The Great Miracle

John 5:6c NIV

"Do you want to get well?"

Do You Want God to Fix Your Life?

In the national news there was a story that was sickening to read.  It demonstrated just how wrecked our world is and how ruined it is by sin.  A man was convicted recently of raping his sister at least once a week over a four year period.  He was nine years older than her and it began when she was only nine.  The girl’s parents were often away at work and entrusted the care of their daughter to their son who was a young adult living at home.  What kind of horrible inclinations led to this perversion we cannot say but it must be stated clearly that it had a devastating effect upon the girl.  Now an adult, she tells of her longstanding anger toward her parents for letting her stay with her brother, her anxiety attacks, the loneliness she feels constantly as a young woman alone in her pain and the psychological numbness that she endures which keeps her from being able to experience closeness and make attachments with those who try to get close to her.

In a world that is warped by sin and its consequences, there is a sort of universal feeling that a new pill, a good counselor or a government program can put all the hurting and troubled people back together and make them good as new. Yet we have not seen any real success in our efforts to place bandages on a wounded social order that universally struggles to find peace and joy.  If it were just one or two people in our city who were struggling with anxiety, depression, loneliness, burn-out, bitter feelings, deep-seated anger and addictions, we could just ignore it and say, “well at least it isn’t me or someone in my family”” but it is us and it is our family affected by the damage caused by sin.  Your heart and my heart and the hearts of those close to us are damaged by Sin and that damage causes us pain and all sorts of sorrows.

The problem we face is universally experienced and it is felt in every corner of the earth.  Sin damaged hearts are everywhere and we cannot begin to express how much pain these wounds cause.  At the very center of all the wreckage brought on by Sin is Jesus Christ and Him crucified.  It was Sin that brought such hatred against Him that the cries to crucify Him rung out in the court of the Roman governor, that the laughter of the Jewish priests and soldiers as his body was bloodied and His face pummeled by punches spilled out onto the hill where Christ was nailed to the cross and hung there awaiting death.  More than that though, the Bible tells us that Jesus died purposefully, to do away with Sin completely, to take it out of us and eventually take it out of the world.  He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. (1 Peter 2:24 NIV)  What does die to sins mean?  This is of course why Christ gave up His life on the Cross!  It is the total and complete reason why Jesus let Himself be crucified with His blood poured out at every wound He suffered.  It was to take the Sin out of us and make us thoroughly free from every part of Sin, its poison and its damage, its curse and its sorrow.  To die to Sin means that Sin no longer impacts us, no longer has a hold upon us.  What Sin works in us and how it works itself out of us, it all is dead to us through the crucifixion death of Christ.

Yet we still feel the lingering effects of Sin.  We may continue to suffer psychological and physical pain caused by Sin and we still commit sins often and regularly!  Pay careful attention to this single statement we find in the Bible because it is critical to your happiness.  Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed — not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence — continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. (Philippians 2:12-13 NIV)

When we are talking about God working in you, what do we mean by that?  We mean the Holy Spirit joined with you, a part of you.  You could never experience God as a part of your personality, in union with you if Christ were not raised from the dead.  Jesus talked about this great miracle again and again, that once He finished His work dying for the sins of the world, He would give them through the Father the Holy Spirit to be joined to them, bringing comfort, insight and direction.  By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified. (John 7:39 NIV)  And later the Lord told the disciples, And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.  I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.  Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.  On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. (John 14:16-20 NIV)

How does the resurrection of Jesus Christ impact you directly?  It was only after He came up out of the dead that Jesus gave the Holy Spirit to His people.  He started with the Disciples the first Easter Sunday.  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)  Then on Pentecost the Holy Spirit continued to come upon God’s people and as they believed in Christ as the one who took away Sin, the Holy Spirit became  part of them.  All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.(Acts 2:4 NIV)   While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message.  The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles. (Acts 10:44-45 NIV) This great miracle of having God become joined to you is perhaps the most important news you will ever hear in conjunction to Easter.  God, who takes away Sin joins Himself to you as soon as you put your faith in Him to give you eternal life.

Now let us return to the matter of the change God wants to work in you.  For it to happen, you must work out your salvation yourself.  Pay careful attention to our verse.   …continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.  Consider this crucial discovery we have in Scripture.  You will find again and again the great miracles God worked for people did not take place until obedience occurred.  Naaman was not cleansed of his leprosy until he washed in the Jordan River.  The ten lepers were not healed until they left Jesus to meet with the priest.  Jesus did not raise Lazarus from the dead until the stone was removed from the front of the grave.  The lame man was not healed until he went ahead and picked up his mat.  If so many others could not be healed and their problems solved until they did what God told them to do, why should you think it would be any different for you?

Work out your salvation is not you making yourself saved.   It is not you taking away your sin.  It is you receiving from God the changes His death on the Cross provides for you.  There are hidden places in you, deep and dark places in you that take away your joy and peace as a result of sins committed against you and sins you have committed and the Holy Spirit, a part of you will get at them and heal them and take away the power they have over you.  But you must do something.  You must do what God tells you to do.  If it means loving someone you dislike, you must do it.  If it means acting kindly towards someone who does not deserve it, you must do it.  If it means putting down your phone and praying, you must do it.  If it means cutting off a relationship because it is turning you away from Christ, you must do it.  If it means reading the Bible when it seems boring, you must do it.  If it means stop criticizing others and judging them, you must do it.  If it means giving up a career that is making you greedy and discontented with God, you must do it.  If it means starting a kids club to help illiterate children learn how to read, you must do it.  If it means talking to someone about God and sharing the goodness of Jesus Christ, you must do it

With the Holy Spirit within you, Christ resurrected can heal any broken part of you and make that your strongest part but you must work out your salvation by doing what God tells you to do.  Perhaps the problem with your finances is that you are too afraid to trust God by giving Him a tenth of all you earn.  It might be that your depression is connected to your unwillingness to thank God for what He gives you when He gives it to you.  Your anxiety might be due to bitterness you hold in your heart toward someone you have never forgiven.  The peace of God is waiting for you to trust Him with your actions.  The Holy Spirit in you can heal even the deepest wound and give joy to you when you think happiness is impossible given your circumstances.

Our Lord admits that doing what He tells you to do may involve fear and trembling on your part.  You might be even ashamed to do what He tells you to do.  But if you just obey God, the miracle of Christ in you will make you happier and more peaceful and contented than you are.  Today I watched a crow peck at a bag near the fence.  Clearly he thought there was something in it he wanted.  Like those who do not work out their salvation, he tugged at the bag, flipped it over, pulled it out into the parking lot and pecked at it.  He put his foot on it and tried to tear at the bag with his beak but it was a worthless endeavor.  Finally, the crow quit, without any satisfaction for all his effort fighting with the empty bag.  At the same time, a hummingbird, like those who work out their salvation, when from lavender bloom to lavender bloom, getting nectar from the flowers and left satisfied.  What a worthless endeavor it is to go through life without trusting the Holy Spirit to work out of you all the damage Sin has done to your heart!  But, what gladness we have when we have given God all He wants of us and as a consequence He builds within us all the strength and joy and encouragement and contentment He has to give us as we trust Him with our lives.  

An Aching World

Psalm 49: 20 NIV

A man who has riches without understanding is like the beasts that perish.

What Do You Possess?

Last week I was in a high school class and I asked the students what particular strengths they possessed.  One mentioned that he was good at connecting with people, that he had the ability to look them in the eye and pay attention to them.  The rest of the class was either dumbfounded by the question or too shy to answer.  One young man, who I had gotten to know a bit had a strong speaking voice and I told him I saw that in him.  Several students gave examples of how his powerful voice would benefit him.  I asked another young man what a strength of his was and he could not give me an answer.  He could not think of a single talent or skill set that he possessed that was of any value.  In fact, he insisted that he was not good at anything.  Now I realize that the setting might have made it difficult for him to admit what he saw as something good about himself but it struck me what a tragedy it was for a person to have nothing to claim as a personal strength.  Perhaps there are many others who cannot come up with personal qualities that would benefit themselves or others.

Is it possible that you too really don’t know who you are, don’t know what lies within you that could be considered great or even spectacular.  What really are the strengths you possess?  Recently it was mentioned just how broken we are in places we aren’t even aware exists.  We don’t know the depths at which sin has damaged us.  Our heart is so vast and unexplored by us that we cannot really know what destruction our heart has incurred.  Yet there is another side to this discussion that must be considered and that is what sort of power we possess in Christ.  Are we certain we know what has been given us by God and the value of what we have?

Psalm 49: 20 declares the great loss there is to us if we possess riches that we don’t know we have.  A man who has riches without understanding is like the beasts that perish.  There is a witlessness to us when we are not aware of what great possessions are ours.  It is like we are as dumb as an ox if we have never noticed the wealth we own.  Consider the immensity of the claim found in Colossians 1: 27.  To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. (NIV)  The implication is that when Christ becomes a part of us, joined to us as a “new creation”, there are great riches abiding within us and it must be acknowledged that the vast majority of Christians have no idea what those riches are.  Is it possible that we live in nearly complete ignorance of what runs deep within us?

One of the most fascinating aspects to the relationship between Christ and the Father is the approach the Father took to the treatment Jesus received at the hands of those who despised Him. It was always the same.  Not everyone thought Jesus was a great man sent by God.  Many thought He was either a lunatic or possessed by demons.  Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat.  When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, "He is out of his mind."  And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said, "He is possessed by Beelzebub! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons." (Mark 3:20-22 NIV)  How did the Father respond to this unfair criticism?  He did not do anything.  He let their hurtful comments go unaddressed.  The Father simply let our Lord absorb them without shielding Him from the blows.

At Jesus’ most vulnerable point when it seemed like the entire world turned on Him, the Father refused to defend Christ.  Without a bit of evidence to convict Him, the religious leaders tried their best to come up with some way of having Jesus put to death but the Father did not send a single person Christ’s way to help Him.  The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for false evidence against Jesus so that they could put him to death.  But they did not find any, though many false witnesses came forward. (Matthew 26:59 NIV)   When Christ faced the terrors of Roman brutality, the Father left Him alone.  Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged.  The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe  and went up to him again and again, saying, "Hail, king of the Jews!" And they struck him in the face. (John 19:1-3 NIV)  To the very end, the Father did nothing to ease our Lord’s suffering or humiliation.  Then the governor's soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him.  They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him,  and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand and knelt in front of him and mocked him. "Hail, king of the Jews!" they said.  They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again.  After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him. (Matthew 27:27-31 NIV)

How can we account for the Father’s total neglect of the Son in His horrific trials? What did He have to gain by His response to the Son?  Whatever supernatural signs the Father did to support His Son’s work were never associated with His suffering or humiliations.  The Son was left, if we can be so almost heretical sounding in this, without the resources of the Father to help Him with all He suffered.  He was in a sense “on His own.”  The great force of our Lord’s own personality faced the worst that Satan and the World could throw at Him and yet without a hint of bitterness, self-pity or lust for revenge, He endured it all.  The Father offered nothing supernatural at all to the Son for His endurance; He left it up to the power of the perfect Son of Man’s own will to love without hatred and persevere without quitting.

This must be processed thoroughly.  Jesus had within Himself the power to love the most hateful sinner, endure the most demeaning criticism without having to despise the critic or try to defend Himself against the unfair charges.  He was able to face any seeming defeat without becoming at all discouraged.  Whatever else we might contemplate regarding everything Jesus suffered to bring an end to Sin in the World, we must also consider just how much strength was contained within the scope of His personality to face it fully without hatred or despair!  It all reached a crescendo when He cried out from the Cross, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. (Luke 23:34 NIV)

If we simply take a step back from the primary work of Christ in bringing salvation to humanity on the cross, there is a secondary effect that we must see.  Think about the immensity of this statement regarding the state of mind of our Savior just before He was crucified.  Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2 NIV) Our Lord, by what He suffered and how He responded to His suffering, revealed what is possible within the human personality when it is joined to that of Christ.  If you have been born again, you have Christ in you and all He has within Himself to face any difficulty or trial, you also possess by Him being a part of you.  The problem, and this is a most troubling problem, is that you most likely don’t even realize what our Lord places within you when He joins Himself to you.  It takes a great crisis, a tremendous force of evil for you to see what it is you have in Christ.

When the Apostles faced the greatest trial of their lives, the arrest and crucifixion of Christ, they failed miserably.  They were cowardly, self-pitying and without faith.  How could they ever know just what power they held within themselves with Christ a part of them if all they had to assess it was how they acted during the last days of His life.  God gave them an opportunity to discover it in a way most of us would try our best to avoid.  After they had been boldly preaching about Christ, the Jewish priest and leaders of the Jewish religious community rounded up the Apostles.  They called the apostles in and had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name.  Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ. (Acts 5:40-42 NIV) How would they have responded to this horrid beating before Christ and His courage and joy had become a part of them?  Most likely in the same they did to Christ being arrested.  They would have felt sorry for themselves and quit preaching.  Not now though, not with Jesus and all His strength and courage and love a part of them.  Instead, they were happy the Lord found them worthy to be humiliated because they lived with Christ.

What we must face squarely is this supernatural strength of character to peacefully find joy and the ability to forgive even when faced with brutal, beastly treatment.  The effect of this supernatural response to terrible circumstances may not be immediately seen but that does not mean it will not work eventually in the hearts of those without Christ who witness it firsthand.  Without the sheer weight of the cruelty faced by Christ it might never have been known just how much power was contained in the heart of Christ.  Anything less than this great show of force could have been disregarded because it was no more miraculous than the work of a Gandhi or Socrates.  This response of Jesus and then of the Apostles to terrible difficulties and brutal treatment was as wondrous a miracle for those present as the parting of the Red Sea for it showed just what a real person has inside when Christ is living within.  There are monumental trials Christian people face and they are sometimes horrific and God does not deny just how terrifying and difficult they are.  But our Lord lets Satan initiate them for this one purpose.  In them the power of God is revealed in its full glory.  Those who could never forgive true evil, who could never love hateful people, who could not on their own be courageous in such circumstances are courageous and joyful because of Christ within and that is seen for what it is; a true miracle of God.  You cannot know the full extent of God’s power in you until you face overwhelming circumstances.  You will not know just how great the love of Christ is within you if you never encounter someone you cannot love on your own.  Who would have known what our Lord could do if He never was crucified and your friends and family might not know just how great and wonderful Christ in you is if you do not encounter a hardship only Christ in you can overcome and in that hardship have supernatural joy in the midst of it!

Open Wounds

Open Wounds

Psalm 38:11 NIV

My friends and companions avoid me because of my wounds; my neighbors stay far away.

Do You Know Someone Who Is Wounded?

Years ago when I was still in high school, my father, who was a police officer took me in his squad car and let me sit up front with him on his patrol.  It was during the early seventies and there was plenty of animosity among teens and young adults for those in authority including police officers.  I was stunned by the anger shown my dad on the faces of students at the local high school as he drove past them.  He got a call to respond to a home where there was a family dispute.  I waited in the car until finally my dad returned.  He had been called to the apartment because an eleven year old boy had shaved off his eyebrows.  I wasn’t told why he did it and my dad may not have even known why.  I pictured that boy going to school without eyebrows, walking into a store without eyebrows, visiting the dentist without eyebrows, getting his haircut without eyebrows or eating out with his family not having eyebrows.  Everywhere he went people would look at him and wonder what happened to his eyebrows.  What would you have thought if you heard the boy had shaved off his eyebrows?  I can imagine that as the story got out among the neighbors and family friends, everyone would have had an opinion about the boy and maybe even of his family life.  Was he emotionally disturbed?  Did he do this out of rebellion?  Perhaps he was abused or neglected or just extremely immature.  It would be hard not to form an opinion of the boy and his home life if you found out he had shaved off his eyebrows and the police had been called after it happened.

What do you think of those who judge others?  Do you like to be judged?  Is it fair for others to judge you?  What is your first thought when you hear someone got a DUI or her pit bull attacked a child?  Do you form an opinion of someone who decides to get a divorce or file for bankruptcy?  What if someone comes in late for work?  Does it matter to you if your co-worker isn’t doing her job well or is blaming you for her mistakes?  What do you think of someone who cheats on his wife or lies to you?  Have you had someone walk past you without responding to your greeting?  Do certain people irk you?  What do you think of those who don’t show you respect or seem to not like you?  Once you form an opinion of someone, is it difficult for you to change that opinion?

I am fascinated by the account of Hannah who was so distressed over her infertility that she sobbed as she prayed in the Tabernacle for God to give her a child.  The High Priest, who was sitting off to the side thought she was drunk and so he approached her with his rebuke.  As she kept on praying to the Lord, Eli observed her mouth.  Hannah was praying in her heart, and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard. Eli thought she was drunk and said to her, "How long will you keep on getting drunk? Get rid of your wine." (1 Samuel 1:12-14 NIV)  Hannah fended off the accusation by stating the purpose of her trip to the Tabernacle.  "Not so, my lord," Hannah replied, "I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have not been drinking wine or beer; I was pouring out my soul to the Lord.  Do not take your servant for a wicked woman; I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief." (1 Samuel 1:15-16 NIV)  Imagine how embarrassed Eli the priest must have been to assume the worst about the poor woman.  Haven’t we all been in that same place, humiliated by our assumptions? Here Hannah was, assuming she was safe emotionally to pour out her heart to God and she was accused of something terrible!

The sad account of Michal and her troubled marriage to King David provides us with a painful reminder of how bitterness can degrade the human personality.  She had married David when they both were young but her father’s jealousy of David drove a wedge between them.  To save his life, David had to flee without Michal and for ten long years they were separated.  Michal remarried and David took additional wives but when David was made king of Israel, his only condition for taking the crown was that Michal be restored to him as his wife.  This was a terrible demand as Michal had rebuilt her life with someone who deeply loved her.  Yet David wasn’t interested in Michal’s feelings, he just wanted to consolidate his power by being linked through marriage to the previous king.  Clearly Michal never forgave David for what he did and her bitterness surfaced in the form of criticism of David’s extravagant worship of God.  When David returned home to bless his household, Michal daughter of Saul came out to meet him and said, "How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, disrobing in the sight of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!"  (2 Samuel 6:20 NIV)  David did not have the least bit of sympathy for Michal and her sense of loss but blew up over Michal’s criticism of him and the two never slept together again.

Many times criticism is formed in the heart due to deep wounds that have never healed.  We may feel justified by our critique and even think we are quite wise in our assessment but how can we be certain that our disapproval is rooted in a fair evaluation of the situation and not the result of our psychological wounds.  There is a certain sort of pleasurable pride in every sinner discovering some fault in another person.  This is a universal trait found in even the kindest of human beings empowered by psychological damage sustained though sin.  What must always be considered is that the force of our criticism and even the assumptions behind it very well might be rooted in our own dysfunction rather than any legitimate source of wrong committed by the other person. 

Few have contemplated the implications of a comment made in the rarely read book of Lamentations.  The verse is an example of what is known in the study of literature as personification.  Jeremiah uses the picture of a young virgin to describe the situation the city of Jerusalem faced.  What can I say for you?  With what can I compare you, O Daughter of Jerusalem?  To what can I liken you, that I may comfort you, O Virgin Daughter of Zion?  Your wound is as deep as the sea.  Who can heal you? (Lamentations 2:13 NIV)  What is important for our discussion here is how Jeremiah points out a critical component of the human condition.  The heart is vaster and less explored than the oceans of the earth.  There are great sections of the heart that are completely unknown to us.  Wounds that cripple us and warp thoroughly our decision making and evaluation processes are buried deep in the ocean of our hearts.  Sadly we act as if it does not matter at all how corrupted and damaged our hearts are.  We freely and contentedly judge and criticize without giving a whit how much our thoughts about others are influenced by wreckage embedded in our hearts and not by what those we criticize are actually doing. 

There is always one more fact we haven’t considered when we begin to criticize someone or think poorly of him or her.  The strange case of Noah and his drunkenness comes to mind.  Sometime after he and his family left the Ark following the flooding of the earth, Noah planted a vineyard and got drunk from the wine he made.  Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard.  When he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent. (Genesis 9:20-21 NIV) The reaction of his son is notable.  Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father's nakedness and told his two brothers outside. (Genesis 9:22 NIV)  This may sound completely reasonable and normal but the response of Ham’s brothers was much different.  But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it across their shoulders; then they walked in backward and covered their father's nakedness. Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father's nakedness. (Genesis 9:23 NIV)  Noah exploded with rage when he found out how Ham treated his drunken nakedness.  When Noah awoke from his wine and found out what his youngest son (Ham) had done to him, he said, "Cursed be Canaan (Ham’s son)!  The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers." (Genesis 9:24-25 NIV)

Whether or not Noah was right in his violent outburst is beyond the scope of our discussion today.  God certainly upheld Noah’s curse of his younger son.  Ham seems to have been disrespectful of his father and maybe even critical of his dad’s behavior.  Let us consider Noah’s actions.  Perhaps we would agree with Ham that Noah was wrong to get drunk and ignore the rules of common decency by lying around naked.  We might even contend that Noah had no right to get drunk since God had rescued him from the judgement of the world.  Yet consider what Noah had buried in his heart.  If there was no one on earth God wanted to save, if everyone was so wicked that He decided to kill them all, what must have life been like for someone like Noah who is called in Genesis a “righteous man, blameless among the people of his time…” (Genesis 6:9 b NIV)  How many murders had he come across in his six hundred years, how much cursing, how many acts of perversion, how many times was he threatened, attacked, mocked, humiliated and despised.  The wounds buried within Noah’s heart must have been as numerous as the fish in the ocean.  He was battered psychologically and maybe even physically.  What would it have done to any of us to have been surrounded by such ugliness and hatred?  Is it any wonder that Noah might have collapsed into a drunken stupor after it all was over?  What buried pain did Noah suffer that made him act in ways that others who did not know all Noah had been through might lead to criticism and contempt.  There is always something in every person’s life that we do not take into account when we evaluate their actions and judge their motives.

Jesus gave no wiggle room for judging but gives us carte blanche to pray for anyone we want.  Paul said that we are to “pray without ceasing” and that is the only reaction we can be certain God approves when we get frustrated or disgusted by someone else. There are forces at work that go even beyond what is buried within the heart and they are supernatural forces that wreak havoc on every person we come across.  We may not be able to see how much good we do praying for others we don’t like, whose behavior we don’t approve or that irritate us but God assures us that there is immeasurable good we do praying for each person He brings us.  We stop forces of destruction and bring into reality forces for good each time we pray.  Just because we don’t see what we stop and start is not indicative of all we bring to pass when we pray.  Never forget what Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.  And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father.  You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.” (John 14:12-14 NIV)  Never let this great promise of God slip very far from your day.  Always remember how great you have been made in Christ.  Such great lives have no time for criticism when they are busy changing the world.

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.