Author Archives: revjaf

MORE ABOUT MERCY, ALWAYS MORE…Matthew 9: 9-13 and Hosea 6: 4-6 and Amos 4

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Matthew’s Gospel.  We see that Jesus goes out of His way to ‘stir the pot’,  causing trouble that seems unnecessary.  He calls a tax-collector to be one of His disciples.  A tax-collector!  Are you kidding me?   Tax-collectors weren’t the most sterling characters in Jesus’ day.  Crooks… or worse.   Of all the people He could reach out to and call as one of His disciples, a tax-collector?     Why not a Rabbi or a Temple official?  Nicodemus came at night.  Why not call him by day?  No, not Jesus.  No!  He calls a tax-collector!

The Pharisees are disgusted.  Fed up.  He even goes to dinner with tax-collectors.  You can feel the Pharisee’s  dripping arrogance and self-righteousness.  That’s when Jesus lowers-the-boom!  He quotes from Hosea in the Old Testament.  Remember him?   Hosea was God’s prophet,  commanded to take an unfaithful woman as his wife.  He was to show forgiveness in addition to that big word, mercy.  Nothing about ‘throwing the book’ at her or standing on his right principles with his righteous indignation.   In the book of Hosea,  we discover that our Lord ‘…desires mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings'(Hosea 6:6).    More mercy and less judgement is the desire of our Lord.

He doesn’t want to throw salt on our wounds.  He wants to heal them.  With mercy.   He really loves us,  and wants us to come back to Him.  Have you read that portion of the prophet Amos yet?  My, oh my, just dripping with sarcasm!   ‘Go to Bethel and sin…Bring sacrifices every morning,  your tithes…brag about your freewill offerings–boast about them…for this is what you love to do…'(Amos 4: 4-5).    Reading the rest of Amos 4, we discover the heart of the Lord,  who says over-and-over again–‘…yet you have not returned to Me.’  Five times God says this in chapter 4.   He cries out:  to come home… to Him.  Waiting for us at home is His mercy… like a mighty river flowing and flowing with  great force.

How could we ever stay away?  But we do.  I have at times, and I don’t recommend it.    So, come home.   Open arms will greet you.    He promises to forgive and forget.  Unlike you and me,  He really means it.  Forgives…AND forgets.  That’s mercy, I’d say. Like choosing a tax-collector or receiving an unfaithful woman.   Even greeting me and you, not with the back of His hand, but with open arms.    Empty rituals will never cut it with our Lord.  Never.  Only hearts and souls that passionately desire Him.  Only if we come home to Him.  Only then…

Are you home yet?  You’ll know it when you’re there!  He’s left the light on and the door is open!  Welcome home!

Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for all your kindness to us in Jesus.  In His name.  Amen.

HAVE MERCY! … Exodus 37: 1-9

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The end of the book of Exodus seems rather tedious.  All those instructions about the tabernacle and its furnishings. Does it really matter?   Well,  look again.  I found an amazing verse–Exodus 37: 9.  Moses was remembering how the gifted artisan Bezalel had made the Ark, and overlaid it with precious gold.  There were rings on the Ark’s side where wooden poles,  also overlaid with gold,  would fit through so the Ark could be carried without ever having to be touched by human hands.  Tightly covering the Ark was a solid gold lid called the ‘mercy seat’.  On top of the mercy seat were two golden angels,  the cherubim,  spreading their wings over the mercy seat.  Their faces look directly at each other.

What impresses me most is the mercy seat.  Mercy covers all the glory of the Ark.  Mercy covers it all.  Mercy and His holiness go hand-in-hand.  Angels look over and protect God’s mercy.  Angels are created guardians offering shade from the heat that blazes down upon God’s people.  The terrible heat emanating from anxiety,  worry and overwork.  Angels shading us.  Acting on behalf of God Himself.

What is His mercy anyway?  Some have said that His grace is receiving what we don’t deserve.  God is so generous.  None of us deserve one smidgeon of His grace.  It’s truly God’s ‘amazing grace’.  I depend on God’s grace… and am thankful for all He gives me, when I bother to think about it.  When I stop taking Him for granted.

Mercy?…That’s NOT receiving what I DO deserve. Think about that for a moment.  God not giving us what we deserve.  I love grace, receiving from the Lord.   Who doesn’t?   But mercy, sounds pretty good to me and in light of how I am, maybe even a better deal!   Imagine if God gave me all that I deserve.  I know how brutal that would be.  I know myself.  I know what a sinner I am.

It’s mercy I need.   Somewhere, way down deep in my emotions, I know how little I deserve anything good from God.  How right He would be to write me off.  But the Gospel  is not about me or my fragile, fractured emotions.  It’s about the Lord and all His mercy sealed tightly over the most precious item in the Tabernacle.  His mercy we can count on.  His mercy trumps all our sin.  His mercy is everlasting,  new every morning and night.  I’m glad!  So glad!  You too?

Prayer:  Thank you, Lord, for all your mercy.  For covering us when we feel so exposed by our sins.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

TURN YOUR EYES UPON JESUS… Proverbs 18: 10

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One verse for today!  But a good one to memorize and carry around with you for a long, long time.  The Bible says that the Lord is our ‘strong tower’.   Christians today are under great pressure, even for their lives,  because they name the name of Jesus Christ.  Wherever you may be, to say you’re a Christian is to open yourself up to unbelievable scorn, ridicule and ostracism.  Some safe tower, you may say.  What does this mean?   What gives?  What about the ‘strong tower’?

I think you know the answer.  We were made for paradise…and this ain’t it!!  Not after what sin has done.  This promise of the strong tower must be for somewhere else, someplace different than ‘this old world’.  Yes, of course, it’s for where God is,  where He keeps us safe. It’s for heaven.   Keep looking up where heaven is, where God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit give us their strong tower to safely run to.

Cherish the safety of your relationship with the Lord here and now as a foretaste of things to come.   Remember when Jesus said that if we had the faith of a tiny mustard seed,  we could approach mountains saying to them  ‘be tossed into the sea’, and they would?  That’s found in Mark 11: 25.  We know what Jesus obviously doesn’t mean.  Mountains, wherever you live, are still there even though some well-meaning person prayed and wanted them in ‘Davy Jones Locker’!

Something else is going on.  At the Christian Church I served for 14 years, we always ended the worship service by singing the chorus to the old hymn ‘Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus’–‘look full in His wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace’.

Look up to Jesus, who is way above any mountains you and I may face.   Looking to Him fully,  you notice that our mountains of trouble don’t seem as evident.  Maybe you don’t notice them at all.  It’s as if when we fully concentrate on Him, that mountains move aside…and, in a sense,  disappear!

That’s what the’ strong tower’ image means.  Not for here completely…but especially for there and then.  In heaven with our Lord, who opens the tower doors and gates and welcomes us home, safe and sound.  You know what?   I don’t even see those mountains anymore!  Only the One who made them and can move them aside… for you and for me.  ‘Turn your eyes upon Jesus…’

Prayer:  Oh Lord, thank you that no matter what happens to me in this life, I am safe and secure in Your arms.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

OFF ON MY OWN!… Exodus 25: 1-22, Matthew 6: 5-6

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When I was a student at the Moody Bible Institute many of the original buildings, from the 1880’s,  were still in use.  Evangelist D. L. Moody’s office and first classroom building, 153 Institute Place, was still standing.  My favorite hang-out was the SweetShoppe,  manned ably by Pop Mitchell.  His cheese omelettes were the very gooiest best!  I spent way too much time…and money there as a student.  Those were happy days for me. Over a thousand students on one city block in downtown Chicago!

But I had a secret place on campus that I cherished.  I’ve never told anyone about it.  Until now.  It was on the second floor of Crowell Hall, where old classrooms were empty as empty could be.  No one ever around after noon.  But me.  I would take the back stairs, avoiding the elevators, and walk the empty halls until I came to a large classroom with the highest ceilings and biggest blackboards you’ve ever seen.  I just loved that place.  It had those old student desks made of wood with a flat surface.

A certain musty smell hung in the air.  A scent of a very old building.  I would sit there for upwards of an hour at a time, all by myself… praying and talking with the Lord.  Time with Him.   No one would bother me.

I’ve never forgotten that special place.  I was reading about the Holy of Holies in the Old Testament, where only the High Priest would enter once a year to offer atonement and prayers for all the people of Israel.  It was the inner sanctum of the Tabernacle, with very little furniture.  It was a simple place.  Gold…a wooden box that contained the tablets of the Ten Commandments,  Aaron’s rod that budded and a jar containing a bit of the food they called  ‘manna’.  That was it.

Simple.  Not all 613 commandments but only 10.  Ten was enough to guide God’s people on how to live for Him and with each other.  Not complicated.  No code to break.  No hidden messages to trip us up.  Just 10 commandments.  On top of the golden Ark were two angels that had been hammered out of the same piece of pure gold,  reminding God’s people that He’s watching over for us.   His angels cover us,  and while we never see them in action yet they are there.  Covering the Ark.  Below them is the Mercy Seat, the solid-gold covering that fits exactly over the wooden box.

10 commandments–the best way to live.  Words of God.    A rod that budded–miracles abound with Him.  A jar of manna–His provision.   Angels watching over us.

Let me recommend that somehow, somewhere, sometime you get away with the Lord.  Spend time with Him.  Pray.  Read your Bible.  Jesus and you.  Together.  Nothing formal or forced.  Cherished moments…previews of things to come on a much larger scale!

Prayer:  Lord, thank you for times alone, you and me.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

WHATEVER IT TAKES… Proverbs 3: 1-8

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I’m ashamed of myself.  I should have known better. Young and painfully immature, I must admit.  A generational sin I grew up with was talking about others behind their backs.  Relatives, who were doing better financially, were ready targets.  Making fun–or so we thought.  Who knows what they said about us?!  Sad to say,  I did the same thing.

I think of someone many years ago.  Her family was filled with turmoil.  She loved the Lord.  All day long she’d read Christian books.  Hours on end  listening to Christian music.  Loved church.  Loved the choir.  Loved sharing with others, including me her pastor, about her love for the Lord and how she grew close to Him by books and music.   In my private moments,  I thought she was way over-the-top, somewhat bizarre.  Sitting around reading inspirational books, listening to tapes of Christian music?  Praying for hours on end?  What’s this all about?

Years later, she would phone me periodically.   I still felt like I was humoring her for her strangeness, but never out-loud, never for her to hear.  One day she phoned me for prayer.  She was having surgery the next week, and would I, her former pastor, lift her up to the Lord.  I did.  I think now with tongue-in-cheek, to my shame and embarrassment.

Never heard back from her. One less phone call for me to field.  Somewhat a relief.  Assumed all must have gone well.  But it hadn’t.  In a newsletter from my old church it mentioned that she had died on the operating table during surgery.  She was now with the Lord.

Oh my…guilt was like a tsunami rolling all over me.  Yet, now, for her, all those trials and troubles were over.  I read in Proverbs 3 about binding around our necks and writing God’s love and faithfulness on our chests near our hearts so we don’t forget all about Him.  Like she had been doing.  Strange things to me, but all the right things by her.

Do whatever it takes to get close to the Lord.  Don’t worry about what others may think, even your pastor.  Even trusted friends and family.   I’ve done some growing up since then, and have adopted what other’s may think are strange habits of discipleship.  I don’t care.  I want to get near to Jesus.  Don’t you?  Do whatever it takes.  May seem strange to someone else.  That was me.  Not any longer.  And I share this embarrassing story only to keep myself on guard for the next time I might judge someone else as weird…maybe they are just wired to the King of Kings!  Wired and connected and in love with their Lord.  Do whatever it takes…

Prayer:  Lord, please forgive me for judging others when I need a closer walk with You myself.  For nothing will mean more now and forever than sitting at Your feet.  In Jesus’ Name.  Amen.

THIS LITTLE LIGHT OF MINE… Matthew 5: 1-20

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I used to love preaching from the pulpit at West Side Church in Englewood,  New Jersey.  The pulpit was elevated and I would access it through a small wooden door,  climbing  a spiral staircase, out another small door while turning on the overhead light whose switch was right behind my back.  Disappeared downstairs to appear upstairs with light shining down on me!  Reading the ‘Sermon on the Mount’,  I notice that it was  not how elevated He was on that hillside but what He said that turned everything upside down.

Think about being that ‘light of the world’ for a moment.  You… a light?  That’s what Jesus says (Matthew 5: 13-16).  ‘You are the light of the world’.  Don’t stop there for He also says that we’re to let that light shine before others.

I was thinking–what kind of light am I?  A searchlight?  A Fresnel lighthouse lamp that can be seen for miles and miles at sea?  A small match.   A little light for a short period of time?  Jesus doesn’t specify what lamp is required– just that we shine for Him.  I don’t  know how many will read this devotional.  This may be ‘my little light’.   I used to love to sing that song as a young child–‘this little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine…’  I wonder–will anyone want to read this book?   Come to think of it, you are right now!  So, I’m going to let my light shine.  ‘Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine’!

A friend came back from a Holy Land archeological dig many years ago, and brought me a lamp from Jerusalem .  It had the archeologist’s markings on a tag authenticating it as being from the Roman period over 2000 years ago.  It had a well for oil and a opening where a wick could be lit.  The lamp would offer enough light for a tiny home.  If you’ve never seen one of these Holy Land lamps, you would be as shocked as I was.  It must be quite large, right?  Well, no, it actually fits into the palm of one of my hands.  That’s it!  But that lamp would do more than you could imagine.

So can you.  So can I.   Just shine…for Him…for others.  It will be truly magical and amazing what heights He’ll take us to…all pointing to Heaven!  ‘This little light of mine, I’m GOING to let it shine!  Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine’!

 

Prayer:  Lord, I want to shine for You.   Take my lamp and light it, so others can see Jesus, the Light of the world.  In His name.  Amen.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION… Proverbs 9:1-18

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Wherever we live,  it’s nice to know our dwelling is well-built!   Proverbs 9 offers blueprints for godly life… for us who are still under construction!  Verse one– ‘Wisdom has built her house; she has hewn her seven pillars.’  The fear, the respect and love of our Lord,  is the foundation, the ‘beginning’ of our godly home(Proverbs 1:7).

So much goes into building a home.  Takes wisdom,  Proverbs says.  Takes godly insights to live a successful Christian life.  Always requires sacrifices to finish well.  The builder must follow the blueprints of the architect, who has responded to the wants and needs of the owners.

Not everyone can afford a home.  For many years I lived in apartments and parsonages.  Here, in Proverbs,  God issues a universal invitation to come to His home for security, provision and family.  Proverbs 9: 1–‘Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!  To him who lacks sense she says, Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed.  Leave your simple ways, and live, and walk in the way of insight.’  Such a simple invitation.  Nothing really complicated.  Come…to Him.  Turn here.  Repent.  Turn around.  Here’s the path.  Yes, a narrow one.  Yet, open to all.

‘In my Father’s house are many mansions…I go to prepare a place for you…that where I am, there you may be also'(John 14: 2-3).  A house more like a mansion that the Lord has for each of us in heaven!  The Book of Proverbs says it is hewn with seven pillars.  Strong and sturdy.  Seven.  The number of perfection and completeness in the Bible.  Seven pillars– tall and strong.  That’s what God’s Wisdom has made for us… to safely dwell in, to live forever with each other.

The invitation still stands.  But don’t forget–you must RSVP.  Have you accepted?  Yes, I want His Son Jesus in my heart.  Saying ‘yes’ to Him…that’s a very wise choice indeed. Turn here… to Jesus.  One way street.  No dead end, for sure.  For the on-ramp leads to the most amazing highway of all, to the most jaw-dropping mansion you could ever imagine.  For you and me…and for ALL who say ‘yes’ to the invitation of our Lord!  RSVP?

Prayer:  We say ‘yes’, Lord, to you.  How could we say otherwise?  The best is yet to come with Jesus.  Amen.

WHAT KIND OF BLESSING WAS THAT?…Exodus 14

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This chapter in Exodus contains the great story of God delivering His people out of slavery.  Chapter 14:13-15 caught my attention.  Pharoah’s crack troops are barrelling down on the Israelites as they flee Egypt.  They can see the dust kicked up by Egyptian chariots on the horizon,  getting closer and closer with every turn of their wheels.  Dangerous waters before them…the enemy behind.

‘Help!  Rescue us, Lord!’  Moses tells them to ‘fear not, stand firm’.  The Lord will deliver them.  He says that they  ‘have only to be silent.’  Do what?  Keep quiet.  Shut your mouth.  That’s it?  The Lord says, ‘why do you cry to me? …go forward.’  Saddle up and giddy-up for the Lord!  As if the Lord has had enough of His people’s unbelief.  Their griping and crying.  Enough, already!

I remember many years ago, waiting in line at a Dairy Queen ice-cream store to get a nice soft-serve vanilla cone. Yummy!  Was a long line, but not so long that I couldn’t hear the young man waiting on customers in front of me.  Each one he harassed and put-down in the most obnoxious way that I’d ever heard.  It was a summer day,  but my internal temperature was rising dramatically higher and higher. I was fuming!  When it was finally my turn, he was warmed up with nasty comments ready to flood my way.  ‘Next’!   Wrong move.  Bad timing, buddy!   He barely opened his mouth with one nasty comment  when I instantly said to him, ‘why don’t you just shut up!’  And he did.  Enough, already!   Our family calls this the ‘Dairy Queen Blessing’!  Hopefully, this is one blessing you will never receive from me!

Back to the book of Exodus.  It’s time to keep quiet. Time to stop worrying, wringing our hands,  biting our fingernails.   Time to stop griping.  Time to quit bad-mouthing and gossiping about someone else behind their backs.

It’s time to move forward…with the Lord’s promises surrounding us in the strangest places.  Time to be silent…time to let the Lord fight for you.  Is this such a time in your life?  If so,  move on… quietly trusting Him.  Begin by taking one baby step( faith, the size of a tiny mustard seed, can move mountains!).

Pray for wisdom to know if this is the time to be silent.  It isn’t always.  The Lord will show you as you seek His face.  He will.  Wait…and see!  ‘…and you have only to be silent…tell the people to go forward…’

Prayer:  Lord, I need to let go and let You do battle for me.  I need to stop complaining and learn to praise you even when I least feel like it.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

THE HARDENING OF THE ARTERIES…Exodus 7-12

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Did I really ask you to read all those chapters?  Yes,  I did!  They’re about the plagues in Egypt.  A series of horrors due to the hardness of heart of their ruler, the Pharoah.  It says that the Lord hardened Pharoah’s heart.  Really?  The Bible makes it crystal clear that God never tempts anyone to do evil( James 1: 12-14).  Rather He’s allowing Pharaoh to make choices.   God is letting him act on his own. God’s permissive will.

It’s going to take a lot to get Pharaoh to soften up,  and let God’s people go.  Going to take a lot–and he really never does get the message.  Not really.  When I was maybe 10 years old I remember visiting my father’s mother, Nana Fischer, in a nursing home in Troy, New York.  She had no idea who we were.  None at all.  We were her son, her daughter-in-law and grandson visiting her.  This really bothered my father.  His mother was alive… but gone.  She had, what in those days we called, hardening of the arteries to the brain.  A form of dementia. Very sad.  She was tied to her chair by a rope that circled her waist.  Tried to get up, but couldn’t.  She wanted to make us coffee but had no means of doing so.  She thought we were strangers.  We didn’t stay long.  This was not my Nana anymore. Not really.  She still had that same broken-German accent.  None of this was her fault or anyone else’s.

Back to Pharaoh.  His fault?  Oh,  yes, for when hearts are hardened willfully, terrible results are unleashed.  Pain and suffering for both the Israelites and the Egyptians.  No one really escaped scot-free.  His own people suffered greatly.  If only Pharaoh would  have turned to the One true God, the One and Only,  all would have been different.

I think of my own life.  Of the times I went my own way and hardened my heart to the Lord.  Ignoring Him.  Figuring I’d get away with whatever it was.  Dead wrong.  For many years now I pray for a soft heart, for a heart and will molded by Him.  He’s the Potter, I’m mere clay in His hands.  But what better place to be?

I’ve learned a big lesson, until I have to learn it all over again.  Two steps forward, one back… and that on a good day!  Why not pray along with me for a tender heart, open to the blood of Jesus coursing through our veins… for His honor and glory.  Our heart–soft and malleable,  tender and compassionate,  massaged by His hands.  You know, my heart feels much stronger already!  How about you?

Prayer:  Lord, make me tender and loving in my heart to You and to others.  In Jesus’ name. Amen.