TRUST

 

Tuesday, February 8, 2022

All you who fear the Lord, trust the Lord!  He is your helper and your shield.  Psalm 115:11

The Psalmist speaks a truth that challenges every hidden corner of willfulness and timid self-doubt.  It is a foreign truth to today’s Western culture, namely that we should trust God rather than our own abilities.

Consider the language of today’s parents to children:

          ·       YOU can be whatever YOU want

          ·       It’s YOUR life – YOUR choice

By contrast, the Psalmist speaks conditionally – if you really fear (or, more accurately, worship) God, then put your trust in Him…he wants to be your help and shield.

Some would answer that challenge with a string of probing questions: 

          ·       What does that kind of ‘trust’ look like in real life?

          ·       Why is it necessary to trust God; isn’t He good all the time?

          ·       What do I get on the other side of taking that leap of faith?

Those questions do not seem out of place, or odd in today’s cultural climate.  Before we invest, we want proof that it will pay-off, or at least a little sound reasoning that it’s the best choice for me.  

Doesn’t all that have a self-center kind of ring to it, as if the worshipper is what’s important, not the Creator, Sustainer, and Source of all life?  And isn’t that the issue that forms the whole of purpose in life from the beginning?  Let’s put the answer to that series of questions in a single declarative sentence:

God is worthy.

If there is such a thing as “sovereignty,” being in complete control of all beings and things created, that Sovereign would therefore be the source of all power.  That One would be sovereign over all extant beings, and things, and therefore, the giver of life and will.  If there is a God like that, THAT GOD is worthy to be worshipped, worthy to be completely trusted!

For You Today

So, the whole matter of today’s devotional thought is not one of what trusting in God looks like, or what my life might look like on the other side of trusting God.  Or any other condition I might try to introduce in negotiating a better deal on earth or in Heaven.  Rather, it is me, making up my mind which god I will serve…

·       The little ME today’s culture whispers in my ear is sovereign

-  or  -

·       The one, true, living God who loved me enough to leave his divine glory in Heaven and embrace me from a cross?

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^©    

God's Different Way

 

Wednesday, January 5, 2022

He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him.  He came to his own people, and even they rejected him.  But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.  They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God.  So the Word became human and made his home among us.  He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness.  And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.  John testified about him when he shouted to the crowds, “This is the one I was talking about when I said, ‘Someone is coming after me who is far greater than I am, for he existed long before me.’”  From his abundance we have all received one gracious blessing after another.  For the law was given through Moses, but God’s unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ.  No one has ever seen God.  But the unique One, who is himself God, is near to the Father’s heart.   He has revealed God to us.  John 1:10-18

Elsewhere in Scripture God tells us His ways are different than anything we can imagine: 

For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.  Isaiah 55:9 

John the Baptist understood that about God, at least to the point that even though Jesus was chronologically born after John, his cousin existed long before John.  That is a kind of “math” that defies our human explanation.  And that is precisely why God had to appear in flesh-and-blood in a manger.  Even then, God’s own creation didn’t get it; God revealed God, and we rejected Him.

In hindsight, we humans can do things one of two ways with the stuff that confuses us…especially those things about God’s different way of doing the math.

1.    We can distort truth and reconcile it to our way of thinking, or

2.    We can live more honestly, see more clearly, accept our limitations, and bow before Heaven’s throne.

Those are our choices.  However, humanity’s “normal” way of dealing with God-truth is so abnormal to the way humankind were created, it is absurd to imagine.  It is as if Nimrod, builder of Babel’s tower ^{(see Genesis 11)} completed his work, like a mouse having ascended his mountain, (sitting on an elephant’s head), assumes he rules all he can see.  

  

Such is limited human thinking, merely scraping the bottom of Creation’s barrel.  What is so amazing about God is, despite our mouse-on-an-elephant’s-head caricature of mankind’s foolishness, that of denying our Godly heritage – a descent into delusion – God still chose gracious condescension to lift-up the very species which rejected His gift.

For You Today

Delusional mouse or child of a gracious king…what a choice!

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 other posts on this text see Catch and The Fullness of Time

 

What is God Like?

 

Wednesday, July 1, 2021

How great is the Lord, how deserving of praise, in the city of our God, which sits on his holy mountain!  It is high and magnificent; the whole earth rejoices to see it!  Mount Zion, the holy mountain, is the city of the great King!  God himself is in Jerusalem’s towers, revealing himself as its defender.  The kings of the earth joined forces and advanced against the city.  But when they saw it, they were stunned; they were terrified and ran away.  They were gripped with terror and writhed in pain like a woman in labor.  You destroyed them like the mighty ships of Tarshish shattered by a powerful east wind.  We had heard of the city’s glory, but now we have seen it ourselves—the city of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.  It is the city of our God; he will make it safe forever.   Interlude
O God, we meditate on your unfailing love as we worship in your Temple.  As your name deserves, O God, you will be praised to the ends of the earth.  Your strong right hand is filled with victory.  Let the people on Mount Zion rejoice.  Let all the towns of Judah be glad because of your justice.  Go, inspect the city of Jerusalem.  Walk around and count the many towers.  Take note of the fortified walls, and tour all the citadels, that you may describe them to future generations.  For that is what God is like.  He is our God forever and ever, and he will guide us until we die.  Psalm 48:1-14

Throughout Scripture we find the principle of free will, the right God has placed within each soul to decide the course our life will take.  The desire for the exercise of this freedom is self-evident.  If you need a chapter and verse proof text, note what Joshua said to the Israelites on the eve of entering into the Promised Land:

…choose today whom you will serve.  Joshua 24:15b

The nation of former slaves was at least hundreds of thousands strong, perhaps, according to some scholars, several million.  Joshua offered that challenge of life’s most important question, what God will you serve? 

On a personal level, to find the answer within my heart and soul for that question, I had to ask another question, who is God (JHWH, Jesus)…what is he like? 

The answer to both questions is nestled into today’s text; you cannot see Him, but you can begin to understand what he is like.  God is like the towers and walls of the citadel, Jerusalem, God’s own city.  Those walls and towers are protection for the people within, and an impenetrable fortress to those who would even think to assail her.  But, before this metaphor of walls describing God is carried too far, leaving us to imagine God as an impassable monolith, just standing as another idol, lifeless, vast, but unthinking, move beyond the comparison and look at the evidence – personal evidence.  God entered time and space from above and outside time and space.  The Creator entered His own creation and became flesh, blood, and bone…and it was too much for us to live in His presence.  The creation crucified our Creator.  So he rose from the grave and offers us a second chance.

What is God like?  He is all the vast power of the universe and beyond.  As the genius of Michelangelo was more than his paintings or sculptures, the creation is always so much less than the Creator.  This is why the Psalmist began his musical ode to the God of Jerusalem’s towers with extolling the worthiness of God to receive praise and honor.

For You Today

Our Creator is beyond comprehension, but not beyond inviting us into His presence. Like Joshua’s challenge to the Israelites as they took the next step in their journey to choose today the God you will serve, that offer to come inside the walls of Mount Zion with our hearts, souls, and eternal lives still stands before each of us.  We recognize what God is like.  But with that understanding God leaves us choice of whether we will serve him with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength. 

In a few days we will celebrate our independence in America.  It is a sacred gift and responsibility.  We choose to live with and serve our fellow Americans.  But how much greater the other choice – to serve the God of all freedom.

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^©

Out of the Frying Pan...Into the Fire...FEAR NOT!

 

Monday, June 21, 2021

When a light wind began blowing from the south, the sailors thought they could make it.  So they pulled up anchor and sailed close to the shore of Crete.  But the weather changed abruptly, and a wind of typhoon strength (called a “northeaster”) burst across the island and blew us out to sea.  The sailors couldn’t turn the ship into the wind, so they gave up and let it run before the gale.  We sailed along the sheltered side of a small island named Cauda, where with great difficulty we hoisted aboard the lifeboat being towed behind us.  Then the sailors bound ropes around the hull of the ship to strengthen it.  They were afraid of being driven across to the sandbars of Syrtis off the African coast, so they lowered the sea anchor to slow the ship and were driven before the wind.  The next day, as gale-force winds continued to batter the ship, the crew began throwing the cargo overboard.  The following day they even took some of the ship’s gear and threw it overboard.  The terrible storm raged for many days, blotting out the sun and the stars, until at last all hope was gone.  No one had eaten for a long time.  Finally, Paul called the crew together and said, “Men, you should have listened to me in the first place and not left Crete.  You would have avoided all this damage and loss.  But take courage!  None of you will lose your lives, even though the ship will go down.  For last night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me, and he said, ‘Don’t be afraid, Paul, for you will surely stand trial before Caesar!  What’s more, God in his goodness has granted safety to everyone sailing with you.’  So take courage!  For I believe God.  It will be just as he said.  But we will be shipwrecked on an island.”  Acts 27:13-26

The sailors had both good news and bad from Paul; they were going to lose the cargo and ship (that wasn’t the good news), but they were going to live past this storm!  For Paul, he would also survive the day, only to stand trial before Caesar.

The mounting tension in this account was powerful.  The sailors tried to outwit the coming storm, and, when they couldn’t, their only hope was damage control.  They tried to minimize loss to the cargo, the ship, and then, finally they pulled-out every stop just to survive being shark food.  In the midst of the raging storm, when it was pitching a no-hitter against the ship and its’ occupants, dashing any hope of success, or even survival, Paul, a prisoner, stands and says:  Chill-out, guys; your cargo and ship are history, but nobody dies today! 

For the sailors that wasn’t the best news; it meant they would go home to their families and the ship’s owners with nothing to show for months of hard work.  But it was still good news.  To live through the storm meant all hope wasn’t gone.  To live through the storm meant another chance to redeem their losses.  To live through the storm was to breathe.

The news for Paul was also of the good and bad sort.  He also was going to live, but Paul’s chance at tomorrow included standing before Caesar, the madman despot who had the power to take Paul’s head from his shoulders.  But it was also hope, nonetheless; for Paul, gain for Christ’s coming Kingdom was life.

A few times in my life I’ve faced odds that seemed too great to last through it.  On the other side of those odds I’m still breathing, and sometimes wonder how in the world God pulled that off.  The greater wonder (for me) is WHY God pulled that off; I’m no more deserving than anyone. 

The answers to both questions (how and why) have to do with God’s choices, and no human beings come close to that pay grade.  But the possibilities are just as real to me as it was to those sailors and Paul.  When God gives you either a second chance, or a brief respite in the storm, it is time to redeem the time.  It is time to do those things for God’s sake which you’ve put off.  It’s not time to sit back and grin over your narrow escape; it’s time to press on and make it count!

For You Today

Making it count can only be done in a Godly way when you take seriously Paul’s advice to the sailors – you’ve been lifted from the frying pan, you’re going to live through the fire, so…FEAR NOT…He is not done with you yet!

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 quoted from The New Living Translation^©

So...Do Not Be Afraid

 

Wednesday, March 24, 2021

Then on October 17 of that same year, the Lord sent another message through the prophet Haggai.  “Say this to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Jeshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of God’s people there in the land:  ‘Does anyone remember this house—this Temple—in its former splendor?  How, in comparison, does it look to you now?  It must seem like nothing at all!  But now the Lord says:  Be strong, Zerubbabel.  Be strong, Jeshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest.  Be strong, all you people still left in the land.  And now get to work, for I am with you, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.  My Spirit remains among you, just as I promised when you came out of Egypt.  So do not be afraid.’  “For this is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says:  In just a little while I will again shake the heavens and the earth, the oceans and the dry land.  I will shake all the nations, and the treasures of all the nations will be brought to this Temple.  I will fill this place with glory, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.  The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.  The future glory of this Temple will be greater than its past glory, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.  And in this place I will bring peace.  I, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, have spoken!”            Haggai 2:1-9

The  question I most hear these days, in a never-ending chorus of mixed anguish and fear, is:  When will we ever get back to normal?

In the days of Haggai the prophet, the question was about how things had come unglued in Jerusalem.  The Temple, symbol of God’s presence with Israel, had been sacked, looted, and destroyed.  Does anyone remember how glorious this place used to be?  That was the question of the day…that day…and it is ours today. 

Many people look at our world and mourn the loss of greater days, greater freedom and a sense of well-being.  Today it’s not the same; it’s not normal.

After a year of quarantine-filled COVID news, rising death tolls, and political wrangling, fear is as intensified as I’ve ever seen it.  I recall school days of the 1950’s at the apex of nuclear bomb fears, sirens, and daily drills at school, having to scramble under my little wooden desk; they called it a Cold War, but the fear of having a few megatons of explosive dropped on your head from the sky was anything but cold…the fear was palpable, nearly hot to the soul, unrelenting, and ready to unsettle any thought of the future being bright (other than the initial flash, followed by a mushroom cloud filled with radiation).

To a Cold War world like my childhood, and a COVID-19 world for that of my great-grandchildren, along with the devastating ruins of life in Haggai’s day, the word of the Lord still rings:  Do not be afraid…in this place I will bring peace.

It’s somewhat hard to reconcile that faith-statement with the subsequent story of Israel, over 2,500 years of rebuilding, destruction, wandering, and, of late, holocaust.  It has been anything but a road of peace for God’s special people.  However, if God can be trusted, faith informs us that the final chapter has yet to be opened.  All that we see, hear, and, yes even fear, is still prologue and preparation for the final act.

Part of Haggai’s message to the governor, Zerubbabel is to be strong and get to work (on rebuilding the temple), because God’s Spirit was still with them.  In other words, despite the conditions of bondage and lasting hurt of what those conditions had done to soil life’s hopes, it was time to move-on, build-up, and get back to the purpose for which God had called Abraham a thousand years before. 

And that message is just as vital for we, who live in this day of cold and hot wars, oppression, unrest, mass violence events, and disease. 

God still says do not be afraid!

For You Today

As you progress through this day, take stock of what blessing God has showered on your life to see prophecy coming alive.  It’s more than wars and rumors of wars, famine, pestilence, plague, and other COVID-ish monsters.  Christ is preparing us for life in the fast-lane of faith.

So…do not be afraid.  Keep looking up!

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^©