Have you ever seen a pumpkin carved in this manner? Can you tell what it is? (Hint: Our son Tim carved it as a demonstration of his masters program.)
Well, Halloween is upon us, with All Saints Day quietly on its heels. And whether you dress up, carve pumpkins, pass out candy, and decorate your house, or turn off your porch light and hide in the basement (we've done all of the above over the years, indecisive as we are!), you can't ignore it.
We can celebrate it as Reformation Day (we actually named one of our dogs Martin Luther when we adopted him on October 31st) or All Souls' Day or Halloween, take your pick. But, if nothing else, this day ought to remind us of those who have gone before, those who have fought the good fight and finished the race. Take a walk through Hebrews 11, and marvel at what God has done through His flawed and forgetful people over the centuries. And thousands, maybe millions, more names could be added since then.
In his prayer book, Everyday Prayers, Pastor Scotty Smith today reminds us that the work has always been God's. And he prays: I'm only a saint because the Father has hidden my life in yours. My only "dress" is your righteousness, plus nothing. I will run and finish the race because in you, Jesus, I live, move, and have my being. I will make it to heaven not because of my efforts but because of yours. I'll not busy myself with tricks or treats, because everything that is yours is now mine, Lord Jesus. What wondrous love and eternal inheritance is this, indeed! Check it out tomorrow at http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/scottysmith/. It's worth reading in its entirety.
So snuggle up in the basement this evening, or enjoy the little ghosts and goblins that come to your door. But remember who you are in Christ, not who the world wants you to be. You are a saint because of His work on your behalf.
And the jack-o-lantern above? It's the continents of the world in all their glory. But that's probably another blog post.
But now thus says the LORD,
he who created you, O Jacob,
he who formed you, O Israel:
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
and the flame shall not consume you.
For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior."
(Isaiah 43:1-3 ESV)
We've seen the waters that overwhelm this week in our nation. There are many to pray for.
We have all known waters in our lives that have come up to our chins, even our nostrils. We have feared drowning. One thing we must remember when the drowning time is near: He will be with us; the waters shall not finally overwhelm us. The waters may hurt, they may even destroy, but they will not overwhelm us. We are His, we belong to the Redeemer, Who gave His life for us. He is the Lord our God, the Holy One of Israel, our Savior. We know this to be true. We must remember it in the time of deep waters.
So fear not. If you are redeemed, you are His. He knows you and loves you, and you will not be overwhelmed.
Did you ever notice what the father of the prodigal son did when his son headed down the driveway towards him? Let me show you: But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him (Luke 15:20). Look at all those very active verbs! Look at how he expressed his love for his son. Is this not the way we long to be loved, especially when we have wronged our Father? It's unfathomable, really.
And yet, it's true. Just look for a minute at Ephesians 1: In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. (Ephesians 1:7-10 ESV) And this, while we were yet sinners. This unfathomable love is ours because of Christ. We are not strangers but children, if we belong to Christ.
Take a good long look at those verbs highlighted above. This is our Father, lavishing His love on us. Soak in that image and savor it. It's all true.
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
(Philippians 4:4-7 ESV)
Is this true? Why, when we have given something hard to God, do we not feel the peace? What are we doing wrong? More importantly, where is God and His peace?
Well, in my experience, my anxiety is directly related to how badly I want to fix things, how much I want something to look a certain way, whether or not God does what I want. Does the thing I have prayed about turn around immediately, come out "right", or just go away? No. God hasn't promised that my problem will go away. He does promise His peace.
Maybe my problem is my understanding of who He is and what He is about. His ultimate goal for me is that I might be holy. He accomplishes that goal by giving me all sorts of things, many of them difficult (See Romans 8:28-29). Letting go of these difficult things, even into His capable hands, is not ever easy. But it is necessary.
Look at the first sentence in the verse. As I am giving my problems into His hands, I am also to be rejoicing in Him. Maybe that's where we get stuck. We hand him our difficulties and immediately start wondering how and when He is going to answer, and wondering if there might be some little thing we can do to help.
Rather, we should begin rejoicing. Rejoice in the Lord! In Jeremiah 32, God says, “Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me?
(Jeremiah 32:27 ESV) The answer that resounds throughout eternity, from the Creation of the universe by His mere Word, to the exquisite Supper of the Lamb, is NO, nothing is too hard for You, Lord God Almighty.
Not even my anxieties, problems, sleeplessness, pain. Nothing is too hard or too small for God to know exactly what to do, and to do it.
So rejoice in your pain. Rejoice in His greatness and kindness to you. Rejoice that He is certainly big enough. And enjoy His peace.
We can talk all we want about trusting God and letting Him be sovereign and resting in Him, but there comes a time when we are asked to live it. We look into the future and it is dark. Dark enough, in fact, that we are overwhelmed by it. The proverbial rubber has met the road, and we are undone.
What then? Is God still sovereign, or has He momentarily let go of the universe? Is He powerful enough for my darkness, or do I have to start sending out flares? Is there a moment when He lets go, and I have to figure it out on my own?
This, the very moment when all we want is to give up and give in to the darkness, is the moment we must start remembering. We must remember God's work in our lives in the past; we must conjure up past joys and amazing interventions; we have to make a diligent search in our personal histories for days of long ago when God made Himself abundantly known. Read these words of Asaph, and take heart:
I am so troubled I cannot speak. I consider the days of old, the years long ago. I said, "Let me remember my song in the night; let me meditate in my heart." Then my spirit made a diligent search: "Will the Lord spurn forever, and never again be favorable? Has his steadfast love forever ceased? Are his promises at an end for all time? Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he in anger shut up compassion?"
Then I said, "I will appeal to this, to the years of the right hand of the Most High." I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your wonders of old. I will ponder all your work, and meditate on your mighty deeds. Your way, O God, is holy. What god is great like our God? You are the God who works wonders; you have made known your might among the peoples. You with your right arm redeemed your people. (Psalm 77:4b-15a)
Job says rightly: I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. (19:25).
We may not feel that God is near, but we can know that He is. And, as Jesus told us in John 8, If you abide in my Word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. It is our knowledge of the truth that will set us free to trust Him fully in the darkness. He is strong, He is able, He is gracious and merciful, He alone lights the darkness. Know it and be free to take the next step into it.
Only in God is my soul
at rest.
From Him comes my
salvation.
This is the beginning of Psalm 62 as written into a song by John Michael Talbot.
The NIV puts it this way:
1 Truly my soul finds rest
in God;
my salvation comes from him.
2 Truly he is my rock and my salvation;
he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.
Are you resting in Him like my dog Mr. Knightley is resting in the pillows on my bed? This is what trust looks like: taking your burdens to the Lord, and leaving them there, believing that in Him only is your salvation. Truly, in Him only can you be at peace. He only is your rock and fortress. Drop your burdens there, and rest. Really rest.
This is the "street of gold" that is my backyard today, minus the glow factor. It is simply, brilliantly beautiful. And it gives me a hunger to see that "street of the city . . . pure gold, transparent as glass", that we read of in Revelation 21:21. Can anything be more breathtaking than my backyard at this very moment? Yes, and it awaits those who know Christ as Savior, who have trusted Him for salvation, whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life.
"If then you have been raised with Christ, set your minds on things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God" (Colossians 3:1). "But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved--and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:4-7).
So you see, these streets of gold, far more glorious than my backyard, hard as that is to believe, are our future because of Christ. But more glorious than that is the truth that we will finally see Him face to face, whose glory is far beyond all that we can ask or imagine.
What a glorious fall it has been! The colors declare the glory of God as never before, in my estimation.
And yet God's glory is seen in more than exquisite bits of His creation; we can see it in everyday bits as well. Take Esther 6:1, for starters. On that night the king could not sleep.
Now normally I would not say that a sleepless night in any way demonstrates God's glory. In fact, we do everything we can to avoid sleepless nights--sleeping tablets, no afternoon caffeine, no distractions, fans and heating pads in place.
But this night was different . . . or was it? Could it be that God keeps us awake for reasons that are beyond us? Look what happened in Esther on the night the king could not sleep. He decided to read The Book of Memorable Deeds and discovered that Mordecai had never been honored for saving the king's life. And the story of Jewish annihilation was sharply turned, reversed in fact. Mordecai was honored, Haman was humbled, then killed, and the Jews were saved through a series of amazing events. And all because the king couldn't sleep. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that this sleepless night may be where we see God most clearly in the entire book of Esther.
Don't you love how God uses the very mundane, even irritating, circumstances of our lives to change the course of them? Aren't you grateful that God is sovereign over all things, even our sleep habits? Nothing escapes His notice or thwarts His purposes.
So the next time you have a sleepless night, praise God for His glorious plans.
