Watching or Sleeping?

 

“Are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour? Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.”

—Mark 14:37-38

As the time of His crucifixion drew near, Jesus knew the terror that lay ahead for Himself. He needed His closest friends to stand with Him. He needed them to watch over Him and pray with Him for the strength that only God could give.

Yet the disciples, while they had heard Jesus speak of the danger coming, never really took it to heart. They never comprehended the suffering that Jesus would have to endure, as He gave His life on the cruel Roman cross of torture to pay the penalty for our sins. Yes, Peter made bold promises about his loyalty to Jesus. But, when it really came time to show up and stand firmly at Jesus’ side, Peter failed.

Over and over in the verses of Scripture, Jesus has warned us, too, of the days to come. These days will not be days of ease, but of deep trouble. He has said that bad times will come upon the world before He returns to earth for the second time.

Sadly as Christians, we largely follow the direction of the culture in which we live. We watch awhile for Christ’s return and feign interest in and devotion to Him. But then, like the rest of the society in which we live, we fall asleep. Rather than standing guard over our lives, warning others, and preparing for Christ’s appearance, we go about our daily lives seemingly blind to what is happening around us.

In a Lenten Devotional, Biola University Emeritus Professor of Art, Barry Krammes, likens the Western Church to a cruise ship, where professionals entertain those on board and meet their every desire, rather than to a battleship engaged in prayer and spiritual warfare. He writes: ¹

These days I often feel like a drowsy disciple, or a virgin without any oil, sleepwalking through thick fog—trying to make sense of what’s happening around me. Yet, in moments of clarity I realize that now is the time to wake up and put my house in order. Hebrews 12:1-2 admonishes us:

“Stripping off every unnecessary weight and the sin which so easily and cleverly entangles us, let us run with endurance and active persistence the race that is set before us, [looking away from all that will distract us and] focusing our eyes on Jesus, who is the Author and Perfecter of faith.”

At the beginning of His ministry, when Jesus fasted in the desert for 40 days, He engaged in spiritual warfare. Near the end of His life, when He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, He also engaged in spiritual warfare. In like manner, Jesus has given us the task of preparing ourselves for the days ahead by engaging our minds and hearts and churches in the warfare battle against evil in our world. He has made it clear that He does not want us falling asleep.

If Jesus returned to earth today, would He find us watching, praying, and then moving out onto the field of spiritual battle? Or, would Jesus find us asleep and unaware of the dangers, behaving more like His twelve disciples behaved in the Garden of Gethsemane?

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1 Krammes, Barry. The Lent Project—Online Devotional: “The Spirit is Willing, but the Flesh is Weak.” La Mirada, California: Biola University, Center for Christianity, Culture and the Arts, February 27, 2021. Please note that, in each case, whenever citation of any Copyrighted material is made within a post on this blog, such citation is made strictly for Educational Fair Use illustration purposes only. All Rights Reserved by the original Copyright Holder.

 

 

Potholes

 

Prepare the way for the Lord …

—from Mark 1:3

“Wow!! Ouch!! I didn’t see that coming!”

That’s how most of us respond when we hit a pothole. Drive most any route these days, with your mind in reverie, and you will find that the announcement of the pending change of seasons from winter to spring often comes with the harbinger of potholes. The harder the winter, the more potholes scatter themselves along the surface of the roadways. The potholes lie in wait to catch unsuspecting drivers and shake them up, or even damage the suspension of their vehicles.

During this same period, the “Church Year” announces the upcoming Easter season with the harbinger known as the Season of Lent, beginning on Ash Wednesday. Both potholes and Lent bring a time for preparation and repair. And, both should cause us to slow down, watch with care, and check what we are doing.

In Scripture we read of John the Baptist, the messenger, calling out in Mark 1:3:

“Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for Him.”

And, we read of the woman at Bethany anointing Jesus’ head with perfume and Jesus explaining in Mark 14:8:

“She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial.”

Reading these two verses should prompt us to ask:

“What kind of spiritual preparations and repairs do we need to consider for our own spiritual lives during this Season of Lent?”

First of all, we need to pay attention. Just as a driver needs to watch carefully and do everything possible to avoid the cavernous pothole pits, so we need to slow down, spend time before the Lord looking for the spiritual “potholes” that may have formed in the pathway of our lives over the long period of winter sleep. The Season of Lent gives us a logical time period to achieve these daily inspections and to plan appropriate repairs.

Please allow me to suggest that we learn to write our prayers of inspection in a journal or notebook during these 40 days. This will allow us to take the time to more carefully examine our lives, to recount what that examination has disclosed, and to repent of those things that have made “potholes” in our walk with God.

In preparing for this time of self-examination, let me also suggest that we read Psalm 32 and Psalm 51. These two Psalms provide fruitful places to begin the process of our Lenten self-examination.

Once we find the spiritual potholes that have scarred the pathway of our lives, we want to repair those holes in a way that will last. A spiritual pothole filled in with a temporary spiritual cold-patch may last only a day or two. The traffic of our lives will loosen the patch. Before long, the pothole will open up again and maybe become even deepen.

In repairing our sin-damaged lives, let’s learn to fill in the spiritual potholes with new ways of thinking, speaking, and acting. These new ways will prepare us to travel with the Lord in whatever direction He leads along a smoother, more stable pathway for our lives. These new ways will fill up our spiritual potholes in a way that will last for the long run.

New habits that not only patch old craters, but also strengthen us against the formation new spiritual potholes, will take time. When we slow down and listen to what God says to us through His written Word, He may instruct us to set aside time daily to meet with Him. Or, He may encourage us to continue writing our thoughts and prayers in a journal or notebook. Or, He may ask us to take on a new project that will benefit others in the name of Christ.

Sin creates the spiritual potholes in the first place. When we repent of those sins, we move forward on a new pathway and repair the scars along the old ways that we’ve traveled. Some deeper chasms may require confession, repentance, and restitution—not only to God, but to others as well. This kind of more intentional repair will bring lasting benefits to our relationships. God wants to restore us to new pathways, and strengthen us to walk more closely with Him.

During this Season of Lent, let’s determine to slow down, examine our lives, choose to fix the spiritual potholes in our lives, and mend them so strongly that we will prepare the road ahead for travel with Christ, day by day.

 

 

Fix Our Eyes

 

“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.”

—Hebrews 12:2

“… God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’ So we say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.’”

—Hebrews 13:6

The word “fear” occurs more than 300 times in the Bible. That tells me that this human emotion presents itself to us, even Christians, with some frequency. But how do we live with such a domineering character as “fear,” who seemingly vies to crush our joy and shipwreck our daily walk with God?

Some of us quite naturally have more trouble with fear than others. The Enemy of our souls will constantly throw us into terror, and even rule us, through his use of this terrible emotion.

In Hannah Hurnard’s classic allegory Hinds’ Feet on High Places, ¹ the main character has the name, “Much-Afraid,” and comes from a family of “Fearing” relatives, including a cousin who constantly dogged her steps: “Craven Fear.”

This theme also appears in another allegory, the journey of Christian in John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress. ²

Christian sets out on his pilgrimage from the “City of Destruction” to the “Celestial City.” Soon it becomes dark and he is led to the “Hill of Difficulty” on which sits a “Porter’s Lodge” for the purpose of refreshing pilgrims on their way.

However, as Christian trudges upward, he sees two lions in the way. Struck with fear, he stops. As the Porter from the Lodge watches him, it appears Christian will turn and retreat.

The Porter calls out to him:

“Is thy strength so small? Fear not the Lions, for they are chained, and are placed there for trial of faith where it is, and for discovery of those that have none. Keep in the midst of the Path, and no hurt shall come unto thee.”

The comfort of hearing the Porter’s voice, and the assurance of safety, gives Christian the focus he needs to keep on the path and to overcome his fear.

In like manner, when we find ourselves in the midst of trouble—when we see nothing but danger all around—we need the comfort of hearing our Savior’s voice, telling us to put aside fear and not be afraid.

God, our God, remains Sovereign over all things. And, He has vowed to care for us and watch us all our journey through. How can we stay on the path without fainting? By remembering His words to us from the Scriptures, including those verses at the beginning of this blog post.

Whenever we go through a terrifying time in our lives, or if we just have constantly recurring fears, we must learn to keep the written Word of God close by. We should memorize Scripture verses that give us courage and confidence. And, we must keep our eyes focused on Jesus. He watches us, just as the friendly Porter watched Christian. God will guide us to a place of safety and security with Him. Let us keep on the path, for the lions are already chained!

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1 Hurnard, Hannah B. Hinds’ Feet on High Places: A Daily Devotional for Women. Shippensburgh, PA: Destiny Image Publishers, 2013. Please note: in each case, whenever citation of any Copyrighted material is made within a post on this blog, such citation is made strictly for Educational Fair Use illustration purposes only. All Rights are Reserved by the original Copyright Holder.

2  Bunyan, John. The Pilgrim’s Progress. As found in The Harvard Classics, Vol. 15 pg.49. Please note that The Harvard Classics, edited by Charles W. Eliot and originally published by P. F. Collier & Son between 1909 and 1910, is currently in the Public Domain in the United States. In each case, whenever citation of any previously Copyrighted material—but that is now considered in the Public Domain—is made within a post on this blog, such citation is made strictly for Educational Fair Use illustration purposes only. Even though this material is considered to be in the Public Domain, if any claim is made against the use of this material, we state that: All Rights are Reserved by the original Copyright Holder.

 

 

Hope for the "Upside-Down"

 

I say, “My splendor is gone and all that I had hoped from the Lord.”

—Lamentations 3:18

Suppose you thought that the answer to your happiness came from standing on your head. You had watched other people who could accomplish this feat and saw how happy they seemed, so you tried it and—WOW!—it stuck. You now felt you had truly found the way to look at life, and standing on your head became the key to your happiness.

Now this sounds absurd to us. But, I believe we all have dreams of wonderful things. We even even pray and expect the Lord to fulfill our wishes. We feel the real key to our happiness comes from hoping that He will bring whatever we seek into our lives in the exact manner we think He should.

Perhaps a career path we saw as the ultimate goal for our life looked possible. We had prepared for it, we had prayed for it, we had worked hard to achieve it. Yet, just when we hoped that God would fulfill our dream, it was taken from us.

Or perhaps, we had looked forward to purchasing that beautiful house on the corner of our street. We had prayed and hoped that the Lord would provide that house for us. But, when it came time to buy it, someone else actually offered more money, bought it before we could add to our own offer, and moved into what would have been our ideal residence. Our dreams were shattered.

When we lose hope, we often end up in despair. In our Scripture passage at the beginning of this devotional blog post from Lamentations 3, we see that Jeremiah had great hope for himself and for God’s people. He had hope that God would work to bring the kind of splendor and blessing to the Holy City of Jerusalem that he felt was within reach. However, that hope had been shattered.

In Lamentations 3:18-26, we find Jeremiah remembering the affliction, the wandering, and the bitterness he had experienced while praying and preaching to God’s people. In his remembering and despair, he meditated on his dreams. But, and most importantly, Jeremiah also meditated on his God. Once his attention shifted and he was able to look at things “right-side-up,” everything changed. Note in verse 25 what the Prophet Jeremiah wrote:

The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him.

Do you see the one word that has changed from the verse that appears at the beginning of this devotional blog post? Jeremiah goes from “upside-down”—hoping from God, to “right-side-up”—hoping in God.

This one shift in Jeremiah’s focus changes everything. Instead of hoping for something Jeremiah thought would please him and answer the troubles he had, he decided to hope in God and trust that God would bring to pass the best results for both himself and for God’s people. It was all a matter of trusting God and submitting to God’s will, taking place over Jeremiah’s selfish will.

Sometimes this kind of change in thinking for us takes time, struggle, faith, and waiting, as this passage also relates. But then again, sometimes this kind of change in thinking just takes a change in our attitude, a change to a new perspective—a change to “right-side-up thinking!”

 

 

Stone Soup

 

The Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A staff.”

—Exodus 4:2

During one year of my public-school teaching, I had my third graders put on a musical play based on the legend of Stone Soup. For hundreds of years, this old story has been told in various cultures and in various renditions:

In our particular play, three soldiers returning from war stumbled into a village they had visited before the war, where they had found the villagers happy, generous, and welcoming. But now, the people of this village suffered from poverty and heartless selfishness brought on by the war, and these people had no food or lodging to share with the soldiers.

Through a stroke of creative thinking, one of the soldiers asked the villagers for a stone. The soldier told the people that with the stone he would make them a very special soup. Following the soldier’s instruction, the puzzled villagers filled a caldron with water, placed the stone in the caldron, and set the caldron on a fire. Once the “soup” was hot, the soldiers asked the villagers to taste it.

One of the villagers tasted the stone soup and decided it needed an onion. That villager went quickly home, brought back an onion, and quickly put it into the soup. Another villager tasted the soup and decided it would taste much better if it had a carrot. That villager went quickly home and brought back a carrot, which he put into the soup. Still another villager tasted the soup and declared that the soup needed some herbs. So, that villager went quickly home, brought back some herbs, and she quickly put the herbs into the soup.

One by one, the villagers tasted the soup, then rushed home only to return and then add various ingredients that they felt the soup needed. Their individual efforts all merged and produced a succulent broth that became a meal for everyone present. They ate, shared this tasty soup with the soldiers, sang, and spent the day rejoicing, which brought back to their small town the happiness it had once known.

This ancient Stone Soup story teaches a valuable moral. When people each give a portion of what they have, all of them can then enjoy a magnificent supply of wonderful things.

In Scripture, we read of several places where God asked people to give what they had, even from the depth of their poverty. As a result, God used what they willingly gave with miraculous results.

1 Kings 17:7-17 provides an account of a widow in Zarephath, whom God sent Elijah to visit when he, too, needed food. The widow, obedient to Elijah’s request for bread, had only a handful of flour and a little oil, but she took those items, made bread, and gave it to feed Elijah because she believed he spoke to her about the true God. This Bible account goes on to tell how, after she obeyed, that no matter how much flour or oil she needed, the jar of flour was not used up, nor the jug of oil diminished. She had every bit of flour and oil that she needed to feed herself and her household for many days.

Similarly in the New Testament story of the Marriage at Cana from John 2:1-11, Jesus showed His power to spare the bridegroom great embarrassment by turning six stone jars of water into delicious wine. In this story, we see the point of Jesus performing this miracle when, in John 2:11, the Scripture states:

He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him.

Remember the boy who came to listen to Jesus with the five thousand others? Jesus saw that these people, too, needed food with no supply. This story, recorded in John 6:1-14, shows us again how His miracle of taking the boy’s five small loaves and two small fish, blessing this paltry bit of food, and then feeding the multitude with many baskets of food left over gave witness to His power among the people.

In these three Bible stories, we find the same happy ingredients:

• A known and expressed need.
  
  
• A willing and obedient servant.
  
  
• God wanting to reveal Himself to His people.
  
  

The bottom line result for all these accounts, as in the ancient story of Stone Soup, was gladness and rejoicing.

Most of us have experienced a poverty of some kind, whether spiritual, financial, emotional, or physical. Sometimes, God asks of us the last bit of strength we have, so that He can make it into a glowing example of His power and grace. At other times, He may ask us to provide a service for which we do not naturally feel suited. Still other times, He may ask us to give to Him from our nearly exhausted resources, in order to accomplish His purposes.

God wants us all to render praise to Him and experience the joy that comes from obediently giving Him all that we have. Oftentimes, such an action on our part allows others to rejoice in God’s goodness to us, and we’re as happy as though we discovered the secret recipe to Stone Soup.

 

 

God's Omniscient Journal

 

All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

—Psalm 139:16

Both of my grandmothers kept diaries. My mom also kept a diary. I keep one, as well, but I call mine a journal. I find quite interesting the styles and the myriad of ways that people write down what has happened in their lives.

My one grandmother used a pencil to write in tiny bank books. Usually, she merely wrote just one line a day:

“M and G came from Cleveland today.”

She included no details. Just the facts. It was as if she had taken lessons from the character Jack Webb, who appeared on the long-ago TV show “Dragnet.”

My mom’s diaries had similar entries. But with each entry, like any good farm wife of her day, she always recorded the weather.

Each day, my other grandmother wrote many paragraphs of newsy information about the family and the neighbors. She wrote using the most beautiful penmanship, with a lovely script handwriting.

None of these women forerunners of mine ever wrote about their feelings. They also never wrote about the spiritual lessons they’d learned, or anything deeply personal.

My own journal writing has changed over the years. At first, my journals carried only Scripture passages and spiritual lessons that I had learned. Now, my journal entries are a combination of those spiritual meditations, my feelings about them, a running day-to-day recording of activities, and once in a while, even comments about the weather.

All this, by way of introduction, to say that God keeps a journal on us, too. God’s journal about us is an “omniscient journal.”

Studying the nature of God, at least to the extent that He has revealed His nature to us in the pages of His written Word, we learn that God has written odd and magnificent things in His journal about our days before they have taken place. No human that I know has such an ability. Yes, we do make plans. But, as the Scripture tells us in Proverbs 19:21:

Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.

Even more than having written the activities of each day ahead of time, God has written our feelings about Him, our feelings about life, and our feelings about those things He has brought about to draw us closer to Him. He records our trials, our joys, our thoughts, our dreams, and our physical ailments. He knows more about us before our actual days happen than we know about ourselves after those days happen.

Can you record, in advance, how God brought about that meeting with someone who needed your word of encouragement? Can you record, in advance, the blessing you gave to someone whom you never saw again? Of course not. I repeat: God knows more about us before our actual days happen than we know about ourselves after those days happen.

What does this fact cause us to do? First of all, I believe that it should cause us to joyfully worship Him, acknowledging His power, love, and omniscience. Like the Samaritan woman at the well, who exclaimed in John 4:29:

“Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?”

Then, knowing what we now understand about God’s foreknowledge of us, we should find this fact comforting, as we look at days before they occur and wonder what will ever happen to us in this situation, or in that one. God already knows what will happen. He knows how He will help get us through that situation. And, He knows the reasons He has for allowing everything to occur in our lives the way that they do.

As we continue to move through each day in our lives, may the wonderful knowledge of God’s omniscience cause us to trust His awesome love and power. Knowing that God sees what will happen to us before it even occurs should give us a sense of “peace that passes all understanding.”

 

 

Contract or Covenant?

 

This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.

—Hebrews 8:10

God doesn’t do contracts. A contract, according to Webster’s Dictionary, is created by both parties and signed as a legally binding agreement. Most often, love has nothing to do with a contract document. In fact generally speaking, people enter such contracts in order to prevent the other party from taking advantage of them.

God made a divine covenant with His dearly loved children in the Garden of Eden. He made Adam, and Adam’s race, care-givers of God’s new creation. Later, as a result of sin, God made another covenant with humankind. Throughout the Old Testament, God often visited His chosen and dearly loved people with covenants of one kind or another.

Humans have made covenants with each other, too. In her study of King David in 1 Samuel 18, Beth Moore shows how the relationship between Jonathan and David gives us a perfect picture of God’s new covenant with us. She points out that a Godly covenant has three parts: ¹

1. A sign.
   
   
2. A sacrifice.
   
   
3. A spoken commitment.
   
   

In the case of Jonathan making a covenant with David, Jonathan signaled his covenant by giving David his robe, his tunic, his sword, his bow, and his belt. Jonathan sacrificed to David the very throne to which Jonathan would normally have been entitled, as the son of then King Saul. And, Jonathan spoke his commitment in 1 Samuel 20:13:

If my father is inclined to harm you, may the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if I do not let you know and send you away safely. May the Lord be with you as he has been with my father.

Like God’s new covenant with us—through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, based on God’s love for us—the foundation for Jonathan’s covenant with David was based on his deep brotherly love for David. What a perfect picture of God’s covenant with us.

Beth Moore also points out that the covenant between Jonathan and David was not based on David’s love for Jonathan, but the other way around. The evidence of love always flows from the one who initiated the covenant. ²

So it is with the covenant God has made with us through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. The evidence of God’s love for us flows to us through His covenant with us. This divine covenant cannot hold together by relying on our poor and imperfect love for God. The glue in this covenant comes to us because of God’s unfailing, undying, and eternal love for us.

God’s love for us, His covenantal love, should inspire us and move us ever closer to Him. We should faithfully and gratefully serve and love our God in response to His faithfulness shown to us through His covenant with us.

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1 Moore, Beth. Portraits of Devotion. Nashville, Tennessee: B&H Publishing Company, 2014. Pp. 29-30. Please note that, in each case, whenever the citation of any Copyrighted material is made within a post on this blog, such citation is made strictly for Educational Fair Use illustration purposes only. All Rights Reserved by the original Copyright Holder.

2 Ibid.