God Is Good - Pt 5

“For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile. (Jeremiah 29:10-14, ESV). So much is packed into the background and meaning of the passage we have been using in this series. John Piper suggested that Christians "love" the Jeremiah 29 passage due to the setting in which God delivered His message to the Jewish community exiled and enslaved in Babylon. "We Christians, we Gentiles especially, go to it and we love it because it holds out the prospect of not destruction for us, but life and hope and joy in the future," said Piper. "The reason we can do it is because at the Last Supper, Jesus lifted up the cup which represented his blood and he said 'this cup is the new covenant in my blood.'" Piper went on to suggest that Christ's crucifixion meant that the Old Testament promises would be fulfilled with those who come to faith in Jesus. "Everything that God meant to be fulfilled for His people Israel now is going to be fulfilled in his people of the New Covenant. So that not only Jews but also Gentiles, through faith in the messiah, become part of the covenant people of God, so that every promise can be laid hold on by Gentiles who are in the messiah, in Christ Jesus," Piper added. There are two important New Testament passages that support this truth: For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory. And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. (2 Corinthians 1:20-22, ESV). He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:32-39, ESV). We no longer need fear anything that comes into our lives! God is Good!

God Is Good - Pt 4

“For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile. (Jeremiah 29:10-14, ESV). Jeremiah tells the nation the Lord will give them “a future and a hope.” The resurrection of Christ gives us the ultimate future and hope. Recently I asked the readers of Morning Devotionals to write a brief testimonial of God’s goodness to use in this series. My dear friend, mentor, and father in the ministry, Bailey Stone, sent the following personal testimony: I was raised in a non Christian home. At 16 my best friend, Henry Sorelle, with whom I played football at San Jacinto High School in Houston, Texas took me with him to the first Youth Led Revival ever in our city. Note, he did not invite me, he TOOK me, or I never would have darkened the door. Later he took me to his dad's office in downtown Houston, and said to his Independent Oil Operator dad: "Dad I have brought Bailey to you. He is under conviction, and I know YOU can tell him how to be saved"! He did and I was! A year later I was called to preach. When a junior at Baylor University, I had the privilege of leading a weekend youth led revival at my home church, Second Baptist Church in Houston; and, on Sunday evening, my mom and dad came forward to receive Christ; dramatically changing their lives. Later I had the privilege of being Don Emmitte's pastor when he came to Christ while a student at Texas A&M! The most important message in this testimony is the work of God through the Gospel in three different generations. To believe that any of these events were coincidental or random is to deny the very character and person of God. No one could have known those many years ago how the simple act of taking a friend to a youth led revival could be such a link in the future of so many people. Be careful at this point. Many would use this to say how important it is to be obedient to God and do something for the kingdom. Of course, our obedience is important; but our obedience does not direct the will of God. Just the opposite is true. His will directs us. It should never be the fear of the future that directs our path. It is the hope of the future, secured by the blood of Christ that guarantees our good. Whatever happens in our life, it will never overtake our good and gracious God. He is not surprised when calamity strikes; in fact, he is in control over it all to bring our good from it. Just like with Israel, God declares his plans are “for welfare and not for evil” for us as well.

God Is Good - Pt 3

“For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile. (Jeremiah 29:10-14, ESV). As I mentioned yesterday, today I want to share a bit of my recent journey. It really begins over a year ago when my primary care physician began to suspect that some of my blood work required closer monitoring. This led to more frequent tests and a pattern that was suspicious. Ultimately we took the step to biopsy for a final determination of whether I had cancer or not. The biopsy was positive and some aggressive treatment was recommended. Surgery to remove the cancer was my best option. Ultimately I had that surgery and the cancer was removed and the prognosis thus far is very good. At this point many would lift an enthusiastic “Praise the Lord!” to the successful surgery; however, I want us to look a little deeper. Don’t misunderstand. I am very pleased that my body is healing and the cancer has been eradicated. Like the Apostle Paul, I am certain that “for me to live is Christ.” And, I do enjoy living for him. There are so many things yet to do, people to see, family to love and see progress in his kingdom. Remember the last of Paul’s declaration though. He says, “… for me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (cf. Philippians 1:21). I like the explanation Matt Chandler offers: If the Gospel can transform the world and holds in its powerful reach the promise of eternal life, certainly it can transform you this very day, and day by day, until that ultimate day you join with the saints to receive the supply of all your needs according to God’s riches in glory with Christ Jesus. So, the real day of praise for the work of God in healing me was not the day that the doctors pronounced my surgery a success; nor was it the day when I was told I had cancer, though an argument could be made for that as well. The day to praise the Lord for his deliverance was the day that Jesus died for my sins and called me to the freedom he won in that work! The Gospel has always been God’s plan for his people. The Gospel assures me that God’s plan for me is good regardless of the individual experiences within that plan. God did not abandon me or you to the vagaries of this world. He has set my path before the foundation of the world in fearfully and wonderfully creating me. He knows my sitting down and rising up. There is no place I am without His presence. He is good and that good extends to me because of the work of Christ in me. Wherever you are in your journey, rest in this truth: God is good!

God Is Good - Pt 2

“For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile. (Jeremiah 29:10-14, ESV). Today we will dig a bit deeper into this wonderful passage. If indeed this is a word for Israel, what can it mean for me? If we read on in the Scriptures we find that this promise was fulfilled. Those in exile returned, and the nation of Israel was restored for a time. God made a promise through the prophets, and that promise came true. But that’s not the end of the story, either. There is something to the out-of-context prescriptions that so many make using this verse. God is a God of redemption, after all, and He wants to redeem people and put them on a path of wholeness, just as He wanted the nation of Israel to be redeemed and whole again. As John Calvin says about this passage, the prophet is speaking not just of historical redemption, for that period in time, but also of “future redemption.” For the Israelites, God listened to their prayers when they sought Him with all their heart, and in His time, He brought them out of exile. But how does any of this apply to us today? Can we still take heart in such a beautiful promise, even though it was spoken to people long ago, people in a far different situation than ours? First and foremost, we are all in this together. This verse does not apply to isolated individuals or to a broad community. It applies to both, together, functioning as one. The image painted here is one of individuals in community, like the Body of Christ which Paul talks about. Here we see a particular group of people, worshiping God together, hoping for a future redemption. Stanley Grenz and John Franke explain just how a community “turns the gaze of its members toward the future.” The future in Jeremiah is one that is bright, one that everyone in the community through prayer and worship seeks as their collective future hope. Many of us want to desperately know the plan that God has for each one of us as individuals, but let the prophet Jeremiah remind us that it’s not all about us, and it might not look like what we think. Even more important than our daily decisions is the future hope of the Kingdom of God foretold by the prophets and fulfilled in the reign of our now and coming King. In this way, the promise of Jeremiah 29:11 is bigger than any one of us and far better. Tomorrow I will be more specific about my own recent journey. Today, recognize we are not there yet. We are merely on the path. It is a path designed by our heavenly Father for our good that ends in ultimate victory! Take heart if it seems you have been defeated. It is but a momentary and fleeting illusion. God is good! And, He works together for our good all things!

God Is Good - Pt 1

“For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile. (Jeremiah 29:10-14, ESV). Today I am going to embark on an ambitious journey. It will begin with one of the most familiar verses from the Old Testament. I encourage you to stay to the end of our discussions. First, and foremost, let me begin by stating without reservation that God is good! Then, let me say that our understanding of that has often been misunderstood. Perhaps a part of that truth is found in the fact that when it comes to reading the Bible, we can sometimes be so familiar with the words on the page that we read them, but we don’t really understand them. We see the words and hear the words, but we don’t make any sense out of them. Familiarity can breed laziness, and so many of our misunderstandings about the scriptures happen because we are too familiar with the passage to look it with fresh eyes. If we would come to the Word of God with fresh eyes more often, we would realize that some of our most common interpretations of Scripture passed down to us don’t make much sense when viewed within the context of the passage. Our text today, especially verse 11, is quoted to countless individuals who are struggling with understanding God’s will, and yet, it is not written to individuals at all. This passage is written to a whole group of people, an entire nation. And the verse just before it is perhaps even scarier. For in Jeremiah 29:10, God lays down the specifics on this promise: that He will fulfill it “after seventy years are completed for Babylon.” In other words, yes, God says, I will redeem you, after 70 years in exile. This is certainly a far cry from our expectation of this verse in what God’s plans to prosper us really mean. He did have a future and a hope for them, but it would look far different than the Israelites ever expected. So what? Some of you may be thinking. Even when the verse is taken out of context, it still offers value, right? God does know the plans of individual people, so it’s just as well to keep prescribing Jeremiah 29 for those seeking God’s plan for their life, right? Well, yes and no. We need to let the Bible speak to us, not allow our own personal bent to speak into the Scriptures. If Jeremiah 29 is speaking to the nation of Israel, and not just one person, then we should start with the truth in the Scriptures. This truth will lead us to the path that ends in freedom. For now, rest assured God knows and cares about every detail of our lives. His dealing with Israel merely proves this unalterable truth. So, take this day and trust in His provenance. He will not fail you!

Frogs and Life

Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water. (James 3:1-12 ESV). It is always easy to speak. However, speaking wisely is often a more difficult task. The art of encouragement is one which all of us ought to develop and use. The following little story illustrates the truth in this passage from James. A group of frogs were traveling through the woods, and two of them fell into a deep pit. All the other frogs gathered around the pit. When they saw how deep the pit was, they told the two frogs that they were as good as dead. The two frogs ignored the comments and tried to jump up out of the pit with all of their might. The other frogs kept telling them to stop, that they were as good as dead. Finally, one of the frogs took heed to what the other frogs were saying and gave up. He fell down and died. The other frog continued to jump as hard as he could. Once again, the crowd of frogs yelled at him to stop the pain and just die. He jumped even harder and finally made it out. When he got out, the other frogs said, "Did you not hear us?" The frog explained to them that he was deaf. He thought they were encouraging him the entire time. First, there is the power of life and death in our tongue. An encouraging word to someone who is down can lift them up and help them make it through the day. Be careful of what you say. Speak life to those who cross your path. The power of words... it is sometimes hard to understand that an encouraging word can go such a long way. When you’re gathered with friends, family, or coworkers today don’t fall into the trap of discouraging conversation. Be positive and encouraging. Watch the power of your words change the climate of your surroundings.

Is Your Hut Burning?

I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord. Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after a lie! You have multiplied, O Lord my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us; none can compare with you! I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told. (Psalms 40:1-5 ESV). As is true with many of David’s psalms, this one today is no exception. It is born out of adversity. As David found himself more and more a target of the wrath and jealousy of Saul, pursued like an animal, he cries out in praise to the Lord. The following story illustrates an important attitude that each of us ought to cultivate in the midst of our own walks. The only survivor of a shipwreck was washed up on a small, uninhabited island. He prayed feverishly for God to rescue him, and every day he scanned the horizon for help, but none seemed forthcoming. Exhausted, he eventually managed to build a little hut out of driftwood to protect him from the elements, and to store his few possessions. But then one day, after scavenging for food, he arrived home to find his little hut in flames, the smoke rolling up to the sky. The worst had happened; everything was lost. He was stunned with grief and anger. "God, how could you do this to me!" he cried. Early the next day, however, he was awakened by the sound of a ship that was approaching the island. It had come to rescue him. "How did you know I was here?" asked the weary man of his rescuers. "We saw your smoke signal," they replied. I have noticed in my life that it is easy to pray and praise the Lord when things are going well. However, it is easy to get discouraged when things are going bad. As tough as it is to remember, we shouldn't lose heart. God is at work in our lives, even in the midst of pain and suffering. Paul wrote, "... I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want" (cf. Philippians 4:12). Paul had confidence that good would come out of everything, so he learned to be thankful, not bitter, even when he was suffering. Someone recently asked me why such bad things happen to so many good people. Of course there are easy theological reasons that may be offered, though none of them give very much comfort in the midst of trial. Usually I try to do two things in the middle of my own trials. First, I seek out a trusted friend. All of need to have God “with skin on” in a time of trial. Find that special friend God has given you to comfort and encourage you through the difficulty. Second, I do my best to remember that when my little hut is burning to the ground, it just may be a smoke signal that summons the grace of God. His plans for us really are too numerous to list. If we try to recite all His wonderful deeds, we would never come to the end of them!