Without A King: Turning Back To God - Judges 2:4-5 - June 24th

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HAPPY ANNIVERSARY – TO MY BELOVED BOBBI FOR 25 WONDERFUL YEARS!

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Judges 2:4-5

We are going to see here in the book of Judges, a pattern that will repeat itself  - throughout at least in the first half of book. Here in chapter 2, the angel of the Lord approaches the people of God and wants to know what they have done.

I believe here it’s appropriate to note, that God knew what they did. Just in the same way God was not surprised that Adam and Eve had disobeyed and had eaten the fruit. But in the same fashion as He had talked with them, God sends an angel to ask them what they did, and here’s how the account unfolds.

Judges 2:4-5 (NIV) When the angel of the Lord had spoken these things to all the Israelites, the people wept aloud, and they called that place Bokim. There they offered sacrifices to the Lord.

I believe that we have lost the tradition of confession within the traditions of the Protestant Church. I get that we do not need a priest, but I have to say that there is a benefit lost from having to confess our sins.

James 5:16 (NIV) Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

John Wesley knew this. The early Methodists practiced this. Why did we ever give it up, just something to think about.

Turning back to our story at hand, Israel realizes the errors of their ways, weeps, and gives sacrifices to God. In essence they repent, which is to turn away from sin - and turn towards God.

Sometimes we can become unaware of how strongly we have compromised our faith.  Like right now I have many friends who are wrapping their faith up in nationalism, or turning their religion into political-ness. You can’t wrap the cross in the American flag – Jesus is so much bigger than that.

But when we compromise our faith, and we become aware and we realize how much we have compromised, what we need to do is make the choice to step out of that cycle. And how we step out of the cycle, is through repentance. That is what the Israelites do here through their weeping. They realize that the path they have chosen is wrong and so they turn. They change directions and go back to God. That’s what repentance is.

We should all take a moment and look introspectively and have a moment of honesty with yourself and God. Ask Him to show you where He wants to work, then confess that you are wrong and resolve to do right. The good news here is that God is a God of grace and mercy, and He is always waiting for us no matter where we have gone.

Without A King: Can't or Won't - Judges 2:1-5 - June 23rd

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Judges 2:1-5

And so in the beginning of chapter 2 God surveys Israel’s progress and asks “What is this you have done?” (2:2). I’m sure Israel thought we’ve done what we could. But had they really, did they follow what God had asked them to do?

Judges 2:1-5 (NIV) The angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Bokim and said, “I brought you up out of Egypt and led you into the land I swore to give to your ancestors. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you, and you shall not make a covenant with the people of this land, but you shall break down their altars.’ Yet you have disobeyed me. Why have you done this? And I have also said, ‘I will not drive them out before you; they will become traps for you, and their gods will become snares to you.’”

When the angel of the Lord had spoken these things to all the Israelites, the people wept aloud, and they called that place Bokim. There they offered sacrifices to the Lord.

As we look throughout biblical history, we can see that God works in and through people. sometimes He gave specific direction, like through Moses or Joshua. Here God tells them in chapter 1 two things. First was to drive out the people in the land, not kill them or wipe them out but He told them to drive them out of the land. Second, destroy their altars to false gods – and all of this was so they wouldn’t fall into the Canaanite culture, so the Israelites don’t fall into idol worship.

Did they do what God asked them to do, the short answer is no. They did not destroy the altars, they do not drive the people out of the land. And – to top it all off – they enslaved the people.  That really gets me, here just a few generations back they were slaves themselves and instead of driving the Canaanites out of the land they enslave them – seriously!

But – I say all this, and now I get to point out, that often times we are not that different from the Israelites. How often do we, just like they did, cry out “I can’t do it.” But from God’s perspective, and in truth it really is a “I won’t do it.” It’s the difference between can’t do it and won’t do it.

What issue are you facing, where your inner voice is saying “I can’t,” and God is saying you mean “You won’t.” Perhaps tithing? Or forgiveness? Fidelity in marriage, purity in singleness? The thought here is that often times we stop God from working in us.  We fail to take steps of obedience in our hearts and our “I can’t” truly is “I won’t let You (God) work in me.”

It is so remarkably easy, to compromise our faith and make accommodation for things God has said no to. We justify ourselves with our “I can’t do this” when we encounter resistance.

Without A King : Judges 2:16-19 - June 22nd

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Judges 2:16-19

After the death of Joshua, the people of Israel start the process of making the Promised Land their permanent home. It wasn’t without it’s difficulties.  The Canaanites still occupied some of the land. And it seems as if the Israelites became more concerned with how to survive with the Canaanites there rather than trust God to completely give them the land.

God had warned the Israelites that the Canaanites and their gods would be a threat to them in the land. There is a cycle of retribution that Israel experiences over the next 200 years.

Judges 2:16-19 (NIV) Then the Lord raised up judges, who saved them out of the hands of these raiders. Yet they would not listen to their judges but prostituted themselves to other gods and worshiped them. They quickly turned from the ways of their ancestors, who had been obedient to the Lord’s commands. Whenever the Lord raised up a judge for them, he was with the judge and saved them out of the hands of their enemies as long as the judge lived; for the Lord relented because of their groaning under those who oppressed and afflicted them. But when the judge died, the people returned to ways even more corrupt than those of their ancestors, following other gods and serving and worshiping them. They refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways.

Have you ever heard the old saying, those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it? I’m not certain that history itself repeats. But when we don’t learn from our mistakes, we can repeat those mistakes.

Christians believe that history is not cyclical, rather that it is linear. There is a beginning to time and an end to time.  When the Bible talks about Jesus’ birth, crucifixion (His death and resurrection), and His return, it’s phrase is all about how when all of time lines up or everything comes together to a certain point. And human history is moving in a specific direction, to a certain destination.

As individuals and even as a society, we can get caught up in a cycle that doesn’t seem to end. A cycle in which we repeat the mistakes of our parents—and their parents—over and over again. As we work through the book of Judges you may discover that the mistakes we read about there resemble our mistakes.

As you read through this book, you encounter things such as indiscriminate violence, political disorder, objectification of humans as a means to an end.  You will see the absence of both public and personal faith and the notion that Truth doesn’t exist. Most of what we are going to see could be summed up in a repeated theme.

Judges 17:6 (NIV) In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.

It’s much of what I believe we see in our own society today.

You Can't Handle This - Fixing our Eyes - Revelation 21:5 - June 20th

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Revelation 21:5 (NIV)

I love to watch fixer-upper shows, from house remodels, the flea market flips, or the shows where someone discovers that they have a priceless heirloom hiding in their attic. We love to see something ugly made new. I believe that within us there is a part of us craving the restoration that God brings to our lives.

But we have a much more certain promise than the hope of transformation through a remodel or the reveal of an antique, we have the sure or certain promise of humanity’s curse reversal of the curse from Genesis 3. And I believe it comes to us from the confident declaration  f Revelation 21: “I am making all things new!”

Revelation 21:5 (NIV) He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

I know that often times, when we are grieving or suffering, or there are other tragedies in our lives, we can often get our eyes fixed on the issue or circumstance rather than where they should be, which is focused on Jesus.

Think about it for just a moment. In Matthew chapter 14 we have the account when Jesus walks out on the water. And who but Peter jumps out to join Him. And in this we see Peter jumping out in full faith, and he is walking on water too. But then – what happens - Peter is distracted. He takes His eyes off Jesus and he begins to doubt, he becomes afraid, and starts to sink in the water.

Can I say that I love Peter! I’m probably more like Peter than I realize or want to admit. But here in this moment, we can learn something from Peter. We can learn to fix our eyes on Christ Jesus, not on the circumstances around us. Simply put our eyes on Christ Jesus.

While we grieve or suffer this side of heaven, we can find many difficulties in keeping up our relationship with God. It can be hard sometimes to even pray, in those moment even more than others may we fix our eyes on Christ.  We can do it – with the help of His Holy Spirit.  Why, because Jesus went through death for us and beat death, He beat hell and the grave.  They no longer hold power over Him and because He lives in and through us, we have that same power. 

Because of the death and resurrection, we can place our trust in God.  We can place our trust in God because He has already made His promise of salvation true.  It’s already accomplished, simply put, God delivered already! And in those times when you find yourself unable to pray, remember the Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit groans within us, praying on our behalf.  And sometimes we just have to sit with God and let the Holy Spirit do His work for us – in us – through us to God the Father.

Here’s a final thought, when you are in such times grieving or suffering for whatever reason, and you have difficulty praying, try praying the Scripture we just read - “Behold I am making all things new”  - ask God to make all things in you new. Even right now God is making all things new, even in the midst of the pain of this world.

You Can't Handle This - More - Revelation 21:1-5

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Revelation 21:1-5 (NIV)

While we might not be able to figure out the reasons for our pain and suffering, we know that Christ is with us and working to redeem our broken creation, broken hearts, and broken world. One day all will be made right.

I don’t know about you but confession time for me, I love watching Disney movies. I love the old classics the animated stuff. I like watching them – even the new ones. Have you ever noticed that most Disney movies have a happy ending? The princess marries the prince, and they live happily ever after. And the whole kingdom lives happily ever after. But we never see what that happily ever after looks like.

Consider Mary Poppins, where the Banks family is healed and reunited. The father is present to his children. They laugh, and fly a kite together and yet there’s a tinge of sadness as Mary Poppins leaves presumably to help another family. The gospel story shows us that we have more than happily ever after waiting for us.

Revelation 21:1-5 (NIV) Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.  I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

In his book, More Coffee Shop Theology, ( © 1198 Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City). Dr. Frank Moore writes:

“Paul reminded us, “Our citizenship is in heaven” (Phil. 3:20). We are resident aliens, keeping a light touch on earthly things.

This mind-set does not mean we withdraw from normal earthly life; we are actively involved in our world as Christ’s hands and feet, ministering to the needs of those around us.  Rather, this mind-set keeps life in perspective for us.  It helps us sift the important from the trivial, the eternal from the mundane.  It reminds us that this life is not the whole story. We are preparing our souls for a much higher purpose and much better place. Life here is judged by its relationship to life there.” (p.128)

The Good News – he Gospel story – tells us we have more. We have more than a good ending with a tinge of sadness. One day we will have the perfect union of God with humanity. And pain and sadness will be no more. We will be with Christ himself.

You Can't Handle This - Peace & Hope - Romans 5:1-5

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It may be strange or foreign to talk about Peace and Hope in the midst of suffering because we often do not think of those two descriptive words having anything to do with when we are suffering. But we are going to see that we can experience peace and hope even when we could be discouraged or when we could be depressed, or simply just upset with a certain situation.

Ultimately no matter the situation we can have peace with God, and can therefore experience real peace and real hope in times of suffering. All of this is made possible, because of the work Christ did for us on the cross and through the power of His resurrection. And that peace and hope can be real now.

Romans 5:1-5(NIV) Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;  perseverance, character; and character, hope.  And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

Paul is telling us that we are not putting our faith and trust in a God who might, or maybe, or could possibly deliver on His promise of heaven and salvation from the angry wrath of God. But we can rest assured that these promises of peace and hope can be fulfilled because God has already delivered or fulfilled His promise to save us from the death of sin in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Our peace and hope are based on the love God has already expressed to us and has for us in that Jesus has already died for our sins that we would be able to choose to be reconciled to the Father through this selfless act of grace.

You Can't Handle This: Renewed Purpose - June 17th

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2 Corinthians 5:16-21

On Monday we talked about how Paul definitely had a different idea about his suffering. Even in his old age he found a renewal of his mind. That even if it meant death, Paul was totally ok with that. He recognized his weaknesses, and yet he’s confident that the light of the Gospel will overtake the darkness of this present age.

Why do you think that Paul believes in this way? Why do you think that we could thing that way? Given the world’s circumstances, why would any of us believe this is true?

It’s simple, we fix our eyes on Christ by committing to prayer, reading His Word, lamenting with others, being with the body of Christ regularly, and submitting to God’s will. We can do this because we in our times of suffering can be practice praying laments, and joining with others in lamenting. All of these things help us to realize that we are not alone. And that there is a renewed sense of purpose for our lives even in the midst of suffering.

2 Corinthians 5:16-21 (NIV) So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.  We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

When we see someone in pain, we can now be the ambassadors of Christ, and bring the very Spirit of God that is within us into the darkness of the suffering.

When someone experiences pain, part of being a new creation and living out our gospel identity is to work toward reconciliation. Being now “in Christ” we are to bring the peace and love of Christ to our communities and neighborhoods.

That part of the Great Co-mission, where Jesus tells His Disciples to Go and baptize… that going is really the thought or idea that in your goings and comings, the everyday things that you do, bring the presence of God – Father, Son, Holy Spirit with you.  It was less about water baptism, as many of us think, and more about immersing people around us in the presence of God. One way we can do this is by being with someone in the midst of their grief and lament.

Aubrey Sampson writes, “No matter where you live or where you come from, it is within your power to love your neighbor. As you lament, you reveal the compassionate hope of Jesus to a world in need” (Aubrey Sampson, The Louder Song, 87).

When Paul writes the Church in Rome, he includes a section about love in action in chapter 12. Right in the middle of that section he writes:

Romans 12:15( NIV) Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.

Why – because it’s our renewed purpose. This is what Christians do. We walk along side others, Christian or non-Christian, we walk with people who are going through life both good and bad times. We are the hallelujah in the middle of the storm.

You Can't Handle This - Gospel Identity - June 16th

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2 Corinthians 5:16-17

You know yesterday, we spoke a moment about how we carry within us the life of the resurrected Christ. Yes – if you have decided to live for Him, if you have decided that you are going to have Christ live in your heart, if you are going to be His disciple, then you carry His Spirit with you.     And wherever you go, the power of the resurrected Christ brings light to overcome the darkness.

Let’s look again at what Paul says

2 Corinthians 5:16-17 (NIV) So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

Paul talks about us about becoming a new creation in Christ. Being a new creation in Christ means that we have a new identity, we have a gospel identity within us. What is a gospel identity? Tim Keller writes:

“To be loved but not known is comforting but superficial. To be known and not loved is our greatest fear. But to be fully known and truly loved is, well, a lot like being loved by God. It is what we need more than anything. It liberates us from pretense, humbles us out of our self-righteousness, and fortifies us for any difficulty life can throw at us” (Tim Keller, The Meaning of Marriage [New York: Dutton, 2011], 95).

So along this line of thinking, that I’m a new creation in Christ Jesus, also means that my identity changes. I no longer measure myself against worldly standards rather, I become who God says I am in His Word.

On this earth, I am Dan Lewis. I am son of my biological parents. But there is something that happens when I believe in Jesus Christ, as my Lord and Savior, to the point of salvation – I now become a child of the most high God – a child of the King. I become joint heirs with Jesus – a sibling to the King of kings if you will.

This new creation that begins in me, by the Holy Spirit working in me and eventually through me, creates in me a new identity. When we are experiencing suffering, or when we are sitting and lamenting with our friends/loved ones, we can also draw from the hope within us in our Gospel Identity.

Think about it like this. The line in the Lord’s Prayer, “Give us this day our daily bread.” Is not only about physical nourishment. All throughout the Bible bread represents life. Our identity says we are God’s Children, and that our heavenly Father will supply our need. He will supply our bread, He will supply our life. It may not always be what we want, but it will be what we need. And we can rest in our new gospel identity, which during times of suffering can bring tremendous peace, hope, and light into a dark situation. We just need to remember who we are in Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior.

You Can't Handle This - Don't Loose Heart - June 15th

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2 Corinthians 4:16-18

There have been lots of discussion around this thought of suffering. And in the Bible we read mostly about suffering for the cause of Christ or because we are Christians. But there is other suffering that we as human being will endure, and Paul tells us to not loose heart.

I wonder how many of you have ever looked at a situation, and simply been so overcome by the situation that you have simply lost heart. You just throw your hands up in the air and give up. In these difficult times and days it’s easy to see where that can happen quickly.

Let’s look at what Paul says.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (NIV) Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

All throughout this chapter of 2 Corinthians, Paul is reminding his readers no matter what has happened, or what will happen in the future, he does not loose heart.

It could be easy to see where Paul may have wanted to stop preaching the Gospel. He was jailed for doing just that.  Or since he was getting on in years that it was time for him to retire from spreading the Gospel, but not so.

Paul recognizes his human, physical limitations and weaknesses, but he is confident that no matter what the light of the Gospel will overtake the darkness of the age.

“But Paul’s suffering released the resurrection life of Jesus into the lives of the Corinthians (4:7-15). With this claim Paul answers their question, Where is the glory of the new covenant? The apostle declares that even in the midst of outward decay, he experiences inner renewal (4:16-18).  The sure hope of the heavenly home is at work in his life (5:1-10).” New Beacon Bible Commentary: 2 Corinthians: A Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition. Carver, Frank G. © 2009 Beacon Hill Press. (p. 155).

And this is where we are, if you have made a decision to make Christ Lord of your life, He lives inside of you.  That makes us carriers of the resurrection life of Jesus Christ.  Everywhere we go, we can take the light of the resurrection with us. And that will overtake the darkness of this age.

you Can't Handle This - Hope In Suffering - June 13th

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Lamentations 3:21-23

As we have been talking about suffering, I wonder if any of you have during a time of suffering taken a moment and told God how you honestly feel? We call that lament.

And I believe that we live in a culture that says things like, don’t cry over spilt milk. So we as a culture have forgotten how to lament. We have lost our capacity to cry out to God and express our deep emotional distress.

In the book Lamentations, Jeremiah describes his personal suffering during this dark time in his nation’s history. And yet, in the middle of his lament he makes a beautiful declaration of his hope in God.

Lamentations 3:21-26 (NIV) Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.  They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.

Jeremiah understood that even in our most trying circumstances we can trust that God will remain faithful and good. And remember yesterday, the account we read from Matthew, where Jesus took three others with Him into the garden? Like Jesus did, take people with you into your pain and suffering. Turn your pain and hardship into honest prayers and pray for God’s will to be done.

You Can't Handle This - Christ's Suffering - June 12th

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Jesus is not dissociated with suffering, He knows it, and He experienced it in order to save sinners.

Matthew 26:36-46 (NIV) Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”

Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”

When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing.

Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour has come, and the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners. Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!”

Throughout the Old Testament we see this word “cup” as – as being more than just a word.  It’s the thought that the cup is a person’s lot in life, their destiny or purpose.

Throughout the Old Testament the cup commonly referred to suffering or shameful treatment. It truly lends us to understand that here in this moment before His crucifixion, Jesus’ emotional pleas were not simply about Him dying physically – or the pain He would endure physically - but Him understanding this death would be all of the weight and punishment for all of humanity’s sin, past – present – future.

And in that prayer, it seems as though Jesus believes that the Father could remove this suffering and death. But in the end Jesus chooses the Father’s plan instead. Kind of a side note here, just like I talked about yesterday, if the friends of Job had simply just sat in silence with him, how powerful that truly could have been for him during his suffering.

In the same way, Jesus asks His closest Disciples to simply sit and be awake with Him while He is praying. And you notice they keep falling asleep, instead of praying with him, or sitting and watching. But it reminds me that Jesus was alone.  And why did He need to experience this loneliness, so that we don’t have to be alone. We can follow in the way of Jesus, and love and support each other by watching and praying for and with each other.

You Can't Handle This: Suffering Together

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So we have talked about suffering and the idea that God doesn’t shield us from things which require us to rely upon Him. And we know that He is with us in our suffering. Paul tells us that we connect with Jesus in His suffering when we suffer for being Christians. But not all suffering is because we are Christians, and not all pain is suffering.

In our lives we experience pain and suffering but some of it is self-inflicted. Other times it’s can be a result of generational sin, systemic injustice, or random traumatic events.

While we may want to have an answer for the reason why we are suffering sometimes there is no answer to the why question. Often times we would like to answer ourselves logically with reasons we think the bad things happening to us are somehow justifiable. Kind of like Job’s friends did. And that’s the story we want to look at a bit today.

Job 2:11-13 (NIV) When Job’s three friends, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite, heard about all the troubles that had come upon him, they set out from their homes and met together by agreement to go and sympathize with him and comfort him. When they saw him from a distance, they could hardly recognize him; they began to weep aloud, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads. Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. No one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was.

I wish we could all just do this when we have a friend or loved one suffering.  If Job’s Friends had stopped there, that would have been the best thing they could have done…but they didn’t. And often times we don’t either.  We try to soothe the suffering instead of just being with the person during the suffering.  And some of the well meant things we say really can come off not so good.

Job’s friends, they began to reason with him over several chapters that somewhere someone had sinned, it was Job that had secret sin or one of his ancestors had sinned. And that was why Job was being punished.

I say all of that to say this, there isn’t a lot of comfort in trying to figure out the reason you are in a season of suffering, especially if it’s unjustly like Job.

Think about it for a minute, he’s accused of sinning by his friends. His wife encourages him to sin, and the Adversary predicts he will turn against God and sin. But nowhere in the entire book is there any mention of any sin.

Here’s what we do know. We know that God was not the “Author” of his suffering. He didn’t suffer because of sin that was committed by him or someone around him. It was simply that the Adversary made a claim that said in essence, God was unfairly protecting and favoring Job.  And that if God removed this protection and favoring Job would simply turn against God.  In other words, Job was blameless only because he was favored by God. I know that doesn’t truly answer our questions about suffering.

But we do have a visible example in our savior, Christ Jesus. And He is no stranger to suffering and pain.

The writer of Hebrews reminds us: Hebrews 13:5-6 (NIV) Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?”

That first part about how God will never leave or forsake us, comes from when the Children of Israel are entering into the Promised Land. God is reminding them that whatever they go, whatever situation they face, He will be with them. In the same way, wherever we go, whatever situation we face, God will be with us. We do not face it alone.

You Can't Handle This: Our Hope In Suffering - June 10th

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Due to technical difficulties there is no transcript for today’s devotional.

You Can't Handle This: Why Do We Suffer? - June 9th

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Genesis 3:1-13

If you are a human being who has blood pumping through your veins, and oxygen in and out of your lungs, you’ve got to ask yourself at some point in time, why do we suffer? And another question is, if we have accepted Christ as our Lord and Savior, why doesn’t He stop our suffering?

Those are questions that far more learned people than I have been debating for quite some time. There are volumes upon volumes of books that try to understand a loving God who has His creation in the midst of this broken world where it seems that evil abounds and where suffering comes even to those most faithful to God.

So let’s look at Genesis chapter 3

We know what happened leading up to this point.  Most of us remember the account where Adam and Eve were told not to eat the fruit of a certain tree - The Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil. And the serpent – Adversary – Satan – the Devil, convinced Eve everything wasn’t quite as God has told her. That it was good to eat the fruit so they could be like God.  And so Eve eats, then gives some to Adam, they realize they’re naked and sew fig leaves for clothes.

Genesis 3:13-19 (NIV) Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” To the woman he said, “I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”

The point I’m making is this, we don’t live in the Garden of Eden. We live East of the Garden of Eden. East of anything in the Bible is never good, it denotes the imperfect, the not good.  In the plans of the Temple, the East end is where the killing part of the sacrifice is made. The west end of the Temple is where the Holy of Holies is. This is where the sacrifice is presented to God, and things are made right, brought back into righteousness.

As long as we live East of Eden, there is going to be suffering. As long as we are foreigners in this world, there will be suffering. This world has not been reconciled to our Creator – the Father.

In all of this, we Christians need to remember that we serve a God Who is not only aware of our suffering, but is always present with us in our times of grief and loss, our times of suffering. He is with us through the thick and thin, and He is faithful to be trusted day by day.

You Can't Handle This: Suffering June 8th

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1 Peter 4:12-19

We’ve all heard the saying: “God will only give you what you can handle.”

This isn’t always true, however sometimes we experience moments that we can’t handle on our own. And in those times, we are reminded that we must continually rely on God even through those times where we experience pain and suffering.

We want to believe, that there’s nothing we can’t handle on our own. But this is often due to emotional immaturity or not realizing how God can work through our pain and hardship.

We as human beings love to hear stories of great triumph. We tend to look at adversity and failure positively only if it ultimately results in a story of triumph. But what do you do in the in between times? What do you do in the middle?

1 Peter 4:12-19 (NIV) Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. If you suffer, it should not be as a murderer or thief or any other kind of criminal, or even as a meddler. However, if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name. For it is time for judgment to begin with God’s household; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And, “If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?” So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.

Peter is simply telling us this when things get tough, when we suffer we can find our identity in Christ Jesus who was no stranger to suffering. God can and will work through whatever our situation is to make and mold us into who He needs us to be for the Kingdom.

God does not assign the suffering, but just like the stories we like to read about suffering gives us an opportunity to lean into our dependence on Him.  We can live according to God’s will placing our hope and trust in Him no matter what life gives us.

Misconceptions: Self-Care Spiritual Health - June 6th

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Galatians 5:16-18

I’ve made mention over this last week how it’s important to pay attention to all parts of our being. It’s so important to look after our physical, spiritual, and intellectual health. I’ve talked about how when one part is not healthy, it affects other parts of our being. Today I want to address spiritual health. To be spiritually healthy we must also be physically healthy and intellectually healthy as best we can – realizing that some of us may have limits in both these areas.

When we are talking about spiritual health it truly is about us moving closer to God. When we are feeding on God’s Word, spending time in worship and prayer, we are drawing closer to God. When you stop moving closer to God you no longer are listening  to His voice – the Holy Spirit. He gives guidance and direction and the strength to live the life Christ calls us to live.

Galatians 5:16-18 (NIV) So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

Spending time with God is how we become more like Him. It’s how we know God’s plan for our individual lives and helps us to be conscious of those around us whom God is leading us to minister to. Staying in step with the Holy Spirit enables you to live the life God has called you to live. Our lives as Christians are about two things, loving God and loving others. When we take care of our entire being, we grow into the men and women of God He needs us to be to accomplish His work in His kingdom.

Misconceptions: Self-Care Emotional Health - June 5th

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I’ve made mention over this last week how it’s important to pay attention to all parts of our being. It’s so important to look after our physical, spiritual, and intellectual health. I’ve talked about how when one part is not healthy, it affects other parts of our being. Today I want to talk about something that we don’t speak of often enough - our emotional health.

In his book Emotionally Healthy Spirituality, Peter Scazzero writes:

“I learned that if we do the hard work of integrating emotional health and spirituality, we can truly experience the wonderful promises God has given us – for our lives, churches, and communities.  God will make our lives beautiful.” (p.19)

He goes on to speak about how the apostle Paul teaches us about our spirituality being connected with our emotions.  Many of us know this Scripture, I believe we fail to relate to it because we are not always good about taking a beat to tap into our emotions.

Galatians 5:22-23 (MSG) But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.

Jesus spoke about being the way, the truth, and the life. When we remember to live the Jesus way His Holy Spirit leads us into all truth and we can then live the life that we as humanity were designed to live and be from the Beginning.  We can live in right relationship with God and with others. And it all starts with the power of the love of Christ and what He did for us through His death and resurrection.

Misconceptions: Self-Care Physical Health - June 4th

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It’s very interesting to me how our physical, spiritual, and intellectual parts of our being rely on each other to stay healthy. For instance when you don’t take care of your physical body, often we experience what I call the fog of fatigue.  When Bobbi and I started working toward becoming healthier, we change what and how we ate, along with some moderate exercise to loose weight.  And we did all of this to get off the medications we were on.  However, I did not realize how fatigued I was most of the time. And when you are fatigued, it’s difficult at best to stay intellectually and spiritually healthy.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NIV) Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.

When Paul wrote this, he was actually writing about sexual sins – and how by living this way, we sin against our own bodies. But there is also a broader principle here that we should take care of this temple that each of us have been given as best we can.

Joe Gorman – in his book Healthy. Happy. Holy. 7 Practices toward a holistic life. (P.116). writes this: “Exercise is a stewardship issue.  God created us to live out our divine calling through out bodies, able-bodied or not.”

Our physical body, is as much a resource we’ve been entrusted to care for, as any other resource we posses. When Paul was writing Timothy he mentions this.

1 Timothy 4:7-9 (NIV) Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come. This is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance.

Here Paul is saying to Timothy that there is some value in physical training of our bodies. But not to the deficit of taking care of our spiritual needs. And yet – it still was mentioned here as something we should do.

It’s interesting to me that the Bible also tells us…  

Genesis 3:8 (NIV) Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day…

The Bible tells us that God Himself was walking here on Earth in the Garden of Eden, in the cool of the day (probably evening). We are indeed made in the image of God and just as God is three in one so are we. We are physical, spiritual, and intellectual.        Jesus talked about moderation in the Bible, which some would say is balance. Often He spoke of not going to one extreme or the other. The point is that as much as we need to care for our spiritual and intellectual parts of our being, we also need to be good stewards of our physical bodies. Sometimes our spirit and our mind, need us to just get up and move. So let’s move a little bit…

Misconceptions: Self-Care June 3rd

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3 John 1:1-4

‘Self-care’ can be a confusing topic in Christian circles. We often assume that as Christians we are supposed to put others’ needs ahead of our own. But the Bible doesn’t tell us to neglect ourselves to meet others’ needs. Quite the opposite is true. If you neglect taking care of yourself,  you actually impede your ability to help others.

1 Corinthians 10:23-24 (NIV) “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but not everything is constructive. No one should seek just their own good, but also the good of others.

Self-care is not indulging oneself in the sense that many in today’s culture joke about. It is not vegging in front of the TV or spending large amounts of money on your physical appearance, or eating all your favorite junk food. These things in moderation are not bad. The cross over into selfishness when they consume you to the point of neglecting others. Self-care is actually all about doing the things that will help you be in better health—physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

3 John 1:1-4 (NIV) The elder, To my dear friend Gaius, whom I love in the truth. Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well. It gave me great joy when some believers came and testified about your faithfulness to the truth, telling how you continue to walk in it. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.

John was excited to hear that his friend Gaius was following him in the truth of Jesus Christ. Not only the spiritual health is exclaimed, but he’s praying for physical health and that things would go well for his friend. So What does self-care look like?

Eating right and exercising… Yep I said it – as much as I don’t like to, exercising moderately is important. We see the Bible tells us our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. God is living in this being here and we should take care of it, the best that we can, which means eat right and exercise.

Take time for yourself. This is important, especially as you are ministering to others. Take time for you with the Father, Jesus was our perfect example of this. The Gospels repeatedly talk about Jesus going up the mountain to pray alone.    This gives you time and space to connect, time and space to unwind and process with God the Father.

Luke 5:16 (NIV) But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.

But it doesn’t always need to be about spending time alone with God. He created us to be in communion with other people and sometimes we just need to enjoy the fellowship of believers.

Ecclesiastes 3:9-14 (NIV) What do workers gain from their toil? I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God.  I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him. Self-care is not selfishness, there are things we can do that truly fills our souls and the souls around us.

Misconceptions: Selfishness - June 2nd

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Philippians 2:1-11

So yesterday we talked a little about it being ok to take care of yourself. And honestly how are we going to know how to love others, if we don’t know how to love ourselves? And where are the lines, when does self-care become selfishness.

The dictionary definition of selfish: “Of a person, action, or motive - lacking consideration for others; concerned chiefly with one's own personal profit or pleasure.” (bing.com)

Here is just one place the Bible talks about this.

Philippians 2:1-11 (NIV) Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.

And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

“John Wesley’s favorite categories for speaking about holiness were Christological. For him, Christian holiness meant “having all the mind which was in Christ, enabling us to walk as Christ walked…loving God with all our heart, and our neighbor as ourselves.” (Philippians: A Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition. Flemming, Dean. P126.)

Paul doesn’t just put this out there, and then tell us we need to live up to this standard. He encourages his readers to lean into becoming part of the story of Christ. We need to lean into living the story of love towards others.

When we look to Christ to find our identity. Not that we have our own self-esteem, but that we find ourselves in Christ. We gain Jesus-esteem. We not only see ourselves the way Jesus sees us, but we also begin to look at others through His eyes.

To be able to see others like Him. We need to be more like Him. And the only way we do that, is if we come to the realization that we all stand on the same footing with the same need for salvation at the foot of the cross.