What Is This?

"Son of man, with one blow I am about to take away from you the delight of your eyes. Yet do not lament or weep or shed any tears.”

Ezekiel 24:16 NIV

Is Your Life Going Smoothly?

Perhaps you have had a day like this.  I got mad at my kids.  I was late to work.  I argued with my wife.  I had a headache.  I got grease on my dress shirt and it was too late to change it.  Someone cut in front of me on the freeway.  I was frustrated by my job performance.  Did I mention that I had a headache?  For someone without food or water living in war ravaged Somalia this probably would have been considered a great day.  I did not see it that way though and I admit that I complained to God about my circumstances.   I read recently about the acorn woodpecker which beats a hole with its beak into wood posts and then carefully stuffs an acorn in it.  Later, the woodpecker returns for a tasty snack.  However, sometimes squirrels climb up the posts and snatch the acorns and feast on them before the woodpecker gets back to it for a winter snack.  That is a bad day for the woodpecker when it discovers the thievery and no acorn to quiet the rumbling in its belly.  I could imagine it squawking up to the heavens in frustration.

What do you consider a bad day?  We all have them…or at least we think we do.  No one else decides for you if your day is going well or poorly.  You are the judge of that.  Sometimes you may wonder why so much trouble comes your way.  What did you do to “deserve” what you have faced?  Is it karma, bad luck or some punishment from God?   What sort of God lets such trouble afflict good people like you?

One of the most enigmatic moments described in Scripture is the time God told his beloved spokesman Ezekiel that he was going to lose his wife.  The word of the Lord came to me: "Son of man, with one blow I am about to take away from you the delight of your eyes. Yet do not lament or weep or shed any tears.  (Ezekiel 24:15-16 NIV)  Try to explain this demand of God’s and the action He took and you most likely will be stumped.  Justify this to your nonreligious friends and you won’t have a receptive audience.  We know of course that this stoic response to his wife’s death was to be a sign to the Israelites living in Babylon that they were not to weep or complain when God let the Babylonian army destroy Jerusalem.  It was divine judgment upon a wicked and arrogant people who were murderous and corrupt.  Yet, does that make it any easier for Ezekiel who lost the “delight” of his eyes?  It was not like Ezekiel was tired of marriage and coldly indifferent to the fate of his wife.  She was his beloved, someone he adored.

No one is immune to devastating losses and tremendous hardships.  As Jesus Himself noted, “He (the Father) causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.“ (Matthew 5:45 NIV)  We are told in Scripture that every person who has been born again is going through a transformation process on this side of heaven.  Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.  For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. (2 Corinthians 4:16-17 NIV)  What you and I call the trials of life or maybe even more correctly, the unfair hardships of life, God calls the normal transformation process all Christians experience as He reworks them.  Consider it the universal maturation experience worked out in us by the Father.   It is spiritual aging as it were, normal and to be expected.  We look at these problems and hardships as terrible or dreadful; God sees them as the means by which He peels away layers of sin wrecked and contaminated parts of our personality.  Like an onion, our Lord uses troubles and even pain to strip away from you the scales that are no longer useful or helpful to living in Christ forever.

The last part of the book of Acts gives the account of the terrifying storm the Apostle Paul endured while being transported by sailing ship to Rome to face trial in front of Caesar.  Not only was he being unjustly imprisoned for crimes he did not commit, he also had to suffer near starvation conditions and drenching rain for two weeks as a raging tempest pounded the vessel.  It was not fair and certainly unwanted but Paul had to go through it anyway.  In 2 Corinthians Paul listed the experience as one of the many horrific miseries of his life after he became a Christian.  The truth is that being in the terrifying storm and then shipwrecked was perhaps one of the less painful distresses he faced.  Yet this is what Paul thought of all the troubles he had.  That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:10 NIV)

Who would consider it natural or normal to think of suffering as something good and beneficial?  We do our best to avoid it and certainly don’t look forward to it.  The Bible never encourages Christians to look for opportunities to suffer.  There is no masochistic theology within Scripture; only a realistic understanding of what suffering accomplishes.  I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.  The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.  For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.  (Romans 8:18-21 NIV)

It is not just you that is frustrated by your suffering; all of creation is frustrated.  Perhaps you have not thought of eagles or redwood trees or mountain ranges as frustrated with what they face but there is in the universe a ubiquitous groaning as it were, a straining in trial that is comparable to childbirth.  What mother looks forward to the searing pain as her baby prepares to leave her body?  Have you known any smiling as they go through the final moments of birthing a child?  Yet each and every contraction is a movement toward joy.  Would a woman consider her newborn a punishment?  Perhaps some in the most trying and horrific of circumstances might but in a normal delivery, the strain of the mother is cause for hope and coming happiness.  What is God doing in you when you go through the normal suffering and troubles of life?  He is birthing a new you.

At this point we shall speak of something that is much too profound and mystical to have any sort of depth in discussing.  Let us admit that we are entering at a point in Scripture that is beyond our knowledge base but must be given great thought.  In Hebrews comes this magnificent declaration.  During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.  Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek. (Hebrews 5:7-9 NIV)

Suffering made Jesus a better man.  It completed Him as God’s perfect sacrifice for Sin.  Something was missing in Him that only suffering could produce.  If Jesus needed suffering to put in Him some part of His personality that would make Him “perfect”, how much more so is suffering a requirement for us to be complete as God’s children.  Try and think of the best people in Scripture who we have an abundance of data to study that did not suffer.  James and Peter and the mother of Jesus and before them to Joseph, Jacob, Abraham, Ruth and Sarah all suffered great sorrow and hardship.  Suffering is the transformative catalyst God uses to put in perfect order the Christian personality.  It is like sunlight for a plant or yeast in bread.   It is how God instills holiness and goodness in His people.  You must suffer for the strength of God to be built in you.

Consider any of the great leaders of American history and you will find they all suffered horrific pain or sorrow.  Whether you look into the life of George Washington, Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln or Martin Luther King, suffering built the character of each of them.  Just think of Moses who many call the “Savior of the Jewish people.”  He failed miserably at his first attempt to lead his people out of slavery.  He was mocked and despised by them and then spent forty years in the blazing sun of the Middle Eastern desert before God was ready to make him his leader of Israel.  How many years did Moses question the goodness of God and wonder why his life was so wrecked?  Yet in it all, in those thousands of hours baking in the wasteland the Lord was watching over him and putting in Moses the humility and patience he would need to be the perfect servant God wanted to carry out His work.

What about you?  What sort of trouble and pain are you going through now?  What kind of desert are you in at this moment?  It is not wasted, this time of waiting and enduring.  God is perfecting you. Making you the kind of person He can use for the most important matters on His agenda.  Bread must be broken before it can be eaten and grapes must be crushed before they produce juice.  Your life is broken bread for others to consume.  The patience you acquire and the humility that is built in you are critical for some who God will and is putting in your life.  Remember this.  You are not and never have been your own.  You belong to God and He must make you in such a way that your life will feed others and provide them with nourishment to be perfect.  Someone is watching you and needs the strength your suffering and sorrow has generated.  It is up to you what you will make of the trouble you have faced and how you will respond to God’s work in you through them.  Will you be bitter vinegar that must be spit away or sweet juice that brings joy to those who drink from it?

Evolution of Disdain

Titus 3:3 NIV

At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.

When Was The Last Time You Got Into An Argument Or Fight?

Not too long ago I was substitute teaching for a middle school English teacher.  Each class had the same assignment.  Read a particular chapter from a novel originally written by a sixteen year old and answer questions on a worksheet about the book.  Because I did not have anything to do but sit with the classes as they worked, I decided to read the book myself.  The main character was a young teen that was part of a gang battling a rival gang of boys.  One gang was made up of wealthy kids who seemingly had everything and the other gang was known as greasers and was comprised of poor kids generally from broken and dysfunctional homes.  The book, which was made into a movie, explored the themes of friendships and hatred, of loyalty and disdain.  As the book wound down to its emotional conclusion, the central character, who was also the narrator developed feelings of empathy for the members of the rival gang and began to see a few of them as individuals with psychological pain and broken lives.  A revelation of sorts came to the main character after he and his older brother got into a bitter argument and each wanted the middle brother to take his side.  It all was just too much and the middle brother fled the home.  Finally, when all three were together, the middle brother begged the other two to stop fighting.  “We only have each other”, he cried.  It was then that the three boys, who were orphans living on their own in the home their parents had, grasped the terrible truth about conflict.  It tears apart what should be kept together.  We do have each other and that is a great and wonderful gift to possess.

When was the last time you got into a fight or argument with someone?  Did it go well?  Are you glad the two of got upset with each other?  How do you feel after you argue with someone?  Are you glad you got your point across?  Did you feel justified or even vindicated when it ended?  Do you tend to avoid arguments at all cost or are you the first to jump in when others disagree?   Is it important for you to make your case and be heard?  If you were to be asked, what would you give as the reason for most fights?  Can they be avoided?  Should they be avoided?

There have been fights since the beginning of time.  Some have been rather one-sided as in the murder of Abel by Cain.  Certainly the most famous and remembered were those between nations.  But is seems pretty likely that more than a few times Adam and Eve argued and may even have fought.  David famously bickered with his wife Michal and the great leaders of the church, Paul and Barnabas argued so contentiously that they went their separate ways and stopped working together.

Saul, who was king, could not bear the popularity of his young apprentice and tried to kill him.  Certainly we see arguments today rising to the level of murder and such was the case for many in the Bible.  Yet generally, arguments and fights do not turn to physical violence but often psychological scars are left and not everyone who gets into arguments “kiss and make up”.  Everywhere though arguments are taking place.  Most couples argue and many children quarrel with their parents.  Families fight and so do co-workers.  The disciples got mad at each other a time or two and the patriarch of both Jews and Muslims, Abraham, had to move away from his cousin Lot because the two could not agree on how to work together.  There are plenty of fights described in the Bible and most of them went badly.

Many conflicts are spawned by the low self-esteem of at least one person involved.  That was certainly the case of King Saul and his snowballing acrimony with young David.  Others flow out of one person or the other and sometimes both used to always getting what he wants.  How many arguments are due to the “spoiled brat” syndrome?  Rehoboam, the son of Solomon set off a war simply because he was spoiled by his father and did not want to give up some of his wealth by agreeing to lower the taxes that unfairly burdened the people of Israel.

There is a third cause for arguments and fights.  It is the lack of self-awareness found in many.  There is an odd account found in the Bible that illustrates it.  David famously began an affair with the wife of one of the most decorated soldiers in his army.  When she became pregnant, David had her husband killed and then married Bathsheba.  A courageous friend of David’s, a priest by the name of Nathan, approached the King and told him a story that David assumed was a description of real events.  "There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor.  The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him.  "Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him." (2 Samuel 12:1-4 NIV)

David, believing he was being told of an incident that had happened, burned with rage at the rich man and wanted him executed.  Yet David did not realize that this was simply Nathan’s way of pointing out the evil of David’s own actions.  Many times we get upset or aggravated because we don’t take a hard and careful look at ourselves.  We judge people without paying any attention to our own faults and bad behavior.  It is just what Jesus described when He spoke of splinters and beams.  "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?  How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?  You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. (Matthew 7:3-5 NIV)  How many arguments would be stopped dead in their tracks if this were taken seriously? 

The bitter hatred Jonah the prophet had for the Assyrian people culminated in a bizarre encounter he had with God on a sweltering hillside overlooking the Assyrian capital.  He wanted the Lord to demolish the Assyrians then and there as he sat stewing over God’s mercy toward them.  Jonah certainly had a case.  The Assyrian armies were cruel and wrecked numerous nations including Israel.  There was no love for the one true God among the people and it did not seem that it would ever change.  And yet God wanted to give the Assyrians one more chance.  But Nineveh has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?" (Jonah 4:11 NIV)  How easily so many write off those who hurt their feelings, act rudely, have been dishonest or don’t take their opinions seriously.  It is Sin in you which prods you to despise and judge others.  Like a poison of the heart, Sin leads to criticism and condemnation.  God always has one more reason to patiently wait for good to come out of any person you see.  When you get angry or impatient with someone, it is because of sin in you, not the imperfections in the one you dislike.

How many Christian people have stopped believing in the Cross of Christ?  We are not talking about the World that has no love for Christ or faith in Him.  We are saying that there are great numbers of Christian people who no longer believe in what Christ does through the Cross!  By dying, the Lord completely remakes any person who trusts Him for salvation. Not a part of that soul will be left imperfect.  Yet even Christian people criticize Christ’s “work in progress”.  Imagine the great artist Rembrandt having to watch as passersby sneer at the unfinished painting he has displayed in the window of his studio.  They see colors splashed upon it, brush strokes and empty blotches of canvas and despise what is there.  How wicked and foolish of them to doubt the skill of the great master as he works on his latest creation!  As much as the Christian community dislikes the term evolution because of how Charles Darwin and his followers have corrupted it, evolution is occurring all about us under the loving hand of our Savior.  He is taking broken and corrupted and damaged souls and remaking them into perfect and holy vessels bearing the Spirit of God within them.  How can we ever despise or grow frustrated with those Christ has died to save?  Will our Lord be happy with us if we fail to acknowledge that each person we meet is an evolving masterpiece of His?  Will He bless us if we criticize His perfect work?

How happy would our Lord be if we would see each person just as He does; as those Christ will eventually make perfect.  Never doubt the ability of our Lord to turn even the worst of sinners into the most holy of saints.  Your criticism, disdain and anger; your avoidance and disregard of any of His people is a reflection not of your insight into human nature but rather a sign of your ignorance of just how powerful God’s Cross is to make all things new and perfect.  It is the old way of thinking to criticize and have an attitude of disdain for those Christ died to save.   The evolution of the soul will take place and it is blasphemy to despise God’s work by looking down upon those He died to save.  Remember this admonition and promise of God!  So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! (2 Corinthians 5:16-17 NIV)  When you look at someone who irritates you or frustrates you or seems less good than you, remember that your only responsibility is to gaze with wonder at how marvelously God will make perfect those He died to save and in prayer thank Him for making “all things new”.

Is God Good Enough?

Have you thought about why you get angry, frustrated, discouraged or unhappy?  It nearly always seems to be due to something that has happened to you or someone who has irritated you.  No matter how determined you are to be calm and patient, your mood gets high-jacked at some point by an event or a conversation that is too tough to handle.  Yet God never puts the cause of your mood swings into the hands of circumstances or relationships.  When Ahab the King of Israel became depressed that Naboth would not sell his vineyard to him, his wife Jezebel made the same mistake so many of us make.  She asked her husband why he was so sullen and Ahab told her the pitiful account of his failure to convince Naboth to let him have his vineyard.  Jezebel took matters into her own hands and arranged the murder of Naboth so that Ahab could buy it from his heirs.  Of course this got Ahab the vineyard but it did nothing to solve the problem with his mood swings.  The cause of Ahab's depression was not Naboth but rather his own envy.  As long as Ahab wanted what was someone else's, he could not live in peace.   The beginning of sin was the desire to have what did not belong to Adam and Eve.  It is a universal plague.  Rather than live within the grace of God and trusting in His goodness, we fret over what we don't have.  We aren't respected.  We don't get the help we want.  Our wishes are ignored.  We aren't treated fairly.  We have been offended.  It all boils down to just this.  We think we deserve better.  After the great Apostle Paul begged God to relieve him of his suffering, the Lord sternly but gently rebuked him.  "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." (2 Corinthians 12:9 NIV)  When Peter wondered what John's fate would be after the Lord told Peter that he would suffer a terrifying and difficult death, the Lord put an end to that line of questioning.  "If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me." (John 21:22 NIV)  When Christ begins to satisfy your soul from top to bottom, you will find yourself at peace in any circumstance and with whatever you have or don't have.  Until you settle matters with the Lord and decide that the salvation of God is good enough to make your life right, you will continue to ride the stormy swells of envy and dissatisfaction.

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.  1 Chronicles 16:34 NIV

The Loss of Self-Pity

Genesis 27:38 NIV

Esau said to his father, "Do you have only one blessing, my father? Bless me too, my father!" Then Esau wept aloud.

Do You Ever Feel Sorry For Yourself?

I have been limping for about three months now and I must admit that I have begun to wonder if I will ever walk normally again.  I have to hold the rail as I go up steps, I can’t stand very long before I have to sit in a chair, I stopped going door-to door inviting people to our church because of how badly my knee hurt.  Now I don’t want to feel sorry for myself but I have had a difficult time trying to see what good this limping has done for me.  Should I thank God for the pain I am suffering?  Is it wrong to pray for God to heal me?  What should I say when people ask me why I am limping?  Is there a right way for me to respond that lets people know that I am not feeling sorry for myself or can I be brutally honest about how frustrated I am not being able to walk very far?  What is the right way to deal with difficulties?

Perhaps you have faced these same questions and were not sure what you should do.  Should you complain to anyone about your troubles?  Is it Christian for you to be upset by your circumstances?  Do you try to be stoic about your hardships?  Maybe you are good at hiding your difficulties from others.  You pretend as if everything is ok when your world is falling apart.  Should you be commended for this?  When people ask you how your day went, do you automatically say, “Good” even if it wasn’t?  Is it better to be honest about how you feel and let people know when you are struggling with your problems than to keep them to yourself?  What is the best way to deal with your troubles?

Sometimes we can’t help but laugh at some of the actions people in the Bible have taken.  The story of Jonah, the unwilling missionary is one such example.  He famously tried to run from God when given the assignment of going to the pagan city of Nineveh to warn the people there that the Lord was about to judge the city for its wickedness.  Jonah did not want the city warned; he just wanted the people judged and so he fled.  When he ended up in the belly of a great fish, Jonah agreed to go preach in the city and the fish spit him out on shore.  After Jonah spent a day preaching that in forty days the city would be overturned, the people repented and sought the Lord’s forgiveness.  When God relented and did not destroy the people, Jonah in a huff went up onto a hillside overlooking Nineveh and angrily stewed.  Because it was blazing hot, God caused a vine to grow and provide shade for Jonah and this made Jonah happy.  But that night, God killed the vine and Jonah was left without shade the next day.  Angrily he told the Lord that he wanted to die.  Now isn’t this interesting.  He was sitting out in the hot sun by himself because he was mad God let the people of Nineveh live.  Rather than sitting comfortably in one of the nice homes in Nineveh, he stubbornly resisted the hospitality of the peopleand baked under the blazing sun.  He also was mad that God killed the vine that had given him some shade and for these two reasons the reluctant preacher wanted to die.  We know exactly what was going on with Jonah.  He was feeling sorry for himself and angry with God for not treating him better.  We might have even laughed at Jonah if we were with him for the little pity party he was having.  Of course, Jonah was only hurting himself we might argue.  What harm was there in him pouting?

The case of Lot is a bit more serious because of how his self-pity impacted his daughters and the generations that followed.  Lot was the cousin of Abraham who went on to become the father of two great nations.  His life took a turn for the worse when he and his cousin went separate ways.  Lot and Abraham each had great herds of sheep and goats but because of the difficulty finding grass and water for such large flocks, the shepherds of Abraham and Lot could not get along and fought over the limited resources they had to share.  To quell the infighting among the shepherds, Lot and Abraham decided to move away from each other and Abraham gave Lot the option of choosing first where to settle.  Lot decided on the fertile plain near Sodom and so he settled there.  Apparently, Lot gave up his shepherding eventually because he wound up living in the city of Sodom, married and had two daughters.  After perhaps two decades living in Sodom, Lot had become comfortable with his new life.  When God sent His two angels to rescue Lot and his family from the destruction that was about to come, Lot was hesitant to leave and he and his family had to be nearly dragged out of Sodom by the angels.  Although they had been told not to look back at Sodom as the fire and brimstone fell upon it, Lot’s wife did for some reason and she was turned into salt.

After escaping the destruction of the cities of the plain, Lot and his two daughters hid in a cave.  The text says that Lot was afraid of living in the village of Zoar where they originally fled and set up camp in the cave.  What probably the daughters thought would just be a temporary stay became a permanent home.  It seems that at some point Lot must have known that it no longer was a risk for him to leave the cave and yet still he remained, year, after year after year, keeping himself and his daughters isolated from the rest of the world.  His daughters, feeling the heaviness of growing old without children made the perverse decision to get their father drunk so that he could get them pregnant.  The children they bore became the founders of two nations, each wicked and pagan.

What do we make of Lot and his decision to hole up in a cave?  Certainly his cousin Abraham would have welcomed him with open arms and he could have lived like a king with Abraham and his clan.  Lot and his girls would have been safe and could have rebuilt their lives.  The daughters might surely have had real husbands and a normal family life.  Lot apparently never recovered psychologically from the destruction of his home and the loss of his wife.  It wasn’t just Lot’s wife who looked back at ruin of Sodom; Lot too became as stiff as a statue psychologically after leaving it behind.  Did self-pity destroy Lot’s personality?  Was he incapacitated emotionally due to feeling sorry for himself?  It is not a stretch to think that perhaps Lot gave in to despair and dragged his daughters down with him.  Did he not see how sad they were not having husbands or did he just ignore all the signs, all the comments they made alluding to their disappointment.  That is what self-pity does to us.  It makes us so self-absorbed that we can’t see past our own wounds.  Those we love become shadows for us; vapors in our insulated world of hurt.

Our world is tragic, we must face the facts.  Sin has brought death to every corner of life.  Yet that does not mean we have to feel sorry for ourselves.  Paul said that we are to do everything without complaining.  Do everything without complaining or arguing, (Philippians 2: 14) That seems nearly impossible even for the most upbeat of us.  There is so much to complain about in our lives!  The waiter doesn’t pay attention to our order, our back is giving us trouble again, the traffic is bad, we have an aunt with cancer, the kids aren’t doing their chores, work is too demanding.  There is in Hebrews 2:10 something that must be examined with great reverence. In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering. (NIV)  The Greek word translated “perfect” has as its primary meaning, “completed” or “finished”.  Christ did not need to become more holy than He was.  What temptation did though in making Christ resistant to sin and fit to follow the Father in every way, suffering also did in making Him resistant to self-pity and self-absorption!  He became through His suffering completely trusting in the Father to do what was right with His life.

Self-pity and its weaker cousin, feeling sorry for ourselves are the disciples of atheism.  If God has said that He is making everything in our lives turn out for our good, self-pity is a rejection of that promise and a rejection of God.  And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28 NIV) Why would I feel sorry for myself if I know that the result of what I face today will end in something far better than what I had before?  It would be incredible for a child to cry about getting a million dollars when he expected a nerf gun.  What sort of fool would feel sorry for himself if he were given a great mansion rather than a small shed to live out his life?  Jesus never complained about any of His suffering because He trusted the Father explicitly!  If I face an illness, God will work it for something good.  If I am poor, God’s riches will be poured into me.  If my family is struggling, our Lord will put it together better than it was.  When we complain and feel sorry for ourselves, we throw Christ off the throne and sit there in His place judging Him and His care for us.  Self-pity is open rebellion against God and to keep feeling sorry for yourself means you don’t think the Lord is good or reasonable despite his promises to take care of you.

Certainly we feel the pain of suffering and sorrow and no one can make light of the horrors so often found in this world.  Terrible things happen and we face them too.  Surely Christ wanted His friends to stay with Him as He suffered the anguish of what was to come while praying in the Garden of Gethsemane.  We also need our friends and our friends need us when the evil of sin and Satan crush us.  That does not mean though that we need to feel sorry for ourselves and wallow in self-pity. Let go of your frustration that others don’t treat you fairly or respect you like they should.  Quit feeling sorry for yourself and turn your thoughts to Christ who is taking care of you.   We have a God who is within us giving us strength and in all that we face, the love of Christ will turn it for our good and we will see soon enough that He has blessed us beyond measure in every way.  All great and joyous men or women of the past have faced sorrows and painful experiences and been mistreated but they refused to feel sorry for themselves.  Their greatness was realized and unveiled the moment they decided God is good, that He loves them and that in the end He can be trusted with their lives despite how others treat them or think of them.  Do you believe God loves you and has your best interests at heart?  If you do, then be glad He has you right where He wants you to be!

Frustrating Circumstances

It is sometimes expressed and many times thought that if something is tough or dangerous or psychologically distressing, it cannot be God's will.  That is the theology of children.  The Bible is filled with examples of His people laboring without reward, success or encouragement of "a brighter day".  Both Jeremiah and Ezekiel come to mind!  Paul often stayed where he wasn't wanted but did not assume the Holy Spirit was taking him elsewhere.  David spent ten years wandering about without a home  and no clear indication that  he would ever get to where he hoped to be and yet he still was the Lord's anointed and the chosen future king of Israel.  The Lord brings us through many side trails and tough spots on our journey;  although it may seem like we are wandering aimlessly or off track, we may be precisely where God wants us.  God's greatest servants had a "vagabond" quality to them.  They often seemed to be out of sorts with what they thought was "God's plan" for them.  Joseph did nothing wrong ( even if he may have been a bit arrogant) to warrant his years in prison and in fact it was the rightness of his life that opened the door to imprisonment.  Would we tell Joseph that he was not aligned with God's plan for him and should find some other direction for his life when he was responding to the needs of the Baker and Cupbearer?  Did he "miss the boat" as he delivered meals to his fellow prisoners or was Joseph working within the full orchestration of God's will?  We grow weary of our labors, wondering if we have fallen out of line with God.  Because it is hard, our frustration builds and we start swinging our head from side to side frantically looking for some way out of our troubles.  Jesus said that we were to come to Him when we were weary and heavy laden and He would give us rest.  He might move us along or keep us right where we are but either way, it is Christ who is our rest and not the change of course.    To "trust in the Lord" is not for the fainthearted.  There are times when it seems far more rational to make up a new plan and step away from the hardships we face.   Year ninety-nine of Noah's ark building project may be similar to what you are facing today.  Be careful not to throw away all God is doing in and through you because you are frustrated by your lot in life.

For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.   Romans 8: 20-21 NIV

Branch Life

Can we step back a moment and take inventory of our condition?  Are we bearing much fruit?  Are we connected to the vine?  Are we availing ourselves to the gardener and giving Him freedom to prune us as He wishes or have we begun to argue with Him and bend away from His shears?  The branch that bears little fruit is usually the most comfortable of the branches until it begins to look about and see just how impoverished it is.  Satan does not tear at us in a mighty rush of hardship and anguish, he merely rocks us to sleep and before we know it, we have become useless but settled.  You can tell when you have given up on truly following Christ if you argue about what fruit-bearing means...Is it external to us or internal...Is fruit bearing what we do with the Gospel or what the Gospel does with us?  When the sleep gets knocked out of us by some great crisis or upheaval, we find that we are free once again to face ourselves honestly.  If we can get past the "Why is God doing this to me", there is the possibility that we might once again bear fruit and become available to God to transform both in us and through us.  Fruit that "will last" is obvious and not theologically determined but spiritually discovered by obedience and faith.  If we would just do what God tells us to do, whether a big thing or small, it will manifest itself in fruit bearing.  Much depression, discouragement, frustration and disharmony within the Christian community would be tossed aside if we would simply begin bearing fruit as Christ works His way in us and through us.

This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.    John 15:8 NIV

Operating With Heaven In Mind

The great object of our life is to be brought into a perfect union with Christ and that does not happen along a straight line.  It comes in fits and bursts as we allow God's Word to conform us to God Himself. The universal law is that we are stubborn brutes and we fight tooth and nail to maintain our independence of God.  It is painful to let Him have a reaction, an attitude or a desire.  All of our stretch is corrupted by sin and because it has such hold of us, it is like separating our blood and flesh...it comes at great cost.  We think we are so very good and ready to live holy lives and yet let God take just one small object of love from us and we are cracking with frustration and confusion.  "How can God love me if He ruined that plan?"  "How can He be here if He is not reasonable in this?"  We do not recognize the sin strangling our faith and love but can see it plainly in others.  The Cross of Christ redeems our totality and God will not cease in re-working us until it is just as finished as Calvary is finished.  Our sin corrupted interests and desires and hopes must be crucified as well if we are to have pure and undimmed fellowship with God and one another.  It was painful for Paul and Peter and John and Abraham and all the rest of the "heroes of the faith" to be crucified with Christ.  Why would we think it should be less so for us.  We read the account of Abraham taking his boy up to Mt. Moriah as if it is some sort of fairy tale.  Was it not psychologically as devastating for Abraham and then for Isaac and for Sarah as our own "misfortunes" are?  Did not Sarah weep with bitter sorrow at the sight of Abraham leaving with Isaac?  Should we think sin is less treacherous for us than it was for Abraham and Sarah?  Do we really believe that God must be less the surgeon with us than He was with His finest saints?  God's scalpel comes without warning but the sin that makes us limp believers will be cut out of us and the health of Heaven will make us as lively as the greatest Christians the world has ever seen!

Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered … Hebrews 5: 8 NIV

Fog

Nothing disturbs our sensibilities quite like the prayer that goes dark.  We once had a firm idea how we ought to pray and what we should expect as an outcome but then it all becomes whacked and we lose our mind over the epic disaster we face since we prayed.  We lose the game, we lose the house, we lose the daughter, we lose the marriage, we lose  the will to pray anymore.  Our expectation is that everything should work in a straight line.  Beginning and end all within the carefully orchestrated wishes we hold and yet it isn't.  We find ourselves staring at a great tangled ball of yarn that has no end to grab.  Our problem is that we have so many accounts in the Bible that wind up somewhere and we expect that too.  Job's health gets restored.  Jonah is spewed out of the fish.  Moses makes it out of Egypt.  Joseph is released from jail.  Peter winds up on the doorstep carefree.  But we forget about James martyred, Jonah stewing over the Assyrian revival, Moses pulled away from Israel just as the Exodus ends, John left upon Patmos and Noah stupidly drunk.  The brief moments when God works with us along a straight line  leave us discombobulated.  We assume that is how it always is to be.  It is our right to see things clearly, to be settled and on our way somewhere.  That is not the human experience though and it especially isn't so for Believers.  God leaves us in a fog for great stretches and does so decidedly.  We can't see our way out of our disappointment, our troubles, our frustration and we think something is wrong with us or wrong with God.  Faith is only established within the fog when you can't make heads or tails of your circumstance or God.  The Lord does not show Himself to you nor give you His "big plan" either.  Blindly you must go about your business believing in the Lord who built His life in you by giving up His life finitely in the public square.  There for all to see the love of Christ was established and decided in the heart of the Father who loved you first before you had a shred of interest in Him.    The only way you can live by faith is when faith is forced out of you; not book faith or classroom faith but actual faith played out in real life.  It is then, when the fog thickens and you are left alone to sort out all the things you hoped would come to pass that haven't that you begin to believe God as you should, as you can.  You have Christ in you, living through you and in that is great hope and promise.  For Jesus has already blazed the way for you.  He dangled from the tree with the world looking out at Him and no sign of the Father at any turn of His head.  All He could see were weeping women, crushed and hopeless men, crass and wanton soldiers,  perverse religious zealots and an agony that was unbearably cruel.  Yet there, in the fog,  Jesus Christ stayed fixed upon the Father and His determined faith is also abiding within you.  Rather than give in to the despair of the fog, fix your eyes upon Jesus who knows how hopeless life can be and has given you His faith to keep you going.

"The Lord has said that he would dwell in a dark cloud;    1 Kings 8:12 NIV

Forgetting Where We Are

We have bought into the proposition that everything is natural and random, originating in the mindlessness of circumstance.  Even as far back as the exodus out of Egypt the presence and activity of God was lost on the exiting Israelites.  When Pharaoh and his army of charioteers barreled down upon the encamped Israelites, the half-crazed Hebrews lost their minds over the perceived danger they faced.  It was as if they had forgotten altogether the plagues upon the livestock and the deadly hailstorm and the deaths of the firstborn; all of which did not touch them but ripped into the Egyptians.  If the Israelites could be oblivious to the hand of God back then given their experience with His work, it is not unreasonable that this same sociological circumstance would be present today.  The mob reacts to every bit and parcel of circumstance as bad luck, good fortune or the natural outcome of hard work and ingenuity.  The Holy Spirit alone brings to light the absolute and constant interplay of God within our world.  If Israel could stare at the photograph of God's intervention and see nothing, how likely is it that we will see it.  We must rely upon Holy Spirit to part the curtain as it were and make it so we  recognize all the ways our Lord is working in and among us.  Only then can we rest peacefully as we do our work and make our plans and evaluate our situation.  Nothing frustrates our joy more than the blackened goggles we stretch across our eyes given us by Satan to block out our discernment of what is really happening.  Satan cannot inhibit our view of God; he can only encourage us to block Him out of our sight.  You must choose to see God right there with you when you drop the dinner on the floor or your stocks tumble off the table.  You can see Him if you will look with Holy Spirit fixing your mind on what it should be noticing.  The worst of your day is never lost in circumstance...it is just as surrounded by angels as the shepherds who watched their sheep at night.  At no point have you been overtaken by your troubles and hardships...you are in just as good a place as Israel standing before the Red Sea.

"...It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!"   Exodus 14:12NIV

Fretting For What?

It is never the crisis that unsettles us but rather the deviation away from Christ.  We are so infatuated by how things will turn that we forget just how perfectly Christ is fitting Himself into us.  When the Lord reminded us not to worry about what we would eat or wear, do we think that was all there was to His point?  Jesus was not unsettled by criticism or temptation, by poverty or that frustrating co-worker.  He simply was not rattled and that is what God wants for us too and has for us.  This is possible not because we become skilled at scaling back our responsibilities or cutting out negative relationships; this is our personality in Christ.  The Lord does not want us to imitate Jesus but rather for Him to live in us.  As we give sway to Christ at every instance, we find the mind and emotions of God coming out of us in all sorts of exciting and surprising ways.  God did not die for us to just take away our punishment for sin; He died that we might have life and have it more abundantly.  That life is not a life of fretting, stewing or striving.  The life God died to give us is one with the Lord Jesus Christ living fully through us.  Each turn we take is an opportunity for the wisdom and love of Christ to manifest itself in what we do and how we think about all we encounter.  Lust, selfishness and pride are the archaic remnants of a dying breed.  The new man is being established as us: Christ joined to me, Christ joined to you in a dynamic synthesis that will be perfect.  As you read the Bible, don't look for ways to make something of your life; look for Christ to live fully and happily in and through you as He works out your day moment by moment.

For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.  Colossians 3:3 NIV

What Really Is Before You

At some point you are going to be forced into the decision of your life, to fight against spiritual forces in high places or ignore them and go on as if they don't exist.  The Christian is never inept in this; unless of course he or she completely disregards Who lives within.  It is Christ in you that makes the difference in every temptation and trial you face.  You have the power to change the course of generations by giving Christ complete sway in your battle against the great enemy and all those spirits lined up before you intent to wreck and pillage your heart.  Be icy in your disregard of the insults and injustices you face but fiery hot in your hatred of Satan who is doing his best to make you a blind adversary at the moment you take your eyes off Jesus and gaze into the blinding darkness of some frustration or depressing hardship you have before you.

Minding Your Business

Minding Your Business

What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. (James 4:1-3 NIV)

Every form of anger other than righteous or holy anger generated by the Spirit of God is due to a lack of contentment with what God has given you or allowed come to you.  When you want more than He wants you to have or feel that you deserve something better than what you have gotten, whether it be better treatment, more respect or greater influence, you get angry or depressed and the peace of God leaves you.  Angry, bitter thoughts sprout within a mind that has not made Christ its center or Lord.  Cursing, complaining and angry words are always a sign of idolatry; of wanting something more than what comes out of the hand of Christ.

When Christ is not the source of your joy and peace, your mind will become less able to guide you rightly, making you susceptible to depression, anger, apathy and confusion.  Nothing weakens your mind’s ability to make sense of things more than your devotion to Christ weakening.  You are less patient, more prone to take offence, less able to forgive, more judgmental, more frustrated and your ability to make sense of your life diminished.  The mind out of sorts with the Holy Spirit lacks the most important component needed to be happy and at peace; the guidance and empowerment of God.  The mind becomes a battleground where despicable and hurtful thoughts fight with what is right and good and all too often win.

The way to clear your mind and make your thinking free of its power to mislead you is to follow the instruction of Philippians 4.  Present your requests to God rather than ponder them, complain about them or fume about them.  Be thankful rather than disappointed, keep looking for the good Christ is doing for you and do not be misled into thinking you are somehow losing or missing out.  Every circumstance is being used by God for your good so there is never a reason to be frustrated or upset about how someone treats you or the difficulties you face.  The role of your mind is to keep bringing you to Christ if it isn’t, you must discipline it to do that very thing.  Force yourself to be thankful to God or ask for His help.  If you aren’t doing one or the other, you are losing your mind to every trap and misdirection Satan may use to confuse and confound you.  It is certain if you fail to pray for help or thank God for what you have at any moment, you risk losing your thoughts to a demonic attack upon your brain, one you may even know is happening.  Depression, anger, bitterness, jealousy, despair, loneliness, lust, disgruntlement, self-pity are not from God.  They are all the fruit of refusing to either ask Christ for help or thank Him for what He has given you.  You may be snared in one of Satan’s traps or just living in the natural result of your own sin but you don’t have to stay there.  Your mind can be happy and contented but you must go back to the one thing.  Praise Christ for what you have or ask for His help.  Reclaim your mind and get on with the business of having a good life today.