Saturday, June 12, 2021

Left, Right, and Center

It's Saturday, and time to post a StoryADay Challenge! This one comes from May 29th. The prompt came from Julie Duffy: "Write a story in three sections, each section recounting the same event from a different character’s point of view." 

Left, Right, and Center

"And when they had come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified Him, and the criminals, one on the right hand and the other on the left. Then Jesus said, 'Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.'
And they divided His garments and cast lots. And the people stood looking on. But even the rulers with them sneered, saying, 'He saved others; let Him save Himself if He is the Christ, the chosen of God.'
The soldiers also mocked Him, coming and offering Him sour wine, and saying, 'If You are the King of the Jews, save Yourself.'
And an inscription also was written over Him in letters of Greek, Latin, and Hebrew:
THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS
Then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed Him, saying, 'If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us.'
But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, 'Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong.' Then he said to Jesus, 'Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.'
And Jesus said to him, 'Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.'"

~Luke 23:33-43 

From the Left:

I am a self-made man. Carpe diem! I am grown; no one's gonna tell me what to do. I have done pretty well on my own all these years. What has God ever done for me? That may be your truth, but it's not mine. When I'm old and have nothing left to live for, I'm sure I'll be okay with the church thing. It's a crutch. No one believes that stuff anymore. 

"If you are the Christ, save yourself and us!"

From the Right:

I offend God every day. You don't know who I was before I met Jesus. The Bible is God's inerrant Word. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. God saved a wretch like me. He has shown me grace upon grace. I believe; help my unbelief! God, have mercy on me, a sinner. I can do nothing without You, Lord. All I have is Yours. I am not worthy.

"Lord, remember Me when You come into Your kingdom."

From the Center:

I am your shield, your glory and the One who lifts your head. Be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven. I go before you and behind. Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. I love you with an everlasting love. Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be open to you. I have plans for you, to prosper you and not to harm you. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. I have overcome the world.

"Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.'" (Matthew 25:41)

"Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world... Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.'" (Matthew 25:34; Luke 23:43)

Friday, June 11, 2021

Step Into the Rain

"It's been raining cats and dogs!"
"I know, I just stepped in a poodle!" 🐩

It's definitely an oldie and probably not a goodie, but it describes last weekend perfectly. More than two solid days of drenching rain. For some reason, it really caught my attention. Maybe because my plans were foiled, maybe because it just didn't stop. There was no let-up, not even enough to, say, grill up a couple of tasty burgers. By the time I noticed a window and got the grill fired up, the torrent was back. The following day was just as soggy. Rain, rain, and more rain. And as I sat at my kitchen table late Sunday afternoon, and the sound of a steady downpour whispered its way through the window screen, I thought of... 

Snow! That's right, snow. Where I come from, snow is one of those things folks love to hate. It's beautiful. It's peaceful. It's charming. Until it isn't. When the weather begins to change and folks' minds start turning to snow, each and every time it rains instead, someone always says (I'll pause to give those of you who know a chance to say it)... 

"Can you imagine if this was all snow?" 

So, maybe I didn't actually think of snow, but I thought of that question. And then I thought of another question:

Can you imagine if this was all grace?

All that rain. Coming down in buckets. For days. Can you imagine if it was all grace? And it is. 

There is a song sung during the Passover celebration, "Dayenu," translated, "it would have been enough." As the story of God's goodness to His people, Israel, is told, each stanza ends with "dayenu."  Just an example:

"If God had brought us out of Egypt, and had not inflicted judgment upon the Egyptians, it would have been sufficient. Dayenu!
"If God had inflicted justice on them, and had not executed judgment against their gods, it would have been sufficient. Dayenu!
"If God had executed judgment against their gods, and had not slaughtered their firstborn, it would have been sufficient. Dayenu!"

And on and on it goes. Like God's grace. When we stop to consider each and every blessing God bestows upon us, we can see the abundance of God's grace, how it has been the means by which He pursued us and the means by which He restored us. When we look back at the twists and turns our lives have taken, knowing that even the worthless life we had before our rebirth God is using to prepare us and strengthen us for His work, we can't help but weep at the grace of being chosen by One so awesome as He. When we pause to imagine what might have happened had God not intervened or what our lives were like when we rejected His grace, we can stand in the torrent of God's grace and get absolutely drenched. When we see ourselves by the light of God's truth and know how reprobate we truly are, we will know that His smallest benevolence on our behalf would have been enough. Dayenu! 

Take time today and step into a poodle.

Wednesday, June 9, 2021

Time for Your Check-Up

A couple months ago, I had surgery to prepare for a dental implant. It was a process I had put off for almost thirty years. Because of my procrastination, it could have been so much worse; because of God's grace, I was spared the pain, the trouble, and the cost. I was finally able to get moving by assuring myself it was three simple visits: the initial surgery, a follow-up exam to prepare the site for the cap, and a trip to my dentist for the cap. One. Two. Three. And done. Turns out I was mistaken. There have been multiple exams afterward. The follow-up. The follow-up to the follow-up. The pre-preparation visit. My next visit should be the site prep. Each of the visits after the surgery has lasted less time than it takes me to drive to the surgeon's office. Each visit after the surgery has consisted of a few "uh-huhs," "okays," and an "Alright, we'll see ya back in..." After finding out there was a follow-up, I was discouraged. After finding there was a follow-up to the follow-up, I was annoyed. On the day of the pre-preparation visit, I almost canceled; this process was tedious and I wanted it over. 

If we are "doing it right," seasons in our walk with the Lord can seem the same way. Ephesians 5:15, tells us to "walk circumspectly." Our word circumspectly comes from Latin: circum- "around", and specere, "to look at" (think spectacles). We should be re-examining the past, evaluating our thoughts and actions today, all with an eye to bringing glory to God for generations to come. But, sometimes those examinations can become wearisome, as wearisome as some of the seasons we go through. Sometimes it seems as though we are hashing and rehashing the same feelings, issues, behaviors, and ideas. The goals we set are still there, still unreached. Our prayer list never seems to get any shorter. The things we were struggling with way back when seem to linger still today. We think if we could just get a firm footing and procure some sort of stability we could manage to do something truly worthwhile for the kingdom. But with every examination, the results are still the same: a few "uh-huhs," some "okays," and an "Alright, we'll see ya back in..." Status quo. 

God is the Great Physician. He knows what He's doing. Sometimes these examinations may seem like a waste of time. We feel healed. We feel ready for the next step. We don't want to review and rehash and re-evaluate only to walk out empty-handed. We want to believe God is doing something in us. And He is. Despite what we may or may not feel, God has promised to continue what He started unto completion. He wastes nothing and can use anything. Our growth or the healing in our situations is not dependent upon how we feel. Just because we haven't met our goals does not mean we haven't met God's goals. Just because our situation is as unstable or uncertain as it was last year does not mean we have remained the same. Just because our progress doesn't meet our standards doesn't mean it hasn't met God's. What is important is a circumspect walk, constantly seeking to grow, to have our hearts laid bare before the Holy Spirit that He might do His work in His way in His time. 

Monday, June 7, 2021

A Mark of His Mercy

"In appreciation for your years of service..." or something like that. The letter came instructing me how to shop for my retirement gift. There were plenty of gifts from which to choose, but, I couldn't find a thing. Call me high maintenance, but receiving a gift "in appreciation for" seems a little more authentic when I'm not shopping for it myself. And, while some of the selections were pragmatic -- a barbecue grill, a ladder, a wet vac -- I can't imagine, twenty years from now, pointing to a busted old air fryer and telling my grandchildren the story of my retirement. Isn't it the significance behind a token, not the token itself? Perhaps I'm spoiled because my God is a tough act to follow.

From Genesis to Revelation, Scripture reveals to us the tokens God has placed in our hands and in our hearts to remind us of aspects of His character. One such token is the rainbow, the symbol of God's promise He would never again flood the earth. But there is an interesting token recorded a couple of chapters prior. Abel and Cain approached God with their sacrifices, but God Cain's was unsatisfactory. God gently gave Cain the opportunity to repent and offer an acceptable sacrifice, but Cain refused. In his bitterness, he murdered Abel instead. God confronted him and meted out a threefold punishment: a curse on his relationship with the earth, with mankind, and with God. Cain cried out, "My punishment is greater than I can bear!" and expressed his fear that other men would try to kill him. God gave him a marker, a token; the Hebrew word is "ot," the same word used with regard to the rainbow. If I can just pause for a moment and address this whole exchange. Cain lamented his punishment but not his sin. Regardless, God gives Cain a token of His mercy. Let's face it, the "mark" whatever it was, would not keep anyone from killing Cain. God holds the power over life and death. In fact, given the nature of man, such a mark could even provoke some cowboy to try to off Cain just to prove a point. It appears to me, the mark itself was strictly for Cain's benefit: a visible token to Cain of God's merciful protection, a reminder to Cain God was sparing his life, however long He determined and allowing Cain even more time to repent and turn to the Lord. Now, that's personal and merciful.

God has always assured mankind of His character and work via evidence and memorials. In Exodus 12:13, God promised the blood of the Paschal lamb would protect that household from God's final plague when the Israelites were slaves in Egypt. The Holy Spirit is our guarantee, the Bible tells us, of everything God has promised those who trust in the blood of Christ. The sacraments, Communion and Baptism, were instituted to remind us of our union with Christ in death and resurrection. And every answer to prayer, every moment God loves on us and protects us and shows us mercy is a token. He is working in His time, in His way, and He has assured us by His word, represented by signs and manifestations of His character.

So, when did God give you His first token? Romans 5:8, says He proved His love to us by sending Jesus to suffer our punishment in our place "while we were sinners." Like Cain, we were remorseless, refusing to seek God and surrender to His will. He was merciful still. Romans 1:20, says the things that are made testify to the eternal power and divine nature of God. The seasons, coming on cue every year and the sun rising every morning assured us, even when we rejected Him, that God is quite real and He is working, blessing us with beauty and providing further opportunities to come to Him. The symbols of His love for us and His pledges to us have always been everywhere, even when we were unrepentant, so that we would repent. Now that's personal and merciful. 

And LOADS better than a floor stripper.

Sunday, June 6, 2021

God's Word to the Wise Is Sufficient

"Mann tracht und Gott lacht." It's a Yiddish saying meaning, "Man plans and God laughs." It's laced with cynicism as though God is cruel in how He works: "We devise glorious plans, and God insists on messing them up for us." An adage more truthful might be, "A word to the wise is sufficient." 

I was reading Genesis 16, this morning. It was something in verse 2, that caught my eye; but first...

"Now the Lord had said to Abram:
'Get out of your country,
From your family
And from your father’s house,
To a land that I will show you.
I will make you a great nation;
I will bless you
And make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.'”

God's promise to Abram is recorded in Genesis 12:1-3. Abram would be a great nation. Traditionally, this meant Abram would have many strong male heirs to populate and lead a mighty people. But time passed, and still no heir -- not one. Abram began to think he'd missed something but God assured him, very clearly, a biological heir would come. But time passed, and still no heir -- not one. Sarah began to think God had missed something and devised her own plan:

"So Sarai said to Abram, 'See now, the Lord has restrained me from bearing children. Please, go in to my maid; perhaps I shall obtain children by her.' And Abram heeded the voice of Sarai."

Pay attention to the word Sarai uses, "perhaps." The Hebrew word is "ulay," and it occurs some forty-five times in the Old Testament -- not once in regard to God's promises. It is only when people plan something, usually for our own prosperity or recognition, that there is any reason for a "perhaps." Sarai wasn't sure if her scheme would work. Sarai can't see nine minutes into the future, much less nine months. But God certainly can. And Abram? Abram was the one to whom the Lord spoke, more than once! But Abram traded God's "I will," for Sarai's "perhaps." And it worked out terribly. If only they had rested in the word of the Lord. 

And that word was "finished." God said it, and it was as good as done. How much more true that is for us today! 2 Corinthians 1:19-20, tells us that, in Christ, God's promises are "yes and amen." If God promised, it will happen. God doesn't change His commitment or His integrity, the way people do when circumstances change. In Christ, God's promises are already fulfilled. Imagine reading an incredible, wonderful book. It's so good, you can't put it down. Three hundred pages covering three thousand years of human history! And you read it in four hours. You have a larger perspective than those who lived those events twenty-four hours at a time. You are not limited by time and space the way those in history were. That's the closest thing I can imagine to the Bible assuring us that everything God has promised has been fulfilled in Christ. We may not be seeing those things in the natural world just yet -- like Abram and Sarai -- but it is finished. In fact, Jesus said so.

Do I think God laughs when we step outside what He has promised and seek to gain those things for ourselves? Absolutely not. God is not cruel; it's not His nature; God is good and gracious to His people. It's His people, however, who sometimes choose to define goodness as we would like. It's His people, however, who determine grace should be given when we prefer. "Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments;" (Deut. 7:9, emphasis mine) Rest on God's promises. Trust Him more and time Him less. Pray more and plan less. God's word to the wise is all we need.