When God Says, "Go Back There"

Imagine the scene, if you will.

Your name is Avram, perhaps, or something similar.  You're a middle-aged Hebrew wanderer, finally getting ready to enter the Promised Land.

All of your life you've heard about this land.  You've stared longingly across the forbidding Jordan at its verdant beauty...so far out of reach of your desert abode.

You've heard of your parents' rebellion against the Lord, which stopped your national progress and doomed you to decades of wandering.  You've heard about the miracles they saw, but you were so young when they happened that you don't remember them yourself.

You have experienced daily miracles yourself:  A pillar of cloud by day, a pillar of fire by night, each of which guides your nation in its wanderings.  You've seen bread fall from Heaven every day, without fail, except of course for the Sabbath...but the bread always fell in double portions on the day before the Sabbath, so you could gather extra then.

But these miracles have always been there, as far as you're concerned.  They're kind-of humdrum to you.

Now Moses, the great Man of God, has died, and Joshua is in charge.  And the 40-year exile has reached its end.  It's time to enter the Land of Promise.  That means, for starters, that it's time to do battle with the mighty city of Jericho.

But the even mightier Jordan River lies between, and to make matters worse, it's currently in its flood stage.

Were the old stories of the Parting of the Red Sea really true?

Could it happen again, even without Moses?

You're almost ashamed to admit how amazed you are when it does happen again.  Your jaw drops at the sight of the turgid wall of water piling itself up.  That wall is trembling with unimaginable power, held back only by forces you cannot see or comprehend.

And you have to walk in front of it...you and a few million others.  Including your wife and your children.  You look at them now, so weak and vulnerable next to the forces that threaten them.

And you have to lead your whole tribe, because you've inherited (and risen to) a position of power in that tribe.  So, you square your shoulders, hide your fear from your wife and kids, and step onto the now dry river bed.

The water-wall beside you seems like a raging stallion, eager to break out of its restraints.  And yet you walk.  Your mouth is dry, and you hope the Almighty can forgive your fear.

He promised, and He's done this sort of thing before.  We will get safely through.  We will.

And, finally, you do.  You turn to look back at the hordes which are still coming, and at the priests who stand along the way as God's representatives, almost seeming to hold back the walls themselves (but you know they're not the ones who can do that).  There they stand, though, and you don't envy them.  You couldn't get through that trial fast enough.  It was a creepy place to be, and you're glad you came through it in one piece.

Finally, the last of the nation has crossed, except for the priests, who still stand their ground.  And then Joshua calls all of the tribal leaders together.  You go to him, expecting your orders to advance toward Jericho.

But no.

He says, "Go back."

What?

"Go back."

Go back into the danger zone, back into the place that so recently filled you with awe and fear, back into the trial you thought you were done with.

You can't believe your ears.  Why would we do that?

"This is what the Lord has commanded.  Go back into the heart of the Jordan and gather stones, one stone for each tribe, and bring them back to set them up as a memorial for future generations, so no one will forget what happened here."

You don't argue.  This is, after all, the man whose word had just parted the waters.  You don't play at dueling words with such a man.

So, you and eleven other men walk back into the place you just escaped from.  You feel even more vulnerable now, in such a small company of men. Just the other tribal leaders and, of course, the priests at their posts.

You don't rush.  You can't.  You know your job.  You've seen stone memorials before, and you've appreciated the skill that it takes to build one that will stand for generations to come.  You recognize that you have to get a rock that is not only very large and heavy, but also one that is suitably shaped for its purpose.

You have to spend a fair amount of time finding a good candidate, conferring with the other rock-gatherers until you all agree that the twelve stones you've found will work well together.

And all the while, the Jordan quivers against its restraints.

You hadn't wanted to be here once, and you still can't believe you're here again.

Why aren't we invading Jericho?  That's what we came across to do, right?  Why are we wasting time back here?

But finally, bending under your heavy load, you trudge back to where your family and tribe and nation await. You make eye contact with each priest as you pass him, and you nod.  His burden is greater than yours, and you know it.

At last you're back with your tribe, and you can drop your heavy burden on the ground.  You straighten up with some difficulty, and for some reason you can't stop yourself from looking back at the Jordan yet again.

I made it through.  Not once, but twice.  

And God held the water back each time.

You look back down at the stone you've carried. It's good that we have these stones.  It's good that our people will always remember.

And now, amazingly, you're glad that you were one of the few who had the privilege of walking that road again.

#####

Has God ever made you revisit a scary place that you thought you were through with?

Maybe it was a real, physical journey.  Or maybe it was a journey of remembrance, a journey of telling others, of setting up your own memorial.

What was that like for you?

Could it be that you're still standing on the banks, afraid to step in again?

If you've been called to revisit the painful place, please look again.  What...or rather whom do you see?

There is not a row of priests there, like there was in the Jordan.

No, there's something better. Someone better.  The Great High Priest.  Jesus.  The One who held back the waters the first time, saying "This far, and no further."  He is still holding the ground you gained.  He's also on the shore beside you, and also at the Jericho that awaits.

And He knows, dear brother or sister, that you can better face your Jericho if you remember your Jordan.  If you revisit His faithful deliverance through it.  If you look Him in the eye and nod as you bring back your memorial stones.

Do it.

Trust Him.

He's still there.

And finally, a word to those of you still in the middle of your first scary trek.  Those of you who can't even imagine getting through the first time, much less coming back for a stone.  My word for you is this:  Don't worry that you don't have a heavy stone on your shoulder right now.  The command to fetch it hasn't come yet.  It won't come until you're safely through.

Please don't hear this harshly.  Please hear it as gently as I mean to speak it.  You're not qualified to set up a memorial yet.  It's not that you have to prove your qualifications...oh no!  Your trials are never about you proving yourself to God, or even to yourself.  Your trials are about seeing God holding the waters back. Your trials are about seeing God's power and His deliverance.  So if you haven't yet seen the salvation of the Lord, how can you talk about it?

If you have no memorial stone with you yet, just keep walking and trusting Him.  The day will come when you'll be able to come back and get one.

And you'll be glad you did.

For Those Who Can't Walk on Water Either

Sarah Trimmer (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

"Oh you of little faith, why did you doubt?"

Was Jesus rebuking Peter for lacking the faith to keep walking on the water?

That's the way I've always heard it, but now I wonder.

You see, I've had a life full of sinkings.  So many sinkings that I rarely get out of the boat.  And I'm less likely to get out of it if I think that my next drubbing will be rebuked by Jesus because... terrible failure that I am... I can't do the impossible.

Is the Christian life a process of learning to walk on the water?

I wonder.

Years ago I wrote something that I knew I needed to read again this morning.  (I hope you'll read it too, and I'll link to it so you can.)  I said,  "What if 'arrival' has nothing to do with reaching a certain level of perfection, and everything to do with maintaining the kind of humble, childlike faith that expects nothing from itself and relies totally on God?"

I really believe that that's true.  Please do read the article I linked to above, for more reasons WHY I believe it.

Whole sermons have been written about Peter's lack of faith causing him to sink.  Because of that mindset, people strive to grow stronger faith, and when they're faced with stormy seas or risky situations, they can only see two options.

• Proudly step out, believing their faith to be mighty enough
• Stay in the boat, believing that they haven't yet achieved a strong enough faith.

What if neither of those options are right?  What if the "proudly stepping out" is just that...religious pride rather than true faith in Christ? And what if the "staying in the boat" is a sign of spiritual failure?  What if both are wrong, and neither is right?

UGH!  Before long you can start running in circles like a terrified rabbit, and you give up on this "faith thing" because it just drives you nuts.  You can't do it.  You can't figure out which is right!  You can't figure out your own motives!  You can't see any way to step out in faith or to stay in faith, because you can see sin in yourself either way.  So you get paralyzed.  

To that I say (both to you and to myself):

STOP IT!

Right now, just STOP IT!

Jesus didn't say to any of the disciples, "Why did you stay in the boat?"  And I don't believe he said to Peter, "Why did you sink?"

For what doubt did Jesus rebuke Peter?

Will He rebuke you, too, if you step out of your safe place, and you start to sink?

No, that's not my Jesus.  More importantly, that's not the Biblical Jesus...the Jesus who is tender towards the weakest, the lowliest, the most helpless.  He does not break the bruised reed (Matt 12:20).

There are several accounts in the Bible of Jesus saving the disciples from stormy seas.  In the one we've been looking at, Jesus walked on the water to the boat, and Peter walked out to meet him.  In another case, Jesus was asleep in the boat, and they came and woke him up.  In both cases, they were terrified.

And in both cases, the rebuke was the same.  "Why did you doubt?  Where is your faith?"

Maybe we've been asking the wrong question.  Maybe the question isn't, "Why did Peter sink?"

What if the right question is, "Why did Peter fear that Jesus wouldn't save him when he sank?"

Remember, in both stormy situations, for the disciples both in and out of the boat, the question was the same. The gentle, loving rebuke was the same.  "Why did you doubt?"

Why do you and I doubt that He will save us when we are sinking?  Why are we making "in vs. out of the boat" the issue?  Why are we making "on top of the water vs. going under the water" the issue?

Are we to fear, in either location?

Was half-dunked Peter filled with less faith than the ones in the boat?  I don't think so.  All of them were afraid of going under, regardless of where they were when it happened.

Joyful, free faith doesn't have to examine its own perfection to see whether it should get out of the boat or stay there.  It doesn't say, "I'm disqualified from getting out of the boat, because I can spot sin remaining in myself and in my motives." It doesn't say, "Oh no, my sinking must mean that my faith wasn't strong enough!"

Joyful, free faith trusts Jesus no matter where we feel the water threatening to overwhelm us, even though we're not yet perfected, because HE is our Savior.

Why must we keep relearning that HE saves us?  Why do we keep thinking that we save ourselves by making our faith perfect enough, instead of believing that He saves people of little faith?

He is the Savior...not of the perfected, but of sinners (Luke 5:31-32)!  Why do we doubt?  He who saves those in the boat, will he not save those who walk out on the water and then start to sink?

Where are you in your walk?  Does Jesus want you to believe that you could be anywhere, anywhere where He cannot save you?

The life of faith is not a life of staying always on top of the waves.  It's a life of believing that you are free to walk with Him in humble-but-imperfect ways, without doubting that His love will pull you out of the water no matter where you are when you start to sink.

Because you WILL sink sometimes.  I guarantee it.  Life's billows WILL overwhelm you.

Cancer.  Loss of a loved one.  Betrayal.  Failure.  Injury.  Job loss.  Moving to an unfamiliar place.

You WILL sink sometimes.

The question from Jesus, I believe, is not, "Why did you sink?"

It is, "Why did you fear I would not be here to lift you up when you sank?"

So step out if you feel that's what God is calling you to do.  Don't question if you have enough faith to stay on the water.  Just believe that He will save you when you get wet.

And here's a final word of love to those who are currently under the waves, and have been there, perhaps, for a long time.  I am NOT preaching a despicable "prosperity gospel" (which I hate) here.  I am not saying that Jesus will always take the waves away.  His salvation is sometimes through the trials, not from the trials. Your pain does not mean He loves you less, or that you are a failure.  Trust Him, trust Him, that He will pull you out of the water when the time is right, when that part of your life's story has been written to perfection (even if that relief doesn't come in this lifetime).  Trust that He is your Savior, no matter where you are in relation to the boat, the water, or the other disciples. He will bring you to the right place because of your continued, trusting obedience.  Remember, as long as we're on this earth, it's a Christian walk, not a Christian arrival.

Trust Him, trust Him, trust Him, wherever you are, no matter how far you've gone under life's overwhelming forces.

That's a stronger faith than one which skips lightly across the waves.

How to Have a "Good News Day" - Part 1

Photo by Marcelo Terraza

How to Have a “Good News” Day

Part 1

Laying the Foundation

It’s a bad habit of mine to expend a lot of time and make a lot of compromises in order to get what I call a “good day.”  You know the kind of day I’m talking about … all pleasantness, few responsibilities (at least, few that I can’t ignore), and plenty of enjoyable things to do.  Plus, of course, having everyone around me cooperate with my selfish plans.

Oops.

As you can imagine, my “good day” plans get smashed rather often.  And I tend to not be pleased about it.

What’s the solution?  Should I struggle to get more control over those around me, so I can force my plans on them?  But what about people and circumstances I can’t control?

Maybe I should just give up in cynical despair.  If I can’t give myself a good day, and God doesn’t seem to be bending over backwards to make life a bed of roses for me, what’s there to hope for?

Ghastly, isn’t it?  Yet I’d have to say that most of my adult life has swung between those two options.  Godless, self-centered, unloving, miserable options.  Sure, the ugliness has slowly gotten less pronounced as God has worked on my heart these past few years, but a lot of this nonsense has remained in my heart.

But, just within the past few days, I’ve been getting acquainted with an exciting new option.

What if I trade in my “plans for a good day,” not taking cynicism in exchange, but rather choosing instead to make plans for a “Good News day?”

What is a Good News Day?

If you’ve spent much time around Christianity, you probably know that the word “Gospel” is taken from the Greek for “Good News.”  And the more I learn about the Gospel and how it relates not just to salvation but to everyday life, the more I realize that I need to aim for Good News Days every day.

Good days, by my selfish definition, are often impossible.  Please bear with me as I explain...not for the sake of “complaining about my problems,” but just so that you, dear reader, won’t think I’m talking to you from my castle in the sky.  

My day-to-day life is complicated by such family funzies as Asperger’s Syndrome, full-blown autism, bipolar disorder, the teenage hormones of three boys, and all the ordinary challenges of family life.  One of my teens has been in a really bad state of rebellion lately, and has been getting in lots of trouble at school.  My husband’s job requires lots of odd hours on phone conferences with people halfway around the world, and frequent trips that last for weeks at a time.

To top it off, I deal with chronic back pain and occasionally recurring cardiac pain (despite being on daily cardiac meds since a heart attack in 2004).  Years and years of severe internal problems finally culminated in major surgery in November of 2011, which (thank the Lord) cleared up a lot of problems, but some pain still recurs.

So no, no ivory tower here.   And few entirely “good” days.

But every day could have been a Good News day, if I had only known.  Lately I’ve been having them.  And I know I always can have them.  Not because I’ve become an overnight expert in some divine secret, but because God gives a continuing supply of the good news freely to anyone who understands and believes in its simplicity.

A Good News Day is a day when the Gospel shapes my beliefs, my hopes, my plans, my actions, my interactions, and how I deal with sins and failures (both my own sins and those of others that impact me).

I’m finding that Good News days can be full of bad things, painful things, disappointing things...even failure.  And yet, at the end when I look back at them, they’ve lost their sting.  What once would have beaten me down no longer has that kind of power.  (Which, now that I think about it, is an answer to my regular prayer that I wrote about here, based on 2 Cor. 4:8-11.  Thank You, Lord!)

Have I become a stronger person?  No, not really.  I’ve just found the inexhaustible power of the Good News.

How have I found it?  Well, for years I’ve been steeping myself in excellent books like Future Grace, Holiness By Grace, Transforming Grace, Because He Loves Me, Give Them Grace, and many more.  (Please get these books and savor them if you can!)  The glorious truths in these books have gone a long way towards helping me change my hindsight.  They have helped to heal many of my hurts, by teaching me to look back on them through the lens of Gospel truth.  This is true for long-ago hurts and hurts from just a moment ago.

But that is only half of what they were designed to teach me.  And because I only got that half, the retrospective half, I still lacked a lot of Gospel power.

I still have tended to PLAN and HOPE for “good days” (as selfishly defined), while only applying the Gospel to comfort myself if the “good day” didn’t happen.  

Without meaning to, I had lumped Gospel truth into the category of “consolation prize.”  I’d hoped to get the million bucks, and I’d tried my best, but I’d lost.  So I would gratefully (and a little ruefully) accept the parting gifts instead.  They were better than nothing.

Oh, how tragic it is when we fail to see the lavish gifts we’ve been given as the treasures they really are!

It’s time to start hoping and planning for Good News Days.  Such days are not second best, they are what it’s all about.  They are the days of gold, silver and precious stones that will survive the test of God’s purifying fire (1 Co. 3:11-15).

Let me say it again:

A Good News Day is a day when the Gospel shapes my beliefs, my hopes, my plans, my actions, my interactions, and how I deal with sins and failures (both my own sins and those of others that impact me).

In future entries we’ll look at how we can plan and hope for such days, how we can live them, and what they might look like.  

When Shadows Aren't Enough

Image by The Rusty Projector via Flickr

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I could have sworn I had already posted this poem here on my blog, but I just searched for it in vain.  And for some reason, I feel that I ought to post it now.

The Lord is bringing significant healing to my life, but I have a long way to go.  And sometimes, especially for the sake of those who are still "in the valley," it is good to revisit the pain.  Not for the sake of morbidity, but for encouragement.  Because if God can bring me out of this valley, as deep as it was, He can bring anyone out of their valley too.

I wrote this poem back in 2006, when I had already been in my "valley" for about seven years.  It took that long to be able to face the pain enough to put it into words.

The poem is about the time when my two-year-old son changed virtually overnight…from a seemingly normal toddler to an autistic stranger.  It is called:

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When Shadows Aren't Enough

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death…

My son is lost in that valley.
He died. He lives.
Two years old.
Toddling
Pointing
Tearing into Christmas presents
Voicing his thoughts with newly-learned words.
Adorable, squeezable, lovable, loved.
Phillip.

Gone.

His words give way to screaming.
Endless, throat-tearing screaming.
Little body stiff in my arms.
Twelve, fourteen, eighteen hours each day
His shrieks rake my ears, shred my soul
Screaming, and screaming, and screaming.
For months.

Hands forget how they once played.
Now they flap before a stranger’s eyes
No longer willing to meet my own.

Sleep mocks me.
Hope perishes.
Sanity flees.
Nothing exists but screaming, and screaming, and screaming
And three little faces who look to me
To give them life
While I am dying.

I reel in this valley of death that is not death.
Through? There is no “through.”
I sink to my knees
But find no comfort there.
No God
And no strength to rise again.

The air in this valley
Fills lungs with dust
Parches them with dread
Not the fear that death will come,
But that it will not.

“If You have any compassion at all
Be done with shadows which bring no relief!
Let this be simply the valley of death.
End it all. Please just end it all.”

Our breaths keep coming.
His rip the air with cries of torment.

Mine can only breathe, “I hate You, God. I hate You.”

Slowly the horror abates
But endless months in the shadow of death
Have transformed me into a shadow of life.
I am hollow.
Nothing remains of me.
I am without form, void, in darkness.

The Spirit hovers
He has little to work with.
The fragments He finds are seething with rage
At Him.

He sings, and I weep.
I don’t want to, but I do.
He praises, and I feel it.
Sometimes I can even join in, feebly
Pushing the words out past thick clouds of fury.

I am so glad I still can.
Because if He is life
Then a shadow of life is not enough
Not in a place such as this.

I stagger to my feet
And risk a few unsteady steps.
For I do not hate life
Or the One who is Life
But only the shadow that hides Him from me
Here in this valley.

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Now, the post script.  Ten years after my son and I entered that valley together, God has restored both of us in ways I could never have imagined.  Yes, my son is still autistic and bipolar.  Barring a miracle, he always will be.  Yes, he relies on powerful medications to keep him at a functional level of emotional stability.  But he is a beacon of hope; a hopping, jumping, hand-flapping miracle who sings God's praises sometimes for hours on end.  His growing faith is precious and inspirational.  He is one of God's precious diamonds, and the gleam is already sparkling despite the surrounding coal.

What's more, God led me into that valley as a self-deceived lost person, someone who believed herself saved but had never been born again.  He led me out of it as His daughter.

For many years I would have told you that I hated the valley, and that it was proof that God hated me.  Now I would not trade it for anything.  I'm glad it's in the rearview mirror, and I hope I never have to walk through it, or one like it, again.  But if I do, may I remember God's faithfulness through it all, and may I be comforted by the knowledge that He brings the greatest good out of the worst trials.

And God grant that the same may be true for you.

The Faith of a Mustard Seed

 

"Assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you."  (Matt 17:20)

What is the faith of a mustard seed?

Sometimes people add a few words to this verse.  They say, "Faith the size of a mustard seed."  They take this verse to mean that even small faith can do large things.  And there may be truth in that.  But Jesus didn't say anything about the size of the seed in this passage.  He said, "If you have faith as a mustard seed."

So what is that?  Whatever it is, it is supposed to enable me to move mountains.

On a clear day, if I walk just a little way from my home, I can see the towering, perennially snowcapped twins called Long's Peak and Meeker.  Now, I am a person of growing faith, but I have no desire to "put God to the test" by ordering those giants to move (Mat 4:7).  If I did decide to try it, those mountains would doubtless stay put.  And it's a good thing, too.  Could you imagine the chaos if people went around literally rearranging geography all the time?

Prosperity preachers and their "Name it and claim it" devotees would tell me that if I had more faith, those folks in the mountains would have reason to tremble in their shoes.  But I must ask them, "Is that your definition of faith?  Does faith really mean getting all of your selfish whims and desires fulfilled, without any thought to God's plans for the world, for history, for the people who would be affected by your actions?  Does faith mean telling God to move over so you can sit on His throne and be in charge instead of Him?" 

God forbid that I should ever have such power!  Yes, my faith gives me the power to move mountains…but only the mountains that God wants me to move.  Aren't you glad to know that, mountain folk?

People of true faith in the one true God do not wish to move any mountains that the Lord wants left alone.  Oh, they might long for the day when those mountains move, but they are not willing to step an inch outside of God's will in order to satisfy their own desires.  (Or, if they do try to sinfully move those mountains themselves, God graciously refuses to let them succeed.)  People of faith trust God's plan for where things are supposed to be.  They do not want to usurp God's place, or to turn their religion into a maniacal power trip.

But if God tells them to move a mountain, they speak to it with confidence.

And it moves.

God gives us faith to accomplish His will, not our own.  And true faith wouldn't want it any other way.  True faith sees God on the throne, and is content to have Him there.

It is mustard-seed faith.

What is the faith of a mustard seed?  It's a faith that says, "Oh, I'm a mustard seed.  So that means that God wants me to be a mustard plant.  He gives me His rain, His sunshine, His dirt, and His air, and everything I need to grow into what He designed me to be.  And that's exactly what I want to do."  And it does it.

Mustard seeds do not try to be dandelions, roses, oaks, or eagles.  Nor do they transplant themselves from wherever God placed them, longing for some source of provision other than His.  They are content to use what God gives them in order to grow into what God designed them to be.

Some people have been planted in horrible soil.  Hard, rocky, and inconveniently located (say…right next to a blast-furnace, perhaps?)  Everything in them wants to be somewhere else, growing into something else. 

But let me say it again.  Despite the pain and tears, despite the longing for a better day, mustard seed faith is content to use what God gives it in order to grow into what God designed it to be. This is the kind of faith that our Lord commends.

God may have planned to make me a literal mountain-mover, but probably not.  I doubt that the residents of Meeker have anything to worry about.  So if I'm not supposed to be a mountain-mover, what did God design me to be?

At the very least, He designed me to be my husband's wife, and my children's mother…and to do so with a heart full of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, and self-control.

Suddenly, moving mountains looks less impossible.  In fact, compared to my actual assignment, making Long's Peak tiptoe to the East might be relatively simple.

My heart is evil.  The amount of wickedness I've seen in my own heart has been sufficient to make me despair of it without an outright miracle.  And God tells me that my heart is a whole lot worse than even I realize (Jer 17:9).  I need divine help to become anything worth being.

Am I content to use what God gives me as I grow in this life?  Will I access His love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, and self-control for my protection and strength?  Or will I seek to transplant myself into the world's soil, drawing up its hatred and rage and deceit and selfishness as my sources of power and safety?

Am I content to be what He designed me to be, or would I rather be something else, something modeled after my flesh's desires and cut from the world's pattern?  Am I content to grow into a mere mustard plant, unnoticed, on harsh ground?

Lest you accuse me of setting my sights too low, let me remind you that mustard seeds have no idea what is going to become of them.  In fact, Jesus did mention the size of mustard seeds in another passage.  He said that though they are very small seeds, yet they grow up and become larger than all the other plants in the garden (Mark 4:31-32).

And God's Word tells us that we, too, do not know what we're going to grow into.  But it gives us a hint…and if we let it sink in, it will blow our minds.

"Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is" (1 John 3:2 NKJV).

We shall be like Him. 

WE shall be like Him.  "We" means little folks like us, wholly undeserving little bits of matter that look like nothing in the world's eyes, but who are precious in the eyes of God because of our faith in Christ.

We SHALL be like Him.  "Shall" means it's going to happen.  It is a promise from the mouth of God, and it will not fail.

We shall BE like Him.  "Be" is a state of existence, and this particular "be" is eternal in its scope.  If we're drawing our life from the Vine (John 15:5-6), then our eternal state will be more glorious than we can imagine.  Heaven isn't just about what we will enjoy.  It's also about who we will become!

We shall be LIKE Him.  Restored to being flawless image-bearers, like Adam and Eve were, except even better…because we won't ever sin!

We shall be like HIM!  Like Jesus.  Like the One we are growing to love more than anyone or anything on earth.  Like the one whose glories will be the joy of Heaven forever.

This is the future that God had in mind when He fashioned the DNA of the little seeds called "you," fellow believers, and "me." It is the future that He planned for when He planted us in the soil we now find ourselves rooted in…and when He planted us in yesterday's soil, and in tomorrow's too.  It is the future He is preparing for us as He buffets us with every wind of adversity, tries us with every drought, and refreshes us with every Spring rain.  It is the future that He provides for, when He develops His likeness ever-so-slowly in us throughout this life (See Gal 5:22-23).

God grant us mustard-seed faith, a faith that is content to use what He provides (scorning other sources), in order to become what He designed us to be (scorning other outcomes).

I don't know about you, but at the end of this day I'd rather be able to look back and see increasing love in my heart, increasing joy, increasing peace (and all the other fruits), than to look back at any feats of geographical gerrymandering. 

To know that the pains and heartaches and joys and efforts of today are preparing me to be like Him for eternity…what could be more glorious?

A Note to a Discouraged Friend

A friend has kindly given me permission to reproduce this note here (with personally identifying content omitted).  I'm sure there are lots of folks facing discouraging situations in this world.  If you're one of them, or know someone who is, I pray you'll find some encouragement here.

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Remember, a successful day cannot be measured by any of the gauges that the world uses. Success in God's eyes is measured in only one way...faithful dependence with love.  Even if you can't feel those things, just the stubborn act of seeking them is success. No one can prevent you from seeking Him, and He will be found by you when it's time.

(Of course you have truly found Him for salvation...but there's a day-by-day "finding" because we're all so blind!)  All of your other plans and hopes and dreams can be thwarted, but if your heart's cry is, "To whom else shall I go...You alone have the words of eternal life," then you have succeeded.

I know that you know there's nowhere else to go but to Him. And that's why I know He'll get you through.

Believe it or not, that stubborn dependence on Him, when all of life's trials scream at you to look elsewhere, will be a more powerful witness of His worth than any stroll down a spiritual "Easy Street." Demonic forces tremble at His presence, and He is tangibly present with those who depend on Him.

Seeing your dependence may be the most valuable lesson your daughter will learn in homeschool. She will feel the impact of your faith, perhaps more powerfully when it's hanging on by its fingernails than when it's resting in a hammock. She has a fight ahead of her, and it's good for her to see that God can bring someone through the tough times. She needs a God who is a mighty anchor for the weak, not just someone who cheers on the strong from the sidelines.

She'll know she can depend on Him because of what she sees in you. Right now it may be more important for her to see your dependence than to see any brilliant victory without obvious dependence. She'll see plenty of victories from you in the future (as she has seen them in the past)...but right now she needs to see that dependence is the path that will lead her there. You can show her your dependence right now with a tearful, end-of-my-rope prayer that refuses to acknowledge any other source but Him.

You have no idea how greatly you can honor Him in your weakness. But it's true. That's why Paul gloried in his weakness...because that's when God showed Himself strong. We tend to think of that "showing" in only one way...God strongly makes me a spiritual superhero despite my weakness. But that's not the only way He shows Himself strong.
He often shows Himself strong by bearing our weight...by being the very rope we're at the end of...and not letting us drop.

His "superhero" victories have their place, but they discourage many onlookers who have never experienced such things and aren't ready to believe that they're possible. But His "rope" victories... they speak to everybody. I believe He wants to speak to your whole family that way today.

Drawing Conclusions in the Dark

Image by karlequin via Flickr

“We should never pass judgment in overwhelming hours. Let a man accept the verdict of his Lord, but never the verdict of his melancholy.

Hours come when everything seems wrong and when all the lights of heaven are blotted out, and how often, in such desolate hours, do we fall to judging the universe and God! It is part of the conduct of the instructed soul to resist that as a temptation of the devil. Such hours are always unreliable.

The things that frighten us in the night are the things we smile at in the morning. We are like that traveler who in the fog thought he saw a ghost; when it came nearer, he found it was a man; and when it came up to him, it was his brother.

Overwhelming times are times for leaning; God does not mean them to be times for judging. They are given to us for trusting; they are not given to us for summing up. Leave that till the darkness has departed and the dawn is on the hills, and in His light we see light again.”

G. H. Morrison (1866-1928)

 

Why This Jesus?

In the last entry, “Which Jesus?” we looked at the heresy which claims that it’s the name of Jesus that matters, not His actual identity. In other words, it doesn’t matter who you believe Jesus is or was, it only matters that you believe in someone called “Jesus.”
I referenced an article which showed alarming statistics about American Christendom’s view of Jesus (including the belief that He was a sinner), and then I made the following statement:

Whenever someone claims to believe in Jesus, it might be wise to ask, “Which Jesus? Why Him?”

The previous entry then went on to address the first question. Today’s entry will look at the second.

Why Him?

Why should people believe in the Jesus of the Bible, and not the Jesus of the New Age, or the Islamic version, or the Mormon version, or the Jehovah’s Witness version? If the above-referenced Barna statistics are accurate, many of America’s self-described Christians don’t take the Bible seriously enough to even use it as their source of information about who Jesus is.
Why should people believe in our Jesus, the one the Bible teaches?
I can almost hear the reply coming back, “Because He’s the true one, that’s why!”
I know, I know, and that works just fine when you’re talking to people who are already convinced of the truth. But it falls flat on the ears of those who are not convinced. My question is on behalf of those people, the outsiders, the ones who need a good reason to believe in the true Jesus Christ. What can we offer? On what can we base our appeal?
Can we appeal to tradition, to upbringing? Do we want “insiders” to stay true to Biblical teachings just because they were raised that way? Then how do we justify asking people who were raised in other faiths to convert to ours? Clearly, if we try to convert outsiders, then we don’t really believe that being raised in a faith is a good enough reason to be loyal to it.
Do we want people to accept the truth of the Biblical account because there are so many wonderful proofs of the historical and prophetic accuracy of the Word? Well…there’s nothing wrong with winning someone’s mind with a good argument. I’m very grateful for solid Biblical apologetics. But while convincing the mind may be important and helpful, I don’t believe it is sufficient. What happens when someone comes along with a better-sounding argument? Do we want people to be tossed to and fro with every new scientific theory or religious whim that can be presented convincingly?
On what can we base our appeal for their faith? Should we fall back on the “Cover all your bases” approach to enlightened self-interest, the fire-escape theology which says, “Hey, if I’m wrong, no harm done to me, but if you’re wrong, you’re going to burn in Hell, so you might as well play it safe and…” (Here the witness usually inserts some act that he wants the other to perform, such as repeating a prayer.) We can’t appeal to true faith with such an argument, since by definition those who are using “Jesus” to cover First Base are doubtless using others to cover Second, Third, and Home. Besides, every religion out there can use the same argument right back at us. The Jehovah’s Witnesses may not have a Hell to threaten us with, but they can tell us that we’ll be annihilated and miss out on Paradise Earth if we don’t believe in their version of things. The New Ager can threaten us with a loss of pleasure and power in this life, and a less-desirable reincarnation. I can’t really imagine a weaker appeal than the “just do it to be on the safe side” approach…especially since true saving faith can’t spring from it.
Ok, so let me ask you. Why do you believe in the Jesus of the Bible?
If it’s your tradition, that’s wonderful…but is that the only reason? What if you’d been raised some other way? Would you be just as loyal to that way, because your faith is just something handed down like old clothes?
Have evidences in science or convincing religious outlines led you to believe? Great! But do you feel a sick twisting in your gut when someone makes a logically appealing argument for another path? Could you be wrong? How do you know you’ve heard the best argument out there?
Or are you just trying to do whatever you can do to buy up fire insurance for the next life? Do you have a policy with someone named “Jesus?” Is that what faith means to you? How many other policies do you have? If this is the only one, do you find yourself wistfully hoping it will do the trick for you? What’s holding you back from buying more policies elsewhere?
Is it pride? Is there something in your soul that rises up in anger if someone dares to imply that you could be wrong? Is your faith in your own inherent “rightness” more than in Christ?
Why do you believe in the Jesus of the Bible?
Are you squirming now?
Or are you smiling?
If you find yourself described in one of the “shakier” reasons for faith above, please don’t push your concerns away. They could be the best things that have ever happened to you. The Lord is calling you to seek Him, so let your response be, “Your face, Lord, I will seek (Ps. 27:8). He is wonderfully good to those who seek Him (Lam. 3:25), and He will be found by those who seek Him wholeheartedly (Jer. 29:13). Immerse yourself in His Word. Ask Him to grant you a heart that hungers and thirsts for Him, that is possessed by Him, sealed by Him as His very own. Ask Him to make you new, and to give you a heart that loves Him. If you don’t sense His answer right away, keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking (Matt. 7:7). His delays always have a good purpose, and His timing will eventually show itself beautiful (Ecc. 3:11). Hope in Him, because He will not always hide His face (Isa. 8:17). Know this: we are always seeking. Either we are seeking Him, or we are seeking idols. So no matter what, keep seeking Him!
If you were smiling through my probing questions, I know why.
You believe because of His Spirit in you. You know Him. You sense Him. You love Him. He convicts you of sin, convicts you of righteousness, and convicts you of judgment (John 16:8). He pours the love of God into your heart (Rom. 5:5). He is God’s “Seal of Ownership” on you (2 Co. 1:21-22 NIV), and He testifies to you that you belong to God (Rom. 8:16). These things aren’t mere points of doctrine to you. You know His touch.
New scientific theories, new clever-sounding arguments, new heresies cannot move you. You don’t appeal primarily to tradition, to intellectualism, to superstition, or to pride for your confidence. Those things may factor in, but they aren’t your main focus. You simply can’t help knowing the Spirit is there, just like you can’t help knowing there is air in your lungs.
You can say along with Martin Luther, “Here I stand, I can do no other.” Your feet are planted on the rock, because you can’t deny that it is under your soles. You remember how it felt to flounder on sinking sand, and you know that Jesus is the Mighty One who put you on the solid ground. Let all Hell be unleashed against you, and though your feelings may sway, and your confidence may have seasons of weakness, your overall conviction will stand firm. Why? Because you’re so strong? No, because it is God who makes us stand firm in Christ (2 Co. 1:21 NIV). You certainly do feel your own shakiness, but you also feel His omnipotence. And so you stand.
And it shows. (I’m telling you this, brother or sister, because you probably aren’t aware of how much and how often you affect others for Christ. Because it’s Him working through you, you aren’t self-conscious about it.) Others see Him in you, which is far more valuable than if they could just see you. The good works which you do are different from those untouched by the Spirit. You impact lives with something they may not even be able to name.
Help them name it. Help them name Him.
How? To go back to our previous question, to what will you appeal?
But of course that’s the wrong question, isn’t it? God forbid that we should try to manipulate others, trying to do in our flesh what only the Spirit can do. We don’t appeal to a thing, we appeal to Him. We may use whatever tools God leads us to use in any given situation, whether apologetics, or reasoning, or whatever. But if salvation is a miraculous work of the Spirit (and it is!), then we must first and foremost pray for Him to speak through us, and share Him with our lives and our words. Tell them who He really is. Tell them what He’s done for you. Tell them of a salvation that’s for here and now, not just for the future. Ask them if they have any sins that they hate, and if they’ve longed to be free. Those who are still in love with their sin will mock, but you will not have failed because of it. You will have succeeded, because in obedience to Christ you will have sown a seed that another may water. (If you lead an unrepentant person in a “prayer of salvation,” then you will have failed, because there’s no salvation without repentance.)
Others will listen to your witness, because the divine Gardener has been tilling up the soil of their hearts. Because you are speaking the Way, the Truth, and the Life to them, your words will resonate with the work that the Spirit is doing in them. You may not be saying anything fancy or impressive, but in cultivated soil the truth will take root. The Spirit will make sure it does.
Do not fret over your “inability to witness.” A witness is one who speaks of what they’ve seen, what they’ve heard, what they know. If you truly know Him, you can be His witness. If you truly love Him, others will be drawn to Him as well. If you are truly led by Him, then those who are also feeling His pull will recognize the direction you’re heading.
Do not fear, child of God. Just walk and talk in simple faith and obedience. God will use your witness in ways you may not know until you stand with Him in glory.

If the Spirit of Jesus

is shining through you,

Others will trust

in the true Jesus, too.

Morrison on Ps. 62:1

I've been struggling with discouragement this morning. To be honest, it's been building up for a couple of days, partly as a result of worldwide and national events, and partly because of more personal matters. But it seems to have settled on my shoulders most heavily today.

The Lord knew just what I needed to read in my daily devotions, and I thought I'd pull out some excerpts to share with you.  This is a synopsis of a devotional by G. H. Morrison.

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Leaving It There
"Leave it all quietly to God, my soul." Ps. 62:1 (Moffatt translation)

Much of the joy of childhood springs from the trustful relationship to somebody who says, "Leave all that to me."

We are not here just to understand. Now we know in part and see in part. We are here to glorify God by trusting Him even when we do not understand. And such trusting carries its own evidences in the rich inward peace it brings as if our life were in tune with the Eternal. "My meat is to do the will of him that sent me.(John 4:34)" His meat was neither to probe nor to expostulate. When the cup was bitter, when the cross was heaviest, when the lights were darkened in the Garden of Gethsemane—He left it all quietly to God.

The opposite of faith is never reason; the opposite of faith is sight.  Someday we shall arrive and understand. We shall see His face and His name shall be on our foreheads—it shall be written out in the region of the brain. Meantime we have a life to live, a heart to cultivate, a service to perform. "What is that to thee—follow thou me."

Again, we are to remember the psalmist's counsel in the hours when we have done our best—and failed. The higher the service that we seek to render, the more are we haunted by the sense of failure. The man who has no goal doesn't fear failure. But in higher ministries, when soul is touching soul and we are working not in things, but lives, how haunting is the sense of failure. Every Sunday School teacher knows it well, every mother with her growing family, and every preacher of the Gospel. So little accomplished, so little difference made, so little fruit for the laborious toil, although the seed sown may have been steeped in prayer. Well then, are we to give up in discouragement? Are we to leave the battle line and be spectators because we hear no cheering sound of triumph? My dear reader, there is a better way, and it is just the old way of this gallant psalmist—"Leave it all quietly to God, my soul."

Often when we fail, we are succeeding. We are doing more than we have dreamed. We are helping with our rough, coarse hands because Another with a pierced hand is there. Do your best, and do it for His sake. Keep on doing it and don't resign. And as to fruitage and harvest and success—leave it all quietly to Him.

Grief and Disillusionment Bring New Hope

Image via WikipediaOk, I'll admit it. I'm grieving.

I know that no human being is our savior. A different election outcome would not have brought Heaven on Earth. My hope is not in politicians. My hope is in the Lord.

But I'm grieving.

Grief is appropriate for a devastating loss, for the death of a loved one. And for me, that's what this election represents.

But let me be very clear about this. I don't think America is in mortal danger because of the candidate who won. I believe the opposite.

I believe that the candidate won because America is in mortal danger. That's why I said that I grieve over what this election represents, not over what it did.

And frankly, if the other candidate had won, I would not feel much better.

If America had truly been a vital nation "Under God," not only would the outcome have been different, but we wouldn't even have been presented with the same candidates or the same issues. This election didn't so much change the country as it revealed it.

And so I grieve the death of a dream.

I know that the America I love is really an ideal, a dream, a hope. For many years, the America I love has not been the America that I live in. And more and more I'm having to admit that the ideal, the dream, the hope could never really be achieved by human beings. Democracy is the best human form of government, but it is still human, and so will still be brought down by the weight of its own sin. It can only work as the Founding Fathers dreamed IF it is a godly nation seeking to be led by godly leaders.

America hasn't been that for a long, long time. So November 4th, 2008 was inevitable. If it hadn't happened this year, it would have happened in 2012, or 2016. In fact, I suspect that in God's eyes, Election Day was a minor blip. He's been watching our moral and spiritual decay and our blatant rebellion growing worse and worse throughout our history.

If a gardener knows that the root system of a vine runs under his whole property, he won't be surprised to see any particular shoot pop out of the ground. Besides, our Gardener can't be surprised by anything. He removes kings and raises up kings (Dan. 2:21).

We are the ones who feel the shock, because we had hoped the roots wouldn't send up this particular sprout. We feel the threat of the power that this shoot wields. And we see the danger that it poses to America.

But if we look at any one individual as the greatest threat facing our nation, then we misunderstand the danger.

The danger is never in the sprouts. It's in the root.

Our nation made this choice, and made all of the previous choices which led up to this choice, because our nation desperately needs God and has rejected Him. And that, my friends, is what we need to grieve. Not the outcome of the election, or the man it will put in office, though there is a great deal of heartache that will no doubt follow those two things.

Let me say it again.

We are headed for a great deal of grief now that we've chosen this president. But the heartache will not be primarily the result of the election or of the new president. It will be the result of national apostasy, of which November 4th was only a symptom.

We should not be grieving as if yesterday marked a horrible defeat for a great nation. We should be grieving as those who recognize that our nation ceased to be great decades ago, and has been self-destructing for a long time. Let our prayers focus around our lost nation, pleading with God to grant us repentance from sin, and grant us true Spirit-led revival.

And by all means, let's be disillusioned.

"Disillusionment - noun - a freeing or a being freed from illusion." (Dictionary.com)

We, as God's people, are called to walk in truth, not in illusion. And faith in human government is faith in an illusion (Ps. 118:9, Ps. 146:3, Jer. 17:5-8.)

When God strips away illusions, He is doing us a great kindness. The process may be painful, because we tend to love the little dreams we've clung to. But the end result is something far better than any illusion could ever give.

The result is real hope. Not a false hope based on the supposed virtues of any politician or nation, but a true hope in our Heavenly King and our eternal home.

Php. 3:20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

How often have we Americans read that, and said that? How often have we actually meant it? I fear that, for many of us, those have just been words, nothing more.

God is going to change that. When "Hate Crimes" laws are passed which get your pastor (and mine) thrown in prison for preaching the truth of God; when Obama fulfills his promise to sign our nation on with the Alliance of Civilizations, which among other things defines all who believe in absolute truth as "terrorists" and says parents who teach their children exclusive dogmas are guilty of child abuse, then we're all going to begin to long for our Heavenly home much more fervently.

But that's where our main allegiance should have been all along.

So I, for one, will grieve in my own way, but I will also have hope, for the truth of Php. 3:20 is becoming more real to me already. No one, NO ONE can corrupt that Heavenly city, and its King will never be deposed!

Praise God!

One Way It's Not About Me (Or You)

There are lots of ways that it's not about us.

The world doesn't like that fact. The flesh hates it. The Devil rebels against it.

It must be a good thing.

One of the ways that "it's not about me" hit me tonight as I sat down for my devotions. I knew I hadn't had it all together today, and the enemy was trying very hard to discourage me. I wanted to approach devotions hard-heartedly, with all my defenses up against feelings of failure.

But it's not about me.

It's about Him.

God, the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. One God in three Persons. That's who it's about.

He is the one who has held me thus far. He holds me now. He will hold me forever.

Yes, I must repent of known sin and turn more fully to Him, endeavoring by His grace to "go and sin no more." But that's really all the attention I should give myself.

A. W. Tozer (1897-1963) said,
"Faith is the least self-regarding of the virtues. It is by its very nature scarcely conscious of its own existence. Like the eye which sees everything in front of it and never sees itself, faith is occupied with the Object upon which it rests and pays no attention to itself at all. While we are looking at God we do not see ourselves--blessed riddance. The man who has struggled to purify himself and has had nothing but repeated failures will experience real relief when he stops tinkering with his soul and looks away to the perfect One. While he looks at Christ the very things he has so long been trying to do will be getting done within him. It will be God working in him to will and to do."

I messed up today. Of course I messed up today! I'm going to mess up every day. I'm human.

On one hand, I must not take this lightly. Sin is deadly serious business (see the blog entry for July 29, 08 called, "How Seriously Does Heaven Take Our Sin?") Sin cost our Lord the agony of Calvary and more. It costs humans their eternal souls if not dealt with at the Cross. It must be hated and repented of wholeheartedly.

But if my sin and failure become the main focus of my life, I'm playing right into Satan's hand. And it's not mainly for the reasons you might think. It's not mostly because I'll get discouraged if I focus on sin, though of course that's true. It's not because it will damage my self-esteem (something I shouldn't be seeking anyway).

It is because:

1. Anything that holds our spiritual focus more than God becomes an idol...even our sin. We may not think of it as an idol, but it is. Strong's Concordance defines the Hebrew word for worship this way: "prostrate (especially reflexively in homage to royalty or God): - bow (self) down, crouch, fall down (flat), humbly beseech, do (make) obeisance, do reverence, make to stoop, worship." The Greek word for worship carries the same connotations. (It makes you wonder about what passes for "worship" in many churches these days, but that's going to have to wait for another day.) Who or what do we worship as an idol? It's anyone or anything besides God before whom we fall flat, overcome or overwhelmed. It is anyone or anything which we believe holds the power to determine our destiny. Our sin deserves no such obeisance from us. Only God does.
2. Anything that takes our focus away from God keeps us from enjoying Him. We cannot pursue obedience to the greatest commandment, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength," if all that fills our vision is ourselves and our sin. We cannot enjoy all of His glorious attributes, or encourage others to glorify Him, if He is eclipsed by evil in our eyes. We cannot know His peace, His joy, His hope, or His comfort if all we know is self, self, self.
   

It's not about us. Thank God, it's not about us!

So how should I approach my devotions tonight? As one who is neither surprised nor discouraged by my own sinfulness. After all, it is only pride that is surprised by failure. Humility is not. And it's only pride that is discouraged by failure. Chambers says, "Discouragement is disillusioned self-love." He is so right!

How should I approach my devotions tonight?

• As one who has eaten only scantily today, and who is starving for more of what is good.
  
• As one who trusts the Giver implicitly, and does not look to herself to decide what her fate will be.
  
• As one who loves the Father and has no desire to waste her affections on anything less.

I'm so sad, so lonely, and so hungry whenever I think it's all about me! But when I remember Who everything really revolves around, then I'm ready to let my soul delight itself in abundance (Isa. 55:2).

Please click here if you would like to read a poem that I wrote about the emptiness of a self-focused life, and may God bless you with more of Himself!



(Photo by Betsy Markman, 4/96)

Does God Get Discouraged?

He will not fail nor be discouraged, till He has established justice in the earth (Isa 42:4)



We often remind ourselves about God's ultimate victory, and the fact that He does not, can not, will not fail.

But how often do we remember that He does not get discouraged?

What a glorious, beautiful truth this is!

As Pastor John Piper reminds us, God's own happiness is the basis for our happiness. And God is happy for many reasons, not the least of which is the fact that He cannot be thwarted in any way.

He will not be discouraged.

Is it safe for me to assume that many of you are easily discouraged, just like I am? Or perhaps, even though it's not easy to discourage you, it has happened anyway because things have simply become too overwhelming. At times like that, for people like us, it's helpful to remember God's victory, of course. But how much more assurance we can feel when we see His matchless self-confidence!

He will not be discouraged.

He has known from eternity past where the planets would be in their orbits right at this moment. And He has known just as long the alignments of governments and world powers. He has known the fall of the sparrow in the forest, and the hairs on our heads. What's more, He has not only known these things, but has ordained them. If you're a serious student of the Word, you know all of that. But it's not very encouraging to look at those facts if we picture our God as downcast, gloomy, irritable and frustrated because he's not certain how everything will turn out.

He is certain.

He will not be discouraged.

My mother was never calmer than when one of us needed to draw courage from her. I've seen wheedling parents pleading with their distressed children, whining like children themselves, and their children never fail to fall completely to pieces when they see their parents so undone. I'm sure you've seen this kind of scene: two children fall and scuff their knees a bit. Neither one begins to cry, because it wasn't really that bad. The mother of one child calmly says, "Well, it's okay. You're all right," and the child happily trots back to his playing. The other mother runs in a near panic, frantic over what has happened, and her formerly calm child dissolves into tears. If Mother thinks it's a tragedy, it must be one!

Our Heavenly Father has no fears about what is happening in your life right now, or in mine. I do not mean that He is callous or indifferent. I mean that He is utterly confident and perfectly competent to fulfill His promises to us.

He will not be discouraged.

To be discouraged simply means to lose one's courage, and it's a dangerous thing. Fear lashes out like a wounded animal that attacks its would-be rescuers. It isolates us in a prison with walls thicker than any ever made with brick and mortar. Cowardliness leads to lying, to cheating, to blame-shifting, to avoidance of even healthy risk. Fear protects itself at any cost, while love counts no sacrifice too great. It's true that perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18), and a little careful thought will show the inverse to be true as well. Where fear grows stronger, love is increasingly lost.

The great Scottish preacher George H. Morrison (1866-1928) tells us:

"We never can be patient without courage, and without courage we never can be pure. It calls for a little courage to be truthful, and it calls for a little courage to be kind. And sometimes it takes a great deal of courage just to say what we ought to say, and sometimes it takes more courage to say nothing. Do you know the commonest command in Scripture? The commonest command in Scripture is Fear not. Times without number in the Word of God it rings out upon us, Thou shalt not be afraid. For courage is at the roots of life, and it is the soil in which every virtue flourishes; it is no isolated or independent grace, but is the nursing mother of them all."

Do you know that God will not be discouraged?

I admit I never thought about the courage of our Lord until I was talking to my sons about the atonement a couple of years ago. My middle son, who is autistic, listened in silence until I talked about the crucifixion, and the fact that Jesus went willingly to Calvary for us. My son's eyes widened at that, and he said, "He was brave!"

Out of the mouths of babes!

Morrison says again, "I suppose there was never anyone on earth quite so courageous as our Savior Jesus Christ. Yet give a pagan that life of His to read, and I do not think he would say, How brave He was! He would say, How loving He was—how infinitely patient—how radiantly peaceful in the teeth of calumny; yet love and patience and radiance and peace were but His matchless courage in disguise."

Jesus' courage of course came from his own divine resources. But do you know that He can encourage you from the depths of His own courageous heart, the heart that faced Pilate without wavering, faced the Roman scourge and screamed (no doubt) under it's agony - but without faltering in His purpose, and faced Calvary without flinching?

He does not go to some celestial storehouse to find a box of courage to hand to his people when they need it. He has limitless stores of it right in His own heart, and He gives it liberally. Can you see it now, how it marks His features with a calmness and peace and confidence that seems to lighten your load as you look at it?

He will not be discouraged. And because of His courage, and His encouragement, we need never be discouraged either.

"Consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls." (Heb. 12:3)

He will not be discouraged!











(Photo taken by Betsy Markman in Colorado Springs, Colorado)

What's this "Cloud of Witnesses" about?

Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us (Heb 12:1)
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I hate feeling pressured.

This verse used to have that effect on me. Of course I knew that these witnesses were the people mentioned in the great "Hall of Faith" in the previous chapter. They were superheroes of the past who were tortured and martyred for their faith in God. I would read about them with awe. Then I would arrive at Chapter 12, and I would read about them forming a great cloud of witnesses, which was supposed to make me keep pressing on in my own race toward the finish line.

Teachers would tell me that those people were all surrounding me, watching my progress and cheering me on. But I couldn't believe they would actually be cheering for me, since I knew I wasn't making any great strides at that point in my life. So the thought of all of those spiritual giants surrounding me and watching me quickly became oppressive. Instead of making me want to endure, it made me want to quit, knowing I could never be as strong and brave as they were.

Ok, so maybe I was weird, but that's really the effect it had on me. Did it have that effect on anyone else?

Anyway, over the past few years I've been greatly enjoying the teaching ministry of Pastor John Piper, and if there's any one thing that Piper is known for, it's God-centeredness. That's a well I love to drink deeply from, and it has given me a whole new perspective on this verse.

Jesus said, "You shall be My witnesses" (Acts 1:8).

Paul said, "For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. " (1Co 2:2)

Peter said, "To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins." (Acts 10:43)

Paul and Barnabas said, "Nevertheless He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good, gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness." (Acts 14:17)

Ananias (the devout one) said to Saul of Tarsus, "For you will be His witness to all men of what you have seen and heard." (Acts 22:15)

Jesus said to Saul, "But rise and stand on your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to make you a minister and a witness both of the things which you have seen and of the things which I will yet reveal to you. " (Acts 26:16)

Of course there are other verses that use the term "Witness" to refer to other things. But there does seem to be a strong trend toward God-centeredness when speaking of witnessing. And since the Bible is indisputably a God-centric book, that's not surprising.

So what's with this cloud of witnesses? Well, perhaps they do cheer us on. That's a happy thought. But with what do they cheer us? To what do they witness?

If God opened up my spiritual ears right now so that I could hear what those witnesses were saying, I'm sure I'd be encouraged if they said things like, "You're doing great." In fact, I wouldn't only be encouraged, I'd be astonished! But I think I'd also be disappointed if that was most of what they said. You see, if their focus was centered on me, and they were witnesses of what I was doing, or of my worth, it wouldn't be enough for me. I would have plenty of reasons to doubt their assessment, since my own sin and failure are so clear to me. I would feel, frankly, like they were no better than the pop-psychology gurus of our day who go around stroking everyone's egos, convinced that the greatest thing anyone can do is worship his own reflection. That's shallow. I don't want it.

I wish I could hear those witnesses. Do you know who I think they would witness about? Do you know what I think they would be saying with all the conviction of their hearts and souls, with all the joy and fervor and love that fills everyone in Heaven?

"God is worth it all! He is so worth it! His beauty and His love and His perfection and His grace and His hope and His peace really are enough to sustain you and give you joy, even if they take all of your things and your family abandons you and you're tortured and imprisoned and killed. We know! We've been there. We're just ordinary people, but God came through for us! When we went through our tribulations, He drew closer to us than we ever could have imagined, and He'll do the same for you. When He reveals Himself more fully to you in your heart, you will be so glad to count all things as loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord! You will never regret it, because He is so wonderful!"

That, my friends, is the kind of "Cloud of Witnesses" that makes me want to pick up my weary feet and run some more. May we be such God-centered witnesses even before we leave this earth!



(Photo from Stock.xchng by Mordoc, edited for this site)