CHANGES

 

To everything there is a season,

A time for every purpose under heaven….  (Ecclesiastes 3:1)

I type these words on the first day of fall.  It is a bright day where the sun is still warming the earth—reminders that summer has just ended.  Yet, looking out the window, I see the leaves beginning to take on the spectacular colors from God’s creative palette.  The days are shorter, the nights are cooler—and before you know it we will awaken to a frost coating the roof tops, car windows, and lawns.  My wife loves the fall—and I would not mind it so bad, except those colorful leaves soon turn brown and cover the ground—demanding to be mulched, raked, blown, and piled.  What follows is dreaded by me even more—winter.  Everything looks dead, the wind cuts through you like a knife, snow must be navigated, and the heating costs assault your bank account.  Changes—they are part of life—but, they are not always easy.

We may be a picture of health today and tomorrow comes with a diagnosis of cancer.  Some have enjoyed visits and conversations with elderly parents only to next stand beside a cold body in a casket—our smiles replaced by sobs.  Not all changes are bad, of course.  There is the promotion at the job which increases both pay and satisfaction.  There is the building of a new house.  Perhaps, there is the birth of a new son or daughter.  It may be something as simple as the experience of a new café with excellent food and delightful conversation with friends.

Spring turns to summer and summer yields to autumn and autumn surrenders to winter, only to find spring rising green from a warming ground before you know it.  We have no choice in whether change will come—it will.  We do have a choice in how we respond to that change.

God has a purpose.  He has a plan.  We must always remember this lest we become too comfortable in the good times and too distressed in the tough seasons.  Through it all, God is the unchanging One. He is immutable.  Christ is our anchor to life’s ship beset by winds of change.

These are seasons of change for our church.  Times of challenge are real.  This season does not call for us to give up, but to go on.  Good people have died.  Other fine folks have decided to worship elsewhere.  Familiar faces in leadership have decided to step aside.  We will miss them all.  The worst of it, of course, is that there will always be a few who walk away from the church because they are walking away from God.  That is the most tragic choice of all.

Brighter days are ahead.  There may be a period of more difficulty, but God’s grace will bring us through.  Fall can become winter.  Thank God, winter is followed by spring!  I am grateful for the privilege of serving as your shepherd. Pray that I will be faithful to God’s Word and to His flock.

PURPOSE IN OUR PAIN

Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake.  For when I am weak, then I am strong.  (2 Corinthians 12:10)

If you find pleasure in pain, then you have a psychological problem!  So, how are we to understand what Paul says here?  His pleasure is not in the pain itself, but in the purpose for which God permits it and the result that purpose accomplished.

There is something worse than pain—no pain!  Pain is designed as a warning system.  It alerts us to a problem needing our attention.  For example, suppose we never had pain—then we could stand against a hot stove and never realize it was searing our flesh, or we could have an appendix about to rupture and spread deadly infection throughout our body, without being aware of it.  Of course, we look forward to a land where there is no pain—a place called heaven!  We are not there yet, and so long as we live in this fallen world there will be pain, but for the child of God the purpose our Sovereign Lord accomplishes is worth every hurt.  That there are temporal benefits, and eternal blessings, can even bring us to rejoice and glory in our infirmities.  That is what Paul is describing in 2 Corinthians 12:1-10.

Paul uses the third person in this testimony and identifies himself as, “a man in Christ” (v.2).  Everything is grounded in this relationship.  Being in Christ is transformative.  It is an experience all of grace—for we cannot achieve nor deserve such an exalted position.  Being in Christ means that all Jesus is has become available to us and God does not see us as we are, but as He views His Son.  We may not have had the same experiences as Paul, or the same position as an Apostle, but every believer has the same spiritual standing of being “in Christ.”  It also means that everything that reaches us must first pass through Christ and will help shape us into His image.

Fourteen years previously, Paul had a dramatic experience where he was caught up into the presence of God (v.2-3).  He calls it, “the third heaven”—not the first heaven, which is the atmosphere where clouds form and birds fly; not the second heaven, which is what we call outer space where sun and stars shine; but, the third heaven, where God dwells.  Whether he was physically or spiritually present not even Paul comprehends.  Unlike those who have made a mint in our day describing their heavenly trips, Paul heard things he was forbidden to write about.  The Apostle wanted to glorify God, not himself (v.5-6).

Lest Paul be puffed up with pride, God put a governor on his throttle, “a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me” (v.7).  The pain was given by a Sovereign God to accomplish His purposes, though Satan provided the delivery service!  In this fallen world, God takes even evil and works it together for our good (Rom.8:28).

Paul did what any of us would do—instinctively praying for relief.  In fact, this man of faith requests God to remove it three times (v.8).  That should say something to the health and wealth preachers of today!  God had something better than healing, He gave grace (v.9)!  This transformed Paul’s perspective on his pain (v.10).   When the pain is intense and the prayer for healing denied, learn that it is only because God has a higher purpose.

THE POTTER AND THE CLAY

“O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter?” says the LORD. “Look, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel!”  (Jeremiah 18:6)

I took two years of art in High School, and then a couple of years in distance learning beyond that.  It has been a long time, in the hectic pace of life, that I have used that ability.  I spend much of my hours painting word pictures rather than landscapes!  One of the areas of study was pottery.  We had the opportunity to sit at a wheel with a lump of clay and shape a vessel.  Little did I know at the time that the experience would afford an illustration of spiritual truth, but that is the substance of these devotional thoughts. 

In the eighteenth chapter of Jeremiah’s prophecy, we take a trip to the potter’s house because God has a word for His messenger—and for us (v.1-2).  Jeremiah observes the potter sitting at the wheel, shaping the clay, with the pressure of his hands as it spins.  Suddenly, it begins to come apart.  The moist clay will have to be broken down and reformed—nothing else will do (v.3-4). 

I can recall the feel of that wet clay as I applied the pressure, and up and up the walls of the vessel would begin to rise as I pumped the wheel with my foot to make it spin.  Then, to much disappointment, it began to unravel before my eyes!  There was a small piece of grit—an impurity in the clay—that necessitated removal.   After breaking down the vessel, the process started all over.

Do you see the illustration?  God is the Potter.  Israel is the clay.  His intent for His people has been marred because of their resistance to His shaping.  The only way the Jews could be mended is by breaking them down and beginning again.  God will use the Babylonian empire to accomplish that painful discipline (v.5-17).

Do we understand that this is eternal truth and speaks to us today?  Certainly, the unchanging character of God means He will deal with our nation as He did with rebellious Judah, for He consistently judges any nation that resists His will, while offering blessing to the people who submit to His hands (v.7-10). 

Let me be even more direct.  I am a lump of clay in the hands of a sovereign God.  He has an intended result He wants to accomplish as He shapes me.  The pressure of God’s hands molds us.  Those pressures come in many forms.  The circumstances of life whether physical affliction, difficult people, financial stress, and a host of other possibilities may be used of God to shape us for His purposes.  I find myself to be as dull of understanding as a lump of clay, however.  I want the pressure gone—without realizing I cannot be what God intends apart from it.  When I resist His work—when an unyielding lump results—He will break me down.  It is not that He is cruel—quite the opposite.  Impurity in my life will necessitate that God break me down and keep working with me. The Potter is intent on molding us into a vessel to use here and display as a trophy of grace and glory for all eternity.  We live life forward, but understand it backward.  Today, may we be pliable clay, praying, “Not my will, but Yours be done!”

CONFIDENCE TO CONFRONT LIFE’S CHALLENGES

 

I will love You, O LORD, my strength. (Psalm 18:1)

After watching TV, I am convinced that there is nothing good happening anywhere!  Do you ever feel that way?  The fact is life is not easy.  God never promised it would be. We enter the world with nothing and exit the same way.  We are born through great trauma, as we struggle to catch our first breath, and often die in great trauma as we struggle for our final breath!  That sets the tone for life on a planet ravaged by the curse of sin.  The author of this Psalm, David, could attest to that.  Life was not easy for him, yet, the difficulties made the deliverance all the sweeter.  His testimony can inspire us to have confidence to confront life’s challenges. 

He sings of CONFIDENCE IN GOD’S PERSON (v.1-3). This confidence is expressed in OUR WORSHIP.  David expresses His love to God.  God had proven His love to David.  “We love Him because He first loved us.” (1 John 4:19)  Love is an act of the will foremost—more than a feeling, though emotion is certainly important.  It is a promise to love forever—an oath of loyalty.  He is Yahweh—and David is in a covenant relationship with Him.  Out of this relationship flows strength.  David’s strength would have proven insufficient for the challenges he faced, but it did not depend on him—and God’s power is more than enough!

David expresses CONFIDENCE IN GOD’S PERCEPTION (v.4-6).  The Almighty God knows OUR WEAKNESS.  Not even a little bird flutters and falls to the ground without His notice.  Do not think God is unaware and uncaring.  David felt as though a tsunami of trouble would drown him.  Perhaps you can identify.  Fear was threatening to supplant faith.  David was in a dark pit of depression.  Sometimes we seem in a hole we cannot escape.   Not only troubles, but tears are part of our path.  Still, there are no tears unseen by God (Ps.56:8).  He keeps them as a memorial; He acts in His time. Troubles, tears and traps—it is a perfect picture of peril.  Distress has a way of driving us to God, however—and that is a good thing!   

The Psalmist declares CONFIDENCE IN GOD’S POWER (v.7-45). We face the reality of OUR WARFARE.  In most of his battles, David was outmanned and overmatched.  Remember the words of William Carey, founder of the modern missions movement, rightly said, “One with God is a majority.”  In poetic language, David recalls the mighty deliverances of God in the nation’s past—the deliverance from Egypt’s slavery in the Exodus and the victories in Canaan under Joshua.  David had experienced his own deliverances.  Recalling such past help inspires confidence in our current conflicts.

David’s lyrics voice CONFIDENCE IN GOD’S PURPOSE (v.46-50).  David’s personal triumph leads him to a public testimony.  He is the living God—eternal and unchangeable—a Rock that cannot be moved.  That which He has purposed concerning us moves inexorably to its completion.   He is the Lord God—all powerful and unconquerable.  He subdues our enemies.  His purposes cannot be thwarted.  David in essence sings, “How great is our God!”  He wants the world to know—even the Gentiles should know.  Our world is a desperate place and we alone know where hope is found.  Like David, having experienced deliverance from sin, we extend this witness to others.  This is how to have confidence to confront life’s challenges.

GOD’S GOOD WORK

 

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.  For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.  (Romans 8:28-29)

This is a precious truth that is promised—one we ought to know and have indelibly inscribed on our soul.  It is an established fact and unequivocal truth that can be known and believed.  All things—without exception—work together for good to God’s beloved child.  Paul does not say that all things are good—for there is both good and bad that we experience in life—but, the Apostle declares that all things are working together under God’s sovereign direction to bring about a good result. 

It is like trying to eat the ingredients of a chocolate cake individually—salt, baking powder, cocoa, sugar, flour, shortening, milk, eggs, and sugar.  Some would be good, but a lot would taste bad.  Stir them together, put them in the oven, and out comes something good!  That is what God is doing with the individual experiences we go through.  Are things mixed up?  Are you going through some bitter times?  Do you feel like the heat is on?  You are not done yet, but the results will be sweet!

Not every person experiences such good, sadly.  The promise is only to those who have heard the gracious wooing of a loving Savior and have responded by entering into a love relationship with Him.  This personal intimacy has a purposeful intention.  The God who knew us from eternity has predestined us for eternity.  God is shaping us into the image of Christ.  Everything that works is to this ultimate good end, and all for His glory!  God cannot lie.  He never makes a mistake.  What He says He will do is always done.  This is the fixed purpose of God.  All the demons of Hell—Satan included—cannot thwart Him.  No matter the rebellion of wicked men on earth, God moves all according to His providence.  Even our own depraved heart cannot prevent the Lord from accomplishing what He has planned for us.  The work God begins He always completes (see Phil.1:6).

Now, I am to live out in this world conduct that is suitable to such a noble calling.  Consider Paul’s prayer and let us make it our own:

For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy;  (Col.1:9-11)

It isn’t enough to say we love Him—we must show it.  God’s purpose expressed for me needs to be embraced by me.  This love relationship is an intimate one that enables me to increasingly know His will and walk in the same path He is traveling for I journey in fellowship with Him.  The One who will be pleased with the finished product of His good work, ought to be pleased with the fruitful produce of my good works.  This is abiding in Him—as Jesus described it in John 15—His very life flowing into me and powerfully giving me the stamina to continue my journey to its final destination, becoming just like Jesus!  This is God’s good work—and whatever comes today, He is working it for our good.  Bless His Holy Name!

THE STEPS OF GOD’S MAN

 

The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD,

And He delights in his way.  (Psalm 37:23)

Our business is to seek by the grace of God to show the goodness of God in our walk, and the business of God is to provide His guidance in our way.  The good man or woman is godly—and the Lord finds pleasure in establishing our path.  This road is ever a good road, but is not always an easy road.  The beloved old hymn puts it like this:

In shady, green pastures, so rich and so sweet,
God leads His dear children along;
Where the water’s cool flow bathes the weary one’s feet,
God leads His dear children along.

Refrain

Some through the waters, some through the flood,
Some through the fire, but all through the blood;
Some through great sorrow, but God gives a song,
In the night season and all the day long.

Sometimes on the mount where the sun shines so bright,
God leads His dear children along;
Sometimes in the valley, in darkest of night,
God leads His dear children along.

Refrain

Though sorrows befall us and evils oppose,
God leads His dear children along;
Through grace we can conquer, defeat all our foes,
God leads His dear children along.

Refrain

Away from the mire, and away from the clay,
God leads His dear children along;
Away up in glory, eternity’s day,
God leads His dear children along.

Refrain  (George A. Young)

Joseph is a classic case.  His serene stroll through flowering fields on mission for his father, in search of his brothers, suddenly turned to trouble.  It took him into a pit, sold as a property, facing a sinful peril, forgotten in a prison—but, then elevated to a palace!  God was ordering that good man’s steps, but, surely, he must have wondered at times.  I know I do.

God knows what we do not.  We live life forward, but understand it backward—how the way of difficulties faced is the way of dreams fulfilled.  This is the providence of God, that calls for patience that we might ultimately see the promises realized.  “But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.”  (Romans 8:25)  By patience we possess the promises.  Disappointments are His appointments, if we are His.  Never forget that delays are not denials—journey on in faith.  Spurgeon said it well, “By patience the snail reached the ark!”  The way of the good man is the way of the cross—but, the way of the cross leads home!

It is an old cliché: “Haste makes waste.”  Most often it is true.  “Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward.  For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise”  (Hebrews 10:35-36).  We are too quick to discard our confidence as being worthless, when had we persevered we would have been richly rewarded.

Lord,

I can be so impatient!  That is sin.  I am sorry that I have sometimes been so quick to quit when the path became dark, steep, just creeping along, and even brought to a standstill.  Had I continued on, what blessing I might have known!  You know I chafe at the unexpected traffic jam on the highway of life, or the detour that I think diverts me from my destination, when it is directed by You to take me to my goal.  I do not know what this day will bring.  Remind me that its events are in Your sovereign hands.  What is in my hands is to pursue being a good man, and then I will be a guided man and a graced man.  You have promised to direct and delight in one who desires the Highway of Holiness.  Best of all, You will walk with me!  What more could I want?

In the Name of the Good Shepherd, Jesus,

Amen!

DRIVEN

 

How long will you slumber, O sluggard?

When will you rise from your sleep?  

A little sleep, a little slumber,

A little folding of the hands to sleep—

So shall your poverty come on you like a prowler,

And your need like an armed man.  (Proverbs 6:9-11)

TODAY—that is all we have.  Yesterday has passed and so we call it the past, and there is no replay button.  Tomorrow has not arrived, and may never come, for there are no guarantees of tomorrow.  All I can assure you about tomorrow is that if it is to be a fruitful time to enjoy then it requires faithful toil be exerted today.  Today wears the overalls of opportunity.

We cannot keep hitting the snooze button in life, trying to stay in the warm covers of a dream world—fantasizing about what might be—later.  The only way to make dreams come true is to get up, get out, and get with it!  Laziness is a recipe for poverty.  While the sloth is sleeping, the thief of procrastination slips in and steals the precious commodity of time—never to be reclaimed.  We only have a certain amount, and when it is gone, it is gone forever.

A car can’t go anywhere until the engine is fired up and the transmission engaged.  It is meant for the highway as transportation, not sitting in the garage as decoration.  Now, the child of God knows that the Roadmap—the Bible— must be read before he or she can reach the right destination.  There must be fuel in the tank—and that comes through prayer—before we can go anywhere.  But, then we must go!  We are to be driven!  My life needs to be washed from sin, and polished to reflect the image of the Owner, but I dare not think of myself as just something to admire sitting in the driveway.  My life is to be a vehicle for God to move out into the world to get His work done—driven for His glory!

There will be some days when we go slow and don’t travel far—the road is rocky, there is an unexpected detour, we encounter sharp turns and steep inclines—yet, this is the road God has chosen for that part of our journey and so we don’t complain.  We just go as far as we can, as quickly as we can.  There will be days of speeding down the interstate of life—pedal to the metal—fast and far.  Always stay alert.  The rules of the road must be obeyed, we must keep an eye out for potholes, and know there are unexpected dangers lurking around the next bend of the road—that can be disastrous.  The Holy Spirit will guide us—He is our Divine GPS system—and will bring us safely to our destination if we heed him.

We have to go to get anywhere.  God has a purpose for you today—the only day you have.  Be driven!

DIVINELY DESIGNED AND DIRECTED

 

The LORD will perfect that which concerns me; Your mercy, O LORD, endures forever; Do not forsake the works of Your hands.  (Psalm 138:8)

I’m not all I ought to be, but God is not through with me yet!  I am a work in progress.  We all are.

There is a reason why we are here—in this place and for this time.  God created us for His purposes.  He wove the fabric of our being—putting the code in our DNA, placing us in the environment and with the experiences that all combined to shape us with the aptitudes and abilities He meant for us to possess.  Rather than wishing we were like someone else, we need to submit to God’s design and direction for us.  There is only one me, and I need to be the best me He created me to be!

I was not only shaped by my physical birth, but thankfully, I have also had a spiritual birth.  Otherwise, those natural gifts, tainted by sin, will be employed for evil purposes.  Now, they are redeemed to God’s usefulness.  Much more, being regenerate, I have been indwelt with the Spirit of God and empowered with spiritual gifts to fulfill His call in my life. 

This is the sheer, sovereign grace of God at work for His glory!  Even when I was fleeing from Him as a stubborn sheep, the Good Shepherd sought me and saved me.  His love would not let me go!  Now, being in His flock, when I stumble, He lifts me, and when I start to stray, he scourges me.  Sometimes, He allows me to experience the pain of my foolishness to teach me, but always in the right measure and under His watchful eye.  I am assured that even the hard times of life—what I would think of as bad—are promised to work together for my good, since I am called according to His purpose.  That is the promise of Romans 8:28, “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”

There have been projects I have started with great zeal, and then I became distracted by other concerns or disenchanted by the difficulty, setting them aside, where today they collect dust, unfinished.  Thank God, He never does that!  Paul said, “being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6).  He has started a good work in me.  All He does is good!  God doesn’t make junk!  He doesn’t mess up!  When I go around complaining about my state in life then I am arrogantly saying, “God when you made me this way, you didn’t know what you were doing!”  Instead, I need to rejoice in Him who has begun and is completing His grand design.  I will arrive in Heaven one day, a perfect product, looking just like Jesus!