Good News

Sing to the Lord; praise his name. Each day proclaim the good news that he saves.  Psalm 96:2

This advice from the Psalmist is hard to hear while 2020 is still ringing in our ears.  After all, how do you say Good News when people are being carted off to the hospital and the morgue is so full there’s a waiting list?  On top of that the November election results are, according to whichever extreme point of view you choose,

a.     A fraudulent stealing of the presidency

b.     Under attack by unscrupulous liars

Now, before your eyes glaze over with O man, I can’t stand to hear one more bad thing about Coronavirus or the election mess…this verse has much more Hallelujah than Hell for us today.  The last two words the Psalmist offers should give us a hint:  he saves!

So, what does that have to do with the mess that characterized 2020, and seems to offer little hope for 2021?  Where’s the good news?  If He saves, to what are we being saved?  The short answer is, we are being saved from ourselves, our selfishness, and (to call a spade a spade), we’re being saved from our sin, and being saved to His presence, where there is safety, peace, and joy forevermore. 

Now, short answers are always, by nature, somewhat simplistic, or surface, and we need to dig a little deeper.  So here’s a thesis-bone for us to pick on this morning, about the kind of mess this world is in:

2020 was/is a test

…and that’s Good News

Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.  For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.  So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.  James 1:2-4

Jesus warned his disciples that in this world we’d always have trouble, even if we stick closer to him than a shadow.  Jesus probably gave that an eyeroll when He said it, because, sometimes, we have trouble because we are following Jesus. 

But here’s the good news about being that kind of follower who gets clobbered by COVID19, elections that seem to be controlled by Darth Vader, a jealous co-worker who lies to the boss about you, or a bully who picks on you for being a Christian.  Jesus knew it would be that way, and He’s already made a pathway for the Good News to travel your way:

Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.  John 16:33

So, knowing we are always being tested in one way or another, we have a strong hope in which to face 2021.  And, that being settled, we should let our endurance, our patience, grow in any opportunity for great joy. 

The question for the follower of Jesus isn’t what’s happening, and why do I have to suffer like Job; it’s more a matter figuring-out of how I can recognize tribulation, or testing, and live so my walk with Christ will bear fruit!

And isn’t it grand that we have that question before the house this morning?  Because my very good friend, Apostle Peter has more than political talking points for that; he has a few life-handles for us to grab-on and grow in our patience.

Here are three of the handles:

Life Handle #1 in troubled times - Humility

So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time he will lift you up in honor.  Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.  1 Peter 5:6-7

If there is one person who knew something about learning humility it was Peter.  You remember him; he was always the one speaking-up, messing-up, and giving Jesus a case of indigestion.  Peter eventually learned humility when he stood before Jesus after the resurrection and found out he was forgiven.

The reality about this in troubled days like we’ve seen recently is that the power of God is ready to go to work on what ails us in our homes, businesses, schools, and government…if we’ll just get down on our knees.  Remember the formula:

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.  2 Chronicles 7:14

Life Handle #2 in troubled times – Spiritual Warfare

Stay alert!  Watch out for your great enemy, the devil.  He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.  Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith.  1 Peter 5:8-9a

Spiritual warfare is a matter of trust and worship.  I know people who worship fishing; everything else comes second.  The same can be said for many other things, but when anything comes before God, a follower of Jesus Christ is not really a follower or disciple, he’s merely a fan.  He likes Jesus, but not enough to worship Him.  And that sets us up for that prowling evil one who’s looking for a Christian dinner. 

If you’re going to be ready for spiritual warfare in troubled times, your prayer life, study of Scripture, worship patterns, and sacrificial love of people will have to look more like first century, not twenty-first.

Life Handle #3 in troubled times – Family Strength

Remember that your family of believers all over the world is going through the same kind of suffering you are.  1 Peter 5:9b

This last life handle is connection with God’s people…particularly the ones in your own home, and church, and community – but also the church around the world.  The church is taking a huge hit in the organizational sense…buildings are closed, programs are on-hold, and the budgets are getting tighter.  But the worship and witness of the true church is unaffected. 

Here are two principles about that:

·       You can take the believers out of the buildings – they won’t miss a beat worshipping and serving the King of Kings

·       If you take make believe believers, pretenders out of their buildings and programs, you’ve taken away the only Jesus they know.

Anyone who knows me knows I love words.  I love reading and learning ways to communicate, so I can do a better job of sharing God’s Word.  I even belong to several websites devoted to helping your vocabulary.  I get a new word every day.  One day this past week I got a new word that (I’m certain) most of you have never encountered.  It is a slang expression heard mostly in Great Britain.  Are you ready for this?  The word is coddiwomple.  It’s so alien to the U.S. brand of English my spell checker didn’t recognize it.  It means to travel purposefully toward an as-yet unknown destination.

This is exactly what Paul wrote to the Hebrew believers about serving without seeing first:

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.  Hebrews 11:1

An example of this word would be the meaning of faith.  It was by coddiwomple Abraham obeyed God.  God told Abraham to go offer Isaac as a sacrifice.  What did Abraham do…he coddiwompled…loaded the backpack with firewood, a sacrifice knife, and headed out for Mt. Moriah!  It wasn’t an easy time of it, but his faithful moving towards the mountain (coddiwompling) meant the power of God was carrying him through.

Peter’s life-handles for troubling times, humility, staying on alert in spiritual warfare, and counting on the family of God…these are the ways you do what the Psalmist said, to sing to the Lord, praise His name, and proclaim the Good News each day, building your endurance and experience the assuring peace and joy of God’s presence each day.

Listen to what Peter said would come of all that:

In his kindness God called you to share in his eternal glory by means of Christ Jesus.  So after you have suffered a little while, he will restore, support, and strengthen you, and he will place you on a firm foundation.  All power to him forever! Amen.  1 Peter 5:10-11

Beloved, while COVID and the Political and economic crises are cleaning everyone’s clock in the U.S. and around the world, believers who have learned to coddiwomple to God’s will are excited and looking forward to His next chapter.  For us, that is Good News!  In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

Our Prayer

Father, help us to never lose sight of the direction to which you’ve said we’re marching…all the way to Zion, that city on a splendid hill, where there is a temple made without hands, and the doors are open and unguarded, and the light of your welcoming glory are always on!

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:  via Pixabay.com W  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation 

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Joy in Troubling Times

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Monday, October 7, 2019

Beside the rivers of Babylon, we sat and wept  as we thought of Jerusalem.  We put away our harps, hanging them on the branches of poplar trees.  For our captors demanded a song from us.  Our tormentors insisted on a joyful hymn:  “Sing us one of those songs of Jerusalem!”  But how can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a pagan land?  Psalm 137:1-4

It’s strangely perplexing when someone reacts to news in just the opposite way you’d expect.  A person hears that a friend just got a promotion and bursts into tears.  Another gets the news that her uncle just died and tries to stifle the smile.  What gives with our emotions and bad or good news?

The Psalmist is a case in point.  The mood of Israel after being run over by the Babylonian armies was sullen.  The enemy had killed every person who was a perceived threat, looting the temple, crippling the peoples’ spirit, and destroying any hope of ever returning to the days of David’s grandeur.  On top of it all the residents of Jerusalem had been relocated to Babylon where their captives could keep an eye on them.  They were rubbing salt in the wound by forcing the captives to sing them a happy little ditty.  Call me cynical, but how can you sing If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands with a smile on your face when your heart’s been squeezed like a lemon and crushed like a peanut shell under an elephant’s foot?  The Israelites were weeping over the loss of their homeland, their Promised Land, their lives…and the Babylonian dogs were goading them to sing them a merry tune!  Some things are just too much!

At times I think I know just how the ancient people of God must’ve felt.  The land which I call home has been captured by a spirit of division, anger, crude perversion and deceit.  To say we live in troubling times is to understate the obvious by a country mile.  It is impossible to recount the sordid details of just how far twenty-first century culture has dipped into the morass of the Days of Noah, but suffice to say if God had not promised to never again destroy the earth because of the wickedness of man, the only climate change I would be looking for is the thunderclouds warming up for a 40-day monsoon.

And still, there is a prophetic cloud hanging over the sinfulness of America’s godlessness; there is coming a time when God will recompense evil with a sweeping, righteous judgment; no one will be able to stand in that day.

So, where is the joy in all this musing about the evil in our day, and the coming judgment that will push the souls of evildoers eternally into the abyss?  Is it just that the worm is going to turn, and those who truly worship God will get to play Babylon, and torture those who now are in power? 

In a word…hardly!  The joy is in knowing that the troubling times in which we live is (to those of faith) testimony that God’s Word is true, and He is without question moving the timeline of history along to God’s inevitable conclusion.  We now live in a post-modern, post-Christian culture.  For those who trust in Christ it is a test of faith that burns away the dross of unbelief.  In short, when God allows darkness, it is a certain proof that His light is patient, unwilling to summarily judge the wicked before giving them every chance to repent.  But someday that darkness will be surrounded and snuffed-out forever by the light of God’s goodness and righteousness. 

For You Today

The time will arrive soon enough for the judgment; this day let the apostle James help us understand what these troubled times are forming in our souls:

Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.  For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.  So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.  James 1:2-4

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

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

James the Just - Part 2 - Count It All Joy

[1]

Wednesday, August 14, 2019

Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.  For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.  So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.  James 1:2-4

There is a difference between troubles that tempt us and those which test us.  The “troubles” of our text refers to a test; like when you get behind the wheel in a car you’re thinking about buying; it’s a test drive.  God never tempts us ^{(see James 1.13).}  Years ago, my seminary professor, Dr. Graham, shared that difference with his class.  He said that an easy way to remember the difference between a tempting and a testing is:

a temptation is from Satan, and it is designed to make you fall;

a test is from God and is designed to make you stand tall!

So, when you have a difficult time before you, pay close attention which direction you’re being driven.  If you’re being driven to fall-away from God and His kingdom, then it is designed to make you fall – a temptation…and it comes from the pit! 

On the other hand, if the difficult time creates a desire to find God’s direction – to compel you to prayer, and fellowship with believers for comfort, and Bible study for answers, that’s a test from God designed to make you stand tall.  

God is doing something; THAT’S why you can rejoice!

Mike Huckabee, Southern Baptist Pastor-turned-Governor, Presidential candidate, news commentator, tells about …a pastor in Florida who used to have count-it-all-joy parties every now and then.  He so believed this verse, that when he would face a difficult situation, he would call friends over to his house.  He'd say:

I want you to come over to my house for a party.  

They'd say, Oh, is it a birthday? Did you get a promotion?  What's the situation?  

Well, he'd say, I'm going through this incredibly difficult crisis right now, and I'm having a count-it-all-joy party.  We're going to celebrate the difficulty, because I know that this difficulty is going to bring something of special value to my life.   I don't know what it is yet, but I want you to come and count it all joy with me.

Have any of you ever thrown a count-it-all-joy party?  I haven't either.  To tell you the truth, it's tough to consider troubles joy, because it hurts. Yet, it's important to realize that unless there are tests, we’ll never know what our faith is made of.^[2]

It is hard to accept the difficult times but becoming mature in the faith demands those times.  The Message New Testament translates verse 4 this way:

So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely.  Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.  James 1:4 (TMNT)

For You Today

We may kick and groan about difficulties in our lives, but often that is what God is using in His perfect way to change us into His useable servant. 

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

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[1] Title Image:  Courtesy of  Wikimedia Commons
                          Unless otherwise noted, Scripture used from The New Living Translation©

[2] Mike Huckabee, Practice of Patience, Preaching Today, Tape No. 78.

Endurance

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Monday, February 13, 2017

Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.  For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.  So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.   James 1:2-4^(NLT)

James, the half-brother of Jesus was revered in the early church for being a great man of prayer.  According to some sources they even called him camel knees because of the extremely baggy callouses on his knees from spending so much time kneeling on the floor.  And yet when I read about troubles being a big-time opportunity for great joy, there is an uncontrollable eye-roll that wells-up within.

And then we read the rest of his statement and it begins to make sense.  The testing of our faith is something of which God approves.  This is not to be confused with tempting.  James later says ^{(verse 13)} that God never uses temptation on us; that comes from a different direction – namely the world, the flesh or the devil.  But testing – ah, that’s from God, proof that you are a loved child the Father is developing.  And what development that is!

The Development of a Saint

Saints are literally those whom God has made spiritually-strong through testing and setting-apart from the sinfulness failure syndrome.  It’s a process of growing spiritually mature.  James tells us that when our endurance, matured through testing is fully-developed, that spiritual growth will have brought completeness to what God desired in your life, nothing less!  And that’s enough!

In a recent conversation with my bride we were talking about difficult times in the past and how we wish we could go back and make it better.  The thought came that, of all the mistakes and missteps, there is nothing in my life that has ever happened from which God has not somehow brought positive results.

That doesn’t mean testing is easy; never said that!  In fact there seems to be a definite correlation between the duration, depth and location of the testing and the meaningfulness of spiritual growth produced.

A Case in Point

The last thing in the world I wanted was another dog. 

But when Wellie showed up, he needed a home, and I guess God figured we needed another test (eye-roll suppressed again)!  A few months after Wellie came to live with us his back legs stopped working and he became wheelchair-bound.  I guess we were more depressed than he was; he still doesn’t know he’s disabled, except he has to wait to be lifted up a step or two.  Otherwise he’s still playful, mischievous and generally unwilling to let even a 150lb German shepherd pass without a challenge!

                                           Now, he’s still a lot of work, but that has become part of the family routine, and we deal with it.  The positive spiritual maturity that has evolved in all of this, particularly for me, has been the willingness to be compassionate, instead of just feeling compassion.  There is quite a difference between feeling an ache in your viscera over someone’s troubles, and getting hands-on to do something about it.

And that is definitely a kingdom of God reality.  He could have stayed very comfortably on his throne in heaven; instead he chose the cross.

For You Today

Have some troubles been working on you?  That’s the Father crafting another saint!

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

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NOTES

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[i]  Title image: By Anant Nath Sharma (www.thelensor.tumblr.com), via Wikimedia Commons

Trouble

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

There is a difference between tempting and testing.  The “temptations” of our text refers to a test.  The word in Greek is dokimion, which means “proving”, as in a test drive.  God never tempts ^{(see James 1.13)}.  Years ago my seminary professor, Dr. Graham, put the difference to his class; he said that an easy way to remember the difference between a tempting and a testing is:

a temptation is from Satan, and it is designed to make you fall;

a test is from God, and is designed to make you stand tall!

So, when you have a difficult time before you, pay close attention which direction you’re being driven.  If away from God and His kingdom, then it is designed to make you fall – it’s a temptation! 

If the difficult time creates a desire to find God’s will and way –

Ø  to compel you to prayer, and

Ø  fellowship with believers for comfort, and

Ø  Bible study for answers –

Well, that’s a test. God is doing something! THAT’S why you can count it all joy!

To become mature requires developing a patient spirit.  One lady told about how driving seventeen hours to the beach for a week's vacation took its toll on [her family], especially four-year-old Katie. Strapped in her child seat for hours at a time, she expressed the tedium [they] all felt when [the family] finally exited for our motel. She plaintively asked, "Can I please be excused?"[1]

It is hard to accept the difficult times, but becoming mature in the faith demands those times.  The Message New Testament translates verse 4 this way:

So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely.

Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.

We may kick and groan about difficulties in our lives, but often that is what God is using in His perfect way to change us into His useable servant. 

A ship was wrecked, and the only survivor washed up on a small uninhabited island.  He was exhausted.  He cried out to God to save him.  Every day he scanned the horizon, searching for help.  Finally, he managed to build a rough hut and put his few articles in that hut.

One day, coming home from hunting for food, he was stung with grief to see his little hut in flames and a cloud of smoke.  The worst had happened.  But early the next day, a ship drew in and rescued him.

He asked the crew, "How did you know I was here?"

They replied, "We saw your smoke signal."

For You, Today…

Maybe the difficulty you have now is a smoke signal that will lead to great blessing.[2]

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[1] Beth Caldwell, Normal, Illinois. Christian Reader, "Kids of the Kingdom."

[2] John Yates, An Attitude of Gratitude, Preaching Today, Tape No. 110.