Hope

Micah 7: 7 NIV

But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord.  I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me…

Why Is There So Much Waiting?

The other day I needed to call the city garbage service because the church recycling dumpster hadn’t been emptied.  I spent twenty minutes waiting on the phone for someone to help me.  Later I tried to figure out how to get my new Bluetooth speaker to sync with my computer.  I searched on line for solutions and nothing worked.  After an hour going through various options trying to locate the Bluetooth device in my laptop, I discovered that I did not have one so I would need to buy a device to plug into it that would allow me to have Bluetooth.  The next morning I went down to an electronics store only to discover that it did not open for another hour and so I returned to my office and went on with my work.  That night I returned to the electronics store and purchased an inexpensive device that would give me Bluetooth capability.  In the morning I opened the packaging and installed the adapter.  It worked.  I excitedly turned on my speaker and tried to connect to it with my computer.  No sound came through my speaker…at least no musical sounds.  I could tell that it was wirelessly connected to my laptop because the speaker actually told me it was but I could not get it to play my songs from ITunes.  I was able to finally get in touch with a service representative from the company that made the speaker and after an hour on the phone with her trying various suggestions for getting it to work, I discovered that the Bluetooth wasn’t the problem nor was the speaker.  It was ITunes.  I then contacted Apple services to try to find out why ITunes would not let me connect with the wireless speaker and all the service rep could offer was to download the latest version of ITunes.  This of course took time and didn’t change anything.  He was supposed to call me in an hour to see if downloading the new ITunes version took care of the problem.  Hoping that he might be able to provide a solution, I counted down the minutes until the Apple rep promised he would get back in touch with me.  I regretted getting the speaker.  I regretted getting my laptop.  I regretted having music on my computer.  Yet I still had hope that I could eventually get the speaker to work with my computer but all the waiting seemed like a terrible waste of time. What a hassle!

It may seem to you like half your life is spent waiting.  You wait for the traffic to clear.  You wait in line at stores.  You wait to see your doctor.  You wait for programs to download.  You wait for your children to finish their work.  You wait for phone calls or text replies.  You wait for work to end or school to finish or graduation to come or the wedding to arrive.  You wait to be loved.  You wait to get over illnesses.  You wait for answers that never seem to come.  Many times you wait and do not even know if all your waiting was worth it.  Yet you do wait, hoping that something good will come of all your waiting.  For many the waiting is so painfully long that they weep silently by themselves.  Others get angry and take out their frustration on their family members.  Some grow depressed.  Plenty stop trying.  Many lose hope!  Waiting takes its toll on you.  It can break your heart and sometimes your health.

One of the most famous verses in the Bible indicates that waiting can be good for us.  But it is not just random waiting; it isn’t every kind of waiting that helps us.  A particular type of waiting is what improves our lives.  The King James Version of the Bible translates it this way.  But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. (Isaiah 40:31 KJV)  Notice the difference in how the NIV translates this same verse.  …but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. (NIV)  The King James version translates the Hebrew verb Kavah as “wait” and the NIV makes it “hope”.  The difference between the two at first glance seems wide.  Few of us like waiting, but hope, that sounds good.  Hope is what you do within; wait is what is forced upon you.  We wait because we have to wait.  We hope because we choose to hope.

Yet if you think about it, waiting is something that is required for hoping.  Hope cannot occur if there is not something delayed; something that potentially is on the way.  Hoping without waiting is like having an ice cream sundae without ice cream.  Hope is by definition a form of waiting.  You can of course wait without hope but you cannot hope if you do not wait.  Now our verse that we just considered makes a distinction that must be pondered.  There is a waiting that is not “upon the Lord” and hoping that is not “in the Lord”.  Only hoping or waiting that has the Lord at the center of it is promised a renewing of strength.  Your waiting that does not make God its object might result in renewed strength but there is no promise of it.  Hoping or waiting that makes God the reason for hope or the object of waiting always results in a growing stronger, a moving forward and going somewhere.

The Bible warns about certain kinds of hope.  Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth… (1 Timothy 6:17 NIV)   Likewise, it is foolish to hope your power can protect you. When a wicked man dies, his hope perishes; all he expected from his power comes to nothing. (Proverbs 11:7 NIV)  Entire countries and city states have hoped that all they have accumulated in trade and industry will keep them safe but they have been proven to be terribly wrong in such hope.  Tyre has built herself a stronghold; she has heaped up silver like dust, and gold like the dirt of the streets. But the Lord will take away her possessions and destroy her power on the sea, and she will be consumed by fire.  Ashkelon will see it and fear; Gaza will writhe in agony, and Ekron too, for her hope will wither.  Gaza will lose her king and Ashkelon will be deserted. (Zechariah 9:3-5 NIV)  The horse in the Bible and other ancient writings has long symbolized the vast assortment of weapons of warfare that armies count on to bring them victory but there is not a weapon invented that can save a nation from God’s judgement. A horse is a vain hope for deliverance; despite all its great strength it cannot save. (Psalm 33:17 NIV)  In the end, death puts a stop to all hope not resting in God.  For what hope has the godless when he is cut off, when God takes away his life? (Job 27:8 NIV)

What is often misunderstood about hope is that there are two types of hope.  The first is a hope based upon evidence that is contrary to what will take place.  It is like hoping you will be proven right that the earth is flat.  Adam was wrong to hope that following Eve’s lead would make them both happy.  King David was wrong to think that gathering more wives would improve his life and Sarah was wrong to put her hope in letting her husband sleep with the slave girl Hagar.  The outcome of hope is not always happiness or peace or security or contentment.

The second sort of hope is built on evidence that is aligned with what shall take place.  The evidence may be slight, nearly nonexistent, like Mary and Martha hoping Jesus would save their brother Lazarus but what hope they had was placed in something that would happen. Their hope of course was proven right when Christ raised their brother fron the dead.  Neither the amount of evidence nor the sort of evidence is what determines if a particular hope should continue.  All that matters is what the outcome will be.  Now this is where it gets tricky.  When God looked at Adam and Eve, even after they sinned, He had hope that He could turn their lives around.  Why?  Because He knew what He was going to do for them!  When Jeremiah looked back at Jerusalem and the walls of the city that had been destroyed, the buildings that had been wrecked and burned to the ground, the dead bodies scattered about, he had hope that it would be rebuilt because the Lord told Him it would be.  The thief dying on the cross next to Jesus had hope that he had a wonderful life ahead of him because Jesus told him that the same day he would be with Christ in paradise.

What makes hope, hope?  It is not the evidence you possess or the lack of evidence there, it is the fact that the object of your hope has not yet come to pass.  Hope must always involve waiting.  Hope does not exist if there is no waiting.  What you want to happen or expect to happen or dream of happening is stalled for one reason or another; that is why you hope.  Hope though must be carefully considered.  Not all hope is the same.  There is hope that will break your heart and hope that will give you joy.  In the Bible there is the account of a woman who seemed to be infertile or perhaps was.  Her misery over being childless was extreme.  When God told Hannah through a prophet Eli that she would have a child, she left the Temple happy because she was certain that it was God telling her she would become pregnant.  All the time she stayed in Jerusalem with her husband and as she traveled back to her home, this woman maintained hope that she would eventually be a mother.  It had not happened and even when she became pregnant, before she knew she was pregnant, she had to rely upon hope to see her through.  But then when she gave birth to a son, Hannah no longer had hope of motherhood because hope did not exist there any longer.  When Josiah the King gathered his army and went off to fight the Egyptians, he had hope that he would defeat them.  But, he did not have any indication from God that he would succeed and when he died in battle, Josiah’s hope died with him.  It matters what is the basis of our hope.

Years ago the Lord told me that Mary Jo and I would have Rachel our daughter.  It was just as certain that Christ spoke to me about this as if a voice filled with thunder burst into my ears.  Of course, we did not have Rachel yet.  I had hope that we would have Rachel and now we do.  I also at one time hoped that I would make my high school basketball team but I did not.  My hope was based not upon what God shared with me but upon my own desire to make the team.  It matters what your source of hope is.  How do you know if your hope is built upon God or not?  It is difficult at first.  Many times you will be wrong. But there are certain things in the Bible that are clear and sure but have not come to pass yet.  You know your hope in those things is hope generated by God.  You must never back off from hoping about them.  But what about praying for things to come to pass?  Why is it so important that we pray for things?  Prayer is hope…it is always hope.  But it is a mixture of hope in God and hope in what you want, hope generated by your thoughts.  How do you know that when you pray, your hope is from God or from you?  For a while you don’t.  You are guessing.  But as your ability to hope in God grows by means of your experience of faith in Him and love for Him, you will hope more and more through God and less and less through yourself.  You will begin to realize what should be an object of hope for you and what shouldn’t because you will know what Christ is saying to you about it.  Eventually, your hope will be the same as God’s hope and when that is so, every prayer you pray will come to be.

In the Bible we are told that hope is always going to exist, that we will never get past waiting.  We will forever be anticipating something of God, looking forward to something from Him.   And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:13 NIV)  Waiting, just like hope, will always be with you and me.  It is not an enemy.  It is a mechanism by which our faith grows and our love for Christ deepens.  Hope in anything is a waste of time if it does not start with your love for Christ and your confidence that He loves you and that He will work everything out in your life so that eventually you will be perfect in every way.  When you have that sort of hope, hope in Christ, hope in His love for you, it will be wonderful waiting for what comes next.

But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me.  Micah 7: 7 NIV

Natural Disasters

Genesis 12:10 NIV

 Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe.

What Should You Think About The Natural Disasters In Our World?

Recently we have had a slew of wildfires in our state that have devastated parts of Northern California.  Before that massive hurricanes struck the Caribbean.  In Spain also are terrifying wildfires.  Malaria continues to plague the tropical parts of our world.  A large earthquake struck Mexico just a few months ago and despite all the technology at our disposal, natural disasters are not preventable.  They come with fury and increasing frequency.  What is a Christian response to the natural order that often reveals the chaos a sin soaked universe generates?  Can a theology of natural disasters be developed that will help us understand what God is doing in this world?

There are a large number of natural disasters described in the Bible.  Some are clearly attributed to God and His judgment upon people.  The flood of Noah’s time was caused by God because of the wickedness of all the people of the world.   The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain.  So the Lord said, "I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth — men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air — for I am grieved that I have made them."  But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. (Genesis 6:6-8 NIV)  God’s anger with the rebellion of Korah who issued a call for Moses to be removed as leader of Israel resulted in a giant sinkhole that engulfed Korah and his entire clan.  As soon as he finished saying all this, the ground under them split apart and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, with their households and all Korah's men and all their possessions.  They went down alive into the grave, with everything they owned; the earth closed over them, and they perished and were gone from the community. (Numbers 16:31-33 NIV)  When the Assyrians attempted to conquer Jerusalem, the Lord sent a plague that decimated their huge army.  That night the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning — there were all the dead bodies!  So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there. (2 Kings 19:35-36 NIV)

This certainly does not exhaust the list of times in the Bible God is said to bring about a natural disaster because He decided to punish large and small groups of people.  Yet many times no explanation is given as to why certain natural disasters occurred.  Famines forced both Abraham and much later his son Isaac and then later still Jacob his grandson to leave Palestine and move to Egypt to avoid starvation.  A great storm pummeled the ship the Apostle Paul was on and forced everyone on board to swim for their lives when the violence of the waves broke the boat apart.  Both the prophets Amos and Zechariah mention a great earthquake that hit Israel during the reign of Uzziah, king of Judah.  However, no commentary is given as to why it took place.   The words of Amos, one of the shepherds of Tekoa — what he saw concerning Israel two years before the earthquake, when Uzziah was king of Judah and Jeroboam son of Jehoash was king of Israel. (Amos 1: 1 NIV) Volcanoes blew their stack, earthquakes struck, devastating floods took place and plagues raged through cities during the time the Scriptures were being written but the Bible is silent about the vast majority of these natural disasters.  Great and terrifying storms struck several times as Jesus and the disciples tried to make it across the Sea of Galilee by boat but Jesus never gave a reason why they took place.

Jesus made two striking statements regarding the horrific sorts of circumstances people face.  The first came in response to the speculation that was taking place regarding two prominent tragedies that were being widely discussed in Jerusalem.  Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices.  Jesus answered, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way?  I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.  Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them — do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? (Luke 13:1-4 NIV)  Jews, just like people all over the world, are prone to speculate that some sort of karma or vengeance of God brings about tragic disasters.  Those who are struck down somehow had it coming.  Christ though poured a bucket of cold water on all such fire starting.  Sinning is universal and the comparative evaluation of sins is mere guesswork for us.  We cannot draw a straight line between sinning and the tragic events of life.    Christ does say next however that any natural disaster should lead all those who hear of it to repent themselves of their own sins!  I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish." (Luke 13:5 NIV)  That is a strange twist on the longstanding karma theology.  A natural disaster or tragic event does not at all point out the sins of those who suffered from the tragedy but rather serves as God’s mirror so that we face our own sins and turn from them immediately.

Jesus’ second statement regarding tragic events came as a result of a question one of his disciples asked Him.  A man born blind was spotted by the group and Christ was asked, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" (John 9:2 NIV)  Jesus gave a most fascinating answer.  "Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. (John 9:3 NIV)  The effect of this reply is to flip on its ear everything we normally think about tragic events.  The pagan world looks at disasters and wonders what went wrong.  What was so bad about all those people that they were punished?  Christ tells us to never speculate about what sort of sins led to the crushing blows people face.  He invites us instead to look about and watch for how God will reveal Himself to us when something that seems bad happens.  Natural disasters are a mirror that reflects back to us our sins and also a window that makes it possible for us to see God doing something marvelous.  Imagine the man born blind barking at God for his blindness when all along God had a plan for making that blindness a way of letting the world see how good and lovely Christ is.  The Lord insists that when you see something that you assume is bad, prepare yourself for God in His love to meet you.

There are three common reactions to God opening up the window to see Him when a natural disaster strikes.  The first is to ask Him why He did it.  This of course is almost always an accusation that God is evil or vindictive.  The second reaction is to question why He did not do a better job of protecting people from evil.  It takes God off the hook as far as making bad things happen but challenges His authority in this universe.  Who really is in charge?  If God can’t prevent evil, then someone or something else must be making all the calls in life.  Karma…  Luck... Satan…  The third reaction is to wonder what God might do to salvage things.  In other words, all eyes should be on how the Lord will make a bad situation somehow turn out all right.  Some might call this the Pollyanna approach but let us consider two Scriptures that shed light on what we know about the tragic events that take place in life.

In of all places, the book of Lamentations gives us the first of two principles to consider when it comes to disasters and tragic events.  Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and good things come? (Lamentations 3:38 NIV)  In other words, nothing comes to us that God has not decreed.  Whether we call it a tragedy or a blessing, God decides what will transpire.  He oversees everything that happens to us and is the gateway through which every circumstance must pass.  Whether it is God’s use of the Babylonians to wreck Jerusalem or the decree of the Persian ruler Cyrus that permitted the Jews to return to Israel, it is the Lord who is in charge.  Listen carefully to God’s insistence when He spoke to the Israelites just before they entered the Promised Land.  "See now that I myself am He!  There is no god besides me.  I put to death and I bring to life, I have wounded and I will heal, and no one can deliver out of my hand.” (Deuteronomy 32:39 NIV)  If the ultimate events in time are life and death, then the Lord God Almighty who calls Himself YHWH controls what happens at the highest levels of existence.

A second principle often goes overlooked when it comes to disasters and tragedies and at the risk of seeming to minimize the pain and sorrow such events bring, it is the overriding principle of all of life.  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)  In any and every situation, God makes everything turn out well for those who have put their hope in Him.  Even those who give their lives for the sake of Christ will find that God will make things right and good for them.  Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat.  For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water.  And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes." (Revelation 7:16-17 NIV)

Not everyone will believe that God is able to transform the worst calamities in history into blessings for those who suffered from them.  It seems like an impossible dream that our Lord could take even the most horrific of tragedies and rework them altogether into joy and happiness!  Yet the Cross and Resurrection is our measure of what God can do for us if we trust Him.  Listen to Mary Magdalene weeping as unbeknownst to her she comes across Christ having been raised from the dead.  Then the disciples went back to their homes, but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.  They asked her, "Woman, why are you crying?"  "They have taken my Lord away," she said, "and I don't know where they have put him." At this, she turned around and saw   Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.  "Woman," he said, "why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?"  Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him." (John 20:10-15 NIV)

That is how every one of us is on this side of a tragedy or disaster.  We see it all from the perspective of death and suffering but are mostly ignorant or oblivious to how transforming the life of God is.  In just a moment, Mary Magdalene went from great despair to ecstatic joy solely because she found that Jesus was alive; alive having been dead.  Jesus said to her, "Mary."  She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" (which means Teacher).  Jesus said, "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, 'I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'" (John 20:16-17 NIV) Disaster turned into victory…the greatest in the history of mankind.  It takes trust to believe that God will make every disaster a triumph of life over death for those who put their hope in Christ to save them.  We must trust something.  We can trust that a bad and painful turn is just that, bad and painful or that it will be transformed by Christ into a good and wonderful that will make the bad and painful fade from memory.  Trust is up to you.  Life is up to God.

Earthy Lives

Recently we went camping and it was quite the adventure.  Of course we forgot major items…like pillows, a bin for washing dishes, a first aid kit.  Fortunately no one got hurt, we figured out a way to wash the dishes and who needs pillows when you have arms where you can rest your head.  We were surprised when we got to the campground by the weather.  We should have known better than expect warm weather like we had at home.  The campsite was right by the ocean a couple hours north of San Francisco which is famously foggy in the summer.  Not only was the fog so thick that we could not even see the ocean despite it being right next to us but it was freezing cold.  I was the only one without a sleeping bag and the blanket I had was too small so I tossed and turned all night trying my best to get warm.  The next day I sat next to the fire and did not wander far from it.  The funny thing about camping is that we intentionally go somewhere where we will be dirty all day, smell like we came out of a forest fire, have to go outside into the cold in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, get bit in the evening by mosquitoes and have no access to our cell phones.  For a few days, we were “earthy”.

When you think of someone as being earthy, you probably have one of two ways of interpreting the description.  One, the person is interested in the environment, not into technology, grows vegetables, rides a bike to work and doesn’t take showers very often.  Earthy people avoid shaving, live in rustic settings, are either strongly for guns or against them, let strange animals wander about on their property.  Another way to think of one who is earthy is that the person is casual, easy to get to know, does not try to impress others but is always “just themselves”.  Earthy people are relaxed and comfortable with themselves, may belch in public and are unconcerned about how they pronounce words or their choice of words.  But when we talk about being “earthy” with regard to our discussion today, it will be to describe what the Bible literally says about you.  You are earthy.

To do justice to the discussion of the earthiness of humanity, we must take a brief journey into the far ancient past.  The Bible is rather opaque in its account of what took place before the six days of creation and the putting together of Adam and Eve.  The Bible provides some hints at what occurred and we must admit that we might be wrong about what we think it is saying.  In the quite old book of Job is a fascinating passage that is generally overlooked.  "Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation?  Tell me, if you understand.  Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!  Who stretched a measuring line across it?  On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone— while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?  (Job 38:4-7 NIV)

What the NIV translates as angels is literally in the Hebrew “sons of God” but “angels” is precisely what the verse is describing.  There was a time in very ancient history when the earth’s structure was being put together that the stars “sang together and the angels shouted for joy.  Before Satan rebelled against God and threw the universe into chaos, there was great happiness at what God had done among the spiritual beings He had made.  The angels cried out their tremendous pleasure at God’s work.  But then the cataclysmic insurrection took place among the angels.  How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn!  You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations!   You said in your heart, "I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain.  I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High." (Isaiah 14:12-14 NIV)  This passage, although it is used metaphorically to describe the actions of the king of Babylon, also tells us about the rebellion of Satan and Satan’s allies among the “sons of God’.  Rather than submitting themselves to God during the early days of the universe, Satan incited anarchy among the angel beings (the morning stars) so that some joined Satan in the fight against God’s rule and others stood with God as Sovereign Lord.

Jesus refers to this war on God when He responded to the joy of the seventy-two disciples who during their mission trips found the demons submitting to the name of Jesus.  He replied, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.” (Luke 10:18 NIV)  Where did Satan fall when like a lightning bolt Satan was cast down from heaven?  Isaiah 14 tells us it was to the earth.  Revelation 12: 7-9 agrees.  And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back.  But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven.  The great dragon was hurled down — that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him. (Revelation 12:7-9 NIV) Our Lord saw this before He became a man born in a manger.  He saw this before the earth was made the home of humanity.  Now, we are going to speculate about something and we might be wrong in this but it seems to be the case.  There is a fascinating set of terms our Lord uses to describe the earth before the six days of creation.  In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.  (Genesis 1:1-2 NIV)

So in the beginning when Satan and Satan’s fellow anarchists existed and the angels who were loyal to God existed, the heavens and the earth existed.  Isaiah tells us of the existence of heaven and earth when the terrible rebellion took place. How long the heavens and the earth existed before the six days of creation occurred, we have no way of knowing.  But if Satan and Satan’s allies were cast down to earth it is not surprising to discover something rarely discussed about the earth before God prepared the earth for the coming of mankind.  It was as the NIV translates it, “formless” and “empty”.  These two English words do not give us the complete picture of what the earth was like during that time.  Formless and empty are translations of two Hebrew words that rhyme: “thohu” and “vohu”.  The first, thohu, speaks of wreckage and chaos.  So before God made the earth ready for mankind, it was wrecked and full of chaos.  The second term, Vohu speaks of that which is under judgment.  So the earth, at the time the six days of creation began was under judgment and wrecked.

In Genesis 1: 3, God reclaims the earth for His special creation, prepares it with loving care for the “apple of His eye”, those made in His own image, humanity.  The chaos is pulled into order, the wreckage becomes a beautiful paradise and then at the pinnacle of the six days, God crafts man out of the dirt of the earth and breathes a spirit into him.  People are not just spiritual beings, they are earthy and spiritual, a part of the earth and a part of God.  But Satan was not willing to idly sit by while God established a new society on the very spot where he had ruled.  Satan, as a serpent, tricked Eve into rebelling against the God who gave her life and Adam chose loyalty to his wife over the clear command of God and together, Adam and Eve pulled the universe into chaos once again with their Sin and rebellion against God, the perfect environment for Satan to flourish.

Satan is called the “god of the world” in 2 Corinthians 4: 4 in the KJV, the “god of this age” in the NIV.  Both are correct as the Greek word that is used in the verse can be translated either way.  Satan has authority both in this age and in the world where the Lord cast him.  Here though is the key point.  The full verse reads, “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” (NIV)  Satan’s chief skill set is to convince people they don’t need Jesus Christ and that they are better off not involving Him in their lives.  Paul’s accusation leveled against a sorcerer says much about the sorcerer but even more about Satan.  "You are a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right! You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery. Will you never stop perverting the right ways of the Lord?” (Acts 13:10 NIV) If Elymas the sorcerer was a child of the devil, an enemy of everything right and full of all kinds of deceit and trickery, what does this say of the devil?  We must be careful here to realize that Satan is known most for fooling the world and shifting the world’s opinion of what God is really doing.

No one ever thinks they have been caught in a trap of Satan’s.  Eve didn’t.  She thought she made the decision all on her own to eat the forbidden fruit.  Adam simply chose Eve over God.  You never enter into one of Satan’s schemes thinking you have been fooled.  Otherwise you would see right through it.  When you come alongside Satan in his rebellion against God, you don’t generally think about Satan at all.  You are just mad, you feel like you have been treated badly, you want something you don’t have, you are frustrated, you are having too much fun, you are bored.  Satan doesn’t attack God when he comes after you; he gives you an option that makes sense.  David didn’t commit adultery with Bathsheba because he wanted to rebel against God!  He slept with her because it seemed reasonable to him and it was reasonable to Bathsheba.  Peter did not stand up to Jesus’ insistence that He would soon die because he was fed up with Jesus; he did so because he thought Jesus was being too pessimistic and not trusting the Father enough to see Him through this new crisis.  Jesus knew this contention of Peter’s came straight from Satan and made that clear when He demanded, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men." (Matthew 16:23 NIV)  Satan makes certain that when we rebel against God, it seems reasonable to us and perfectly normal.

Satan’s great plan; it is his plan since the earth was in chaos and he saw what the Lord did in six days, was to somehow cut off the connection between heaven and earth, to make humanity self-reliant, independent, secure.  Satan does not want us broken-hearted, depressed or sick.  Satan wants us confident, sure of ourselves.  Satan wants us not needing God, functioning well without Him.  But when we begin to see who we really are, when our false sense of independence starts to unravel and we realize that we are sinners and we have an emptiness and real brokenness that only God can make right, the sham is uncovered.  Satan is the liar and father of all lies and life without God, without Him at every inch of it will fall apart.  Jesus Christ did not die so that we might live free of God at times but that in every way we build our lives in Him.  We seek Him with every decision we make, turn to Him at every moment, trust Him with every part of our day.  Satan has fooled the world into thinking we don’t need God.  We don’t have to turn to Him, don’t have to seek Him with our decisions and circumstances.  It is a lie.  Every inch of life needs Christ to fill it and you are not the exception, you are the rule.  Turn to Christ!  Turn to Him again and again.  Don’t stop turning to Him.  He is your Savior…not just for Heaven but also for Earth.

Compassion in the Wings

There is a part of us that wants to believe that God really will supply all of our needs according to His riches in Christ Jesus.  We strain to maintain our faith in God to provide for us but the hard, cold facts keep getting in the way of our assurance.  A bill comes that is too much to bear, an illness strikes and shatters us,  a crisis throws us into turmoil, a relationship comes apart; all of this leads to questions about God's goodness and care.  You may have had a close friend or family member "let you down" and now you struggle with trust.  How can you be certain that God really does have your best interests at heart and the ability to see you through whatever you face?  The foundation of all hope is not our circumstances or even the chronicle of our experiences; it is the Bible itself and what it says of God.  He is a good shepherd who cares for you with the tenderness and compassion of the kindest and most loving person you have ever met.  He is vigilantly watching your situation and has already planned for your help and care.  Of course it is hard to believe the Lord is looking out for you because you cannot see Him.  That does not mean it is not so, this love and protection of His!  Our Lord gave the example of the sparrows and desert flowers to articulate how easy it is for Him to watch out for you and care for you.  Such common and unassuming creatures as sparrows have God's eye and interest; how much more so you who He has lovingly shaped and given life and personality.    We sometimes think we don't matter to God and in a world wrecked by Sin and manipulated by Satan, it is easy to be fooled into thinking this.  Yet, our Savior let His life become shattered and broken for one purpose; that you and I might share our lives with Him in perfect holiness and goodness.  Christ took your Sin into Himself and lifted it up onto the Cross where it died with Him and for that, you bank your hope in God to deliver you now.  Prayer takes just a sliver of faith to operate in the supernatural realm of God and His angels.  The feeblest of saints has this in common with the Apostles of old; I can pray and God will deliver me as He has promised.  Though the mountains may shake and the lightning may shatter the rocks before me, I will trust in God because He has made His promise to stand with me in the storm and be my shelter come what may.

Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed," says the Lord, who has compassion on you.  Isaiah 54:10 NIV

Missionary Alliance

If God said, "Go”, would you know He had?  Would you believe He had?  Would your head scramble with fears and mistrust or would you begin packing your bags?  The missionary is at a loss when the calling turns inside out and nothing is as it seemed when first she began to go.  Does He still mean "go" now when the salary is not very good, when the people I work with are unpleasant and when my family is not happy with the "going"?  Israel faced her own "go" and on many counts she stopped short.  Each Israelite had his or her own reasons for standing like a statue when the Lord said, "go".  Some were like Lot's wife and looked back rather than ahead.  Others were like David's brothers who didn’t want to have anything to do with great challenges in front of them.  Many, like John Mark, were fed up with all the troubles they faced on the way.  What must God do to make us stay the course, to get us to push forward when the challenge of going is great?  Does He need to caudle us with a hundred little "answers to prayer" to keep us in line?  Must He "give us a word" so we will be convinced again?  "Ah, but I am not a missionary", we may argue.  What does a "calling" have to do with me?  Was Ruth "called" to go with Naomi to Bethlehem?  Was David "called" to do battle with Goliath?  Was Esau "called" to give up the grudge he had with his brother?  Was Mary Magdalene called to go to the tomb of Christ Easter morning?  God works through the organic brains of normal human beings and in just the "regular stuff" of life He makes a creature of divine purpose and supernatural achievement.  A missionary is simply one who has been given a "go" by God in some operating system which our Lord uses to get the "go" across to us and in the going we find our place in the tapestry of our Lord's life with humanity.  God has purpose in your life and that purpose is heroic in how you react to the "go" He gives you.  The very first "go" we receive is the one to, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit".  (Acts 2:38 NIV)  Once you have the gift of the Holy Spirit, you will know when to go and when to stay and your life will be a light that shines in golden brilliance the majesty and grace of Christ living through you wherever you have been taken.

 But Moses said to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?"  And God said, "I will be with you…"     Exodus 3:11-12 NIV

Battlefields and Storms

Have you gone far enough with God to actually trust Him?  When Peter stepped out of the boat and into the storm, it was a most unhappy outcome for him in some ways.  He was soaked and nearly drowned by the lake and then rebuked for his lack of faith.  But he alone was willing to go out enough after God to risk disaster in his "faithing" and gain through it the "grip of God".  You don't have to look far in the Christian community to find boat sitters who prefer the safety of imagined faith over deadly storm faith.  It has been made popular lately to scoff at David's courage in stepping out against Goliath as if he had some secret weapon or deadly insight into Goliath's fatal weakness.  No one else stepped forward and advanced away from the safety of the battle lines.  Was David the only one who knew how to use a sling?  Was Goliath feeble and clumsy and half blind? Would the Philistines really have been so drunk with contempt for the Israelites to send such a creature out as their champion?   If so, wouldn't someone else among the Hebrew soldiers have seen it too that Goliath posed no real risk?  What David possessed was storm faith.  He would not let his fear stand in the way of going out into the chaos of walking with God.    And that really is the discovery of 1 Samuel 17.  Rare is there such hope in God, a sort of violent hope, that keeps the few strong while the rest hide behind the safety of the battle line and never experience that hope gained as the hot breath of Satan blows upon them.  Are you among the elite who will risk all you have to gain God on the battlefield, in the storm, at your office, school, mission field or home?  Is there a heroic urge to go with God into the fiery blast of the furnace and stand firm there beside Him?  Has God already pointed the way out of complacency and lukewarm faith and do you stand at the edge of the boat, trying to decide if you will be the one to step out into the storm?  Will it be said of you in the pavilions of eternity that when everyone else hesitated, you walked with God even as Satan cast his horrific gale into your face?  You stood and kept your post when all others abandoned theirs and in the moment of despair you found Christ strong and faithful and His courage sufficient for your hour!  Few discover supernatural courage and strength because they never go where it is needed.  What grace there is for those who abandon themselves to the Christ who calls them to come forth from the boat and join Him in the events where legends are made and tales of faith are told forever!

As he was talking with them, Goliath, the Philistine champion from Gath, stepped out from his lines and shouted his usual defiance, and David heard it.     1 Samuel 17:23-24 NIV

Loss Syndrome

Luke 17:32-33 NIV

Remember Lot's wife!  Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.

What Have You Lost?

Loss, or the threat of loss, is one of the greatest enemies of our peace of mind.  When I was in graduate school, I was fired from a part time job as an attendant at the campus gym.  After being told I was “relieved of my duties”, I went back to my dorm room and I wept.  This was a terrific blow leveled against me.  I felt humiliated.  I wondered what my worth was as it was just a goofy little job that anyone could do…but clearly not me.  I was afraid to walk down the streets of the campus knowing students would be looking at me in a new way; I was the one fired from the gym job. I was afraid of what others now thought of me. I was afraid of how I would pay my school fees without the job.  How could I find another job as good as that one?  It felt like my world had fallen apart and I was afraid that it could not be put back together.  All I could think about in my little room while I sat on my bed was all the losses I would face now.  I had lost a great job and I had lost my sense of worth with it and possibly my ability to stay in school.  The losses were too great for me to bear!

Losses come upon us often without warning and in dreadful ways.  A good friend suddenly cuts off all communication with you.  You get sick and the days you lose can never be regained.  A ministry ends that you loved and believed would have a tremendous impact.  The career you once believed would be so great is now a dead end.  Your degree has become worthless and now you have to somehow pay off the debt you owe for your college degree.  A love you cherished fades and someone you respected so much before has let you down.  Some losses are barely noticeable and others take your breath away.  Losses seem so unfair, so cruel at times.  You had hoped for so much more but losses made you cynical and moody.  What are we to do about the losses we face?  How are we to respond to loss?

If the ancient book of Job tells us anything, it is that Satan can hurl great big boulders at us, terrifying boulders.  Some of us have felt like Job because there are boulders that have hit us squarely too.  A friend wants to talk with us and it turns out he is deeply insulted by something we have said or done.  The owner of the company tells us layoffs are starting.  The doctor calls us into the office to discuss our test results.  We make an investment and it wrecks us.  A child of ours renounces Christianity.  The boulders slam us and we have a terrible time knowing what to do with Satan’s attacks upon us.  When Satan went after Job, the patriarch did not think a bit about Satan…all he could see was the loss he encountered and how unfair it all seemed.  It was unfair and Job was right about that.

Satan is a master at bringing us loss.  Satan disrupts our plans.  For we wanted to come to you — certainly I, Paul, did, again and again — but Satan stopped us. (1 Thessalonians 2:18 NIV)  How many of us have looked forward to a holiday that when it came, fell apart!  Satan has wrecked many long anticipated events.  Satan also torments us with worries and dissatisfaction and injuries and hardships.  To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. (2 Corinthians 12:7 NIV)  Satan can make our friends a stumbling block for us.  Jesus turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men." (Matthew 16:23 NIV)  Who hasn’t at some time or another felt betrayed by a friend who we trusted!  That is a terrible loss and Satan is the master at taking apart friendships.  We also know that Satan turns authorities against us so that those in positions of power can be used by Satan to multiply our losses.  Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you… (Revelation 2:10 NIV) There are some losses we face that are due to our bad decisions and poor planning.  Satan even disrupts our thinking so that we go up against God to our loss.  Then Peter said, "Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? (Acts 5:3-4 NIV)  It is impossible to calculate how many bad decisions we have made because we have let Satan have sway over our thinking!

When Elijah the prophet fled the evil Queen Jezebel who threatened to kill him, he wound up in a cave and something that is enlightening for us occurred there.  As Elijah recuperated from his terrifying and exhausting flight, he was greeted in that cave by a series of horrifying calamities.  Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.  After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. (1 Kings 19:11-12 NIV)  Famously, after the fire was a whispering voice that Elijah heard which was either external to him or placed by God straight into his mind and that whisper was God.  Each of these terrifying events…the great wind, the earthquake and the fire were clearly not from God or at least God was not “in them”.  So who was in them?  Would we be off-base if we said “Satan”?  They seem to have been supernaturally caused.  It’s not like rock shattering winds, earthquakes and fires pile up together in the normal, natural realm.  Regardless of their point of origin, we do know that if we were there, we would have been frightened by it all.

We suffer many losses in our lifetimes and most we barely notice.  They may be irritating or even a bit maddening but never really frightening.  Every once in a while though, like Elijah’s wind and earthquake and fire, they are stunning and mind-numbing and we care very much about them.  And the Lord is not in those losses.  Satan is behind them and we must remember who the taker is, who the thief that robs us is…who is behind the storm we fear. 

With Jesus resting peacefully at the back of their boat, the disciples encountered a great storm.  Now this storm must have been bigger than usual because although several of the disciples were seasoned fisherman, they all were panicked by the storm.  Without warning, a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke him, saying, "Lord, save us! We're going to drown!" (Matthew 8:24-25 NIV)  Let us now make a point that perhaps is unnecessary but pertinent to our discussion.  First, Jesus was not going against the Father in calming the storm.  The Son never opposed the Father in anything. His work as Savior was to put an end to the wreckage brought on by Satan and sin and in that deliverance came the calming of the storm.   Second, the storm did not frighten the disciples.  It may have been wild and potentially deadly but it was not what terrified the disciples.  What brought on their panic was the possible loss of life they faced because of the storm.  The storm itself was exciting, maybe even thrilling with the giant waves, the billowing, boiling clouds, the claps of thunder and bolts of lightning. The thought of terrific loss though made them scared out of their skulls and they could not take it.  Loss is not our problem; it is the fear of loss that we must battle.  Now how did the disciples cope with their fear of loss?  They went straight to Jesus Christ.  They did not paddle harder or duck behind the walls of the boat, they went directly to Christ.

There are two key considerations when it comes to losses.  The first is that if God is not in the losses, then the probability is that Satan is involved.  Therefore, it is not God who we blame and avoid when the storm comes that threatens to take away from us what we love.  It is Satan.  Second, the loss is rarely as grave and horrifying as the fear of the loss.  Many have suffered terrible losses in their lives and been just as peaceful and calm as Jesus sleeping in the back of the boat.  They may have been completely overwhelmed emotionally by the coming losses but afterward, they found comfort.  King David comes to mind.   He wept and fasted and begged God to intervene while his son was deathly ill but once the child died, he became calm and unperturbed.  Now this may sound cold and inhumane on David’s part but perhaps we have left out the supernatural component to loss.  Maybe David was helped by God when the loss came to pass.  Perhaps in his begging for God to not take his baby away, it brought into the event the supernatural kindness of God to comfort the inconsolable soul when the loss did come to pass.  Like the disciples who turned to Jesus when the storm raged, David went to the Lord when the storm he faced raged.

Because this world is wrecked by sin, dying is all around us and it hits us directly.  Dreams of careers die.  Marriages die.  Plans we have for our children die.  Vacations fall apart and investments collapse.  This happens and Satan is directly involved in many of these “deaths”.  We must face squarely this matter of death and dying in every realm we travel.  Friendships die and dinner arrangements die and much of what we hope to have goes up in smoke.  But there is one matter we must put into our equation of loss.  Jesus Christ is “in the boat”.  Satan may take our lunch but Jesus Christ is in the boat and when the disciples went to Him, they gained peace...a supernatural peace.  It is hard when the storm strikes to go to Jesus Christ then and there.  We are captivated by the storm and all we can think about are the losses we are going to face and perhaps we are angry with God for the storm.  We are in a way mesmerized by our fear and frustration and even anger over what is happening but Christ is in the boat.  The storm that rocks us rocks Him too.  When we turn to Him, we may not lose what we thought was lost.  He may completely take the storm away.  He can do that and He may do that.  We must have a little bit of faith but if we do, He might take our storm from us.  But if He doesn’t and He lets Satan steal something from us, He will give us peace…a supernatural peace.  Anyone can have peace when it is smooth sailing; but Christ gives us peace when the storm comes headlong into us.  You may not think you need the peace of Christ now…everything is nice and easy for you.  But the time will come when Satan will throw a great storm at you, a storm too big for your peace to handle and when He does, remember that Christ is in the boat and if you turn to Him, He will give you His peace…and you will have peace that is supernatural and big enough to carry you through whatever loss you face.

How Are You Doing Your Calculations?

Our time is one of great interest in supernatural activity and powers.  And yet we explore it not as Columbus or Magellan did looking for something actual and determinable but as creators who let our imaginings do all the work of it.  We are entertained by thoughts of the supernatural but we don't take it seriously.   Jesus on the other hand lived within the reality of unseen forces and personalities and He both attacked and allied Himself with them.  Demons He cast out of people and angels He let serve and nourish Him.  At one time we treated the atom as a straight forward and quite logical entity until we discovered the wild unpredictability of electrons and subatomic particles.  When will we face facts?  Our personalities are far more complex and unreliable than the field of psychology can reckon because there are unseen forces and beings that wreak havoc upon us and interject themselves in every nook and cranny of our lives.  Paul spoke of doing things without predictability or self-control and we should give this credence too, not because the seen world is so at variance with logical outcomes but because the unseen world is far more vast and influential than we grasp.  How often has our Lord told us to pray?  Do we take at all seriously this grave command?  Do we realize how critical prayer is to us and to all those who surround us?  Jesus did not quiver over the unseen world but He didn't calculate without taking it into account either.  He showed us how to respond to supernatural surroundings and it was the simplest of all strategies.  Pray.  Pray for direction.  Pray for help.  Pray for protection.  Pray for eyes to see what is beyond the senses.  Pray for reactions that can handle the split second changes in direction caused by supernatural forces, both demonic and angelic, that impose their wills upon our circumstances.  If it is not warfare at the highest levels, do you think Jesus would have agonized as He did in the Garden of Gethsemane?

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.  Ephesians 6: 12 NIV

Today See God

Is it a crazy assumption that God will do now as has been described of Him doing in the past?  Nothing unsettles our sensibilities quite like the long wait for God to act today as we have heard He did before.  Every rational thought argues against willful  anticipation of supernatural entries into our fussy world.  It seems absurd to the common mind that the Lord still operates within the same paradigm as records indicate He once did.  And yet that is precisely what we are expected to believe when we take even the most casual glance at the Scriptures.  The" Fairy Tale" motif swirls about within the interpretive dance steps of  the normal Christian's take on life lived out daily.  In fact what is "Christian" today is generally not what once was Christian when everything said about God in Scripture was believed.  The Church assumed rightly God acted in their today as He had during the today of Moses or Elijah.  They realized the Lord would grip them relentlessly "now" even when they went through the fire, even when they fell into the water.  It did not come easily.  Peter had to first get wet and Silas had to wait in twitching pain for his prison midnight but eventually they came around.  Personal experience made the difference for them just as it does here for us.  The prayer had to be uttered, the cry bellowed, the worship to the God of heaven offered.  It was only then that Elijah saw things just as Moses had, Peter saw things as Elijah had and Paul saw things as Peter had.  The skeptic does not die peacefully but in fits and starts and with loud moans and lusty screams.  The man without God is a hollow shell.  But add the Lord Jesus Christ to him and He lives vivaciously, vividly, like a bright beam of sunlight piercing the night sky.  You, joined with the Lord will see all that Elijah did, all that James did and not feebly either but decidedly, firmly.    We stumble over little unseen miracles because we live with meager faith; we grip the majesty of God with the loosest of holds because we are  more content to hear about God than we are to know Him.  "Taste and see that the Lord is good", implies that you must do something about your hunger and thirst if you are ever to gain the smallest sense of God.  The historical documents have been given us not that we might dream of days gone by but that we might do the very things the saints of the past did.  Stay in the shallows of common faith and you will merely read the tales of God; go out of the harbor where storms threaten to dump you in the sea and the Majesty of the Almighty will find you .  You will no longer make your way through the shadow lands of legendary ghosts;  you will instead enter the actual world where Christ reigns and you join with Him in His Glory.  Stop making so much of the God of ancient times if you don't intend on taking hold of the Christ who today stands before you and whispers, "Come".

Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked, "You of little faith, why are you talking among yourselves about having no bread?  Matthew 16: 8 NIV

Dense Lives

Given the density of so many lives, how is it that we would expect God to supernaturally maneuver among us?  The cry for God is nearly universal.  It is just that expectations have been so diminished by failure to encounter Him on our terms  that we schedule ourselves senseless.  The irony of our discouraged indifference is that we scurry about trying to find what in a moment the Lord Jesus Christ can give us.  Imagine the poor widow of Jesus' parable sweeping out her neighbor's house trying to find her missing coin or going down to the park with her back bent over, her eyes frantically scanning the ground for any sign of it among the shrubs.  The distressed poor soul would have been a fool to go out of the country hoping to find the coin in some far off land.  What she did was sheer genius!  She went into her own home and turned everything upside down there.  Is it any wonder that we have had such a disastrous go at this matter of "finding" God when we have gone hither and thither without our wits engaged at all?  The Lord Jesus Christ told the Pharisees that the Kingdom of God was right there with them...it had never been anywhere else and was not disappearing any time soon.  Our frantic chase after something, anything that can match the Presence of God right where we are is pitiful.  Give God enough space in your chaotic mind to meet with you!   Nothing screams more loudly than the wills and whims of the cascading world falling all about us.  The shepherds simply sat where they were in the stillness of the night and God met them there.  The Magi scanned the heavens for some hint of His presence and God met them too.  The disoriented woman at the well stayed long enough at her normal work station to give God a shot at speaking to her there.  Have we discouraged the Savior's efforts at getting through to us because we have been derelict in the one duty we have been given…"wait…"?  Your most productive moment of your day is the point at which you wait for God to wiggle His way into you.  You may not have a marvelous revelation, a fascinating insight but you could gain the sudden influx of Holy Spirit Presence that will re-calibrate your inner core so that God can orient you rightly.  You most likely will not see a blaze of starlight or a vibrant band of angels but you could know how to manage that barking child or gain peace over that tormenting debt.  Your Savior is your Savior.  If you wait upon Him long enough, He will get you through your turmoil with your joy intact.  Isn't that worth something?

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the

Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.  Psalm  27:14 NIV

The Crisis Point

The crisis point is not at the moment you find some part of your life out of control; it is when you must accept that every part of your life is actually beyond your control.  We try desperately to calibrate this and modulate that but it is in the end not ours to fix or determine.  The Lord does not intend to make you more differentiated from your environment...He is using it (that wild and unpredictable world where you have been placed) to add to the supernatural work of being born again.  The more we try to squirm out of our predicaments and fix our dilemmas, the more sustained the rough edges of our personality.  You cannot love unless God surgically removes the bumps of hate and jealousy, you cannot trust unless he sculpts away the scared ridges of doubt and self-confidence and you cannot hope unless he rubs off the fear and bitterness caked on your too fragile psyche.  You have been placed at your spot so that the Lord can perfect His work in you.  Rest your soul in God who loves you enough to keep you where you are.