The Harvest

When a farmer plows for planting, does he plow continually?

~ Isaiah 28:24

One day in early summer I walked past a lovely meadow. The grass was as soft, thick, and beautiful as an immense green rug. At one end of the meadow stood a fine old tree that served as a sanctuary for countless wild birds, whose happy songs seemed to fill the crisp, sweet air. I saw two cows who lay in the shade as the very picture of contentment. And down by the road, eye-catching dandelions mingled their gold with the royal purple of the wild violets. I leaned against the fence for a long time, feasting my hungry eyes and thinking in my soul that God never made a more beautiful place than this lovely meadow.

The next day I passed that way again, and to my great dismay, the hand of the destroyer had been there. A farmer with a large tractor, which was now sitting idle in the meadow, had in one day inflicted terrible devastation. Instead of seeing the soft, green grass, I now saw the ugly, bare, and brown earth. Gone were the dandelions and the pretty violets. And instead of the multitude of singing birds, there were now only a few, who were industriously scratching the ground for worms. In my grief I said, “How could anyone spoil something so beautiful?”

Then suddenly my eyes were opened, as if by some unseen hand, and I saw a vision. The vision was that of a field of ripe corn, ready for harvest. I could see the giant, heavily laden stalks in the autumn sun, and I could almost hear the music of the wind as it swept across the golden tassels. And before I realized it, the bare earth took on a splendor it did not have the day before.

Oh, if only we would always catch the vision of the abundant harvest when the great Master Farmer comes, as He often does, to plow through our very souls — uprooting and turning under that which we thought most beautiful and leaving only the bare and the unlovely before our agonizing eyes.

Lord, let me remember that suffering is preparation for great glory. Amen.

~ from “Streams in the Desert” by L. B. E. Cowman

Babbling Like Gentiles

When you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then like this:

~ Matthew 6:7-9

Luke 11:1 tells us that Christ was “praying in a certain place” when the apostles came to Him to ask for guidance on prayer. Perhaps His example spurred them to ask; they saw that He did something they did not, and they wished to become more like Him. People, at least if they have any spiritual sense at all, feel a natural need to pray; but sometimes we get stumped or feel a bit lost, especially when we are starting out, on just what to pray.

To pray is to come into intimate contact with God; in fact His Holy Spirit is physically present with us when we pray. It is a gift sent to us after Jesus left us, and God sent the Spirit not simply for our benefit, but also because He wants us to know Him. Prayer can be a bit selfish — we do and are encouraged to take our needs to Christ in prayer — but we also submit ourselves to Him in the process, knowing that the answer will have a wisdom that our limited vision of what we want can never have. God knows what we need before we ask; it is the opportunity to be in communion with Him that is important, and also the opportunity for us to hear and learn — sometimes without realizing it — how God wants us to change.

The Lord’s Prayer is recited mechanically a million, a billion, times every day; but it was intended as an experience to change our lives. Even the person, I imagine, who runs through the words without thought on a regular basis eventually must be affected by them. They will seep into our mind. Of course, Jesus warns against “heaping up empty phrases like Gentiles” or “babbling like pagans.” He wants us to think about what we pray, to question, to say what we are really thinking, to mean our praise and put some heart into it, and to listen for answers when we ask questions. So at least on occasion, say the Lord's Prayer and pause to meditate on the meaning of each phrase. It holds enormous power for us.

Lord, lead me in my prayer life, for I desperately want a closer communion with you. Amen.

The Goodness of God

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning

~ James 1:17

One of life’s amusing moments comes when we observe a puppy or a kitten chasing its own shadow. It tries in vain to catch it. When it moves, its shadow moves with it. Not so with God.

God never changes. With him there is “no shadow of turning.” This suggests not only that God is immaterial and therefore incapable of casting a shadow, but also that there is no “shadow side,” in a figurative or moral sense, to God. Shadows suggest darkness, and in spiritual terms darkness suggests evil. Since there is no evil in God, there is no hint of darkness in Him either. He is the Father of lights.

When James adds that there is no “shadow of turning” with God, it is not enough to understand this merely in terms of God’s unchanging or immutable being. This reference is also to God’s character. Not only is God altogether good, He is consistently good. God doesn’t know how to be anything but good.

So closely linked is goodness to God that even pagan philosophers such as Plato equated ultimate goodness, the highest good, with God Himself. God’s goodness refers both to His character and His behavior. His actions proceed from and flow out of His being. He acts according to what He is. Just as a corrupt tree cannot bear incorrupt fruit, neither can an incorrupt God produce corrupt fruit.

The law of God reflects His goodness. God is said to be good not because He obeys some cosmic law outside of Himself that judges Him or because God so defines goodness that He can act in a lawless manner and by the sheer power of His authority declare His actions good. God’s goodness is neither arbitrary nor capricious. God does obey a law, but the law He obeys is the law of His own character. He always acts according to His own character, which is eternally, immutably, and intrinsically good. James teaches that every good and perfect gift comes from God. He is not only the ultimate standard of goodness; He is the Source of all goodness.

One of the most popular New Testament verses is Romans 8:28: “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” This text on divine providence is as difficult to comprehend as it is popular. If God is able to make everything that happens to us work together for our good, then ultimately everything that happens to us is good.

We must be careful to stress here the word ultimately. On the earthly plane things that happen to us may indeed be evil. (We must be careful not to call good, evil or evil, good.) We encounter affliction, misery, injustice, and a host of other evils. Yet God in His goodness transcends all of these things and works them to our good. For the Christian there are no tragedies. Ultimately, the providence of God works all these proximate evils for our final benefit.

Lord, let me always remember your perfect goodness. Amen.

~ from “Essential Truths of the Christian Faith” by R.C. Sproul

What Holds Us Together

For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

~ Colossians 1:16-17

Most of us marvel, from time to time, at the miracle of the universe or some part of it. We hear something mind-boggling about the human body or we think about how a human grows from a single fertilized cell. Or we hear that there are 100 billion galaxies, each with 100 billion stars. But, if you can sit still to hear one statistic about physics, you might be even more amazed.

Even when we are wondering at the universe, we simply take for granted the most remarkable thing of all: things keep their shape. Electrons exist precisely the correct distance from atomic nuclei so that they neither go flying off nor fall into the center of the atom; the chance of atoms existing, just in respect to the speed and distance of electrons being precisely what is needed for matter to exist, has been estimated at 1 in — excuse me, this number is so long it needs its own line —10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.

How any scientist does not believe in God is a mystery to me. The chances of reality occurring by some random bit of luck are, basically, zero. By its nature, the world is “without form and void”; what gives it form is God, just like it says in the Bible. God is what holds things together, in every sense of the word.

The Bible also tells us that God loves us; He knows who we are. We are important to Him. And one of the things He will hold together, if we put our faith in Him, is us!

So why undo His hard work and tear yourself apart? Everyone has problems; not everyone is smart enough to turn to God with them. There is enough God to go around.

Lord God, let me always turn to you when I am tearing myself apart; for I know that you and you alone have the power to make me whole. Amen

The Way

“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

~ John 14:6

This quote, as powerful and beautiful as it is, and as central to Christian belief as it is, would not seem to be controversial. But I am often surprised to find that people do not understand it. Some people actually find it shocking!

One of the most eye-opening (and disturbing) things I ever saw on television was a clip from the Oprah Winfrey show. At the time, she was the guru of a large segment of the U.S. population, mostly middle-aged women. If she put a book on her book club list, it was guaranteed to sell.

Furthermore, Oprah considers herself to be a Christian. She has publicly stated that “I am a Christian” on numerous occasions. Yet, she does not understand our Bible quote. She got into a major argument on one of her shows with a woman who stated that Jesus is the only path to salvation. Oprah disagreed, stating that there were billions of ways to find salvation, without having faith in Jesus (or even God, for that matter), but that people with good hearts would be saved. Oprah Winfrey repudiates John 14:6. In short, she stated a belief that nice people go to heaven, whether they have faith in Christ or not, and wicked people go to hell.

If Oprah — a person of good general intelligence, a professed Christian, and someone with a corps of researchers — misunderstands this, how many other professed Christians also do not understand it? They need to be corrected. People who do not know the basic teachings of the faith they profess, cannot help spread it. Moreover, they are apt to wander away from the truth in their own lives.

There is not very much we need to say about the meaning of the verse itself. Unlike much of the New Testament, the meaning is even clearer in Greek than in translation. “The” in Greek means “the only” more markedly than in English, and also, the Greek construction used to say “I am” is emphatic; it means “I am and nobody/nothing else is.”

The verse seems harsh to the secular world, especially to the “spiritual-but-not-religious” faction, who believe in God but (like Winfrey) think God rewards people with good hearts and selfless deeds by bringing them to Heaven. When they must listen to Christ’s actual teaching on the subject, it might sound like “we are better than you.” In fact, some self-styled Christian churches, not wanting to sound exclusive, will even teach salvation by goodness. They are not doing their listeners a favor!

Christ is the Word of God (John 1:1-2). If one does not believe in Him, then, one does not accept the Word of God. Christ does not merely tell us the truth; He embodies the truth. He is the truth. One cannot find God through ignorance or through lies, but only through the truth, and that truth is Jesus Christ.

Lord, I accept completely the truth that is your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Trust in the Lord

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding;

~ Proverbs 3:5

First off, we have to remember this: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart” is an aspiration for most Christians, not a reality. It is hard to tell how far one might properly take it. What would we be like if we hit the 99.99% mark? Something like John the Baptist, one would imagine. Or we might rather adopt a lifestyle more like Jesus Himself, because He apparently lived a little more conformant to societal norms than John. After all, He drank wine and ate bread, and even roast lamb, at least sometimes. He wore better clothes than John. He travelled to cities and towns, and seems to have slept indoors on regular occasions.

This train of speculative thought could run on and on, but the gulf between our lifestyle, and that of Christ or any of His disciples, is not the point of Proverbs 3:5. The verse addresses a narrow sliver of our being, i.e., our “understanding,” our thoughts, ideas, and beliefs. I only mention lifestyle to illustrate how far away we are from true attainment. We can easily see, in other words, that we are driving around in a heated automobile and sleeping in a comfy bed, and compare that to walking with only one staff and pair of sandals, or fasting in the wilderness for 40 days. It is more difficult to see how distant our ideas and beliefs are from the commandments of Scripture.

If we think about Biblical principles and compare them to our own lives, it eventually becomes painful. Psychology has a term for this pain: Cognitive dissonance. It occurs when our ideals and our conduct conflict. We spend an enormous amount of effort to avoid the pain of cognitive dissonance. There several approaches. Let’s imagine a Christian minister walking past a homeless beggar on the street and not helping him out. How does our minister manage to get to sleep that night?

Strategy number 1 is, believe it or not, simply forgetting. Our minds will bend so that we remember something different than what happened. When our minister reads, even the next day, Matthew 25:31-46 (“Lord, when did we see You hungry . . . ?”), he will not remember seeing the homeless beggar. Indeed, if you stopped him ten seconds after he passed the beggar, he might swear he didn’t see him!

Strategy number 2 is rationalizing our conduct. Mr. Minister might tell himself, “Our church donates to a shelter for the homeless, he can go there.” Or, “There are dozens of hungry homeless, I cannot help all of them.” Or, “If I gave him money, he’d just use it to buy liquor.”

But we are interested, today, in Strategy Number 3: rationalizing the ideal. We simply find ways, in our mind, not to read what the Bible says. A respected pastor in my home city recently told his congregation that such Biblical statements as “Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities,” (Romans 13:1), or “You must not speak evil of a ruler of your people,” (Acts 23:5), must be “read in context.” He then explained that the authorities of Jesus’ time were totalitarian, whereas we live in a democracy. Therefore, the Biblical statements do not apply to us.

If you guessed that this was said to a politically conservative congregation, while Obama was President of the U.S., you guessed correctly. (I did not have a chance to ask him if a Christian in Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia would, then, be obligated to submit to governmental authority.)

There are dozens and dozens of similar examples, of Biblical statements that are inconvenient to our mindsets. Every single one of us has some part of the Bible that we discount, an ideal given to us by God that we warp or discount in our mind, basically — well, basically because we do not want to follow it. We do not “agree” with it. We do not trust in the Lord, but lean upon our own understanding.

So, our assignment is for each of us to identify one or more passages of the Bible that we discount. Write down the cite for a passage you think is outdated, intolerable, unthinkable, illogical, etc. And meditate on this: “Is my criticism of this verse motivated by my obedience to God, or am I trying to satisfy some personal ideology or desire?” Do not worry about the mental pain, for the burden is light. In God’s mercy and forgiveness, we will find our relief.

Lord, lead me to trust you more each day. Amen.

God Will Use Evil for Good

As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.

~ Genesis 50:20

Joseph:

  Son of Jacob

  Graduate with honors from the University of Hard Knocks

  Director of Global Effort to Save Humanity - Succeeded

How? How did he flourish in the midst of tragedy? We don't have to speculate. Some twenty years later the roles were reversed, Joseph as the strong one and his brothers the weak ones. They came to him in dread. They feared he would settle the score and throw them into a pit of his own making. But Joseph didn't. And in his explanation, we find his inspiration.

In God's hands, intended evil becomes eventual good.

Joseph tied himself to the pillar of this promise and held on for dear life. Nothing in his story glosses over the presence of evil. Quite the contrary. Bloodstains, tearstains are everywhere. Joseph's heart was rubbed raw against the rocks of disloyalty and miscarried justice. Yet time and time again God redeemed the pain. The torn robe became a royal one. The pit became a palace. The broken family grew old together. The very acts intended to destroy God's servant turned out to strengthen him.

“You meant evil against me,” Joseph told his brothers, using a Hebrew verb that traces its meaning to “weave” or “plait.”

“You wove evil,” he was saying, “but God rewove it together for good.”

God, Master Weaver. He stretches the yarn and intertwines the colors, the ragged twine with the velvet strings, the pains with the pleasures. Nothing escapes His reach. Every king, despot, weather pattern, and molecule are at His command. He passes the shuttle back and forth across the generations, and as He does, a design emerges. Satan weaves; God reweaves.

Lord, let me always see how good might be brought out of evil. Amen.

~ from “You'll Get Through This” by Max Lucado

When It Is Gone You Will Be Welcomed

“And his master praised the unrighteous manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to their own kind than the sons of light. And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of the wealth of unrighteousness so that when it fails, they will receive you into the eternal dwellings. ”

~ Luke 16:8-9

Sometimes God brings wealth into our lives. We often speak about this as one of his blessings, and I’ve met Christians with significant financial resources who humbly describe themselves as being blessed. All wealth isn’t necessarily from God, but God does bless people with material riches (see Job 42:12).

When I was growing up, there was a point when my dad hadn’t been paid in a long time over a business matter, and my parents were unable to cover their bills. They had three small children to take care of, living month to month. My parents drew close to Christ and prayed. The money would mysteriously appear in our mailbox, in an unlabeled envelope. There was always just enough to get by, and we knew that an anonymous Christian had become aware of our situation and put it there. It was someone that God had blessed with the finances to help others.

The Parable of the Shrewd Manager (also sometimes called the Parable of the Unjust Steward) in Luke 16 can be a little confusing, but the point Jesus is making is not complicated; it’s just unexpected. He tells the story of a manager who was responsible for his master’s wealth but had done poorly in managing it. The master becomes aware and is about to sack him. The manager, knowing he is about to lose his position, relinquishes a portion of the debts owed to his master to create friendships with the debtors. It’s more dishonest dealing, but it succeeds. The man used the wealth under his control to build relationships that would help him. Even his master (who has been cheated in the process) commends him for his shrewdness.

Jesus’ point is this. If ungodly people are shrewd enough to use worldly wealth to create relationships among their own kind, children of the light should do the same among their brethren. In other words, in spite of his dishonesty, this man got one thing right. The point of wealth is to cultivate relationships, not to accumulate riches for its own sake. The manager’s termination is comparable to the believer’s transition to eternity. The end is coming, so there is no reason to hoard wealth. We need to take this example but apply it for godly purposes.

Wealth is not evil. We come into it by different means. God can certainly bless us with it, but this is not a promise he makes. God blesses faithful people in different ways, and I believe there are much greater blessings than wealth. Children, a loving spouse, and health are three that come to mind. But if God blesses you with wealth, he expects you to use it to help others who are hurting. Using it in any other way is a waste because when the end comes, the only thing that will matter is the people whose lives you have changed for his glory. These may become friendships that last forever, or you may simply remain behind the scenes. But either way, you are using your blessing to bless others. God doesn’t give people wealth to simply indulge themselves. We are accountable for what we do with it, on the final day.

I don’t know who put that money in our mailbox, those many years ago, but we were able to buy food with it, and it got us through a dark time. One day I will know who they are. But all that really matters is that God does, and welcomes them into his presence for their faithfulness.

Lord Jesus, help me to use the wealth you give me to glorify you. Allow me to manage my time and resources in a way which values things correctly in connection with eternity. Give me opportunities to bless others with the overflow in my own life. Amen.

~ Michael Cranford

Obey with the Best Heart You Have

Through him and for his name's sake, we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith.

~ Romans 1:5

Pray that Christ will give you what Scripture calls “an honest and good heart,” or “a perfect heart,” and, without waiting, begin at once to obey him with the best heart you have. Any obedience is better than none. Any profession which is disjoined from obedience, is a mere pretence and deceit. Any religion which does not bring you nearer to God is of the world. You have to seek his face; obedience is the only way of seeking him. All your duties are obediences.

If you are to believe the truths he has revealed, to regulate yourselves by his precepts, to be frequent in his ordinances, to adhere to his church and people, why is it, except because he has bid you? And to do what he bids is to obey him, and to obey him is to approach him. Every act of obedience is an approach – an approach to him who is not far off, though he seems so, but close behind this visible screen of things which hides him from us. He is behind this material framework. Earth and sky are but a veil going between him and us. The day will come when he will rend that veil, and show himself to us. And then, according as we have waited for him, will he recompense us.

If we have forgotten him, he will not know us. But “blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when he comes, shall find watching... He shall gird himself, and make them sit down to eat, and will come forth and serve them. And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants” (Luke 12:37, 38). May this be the portion of every one of us! It is hard to attain it; but it is woeful to fail. Life is short; death is certain; and the world to come is everlasting.

Lord Christ, give me the gift of obedience in all that I do. Amen.

~ John Henry Newman, 1801-1890

The Great Commission

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations . . . .

~ Matthew 28:19

Christ commanded us to go and make disciples of all nations. “Nations,” in this context, means “peoples”; really, what He meant was, “make disciples all over the earth.” What are you doing to fulfill this commandment?

Personally, I don't always get out of bed, clap my hands together in excitement and say, “I'm going to go forth today and make disciples of all nations.” If we are living in the flesh and our concerns are worldly — our default state of existence — this really seems like a heavy chore. Sometimes, we can't even admit it exists; we can't face the possibility of doing anything, along the lines of spreading knowledge and love of Christ in the world. We might send a check, if our other bills are paid.

But if we feel like this, there is a better way to live. Life in the spirit is, without any doubt whatsoever, less painful and more filled with joy than life in the flesh. This is a good gauge: Do I look forward to sharing Christ with the world, or does it seem like a painful or tedious chore? We can use this as a barometer, like the engine temperature gauge in a car, because if we are dreading or shirking our duty of bringing others to Christ, we ourselves are not getting our full share. To be filled with the Spirit is to have the Spirit overflowing, exploding. There is no such thing as the “right amount of Spirit.” If we have enough, we have too much and it erupts from us; if it is not overflowing, we do not have enough.

And most of us living in the West today are woefully short of this precious commodity that costs . . . nothing! God sent us the Holy Spirit free of charge, to hold us over until Christ returns. All we need to do is ask, in faith, that the Spirit fill our lives, and our troubles will fade into the background, their painful wailing drowned out by the joy of God!

So here is the secret of Christian living: Pray, study, meditate on God's Word, until the Spirit has filled you to the brim and you cannot wait to tell someone else about it, to share the wonderful thing you have discovered. The Great Commission will then seem natural and desirable, for we will be filled with love. And if we love someone, how could we possibly not share the greatest thing in life with them?

Lord God, fill me with your Spirit until it grows so huge that I must share it. Amen.

Love Those Who Persecute You

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.

~ Matthew 5:43-45

[One of the most unpopular of the Christian virtues] is laid down in the Christian rule, ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.’ Because in Christian morals ‘thy neighbour’ includes ‘thy enemy’, and so we come up against this terrible duty of forgiving our enemies.

Every one says forgiveness is a lovely idea, until they have something to forgive, as we had during the war. And then, to mention the subject at all is to be greeted with howls of anger. It is not that people think this too high and difficult a virtue: it is that they think it hateful and contemptible. ‘That sort of talk makes them sick,’ they say. And half of you already want to ask me, ‘I wonder how you’d feel about forgiving the Gestapo if you were a Pole or a Jew?’

So do I. I wonder very much. Just as when Christianity tells me that I must not deny my religion even to save myself from death by torture, I wonder very much what I should do when it came to the point. I am not trying to tell you in this book what I could do—I can do precious little—I am telling you what Christianity is. I did not invent it. And there, right in the middle of it, I find ‘Forgive us our sins as we forgive those that sin against us.’ There is no slightest suggestion that we are offered forgiveness on any other terms.

Father, forgive me my sins, as I forgive my neighbor. Amen.

~ C. S. Lewis, from “Mere Christianity”

Beauty and Goodness

How is the gold become dim! how is the most fine gold changed! the stones of the sanctuary are poured out in the top of every street.

The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!

~ Lamentations 4:1-2

Lamentations refers specifically to the wealth of Jerusalem, and how little it mattered when the city was destroyed. The precious stones that they had worked and fought for so hard were poured out into the streets like worthless gravel. They discovered what was really important: the precious sons of Zion, who died or were taken slave. And their value was not the value of gold. They were fragile human beings, the work of God, as humble and breakable as pitchers made out of clay. For their true worth was not their beauty, but that they were pitchers; that is they were containers, into which God could pour life and spirit.

We call a handsome young person with great talent and reputation a “golden boy” or “golden girl”, and when we consider life, how true we find that Lamentations is. Gold is by nature timeless in beauty, for it does not corrode; but it will eventually become worthless to a human being, for we do corrode. If we are beautiful, our beauty will desert us. Even if our physical gifts are modest, they will only become more so. So why do people strive so hard for beautiful skin, and count it so valuable, when we can see that we will have to live without the beauty? Is there anything more pitiful than someone whose self-worth is so tied to their youthful beauty, that they become grotesque from plastic surgery and cosmetic changes in their middle and later years?

Our worth is that we are God’s creation. Like the precious sons of Zion, we are a “holy nation, a royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:9); beautiful appearance is only a meaningless bit of fun. Our true value is that we are fragile containers created by God to hold His Spirit, and this is what will matter in the long run — and, if we are wise, in the short run.

Heavenly Father, let me always value myself an others as your vessel, and not by the world’s yardstick. Amen.

The Stress Trap

“Be on guard, so that your hearts will not be weighted down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of life, and that day will not come on you suddenly like a trap.”

~ Luke 21:34

A while back I had abdominal pain that became progressively worse over time. The pain was so acute I had difficulty concentrating. I have a history of cancer in my family, so after one very rough morning I made a trip to the emergency room. An MRI and blood test came back negative for any physical causes. I was chatting with a nurse who suggested this could be stress-related. The symptoms were physical so I told her that wasn't possible, but in fact, I was managing a lot of stress. After meeting with a specialist, the diagnosis came back with certainty. My symptoms were caused by stress.

Stress is something we all have in varying degrees, and if you are forced to live with it for an extended amount of time, it can take a physical and mental toll. It's not unusual to have physical symptoms and mistake them for something else. The question is not whether we have stress but what we do about it.

A typical way to address it, in our culture, is to drink. Alcohol has the ability to temporarily relieve stress. It relieves it, in part, by numbing us to the pain it creates. It allows us to detach and lose focus. It causes us to stay in the moment and not dwell on bigger things.

The problem with using alcohol is that it's temporary, and its effect becomes less effective over time and leads to even bigger problems. As a way to manage stress, it traps you in a cycle. To enjoy the effects that alcohol brings, you increasingly partake in behaviors which themselves lead to more stress. New problems arise, including physical symptoms such as loss of sleep, inability to concentrate, and difficulty maintaining social relationships. So you drink even more to manage the side-effects of drinking, and your burdens grow heavier.

In Luke 21:34, Jesus mentions drunkenness in the context of the anxieties of life. Stress was triggered differently in his culture, but the results were the same. It can bring you down and lead you into behaviors like drinking and partying (carousing) that can catch you in a cycle. It weighs down your heart, Jesus says. So much so that you can miss the thing that really matters. His words are framed as a caution, not a condemnation, because he knows that even good people can get drawn into this. We all have anxieties, demands, and pressure. The urge to find a quick solution can be intense.

Jesus' concern is that if we get caught in this cycle, we will not be ready for the day of his return. It's not so much a behavior he warns against but a weight which grows increasingly heavy. It can take over our lives, control us, rob us of life, and cause the years to pass by and become meaningless. We can spend so much time caught in the moment that we lose everything else. It is not an indictment of alcohol, it is an indictment of how we use it. If we use it to lighten our load and reduce our pain, we may never make it back to a life which lives in eager anticipation of his return.

The way out of stress is to stay away from temporary fixes and focus on the day we will be with our Lord. As we pursue him and see his faithfulness in our lives, our anxiety will lessen. He will prove faithful, and the more you trust him, the more you will find your heart is lightened. He will walk together with you, and lift your burdens in his timing. It is not the quick-fix; the process of discipleship is harder but develops character. As we refuse to compromise to the easy way out, we change on the inside.

I had to learn to put my cares in his hands. It was a process, and I am still growing. But my pain is gone. He is and will always be faithful.

Lord Jesus, I offer to you the burdens and challenges in my life. I trust in your timing and know that you are in control. Give me the courage and the strength to look to you in my times of trouble. Give me your peace as I commit to following you in all I do. Amen.

Ode to The King of kings

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzqTFNfeDnE&t=134s

Conforming to the World

Therefore do not become partners with them; for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light, and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.

~ Ephesians 5:7-11

Whether we find Christ later in life or are fortunate to have been raised in a Christian life, one of the great temptations we have is to mingle with atheists. It really seems so harmless, especially if they are nice people, or funny, or we are single and attracted to a pretty/handsome face and a pleasant personality. Plus, we convince ourselves, aren’t we supposed to go out into the world in order to spread the Gospel?

It is actually almost impossible to avoid interaction with the unsaved. Even the Amish, who try about as hard as possible to maintain their relationships within a Christian community, are sometimes forced by necessity to take jobs at “English” factories (who love to hire them, since they are generally about the hardest working people one can find); and even the lucky ones, who can afford the land to farm, must shop in stores, sell goods to outsiders, go to English doctors, etc..

But if we want to deepen our life in Christ and grow in the Spirit, it is important to spend as much time in the company of other Christians as possible, especially when we simply socialize. Christian fellowship is a powerful tool in so many ways: not to mention, it is ordained by God. We have sufficient temptation pulling us away from Christ by our nature; we don’t need to add the unholy voices, sights, and opinions of those who walk in darkness, flooding into our minds.

The Great Commission, to spread the Gospel to the whole world, does not mean constant argument with atheists and mockers. Even the apostles (who were way holier than I am and, I assume, anyone reading this) were told by Christ Himself: if you approach someone and they will not hear you, “knock the dust off your sandals” and move on.

Face it — we are human and we tend to conform to whomever we spend time with. If we are going to be pulled in a direction by the people around us, we need to ensure that we are being pulled in the direction we want to go, the direction Christ wants us to go. And the same holds true for movies, television, books and radio. Everybody wants to have some fun and get some entertainment, but the more we can steer ourselves away from the unholy, the easier we will find our spiritual growth. “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 2:12)

Lord, let me follow your will in choosing how I live my life. Amen.

Turn the Other Cheek

I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. . . . [L]ove your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

~ Matthew 5:39, 44

It is not so difficult for us to accept the teaching of “love one another.” We can picture a world where we are nice and forgiving to other people, and they treat us decently for the most part. It becomes quite more difficult when the other person is not nice and forgiving to us. It turns into a one-way street, where we suffer and they other guy goes apparently scot-free.

But what do we think when the other person is evil? Unrepentant? Intends to repeat whatever awful thing he did?

Here is a message, spoken without doubt by Jesus Christ Himself, that tells us to pray for such a person, to turn the other cheek, and to LOVE HIM! There is no doubt and no contradiction to what Christ taught in this quote. There is no place in the Bible where we find him counseling revenge in certain circumstances. When Peter pulls a sword out in the Garden of Gethsemane, to physically protect Jesus from the soldiers and Jews comes to drag Him to an illegal execution, what does Jesus do? He tells him to put the sword back in the sheath. (John 18:11.)

If avowed Christians universally disobey a commandment of the Bible, this is it. If we want to be hated—as Christ promised we would be if we followed him—bring this quote up when an unarmed African-American youth is shot by the police, or an American journalist is beheaded by some Islamic radical or other, or a vicious rapist is loose in your own town. People will treat you like the person who committed the heinous act; they will call you ugly names. You will get emotional questions: “So you think we should just let him keep doing it?”

The answer is: “I don't know. I didn't say this; Jesus did. Ask Him.”

Lord, Let me never flinch from understanding your Word; and where we think I cannot follow it, let me be sad for my sin, confess my sin, and resolve at least to try, remembering that I am perfect only by Your Grace. Amen.

Faith: The Power of Heaven

Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs.

~ Exodus 7:12

This story is a wonderful example of the sure victory of God’s work over all opposition. Although the Devil may produce counterfeits, often attempting to overwhelm us with opponents, whenever God is in the work, you can be sure it will always swallow its foes. As long as God’s grace has possession of a person, the world’s magicians can throw down their rods all they want, and though every rod may be as cunning and poisonous as a serpent, Aaron’s rod will always swallow their rods.

The glorious attraction of the cross will woo and win the believer’s heart, and he who once lived only for this deceitful earth will begin to focus on the heavens above, yearning to fly away to those celestial heights. Once God’s grace wins its victory, even those in the world begin to look to the world to come. And certainly this is true in the life of the believer. Consider, for example, the multitudes of foes our faith must face. The Devil throws down our old sins before us, turning them into serpents. And how many there are!

But the cross of Jesus destroys them all, for faith in Christ quickly removes all our sins. The Devil also throws down numerous serpents in the form of worldly trials, temptations, and unbelief; but faith in Jesus is more than a match for all of them, overcoming them all.

The same “swallowing” principle shines brightly when it comes to faithful service to God. When we have an enthusiastic love for Jesus, our difficulties are surmounted, sacrifice becomes a pleasure, and suffering is an honor. If faith is truly a consuming passion in the heart of the believer, then it follows that there are many people who profess to have faith but do not, for what they have will not pass this test.

So, dear reader, examine yourself in light of this truth. Aaron’s rod proved it had the power of heaven. Is your faith doing the same? If Christ is anything to you — He must be everything! Never rest until the reigning passion of your soul is love and faith in Jesus!

Lord, let your power swallow up my sins like the staff of Aaron. Amen.

~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon

The Power of God

Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, on those who hope in His mercy, to deliver their soul from death.

~ Psalm 33:18-19

Robert Morrison was a remarkable man. At a time when China was utterly hostile to foreign influence, and the only missionaries were Jesuits in Macau who were antagonistic to Protestants, he studied Cantonese in England, became a doctor, translated the New Testament into Cantonese, and set off for China to start a mission! The East India Co. refused to transport him, so he went to China via New York.

When he disembarked in Macau after a seven month journey, the captain commented sarcastically, “So you think you are going to make an impression upon China.” Morrison replied, without rancor: “No, sir, but I believe God will.”

Psalm 33 tells us that the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, and the eye of the Lord was certainly on Robert Morrison. We know how powerful God is: He created the universe, and yet, He will have His eye upon us, mere tiny specks in the vastness of His creation, if we hope in Him with reverence and love.

God will do great things through us if we let Him. He sent Christ to give us an instruction manual and his apostles to fill in the details. We are not responsible for the outcome; we are responsible to prepare ourselves for holiness and then let God do His work for us.

It always seems that the world is headed for hell (and much of it is). Today as much as ever, with atheists and secular humanists filling the airwaves with pornography, celebrity-worship, and self-actualization, we might be tempted to despair at our powerlessness to affect it.

We may actually be powerless, but God is not! Let us make ourselves his vessels and claim our reward of heaven; then trusting in God, we can simply do His will and let Him be responsible for the end result.

By the end of his life, Morrison had translated the entire Bible into Cantonese, as well as writing dozens of books, including dictionaries and grammars of Eastern languages; started schools and a university; and planted seedling Christian missions all over east Asia, especially in China, Malaya and Indonesia. His was the first Protestant mission to China to survive.

Lord God, make me your holy instrument, and grant me the peace to leave the outcome of the battle in Your mighty hands. Amen.

Self Delusion

You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.

~ Matthew 7:5

Remember that, as I said, the right direction leads not only to peace but to knowledge. When a man is getting better he understands more and more clearly the evil that is still left in him. When a man is getting worse he understands his own badness less and less.

A moderately bad man knows he is not very good: a thoroughly bad man thinks he is all right.

This is common sense, really. You understand sleep when you are awake, not while you are sleeping. You can see mistakes in arithmetic when your mind is working properly: while you are making them you cannot see them. You can understand the nature of drunkenness when you are sober, not when you are drunk.

Good people know about both good and evil: bad people do not know about either.

Lord, let me my shortcomings clearly. Amen.

~ C. S. Lewis, from “Mere Christianity”

Dust Am I

By the sweat of your face

You will eat bread,

Till you return to the ground,

Because from it you were taken;

For you are dust,

And to dust you shall return.

~ Genesis 3:19

One of the big lessons in life is accepting your limits. I was in the gym last year, trying to lift too much weight, forgetting for a moment that I was no longer twenty-five. It was a very brief moment, for sure. I could feel a tendon pop in my hamstring as I released the dumbbell, and knew I was going to have to lower my expectations for myself, if I really was shooting for 80.

When we are young, we feel invincible. It's a shame that we don't get an opportunity to experience life at 50+ while we're young; it would change our perspective. We'd be more likely to understand that we're not as strong as we feel, that we can't charge through life and remain unscratched. We have limits, and we will eventually reach them. There is no benefit in thinking less of yourself than you really are; we need to take risks and set our sights on doing great things. But knowing that we are weak can lead us to a source of strength that is greater than the challenges and discouragements we will face along the way.

When God pronounces the curse in Gen. 3:19, we are referred to as dirt. The curse is a life of labor ending in death, a return to the soil from which we were made. It is the consequence of sin. But the curse is not that we are dust, it is that we return to it. We were meant to live forever by the breath of God within us; his breath can sustain even a fragile shell of earth for eternity. It was always his intent to work this way, to fill something common with something eternal.

Paul was someone who failed, a man who persecuted the Lord he later served. He depicts us in 2 Cor. 4:7 as jars of clay, earthen vessels which contain God's glory. The hardships we face in life expose the reason we need the Lord working through us to overcome our limitations. Paul says in 2 Cor. 4:10 that we carry around the death of Jesus in our bodies so that the life of Jesus would be revealed. By this he means that there is a connection between sharing in Jesus' earthly suffering and his new, resurrection life which never ends (Phil. 3:10-11). Jesus too was made of earth, and now has a body that cannot experience death; we are on the same path he took. So the curse is not all bad news. It is an opportunity for God's redemption. He had planned a way for his children all along.

I have gone through stretches where I thought I could succeed under my own power, without God. I thought I had things under control, that nothing could stop me. There was very little room for the Spirit of God at that point in my life; there was too much of me. I could even say there was a lot of dirt and very little breath. As I dealt with my failures, Genesis 3:19 was a reminder. It wasn't just Adam that sinned, it was me also. Without his Spirit working in me, I am nothing more than dust. In the end, my body and the things I have accomplished under my own power will return to where they came from. But what he accomplished through me will last, and I will live forever with the one who loves me and made me.

We will return to dust, but by the grace of God, this is not the end. If we have trusted in the Lord and followed in his steps, it is the beginning.

Thank you for your mercy on me, Lord. Thank you for the work of your Spirit in my life, in spite of my flaws. I pray that you would be glorified in all that I do, and that I would follow you with the anticipation of that moment I will stand with you in eternity. Amen.

Shake Off the Dust

And whatever town or village you enter, find out who is worthy in it and stay there until you depart. As you enter the house, greet it. And if the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it, but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. And if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or town.

~ Matthew 10:11-14

Christ charged us, and anointed us, with what is called the Great Commission. Our job is to go forth into the world and proclaim the Good News of salvation through Christ, so that all the world may hear it and have a chance to know it. But not all who hear it will receive it. Many will reject it, some vehemently and with mockery and sarcasm, and even violence. This is not our problem.

If we read the first verse of the quote carefully, we might suddenly realize an enormous implication to the worlds “find out who is worthy in it.” Christ does not tell us, “harangue those who scoff and argue until they agree with you.” He does not tell us, “Make them accept your words by threats and bribes.” He tells us, rather, that it is they who must show whether they are worthy, not we who must prove that Christ is worthy. We are not trying to sell them something. We are trying to give them life.

If they reject our message, it is not a reflection on us. We must not become frustrated (although we might be disappointed or sad). It is not part of our Great Commission to fit a round peg in a square hole.

Secondly, consider the implication of “let your peace return to you.” Christ seems to intend this to mean, “Do not attempt to bless a house that rejects your message.” But we might extend it to our own state of mind: “Be at peace when you bring the Word of Christ to someone and they reject it.”

We cannot let a lost soul disturb our peace; we should not feel frustrated. It is human nature to argue and try to win an argument, when you know you are right, and to feel frustrated when someone will not listen to you. We are not selling ourselves; we are not trying to prove that we are correct or smart or wise. We seek their victory, not our own. Those who will not hear us have not rejected us; it is prideful to cast the rejection in such terms. They have rejected Christ, not us.

And finally, “shake off the dust from your feet” when you leave. In other words: “fuhgeddaboutit.” It is not our job to save the world; it is rather our job to inform those in the world so that they might accept salvation, if they want it. The world will destroy itself, and the unredeemed will destroy themselves with it. Judgment is not ours to make and redemption is not ours to give. God’s Holy Spirit will flow from us to anyone who willingly accepts Christ, and nobody else.

Lord, let me be bold in witnessing to salvation through Christ, and at peace when someone rejects it. Amen.

Certain Victory

All the ends of the world shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before You. For the kingdom is the Lord’s, and He rules over the nations.

~ Psalm 22:27-28

We printed an excerpt from Psalm 22 in the Daily Devotion today. I was tempted to print it as the main Scripture, but telling the story of Jesus’ final moments from one of the Gospels is so important to celebrating Good Friday that it took precedence.

Psalm 22 is one of the most remarkable chapters in the Bible. It was a Psalm of David, which means that it was written 1000 years before the crucifixion. It is remarkable in the specifics, because of its uncanny prophecy of the details of the crucifixion. Psalms are not often directly prophetic, but Psalm 22 not only contains prophecy, but also, is more remarkably detailed than any of the so-called “prophetic” books.

I would urge anyone to read it, slowly and fully, as an appropriate lesson for Good Friday. For in addition to being a detailed prophecy, it is a general one.

Many psalms begin with a person who complains to God and then move through middle stanzas where the psalmist finds or realizes that his complaint comes from his own lack of understanding, and then ends by praising God. Psalm 22 is in this form.

But unlike other psalms of this form, Psalm 22 deals directly with the crucifixion of Christ. Although it seems to the mocking crowd around the cross that the insane and blasphemous poseur named Jesus of Nazareth has gotten what was coming to him — in the more poetic words of the psalm, “dogs have surrounded me” and “they gape at me with their mouths” — God will not forsake the righteous person who is set upon by the wicked, and did not forsake Christ on the cross. Rather, as the psalm shows in the second half, the purpose of the crucifixion will become apparent in the future, as people bow down to Christ and declare his righteousness to those who have not yet been born.

The Synoptic Gospels contain a moment, when Jesus is at the very point of death, where he quotes the first line of this psalm word for word. This cry is not, as some people will say, a cry of abandonment where “God” has turned his face away from “Christ”. (The notion is an absurd fantasy created, not from Scripture, but from the imaginations of men who forget that Christians are monotheists.) It is, rather, an answer to those who are mocking him; that his victory is assured.

Lord, let me always remember the absolute certainty of Your victory. Amen.