Let God's Grace Inform You in Your Fears

Common to the human experience is the reality of fear.  We are all prone to fear at various stages of the journey.  It is fear that a child experiences when separated from his mom in a grocery store.   It is fear that a husband feels in his heart for his wife who is a few hours late getting home and she isn't answering her phone.  It is fear that runs through every one of us when something unknown that feels bigger than us, something that could threaten us in any of a number of ways.  We all understand fear, it is all too common in our everyday lives.  Nobody had to teach it to us, we simply understand the reality of fear as it is upon us.

David, the psalmist, the great King of Israel knew fear all too well.  Not fully aware the context behind why he wrote Psalm 56, but we learn there are people in pursuit of him, attackers, enemies (the superscript helps inform a bit).  They are apparently after him with intent to take his life.  That is real reason for real fear.  And we are certain all of it added up to fear in his life, because David says, "When I am afraid"(v3).  So even for a man like this who loved the Lord, believed in the Lord, walked in His ways, even the great David is still prone to fear.  

And you can feel the undesirable nature of it all.  He speaks of his "tossings" maybe in relation to his sleeplessness (which may otherwise be interpreted "wanderings" possibly speaking of his journeying about in hope of escaping his pursuers).  And he speaks further of the "tears" he has cried.  The emotion inside of us something proves so great that it is felt in what comes out of us.  And sometimes our words don't even do a service to how great the fear inside of us really is, at which point our bodies join in the expression of how great our fear is with tears.  This was David's reality, and it has been our reality too at times.  

And yet, this is no place for those who know God to remain.  David proves this even by his response in v3-4a.  "When I am afraid, I put my trust in You.  In God, whose word I praise."  We rarely look at the benefits of fear, but this is revealing it.  If anything is able to bring us close to God, bring us in to more trust (faith) in Him, it is good.  After all, we please God by the faith we have in Him (Heb. 11:6).  So then, God in his grace is informing us here of this glorious reality.  Fear, when used rightly, is nothing more than the expedited path to God. 

Of course we have skipped right over a reality that is true, but one we take for granted.  Why is it God can be trusted?  What do we know about God that he is able, and willing to help, knowledgeable about what is best such that we should trust Him in the first place?  To which David so appropriately reminds us, it is because of His "word."  What God has generously revealed about Himself throughout His Word gives us all we need to know about why we can and should trust Him.  Again, His grace is informing us here, even in our fear and because of our fear.  Used rightly, fear is a tool to help us get to Him, the God who is able and accessible.

Grace informs further, not only that God can be trusted, but more of why He is to be trusted.  Our fear is so great at times that we assume what caused that fear will never end.  Notice how God deals with David's enemies (vv5-7).   God's judgment is what is being pointed out. His "wrath" will one day come down on all those who have not been reconciled to Him.  In other words, what causes our fear now is not ultimate.  God is ultimate.  Grace is informing us: our fears and their causes will end when God determines their end. 

Further, notice how God is moving as a result of what David suffers.  In verse 8 we learn that God "keeps count of his tossings" and that he puts all his "tears in a bottle."  I don't assume these are literal matters, but it is David's way of telling that God is not removed from our suffering and the cause of our fears.  He is involved, and taking note.  In fact, David reveals here that God keeps a journal of our suffering when he says, "are they not in your book?" God of course has no reason for a journal of His own.  He neither learns nor forgets anything.  So again, let's not make this a literal book God keeps.  But it is informing us of God's care, compassion, concern for us in what afflicts us.  We keep journals to remember hard, painful, difficult matters, and even years after we have been through that experience, the very words we can read that we wrote so many years before can conjure up similar emotions to what we experienced when we first penned those words.  All of this should be speaking to us of how involved God is in our very suffering.

And so grace informs us further.  The Apostle Paul wrote about all he was suffering (2 Cor. 4:17) and summed it up by calling it "light, momentary, affliction."  I don't know about you, but when I read of Paul's great trials in his faithfulness to the Lord, they seem neither light, nor momentary.  What do I really suffer at all in comparison to him?  The reason Paul's (and thus mine) are light is not because he compares to some whose are so much greater than his, but rather in light of matters eternal, namely, the glory that God will reveal and give us in the life to come.  "This light, momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory."  It appears what Paul is saying is that all the suffering we endure in this life is only the payment we make, to then be repaid with what he simply calls "an eternal, weight of glory."  What is that GLORY?  It is joy, peace, comfort, happiness that we will experience forever in His presence.  I often wonder if there is some corresponding proportion to suffering and glory.  Whatever the case is, this is a reminder that even suffering, what causes fear, serves a larger, eternal purpose, all of which is for our good. 

And so grace is ever informing us here.  There is no more sufficient way to see all this, but than what David points out at the end of verse 9 when he says, "This I know, that God is for me."  And there is nothing about that statement that leaves us uninformed.  No, it doesn't answer the questions as to what will attack or injure us (cause us fear) moving ahead, nor how long we shall be afflicted as such.  But what it does answer is that God being for us, is every bit greater than anything that should be against us.  What is it we could face that isn't properly informed by the grace of God being for us?

The Christian life proves to be fully informed not merely of pain and suffering as relates to common loss and dangers and threats that we all experience, but even the greatest ones that we will all experience but spend the most time avoiding: death.   Death is as great a fear as we could face, but even facing the "granddaddy of them all" we stand informed.  For even the great enemy of the death becomes only but the gateway to true life.   And it is why there is great comfort in the words of Christ, who said, "Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest" (Matt. 11:28).  

Are you fearful? Have your own troubles moved you into a place of deep darkness and utter crippled by it that you can't function?  Then you are again being informed that you are the one who Christ is calling to Himself, and He promises you "REST."  Let His grace again inform you. 

When We Believe God's Promises are Threatened

None of us would ever admit it, but our lives manifest the disbelief we often have in the promises God has made.  He will never leave us, and yet at times we feel so entirely alone.  He will supply our ever need (Phil. 4:19), and yet at times we are completely without anything and more bills seem to come our way.  He will work all things out together for good (Rom. 8:28), and yet we are left in utter disbelief when our nightmare becomes our reality.  And so in all this we appear caught up in a real struggle to believe God's promises are valid.

The New Metric

I can remember years ago standing up on a bigger platform, watching the thousands who came to a church gathering each weekend.  There I was with guitar and microphone singing to the LORD and inviting people to join me in an expression of worship.  For the most part I enjoyed what I did, though I had little means of measuring it.  What sort of impact did it have?  What did it mean in the lives of people?  What sort of eternal imprint was GOD leaving as a result of it all?  I specifically remember asking many around me, "What difference is this making?"  All of these questions and more flooded my mind each week in both my preparation and presentation. 

What Type of World Would You Create?

I can't even believe I am 40 years old.  I have officially entered a new category by which I only previously assessed those in their 40s, well before I entered this realm: OLD.   Of course with my age I have learned a few things too.  Not only have I come to grasp that life is rather unpredictable, and that there are joys to be found in areas I never knew, but also I have learned first hand of some of the greatest pains in life.

Imagine

I imagine we all imagine.  And we do it all the time.  We find ourselves thinking, dreaming, hoping for a variety of things.  It is probably a bit more fanciful as kids than as adults but we don't even fully stop imagining.  And yet, our imagination doesn't always become reality.  It is probably why it becomes rather tame and tempered over time, because of the many disappointments.  That's probably not all bad. 

All Alone Wrestling With God

    

     So there was Jacob...on the run. The con man had been conned by his duplicitous father-in-law. But running from his father-in-law would threaten his safety. Because running from him meant running back toward his brother…the very brother who years earlier wanted to kill him.
    We can’t quite feel the exact nature of pain and turmoil that Jacob was in, but we can at least understand it was a tumultuous time.  He realizes in just a short time his path is going to cross with Esau’s.  

What I Didn't Know About Prayer

I used to think I knew quite a bit about history, but then I listened to a history professor lecture.  It all pointed out the great chasm between what I thought I knew and actually didn't know.  Of course there are many things I do, and I do well.  But I have also watched people play the sports I've tried, or instruments I've played, and I have soon realized their understanding of it is many degrees higher than mine because their proficiency in it is way above mine.

What is the SUM of my life?

How does one adequately and accurate measure up the sum of his/her life?  As a follower of Christ I cannot deny there is a plethora of things I am called to that gives me space to begin to measure my life and determine areas in which I can grow, have grown, and yet need to grow.  It becomes a bit more complex though in real time.  There is no day of my existence in which I can just see a scorecard and check boxes.  So why live like there is? 

The EMPTY Days

People look to me to be strong.  I get up everyday and have the responsibility of looking after my kids, all three of them.  Collectively they have the energy of a small army.  I too have responsibility to take care of and provide for my wife.  Fortunately she is pretty autonomous, but still I know those times in which I need to be there with her during her own trying times and painful moments of this journey. That is when I need to have something to give her.

The Blessing of NOT KNOWING - Reflecting on Max's 2nd birthday

Pure joy!!! (and this, just 5 mins after throwing up)

I speak for myself when I say, "I know so little."  And as life moves on by, seasons shift from one into another, and the number of our years of existence span longer and longer, we prove how little we really know.  But it is in this "not knowing" wherein we can then learn what was otherwise foreign to us  (enough philosophical introspection already). 

Just about two and a half years ago my wife and I received the great news that we would be having our third child.  Given as we were wanting a third, the news was welcomed with extreme joy and excitement.  It is a big deal to have a child, and somehow the novelty of it doesn't wear off just because it is your third.

The Seismic Earthquake that Shakes "Christian America"

It's been in process ever since the initial revolutions of this ball upon which all humanity has been riding.  This ball, that we call earth, has ever seen the seismic shifts of generations, and nations, of all ages for as long as man has been upon the surface of this spinning globe.  And many of these drastic shifts of people, in where they live, how they live, and how they think, have been felt but have been so processional and methodical at times that few could evaluate change as it was happening.  It was only after the fact that anyone could really assess how great the shifts were. 

And yet, something is going on for many of us in the Western world that has given us reason to pause because it feels like we are watching the shift and the changes feel drastic.  It is as though it is all happening so quickly and so profoundly that we don't even need to wait for generations after us to assess, but we can assess it at the pace it now moves. 

Take the political landscape of our nation - for those of us in America.  Who would have ever predicted that the two nominated candidates from the dominant political parties would be as they are? Neither excites many members of their respective parties, let alone the whole of America.  And frankly, all "politics" aside, most would identify the two as massive egos who define the "ultimate corruption" to get where they want to go at any cost.  No matter who is in office of those two, or some other party, we all in many regards feel doomed. 

And consider for a moment the massive landslide of redefining of terms.  I am not here to argue that people may "feel" certain ways, and wish to define themselves as something, but the fact that we can suddenly make up new ways of defining terms based on the feeling one has should unsettle all of us.  And yet, that is the problem: it doesn't unsettle many of us.  

It is because logic, as we have known it,  has been covered with the rocks and sediment of consistent patterns, and definitions of years past, now only referred to as "old" and "archaic" in the name of "progress."  This huge shift is largely in part because we are now told logic/truth is not universal (which, that statement ironically IS UNIVERSAL) but is only subjective.  And where subjectivism rules, all begins to shake even more violently.  Eventually ALL will feel it, but for now, only those who hold a line on defining words consistently, values consistently, will be moved because of it.  But it is going to eventually be the undoing of EVERYONE. 

It has left us in American upon shaking (presently felt) ground.  As all of this goes on, suddenly our Constitution is being redefined.  The "rights" we have had to speak freely are being pulled from us.  I have no hatred and animosity in my tone against anyone, but I feel the need to disagree at times with your view and to at least call into question your position and to warn sternly concerning deep convictions I have. And I should be able to do such.  But that is being taken from us in the name of "bullying" and "hatred" and "oppression." 

Our world (across the entire globe as well as here in America) is not about to return to what we had become so accustomed to.  It is well past the point of return.  Many conservative Christians (of which I too am certain to be identified as) believe we need to restore what was.  But I have great reason to doubt that is at all in the plan of God.  I think He lets this spiral into what we conservative Christians would only view as "chaos."  But the question is not "why God?", instead the question is "Do we still believe Him and hold tightly to Him?"  

I caught an angle of it all from a panorama that spans a few thousand years.  It was ever the plan of God and the purpose of God to send Jesus.  He "foreordained" not only that He would die, but how He would die (on a cross - Acts 2).  But how should God do such?  Wouldn't He need His people, His followers to be in place?  Wouldn't He need to communicate all the details of how to get this done?  Wouldn't He require conditions to be prefect and cast and crew all informed on their respective roles? 

And at the time Jesus finally arrived, not even His own chosen people (the Jews) were in power.  The Romans were.  The Jews had to hate the establishment that had taken over. What a mess.  But consider: He planned it to where the Romans would be in power.  The pagan Romans who knew nothing of God, who had no understanding of His will, and definitely had no foreknowledge of a plan to crucify Jesus came to power some years before Jesus arrived in the flesh.  They had time to master a craft whereby they might brutally torture and kill a criminal.   Suddenly many Jews are bowing to Caesar, not the Lord.  They created a hybrid religion that consisted of Jewish roots, along with Roman politics.  Anyone who cared about what was had to be greatly shaken.  And magisterially, mysteriously, and so beautifully, every last piece of this all paved the way for Jesus...to be crucified...and die the death that God had determined and so fulfill God's purposes. 

So my fellow conservative Christians who happen to also identify as American - don't lose heart.  Focus on Christ.  Focus on the greatness of our God who takes the wayward world, the wicked world, the irreverent world, the unbelieving world, with its very anti-Christ agenda (sometimes with intent and yet other times without knowledge of doing such) and pushes through, runs over, and smashes everything we have known.  Because through this gigantic, unlike-any-other earthquake, God is creating the landscape upon which He will do some of His greatest work yet.   

This world is going down.  Hold tightly to Jesus, He promises to save.  Nothing else is worth holding onto, but Christ alone. 

Driven by Results

I love results.  Probably too much.  The good results are the cause of some of my joys.  Of course the lack of good results have been the cause of some of my greatest discouragements.  I am likely not alone in this either.  We are all pretty results driven.  At times without realizing it, we are ruled by the motive of results.  It makes some sense.  Our world is one that ever pushes results. 

What Would the Church Look Like if...?

I have had a considerable perspective on the matter, given my vantage point in the lives of people, from stage, and as a Christian in a my own regard.  By no means have I arrived.  Not at all.  Endless are the areas in my own life that need continuous tweaking, deepening, and sanctifying in order for me to be more obedient and more Christlike.  

Still, from my vantage point I watch people in a place where their participation in the gospel and applying biblical truth, is just like me because I see "opportunity for growth."  It has all made me wonder lately.  The very health of the church, both local church and universal church, is a curious thing.  On both the local and universal levels the church is made up of individuals.  And if the health of the church is based on the health of these individuals, I should probably consider how the church might be more healthy and a better reflection of Christ Himself.  And by taking some inventory of my own life, and you your own life, I think we will find what we might do personally to better represent Christ. 

And as I have watched both myself and my fellow Christians in our various seasons, in our various struggles, in these many opportunities for growth, I have had to begin asking: What would the church look like if...

Everyone read/studied the bible as I do?

Everyone prayed as I do?

Everyone did the work of evangelism as I do?

Everyone showed up on Sunday to church gatherings as often as I do?

Everyone loved their neighbors as I do?

Everyone loved one another (in the church) as I do?

Everyone lived a life of worship like I do?

Everyone gave as much financially to the local church as I do?

Everyone walked in holiness as I do?

Everyone made disciples as I do?

Everyone sacrificed of time as to the Lord as I do?

Everyone expressed joy in the Lord as I do?

Everyone desired the return of Christ as I do?

Everyone engaged in a sermon as I do?

Everyone showed up ready to praise God in corporate worship as I do?

Now my aim in asking such questions is not to put anyone down, neither to exalt myself.  It is to make it a personal introspection for you and me alike (ask yourself these very questions and answer them honestly).  It is also to celebrate certain areas of both your life and my life where we respectively have matured in some of these areas.  But overall it is a challenge to you and I to think.  Would the church really be healthy if everyone did as I do?  

The aim is not simply to say we have to master these (and by no means is this list exhaustive).  I don't think anyone ever will, though I think we should be growing in these and be able to measure the maturity in our lives over time even by putting our lives in front of one another to assess.  

My hope is that you and I begin regularly asking these questions of ourselves and of one another.  I think we have every obligation to one another this way, and to the Lord Jesus Christ.  In doing so we will find more areas that God wants us to grow in, and then we will also find Him to be our source of strength even to do all these things as He calls.  The goal is to see God glorified in us, even as He enables us to do so.  So let us grow, by the strength He supplies, and let us see the church both local and universal become a better reflection of Christ. 

What the CT Scan Revealed

So there I was, laying on my back, looking up at the ceiling, when again I felt it.  The very fallen state of this body, this life, this very world in which I live.  All of it, gripped by a curse.  All of it, including me, affected by a great grip of its power.  Sin is real.  Again yesterday I was reminded of it.

I was laying down having a CT scan of my abdomen performed after experiencing pain that has been going on for some considerable time.  The very machine about to perform something to analyze what is going on inside me, a genius engineering marvel, but one that was entirely unnecessary if not for the curse I am under, we are under, all of this world is under.  And as wonderful as it is to find out that I do not have a mass growing inside me, nor infection in my intestine, or pancreas or otherwise, still I could not help but feel the woeful state in which I am existing.  I am ever in, under this cursed reality all the result of SIN. 

And no matter where I turn I see it.  Every morning I pick up my glasses, because my eyes are unable to focus as they were designed to do.  I feel a certain discomfort in my back (even following surgery two years ago) and a related numbness in my right foot.  I continue to bear the marks of a brain surgery performed on me when I was sixteen years old.  My home has been chewed up by termites as of late and while I am glad money paid to the exterminator can help he and his family, I cannot help but feel even termites doing damage to my abode is nothing more than the affects of this fallen world.  And I am sure there is a story today (many in fact) of murder, divorce, homelessness, cancer, terrorism, theft, and the unforeseen car-accident that resulted in death.  Sad world in which we live.  And it all finds its root in this cursed reality in which we live.

Interesting the way in which we place so much value in all this world has to offer.  We long for better jobs, better education, a better house.  And not that any of this is wrong in itself.  Without realizing it, maybe it is nothing more than our own realization that this world isn't restful, so we will take any small breaks we can get, which we suppose these will supply.  And yet, I fear it goes beyond that for most.  We seek to eliminate the yellow on our teeth, the wrinkles on our faces, the baldness on our heads, all because we think there is something permanent about this life. 

But that is the very point all these many signs around us, painful or not, are telling us.  This is not ultimate.  But the solution to our ongoing demise in this cursed world is not simply to give in and embrace the ongoing fade.  And neither is it in trying to fix it.  That has been the problem all along.  The cure is in One.  Christ is the remedy.  He became the curse for us.  He became sin.  He Himself took all upon Him, even as He was on the cross, suffering for no wrong He committed. 

And this is our blessed assurance.  For all who surrender to Him, for all who with their lives will believe in Him, He promises that the pains of this life, the cursed nature of this life, will only prove to enhance the glories and joys of the life to come.  So see this world for what it is, and embrace Him.  See this world for all it isn't, and embrace Him.  And in the process SEE CHRIST for ALL HE IS, and ALL HE'S DONE, and ALL HE PROMISES YET TO DO.  It will be transformational no matter what comes in the meantime. 

A Loving Dad and a Loving Pastor

Just try to be a father.  It is both so joyful, but also possibly the most frustrating matter.   Kids don't appreciate all the sacrifice and selflessness of a father.  They don't realize the cost of things.  They don't realize what is best for them, but only know they like sweet treats, TV shows, and more toys than any kid knows what to do with.  But a father truly knows best.  Well, a father who loves knows best.

Sometimes God works THROUGH us, but He is Always Working IN us

Any ministry any of us ever does is always being compared against what others do.  We compare numbers constantly.  It is what somewhere in our Western world we have determined is the gauge to call someone “successful” or “fruitful.”
     In 1 Kings 17 we are introduced to Elijah.  Now I get excited when I think of Elijah.  I have over and over again read the stories of all the great things God did through him.  What a successful, fruitful prophet he was.  And again my mind imposes on it all the same standard for gauging his ministry (and mine).  But recently God pointed out something I never saw.

Between Two Worlds - (Suffering and Joy)

I'm stuck in it.  You are stuck in it.  And for the time being, there is no way out of it.  We are ever in this grave reality that at times lessens, though at other times increases.  And it is not about to go anywhere, anytime soon.  That is because time is the great obstacle to this entire conundrum in which we find ourselves caught.  

Thank You ISIS

For those of us who claim to "know the Bible" to be regularly reading the Bible, we are in a very difficult reality.  We read a book written by men, under the inspiration of God's Spirit, which then through the human personalities contains the very Word(s) of God.  We place our lives, the current living out of these realities, and our eternal destinies in this Word of God.  And yet at times there is a massive breakdown in understanding just what some of these authors, even whose experiences were what God chose to report to us, are still today (some 3500-2000 years later) applicable to us.  It is to this I say: Thank you ISIS.

The Glory of Christ in a World of Lesser glories

Rarely do we anticipate the profound.  Rarely do we know where to find it, rather it finds us.  Indeed, if we knew where it was to look we wouldn't be so consumed by matters so small, which is really what we continually find ourselves preoccupied with.  But there is a grander purpose for which we have been designed, of which we above all creation have the bandwidth and capacity for, namely the GLORY OF CHRIST.  I wasn't anticipating this years ago, but I was awakened to something profound and life-changing.  Let me explain.

The Voice of God...from the Church Parking Lot

Given as our church gatherings take place on Sunday nights, I find myself often out and about working on Sunday mornings to prepare matters for the evening.  Inevitably I see so much that is going on around town on a Sunday.  It is a vantage point I enjoy in my incessant processing of matters of this new community I live in.  Of course with my passion and desire to see Christ glorified in, around, over, under, and through ALL THINGS, I love seeing the number or cars in the parking lots of those true Bible-based churches in my community.  It is evidence that there is likely a good amount of biblical content being taught, and songs sung, and relationships built and service opportunities being fulfilled.  And in these things I rejoice.