On digital alarm clocks and wake-up calls (Mark 14)

Remember the digital alarm clock? When I was in high school, its annoying BEEP-BEEP-BEEP was the dreaded signal that started my day.  We had a “radio” setting, but I tended to ignore that --- or sing to it in my sleep.  (Think K.C. & the Sunshine Band.)  Today, the digital alarm clock has thankfully been replaced by the alarm app on my phone, and I can awaken to the pleasant sound of “fog on the water”, “gentle spring rain”, or “midnight picnic”.

In my somewhat distant history, on a mission trip to Romania, I was introduced to nature’s alarm: the crowing rooster.  Not my favorite.  You don’t get to tell the rooster what time you’d like to be aroused from your jet-lagged sleep.  No sir.  The rooster crows just before the sun rises.  Literally.  It’s dark.  And he doesn’t quit until breakfast is served.  Ugh.  Not crazy about the unsolicited wake-up call.

The rooster turns up in the Gospel this week.  Mark 14.  The story of Peter’s denial of Jesus puts the rooster center-stage.  Well, at least “left-of-center.”  It was, for the Apostle, a monumental wake-up call.  (If you have not read the story, take a minute and read Mark 14!)

Hundreds, if not thousands of sermons have been written on this scene.  It is described in each of the four Gospels, which gives it a certain amount of import.  There is, obviously, much to be learned here.  Let’s focus on the rooster.

In a nutshell, here’s what happened:

·         Jesus had warned Peter that he would deny their association three times before the rooster crowed twice. 

·         Peter scoffed at His prediction, strongly declaring his allegiance to His friend. 

·         After the arrest of the Savior, Peter followed the crowd to the courtyard of the High Priest, where Jesus would be on trial. 

·         While the trial was going on, Peter did, indeed, vehemently dispute any association with the accused (Jesus). 

·         The rooster crowed once after his first denial. 

·         And again, after the third time that Peter renounced Jesus.

The crow of that rooster must have resonated as loudly in Peter’s ear as if he were standing in the bell tower of a church steeple.  For a moment, time stood still as the reality of his failure hit Peter.  One can only imagine the shame and disgrace that washed over him as he considered his treachery.

What is remarkable about the crowing of that rooster is that even the animals open their mouths (beaks?) at the command of the Sovereign King of the universe.  That particular rooster, far from signaling the rising of the sun, signaled a watershed moment in the life of the Apostle.  It was the ultimate wake-up call.

Two things happened simultaneously with the rooster’s crow:

1) Peter felt the weight of his sin…he recognized the seed of wickedness in his own soul.  For months, years, Jesus had been teaching, admonishing, illustrating, warning.  Peter did not get it.  Only his desperate failure would expose the sinfulness of his sin, beginning the transformation that would remake this hot-headed, prideful boor into the great Apostle on whom the church of Christ would be built.

2) At the very moment of the second “crow”, Jesus was being escorted through the courtyard.  At that moment.  Who made the rooster crow?  The Sovereign King who moves the vast machine of the universe for His own purpose and glory, and for our eternal good.  King Jesus, the unlikely Hero of this story, was being led as a captive through the courtyard. When the rooster crowed, He lifted His head and looked directly into the eyes of His failing friend.

This was not “the look” that a disapproving father gives to his wayward son across the dinner table.  It was not a look of reproach.  Or anger.  Or condemnation.

It was a look of compassion and mercy.  In that moment, Jesus forgave Peter…and Peter knew it.  It was this look that would forever mark Peter’s life and ministry.  Having faced the wickedness of his own soul, Peter remembered the Lord’s words and turned to Him.  Despairing of self, he found hope in Christ.

Read the story.  Peter is a different man going forward.

That rooster.  You have to wonder if, forever afterward, when Peter heard the unsolicited wake-up call of the crowing rooster…if he silently rehearsed his eternal gratitude for that blessed early morning remembrance.  The crowing rooster would ensure that Peter would never forget the unfailing faithfulness of the Savior.

It’s worth asking ourselves: is the rooster crowing?  As we consider this Sovereign King who moves the vast machine of the universe for His own glory and purpose, how is He using the circumstances of our lives…desperate, heartbreaking, disappointing, painful or blessed, peaceful and full of joy…to transform us into a more glorious likeness of His Son?  Pay attention.  Even the unsolicited wake-up call is for our good. Amen?

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Garden and Peaceful Death

       He began to be greatly distressed and troubled.  It is rare that we are told of Jesus’ inner attitude toward His circumstance.  The Gospel writers only sparingly refer to how Jesus felt about what was happening around Him.  Here, however, it seems as if the whole being of the Savior was profoundly shaken. 

Why?  What caused His great distress?  Why was He so troubled?

        Was it the understandable fright of facing a horrific death?  We don’t think so.  He knew that He was going to die.  He had said so repeatedly to the disciples and, to this point, He was confident and calm.  What was it that caused Jesus such sorrow that He literally fell down under the weight of it?

        We get a glimpse into the source of the Savior’s dread from v. 36: “Abba Father, all things are possible for you.  Remove this cup from me.”  “The cup” in Hebrew literature represented, not just physical torture and death, but the two-fold threat of the unutterable weight of the sin of the world and the unleashing of divine justice poured out on injustice*.  The Savior’s agony exposed in Gethsemene was the dismay of being smothered by sin and separated from His Father.

       Jesus was about to be exposed to the one thing in life he feared, to the point of being “very sorrowful even to death”: 

              the indescribable experience of being “God-forsaken”

        In the face of such an excruciating end, Jesus begged His Father for relief. But His desperate prayer found its conclusion with these words:

 Yet not what I will, but what you will.

        This is the ultimate expression of the humanity of Christ in submission to the Divine.  Every fiber in His body wrestled against the pouring out of wrath that would separate Him from His Father.  The weight of that reality was too much for Him to bear, causing Him to fall down.

       AND YET He became sin.  Mortifying His own desire, the Savior’s submission to the will of the Father demonstrates a degree of perfection that is without equal. It is hard to imagine, this submission to be overcome by sin and suffer the wrath of God. But the covenant of redemption would demand this ultimate sacrifice -- that the Savior would drink of this cup, and drink it to the dregs.  "He will drink it now, and He will drink it to the full, and He will do His Father's will...He will pay the ransom price to set us free." (Thomas)

        The temptation is to consider this scene and to be overwhelmed with gratitude that is tender and genuine but not transforming.  The submission demonstrated by Jesus is not on display simply for our admiration.  Such submission is the sacred duty of all Kingdom-dwellers.  It promises our ultimate peace and lasting joy as the Father is glorified.  J.C. Ryle describes our imitation of the Savior as we

 learn to take patiently whatever God sends

       grow to like what He likes

              to long for the things that He desires

              to forego ease, if He chooses to send hardship

                   to prefer pain, if it pleases Him to send it.

       This principle informs a biblical consideration of the recent suicide of Brittany Maynard, the young woman who --- dying from a brain tumor --- made the decision to die “peacefully” in her own time, and in her own way.  Without mitigating the heartache and horror of a slow and painful death at the mercy of cancer, it is imperative that the will of God, however difficult, not be set aside.  We, like Christ, must learn to “know no will but His” (Ryle). 

        We must be very careful that we exercise our "freedom" in the context of God's sovereignty and His dominion in our lives.  Our American Citizenship does not usurp citizenship in the Kingdom of God.  The ultimate expression of our maturity in Christ is our increasing disposition to submit our will to the will of God, even when it is costly. 

        The “cup” would not be spared. 

              Jesus would bear the weight of the sin of the world. 

                       Of my sin.

                          And He would do so willingly.

 The world might call that “tragic”.  It is, in reality, the greatest Truth in all of history.  It is the Gospel.  Amen?

      

Note:  It may be helpful to know that I write this text with the perspective of having spent 6 months of the past year at my mother’s bedside as she, like Brittany, suffered the effects of a terminal brain tumor.  She died on February 1.  It was heartbreaking and painful and I’ll never understand the purpose of God…so I realize the dilemma.  But the Truth must not be set aside because it is hard.

 

*Ezekiel 23:32-34 and Isaiah 51:22

**2 Corinthians 5:21

 

 

 

      

Another stuttering start...Practice What You Preach

More months have passed since my last post.  i actually promised myself and the Lord that i would not write anything here unless there was something important to say... which tells you something about the past four months.  Actually, the internal debate in my heart and mind about whether this blogging thing is a good idea continues, and i'm still unsure.  Especially today.  Having just spent some time studying Mark 12, i am keenly aware of the Savior's indictment of leaders who love the sound of their own voice.  It is a bit ironic that the Holy Spirit would press me to write today.

On the other hand, the rich and deep theology found in Mark 12 literally begs to be pondered.  This last discourse of the Savior to a public audience resonates with both an invitation and an indictment.  Each offers a glimpse of the character and nature of Christ.  Each invites an opportunity for the serious follower of Christ to grow up, to mature.

Following His summarizing of all 613 Hebrew laws into a simple commandment duo ("Love God with your whole self & love others more than yourself"), Jesus' invitation to the Scribe is found in verse 34:  "You are not far from the kingdom of God."  Not far...close, but not "in".  And "close" only counts in corn hole. 

This leader had all of the right information, but he had yet to acknowledge the King.  Jesus, the compassionate evangelist, invites the Scribe to finish his faith journey and cross the threshold into the kingdom of God by acknowledging Him as Messiah and Lord.

Sister, if your walk with God is defined by your intellectual assent of His teaching, His work & His ministry...but you have yet to respond to the call of God for the totality of your life, you are close.  Near to the Kingdom.  But "near" is not "in."  This is the invitation of Jesus, son of the Living God:  You are not far from the Kingdom.  Cross the threshold and come in!

The indictment by the Savior is not so warm and fuzzy.  Verses 38-40 are actually a fairly tame summary of Jesus' full-out accusation leveled at the religious leaders found in the companion text, Matthew 23.  Matthew's succinct condemnation:  "They preach but do not practice..." (verse 3).  Wow.  Matthew, Mark & Luke each describe the lives of the Pharisees with disdain...but Matthew sums it up:  they preach...the laws, rituals, sacrifices & offerings...but they do not practice.

Instead of being the chief lovers of God and lovers of His people, these leaders loved themselves.  Their reputation.  Their prominence.  Their possessions.  Their power.  Instead of shepherding, guiding, caring for and discipling their people, they used even the poorest for their own glory and advancement.

The strongest indictment by the Savior captures the eternal significance of their self-promotion, verse 13:  "You shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces.  You neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in."   

It's no wonder that Jesus begins this teaching with the yellow-caution-tape-warning:  Beware.

He does not tell the people to be discerning.  To be careful.  To be alert.  He tells them to BEWARE.

Sisters, these leaders who "preach but don't practice" are not extinct.  They are among us today.  They do not deserve our pity or our patience.  There is no room for sentimentality here.  Be warned.  Beware.  Their refusal to love God with all of their lives, their self-promotion and self-serving ministry will lead people not to the Kingdom, but to destruction.  There is no more sober warning.  Beware.

Closer to home, while not leaders of the same stature as these men, every believer lives out her walk with God publically.  What do people see?  

• Is she seeking to attract attention by what she wears? 
• Is she insistent on respect, admiration, honor? 
• Must she have a place of prominence, drawing attention to herself in conversation and relationships?
• Is she unreasonably offended when overlooked or passed by? 
• Does she love the sound of her own voice...audibly or in print? (i'm thinking you see the irony now)
• Is she inclined to tell "her story", full of personal pronouns, at the expense of the glory of God?

The truth is that, without the grace of God in Christ, the above paragraph describes Every Christian.  It is impossible to live in the context of the great commandment...love God with your whole self & love others more than yourself...but for Jesus.  He makes the impossible, possible.  To quote my Pastor:  "Where our love fails, the love of Jesus makes up for the deficit."  Hallelujah. 

The invitation, then, is the answer to the indictment.  Our humanity is redeemed when we respond to the invitation to cross the threshold and come into the Kingdom. 

Sister, if you are a Kingdom-dweller today, be encouraged.  Because of Jesus, it is possible to obey this great commandment duo.  Ask Him to "see if there is any offensive way" in you and, once exposed, trust Him to change you.  Commit yourself, by His grace & for His glory, to be a woman who practices what she preaches...so that you do not "shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces", but instead yours is a life of invitation, urging those who are near to come on in!

Knock, Knock...Who's There? A snake and a predatory anthropod.

One last thing...

Lord, teach us to pray.
   To which Jesus replied...

Remember your Father.
     Keep in mind your many siblings.
           It's all about my glory.
                 And your transformation (kingdom life).
One day at a time.
     Love mercy.  Hate sin.
           Beware of the danger.*

It is in the context of this model for my prayers that Jesus goes on to tell a story that ends like this:

"Ask and it will be given to you;
      seek and you will find;
            knock and it will be open to you..."

Sound familiar?  He's not finished.

"What father among you if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent?
       Or if he asks for an egg, will you give him a scorpion?"

     i'm pretty certain this will reveal my own ignorance, but i have quoted both of those texts (loosely, i'm sure) dozens of times --- and have claimed them for myself --- totally out of the context of the first four verses of this chapter.

During the most difficult weeks of my mom's decline,
     i was the daughter asking for a fish and an egg. 
           And there, on my plate, God served up a serpent and a scorpion. 

At least that's how it seemed.

i was asking and asking. 
     Knocking and knocking.
         i was the impudent friend pounding on the door. 
              And the door stayed tightly sealed.

At least that's how it seemed.

     You know i know better, because i am confident in the character and nature of God.  He gives only good gifts to His children.  But i just don't get it.  And it's left me...well, mildly bitter.  Beyond grudging obedience, why do i pray?  i'm telling you, i asked for a fish and it feels like i got a scorpion.  (p.s. Can i just pause here and acknowledge my deep love for a God who will allow me to be petulant?  i love that He is more concerned about my soul than about my manners.)

     The first "lightbulb" that came on for me this week is that just because Jesus says a father who loves his children would not give them serpents and scorpions when they asked for fish and eggs doesn't mean he necessarily gave them fish and eggs, either.  Isn't that a radical thought?   It's a basic parenting principle --- a loving father will certainly not torture his children, but he also may not give them exactly what they ask for.   

      If my son asked for oreos for dinner.
           I would not give him borscht
                (which is a cold purple soup that my mother once tried to feed us). 
                     But I would not give him oreos either. 
                          i would have given him something nutritious.  Like pizza. :-)

What you can be sure of in relationship to a loving father is that what He gives you will be good for you...and it will ultimately bring you great vitality & joy.  Wow.  That's significant.  i may not have been given fish and eggs, but i can be confident that what MY FATHER gave me was not a scorpion.  What He gave was what was best for me.

Which takes me back to those first four verses ... which begin with "Our FATHER"...

Here's my second "lightbulb".

In light of Luke 11,
     i'm wondering if my disappointment and bitterness
              are the overflow of my not "by-the-Book" prayers. 

      i'm not suggesting that godliness requires my strict and exclusive recitation of the words of Jesus from Luke 11:1-4.   It does occur to me, however, that my desires, my hopes and plans and dreams for fish and eggs...these prayers, uttered within the framework of the Lord's prayer would be radically different than the helpless, frantic asking & knocking that have characterized my prayer life.  Perhaps i would grow to anticipate His love and ultimate care as His plan unfolds and my plate is filled up with good things from His pantry.
                   
       i am pondering whether my prayer life, patterned after these God-breathed words, would change me........and isn't that, ultimately, the whole point?

One last thing.  Perhaps the only unambiguous truth in this text is the closing promise from Jesus, verse 13.  Without this promise, we are lost.  Do yourself a favor and look it up......

Lord, teach us to pray. 
     Amen.

*my interpretation, a summary from my last post
 

    
    

Peaches and prayer

     i'm finishing up the last bite of a peach, warmed up with a bit of cinnamon in my cast iron skillet...my new favorite indulgence.  For a variety of reasons, i have been in a "stay-away-from-fruit" season. But those days are over and this peach is AMAZING.

     Have you read Luke 11?  "Lord, teach us to pray...and He said to them...

     When you pray, say:
               Father, hallowed be your name.
                       Your kingdom come.
      Give us each day our daily bread,
               and forgive us our sins,
                       for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
     And lead us not into temptation."

     i know it's a stretch, but i'm feeling about this familiar prayer a bit like i do about the peach.  It's certainly not new to me, but the words are so fresh that its as if the ink is still drying from Dr. Luke's pen.  Every word is precious as it instructs my troubled soul.   i hope you've taken the time to read it on your own.  See what you think....

     Father.  While his example pales in comparison, i think about my own dad -- who for all of my growing up years provided for our family, disciplined and corrected us, protected us from harm and loved us without reserve.   He was far from perfect, but not for lack of effort.  My Heavenly Father?  He is for me all that my dad would have wanted to be and He is so perfectly and fully.  He is my protector.  My provider.  My instructor.  My coach.  My counselor.  Do my prayers resonate with deep affection and trust in God my Father?

     In his Gospel, Matthew adds the plural possessive pronoun "our".  Our Father.  Which seems significant because it reminds me that God is not only in the business of protecting, providing for and leading me and my interests.  His responsibility is for our family. The Church.  Collectively.  To whatever degree my stuff is mingled in with yours, as my siblings, He must work all of that out.  Like pieces of a great cosmic puzzle.  It's actually not all about me.   Do my prayers resonate with a concern for the cares of my faith family?

     Hallowed be your name.  This is all about the glory.  i recently had a conversation with a wise friend who said to me "As i think about on my own walk with God, i realize that i began to grow up when i started asking the Lord to show me how to bring Him glory in my circumstances...rather than asking how i could escape from them".  Wow.  i'm thinking this is exactly what Jesus meant when He included this phrase in His "intro".  All of my stuff, whatever it is, is about His glory.  Do my prayers resonate with the priority of God's glory?

     Your kingdom come.  (And Matthew adds:  Your will be done, which is pretty much the same thing.)  Ultimately, this is the purpose of our lives --- that His "kingdom would come" in my life individually and in our lives corporately and, ultimately, in the world.  What does it mean for His kingdom to come in my life?  It's probably a subject for another blog, but in general it means  He reigns on the Throne of my life.  It means i serve at His pleasure and i am increasingly becoming like Him --- reflecting His love, honoring Him, pointing others to Him.*  It means His Will Be Done.  Ouch.  Do my prayers resonate with a desire to see His Kingdom grow in my heart & mind?

     Give us each day our daily bread.  "Just for today, Lord.  Just for today.  i will look to you this day for what i need this day.  i will not wish for yesterday's bread, which i may have wasted or forgot about and left to grow stale.  i will not long for tomorrow's bread.  Wondering if it will taste good.  Or if it will be enough to sustain me.  Today's bread.  In the same way that you provided manna one day at a time so that the people would learn to depend on you, i will gather what you give me for today."  Straight from the pages of my journal.  Easier said than done.  It is so hard to live in the moment and let that be enough.  Do my prayers resonate with a resolute conviction to focus on this day? 

     Forgive.  O to be tender to the Spirit so that i am the "chief repenter" in all of my relationships and as i walk with God.  i am --- particularly in difficult seasons --- too easy on myself.  As if my failure has a genesis outside my own self-serving soul.  i am undisciplined because i am tired.  i am snappy because i am under a lot of stress.  i am dismissive because i have too much on my plate and i can't be bothered.  Ugh.  Forgive...yes, please.  i am a sinner.  Do my prayers resonate with my desperate need for mercy?

     Lead us not into temptation.  (And Matthew adds: And deliver us from evil...again, same but different.)  It's so significant for me to take the time to think about what temptations threaten me during this season of heartache, or pain, or disappointment.  How am i tempted to console myself?  What am i tempted to think of others?  What am i tempted to listen to, watch, or read?  What am i tempted not to believe about God?  Father, don't let me go there.  Do my prayers resonate with a desperate commitment to flee temptation?

     When you pray, say...  when was the last time i prayed like this??  Teach me to pray.  Indeed. 

     More tomorrow.  That's enough to savor for today.   Thank you, Jesus.  Amen?

*ESV study notes on Matthew 6:10


    

Teach Me To Pray. Yes please.

     My prayer life has been mildly disabled since the death of my mom earlier this year.  People are still asking me, "How are you adjusting"?  Typically, i respond with some transparency about the still obvious and painful gaps, the sorrow of my new orphan identity, the need to regularly reorient my thinking ("i need to show this picture to mom!...")
     What i have not said is "i don't know how to pray anymore". 
            Seems like a conversation-stopper.
     It's such a simple spiritual exercise, and i know I should know better.  But i lost my bearings after weeks and weeks of begging the Lord to spare my mom from the very things that He, in fact, did not spare her from.
     Don't misunderstand me.  Mom's journey with her illness was so much less painful and heartbreaking than we expected. As a family we were profoundly grateful for dozens of months and a myriad of memories that we enjoyed, far beyond her doctor's original diagnosis.
     But those last two months were hard.
     i've been reminded that we American Christians don't like hard...and we are wired to have our way.  But this dilemma of mine has not been about hardship.  Or about God's willingness to meet my demands.  i fully accept --- and am grateful for --- His sovereignty.  i believe wholeheartedly in His love for my Mom and for our family.  i know that as we suffered, He suffered with us.
     My challenge is:  What does godly prayer look like?  In light of my theology, how am i to pray...in the midst of crisis, heartache, fear, disappointment...how am i to pray with faith for God's glory?  How am i to pray when i am deeply committed to God's sovereignty and His plan?  How do i pray when i know God will do what God will do??
     Don't get excited.  i don't have all the answers...and what i do have, i'm SURE is not new.  But this week, God has given me a foothold for Truth that is marinating in my mind and feeding my weak faith.
     i've been reading through Luke (slowly, i know) and this week i came to the familiar passages in chapter 11.  This text begins with the disciples saying:

      "Lord, teach us to pray". 
Just those five words made me want to weep!  What follows their question is a two-fold response from Jesus that has, literally, breathed life into my worn out soul.  These are words that i repeat week after week in worship, and today it is as if i have heard them for the first time.  Phew.
     i'm so anxious that these words, the words of Jesus, resonate with readers that i will wait to write more until tomorrow...in the meantime, and before reading the next post, i want to encourage you to read them for yourself.  Pick up the Scripture and read Luke 11:1-13.  If this is your struggle, let the words of the Savior seep into your heart and mind. 

     How have we missed this???

On Being Clay

“The Lord will fulfill His purpose for me; your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever.”  Psalm 138:8

i love this verse.  It is a text that i return to with some regularity because it so succinctly captures the nature of God and His resolute commitment to His people.  Today, this little verse, and those that surround it in context, has once again righted my thinking and helped me to pray.   

On my mind today is not my own story, but the story lines of others that i love.  When our children were small, their little lives were marked by scrapes and bruises, broken toys and hurt feelings but we were mostly able to fix their stuff, brush off their wounds and move on to the next adventure.  Things aren’t so easy to mend anymore and people’s lives are full of insurmountable hardship. 

 

At least it seems so.

i find myself wondering why God allows His children to struggle,

      to be lonely,

           to have disappointment,

                  to be fearful for the future.  

 

i want to help, but i am powerless for some and feeble, ineffective for others.  i can’t put a Band-Aid on their bruises and what’s broken is mostly not fixable. 

 

Today, that’s been hard.  i have been brooding for most of the day.

Gratefully, from somewhere in my soul the Spirit gently and faithfully instructed my mind with Psalm 138.  These verses have resonated with Truth in my own life, but today the rich theology gives me perspective as i think and pray for brothers and sisters…beloved strugglers. 

 

While there is much that i don’t know, here’s what i hang on to:

The LORD.  The title used here is “Jehovah”.  It means “the unchanging, eternal, self-existent God”, the “I am that I am”, the Covenant-Keeper.  This is God who has all authority, wisdom and power.  The One who keeps all of His promises.

He will fulfill….not “may”, not “could”, not even “should” fulfill.  He will fulfill.  Is there any doubt about His intent?

He will fulfill His purpose for me. This is critical to my thinking.  It gives me hope and a deep sense of security.  He has a purpose for me (and for each of His children).   Seriously.  Just this Truth settles my worry-ridden heart.  He.  Has.  A.  Purpose. For.  Me. 

 But it is HIS purpose.  Emphasis on HIS.  The promise is that He will fulfill HIS purpose.  Not MY purpose for me.  Or, for today, MY purpose for anyone else.  And sometimes that means He puts them in the boat headed for raging wind and pounding waves.*  This Truth puts me gently in my place.  It is the prophets’ “potter and clay” principle:  

 

“But now, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter…”   (Isaiah 64:8) 

          “Like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand…” declares the Lord.  (Jeremiah 18:6)

 

The Potter fashions the clay,

     breaks it down

            and fashions it again to form it for HIS OWN PURPOSE. 

                   The clay is…well, just clay. 

The LORD will fulfill His purpose for me.  And for those that i love.  HE is the LORD.  There is a certainty to His plan and a commitment to His purpose.  He will do it.  He has a purpose for each of His children and it is His purpose that will come to pass.  Nothing can or will deter such purpose.

"Your steadfast love, O LORD, endures forever."  The Psalmist ends by recalling the deep well of affection from which the Lord’s purpose is drawn --- a steadfast love that began before time and one which has no end.  With such love and commitment, why do i worry?  Who goes about brooding with knowledge like that?
The Lord will fulfill His purpose for me.

            And for those that i love.

i can’t fix what’s broken or heal what hurts, but i’m shamelessly clinging to that promise this evening.  It’s the healthy dose of Truth that i needed…and i am forever grateful that the Spirit never tires of reminding me. 
How will i pray for my beloved strugglers?  The psalmist offers a promise and a prayer in verse 3:

"On the day I called, you answered me;
          my strength of soul you increased."

Strength of soul. 
       For bruised lives.  
            For wounded hearts. 
                   For fearful adventurers. 

For me, powerless to help, as i wait and watch and hope.  Strength of soul.  i need that today.

Amen.

 *a truth from my last post that is still ringing in my ears

 

 

 

My Sinking Ship

It has been over a year since i posted on this blog.  A lot has changed during these months, but that's not exactly why i've been silent.  Honestly, i have been having a running internal dialog about the plethora of words that are crowding up the universe.  Sometimes i ask myself "why do these people think anyone cares about what they have to say"?  A question followed by the intriguing reality that people do care, which then begs the question:  "why??"  Just how many opinions, ideas, thoughts, reflections, and stories can one human brain filter in a lifetime?

i have a friend who is a journalist. 
     She writes important stuff.
            Her writing informs my mind. 
                 And my prayer life.  As i contemplate what's happening in the world.
                         But i think she's unique.

What, then, do i have to offer?  Why am i back?

i'm back mostly for myself.  This writing is good discipline and the submission of it to review by (potentially) virtual strangers forces me to more carefully construct sentences and paragraphs so that i can be reasonably certain that i am not misunderstood.  It also gives me the opportunity to work out my own thinking and reasoning as i read, and study, and walk with God...proclaiming His might to another generation.* 

So here's to jumbling up the virtual sky with one more thought. 
     i'm clear this is in the "for what it's worth" category :-)

This morning, in the quiet of my car in the parking lot of Starbucks, i read Luke 8:22-24.  i'm reading through the Bible (theoretically) --- NT in the morning & OT in the evening.  i had a plan to get through in a year, but by the second week of January i was already behind.  So i'm just plodding through at my own very slow pace.


So Luke 8:22-24.  One day he got into a boat with his disciples, and he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side of the lake.” So they set out, and as they sailed he fell asleep. And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water and were in danger. And they went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” And he awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased, and there was a calm. He said to them, “Where is your faith?” And they were afraid, and they marveled, saying to one another, “Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?”


Having read those verses hundreds of times, i was tempted to keep going.  But the Holy Spirit prompted me to stop.  Read again.  Which i did. 


i was in a pretty difficult spot this morning.  Without going into the details, suffice it to say that i was (am) discouraged.  And more than a little weary.  But here's what the Spirit inscribed on my soul this morning:


Jesus put His friends into a boat that He knew was headed for danger.
       Then He got in with them.


Stew on that for just a few minutes.  Or for the whole day. 


Jesus knew there was going to be a storm.  He could have protected His friends, kept them safely distant from the threatening wind and waves.  Instead, He put them in the boat. 


Truth:  Danger...hardship...disappointment...pain...wind & raging waves ARE PART OF GOD'S SOVEREIGN PLAN for my life.  He is not only not surprised, He orchestrates these circumstances for my good because He loves me.  Selah.  (That's a psalm word that means: stop & think)


Jesus could have put those faithless friends into the doomed dingy and left them to fend for themselves, to discover their faith-deficit on their own.  Instead, He got into the boat.


Truth:  In the midst of those terrifying, heartbreaking, tear-stained hours (and days and weeks and months)  HE IS WITH ME.  This is an Immanuel moment:  God with us.  When my boat is filling with water, He is right there with me.  Selah.


The end of the story is pretty powerful, as Jesus demonstrates His absolute authority over all of nature.  And i needed that part too.  The reminder that every single aspect of all of human nature and creation is at His command.  It is this truth that undergirds all of the others:  the wind, the sea, the ship, the disciples, these all belong to Him.  Ultimately, He can (and will) do what He chooses. 


Nothing has changed...i am aware that my ship might still sink.  But there is a quiet sense of calm in my soul that God has ordained even this, and that i am not alone.  He's my shipmate.


What's a few hundred words taking up space to say THAT?




*Psalm 71:18