Good News for a Weary Time

 

Wednesday, December 8, 2021

With this news, strengthen those who have tired hands, and encourage those who have weak knees.  Say to those with fearful hearts, “Be strong, and do not fear, for your God is coming to destroy your enemies.  He is coming to save you.”  And when he comes, he will open the eyes of the blind and unplug the ears of the deaf.  The lame will leap like a deer, and those who cannot speak will sing for joy!  Springs will gush forth in the wilderness, and streams will water the wasteland.  The parched ground will become a pool, and springs of water will satisfy the thirsty land.  Marsh grass and reeds and rushes will flourish where desert jackals once lived.  Isaiah 35:3-7

We’re in the middle of Advent, a time for reflection and preparation.  At the first Advent it was a time of oppression.  Roman soldiers occupied Mary and Joseph’s country.  Taxes were high.  Government was a heavy hand, hard and capricious.  Mary was expecting her first child any moment.  Even at Mary’s tender age the exuberance of youth could be reduced to barely an ember.  Tired hands, weak knees, and, in Mary’s case, probably swollen ankles and backache were the stuff of every morning’s challenge.  And then came the tax decree that meant a week’s journey on the back of a donkey for a very pregnant girl.  Add that to the complications of pregnancy, and “weariness” just doesn’t begin to describe the difference between the darkness of Advent and the coming of the Day Star. 

Fast-forward a couple of millennia, and here we are on the post-side of two years’ pandemic-frenzy.  Heavy-handed and capricious government is still a reality.  Tired hands and weak knees are much the common experience.  And taxes?  Let’s not even go there!  That’s where the fearful hearts dwell too.  And Isaiah is still saying to us Be strong and do not fear…!    

And the normal response is, Lord, in your mercy.

Every time I think it’s safe to write (or even think) a phrase like winding-down, or, coming-to-a-close in connection with Coronavirus, there’s a new spike, or a new variant, or something else that stokes the flames of conflict and fear.  There is precious little rest for the weary, and little hope for any sense of normalcy in this world.  This old man’s heart aches for the groaning of our children and theirs, and for the children of Adam and Eve around the world.  This Advent is little more than waiting and whistling in the darkness.

And Isaiah still says the blind and deaf will have working eyes and ears; the lame will leap, and the mute shall sing; the springs will become rivers, and the echo of all-is-lost will fade into the distance like the memory of childbirth’s pain.  And it will be because our God is coming for us.  And anyone with a modicum of sanity understands that this world cannot sustain if He doesn’t.

And doesn’t that describe the waiting angst of Advent?  It’s not about Christmas trees, twinkling lights, and candy canes.  Salvation is not simply a one-and-done trip to the altar, or getting your name added to a church roster.  It’s not a matter of subscribing to this progressive doctrine, or that traditional dogma; salvation is the strength of the Creator, condescending to distribute His blood over our sins, and the Divine mingling with our souls.  It is taking away the burden of our selfishness and offering us a strong right hand of joy in exchange.

Advent is waiting for Emmanuel…that God with us.

For You Today

Emmanuel…kinda makes the wait worthwhile; don’t you think?

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title and Other Images:  Pixabay.com  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©   

For another post on this text see the WORLD UPSIDE DOWN

In Search of a Rainbow

 

Thursday, March 11, 2021

Then God told Noah and his sons, “I hereby confirm my covenant with you and your descendants, and with all the animals that were on the boat with you—the birds, the livestock, and all the wild animals—every living creature on earth.  Yes, I am confirming my covenant with you.  Never again will floodwaters kill all living creatures; never again will a flood destroy the earth.”  Then God said, “I am giving you a sign of my covenant with you and with all living creatures, for all generations to come.  I have placed my rainbow in the clouds. It is the sign of my covenant with you and with all the earth.  When I send clouds over the earth, the rainbow will appear in the clouds, and I will remember my covenant with you and with all living creatures.  Never again will the floodwaters destroy all life.  When I see the rainbow in the clouds, I will remember the eternal covenant between God and every living creature on earth.”  Then God said to Noah, “Yes, this rainbow is the sign of the covenant I am confirming with all the creatures on earth.”  Genesis 9:8-17

These promises of God’s to Noah and his descendants are always a welcome read after the horrors of the previous chapter’s judgment.  The whole earth is engulfed in a tsunami of God’s wrath, and every living creature (except those on the ark) is destroyed.  A rainbow of hope is more than a pleasant sight, it’s restoration of life and a reason to go on. 

Noah and family spent a year in a floating wildlife park, waiting for the waters to dry up.  We’ve been waiting that long in Coronavirus-watch-mode, and, frankly, it’s been just as dark, smelly, and frightening.   

During this time we have all been waiting for the rainbow to appear.  It dawned on me that I’m beginning to identify with old Noah as he sent out birds from the ark, looking for land.  I watch the news each day eagerly anticipating news of a breakthrough, a super-vaccine, or some immunity uncovered in a gene.  And each day is a little more disappointment heaped on the pile of floodwaters of (my grandsons would call them “Rona-waters”).  No land in sight; skies still gloomy.

Enter the God who precipitated the flood, and now delivers the dry land with a promise that the worst is over.  The sight is awesome, rainbows of promise bursting through the sky like a new day’s glory, and there is, once-again, hope.  This is a rainbow of which Dorothy, the tin man, scarecrow, and cowardly lion could never imagine.  For Noah and his tribe of 7, this wasn’t Oz, it was Eden returned!

Is this not the ending for which we all long, to have a new beginning, and a new outlook?  It’s three-parts joy and one-part nervous anticipation of a new day’s challenges.  What will after-the-storm bring to this world?  Will we begin to live-into the covenant as was offered to Noah?  Will we be different than the generation Noah left behind at the dock?  They were a sorrowful stench in the nostrils of Heaven.  They found no faith, even with righteous Noah preaching the message of coming judgment – for 100 years. 

Our world has had a greater witness than Noah’s.  We’ve had the prophets of old, Micah, Jonah, Isaiah, and many more.  We’ve had the forerunner, John the Baptist, telling us to prepare.  We had the loving ministry and word of The Incarnate Word of God, witness of the cross, and two-thousand years of the church’s testimony. 

And our world hears little of it.  Sometimes the church barely acknowledges it.

And yet, it’s all part of God’s holy plan, all evidence of the coming fulfillment of prophecy, and the sovereignty of Heaven’s will.  There is coming a time (and could it be soon?), when all nature will testify to the glory of God, His plan to wipe away every tear, put death to death, and retire the idea of time.  And His judgment, separating the sheep from the goats, darkness of night’s ignorance from the light of His glory, and establishing the eternal Kingdom of holiness and joy will be complete…the final splash of color in a rainbow of promise.

For You Today

Being on the right-side of history is an easy call to see.  It is Christ, the hope of glory, who calls you into this search for a rainbow of hope…and it is Christ who extends his loving hand for you to step up into the ark of His covenant.  It’s more than just shelter in the storm, it’s eternity in His presence!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!  

[1] Title Image:  Courtesy of Pixabay.com    Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©

Peace in the Pandemic - Part 2

 

Tuesday, February 16, 2021

Here’s how the conversation went the other day with my friend:

Me:  This pandemic thing is getting old!  Him:  It does get old, doesn’t it?

I didn’t ask permission from my friend to quote us…because this is what we call “public domain” – nobody has a copyright on those words.  If you read them today you could just as well have written them yesterday; you’ve had that conversation sometime within the last year.

And here’s another conversation you’ve had (although the so-called conversation had no other participants than you and the words echoing around in your mind and soul):

Me:  This pandemic thing is scary.

Me:  I wonder if this year will be the date they’ll put on my tombstone?

Me:  I don’t want to think about this.

And yet, think about this is what we do.  Years ago a co-worker of mine said:  Everyone over the age of 40 thinks about death at least once a day.  But that statistical analysis wasn’t opined during a pandemic, where the news channels have that death box on the screen during their broadcasts.  With half a million deaths in this country (so far), I’m thinking the newscast audience pool is shrinking!  Who wants to watch death winning?

Enter the words of Job, from (at least) 3,500 years ago.  Job was a rich man, and a godly man.  He was also one of the most unfortunate men in history.  He had it all, wealth, health, family, community respect, and a life of integrity.  And then, in a single afternoon, Job lost it all, except for his integrity and faith in God.  His family died in a tragic disaster, his wealth robbed, friends suspecting he’d sinned bigtime, and his wife urging him to commit suicide.  But Job hung-on!

“Oh, that my words could be recorded.  Oh, that they could be inscribed on a monument, carved with an iron chisel and filled with lead, engraved forever in the rock.  “But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and he will stand upon the earth at last.  And after my body has decayed, yet in my body I will see God!  I will see him for myself.  Yes, I will see him with my own eyes.  I am overwhelmed at the thought!  Job 19:23-27

From our perspective (on this side of the cross), we know Job did more than hang-on, he prevailed.  Reading the end of Job’s epic we see that his integrity and faith in God were vindicated, and the last days of his life were more prosperous and redemptive than before.   

That’s not just a heartwarming end to a tragic story, that is a textbook track for we humans to live on, especially now in a worldwide health crisis.  With as much as pulls at us to “curse God and die” (as Mrs. Job so eloquently preached to her hubby), there is every evidence and urging in Scripture to have faith in God.  No matter what it looks like on the newscast screen, God is behind that screen, and HE will have the last word.

For You Today

A dear friend sent me some encouraging words a day ago, words from an old song in his church’s hymnal entitled If You But Trust in God to Guide You.  Written nearly four centuries ago during the time of the 30 Years War by Georg Neumark, a man, not unlike Job, who was fired, robbed, and regained all, only to lose everything in a fire[1], I think these words fit the bill for peace in the pandemic:

If you but trust in God to guide you
and place your confidence in him,
you'll find him always there beside you
to give you hope and strength within;
for those who trust God's changeless love
build on the rock that will not move.[2]

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

[1] Title Image: Russell Brownworth, own work (from a live broadcast of CNN 2/15/21                                          Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©

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[1] See here for more of this man’s remarkable story

[2] Georg Neumark 17^th century (Source:  Hymnary.org)

Peace in the Pandemic

 

Monday, February 15, 2021

I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”  John 16:33

Billy Graham said I know where I’ve come from.  I know why I’m here.  I know where I’m going- and I have peace in my heart.  His peace floods my heart and overwhelms my soul![1]

This was shared as part of Dr. Graham’s last public message; I think it makes perfect sense of the foundational need of every human being, particularly during this season of angst.  Let’s unpack the three greatest questions of human existence, and the reality which answers all of them.

1.    The Question of Origin – where did I come from?

Charles Darwin spent his life looking for the answer to this question and has been a major influence on humanity’s thinking for several generations.  But his thesis of natural selection misses the mark somewhat.  He posits how we evolved, but not the deeper question of how there was any beginning point…in short, what was life’s origin that eventually evolved into what we are now?  It matters little if you are “old earth” or “young earth” in your thinking; the real question is, whatever age the earth is, and its inhabitants, how did the earth get here.  For Billy Graham, the answer is:  

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.  Genesis 1:1.

2.    The Question of Purpose – why am I here?

Once the question of origin is settled, that we are here by God’s creative hand, it becomes possible to address the question of purpose.  From human existence we glean that every creation begins with a purpose of the Creator.  A clock maker creates a clock to display time.  A computer programmer designs a system to make sense of data.  God also has a design for us, a purpose.  That purpose is to explore God and pursue relationship with God and His creation.  Jesus summed this up in his statement to the disciples:  that you may have peace in me.  “That” is the word of explanation – all this because of that.

3.    The Question of Destination – where am I going?

This great question of destination is a troubling reminder that we are nomads, simply travelers on this planet.  Our moment in time is fleeting, and we have somewhere else to be.  To be on a journey and not know where you’re headed is tragic and empties the journey of any joy. 

In the message Dr. Graham gave he told of Albert Einstein on a train.  The conductor was making his rounds, asking passengers to show their tickets.  Einstein couldn’t find his, but the conductor assured him he recognized the great man.  Einstein’s reply was:  Young man, I also know who I am; I must find my ticket to remember where I’m going.  Again, Jesus has that answer for those who are willing to follow:

When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.  John 14:3

4.    The Question of Peace – how then shall I live?

This question surrounds the first three and becomes our daily living-out of the answers.  How do we live, considering our origin, purpose, and our destination?  We live in love, loving God, and loving the other 7.8 billion souls with which we share God’s gift of life.  This is what Jesus told us when this question was asked:

Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’  This is the first and greatest commandment.  A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’  The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”  Matthew 22:37-40

For You Today

The Coronavirus pandemic works against peace – just look at the public angst and outbursts of anger and violence.  It is a sure sign that we have trouble agreeing on an answer to the three great questions of our existence and purpose, and how to work out any of it. 

Peace will never be achieved by politics, wars, or economic advances; real peace that overcomes pandemic worry is for anyone who will come to Christ in humble faith.  It’s above our pay grade, but it is free for all.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

[1] Title Image: Pixabay.com    Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©

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[1] Saturday Snapshot – Billy Graham on Peace (The Cove Blog)

 

Good News

 

Then Jesus returned to Galilee, filled with the Holy Spirit’s power.  Reports about him spread quickly through the whole region.  He taught regularly in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.  When he came to the village of Nazareth, his boyhood home, he went as usual to the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read the Scriptures.  The scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him.  He unrolled the scroll and found the place where this was written:  “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.”  He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant, and sat down.  All eyes in the synagogue looked at him intently.  Then he began to speak to them.  “The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day!”  Everyone spoke well of him and was amazed by the gracious words that came from his lips.  “How can this be?” they asked. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?”  Luke 4:14-22

If you will, imagine this isn’t Randolph County in North Carolina, but a little country backwater hamlet on Long Island named Hauppauge.  You’ve come to church and, although you haven’t seen me in quite a while, here I am.  You knew me as Rusty, the janitor’s kid, brother to the school’s basketball star, Thom.  You knew we lived on the other side of the tracks, dirt road, not much chance of being a mover and shaker. 

Without so much as a how-do-you-do, somebody hands Rusty the Scripture reading for the day.  It’s Isaiah's announcement of the Good News and I read it in a voice you never heard out of me growing up in the 1950’s.  That wouldn’t be completely strange; we welcome guests and make them feel at home.  But then, the janitor’s son takes the teacher position at the pulpit and says…what I just read to you there; it’s all about me.

Who would be the first to call the Bishop?  Anybody for grabbing a rope and heading out to the big oak tree?  At the very least, you would ask, when did you get so uppity?  You were a nice kid – not much trouble (except for that BB-gun thing that one Halloween).  Where do you get off telling us God put YOU in the Bible?

This was the atmosphere in the synagogue that day as Jesus read Isaiah’s words, and then told them they were looking at Isaiah’s message, the Good News, an announcement that everything was about to change; in fact, had already changed!

Now, rewind 30 years to an angel announcing to Joseph (somebody of the social status of Rusty’s father, the janitor at Hauppauge High School) that God's Holy Spirit would overshadow Mary, implanting within her a child who would be Savior of the world.  That activity connected man and God together, and that is Good News.  The Sound of the Christmas Angel is a chorus of Good News! 

Once we get past the issues of humanity and immaculate conception, and how a carpenter’s kid winds up as Savior of the world, we have nothing but more questions about how this is such good news? 

The answer lies in a two-fold perspective. 

It is God’s Message

God is the Creator, Provider, and Sustainer of all life.  His nature is love and truth.  Anything that He has to say is worth our attention. 

It is God’s Message We Can Receive

The gospel accounts tell us Joseph was an average fellow, an underachiever at best, who died young.  Mary was an unmarried, pregnant teenager.      

What kind of trouble was Mary in?  As a teen (in that culture), she certainly was not old enough to speak for herself - she belonged to her father; As a female, she had no rights in that male-dominated society; As a pregnant, engaged teen, she was at least apparently guilty of misconduct, serious enough to call for the death penalty. 

The message was also directed to shepherds, socially, and religiously unacceptable smelly shepherds.  I have been around sheep.  They are cute in pictures, defenseless and totally without aggression.  But they stink!  And those who lie down with sheep (to borrow an expression about dogs) get up with a distinctive air about them!  

To the least successful of Earth's inhabitants came the sound of the Christmas angel, a song of Good News.

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.   He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives, and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair."  Isaiah 61.1-3^(KJV)

The sound of the Christmas angel was a chorus of Good News. 

It wasn’t simply good advice!  Good news is so wonderful. 

·       At the end of World War II the surrender of hostile forces to the Allied countries was good news. 

·       The discovery of a polio vaccine was good news. 

·       We await the announcement of the end of AIDS, SIDS, CANCER, and of course COVID-19; any of those would be the stuff of good news.

GOOD NEWS!  We recognize the announcement of good news, but what of the meaning?  What will happen? 

·       The Good News of the end of WW2 was that the troops were coming home, families would be whole again, and the body bags would stop being shipped home. 

·       Polio vaccine meant an end to the horror of a mother and dad's anguish when the doctor would say this arm, or leg would never be used. 

·       The Good News of an AIDS, SIDS, CANCER, and COVID-19 cure would mean death has been cheated again. 

The question before the house this morning is: What of the meaning of the Good News of the Christmas Angel?

Is there a difference this Good News will make in my life? 

I want to place before you this morning the Bible's uncompromising message of faith and hope, that the good news of the Christmas angel is above the end of a world war, or the discovery of great medicines, or the successes of political polices. 

The good news spoken by the Christmas angel means that God has heard the cries of a lonely, forgotten, sinful world; God has heard, and He has given, and because of that we can find meaning and hope, and life can be filled with peace and assurance. 

The angel said to this frightened, pregnant teenager:  Mary, you have found favor with God.  The word is cha'ris.  Many times in the New Testament this word is translated grace, the unmerited favor of God.  A Bible dictionary calls this word …the divine influence on the heart, which is reflected in the life…when that happens to you on the inside it shows unmistakably on the outside.  The word has its' origin in a basic word that means to be cheerful, or calm about life's conditions. 

So the Christmas angel is saying to this girl in real trouble, there is every reason to be calm, God is smiling, and He wants you to smile with Him. 

If I were Mary, my response would have been, Yeah, right...check it out; I'm engaged, and not even old enough to date, and you're telling me I'm pregnant, and Joseph's going to buy it that the Holy Ghost did this.  You don't understand the trouble I'm in big fella!  What have I got to smile about? 

And this morning, you might be here with the same uncertainties about life that Mary carried around - You're worried that the mortgage won't get paid, or that your job is going to be phased-out, Christmas is coming and there's too much month left over at the end of the money as it is; or your marriage is in trouble, the doctor has just used the "c-word" (cancer).  And Preacher, you want me to smile because there is a God who's smiling?  Uh-huh!

Tom Allen, a pastor, and former Army Ranger, tells this story about the movie,

Saving Private Ryan.  Here’s what he said about it:

I was extremely proud until the last minute of the movie.  As the movie began, I was proud watching the Rangers take Omaha Beach.  Then the story begins when they receive a mission to go deep into enemy territory to save Private Ryan.  They hit skirmish after skirmish, and some of them are killed along the way.  They finally get to where Private Ryan is holed up, and they say, "Come with us.  We've come to save you."

He says, "I'm not going.  I have to stay here because there's a big battle coming up, and if I leave my men they're all going to die."

What do the Rangers say?  "We'll stay here and fight with you."  They all stay and fight, and it's gory and hard, and almost everyone dies except Private Ryan. At the end, one of the main characters—Tom Hanks—is sitting on the ground. He's been shot and he's dying.  The battle has been won.

Private Ryan leans over to him, and Tom Hanks whispers something to him. Everyone in the theater is crying because Tom Hanks was shot; I was crying because of what he said—it was so terrible.  Private Ryan bent down and Tom Hanks said, "Earn this."  The reason that made me angry is no Ranger would ever say, "Earn this."  Why?  Because the Ranger motto for the past 200 years has not been "Earn this."  The Ranger motto for the past 200 years has been Sua sponte, "I chose this."  I volunteered for this.

So, when Private Ryan bent down, if Tom Hanks was really a Ranger he would have said, "Sua sponte, I chose this.  This is free.  You don't pay anything for this. I give up my life for you.  That's my job."

And so when you look at the cross and see Jesus hanging there, what you do not hear is "Earn this."  You never hear Jesus say, "Earn this."  He doesn't say, "I've given everything for you.  Now you need to gut it out for me."  What he says is "Sua sponte."  I volunteered for this.  You don't have to pay anything for it.

Earn this creates the fear of unreasonable expectations, a weight which no person can bear.  The Christmas angel said "phob.e'.o not"!  Don't fear, do not be afraid!  It is the opposite of our normal fearful reaction to the calamities of life.

God's message from the Christmas angel was, Relax, everything's under control; Good news here!

What is the meaning of this good news?  No matter what crisis you face today, or tomorrow, or the eternity of tomorrows, this Jesus Christ, born so long ago, the God who became a man and lived and died among us – this same Jesus Christ is smiling....and he knows how to meet your need.  And the only requirement he places on us to be our brother is for us to have the same Father.

The sound of the Christmas angel was not simply good news; it was the BEST news this old world has ever heard.  To all the anxiety, fear, stress, every discordant note of hell, the Christmas angel announced the holy message:  God has said “ENOUGH”!  Let there be singing, and laughter, and joy.  My Son is born, and I am smiling!

Our Prayer

Father, the angels get their cue from you.  And Scripture tells us they all rejoice when even one sinner repents, changes his mind about who YOU are, and comes into the fold of YOUR forever family. 

LORD, we are so grateful in this season of Advent to prepare our hearts to celebrate that act of forgiving grace – what we can receive as a gift of Heaven, as a President’s daughter, or a janitor’s son…salvation, and the invitation to call you ABBA, Father.

For the glory, honor, and praise to which You alone are worthy, o Lord, we pray in the Name of the Son, cooperating with the Spirit, to honor and exalt the Majesty of the Father. 

Let it be so in each of our lives…Amen!

 

Title Image:  Pixabay.com   

W  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation 

Watch Sermon Video

 

In This Time of Our Deep Need

 

Friday, December 11, 2020

I have heard all about you, Lord.  I am filled with awe by your amazing works.  In this time of our deep need, help us again as you did in years gone by.  And in your anger, remember your mercy.  I see God moving across the deserts from Edom, the Holy One coming from Mount Paran.  His brilliant splendor fills the heavens, and the earth is filled with his praise.  His coming is as brilliant as the sunrise.  Rays of light flash from his hands, where his awesome power is hidden.  Pestilence marches before him; plague follows close behind.  When he stops, the earth shakes.  When he looks, the nations tremble.  He shatters the everlasting mountains and levels the eternal hills.  He is the Eternal One!  Habakkuk 3:2-6

A friend came to me years ago to ask for help.  I responded immediately, because the need was there, and this was my friend.  Simple as that; end of story.  Reflecting on the prophet’s words, I thought of my friend and what my response might have been if he weren’t in the friend category; what if he were my enemy…what would I have done?

Prayer is a little more complicated, but like that.  We are now in as deep a need for the hand of God as can be.  But the question is still the same, for God’s consideration, as mine about my friend…what if we’re not the friends of God?  Will it do any good, not being His friend, to ask for relief from the many dangers that encircle the camp? 

Habakkuk’s words are like any of the other prophets.  He speaks of the majesty of the Eternal One, His splendor displayed in creation, along with judgment measured by pestilence and plagues.  When God arrives, the earth rocks and nations tremble.  Just a word and a mountain crumbles; this is the God of judgment and grace.  The question becomes, for those who are accustomed to turning to God for help in times of distress, which God are we asking to show up?  Is it the one who holds forgiving grace and mercy, or the one whose fingers flash in destruction and judgment?

The answer to that question is dependent on who’s asking.  When a friend asks, he is evoking the meaning of friendship as a fulfillment of friendship vows.  When an enemy asks, he is implicitly throwing himself at the feet of the judge, asking for mercy.  Friends have a right to ask; enemies can expect nothing.

So the question begs another:  are we, in American culture (or any other nation on earth) friends or foe to the Eternal One?  And this is not a question about what we say – that would be cheap grace.  How have we acted?  What is the measure of our reasons for asking for our “friend’s” help in this time of our deep need?  Or should we be recognizing the enemy status we’ve courted, and just throw ourselves down in front of the bench for the mercy of the judge?

Well, as if a lover picking the petals off a daisy chants, let me count the ways…

·       War after war

·       Empty church after empty church

·       Homeless and starving amid a “Christian nation”

·       Aborted lives in favor of choice

·       Anger and politics the answer to just about everything

As a nation the popular vote seems to be to count on God’s friendship like the Emperor loved his new suit of invisible clothes; we’re rather naked in the end.

For You Today

Please know there are tears ready to flow from my eyes in the next sentence. 

If you’re prone to pray for your nation this day (or any other) pray for God to have mercy on us; we’re hardly in the friend category.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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Title image, Pixabay.com and    W   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©

For other posts on Prayer see:  Why Doesn't God Answer My Prayers? and Bi-Polar Prayers