Psalm 139, part 5: The Personal Love of God
13 For You formed my inward parts;
You wove me in my mother’s womb.
14 I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Wonderful are Your works,
And my soul knows it very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth;
16 Your eyes have seen my unformed substance;
And in Your book were all written
The days that were ordained for me,
When as yet there was not one of them.
17 How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand.
When I awake, I am still with You.
This is an incredible passage to help us understand the love of God. Beginning in verse 13 we see the Psalmist acknowledging that God formed his inward parts, which can be translated created. More specifically, the second line in verse 13 tells us that God “wove” me in my mother’s womb. This word wove means knit together and it is an excellent word to understand the great care with which God created the human race. When we consider what it means to knit, there is a skillset that requires precision, coordination, vision, and steadfastness as what is being knit together often requires the consideration of size, tension in the thread or yarn, design, and the coordination of colors to product an embedded design within what is being crafted. It is also noteworthy that in the field of psychiatry, doctors recognize that knitting can be helpful for patients as an ideal craft to engage in, because it requires so many parts of the brain working in concert to produce the desired end result. So, in these human terms, caste that picture back into the great care in which God created us humans. We are made up of ten systems, skeletal, muscular, nervous, endocrine, cardiovascular, lymphatic, respiratory, digestive, urinary, and the reproductive system. These are complex systems and often require other systems to be operational in order to work properly, contingent dependencies that require outside intelligence in order to exist. The interfacing of systems within the human body is an example of irreducible complexity, meaning that God crafted these systems to work together and their codependence demonstrates the need for a Creator.
In verse 14, we see the humility of Psalmist proclaiming being fearfully and wonderfully made. This statement is a praise as well as a recognition of our creatureliness, which includes the recognition of our soul, or body-soul dualism. This recognition is carried over to verse 15 where we read that our frame or skeletal system was formed by the Lord, then we move back to the craft of knitting. To be skillfully wrought can be translated as one who does weaving or embroidering with colored thread. It carries the idea that the Master Weaver is using colored thread to adorn or make a vibrant, lovely design.
In verse 16, we see God as sovereign over our lives, appointing our days and the destiny of our human existence. Here we have a recognition of vulnerability as the creature, yet when woven from verse 14 and 15, we receive the sense that the colored thread by which we are adorned also crafts our life. We see this vulnerability in the prayer of Hezekiah (Isaiah 38:10-20) in which he pleads that he not be deprived the rest of his years, a desperate plea in contrast to Psalm 139, but the same recognition that we are not in control, but we have a loving God who is in control. The good news is the precious thoughts of God towards us. This is a proclamation of how deeply, richly and weighty is the love of God towards us. The loving thoughts of God towards us would outnumber the sands, they are with us all day and stay with us through the night, and we do not have enough years to count all the ways in which God has love and affection for us. The word precious in verse 17 means one of the greatest rarity and the most highly esteemed. In consideration of the love of God in our finite state, if we can see past our sin, our flaws and within the limits of human thinking, we can still see that we that God first imagined us, then God carefully created us, God made us uniquely beautiful, God created us in His image, God planned a life for us, God gave us a unique ID in our fingerprints, and God made countless individual people to engage in community for love and support. On top of all of this, God has an eternal kingdom planned that will be more than we can ask or imagine.
Psalm 139, pt. 4: Living in the Presence of God!
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me,
And the light around me will be night,”
12 Even darkness is not dark to You,
And the night is as bright as the day.
Darkness and light are alike to You.
In understanding the nature of God, Psalm 139:11-12 are two of the most important verses we can know as Christians because they speak to the omnipresence and omniscience of God. That is to say that God is all-present (everywhere) and God is all-knowing. In short, without these two attributes of God, we would not have a God, at least not one whom we could trust and put our faith in.
We live all of life in the presence of God and we cannot hide from Him.
David here is writing about the fact that whether he is in the daytime or the night time, he is always in the presence of God. We live all of life in the presence of God and we cannot hide from Him. When David writes that “the darkness is not dark to You”, he is drawing attention to the fact that God knows everything, so here we acknowledge that God is with us in every situation, knows what we are doing in every moment, and our lives are fully on display before the Almighty! This is not something that we think about everyday, but when we do think about it, we will find that it tempers are attitudes, words and actions. Whether we want to keep a secret sin hidden or we want to privately do something good for someone else, we may be able to keep people in the dark, but God is never in the dark when it comes to the entirety of our lives. At the end of verse 12, David writes that darkness and light are alike to you to point out this basic truth about God compared to the limitations of people.
When we interpret scripture, there is always a primary meaning and sometimes there can be a secondary meaning. Here I would like to offer a secondary meaning and focus on the words “darkness” and “light.” In biblical interpretation, there is something called the ‘semantic range’ of a word. In the Hebrew, the term translated darkness can certainly mean nighttime, however it can also mean gloom, sadness, despair, or terror. Some Lexicons include the meaning of “hard to understand” or “bewildered.” Likewise, the word for light can also be translated as happiness, radiant joy, prosperity, bright, cheerfulness or serenity. In consideration of these additional meanings, it can be a great source of peace for the Christian to know in our hearts that God is with us in times of utter darkness as well as to be thankful in times of radiant joy.
In the context of the Psalm, we can see that God is with us everywhere, that means even when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we are not alone. In verse 9, David writes that even in the remotest parts of the sea, God is with me. This brings to mind Jonah, who began to praise God when he was oceans and oceans deep, because he had faith that God was with him and would rescue him. Or in verse 13, acknowledging that we belong to God, “for You created my innermost parts; You wove me together in my mother’s womb.” In other words, You God took great care to create me, and I can see that I am wonderfully made (v.14), I can have confidence that Your hand is in everything that I am going through.
This is important to know because there have been times or will be times in all of our lives when darkness falls on our lives and it leaves us bewildered, trying to understand, while navigating the sadness. Times when we question God, question our faith, trying to understand how good can come from bad, but it is in those moments when we remember who God is, that we can find our footing to stand firm in the storm. There are many examples in my own life as well as the lives of those I love, things you never imagine from untimely death, infidelity, cancer, divorce, betrayal, lost love, public humiliation, financial ruin, yet in the midst of the darkness, we cling to the sovereignty of God, and the goodness of God. Yes we hurt, we cry, we get depressed, sometimes the sadness can make us physically ill, but God sustains us and comforts us.
[Sidebar: It is also important to note that to a certain degree, darkness is in the eye of the beholder. This is important because Christian like to be helpful, but many lack the training and maturity to be helpful and often cause more damage with their words. No one knows what is going on inside of us except for us and God, and sometimes we do not even understand the turmoil inside of us. As Billy Graham once shared a story of a lost love, he stated, “they said is was only puppy love, but it was real to the puppy!” We would do well to take a queue from Job’s friends in Job 2 where it states that they sat with him for seven days and seven nights with no one saying a word because they could see he was in great pain. Be careful not to minimize someone else’s pain!
Putting times of darkness in perspective can take time, sometimes years. It is quite possible that we have experienced tragedy in our lives in which a satisfactory answer will never come to us this side of heaven, but it is in those very instances that we find our resolve, our faith takes deeper root, and eventually we arrive at a place where we say that God is in control and we actually believe it. When Paul writes in Philippians 4 that he has learned to be content and that he can do all things through Christ who strengthens him, he is calling attention to the goal of this life. That is that we seek a content heart, a heart that does not live and die with every situation in our lives, but rather engages everyday living in the presence of God trusting that we are not alone in whatever the day brings. Not that we don’t grieve or celebrate, but within the highs and lows of life, we are content because regardless of what this life brings or doesn’t bring, the most important thing about every Christian has been settled in eternity, therefore I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me for this life.
Prayer: Eternal God, heavenly Father, you have graciously accepted us as living members of your Son our Savior Jesus Christ, and you have fed us with spiritual food in the Sacrament of His Body and Blood. Send us now into the world in peace and grant us strength and courage to love and serve you with gladness and singleness of heart, through Christ our Lord. Amen!
Our Heart in Apologetics #6: Pray for Divine Appointments
praying at the same time for us as well, that God will open up to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned – Colossians 4:3
What is a divine appointment? A divine appointment is when God causes two paths to cross in order that two or more people would engage for the benefit of one or more people. It could be for many reasons such as encouragement, guidance, correction, wisdom, or perhaps to create a wrinkle in time for the timing of a future event. I like to refer to this as 
the Tapestry of God, a weaving together of lives for a temporary or permanent engagement. This is not something that I have always been sensitive to, but over the last decade I have begun to recognize these encounters. Conversations regarding business, marital problems, sick family members, were among some of the topics that had come into my life, but in a moment of clarity I realized that these were divine appointments and God was using my story to help others, though I was unaware of it at the time. As I reflect on various encounters, it is easy to see the value for one or both people involved. We all have a story that is still unfolding, but when we consider how we arrived at today, we will find parts of our story in another. Paul wrote to the Corinthians and told them that God would be using us to comfort others.
3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. 4 He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. 5 For the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ. 6 Even when we are weighed down with troubles, it is for your comfort and salvation! For when we ourselves are comforted, we will certainly comfort you. Then you can patiently endure the same things we suffer. 7 We are confident that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in the comfort God gives us. – 2Corinthians 1:3-7
Every since that epiphany, I have continually been sensitive to when these encounters are happening, in fact I have started to request them. It really is quite amazing to me now how people I encounter are in the middle of a situation that is part of my story, or how they have walked a path that allows them to pour wisdom into me. I think that God orchestrates these engagements as a demonstration of His love and further steps on our journey to become like Jesus. As I now enter every day sensitive to what God might have planned, I have recognized ways to prepare for whomever I encounter. Here are a few ways that we can practice this discipline in daily life:
- First, start with morning prayer. As part of morning prayer, ask God for divine appointments, gospel conversations, and to be able to step into someone’s faith journey. Also, ask for the Lord to send you folks who can pour into you or offer guidance for whatever life circumstances are weighing on you. What I learned in this practice is that once I became aware of the idea that God sends us divine appointments, I was able to reflect on past encounters and see how God worked in those relationships. It is also important to be aware that they can happen in any context, school, work, grocery shopping, date night, even church.
- Second, recognize the common ground that we have with every person we encounter. Our common ground is that we are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27; Romans 8:29), both us and them are plagued by sin (Ephesians 2:1 – 4; John 3:16; Romans 3:23), and God desires for this person to repent and believe in the gospel (2Peter 3:9; Acts 17:22 – 31; John 3:16 – 18; Luke 5:32). Finding our common ground convicts our hearts and leads us to a place where we can look at a person with compassion and have a genuine love for every lost soul (Matthew 9:36-38). Our sin nature tends to put forth our sensibility to what offends us, but we can more easily overcome our selfish nature when we find our common ground with each person we encounter.
- Third, understand the dynamic of sowing and reaping and never forget that it is God who causes the growth and provides the gift of faith (1Corinthians 3:6-9). Sometimes we are to sow so that others may reap, while other times we reap what others have sown (John 4:36-38). We must try to discern this with the person we are speaking with as they may not be ready to follow Christ, but your role in the pre-evangelism is critical to the process. Perhaps you share something that will stay in their mind for many years before it is acted upon. One Apologist gave us the example of a pebble in your show that is a constant reminder until you remove the pebble. However the encounter unfolds, we must do our part, then continue to pray if there will not be other follow up conversations.
- Fourth, beware of self-importance, the focus on “self” that can derail the engagement or cause it to be missed all together. This can take many forms such as busyness, being judgmental, or having a poor attitude. Busyness is worm as a badge of honor in our culture and the devil could not be more pleased. Busyness often comes from being undiscipline with your time which is often fueled by an inflated view of yourself. We need to not confuse busyness with productivity, slow down, create margin in your calendar for the unexpected, and seek to cultivate a heart to serve while pursuing holy productivity.
- Fifth, recognize the common path. Identify where your story and their story overlap (2Corinthians 1:3-5) and listen to what they share. In the midst of a person pouring their heart out to you, there will be a temptation to cut them with a “me too” but fight that urge to focus on your self. This tendency to interject is called “bracketing” and can cause a person to shut down, especially when they are hurting. Let them tell their whole story by listening and be mindful of your body language. Do not allow your facial expression of body language to communicate that you are bored or have disengaged. When it is time to contribute to the conversation, lead them to go deeper by asking an open ended question which may open up an even clearer understanding of why God brought this conversation to you. This process is building the relationship, building trust, providing safe space for the person, and providing you with more time to hear the Holy Spirit’s leading.
- Sixth, believe in the power of the Gospel and the Word of God (Hebrews 4:12; 2Timothy 3:16). When we read that the word of God is living and active, we must, if our faith is genuine, be able to testify to this truth by recognizing how the word has spoken to us, provided comfort, convicted our hearts, corrected my actions, was a source of encouragement, or shined a light on something that was hard to understand previously. Every believer can point to an encounter with God through His word and we need to embrace that truth. We tend to resort to conventional wisdom or human thinking when the person may need to hear the word of God. After all, we know that faith comes by hearing the word of God (Romans 10:15-17). For this practice to really take root in your life, a person much care more of what God thinks than what people think. In my experience, I have found that when using a phrase such as, “the Bible actually speaks to this situation…” or “Jesus addressed this very issue in the gospel of…” or something along those line. Read, learn and internalize the word of God and speak with authority. We can speak with grace and a tender heart (Colossians 4:6) while still speaking truth with authority.
May God bless every conversation, every relationship, and every person who steps into our faith journey!
Prayer: Eternal God, heavenly Father, you have graciously accepted us as living members of your Son our Savior Jesus Christ, and you have fed us with spiritual food in the Sacrament of His Body and Blood. Send us now into the world in peace and grant us strength and courage to love and serve you with gladness and singleness of heart, through Christ our Lord. Amen!
Our Heart in Apologetics #5: Thankful Prayer
When we speak about prayer in relation to apologetics, we must always start with our own heart check. 
We must be engaging others from a position of love which is characterized by humility before God and man. Paul wrote to the Corinthians that if we are acting without love, then we are just making noise, and Peter wrote that we must be motivated by love (gentleness) and respect when providing answers to folks about our faith and the hope we carry. So when we do our own heart check, we recognize that a humble heart is a grateful heart, a thankful heart, and a genuine desire for the eternal goodness of our hearers!
All prayer must begin with gratitude and giving thanks! As God is the subject and object of worship, so God is also the subject and object of prayer! As we start to grow up and mature in our faith, God, ourselves and those we pray for come into better perspective, but that doesn’t mean that thankful prayer will always be automatic, so we must be mindful to practice this type of prayer. Scripture tells us to be devoted to prayer, keeping alert while maintaining an attitude of thanksgiving (Colossians 4:2). So we can see in this verse that we are called to be discipline and consistent in directing our minds and hearts towards Christ in our prayer. When we do this, we are also keeping ourselves in proper perspective which helps us cultivate an attitude of thanksgiving.
A thankful heart begins to grow when self-awareness becomes sin-awareness, which is the place where the gratitude of grace is magnified as we truly see the depths of our total depravity. [Now it must be stated that the term sin-awareness is not a focus on our struggle or what weighs us down, but rather it is a focus on our freedom and the mercy we have been granted. The world today preaches self, self-focus and self-empowerment and self-love and good thoughts and good vibes and positivity, and dozen of other man focused ideas that leave God out of the picture; we live in a very “me” centered culture, but for the Christian, we must seek to be “other” focused, and that focus begins with God, the One who made us possible and made all things possible. If we are not other focused, we will fail miserably at any attempt to do evangelism and apologetics]. In this place, prayer cultivates a deeper sensitivity for those who do not know Jesus. As our burden for the lost grows, we also begin to see the layers of pride being peeled away like an onion as we can now look at a person without faith and feel compassion for them. We start to grow the compassion of Jesus that we see in Matthew 9:36-38, and the working out of the love of God manifesting in our hearts as the Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are truly children of God. If you have ever prayed for someone and been overcome with tears and yearning to see someone receive saving faith, then you have had been to this place of being like Jesus. Paul describes this in Colossians 4:12 in telling us about the agonizing prayer of Epephras. This agonizing prayer is a work of the Holy Spirit in us for both the unbeliever and the believer, to receive faith and to grow in faith.
In apologetics, we start with prayer because we can easily get entangled in the intellectual aspect of evangelism, so we need to guard against this intellectual pride and always remember we cannot reason anyone into the Kingdom of God. God may use us to remove a barrier of faith to help someone take steps towards the cross, but ultimately it is God who convicts of sin (John 16:8) and it is the kindness of God that leads people to repentance (Romans 2:4). So, we do need to be prepared to give every person an answer for the hope we have within us (1Peter 3:15), and we need to contend earnestly for the faith (Jude 3), and we do need to study the Bible so we can handle it correctly (2Timothy 2:15), and we do need to hold firmly to the truth that the word of God is living and active and convicts hearts (Hebrews 4:12), and the most critical part of this preparation is thankful prayer.
Some scriptures to learn so they can be incorporated into prayer include that God reveals Himself to them (Matthew 16:17), that they hear His voice (Hebrews 4:7), that God replace their heart of stone with a living, breathing heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36:25-27), and that their heart be good soil to receive the seed of the gospel in a true, life changing way (Matthew 13, parable of the Sower). Also pray for yourself so that you know when to speak, what to share, ask God to give your the words. If you are engaging an unbeliever who is hurting, perhaps there are no words, but many ways you can love them. Sometimes just being present, being available can be a tremendous help. I was recently speaking with a man who is on a dark path that I had traveled, so I simply asked him, “do you want to go get a steak and some beverages and not talk about it?” That question was met with an enthusiastic Yes! Because I have been in his shoes, I knew from personal experience that there were no words and no scripture that was going to bring any magical healing, there will be time for that later, but for now we need to tend to the bleeding so the healing can begin. My encouragement to you is that as you read scripture and have time with God, take note of the many prayers in scripture and how you can incorporate them into your prayer life for both those we seek to be saved and those we want to help grow! Amen!
Prayer: Eternal God, heavenly Father, you have graciously accepted us as living members of your Son our Savior Jesus Christ, and you have fed us with spiritual food in the Sacrament of His Body and Blood. Send us now into the world in peace and grant us strength and courage to love and serve you with gladness and singleness of heart, through Christ our Lord. Amen!
Good Friday: As Heaven Looked Away!
31 And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. 32 And He was stating the matter plainly. And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. 33 But turning around and seeing His disciples, He rebuked Peter and *said, “Get behind Me, Satan; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.” 34 And He summoned the crowd with His disciples, and said to them, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. 35 For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.36 For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? 37 For what will a man give in exchange for his soul? 38 For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.” – Mark 8:31-38
When I first became a believer, I recall having a conversation with my roommate about Good Friday. When I shared with him the meaning of Good Friday, he replied, “it doesn’t sound like Jesus had a very good day.” Even though he was trying to mock the gospel and my faith, his statement got me thinking about the deep goodness about today that will always go unnoticed to anyone who has not been called into the Kingdom. In looking at Mark 8 above, the first thing that jumps out at me is that Jesus was not only called to suffer, but it was a necessity to be rejected. Have you ever considered why rejection was necessary? Jesus came to Earth with a mission! His mission was the redemption of mankind, to bridge the gap that separated us from God and the Kingdom of Heaven. One of the very first indications of His mission was receiving The Gift of Myrrh from the wise men. I won’t rehash it here, but you can link to my previous post about the gift that is presented at the birth of Jesus, but appropriately missing at the Second Advent and the establishment of the Millennial Kingdom (Isaiah 60).
When we talk about suffering for beliefs, that is actually quite common in our world. Many have given their lives for their beliefs over the centuries, whether those beliefs were for faith, politics, social injustice or some other cause. What is common to just about all of them is that they are largely forgotten. For a time, people will gossip about it, call it a tragedy, some may mourn, but the result is that those people are eventually forgotten when the social capital is exhausted. If Jesus had not been rejected, people would have treated Him the same way, feeling sympathy for him, and reduced Him to martyr status, labeled a tragedy. That indeed would have been a tragedy, but praise God for His wisdom and the staying power of rejection! Because not only would martyrdom have been the reflection of history, but the awaited Messiah would have come and gone unnoticed leaving the world without the hope of redemption. If the murder of Jesus had not come about as the result of rejection, even the disciples who walked with Him would have missed the mark (see John 12:33-37). Consider the actions of Peter in Mark 8:33 and the response of Jesus. Peter was the leader, so he took Jesus aside to express what they all believed. The disciples along with most Jews of the time were seeking a political Messiah to over throw Rome and establish the reign of Israel in this world. Jesus said, “My Kingdom is not of this world, it were, then would my servants fight.” No, Jesus came to save us and the only way was to surrender to the suffering and rejection required to reconcile us to Himself (Romans 5:8) that we might be called children of God (John 1:12; Matthew 18:3).
The Garden of Gethsemane
39 And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.” 40 And He *came to the disciples and *found them sleeping, and *said to Peter, “So, you men could not keep watch with Me for one hour? 41 Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
42 He went away again a second time and prayed, saying, “My Father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, Your will be done.” 43 Again He came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. 44 And He left them again, and went away and prayed a third time, saying the same thing once more. 45 Then He *came to the disciples and *said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. 46 Get up, let us be going; behold, the one who betrays Me is at hand!”
41 And He withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and began to pray, 42 saying, “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.” 43 Now an angel from heaven appeared to Him, strengthening Him. 44And being in agony He was praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground. – Luke 22:41-44
Jesus was not a martyr to be remembered in human sentimentality. He was rejected by the world in the final act of redemption in the battle of light and darkness. The anguish of His soul in the garden was not the sorrow of man, but rather it was the weight of sin pressing down on the Man who was God incarnate reconciling the world to Himself. He was fully God and fully man, therefore this unique agony could only fall on Him. We are fully human growing to be like Christ in our inner man so the Holy Spirit in us shows us the grief of our sin (John 16:8) as an act of love as He also affirms our new nature makes us children of God (Romans 8:15-16). As we walk with God, we have a growing conviction to become less as He becomes more (John 3:30; Romans 8:29). Because God has set eternity in the hearts of man (Ecclesiastes 3:11), those of us who are born-again accept this holy invitation to connect to God (John 15:1-5), quench the thirst of our hearts (John 7:37-38) and enter into the fellowship of His sufferings, the sum of which allows us to get a small taste of the agony of the garden. This is the holy pain that is part of the process of being sanctified, but because our hearts long for this fulfillment, we declare, sometimes reluctantly, that pain is ultimately good because God has called us to be in this world, but not of it, to be rejected for His sake, to become conformed to the image of His Son and to consider joy when people hate you for His sake. This is our calling, and not all can accept it, but for those who surrender to His Spirit, it is a very Good Friday!
(Further reading: Isaiah 53; Psalm 22; Hebrews 12:1-4; Romans 8; 1 Corinthians 15; Matthew 16; John 15:1-5; Hebrews 4:15-16; 2 Corinthians 4:5-8)
Waiting on God, part 2: When Not Yet feels like Not Ever!
For from days of old they have not heard or perceived by ear, Nor has the eye seen a God besides You,
Who acts in behalf of the one who waits for Him. – Isaiah 64:4
Now of faith, hope and love, abide in these three, but the greatest of these is love! When Paul wrote these words to the Corinthians, he was calling out the three characteristics that should characterize the life of a follower of Christ. As John wrote that God is love, and Jesus prayed in John 17:26 that the love of God shared between the Father and the Son would also be in us, as Jesus is in us, so love for God and love for people should be the defining characteristic of saving faith. Jesus said that the way people will know that we are disciples is by having love for one another (John 13:34-35). This is the central characteristic of the Christian, that the love of God is in us, transforms us, and is manifest through us into the world. It is by this love that we know faith and we know hope. We have faith in God for the manifestation of the things we hope for because God is good, God is love, God is sovereign, God is kind, God is guiding our steps in life, and God looks upon us with adoration. To have the assurance of this in our bones gives us strength by understanding that the hopefulness of hope is in the Hands of the one who created all things including you and me, and the gift of hope is one of the greatest ways that God shows us His love.
As previously stated, to hope is to have faith in what is to be, but it is also to wage war against despair. Despair is the opposite of hope and it gains ground in our soul when the light of hope dims. The universe can be a very scary place without hope; without the light of hope, it is a place where fear places the crushing weight of despair on our shoulders. To fight this fear is the hardest work of waiting, but we can do it because God has given us a hope that does not disappoint, allows us to persevere, and builds our Christlike character because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5). This is the place that gives legs to our faith when we are tired of walking. This is a hard place to be because it shines a light on the way we thought things should happen; while it shows that the plan in my head was not aligned with the plan of God, it quietly shows that God is working on our plan. It is the place where not yet, feels like not ever! When the reality of waiting sets in, we can quiet our souls and begin to understand one of two things: 1) Our plan may be right, but our timing is wrong, or 2) God has a better plan that is beyond what we could ask or imagine.
The Flyer and the Catcher
(This is a retelling from Sabbatical Journey by Henri Nouwen)
Friends of Henri described to him what is necessary to be successful as a trapeze artist. The success they described is the unrestricted trust between the flyer and the catcher. The flyer is to let go of ropes to fly through the air and be caught by the catcher. They said that in order to be successful, the flyer must trust the catcher to catch them, the flyer must never ever try to grab the catcher. The flyer must let go and remain absolutely still while moving through the air. If the flyer tries to catch the catcher, they will likely not be caught, so they must have absolute trust in full vulnerability. Complete trust and dependence is the only way for the flyer and the catcher to be successful, so the flyer must wait in the air until the Catcher plucks them from the air to safety!
The story above is a picture of vulnerability that captures the essence of how it feels to wait. It is a place of being absolutely still, suspended in mid-air, so that the Catcher can grab hold of us. When we are not absolutely still, the sensation of falling sets in and can make it difficult for the catcher to grab the panicked, flailing, anxiety ridden flyer from the air. For us, while waiting, we live in a tension between the hope of “what if” and the temptation to see where our best thinking will take us. We see this with Abraham who was longing to have a son, so after 28 years he and his wife agreed that producing a child with Hagar must be what God meant in the promise of a son. What this actually shows us is that they did not believe that with God, all things are possible (Luke 1:37; Mathew 19:26; Mark 9:23-24) as they reasoned that God was limited by their age. In our human thinking, this was not unreasonable, but when we see the circumstances through the lens of faith, knowing that His lovingkindness has already been manifest beyond measure in my life, then we can embrace the hopefulness of hope!
Waiting on God can be wearing to the soul, it is easy to feel forgotten, especially when we are surrounded by others who seem to be blessed in abundance. We do ourselves no good in living lives of comparison, but it is not always easy to ignore. Especially when bad people have received the blessings that you have praying for, possibly for years. We all have stories, examples of life appearing unfair and we just want to look up, shrug our shoulders and say, “really? them? how is that fair? hello? I don’t understand! If I am being punished, just tell me!” I have certainly done this, but not without Lamentations 3:39 coming to mind. But that is the point. Whenever these feeling on injustice and self-pity rise up from within us, that is a good indicator that God is showing us our need to recalibrate our hearts. This is an important work in the hearts of believers that is only exposed in our time of waiting. In my own life, my current seasons of waiting are 24 years, 15 years, 9 years and 4 years, and though I have prayed everyday for years for what I know to be God-honoring desires, it is easy to feel alone in it. I often need to take a breath, let it out, and remember the good things that God has done in me through each encounter. Each situation has produced patience, perseverance, surrender, kindness, and the ongoing lesson of praying without doubting. That last one continues to be difficult because so many times I thought a blessing was close, but my timing was misaligned with Gods timing. That said, there has been much fruit, but more than anything God is teaching me how to love unconditionally, and though I have read many books on the love of God, the philosophy of love, love sonnets, love and marriage, etc. the heart work that has happened was only possible through the cultivated desire to love like Jesus tested in real life relationships. The periods of waiting have also exposed areas of sin in my life related to a discontent heart, fear, idolatry, pride, independence, conditional love, unsteady faith, and the need to trust God in a more unreasonable way. That is all counter-intuitive to my human thinking, but the Spirit often reminds me that His thoughts are not my thoughts and His ways are not my ways, and that allows me to take the next step towards the high places; I suspect that one day I will reach the top, look down from the mountain, and the clear view from Mount Perspective will reveal all the “whys” on this journey, but for now we trust!
Prayer: Eternal God, heavenly Father, you have graciously accepted us as living members of your Son our Savior Jesus Christ, and you have fed us with spiritual food in the Sacrament of His Body and Blood. Send us now into the world in peace and grant us strength and courage to love and serve you with gladness and singleness of heart, through Christ our Lord. Amen!
2022 Bible Reading Plans, part 2
In this section, the more specific Bible reading plans are being provided based on broader profiles of spiritual maturity. In addition, some suggestions for personal bible study and bible tools to seek out. As mentioned on the podcast, reading the Bible in a year doesn’t do much for spiritual growth. Most people who commit to a “Read the Bible in a Year” plan will spend most of the year playing catch-up, will forget most of what they read, will have little to no verses memorized, and will not have grown their faith nor cultivated a richer relationship with God. It is largely a “me too” endeavor.
But first, let’s quickly review some scriptures to inspire us on making a daily commitment to reading and learning the Bible.
The following scriptures tell us about the importance of the Bible in the life of the Christian: Hebrews 4:12, Isaiah 40:8, Isaiah 55:11, 1Thessolonians 2:13, Psalm 119:11, Psalm 119:71, Psalm 119:105, Psalm 1:2-3, 1Peter 3:15, Jude 3, 2Timothy 2:15, 1Timothy 3:16, Colossians 3:16, Ephesians 4:14-16, 1Timothy 4:1, Jeremiah 1:12, 2Chronicles 16:9, Philippians 4:8, Philippians 1:6, Hebrews 12:2.
In cultivating your relationship with God, remember that as you go through these passages, take time to hear God’s leading. To rush through the passage or try and have a reading quota per day is counter-productive when it comes to spiritual growth. If you feel that a passage or verse is speaking to you, then take time to meditate on it and journal what you are hearing in your mind. If you are reading and a previous passage comes to mind, go to it. If you feel the need to camp out in a passage for a few days, or even a few weeks, then do it. The Word of God is living and active and sometimes we need to take time to quiet our minds to really hear what God the Holy Spirit is showing you.
Other than New Believers, how you define yourself in regards to young, mature, stuck, growing, etc. is entirely your view. There are too many dynamics to consider, but you know where you have been, where you are today and how God is leading you to grow. So, review the plans below and step into one that seems appropriate for your situation.
1. New Believers (0-12 Months): Versions: The Message, New Living Translation, or the Christian Standard Bible.
Books: Psalms, Matthew, Luke, 1John, 1Corinthians, 2Corinthians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, First Timothy and Second Timothy.
Recommendation: In addition to reading a Psalm a day, also read 1John in it’s entirely every week for 6 weeks, then put it back in the regular rotation of books. Reading 1John daily for the first 30 days is ideal if you have time to complete it.
2. Young Believers: Versions: The Message, New Living Translation, ESV, NIV-1984, NASB-1995
Books: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, 1John, 1Corinthians, 2Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1Timothy, 2Timothy, 1&2 Peter, James. Old Testament: Psalms, Proverbs, Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Leviticus, Isaiah and Jeremiah.
Recommendation: Make a list of our Essential Christian Doctrines such as the Trinity, the Deity of Jesus, the Resurrection, the Virgin Birth, the sin nature of man, salvation by grace through faith, and so on. As you read, begin to map verses or passages to the doctrines in your journal. This is a study technique, but can be quite enriching when incorporated into your time with God.
3. Mature Believers: In church for many years, faith feels mechanical, looking to get unstuck, reinvigorate faith, grow deeper roots, or crave a desire to have deep communion with God.
Recommendations: All of these situations require more than reading, though reading is important. It is likely that if one of these conditions of faith sounds like you, then there are probably two or three that you identify with, so here is what I suggest:
A) Extended time with God in prayer and listening, maybe as much as 2 or 3 hours. Daily is unlikely, but at least once a week, then the fruit of that time should begin to impact your daily time with God; Daily prayer should be to ask God to open the eyes of your heart (Ephesians 1:18) and reveal Himself to you, ask Him to search your heart for sin or barriers to faith (Psalm 139:23-24), and ask that you be rooted and grounded in His love to know the breadth and length and height and depth of His love (Ephesians 3:14-19);
B) Meditate on a passage, close your eyes and allow the verse to get into your imagination, perhaps see what word stands out to you in a verse and meditate on what that word means to you; let it sync in, then return to it and look for other insights after digesting a passage for a time.
C) Get out in nature and thank God for the parts of creation that you appreciate, colorful flowers, the peaceful sound of a flowing river or creek, the trees and the colors of the season, perhaps a bunny rabbit or a flock of geese flying in V formation. This practice slows our inner-man and allows us to see the love God expressed to us in the beauty of creation.
Readings: A Psalm a Day, Genesis, Deuteronomy, 1&2 Samuel, Nehemiah, Job, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Malachi, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, Hebrews, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1&2 Peter, James, 1, 2, 3, John
What is listed above is for personal time with God to grow our faith and communion. Personal bible study is a separate time to enrich our ability to communicate the gospel, teach our doctrines, and defend our faith.
2022 Bible Reading Plans, part 1
Welcome to 2022! In follow-up to the recent podcast on 
Visceral Reflections for developing a Bible reading plan for the new year, these notes are being provided as a supplemental guide to what was shared.
As was mentioned in the podcast, many people today will begin their “Reading the Bible in a Year” plan, which is admirable and ambitious, but I would like to invite you to go deeper. The goals of Bible reading are to grow our faith, deepen our relationship with God, to be diligent to know our faith well enough to share it and provide answers for those who ask why we are Christian, and to become more like Jesus, which is our spiritual formation. So, what is to follow will begin with some principles and suggestions for all believers, then a list of more focused reading plans.
Suggestions for All Christians
Everything to follow transcends our churches and our traditions, as we are collectively the Church, Christian first and everything else second.
A. Create Margin
Growing up spiritually requires that we make God a priority with our time. This means that we may need to cut-out some things, and likely make some hard choices. For others, it may be easier such as reduce the number of hours watching TV or limit your time on social media. Still others may need to overcome the sense of obligation or guilt of being at every church program, but however you spend your time, pray and see what God shines a light on in your mind. Keep in mind that these changes may be for a season or possibly permanent. Also, remember that God is always with each one of us, so engage Him wherever you happen to be (Psalm 139:7-10, Psalm 23:2-4; Isaiah 41:10;Hebrews 4:13; Matthew 28:20). We are creating margin specifically for these three areas:
- Time with God: This devotional time is for growing our relationship with God. This is where we grow our faith, read, pray, and practice other spiritual disciplines like solitude and silence, as a central part of Christ being formed in us. In this time of communion, we will be transparent with God, confess our sin, seek wisdom, ask God to help us know the depths of His love, ask for His peace to rule in our hearts, pray for others, and ask God to speak to our hearts through the scriptures. This is daily time ideally, with Bible and journal, and always best in the morning. This can be difficult for people with young children, so give yourself some grace as pouring into children is a great ministry, so pray for grace, wisdom, patience, and ask God for energy and strength!
- Personal Bible Study: This is time to study the Word of God and this can contain one of more goals. This may be once or twice a week, however you feel led. Suggestions range from memorizing verses such as select 5 verse on the Peace of God; or perhaps a study on a doctrine such as the Resurrection, Eternal Security, or the Deity of Jesus. Another idea is to study the Sermon on the Mount or the Word of Jesus; one of my favorites is to look up and memorize all the verse where God tells us how He views His word. Reading a book on discipleship, doctrine or spiritual formation is always a great choice.
- Community Study: Ideally a mid-week Bible Study. If your church doesn’t offer a mid-week Bible Study, then perhaps find a local church that does have one you can attend, or perhaps start one in your home. Mid-week Bible Studies are becoming rare in the era of “small groups” which is not a bad thing if you have a group leader who is equipped to lead, and everyone in the group does the reading. It can easily become social hour, so work on staying focused and save the social stuff for after the God-honoring tasks are completed.
B. A Psalm a Day
Reading a Psalm a day would have great value for all believers. The Psalms are rich with theology and the attributes of God, so they are a wonderful way to know God better, understand His attributes, His promises, His Sovereignty and His Love. There are 150 Psalms, so if you break up Psalm 78 to two days and Psalm 119 to 3 days, give yourself some grace when you miss a day each week, and we should be able to read the Book of Psalms twice a year with a few days to spare.
C. Bible Versions
One of the best approaches to understanding the Bible is to read multiple versions together. This helps with understanding a passage and also learning from another angle will often show us a depper truth. A “version” is a translation (Word for Word) from the original languages, or a transliteration (thought for thought) from the original language. The two best combinations that I have tried so far are The NASB – Message Parallel Bible, and the New American Standard used with the New Living Translation. Other good versions to consider are the ESV, NIV, CSB, NRSV, and the NET which is a great treasure. The New English Translation (NET) is designed with copious notes on each page that goes into rationale for translation, alternate translations, cultural references and a whole host of other subjects. To get an idea of what this might include, you can download the YouVersion Bible App and select the NET version. Scrolling through a few passages and clicking the “letters” that indicate a note will open up a lot of information in many cases. YouVersion did a wonderful job of brining NET to the electronic format.
Part two of this post will include the more specific Bible Reading plans as well as a survey of the Bible Tools that are available to us.
Prayer: Eternal God, heavenly Father, you have graciously accepted us as living members of your Son our Savior Jesus Christ, and you have fed us with spiritual food in the Sacrament of His Body and Blood. Send us now into the world in peace and grant us strength and courage to love and serve you with gladness and singleness of heart, through Christ our Lord. Amen!
Advent: Love and Joy & the Gift of Myrrh!
With Advent counting down to Christmas tomorrow, a lot of folks are thinking about sharing gifts with family and friends. About 2,000 years ago, 
the birth of Jesus was taking place in an obscure little town. With this world changing event, the Magi and the gifts they brought while Jesus was still an infant may seem a bit insignificant and easy to skip over in scripture. There are so many great aspects to the birth of Jesus…fulfilled prophecy, the virgin birth, the mystery of the gospel at the time, the paradox that the Creator of life is given life by a woman that He created. That is just the tip of the iceberg.
The Gospel of Matthew 2:11 tells us that the wise men came with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. When you look at what these gifts represent, I think it is a fascinating telling of who was, and is, and is to come. Now if you have ever gone to a baby shower and taken a gift from a Babies R Us registry, you probably did not have an option to bring the gifts that baby Jesus would receive. The information you had was that the child was either a boy or a girl. Consider that as you read about these gifts because the wise men had more information as they made their journey to bring gifts.
Gold was the first gift mentioned, symbolic of royalty and here presented to the King of Kings (Rev. 17:14, 19:16, 1Tim. 6:15). I think the gold speaks to the divinity of Jesus and the unsearchable riches of God. Frankincense is an expensive incense that would be used in special Temple sacrifices as an aroma pleasing to God symbolizing a desire to be in communion with God. Much more can be said about these, but I want to talk about myrrh.
Myrrh had several different uses and is spoken of in several places throughout the bible and I want to speak to a few of them. I believe that the myrrh points to the humanity of Jesus and the atoning sacrifice. In the Old Testament, myrrh was used in holy oil to anoint priests (Ex.30:23) of which Jesus was the High Priest (Heb.4:14) and a King Priest according to the order of Melchizedek (Heb.5:1-10). Myrrh is also described as bitter and sometimes used as an antiseptic according to Vine’s Dictionary of Biblical Words. I find this very telling as Jesus would later drink from the bitter cup for the sins of the world (Heb.5:7, Matt.26:38-46) to be an antiseptic for humanity to cleanse us of our sin (Is.1:18) and be the sole source of salvation (Matt.1:21, Heb.5:9, John 3:16-18, Acts 4:12).
This last use of myrrh fascinates me. Myrrh was also used for embalming dead bodies and would later be used on Jesus after the crucifixion (John 19:39). Who would ever think of giving a baby embalming fluid as a gift, seems a little mean! This aspect of myrrh, in conjunction with the priestly anointing, points to the atoning sacrifice that Jesus would make on the cross (Rom.3:24-25) and fulfilling the unique role as the only path to salvation (John 14:6, 1Tim.2:5). All of this together point to the Advent of Christ, the Incarnation, the Perfect Offering, and the victory over sin by the Atoning Sacrifice. The significance of these gifts is magnified in the Second Advent, the coming of Jesus to be joined to His bride and set up His Millennium Kingdom. In a prophecy of the coming Kingdom, we see the nations of the world gather back to Israel. In Isaiah 60:6, we see those who come to gather in Israel bring gifts including gold and frankincense. The gift of myrrh is not included and rightly so. It is not needed as our High Priest is already anointed, He died once for all, the Righteous for the unrighteous on the cross, Jesus said “it is finished.”
God’s Word, the Bible, never ceases to amaze. It amazes me how God would use this one little obscure gift, myrrh, to tell us so much about Jesus and the real meaning of Christmas and how the absence of myrrh is a great comfort for those of us who await His coming. As we consider the gifts of the wise men while we prepare to exchange gifts this week with those we love, we give in remembrance that the Lord Jesus gave His life to rescue ours. In our giving, we also receive gifts as a symbol that God, in His unmeasurable love for us has given us the most wonderful gift of eternal life and all we have to do is receive it by faith!
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” – John 3:16
Prayer: Eternal God, heavenly Father, you have graciously accepted us as living members of your Son our Savior Jesus Christ, and you have fed us with spiritual food in the Sacrament of His Body and Blood. Send us now into the world in peace and grant us strength and courage to love and serve you with gladness and singleness of heart, through Christ our Lord. Amen!
Advent: Hope and Peace in the Waiting!
the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. 1Timothy 1:5
The season of Advent is in full swing as we head towards Christmas day later this week. Like every year, we enter Advent with hope. The four themes of the Advent Calendar are Hope, Peace, Joy and Love, so as we begin the week of Love today, we begin by reflecting on John 3:16, likely the most popular verse in Christendom across history. The message of John 3:16 encapsulates all the themes of Advent.
The term Advent means arrival or appearance, so within our understanding of Advent, we can immediately see that we are in a period of waiting for an arrival, and perhaps we have not considered the hope of waiting, but all waiting is fueled by hope! We also know that the hope in our waiting is bound together by our faith, as faith is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things unseen (Hebrews 11:1). Hope is an essential part of life for all people and we are all waiting for many things, whether the child trying to stay awake in waiting for the appearance of Santa on Christmas Eve, a young adult anxiously awaiting acceptance to their dream college, or perhaps waiting for just the right moment to pull that special bottle of wine from the cellar to enjoy! Then we have the more serious waiting in life, the waiting for test results from your doctor, or worse, from your spouses doctor, or waiting while God prepares your future wife and probably preparing us as well, or the anxious waiting of a child being born. Waiting comes in many flavors, and central to our lives which is why Hope is so important!
Then there is peace, can we have peace in the waiting? Depending on the flavor of our waiting, some will feel like time is standing still, while others will make themselves busy so as not to dwell on the waiting, the goal of both is to not be anxious. As creatures bound by time, waiting is often magnified, especially in 21st century America where our lives are characterized by terms like “on-demand”, “instant ______”, microwaves, and drive-thru everythings! We are not accustom to waiting. Earlier today, I was driving home from church, waiting at a red light behind another car. The light changed and the car in front of me did not go, but I made a conscious decision to not use my horn. So, instead of honking, I waited one second, and the car went. Seems silly, but I know there are some reading this who can relate. In scripture, Jesus talked about peace. He told us that He gives us His peace so that our hearts are not troubled (John 14:27), but He also tells us that the world also provides a version of peace (John 14:27) that is not of God. So, rather than seeking the circumstantial peace of the world, we must always opt for the peace of God; this peace through prayer with a thankful heart, and then we will experience the Peace of God that is beyond understanding (Philippians 4:6-7). This is an incredible gift of God demonstrating His great love for us. We receive this peace often, but it is really magnified in the midst of fear and anxiety.
For the Christian, waiting is also a fundamental part of our faith because we are waiting for the return of our Lord Jesus. In John 14:3, Jesus said that He would go and prepare a place for us, then come back to receive us, further adding that He would not abandon us as orphans (John 14:18). So, as Israel was awaiting the Messiah at the time of the first Advent, we await the Second Advent which is the appearing of our “blessed hope Who is our God and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ (Titus 2:13). As Christians, we have a living hope that we received by the power of the Resurrection, when we were born-again (1Peter 1:3). When we speak of hope, we are not only speaking of an expectation, but we are speaking of a confident expectation. Very simply, this means that because Jesus Christ is risen from the dead, and because we have written record of the faithfulness of God as a source of hope (Romans 15:4), we can have confidence. So during this season of Advent, as we move towards Christmas, we can take time to reflect on our hope, a hope that finds its strength by our faith which has been established and rooted by the love of God.
For God so loved the world that He gave (Love) His only begotten Son (Truth) so that whoever (Hope) believes (Faith) in Him (Hope) shall not perish (Peace), but have (Peace) eternal life (Joy).
Podcast Notes: The Love of God, 11/13/2021
(The following notes provide a recap and structure for “The Love of God in Daily Life” podcast episode).
I HAVE A WORD FOR YOU. I KNOW YOUR WHOLE LIFE STORY. I KNOW EVERY SKELETON IN YOUR CLOSET. I KNOW EVERY MOMENT OF SIN AND SHAME, DISHONESTY AND DEGRADED LOVE THAT HAS DARKENED YOUR PAST. RIGHT NOW, I KNOW YOUR SHALLOW FAITH, YOUR FEEBLE PRAYER LIFE, YOUR INCONSISTENT DISCIPLESHIP, AND MY WORD TO YOU IS THIS: “I DARE YOU TO TRUST THAT I LOVE YOU, JUST AS YOU ARE, NOT AS YOU SHOULD BE, BECAUSE NONE OF US ARE AS WE SHOULD BE!” – BRENNAN MANNING
The above clip is from the Ragamuffin movie, the story of Rich Mullins. This is a powerful clip because it frames the conversation that we all need: Our “come to Jesus” moment when we are honest with God about our condition, our struggles, our despair, our shallow faith, and our lack of trust. The idea that the Lord will ask only one question on judgment day is something serious for us to consider, because it is the belief in the love of God that was manifest when God stepped into time for our redemption. And it is that love that manifests in our hearts when we stop fighting, depart from performance based Christianity, and by faith accept our calling to be a child of God. This is where we move from Responsibility to Response, the place where the measure of our faith is no longer based on the scorecard of church programs, but rather the organic response to the gospel through our affections and humility. This is the Gift of Compunction, where we can finally rest in the truth that by knowing that self-awareness is sin-awareness, and acceptance of this reality moves the love of God to blossom in our person, in our hearts, in our minds and in our lives. This is a punctuation in our faith journey that changes everything, because up to this point we have given intellectual consent to the gospel, we have believed with the faith of a mustard seed, we have embraced the gospel for our salvation despite our doubts, our struggles, our ongoing work of trying to appear godly, and we have found the faith journey to be work. This point of surrender is the part of our faith journey where the presence of God becomes palpable, and also the part of the journey where we see the world differently.
From the time we first became Christian, Christ has been our magnetic north except when inconvenient, but now our field of vision has narrowed, the things we use to worry about are now secondary, the building of our own kingdom is abandoned and we have a new desire to seek the kingdom of God and make contributions with eternal significance. Jonathan Edwards describes this in his journals when he says, “I can know about honey, know that it tastes good, even enjoy the aroma of fresh honey, but it is not until I taste the honey have I truly encountered it, truly enjoyed it, truly been satisfied by it.” This is what I have come to call, “The Isaiah 6 Experience”, in which Isaiah, man of God, prophet of Israel, has an encounter with the holiness of God and sees his sin in light of the holiness of God. Here is where our passion for God gets deeply rooted, barriers to faith fall off with the shift in our vision, and our priorities to love God and love people become our hunger and thirst. We also see our blind spots exposed, often hidden by our pride, or worse yet, spiritual pride, and humility grows quickly in parallel with our fear of God. This is also where we learn patience because this is where our church going friends will be upset that we are breaking the circle. We begin to pray for them in new ways, not in a judgmental way, but for things of eternal value, spiritual warfare, surrender, and for rightly ordered loves. This is the place where transformation takes us to a deeper place, where our moral standards get rooted as virtuous character, no longer a moral scorecard, but the fruit of the Spirit becomes characteristic of our life. Now our thinking also begins and ends with God, with a growing desire to make God honoring decisions; and this is where the formation of Christ in us now makes outward appearances through us.
NOTE: These articles might be helpful as I attempted to describe the punctuations in my own faith journey where God called me out to deeper waters. Yes there was fear, but there was also trust that God would be faithful and would not have brought me this far to leave me alone:
- Grace in the Wilderness,
- The Critical Journey 5 Years Later,
- And She will be Called Grace and Glory
- My Book of Remembrance
- Growing in the Forbearance of God.
What is to follow are some truths to consider and actions to take as a path to stepping into a deeper
experience of the love of God. As we constantly seek to remove barriers to faith in order that we might go deeper in our faith, we approach these roadblocks with the understanding that our sin and our pride are our biggest obstacles that prevent us from seeing. This is not to replace the practice of spiritual disciplines such as reading your bible, prayer, fasting, solitude & silence, etc. but rather to augment it and to adjust our heart attitude in the midst of daily life.
- Gratitude: Cultivating a heart of gratitude requires a little work, because not everything in our lives naturally evokes a response of thanksgiving. It is easy to be thankful for the things that make our lives easier, enhance our comfort, and make us happy. We also have things we take for granted, which is easy to do in America were 99% of us are wealthy in the eyes of the world. Then there are the things that hurt us, the pains we would not wish on anyone, yet they have come upon us. Paul wrote that we should give thanks for everything (1Thessalonians 5:18), but to give thanks for the things that cause us pain is difficult. I wish I had a magic formula to insert here, but I can tell you that my testimony is that different pains invaded my life and it required the distance of time in order to produce a thankful heart in specific situations.
- Give thanks for one situation that you are praying for and thank God in advance. For example, I pray daily for my future wife and our future children.
- Give thanks for something you have not been thankful for in the past. For example, I often give thanks for clean water, my car, my shoes, my kitty cat Furbie, daily bread, my bibles, my bed, my health, and all the people who work hard to make my life better such as my church, my trainer, my chiropractor, and so on.
- Give thanks for something hard. A current struggle or pain that you are choosing to trust that God has a plan and though understanding may never come, ask for trust, wisdom, and for the peace of Christ to rule in your heart.
- Gospel: Preach the gospel to yourself daily. Quote John 3:16 and insert your name into the verse, “For God so loved “State your name” that He gave His only begotten Son…. Do the same with Romans 8:32, 8:35, and 8:37-39. There are truths in the gospel that can penetrate our hearts, especially if we have grown up in the church and have become numb to the good news of Jesus Christ!
- Find other verses in which you can personalize and remember. This will also produce heart work and further cultivate gratitude in your soul. In addition, internalizing the word of God this way also makes it easier to share the gospel and have a verse handy for the person God brings to you so you can share at work, at school, at the gym, at Starbucks, etc. We are daily surrounded by hurting people who need a word of encouragement, a light in their dark night.
- Personalizing scripture is also helpful in getting through our own dark nights to help us remember the promises of God and regain our eternal perspective.
- Pray Ephesians 3:14-19 with a focus on growing strong in belief in the Love of God and verbally commit to trusting that He loves you.
- Giving: Take inventory of your time, talents and treasure as well as ways that you already give. Then pray for God to show you areas of your life where you can give of yourself. In addition, be prepared to help out when a spontaneous opportunity arises. In your structured giving, you probably tithe and volunteer for opportunities to serve at church. Consider areas that you have a heart to make a difference such as helping the homeless, children, refugees, the elderly, young believers, etc.
- Structured giving can be to volunteer your time for a task such as Operation Christmas Child which is seasonal and happening at this time. Likewise, Angel Tree is a great cause to provide Christmas presents that hopefully can help restore relationships between children and their incarcerated parents.
- To go deeper, consider a sacrificial gift that involves your time, money and your life such as being a big brother or big sister, becoming a Foster parent, adopting a child, be a mental health volunteer, go on a mission to take the gospel to a far away place, or get involved with a recovery ministry for substance abuse, or human trafficking. This sacrificial gift will be a blessing for those you serve, but will have a profound impact on your formation as the Spirit of God in you moves us deeper into the surrendered life.
- Unplanned giving may be a stranded motorist, a homeless encounter on the street, or perhaps just helping a neighbor move furniture. All ways to love people in a tangible way.
- Guard your Heart: Our hearts are idol factories. According to scripture, they are deceitful and incurably sick (Jeremiah 17:9). We need to guard our hearts because it is also the well-spring of life (Proverbs 4:23) and our connection to the Eternal (Ecclesiastes 3:11). As we know from Romans 7, there is a battle within us in which our sin nature is waging war against the law of God in our minds, so we need to be aware of when this is happening. We also need to know that there are multiple ways in which our heart is vulnerable which is by our mind, our emotions, our view of our-self, our view of God, our ability to minimize sin, and our biological and sexual desires. I do not write that lightly, the struggle is real, but for every temptation there is a way of escape (1 Corinthians 10:13).
- Read your bible daily
- Take every thought captive against the character and truths of God
- Beware of making emotional decisions that can damage your faith, your testimony, or your future.
The above writing is to share supplemental material from the Love of God in Daily Life podcast. There is much more that can be shared, but for now I am sharing these to augment what we discussed as well as to be a preface for part 2 of the Love of God in Daily Life podcast, some afterthoughts from the November 13 episode.
Far Above Jewels
10 An excellent wife, who can find? For her worth is far above jewels. 11 The heart of her husband trusts in her, And he will have no lack of gain.
Proverbs 31:10-11
There are many things to be thankful for in this life, but for us men, we really need to praise God for women. When God determined that it was not good for us to be alone, He created women knowing exactly what we need and He shared the love that lasts to enjoy with them. When God finished creation, He said that it was good, the only thing that was not good before sin entered the world was that man was alone, so God brought Eve into existence from the side of Adam and God created marriage.
The sanctity of marriage is not discussed much these days, but it is something that God takes seriously as He even uses marriage as an analogy when explaining His relationship to the church, which is Hid bride. We are told that when man and woman marry, they become one flesh, a oneness that is a mystery yet has many dimensions. Marriage is God’s design for sex, for deep intimacy, for experiencing the fullest expression of love with another person, and for creating more humans. In the gift of children, the Lord allows us to share in the creation of people. In this process, we come to better understand our relationship with God as scripture refers to us as His children (John 1:12; Romans 8:15-17). In todays world, most people have determined that their way is better than God’s way, so sex outside of marriage (fornication) has become standard practice among couple in our culture. Even those who still value marriage do not fully understand it as many people opt to live together prior to marriage, a sort of test run to see if they can make it with this person. Two items of note here: 1) Those who opt to live together will eventually get divorced, largely because they have not understood sin and the dynamics of having another sinner in your personal space for longer periods of time. Vows are rarely honored often forgotten when trouble strikes. 2) The second issue is that of oneness. When we talk about the mystery of one-flesh, we are really discussing the oneness of mind, heart, soul, emotions, and will, in addition to physical union. So, though sex can be fun, it is never fulfilling when it is isolated outside of marriage. When two people grow together in every aspect of their beings, the physical union is heightened to a place transcends biology.
Once a man and woman have become one, the create a bond that enables them to now outwardly engage in the world as one. There are many ways we do this, either through parenting, occupation, ministry, or many other ways we share in community, both society and in the faith community. There are some profound affects that come through oneness such as wisdom in decision making, problem solving, hearing God’s leading, pouring into younger believers, etc. So when Proverbs 31 says that a wife is far above jewels and her husband trusts in her, that is the fruit of relationship with God, prayer, godly character, and likely being poured into by older women who walked the marriage path for a decade or two before younger wife. The bible has examples of some great wives and marriages, women who did amazing things. God involved women in some pretty important events. Jesus first revealed that He was Messiah to the Samaritan women, after rising from the dead, Jesus first appeared to women and when God directed Paul to take the gospel to Europe, the first convert, Lidia, was a women. There are other great examples such as Sarah, Rebekah, Leah, Ruth, and Esther to name a few. These are some pretty amazing women in the Bible, but when you think about a godly example of a wife, I always think of Hannah first! We pick up Hannah’s story in chapter one of 1 Samuel.
We start out by seeing the providence of God in that the Lord had closed the womb of Hannah (1Samuel 1:5), very similar to closing the womb of Sarah (Genesis 16:2) and Rachel (Genesis 30:2). Hannah was taunted by Penninah, the other wife of her husband Elkanah. Hannah was a great woman of faith. The scripture says that she went to the House of the Lord year after year though being provoked to tears. In sadness with loss of appetite, she persevered and was faithful (v.7). Hannah also demonstrates prayer for us. She prayed honestly to the Lord, weeping bitterly with tears, making a vow to the Lord if He will look on her affliction and give her a son, she would commit her child to the Lord (v.10-11). She was diligent in prayer, speaking with her heart to God, pouring out her soul to the Lord (v.12-15). This is how God wants us to come to Him, as His adopted children and cry out Abba Father (Romans 8:15).
As Hannah poured out her heart to the Lord, with complete faith in God, she was no longer sad (v.18). God gave her peace in her circumstances and her sadness lifted because had shifted her focus to God. When Hannah was sad, she was focused on being childless, but scripture says she was faithful, consistent in worship, consistent in prayer and rose early in the morning to worship the Lord (v.19). Like Sarah gave birth to Isaac and Rachel would eventually give birth to Joseph, Hannah would eventually give birth to Samuel. All of these are examples of the providence of God and the Lord moving in perfect timing though they all became impatient. Abraham was 100 years old when Sarah gave birth to Isaac. Prior to this, Sarah laughed at the idea she would be a mom in her old age. Now Hannah had to wait year after year according to the scriptures, but in time would give birth to Samuel the prophet. Hannah would then follow through on her vow to commit the child to the Lord, confirming that she had a son because she asked for a son from God (v. 22-28). Hannah would then give us the Prayer of Thanksgiving in 1 Samuel 2. As we read the Song below, remember that Hannah was consistent in worship and prayer in her circumstances, despite her adversaries, and was patient, never doubting that the Lord would answer her:
Hannah’s Song of Thanksgiving
2 Then Hannah prayed and said,
“My heart exults in the Lord;
My horn is exalted in the Lord,
My mouth speaks boldly against my enemies,
Because I rejoice in Your salvation.
2 “There is no one holy like the Lord,
Indeed, there is no one besides You,
Nor is there any rock like our God.
3 “Boast no more so very proudly,
Do not let arrogance come out of your mouth;
For the Lord is a God of knowledge,
And with Him actions are weighed.
4 “The bows of the mighty are shattered,
But the feeble gird on strength.
5 “Those who were full hire themselves out for bread,
But those who were hungry cease to hunger.
Even the barren gives birth to seven,
But she who has many children languishes.
6 “The Lord kills and makes alive;
He brings down to Sheol and raises up.
7 “The Lord makes poor and rich;
He brings low, He also exalts.
8 “He raises the poor from the dust,
He lifts the needy from the ash heap
To make them sit with nobles,
And inherit a seat of honor;
For the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s,
And He set the world on them.
9 “He keeps the feet of His godly ones,
But the wicked ones are silenced in darkness;
For not by might shall a man prevail.
10 “Those who contend with the Lord will be shattered;
Against them He will thunder in the heavens,
The Lord will judge the ends of the earth;
And He will give strength to His king,
And will exalt the horn of His anointed.”
Sometimes God… 2021
(Updated from original 2015 post)
Sometimes God provides blessings knowing that they will reveal a divided heart and direct us towards understanding that God has placed eternity in our hearts!
Sometimes God uses us to reveal darkness in others, this is often when we learn humility and how to love sacrificially
Sometimes God brings us others to expose our selfish nature, this is often when our self-awareness becomes our sin-awareness
Sometimes God will show us the future to see if we can wait…Other times God allows a cloud of mystery to see if we can trust… this is the place where we learn contentment…
Sometimes God will give us the best in life to show us what we value, and sometimes He takes it all away when the roots of our faith prove shallow… this is the place where we find our resolve
Sometimes God isolates us so our roots of faith grow deep, and often He quietly waits while our spirit of discontent resists… this is the place where pride bleeds out…
Sometimes God shines a light on things that need to go, often they are things we are proud of… this is the place where our temporal identities fade and our eternal identity comes into focus
Sometimes God allows us to fall hard because love must be tough… this is the pure love of the discipline of the Father!
Sometimes God allows blessings for His own to spill over to others and sometimes it’s this ancillary grace that brings others to know Him, for our good and His glory, we have a role to play sharing in God’s love for the world…
Sometimes God will let people freely run to their sin, and though it breaks His heart, He knows that for some, this world is the best they will ever have, this too breaks our heart, but sometimes God’s bigger purpose is to breaks us further when we witness that the mercy of God and the grace of God reaches much further than I would ever allow…
Sometimes God doesn’t make sense to me and sometimes I am not okay with that, but this is how my faith and trust grow; over time I grow a heart of gratitude and become thankful to see that God is bigger than I can imagine, and my faith is rooted deeper…
Through it all, these slithers of time are woven together in a tapestry that only God can see, and through time the eyes of my heart have seen Sovereign Grace on display, and these words remind me that the story is still unfolding; and though I am impatient, though I get anxious, though my prayers have gone unanswered, I am prompted to remember that God, my Father, through love, discipline and the sustaining power the Holy Spirit and the administration of the peace of Christ, is revealing a picture that is good, a picture of love, joy, and peace, fueling faith and hope beyond what I can ask or imagine, and it is in those times that I am so thankful that Sometimes God reminds me that He is still God!
(Job 1:21; Ecclesiastes 3:11; Matthew 7:13; Psalm 86:11; Proverbs 16:2; Hebrews 13:5; 2Corinthians 12:10; Psalm 51:11-13; 2Samuel 12:1-20; Deuteronomy 8:2-5; Genesis 32:24-30; John 4:39; Genesis 24:21; Romans 8:28; Philippians 1:6; Ephesians 3:20)
Prayer: Eternal God, heavenly Father, you have graciously accepted us as living members of your Son our Savior Jesus Christ, and you have fed us with spiritual food in the Sacrament of His Body and Blood. Send us now into the world in peace and grant us strength and courage to love and serve you with gladness and singleness of heart, through Christ our Lord. Amen!
Discipleship for Hearts and Minds 