabernacle.  The land had been settled and Israel was at peace.  It was time to focus attention on what made them different from every other nation.  It was time for them to focus on worship of the one true God!  It is important to remember an essential truth here.  God is everywhere.  But God is not everywhere in the same way.  He does not manifest Himself exactly the same in all places.  For example, God manifests Himself quite differently in hell than He does in heaven.  It is true.  The nation of Israel could have worshipped God anywhere and at any time.  So long as the law was not violated nor their heart taken with sin, worship was not restricted.  So, when David desires to build a house for God, he does so with the understanding God is omnipresent.  The temple represents the place where the saints of God meet with God very intimately.  They are separated unto God, wholly and completely.  The verse above is the words of God.  Note in particular that He desires to be present in Jerusalem in this very intimate and powerful way.  It is the place where He wishes to rest with the saints and the saints with Him.

Much of the Old Testament is a picture of a New Testament doctrine.  The temple, where the presence of God was experienced, represents a type of the New Testament believer.  Paul tells us our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, wherein He comes and dwells.  Later, in another letter, Paul also tells us that Jesus Himself resides within our hearts.  He uses the phrase, “Christ in you” to reveal the holy God Jehovah resides within the believer.  If you are saved, that is you!  Now, if you really want a blessing, note one single word above.  Note the word, ‘desired’.  God desired to dwell with Israel in a very real and intimate way when the temple was erected in Jerusalem.  His desire was to dwell among His people in a way not afforded to any other.  He wished to live with them, talk with them, share His heart and they shared theirs, and care for them like no other people on earth.  The same can be said of the New Testament saint.  The God who created all things and controls all things desires to dwell with you!  What a thought!  This desire is a personal one.  This desire is not seen as a general desire applicable to everyone, as if the individual did not exist apart from the whole.  We are like the temple.  We are singular to almighty God.  He wants to dwell with you as if you were the only one there.  The temple was one!  You are one.  God desires to walk with you!

What a privilege beyond words to know the God of all things wants to talk with me!  My mind cannot wrap itself around the truth that God desires to meet with me!  I know me!  I don’t want to meet with me.  If I had a choice, I would run away from myself as far as I could.  There is nothing good in me that a holy God could desire.  There are times I wonder why He created me at all.  My faults are too numerous.  My shortcomings are many.  There is every reason for the LORD God of all to reject me and have no second thoughts of me.  In fact, if the LORD told me He repents of the day I came into existence, I would completely understand.  I would agree.  However, this is not the God whom we worship.  He loves every soul He has ever created.  His desire is the same.  He desires to place His presence within our souls.  He desires to come into our lives very intimately.  God wants do badly for us to accept His love and live a life with peace of soul.  Our God is a God of love and He wants to sup with us and we with Him.  He says so in the book of Revelation.  He desires to dwell with men.  Each and every individual person!  His desire is to love us intimately and for us to love Him in return.  WOW!  What love!

Trade Your Yoke

“Come unto me, all [ye] that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke [is] easy, and my burden is light.” (Mt 11:28-30 AV)

What is often missed is the connection between the heavy load one carries and the load which the LORD asks us to assume.  Finding rest does not mean an absence of all burdens.  Rather, finding rest for the soul means swapping out the load we carry with the load which the LORD wants us to bear.  The load is mentioned.  The load is bearing under the responsibility or burden with the LORD has with meekness and humility.  How we bear the load will determine the easy of the burden.  Meekness and humility will make the load we bear much easier.  It also means we are relieved of the excess weights of a wrong spirit, fears and anxieties, or fighting against the burden which the LORD has determined.   The first three words are appealing to me.  Come unto Christ.  How many times do we seek to bear the burdens of life without drawing near to the LORD?  How many times do we bend under the load but not enough to reach our knees?  The LORD will give that which we can handle while relying on him.  Perhaps the load is heavier than it needs to be because we are not going to Him.

Something to note here is the association of the yoke.  The LORD refers to it as His yoke.  The word for ‘yoke’ here means a balance scale.  In other words, the yoke spoken of here is shared by two animals.  Therefore, the yoke spoken of here is not one pulled alone.  It is one shared.  The yoke Jesus asks us to carry is the same one He is pulling.  It is His yoke, first!  There is another important observation to be made here.  As two forces share a yoke, it is hard for them not to be familiar with each other.  It is natural for animals that share a common task, to form a social bond because of it.  Dogs that pull a sled form a social construct that enables the musher to organize them and create a structure, resulting in the sled moving forward as fast as it possibly can.  When the LORD asks us to share His yoke, not only does the yoke become lighter, but there is a bond that forms.  When He asks us to come unto Him, it is not solely for the purpose of making adversity easier to bear.  He asks us to come unto Him that we can learn of Him.  Not learn from Him.  Rather, to learn of Him.

Life has burdens.  Life has yokes.  What is interesting is for Jesus to ask us to take His yoke upon our shoulders necessarily means we are assuming a yoke we need to carry.  There is only one yoke here.  It is either the yoke we have chosen to bear, or the one Jesus is carrying.  We cannot carry both.  Coming to Christ means we relinquish the burden we carry and carry the one Christ has for us.  Circumstances don’t change.  What changes is the association with Christ we make and the spirit in which the burden is carried.  Humility and meekness of Christ are the keys that make our burdens easier to bear.  When we react to our burdens as though we are above them, they become heavier.  When we react to our burdens by fighting against them, they become harder to bear.  The humility to accept the burdens God has sent because we trust Him makes them easier.  The humility to know that we have no standing to refuse the burden makes it easier to bear.  The yoke of Christ is one assigned to Him from eternity past.  Part of that yoke is bearing our yoke with us.  If He committed Himself to us before we were created, then we can appreciate the sacrifice, humility, and love of God, which makes the burden much easier to accept.  It is His yoke.  The yoke of humility and meekness can replace the yoke of resentment, rebellion, and pride.  The yoke He has for us is shared with Him and is much lighter than the one we carry.  There is rest for the soul to be had.  It is a promise.  If we relinquish the yoke, we carry and pull with Christ, we will learn of Him and rest will be the result.

Work It

“Every prudent [man] dealeth with knowledge: but a fool layeth open [his] folly.” (Pr 13:16 AV)

The word ‘dealeth’ is interesting.  The word means to inter-meddle.  It means to work with knowledge as a potter would his clay.  The prudent man will work with knowledge because working with knowledge results in understanding.  Understanding should end in wisdom.  In other words, gathering facts and working with facts helps us to put pieces together in a bigger picture.  Once we understand how principles work, the discipline to incorporate that understanding should result.  That is to which the Bible refers as wisdom.  But it all starts with dealing with knowledge.  Dealing with knowledge takes work.  We must read.  We must research.  We must pray.  We must take the time necessary to gather the facts.  We have to deal with knowledge.

We had the privilege of home-schooling our children for a bit.  We had a few years of sitting in our ‘classroom’ and teaching them some of the very basics of their scholastic life.  It was an experience I will always remember and one for which I will always be grateful.  One blessing of teaching them was seeing the ‘get it’.  Whether it was phonics, math, or history, when they could put the puzzle together, it amazed me.  Language still amazes me.  If someone believes in evolution and we all came through the zoo, all one needs to do is study the science of language.  Language is the most complicated thing a creature can do.  To express a thought in a detailed manner through an external manifestation is something to behold.  Learning how grammar and syntax work is something not many people can master.  It takes years of study and practice to master a language to perfection.  One must deal with knowledge.  He or she has to muddle over things and try to fit one thing with another.  Patterns need to be discovered.  Why certain syntax works in one language and not another is an interesting detail to uncover.  The ability to proficiently communicate is not a skill easily learned.  Dealing with knowledge is the only way by which this can be accomplished.

Prudence means knowing what is the best option and doing so on principle.  Prudence can foresee the results of choices.  Prudence can look down the road and know if choice A was the choice, there are certain sets of circumstances that follow.  Prudence foresees the trouble and avoids it.  The suggestion here is simple.  If we are to navigate life successfully, ignorance is our enemy.  We are not to blindly go through life and let life happen.  The bible calls this type of person a simple person.  The wise take the time to learn.  They take the time to observe.  They take the time to challenge what they think they know against the word of God.  They spend time studying the Bible to find and apply truth.  Their time is dedicated to mental growth.  They deal with knowledge.  They pick it up and work with it.  They twist it one way or another.  They test it against what they think they know to see if what they know is correct.  The prudent man is a student.  He is a learner.  He soaks up knowledge not so that he can accumulate it.  Rather, he soaks it up so that he can use it for the glory of God, for the benefit of others, and for the blessings of life.  The prudent man deals with knowledge.  He doesn’t let it sit idle in a corner.

Rejoice, You Grump!

“This [is] the day [which] the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” (Ps 118:24 AV)

Something funny happened to me this morning.  I really appreciate it when the LORD gives an obvious and sometimes humorous rebuke, especially when I need it.  So, let me set the stage.  For smaller churches, Mother’s Day is one of those days with horrible attendance.  People skip church to be with their mothers.  Attendance is typically lower by at least a third.  So, I was mulling that over in my heart.  My wife has cancer every day is a challenge.  Some days are better than others, but life will never go back to the way it was.  On Mother’s Day, I miss my own mother.  She has been gone now for six years and every now and again; I wish I could pick up the phone and call her.  Putting this altogether, I woke up this morning in a bit of a surly mood.  Then this verse popped into my head.  It wasn’t enough that it popped into my head, but the Spirit added the word ‘stupid’ right after it.  I suppose He can do that.  He is God!  I had to chuckle.  I was reminded that rejoicing is commanded.  Paul tells us to rejoice evermore!

I appreciate the LORD’s sense of humor.  He could have mercilessly rebuked me for my dark attitude.  He could have reacted in a far more dramatic and angry manner.  I would have deserved it, too.  But the Holy Spirit knows how to work our hearts better than we do.  He also added the word ‘jerk’ at the end of the verse.  And He was right.  I am a jerk for not being as grateful to the LORD regardless of adversity.  It was so funny.  Even now I am chuckling.  Our worst days are still better than our lost better days.  When we did not know Christ, we had no hope in this world.  We were without security of soul.  We had no future.  God has been far better to us than we will ever realize.  Life, no matter the circumstances, is a blessing.  So long as we walk with God amid the days of our journey, life may be difficult from time to time, but God is there.  Life is always going to be difficult.  Because of sin, life will always have its challenges.  Adversity is the very definition of the human experience.  We cannot avoid it.  Yet, we can conclude life can always be worse.  Better yet, we can accept with confidence God controls all things, and He has a purpose for it all.  This purpose is far better than we can imagine.

Rejoicing is difficult when you are sitting in a room with several other patients, hooked to a drip of radiation for four to six hours.  Rejoicing is difficult when pain is a daily companion.  Rejoicing is difficult when all you want to do is easy your spouse’s suffering and there is nothing you can do about it.  Rejoicing is difficult when the things are not as you wish they were.  Rejoicing is difficult when you work so hard to get ahead in life and career, only to see things appear to take two steps back.  Rejoicing is difficult when it seems as though the only thing you hear is bad news.  But all that does not matter.  If rejoicing is commanded, then the circumstances do not matter.  Not only that, but if rejoicing is commanded, then despite the circumstances, there must be more to rejoice over than there is to regret.  It is all a matter of perspective.  So, today, and every day, are days that God has made.  Regardless of our suffering, we must rejoice in them.  This is the command.  This is the promise.  And most of all, this is the hope.