Bones & Breath; It's an Inside Job

[1]

Tuesday, May 22, 2018

The Lord took hold of me, and I was carried away by the Spirit of the Lord to a valley filled with bones.  He led me all around among the bones that covered the valley floor.  They were scattered everywhere across the ground and were completely dried out.  Then he asked me, “Son of man, can these bones become living people again?”  “O Sovereign Lord,” I replied, “you alone know the answer to that.”  Then he said to me, “Speak a prophetic message to these bones and say, ‘Dry bones, listen to the word of the Lord!  This is what the Sovereign Lord says:  Look! I am going to put breath into you and make you live again!  I will put flesh and muscles on you and cover you with skin.  I will put breath into you, and you will come to life.  Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”  So I spoke this message, just as he told me.  Suddenly as I spoke, there was a rattling noise all across the valley.  The bones of each body came together and attached themselves as complete skeletons.  Then as I watched, muscles and flesh formed over the bones.  Then skin formed to cover their bodies, but they still had no breath in them.  Then he said to me, “Speak a prophetic message to the winds, son of man.  Speak a prophetic message and say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says:  Come, O breath, from the four winds!  Breathe into these dead bodies so they may live again.’”  So I spoke the message as he commanded me, and breath came into their bodies.  They all came to life and stood up on their feet—a great army.  Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones represent the people of Israel.  They are saying, ‘We have become old, dry bones—all hope is gone.  Our nation is finished.’  Therefore, prophesy to them and say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says:  O my people, I will open your graves of exile and cause you to rise again. Then I will bring you back to the land of Israel.  When this happens, O my people, you will know that I am the Lord.  I will put my Spirit in you, and you will live again and return home to your own land.  Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken, and I have done what I said.  Yes, the Lord has spoken!’”  Ezekiel 37: 1-14^(NLT)

That Sunday evening the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders.  Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! “Peace be with you,” he said.  As he spoke, he showed them the wounds in his hands and his side.  They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord!  Again he said, “Peace be with you.  As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.”  Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.  If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven.  If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” 

John 20:19-23^(NLT)

These two texts, Ezekiel’s vision and the appearance of Jesus to His disciples after the resurrection, are not at all about bones or ghosts…they’re all about the breath of God!  Genesis tells us that when God created humankind they were nothing until God breathed the breath of life into them.  That is a simple fact; our Creator is the author, giver, and sustainer of all life.  If He decides the next breath will not be available to you or me…that’s it…game over! 

When Jesus breathed on his disciples it was an outward demonstration of the beginning of the indwelling experience of God in mankind.  It’s all about the breath, the life of God in us, and God working out his purposes through us. 

The life of God is an inside job!

And that was the whole point for both Israel and the disciples.  Both thought it was all over…the end…turn out the lights and go home.  Israel thought they were toast as a nation.  Yet God revived that nation just in this past century.  The disciples had seen Jesus beaten, nailed to a tree, and then buried.  Talk about game-over!  But now he breathed on them, and the breath of new life was filling their inner being with the power of God to build the Kingdom.

As Yogi Berra always said:  It ain’t over till it’s over!

For You Today

Is your church a just a mere bag of bones compared to what it used to be? 

Do you look at that person in the mirror and wonder where the time and strength have gone? 

Perhaps you’re looking too much on the outside.  Remember…where God is concerned, it’s always an inside job!

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

Go to VIDEO

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[1] Title Image:  Courtesy Pixabay.com (bones) and Pixabay.com (breath)

Discouraged

[i]

Thursday, February 23, 2017

So Moses told the people of Israel what the Lord had said, but they refused to listen anymore. They had become too discouraged by the brutality of their slavery.  Exodus 6:9^(NLT)

A “lagging sense of discouragement” seems to characterize what I see in the faces of a lot of people these days.  You can only guess at the source of such malaise.  Some would say it is a political season hangover.  Those who populate the far left and far right are treading water, with the left scrambling to come up with reasons why their candidate faded into the oblivion of an unfriendly electoral congress.  On the far right are those trying not to gloat in ungracious victory, and at the same time suffering embarrassment over the mixed messages that come out of the new administration.  Staying focused and level these days is like trying to nail Jell-O to the living room wall.

It’s hard to stay positive when everything has changed, changes daily, and it seems like no one really knows what is going to happen.  It’s as unsettling and discouraging as what the golfers experienced that day.  It was the town’s Methodist preacher playing with the rich businessman whose spotty reputation and foul-language belied the fact that he hadn’t graced the inside of a church for many a year.

The businessman was losing his temper over his terrible golf skills.  Every time he would swing at the ball and miss it by a mile, he’d roar:  I missed; I missed; I can’t believe I missed!  Four times on the first hole, six times on the second… I missed; I missed; I can’t believe I missed! 

By the time the golfers reached hole #11 the preacher had heard about the businessman’s missing, missing, missing about 40 times.  But it all came unglued on the twelfth hole when the businessman missed again…badly; he turned the preacher’s ears blue with a string of expletives that would have made a longshoreman blush.  And with that there was a lightning bolt from heaven that cracked open the cloudless sky and split the Methodist preacher clean in two! 

The businessman stood there, staring in disbelief at the charred remains.  Then, slowly, a deep voice from above:  I missed; I missed; I can’t believe I missed! 

There are times in life when all you can do is shake your head and agree with Scripture that the Lord sends his rain on the just and the unjust – and only He knows why![ii]

For You Today

If you’re feeling a little discouraged…or a lot discouraged…remember the settled fact that circumstances may be around you, but they cannot define you if you’re a child of God.

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

Go to VIDEO

NOTES

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Title image: By Internet Archive Book Images [No restrictions], via Wikimedia Commons

[ii] Matthew 5:45

While You're Waiting for God to Answer - Part Five

Friday, August 29, 2014

This week we’ve watched Job and his wife walk through some of life’s toughest lessons. Among  them:  don’t speak for God, don’t speak before God speaks, and don’t hide from God as HE speaks through your pain. 

LESSON #4 - DONT FORGET GOD LOVES YOU

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 19:25-27 (NLT)

Putting it mildly, it's been a tough week in the Job household.  As Job analyzes the situation, he knows that the circumstances are bleak.  He's lost everything he worked so hard to accumulate, including his health, the respect of his friends, and even his wife.  And yet he makes a dramatic and strange statement that, to the bystanders, hardly seems to fit the moment, I know that my Redeemer lives....I will see God.  

The circumstances say that Job is going down for the third time; his life is in the dumpster.  His family is dead, and his wife is looking to collect his insurance money.  Job's friends are heaping on the insult that Job has ticked God off so much that it’s all Job’s fault.  On top of everything the ulcers of leprosy are oozing his very life's blood. 

And through it all Job keeps singing about how his heart yearns within.  What gives?

The secret of Job's faith is he knew that pain and suffering are not altogether inconsistent with the love of God.  How did he know that?  God had placed the reality within Job years before when Job committed his life to the Lord. 

The story is told of a sculptor who was working on a bust of Lincoln.  Day by day he would only make a few carefully planned strokes with the chisel.  Each night the cleaning lady would sweep up the debris, and complain to herself about the sculptor’s mess.

As the bust was nearing completion, the cleaning lady recognized that it was the much admired Abraham Lincoln.  She got so excited she came back during the day to watch the sculptor work on it; she just couldn't wait to see it finished.  At one point she asked the artist, How did you know Ol' Mister Lincoln was in there?  The artist smiled and said, Oh, I didn't really; I just started chiseling-away what didn't seem to belong.

In a lot of ways, that is what happens to a person when he gives his life to God.  He is like a block of uncut rock with a masterpiece inside, just waiting to be let out.  Mrs. Job didn't see it.  Rather she only felt the pain of the Master's chisel; she never trusted the Redeemer's strokes to bring out her beauty.

Are your prayers unanswered?  What shall you do while you're waiting? 

Don't speak for God, or speak before God speaks; see what His word will say, search it, milk it, and digest it.  Don't hide from God; struggle with him as He chisels-away the rubble.  And above all, don't forget that He loves you...So much that He died for you. 

Life is full of choices every day.  In pain the division between those choices boil down to just two:  unbelief or faith.  In the midst of her pain Mrs. Job screamed unbelief, curse God and die.  It was her choice, driven by hard circumstances, to reject God.  She was never heard from again.  Mr. Job settled on I know MY Redeemer lives.  His faith became the first written account of how a person experiences transformation from pain to glory.

Trusting that God loves you will eventually give you answers; answers like,

I am the resurrection and the life.  Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying.  Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die.  John 11:25b-26a

For You, Today…

Most of us will never experience the depth of what Job suffered; but we all take our turn with pain.  

Let Job’s lessons help you be prepared to settle on faith; faith that God desires to love and help you through even the worst times of your life.

While You're Waiting for God to Answer - Part Four

Thursday, August 28, 2014

So Satan left the Lord’s presence, and he struck Job with terrible boils from head to foot.  Job scraped his skin with a piece of broken pottery as he sat among the ashes.  His wife said to him, “Are you still trying to maintain your integrity?  Curse God and die.”  But Job replied, “You talk like a foolish woman.  Should we accept only good things from the hand of God and never anything bad?”  So in all this, Job said nothing wrong.   Job 2:7-10  (NLT)

This week we’re learning lessons about suffering from someone who understood what it is to lose everything you have:  health, wealth, family and even reputation…we’re learning from Job.

So far the lessons have included don’t speak for God and don’t speak before God speaks. 

LESSON #3 - DON'T HIDE FROM GOD as He SPEAKS THROUGH YOUR PAIN

Should we accept only good things from the hand of God and never anything bad?”   

I have seen it happen way too often, that when trouble or difficulty comes, the very last place people want to be is hanging around the church. 

Some of that has to do with pride; we really don't want the whole church to see us at our weakest. 

Let’s face it, being the object of other people’s pity is not a comfortable seat.  It’s much easier to roll over and go back to sleep than to face all those smiling, happy people.

But another reason why people put distance between themselves and church during times of trouble is our tendency to blame God for being unfair.  Our troubles are hard and we think if God really cared, He would not have let this awful stuff happen to me. 

So our trouble is God's fault. 

This is the essence of Mrs. Job's statement to her husband about maintaining his integrity – worshiping God when there’s nothing left.  Job fired back that they had received so much blessing from God’s hand.  Now, in a time of severe hardship he was asking his bride to do the math; they were always in God’s hands. 

For much of their life they had enjoyed sunshine; now their landscape is rainy, bleak and dreary.  And Job cries out, Blessed be my God who knows how much of each is needed.

Job was not going to hide from God, or blame all his trouble on God.  Job decided to hang in with God and struggle it out with Him.  That’s what Jacob did; Jacob wrestled it out with God at the Jabok river crossing.[1]  Jacob wrestled with God over his troubles and fears.  And somehow Jacob sensed that as he wrestled with what God was pushing him to do, he would find answers that were higher than his own ability to handle life's toughest questions. 

This is what the Psalmist meant when he said, My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.[2]

For You, Today…

If you’re up against it – so much, every day - don't hide from God, worship Him.  You don’t have to be one of those “happy faces” at church, false smile pasted on.  The church should be the very last place in the universe for falseness. 

And if you’re in Job’s kitchen right now, you need truth, sitting alongside, praying, breathing-in/breathing-out.  You’re with Jacob at the Jabok River crossing, my friend in pain.

So, struggle; but in your struggle, sit still and wait for God to speak. 

He does, you know.

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[1] Genesis 32

[2] Psalms 73:26  

While You're Waiting for God to Answer - Part Three

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

So Satan left the Lord’s presence, and he struck Job with terrible boils from head to foot.  Job scraped his skin with a piece of broken pottery as he sat among the ashes.  His wife said to him, “Are you still trying to maintain your integrity?  Curse God and die.”  But Job replied, “You talk like a foolish woman.  Should we accept only good things from the hand of God and never anything bad?”  So in all this, Job said nothing wrong.   Job 2:7-10  (NLT)

We’re learning lessons this week about suffering from a champion sufferer, Job.

Yesterday we learned (in the poor example of Job’s friends) that just because there’s a break in the conversation, that doesn’t mean it’s time to open your mouth and insert your foot.  Imagining you speak for God is worse than foolish – it is damaging to those who are waiting for any word of hope or relief.  We learned – don’t speak for God.

LESSON #2 - DON'T SPEAK BEFORE GOD

Mrs. Job took one look at her formerly powerful, now pitiful husband, and told him to forget everything he ever believed about God and just end it all…die…fall on the sword!  Job looked up from his pain and growled, You talk like a foolish woman!

(He had to be in a lot of pain…no husband in his right mind talks like that to his wife if he values his life; unless it’s by cell phone).

Job’s wife wasn’t just being sarcastic with her advice; she probably could not stand to see her man suffering.  He had every imaginable kind of pain – physical, emotional, relational, financial and family.  He’d lost everything in his life except the boils.

With so much of mankind’s humanitarian efforts over the centuries aimed at alleviating pain and suffering, you have to know we take that seriously; and so did Job’s wife.

She took it seriously; but she took it beyond her understanding.

So often we are tempted to offer quick solutions, based on so-called wisdom.  It’s fine to offer solutions, but if it is to be a wise solution, it must be based on what God says.  The prophet Zechariah warned, "Be still before the Lord, all mankind..."[1]

God has the last word (no matter what), and we are wise to hear it BEFORE we make our plans firm, or our speeches heard.  David had a wonderful intention to build the Lord a temple.  He only wanted to honor the God who had been so faithful to him.  The only problem was it was not God's plan for David to build that temple.  Don't speak for God, or before God speaks.

When you’re up against it, patience is God’s way.  Often it’s not the easiest way, but we are called to be His, to trust Him in the worst of times, as well as when the sun is shining.

Remember that when Satan whispers “suicide” in your ear.  It won’t sound foreboding like the sound of SUICIDE; it will sound much friendlier, dignified, or even trendy.  There will be plenty of platitudes to support putting an end to the pain. 

          ·        God really wouldn’t want you to suffer like this, would he?

          ·        You don’t have to suffer; this makes no sense – you deserve better.

Some pain is inexplicable, unimaginable and seems so unendurable. 

But at the end of the day life is worth even that; and that is how precious YOUR life is to your Heavenly Father.  He should know; He suffered the cross FOR your life.

For You, Today…

If you’re up against it – so much pain you don’t think you can hold on.

Call a friend, your pastor, a neighbor; they won’t have all the words but they don’t need words; they simply need to be able to sit with you through the pain.

My friend in pain, sit still and wait for God to speak.

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[1] Zechariah 2:13

While You're Waiting for God to Answer Part Two

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

So Satan left the Lord’s presence, and he struck Job with terrible boils from head to foot.  Job scraped his skin with a piece of broken pottery as he sat among the ashes.  His wife said to him, “Are you still trying to maintain your integrity?  Curse God and die.”  But Job replied, “You talk like a foolish woman.  Should we accept only good things from the hand of God and never anything bad?”  So in all this, Job said nothing wrong.   Job 2:7-10  (NLT)

LESSON #1 - DON'T SPEAK FOR GOD

Mrs. Job had decided that God had forgotten the Job's address.  Her husband had messed-up somewhere, and it was so bad nothing could ever fix it!  The only choice left was suicide. 

Human beings seldom know God's reasoning for why things happen.  (At least He never asks me before He does stuff!)  We run afoul of common sense when we attempt to interpret for others what God intends; He is God, and able to speak for Himself.  Eventually, Job did complain about God's program, and demanded an answer.  At the end of the story[1] Job is humbled by God's answers. 

It is wrong to ALWAYS judge tragedy, sickness, and loss as a mark of God's disapproval; God's ways are indeed higher than ours. 

Job's friends thought they had it all figured out.  They did a friendly thing in coming to sit with Job for three days.  But when they started opening their mouths, trying to speak for God, they stuck their collective feet in them.  With their judgments on what was wrong in Job's life they offered their own version of Mrs. Job's "curse God and die." 

Be careful not to speak for God...you don't have the credentials.  God may be using tragedy in your life, or the life of someone you know to bring about some very holy things.  Remember the prodigal son?  He was a lot closer to success when he was learning in the pigpen, than when he'd first arrived as a rich kid, with all the trimmings.

Despite the wrong-headed thinking (and speaking) of Job’s band of friends and Job’s wife, Job needed them all.  Somehow their foolishness helped frame God’s real answer to Job in a way that eventually turned on the light bulb of reason.

For You, Today…

When you’re up against it, don’t despise the community around you, even when they suggest goofy solutions, or make really exasperating statements about why you’re on God’s hit list.  (Remember, you’re part of that community and have probably been on the other side of somebody’s pain).

Sit in the ashes when life makes no sense, and the walls have caved-in; loss like that calls for grieving!

But don’t speak for God, and don’t leave God or your community as a knee-jerk reaction to the unfairness of it all.  Or for a bit of band aide relief, like drugs or alcohol.  The last thing you need for real problems is temporary solutions that create more problems.

Sit still and wait for God to speak.

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[1] Chapter 38

While You're Waiting for God to Answer

Monday, August 25, 2014

So Satan left the Lord’s presence, and he struck Job with terrible boils from head to foot.  Job scraped his skin with a piece of broken pottery as he sat among the ashes.  His wife said to him, “Are you still trying to maintain your integrity?  Curse God and die.”  But Job replied, “You talk like a foolish woman.  Should we accept only good things from the hand of God and never anything bad?”  So in all this, Job said nothing wrong.   Job 2:7-10  (NLT)

Gary Larson's "Far Side" cartoon appeals to the weird-side.  In a cartoon he pictures several demons gathered around a desk in an office.  As you look through the door you see people in the flames; it’s a picture of Hell.  The demons, while looking at the contents of an opened suggestion box, are laughing like hyenas.  The black humor is that the people in the flames are really up-against-it; all they have is the suggestion box to cling to, yet the demons simply toss aside their only hope with derision. 

This depicts frustration, futility, and hopelessness.  It is humorous in a comic strip designed to present the ironic view of life; in real lives it presents an accurate picture of the tragedy and hellishness of separation from God.

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       Have you ever felt like you've been unceremoniously tossed aside, and your prayers have been put in the hands of laughing demons? 

       ·        Have friends and/or family cut their ties with you suddenly? 

       ·        Has the doctor ever said "cancer"? 

       ·        Has bankruptcy presented a real threat? 

       ·        Have your plans been put on a side-rail? 

       ·        Have you ever awakened to a new day BLAMED by everybody, BUSTED by circumstances, and just plain BUMMED-OUT by life in general? 

And you've asked God to help.....and it seems like even He is on vacation?   

Job was the millionaire from Uz; Job had a day like that!  And, for him, it seemed like the only response he was hearing wasn’t from above; it was the demons laughing!

Job's wife only speaks two sentences in the whole account of Job's trouble.  But we must not overlook the reality that it was Mrs. Job’s trouble as well.  She was the wife of a wealthy, healthy, influential business tycoon.  She had a family that was wonderfully successful and happy.  And then, for no apparent reasons, the plug is pulled, and her happy, healthy family is devastated!  Her children are gone, her friends have pulled her membership in the Junior League, the rent is due, and her previously powerful and in-control husband is sitting on the town garbage heap, saying blessed be the name of the Lord. 

Hello!  Will someone please pinch me, 

and end this nightmare?

Can we learn anything from Mrs. Job?  When the dear lady was going through her pain she didn't want questions answered, she wanted survival, and relief from her pain.

And so, perhaps, do you.

It’s easy for us, several thousand years after this all happened, to look at the end of Job’s story and see how God stepped in and answered it all.  But what comfort is somebody else’s “happy ending” when you’re going through pain?

In the next several days we will explore what Job and his wife learned through this experience.  We will learn several lessons about what to do while you’re waiting for God to respond to your prayers.  

In the meantime…

For You, Today…

Stay tuned.

Longing For the Good Ol' Days

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Don’t long for “the good old days.” This is not wise….Accept the way God does things,for who can straighten what he has made crooked?   Ecclesiastes 7:10, 13 (NLT)

People have different things in mind when they refer to “the good old days”.  An old man (like me) may be thinking of those early days when his strength could conquer anything.  An elderly lady might long for times when thoughts of “wrinkle cream” never entered her days.  A business owner might long for the days when others were more honest and the market didn’t beat you up like a road full of rocks.  All of us who are past the summer of life may be thinking of ball games, pretend tea parties and the innocence of the “better times” of a carefree childhood.

Solomon says that’s not wise.  Frankly, the good ol’ days were never that good!  Memory has a way of rationalizing-out the shortcomings of previous days…rose-colored glasses, if you will.  Rather, it’s better to accept the reality of where you are right now than to throw precious time in the trash, wishing you could go back to better times.  Solomon says it’s vanity; just an illusion.

The preacher of Ecclesiastes encourages us to face the reality of this moment and to accept that God does engineer circumstances to work out His will, and He has brought us to this point. 

And there IS, indeed a point to it all.

God has brought you to this day, this moment, with all your vitamin pills, daily medications and wrinkle cream, for his glory.  That’s the point!

While you have breath in your body – at age 29 or 99 – God’s intended purpose for each of us is to glorify God and live your days with joy, expectancy and integrity.  To do otherwise is to swear at the darkness and dim the light of God’s eternal purposes in creation and redemption.

I was reminded of this Sunday as we recognized a high school graduate in worship.  I asked Lillee to share some of her plans for studies at the college where she would attend this fall.  She shared what her major would be, and then said, clearly and with great purpose, it’s a vast field!

That’s the point – looking forward with expectancy and eagerness to see what can be learned.

That’s the tone I’ve heard in missionaries’ plans to serve in a needy area. 

That’s the urgency I’ve heard from a fledgling politician who wanted to make a difference.

That’s the hope I’ve heard in a new mother’s voice for her newborn child’s future.

For You, Today…

Question:  Are you looking back to the good ol’ days? 

Or are you pressing-on for what God’s call may be for today?

Answer that and you’ll know what to do with the rest of your day!