Author Archives: revjaf

GOING OUT OF BUSINESS!… Philippians 4: 4-7

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A Christian counselor told me that he would be out of business if we took to heart these verses from Philippians.  Would put up a ‘Going Out of Business’ sign!   He was right.  Help can be found here.  Real help.  No placebo.

I’ve mentioned before that I will wake up at night, with a start–  worrying and fretting.  Hard to sleep when you’re all agitated.   I’ve known others who suffer from ‘night terrors’.  What triggers these fear-traumas would be different for each one.

For me, it began when I was two years old.  Contracted polio a week before my family moved out of the city into the suburbs, typical for post-WWII families.  Not the polio, however!  When diagnosed, I was taken back to the Sister Kenny Polio Clinic in Jersey City, where we had lived.  I was in isolation for awhile.  Saw none of my family.  None.  No hugs.  No kisses.  Where had they gone?  Was I abandoned?  How was a two year old to know?

The Kenny treatments were not fun.  Excessive exercise.  Boiling hot packs.  Dousing me in hot whirlpools.  I can still hear the metal bars on our cribs being put in place at night.  Snapped-in place, tight.  The old-fashioned shades being rolled down with their clickety-clack sound.  The lights that went out making the ward dark and fearful, filled with the cries of those of us stuck there in more ways than one.  What would a two-year old think?

In some ways, the emotional paralysis lasted much longer than the virus.  The body healed, largely.  The emotions, not as well.  For years, had to have a nightlight on.  Still find exercising unpleasant.  My fear of submerging my head underwater, let alone swimming, may come from being dropped into one of those whirlpools.  My wife can tell you about episodes where I wake up in an utter panic not knowing where I am, terrified of where I might be.

It’s been many moons since those hospital days.  Yet shadows linger.  That’s why I hold onto what the Apostle Paul wrote: ‘but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God…'(Philippians 4: 6).  When he said ‘everything’,  I can only imagine that he meant exactly that–‘everything’.

To know He’s there.  To hold His hands.  Telling Him what’s on our heart and mind.  Not like He doesn’t know already!  And thank Him.  For I know there’s much to be grateful for in all that I’ve been through.

What about you?  Things that have happened that made your life more difficult and tiresome?  Tell the Good Physician!  He has magnificent medicine for you in His Word, the Bible.  Take the medicine!  I’m not all better yet.  But  I’m much better.  You can be, too.  For some day, the better will become the very best!

Prayer:  Lord, you are our shelter, our hope and our constant love.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

A GEM UNEARTHED FROM THE MINES OF DEUTERONOMY!…Deuteronomy 4: 1-14

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I love the Old Testament.  Reading it.  Studying it.  Deuteronomy is the fifth book of the ‘Torah’,  the Law of Moses.  It contains three of Moses’ sermons.  Moses talks about communication between God and His people.  One aspect  would be prayer.  Talking openly with our Lord.  God loves to hear from us.  After all, who are we?  We’re His own dear children!  He loves it when we take time for Him.  Like when we get to spend time with our children.  Play games with our grandchildren.  Just to be with them.

As we get older, the communication-well seems to dry up quite easily.  Even with friends.  Not as much contact.  The beauty of our relationship with God, is that it never has to run dry.  If anything, our spiritual life can become more robust the older we become.  He’s always there.  24/7.  365.  Even during leap year!  Eager to hear from us.

Don’t worry about the words you use, as if a certain formula is required.  Be yourself.  However, be respectful…we are in the presence of Holy God.  I remember a pastor, preaching on prayer, saying that if you used certain words or phrases, he could guarantee God’s answer.  Guess he never read Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount?  He warned us– ‘…empty phrases…for they think that they will be heard for their many words.  Do not be like them…'(Matthew 6: 7-8).  Then He gives His followers a very concise prayer, the Lord’s Prayer.   The first half is simply praise to God.   The second half, requests.  Short and sweet.

What’s important is knowing that God really cares.  He listens.  No matter if His answer is ‘yes’ or ‘no’ or  ‘wait a little longer’.   What we must never forget is that He loves us and wants the very best for us.  Hang on to that no matter what.  His answer is on the way.  No doubt about it.

But, wait a minute!  What about that gem unearthed from the mines of Deuteronomy?  Where is it?   Look at Deuteronomy 4: 7.  Have you found it?  Talk about a gem!  Here it is–‘What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to Him?’   Told you so!  Whenever we pray, whatever feeble and inadequate words we use, God hears us.  He’s closer than the closest relationship we can have here on earth.  Much closer.

Let me ask you a question–if this is so, and it is, then why don’t we spend more time in prayer?  Why?  Don’t have a good reason?  Neither do I.  So, let’s pray!  Remember this:  please don’t believe in the power of prayer.   No, believe in the One who has the power to answer our prayers!  He is our Lord God Almighty!

Prayer:  Lord, we come to you and pray to you.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

HOME AT LAST!…Psalm 44: 1-4

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I never know when a verse from the Bible will jump off its pages, hitting me right between the eyes!  Happened again today in my quiet time with the Lord.  For years now, I’ve begun my devotions by asking the Lord to meet with me.  A new thought, reinforcing a foundational truth, a question to pursue in my biblical language study.  Some insight to feed me today.

We know the Lord is with us at all times.  What I need though, is more awareness of that.  To be more in tune with Him.  Similar wavelength more than merely my own.  To weave together His fibers with mine.  That’s my heart.  Most of the time, I mean it!

The psalmist, one of the sons of Korah who were Temple worship assistants, recounts how the Lord has given Israel great victories and a promised land.  Psalm 44: 3– ‘It was not by their word that they won the land, nor did their arm bring them victory; it was Your right hand, Your arm, and the light of Your face, for You loved them.”  That verse holds onto me for dear life.

All we have comes from the Lord.  His powerful arms protect and provide for us.  As if those weren’t enough, the light of His face, and love from His heart, mean the very most.  When we are away travelling for weeks and months on end, to see the faces of our children and their spouses, the smiles and laughter of our grandchildren–what joy for us!  To see their faces.  That alone means so much.

To be with the Lord.  To see His face.  To bow before Him in all His majesty and glory.  Think about that!  His face filled with love.  And home…at last!  That will be worth all the struggles of this life!

Prayer:  Thank you, Lord, for a homecoming like none other here on earth.  With you and Jesus and the Holy Spirit.   Amen.

 

HIS LOVING FACE…Psalm 44: 1-4

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Hear some wonderful words–‘the light of your face, for you loved them…'(Psalm 44: 3).  God’s loving gaze… upon us!  When a graduate student at Princeton Seminary, I took a class in child development.  We were studying how trust develops.  Such trust begins with loving, reliable parents.

You’ll never guess what children’s song we examined?  ‘Peek-a-Boo’!  This was a pricey, Ivy-league graduate school?!  When you play ‘Peek-a-Boo’ with an infant, you cover your face with your hands as if you’ve disappeared.  Then you open your hands to reveal your smiling face saying, ‘Peek-a-Boo, I see you’!  The baby laughs,  and so do you!

Play this enough times, the theory says, and your child will learn to trust that the face that goes away will come back.  The ‘face that will not go away’.  This will get challenged a few years later when ‘separation anxiety’ sets in as parents leave for a period of time.  Returning, with a loving smile, reinforces trust which has been developing since earliest days.

However, this process can be made much more difficult when trauma interferes.  I know what I’m talking about.  Hard for me to trust.  After I accepted Jesus at age 16, there were years when I struggled to believe that He had really entered my life with salvation.  Doubts were everywhere, robbing me of the joy of my newfound faith.  Like playing ‘He loves me, He loves me not!’ with ‘loves me not’ prevailing.

I imagine contracting polio at age 2 didn’t help.  In isolation for a protracted period of time.  Never seeing my family.  Where were they?  No hugs, no laughter, no ‘peek-a-boo’.  They were gone.  I was alone in this frightening ward, covered with hot packs, constantly exercised by strangers manipulating my body.  Darkness every night filled only with cries from a ward-full of stuck children.

Hard to trust when this happens.  Possibly you have your own story.  Can you guess what helps me now?  Knowing that the Lord doesn’t hold my tough-to-trust tendency against me.  He understands.  My clayeyness.  Your dustiness.  Our human frailties.  The Bible says that His is a loving face.  Gracious and forgiving.  With open hands to all who rush into His arms with an embrace unto a face that will not go away.  Never… for all who believe in Him with even a smidgeon of mustard seed faith.

The face that will not go away.  Keep saying that today.  Brand these words on your heart–  ‘…the light of your face, for you loved them…'(Psalm 44:3).

Prayer:  Thank you, Lord, for always being there.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

LESSONS FROM A GREAT NOVEL…Psalms 42 and 43

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Hebrew manuscripts yoke together Psalms 42 and 43.  In both you hear the cry of the soul using much the same words.  Like ‘why?’– which we ask ourselves(and the Lord) time and again.  Maybe that’s on the tip of your tongue today?  ‘Why’?  Hear the Psalmist’s conclusion, from both psalms–‘Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God’.

We ask–how did he get to this point?  The place we all want to be.  Close to God, placing our hope and trust in Him.  How?

The key can be found in Psalm 43:3–‘Send forth your light and your truth, let them guide me…’  What comes to mind?  I think of the Bible.  Guiding us through life’s perilous waters in a sinful sea.  Jesus, the light of the world, making paths clear.  He points the way, and then goes with us.

While vacationing in Charleston, South Carolina, invariably we’ll be touring Magnolia and Middleton Plantations.  Beautiful places, especially in the Spring, when the azaleas bloom.  Originally, both were profitable rice plantations until the Civil War.  I decided to read again Harriet Beecher Stowe’s ‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’.  Can see why Abraham Lincoln said that this book ‘started this Great War’.

Uncle Tom, the slave hero, is a committed Christian under horrible circumstances.  Listen to him.  Here’s what the great novel says–

‘Is it strange then that some tears fall on the pages of his Bible, as he lays it on the cotton-bale, and, with patient finger, threading his slow way from word to word, traces out its promises?  Having learned late in life, Tom was but a slow reader, and passed on laboriously from verse to verse.  Fortunately for him was it that the book he was intent on was one which slow reading cannot injure– nay, one whose words, like ingots of gold, seem often to need to be weighed separately, that the mind may take in their priceless value.  Let us follow him a moment, as, pointing to each word, and pronouncing each half aloud, he reads, ‘Let–not–your–heart–be–troubled’.

God’s light, in His Word and His Son, will light the darkest places of life.

Prayer:  Lord, thank you for Jesus and the Bible.  All from you.  In His name.  Amen.

A GOOD FRIEND?…Job 42

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Job had those three friends.  They proved to be less than helpful.  I think they wanted to be his friend, but their good intentions quickly deteriorated into a big argument where they’re right and he’s wrong.

I’ve been there.  Thought I was right, but then again…  You guessed it–wrong!  I’ve let friends and family down.  I’ve been let down by those close to me.  To be honest, I can barely think of anyone who ever apologized or asked to be forgiven.   I can ‘smell the wood burning’ as my brain is trying to think of who or when.  They weren’t sorry.  Most never looked my way again.

But Job’s three friends humble themselves, obeying the Lord, doing what He told them to do, admitting they were wrong, asking Job to pray for them.  Instead of accepting their direct prayer, God tells them to go back to the one they hurt, and have him offer prayers on their behalf.  There’s no guarantee that Job will have anything more to do with them.  None whatsoever.

But Job is a good friend.  He welcomes these three into his forgiving heart, and asks the same of the Lord.  Job takes the ‘high road’.  He could have rubbed their faces in the sand and dust.  Not Job.  Chapter 42: 10 says this–‘After Job prayed for his friends…’  They were still his friends.  In spite of all they had said, he forgave them.  That is exactly how the Lord deals with us, His humbled people.  With grace, kindness …and forgiveness.

You know anyone who could use a word of forgiveness?   Maybe a friend?  Or to whom we need to say– ‘I’m sorry.  I was wrong.  Please forgive me.’  These are tough words to speak.  We don’t like to say them.  I don’t.  But they’ll make us stronger in the Lord.  No guaranteed outcome, but we’ll be who we were meant to be– good friends like Job!

Prayer:  Lord, help us to forgive and be forgiven.  May we be good friends to those we love as you are to us.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

EVERYTHING BELONGS TO HIM!…Job 41:1-11

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I feel sorry for Job.  He’s called ‘blameless and upright’ and ‘the greatest man among all the peoples of the East'(Job 1: 1,3).  Yet God allows him to endure the most horrendous losses imaginable.  Job has had to ‘verbally fence’ with his wife, those three ‘friends’, that young know-it-all Eliphaz.  Finally, the Lord speaks.  God has the last word, as it should be.

God speaks ‘out of the storm'(Job 38:1).  Maybe you’re in a storm of sorts right now.  Life is turbulent.  Even sunny days feel cloudy and dark.  Reading Job 41 we hear the Lord comparing His strength with Job’s weakness.  God’s the Master, Job the servant.  Like you and me, under His lordship.  Job 41: 11–‘Everything under heaven belongs to me.’

He owns it all.  Nothing that exists anywhere, at any time, is other than God’s own possession.  Especially when times get tough, when questions override answers, we need to be reminded of who God is.  He’s without limits.  Lord of all.  Everything is His.  Genesis chapter 1 tells us that all creation has come from His hands.  All of it.  Start there, believe that first chapter of the Bible, and we’ll know who God is.  Lord of All.

When I accepted Jesus into my heart, I became a child of God as He promised(John 1: 12).  That relationship will last for all eternity.  The Bible is crystal clear that God truly loves us with a love known only to Him.  His love forgives freely and willingly.  Gives and gives, and then He gives some more.  He gave His only Son for us.  I wouldn’t do that.  Jesus died for us.  You couldn’t do that.  He rose in victory over the ultimate enemies of Satan and death.  We can’t do that.

All…for His own!  Which is so hard to grasp with the feeble fingers of our minds and hearts.  If we are His, and everything belongs to Him, can we not sense what comes next?  We can trust Jesus.  With every aspect of our lives.  With every prayer that seems to go unanswered.  With every uncertainty of health and wealth.  We can cast all at His feet, relaxing in His arms, with confidence and peace.  ‘Everything…belongs to me'(Job 41:11).

Prayer:  Thank you, Lord, for being the God who you are.  We love you and trust you no matter what.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

THERE’S GOT TO BE MORE!…Judges 10: 1-5

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I’m reading the book of Judges in the Old Testament.  One of your favorites?!  ‘Judges’ were leaders chosen to help Israel follow the Lord.  After Joshua’s death, the nation faces a power vacuum.  Quickly the people turn away from God, reject Him and worship idols.  Things go terribly wrong for God’s people.  I wonder why?!  Israel cries out for help.  God provides leaders, the judges.  A few have familiar names–Gideon, Deborah, Samson and Samuel.  But many do not.

Like the two from today’s reading.  Tola and Jair.  Who?  What did they do to help Israel?  We know little about them, though they ruled collectively for 45 years!  Of Tola, we only know the names of his father and grandfather(imagine a name like Dodo!), and that he was of the family of Issachar but lived in the hill country of another family, Ephraim.  That’s it.  After leading Israel for 23 years, he died and was buried in Shamir of Ephraim.

Then comes Jair of Gilead, east of the Jordan River, between the Dead Sea and the Sea of Galilee.  Judge for 22 years.  Has 30 sons, rides 30 donkeys, controlling 30 towns.  Died and buried in the town of Kamon.  That’s it… again!

Don’t we want our lives to count for more than that?  There’s got to be more.  Looking in the mirror of life, I’d like mine to count for more than stale, bare-bones facts.  Remembered… for living for the Lord?  No reference to God is mentioned with the names of Tola and Jair.  How sad.  I hope that’s not said of me.  You too?  Of course.  Remembered… for loving the Lord.  For sharing Jesus with others.  For giving to missions where I couldn’t or wouldn’t go.  Far from perfect, but knew the Perfect One to go to for forgiveness and renewal.  Had a few tough breaks, some of his own making, but who ended better than he began.  Ended well for the Lord.  That’s how I’d like to be remembered.

With those godly goals in mind, I know how to live.  What decisions help or break them.  How about you?  Looking to the end will help you focus on how you live your life now.  How would you like to be remembered?

Prayer:  Lord, we genuinely want to live for you.  That our lives matter, not only for the here-and-now, but for eternity.  For you!  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

 

TIED UP IN KNOTS!…Acts 18: 18-22

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As a new believer, I struggled with knowing God’s will for my life.  Wrestling with the tiniest, itsy-bitsy decision.  Do I tie this shoe lace first or the other?  Tied up in knots!  I was miserable!  What does God want me to do?  How can I possibly know what He wants?

You know what has helped?  God’s Word… listening to what’s going on inside its pages.  Hearing the dialogues of the Bible.  How God’s people interact with Him and He with them.  Here’s a hint:  stop worrying… start enjoying the Lord.  Stop being so picky and perfectionist as if God is ready to pounce at the first sign of weakness.

Acts 18 is a helpful passage.  The Apostle Paul  is in the city of Ephesus, teaching about Jesus the Messiah.  The Ephesians can’t get enough.  They beg him to stay longer.  ‘Don’t rush off.  We have so many questions for you.  Show us more of the Bible.  Please!’

You know what Paul says?  ‘No!  Got to keep moving on for the Lord’.  I would find that hard to say.  Is this not God’s will?  Stay longer and do more for Him?  Paul says ‘no’, but does make a promise that IF it is the Lord’s will he shall return to them.  ‘…I will come back if it is God’s will'(Acts 18:21).

The word ‘if’ is most significant.  A little word with a large impact.  ‘If’ shows our confidence in God, that He always knows what’s best.  We pray for His will to be done… and then move forward.  Not looking back(hard to do!).  Not second guessing(sometimes harder!).  Going with what’s inside us as put there by the Lord.  Confident, unfettered and flexible.  Doing this-and-that ‘if’ God so wills it.

Navel-gazing Christian life is no fun.  Tied up in knots!  Not sure what to do.  Conflicted and confused.  Know what I mean?  God’s will for each of us is to ‘glorify Him and enjoy Him forever’.  That wisdom, found in the ‘Westminster Shorter Catechism'(1647), remains profoundly true today.  Simply enjoy Him.  Listen for His voice in the Bible.  Live freely.  Love Him.  Again… ENJOY Him!

Prayer:  Lord, thank you for your guidance.  The freedom we receive from following you.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

A MORE COMPLETE PICTURE…1Corinthians 9:6, Galatians 2:1, 9,13 and Colossians 4:10

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The Bible passages for today round out the picture of Barnabas, the ‘Son of Encouragement’.  A role model, yet with flaws like the rest of us.  One of the many things I love about the Bible is its honesty.  No candy-coating or ‘spin’.  Truthful from cover to cover.

Take Barnabas, for example.  He’s hardworking.  In 1 Corinthians 9, Paul mentions that he and Barnabas work for a living.  Paul was a tentmaker.  Barnabas too?  We don’t know.  They didn’t live by handouts.  Were hardworking men.  The same for us– men and women, doing what the Lord has gifted us to do.  With discerning generosity for those who need our help.

In Galatians,  we see Paul and Barnabas as a team–‘…this time with Barnabas'(2:1) and ‘…gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship'(2:9).  Barnabas is a team player, an encouragement to the Apostle Paul.  Someone he could count on when the chips were down.  Paul and Barnabas–like one name!

Unfortunately, neither was perfect.  Unlike me and thee, and I’m not sure about thee!  Remember they had a huge argument, splitting their team in two.  I’m sure both felt they were right, with the other being wrong.  Paul was not afraid to air his opinions even with the chief apostle, Peter.  Galatians 2:11–‘…Peter…I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong.’  Not only Peter, but Barnabas is due criticism.

What’s happened?  Peter would fellowship with the new Gentile believers until the old guard ‘Board of Elders’ shows up, and then he snubs the ‘newbies’ treating them like second-class Christians.  Paul shakes his head in disappointment when he sees Barnabas also backing away from his Gentile brothers and sisters.  Paul lets those hypocrites(v.13) have it with both barrels!  What about us?  Avoiding someone?  Looking down on those who make us look bad?  Like I’m something special and they’re not much at all?

One final reference to Barnabas in the Bible.  Colossians 4:10.  The Apostle Paul mentions that Mark is with him.  And that he is Barnabas’ cousin.  Mark, the same one that Paul wanted no part of.  Now, he’s matured, committed, solid for the Lord.  The investment by Barnabas has paid hefty dividends in Mark’s life.

Someone you can think of who needs a second chance?  A helping hand?   An encouraging word?  Be a Barnabas to them.  Be a ‘Son or Daughter of Encouragement’!

Prayer:  Lord, help me to be an encouragement to someone today.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.