Mighty To Save

If you make the Most High your dwelling— even the Lord, who is my refuge— then no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent. For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; Psalm 91:9-11

Today I watched as a young lady’s life was taken in a car crash. As I sat stopped at an intersection I glanced in my rearview to see a pickup truck rushing up on me.  As he passed me on the right hand shoulder he blew through the intersection at about 50mph. There were two cars in the intersection and it was one of those moments when you just knew what was going to happen. It was a double lane and one car was going straight while the young lady was turning left. There were no brakes squealing only the image in my mind as this truck T-boned into the driver’s door. I will pause right here to say that what happened next defies any logic I can come up with. As the first car went straight, a gap barely wide enough for the truck opened and what was imminent did not happen. My mind’s eye saw one thing but God saw something different. The truck somehow made an impossible jog left and then right through the gap never touching either vehicle.  What should have been the death of this young lady; did not happen by the grace of God. It was a bit of a frozen moment as the lights changed and nobody moved. I think everyone present at the intersection was confused by the impossible. As I thought about this incident on the way home I pondered how often God actually intervenes in our lives that we are never even aware of. I can recount more stories about doing stupid stuff that should have landed me in a wooden box than I care to remember, but only God knows the number of times a flat tire or slow traffic or a slow clerk making change made the difference between me being here or not being here. Life is a vapor, and a very short one at that, but today reminded me that my time here is not finished and that means God’s plan for me is not finished either. Tonight I lift up my praises to The Merciful and Mighty God…The One who is Mighty to save…not just from physical death, but from eternal spiritual death.

Give me words to speak…

Geocaching

Geo-caching

This weekend, we discovered a new (and fairly inexpensive!) way to entertain ourselves and our family.  It’s called “geo-caching,” and with the right tools, it can be a really fun adventure.  Basically, you visit and set up an account at www.geocaching.com .  Through this website, you can either search for a place to hunt for a cache or list one yourself.   You can search for “caches” all over the globe!  We started by searching for local caches and we were surprised at how many popped up!  There are different levels of difficulty as far as terrain and location.   You are given a brief description of the area and GPS coordinates leading you to the hidden cache.  Obviously, the items people have hidden aren’t valuable, or they would be found and taken by the first to find.  Our first cache find was just a plastic box with odds & ends items in it, and a log book.  There is always a log book for you to sign, and then you go back to the website to report if you found or did not find the cache and you can make comments about it.

Dan, myself, and the boys headed out on Saturday to search for our first cache.  We knew that it was located at Blackburn Park in Pacific, which is not that large of an area.  Since we don’t own a hand-held GPS (this is a must for serious geo-cachers), we decided we would just try to search for it based on the clues we were given.  It’s a good thing we don’t work for C.S.I., because we searched and searched and found nothing.  We decided to come back and grab the laptop and our GPS receiver.  The GPS led us almost right to the cache, if not for the trees blocking our weak signal.  We were finally successful, and headed to the Pacific Park, GPS and laptop in hand, to search for another one.  Unfortunately, with our GPS signal being weak and flaky, we were unable to determine the exact location of the second cache.  We also failed to really research its location and decided it best to look at the coordinates on Google Earth before trying to find it again.  Lastly, we searched again last night for a different cache.  We ran into the same problem and agreed that we need to invest in a hand-held GPS receiver.  Ours is intended for travel in the vehicle, and just doesn’t provide the guidance we need in the wooded areas, where most caches are hidden.

I was thinking about our geo-caching adventure on my way home from work today.   I expected the GPS to lead us to the coordinates we were given instantly, without even taking the time to research and learn about what we were doing.  Sometimes I expect God to guide me at the very instant I ask Him, rather than spending time in prayer and Bible study.  I find myself excited about the things that He lays before me, and I want to take part in it, but all too often I rush into it and then wonder why I’m left wandering aimlessly around. 

Deuteronomy 4:28-30 says “There you will worship man-made gods of wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or eat or smell. But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, then in later days you will return to the LORD your God and obey him.”

I have really been struggling with my devotion and prayer time lately.  I have found myself expecting big things when I do read His Word, yet I haven’t given the prayer, thought, time, and preparation I should be giving.  The Bible says I will find Him if I look for Him with ALL my heart and with ALL my soul.  It says nothing about a half-hearted, thrown together, quick attempt to find wisdom.   That works no better than an unprepared search for a geo-cache!

Enough

As I reflect back on my devotions from this past week, a particular passage stands out above all the rest. We are studying the book of Psalms in our Wednesday night class, and I strayed off the course of the book one morning and chose a Psalm that we weren’t studying.  Psalm 17 was written by David and is one of many where he pours his heart out to God.  At the end of the chapter, he speaks of those who find happiness in the treasures of this world.  This hit home for me this week, as it seems like financial struggles have become a regular part of our life.  Even so, God always provides.  Our needs are always met, it is our wants that get left behind so often.  One of the biggest “wants” in my life right now is a house, and I find myself consumed with this want at times.  I feel like that is a slap in the face to God, who has provided shelter for us and then it’s just not good enough for me.  I do that with so many things, not just the “big” ones.  These last few verses of Psalm 17 stuck with me this week, especially verse 15:

¹⁴ With Your hand from men, O Lord, from men of the world who have their portion in this life, and whose belly You fill with Your hidden treasure.  They are satisfied with children, and leave the rest of their possession for their babes.  ¹⁵As for me,  I will see Your face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake in your likeness.

David doesn’t say that he will be satisfied when all of his bills are paid and he is financially secure.  He doesn’t say he will be satisfied when he lives in a big beautiful house.  He says he will be satisfied when he awakes in God’s likeness.  There are many things in this life that bring satisfaction, but not the kind David speaks of.  The truest form of satisfaction can only be Him.  Other ways to describe satisfaction include: please, suffice, make happy.  The things I desire on earth may please me, suffice me, and make me happy, but it’s only temporary.  It is overwhelming to consider that when we are in heaven, we will not want anything but our God.  Why is it that so often He is not enough for us now?

Barlow Girls “Enough” is an absolute favorite song of mine. (which, by the way, I just discovered was written by Chris Tomlin and Louie Giglio!)  I bought the sound track a couple of years ago and I never tire of singing this song.  He truly is enough and I need to be mindful of that each and every day.

All of You is more than enough for all of me
For every thirst and every need, You satisfy me with your love
And all I have in You is more than enough

 You are my supply, my breath of life
 Still more awesome than I know
 You are my reward worth living for

 Still more awesome than I know

 All of You is more than enough for all of me
For every thirst and every need, You satisfy me with your love
And all I have in You is more than enough

You’re my sacrifice of greatest price
Still more awesome than I know
You’re my coming King
You’re everything
Still more awesome than I know

All of You is more than enough for all of me
For every thirst and every need, You satisfy me with your love
And all I have in You is more than enough

Facing the Giants

 I’m not sure why I just got around to watching this movie, since football is my favorite sport in the whole world and this movie ties football in with a very inspiring story about faith in God. What could be better? At any rate, as we watched this movie tonight, I was touched by more than one of the lessons it conveys. In one scene, which I included in this post, from YouTube, the coach teaches the team how they can accomplish more when they aren’t doing things with an already defeated “This is too hard” attitude. I cried as I thought about how defeated I allow myself to feel at times. My lack of faith is a slap in the face to the God of the universe, who has no limits and can move or change anyone or anything. Also in the movie was a man who walked the halls daily praying for the prayers. He tells a parable about two farmers who both pray for rain. One waits for it hopefully. The other waits for it while “preparing his fields.” His concluding question? Which one is truly trusting God? I don’t want to be the untrusting farmer. I plan to prepare the fields…and “win” or “lose” I will praise God.
We talked this morning in Sunday School about forgiveness of sins. We discussed how God forgives us, and we continue to hold on to the guilt of those sins. This is also something I struggle with. At the end of the movie, one of my absolute favorite Casting Crowns songs reminded me (again!) of the Voice of truth:
But the waves are calling out my name
And they laugh at me
Reminding me of all the times
I’ve tried before and failed
The waves they keep on telling me
Time and time again. “Boy, you’ll never win!”
“You’ll never win!”
But the voice of truth tells me a different story
The voice of truth says, “Do not be afraid!”
The voice of truth says, “This is for My glory”
Out of all the voices calling out to me
I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth
He IS the voice of truth, and He is bigger and mightier than anything I have ever or will ever face on this fleeting earth.
Lastly, another quote from the movie: “You can’t judge people by their actions and then yourself by your intentions.”

A WORSHIP-HUNGRY HEART

^{ 1} As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. ^2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? Psalm 42:1-2

 

I reflect on some moments of conversation last night…

How important is Christianity? I mean, does the fact that God redeemed you from an eternity of separation and set you in a place of honor to reign with His Son Jesus Christ for all eternity have any significance? Is there an overwhelming gratitude that wells up within you that Christ died for you or is there just apathy? Does it motivate you to worship Him at every opportunity or do you just bear through sitting through another service? My heart, like many others can fall so easily into complacency when it comes to the daily walk with Christ. I ponder the King who offers forgiveness in my weakest of moments. I have to constantly remind myself of the King who gave up everything in order that I might live. Such a great sacrifice cannot go un-noticed in my life because it disturbs my heart to the point that I must worship. In the church setting, worship comes when I can remove my personal preference from the morning service and seek to learn from the message being spoken rather than evaluating the delivery. My worship comes when I can strip the melody from the songs we sing and speak the words to God as though no one else is present. Worship comes when I stop seeking to be gratified and just sit in awe of my God.

 

One last question…What creates the desire in some for endless worship and for others to be content to occasionally dabble in Christianity? I don’t have the answer unfortunately, but I suspect it lies somewhere in how real your faith is…

 

I leave you with a good analogy from one of my favorite authors, Max Lucado.

 

*****

 People on a plane and people on a pew have a lot in common.

  All are on a journey. Most are well-behaved and presentable. Some doze, and others gaze out the window. For many, the mark of a good flight and the mark of a good worship assembly are the same.

“Nice,” we like to say. “It was a nice flight/It was a nice worship service.”

A few, however, are not content with nice. They long for something more. The boy who just passed me did. I heard him before I saw him. I was already in my seat when he asked, “Will they really let me meet the pilot?” The question floated into the cockpit, causing the pilot to lean out. “Well, come on in.” With a nod from his mom, the youngster entered the cockpit’s world of controls and gauges and emerged minutes later with eyes wide. “Wow!” he exclaimed. “I’m so glad to be on this plane!” No one else’s face showed such wonder. I studied the faces of the other passengers but found no such enthusiasm. I mostly saw contentment: travelers content to be on the plane, content to be closer to their destination, content to be out of the airport, content to sit and stare and say little.

 

Do you see why I say that people on a plane and people on a pew have a lot in common? Enter a church sanctuary and look at the faces. 

Content to be there. Content to sit and look straight ahead and leave when the service is over. “Seek and you will find,” Jesus promised (Matt. 7:7). And since a nice service is what we seek, a nice service is usually what we find.

A few, however, seek more. A few come with the childlike enthusiasm of the boy. And those few leave as he did, wide-eyed with the wonder of having stood in the presence of the pilot himself.

 

Give me words to speak…

Turning Point

I was so blessed this past Wednesday night as I joined the ladies class, studying the book of Psalms.  This book has always been such an inspiration to me, and there is constantly a new nugget of information to be found and pondered in the Psalms.  One of the points that really stuck out to me this week was that many of the Psalms begin with sorrow and anguish, with the writer distraught and pouring out his heart.  If you look closely at them, however, there is always that turning point-where the distress becomes praise and the sorrow becomes hope.  Specifically, we were studying Psalm 73.  The psalmist is frustrated with the wicked not getting what they deserve and writes about being plagued and punished by this, to the point of envy.  Then in verse 16, he writes:
When I tried to understand all this, it was oppressive to me till I entered the sanctuary of God;
Wow.  How often has that happened to you?  When I try to understand or make sense of things in life that seem unfair, God always puts it into perspective when I enter His sanctuary.  In Him I find peace and understanding.  The psalmist then goes on to say in verse 23:
Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand.  You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you.  My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
That is the turning point.  No matter what happens, this passage summarizes the end result.  God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever!  When I find myself going through tough times, this will be a passage I will look to for comfort and for that reminder that the turning point is always there-I just have to choose to accept it.  I remember thinking last week “Every time I see light at the end of the tunnel and I find myself facing bright, sunny days, it seems like there is always another tunnel waiting for me on the other side!” That is the very time when I need to be entering the sanctuary of God, giving Him my all, and allowing Him to guide me with His counsel.

 

American Idol

American Idol is one of my favorite television shows.  If I’m not home to see it, it’s being recorded.  This week as Ryan Seacrest stalled for an hour before revealing the results of America’s votes, we were shown video clips of each of the remaining contestants going back to their hometowns.  It was interesting to see all of the fans who showed up-even the contestants were shocked at the massive numbers of people who lined up.   People (mostly girls) were screaming and crying as they caught the first glimpse of their Idol.  One girl was holding a sign that said “I drove 10 hours to see you!”

 

Last night during our E3 group, we discussed a variety of topics.  One of the topics we talked about is worship.    Essentially, the fans I saw at each of the contestants home towns were worshipping their favorite American Idol.  (They don’t use the word “idol” for nothing!) These people weren’t standing in the crowd, unaffected by their surroundings.  They were so excited they couldn’t help but scream and cry and try to get closer to the Idol contestant.  Can you imagine if we as Christians got even half as excited about Jesus Christ as we come to meet him in a worship setting?   Would we drive 10 hours to meet with our Savior?  I am ashamed when I think of the amount of time that I devote to the Creator of the Universe compared to the time that I spend idolizing things-and people (I voted 305 times) on this fleeting earth.  I know that our lives here on earth are nothing in the grand scheme of things, and yet I find myself all wrapped up in it so often.  It is unfathomable that as teeny tiny and unirghteous as I am, God still cares about me.  He is bigger than my mind can even comprehend, and I am His child!  That’s pretty exciting if you ask me!

 I am a flower quickly fading
Here today and gone tomorrow
A wave tossed in the ocean
A vapor in the wind
Still You hear me when I’m calling
Lord, You catch me when I’m falling
And You’ve told me who I am
I am Yours, I am Yours
(Casting Crowns “Who Am I?”)

Abounding In Joy…

This morning’s words are not my own, but rather I have shamelessly pilfered them from a man I admire greatly…Mr. Charles Spurgeon.  I ask you to read this very slowly. It was my third time through it before the truth of it really sunk in.

 

I know how to abound…     Phil. 4:12

It is a dangerous thing to be prosperous. The crucible of adversity is a less severe trial to the Christian than the refining-pot of prosperity. It needs more than human skill to carry the brimming cup of mortal joy with a steady hand; yet Paul had learned that skill, for he declares, “In all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry.” When we have much of God’s providential mercies it often happens that we have but little of God’s grace; satisfied with earth, we are content to do without Heaven. Rest assured, it is harder to know how to be full than it is to know how to be hungry, so desperate is the tendency of human nature to pride and forgetfulness of God. Take care that you ask in your prayers that God would teach you “how to be full.”

Spurgeon

Give me words to speak…

Beauty Beyond Compare

 Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law. Psalm 119:18

 

Wow. Those would be my words to describe the beautiful area of West Virginia we visited. It is a mostly mountainous area packed with miles of beautiful forestry and landscaping; and it just makes me stop and ponder the hand that created it all. Sometimes it takes displacing me outside my known little world for me to understand there is more to appreciate than what I do. Sometimes I am so content in familiarity to even notice the other beautiful things around me. This trip however, was a smorgasbord of sensory delight to be such a miniscule object amidst the vast creation around me. I absolutely love being in nature and when you couple that with being in the water, I’m pretty much one happy camper so to speak. The white water rafting revealed the awesome power of God’s finger at work and it definitely left me impressed. As I reflect on the trip and replay the memories over in my mind, I realize yet another lesson in my spiritual walk. A wise man once said “The eye never has enough of seeing nor the ear its fill of hearing”, and I thought how much more so is the heart always longing to be satisfied. As we rafted this weekend my eyes were constantly scanning my surroundings, absorbing every bit of detail that I could find. With all the beauty the state has to offer, none of it can satisfy the heart the way God can. How much more so should I desire to scan the beauty of God’s Word to glean every facet of every detail when I read? So many times a devotional can be more like a ride into work rather than a great new adventure…all because I fail to look for the details that surround me. God’s Word has the ability to touch the heart in ways that cannot be expressed and sometimes I just need a little reminder.

 

Give me words to speak…

 

 

God’s Boolean Logic

And He Himself is the propitiation (the atoning sacrifice) for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world. 1 John 2:2

This morning I found myself dwelling on this verse, but my real thoughts centered on the words propitiation and atonement. Let me throw out some synonyms for a second… reconciliation, satisfaction, appease, conciliate, pacify. I’ve listed just a few words just to explain what it means to make something that was wrong, ok again.  These are words that by definition speak of gaining or regaining favor with someone.  Obviously, the words in context are used to describe how the death of Jesus Christ pacified God’s anger toward you and I as believers.

Indulge me for a moment so that I may help you understand what I’m about to say.

We live in an apartment building where courtesy is sometimes lacking. Last night while we slept, the neighbor’s dog downstairs decided to break the silence…relentlessly. Now this dog is a large basset hound and when he sounds off it’s like a fog horn blowing.  Jen and I lay there talking about how we wish the stupid dog would shut up so we could get some sleep. Now let me apply some messed up human logic. “This dog just woke us up from sleep and won’t shut up… I should go beat our cat or one of the kids to make things better”…it makes perfect sense, right??? Do you see where I’m going with this? Beating the cat or one of the kids would not serve one ounce of satisfying my craving to thump the neighbors downstairs for not quieting their dog. And yet God saw fit to do that very thing…to punish a perfectly innocent victim for our transgressions. I find that utterly amazing. In my human wisdom, that makes no sense nor does it even seem logical. And so another verse comes to mind…

“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:9)”

I don’t consider my neighbors my enemies by any means but this only furthers the vast difference between the way God thinks and I think because the bible clearly says while we were yet enemies of God, Christ died for us…and somehow God was ok with that. It’s hard for me to wrap my mind around allowing innocence to be punished for our crimes; the mere thought seems to conflict with logic itself. Boolean logic can be an outrageously simple principle, but  I find it easy to get lost and confused in Boolean logic because some formulas exceed the capacity of my brain to compute…yet when done properly  it always works. I don’t always understand God, but I know and trust that He has already done the math on atonement. God clearly knows more about forbearance, love and sacrifice than I will ever comprehend.

 Give me words to speak…