A new year - the same hope

 It is almost time to think about 2021.  I say almost because we are not quite through Christmas.  But the new year is just around the corner, and for many, it cannot come too soon.  I have heard a lot of frustration and angst about 2020 and for good reason - a pandemic, a lot of loss and pain suffered by individuals that I know, a lot of loneliness and isolation.  And in the midst of all of that we want to leave and exit and get to something new and better.

I find it interesting that people hope for a better new year simply because it is a new year.  There is no magic that happens on December 31st at 11:59 that makes 2021 miraculously better.  There will be new and different challenges.  There will be new frustrations and new pain.  And yet there is hope.  Ironically it is the same hope that is available now and has been for all of 2020.  The hope is in Jesus.  And Jesus never changes.  So place your hope in something that does not change.  Place your hope in something that cannot and will not go away.  Put your hope in the new year in Jesus Christ and in Him alone.  And if you do this, you will not be disappointed.  You will still have pain, you may still suffer, but you will not be disappointed because Jesus does not fail.  

Christmas is not a season

 Every year, sometime after Thanksgiving and usually before Black Friday - which is admittedly a short window - I hear the expression "Christmas Season".  I do really understand what people mean by this and in many respects, I can concede that this is meaningful language.  People do think about Christmas more during the weeks between thanksgiving and Christmas.  Even I talk about the season.  We have cute Christian expressions like "Jesus is the Reason for the Season."  And yet as I was thinking about this I wonder if we do more harm than good when we think like this.  

For instance, if Christmas is really a season, then at some point it is over.  It might be over for you on the 26th of December.  Or maybe when they stop playing Christmas carols on your favorite station.  Or perhaps when you take your lights down.  But whenever that moment is, it is over.  A season ends.  Is this how we want to think of the coming of Christ?   Yes, he ascended, but the rule and reign that started when the angels announced the birth of a king is ongoing and permanent.  That which started in the nativity has no end.  The Scriptures even remind us of this in passages that we often quote during the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas and seem to forget about until the next year.  

Or what about the Bible - do the passages on Christmas only have meaning for Christmas, or is the Word of God living and active and useful for the entirety of the year - does the prophecy of the coming of Christ matter only for four weeks, or does it matter year round?

I will not belabor the point but I think that we ought to remind ourselves that the message of Christmas is not a message that is to be limited to a time frame during the course of any year.  It is timeless and eternal and meant to be the center of our identity as followers of the one who came to die and be raised for our justification.  Christmas is a year long celebration of who we are in Christ!  So celebrate - even after the 26th of December!

Lamentations at Thanksgiving

 We as Christians have done a poor job at describing the whole of Scripture.  In fact, we have tried to make our theology a McDonalds menu of choices where we have the ability to present the love of God without His holiness, the goodness of God without His wrath.  Give me an order of the peace of God, but not the patience.  I will take an order of joy, but hold the trials.  In doing this, our theology has very little place for pain and suffering, for hardship and turmoil.  This is evident in the hymnody of our day and the seeming total absence of suffering in many of our worship songs.  Sure it might mention it in passing, but then it quickly gets to the good stuff.  Our Bible study does the same - talk about Christ who gives me strength and less about the danger and nakedness and peril we will face that cannot separate us from the love of God.  

And so we come to a holiday like Thanksgiving.  And we often do not have much we feel like being thankful for, and so we have tension in us.  

Enter the biblical place of lament - crying out to God because things are not what they ought to be.  

God has made promises to us that we are waiting for Him to fulfill.  Promises like no more crying and no more pain.  And here we are crying and in pain - we can tell Him that we are hurting and it does not make us less faithful.  We can acknowledge our cares while we cast them on Him.  We can give thanks in all circumstances while acknowledging we might want those things to go away.  Jesus did it in Gethsemane.  Paul did it with his thorn.  And we have examples of it in the Psalms and the Prophets.  So let us make use of this category of worship - Lament.  Here are a few tips:

1. Be honest.

2. Be reverent

3. Allow God to be God and acknowledge His character even when you cant see what He is doing!

And while doing those three things - tell God how much pain you are in.  He hears, cares, listens, and already knows.  We do not have to pretend to have it all together and a freedom from suffering is not the mark of spiritual maturity.  In fact, it seems that often spiritual maturity comes as a result of the suffering that we are promised!  

Election Day AKA Psalm 2 Day

 Today in the United States of America is election day.  A day when we all should get out and exercise our civic responsibility to vote and influence the future of our country.  I call it Psalm 2 day.  Why?  Let me share Psalm 2 with you:

"Why are the nations in an uproar and the peoples devising a vain thing?  The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying, ' Let us tear their fetters apart and cast away their cords from us!' He who sits in the heavens laughs, the Lord scoffs at them.  Then He will speak to them in His anger and terrify them in His fury, saying, 'But as for Me, I have installed My King upon Zion, My holy mountain.' "  (Psalm 2:1-6, NASB)

It always seems like people panic around election time as if their candidate is the savior of the free world.  Regardless of whom you are voting for, they are not.  God is.  And God laughs when rulers and governments think they can do things apart from the leadership of God Himself. He laughs - He thinks it is funny.  He scoffs at them.  And with a word He can terrify them.  Christians would do well to remember this.  Christians would do well to remember all that God has told us in His word about what is coming and about the return of Christ.  We should be less panicked and much more concerned that Jesus is coming back and our neighbors are dying - even if they have the right political sign in their yard.  Let God handle the rulers put in place.  And remember that if your candidate does not win the vote, God is still on the throne and will be for all eternity.

To God be the glory!

Service and Sacrifice

 "There is a mind-set in the prosperous West that we deserve pain-free, trouble-free existence.  When life deals us the opposite, we have a right not only to blame somebody or some system and to feel sorry for ourselves, but also to devote most of our time to coping so that we have no time or energy left over for serving others.  This mindset gives a trajectory toward life that is almost universal - namely, away from stress and toward comfort and safety and relief."  

John Piper, 21 Servants of Sovereign Joy, Crossway, 2018, p. 256  

The book from which this quote comes is laden with stories of people who gave up comfort and ease to serve their Savior.  In fact, as you look at both biblical accounts and the accounts of men and women who served God throughout history, most all of them had troubles directly related to their faith.  Many lost the lives of ones they loved.  Many of them lost their own lives.  Since Constantine, and even more recently, since our country was founded on the premise of religious freedom, we have enjoyed a freedom from persecution that has become the norm.  We have gotten comfortable.  And with comfort there often comes apathy.  Are apathetic in our faith?  Are you so comfortable that your time is spent during hardship dealing with it rather than serving others?  Perhaps we need to refocus ourselves and understand the role that pain plays in our development!

Grace

I have been reading Jerry Bridges' book called Transforming Grace: Living Confidently in God's Unfailing Love.  It is a great read and something I would recommend reading and reminding myself of on a regular basis.  I came across a passage and I wanted to share it.  In his 1991 publication, he writes on page 169 at the bottom of the page:

"This is the amazing story of God's grace.  God saves us by His grace and transforms us more and more into the likeness of His Son by His grace.  In all our trials and afflictions, He sustains and strengthens us by His grace.  He calls us by grace to perform our own unique function within the Body of Christ.  Then again by grace, He gives to each of us spiritual gifts necessary to fulfill our calling. As we serve Him, He makes that service acceptable to Himself by grace, and then rewards us a hundredfold by grace."  

How very true and what a good reminder to myself that not only am I saved by grace, but that I live empowered by grace to do the good works that Christ has enabled me to do.  (Ephesians 2:10)  How very true that grace is never done with me!  How very true that I am ALWAYS in need of grace and to be in touch with the enormous grace of God!

Jesus washed the feet of Judas

 I have always been amazed at how the gospels make it abundantly clear that Jesus knew that someone was going to betray him and that He continued to minister with Judas on his team anyway.  Most of us if we are honest are not willing to look past the knowledge that someone has betrayed us and I think if we could predict it with accuracy we would cut ties with any individual whom we knew was going to bring us harm.  And yet Jesus continued to minister alongside Judas.  He taught and Judas could hear.  He walked and Judas could follow.  And even moments before the betrayal, Jesus washes the feet of the one He knew would betray Him.  What mercy!  

I wonder if we can learn from this submission to the plan of God.  Jesus, knowing what God was accomplishing, understood that the betrayal from one close to Him was a part of what God was doing in His life to accomplish salvation for all.  To avoid or dodge this goal would have been to disallow one part of the bigger plan of God.

That is the secret to finding our way through pain - to acknowledge that in a way we may not be able to understand that the pain is a means by which God will accomplish His purposes in our lives.  If we are to avoid it or dodge it because of our own desires we may miss that which God has allowed for our good.   This is not to say that there does not come a time to part ways with those who are hurting us - Jesus does not hide or deny the truth - He in fact points it out on more than one occasion.  But He still served in love the one he knew would betray Him - for the glory of God.  And we can do the same.

What I Have Been Reading

I make it a goal each year to read at least 20 books.  Compared to some, this is probably a small number and to some it seems unattainable.  I have only failed this once since I have been making the goal (I read 19 books in 2019).  But this is not just about my reading history.  It is about what I have been reading.  I think that reading is important.  And so I keep track of what I read through reading journal. But the more I read, the more I want to read.  I want to read biographies.  I want to read theological books.  I want to read books that are fictional.  I want to read good books.  I want to read.  But the more I read the more I stand amazed at the beauty and glory of the written Word of God.  The more that I appreciate that God spoke to us through Christ and spoke to us through the Bible so that we read and learn from what has been said.  The more I read the more I want to read the Bible.

Think about all of the things we read.  We read a newspaper for news.  We read online articles to learn about what we are interested in.  We read books.  And none of the things we read guarantee themselves to be true.  The newspaper lies all the time.  They have a column dedicated to corrections in most major newspapers.  Online articles are not bound to any standard of truth.  Books can be totally fictional even if they claim to be otherwise.  These mediums are all one sided presentations by the authors or editors.  None of them would be bold enough to claim absolute truth.  And yet God says, "My Word is Truth".  (see John 17).  Only God claims to be He who does not lie.  And so we can trust His Word to be totally true.  

God's Word gives us the promise that it will not return void.  Only His book promises that it will be useful for correction and training in righteousness among other things.  

And so the more I read the more I want to read the Bible. The more that I appreciate the Bible.  So, what are you reading?  What do you want to read?

Going back to school with uncertainty

 This year has been a really odd year.  There is so much uncertainty, and in particular a lot of uncertainty surrounding how schools are going to respond this fall to the presence of a virus.  If we choose as adult to focus on this all it is very unnerving and I cannot even imagine the children adjusting to all of the changes and unknowns of what school will look like this fall.  

This is a great time to talk with your kids about the uncertain nature of the world in which we live and the very certain nature and character of God.  Our God is a God who does not change.  He is the same yesterday, today and forever.  And therefore we can have confidence and hope in Him for all time.  Our world however changes.  Our own lives are described in very temporary terms - we are a vapor, a mist that is here in one moment and gone the next.  And yet our unchanging God cares about what is happening in the midst of our uncertain lives.

Point your kids to God.  Point your grand kids to God.  Point yourself to God and realize that in the midst of all of the change, there is certainty in Him.  Take hold of that certainty and find hope!

A War Fought with God Needs No Human Weapons

"Then David said to the Philistine, 'You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have taunted.'"  

                                                                                                1 Sam. 17:45 (NASB)

It is fascinating to me the things that I think I need in order to fight my battles.  Ideally, I would want all of my tools and weapons to be significantly better than those of my adversaries.  I want the odds stacked in my favor, and I want a pre-existing knowledge of the inevitability of my victory.  I am a calculator.  And if something does not appear to be in my favor, I usually do not engage the battle.  

This is true for me in everything from tackling a plumbing problem myself to trying something out of my comfort zone (like flying).  I am not going to likely do it unless I can gather the proper tools that give me the feeling of certain victory.  

I think that sometimes this is how we engage our spiritual warfare as well.  We think we can only fight those battles that we know we will win.  We only witness when we know there is a nearly certain positive result.  We only pursue the will of God when we know it aligns with what we want and are good at.  We hate the feeling of weakness and trust and reliance.   This is truly a sad place to be.  God wants to use us in our weakness and to demonstrate that He is strong and that we are dependent and reliant upon Him!  As David enters this battle against Goliath he acknowledges that Goliath has all of the advantages.  He has the height, he has the weapons, he has the upper hand from the human side and yet David is equally assured of his own victory, not because of his tools, but because of the God who stands for him to fight his battles.  

This is our hope as well.  It is not in the talents, abilities or gifts that we have, but in the God who stands with us, ready to fight for us.  Which is why when Paul talks about the armor of God in Ephesians 6 he puts it in the context of our job - to stand firm and allow God to work! So stand firm.  And let God fight for you.  He will do better than you would have anyway!

Celebrating Our Freedom

Every time we get close to a national holiday celebrating all that we have I want to remind myself that God is not the God of the United States of America, He is God of the nations.  While it is wonderful to think about all of the freedoms that we have - none of them are guaranteed to continue and I wonder sometimes if they go away how the church will change.  If we lose our right to assembly, will we still gather?   If we lose our right to speech, will we still proclaim the death of the Lord until His return?  If we lose the freedom of religion, will we stop serving our Savior?

Far too often the nation in which we live becomes confused with the promised land.  Because of all of our freedoms and because of our nations history we sometimes wrongly believe that the USA has a special place in the heart of God.  This is not a biblical thought.  Nations rise and fall.  Nations plot and scheme.  And yet God sits on his throne and laughs.  (see Psalm 2).  We also know the end of the story and what is to come and it is not pretty for those who believe until Jesus returns.  

So by all means we can celebrate the freedom we have in America, but would it not be better to focus on the freedom that we have because of the sacrifice of Christ?  This is permanent, the former may well be temporary.  

A Tribute to Graduates

It is around this time of year that normally we would be thinking about all of the accomplishments of a group of young people who have completed 12 years of schooling.  They started with the basics - ABC's, colors, numbers.  After 12 years hopefully they have a combined book knowledge and can tell you about history and math and science combined with some practical knowledge on how to get along on their own as they move on to the next phase of their lives.  I want to honor the work that these students have put in, and I think that we all should.  

It has been hard this year because they have gotten an early introduction into the world of adulthood.  And for many of them I think they would be wise to remember and learn from the lessons that this spring has taught.  I want to articulate a few of those now:

1. Life does not hand you success.  You have had to endure not getting the accolades that people last year did and next years may get.  That does not mean your accomplishments are diminished.  We do not work for the accolades that people give us.  "Whatever you do in word or do, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father."  (Colossians 3:17, NASB)  We do not do what we do for our own sake, but for the glory of God and life, nor the Scriptures demand that you will receive the success you desire - you do it for Jesus.

2. Life has disappointment.  I fear in the younger generation a belief that life is supposed to just give a series of wins and victories. Life has disappointment.  Life is hard.  Life is not fair.  This side of sin life will continue to be hard until Jesus returns which leads me to point 3.

3. Only Jesus can offer true satisfaction.  There is only one source for true joy and hope and peace and all of the blessing you seek. His name is Jesus.  This is not to say that in Jesus you will find your own success or your life free from disappointment.  But He and He alone has the power and might to make your life into something worthwhile.  But this requires sacrifice.  You must give yourself wholly to Him!  My prayer for you is that you will seek the Scriptures and do just that!  Give your life to Jesus.

Whose Glory are you Seeking

"How can you believe, when you receive glory from one and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God?"

John 6:44 (NASB)

When we go through our lives and think mainly of ourselves and little of what God would want of us, what is really happening.  For the most part we do not give this a second thought.  And yet Jesus words in his third discourse should cause some concern for most of us as we are notoriously good at seeking our own glory.  The hard part is that Jesus makes this a point of difficulty for genuine belief in Him as the source of salvation. 

In the Old Testament Isaiah said it this way:

"I am the Lord, that is my name; I will not give My glory to another. . . "  Isaiah 42:8 (NASB)

God it would seem has revealed that He does not share glory with anyone.  That means all my attempts to build my own glory are actually fighting against the God who deserves all the glory.  This puts my choices in a slightly different context. 

Our desire should be to seek that God be honored and glorified about all things.  That means He is to be exalted above ourselves.  That means each choice we make should be made with the desire and goal to bring honor and glory to God.  When we get this backward and make ourselves the goal of God's actions we can tend to really get discouraged.  When we correctly see that we are the tools of God's glory we can endure even difficulty knowing that God is going to bring about our good through His glory!  And sometimes that has to be enough. 

So I will end with a question - whose glory are you seeking today?

A tribute to Mother's

Mother's Day is just around the corner.  I know this because I have been trying to rack my brain to think about what to do for my beautiful wife when all of the usual places that I would shop are closed!  And the more I got to thinking about all she does for our family, I realized something.  Most of the rest of the world has had some sort of differences that have given more time to many.  Many people are either working from home and schooling from home.  Many people are out of work at the moment.  And all of this means that more people are home.  And for many moms, this has meant more work and not less.  More time watching the kids with fewer breaks and not even the ability to take them to a playground for a few minutes of respite. 

Moms have had to endure more time with toddlers and little ones.  More time breaking up fights between the older ones.  More time enduring the age old statement, "Mom, I'm bored."  Moms have had to endure a lot, and there is no extra payment received that I am aware of anywhere for being a mom. 

I think that a lot of times we look to our moms and wives to do much more than they ever intended.  So, dads, here is a list of free things that you can do this Mother's Day to help your wife have the best Mother's Day ever. 

1. Be the spiritual leader that God calls you to be. 
2. Listen to her frustrations.
3. Help her raise the kids.
4. Show your kids that you love your wife and will support her in all she does.
5. Make a meal (or at least bring one home)
6. Say something nice to her just because.
7. Make a list of all the things you notice she does for you and your kids and thank her for it.
8. Make her a card.
9. Give her a morning off where she can do whatever she wants and you will feed, care and nurture the children.
10. Pray for her daily.

None of these things cost a dime and they are always open for business!  So make use of this list and do even more to show how much you appreciate the mother of your children!

Do you wish to get well?

In John 5:6, Jesus asks a man who had been limited by illness for 38 years a simple question.  "Do you wish to get well?"  I am fascinated by this question.  At first glance the answer is obvious - of course I want to get well, who would want to stay unwell for any extended period of time.  Most of my existence is me either reveling in the good times or asking God to get me out of the bad times.  We all think we want to be well. 

However it is interesting because still Jesus asks the question.  And in the question Jesus reveals something - He is truly the only way that this man could get well.  This is the hard part.  We do not want to surrender control over our lives to an unknown.  We want to do things in the way that we have worked our minds around and only that way.  If there is another way that is unknown and potentially difficult, maybe if given the choice we would actually answer no.  In fact, many times I think we do answer no.  We do not want to be well in the way that only Jesus can heal us.  Sometimes His way involves difficulty and trial and we do not want that.  Sometimes His way involves forgiveness and we do not want to do that.  Sometimes His way involves going against the grain of society and standing out.  We  do not want to do that.  And so we answer no.  Unwittingly and silently we tell Jesus no we do not want to be well in His appointed way. 

And so we continue in our state of being unwell simply because we are unwilling to try the way that Jesus has made for us.  Is this you today?  Are you unwell and yet have not tried the way that Jesus prescribed for you?  Maybe you should try.  Maybe you should seek God's Word and the way that God would want you to be obedient.  This is the path to wellness.  Do you want to be well?

Prepare your Minds for Action

This past Ressurection Sunday I preached on 1 Peter 1:3-9 and the importance of keeping our focus on Christ because when we do we can have joy.  But there is a second half to the sermon that comes in verse 13 of the same chapter.

"Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ."  1 Peter 1:13 (NASB)

I want to focus on two parts of this verse.  The second half of the verse is consistent with the whole first part of the chapter - we are to keep our hope fixed on the future grace that will be given to us when Jesus is revealed.  We need to keep reminding ourselves that there is more to life than just the here and now and that we have something better waiting for us! 

This is really hard to do sometimes.  Sometimes we get so caught up in the moment - so enthralled with the present that we do not learn from our past and we cannot in any way look ahead.  In fact, many times, we do not think about the certainty of the future at all.  The future in our culture is always unknowable and uncertain and we as Christians forget that our future is both knowable and certain because of the promises of God. 

I really want to focus in on the first party of this verse.  We are to prepare our minds for action.  In other words, we are to think about what is going to happen ahead of time and prepare ourselves while focusing ourselves on the future that we know is coming.  We do not simply sit back and wait for God to do His work while we do nothing - we must prepare our minds to do the things that God is going to do and then do the things that He has called us to.  Which, if you read ahead a few verses, is to be holy like the One who called us is Holy.  But holiness does not happen by accident.  Obedience does not happen by accident.  Trust does not happen by accident.  We must prepare our minds for these things!  We must prepare.  We must prepare by putting on the armor of God.  We must prepare by forcing ourselves to focus on the things that God calls us to focus on.  We must prepare by getting into the Word of God on a regular basis.  We must prepare through prayer and meditation on the Word of God.  We must prepare.

Do not think for a moment that life just "happens" and we have to roll with whatever life throws at us.  Our life is on a path toward the destination that God has revealed for us and we must prepare ourselves to do that which God has called us to do.  So, if we want to respond rightly to all of the uncertainty in our world, we must prepare ourselves mentally to do so by doing the prep-work!

The Resurrection

"If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied." 
                                                                                             1 Cor. 15:19 (NASB)

This week is holy week.  The week where we lead up to the most glorious day in all of the calendar for those of us who claim the name of Christ.  I am not sure that we often think of this week in those terms, but this is the best week of the year.  This is better than the birth of Christ, better than Pentecost, better than any other holiday religious or otherwise.  This one day is the day that we pin our hope on.  Without the resurrection of Jesus Christ we have no hope and our faith is worthless (see verse 18 of the same chapter). 

Why is this so important?  I want to give three simple reasons why the fact that we serve a living Savior is so critical in our daily lives.

1. Jesus alive means that God is faithful and true.  - Jesus living in the plan of God and his conquering of death means that God is faithful and true to His promises.  Think of all of the times in the Old Testament that God promised Israel something better in Messiah.  Jesus being raised to life is the culmination of all of those promises.  God is faithful to do what He has said He will do.

2. Jesus alive means I can have life.  - The life that Jesus lives means that I get to have life.  The song says, "Because He lives, I can face tomorrow."  But in reality, because He lives, I can live today, and tomorrow and the future because I know that Jesus has conquered all that would seek to destroy my present life.  I can live my life in abundance knowing that I can look forward to God fulfilling all of the promises yet to be fulfilled.

3.  Jesus alive gives peace.  - Think about it.  Where is Jesus right now at this very moment?  If you answer in your heart you are not thinking about the right person of the Trinity.  The Spirit of God is God who lives in you.  Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father ruling from His throne.  A throne He sat down upon after completing His work here on earth.  A throne He will rise from to make all things right.  Jesus is in the presence of God and He has gone there to prepare a place for you and for me.  And that brings me a great deal of peace.  Knowing that just like God raised Jesus from the dead, death is only a blink when I open my eyes in the presence of my Savior.  Peace.  Eternal Peace.  From the very Prince of Peace.

And the list goes on and on.  But these three things are a good place to start.  This is why Resurrection Sunday is so critical!  This is why it is the best day, and the best week, of the year.

Things that do not change # 2 - the presence of God

This was not a written devotional, but a Sunday service that can be found in audio form here : https://wlbc.sermoncloud.com/# under the heading "March 29"

or you can watch the whole church service here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyryUu7hSgY

God's presence with us does not change!

Things that do not Change # 1 - The Word of God

Things seem a little crazy right now don’t they!  I want you to know that in times that are strange and uncertain it can be difficult to obey the commands of Scripture to avoid worry and anxiety.  Our natural impulse is to want to protect our status quo and keep things “normal.”  And when normal gets upset one of the first human responses is anxiety about the future.  So, how is it that the Bible can ask of us that we avoid anxiety?  How can we practically move from anxiety to peace?  

Obviously there are some simple answers like prayer and reading the Bible, but I think that even though we know these are good things to do we do not know how or why they are helping us.  I want to offer a bit of something I have learned:  In order to avoid worry we have to replace it with something else.  Worry is essentially focus on the unknown and that which can’t be known.  Anxiety is then stressing about the unknown and that which cannot be known.  We can help ourselves by replacing these things with that which we do know.  And so I thought I would share a brief devotional about things that we know!

I would call your attention to Isaiah 40. 

The thing that does not change is the Word of God.  God’s Word does not change.  Notice first verse 8 “The word of our God stands forever.”  Think about that.  In changing times we can be anchored to the Word of God!  Stop for a moment and meditate on that phrase.  Say it to yourself over and over again.  The Word of our God stands forever.  The Word of our God stands forever.  The Word of our God stands forever. 

Now look at the surrounding narrative.  The first few verses are a call to peace.  This call comes after a plot to overthrown all of Judah by the nation of Assyria.  Hezekiah seeks God’s help and is rewarded with a victory in chapter 37.  After that great moment he becomes mortally ill.  He prays and seeks God and he is healed.  Then in chapter 39 Hezekiah boasts of all the wealth he has accumulated and the prophet tells him it will all be taken to Babylon.  Talk about times of uncertainty and turmoil!  And in chapter 40 God speaks.  And God talks about His own greatness.  And in verse 3 we see a voice call out about preparing for God (think John the Baptist and the fulfillment of this).  In verse 6 that voice tells the prophet to call out and then proceeds to tell the prophet what to say. 

The prophet is to speak that all flesh is grass and will wither and fade.  In other words, if we are placing our hope and certainty with people, we are misplaced.  ALL FLESH IS GRASS.  People are impermanent.  No one likes to think about this, but we are impermanent.  We are weak and frail.  We are but a vapor and a mist.  We are sheep.  People are not where we put our hope. And yet so often we place our hope on people.  Our perspective needs to be tempered by the Word of God which says that flesh is perishable, the Word of God is not.  This thought continues – in the same chapter in verse 23-24 he reminds us that human rulers and powers are meaningless and God blows on them and they are carried away.  God however, and His Word, are not like humans.  God and His Word are stable.  God’s Word stands forever.  God’s Word stands forever.  And so in crazy times we are called to not look at the world around us and try to make sense of it in order to find peace.   We are told to look up.  Literally.  Notice verse 26 – “Lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these stars.”  And we find our comfort in the last 5 verses of the same chapter.  We must wait on the Lord whose Word never fails.  The Word of our God stands forever.  And God’s Word (in the same chapter even) tells us that we who wait on God will gain new strength! 

So in our tendency toward anxiety may we all remember that we can have peace when we look to those things that do not change.  Spend time studying the Word of God.  Spend time placing your faith and hope in the things that will never change.  And in them find certainty and peace.  The Word of our God stands forever. 

Things that do not change # 3 - the Character of God

As we consider our list of things that do not change, we have already examined that we can trust the Word of God and we have considered that we can always rely on the presence of God with us.  Today I want to remind us of something else that does not change.  This is known as the doctrine of immutability.  God does not change.  Wayne Grudem defines this unchanging nature of God like this, “God is unchanging in his being, perfections, purposes and promises, yet God does act and feel emotions, he acts and feels differently in response to different situations.”  (from his work Systematic Theology) In other words, the character and nature of God does not change.  Notice what Malachi 3:6 says, “’For I, the Lord, do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed.’”  When our world is changing constantly, we can take comfort in the constant nature of God and the fact that He is faithful to keep ALL of his promises to us.  This unchanging nature of God is also seen in James 1:17 and here we see it is the reason we can trust that all good things are coming from God above.  In Isaiah 46:9-11 we see that this part of the character of God means that we can trust that He will do what He says He will do.  This is the reason that the Word of God does not change – we cannot remove what God says from His character and our God does not change. 

Think about this during times of turmoil.  The whole world can turn upside down and backward.  Each of our lives can seem one moment certain and the next moment totally unknown.  But God does not change.  And the plan that He has enacted from before the beginning of time WILL reach its conclusion because God cannot act against His own faithful and true character.  Every Word He has spoken will not return void because of the unchanging nature of His own character. 

One of the difficulties that we face is that far too often we define God by our circumstances instead of by His character.  For example, when the Scriptures talk about the goodness of God, we take goodness and define it by our own circumstances.  Then when our circumstances change, we question the character of God.  We must not do this.  God does not change.  Therefore, what needs to change is our perspective on our circumstances.  We must learn to see our world through the means given to us – the unchanging Word of God.  We must learn to trust that God is God and there is no other.  So, when bad things happen to us, we remind ourselves that God is God and is bringing about His ultimate answer to evil through the already accomplished work of Christ.  We do not focus on the displeasure of our circumstances but focus instead on the blessings and pleasure we have because of Jesus.  And we do this because we know that God is going to accomplish His purpose because His character cannot change. 

This truth is why Jesus can say that what He teaches is a firm foundation – a foundation built on rock instead of sand.  (Matthew 7:24-27) This is why we will never go wrong when, “Our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness.”  And in moments of uncertainty and fear it is good to remind ourselves that we can hold fast to God because, “I, the Lord, do not change. . .” (Mal. 3:6)

Our present world and fear

In one of the devotional booklets that I read, the theme of the month has been fear and how to live and address fear in the lives of Christians.  Obviously the Scriptures are full of commands to live free from fear but so often when things are uncertain we immediately fear.  Some of this is natural.  The unknown is scary.  But when we are faced with the unknown we of all people should understand that we can battle this unknown with that which is known.  God is still on the throne.  God is still perfectly capable and in control.  I want to share two passages from the devotional that I read entitled "Fear of a Changing World" by Keith A Evans.  This devotional can be found in "TableTalk" a devotional publication of Ligonier ministries.  It is in the March 2020 issue.

"Dear ones, God does not flick through the same twenty-four-hour news cycle and wring His hands in perplexity.  Our triune Lord does not look down in panic as He observe the tares earnestly growing among the wheat.  The God who encourages us not to worry about tomorrow and command us not to be anxious is Himself never anxious and does not worry."

And this one also.

"The solution to a world in constant flux is not to desperately try to stabilize and unstable world.  The cure for panicking about the winds and the waves constantly beating against the house is not to board up the proverbial windows.  Freedom from fear of change results not from the absence of change but from the presence of an unchanging God."

Psalm 46:2 "Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change and though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea;"

And a few verses later in Psalm 46:10-11 "Cease Striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.  The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our stronghold."

God has got this world in his capable hands.  Sometimes we need to simply surrender our fear to trust in His unchanging character.

A prayer from Bonhoeffer

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German pastor and theologian who opposed the Nazi movement in Germany and was ultimately killed for his stance.  He was strongly committed to his belief that the church should stand up against evil.  He wrote a series of letters and papers while he was imprisoned and in these documents there was a series of prayers recorded.  I have included the English translation from Letters and Papers from Prison printed by the MacMillan Company in 1967. 

Evening Prayers

O Lord my God, I thank thee

that thous has brought this day to a close;

I thank thee for giving me rest

in body and soul.

Thy hand has guarded me and preserved me.  

Forgive my lack of faith

and any wrong that I have done today,

and help me to forgive all who have wronged me.

Let me sleep in peace under thy protection

and keep me from all the temptations of darkness.

Into thy hands I commend my loved ones

and all who dwell in this house;

I commend to thee my body and soul.

O God, thy holy name be praise.

Amen.

I find what this man wrote about forgiveness in this prayer to be crucial to our understanding of living for Jesus.  We need to both ask forgiveness and freely forgive all who have wronged us.  This does not mean we have to agree with their position as he clearly never agreed with the Nazi regime.  However we do need to by the grace of God, give them to God in our prayers.  

Thankful to a good God

Sometimes life requires us to refocus.  Often, there is something that draws our attention in and seems to force us into its attention.  This can be a difficulty or hardship.  It can be something that breaks down unexpectedly.  It can be an urgent matter at work or home.   In those moments our focus and attention are seemingly held by the event that is occurring.  It can occupy our actions and our thoughts and takes over like a hostile invading army.  When this occurs we need to refocus. 

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 says this, "Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." (NASB)

In order to accomplish this seemingly impossible task we must learn to refocus.  We need to focus not on our circumstances, but on what God has done for us in Christ Jesus - for here we can always find something for which we can be thankful - no matter what the circumstances.

We are forgiven. Ephesians 1:7
We are cleansed. Titus 3:5
We are sons and daughters of God.  Galatians 4:7
We have a place prepared for us.  John 14:3
NO one can separate us from the love of God.  Romans 8:38-39
We can approach God's throne with confidence.  Hebrews 10:19-22

And the list just goes on and on.  And the great thing is that no circumstance no matter how hard can ever take one of these things away from us.  And that is something to be thankful for!

Faulty Conceptions of Love

I have never been a big fan of Valentine's Day.  I am sure that there are some deep seeded issues here like maybe in first grade I got snubbed or something, but there are no major events that I can remember that have darkened me to the day.  I do sometimes feel bad for my wife because she has never been able to brag about getting something on that day.  (for the record, I do try to make sure she has gifts throughout the year - I am not a monster).  I think the commercialism of the day has turned me off, but even more, I reject the notion of love that the day and our culture commemorate. 

Love has been completely misused.  And one of the reasons for this is that love has been turned inward on ourselves.  We have been told that we need to love ourselves and love ourselves first and it is only when you love yourself that you will be able to move forward and love others.  It is interesting that the Scriptures do not address this self-love with the same sort of admiration.   In point of fact, self love is assumed in the Scriptures.  We do love ourselves.  Paul tells husbands to love their wives as they love themselves (Eph. 5:28-29).  We are told that the second greatest commandment is to, "Love your neighbor as yourself."  Self love is something we do not need any help with.  It comes naturally.  And the Scriptures tell us that if our self love becomes to great it is idolatry.  If our love is expressed toward ourselves first and foremost, we are missing the boat because the first command is to love the Lord our God with all that we have.  And then the God whom we are to love first tells us that we are to express love toward one another.  In fact the commands of the New Testament alone makes this abundantly clear.  I will cite only one example, but there are many.

"Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind, regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for our own personal interests, but also for the interests of others."  (Philippians 2:3-4, NASB)

Again note that it assumes self love.  What biblical love is is setting self aside for the benefit of another.  Where is that conception of love in our culture today?  Where is the understanding that love is fundamentally setting self aside willingly for the sake of others.  This is how we are to love our children.  This is how we are to love our spouses.  This is how we are to love our neighbors.  This is how we are to love our church family.  Love is about others.  Love is about self-sacrifice and service.  And there is no greater example than the love that Jesus shows to us.  When I compare His love to the love shown by the culture around me, there is no real comparison.  God is love.  He is the standard by which I am to measure that which I call love.  So there is some work to do.  Maybe I should get my wife something!

Eating a Banana

Have you ever had a moment when you were struck by the glory of our God in a weird way?   Today I was eating a banana.  As I bit into the slightly crunchy banana (the only way to eat them FYI) and the delicious banana flavor brought up so many memories of childhood banana pudding with those little round cookies in it.  I finished the bite and just say in amazement at a God who would allow me to eat so many different and all delicious fruits.  I can have this banana for breakfast and enjoy its sweet memories.  I can eat my favorite fruit (pineapple) for lunch if I desire and enjoy the sweet acidic taste.  I have oranges in my fridge too and can enjoy the taste of Florida and the reminder of our trip to see my sister-in-law and the stop at the welcome center for fresh Florida orange juice.   I can look forward to the taste of strawberries this summer and eating them with shortcake and milk!  I can even include the juicy tomato - on a burger or just poppable little grape tomatoes.  And don't get me started on the exotic fruits that I can still get here in Michigan in winter. 

I have all of these options to please my palate and of course I can thank my local grocer for that but even deeper, I am reminded of Eden before the fall.  God created us a world so that we could enjoy it and enjoy the life we get to live for the glory of God in it.  Sometimes we can adult too much and get caught up in worry and anxiety.  Today, while eating a banana, (which I used to inexplicably call ba-mon-i as an toddler)  I was reminded of the glory of God and His goodness to us! 

New Year, New Start?

I think that for many people the new year becomes a time of both reflection and then a hope for a new start in some aspect of their life.  For some it is the new start in diet and exercise that they look forward to.  For others it is perhaps a new start in some aspect of their goals - be they at work or at home.  It is a time to make plans and get organized in some aspect of life for a good number of people.  I wonder however if anyone has actually taken the time to analyze the nature of change itself and wondered why and how it is that so many people fail when they have this new start. 

Change in general is a difficult thing.  And many people see change as something within their grasp to do as if change were simply a mental choice - I want to change the way that I look at something and so I just say, I am going to change and magically, change will happen.  Except that does not seem to match the reality that change is hard and sure enough frustration comes because change does not actually happen no matter how much I mentally assent to the desire to do so. 

Some people think that if they just get the right tools that change will happen.  If I want to change my life through exercise I simply have to buy the best machine on the market and when I have the proper tools and the mental desire I will be able to of course change.  And yet a number of homes have machines gathering dust.  Apparently, adding the proper tools to the arsenal of mental desire is not sufficient to create change either.

I say all of this because many of us desire change in some spiritual aspect of our lives and we simply get frustrated and even maybe angry when this change does not occur.  We have the desire and we may even add tools to our list but at then end of the day we have not really changed our mental state or the spiritual conditions we desire to change.  My contention is that part of what change entails is a process - a process of first of all understanding the conditions that are contained by that which I need to change.  If I am changing my diet I need to understand why my diet is the way it is.  In order to change my diet I need to understand the reason I eat and the reasons I eat what I eat.  I need to deal with the change not just at the level of the food entering my mouth but the change the food that is available to put in my mouth and change not only the access to food, but the mental and physical processes behind them. 

When it comes to spiritual change I need to understand that there is a fundamental truth that seems to come with this type of change.  It begins with surrendering my own ability.  In other words, I cannot at the end of the day actually accomplish changing my spirit at all.  That is work that only God can do as I am willing to surrender the process and the results to Him.  I cannot do anything apart from Christ and His Spirit living in me.  But I also need to understand that surrender does not mean just giving it up and doing nothing.  Surrender involves finding out what He to whom I am surrendered wants me to do.  And so I need to turn to the Word of God to see what He would have me do instead of just doing on my own.  And in it all I must admit the temptation and habit of taking back that which I am doing and wanting credit for myself.  It is a perpetual process of surrender and recognition that I cannot do that which I must let the Spirit of God do in my place which leads me to do that which only He can enable me to do.  No wonder change is so hard!

I say all of this not to just increase understanding of a complex process of change but to encourage you today that if you are wanting to change to do so in the way that God designs.  Seek in His Word that which He would have you do to change from the root of the problem to its surface.  Pray continually as you do that you would not take control from Him, but instead surrender to Him as He accomplishes the change that only He can do.