Month: June 2020

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” 1 Peter 2:9

            Do you ever feel that you’re different? I don’t mean that you’re odd or weird. I mean that as a Christian, you’re just different from the rest of society. It’s not just a feeling. It’s the truth. We are different. Just take a look at this verse. There’s so much in here! First it says we’re chosen. Let that sink in for a little. Have you ever been chosen for something and had the feeling deep down inside that if they only knew the real you, they wouldn’t have chosen you? I know I have. No one knows us like God. He knows us even better than we know ourselves. He knows every sordid detail, every thought we’ve ever had, every secret wish of our hearts, every emotion we’ve tried to hide. He knows it all. And still He chose us. He chose you. He chose me. We belong to Him. He didn’t choose us out of pity. It’s true that we can’t redeem ourselves. Only God can do that for us. But it’s not the kind of situation where He saw these poor, pitiful creatures who would be lost without His help, so He had pity and with a sigh of resignation, decided to help us out. That’s not it at all! He chose us because He loves us that much!

            He didn’t just lift us out of the pit of sin and death so that we’re “good enough.” After lifting us out, He continued to raise us up so He could make us royalty. And make us priests. And make us holy. That’s so much to digest right there! What does it mean to be royal? Well, it means we’re children of the King. And not just any king. We’re children of the King of kings. We Americans don’t usually think of royalty very much since it doesn’t exist in our country. Suffice to say that no one can ever change our status. No matter what someone else says or does, and no matter what we say or do, we’re still children of our Father, the King. As for being priests, I usually think of priests as wearing special clothes that differentiate them from others. So do we. We are clothed in righteousness and humility. A priest is also someone who performs certain functions to help bring others to God. What about us? Do we do and say things that will bring others to the foot of the cross?

            This verse says we’re holy. We’re set apart. We’re not like the rest of the world around us. In fact, in some ways we’re the exact opposite. The world goes after fame and fortune. We go after Jesus and His teachings. The world values status. We value humility. The world seeks fleshly pleasure. We experience the deep joy that comes from the Holy Spirit. We’re also a nation. In the Old Testament, God had ordained Israel to be His holy nation. After the death and resurrection of Christ, all believers make up His nation. That means that because of our connection with Christ, we have a special connection with one another. We’re all part of a bigger whole with a unique kinship that may not exist if we’re weren’t connected in Him. All of this is because we belong to Him.

            What is to be our response to all of this? We are to declare His praises. In fact, when we fully realize all that He’s done for us, we can’t help but erupt into praise. We were in complete darkness and He brought us out into His wonderful light. How can we not want to praise Him for that? I’ll tell you how. When we become used to it and begin to take it for granted. We can become hardened to the glory of all He’s done for us. Oh, we may not admit it out loud. We still agree that He is to be praised, but we don’t feel it on the inside. I used to worry about that but I’ve come to realize that it’s okay. If I don’t feel the praise welling up, it doesn’t mean I’m ungrateful or a bad Christian. It just means that my emotions haven’t kept up with what the rest of me knows to be true. There could be any number of reasons for that. Everything from neglecting my time with God to not getting enough sleep last night. Notice the verse doesn’t say that we are to feel like praising. It says to declare praises. If we do, the feelings will come later. Sometime much later, but they’ll come. In the meantime, remember who you are. You are chosen, you’re royal, a priest, holy, connected to others, and you belong to God. Then praise Him for all He’s done and is doing in and through you.

“For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.” Luke 9:24

            How many of you really enjoy change? There are some who do. They relish change. They look forward to the next change they’ll experience in life. I’ve noticed something about people like that, though. They enjoy change as long as the change is something “good,” or at least neutral. But if the change is to something they think is bad, they don’t like that change so much. And who would? None of us hopes that things will get worse! Many of us don’t like change. Even if we don’t mind it, we want to be somewhat in control of the change. We want to make sure that the change isn’t going to make things worse for us. And if it does, we want to know what’s coming so we can prepare. Since none of us knows the future, some people prepare by expecting the worst.

            Over the last few months, we have all experienced a great deal of change. Most of it has been changes that we couldn’t have foreseen. Therefore, many weren’t emotionally prepared. There’s been a lot of talk about when things get “back to normal.” Many people, myself included, have been looking forward to that day. But will things really ever get back to the way they were? Do we even want them to? For that matter, do we really know what we want? There have been so many times when I thought I knew what I wanted but God gave me something different. That was hard until I realized that the new normal was better than the old normal. Even though I remember those times well, I still want to hang onto the normal I had a few months ago, the one I had become comfortable with.

            What does all of this have to do with this verse from Luke? I’ve come to realize that my desire for things to go back to the way they were is idolatry. I’m telling God that I know what’s best and whatever He has planned isn’t as good as what I want. Honestly, it doesn’t always seem as good from a human perspective. Maybe we’ve lost something dear to us, or at least something we relied on. A relationship, a loved one, an income, our health, a dream. The loss of any of those things is hard. But God can use even those things to draw us closer to Him. In fact, sometimes we need to get those things out of the way in our hearts to make room for God. In other words, we need to let go of what we thought was life in order to experience His fullness of life. It’s not easy. But then, Jesus didn’t say it would be. But He did say it would be worth it! So I’m starting to pry my fingers free of the grip they have on what I think I want. I want to open my hands to receive what God has planned for me. I don’t know what it’s going to be. I don’t know when it will happen. I don’t know if it’s going to be “good” or “bad” from a human perspective. But I do know that God wants only the best for me. So it’s time to let go!

“[Trials] have come so that your faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire – may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” 1 Peter 1:7

            What an interesting and hopeful verse! What trials are you experiencing? You notice I didn’t ask IF you’re experiencing trials. If you’re breathing, you have trials. Of course, we go through seasons when the trials aren’t as difficult as other times, but they’re still there. Our God makes use of everything. Our joys, our concerns, our tears – all are used by Him to shape us and mold us. Too often, I just want the trials to go away. I want the difficulty to end, or to just feel better. In my finite thinking, a good God would smooth my road and make everything easy and comfortable. Aren’t you glad I’m not God? Our God’s love is so great that He wouldn’t do that to us. Instead, He faces our difficulties with us. We know that He’s walking with us every step of the way. Not only that, He’s using those difficulties to a great purpose. If we’re tempted to give up or give in but we don’t, if we say no to temptation and cling to God for all we’re worth, that’s when God takes that faith and uses it for something pretty magnificent.

            The apostle compared this experience with gold being refined in fire. When gold is mined it has impurities in it. Because gold can stand more heat than the impurities, it’s put into a hot fire to burn away the parts that aren’t valuable, leaving behind pure gold. That’s what God does for us. He burns away those impurities of our sinful nature, leaving behind the valuable part. And that valuable part is our faith in Him. In fact, it’s more valuable than purified gold. Even purified gold will someday cease to exist. It will come to an end. But our faith – well, that will last for all eternity. In fact, when Christ returns, our faith will be shown for what it is. On that day we will know how genuine our faith is. And it can only be genuine if we have faith in God, not in ourselves.

            The end of this verse was a little confusing for me. Who will receive the praise, glory and honor? Will it be Jesus or will it be us? I began to look into that a little until I realized that it doesn’t really matter. If Peter is saying that we will receive those things, we will receive them because of our faith in Jesus. Therefore, we will very willingly give Him all that we are and have. That means that if we have any praise, glory or honor we will lay those at the feet of Jesus. Isn’t this a wonderful quandary?! We can’t attain salvation or sanctification on our own, so Jesus came to live, die, and be resurrected for us. God even gives us the faith to be able to put our trust in Jesus. He helps us to endure trials so that faith can be purified. At the end of time, Jesus will return and at that time our faith, the faith God gave us and purified for us, will result in praise, glory and honor. He has done and is doing all the hard stuff. All we have to do is hold on to Him. So back to those trials you’re experiencing – just hang on to God! I know it can be hard. Sometimes it may seem as if you won’t be able to make it. You don’t know how you can possibly hang on another day. Don’t worry about tomorrow. Just for today, just for this minute, hang on! He will see you through.

“The Lord watches over the alien and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.” Psalm 146:9

            I just love our Father’s heart! He cares so much for the ones who are most vulnerable. The ones who can easily slip through the cracks of society, the ones who go through life not being seen by others. Those are the very ones surrounded by His love and care. There are three groups of people mentioned in this verse: the alien, the fatherless, and the widow. Why do you suppose those three were chose? In that time, the alien could never be a full and complete member of society. Their society revolved around their religion. There was no such thing as separation of church and state. They were a nation specifically because of their religion. To be a full and functioning part of society included being a part of the corporate worship of God. So an alien would have not been just another nationality, but another religion. Therefore, they would never have been able to fully enter into the most important parts of society, those practices that bound the people together. In that patriarchal society, the fatherless and the widow would have been extremely vulnerable. Even today, single mothers tend to live at a lower socio-economic level than families with two parents. Back then, women couldn’t work at all, leaving them and their children poor and defenseless. Those are the ones God watches over.

            The psalmist goes on to say that the Lord is opposed to the ways of the wicked. I’ve always assumed this meant that He will stop the wicked from doing their wicked deeds. This obviously doesn’t happen, though. Wickedness and evil continue to be prevalent in our society. In fact, at times it seems to be getting worse, not better. So what does this mean? The word translated “frustrates” means to make crooked or to twist. If the Psalmist had meant to say that the Lord would stop or overthrow the wicked, a different word would have been used. But there are two things that became clear to me. First, He doesn’t stop them. And second, He frustrates the ways of the wicked, not the wicked themselves. Let me explain. I’ve said that God defends the defenseless. That doesn’t mean He doesn’t also love the wicked. He does. He loves everyone and doesn’t want anyone to perish. But while He doesn’t destroy the person, He does go to work on their wicked ways. Another way to word it would be to say that He makes their path, or their journey, crooked or twisted. They may think they’re the ones in control of their destiny, that when they take advantage of the defenseless, they’re helping themselves. But God will make sure that their life’s journey will take twists and turns they never expected, all to bring them to Him.

            There are three broad categories of people: the defenseless, the wicked, and those who are neither. I would suspect that most of us fall into that last category most of the time. Let me speak first to the defenseless. There is hope. God is for you. I know it can seem like you’re constantly beaten down but take heart! God sees and He hears. And He’s acting on your behalf. If you find yourself in the category of the wicked, praise God that you see that! Go to God, repent and ask His help to change your ways. He’s ready and waiting to receive you into His loving arms. What about those of us who are usually in the middle-of-the-road category? Let’s ask ourselves if we have a heart like God’s. Do we see the broken, the down-trodden, the hurting, the weak? When we do see them, what do we do to help them? Are we joining God in His work of sustaining them? Or are we looking the other way, hoping the “problem” will somehow go away on its own? I’m asking God to open my eyes to the hurt and pain in the world around me and praying He’ll give me His heart for others.

“And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.” Mark 11:25

            Forgiveness. What a joyful and awful word! We love it when we receive forgiveness, don’t we? When we know we’ve done wrong and yet are completely forgiven for that wrong, the only possible response is joy. But according to this verse, in order to receive that forgiveness, we need to forgive others. That’s the awful part. Why would God say that we have to forgive before He’ll forgive us? It’s not because He’s trying to strong-arm us into forgiving. Or because He’s being petty and saying, “Well, you didn’t forgive, so why should I?” The reason is because if we don’t forgive, we’re choosing to place a barrier between us and God. We’re choosing to hold on to the anger and the hurt rather than allow God to heal those wounds within us.

            I used to think I was a pretty good forgive-er. I came to realize that I’m a pretty good excuser. I can come up with possible reasons why the person did what they did. Maybe they cut me off in traffic because they’re later for work, or they just received an emergency phone call. Maybe they were rude to me because they had a fight with their spouse that morning or their kids are acting out. But I’ve come to realize that true forgiveness is when there is no excuse. Our country is reeling right now from the recorded actions of an individual who should have been there to protect and serve. The video seems to prove that there was no excuse for his actions. This happened at the same time that I was realizing I have never truly forgiven the murderer of a friend of mine. Although it happened several years ago, that justified anger and blame was welling up in me – again. In the face of such inexcusable and despicable behavior, how do we possibly forgive?

            Let’s talk about what forgiveness isn’t. It isn’t excusing the behavior. What the person did was wrong and there’s no getting around that. Even if there is an excuse, it was still wrong behavior. Forgiveness is also not letting the person off the hook. There will always be consequences for our behaviors. Those consequences may include such things as fines, jail time, broken relationships, or a myriad of other possible consequences. If their behavior was dangerous and/or criminal, they should pay the consequences. Even if it seems they got away with it here, God sees it and will deal with that person. Forgiveness is not condoning the behavior. When we forgive, we’re not saying the actions were okay. Forgiveness is also not a feeling. If we wait until we feel like forgiving, Satan will make sure we never feel that way.

            So what is forgiveness? First, it’s not about the guilty person. It’s not telling the other person we are letting them off the hook. It’s letting ourselves off the hook. Let me explain. We think that if we hold on to our grudge, we’re making that person pay. Our anger or hate is somehow causing them hurt and pain. The reality is that it usually doesn’t hurt them in the least. They’re probably not even aware that we’re in turmoil over it. I’ve heard it said before that not forgiving someone is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die. So when we forgive, we let ourselves off the hook of having to be the one to exact revenge on the other person. We free our emotions to receive healing from God. Forgiveness is telling God that we want Him to deal with the other person and we’re asking Him to make us whole and fill us with His peace and joy.

            I said earlier that forgiveness isn’t a feeling. It’s a choice. Feelings always follow our thoughts. It’s when we feel least like forgiving that it’s most important to take that to God and ask Him to take the anger and bitterness away. We make the decision that we will no longer hold this against the other person. That doesn’t mean we won’t seek justice when that’s necessary. It does mean we’ll constantly check our motives to make sure we’re really wanting justice, not revenge. And then we move on with our life. We don’t let what happened hold us back from the fullness of life that God desires for us. My prayer for myself, and for our nation, is that we would learn to forgive, truly forgive, even as we strive for justice for all.