Our Plans (Advent, Day 11)

For the past two days I have been on a sort of mini-vacay with a friend and both our moms in Sevier County, TN.  Several weeks ago, we younger ladies had planned this brief get-away with our moms, to enjoy them amid the local festivities of the season.   The Gatlinburg-Pigeon Forge area is in the Great Smokey Mountains, one of the most beautiful places on Earth.  Over the past several decades it has been a favorite tourist destination.  When I was a child, it was sort of a secret.  Not many folks outside of the South knew about it, nor did they travel to the area because there was not a lot to do except to relax, fish, talk to the natives, etc.  Today, driving down Parkway, I marveled at all the entertainment options available in Pigeon Forge.  In fact, I made the comment that you could stay here for a week and still not see all the shows or enjoy more than a smidgen of the restaurants, see all the fancy exhibits, etc.  It reminds me somewhat of Vegas (a place I visited once and never plan to see again), though on a more wholesome scale.

We had a bit of an adventure getting to Pigeon Forge yesterday.  We attempted to gain access by driving "over the mountain" - - which is the route folks from my mother's area have taken for many years.  The GPS exhorted us over and over again to take a different (longer) route.  We glibly ignored her.  (Mother said later that we should apologize!). Eventually, at the base of the mountain, we encountered flashing signs telling us the road ahead was closed.  What a bunch of dummies we were!  Despite the signs given, we were determined we knew better!  Our stubbornness and pride lengthened our trip by an hour and a half, as we were forced to take the "around the mountain" route, which eventually brought us into the Sevier county area from the other direction.

The New Testament is full of stories where folks misread the signs, ignoring God by making their own selfish plans.  King Herod is one example of this.  He did his best to manipulate the wise men and, later, to attempt to manipulate the will of God by murdering all infant boys under 2 years of age.  He was sure he "knew better".  Another example is the Jewish teachers and leaders of Jesus' day.  They were absolutely certain they "had Jesus pegged".  They could hardly have been more mistaken.

The cynics of this world who say with disdain, "Who cares about the fables and fairy tales of the Bible" are falling into a similar pit.  Tozer describes these as "big, challenging words" from "puny, empty hearts and minds".  Folks who puff out their chests and (figuratively speaking) shake their fists at God fail to see that all of us human beings are in the hands of God, in the final analysis, whether we are willing to admit it or not.  

There's a striking, appalling juxtaposition currently in this local area.  Less than 10 miles from where we are staying, amid the glitz and glamour, the bright lights and man-made monuments, lie ruins of blackened buildings, charred woods, smoldering ashes of the now-crippled town of Gatlinburg.  Just a few days ago near this bustling tourist destination conditions were ripe for "a perfect storm".... foliage that had not seen rain for several weeks and high winds.  Wildfires were started (by arson, it is believed) and the high winds quickly had them raging out of control.  Much of the town and surrounding area was devastated, lives and millions of dollars worth of property destroyed.  

We were turned back from crossing the mountain as we drove to Sevier county yesterday, for this very reason.  Today, we again tried to drive into Gatlinburg, but this time from Pigeon Forge - - - same result.  The town is blocked off all around, until the residents and business owners can begin to recover from the disasters they have endured and continue to endure.

Tozer tells a story about the ruler of Germany during World War I, Kaiser Wilhelm.  The Kaiser heard a sermon on the Second Advent of Jesus Christ.  Greatly offended, Wilhelm spoke to the minister after the service:  "I never want to hear that kind of a sermon again!  Such an event is not at all in keeping with the plans we have for the future and the glory of our Fatherland!"

Oh!  How we tend to make ourselves big....and God small.

The kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, 

and He will reign forever and ever.

Revelation 11:15

He came once as a baby, over 2020 years ago, born into the humblest of circumstances.  He lived a perfect life, allowed his own excruciating death and then defeated Death by rising from the dead, despite all the hordes of Hell brought to bear against Him.  He is God.  He is flawless.  He is coming again.  On that changeless fact we can depend.  When that day comes, we had better be ready, because it will come more suddenly than a forest fire raging out of control.  And, there will be absolutely nothing we can do to stop it.

Father, during this time of terrible tragedy for the people of Sevier county and especially Gatlinburg, TN, please restore what the Destroyer has taken, replenish what the locusts have eaten, what the fires have taken.  Show Yourself mighty in this, Lord!  Be very near and precious to them, bind up the broken-hearted and do the miraculous among them, for Jesus' sake.  Amen.

Source:

Tozer, A.W. From Heaven, pp. 49-52. 2016. Moody Publishers, Chicago, IL.

Tattooed on the Heart

Good morning,

Paul sometimes cracks me up!  This morning's text is 2 Cor. 3:1-6.  In verse 12 (on down the way), Paul declares he uses "great plainness of speech" (KJV).   LOL!  Ri-i-i-ight..... This declaration comes after all these verses where he calls the Corinthians "letters", using very picturesque, analogical language. Ok then!  That Paul...smh.

Well, what IS he talking about here?  The central verse of this passage is verse 2:

2 You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men;

(NKJV)

The picture that comes to my mind is that of two lovebirds who choose a hapless tree and carve their initials into it, afterwards carving a heart around them.  They do this to express a level of commitment to each other.  In more modern times, lovebirds tattoo their love's name on their bodies - - - not recommended, not preferred.  But, I digress.  It might be helpful to see this passage in The Message version.

1-3 Does it sound like we’re patting ourselves on the back, insisting on our credentials, asserting our authority? Well, we’re not. Neither do we need letters of endorsement, either to you or from you. You yourselves are all the endorsement we need. Your very lives are a letter that anyone can read by just looking at you. Christ himself wrote it—not with ink, but with God’s living Spirit; not chiseled into stone, but carved into human lives—and we publish it.

4-6 We couldn’t be more sure of ourselves in this—that you, written by Christ himself for God, are our letter of recommendation. We wouldn’t think of writing this kind of letter about ourselves. Only God can write such a letter. His letter authorizes us to help carry out this new plan of action. The plan wasn’t written out with ink on paper, with pages and pages of legal footnotes, killing your spirit. It’s written with Spirit on spirit, his life on our lives!

Paul is "plainly" stating that the Corinthians are his spiritual offspring, his spiritual children.  In using this comparison he is showing how very dear the Corinthians are to him.  If you have children, biological or otherwise, as I do, you know that they are "written on your heart", like those initials carved into the tree.  Paul felt this way about his spiritual children, and not just the Corinthians, but all those he had been used by God to lead to saving faith in Jesus Christ.

There's a reason I phrased that last sentence so awkwardly.  It was important I point out that it was God's Holy Spirit who led "Paul's converts" to faith in Christ.  The thing is, when I first had my bio children, I thought that their successes or failures were "all about me".  And, no doubt, to a large extent they were and are, because God has given my husband and me that tremendous responsibility to love them, to show them the way of righteousness and to live the Christ-led life before them.  It's "all about me" to be faithful to the task I've been given.  Then, the results are up to God.

As Paul points out here - - - it is Jesus Christ who writes upon their hearts, to draw them to Him for salvation, to sanctify them as they live their lives.  He is the One who "carves into" their lives, as He carves into our own.  If you notice in this passage, though, Father, Son and Holy Spirit are all three mentioned as doing this "writing" on people's hearts.  Isn't that beautiful?  We can then humbly tell others about what God is doing or has done ("publishing it", as Paul says), being careful to give Him all the glory for His marvelous works (vs. 5).

When I was a kid, it was common for men to carry coins in their pockets.  I have several visual images of men with their hands in their pockets, fingering their change, rocking back and forth from heel to toe and pontificating about some great achievement THEY had done or their children had done, commending themselves.

Every morning, I pray for my biological sons, and also for my spiritual sons and daughters.  There are many times I don't understand what God is doing in their lives.  Although, seeing God work in their lives often brings me great joy, I confess that it causes me tremendous grief at times.  God often does things in ways that make no sense in my limited understanding.  But, that is why He is God, and I am not!  He is building my faith as I pray and trust Him with my most precious loves.  His love, His commitment to His children, is unfailing and eternal.  I am sure of this: He deserves the glory in all things, no matter what.  He does the carving, the shaping, the making.

I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;[a]

Marvelous are Your works,

And that my soul knows very well.  

Psalm 139:14 (NKJV)

Father, thank you for inscribing my loved ones on my heart.  What a blessing they are! You are The Waymaker, the Carver, the Shaper.  I am your "medium", like clay in Your hands.  "Written with Spirit on spirit, His life on our lives!"  (vs. 6) All praise goes to You for the way You choose to use me and my loved ones, my spiritual offspring, to bring all the praise and honor and glory to Yourself. In Jesus' name, amen.

Unlikely Stars

Good morning,

The Bible is such a real-life type of book.  It presents God in as much of His glory as we can handle with our human limitations.  And, it also presents humans in their range of ridiculous to sublime. Thank God for both presentations!

Take the story of Hagar, for instance.  Hagar was a maidservant to Sarah, Abraham's wife.  When Sarah continued to be barren, even when stared down by the repeated promises of God to the contrary, she devised a plan (common in those days) to get a son by letting her husband procreate with Hagar.  Hagar conceived and Ishmael was born.  Later on in the story Hagar was banished from the camp, along with her teenage son.  They were sent off into the desert, where they would have died if God had not rescued them. (Genesis 21).  This was not the first time that Hagar had been rescued by God in the desert.  When she saw that she had conceived by Abraham she began to flaunt the "accomplishment" in front of Sarah, her mistress, to the point that Sarah kicked her out of the camp.  On that occasion, "the angel of the Lord", which most believe to be, not a regular angel, but instead a physical appearance of Jehovah God, appeared to rescue Hagar.  We know this from Hagar's response in Genesis 16:13 (NET).

The Lord’s angel found Hagar near a spring of water in the desert—the spring that is along the road to Shur. 8 He said, “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?” She replied, “I’m running away from my mistress, Sarai.”

9 Then the Lord’s angel said to her, “Return to your mistress and submit to her authority.10 I will greatly multiply your descendants,” the Lord’s angel added, “so that they will be too numerous to count.” 

13 So Hagar named the Lord who spoke to her, “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “Here I have seen one who sees me!” 

Here's the amazing part.  Hagar had been pretty much a "nobody". She was an Egyptian slave girl, probably acquired by Sarah on one of her trips to Egypt with her husband.  Even so, we read in Genesis 16 that God Himself physically appeared to her.

This was not Hagar's original plan.  I'm quite sure she:
*never intended to become a maidservant
*never intended to bear Abraham's child
*never intended to be sent out into the wilderness, not once but twice
*never intended to see God face-to-face
*never intended to be the mother of all Arab peoples.
It just was not in her plan.
But, it was in God's plan.

Or, consider Paul.  He had a grand plan.  He was raised in a well-to-do Jewish family from Cyprus, a mediterranean island.  He was a very highly regarded, very ardent Jew.  He zealously persecuted Christians, whom he viewed as a blight on the face of Judaism, a pox that had to be eradicated, a heretical fringe element to be expunged!  And, his plan was to destroy that fledgling cult.  He pursued his goal with all his might, killing Christians left and right.
But this was not God's plan.  1 Corinthians 15:8-10 - - 

8 Last of all, as though to one born at the wrong time, he appeared to me also. 9 For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me has not been in vain. In fact, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God with me.

NET

"He appeared to me also."  Paul came to see that he was of the same stature as the original 12 disciples, because a mark of such a person was that they had seen Jesus, face-to-face.  Can't you just hear the wonder in Paul's voice?  He admits it was as if he had been born at the wrong time!  He marvels at the amazing acts of God, His unsearchable ways.

Paul also marvels at the fact that, of all people, he least deserved God's favor.  A lot of us feel that way and, unfortunately, we get stuck there.  I have a friend who absolutely cannot see herself as God sees her.  I think that all of us have this problem to some degree or another, but for some of us, it is incapacitating, making our lives for Christ "lived in vain".  The key to walking resplendent is to first see ourselves as God sees us: redeemed in Christ, restored, forgiven, free.  And then, knowing this living in light of those truths, that glorious, liberating grace.

Paul recognized that it was through God's amazing grace that he was all those things, and only through His grace.  You'll notice that he caught himself almost taking credit in verse 10, almost saying that it was his hard work that had brought him to a place of zealously serving Jesus Christ. Then, he stopped himself, to give credit where credit was due.

The point is this:  it does not matter so much where you start out.  What matters is where you end up. If you think otherwise you are deceived.  We are all where we are because of the grace of God, not because of our own "good plans".  On the other hand, you may have made some truly horrible choices.  The path along the way may not be the one you wanted to walk or planned to walk.  But, God is greater than your choices!  He can still fashion you into a star in his kingdom in spite of your past!  Did he not do that for Paul?

If you embrace Jesus Christ as Savior and seek to follow Him with your whole heart, you are going to be just where God wants you to be, regardless of the outward circumstances. Believe that!  Embrace it, and thank God for it.

All of us who follow Christ are "unlikely stars".

Father, I thank you that each one of us, your children, is special in your eyes.  You have a plan for each of us; none of us is insignificant to You.  Help us to see ourselves as the princes and princesses you have made us, through Your Son, Jesus Christ.  Give us a clear picture of the heritage we received when we received Jesus.  And then, Lord God, urge us through Your Holy Spirit to walk in it, not bound by our past, but...resplendent.  In Jesus' name, amen.