Frightful Possibilities

Frightful possibilities loom on our horizon these days. 

Politics is scary.  International terrorism is scary.  Morality is scary.  Economics is scary.  The pressure to be afraid is on, now as never before, because our technological advances allow evil to happen on an increasingly global scale, and, also because of technology, we cannot ignore what's going on around us anymore.  

There is no place to hide.

Wait.  There is One place.  One secure place.  One only.  And because of that, for the Christian, fear is a wrong reaction, now more than ever. 

God has been so faithful for so many millennia.  He will not change.  In this world of ever-increasing threats and challenges, He is still in control.  He knows the end from the beginning, and He is not worried.  He has already established the outcome, and, as His creation was good in the beginning, so will his outcome be in the end.  

He rides in triumph over the tumultuous seas of our world, and of our lives.

But lately, in spite of these truths,  I have managed to live on top of the fear only by breathing the commands of Joshua 1:9 to myself constantly. 

God says to Joshua, and to us,

"Have I not commanded you?  Be strong and courageous.  Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go."

As Christians, we are the only ones who need not fear, no matter what comes.  Because of Jesus, our souls are firmly anchored in a glorious, eternal future.  As we stand tall in that security, we are a testimony to God's goodness and faithfulness.  We are beacons that God will use to draw others to Himself.

What Bible verses do you rely on to give you strength and courage as you face today's challenges?  There are so many good ones.  Let's collect them.  If you comment with your favorites, I'll re-post.  We need to remind each other and ourselves of the great goodness and wisdom and power of our God, more and more as we see the day approaching.

In 1 Thessalonians 5, Paul says: 

I don’t think, friends, that I need to deal with the question of when all this is going to happen. You know as well as I that the day of the Master’s coming can’t be posted on our calendars. He won’t call ahead and make an appointment any more than a burglar would. About the time everybody’s walking around complacently, congratulating each other—“We’ve sure got it made! Now we can take it easy!”—suddenly everything will fall apart. It’s going to come as suddenly and inescapably as birth pangs to a pregnant woman.

But friends, you’re not in the dark, so how could you be taken off guard by any of this? You’re sons of Light, daughters of Day. We live under wide open skies and know where we stand. So let’s not sleepwalk through life like those others. Let’s keep our eyes open and be smart. People sleep at night and get drunk at night. But not us! Since we’re creatures of Day, let’s act like it. Walk out into the daylight sober, dressed up in faith, love, and the hope of salvation.

God didn’t set us up for an angry rejection but for salvation by our Master, Jesus Christ. He died for us, a death that triggered life. Whether we’re awake with the living or asleep with the dead, we’re alive with him! So speak encouraging words to one another. Build up hope so you’ll all be together in this, no one left out, no one left behind. I know you’re already doing this; just keep on doing it.

1 Thessalonians 5:1-11, from The Message (MSG), via Bible Gateway:

3 Reasons To Be Acts-Age Christians In a New-Age World

I've been reading in Acts lately and discovering things I never noticed before.

Such fun!

ACTS-AGE CHRISTIANS

The book of Acts has much to say to those of us in the 21st century who want to influence our culture for good and for God.  Some things haven't changed in 2000 years, and we can learn from Paul's experiences as he introduces the pagan world of his time to God's truth.

Acts 17:1-4 gives an account of Paul's presentation of the Gospel in Thessalonica, where "a large number of God-fearing Greeks and not a few prominent women" became believers, and verses 5-9 describe the opposition to Paul's preaching.

It's interesting to note the parallels between the two sections of the story. Both involve actions by people designed to change other people.  Both succeed in bringing about change.  But the contrasts between the two halves of the story are even more striking.

The choice of verbs in both passages casts the two events into stark relief.

In the first part of the story, Paul, preaching in the synagogue, reasons, explains, proves, and proclaims his message.  As a result, people are persuaded.  Changes in the hearts of Paul's converts come about voluntarily as a result of Paul's approach--his thoughtful, rational arguments.

In the second part of the story, "other Jews," in the marketplace, "rounded up some bad characters. . ., formed a mob, and started a riot in the city." They rushed to the house where Paul was staying, they dragged the homeowner to the civil authorities, they shouted their accusations, and "the city officials were thrown into turmoil."  They made the men post bond and then let them go.

The first approach is rational and thoughtful.  It gently and reasonably persuades. The second is irrational, passionate and violent.  It brings about change by force.

OUR NEW-AGE WORLD

This kind of violent and unreasoned response to the Gospel is rampant in our age.  It flourishes on the internet, where random and thoughtless rants are so easy to spread "in the marketplace."  

The mob that is firmly attached to the world wide web is so huge, so uncontrollable, and so easy to stir up, that I believe Christians proclaiming the Gospel today are going to suffer more vicious attacks in the next few years than they did in Nero's time.

Scary?  Yes.  But just as human nature has not changed in the last 2000 years, so has God's character not changed.  His promises still stand.  The encouragement he gave to Joshua as the Israelites were moving into the Promised Land is ours to claim as well.  God said to Joshua, "Have I not commanded you?  Be strong and courageous.  Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go." (Joshua 1:9) 

We do not need to be afraid.  We just need to trust and obey.

THREE REASONS

If we're looking for specific things to take away from the story in Acts 17,  here are three:

1. First, we need to be aware of this reality so we aren't surprised when the persecution comes to us. 

2. Second, we should cultivate in our hearts the same desire Paul had under the circumstances: "that I should never be in any way ashamed, but that now, as always, I should honor Christ with the utmost boldness by the way I live, whether that means I am to face death or to go on living." (Philippians 1:20)

3. And third, we need to be careful that we don't become a part of the raving, maniacal, internet mob.  The other day I, wise, careful, critical thinker that I am, sent out a warning to my Facebook friends that turned out to be a hoax.  And that's not the first time I've done something like that.

So much for the intellectual and spiritual pride, full of disdain for the foolish mob, that has crept into my heart since I've become internet savvy.  I may have escaped some of the wrong-headed thinking out there, but I have absorbed more than I'd like to believe of the critical, cynical attitude that pervades the secular worldview "proclaimed" on the internet.  

We, as believers in this unbelieving age, need to be "as wise as serpents and as harmless as doves" as we move in and out of the synagogues and marketplaces of our world.  We need to "speak the truth in love." 

We need to become Acts-age Christians in our New-age world, for Jesus' sake and for the sake of people around us who belong to Him but don't yet know it.  

P.S.  Here's an interesting news item that illustrates how mob mentality might be being used by violent, angry people to throw our present day world into turmoil.

New York Times:

U.S. Arms Sales Make Up Most of Global Market

By THOM SHANKER

Published: August 26, 2012

           

WASHINGTON — Weapons sales by the United States tripled in 2011 to a record high, driven by major arms sales to Persian Gulf allies concerned about Iran’s regional ambitions, according to a new study for Congress.

Overseas weapons sales by the United States totaled $66.3 billion last year, or more than three-quarters of the global arms market, valued at $85.3 billion in 2011. Russia was a distant second, with $4.8 billion in deals.

  

 Psalm 76:

God is renowned in Judah; in Israel his name is great.  His tent is in Salem (peace) his dwelling place in Zion (with His people).  

There he broke the flashing arrows, the shields and the swords, the weapons of war.

  

There's a great day coming. . .

No Footrpints in the Sand

My heart is heavy.  Summer weather has finally come.  I should be enjoying the August sun and the season of rest before school starts.  Instead I'm struggling to hang onto joy.  What a waste of beautiful weather!

But sun in the heart doesn't always follow sun in the sky.  That's life.

Maybe I've been reading too much world news.  

No.  The problem is closer than that.  I'm seeing the spiritual apathy and emptiness in my own little world.  And, too often, in my own little heart. 

I'm comparing the fruitful way God used to work, in both my world and my heart, with the spiritual barrenness that seems to surround me.  I wonder, sometimes, if God is even able to reach any of us in our current culture of self-satisfaction and apathy. 

A TIME FOR DOUBTS

It's somewhat comforting to know I'm not the first to feel this angst.  This morning I opened my Bible to Psalm 77.  In verses 1 and 2, David says,

"I cried out to God for help; I cried out to God to hear me.  When I was in distress, I sought the Lord; at night I stretched out untiring hands, and I would (could?) not be comforted."

David expressed his despair.  Then he did all the right things.  He "remembered" God.  He "meditated."  

But the spiritual exercise didn't help.  When he remembered, he groaned.  When he meditated, his heart grew faint.  The right things didn't lift his spirits.

I love that David never hesitates to plunge into the depths of despair and swim around in there.  The center of the Psalm is full of outrageously negative, ridiculously impossible suggestions:

"Will the Lord reject forever?" 

Of course not. 

"Will He never show his favor again?" 

Doesn't sound like David's God to me.

"Has His unfailing love vanished forever?" 

How can "unfailing" vanish forever?

"Has His promise failed for all time?  
Has God forgotten to be merciful?  
Has He in anger withheld his compassion?"

David knows God doesn't fail to keep His word.  
God doesn't forget.  
And His anger will never supersede his love.

Then the Psalmist thinks about the past, "the years when the Most High stretched out his right hand."  This kind of remembering, of focusing on who God is and what He has done in the past, brings David around.

There is a time to focus on our doubts and fears.  It's just before the time we focus on God.

A TIME FOR REMEMBERING

I think it's interesting that in this Psalm David calls God's people the descendants of Jacob and Joseph.  Why not the usual Abraham and Isaac? 

Jacob wasn't the most upright patriarch.  He did stupid things that resulted in great pain and despair for himself and others.  And Joseph wasn't even in the mainstream of Jewish ancestry.  He was a minor sideshoot, an eddy along the edge of the stream of God's purposes for Israel and the world.

But Jacob and Joseph did have two relevant things in common.  

1.  They both experienced years of wondering where God was. 

Jacob's long years of grieving for his favorite son, Joseph, must have often led him to wonder if God had rejected him forever. 

And Joseph, sold into slavery and languishing in prison for crimes he didn't commit, must have wondered, often, if God had forgotten to be merciful, if He would never show His favor again.

But. . .

2.  Both were delivered into great joy and peace in the end. They found fulfillment and purpose in their suffering, after they'd been refined and God's glory had been displayed through their circumstances.

In verse 19, David remembers that, "though [God's] footsteps were not seen," His path "led (safely) through the sea, through the mighty waters."

And even in the middle of this Psalm full of groans David can still praise God:
"Your ways, God, are holy." 

He can ask one more outrageously obvious question:
"What god is as great as our God?"

Even when there are no footprints in the sand.

The Joy of Rightness

The rightness of God is what makes him worthy of praise and worship.  

Yes, he is powerful, wise and inconceivably great.  Those are all awesome attributes.  But it's his rightness, his righteousness, that makes him worthy.

We love rightness.  And we know, instinctively, what foundational rightness is.  We may be confused about the specifics.  The influence of our godless culture has marred our perception of righteousness in many of the details of ethics and morality.  But we still understand the essential rightness of love, not hate; of peace, not war; of charity, not greed; of humility, not hubris.  

We know what makes the good guy good, and the bad guy bad.

Rightness is good, and God is the essence of rightness.  He is always, completely, amazingly, wonderfully right and good in every way.

And worship of God solely for his rightness is pure, unadulterated joy.

Too Much

Lord, there's just too much.

Too much insecurity. 

Too much evil.

Too much pain.

Too many people to care about and pray for.

Too many distractions.

Too many voices leading away from you.

Too many tweets and twitters.

Too much information. 

"When my heart is overwhelmed, lead me to the rock that is higher than I."

Psalm 61:2

The Rock is secure.

The Rock is right and true.

The Rock is peace.

The Rock is a refuge for all who will come.

The Rock is a focus on reality that matters.

The Rock is a still, small voice.

The voice is confident, full of reassurance.  

Full of quiet, strong, sure, eternal promise of peace and joy.

Jesus and Joy

I'm a cerebral person.  A reasoner.  A lover of words.  I expect God to speak to me in words.  In specific, rational statements. 

He certainly does that.  He gave words to Moses, even wrote them on stone tablets.  He spoke words through the prophets in the Old Testament, and to the disciples hundreds of years later, giving specific instructions about where they should go and what they should do. 

But I'm beginning to understand that God's messages don't always come on the cognitive level. Often they don't involve words at all.  Sometimes they're simply dim impressions.  A fleeting sensation of thought, a vague idea, taking form in bits and pieces, over a period of time.

Lately I've been getting a kind of wordless perception that involves "Jesus" and "joy." 

The first whiff of that breath-taking combination of words was just a fleeting impression of Jesus being joyful, for some reason, or for no reason in particular that I could identify.  Just Jesus and joy, together.  Beside me.  It was a pleasant thought, but didn't seem significant at the time.

A few days later, I received word of my dying friend's vision of Jesus.  She said his eyelashes sparkled (see previous post).  Somehow, maybe because the stage had been set by my first impression, this image of sparkling eyelashes seemed a reflection of Jesus' triumphant joy, like a twinkle in his eye, or a wink, even.

Then the next week, while enjoying Joyce Landorf's book, I Came to Love You Late, I read a description of the meeting of Lazarus and Jesus after Jesus raised his friend from the dead.  Landorf says Lazarus ran to Jesus and they embraced: 

"Then, flinging their heads back, they were absorbed in an exhilarating, yet holy, kind of contagious laughter and joy." 

This, again a visual image, seemed to reinforce the sweet combination of these two "J-word" images.

Why does the information come this way?  Why doesn't Jesus just tell me he's happy, and leave it at that? 

Sometimes he speaks that way.  He makes a simple statement and the words hit me like a wave of warm tropical air that sweeps me away and changes me forever. But it's almost as if God knows I can't truly receive this particular truth in that way. 

Maybe if the knowledge of Jesus' joy is to become more than just a cerebral piece of information, a concept I accept intellectually, something I stand apart from and observe from a distance;

If, instead, it is supposed to penetrate deeply into my spirit, to change me, to make me a participant in his joy;

Then perhaps the perception needs to be placed there, in that spirit space, in a different way than just one simple statement, in words.

Don't get me wrong.  I still believe that words are important, and that God communicates to us through them.  The Bible, the bedrock foundation of all we know about God, is full of words we believe were whispered into the minds of human writers to teach us about Him. But words are just sounds, or marks on paper, until God's Spirit breathes them into our hearts. 

When He does that, communication becomes communion, and we are infused with what he is feeling.  He is feeling joy. 

I still don't feel the Joy of Jesus.  It's not spilling over into my heart right now.  But that's okay.  I believe God is in the process of speaking to me, and that's good.  We walk by faith, not by sight.  Meanwhile, I go forth into this day with an open heart, eager for the next impression of the Joy of Jesus to come.