For the New Year

  Woohoo--welcome 2021!  Happy New Year to everyone!  Just a couple of thoughts to begin this new year that the Lord has given us: 

First, a verse for the year just past--"Thus far the Lord has helped us." (I Sam.7:12). 

Yes, 2020 was quite a year full of challenges and hardships...but thus far has our infinitely good God carried us, strengthened us, loved us. If you're reading this, then you made it through all the muck and mess, all the sorrows and separation, all the difficulties and division of this past year. Whether you feel like you sailed through or just barely staggered through, God has chosen to allow you still to be here on planet earth.  He is still with you and for you.  He still wants to use you in this brand new year to encourage others, to share His love with a hurting world, to experience and enjoy His presence, to worship Him with all your heart, to bring Him glory with your actions and attitudes every single day. 

There are no throw-away moments in God's economy for He infuses each one of them with Himself. This day, this moment matters...so don't fritter it away in fretting and distraction. Instead, by faith and by His grace, live each of these irreplaceable moments to His glory. 

And all God's promises are just as real, true, and certain as the very first moment He spoke them into being in His Word. So let's stop worrying, dreading, doubting and instead start worshipping, depending, and acting on His promises. That begins by daily reading His Word and hearing His voice speaking directly to you. "So faith comes through hearing and hearing through the word of Christ."  Rom.10:17. How about hearing a little (or a lot) less twitter, instagram, cable news, and netflicks and a lot more of the supernatural, mind and life transforming Word of God?

Secondly, a verse for the new year of 2021: "Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." (Phil.3:13-14)

Maybe you really blew it in 2020. Maybe on this second day of 2021 you've already fallen short on your highfalutin' goals for the new year. Can I tell you something? We all, all, all have sinned and fallen far short of the glory of God. (Rom.3:23) Welcome to the club of procrastinators, perfectionists, failures, and sinners. Just in case you never heard, the definition of a saint is someone who has "fallen down and gotten up...fallen down and gotten up...fallen down and gotten up...all the way to heaven." 

We've all messed up...and for this we have Jesus. His grace is ever and always sufficient. Hand Him your sins, your inadequacies, your bad habits, your weaknesses, your addictions. Instead of dwelling on all that's behind us--that we absolutely cannot change--let's take Paul's advice and "press on toward the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." 

Yes, let's be quick to confess and repent--which means stopping, turning around, and going in the other direction.  Our Abba Father is waiting to embrace us in His forgiving love and restore us by His grace. But then, it's time to stop dwelling on the past and ask our Heavenly Daddy to fill us again. To renew and revive us again so that we can get busy doing whatever He's called us to do on this day. Today--the only today that we will ever have. Our Lord will enable us to press on...but we've got to choose to forget what is behind and by His grace and for His glory, start straining forward to whatever He has for us ahead. 

We may not know the future (boy, has 2020 shown us that), but here's what we do know: God Almighty wins. He reigns. And He's promised that we are seated with Him in the heavenly places and will reign with Him in glory forever. So I'd say, ultimately, no matter what surprises this new year holds, He's got it; He's got us, and we will be more than okay. 

Thank You, Lord, for Your amazing faithfulness to us and bringing us through all the challenges of this past year. Thank You for Your ever-sustaining grace. Thank You for Jesus, our Savior, whose death on the cross saved us from our sin and whose resurrection assures us of abundant, eternal life. And now, please help us--for every day that You give us breath--to press on and to live by Your grace and for Your glory. And to You be all the glory forever and ever. 

Advent: Covid & Jesus' coming

 Happy, happy, happy Advent!  

Oh my, if I've ever been excited about entering into the wondrous season of Advent, it is this year. Today. Right now. On this first Sunday in Advent. Bring. It. On. Thank You Lord for coming and thank You for Advent!

Advent gives us the gift of considering and contemplating the coming of Jesus. We have a whole, wonderful season of about four weeks leading up to Christmas Day to think about, to ponder, to thank, and to worship God for the coming of Jesus to our beautiful but broken planet. And not only do we remember Jesus' first coming, but we anticipate with joyful hope His second coming. Advent allows us daily to pause and to quiet our weary hearts and simply gaze at the Savior in wonder and adoration for coming to Bethlehem in great humility--all in order to save us--and for the certain promise of coming again one day in unimaginable glory. What can we say, but praise You, Jesus, for coming! And come Lord Jesus, come!

Today, we light the candle of Hope on the Advent wreath.  How our world needs hope right now...and we have it in infinite, astounding abundance in Jesus. He brings hope. He fills us with hope. And He is Hope incarnate. "May the God of hope fill you will all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit, you may abound in hope." (Rom.15:13). Thank You, Jesus, that You are our Hope. 

But here's one simple thought today for what Jesus' coming means to us in 2020. Here we are stuck in the midst of a terrible global pandemic. Covid has sickened countless people across the world, has killed multiple thousands, has spread fear and terror, has shut down nations, kept families separated, and destroyed economies. What havoc this incredibly contagious virus has wreaked on our world. 

What if, however, you lived on some distant pristine, perfect, sinless, disease-less planet. But you learned that your child had been chosen to leave your ideal and glorious planet to parachute down into the midst of the heaviest concentration of Covid disease and contagion on planet earth. Your child had been chosen to make the sacrifice of his or her life in order to bring the life-saving cure to Covid--and to all this broken world's ills. You would lose your child; your child would relinquish all the happiness and perfection and joy of your perfect planet; and your child would give his or her life for people on a distant planet, even though those people could not begin to understand or appreciate the staggering sacrifice being made on their behalf.  

Which of us as parents would agree to that?  I'll admit it: I certainly wouldn't. I'm betting neither would you.

But that's not what God did. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16) And the Son willingly, joyfully came. He relinquished all the power and glory due Him, all the endless joy and wonder of heaven in order to come down to our sin-sick planet. All to sacrifice His life for you, for me. All to die for our sins and, in exchange, give us His righteousness.  He died to give us the cure for sin. He died that we might be made well spiritually and eternally.

We cannot ever begin to imagine the depths to which Christ descended from heaven to earth in order to save us...but what we can do is worship and thank Him for coming. For making the ultimate sacrifice--His death on a cross--to provide the ultimate cure--forgiveness and salvation for all who believe--to defeat the ultimate enemy of mankind--sin and death--to bestow the ultimate gift--eternal life and His glorious presence with us forever. 

So today, on this first Sunday in Advent, will you simply pause to worship the King who came? Praise the One who left infinite glory, perfection, and wonder to put on flesh and move into our Covid, sin-ravaged neighborhood. He came...He cured...He conquered...and He's coming again. All out of HIs infinite love. Thank You, Jesus.

To You be all the glory forever and ever.

Joyful noises, Exclamation points, and Entering our days with praise!

 "Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into His presence with singing! Know that the Lord, He is God! It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise! Give thanks to Him; bless His name! For the Lord is good; His steadfast love endures forever; and His faithfulness to all generations." Psalm 100

Oh my, how I love Psalm 100!  First of all, did you notice how many exclamation points there are? I counted six--in just five verses.  Now that psalmist is speaking my language, since I'm one of those folks that loves her some exclamation points.  After all, isn't God's extravagant goodness, abounding love, and astounding faithfulness infinitely worthy of such happy enthusiasm and joyful emphasis?! (gotta add one more!) 

In addition to exclamation points (which, after all, would NOT have been the psalmist's primary focus), just a couple more thoughts about this wonderful psalm. First, we're to make a "joyful noise."  Aren't you thankful that God doesn't tell us to produce a "perfectly sounding and in-tune song?"  Nope, it's a noise. We can all do that. And a joyful noise. I'm thinking of all the noises that bring God glory and reflect His joy--a baby's giggle, a sweet conversation with a dear friend, a moment of happy laughter, a breeze rustling and blowing through the trees, a bird's chorus, a beloved hymn or praise song (that we belt out without worrying how we sound), a still moment of peace in the predawn darkness, a contented sigh as we settle into bed with a great book, a word of encouragement, a loved one's voice, a quiet rustle of the turning of pages in God's Word, a whispered "I love you" or "Please forgive me"...and on and on. Today, what joyful noise to the Lord can you make?  Sing it, speak it, share it--with the Lord but also with someone else. Your joyful noise might be just the vitamin of encouragement that person desperately needs to hear. 

Secondly, what peace and security it gives us when we remember that we are God's people. He made us; we belong to Him; we live in His pasture; we are His sheep.  We are not out there on our own. We are His, and He's got us. He is the Good Good Shepherd, and He will always and forever tenderly and faithfully care for, love, forgive, encourage, strengthen, and guide His sheep. Which means we can stop worrying. Instead, we can recall and rest in His perfect provision, wisdom, and love.  Or as James Bryant Smith puts it, "God always gets the last word. So stop worrying. Instead, entrust your life to the good, beautiful, and true God who reigns in the strong and unshakeable Kingdom." 

Third, we're to "enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise." How are we entering our days each morning?  Are we entering our day with stress, worry, and cluttered hearts or with thanksgiving and praise to our good, beautiful, and true God?  Are we entering our day with hearts burdened by our busyness and self-preoccupation or with hearts buoyed and focused upon our glorious God and His steadfast love and faithfulness? It makes all the difference in the world when we enter with thanksgiving and praise. 

Father, we ask that You would flood our hearts and minds with You, Your Word, Your amazing grace, and Your astounding greatness. You are worthy of all our praise and thanksgiving. You have given us so, so much, but we pray that You would give us one thing more--grateful, thankful hearts. 

To God be the glory.

Cultivating the habit

"I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart:  I will recount all of Your wonderful deeds. I will be glad and exult in You; I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High." (Ps.9:1-2)

Did you happen to notice that little word "will?"  I will give thanks. I will recount all Your wonderful deeds. I will be glad and exult in You. I will sing praise to Your name.  In case we needed reminding--gratitude and thanksgiving are an act of our wills. We must choose to be grateful as opposed to grumbling. We must choose to see--to purposely open our eyes to look for and notice--God's wonderful deeds in our lives. We must choose to engage in the act of singing praises to our Lord. 

Thankfulness does not happen by default. Not ever. We must choose by an act of our will to see, to savor, to sing, to give thanks, to remember, to recite God's gifts and goodness in our lives and in this world. 

Here's how Jon Bloom explains it: "Cultivating gratitude is not easy. We all need help, and thank God help is available. but there is no thankfulness hack--no four easy steps to a grateful heart. It's as hard as habit-building. We begin to train our heart-eyes to look for God's grace--in all circumstances. This looking becomes habitual. And habits are being built by doing them every day. We get incrementally better at them as the days gradually accumulate to months, and months to years. They become more and more a part of us over time."  

Yep, it's as simple (and sometimes challenging) as that--cultivating a habit of gratitude. Asking God to show us and to help us to be relentlessly thankful people. Then we choose to open up our eyes and look around--because God's goodness and glory are, quite literally, everywhere.  And we give Him thanks. Daily. Habitually. Even when it's hard. Because there is always, always, always something for which we can give thanks. 

How about you start training your heart-eyes to look for God's grace...and then thank Him. Maybe even share your gratitude with someone else, because we all need encouragement. As Ann Voskamp always says, "Only speak words that make souls stronger."  Gratitude not only strengthens, but it's also contagious. (And the opposite is true--complaining always weakens, and sadly, it's just as contagious). 

It's never too late to begin cultivating this beautiful habit of thankfulness. So how about today? Not only will you be giving God glory, but you just might be strengthening some weary souls around you who desperately need it. 

To God be the glory.

Start counting!

Exactly one week until one of my favorite days of the year--Thanksgiving! Why Thanksgiving in particular?  Well for a number of reasons. First, of course, is the joy of being with family and cousins and friends. Second, our children come home! That's just pure happiness in my book!  Third, because while we enjoy the fellowship of those we love, we are EATING!  Come on--that's an unbeatable combination: laughing and talking and sharing with wonderful people you love while devouring delicious food you savor! No wonder one of the great joys in heaven will be the marriage supper of the Lamb!  Yes sir, that will be one unimaginably glorious time!

Fourth, the weather and the beauty all around us this time of year--cool but not yet cold, colorful fall leaves, sidewalks blanketed with those falling leaves, pumpkins galore. Fifth, pilgrims, pilgrims, pilgrims. Thank the Lord for the pilgrims and their courage, perseverance, and love for God. 

I really could go on and on with my list, but here's the best and greatest reason to love Thanksgiving--because it encourages and reminds us to be grateful!  Duh, you're thinking. But seriously, don't we all need to prompted? As Jennifer Rothschild says, "As your gratefulness grows, so will your capacity to perceive blessings, even when they're shrouded in hardship." 

Choosing thankfulness is just that: a choice. Let's face it, most of us are not naturally grateful people. But over and over again, God commands us to be thankful. To rejoice. To give Him thanks and praise. Just one of countless examples: "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances. For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you." (I Thess.5:16-17) Notice any exceptions there?  Nope.  Doesn't say, "give thanks most of the time" or "give thanks periodically" or "give thanks except, obviously, when there's a pandemic going on!" 

Over the next week, how about we remind each other to cultivate the habit of gratitude? Starting today. Starting now. Will you write down five things for which you're grateful--a blue sky, a phone call from a friend, a good book, a warm fire, a pumpkin spice anything. Whatever--ask God to help you see and savor His extravagant goodness in your life, in this world.  

Covid and elections and division and isolation have not cancelled God's goodness and glory!  So how about we stop complaining and fretting and worrying and start counting...counting His myriad gifts and goodness painted all over your life and over this world. 

Lord willing, I'm hoping to give us all a very short reminder each day over the next week--to rejoice always and to give thanks in all circumstances. But for now, how about you stop reading and start writing. Thank You, Father, for....

The list will be endless, because our God is so good, so great, so glorious, but let's simply begin to start counting.

To God be the glory.

    

A good day to begin again!

     It's been nearly two months since I wrote anything here. But rather than go through a litany of excuses and explanations, how about this--I simply begin again. Because grace shouts from the rooftops that in Christ, we can always begin again. 

    And so today, this day before the anticipated chaos of election day tomorrow, let's agree to begin again. Begin again to remember that no matter what happens tomorrow, God is still on His throne!  Whether you're elated or devastated by whoever wins, here's what we absolutely positively know to be true: Christ is risen! Christ is Lord!  Christ is making all things new!  Christ is our hope, our joy, our peace, and in Him, our future is totally secure! 

    Here's another thing we know for sure: we are called to shine Christ's Light in the darkness. So don't add to the noise and confusion. Don't contribute to the vitriol. Don't give in to bitterness. Shine His Light--His love, His joy His forgiveness, His wisdom, His peace, His kindness, His goodness.

    Don't default to discouragement but to gratitude. Don't lapse into fear but choose faith. And it's not "faith in faith" but faith in the immovable Rock, Jesus. Faith in His unshakeable Word. Jesus already told us that "I have said these things to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. [not "might" or "sometimes" but "will" have tribulation. Why are we shocked?] But take heart; I have overcome the world." (John 16:33) 

    Now that's some good news we can fully count on, no matter the chaos around us! Yes, we'll face troubles and trials in this world but Jesus has already overcome the world. And if He's overcome, what need we to fear? Instead, we can take heart--take courage, be of good cheer, be brave, be filled with confidence!--enjoy His peace, and place our hope, our trust, and our futures securely in His nail-scarred hands. 

    And that is the good--actually great!--news for today. Just thought we could all use a little reminding. 

   One more thing: "This is the day that the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it." Ps.118:24. Today, spend a few minutes rejoicing in God's goodness and greatness. Because it's no coincidence that this month is one we purposely dedicate to thankfulness and gratitude. Don't we all need it?  Even if you've been complaining and worrying and fretting and grumbling, like I said earlier, we can always begin again. It's never too late to start--so start today. 

    To God be the glory. 

BUT GOD

        Right now, a number of people that I love are struggling. A close friend lost a sweet sister and now another loved one in her family has suddenly gotten desperately ill.  Another very dear friend is battling cancer--how I despise that disease.  Another loved one struggles with loneliness and disappointment. A wonderful family in our neighborhood just lost a beloved young father and husband.  It feels like too much on top of all the isolation, sadness, division, and difficulties assailing all of us. What a sin-sick, broken world in which we live. 

        But God. 

        Oh yes, But God...

        "But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded." Gen.8:1

        "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives." Gen.50:20

       "My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever."Ps.73:26

       "Jesus looked at them and said, 'With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.'" Mt.19:26

       "And he said, 'Listen, all you of Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you, King Jehoshaphat! Thus says the Lord to you: ‘Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God’s.'" 2Chron.20:15

        "But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him." Acts 2:24

        "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Rom.5:8

        "But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong." I Cor.1:27

        "No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it." I Cor.10:13

         "And you were dead in the trespasses and sins. . . and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved." Eph.2:1, 3, 4-5

         Praise God that He always, always, always has the last word. And His Word stands firm, eternal, unshakeable, and supernaturally powerful. Because it is His Word. Backed by His power and His great name and character. I can't make these sorrows disappear or heal these diseases or make all these losses go away, much as I desperately want to--But God. But God is the One to whom I pray.  But God is the One who has all power, all love, all grace, all provision, all compassion, all healing. But God is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think (Eph.3:20). But God has promised that He will somehow, someway cause all things to work together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purposes. (Rom.8:28) 

          I don't how or why or when. I'm baffled and furious over this suffering...BUT GOD.  He is able. He is able. He is able. And we hand it all to Him. Take it Father. We can't...but You can. 

         So cancer, sickness, loneliness, death, division, covid, and every other enemy assailing us right now, you're days are numbered. Because we place our trust in the Lord God Almighty. The Lord of Hosts. Our job is to pray...and His job is to fight. We do what we can...but He does what we can't.  

         No matter how dark or discouraging the way before you might look, there is a "But God" just ahead. If you doubt that, look at the cross and then turn your gaze to the empty tomb.  So keep praying. Keep trusting. Keep following His nail-scared feet.  Keep walking, step by slow step.  Because your "But God" is coming. Always and forever. 

          To God be the glory.