The Vigorous Act

“We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God…in whom they had put their trust” Acts 15:22-23.

Yesterday Bruce and I took dinner to dear friends who are walking the journey of cancer.  It is indeed heart wrenching to witness how this disease steals and destroys those whose life it invades.  We were never meant to experience sin and disease but since the fall of man we live parallel lives with its consequences.  Our friend told us last evening that most days she asks for only what God decides she needs for that day alone…that is trust…not the kind of trust that we so flippantly ask others to have but the kind of active trust…life giving trust…authentic trust.  Many feel that the kingdom of God is some futuristic landing spot for eternity.  The Lord’s Prayer tells us different… ‘Thy kingdom come…on earth as it is in Heaven.’ Our friend has entered the kingdom of God on earth by completely and sincerely trusting in God and receiving all of His kingdom blessings…peace, endurance, strength and wisdom.  We are all invited to enter into His kingdom by trusting Him for all of His promises. 

I read a quote in my Bible Study this morning and immediately texted her this quote.  As I read it her face popped into my mind.  You will be blessed to meditate on this and I am blessed to know someone who so closely lives her life by this quote.  ‘Trust is not a passive state of mind.  It is a vigorous act of the soul by which we choose to lay hold on the promises of God and cling to them despite the adversity that seeks to overwhelm us.’ – Jerry Bridges.

I can’t think of a greater adversity that seeks to overwhelm than terminal illnesses.  While there is no remedy for death there is a remedy for life – trusting in the goodness and faithfulness of God on earth, and entering into His rest. 

‘…and blessed is {s}he who trusts in the Lord.’ Proverbs 16:20.

Lowering Our Mats

“Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic…they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and…lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on.  When Jesus saw…he said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven’” Mark 2:3, 5.

When my daughter was entrenched in her drug use, I created my own adversity.   I was so heartbroken and grief stricken I responded in a sinful way.  I began secretly mounting debt in an effort to run away from my pain.  In essence, I was an adversity runaway.  Secret spending turned to cover up and before long I was paralyzed in my sin.  I prayed that God would heal my daughter and restore her life but to no avail.  I lowered my mat of paralyzed hopes and dashed dreams before Jesus but He was more interested in my spiritual condition, just as the paralyzed man.  The man needed physical healing but Jesus gave him spiritual healing first. 

Our spiritual condition will always outweigh our earthly petitions.  God is certainly compassionate to our needs and desires.  However, in some instances there is something sick in our spiritual life that can be healed through our earthly challenges. We go to great lengths to lower our mats before Jesus, but when we have unconfessed sins that need to be revealed and healed that becomes the focus of God.  Once I began praying about my own transgressions and my fellowship with God, He began healing my spiritual condition and gave peace to my heart.  It was another two years before my daughter was rescued and restored but I was no longer living a paralyzed life.  He had forgiven my sins and I came to the altar with pure prayers.

God will heal whatever is broken within our spirits which many times answers the prayers of the deepest desires of our hearts.

Our Staffs

“Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands…As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning" (Ex 17:9-11).

Being a shepherd, Moses used his staff to guide and prod his flock.  This was a tool used in his everyday job much like our computers are for our work responsibilities.  It wasn’t until God empowered the staff that Moses began to perform God’s miracles and fulfill God’s purposes for his life.  We find him facing a battle wherein God instructed him to go and stand on the mountain while Joshua fought this battle.  What part was Moses to play in the day?  He was to use the empowered workplace tool, his staff, to show the others his belief and obedience in God’s deliverance.  When Moses became too tired…too weary…the weight became too much…he dropped his arms and God’s plan became compromised.  We can’t blame Moses…he had worked for years…he was old and weary.  Faithfully, God sent people to stand alongside of him and lift up his arms and the battle was won.

It is easy to get frustrated with our mundane jobs as we face our staff and dread the day.  Our jobs can be a source of joy or a source of monotony.  All of our work has been directed by God in order to accomplish His will.  Don’t you know that Moses became bored as he stood on the sidelines watching the action.  But Moses trusted God for His plan and His provision.  He didn’t argue with God about his job assignment, nor did he reject the help that was offered him.  At the end of the day when the battle was won and their lives were blessed he most likely was both humbled and grateful for his part in the workday.  He was still being mightily used by God as an established leader, although it no doubt didn’t feel like much of a contribution.  We cannot presume to know the impact our contribution is having on others.  We must trust God with our staffs no matter how long we have been working with our vocation.  All work is a blessing from God and shouldn’t be taken for granted.  Every project on which my grandmother worked was dedicated back to God.  She would sit on the floor, spread out the pages and commit it back to Him as a way of deep gratitude for His provisions. 

‘Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward.  It is the Lord Christ you are serving’ Colossians 3:23-24.

So Loved!

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16.

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) is a United States Act of Congress that is a the government's aid program for disadvantaged students.  The goal is to ensure that every child has a chance to succeed within their own educational environment, despite their disadvantages.  Congress laid a foundation for the success of every child but at the end of the day the choice to receive and implement still remained with the student.  Success was only achieved based upon the mindset of the child.

We are no different and A.W. Tozer knew this well.  He wrote, ‘What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.’ What we think is how we believe.  God in His deep love implemented the original No Child Left Behind program.  He sent His Son from perfection down to an imperfect world.  He looked upon His creation and saw that we needed a plan from sin…not one of His children was to be left behind.  His plan was grounded in His love but the process was through His sacrifice.  So when we are asked to sacrifice why do we doubt His love for us?  Why do we gladly receive and trust His love for our salvation beyond death, but fail to trust Him during life?  What we think about God is how we see God.  We doubt His love when we experience loss…we question His character when we are living less than joyful lives.  We focus on ourselves and take inventory of our circumstances which leave us powerless, ‘moping through this life apart from the love of God, focused on ourselves and our situation.’ Stronger, p. 22.  We buy into the lie that Satan spins that we are the only one who is experiencing this…that we have suffered longer and deeper than anyone else.  We determine that maybe we have missed out on God’s best.  And Satan smiles because he knows that we have just elevated our circumstances above the grace and love of God.  We have limited both God’s love and power.  God SO loved every child that He gave up temporary fellowship with His Son so that He could have permanent fellowship with every one of us. 

Our spiritual reality is that God became life on earth to die so that we who are dead on earth may eternally live. So let us start living like we believe in God’s love for us in the here and now and not just in the eternal.  1 John 4:8 doesn’t state that God was love or God will be love in Heaven.  It speaks of the here and now… ‘God is love.’ 

Light Expressed

“For His invisible attributes, that is, His eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what He has made.  As a result, people are without excuse.” Romans 1:20.

This morning as I watch the sunrise lending its light to creation I can’t help but to think of this verse.  Since the first sunrise God has been expressing His invisibility through the visible creation of His hands.  From the intimidating mountaintops to the vastness of the oceans, we witness the all-encompassing power of God.  We see the divine nature of God when a stranger stops to console us or a compassionate soul reaches out to help us.  The visibility of God is in everything and everyone but do we do our part?

As believers, we have within us the opportunity to make visible our invisible God.  We possess the capacity to communicate God’s truths helping others understand His ways.  Once we are believers we have no excuse to not be an expression of our glorious Creator.  Just as God placed the sun in the sky to provide light He has placed His spirit in our hearts to provide truth.  When plugged into His spirit we illuminate His power and nature becoming His expression of love and life.  As Christians, when we walk in the flesh we become barriers to His light and His expression is muted.  ‘Light rejected is light denied.’  But when we walk in His spirit we become visible expressions of God’s character and faithfulness.

Just as the sun lends its light to creation the spirit of God lends His invisible attributes to His people for expression.  Divine expression must find a place for revelation and the people of God are those vessels.

Hot Pursuits

“He turned to me and heard my cry.  He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand” Psalm 40:1-2.

As I read this passage this morning I am humbled by the fact that God does for us what we cannot do for ourselves.  If I have the flu, I am well aware of it due to my intense headache and achy body.   If my allergies are active, my eyes itch and my nose runs.  So how is it that when I was spiritually sick my symptoms were not as recognizable?  I wasn’t even aware that I was crying out…didn’t recognize the pit where I resided…the flesh. 

God in His ultimate love turned to me in 2006 and knew that my soul was crying out for something more in this life.  He saw the pit of pursuing approval from people that always tripped me up claiming my actions, attitudes and behavior.  He had seen enough as He patiently waited on me for 45 years to recognize which behaviors were keeping me weighted down in the flesh.  Just as we bend down to retrieve a four leaf clover, so does our mighty God when seeing His unique children stuck in a field of flesh.  He pulls us into His hands and protects us from the elements of the world.  We rest in His confidence and in the shelter of His love and protection.  In hindsight I didn’t even know I needed rescuing, because only God could see what deliverance would look like.  ‘The holes every person tries to fill from birth to death are the needs to be known and to be loved.  We chase everything trying to fill these God-given spaces…He made us incomplete without Him and yet we want everything but Him…so He chases after us.’ Chase, p. 136.

I am blessed this morning to know that I was chosen and loved enough to be chased down and so are you! 

Spiritual Novels

"God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.  Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling" Psalm 46:1-3.

Have you ever noticed that when you are going through tough times the people who have also suffered seem to appear in your life?  It seems as if God strategically places His comfort at every turn, a very present help in trouble.  It seems that these words warn us of life's troubles just as Jesus stated, 'In this world you will have trouble.  But take heart!  I have overcome the world' John 16:33.  Since the beginning of man's fall from grace trouble has been running rampant throughout the earth.  So what do we do with constant sin and persistent trouble with which we are met?  We meet it head on with surrender just as Christ did.

Jesus knew all about the earth giving way as He looked out from the cross.  He was drenched with the waters of pain and disgrace as His enemies mocked and ridiculed Him.  The manner in which Jesus overcame was through His complete surrender.  He didn't fight back...He didn't rebel...He didn't get even...He surrendered for you and He overcame for me.  This is our remedy for our different types of suffering.  I read a beautiful statement this morning that shot right to the center of my heart.  'To truly get God we must learn to receive our lives rather than try to control them.' Chase, p. 118.  As this seeps down in the deep crevice of my heart that is the life I wish to live...receive instead of control...accept instead of question...lay aside instead of picking up.  A life surrendered is a life receiving and a surrendered life is a life of serving.  Isaiah 53:3 prophesied that Christ would be 'despised, rejected...a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering...'  Many of us have been or will be familiar with suffering but will we meet it with bitterness, anger, or self-pity?  Or will we meet it with a spiritual focus that all things taken away in the temporary will be returned in the eternal?  Do we really believe that our lack on earth will be fully provided in Heaven?  Surrendering to God means we will willingly receive whatever He has for us. Then, He takes our surrendered lives and pours them out on people who need His grace.  But we must first offer Him everything and be content with however He writes our story.' Chase, p. 124.

Who is holding the pen in your life?