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Snow Geese and Job

By / February 8, 2023

Snow Geese and Job

Despite Punxsutawney Phil’s shadowy prognostications, the snow geese are making their way back to the tundra from parts south.  We’re on a major snow goose route and have been watching them fly overhead for about two weeks now.  They cover barren farmland fields making them winter-like in white, which is fine since we haven’t had much snow this season.  With their higher pitched honk than their Canadian cousins and their relentless drive to move on (unlike their Canadian cousins), they are pleasant reminders of the moving of the seasons at God’s bidding.

We think we know why they start to migrate.  We think it has something to do with the lengthening and shortening of days.  We also think their brains have some sort of built-in magnetic-like compass to help them differentiate north from south.  We think all this because we’ve done tons of research; we may just be right.  But it doesn’t lessen the wonder for me.  And every time I see them, my thoughts turn to Job chapters 38-41.

These chapters really are straight out of another dimension.  Job has suffered for no real reason.  (I’ve talked about Satan and reason here.)  He’s done some complaining.  He’s asked for answers.  He’s crossed some lines.  Instead of answering, God comes back at Job with an avalanche of His own questions Job can’t begin to answer.  The point?  We can’t even scratch the surface of how God has everything worked out.

But it’s the questions that fascinate me, and ultimately, they fascinated Job.  Consider his answer – “Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know (Job 42:3)…”

I really don’t think God intends to shut us up.  “…too wonderful for me to know….”  You see, I think the wonder is key.  I think to delve and discover and try to understand life, creation, humanity, sin, salvation, the universe, quarks… all that stuff… and ultimately God Himself… well… God loves to see us do it.  And if we can’t understand it, to finally be awestruck by it.  “O the depths and the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable His judgements and His ways beyond tracing out (Romans 11:33)!

In the end, Job is blessed doubly.  In maybe not such a small way I share in that blessing every time I see the snow geese making their way back home….

Job 38

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Frustrate or Facilitate?

By / February 8, 2023

Frustrate or Facilitate?

When I was in college, a Muppets-based breakfast cereal came out called “Croonchy Stars,” inspired by the Swedish Chef.  The box was hilarious.  Among the many ridiculous things written was a contest to find out how many times you could find the word “rutabaga” on the box.  You were to send your answers in for some kind of prize, I think.  The instructions, however, made it clear that the word did not count in the actual instructions for the contest given on said box.  You had to find it elsewhere.  Ah, there it was, in the lines, “This is a perfect rutabaga you see, but it doesn’t count when it is in poetry.”  Scratch that.  It also had “rutaba – almost.” There was one inside the box – no go, that was not on the box – crazy prepositions.  Even thinking about it right now after all these years I’m laughing, and I’m afraid my wife is going to ask me why!

What is not funny is when you find yourself in some type of situation that is more serious than breakfast cereal with real barriers.  It’s exasperating when the goal is clear but the way is blocked. I consider these “bricks without straw” situations, like when Pharaoh told the Israelites they had too much time on their hands and were thus forced to make the same daily quota of bricks without the benefit of the previously supplied straw.  They had to get it themselves.  Jesus Himself excoriated the pharisees for shutting the doors of heaven in people’s faces, not entering themselves and not allowing others to enter.

Obviously, some things carry more weight than others – but while I’m here pondering these things, I may as well ask – how easy do I make it for people to reach the things that are truly necessary for human flourishing?  Do I frustrate or facilitate?  I don’t mean ensuring everyone gets what they want – rather that I do everything possible to help others thrive in God’s goodness, taking joy in theirs.  Far be it from me to stand in the way of that!

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After the Spiritual Battle

By / January 26, 2023

After the Spiritual Battle

I Kings 18 is one of my favorite chapters in the Bible.  I won’t retell the story (you can read it here), but this is where Elijah calls out those prophets of Baal and has a little contest.  God proves to the people He is in fact God by listening to Elijah’s prayer and sending fire to consume a water-saturated sacrifice after the prophets of Baal had no success with their own bone-dry offering.  As many times as I’ve read this, and what happened in chapter 19 after the spiritual battle, I always come away with some new insight, some new thought.  This time, I didn’t even read it.  Life intersected with my memory of this story and bought me something new.

You may have noticed it’s been a couple of weeks since my last article.  It was a tough December/January.  I won’t go into great detail, but on several levels, we felt like the devil himself was after us.  Which, to be clear, is always the case with God’s people.  It just felt more concentrated and manifested itself in all-too-concrete ways this time.  What did we do?  We prayed.  And we trusted.  But it was still quite the month.  God didn’t send fire from heaven at our request.  But He did give us deliverance in the form of answers and assurances.  And we thanked Him.

Often, however, after getting through difficult slogs, there is the crash.  I myself often get sick, like I did after my grandma’s funeral.  Sure, the hardest part is over and there is relief, but the reverberations from the battle still echo.  Maybe you replay things in your mind, and you find you’re really quite exhausted and hope nothing else is coming your way for a bit.

That didn’t look like it was going to happen for Elijah.  Jezebel is still queen.  She still holds Ahab’s heart.  And she is raging after Elijah with blood on her mind.  Elijah runs away and prays to God for God to take him before finally falling asleep, exhausted, under a broom tree.  God isn’t going to take him yet – He rather provides him with food and tells him to take a trip.  Which he does – to Mt. Horeb, also known as Sinai of Exodus fame.  This must be God’s favorite mountain….

Elijah goes to sleep in a cave, which seems awfully metaphorical to me, but I’ll leave that for another time.  Upon awaking, God asks him what he is doing there.  Thus begins a conversation where neither Elijah nor God answers the other directly.  First, Elijah pours out his complaints and God tells him to get out of the cave and stand on the mountain in His presence.  Several scary things happen while Elijah is standing there – a great wind, an earthquake, and a fire in quick succession.  The important thing to note here is that God is not in any of those things.  Oh, He could have been, but He wasn’t.  Rather, He comes in the gentle whisper that follows.  God asks again, “What are you doing here?”  Elijah repeats the same complaints.  I think God takes that to mean Elijah is not particularly doing anything there and therefore has time to do something useful.  He gives him a few jobs.

This is the kicker for me – God never chews Elijah out.  He never blows him off, shakes him out, or burns him.  He never says, “Come on already!  I sent fire from heaven for you!  What else do you want??”  He doesn’t yell, “Don’t you get it already?  I’m with you, you don’t have anything to be afraid of!”  He didn’t begrudge him the forty days off.  God wasn’t in the hurricane or the earthquake or the fire, He came in the gentle whisper to a man who needed to regain perspective.

And I take it this way – after the spiritual battle, God is okay with us taking some time to lick our wounds.  He’s okay with waiting to tell us what He wants us to do next.  He understands our frailty and accommodates accordingly.  I, for one, and very glad of it….

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Playing to Our Strengths

By / December 20, 2022

Playing to Our Strengths

The first time I beat my dad in ping-pong was on his 40th birthday.  He proceeded to shellack me for the next few weeks, but I already digress.  I loved ping-pong and was pretty good at it as long as I didn’t have to go against any southpaws.  When I moved to Prague to do mission work, I bought a ping-pong table and set it up in my apartment living room as a way to reach out to folks.  It was a hit and we set up a lot of Bible studies over ping-pong.  Anything interesting from the world of ping-pong caught my attention, but one particular factoid I gleaned from somewhere during high school is still lodged in my head.  This is where I finally get on track.

Growing up, the Chinese were almost unbeatable in world-champion and Olympic ping-pong.  I read their strength came from focusing on their strengths and not trying to work on their weaknesses.  They became so overwhelming in their particular strengths they never gave their opponents the chance to exploit their weaknesses.

And it strikes me – in our Christian walk, do we play to our strengths or our weaknesses?  Sometimes I feel overwhelmed with all the false stuff the world throws at me, the myriad “reasons” why it won’t follow Christ, and why I should just keep my head down and be quiet.  Truth be told, I can’t keep up with all the arguments people throw against following.  It’s bewildering – the information overload is too great to process, let alone combat.

We don’t have to – not if we play to our strengths.  And let’s face it, the reason why they are so powerful is because they aren’t “our strengths.”  They belong to Jesus, who strengthens us.  What did Jesus do?  He changed people’s lives by loving them into the Kingdom.  He didn’t coerce.  He didn’t go for any jugulars.  When He was critical, it was against people who should have known better – people with religious credibility who were keeping others out of the Kingdom by withholding compassion… mercy… love.

Think about this – we all have someone or group of someones we just can’t see coming to Jesus.  I submit it’s probably because we haven’t been playing to our strengths.  We haven’t been loving like Jesus….

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Of Dragons and Salvation

By / December 8, 2022
Eustice Scrubb

Of Dragons and Salvation

One of my favorite chapters in all of the Chronicles of Narnia is when Eustice is explaining to Lucy and Edmond how he became a boy again after his time as a dragon.  Eustice was not a very nice person, and upon sleeping on a dragon hoard thinking dragon thoughts he became a dragon himself.  This pathetic condition spurred him to think and he went through a time of repentance.  But he was still a dragon with all sorts of dragon problems.  Finally, in what seemed like a dream, Aslan, the Emperor over the sea, the lion who is not tame, and the Christlike figure in Lewis’ books, comes to Eustice and tells him he will need to undress if he is to become a boy again.  He enthusiastically scratches off a layer of dragon-y scales only to find he has another layer underneath.  He puts himself to it again, only to find another layer.  After several times, Eustice despairs of ever scratching the dragon off himself.  Aslan explains he himself will need to do the job.  Eustice is terribly frightened but submits to Aslan’s mighty claws.  They tear deep and hurt something fierce.  Aslan then throws him in water and it stings like only raw skin in water can – and he is a boy again.  But not the same.  He is changed.

I love this chapter because Lewis so powerfully captures the nature of what only Jesus can do for us.  Let’s understand clearly – we’re not good enough for the glory God has purposed for us.  We have ruined ourselves.  Maybe we don’t look too dragon like, but the dragon is there.  It’s called sin and it clings to us like our skin.  No effort of ours can remove it and this one single fact about who we are is the most important one we can ever know – we need saving.  The language in Romans 3 is instructive – in our sin we have fallen short.  We could stop there.  When we see our situation as it really is, it’s like looking across the Grand Canyon.  Crazy to think we can leap that.  We’ve never made it.  We can’t make it.  We won’t make it.  We need Jesus….

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A Story of Thanksgiving

By / November 28, 2022

A Story of Thanksgiving

Before I could read, my mom read to me almost every night.  We had a book of Bible stories, poems, and stories with spiritual themes throughout, and my favorite was the one with the boy at breakfast who thanked his mother for his nice brown roll.  The mother corrected him and told him he should thank the miller.  Well, the miller told him to thank the farmer, who told him to thank the rain, who told him to thank the sun.  The sun finally said, “Don’t thank me, thank God who made me.”

At the time, besides the picture of the smiling sun, I think I liked the mystery of it all.  Would we ever find out who was really responsible for the boy’s nice brown roll?  Even after I knew the story by heart, I still loved the sequencing, living through that little boy, running from one place to the next to give thanks to whom it was due until finally he got it right.  Pretty exciting for an almost four-year-old.

Today, I’ve heard a lot of people expressing gratitude.  Even in the car this morning a radio station thanked me for being a listener.  People on social media are posting what they are thankful for, and it’s lovely to see it all.  But the bottom line for all of us is the same as that of the little boy with his nice brown roll.  Whatever blessings we have, and they are myriad, they ultimately come from God.  Truly, from Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things.  Let’s not forget that this Thanksgiving.

OUR DAILY BREAD

A little boy’s mother gave him a brown roll for his breakfast. The little boy said, “Thank you, mother. Thank you for my nice brown roll.” The mother said, “Don’t thank me, thank the miller.”

The little boy ran to the miller. He said, “Thank you, miller. Thank you for my nice brown roll.” The miller said, “Don’t thank me, thank the farmer.”

The little boy ran to the farmer. He said, “Thank you, farmer. Thank you for my nice brown roll.” The farmer said, “Don’t thank me, thank the rain. I only planted the wheat.”

The little boy saw the clouds in the sky. He saw the raindrops falling. He said, “Thank you, rain. Thank you for my nice brown roll.” The rain said, “Don’t thank me, thank the sun. I only helped a little.”

Just then the sun began to shine. The little boy said, “Thank you, sun. Thank you for my nice brown roll.” The sun said, “Don’t thank me. Thank God who made me.”

The little boy went back to the table. He folded his hands. Then he said, “Thank you, God. Thank you for my nice brown roll.”

Taken from Bible Stories of Love and Care by the Standard Publishing Company, 1967.  By Carol Ferntheil.

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Of Electric Poles and Ecclesiastes 4:9-10

By / November 17, 2022

Of Electric Poles and Ecclesiastes 4:9-10

Not a quarter mile from home is an electrical pole that has been hanging by the wires since early June.  I don’t know what hit it.  But it’s just hanging there, suspended in the air, and supported on nothing from the ground.  It’s the wires and the poles on either side of it that are holding it up.  And I suspect what is keeping those poles from snapping is the support they are getting from others further down the road.  I’m very shocked (pun slightly intended) that no one has fixed that hanging, shattered pole.  Over five months is a long time for something like that I imagine.

But sometimes I feel like that pole.  I’m not sure what hit me and can’t find my feet.  I feel somewhat splintered and wish someone would hurry up and fix me as I’m just hanging there for what feels like dear life….

Ah.  But it’s never for dear life.  There are these other poles, you see.  Even in what seems like very precarious situations, even when I’m feeling broken, even when I’m not sure how I’m ever going to find my feet, God has given me my brothers and sisters in Christ, standing there with me when I can’t….

Ecclesiastes 4:9-10

Two are better than one,

because they have a good return for their labor:

If either of them falls down,

one can help the other up.

But pity anyone who falls

and has no one to help them up.

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Faith and the Ultimate Trial

By / November 9, 2022

I’ll leave this deliberately vague, although many of you know the specifics.  We just lost a very dear friend and brother tonight.  When we last visited him, he told us he was ready to go home to be with God.  We know he was.  And it struck me then as it does now and as it did when my own grandfather said something similar – death is the final and ultimate trial; yet for those who love the Lord, when the time draws near, they don’t shrink away.  They are giants of faith.  They are ready.

In Bible class this past Sunday we hit an old, familiar theme – the interplay of faith and trial.  My wife simply stated as she looks back on her life, she can see where God was the one who got her through the toughest challenges of her life.  This is where she gains strength in present challenges – to know God will see us through because He always has.  The difficulty for us most of the time, I think, is that every challenge is slightly different.  It’s like the disciples in the boat on the raging sea – sure, Jesus could take care of the sick and demon possessed, but a storm?  Yes, a storm.  And so, each time God sees us through some new challenge, our faith is strengthened to see Him as more than able to handle what comes our way.  Until, finally, we come to face death, that biggest of trials.  It is the ultimate unknown and therefore takes great faith – yet God has seen us this far.  And just as every word He has spoken to us is true, just as He has kept every promise to keep us in His care no matter what, He will honor that promise not to the end, but through the end, as we are changed from glory into glory.

To our friend and brother – thank you for showing us the way.  We will see you again….

Heaven

He Himself Is Our Peace

By / October 31, 2022

He Himself Is Our Peace is the second in a continuing sermon series on the importance of the church from the book of Ephesians.  The outline follows after the video link.

He Himself Is Our Peace – Ephesians 2

Our relationship to God has changed

  • Previously….
    • Dead – 2:1
    • Followers of Satan – 2:2
    • Objects of wrath – 2:3
  • Now….
    • Alive with Christ – 2:4
    • A place in the heavenlies – 2:6
    • God’s workmanship – 2:10

Our relationship to each other has changed

  • Previously
    • The dead are apart from relationship
    • Separate from Christ – 2:12
    • Excluded from citizenship – 2:12
    • Foreigners – 2:12
  • Now
    • Near – 2:13
    • Unified – 2:14
    • Citizens – 2:19
    • One temple – 2:21-22

It is the language of community, the language of the church….

  • The whole chapter is plural!
  • No one is excluded… in Christ!
  • If He is our peace, our obligation is to us all….

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Psalm 62

By / October 27, 2022
tottering fence

Psalm 62

I love the imagery and metaphors of the Bible and the book of Psalms is chock-full of them.  One of my favorite Psalms is Psalm 62.  It’s delightful to read by taking on the role of a poet tasked with interpretively reading to an audience as it seems to move through several different moods.  In part of it, David compares himself to a leaning wall and a tottering fence that his enemies are trying to tear down.  David really sounds keenly aware of his own frailty here.  Now – did the greatest king of Israel really feel that way?  Actually, I think he most certainly did, and I think that’s why this Psalm really speaks to people.  Sure, we like to think of ourselves as strong – and as long as everything is going fairly smoothly, we can talk ourselves into believing we are.  But life doesn’t go smoothly, does it?  Something is always trying to knock us down like we’re some kind of old, beat up, weathered fence.  We feel it; deep down we feel our own inadequacies and know we aren’t built for the long haul. 

But that’s okay – because our God is not an old worn-out fence.  David says here He is a fortress, a rock, a refuge; and in Him, in that fortress, refuge, and rock that He is… in Him – we find rest and salvation!

Compare that with those who are throwing at David everything they’ve got.  David has a metaphor for them too – the lowborn are just a breath – the highborn are just a lie.  Both of them weigh nothing.

Finally, in a crescendo of faith that cuts through the fluff, David provokes us to think of the one thing God has spoken and the two things David has heard.  It finally comes down to strength and love.  These two things can sustain us through anything!  God is strong enough to take care of us and loves us enough to actually do it.  In Him, we will never be shaken!

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