Category: Blog

Part I: A Flooded River and a Hot Furnace

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned. The flames will not set you ablaze. Isaiah 43:1

This summer, I was sitting at the bedside of a patient, and we were talking about the hard things of life. We both agreed that if there was any way to avoid them, we’d take that route. After laughing and joking around, we settled down to the reality that there is no detour around hardship. We don’t get to take an exit ramp off the highway to travel the backroads. Neither are there any bridges to keep us out of the rivers, or handy barricades and signs alerting us to danger ahead.

“The only way to go is through,” the patient said to me. The tone of this person’s voice exposed first-hand experience with swift-flowing rivers and hot fires.

“The only way to go is through,” I repeated. My voice, too, held the sober understanding of what floods and flames mean to a person’s life and to their faith.

The first thirteen verses of Isaiah 43 give us the roadmap for successful navigation of the places in life where the road ends. Where do we go from here? What happens when we can’t see the road in front of us, or if we can see it, we notice the risks of getting stranded, burned, or drowned?

This verse uses the word “through” three times. When you pass through waters. When you pass through rivers. When you walk through fire. The Bible doesn’t say “if” you go through, like we stand a chance at going around somehow. It uses the word “when.”

Passing through the water and the fire are a given. It’s an assumed fact that our journey through life will hold waters rushing so fast and so strong as to sweep us off our feet, as well as the fires that burn so hot and so searing, they threaten us with torture.

In the book of Joshua, the whole company of Israelites had to cross the Jordan River in order to arrive at their new home. The priests had to go first. The Bible says in Joshua 3:15-16, “Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, the water from upstream stooped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away.”

What those priests must have been thinking as they marched head-on toward a flooded river. They carried a heavy ark of the covenant and wore all their priestly robes. They’d sink and drown for sure.

But they went on, fully aware and probably scared to death. Three days prior, they’d heard Joshua declare that they would cross the Jordan to go in and take possession of the land the Lord their God was giving them as their very own. The priests knew God was with them. They didn’t know how God would save them from the flooded river, only that he would. They entered the Jordan, prepared to go through it, on blind faith.

Another story I think of is the well-known narrative about Shadrach and his friends in the fiery furnace, as told in the book of Daniel. They refused to bow to the image of gold the king had built. As a result, they were thrown into a furnace. The king was mad, and the provincial officials were loyal to him, but the three young Jewish men were calm and collected.

“We do not need to defend ourselves before you,” they told the king. “If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from you hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know that we will not serve your gods.”

The king ordered the furnace turned up to seven times the usual heat. It became so hot, the flames killed the soldiers. The Bible reports the king’s words. “Look! I see four men walking around in the fire unbound and unharmed. The fourth looks like a son of the gods.” (Daniel 3:25).

Shadrach and his two friends were then removed from the fire. The Bible goes on to say that the fire had not harmed their bodies, nor was a hair of their heads singed. Their robes were not scorched, and there was no smell of fire on them (verse 27).

These brave young men had no way to get around the king’s anger. Their only choice was to endure it, and to go through with this stand they’d taken against his gods. The fire blazed in their faces. Deadly and dangerous, it licked at them in a sinister guarantee they’d reached the end.

But they knew God could save them. Even if he didn’t, they still chose to stand with him, and not the false gods. They were willing to stand for principles and die for their faith if necessary.

It turns out that the Lord didn’t require martyrdom for them. And yet, they still had to go through the fire. He was there with them, protecting and rescuing. Because of his presence, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego gave testimony to the power of God. The king broke out in praise and actually made a new law of respect.

God had given the Israelites the promise of a new home. They knew where they were headed and what waited for them there. The flooded river created an obstacle they had to navigate. It was temporary and brief, but dangerous, nonetheless. This impassable roadblock became an opportunity for God to work a miracle. He parted the water, allowing safe passage on dry land.

The young Jewish men in the book of Daniel displayed God’s glory in another way. His very presence was visible in the moment of their greatest crisis. God not only spared them from the destructive fire, but he also met them in it, walking with them through it.

God shows himself strong in our places of vulnerability. He helps us navigate the obstacles and he meets us in the fire. We may feel that our hair has been singed or that our clothing does smell of smoke from the flames we’ve been through. Or we might be coughing up water we’ve taken into our lungs while attempting to ford the flooded river. But we can still trust God to hold us in his righteous right hand, to be our shield, the one who sees us precious and honored in his sight, and the one who loves us.

Psalm 30 Part III: Redemption

You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy that my heart may sing to you and not be silent. O Lord my God. I will give thanks to you forever. Psalm 30:11-12

By verse 9 of the psalm, David has reached his lowest point. In a moment of desperation, of impending death, and of discouragement, he calls out in verse 10, “Hear, O Lord, and be gracious to me. O Lord, be my helper.” It’s a statement of calm, childlike trust. It’s like David is saying open-endedly, “Your will be done. You know what I want, but you do what you want in my life.”

If the psalm would have ended here, we’d actually feel pretty satisfied. The psalm as a whole follows a pattern similar to one found in our own lives. We enjoy good times, a span of prosperity, a self-assurance of our own security. But then something happens, like a diagnosis, or financial loss, or pain in a relationship, and we petition God to return our lives back to normal, or to at least ease our anguish. We remind God of his promises, we pray much the same prayer that David did for God to be our helper, and then we wait.

That’s how most things turn out in real life. So if Psalm 30 were to end at verse 10, we’d consider it satisfying, and we wouldn’t necessarily expect David to say any more.

But the psalm doesn’t end that way. There are two more verses, and they are brighter and more exuberant than anything that came before. “You have turned my mourning into dancing. You have taken off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, so that my soul may praise you and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever.”

Something has happened that is even more significant than the first event that caused David’s sorrow. It feels like David has a sort of Job moment. What I mean by that is what we learn about Job at the very end of his story. Job received double not just of material possessions, but of the expected Biblical life span. He dies full of days. The Renovare Life With God Bible says, “In the midst of his prosperity and wealth, Job was stripped of all that had once defined him. He’d felt disoriented, deserted by God, and defensive toward his friends. Still, he clings to his conviction of God’s sovereignty. He feels God has left him, yet he can’t give up his belief in God’s ultimate goodness. I know that my redeemer lives, he says.”

In the darkness of intense suffering, God was Job’s redeemer.

Redemption means deliverance from some evil by payment of a price. Prisoners of war were released on a ransom. So were slaves. There’s also the concept of redemption of property. Ransoms and redemptions were the payment of the price of deliverance. The redeemer is the one who pays the price.

David knew he was under a sentence of death for what ever reason, we don’t know exactly, but the situation was dire enough David wasn’t getting out on his own. He needed a helper, a redeemer, a healer, and a restorer.

During high school, one of my sons worked at the redemption center in Pella. When I asked him about the concept of redemption, he talked about that job. Pop cans come in, get counted, and then the person who brought in the cans gets a reimbursement. The cans are redeemed at a set price.

In a sense, Job has brought in all his cans. He’s been doing so for a long time, hoping he will get rewarded at some point for what he lost, for all that he’s been through. He gets another family, but the first family is still lost. He didn’t get them back. The end of the book of Job is left hanging because everything hasn’t been made right yet.

Redemption has two parts. Job and David and others like them in the Old Testament see the first part. They know that God has the character to compensate for loss. They live in trust, like we do today, that God will recompense all losses because there has to be more. When will the people, the health, the safety, and the goodness we’ve lost be returned to us?

Jesus’ death and resurrection has happened between our era and Job’s and David’s, so we know the method God will use to restore and redeem, but it hasn’t fully happened yet. This is the tension Job lived in. He’d lost his first family but was given a second family. When will all of Job’s family be restored to him?

David, too, is feeling this tension. From earlier in the psalm, we can conclude that David lost prosperity and security like Job did. We also know he lost his son Absalom. And yet, David had hope. He expected that God would always act as a Father toward him. He expected that his faith would someday bring into physical substance the promises God had made to him. In hope, David cried out to the Lord and waited on him. This hope helped him to persevere. The promise of God’s redemption fueled David’s hope. He’s dancing and he’s praising God.

We live in the same tension, and with the same hope that Job and David did. We are still waiting and still trusting for the final, full redemption when death is conquered. When there is no more crying or pain, and all things will be made new. Relationship with the people we love will be restored. It makes our hearts ache, doesn’t it? Sometimes, I wonder if, underneath the goodness that both Job and David received from God’s hand, there was still an ache. An ache for what is still missing, and an ache of hope for what is still to come.

Hold onto your hope because at some point, those first rays of sunlight will crack through the clouds. Dawn will arrive, bringing with it the sunrise. Weeping may remain for a night, but it will end. The morning will replace it, bringing rejoicing.

Friends, you are favored by God. Sometimes he uses the darkness to make the strongest statement of his love for you. Do not fear the pain, or what may wait on the other side of it. God wants you to live free from the sin that casts shadows over your soul, chilling it against the blessings and gifts of the Lord. Sunrise eventually breaks forth in our lives at each stage of growth until that day when death comes. Then the ultimate sunrise of healing and victory envelopes our lives in a place where there is no more night. No more darkness. No more death or mourning or crying or pain. The Lord is our light and our salvation. Whom shall we fear? The Lord is the stronghold of our lives. Of whom shall we be afraid?

Psalm 30 Part II: The Dark Night of Grief and Death

To you, O Lord, I cried, and to the Lord I made supplication. What profit is there in my death if I go down to the pit? Will the dust praise you? Will it tell of your faithfulness? Hear, O Lord, and be gracious to me! O Lord, be my helper! Psalm 30: 8-10 (NRSV)

The previous devotional I posted about Psalm 30 mentioned the dark night of soul growth. In this devotional we will talk about the dark night of grief and of death. To do so, I’d like to visit the passage of John 11, which is the account of Lazarus rising from the dead. Pay attention to Jesus’ response. How did he handle this monumental, painful loss of a close friend? The darkness of grief affects even the Lord himself. Even though Jesus is working in the power of God and keeping everyone’s focus on the resurrection taking place, he still feels the emotion.

In verse 4, he says, “This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”

Verse 11 has more of Jesus’ words. He says to the disciples, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep. I am going there to wake him up.”

Verse 23 has Jesus’ words to Martha. “Your brother will rise again in the resurrection on the last day. I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.”

In verse 22, it says, “When Jesus saw Mary weeping and the Jews who were with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He asked where they had laid him, and then he wept.”

Verse 36 noticed what the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”

In verse 38 at the tomb, Jesus was greatly disturbed. He told them to take away the stone. Then he prays. Then he tells Lazarus to come out of the grave.

From what we understand of this story, watching Jesus in action, he sees death differently than we do. According to verse 4, the cause of decline, which for Lazarus was illness, is for God’s glory so that Jesus may be glorified through it. For believers who have placed their faith in Christ, illness doesn’t end in death. We go on living, only we do it in a different place. Each Christian life that has been redeemed from sin brings glory to God through the power of Jesus’ resurrection.

Jesus sees death as temporary, as nothing more than a child taking a nap. The time when the last breath is drawn is when the person falls asleep. They rest in peace, without any suffering, and then wake up in the presence of God. It’s a beautiful declaration from Jesus of how little of a threat death is to the Christian. As Psalm 23 states, we pass through the valley of the shadow of death. All it can ever do to us is cast its shadow over our souls, but once we’ve traveled through the valley, we arrive in a place of light, of wholeness, and of beauty, unharmed.

As we see in Jesus’ interaction with Mary, he entered into her grief. he stood there with her and felt it like she did. At those times of painful, shocking loss when there is nothing to say, we can remember that Jesus shares it with us. He enters into the sorrow and the sadness, offering himself as the source of comfort, as the source of life. Jesus’ love for Lazarus, for Mary and Martha, and for everyone who falls under the sentence of death stirs him deeply. The Bible says he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. This is the love that drew Lazarus from the grave. It’s the love that kept Jesus on the road to Jerusalem. It’s the love that held him on the cross for you and me.

In verse 8 of Psalm 30, the word supplication is used. It is a request or a petition. David asked God for something. This isn’t the first time David made requests of God. His psalms are filled with supplication for mercy in Psalm 4, leading in Psalm 5, deliverance in Psalm 6, and salvation in Psalm 7 as a few examples.

David was right to cry out to the Lord and ask him for what he wanted. He makes his case stronger by telling God if he goes down to the pit, there is no benefit for God or anyone else. God would lose one of his most devoted praisers. If David is removed from the scene, the dust is all that is left, and it can’t take his place. Neither can it talk to give testimony to God’s faithfulness. David finds meaning in his ability to praise God and to tell personal stories of God’s love. They might be all he has left at this point, and he knows that if God doesn’t answer his prayer, it’s over.

David has a very good reason to petition God. David knows God has made a promise to him. It’s a promise of an heir, a son to come after him as a successor. The son hadn’t been born yet, so David understands that he at least needs to live long enough to see God keep his promise. In this prayer of supplication, David is holding God to that promise.

“What profit is there in my death?” David asks. He believes it would be inconsistent with God’s character to take him out of the world by an untimely death before God had accomplished the promise which he had made to him concerning his future heir.

He doesn’t give up in despair that God has forgotten or changed his mind. He holds to what he knows to be true about God and uses it as the foundation to his prayer. God had made a promise to him, so David is going to petition God and keep praying until he sees that promise come to pass.

There’s a relationship between God’s promises and our faith. God doesn’t merely make promises in words to feed us with empty hopes and then afterwards disappoint us. God’s word goes forth out from his mouth. It shall not return to him empty, but shall accomplish what he desires, and achieve the purpose for which he sent it.

There is no deception in God. He is faithful. If there’s a promise the Lord has made to you and you’re still waiting to see it happen but circumstances in your life are causing you to question how in the world everything is going to work out, then keep praying. Keep petitioning God. Paul writes in Philippians, “Don’t be anxious about anything but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.”

Psalm 30 Part I: The Dark Night of Growth

Sing to the Lord, you saints of his. Praise his holy name. For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime. Weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning. Psalm 30:4-5

The phrase, “Weeping may remain for a night but joy comes in the morning,” has stayed with me as the best description of what our hearts can feel as we face uncertainty and change. This might include losses, unexpected decisions, or events that come along we never thought would happen to us. But through them, we discover that God uses the darkness to show his love.

This may seem like a strange thing to say, but it can also be the only way we have of making sense of our circumstances. We go through a sort of process of elimination by thinking about what we know is true. God is love, and he will never leave us. So, if we believe that, it means God is present in our dark times, and he loves us through our dark times. But we wonder where he is because often we can’t see him.

Think of a summer thunderstorm that comes up in the night. We know how storms are formed with high anvil tops and puffy, white clouds. If the storm were to come through in the daylight, we’d see the size and color of the clouds. We’d see the wind bend the trees. We’d see the haze of the pouring rain.

But at night, the darkness hides all that. It doesn’t mean the clouds aren’t as big and puffy, or the rain is less heavy. The storm was still there. It moved through, but with less evidence of its power. If it comes late enough in the night, we might miss it completely, except for random rumbles of thunder or flashes of lightning.

Even these, as impressive as they are, don’t provide the accurate measure of the power of the storm. The only proof we may ever see of its existence is in the morning when we step outside and discover sparkly raindrops on the grass or damp pavement long after the storm has moved on.

God works this way in our lives. He moves through with power and with great love, but we don’t see the evidence of his presence because he is hidden by the darkness of grief or of growth, or of death. We may not even realize he has been there until long after his work is done. Then we look around in awe and utter, “Surely God was in this place.” An echo of Jacob’s experience in Genesis after he’d received a vision.

After the thunderstorm moves through, the corn’s growth rate accelerates. It climbs to greater height and develops kernels. Even in the dark.

A Carmelite monk from Spain names John of the Cross lived during the 1500’s. He wrote a book called The Dark Night of the Soul. In this book, he described how God works in our souls not through joy and light, but through sorrow and darkness. This dark night can be a time of suffering, but it can also be a time of growth.

John of the Cross says the dark night of the soul is when a person loses all the pleasure they once experienced in their spiritual life. this happens because God wants to purify them and move them on to greater heights.

These dark nights don’t come upon us through anything we have done. These seasons of purification and growth are appointed by God in their own time, and for our good. They can feel strenuous and overwhelming, causing us to wonder if we have strayed off track or if we have offended God. We might ask, “Why has he stepped away from me, or why don’t I hear from him as much as I used to?”

In the darkness, God is taking away all our sinful habits so that he can create his holy life within us. No soul will ever grow deep in the spiritual life unless God works passively in that soul by means of the dark night.

The darkness can make us wonder if God is angry. The Bible has much to say about God’s anger, otherwise known as his wrath. But for our conversation here, I’d like to highlight verses from Psalm 103.

Verse 8 says the Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. Verse 9 says he will not always accuse, nor will he keep his anger forever. Verse 10 says he does not deal with us according to our iniquities.

King David, who wrote Psalm 30, had gone through his own dark night at some point. He’d been fighting a battle. The fight included enemies, and a fall into a low, deep place like a grave. He’d been injured and he’d been in danger, as implied in other verses by his call to God for help.

Whatever David’s situation was, it held a real threat of death, the low grave as his destiny, and the triumph of his enemies. He knows that without God’s intervention, he will come out the loser and probably die.

Have you ever had a night of restless sleep or maybe of no sleep? You try to relax and get comfortable but sleep just won’t come. Our minds stay busy with a worrisome problem, or our bodies feel pain that prevents us from settling down and resting. The hours on the clock tick by.

The darkness seems to last much longer than it should, and we wonder if morning will ever come. When the sky finally starts to lighten, we feel a sense of relief. We made it. We survived that whole dark, long night. Now morning has come. We can get help, see the doctor, or rely on our supportive relationships. Struggle and pain can make us feel stuck. Once we find a resolution, we can finally start to move on.

David had first-hand experience with the love of God. The anger came at necessary times of wrongdoing, but it doesn’t define David’s relationship with him. David sees himself always as a favored one, someone who gets special treatment and large doses of unsolicited attention from the Heavenly Father. It’s the nature of God’s interaction with him. David doesn’t expect anything different. He knows God as the one who cares about him and helps him. The one who is always on his side.

The apostle Paul says therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So, we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Hold onto your hope because at some point, those first rays of sunlight will crack through the clouds. Dawn will arrive bringing with it the sunrise. Weeping may remain for a night, but it will end. The morning will replace it, bringing rejoicing.

“Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!” John 20:27

The apostle Thomas has been nicknamed Doubting Thomas, and for the good reason that Jesus uses the word “doubting” when addressing him. Even though Thomas went though a period of doubt and skepticism, he didn’t get stuck in it, continuing to doubt as though that sort of attitude reflected a hard, closed heart.

Thomas’ heart was actually very open, but it had been broken, and needed time to heal. Jesus knows exactly how to bring him around and catch him up to speed with the rest of the disciples. He had a very important mission for them all, and Thomas must be ready to do his part.

The first time Jesus appears to the disciples, when Thomas was absent, was a sort of commissioning. He shows them his scars, giving them first-hand witness of his body returning to life. He says, “As the Father sent Me, so I send you,” giving them a call to do the work he did. Then he says, “Receive the Holy Spirit,” giving them the power to bring God’s kingdom and his reign to earth. They are authorized to deal with sin and extend forgiveness on behalf of the heavenly father.

When Thomas was with them a week later, Jesus comes again. He shows Thomas his hands and side, the same as he’d done with the other disciples. But for Thomas, he goes a step farther and invites him to do the very thing that would solidify his faith. Touching Jesus took full hold on his heart, and he was convinced of who Jesus was, and the work he’d done as God’s Son.

Thomas isn’t left out of the commission. He has the same opportunity for a first-hand witness as the others. Jesus speaks peace to them as he’d done on his previous visit, this time including Thomas.

Where was Thomas during that first meeting of the disciples? Was he at a family gathering, or was he heartsick? Was he appalled at the crucifixion and discouraged by the reality that something so heinous could happen to a man his friend Peter had declared to be the Christ?

Thomas had put so much faith in Jesus, but maybe that faith had been misplaced. We can see how doubts get started, can’t we? They spin out of one hope, however small, that didn’t get realized.

James talks about doubts. He actually begins in the place of wisdom, saying, “If anyone lack wisdom, that person should ask God who gives to all liberally without finding fault. Let them ask in faith, with no doubting, for the person who doubts is like a wave of the sea tossed about by the wind. The person is double-minded and therefore unstable.”

Thomas had hoped in Jesus. Along with the other disciples, he’d expected a ruler, someone to set them free politically from the oppressive Romans. Not someone who’d allow himself killed by them . None of those hopes (i.e. dreams) came true. And now Thomas is feeling let down and misled, maybe even deceived and foolish for having been so gullible.

His situation is similar to Peter’s of requiring a reinstating from Jesus. Starting here in the last half of chapter 20 to the end of the book, John tells the story of two disciples being restored to faith from their encounters with Jesus.

These two men needed that extra touch from the Lord for the health of their own souls, and to meet the mission that waited for them. They’d seen the Lord, watched him work miracles, and heard his teaching in the parables. So much more defined Jesus Christ, the long-awaited Messiah, than the disciples’ self-focused dreams. He was the Son of God who’d risen from the dead.

This moment when Jesus appears to Thomas held both an ending and a beginning for the disciple. The path Thomas had traveled thus far, tending toward skepticism and unwillingness to accept sensational news without trusted evidence, had ended.

Jesus spoke, “Peace to you!” with Thomas present. He invites, “Reach your finger here, and look at my hands. Reach your hand here, and put it into my side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.”

“Don’t be double-minded,” James paraphrases, but single-minded in your focus, in your devotion, in your faith. Love God with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul, all your strength, Jesus affirms. Look to God for the ultimate wisdom of what it means to believe. What it means to perceive words of understanding, to receive instruction, to exercise justice, and to properly channel our love. This is what Jesus was asking from Thomas.

It’s also the invitation into a new life.

When Thomas reached the end of the road, this new life of faith is what Jesus had ready for him. His new life would pick up right there in the appeal to his senses. With his eyes, he saw Jesus appear among them. With his ears he heard the greeting of peace. With his hand, he pressed into the healed wounds of crucifixion. On the inside, he filled with the conviction that Jesus was his Lord and his God. This is the beginning for Thomas. The rest of his life and service to Christ is fueled from this scene.

His faith becomes established on the word of God, and grows beyond all human capacity.

This faith leads to an indwelling of the Holy Spirit. It’s why Jesus breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” The Spirit actually comes when the disciples are gathered in the upper room during Pentecost. Thomas is listed there, so we can conclude his faith took root, like seed in fertile soil.

The Holy Spirit would have taken it from there by comforting and encouraging him, and igniting his heart on a mission of passion and love for the one who has the life of God. Now Thomas, the disciples, and all of us who believe have this life in Jesus’ name.

“I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” John 11:25-26

The story of Lazarus is so intriguing. Many times I’ve tried to picture myself as one of Mary’s friends, rushing to her side as soon as news came of her brother’s death, staying through the burial, supporting her as she grieved. Questions would have flowed through my mind now that Lazarus was gone. How would the sisters survive in the world without him? Could anything have been done to prevent Lazarus from dying? What should we do to comfort Mary?

As her friend, I would have been one of those in the house with her, thinking Mary was on her way to the tomb to weep when she suddenly got up and left. All of her friends would have come along so that we might be of some help to her.

But Mary didn’t go to the tomb. She hastened along the road until falling at the feet of Jesus. The first words anyone would have heard her say for a very long time were to him. “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

Jesus, expressing his own deep emotion, goes with Mary and her companions to the grave.

It’s a scene of deep grief, of honest feeling, and of compassion tinged with frustration. The great destroyer, death, has snatched away from Mary and her sister someone they loved deeply. Jesus enters into their sorrow and identifies with it, weeping and groaning in his spirit. He feels the frustration too.

Death is the great interrupter to his father’s perfect design. His children, created in his image, were never meant for decay or separation from him. We were designed to love him, mirror and glorify him, and enjoy him like he enjoys us.

The sadness at Lazarus’s grave is far, far removed from God’s original intent. That’s why Jesus came, to restore our connection to God, and to eliminate the interruption of death to that intimate communion.

“I am the resurrection and the life,” Jesus declared to Martha. “The one who believes in me will live.”

Our part in restoring communion is to believe. That’s how it’s done. Jesus does everything else. He provides the complete escape from death through his own death on the cross. Through him, we live and enter into an unbroken relationship with the Father.

The story involving Lazarus took place on Jesus’ way to Jerusalem. When he arrived riding a donkey under the waving of palm branches, the events of Holy Week began to unfold. Jesus, the sacrificial lamb, the atonement for our sin, moved a little closer each day to the horrible yet necessary realities of crucifixion. He went through it for our sake. He dies in our place, giving his life so that we can live too. All we have to do is believe.

This week, as we approach Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday, enter into the honest feelings of Mary and her sister Martha. Their deep griefs, their frustrations, and their trust in Jesus is ours as well.

Jesus felt great compassion for them just as he does for each of us. Mary and Martha looked to him as their source of comfort and of intervention.

“But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask,” Martha said to Jesus. She didn’t know how God would meet her need, only that he would.

Allow him to grow your faith this Easter season. He can enter into your sorrow, your frustration, and your need. Trust that he can do something about it, and then watch to see how he works.

Hope Comes Through Change

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” John 11:25-26

The story of Lazarus from John 11 is a picture of Jesus’ power over the grave. Death, suffering, sickness, sorrow, and unbelief all die their own deaths in the face of a story like this one. Perhaps you know the story of Lazarus. He was from Bethany and lived with his two sisters. After falling sick, Lazarus dies. Word reached Jesus that his friend is gone. Jesus arrives in Bethany after Lazarus’ body has been placed in a tomb. Mary and Martha, the sisters of the dead man, meet Jesus on the road. Jesus asks in verse 26 if they believe in him as the resurrection and the life. Each in their own way assure him that they do.

Deeply moved and in tears, Jesus approaches the tomb holding his friend, issues a command to remove the stone blocking the entrance, prays, and tells Lazarus to come out.

Lazarus comes out.

In the days following, what was life like for Lazarus? The Bible records no spoken words belonging to Lazarus. We wonder if Lazarus was a common man living an ordinary life. We don’t know much about him except that he had a family that included two sisters. He appears in the gospel story, not because of any shining qualities in his personality nor because of any legendary achievement, but only because of the amazing miracle that happened to him.

Later in the narratives, we find Lazarus again. This time, he is in attendance at a dinner where Jesus and his disciples are also present. He is recognized as, “Lazarus, whom Jesus raised from the dead.”

Everyone has a first name. We all go by the names our parents gave us or nicknames we have earned over time. We also have a last name; a surname to identify us as belonging to a certain family, or holding a particular history, or originating from a specific location. Lazarus kept his first name, but Jesus defined his last name. For Lazarus, identity, history, and origin began with Jesus. Now Lazarus’ full name reads, “Lazarus Whom Jesus Raised From the Dead.”

He was still a common person living an ordinary life, but he had an uncommon, extraordinary witness to the power of God. Everything he had been given, all that he was able to accomplish, each relationship he valued was only because of the miracle Jesus worked in his life.

John 11:26 ends with the words, “Do you believe this?” Jesus is asking the sisters if they believe in him as the only one who holds the power over death and suffering.

Jesus asks each one of us, “Do you believe this?” Can you stand with Martha and say, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world” (verse 27). Because of this answer, Martha was about to witness the power of God. She, too, qualified for a famous last name. Maybe hers would read something like, “Martha Who Saw Death Defeated.”

How about you? Have you witnessed the power of God in your life? Is there a time when Jesus spoke and redefined your identity, your history, and your origin? Maybe you can stand with both Lazarus and Martha to say that you are someone Who Jesus Set Free. Or you are someone Who Overcame Addiction. Or you are someone Who Jesus Healed, Jesus Turned Your Mourning to Dancing, or Jesus Lifted Your Life From a Horrible Pit.

Lazarus entered the grave, but he didn’t stay here. Whatever miracle(s) Jesus has worked in your life makes this true for you as well. You don’t stay in bondage. You don’t stay addicted, sick, mourning, or trapped in the pit. Lazarus Whom Jesus Raised From the Dead overcame suffering, sickness, and sorrow. He gets to enjoy a life redefined by Jesus’ resurrection power. So do we. Forever.

So Saul clothed David with his armor, and he put a bronze helmet on his head; he also clothed him with a coat of mail. David fastened his sword to his armor and tried to walk, for he had not tested them. And David said to Saul, “I cannot walk with these, for I have not tested them.” So David took them off. I Samuel 17:38-39

This spring, I took a class on a topic of interest to me. With great anticipation, I registered, listened to the lectures, and did the homework. This class was promoted as having all the best and most up-to-date information, and it did. The presenters were endorsed as experts in their field. And they were. I was learning from the best.

And yet, as the class progressed from one week to the next, I hated it. The more I learned about this particular subject, the more I discovered how ill-suited it was for me. Something I thought would empower and energize only grew cumbersome and weighed me down.

As I was telling the Lord about my disappointment, the story of David came to mind. He, too, had come under pressure to change into something he wasn’t.

The day Goliath came on the scene, the Israelite army quaked with intimidation. David happened to be on the battlefront visiting his brothers when he saw Goliath and heard his sneers.

David’s confidence in the Lord eventually gained him an audience with the king. David offered to fight the giant himself, but King Saul was skeptical. “You are not able to go aginst this Philistine to fight with him, for you are young, but he is a man of war from his youth.”

David convinced the king to let him go, so Saul clothed David with his armor and put a bronze helmet on is head. He also clothed David with a coat of mail. David fastened on the sword and tried to walk, but took the military gear off because he wasn’t used to them.

What did David do instead? He gathered up stones for his sling and went out to meet the giant just like he would have a lion or a bear.

Have you ever been in a situation where the role you’re expected to assume doesn’t quite fit, or the project you’re asked to take on is heavy or uncomfortable? This was David’s dilemma when the king gave him the armor to wear.

Yes, the king was right in saying David was unable to fight due to his young age. David lacked the experience of war that his opponent possessed.

His chances of success were slim, but they’d become non-existent if he had to face the giant wearing the restrictive armor.

David knew this, so he took everything off and gave it back to the king. Even the sword. The Bible makes a point of noting that David met the giant with no weapon in his hand.

He rejected the king’s armor and returned to his own set of proven, reliable skills. David met the giant as the simple, humble shepherd boy that he was, and not as the showy, prestigious mascot in the armor, pretending to be something he was not.

This shepherd boy was young. True. He’d never been a military hero, and had never fought in a war. David didn’t need any of those things because he only had to rely on the Lord. This was the same Lord who had delivered him from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear. He would also deliver David from the hand of the Philistine (I Samuel 17:37).

When faced with the choice to follow the king’s way of approaching a battle, David went the risky, uncertain way of trusting his own abilities. They’d been given to him from the Lord. God wouldn’t let him fail.

Whatever happened, David could rest in the protection God provided and the strength that God had been growing in him all those years in the wilderness tending vulnerable sheep.

The giants in our lives aren’t conquered in a borrowed identity. They are brought down through a belief in ourselves, through awareness of how God has been shaping us, and a willingness to go the direction that He chooses.

When we relate to the Lord in this way, the final outcome means deliverance for so many others than just ourselves. In David’s story, his trust in God meant the deliverance of an entire nation. One young man’s bravery changed the lives of thousands.

This can be true for us too. Where in your life are you facing a giant? Maybe you are facing more than one at this moment. Are you under the pressure to be something you’re not in order to gain a victory? Can you take the risk of believing in yourself and trusting the work God has done in your life?

The bravery to follow David’s example as our simple, humble selves has far-reaching rewards. Take the risk to believe in God, and to trust how he has worked in your life. He will deliver, and He will come through for you.

Part I, Our attitude toward life’s problems

Do not fret because of evildoers, nor be envious of the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb.

Trust in the Lord, and do good, dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.

Commit your way to the Lord. Trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass. He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday.

Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him. Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass.

Cease from anger and forsake wrath. Do not fret, it only causes harm. Psalm 37:1-8

Problems in life are a given. No one is going to get away from them. According to Psalm 37, the troubles that we may encounter in our walk with God include fretting, or worry (verse 1), envy (verse 2), mistrust, as implied in verses 3 and 5, impatience, as implied in verse 7, and anger and wrath combined with worry (verse 8).

It seems to me like the psalmist put these temptations at the beginning as if to say, “I’m bringing these to your attention so that you can watch for them and make good choices that will keep you from falling into them.”

If we know how to live our lives free from the power of worry, envy, or anger, we are well prepared to see justice and to receive a rich inheritance from the Lord. This doesn’t mean that we won’t ever feel them, but it does mean that we can live free from their power.

Psalm 37 uses the word inheritance and gives it the meaning of obtaining covenant privileges and the salvation of God.

The Israelites, who were the original audience, were in a covenant relationship with God. He’d made commitments to them of certain things he was going to do for them. Giving them land was one of those promises.

What does the concept of inheritance mean for us?

It’s about security, and it’s a security that isn’t rooted in the circumstances of life. Misfortune and scarcity may come, but they can’t steal the inheritance away. Throughout the psalm, clues are given to what kind of an inheritance this is.

Verse 4 mentions the desires of our hearts. Verse 5 says that when we commit our way to God, he will bring it to pass. Verse 6 mentions righteousness and justice. Verse 11 talks of peace. Verse 18 says that this inheritance is forever, without end. Verse 39 promises strength from God.

Who is the one who gets to inherit this “land of riches?”

Verse 9 in the New King James Version of the Bible that I quoted above uses the word wait. The NIV uses the word hope. Those who hope in the Lord will inherit the land.

Four more verses give us further clues to who the heirs are. Verse 11 says that the meek will inherit the earth. Verse 22 says that those blessed by God will inherit. Verse 29 says the righteous will inherit, and verse 34 says that if you hope in, or wait on, the Lord and keep his way, he will exalt you to inherit the land.

Our attitudes toward problems matter. Another psalm that also compares the tragedy of the wicked with the blessing of trusting God is Psalm 73. Verse 23 in that psalm shows the author saying to God, “I am continually with you. You hold me by my right hand. You will guide me with your counsel, and afterward, receive me into glory.”

We have God always with us. He holds us by the hand. He guides us, counsels us, and receives us into glory.

Our attitudes toward problems matter because we have to remember that God is always with us, counseling, guiding, and ready to receive us in glory.

We have to frame up our problems in light of this.  And then instead of envying or comparing, worrying or getting angry, we have to hope. If we want to inherit that land of desire, of righteousness and justice, of peace and strength, we have to wait on God.

Don’t try to live your life on your own. It may work for you for a while. You might get rich, have all kinds of friends, and live in an assumed safety. But the cost of amassing it all without God is too high to pay.

Your hope in him will save you, and it will promise you an inheritance that is more beautiful and satisfying than you could ever imagine.

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. I John 4:7, 12

The topic of relationships is still on my mind because of the time I’ve spent studying I John 4. There is so much rich, deep, and timeless theology in this chapter that one brief devotional couldn’t possibly do it justice. I encourage you to take a look at I John 4 on your own beyond what I say in this devotional. Sit in it. Think about what you read, and then pray over the emotions it makes you feel.

John wants us to wrestle a bit, I believe, because he wants us to fully trust God’s authentic, faithful, and constant love. It is the energy on which our lives and relationships thrive.

A theologian by the name of C.H. Dodd has commented that love is triangular. It flows from God to us, through us to others, and then returns to God. This aligns with the point John is making when he says that if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. Earlier, in verse 8, he gives us a reliable test to use on our hearts. Anyone who doesn’t love doesn’t know God. This relates directly to the statement he makes about abiding in God in verse 12.

If we say we love God, then our lives will hold love like a pool holds water. This love will then naturally spill out onto others. If we say we love people, then our relationships will act as a window into our attitudes toward God. John is saying that one doesn’t exist without the other. If we love God, we’ll share his love with others. And if we love others, we do it out of the reservoir our relationship with God has created within us.

These are two sides to the triangle. The third one is about returning love to God. When we live in Christian community giving, serving, and showing compassion, then love is returned to God. This may be what John means when he says that God’s love is made complete in us. He extends love to us. We give it to others. Together we give it back to God.

It’s the shape of perfect love.

Loving in community has an additional aspect. When we love, God is seen. He is invisible until his family of sons and daughters love each other. When we let his love flow through us, and we serve one another in sacrificial ways, God is seen. This is where he lives. This is how the outside world recognizes him. His presence moves and dances in the actions of a loving Christian community.

How do we grow this capacity to love in our hearts? John suggests that we must stay connected to God. Find ways to consistently listen to his word, to study it, or to read it for yourself.

Be born of God by accepting Jesus Christ into your heart as your Lord and Savior. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the son of God, God lives in them and they in God (verse 15).

Practice loving others. We won’t get it right every time. People will find ways, sometimes unintentional ones, to insult us or offend us. But we must forgive and keep moving forward. Our goal is to make God visible and to continue expressing our love to him.

This verse from the hymn, “The Love of God” gives me such great comfort to know how endless and yet how strong is God’s love.

Could we with ink the ocean fill

And were the sky of parchment made

Were every stalk on earth a quill

And every man a scribe by trade.

To write the love of God above

Would drain the ocean dry.

Nor could the scroll contain the whole

Though stretched from sky to sky.

The love of God, how rich and pure

How measureless and strong.

It shall forevermore endure

The saints and angels’ song.