Tag Archives: Bible

Without Boots or Beards

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It used to be fashionable to travel to some exotic place, climb a steep mountain and sit under the teaching of a man known to be full of spiritual wisdom and understanding.  Did you ever wonder why he was way up there?  You might think someone with spiritual wisdom and understanding would realize just how much people need such things down here in town.  People who don’t own hiking boots and have a couple extra weeks of vacation.

But what if you could have spiritual wisdom and understanding?  What if you could get your spiritual insight directly from God, Himself?  It sounds almost blasphemous  to even consider such a thing.  You would have to have a special, direct connection with God’s Spirit!

And yet, this is exactly what Paul prayed would be given to his friends, not to wise old giants of the faith, but to newbies and rookies who were just getting used to following Jesus. 

Paul wrote and told them:
“For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives,…” – (Colossians 1:9)

Most of those folks didn’t live on mountain peaks and sport long white beards.  They looked about as much like a guru as you do. But what Paul prayed they might receive, as astonishing and unlikely as it may seem, is what Jesus promised to give to anyone who would trust Him fully. 

Jesus said:
“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.”  – (John 14:16-17)

Imagine that!  Spiritual wisdom and understanding for anyone who would trust and  pay attention.  No hiking boots needed.

The Love Test

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Do you ever wonder if you really believe in Jesus?  Are you a citizen or merely a tourist in the land of faith?  Since you cannot see faith, and since our minds deceive us (remember that romance in Jr. High?), is there a telltale sign we can look for to assess the genuineness of our faith?  Jesus said if we love one another as He loved us, others would know.

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” – (John 13:35)

Not Hallmark card love.  It’s the kind of love Jesus extended on the cross, dying to pay a debt we could not.  This kind of love (agape love) is an act of personal sacrifice in compassionate response to a need of someone else, with no expectation of any return.

If you find yourself increasingly moved to bless someone else in his need, not out of obligation or guilt, but out of agape love, this is a telltale sign of real faith. 

As John wrote:
Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.  This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: –  (1John 3:18-19)

The connection between real faith and sacrificial love is hope.  Not wishful thinking, but confidence in the future.  When we know we cannot lose, loving sacrifice becomes logical.  They could steal from us, hate us, persecute us, sue us or even kill us and it would not change the outcome for us in eternity.  We cannot lose.  Because we have real hope, it is safe  for us to love.  Agape love is a sign of faith because it is extended in direct contrast to the “rules” of the world.

Paul was excited and thankful for the new Colossian believers…

…because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people—  the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel. – (Colossians 1:4-5)

A Greeting and Blessing

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When someone is hurting and you do not know what to say, there are two good words that work pretty well.  They were commonly used as greetings in Bible letters but were filled with sincerity and deep meaning.  I’m talking about “grace” and “peace.”

Like this: “Grace and peace to you from God our Father.” (Colossians 1:2b, and more than a dozen other places)

The first word, grace, is a prayer that God would bestow upon you, by His grace, all the things that in your heart would really help. The second word, peace, is a continuation of that prayer, that God’s grace will have its full effect on your inner being.

The problem with knowing what to say when someone is suffering is we don’t really know exactly what will help.   If we say, “I know how you feel,” it is frequently received by the person who is suffering as yet another wound.  They silently protest, “How could anyone possibly know how I feel when I can hardly work it out myself?”.  But God truly knows  and also how to help.  By His grace He can restore peace.  The heaviness of heart is lifted. Anxious thoughts are soothed away.  Sorrow is held and gentled.  Fear is replaced with hope. And all this by God’s perfect grace and peace.

So, try saying, ” Grace and peace to you from God.” And mean it.

The Right Words

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If you want entry into the secret cave, where 40 thieves hid the treasure, you need to say the right words: “Open Sesame!”  Are there right words to say if you want to open a connection with God?  I used to think so as a kid.  The man in the robe up front would look all serious and intone, “Let us pray…”  Did that do it, kind of like a religious “Breaker 19?”  What if, instead, he said, “Lettuce spray?”  Would that work?

Amazingly, no opening of the connection is needed; it’s already open and working.  At least, it is working from God’s end:

“O Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord.” (Psalm 139:1-4)

How does that make you feel?  Maybe sheepish, thinking, “You mean He knows about that time I was thinking about (Here is a blank for you to fill in…)?”  Does it make you want to hide?  (I’m reminded of how babies will try to hide from their parents by putting their hands over their eyes.)  Does knowing God knows what you are thinking and doing inhibit you?  I suppose those kinds of reactions are normal, but that’s not the response God was looking for when He revealed those truths to David.  He was trying to reassure us and fill us with awe.

If you were deep sea diving, it would be mighty nice to know that someone on the surface was monitoring how you were doing.  If you were sneaking around behind enemy lines, knowing that your commanders were watching, were tracking you with drones or satellites – that would be a warm fuzzy.  Your situation here on earth is similar; God wants to reassure us with the knowledge that He is aware of who you are, what you are thinking and how you are doing.

But when we try to make sense of how that might work, we run into the limits of what our minds will handle.  David wrote:

“Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.” (Psalm 139:6)

To paraphrase: David is saying, “When I try to think about how You, God, know me, it fills me with wonder and awe.  There’s no way I can fully understand it; it’s too high, too mysterious.”

Once you know that God loves you, you personally, and know that He knows how it is going with you right now, then you can open your end of the connection and communicate with Him.  You don’t even need the right words.  You don’t have to say, “Lettuce spray…”

 

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[1] The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

The Real God

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God is vindictive and cruel in the Old Testament but loving and kind in the New Testament. That is what My friend told me.  He said, because God is so different in the two testaments, it is obvious to him that the Bible can’t be trusted.  Is he right?  See what you think.  Here is a quote from the Old:

“The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him;” (Psalm 103:8-13)

So, how did my friend get such a wrong idea?  The key is in the last line.  God has fatherly compassion toward those who “fear” Him.  That word does not mean those who cower in fright, but rather, those who respect or revere God so thoroughly that they are eager to respond to what he says.  If you had occasion to meet your favorite celebrity (actor, author, athlete – whatever) and he or she asked you to do something with them, how eager would you be to to say, “yes?”  Like that, only much, much more because God is much, much more.  Those who respond with awe and eagerness to God discover His love, His forgiveness, His goodness.

There was a math teacher in my high school whose reputation among the students was either, “really mean and vindictive, a nasty disciplinarian” or, “an amazing and gracious guy who would do anything to help you learn.”  Guess what?  Turns out he was the same guy.

Quotes: The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

More than You Can Imagine

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You prayed for me last week and I felt it.  Thank you.  Your prayers lifted my heart and sustained me more than any of us could have imagined.  I don’t know how prayer works, but it does.  I don’t know how gravity works, either, but I have learned to trust it.  In truth it is not the prayer that works, but God, Who hears and acts.  It is a great mystery that the God Who could speak light into existence, invites us to join Him in His work by speaking with Him.  I cannot wrap my mind fully around that.  But I am grateful that you didn’t let the mystery of it stop you.  You prayed for me.  It helped.

When Paul needed prayer, he wasn’t just grieving, he was pursued daily by people who were trying to kill him.  He called his situation “deadly peril” – an understatement.  He wrote:

“He [God] has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.” (2 Corinthians 1:10-11)

If you ever wonder if it matters when you pray, then take this expression of thanks as an encouragement.  It does matter; it matters more than you can imagine.

Quotes: The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

Your prayers for Ann Maree were graciously answered this morning, around 1:30.

Ann Maree is home at last!    OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Last October, after the full scope and sobering consequences of her cancer were known, God woke her in the small hours and gave her a foretaste of the unbridled “shalom” awaiting her in Heaven.  She was laughing and crying the next morning, trying to find words to convey what she experienced.  And so grateful to Jesus for His promise to her of that destiny.   This morning I imagine her family and friends in Heaven are saying, “You think that was cool, check this out!”

Here’s a song for Ann Maree, again taken from the Psalms:

“I have set the Lord always before me.
Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
my body also will rest secure,
because you will not abandon me to the grave,
nor will you let your Holy One see decay.
You have made known to me the path of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence,
with eternal pleasures at your right hand.“
(Psalm 16:8-11)

Quotes: The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

 

PS – If you would enjoy seeing some of Ann Maree’s artwork, go to annmareebeaman.com.

A Prayer for Ann Maree

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As my wonderful wife, Ann Maree, is taking her final breaths, here’s a prayer on her behalf:

“Hear my cry, O God; listen to my prayer.
From the ends of the earth I call to you,
I call as my heart grows faint; lead me to the rock that is higher than I.
For you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the foe.
I long to dwell in your tent forever and take refuge in the shelter of your wings.
For you have heard my vows, O God;
you have given me the heritage of those who fear your name.”

(Psalm 61:1-5, NIV)

 

No Baloney

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What’s the best line in the whole Bible?  What would you choose?  Me? It’s something Jesus told the boys on the night He got arrested:  He said,

“… if it were not so, I would have told you…” (John 14:2)

Jesus wasn’t blowing smoke.  He wasn’t saying nice things just because they were comforting.  He wasn’t going along with wishful thinking or superstition.  The things He told were absolutely so; they were accurate descriptions of reality.  “If it were not so, I would have told you.”

That’s important to me because, over the years, people have told me a lot of religious things that were not so.  They were really true.  And I don’t want to be fooled or gullible.  You hang around funeral homes and you will hear a lot of things said that may not be so.  Comforting? Yes.  Nice ideas?  Yes.  But true?  Maybe not.  “Oh, Wilma has gone to a far better place.”  Maybe that’s true; maybe not.  People who say such things don’t necessarily believe them, but they know they help those who grieve.

Jesus knew His family and friends would not only be grieving but also they would be horrified and frightened.  He knew platitudes might temporarily help, like a kiss on a cut, but what they really needed was a strong dose of truth.  Truth they could lean on.  Truth that would hold when they did.

Here’s the rest of what He said:

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” (John 14:1-3)

Rooms?  Many rooms?  What’d He mean by that?  There’s no good English word.  Bibles used to use the word, mansions, which really gives the wrong idea.  The Greek word refers to places in which one makes his or her home, to live there permanently.  Dwelling places.  He was saying God has many dwelling places where those who “trust Him” (verse 1, above)  will continue to live, even after death.  With Him.

And, if it were not so, He would have told us.

Lean on that.

Quotes: The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

Passing Through

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Admit it: there are times when you wonder if you have arrived on the wrong planet.  The world seems to have gone crazy.  We don’t belong here.  Don’t turn away from that feeling; we really don’t!  God makes it clear in His Word: we are temporarily homeless, homeless now but traveling toward our home with Him.  You see this throughout the Bible, as He calls His people “sojourners” (King James word), people on a journey.  Sojourners may be staying for awhile in a place, but know, ultimately, they are moving on.  God called Abraham to sojourn away from his family homeland.  The Israeli escaped slaves sojourned in the desert enroute to the Promised Land.  And followers of Jesus are called sojourners, too.  Our citizenship is not here on Earth but in Heaven.  Jesus prayed for His followers, saying,

“…they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.” (John 17:14b-16)

Sojourners.  That’s why Peter, writing to fellow believers, referred to them as,

“…strangers [literally sojourners] in the world, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia,” (1 Peter 1:1b)

When we realize, as the song says, “this world is not my home; I’m just a-passin’ through,” life in this crazy world makes more sense.  It is fresher, more invigorating and filled with purpose.  Motels don’t feel like home but when you are on a journey, the temporary feel of a motel is no big deal  It’s when you get stuck living in a motel, as  several friends have been, after their homes were destroyed, that things get weird.  It’s as though life stagnates.

When we think of this world as our permanent home, life stagnates and gets weird here, too.  Our priorities become twisted.  Instead of living by love we fixate on acquiring stuff.  When we recognize that this life is but a journey, and make that journey with God, the natural stagnation of this world is cleansed and refreshed by the “living waters” of His Spirit.

Our journey is not aimless.  We are heading toward our real and permanent home.  The author of Hebrews wrote this about those who knew they were sojourners:

“If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.” (Hebrews 11:15-16)

When you know life is a journey, the ups and downs are better, the craziness easier to deal with.  And the destination is better, too.  As David wrote about his journey, the one that even wound its way through the “valley of the shadow of death,”

“Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” (Psalm 23:6)

 

 

 

Quotes: The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.