Monthly Archives: March 2023

HE KNOWS Exodus 13: 17-22

Posted on by

A few years back my left foot aches with shooting pain.  Can barely walk on it.  Have no idea what I’ve done, if anything.  Now what?  Worse-case scenarios flood my pea brain.  Diabetes beginning?   Probably leading to amputation of this nasty appendage?  Buying a crutch or a wooden leg?  Wheelchair-bound?  See what I mean?

Thankfully, none of the above materializes.  It’s an ailment called plantar fasciitis, an inflammation caused by a heel spur.  I navigate online for some advice, which actually works out rather well.  Dr. Web will see you now!  Purchase a heel support for that foot along with using a firm massage technique.  Both do the trick?  Pain disappears sooner than expected never to return…so far.

In Exodus 13 we read about how sensitive the Lord is to His hurting people, who sweat out four hundred years in slavery.  Will their pain never end?  Or get unimaginatively worse?  Finally, they witness devastating plagues, not on them but upon their enslavers, which leads to their escape through a dry sea bed, which quickly returns to its normal water level drowning their enemies.  A narrow escape.  But slaves no longer!

Yes, they’ve seen what none of us ever has.  Miraculous judgments upon their oppressors.  A clean escape that leads to new life.  So, shouldn’t their faith be strong as strong can be having eyeballed all those miracles God performs for them?  Shouldn’t it?  But hold your horses.  Remember that they’re just coming out from abject slavery.  Must be weak and worn out.  Nerves frazzled.  Looking over their shoulders, wondering who’s gaining on them.   They even romanticize the good old days with all that free food and stuff that never really existed.  Tell them to be strong?

God’s people are about as ready to claim a new land as I am to run a marathon if plantar fasciitis rears its ugly head or foot again.  Don’t land on them with both good feet.  After all, the Lord knows we’re made of dust and clay.  Fragile stuff.  Bent and twisted by others’ sins and our own.  Limping because of pain and suffering.  Needing padded cushions of understanding and encouragement to walk forward while faith massages their feelings.

Exodus 13:17-18–“When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near.  For God said, ‘Lest the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt.  But God led the people around by the way of the wilderness…'”  The point is that He knows what’s best for His people, for us.  He knows to send us down strange pathways.  He knows throwing a monkey wrench or two in our way will discombobulate us.  But it will work out for our good (you know Romans 8:28).  In His way.

He knows that at the first sign of trouble, we’ll high-tale it back to where we least want to be.  From the frying pan into the fire.  From godly living to godless, fearful, and messed-up existence.  He knows.  So, trust His leading even when it looks like we’re stuck in some nasty dead-end canyon with no escape in sight.

Someone reading this knows all about being stuck.  Locked in and locked down.  Hang in there.  God knows all about it.  About us.  From headaches to pained feet.  The good, the bad, and the rest.  Yet He’s never through with His own.  After all, He knows.  Take His hand.  He knows the way out.  He does.

Thank you, Lord Jesus, for knowing me and loving me.  Amen.

BETTER THAN GOOGLE MAPS! Proverbs 2

Posted on by

Come on now, read at least the first seven verses of Proverbs 2.  You can do this without missing too much precious time on your smartphone, right?  All of Proverbs is like a spiritual Google roadmap.  Maybe better?  Must you ask?  After all, sometimes the internet is out-of-date.  I remember driving across country, somewhere in Texas or Louisiana, needing to fill up our gas tank and being led by Google maps to a station that hadn’t yet opened.  Just workmen and shiny new, unused gas pumps.  No help there.

Proverbs 2 presents a different kind of roadmap, one for good, godly living.  The life we’d like to live.  As with anything that’s worthwhile, it takes effort.  Blood, sweat, and tears in a manner of speaking.  Living God’s way doesn’t just float out of the sky and land on our collective heads.  Neither by osmosis as we sleep.  Nor some freebie in the sticky popcorn Cracker Jack box of life.  Takes your level best.

Now, wait a cotton-pickin’ minute!  Sounds like we have to work for God’s salvation, doesn’t it?  Hold on.  Get this straight.  Our relationship with God is His free gift.  No backbreaking effort is required.  No being perfect before membership is accepted.  Rather, it’s free for the asking for Jesus paid it all.  Our bill He covered.  No debt owed, which we couldn’t pay anyway.  Nothing is required except some gratitude, and some trust in Jesus alone, while admitting our failure to follow God on our own, and remembering that God’s the greatest giver.  That’s how our relationship with God gets off the ground.  Got it?

But after becoming His own, then get out of bed, cease making lazy circles in your life, and get to work…for Him…for others…for a change.  That’s all woven tightly into those Proverbs 2 maxims.  About making your ears attentive to the things of God.  Leaning into what will increase your understanding of godly living.  Seeking God’s wisdom is much like a job that produces a livelihood.  Searching out His Word in the Bible.  Our head in its pages.  Our heart passionately His.

Getting serious about following Jesus.  Putting Him front and center.  Getting off your high horse.  Discontinuing navel-gazing, and begin caring about somebody else.

All of the above signals an exciting life.  One that makes a mark, leaving a lasting one at that.  A life that paves the way for an unimaginable and mind-boggling heavenly paradise.  Certainly far better than anywhere that Google maps may take you.

Thank you, Jesus, for a life worth living.  Amen.

GRIEF Isaiah 63

Posted on by

Having tender feelings has its drawbacks.  Likewise, being emotionally hard as a rock is to be regretted.  A balance, somewhere in the middle, would be what the doctor orders.  As one somewhat sensitive (we’re now called HSPs so I’ve read.  Please don’t call me that as it might hurt my feelings!), I can still feel some hurts caused years ago.  Don’t remind me.  They might be front and center anyway.  All the more to ruin my day.

But it doesn’t end with your feelings or mine.  For there’s more to consider.  Isaiah 63: 10–‘But they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit…’  St. Paul pens these words–‘And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God…’ (Eph. 4:20).

Guess what?  God has feelings too.  He loves us so much that He’s put Himself at risk of having His feelings devastated.  God can be grieved, wounded, and broken-hearted… by you and me.  Oy vay!

How does God get hurt?  Any ideas?  Of course, you do.  Like when we lie to get out of something we don’t want to do.  Or stretching the numbers of readers of these devotionals to pump up my fragile ego?  Or not speaking up for Him when we should have?  Or spouting off when we should have shut our trap?  Or taking for granted all that the Lord gives us and does for us, which is a ton and a half at the very least?  On and on I can go.  Good grief!  But surely it isn’t good when I grieve the Lord.

I’d like to spend this week giving Jesus less to be unhappy about.  Less grief than I usually give Him.  Giving Him more joy.  Pleasing Him for a change.  To hear Him say ‘well done, good and faithful servant’ (Matthew 25:21) would make me so happy, which is what I most want–Jesus…being pleased with me.  I’d like some company.  How about it?

Have a great week delighting our Lord Jesus!

Thank you, Jesus, for making life so good.  Amen.

HOT FLASHES Psalm 37

Posted on by

Three months before surgery, I’m administered some fancy-dancy injection that will do its wonders before I’m under the knife.  Or so they say.  With nary a side effect?  Fat chance.  One promised by the specialist will be hot flashes.  Now that’s something to look forward to.

For the first month, nothing.  My wife seems somewhat disappointed, hoping that I’d be sensitized to what she’s endured for years.  Not to worry, my dear.  Time is up.  For those nasty flashes and flushes shift into high gear with a vengeance.  At bedtime I’m freezing, pulling up the covers, only to violently toss them off, as my internal furnace kicks in with a blast of heat from head to toe.

I want out of these hot flashes.  Which is what the Bible also recommends.  Okay, maybe of a different kind.  Nevertheless, turn down the heat.  Psalm 37:1,8–‘Fret not yourself…Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath!  Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil.’

What’s with that word ‘fret’?   Rather archaic, isn’t it?   ‘Fret’?  In the Hebrew language, it means to ‘get heated’.  Also, to eat away at, corrode, fray, and gnaw at.  None good, so best turn down the heat.  ‘Fret not…’

Hot flashes of anger will rot hearts and minds, ours and others.  We all know some who regularly blow their tops, releasing harmful steam from under their collars.  One way they bully people is to make others afraid that the hothead will blow a gasket right in their face at the drop of a hat or two.  No fun to be around.   Better steer clear.  Get out of their way.  This is why hotheads keep their fingers crossed, hoping their anger will work its intended purpose–to get their own way and you out of it.

Rather, Psalm 37 wants us to focus on trusting the Lord, and remembering how quickly life passes by.  What a shame to spend so much time fretting and fuming, stewing and spewing anger into the air, raising the roof, making a scene, and going ballistic.  Better to let go and let God handle what’s scorching and searing us.

I need this as much as anyone else.  So, I reread God’s prescription in Psalm 37–‘Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.  Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.  Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act’ (vs. 3-5).  That’s better, isn’t it?

Leaning on Jesus.  Trusting the Lord.  Being faithful and content right where you find yourself.  Finding the Lord to be delightful and giving.  Reflecting on God’s love and forgiveness rather than on how to get your own way.  Deciding to get off yourself.  Thinking about what makes someone else tick, cutting them some slack rather than ticking them off.  Tossing your hat in His ring, knowing that He’ll take care of it all.  By His means.  By His clock.

Time for your angry hot flashes to go?  Think so?  I’m working on it, but more is needed.  Quite a bit more, honestly.

Lord Jesus, I delight myself in you.  I love you.  Amen.