Just as God puts eternity in our hearts (Ecclesiastes 3:11) there is an inward groan to be with Him - forever.
Romans 8:22-23 says, "We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. (NIV).
Friends, we are merely passing through on this earth to a greater and more glorious home!
We are here for only a moment, visitors and strangers in the land as our ancestors were before us. Our days on earth are like a passing shadow, gone so soon without a trace. (I Chronicles 29:15 NLT).
Recently my wife and I had the pleasure to attend my manager's sixtieth birthday. Photos throughout her lifetime were flashed on the walls. Some showed her at very young age, as a young adult and often surrounded by family and friends. These were bright and beautiful moments captured on film to be remembered and cherished. I glanced about the room that held over two hundred family and friends. She touched and inspired many lives, including my own.
Though it was a celebratory time I couldn't escape that familiar weariness brought on life - the full weight of it's gravity and the purpose of living - especially in a generation we have seen unprecedented violence and political upset. Yes, I've learned to savor these wonderful moments.
But to be in a place free of pain, illness and fear stirs a yearning to experience such a freedom only being in His presence offers.
One day we will have the joy of Christ wiping away our tears - for the final time. Pain, sickness and disease will not ravage the body. Dressed in white we will stand around His throne with only cries of holy, holy, holy is the Lord!
So perhaps this inward groan will serve as reminder to tell others about Him. This deep ache in our souls to keep us from the snares of rooting ourselves to possession we can't take with us.
And just perhaps this longing to be with Him becomes our all consuming passion....who knows if He just might take us to His heart like Enoch who walked with God and was no more because God took him home! (Genesis 5:24).
Saturday, May 27, 2017
Saturday, May 20, 2017
When You Turn Back
Jesus told Peter on the night He would be betrayed, "But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers." (Luke 22:32). The King James Version uses the word "converted". The word converted means to change the nature or function into something utilitarian or useful. For Peter, he would be an agent of strength to the church. We see this in the book of Acts when he gave a powerful and moving sermon. Three thousand souls were saved that night!
I believe God's salvation is sure. And I don't believe you are in and out of salvation. We struggle daily and don't always get it right. However, we are warned in Scripture not to neglect such a great salvation (Hebrews 2:3). We are encouraged to work out our salvation daily (Philippians 2:12).
Friends, salvation is not static or just a one time altar call in front of the church. As we mature in the faith, our salvation deepens and so does our confidence in the One who can only save us - not just once but every moment of the day.
There is a moment in our walk that we need to understand what it means to be truly converted. Some call it a crisis of grace. They heard the gospel and professed Christ. Then they walked away from Him but through the power of the Holy Spirit came to an understanding of what it means to be saved. This is a very limited view of God's work of salvation. Too many believers have a crisis faith. They cycle in and out of sin. Confess and promise to do better but only find themselves more legalistically bound. Works without faith is dead and so is the religion of self appraisal and performance.
For Peter it was not that he went off to the world like the prodigal son. He outrightly disowned Christ. Perhaps out of fear and self preservation he vehemently turned his back on the one he loved so dearly. Going back to the words of Christ, Satan was behind this moment of shifting much as wheat is shaken free from the chaff. God will use any number of means to get our attention. What He wants is our hearts which is often the last thing to be converted. Easy to think and speak about Christ but a heart can be stubborn and refuse to yield its ground.
When we turn back to Christ, we are transformed men and women. Samuel told a young man that he would be a changed man once the Spirit comes upon him (1 Samuel 10:6). That young man was Saul but tragically he forsook God's mercy and became a mad king chasing David through the wilderness. The night before Saul died he had consulted a witch because God was no longer speaking to him.
But there is another Saul that did turn to God and his life and name was changed to Paul (Acts 9). Be encouraged church that God can still bring us back to Him no matter how much we failed or if we have fainted in our minds to believe He can do something good out of our lives.
Only you need is turn your face toward Him not your back...and listen.
They turned their backs to me and not their faces; though I taught them again and again, they would not listen or respond to discipline. (Jeremiah 32:33).
I believe God's salvation is sure. And I don't believe you are in and out of salvation. We struggle daily and don't always get it right. However, we are warned in Scripture not to neglect such a great salvation (Hebrews 2:3). We are encouraged to work out our salvation daily (Philippians 2:12).
Friends, salvation is not static or just a one time altar call in front of the church. As we mature in the faith, our salvation deepens and so does our confidence in the One who can only save us - not just once but every moment of the day.
There is a moment in our walk that we need to understand what it means to be truly converted. Some call it a crisis of grace. They heard the gospel and professed Christ. Then they walked away from Him but through the power of the Holy Spirit came to an understanding of what it means to be saved. This is a very limited view of God's work of salvation. Too many believers have a crisis faith. They cycle in and out of sin. Confess and promise to do better but only find themselves more legalistically bound. Works without faith is dead and so is the religion of self appraisal and performance.
For Peter it was not that he went off to the world like the prodigal son. He outrightly disowned Christ. Perhaps out of fear and self preservation he vehemently turned his back on the one he loved so dearly. Going back to the words of Christ, Satan was behind this moment of shifting much as wheat is shaken free from the chaff. God will use any number of means to get our attention. What He wants is our hearts which is often the last thing to be converted. Easy to think and speak about Christ but a heart can be stubborn and refuse to yield its ground.
When we turn back to Christ, we are transformed men and women. Samuel told a young man that he would be a changed man once the Spirit comes upon him (1 Samuel 10:6). That young man was Saul but tragically he forsook God's mercy and became a mad king chasing David through the wilderness. The night before Saul died he had consulted a witch because God was no longer speaking to him.
But there is another Saul that did turn to God and his life and name was changed to Paul (Acts 9). Be encouraged church that God can still bring us back to Him no matter how much we failed or if we have fainted in our minds to believe He can do something good out of our lives.
Only you need is turn your face toward Him not your back...and listen.
They turned their backs to me and not their faces; though I taught them again and again, they would not listen or respond to discipline. (Jeremiah 32:33).
Saturday, May 13, 2017
Rivkah רִבְקָה
I remember one late summer evening watching her as she sat nearly motionless in the car. Nearly an hour later she appeared at the front door. She smiled as she passed through the kitchen saying, "It was wonderful. I sat and talked to God and He answered me." I wasn't surprised since she taught us from childhood that God listens and talks to us.
Her spiritual life was rich and complex as expressed in her prayers that were both moving and inspiring. When I struggled through the night with asthma she would touch my forehead. Her lips moving in a silent prayer like Hannah praying for a son. Other times she was vocal with strong petitions that didn't reflect her family's somewhat legalistic background. She learned to pray in tongues and worship with hands raised with a loving abandonment.
Rivkah.
We know this woman in the Bible by her English name, Rebecca (or Rebekah). A woman who took a calculated risk of faith to leave her father's house to marry a man who was a child of promise, Isaac. She lied to her father after stealing the household idol and sat on it (Genesis 31:34). And later convinced her son Jacob to deceive his father to bless him in order to secure a future for the generations to come (Genesis 27).
Rebecca is the name of my mother.
Rivkah in Hebrew means tied up or beautifully ensnaring which so speaks of my mother's deepest struggles. After some twenty years the cords of matrimony thinned and then finally broke. My father decided to leave. She was now free of what seemed a colorless and lifeless existence. Those years were difficult to keep us feed, clothed, healthy and spiritually nourished.
My mother's beauty was notably marked by a vivid personality that could charm and disarm men who found her both enchanting and mystifying. In her later years, she found solace from ailing health by taking long mountain hikes and listening to the melodic churning of a brook. Her photos capture moments where nature and God restored a life of a young woman full of dreams and hopes for future that had all but slipped through her fingers.
But Rivah could not be free of one rope that tightly bound up her beauty and desires. Loneliness. Perhaps it was the same feeling when she sat in that empty car those many years before when talking to God. Now at seventy years old the loneliness that had walked with her daily is falling behind as her eyes look heavenward. You can hear it in her voice. The deepest desire to the hold the hand of one Man that has never failed her and could satisfy the deepest desire of a love that gives way to a certain rest.
To my mother, Rebecca, with love.
Thank you for being my spiritual Rivkah to ensure a spiritual heritage that I have today.
Your son,
Andrew
Her spiritual life was rich and complex as expressed in her prayers that were both moving and inspiring. When I struggled through the night with asthma she would touch my forehead. Her lips moving in a silent prayer like Hannah praying for a son. Other times she was vocal with strong petitions that didn't reflect her family's somewhat legalistic background. She learned to pray in tongues and worship with hands raised with a loving abandonment.
Rivkah.
We know this woman in the Bible by her English name, Rebecca (or Rebekah). A woman who took a calculated risk of faith to leave her father's house to marry a man who was a child of promise, Isaac. She lied to her father after stealing the household idol and sat on it (Genesis 31:34). And later convinced her son Jacob to deceive his father to bless him in order to secure a future for the generations to come (Genesis 27).
Rebecca is the name of my mother.
Rivkah in Hebrew means tied up or beautifully ensnaring which so speaks of my mother's deepest struggles. After some twenty years the cords of matrimony thinned and then finally broke. My father decided to leave. She was now free of what seemed a colorless and lifeless existence. Those years were difficult to keep us feed, clothed, healthy and spiritually nourished.
My mother's beauty was notably marked by a vivid personality that could charm and disarm men who found her both enchanting and mystifying. In her later years, she found solace from ailing health by taking long mountain hikes and listening to the melodic churning of a brook. Her photos capture moments where nature and God restored a life of a young woman full of dreams and hopes for future that had all but slipped through her fingers.
But Rivah could not be free of one rope that tightly bound up her beauty and desires. Loneliness. Perhaps it was the same feeling when she sat in that empty car those many years before when talking to God. Now at seventy years old the loneliness that had walked with her daily is falling behind as her eyes look heavenward. You can hear it in her voice. The deepest desire to the hold the hand of one Man that has never failed her and could satisfy the deepest desire of a love that gives way to a certain rest.
To my mother, Rebecca, with love.
Thank you for being my spiritual Rivkah to ensure a spiritual heritage that I have today.
Your son,
Andrew
Saturday, May 6, 2017
After The Rains
This past Friday I sat in the doctor's office listening to the thundering march of rain pounding on the roof. I was called into a separate room for a minor procedure on my right leg. There was signs of reflux where the two veins intersected so the blood was not properly circulating. I was expecting just a quick injection to seal up the problem but that was just part of the treatment.
Perhaps it was best that I didn't fully understand the full process for what turned out to be very long uncomfortable minutes laying on my back staring up at the ceiling. Some seventies or eighties pop music drowned out the sound of the rain and my inner scream to run from the room.
The next day I awoke to the bright morning sun. I was aware of dull throb in my lower right leg as I walked across the living room to open the blinds. The sunlight flooded the room. I took in a deep breath thankful - yesterday was over - and so was the cold miserable dampness from the rain.
Look, the winter is past, and the rains are over and gone. (Song of Solomon 2:11, NLT).
Perhaps the Lord wants to tell us the rain is over and gone in our lives. You know the dark clouds of what seems like perpetual sorrow that follows a life littered from tragedies. A death of a loved one. A prodigal son. The pain of a loveless marriage. Or toiling at work never to be recognized or promoted. Family turning against you for your faith in Christ. Church was to be your shelter from the beating rain only to find it leaking with others just as miserable. Their words were to be encouraging but it just deepens the pain and increases your sorrows.
God knows how to turn sorrow into a fertile ground that beauty can spring up out of ashes. And more than that He can turn a mournful cry to a song in the night that signals our deliverance and freedom until we see the morning sun rise!
Blossoms have appeared in the land. The season of songbirds has arrived, and cooing of turtledoves is heard in our land.(2:12, NIV).
God knows your tears. It says, "You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book." (Psalms 56:8, NLT).
He promises to transform the tears to shouts of joy.
For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime; weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning. (Psalms 30:5 NIV).
God is not angry because you are depressed, sorrowful or overwhelmed with pain. As I did during my surgery I closed my eyes and said, "It hurts Jesus, please hold my hand." Beloved, He will hold your hand like Peter who walked to Him on water. He won't let you drown or go under but will lift you up out of sorrowful seas and speak peace to stop the rain (tears) and angry winds.
The Son of righteousness will shine through you again.
Perhaps it was best that I didn't fully understand the full process for what turned out to be very long uncomfortable minutes laying on my back staring up at the ceiling. Some seventies or eighties pop music drowned out the sound of the rain and my inner scream to run from the room.
The next day I awoke to the bright morning sun. I was aware of dull throb in my lower right leg as I walked across the living room to open the blinds. The sunlight flooded the room. I took in a deep breath thankful - yesterday was over - and so was the cold miserable dampness from the rain.
Look, the winter is past, and the rains are over and gone. (Song of Solomon 2:11, NLT).
Perhaps the Lord wants to tell us the rain is over and gone in our lives. You know the dark clouds of what seems like perpetual sorrow that follows a life littered from tragedies. A death of a loved one. A prodigal son. The pain of a loveless marriage. Or toiling at work never to be recognized or promoted. Family turning against you for your faith in Christ. Church was to be your shelter from the beating rain only to find it leaking with others just as miserable. Their words were to be encouraging but it just deepens the pain and increases your sorrows.
God knows how to turn sorrow into a fertile ground that beauty can spring up out of ashes. And more than that He can turn a mournful cry to a song in the night that signals our deliverance and freedom until we see the morning sun rise!
Blossoms have appeared in the land. The season of songbirds has arrived, and cooing of turtledoves is heard in our land.(2:12, NIV).
God knows your tears. It says, "You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book." (Psalms 56:8, NLT).
He promises to transform the tears to shouts of joy.
For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime; weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning. (Psalms 30:5 NIV).
God is not angry because you are depressed, sorrowful or overwhelmed with pain. As I did during my surgery I closed my eyes and said, "It hurts Jesus, please hold my hand." Beloved, He will hold your hand like Peter who walked to Him on water. He won't let you drown or go under but will lift you up out of sorrowful seas and speak peace to stop the rain (tears) and angry winds.
The Son of righteousness will shine through you again.