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Pressing On

Jesus went through the towns and villages, teaching as he went, always pressing on toward Jerusalem.  (Luke 13:22 NLT)

Jerusalem.

No matter where Jesus preached, no matter where he performed miracles, Jerusalem was always on his mind.  His destiny lay before him in Jerusalem.  But it was not an easy destiny.

He knew he would be betrayed by those closest to him.  He knew he would be ridiculed and humiliated.  Yet, he pressed on to Jerusalem.

He knew he would be spat upon, flogged, tortured, and crucified by Roman soldiers.  Yet, he pressed on to Jerusalem.

He knew on the Cross the Father would pour into him our sin so that we might receive his righteousness.  He who enjoyed a sublime relationship with the Father would experience a separation from the Father because of that sin.  Yet he pressed on to Jerusalem.

Indeed, the choice to press was on was not easy.  In fact, once in Jerusalem that choice brought anguish and deep sorrow.  That choice brought sweating drops of blood.  Yet he never let the pain or anguish side-track him.  He remained resolute to press on to Jerusalem. Continue Reading

Aside published on October 13, 2014 | | 2 Responses

God’s Plan

He came bursting through the door barely able to get his words out. All she could decipher at first was, “We’re leaving!” 

Running from room to room, he scanned each one quickly determining what would be taken and what would be left behind.  She could barely keep up to him and had an even harder time comprehending what he was telling her.  She had never seen such joy and excitement on her husband’s face.  I imagine Abraham must have finally turned to her and said something like this:

“Sarah, I met God today – the living God.  He promised great blessings, unbelievable blessings.  But Sarah, the most incredible blessing is that from us would come a great nation.  Do you know what that means?  It means God is promising that we will have a son.” 

 A son!

This was the one thing Sarah longed for.  In her culture, a woman’s worth was based on her ability to bear a son, an heir for her husband, and Sarah had lived long with the stigma of barrenness.  No matter what joys of life she experienced, they were always dampened by her desire for a child..  I think Sarah must have started pulling clothes out of drawers, emptying every closet.  Most likely she called the realtor and scheduled a yard sale.  Oh, how she wanted a child!  Yet in the midst of the excitement,  she must have paused and asked Abraham this question,

 “I’m willing to leave, but where are we going?  What’s the plan?”  Continue Reading

Aside published on September 30, 2014 | | 3 Responses

The Shepherd’s Rod and Staff

Long before he became a mighty warrior or the honored king of Israel, David was a shepherd.  And, Psalm 23 was written from the heart of that shepherd.  He used what he knew about the relationship between a shepherd and his sheep to reveal to us that:

The Lord is our Shepherd and we are His sheep. 

Each verse of this psalm is written with powerful imagery, but for me the most striking verse is:

 “Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, For you are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.”           (Ps. 23:4 NKJ)

Whenever I face adversity, I find myself reciting this verse.  Yet one day, I was compelled to look at this verse more closely, questioning how the Shepherd’s rod and staff can comfort us.

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Aside published on September 15, 2014 | | 7 Responses

I AM

Eighty years old,

while tending sheep on a wilderness mountain,

he catches a glimpse of a bush on fire.

What holds his attention, what compels his curiosity is that the bush is not consumed.  As Moses moves closer, he hears God speak to him from that bush.  And, what he hears shakes him to the core.  God commissions him to do what seems impossible – to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, to free them from the bondage of slavery.

Certainly God couldn’t expect him to be their deliverer.  Forty years earlier in his prime, it may have been possible.  But not now!

God’s response?  Moses, this time,

“I will be with you.” (Ex. 3:12)

Then God did something for Moses that He had not even done for the great patriarch Abraham, nor his descendants, Isaac and Jacob.  God revealed to Moses His name – “I Am.”   Abraham knew God by a title, “Almighty God” but to Moses, a man whose hopes, dreams, and aspirations had become ashes of despair and resignation, to this man, the Lord revealed His name.

“This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I Am has sent me to you.”’ (Ex. 3:14)

With the name “I Am,” God declares He is a “present tense” God.  He is not just a God of the past who has done great things.  Nor is He just a God of our future, who is the hope of our salvation. 

He is the God of our present.  He is our “present tense” God. Continue Reading

Aside published on September 1, 2014 | | 5 Responses

Uncluttered Prayer

I wish I had entered the room just a few minutes earlier.  All I heard was the tail end of a conversation between my two granddaughters, Caitlin, who is 4 ½ and her cousin Scarlet who is 3 ½ years old.  I’m not sure what sparked the conversation, but Caitlin was reassuring Scarlet with this simple but profound truth:

            “Scarlet, you can’t see God, but you can talk to Him and He will listen.”

My heart skipped a beat.  With one simple statement she had defined genuine prayer.

Hundreds, maybe even thousands of books have been written about prayer – how to pray, when to pray, where to pray.  Many of these books inspired by the Holy Spirit reveal important truths and strategies that enrich our times of prayer.  We are blessed that Jesus shared a pattern for prayer with his disciples that we know as the Lord’s Prayer.  In his letters to the Early Christian churches, the Apostle Paul provides powerful insight regarding prayer. 

But there is a danger:  when we find ourselves embracing what we have learned and then focusing more on the eloquence of our words, the precise application of patterns and strategies for prayer, than on the One who listens to our prayers.

Prayer isn’t talking about God or talking at God.  Prayer isn’t about using certain words or phrases, certain patterns or strategies.  We may use them and they can be helpful, but they aren’t the essence of prayer.  

With one simple statement of faith, Caitlin parsed all the information and knowledge of learned theologians, all the words of instruction and strategies for intercession into a simple definition of uncluttered prayer. 

                        Talk to God and He will listen.

Aside published on August 18, 2014 | | 1 Response

Watch and Pray

Their last supper together had been eaten.  Jesus had washed their feet.  The hours leading to his crucifixion were quickly passing.  The realization of what lay ahead overwhelmed him, so he withdrew to his place of prayer – the Garden of Gethsemane.  As Jesus reached the Garden, he turned to his disciples and said to them,

“My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” (Matt. 26:38 NIV)

Just as Satan had tempted Adam and Eve “in the beginning,” Satan had tempted Jesus in the desert at the beginning of his ministry.  But this temptation was greater.  This temptation filled Jesus with such anguish that he sweat drops of blood – a temptation to avoid the Cross.  So Jesus went to Gethsemane to pray.  As the man Jesus, he needed strength to endure the Cross.  He needed the strength to say “Father, not my will but Your will.” 

In this most critical moment of his life, Jesus turned to his disciples, especially James, John and Peter, and asked them to “keep watch.”  Jesus asked them to keep alert and to pray.  But while Jesus was wrestling in prayer, the disciples fell asleep.

“When he (Jesus) rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, he found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow.”  (Luke 22:45 NIV)

Earlier that evening Jesus had told his disciples how he would be taken from them, that their whirlwind adventure of ministry with Jesus was coming to end.  Jesus was leaving them, and they were bewildered, upset, and exhausted with grief.  But because they allowed their sorrow to consume them, because they focused on how their lives would be affected, they failed to keep watch for Jesus.  They failed to be alert to his greater anguish.  They failed to minister to him with their prayers.  What a heartbreak for Jesus to see his disciples asleep in his hour of need. 

“Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” (Matt. 26:40 NIV)

The disciples missed an opportunity to support Jesus at this critical moment. They failed to “watch and pray.”

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Aside published on August 3, 2014 | | 4 Responses

Praying for the “When”

Famine had gripped the Kingdom of Israel.  Its king had abandoned the worship of God and embraced the worship of Baal.  The land where God had performed miracles for the Israelites was now filled with altars of worship for Baal.  To get King Ahab’s attention God had withdrawn His favor.   For three and a half years there had been no dew or rain. 

Times were desperate when God gave the prophet Elijah this word:

“Present yourself to Ahab and I will send rain on the land.”  (1 Kings 18:1)

So Elijah went to Ahab and presented him with a challenge  – Baal versus God.  On Mt. Carmel, on an altar of sacrifice, God demonstrated His mighty power as the powerlessness of Baal was exposed.  With this great victory, Elijah announced to Ahab that God would now send rain. 

Then Elijah does something very puzzling.  He climbed to the top of Mount Carmel, then he,

 “bowed low to the ground and prayed with his face between his knees.” (1 King 18:42 NLT)

With great intensity, Elijah prayed.  He prayed not once, but seven times sending his servant each time to look for a sign that rain was on its way.

Elijah had already received a word from the Lord that it would rain.  He had been obedient to God’s instruction and faced Ahab.  He even declared to Ahab that there would be a rainstorm.  Elijah believed that God would send the rain, so why was Elijah praying?

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Aside published on July 20, 2014 | | 3 Responses

Heaven Looked Away

There are moments when the realization of what was required of God the Son to redeem mankind touches your very soul.

It can happen as you reread the depth of Jesus’ anguish in the Garden of Gethsemane.  It can happen as your pastor preaches an anointed message about His Crucifixion.  But it happened to me last Sunday in church, as we sang the worship song, “Forever”.

As stirring as the melody is, it was one line of the song that pushed away the familiarity of the Cross and replaced it with a fresh reality of the price Jesus paid to redeem me.

 “His body on the Cross,

 His blood poured out for us

The weight of every curse upon Him

One final breath He gave

As heaven looked away

The Son of God was laid in darkness” (Kari Jobe)

 As God the Father poured into Jesus the sin of humanity, as the weight of every curse was placed upon Him, heaven looked away.

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Aside published on July 6, 2014 |

Kiss of Betrayal

Words of betrayal wound deeply.  Acts of betrayal are like a knife that cuts to our very soul.  They break our heart and fill us with hopelessness and despair.  They can rob us of our joy and deflate the delight in living.  Whether we have been betrayed by an unfaithful spouse, a rebellious child, a deceitful co-worker or business partner, a hypocritical pastor or priest, the wound of betrayal is devastating.  It can mark us and define us, relegating us to the status of victim. 

Yet we are not alone in this experience.

He was despised and rejected–a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief.  (Isa. 53:30)

I imagine one of the greatest moments of grief Jesus experienced was the kiss of betrayal that marked him for the Cross – a kiss of betrayal by one of his own disciples – Judas. 

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Aside published on June 23, 2014 | | 4 Responses

Only

Outside of a village called Bethsaida, on its gentle rolling hills, thousands gathered to listen to the profound teachings of Jesus.  The sick have come to be healed. 

Hours pass.  It is late in the afternoon, well past lunch time.  The people are hungry, but there isn’t a fast food restaurant in sight. 

No Wendy’s.

No McDonald’s.

No Panera.

So the disciples made this suggestion to Jesus:

“Send the crowd away so they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and find food and lodging, because we are in a remote place here.”  (Luke 9:12)

Jesus’ response startled them.  He didn’t dismiss the crowd and end the meeting.  Instead he turned to the disciples with this instruction:

          “You give them something to eat.” (Luke 9:13)

What!  There are thousands who needed to eat.  The disciples were incredulous.  Their reply to Jesus was meant to convince him that there was no way they could feed all these people.

           “We have only five loaves of bread and two fish . . .” (Luke 9:13)

Five loaves.

Two fish.

Over five thousand mouths to feed.

Jesus, this doesn’t add up.  It is impossible.  How can we feed so many people with ONLY a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish?

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Aside published on June 10, 2014 | | 5 Responses