God with us

Today is December 1st, and now that Tigger has finished celebrating Thanksgiving, our thoughts turn to Christmas. My note of Thanksgiving this year round the table provided the perfect segue for those not too particular about keeping our observances separate. I am so grateful for the many Scriptures that remind us of the fact that, no matter what we face, God is with us. And that’s not just words. When He tells us “I AM with you”, it comes with all the weight of the burning bush encounter. I AM with you, in My all-sufficiency, waiting to be called on and tapped into for whatever you need.

II Tim 4:17 “But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it.” The Lord stands by and WITH US, strengthening us in all circumstances, so that the message of the Gospel can be fully displayed to an unaware and sometimes an unbelieving world. Our lives are, for many, the only book they will ever read with the gospel story on view. This brings such purpose to the ups and downs of life. But don’t worry, this doesn’t put pressure on us to perform, because in the most gloriously ungrammatical way, I AM is with us, stands by us and strengthens us.

Emmanuel, God with us.

The 5 P's of Discipline and Suffering

Reaching for words to comfort our girls facing really tough times far far away, Jack and I came up with the 5 P’s of suffering. The Scriptures speak for themselves:

• Suffering is not Permanent: trials come and go, even though when we are in the middle of them, it feels like they mostly just come. “No discipline seems pleasant at the time, …. Later on, however…” Heb 12:11 promises there will be a later on..when these tough times are behind us. “Blessed is the one you discipline, LORD, .. you grant them relief from days of trouble.” Psalm 94:12
• Suffering is Painful: “No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful”. Heb 12:11 ”Unless the LORD had given me help, I would soon have dwelt in the silence of death”. Psalm 94:17
• Suffering is Purposeful: “but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness”. Heb 12:10 and “when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold”. Job 23:10
• Suffering Produces fruit: “every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, so that it will be even more fruitful”. John 15:2, and ”discipline produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it”.
• Suffering brings Jesus Praise: “These trials have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed”. I Peter 1:7

Horses, roses, and tomato plants

Discipline has always carried the connotation for me of corrective action; an unpleasant consequence of bad behavior. For this reason, I don’t feel that I have been able to embrace much of the Scripture that speaks of this issue, without cringing.

I have recently, however, come to understand the purpose and reason for discipline in the context of training horses to the bridle and bit. Though they fight it, and resist the loss of their independence, the reality is that they reach their greatest purpose in life when yoked to the will of their rider. In the same way, my beautiful roses will bloom best when I am vigilant about pruning and training them. I don’t cut them back because I am upset with them. No, I love them: their explosion of color and form, and I know that pruning will only cause them to bloom brighter and fuller in the way that they were created to.

I have a long-running mutual disrespect for my tomato plants however. After years of being spindly, unyielding, ungrateful, wimpy-looking things, this year, they finally grew to enormous heights, with promise of a bountiful harvest. Of course I couldn’t bring myself to cut back the healthy-looking shoots – I had waited years for this kind of success. Just as the first tomatoes were ready to ripen, a strong wind blew the whole thing down, hiding the ripening fruit where the sun could no longer reach it, and limiting the amount of nutrition the plant was able to obtain….something to do with photosynthesis, I think.

So all of this helped me finally to a new understanding of the importance of pruning. John 15:2 says, “Every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit”. This is a good thing, a compliment even, despite the fact that branches don’t necessarily relish the pruning process. Deuteronomy 8 adds this perspective: “Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD”. Somehow it helps so much just to know that pruning and discpline is for a purpose – for greater fruit, and ultimately, to enrich our delight in Jesus, and our joy in Him as the One who alone can satisfy our deepest needs and longings.

So now, instead of shunning them, I cherish the comfort of these verses in Hebrews 12, ”For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”

How do we know when God is pruning and disciplining us? My answer to this is that pain, and the sense of being squeezed is usually a good indication. What is the “one thing” that if you could remove from your life, would make you so much happier? Chances are good that that very thing is God’s means of discipline and pruning in your life.

So, 2 things – first, don’t miss the point by underestimating what your circumstances mean: “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,”, and second, don’t be discouraged,“nor be weary when reproved by him”. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”

Be glad that God views you as fruit-bearing, and loves you enough to use your present circumstances to create in you the potential for greater productivity. At the same time, He loves you enough to squeeze your heart until all the things that masquerade as soul-pleasers are exposed, and we come to know Jesus in greater ways as our only source of satisfaction and delight.

Needy much?

30 years of marriage, 28 years of raising 7 kids, 10 years’ work experience – I’m starting to get this down……not so much. I have honestly never felt more insufficient or inadequate for the task at hand.. and that’s not my British self-deprecation speaking. Whether it’s dong my job with integrity and grace as unto the Lord, providing counsel and balance to my grown girls (most of the time they aren’t looking for it, probably), or being a good wife and friend, by which I mean simply being intentional and unselfish – I’m just not feeling up to it. Looking back, I see that God has been bringing me gently and painfully to this realization. It isn’t an admission of failure as much as it is a statement of fact. I really am not up to the task, it’s not just a feeling.

I was stunned this morning by these verses in Proverbs 9 (it’s the 9th of June).

“Let all who are simple come to my house!”
To those who have no sense she says, “Come, eat my food
and drink the wine I have mixed.
Leave your simple ways and you will live;
walk in the way of insight.”

An unqualified invitation – the only requirement is that you realize your ‘simpleness’, your inadequacy. If we come with full hands, we have nothing with which to take the food and wine that has been prepared for us. Empty-handed, we can avail ourselves of it all.

Remind you of this?

“Come, all you who are thirsty,
come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without cost. “ Isaiah 55:1

Or this?

“If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.” James 1:5

We live as though we were orphans (thanks, Jack Miller), when in fact, we have been adopted by the Source of every living thing, and He has made all of it available to us for the asking. Come, thirsty ones, ask, buy, eat, drink!

Mountains and hills

My father loved old westerns. Maybe it was the comfort of knowing that for those 2 short hours, good could be counted on to triumph over evil. Maybe it was that it reminded him of summers spent rounding up cattle on the estancias of Argentina. He loved the scenic views of majestic Montana, and one of the enduring memories I have of watching them with him is the sight of the cavalry, appearing on the horizon, spread along the mountain range. It’s what I think of when Elisha tells his servant to look up and see the armies of the Lord surrounding what had appeared to be an invincible enemy. It’s how I picture Psalm 121,” I will lift up my eyes to the hills; from where does my Help come?”

Mountains can be counted on to always be there. Living in Switzerland, it was delightful to come to rely on the breathtaking views that never failed to disappoint. Mountains in our lives can be things we come to depend on to always be there, and the Lord warns us in Isaiah 54 that He will sometimes remove those from us, so that we come to depend only on Him. “Though the mountains and hills be removed, my covenant of love will never be removed from you”.

New York never expected the Twin Towers to vanish from their skyline. As unlikely as it seems, when those comforting mountains of strength disappear from our lives, we should remember a. that God promised us they might, and b. that His love for us will NEVER depart.

It's all about the glory

I vacillate wildly between great anxiety and some measure of peace and trust – and in recent weeks have had many troubled nights. At the root is always my ability to trust and rest in God’s heart towards us, and in His timing. Why would He bother with peanuts like us? And if He does, why isn’t He acting on our behalf? Yet we can be assured of both – that He is nothing but loving and kind towards us, and His plan is rolling out with perfect precision and in order that the greatest glory would go to Him.

So this morning I read some of my favorite verses in 2 Cor chapter 1: For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. 9 Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. 10 He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. 11 You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.

The first phrase is where we wake up in the morning, and sometimes before morning: For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. The second half of verse 9 is the why – But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. God has us in this very place so that we must rely on Him and not on ourselves. Verse 10, my favorite of all….if the first half of the verse is true, He delivered us from such a deadly peril, then so also is the second and he will deliver us.. In Christ, He HAS delivered us from the deadliest of all perils – eternal separation from God and damnation. That being the case, it is assured, and inconsequential by comparison, that He will deliver us from our present peril. (Love the word peril!). This tracks with Rom 8:32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? If it is true, and it is, that God did not spare HIs own Son, which is the hardest of all things that He would ever have to do in every way, then, we can know for a fact that everything after that is a gimme:how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

So our response: On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again.: hope; not wishful thinking, but solid confidence based on how He has already demonstrated both His ability to deliver us from deadly peril, and His willingness to spare nothing, even His own Son, to extend His grace to us. The “why not now?” question makes some sense because of verse 11…You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many..The more people are pulled into this trouble, and the more of us who respond by prayer, the more glory goes to Him alone. The more pray-ers, the more thank-ers – and the more glory to God.

The spoiles of suffering

If you quote something you read by someone who was quoting someone else, what does that say about your ability to be original? Well anyway, John Piper had this really uncomfortable devotional in which he referenced both Martin Luther and John Bunyan, on the subject of the relationship between suffering and the Word of God. Martin Luther lists the 3 means by which we gain insight into and fresh light on the Scripture: by prayer, by meditation, and ….yup, through suffering. He states, – and we know it’s true, even if we only consider ourselves to have suffered in minor ways, – that it is through pain and in trial that the comfort of the Scripture comes to us in ways that are not possible any other way. John Bunyan, who languished in gaol for 16 years, while his family suffered terribly in his absence, goes so far as to say that He gained understanding and insight into the Word in ways that were only possible because of his terrible suffering. Whether because of relational brokenness, devastating loss, a painful betrayal or the struggle with our own flawed natures, our senses are sharpened by the acuteness of our pain, and the Word of God comes to life with new meaning and deep insights. Like a Lamp Post in a snowy wood, it is a light to our path. Like the first meal after childbirth, it explodes with taste and texture.

“This is my comfort in my affliction, that your promise gives me life”. Psalm 119:50 “It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes.” Psalm 119:71 “If your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction.” Psalm 119:92 “I am severely afflicted; give me life, O Lord, according to your Word.” Psalm 119:107

My personal favorite: ” I rejoice at your Word, like one who finds great spoil.” Psalm 119:162

Maintaining eye contact

As I read my Bible this morning, the Daily Light verses jumped out with a new perspective. The verse that particularly struck me was from Psalm 145: “The eyes of the Lord are upon those who fear Him, on those whose hope is in HIs unfailing love, to deliver them from death”. That led me to think of Psalm 121:1 “I will lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord “. So here is what was interesting to me – the one verse talks about the eyes of God, the other talks about our eyes. He is looking at us and we look back at Him in trust and confidence. That reminded me of Peter walking on the water. As long as he kept his eyes on Jesus he was fine. As soon as he looked at the wind and waves he started to sink. If we maintain eye contact with Jesus, as we walk through life, He holds us up and cause us to walk on water. Perfect peace reigns over our lives no matter what storm may rage around us.

So it’s up to us then to keep our eyes on Jesus and walk faithfully with Him…not exactly…..That would mean there was something we needed to, or could, contribute to a faithful walk with God. Scripture makes it clear that we are saved by grace, and there is nothing we can add to that, for fear that we would have something to boast about. But isn’t it up to us at least to keep looking to Him and not straying into unbelief or worse? God gives us His answer in Jer 36:39 “Iwill give them singleness of heart and action, so that they will always fear me and that all will then go well for them…and I will inspire them to fear me, so that they will never turn away from me.” The strength and even the desire to keep looking to Jesus comes from Him alone. As we pray for ourselves and our loved ones, we pray in the confidence that God has already promised to give us singleness of heart – that razor-sharp focus to keep looking to Him, maintaining eye contact, as He looks loving on us.

Rule-breakers and Score-keepers

Generalizations are of course vast over-simplifications. In that spirit, I like to divide the world into two categories, rule-keepers and rule-breakers. Rule-keepers are sticklers about showing up on time for work, giving and needing instructions down to the letter, and apologizing profusely for even the most minor failure to meet their own high standards…….They make great bureaucrats and pharmacists. They are not great at roundabouts; and recipes that call for ‘a dash’ of something, stress them out. Rule-breakers, on the other hand, believe that as long as the work gets done, they don’t really care about being 30 minutes late or working all night. It’s the product that matters. They believe all Stop signs should say “Yield”, and don’t really bother about recipes at all. They make great entrepreneurs and designers.

I have actually found this over-simplification helps me be much more patient with the folks on the other end of the spectrum from me. The world needs all of us, and the tension that we feel when we rub shoulders in close quarters with one another should remind us to value our different perspectives and celebrate that, together, we make the world a better place. Impatience and frustration point out the pride in our own hearts that insists that everyone should see the world the way I see it.

The one trait that we all share to some degree, whether rule-keeper or rule-breaker, is the tendency to be score-keepers. The recovering Pharisee in all of us keeps track of one another’s failure to meet our expectations. That’s why the disciples ask Jesus the ludicrous question: am I only obligated to forgive up to 7 times? I mean seriously, where are we keeping this log of offenses? Jesus’ response is to tell the powerful story of the man who has been forgiven a huge debt, and who then goes out and exacts his pound of flesh from someone else. We find the same self-righteous anger rising up in us as David did, when Nathan the prophet told him the story of the rich man who stole the poor man’s only sheep for a banquet. It’s so easy to see hypocrisy in someone else, but we feel so justified in our own unforgiving, demanding spirit. Our only hope is to burn our scorecards, and confess our pride so that we may extend to one another the love of God, which is patient and kind, is not self-seeking or easily angered, and keeps no record of wrongs. In my experience, this isn’t a once and done event. It’s becoming a way of life to seek clarity about my own prideful heart, which then fuels my willingness to forgive my neighbor.

Blameless

Psalm 18 is one of my favorite psalms. I have recently noticed that David sang this song at least twice: once when he was delivered from the hand of Saul, and once again later, when he was delivered from the hand of all his enemies. 2 Sam 22 is the parallel passage. One small difference that touched my heart was the inclusion of verse 1 in Psalm 18, which does not appear in 2 Sam 22: “I love you, O Lord, my strength”. With no explanation given, we are left to conjecture why David’s heart overflowed with this expression of love. All the answers point to the growing intimacy that David experiences with his Good Shepherd, as his life unfolds.

My point here, though, goes to the passage in the middle of the psalm that I have always found troubling. Does David have a short memory, is he that oblivious to his own failure; or what is going on? How can he truthfully say: “ I was blameless before Him and I kept myself from guilt. So the Lord has rewarded me for my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands.”? Seriously, David..what about Bathsheba and Uriah? The census? If God’s favor toward us is related to our performance, I for one am in a heap of trouble. Very puzzling. You know how you read and read a verse and then one day you really read it? Verses 31 & 32 jumped out at me this week: “Who is God, but the Lord. And who is a rock except our God? The God who equipped me with strength and made my way blameless”. David had such a grasp on the gospel. Hundreds of years beforehand, he foresaw that One stood ready to remove his transgressions as far as the east is from the west. He knew Him as One who does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. (Psalm 103) He ‘got’ that God made Him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

No explanations are given. We are left to conjecture how David understood the mystery of our sin being covered by the Perfect Sacrifice. We are left to treasure the same revelation – it is God who equips us with strength, because He has made our way blameless.

Mornings in February

There are days when I wake up ready to go back to bed again. Worse, there is a tape on loop in my head reminding me what a failure I am, how I seem to do nothing but frustrate people or let them down. In those moments, I can succumb to the accusations, wallow in feeling misunderstood and isolated, or I can (barely) look to Jesus and draw strength to turn from the darkness of half-truths, and towards the light of His truth. Just looking feels like it takes an enormous amount of energy, until I do. Sometimes I have to intentionally look and turn a few times, but soon the weight of hopelessness starts to slide off my back and a spark of light penetrates the darkness. The fog starts to lift, and my soul is cheered. Finding Scripture to cling to helps me greatly in ‘the looking’. This morning there were two verses: “Strengthen me according to your Word” Ps. 119:28 and “The Lord stood with me and strengthened me” II Tim 4:17. Instead of the weight of accusation, I find in these promises the encouragement of welcome and help. He doesn’t reproach us in or for our weakness. He embraces us in our need and offers us His grace, and His strength in exchange for our weakness.

Parallel Universe

I’ve been thinking a lot about David, and his refusal to lift his hand against the Lord’s anointed king, Saul. Was it fear of reprisal, passivity, or unbelief that God really meant for him to be king? If it were me, I would have tried to help God’s will come into being, especially when it appeared that circumstances delivered my enemy into my hand. But David was under orders from another Kingdom. He dared not take matters into his own hands, “but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly”. I Peter 2:23. He was hearing Voices that gave him the secret to this kind of self-control. “For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God.” I Peter 2:19-20 He endured and believed in the promises of God, believing that his job was to trust and honor God by respecting Saul. Our job is to trust and honor God by respecting the authorities he has placed in our lives, knowing that ” our Father who sees in secret will reward us.” Matt 6:4