Waiting’s the Thing!

Posted on by June 14, 2013
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June 14

Hab 2:1 — I will stand at my watch and station myself on the ramparts; I will look to see what he will say to me, and what answer I am to give to this complaint.

This one is is for me, really. There’s a work situation going on, and it’s been hard to be patient with some of the people involved. I’ve been praying about it, and the answer hasn’t been what I’ve expected. (Side comment … Yes, I’m an idiot, having expectations about how prayers are going to be answered.)
Remember Habakuk? He was the prophet who didn’t seem quite sure God knew what He was up to. How come the wicked of Judah were getting away with their wickedness. “Wait and see”, God said, “I’m going to punish Judah with a people worse than they are”. “How can that be right?”, Habakuk wonders, and goes to a quiet place to seek the Lord’s perspective.
It wasn’t until I stepped back, and went to my quiet place that I got a different perspective on the issue I’m dealing with. Don’t get me wrong. The people I’m dealing with aren’t wicked. In fact that was exactly the different point of view that God showed me. There are two sides to the question, and from their point of view, the parties on both sides are right. Of course, that left me with a different dilemma — where will a resolution come from, if nobody is wrong? Of course, God has an answer for that one too.
Remember what God said to Habakuk. “Write this down. Write it big, so that people can read it, and those who read it can run — can use the information — because it’s not for now, but later.” The promised future is certain, and glorious — but wait and see.
That’s the way things often are with God. You have to trust Him to have the best answer, at the best time, in the best way. You can’t expect to understand. You have to take the problems of life and look for His perspective. A lot of the time the answer is “leave it to me”.
And my work problem? Still waiting. It’s not my problem. God’s got it. I’m still going to have a bunch of awkward meetings with unhappy people not trusting each other and putting me in the middle. But it’s not really my problem …

My Tender God

Posted on by June 13, 2013
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June 13

Psalm 131:2 — Surely I have behaved and quieted myself as a child that is weaned of his mother: My soul is even as a weaned child.

Yesterday I was amazed at God’s tenderness toward me. Today, my lovely Myra reminded me of this … Adapted from Hosea 11.

When you were a child I loved you …,

it was I who taught you to walk, taking you by the arms; but you did not realize it was I who healed you.
I led you with cords of human kindness, with ties of love.
To you I was like one who lifts a little child to the cheek, and I bent down to feed you.
How can I give you up,? How can I hand you over?
How can I treat you like Admah? How can I make you like Zeboyim?
  My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused.
I will not carry out my fierce anger, nor will I devastate you again.
For I am God, and not a human being, the Holy One with you.
I will not come against your city.

Do you remember when you first accepted Jesus as Lord? Do you remember that first love. Did it feel as though you were special, cherished? Did you feel God’s leading reins? I remember. It seemed easy to be a Christian in those first few months. But time moves on, and life seems more complex. It’s not so easy to feel the lifting up, and feeding. I have to go back. Again, and again. Is it like that for you?
When I remember, I try to go back through God’s word to His Son, and from the Son to the Father. I try to remember not to concern myself with great matters, or things too wonderful for me.
Are there times when life seems complicated, people seem difficult, you feel out of sorts, God seems far away? Time to go back, to become, once again, “like one of these” — once again a little child.

I Don’t Understand God!

Posted on by July 28, 2013
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June 12

Exodus 3:14 –And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.

Acts 17:28 — For in Him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also His offspring.

There. I’ve said it. I don’t understand God. Do you? Infinite, all-knowing, all-powerful, all-seeing. All good, all loving, all glorious. Oh, I understand the words, but as soon as I really start to think about any one of them I very quickly reach my limits. How about this — what happened at the creation? The never-changing God created the earth out of nothing. In doing so, He neither added to Himself, nor subtracted from Himself, nor changed Himself.

Here’s another one. I live, and move, and have my being in God. I am a sinner. God’s perfect love and my sin cannot coexist — yet somehow they do. How does that work? I have no idea.

God is like that. Trying to understand Him is folly. Ask Him to explain Himself, and what do you get? “I AM THAT I AM”. I might understand that a little — “I created myself from nothing, of my own will, outside of time and space.” I might understand it a little … But only a very little.

I don’t understand God. He has adopted me. He welcomes me to boldly approach His throne. Somehow, one of His main purposes is to make me like His Son, and to reconcile the differences caused by me refusing to do what is best for me! The Almighty Lord of the universe cares about me, personally. It doesn’t matter what I do, He isn’t going to love me even the slightest bit less than He always has. Now I know me — I’m not a horrible person by most people’s standards — but that still leaves plenty of room for sin. How does that make me worth the affectionate care of God? The affectionate care by which He invites me to call Him “Abba, Father”? Affectionate! It’s The Lord of All inviting me to snuggle into His lap!

I don’t understand God. … but I love You Lord.

 

It’s The Relationship …

Posted on by July 28, 2013
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June 11, 2013

Psalm 34:10 — The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: But they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing.

Do you ever feel that there are times when this verse just doesn’t stand up? There’s all kinds of good things that the people of God seem to lack. Sometimes, (shame on me), I even whine a little myself … but it really hits home when I look around and see friends struggling with ill-health, unemployment, and especially the misery of broken relationships.

I have to remind myself that I have a tendency to think that I know what constitutes my “good”. God’s definition of our good is different from ours own. As I sit here writing I know it’s foolish for me even to think I know what His definition is. I think, though, that one piece of it is for me to be conformed to the image of His Son, and all that He does in my life or allows to happen to me may safely be assumed to promote that great good.

It’s all about the relationship

Genesis 1:26-27 — And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them

Genesis 2:18 — And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.

God made man to be like Him. Part of that “being like Him” includes having relationships. And God gives me what I need to bring me close to Him and to other people – not always what I want, or think I need.

The Start Of A Regular Devotional?

Posted on by February 10, 2014
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I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me (Phil 4:13)

My good friend Don Johnson (I hope that’s not presuming) suggested I write a daily devotional. My first reaction was “No, not me … Too much, people won’t always like what I say … Does Don know how much work that is?” Those were all honest reactions, but still…

I suppose the truth is, I’m afraid. I’m afraid I’ll quickly run out of things to say that draw people closer to Christ. I’m afraid I’ll put my foot in it, and upset someone. I’m afraid – horror of horrors – that I’ll get the theology wrong, and bring the wrath of the unforgiving down on my head.

But what about the promise? I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. OK, it’s obviously not an unconditional promise. I can do all things in God’s will. I can’t jump over tall buildings in a single bound! But if I take on a challenge that comes out of His will, He will give me whatever I need to meet it. So here goes.

I can’t promise a devotion every day. I’m blessed to be working a full week, and don’t want to be slapdash in what I write. But I’ll do my best to be faithful, not missing because I just don’t feel like it.

Usually, when I write things there are three main provocations. Something the Spirit prompts me with in my quiet time. Something Myra and I talk about during our devotions. Something happens in the world. There are a lot of things I don’t usually share, because I think they might be quirky or controversial. I’ve got a feeling that this undertaking might force me to share more. So welcome to some of the odd corners of my spiritual life. Join me in trying to understand more about our inexplicable God. Join me as I try to wrestle with some of the demons from past and present.

I don’t think we get a pass when someone asks us to do something that might help another believer. The verse doesn’t say, “I can do all things that I choose for myself”. We are created for good works … and Christ strengthens us for them.

 

If God is good … the problem of pain …

Posted on by February 10, 2014
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Every Christian, sooner or later, has to face a horrid issue. Terrible things happen to terrific people – even to wonderful Christians. How come? If God is good, why does he allow it? And what’s more, what’s a Christian to do when the one suffering is a family member, or a good friend, or any Christian brother or sister. I hope you’re not expecting any great new answers or novel truths. I don’t have any. I can only ask with Jeremiah, “Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is there no healing for the wound of my people?” Great thinkers have studied this for two thousand years … but it’s been greatly on my mind as I have watched some friends go through awful things, and I wanted to share my thoughts. Maybe someone else has something new …

I should say that I’m only interested in this problem as it affects me – a Christian – and others like me. If you don’t believe in God, then I suppose that you don’t expect Him to preserve you from catastrophes. If you believe there is a God, but not the God of the Christian Bible, you might have to deal this problem, but Christian wrestlings with it are irrelevant, I suppose, to you.

I ought to define the kind of pain I’m talking about, too. I don’t mean the kind of pain that is actually helpful – the burn of the finger from the stove, or the sting from a nettle … or even the sting of punishment for wrong doing. It’s not about salutary pain. Nor yet do I mean the pain that may be underserved but which may still be explicable and survivable – the loss of a job, and unpleasant divorce, a recoverable illness… even childhood sexual abuse. I grant that there is an area between these and what I call ‘true” catastrophe that might be questionable, being disastrous for some, and survivable for others. What I really have in mind, though, are the unquestionably horrific calamities that affect individuals. The inexplicable death of a baby, the painful and prolonged incurable cancer of a beloved partner, the suicide of a friend – these are examples of the “pain” I mean. I’m talking about the sort of pain which seems irrational, unfair, and without recourse.

How does a Christian reconcile pain with Jesus’ saying, “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours”? Not at all … that question is besides the point. Any well educated Christian knows that there are conditions to the promise. But prayer about pain is usually an “after-the-fact” response – which leads to the “before-the-fact” question. Why does a good God allow bad things to happen to good people? How do the victims get chosen for calamity, and why doesn’t God prevent it?

Randy Alcorn expresses the problem very well: “If God is all good, then he would want to prevent evil and suffering. If he is all knowing, then he would know how to prevent it. If God is all powerful, then he is able to prevent it. And yet… a great deal of evil and suffering exists. Why?” It will be clear that I believe that some evil, and some suffering, needs no explanation. But there is that residual pain that the heart cannot accept. It’s not the result of bad choices. It’s just not “fair”! I am forced to reject the way the question is expressed. God is all good, all knowing and all powerful. It follows that He must have his own good reasons for allowing pain … evil and suffering … to exist. One of the things I have come to accept is that God is my heavenly Father. And like all parents, His answer for many questions is, “because I say so.” So how should a Christian respond?

There are many good “explanations” of why God allows pain. It’s a natural consequence of the exercise of free will. It’s the result of sin. It’s because God has a better plan… Many of them are perfectly reasonable, intellectually. None of them really resolve the issue. If you have ever been one of those “chosen” to suffer you know there is no adequate explanation. You either accept that God is good, and has no obligation to explain – the message of Job – or you suffer the insult of incomprehension on top of the injury of pain. For that reason, I conclude that there is limited value in the usual Christian approach … the offering of explanations and supporting texts. For now, my response is that of Romans 12:15: “Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.” Sharing the sorrow, and incomprehension or coming alongside in faith are the only proper responses I can find. Empathy is not my strong suit, but I will reach toward it.

This post isn’t really finished … this problem is on my mind a lot. But I wanted to put it out, and see what thoughts it might attract. I know I’ll revisit it.