Clenched Fist or Open Hand?

 

“If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?”

—the words of Jesus found in Luke 9:23-25

With a cleanched fist, perhaps the toddler held a penny tightly in his palm, or a piece to a puzzle, or a tiny animal from his barnyard play area. Any adult trying to get the toddler to release the dangerous-when-swallowed item knows the war of wills this entails.

We like to hold on to things, opinions, and plans that we have made, too. Although we don’t shout “MINE!” when confronted with the loss of such items, we feel it deep down. We want our own way. And, we clench our fists all the more when we get challenged to surrender what we hold tightly.

Jesus knew the struggle we have when He asks us to surrender control, and comfort, and those things that we think will make us happy. Yet, He wants us to look beyond what we can see—what we experience in the moment—so that we can get a look at the eternal things He has planned for us. God wants to give us so much. He wants to see us come to Him and humbly present our open hand, in order to receive what He wishes to give us. And, He wants us to extend that same open hand of love to others, so we may give them what we possess.

God knows the dangerous things we shouldn’t have in our possession. He knows that these dangerous things will take us down the wrong paths. He know that these dangerous things will try to take over the mastery of our time and energies. He sees what would happen if we were to “swallow” such things and own them. He knows they will bring us to our ruin.

During this Season of Lent, when others urge us to “give up” something, in order to deny ourselves some pleasure, we ought to focus our attention, not so much on the things that would fulfill the obligations we feel, but rather on those things God wants to take from us: the sins that so easily beset us, our unsurrendered wills, and the things that crowd Him out of our hearts.

Jim Elliot, the missionary to the Ecuadorian Huaorani people, who suffered martyrdom in 1956, famously said:

“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.”

Let us so live that we will not make God pry our fingers open, so we will release the dangerous things we hold onto so tightly. Instead, let’s freely open our hands and allow Him to take from us what He wishes to take, in order that He can give us all that He chooses to give us. If we do so, we will surely find the way to blessing!

 

 

Tools of the Trade

 

I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.

—Philippians 3:10

Dr. Helen Roseveare, a missionary physician and itinerant speaker of the mid-20th century, has written in her book, Digging Ditches, ¹ about the three tools that she believes serious followers of Christ need to use. She suggests Jesus used a yoke, a towel, and a cup to symbolize the work of Christ’s ministry, and our own.

In Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus invites us with these words:

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you shall find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

To most of us—a yoke—this heavy, clumsy object looks more like a mechanism of torture than something that will give us rest. In reading about yokes, I have learned that cattle wearing yokes spend a long time getting used to the idea of working alongside another cow, or even a farmhand.

From the Scripture verse above, it appears as though Jesus, too, wants us to spend time with Him, in order that we may learn how to conform more easily to the pressure of “wearing” this way of life. Quietly giving ourselves to Him enables us to submit fully to Christ and allows Him to share more than half the load, as He directs us in His pathway.

We read about Dr. Roseveare’s second tool of the trade—a towel— in John 13, during the Last Supper. Jesus took a towel to use in washing His disciples’ feet. He used this opportunity to teach His disciples about serving. In John 13:14, Jesus said:

Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.

This second tool serves a most practical need. Dirty, smelly feet needed cleaning before a person reclines to begin eating a meal. Jesus saw the need and got to it. He never thought about this as below His dignity as the Son of God. Nor, did Jesus see this task as demeaning in any way. He put the towel around His waist, got down on His knees, and served the men in attendance by carefully, lovingly, and thoroughly washing their feet. Jesus wants us also to serve without counting the cost. He looks for servants who see a job that needs doing and who will get to work doing it.

The third tool—a cup—suggests true suffering as Christ did. During the last meal, He “took a cup.” After He gave thanks, Jesus explained to His friends that the cup represented the blood of the covenant given for them. They must have assumed this cup indicated fellowship with Him. “How wonderful!” they must have thought to themselves. Yet, as recorded in Mark 14:36, a few hours later in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed:

Father, everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.

This cup Jesus took did not represent fellowship. Instead, it represented the terrifying cup of suffering, as He bore our sins in our place on the cross. Yet, Dr. Roseveare explains in her book, these “cups” are one and the same.

The Apostle Paul obviously understood this truth when he wrote of desiring the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings (see Philippians 3:10), as quoted at the beginning of this blog post. In this statement, we find the true heart of the gospel: for others to feel, as Christ feels, for the lost in our world and to suffer with them and for their sake.

How do we respond to the use of these three tools? Have we taken them up? Or, have we set them aside and allowed them to rust, or rot, while we go about our selfish way? We should all take a look at our hearts and compare them to Jesus’ examples for us. May He teach us to use the tools He grants us, that we may become united in fellowship with Him.

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1 Roseveare, Helen. Digging Ditches. Ross-shire, Scotland UK: Christian Focus Publications, 2005. Amazon Kindle eBook location 1870-1901. 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.

 

 

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.