PSALM 139 - God Can't Keep A Secret!

Where shall I go from Your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, You are there!   (Verses 7-8)

"Am I a God at hand," declares the Lord, "and not a God far away? Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? Do I not fill heaven and earth?'' declares the Lord.
Jeremiah 23

What's your secret? The thing no one knows you did or are doing? It's interesting to me the things people hide for fear that if discovered the shame will destroy them and relationships they've formed. Sometimes, that's true. If we are hiding sin because we want to keep on doing the thing that feeds our soul instead of allowing God in there to satisfy whatever it is we medicate. Addictions are huge secrets people keep. No light means no accountability. But what about other things? I know of a divorced father who never told his children that he'd been married before the mother who left the family. Made the mom promise not to disclose the previous marriage to them. Finding out about it years later when they were grown, the girls were much more upset by the fact that there was this secret than they were about his past. I have spoken with a man molested when he was a child--a thing he'd never felt free to share with anyone until I told him about my father's arrest. The man had struggled for years with the event and couldn't talk about it for fear others would shame him--make it look like he'd somehow been responsible for the thing done to him. Secrets like his create addicts. It's difficult to look at a person and to discover what's hidden from view. The happy-go-lucky woman I know who has very dark thoughts. A rich neighbor who wishes she'd never married her husband. A suicide in the family. Heartbreak over a relationship which ended years ago but still drives the social drinking of another. We have no idea what's in another person's heart most of the time.

Where do you hide? In all the wrong places? That is very easy to do in this world where a lot of wrong things are actually legislated into "rights." For any secret place you want to go to medicate or deny your behavior, there are scores of opportunities to obfuscate the pain. Hide in relationships, in work, at the bar, under the covers, with busyness, with hobbies...and everywhere we go the secret goes with us. Creating shame. And many times, what we're hiding wouldn't be the shock to others we might think. But as long as the enemy can make us think it's too horrendous to share with anyone, he wins.

Where can you go? Ah. All the blathering, noisy earfuls that Satan screams at us about the hidden things in our lives would have us believe we would be left with no one to love us if they only knew the real story. So we live over it. I did this with the pedophilia of my father for a while. It's difficult to not take on the shame of someone so close. For the first couple of years the crime he committed against children was unspeakable for me. I literally couldn't say what he'd done. I'd loved and trusted my father, so the heaviness of what he was, not just what he'd done, poured into my soul like viscous muddy water. Making it hard to breathe. Like I was drowning. But I had three kids and a husband. Needed to plod onward. Couldn't really talk about it, anyway. I needed to rethink my life in light of the new knowledge. It took me several busy years to realize shame had made a place in me, directing my actions in the wrong direction. I tear up thinking even now about how soul-cleansing it would have been for me to be still in the first moments of realization and know God. Not to rush around like my hair was on fire, lit by the awful realization of Daddy's sins. Not try to fix a broken man that only God could redeem. Not move forward one miserable step after the other chanting, "It will be okay." But to sit with my God in the pit of those circumstances and allow Him to meet me there. I didn't do that. I ran from Him because I was mad at my God, too.

But, you know what? I couldn't run away from this God Who relentlessly pursues me. Who loves me to the moon and back, literally. My God is a God Who is at hand, not far away. His love never fails. And we have no secrets from Him. If we are a child of God, secrets are inappropriate in our family. For one thing, they are stupid. Try hiding something from a Father Who knows all of the hiding places in the entire universe! In the spaces between heaven and hell, there is the Spirit of God. The same Spirit, Who in the beginning hovered over the waters in the moments after the Word, Jesus, spoke the nascent Earth into being, hovers over the vast creation of the Godhead even now. Knows just as clearly what goes on in hell as He does what goes on in heaven and on Earth. And this God is near. I've found myself in a miserable hell of my own making, and, oh, man, the joy of finally turning to say, "You are here!" I was filthy and covered in shame. The secrets of my heart squeezed into submission by the serpent that could have destroyed my life. But, no! I couldn't get to God. I was too ruined for Him. That's what shame says, anyway. With Jesus came light...on secrets...healing shame. And I didn't die. Like I thought I would. But lived to tell of the wonder of my God's love.

No more secrets. Open, honest, transparent. No more lies. No more manipulation, wondering what others will think if they know the real me. Free of the crippling power of shame. Loved from head to toe by a God Whose eyes wander to and fro watching out for my life. If I toy with hell, even, and happen to fall in, He is there. Because I belong to Him. When I go to heaven, He will be there. Because I belong to Him. And while I live here on Earth, He will be here. And at all points in between.

PSALM 139 - It's Wonderful, Wonderful!

Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, You know it altogether. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high. I cannot attain it.   (Verses 4-6)

In a recent conversation with a friend whose faith was wavering, I asked her this question: "Do you want a God Who is as surprised as you are at every little thing that happens, or do you want a God Who is prescient, knows you inside out, has the world in His hands and your life in His scope?" It's a daunting question, actually. Because the god who is surprised with you about life is no god at all. Perhaps pantheistically. He set the world in motion then stepped back and let it spin. But that God isn't even interested in what happens to the universe or us. That does free one up to do whatever she wants, though. No one really cares what happens if God made the world then flew off to another realm and let us be. The God of the Bible is a personal, involved, and loving Father to children He has chosen to be His for eternity. He knows the beginning from the end because He is the Alpha and the Omega. Our God, then, knows what we are going to say before we say it. What we are going to do before we do it. God knows me and all the other billions of people who live and who have ever lived and who will live in the days to come. Each spirit covered in these tents of flesh. We all came from the infinite dwelling place of the God of All. It's very hard to fathom. God's breath so close to our faces. God's eyes watching our choices. God's hand atop our heads in blessing. God's messengers standing about us as a hedge of protection against the wiles of our enemy. The Person, God. The Triune One Who made us a triunity to be like Him: body, soul and spirit. We can't get away from that God.

Bill and I were challenged several years ago when we had to sell our home in order to move to a different state. He went ahead in front of us while I stayed with the children to sell our house, which was in the country in an out-of-the-way community that didn't bring a barrage of buyers to our door. As the weeks of trying to sell the place turned into months, Bill tended to languish in loneliness. So every day he would take a long walk in a field near the hotel where he was staying. There were no set paths in the grassy pasture, so he'd wander in all directions praying and quoting scripture to his God. Psalm 139. Because it made Bill aware that though he was a lonely father and husband, he was not alone. As his feet cut through the tall crunchy weeds on a summer's eve, Bill reminded himself and God that God knows all about our present moment. How confused we are. How we long for family. God knows the very psalm He put into Bill's spirit for comfort and strength. Urged my husband, in love, to repeat it for confidence in the Father's knowing altogether what is going on in our lives at any given time. And that God isn't looking at it all with passive indifference wondering what on earth we are going to do about the mess. No! He's working it out for us. With us. Stepping in front of us on the path when He sees the enemy blocking our way. Hemming us in when dangers He won't allow pop up on our journey. We walk with Him having our back and showing us the way forward. Bill was reminding me of this yesterday as I was telling him that I didn't feel like I could do Psalm 139 justice in these Psalm Calm blogs. It is my favorite. It speaks for itself. But the daily reminder of God's continuing Presence as confidant, comforter and counselor was what got my husband through those trying days of separation. That God knows. Cares. Listens. Watches. Protects. Blesses. Hears. Who has a God so wonderful? Can we ever hear about such love too much?

It brings such peace to know my Father's face is so very close to mine. That if I close my eyes, I can see myself reach up with both my hands and caress His face between them. To look into His eyes as the child that I am and speak to this One Who loves me. That just as I want to be there for my own kids, our Abba wants to be with me. To hold me close so that His fragrance stays upon my skin as I go and do today. So that I cannot forget my God is there, in everything, in every way, this moment and until I know as I am known. It is too wonderful for me!
 

PSALM 139 - For You, Robin.

O, Lord, You have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and rise up; You discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways.   (Verses 1-3)

Vanessa had a pretty gnarly day yesterday, her first full day in her new position at work. All kinds of new things to learn, some very frustrating and coming from an even more frustrating corporate type. We listened to her last night while she became emotional about the day. But underneath the obvious first day jitters was the fact that she misplaced her keys to the restaurant...ALL the keys on the same ring. And she's a manager now. They all looked everywhere. Nothing. Feeling inadequate and a little irresponsible, it just made the day rougher. I hate losing things. You wouldn't know that because I'm still always doing that--losing stuff. My glasses. My car keys. Where I just put the papers I was rifling through. It makes me feel stupid. Stupid is my go-to response to circumstances I think are my fault. So, in the night and early this morning I just prayed and prayed over those dumb keys for Vanessa! Lord, You know where they are. You see them right now. Please make them visible to others. You can imagine how great I felt when Vanessa texted me cheerily part way through the day to say they had been found!

This little incident pretty much sums up these three verses. God sees and knows me. He knows what makes me tick. The things that thrill me. Circumstances that make me fighting mad.  He understands how I'm probably going to react to life because God knows when I sit down or stand up. What I'm thinking at any particular time. Where I'm going and where I've been. All of it. Every bit. My best and worst thoughts. My greatest failings and my highest achievements. God is inside my head. And His Spirit is like a heat-seeking missile checking out my heart. My heavenly Father knows me. Better than I know myself. That can either be a comfort or a shame. It certainly makes me stop and think. There are times when what goes on in my mind is anything but what I'd want Jesus to be looking at, much less what I actually do! It should be sobering to us, but also a great comfort. If we are intentionally living for Him, we want God there all the time. And, we want to know Him the way He knows us! Intimately. Fully. I say to Him all the time: "Don't let me get away with anything that doesn't please You." That's why I don't sleep all the time. Yep.

It's what we all want, though, to know and be known. For someone to care so deeply about us that when we talk with her she just gets us. Wants to hear our story. God is so interested in our lives that He wants to answer the prayer, "Where are my keys, Father?" It's not too simple for Him. I'm still praying that Jesus will tell a precious friend of mine where a ring is that her mother gave her. That's not a prayer I think is silly to pray because God, for Pete's sake, has better things to do with His time than care about our stuff. No! My God is there. In everything I do. Knows me. Loves me. Cares about what I care about. That makes me want to love Him reciprocally. Care about what He cares about. Know what makes Him tick. Know as I am known. Someday I will. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known (1 Corinthians 13).  I want to know Him more. And more. And more.
 

PSALM 138 - Tuesday Blues

Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You preserve my life. You stretch out Your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and Your right hand delivers me. The Lord will fulfill His purpose for me. Your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of Your hands.
(Verses 7-8)

He Who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it at the day of Jesus Christ.
Philippians 1:6

There is a path before each of us that leads up a road paved with purpose. Specific purpose. Along the road are thorns and thistles, mountains and streams, deserts and valleys, snow and sunshine. It's not a straight road, but winds here and there, taking us into countries we've never heard of and feel ill prepared to travel through. There are also forks in the road. Confusing to our sensibilities. Which one? An opportunity for faith? A diversion for us to choose? All leading to the same place, perhaps. And lest we think the path leads to our one purpose, we find gratifying joy and aching growth all along the way. It is the path that is purposeful. And the road leads home.

I've been up since two-thirty this morning grappling with purpose, so it's interesting that this should be the portion of Psalm 138 that has been divinely assigned to me today. To have to look at the quandary: What am I doing with my life right now? It seems to me that I've been called to just do it in my journey. Without the compensation the work deserves. Either to me personally as in "Great job, Kay!"  Or monetarily as in money. It's led me to ask on several occasions, probably ad nauseam to my Father, "Where are we going?" The obvious answer is, "Not where you thought we were going."

That's all right with me as long as I know I'm on the right path, the one where He holds my hand and leads me on. I will confess to being an over-achiever...I like A's. Or A+'s. I feel like a C student right now. And I'm working really hard on this gravelly road to Him. Maybe too hard. I think He would say to me this morning to enjoy the journey a bit more without the stress of the outcome...or income. It's all purpose. No twist or turn unproductive. Nothing surprising my Father. Oh, my I didn't see that coming sort of thing. I might feel lost. He never is.

There is an enemy standing in the way sometimes. His foot stretched out across the way to trip me up when I come along. And,  man, has he kicked me about at times. Yelling, throwing rocks, cursing at me, bringing shame to the very path I cling to. Wrenching me from the hand I was holding. Lying to me that the path goes nowhere. And if it did, I'm not good enough for the destination. The enemy is a robber. Wanting to take all the gifts my Father has given to me. To open each one and laugh that I thought myself good enough for such stuff. There's trouble on the trip. Don't think it's always going to be easy. But it is always going to be worth it! I've seen my Father slap the enemy away from me. He's even told me I can do that myself...in His name. To clear the path ahead of even the shadow of the thief.

Jesus promised He'd keep us. Present us one day to the Father as those who belong to Him. In fact, right before His death, Jesus prayed this prayer: "I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that You keep them from the evil one." That God not forsake us on our way home. That He fight for our hearts and minds. Push away the scoundrel who would darken our footpath, snuff out our joy and kill our purposes. So maybe the path isn't very clear on down the road today for me or, maybe, you. But I'm up for a new day. It's all I really have. The light to my feet sheds enough clarity that I know what I'm going forward into on Tuesday, September 23, 2014, the Lord willing. I have purposes that are not circumstance specific. Be salt and light. Trust in the Lord with all my heart and don't try to lean on my own understanding. Enjoy Christ. Love others. Live in peace as far as it is in my power to do so. Share the gospel. Listen to the voice of my God. I've got lots to do that has nothing to do with Tuesday, but has everything to do with eternity. How about you?

PSALM 138 - Running Into Traffic

For the Lord is high, He regards the lowly, but the haughty He knows from afar.  (Verse 6)

Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself/herself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, "He yearns jealously over the spirit that He has made to dwell in us"? But He gives more grace. Therefore it says, "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Therefore, submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.     James 4: 4-8   Italics, mine

Vanessa was almost four years old when a little girl moved in down the street from us. Also almost four years old. The child lived with her grandmother who had sole custody of her. I know there must have been issues in her little life. Her baby teeth were rotted and blackened. She wasn't always clean. And she ran around the neighborhood at will. Including crossing the relatively busy street in front of our house, daring traffic to hit her. Vanessa was told she could play with her new friend at our house. Where I could watch them. Our children understood they were never to run out into the street. There was no equivocation about it. Do not run out into the street!

Of course, there came that morning when I was doing dishes and Vanessa was with her new playmate. In a second's time, they were out the front door. By the time I reached the doorway, I could see my daughter with the little girl running with all their might into the middle of the road. "Vanessa Joy, get right back here!" Screaming my command at her as my heart beat with both anger and fear.
She turned her head, blond pigtails flapping in her face, and kept on going. "Vanessa!" Firmly this time. "Come and get me," she cried, taunting and testing. Flying into disobedience with a certain joy. Like running across the street was taking her into a foreign land filled with excitements she couldn't possibly imagine. And then there is the thrill of doing the thing that you know is wrong. Certainly rules are made to be broken because rules keep us from all the fun.

I came and got her. Bigger than she. Smarter than she. I grabbed her sweaty body up into my arms. Pointed out to the neighbor girl that their playtime was now over. And, yes, I swatted Vanessa on the rear. "You can never, ever do that again!" I didn't say: "If your friend jumped over a cliff, would you jump over with her?" Afraid, perhaps, the answer in that moment would be, "Yes!".  My child stayed inside close to me that day. I was jealous over her life. Over the guidelines we'd set that kept our children safe. Farish children don't play in the traffic. And if their friends draw them away in rebellion, Farish parents go get them! It's just that simple. So, as I stooped down in front of Vanessa that morning, explaining why she must obey me, I was trying to make her understand that our guidelines were set up to protect her because we love her. She cried. I teared up. Looking into her big blue eyes as they tried to make sense of my words. My daughter had to calm her disobedience, too. It made her mad that I stopped her folly. Running headstrong into disobedience had the reward of the rush of adventure.

Not hard to see where I'm going with this. God has put His Spirit within those of us who are His. He doesn't want that tainted--marred by disobedience. The yielding of our lives to the enemy whose desire it is not only to confuse us, but to absolutely destroy us (John 10:10). As the good Father that He is, He will take charge. But it's a lot more difficult with who just want to disobey, knowing somewhere deep inside that God is making them miss the fun. It creates resistance in God, too. Those of us who keep on rebelling against His will create a certain determination in God toward us. It's very hard to help someone who doesn't want it. I'm glad to say today that Vanessa is grown up and not racing out into the street. She tested me in a thousand other ways, but the boundaries were firm. As an adult, she has said over and over again how grateful she is for parents who loved her enough to reign her in sometimes. We all test God this way. Even if it's just sticking our toe into territory He has deemed off limits. The humble have it a whole lot better. Sidling up to the Father in perfect peace. Knowing that He is right in His judgments. Loving in His responses. And if we keep kicking against what God knows is right for us, wanting to experience all the pleasures of the world (which, by the way, He doesn't withhold from us) with the world, we will eventually look just like everyone else. Not like a member of God's family.

Our God stoops to make us great (Psalm 18:35). For those who will listen, the Father will crouch down in front of our faces, as I did that day with Vanessa, and teach us how to be joyful, fruitful, peaceful and happy. It's what the world is looking for...in all the wrong places. God is higher than we are...thoughts and all. And the God of the universe wants to impart those thoughts to us! Draw near to the Father's face and listen. For He would stoop before you and speak life.

PSALM 138 - "Meh" Is Not The Correct Response

All the kings of the earth shall give You thanks, O Lord, for they have heard the words of Your mouth, and they shall sing of the ways of the Lord, for great is the glory of the Lord.
(Verses 4-5)

Behold, My Servant shall act wisely; He shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted. As many were astonished at You--His appearance was so marred, beyond human resemblance, and His form beyond that of the children of man--so shall He sprinkle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths because of Him; for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard, they understand.  Isaiah 52:13-15     Italics, mine

If you are a Christian, what drew you to Jesus? What made the difference for you--kept you from walking away from Him? For most of us, I think, it's the cross. How could a person who understands what really happened there say, "Meh...not so much"? For those who've heard the gospel, the good news, and chosen another path, I'm guessing one of two things happened: they didn't fully understand the cross of Christ or some Christian/s turned them off with hypocrisy or self-righteousness. I can't speak to the second, but I can speak to the cross.

I was discussing atonement Wednesday night with Will's sweet girlfriend, Nikki, with whom I have the privilege of going through the  New Testament book of John. We came upon Chapter 3 that evening. Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish Sanhedrin, came to see Jesus at night, out of the glaring light of day and away from the eyes of the other counsel members. Jesus says three spectacular things to this ruler. "You must be born again." Not by going back into your mother's womb, of course. The other part of you...the inner one that is truly you...needs to be born a different way. Transformed, really, from all self into an everlasting soul capable of looking for eternity into the face of a holy God.

Next, Jesus said, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life." Jesus was referring to the time when the refugees from Egypt complained in their journey that they had no water or food. Well...they had manna. "We're sick of this stuff!" Really. That's what they cried out to Moses. An angry God allowed pretty much all the snakes in the desert to slither through their camp and bite them. Poisonous and deadly. God was outraged by their ingratitude and grumbling. They were terrified of the snakes. "Save us!" From the serpents. "Moses, wrap a fiery snake around a pole and lift it up between heaven and earth," said God. "Everyone who looks upon the pole will be saved...healed." God, finding a way to excuse them once again. So Moses fashioned a serpent from bronze and held it high as God instructed. Jesus was telling Nicodemus that there was going to be a wooden structure lifted up between heaven and earth once more. This time Jesus would be on it. The serpent's power forever voided for all who look to Jesus. Referring, of course, to the lying serpent, Satan.

The third stunning thing Jesus said was this was going to happen because God loves the world enough to sacrifice Himself on our behalf. For God so loved the world that He gave His One and Only Son that whoever believes on Him should have life everlasting (John 3:16).

The central question of salvation in my mind is Why?  Why did Jesus need to be a sacrifice? Isn't there some way besides God becoming man and bleeding out for our eternal life? This is what Nikki and I discussed. In the moment, God gave me an example based on recent news of the beheadings of three journalists by ISIS. Using a crude knife the Islamic terrorists brutally murdered three innocent men, all of it captured for our horror, on video. Our government reacted. We recoiled. How do we atone for their deaths? Get even? Make their deaths not be in vain? How can we right this wrong, for a price has to be paid for such horrendous injustice? We all know this. Have a sense that one must pay for wrongs done.

In that scenario, we are not the journalists. We are the terrorists. Guilty of stuff, great and small. And it's all disgusting to a holy God--a just and holy God. We need either justice or forgiveness. Those are our options as sinful people. Sin is sin to God. Jealousy, envy, cheating, lying equals murder, adultery and armed robbery. All need justice or forgiveness.

God so loved the world, He came to us to be a sacrificial atonement for the sin we all commit. All of us. It doesn't matter how good we think we are, by His standard of holiness, we will all fall short. He knows this. And fixed it. So there's no argument about God being mean and oppressive, unforgiving and malevolent. No one would say that about another human who took a death sentence for them here on Earth. To that person, we would understand our debt. On a personal level, one by one, Jesus set us free. We can trade His righteousness for our sin. Christ was beaten beyond recognition as a human being even before He was hung on the cross to finish the sacrificial death. God blood sprinkled the whole Earth. Not just the Jewish nation. All nations in the whole world. For every conceivable sin--large and small. Kings and paupers alike need to stand in awe. See and understand. For one day every nation, kings and princes, ambassadors and premiers, tyrants and zealots, will bow down as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords comes in obvious glory. At long last receiving the acknowledgement long denied Him. So great a love should compel us to surrender our sinfulness for His grace. How could such a gift be refused?

"The cross in not simply an atonement, but a revelation of how God works with the people He loves."
Tim Keller

 

PSALM 138 - Unanswered Prayer?

On the day I called, You answered me. My strength of soul You increased.  (Verse 3)

Daniel lived in Persia when Cyrus was the king. He and three of his boyhood Jewish friends were taken to Babylon during the captivity to live in King Nebuchadnezzar's palace where they'd learn the Chaldean language and literature. The young men were picked because they were handsome, good students and as nearly perfect as teenagers can be. When the Jewish nation left their captivity in Babylon seventy years later, Daniel stayed. He was important in the courts by then. A wise and tested leader. An interpreter of dreams. Cyrus had been king for three years when Daniel was given a vision that disturbed him so much he spent three weeks in mourning and fasting. Though the prophet understood the vision, it seems he didn't know what to do with it. In those three weeks of fasting and prayer, crying over the devastating news he'd seen in the vision, there seemed no real answer from God.

When the fast was complete, Daniel went for a walk on the banks of the Tigris River with some of his confidants. In the midst of an ordinary day, taking an ordinary walk an extraordinary thing happened. Daniel looked up to see a man standing in front of him. He was clothed in fine white linen with a glistening gold belt cinching it closed. The man's body glowed like a faceted jewel and his face was bright like lightning with eyes that glowed like flames of fire. His skin looked like polished bronze and when the man spoke it sounded like a multitude was speaking from his mouth. Only Daniel saw this man; his companions were overcome with fear, however, and hid themselves in the nearby bushes. So, Daniel was left alone with the fearsome messenger, and his strength left him as the man began speaking. The prophet passed out.

The stranger didn't leave him in a fainted heap on the banks of the Tigris, though. He touched Daniel and the prophet rose in his quaking fear to his hands and knees.  And the first thing the messenger said to him was, "Daniel, you are greatly loved." An amazing thing to hear when Daniel had prostrated himself in unanswered prayer for three weeks. "Understand the words I'm saying to and stand up straight. Now I've been sent to you."

Daniel managed to stand up on very unsteady legs and looked into the face of the one sent to him. "From the very first day you began praying and fasting, humbling yourself before God, your words have been heard, and I have come because of your words. Since then I have been fighting the demonic prince of Persia, along with Michael, a chief prince of heaven, for these twenty-one days. I have come now to answer your prayer and tell you what will happen to your people in the last days."

I have a few "unanswered" prayers. I have a multitude of answered ones! But we often struggle, like Daniel did, with aching hearts and confusing circumstances, and we've given them to God over and over again without seeming result or answer. For Daniel, it was of national importance. For us, most of the time, it's about our family, our finances, our health or our future. But God's answer to us is the same. "Child, you are loved very much." First and foremost, that was what God wanted Daniel to hear as he rose from his crumpled humility to face the glowing angel. The prayer wasn't delayed because you aren't precious to God. There is a battle you couldn't possibly have known about going on over that prayer. Demonic princes fighting mighty warring angels over the request Daniel made...and, I'm confident, over ours. And the angel said, "Your prayers were heard immediately!" Not the third or fourth time you prayed. Not at the end of the three weeks of fasting. No! As soon as the prayer came from his lips, it was heard! Daniel had to wait because there were things going on only God knew about. It had nothing to do with the fact that Daniel wasn't valuable and that his prayers weren't as good as someone else's.

When the angel finished interpreting for Daniel what God wanted, he touched the prophet again and strengthened him. "O, greatly loved man, fear not, peace be with you; be strong and courageous." And Daniel said, "I was strengthened as he spoke to me and was brave enough to stand and listen to all he said." Ah, the power of knowing we are loved and heard. That all along God has been working out what so concerns us. What the angel told Daniel needed courage to hear. It wasn't roses and sunshine. But it was the message of a powerful, loving God to a man who needed an answer. And it gave Daniel the courage he needed to obey his God.

Answered prayer tells us God sees us and loves us. It is such pure joy to swim in the wonder of knowing our Father is listening. It gives us the energy to go on. In faith. Unanswered prayer should signal that God is doing something we can't fathom in the moment. The faith inspired by all the times we've been obviously heard and answered should encourage us in the times when God seems silent. Because He's always working on our behalf. And if the answers are tough, He will strengthen us to hear it. Always, always prefaced with these words: "You are greatly loved."
 

PSALM 138 - The Birthday Spanking

I give You thanks, O Lord, with my whole heart; before the angels I sing Your praise. I bow down toward Your holy temple and give thanks to Your name for Your steadfast love and faithfulness, for You have exalted above all things Your Name and Your Word.
(Verses 1-2)

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. John 1

(May) the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which He has called you, what are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the work of His great might that He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at the right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but in the age to come.   Ephesians 1   italics, mine

I was taught from a very early age that when someone does something nice for you, you say, "Thank you." The lesson was really brought home on my sixth birthday. I still do this: get something in my mind that I'd like to have and tend to obsess about it. But not so much as when I was six. My "wanter" is much less significant for me in these years of my life. Back then, I wanted a watch. I really, really, really wanted a watch for my birthday. My parents had a big party for me. I couldn't sleep the night before for thinking about the watch that somebody would surely give me. Man! I wanted to wind it and set it and show it off. Forget the birthday cake and the candles and let me at those presents! My first disappointment came when my cousin, an adult male who lived in our house, gave me a picture he'd drawn. Really? I'm six! What am I gonna do with that? Then came a stream of games and stuff that made me even more anxious to open the watch I was sure was beneath somebody's nicely wrapped gift. One after another. No watch. Just other stuff. Late to the party came my Sunday school teacher carrying a beautifully wrapped gift that I now know would've been way too big to be a watch. But ever optimistic and a bit greedy, I tore into the package thinking, This is it! It was doll furniture. Plastic doll furniture. Cute. But, hey, not a watch. So, I looked at her in all sincerity and said the thing that was on my mind (rarely a good thing). "It's nice, but Í wanted a watch."  The unfortunate thing about this scenario was that Mother was standing there. I got smarter as I got older in this regard. At least wait until your mom is out of earshot to be an entitled little brat. As you can imagine, my mother excused herself and me. I'm glad she spanked me on my sixth birthday. Told me to be thankful. Withheld giving me a watch until Christmas that year...that was another whole four months. An ungrateful heart is an ugly thing.

Can you even imagine how God must feel when we withhold a thankful heart from Him? The gift from Him? Christ, of course. The Word Who called everything into being came down to those He created on the earth He'd set in motion to look at the stars He calls by name in order to make us God's inheritance. We are the ones Jesus came to claim as His precious endowment. Bought us out of the slavery in which we languished with no hope in sight and called us Beloved. Along with our salvation we receive the benefits of a Father Whose power is beyond comprehension. And God uses that power on our behalf, just like He did with Jesus when He raised Him from the dead! That's power! The everlasting love of a Father like that is a gift--outright undeserved by us. We are ungrateful, whining children most of the time. Wanting more, more, more!

Remember the ten lepers? They were standing outside a village, ostracized and hated because of their disfiguring disease. The lepers didn't approach Jesus, but yelled at Him, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!" Jesus didn't touch them. Didn't demand anything from them. Didn't forgive them of sin. Didn't ask them to confess or plead or have great faith. "Go and show yourselves to the priest." That's it. The problem was, the priest wouldn't get anywhere near ten unclean lepers. So, they had to be healed on the way to the temple. Had to be cleansed in the process of their faith. It took guts to even walk in that direction. But they were healed. A gift. Unspeakable. Unbelievable. Life-changing. Men who'd been freed to go back to families and jobs and life because Jesus spoke. The Word said so. And they all came running back to thank Him!!! Oops. No. Only one. One. And this one guy, when he realized on his way to town that all his leprous sores were gone, that the word was true and right, just started shouting. Praising God with his screaming! Ran back. Fell at the feet of Jesus. "Thank you! Thank you, Master! Thank you!" Jesus wanted to know, "Where are the other nine?" Don't know. Entitled somehow to think Jesus owed them a healing. And they missed the greater miracle. This Samaritan man, a foreigner, outcast, never had to go all the way to the temple. Jesus declared him clean because he was so thankful. Ah, the beauty of a grateful heart. The Samaritan had the joy of seeing pure Joy get happy with him. Bathed in the radiance of the face of Jesus Who honored the leper for his acknowledgment and unabashed thankfulness!

I have a heart full of thankfulness today! None of that would be possible without the preeminence of the Name and the Word. Jesus is the reason for my living. I dance because I am His inheritance. Treasured and kept because I am so precious. Life has its ups and downs, but the constant is the One Whose Name and Word sustain all things. There in the valleys to hold me; there on the mountain top to sing with me. Every other gift this Earth can bestow will go away someday. Watches included. Jesus remains. Forever. The angels praise Him day and night. It is my incomprehensible right to join in the chorus.



 

PSALM 137 - Two Sides to Every Story

Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites the day of Jerusalem, how they said, "Lay it bare, lay it bare, down to the foundations!" O daughter of Babylon, doomed to be destroyed, blessed shall he be who repays you with what you have done to us! Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock!   (Verses 7-9)  italics, mine

All right, all right. I know what you're thinking because that's what I thought at first when I read the last verse of this psalm. Who prays to have someone's kid dashed against a rock? There is a backstory here that is brutal, though.

Edomites.  The descendants of Esau, Jacob's twin brother. The Kings Highway ran through their land and they had denied the refugees of Jacob's line passage through Edom as they escaped Egypt. Years later, when Ahaz was king of Judah, Edomites utterly destroyed Jerusalem in a violent takeover. As the kin of Jacob, with the blood of Abraham in their veins, they should have protected Israel, not cast lots for "who got what loot" as the holy city was being crushed. Obadiah tells it this way: On that day you stood aloof, on that day strangers carried off his wealth and foreigners entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem, you were like one of them. They were acting just like the enemy! Obadiah was prophesying in the moment. When the Edomites still had time to repent. The prophet warned them not to gloat, not to loot, not to stand at the crossroads and cut off the fugitives, turning them, for ransom, over to the enemy; don't rejoice over your brother's misfortune or enter the city for treacherous purposes. All of which they were in the process of doing when Obadiah warned them. It did no good. Ravaged by their own family, Israel lay in ruins. The final warning to the line of Esau was this: For the day of the Lord is near upon all the nations. As you have done, it shall be done to you; your deeds shall return on your own head. But the punishment wasn't as swift as the nation of Israel wanted. They waited upon a patient God who gave the Edomites another chance.

Babylon. They had carried out excessive violence against the helpless in Jerusalem. There are epic stories of beheadings and mass murders, of grabbing children and dashing them against the desert rocks, raping women, and ripping open the bodies of pregnant women to take the child and kill the mother.

So, would we have our God stand by? Would that be just? I think about the beheadings of the two journalists gone viral on YouTube recently. Using a small knife, not the quick blade of a shiny, honed sword. No. The deaths were especially brutal. What would we do with those men? The haters who would kill innocent reporters for no reason except renown? It sickens our God even more than it sickens us. Any injustice against His Beloved is an injustice against Him. He takes it personally. Not just wars and things. Your personal life as a child of God is His to protect, defend and avenge. I believe in our struggles against those who try to break us, kill us, there is a time when God stands up, heart pounding and fists pumping, and says, "Enough!" Be assured, He's given your opponent plenty of opportunity to repent. But God won't let evil win against us forever. As you have done to a child of God in unrepentant gloating, that will be done to you. My Father has a big heart, a just mind and an unrelenting desire to protect those who belong to Him.

Feel better now?

PSALM 137 - We Shall Never Forget...

How shall we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land? If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill! Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy!  (Verses 4-6)

Babylon was full of wonders. It was situated in southern Mesopotamia along the Euphrates River approximately fifty miles south of modern day Baghdad. Until the nineteenth century, it was considered to be a mythical place conjured by the writers of the Bible. Archaeological digs, however, revealed not only its existence, but corroborated the historical accounts of its greatness. The Hanging Gardens there were one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Culturally and politically, it was ahead of its time, commercially opulent and intellectually proud. It was a place to pique the senses. To challenge humility. To fall in step with the hedonism that seeped into every corner of its existence. It might be hard to keep the Old Covenant in a foreign land so overflowing with opportunity to indulge one's every desire. To forget Jewish-ness. To trade gods.

This is an interesting place to light today--September 11, 2014--thirteen years after our own wealthy and somewhat complacent country was invaded by terrorists who blew us up. We were glib before then...and some of us, not that long afterward. America doesn't get hit that way...or so we thought. But we live in a volatile world. Bombs can now be half-expected when we run a marathon or shop in downtown New York City. If we don't forget that day in 2001 when airplanes ripped apart the Twin Towers and sent over 3000 people to their deaths, some flying out of windows, some trapped in stairwells, some burnt up from the initial explosion and those running, hearts beating, into the building to save whoever they could, it will impact how we live even now. But some memories are short.

I read in the paper today about a man who missed the flight from Boston that morning. The one that exploded only minutes later in New York. He and a guy in an airport fast food place joked about the fact it could have been him. Briefly it made the young man think about his own mortality, but when asked by the reporter if the experience of being saved because of a late taxi and two elderly people had changed his life in any way, the answer was, "No. No it hasn't changed me." I think he forgot how thankful he was that day. How close the enemy came to taking his life at the young age of twenty-seven. Then there was the doubt the act of war created. How can the whole world be in the hands of God and this kind of thing happen? And in the rubble, standing with the smoke of the fire still rising in vapors from its crossbeam was a cross. A reminder? Maybe. That men cause wars. That hate kills. That God hates it and will one day judge it done. That is what I think. But it made us all look to what we really believe about faith and God. About good things happening to bad people. Toward the thousands who grieved the thousands dead. How could we ever forget such a nightmare?
How in the rubble of the present do we sing songs to the God we knew before it all changed?

If circumstances, even ones so devastating as this one, on a personal or political level tempt us to wrench ourselves from our faith, we must also remember Who God is. A group of Islamic terrorists bombed New York City that day. God did not. Hitler, Stalin and Hirohito succumbed to the enemy, sold their souls for power, believing a lie. Likewise, Osama Bin Laden and the jihadists who loved him made the choice to do us in. They didn't succeed. But there was residual damage to our nation and to our hearts. We must continue to sing our songs to our God, lest they dry up in our mouths and our fingers forget how to strum our praise on guitar and harp. We must trust Him that as the Righteous Judge, all will one day be made right. Our own lives cannot be our highest joy lest we wither from hopelessness. May we never forget the loss. May we never forget our own vulnerability. May we never forget September 11, 2001.
 

PSALM 137 - On The Eve of 9/11

By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion. On the willows there, we hung our lyres. For there our captors required of us songs, and our tormentors, mirth, saying, "Sing us one of the songs of Zion!" (Verses 1-3)

Trapped by the enemy in foreign territory. No way out. The love and comfort of home seems years past. Except for the memory of its safety and warmth, the former joys are but a thing of the past. Hardly hoped for any more. The song was literal for the Jewish congregation who sang this song. Captured by the Babylonians, the Israelites had suffered great loss, most notably the murders of their babies. Ripped from the arms of their mothers and dashed against rocks in a bloody display of hatred for the Jews. Gut-wrenching infanticide that Israel never forgot. Stripped of their possessions and made to live once again as slaves to the Babylonians, whose nation was built upon nihilistic pleasure and festered in its prosperity, the Jewish people were at the mercy of those in whose land they now found themselves.

The captivity covered them in shame. Well, slavery always does. Whatever we find ourselves bound by will rule us. As refugees, the Jews streamed into the streets of the opulent Babylon carrying only what could be taken in their hands or in the packs on their backs. So in the hands of some there were lyres and small harps. A song in the wilderness, perhaps. Played on blood-splattered instruments in the hope of hearing strains of hymns once sung in peace time. Closing their eyes as they strummed in order to recapture Zion.

It all seemed far away and unreal for me at first blush when I read this psalm this morning, sitting at my table looking out at the patio where palm trees move lightly in the breeze and hummingbirds flit around the flowers. But for most of the world, life is much like Babylonian captivity. ISIS posts videos of captives being beheaded in bloody wrath. Syrians die from chemical weapons, children writhing in the streets, eyes rolled back. Hamas and Israel fight it out over Palestinian territory, while Iran tortures Christian missionaries in its prisons. I'm sure all of them long for home. For what it was like before all the bloodshed and chaos. And, we approach 9/11 tomorrow. The reminder that our enemies are out there, too. Waiting, plotting, perhaps, to take away our freedoms and throw the chains of bondage around our wrists.

For Christians, the world is pretty much a foreign land. All around us there are people trapped in shame or driven by hubris. We are called to humility and love; counter intuitive to the hedonism that drives our meth-driven, alcohol fueled, power hungry, self-satisfied, lustful, joyless society. A place where abortion is lauded as a good thing, the smashing of our children fresh from the womb. And we don't even know we are at war. So trapped are those around us that the enemy is unrecognizable as infanticide (and soon euthanasia) become the accepted method controlling the population and increasing our disposable income. Oh, we are imprisoned. By our own self-centeredness. Our nation is Babylon. And that didn't end well.

How do I live in Babylon? I have xenophobia sometimes. Sometimes I feel the pull toward all the stuff that distracts and enslaves. Babylon says, according to Isaiah 47: "I am and there is no one besides me; I shall not sit as a widow or know the loss of children." Self-sufficient and rich, they don't need God. Those of us who know Him wince at the hubris. Our God is patient. Waits. For a turn of heart. A shift of priorities. An acknowledgment that it is He Who alone is I AM. To the Babylonians, God had this to say as a warning: "Now, therefore, you lovers of pleasures, who sit securely, who say in your heart, 'I am, and there is no one beside me..': These two things shall come upon you in a moment, in a day; the loss of children and widowhood shall come upon you in full measure, in spite of your many sorceries and the great power of your enchantments." Oh, Babylon, listen. We can still be saved! God said: "If My people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land (2 Chronicles 7:14)." On the eve of 9/11, may we pray like never before, for America and for our tumultuous, war-ravaged world.

 

PSALM 136 - Can You Blame Him?

It is He Who remembered us in our low estate, for His steadfast love endures forever; and rescued us from our foes, for His steadfast love endures forever; He Who gives food to all flesh, for His steadfast love endures forever. Give thanks to the God of heaven, for His steadfast love endures forever.   (Verses 23-26)

God told Moses He wasn't going to go into the promised land with the rebellious children He'd led through the wilderness. To Moses, God said: "Depart! Go up from here, you and your people you have brought up out of the land of Egypt to the land which I swore to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob...I will send a angel before you...go up to the land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked and stubborn people (Exodus 33)!" Yikes! An exasperated God, unwilling to live any more with a people who fashioned a gold calf out of the spoils of their slavery then bowed down to worship it instead of the miracle-working God Who'd proved His love for them over and over again in the wilderness. Can you blame Him?

The original commandments, etched by God's own finger into tablets of stone, now lay shattered in chalky shards on the desert floor. It broke God's heart, so He didn't want to travel with the "children" any longer. All it would take to get the refugees to the land of promise was one angel. Really? So His Presence was always an unnecessary bonus. A proof of His great stubborn love. God moved along with His people because He wanted to be with them.

Of course, Moses, the great smasher of stone tablets, can't fathom being left alone with the rebellious and untamed lot from Egypt, so he pleads with God to change His mind. Precisely because the people are stubborn and rebellious.

The next morning, after His conversation with Moses, God meets the prophet on the top of Mount Sinai. In his grip, Moses carries two new tablets, freshly hewn, per God's instructions. They are a blank page for God to write, a second time, His commandments for His people. I can't even properly imagine what happens next. God comes fully upon the mountain summit, covering it in a thick cloud of Presence...and stands there with the man. The two of them. Not speaking, yet. Moses adjusting himself to the overwhelming aura of God's glory; God adjusting to the smallness of the confines of a mountain top on Earth. Then God walks in front of Moses as the mountain quakes with the power of a heavenly visitation and the unrestrained authority of the Voice which spoke all things into being speaking to a prophet. There God declares His character: "The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin, but Who will by no means clear the guilty." There. He declared it. The very reason He will go with Moses and the people. His character.

Thrown face-down by God's words, Moses worships Him in the vaporous cloud that's included him in glory. "If I've found favor with you, please go with us into the land Your promised. We are stiff-necked and stubborn and we need Your love and forgiveness. Please take us for Your inheritance!"

If I were God, the argument would've been puny. Go with us for precisely the reason that we are vain and mutinous. I mean, how can a people with such flaws ever by anything without their God Who provides even their daily bread? Even with God, in their very midst, the people weren't capable of walking faithfully with Him for very long. But God, ever faithful, ever loving, redoes the commandments. Etching once more, in miraculous splendor, the rules that quite literally never should have been broken the first time! Then He promises more marvels! "It is an awesome thing that I will do with you (Exodus 34)."

"Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends," said Jesus in the moments before His death (John 15). Hours later, on another mountain top, the Voice of God cried out, "It is finished." The character of God meeting head-on the selfish, arrogant, rebellious heart of mankind. Defeating it because He is "the Lord, the Lord, a God gracious and merciful, abounding in steadfast love." How should we live then? Based upon such unrelenting, all-encompassing and prodigious love? If our own ridiculous lawlessness in the face of His omnipotence can be overcome by God's great love for us--by its steadfast, never-changing, eternal, ironic, inexplicable love--then we must be a people characterized by hearts so thankful that God is grateful not that we grovel at His feet, but that we get His heart.

PSALM 136 - Moving On Down the Road

(Give thanks to) Him Who struck down great kings, for His steadfast love endures forever;
and killed mighty kings, for His steadfast love endures forever; Sihon, king of the Amorites, for  His steadfast love endures forever; and Og, king of Bashan, for His steadfast love endures forever; and gave their land as a heritage, for His steadfast love endures forever.
(Verses 17-21)

When I was a kid, my father used to mow the lawn on Saturday evenings. Usually, he'd waited until it grew up pretty high, so maybe not every weekend found him out in the yard. Because I thought it was fun to run around in the swaths Daddy cut through the yard, he'd mow the grass in crazy patterns that I'd have to follow. I'd run behind the mower then all over the yard in the labyrinth my dad created. I'm sure the yard wasn't very pretty when we finished because not only were the swaths in silly patterns, but the newly cut grass was mushed down by my constant running over it. But I was happy, green stained feet and all.

Sometimes that's the way I feel about following my heavenly Father. Like He's cutting swaths in random paths that I follow until my feet turn green. Unlike my daddy, though, this Father has a plan. The journey isn't all fun and frolic. My path is leading somewhere, and He will make sure I get there. No matter what it takes. On an earthly plane, it means I was created with purpose, here, on this planet. Eternally, I'm assured the road cut out of the dust on which I walk will lead to home with Him. It is His covenant promise to me that He'll get me there. As Paul said in Philippians 1:6: And I am sure of this, that He Who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

Sihon and Og were evil kings bent on the destruction of God's people. They'd won their land through the bloodiest of regimes. In order for the children of God to get to the land He'd promised them--the life He'd covenanted with them they'd possess--they had to go through Amorite country and face the armies of Bashan who denied them access. It was a war too big for the desert weary people of God to conquer alone. God had to be present in the fight to get His children where He wanted them to go. Their battle was His battle. God knew where to cut the swath and Og and Sihon were obstinately in the way and violently opposed to the invasion of their country by Egyptian refugees. Sounds rather modern day, doesn't it?

What God wants for His people, He gets. One way or the other. Nations, circumstances and powers can bow to that or be decimated in the process. I know to some that sounds cruel of God, but before we blame Him for His steadfast love for those who love Him, we might want to pause. Og and Sihon made choices. Decided to push against the national will of God. What might have happened if they'd given some of their land to the refugees or given them safe passage through. Sounding, once again, modern day?

God sees our individual destinies and the fate of the world as an accomplished thing. He's not waiting with bated breath to see how things will turn out. However, within God's sovereignty we have choices to make. There is personal freedom to choose right in the greater scheme of how it all will eventually come down for mankind. While His eye is on the nations of the world, it's also looking lovingly on His own. From God's viewpoint, there is a swath measured out for mankind, for sure. But our lives, tiny and insignificant in comparison, are no less described and protected by our God. Just as He orders the universe to expand, the rain to fall, and the sun to shine, God also orders the events of His kids in a swath that finally leads us home. So when my little green feet stop at the crossroads and my heart beats hard from running down the path, I must wait to see where my Father next cuts the row. It's up to Him to lead me on down the road. And He will...whatever it takes.

PSALM 136 - Munch On Manna For A While

(Give thanks) To Him Who struck down the firstborn of Egypt, for His steadfast loves endures forever; and brought Israel out from among them, for His steadfast love endures forever; with a strong hand and an outstretched arm, for His steadfast love endures forever; to Him Who divided the Red Sea in two, for His steadfast love endures forever; and made Israel pass through the midst of it, for His steadfast love endures forever; but overthrew Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea, for His steadfast love endures forever; to Him Who led His people through the wilderness, for His steadfast love endures forever.   (Verses 10-16)

First the miracles and then the wilderness. Of course, the miraculous rescue of Israel from its slavery in Egypt was out of the box! Signs and wonders now epic. The stuff of movie after movie. God gave Moses a stick, ordinary except for its use as a sort of wand that changed things when anointed by God to do so. Put it into the Nile and blood runs there instead of water. Place it at the edge of the Red Sea and water parts, walled up on either side of a nation which then passes through on dry land to the other side. Over a million people hurried across with livestock and possessions before the Egyptian army caught up. They had second thoughts about letting Israel leave after all. The army plunged into the miracle sea only to have it swallow them up, chariots and all. God will do whatever it takes to get His children out of bondage. Even now.

However, there is still the job of getting bondage out of us. And so God led His people into and out of the wilderness. What was there? Not leeks and onions. They were fed, all right, but with this white stuff that fell from the sky that Israel called manna - what is it? Every day "what is it" covered the ground. "Don't take more than you need for this day." They learned quickly that if they stored up God's provision for another day, it rotted. No shopping malls. They lived in the shoes they left with for forty years. No meat. Complain and grumble against God. Sick of manna. Where's the beef? Angry, God pours birds from the sky...too many, and some get sick from gorging. Thirst was there, too. We have to look at our need in the wilderness. To understand our inability to provide for ourselves. Moses raised the stick and out of a rock gushed enough water for a nation where there was not oasis. Most importantly, though, God was there. At night His Presence was a pillar of fire. By day God led His children by a cloud. When God moved, the people moved. When He was still, they must be still. His provision didn't even make sense sometimes. Out of nothing God gave them all they needed...just not all they wanted. The promise of a land flowing with milk and honey was ahead. But they couldn't take Egypt with them in their hearts.

In the wilderness? I've been there more than once. I needed my hard drive erased. Brought down to the simplicity of following God when He takes away the thing that medicates--whatever we go to instead of cloud and fire--and makes us look at our need. Wildernesses show us we are hungry and thirsty and we've been trusting in something else to nourish our needs. In the arid atmosphere, there is only us and God. If He doesn't provide, we will die there. And we can't usually see how in the world He can get us through. Manna isn't steak, and we want Him to give us filet mignon. But our stomachs are greedy and we've forgotten how to let God take care of us. Out of nothing, He does. He will. Because the point of the wilderness is to reconnect to God, to yearn for only Him. To obey again. If you have been delivered from bondage, it was a miracle! And you know it! The therapy of the desert is necessary because God wants you to go into the new season of joy and power without the trappings of your former idol. Drink from the Rock and munch on the manna. Our God is all we need.

PSALM 136 - Always On His Mind

He made the heavens skillfully. His love is eternal. He spread the land on the waters. His love is eternal. He made the great lights. His love is eternal. The sun to rule by day, His love is eternal; the moon and stars to rule by night. His love is eternal.  (Verses 5-9)
 
No one can see God, but Jesus is exactly like Him. He ranks higher than anything that has been made. Through His power all things were made--things in heaven and on earth, things seen and unseen, all powers, authorities, lords and rulers. All things were made through Christ and for Christ. He was there before anything was made, and all things continue because of Him.
Colossians 1: 15-17  Italics, mine.

It is, for some of us, a revolutionary thought that the God Who created the earth and stars, painted onto land its mountains and streams, set to harmonious music the songs of the stars (Job 38:7), and divided time into days and nights did it out of His eternal love. The only thing I have to compare that with is the joy I receive from my children or from creating something new when I write. It's the joy of thinking a thing in its splendor then actually seeing it manifest in reality. Except I can't simply speak something into being as God did.

The thrilling thought for me this morning is the pre-existent God of All had a thing on His mind to do. That thing was conceived in love. His great eternal agape pushed His mighty heart to make the world. Why? There must have been some great joy in designing it all, looking at it once completed, and always the resounding confirmation: "It is good." The Godhead, excited about how to show all who dwell in eternity how immense everlasting love is. That it will stoop to a created orb in order to lavish the  puny inhabitants with heavenly anointing oil and wash them in the waters of life! God stretching Himself toward creatures made in the image and likeness of the eternal One. Us. Man was the crowning glory of creation. After God said, "Let Us make man in Our image," He stepped back, looked at the beauty and symmetry of everything Christ spoke into being and said, It is very good!"

We are center to creation's purpose and power. Given by the Creator to have dominance over the earth. Set in the garden to care for it and enjoy it as He did. So the bigger thought is this: In Christ, He chose us before the world was made, so that we could be His holy people--people without blame before Him. Because of His love, God had already decided to make us His own children through Christ Jesus. That was what He wanted and what pleased Him, and it brings praise to God because of His wonderful grace (Ephesians 1). It is of us God was thinking first. Before He designed the universe in which our planet is suspended. The image of each of us pre-existed in the HEART of God long before He set His great architectural opus in place. God has ALWAYS loved us. Before we took on flesh. And will always love us when we relinquish it to the dust and fly to Jesus as the eternal ones we are.

I am completely known and understood, then. I've always been precious to Him even in the times I wasn't precious to others. My life has design...purpose. It fits in right now with the era in which I was born. No accidents. Pre-loved before I was packaged in flesh to roam this planet with my hand in His.
Not only that, it won't be over for Earth until Jesus declares it so--the story written before the world was spoken into being by Jesus. It is He who "holds everything together" even now. By His love. For the earth He made, for the moon, stars, sun, land, water, mountains and streams. To save it from eternal ruin, the Creator God slipped one night into a manger filled with other lambs, knowing the price He would pay to show His everlasting love to those into whom He'd breathed His very breath. Stretched upon a cross, dying the death we should have died, the Logos, the very Word of God, spoke our destiny with Him into being: "It is finished!" The plan from before the before now realized in the atonement. For all eternity, all its inhabitants, things seen and unseen, authorities, rulers, powers and lords to look upon the passionate, untamed, voracious love of God! It is still up to Jesus, the risen God of All, to determine the exact times and hours of Earth's existence. We linger in our rebellion and sin because He is being patient with you. He does not want anyone to be lost, but He wants all people to change their hearts and lives (2 Peter 3:9).

Love has always been. And goes on forever. Conceived in love, we are precious now and forever. Earth isn't the beginning of my journey with God and death isn't the end of it. He has made me to be eternal like Him. I want to swim in that love today, dipped into the stream of it. Regardless of all the horrific things those made to be like Him have dreamed up in our present age, beheadings and war, genocide and perversions, Love waits until there is nothing more for which to hope. Until it is time. Our God's unfathomable love will keep us until the earthly clock runs out and bids us into timeless wonder.

PSALM 136 - Stomping Off to Bible Study

Give thanks to the Lord for He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever. Give thanks to the God of gods, for His steadfast love endures forever. Give thanks to the Lord of lords, for His steadfast love endures forever, to Him alone Who does great wonders, for His steadfast love endures forever;  (Verses 1-4)

God is never doing just one thing. The events of our lives are multi-layered in tiers that go ultimately to the heart. Three years ago, some ladies in the church I attend hurt me in such a way that it took several weeks for me to sort it out. In the decisions they made about me, their intent was not to wound me. Of this I'm certain. But the manner in which they handled their difficulty with me was hurtful. My battle was to not let Satan turn the hurt into full-blown offense which can only create bitterness. In the wake of this situation, there was a new Bible study being held at the house of one of the ladies. I did not want to go. In fact, told my husband and daughter that I wasn't going. I mean, why would I show up when I felt they didn't want me there? Both Bill and Vanessa told me the "right thing to do" would be to attend the study with a good attitude. I kinda hated them for saying that. Mainly because it was the truth. So I stomped off to the study that night, Bible in hand, doing the "right thing" with a pretty wrong heart.

There was a new woman there. She had short platinum blond hair and was chatty and cute. Before we all settled in on the couch of our hostess to begin watching Beth Moore on DVD, we all shared prayer requests. Jennifer, the new attendee, began to weep as she asked us to pray that she could get pregnant. She and her young husband had been trying to have a baby for six years with no pregnancy. Sobbing then as she cried her misery, I heard the Holy Spirit say very clearly: "Put your hands on her and pray!"

"May we pray for you right now?" I heard myself asking.

"Please," was her plaintive reply as we all gathered round Jennifer and asked God to allow her to conceive. And that was that. She didn't return to the study. I returned only sporadically.

Sunday morning, Bill and I went to church as we usually do. Vanessa and our son, Will, helped lead an amazing worship service. Our pastor gave his usual amazing sermon. As I turned to leave, a young woman came running up to me carrying a toddler in her arms. "Do you remember me?" she asked, tears already streaming down her face. I didn't. "I'm Jennifer. You prayed for me three years ago that I could have a baby, and I got pregnant that very night!" Striding up behind her was her husband with another boy in his arms. Three years old. The fruit of our night's prayer. "This is the baby God gave me," Jennifer said as she stroked the boy's back. "And this is the second boy God gave us!" She couldn't control the tears. "I've thought a hundred times that I need to go to this church to tell you about the miracle God did that night. Yesterday, I knew I had to get here today and show you my boys."

Tears of joy streaked my face, too, as we prayed together, thanking God for the wonders He works. For the generosity of His great heart. For answering the prayers of one woman with a bad attitude who could at least hear Him tell her to pray. I gave thanks for the fact that my Father knew I had a wrong heart doing the right thing and still was able to mesmerize me with His goodness. I gave thanks with Jennifer and her husband that every time she looks at her three-year-old, she sees the steadfast love of a God Who works wonders when we ask.