Great is His Faithfulness

I sat on the back porch in the wee hours of the morning and prayed, “God I want to know you.” And for the next three years, the Lord pulled me out of a deep depression by taking me on a study of His names in the Bible. I still go back to those notebooks and it never fails to refresh and encourage me. If you want to know who God is, look at what He says about Himself in His Word. His attributes are woven throughout the Scriptures – His great power, His mighty strength, His sovereignty, holiness, wisdom, love, grace, mercy, goodness, kindness, gentleness, sweetness . . . the list goes on and on.

But when I reflect on all He is, the attribute that I think I love the most is His faithfulness. When Moses asked the Lord to “show me your glory,” He revealed Himself as “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness . . .” (Ex 34:6).  David declared, “You love, O Lord reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies (Ps 36:5). Probably my favorite verse on the subject is Lamentations 3:22-23: “The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” And least I ever think God’s faithfulness is dependent on my faithfulness, Paul said, “If we are faithless, He will remain faithful, for He cannot disown Himself” (2 Tim 2:13).

That means He is too faithful to give up on me. And I have given Him ample reasons to do so. I have wandered often and far. I have drawn water from tainted cisterns. I have sought comfort and peace and love in all the wrong places. I have made more foolish decisions than wise ones. I have run away. I have given up and given in. I have failed Him over and over and over.

But He never once shook His head and said, “I can’t deal with your messes.” He never dusted His hands and said, “I am done with you.” He never glared at me and said, “You’ve gone too far this time.” He never said, “I can’t love you anymore.” He is my El Emunah – My Faithful God. And He is yours too Beloved. You can trust Him. He is faithful and true.

It All Matters to God

The woman told her pastor, “I never bother God with the little things.” “Madam,” he replied, “He’s God. To Him, it’s all little.” I chuckle at that, but at the same time, I recognize the truth therein. God is bigger than all man’s problems. No trial or struggle will ever measure up to Him. Overflowing sea in front of you and the Egyptian army at your back? No problem. Massive wall around the city God has given you? No problem. Giant threatening your nation’s army? No problem. A royal edict to wipe out your people? No problem. God’s got it.

But what about the “little” problems? That headache you’ve got from your kids running through the house at top speed and volume all day? The pile of laundry sitting beside the broken-down washing machine? The stack of work on your desk that keeps growing no matter how much you do. The dog next door that barks. All. Night. Long. And what’s that weird clunking sound your car has been making all week? Does God care about those things? Why would He even notice your everyday stuff while He is busy keeping the universe spinning?

The God who took the Israelites through the sea on dry ground (Ex 14:22) and drowned the entire Egyptian army (vv. 26-28), pulled down the walls of Jericho (Jos 6:20), put a small stone in a giant’s head (1 Sam 17:48-50), and rescued the Jews from annihilation (Est 9:5) also gave His thirsty people water from a rock (Ex 17:5-6), provided a poor widow with overflowing oil to buy her sons out of slavery (2 Ki 4:1-7) and gave another an inexhaustible supply of flour and oil to sustain her family through a drought (1 Ki 17:12-16).

That’s why Paul said, “Pray in the Spirit on all occasions, with all kinds of prayer and requests” (Eph 6:18) – of every size and shape.

So I will leave my problems – the big ones and the small ones, and the big ones in a small body – in my Father’s hands. But I’m not going to walk away. I’m going to sit down at His feet and watch what He will do. And maybe crawl into His lap for hug. I encourage you to do the same. Beloved, If He has “numbered the very hairs of your head” (Mat 10:30) you can be sure that He is paying attention to you and everything that concerns your life. Big, little, and everything in between.

The Royal Priesthood of the Believer

I am in a group of believers who are writing – or “scribing” – our way through the Bible. Because we deal with smaller portions of Scripture and must slow down and pay attention to every word, we’re seeing things we would have normally missed on our fast-paced Bible-in-a-year plans. We’re nearing the end of Exodus this month and the people are building, weaving, hammering, and crafting all the elements of the Tabernacle.

Today’s text – Exodus 39:1-7 – is focused on making garments for Aaron, who served as the Lord’s high priest. These were “sacred garments” designed “to give him dignity and honor” as he went about his priestly duties (Ex 28:2). And they were a work of love and devotion. When the ancient craftsmen made the ephod, the apron-like garment worn over the robe and under the breast piece, the Scripture says, “they hammered out thin sheets of gold and cut strands to be worked into the blue, purple, and scarlet yarn and fine linen.  Can you imagine the amount of dedication and intricate work that required?

But that’s nothing compared to how God is working in you. Everything God does in your life has one aim, to conform you to the likeness of His Son (Rom 8:29). I admit, sometimes that work isn’t pleasant.  Lately, it feels like God is hammering away at me like the craftsmen hammered out that gold. You may feel that He has put you into a crucible for purifying silver over intense, prolonged heat. It might even seem that He has buried you underground like a seed. But the gold adds beauty to the garment, the purified silver reflects the Silversmith and the seed bursts forth from the ground to grow into a fruitful plant.

God has called you and me to be part of His royal priesthood (1 Pet 2:9)– not in the order of Aaron, but in the order of His Son, Jesus Christ. Like Aaron, we must be consecrated, cleansed, and made pure for this holy service. Aaron was washed with water and anointed with the blood of a bull. You and I are washed and anointed with the blood of the Lamb of God which cleanses us from all sin (1 Jn 1:7). Aaron received beautiful garments to wear; Christ gives us His own righteousness (2 Cor 5:21).

In the hammering and the heat and the darkness Beloved, consider this, God is not just weaving threads of His Son into your life, but making He is you into His very image.

Best Friends

I got another one of those emails from a salesperson who opened the message with a personalized greeting meant to draw me in and make me more favorable to their pitch. But their “personal touch” was a scam. They proved they don’t know anything about me by calling me “Dr. Andrews.” Just because I work at an institute of higher education, doesn’t mean I have a Ph.D. I am, in fact, struggling to finish my master’s. It was not a genuine greeting.

Using someone’s name implies some kind of connection, a level of personal knowledge -whether casual or intimate. One of the first things we do when meeting someone new is to share our name. It is like opening the door to our home. But we don’t let everyone inside. Some people don’t get past the doorway, some step into the front hall, and others are welcomed to the kitchen – the heart of the house. I’m a pretty transparent person. Still some people may know my name but they don’t know me. My closest friends gather around the kitchen table over a cup of coffee (or tea).

When Moses met with God on Mount Sinai, he pleaded with the Lord to accompany him and the Israelites on their journey to the Promised Land. God replied, “I will do the very thing you have asked because I am pleased with you and I know you by name” (Ex 33:17). He wasn’t just talking about the name Moses was given at birth. The original Hebrew means “I know you because you are mine.”  Back up a few verses: “The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend” (v. 11). Do you understand what that means? God claimed Moses as His friend. He knew him.

Not only did He know Moses, but He also revealed Himself to him. Moses asked God to show him His glory. And He did – as much as He could without killing him.  He “came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed His name, the Lord” (Ex. 34:5). Did you catch the last part? “He proclaimed His name, the Lord.” He knew Moses. Now Moses knew Him.

Nobody knows you better than God knows you. And nobody loves you more than God loves you. He said, “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine” (Is 43:1). God has claimed you, Beloved. You are His friend. His child. His own.

I Want to See You, Lord

I sang with the congregation: “Open the eyes of our heart, Lord; open the eyes of our heart, we want to see You; we want to see You.” In the breath between the first and second stanzas, I sensed God say, “Do you, really? Then why are your eyes closed?”

“Well, I’m offering this to You as my own prayer.”

“Then open your eyes.”

In that brief moment, I was impressed with the thought that the church asks God to give us a vision of Himself, but we close our eyes so that we cannot see.

As I am writing this, God has directed me to Isaiah’s encounter with the Lord. The prophet wrote, “I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple” (Is 6:1). He was surrounded by seraphs, unlike anything man had ever seen. Now that’s a vision!

Isaiah’s response to the awesome vision of God was conviction, repentance, and surrender to the Lord’s call. But there’s another time when God revealed Himself to men. In Exodus 24, after Moses received the Law, God issued an extraordinary invitation: “Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu and seventy of the elders of Israel” (Ex 24:1). And they did. “Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up and saw the God of Israel . . . they saw God, and they ate and drank” (v. 9, 11). They. Saw. God. How did it affect them? A few chapters over we have these same elders urging Aaron to make an idol for the people to worship. And he did. In Leviticus 10, Nadab and Abihu are put to death by God for disobeying Him.

The seraphs in Isaiah’s vision declared, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of His glory” (v. 3). Do you see it? “The whole earth is full of His glory.” John Calvin, the 16^th-century theologian said, “There is not an atom of the universe in which you cannot see some brilliant spark, at least, of His glory.” Now, I’m not preaching a naturalistic theology. We worship the Creator, not the creation. But we can see Him everywhere – if we open our eyes.

Jeremiah 29:13 says “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you . . .” Do you want to see God? Are your eyes open? Are you looking for Him? And when you see Him, Beloved, what will you do?

Good Enough

“I want my wedding day to be perfect.”

“Get this mess cleaned up! Our guests will be here in an hour and this place has to be perfect.”

“I stayed up all night to work on my paper – it has to be perfect if I’m going to get an “A” in this class.” (That would be me.)

Or maybe this one sounds most familiar to you: “Why did I do that/say that/think that?  I’m a Christian – I’m supposed to be perfect!” After all, Jesus said, “Be perfect, therefore, as your Heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). But while the Bible uses the word “perfect” just forty-two times,  the word “good” appears more than six hundred times.  Like in the creation account when, after completing each day’s creative work, God examined what He had done and “saw that it was good.”  In the original Hebrew, this means that God found His work “pleasing, favorable, and satisfactory.”  Think about it – if God, at the zenith of His creative work, was content with “good” shouldn’t “good” be good enough for us?

There’s more:  He promised a good land to the Israelites when they escaped Egyptian bondage (Exodus 3:8), Jeremiah told the people to “ask where the good way is and walk in it” (6:16).  Jesus said the Father gives “good gifts” (Matthew 7:11), He proclaimed the soil with the greatest harvest good (Luke 8:8) and Paul tells us to “overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21) – not perfection.  Even the Gospel that saves us is called “the Good News” (Acts 5:42).  Why then, are we trying so hard to be perfect?

God didn’t saddle us with this obsession for perfection – it was the enemy who planted that impossible seed.  But we have watered and nurtured it until it has become a weed of gigantic proportions and, as weeds so often do, it has choked the life out of us and the “good works” we were created to do (Ephesians 2:10).  It’s the devil’s way of keeping you distracted, dissatisfied, frustrated – and fruitless. 

Only God is perfect and making you perfect is His work alone, through the blood of Jesus and the power of the Spirit.  But you won’t see the perfectly finished product until you stand before Him in heaven.  So hang all your perfectionist tendencies on Him and be free from that burden you were never meant to carry.  Beloved, being good is good enough.

Lord, Rescue Me

I’ve never kept secret the fact that I struggle with depression – I have since I was a kid. I write about it because I know many of you do as well. Sometimes it’s triggered by an event or circumstance but more often than not it comes from a chemical imbalance in my brain. I take medication to keep me on a fairly even plane. Some days are better than others and some days are downright hard. Depression (and medication) doesn’t mean I have lost my faith in God or am a failure as a Christian. In fact, it makes me all the more dependent on God every day.

It also makes me like many of the men and women whom God used – whose stories are scattered all over the Bible and throughout the history of the Church. This morning as I read I recognized myself in David. And I recognized the One who rescued David also rescues me. In his song of praise in 2 Samuel 22 ( also in Psalm 18), David wrote of two places in which I often find myself when depression hits. Drowning in deep waters and sitting in darkness.

Sometimes it washes over me like waves; sometimes it feels like I’ve fallen into brackish water. David said “[The Lord] reached down from on high and took hold of me; He drew me out of deep waters” (v. 17). The thing about depression is I don’t have the energy or even desire to swim. I need a rescuer – God knows and He comes. Why would He do that? Not because I am such a good teacher or writer or because I am some highly important person in His Kingdom. “He rescued me because He delighted in me” (v. 20b). It has nothing to do with me and everything to do with His heart.

Depression often feels like “darkness that can be felt” (Ex. 10:21). It presses in on me, making it hard to breathe and difficult to move. David said, “You are my lamp, O Lord; the Lord turns my darkness into light” (v. 29). Darkness is nothing more than the absence of light. When light – even the tiniest glow – penetrates the shadows, darkness flees. John said that Jesus is “the true light that gives light to every man” (John 1:9) and the darkness cannot overcome His light (v. 5). That’s good news for a lot of us.

Where are you today Beloved? Underwater? In the darkness? The One who rescued David and rescued me can rescue you too. More than that, it delights Him to do so. Take His hand. Look for His light. Your Rescuer is here.

Do It Again, Lord

God, I need a miracle.

I need You to part the sea again (Ex. 14:21).

I need You to bring water from a rock again (Ex. 17:5-7).

I need You to bring down the walls again (Jos. 6:20).

I need You to make the sun stand still again (Jos. 10:13).

I need You to take down the giant again (1 Sam. 48-49).

I need You to keep the oil flowing again (2 Ki. 4:1-7).

I need You to make the ax head float again (2 Ki. 6:1-7).

I need You to move the shadow back again (2 Ki. 20:10).

I need You to stand in the fire again (Dan. 3:25).

I need You to shut the mouths of lions again (Dan. 6:22).

I need You to calm the storm again (Matt. 8:23-27).

I need You to heal and raise the dead again (Mk. 5:21-43).

I need You to feed the multitudes again (Matt. 14:13-21; 15: 29-39).

I need You to walk on the water again (Matt. 14:22-33).

I need You to take out the demon again (Mk 1:21-26).

I need You to open blind eyes again (Matt 20:29-34).

I need You to turn water into wine again (Jn 2:1-11).

I need You to turn little into much again (Jn. 6:5-13).

I need You to make the lame not just walk, but jump again (Acts 3:1-10).

I need You to set the prisoner free again (Acts 12: 1-17).

I’m not asking for much Lord. Just a miracle. You did it before. I need you to do it again.

Taste-Tested and Approved

I see lots of recipes on social media – yummy-looking desserts, casseroles, crockpot meals, dips, and the one that caught my eye this morning: white bean chicken chili. I may try that one soon. If my family likes it, I may even pass it on. But not until I’ve served it and it gets the thumbs-up – especially from Joy. I can’t imagine sharing a recipe I’ve never tried first. I wouldn’t recommend a doctor I’ve never seen or a church I haven’t attended or a book I’ve not read. If you get any kind of recommendation from me it’s only because I’ve tested it out and found it to be good.

That is why my messages are all about the Lord. As David said, I have tasted and seen that the Lord is good (Ps 34:8 ). I have found Him to be satisfying in every way. When I need help – and I need it a lot – He is my Helper (Ps 54:4). When the enemy attacks me Almighty God is stronger than my foe (Gen 17:1-2). When I am weary He is my Strength (Ps 19:14). When I fall into sin He is faithful to forgive me (Ps 99:8 ). When I am lonely He is with me (Jud 6:12). When I have a need I go to the Lord who provides (Gen 22:14). When the world is dark and full of evil I look to the Light (John 8:12). When I am sick I trust in the Lord my Healer (Ex 15:26).  When chaos is all around me I run to the Lord my Peace (Jud 6:24).

And when I need counsel or wisdom or just need to know what is right I know where to go because I have tested His words and they are true (John 17:17). The Bible is as sure and powerful as the One who spoke it – the God of truth (Ps 31:5). I can tell you that He is a Faithful God (Deut 7:9) because He has always been faithful to me. I can recommend Him to you without hesitation because He has proven Himself to me over and over and over again. He is the God of my Life (Ps 42:8 ).

If the white bean chicken chili shows up on my page you can know that I have tasted it and it is good. But more important than a recipe, I want to share God with you because He is everything to me. Oh, Beloved, I pray that you will taste and see that the Lord is good. I highly recommend Him.

In The End

I wrote yesterday about God’s pre-knowledge of the ups and downs, blessings and tragedies, and Joys and heartaches in our lives. The question then comes, “Why would He allow us to go through these very hard things?”  “Why does He set us on a path when He knows it leads to hardship?” I confess, I’m far from an expert and I certainly can’t read God’s mind, but I can read His Word and glean some things that might help us to understand.

When the Israelites escaped Egypt they rejoiced, yet “on the fifteenth day of the second month [figure about 6 weeks] after they had come out of Egypt . . . the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron” (Ex 16:1,2). They missed the plentiful food of Egypt. So God sent them food – manna. It was their daily diet for forty years (v. 35). After a long steady run of the stuff, they complained, “we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!” (Num 11:6). It became a source of contention for the Hebrew people.

But God knew all this. He knew when He sent Joseph to Egypt to save his family they would become enslaved for four hundred years. He knew that Pharaoh would oppress and abuse them. He knew Moses would be born at a time when Hebrew baby boys were killed. He knew that Mama would make a basket to float him down the river just as Pharaoh’s daughter would bathe in the same river. He knew that Moses would run after he killed an Egyptian for abusing a Hebrew slave. He knew right where to send him where a bush waited. He knew Pharaoh would forbid the Hebrews to leave. He knew they would be pinned between the river and the enemy. He knew they would rebel. He knew they would wander. He knew they would make a golden calf. He knew they would get hungry. He knew they would eventually grow sick of the manna.

He knew all this. Yet He worked in it all. And Moses declared, “He gave you manna to eat in the desert . . . to humble and to test you so that in the end it might go well with you” (Deut 8:16). All of it, from Joseph to the manna was part of God’s plan. God used the manna to humble them and test them and bring them to a place of blessing. And that’s what He’s up to in your life too. In the good, the bad, and the ugly, He’s working to make you useful and usable in His kingdom. He’s working for your good. That season you’re questioning is part of His plan. And His plans never fail. Be encouraged, Beloved, God is up to something. And in the end, it will go well with you.