hope

05
Jan
2025

The secret of life is found in Christ

Readings for Epiphany festival, January 6th

Isaiah 60:1-6, Ephesians 3: 1-12, Matthew 2:1-12

In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising,and have come to pay him homage” (Matthew 2:1-2).


God works in mysterious ways – leading us to his grace

How did Eastern magi know to go to Jerusalem when they saw something unusual in their stargazing (Matthew 2:1,2)? What we call the Star of Bethlehem may have been miraculous in its appearance. It may have been a manifestation of the glory of the LORD—such as when the LORD led the Israelites through the wilderness, going “in front of them in a pillar of cloud by day, to lead them along the way, and in a pillar of fire by night, to give them light” (Exodus 13:21). Perhaps the wise men were led by the same glory of the LORD that shone around the angels who appeared above the fields near Bethlehem heralding Jesus’ birth (Luke 2:9).

However, many of God’s miraculous dealings with us are in and under and through things we tend to see as normal occurrences. We apply water to a person in God’s name, by Christ’s instruction, and that person is connected to Christ and made a child of God. We receive bread and wine by Christ’s instruction, and we are connected to his sufferings and death and filled with God’s grace. God’s most profound miracles often are hidden under things that seem ordinary. What the wise men saw may have been viewed by others as something natural, as no big deal. A modern astronomer who gives credence to the Bible’s story suggested that the bright object in the sky could have been a special alignment between planets and stars—a conjunction occurring when celestial bodies appear to meet in the night sky from our vantage point on earth. Astronomer Michael Molnar pointed to an alignment of Jupiter, Saturn, the moon and the sun in the constellation of Aries that occurred around the time when Jesus was born. “This conjunction happened in the early morning hours, which aligns with the Gospel’s description of the Star of Bethlehem as a rising morning star” (Space.com, 12/22/24).

Magi were scholars and advisors to the rulers in ancient Babylon and Persia. They were astronomers and astrologers who studied the skies diligently. These particular magi likely studied the Hebrew scriptures too. The magi were a class of intellectuals that once had included the brightest minds among the Jewish people taken captive by the Babylonians. In 605 BC, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, Azariah and others were among Israelites of noble rank, “versed in every branch of wisdom, endowed with knowledge and insight,” who were deemed “competent to serve in the king’s palace” (Daniel 1:3,4).  Daniel’s name as a member of the magi in Babylon was Belteshazzar. Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were given the names Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego (Daniel 1:7). It seems that Daniel’s wisdom and writings—and other Jewish prophets’ writings—were things these magi, 600 years later, had in mind along with whatever they saw in the skies. Daniel’s prophecy had included a cryptic timeline about how long it would be between “the time that the word went out [for the Israelites] to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the time of an anointed prince”—-when the “anointed one” or Messiah would come (cf. Daniel 9:24-27 and ReasonForHopeJesus.com). 

Because of the testimony Daniel gave centuries before, the wise men who traveled to find Jesus may have been searching the skies for a sign around the very time Jesus was born. We don’t know exactly what they saw. They may have seen an unusual alignment of planets and stars and understood it as an indication of the Messiah’s arrival, in keeping with prophecies about the brightness of the dawn at his coming into the world (Isaiah 60:1-3). And they may have seen a supernatural manifestation of the glory of the LORD in the skies—pointing them to the specific house where Jesus was when they went to look for him in Bethlehem. 

We don’t need to belabor ourselves trying to explain exactly what the phenomenon of the Star of Bethlehem was. It’s okay to confess it as a mystery. Our faith is grounded in confessing that the workings of our God are full of mystery and wonder. As the heavens are higher than the earth, God’s ways are higher than our ways and his thoughts higher than our thoughts (Isaiah 55:9). As a hymn writer famously described, “God moves in a mysterious way, his wonders to perform.”

We don’t always like that. We want things to be obvious. We want to see signs that point directly to us and point us in a specific direction. I’ve known people who looked for signs from God to determine if they should accept a new job or stay in their current position. Others interpreted everything they saw as a message from above—such as seeing every little coincidence as a sign that the person they just met was their soulmate, destined to be the love of their life. In doing so, they rushed the relationship, not building deep connections. They ignored or downplayed frictions, convincing themselves they were meant to be together … and then they fell apart. They had seen only what they wanted to see and missed the many red flags that kept popping up all along the way.

I knew a woman who struggled over even the smallest daily decisions. She constantly wanted a sign from God to show her what to do. She asked our church’s lay minister for help knowing what God’s will was. As they talked, she put two pens on the table in front of her and asked, “Like right now, how do I know which pen God wants me to use?” We needed to encourage her to walk each day’s path with confidence that whichever thoughtful decisions she made, God would be with her.

In the daily course of our lives, God leads us in everyday ways more so than by spectacular signs or miraculous moments. He leads us by reminders of what his word has taught us. He leads us by the Christ-like actions of others who help us when we need help. We don’t want to miss those clear messages from God while we’re looking all about for some elusive supernatural signal.

We wish we could know how our story will unfold, seeing clearly what lies ahead. God asks us to trust him, confident that he knows our needs and will be blessing our futures. The apostles and prophets spoke of God’s doings and dealings with us as a mystery. Paul described how the mystery of Christ was made known to him by revelation. “In former generations,” he said, “this mystery was not made known to humankind, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.” A part of that mystery was that God’s promise was not limited to just some people. All people, Jews and Gentiles alike, were to be “fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.” Those of us who have come to know “the boundless riches of Christ” have a role in helping others “see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things,” so that through us, the church, “the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known” and we and others may have boldness and confidence through faith in Christ (Ephesians 3: 1-12).

Maintaining faith in God continues to confront us with mystery, as much of what we experience in life seems at odds with the goodness and peace we want to have. Mary and Joseph’s early days with Jesus had bright moments. Shepherds came to the stable where the child was born, telling of a visit by angels. Later, wise men came to worship and brought expensive gifts. But Jesus’ family had been uprooted from their home in Nazareth by a government order requiring that they be in Bethlehem for census and taxation purposes. Immediately after the visit by the magi, Joseph and Mary needed to use value from their gifts to flee for their lives. The regional ruler, Herod, felt threatened when court officials from far away inquired where to find the child who had been born king of the Jews (Matthew 2:2) When the magi did not report back to him the child’s location, Herod ordered all baby boys in and around Bethlehem be killed, determined to get rid of any supposed new king by butchery (Matthew 2:16). By God’s intervention, Joseph and Mary and Jesus escaped to Egypt, remaining there until Herod’s death (around a year or so later). Things were not easy for them.

Our lives have bright moments, but also many fears and tragedies and turmoils. It is good for us to confess, “God works in mysterious ways,” rather than looking only for immediate and obvious signs of blessings. We get that phrase about God’s mysterious ways from the hymn I mentioned earlier. The hymn writer, William Cowper, had bright moments in his life but also dire struggles of heart and soul. After William was born (in 1731), his mother lost five other children in their infancy. Then, when William was six years old, his mother died while giving birth to his younger brother John—the only sibling that survived. William was traumatized by losing his mother. He was sent to boarding school, where he was severely bullied. He managed to go on to become a successful student and writer. When he was 31 years old, he was offered a prestigious position as Keeper of the Journals in the House of Lords. But his appointment was challenged and he was to undergo a public examination at the Bar of the House. His fragile psyche could not handle that, and he had a breakdown. He made attempts at suicide. He went to be treated for two years at a mental health asylum. He was befriended by faithful people and became connected to evangelical churches. In reflection on his life’s journey—including especially his bouts with suicidal thoughts and depression—William Cowper wrote these lines in a poem he originally entitled, Conflict: Light Shining out of Darkness:

God moves in a mysterious way,
    His wonders to perform;
He plants his footsteps in the sea,
    And rides upon the storm.  …

Ye fearful saints fresh courage take,
    The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy, and shall break
    In blessings on your head.*

When you are struggling to see hope in your life, bear in mind the experience of Mary and Joseph. They lived in a world where they had to make difficult journeys from Nazareth to Bethlehem and then from Bethlehem to Egypt. But God made his blessings known by visits from shepherds and wise men. Keep in mind the life of Jesus, which culminated in suffering and scorn and pain and death. But God made his victory known in Jesus’ resurrection and ascension as King of kings and Lord of lords. Keep in mind the experience of God’s people throughout the course of history who have battled stresses and strains—such as the life of William Cowper—and yet can confess that God works in mysterious ways and is with us through the storms. 

When life is shrouded in mystery and difficulty, we may cry out to God like Job did long ago, “Why? Why? Why?” (Cf. Job chapter 3). We may not see obvious signs that God is still with us, watching over us. But we know that our Redeemer lives, “and that at the last he will stand upon the earth,” and we will “in our own flesh see God on our side” (Job 19:25-27). We will have a home with him. 

Our hearts yearn within us for the final revealing of all God’s mysteries, “Now we know only in part; then [we] will know fully, even as [we] have been fully known” (1 Corinthians 13:12).  In the meantime, we confess: “Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am” (Philippians 4:13 The Message). Our God “will fully satisfy every need according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19). That is our confidence in Jesus, born at Bethlehem, crucified at Calvary, raised to life and ascended on high. He has promised, “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:3). That is the culmination of the mystery of Christ, in which we have our hope. 

Life’s greatest mystery has been revealed to us in the gospel—the good news of God’s grace in Jesus. That news, the revealing of that mystery, is the truth we hold dear in our hearts and the grace we share with others.

Scripture quotations, except where otherwise indicated, are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

* Sources: Cowper & Newton Museum, Poetry Foundation,  Wikipedia biography and poem page

Posted by David Sellnow, 0 comments
10
Nov
2024

Widows, weakness, and walking in faith

God is with those who are suffering – he has suffered with us and for us

Readings for the 25th Sunday after Pentecost:

When I lived in the South, I had an acquaintance in our neighborhood who was an airplane pilot. He was working for a large televised ministry, piloting the private plane used by the ministry’s leadership. His mother watched the televangelist’s broadcasts. She was a devout believer in God, and felt that the ministry was doing God’s work. She was on a fixed income. Her Social Security benefits were not large. Nevertheless, she regularly sent in large portions of her income as gifts to the ministry—more than she could afford. She had been doing that for years, since before her son started as private pilot for the ministry. The longer her son was working for the organization, the more her habit of donations bothered him. He was fine with supporting her from his own income with anything she needed. But from the inside of the ministry, he was seeing how the mail-handling staff was tasked to go through bags and bags of mail quickly and pull out the checks. The checks were directed for deposit to the ministry’s accounts. The letters sent with them mostly were ignored. A handful of prayer requests were plucked at random from the hundreds of letters, so the preacher could feature those on air. The rest of the letters and prayer requests were thrown away without being read by anyone. 

The pilot’s mother had a heart devoted to Christ, and surely the Lord was with her and loved her—whether or not she was sending in donations to the TV ministry. The duplicitous  ministry, on the other hand, was veering away from truth and integrity and love. As the Book of Proverbs advises, “The Lord hates it when people cheat others” (Proverbs 11:1 NIrV).  “Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who act faithfully are his delight” (Proverbs 12:22). 

Eventually, the pilot walked away from his job with that ministry organization, because the arrogance and affluence of the top people—and their dishonesty—was so at odds with the trust and hopes of the people they were supposed to be serving. It’s not unlike the situation that existed when Jesus observed the way things were at the temple in Jerusalem many years ago. Jesus pointed out the contrast between the high and mighty religious leaders and the ordinary folks who came to express their faith. In that temple environment, Jesus publicly said to watch out for those who make themselves the center of attention in matters of religion. Beware of those, he said, “who like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces” (Mark 12:38-39) and yet devour widows’ houses—taking their property from them, “exploiting the weak and helpless” (Mark 12:40 The Message). Jesus focused his attention on a poor widow who came and put into the temple offering two small copper coins, worth the equivalent of a penny. “Truly I tell you,” Jesus said, “this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury” with amounts they could afford from the abundance of their wealth. Out of her poverty, this faith-filled widow was putting in “everything she had, all she had to live on” (Mark 12:42-44).

The people who looked like they were the most important in the goings-on at the temple in Jerusalem were really only self-important. They were proud. They were puffed up. As Scripture has said in another context: “Their spirit wasn’t right in them. … Wealth is treacherous; the arrogant do not endure” (Habakkuk 2:4,5). “But the righteous will live by their faith” (Habakkuk 2:4).

Let’s take another example, going back about 900 years before Jesus’ ministry in Judea and Galilee. A king named Ahab had come to reign over Israel, with fortresses/palaces in the cities of Jezreel and Samaria.  King Ahab enhanced his power by marriage to a Phoenician princess named Jezebel. Jezebel made her country’s worship of Baal and Asherah (fertility deities) a prominent part of her reign with Ahab (cf. 1 Kings 16:31-34). Ahab and Jezebel sat in the power positions and seemed like the important ones in Israel.

Bernardo Strozzi, Elijah & The Widow of Zerephath, 17th century

But that’s not how our Lord saw things. Through Elijah, the LORD announced that the opposite of fertile harvests and abundant blessings would be happening for them. Elijah prophesied, “As the Lord the God of Israel lives …there shall be neither dew nor rain these years” (1 Kings 17:1). Elijah became public enemy #1 of the Ahab and Jezebel regime. During those years, Elijah took refuge at the home of a widow in the coastal city of Zarephath, which was actually located in Jezebel’s home territory. It wasn’t where you’d expect to find an ally for the LORD’s prophet, but the LORD told Elijah, “I have commanded a widow there to feed you” (1 Kings 17:9). And indeed she did. She had almost nothing left when Elijah encountered her. She was gathering a few sticks for a fire. She planned to use her last little bit of flour and oil to make one last meal for herself and her son before they succumbed to starvation. Elijah offered her a promise from the LORD: “The jar of meal will not be emptied and the jug of oil will not fail until the day that the LORD sends rain on the earth.” (Cf. 1 Kings 17:10-16.)  Later in their time together, the widow’s son became severely ill and died. Elijah prayed, “‘O Lord my God, let this child’s life come into him again.’ The Lord listened to the voice of Elijah; the life of the child came into him again, and he revived” (1 Kings 17:21-22). The widow’s faith was strengthened further in the LORD God of Israel (1 Kings 17:24). Life was not easy for them, but the LORD was with them.

Where was God in Elijah’s day? Was he with the rich and powerful, the high and mighty? No. Those at the top may have thought they had it all—but it was not by God’s blessing. An unassuming widow found favor with God. A faithful prophet found favor with God. They were the ones actually experiencing God’s blessing.

Where was God in Jesus’ day? With society’s policy makers and self-satisfied religious leaders? No. A worshipful widow, trusting God to meet her needs, was noticed by Jesus and held up as an example. 

Where is God today? Do we look for God’s presence and signs of God’s blessing in the wrong places? Do we revere the wrong people or look in the wrong direction for what it means to have a blessed life? We give TV coverage to a billionaire doing the first-ever civilian spacewalk (in a flight he paid for on another billionaire’s rocket ship) and think, “Wouldn’t that be so cool if I could do that?” (See BBC story, 9/12/24.) We heap our adoration on rock stars and pop stars and country stars and sports stars and movie stars and dream of living a life like theirs. 

But where does God truly show up and make his presence known in our world? “This is where God shows up: in the confessing of our sins, and the bearing of one another’s burdens, and being there in solidarity with those who are bearing crosses. That’s where God shows up” (Tripp Fuller, Faith-Lead, 2024). Another insightful writer has said, “God is more likely to be found in the lives of people at the bottom of the ladder where life is messy, than at the top where life is comfortable and secure. These hurting places are the arenas where Jesus lived, worked, and taught, and this is the arena to which his followers are called” (Kurt Struckmeyer, FollowingJesus.org, 7/1/2018). 

Think of what it was like when Jesus himself was on this earth. Who seemed important then? At the time of Jesus’ death, who seemed like the winners and who seemed like the losers? Didn’t it seem like the Roman empire and the Roman governor and the mobs who screamed against Jesus had all the power? That Jesus and his followers were nobodies, rejects, worthless? Where was God when Jesus was suffering? You could even hear Jesus cry out in anguish and abandonment, “My God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46)  But his Father was not abandoning Jesus forever. The divine Spirit would invigorate him again. Jesus was doing what he was doing—suffering and dying—for us, to redeem us. He came to us in our world because our world is full of misery and death. As human beings, we have flesh and blood and are subject to death. So Jesus came and “shared the same things, so that through his death he might destroy the one who has the power of death … and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death” (Hebrews 2:14, 15).  Christ offered himself once, for all time, to bear the sins of all humanity. And the resurrected Jesus, having dealt with human sin and misery by his own suffering, promises us that he “will appear a second time … to save those who are eagerly waiting for him” (Hebrews 9:28).

Pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, while he was imprisoned by the Nazi government that later would put him to death, wrote in a letter from prison:

  • God allows himself to be edged out of the world and onto the cross. God is weak and powerless in the world, and that is exactly the way, the only way, in which God can be with us and help us. Matthew 8:17 (He took up our infirmities, and bore the burden of our sins) makes it crystal clear that it is not by his omnipotence that Christ helps us, but by his weakness and suffering.
    This is the decisive difference between Christianity and all religions. Man’s religiosity makes him look in his distress to the power of God in the world [wanting God to show up with some miraculous, immediate solution.] … The Bible, however, directs us to the powerlessness and suffering of God; only a suffering God can help. … The God of the Bible conquers power and space in the world by his weakness. …
    Humans are challenged to participate in the sufferings of God at the hands of a godless world. … It is not some religious act which makes a Christian what he is, but participation in the suffering of God in the life of the world. … One must abandon every attempt to make something of oneself … [and take] life in stride, with all its duties and problems, its successes and failures, its experiences and helplessness. It is in such a life that we throw ourselves utterly in the arms of God and participate in his sufferings in the world and watch with Christ in Gethsemane. That is faith, and that is what makes a human and a Christian.

(Letter from 1944—see D.Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison, 1997)

Let me close by saying this:
You might be a widow struggling with loneliness and limited resources.
You might be a common laborer, figuring out how to make a living and make ends meet.
You might be a farmer, navigating the uncertainties of unpredictable weather and an unpredictable economy.
You might be a parent, at wits’ end trying to manage family life and all its worries and difficulties.
You might be a child, not sure yet where or how you fit in or where life is going for you.
You might be a neighbor or friend, seeing other neighbors and friends who are hurting and wanting to help them—even though you may be hurting too and wondering why life is so hard.
You might be anybody, facing shortages, facing sickness, facing loss, experiencing all manner of the things that go wrong in this world. But you have one certainty: Jesus has experienced all these things and more, and he sees you. He knows you. He is with you. We do not have a Savior who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, our troubles, our struggles, our feelings of unimportance and helplessness.  “We  have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:15-16).

As people of God, we carry one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:2), and together we all carry our burdens to Christ, who indeed does give rest to our souls (Matthew 11:29). 

Scripture quotations, except where otherwise indicated, are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Posted by David Sellnow
24
Jun
2024

God is with us through the storms

God is with us through the storms

Where I live, it has been raining and raining and raining. Our rainfall totals from Thursday to yesterday (Saturday) were nearly 5 inches, and towns not far from us had over 8 inches of rain in the same span. This is on top of previous weeks’ rainfall amounts that were already double the average normally received for the whole month of June. 

We appreciate rain. But we get nervous when the rains keep coming, fearing flooding that may follow. And storms scare us. Violent winds and other weather phenomena can cause all sorts of damage. We’d like our weather always to be pleasant—sunshine when we want sunshine, gentle rain when we need rain. We’d like our lives to be like that—generally pleasant overall, no major disturbances or disruptions.

We even can get confused and think when life is smooth and easy, it proves God is with us. We think if we are doing the right things, God will reward us and make material blessings flow in our direction. There’s a name for that kind of thinking. It’s called having a theology of glory. The idea is that if we are right with God, then our lives will display wonderful, visible success.

Try applying that sort of theology to a man like Job. This Sunday’s scriptures included a reading from the end of the story of Job. Job was a man who had vast wealth and a large family. In his day—perhaps as early or earlier than the time of Abraham—Job was said to be “the greatest of all the people of the east” (Job 1:3). Not only that, Job was a man of faith, attested by the LORD himself to be “blameless and upright” and God-fearing to a degree greater than any other person on earth (Job 1:1,8). Then God let the devil have his way with Job. Job’s possessions were decimated. His seven sons and three daughters all were killed. His own health was exchanged for lingering, painful illness. All that turmoil is told in just the first two chapters of Job’s book. Then for 35 chapters, we listen to Job and his friends meditate on the misery. His friends first said nothing. For seven days they sat and stared at the ground. Finally, Job spoke out in complaint. He cried out in pain. His friends then offered some advice, much of which added insult to injury. Most of what they said was theology of glory in reverse. Essentially, they said, “Job, to be suffering like you are, you must be guilty of some heinous crime or dreadful offense against God.” But that wasn’t true. There was no one more devoted to God than Job was. As patriarch of his family, he regularly offered sacrifices on behalf of his children. He honored God and shunned evil. Yet the very God whom he so revered allowed him to be engulfed by tragedy. Where was the glory in that? Where was there any hint of reward for good behavior? God took the finest example of a believing person that could be found, and let him become an example of pain and horror and loss.

And Satan was involved too. That dragon was eager to sink his claws into Job. Always looking for souls to devour (1 Peter 5:8), the devil goes after every child of God, the weak and the strong, intent on destroying the faith of any that he can. And God suffers all of his believers to endure such temptations. The LORD does not want us to become secure in ourselves, thinking we’re immune to sin’s dangers or safe from sin’s fallout—the tumult and storms that characterize life in this world. The LORD wants each of us ever more deeply, ever more personally, ever more intimately to grasp onto him in faith, trusting him as our Rescuer.

What God showed in the life of Job, he is equally ready to demonstrate in his dealings with you. He says to you what he said to his people of old: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you” (Isaiah 43:1-2).

Notice what the LORD is saying. He does not promise that you will avoid all hurt and trouble. He does not say you will escape the floodwaters or that you won’t face danger or fire. Sometimes, in fact—as the Lord did in the case of Job—he will push you into the fire or plunge you deep underwater, letting this world’s troubles have their way with you. But God never abandons you. He always hangs onto you. He says, “Do not fear, for I am with you” (Isaiah 43:5). Being in precarious situations reminds you how much you need God’s strength, so that you wrap your arms of faith around him as tight as a child would cling to their parent during a thunderstorm. It’s like the apostle Paul (another great man of God) said about the life he and his ministry colleagues lived. They were servants of God, deeply devoted to doing God’s work, yet they endured “afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger.” Through it all, they kept demonstrating “purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God” (2 Corinthians 6:4-7).  Paul told those who were led to Christ that It is through many hardships, “many persecutions that we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). If the apostle Paul endured such hardships, if a righteous man such as Job endured such hardships, you and I also can expect to endure hardships as we walk in faith in this world. 

The experience of Jesus’ disciples illustrates the same truth for us. They had Jesus right there with them in their boat as they crossed Lake Kinneret (commonly called the Sea of Galilee). But that didn’t mean they were immune to the meteorological events of that region. Violent storms can happen there, especially when the winds whip down from the high hills on the eastern shore. Most recently, such a storm in 2022 saw sustained winds of 50 mph with gusts up to 87 mph, causing around $50 million in damage to property and infrastructure in the city of Tiberias and other areas along sea’s shore. (Cf. Israel Today, May 17, 2022). When a great windstorm like that arose for the disciples of Jesus centuries ago, they panicked. They couldn’t believe Jesus was sleeping through it, lounging on a cushion in the back of the boat. They woke him up, yelling, “Teacher, don’t you care that we’re about to drown” (Mark 4:38 CEV)?

As disciples of Jesus, we are a lot like those first disciples. We like to think life with Jesus should be a peaceful, pleasant ride. We don’t want anything to rock the boat or cause problems for us. We have that theology of glory mindset in us. We think if Jesus is with us, then everything in our lives should be good and glorious and successful. We are dismayed when storms arise. We feel God has fallen asleep and doesn’t care about us. We start screaming at God (like Job screamed at God), “Where are you now? Why is this happening? What did I do to deserve this?” [As if our efforts are merit badges with God, and he owes us rewards for good behavior.]  Then, through the storm, out of the whirlwind, we can hear what God would say to us (as he said to Job): “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge” (Job 38:2)? We question why God has let things get out of control when, of course, God always has all things under his control. He is the one who “laid the foundation of the earth” (Job 38:4). He is the one who says to the lakes and seas and oceans, “Here is where your proud waves shall be stopped’ (Job 38:11). 

When the whirlwind hit the boats out on the Sea of Galilee, Jesus calmly got up, “rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’ Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm” (Mark 4:39). And Jesus said to his terrified disciples, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith” (Mark 4:40)?  By this time in their journey with Jesus, the disciples had already seen him turn water into wine, cause their fishing nets to burst with an incredible number of fish, cast a demon out of a man, heal person after person of diseases and ailments. They had even seen him raise a young man, a widow’s only son, back to life after he had died. Still, Jesus had to remind them that he is indeed the Lord of all, “that even the wind and the sea obey him” (Mark 4:41). “O ye of little faith!” Jesus could say to all of us (Matthew 8:26 KJV). We all struggle to maintain trust and hope when storms come, when the circumstances of our lives suddenly are not pleasant and peaceful, or when our journey is one of chronic pain and hurt. We wonder where God is when life is a struggle.

Remember, though, that Jesus told us, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33 NIV). Satan will tempt you. Troubles will taunt you. But “God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it” (1 Corinthians 10:13). Through it all, come what may, look ahead to the final way out that God promises. We share the same hope Job expressed, saying: “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth, and … then in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see on my side” (Job 19:25-27). With God on our side, no matter how scary the storms, we always have hope.

There came a time in Jesus’ ministry when many of those following him turned back and no longer went along with him (John 6:66). They had been in it for the good things, for miracles that filled baskets upon baskets with bread and fish. They looked for Jesus to make their lives content and comfortable. When Jesus told them that wasn’t what life with him was about, they walked away. Jesus then asked his core group, the twelve whom he was training to be his apostles, “‘Do you also wish to go away?’ Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God’” (John 6:67-69).  Let that be our attitude also. Life isn’t all sunshine and clear skies. Storms will come. Unrest will upend our lives often. But we have a source of refuge. We have a place of safety. We have Jesus, the Holy One of God, who promises to be with us—”always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).  We will hang on, we will keep going, we will get to the other side, trusting in him. 

Scripture quotations, except where otherwise indicated, are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Posted by David Sellnow
13
May
2024

Eve’s faith and ours

Faith made Eve a mother  … and faith carries each of us through our life in this world

The man named his wife Eve, because she was the mother of all living. … The Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken.  He drove out the man; and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a sword flaming and turning to guard the way to the tree of life.
Now the man knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have produced a man with the help of the Lord” (Genesis 3:20, 23; 4:1).

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You can’t help but know that Mother’s Day has arrived.  We’ve been bombarded with TV commercials, print ads in newspapers, flyers in our mailboxes, emails and texts and phone alerts – all wanting to make sure we buy plenty of stuff for our moms. For this edition of The Electric Gospel, I’d like to offer something different from the commercial and sentimental emphases of Mother’s Day. Let’s consider some spiritual thoughts about the first mother, our first mother, Eve. She and Adam provide a lesson for all of us, for it is by faith in God’s promises that they were and we are able to carry on in this world.

When the first man and woman were created, they were made in the image of God, perfect and holy like their creator. Life was flawless for them in the Garden of Eden, the wonderful paradise God made as their home. It was a place where they were to live in love and friendship toward God and toward one another.

But you know the story well – and you’ve felt the impact of what happened. The perfect life of the perfect couple in the perfect garden was spoiled. Eve took the first bite of forbidden fruit. Adam followed suit. They consciously disregarded a way they were to honor God. When they broke away from God in that way, everything became broken. Satan’s temptation had suggested they would be like divine beings, able to distinguish good from evil (Genesis 3:5). That was a devilish half-truth. Adam and Eve did come to know things in a way they hadn’t known before, but not really in the way that God knows good and evil. God knows evil as the opposite of his character, “for God cannot be tempted by evil” (James 1:13).  God knows good as what he is, fully and absolutely. As the Word attests, “The Lord is upright … there is no unrighteousness in him” (Psalm 92:15). Adam and Eve had come to know things from an opposite perspective. They knew good as what they used to have, as perfection they had lost. They knew evil as a force that now inhabited them, as something they were fatally attracted to.  This was the great tragedy of humanity’s fall into sin.

After Adam and Eve’s sin, God confronted them in the Garden. There would be consequences to what they had done. 

To Adam, God said, “Now by the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken” (Genesis 3:19).  The Garden of Eden would be closed to them.  Life would change. There would be sweat and work and weeds and toil.  

To Eve, God said, “I will greatly increase your pangs in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children” (Genesis 3:16). So now, to “be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1:28), as God had instructed them, would be no easy task.  Bringing children into the world would be difficult from start to finish. Sin had changed things.   

But even with those announcements of pain and difficulty in life, what Adam and Eve were hearing from God was good news. They had disobeyed God. They had defied God. They knew God’s warning – “The day you eat [from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil], you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:17). Quite likely, Adam and Eve had expected to die immediately, on that very day, because of what they had done. They hid from God, afraid (Genesis 3:8). But God didn’t put them to death on the spot. He was letting them know life would be full of sorrow and hurt – but that meant they still would be alive, they still had a future. 

And God made the point even more clear. He turned to the serpent, through whom Adam and Eve had been tempted. God said to him: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel” (Genesis 3:15). In those words Adam and Eve heard a promise of wonderful, renewed hope. A child born of woman would undo the damage that sin and the devil had done. God spoke of the woman’s offspring, so Eve and Adam knew that the future and God’s promise depended on her having offspring.

It was just then that the man (whom we know as “Adam”) gave his wife a name, Eve, which means life. “Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all living” (Genesis 3:20 NIV). They were not dead but alive. They would have life, and their children would have life. There was hope for the whole human race. They did not give up in despair. They held onto hope and clung to God’s promise with faith. 

It was right after all that, right after being sent away from the Garden of Eden, that Adam and Eve began to have children. When they had their first child, they confessed their faith in what God had promised.  “With the Lord’s help I have had a baby boy,” Eve said (Genesis 4:1 NIrV).  In translating Eve’s words, it’s possible she was even thinking that this child, her first child, might already be the one that God meant in his promise – the one who would crush the serpent’s head and reverse the damage of sin. That wasn’t the case – the Promised One, Jesus Christ, wouldn’t arrive in the human story for several thousand years. But the hope and faith of Adam and Eve remained the same. God had given them promises on which to stake their faith. They grabbed onto those promises. Adam and Eve went forward to bring children into the world as an act of faith.

In my ministry days as a pastor in Texas, I met with young couples as they were planning for their weddings. In premarital counseling, I would ask couples about their plans as far as family, having children. I wanted to emphasize a reliance on God and being open to whatever blessings or challenges God might have in store. One young couple, when asked their plans regarding children, said, “Oh, we’re not planning to have children. We can’t imagine bringing children into this world. There’s just so much strife and pain – the crime and war and terrorism. And there’s already overpopulation. It just doesn’t seem right to subject children to a world full of as much trouble as this world.”

We spent some time talking that day. I talked with them about Adam and Eve. If there were ever a married couple on this planet who could say, “It doesn’t seem right bringing children into a world like this,” that would have been something fair for Adam and Eve to say. They had gone from absolute perfection in the Garden of Eden to a life of many pains. They knew that they and all their children would have to deal with sin and suffering and face death – all things they hadn’t known before.  It would have made perfect sense for Adam and Eve to say, “No. No way, no how are we going to have children. We will die for our sin, but we don’t need to subject any children to the same fate.” Yet that’s not at all what they said. They heard God’s mercy. They heard his words of promise. They went forward in hope, had children in hope, trusting God to give them life and redemption, to heal them from their sin.

And so it is with us today, not only for mothers but for every person of faith. Faith makes us ready to do whatever life asks of us. Faith in the promises of God, in the forgiveness of God, in the ultimate goodness of our God – that is what carries each of us through our life in this world. Consider the fact that Mother’s Day is not an easy day for many people. Many who have wanted to have children face the agony of infertility, or of a miscarriage, or the loss of a child. Families and individuals experience all sorts of strains and struggles in this world. As Christians, we live our lives as an act of faith, putting our trust in God to stay with us when times are dark and difficult. 

Faith made Eve a mother. Faith in Jesus gives us the strength to raise our children, to be families, to live our lives. God bless you on Mother’s Day and every day, in Jesus, born of Mary, descendant of Eve. In him we have life and hope forever. 


Scripture quotations, except where otherwise indicated, are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Posted by David Sellnow
03
Dec
2023

The Sun of Righteousness is Rising

An Advent Promise—and Warning


The Sun of Righteousness is Rising

by David Sellnow

In 1969, John Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival (CCR) wrote a song called Bad Moon Rising. “I see the bad moon arising, I see trouble on the way”—that was the opening lyric. The song had a very end-times theme. One stanza said:

I hear hurricanes a-blowin’
I know the end is comin’ soon
I fear rivers overflowin’
I hear the voice of rage and ruin.

Fogerty himself said the song is about “the apocalypse that was going to be visited upon us”—but at the same time wrote it with “a happy-sounding tune.” I thought of that song as I was reading the prophecy from Malachi. The prophet spoke of a time that is like a bad moon rising for many people, but like a glorious sunrise for others. “The sun of righteousness shall rise,” Malachi wrote (4:1), bringing healing, light, and warmth for those who revere God’s name. At the same time, it will burn the arrogant and evildoers. 

If you had a Bible in your hand and opened it to find the book of Malachi, you’d get a good idea of what new horizon he had in mind. It is the New Testament—the coming of the day of Jesus Christ. The words of Malachi chapter 4 are the last words in the Old Testament. You flip the page and you’re in the New Testament. The first New Testament book, Matthew, begins with “an account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah” (Matthew 1:1) and then explains how “the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place” (Matthew 1:18).  That’s a 400-year flip as you flip that one page. Malachi’s writing was the last prophetic word from God for at least 400 years before Jesus Christ arrived on the scene. The next prophet from God would not come until immediately before Jesus. Then, an angel announced the birth of a child to be named John. Echoing the words of Malachi, the angel said, “He will turn many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. With the spirit and power of Elijah” he would “turn the hearts of parents to their children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (Luke 1:13-17). That child would become the preacher known to us as John the Baptist.

In the new day as prophesied by Malachi, and introduced by John the Baptist, “the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings” for all who revere the name of the Lord (Malachi 4:2).  “Revere” is an attempt to translate the ancient Hebrew word יָרֵא (yah-ra), for which we have no one-word equivalent in English. It is to fear the name of the Lord, to stand in awe of him, to be amazed at him, respect him, trust him, rely on him, worship him. Those who revere God, who know his saving name and his saving deeds, anticipate his arrival with hope. When the Lord enters our world, his coming is an answer to prayers, a day of salvation. He brings righteousness as a gift, forgiving our sins and supplying us with goodness. The day of the Lord is like bright and warm sunshine, bringing a fresh new morning. Think of the warmth and joy we feel when we celebrate Christmas: Jesus came to be our righteousness, to bring us peace with God. This dawning of the new, bright sunshiny day in Christ is the kind of thing that makes you go out and leap like young calves released from the stall, as Malachi described it (4:2). You jump for joy. You bask in the sunlight. Your spirit rejoices in God your Savior (cf. Luke 1:47). Sin and death and all that opposes the way of grace and faith in Christ “will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the Lord of hosts” (Malachi 4:3). God promises that all the evil which troubles us is overcome by the coming of the Christ. Both when Jesus came to this world the first time, and when he comes again, the triumph of life that is in him is made evident.

Having said that, it also must be said that the day of the Lord does not make everyone happy. Many do not revere God‘s name and do not welcome him. Their hopes are in themselves, not in the Lord. Some think they are perfectly healthy without God and feel no need for spiritual healing. Some have usurped religious authority for themselves and imposed rules that “lock people out of the kingdom of heaven” because they get wrapped up in legalisms and neglect “justice and mercy and faith” (Matthew 23:13,23). Those attitudes the Lord calls arrogance. There also are persons who do immoral deeds in darkness. They don’t want any sunlight exposing their shame. The things they do are things God calls evil. According to Malachi, for the arrogant and the evildoers, the shining of God‘s light is like scorching desert heat that burns. God’s announcement of a rising sun of righteousness is like a bad moon rising for them. The same righteousness of God that provides a refuge for those who trust in him is a burning scourge on those who trust their own righteousness or try to hide their own guilt. God’s blazing glory turns to dust everything that is not cleansed by forgiveness through faith. “All the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble,” Malachi warned (4:1).

So we see that the day of the Lord is a great joy for those who put their trust in the Lord by faith. It is a dreadful day for those who do not, whose hearts fight against God. We might well bear in mind that either of those descriptions may describe each of us at times. We are not always faithful. We have the same human tendencies as all human beings, wanting the opposite of what the Lord wants for us, thinking we know better than him. Malachi spoke to our consciences. “Remember the teaching of my servant Moses,” he said (Malachi 4:4). No one who keeps in mind God‘s laws to Moses can pretend they are righteous on their own or hide the fact that they sin. What does the law of Moses say? “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might” (Deuteronomy 6:5)  “Walk in all his ways” (Deuteronomy 10:12). “Have no other gods” (Exodus 20:3)—nothing that comes ahead of the Lord in your life.  Be holy. Do not steal. Do not lie. Do not deceive one another. Do not pervert justice. Judge your neighbor fairly. Do not go about spreading slander. Do not hate your brother in your heart. Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge. Love your neighbor as yourself (Leviticus, chapter 19). Just listening to those laws is painful, because we know we fall far short of godly ideals. We are not righteous. We are sinful. Malachi’s warning keeps us from getting too puffed up about ourselves.

So did the warnings of the prophet who came after Malachi, a voice like that of Elijah of old. John the Baptist was like a second Elijah, speaking for God. He declared: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near” (Matthew 3:2). John the Baptist scolded those who were proud of themselves and their heritage, but were arrogant and lacked the humility of faith. “Do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor,’” John told them. “For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham” (Luke 3:8). Being descendants of a religious forefather was not a ticket into heaven for them. Without faith in the Messiah themselves, they were destined to be cut down and thrown into the fire (Luke 3:9). That was John’s message to the arrogant and evildoers.

Strong prophetic warnings always aimed at shaking people out of their self-righteousness and sinfulness and turning their hearts back to the Lord. While the ministry of God’s prophets shouted out warnings, they also soothed with promises. Malachi told of healing sunshine, rays of hope for people who trusted in God. And John “proclaimed the good news to the people” (Luke 3:18). He pointed to Jesus and said, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). John’s ministry turned the hearts of parents to their children and the hearts of children to their parents, keeping individuals and families focused on faith and hope and love (cf. Malachi 4:6). The curse of the law would be removed by the Messiah, Jesus (cf. Galatians 3:13-14). The sunshine of God’s love, the gift of his goodness, have come to us in the person of Jesus Christ.

We are living in the Day of the Lord, my friends. His presence never departs from us. It is AD 2023. We refer to our years as AD: Anno Domini—in the year of the Lord. The ancients who set up our calendar declared every year from the time of Christ’s arrival to be “The year of our Lord.”  The Lord has come. The Lord will come again. Blessed be the name of the Lord, and blessed are all those who continue to put their trust in him. Let us continue to put our trust in him, and so be ready for the day he comes again.

Christmas gift idea:  Sermons on Selected Psalms, available at Amazon.com:

Sermons on Selected Psalms: Sellnow, David: 9798402872462: Amazon.com: Books

Scripture quotations, except where otherwise indicated, are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Posted by David Sellnow
17
Jun
2023

Faith follows God, overcoming fear

A lesson from Abram & Sarai

Faith follows God, overcoming fear

by David Sellnow

Bible selection to read: Genesis 12:1-9

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We live in a mobile society. People change jobs and places of residence rather frequently. A statistic based on US census data shows the average American moves 11 or more times in their life. Another statistic shows the average American changes jobs about 12 times. 

Moving is expensive and challenging, but nowadays there are ample resources to aid you. You can obtain guidebooks and checklists to pilot you through the process. You can rent trailers and trucks and equipment to move yourself. Or you can go with major van lines that will do the moving for you—even the packing and unpacking if you want to pay the fees for it. When you hit the road, you’ve got navigational tools—printed maps, mapping websites, GPS on your phone. You have major roads and interstates on which to travel. Rest stops, convenience stores, and restaurants ease your journey. When you arrive at your new location, local stores and home delivery services will help set you up in your new environment. Moving has challenges, but moving is quite doable in the modern world.

When a man named Abram had to move, not in 2023, but more like 2023 BC (or thereabouts), things weren’t quite so easy. U-Haul® back then meant strapping your belongings onto your camels—if you were affluent enough to have camels. Road maps weren’t written on paper, let alone on computer or GPS. You had to feel the wind and follow the stars. Roads themselves weren’t four-lane concrete with divided lines. If you were fortunate, maybe you could see signs that someone had traveled that way ahead of you. There were no hotels or motels with pools and hot tubs to relieve travelers’ weary bones. You considered yourself blessed if you found a pond of water.

When Abram moved so many years ago, it was a monumental task compared to what we think of as moving today. And yet, the 400+ miles on foot wasn’t the biggest challenge, nor was the lack of modern travel advantages. Most fearful for Abram was that he had no clear idea of where he would end up. He was heading into an open-ended future, with nothing but a promise from the LORD God to sustain him. The promise did not include specifics and came from a God different from those his family had known. Yet Abram and his wife, Sarai, followed the LORD, overcoming their fears, trusting his promise. 

Think of what God asked Abram to do. Abram was 75 years old. He’d lived in community with his relatives all of his life. He and his wife Sarai had moved once before, but the family group had moved together. They went from Ur (near the Persian Gulf) to Haran (in what is today eastern Turkey), with Abram’s father Terah as patriarch of the family. Now the LORD God had said to Abram: “Go from your country, your people, and your father’s household to the land I will show you” (Genesis 12:1 NIV). That was a big ask! We are not even sure how religious a man Abram was at the time God first called him. We know that his father Terah worshiped gods other than the LORD God who revealed himself to Abram (cf. Joshua 24:2). Now the LORD was commanding Abram to leave his father and others behind, strike out on his own, and go to a land as yet unnamed. Then, when Abram did what God asked and went to the new land, the region of Canaan, he found others were already inhabiting it. Imagine if you were told to up and move to a new home, and when you arrived found somebody else in the house who had no intention of leaving. For Abram, following God’s plan required very great faith.

That was all right, because God gave Abram great faith. God’s promise allowed Abram to face the road ahead and overcome fear. God’s promise to Abram is so beautiful it rings out like poetry. “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.  I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:2-3). 

Abram didn’t have hotel reservations when he left Haran. He had no lease papers for an apartment and certainly had not closed a deal on a house in the new destination. As a matter of fact, all through his life Abram would live in tents in Canaan. He had camels and herds, but the only piece of real estate he ever owned was a burial plot he later bought from the Hittites (Genesis 23). Yet in reality, Abram had something much more solid than any stone foundation under a house. He had the rock-solid promise of God. The culmination of that promise was that all peoples on earth would be blessed through Abram and his offspring, particularly through one descendant who would be the world’s Messiah. We now know that Messiah as Jesus Christ. The magnitude of God’s promise enabled Abram to follow God in faith, even if all the specifics weren’t laid out for him. Thus, when Abram arrived in the promised land and found other people already living there, he did not need to worry. The Lord assured him again: “To your offspring I will give this land” (Genesis 12:7). So, rather than fretting and worrying, Abram built altars to the LORD and worshiped him (Genesis 12:7,8). 

You and I are the children of Abraham. (The LORD extended Abram’s name to Abraham, meaning “the father of many.”) Scripture calls us children of the promise given to Abraham (Galatians 4:28). All believers in the LORD, the Savior, are united by faith in the God of such great promises (cf. Galatians 3:7). We have seen what Abraham never got a chance to see—every one of the promises made to him was fulfilled. His descendants did inherit the land. His family became a prominent nation. His ancestry provided the human line for Jesus the Savior—the one through whom all peoples on earth have been blessed. Abram’s worship, his following God in faith, was not in vain. Neither is our faith in vain.

When the LORD calls us to follow him, what he asks of us is formidable. We are to love the LORD our God, with all our heart, and all our soul, and all our mind, and all our strength (Mark 12:30). We are to follow him completely, in any direction he may ask us to go. Sometimes that can be overwhelming. For instance, when a moving truck shows up in front of your residence because you need to change your occupation, change location, start over again with a new direction in life. Or the path you walk may be one you must walk haltingly, hobbling along, because a disease or accident has wracked your body or crippled your legs. Or the road God asks you to go may be lonely because it is a spiritually committed direction Instead of the easier worldly choices of those around you. Following in faith, walking after God, may mean you’re passed over for promotions or career improvements because you’re not as cutthroat in business as others, and they get ahead more than you. The journey through this world may find you laying your wife or husband or child or parent in a grave. 

The story of our lives is full of upheavals and challenges, bends in the road, temptations and pressures. We are left wondering what comes next. Often we are afraid—very afraid. That’s normal for us. Our dear Lord knows we struggle with fear as we go through life and strive to follow him. Think of how many times Jesus reassured his disciples, saying, “Fear not!” and reminding them of his promises. And that was when they had him physically present with them. How much more we will be prone to fear when we face storms and changing winds in our lives, without seeing Jesus right there in the boat with us!

Actually, he is always in the boat with us—something we can’t see with our physical eyes, but do see with eyes of faith. Our Lord does not ask anything of us for which he does not also empower us. Allow me to remind you of some of Scripture’s promises, which enable us to keep going through life’s many moves and misdirections.

  • God says, “I am with you and will keep you wherever you go. … I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you” (Genesis 28:15). 
  • “After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish you” (1 Peter 5:10). 
  • “God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing, he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it” (1 Corinthians 10:13). 
  • “Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go” (Joshua 1:9). 
  • “Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying: this is the way, walk in it” (Isaiah 30:21 NIV). “I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand” (Isaiah 41:10). “Even to your old age and gray hairs. I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you. I will sustain you and I will rescue you” (Isaiah 46:4).

Those are promises that God gives to you as his people. And those are just some of his promises. Walking through life, following God, would be a pathway filled with fear—except for God’s promises. His promises embolden us. By the promises of God, we walk in faith, overcoming fear, for the LORD is with us. He is protecting and saving us every step we take,  anywhere we go. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is still our God; the Lord Almighty is our refuge (cf. Psalm 46). As he did for Abram, the LORD our Savior will lead us also—onward through our lives on this earth, and, ultimately, into the promised land of “many mansions” that he has in store for us beyond (cf. John 14:2 KJV). 

Scripture quotations, except where otherwise indicated, are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Posted by David Sellnow
04
Jun
2023

Thoughts for Trinity Sunday

“Trust in Yahweh with all your heart, and don’t lean on your own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5, World English Bible).

We trust in a God who goes beyond understanding

by David Sellnow

Image by jette55 from Pixabay

There is an ancient Christian creed that says, “We worship one God in three persons, and three persons in one God,” that “the Father is eternal, the Son eternal, the Holy Spirit eternal. Yet they are not three eternals, but one eternal Lord God” (The Athanasian Creed). Can you explain that? That makes no sense humanly speaking, mathematically or logically. Yet we declare it to be true.

The conundrum of the Trinity is just one of the many secrets of God. Consider Jesus Christ himself. Jesus is Son of God and Son of Man. In Christ all the fullness of God is present in a human body, the Bible says (cf. Colossians, 2:9). Can you explain how that is possible, that God became human and lived among us? Incredible, isn’t it?  Yet it is also true.

Consider the wonders God has done. Out of nothing, God made everything. He called the universe into being. Can you scientifically account for the intricacies of the created order? The most brilliant scientific minds continue to search and study such questions. God’s word asserts that his divine hand is behind it all. To quote a psalmist: “Heaven is declaring God’s glory; the sky is proclaiming his handiwork. … His lightning lights up the world …  and all nations have seen his glory” (Psalm 19:1; Psalm 97:4,6, Common English Bible).

God tells us that he will one day resurrect our bodies from the grave. Dead tissue will come back to life. Scattered ashes and decomposed bones will rise up again as the same people who once lived in these bodies. Is that something you can devise and do at home? If we understood how resurrection could happen, surely somebody would be building a life-reviving business right now. But we don’t rationally comprehend such things. The miracles and mysteries of God are beyond what we can humanly conceive or do. It’s like Elihu told Job in days of old: “Surely, God is great. … My heart trembles and leaps out of its place” (Job 36:26, 37:1).

We believe in a God who goes beyond understanding. That is good–because where our understanding is limited, God is unlimited. His ways are higher than our ways (Isaiah 55:9). Even the revered King Solomon, who was renowned throughout the world for his wisdom, readily admitted his inadequacy before God. It is Solomon who tells us: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight” (Proverbs 3:5). Solomon’s own life story exemplified how following his own instincts became a meaningless “chasing after the wind” (Ecclesiastes 2:11). He learned that apart from God, no one could enjoy life or have what they need (Ecclesiastes 2:25). 

When we ponder God’s triune nature, we may offer analogies like water, ice, and steam (the same substance in three different forms). However, none of our illustrations do justice to the greatness of God’s being. I once tried my own illustration for a children’s sermon. I asked three of the youngsters in church to come forward, and I said I was going to combine them into one person. Then I put my arms around all three of them in a bear hug and squeezed and squeezed. They laughed, but of course, they could not all be one in essence together. Yet God tells us that he is Father, Son, and Spirit, each distinct, and yet all three unified as one together in the divine Being. 

If we try to put God into a framework that fits our way of thinking, then as the author J.B. Phillips said, we’ve made God too small.  As Phillips wrote, the immensely broad sweep of the Creator’s activity, the astonishing complexity of his mind’s processes (which science labors to uncover), the vast sea of what we see as God’s handiwork–all this is only a small portion of who God is. We have only a glimpse of his awesomeness in the small corner of the universe in which we human beings live and move and have our being. 

We accept the greatness of God and all his miraculous doings on faith. Faith confesses that we live and move and have our being in God (Acts 17:28), though we can’t see him. “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). We have not seen God, nor can we comprehend everything about him, yet we believe and trust in him with all our hearts. 

And God is worthy of being trusted. He is the LORD, Yahweh or Jehovah, whose name means “He is.” He just is, always the same, always existing, always the Lord. From everlasting to everlasting, he is God (Psalm 90:2). The number of his years is past finding out (Job 36:26). He fills heaven and earth (Jeremiah 23:24). He rides on the wings of the wind (Psalm 104:2,3).  He is beyond our reach and exalted in power (Job 37:23). He does great things beyond our grasp (Job 37:5). His greatness no one can fathom (Psalm 145:3). 

I could go on and on with more quotes from Scripture. The Lord is amazing in every way. An English translation of the ancient creed I mentioned before said it with style: “The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, and the Holy Spirit incomprehensible; and yet not three incomprehensibles, but one incomprehensible.” God is incomprehensible–infinite, uncreated, eternal, almighty. He is the Lord. Therefore, we trust in him–and our trust is not misplaced.

Solomon’s proverb pictures the contrast between trusting in God vs. relying on one’s own brainpower with an intriguing choice of Hebrew words. In English, we read, “Trust in Yahweh with all your heart, and don’t lean on your own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5 WEB). The idea in the Hebrew word “SHa’aN,” (שָׁעַן) means to lean on something like you’d lean on a cane or walking stick. It holds you up, but barely. It’s a crutch that lets you limp along. On the other hand, for the Hebrew expression describing “trust in” the Lord, Solomon used another word: BaTaKH ( בְּטַ֣ח). It means to feel safe and fully confident, to have an unshakeable sense of security. To picture this, think of a young child finding security in her father’s or mother’s arms. Envision a sick or injured toddler, who is unable to understand the hurt. Still, she feels safe in her parent’s embrace. She will fall asleep there, calm and reassured. That’s what trusting God is like. And God is our Father. He is in control and can cure all ills. He is a very real help and refuge to us at all times, able to remove our fears (cf. Psalm 46). What a blessing to be held up and carried in his everlasting arms (cf. Deuteronomy 33:27)! We need not wobble along with only our own intelligence or ability to prop us up.

We recognize that God “dwells in unapproachable light” and “no one has ever seen or can see” him (1 Timothy 6:16). Yet while God is unapproachable, unimaginable, in so many ways, he does not wish to remain unknown to us or unseen by us. He wants us to be able to stand before his throne and see his face (Revelation 22:4), to know fully and see face-to-face the glory that is his (1 Corinthians 13:12). To that end, he provided a way for us to know him and come to him. While  “no one has ever seen God, It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known” (John 1:18). That, ultimately, is the basis for our trust in the Lord. We trust in God not because it makes such good sense or we understand every detail about eternity. We trust in him because he’s shown us such great love and safeguards our souls.

Faith consists not in trying to hold ourselves up with the crutch of our own understanding, but relying fully on the strong rock who is God, trusting in the Savior God provided (Jesus), believing because the Spirit has convinced us all this is true. That’s all we really need to understand. We know Jesus, and Jesus is sufficient to meet all our needs (Hebrews 7:26). Jesus bridges the gap between us and God. The peace which God gives us goes beyond all understanding, and keeps our hearts and minds safe in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:7).  We rest assured when we are resting in God and his promises.

Let me add just one more thing as we conclude this meditation. Confessing that God goes beyond our understanding doesn’t mean we stop using our understanding—our minds and all the other good gifts with which God has blessed us. Trusting in the Lord doesn’t mean we go through life saying, “God knows what’s best for me, so I’ll wait for a sign from heaven”–about what job or career path to pursue, or what decisions to make. We use our minds and the skills God has given us. We take stock of ourselves, assess the gifts and abilities God has given us and the opportunities set before us, and we make decisions.  Trusting in the Lord and not leaning on human understanding doesn’t mean that when we get sick, we’ll decline seeing a doctor and just say, “I’ll pray about this, because I know God can heal me.” We will pray, but most certainly also will make use of help and resources available to us in God’s created world. All the while, we know that even if modern medicine cannot cure us, not even death can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord (cf. Romans 8:38,39).

Photo by Jessica Lewis Creative: https://www.pexels.com/photo/black-mug-with-religious-text-from-holy-bible-4200823/

Our God has created us with much ability, much understanding, many resources and tools. We will use all those things to navigate our lives as best we can. But as people of faith, we also have this underlying confidence: A loving God who is far greater than us is always with us. When life hits us with challenges bigger than we can handle, when we can’t answer all the questions and dilemmas of our world, when death is on our doorstep or takes loved ones from us, when we are at our wit’s end … we still have our God, our heavenly Father, holding out his arms to fold us into his embrace. We still have our Brother, our Savior, Jesus, who gave his life for us and gives us life eternally with him. We still have our encourager, our Advocate (John 14:26), the Holy Spirit, who fills up our hearts and enables us to live with hope.  Dear friends, fellow believers, we have peace of mind and peace of heart in knowing God. And the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit will be with you, always (cf. 2 Corinthians 13:7).

Scripture quotations, except where otherwise indicated, are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Posted by David Sellnow
07
May
2023

Blessed Assurance

Easter continues

by David Sellnow

Image credit: Pxfuel

Easter Sunday was a month ago … but our Easter joy is ongoing. Over the past three weekends at church services I attended, we sang these opening hymns:

  • “Alleluia! Jesus Is Risen!”
  • “I Know That My Redeemer Lives”
  • “Hallelujah! Jesus Lives!” 

We don’t stop singing Easter songs after Easter Sunday, because the Easter season continues. Indeed, Sundays became “the Lord’s day” for worship (Revelation 1:10), as Christians commemorated weekly the miracle of Jesus rising from the dead (which occurred on a Sunday).

Some years ago, I wrote Easter lyrics for a familiar Christian hymn, “Blessed Assurance,” emphasizing the consistent confidence we have because Jesus has conquered death for us. 

I’ll share those lyrics here, as we continue our Easter spirit, assured in our faith.

Blessed assurance, Jesus gives me!
His resurrection is my victory.
His death forgives me, purges my sin;
by faith that’s giv’n me, heaven I win. |
Blessed assurance, Jesus gives me!
Promises I’ll live eternally!
Jesus, my Savior, praises I’ll sing–
for the new life that to me you bring.

Blessed assurance, Jesus arose!
I am released from all deadly foes.
Jesus for all the victory won.
Sin’s curse has ended; life has begun.
Hear now my story, hear now, my song–
praising my Savior, all the day long!
Sing loud the story, sing loud the song–
Praising our Savior, all the day long!

Blessed assurance, I will arise,
live with my Savior again, in the skies!
All grief and sorrow will then be gone;
glory will shine in me like the sun.
Blessed assurance, Jesus gives me!
Promises I’ll live eternally!
Jesus, my Savior, praises I bring.
You are my life, my hope, and my king.

Fanny Crosby, from Wikimedia Commons

For information on the original music and lyrics to “Blessed Assurance” by Phoebe Knapp and Fanny Crosby (1873), see this article that was published in the St. Augustine Record newspaper.

Posted by David Sellnow
20
Mar
2023

Jesus overcame temptation for us

During the season of Lent and in Holy Week, we ponder all that Jesus suffered in carrying out our salvation. There’s another emphasis to remember too. Not only was Jesus taking our curse away by his sufferings and death for us. He also had supplied a life of righteousness for us, as part of his role as our Redeemer.

This devotion focuses on Jesus’ active obedience to all that God has commanded of us.

The Lord is our Righteousness

“Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil” (Matthew 4:1).

See full account:  Matthew 4:1-11

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COL; (c) City of London Corporation; Supplied by The Public Catalogue Foundation

I remember a teachers’ guide that our congregation’s Sunday School teachers had in the 1990s. This was around the same time that WWJD—”What would Jesus do?”—was becoming a popular phrase.  For the lesson on Jesus dealing with the devil in the wilderness, the guidebook focused entirely on how Jesus taught us to say no to temptations. Is that really the main lesson of what Jesus was doing when he was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil?  If the main thing about Jesus is what example he set for us, would he have needed to come into our world? 

Certainly, our struggles with temptation are a concern. We regularly pray, “Lead us not into temptation,” asking God to show us pathways away from sin. At the same time, though, we also pray, “Deliver us from evil.” You may have memorized an explanation of what that means: “We pray in this petition, in summary, that our Father in heaven would rescue us from every evil of body and soul, possessions and reputation, and finally, when our last hour comes, give us a blessed end, and graciously take us from this valley of sorrow to himself in heaven” (Martin Luther, Small Catechism). It’s not just this temptation today and that temptation tomorrow that concern us. Most of all, we pray for deliverance from temptations’ result—from evil, from the Evil One, and from the death and despair the devil wants to pull us down into. When Jesus went into the desert to meet the devil head-on, he wasn’t merely teaching us strategies to stay safe against temptation. Christ’s ultimate purpose was to rescue us from sin and the devil by overcoming those deadly forces for us, on our behalf. Jesus is not just our help in temptation, he is our salvation. Jesus battled the devil and his temptations as part of his work of redemption. He was doing for us what we could not do on our own. He was our substitute, carrying out atonement for us vicariously.  

Jesus overcame every temptation—those he endured in the wilderness after he’d fasted for forty days and all other temptations while he walked on this earth. Jesus did all that the law of God expects of us, and he did it for us. By the one man’s obedience [the obedience of Christ], the many of us are made righteous (Romans 5:19). Jesus’ holy life is given to us as our own.  As the prophet Jeremiah had foretold, “This is the name by which he will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness’” (Jeremiah 33:16).

At the outset of Jesus’ messianic work, after Satan’s multiple temptations, we’re told that the devil departed from Jesus “until an opportune time” (Luke 4:13). The wilderness temptations weren’t the only challenges Jesus would face. The devil would keep coming back, again and again. Jesus is not someone “who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses,” but rather, he is “one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15).

Allow me to call to mind a few other examples of ways Jesus continued to be pressured and tested, and responded rightly to each test.

  • After Jesus spoke in his hometown synagogue in Nazareth and revealed himself as the one who came in fulfillment of the prophecies about Messiah, the people reacted with hostility and were ready to throw him off a cliff. Jesus had the power to strike them all dead for their unbelief, to rain down fire and brimstone on them. Instead, he simply “passed through the midst of them and went on his way” (Luke 4:30). 
  • During the second year of Jesus’ ministry, he began teaching quite openly to his disciples that “the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again” (Mark 8:31). Jesus’ disciples didn’t want to hear such things. Peter took Jesus aside and began to contradict him, saying, “This must never happen to you” (Matthew 16:22). But Jesus rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things” (Mark 8:31-33). Jesus was resolute in carrying out his divinely-ordained mission.
  • In the hours leading up to his crucifixion, Jesus was dragged before the high priest in Jerusalem. During the interrogation, one of the temple guards struck Jesus on the face, saying, “Is that how you answer the high priest?” Jesus answered calmly, “If I have spoken wrongly, testify to the wrong. But if I have spoken rightly, why do you strike me” (John 18:23)?

Throughout his whole life, Jesus acted with integrity. He did not retaliate against his enemies, and he would not shrink back from the work he came to do on our behalf. As Isaiah had prophesied about the Messiah, he gave his back to those who struck him. He did not hide his face from insult and spitting (Isaiah 50:6-7). He set his face like flint and carried on in the face of every temptation, in the face of agony and suffering and death.

All through his life, living in our place, Jesus lived a life of love in fulfillment of the law (cf. Romans 13:8-10). He showed compassion to the poor. He healed the sick. He strengthened the suffering. He comforted the bereaved. He did all that for us, as our rescuer, as our Redeemer. His saving work replaced anything lacking in our lives with the goodness he carried out in our place. That’s the most important thing as we think about how Jesus lived his life, how he took on every challenge and temptation, how he defeated the devil and sin.  He did all of that for us, as our Savior. 

That said, we certainly also can learn from Jesus’ life as an example for how to live our lives. We are urged in Scripture to “be imitators of God … and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Ephesians 5:1-2). We will strive to follow Jesus’ example of loving each and every person—something we’re now able to do because of the love Jesus has given us. And we will follow Jesus’ example in facing temptation.

  • The devil approached Jesus when he was desperately hungry and urged him toward a path of instant gratification. We have learned from Jesus to be better than that, to look for more than that. We want—we need—something that lasts. We need not just a quick fix, a boost of something to make us feel better for the moment. We rely on spiritual sustenance, on “every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). 
  • The devil approached Jesus with the suggestion to throw himself off a roof, to risk life and limb and count on God to keep him safe, to send angels to keep him from harm. We have learned from Jesus not to twist God’s promises into permission slips. We don’t jump in front of a bus to test if God’s angels are with us. We don’t dive into sins saying, “It’s okay, God will forgive me anyway.” 
  • The devil approached Jesus with a temptation to power and ego. Sure, God in heaven says he is Lord over all things. But anybody observing the way things work down here can see that the devil dominates the way things go on earth. Even Jesus acknowledged the devil as “the ruler of this world” (John 12:31). “The whole world lies under the power of the evil one” (1 John 5:19).  So, the devil in fact had something to offer when he “showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor” (Matthew 4:8), saying Jesus could have it all if he came over to the dark side and gave his allegiance to Satan as “the god of this world” (2 Corinthians 4:4). Jesus has shown us that apparent shortcuts to success that compromise godly, higher standards are paths that lead to destruction.  With Jesus, we will say,  “Away with you, Satan! for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him’” (Matthew 4:10).

As we live our lives day by day, certainly, let’s remember Jesus’ example. We can think, “What would Jesus do?” and strive to respond to challenging situations with resoluteness of character as Jesus has taught us. But most important of all, we will keep our eyes on Jesus as our Savior, our strength, our hope in all things. “Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from beginning to end. Think of what he went through; how he put up with so much hatred from sinners. So do not let yourselves become discouraged and give up.” (Hebrews 12:2,3 Good News Translation).

Temptations will keep coming at us day after day. Our Savior encourages us to walk in his ways and say no to sin. We can overcome temptations when we are connected by grace to Jesus.  But whenever we do sin, we also remember: We have Jesus as an advocate with the Father. Jesus Christ, the righteous one, is the atoning sacrifice for our sins (1 John 2:1-2). 

Jesus is our constant hope and strength, our salvation from temptation and sin.

Scripture quotations, except where otherwise indicated, are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Posted by David Sellnow
11
Sep
2022

Ask God to Remember Who He Is

We pray to the One who is faithful, even when we are faithless

A sermon for September 11, 2022  (Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost)

Scripture for consideration:  Exodus 32:7-14


There is a tension inside of parents. Parents want their children to be good, to behave well, to do well. You have a godly desire for them to live productive, well-directed lives. You are upset when your children do things wrong, when they run away from you, when they do the opposite of what you know is good for them. At the same time, the core of a parent’s character is unconditional love. A parent will be there always for them, will never abandon them. A parent will search and strive and keep reaching out if ever children wander off or lose their way, intent on holding them close again in love, embracing them with forgiveness.

God describes himself to us as a parent to us; he is our Father. There is something of that same tension within God’s heart and in his Word to us. God has a righteous desire for rightness, obedience, and well-ordered lives for us. The Ten Commandments serve as a summary of the Law of God, his plans and principles for us. But law alone is not the essence of who God is. Above all, God’s love for us and promises to us always will be paramount. God’s essential character will not let him turn away from unconditional love, commitment, and caring for persons he has called to be his own. Even when we are not “good children,” when we are like prodigal sons who run off and squander our inheritance from our Father in “dissolute living” (Luke 15:13), our Father is waiting and watching for us every day, filled with compassion. Hi is ready to run and put his arms around us and welcome us home the moment we come back to him (cf. Luke 15:20). 

Mount Sinai (via Wikimedia Commons)

Today (in consideration of this Sunday’s Old Testament reading), we ponder what happened when Moses prayed on behalf of God’s people, and we hear that God “changed his mind” in response. This happened when the people of Israel were gathered in the southern Sinai Peninsula, at the base of Mount Sinai. Just three months prior, the people had exited Egypt amid astonishing signs and wonders and miracles that God enacted to deliver them from slavery. But when Moses was up on the mountain receiving teaching from God for forty days, the people lost faith. They reverted to the sort of worship they had seen in idolatrous Egypt.  They crafted a symbol, something like the Egyptian bull god Apis, a sacred cow, an image of fertility and strength. The LORD God, who had delivered Israel from Egypt, was angry at their apostasy. He announced to Moses that he was ready to destroy them and start over, making a new nation out of Moses and his descendants.  Moses, whom “the Lord used to speak to … face to face, as one speaks to a friend” (Exodus 33:11), spoke back to God and said, “No, you don’t want to do that.”  Moses asked why God would turn his power against the Israelites when he had promised to carry them forward as his people. “Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants,” Moses said. “You swore to them by your own self, saying to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants.’” (Exodus 32:13). Moses reminded God of his own character, his own promises, his own ultimate goal of gospel and mercy. At that, we are told, “The Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people” (Exodus 32:14).  

This is amazing, isn’t it? Do you sense the conundrum in a statement like, “The Lord changed his mind”?  Haven’t we been taught that the heavenly Father “does not change like shifting shadows” (James 1:17 NIV)? And regarding the path of our lives, we confess that “all the days that were formed” for us were already written in God’s book “when none of them as yet existed” (Psalm 139:16). So, if God knows all things in advance, how can he have had one plan in mind and then changed plans?  How is it possible that God was intending to end his relationship with the people of Israel, and then, in response to Moses’ prayer, turned around and “did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened” (Exodus 32:14 NIV)?

Well, that is the wonderful mystery of prayer, isn’t it? It also reveals something of the wonderful mystery of God’s being and how he deals with us.  God already knows what is best for us before we ever utter a single prayer, and assures us that he has foreseen the whole plan of our lives (cf. Psalm 139). Yet he also urges us to pray and promises that he responds to our prayers. Pondering a deep mystery of God such as this makes us say, “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I cannot attain it” (Psalm 139:6). It is true that God knows all things, and therefore knows in advance all that will transpire in our lives. On the other hand, it is also true that God hears and responds to our prayers, even changing the course of history in reply to the prayers of his people. We do not try to reconcile this logical paradox; rather, we acknowledge that God’s knowledge is far past our understanding.

It’s good that there are two differing perspectives in how God deals with us, because It’s not just Israel’s idolatry with the golden calf that deserved God’s punishment. Scripture says, “There will be anguish and distress for everyone who does evil” (Romans 2:9), and, ultimately, everyone is guilty of evildoing. “There is no one who is righteous, not even one” (Romans 3:10).  Yet the same God who handed down the law that holds the whole world morally accountable also is full of mercy for us sinners. This is indeed a happy contradiction! God’s gospel (good news) stands opposed to his law of judgment. If it were not so, we would all be condemned forever. But God makes this promise to us:

Let the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous their thoughts;
let them return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. …
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts  (Isaiah 55:7-9).

The higher wisdom of God goes above and beyond rules that say, “The person who sins shall die” (Ezekiel 18:2). God provides an answer to his own demands from the depths of his own mercy.

At a later time in the history of Israel, when the people were about to be carried away to Babylon for 70 years of exile, God instructed the people to pray for a return home. God’s knowledge of their future included the prayers they would offer to him.  “For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you. When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart, I will let you find me, says the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile”  (Jeremiah 29:10-14).

Notice that God’s plans for us that look into the future include also plans that we will pray and he will respond to our prayers. That doesn’t mean that our prayers are all pre-scripted, as if God has programmed us like computers. Think bigger than that. No matter how many options or scenarios there may be, there is nothing of our lives that is outside of God’s awareness, including our prayers and all the different possibilities of our actions day by day. 

The Christian church father Augustine commented on our freedom to act (and to pray) fitting within God’s overall knowledge of all things: “Our wills themselves,” Augustine wrote, “are included in that order of causes which is certain to God, and is embraced by his foreknowledge. For human wills are also causes of human actions, and he who foreknew all the causes of things would certainly among those causes not have been ignorant of our wills” (quoted from City of God, Book V, chapter 9). That’s complicated, I know, but did you catch what Augustine was saying? God’s knowledge and will is so vast and all-encompassing that every possible change of direction by us, or every petition of prayer we might offer, is included. Our God is not small!

September 11 (via Wikimedia Commons)

As Christians, we are not fatalists. We do not believe that God has pre-chosen every detail of our existence in such a way that all we are doing is going through mindless motions. We are not God’s puppets; we are his people. In a prominent confession, Lutheran theologians rejected all notions of fatalism. “We reject and condemn as contrary to the standard of God’s Word the delirium of philosophers who . . . taught that everything that happens must so happen, and cannot happen otherwise, and that everything that man does, even in outward things, he does by compulsion, and that he is coerced to evil works and deeds [such as] robbery, murder, theft, and the like” (Formula of Concord, Epitome, Article II). If you take a fatalistic view, then you would have to blame God for the behavior of the Israelites in worshiping the golden calf, as if he made them do that. Or you would have to blame God for the actions of the terrorists that caused so much destruction on September 11th twenty-one years ago, as if God willed for them to do that. In a history classroom at a religious college, on more than one occasion, I had to correct students who wanted to say the Holocaust–the massacre of Jews and others hated by Hitler and the Nazi regime–must have been God’s will because God is in charge of everything. That sort of thinking is an atrocity in itself and an affront to God’s character. “God is love” (1 John 4:8). “God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself tempts no one” (James 1:13).  When human beings do evil things, we do that of our own accord. Persons are tempted by their “own desire, being lured and enticed by it; then, when that desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin” (James 1:14-15).

Do not assign death and destruction and harm and calamity to the will and desire of God. Moses knew God cannot do evil. So, when God denounced how stiff-necked and unfaithful his people were, and said, “Let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them” (Exodus 32:10), Moses said, “No, Lord, that’s not who you are.”  The goal of God is never our destruction but our salvation. He is patient with us, “not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). Think of someone like Paul, who had been such a self-righteous Pharisee, “a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence” (1 Timothy 1:13).  But God showed him mercy, redeeming him from his ignorance, outpouring on him an overflow of faith and love in Christ (1 Timothy 1:14). Think of how Jesus described God’s intent and purpose–like a shepherd who will keep seeking and not give up on even one lost sheep, like a woman cleaning every corner of the house in search of just one lost coin (cf. Luke 15:1-10).  Emmy Kegler, in her book, One Coin Found: How God’s Love Stretches to the Margins (2019), describes God’s loving purpose toward us well. She writes: “We too are lost and dusty coins. We have gone unnoticed, rusted from others’ indifference, misspent and misused, and our friends and leaders did not see our neglect. But God, in big and little ways, has picked up a woman’s broom and swept every corner of creation. God, in big and little ways, has tucked up her skirts and flattened herself on the floor, dug through dust bunnies and checked every dress pocket. God has found us, dustier and rustier and without any luster, and held us up to the light to say: No matter how you rolled away or what corner you were dropped in, you are mine.” 

We may wander. We may roll away. People near and dear to us may go astray, may lose faith and begin worshiping other things rather than staying true to God.  But God remains faithful to us and to them. Even “if we are faithless, he remains faithful—for he cannot deny himself” (2 Timothy 2:13). God invites us to pray to him (Psalm 50:15, Ephesians 6:18). He invites our prayers in response to whatever is going on in our lives and in the world around us. And he promises he will respond to our prayers. We pray with confidence that prayer indeed can change things, for God has promised: “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you” (Matthew 17:20).

We have a God whose character is anchored in a desire to rescue, to help, to save, to forgive. Our God invites us to be in conversation with him, to ask him to change his mind when we or others have sinned much “and indeed deserve only punishment.” Though “we are worthy of nothing for which we ask, no have we earned it … we ask that God would give us all things by grace”–and he does. Let us keep calling on God in prayer, asking him to remember his gospel promises. Like Moses prayed boldly even when his people were at their worst, we will keep on praying to our God “boldly and with complete confidence, just as loving children ask their loving father.”

(Quotations in final paragraph from the Small Catechism, cf. Lutheran Book of Worship, p. 1163, 1164).  

Scripture quotations, except where otherwise indicated, are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Posted by David Sellnow