Will you choose to trust Me?

Monitors blinked the stats of life – heartrate, blood pressure, respiration rates. Tubes carried various medications into the still form of my friend, who was standing at the edge of this life and eternity. His family stood round him, some kneeling, some just touching, tears falling quietly. The semi-darkness of that Intensive Care room was very much the ‘shadow of the valley of death.’ Each of us in that room wrestled in our own way to come to grips with the reality of the approaching end of a life. Several asked me if it was right to question God, to wonder why. I affirmed my conviction that our Lord is never offended by an honest question. Yet, He asks us to trust Him, to realize that there are things we cannot know.

Disciple, the most important choice is obedience, even when our world goes awry.
Noah didn’t fully understand the coming flood, but he heard God’s voice and built the ark in faith anyway. Job didn’t grasp the cosmic battle swirling around him. His losses were staggering, his questions many; yet he remained faithful to his Lord.
Jesus questioned His Father if there was another way to accomplish the work of man’s redemption, but committed Himself to the plan saying, “not My will, but Your’s be done!”
Paul went through a terrible time of persecution that caused him to conclude that his death was imminent and he kept the faith! He summarized his response writing "as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead." (2 Corinthians 1:9, NLT)

The question that confronts you and me, in big and small ways, in hospital rooms and corporate offices, in our family room and the hidden corner of our hearts is this: will you choose to trust Me? The Word reminds us that ‘without faith it is impossible to please God.’

Here’s a word from the Word for this day.
"Trust in the Lord and do good.
Then you will live safely in the land and prosper.
Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart’s desires.
Commit everything you do to the Lord.
Trust him, and he will help you. He will make your innocence radiate like the dawn, and the justice of your cause will shine like the noonday sun.
Be still in the presence of the Lord, and wait patiently for him to act." (Psalm 37:3-7, NLT)

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Day By Day - Berg, Carolina Sandell / Ahnfelt, Oscar / Skoog, Andrew

Day by day and with each passing moment,
Strength I find to meet my trials here;
Trusting in my Father's wise bestowment,
I've no cause for worry or for fear.
He whose heart is kind beyond all measure,
Give unto each day what He deems best;
Lovingly, its part of pain and pleasure,
Mingling toil with peace and rest.

Ev'ry day the Lord Himself is near me
With a special mercy for each hour;
All my cares He fain would bear and cheer me,
He whose name is Counselor and Pow'r.
The protection of His child and treasure,
Is a charge that on Himself He laid;
"As your days, your strength shall be in measure,"
This the pledge to me He made.

Help me then in ev'ry tribulation,
So to trust Your promises, O Lord;
That I lose not faith's sweet consolation,
Offered me within Your holy Word.
Help me, Lord, when toil and trouble meeting,
E'er to take, as from a Father's hand,
One by one, the days, the moments fleeting,
Till I reach the promised land.

© Public Domain; CCLI License No. 810055

Who do you believe?

One incident, two reports, very different in the details. Who do you believe? In those ‘he said, she said’ situations; we look at the past credibility of the reporter, we ask about motives, we consider who has what to gain, and we try to make a judgment. Still, we are sometimes left with the nagging feeling that we could have missed the truth, in spite of our best efforts to discern it. Getting it right is important, because we act on what we believe is true.

Disciple, this is true in your spiritual life, too. What you believe to be true is revealed in your day to day actions.

If you believe that "This is the day the Lord has made;” then it will not be too difficult to “rejoice and be glad in it." (Psalm 118:24, NIV) If you believe that this day happened randomly to you, that you are at the mercy of chance and circumstance, then you will live fearfully, perhaps even with deep anger over the things that are coming your way.

If you believe that Jesus Christ will return to bring humanity’s story to God’s conclusion, fitting your bit role into the grand play of history as He writes it, you will live with great hope and purpose. If you believe you are a speck of carbon, lost in a swirling universe that emerged by chance of chaos, you will fight desperately to find some kind of meaning in the moment. Love will become secondary to survival. Happiness, found in experience and expedience will become your primary goal, and rightly so, based on your belief!

I choose to live in faith, not blindly, but because it makes sense to me to do so. God’s credibility is strong! I look at the sweep of the history of His people, told in the Scripture, and say, “Yes, He is faithful!” I add to that the short history of my own family, stretching back to my grandparents whose lives were radically changed by the Gospel and the Spirit, and it confirms my trust. His motives are pure, born of love alone. He does not seek my destruction. He gave His Son to bring me life, offers me Heaven at His own expense. He is completely Self-sufficient, yet despite having nothing to gain, loves me. So, yes, I believe His report!

"The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It’s our handle on what we can’t see." (Hebrews 11:1, The Message) "It’s impossible to please God apart from faith. And why? Because anyone who wants to approach God must believe both that he exists and that he cares enough to respond to those who seek him." (Hebrews 11:6, The Message)

Honestly, faith is not always easy, nor is the way always clear. There are days when the immediate circumstances of life argue against the power, plan, and presence of God. Last week, when I stood at the side of two friends my own age who are fighting cancer, a voice in my head fought against my faith, screaming about the unfairness of it all, telling me I was a fool to believe that God cared for me! When temptation rises strong, offering short gain, and heaven seems far, far away, that voice comes again, making the appeal to serve myself. But, by God’s grace, I choose to live in faith!

Here’s a word from the Word. Make it your declaration today:
"I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day." (2 Timothy 1:12, NIV)

___________________

I've believed the true report,
Hallelujah to the Lamb!
I have passed the outer court,
O glory be to God!
I am all on Jesus' side,
On the altar sanctified,
To the world and sin I've died,
Hallelujah to the Lamb!

Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
I have passed the riven veil,
Here the glories never fail,
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
I am living in the presence of the King.

I'm a king and priest to God,
Hallelujah to the Lamb!
By the cleansing of the blood,
O glory be to God!
By the Spirit's pow'r and light,
I am living day and night,
In the holiest place so bright,
Hallelujah to the Lamb!

Charles Price Jones
Public Domain

Get intoxicated!

Leonard Sweet writes, “Is yours a low-profile, don't-rock-the-boat, show-up-on-Sunday kind of faith? Or are you a "fan" for the Lord? We have no trouble at all dealing with the crazies, the over-the-top, the out-of-control behaviors that die-hard sports fans exhibit. Paint yourself blue and go bare-chested in the end zone in December? Sure!
Wear floppy ears and bark like a dog? Why not! Stand in line and camp on the street for days to get those play-off tickets? You bet!
Take a "sick day," buy an airplane ticket, lose pay and travel for hours just to see the big game? No problem!”

Now what if Christ needed you to do something even moderately off-center for him? Could you do it?

In Acts 2 the 'birthday' of the Church is recorded. We call it Pentecost since it happened on the Jewish feast of '50 days' (Pentecost). After days of waiting in prayer, God's Spirit filled those men and women powerfully. They apparently acted strangely, spilling into the streets talking loudly with words of praise for their Risen Lord. Their behavior caused some bystanders to marvel that they were drunk at only 9 in the morning! It doesn't seem from the story in that chapter that Peter's first thought was to keep the little band of Believers under control. He pointed to their overflow of ecstasy as an evidence of being 'intoxicated' with the Spirit of God.

Peter told those looking on: "I see that the Lord is always with me. I will not be shaken, for he is right beside me. No wonder my heart is glad, and my tongue shouts his praises! My body rests in hope. For you will not leave my soul among the dead or allow your Holy One to rot in the grave. You have shown me the way of life, and you will fill me with the joy of your presence." (Acts 2:25-28, NLT) (a loose quote of Psalm 16) He said this was Jesus' rejoicing song at His Resurrection and it is OUR rejoicing song because of our ETERNAL LIFE. It a good thing to be an uninhibited fan of the Lord, because He has done such amazing things for us!

Disciple, we need to get intoxicated with the joy of the Lord! The Bible says, "Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit!" (Ephesians 5:18, NLT) The implied fact is that just like wine loosens inhibitions, but in a destructive way, the Spirit of God will take away our concerns and cares, too. He will allow us to forget ourselves and release songs of praises, shouts of celebration; ecstatic utterances in the Spirit that express our 'fanatic' love for our Lord Jesus. "God, give us a new Pentecost."

Let’s not just try to be strange! Weirdness for its own sake is just a way to grab attention for ourselves. It causes others to step away from us. There are those individuals who just express their own quirks and claim it is God acting in them. Their bizarre behaviors have nothing to do with the joy of the Holy Spirit. We must not those unbalanced individuals to become our focus. We should not be so concerned about controlling their excesses of worship that we rob ourselves of the joyful expressions of true worshippers. Joy that makes a person forget himself is infectious. It draws others in! We cannot help but laugh with the one who celebrates great blessings. We cannot help but be lifted up by the one who is full of God's Spirit.

Invite the Holy Spirit to fill your heart and mind - and when He does- let the laughter roll and the tears flow. Worship is more than thinking right thoughts or grasping profound truth. It is emotional! On Pentecost, the Believers were filled with the Spirit and were so ‘out of control’ that they were accused of being drunk. Let’s get intoxicated - on the Spirit, and pray that His life and love will move us to glorify God!
_________________

I want the joy of the Lord to come down;
want the joy of the Lord to fall now;
want the joy of the Lord in my life!

I want the joy of the Lord to lift me;
want the joy of the Lord to change me;
want the joy of the Lord in my life!

It’s time I started dancing over all these graves.
It’s time I gave you, O my God, the highest praise!
It’s time to lift my voice:
Oh, and beg for this blessing to fall!

Joy of the Lord
Rita Springer
©2002 Kindred Music

CCLI License No. 810055

Are you ready to die well?

Nobody (at least, nobody I know!) is eager to die! When a person gives up on life and sets about seeking a way to end his life, we know their state is abnormal, a illness of mind and/or spirit that demands an emergency intervention until they find a reason to live again. But, Christians, while loving life, cannot deny their mortality. Preparing to die does not make one faithless or suicidal nor does it necessarily mean we must be morbid or mournful! Why? Because we are not "like the rest of men, who have no hope." (1 Thessalonians 4:13, NIV)

Being confronted on a regular basis with our mortality will cause us to live well which prepares to die well. Robb Moll argues a compelling case in an article appearing in Christianity Today, (6/2010). He says, “The church is a community that teaches people how to live well by teaching them how to measure their days. Put another way, when the Church incarnates a culture of resurrection – one that recognizes the inevitability of death but not its triumph – it teaches people how to die well.” He challenges the prevailing church model that separates people by age, keeping the ‘old people’ who are nearer death segregated from the younger.

Funerals can be very instructive! The vapidity of the life of that person who passed his time on earth superficially, selfishly, or without godly purpose comes into sharp focus at his funeral when mourners struggle to find a meaningful tribute. More positively, as we stand and stare at grandfather’s corpse, there remembering his patience, prayers, or perseverance, which grew from his faith in Christ Jesus; it should stir a desire to prepare for that moment when others will gaze into our coffin.

The Bible tells us that Death is a defeated enemy for us when are lives are hidden in Christ. At the close of a chapter in which he earnestly makes a case for the Resurrection of Christ and our own hope of Resurrection, Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 15 rise to a crescendo of triumph. "When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain." (1 Corinthians 15:54-58, NIV)

That is not a text about ‘pie in the sky, by and by!’ It is not ethereal musing without practical application. Paul says that the promise of Resurrection is a powerful incentive right now to choose the best life. We will be holy, faithful lives servants of the Lord and others if we know that this day could be our last opportunity before we sleep in death. Resurrection connects ‘now’ to ‘forever.’ On this earth, our achievements will be eclipsed by those of another, probably even before we die. We all have experienced the disappointment of having our best efforts unnoticed by busy people who take us for granted. But, if we live with the promise of the Resurrection, assured that we are already immortal, simply awaiting the moment of our transformation, we also know that what is done now, is not lost nor forgotten by the One who hands out the rewards that matter most. What a reason to remain faithful to the highest calling.

If we live in a culture that is formed from the hope of our Resurrection, we will be able to face death with the same sense of expectation that Paul wrote of as he was just days from his own execution in Rome. From the Mamertine Prison, where he was held for execution, considered a traitor to Rome because of his unwavering allegiance to Jesus Christ; he wrote to Timothy, these words which I hope will be read over my own still body someday. Take this word from the Word and ponder it today: "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing." (2 Timothy 4:7-8, NIV)

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I then shall live as one who's been forgiven.
I'll walk with joy to know my debts are paid.
I know my name is clear before my Father.
I am His child and I am not afraid.
So greatly pardoned I'll forgive my brother.
The law of love I gladly will obey.

I then shall live as one who's learned compassion.
I've been so loved that I'll risk loving, too.
I know how fear builds walls instead of bridges.
I dare to see another's point of view.
And when relationships demand commitment,
Then I'll be there to care and follow through.
Your kingdom come around and through and in me.
Your pow'r and glory, let them shine through me.
Your Hallowed Name, O may I bear with honor,
And may Your living kingdom come in me.
The Bread of Life, O may I share with honor,
And may You feed a hungry world through me.
Amen.

I Then Shall Live
Gaither, Gloria / Sibelius, Jean
© 1981 William J. Gaither, Inc. ARR UBP of Gaither Copyright Management

CCLI License No. 810055

Hope and Horror

The classic movie, The Wizard of Oz, takes a turn when Toto, Dorothy’s little dog pulls back a curtain and reveals that the Great Oz is a fraud, just a man pulling levers on a machine. There’s no magic, at all! I wonder if we have largely lost our capability for wonder in life because we have come to believe that all things are common, able to be explained if only we can find a way to tear open the curtain? I am thankful for the scientific discoveries that help us to live healthier, longer lives. I am grateful that we have inquiries that keep those in power in check, that help us to understand that those who lead us are but mere mortals.

But, there is a downside to our loss of wonder, too. We have reduced God to bite-size, too. Tamed, explained, trivialized, robbed of His majesty; He cannot guide nor guard. He is a Friend, but no longer a King. I watched a TV preacher speak to thousands yesterday of a God that commanded no respect, a god (small ‘g’ intentional) that was the blessing buddy. People applauded as this man rhapsodized about a deity that was unlike the One of Whom I read in the Holy Scripture this morning.

In the words of the prophets of the Old Testament, we find God is capable of inspiring great hope and equally terrible horror! He deeply loves His people, but He also holds them responsible for their choices and unapologetically demands their holy service. Habakkuk wonders at the foolishness of idol-making. “Of what value is an idol, since a man has carved it? Or an image that teaches lies? For he who makes it trusts in his own creation; he makes idols that cannot speak. Woe to him who says to wood, ‘Come to life!’ Or to lifeless stone, ‘Wake up!’ Can it give guidance? It is covered with gold and silver; there is no breath in it.”

We do not carve wooden figures to receive our worship, but we do create our own gods. We reject the part of Him capable of wrath for the sinful, and hold onto the promise of Father love. Thus, God becomes, to us, a misshapen and twisted caricature, something we keep around for times of trouble. “But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him.” (Habakkuk 2:18-20, NIV)

Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the majesty of God.
Let Him be Who He is; amazing, infinite, holy, beautiful, omnipotent, worthy of honor.

"Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! “Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?” “Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?” For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen." (Romans 11:33-36, NIV)

Are you reverent? That sense of awe, of profound respect, is the heart of worship.
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You are beautiful beyond description,
Too marvelous for words,
Too wonderful for comprehension,
Like nothing ever seen or heard.
Who can grasp Your infinite wisdom,
Who can fathom the depth of Your love?
You are beautiful beyond description,
Majesty enthroned above.

And I stand, I stand in awe of You.
I stand, I stand in awe of You.
Holy God, to whom all praise is due,
I stand in awe of You.

I Stand In Awe
Altrogge, Mark
PDI Ministries © 1987 People Of Destiny International (Admin. by PDI Ministries)

CCLI License No. 810055