Our daily choice

From C.S. Lewis: "On a daily basis, we are faced with two simple choices. We can either listen to ourselves and our constantly changing feelings about our circumstances, or we can talk to ourselves about the unchanging truth of who God is and what He's accomplished on the cross for us in His Son, Jesus."

Amen!! How often I need to be reminded of this! This is another way of putting what Jennifer Rothschild shared about proclaiming "what is" rather than "what if." We must daily, hourly counsel our hearts that God is faithful, omnipotent, righteous, holy, perfect, loving, and we must act based upon that truth rather than upon our fickle, unreliable feelings. If we have to repeat it out loud a thousand times a day, then do it! Say it!

Stop wallowing in self-pity or selfishness. Stop allowing all the fearful "what if's" to fill our hearts and minds. Stop dredging up the past and condemning ourselves for sins we have taken to the cross or circumstances that cannot be changed.

Act and speak the Truth we know rather than the emotions we feel. Sure, those feelings are real, and God made us with personalities and souls that feel pain and joy and fear and hope, but He also gave us His eternal Word to guide and and steady and instruct us and His supernatural Holy Spirit to encourage and enable and direct us. Will we surrender to Him and His Truth or to our emotions? Might we daily choose Him and the Truth over our feelings and sinful selves. To God be the glory!

A New thing!

Isaiah 43:18-19 Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert, and streams in the wasteland.

How hard this is for most of us. Forget the former things: forget the failures, forget the slights, forget the mistakes, forget the disappointments. Don't dwell on our past--all the times we missed the mark or missed the opportunity. Don't dwell on those times we came up short or inadequate.

The Lord, through the prophet Isaiah commands us to stop wringing our hands with regret or condemning ourselves over our failed past. Sure we've blown it. Such is the condition of fallen sinful humans. But we need to take whatever sins condemn us from our past and nail them to the cross of the Lord Jesus. And then leave them there, trusting that His blood covers them all. Totally and completely. The sinless Son of God died for those failures, for that bitterness, for those commissions and omissions, for that selfishness and irritation and doubt.

But we need to go beyond forgetting the past; we need to look ahead with hope and anticipation at the "new thing" God is doing. I don't know about you, but I'm not always crazy about new things. New clothes, new food, new cars, new babies, new friends--who wouldn't like new things?! But often we do not welcome "new" when it comes to changes we do not desire or seek or understand. "New" health problems, new dynamics in our families that create strain and tension, new schools or jobs or roles that leave us feeling unsure and unable. I tend to enjoy resting in my rut of the known, the established, the familiar.

But our God is a God of adventure! He relishes seeing His children step out into the unknown and uncontrollable and then discovering His supernatural peace and strength and joy on the other side. I'd never step out in faith if God didn't push me out of the nest now and then! It's never comfortable, but it's so thrilling when we discover those "streams in the wasteland" or that "way in the desert." If it were up to me, I'd never set foot in the desert or the wasteland--I'd just meander along the tame, familiar and well-traveled city streets.

And think what we would miss! The joy of experiencing a "way" or a "stream" of God's grace and goodness and provision and joy even in the midst of the hardest and most challenging of circumstances. Nothing tastes better than cold fresh water when one is desperately thirsty. Or what is better than being lost and frightened and then suddenly discovering exactly where we are and getting back on the path again? (Of course, if you are driving in the car with a man, you may never experience this, since the option of stopping and asking directions is simply unthinkable!)

So thank You Lord for fresh starts and new beginnings--whether they be wonderful or challenging. Might we embrace wherever You place us and whatever You are doing as we look unto You in faith. To the One who makes all things new, be all the glory!

Be not offended in Him

This has been a week of unexplainable tragedies coming into the lives of friends and acquaintances. A young 2 year old child drowns. A friend of my son, helping with his church's mission trip before heading off to his freshman year of college, hits his head while swimming and now battles pneumonia and possible paralysis. A friend of the family is hit by a drunk driver while riding his bike and is now hospitalized with multiple broken bones. A friend's mother is driving home from out of town and is hit and killed instantly by an RV that has blown a tire. A young mother renews her battle with cancer and faces more pain and uncertainty.

My heart weeps and my soul cries out, "What on earth, Lord? You possess all power, all wisdom, all sovereignity. You could have prevented all of these tragedies. You can heal with a mere word. You can stop the lion's mouth or the cars' direction. You can part the seas and give air to the drowning one. You can restore, revive and raise from the dead. Do it again, Lord! Do it again! I cannot begin to fathom why You have allowed these tragedies, but our hope and our trust is in You."

With all that has happened recently, Jesus' rather strange response to John the Baptist's question came immediately to mind. You remember the story: John the Baptist, the man of whom Jesus said none born of a woman was greater, the one who lived in the desert and ate locusts, has been arrested by the wicked Herod. He sits in a dark dungeon, awaiting his fate, and doubt assails him. What if he was wrong? Perhaps all his sacrificial life's work has been for nought if Jesus is not the long-awaited Messiah. Why else would he sit rotting in jail? Surely the Messiah would not allow such a thing. So John sends his disciples to Jesus with the question: "Are the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?" Luke 7:19

Listen to the words which follow: "In that hour He [Jesus] healed many people of diseases and plagues and evil spirits, and on many who were blind He bestowed sight. And He answered them, 'Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight , the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed in he who is not offended in me."

Did you notice the word "many?" "Many" but not "all" of the the people were healed. "Many" but not "all" of the blind had their sight restored. Why? We will not know this side of heaven, but God knows. He could have healed every last one of them, but He did not. He healed most, but not all, and while I rejoice in the power and grace and mercy of the Almighty who could and did choose to heal, I wonder at the mystery of a God whose ways I cannot understand. But I know that His ways are so far above and beyond my ways and my understanding, and in that I find consolation. If I could understand Him, how big could He be? As Job declared in the midst of his terrible ordeal, "But if I go to the east, he is not there; if I go to the west, I do not find Him. when He is at work in the north, I do not see Him; when He turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of Him. But He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I will come forth as gold." Job 23:8-10 Or Job's assurance, even though he has lost his family, his wealth, his health, and his friends: "I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end He will stand upon the earth. And after my flesh has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God." Job 19:25-26

Wow, that is faith even in the midst of terrible suffering and complete bewilderment with what God was doing. Warren Wiersbe once described faith as "simply obeying God in spite of how we feel, what we see, or what we think might happen." Faith is trusting that God can heal, God does heal, but when, in His mysterious purposes, He chooses not to heal, we trust Him anyway.

I don't have time right now to really ponder all that Jesus said to John the Baptist, but His last statement has really struck me: "Blessed is the one who is not offended by me." What a powerful statement--will we refuse to be offended by the mysterious and sometimes down right upsetting ways of our Lord? When we cannot understand, when we doubt and cry and grieve, will we still at the same time stubbornly cling to our faith that He is our almighty Redeemer who is good and merciful and in absolute control? I have no question that God can handle our doubts, our questions, our tears, our anger, our confusion--just read the Psalms and see the raw emotions directed at God. But He still delights in our stubborn faith that refuses, ultimately, to be offended in Him. Offended and broken hearted sometimes in His ways, perhaps, but not in Him. I do not understand why God allows these tragedies, but I trust Him and know that ultimately, somehow, someway, all things will work together for our greater good and His greater glory.

These words of Gene Edwards in the powerful little book, The Prisoner in the Third Cell, express it so well: "A day like that which awaited John [when he awaited his execution] awaits us all. It is unavoidable because every believer imagines his God to be a certain way, and is quite sure his Lord will do certain things under certain conditions. But your Lord is never quite what you imagined Him to be. You have now come face to face with a God whom you do not fully understand. You have met a God who has not lived up to your expectations. Every believer must come to grips with a God who did not do things quite the way it was expected. You are going to get to know your Lord by faith or you will not know Him at all. Faith in Him, trust that is in Him...not in His ways....The question is not, 'Why is God doing this? Why is He like this?' The question is not, 'Why does He not answer me?' The question is not, 'I need Him desperately, why does He not come rescue me?' The question is not, 'Why did God allow this tragedy to happen to me, to my children, to my wife, to my husband, to my family?' Nor is it, 'Why does God allow injustices?' The question before the house is this: 'Will you follow a God you do not understand? Will you follow a God who does not live up to your expectations?' Your Lord has put something in your life which you cannot bear. The burden is simply too great. He was never supposed to do this! But the question remains, 'Will you continue to follow this God who did not live up to your expectations?' 'And blessed are you if you are not offended in me.' He goes on to conclude "Dear reader, no one can fully understand the pain you feel as you suffer your present situation. Whether it came upon you because of circumstances or by the deeds of men, one thing is certain. Before this present tragedy entered into your life, it first passed through the sovereign hand of God. 'And blessed are you...'"

I do not presume to even begin to understand the ways of God. But here's what I do know: I know, like Job, "that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end He will stand upon the earth." I know that He loves you and me so much that He sent His only beloved Son to die in my and in your place so we could have abundant, eternal life, both now and forever more. I know what I have seen in His Word that He is Creator, Sustainer, Revealer. I know that He has all power, all glory, all peace, all love, all majesty, all hope, all wisdom, all grace.

And so I choose to rest in the knowledge that while I will never know or understand, He does. I choose to place my faith and trust in the One who gave all for sinners like me. Lord, I am not offended, and I praise You that because of the Lord Jesus, You are not offended in me. To You be all the glory.

Prayer for our nation

Happy birthday, America! How thankful I am to live in this nation and to enjoy all the freedoms and blessings won for us by the blood, sweat, and tears of countless men and women before us. Forgive us, Lord, for how easily we can take these priceless gifts for granted. Yesterday, our pastor encouraged us to join him (and a number of other churches) in committing to praying every single day for our nation, as well as our families and churches, from July 4 through election day November 2nd. If anyone is reading this, I hope you will join me in praying for our nation (and families and churches, of course!) through election day. How our nation needs revival and restoration. The news seems to be all bad--from our rejection of the Lord in nearly every public arena to our decline in moral values to our frightening economic situation to the seemingly impossible wars we are waging against those who wish to destroy us. One could be tempted to despair.

But with God, we can never ever despair for with Him, all things are possible. As Winston Churchill urged in what was surely the shortest but most powerful commencement address ever given and delivered right in the midst of the dark days of World War II: "Never give up. Never give up. Never, never, never give up." I am reminded of a verse I read not long ago in Numbers 11:23 where God asks an anxious Moses, "Is the Lord's arm too short?" No! If in God's extravagant grace and mercy, He chooses to forgive and restore this nation, then He can and will do it. And that is my prayer. Below is Peter Marshall's prayer for America. It is even more appropriate today than when he penned these words over 60 years ago:

Our Father, we pray for this land. We need Thy help in this time of testing and uncertainty, when men who could fight together on the field of battle seem strangely unable to work together around conference tables for peace.

May we begin to see that all true Americanism beings in being Christian; that it can have no other foundation, as it has no other roots.

To Thy glory was this Republic established. For the advancement of the Christian faith did the Founding Fathers give their life's heritage, passed down to us.

We would pray that all over this land there may be a return to the faith of those men and women who trusted in God as they faced the perils and dangers of the frontier, not alone in crossing the continent, in building their cabins, in rearing their families in eking out a livelihood, but in raising a standard of faith to which men have been willing to repair down through the years.

Thou didst bless their efforts. Thou didst bless America. Thou hast made her rich. Wilt Thou also make her good?

Make us, the citizens of this land, want to do the right things. Make us long to have right attitudes. Help us to be Christian in our attitudes. Let all that we do and say spring out of understanding hearts.

Make us willing to seek moral objectives together, that in united action this nation may be as resolute for righteousness and peace as she has been for war.

Bless those who bear responsibility. May they be led by Thee to do that which is right rather than that which is expedient or politically wise. Save us from politicians who seek only their own selfish interests. Illumine the minds of management as well as labor, that there may be an end to selfishness and greed, to the stupidity of men who are unable to find in reasonable agreement solutions to the problems that plague us.

Bless this land that we love so much, our Father, and help her to deposit her trust, not in armies and navies, in wealth and material resources, or in achievements of the human mind, but in that righteousness which alone exalteth any nation, and by which alone peace can finally come to us. This we ask in that name that is above every name, Thy Son, Jesus Christ, our Redeemer. Amen.

Amen, Lord, and to be all the glory!