We've been on vacation and I've got several ideas I want to process with you over the next few weeks, but for the moment I want to post a memorial service meditation I offered recently. I'm putting it up because it's basic. Sometimes I feel an urgent need to analyze and reach out to every individual in some uniquely meaningful way, when in fact, it is not any skill of rhetoric that changes peoples' lives, it is the gospel that is the power of God unto salvation (according to Paul in Romans 1).
The gospel is what people need. It's what I need every day to maintain faith, purity, wholeness, right thinking, right living, right being. Here's the gospel to you and to me as it came at the memorial service of a person I didn't really know to an audience I didn't really know:
Funeral services and memorial services like this share one thing in common regardless of where or when they are held: no one really wants to be here.
We gather for memorial services and for remembrances, but we would rather be gathered somewhere else with our loved one healthy and whole and living life along with us. We would much rather avoid death altogether, but the reality is, we cannot.
The reality of life is that each of us will be touched, wounded, by the death of others that we love, and one day, inevitably, others will be touched by our death. Most days we can get along quite well not thinking about such things. But some days, like today, death stands toe to toe with us looks us square in the eye and says to us, “Deal with me.”
The Bible says, “It is given unto every man once to die, and after that the judgment.” While we often use memorial services like this to remind us of the best things about the person we have loved, in the background, behind the remembering and the songs, behind the preaching and the prayers this question lurks: “What does all this mean for me?”
God created us for two things: to love him and to be loved by him. All too often, however, we live out our lives in love with ourselves rarely giving God more than a second thought. That failure on our part to enjoy a loving relationship with the God who created us is called sin, and sin is the reason judgment follows death in the Bible verse I just mentioned.
But here is good news. God loves us. God loves me and God loves you, and He has given us every reason to have great hope in the face of death and judgment. The Bible tells us that God so loved the world he gave his only Son, Jesus Christ, for us so that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. The Bible informs us that “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” And God’s word reminds us that “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
These are words about preparing for death and having an answer when death stares us in the face. When we put our faith in Jesus, God forgives our sins and reestablishes that relationship of love we were created for. By doing that, God takes away any fear of death and judgment that may have plagued us in the past and replaces it with joy for today and hope for the future.
God’s answer to death’s challenge is Jesus who died on the cross for our sins and was raised from the dead opening the door to eternal life for all who believe in him.
How do we take advantage of this great gift from God, who reminds us in the darkest hours of our grief of his great love for us? Here again God points the way in his word. The Bible gives these simple instructions, “Repent and turn to God, so that your sins my be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.”
As you spend time this afternoon remembering your loved one, telling the stories that will bring her face to mind, that will ignite your love for her all over again, please remember that God loves you with all his heart and has made a way for you to face your own death without fear and with great hope. Put your faith in Jesus.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Red to Black (or White)
Okay, I confess. I keep the household checkbook on Quicken and I got behind. Way behind. Alright, a little more than a month behind making entries and three weeks behind in getting the statement balanced. I have the software setup to continue tracking certain expenditures that are made on a regular basis. Because of my neglect, when I opened Quicken to balance the checkbook last night, there was a lot of red.
Red is the color of deficiency. Red means minus. Red signals trouble. And there was a lot of red. Bills that I paid put hadn't entered into the software were all glaringly red. Balances I hadn't kept current, red. There was more red than the gospels in a KJV Bible.
I'm leaving for vacation soon, and I really needed to know what financial shape we were in. That meant tackling the red. The savings account was easy. So was the auto loan. The checking account was a whole other story. It took hours for me to get everything posted, accounted for, sorted out and balanced. Along the way I had to deal with expense categories where, since I hadn't kept them up to date, I had overspent. I had to transfer money and play with numbers, and some of what I had to do in order to get out of the red and into the right meant making some tough decisions about goals and spending habits for the next few months.
I finished the work of turning our accounts from red to black and sat back to give thanks for people who do these kinds of things for a living, and for software programmers who make it easy for the rest of us. As I sat there scanning the revised statements and reports a verse from the Old Testament came to mind. They are the words from Isaiah 1:18, "Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool."
In order to get my accounting software from red to black, I had to own up to my own negligence. I had to take into account the current condition of my records. And I had to take action, sacrificial action in some cases, to right the effects of my wrongs. You see the connection, don't you? Our sins are blaringly obvious to God, standing out against his holiness, his perfection, his glory like fresh blood on a whitewashed wall. There is no missing our sinfulness, which is ours both by nature and by choice. God knows it. We know it. Our sins are as scarlet, and they remain our sins because we have neglected to respond to God's work in Christ. "Later I'll ask for forgiveness," we think. Or, "It's just a little sin; no sense in paying much attention to it." But to God, they are scarlet, crimson, red.
We need to own up to our own spiritual negligence. We need to look our current spiritual condition right in the face and ask, "Am I trusting Christ as my Savior and living in faith and obedience?" If the record ain't right, it ain't gonna fix itself. Sin left unconfessed and unrepented of just multiplies like red ink in the ledger. The action God allows us to take, the action that cooperates with his work in Christ, is repentance: turning away from our sin and turning to Christ in faith.
It doesn't matter whether you are new to the faith or old in the faith, repentance clears the record, rights the wrong, and gets the red out. God's responds to faithful repentance with forgiveness and newness of life. He turns the red white. He makes the heart right.
I'm glad I finally got the checkbook balanced. It took a fair amount of work to turn the red to black. But I am even more grateful for the work God does through his Son to turn the crimson stain of sin on my soul to the whiteness of Christ's righteousness, a work available to everyone who believes.
Red is the color of deficiency. Red means minus. Red signals trouble. And there was a lot of red. Bills that I paid put hadn't entered into the software were all glaringly red. Balances I hadn't kept current, red. There was more red than the gospels in a KJV Bible.
I'm leaving for vacation soon, and I really needed to know what financial shape we were in. That meant tackling the red. The savings account was easy. So was the auto loan. The checking account was a whole other story. It took hours for me to get everything posted, accounted for, sorted out and balanced. Along the way I had to deal with expense categories where, since I hadn't kept them up to date, I had overspent. I had to transfer money and play with numbers, and some of what I had to do in order to get out of the red and into the right meant making some tough decisions about goals and spending habits for the next few months.
I finished the work of turning our accounts from red to black and sat back to give thanks for people who do these kinds of things for a living, and for software programmers who make it easy for the rest of us. As I sat there scanning the revised statements and reports a verse from the Old Testament came to mind. They are the words from Isaiah 1:18, "Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool."
In order to get my accounting software from red to black, I had to own up to my own negligence. I had to take into account the current condition of my records. And I had to take action, sacrificial action in some cases, to right the effects of my wrongs. You see the connection, don't you? Our sins are blaringly obvious to God, standing out against his holiness, his perfection, his glory like fresh blood on a whitewashed wall. There is no missing our sinfulness, which is ours both by nature and by choice. God knows it. We know it. Our sins are as scarlet, and they remain our sins because we have neglected to respond to God's work in Christ. "Later I'll ask for forgiveness," we think. Or, "It's just a little sin; no sense in paying much attention to it." But to God, they are scarlet, crimson, red.
We need to own up to our own spiritual negligence. We need to look our current spiritual condition right in the face and ask, "Am I trusting Christ as my Savior and living in faith and obedience?" If the record ain't right, it ain't gonna fix itself. Sin left unconfessed and unrepented of just multiplies like red ink in the ledger. The action God allows us to take, the action that cooperates with his work in Christ, is repentance: turning away from our sin and turning to Christ in faith.
It doesn't matter whether you are new to the faith or old in the faith, repentance clears the record, rights the wrong, and gets the red out. God's responds to faithful repentance with forgiveness and newness of life. He turns the red white. He makes the heart right.
I'm glad I finally got the checkbook balanced. It took a fair amount of work to turn the red to black. But I am even more grateful for the work God does through his Son to turn the crimson stain of sin on my soul to the whiteness of Christ's righteousness, a work available to everyone who believes.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Prepare for Rest
It's no wonder I need a vacation. I'm exhausted just getting ready for it!
Here's a question, if we have our long "to do lists" for vacations, what preparations are we making for our eternal rest? Hebrews 4:11 says, "Let us strive therefore to enter that rest so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience." The entire chapter points to a "rest" from God that remains available to everyone who hears the good news and adds faith to it. Those who believe in and trust God enter his rest, and are encouraged to "strive" to do so.
God's rest may mean any or all of four things. I call them four graces. God's rest may mean the future grace of heaven. In order to gain heaven after death, we absolutely must have faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins and for a renewed, right relationship with God. If God's rest means "heaven" then we must strive to know the gospel of Jesus and to follow it with all our hearts.
God's rest may refer to the second coming of Jesus, returning grace. On the day he ascended, angels informed his watching disciples that Jesus would also return. He will return to gather his people to himself and to establish his kingdom. That means, if we are to be part of that eternal kingdom, our hearts must be prepared. Jesus said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Is your heart humble, grieved over sin, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, merciful, pure, peaceful, and steadfast? These are the preparations God makes in those who believe to prepare them for the return of his Son.
God's rest may also include present grace, the ongoing effects of God's promises realized in the everyday life experiences of his people. God promises and accomplishes great things in the lives of his people (see Jeremiah 33:3), but here's the rub: no relationship with God, no blessing from God. Make the effort faith requires, trust God, believe him and believe in him. This is the labor that gains God's rest.
Finally, God's rest includes forever grace. In referring to God's rest the author of Hebrews writes, "There remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God." Just a few verses prior the author identifies this Sabbath rest as God's own rest on the seventh day. On that day, God's creative work completed, he began the ongoing joy of relating as God to all that he created. Each of the previous days of creation is bookended by an evening and a morning, but not the seventh day. It goes on forever. The idea is that we enter God's rest when we surrender our lives to him as Lord and God and live in that sublime relationship eternally.
Listen, I have a few things to do to get ready for vacation, but we all have a few things to do to get ready for grace. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. Believe God. Trust God. Obey God. Enter God's rest.
- Get tune up and oil change for van.
- Find trip maps.
- Make reservations.
- Write three newspaper columns.
- Coordinate pulpit supply and worship leaders.
- Format bulletins.
- Outline Annual Report.
- Arrange housing for pulpit supply.
- Balance checkbook.
- Pay bills in advance.
- Start outlines for funeral and two weddings (due two days after you get back).
- Update email addresses.
- Arrange pet care.
- Layout Evangel newsletter for production.
- Prepare worship outline for first Sunday back.
- Prepare annual meeting agenda.
- Schedule new members class to start on return.
- Complete marriage counseling outline for clients to study while you're gone.
- Get Bible memorization chart ready to work on while we're traveling.
- Contact "house watcher" with instructions.
- Turn off well pump.
- Finish computer transfer at church.
- Send ministerium meeting announcement.
- Prepare discipleship reading for new believer.
Here's a question, if we have our long "to do lists" for vacations, what preparations are we making for our eternal rest? Hebrews 4:11 says, "Let us strive therefore to enter that rest so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience." The entire chapter points to a "rest" from God that remains available to everyone who hears the good news and adds faith to it. Those who believe in and trust God enter his rest, and are encouraged to "strive" to do so.
God's rest may mean any or all of four things. I call them four graces. God's rest may mean the future grace of heaven. In order to gain heaven after death, we absolutely must have faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins and for a renewed, right relationship with God. If God's rest means "heaven" then we must strive to know the gospel of Jesus and to follow it with all our hearts.
God's rest may refer to the second coming of Jesus, returning grace. On the day he ascended, angels informed his watching disciples that Jesus would also return. He will return to gather his people to himself and to establish his kingdom. That means, if we are to be part of that eternal kingdom, our hearts must be prepared. Jesus said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Is your heart humble, grieved over sin, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, merciful, pure, peaceful, and steadfast? These are the preparations God makes in those who believe to prepare them for the return of his Son.
God's rest may also include present grace, the ongoing effects of God's promises realized in the everyday life experiences of his people. God promises and accomplishes great things in the lives of his people (see Jeremiah 33:3), but here's the rub: no relationship with God, no blessing from God. Make the effort faith requires, trust God, believe him and believe in him. This is the labor that gains God's rest.
Finally, God's rest includes forever grace. In referring to God's rest the author of Hebrews writes, "There remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God." Just a few verses prior the author identifies this Sabbath rest as God's own rest on the seventh day. On that day, God's creative work completed, he began the ongoing joy of relating as God to all that he created. Each of the previous days of creation is bookended by an evening and a morning, but not the seventh day. It goes on forever. The idea is that we enter God's rest when we surrender our lives to him as Lord and God and live in that sublime relationship eternally.
Listen, I have a few things to do to get ready for vacation, but we all have a few things to do to get ready for grace. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. Believe God. Trust God. Obey God. Enter God's rest.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Snow, Snow, Go Away, Come Again Another May
Jeanie Wilson was waiting tables on the far side of the Blue Water Cafe, but I could here her indictment all the way across the room and above the din of the noontime burger eaters. "It's the winter that never quits." Today is May 16th. It's cold. Sunny. And snowing. This last flurry looked like the "Dipping Dots" ice cream you can get at Valley Fair, but had way less appeal.
At the moment, I can look out my office window and actually see Fern's midnight blue Blazer parked a few feet away. A minute ago that car was but a shadow, a shade veiled by a curtain of snow. Will it never end?
Just this morning, as I drove in along the lakeshore and headed inland up the new Gunflint Trail I noticed a brighter shade of green in the crowns of the aspen and birch on the ridge above town. It looked like spring. It felt like spring. Now it looks like a view through a quilt before they put the front and the back on. Fuzzy, cotton fiber fill.
I wonder if this is just a little like the Israelites might have felt, wandering through the same wearisome desert vistas day after day with relentless meals of manna their only expectation. Is this a bit of what they might have endured, this longing for something more, this discontent with the monotony of what they had, the shortsightedness and thanklessness for their lives given the sameness of their daily experience?
I'm tired of winter. I'm sick of winter. I want azaleas and daffodils and gardenias and those big red and white flowering shrubs with the waxy green leaves whose name I can't remember. I want warm, sunny days. I want night delays and long, lazy days. I want fishing without automatic refrigeration! I want warm, did I say warm? I want ten million shades of green, and another ten million shades of blue, highlighted with yellows, and the occasional red and orange. Oh, and now I remember: camelias. I want camelias and tulips and wisteria and forsythia. I am just so sick of snow, and cold, and white, and gray.
But . . . snow, even in May, and cold, and white, and gray . . . are they not ordained by the Creator's hand for good? Has not the sovereign God of the universe, who does no wrong and delights to do good for his people, has he not by is own hand designed this day especially for me? His word says, "This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it."
This was Israel's failure, the failure to find and know the goodness and joy of God in the sameness of each ensuing day. They complained about the manna and rebelled at God's provision. They wanted what they wanted and they drooled for the scant greens that littered their enslavement. They pined away their blessing.
With whatever it holds, the period of time we call today embraces at least two praiseworthy qualities: the creativeness of God and the opportunity to yield to him. The author of Hebrews writes, "But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called 'today,' that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin." A few sentences later in chapter four he notes, "He appointed a certain day, 'Today' . . . ." Today, God is at work in the world and in his people to exalt Christ, to display the glory of his perfections, to do good to his people, to uphold the world in his hands and he upholds his word in our lives. Today, God gives an opportunity for us to respond with faith, surrender, obedience, and joy.
Honestly, I still want camelias and gardenias, but I'm not going to get them here in northeast Minnesota, winter or summer. What I will get, what you can get, any day, every day is the good grace of God extended in mercy through Jesus Christ. And I'll take that any day. In fact, as long as it is "Today," I'll take it every day, even if it comes with snow.
At the moment, I can look out my office window and actually see Fern's midnight blue Blazer parked a few feet away. A minute ago that car was but a shadow, a shade veiled by a curtain of snow. Will it never end?
Just this morning, as I drove in along the lakeshore and headed inland up the new Gunflint Trail I noticed a brighter shade of green in the crowns of the aspen and birch on the ridge above town. It looked like spring. It felt like spring. Now it looks like a view through a quilt before they put the front and the back on. Fuzzy, cotton fiber fill.
I wonder if this is just a little like the Israelites might have felt, wandering through the same wearisome desert vistas day after day with relentless meals of manna their only expectation. Is this a bit of what they might have endured, this longing for something more, this discontent with the monotony of what they had, the shortsightedness and thanklessness for their lives given the sameness of their daily experience?
I'm tired of winter. I'm sick of winter. I want azaleas and daffodils and gardenias and those big red and white flowering shrubs with the waxy green leaves whose name I can't remember. I want warm, sunny days. I want night delays and long, lazy days. I want fishing without automatic refrigeration! I want warm, did I say warm? I want ten million shades of green, and another ten million shades of blue, highlighted with yellows, and the occasional red and orange. Oh, and now I remember: camelias. I want camelias and tulips and wisteria and forsythia. I am just so sick of snow, and cold, and white, and gray.
But . . . snow, even in May, and cold, and white, and gray . . . are they not ordained by the Creator's hand for good? Has not the sovereign God of the universe, who does no wrong and delights to do good for his people, has he not by is own hand designed this day especially for me? His word says, "This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it."
This was Israel's failure, the failure to find and know the goodness and joy of God in the sameness of each ensuing day. They complained about the manna and rebelled at God's provision. They wanted what they wanted and they drooled for the scant greens that littered their enslavement. They pined away their blessing.
With whatever it holds, the period of time we call today embraces at least two praiseworthy qualities: the creativeness of God and the opportunity to yield to him. The author of Hebrews writes, "But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called 'today,' that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin." A few sentences later in chapter four he notes, "He appointed a certain day, 'Today' . . . ." Today, God is at work in the world and in his people to exalt Christ, to display the glory of his perfections, to do good to his people, to uphold the world in his hands and he upholds his word in our lives. Today, God gives an opportunity for us to respond with faith, surrender, obedience, and joy.
Honestly, I still want camelias and gardenias, but I'm not going to get them here in northeast Minnesota, winter or summer. What I will get, what you can get, any day, every day is the good grace of God extended in mercy through Jesus Christ. And I'll take that any day. In fact, as long as it is "Today," I'll take it every day, even if it comes with snow.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Getting to the Right Family CC News-Herald 5/16/09
The shock Kay and DeeAnn must have felt can hardly be imagined. The two 56 year old women did not know each other, even though their mothers were neighbors and they were born on the same day in the same hospital. Recently, the two met for the first time to resolve a mystery and put away rumors once and for all.
When the two women were newborns in 1953, nurses accidentally switched them and returned them to the wrong mothers. They grew up, got married, had kids and grandkids, each thinking they belonged to the family they were in. Until the DNA tests came back.
According to one report, Kay cried. “My life wasn’t my life,” she said. DeeAnn said the DNA report only confirmed what she knew the minute she laid eyes on Kay. “She looked just like my sister’s twin.”
Can’t imagine growing up thinking you belong to one family only to find out you belong to another? Get ready for a shock. A great many people who comfort themselves thinking they are God’s children just because they were born on this planet are in for a big surprise!
Some men came to Jesus once to challenge his claim to be the Son of God. They asserted their heritage as the children of Abraham. They exalted their ethnic heritage as being superior to anyone else’s, even the one claimed by Jesus Himself. They went so far as to question the legitimacy of Jesus’ parentage, thinking that their relationship with God was better certified by their unbroken lineage.
Jesus responded by revealing their spiritual DNA report. “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me.” And then he said, “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires” (John 8:42, 44).
Ouch! God’s children love God’s Son, Jesus. God’s children love God and desire to honor him and fulfill his desires. The devil’s children hate God’s Son and choose to fulfill, not God’s will and desires, but the desire of the devil who hates and opposes God.
Hmm. Kind of gives the question, “Who’s your daddy?” a whole new twist, doesn’t it.
We are all the children of the devil until by faith in Christ we are adopted into God’s family. The Bible says, “You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air (the devil), the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience (the devil’s children)–among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, like the rest of mankind” (Ephesians 2:1-3). It’s a bleak picture of our entire family.
But there’s good news: “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us . . . made us alive together with Christ.” It says in another place, “In love, he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ.” When we put our faith in Jesus and trust him for the forgiveness of our sins, God severs the bond between us and our old family and adopts us as his children, forever. Faith in Christ writes us a pedigree in grace.
That’s the good news.
When the two women were newborns in 1953, nurses accidentally switched them and returned them to the wrong mothers. They grew up, got married, had kids and grandkids, each thinking they belonged to the family they were in. Until the DNA tests came back.
According to one report, Kay cried. “My life wasn’t my life,” she said. DeeAnn said the DNA report only confirmed what she knew the minute she laid eyes on Kay. “She looked just like my sister’s twin.”
Can’t imagine growing up thinking you belong to one family only to find out you belong to another? Get ready for a shock. A great many people who comfort themselves thinking they are God’s children just because they were born on this planet are in for a big surprise!
Some men came to Jesus once to challenge his claim to be the Son of God. They asserted their heritage as the children of Abraham. They exalted their ethnic heritage as being superior to anyone else’s, even the one claimed by Jesus Himself. They went so far as to question the legitimacy of Jesus’ parentage, thinking that their relationship with God was better certified by their unbroken lineage.
Jesus responded by revealing their spiritual DNA report. “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me.” And then he said, “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires” (John 8:42, 44).
Ouch! God’s children love God’s Son, Jesus. God’s children love God and desire to honor him and fulfill his desires. The devil’s children hate God’s Son and choose to fulfill, not God’s will and desires, but the desire of the devil who hates and opposes God.
Hmm. Kind of gives the question, “Who’s your daddy?” a whole new twist, doesn’t it.
We are all the children of the devil until by faith in Christ we are adopted into God’s family. The Bible says, “You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air (the devil), the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience (the devil’s children)–among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, like the rest of mankind” (Ephesians 2:1-3). It’s a bleak picture of our entire family.
But there’s good news: “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us . . . made us alive together with Christ.” It says in another place, “In love, he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ.” When we put our faith in Jesus and trust him for the forgiveness of our sins, God severs the bond between us and our old family and adopts us as his children, forever. Faith in Christ writes us a pedigree in grace.
That’s the good news.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Is anything too hard for God?
I love Jeremiah's prophecies. Jeremiah was a man born to turbulent times. He was a man called to testing and trial. He was a minister of grace to a graceless people. He was a servant of God when others preferred to serve themselves.
Jeremiah was familiar with rejection, injustice, long nights, and short joys. He knew what it means to sing good news in sour notes. He knew how to run with the horses, even when his heart was hamstrung.
Jeremiah prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of God's people. God filled the lips of the prophet with words of gloom and doom. God filled his eyes with darkness and judgment. The nations that troubled Judah would cause the ground to shake in their advance, then quake in their own boots at the equalizing hand of God.
God filled Jeremiah's words with power, purpose, purity, and Presence. The people rejected God's words, refused God's resolution. They repented not. Yet Jeremiah's heart remained bound to his people to the end. Even in their final disobedience, he went with them to Egypt, knowing they would be slaughtered there, to proclaim the only Truth that could have saved them. Having his ministry by the mercy of God, he did not lose hope.
There is incredible revelation in the book of Jeremiah, as there is in all God's word. Consider this word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: "Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me?"
See that word "behold." That's the Holy Spirit's way of saying "PAY ATTENTION!" It means that what follows is important and worth concentrating upon. "Behold," God says. Take a look. Get a grasp on what I'm telling you. Make the effort. Set aside the distractions, anything that would keep you from understanding and receiving what God says. We need this word today. We are surrounded by stimuli that lack the value of "behold! thus saith the Lord." We are bombarded by demands that lead us to exhausted bodies, fragmentary thinking, disrupted lives, and broken heart. More and more these "vain imaginations" (as one biblical author calls them) get the attention the Lord deserves from us, and we are the weaker and worse off for it. Surely this is a day in which God's people need to "behold."
What are we invited to see? Who stands ready to fill our vision and captivate our imagination? The LORD. The "I AM." The self-existent, glorious Almighty God of heaven and earth. He is, by his own word, the God of all flesh. Interesting that God should reveal himself so at this juncture in Jeremiah's life. The people of Jerusalem are under siege and soon to be handed over to the Babylonians. In their worldview, this is not merely the military exploits of one people against another, this is a battle in the heavenlies between the God of Israel and the god of Babylon. Winning this battle is more than a measure of human military prowess. It speaks to the very nature and person of the divine, whether a god is able to save his people or not.
And God says through Jeremiah, "I am the God of all flesh." God brings disaster on his own people. God claims that their current distress is not because of some foreign god, because there is no other god. He alone is God of all people everywhere. He alone is responsible for the judgment of his people at the hands of the Chaldeans. And if he can bring the means of his justice from a far land, can he not also restore his people after his judgment upon them is complete?
Is anything too hard for God? When he has tried us, can he not also restore us? When he has wieghed us down according to the measure of our sin, can he not also lift us up according to the measure of his grace? When God stops us short in our rebellion, can he not also make us long in obedience and faithfulness? These are rhetorical questions that God answers with a resounding "yes!"
Here are the words of Jeremiah the prophet, the words of the Lord that came to him from God: "Behold, I am giving this city into the hand of the Chaldeans . . . for the children of Isreal and the children of Judah have done nothing but evil in my sight from their youth . . . they have turned to me their back and not their face . . . they have not listened to receive instruction . . . Now therefore, thus says the Lord . . . behold, I will gather them from all the countries to which I drove them . . . I will bring them back to this place . . . I will make them dwell in safety . . . I will be their God . . . I will give them one heart and one way . . . I will make with them an everlasting covenant . . . I will put the fear of me in their hearts . . . I will rejoice in doing them good" (Jeremiah 32:26-41).
The sovereign God of all flesh can put us down or raise us up. He can humble us in judgment or restore us in joy. "The arm of the Lord is not shortened that it cannot save." There is nothing too hard for God.
Jeremiah was familiar with rejection, injustice, long nights, and short joys. He knew what it means to sing good news in sour notes. He knew how to run with the horses, even when his heart was hamstrung.
Jeremiah prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of God's people. God filled the lips of the prophet with words of gloom and doom. God filled his eyes with darkness and judgment. The nations that troubled Judah would cause the ground to shake in their advance, then quake in their own boots at the equalizing hand of God.
God filled Jeremiah's words with power, purpose, purity, and Presence. The people rejected God's words, refused God's resolution. They repented not. Yet Jeremiah's heart remained bound to his people to the end. Even in their final disobedience, he went with them to Egypt, knowing they would be slaughtered there, to proclaim the only Truth that could have saved them. Having his ministry by the mercy of God, he did not lose hope.
There is incredible revelation in the book of Jeremiah, as there is in all God's word. Consider this word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: "Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me?"
See that word "behold." That's the Holy Spirit's way of saying "PAY ATTENTION!" It means that what follows is important and worth concentrating upon. "Behold," God says. Take a look. Get a grasp on what I'm telling you. Make the effort. Set aside the distractions, anything that would keep you from understanding and receiving what God says. We need this word today. We are surrounded by stimuli that lack the value of "behold! thus saith the Lord." We are bombarded by demands that lead us to exhausted bodies, fragmentary thinking, disrupted lives, and broken heart. More and more these "vain imaginations" (as one biblical author calls them) get the attention the Lord deserves from us, and we are the weaker and worse off for it. Surely this is a day in which God's people need to "behold."
What are we invited to see? Who stands ready to fill our vision and captivate our imagination? The LORD. The "I AM." The self-existent, glorious Almighty God of heaven and earth. He is, by his own word, the God of all flesh. Interesting that God should reveal himself so at this juncture in Jeremiah's life. The people of Jerusalem are under siege and soon to be handed over to the Babylonians. In their worldview, this is not merely the military exploits of one people against another, this is a battle in the heavenlies between the God of Israel and the god of Babylon. Winning this battle is more than a measure of human military prowess. It speaks to the very nature and person of the divine, whether a god is able to save his people or not.
And God says through Jeremiah, "I am the God of all flesh." God brings disaster on his own people. God claims that their current distress is not because of some foreign god, because there is no other god. He alone is God of all people everywhere. He alone is responsible for the judgment of his people at the hands of the Chaldeans. And if he can bring the means of his justice from a far land, can he not also restore his people after his judgment upon them is complete?
Is anything too hard for God? When he has tried us, can he not also restore us? When he has wieghed us down according to the measure of our sin, can he not also lift us up according to the measure of his grace? When God stops us short in our rebellion, can he not also make us long in obedience and faithfulness? These are rhetorical questions that God answers with a resounding "yes!"
Here are the words of Jeremiah the prophet, the words of the Lord that came to him from God: "Behold, I am giving this city into the hand of the Chaldeans . . . for the children of Isreal and the children of Judah have done nothing but evil in my sight from their youth . . . they have turned to me their back and not their face . . . they have not listened to receive instruction . . . Now therefore, thus says the Lord . . . behold, I will gather them from all the countries to which I drove them . . . I will bring them back to this place . . . I will make them dwell in safety . . . I will be their God . . . I will give them one heart and one way . . . I will make with them an everlasting covenant . . . I will put the fear of me in their hearts . . . I will rejoice in doing them good" (Jeremiah 32:26-41).
The sovereign God of all flesh can put us down or raise us up. He can humble us in judgment or restore us in joy. "The arm of the Lord is not shortened that it cannot save." There is nothing too hard for God.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
How to Release a Burden to God
Many years ago, in the months before we were married, my wife suffered through a particularly difficult season of the soul. At one point fear and anxiety were very nearly incapacitating for her, and we struggled to find the way out of the darkness, or even a way to hold on until the darkness passed.
While praying for her one day, the Lord led me to this verse: "Cast all your cares on him, for he cares for you." It was a moment for hope and I latched on to it, but I began to pray asking the Lord how a hurting soul "casts" their cares. The Lord gave me an idea.
Later that evening, when we were together at her apartment, I took my yet-to-be wife into her kitchen and stood her in the middle of the room facing her cabinets. I explained to her the verse the Lord had opened for me that morning, and as I expected she said, "Okay, but how do I do that?"
I went over to her silverware drawer and pulled it open. On the outside I placed a label I had made earlier, a label that read, "THE LORD." Then I asked her to write out her fears and the thoughts that were attacking her on small pieces of paper. When she was ready, I said, she should take each paper with her fears and toss them into the drawer, then shut the drawer and walk away. Then, I left her there in the kitchen to decide for herself what fears she would cast "into THE LORD," and when, and if she would commit to shutting the drawer.
It took time for Linda to decide to release her fears, but eventually she did. She wrote out the things that were plaguing her and stealing her joy. She threw them in the drawer and shut it, and every time they came back to mind, came back to hurt, she reminded herself they were "in THE LORD," and the only way they could come back into her life would be for her to physically take them from the drawer, retrieve them from "THE LORD." Neither the drawer nor the Lord would offer them back to her on their own.
Linda's journey out of the dark night of the soul began that evening in the kitchen. She continues to have a box where she throws in the natural what she has committed to God in the spiritual.
Here are six simple steps to releasing a spiritual burden to God, to casting our cares on him. Though I've laid them out as steps, the interval between them can be very brief, and in fact, they can happen almost at once. Or, they may each take time. Either way, these seem to have a presence whenever we unburden our hearts on Christ.
1. Identify the nature of the burden. Is this a burden for good, for guilt, or for growth? Is God allowing some difficult situation in order to demonstate to you and through you the excellence of His glory and the depth of his love? Is the burden a result of personal sin? Is the burden the result of someone else's shortcomings?
2. Embrace God's plan for that burden. If the burden is from God for your good, then accept it as such. If the burden is from guilt, then know that God is prepared to forgive. If the burden is for your growth, then you will have to prepare yourself for change and development.
I think often of the words of Hebrews 12:2 ". . . looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of God." Knowing God's plan for the burden he bore to the cross, Jesus embraced future joy while enduring a present cross.
3. Affirm Christ's relationship to your burden. Is he sharing the burden for good? Has he already borne your burden of guilt? Is he lovingly interceding for your maturity?
4. Prayerfully put Christ in charge of your burden. Literally, "Jesus, I can't carry this. Would you please carry this for me? As much as I know how, I'm putting this in your hands."
5. Live in freedom from the burden. Yes, you will know the burden exists. You may even feel the effects of the burden, but if you have given that burden to the Lord, then get on with your life. Take to heart the promise, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me," and get on it with it. This is not denial, this is faith. If Christ has the burden, then you are free from the weight.
6. Avoid reclaiming the burden. Jesus will not give you back the burden you have given him unless you ask for it. Leave it with him. As often as you are confronted with the burden, remind yourself of the truth that you have cast it upon him and that both the processes and the outcomes related to the burden are in his hands and you will wait for his competent resolution to the events that once weighed you down. Proverbs 26:11 might be a helpful verse for those of us who are tempted to retake the burdens we have laid upon Christ: Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly.
Three great burdens await our shoulders. God responds to each with promised grace. Let him carry you.
While praying for her one day, the Lord led me to this verse: "Cast all your cares on him, for he cares for you." It was a moment for hope and I latched on to it, but I began to pray asking the Lord how a hurting soul "casts" their cares. The Lord gave me an idea.
Later that evening, when we were together at her apartment, I took my yet-to-be wife into her kitchen and stood her in the middle of the room facing her cabinets. I explained to her the verse the Lord had opened for me that morning, and as I expected she said, "Okay, but how do I do that?"
I went over to her silverware drawer and pulled it open. On the outside I placed a label I had made earlier, a label that read, "THE LORD." Then I asked her to write out her fears and the thoughts that were attacking her on small pieces of paper. When she was ready, I said, she should take each paper with her fears and toss them into the drawer, then shut the drawer and walk away. Then, I left her there in the kitchen to decide for herself what fears she would cast "into THE LORD," and when, and if she would commit to shutting the drawer.
It took time for Linda to decide to release her fears, but eventually she did. She wrote out the things that were plaguing her and stealing her joy. She threw them in the drawer and shut it, and every time they came back to mind, came back to hurt, she reminded herself they were "in THE LORD," and the only way they could come back into her life would be for her to physically take them from the drawer, retrieve them from "THE LORD." Neither the drawer nor the Lord would offer them back to her on their own.
Linda's journey out of the dark night of the soul began that evening in the kitchen. She continues to have a box where she throws in the natural what she has committed to God in the spiritual.
Here are six simple steps to releasing a spiritual burden to God, to casting our cares on him. Though I've laid them out as steps, the interval between them can be very brief, and in fact, they can happen almost at once. Or, they may each take time. Either way, these seem to have a presence whenever we unburden our hearts on Christ.
1. Identify the nature of the burden. Is this a burden for good, for guilt, or for growth? Is God allowing some difficult situation in order to demonstate to you and through you the excellence of His glory and the depth of his love? Is the burden a result of personal sin? Is the burden the result of someone else's shortcomings?
2. Embrace God's plan for that burden. If the burden is from God for your good, then accept it as such. If the burden is from guilt, then know that God is prepared to forgive. If the burden is for your growth, then you will have to prepare yourself for change and development.
I think often of the words of Hebrews 12:2 ". . . looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of God." Knowing God's plan for the burden he bore to the cross, Jesus embraced future joy while enduring a present cross.
3. Affirm Christ's relationship to your burden. Is he sharing the burden for good? Has he already borne your burden of guilt? Is he lovingly interceding for your maturity?
4. Prayerfully put Christ in charge of your burden. Literally, "Jesus, I can't carry this. Would you please carry this for me? As much as I know how, I'm putting this in your hands."
5. Live in freedom from the burden. Yes, you will know the burden exists. You may even feel the effects of the burden, but if you have given that burden to the Lord, then get on with your life. Take to heart the promise, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me," and get on it with it. This is not denial, this is faith. If Christ has the burden, then you are free from the weight.
6. Avoid reclaiming the burden. Jesus will not give you back the burden you have given him unless you ask for it. Leave it with him. As often as you are confronted with the burden, remind yourself of the truth that you have cast it upon him and that both the processes and the outcomes related to the burden are in his hands and you will wait for his competent resolution to the events that once weighed you down. Proverbs 26:11 might be a helpful verse for those of us who are tempted to retake the burdens we have laid upon Christ: Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly.
Three great burdens await our shoulders. God responds to each with promised grace. Let him carry you.
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