Psalm 22:1-3
1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?
2 O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer,
and by night, but I find no rest.
3 Yet you are holy,
enthroned on the praises of Israel.
Does your faith have room for such a word as Psalm 22? At the beginning of this psalm, we see what is a fairly clear pattern of the Psalms. The writer is hurting, crying out to God, and feeling forsaken. Yet, in all of his distress, he acknowledges one thing, God is holy.
The broadly grinning television evangelists present to believers that we who follow God are offered a path free of suffering. They assure their followers that, if they will just have enough faith and give enough money, they will escape the hardships of this life and live as royal princes and princesses, children of the divine King. They offer us freedom from sickness, from financial woes, and from emotional hardships if we will just claim certain promises as our own and fill our minds with positive thoughts.
The fact is, however, that suffering is a genuine part of following Christ. Jesus suffered, even citing the words of Psalm 22 in his agony on the cross. Jesus also told his followers that, if the world mistreated him, how much more would it mistreat those who claim to follow him (John15:18-16:4). Jesus even said, in a radical departure from what is preached in many churches and on the networks, that those who are persecuted are actually blessed by God (Matthew 5:9-12).
This world is a hard place to live. We sin and fail. People sin against us. Sickness shows us that our bodies, in their fallen states, will not last forever. Sorrow sneaks in from all directions. God wants us to understand that he did not design us for life in a world that is in rebellion against him. He did not create us to live in a fallen state. God created us for perfection, for joy, for fellowship with him, to display his glory. The hardships of this life are to point us to the reality that we are not yet there.
So, does your faith have room for words like those that begin Psalm 22? Can you live with the fact that sometimes life hurts, and God does not always take the pain away right away? Can you remember that God is holy, his ways are perfect, and what he does is right, even when the bank book looks bleak, the church attendance numbers don’t meet our expectations, or the doctor brings us bad news? This is a major mark of Christian maturity, to grasp that God is good and in control, even when things are hard around us.
You might ask, “What should I do when things get ugly as you described?” Read the rest of Psalm 22. The psalmist trusts God. He keeps crying out to God. He keeps relying on the Lord, because he knows that, in the end, God will do what is ultimately best.
What Sort of Man is This? (Matthew 8:27)
Matthew 8:27
And the men marveled, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?”
When the disciples were in a dangerous storm at sea, they feared for their lives. Terrified, they woke up Jesus, and the Lord did something that may have frightened them even more. Jesus spoke to the wind and the sea and commanded them to be calm, and they obeyed. This led the disciples to the question above, “What kind of man is this?”
A look at just a couple of passages of Scripture would have told the disciples exactly what kind of man was in the boat with them.
Exodus 14:21
Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.
When Moses stretched out his hand over the sea in what may well have been the most famous miracle of the Old Testament, something happened that parallels what we see Jesus do. When Moses called on God, God caused a change in the wind that in turn caused a change in the sea. God parted the Red Sea and rescued his people through his almighty power over the elements. But Moses is not the parallel to Jesus, because Moses did not actually cause the wind to do what it did.
So, , how about this passage:
Psalm 107:23-29
23 Some went down to the sea in ships,
doing business on the great waters;
24 they saw the deeds of the Lord,
his wondrous works in the deep.
25 For he commanded and raised the stormy wind,
which lifted up the waves of the sea.
26 They mounted up to heaven; they went down to the depths;
their courage melted away in their evil plight;
27 they reeled and staggered like drunken men
and were at their wits’ end.
28 Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress.
29 He made the storm be still,
and the waves of the sea were hushed.
Does this not look like an exact picture of the frightened disciples in the boat? The psalm depicts men in a boat and in danger of losing their lives in the waves. Then, when they cry out to God as the disciples cried out to Jesus, God calms the sea. Look again:
Psalm 107-28-29
28 Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress.
29 He made the storm be still,
and the waves of the sea were hushed.
Who made the storm be still and hushed the waves? It was the LORD, the God of Israel. God, the Creator, the Great “I Am,” he is the one who calms the storm. Yet, in Matthew, it is Jesus who commands. Jesus did not cry out to someone else to calm the seas, he is the one that people cried out to, and Jesus, by his power, calms the swells.
What kind of man is this? What kind of man has the wind and the sea obey him? There is only one kind of man who can do that, a man who is God. Jesus stood before the disciples in the boat, and he revealed to them something that the Bible declares that the LORD does. Jesus is the LORD, the God who made us.
Jesus, I worship you. I worship you, not as a representative of God, but as God Himself. You have shown that you are the very God of the universe. You are the One who created the wind and the waves and the One they must obey. You have the power to do all that you wish. You have the authority to rule my eternity. I thank you for coming to earth to reveal yourself and to rescue sinners like me. My hope is only in you, as only you, the God who made me, have the ability to save me.
A Picture of Jesus in Genesis (Genesis 44:33)
Genesis 44:33
Now therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the boy as a servant to my lord, and let the boy go back with his brothers.
Is Christ truly on every page of Scripture? Does, as the title of my favorite little children’s Bible declares, every story whisper his name? Is the gospel hinted at or depicted in one form or fashion in every account?
There are times when I see someone look at a passage, say that they see Jesus, and I find myself scratching my head. But I must also say that there are many, very many, that require very little imagination to see Jesus.
Of course, I say all of that, and today is the first time that I have managed to notice that Genesis 44:33 is a verse that shows us Christ in vivid color. When the eleven brothers of Joseph come to Egypt to buy food, Joseph tricks them and makes them believe that their youngest brother, Benjamin, is going to be required to stay in prison in Egypt. Judah, knowing that his father would be devastated at the loss of what he believed to be his only living son through Rachel, approaches Joseph, and he shows us a glorious picture of Jesus.
Judah stands before Joseph and begs, “Now therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the boy as a servant to my lord, and let the boy go back with his brothers.” What does Judah do there? He says, “for the joy of my father, please punish me in the stead of my little brother. Let me suffer in his place. Let my suffering free him to return to his father.” The only thing that I see missing in this account to parallel the story of the atonement is that the father is not also the offended party in the redeeming transaction, but then, no parallel ever truly holds up under all scrutiny.
What did Jesus do? For the joy and glory of the Father, he came to earth. He interposed himself, put himself in the middle, between the just wrath of God and God’s children. Jesus suffered in our stead, allowing himself to be punished in order that we might be free to be reconciled to the Father. If the parallel isn’t perfect, it’s awfully good.
Lord, as I watch what Judah did, it shadows what is to come. I read this account, and I thank you for Jesus. He, the perfect Son of God, chose to suffer on behalf of the children of God. I thank you for this, as I know that I could never escape the wrath that I deserve without the perfect substitution of Jesus. I fully trust in him and his finished work for my eternity. I also pray that you will help me, like Judah did here, to point the world to Jesus in all that I say and do.
The Sweet Word of God (Psalm 19:10)
Psalm 19:10
More to be desired are they than gold,
even much fine gold;
sweeter also than honey
and drippings of the honeycomb.
I’ve often joked, when people ask me to go and speak for them somewhere and want to pay me, that I’m content to be paid in food. I really do enjoy good food. Now, I’m not some huge dude declaring a gluttonous nature; I just really enjoy good food. I like unique foods from other countries. I love spicy things, sweet things, pretty much whatever (though mushrooms and olives are not high on my list).
I’m guessing that many who read this are also people who like good food. Sometimes I will run into someone who doesn’t care much what he or she eats so long as he or she gets full, but not often. Most of us have a favorite restaurant, a favorite pizza, a favorite dessert.
Have you ever wondered why it is that God made food, good food, to be such a good thing? Psalm 19 might give us a hint. Throughout this psalm, God has been extolling for us the absolutely unimaginable value of his holy word. The law of God, the Scripture, is a treasure, a glorious, life-changing, soul-reviving treasure. The follower of God cannot live without it. And God, by his choice, compares the word to good food.
How is the word like food? In one sense, there is a functional similarity. To the believer, reading the word of God and taking it deep into his or her soul is a means of spiritual survival. We need to feed our souls with the word, or our souls will shrivel up and get sick and weak. If you don’t feed your soul with the word of God, it is unquestionable that your Christian life will be unhealthy and lacking growth.
But there is more than mere functional survival in the word of God. The Bible is not just general food. There are lots of foods that are just general food, but not the word. The words that David chooses to describe the word of God are sweet words. The word of God is not a ham sandwich on week-old bread; no, God’s words are sweet as honey. David is trying to stir in your mind the tastiest food you can come up with. Maybe it’s not honey for you. Maybe you love steak or pasta, chocolate or fresh fruit, seafood or pizza; whatever is that extraordinarily good food to you, that is what God’s word is to b. The word, if you are a healthy believer, is sweet to your taste and as desirable as your favorite dish.
So, could it be that the reason that a Thai curry, a hot fudge Sunday, or a mound of biscuits and gravy is so tasty is because God wants you to understand how glorious his word is? That’s quite possible, indeed. So, the next time you bite into something delectable, don’t just think of your dinner; instead think of the true treasure that God has given you. Think of the perfect word of God that feeds your soul, that brings you close to your Lord, that restores spiritual life to hurting hearts. Pray that, like David, you can say that God’s word is worth more than the greatest treasure and sweeter than the sweetest pleasure.
What Do You Think of Your Church?
From Joshua Harris, Stop Dating the Church, 58-59.
I’ve come to believe that our generation’s biggest obstacles aren’t problems in the church, but problems in us. We have absorbed attitudes and assumptions from the world around us that have negatively affected what we expect from church and how we approach our role in it.
For example:
· We’ve adopted self-centered attitudes. We’ve believed the lie that we’ll be happier the less we sacrifice or give of ourselves and our time. But the more we clutch our time, money, and comfort and selfishly refuse to give to our church, the less we receive back.
• We’ve let proud independence keep us uninvolved. This can be pride that says, “I don’t need other people in my life.” Or it may be pride that says, “I don’t want other people to see me for who I really am.” Both forms cut us off from the blessings and benefits of community in the local church.
• We’ve adopted a critical eye toward the church. We’ve believed that by complaining or logging our church’s faults, we are accomplishing something. But God calls us to repent of our critical spirit and pick up one of concern instead. Genuine concern is what happens when we see a problem and we care. That kind of concern leads to positive changes for us and our church.
Recently my friend David from New York told me how he’d been going to church as a “consumer,” focused on comparing and critiquing. He realized he needed to become a “communer” who goes to meet God and express His love to others. God has helped him change from a person who left church each week with a list of complaints to an active servant. “The beautiful part of all this,” David said, “is that I’m a lot happier as a communer than I was as a consumer.”
Who Is Unclean to You? (Acts 10:15)
Acts 10:15
And the voice came to him again a second time, “What God has made clean, do not call common.”
In the days of the early church, there was always a little bit of discomfort between Jewish Christians and gentile Christians. Jews had grown up all their lives believing that they alone were the special people of God. For the church to suddenly have her doors thrown open to people other ethnicities was very difficult for them to stomach. The ethnic Jews probably did not mean to be harsh or unloving, it was just very hard for them to get past years of seeing the gentile world as unclean, cruel, ungodly.
Simon Peter, one of the original twelve disciples, had an experience in Acts 10 that opened his eyes to the value of gentile believers. He had a vision of all sorts of animals that were marked as unclean, animals that Peter would have never eaten as a Jew. God tells him to eat them. When Peter refuses, God lets Peter know that Peter has no right to consider unclean something that God has declared clean. The application of this strange vision was so that Peter could understand that it was now his job to go to the gentiles, share the gospel with the gentiles, and welcome the gentiles into the family of God.
Now, a question for you and me today. We do not live in a world that thinks of many items of food as unclean (no matter what my dad says about sushi). But we are still living among people who consider other people who are different from us as dangerous, as dirty, as unclean. This is ugly, it is untrue, and it is counter-gospel, but we have to admit that, for many in church pews today, it is true. We still apply the label of unclean to somebody or to some group.
What is the truth? God so loved the world that he gave his Son (John 3:16). The point of that word “world” in the verse is to make us see that people of all people groups, all ethnicities, are included in the love of God. God did not send Jesus for only Jews, only Asians, or only Americans. God sent Jesus to redeem for himself a people from every nation (Rev 5:9-10).
Ask yourself, “Who is unclean to me?” Is it a particular ethnicity? Is it a particular education level? Is it a particular income level? Is it a particular hygiene level? God sent his Son to redeem people from all peoples. God has called all kinds of people clean. We must not consider unclean or common that which God has called clean.
Lord, help me to see all peoples as clean in your sight. Help me to get past my social and cultural stereotypes to understand that you want me to love people who are different than me in a multitude of ways. Convict me when I fail in this area, and help me, I pray, to honor you with love that looks like the love of Jesus.
The Slave Across the Street (A Review)
The following is a review of a book that was given me as part of the ChristianAudio.com reviewers program:
Many of us have heard the horrible stories of human trafficking in foreign countries. When I lived in Korea, I heard many times that such things happened to impoverished Russian girls who were being brought to Asian countries, and of course I heard of the horrible sex industry that enslaves so many in Thailand. But I had read and heard little of such an industry in the US.
In Theresa Flores’ book, The Slave Across the Street, we read an autobiographical account of an upper middle class, blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl who was enslaved, not in a foreign country, but in suburbia. This girl was not kidnapped and driven to a far off city, but rather found herself in what she believed to be an inescapable situation while still living under her own parents’ roof, and her parents knew nothing of what was going on.
Positives
This book is eye-opening and chilling. It is certainly too easy for those of us who are living comfortably to fail to realize that there are those around us who are going through unthinkable horrors. Hopefully readers of this book will better pray for and watch for those who are suffering in ways that they cannot imagine. Perhaps readers will even be more willing to offer help to someone who looks to be going through hardships and suffering instead of turning the other way.
Negatives
This text is very difficult to read. The author is not gratuitous in her descriptions of what happened to her, but her descriptions are still gut wrenching. I know of many people who emotionally should not read accounts of such horrors.
Also, the weakest part of the book by far is the part which has it being sold on the shelves of Christian bookstores. Flores’ spiritual explanation of how she survived her ordeal does not mesh with orthodox Christianity. She talks about angelic energies surrounding her, protecting her, healing her. While I do not think many will read this book to develop a theology of angels, God’s presence, or soul healing, it is important to know that this lady is offering her impressions of what she felt was spiritually happening, not a biblically sound treatise on the matter.
Recommendation
I can only partially recommend this work. It was good for me to read, as it certainly caused me to think about the dangers that can exist in our world that many of us do not see. At the same time, not all people need to read such a graphic account of sexual violence perpetrated on a young girl. If you need to be awakened to the fact that people are suffering in ways you have never imagined, if you need to become more aware of other kinds of suffering around you so that you can be drawn to watch better and help more, you could give this book a try. If you cannot emotionally handle such an ugly story or are the kind of person who continues to dwell on gory details of sadness, let this book pass and do some more sterilized research on the world of human trafficking, even in the US.
God’s Sovereignty and the problem of Evil
Genesis 20:6
Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know that you have done this in the integrity of your heart, and it was I who kept you from sinning against me. Therefore I did not let you touch her.
With the disaster in Haiti still constantly on our television sets, newspapers, and computer screens, I find myself reminded of other tragic events. I remember stepping out of the shower and hearing that evil men had flown airplanes into buildings in New York City on 9-11. I remember sitting in an airport, stunned at the horrors of the tsunami that ravaged Thailand and Indonesia at the end of 2004. Not only do I remember these events, I remember prayerfully considering how I, as a pastor, could offer people any sort of explanation of what was going on.
Whenever tragedies strike, be they natural disasters or human evils, people often ask questions about the involvement of God. Some people bow to God’s sovereignty and goodness in the midst of seeming Chaos. Others offer attempts at explanations for why God chose to do what he did as if they could explain the motivation that would cause God to send an earthquake, tsunami, or wasting disease. Others attempt to remove or soften an attribute of Gods’ being in order to say that he either did not know that the tragedy was coming or that he cannot stop the tragedy without violating his own natural laws.
A few days after 9-11, I was talking with a leader in a Christian denominational agency that I will not name. I asked him how he would explain to people what happened on 9-11. He told me that, while God was saddened by those events, God does not take action to inhibit the decisions and actions of his free creatures. Amazed that this man would tell me that God did not move to sometimes change the directions of people’s lives and actions, I asked him if he did not think that God moved to change the actions and attitudes of individuals in the Bible such as Pharaoh or Nebuchadnezzar. The response of this “Christian” leader was to tell me that it only seemed that God was intervening to the writers of the Bible, but that we know that this was not the case.
What that man offered to me and to others as a way to explain the tragedy was totally useless. Regardless of how many explanations we give to try to “Get God off the hook” for the hardships that occur in our world, such explanations ultimately offer no hope to believers. God does intervene in human affairs. God himself has declared that he prevented free men from doing things in Genesis 20:6 above. God has the power, the knowledge, and the skill to stop or start any natural event imaginable—he did create the universe with a word after all.
No, the fact is that God is in control. We will not understand his acts and his ways, at least not enough to allow us to say that a particular storm hit a particular neighborhood because of a particular sin. Yet, God has given us insight into his character in his written word. God is mighty, wise, powerful, and perfect in every way. His ways are not our ways, neither are his thoughts ours (cf. Isa 55:8). But his thoughts and ways are always holy. There is no trace of sin or of evil in God. He will do rightly. He will intervene in the affairs of men on earth for the sake of his holy name.
I don’t know how to explain Haiti. I cannot say what God is up to. But I can confidently say that God was not surprised by what happened, Nor was God powerless to stop it or ethically bound to act or not to act. God has moved in the lives of people in the past. God has moved the forces of nature in the past, stilling storms and walking the sea. God is sovereign and good. God is still worthy of our worship and praise, because he is a truly wonderful and gracious God.
Hold Fast the Word of God
In a challenging message that I heard this morning, John Piper said something that I found to be profound. He pointed out that we cannot guarantee that reading the Bible regularly will make us strong. However, we can guarantee that, if we do not read the Bible regularly, we will certainly not be spiritually strong.
*From the message which you can check out here
So I am giving you no guaranteed regimen or device or scheme or trick for spiritual power and health and fruitfulness. Bible reading is not magic. Bible
memory is not mind control or divination. I don’t know if your reading the Bible and meditating and memorizing will give you power and health and fruitfulness.
…
What I do know is: Without it you starve every grace that God means for you to thrive on his world. There is a spiritual diet without which no Christian
can be strong and healthy and fruitful. And that is a diet of the word of God.
Kevin DeYoung – Just Do Something — A Review
I’ve read several “will of God books,” but Kevin DeYoung’s Just Do Something is the best so far. DeYoung is insightful, witty, and helpful to believers who are asking the question, “How do I know if this is the will of God?”
Positives
The content of DeYoung’s position on understanding the will of God is the book’s greatest strength. DeYoung takes the mysticism and paralysis out of the life of many believers by helping them to see that God’s will is not some sort of inexplicable gut feeling or spiritual nudge that they have to be sure not to mistake. As the title suggests, when a believer is prayerfully walking with Christ, following God’s revealed commands in the Bible, and seeking proper biblical counsel, he or she is free to “just do something” when it comes to non-moral life decisions—even the significant ones like careers and marriage.
Other strengths of this book include DeYoung’s catchy, often humorous, down-to-earth style. While DeYoung knows his stuff, he does not present it in such a way as to make one think that he or she needs a degree to be able to access the info in this work.
Negatives
That style I just applauded, some won’t like it. If a reader is someone who has been given to more mystical or charismatic methods of attempting to discover God’s will of desire in their lives, they may be insulted by DeYoung’s tongue in cheek style at times. While DeYoung is never crude or crass in any way, his way of poking fun at those who feel a need to hear from God about whether they should have Frosted Flakes or oatmeal (my example, not his) might be a little too edgy for highly sensitive readers.
Recommendation
This book is helpful, catchy, biblically solid, and brief. All Christians ponder at one point or another how to know what God’s will is for their lives. Without question, I would recommend this work to a multitude of believers.
It took me a few minutes to grow accustomed to the narrator here. I’m more used to the booming, solemn-voiced readers of Christian works. This one is read by a younger guy who clearly gets DeYoung’s wit. I don’t consider this narrator a plus or a minus, just a different style than I generally hear. But, you have to admit, a 3 hour audio book is not a bad investment of time.
Pastor Travis Peterson 