October 31
The Apostle Paul was quite focused on the great disparity between the so-called ‘goodness’ of man and the holiness of God. Quite probably, he made a clear distinction between the total worthlessness of the former and the complete perfection of the latter because he had himself been preoccupied with his own righteousness, with impressing God by his dedication to His work as he understood it.
Before His encounter with Jesus on the Road to Damascus (see Acts 9:4-18) Paul had persecuted believers. He assented to the stoning of the first Christian martyr, Stephen (see Acts 7:55-8:1) and he was on his way to round up and arrest people of faith in Jesus when he was himself ‘arrested’ by the Lord along the way to do so (Acts 9:4).
Paul, a fanatic for God as he believed Him to be, thought he did the Almighty a favor when he assented to the arrest and slaying of believers in Christ. He believed his doing so, his ‘credentials,’ gave him right standing with the Holy One. Yet when He met the Living Savior, when he had the scales removed from his eyes, he came to an entirely new understanding of the God of Heaven! Instead of arresting believers and assenting to their deaths, Paul became one of them!
His fervor for the Christ he had persecuted became such that he willingly laid down his life to witness the Lord’s saving grace to others (see his view of his up-coming execution in II Timothy 4:6-8). His only joy was in sharing II Corinthians 5:21, life’s only significant truth, with as many as he could reach: “Christ who has no sin became sin for us so we, through Him could become right with God.” Paul no longer cherished his life or esteemed his credentials; his whole joy was in Christ alone.
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
What the Storm Can't Do
October 30
When I awoke this morning, I expected to be stumbling through the dark, to be feeling quite a chill, and to be drinking bottled water with my morning medicine. Instead, I am illumined by my little night lights, enjoying the designated temperature set on our thermostat, and sipping my warm cup of tea. The 'perfect storm' that is still hovering in our area, still howling outside the window, still pouring buckets-full of rain upon us has not curtailed our electric service! Far lesser storms have done that, but this one has been stayed by a mighty hand that has ordained we shall not be without necessary power through this onslaught.
That same hand touches our lives through other types of storms in life as well. In fact, the one thing this horrible storm has done is to awaken my awareness of the truth of His promise to be with His people through their storms. It is evident that Jesus Christ makes all the difference in the midst of the storm--and not only when He speaks, "Peace, be still." Sometimes, He doesn't stop the storm when we cry out, "Lord, don't You care that we perish!" as His disciples did when their little boat was threatened by the towering waves of the tumultuous sea. Sometimes He allows the storm to run its course and He calms His people.
He calms His people by giving them that inner "peace that passes understanding to keep their hearts and their minds in Him" when the storm around them continues to rage. When He gives inner peace in the midst of the storm, we gain an advantage that sunny skies cannot afford to us. When He gives inner peace in the midst of the storm, we begin to recognize the infinite power that is ours when we walk hand-in-hand with Him through our trials. We begin to recognize that there is a level of living and moving and having our being that transcends the calm moments of joy that we so covet and encompasses even the moments of helplessness in the face of a torrential onslaught that is beyond our ability to overcome on our own.
So we hold more tightly to the Lord in our trials and we seek His direction a little more fervently, for we know He is the key to riding out the storm, but we do not fear, for we begin to grasp the truth that was made manifestly clear to Job in his ordeal, "When He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold." We realize as that good man did that the trial is not for our destruction but to prove our faith, to strengthen our confidence in the One who sometimes allows us to reach the point of saying, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him." He wants us to reach that decision--to trust in spite of the storm--for that decision, of all the decisions we will ever make, brings us to the real point of power over the storms of life.
It is that decision, of all the decisions we will ever make, that brings us to the point of understanding what a storm--even a 'perfect monster storm of the millennium'--cannot do! It cannot rob us of His light in which He enables us to walk without fear of the darkness. It cannot rob us of the warmth of His love which is always with us. It cannot rob us of the refreshing of the living water that Jesus is to us.
It cannot rob YOU of these things because Jesus is with you through the storm. Because He is by your side, the storm--no matter its nature or its intensity--has no power over you.
When I awoke this morning, I expected to be stumbling through the dark, to be feeling quite a chill, and to be drinking bottled water with my morning medicine. Instead, I am illumined by my little night lights, enjoying the designated temperature set on our thermostat, and sipping my warm cup of tea. The 'perfect storm' that is still hovering in our area, still howling outside the window, still pouring buckets-full of rain upon us has not curtailed our electric service! Far lesser storms have done that, but this one has been stayed by a mighty hand that has ordained we shall not be without necessary power through this onslaught.
That same hand touches our lives through other types of storms in life as well. In fact, the one thing this horrible storm has done is to awaken my awareness of the truth of His promise to be with His people through their storms. It is evident that Jesus Christ makes all the difference in the midst of the storm--and not only when He speaks, "Peace, be still." Sometimes, He doesn't stop the storm when we cry out, "Lord, don't You care that we perish!" as His disciples did when their little boat was threatened by the towering waves of the tumultuous sea. Sometimes He allows the storm to run its course and He calms His people.
He calms His people by giving them that inner "peace that passes understanding to keep their hearts and their minds in Him" when the storm around them continues to rage. When He gives inner peace in the midst of the storm, we gain an advantage that sunny skies cannot afford to us. When He gives inner peace in the midst of the storm, we begin to recognize the infinite power that is ours when we walk hand-in-hand with Him through our trials. We begin to recognize that there is a level of living and moving and having our being that transcends the calm moments of joy that we so covet and encompasses even the moments of helplessness in the face of a torrential onslaught that is beyond our ability to overcome on our own.
So we hold more tightly to the Lord in our trials and we seek His direction a little more fervently, for we know He is the key to riding out the storm, but we do not fear, for we begin to grasp the truth that was made manifestly clear to Job in his ordeal, "When He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold." We realize as that good man did that the trial is not for our destruction but to prove our faith, to strengthen our confidence in the One who sometimes allows us to reach the point of saying, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him." He wants us to reach that decision--to trust in spite of the storm--for that decision, of all the decisions we will ever make, brings us to the real point of power over the storms of life.
It is that decision, of all the decisions we will ever make, that brings us to the point of understanding what a storm--even a 'perfect monster storm of the millennium'--cannot do! It cannot rob us of His light in which He enables us to walk without fear of the darkness. It cannot rob us of the warmth of His love which is always with us. It cannot rob us of the refreshing of the living water that Jesus is to us.
It cannot rob YOU of these things because Jesus is with you through the storm. Because He is by your side, the storm--no matter its nature or its intensity--has no power over you.
Monday, October 29, 2012
Addendum: Monster Storm
It is October 29, 2012. The eastern portion of the United States is sitting in the path of an enormous ‘monster storm.’
The weather prognosticators are working overtime to analyze this massive weather system and predict its course and anticipate the damage it will do. Ordinary people are within their homes or places of work—listening to the increasing velocity of the wind and watching the pounding of the rain as it intensifies.
Some people are shaken to their core with fear, for they are fully aware of the devastation that has been wrought in the past by lesser storms. They know that this one is a rare phenomenon because when the parts of it converge, it will become one massive force of nature that has combined from three major storm systems. The winds are to attain a force of 75 mph.
Trees will be downed, houses and businesses will be damaged, lives will be lost. When it’s over, the sun will emerge again from the clouds that currently blanket the sky and no one will think of the ‘perfect storm’ that struck today—except those whose property is damaged, whose work is interrupted, whose electrical power remains out –and whose loved ones will not survive the onslaught.
But those of us who trust in the Lord Jesus Christ will remind ourselves that He causes “the rain to fall on the just and on the unjust,” (Matthew 5:45) and we will say as did Job when he faced the loss of all he valued, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him,” (Job 13:15). May YOU trust Him through every storm of your life. Jesus is faithful. He will get you through the torrent and into the sun again.
The weather prognosticators are working overtime to analyze this massive weather system and predict its course and anticipate the damage it will do. Ordinary people are within their homes or places of work—listening to the increasing velocity of the wind and watching the pounding of the rain as it intensifies.
Some people are shaken to their core with fear, for they are fully aware of the devastation that has been wrought in the past by lesser storms. They know that this one is a rare phenomenon because when the parts of it converge, it will become one massive force of nature that has combined from three major storm systems. The winds are to attain a force of 75 mph.
Trees will be downed, houses and businesses will be damaged, lives will be lost. When it’s over, the sun will emerge again from the clouds that currently blanket the sky and no one will think of the ‘perfect storm’ that struck today—except those whose property is damaged, whose work is interrupted, whose electrical power remains out –and whose loved ones will not survive the onslaught.
But those of us who trust in the Lord Jesus Christ will remind ourselves that He causes “the rain to fall on the just and on the unjust,” (Matthew 5:45) and we will say as did Job when he faced the loss of all he valued, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him,” (Job 13:15). May YOU trust Him through every storm of your life. Jesus is faithful. He will get you through the torrent and into the sun again.
Forgive and Wait and...
October 29
Have you ever loved someone in spite of himself? You know the type—the inconsiderate lover who takes all you have to give of kindness and acceptance but extends nothing to you in exchange. Or the rebellious child whose actions belie the fact that he has been reared in a loving, accepting home; the child who prefers his questionable friends to his kind and gracious parents?
We all have. We have borne unrequited love in the hope that one day things would change, that love would become a ‘two-way-street’ upon which respect and honor flow freely between us and the object of our delight. God knows that feeling even better than we do.
While we may have been patient and persistent in extending love to the unlovely people in our lives, the Lord of Heaven and Earth has given Jesus Christ, the sinless God-Man to bear our sins as the world’s ultimate act of loving sacrifice, as the benchmark of patient anticipation of a mutually loving relationship with those who rebuff and scorn His love.
In Jeremiah 33:8 He states His intent, “They sinned against Me but I will wash away their sin. They did evil and turned away from Me, but I will forgive them.” He, like the patient lover or parent, knows His love has been rebuffed, but He will not hold sin against His people. He will forgive, and wait--and continue to love.
Have you ever loved someone in spite of himself? You know the type—the inconsiderate lover who takes all you have to give of kindness and acceptance but extends nothing to you in exchange. Or the rebellious child whose actions belie the fact that he has been reared in a loving, accepting home; the child who prefers his questionable friends to his kind and gracious parents?
We all have. We have borne unrequited love in the hope that one day things would change, that love would become a ‘two-way-street’ upon which respect and honor flow freely between us and the object of our delight. God knows that feeling even better than we do.
While we may have been patient and persistent in extending love to the unlovely people in our lives, the Lord of Heaven and Earth has given Jesus Christ, the sinless God-Man to bear our sins as the world’s ultimate act of loving sacrifice, as the benchmark of patient anticipation of a mutually loving relationship with those who rebuff and scorn His love.
In Jeremiah 33:8 He states His intent, “They sinned against Me but I will wash away their sin. They did evil and turned away from Me, but I will forgive them.” He, like the patient lover or parent, knows His love has been rebuffed, but He will not hold sin against His people. He will forgive, and wait--and continue to love.
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Forgiven And Able To Forgive
October 28
Do dead people pray? While we remain in the land of the living, we cannot know with certainty the answer to that question. We are told that there is a “great cloud of witnesses” (Hebrews 12:1) in the heavenlies, saints who have gone on, who encompass us. We may presume that they pray for us, but we aren’t told for sure.
We do know that sometimes the prayers that are offered up emanate from the lips of the spiritually dead. Who are they? They are, according to the words of the Lord in Mark 11:25, people who pray while harboring anger or unforgiveness against another. It is imperative, from God’s vantage point, that we forgive in order to be forgiven—and in order for our prayers to have power.
Although we cannot forgive and love our enemies in our own strength, we can through the enabling of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ whose example ("Father, forgive them for they know not what they do," Luke 23:34) teaches us that we must forgive those who hurt us, even though they may not seek forgiveness from us. Until we do, we are spiritually dead, and our prayers are ineffectual.
In Colossians 2:13, Paul says, “When you were spiritually dead because of your sins and you were bound by the power of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ and He forgave all your sins.” When one who is spiritually dead receives the Author of life into his soul, he, too, becomes alive! He is forgiven of sin—and able to forgive!
Do dead people pray? While we remain in the land of the living, we cannot know with certainty the answer to that question. We are told that there is a “great cloud of witnesses” (Hebrews 12:1) in the heavenlies, saints who have gone on, who encompass us. We may presume that they pray for us, but we aren’t told for sure.
We do know that sometimes the prayers that are offered up emanate from the lips of the spiritually dead. Who are they? They are, according to the words of the Lord in Mark 11:25, people who pray while harboring anger or unforgiveness against another. It is imperative, from God’s vantage point, that we forgive in order to be forgiven—and in order for our prayers to have power.
Although we cannot forgive and love our enemies in our own strength, we can through the enabling of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ whose example ("Father, forgive them for they know not what they do," Luke 23:34) teaches us that we must forgive those who hurt us, even though they may not seek forgiveness from us. Until we do, we are spiritually dead, and our prayers are ineffectual.
In Colossians 2:13, Paul says, “When you were spiritually dead because of your sins and you were bound by the power of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ and He forgave all your sins.” When one who is spiritually dead receives the Author of life into his soul, he, too, becomes alive! He is forgiven of sin—and able to forgive!
Saturday, October 27, 2012
Can't Buy Me Love
October 27
We in the U.S. have watched incredulously as hatred is spewed against us in the Middle East. Although we have supported these nations in overthrowing dictators; sent billions of dollars in order that they may build their countries and empower their people, though our leaders have apologized for the slanderous comments of a few that don’t represent the feelings of the many, yet, they hate us.
Perhaps the bottom line is that which the Beetles made famous in one of their hit songs of the 1960s—‘…can’t buy me love.’ Perhaps we in the United States (and in the West in general) must accept the reality that there is a great gulf between our way of thinking and the mid-eastern mindset that cannot be bridged by dollars or presidential apologies.
We know the irreverent rhetoric of a brief, sophomoric video was merely an excuse for the murderous behavior of hundreds of people. While we believe the words of Isaiah 55:7 which say, “The wicked should stop doing wrong and stop thinking evil thoughts; they should turn to the Lord who will have mercy on them and forgive them,” and we recognize that the perpetrators of evil should repent, it seems the mid-eastern approach is totally different. In their minds, it doesn’t matter who is held accountable, as long as someone dies. Vengeance rules their heart.
If we think we worship the same god, we are mistaken, for one is a god of vengeance while the other is the God of forgiveness and love. Recognizing that enormous distinction should make us reluctant to support ideologies that believe the solution to the differences between us is their effecting our demise. The one thing we have to benefit them is our prayers that they discover Jesus as their Savior and Lord. They need the cleansing only He can give and they need the mind of Christ’s love to replace the mind of vengeance they currently unleash when offended.
We in the U.S. have watched incredulously as hatred is spewed against us in the Middle East. Although we have supported these nations in overthrowing dictators; sent billions of dollars in order that they may build their countries and empower their people, though our leaders have apologized for the slanderous comments of a few that don’t represent the feelings of the many, yet, they hate us.
Perhaps the bottom line is that which the Beetles made famous in one of their hit songs of the 1960s—‘…can’t buy me love.’ Perhaps we in the United States (and in the West in general) must accept the reality that there is a great gulf between our way of thinking and the mid-eastern mindset that cannot be bridged by dollars or presidential apologies.
We know the irreverent rhetoric of a brief, sophomoric video was merely an excuse for the murderous behavior of hundreds of people. While we believe the words of Isaiah 55:7 which say, “The wicked should stop doing wrong and stop thinking evil thoughts; they should turn to the Lord who will have mercy on them and forgive them,” and we recognize that the perpetrators of evil should repent, it seems the mid-eastern approach is totally different. In their minds, it doesn’t matter who is held accountable, as long as someone dies. Vengeance rules their heart.
If we think we worship the same god, we are mistaken, for one is a god of vengeance while the other is the God of forgiveness and love. Recognizing that enormous distinction should make us reluctant to support ideologies that believe the solution to the differences between us is their effecting our demise. The one thing we have to benefit them is our prayers that they discover Jesus as their Savior and Lord. They need the cleansing only He can give and they need the mind of Christ’s love to replace the mind of vengeance they currently unleash when offended.
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