Tag: Hope

gospel sanity in insane times

Crazy times, huh?

Back in the 80s Billy Joel had a hit song, “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” in which he lyricized his life from 1949 to 1989 through the headlines, some good, mostly bad. His song cited 118 key moments he’d lived through. Again, over a lifetime.

If you’re alive in these strange days, you could add 118 of those kind of moments….in just the last 18 months!

We brave souls who have already weathered 9/11 and the war on terror, have been conscripted to face the bungled Afghanistan pull-out, COVID-19, shelter-in-place, George Floyd, Critical Race Theory, Capitol riots, and cancel culture.

Mix in the perfect storm of $28 trillion national debt, full-term abortion, impeachment, social injustice, racism, human trafficking, police brutality, nationalism, BLM, white supremacy, #MeToo, pronouns, and gender identity.

Talk about piling on.

Of course the disciples of the early 1st century didn’t have the pandora’s box of issues we face in the 21st century but they lived in worrisome times too. They were a conquered people living under the imperial thumb of Rome, and right along with their countrymen they longed for a Savior-Messiah to break into their story.

Over three years, based on the information they had, the disciples believed their hoped-for hero was now standing in their midst. Trouble was, he didn’t quite fit their idea of how such a king should accede to the throne. Here’s how he put it to them:

For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day. BUT FIRST HE MUST SUFFER MANY THINGS AND BE REJECTED BY THIS GENERATION.

Luke 17:24-25, ESV

Say what, Jesus?

Talk of lightning and thunder and glory are themes we can get behind. Swooping in and saving the elect and wiping out the wicked? Yes, Lord, more of that, please. Inject it into our veins! But suffering and rejection? AYKM?!?

Jesus wasn’t finished. He went on to paint an even more dire picture of future days saying it wasn’t going to be all roses and rainbows for his followers either. Times would “wax” worse and worse with unimaginable terrors unleashed on an ill-equipped world. It would be thus right up to the end. Matthew’s gospel adds the gut-checking news that only those who “endure to the end will be saved.” Even Jesus wondered aloud, “When the Son of Man returns will he find faith on the earth?”

If you’re bothered by the trajectory of things (“just how bad is it gonna get?”) take heart. Jesus’s band of brothers wondered too.

And you know what Jesus did to settle them? He told them a little story.

A widow, it seems, was the victim of a pyramid scheme and lost her life savings. She heard the circuit judge was coming to town so she went out to have her case adjudicated. To her dismay, the corrupt judge wouldn’t give her the time of day.

Next morning, she got herself dressed and went out the door to where the judge was holding court. Same answer. No, lady, go home.

Next day, same.

And the next.

But she never stopped going as long as Mr. Justice was in town. She was determined to get a hearing. He was going to take her case or, by golly, she was going to die trying.

Unfortunately the pitiful woman was penniless and had nothing to offer the shady judge by way of bribe. Still, she ventured out to the “justice tent” all the same.

This was likely her last chance. The judge could be packed up and gone the next day. This was it. Please, Universe, Higher Being, Whoever, be on my side, she prayed. (We don’t know if the fictional widow was saved.)

That morning, the judge asked who was out there beyond the folds of his tent and his assistant told him the same old lady who’s been coming every day. He shook his head disgustedly.

“Her again?”

He thought about it, then thought about it some more, and then he broke character.

“Send her in,” he said with a sigh.

And they all lived happily ever after.

Well, not without Jesus they didn’t! Which is the point. Try and do life without Jesus, and you’ll end up a pillar of salt or vulture lunch.

So what does the story have to do with being ready for what’s coming? Simply put, readiness requires faith (God is good), faith requires a “just” Jesus (God is wise), and it’s all fueled with the aromatic incense of prayer (God is able).

The people of God “ought always” to pray, Jesus said.

Was this the answer the disciples were hoping for? Probably not, and it’s not usually what we’re inclined to accept. Pray? Come on God, isn’t there something more concrete?

Yeah, he says, there is something more. Pray….and don’t give up!

[Smiley face emoji]

I’m pretty sure Jesus added that enjoinder because he knows the last days will be hard. We’re taking hard, hard, hardhardhard, so much so the elect (the people of God) will shrink and fail and cower and wonder if it’s all worth it. What if he isn’t coming? What if it’s been a trick the whole time?

Jesus hasn’t changed the formula. Methods and styles come and go, the times they get worse then better and ever worse again, but it’s always been a praying people abiding in the shelter of the Almighty who overcome through the worst of times.

I hear some of you saying, “That sounds like works, Scott.” I totally get that. Problem is, you consider prayer a task to be done — a human work — rather than a lifelong conversation with God. The praying Jesus is speaking of in verse one can be linked to his question in verse eight.

A “praying people” are a “faithing people.”

So if I stand let me stand on the promise

That you will pull me through

And if I can’t let me fall on the grace

That first brought me to You

And if I sing let me sing for the joy

That has born in me these songs

And if I weep let it be as a man

Who is longing for his home

— Rich Mullins, If I Stand

The praying Jesus is referencing is not suppertime thanks or bedtime rhymes. He’s telling us that our assurance of enduring to the end is our clinging to the Savior (“not give up”) through thick and thin, hard times and lean times, rest and unrest. It is a lifestyle and testimony of trusting Christ to carry us all the way home.

Does the little story really answer the questions and fears of the disciples? On the surface, it seems almost a redirect. On closer inspection, we see it’s exactly what we need to hear.

The widow shows us “praying” is “coming” to our One True Authority. Like her, we are to come faithfully, enduringly, single-mindedly, hopefully, and trustingly. Day after day, all our days, until Jesus comes. This is how we endure to the end.

Unlike the widow, we don’t have an unjust judge in the heavenlies who demands a bribe before coming to our rescue. He doesn’t expect us to “shape up” before he will act in mercy. He doesn’t require us to ‘perform’ some empty ritual of contrition so as to move him to respond. The only prerequisites are neediness and faith.

Each and every morning you wake up, as soon as you say the word “Father…” you can rest assured his eyes are already on you and he’s inviting you into his tent. Beloved, you are on his docket for the day, all day. Go to him. Ask him. Have faith he will hear you and be good to you.

[I was blessed to be able to share these thoughts with the generous and loving congregation at West Huntsville Baptist Church recently. If you’d like to view the full video service, simply click here.]

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broken record

Scott’s sick. Again.

Scott’s in the hospital. Again.

We need to pray for Scott‘s health. Again.

In recent weeks yet another ambulance crew carried me from my home where once again I brushed up against the cold bosom of death.

Yesterday, glory hallelujah, my wife carried me from the hospital, still alive and well, God having shown himself — again — faithful to deliver me from yet another close call.

Charles Spurgeon said, “He who has been with us in six troubles, will not forsake us in the seventh.”

I’m imagining you through my screen and telling you with all sincerity that there has never been a trial or a problem or tribulation or hardship or difficulty that God has not come through for me and delivered me. It is true his deliverance does not always come at the exact moment or in the exact way I thought, but I have never been forsaken and he has always shown his redemptive purposes in setting me free.

But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair;

2 Corinthians 4:7-8

Through it all, through everything, he’s shown himself faithful and there’s no end to how grateful and in awe of him I am.

This is my story.
And, yes, this is my song.
I’m praising my Savior all the day long.

For obvious reasons, the book of Job has been a regular read for me. I’ve often turn to its pages to remind myself that God is sovereign through all of my hard times.

When you come to Job 23:14, it reads,

“For he will complete what he appoints for me,

and many such things are in his mind.”

Which could be paraphrased to mean:

“He has many ways to refine us – and He’ll use them anytime, anyway He wants.”

Here’s my story in 6 words:

Broken.
Blessed.

Grieving.
Grateful.

Waiting.
Worshipping.

My suffering was good for me,

because through it I learned your statutes.

Psalm 119:71

David referred to himself as a “broken” man. As bad as that is, he still knew a secret: the word he chose (‘âḇaḏ’) is the same Hebrew word used when God put Adam in His Garden and told him to “tend” it. It’s the picture of breaking up the sod and clods of dirt, using a hoe or rake. Poured into those crevasses and furrows and holes is the fertilizer needed to grow fruit and grain from fertile soil.

David was saying, “He fills my broken places with His Life and I rejoice in my afflictions because I know my dying is my living!”

David recognizes he might be broken, but he’s not a LOST CAUSE. He’s not unfixable, not unredeemable. He has greater value when he submits to the Lord’s plough.

Everything you suffer, all you’ve lost, whatever breaking you’ve endured, is working in you a lush harvest that will bring life to others!

A few years ago, my Sandy had the opportunity to travel with a high school choir to Italy for competition. On one particular off-day they did some sightseeing and visited Venice and “The Bridge of Sighs.”

There’s a long history with this famous place in Venice but the thing that most sticks out is the bridge connects a prison with a palace. Back in the day, the prisoners were led across this bridge after their sentencing in the palace and they would have to look through the narrow windows of the bridge on their last look at freedom. They would “sigh” in sorrow as they were led away in chains to their cell where they would live out the rest of their days.

Your trials feel like a prison. You ask God, “Why am I still single?“ “Why am I depressed?” “Why can’t I ever seem to get a break?” “Why can’t I get past this?” You wonder if he has abandoned you. You question his goodness. Some days you feel as though you’re serving hard time. It’s very much a prison to you.

The Lord invites you to “sigh” and surrender and believe he is going to escort you from your cell and lead you into a palace of blessing.

In a way I am still on the prison side of the bridge but, like Paul and Silas, I am singing at midnight… so it feels like I am on the palace side!

Let’s go back to our scripture we considered first.

Many are the afflictions of the righteous…

That tells me trials are a necessary part of our discipleship. That message doesn’t always draw a crowd, but it’s undeniably true. There are so many manys on our journey with Christ. We’re all like broken records.

The Hebrew word “affliction” is often translated in the Old Testament as “evil.” It is also translated “bad.”
“Wicked.”“Mischief.”

Take heart, sisters and brothers; when bad befalls you it comes from an enemy that despises you. This means you are in the safe embrace of Someone who loves you.

Scott’s sick. Again.

We gotta pray for Scott. Again.

Scott’s got another wound.

Trouble for the Mitchells. Again.

James says life is “hole-punched” with trials. Paul said “it is through many hardships we come into the kingdom.” He told the Corinthians he “faces daily pressure” and “anxiety.” David said, “every night I flood my bed with tears; I drenched my couch with my weeping.”

You can’t walk with Christ and not feel the blows. Romans tells us we “died with him” but we also “suffer with with him.”

Paul Miller writes of his daughter Ashley who died at age 42 of stage-4 colon cancer. Before she died Ashley told her bible study group:

“I cannot talk about cancer without talking about Jesus. I cannot talk about my trials without Jesus. I equate it to eating a Reese‘s – Jesus is the chocolate and suffering is the peanut butter – they just go together.”

Paul E. Miller, The J-Curve, 310-11

But wait. The second line of our verse makes the first line worth it: “But the Lord delivers him out of them all.”

Peter said even if you’re “grieved by various trials” you can “rejoice” (“dance for joy”) in this: future glory (and oftentimes present) will be much sweeter to you than you can even imagine.

Soon and very soon, the record that’s been skipping and repeating and jumping and scratching will stop and all our agains will be wiped away and his eternal never again will be our forever anthem.

This is our story, this is our unbroken song. Amen.

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while you were sleeping

2 Chronicles 32:20-21
Then Hezekiah the king and Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, prayed because of this and cried to heaven. And the LORD sent an angel, who cut off all the mighty warriors and commanders and officers in the camp of the king of Assyria…

I love, love, love how Anne Kennedy writes of this moment:

The Assyrians are the most powerful army in the world. Their weapons are strong, their soldiers resolute. They have come prepared to win. The people on the wall know they haven’t a hope.

But their king prays. Their king, in wisdom, cries out to God. And then, apparently, he goes to sleep. So everyone else must lie down and try to do likewise.

When they rise up, they strain their eyes over the mist burning off in the sweltering morning sun; they look out and see that not a single enemy soldier remains alive. Every single one is dead.

Anne Kennedy, Nailed It, Day 102

Our King is praying too. Whatever situation we face making us worry on the wall, know this: enthroned within the eternal kingdom King Jesus is praying for us. And all is well.

The night is long and dark and fearsome, but when the morning mist is burned away by the unshrouded glory of the Son, everywhere we look is evidence of victory. Carcasses litter the valley floor, and we are saved.

Today I was reading Mark’s account of the crucifixion. As the Savior hung on the cross, and the people jeered, there were better than 72,000 angels with hands on swords drawn and ready to strike at Messiah’s command.

Our story tells of one angel. Probably a biggie to be sure, nonetheless this one angel wiped out 185,000 Assyrians, clear-cutting them from the landscape! Just imagine what 72,000-plus could do. I shudder to think.

Whatever is weighing on you, fear not. Not a single Assyrian will get past your Father’s security detail. There’s at least one angel he’s dispatched whose carrying a work order with your name on it, and we know what one angel can do.

Spurgeon, as only Spurgeon can tell it:

To what dignity are the chosen elevated when the brilliant courtiers of heaven become their willing servitors! Into what communion are we raised since we have intercourse with spotless celestials!

How well are we defended since all the twenty-thousand chariots of God are armed for our deliverance! To whom do we owe all this?

Let the Lord Jesus Christ be forever endeared to us, for through Him we are made to sit in heavenly places far above principalities and powers. He it is whose camp is round about them that fear Him; He is the true Michael whose foot is upon the dragon. All hail, Jesus! thou Angel of Jehovah’s presence…

Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Morning Reading, Oct. 3

You are his dwelling place and the Lord of the angel-armies defends what is his. In another place related to this biblical scene, God says he will protect his city against the Assyrians in such a way the “feeblest will become like David” who feared no man, no challenge, no threat, no intimidation.

David, who had his Mighty Men acting as his human shield, going before and behind him, an omnidirectional wall of security, was no more protected than we are.

Finally, exhausted from prayer and cries for mercy and justice, the king and his prophet Isaiah felt they could go to bed. While they were sleeping, and the city with them, the death angel of the Lord passed over the Assyrians wherever they were camped, and made them history.

As bad as things might be for you tonight, if Assyrians are keeping you awake, know that he who is with you is greater than the forces organized against you, and tomorrow is a brand new day.

Selah, beloved.