In case you haven't noticed, {insert droll eye roll here} most of my posts are exegetical. Wikipedia defines "exegesis" as "a critical explanation or interpretation of a text, particularly a religious text". There is a reason for this. These blog posts are born out of my morning devotional time. I publish them out of obedience to what I believe God is calling me to do, but I don't specifically write them "for" you. I study the Scriptures and write the posts to clarify and increase my own understanding, to deepen my own relationship with my Beloved. And then, like the glass that is filled with water to overflowing, the overflow goes out into cyberspace, to you.
Today, I'm going to deviate. I don't know why, but I've been thinking lately about the late Christian singer/songwriter/prophet, Keith Green. This preoccupation dragged me to today's blog topic. Yes, strangely it has been "on my mind".
It may be that you are too young to remember Keith's ministry. It was not a very long one. In fact, I don't think it lasted more than about 7 years. The year Keith and his wife, Melody, came to know Jesus was 1975, the year I entered Bible college. They were older than me; Keith would have been 60 this fall. While I was studying "sacred" music, Keith was starting a ministry by reaching out to those in need all around them, emulating the New Testament church. They opened their home to the most hurt, the most wounded, the most needy. This grew and grew until they had to move their ministry to Lindale, Texas, where they could get some cheap land and spread out. Concurrently, God was giving Keith, a gifted musician, and Melody, a gifted songwriter, beautiful, "anointed" music.
I did not hear of his music until after I graduated, in 1980. He sang "Christian rock", which made about as much sense to me as "crooked straight". The two just did not belong together, and I refused to listen to it at first. When I finally did, and got to know Keith's story, I realized that he was being mightily used by God. The thing about Keith was that, not only did he write/perform songs that cut your heart to the quick, he was passionate about Jesus and telling the world about Him. Some artists today are just into "singing their songs", you know? Not Keith. His love for Jesus "busted out all over him".
Then, one summer morning in 1982, I was sitting in the living room of the house I rented with a college roommate, and I got the news: Keith and two of his small children had been killed in a small plane accident near their home. WHAT?! You know, I look at the world around me today, and I still think back to that time and part of my soul shouts, "WHAT?!" There is part of me that is still brokenhearted over his death, because I am unable to see what God has been able to do as a result. On Keith's and the babies' joint tombstone is this verse, words of Jesus from John 12:24 - -
"I tell you for certain that a grain of wheat that falls on the ground will never be more than one grain unless it dies.
But, if it dies, it will produce lots of wheat."
Do I understand what God was doing when he took Keith and his 2 children home? Melody had a toddler daughter at home with her and was 6 weeks pregnant with their fourth child! No, I don't understand. Do I feel robbed? Yes, to this day, I feel robbed of Keith's tremendous love for God, which burst out of him like a flood and flowed over me.
It is so hard to accept that God does not make mistakes, isn't it?
I think about how the disciples must have felt the Saturday morning, Sabbath morning, after Jesus' death. They were gathered in that "upper room", fearful, confused. One of the women, Mary, somehow managed to "get it together" enough to go tend to Jesus' body, to finish anointing it for its "final resting place". But, the rest of them? They were confused to the point of paralysis. We SO often respond like the disciples did.
What should be our response though? Naturally, we will grieve, rage - - - go through all the stages of grief. That is normal and God can handle it. But, as much as we can, we should also do as the Scriptures command us to do, Believers.
(One of my friends posted this on Facebook yesterday): Psalm 34:1 - -
"I will bless {thank, extol} the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth."
and I Thessalonians 5:18 - -
"Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."
How in the WORLD is this possible? That's just it. It is not possible in and of ourselves. It is ONLY possible through the power of the Holy Spirit that lives in every Jesus Follower, every believer.
In John 14, the apostle recounts Jesus' last words before His going to the cross. He was about to shift the disciples' paradigms in a huge way. At the time, they had no clue what he was talking about. But, after His death, burial and resurrection, they understood. Look at what Jesus said to them, vs. 27 {New English Translation}:
"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.
I do not give it to you as the world does.
Do not let your hearts be distressed or lacking in courage."
God's peace is different and far better than the world's type of peace. It is supernatural! It is a peace that courageously proclaims: "God! I will glorify You even in this, even in the pit of sorrow, even in the ditches of the most heinous pain, I will glorify you, God, my Savior. I will praise and thank You!" That is faith. That is love. That is Immanuel, God with us, and God in us.
God always has a perfect plan, and it is a beautiful plan, even though we may not at the time like it, understand it or embrace it.
Oh loving Father, in Psalm 18:30, you declare that your ways are perfect. Yet.... some of us are in such terrific agony of spirit that we hardly know our own names, much less Yours. Some of us are trying to do this life alone, rejecting your offer of grace, love, redemption, salvation. For those, their greatest need is Jesus, to accept Him as Lord and Savior. For those already believers, part of Jesus' Bride, they are crying out to You in their pain, confusion, despair and begging You to embrace them, to wrap Your mighty arms of love around them, to rescue them from their circumstances and their pain. I pray that, for those who need you to show Yourself mighty to them today, that You will reveal Yourself to them in a special way that only they can understand. Please lavish on them that peace that transcends all human understanding and Your love that is never-ending, that lasts through this life and into the next. It is in the incomparable name of Jesus that I ask this, amen.
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