I read last month that the 6 favorite books of Americans (to our dear friends in Australia, pardon me!) have 3 of my favorites on the list. I couldn’t believe it! I’m batting .500! Wow! Gone With the Wind made it. Read that last year and this year my wife did. We both loved it, especially spending months in the south this year. Then Moby Dick, my all-time favorite American novel, which I’ve read 3 times. You can guess which book was number 1 on the favorite’s list. It’s always number 1. Best-seller of all time and the number 1 favorite of all–of course, the Bible. I cheered when I saw that! Yes, the Bible, God’s book. Most purchased, biggest favorite, but most read and followed? The Bible is to be our tuning fork. We get out of tune so easily with sin, which the Bible will tell us all about. We sound weird because we’re not in tune…with our Lord. We’re off-key, sounding flat and discordant. So, it’s time to read that portion of Mark’s Gospel. Very familiar parable? About the seed and the soil. And all the troubles of getting a good crop with those foibles of farming. I just know that you want to be that good soil as I do. I want my life to mean something for the Lord. Not for riches or fame or ego or legacy or anything like that (looks I’m getting this part of my wish!!), but to know Jesus and make Him known. Can’t imagine a better meaning in life than just that. ‘To know Him and make Him known’ became the motto of the last church we served. Every program, every idea had to be checked against the tuning fork of knowing Jesus and making Him known to others. If not, then just plain out-of-tune and out-of-touch with our God. Jesus says in Mark 4: 20 that if you want to be that good earth, that rich soil so productive for the Lord, then you must listen to God’s Word. Not just buy lots of Bible and keep them dusted-off in case the pastor stops by unannounced ; but read the Word, chew on it, digest it, make it ‘daily bread’ feasting on it at least once a day or maybe like normal meals, 3 times a day. Whatever,but don’t get legalistic…just listen to your Lord during the day. Then Jesus says that if you want to be good soil you must accept His Word. Accept means to receive it, believe it, study it, treat it like the gift it truly is. Make it a part of yourself. Food for your inner life… and your outer life as well. The breath without which you would just plain fade away. And then after listening and accepting God’s Word, Jesus says that we’ll produce an abundant crop for Him…30,60,100 times what we sowed. It will just happen like good seed in good soil. How big a crop? Who knows? Don’t worry about it. Doesn’t really matter. That’s God’s business. I try not to get discouraged since only a few ever read this blog. That’s okay. I’m going to keep doing what I feel God wants me to do…and the rest is in His hands. Satan would love to derail us, to make us sing flat. Maybe he’s taken the wind out of those sails that God wants you to go with. Something for Him…for you to do. Listen to Him. Spend time with Him in the Bible. Accept His Word…it’s totally reliable and trustworthy without any error from Genesis to Revelation. Pretty good, huh? You know what? I can see a crop growing in your life that will produce abundantly… for the Lord! Agree?
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WE NEED EACH OTHER Read Daniel 2 Again!
You say we just read Daniel chapter 2 last time. True, but no harm done! Read the same Bible chapter each day and you’ll always have new meaning from the Lord. Isn’t that remarkable? The Bible is like a living organism, growing and changing and breathing yet unchangeable in its truth. So, I don’t apologize for asking you to read chapter 2 of Daniel once again! What I’m keying in on is Daniel’s relationship with his friends. He prays to the Lord for help. Truly begs for God’s mercy to save his own life, that of his friends and even for the other wise men and their families, people who don’t worship the true God. Nevertheless, He pleads for God’s help… for all of them. But not a solo flier here, Daniel turns to those 3 friends of his to also join him in that concert of prayer. And in that night, a night that should have been filled with fears and sleeplessness, God causes Daniel to have a deep sleep and reveals both the King’s dream and what it means. ‘During the night the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision’ (Daniel 2:19). Oh, the praises that go up to God, who has so miraculously answered their prayers! So Daniel goes off to the King and tells him what he has seen in his sleep from the true God of heaven. I love what Daniel says next. It’s so generous of him. Look at verse 36–‘This was the dream, and now WE will interpret it to the king.’ We? Did they all have that dream? No. But in prayer, when we all come to God, Daniel says the concert has many voices, many instruments. No matter who had the dream, they were one in prayer. That’s why I titled this ‘We Need Each Other’. Of course there are times just spent alone with the Lord in that closet of prayer. But now we see a concert of prayer where we need each other…in communication with our Lord. I was thinking of something very personal here. It’s been 10 years now since my wife Sue and I flew to Florida to visit my mother who was obviously not doing well physically. We found her actually doing much better that we thought. When we returned home after our visit, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I just needed to share the Lord with my mother. I felt that I had never clearly and unmistakably spoke to her of Jesus love and the need to welcome Him into her heart. I had no idea where she stood with Him. No idea at all. And that uncertainty and my own sense of failure in not sharing the Lord I loved and served with my own mother was just too much for me. So, a few weeks after getting home, we were on another plane back to Florida to spent quality and quantity time with her. She listened and pursed her lips tightly. I received that look of hers, that unmistakable look. I had seen it many times before. That ‘how dare you’ look. The last words I said to my mother were ‘I love you’. She had tears in her eyes, but nothing to say except ‘good bye’. Three days later after flying home , I received that phone call from my sister that our mother had had a massive heart attack that morning walking in the hallway of her nursing home, and was gone. Did what we shared with her about the Lord and His love for her sink in? I don’t know. It bothered me. I, like Daniel, had dreams but mine were nightmares. Really bad ones. When we were at Cannon Beach Christian Conference Center that summer for a week, we attended the morning prayer times. I mentioned at the sharing time about my painful dreams. That little group that prayed , most not knowing me at all , but all knowing our Lord, began a concert of prayer for me…for relief…for peace even without the answers…to let God handle what I couldn’t. And you know what? God heard their prayers,our prayers…never again have I had that same nightmare that plagued me so. Never. Do you hear what I’m saying? We can help each other…through prayer. Be generous in prayer…for others and let others pray for you. Prettier music has never been heard than in a concert of prayer!
A CONCERT OF PRAYER WITH FRIENDS Read Daniel Chapter 2
Daniel and his 3 friends have had their names changed from godly names to that of pagan, ungodly ones. All 4 of them were given lovely Hebrew names with God Himself woven into the very fabric of them. Daniel means ‘God is my Judge’, el being the Hebrew for God; Mishael means ‘who is like God?’; Hananiah means ‘Yahweh shows grace’, Yah being the shortened version of God’s most Holy Name of Yahweh; and Azariah means ‘Yahweh helps’. A bitter pill that they did not swallow. When you read Daniel chapter 2 you discover that King Nebuchadnezzar has had a rough night, a terrifying dream that was like a Hitchcock movie, a kaleidoscope of disaster that shook him to his very core. And his wise men were just of no help to him. No comfort at all. So, he threatens them with death if they can’t tell him both his dream and what it means. Well, they realize the end is near, the gallows await, the jig is up. But when Daniel, also one of the wise men along with his 3 friends, hears about all this, he begs for a bit of time. I’m sure the king was rather skeptical and personally relished the sweat on Daniel’s brow, but he granted a short reprieve anyway. So, what does Daniel do now? Take out a double-indemnity life insurance policy? Try to flee the country? Start a revolution? No, of course not. You’ve read the story. In verse 17 Daniel returns to his house, he goes home where he can talk privately with his 3 friends. The Bible calls them his friends. And the names used here in verse 17 when they talk together in private in Daniel’s home are not those horribly forced pagan names, but rather the godly Hebrew names with the Lord solidly in the very fabric of their lives and beings and,yes, their own names. And Daniel calls them to be in concert of prayer. To pray together. Begging the Lord for His mercy…to spare not just their own lives but that of the other wise men as well. First thing they do, this Daniel and his friends…live up to their names, go to God, spend time in prayer and relationship and talking with their Lord. God, embedded in their very names, is in their very hearts and souls. Who better to go to? Sometimes you and I say in effect, ‘well, I’ve tried everything else, might as well pray about it.’ Be honest now. I’ve thought that…and probably will again, knowing myself. When all else fails, pray! Not Daniel…nor those 3 friends. First and foremost,they go to God. So should we. Tell Him all about it. Be in concert with Him. Sing harmony to the Lord. Sing your part and sing it with others. Friends together in prayer…making beautiful music to the ears of our God in heaven. Is there something you need to pray with others about? And they with you? “Daniel returned to his house…to his friends…He urged them to plead for mercy from the God of heaven concerning this…” Pretty good concert, huh?
WHAT’S IN A NAME? Read Daniel Chapter 1
Juliet in Wm Shakespeare’s play asks the question ‘what’s in a name?’ She continues by saying that a rose by any other name would still and ever be a rose smelling much the same. How true! We also know that sticks and stones may break our bones but for sure names WILL hurt us. When I was in elementary school (we called it Grammar School at South Mountain School in Millburn, NJ) we had all kinds of nicknames for each other…like poor old Goofy Goldstein or Wacky Weckstein. I was ‘hunker’ to some neighbor kids because I was chunky then… and now! I didn’t like that name. Can you blame me? It embarrassed me. I felt ashamed. I’ve never forgotten that name and some others also. Can’t you easily dredge up names given to you that hurt and wounded, names you can remember like it was yesterday? Doesn’t take a lot of imagination to know how Daniel and his 3 friends must have felt with their new names. Look at verses 6 & 7 of chapter 1 to discover that not only had these special young Israelite men been taken forceably into foreign exile in Babylon, but were involuntarily given new names. No longer bearing the names of their true God, but having the names of foreign and idolatrous god’s names. Think about that for a moment. You no longer can give praise to Yahweh God in your very name, but must give honor to Bel and Marduk and Aku and Nego…false gods, all of them. These 4 men were forced to break one of God’s main commandments– to have no other gods before Him, the true God of Israel. At a time in our lives when it seems as if bearing the name of Jesus is open to scorn and condemnation, when others seem to put new names on us like ‘bigot’ or ‘redneck’ or ‘narrow-minded’ or ‘hater’ or whatever…what are we to do? Verse 8 gives us some clear direction–‘But Daniel resolved not to…’ In the Hebrew language it says that Daniel determined, committed in his heart and mind not to give in. The outward circumstances may be beyond our control but inside we have resources to help us from the Lord Himself. When under societal pressure, remember what God has done for us…forgiven us, saved us, redeemed us. And remember that God calls us by names like His child, His friend, His chosen one from the foundation of the world. Put those names on your heart. Keep repeating them over and over, so that when the false accusations come, they’ll not sound real. What God has said about us, the names He’s given us are real and will sound authentic and healing and helpful when we need them and Him the most. ‘There’s a new name written down in glory and it’s mine…’! Oh yes–mine and yours!
THE WONDER OF IT ALL! Read Psalm 71
I love that hymn by George Beverly Shea entitled ‘The Wonder of It All’. Bev Shea, who went to be with the Lord last year at the age of 104, was asked by a journalist what it was like for him seeing all those people responding to the Gospel invitation of Billy Graham, people streaming down the aisles to accept Jesus Christ into their lives. The question came to Bev Shea–what did it feel like to witness that? He responded by saying, ‘ah, the wonder of it all’. And that phrase gave him the idea for his hymn. I think Psalm 71 has that same flavor of excitement over what God has done and is doing. The Psalmist says in verse 16–‘I will come and proclaim your mighty acts, O Sovereign Lord; I will proclaim your righteousness, yours alone.’ Think about all the wonders of God’s creation, all the majesty of the hills and mountains, the beautiful flowers and trees, the moving rivers and streams. You can think forever of the wonders of God’s creation, His mighty acts. And, then, how right He is, how true and open and accessible is our God. The word used in the Bible is ‘righteous’. And so He is! Verse 15–‘My mouth will tell of your righteousness, of your salvation all day long…’ Like falling in love thinking only about that other person. All you can talk about, all you imagine is that loved one. The Psalmist has committed himself to God–‘But as for me…’ (:14). He has made that decision, no waffling with him. He says ‘I will always have hope; I will praise you more and more…’ Nothing double-minded about this man. He’s committed…to the Lord. He’s all in, nothing held back. ‘But as for me…I will…I will.’ You can just feel his confidence in the Lord. He’s made the right decision in life. No doubt about it. None whatsoever. And I love that next phrase in verse 15–‘though I know not its measure.’ Even though he can’t figure it all out, can’t have all his questions answered to his complete satisfaction, though he sees through a glass darkly and may only have the faith of a tiny mustard seed; nevertheless, he’ll praised the Lord for all the righteousness of God and all the wonders of salvation given to us in Jesus Christ. I may not be the most articulate person around, I may not have a lot of answers, I may not be the sharpest knife in God’s drawer or the cleanest saint that’s ever lived, but what I do know is that the Lord alone is God, that He sent His only Son to die for us, to forgive us, to give us life eternal. That much I do know and that much I will gladly share with others. Tell others…tell as best you can and God will do the rest. ‘But as for me…I will…I will…!
WELCOME HOME! Psalm 69
After being away for over 3 months, we come home to lots and lots of sorting mail, unpacking luggage, doing laundry,making appointments,food shopping, seeing kids and grands– just plain feeling overwhelmed! You can imagine, and probably know the feeling. The price of time away. And the prices keep rising! Yesterday we awoke to a leaky toilet downstairs resulting in a costly visit from our plumber. Then we received in the mail a double order of our cable TV kit requiring yet another visit to the cable store in town. While trimming one of our hedges I discovered to my surprise and biting pain a hive of yellow jackets making me run for my life escaping with but one sting! Not too bad at all. But what of today? Maybe I’ll just stay in bed all day. Maybe draw all the blinds and drapes not answering the phone or the back door. Withdraw from this cold, cruel world! But then I read Psalm 69 in the Old Testament, especially verses 13 and 14. Take a moment to read these verses also. King David, who has had all kinds of difficulties and many of them of his own making, prays to his God as he says ‘in the time of your favor’. Think about that phrase for a moment. Think about it today. We who believe in Jesus Christ are ‘in the time of God’s favor’. That word ‘favor’ in the original Hebrew is rawtsone. It means delight and goodwill. God’s desire is for us and to us. We are His good pleasure. He accepts us, a favorable reception by God to those who worship Him. We are pleasing to God. He approves of us. He treats us favorably. Like it says in Psalm 147:11–‘the Lord delights in those who fear Him, who put their hope in His unfailing love’. Why does He favor us? Because He loves us so much. He’s just crazy about you and me! Today…this very moment we are ‘in the time of God’s favor’. That means that I’m in good hands right now. And so are you if you trust in Jesus. Good hands. I can trust Him no matter what. With those little things like leaky toilets and stinging bees and necessary or unnecessary busy-ness. I’m in good hands. And so are you. Today keep saying to yourself, ‘I’m in good hands’. When something unwelcome hits you, just remind yourself whose hands your in. ‘I’m in good hands.’ Not with car or home insurance like the ads say, but with eternal life assurance! As David says in Psalm 69–‘answer me with your sure salvation’. Not a hoped-for, wish-fulfillment, maybe it will or maybe it won’t salvation, but a sure one. A certain salvation. The Hebrew here for ‘salvation’ is yeshua which is the name of Jesus in the original language. Jesus, who died on the cross for us, who offers us His sure forgiveness, who rose from the dead to reign on high with the Father and the Holy Spirit. He is our sure salvation. He is our favor and our hope. He is God’s great love for us. Remember today and every day, who has you in His strong and loving hands. I am in good hands!
BETTER THAN LIFE ITSELF Read Psalms 63 & 64
Psalms 63 and 64 are just packed with wisdom for daily living. So practical. So plain and simple, really. Cuts through all the so-called complexities of life. I would venture to say that these psalms would be good spiritual medicine for all believers at any time, at any stage of life. Are you ready for some good medicine without all those TV ads of medicines with multiple, horrific and sometimes fatal side-effects, and you don’t even need that spoon full of sugar? King David has written both psalms, so why not take a moment to read them right now. Good, aren’t they. Did you see the medicine? Psalm 63:3 says that ‘…your love is better than life’. We think that life itself is the most precious thing of all. But it isn’t. God’s love surpasses even our life itself. As the Southern Gospel song says, ‘They can kill the body, but they can’t kill the soul.’ When we believe in Jesus, receive Him into our hearts, He gives us the antidote to death itself, that is life eternal– the best medicine of all! God’s love will outlast everything, even and especially our very lives. And His love comes to us from His loving hands because Jesus gave His all for us as a gift, a promise, a commitment that no matter what, when we are His, He will be ours forever. He loves us that much and has given us His word on it. And He is as good as His word! Don’t take my word for it…take His. And when you do take Him at His Word, God opens up to us all the beauty of life in Him. That can be found in Psalm 64. Verse 1 offers us God’s caring ear to hear whatever is on our hearts. A life of prayer and relationship with our God. A lifeline of communication with God who loves us more than life itself. Verse 2 tells how He hides us from the threats of life. Think about all the times, even today, where God spared us, hid us, protected us. Then verse 9 says that from deep within us we will ‘proclaim the works of God’–we’ll thank Him for all He’s done and all He’s doing not just in our lives but in other’s as well. And then David says we’ll do more than proclaim God’s works as we’ll ponder them, meditate on them, think hard and long on the things of God and just on God Himself. Stop focusing just on this life and all it’s messes. Pondering not just His blessings. No, but who He is in Himself… in His character and being. The final verse tells us that all this will result in great praise from God’s people. From prayer…to protection….to proclamation…to ponder and then, like the great finale of July 4th fireworks shows, praise and praise and then even more praise to our Lord! That’s the life for me! And you too?
PREPARING FOR YOUR FINALS! Read Romans 7: 24-25
Traveling on the roads outside Branson, Missouri today, I noticed a church sign that said, “We Help You Prepare for Your Finals!” I just laughed out loud as I usually do at clever church signs and this was one of them. Obviously not referring to high school or college final exams. But to our final day in this crazy world. The longer I’m in this life , the more I long for the time- without- end,which is God’s Kingdom. You too? But what about those last months and weeks and days and hours of life…what will they be like? Not something we think much about, but a reality nevertheless. What will it be like? I remember in seminary at Princeton that a speaker we had was Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, who had written a best-selling book entitled On Death and Dying. She created quite a stir with her 5 psychological steps involved in the grieving and dying process at the end of life. Dr. Kubler-Ross said that most people who do not die immediately go through the stages of denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. Five stages. Sometimes they are reversed, some people revisit stages before moving on to the next one. Her book really caught our attention. As I look back now on my youthful, pastoral enthusiasm trying to help people go through these critical stages, I realize that the most important stage of all is just plain not there, missing completely. And that is the rescue stage. Yes, where death doesn’t have the final word, where death loses its sting over us . As St. Paul wrote, ‘What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?'(Romans 7:4). He’s wondering where the rescue stage is? That which follows death, the end of my earthly breaths. Who will rescue me, he asks. And who will rescue me and you? Verse 25 trumpets the wonderful announcement of our Rescuer–‘Thanks be to God–through Jesus Christ our Lord!’ Say it again! I remember Dr. Kubler-Ross as a very soft-spoken, well-educated, articulate Swiss woman… who never mentioned God or any faith in Him. Nothing. Moving from denial to acceptance felt so empty without someone there to rescue us as if we were falling off a cliff never finding bottom except for a rather harsh landing indeed. Nothing. Empty. Unsatisfying. Not the whole story–the last chapter ripped out never knowing what might have happened, what could have happened…to us. Preparing for your finals? Don’t worry! Jesus has already taken the test for us. He has defeated death. He has died for us and all of our sins. All of them. Yes, every last one of them. Isn’t that just amazing? A rescue like we could never imagine at all. Jesus is our Rescuer, He took center stage on the cross to rescue us from death’s icy cold grip and to liberate us to enjoy ‘the glorious freedom of the children of God’ (Romans 8: 21). The finals? Jesus took them for us and Jesus never fails. Never! ‘Thanks be to God–through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Romans 7: 25).
COUNT YOURSELVES… Read Romans 6:11-14
Paul says in Romans 6 that we believers are to ‘count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus’. Another translation for the word ‘count’ would be ‘consider’. Now, we know that it is God through Jesus Christ that saves us, forgives us and gives us new life. Not anything we can achieve on our own. This aspect of salvation is truly a one-way street–from God who chooses us. As the apostle says in Ephesians 2:9–‘not by works, so that no one can boast’. Clear? Of course it is. But here in Romans 6 is something we can and must do if our Christian life is to have any joy in it at all. As the hymn says, ‘Victory in Jesus’. Isn’t that what we all want to experience on a daily basis. Paul says to ‘count yourselves…’, to consider, to contemplate what we know when we face the fears of the unknown in our lives. I was thinking of my father, gone many years ago now. He was a real good guy. People liked my Dad. I rarely ever heard him bad-mouth anyone. He was a hard-working house painter who carried ladders around on his own well into his late 60’s, fell off roofs into bushes breaking a leg or two, daily smoked a couple packs of Chesterfields at a time the doctors thought cigarette smoking would help his asthma, and lived with lots and lots of fears mixed with unfulfilled dreams. I heard about lots of his dreams when I was growing up, but rarely saw any fulfilled. He was just too afraid. Change came with just too much difficulty, emotionally. He liked his routines in spite of all the talk. Maybe the dreams were just enough for him. Maybe. I don’t know. But what about me? And you? What do we do with our fears? When God puts joy and hope and dreams in our hearts, often Satan, using our insecurities, just chokes out all those godly blessings in a spasm of fear and doubt. We face uncertainties every day, the unknown. But when I read this verse about ‘counting ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus’…I hear the Lord telling me (and us) to count on what we know to counter what we don’t know. We’re alive to God because of all that Jesus did for us. Alive! Not dead! Count and consider this. Meditate on that. You and I must focus on what we know from the Bible to counter all those fears and we don’t know. Zero in on our security in Christ and not on the insecurities of life. That takes a conscious decision. That’s what we can do. Paul says we can do it, otherwise he wouldn’t have said it. When the fears inevitably hit you today, consider what you know about the Lord. As the old hymn says ‘count your many blessings, name them one by one…and it will surprise you what the Lord has done.’ The more we count them, the more it won’t surprise us at all what the Lord wants to do for us today and in the future! Count yourselves…just do it!
MORE ON BEING FULL! Read Psalm 57: 1-3
When my wife finished reading the last ‘Reflections Out of Time’ Posting she wondered about that connection of being full with being in the shadow of God’s wings? She’s right. Where is the connection? I did say that more would come with this posting. Must admit that driving a good part of the day is tiring and then to write at the hotel we’re staying at is just not the best for me. But here goes…nothing? No way! You remember that in Psalm 57 young David was in a cave hiding out from King Saul pleading with God for protection and mercy. That’s when David prays that he will take cover in just the shadow of God’s wings. Just His shadow was enough for Him. Just knowing the Lord’s promises were good enough. Not seeing directly, not having all the answers but having a faith that sees and discerns will get us through whatever in life. Then he says in verse 2 that ‘I cry out to God Most High, to God, who fulfills His purpose for me.’ My translation (the NIV) has brackets around ‘His purpose’, which is the way the translators tell us that the words inside the brackets are not in the original Hebrew (in this case) but are words that the translators feel make the most sense of the original language. Whenever I see those bracketed words, I invariably just remove them and read the sentence without them to sense extra meaning. Hear what David is saying then–‘I cry out to God…to God, who fulfills for me’. David is saying from the inside of a cave, a place of the dark unknown , of uncertainty and anxiety and claustrophobia and utter terror; that even there he is filled with God, with the Lord’s being right there with him, in the shadows of His shadow. When everything is gone, all taken away, even then we can feel full, filled with the Holy Spirit of God’s love and faithfulness. I’m not going to trust God only when He performs for me. I don’t love God because of all the goodies I get from Him. No, and I’m not hinging my faith on the uncertainties of life, but on His promises that will always be trustworthy. Nothing else. Nothing more or less. No one or no thing. Only Him. Only the Lord–for who needs more? What or who could be more, after all? His love and His faithfulness–‘…who fulfills for me’. And twice David uses the words ‘faithfulness’ in this Psalm (verses 3 and 10)–another ‘full’ feeling but not from food certainly. Full from His loyalty. Full of faith in Him. Not in me but in Jesus who will never let us down. The old saying “Jesus Never Fails” that was upfront in the Torrey-Gray Auditorium at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago when I was an undergraduate student is still true…then and now and for the future and for all eternity. Full in Him! Just the Shadow of His Wings! Who could ask for anything more?
Reflections out of time 