Every ... word ... counts ...

Few things in life are more difficult than waiting or being still, particularly through tough times.  Doesn’t it seem like the very things in life that are challenging to experience tend to move slowly, and the exciting, glorious moments tend to move by at the speed of light?  As you would imagine, knowing me, I think there is without question a purpose God has in those moments … and that leads to my reading this week.  My plan this week took me through Genesis 41 – 47, Psalms 41 – 47, Judges 17 – 21, and Ruth 1 – 2.

Psalm 46 is a remarkable reminder of God’s power and protection, and His desire and ability to defend and intervene for us in the toughest times in our lives.  It starts with a profound statement about God’s strength for us, and culminates with a relatively counterintuitive roadmap for how we can survive the trials the world throws at us.

Verse 1 – 3 …

God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble.  So we will not fear when earthquakes come and the mountains crumble into the sea.  Let the oceans roar and foam.  Let the mountains tremble as the waters surge! Interlude.

Note that this says when the troubles of life come … not if the troubles of life come.  Troubles are a certainty of life.  We needn’t cower in the face of the inevitable tonnage of issues and trials we’ll face.  Verse 10 gives us what I believe is one of the most powerful passages in the Bible to remind us how we can survive those trials … not only survive them, but to grow because of them.

“Be still, and know that I am God!  I will be honored by every nation.  I will be honored throughout the world.”

“Be still, and know that I am God!”  What an overwhelmingly powerful promise!  What I love most about God’s Word is the fact that every single word is purposefully placed and was thought-out from time immemorial by the Creator of the Universe.  Of course, the words were selected and rendered in Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic, leaving it to us to translate from those languages to ours, and our English language doesn’t always do God’s chosen words justice.  But in the times when it does … and I believe it does when it comes to Psalms 46:10 … I find it strength-inspiring to take His Word, word-by-word.  It’s a technique I apply from time-to-time to slow down, to draw in all I believe God wants us to.  I actually think it’s really helpful to read this section of scripture (and others) in such a way that you emphasize each individual word separately, in succession, and reflect on each one individually that way.  Here’s how …

BE still and know that I am God!

Be STILL and know that I am God!

Be still AND know that I am God!

Be still and KNOW that I am God!

Be still and know that I am God!

Be still and know that I AM God!

Be still and know that I am GOD!

BE

The word means a variety of things, but chiefly among them “to exist or to live.”  Importantly, this verse is telling us to choose the state of existence that follows.  It means to live as a particular state … in this instance …

STILL

Unmoving.  Unwavering.  Patient.  Active by being inactive.  I don’t know about you, but being still, especially in trying times, is NOT my typical M.O.  But think about it.  When we’re truly still, we can hear, see, feel, etc., much more clearly because the otherwise ever-present distractions of life get in the way.  All too often, through the muck and muss, I tussle, fight, wiggle, etc.  Anything but be still.  Which is why we should instead choose stillness.

AND

The conjunction “and” gives us the connection between one thing and another.  It’s an assurance that when we do one thing, the other thing follows in turn.  The precedent statement is indelibly tied to the following one.

KNOW

Not “believe.”  Not “guess.”  Not “hope.”  Not “wonder whether.”  KNOW.  KNOW!  One definition says, “To perceive or understand as fact or truth.  To apprehend clearly and with certainty.”  Enough said!

I

God is personal to us.  That’s one part of the power of the “I” in this passage.  The other thing I love about this word in this passage is that when He says, “I” He doesn’t say “you.”

AM

He is.  He is not, “not”.  When we wonder, He is helping us remove the wonder.  When we question, He is answering the question.  When we doubt, He is removing the doubt.  It’s a statement of reassurance, of validation, of fulfillment, of guarantee, of fact.

GOD

He is GOD!  He is the Creator of the entire universe and every infinitesimal detail within it that holds it and ties it all together.  His nature is to be able to do anything and everything in accordance with His nature.  Hence, He can get us through any current trial, and any future trial.  He is Truth, He upholds His promises, He can’t fail, He can’t not love, He can and will protect and defend us, even in the difficulties.  He is all-powerful, all-knowing, all-loving.  He is GOD!!!

When times get tough, or when I question or doubt, I recite this passage slowly, emphasizing each word individually and independently, in the same manner I have outlined.  Yeah, I know it sounds a little goofy, but it works!  So, as you confront something that seems bigger than you, something that brings anxiety or nervousness, rest on God’s promise, and receive God’s strength.

“Be still, and know that I am God!”

What an amazing, powerful, bona fide promise!!!

How do you eat an elephant?  One bite at a time.  We should approach the enormity of God’s Word the same way.  Every … word … counts.

May our Lord bless you by every word He speaks to you in whatever way He speaks it this week!

MR

What's in the donut?

This week I read from Genesis 34 – 40, Psalms 34 – 40, and Judges 10 – 16.  The story of Joseph, which starts in Genesis 37, has long been one of my favorites in the Bible.  No one, other than Jesus, underwent more unfair, difficult treatment or circumstances in the Bible in my opinion.  Here are some of the salient sections of my reading this week …

Jacob loved Joseph more than any of his other children because Joseph had been born to him in his old age. So one day Jacob had a special gift made for Joseph—a beautiful robe.  But his brothers hated Joseph because their father loved him more than the rest of them. They couldn’t say a kind word to him.  One night Joseph had a dream, and when he told his brothers about it, they hated him more than ever.  “Listen to this dream,” he said.  “We were out in the field, tying up bundles of grain.  Suddenly my bundle stood up, and your bundles all gathered around and bowed low before mine!”   His brothers responded, “So you think you will be our king, do you? Do you actually think you will reign over us?” And they hated him all the more because of his dreams and the way he talked about them.  Genesis 37:3-8

Judah said to his brothers, “What will we gain by killing our brother? We’d have to cover up the crime.  Instead of hurting him, let’s sell him to those Ishmaelite traders. After all, he is our brother—our own flesh and blood!” And his brothers agreed.  So when the Ishmaelites, who were Midianite traders, came by, Joseph’s brothers pulled him out of the cistern and sold him to them for twenty pieces of silver. And the traders took him to Egypt.  Genesis 37:26-28

She kept putting pressure on Joseph day after day, but he refused to sleep with her, and he kept out of her way as much as possible.  One day, however, no one else was around when he went in to do his work.  She came and grabbed him by his cloak, demanding, “Come on, sleep with me!” Joseph tore himself away, but he left his cloak in her hand as he ran from the house.  When she saw that she was holding his cloak and he had fled, she called out to her servants. Soon all the men came running. “Look!” she said. “My husband has brought this Hebrew slave here to make fools of us! He came into my room to rape me, but I screamed.  When he heard me scream, he ran outside and got away, but he left his cloak behind with me.”  She kept the cloak with her until her husband came home.  Then she told him her story. “That Hebrew slave you’ve brought into our house tried to come in and fool around with me,” she said.  “But when I screamed, he ran outside, leaving his cloak with me!”  Genesis 39:10-15

So let’s take stock a little bit of Joseph’s plight.  First, while not totally undeserved because of his arrogance, Joseph earns the ire of his brothers to the point where for a time they decide to kill him.  I’ve made my sister mad over our childhood years, and vice versa, but to my knowledge never to the extent of wanting to kill one another (though, you could check with our folks as they might have a different impression … LOL).  While he avoids his brothers actually carrying out brutality to the point of his death, they nonetheless decide to sell him off for 20 pieces of silver.  He gets sold to some Ishmaelites and taken away to a foreign land.  He then gets sold to one of the most powerful men in Egypt, as a slave.  EGYPT!  The land where they HATED Israelites, refusing to even share a meal with them.  Later, his slavemaster’s wife tries to seduce him, he does everything he can to avoid it including running away, but because he left his cloak behind she was able to frame him for something he didn’t do.  This lands him in prison.  Prison!

Think about this … Joseph really did nothing to deserve any of this.  Yet here he was, in prison in a foreign country.  You couldn’t paint a portrait of worse circumstances.

How did Joseph respond to his situation?  Let’s look …

The Lord was with Joseph, so he succeeded in everything he did as he served in the home of his Egyptian master.  Genesis 39:2

In this situation, and in a number of other ones, Joseph rises above his circumstances.  He embraces the situation.  He performs in an exemplary way … so much so that he continually is promoted into positions that declare him to be the most trusted person in his roles.  How?  Simple.  Joseph trusted God (you’ll have to skip ahead to Genesis chapter 50 … or just trust me).  Joseph KNEW God was at work in the midst of the crazy circumstances.  Even under incredible pressure, in the worst of surroundings, in the scariest of situations, Joseph remained focused on God, and God’s will through it all.  I have to admit, I don’t always respond well to insignificant problems; little issues can sometimes set me off.  No doubt, bigger ones can really pin us to the ground; they can throw us in a tizzy, taking our focus off of the fact that God is at work, not by happenstance, but by purposeful design and intentionality.

When I was a kid, on weekends at times we would buy donuts for breakfast.  I used to LOVE the smell of the donut shop.  But I REALLY LOVED the taste of the custard-filled donuts.  The problem was, those looked a lot like the jelly-filled donuts, and I didn’t like those as much.  In order to figure out what the real custard-filled donut was, I’d have to squeeze the donut.  Whatever leaked out gave me the reality of what was inside.  The best way to figure it out was to put enough pressure on the donut in squeezing it … and see what came out.  And only what was really inside could come out.

And so it is with us.  We see what is really inside of us when we’re squeezed.  The best way to observe what someone is … or we are … made of is to observe what we’re like under real pressure.  Perhaps that’s what God is up to sometimes in these circumstances.  I’m not sure.  What I do know is that God has our best interests at heart (again, see Genesis 50:20, skipping ahead a wee bit).  But put the squeeze to us, and you’ll see exactly what we’re made of inside.

Just like the donut, the only thing that can come out is what’s really inside.  That’s the secret to Joseph’s situation … he was able to trust God because, well, he trusted God.  He had placed his love and reverence of God and reliance on His promises deeply enough inside his core that what came out under pressure was the love and reverence of God.  Which holds the secret for us … what we have inside is key … because that’s what come leaking out when we’re squeezed.  If we’ve pumped ourselves up with God’s word, His promises, our relationship with Him, then when we’re squeezed all those will come out.  If instead we’ve filled ourselves with fear, arrogance, selfishness, etc., then those will ooze from us when the pressure is applied.

There’s the emphasis for this week … because one thing we can be sure of in this life is the pressure and the squeezing WILL occur.  It’s just a matter of when, not whether.  So, what will ooze from us?

Let’s prayerfully resign ourselves this week to make sure we’re filling ourselves with the good stuff … God’s word, prayer, memorizing scripture, recognition of the promises He makes to us, His Holy Spirit residing IN us … rather than the bad stuff that can tend to falter when the pressure’s on.  Let’s really ask God to challenge us to think honestly about whether it’s the custard or the jelly that’s going to squeeze out of us when the time comes.

Praying for the custard in all of us!!!  8-)

God’s blessings,

MR

Trust. Unfailing. Love.

My journey through the Old Testament took me through Genesis 27 – 33, Psalms 27 – 33, and Judges 3 – 9.   As I read this morning, it was a section of Psalm 33 that struck a chord in me … specifically, verses 1 – 5 …

“Let the godly sing for joy to the Lord; it is fitting for the pure to praise him.  Praise the Lord with melodies on the lyre; make music for him on the ten-stringed harp.  Sing a new song of praise to him; play skillfully on the harp, and sing with joy.  For the word of the Lord holds true, and we can trust everything he does.  He loves whatever is just and good; the unfailing love of the Lord fills the earth.”

What I found interesting about this is the emphasis David puts on being joyful … he says our hearts should be longing to sing for joy to God, to praise him with our voices.  Essentially, what he’s saying is that our general demeanor should be reverent gratefulness to God, so much so that our joy in Him should show and should fill us at all times.

The thing is, I confess I don’t always walk around singing praises to God at all times.  I think I’d bug people after a while, particularly the way I sing.  Clearly I’m praying that God gives me a new voice once I get to heaven, because the one I have now sometimes couldn’t carry a tune if I had a bucket to put it in.

Anyhow … the beauty of David expressing his heart in this Psalm is that he (as he usually does) shares with us the reason we should have this yearning to worship God in our innermost being, and in the process he shares some important attributes about God that naturally should create a reaction of this type.

He says, “for the word of the Lord holds true, and we can trust everything He does.”  WE CAN TRUST EVERYTHING HE DOES.  Think about this for a moment.

Let’s get real honest … day-to-day, when challenging things happen, when disappointments come up … do we trust God in those things?  Do we question Him?  Do we wonder if He’s paying attention?   Do we accuse Him of sleeping on the job?

Several years ago, some friends of ours went through the unspeakable struggle of their five year-old daughter getting diagnosed with a rare cancer in her heart.   After a three-year battle of epic proportions and the understandable emotional toll, the little girl died … at eight years old.  The torment of that tragedy rocked the core of so many of us in their sphere and throughout the entire community … and their family never recovered.  Like the majority of couples who lose a child tragically like this, their marriage couldn’t handle the pain and divorce resulted.

I was asked to speak at the memorial and did.  I struggled to think about how I could possibly offer any degree of explanation about the situation.  The truth is, I couldn’t.  There is no explanation over something like this, humanly-speaking.  And I’m not saying that God should be called upon to explain Himself over something like this.  Unfortunately, death resulted from the fall in the garden of Eden and this is one unfortunate, unfathomable result.

But what we can rely on is what this Psalm expresses … “the word of the Lord holds true, and we can trust everything He does.”  Why can we trust everything He does?  Because, “the unfailing love of the Lord fills the earth.”   Everything God does is in love.  God cannot do anything that is not from the abundance of His love.  His very nature IS love … hence He can’t do anything to violate that will.

Does that mean the fact that our friends daughter died at just more than eight years old is a good and loving thing?  Well of course not.  But somewhere in the event of heartbreak, God was at work … and His word promises that He works all things together for the good of those who are the called according to His purpose.  In all that happens, we have the immense blessing of being able to trust God and take Him at His word.  His word says He cares for us.  His word says He loves us.  His word says that everything that happens is intended to bless us.  No, I can’t say how this all equates, I just know it does.  God is actively at work all the time, bringing the entirety of His creation along to the intended state He had in mind when He created it.  So, he’s got His most favored part of His creation at heart (humankind), as well as the rest of the entire universe and everything in it.

This doesn’t mean we can always see HOW it comes together.  It means we can trust and rely on Him THAT it will come together … somehow interwoven into the billions of people on the earth and all else that has His fingerprint on it.  His love FILLS THE EARTH.  He loves each and every one of us enough to express it openly, consistently, visually, fervently, equally.

Whatever we’ve been through or are going through … no matter how terrible things feel or seem …  God is always, actively at work with us in mind.  Even in what seems like tragedy … but to me, the REAL tragedy is that there are people in our world who think it’s all purposeless, random, haphazard and by chance.  This is above all the most empty, pessimistic, hopeless of philosophies.  Instead, we can take heart and bask in the peace God offers us from knowing He’s at the helm … even when we don’t understand what He’s up to.  We can trust everything He does.  Because the unfailing love of the Lord fills the earth.

Let those last two sentences hold you upright this week, no matter what you’re going through.  Offer them to others who need it this week as well.

Trusting Jesus with you, because of His unfailing love!

MR

Keeping perspective

This week I read through more of Genesis (chapters 20 – 26), Psalms (chapters 20 – 26), Joshua (chapters 20 – 26), and Judges (chapters 1 – 2).  Lots stuck out to me this week, particularly as I read through the culmination of the lives of both Abraham and Joshua, two huge pillars of the faith.  But one section that hit home deepest was in Psalm 21 (vv 1 – 7) …

How the king rejoices in your strength, O Lord!  He shouts with joy because you give him victory.  For you have given him his heart’s desire;
you have withheld nothing he requested. Interlude.  You welcomed him back with success and prosperity.  You placed a crown of finest gold on his head.  He asked you to preserve his life, and you granted his request.  The days of his life stretch on forever.  Your victory brings him great honor,
and you have clothed him with splendor and majesty.  You have endowed him with eternal blessings
and given him the joy of your presence.  For the king trusts in the Lord.  The unfailing love of the Most High will keep him from stumbling.

For a second … close your eyes and think of God.  What do you think of when you think of Him?  Is it some overbearing, distant deity Who just wants to impose His rules on you … rules that take all the fun away from life?  Or, maybe He’s an unknowable, grumpy, vapor of a being that maintains some sort of scale, balancing the good things you do against the bad things, eventually to break some mean-spirited surprise on you when you try to enter His heaven some day?

It probably all sounds ridiculous, but such are the thoughts of many about our God … even to some degree many Christians.  Many religious systems propagate these personifications of God for all sorts of disreputable reasons.  But none of these points of view accurately portray the God of the Bible.

That’s why I loved David’s writing in Psalm 21.   In contrast to the views just described and all too often commonly-held, look at how David describes the Lord.  Referring to himself (the king … king David), he reflects on how God “has given him his heart’s desire,” “withheld nothing he requested,” gave him “success and prosperity.”  He makes the “days of his life stretch on forever,” “brings him great honor,” and clothes him “with splendor and majesty.”  He gives “eternal blessings” and “the joy of [His] presence.”  Finally, he talks about how God gives us His “unfailing love.”

Hardly the type of talk that sounds like an angry, judgmental, vicious, impersonal God.  Rather, it describes a personal, loving, gracious, and generous Creator who, while He created and knows every atom in the universe, equally knows everything about us and longs to provide our deepest desires and most necessary needs.

What this triggered in me was a reflective attitude.  It made me essentially put myself in David’s shoes, basically able to acknowledge the same things that David was praising God for … even though I’m not a king, with the wealth, riches, and possessions that the king of Israel had.   I’m every bit as blessed as he was.

And so are you.

Sure, we all have heavy burdens that weigh us down.  Worries that we contend with on a daily basis.  Stresses that grind away at the very bones in our bodies.  Disappointments that can cause us to want to retreat to the darkest reaches of life.  But like a longtime friend of ours used to say, “where you stand, depends on where you sit.”  That is, it’s all about perspective.

As 1 Corinthians 10:13 (NKJV) says … “no temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you’re able, and with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you will be able to bear it.”  Yeah, life is rough and at times things can feel terrible.  That’s real.  But notwithstanding that, in the bigger picture we’re no less blessed than king David.

So … let’s ask the Lord to help us gain a little perspective. 

Take some time this week and prayerfully sit down and write a list of the ways God has blessed you.  Give it at least 15 minutes.  It’ll probably feel a little awkward at first, but just jot down some thoughts about things in your life that bring you joy, that allow you to experience God’s love and favor in your life.  Write down things you think are beautiful, that make you laugh, that you consider gifts.  At first, you’ll feel weird and probably worried about not being able to list many things … but as you go on, you’ll be blown away by the huge list you’ve crafted, and how trying to list it all in only 15 minutes is tough.  Trust me … give it a try.

Then, read the passage above from Psalm 21 again.  Note the way you can relate personally to the very things that David expresses in the Psalm, almost as though he wrote it for you (and me).  That’s because God is that good … and He love us ALL, equally.

Take stock this week of the ways God continues to show you love, mercy, grace and generosity.  Let that realization change your perspective … and let’s ask Him to allow that change in perspective to pervade all we do, see, and say this week.

In the strong, matchless love of Christ,

MR