God's Unfailing Goodness Comes in the Weirdest of Ways

Reading Mark's Gospel while our house church met last Sunday, I was reminded that Jesus always wanted to help. He was moved by people's plight. The greek word that gets translated as "Jesus felt compassion for them" really meant "Jesus got his gut twisted in concern for them". So. He loved people.

But that help of His often came in the weirdest of ways...

When a deaf and mute man is brought to him, he spits in the man's ear's and on his tongue! When a gentile woman asks for help for her daughter, Jesus seems to insult her. What the??

I think at times Jesus makes it hard for us to accept His help. He seems to want to affect us more deeply than just answering our prayer, or else we'd treat him like an ATM and our lives less seriuosly as a result.

At other times it comes in ways which are uncomfortable and hard for us to accept (or even perceive) simply because God ain't like us.

In either case, what are you asking God for in this season of your life? Could it be He wants to offer you help in a weird weird way? Can you be humble and accept the way forward the way that woman and that man did? [Mark 7:24-37]. I think I still struggle with this myself.

But in the end, our lives can be testimony to the goodness of God in the same way the people around these incidents spoke of Jesus: "He has done everything well".

Understatement?

Walk by Faith

I'm a big believer that the journey of faith is meant to be an adventure. I think that the "command" in scripture to walk by faith is equally an invitation.

I love the much-preached-about story of Simon Peter walking on water (Matthew 14:25-33). Here's a few short thoughts on what walking by faith means to me, based on that story.

1. It begins with either asking for or receiving a command/directive from God. (verse 28-9: "If it's You, command me to come to You on the water." ... "Come!") - God, what do You want me to do next? Jesus, if you want me to go do XYZ, just tell me, please!
2. It continues by acting on what God says to do (verse 29) - this may be a personal word for you, spoken into your heart or simply acting on a scripture that's meaningful to you.
3. Action that God considers faith is pointed at God or it's doing something alongside Him - just as Peter was looking at Jesus the first time he walked then walked beside Jesus the second time. In our lives, whether we feel that contact or not, it simply means we are doing something to be allied and alligned with Him, not for our own selfish purposes - Father, I don't want to do this just so you'll make me wealthy or famous, or even just for the buzz, but to know You and to live the adventure with You!
4. Walking by faith for Peter was based on what he'd seen Jesus do. Jesus modelled, Jesus showed him what was possible. Peter copied then found he was doing it, joining in. Jesus models both the lifestyle and the possiblities for us... Maybe there's more to the command "Follow Me!" than just passively agreeing to a doctrinal position and saying a Sinner's Prayer...

Go on. Walk by faith a little!

Leaving No Man's Land

Well folks, it's New Year's Day here in Australia and in my Bible time this morning, I turned to the last verse of Numbers. [What else would you read on New Year's Day??]

In this 4th Episode of Famous Last Words, I'm tempted as always to do some background digging into the text, and to construct a well-thought-out symposium on the verse...

But maybe 'cause it's New Years Day [and I'm worn out from celebrating last night, I may have had one too many root beers with my boys! :)] - maybe it's because as I read it, I had the sense that the meaning for me was a fairly obvious and simple one. So I'll keep this entry more from the gut...

Numbers 36: 13:

These are the commands and regulations the LORD gave through Moses to the Israelites on the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho.

When I read this, I immediately thought "This is much the same verse as the one finishing Leviticus." Then I read it again and realised, "No, boy, this is a verse about being on the verge of something new."

It's also about being at the end of something painful and bad. Here are the Israelites, at the end of 40 years of wandering in No Man's Land. My study Bible put it nicely (ok, so I did a LITTLE background reading!)...

"The lesson of Numbers is clear. While it may be necessary to to pass through wilderness experiences, one does not have to live there. For Israel, an eleven-day journey became a forty-year agony."

How many of us live in No Man's Land - the lifestyle, the situation, the choices that represent NOT God's will for us, NOT His Promises or plans, NOT even the best option we had available, but the results of deliberate decisions to withdraw from Him in some way.

The following considerations may sound harsh. But they are things I ask of myself first and foremost. I invite you to meditate on these thoughts too...

Perhaps it was that in the time that He had planned to "sideline" you, to put you under pressure which would purify, you actually chose the warm embrace of "sin for a season" [Hebrews 11:25]. Now that time has extended to years.

Perhaps it is that you wandered away from whole-hearted allegience to Him.

Perhaps you let the deceptiveness of worldly scientific "reason" undermine your faith. My 11 year old son said to me this morning, "I can understand why people find it hard to believe in God. They say, if God created us, who created Him? It's too hard to understand."


I didn't shout him down, because I think that's healthy that he's beginning to wrestle with these ideas. What I did say in the conversation that followed was "It is hard to understand. And personally I find that a wonderful thing, that I can't understand everything about God. I like mystery. And by the way, I think sometimes those people are hypocritical saying that's a reason to not believe in God, because they believe in other things they don't understand." I didn't even have to explain that last statement, I say the light dawn and he said "Oh yeah."

Perhaps some lunatic waving the "spiritual warfare" banner hurt you deeply. Or a man or woman using their position in a church community to insult or guilt-trip you offended you deeply. Or a prayer you prayed wasn't answered the way you wanted it to.

Or perhaps, it's just the longterm neglect of your soul, of your relationship with the Lord, of your actively putting it all into practise.

Whatever the case, right now, Divine mercy is available for you and I. You're standing at the Jordan, the boundary between No Man's Land, and the life God wants for you. A new "land", a new season, a new context, a new level - it's all waiting on the other side.

The river represents the decision to act, the decision to move forward. The Commandments given at the river were the sign to Israel that it takes submission to God - acquiescing to His will and His ways - to move into living in constant nearness to Him.

Lord, afresh today, I acquiesce to You. You are Father. You are King. I see at the start of a calendar year, there are 12 months of possibility stretching before me. But I want them to be about You and not about me.

I know that standing across the Jordan from Jericho is an indicator that moving forward will mean battle. All I know is that I don't want to live in No Man's Land, in wilderness! Guide me again, renew my knowledge of Your will, command me. Speak, for your servant is listening.

***

If this devotion was helpful, please feel free to visit the other posts in the series by clicking Famous Last Words. And don't forget to visit the sister post to this, written by Yehudi01 who joins me in this project, writing from the Jewish perspective.

Famous Last Words: Genesis

I've always been fascinated by people's last words. This fascination is drawing me at the moment to the last verse of books of the Bible. Dare I embark on another project? Ah, what the heck! How about I share what these verses seem to say to me, what I take from them? Hope it's life-giving to someone else out there at some time on your journey.

Let's start at the beginning (or the end of the beginning at least): Genesis 50:26...

"So Joseph died at the age of 110. They embalmed him and his body was placed in
a coffin in Egypt."

O-kay. What am I going to do with that?

Well, for starters, I imagine the book of Genesis as a collection of stories, passed down in oral form (before it was eventually written down centuries later), told around the meal table or fireplace.

Imagine the scene: the Hebrews are born into slavery and die early deaths as slaves. The 11 year old boy is slumped on the floor of his hovel, as are his parents. They are bone-weary and depressed. He looks up at his father and asks,

"How did it come to this? Why are we born to this [expletive deleted] life?!"

"Well, son, to understand that, you have to go back to start. In the beginning..."

And over the following months, the stories are told, and then finally the father reaches these last two sentences, the ones about Joseph's death and burial. And here the story ends. And the father says to the son, "And that's how we got to where we are."

What do I take away from that? 3 things (like any good preacher!):

1. The story's not over yet. I know this from verses 24-5 (the penultimate verses of Genesis). A promise had been made: "God will surely come for you to lead you out of this land of Egypt." If I was the Hebrew boy, I hope I would come to believe that the current situation was not the end, that there was hope, that Joesph's coffin was an unfinished sentence rather than death sentence on the Hebrew people. Whatever unfinished business is in my life, I do believe that my Lord Jesus will finish it. That's his way.
2. Our lives are part of a bigger picture. Joseph didn't get back to Canaan himself, but made his brothers swear to take his bones back. That means he felt like he'd missed the Return by a few years at most (though we know it was more like a few centuries!). He honestly felt himself a part of the story that had started with Abraham (way way before his own birth) and would be completed after his own death. In the same way, I have received understanding and resources from those who came before me, as well as certain mandate, and I hopefully have sown further seeds of compassion mission mercy and humour with my own sons and others I've been priveleged to mentor... And we need only do our part, not stress over things outside our control!
3. We believers are stupid to think we exist outside of the culture we live in. Ok, this is a strange one, but I'm referring to the embalming of Joseph's body. This was an Egyptian practise not a Hebrew (nomad) one. This was a practise that (to my knowledge) communicated the expectation of eternal life, and the public's respect of the one embalmed. Joseph had served Egypt well while remaining fully Hebrew in his values and beliefs. He hadn't hidden his worldview or changed his theology to suit the Egyptians, but he hadn't rejected their fashion, their customs, their language, their ways. He had served as a bridge between (on one hand) the belief-system passed onto him by his ancestors and through his dreams from God, and (on the other) the rich culture and amzing people in Egypt. Sometimes we Christians refrain from things in our culture which are basically harmless, thinking that we are communicating God's righteousness because of it, or that we're keeping ourselves unspotted. I'm not talking about The Golden Compass (which I agree is sadly an atheist's stated attempt to destroy belief in Christ amongst children), or about irresponsible sexual practises, or about greed. I'm talking about things like noserings, tattoos, musical tastes, passing a Buddhist temple without vehemently cursing it in tongues, you know what I mean!

Phew. That was actually a meaningful verse to me. I wonder what's at the end of Exodus?

Cheques

"The central experience of Christian life is a gift which I cannot see, but which is certainly there, for I draw cheques to any amount on it and find them honoured by God every day." (Leslie Weatherhead)

Oops I Did It Again!

If you talk to enough Christians, if you cruise faith-related blogs, you're going to come up against good old fashioned guilt somewhere along the line. The real Woe-Is-Me-I'll-Never-Be-Enough kind of anguish. If we have a conscience, we've all been there. But to keep coming back there? To live there?

How helpful, how "godly", how spiritual is that really? Standing at the train station unaware of what's happening around you, awash in feelings of remorse and self-pity. Is that a "christian" way to respond to personal or moral failure?

How about doing something about your life today, whether that's making amends to someone you wronged or deciding to get up off the "boxing ring canvas" and go another round? That would seem a far better use of the day God is giving you.

But we seem to warm to this particular tactic of our enemy; it feels strangely satisfying to beat ourselves up, to be crushed by despair, to agree that we'll never get better.

I just love the last scene in John’s gospel where JC and Simon Peter are on the beach. And I shared this with a friend of mine on his blog this morning. As I shared, God gave me a new understanding of the passage...

JC: So. You love me more than these guys right?

Pete: You had to bring that up! Of course I do (I’m a bad man, I’m a bad man, I’m a bad man)

JC: Ok, well, then feed my lambs. (Hmm, I don’t think he heard me). Simon. You. Love. Me. True or false?

Pete: C’mon, stop torturing me; you know I do!

JC: Right, so, take care of my sheep. (Sigh! Still not getting it). Simon? Dude! Do you feel a deep affection for me?

Pete: You’re breaking my heart here! Of course I do!

JC: Then that’s what matters. You can get on with your life, stop wallowing in self-pity and feed my sheep. I’m over your sin and I believe in you. This is the way I see your life: when you were young you did what you want. Now you are so committed to me that when you're old you'll be prepared to go where you don't want to, to die an unpleasant death, because of your love. You and me? We're ok. Now that we got that straight, I'll take you back to what I said to you right at the start so that you get going again: Follow me.

Friend, He’s over your sin and He believes in you. Follow Him afresh today.

Matthew 5:23-26

I was reading this passage (get it out and read it; I'm not typing the whole thing in here!) and felt that God was speaking to the lazy pentecostal in me...

The message was: You don't fix things with God as a way of avoiding fixing it with the human involved.

The new faith is that relationships with people are far more important than religious practise. In fact, they ARE spirituality in many ways. Forget your pious prayers and recommitments, Pete. Go make things right with the one you wounded...