No More Blindness

Some are born blind.
Others have turned blind.
Some have had their eyes gouged out.
Others have lost their sight by disease or accident.
Yet others are blinded emotionally, intellectually, or spiritually.

Still, blindness of any kind is no match for Christ whose unequalled power proves fit to assist the needy in the most dire of circumstances.

John, the apostle, tells us about a man born blind in John 9. This man was unable to see Christ physically but Christ saw him completely. Seeing his need, Christ magnified His own power by curing the man to the amazement of onlookers.

"How then were your eyes opened?" they demanded. [The man born blind] replied, "The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see." -- John 9:10-11, NIV

What?!

I can just picture puzzled faces. The methods of God are not ones human reason can easily grasp. They are often both too simple and too lofty for us to attain:

Moses was not easily convinced of his being sent to Pharaoh with only a cane.
Saul could not understand why little David would face Goliath with no armor.
Naaman did not see the point in dipping himself in the Jordan seven times.

But God came through all the same.

They once were blind.
Now, they see. 

What about you, friend?

If you're having trouble seeing clearly . . . 

- can't make sense out of life
- can't imagine sporting a smile
- can't figure out how to pay the bills
- can't explain the most recent betrayal you endured

. . . consider your trials might simply be mud put on your eyes by Jesus. Know the Father's methods are not easily discerned by simple-minded humans. Remember His power is fit to assist, to heal, to comfort, to strengthen, to soothe, to restore the needy no matter how desperate our cases may be. 

You are thus invited to go to "Siloam" and wash your eyes in the water of God's Word. Park your heart in Scripture. Read. Meditate. Pray. Heed. Apply. There, you'll see Jesus gives meaning to life. He is your joy. He is your blessed hope. He will supply your needs according to His glorious riches. He will never forsake you. He is gracious, loving, and good!

Thank You, O Christ

I am grateful this morning to read the following words:

"Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven,

whose sins are covered.

Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord does not count against them

and in whose spirit is no deceit."

Psalm 32:1-2, NIV

Living in a world that condemns and crucifies me whenever I fall short of expectations and wishes, I am grateful for the grace inherent in the Word inviting me to quit seeking to earn human approval and to learn to rest in the finished work of Christ.

The Word tells me to yield . . .

-  my compulsive and perceived need to improve a position Christ already perfected on the Cross.

-  my tendency to listen to and accept the lies fed me by visible and audible accusers regarding my performance.

-  my ever-growing pride in thinking my trials and weaknesses are bigger than those of so many fellow human beings.

I am grateful to yield my physical weariness.

I am grateful to trade in my spiritual workaholism.

I am grateful to lay down my emotional roller coaster.

I am grateful to be loved, accepted, cherished, securely held in Christ and by Christ and for Christ.

I am grateful to be fully known by God yet wholly embraced -- He knows the depths of my heart and He loves me all the same. Is this real life?

I am grateful to know, in me, the Father is well pleased . . .

. . . at my worst

. . . at my best

. . . because of the sacrifice of Christ at Calvary.

I am grateful to let go of a works-based mindset because the Word tells me there is nothing at all I can add to Christ's performance.

I am grateful Christ is beautiful, more than beautiful, so much more than beautiful than I could ever dream or imagine . . . and that someone so lovely, so breathtaking, so holy would choose to love me and give me worth.

I am grateful Christ knows my tendency to be tight-fisted and therefore chose to give on my behalf and commit His Spirit in my stead so I can learn to let go of my concerns and know the Father is God, is in charge, is sovereign.

I am grateful Christ rules.

I am grateful Christ reigns.

I am grateful Christ restores.

I am grateful Christ redeems.

I am grateful Christ shepherds.

Thank You, beloved Savior!

Pray

Yesterday, after walking for hours at the Grand Canyon National Park, my family boarded a shuttle bus taking us back to the Welcome center. While on the bus, I saw the following on display:

"The only possible guarantee of the future is responsible behavior in the present." ~ Wendell Berry

I did what I often do when facing new concepts; I took Berry's thought to the truth of Scripture. And the more I thought of it and prayed about it, the more clearly I saw prayer as the most responsible behavior in the present.

"Pray continually." -- 1 Thess 5:17

But why pray if indeed God is sovereign? It would seem the one person who, in my limited brain, could have skipped prayer altogether in His "present" saw His need for prayer . . . and prayed often.

Throughout the three years of His earthly ministry, Jesus prayed. He fasted and prayed for 40 days and nights at the very beginning of it; He prayed heart-wrenching one-liners till the bitter end on the Cross.

The Son of God prayed.
The Son of Man prayed.

"In the busiest, most pressured seasons of His life, He prayed more, not less," says Bible teacher Nancy Leigh DeMoss. He prayed for Himself, His disciples, and for all believers.

Immanuel prayed.
The Man of Sorrows prayed.

He prayed and the hungry were fed.
He prayed and the sick were healed.
He prayed and the mourning were comforted.
He prayed and the dead were resurrected.

Do you and I recognize the all-sufficiency of the Son of God? Let us pray right now.

Do you and I acknowledge the vulnerability yet enduring power of the Son of Man? Let us pray at this very moment.

Do you and I see the immensity of our need and realize the Father's amazing qualifications to supply so much more than we could ever dream or imagine? Let us pray today.

When esteemed, let us pray first.
When regally treated, let us pray first.
When amply supplied, let us pray first.
When everything is going well, let us pray first.

When insulted, let us pray first.
When mistreated, let us pray first.
When held at gun point, let us pray first.
When discriminated against, let us pray first.

Prayer comes first and foremost. Praying first is seeking first God's Kingdom and righteousness -- everything else will be added as the Father sees fit for the future of His Kingdom and our place within it.

"O what peace we often forfeit
O what needless pain we bear
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer."

Risky Gift

Choice.

Some find the concept of human choice to be antithetical to believing that God is sovereign. On the contrary, God is so confident and constant in His sovereignty that He Himself chose to don the hearts of men and women with the gift of choice, excluding any possibility of a robotic flavor in our obedience.

We are thus free to choose.

Free to receive God.
Free to reject God.
Free to remain in Christ.
Free to roam far from Christ.

Free to accept the authority of Scripture.
Free to reject the authority of God's Word.
Free to take every concern to the Father in prayer.
Free to stew and fret and worry over every concern.

It is that very risky yet gracious gift of choice from God that engenders true peace and genuine worship. Indeed, real devotion or pure obedience manifests itself only when the possibility of unfaithfulness exists, when the possibility of apathy is available.

And as far as my stumbling and wandering heart is concerned, I join Paul's voice in saying,

"Where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom 5:20-21, NIV).

It is true, my unrighteousness brings out God's righteousness more clearly, and my weakness sets the stage for His strength. It is because sin was once my master that I can now choose to declare that I have a new Master in Christ.

"Refiner's fire; my heart's one desire
is to be holy, set apart for You, Lord
I choose to be holy, set apart for You, my Master
Ready to do Your will."

In saying, "I choose," I am not saying I am in control. Rather, I am saying I accept His sovereignty, I accept His influence, I accept His righteousness, I accept His calling, I accept His I accept His grace, I accept His love.

What a glorious Lord we have in Jesus!

A Day To Remember

Let me tell you a story about an extraordinary day:

It began as a normal day for the Teacher -- Jesus taught. For hours and hours, He taught a large crowd (Mark 4:1-9), a medium-sized crowd (Mark 4:10-33), and His small group of twelve disciples (Mark 4:34). At the end of such a long and exhausting day, it only made sense that His body begged for sleep on the boat taking their company across the Sea of Galilee.

Mark picks up the story:

"On that day, when evening had come, He said to them, 'Let us go across to the other side.' And leaving the crowd, they took Him with them in the boat, just as He was. And other boats were with Him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. But He was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke Him and said to Him, 'Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?' And He awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, "Peace! Be still!" And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, "Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?" And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, 'Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?' " (Mark 4:35-41, ESV)

Whoa!
What a day!

What if it were today?
Is life pretty rocky for you?
Are you currently in the middle of a storm?
Is there a vast sea of untold hardships stretching before you?

Then, you are invited to join the disciples in posing, "Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?" 

"I Am" is His name -- the only Constant, the solid Rock, the sure Anchor.

I am writing to tell you that the only Constant is very much inside your rocky boat, with you, no matter how fierce or treacherous the storm happens to be. I am here to remind you that even when He appears to lie dormant, the solid Rock is very much awake and attentive to your sighs, moans, and pleas for help. I am in your life to encourage you to believe that regardless of the windstorm you are currently facing, the sure Anchor will stand erect and command, 

"Peace! Be still!"

He is the One whose presence brings peace to your chaos, the One whose power causes the gusts of wind to cease their blowing, and the One whose purpose prevails no matter what the circumstances are.

So, today, let me gently nudge you. Would you open your eyes? Would you cross your own Sea of Galilee? Would you face your own windstorms -- cancer, financial woes, relational struggles, spiritual drought -- knowing that Christ is in your boat? Would you hail the storm-Smoother and peace-Maker?

Would you surrender to Him and welcome His peace?

Bruised, not Broken

"A bruised reed He will not break,

and a smoldering wick He will not snuff out . . ."

Isaiah 42:3, NIV

I have been told grace can be defined as unmerited favor.

Well, I am a true recipient of divine grace.

Grace, as I’ve come to gauge, has seen fit to grant me the honor of enduring hard things, extremely grueling trials in the forty years I have walked the face of this earth. Truly, my life’s narrative defies simple human understanding.

How does a 3-year old sit in a roofless room and watch his family’s material possessions being soaked by a harsh thunderstorm? How does a 6-year old trudge onward as his heart becomes shredded and torn by jeers and jabs from bullies left and right at school, at church, and at play? How does an 8-year old move past witnessing the murder of a man whose ill-starred error was the audacity to cut in line? How does a teenage boy survive the enduring of a shameful season of sexual harassment and abuse that threatened to undo his pursuit of dignity and worth?

How does a college student go through months and months of 10 meals a week at Biola University, choosing to rely on the delights of Chopin and Schubert to shush his rumbling stomach in the Crowell Hall practice rooms? How does a graduate student at Penn State recline his head on the shoulders of his Song Literature professor as his salty tears stained her blouse the day when two planes imperiled and destroyed thousands of lives in New York City? How does one finish a tear-jerking doctoral recital the day after a friend and fellow Eastman student—brilliant and promising—was tragically killed in one of the most preventable car crashes known to humanity?

How does a native go on after watching his childhood home crumbled and Haitian historic sites pancaked by a 7.0 earthquake? How does a man face the amputation of a cousin’s leg? How does one weather the deaths of a cousin who stayed in his office three minutes too long, friends who fought cancer valiantly, a father who had a fatal heart attack, a brother who was tragically murdered, a brother whose heart failed on the way to a Dominican hospital, and a sister who succumbed to cancer (yet again!) at a young age, all within a 5-year span?

How does one bid farewell in the multi-faceted ways life offers? How does one handle receiving yet another fatal diagnosis? How does one weather storm after storm . . . enter valley after valley of the shadow of death . . . weep yet not lose heart . . . walk yet not faint . . . face mourning at night yet dance in the morning?

 

How?

It is all by His grace.

Indeed, I am a bruised reed. I am a stalk that has been injured, wounded, hurt, sore, damaged, battered, discolored and severely beaten.

YET . . . (Oh glory!)

The Father will not, nor will He ever, fracture or destroy or smash me. He will continue to uphold me.

I am, by His grace, a smoldering wick. Since by definition, a wick holds fuel that burns, I am learning to trust He will not snuff me out. These fiery trials that threaten to undo me will not consume me; they are glorious tests heavenly tasked to reveal to me how extremely needy I am.

Yes, I am needy.

I need the gracious eyes of Christ to weep with mine. I need His tender hands to wipe away tears streaming from my faucet-like eyes. I need His robust and warm arms to envelop my frame and comfort me. I need His loving and soothing voice to serenade me. I need His ancient, ever-true, life-giving words to strike my eardrums and reverberate and transform my heart into the knowledge of God and the likeness of Christ.

I need Him.

I need Him.

I need Him.

As He comes and fills my need, He will strengthen my feeble arms and weak knees. He will prepare me to endure rightly and gratefully.

O, come, Lord Jesus!

Come quickly!

Lifted Up

"To You, O Lord, I lift up my soul."

Psalm 25:1, NIV

David is the writer of the above words. In and through them, he expresses the commitment of his inner being -- his emotional and spiritual makeup -- to ascend to God. He is determined to have his soul lifted up to the Father.

But is that possible?
How can his soul, or anyone else's for that matter, be lifted up to God?

Lord, open my eyes that I may see wonderful truths in Your Word!

The Lord reveals, firstly, a strong need for human souls to be lifted up to Him in the following verses:

"My soul is in anguish. How long, O Lord, how long? 

. . . I am worn out from my groaning; 

all night long I flood my bed with weeping 

and drench my couch with tears. 

My eyes grow weak with sorrow; 

they fail because of all my foes." 

-- Psalm 6:3, 6-7, NIV

"The troubles of my heart have multiplied; 

free me from my anguish." 

-- Psalm 25:17, NIV

"My soul is downcast within me . . ." 

-- Psalm 42:6, NIV

This soul weariness is not just typical of David. Throughout Scripture, we find reasons to believe it is a rare moment when the human soul is free from anguish or sorrow.

Abraham experienced it.
Isaac was not spared from it.

And down the line

Joseph
Moses
Eli
Job
Jeremiah
Habakkuk . . .

even Jesus encountered this phenomenon -- "And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground" (Luke 22:44, NIV)

. . . Peter
John
Paul
you
I

We all know what it is like to be weary in our soul.

But why?
Why are we so familiar with soul weariness?

The Father reveals to us that soul weariness will overwhelm our senses when we focus on what our physical eyes see.

"Why are you downcast, O my soul?

Why so disturbed within me?

Put your hope in God,

for I will yet praise Him,

my Savior and my God."

Psalm 43:5, NIV

In other words, when humans do not put their hope in the Father, the result is a downcast and disturbed soul. When we allow circumstances to halt or dam the flow of our praise to God, it goes without saying the condition of our soul will also plummet to the den of worry and despair.

Indeed, the Father invites us to ask our soul a significant question:

Soul, will you look to circumstances or will you look to God?

Each and every time we set our eyes upon earthly matters, soul weariness dethrones God. On the other hand, a soul is lifted up to God when, like David, we put our hope in God despite unfavorable circumstances.

Praising God in sickness and in health, in plenty and in want, in rain and in shine, in the morning and in the evening is the elevator that lifts our soul up to the Father.

Soli Deo Gloria!

Fear no Human, Trust in God

"Fear of man will prove to be a snare . . ." -- Proverbs 29:25a, NIV

For fear of man Lot offered his daughters to Sodom's sex-crazed men, Abraham lied about Sarah (calling his wife his sister), Isaac denied his wife and gave her to Abimelech, Saul forfeited his kingdom, the Israelite army stood paralyzed for 40 days before Goliath, the royal officials at the gate of king Xerxes knelt down and paid honor to the jew-hating Haman, young captives ate the desecrated food at king Nebuchadnezzar's table, Judas betrayed his Teacher and Friend, Peter denied his Lord three times, the disciples deserted Jesus, Ananias and Sapphira lied to the apostles . . .

What foolish deeds!
What misplaced fear!

You and I, my friend, continue on the same idiotic path when we persist on altering our behavior solely because of what someone might say, think, or do to us. We adopt and adapt to another person's tastes, preferences, and philosophies because we fear offending them -- not even taking the time to genuinely assess and come to understand our true identity.

" . . . but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe." -- Proverbs 29:25b, NIV

The beginning of wisdom is to fear the Lord, to trust in Him, to surrender to YHWH, to relinquish all control to Him from dawn to dusk and throughout the night. True wisdom is attained when we realize it is not sound to fear those who can kill the body and after that can do not an iota more. Peace is found when we learn to be still and know that the Lord of hosts is God. He is the One whom we are invited to fear, to revere, to honor, to serve, to heed, and to love always.

How often do you and I turn God's glory into shame?
How long will you and I love delusions and seek false gods?
How often do you and I blindly opt not to contend for our faith?
How long will you and I try to cover our tracks for fear of getting caught?
How often do you and I imbibe the syrupy lies of unfaithfulness and idolatry?

We walk onward upon this deadly terrain because we fail to realize human beings have but breath in their nostrils. We need not fear them and seek their approval or recognition. The Lord is the One whom we need to seek and acknowledge. His opinion is that which matters.

"If God be for us, who can be against us?" -- Romans 8:31, NIV

That, my friend, is sound faith.

May our love and respect for YHWH be more than the morning mist, more than the early dew that disappears, but may they endure forever!