Swim On - The Pole is a Mere Reach Away

“He sent from above, he took me, he drew me out of many waters.” (Ps 18:16 AV)

 

Where to begin?  David writes this psalm when he realizes he is freed from all his enemies.  The title to this psalm reads, “To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, the servant of the Lord, who spake unto the Lord the words of this song in the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul: And he said,”.  David is rejoicing in the reality of God’s faithfulness.  Yet, David did not always feel that way.  After running from Saul for several years, the experience wore him out to the point he was willing to ally himself with the Philistines for protection against his enemy.  There were times along the way when the waters seemed deeper than he could manage.  This is life.  We go through deep waters.  If we go through enough of them, we find that God is still faithful.  We get to the point that no matter how deep the waters get, we at least will not get to the point of giving up.  As God has done in the past, so too will he do in the present and future.  How do I know that?  One little word above.  The word, ‘many’.

One of the tasks required to complete the lifesaving merit badge in Boy Scouts was the mile swim.  At least it was when I was young.  This mile swim was done on a lake.  Camp Dittmer, the Boy Scout camp of my youth, had a lake that used to be the reservoir for the city of Phelps, NY.  As private lakes go, it is a pretty good-sized lake.  Called Lake Remick, the scout who wished to complete the mile swim dove in at the causeway.  They would swim to the waterfront taking a roundabout way to equal one mile.  They were in that water for a good bit but were accompanied by a rower and a lifeguard who would tail a rescue pole just in front of the swimmer.  If at any time the swimmer did not feel they could make it, the pole would be extended and the swimmer pulled onto the rowboat.  However, the lifeguard was not too quick in extending help.  If the swimmer wanted to touch out, the guard would yell and encourage him to continue.  Even if the swimmer began to go under, the guard might tap the scout’s shoulder to get him focused again.  Only of the scout was going under and the guard felt his life was in danger did he extend that pole.  The point was for the scout to know his true limits.  The pole was always there if needed.  But sometimes, all the scout needed was a rap on the shoulder or a stern word.  That scout was never alone and was always truly safe.  Even if he didn’t feel like it at times, he would land on that sandy beach safe and sound.

David tells us he went through many waters.  We are no different.  Our waters may vary from person to person.  Our water’s depths may vary over time.  There is no escaping the waters.  No matter how hard we try, life is full of waters.  Some of our own making.  Some of other’s making.  Regardless of how hard we labor to limit those waters, they still come.  This is when God shows us just how much of a God He is to us.  Like the lifeguard riding the back of the boat, the LORD is there with a rescue pole.  Like the guard, He doesn’t always pull us out at the first sign of struggle.  He encourages us to trust Him and live in His strength.  We make it through.  Not in our own strength alone.  But in His strength.  Then, sometimes there are those miracles that come and remove the water all at once.  A cure for a disease.  A windfall to answer financial difficulties.  A hungry soul wanting to hear of the gospel.  These rescue poles are there when we don’t think we can go any further.  They are from above.  They are from God.  They are anchored in His strength and abilities.  We reach for them.  We grab onto them.  We thank God for them.  Herein is our encouragement this day.  God does this often.  As many waters as there are, God is there in each and every one of them.  He is there to push us along or pull us out.  But the waters will never claim a victim!  GLORY!

Trust The Mercy

“But I have trusted in thy mercy; my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation. I will sing unto the LORD, because he hath dealt bountifully with me.” (Ps 13:5-6 AV)

 

What a verse!  To the self-destructive, this is hard to accept.  But accepted it must be!  What we want to really chew on is the connection between trust in God’s mercy and rejoicing in salvation.  The two go hand in hand.  One cannot dwell without the other.  There can be no joy in salvation if we do not trust in the mercy of God to forgive.  There can be no trust in the mercy to forgive if we do not realize the joy of salvation.  The two cannot be separated.  To trust that our sins are forgiven and paid for is the very foundation of joy in salvation.  To realize there is nothing we can do to earn God’s mercy requires humility and repentance.  Trusting in the mercy of God means we stop trusting in ourselves.  If we do, we will fail.  Every time!  Our beloved psalmist knows more than anyone what mercy means.  With his failures ranging from the death of all the priests as Nob to adultery and murder, then ending in tens of thousands of citizens dead because he numbered Israel, David knows a thing or two about mercy.  He needed a boatload of it.

I have had to stand before a judge twice in my life.  Both times, it was for traffic violations.  Failure to completely stop at a stop sign was one of them.  The other was rear-ending someone who had entered an intersection and then slammed on the breaks.  It is the second event that might highlight the above truth.  In the state of Illinois, when one is ticketed, they surrender their license on the spot, and the driver now ‘drives on that ticket.’  In other words, the police take your license and you drive around with that ticket on your person.  This is meant to ensure you show up to your court date.  Not having a license would hinder your ability to get one transferred to another state as well.  Needless to say, when driving on a ticket, one is extra careful to follow the law.  When my court date arrived, the LORD put me through the wringer.  He knew I needed to learn an important lesson in all of this.  I showed up at the required time.  Nine o’clock.  I sat there all morning.  I came back at One o’clock.  Sat there all afternoon.  I was the last case called.  Apparently, the judge was holding off calling my case until the ticket issuing police officer arrived.  I was the last one in the courtroom.  I didn’t know why at the time.  Had I known, I wouldn’t have sweated bullets that whole time.  When my case was called, the judge entered a not-guilty plea on my behalf and dismissed the case because there was no witness to my ‘crime’.  Not even the driver of the other vehicle showed up.  He gave me my license back and I was out the door!  Mercy rained down.  Being the overly sensitive type, in the back of my mind, I thought perhaps there was something a bit more nefarious going on.  So, from that day for a very long time, I was the state’s safest driver.  Every time I saw a police car, I thought they were looking for me because I had gotten off without any consequences.  Only until I came to grips with the truth that the court had no interest in my past, was I totally free.

The same is true of God’s mercy.  Not that we want to take advantage of it or think there are no consequences for our actions, but we have to live in the reality of God’s forgiveness.  We try so hard to make it up, thinking if we do, then God will be pleased again.  That is pagan thinking.  That is the thinking that causes some cultures to exercise extreme acts to appease an angry God.  From throwing their children to the crocodiles to self-mutilation, this idea of an angry God who is constantly tormenting us because we are not worthy is not the God of the Bible!  Our God had infinite mercy.  If we have no joy in our salvation, chances are, we are still tormented over our sin.  We have not accepted the reality of God’s mercy.  We are driving around looking for the next ‘cop’ who will drag us off to jail because we deserve it.  We are looking over our shoulders because we cannot surrender a guilty conscience to a merciful God.  We have little joy because we believe in little mercy.  The more we trust the mercy of God, the greater our joy in salvation.  It is that simple

The Entrapping Nature of Sin

“His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins. He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.” (Pr 5:22-23 AV)

 

As the children of God, we know this passage is speaking of those who will reject the saving grace of God by His Son’s atoning sacrifice.  However, the principle does apply to us as well. We often forget the entrapping nature of sin.  We forget the longer we linger in sin, the harder it is to escape.  We think sin is manageable.  We think if we hold off on truly indulging, then we can stop access from being a problem.  We think that if we control impulses, enjoy sin in moderation, and show some self-discipline, then sin can be controlled without too much damage.  The problem with this thinking is the goalposts keep changing.  We have a line which we will not cross.  If we bump into that line and refuse to cross it, then we see it as a success.  We can enjoy a bit of sin without it getting out of control.  Over time, that line gets moved.  When we started, it was a dabble.  Now that sin has become increasingly demanding, it has become a habit.  Soon, if we are not careful, what was a habit will become a deathtrap.  This is Solomon’s warning to his children.

When I was a kid, PSA (Public Service Announcements) were very common.  Especially during kid’s TV programming.  One of them involved cigarette smoking.  Even today, commercials are warning against the evils of tobacco use.  One such commercial which aired just a few days ago was voiced over by a smoker.  The commercial started by showing this lady’s wedding photo.  She was a beautiful bride for sure.  As the camera panned in on this photo, the lady gave a very quick testimonial about her tobacco use.  Over the years, she became a heavy smoker.  Then for the last paragraph or so of her narrative, you saw her in her hospital bed with half her neck and face removed, a scarf over her head because of hair loss, and a tracheotomy tube in her throat because she lost her voicebox.  At the end of the commercial was a line at the bottom of the screen telling us she died three days after the shooting of the commercial.  When I was a young man, I took up smoking.  I tried it because there were several of my relatives who smoked.  However, I went about it all wrong.  I stole a pack of my mother’s cigarettes and my brother and I hid out in the treehouse.  We split the pack in half between the two of us and smoked them all!  Was I ever sick!  Instead of inching towards that line, I raced right up to it.  Never did I smoke ever again.

Sin is that way.  It tempts and entices inch by inch.  First a small little hard candy.  Then a whole candy bar.  Before you know it, our diets contain more sugar in a month than we would need for a lifetime.  The warning is a serious one.  Sin often comes in moderation.  If we do not fight it, was seemed like a lot when we started is not sufficient to satisfy now.  The warning isn’t merely about entrapment.  It goes even further.  The longer we are entrapped by our sin, the harsher the consequences.  If we fail a little, we will suffer a little.  If we fail a lot, we will suffer a lot.  This is Solomon’s warning.  We are all like this.  It may not be sins of the flesh that will be our undoing.  It could be sin of the mind or heart as well.  Having an undisciplined personality can lead to loneliness.  Not containing our minds to the truth of God’s word can lead us into false doctrines that may cost us our very souls.  This is a serious warning.  One to which we would be wise to heed.

Job's Confession

“Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not.” (Job 42:3 AV)

 

At first glance, it appears Job’s last words to the LORD may seem a bit forward.  This is not the case.  The above question and following statement are not a challenge to the LORD.  Job would not be so forward as to take on God.  Job is asking a rhetorical question to himself.  The answer is God.  God hides counsel from mankind without the ability of man to know it.  This is the premise of the statement that follows.  If God hides His counsel from the ability of man to know it, then it would stand to reason that Job could not understand the counsels of God and these counsels are too wonderful for him to even know them.  In short, this question and statement above is Job’s confession of God’s sovereignty and his submission to it.  This was exactly God’s argument with Job.  He is God and has the right to do as He pleases.  Mankind has no right to demand God justify His actions.  No matter what it meant to Job, practically speaking, God has a right to allow these circumstances upon Job for His own purposes and ends. 

Who hasn’t heard of a celebrity auction?  You know, the auction where a group of men or celebrities are auctioned off for a cause and the winner of the auction gets to enjoy a date with their prize.  In High School, the fundraiser was auctioning off teenagers to adults who would use them for labor around the home.  Or whatever task they so choose.  Once purchased, the teenager had little or no input into what that day, weekend, or month might entail.  If their patron wanted the leaves raked, that is what he or she did.  If they wanted their dog walked, then down the block they went.  If the windows needed scrapping, calking, and painting, then to the hardware store for supplies they went; returning to labor for their patron.  Garage cleaning, pool cleaning, room organizing, etc.  The task did not matter because that young man or woman was laboring for their charity or school.  As long as the term was in force, the patron could pretty much demand anything ethical or legal for the young laborer to do.  The attitude of the young person was the greatest mirror into his or her maturity.  How they responded to every demand could tell a lot about their character and personal growth.  Having been that young person, I can attest it is not easy.  I was asked to do some pretty disgusting things.  As much as I would have liked to protest, I had no standing.  As long as my patron was donating to the school, scout troop, or other cause, I was theirs to command.

God had Job’s fear and obedience.  But fear and obedience are not necessarily surrendering.  What Job learned was a harsh but needful lesson.  He learned that God can do whatever He pleases and we are supposed to accept it.  We are to accept it without complaint or rejection.  We are to accept it even if we cannot see a purpose to it.  We are to accept it even though it might come at a great cost.  God is sovereign.  He is the Creator.  As such, He has the right of ownership and no matter what He chooses to do, He has every right to do.  There is a part of us that bristles at this truth.  We like to think we are self-determined.  We like to think we have the liberty that no one can challenge.  That might be true when compared to other men, but it is not true when we consider God.  Whether we like it or not, God can and does either cause or allow all things and we have no right to envoke ‘fairness’ on God.  If He chooses a great loss for me, He has every right.  If He chooses to bless then gratitude is in order.  No matter what God chooses, He is right.  Period!  And I have no right to demand of God a reason as to why He does what He does or chooses not to do what He does not do.

Overthinking Into Obscurity

"Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?” (Job 38:2 AV)

 

These are the words of God himself to Job.  For thirty-six chapters, Job and his friends were bantering back and forth, attempting to figure out why Job was suffering so much.  They could only agree on one point.  That is, God either caused or allowed these unfortunate circumstances to befall poor Job.  Job contended he did nothing worth meriting his circumstances nor could he understand what possible purpose they may have for him.  He came to the deepest sense of depression when he wished he had never been born.  Job’s friends attempted to place blame on Job for his circumstances.  Either he as sinned, was in sin, or was about to sin.  Those were the false causes which they postulated.  Now, God speaks.  The question above is very intriguing.  It suggests a condition that had escaped my prior readings of this question.  The LORD is suggesting their excessive postulating actually drove them further from knowledge instead of closer to it.  He suggests the more they postulated, the more obscure truth became.  Overthinking it caused Job and his friends more confusion.  Not less.

Overthink, by default, makes assumptions.  These assumptions are rarely correct.  This means, any reasons based on false assumptions only lead to more error.  I am no Daniel Boone when it comes to navigating in the woods.  Even though I know better, it is very easy for me to get turned around in the woods.  Trusting what I do know is surrendered to what I might think is true.  Details are my worst enemy.  I took my pastor turkey hunting on my father’s property.  This property was sixty-six acres of wooded land with a pond on it.  There should have been no way we could have gotten lost.  The property rests atop an elevation.  If I went downhill, in any direction, I was going away from the property.  If I went uphill, I was going towards the property.  Once at the very top, there rests the pond.  Once I found the pond, it was a matter of following the only road that led back to camp.  Yet, there we were.  We had traveled the property setting up and calling for turkeys.  The noon firehouse siren blared so our hunt was over.  Now it was time to return to the car.  Uphill.  That is all I had to do.  However, as I walked through the woods confident of where I was going, we ended up two miles from our trucks on a side road I had never seen.  I actually had to knock on a door to find out where I was relative to where the property was.  What happened?  I overthought it.  Instead of following my instincts of walking uphill, instead, I trusted my eyes which thought they recognized portions of our woods.  Overthinking it got me further from my goal.  Not closer.

The truth of Job’s situation was no matter how much they reasoned, they would never have been able to guess what caused all his trouble.  In fact, the LORD never told him of the event that started it all.  ‘How’ was not relative.  Satan coming and God allowing for a challenge would mean very little to Job.  What was relative to Job was that through Job, God was glorified and Satan embarrassed.  No amount of human reasoning would have ever dreamt a contest between God and Satan was the catalyst for all that befell Job.  What is true is the more they thought about it and pontificated about it, the further down the road of error they progressed.  Much of the time, stopping our thought process and allowing God to speak His mind is the sensible thing to do.  We may not receive all the answers to our questions, but we will receive the answers that we need.  And that is the point to all this.  God spoke!  When he did, all that Job needed was granted.  The first thing to happen was Job and his three friends stopped their discourse.  When they did, then God gave the truth.

Grab the Rope!

“Lo, all these things worketh God oftentimes with man, To bring back his soul from the pit, to be enlightened with the light of the living.” (Job 33:29-30 AV)

 

The speaker here is the youngest of Job’s friends.  Elihu has a lot of good things to say.  However, like the three other comforters, most of it does not apply to Job.  Actually, as you read Elihu’s comments one cannot be struck with the youthful arrogance in his words.  He thinks he and he alone holds all the wisdom of God applicable to Job’s situation.  Putting that aside, there are nuggets like the one above that do, indeed, speak to Job’s situation.  This one brief sentence of encouragement is really all Job needs.  He needs someone who is not suffering as he is to remind him of the goodness and grace of God.  Job needs to be reminded that even though his situation is a very difficult one, there is a light at the end of the tunnel.  The truth above is a simple one.  It is a universally applied truth.  The word ‘man’ is generic to include all of mankind.  And this God does.  He brings back our soul from the depths of despair so that we might once again have hope among those who have hope.  He does this often!

There are so many experiences from which I can draw.  The passing of my brother, parents, and several close friends come to mind.  Deep depression over my habitual sin is also a pit from which the LORD pulls me.  Job loss and financially hard times also was a pit from which the LORD pulled me.  There are hard times in ministry when I hope that Sundays do not come.  They are few and far between, but the LORD is always there to pull me out.  However, the deepest of all pits, at least for me, is my constant failure to please the LORD.  I am not even close to being the person God desires.  There are so many flaws I cannot understand why He puts up with me.  Do I believe in the grace of God?  The fact I exist and am still alive screams YES!  These pits are often a part of life.  As they are for me, they are for everyone.  Times of self-doubt.  Times of guilt and shame.  Times of inadequacy.  Times of fatigue.  Times when we foolishly reflect on events of the past and give the adversary an open door to beat us up.  Times of satanic or demonic attack.  Times of health setbacks.  The times are numerous.  They are frequent.  But they are not permanent.  Or at least they shouldn’t be.

The most beautiful word in the passage above, at least for me, is ‘oftentimes’.  Job should have latched on to this truth and throw out all the other comments passed on to him.  There are times when the pit seems too dark and deep and we wonder if God can pull us out.  We pray.  We fast.  We read our Bibles.  We seek God’s face.  We wonder if the pit will ever be conquered.  Over time, the LORD pulls us out.  Sometimes suddenly.  Sometimes it is a process.  The best way to rescue someone from a pit is the fill it with water.  As the water rises, so does the victim.  It takes time.  That water is not only the means of rescue but also the source of refreshment.  While in the pit, God sends us showers of blessings.  As soon as the blessings become of greater volume than the pit, then out we come.  This He does oftentimes.  Not just here and there.  He does this so many times we often take it for granted.  That is until we are in another pit.  But when we fall, let us hang on to the verses above.  Maybe in doing so, we will not fall nearly as deep.

Eyes On Your Own Plate

“I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid? For what portion of God is there from above? and what inheritance of the Almighty from on high?” (Job 31:1-2 AV)

 

Job’s statement here would do well to be in every man’s heart.  The covenant he made with his eyes in verse one is predicated on the truth of verse two.  That truth is his wife is the portion which God has given him and since God gave her to him, he was no need or right to look on another man’s portion.  Married or not, the maid upon which he might gaze is either a man’s wife or more than likely, will be.  Solomon states,  “Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity, which he hath given thee under the sun, all the days of thy vanity: for that is thy portion in this life, and in thy labour which thou takest under the sun.” (Ec 9:9 AV)  God gave Eve to Adam.  He did not give Eve to Adam and then create other women for him to gaze upon.  The wife of his youth is his portion.  She is meant for him.  Appropriate and a perfect fit, Eve was meant for Adam, and Adam was meant for Eve.  It is on this truth fidelity is established. 

Growing up in such a large household, rationing food was common.  Otherwise, eight boys would have eaten my parents into the poor house.  My father refused to eat left-overs and he hated it when food was thrown out.  So, he required my mother to make enough food so that there was sufficient for one meal and no more.  We could not waste a thing.  One can imagine how dinner time went.  To say it was a bit of a challenging time would be an understatement.  As each dish was passed around, the portion was announced.  One scoop of corn.  On scoop of potatoes.  Two pieces of meat.  And so on.  No doubt, when one sibling was gathering his portion, there were twelve sets of eyes on his plate!  One roll!  That was the big one.  One pat of butter.  As much water as you could drink.  When it came to dessert, it was the same.  Accept Jell-O, because that is usually what dessert turned out to be and who really likes Jell-O anyway?  Christmas cookies were the worst.  There were all sorts of shapes.  However, the snowman was easily two times bigger than any cookie.  So, when we were allotted one cookie, guess which one we dug for?  Our eyes were on the portions of others and what that did was it make us dissatisfied with the portion allotted to us.  The same is true for a spouse.

Job is very wise here.  The wife God gave was his portion.  Even though she wasn’t the most spiritual one in the pew, she was his.  Even though she was bitter at the loss of her children and encouraged Job to curse God and die, she was still his.  She was never, nor will ever be, another’s.  At least as long as they both shall live.  Next time we are tempted to gaze upon the portion which belongs to another, let us remember God knows what He is doing and gave to us the portion best suited for us.  Sometimes, the portion size varied depending on the age of my sibling.  The older, the larger the portion.  He or she needed more.  When we are tempted to gaze at another’s portion, we are saying what we have is insufficient.  We are accusing God of being negligent in assigning our portion.  We best be careful of that charge.  God knows what He is doing and we must be grateful for the portion God gives.