Blessed Assurance

Isaiah 42:16

"I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them."

And so, when I find myself groping blindly along ways I don't know, along unfamiliar paths, I can rest assured that He will guide me. What a word of promise to hang onto.

On one hand, it's a little frightening to receive a verse like this. It's not as though I haven't traveled along many unknown and unfamiliar paths, it's just that I can't help but wonder if things are going to be such that I will need this verse and the truths it teaches to hang onto to. Is God preparing me for even more unfamiliar paths by showing me these truths? 

Just when I start to permit my thoughts to travel down that foreboding trail, God reminds me that He has not given me a spirit of fear. God is not the author of anything grounded in fear. This, then, is a reminder that in the seeming darkness through which I have traveled, God has been with me. He has been my guide. It is He who has turned the darkness into light and He has never forsaken me, nor will He. 

A promise for the past and a promise for the future. A reminder that even if I encounter strange, unknown paths where I am seemingly blind, I have no reason to fear. Why should I fear when God almighty has promised to be my guide, to smoothen the rough places for me, to shed light on the path and that He will never forsake me. 

Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!

Simply Breathtaking

"We can know that God has a mighty plan and that through His mighty plan God will look breathtaking." ... Jon Lyndon

A one sentence excerpt from Sunday's sermon, but what a loaded statement. It's a nice one to chew on when life seems to be dealing you a hand you would love to dispose of. The first part alone is powerful enough on it's own. "We can know that God has a mighty plan ..." Resting on the knowledge of truth, acknowledging that God has a plan ... not only a plan but a mighty plan. That alone can turn my world on it's axis as I acknowledge that, no, bad stuff doesn't just happen so suck it up, but rather, all things in my life are woven into God's mighty plan. Things do not just happen by chance. Even the seemingly horrible stuff which I can't begin to imagine as part of God's plan, as something He would send my way, is part of His mighty plan. 

Does that get your attention like it got mine? Yes, all the bad stuff is also part of His mighty plan. Now, before you take up stones and come looking for me, allow me a little bit of latitude as I explain. While it may an entirely true and trustworthy statement to say that there are things which occur in my life which God did not design for my life, it is equally true to say that nothing gets through to me without God's permission. What is permitted by God is also used by God to work to good in my life.

The real clincher in that statement, for me, was the last part, "through His mighty plan God will look breathtaking". God is to be glorified, it is His will, it is His desire. When the Almighty desires something, nothing stands in His way. God is going to look breathtaking. That's His plan. My life being part of His plan ensures that what I experience will not rob God of looking breathtaking. Can't get better insurance than that!

And Just When

Just when I feel like yelling at God, at throwing a nice tantrum and telling Him all this isn't fair, just then the Apostle Paul speaks to me from beyond the pale. No no, don't start thinking I'm channeling or communicating with the departed, only reading the written Word. 

1 Corinthians 15:1, "Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand." Thank you very much, but I didn't want a reminder! I wanted to feel sorry for myself and needed someone else to blame for it. No, Paul wants to remind me of the gospel he preached, which I received and on which I have taken my stand. 

It's good to get those reminders. Good to have my attention drawn back to the gospel, the good news, of Jesus Christ. To be reminded that is on this that I have taken my stand. I've planted my feet on the good news of Jesus and chosen to stand there. One of the luxuries of that stand is that I'm not bound by self-pity anymore. Yes, that's a luxury! I don't have to go through the misery, the despair, the pain of a pity party. Sure, the enemy would be more than happy to drag me back there. Sure, he likes to bill it as a "right", as something I'm "entitled" to. He even stoops so low as to whisper, quite convincingly, that God has big shoulders and won't be offended by my lashing out and yelling at Him. 

While that may well be true, as a father I think I can confidently say, He takes much more pleasure in me not throwing a tantrum and walking victoriously. So while God can handle me being angry at Him, He and I are both much happier if I choose not to. 

It's good to be reminded of the things I've chosen as my foundation. Something about the word 'foundation' that kind of makes me think I really need to stand there. Wandering back and forth with the slightest wind really doesn't lend itself to the whole concept of foundation. I guess I best climb back up on that Rock!

(Which reminds me of an image God gave me Sunday morning. It was of His hand being beneath me, shielding every step from the surface below. It was as if He was saying, "you don't need to concern yourself about the condition of the path, just keep stepping in My hand and you'll be just fine.")

It Just Doesn't Get Any Better

 Just how good do God's gifts for me get? Can I outdream His generousity, what are the limits to his benevolence? We don't really think that way - do we? I guess I can't speak for you, but when I analyze my thinking, my actions, I think I'd have to say that I do. It shows in little things. Things like, "oh no, I won't ask for prayer, it's just a headache", or "not to worry, I'll get through this" and not asking my Father for help, not asking friends to ask Him on my behalf. 

Just who do I think I'm talking about when I decide what He will or won't give me? Just who do I think I am to make that decision for Him. To decide how good God is. It kind of draws me up short when I think of it in those terms. How dare I presume to sit in judgment of God? In judgment of, "He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?" 

How dare I ever think anything is too small or too big for my Father to give me? I dare I make God smaller and less than He is? My Father, Who gave His own Son on my behalf, has already given the greatest, the best, gift I could possibly ever receive. All the rest is small potatoes in comparison. What a wonderful Daddy I have, and the gifts He gives ... well, it just doesn't get any better!

This Debt I Owe

I know I've read Romans. I know I have, and yet I cannot recall ever reading this verse. Okay, I did a bit of translation comparison and I do recall it in the KJV but somehow it doesn't quite speak to me the way the NIV does on this verse. "Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law.", Romans 13:8

"except the continuing debt to love one another", has to be one of the coolest statements of all time. I've always been of the mindset that I get to choose who I will love. On one hand, that is correct. I do get to choose, in the same way I get to choose whether or not I'm going to be obedient. What I don't get to choose, however, is my obligation to love you. It is a debt I owe you, to love you.

The writer of Romans tells us not to owe anyone anything, except to love them. In the same way that I am obliged to pay my taxes, I am obliged to love those around me. The big difference is that each year I clean up the slate the government holds and I don't continue in that debt. When it comes to love, I can never fulfill my obligation, never pay off the debt I owe.

For some reason, I find this exilharating. Not only am I called to love others, even commanded to love others, but I owe it to them. They are right in having a legal expectation that I will love them. This truth rings the death knell to so many of the enemies lies. "That person is unloveable", "That person does not deserve love", "oh what a wonderful person you are to love that person". Lies, lies, lies. First the enemy would have us feel justified in not loving those around us. If he fails in convincing us that God's commands don't apply in the situation, he turns and tells us how "wonderful" we are, that we would love the unloveable.

If he is unable to conquer me with the lie of rebellion, he comes to me with the lie of religion. If he can't convince me that obedience to God can be overlooked due to the circumstances, he tries to convince me what a wonderful person I must be for loving the unlovable. Both are lies. Both are put to death with this truth, "the continuing debt to love one another". As a debt I owe, neither is payment optional nor am I to be commended for making payment on the debt.

Definitely one for me to remember and chew on for a while. This debt I owe, to love others.

Dinner for Two

Sitting here with a smile on my face, poised to write about the manna I received today ... and I'm drawing a blank. No, it's not that God didn't feed me today. I even had an epiphany moment after which I thought, "now there's my manna for today". But sitting here now, I can't articulate it. I'm thinking that perhaps it was for me alone today ... not trying to be selfish but sometimes that may be the case. Just going on record, saying, God was good to me today and He 'fed' me my daily portion. You know, it's kind of nice to have a special meal with the Father which He doesn't want me to share.

On a side note, LG was awesome tonight. God is so good. Did I say good? I meant to say incredibly awesome. Or better yet, in the words of Job, (yes the one in the Old Testament) "And these are the outer fringe of his works; how faint the whisper we hear of him! Who then can understand the thunder of his power?" Love those verses. It's in Job 26 if you really want to read the context ... it's definitely worth the trip.

Even in This

At the risk of sounding redundant, or seeming to be ruminating on yesterdays manna ... God has been talking to me about worship again. It may have to do with the fact that I'm preparing to lead worship for our Life Group tomorrow night. For those who are wondering what a Life Group is, it's a small group from my church which meets weekly. Anyhow, God's really been speaking to me the past several days about worship, more specifically about when it's appropriate for me to worship.

Now that may seem, to some of you, to be a fairly straightforward issue. You can likely even guide me quickly to several Psalms where the psalmist admonishes us to be praising God at all times. That's the neat and tidy answer. Being a black and white person I like neat and tidy answers. The harsh reality, however, is that life sometimes doesn't present itself in neat and tidy packages.

Sure, if I stop to think about it, I can list a lot of things in the past six months for which I should (and readily could) praise God. That said, this same time frame has easily been the most difficult, most challenging time in my life. Never has my faith been as sorely tried, never has my self esteem been as battered or my mental state been as tested as in the past six months. I have frequently questioned whether God has His hand in my life and if He does, what His intentions might be.

It is in these darkest hours that I have found it the most difficult to worship God. To lift up His name and exalt Him. To praise Him for Who He is and for what He has done.

The past two days, God has been showing me first through King Nebuchadnezzar and then through Job that worship is not to be conditional on my circumstances. God brought Nebuchadnezzar to declare God's greatness not in the cradle of blessing but rather in the total estrangement from humanity. While he was in the fields eating grass with the animals, Nebuchadnezzar lifts his face to the heavens and extols the virtues of God.

Job, in the midst of trials I cannot even begin to imagine, does not turn his back on God nor does he curse God. When He challenges God to meet with Him so that he can plead his case to God, God shows up. In the latter chapters of Job, chapter 38 and following, God speaks to Job. God basically tells Job exactly where mankind sits on the continuum of created beings to deity. God explains in very succinct terms, to Job, that mankind has neither the experience nor the knowledge to begin to question God's actions. God is God and no one, regardless of how devout he or she may be is either qualified or entitled to call God's actions into question.

The psalmist writes, in Psalm 62:1, "My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him." It is in light of acknowledging God for who He is, that I can begin to echo the psalmist's words. My soul, does indeed, find rest in God alone. He is my salvation in all circumstances of my life.

Blessed be the name of the Lord!