Tag Archives: shelter

STORMPROOF!

Christian Life, ,

How many times have you quoted or heard the verse, “Be still and know that I am God”? We even sing the words church as a worship song. It comes in the middle of Psalm 46 – a song about storm, tumult and war and the place where peace can be found in the midst of chaos.

We love the verse but it’s difficult to put it into practice when the storm hits, isn’t it? How is it possible to be still when our problems are yelling so loudly in our hearts that we can hear nothing else? Emotional, financial, physical or relational storms hit us when we least expect them. We are often so unprepared that the storm knocks us off our feet when we haven’t had the time run to the place of refuge.

If we read the psalm carefully, I think we will recognise that the psalmist isn’t telling us to run for cover when the storm hits. He is singing about a place of refuge where we can live in safety all the time, even when the storm rages around us. That’s a different scenario from looking for a place to hide when we are being battered by unexpected circumstances.

Where can we find a place of refuge where we are always safe and at peace no matter what happens? Right in the middle of the psalm, we find the answer:

The Lord Almighty is with us; The God of Jacob is our fortress (Psa. 46:7)

We don’t need the services of psychiatrists, psychologists, councillors or even pastors in times of trouble. We need only Jesus. How do we live “in Him”? Of course, it’s difficult to begin to live in Jesus when we are in the midst of stormy circumstances. During the lull between crises (and someone said that we always live in a state of slight crisis!), is the time to work on our awareness that He loves us with a passionate, furious and indescribable love so big that He gave His life for us.

John wrote that “there is no fear in love because perfect love drives out fear”. God’s dream for us is that nothing, nothing, NOTHING will be able to shake our confidence in His love, not even the wildest, most violent storm.

Why does God allow the storms to come? It’s not the devil attacking us! It’s the Father teaching us to trust Him. Where is the safest place to be when the storm hits? Like Papa said (in “The Shack”), “Slap dab in the middle of God’s love.” Why? Because nothing can separate us from His love.

 

 

What’s It Like?

Christian Life, , ,

WHAT’S IT LIKE?

‘Then Jesus asked, ‘What is the kingdom of God like? What shall I compare it to? It is like a mustard seed which a man took and planted in his garden. It grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air perched in its branches.'” Luke 13:18, 19 (NIV).

The kingdom of God is like a multi-faceted and multi-coloured diamond. It is impossible to describe in it one sentence or with one idea. Jesus was constantly telling stories to illustrate yet another aspect of this amazing dimension of life from which He had come. He wanted His hearers to catch a glimpse of its wonder and its splendour and yet, like the prophets of the Old Testament and John in the book of Revelation, He struggled to communicate other-worldly ideas in human language to human understanding.

The point of Jesus’ story is lost to us if we fail to understand the significance of the mustard seed. The mustard seed of which Jesus spoke was a weed in Palestine, not the seed we use to flavour our food. If it were, for example, it could not accurately be classified as the smallest of garden seeds. The seed He called a mustard seed was as small as a grain of pepper shaken from a pepper pot.

In Jesus’ day, there were two types of gardens, the one around the homeowner’s house in which he planted flowers, or herbs for table use, and his field outside the town which he used to grow crops for commercial purposes. No gardener in his right mind would plant a mustard seed in either, to take up the soil’s nourishment and moisture for no good purpose.

So why did Jesus tell a story about a man who did something out of character by planting a mustard seed in his garden? We find the clue in His comparison between us and the way God acts in His realm, in two words, ‘tree’ and ‘bird’s. Unlike our motives which are usually selfish, God cares about the ‘birds’. Since it is a parable, an earthly story with a heavenly meaning, a man plants a mustard seed in his garden to provide shelter for birds. The birds have no value for the gardener, in fact probably the opposite but, because he cares about them anyway, he does it even if it means loss to him.

How like God to something like that! On more than one occasion Jesus used ‘birds’ to illustrate God’s care for creatures who are fragile, transient, of no commercial value (except for the doves that unscrupulous merchants were selling in the temple), and sometimes even destructive to the farmer’s crops. Two sparrows are sold for the coin of least value in their currency; God cares for birds by providing them with food they didn’t grow.

In a money-driven world, to do something like that is unthinkable. It would take time, effort, and money to do something that brings no return, and yet that is exactly how God cares, not only about His creation but about us who are the crown of His creation. Of what value were we to God before He rescued us from our God-denying and self-destructive ways? Not only of no value but a liability to Him.

He created us to bring glory to Him by being mirrors of His nature. We not only failed to fulfill His purpose, we deliberately rebelled against Him, actively denying His existence, ignoring His overtures of love to us and systematically destroying His world that He so lovingly fashioned for His pleasure and our enjoyment.

And yet, God in His mercy, planted a ‘tree’ outside Jerusalem on which His Son hung naked in the burning sun, bled and died for us so that we can take shelter in His ‘branches’. This is the kingdom, the realm into which God invites all who receive His Son as their Master, to enter and to enjoy that shelter with Him in the eternal ‘now’ in which God lives.

Killer of Prophets

Christian Life, , , ,

KILLER OF PROPHETS

‘Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killer of prophets, abuser of the messengers of God!
How often I’ve longed to gather your children, gather your children like a hen,
her brood safe under her wings — but you refused and turned away!
But now it’s too late; you won’t see me again until the day you say,
‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.'”
Luke 13:34, 35 (The Message).

Oh the heartache of Jesus! Such is the power of deception and the terrifying possibilities in the most precious gift God gave humanity – the power to choose! But that is the nature of love – risking everything for the sake of a free and willing choice to believe and trust the God who calls us into a love relationship with Him.

Not to be able to love Him freely would be grossly unfair, to say the least. He has given us the right to choose, based on the evidence that we must evaluate for ourselves. God hides nothing from us. What He says is true with no small print to mislead or mask a hidden agenda.

Jesus could rightly claim, ‘I am the Light of the world,’ because light dispels darkness and reveals everything. He could claim, ‘I am the truth,’ because what He has spoken and what He has promised has stood the test of time. Only truth can never be destroyed and the words of Jesus have never been proved false.

Deception’s power lies, as much in what had not been said as in what has been said. Satan is a master of deception, sometimes by just plain lying, contradicting the truth of God, and sometimes by concealing the truth; for example, he makes sin look appealing and attractive but he neglects to talk about the consequences. ‘It’s okay,’ he says to young people, ‘to sleep around. It’s nice and everybody’s doing it. Nothing will happen and no-one will know.’

And then comes the unexpected pregnancy. ‘It’s okay to get rid of it,’ he says, ‘It’s only the ‘product of conception’,’ as if that changes the truth that it is a baby-in-the-making. Then, when it’s all over and there is no going back, comes the lifetime of emotional pain – guilt, shame, remorse – that he didn’t warn you about, and oh, does he rub it in, ‘You fool, you wicked person, look what you’ve done. God will never forgive you. There is no hope for you!’

Jesus wept for a city that had been deceived by its spiritual leaders. ‘He’s a devil and a deceiver,’ they insisted. ‘He works through the power of the devil. Don’t listen to Him. We are right and He is wrong.’ and so the people made their choice, swept along by the gloating deceiver himself. They murdered Him in spite of the evidence. And forty years later the city and its people paid the terrible price, the city destroyed, the temple taken apart stone by stone – just as He said – and its people slaughtered until their blood ran like a river in the streets.

Had they believed Him, they would have been as safe as chickens sheltering under mother hen’s wings. But they did not. They refused to weigh up the evidence and so, they were wilfully deceived. And that’s the biggest tragedy of all – deception is, in the end, our choice. There is enough evidence to disclose the truth, if we want it. “It’s impossible to please God apart from faith. And why? Because anyone who wants to approach God must believe both that He exists and that He cares enough to respond to those who believe Him.” Hebrews 11:6 (The Message).

Here is His non-negotiable promise, “Now this is what my Father wants; that anyone who sees the Son and trusts who He is and what He does and then aligns with Him, will enter real life, eternal life.” John 6:40 (The Message); no small print, no hidden agenda, only the truth.

But it’s your choice….