Worth Repeating - May 31, 2017

Proverbs 14: 10 Each heart knows its own bitterness, and no one else can share its joy.

Grief is an individual journey.*

Our inside is a lonely place. While I may have been through the exact experience you are having right now, I cannot share your exact feelings. I may be able to relate to your pain or your joy, but I don’t have the rest of your life experience in common with you so I don’t know “exactly how you feel.” I only know exactly how I feel. Except sometimes I don’t even know that!

In I Corinthians 2: 11 we read, “For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him?” Don’t we know the answer to that? God knows our thoughts and feels our pain. I am unceasingly amazed that the Creator and Organizer of the Universe cares about my feelings. Even when I am shallow and petty, he cares enough to point it out to me and help me get over it.  When I take delight in something that I know that no one else will “get,” God gets it. He shares my joy – even when it’s silly.

The old song says, “Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen.” I might add a verse that says, “Nobody knows the joy I’ve seen, either.” Except my Heavenly Father.

Something there is in every sorrow, and in every joy, which no one else can share.*

Worth Repeating - May 30, 2017

Psalm 121: 3, 4 He who watches over you will not slumber . . . he . . . will neither slumber nor sleep.

Watch for God’s provision and testify to his care.*

We need sleep. God made us that way. I can testify to the effects of not-enough-sleep on the human body. From trying to stay awake in class after an all-nighter; to falling asleep at the wheel and waking up in the next lane; to getting up in the night to take care of newborn twins and waking up in my bed with no recollection of how I got there or what I had done with my babies.

God, on the other hand, doesn’t need sleep and doesn’t do it. He is always on the job. We never have to guess when would be a good time to get in contact with him; we don’t have to worry that we’ll wake him. It’s always the right time.

 

And it’s a good thing that we can rest under his ever-watchful care; that we are benefactors of his “sleepless vigilance,”* because our enemy never sleeps either. The only time Satan takes a break from trying to ambush us is when he knows we’re already his. We aren’t guaranteed that we will never experience physical harm, but we can claim the promise of God’s ever-present help in our spiritual battles.

As we are living out our lives on earth, the supernatural universe is simultaneously at war.*

Worth Repeating - May 29, 2017

Psalm 147: 3 He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.

No profound healing can come apart from God.*

I’ve had my heart broken a few times. My childhood best friend decided she didn’t want to be friends anymore; my fiancé changed his mind about wanting to marry me; my first marriage failed; after 25 years, I lost the job I loved; my dad died. I don’t mean to down-play the gravity of my experiences; each one was painful for me, but, seriously, I have only read about real suffering.  

In this moment, in these words, the psalmist has validated my pain by reminding me that God hurts when I hurt. Even if I am crushed by something as inconsequential as being stood up by friends, God cares. The voice in my head that says, “You don’t have any right to be hurt over that!” is not God’s voice.

I am not making a case for shallow, petty pouting. When I am hurt by the thoughtlessness of others, I know that God will comfort me and help me to rise above it so that I don’t wallow in my self-pity. When real heartbreak comes, I can count on my heavenly Father to let me cry on his shoulder and provide me with supernatural consolation. When God heals our broken hearts and binds up our wounds, he doesn’t leave us scarred. He makes us stronger.

Jesus knows how you feel.*

Worth Repeating - May 28, 2017

Psalm 4: 8 I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.

They slumber sweetly whom faith rocks to sleep.*

One night during my freshman year in college, my friends in the dorm and I were preparing to study for a BIG test the next day. My roommate and I decided to play a joke on our friend Sherry. We got all ready for bed, got in our beds, and turned out the lights. When Sherry came to our room to study with us, she went a little berserk. “What are you doing?  You can’t go to sleep!  We have to study!” she screeched.

I imagine that David’s friends reacted the same way to his ability to “turn out the lights” and sleep so peacefully. “How can you sleep at a time like this? Your enemies aren’t sleeping!” David isn’t telling us that he has found the cure for insomnia but that his confidence in God is like a lullaby. He can rest because he has found peace with his conscience, peace with God, and the security of God’s presence.

 

There is more to peace than absence of war. There is more to safety than being protected from harm.  The world’s finest security system and all the world’s wealth cannot provide the sanctuary to be found by a soul who trusts in the Lord.

The secret is Christ in me, not me in a different set of circumstances.*

Worth Repeating - May 27, 2017

Psalm 55: 22 Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall.

Whatever your . . . challenges, you need only to ask the One whose resources are unlimited.*

First Peter 5: 7 conveys a similar message: “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”  There is a slight distinction between the anxieties in Peter’s letter and the cares in David’s psalm.  Anxieties may come and go, but the word used in the psalm literally means “what is given,” or “lot” or “portion.” These cares are our daily burdens – the things that are such a part of our lives that we get used to carrying them. Maybe we don’t think of them as burdens – like raising our children or caring for our homes - they are just “what we do.”

David’s words are beautiful because they tell us that God wants to be a part of our everyday lives. There are people who manage to get through life without seeking God’s help but God wants to help us. He wants to share the load so it is lighter for us. The verse goes on to say that he will sustain, or “He will make you sufficient for it.”* Not only does he want to help us carry our burdens, he promises to supply us with the strength and the resources to do what we have to do.

Finally, David tells us that God will never let the righteous fall, or “never permit the righteous to be moved.” David doesn’t promise that God will give us immediate relief from our troubles, nor does he imply that God will remove them. But how comforting to know that he is eager to be the source of strength for the cares of life if we will let him!

He simply wants to be in charge, which relieves me of the great burden of trying to fix everything.*

Worth Repeating - May 26, 2017

Job 42: 10 After Job prayed for his friends, the Lord made him prosperous again and gave him twice as much as he had before.

What God withholds or denies he repays and restores in ways his servants cannot begin to imagine.*

We should understand that this verse just lists the order of events, not cause and effect. It’s not a promise that we will get rich if we pray for our friends; but to have good friends is to already possess a type of riches, and praying for them produces its own kind of wealth. It is an honor to have friends and to pray for them.

If your relationships are like mine, you have an eclectic collection of friends: people I have known all my life; people I have just met; people that I love to spend time with and people that make me wonder, “Why in the world am I friends with this person?” Job’s friends sound like they may belong in that last category! Remember how trying and annoying they were? But they stuck by him and he prayed for them anyway. And because Job was merciful, God showed mercy to him.

  

Sometimes you don’t pick your friends – sometimes they pick you. And sometimes, perhaps, God has arranged the whole thing for the benefit of one of you – or both of you. Like Job, “we don’t have to approve of someone’s negative behavior or attitude, but we can try to understand it and deal with it appropriately.”*

Praying for someone is always appropriate behavior. Praying for our friends may not make us win the lottery but God will prosper us in unexpected ways.

We are really doing our business when we are praying for our friends.*

Worth Repeating - May 25, 2017

II Samuel 24: 24 “I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.”

He who has a religion that costs him nothing, has a religion that is worth nothing.*

David wanted to buy Araunah’s threshing floor so he could build an altar on which to offer sacrifices to God. Araunah wanted to donate it to him, but David insisted on paying for it. If Araunah’s offer had been accepted, it would have been his sacrifice, not David’s. It was David who had sinned, therefore it was David who must offer the sacrifice and at his own expense.*

We begin to see in this story why David was called a man after God’s own heart. We think of David as a big sinner because he committed some of the “big” sins and because his position made his sins more public. But for David, repentance was more than just being sorry that he got caught in sin. It was more than just doing and saying the right things. It was more than being “good enough.” For most people, it would have been enough to offer a sacrifice on some altar somewhere. That would have been enough to fulfill the requirements of the law. David’s devotion to God went much deeper than rituals and the law.

I know people who give and give of their time and their limited financial resources. They love the Lord and they love his people. To them, what they do is not sacrifice because they know they can’t out-give God. But for many of us, it is enough to “thank God for our blessings . . . throw some surplus God’s direction before doing what we please with the rest, to cover our greed with a generosity that does not require sacrifice.”* The ability to write a bigger check than someone else doesn’t make us a more generous or more sacrificial giver.

What does your religion cost you?

He doesn’t look at just what we give. He also looks at what we keep.*

Worth Repeating - May 24, 2017

Mark 16: 7 “But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’”

Your past doesn’t have to be a picture of your future.*

When I was in high school, one of my teachers used to say, “You people – and Connie – be quiet.” There are times when it’s not so nice to be singled out! Peter knew what that felt like. Matthew’s version of the event described in this passage doesn’t make any special mention of Peter, but Mark thought it was important to include this little detail. And while the other disciples had also abandoned Jesus when things got ugly, Peter’s denial scene got “special” recognition. Perhaps the angel’s referral to Peter in this verse was meant to reassure him that he had been forgiven for his earlier public denial of Jesus; but I think there’s more to it – after all, Peter wasn’t the only disciple in need of forgiveness or reassurance so why single him out?

What is special/significant about Peter? I think Jesus was establishing Peter’s credentials as the leader of the band, putting in motion the transition plan to be implemented when he left. Peter had blundered and stumbled and, being the public figure that he was, everyone knew it. Natural leadership skills aside, without Jesus’ unmistakable blessing, Peter would have had trouble getting anyone to listen to him. It is not necessary for servants of God to be smooth and eloquent, only that they have the Savior’s seal of approval. The message is the star, not the messenger.

He sees beyond what we are to what we can become, beyond our sins to the service we can offer.*

Worth Repeating - May 23, 2017

Matthew 26: 69, 70 Now Peter was sitting out in the courtyard, and a servant girl came to him. “You were with Jesus of Galilee,” she said. But he denied it before them all. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said.

Human limitations need not only be sources of shame; they can also be avenues for grace.*

Perhaps you have never denied Jesus in such a blatant manner as Peter did that night. We have probably never come right out and said the words, “I’m not with him.” We know, though, that our actions speak for themselves. I am sure that we have felt shame, repented, and prayed for strength to avoid a repeat performance.

There is another way that we can proactively proclaim that we are with Jesus. In I Corinthians chapter 11, Paul tells us that when we partake of the emblems of the Lord’s Supper, we are proclaiming the Lord’s death. In other words, we are announcing our allegiance to him. We are with him - the opposite of Peter’s actions.

In my church, we offer the Lord’s Supper every Sunday. Some denominations offer it less often, claiming concern that it could become routine; they wish to keep it fresh and special. And it should always be treated with respect – as Paul goes on to say: if we aren’t recognizing it as the body and blood of the Lord, we are bringing judgment on ourselves. It is a matter between me and God as to whether I participate each week, but I am thankful that I am presented with the weekly opportunity to show that I am with Jesus. Even if in the past six days I have not been so obviously with him, on Sunday I can take a moment to reflect and repent before refreshing my commitment to live for him in the week ahead.

As someone has observed about Peter’s failure that night, he “went out and wept bitterly, but then he came back and lived differently.”* That’s not a bad example for his fellow-deniers to follow.

Some people say it’s possible to have the Lord’s Supper too often. They say it will become meaningless and ritualistic if we overdo it. Doesn’t that sound suspiciously like something the one who hates Communion would want us to believe?*

Worth Repeating - May 22, 2017

Titus 3: 10 Warn a divisive person once, and then warn him a second time. After that, have nothing to do with him.

Though it is unpleasant for the moment, discipline has in view the joyful outcome of the habitual practice of holiness.*

I like how one commentator facetiously answered the question of what to do with the divisive person: “Burn him alive?”* We in the church are “notoriously poor at confronting.”* We are prone to extremes – from tolerating everything to charging the castle with our torches and pitchforks. Thankfully, Paul offers an alternative wherein we confront without bloodshed – and presents no loopholes allowing us to avoid it.

Paul is not authorizing any random member of the congregation to conduct church discipline; this is a public matter to be addressed by the church leadership.* It is up to the elders to determine that there is a heretic in their midst and to issue the prerequisite warnings. After the individual has been given an opportunity to explain himself and to repent,* our responsibility as church members kicks in. At this point, God has given no man – church member or elder – “any other authority over him but to shun him.”*

  

What does it mean for us to have nothing to do with this person? Well, it doesn’t give us license to harm him – in any way – and that includes gossiping about him. It means that we are to “hold no communion with him; but leave him to God.”* While “shunning” is not formally practiced in the Christian church, it is a scripturally sound and viable method of bringing about restoration. Should we let someone divide the church just because we’re reluctant to hurt his feelings?

If we build our foundation on our own authority, ultimately we have no solution for resolving conflict except “might makes right.”*