Happy Resurrection Day!
May you be filled with joy today knowing our Redeemer lives!
Tag: hope
The Place of Victory
“And being in anguish, He prayed more earnestly…”
Luke 22:44
I grew up in a small, older house on a hill that had one unusual but useful feature: a sundeck. When things got especially stressful inside the house, which they often did, and I wanted to run away, I’d walk outside and up the stairs to my solitary place on the roof. There I sat alone and quiet, as far away from my troubles and the world as I could get, looking out over the valley below.
As I grew older and was able to get away from the house, without really realizing it, I carried my sundeck inside me. And when life got rough, which it often did, I’d run away by crawling inside myself, alone and quiet.
Even after Christ came into my heart, there have still been times when circumstances were so overwhelmingly painful that I did what I always did – withdrew inside myself, running away from the world, even from God.
There I’d sit, alone and quiet, where thoughts and anxiety replaced words.
But words are sometimes necessary for prayer. And without prayer I’d effectively shut God out of my circumstances, out of my pain, and out of my answers.
There can be no more painful trial than what Christ faced in the garden as He prayed about the speeding train that was coming straight for Him – arrest, rejection, torture, and death. Death on a cross.
A death that would cause Him, a perfect man who had never known the guilt and shame of sin, to feel more than an agonizing death, but the weight of every sin that had ever or would ever be committed.
If there were ever a darkness to descend on someone that could cause anxiety and a loss for words, this was it.
“And being in anguish…”
This was not just anxiety or worry. The Greek word for anguish is agonia, meaning agony, and it comes from another word agone, which is “a place of assembly (as if led), that is, a contest (held there); an effort or anxiety – conflict, contention, fight, race.”
Christ had withdrawn to the garden as He faced the darkest, bleakest time of His life, but not to shut out the world, to run to His Father. To pray, and not just any prayer. This was a fight.
He agonized with the conflict in His own humanity, asking His Father if it was His will that He would remove the suffering, and He fought against the enemy.
But the harder the prospect of deep suffering pressed in to Him and the anguish weighed on Him, the harder He pressed into the Father.
He prayed more earnestly.
The more He struggled the more intently and more fervently He prayed, so much that He sweat drops of blood falling to the ground.
By the time He left the garden of olive trees, He was strengthened in His Spirit, one with the Father, and resolute in His purpose. He was ready.
Because He turned to His Father, He went through the suffering and was victorious in accomplishing His will, for the joy set before Him…
Sometimes in our anguish we are tempted to turn to other things.
This world offers a million things and people and ways to get through our times of suffering.
But only one way will bring us through suffering even more strengthened, more courageous, and in the end victorious, and that is by pressing into God through prayer.
Sometimes all we have in prayer are groans, but even then the Holy Spirit knows our hearts and our minds and is able to interpret those groans and intercede to the Father on our behalf. He knows what we need even when we do not. All we need to do is show up.
Christ found victory in the garden through prayer before He ever saw the cross, and we’ll find victory, too, if we’ll show up in our garden, our sundeck, our closet, wherever we seek the Lord and His will and provision, and pray. Don’t mull, don’t pout, don’t feel sorry for ourselves, and don’t try to figure it out on our own.
Pray. With whatever faith we have, enter into the throne room of God by the blood of Christ and pray the boldest prayers we know how.
Prayer is the avenue that gives us His strength to keep believing in the darkest trials, to line up our will with God’s, to fill us with His peace, and to give us a vision of the joy set before us…
Christ showed us the way in the garden. And because He was victorious, in death and in life, so are we. His joy was to bring reconciliation and relationship between the Lord and us. His joy was to know us now and forever.
And our joy, if we’ll seek Him even in our darkest times, especially in our darkest times, is to be more than conquerors. To conquer our sins and our fears on the backs of those trials, and through it all to know Christ, our Redeemer, our Savior, our Friend, now and forever.
“Are your ears awake? Listen. Listen to the Wind Words, the Spirit blowing through the churches. I’m about to call each conqueror to dinner. I’m spreading a banquet of Tree-of-Life fruit, a supper plucked from God’s orchard.”
Revelation 2:7 The Message
Lesson From a Rescue – #2
“The LORD is close to the brokenhearted
and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”
Psalm 34:18
It’s been almost two years since we rescued our furry, four-legged friend, and it continues to be apparent that he rescued us right back. The last time I talked about how the Lord used Rocky to remind me that no matter what, God never tires of loving us or taking caring of us. That He will continue to rescue us until that day He rescues us for the last time and takes us home to be with Him forever. And recently He reminded me of that once again.
As much as I hate it, there are still times when the pain I’m feeling is so deep, so encompassing, so overshadowing, that I wonder where God is. Is He still there? Does He see me? Does He know what’s going on and how much pain I’m in?
Recently I’d been suddenly faced with some new health issues, on top of an already far-too-full plate of them, and I was overwhelmed with it all. They were bigger than my brain could handle and I didn’t know what to do. I’d been running to try to stay ahead of them, but they caught up to me one day and I broke down in tears.
My bedroom door was closed and Rocky was at the other end of the house.
When I was finished, I knew when I opened the door Rocky would be right there. He always is.
And sure enough he was right there, waiting for me to open the door. His rescued heart knows what pain is and somehow he understands when someone needs a comforting friend.
I immediately thought that if a dog with a brain the size of a walnut and a heart not much bigger is right there whenever I need comforting, how much more is my Abba Father who sent His only Son to die for my sins and filled me with His Holy Spirit near to me when my heart is broken? And how much more will He rescue me when my spirit is humbled?
Sometimes I just need to open the door of my heart, to look up from the cloud of confusion and pain, to see that He is there. And even in those times I don’t see or hear or feel Him, I can know He’s there, just on the other side of the door, because I am called to walk by faith and not by sight. Sometimes pain is designed to be overwhelming, bigger than we can handle, so our faith will grow bigger than our need for sight.
The Friend we have in Christ knows what it’s like to suffer, to be in pain, and even to cry out to His Father, asking where He is. He understands our pain and is compassionate toward us. I’m convinced that when we’re prostrate on the ground in grief, He’s down there with us, holding us, and crying out to the Father on our behalf.
Rocky is my furry little illustration of that.
But the Friend we have in Christ knows our heart and our pain, inside and out, and His love and compassion bring Him near and rescue us, now and forever.
The Miracle of Snowflakes and Souls
The last couple of weeks or so here in the U.S., people have shoveled, scraped, and trudged their way through enough ice and snow to last the rest of the year.
But as we take a magnifying glass and look at a single snowflake, we’ll see that they really are fascinating little miracles, and so is Christ’s life in us.
Just like precious pearls begin as something ordinary–a grain of sand, snowflakes also begin as something just as unpretentious–a dust particle, a piece of volcanic ash, or sea salt.
As it falls through the atmosphere, each particle forms into a clear ice crystal, its individual shape and size determined by the various conditions each particle encounters as it falls to the ground, like the altitude, temperature, and humidity.
The one thing all snowflakes have in common is they each have six sides or branches.
Each of us is also born with an ingrained imperfection, that is, our sin nature. As we grow, the conditions we encounter, like the family we grew up in, the experiences we have in life, and our own personalities determine the one-of-a-kind person we become.
But our sin nature continues to act as an irritant, wreaking havoc in our souls.
“’Come now, and let us reason together,’ Says the LORD, ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”
Isaiah 1:18
God compares our sins to scarlet and crimson.
This word for scarlet – shaniy – refers to a maggot-like insect called a “coccus illcis” which feeds on the leaves of evergreen oak trees. The dried bodies of these insects are used to make a deep red, or crimson, dye.
Our sin acts like those parasitic creatures, eating away at our joy, our souls, and our lives.
(Another factoid I found while looking up the definition of shaniy: the urban dictionary says it’s “a psychopath with demon eyes, this little creature lacks the skill of being nice, she is a very demanding person who is hard to control sometimes, she has the capability to stab someone if she wanted to; her favourite word is **** off.” Does that sound like our sin nature or what?!)
The Lord tells us that though we have been stained with the blemish of sin, He will make them white as snow.
So what makes those former pieces of dust, ash, and sea salt, and our sin, white?
As the snow crystals, or snowflakes, fall to the ground and begin to gather together, the light shining into the snow gets scattered around inside and is reflected around all those unique six-sided snow prisms and the light that comes back out appears white, and the imperfections are no longer seen.
The Bible refers to the number six as the number of mankind, of incompleteness. Just as the one commonality among snowflakes is that they have six sides, we all have in common our imperfect humanity. Without Christ, we are incomplete and impure.
But as we receive Jesus Christ by faith, He becomes a part of us (the number 7 symbolizes completeness), and we become a part of His family, joining together like a snowdrift high on a hill. His light shines into us and is filtered back out through the prism of our character, purifying our hearts and making us white as snow.
It’s amazing to me that God made snowflakes as a microscopic allegory showing us our need for Him. It’s as if He calls to us in the whisper of a tiny, almost secret world and says, “I know all about your weaknesses, your frailties, your sins, but the power of my love can overcome all that!”
We have all come through different and unique backgrounds, circumstances, sufferings, and joys, and the shape our heart and mind have become through our own uniquely-designed life allows Christ to shine through us in the extraordinary ways He’s chosen just for us and the lives around us.
So the next time you have to shovel snow or scrape it off your car, remember God’s love for you through Christ, and how His crimson blood turned our souls white and pure as snow. And remember, too, that the more we come together as one body and one heart with God’s family, the more His light shines in and through us. And doesn’t the world need that right now?
God bless,
Saturday Song – King of the World
I was driving home from a doctor appointment the other day when this song came on the radio. I’ve heard it a few times recently, and the timing on this day, at this moment, wasn’t lost on me. I had asked for prayer from friends for this appointment, half joking that this would be doctor number 5,482.
Much of my prayer life over the last 14 years and 10 months has been consumed with asking for answers to health mysteries that, so far, doctors have yet to answer. God has yet to answer. I’d love to be able to say I trusted God from the first day all the way to this, that my faith never wavered, that I never took the reins from Him and tried to steer the cart in the direction I thought it should go. I’d love to say that. But I can’t.
And as I sang along, I heard the lyrics again…
“I try to take life back right out of the hands of the King of the world
How could I make you so small
When you’re the one who holds it all
When did I forget that you’ve always been the king of the world”
And I suddenly thought about Jack standing on the prow of the ship yelling out for all mankind to hear – “I’m the king of the world!”
Don’t we all stand inside our hearts yelling “I’m the king of the world!”? We all want to the be the king of our own world. Our pride drives us to it, and our fears expand our territory.
That’s the struggle. To drive or be driven by God. Those reins are so close, sometimes so loosely held by God, and if we want them bad enough He’ll hand them over and let us steer ourselves right into a ditch. And He’ll wait, and pray until we’re ready to reach up to Him, covered in the muck, asking Him to lift us out yet again. And He’s always right there, with love in His eyes, pulling us out, washing us off and setting us right back next to Him.
Whether we’re riding a ship, a cart, a race car or a skateboard, there’s only one rightful King of the world, of our world. And yes, the ride is bumpy and confusing and painful and sometimes feels excruciatingly long, but He knows where He’s going and how to get there. We can trust Him. After all, He was King long before there was a world and you and me.
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Genesis 1:1
“You will always be the King of the world…”
Sunday Praise and a Prayer for Healing
“Praise the LORD, my soul;
all my inmost being, praise His holy name.
Praise the LORD, my soul,
and forget not all His benefits –
who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,
who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”
Psalm 103:1-5
Dear Heavenly Father, we praise you. I come to you today and lift up to you so many us who are suffering with severe and prolonged physical illness. Lord, it’s so easy to lose focus of you when we or a loved one is suffering and there seems to be no end. The day to day pull to focus on the pain, the illness, the medications, whatever it may be, can be overwhelming and exhausting.
Lord, we need your strength. We need your presence to overwhelm us and turn our eyes back to you, to gaze on your beauty, your grace and mercy, your compassion which never ends. Help us remember that our suffering is in your hands, and through it we can identify with Christ’s suffering, with His death and resurrection, for we have died to sin and you’ve made us alive in Him to the spiritual things which are infinitely of more worth.
We ask for your peace that surpasses all human understanding, for your wisdom to lead us every day, and for your joy fill us to overflowing, that we would be a walking testimony of your love and goodness, of the fact that this is not our home, that we wait as we put our hope in a future home, a future life where all things will be made new. So whether you heal us in this life, and I pray if that’s your will for any of us that you would, or if you heal us in the next life, may you be glorified in ways we can only imagine.
Please use us Lord to proclaim your name, to have compassion on others, and to show the world your grace that many would be saved, and those away from you would return.
“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.” 2 Corinthians 4:16-18
May your will be done on earth, Lord, as it is in heaven. May you bring a revival to our own hearts, to the body of Christ, and throughout the world. Maranatha! In the eternal name of Jesus Christ I pray, amen.
Lesson From a Rescue
“Even to your old age and gray hairs I am He, I am He who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.” Isaiah 46:4 (NIV)
We had been scouring rescue facilities for months looking for just the right dog to adopt into our family. We finally found a little black Lhasa Apso mix who had a past only God knew. He had been a stray picked up by the county, full of ticks and matted hair. He seemed unfazed by whatever adventures he’d had while living on the street, and his big, brown eyes begged us to take him home. We instantly loved him.
We soon discovered he was not completely unaffected by his time lost and alone. Not only did his body need to be healed of an infection left by all those ticks, but his little heart did, too.
For months I never saw him close his eyes. He’d lie on the floor with his big brown eyes wide open, as if he were afraid to let down his guard. He loved walks to the park, but when that trip was taken too late one night, we discovered how afraid of the dark he was. And every once in a while while lying inside the house, with nothing going on around him, he’d jerk his head around looking for something that wasn’t there.
We treated his physical ailments and spoiled him with as much love as we could. I’d stroke his wavy black hair and remind him over and over “You’re safe now. We’re going to take care of you.”
Months later he was lying on my lap and I reached over and held his prematurely graying paw, and for the first time I saw him close his eyes.
It suddenly occurred to me how much I was like him. I may not have lived on the street (although I came close), but for many years I was lost and alone.
Then one fine day God saw me and rescued me. He adopted me as His own. He removed the enemy that had so viciously attached itself to me, cleansed me from the inside out, and began binding up my wounds.
Even though it’s been many years, that anxiety and fear can creep back in when I face a new hardship, or even the possibility of one. Will God still take care of me? Has He forgotten me? Is He tired of providing for me?
I turn and see Rocky at my feet and know it’s not too much to take care of everything he needs. He is my furry little reminder that if I can love and take care of a little dog like that, how much more will God love and take care of me?
No, everything isn’t perfect. God hasn’t given us a dog’s life. But He has given us something infinitely better – a lifetime of walking with the Lord as He uses the imperfection of our lives to draw us closer to Him, to mold us into the image of His Son, and prepare us for a life when everything will be perfect.
He is our Provider, and not only will He provide for us in this life, He’s also preparing a home for us with Him in the next.
That word “sustain” in Isaiah 46 is the Hebrew word sabal. It means to be gravid, meaning to be pregnant, to carry one’s young. What a tender thought, that the Lord will carry us, as a mother carries her children, from pregnancy, and the Lord says, even to our old age will He carry us. He will provide for our every need.
As our perfect provider, He is all things to us – our rescuer, our strength, our fortress, and countless other things, from birth to death, and beyond. We can live with confidence knowing that as we trust and follow Him, laying our needs at His feet, and knowing He’s well aware of them even before we do, He will provide for every one, both present and future, as He loves us and has compassion on us. We are His children, and He forever delights to show us His mercy.
September 11 Spurs Us On
As we reflect on this day 17 years ago, we are reminded that in an instant everything can change.
Whether the change involves an entire country, or our own personal sphere, we never know what a day can bring. Life is short.
All around us there are lonely people to love, hurting people to comfort, hungry people to feed, thirsty people to give something to drink, impoverished people to clothe, imprisoned people to visit, and lost people to tell the good news that a Savior has come.
May the remembrance of this day, the soberness of the hour of our lives, and our love for Jesus be the catalysts that seek the power of the Holy Spirit, minute by minute, to “lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Let us look to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and your hearts give up.” Hebrews 12:1-3 MEV
Though we will have trouble in this world, let us rejoice and have peace – Jesus Christ has overcome the world.
Sunday Praise and a Prayer for Refining
“Praise be to the LORD, for He showed me the wonders of his love
when I was in a city under siege. In my alarm I said,
‘I am cut off from your sight!’
Yet you heard my cry for mercy when I called to you for help.
Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the LORD.”
Psalm 31:21-22, 23
Dear Heavenly Father, we praise you. We thank you for your everlasting love, a love that is so profound, so complete, so encompassing, that we can never fully comprehend it on this side of heaven. Lord, there are a multitude of ways we can find ourselves under attack, whether it’s from people, from our own failing bodies, or as a target of your enemy, but you constantly surround us with the strength of your protection and provision.
No matter what’s happening in our lives, we need not fear. We trust that you use those times of trial as heat that brings to the surface the dross of our hearts – those hidden weaknesses only you fully see.
Help us remember we don’t need to hide from you because of those weaknesses, but you call us to come to you in the confidence of your love and grace, in the name of your Son, and confess those weaknesses – our fears, our anxieties, our pride, and give them all to you, that you might refine us as pure gold, and prepare us to enter into your presence.
We put our hope and trust in you again, for you are worthy, our LORD and our King. We pray all this in the mighty name of Jesus, our Messiah, amen.
No Matter What
Finally, Saturday’s here!
I’ve been waiting all week long to share this song with you. We live in a rough, critical, judgmental, even cruel world, and it’s not hard to get sucked into that worldly vortex that colors our world dark gray, where even our view of God is obscured.
Where our perspective of Him is shaped more by the negative people and circumstances around us, and even what’s going on within us, than by the truth of His holiness, righteousness, love, and forgiveness. If that’s you – maybe you knew God at one time but have walked or drifted away, or maybe you’ve never known God at all – this song is for you.
There is hope. While there is breath there is hope, because Jesus lives. Jesus Christ came to give us life, and through Him God’s grace is big enough to cover whatever you’ve done. All He wants is your heart. I pray you hear these words, and come to Him now. Come as you are, and He will receive you with open arms, no matter what.
No Matter What
by Ryan Stevenson
A lot of us grew up believing
At any moment we could lose it all
And at the drop of a hat
God might turn His back and move on
A lot of us feel like we blew it
Thinking that we’re just too far gone
But I want you to know
There’s still a hope for you now
No matter what you’ve done
You can’t erase His love
Nothing can change it
You’re not separated
No matter what
There’s never been a better time to get honest
There’s never been a better time to get clean
So come as you are
Run to the cross and be free
Oh, be free
No matter what you’ve done
You can’t erase His love
Nothing can change it
You’re not separated
No matter where you run
He’s always holding on
You’re still a daughter, you’re still a son
No matter what
I don’t know what you’ve been taught
Don’t know what you’ve been told
All I know is my God
Will never let go of you, no
And I don’t know what you’ve seen
Don’t know what you’ve been through
All I know is my God
Will never let go of you
He’ll never let go!
He’ll never, never, never let you go
No matter what you’ve done
You can’t erase His love
Nothing can change it
You’re not separated
No matter where you run
He’s always holding on
You’re still a daughter, you’re still a son
No matter what
You’re still a daughter, you’re still a son!
No matter what