Category Archives: Faith & Hope

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October 17, 2024

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Attitudes & Behavior, Challenges & Difficulty, Faith & Hope, Prayer, Trusting God

MINDSET

Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life. [Philippians 4:6-7 (MSG)]

The real problem of the Christian life comes where people do not usually look for it. It comes the very moment you wake up each morning. All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists simply in shoving them all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in. [C.S. Lewis]

The above words are from Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. For Lewis, those first moments of wakefulness were the most important ones of the day because they set one’s frame of mind. When God is our first thought of the day, we begin the morning with a sense of peace and power – peace because we know the day is in His hands and power because we know that through Him we can get through anything it throws at us. It’s as if an invisible barrier has been set up between us and the desires, troubles, and cares of the world in which we live.

Unfortunately, some days that barrier doesn’t get erected. When that happens, it’s as if the world uses a battering ram to crash into our thoughts and things like anxiety, anger, annoyance, stress, pain, and fear come stampeding through our minds. For the rest of the day, we struggle to find that peace Jesus promised His followers. When Lewis wrote those words about shoving back our thoughts and ceding our minds to God, he added, “We can only do it for moments at first. But, from those moments, the new sort of life will be spreading through our system: because now we are letting Him work at the right part of us.”

Some sixteen years after writing those words, Lewis truly knew how difficult it was to shove back the world’s thoughts and let God’s voice come flowing into his mind. Once again, his wife Joy was diagnosed with terminal cancer and a second miraculous recovery did not appear to be in God’s plan. When writing to a friend about Joy’s diagnosis, Lewis said the following: “The dreadful thing, as you know, is the waking each morning—the moment at which it all floats back on one.”

Lewis is not the only one to wrestle with turning his first waking moments over to God. Even without the impending death of a spouse, we struggle to keep the challenges of the coming day from assaulting us and stealing our peace. When life goes awry, dark troubling thoughts can bombard our minds at the crack of dawn. Instead of dedicating our thoughts to God and thanking Him for another day, we think things like, “Oh God, not another day like yesterday; not another day of pain and trouble; not another day of bad news. Please God, no more!”

Surely, Abraham woke to dark thoughts the morning he was to sacrifice his beloved Isaac. David, knowing his infant son would die, must have had dark thoughts every morning during the seven days of his boy’s illness. Perhaps even Jesus, knowing what lay ahead for Him, struggled with dark thoughts when he woke that last Thursday morning.

As Lewis so wisely said, “We are Christians, not Stoics.” Anxiety, worry, and even fear are part of being human and yet they sap our strength and undermine our faith. The first moments of our day, however, can make a tremendous difference in our journey. It’s a darn sight easier to erect a dike before the flood, shore up a wall before it starts to cave, and turn the day over to God before its troubles start barging in. We’ll still have the challenges of the day but we’ll have the power and strength to face them. As Lewis discovered, it’s not easy but it’s worth a try!

Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies. [Philippians 4:8-9(MSG)]

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September 12, 2024

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Attitudes & Behavior, Bible Stories, Challenges & Difficulty, Faith & Hope, Fear & Doubt, Obedience, Sharing Our Faith, Today: Make it Count

OUTSIDE THE LINES

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. [Romans 12:2 (NLT)]

Several years ago, I purchased a beautifully drawn coloring book featuring scenes from the Colorado mountain town that had been part of our lives for thirty-five years. Since it was a gift for one of my grands, I asked the artist to sign the book. She added these words to her signature: “Don’t be afraid to color outside the lines!” Was the artist’s advice limited to her book or was it about something more?

“Coloring inside the lines” has come to mean thinking or acting within the generally accepted guidelines. It’s staying within your comfort zone by doing what’s safe—the way it’s always been done. Creating a new and better picture, however, requires coloring outside the lines! Although it can get a little messy, coloring outside the lines means thinking outside the box, seeing new possibilities, stepping out of the norm, using different colors, and drawing new lines. It must be willing to get uncomfortable. Doing God’s work often requires coloring or living outside the lines draw by society!

The unconventional John the Baptist lived outside the lines. A Nazarite from birth, he was an ascetic who practiced self-denial, wore a rough robe of camel’s hair with a leather belt, and ate locusts and honey. Not one to play it safe, he called the Pharisees and Sadducees a “brood of snakes!” and dared to call King Herod and his wife adulterers! Nevertheless, it was by coloring outside the lines that the Baptizer fulfilled God’s purpose to be the voice in the wilderness that prepared the way for Jesus.

Elisha lived outside the lines when he left his prosperous farm and team of oxen to become Elijah’s successor—an odd choice his family and neighbors probably didn’t understand. The young shepherd boy David stepped outside the lines when he dared to take on Goliath—something none of Saul’s seasoned soldiers had attempted. Abigail went outside the lines when she kept David from taking vengeance on her foolish husband as did Rahab when she helped the Israelites. Joseph colored outside the lines when he remained with the pregnant Mary rather than breaking their engagement. Mary of Bethany went outside the lines when she sat with the men rather than help in the kitchen and again when she anointed Jesus with expensive perfume. Peter colored outside the lines when he stepped out of the Jewish code of ritual purity and ate with the Gentile Cornelius as did Paul when he insisted Gentiles didn’t need to become circumcised.

Coloring outside the lines is what we do when we allow God to take control of our lives; it’s leaving your livelihood and tax booth as did Matthew or stepping out of the boat onto the water as did Peter. Staying inside the lines is failing to trust God enough to answer His call and follow His lead. Staying inside the lines is what the Pharisees did. It’s being more concerned about what others think than what God says; it’s being more concerned about how we appear than who we really are.

Coloring outside the lines is refusing to compromise our faith; it is obeying God before man. The artist’s advice to my grand applies to us all: “Don’t be afraid to color outside the lines!” Let’s not be afraid to live outside the lines—honestly, boldly, creatively, faithfully, and joyfully—fulfilling God’s purpose and trusting in His promises.

For God has said, “I will never fail you. I will never abandon you.” So we can say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper, so I will have no fear. What can mere people do to me?” [Hebrews 13:5b-6 (NLT)]

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August 22, 2024

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Bible Stories, Church & Worship, Faith & Hope, God's Plan, God's Word: The Bible, Thanks & Praise

HARVEST HOME

And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, “Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?” He said to them, “An enemy has done this.” So the servants said to him, “Then do you want us to go and gather them?” But he said, “No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, ‘Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’” [Matthew 13:27-30 (ESV)]

Come, ye thankful people, come, raise the song of harvest home;
all is safely gathered in, ere the winter storms begin. [Henry Alford]

Because the pastor’s sermon was about being thankful, she’d selected “Come, Ye Thankful People, Come” as the evening’s opening hymn. Henry Alford wrote this hymn in 1844 for village harvest festivals in England called Harvest Home. Rural churches would celebrate the harvest by decorating with pumpkins and autumn leaves, collecting the harvest bounty, and then distributing it to the needy. Because of its seasonal harvest imagery, we usually sing this hymn in November at Thanksgiving but this was mid-July! Reading the hymn’s words out of their traditional Thanksgiving context, I understood their meaning in an entirely different way.

While the literal meaning of “harvest” is the gathering in of crops, when Jesus spoke of the harvest, He used it as a metaphor for the gathering of souls into the kingdom. With its references to Jesus’ words about the harvest, Alford’s hymn is more than a song celebrating a bountiful crop of wheat, barley, oats, and potatoes; it is a metaphor for the final judgment and Christ’s return! The first verse, with its call for people to come to the harvest, alludes to Jesus’ words about the coming harvest being great but the workers being few. It reminded me that we all are called to be workers in His field!

The second verse’s, “All the world is God’s own field, fruit as praise to God we yield; wheat and tares together sown are to joy or sorrow grown,” combines imagery from Jesus’ parable of the growing seed in which the harvest comes through God’s provision and His parable of the wheat and tares. The wheat seeds symbolize the true believers sown by Jesus and the tares or weeds the bad seeds sown by Satan. While both the grain and weeds grow side by side, only the wheat will grow to joy while the tares will grow to sorrow! Alford concludes the second stanza with the simple prayer: “Lord of harvest, grant that we wholesome grain and pure may be.”

The apocalyptic theme of the hymn becomes clear in the third and fourth verses: “For the Lord our God shall come, and shall take the harvest home.” Repeating imagery from Matthew 13, Alford continues: “Giving angels charge at last, in the fire the tares to cast; but the fruitful ears to store in the garner evermore.” Both wheat and tares will receive their reward; the wheat (the righteous) will be stored in the barn and enter into the Kingdom but the tares (false believers) will be gathered and burned in Hell.

How can a hymn about the final judgment be so joyful and filled with thanksgiving? Because, for a believer, the message of the gospel is one of hope. There will be no tares in heaven. As Alford says, it will be “free from sorrow, free from sin.” The hymn concludes with a prayer that Jesus would soon return for the harvest: “Even so, Lord, quickly come, bring thy final harvest home … come, with all thine angels, come, raise the glorious harvest home.”

As believers, we can be thankful because we’ve read the last chapter. We know our story won’t end with “weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Instead, we will “shine like the sun in the kingdom” of our Father!

Lord of harvest, grant that we wholesome grain and pure may be. [Henry Alford]

Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear. [Matthew 13: 40-43 (ESV)]

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July 22, 2024

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Attitudes & Behavior, Bible Stories, Faith & Hope, Miracles, Prayer, Trusting God

CHUTZPAH IN PRAYER

And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. [Luke 18:1 (ESV)]

bald eagleI began my prayer with, “Lord, you’ve got to…” but got no further. “God doesn’t ‘got to’ do anything!” said a still small voice and the Spirit’s point was well taken. By beginning with an impertinent demand like a selfish petulant child in a toy store, I showed chutzpah of the worst kind and began again.

From the Yiddish word khutspe, meaning impudence or gall, Leo Rosten’s classic definition of chutzpah is, “that quality enshrined in a man who, having killed his mother and father, throws himself on the mercy of the court because he is an orphan.” The brazen way I started my prayer displayed chutzpah’s negative characteristics of rudeness, impertinence, presumption, insolence, and arrogance.

A little chutzpah, however, isn’t necessarily bad. On the positive side, chutzpah includes the qualities of fearlessness, pluck, mettle, and boldness; it questions, challenges assumptions, speaks up, and stands its ground. Chutzpah, at its worst, is rude, disgraceful, and harmful. At its best, however, this combination of audacity and gumption can bring glory to God’s name. This difference is in motivation—rather than being done for personal gain, “holy chutzpah” is done to reveal God’s kingdom on earth.

Moses showed holy chutzpah on Mt. Sinai when he debated God about the destruction of the Israelites and Abraham showed chutzpah when he negotiated with God over the complete destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. When Jacob wrestled with God,  the man persisted despite a dislocated hip until he’d received a blessing! That’s chutzpah!

In Cana, Mary showed chutzpah by expecting Jesus to solve a wine shortage when the problem wasn’t His to solve and His power was unknown to others. The Syrophoenician woman certainly showed chutzpah by challenging Jesus after he denied her request to heal her demon-possessed daughter. Think of the chutzpah of Bartimaeus, the blind beggar who, despite a scolding by the crowd, persisted in calling out to Jesus; the woman with the bleeding disorder with the audacity to come out in public and the gumption to touch the fringe on Jesus’ robe; and the parents who ignored the disciples’ rebukes by bringing their little children to be blessed by the Lord!

A pastor friend frequently says, “Ours in an audacious God; we should honor Him with audacious prayers.” Do we? When King Hezekiah fell ill, Isaiah told him he would not recover. Unwilling to accept his fate, the king had the chutzpah to ask God for more years. God heard, healed him, and Hezekiah lived another fifteen years! What if he hadn’t asked for those years? Consider how different his story and those of people like Moses, Abraham, and the Syrophoenician woman would have been if they hadn’t had the chutzpah to make their audacious pleas and petitions! Ours is a big God for whom nothing is impossible! Let us come before the Lord, not with arrogance and impudence, but with boldness, humility, respect, and faith.

Praying recklessly brave prayers humbles me, reminding me of both my own great need and his great strength. In asking him for big, impossible things, I expect my dependence on him to grow, my willingness to take risks for his kingdom to increase, and my intimacy with him to deepen. [Lisa Schrad]

So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most. [Hebrews 4: 16 (NLT)]

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July 11, 2024

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Attitudes & Behavior, Bible Stories, Challenges & Difficulty, Faith & Hope, God's Promises, Salvation: A New You

JESUS’ ANSWER – Part 2 

“Yes,” Jesus replied, “and I assure you that everyone who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or property, for my sake and for the Good News, will receive now in return a hundred times as many houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and property—along with persecution. And in the world to come that person will have eternal life. [Mark 10:29-30 (NLT)]

If I were doing what accountants call a cost-benefit analysis of our living in Florida, the cost side would include venomous snakes, poisonous cane toads, hurricanes, alligators, sink holes, fire ants, and mosquitos along with humidity, allergies, high insurance, and seasonal traffic. On the other hand, the benefits would include never having to shovel snow, scrape sleet from a windshield, or drive on icy roads, along with the enjoyment of beaches, beautiful birds, colorful flowers, ocean breezes, “early-bird” specials, sunshine, no state income tax, and never-ending summer. While not one hundred times better, the pluses outweigh the negatives and make it worthwhile (at least for us)!

When Peter asked Jesus how His followers would be rewarded, he simply was doing a cost-benefit analysis. Knowing the sacrifices they made, he wanted to know the reward. At first, Jesus’ answer to the disciple’s question seems the kind of puffery we’d expect from politicians and used car dealers. Promising blessings both in this life and in the next, Jesus assured Peter of a hundredfold return. A return of 100% would be exactly what had been forsaken but a return of a hundredfold is one hundred times better than whatever was sacrificed!

As for that hundredfold return of houses, property, and family—thank you, Jesus, but I don’t want 100 houses, 200 cars, 100 spouses, or 300 children, let alone 500 grands! I’ve got more than I can handle with what I have right now! While any people or things we sacrifice to follow Jesus are literal, common sense tells us that any people or possessions gained are figurative, spiritual, and eternal. A soul, while not of substance, is irreplaceable and its worth is incalculable! Additionally, along with eternal life, Christ’s followers actually do get a new and larger family in His church and a new home in His Kingdom! Moreover, His promise was not one of prosperity! Although Jesus promised His followers their lives would be richer for their sacrifices, He never said they’d be wealthier!

Unlike politicians and car dealers who might hide the true cost of their promises, Jesus reiterated the price of discipleship throughout the Gospels. In fact, smack dab in the middle of that hundredfold return, He promised persecution! While we prefer His promised blessings to any persecution, sacrifice, trials, or suffering, they’re a package deal—we won’t get one without the other. Moreover, that hundredfold return is conditional! The sacrifices are to be made for His sake and that of the gospel rather than for personal gain. Jesus never promised that life will get easier when we follow Him but He did promise that it would become immeasurably better—both in this world and the next!

Jesus told us to count the cost before choosing to follow Him. A cost-benefit analysis of discipleship tells us the price we pay is our lives but the benefits of God’s Kingdom and eternal life outweigh the cost more than a hundredfold! There certainly are times serving Jesus and His church with our time, talents, gifts, and money seems a heavy price to pay but true discipleship (and all of the sacrifice, difficulty, and even persecution that may arise from it) comes with the territory just as living with hurricanes and mosquitos come with retiring in Florida! In both cases, it’s more than worth it.

Not one man has ever sacrificed for his Lord without being richly repaid. If the cross is only contrasted with earthly pleasures lost, it may seem hard and threatening. But when the cross is weighed in the balances with the glorious treasures to be had through it, even the cross seems sweet. [Walter J. Chantry]

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul? [Matthew 16:24-26 (NLT)]

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June 27, 2024

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Bible Stories, Challenges & Difficulty, Faith & Hope, Trusting God

SEEN AND HEARD

Thereafter, Hagar used another name to refer to the Lord, who had spoken to her. She said, “You are the God who sees me.” [Genesis 16:13a (NLT)]

wild donkeyAlthough our Bibles call Hagar a servant, she had no choice in the matter. Along with sheep, goats, cattle, donkeys, and camels, the Egyptian woman probably was given to Abraham as part of the bride-price Pharaoh paid for Sarah in Genesis 12:16. As his property, Hagar couldn’t refuse when Sarah decided to use her servant’s womb and Abraham impregnated her. Once pregnant, the powerless victim of Sarah’s scheme taunted her mistress with her fertility and Sarah retaliated by treating her harshly. Abraham washed his hands of the women’s conflict by telling Sarah the way she treated (or mistreated) the woman was her business, not his! Hagar meant nothing to Abraham; she was little more than a brood mare who served her purpose.

Rather than submit to Sarah’s continued mistreatment, the pregnant Hagar ran away. Alone and unaided, she headed south toward Egypt. While following the road to Shur, the exhausted woman stopped by a spring of water. As Hagar sat there, an angel of the Lord called her by name and asked from where she had come and where was she going.

When Hagar admitted she was running away, God’s messenger told her to return to Sarah and revealed that that her unborn child was a boy. Describing her son as a wild donkey, the angel explained he would be free, live as a nomad, have many descendants, and be hostile to his kinsmen. The child was to be named Ishmael (meaning “God hears”) because God heard her cry. Realizing that she was speaking with God, Hagar named Him El Roi, meaning “the God who sees me.” Not only is Hagar—a pagan slave woman with no power or status—the first person in Scripture to be visited by an angel but she is the only person in Scripture to give God a name!

Trusting El Roi, the God who saw her, Hagar obediently returned to Sarah and Abraham and gave birth to Ishmael. Fourteen years later, Sarah gave birth to Isaac. Animosity and jealousy between the women and sibling rivalry between the boys made a bad situation even worse. When Sarah demanded that Abraham “get rid of that slave woman and her son,” he strapped some food and water on Hagar’s back and sent the two of them off into the wilderness. Their water supply was soon depleted and, at death’s door, Ishmael lay under a bush and cried. Once again, God saw and heard the two of them in the wilderness. He reassured the distraught woman of her son’s future and then opened her eyes so she saw a well and a means of survival.

We don’t know if Hagar knew God before encountering Him in the wilderness, but we do know that He knew her! Throughout their story Abraham and Sarah never address Hagar by name; she was just “my servant” or “that slave woman.” To them, Hagar was a piece of property—nameless, unappreciated, unloved, and disposable. But to the God who called her by name, Hagar was a valued person! Her story tells us that we have a God who both sees and hears us wherever and whoever we are!

Just as God didn’t abandon Hagar and Ishmael in the wilderness, He won’t abandon us in the wilderness and badlands of our lives. Just as he saw an unloved slave woman and heard her unwanted son’s cries, He sees and hears us. Just as He knows when a sparrow falls to the ground, He knows when we need Him. It may seem that we’re invisible and ignored by those around us, but we are never unseen or unheard by God. He will open our eyes to possibilities and give us hope and a future. He is El Roi!

What is the price of two sparrows—one copper coin? But not a single sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it. And the very hairs on your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are more valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows. Matthew 10:29-31 (NLT)

But in my distress I cried out to the Lord; yes, I prayed to my God for help. He heard me from his sanctuary; my cry to him reached his ears. [Psalm 18:6 (NLT)]

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