Redeemed

Leave it to God to redeem some skubalon from my life and turn it into good. :)

You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. (Gen 50:20 NIV)

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (Rom. 8:28 NIV)

Several weeks ago I reconnected with two guys from many years ago in my life. I remember both of them with a certain amount of skubalon attached to the memories. But God has a way of seeing things differently. In the course of getting to know one of them now (we hadn't talked in 15 years), I learned his mom and sister each died suddenly and tragically within a few years of each other. That combined with a few other details led me to encourage him to seek out godly men to pray with.

After that conversation I realized I wasn't thinking about the skubalon, but instead of who he is now, someone who (like all of us) has pain and dreams and frustrations and joys and challenges and ... well, life. While I could point him toward God, I also realized that God had worked in me. God had redeemed something that had been harmful skubalon and changed it to be used for good. God had redeemed this part of my memory and sealed it with a new understanding of God's grace and mercy.

Reminds me of a song. (You're probably not surprised.):

"God Has Come" by Glenn Packiam

When darkness falls and sorrow finds me

This joy I know comes in the morning

When all seems lost and strength is fading

This hope I've found is everlasting, everlasting

Now faith is here and strength is rising

This grace You've shown is so amazing, so amazing

Our God has come to save

He holds us in His hands

His promise will remain

His Kingdom has no end

God has come, God has come

© 2008 Integrity's Hosanna! Music

Thank you, God of power and might, for being a God who redeems us, your broken ones. Thank you for not seeing us as broken, but because of Christ we know you see us as whole and beautiful children. Thank you for your work turning things intended for harm into things you can use for Kingdom purposes. Thank you for the blessings of your presence, your grace, your mercy, and your joy, peace, and strength. Embolden us to live as redeemed, called, and precious children of yours. Amen.

By the way - I heard something tonight that went something like this:

Anything anyone could call or label me in this life is nothing when compared to being called "Sinner" by God. Anything anyone could say good about me in this life is nothing when compared to being called "Child" by God.

Peace to you this day.

JV

There is a time... to mourn

1 There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:

2 a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,

3 a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,

4 a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance... (Ecc. 3 NIV)

Time, like an ever rolling stream, bears all who breathe away;

they fly forgotten, as a dream dies at the opening day.

(Isaac Watts, "O God Our Help in Ages Past")

This week it seems I am reminded of the grief of life. Through Facebook I was talking with an out-of-state friend and found out his mother died in 1996 and his sister in 2000. And tonight I visited an "old lady friend" of mine who at age 87 is in an assisted living home because of dementia. Her body may not be dying yet, but her mind is giving out. A good friend is celebrating her husband's first "heavenly birthday" today. And in a different way, I find the approach of fall somewhat difficult because it seems like nature is little by little dying. Just like I know that my friends who are believers in Christ will be saved to heaven, I know that (most likely) there will be spring after this upcoming winter. And, I know what Solomon wrote: there is a time for everything. This includes living -- and dying.

I have been humbled this year watching my friend walk this road of grief. Her husband died very unexpectedly and very young. Yet the next day at church and later at his funeral service she sang, praised, and worshipped with all her heart. Her heart for her husband may have been broken but her heart for God was calling out to him. Her seemingly unbounded faith and trust in God, even when it just didn't make sense, has been a challenge to my faith.

Would I be able to praise God if something happened to my husband? Would I be able to sing "You give and take away/Lord blessed be your name?"* Would I trust God enough to walk through the valley of the shadow of death, claiming God is comforting me? I am not sure I could and I hope I don't have to find out.

And yet, I believe God is bigger, stronger, and more merciful than we can understand.

This morning we sang a Matt & Beth Redman song "You Never Let Go" that I have held onto at different points this past year:

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
Your perfect love is casting out fear
And even when I’m caught in the middle of the storms of this life
I won’t turn back
I know You are near

And I will fear no evil
For my God is with me
And if my God is with me
Whom then shall I fear?
Whom then shall I fear?

Oh no, You never let go
Through the calm and through the storm
Oh no, You never let go
In every high and every low
Oh no, You never let go
Lord, You never let go of me

And I can see a light that is coming for the heart that holds on
A glorious light beyond all compare
And there will be an end to these troubles
But until that day comes
We’ll live to know You here on the earth (2005 Thankyou Music (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing))

He hasn't let go of my friend who lost his mom and sister. He hasn't let go of my friend who is grieving her husband. He hasn't let go of my friend with dementia. And he won't let go of me (or you) when we walk through the shadows of death or the storms of this life.

So we pray:

You, Lord, are our shepherd; we have all that we need.
You let us rest in green meadows; you lead us beside peaceful streams.
You renew our strength.
You guide us along right paths, bringing honor to your name.
Even when we walk through the darkest valley,
we will not be afraid, for you are close beside us.
Your rod and your staff protect and comfort us.
You prepare a feast for us in the presence of our enemies.
You honor us by anointing our heads with oil.
Our cup overflows with blessings.
Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue us
all the days of our lives, and we will live in the house of the Lord forever. (Psalm 23 NLT, alt.)

One thing we ask of you, LORD,

this is what we seek:
that we may dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of our lives,
to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD
and to seek you in your temple. (Psalm 27:4 NIV, alt.)

O Holy Spirit, you're our comforter, strengthen us, guide us, grant us mercy.

Bless those who are poor in spirit so they can gain the kingdom of heaven.

Bless those who mourn, that they would know your comfort.**

Pour peace over the grieving we pray, in the strong name of our merciful Christ,

Amen

* "Blessed Be Your Name" - Matt & Beth Redman 2002 Thankyou Music (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing)

** Matthew 5:3-4

What if I am a fool?

Last week in a conversation on a blog about valuing human life, this comment was made about Jesus and the Golden Rule:

"Him who coined the phrase, as well as thousands of other philosophers across time, societies, continents and history…."

My understanding of Jesus is that he's not just another philosopher across time, but is the unique Son of God, fully human and fully divine, unique in human history and unique for eternity.

But this comment brought to the forefront the reality of Christian apologetics (defending the faith) in today's society. And led me to a couple of Nicole Nordeman songs. [LOVE her stuff!]

"What If?" by Nicole Nordeman

What if you're right?
And he was just another nice guy
What if you're right?
What if it's true?
They say the cross will only make a fool of you
And what if it's true?

What if he takes his place in history
With all the prophets and the kings
Who taught us love and came in peace
But then the story ends
What then?

But what if you're wrong?
What if there's more?
What if there's hope you never dreamed of hoping for?
What if you jump?
And just close your eyes?
What if the arms that catch you, catch you by surprise?
What if He's more than enough?
What if it's love?

What if you dig
Way down deeper than your simple-minded friends
What if you dig?
What if you find
A thousand more unanswered questions down inside
That's all you find?

What if you pick apart the logic
And begin to poke the holes
What if the crown of thorns is no more
Than folklore that must be told and retold?

You've been running as fast as you can
You've been looking for a place you can land for so long
But what if you're wrong?

What if all the religious stuff in the world is all bunk? What if it's just blowing in the wind? What if the faith I choose to believe in is all just a waste of time and energy? What if there is no God?

But what if there is?

On some level, I know that being a Christian takes faith to believe in the mysteries of God. It does not and will never make sense from a purely rational/thinking level. But I know that the Holy Spirit was, is, and continues to draw God's children to God through Jesus Christ. And while I pray for this blogger to come to faith, I also realize, I look foolish to believe in such things. But I do. (At least most of the time!)

"Fool for You" by Nicole Nordeman

There are times when faith and common sense do not align,
when hardcore evidence of you is hard to find,
and I am silenced in the face of argumenative debate,
it's a long hill it's a lonley climb. Maybe it's true.

CHORUS:
Cause they want proof,
They want proof of all these mysteries I claim,
Cause only fools would want to chant a dead man's name.
I would be a fool for you all because you asked me to.
A simpleton who's seeming naive,
I do believe You came and made Yourself a fool for me.

I admit that in my darkest hours I've asked what if,
What if we created some kind of man made faith like this,
Out of good intention or emotional invention,
and after life is through there will be no You.

Cause they want proof of all these miracles I claim,
Cause only fools believe that men can walk on waves.
Maybe it's true.

Unaware of popularity,
and unconcerned with dignity,
You made me free.
That's proof enough for me.

I would be a fool for You,
Only if You asked me to,
A simpleton who's only thinkingz of,
The cause of love.

I will speak Jesus name,
and if that makes me crazy,
they can call me crazed,
I'm happy to be seemingly naive,
I do believe You came and
made Yourself a fool for me.

¹⁸For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. ¹⁹For it is written:
"I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate." (1 Cor. 1:18-19, Isa. 29:14 NIV)

Put very simply, my prayer is this:

Lord, help us have courage, wisdom, and strength to be fools for you. Amen

Unfazed

After finally working my way through the Psalms, I started Paul's letter to the Romans because I want to better understand my theology of salvation. Romans has been a faster and less exhausting journey than I thought it might be. Actually, last night Paul was actually downright pastoral! I've been struggling lately with some significant fears and came to the end of Romans 8:

²⁶ And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. ²⁷ And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will...

³¹ ... If God is for us, who can ever be against us? ³³ Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself. ³⁵ Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? ³⁷ No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.

³⁸ And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. ³⁹ No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8, NLT)

I don't know what fear or struggle or worry you may be experiencing, but even if your life is 100% perfect, you probably know someone who could use this prayer.

God, our refuge and strength, thank you for always being ready to help in times of trouble. Thank you for your protection upon our lives, our communities, our nation and our world. Even when it seems the nations are in chaos, and their kingdoms crumbling, we know your voice thunders, and the earth melts! Thank you for being the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, here among us, our fortress. Thank you for giving us right standing with yourself, through Jesus Christ.

God, we know that your Creation waits with groaning for the time in which it is restored to the fullness it was created to be. We, too, wait with eager hope for the New Jerusalem and glorious freedom from death and decay, worries and fears. Help us to trust your Voice and not succumb to whispers and fears from the Enemy. We know that neither angels nor demons, our fears for today and our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. Help us to live in confident assurance of that love and to wait patiently and confidently for deliverance from our circumstances.

Sometimes, God we do not know how to pray. We claim the promise that the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, and that the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will. Spirit, plead for us. And we plead for all those in this world who are in trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death. We thank you for the release of the journalists in North Korea and pray for the dissident in Myanmar who is to be sentenced this week.

In the strong name of Christ I pray...AMEN.

A final thought....

With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn't hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn't gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God's chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us—who was raised to life for us!—is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ's love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture:
They kill us in cold blood because they hate you.
We're sitting ducks; they pick us off one by one.
None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I'm absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God's love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us. (From Rom. 8, MSG)

(Prayer quotes Psalm 46)

Specks and logs, sin and grace

(This one's long, so the Prayer is first!)

For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love. For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”" (Gal. 5:13-14 NLT)


Perfect, Holy, and Awesome God in Three Persons,

Thank you for revealing yourself to us through Creation. Thank you for the beauty of your earth, its animals and plants, and we who are created in your Image. Thank you for not giving up on us in the Garden of Eden, at the Tower of Babel, during the Exodus, or a host of times since. Thank you for sending Jesus to show us the Way to the Father. Thank you for convicting us of our sin and drawing us into your arms of forgiveness and grace. Thank you for offering us the Abundant Life lived in relationship to You and for calling us to tell others about your Love.

Help your Church throughout the world to speak Truth into confusion and darkness, but to LOVE instead of singling out groups of people to condemn. Convict your children where we have been unloving, and give us great depth of mercy for the Lost. Help us to have mercy on those who are still trapped in their own choices to sin. Give us courage to LOVE people and show them Your More Excellent Way. In the redeeming name of Christ we pray...Amen.

****

After about 15 months of journalling through the Psalms, I finally ran out. One to 150 - all done. Now what? I want to better understand theology of salvation ("soteriology"), so I decided to start Paul's epic letter on that topic, Romans. At my current rate it will be another 15-18 months before I finish, but that's ok. I'm not trying to hurry through my reading, but instead I'm going verse by verse and just listening....listening to what the Word has to say...and writing down things that strike me.

Last night I was reading the end of Romans 1. Paul begins by expressing his initial greetings and desire to visit the people at Rome and share the Good News with them. Then he begins his explanation of sin with the idea that God has revealed himself - and, therefore, what is not of God - to people through Creation since the beginning of time. "So they have no excuse for not knowing God. Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused." (v. 20c, 21 NLT)

Whether you are a Christian or not, I would expect you can see a world that has become dark and confused. And to the Christian, it's obvious that sin has a great foothold in our world. Paul then spends a whole paragraph (in the NLT) to talk about the sin of homosexuality. For many ministries, pastors and churches, this is where their focus on this chapter lies. They spend lots of time and energy berating the practice of homosexuality. But Paul's chapter goes on beyond that...and I think there's a real message to that.

28 "Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. 29 Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. 30 They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. 31 They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy. 32 They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too." (NLT)

While you could say the previous paragraph was directed at one group of people - those who choose to act on homosexual impulses - this paragraph paints a fuller picture of Paul's definition of sin. Here's the list:

wickedness
sin
greed
hate
envy
murder
quarreling
deception
malicious behavior
gossip
backstabbers
haters of God
insolent
proud
boastful
invent new ways of sinning
they disobey their parents
refuse to understand
break their promises
are heartless
have no mercy
know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway
encourage others to do them

While most of the world can avoid seeing itself in the "homosexual paragraph," I doubt any of us could avoid everything in this second paragraph's list. There's just too much juicy sin -- too much easy sin -- too much we might find hard to define ("What is deception in my specific situation, anyway?") -- too much that if done in secret we can kind of push under the rug ("That wasn't gossip, that was a prayer request!"). I may not be a hater of God, but I do struggle with envy. I may not have murdered, but I have quarrelled. You may also find yourself somewhere in the list.

Later on in Romans Paul says something very famous in Christian circles:
"...for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. (Rom. 3:23-24 NIV)

If Paul had stopped at the first part of that verse, we might as well just give up on this 'be-friends-with God' thing; there's no way sinful creatures like us could come anywhere close to a holy and perfect God. But just like Paul's definition of sin didn't end with homosexuality, his treatise on sin has a different ending -- GRACE. We can be justified by God's freely given grace when we believe in and accept the redemption that came from Christ Jesus. Whew!

So, that leads me to another question: why does today's Church spend so much time talking about and condemning homosexual choices, and not so much for this much wider net of potential sin? Is it because we find it easier to point fingers at a fairly small proportion of the population (less than 5% in U.S.) than recognizing our own sins? Is it easier to make a category ("sexual sins") worse than "regular sins", instead of realizing the ways we do not follow our Lord's command to "Love"? Isn't a sin a sin a sin a sin a sin? I think God sees sin in that manner - anything that is against God's will, anything that draws us away from God, anything that keeps us from loving God and each other - is sinful.

Some would say that there are varying degrees and depths of sin, and maybe there are: some sins certainly seem to harm many more people than do other sins. But, is that how God sees us? Does he see the sin of homosexuality as worse than murder or gossip or disobeying your parents? Or are we asking the wrong question. I think God sees all our sin - ALL of us - as needing to be saved from ourselves, our sinfulness, and brought to the Abundant Life in Christ. When we accept the gift of Grace and salvation through faith, God no longer sees us as sinful, but as Beloved Children of the King of Kings.

A few final words...

"We know, dear brothers and sisters, that God loves you and has chosen you to be his own people." (I Thes. 1:4 NLT)

"Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness." (Rom 6:12-13 NIV)

“And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own? How can you think of saying to your friend, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye." (Matthew 7:3-5 NLT)

"For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love. For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”" (Gal. 5:13-14 NLT)