Having to Wait

Isaiah 40:31 NASU

Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary.

   

Are You Tired of Waiting?

The other day I forgot to make a sandwich for lunch but had a bag of walnuts and blueberries and cashews so I made that my lunch.  Walnuts and blueberries are considered “super foods” by some nutritionists and I had more than enough in my bag to satisfy my appetite.  When I got off work though and headed back to the church to build the sermon for today I was hungry.  In five minutes I would be at the office where I had soup and broccoli waiting for me but I did not want to wait.  I could not wait.  I pulled off the freeway and went to McDonald's because I had to have onions and ketchup and American cheese food and a couple of pickles with a beef patty that may or may not be all beef and two buns of white bread.  Of course there was nothing reasonable about my decision to satisfy my hunger that way; it was much smarter to have waited and had that broccoli and soup.  Not all of us are good at waiting though!

Do you ever get aggravated about having to wait?  Are you ever frustrated by the slow driver who won’t move out of your lane and let you pass?  Have you gotten uptight about someone who speaks too slowly and had to fight the urge to finish off her sentences?  Are you the one who grinds his teeth when a movie or video is buffering?  Do you ever turn to the back page of a novel because you can’t wait to see how it ends?  Are you unable to carry on a conversation without looking at your phone?  Have you ever been frustrated by more than three people in your line at the bank or the store?  What do you do when you are put on hold?  Do you wait patiently for the person to return to the line or are you ready to hang up after a few minutes?  Have you ever snapped at someone who made you wait for an unreasonable amount of time?  Is “wait” a four letter word in your dictionary?

One of the more misunderstood terms found in the Bible is “lust”.  We think of it almost exclusively as a term about sex and sexual attraction but it is much more encompassing than that.  Lust is the determination that you must have something immediately.  We lust because we are unwilling to wait for God’s order of things.  We don’t have what we want and so we lust.  The emotional reaction most closely connected to lust is anger.  You will see it in a check-out line and at the dinner table.  I don’t get what I want when I want it and I get mad.  Even the satisfying of a lust can generate anger.  Some of the most bad-tempered human beings are those who will not wait but always demand they get what they want when they want it.  You see this clearly illustrated by the son of King David who wanted his half-sister and would not wait for her to ask their father to let them marry.  Instead he raped her and immediately afterward became angry with the girl and had her thrown out of the house.  But he (Amnon) refused to listen to her (his sister), and since he was stronger than she, he raped her.  Then Amnon hated her with intense hatred. In fact, he hated her more than he had loved her. Amnon said to her, "Get up and get out!" (2 Samuel 13:14-15 NIV) Nothing is so dangerous as a lust that has been satisfied for more often than not it warps the human personality and makes it irascible.  Cain who became furious that God liked his brother Abel’s sacrifice more than his and rather than taking the time to offer a better sacrifice the next time, in a fit of rage generated by an unfulfilled lust killed his brother.  Nearly every single ungodly moment of anger can be traced back to a lust, whether it is satisfied or left unfulfilled.

We even see lust in so-called “spiritual matters”.  It is not unusual for Christian people to get angry with God when He does not give them what they want when they want it.  Countless numbers of once God-fearing people have left their Christianity behind them because they got mad that God did not answer their prayers.  When Jezebel asked her husband Ahab why he was so sullen, it was because he could not get a landowner to sell him his vineyard.   He answered her, "Because I said to Naboth the Jezreelite, 'Sell me your vineyard; or if you prefer, I will give you another vineyard in its place.' But he said, 'I will not give you my vineyard.'" (1 Kings 21:6 NIV)  How many Christian people have reacted in the exact same way to God when He would not give them what they wanted when they wanted it?

There is an enlightening verse in Isaiah that expresses precisely how God makes His people spiritually and psychologically strong.  Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary. (Isaiah 40:31 NASU)  The Hebrew term translated “wait” is rooted in the idea of a rope being stretched, pulled to its limits.  Wait means precisely that.  Those who develop God’s strength and endurance wait for the Lord like a rubber band being pulled back so far it is in danger of snapping.  Throughout Scripture God’s people are told to wait for God.  Wait for the Lord and keep his way. (Psalm 37:34 NIV) I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope.  My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning. (Psalm 130:5-6 NIV)  It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. (Lamentations 3:26 NIV) 

The New Testament encourages God’s people to wait upon God also.  For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has?  But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. (Romans 8:24-25 NIV)  The fundamental quality of all hope is waiting.  Without waiting, hope is not real, a concept rather than actual act of faith.  Lust and ungodliness are to give way to waiting for God.  For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.  It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope — the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, (Titus 2:11-13 NIV) Waiting though is not a passive acceptance of delays in life but an active participation in God and His personality. Keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. (Jude 21 NIV)

If we did not know that God is love and all He does with us is rooted in love, we would perhaps pass judgment on His way of dealing with us.  Just consider the pattern we see in Scripture.  Noah waited one hundred years for God to finally flood the earth.  The Hebrew people waited four hundred years for the Lord to begin to bring them out of Egypt and the terrible slavery they endured.  For seventy years they suffered from the captivity after the Lord drove them out of Israel.  Hundreds of years they waited for a Messiah to come and bring them salvation.  Forty years Moses had to wait before the Lord finally gave him his assignment of leading Israel out of slavery.  Abraham waited sixty years before he had a child and his wife Sarah waited seventy years.  Isaac had to wait until he was sixty before God let him be a father and Jacob was forced to wait more than twenty years before he could return home.  Nearly every time God wants to do something important with a person, He makes that one wait, sometimes for an intolerable length of time.

Consider again our oft quoted verse in Isaiah 40.  Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary. (Isaiah 40:31 NASU)  This verse is widely misunderstood!  The common thinking about it is that if we just wait long enough for God, finally He will give us new strength and enable us to persevere in whatever task we face.  That is not at all the point of this teaching.  The wait is not the delay to getting God’s help and strength; it is the means by which it comes.  It is in waiting upon the Lord that all He has for us is put into place in us.  Isaiah the prophet makes this clear in the sixty-fourth chapter. Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him. (Isaiah 64:4 NIV)  Waiting is not what brings about our transformation but waiting for the Lord is the way He changes us.  Prayer is nothing more than waiting for the Lord.  It is giving Him access to us that He might pour Himself into us and as we pray, for whatever it might be, God gives us new strength…the strength that is Christ Himself.

We wonder why God doesn’t instantly give us everything we ask of Him.  What a childish way of seeing prayer!  Prayer is the means by which God and His strengths become a part of us and as He pours Himself into us through prayer, what our Lord wants for us and for those we care about comes in His timing.  Sometimes as we pray and wait for God, our Lord makes it clear He does not want those things we are asking for ourselves and others and it is a stormy time for us as we learn to accept it.  Yet even then, God’s strength and patience and hope and peace get worked into us and we stop being impatient, self-absorbed children and grow mature in our Lord’s invading personality.   Why does God make us wait for Him?  It is because He wants us to have supernatural strength and peace and contentment and these great workings of God take time to be worked into us…the time we spend in prayer as we wait for Him to finish what He has already started.

Nothing More, Nothing Less

Exodus 3: 11 NIV

But Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”

What Does God Want to Do With You?

I can remember only one time my dad took me and my brother fishing.  There may have been other times but I can only recall one.  I cannot remember my dad ever fishing.  I don’t know of any times he went out with his buddies to fish.  I can’t think of a time in all our family camping trips my dad broke out fishing poles except this one time.  He got us some nice backpacking fishing poles and on a camping trip took us to a stream to fish for the first time.  It was a beautiful location; the water was brilliantly clear and sparkling with the mountain sunlight lathering it with the effervescence of its white rainbow.  We could see trout passing in and out of the rocky caves and crevices.  My dad showed us how to push the salmon eggs onto the hook, put the lead weights on the line on which we each had a bob to keep track of where our hooks settled.  I can’t remember much advice my dad gave us on how to cast our lines; I am not sure how much he knew about it himself.  I reared my pole back and got my hook caught in a bush behind me.  Then I tried again and forgot to release the button on the reel to let out the line and the hook came flying back at me.  I gathered myself, pitched back my pole and with all my strength sent the hook and weights and bob out toward the middle of the stream but it got no further than the edge of the shore.  Eventually I just leaned my pole out over the water and without casting, dropped the hook down into the water.  I caught a piece of wood, some plants growing near the shore, a large rock at the bottom of the stream and some very nice twigs.  It was not a very long fishing adventure.  I think in about an hour or so we all gave up on it.  Later I discovered my dad didn’t even like fish and probably not fishing either.  He took us though and we all did pretty poorly at fishing.  Looking back after almost thirty years of parenting, I realize that fishing trip was never about fishing.  It was about my dad wanting to be with us; to do something with us that we might find fun.  Fish did not figure into the equation at all.  The fishing trip was about family…nothing more, nothing less.

What for you is a nothing more, nothing less deal?  For Scrooge it was making money.  For Huck Finn, it was no controls upon his life.  For Ronald Reagan it was the end of communist tyranny.  For George Washington it was the establishment of a new country.  For Abraham Lincoln it was the preservation of the Union.  For Martin Luther King Jr., it was the equality of all races.  For Captain “Sully”, it was the survival of his passengers.  For Michael Jordan, it was complete domination of the basketball world.  For many parents it is the success of their children.  What is the bottom line for you?  What is your “nothing more, nothing less” determination?  Is there an all-encompassing goal for your life that if you don’t reach it, you will feel like you failed?  Have you thought about what matters most for you?

As a “great fisherman myself”, I have often thought about the offer Jesus made to Peter and his brother Andrew to make them “fishers of men”.  "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." (Matthew 4:19 NIV) These disciples and all the others often misunderstood Jesus’ intentions and perhaps they didn’t grasp in this case what mattered to Jesus.  The men already had a fishing business going and perhaps they assumed that being “fishers of men” would be much the same as being fishers of fish.  They would acquire some important skills from a mentor, practice what they learned and then off they would go, “fishers of men.  Many Christian and non-Christian people make this mistake when they read the passage too.  God wants to teach us a few things that will make our lives better and with our fresh insight we will be good people.  What is completely overlooked by both those within the Christian faith and outside it is that God is not a lecturer who provides the keys to success.  We mistakenly think and perhaps the disciples did too that our Lord’s call was about fishing.  It was not!  It was about the clause in the center of the call.  “I will make you…”  This is the core of what Christianity is.  Christ will make you.  It does not really matter at all what He might make you…a fisherman, a missionary, a leader, a musician, a teacher, an astrophysicist.  All of that is subordinate to the purpose of God.  He will make you.

We have analyzed and reanalyzed Moses so many times that it feels a bit redundant to look at him again but it seems important to put his calling by God into its proper perspective.  When God called to Moses from a bush supernaturally on fire, Moses was stunned, not by the miracle of the bush in flames but not being consumed or by the voice coming from seemingly nowhere, but by what the Lord had to say to him.  The Lord said, "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering.  So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey — the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.  And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them.  So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt."

(Exodus 3:7-10 NIV)

You and I cannot fault Moses for his reaction to the pronouncement because we probably would have responded much like him.  “Who am I to do such a thing?”  How could I get this done?   But Moses said to God, "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?" (Exodus 3:11 NIV)  Nearly a chapter and a half is given to Moses trying his best to get out of going down to Egypt and God countering every one of Moses’s excuses.  It is almost comical, the exchange, and yet the drama of whether or not Moses agrees to go with God takes a back seat to th revelation of how disconnected Moses was from God.  His immediate reaction to discovering that it was the Creator of the universe who was talking to him was to shrink back in fear but all too quickly Moses began to think of himself as the Lord’s peer.  If you read this the first time and did not know just how God actually is, you might be waiting for the Lord simply to strike Moses dead because of Moses’s cheekiness and move on to someone else.  It is all too easy for us to miss what God is actually doing with His people if we misunderstand the personality of God.

Moses really was a perfectly silly man.  He thought he was responsible for getting the Israelites free of the Egyptians and out of Egypt.  It was as absurd as any of the disciples thinking God’s challenge was for them to figure out how to be fishers of men.  Moses thought God somehow needed him to get this monumental task done.  If you read again what God had to say about it, He kept reiterating over and over what He was going to do to free the Israelites; what He was going to do through Moses.  When God was done with Sodom and Gomorrah, He simply wiped them out with fire and brimstone.  He could have done that with the Egyptian problem.  Even the ancient account of Abraham and Abimelech reminds us of how easy it was for God all by Himself to take out of Egypt the Israelites.  When Abraham acted like a child and pretended that his wife Sarah was merely his sister so that the King Abimelech or any of the men of Gerar where he had moved would not kill Abraham in order to steal his wife from him, Abraham succeeded.  King Abimelech took took Sarah into his harem without killing Abraham.  Abraham though lost is wife and the Lord was not happy.   The Lord immediately closed up all the wombs of the women of Gerar and then in a dream Abimelech was warned by God that he and all his subjects would be killed off if Abimelech did not quickly release Sarah back to her husband.  The Lord had the ability to wipe out anyone He wished if it suited His purposes and the people of Gerar, like the Egyptians enslaving the Israelites were not exceptions.  God could easily separate out who He wanted to keep and who He wanted to destroy without any help from Moses or anyone else. 

This is what God wanted.  He was making an offer to Moses, just like He did to the disciples to join Him and be a part of Him.  It wasn’t about God needing someone to fish for men or rescue Israelites from slavery.  The Lord was giving them the opportunity to be joined with Him, the Lord’s life built into theirs and their lives built into His.  If they refused, it would be tragic for them, not for God’s cause or for those they could have helped.  They would have lost the opportunity to have God’s personality become a part of theirs, His life merged with them and then together do all God wanted to do.  Moses would never have lifted his staff and seen the Red Sea part and John never would have been held by the resurrected Jesus Christ and gained the power of the Holy Spirit if they did not let God join Himself to them.  We cannot know what God might do with us if we let Him make us into His people but it will be certain that whatever it might be will be far greater than what we might do just on our own.  The words of Paul express perfectly what it is like to have Christ joined with us.  I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.  I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.  I can do everything through him who gives me strength. (Philippians 4:11-13 NIV)

What more could we want out of life than this?  Some people would sell their souls to have what Paul had!  Rich and poor, successful and failing…all alike would love nothing more than to be content in any and every situation.  And what is more, Paul said anything he needed to do, he could through Christ who gave him strength.  The best you can have in life is for Christ to be a part of it, living through you in all you do.  He chooses what comes your way and just think of that.  The same one who died to save you decides for you what your life will become.  Contentment and the peace of knowing that a loving Savior has your days ordered makes for what I would call a perfect life.  Nothing more, nothing less!

Praying or Fantasizing

Mark 11:24 NIV

Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

How Confident Are About Praying?

A number of years ago we went to Disneyland and our daughter was only three.  She loved to dress up in princess outfits and she had a number that she brought for our trip there.  One day she could dress as Cinderella, another as Snow White and the next she was prepared to be Belle.  In fact she could change in the middle of the day and be a different princess at lunch and dinner.  Her face would light up when she spotted Arial or Belle or Pocahontas mingling in the crowd.  We had to wait for Rachel to stand in line and greet each of the princesses she came across. There was even a lunch meet and greet that Rachel attended.  Rachel was mesmerized by the parades when the princesses all came together in one place and she stared at them all wide-eyed.  Reality and fantasy came together in a mystical union.  That is until reality rose up and trampled fantasy one cloudy afternoon when Rachel spotted one of the Disneyland princesses standing out behind a building smoking a cigarette.  She was stunned and she never forgot the disappointment she felt at the unexpected sight.

Many have given up on Christianity because they believe it is like the Disney princesses; it is all a dress up that in the end is a sham.  Perhaps you have struggled with believing the Bible.  There is much about it that is interesting and helpful but some of the stories in it appear to be too good to be true.  The promises about prayer in particular hang you up as it does not seem like God holds up His end of the bargain.  You pray but the outcome is not what you had hoped.  Or worse, your praying seems to have been a waste of time and left you discouraged and feeling snookered by empty promises of God’s help.

Two case studies found in the Bible shed a bit of light on our discussion.  When Lazarus, a good friend of Jesus, became deathly ill, his sisters sent word to Jesus, "Lord, the one you love is sick." (John 11: 3 NIV)  When Jesus did not do anything about Lazarus’s condition and he died, both sisters were dumbfounded by His lack of help.  When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." (John 11:32 NIV)  How closely this mirrors the experience of many who have prayed and been disappointed by the results!

Prior to the birth of Christ, an elderly widow lived at the Temple and spent her days praying.  There was also a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying. (Luke 2:36-37 NIV)  We have no idea what sorts of matters were on her prayer list but we must say she had to wait an awfully long time before meeting the Messiah.  Not only that, should we just ignore the fact that this woman of prayer lost her husband after only seven years of marriage?  How much disappointment with prayer was locked up within the heart of this elderly widow for all those years!

Our problem, when it comes to praying, is not just the seeming slowness or even lack of responses to prayer.  We face a much more daunting task when it comes to believing in God.  We lack a physical connection to Him that can make trusting in Him more reasonable and sustainable.  We can’t see Him, hear Him or touch Him and that is not normal when it comes to relationships.  It can be argued that we don’t, hear, see or touch those we meet online and yet believe they are who they say they are but experience with fraud makes many such “encounters” impossible to trust completely.  When it comes to God, we don’t even have a picture profile to consider!  Yet, is it insane to believe in a God we cannot see, touch or hear?

Author Philip Yancey suggests we should consider the case of the woman who has been blind since birth who has never seen light and cannot see it.  How would you prove the existence of light to her?  You could present her with products of light such as heat or plant life but that does not prove light to her.  Light is real and not at all imaginary but to the one who has no sensitivity to it, light is just hearsay, only taken on trust.  If everyone in the world is blind from birth, men, women and children, light as described in books is to the entire crowd “religious” or “unscientific”.  It might be considered “mythological” and yet it is as real as the birds chirping in the trees.  The doubt in the minds of those who cannot see that light exists would not mitigate the reality of light.

We certainly lack the Spiritual sense needed to scientifically “prove” the presence of demons and angels, God and Satan but that is what we must accept when we speak of God and prayer.  Jesus did not try to pretend something else was the case.  God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth. (John 4:24 NIV)  Rarely does God make Himself available to our physical senses.  Yet He has done so and many of the blind in our world just won’t believe the accounts given of His presence being seen, heard, touched or smelled. There is something else we must consider when it comes to knowing about the existence of God and believing in prayer.

The American Journal of Psychiatry reported a study of Harvard students who had experienced a “religious conversion.  They discovered that these students showed a dramatic change in their lifestyles.  Their use of drugs, alcohol and cigarettes went down spectacularly.  What is more, they did much better academically than they did before their conversion and were less likely to suffer from depression and despair when compared to the rest of the student body.  What does it mean when an internal transformation which is attributed to God results in an externally proven outcome?  Religious Americans are proven to be more likely to give money to someone homeless, spend time with someone depressed, return excess change to a clerk, help someone find a job and donate blood.  At what point do those who do not have the sensory equipment to see or touch God begin to consider the facts regarding the accomplishments of the God they cannot see?

Faith is the operating system of our relationship with God and that is not going to change!  We live by faith, not by sight. (2 Corinthians 5:7 NIV)  And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. (Hebrews 11:6 NIV)  Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent." (John 6: 29 NIV) For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)  This is the way God works with us.  We must have faith in Him that He exists if we are to have a relationship with Him that transforms our lives.  It will not be altered; this plan of God.  No amount of complaining that God does not let us see, hear or touch Him will change His mind.  The Lord will do in us and through us what our faith in Him permits.  It has been shown that with God operating in people’s lives, crime, drug use, violence and gang activities go down.  What proof do you need to recognize that you pray to a God who changes people’s lives and literally is a part of what they do?

When you pray, the Lord will transform your character, create in you a hatred of your own sin and generate a growing desire to be close to Him.  He will guide you so that you will be able to make sense of what to do.  He will work in others and change them too.  God will alter your circumstances so that in the end all you face and encounter will turn out for your good.  To pray, you must have faith to pray.  To communicate with God who is real, you must believe that He is real.  You will never be certain that God exists or that He is part of your praying until you actually decide to believe He exists and then pray.  Once that transaction takes place, the Lord will move Heaven and Earth to keep you close to Him supernaturally and coherently.  You may not yet believe God loves you fully but that will come as you trust Him enough to pray.  Faith opens your mind to pray; miracles always follow faith…they don’t come before it.  A miracle is nothing more complex than this.  It is the discovery that God is in actuality a part of your life and giving you the very best He has to offer in response to your praying.  So pray.  Pray often.  Pray with your mind on God and your heart open to whatever He gives you.

Solitude

Exodus 33:8-9 NIV

And whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people rose and stood at the entrances to their tents, watching Moses until he entered the tent.  As Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the entrance, while the Lord spoke with Moses.

What Do You Think God Wants To Do With You?

A few weeks ago, it didn’t go well for me substitute teaching.  The class had acted pretty badly and I struggled to maintain control over the group.  They kept speaking when I told them to be quiet, I had trouble explaining the material I was assigned to cover and several of the kids were disrespectful.  I felt overmatched and inadequate.  Limping to my car, I asked God what was wrong with me.  Everything about my life felt out of sorts and in disarray.  I opened the door and plopped down in my seat, glad to have a few minutes of solitude.  I sat before God in the sanctuary of my little Honda and silently gave Him time to work in me.

Probably you too have needed time alone and it was a welcome relief to find a spot where you could regroup.  Perhaps you have felt psychologically drained and wanted to get away where no one could interrupt your thoughts or agitate you.  Sometimes you have to retreat to the bathroom to find solitude.  Maybe it is your car or your office or a park bench where you gather yourself. Many retreat to their bedrooms.  You might sit in front of your computer without noticing anything that’s there, lost in your thoughts.  Do you need time alone on a regular basis?  What does solitude do for you?  Have you found it helpful?

The Bible makes it clear that we are never alone, even when we are in the loneliest of places.  The book of Hebrews even insists that we are surrounded “by a great cloud of witnesses.”  Yet, due to our lack of awareness of everything supernatural happening all around us, we ignore both angels and demons.  When we are by ourselves with no physical beings nearby, we feel alone and quite honestly are often quite grateful for those moments.  However, our difficulty perceiving the presence of God does not mean He is absent.  The Lord promises He is with you at every moment and solitude is not what is commonly thought.  If you realize that solitude is always you with God and never you just by yourself, a great benefit to your life is possible.

The Gospel of Luke begins with an interesting story that is only told by Luke.  There was a couple that was old and childless and the husband was one of many Jewish priests.  Zechariah was chosen by lot to go into the temple and burn the incense in the sanctuary.  Once when Zechariah's division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense.  And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside. (Luke 1: 8-10 NIV)  Zechariah found himself alone in the inner sanctum of the Temple but what he soon discovered was that his solitude was not what it seemed.  An angel suddenly appeared in the room.  When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. (Luke 1:12 NIV)  After the angel reassured him that he was not in danger, the messenger from God gave him the joyous news that Zechariah and his wife were going to conceive and have a baby.  The angel made it clear that this was an answer to their prayers.  But this declaration was too stupendous for Zechariah to believe, even if it did come directly from an angel!  Zechariah asked the angel, "How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years." (Luke 1:18 NIV)

After all these years of praying, Zechariah had become hopeless.  He no longer believed it was possible that he and his wife could have a child. Yet here was the revelation, coming to him in the solitary place where Zechariah thought he was all alone.  We see this same formula again and again in Scripture.  God lets someone become alone and then He shifts that person’s life.  When the Lord wanted to adjust the prophet Ezekiel’s thinking, He pulled him aside.  Ezekiel describes this in the book he wrote.  The hand of the Lord was upon me there, and he said to me, "Get up and go out to the plain, and there I will speak to you." (Ezekiel 3:22 NIV)  How did God say this to Ezekiel?  Was it in an audible voice that anyone could have heard or did God speak directly into the prophet’s head?  We don’t know but what is clear is that the Lord sent Ezekiel off by himself to receive the revelation.  This is the normal process.  God waits until someone is alone…or thinks he or she is alone…and then He does something new with that person.

Consider the example of Isaiah.  The Lord got him alone in the Temple and there revealed Himself to the prophet.  In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. (Isaiah 6:1 NIV)  If God’s presence was not enough, there were flying seraphs and shaking door posts and thresholds and the whole building filled with smoke.  Clearly Isaiah was not alone and the Lord made that clear in a magnificent way.  Immediately, with all the pageantry, what struck Isaiah most was his sinfulness.  He let out a wail!  "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty." (Isaiah 6:5 NIV)  When God meets you in the solitude, you must first face your Sin.  It becomes clear as day when you are alone with the Lord that you sin and sin badly.  You cannot go any further with the Lord unless you grasp the awful nature of your sin and solitude magnifies it so that you see your sin clearly when you become alone.  If you have not seen your sin and grown to hate it, you most likely have never been alone with God.  The Lord forces you to face your sin.  His very presence does that to you.

If you are alone with God, there are two revelations that will come to you and they will carry the force of a great hurricane.  You are sinful and only God can take away your sin.  Whatever was wrong with Isaiah, whatever evil he saw in himself, it had to do with his mouth!  Jesus said that it is not what goes into you that is bad, it is what comes out of you that matters and clearly something was coming out of Isaiah that was ugly and it had to do with his mouth.  Immediately when Isaiah realized just how wicked he was the Lord provided him with a live coal that took away the guilt of his sin.  Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar.  With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for."  (Isaiah 6:6-7 NIV)

If there is a single lesson to learn from this passage, perhaps what rises above all is that only God can take away our guilt.  God does the work.  Here He touches the lips with the purifying live coal.  This was just a temporary solution for only in the Cross is the guilt of our Sin removed altogether.  When Christ came and became a part of us, He did so to deal once and for all time with our Sin.  You cannot be alone with God and fail to realize your complete dependence upon Him.  In a crowd you can feel secure and confident that you make it on your own.  Alone with God though you know that is a fairy tale, it is like thinking your heart is unnecessary or your brain does not matter.  Dependence upon God and reliance upon Him to save you is the clearest sign you have been alone with Him.  What is so striking about the Psalms is that this is what you see in them at every turn.  You are dependent upon God to save you and there is no greater determination you can make than to rely upon Him in everything you do.

Nearly always when there is a break in your relationship with God, it is because there is a moral barrier that stands in your way.  God would not let Isaiah go any further with Him until his mouth issues were addressed.  Sometimes it is sexual immorality, other times a bad temper or the unwillingness to forgive.  It might be cruelty that you possess or selfishness and greed or the hard headed unwillingness to do what God has said to do.  This barrier, whatever it might be must be taken apart if you are to ever go any further with God.  It is when you are alone with Him that this is done.  God penetrates your heart and works out of you what sin has worked into you.  As you stay with Christ, alone just the two of you, a miracle occurs.  The love of God starts to become your love, the peace of God becomes your peace and the joy that God has becomes your joy.  You cannot generate this within yourself.  Only Christ can do it.  Alone with God, no conversation, no distracting phones or computers, just your mind and the Lord’s mind coming together and in the miracle of Christ, you become transformed.  God will want to make you alone with Him to cleanse your actions and He will want to work out of you your sinful habits. In solitude you will be made good, and clean and like God.  In God’s grip, alone with Him in a quiet place where He can get through to you, nothing will matter that mattered so much to you before; not your accomplishments, not your gifts, not what you want to make of your life.   What will rise above everything else as you stay with Him will be His love becoming yours as you remain alone with Him wherever and whenever the Lord calls you to come to Him.  Why not take a solitude break this week?  Be alone with God for whatever time you can give Him.

Heart in Action

1 Chronicles 29:18 NIV

O Lord, God of our fathers Abraham, Isaac and Israel, keep this desire in the hearts of your people forever, and keep their hearts loyal to you.

How Important Is Loyalty?

I realize that I am now kind of an old-timer and loyalty means a lot to me.  I am loyal to vanilla ice cream.  I am loyal to McDoubles.  I am loyal to Northern California beaches despite how cold they are and loyal to our local jazz station. I am loyal to khaki pants and button down collars and hair gel. I am loyal to my friends and loyal to the denomination I joined years ago.  I am even loyal to our cat even though she wants nothing to do with me except when she is hungry.  I saw this recently in the news and perhaps you also noticed it.  The dictator of North Korea, Kim Jong-un ordered the execution of one of the country’s vice premiers for slouching during Jong-un’s speech because it was to the North Korean ruler a sign that the vice premier was not thoroughly loyal to him.  If it were asked what single human quality is most valued in North Korea probably “loyalty” would be at the top of the list above creativity, ingenuity, compassion or integrity.  How important is loyalty to you?  How important is loyalty to God?

What if God demanded of you the same sort of loyalty Kim Jong-un demands of the people in North Korea?  If you were to quantify your loyalty to God on a scale of 1-10, what value would you give it in terms of your interest in the Bible, your keeping of the ten commandments, church service attendance, your financial support of God’s Kingdom, the value you place on your moral purity or how often you bring up God and the Gospel in your normal conversations?  Loyalty is of course practical and not some abstract idea and if we have read much in the Bible, we would see that God cares very much about loyalty but rather than using the term “loyalty” He speaks more precisely of “love”.  Jesus said that the most important of all the commandments of God is, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” (Matthew 22:37 NIV)

How do you do that?  If you were honest, if that was the test of your loyalty, would you have to be blown up if you lived in North Korea because you would fail?  The problem you face when it comes to loving God is your heart!  You can’t count on it.  Jeremiah the prophet, speaking for God spells out your dilemma.  The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.  Who can understand it? (Jeremiah 17:9 NIV)  How can you love anyone with all your heart if you can’t trust your heart to love and you have no idea what all is in it?  Because you have so little insight into your own heart, you can be fooled into thinking you are better than you are.  All a man's ways seem right to him, but the Lord weighs the heart. (Proverbs 21:2 NIV)  Because you don’t know what is in your heart, you cannot be certain of what you will do or how you’ll react to situations you face.  You can convince yourself that you are good but only God knows all that is in your heart.  Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. (Psalm 139:23 NIV)

Two examples illustrate this.  Genesis 4 in the beginning of the Bible provides us a fascinating case study that reveals how complicated the human heart is.  When Cain killed his brother Abel there was no clear explanation for his action.  All we know is that when God approved of the offering Abel brought but was not complimentary of Cain’s, Cain became angry and it showed on his face.  Cain invited his brother to meet him out in the field and there Cain killed Abel.  Could jealousy alone have provoked such anger?  Was there something else that pushed Cain over the edge?  What was stirring in Cain’s heart that drove him to murder?  Who can explain this senseless rage?  All Cain had to do if he really wanted to please God was straighten out whatever was wrong with the sacrifice he offered.  Something else within his heart inflamed him with anger so intense he killed Abel.

Another example that is difficult to explain is Solomon’s transition into paganism.  He was the son of the one God called “a man after my own heart”. (Acts 13: 22 NIV)  Solomon orchestrated the building of the great Temple of the Lord and famously met with Solomon by way of a dream and promised the young king wisdom beyond anyone’s on earth as well as riches and honor which is exactly what he had.  When Solomon dedicated the Temple to God, a great cloud filled it and the priests could not do their work because “the glory of the Lord filled his temple.” (1 Kings 8:11 NIV)  Fire even came down and consumed the sacrifice Solomon offered on the altar.  God a second time appeared to Solomon at night and warned the king in gave terms not to turn away from worshiping Him and going after the false gods of the pagans but that is precisely what he did.  As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father had been. (1 Kings 11:4 NIV)  What could lead to such a dramatic shift in loyalties?  How could Solomon walk away from such dramatic appointments with God and become a spiritual traitor?  It was Solomon’s heart that was the problem.

James the brother of Jesus asked an important question but also gives the answer.  What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? (James 4: 1 NIV)  The Apostle Paul in Romans 8 provides a dynamic explanation of what is really going on within.  Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.  The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. (Romans 8:5-8 NIV)

There are three terms in this passage that must be explained.  The first is “mind”.  This is essentially what other parts of the Bible call “heart”.  It is who we are for eternity whether we have the body or don’t.  The second term is “sinful nature”.  This is the operating system of our lives outside of Christ.  The sinful nature is the controlling force of our life if God is not in charge.  The third term is more a phrase—“the mind controlled by the Spirit”.  This is the condition of our heart when God is working actively within it.  Our heart, filled with the clutter of a billion memories, the damage caused by countless sins, the good and bad of all our relationships and everything we think and decide about God and the world about us, is operating either without God or with Him and we decide what it will be at any given moment.  What the King James Bible calls the “carnal man” is life under the operation of a heart in chaos.  There is no order to the heart without God; it is a baffling and convoluted wreck that can be kind one moment and cruel the next, corrupt and selfish and generous and moralistic all at the same time.  Anything can spring out of the heart controlled by the sinful nature because it is wild and corrupt.

However when the Spirit of God begins to take charge of the heart, order is established.  The Bible calls this “life and peace”.  It is the condition of the heart when from the heart comes honesty and you can count on it, kindness and it is consistent, generosity and purity and goodness become normal and expected.  The memories that once caused so much pain and bitterness lose their power to wreck the heart when Christ is at work in it.  Life and peace is not a goal we set for ourselves but it is the end game when the Spirit of Christ is given full sway over the heart.

An account from the Bible that often goes unnoticed will illustrate the difference between the two operating systems of the heart.  In Acts 11 is the recounting of the Apostle Peter’s defense of his strange decision to go into the house of a Gentile family and share the Gospel with them.  From the time he came out of his mother’s womb Peter had been taught to avoid at all costs non-Jewish people.  Do not eat with them, do not marry them, do not touch them and do not enter their homes ever.  In fact, Peter’s conscience was organized around the complete disdain of non-Jews.  Then one day while napping, Peter had essentially the same vision three times.  In his own words Peter describes them.   I saw something like a large sheet being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came down to where I was. I looked into it and saw four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, reptiles, and birds of the air.  Then I heard a voice telling me, 'Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.'   "I replied, 'Surely not, Lord! Nothing impure or unclean has ever entered my mouth.'  "The voice spoke from heaven a second time, 'Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.' (Acts 11:5-9 NIV)

Almost immediately after these visions three messengers arrived inviting Peter to come and explain Christianity to a Roman centurion and his family.  Everything in Peter’s heart went against this.  He had been taught to despise non-Jews and certainly had from experience plenty of reasons for staying away from Roman soldiers.  His heart certainly would have been against going with the men to the centurion’s home but his heart had within it more than the sinful nature operating.  The Spirit told me to have no hesitation about going with them. (Acts 11:12 NIV)  So Peter went.  Can we see a clearer example than this of how the presence of God in the human heart can completely alter the way a person operates?  Memories, bad experiences, poor teaching and sinful habits do not control us when we have the Spirit of God putting our hearts into order.  Yet like Peter, you must never argue with or ignore the Spirit of God within you when He directs you.  We will be amazed by what God does within our hearts when we let the Spirit make decisions for us.  Every time we give the Spirit control in a matter, when we are loyal to Him in us, we become more like God and less like what we would be if our hearts remained broken by sin and all the evil found in this world.

Heart

Romans 5:5 NIV

And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

What Is The State Of Your Heart?

You often hear people say, “Just follow your heart!”  But what if your heart isn’t right, if it isn’t operating properly?  The other day I got angry with one of the members of my family and I said some things I shouldn’t have said, some harsh things, some critical things.  Now, at the time, I was speaking from my heart.  It didn’t come from our neighbor’s heart or from President Obama’s heart or from Billy Graham’s heart.  It came from my heart and I am glad it wasn’t videotaped and posted on YouTube.  There is nothing about my outburst that I am proud to have produced and yet I have to admit it came from my heart, it came from me.  Now whenever someone issues an apology and they say, “It wasn’t me, that’s not who I am”, that person is lying.  It came from within that person and just like my anger came out of me and my mean words came out of me, whatever we say or do is from within us, not some pseudo self.  Our problem and it is a perplexing problem when something comes from out of us that we don’t like is that the confusion we have is due to our lack of understanding of our heart…we don’t know what is actually in our own heart.

If I were to ask you what the state of your heart is, what would you say?  Would you describe it as contented or frustrated?  Could it be said that your heart is full of joy or miserable?  Is it somewhat confused, disturbed, or pleased?  Would you speak of your heart as a mixture of a number of characteristics, some of which please you and others a bit troubling?  Your heart is your own; it is for better or worse you and if we are to know who we are, we must take a look at the heart we have.

Jesus made a disturbing statement about the heart that needs to be considered.  He said, “For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.” (Mark 7:21-22 NIV)  There is a lot of filth in the list and it would be humiliating if others could see this in us.  What must be noted is that we all have within our hearts the building blocks for the most grotesque forms of evil.  Jesus understood human personality better than any of us and He said that our hearts contain qualities we have at one time or another disregarded, dismissed or defended.  It seems if Jesus is right, that each human heart is corrupted and capable of generating tremendous amounts of evil.  Yet few of us are monsters so what is the problem?  The New Testament has some interesting insight into the heart and it is worth examining.

In Acts 8: 21, the Apostle Peter, aggravated that a new Christian who had been a pagan magician wanted to buy from Peter the ability to lay hands on others and give them the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, rebuked the man strongly, "May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money!  You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God.” (Acts 8:20-21 NIV)  It is within the heart that corruption, greed and the lust for power are developed and nurtured.  The heart is the factory that produces every sin that comes out of us.  Peter did not concern himself with the act on the man’s part of trying to buy the power of the Holy Spirit; the attempt to gain by human effort the might of the Holy Spirit was to Peter the sign of the real issue which was the corruption of the man’s heart.  That was where Peter directed his stern rebuke.

We gain tremendous insight from Acts 5:3 and the strange decision of Ananias and Sapphira to sell their land and then pretend that they were giving the full proceeds of the sale to the Church when in fact they were holding part back.  The Apostle Peter’s rebuke of Ananias provides us with critical information regarding the heart.  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 NIV)  Our question was in regard to how the Christian’s heart can be filled with corruption and not be right with God and we see that the answer is simple.  Satan can fill the heart even when the heart has the Holy Spirit living within it.  We may not understand how this might be possible, that God and Satan can coexist within the human heart but it is clear from this verse that it happens.  Now, did Ananias intentionally give Satan influence over his heart or believe that was happening?  Probably not!  He most likely believed everything was well in his life and that he made a rational and intelligent decision to claim he had donated all the proceeds of the sale of his land to the Church when in fact he had not.  He may have not given a moment’s thought to the possibility that Satan had “filled” his heart.  Yet that is precisely what the Scripture indicates took place.   A human heart that had the Holy Spirit was filled by Satan.

Jesus did something, as described in John 20: 22, that is often overlooked.  He gave to the disciples the gift of having the Holy Spirit but before He became a part of them, they were told to receive the Holy Spirit.  Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you."  And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit.”  (John 20:21-22 NIV)  What is not realized is that this was a command of Jesus, not a statement on His part of what He had done.  The disciples had to decide to receive the Holy Spirit and Jesus told them to do it.  The point is that we are not machines that God reprograms by dumping the Holy Spirit into us.  We decide if we will receive or take into ourselves the Holy Spirit.  He is not pushed into us and that implies we have power to decide how much of an impact we will let the Holy Spirit have within us.  This is a profound consideration.  If both the Holy Spirit and Satan can be a part of our hearts, it is we who decide how much influence either has in our hearts.  Our Lord says, “Receive the Holy Spirit”.  Should we?  Do we?

The Bible tells us what it means for the heart when the Holy Spirit is received and allowed to change it.  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.  Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. (Galatians 5:22-24 NIV)  Remember that within the heart is what Jesus described: greed, malice, lewdness, deceit, folly!  What happens when the Holy Spirit begins to produce within the heart joy, peace patience and self-control?  Do the other parts of the heart just disappear? We must never forget what exactly takes place through the Cross of Jesus Christ.  Not only does Jesus through His death eliminate the ability of Sin to condemn us before God, the life of Christ resurrected through the Holy Spirit also begins to rework the heart so that we develop the characteristics of God within the heart.  Satan cannot control the heart if the Holy Spirit is ruling there but if the Holy Spirit is not received, then Satan can do as he wishes within the heart.

You decide if you are going to receive the Holy Spirit or let Satan rule over your heart.  Satan’s most effective strategy is to convince you that what is wrong for you is that God has wrecked you.  As long as you have even a little bit of conviction that God has damaged your life and cannot be completely trusted, you will hold part of your heart from God and not receive the Holy Spirit fully.  You are the gatekeeper of your heart.  There is a magnificent account in the Bible of what happens if the Holy Spirit is given permission to rework the heart.  When Saul came to Damascus as a representative of the Jewish leadership in Jerusalem, he came to find Jewish Christians so that he could take them captive back to Jerusalem for trial and execution.  Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. (Acts 9:1-2 NIV)  As Saul marched with his armed guards up to Damascus, the Lord spoke to a loyal Christian named Ananias through a vision.  The Lord told him, "Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying.  In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight."  "Lord," Ananias answered, "I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem.  And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name." (Acts 9:11-14 NIV)

Ananias had no love for Saul.  Although Saul had been struck blind by the Lord, Ananias did not pity him.  Every Christian in Damascus had heard how evil Saul was and the atrocities he committed in the name of religion.  What God was asking of Ananias was too much for his heart.  Why would he reveal to Saul his identity as a Christian and for what reason should he help him?  There was not a rational argument that could be made for following the Lord’s command to go to Saul and let the healing of God come to Saul through Ananias’s hands.  Ananias could not have made this decision on his own.  He would not have chosen to risk his life helping a murderer and persecutor of the Christian Church.  It was the Holy Spirit that made Ananias willing to go to Saul and reveal his Christian faith to him by praying for him.  In the book of Hebrews we are warned against doubting God in our hearts.  See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. (Hebrews 3:12 NIV)  With the Holy Spirit controlling your heart, all that Satan has worked into you including fear, selfishness, lust, bitterness, depression, jealousy and discontent gets worked out of you by God.  What God develops in you through His resurrected life is a heart braced by courage and overflowing with faith, kindness, purity and love.  The love of God is so great that He has gone to the fullest extent possible to remove all the wrong from you and replace it with His perfect goodness. Never resist the Holy Spirit as the love of Christ is worked in you each hour of every day.  Like Ananias, trust God in whatever He tells you to do!

Suicide—Intervention

1 Kings 16:18 NIV

When Zimri saw that the city was taken, he went into the citadel of the royal palace and set the palace on fire around him. So he died,

How Can You Help The Suicidal?

The after the election I was teaching in a middle school class and as the students filed into the room a number of them were complaining about the results and several were saying that they were going to move to other countries.  Perhaps they were planning on going with Barbra Streisand or Miley Cyrus.  A few of them, who had never before had met me but knew I was their substitute teacher for the day, asked me who go my vote.  They were too young to worry about whether or not it was proper to ask me and I thought it was funny to be pressed for an answer.  I just laughed and turned away but as I thought more about the moment, I should have told them that I voted for hope, I voted for optimism, I voted for life.  I did not vote because I was afraid of the worst, I voted because I believed that my vote would help our country and even our world.  I did not vote for dread or for gloom or for fear.  I voted for promise.  Not everyone feels that such things exist or can even come their way.  There are many who have no hope and believe there is no good in life…not today…not tomorrow…and not ever.

There is so much hopelessness in our country, it is astounding.  Last year suicide was the tenth leading cause of death in the U.S.  Nearly 43,000 Americans killed themselves last year and what is even more painful to realize, there are twenty-five attempted suicides for every person who actually commits suicide.  Another way to put it: there are 117 suicides every day in the U.S. and nearly 13 suicides for every 100,000 people.  Men are 3.5 times more likely to commit suicide than women and older people are much more likely to kill themselves than are young people.

What do we do about the massive numbers of people who feel hopeless and broken by life?  How should we respond when we realize a friend or neighbor or co-worker feels too miserable to continue living?  At the risk of giving simplistic answers to complicated and terrifying questions, it would be good for us at least to examine the only example we find in the Bible of someone on the verge of suicide who changes his mind at the last second.  Tucked away in the book of Acts is a most enlightening account of how two missionaries responded to the despair of someone who was ready to kill himself.

As Paul and Silas sang and worshipped in their jail cell in the Macedonian city of Philippi, an earthquake shook the jail and miraculously the prison doors flew open and the chains on each of the prisoners fell off them.  The jailor woke up immediately and saw the prison doors wide open and knowing what would come of him if the prisoners had all escaped on his watch pulled out his sword to kill himself.  Such hopelessness is a key component to suicide.  This jailor was much like millions of others who have looked at what they face and decided they could not bear living any longer.  It does not matter how true the assessment is; they may be completely wrong about how bad it is.  What matters is that the person ready to commit suicide thinks all is hopeless.  Paul the Apostle, one of the prisoners in the jail immediately cried out to the jailer, "Don't harm yourself! (Acts 16:28 NIV)  Literally, he shouts to the jailer, “May you not commit evil.”  When dealing with someone suicidal, it takes a clear and unequivocal voice from a person who cares; this is wrong what you are thinking of doing.  There can be no wavering on this.  If you want to stop a suicide, you must forcefully insist that it is evil, that it is wrong to kill yourself.  Do not leave even a crack open to the possibility that suicide is an answer to the problems faced.  Paul shouted because he did not want there to be any doubt in the jailor’s mind that killing himself was evil.  Of course the jailer could have still fallen on the sword but it would not be because he thought Paul approved.  If you want to help someone who is suicidal, you must insist that killing yourself is not an option and always wrong.

In the instant when Paul intervened he said something else that is critical to preventing suicides.  He cried out, “We are all here!" (Acts 16:28 NIV)  There was in this immediate reaction a burst of reassurance that it was not as bad as the jailer thought.  This is always the way to help someone who has lost all hope and wants to end life.  There is in every instance, more to consider, a reason for holding out and not committing suicide.  Yes it may be bad, it may in fact be terrible what is faced but regardless of how bleak it may seem now, there is someone who needs you someone whose life will suffer if you are not there.  It may not be as easy as it was for Paul who simply had to remind the jailer that none of the prisoners had fled the prison.  Sometimes you might have to pull from a deep pocket to find some reason for hope but you can count on the Holy Spirit to help you.  Perhaps it is the family that is still there who loves you or the possibility of recovery or the encouragement that others can gain from the courage you show.  There is always a reason to live because in every situation one’s life matters and great good will come of it if given a chance.

Immediately the jailer responded to the hope Paul offered and he asked what he needed to do to be saved.  The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas.  He then brought them out and asked, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" (Acts 16:29-30 NIV)  Without hesitating, the two prisoners told him, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved — you and your household." (Acts 16:31 NIV)  Too many Christians think of the Gospel as a message or a new approach to life.  It is far more than that.  It is the power of God to change a life completely.  To believe in the Lord Jesus is the entry way in which the Lord comes into the personality and rebuilds it.  The sin that has wrecked so much within begins to be taken from it so that memories and damaged emotions and broken dreams can be worked out by God and replaced with hope and promise and a fresh start.  The root cause of every suicide is Sin, whether it is brought on by the sin we have committed or the sin that has been committed against us or the physical damage caused by sin.  It is always the Sin that must first be addressed when the immediate threat of suicide is pushed back.  By joining with Jesus Christ in faith, there is no limit to how much healing God can do in the broken and aching personality.

When Paul told the jailer that he and his family would be saved if they believed in the Lord Jesus, it was not a quick fix panacea but rather what each person in his home needed to be made right.  The blood of Jesus Christ is a healing balm that goes deep into the heart of those who receive it and it works into every place of hurt and sorrow and fear and despair and makes life come fully alive at each point.  Paul did not call for the jailer to become Christian; he called for him to be saved.  What every person considering suicide needs is not a new religion but a new life that brings salvation.  The Cross of Christ puts peace and hope and even love into the human heart.   To put it another way, it makes the humanity of the person right.  We know this is the case with the jailer because of what happened next.  He never would have reacted as he did if the Cross of Christ had not worked its way in him and made him new in observable and hidden ways.

When our Lord takes hold of the one who is broken and hopeless, a miraculous transformation occurs that manifests itself in a dramatic way.  We see it demonstrated by the jailer.  Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house.  At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his family were baptized.  The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God — he and his whole family. (Acts 16:32-34 NIV)  Suicide is the cocooning of the soul so that it becomes withdrawn and self-absorbed and with nothing to lean upon but its own sorrow and brokenness its only way out is death.  All it can find within is sin and the damage caused by sin and in despair it finds nothing but self-annihilation as a solution to its pain.  When healing begins to take place, the soul looks outward and finds a whole world to love and embrace.  The jailer in this case saw Paul and Silas and the wounds they had and so he washed them and bandaged them and even that wasn’t enough to fill his longing to love and bring comfort and so he brought them to his house and made dinner for them.  Eventually, if the despair of a suicidal heart is to be taken away, the movement must shift to an outward extension brought on by love.  The jailer was drawn to the pain his new friends had and did what he could to take away their pain.  This was not a small deed he performed; it was almost supernatural in scope.  No jailer who wants to survive a Roman inquiry and court would take prisoners home and feed them.  Yet his love now could not be bound by the risk he felt expressing it because he no longer was absorbed with his own problems but now free to love the world God had given him

There are two verses worth memorizing and claiming as promises for all those who are broken by despair.  The first is Matthew 11: 28. "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (NIV)  Never forget that Christ really does bring rest and comfort to those who come to Him.  The second is Psalm 33: 20.  We wait in hope for the Lord; he is our help and our shield. (NIV)  We do not come to those who are hopeless and wanting to destroy themselves with empty hands and feeble alternatives.  We come with a Savior who is strong and able to save.  We come with hope that is not just trite verbiage but real hope that makes life good and filled with joy.  We come with God, our help and shield...the help and shield of every single hurting person we know. 

Suicide

1 Samuel 31:5 NIV

When the armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he too fell on his sword and died with him.

Have You Been Impacted By Suicide?

While I was working on my doctorate in marriage and family counseling, I decided to volunteer for a suicide prevention hotline.  After going through the practical training on working with callers, I was given my shift.  Four hours, once a week calls to the hotline were forwarded to our apartment and I waited for the phone to ring.  Sometimes I would go nearly an hour without getting a call and other times I spent the entire four hours on the phone.  Many times the callers were on the verge of killing themselves and I was all that stood in the way of them ending their lives.  Sometimes it was a teenager that called, other calls were from seniors.  Many were from alcoholics who were intoxicated and felt hopeless and broken.  Calls could last a few minutes and others hours. Often I had to first try to convince the caller to put down the gun or dump the pills in the toilet.  It was exhausting and unfortunately I did not get to find out what happened after the callers got off the phone with me.  One of the most frequent questions asked of me was, “If I kill myself, will I go to hell?”  Sometimes I would pray with the callers, other times I prayed silently as we talked.  It was the most stressful moments I ever had encountered; these shifts I took for the suicide prevention hotline and I heard many terrible and heart-breaking stories.  What struck me was how much pain and sorrow there was in people’s lives and I often wondered if someone in the supermarket or on the street as I walked downtown or even in the church where I was a member was thinking about committing suicide because life seemed too unbearable.

Perhaps you have been devastated by the suicide of a friend or relative and had a tough time trying to make sense of it.  Is suicide an acceptable option for someone suffering greatly?  Are there times when suicide is the right thing to do?  Perhaps you have heard someone comment that those with terminal illnesses or elderly ought to end their lives.  Do you know someone who is thinking about “ending it all”?  What would you say to that person?  Have you ever considered suicide?  Why is it that some people take their lives rather than face their problems and try to get past them?  What does the Bible have to say about suicide?  Does God have anything to say about suicide in the Scriptures?

There are seven suicides recorded in Scripture.  The most famous of course is that of Judas Iscariot.  But there are others also that must be considered if we are to have a Biblical view of suicide.  The first recorded suicide in the Bible is that of Abimelech who asked a servant of his to kill him when he received a deadly blow as he and his army attacked a town.  Abimelech went to the tower and stormed it. But as he approached the entrance to the tower to set it on fire, a woman dropped an upper millstone on his head and cracked his skull.  Hurriedly he called to his armor-bearer, "Draw your sword and kill me, so that they can't say, 'A woman killed him.'" So his servant ran him through, and he died. (Judges 9:52-54 NIV)  Technically this was an assisted suicide but the result was the same.  Pride and the determination that he could not survive the injury led to his decision.  Was he right to demand that his servant kill him?  Was the armor bearer right to run Abimelech through with the sword?

A similar situation is described in 1 Samuel 31.  King Saul led his army into battle against the Philistines and was wounded.  Three of his sons were killed in the fighting and his army was decimated.  Saul called to his armor bearer and demanded the servant kill him but this time the request was rejected.  Saul said to his armor-bearer, "Draw your sword and run me through, or these uncircumcised fellows will come and run me through and abuse me."  But his armor-bearer was terrified and would not do it; so Saul took his own sword and fell on it. (1 Samuel 31:4 NIV)  This did not kill Saul apparently but along came an Amalekite who later confessed to finishing the job.  When the armor-bearer saw what happened, he took his own life.  We see it here and have found this to be true again and again.  Suicide breeds suicide!

In 2 Samuel 17: 23, the advisor to Absalom who was leading a rebellion against his father, King David decided to kill himself when Absalom did not take his advice and strike out immediately and attack David’s army.  We cannot say exactly why Ahithophel hanged himself; maybe it was the humiliation he felt in not being Absalom’s most valued counselor, maybe it was his sense that the rebellion would now fail.  Whatever the case, it can be certain that his loss was deeply felt by Absalom at least and we assume his family too.  Pride…despair…hopelessness.  These are common threads found in the fabric of nearly every suicide.  Likewise, Zimri who also led a rebellion against his king killed himself when it became clear his cause was lost.  When Zimri saw that the city was taken, he went into the citadel of the royal palace and set the palace on fire around him. So he died, (1 Kings 16:18 NIV)

A second suicide is recorded in the book of Judges and it could be argued, and perhaps rightly argued that this in fact was not a suicide but rather a valiant act of war.  Samson had been captured by the Philistines when he stupidly let out the secret of his great strength to a Philistine lover.  Betrayed by the object of his lust, Samson’s eyes were gouged and with his strength gone after the Philistines cut off his hair, Samson was chained and thrown in prison. When the Philistines celebrated a national festival in their temple, Samson was brought out to entertain the crowd.  It all unraveled for the Philistines though when the Lord restored Samson’s strength.  Now the temple was crowded with men and women; all the rulers of the Philistines were there, and on the roof were about three thousand men and women watching Samson perform.  Then Samson prayed to the Lord, "O Sovereign Lord, remember me. O God, please strengthen me just once more, and let me with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes."  Then Samson reached toward the two central pillars on which the temple stood. Bracing himself against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other, Samson said, "Let me die with the Philistines!" Then he pushed with all his might, and down came the temple on the rulers and all the people in it. Thus he killed many more when he died than while he lived. (Judges 16:27-30 NIV)

Now if this was a suicide, then you could argue that God assisted Samson in it but it seems reasonable that this was in fact an act of war that would be no different than a fighter pilot attacking an enemy ship realizing full well he wouldn’t survive.  Yet the knowledge that many lives on his side might be saved if he followed through with the attack made this not a throwing away of his own life but the “laying down of his life” for his friends.  By taking down the temple, Samson killed the leaders of the Philistines and ended for a while the war between the Israelites and the Philistines.  Judges indicates that this was in fact a great victory for the Israelites, wrecking for a while the Philistine leadership and military strength which God seems to have helped Samson achieve.

Now we must turn to the last clear example of suicide found in Scripture, that of Judas Iscariot.  Only here and with the attempted suicide of King Saul is there given any sort of indication what the spiritual state of the person killing himself was.  With Saul, we are told that many years earlier, the Spirit of God left him and was replaced by an evil spirit that tormented Saul. Now the Spirit of the Lord had departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord tormented him. (1 Samuel 16:14 NIV)  Something similar is described with Judas Iscariot.  After Judas went to the Jewish leaders and offered to betray Jesus, he was with the Lord and the other disciples eating when Jesus offered Judas a piece of bread and instantly Judas was taken over by Satan.  As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him. (John 13:27 NIV)

In both cases, with Judas and Saul, there is described an evil invasion of the personality that is supernatural.  Both ended up taking their lives or at least trying to do so.  This sort of occurrence is not mentioned in any other of the suicides recounted in Scripture.  Of course not much at all is said about the mental state of any of the other men who killed themselves.  We can only guess at what was occurring internally with them.  What we do know is that the two most important suicides spoken of in Scripture involved people who were dominated by evil spirits.  Jesus says of the devil that he is a murderer.  You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. (John 8:44 NIV)  Christ also said of Satan that he comes as a thief who destroys.  The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. (John 10:10 NIV)

Before we take up this topic again next week and develop a Christian response to suicide, we must note carefully what the author of Hebrews insists.  The devil is the one who is in charge of death…Satan is in fact the death master planner.  He concocts plans for death, develops schemes to bring about death and pushes death on humanity. Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death — that is, the devil— (Hebrews 2:14 NIV) The only times we know anything about the internal state of those who committed suicide or tried to do so as documented in Scripture, Satan or demonic forces had hold of them.  If the devil is the one who drives people into death, then we must conclude that Satan is the one pushing people to suicide.  There is not a single instance in Scripture where you find a person of God committing suicide.  Even Job and Jeremiah, despite being miserable and wishing God would end their lives, never attempted suicide or tried to do so.  Despite the poor theology often developed by many writers in of the Middle Ages, they were right about this.  Suicide is self-inflicted murder and it must be assumed that Satan is behind it.  To aid in a suicide is to join the devil in his plans and to commit suicide is to make oneself his instrument.  Any careful assessment of suicide must take into consideration the fate of both the devil and death.  And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever…Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death.  (Revelation 20:10,14 NIV)