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.

A HEARTY WELCOME TO OUR GUESTS!…Psalm 39

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Such a blessing to be a guest in someone’s home.  Not always, but usually.  Psalm 39:12–‘Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear to my cry;  hold not your peace at my tears!  For I am a sojourner with you, a guest, like all my fathers (ESV translation)’.  A sojourner, a guest.   As the song says,  ‘This world is not my home, I’m just a passin’ through’.  Life is so short.  Here today,  gone tomorrow.  Our permanent address is not here in this old world.  We’re migrants passing through.

My first church was in South Dakota, in Onida at the Immanuel Mennonite Brethren Church.  It was late summer, at the beginning of harvest.  Many of the migrant workers came to church after helping harvest wheat.  They had begun in their native Mexico, coming right up through Texas, Kansas, to the Dakotas and then into Canada.  They were just passing through, working hard,  and now taking time to worship our Lord.

Like our life,  passing through, working hard and worshipping our Lord.   After seminary, I served three churches for a grand total of nine years.   That phase of my life ended with a rather loud crash.  Well, that’s that.  A chapter ended.  Probably the last chapter of that incomplete book.  But I wondered…  How?  When?  Where?  Questions I’d very quietly ask the Lord.

In the year 2000,  I received a call to pastor a little church with a big heart…right in the same town where I had been living and working for over 20 years!   Had no connection with their denomination… and no desire to be!    No credentials.  What I discovered was amazing.  I didn’t need any!  This was truly a congregational body, making all its own decisions by the vote and will of its members.  For better or for worse!  And I stayed with this church family for 14 years.

God had His plan… and I was part of it!  Imagine that!  But, time to move on and retire.   I was a ‘guest’ there with those precious people.  At the lower left-hand corner of every pay check was written this: ‘Guest Speaker’!   For fourteen years?!  That’s what it said!  Fourteen years as a welcomed guest into their lives and hearts.  Pretty good, huh?   Those fourteen years flew by.

In this life, we’re all guests when we know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.  ‘Just a passin’ through’!  This is not our permanent home.  Not at all.  Doesn’t it feel that way to you?  Does to me.  So, enjoy the ride and the scenery.  Enjoy the journey.  For the next phase will be forever.  That’s why it’s called paradise.  For truly that is what it will be!

Prayer:  Lord, for hosting us in this life, we thank you.  We want to be the best guests you’ve ever had!  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

 

 

A NOBODY? …Exodus 1 and 2 and 4: 24-26

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Who hasn’t felt like a nobody?   I remember at my 40th high school reunion, one of my classmates asked me why I didn’t graduate with the class.  What?  He and I had gone all the way from kindergarten through high school together.  Yet, he didn’t remember me after junior high.  I was flabbergasted and a bit hurt.  Was I really a nobody in High School?  Guess so…at least not a very visible classmate to him.

In reading the opening chapters of Exodus,  what struck me was the lack of names for key people.  The Hebrew title for this book is ‘Names’, referring to the opening words written by Moses.  Names are important.  Some key ones are missing.  Like the name of Pharaoh.  ‘Pharaoh’ is actually the Egyptian word for King and not his personal name.  No name given to him.  Or for his daughter, the one who discovers Moses in that tar-pitch basket, hidden among the bull-rushes.  No name given.  Only her relationship to the Egyptian king. She’s Pharaoh’s daughter.   Or Moses’ parents’ names(they are given elsewhere).  Or Moses’ sister, who asks Pharaoh’s daughter if she might need the help of some Hebrew wet nurse for the baby.  No names given… not ’til later in the story.

Bunch of nobodies?  Hardly.  Pharaoh…his daughter. These are somebodies!  But who Moses remembers,  whose identity he never wants anyone to forget, are the names of two seemingly insignificant women.  Pharaoh has issued his orders that all male Hebrew babies are to be killed.  Only the girls are to survive.  The Hebrews are not to grow in number.  Kill all the baby boys,  so Pharaoh orders the midwives for the Jews.  They can’t believe their ears.  Kill what they have worked hard to deliver: of life at birth?  Never!  They vow never to go against God’s will by killing innocent lives, even if ordered by Pharaoh himself.

They don’t.  Boldly… they defy Pharaoh’s sinful command.  Courageously… they put their own lives on the line.  Defiantly… they refuse to take life, but take all means to cherish it, especially with the most vulnerable.  They fear God, not man.  They obey God,  first and foremost.  And God blessed them with families of their own.  God protected them for protecting the children.  Their names are mentioned.  Shiphrah and Puah–names not to be forgotten.  Names…in the book of Names that shine for eternity.  Two women of courage and faith and action.  Two nobodies?  No way!  Shiphrah and Puah.  Remember them.  They pave the way not only for Moses…but for the Messiah as well.  And He’s the Ultimate SomeOne!

Prayer:  Lord, thank you for all the names, including our own, that You know and love and redeem.  In the name of Your Only Son Jesus.   Amen.

HE TASTED DEATH FOR US… Hebrews 2: 1-9

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Can you imagine?  Jesus tasted death for us.  Ate it completely.   He did for us what we could never do for ourselves.  Hebrews 2:9–‘Jesus,  crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone’.  He took and tasted the most bitter food of all, the taste of death itself.  Jesus did that for us.

I can remember being in Sacramento, California.  My wife had learned to be a most accomplished wheat-weaver.  Off we drove to the National Wheat-Weavers Association Convention.  The last day an opportunity was given for the public to come and see their art and buy what was for sale.  Sue sold every last piece of woven wheat that she had made.  Almost all the sales were to fellow wheat-weavers, the ultimate compliment.

To top it off, we won a free dinner at the hotel restaurant.  Two free dinners?  Always tastes best when free!  We sat down in a rather posh venue for a lovely dinner to celebrate a  most stupendous convention.   I insisted that we order the most expensive dish on the menu!  Of course, why not?  Let’s splurge…after all, it’s free!  We ordered something we had never heard of before and certainly had never tasted…lobster with pasta in squid ink sauce.  Yum!  So pricey too!  But why not?  And here they come, served so well and elegantly to us, the winners and diners.

Lobster served on pasta with a black sauce of squid ink.  Sounded weird.  Looked funny.  Smelled strange.  The taste?  The worst that we had ever eaten or tasted in our entire lives.  One bite each was all we could stomach…and back the plates went.  Maybe it was how it was prepared?  We don’t know.  But, to be honest, it took years(and I mean years) to get rid of the memory of the taste of that squid ink pasta.  I can still recollect it though somewhat vaguely now, praise the Lord.  And that was decades ago.

Imagine the taste that Jesus tasted for you and me.  Of death.  What I deserved.   He didn’t.  The taste He ate, so we would never have to.  The taste of eternal separation from God. A horrid taste that would last forever.   He left the splendors of glory, to suffer the pangs of death.  To taste death..so we would not have to.

Thank Him.  Praise Him.  Live for Him.  Serve Him.  That much we can do.  That is the least that we can do for the One who tasted death for us.

Prayer:  Thank you, Jesus, for tasting death for us.  For never letting us be separated from yourself.  Thank you, again.  Amen!

HAPPINESS IS WHAT?… Luke 22: 14-23

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I was reading a book review about propoganda developed by the Communist Party in the Soviet Union.  The head of a trade-union committee says that happiness comes from materialism.  That made me stop-and-think.  Really?  You’ve got to be kidding.   Like those bumperstickers that say ‘He who dies with the most toys… Wins’!  Really?

As a financial planner for 20 years, I dealt with lots of people who had lots of money.  I can honestly say that any happiness they had could not be directly attributed to their net worth.  Not at all.   Having very little money is a terrible struggle.  Providing for a growing family increases the stress level dramatically, especially at a time of stagnant wages and increasing costs in most of the basic areas of life.  Because I have more money and things than I had 10 years ago, makes me none the happier.  Less stressed in some ways, yes.  Can take advantage of more  opportunities in life than I could when I had no extra money, of course.  But, happy?

In 1983 I found myself alone in life.  Brand new career, no guaranteed income,  on commission only.  I saw my sons every other weekend from Friday night until Sunday evening.  And then times in between, doing paper routes with both boys for many years.  Had to save for 5 years to take them back East to see my family.  We traveled to New Jersey or Florida as family couldn’t or wouldn’t travel West where we lived.

After a bit, I was making more money than I ever imagined.  Didn’t take much really to outdo a pastor’s salary!  I can tell you what gave me the most happiness in my life.  You can guess.  Being with those boys of mine.  Stocking up on food that I knew they loved.  Taping television shows we would watch together and laugh at uproariously!  I would relish looking back to the fun I had having some of their friends over to my apartment…with me the goofiest of all!  And looking forward to their next visit.

I always made it a hard-and-fast  rule to never, ever schedule anything, business or otherwise,  that would interfere with my time with my sons.  With them,  I was happy.  Can still remember the happy feelings I had then.

Reading Luke 22: 14- 15, I have a new understanding of what Jesus is talking about.  What makes Him happy?  ‘I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you…’  The apostles with Him. We make Him happy!   What an honor!  Knowing that,  don’t you want to give Him more of your time?

Prayer:  Lord, we love being with You, especially knowing how happy that makes You.  In Jesus’ name. Amen.

A NEW LIFE… Genesis 38 and 44: 14-34

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I’ve given you quite a bit to read today.  Well worth the effort.  Genesis 37 begins a long section telling of the ups-and-downs of the life of Joseph.  Joseph is one of the rare characters in the Bible who is righteous through-and-through,  obeying the Lord in the face of temptions and obstacles.

Genesis 38–the story of  Joseph’s brother, Judah, the 4th son of Jacob and Leah.  Judah’s story is in stark contrast to that of his younger brother, Joseph.  Remember, the brothers sold Joseph into slavery while hatching a scheme eating dinner to make a few bucks off of Joseph.  And who is the one who hatches this money scheme?  Yes… Judah(Genesis 37: 26-28).  Why kill Joseph?  Let’s make a few shekels!

Now comes chapter 38.  Years later.  Judah is away from his family,  far away.  Living among pagans who worship gods other than the One true God.  His friends are unbelievers.  His wife is from a people that God warned them against.  ‘Who cares.  I’ll do what I want’.   Chapter 38.  It’s in your face… sin.  No candy-coating.  No excuses.  No shading or spinning of the truth.  The truth about Judah.  Lying, scheming, vengeance, excess sexual adventures way out of God’s plan for His people.  Judah is one bad dude!  No role model.

But this is not the end of the story.  Genesis 44.  Here is Judah years later, having had lots of time to examine his life.   But, miracle of miracles, the Lord has actually gotten through to him.  He’s a changed man.  Judah?  Did I hear right?  Yes,  standing before Joseph, who is now second in command to Pharaoh in Egypt, Judah begs for the lives of his family;  and is especially concerned for the well-being of his aged father, Jacob, who cannot take yet one more shock in his life.  Judah has compassion.  Judah exhibits repentance.  Judah  is a new man.

The same God exists today to do the same for us, who have strayed and wandered away, but who want to be the person God wants us to be.  We lack the inner strength and willpower.  We come to Him, asking for His help.  Regardless of your past, God can make you…and me a new person.  I’m no Joseph.  Somewhat like Judah.  But more like Jesus…because of His being in my life.  Praise God…new chance, new life, new everything!

Prayer:  Lord, there is a new name written down in glory, and it is mine!  Thank you in the name of the One who gives us our new names, Jesus the Christ.  Amen!

HOW ABOUT AN EARLY THANKSGIVING THIS YEAR?… Psalm 30

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Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays.  No, not because of all the food, though I will not deny that’s part of it!  But rather for the lack of Easter Bunnies, tinsel and Santa.  All the things that don’t make Christian holy-days special,  only excuses for a day off of work.  Think I’ve been reading Dicken’s Christmas Carol too many times!  Bah, humbug!   I want  to dig deeper, peeling back the layers to the actual event celebrated about our Lord Jesus Christ and Him alone.

Thanksgiving Day does that for me…a time to give thanks.  To the Lord, first and foremost–‘Sing praises to the  Lord, all you His saints, and give thanks to His holy name'(Psalm 30:4).  It doesn’t take a lot of concentration to discover what to thank the Lord for.  I think of those roosters crowing every morning when we were in Hawaii.  So early too!  Bright and early, for the sun has barely begun to shine.  Then we have breakfast of eggs… and thank the Lord for what chickens give us.  And the chicken dinner we had the other night.  The Lord’s creation for us to enjoy and be nourished by.  Told you it wasn’t all about the food!

Every night we’d go down to the beach to watch the whales that are spouting in the Pacific Ocean, jumping/twirling in the air making a big splash with their tales as they hit the water.  Thank you, Lord, for the whales.  We enjoy seeing them.  And the sunsets every night were glorious.  Different every one in some way.  Thank you, Lord, for the sunsets.

Or think of your family and thank the Lord for them.  For all His providing for us, thank the Lord.  For our friends, we thank the Lord.  For a wonderful and loving church family, we thank the Lord.  For the Bible that we can be nourished with daily unlike any other ‘food’, we thank the Lord.

I could go on and on, and probably should.  But I’ll do it on my own time.  Now it’s your turn to think of all that you would like to thank the Lord for in your life.  Have an early Thanksgiving.  Have it often.  How about all the time?  ‘…that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent.  O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever'(Psalm 30: 12).  Forever seems like a long-ways off…think I’ll start right now!  You too?

Prayer:  Dear God, we could never thank you enough for all the blessings in our lives.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.