Both great and small

The contrast between two lives played in my mind as I drove home from the hospital yesterday. Vince, a humble servant of the Lord, served the street people of Manhattan, loved his wife, and prayed for his sons and daughters. He didn't travel the world or meet with national leaders. Now, his earthly life appears to be very near the end- quietly attended by just a few who love him dearly. All this week, on the TV screen, I watched as millions streamed to Rome to memorialize Karol Wojtyła (Pope John Paul II). Thousands wept as they waited hours to walk past his body, lying in state in St. Peter's Basilica. This man's influence effected millions around the world. He rode in the Popemobile before adoring crowds. His written words were repeated by priests from pulpits on every continent.

As I drove with these two scenes in mind, the thought that kept repeating to me was the passage from Hebrews - "it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment." (Hebrews 9:27, KJV) Great and small, famous and obscure, rich and poor - the distinctions of this world disappear in death! Vince and Karol (and you and me!) will share the same place before the Awesome Lord of Glory and answer the same question- what did you do with Jesus and His grace?

High office and humble service have nothing to do with being received into Heaven! The structures of the world reward the high and mighty. Favor flows toward the bright and beautiful. It is quite natural to think that God, too, offers His eternal home to those of noteworthy achievements and/or goodness, but that is simply not true. This declaration defies our logic: "God saved you by his special favor when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God." (Ephesians 2:8, NLT)

My only hope (and I sincerely pray you share it) is in the Cross of Christ and the Grace of God. The hymn writer's phrasing expresses it well-

My hope is built on nothing less,
than Jesus' blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
but wholly lean on Jesus' name.
On Christ, the Solid Rock, I stand,
all other ground is sinking sand.

Friend, be you 15 or 50, I press on you the fact that God says, “At just the right time, I heard you. On the day of salvation, I helped you.” Indeed, God is ready to help you right now. Today is the day of salvation." (2 Corinthians 6:2, NLT) Be prepared for that inevitable appointment by settling the issue now. That's right! Receiving Jesus' grace gives you assurance and peace. If you are Christ's, when your moment of appearing in God's Presence arrives, the Bible says that Jesus will be your Advocate presenting you before the Father saying, "This is my brother (sister), accepted into our family, at My expense."

That is why death has lost it's terrors for us. We are going home!
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The Lord of Hosts

Sometimes we sing words during worship that have no meaning to us! Could be dangerous? Maybe. In that great hymn, A Mighty Fortress is Our God, there is a line that says, "Lord Sabaoth, His Name, from age to age the same." What's that about? It is a title for God that is common throughout the Old Testament - Yahweh Tsebaoth- the Lord of Hosts. In many modern translations the translation is Almighty God. The Hebrew - tsaba - is a generalized word that means a force, a group, or an army. When the Scripture calls God, Yahweh Tsebaoth, the intent is to impress us with His majesty. It is a way to inform us, if you'll allow for a loose translation, that He is the God-the General; the Boss who is in charge of the the work force!

Is He in charge of your life today? You have put a Christian fish on your car's bumper? Now there's a sign of submission to God - NOT! You once said a prayer in a church in which you acknowledged Jesus as Savior and Lord? Good, but are you living that prayer? I mean - is He really 'in charge,' the One who is your Boss, the One you trust implicitly, the One who gives orders that you follow promptly? That can be hard to do, especially when He doesn't choose to let us know what His plans are, when He only allows us to see a slice of time that doesn't include a neat ending to the story of our lives! We discover the true depth of our surrender to His authority when His orders appear to leading us into tough times and/or costly sacrifice.

It's easy to take orders from the project manager if you think she's competent, understand her goals, and agree with her strategy, right? We readily put ourselves wholeheartedly into an effort when we have great confidence in the leader. But what about the times when you don't know the plan, when you only have your assignment, and have not worked with the one in charge enough to really know if she's all that competent as a leader? It's much harder then to just 'do your job' without wondering - "is this the right thing to do? Will this really succeed?"

The Bible tells us that God is Yahweh Tsebaoth to assure us that we can trust His leadership even when He doesn't tell us the whole plan! The General has it all worked out and He's been very successful! So as He sends us into the battle in life - be it with sin, with sickness, with Satan or his demons- we go with full assurance, and with authority - not of our own making, but from His Name!

David, just a teenager, went to do battle with Goliath, the champion of the Philistine army that was holding the line against the armies of Israel. As the shepherd lad strode onto the field where the contest would take place he went with courage that came from knowing he was in the Lord's army. As he approached the skilled warrior, he said, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty (Yahweh Tsebaoth), the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the LORD will hand you over to me... and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel." (1 Samuel 17:45-46, NIV)

Don't steal God's majesty, or make Him too small in your understanding. Let Him impress that He is Lord of hosts on you today. Last night as I went home from teaching about this in our Bible Study class, I reflected over the various needs of people to whom I am called to minister. I stood outside, under the canopy of the dark sky spangled with the stars, and thanked Yahweh Tsebaoth that He has entrusted me with His Name and prayed that I would be content to do His will and follow His orders even when I don't know the 'rest of the story.'

Here's one more 'Lord of Hosts' Scripture which I hope will stick in your mind for this day, but it needs context.... Some Jews had returned from the time of captivity in Babylon to rebuild Jerusalem. Nehemiah had led the campaign to restore the city walls. Ezra headed the campaign to rebuild the Temple. Surrounding nations were threatened by the re-building and sent an emissary to Xerxes, the Persian king who had allowed the reconstruction, asking him to stop the effort. The thought of these opponents of the Temple re-building was, "If the Jews rebuild their Temple, their god will return and make them strong again!" which he did.
For several years the work was at a standstill, the foundations and stonework reminding the Jews of their weakness before the great Persian empire. During that time, Zechariah preached and encouraged Zerrubabel, the mayor of Jerusalem. The prophet said, “This is what the Lord says to Zerubbabel: It is not by force nor by strength, but by my Spirit, says the Lord Almighty. (Yahweh Tsebaoth) Nothing, not even a mighty mountain, will stand in Zerubbabel’s way; it will flatten out before him! Then Zerubbabel will set the final stone of the Temple in place, and the people will shout: ‘May God bless it! May God bless it!’ " (Zechariah 4:6-7, NLT)

Who is trying to stymie God's work in your life?
Who is trying to discourage you, cause you to doubt or fear?
Speak to them and say, It is not by force nor by strength, but by my Spirit, says the Lord Almighty (Yahweh Tsebaoth)!

"It means something!"

Over the weekend, floodwaters filled the Murphy's home to a depth of several feet for the second time in less than a year! A team of men from the church went yesterday to help them start the clean-up. As we stepped through the front door, we stood surrounded by ruin. Imagine a home filled with 4-5 feet of muddy water which swirled and churned like the inside of a washing machine for 24-36 hours. Wooden furniture was warped and ruined. Carpets were squishy and muddy, refrigerator and freezer were overturned and full of filthy water. Every electrical device was destroyed and books soaked. All we could do was carry the stuff of their lives out for disposal in a dumpster!

Jamie, a young wife and Mom, called me later that evening to talk about her meeting with the medical doctor who had described her coming ordeal of chemotherapy treatment for her cancer - hair loss, nausea, weakness. Waves of anxiety were flooding through her mind, and understandably so! We talked and prayed together for about 30 minutes.

Earlier in the day I had spent some time talking with a wife whose husband has spent the last 2.5 years unable to speak or walk because of a stroke which turned him from a strong man into a completely dependent one literally overnight! He had another stroke 8 days ago, has not regained consciousness, and appears to be in the last days of his earthly life!

I could not help the sting of tears that overcame me for a few moments last night as I thought about these dear friends who were carrying such heavy burdens. "Oh, God," I groaned, "why must life be so hard for these who love You?" Some have looked at the kinds of circumstances that I describe (and worse, much worse!) only to conclude that either God does not exist or that He is not present or that He does not care! We are, these cynics insist, on our own on this small planet. We can only be brave as we do our best to cope with absurd and meaningless moments in this thing we call life. In that view of life there is no 'why' and to even ask the question is a fool's game.

I am not one of them! God exists, He is here, and He loves us! There is an answer for our 'why' though it sometimes hides in the folds of the blanket of eternity that wraps 'round us. The Bible says, "It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” With that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak... Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." (2 Corinthians 4:13, 16-18, NIV)

To attempt to tell the Murphy's that they should rejoice despite the fact that God allowed the floodwaters to devastate their home, to tell Jamie that the cancer that appeared in her body is useful in the purpose of God, or to insist that June be glad that she and her husband have had to walk such a difficult road for many days would be the height of arrogance and insensitivity. We must weep with those who weep, mourning their losses. And we must hold the line of faith for them while their grasp is weakened by hard times. We pray for healing and restoration, give ourselves to help, and love! When they waver or wobble, we embrace them. When they regain their footing we draw inspiration from their courage and their faith.

Together we trust God and we wait! ... and we wait, and wait some more until the revelation of His kingdom purposes. When reveals the meaning of life's suffering to us, it warms us like the bright light of the sun when it slides up and over the eastern horizon in the morning! God's declaration to us is that 'it means something.' I am holding tightly to His Word that "not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There’s far more here than meets the eye..." The Message 2 Cor. 4:17
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If you've knelt beside the rubble
Of an aching broken heart.
When the things you gaveYour life to fell apart,
You're not the first to be acquainted
With sorrow grief or pain,
But the Master promised sunshine after rain.

Hold on my child,
Joy comes in the morning,
Weeping only lasts for the night.
Hold on my child,
Joy comes in the morning,
The darkest hour means
Dawn is just in sight.

To invest your seed of trust in God,
In mountains you can't move.
You have risked your life
On things you cannot prove.
But to give the things you cannot keep,
For what you can not lose,
Is the way to find
The joy God has for you.

© 1974 William J. Gaither, Inc. ARR UBP of Gaither Copyright Management
CCLI License No. 810055

Step into the water

Sometimes when we look down the road in the direction that God is leading, the only thing we can see is an impossibility! That was the situation that faced Israel as Joshua prepared to lead them into Canaan, the Promised Land. As they broke camp and got ready to move, in front of them was the Jordan River and the Bible says it was 'at flood stage.' "Think of it! The Ark of the Covenant, which belongs to the Lord of the whole earth, will lead you across the Jordan River! Now choose twelve men, one from each tribe. The priests will be carrying the Ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth. When their feet touch the water, the flow of water will be cut off upstream, and the river will pile up there in one heap.” (Joshua 3:11-13, NLT) And sure enough, when they stepped into the water, the river stopped flowing! Both God and the man He had called into leadership were exalted that day. Joshua summarizes the occasion saying, "This was so that everybody on earth would recognize how strong God’s rescuing hand is and so that you would hold God in solemn reverence always." (Joshua 4:24, The Message)

It's a great story, but I've got to tell you that I wouldn't have wanted to be the man in the front. I wonder how far in he waded before the water receded? Why wouldn't God have just stopped the river's flow that morning so they could just walk across? I do not know! But I do know that often our spiritual journey happens in much the same way. God says, "Go," and it appears that there is no way. Then, as we are obedient, there is a way providentially made for us -- from where we are into a new and wonderful place of His purposes.

In 1977, I felt God's leading me to a new place. I was a very young preacher ready to change the world! As Bev and I packed up our little household and our new baby boy to move 2000 miles to the West, it looked like we were headed for disaster - no money in the bank, no income promised, no group to receive us. As we entered Gillette, Wyoming we did so with great anticipation of what God could do. We had an almost naive faith. We had no idea that God was sending us on that move for our benefit more than for the town to which we moved with the hope of ministry! In one year, He did so many things in our hearts - teaching us new ways to know Him, leading us through a time when our baby was desperately ill, providing for our financial situation in ways we could not have even imagined, and bringing people into our lives that taught us key lessons that we still practice today! It was hard, very hard, to leave a regular paycheck, a nice home, and a promising future for nothing more than a dream, but I am so thankful that we were willing to step into the water as God went in front of us!

Is God leading you toward a flooded river place?
Are you following obediently or screaming protests?

Follow faithfully. Keep your focus on the Lord who goes before you. He does not lead us towards the impossibilities because He is cruel, but so that we will trust Him and not rely on ourselves.

Think on this passage as you go through this day. "We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us!" (2 Corinthians 1:8-10, NIV)

"Tell the story... in more than words"

There is an old line that says, "I'd rather see a sermon than hear one anyday!"

So, what's your story? Everybody's got one! Some are more dramatic than others, but our lives are a story, and we are adding chapters everyday. As Christians, the story of our lives are more than just biography. Our life stories are the context for the good news of Jesus' love. Our friends and family will judge Christianity, for better or worse, by how it effects our words and our choices. While it is important to be able to present the Bible's truths about the meaning of life, the reason that Christ died and rose again, and about moral choices; it is even more important that those truths can be seen to have made a demonstrable difference in the way we live! That's one heavy responsibility, isn't it?

A changed life story does not happen because 'we get religion.' We've all seen people who were very religious who were also cruel, selfish, and mean! The Bible says, "Our only power and success come from God. He is the one who has enabled us to represent his new covenant. This is a covenant, not of written laws, but of the Spirit. The old way ends in death; in the new way, the Holy Spirit gives life." (2 Corinthians 3:5-6, NLT) A changed life emerges when we are intimate with God, the Spirit! As we allow Him to have access to our hearts and minds, He changes the way we think and, as our thoughts are changed, the story line changes!

We are incapable of living in a way that honors Christ Jesus by our own determination or personal goodness. Indeed the reality of Christ's message is authenticated by the fact that He transforms people like you and me, ordinary mortals, into saints. The Bible says "...this precious treasure—this light and power that now shine within us—is held in perishable containers, that is, in our weak bodies. So everyone can see that our glorious power is from God and is not our own." (2 Corinthians 4:7, NLT)

Walt Larimore writes, "The Bible never commands Christian to go witnessing, but we are told to be witnesses!" Think about that statement. The commission of Jesus to every Believer was that we tell the story of the love of God, but it is a mistaken notion to think that we just tell the story in moments or activities that are isolated from our daily lives. Going door to door handing out religious literature may make us feel like we're doing the work of evangelism, but the results will be meager! What is much, much more effective is living in a way that lets the Light shine, that captures the interest and attention of people around us because there is an undeniable spiritual quality that can only be attributed to Christ's Spirit in us.

Jesus said, "You are the light of the world—like a city on a mountain, glowing in the night for all to see. Don’t hide your light under a basket! Instead, put it on a stand and let it shine for all. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father." (Matthew 5:14-16, NLT) How well does the Light shine from you?

__________________________

Father, what a privilege you have given to me;
A bearer of Light, a person who brings Your Presence to others.
Help me to live in a way that is worthy of this high calling!
Spirit of God, work in me -- Yes, work ON me!

Change my heart, defeat the power of self and evil, and
let the beauty of Jesus be seen in my words and actions.
As I write the story of my life, let it be the context for the
story of the good news about Jesus.
In His name I pray. Amen.