Category: Blog

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Hebrews 13:18

 My grandmother, Elizabeth Van Zante, taught this verse to me when I was a child just old enough to read. We used a little spiral-bound book published by a Bible Society as our guide for memorization. In this guide were twenty-six verses, one for each letter of the alphabet. This verse from Hebrews was the choice for the letter J since, of course, Jesus starts with the letter J.

 My childish mind enjoyed the picture of Jesus with the children as the accompanying illustration. Buy my heart dreaded the words. I wasn’t sure I wanted Jesus to always be the same. There seemed to me no hope of change, of improvement in the world’s condition, or of an escape from the problems that create stumbling blocks generation after generation.

 For Grandma, however, this verse brought great consolation. I heard it in the tone of her voice as she said these words to me. I saw it in her face as the truth of Scripture made her eyes light up.

 Grandma, born during World War I, financing a college education during the Great Depression of the 1930’s, and watching the boys she’d grown up with go off to war in the 1940’s, knew better than I did what it means for Jesus Christ to stay the same.

 The writer of Hebrews isn’t telling us that Jesus Christ is the reason for our problems. Far from it. He is the rock, the fortress, the mighty refuge in the midst of those problems. He never changes, never moves, and cannot be toppled. If he held you secure through a hardship in the past, you can believe that he will do it again. Today. Tomorrow. He’ll never grow tired or lose ground, all the way into eternity.

 Cling to him. Anchor yourself to him. Listen to him. What he says is true, and where he stands is solid ground.

 Sing, praise, and believe. God is our loving and faithful heavenly father. When pain blinds you or the conflict and darkness of the world confuse you, know that the Lord is still in the same place sheltering, guiding, and protecting.

 He never changes.

He’s seen it all.

He sees you even when you can’t see him.

 May the same strength that holds us on the outside penetrate our hearts and hold us steady on the inside.

Surely the righteous will never be shaken; they will be remembered forever. They will have no fear of bad news; their hearts are steadfast, trusting in the Lord. Their hearts are secure, they have no fear; in the end they will look in triumph on their foes. Psalm 112:6-8

It’s a dreaded phrase. People go to a lot of work to shield themselves from it. We buy insurance, pad the savings account, get our vaccinations, and schedule routine health screenings all in an effort to avoid receiving bad news. But no one can escape the sober reality that at some point, bad news will come to all of us.

Our efforts shouldn’t go only into avoiding it. Insurance, immunizations, and investments are important, but we should make sure that we are also putting effort into the quality of our response.

Psalm 112 is a ten-verse list of the characteristics of the fearless. It beckons to us with an implied challenge: “You want to stay calm and immovable in the midst of tragedy? Well, take a look at the kind of person who succeeds. If you act like they do, you can be fearless too.”

I must admit that I’m willing to take the challenge. Like a contestant on a Ninja Warrior show, I’m ready to take on the obstacle course and go as far as I can swinging from wheels over the water and climbing the wall to victory.

Fearless behavior.

Psalm 112 used the word fear three times. It first appears in verse 1. “Blessed are those who fear the Lord, who find great delight in his commands.” It appears the second time in verse 7. “They will have no fear of bad news,” and again in verse 8. “Their hearts are secure, they will have no fear.”

Two different kinds of fear. The fear of God as worship, respect and love for Him, guards you against the fear of bad news. People who practice compassion and generosity can trust that good will come to them.

Even in darkness, light dawns for the upright, for those who are gracious, compassionate, and righteous. Good will come to those who are generous and lend freely, who conduct their affairs with justice (verse 4 and 5).

Stand on those promises. The world is full of bad news. You don’t need to listen to the news shows or read the paper for very long to hear stories of fires, murders, or immorality. But, if we are people who fear the Lord, we will never be shaken.

Our children will be mighty in the land (verse 2).

Wealth and riches will be in our houses (verse 3).

Our righteousness will endure forever (verses 3 and 9).

I don’t know about you, but to me that sounds like good news.

They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him.” Mark 4:41

Out on the lake after a busy day of learning from Jesus, the disciples learned a lesson no amount of lecturing or code-messaged parables could convey. They were in a storm, and their boat was sinking. Too bad they didn’t have one of the fishing boats available to them. It would have carried them through, but this smaller, narrower boat went off course at the smallest wave. And now a furious squall had come up. What was worse, Jesus lay fast asleep, oblivious, as it appeared to the disciples, to everything going on around him.

Caught off guard, the disciples scrambled to pitch water out of the boat. But their efforts were of no use. The boat was going down. They were going with it. Drowned. Finished with the sensational work they shared with Jesus after barely getting started.

In a panic, they woke the Teacher up and scolded him for his lack of concern. “Don’t you care if we drown?” they demand of him.

With three words, Jesus brought the raging storm to complete calm. “Quiet. Be still.” The same words are used here in the original language as the words Jesus will soon speak to the evil tormenting the man in the region of the Gerasenes. Jesus muzzles, or gags, the storm. His words to the weather shut it down. All in a day’s work for a Messiah. I can imagine Jesus brushing his hands together as if to rid them of dirt and then turning to fluff up his cushion like the episode was hardly worth the exertion. Back to sleep he may have gone, if not for a band of terrified men huddled and shaking.

“Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” Jesus asked them. His words likely carried a greater scolding than the one they had given him.

I’m right here, Jesus says in his questions. Just because I was sleeping doesn’t mean I lost any power.

The lesson the disciples are learning is the very one of faith. Either Jesus was the Son or God as he and the prophets claimed him to be, or he wasn’t. The evidence was too strong, too obvious, for him to be anyone but the promised Savior.

And here they were, crowded into a boat with him living through the adventure of their very own relationship with Him. The scene ends unresolved. Jesus leaves the decision up to them of who He really is.

Jesus calms storms. He chokes out evil. He heals chronic disease. He raises the dead. No one is more powerful than Him.

An unforgettable lesson.

My son, Mark, is a meteorology student at Iowa State. He loves this time of year with the high dew points, unstable atmosphere, and all kinds of other conditions weathermen have official terms for. He is forever looking for a good storm. Then he can go chase it in the hopes of witnessing a sensational display of power either in thunderheads or hail, or the ultimate prize, a tornado. No better training exists for the aspiring weatherman than to be out in the storm watching it, photographing it, marveling at its power. A student of the forces of nature, he is learning lessons that will shape him as he pursues his education and someday his career as he becomes the seasoned, tried and true weatherman.

As students of Jesus, are we learning lessons that will shape us? Do we know where to look for displays of God’s power? Do we run away terrified, or do we chase after Him hoping to see more, to learn more, to become more?

God leaves the answer up to us. Either He is God, totally capable of calming our storms and healing our lives and souls, or He isn’t. We get to decide, and the choice we make defines who He is to us for all time.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, I confess fear and unbelief. I want to have more faith in you, in your concern for me, and in your uncontested power. Be the Lord of my life whom I may always look to in the storm. Amen.

For the Lord is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless. Lord Almighty, blessed is the one who trusts in you. Psalm 84:11-12

These verses come at the end of a song with the theme of peace. It is a love song, really. Sung not to a human sweetheart, but to the Lord himself. This song celebrates God’s presence, His home, His willingness to bless, and His strength.

David, the composer of this love song, is weak with longing for the courts of the Lord. “Oh, if I could just be like the sparrow, living in a nest built in the eaves of the building,” his heart cries. Or if he could be like the priests who live and work in the house of God, he would finally find satisfaction for his deepest desires. These people have the privilege of staying in the place where God lives. They never have to leave. They get to spend their days in unbroken communion with God, adoring Him and praising Him forever.

David longs for the house of God because then he can always be with God. This is what he wants most. His envy of the priests pushes him so far as to say the lowest, most unimportant job of doorkeeper at the temple would be better than fame and plush luxuries shared with sin.

If he could get near enough to God, then one day in that place would bring him more joy than one thousand days spent anywhere else.

We can hear the fainting, the deep passion of David’s heart, quite appropriate for the most fervent of love songs.

The person who loves God this much receives great blessing from Him. David recognizes this, and compares these blessings to the sun and to a shield.

The sun gives light, offering revelation of the warmth of God’s character, illuminating the best direction for us to follow. A shield protects and defends. In battle, it comes between the soldier and danger blocking the flaming arrows of the enemy. Ephesians chapter 6 uses the image of a shield to describe faith. It helps us stand firm, strengthening us to wait, fortifying us against the powers of darkness and forces of evil. Anyone hidden behind the armor of God is safe, even when the sounds of ammunition surround us. The shield of God offers relief.

Behind this shield, in the light of His presence, we find favor and honor. The poetic style of the Psalm implies that the person standing in God’s light and under his protection receives these things from Him. God not only rescues us from danger, He gives us a special place with Him. He provides dignity and purpose, meaningful work and a good name.

The Psalm goes on to promise that no good thing does God withhold from those whose walk is blameless. What are these good things? They are love, wisdom, patience, steadfast hearts, power, sound minds, close relationship with God, and living forever.

That one word “blameless” is intimidating. There is no way any of us can reach the end of a day without committing some act or saying some hurtful word that is offensive to God. But we have to remember that we are covered by the blood of Jesus. Salvation is both sun and shield, ever shining the light of Christ in our hearts, always covering us from the destruction of sin. Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord Almighty.

Do you want to keep receiving ever increasing amounts of blessing? Learn to love God as much as David. Be intentional about worshipping Him. Find the songs and the Scriptures that help you adore Him and praise Him.

Confessing our sin is also an act of worship. Sometimes we don’t even know when we’ve done wrong to God or to others. Ask for wisdom, one of God’s “good things,” to help you grow more aware of your emotions and of how you come across to others.

Keep on thanking Him as you recognize the increase in your life. By confession and gratitude, we free up more space in our souls for God until we become people who ourselves are living in greater freedom and looking more and more like Him.

Prayer

Lord, I want to love like David loves. I want to worship only you as Lord and King of my life. Cover me with your love and your holiness. Help me walk in the light of your goodness. Amen.

I lift up my eyes to the mountains—where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip—he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord watches over you—the Lord is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all harm—he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore. Psalm 121

When I read this Psalm, the items mentioned in the title are the images that come to mind. So often, life feels precarious. Circumstances we didn’t ask for or didn’t see coming can, in effect, pull the carpet right out from under us, and reveal not a solid floor to stand on, but thin air. How do we ever find solid footing in places that offer no stability, but are instead full of turbulence, shifting sands, or mere vapors of broken promises and disappointed expectations?

Life has a way of leading us to believe that we are going crazy. We’ve all seen the pictures of the insane person attempting to walk the tightrope over the roaring and surging Niagara Falls. “I would never do a foolish thing like that. Too risky,” we say to ourselves. And then, overnight, the world can change, and we are left looking out across a vast expanse of nothing. “How do I survive now?” we wonder.

Psalm 121 tells us to look to the mountain. We must lift up our eyes and place them on the unmovable mountain that is higher than us. Our help will come from there. The mountain is the Lord. He is the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip. In those places and at those times when nothing but a flimsy little thread stretches out before us as the only path anywhere to follow, the Lord not only makes each step secure, he builds the road for us to walk on. One small section at a time. Just wide enough to support our next step.

The Psalm goes on to say that he who watches over you will not slumber. Indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.

Israel was God’s chosen. The man Jacob, renamed to Israel, and the entire nation that grew from his family line, enjoyed God’s favor. They act as a picture to us as the value God places on his children. They are his treasure, his safe full of money, his vault full of jewels. This sort of wealth isn’t treated casually. Rather, it is guarded day and night. While everyone else is sleeping, God is awake, attentive and alert to any potential danger. He is on the job all the time, better than the most experienced security guard stationed at the door of the wealthiest business in the biggest city.

Because God guards our lives so vigilantly, we can rest in him completely. Psalm 131 uses the image of a weaned child, a baby, with its mother. Verse 2 says, “I have calmed and quieted myself. I am like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child, I am content.”

The Lord keeps you from all harm.

He watches over your life.

He watches over you now, in the present, throughout the rest of your life into the future, and even after you die into eternity.

Nothing can snatch you away from his care, and even the most dangerous and precarious situations work for your good.  

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Psalm 46:1

This psalm has always struck me as rather audacious. It makes claims that make me want to sit back and respond with a bit of doubt or skepticism. Does God really do all the things this psalm claims, and if he does, then how do I know, and where can I see it happening?

The psalm starts out talking of the worst events that could possibly happen. Mountains falling. Seas roaring and roaming. It looks like a picture of absolute destruction, of the kind that would follow the overthrow of a government, the disintegration of a nation, the ruin of entire families and cultures, or in our case, a deadly plague. The image is scary, unsettling, and leaves a person feeling small and powerless in the face of so much turmoil and disaster.

 But the psalm makes really bold claims, as if the most terrible situations act as a point of reference for the power of God. Mountains are falling into the sea, you say? Well let me show you how much larger God is, the psalm boasts. The waters roar and foam? They are harmless. They only serve to prove God’s greater strength. Because while turmoil, chaos, and destruction abounds, all God has to do is speak.

When he lifts his voice, the earth melts. No force can stand against him. He is a fortress, a refuge, the exalted King. He is nearer to us than danger, more present to us than friends or family. He lives within. He upholds and strengthens so that we, like the city mentioned in verse 4, will not fall. God will help her. God will help us.

After making these statements, the psalm gloats over one last campaign of its hero. Come and see what the Lord has done, it invites. Look how thoroughly he defeated the enemy. He makes wars cease. He breaks bows, shatters spears, and burns shields. He rules the nations for his people’s good. The destroyer he destroys. The desolator he desolates.

Evil and sin, disease and death are dealt with once and for all. God is King. He is a sovereign ruler, holy warrior, and the obvious champion. We can find our refuge in him.  

Nehemiah said, “Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” Nehemiah 8:10

The much anticipated day had arrived after long preparation. Nehemiah had been back in Jerusalem for several months making repairs and restoring the government. People moved back home to inhabit the lands and houses of their ancestors after spending several decades as foreigners in Babylon. Finally the day came to assemble in the square to hear Ezra the priest read the precious words of God as recorded by Moses in the Book of the Law.

Ezra opened the book and praised the Lord, the great God. All the people lifted their hands and responded, “Amen! Amen!” Then they bowed down and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. (Nehemiah 8:5-6).

But as the day progressed and the meaning of the words sank in, the people began to weep. How far they had strayed from these beautiful words of truth. Could they ever return to the harmonious way of life suggested in these commandments that welcomed the habitation of a holy God among them?

Then Nehemiah the governor spoke up. He told the people to celebrate, to share, and to find joy in the Lord. The joy is where their strength would come from. The joy would restore their souls and invite God’s presence among them.

In his book, Nearing Home, Billy Graham writes about the headline of an article that appeared in 2010 on a Tokyo website titled, “A robot suit that gives super strength to the elderly.” Included with the article was a picture of the power suit modeled not by a senior adult but by an athletic youth. The caption stated that the heavy-duty suit weighs sixty-six pounds and will be originally priced at 1 million yen (approximately $12,000). Billy writes that he asked himself, “How many people my age (he was 93 at the time) have the strength to carry around sixty-six pounds for an hour, much less all day, and who could possibly afford such an expense? He says that he was relieved that the article indicated that there were no plans to sell the suits overseas. Billy writes that he is content struggling to get his shoes on each morning.

Billy went on to say that he had to look carefully at the article to discern just how an exoskeleton suit made of metal and plastic could give any strength. The secret was not in the suit but in the eight electric motors and sensors responding to commands through a voice-recognition system, enabling the body to lift and bend without strain to the muscles. While this futuristic invention may never be seen in our department stores, the brainstorming behind it reveals man’s desire for strength and power beyond himself.

Nehemiah had a better idea for finding that strength beyond ourselves. Instead of wearing a heavy suit that costs too much money and relies on motors and sensors, why not look to the Lord for power?

He encourages the people to do this on the day of the reading of the Law. His words are, “This day is holy to the Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” The day of the reading of the Law was an occasion on which the people were especially to recall God’s past acts of grace and salvation. It deserved celebration, not because of the circumstances the people were in of remembering the wrongs of the past or rebuilding a destroyed hometown, but because of who God was. He gave them protection. He kept his promises. He stayed faithful.

God’s abundance and blessing are the source of true and lasting joy. Nehemiah encouraged the people to rejoice in him, to praise him, and to depend on him. We must do the same. This is the secret to keeping that flame of contentment and pleasure in who God is alive in our hearts.

Joy is a glorious, unending circle. We recognize our needs and weaknesses and look to God. He supplies graciously and generously until his provisions fill our lives and overflow into the lives of others. We can rest in his strength. He helps us when we are weak. He promises to uphold us, to strengthen and protect us.

Praise be to the Lord, for he has heard my cry for mercy. The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise him. Psalm 28:6-7