An Eye Toward Eternity

“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive [and] remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” (1Th 4:16-17 AV)

This passage came across my phone this morning.  No doubt as an encouragement for the saints in light of the wicked direction of our nation.  Jesus is coming back.  This is our hope.  Eternity is our hope.  Whether we see Jesus sooner than we anticipated, or at the conclusion of our pilgrimage, it is inevitable.  The world can persecute God’s people all they want.  It will not change a thing.  No one lives forever.  We will all eventually be somewhere.  When we are where God is, the wickedness of humanity, the devil, and the temptations of the flesh can no longer molest.  Not only will we go where Jesus is at, we will be there forever.  This filthy world will be in our past.  We will never return!  Except for a brief 1,000 reign, our eternity is in the perfect glory of God the Father and Our LORD Jesus Christ!

There is a special feeling while sitting at an airport, waiting for departure.  That feeling grows even stronger when we sit on the plane, waiting to taxi.  This feeling particularly intensifies when we initiate the takeoff procedure.  The feeling that one is leaving behind an entire set of circumstances for a new world.  Whether we are traveling back to family or on vacation, we are leaving the life we had behind.  Even for a short while, the feeling of deliverance is evident.  The stress of paying bills, our careers, family obligations, ministries, etc all appear in the rearview mirror, so to speak, and there is before us a wide-open sky.  Many years ago, I used to play a flight simulator for hours on end.  I was proficient to where, with the help of an instructor, I flew a real airplane by instruments.  The reason I played flight simulator for many hours was as a way of escape.  I could sit in the cockpit and my attention was on a wide-open horizon and the problems of life far below.  It was cathartic, in a way.  Playing flight simulator allowed me to exist above my troubles, even for a short period.

The rapture of the church will be infinitely greater.  A trumpet will sound and those who are dead in Christ Jesus will rise first.  Then those of us who are alive will join them in the air.  But the most important promise follows.  When we do join our fellow believers in the air, we will meet Jesus where we will be forevermore.  What is truly sad is those who hate God and are doing all they can to stick it to Him do not realize what they are throwing away.  For what?  Temporary indulgence?  How truly tragic.  They are thumbing their nose at the Creator and controller of the universe over immorality and debauchery.  The bodies they used to indulge in such abominations will grow old and die, anyway.  The pleasure they think is so important as to throw away an eternity of peace and blessedness is temporary.  Worms will eat their bodies just like they will mine.  How horribly sad.  We have a hope that is available to all.  If the lost will simply repent of their sin and trust Jesus Christ, then they too will have pleasures unspeakable for ever more.  What a promise!  I don’t know about you, but eternity, and not this present world, is the source of my hope!

Hope Is In A Person

“Happy [is he] that [hath] the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope [is] in the LORD his God:” (Ps 146:5 AV)

We just discussed that happiness and fear are not disassociated.  They actually go together very nicely.  Now we see another source of happiness.  We see that the individual who has God as their hope for times of need is happy.  Those that rely on anything else may not be.  What strikes me as particularly helpful for this morning is happiness is hope in a person and not in circumstances.  This implies so much that space does not permit us to explore it all.  Suffice it to say that hope is in the person of God and not what He may or may not do.  Hope is not in our environment.  Hope is not in a change of circumstances.  Hope is not in what we think our future might be.  Hope is not in what our present circumstances are.  Hope I God transcends what life is or may be.  Hope in God is the foundation that guides us through and enables us to enjoy the good times and endure the trying times.  Hope in the LORD is what places all others’ concerns as a distant second place.  Hope in the person of God gives patience, joy, and security.  Hope in the person of God keeps our eyes on the One who is our source of hope and does not obsess over what worries us.  Hope in the Person of God does not need an immediate answer to a physical problem.  Hope in the person of God is completely content with the fellowship with God even though troubles of life abound.  This whole thing of salvation truly is about a relationship, first and foremost.

Childhood can be difficult.  Grade School can be cruel.  I know it was so for me.  Grade School and High School almost did me in.  I was socially awkward.  I was athletically inept.  I was one of those kids who was the target for everyone else.  I dreaded school.  My mother took me to the doctors and hospitals for many tests when bullying was the root cause.  That was me.  There are many children like that.  They often suffer in silence.  But there is one influence that makes childhood much easier to bear.  And involved parent, especially a father, can make all the difference in the world.  Home was my sanctuary.  Home was where all that threatened me could not touch me.  Having a father who understands and empathizes is the fuel that gets that child through his hard times.  A walk down the block with Dad, a fishing outing with father, or undergoing a project together can often be the difference between that child’s mental or spiritual health, and he or she doing great harm to Self.  Dad cannot remove the bully.  Dad cannot give his son athletic ability.  What Dad can do is to be there for him, so when his child needs the strength which he does not possess, Dad is there to lend it.  Dad cannot make all the monsters disappear.  Sometimes those monsters are works of the child’s own imagination and experience are the only thing that will slay them.

I have noticed that a common theme expressed in churches, communities, etc. is hope.  Whether placed in the wrong object like a human leader, government, or a social cause, it seems the need for hope is a genuine need.  It seems our world is grasping for good news.  Trouble surrounds us on every side.  Our governments are failing.  Threats to our health are prevalent.  Our pocketbooks are shrinking.  Our freedoms face constant assault.  It seems like hope is the one thing we can say we need the most.  But hope in anything other than the person of God will be short-lived at best.  Most of the time, those things in which we look to for hope never can bring hope.  Mu wife and I watch NET cancer videos most nights.  We will watch NETRF videos or videos from our favorite specialists.  These videos are very encouraging.  There are exciting treatments on the horizon and that which is available right now is a far cry from what was available twenty years ago.  Those diagnosed with NET cancer have every reason to be hopeful.  But our hope should be in the person of God.  Regardless of what the next two decades bring, God never changes nor does He abandon us.  If we have lost, or are losing, hope, then our strength does not lie in the person of God.  It lies in things of this world which will eventually fail.  Keep your eyes on the Father and let Him be your source of hope.  Then and only then can we be truly happy.

Happy To Be Afraid

“Happy [is] the man that feareth alway: but he that hardeneth his heart shall fall into mischief.” (Pr 28:14 AV)

Fear and happiness are not typically seen as complimentary.  Far goes with anxiety.  Fear goes with flight.  Fear goes with anger.  Fear goes with hopelessness.  Fear goes with cowardice.  Fear does not go with happiness.  At least that is what we assume.  That is what we naturally think.  Note, however, that happiness is associated with mischief.  Mischief is not an emotion, but a course of life.  Perhaps we should think of happiness in the same manner.  This begs a question.  How does fear and happiness complement one another?  Wouldn’t fear, by definition, restrain life?  Would not fear hinder experiences we would otherwise explore?  What new things are we missing if we constantly walk in fear?  Is Solomon telling his children they should never take risks?  How interesting life would be if we never took risks?  What of Abraham, when asked to offer Isaac?  Was not that an act of faith that involved risk?  Did he not fear losing his son?  What of Gideon, who feared going up against a far superior enemy with just a few hundred men?  He was terrified.  Yet, the LORD asked him to trust Him.  Were those two men happy?  What is the connection between happiness and fear?

First, it matters at what we are afraid.  It also matters how we define the word fear.  It also matters exactly when we experience the happiness that comes from fear.  I have had interesting conversations with people my age who are beginning the last major portion of their life.  Things change.  There are things we would have done in younger years that we definitely would not do in our aging years.  One of the common remarks I hear is the trepidation about going up on a ladder.  It seems the older we get, the less sure on our feet we become.  Our balance isn’t what it used to be.  Our steeple needs a repair.  It is thirty feet in the air.  In years gone by, I may have attempted to fix that myself.  We had Christmas lights that were about twelve feet in the air.  We have a ten-foot stepladder.  In years gone by, I would have conquered that, no problem.  Not anymore.  I am happy to let others of steadier constitutions do these things for me.  I am happy knowing my limitations and submitting to a force greater than myself.  Happiness may involve risks.  But they are calculated risks.  Abraham had the promise of God.  Gideon had the fleece.  They may have been a little anxious and perhaps happiness did not come until after the trial was over, but happiness did result.  Fearing God is a source of happiness.  It may involve risk.  It most certainly involves submission and obedience.

There is an important observation to be made here.  Solomon states unequivocally that this fear must always reside.  Fear cannot come and go.  It must be a constant attitude of the heart.  Fearing God is the beginning of wisdom.  Fearing God is not a bad thing.  As we read through the word of God, it repeatedly instructs us to fear God.  God is the creator of the universe.  He has unlimited power.  God is a God of grace and mercy.  But not to the point we lose respect and fear.  I was exposed to a cultural norm where children use a parent's first name when addressing them or speaking of them.  In my upbringing, if we attempted that, our parents would have inflicted serious consequences on us.  There was a command of respect they deserved.  There is a direct correlation between the demeanor of the contemporary saint and the way they view God.  If all they hear of God is His love and mercy, they will never fear Him.  If they never fear Him, they cannot be happy.  Fear and happiness go hand in hand.  And comfortably so.  If we are not happy, maybe we can go no further than to ask if we truly fear the God whom we say we worship.

No Answers Might Be His Plan

“If I be wicked, woe unto me; and [if] I be righteous, [yet] will I not lift up my head. [I am] full of confusion; therefore see thou mine affliction;” (Job 10:15 AV)

This verse is perhaps the most succinct description of Job’s situation than all others.  He cannot figure out why the LORD would cause or permit the circumstances he now faces.  He admits that if he is perpetually wicked, then what is happening is reasonable and justified.  If he is not wicked, then he is not presumptuous.  He is not arrogant about it and therefore, what is happening is not a result of pride.  He confesses he is right with God.  Which he is.  And in his righteousness, he is also humble.  Which he is.  This leads to the confusion.  Job is a pragmatist.  There has to be an explanation for what is happening.  He simply cannot see it.  Because he cannot see it, he is confused, and this confusion is his greatest affliction.  It wasn’t the loss of his family.  It wasn’t the loss of his living.  It wasn’t the loss of his health.  What bothered him the most was he could not make sense of it.  He could not see a reason for it.  His mind and spirit were in complete disarray, and if the LORD opened the eyes of his understanding, he could endure a lot better.

As a chaplain, I had several situations of tragedy where those who needed ministry wanted only one question answered: why?  The who, what, where, when and how comes easy.  These are facts in discovery.  But ‘why’ explores the unseen aspects.  It goes to motive.  Discerning motive or purpose is difficult, and often these two questions are answered after the fact.  It was certainly the case with Job.  When you have to counsel two young parents who lost their first child or a victim of a senseless crime, the ‘why’ of it is absent.  When you have to meet a family in a counseling room whose loved one was in an accident and the doctors have little hope, the ‘why’ of the situation is not there.  When you sit with a family who just received a very bad diagnosis, ‘why’ is not on the tip of your tongue.  When a family has no income and jobs are not available, the ‘why’ doesn’t put food on the table.  If we could simply find the answer to ‘why’, then maybe our situation would be a bit more tolerable.  Or would it?

What would have happened if Job found out his situation was a contest between God and Satan?  What would his reaction have been if Job knew it was the LORD who asked Satan to consider Job?  How do you think he would have felt of the LORD allowed all this to be brought upon one man simply to prove God was a God who deserved to be trusted no matter the consequences and that because He is sovereign, He owes no one an explanation?  What Job went through, once enlightened, I am sure he would go through it again.  He learned that God is God and owes no one anything.  He learned that God has a right to determine all things that happen to what He has created.  He has the ultimate right of a Creator.  His creation has no right to demand of Him anything.  They have no standing.  What Job learned as submission to the Creator for no other reason than that He is the Creator and demands it.  What Job also learned was that God relies on the character of His people to justify the glory He seeks.  Job was not going to crumble.  God knew this.  He knew Job’s integrity and love for Him would be greater than any trial of faith he would be asked to go through.

Keeping Job in the dark was part of the plan.  Keeping Job uninformed was the only way Job was going to learn God’s ultimate rights as sovereign Creator.  It was the only way Job was going to learn complete and unabated trust.  The ‘why’ may never come.  It may not even matter.  The ‘why’ gives us the moral or ethical reasons for what God allows or causes.  But the ‘why’ doesn’t change the fruit God is attempting to produce.  It is a hard thing to exist in ignorance.  But sometimes, that is what God requires.  Sometimes, there are no answers.  Sometimes, events in life seem out of sort or not profitable at all.  These events seem unjustified or without any discernable purpose.  It is the quiet child of God who remains silent and patient and God does His work that will endure less scathed than the one who has to have all the answers.  Job and his three friends would have been better off keeping quiet and ceasing to figure out what could not be known at the time, and waiting for God to do His work.  The ‘why’ often comes much later.  It comes often after the fact.  The ‘why’ is seen as patience has her perfect work.

Why Do We Ask?

“Quicken me, O LORD, for thy name’s sake: for thy righteousness’ sake bring my soul out of trouble. And of thy mercy cut off mine enemies, and destroy all them that afflict my soul: for I [am] thy servant.” (Ps 143:11-12 AV)

This psalm is an incredible one!  It ranks right up there with Psalm 23.  Earlier in the psalm, the writer prays a prayer that is the perfect way to start a day.  Now, he ends the prayer with a wonderful request.  He seeks the LORD’s intervention on his enemies, not for the sole purpose of easing his trouble, but for the sake of God’s righteousness.  He desires the LORD to bring his soul out of trouble so the righteousness of God can have free rein.  This phrase could have several applications.  He could be asking for intervention so that God’s righteousness in the matter is evident to all.  Or, he could be asking the LORD to intervene so that the righteousness of God is the psalmist’s focus rather than the enemies that trouble him.  Regardless, I wish to think of these enemies for a moment.  The enemies of the psalmist could be political ones.  Or, it could be others who make his life miserable.  What we do know is the context is service.  Whatever those enemies were, it kept the writer from serving God as he desired.  From these obstructions, he is seeking deliverance.  Again, not that he might feel better, but because the righteousness of God in the context of service is hindered.

I particularly like the attitude of the writer in verse twelve.  He doesn’t want relief.  He wants destruction!  He isn’t looking for a breather.  He is looking for complete eradication.  He isn’t looking for a brief time-out.  He is looking for the contest to end in his favor.  We have three enemies.  We have the devil, the world, and the flesh.  Life will never be easy.  So, it is best we accept that and bear under the weight of it.  But the world, the devil, and the flesh can add to that burden of weights that makes it near to impossible to function.  The weight that doth so easily beset us can be more than unbearable.  It can be crippling.  Our writer wants destruction!  He is seeking the LORD to remove all mercy from that which troubles him.  He seeks God’s intervention against all those obstacles that hinder his service.  His soul is deep in trouble, frustration, pain, and fear.  He wants an end to it all.  Not a temporary fix.  Not a quick out, only to have them return.  No!  He wants the old man to completely eradication.  He doesn’t want him lingering around.  He doesn’t want that creature of wickedness to torment his heart and soul any longer!  Christlikeness or nothing!  That old Serpent needs to be corralled.  He needs to be put in his place.  The LORD needs to tie a noose around his neck and drag him around like the enemy that he is.  The world needs to be silenced.  One cannot go anywhere without being confronted with the evil that mankind has become.  The influences are so many and so often that it is like being in a severe hailstorm in the middle of the prairie.  It pounds on the soul and robs the saint of the joy of righteousness.  Complete victory over the secular and antagonistic world system is what we need, and only Jesus Christ can bring it.  The attacks on his joy and service are many and relentless.

I particularly like the premise on which he bases his plea.  He is God’s servant.  He has no other basis upon which he can plea for intervention.  Or, perhaps he has no other premise that has as much weight as servanthood.  You see, we often want relief, but we want it for the wrong reason.  We may want it because it our troubles are uncomfortable.  We may want deliverance because it interrupts expectations or desires.  We may seek the mercy of God because of the shame or guilt we feel or the demeanor our troubles project toward others.  The fact is, the writer pleads because he is serving God.  This implies he wishes to continue to do so.  The request, therefore, is not a selfish one.  It is a request with God’s best interest in mind.  He wants relief so the LORD can continue to use him.  How refreshing!  Someone who actually wants God intervention because it would benefit Him and not Self.  This is, perhaps, the reason God honors this request.  Perhaps, before we ask the LORD for intervention, we should ask ourselves why.  Why do we want the LORD to do something?  What do we want the LORD to conquer the hindrance that lay before us?  Why?  Are we asking as a servant?  Or are we asking as someone who is suffering and simply wants relief?

Temporary Incarceration

“Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy name: the righteous shall compass me about; for thou shalt deal bountifully with me.” (Ps 142:7 AV)

To feel that you’re in prison is pretty low.  The previous verse mentions the writer’s feelings regarding his situation.  In fact, he says he is very low.  I find it ironic that the day this psalm is in my rotation of devotional passages, Job is responding for the first time to his friends’ faulty advice.  Job states, “To him that is afflicted pity [should be shewed] from his friend; but he forsaketh the fear of the Almighty.” (Job 6:14 AV) Note that above, the way out of the prison our writer feels he is held captive is the righteous compass him about.  He also views the prison as temporary.  Note the future tense of God’s dealing with the writer.  The writer’s hope is in the absolute certainty of God’s bounty.  This hope of God’s future bounty is what brings him out of the prison of persecution which he is suffering.

As I get older, I am having to learn to a quickly changing life.  When you are younger, or middle-aged, dramatic changes are usually good ones.  You get married, have children, and build a life.  Then your children grow older, bless you with grandchildren, and your career begins to draw to a close.  Then you hit those years where changes are usually trials of life.  There are always blessings.  But as you adjust to the new ‘normal’, it may feel as though you are in a prison.  Your life is no longer under your control and there is very little you can do to affect it.  Life happens.  We get older.  Climbing the stairs is not as easy as it was in our forties.  We forget things.  We cannot hear as well.  Our eyesight is a bit off.  The obligation to endure replaced the freedoms we enjoyed in our younger years.  But then a funny thing happens.  Once we cease to fret against the changes of life, we get our joy back.  How do I know?  Many years ago, the ministry that brought me the most blessing was a monthly widows’ luncheon.  We had several in our church and I picked them up and we went to a Ponderosa.  The widowers met us there.  We had a time of it.  There were about eight of us.  We sat around the table, sharing a meal and swapping stories of days gone by.  Of course, me being much younger and not from there, I simply listened.  But here is the thing.  They didn’t sit around complaining about life.  They didn’t share stories in the spirit of regret or resentment.  My home church called this age group the Hallelujah Group.  They knew how to laugh.  They have the joy of the LORD.

Regardless of the type of prison, it is only temporary.  By life or by death, those held there will eventually be free.  Whether a person put themselves there, or they were cast in by their enemies, it matters not.  A prison is a temporary holding place.  No one can keep you there.  Our writer knew this.  That is why he speaks of God’s bounty in the future tense.  He knows it will come.  He knows he will be surrounded by the saints of God and they will have a time.  I think that is why older saints have so much joy.  The closer they get to glory, the more they realize their prison stay is coming to an end.  They see the light at the end of the tunnel.  They know they are heaven bound and no one can take that from them.  So, if you feel like your life is a prison cell, remember, God will deal bountifully with you!  You are His child.  He does not like to see His children suffer.  It pains Him to see us go through hardships even though He allows it for our own good.  The answer to a prison is to notice they are made of bars.  They do not obscure the sight of hope.  They cannot.  The sun still shines through.  The sound of life outside the walls still rings loudly.  God is still there.  He is waiting for His perfect plan to mature so that you and I can come forth into the arms of God and the company of His saints.  It won’t last long.  It is only temporary.  Then God will deal bountifully with us.

Happy Trials!

“Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.” (Jas 5:11 AV)

Doesn’t that first part puzzle you?  When we think of endurance, we think of agonizing persistence.  We don’t think of happiness.  The example James gives is Job.  Job didn’t sound a bit happy.  You might be thinking that Job was happy once his endurance was complete.  But that is not the tense of the phrase.  Happy is the person who is in the process of enduring.  We have to remember that even when God spoke to Job, there were still many months which lay ahead of recovery and restitution.  He didn’t have ten more children right away.  All the thieves took required a lengthy process to restore.  His flocks did not come back overnight.  He had to purchase more animals.  He had to breed those animals.  He had to plant and reap.  He had to build back up that which was lost.  This took time.  The endurance extended beyond the time Satan attacked.  Endurance continued all along the restoration process.  This is why Job was happy.  He put his shoulder to the plow and reconstructed what was lost.  Had he endured only through the time of testing, he would have perished a miserable man.

When trials come, we give up way too easily.  The trial does not end until we come out of the other end stronger than when we entered.  A few decades ago, the LORD gave me the opportunity to use a gym free.  I served as a volunteer hospital chaplain and one perk was the heart rehab gym was open to us whenever we wanted to use it.  Along with the use of the gym, we had a healthcare professional who oversaw our workout.  My trainer kept me safe and gave me realistic goals.  He split my time between endurance training and resistance training.  I still remember the day he started me out on resistance training.  He did a brief test to see where I was.  Then he sat me down and we lifted some weights.  What I remember the most is he started out with the minimal weight possible on each machine I tried.  I felt foolish.  Ten pounds?  Who can’t lift ten pounds?  However, my trainer didn’t keep me there for long.  He soon added more weight.  What was foolish became work.  What was work was not fun.  Off to the treadmills, stationary cycles, and rowing machines.  Same thing there.  He started me out small.  He built up the time and distance.  What we easy became work.  But a funny thing happened.  The body adjusts to adversity.  It just takes time to do so.  I knew all the work was worth it when I had to drag a dead deer out of the woods for five miles.  Not a simple task.  I could do so without stopping for breath.  One step in front of the other; plodding along through the snow, over trees and through the brush; we got out of there with no problem.

Initially, I was not happy while lifting weights, running miles, or rowing for an hour.  But when the time came and the practical application of all that hardship came to light, I was happy I could endure.  Hardship is difficult.  It was never meant to be.  The trials of life are meant to be hard.  The trouble we endure is meant to make us stronger.  As it does, our demeanor can change.  It can change from resentment, weariness, or avoidance to happily enduring the trial before us.  If we are not happy while we endure, then our eyes are too shortsighted.  We do not have our eyes on the right things.  Had Job remembered that God was merciful and that no trial lasts forever, perhaps he would have fared a little better.  If he had remembered that God has a purpose for everything even though it is difficult to see, perhaps he could have trusted the LORD a bit stronger.  If Job told himself he was not entitled to any answer and would have allowed God to be God, then maybe he could have been a blessing to his friends.  Yet, from the passage above, we learn that Job did turn his adversity into happiness.  We do not know the details.  We are never told.  But James, but the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, knew that Job was a happy man while facing a time of significant loss.  If Job could be happy despite his horrible situation, then we can too.  If we bear under the load and endure, then maybe happiness will result.

Always Leading, Always Empowering

“Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.” (Ps 139:10 AV)

Many read this psalm as if the writer is trying to find a place to hide from God.  But he is not.  He lists all the places he could have, or has, gone.  If he tries to ascend into the heavens, God is there.  If the writer tries to hide himself in the depths of the earth, God is there.  If he sails to the farthest point in the sea, still God is there.  God knows where he is, what he is thinking, how he is feeling, and what he is doing.  Everywhere the writer could be, or what he is doing, or how he is feeling, God is ever-present.  But there are two specific ways in which the presence of God is mentioned here.  First, the writer understands that no matter where he is, the hand of God leads him.  It matters not if we cannot sense the hand of God doing work on our behalf.  It really doesn’t matter if we can see what He is trying to accomplish.  The writer testifies that no matter what circumstances of life may be upon him, the hand of God is active and purposeful.  Second, the hand of God strengthens him.  As low as he thinks he is, if it wasn’t for the hand of God, he would be a lot lower.  The fact that God’s hand is holding him up is the only reason he is still going.  We often get the false idea that it is our own strength that enables us to persevere.  Not true.  The God of life gives us the ability to breathe!  He sustains all things.  By His power, we consist.  This psalm is a song by which the overwhelmed and injured can encourage themselves.

When Lisa was recovering from her cancer surgery, there were times she was aware of people in her room, and times when she was not.  There were times she needed the company, but for the first few days, she wanted to be alone in her misery.  She completely ignored the poking and prodding inflicted by the health care team during those first few days when she was heavily medicated.  There were changing IV drips.  There were vitals checks.  There was freshening the ice cubes in her cup.  A nurse would come by and check her discharge bag.  Then there were the countless doctors and students checking in on her.  It is said the hospital is the worst place to go if you need to rest and recover.  Sometimes the smallest and simplest of touches brings the greatest relief.  Because of her cancer and surgery, for the first eighteen months or so, she was constantly nauseous.  In the hospital, the nurses pinned a small patch on her gown and kept it saturated with peppermint oil.  They usually placed a few drops on this patch while Lisa slept.  She never noticed.  TO her, the odor was ever present.  I think she may not have even noticed the aroma or where it was coming from.  All she noticed for those first few days is her stomach was doing better.  Since then, we have gotten her an oil disperser, she can run at home.  It is amazing that after just a few moments in the environment of the scent; you do not notice.  That is how God is.  He is so ever-present, we often forget He is there.

I can certainly understand this.  There are times when life is so overwhelming that we cannot notice what is right around us.  The psalmist is speaking of the enemies of God that surround him.  Attacks from every side overwhelmed him.  Yet, he knows God is there.  If he tries to run away, God is still there.  If he tries to hide, God is still there.  If he tries to choose another path from himself, God is there.  God is there no matter what.  This verse is so simple, yet so profound.  This verse is not hard to understand, but it is truly deeper than most.  This verse has a well of treasures.  It is filled with application that will guide us through and enable us to endure.  The psalmist is not running from God.  What he is doing is concluding that no matter the circumstances or how alone we might feel, God is there.  He always had been.  He always will be.

Sing or Silence

“How shall we sing the LORD’S song in a strange land? If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget [her cunning]. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.” (Ps 137:4-6 AV)

The writer is expressing the situation in which Israel found themselves while in captivity in Babylon.  Their captives enjoyed the songs of Israel and wanted them to continue in mirth, even though they were in adversity.  Quite unreasonable, if you ask me.  That is exactly how they felt.  However, the songs of Israel did remind them of the temple and if they ceased to sing because of adversity, they would soon forget the promised land.  It was a double-edged sword.  If they refused to sing because of adversity, then they would forget that which made them glad.  If they did sing of the temple and Jerusalem, they would be in remorse because they were far removed from it.  The question the psalmist asks is a good one.  If they don't sing, they will forget.  If they forget, their joy will cease.  So, it is better to sing of something they cannot see, than risk never keeping it in mind in the first place.

There are even more important consequences of ceasing to sing of Jerusalem.  Note the end of the passage.  If they cease to sing even though it is sad to do so, then what was once their joy will cease to be their joy.  If what they desire, yet cannot be seen ceases to be their joy, something else will become their chief joy.  It may seem cruel for the adversary to require joy in the midst of trials, but joy is exactly how we get through it.  Having our desire in the right place is the key.  The psalmist knows their situation will not change for a while.  The psalmist would be reasonable to resent his captors for demanding joy when joy seemed to be taken away.  The intensity of the psalmist’s vow is telling.  If he cannot sing of Jerusalem as his chief joy, then he prays he cannot sing or speak at all.  That is very dramatic!  The writer would rather be mute than to forget his chief joy.  If he could not remember, or keep in mind, the source of what his joy should be, he hopes he loses the ability to speak or sing ever again.

As a New Testament saint, our chief joy is not Jerusalem.  Jesus came and died on Calvary so that we can have a home in heaven.  Our chief joy should be the presence of God.  Our chief joy is not Jerusalem, but New Jerusalem.  Our chief joy is more of a person than it is a place.  We live in a world that is averse to God and His people.  They hate God and they hate God’s people.  It will always be this way.  Even when Jesus returns, there will be those who love God and those who hate Him.  Until the new heaven and new Earth, this will never change.  Where our chief joy resides will go a long way in giving us strength to endure.  It is sad when I listen to a group of believers gripe about the condition of our world and country.  It is right to be concerned and seek to change it.  That is the ethical and biblical thing to do.  But our hearts should be more focused on eternity.  This world will fall away from God more and more.  It matters not how much the people of God do to stem that tide (and we should to all that we can do). The world will still go down a path of utter wickedness.  This is the pattern of man.  Every dispensation proves no matter the circumstances, man will move further from God than he was at the start.  This world is not where our joy should reside.  If we forget the chief joy of heaven and the person of Christ, may God strike us with silence!  If we cannot sing of hope, then what do we have worth sharing?  If we cannot speak of the joy that lies ahead, then why say anything at all?  That is the message of the psalmist.  Better to speak and sing of what our joy should be than to forget it and grow silent.

Grief Stricken No More

"So the Levites stilled all the people, saying, Hold your peace, for the day [is] holy; neither be ye grieved.” (Ne 8:11 AV)

The temple was repaired.  The people had repaired the wall.  Nehemiah and Ezra had placed all the servants of God in their place.  It was a time of worship.  As we read chapter nine, we hear of repeated failures of God’s people.  We hear of their pattern to follow the LORD, fall away, and return to worship again.  They have much over which to grieve.  They had just returned from seventy plus years of captivity under pagan kings and near extinction during the time of Esther.  All because they refused to honor the Sabbath.  There was much over which to grieve.  They would be right in doing so.  God deserved their grief over sin.  They owed Him that much.  However, this was the Sabbath.  They are meeting to worship the LORD.  To remain in their grief would have been narcistic.  What follows the recollection of failures of the past is a reminder of God’s mercy toward them.  Sure, they were to grieve over their sin and repent of it.  But then, it was time to rejoice at the mercy of God.  To remain in defeat is to love yourself.  To live in God’s mercy is to love God!  It is the Sabbath.  It is time to live in the victory that can be found in God’s mercy and not remain in the self-pity of permanent grief.

Have you ever known someone who loves the doctor’s office?  They cannot seem to get enough of appointments and treatments.  There are those patients who genuinely need these appointments.  There are others who seem to thrive off the attention.  When I was going through therapy for my shoulder, there were a few patients who had recovered years prior, but still came every week to go through the same exercises that were simply not doing much good.  There was something new every week.  A fresh pain.  A new symptom.  An unfamiliar sensation.  Something that had to be addressed or they could not function.  The fact of the matter was, they really had no intention of getting better.  They simply wanted the attention they received from the physical therapist.  They were content living in defeat while their therapist was trying to convince them they were perfectly fine.  It’s a hard thing to come to the place that you no longer need the attention you previously enjoyed.  I remember the last day of my therapy.  I remember walking to the car and wondering what I was going to do.  “What do I do now?”, was going through my head.  For months, I had a personal therapist who challenged me, stretched me, and shocked me.  He or she focused solely on my needs.  Now, I didn’t need him or her anymore.  There was still work to be done and I would do it at home, but the injury had healed sufficiently that my life could get back to normal.

Too many of us dwell in the failures of the past and enjoy the pity we think we are getting from them.  We go to church and expect God to love on us because we are such failures in life.  We want to be coddled.  We want to be stroked.  We want God to feel sorry for us.  We want Him to convince us that we are all right.  All the while we hand on to the self-pity, seeking more and more attention.  Stop it!  God forgave us and it is time to live in the reality of that mercy and forgiveness.  To do so means we leave behind what we were and live for God in what He has made us!  It is the LORD’s day.  Yes, we come to be challenged and changed.  Once the change comes, then it is time to get our eyes of Self and onto the God who made the change.  Time to straighten the weak knees and bring up the hands that hand down.  It is time to make the LORD’s day about the LORD and not about us!

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.

Patience With Ignorance

“For a multitude of the people, [even] many of Ephraim, and Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun, had not cleansed themselves, yet did they eat the passover otherwise than it was written. But Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, The good LORD pardon every one [That] prepareth his heart to seek God, the LORD God of his fathers, though [he be] not [cleansed] according to the purification of the sanctuary. And the LORD hearkened to Hezekiah, and healed the people.” (2Ch 30:18-20 AV)

Praise the LORD for the wisdom of a king who understood the zeal of his people was done so ignorantly, and they even though their actions were technically against the law, it was their heart to do right that mattered more.  Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun were four tribes of the north who fled to Jerusalem when Assyria invaded.  They had been without a sacrifice or Levitical priest for hundreds of years.  They would not have known of the details of the Passover meal.  When the revival of Hezekiah hit, all wanted in on it.  Even the remnant of these four tribes.  They wanted all in.  What they did not know was the details of the procedure.  They simply were caught up in the spirit’s moving at the moment and participated, having not gone through the correct steps.  Hezekiah noted this and had compassion for them.  Rather than judge them for being technically wrong, he prayed for them and instructed them.  Rather than inflict justice where justice was due, he recognized the heart behind the error and showed better judgment is showing mercy.  He prayed for them and because he did; the LORD forgave them.  A wise leader understands when the heart is more important than the law.

Down through the years, I have had the responsibility of training and managing a workforce.  Whether in the restaurant or in the factory, co-workers learned job responsibilities and techniques for efficiency learned by more seasoned employees.  Sometimes, the mentor didn’t cover all the bases.  Sometimes, the manager (that was me) had to navigate through the mess that was just made and turn a mistake into a teachable moment.  The enthusiasm of the employee caused a mess, and it was patience and concern that turned a mediocre employee into a good one.  We had this labeler that drove most people nuts.  It would print and adhere a label on a box.  As the product went through the line, an eye would detect the presence of the box.  A printed label would be statically attached to a paddle that would then swing and press the sticky side of the label to the box.  Setting this up was a nightmare.  The automation was not precise enough to do the job correctly.  It took a lot of adjustments to get the thing to work.  Some gave up and manually affixed the label.  Others shut down the line and left it for the techs to solve.  When you have labels and adhesives, it can become messy rather quickly.  As the manager, it was my job to help the operators get this line running.  A bit of math and engineering and we were able to get through the night.  What the employee didn’t need was rebuke and termination.  He or she didn’t know.  They tried their hardest.  Compassion and intercession are what they needed.

Praise the LORD for a Savior who does the same for us.  He is not perched, ready to pounce when we screw up.  He makes intercession for us when our zeal gets ahead of our brains.  Praise the LORD He sees the heart and intent behind our actions and takes mercy when we are not knowledgeable enough to make biblically sound decisions.  This happens all the time.  God shows mercy on our well-intentioned actions even though they were done so in ignorance.  Praise the LORD Jesus knows us better than we know ourselves.  He sees our hearts.  He understands our limitations.  He knows what we know and what we don’t know.  The tribes above were not ignorant by choice.  They came from a culture that rejected God for generations.  This left them behind the eight ball.  They wanted to do right.  They simply never could know how to do right.  And that is what the LORD considers when He sees our uneducated zeal.  Praise the LORD for His understanding, patience, and guidance.

Pick Your Battles

“And he sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the visions of God: and as long as he sought the LORD, God made him to prosper. And he went forth and warred against the Philistines, and brake down the wall of Gath, and the wall of Jabneh, and the wall of Ashdod, and built cities about Ashdod, and among the Philistines.” (2Ch 26:5-6 AV)

This statement regards Uzziah, king of Judah.  He ascended to the throne at age sixteen and served for 52 years.  That was quite a term.  For reference, David served 40 years.  For anyone to serve for such a length of time, he had to do some things right.  Uzziah learned the lessons his father’s mistakes cost him.  Amaziah made the mistake of warring unwise wars.  He was too quick to make allegiances that God did not bless.  One of them was with the tribe of Ephraim.  This would come back to haunt in because they would turn on him, invade Jerusalem, destroy the wall, and carry away all the riches of the temple and palace.  This led to Amaziah’s infamous death at the hand of his own people.  Amaziah simply did not fight the right battles with the right people.  Uzziah learned this lesson.  Rather than pick fights with fellow Jews, Uzziah tuned his attention to defensive projects like build border cities and adding towers to the wall of Jerusalem.  He built towers for defense in the wilderness as a means of early detection of enemy advances.  The only offensive measures taken are mentioned above.  He went on the offensive against the Philistines.  What is also of note is Uzziah’s habit of listening to, and heeding, the word of God given to him by the man of God.  It is important to know what battles to fight and what are not to be meddled in.

Where I live, it seems as though there are more dogs than people sometimes.  We knock on a lot of doors.  About every third to every other door has a barking dog behind it.  A significant number of those are aggressive breeds.  Home owners probably own these breeds for safety reasons.  Home invasions are not common despite the size of our city.  People know if they attempt a break-in, there just might be a snarling dog who could inflict great bodily harm behind that door.  Because there are so many canines, confrontation often ensues.  Walking your dog is not necessarily a perfectly safe thing to do.  On a site where information is shared, it is not uncommon for someone to report a confrontation with an aggressive breed of dog.  In our own neighborhood, there are several such dogs.  One in particular seems to escape and roam the neighborhood.  Next door, there are two much smaller lap dogs and across the alley is another smaller lap dog.  The thing about smaller breeds is they may have what is called ‘smaller dog syndrome’.   They can become aggressive with anything they perceive to be a threat.  Such was the case with our lone doggie neighbor.  The bigger one broke his lead and began to roam the neighborhood.  These two dogs met.  The smaller one, feeling threatened, reacted.  The larger and more aggressive dog did not hold back.  Several stitches later, that smaller dog learned a lesson.  Sometimes there are battles you are better off avoiding.  They are not yours to fight.

There are battles to fight and battles to avoid.  In self-defense class, the phrase, “evade, evaluate, engage” is stressed.  The three ‘e’s of self-defense.  When confronted with a threat, the wisest thing to do is evade.  If there is a way to avoid confrontation, then the threatened one should seek that out.  Next is to evaluate the situation.  Once relative safety is achieved, how involved should the threatened individual become in resolving the conflict?  Is simply calling the authorities the best and safest choice?  Or, is the use of force the best option?  Then the victim is to engage.  Safely!  Call 911.  Engage the suspect safely. Safe for you and all who might be harmed.  Wisdom is needed when a battle presents itself.  The first question to ask is, is this battle mine to fight?  Amaziah made his first mistake by involving Ephraim in a battle rather than trust the LORD.  When he insulted them, they turned on him.  Uzziah showed much wisdom in not exacting revenge on Ephraim.  Rather, he fortified his defenses and went after an enemy which God has ordained.  Knowing what battles to wage and what to leave alone goes a long way in surviving the journey before us.

The Heart of Wisdom

“Whoso [is] simple, let him turn in hither: [as for] him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him, Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine [which] I have mingled. Forsake the foolish, and live; and go in the way of understanding.” (Pr 9:4-6 AV)

The first three verses speak of wisdom as a person preparing an inviting meal set in a warm venue.  Wisdom speaks as a virtuous woman who desires to share with all who will engage with her words to help throughout life.  The phrase, “let him turn in hither” really struck me.  These words are sincere words spoken by someone (or shall I say something) who desires nothing but the benefit these words will bring to the hearer.  In these words, we see an emotional commitment.  One of compassion for those who simply do not have the discipline to live under the word of God.  The entire book is a collection of simple quips regarding the way life is and the best way in which to navigate it.  Wisdom, of course, is an attribute of God.  The reason wisdom can speak as being eternally with God is God and wisdom are one.  So, when we see a sincere and warm invitation to come and spend time with wisdom, it is God Himself extending that invitation.

When I was a child, it was not uncommon for friends to eat dinner at another’s house.  There is a commercial depicting this old tradition.  I think it is for a butter product.  A few friends are playing outside and Mom calls her family to dinner.  Mom welcomes the friends to join the meal.  The aroma of fresh baked bread and hot-cobbed-corn is wafting out the front door.  Then the music changes to a horror type as the boys consider the invitation as a trap.  They relay that her cooking is so good that they cannot say no.  They fear the delicious meal will trap them and overeat until they are sick.  It is rather funny.  But it does bring to mind my childhood.  It was an unwritten rule that meals were at the exact same time every day.  Lunch was at noon and dinner was at five.  You invited whatever human beings you had in proximity to your home, whether family or not, to share.  I have spent many afternoons having lunch with my friends and they are with me.  You didn’t worry about your own because you knew wherever they might be; they were getting fed.  We have lost the warm invitation to share something to eat and drink.  I also remember winter days and evening playing with my friends in the snow and if it wasn’t my mom, it was someone else who invited us in for hot chocolate made with real milk on the stove!  What memories!

Wisdom is exactly the same.  The real shame is that most shun wisdom.  Wisdom means discipline.  Wisdom means self-control.  Wisdom means making decisions for the future and not for the present.  Wisdom means learning something that will change the course of life, and most of the time, people will not realize the benefits for a while.  The proverb above takes a different tack than most of the invitations to wisdom.  Most of the time, wisdom cries out with a warning or a blessing.  If you heed her advice, there are blessings.  If you ignore her advice, there are consequences.  Therefore, come in to her and learn.  But the passage above is different.  It is more personal.  The passage above shows the heart of God’s wisdom.  It shows that heeding wisdom is not merely about consequences.  Rather, heeding the wisdom of God is about a relationship.  This relationship is one of deep intimacy as He bestows to us principles of life for our good; and we sit quietly, trusting in His benevolence.  What we see above is like a very kind parent who wants to chat over a warm, home-cooked meal, sharing bits of truth so her child can be a better person.  They lovingly share it in a non-judgmental way.  The parent shares it with such tenderness that the child has no reaction other than to take her words to heart because of the heart that is in them.  That is how much God loves us.  He shares His word with us lovingly.  We treat it far too much like a reference book and not the love letter it truly is.  When He calls us inside to sit and sup at His table, He is opening His heart to us in the hope we will trust Him and believe in His word.  What a warm picture of how God loves His children and only desires the best for them.

More Good In You than Bad

“And Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him, and said to king Jehoshaphat, Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the LORD? therefore [is] wrath upon thee from before the LORD. Nevertheless there are good things found in thee, in that thou hast taken away the groves out of the land, and hast prepared thine heart to seek God.” (2Ch 19:2-3 AV)

We can survive our bad choices by having a pattern of good ones.  Jehoshaphat had a major flaw.  He felt a loyalty to those who hated God that cost him.  He went to war with Ahab, whom God was preparing to judge.  Then he assisted Ahaziah, whom the LORD had also determined to judge.  He did so because they were fellow Jewish kings.  Rather than leave the ungodly to the hand of God, he intervened.  Whether he was merely empathetic, or worse, wanted to soften divine judgment, it was not the will of the LORD for him.  Even though Jehoshaphat had a big heart that led him into wrong allegiances, and the wrath of God rested on him for it, he still prepared his heart to seek the LORD.  Even though he made a few blunders, he earned a reputation as a king who prepared his heart to seek the LORD.  It is important we do not let our failures and flaws define who and what we are.  It is important others don’t remember us for the failures we accrued.  If we prepare our hearts to seek the LORD, that is what others will remember and not the times in which we failed.

As far as I know, outside of Jesus Christ, no one has ever lived a perfect life.  When reading the word of God, we often forget this.  We assume people like Abraham, Joseph, David, or Paul were as perfect as a person can be.  Somehow, we think they lived perfect lives with no sin worth mentioning.  However, Abraham had an intimate relationship with his wife’s maid.  Joseph worked for a nation who would end up as Israel’s most bitter enemy.  David, of course, had an affair and covered it up by having his mistress’ husband killed in battle.  And Paul?  Paul ignored the leading of the Holy Spirit and ended up in prison.  We could go through the list of the heroes of Hebrews chapter eleven and reveal the mistakes they made.  However, their mistakes were not what they were known for.  They were known for the significant steps of faith for which they are famous.  David is known for killing Goliath.  Abraham is known for offering his son, Isaac.  Joseph is known for saving the nation of Israel from famine.  And Paul is known as the greatest missionary to ever live and as the author of many of the books of the New Testament.  It is not the failures that defined them.  It was the obedience and faith they lived in that did.

The same is true of Jehoshaphat.  He may have made some big mistakes.  He may have had a big heart that got him in trouble.  God may have been upset with him because of his misguided loyalties.  But apart from all that, he prepared his heart to seek the LORD.  What of us?  Are we failures?  You bet!  Have we sinned?  Much!  But does that mean our missteps have to be what God remembers and what others admire?  Some in Christianity want to make this so.  They have no compassion for those who have made poor choices.  It is as if they desire those who have failed to remain defeated.  This is not the heart of God.  God desires victory!  Even if there are setbacks in the battle for God’s glory, He still wants us to come out on top.  This is the heart of God.  The devil wants to remind us of just how far from Christlikeness we are and when we meditate on that sad fact, to keep us in a defeated state of mind.  This doesn’t change a thing.  There are still lost souls out there who couldn’t care less about what you have done in the past.  They need hope and they realize they are no better.  Along life’s journey, there are discouraged saints who need to see the hope you can bring, regardless of the shortcomings in your life.  They need to see there is hope for them.  Yes, our king made some colossal blunders.  No doubt he wished he could take them back.  But that didn’t stop him from preparing his heart to seek God.  It didn’t stop the Holy Spirit from mentioning the good Jehoshaphat did.  His heart will forever be memorialized in the word of God because in spite of his sin, he prioritized preparing his heart to seek the LORD!