Springs of Life

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My son, pay attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings. They are not to escape from your sight; Keep them in the midst of your heart. For they are life to those who find them, and healing to all their body. Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life. Proverbs 4:20-23 (NASB)

Water! The lifeline for life. As a general rule, an adult can usually live only three days without water. You can live without food much longer than without water. According to The Global Burden of Disease, a major global study on health factors, 1 out of 4 people do not have access to safe drinking water. Unsafe water is responsible for an estimated 1.2 million deaths each year. UNICEF reports that almost 2/3 of the world’s population experiences water scarcity for at least one month each year. Over two billion people live in countries where the water supply is inadequate.

Americans consumed 15 billion gallons of bottled water in 2020 making it the top-selling packaged beverage. Consumption created a $36.3 billion retail sales bonanza for distributors with bottled water sales in the United States topping the total GNP of approximately 96 other nations.

Therefore, it is not surprising that the Bible is filled with verses using water as a metaphor for spiritual life. Understanding that pure water is needed to quench physical thirst, so is the need to spiritually guard our heart, “for from it flow the springs of life.”

I don’t normally write about something that I haven’t watched, so I will give this disclaimer, I didn’t watch this year’s Grammy awards. I am sure there were some good moments within the show and some music-worthy performances, but having read numerous articles on the show’s content and seeing some of the broadcast’s highlights, I am not sure it would have been a healthy source of living water for me.

Kees Postma, a Dutch pastor in his book, “The Retreat: A lighthearted and humorous story about a soul searching pastor,” writes “We men (and women) are quite good at protecting what we have. We take out insurance on almost everything we own. We have burglar alarm systems and video doorbells protecting our property, and baseball bats or something equivalent hidden upstairs should it happen that one breaks into our house. But Scripture points our attention to one other thing that we should guard with all we have in us, and that’s our heart. That’s where our insecurities, our hopes and dreams for the future are stored.”

Postma tells a parable about the fictitious village of Wellsprings. It is a perfect little close community that has been there for generations and offers safety to those within its borders. Houses are perfectly maintained, the people are neatly dressed and all the cars are without any dents or scratches. Visitors are amazed at the city’s spotless perfection from no weeds in the yards to no stains on the kid’s clothes. “We will guard everything we own with all vigilance, for in it we find safety and security.”

Yet through the years, the villagers prized only the outward appearance and no one took a concern for the inner workings until the stench of death became overwhelming as several of its citizens died from lead poisoning from the water. Pipes that should have brought clean life-giving water brought deadly water. Instead of maintaining the source of water, the citizens cared only for outward appearances. They will eventually understand that “It is better to guard the inside with all vigilance than brushing up the outside. Better is an old tap with clean water than a designer one with contaminated water running through it.”

Just as a city must protect the water source, more so should we guard our hearts with all diligence. We can be Hollywood styled, have a picture-perfect physique, and drive a classy car, yet walk around with a dead heart. Jesus confronted the Pharisees, who were lovers of material things by saying, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the sight of others, but God knows your hearts.” –Luke 16:14-15

Gary Chapman, long-time pastor, and writer said of himself that he prays, “God, keep my heart. Because if God keeps your heart, and your heart beats with his heart, you’re not going to get very far off the road.”

If the general rule is you can live only three days without water, imagine what happens if you don’t replenish your heart regularly? Instead of “springs of life” our hearts become cesspools of “evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual immoralities, thefts, false testimonies, slander” according to Jesus. (Matthew 15:16-20)

The Gospel of John captures the beautiful and life-changing encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. Instead of being able to rest during the mid-day heat like the other women, we read the story of this broken woman who bears the pain of her past carrying her pots to the well in the heat of the day. Yet she will find in her search for physical water the ultimate gift of living water. Jesus said, “But whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again. In fact, the water I will give him will become a well of water springing up in him for eternal life.” (John 4:14)

Just as the woman came to the well thirsty, we live in an age when people are coming thirsty but are going to dry wells. The world’s attention may have been focused on the Grammys but God was doing something unique among the students on the campus of Asbury University in Kentucky. What began as a routine chapel service on February 8, 2023, has become a unique outpouring of God’s presence that is touching the lives of students on campus and around the world. Fifty-three years ago, on the same campus, when the nation faced similar conditions of violence, racial division and hatred, a movement of God was felt! Could this be the time when we again see a fresh movement of God?

“If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. The one who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within him.”—Jesus

Come, Lord Jesus!
God is great!

Today belongs to Tomorrow, Living Life in the Transitions

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May the favor of the Lord our God rest on us; establish the work of our hands for us—yes, establish the work of our hands. Psalm 90:17 (NIV)

Lucile Randon, also known as Sister Andre, passed away recently in Toulon, France. Chances are you may not have known about her since she didn’t run in the circle of the rich, powerful, or famous. What made her famous was her age. This humble nun died at the age of 118, having been the world’s oldest known person for a brief moment. Sister Andre was born during the presidency of Teddy Roosevelt, a year after the first baseball World Series game and four years before Henry Ford introduced the Model T.  Sister Andre lived through two major global wars, countless other smaller wars, and thousands of world leaders. She finally retired at 108 but continued to help others in the nursing home where she lived.

Maltbie Babcock died in 1901 three years before Sister Andre was born. Babcock was an American pastor but unlike sister Andre, he died at 42. Yet in his short life, he understood that “Part of today belongs to tomorrow, as the seed belongs to the shoot, as the foundation belongs to the building. So today owes its best to tomorrow, for not to do right today may ruin tomorrow. But the reverse is not true. Tomorrow cannot ruin today. Time’s wheel does not run backward. Banish, then, fore-boding and anxious forecast, and fill to today with faithful work, with kindness and courage and hope; and so you will keep tomorrow from being a marplot, and make it a good, honest today when it comes.” (excerpt from Babcock’s book, Thoughts for Every-Day Living. Adjusted some word spellings to accommodate 21st century Grammarly)

William James, the father of modern psychology, coined the term over 150 years ago that “life is in the transitions.” Bruce Feiler took the term for his book, “Life is in the transitions—Mastering Change at Any Age” writing that “most lives simply do not follow the tidy templates of linearity. They follow a different shape entirely.” Feiler uses the term “disruptors” to describe life events that interrupt the everyday flow of one’s life. Disruptors can be negative such as losing your job, or the death of a loved one but can also be considered positive such as starting a new career or moving into a different house. “Disruptors are simply deviations from daily life.”

David Parsons came from a wealthy, influential family, achieved fame as an opera singer, and even married Miss America. Disruptors came to his picture-perfect life causing the wheels to come off. A botched vocal cord surgery ended his stage career, his brother died of AIDS and his dark secret of being an alcoholic since age 11 came to light. Yet another disruptor came when he woke up from a drinking binge, got on his knees, and prayed, “God, please help me not to drink today. If I make it, I’ll thank you tonight and I’ll ask you again tomorrow morning. I haven’t had a drink since that day.”

Now serving as a pastor in New York when asked about the shape of his life, he said, “the cross.” “Every pastor is a theologian of the cross,” he said, “But in my case, I believe in the Jesus story. I know that freaks people out, especially in New York. But I lived a very dissipated life, and now I live a life of service. There was a very specific point in time when God came down and touched my life. That’s the crossroads that led me to where I am today.”

We may or may not live to be 118 but however long we live, we will live life in the transitions. Whether it is age transitions, work transitions, family transitions, societal transitions, death transitions or you “name it” transitions.

As we live in transition, all of us will experience “disruptors” or “lifequakes.” Feiler estimates that a person can expect to experience as an adult, around three dozen, that’s an average of one every 12 to 18 months. What we do with them will be the story we make. Though living life is in the transitions, the good news is that God wants to be with you in the transitions!

God has a pretty good understanding of how to help since from the beginning “all my days were written in your book and planned before a single one of them began.” –Psalm 139:16b

Jesus encouraged us that even in the transitions, God had the situation under control and could say, “Therefore don’t worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” –Matt 6:34

Psalm 90 captures a prayer of Moses as he prayed, “Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty if our strength endures; yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away…Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” (10,12 NIV)

Babcock left us “part of today that belongs to tomorrow” in his hymn “This is My Father’s World” which has been sung for generations. “This is my Father’s world, O let me ne’er forget That though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the Ruler yet. This is my Father’s world, The battle is not done; Jesus who died shall be satisfied, And earth and heaven be one.” (stanza three, Baptist Hymnal)

Life in the transitions is not always easy, and, seldom what we thought it would be, but what a difference there is when we let God walk with us in the transition! “And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” –Matthew 28:20b

God is great!

Always surprised by joy

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You reveal the path of life to me; in your presence is abundant joy; at your right hand are eternal pleasures. Psalm 16:11 (CSB)

In his book, Surprised by Joy, C.S. Lewis details his spiritual journey from a traditional Christian childhood through his season of atheism until that night when he “admitted that God was God,” moved into a confident Christianity, and discovered the true source of joy.

“There was no doubt that Joy was a desire…But a desire is turned not to itself but to its object. Not only that, but it owes all its character to its object…It is the object that makes the desire itself desirable or hateful…. Joy itself, considered simply as an event in my own mind, turned out to be of no value at all. All the value lay in that of which Joy was the desiring. And that object, quite clearly, was no state of my own mind or body at all. …Last of all I had asked if Joy itself was what I wanted; and, labeling it “aesthetic experience,” had pretended I could answer Yes. But that answer too had broken down.

In the Trinity Term of 1929, I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England…. The hardness of God is kinder than the softness of men, and His compulsion is our liberation.”

C.S. Lewis discovered in his search that joy is not in things but in the Who. Lewis wrote Surprised by Joy not as a general autobiography but as the telling of his story of conversion, finding what he called “joy.”

Connie and I had just finished a three-week mission trip to Kenya in January and returned with our hearts full. Over and over again, we saw the radiant joy of fellow Believers and were reminded again, that “stuff” is not the measure of joy and happiness. The world, and unfortunately even in some churches, offer a message that has warped the definition of what is needed to bring satisfaction. It is so easy to twist the meaning of joy and happiness to mean fulfillment is found only in the value of possessions, power, and positions.

I had the honor of sitting with a young pastor and his family in their “modest home” yet there was no mistaking what joy looks like. Connie and I had the privilege to help serve people in the middle of Kibera slums through a medical clinic and there was no mistaking what joy looks like. Connie and the team of nurses on the trip ministered to the health needs of those living in rural Kenya, yet there was no mistaking what joy looks like.

Followers of Jesus and the non-believing world all seek happiness. It is within this context that Randy Alcorn writes, “Don’t talk of joy as this unemotional transcendent thing and happiness as this worldly thing, because when we do that, we are pushing people, who all seek happiness, away from the gospel.”

Lewis understood that the source of joy was in the Who not the what. This same understanding was found among these fellow believers in Kenya. The source is not in “things” but in a person. John captured Jesus’ words when he said, “I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.” (John 15:11)

Eugene Peterson wrote about the outward expression of joy. “More praising goes on in church, more joy is expressed in the context of the Christian congregation, than anywhere else on the face of the earth.” He compared the outward expression of joy to the common places we encounter daily from supermarkets with anxious shoppers, to angry horns blowing on the highway. He wrote of athletic events where, “there are extravagant emotional expressions there, but it is surprising how few of them are joyful. The dominant mood is complaining, arguing, and criticizing.”

Peterson admitted the church family, it’s not a perfect place. Yet he wrote, “I know it could be improved. I know that some people are disappointed in it. But I don’t find any other place in the world where there is such a consistent friendliness, such a steady joy, such a relaxed rejoicing in God’s love.”

Dig deep and enjoy the rich goldmine of verses that describe the depth of joy and happiness that followers of Jesus have in their life. G.K. Chesterton said it well, “the atheist sees beauty but has no one to thank, and thus no one to be happy in.”

Paul’s vivid description of temporary happiness in Galatians 5 pales in comparison with the fantastic feast that God provides for us that brings true joy and happiness. For the “fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”

“Despite your tribulation, take full delight in God, your exceeding joy this morning, and be happy in him.” –Charles Spurgeon

God is great!

Rooted Deeply

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Those who are devoted to God will flourish like budding date-palm trees; they will grow strong and tall like cedars in Lebanon. Those planted in the house of the Eternal will thrive in the courts of our God. They will bear fruit into old age; even in winter, they will be green and full of sap to display that the Eternal is righteous. He is my rock, and there is no shadow of evil in Him. Psalm 92:12-15 (The Voice)

Nadine Anderson is a 23-year-old woman from Dundee, Scotland who decided to honor her dad most uniquely by tattooing 90 percent of her body! The self-professed “daddy’s girl” said her inspiration came from her father. Anderson said “My dad had two sleeves when I was growing up and I always wanted them,” so when she turned 18 she had her first tattoo.  Anderson said, according to the news article, “she’s particularly fond of blackout tattoos – where large parts of skin are covered completely with dark, black ink-and wants to add a little bit more under (her) right eye because there are spaces. But even amid all that, she still wants people to be able to tell what she looks like.”

Anderson’s route to honor her father could be considered extreme by some. Yet creativity, especially worship, is birthed deep from the soul. John O’Donohue writes that “the heart of human identity is the capacity and desire for birthing. To be human is to become creative and bring forth the beautiful.” Choosing how to honor someone comes in various ways and methods, even if often it may seem different or bizarre to some.

We are now almost finished with the first month of 2023. Maybe you haven’t gone the route of covering your body with tattoos but is anything different in how you have chosen to honor and worship God? To live out life in community with others?

Long before God changed Abram’s name to Abraham, he was building altars so he could worship God. Abraham followed God’s command to move out of his homeland because he understood that God was worthy of worship and sought to honor Him.  “From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the LORD. Gen 12:8.

Oswald Chambers wrote, “Bethel is the symbol of communion with God; Ai is the symbol of the world.” What a powerful thought when you realize Bethel means “the house of God” and Ai translates as “mass or heap.” Abraham pitched his tent right in the middle of “the house of God.”  We live in this world but our focus should stay on the Kingdom to come.

On the surface, living in Ai is pretty comfortable. You have all the comforts that the world can offer, the best that life can bring. When Lot and Abraham parted and went their separate ways, Lot chose the easy way and went towards Ai. Needless to say, the choice left him living with some dire consequences.  Abraham didn’t care which direction he went since he would be building altars to God wherever he pitched his tent.  The Abraham-type “budding date-palm trees “only grow in Bethel.

“The measure of the worth of our public activity for God is the private profound communion we have with Him. Rush is wrong every time, there is always plenty of time to worship God.” –Chambers.

It takes time which is not always easy to schedule so that we can sit before God. Yet when we do, we allow God to water the roots of our lives as we listen intently to His voice and seek to align our life to His ways. Your decision to pitch your tent amid your crazy, challenging activities could be the most rewarding and life-changing moment of the day.

Chambers went on to say, “Quiet days with God may be a snare. We have to pitch our tents where we shall always have quiet times with God, however noisy our times with the world may be.” We may live in Ai but for our souls to have life, we must always live in Bethel.” But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day.”  Proverbs 4:18

All that is eternal in me welcomes the wonder of this day.

The field of brightness it creates offering time for each thing

to arise and illuminate…

May my mind come alive today to the invisible geography

That invites me to new frontiers,

To break the dead shell of yesterdays

To risk being disturbed and changed.

May I have the courage today to live the life that I would love,

To postpone my dream no longer,

But do at last what I came here for and waste my heart on fear no more. — John O’Donohue

God is great!

 

Jan 23, 2023

 

What is Required?

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The question: What should I bring before the LORD? When I come to bow before God on high? Should I come before him with burnt offerings, with year-old calves? Would the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams or with ten thousand streams of oil? Should I give my firstborn for my transgression, the offspring of my body for my own sin?

The answer: Mankind, he has told each of you what is good and what it is the LORD requires of you:

to act justly,

to love faithfulness,

and to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:6-8 (CSB)

Jesus has spent the better part of his ministry teaching, encouraging, rebuking, and loving his disciples so they will understand what it is to live with the kingdom of heaven in mind. Jesus teaches his disciples truth and how it will impact people through radical love. Now as he is approaching the final days of his earthly ministry, Matthew records several parables to help them understand what it means to “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” (Matt 25:34)

Jesus tells them “For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat; I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink; I was a stranger and you didn’t take me in; I was naked and you didn’t clothe me; sick and in prison and you didn’t take care of me.” Their response has probably been mirrored through the generations since Jesus spoke those words, “Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or without clothes, or sick, or in prison, and not help you?

Jesus’ response to his disciples seems very appropriate during Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. “Then he will answer them, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.” God used this Baptist pastor to awaken a nation to confront the injustices of the day. Dr. King said that “whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”

God’s standard “To act justly, to love faithfulness, and to walk humbly with your God” sets a high bar of obedience, yet Jesus puts flesh on those verses. Feed the hungry as if He were sitting at the table. Give someone a cool drink on a hot day. Find some clothes to meet the needs of a homeless person. James came to grip with this teaching and would later write, “If a brother or sister is without clothes and lacks daily food and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, stay warm, and be well fed,” but you don’t give them what the body needs, what good is it?” (James 2:15)

God by His very nature deserves our very best. Yet He doesn’t ask for elaborate, ornate, or spectacular acts of worship. Simple acts of doing justly, loving faithfully, and walking humbly are His response to “What should I bring?” Jesus models these teachings in Matthew 24 and 25 and a few days after teaching, He places His life upon a cross for us. The extreme act of love brings redemption and salvation to those without hope. Our broken world creates inequality, unfairness, and often prejudice because of sin. God recognized the injustices that would come and created laws and regulations to safeguard the disadvantaged, the poor, the widows, the orphans, and the enslaved. He knows that governments, people of influence, money, and resources will often be used to further the sufferings or at best not help. The late W.A. Criswell wrote “those who believe themselves to be God’s people and who rely on the sacrifice for sin which God has provided have sometimes assumed that because their sins are dealt with, it does not matter how they live. The Bible emphasizes that those who would live in fellowship with a holy God as His people must live in a way which reflects the holiness of God.”

Micah’s words are simple and straightforward but generations have struggled to live out their intent. Dr. King understood all too well the challenges yet wrote “If one loves an individual merely on account of his friendliness, he loves him for the sake of the benefits to be gained from the friendship, rather than for the friend’s own sake. Consequently, the best way to assure oneself that love is disinterested is to have love for the enemy-neighbor from whom you can expect no good in return, but only hostility and persecution.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, “Your life as a Christian should make non-believers question their disbelief in God.” How or what can you do today to make a non-believer question their disbelief in God?  Our crazy, mixed-up world needs us to “act justly, to love faithfulness, and to walk humbly with God.”

Therefore, fear the LORD and worship him in sincerity and truth…. But if it doesn’t please you to worship the LORD, choose for yourselves today: Which will you worship… As for me and my family, we will worship the LORD. – Joshua 24:14-15

God is great!

Jan 16, 2023

 

 

Thousand Days or One Day

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For in your sight a thousand years are like yesterday that passes by, like a few hours of the night. Psalm 90:5 (CSB)

Dear friends, don’t overlook this one fact: With the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. 2 Peter 3:8 (CSB)

“What life was like 50 years ago in America, compared to now in 2023” headline sounded intriguing as I scrolled through my news feeds the other day, that is until I realized 50 years ago I was a 2nd-year college student, which meant I am now part of the “compared” group! Cortney Moore’s article captured comparisons from music, fashion, and movies to politics, world events, and lifestyle.

Carly Simon’s “You’re So Vain” would have been playing instead of Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You.” Instead of paying $3.99 a gallon, I spent 39 cents per gallon to fill up my car, which helped a struggling college student. Median income was $12,050, an average house cost $29,900, the Vietnam War was finally drawing to an end, Watergate hearings were underway and Roe v. Wade ruling was handed down.

It is so easy to get caught up in the moments instead of living life through God’s calendar. We may follow the Gregorian calendar for businesses, schools, social, and all other historical events but in actuality, we go by life calendars that change depending upon where you are. Young parents’ calendars follow the growth cycle of their baby when he turns over, when she sat up, or when the baby finally sleeps through the night. Working couples’ calendars go from vacation to vacation with lots of working hours in between. Retired couples are trying to find where they put their calendar!

Hairstyles have changed many times since The Shag haircuts were popular for men and women in the 1970s, but God’s concern for the smallest details hasn’t changed. “But even the hairs of your head have all been counted.” Matthew 10:30

The median cost of a home may have risen from $29,900 to the current new home price of $471,200 but it helps to focus on God’s shelter knowing “The one who lives under the protection of the Most High dwells in the shadow of the Almighty.” –Psalm 91:1

Now if you want a game-changer, step back and think of time from God’s point of view. The prophet Jeremiah was a little uncertain about his calling until God said, “I chose you before I formed you in the womb; I set you apart before you were born. I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” Jeremiah 1:4-5

“A thousand years like one day” puts into perspective this new year. We greeted the arrival of 2023 with excitement and celebration, as well as a little trepidation. Some are already saying we are off to a great start, others may be saying, nothing changed. It all depends upon where you are in life.

Most likely you are already making plans, adding events to the calendar, and thinking you have all the time in the world until you realize 2023 has only 12 months, 52 weeks, 365 days, 8,760 hours, 525,600 minutes, or 31,536,000 seconds to work with. Then it all starts over until one day you realize you are some writer’s fifty-year comparison!

How refreshing to live life with the knowledge that “Before the mountains were born, before you gave birth to the earth and the world, from eternity to eternity, you are God.” Psalm 90:2

Eternity to eternity is a lot of time, so, I think God has a pretty good perspective on how to live life.

Lord, as we fill up our calendars this year, “establish for us the work of our hands.” As we face another challenging day, “satisfy us in the morning with your faithful love so that we may shout with joy and be glad all our days.” Whether we are tired or excited let us remember “How magnificent are your works, LORD, how profound your thoughts!” Remind us to live 2023 “to declare your faithful love in the morning and your faithfulness at night.”

God is great!

Jan 9, 2023

 

Beginnings!

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There is an occasion for everything, and a time for every activity under heaven:

a time to give birth and a time to die;

a time to plant and a time to uproot;

a time to kill and a time to heal;

a time to tear down and a time to build;

a time to weep and a time to laugh;

a time to mourn and a time to dance;

a time to throw stones and a time to gather stones;

a time to embrace and a time to avoid embracing;

a time to search and a time to count as lost;

a time to keep and a time to throw away;

a time to tear and a time to sew;

a time to be silent and a time to speak;

a time to love and a time to hate;

a time for war and a time for peace. –Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 (CSB)

These haunting words from Solomon in the book of Ecclesiastes are so appropriate as we begin a new year. In welcoming 2023, we bid farewell to 2022 and for many, good riddance. The year brought various challenges as well as blessings. John Walton writes, “The message of Ecclesiastes is that the course of life to be pursued is a God-centered life. The pleasures of life are not intrinsically fulfilling and cannot offer lasting satisfaction, but they can be enjoyed as gifts from God. Life offers good times and bad and follows no pattern such as that proposed by the retribution principle. But all comes from the hand of God. Adversity may not be enjoyable, but it can help make us the people of faith we ought to be.”

I am not sure if Paulo Coelho ever read these verses but his thoughts seem to mirror Solomon’s understanding of time. “One day, you will wake up and there won’t be any more time to do the things you’ve always wanted. Do it now.”

For so many of us, 2022 began with good intentions, resolutions, and dreams. Yet as the days and weeks turned into months, it seemed impossible to keep many of those well-intentioned plans. The good intentions of losing weight didn’t happen, the daily routine of exercise sounded good, and trying to do something new was left on the table unfinished – yet we tried.

Edward Curtis writes, “Throughout the Old Testament, God’s people are encouraged to reflect on who God is, to study his works in creation and in history, and to meditate on the truth he has revealed about himself. They are instructed to carefully examine the world for examples of his steadfast love. Such disciplines keep before God’s people some of those “grounds for trusting.”

Happy New Year! Whether stranger or friend, you are greeted with these words. However, you may find yourself in a place that is neither “happy” nor “new”. The only thing you can resonate with that greeting is “year.” I will never forget Connie and my first New Year in Bophuthatswana, Africa. The country was in the midst of the worst drought in decades, the temperature was beyond hot, nothing was the same as what we left and we had lost our baby through a miscarriage. As the midnight hour struck, you could hear crowds of people walking up and down the road yelling: happy, happy, happy.

I realized that happy is simply an adjective. Though our lives had been uprooted, there would come a time to plant new roots. We had wept but there would come a time to laugh at the sound of a baby’s cry. We would learn to keep close to what was most important and throw away the other.

Much like pulling off the highway at a lookout point to take in the scenic beauty, the new year provides a similar “lookout point” for us to stop and meditate upon where we are in life. Solomon, in reflecting upon the state of his life wrote, “I applied my mind to examine and explore through wisdom all that is done under heaven.”

Where do you find yourself in these times?  Have you been in a time of mourning and now you are longing to dance again? Have you found yourself forced to be silent over some issue but now you know it is the time to speak out? Have you found yourself filled with anger and hatred over something and now your heart desires to love again?  Use these eight verses as questions for your soul. Find some time in the next few weeks to spiritually pull into a “lookout point” and prayerfully let God speak into your life.

I don’t know how people celebrated the new Year in Jesus’ days. Most likely the greeting would be the same as any day, Shalom. Jesus probably didn’t say Happy New Year but, “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Don’t let your heart be troubled or fearful.”—John 14:27 (CSB)

Lord, thank you for never leaving us, nor forsaking us. As we begin this new calendar year, let us look completely to you in those times when you will need to provide comfort to those who mourn, strength to those rebuilding what is torn down, wisdom to know how to speak and celebrate with us in laughter and joy.  In this coming year, let us daily experience Your Shalom in our lives.

God is great!

Christmas, the climax of Advent

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And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. Luke 2:7

Christmas – “For unto us a child is born…” Can you imagine what Mary was thinking that night as she cradled her newborn baby?  It had been a whirlwind of events since she first heard the angel Gabriel say, “Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you…Now listen: You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus.” On that dark, still night, she was holding her baby but instead of sitting in a palace where kings were normally born, she was laying her baby in a feed trough where the animals ate.

You might think obedience would take you on paved roads leading to the palace door instead of walking on a dusty, bumpy path leading to a barn. Yet when God asks you to do something even if it doesn’t make sense, you simply trust Him. Faith is more often found sitting on a hay bale in a stable than in a comfortable palace chair.

The advent season is a time of waiting, watching, and desiring. Christmas is the powerful climax of Advent as the waiting is over and Jesus the Messiah is celebrated. “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign for ever and ever.” –Rev 11:15 (NIV)

“Advent is a season of waiting and desiring and of hope-filled longing as I invite Christ to come again into my life and into our beautiful but broken world. I pause now to listen once again to that voice from heaven saying: “I am making everything new!” –Reading from Lectio365

This was an inconceivable, incredible, amazing story of Christmas when the Creator of all the universe, who knew no beginning nor end would come into the world as a baby. On Christmas morning, Mary would sing softly to comfort his sweet cry until the day would come when he would cry out in anguish, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” On Christmas morning, Mary would gently rub the smooth, soft skin until that day came when his skin would grow strong and tough to hold the nails of sin, injustice, and rejection as he cried out “It is completed!”

In the least likely place, with the least likely couple and the least likely circumstances, a story is told of the Savior who is making everything new. Christmas is the life-changing story of a Savior who broke the chain of death to give us salvation.

Joseph and Mary’s ordinary, day-to-day life may not have changed but their world was never the same. “So when Joseph and Mary had performed everything according to the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. And the child grew and become strong, filled with wisdom, and the favor of God was upon him.” –Luke 2:39-40

 

All who are weary

 All who are weak

All those who come with no words left to speak

Come let the Son wash the dust from your feet

Come into the light

All who are mourning

All who have pain.

All those who come who are burdened with shame

Come let the Son take the weight of your chains

Come into the light

Ours is the God of the lost and the broken

His is the home with doors flung wide open

Ours is the Savior who welcomes us in.

Come into the light (words from the song, Into the Light, Emmaus Rd Church, Surrey, UK)

 

I wish you a blessed and wonderful Christmas as you enjoy the hope and life that Jesus brings daily. Christmas, as a day on the calendar may be over, but not the life-changing coming of Jesus. The best is yet to come!

Come Lord Jesus, enter our broken world ravaged by sin, selfishness, and turning our backs on you. Forgive us. Restore us. Renew us. Only you can change the face of this brokenness to reflect the beauty of your creation again. Fall fresh on us this Christmas and each day after. Give us ears to hear you say, “I am making everything new!” Yes, come Lord Jesus come.

God is great!

Peace, Week Four of Advent

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For a child will be born to us, a Son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6 (NASB)

As we enter the fourth week of Advent, I am sure the exchange between world-renowned philosophers and social influencers Charlie Brown and Lucy may resonate with some folks. Lucy says to Charlie Brown, “I hate everything. I hate everybody. I hate the whole wide world!” Charlie Brown in his most thoughtful response said, “but I thought you had inner peace.” Lucy replies, “I do have inner peace. But I still have outer obnoxiousness.”

Unlike Lucy, many people during Christmas will put on a mask of outer peace yet will harbor inner obnoxiousness. Unfortunately, this supposedly joyous time of celebration with family and friends will be filled with anxiety and stress for way too many people. According to the American Psychological Association, 44% of women and 31% of men report increased stress around the holidays.

Just as inner peace is challenging, so is global peace. Chris Hedges writes “Of the past 3,400 years, humans have been entirely at peace for 268 of them, or just 8 percent of recorded history.” I am not sure if the 268 years could be classified as peace since he defined war as an active conflict that claimed more than 1,000 lives. Since Cain picked up a rock against Abel, war and conflict have been a staple of human history.

Peace, whether inner or global, seems to be a fleeting hope. Yet Advent moves us to the hope we have in the fulfillment of Isaiah when the Messiah will come as Prince of Peace. This week, Advent calls us to focus on peace as we join with “the heavenly army of angels praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among people with whom He is pleased.” –Luke 2:13b-14 (NASB)

The English word peace that is used to translate the Hebrew word shalom is good but it lacks the depth and wholeness of shalom. Carolyn Arends writes of shalom “It’s a beautiful word that conveys wholeness, harmony, and health. Where we might settle for uneasy truces and Band-Aid fixes as proxies for peace, shalom represents something much more robust. Beyond the cessation of war, shalom is a transformation of the conditions that lead to war in the first place. When there is shalom, everything gets to function the way it was created to.”

Eugene Peterson wrote, “Shalom, “peace,” is one of the richest words in the Bible. You can no more define it by looking in the dictionary than you can define a person by his or her social security number. It gathers all aspects of wholeness that result from God’s will being completed in us. It is the work of God that, when complete, releases streams of living water in us and pulsates with eternal life. Every time Jesus healed, forgave, or called someone, we have a demonstration of shalom.” (A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society)

Jesus understood that if we looked to the world for peace, we would quickly drown in despair. History is filled with brokered peace agreements that only temporarily stopped conflict. Doctors try to give peace by prescribing medications that only mask the pain and hopelessness. People turn to alcohol and drugs seeking to find inner peace only to be pulled deeper into addiction and problems.

During this week’s Advent focus on peace, meditate on Jesus’ words as the true Prince of Peace. “Peace I leave with you; My (own) peace I now give and bequeath to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. (Stop allowing yourselves to be agitated and disturbed, and do not permit yourselves to be fearful and intimidated and cowardly and unsettled.) –John 14:27 (Amplified)

I like what Mark Buchanan, pastor and author said about the Advent season. “Advent was my least favorite season for preaching. Then it became my favorite. And here’s why “I abandoned creativity.” Buchanan writes that he came to understand the Christmas story is alive and real without trying to make it more than it is. He goes on to say, “It turns out, I don’t need to make the story, any of it, snazzier, sexier, funkier. I just need to recapture its aliveness and realness. I don’t need to make it more relevant or interesting. I just have to let it dwell richly within me, and to dwell richly in it, and then bear witness to what I had seen and heard and touched.”

This year has been chaotic in so many ways: political turmoil in Washington D.C, Russia invading Ukraine, hyperinflation, stock market volatility and the list goes on. We don’t have to make Christmas more than it is, it is already everything the world needs. Jesus is the Wonderful Counselor for those struggling with life issues. Jesus is the Mighty God who is fully aware of global conflicts and is fully in control. Jesus is the Eternal Father that is interceding for us daily. Jesus is the Prince of Peace who brings shalom to every aspect of our lives.

“Rejoice in the Lord always; again, I will say, rejoice! Let your gentle spirit be known to all people. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and pleading with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” –Philippians 4:4-7 (NASB)

Shalom.  Jesus brought the word to life and He is the best gift that anyone can receive!

Merry Christmas, God is great!

Week Three of Advent – Joy – The Shepherd’s Candle

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When the angels left them and went back to heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, that the Lord has made known to us. So they hurried off and located Mary and Joseph, and found the baby lying in a manger. When they saw him, they related what they had been told about this child, and all who heard it were astonished at what the shepherds said. But Mary treasured up all these words, pondering in her heart what they might mean. So the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen; everything was just as they had been told. –Luke 2:15-20 (NET)

We are getting closer to Christmas! Store owners have their count-down clocks going, only 13 more shopping days till Christmas (as of today). Hallmark Christmas movies are in full swing with their feel-good predictable outcome. Houses are decorated inside and out. We focus on joy as the third week of Advent begins.

Anticipation! Merriam-Webster defines it as “a prior action that takes into account or forestalls a later action, the act of looking forward, visualization of a future event or state.” As an 8-year-old boy, I knew I needed to act to “forestall” a potential problem. The problem: there was no present under the Christmas tree for me. Granted it was probably two or three weeks until Christmas, but in case my parents had forgotten, I took matters into my own hands. I had a little money saved up, so the first time we drove into town, I went directly (yes, an 8-year-old could go by himself) to the Five & Dime store in our little town and bought myself a Christmas present, a Tiddlywinks game. Mrs. Skaggs wrapped it up and I took it home and put it under the tree. Problem solved! Now I had a present under the Christmas tree!

In a couple of weeks, homes around the world will find children and adults excitedly unwrapping gifts. You will get to open the brightly wrapped presents that have been tempting you for weeks – the gifts that you secretly picked up, turned over and over, maybe giving a gentle shake trying to see if you could guess what’s in the box. Finally, the moment arrives for you to rip off the paper and open the box. Now just imagine though that one after another of the brightly covered packages contained nothing but empty boxes. Your excitement would quickly give way to despair, maybe a little anger, and definitely a lot of disappointment.

I just imagine this is how the people of Israel must have felt. They have been opening empty boxes for almost 400 years since Malachi’s final words to wait. “See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before the great and dreadful day of the LORD comes. He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.” Malachi 4:5-6 (NIV). Generation after generation would hold these verses close to their hearts waiting for the coming Messiah. Finally, the day arrives with the words, “I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.” –Luke 2:10b-11 (NIV) This angelic birth announcement ends the 400 years of empty boxes for all who have been waiting for the Messiah’s coming.

Mark’s Christmas story is brief and to the point, “The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God.” Peter Adams writes, “Like the people in Malachi’s day, we are called to look back and look forward. We look back to the coming of Christ, and to his incarnation, life, death, resurrection, and ascension; and we look forward to the coming of Christ in glory, when he will save his people, judge all people, and restore all things.”

God could have sent ten thousand angels to restore His creation and destroy the sinfulness of the world. God had the right as Creator and this would have made political and strategic sense, yet He chose the strategy of love. God came into the world as a baby. Holding my newest granddaughter and looking at her vulnerability, tenderness, and dependence, I marvel at the power of a baby to bring such joy and hope.

God’s incarnation as a baby allows us to touch and hold the sacred and it was in the gentleness of Jesus’ cry that night that a hurting, hopeless, and rejected world could again have hope and life. In that tender cry, we hear the life-giving words “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” –John 3:16 (NIV)

Hebrews 4:14-16 is not a classic Christmas verse but it is worth reading and reflecting upon during this Advent season.  This passage allows us to wait and live with hope, encouragement, courage, and confidence.  “Since, then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

Christmas is the amazing story of a Savior; wrapped in ordinary clothes, born in humble circumstances, and marked with a destiny that will change lives forever. Jesus broke the silence of 400 years and is still breaking the silence of brokenness today! Paul David Tripp says it well, “No one knows you more deeply and fully than your Savior, so no one offers you help form fitted for your deepest needs like he does.”

Christmas is coming!

God is great!