Month: January 2024

by

Extraordinary Things

“Jesus was God spelling himself out in language humanity could understand.” – S. D. Gordon

I don’t think we are supposed to live ordinary lives. Why? Because we follow Jesus and, because of him, we have a chance of participating in the extraordinary every day. There’s a great example of this told in the gospels.

Jesus was teaching, and people had comes from miles around to hear him. Some caring friends brought in a paralyzed man. They had come in through the roof because the crowds made it impossible to get close to Jesus any other way.

Jesus looked at this man who couldn’t walk and told him his sins were forgiven. Who says things like that? The religious leaders who were watching knew exactly who says things like that – they knew he was claiming to be God.

Then Jesus healed the paralytic, who promptly got up off his mat and walked!

And then we read about the reaction of the crowd: “. . . amazement seized them all, and they glorified God and were filled with awe, saying, ‘We have seen extraordinary things today’.” (Luke 5:26)

The One we follow still teaches – through the Bible, other Christians, and in our hearts through the Holy Spirit. Crowds are still following him from all over the world. Jesus still forgives sins. He still is God who came in the flesh so we could be with him forever. He still works miracles. These are all things that should amaze us every day!

Lord, I want to live close enough to you to see extraordinary things – to participate in them, to know you through them, and to share, with anyone who will listen, who you are. With you, no life will ever be ordinary!

“We have seen extraordinary things today.” – Luke 5:26b

by

Very Present

“A sense of the divine presence and indwelling bears the soul towards heaven as upon the wings of eagles. At such times we are full to the brim with spiritual joy, and forget the cares and sorrows of earth; the invisible is near, and the visible loses its power over us.” – Charles Spurgeon

I had one of those situations recently: Someone I was working with had frustrated me – again – with an issue I thought had been resolved. I was upset, angry even, to the extent that I couldn’t sleep. So I lay in bed praying a really simple prayer, “I need you, Lord.” Then a few minutes later I got more deeply theological, “Help me!”

Soon this verse came to mind: “God is my refuge and strength; a very present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1). Did you ever think about what it means to be “very present” to someone? I found out that night. It meant that he listened. I sensed he was attentive, he heard what was underneath my complaints, he was empathetic to my frustration.

Then he calmed me. I felt better just knowing he was there, that he cared and understood. And, over time, he directed my steps: After on-and-off praying and sensing his nearness all night, I awoke with a plan for how to address the problem.

My heavenly Father was very present in my time of trouble. The problem didn’t go away, but I got something better: I had God’s attention, his peace, and his direction. His very presence.

If you are in deep distress now, know that he is there for you, too. He’s just waiting for your own version of the “help me” prayer.

“You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” – Psalm 16:11

by

No control!

“Faith sees the invisible, believes the unbelievable, and receives the impossible.” – Corrie Ten Boom

At times, we have all found ourselves in impossible situations, and life seemed out of control. I hate those times, but they do teach us something about trusting God.

Have you ever thought about the kind of faith Noah and his family must have had while they were in the ark? They were locked in – God himself shut the door. Might that not feel a little claustrophobic? Some of us understand that feeling!

They didn’t know how long they’d be there. Have you ever asked God, “how long?” When will you take care of this problem for me? How long do I have to suffer or wait?

They probably didn’t have a picture window on the world around them – they could see very little and actually had to send out birds to find out if the land had dried up yet. We want to see, to understand, to know,so we pray for God to reveal his plan and what he is doing in the world. But he doesn’t seem to answer.

Worst of all, they couldn’t steer the ark. They just had to float along wherever the floods took them. If they had known what would eventually happen with the Titanic, they might have been afraid of crashing into an underwater mountain peak.

We sometimes feel like we have very little control over what is happening to us. We have no steering wheel, no way to see clearly, no understanding about how God will see us through. In these situations we can do one of two things: We can fight against our situation with worry, anxiety, and useless activity, or we can consciously, intentionally give it to God, and trust he has a plan for our ark.

” . . . to you the helpless commits himself.” – from Psalm 10:14

by

Doing, being, becoming

“To fail to see the value of simply being with God and ‘doing nothing’ is to miss the heart of Christianity.” – Peter Scazzero

Have you set goals for 2024? Many of us have. We want to set our sights on what we can accomplish before another new year dawns. Many of the self-help books tell us to set goals that will challenge us – “dream big”, they say.  I think it’s good to keep reaching, to want to achieve, but most of us will get to the end of this year with some goals that are unfinished, unreached. What do we do with that?

Maybe we need a little balance: Striving and achieving, yes. But, maybe more importantly, being and becoming.

Here’s why: Some year, we’ll set our goals for the last time and we don’t know when that will be. So wisdom tells me that part of our planning this year should include becoming. Becoming more peaceful and less anxious, more loving and more generous, quieter and wiser, becoming more like Jesus. There will always be goals and plans that are unfinished! If we wait to get them all done before we focus on our personal and spiritual growth, we will never give ourselves permission or opportunity to become.

Let’s  go for it with goals for 2024. We can work hard, achieve, and glorify God in the process. But, at some time each day and for longer times on non-work days, let’s stop doing to spend time with God: talking to him, walking with him, reading his book, singing him songs, listening for his voice. These will open the door to becoming who God created us to be. Then we’ll know that it may be OK if lesser goals remain unfinished.

“For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him.” – Psalm 62:5

by

Need grace?

“Grace is love that cares and stoops and rescues.” – John Stott

I’ve heard it said the Old Testament is about law and the New Testament is about grace. Funny, though, but the more I read the Old Testament, the more I see grace there, too. Example:

After King Hezekiah restored the temple (2 Chronicles 30), he called the people to come to celebrate Passover. It wasn’t in the right month. Would God allow that? There were those who had not properly consecrated themselves. What to do? God had struck people dead for what seemed like lesser offenses than these.

Hezekiah prayed, asking God to accept the people as they were – sinful, unsure, but willing to come back to him. God heard and answered that prayer, and a great celebration of Passover occurred with much repentance and rejoicing. God, in his amazing grace, opened the door to the undeserving, the unwashed, and the wayward. Maybe he saw their hearts. Maybe he just wanted them back. But it was pure grace.

This may be a foreshadowing of the grace that would come in Jesus – grace that would allow us to be made clean enough to approach him without ceremonial washings and ritual – just to come as we are with hearts full of repentance, offering him ourselves and our gifts, yielding to his will for our lives.

It also reminds me that we need to extend grace to others. We receive it freely from God’s hand. Why, then, would we withhold forgiveness or second chances or new starts to anyone around us? Knowing God, following Jesus – it’s all about grace!

“He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time,” – 2 Timothy 1:9