Jackpots or Jesus?

   When Bev died at first I cried, deep wrenching sobs, sorrow seemed to come up through my body starting at my toes!  With time’s passing, the sobs turned into a persistent ache. Things remind me of her, memories come to visit uninvited, and grief picks up a sharp knife that it drives through my heart.  There are some tears, but mostly the grief has settled like a stone on my chest; crushing, hurting, relentless!  

Heartache used to be a word I knew; now it is my daily experience.

But, I am not without hope. Jesus speaks to my soul in His promises of the Great Reversal.  I love the words, though I freely admit that I only own them by faith a large part of the time right now.  He says,
"You’re blessed when you’ve lost it all.
God’s kingdom is there for the finding.
You’re blessed when you’re ravenously hungry.
Then you’re ready for the Messianic meal.
You’re blessed when the tears flow freely.
Joy comes with the morning." (Luke 6:20-21, The Message)

How desperately I seek the Kingdom, long for my soul to be fed, and wait for the morning’s joy!  Much of what I have loved for all of my life is beyond my reach now, a life I enjoyed lost for all time. I am tempted by despair, but the Lord’s words remind me that there is yet life, different, but still life.  So, I choose to hope, to keep an open heart, to pray expectantly for a new dawn.

Over the last few days, many of us have laughed about a PowerBall jackpot in excess of $1.5 Billion, a sum that we cannot imagine. More than one conversation that I have overheard has included dreams about what that kind of money would allow the person to do. I joined the fantasy for a while, too.  But, a part of me knows that such a windfall would likely be poison for my soul. Why? Because wealth is evil? Not at all.  Because money is intrinsically bad? No! It is the illusion of independence that such wealth creates that is spiritually toxic.  We are created to know and love our God, but when we are rich, well-fed, and living in sunshine it is too easy to push God to the periphery of life, to forget that He is our life.  You know I’m right, don’t you?

So, if there is any consolation in my present sorrow, it is knowing that my heartache is an opening for the Spirit, a tear in my being through which He can pour Himself into my heart.  My prayer is that I will learn a new depth of devotion that helps me to properly enjoy and use the blessings that I enjoy in our stable, rich, resourceful nation as God, in His revelation of His will and purpose, rebuilds my life.

Are you sorrowful today? Wait and pray.

Are you tempted by despair and anger? Be still before Him.

Are you wanting to escape the ache? Discipline your desires to look higher.

And remember that Jesus is a Advocate that has shared in your pain.  Here is the word from the Word.

"He was despised and rejected—a man of sorrows, acquainted with bitterest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way when he went by. He was despised, and we did not care. Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God for his own sins! But he was wounded and crushed for our sins. He was beaten that we might have peace. He was whipped, and we were healed!" (Isaiah 53:3-5, NLT)

"That is why we have a great High Priest who has gone to heaven, Jesus the Son of God. Let us cling to him and never stop trusting him. This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same temptations we do, yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it." (Hebrews 4:14-16, NLT)

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Christ Above Me

Bread of life from heaven,

Lover of my soul,

Peace of God so ever present,

I surrender my control to…

Mercy everlasting,

Tenderness divine,

Word of God so ever healing.

I surrender heart and mind to…

Christ above me, Christ beside me.

Christ within me ever guiding,

Christ behind me, Christ before,

Christ. my love, my life, my Lord.

George T. Searcy | John Chisum

© 1999 Integrity's Hosanna! Music (Admin. by Capitol CMG Publishing (IMI))

CCLI License # 810055

Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is

The “Marshmallow Test” was a study conducted by Walter Mischel at Stanford. Little children were offered a small reward immediately or promised double the reward if they would wait for a period of time, usually about 15 minutes.  Follow up on those same children years later showed that those who choose to delay their gratification, choosing the double reward, scored higher on tests, completed higher education, and had generally better health!

What choices do you make when it comes to investing in the future rather than taking immediate gratification?  Many years ago a wise uncle advised me to take a small amount of money each month and put it into my retirement account.  Every dollar was precious in our little family, living on a rather small salary. But, I trusted his counsel and today that account has grown into a sizeable sum of money. Investing demands a vision of an as yet unseen future, doesn’t it? When I was in my late 20’s, retiring was just an idea, something old guys did. Now, less than a decade away, I am glad I made some choices long ago that will, Lord- willing, help me to have a better quality of life.

Christians who would serve the Lord best, who would enjoy His rewards, must invest in a place they cannot see, making choices of faith that rests on the Promise of God! 

Jeremiah, the prophet of Judah, whose ministry was filled with gloomy, grim predictions of the destruction of Jerusalem by her enemies lived out a parable of future oriented faith before the people. The story is told in the 32^nd chapter of his book. God revealed to him that a cousin would come to him with a real estate deal.  Of course, buying property while the city was besieged by invaders was, to every appearance, the height of folly! 

Let’s see what he did.  “And sure enough, just as God had said, my cousin Hanamel came to me while I was in jail and said, ‘Buy my field in Anathoth in the territory of Ben-jamin, for you have the legal right to keep it in the family. Buy it. Take it over.’ “That did it. I knew it was God’s Message. “So I bought the field at Anathoth from my cousin Hanamel. I paid him seventeen silver shekels. I followed all the proper procedures: In the presence of witnesses I wrote out the bill of sale, sealed it, and weighed out the money on the scales. Then I took the deed of purchase—the sealed copy that contained the contract and its conditions and also the open copy— and gave them to Baruch …  “Then, in front of all of them, I told Baruch, ‘These are orders from God-of-the-Angel-Armies, the God of Israel: Take these documents—both the sealed and the open deeds—and put them for safekeeping in a pottery jar. For God-of-the-Angel-Armies, the God of Israel, says, “Life is going to return to normal. Homes and fields and vineyards are again going to be bought in this country.” (Jeremiah 32:8-15, The Message)  Common sense told Jeremiah that when Babylon destroyed Jerusalem, it was ‘game over’ for the Jews. But, God said, “Life is going to return to normal 70 years from now.”  Jeremiah chose to believe the promise and bought property to put his money where his mouth was.

Interestingly enough, later in that chapter, he has a conversation with God about his choices, wondering out loud if he had made a foolish decision. He says that the siege ramps can be seen outside the city walls, that there is every evidence of pending destruction.  God answers his doubts.  First, the bad news - “I am the Lord, the God of all the peoples of the world. Is anything too hard for me? Therefore, this is what the Lord says: I will hand this city over to the Babylonians and to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and he will capture it." (Jeremiah 32:26-28, NLT) Then, the good news-  "I will certainly bring my people back again from all the countries where I will scatter them in my fury. I will bring them back to this very city and let them live in peace and safety. They will be my people, and I will be their God. And I will give them one heart and one purpose: to worship me forever, for their own good and for the good of all their descendants. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good for them. I will put a desire in their hearts to worship me, and they will never leave me." (Jeremiah 32:37-40, NLT)

Will you say no to that voice of Self that is demanding gratification today for the sake of receiving the rich rewards of Heaven?

Will you choose to ‘lay up treasure in Heaven’ rather than to spend yourself and your wealth on things that are subject to loss?

Will you live by faith investing in the unseen, even when those around you mock your choices as foolish, naïve, or resulting from religious delusions?

Here are words from the Word. May the Spirit make them alive and full of promise for us today.  Lord, find us faith-full!

“See, he is puffed up; his desires are not upright— but the righteous will live by his faith— indeed, wine betrays him; he is arrogant and never at rest. Because he is as greedy as the grave and like death is never satisfied, he gathers to himself all the nations and takes captive all the peoples." (Habakkuk 2:4-5, NIV)  "But my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him.” But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved." (Hebrews 10:38-39, NIV)

Would you pray with me?

Father, my soul and body clamors for satisfaction.

My appetites for things, for comfort, for ease, and for pleasure

Are strong and the culture in which I live praises the man who

Feeds himself and feathers his own nest.

So, I pray for the gift of faith to see beyond the horizon of time.

Speak to me, like you did to Jeremiah, to renew the Promise.

Holy Spirit, set eternity in my heart and inspire me to live to give,

To love and to serve, to work and worship with You and

Our Eternal Home to guide me.

For the honor of Jesus, and in His Holy Name, I pray.

Amen.

You’re going cry. Are you prepared?

“Sooner or later all people suffer loss, in little doses or big ones, suddenly or over time, privately or in public settings. Loss is as much a part of normal life as birth for as surely as we are born into this world we will suffer loss before we leave it.” (A Grace Disguised) Jerry Sittser, the author of those words, knows about loss.  On a curvy road in Idaho a drunk driver hit the car carrying his family and, in that instant, his beloved wife, mother, and daughter were torn from him, leaving him reeling and searching for a way through the darkness of grief!  I, too, have known loss in recent years.  Death has visited three times in my family, profound disappointment was the cup from which I drank when I made some major life changes that I believed to be the will of my Father. 

Christian, no matter how fervently you pray, no matter how ‘careful’ you are, things will come your way that break you, that are hard, dark, and unwelcomed.  We tacitly acknowledge the ‘risks’ of life when we purchase insurance, don’t we?  Only a foolish person would not carry a policy on his home or auto. Why? Because we know that fires, spills, and accidents happen.  But, for the greater losses, those of the heart and spirit, many go unprepared. Are you prepared to face the onslaught of sorrow, change, and/or disappointment?

The last 6 years of my life have taught me about the importance of a solid foundation.  If I were without hope in God, without a refuge to which I can run in my sorrow, I am quite certain that the trials of life would have destroyed me. As it is, they have shaken me to the core.  Here are the words of Jesus, counsel for times of loss.  “So why do you keep calling me ‘Lord, Lord!’ when you don’t do what I say? I will show you what it’s like when someone comes to me, listens to my teaching, and then follows it. It is like a person building a house who digs deep and lays the foundation on solid rock. When the floodwaters rise and break against that house, it stands firm because it is well built. But anyone who hears and doesn’t obey is like a person who builds a house without a foundation. When the floods sweep down against that house, it will collapse into a heap of ruins.” (Luke 6:46-49, NLT)

A superficial Sunday morning, church-based Christianity is not going to carry you through loss!  I have known many church-going people that have become bitter, self-absorbed people after some tragic event. The God to Whom they sang and the words they spoke about ‘faith’ become sounds that mock them.  Jesus says that His words must be worked into our lives, understood and followed, becoming the Way we do all of life. Only then will there be a solid foundation that can withstand life’s inevitable storms.  Loving God is often presented in a way that resembles a teen-age infatuation.  Jesus is made into a kind of idol of affection that lets us avoid the dreary stuff of life as we dream about Him coming to sweep us into some blissful existence. Nice, but silly!  That notion is about as real as a first crush is compared to the love of a real marriage!

Loving Jesus in a way that builds a solid foundation is about choices made every day, about seeking His Kingdom over our pleasure, about resisting temptation in pursuit of a life devoted to love and service. It is about worship that goes beyond upbeat praise tunes, that engages our spirit with His Spirit, in deep places of quiet and surrender! It is about spending time near the mysteries of life, willing to live in a place beyond easy answers and simple solutions.  A God that is within our grasp of understanding is not big enough to be a Foundation for times of loss. Ask Job!  I hate that book in the Bible!  God allows a man who loves Him to suffer awful loss.  He watches the man’s agony as it unfolds. But, I also desire the faith of Job who, in the middle of it all, declares (and proves with his life) “even if he killed me, I’d keep on hoping. I’d defend my innocence to the very end. Just wait, this is going to work out for the best—my salvation!” (The Message, Job 13:15-16)  We have a perspective on Job’s experience that he did not have. We see a spiritual war going on that he could not see, yet he trusted in God and his life gave Him honor and glory.  Did that mitigate his sufferings or dry his tears? Not at all! But, there was purpose in all the misery.

That is the foundation on which I stand today.  While I do not understand all of the ways of my God, I trust that He will work for the very best, that He will bring honor to Himself in me if I will walk faithfully with Him;  and that is enough until eternity reveals the rest. 

Here is a word from the Word. May we stand on it, resting on His everlasting arms in good times and bad, on mountain tops and in deep valleys.
"What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying, my conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit—" (Romans 8:31-37, NIV)

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Oh Lead Me

Oh lead me-

To the place where I can find You.

Oh lead me-

To the place where You'll be.

Lead me to the cross,

Where we first met.

Draw me to my knees,

So we can talk.

Let me feel Your Breath,

Let me know

You're here with me.

Martin Smith

© 1994 Curious? Music UK (Admin. by Capitol CMG Publishing)

CCLI License # 810055