TWISTED Psalm 106

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For the past 30 years, I’ve read the Bible from cover to cover.  After retiring from the pastorate, I’ve committed to in-depth study of God’s Word and its original languages.  For no other reason than to know the Lord better.  To get closer to Jesus.  Be more like Him?  A hope with little howling success to brag about.

What I notice is that my internal view of God can be quite different from what I encounter in His Book.  A good example can be found in Psalm 106:1–‘Praise the Lord.  Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.’  God is so good.  His love lasts forever.  Praise God!  Clear as a bell.

But deep inside, I’m waiting for His other shoe to drop.  One more mistake and my house of cards collapses.  Unfortunately, He knows all about me.  One more slipup and out the backdoor I go?  God’s anger lingers with an even longer memory and shorter fuse?  Will He pull the rug out from under me at the slightest provocation?  Pour salt on exposed wounds?  This is what I think.  Like I said, twisted and contorted, like our filbert tree out front.

My off-kilter views of God need revising.  All those years of sin done by me, and what’s been aimed at me by others, take a heavy toll.  Paying out at a devastatingly high price.  Warping my ideas of God.  Putting the kibosh on my relationship with Him.  Just little ol’ me?

That’s why I keep my head deep down in my Bible every single day.  Week by week.  Year by year.   Ignored and cobwebs show up, skewing my spiritual vision.  I really want to experience something like this– ‘…that I may enjoy the prosperity of your chosen ones, that I may share in the joy of your nation and join your inheritance in giving praise’ (Psalm 106:5).

Relishing God who is so good and even more loving than I can imagine.  Dare I suggest that you too might need a bit more time in God’s Word?  If so, the skies grow clearer, so to speak.  The air noticeably cleaner.  Fog lifts as you mosey along with Jesus!

Arm in arm.  Hand in hand.  Exactly where I want to be.  Come on– join me.  There’s plenty of room!

 

Thank you, Lord, for opening our eyes to your goodness and love.  Amen.

TOO COMPLICATED? Psalm 92

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At times I’ve made my search for God’s will way too complicated.  Hemmed and hawed, tied up in knots, pinned-down with indecision.  An old friend could rarely make up his mind about almost anything.  He searched for divine signs high and low, under rocks and trees.  Even the color of a squirrel that crosses his path discloses God’s decision about whatever.  Really?  Very strange!

Others I’ve known test the Lord through fleece contests, wondering what His answers will be.  Superstitious use of a ouija board, reading a horoscope, prognosticating tea leaves, all of which I don’t recommend.  If any of these apply to you, stop!  No ifs and or buts.

Still want to know God’s will?  Listen to Psalm 92:1-2—‘It is good to praise the Lord and make music to your name, O Most High, to proclaim your love in the morning and your faithfulness at night…’  Praise… thanks… and singing to Him!  That’s not too complicated, is it?  Hey, it’s exactly what He wants.  No exceptions.  No shilly-shallying waste of time.  His or yours.

Love Jesus.  Worship the Father.  Be filled with the Holy Spirit.   A Gaither gospel song keeps running through my mind–‘Jesus Is Lord of All’.  ‘All my tomorrows, all my life, Jesus is Lord of all.’  The song lifts my praise to Jesus.  Yes, Lord…of all!

Want to know God’s will?  The Presbyterian Westminster (1647AD) Larger Catechism’s opening question gets down to brass tacks–‘What is the chief and highest end (purpose) of man?  Man’s chief and highest end is to glorify God and fully to enjoy Him forever.’  It’s that simple.  Easy as pie.  Child’s play–for such is the Kingdom.

Glorify Him.  Enjoy Him.  Fully!  That’s not too complicated, is it?

 

Thank you, Jesus, for loving us and giving us your salvation.  Amen.

NIGHT TERRORS Psalm 91 and 1 John 4:16-18

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I’m not alone experiencing ‘night terrors’.  Waking up in the wee hours gripped with anxiety’s sweat.  Like the psalmist writes–‘…the terror of night…the pestilence that stalks in the darkness…’ (Psalm 91:5-6).  Apt description, wondering when yet another of life’s shoes will drop.  Especially during these pandemic times.

But our psalmist offers hope– ‘…you will not fear the terror of night…nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness’ (Ps.91:5-6).  We won’t?  How?  Easier said than done.

Prayer offers me relief.  Startled awake, I spend time with God, reducing fear and panic.  I’ve much to pray about.  Asking relief for those up against it.  Help for family and friends.  Praising Him for so much.  Prayer pushes worry to the exit.  Shoved out the door.  Not enough room for both.  At least for awhile.

Here’s more help.  1 John 4: 16–‘And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.’  God’s love, known and relied upon.  But to be honest, I fear God’s punishment more than I rely upon His love.  The back of His hand more than His helping hand.  His patience running dangerously thin.  Distrusting His love more than trusting it.

Sorry to admit this.  Shameful for a retired pastor?  Hey, the Lord knows.  Comes as no surprise to Him.  After all, honesty with Jesus is never rejected.  It’s repentance and humility He looks for.  As in owning up.

1 John 4: 18–‘There is no fear in love.  But perfect love drives out fear…’  Letting God’s love simmer in my soul helps cast out fear.  Holding onto Him for dear life.  As if nothing else really matters… but Him.

Yes, I’ve a long way to go.  I’m neither faultless nor flawless.  Not even close.  Barely out of the starting gate.  Still in faith’s kindergarten.  But when I think of how much I love our children and grandchildren, and how each one is far from perfect, yet how much I love them anyway, then how about God and His love for you and me?  Think about that this week.

 

Thank you, Jesus, for being our Lord and Savior… and Friend.  Amen.  

 

 

ON THE STREETS OF CHICAGO Psalm 87

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Not the streets of Laredo but Chicago!  What about them?  During the summer of 1966, I’m studying at Chicago’s Moody Bible Institute.  Still wondering if I should end my Fairleigh Dickinson University business administration studies to complete one in God’s Word.  Change is in the air.  Reshaping!

Even more than making oodles and caboodles of moolah with a stock trade, I love sharing Jesus with others.  Like times in Chicago’s Old Town with a group called Open Air Campaigners.  Someone would get up on a flat-bed truck, draw pictures on a chalkboard, explaining the Gospel of salvation in Jesus.  As in the unbridged gulf that sin creates between mankind and God.  The healing effects of the cross of Jesus.  And the call to accept Him into their hearts and lives.  Some hands go up and off we go, talking with them about their possible decision.  Thrilling!

I can’t wait to give out Gospel tracts to almost anyone I come across on the Windy City’s streets, buses and elevated trains.  I remember one kid coming up to me on his bike, showing me a tract that I’d given him a year before.  He still had it.  Pulled it out of his back pocket.  Astonishing!

Recently, after a friend dies, his wife shares with me how much a sermon I preached means to her.  A Sunday message from 40 years ago!  She’s kept it and reads it.  The title?  ‘What Lies Beyond’.  Comfort comes from this long- in-the-tooth meditation.  Lately I’ve mailed her one of my daily devotional books to bring the Lord Jesus closer to her every day.  Humbling and gratifying!

Psalm 87 motivates me to share my faith.  Talks about all kinds of people coming to worship the Lord God.  From everywhere.  Not only the expected bunch.  Previous pagans come pouring into God’s Temple finding His love, acceptance and care.  Psalm 87: 4–‘Among those who know me I mention Rahab(Egypt) and Babylon; behold, Philistia and Tyre with Cush…’  Surprising!

But how do the outsiders know the way inside?  Right!  Someone tells them.  Don’t have to be a pastor or missionary.  Be you.  Share.  Open your mouth.  Give a tract.  Support evangelistic causes.  Make it clear who has salvation to offer– the only One.  Costs Jesus everything; but, for us, free for the taking.  Amazing!

What could be better than to tell others about Jesus and point the way to heavenly home, sharing Him on whatever streets we travel.  Happy trails!

 

Thank you, Jesus, for the privilege of sharing you with others.  Amen.

SAIL AWAY PARTY! Psalm 68

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Before traveling we always pray to meet other Christians to fellowship with as we journey together.  A few years ago, we embark on a world cruise.  From Sydney, Australia through Asia to India, the Middle East, traversing the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean visiting Egypt, Italy, France, and Spain; north to Scandinavia, then to England and Scotland’s Outer Hebrides, sailing the Atlantic’s thick fog to Nova Scotia, relishing pizza in New York City, south to the Caribbean, through the Panama Canal, off to the Hawaiian Islands, down to Tahiti, American Samoa, New Zealand, and finally docking in Sydney 104 days later!

On the first evening of the cruise, it’s the Sail Away Party on the upper deck, as we navigate Sydney’s Harbor Bridge and fabled Opera House, where Sue and I meet a couple as friendly as can be.  Jack and Maggie Littler of Australia.  A sail away toast launches our friendship.  Somewhere at sea we discover that they also are fellow believers in Jesus.

They’re such fun.  Laughed all the way around the world.  Literally.  We prayed together.  Shared trials and concerns.  Jack would always poke fun at us as we warmed two deck chairs while they diligently walked miles and miles around the Lower Promenade!  We still keep in touch.  They were one of the first to receive these weekly devotionals, and to read the two books I’ve written.

Psalm 68: 6–‘God sets the lonely in families…’ (NIV).  When you need someone to feel connected to in life, ask the Lord to provide.  He places us where we can find family way beyond our biological ones.  As in believers, who are more than family.  Blood relatives through Jesus’ shed blood on the cross.  A bond that lasts forever.

So pray.  And how about allowing the Holy Spirit to make you family to someone else?  Reach out.  Loneliness is terrifying.  Being together in Jesus the best antidote!

 

Thank you, Jesus, for family found in surprising places.  Amen.

 

I’m dedicating this week’s devotional to our Sail Away Party friends, the Littler’s.  They were God’s answers to our prayers.  Thank you, Jack and Maggie!

 

 

 

THE VALLEY OF THE KINGS 2 Chronicles 21

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It’s a blistering hot day when we travel to the Valley of the Kings in Egypt.  With temperatures just shy of 120 degrees.  They say it’s a dry heat.  But so is our oven!

Here small children swarm all over the tram that ferries us deep within.  They’re in our faces, hawking postcards, gum and scarves.  They’re eager to ambush our cash, the baksheesh, they scream for.  ‘Baksheesh!  Baksheesh!’  Can still hear their plaintive, begging cries.

The only heat relief is found in the bowels of each king’s tomb.  How welcome!  But not for long as there’s much more to check out.

Visiting these tombs makes me wonder about what remembrance I’ll leave behind.  After all, in about 3 generations I’m just a name on a genealogy chart.  You too.  What do any of us know about our great-great grandparents?  A name?  Some dates?  Not much more, if that.

Reading 2 Chronicles, I’m mining information about some rather sketchy kings of Judah.  Few are godly.   Jehoram found in chapter 21 is a real mess.  From start to finish, a noted failure.  Kills all his brothers, preventing familial competition.  Nice bro!  Marries the daughter of wretched pagans Ahab and Jezebel.  Poor move!   Forsakes the Lord, suffering horrific war losses.  Big mistake!  Leads Judah into apostasy, and doesn’t give the time of day to the prophet Elijah’s mayday distress signals of imminent judgement.  Warnings like water off a duck’s back.

When Jehoram dies, here’s the final word –‘He passed away, to no one’s regret, and was buried in the City of David, but not in the tombs of the kings’ (2 Chronicles 21:20).  No burial with the other kings.  Excluded.  Shunned.  Given the bum’s rush.  No one sheds even a crocodile tear.

Not how I want to be remembered.  But I don’t need a valley tomb.  For I’ll be in the bosom of the King of Kings!  Close to Jesus in the dwelling He’s prepared for me and you (John 14).  Who cares if I’m remembered much beyond the next few generations?  Jesus never forgets us… and never lets us go.

Our King was dead but now He lives.  Risen and Reigns forevermore.  Happy Easter!

 

Thank you, Jesus, for keeping us safe with you.  Amen.

EMERITUS John 3: 22-36

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What an honor to be named ‘pastor emeritus’ of the church I retired from.  An undeserved privilege.  Until I start leafing through my ‘Thesaurus of Slang’.  Why my eyes latch onto the word ’emeritus’ is beyond me.

Here are the synonyms.  You decide why I shouldn’t return that blasted book.  ‘Emeritus’–‘on the shelf, out of circulation, over the hill, passed it, a once was, has-been, hung up one’s spurs, old-timer.’  Enough, already!  What a bunch of hooey.  I want my money back!

Don’t imagine my church family discussed those ducky and dandy descriptions when they chose me as their only ’emeritus pastor’ in the church’s one hundred and twenty year history.  Or did they?  Someone may have some explaining to do!

Nevertheless, when I retired from the United Christian Church, a much younger man became their pastor.  We moved away, and one reason was to get out of his way.  To give him breathing room.  Without people turning to me first, which they were used to.  Giving him space to grow, making changes, as the old goat, me, moves aside.  Emeritus!

John the Baptist says this of Jesus–‘He must increase, but I must decrease’ (John 3:30 KJV).  That makes me think. Maybe you know of someone who needs you to step aside so that they can have an opportunity.  To increase, to spread their wings, even making mistakes as we all do.  To find the direction of the Holy Spirit without you barging in.  Moving forward rather than backwards.

How about letting go of something that’s moved Jesus off center stage in your heart and life?  Ring any bells?  Move aside.  Let it go.  Get out of the way.  The Lord always has something better for you.  What you’re now reading is His next job for me.  And I love it!

How about you?  Ready?  Get set!  Let go!

 

Thank you, Lord, for new opportunities to serve you and others.  Amen.

NOT SO COMPLICATED AFTER ALL John 10

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That Sunday evening, when I first heard on the radio about Jesus’ love for me, I couldn’t do anything else but ask Him into my life.  Why would I turn Him down?  He offers to forgive all my sins and to change my life.  That’s a no-brainer.  Grabbed hold as tight as I could.

What next?  The following day I find my mint condition, never-opened Bible, given to me by the church I’m baptized in as an infant, and I start reading the New Testament.  Good idea since avoiding Sunday School in my growing up years leaves me a blank slate in Bible knowledge.

I’ve met Christians who proclaim that you’re not truly saved unless you can pass their Bible knowledge test.  Then and only then can they be sure.  When I give my testimony, they huff and puff in disbelief.  Too bad, so sad…for them!  Mine was not so complicated.

Reading the Gospels, you’ll find Jesus’ bunch rather dull in the old noggin.  Somewhat boneheaded.  Over and over again, Jesus tells them what they can’t or don’t want to hear.  His identity, His destiny–precious little receives their ‘Good Disciple Stamp of Approval’.

So, I have hope.  Yes, I possessed itsy-bitsy Scripture mastery, but it didn’t stay that way.  My craving to know more about Jesus, God and the Bible has only mushroomed.  Still at it years after I retired from formal ministry.  Sermons cancelled but not my growing relationship with Jesus.  I’m engrossed in my Bible, daily wanting more and more of what He wants for me.  Not so complicated after all.

Hopefully, the beginning pales in comparison with the ending of our earthly lives as disciples.  The days of ignorance replaced with a yen for God and His ways, as poorly as I may live them.

There’s better news.  About heaven.  Not a boring place, dull as dishwater, a cosmic yawner, flat as a pancake, floating on clouds, strumming harps without end.  No!  Excitement, clarity and newness till the cows come home and they never will!

Hear what Jesus says–‘I am the door.  If anyone enters by me, he will be saved…’ (John 10: 9).  That’s not so complicated, is it?  Wasn’t for me.  How about it–have you opened His door?

 

 

Thank you, Lord, for much better days ahead.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

BEHIND THE SCENES John 9

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We know that there’s much more going on in life than we can see with our eyes or hear with our ears.  All that behind the scenes stuff.  Don’t you wonder what’s really said in the Oval Office?  Or the back rooms of Congress?  Or the side halls of 10 Downing Street?  Let alone the Lodge at Canberra for our dear friends the Littler’s in Australia?

What goes on behind the scenes for the blind man in John 9?  The story elements are straightforward and well-known.  Jesus spits on the ground and then applies this mud to sightless eyes.  Why not a direct and immediate healing?  He’s done it before and will after.  What gives?

This reminds me of Kuda Bux, the early TV Hindu mystic, who applies soft dough balls to both eyes, then is blindfolded, yet can see clearly.  But, unlike the TV showman, this is no fake trick by Jesus.  For our Lord makes it beyond doubt that this man is blind.  In no way can he see through this muck covering his eyes.

What happens to this fellow after his healing?  Behind the scenes he’s confronted by a rabble of religious leaders ready to blow a gasket his way.  They’re in his face.  What he now sees is terrifying, unnerving, unsettling and discombobulating.  As a reward for gaining his eyesight, he’s booted out of the Temple!  Church membership nixed.  No longer allowed to use the disabled parking spot next to the pastor.  His service dog sent to the pound.  Has he gained more than he’s lost?  Time will tell.

It’s at the end of chapter 9 where something else happens behind the scenes.  John 9:35–‘Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him…’  Searching high and low, Jesus finds this man, now an outcast.  Truly never out of His sight.  Jesus searches for His own until their found.

That’s what He’s done for me.  Found me.  I can see that now.  All those years ago, when I heard on a radio program that Jesus loved me.  What?  Cared about me?  He does?  Yes, He was knocking at the door of my heart.  I pushed that door wide open only to discover that He was doing the same toward me, but with more tender loving strength.

He seeks His own.  Behind the scenes.  Never giving up.  Looking for you and me.  Until we’re found…and forever His!

 

Thank you, Jesus, for seeking and finding me.  I love you.  Amen.

 

SOMETHING TO SHOUT ABOUT Malachi 3:16–4:5

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The old adage rings true as we rack up the years.  You know the one that warns– ‘little kids, little problems;  big kids, big ones.’  We’ve all experienced some of this.  Makes us a gun shy about what’s next.  The other shoe that drops.  Know what I mean?  Hope you don’t, but I’m positive you do.

Here is where I struggle–losing control.  Issues outside my ability to have some say or sway.  Leaves me feeling fearful and anxious.  Not wanting other’s problems to rule my life.  What to do?  How to handle what’s beyond my grasp.

Reading the last few verses in the Old Testament gives me comfort.  I shouldn’t be surprised when the Lord puts His arms around me with His Word, which helps at the right time.  That’s our God.  Aren’t you grateful that He lovingly pays attention to our hurts and is there to help?

Here’s what He wants me to hold onto.  That I’m His.  He won’t let me go.  I’m secure in His grasp.  You too.  And He also spares us of so much.  Malachi 3:17–‘They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him…’  ‘My treasured possession’.   ‘I will spare them’.  Out of my control… into His.

Here’s more.  Romans 8:28–‘All things work together for good…’  Not that all things are good.  They’re not.  But in His hands, somehow, beyond my peabrain’s understanding, God causes good to come out of terribly complicated situations.  How or when?  I’ve no idea.  Only requirement– lean on His promises.  And lean in hard.

I’m His.  Probably little else to say.  Keeping strong in Jesus, right to the end, believing His Word.  Let me be honest in saying I struggle to trust Him as much as the next.  Don’t look at me.  Turn your eyes upon Jesus, as the old hymn rightfully sings.

The Bible ends on this wonderful note.  So will we.  After all, we’re His treasured possession!  That’s something to shout about!

 

Thank you, Jesus, for being with us always.  Amen.