Sonrise

In the garden on the Mount of Olives, Judas led a crowd of angry men toward Jesus.  You know this account – it’s almost required reading at Eastertide. Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss. Peter cut off the ear of the servant of the high priest, which, of course, the Lord immediately healed (Lk 22:47-53; Jn 18:10).  Before He is led away, Jesus, speaking to His arrestors says, “This is your hour–when darkness reigns (v. 53)”. Now, I’ve read this passage multiple times, but this time one word stood out to me. “Hour.” And the question came: What does that mean?  That is the signal from the Holy Spirit to start digging because there is something I need to discover. I live for these opportunities.

The Greek word for “hour” means “a moment; a short period; a fixed portion of time.” Jesus said that darkness had been given an hour to reign – but only an hour, a sliver of time. The darkness is, of course, evil. But even the power of evil was held to just a moment with a beginning and definite end. Just enough time to accomplish God’s divine purpose – salvation.

Who has sovereign authority over time?  Who established the rising and setting of the sun?  Who determined the seasons on earth?  Who made the sun stand still to prolong the day (Jos 10:1-14)? Who moved the sunlight backward ten steps to prove his power (Is 38:7-8)?

Is it dark in your life today? Does it seem that evil has the upper hand? Remember, darkness is only allowed a moment – a fixed portion of time. And only until God’s purpose is fulfilled. The same One who commands the sun holds the hourglass of your life and He will not allow darkness to reign one grain longer than necessary. Rest in His providence and care Beloved. The night will soon be over and the Son will reign forever.

Acts: The Plan of the Ages

I interviewed an atheist for a class assignment. While I asked my questions, he peppered me with his own. I remember one question clearly, even after so many years: “Why would a good God let His Son suffer and be killed on the whim of evil people?”

“He didn’t,” I replied.

“But isn’t that what your Christianity teaches?” he insisted.

“Not exactly,” I answered. “God didn’t let anything happen. He planned it and foretold it. Jesus’ death wasn’t by the whim of man. It was an intentional act of the sovereign God to fulfill His purpose – the salvation of men.”

He cocked his head to one side, “I’ve never heard it put that way.  My church always taught us kids that people acted of their own free will to kill Jesus.”

“They did,” I replied. “But they acted within the sovereign will of God.”

At that moment I felt like a salmon swimming up a waterfall, trying to explain a concept that has baffled the wisest theologians for ages. I still don’t understand it completely, but I know it is true. The Bible clearly teaches both and doesn’t try to make it neat and tidy.

Please take a moment to read Acts 3:17-26.

When Peter addressed the crowd that gathered around the once-crippled man, he invoked the name of Jesus as the source of healing power. The same Jesus they had crucified. The same Jesus God had raised from the dead. Peter said that they had “acted in ignorance,” not realizing that this Jesus was God’s Messiah (Christ). But Peter also said that God used their actions to fulfill His Plan of the Ages. God had foretold the suffering of His Servant through Abraham, Moses, Samuel, and all the prophets. He had promised salvation long before Jesus’ birth.

John wrote that Jesus is “the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world” (Rev. 13:8). Before the first human and the first sin. This was all within God’s eternal plan: the salvation of humanity. I once heard a preacher say that long before Jesus came to earth God knowingly planted the seed that would become the tree that would be made into the cross on which His Son would die.

I take great comfort in the truth of God’s sovereignty over the will of human beings. I am sitting in the middle of a family mess right now because of another’s free will choices. But I am convinced this did not occur outside of God’s sovereign plan. Somehow this too will fall in line with His “good, pleasing, and perfect will” (Rom 12:2). And when it does, there will be Joy.

Road Trip!

We’re planning a fun day trip with Joy today in Poppy’s truck.  Every mile of our adventure will be powered by the combustion engine under the hood. That engine has two jobs: to take in fuel and to put out power. My husband will provide the fuel by filling up the gas tank and the engine will produce the power which will push the truck down the road.

Paul knew nothing about a combustion engine, but he understood the principle. He wrote, “Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose” (Php 2:12-13). Do you see the principle? What God works in – you work out. God is at work in you through His Word and His Spirit – providing power, wisdom, strength, and righteousness. Your job is to take what He provides and work it out in your life.

He gives you His power to overcome the devil. You work out that power by “standing your ground” (Eph 6:13) against the enemy until he runs from you (Ja 4:7). He gives you His wisdom to make godly decisions. You believe His wise counsel and act according to His will (Rom 12:2). He gives you His strength to endure the trials so that you can persevere with Joy (Ja 1:2), knowing that God is working all things for the good (Rom 8:28). He gives you His righteousness so you can live a holy life. He gives you a way out of temptation, and you take it. He gives you His love so that you can love others – even those who are hard to love. He gives you His Spirit, and you work it out by living by the Spirit (Gal 6:16), being led by the Spirit (v. 18), and keeping in step with the Spirit (v. 25). He gives you His Word to teach, rebuke, correct, and train you in righteousness – you work it out by study and obedience.

You would think we were crazy if we jumped in the truck and expected to make our trip without any fuel to power the engine. How crazy is it to try to live godly lives without the truth of the Word and the power of God’s Spirit? Beloved, God is providing the fuel for holy living (2 Pet 1:3) – all you have to do is work out what He is pouring in. Get your motor running – it’s time to hit the road!

Waiting on God

Psalm 106 is a “Salvation History Psalm” – a retelling of God rescuing His people from slavery in Egypt.  You know the story: God brought the Israelites out of bondage and led them to the edge of the Red Sea – impassable waters in front of them and their enemy close on their heels.  He made a way through the sea and when the last Israelite foot cleared the dry sea bed, He closed in the walls of water on Pharoah and His army.  The Scripture says, “Then [the Israelites] believed His promises and sang His praise” (v. 12).  Wouldn’t you?  If God had done a miraculous thing for you, wouldn’t you believe?  Wouldn’t you sing a chorus of, “You’re a good, good, Father!”?

But wait. The next verse says: “But they soon forgot what He had done and did not wait for His plan to unfold” (v. 13).  And they grumbled. On the heels of the Red Sea miracle. Remember the celebration in verse 12? Check out verses 24-25: “They did not believe His promise. They grumbled in their tents and did not obey the Lord.” Makes me want to shake my head.  They failed to trust God – the same God who had rescued them in dramatic fashion just a few weeks before.

But, let’s be honest here, don’t you and I do the same thing?  God works powerfully on our behalf and we celebrate and sing His praises and the next time we face a challenge, we worry.  We forget what God did and focus on the new hardship as if God used it all up on the first one.  Or maybe that’s just me. 

I wrote in the margin: “Lord, I want to always believe Your promises and sing Your praises while I am still waiting.”  I am there right now – waiting. And trusting.  And reminding myself of His powerful acts of the past, how he made a way where I couldn’t see a way. How He softened hard hearts. How he rescued someone I love. And I know He will do it again. So I’m gonna sing His praises now, during the crisis, not just after. 

Have you forgotten His goodness to you?  The God who was faithful yesterday will not be unfaithful today. He is the same good Father who carried you through the last storm – and He will not abandon you now.  Beloved, come sit here with me, and let’s praise the Lord while we wait.

Acts: The Church

Whenever we moved to a new town, among our first priorities was to find a church. My husband and I both grew up in church. We met in a church and enjoyed the blessings of the community of faith. Church is the place we “belong.” It is also a place we love.

The first believers established the church concept as Luke recorded it in the book of Acts. In Acts 2:42-47 he described life in this little Christian community: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer” (v. 42).  The apostles accepted Jesus’ commission to “teach them to obey every I have commanded you” (Mat 28:20). Their priority was teaching and the church’s role was learning for the purpose of obedience. Not just to fill their heads with information about Jesus, but to understand who He was/is, to understand His mission, and to follow Him in it.

They also gave themselves to “the fellowship” – notice the “the.” It wasn’t about the camaraderie; it was about what Paul would later call “the body.” One people with many moving parts all working together for one purpose: The glory of Christ and the expanse of His kingdom. And there were elements that fostered that oneness: “the breaking of bread and prayer.” This means both sharing mutual common meals and sharing in the sacred meal of communion. One of the most powerful experiences I’ve had was serving the communion elements. As I handed each person a piece of bread, I said, “This is the Body of Christ, broken for you.” That communion service brought the reality of being part of the Body to life for me. It was profound and I’ve never forgotten it.

The first church also gathered regularly and faithfully to pray. Something tells me they didn’t pray for Aunt June’s infected toenail, but they prayed for power, boldness, opportunities, wisdom, and direction. Then again, maybe they did pray for Aunt June for they shared their lives, their needs, their sorrows, their struggles, and their possessions. They were one in every way.

But I want to draw your mind to one word: “devoted.” This means they gave the community of faith their constant attention. Church wasn’t squeezed into their busy lives when they found the time. Their life was lived around and among the body of believers and their shared faith. They were together in the temple and in their homes. The temple was the place of witness and homes were the place for fellowship – for “glad and sincere hearts” joined together in “praising God.”

Are you a devoted part of a local church? Not just there when there’s nothing else on your calendar, but regularly, faithfully, wholeheartedly. You will find no better place to grow, heal, learn, lean, and give yourself away. Beloved, find your place in the Body.

The Rest of the Story

I’m living in the middle of a story that is causing me a lot of anxiety. I can’t see what is happening, I have no control over the particulars. I don’t know how this will end – or when. I am keeping an open prayer line to God and running to it often when panic wants to raise its ugly head. Somebody reading this can relate. I know a father with a demon-possessed son could too.  Please take a moment and read Mark 9:17-27 to get the scope of the story.

When we read accounts in the Bible today, as Paul Harvey said, we know “the rest of the story.”  But the people in the story didn’t.  Think about this from the father’s perspective – in real-time – as he stands before Jesus with pleading eyes, “If you can do anything, take pity on us and help us” (Mark 9:22).  Stay in the moment as we see Jesus turn to the child and speak with authority, “I command you to come out of him and never enter him again” (v. 25).  Watch as “the spirit shrieked, convulsed him violently and came out” (v. 26)” But wait, what did Jesus do?  The boy looks dead – like a corpse!  The father brought his boy to Jesus and Jesus made everything worse.

Now, freeze the scene right here and consider this: just as the father lived out his story in real-time, you and I are also living out our story without the advantage of a written script that tells us how it all ends.  All we know is, right now, at this moment, the anxiety is high.

“But Jesus . . .” these are the most precious words in the Bible to me.  “But Jesus took [the boy] by the hand and lifted him to his feet” v. 27).  Wonder of wonders, the boy is not dead – he is alive – and healed!  He runs into his father’s arms with a smile of triumph. His father bends to kiss his son’s head with a look of amazement and Joy.

May I remind you not to give up on Jesus?  He can see the end from the middle. That moment when all seems lost, just as it was for this father, might be the moment just before all is found. Bring your need to Jesus, give Him room to work, and don’t lose hope. Beloved, your story isn’t over yet.

Somebody is Listening

I am wearing an old green t-shirt this morning that Joy always liked. It reminds me of the days when she was learning colors and she would always point out that “Nana’s shirt is green.” She was so proud of herself for it, and of course, so was I. God has been nudging me about the example I am before her. For instance, the image that accompanies this devotional. Before covid, I taught a weekly Bible study for the women on the campus where I work. My daughter-in-law would come and of course, Joy came with us. She was just starting to cruise and would move from person to person around the chairs that kept her corralled. She stopped at my knee that morning and was listening intently to me teach.  Her mommy snapped the picture and it serves as a constant reminder that she always is watching me and learning from me – whether I am intentionally teaching her or not. That’s a huge responsibility, one I don’t take lightly.

The Lord pressed that point home to the Israelites when Moses taught them God’s Law and how important their daily lives were. He told them: “The [these words] to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up” (Deut 11:19). In other words, in everything you do all throughout your day, be a walking, talking, living, breathing testimony to the Lord God.

What happens when we don’t? When the Jews returned to Jerusalem after the Babylonian captivity and resettled the city, Nehemiah discovered that “half of their children spoke . . . the languages of other people and did not know how to speak the language of Judah” (Neh 13:24). Sound familiar? And I’m not talking about linguistics – I’m talking about the language of truth, righteousness, and holiness. The language of God. The children didn’t know the language of Judah because the generations before them fell into speaking the languages around them so that they might fit in. Again – sound familiar?

This is not just a parenting/grandparenting message. The same applies to the church’s influence – or lack thereof – on the culture. We cannot represent Christ to the world if we sound just like them. Everything about us should speak Jesus. Because, like Joy, someone is watching and listening – whether you realize it or not. Beloved, what are they seeing and hearing in you?

Acts: The Great Rescue Plan

I love this from Oswald Chambers: “The Cross was not something that happened to Jesus— He came to die; the Cross was His purpose in coming. He is “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8).

Jesus’ death on the cross was not a knee-jerk reaction to human sin. It was the plan of the ages, instituted before the first light broke through the dark and formless universe. Adam and Eve’s sin did not take God by surprise. The sinful state of humanity was not a shock to God. Not once has God ever wrung His hands in heaven and wondered, “Whatever shall I do with them?” We often hear this human idea that God looked down from heaven and saw mankind in bondage to sin and death and sent His son in response. While it certainly expresses God’s heart of mercy for His creation, it’s not exactly the truth. The cross was His perfect plan all along.

Grab your Bible and read Acts 2:22-36. Peter spoke to the awestruck crowd who had witnessed the power of the Holy Spirit anointing His servants. While he pointed the finger at the Jewish people for Jesus’ death, he pointed out that the crucifixion was God’s idea all along. Peter said, “This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge” (v. 23). And so was His resurrection. David, Israel’s shepherd-king understood that God never intended to “abandon [His Holy One] to the grave” (v. 27). David’s bones still lay in His tomb in Jerusalem, but Jesus is alive and well and seated on the throne in heaven, pouring out His Holy Spirit on His people.

Revelation 13:8 said that Jesus is “the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world” He was always meant to come to earth as a tiny baby and live a perfect, sinless life, and die an undeserved and cruel death. He was always meant to lie in a tomb for three days and heaven never doubted that He would rise again because that was the plan all along.

Aren’t you glad that God didn’t wait for you to cry out from the pit of sin before He set a rescue plan in place? He planned it long before you needed it. That should give you great hope, It’s the only plan that offers us redemption and eternal life. Beloved, it’s a plan you can trust.

Devoted

You and I are God’s people in the devil’s world. There is so much evil in all around us that we can’t avoid unless we crawl into a cave and never come out. As tempting as that is , but it’s not the way to fulfill our purpose to be “salt and light in the world” (Matt. 5:13-16).  We have to be “in the world, but not of the world” (paraphrased from John 17:14-16). It’s not a “balance” as I’ve heard some say. It comes down to an all-in choice for holiness and a determination to never compromise.

Holiness means to be “set apart” for a special purpose. The Bible tells us that God sets us His people apart for His divine purposes. It’s powerfully displayed in Isaiah’s commissioning as a prophet of God in Isaiah 6. God gave Isaiah a vision of Himself – and a call to repentance. Isaiah knew that he was not worthy – he said, “Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty” (6:5). Isaiah lived in the unclean world, and even before the Lord’s call he had preached the judgment of God to Judah. But the filth of the world still clung to him. You cannot walk down a dirt road without collecting some of its dust. God cleansed his unclean lips – then set him apart to declare His Word. All through the Bible God convicts, cleanses, and sets people apart when He is going to do something big.

I believe God is getting ready to do a great work in the world. But it will require people who are consecrated to Him, willing to set everything aside to join Him. That means whole-hearted devotion to Christ and an unwillingness to compromise with the world – even as we live in it. I also believe a great battle is coming in this nation; the lines have already been drawn in our culture and our courts. Unfortunately, it has also been drawn through the Church, and some have chosen to side with the world. Only a people with pure, consecrated hearts will be able to stand firm in the face of it.

The Lord posed a question in Jeremiah’s day that rings loud and clear in our own: “’Who is he who will devote himself to be close to me?’ declares the Lord” (Jer. 30:21). My hand is up.

How will you answer, Beloved?

Broken People

The world is full of broken people. They work in your building, sit beside you in class, share your pew in church, sleep under your roof, live over your head, drive on your road, and ring up your groceries. They’re your patients, your clients, your teachers, your preachers, your coworkers, your friends, and your family. They share your penchant for salsa, your last name, your house, your grandchild, your love of Scripture, and your campus. You see them as you walk among the crowds, as you sit behind your desk, as you push your cart down the aisle, as you watch your kids play, and as you turn off the lamp beside your bed. And if you’re anything like me, you see a broken person in the mirror every morning.

The truth is, we are all broken. We’re all flawed. We’re all scared. We’re all threadbare and wounded and limping. You and I can’t get through life unscathed. Stuff happens. Heartache. Divorce. Grief. Disappointment. Mistakes. Accidents. Abuse. Anxiety. But those things are not what broke us. Sin did. The sin of Adam and Eve broke mankind. It broke the relationship we once had with our Creator. And wonder of wonders, He allowed Himself to be broken that we might be made whole (1 Cor 11:24).

But when a broken person has been redeemed by the Lord God pours out healing and restoration onto others. Paul said that “the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort those and any trouble with the comfort we have received from God” (2 Cor 1:3-4). Isn’t that amazing? God uses broken people to bring healing to broken people.

I came across a verse today that I love. The Lord is speaking to His people Israel. He warned them of the severe consequences of their rebellion and idolatry and the destruction that was coming, and then He promised them restoration when they turn back to Him. He told them “You will be called Repairer of Broken Walls” (Is 58:12). That’s how I want to be known – a Repairer of Broken People. No, I won’t be don’t the mending – that’s God’s work alone, but I can bring the Word that heals and I can apply the love and tenderness of God that soothes. I can let kindness and compassion seep from my cracked places and spill onto the wounds of others.

Beloved, you and I both know that you’re broken. What will you do with it? Sit in your chair and lick your wounds? Or will you allow God to use your brokenness for someone’s healing?