Tragedy

Tragedy… It comes. No invitation. No respecter of person. And we ask why…

The age old question. Why?

Faith in God nor obedience to Him shuts out afflictions and death.

My heart hurts. Tragedy strikes, friends die, children die, those who survive suffer.

As much as I grieve, I realize that it pales in comparison to the ones who have been left behind. I can only pray that I never get any closer to tragedy than this day.

I do not want to be like Job’s friends, who had all the answers and all the reasons why the bad things that happened to Job had befallen him.

I do not know why God has allowed this tragedy. I do not believe the God I serve caused these awful things to happen. Yet, I know He is all powerful, and could have stopped it. Why He chose not to do so, I can’t imagine.

At the same time, I wonder in what ways He did act during the tragedy.

Who did He comfort and calm as the flood waters swept? Who did He speak to?

In what ways will He minister to families in the days, weeks, and even years to come?

What good will He work out of all this misery and grief?

Of one thing I have absolutely no doubt. He was there.

I know is He is God. And I am not.

I hope, were tragedy to strike much closer to me, that I would say with Job ‘Though He slay me, yet will I hope in Him.’ (Job 13:15)

Spittin' image

Spittin’ image… That’s what they say about my sons and their daddy. Looks as if I had nothing to do with it. I did.

I woke up this morning with ‘image bearer’ on my mind. Humanity was created by God to bear His image. “God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him, male and female created He them.” (Gen. 1:27)

I am intended to bear the image of God. That was His intention. Of course, that got wrenched up and the rest of history has been HIS-story. The story of redeeming and restoring. God still intends for me to bear His image.

Oh how I want to be the spittin’ image of my Father! Don’t you? Our entire race seems to have lost the knowledge of just who we really are. And we have lost the knowledge of Who our Father is.

Jesus was the spittin’ image. Literally. “…the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.” (John 1:14) John continues to tell us that ‘No one has ever seen God….but God…..Who is at the Father’s side, has made Him known.’ (vs. 18)

I am so often the spittin’ image of my father Adam. I make poor choices, pick my way, listen to the voices of others while questioning what God has said. That same enemy influences me that influenced Adam.

But I am ‘being transformed into His likeness’ (2 Cor. 3:18) And “my life is gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters my life and I become like Him.” (2Cor. 3:18 The Message)

I can’t grasp how He will accomplish it, but I believe His promises. “Just as I have born the likeness of the earthly man, so shall I bear the likeness of the Man from heaven….I will be changed….” (1 Cor. 15: 49,51)

He has started His work in me. It is an undertaking that will take my entire lifetime.

But the finished work will endure eternity.

Hallelujah !

Stumbling

Stumbling… Have you ever found yourself stumbling around, unable to walk without bumping into something, loosing balance, or even falling down…?

God is often a ‘stone for stumbling’. (Isa. 8:14)

That is hard to swallow at first. But at further study, it makes perfect sense.

When God is not my sanctuary, not placed in the highest place, not calling the shots…then He becomes a stone for my stumbling.

He is to be the center of my existence, I am created (by Him) for that to be so.

When I look to possessions or pleasure, or work, or distractions in activities, or power…or whatever else…then I will find myself contining to stumble over Him!

What is created can never fill the place of God in our lives. No person can do that. No relationship other than the relationship with Him can fill that God-shaped hole.

And when we continue in endeavors to find that satisfaction, we continue to find out that satisfaction is short lived. And we stumble. Over God.

Of all the people in the world, those of us in these United States should wake up to the truth about physical and material wealth. It is never enough. There is always one more thing. More. Bigger. Better. More expensive.

That continuing search is really a stumbling. We are falling right over the God of the universe, the God Who created us and wants to fulfill us in the way He meant for it to be.

I am thankful that He is so long-suffering, that He continues to make attempts to communicate to us how empty our pursuits are. How gracious He is to continue to love us and extend His love and mercy to us. How long will He wait? How far will we fall before we get it? That question is very unsettling to me. Our nation is so much like the situations that Isaiah wrote about.

We are familiar with 2 Ch. 7:14... ‘ If My people who are called by My Name, will humble themselves….’ but what about the verse before it? ‘WHEN I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land, or send a plague among my people…’ What is He shuts up the heavens to us, or causes our land to be devoured, or allows a plague? Or has that happened…or is that happening?

The displeasure of our God is something to think about. He continues to make us stumble over Him, but for how long? It seems to me He has let us have what we have insisted upon, and it is eroding and consuming us.

Numbers

Numbers… Account numbers, confirmation numbers, drivers license and social security numbers, patient number…. What happened to names?

I don’t like having to keep up with and remember all the numbers !! I remember when all I had was my name, and everything operated on that. Sigh…..not now.

I sometimes feel like I’ve lost a bit of my identity, the people I deal with about things don’t know my name anymore, they want the stinkin’ number. And if you don’t have the right numbers….forget it. I can’t get an order submitted, can’t get a prescription filled, can’t pay a bill..

God is into numbers too. “ ..even the very hairs of your head are all numbered…” ( words of Jesus in Matt. 10:30)

“The Lord knows those who are His” (2Tim. 2:19) Jesus said, “I know My sheep and My sheep know Me…they listen to My voice: I know them, and they follow Me..” (John 10: 14,27)

“I have called you friends..” (John 15:15) Jesus is my friend. He knows my name.


He may have a number for the hairs on my head, but I am not a number to Him, He knows my name.

And I am SO thankful !!!

Answers

Answers… Usually we use words to answer. But answers can be communicated with frowns or smiles….even silence.

The old saying ‘ sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me’ is an out right lie of the devil.

Words do hurt. Tremendously. There is power in words. And that power can be wielded in positive ways…but to do so is NOT to use stronger words or louder voice.

“A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” (Proverbs 15:1) The Message puts it like this, ‘A gentle response defuses anger, but a sharp tongue kindles a temper-fire’

I’ve tested it. It is true. But it is difficult to respond with gentle words. The way the majority of the world thinks, strength is displayed in force. But Jesus showed us thru His life, the characteristics and power of gentleness and humility.

Humility is NOT self-degradation. It is knowing the truth about myself, that I am nothing of myself, only valuable because I am created in the image of God, ‘So God created man in His own image’ (Gen. 1:27) and re-created in the image of His Son. ‘I have taken off my old self with its practices and have put on the new self, ‘which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator’ (Col. 3:9,10)

Humility is knowing who I am, and who I am NOT. And BEING who I am, and not TRYing to be who I am not.

Confused yet?

It is fascinating to study the way Jesus answered people. He had ‘the whole world gone after Him!’ (John 12:19) ….which caused much concern in the world of the Pharisees. Great crowds of people gathered around Him wherever He went…. He was ‘gentle and humble in heart’ (Matt. 11:29)

And He was the most powerful man to ever impact this world.

I want to answer like He answered.

Father, ‘create in me a clean heart, renew a right spirit within me’…..help me to always answer with gentleness and never with harsh words…make me more like Jesus today.

Healing...

Healing… I cut my finger quite often. It heals every time. Sometimes I cut the cape laying around a client. It never heals….

Go figure. Think God has anything to do with that ? I do.

I can’t make those cells heal…I can help them NOT heal, by not properly taking care of the injury. Or, I can protect them…by cleanliness, even medicine…but I can’t make a single cell rejuvenate.

I struggle with issues of healing. Even though I believe that God is El Rapha, the God Who heals, He obviously does not heal every time. People die. Young people die.

‘O Lord my God, I called to You for help and You healed me.’ (Ps. 30:2)
‘Heal me, O Lord, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for You are the One I praise.’ (Jer. 17:14)

I wrestle with the fact that many believe, many call on Him, and many still die. Has He said ‘no’? If He has, then what is the deciding factor in His answering?

There was a time when I was afraid to speak with Him about things like this. I thought of Him as an angry old man who scowled down from His throne and shouted ‘because I said so’. ( that was a god made in my image…an image that I conjured up from misunderstandings and believing lies of our enemy..)

I respect that He is God. He does not answer to me. Yet, I am secure in His love, secure enough to take every concern to Him and ask Him to help me understand.

And when I don’t understand, I ask Him to help me accept. Sometimes, there are things beyond my ability to wrap my mind around. ( HE is Elohim, Mighty Creator, certainly not me !)

I know that ‘by His wounds we are healed’ (Isa. 53:5, 1 Peter 2:24)

Sometimes, that healing comes thru a miracle. Instantly. Sometimes, the healing comes thru a pill or injection…even a surgery. Sometimes, thru a series of treatments that are difficult.

Sometimes, I believe the healing comes from death. Healed eternally.

I am thankful today for the physical health I enjoy.

And I am even more thankful to be spiritually healed. For just as I can’t accomplish the healing of my cut finger, neither can I heal myself of the sin disease we all suffer from.

‘By His wounds, I am healed’ (Isa. 53:5) Hallelujah.

Idolatry

Idolatry.. What god do we have? Think there aren’t any gods… think there is only One God Whom we serve ? I wonder….

Molech was a god of the Ammonites in Biblical history. Ammon was the son of Lot, closely related to the Israelites, because Lot was Abraham’s nephew. I don’t know how it happened, and haven’t the time now to research it…but it is true that they worshipped this god called Molech. And the worship practices involved sacrifices. Sacrifices of chidren.

“Oh how horrible!!” we say. How could they do that !?

I can’t explain where the concept came from that placing a child onto the outstretched arms of a brass figure, to roll back into it’s belly and a blazing inferno would have a positive outcome…who comes up with that? What a lie to think that would change anything for the better!

But look at our culture…look at the lies that people believe concerning the care and nurturing of children….or even of allowing the life of a child to be birthed and lived.

We discard children to fend for themselves, raise themselves, barely knowing they exist much less ‘training the child in the way he should go’ (Prov. 22:6)

We sit them in front of some electronic device and let it train the child.. (usually in the way he should NOT go)

We fail so often in saying “Come, my children, listen to me: I will teach you the fear of the Lord.” (Ps. 34:11)

I think the practice of abortion is the modern Molech. The outstretched arms where we place the unborn to die so that some god can be appeased.

The god of self that doesn’t want the responsibility.

The god of self that is more concerned with personal guilt and shame than life.

The god of self that rejects the idea of sharing personal time, energy, and resources with another person.

The god that worships personal image and beauty, and doesn’t want it marred, even at the cost of another life.

Oh how horrible indeed.