A Long Week

If you want to start at the beginning, here's Part 1.

This week was tough. Tough in a couple of ways. Not as tough as it is for some people, but still tough.

Tuesday, as you'll already know if you've read my previous post, I went in for my first round of chemotherapy. Chemotherapy is well known for triggering a wide array of possible side effects, in a puzzlingly random fashion. A good oncologist will tell you that these are the possible side effects, we have no way to determine which ones will actually happen in your specific body with your specific cancer, but here's what to do if they do. From my previous post you know that I had zero side effects when I was in the chair for seven hours getting my infusion (praise God - that's an amazing blessing right there!) but when I got home I started to experience an uncomfortable side effect known as first bite syndrome, or FBS. To briefly recap what that is, picture in your mind the worst muscle cramp you've ever had. Now imagine that every time you take the first bite of pretty much anything, you get that cramp simultaneously in both hinges of your jaw, and it lasts maybe 10-15 seconds before it subsides and you can eat normally. It can be excruciating, and it's pretty frustrating to have to deal with it after all of my talk about faith for healing! Typically FBS subsides over time as the meds work their way out of your system, but basically I've dealt with it all week since then. I continue to speak out that the pain doesn't belong to me, Jesus took it and it has to leave my body! But it hung around anyway.

Then there was Tuesday night, when, probably due to the steroids they gave me, at about 2am I was suddenly wide awake for about three hours. Taking in all of that medication at once tends to wear a patient out a bit anyway, and being low on sleep certainly didn't help over the next few days. Keep in mind, Monday I had an 8:15am appointment with the nurse practitioner, then Tuesday my arrival time at the treatment center for infusion was 7am. So I was behind the eight ball a little bit on sleep even before my 3-hour unwanted wake-up; I tried to take it as easy as I could and go to bed as early as possible, but I struggled with fatigue all week.

Then there was the low-level queasiness that's been my companion most of the week. I have some anti-nausea medicine, but it seemed like overkill when I wasn't throwing up or anything - I did eventually try it out one day, and it seemed to do more damage than help, so I laid off for the rest of the week.

It also didn't help that I had some kind of medical appointment every day - four at the cancer treatment center and one at a hospital for a heart echo (everything looked good). By Friday I was absolutely sick and tired of driving up to the cancer center!

I'm saying all of this not to complain, and not to elicit sympathy, and certainly not to paint a picture that somehow I have flawless faith that took away every moment of discomfort. I think it's honest to share that some things, despite a ton of prayer of faith from dozens of people I do and don't know, still haven't gone how I would have mapped them out if I was writing the script. I did not feel full of faith every day when my tummy was complaining that it was hungry and upset, and my jaws were complaining that they didn't want to chew anyway, and my body was complaining that it just wanted to go back to bed please. But in those moments when I didn't feel like being super faith man, I held on to my belief that God wants me well and that's where I'm headed. And, on the positive side, ever since we started having people pray for me and then especially this week after one chemo treatment, my initial symptom of having difficulty swallowing seems to be getting a LOT better. I don't have medical documentation that there has been a significant change, but it seems like it to me!

The other day I told a friend of mine: "Sometimes you 'believe' in healing, and other times you darn well better REALLY believe in healing!" All faith is is making the decision that you are going to follow what the Word of God says, no matter what. Either it's true or it's not. Faith is when you quit riding the fence and jump off on the God side.

Today I was still able (with permission from the oncologist) to volunteer with my wife as a Sunday school teacher for preschoolers at church. We love those kids with all of our hearts, and I don't want to miss out on having the chance to spend time with them and share Jesus with them. It was an amazing victory to have the energy to do that! God is absolutely doing some incredible things in my body!

It's A Long Story.... Part 5

 If you want to start at the beginning, here's Part 1.

This will be the last blog post titled "It's A Long Story"... it seems like "It's A Long Story... Part 37" might get a little uninspiring! I'll keep periodically blogging when anything interesting happens, but with this post we're caught up to the current situation.

Tuesday I went into the cancer treatment center for my first round of chemotherapy (the oncologist tells us he plans to do at least four treatments, then re-evaluate, and then likely he will recommend four more). This was to be a 7 hour treatment, which is a LOT longer than my wife's treatments three years ago (hers were about 4 hours each). They had prepared us ahead of time by providing us with a HUGE list of every possible side effect known to man. We've been praying and believing God for healing already, and I felt like I wanted to kick it up a lot and apply some more faith to the situation. In the waiting room I posted on Facebook "First chemo infusion today! We are being bold and asking God for ZERO side effects!" I knew our believing friends would add their faith to ours! My wife and I also prayed together and asked God for NO side effects.

I got hooked up to the chemo, and guess how many side effects I experienced? None at all! All day we were paying attention to make sure our nurse knew if anything started to go sideways, but the worst thing that happened all day was being bored sitting around with no drama at all!

Since I got home I've experienced one side effect that we were told about. The nurse called it "first bite syndrome" and that's literally what it is... when I took the first bite of a meal or snack, I started to get a pain at the hinges of my jaw like an electric shock. Since we knew that it's not anything unusual or even serious, I just put up with if the first couple of times I ate, but then I realized, you know what? I don't have to put up with this! Jesus took this pain for me! So now whenever it happens I'm speaking out: "I am NOT putting up with this! This is not my pain! Jesus paid the price for this!"

One of the first words that came to me when we first got the cancer diagnosis was that Jesus took my sickness to Hell when He died on the cross, and He DID NOT bring it back. When I experience sickness or pain, that is a direct frontal attack on the truth of God's Word. It's easy when you know something isn't medically serious to just ignore it and move on with your day, but I don't intend to get complacent. The story is that FBS will subside anyway over the days after treatment, but I'm not waiting. I'm going to fight it with the Word of God! It needs to go away immediately!

Here's my Cancer Destruction In Progress shirt, if you want to buy one!

More to come...

It's a Long Story... Part 4

If you want to start at the beginning, here's Part 1.

The next two weeks felt like a constant stream of appointments and tests. We met with the oncologist to find out what he wanted to do next. We went to "chemo class" where the basically tell you all of the unpleasant side effects that can happen as a result of chemotherapy and what to do if they did happen (useful information, but also unsettling information!)  I got a PET scan, which as it turns out confirmed that all of the areas that the CT scan indicated as possible areas of concern were, in fact, areas of concern. We talked to a nurse at the hospital about a biopsy of my adrenals that the oncologist had ordered. And, least anticipated of all by me, Port Install.

A port is a small device that is implanted just underneath your skin, with a short length of hose that connects directly to a vein. The port is then used for blood draws, and also to add the medicine into your bloodstream, without having to stick you in the arm every time. It saves you from damaging your veins from getting pokes many times a week. Getting one put in these days is an outpatient surgery - you're in for a few hours, then you go home with instructions not to lift anything heavy for two days. It was easy peasy, and less than a week later at the cancer center they were able to use it for a blood draw... and I got to see how much easier it is to use a port for that then the arm stick. I keep telling myself that I am now a cool cyborg - I haven't convinced myself quite yet, but I'm getting there!

I also got an MRI scan. The three different scans I've gotten serve different purposes and use different technology. For a CT scan there is the metal donut I talked about here. A CT scan is basically a 3-D x-ray. For PET scans and MRIs you are inside of a metal tube for a period of time (I figured out really quick that I should just keep my eyes closed and then I didn't risk claustrophobia!), but a PET scan is sort of a reverse x-ray, where they put some radioactive stuff inside of you and the scan detects it (think of the CT as shining a light on something, and the PET scan as the thing itself glowing). An MRI uses magnets (and loud noises?) to create a picture of your insides. I'm not going to try to explain what the three do differently - you can Google that and get a better idea than I could explain, because I don't understand it myself - but suffice it to say, for a while it felt like we were constantly either on the way to somewhere, coming back from somewhere, talking to a nurse about a test, or actually getting the test!

During this time, something came to me that hadn't occurred to me before, and I believe it was the Holy Spirit. I started to think, and now I believe for sure, that God is giving me the opportunity to be present at the cancer treatment center for a while specifically to bring His joy and hope to people who need it. There are people there who feel very sick and very exhausted. Maybe their cancer is further advanced than mine. Maybe their body doesn't do well with chemo - for some people every infusion puts them on their back for days. Bot God has given me hope in my heart, and I believer he wants me to share it! I've had people tell me that they are amazed, encouraged, and inspored by my attitude and faith. I wanted to bring that with me to the cancer treatment center!

Over the past decade or so, I've developed a little bit of a reputation for wearing silly T-shirts. I think of it as a minor superpower of mine. I decided that I might not be able to speak to everyone at the cancer center, but I sure could use my T-shirt powers to bring people joy! So I bought a flaming red shirt that says LEAN MEAN CANCER FIGHTING MACHINE in huge letters that are pretty impossible not to want to read, and wore it the next time I went to the cancer center.

Before we even got inside, a man shouted out "I LOVE THAT!" A little while later, I passed a lady in the hallway, and she said "I need that shirt!" My wife and I watched a bunch more people read it and smile, and a few more commented on it. My plan is to continue to pick up new shirts over time - it turns out there is a whole genre of funny "cancer sucks" T-shirt designs to choose from. Those are just to get the conversation going, though. I have bigger plans, and you may think I'm crazy, but because of this I'm kind of looking forward to my first chemo day.

I went with my wife to every chemo infusion she had to go through those 4-5 years ago, and as usual at a medical appointment, you wind up sitting around in a room full of people. That waiting room is full of people who are about to get unpleasant chemicals pumped into their body, and they all know it. My plan is to walk around the waiting room while I'm waiting (in my funny T-shirt!), find out who is getting a treatment that day, and to tell them "You're strong! You can handle this!" and whatever else the Spirit might have me say. My goal is to inject joy and hope into the situation rather than to try to notch my "converts" belt. My goal is to give to people, not to attack them.. I'll let you know tomorrow how it went!

Here's my Lean Mean Cancer Fighting Machine shirt, if you want to buy one! (It doesn't have to be red!)

 

Continued in Part 5...

Should I Take Medicine?

In yesterday's post I promised I would explain this statement: "We don't believe in ignoring a health problem just because you prayed about it." There are people out there that believe that accepting medical assistance when you have prayed for healing indicates a lack of faith in God. We don't feel that way, and I'll tell you exactly why.

Not every healing happens via an instantaneous miracle. In Mark 16:18 Jesus said that whoever believes in Him "...will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover." Recovery from sickness is not always instant. (See yesterday's post for more on this.)

But I also don't think that every "they will recover" has to happen without medical help. I think every healing comes from God, whether you take medicine or not, because of the simple fact that doctors cannot heal people. Medicine does not heal you, and any honest doctor will tell you the same.

Let's step back for a second and think about something very simple: a paper cut. When you get a paper cut, you probably don't even wash it and put a bandage on it unless it's a pretty serious paper cut that is bleeding (does that even happen?) You don't take any medicine, and yet it heals anyway. That's because God made our bodies so that they can repair themselves given the right circumstances. That healing is very much part of the natural world, but it absolutely comes from God because He placed that mechanism in your body.

Let's say you get a deeper cut. It's bleeding, but it doesn't require going to the hospital. You wash it, put some ointment on it, and put a bandage on top of that. In a few days it is healed up completely, and probably you can't even tell that a cut ever happened. Did the ointment heal the cut? No, it did not. It mostly kept it from getting infected, but it didn't instantly knit the cells back together. Your body contains platelets, white blood cells, and other mechanisms that work together to close up the skin. The medicine didn't heal you; your body healed itself, and that healing comes from God.

When the nurse practitioner was explaining to me the various medicines that are going into my chemotherapy cocktail, she told us that one of them simply reveals the cancer cells to other cells. The way I understand it, some cancer cells can disguise themselves in such a way that the white blood cells that would normally attack and destroy those mutated cells don't see them as abnormal. This particular chemo medicine flags those cells as abnormal so the white blood cells that are already there will attack and destroy them. Once again, the healing mechanism is already present in my body; the medicine will just assist the healing process that God already created in defending my body against the invasion.

Every medicine is there for one or both of two reasons: to assist your body in healing itself, or to make you more comfortable so your body can heal itself (painkillers, anesthesia, etc.) Even the very best medicines that science has discovered cannot actually heal you. Healing always comes from God. And that's why I don't have any problem believing God for recovery while simultaneously taking advantage of the medicines that God placed in the world and allowed super smart people to discover that can also help us. They won't heal me: God will heal me.

Please, if you become very sick, pray and believe God for your healing. I hope these blog posts help you with that. But if the Holy Spirit does not specifically speak to your heart that you should not take any medicine, please prayerfully consider what modern medicine has to offer. You're not going to Hell for taking an aspirin, or getting a flu shot, or taking chemo, and you don't somehow invalidate your faith and forfeit your healing by doing those things. In fact, when this blog post goes live a few days after I wrote it, I expect to already be sitting in a chair taking my first chemo infusion, and I'll be thanking God the whole time for the skilled and caring medical staff that is treating me.

Tomorrow I'll get back to the Long Story!

It's a Long Story... Part 3.

If you want to start at the beginning, here's Part 1.

The next day was Sunday. My wife and I volunteer every other week teaching a preschooler class, and I wanted to let our children's pastor and her assistant know what was going on. We got prayed for by the whole team of children's volunteers, and as a bonus, the assistant gave me what turned out to be really great advice. "Christ the Healer by F. F. Bosworth is on YouTube for free, the whole thing," she told us. "Google it up and listen to it!" I did Google it up, but here it is so you don't have to:

I grew up in churches that believe that God still heals people today, and much of what is in this 100+ year old book was familiar territory... in fact, there was a copy of it in my house when I was a teenager! But if I ever read it, I didn't read it with my mind open to what it was actually saying, rather than what I expected it to say. There were no Scriptures in the book that I hadn't heard, but there were some concepts that I don't remember ever being part of messages about healing when I was a kid (or an adult). For example:

• The Bible never says that every ailment will be healed instantly by a miracle. It says that you should lay hands on the sick, and they will recover. Have you ever been in "recovery" after a hospital procedure? I have... it doesn't happen instantaneously. Usually it takes days to fully recover. There are miracles that are instant, definitely, but there is also a slow steady recovery. Bosworth tells this funny story about promising a child you will buy her some new clothes: "Suppose again, that after you promise her the new dress, she runs to the mirror to see if she looks any more 'dressed up.' She then says: 'I cannot see any difference; I do not look a bit better'; and then gives up the idea of having a new dress." Just because you might not see the answer in an immediate miracle doesn't mean it doesn't belong to you!
  
  
• Healing for your body is exactly as much a promise from God as salvation of your soul. Romans 8:11 says "If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you." In Psalm 103:2-3 it says "Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases..." Forgiveness of iniquity is placed on the same footing here with healing of diseases. It's one of the benefits of putting your faith in God! (I've blogged about this before... check it out here.)
  
  
• Symptoms and diagnoses exist. They are not imaginary, and it's not faith to pretend they are not there. When a doctor, who is a scientist, tells you what he observes in your body, there is no reason to think he is being dishonest with you. However, those real things that exist are the actual liars! The symptoms that exist in your body are liars, because they are trying to convince you that God's healing isn't available to you. I think this is a key idea that a lot of  "faith people" have missed. If you have a cold, and you say "I do not have a cold," then you become a liar. But if you have a cold and you say "Lord, I thank you because Your healing of this cold belongs to me, and I am ready to see it happen in my body!" then that is faith! Don't let your symptoms lie to you!

The next week we visited with the oncologist again, and found out what my chemotherapy treatment schedule will probably be like. We don't believe in ignoring a health problem just because you prayed about it... I'll talk more about that in the next post. We also asked him whether it was okay for me to continue to teach the class and also volunteer on church worship team, and he said as long as I am physically up to it (chemo can make you very tired) and as long as I am careful to keep clean around the kids (for my safety and theirs), it's okay to continue to do those things. I've been told by several nurses at the treatment center that it's important to continue to do the things that give you joy if you can, and nothing gives me more joy than sharing Jesus with others!

Continued in Part 4...

It's a Long Story... Part 2

 If you haven't read Part 1, you might head there first...

I had never had a CT scan before. Basically they put you on a hard bed ("bed" is a pretty generous word for it) and the bed moves through a giant donut a number of times. The picture on the right is what the CT machine looks like, although this is not the one I was on. The hope of doing the CT scans was to verify that the tumor was limited to my esophagus and had not spread to the rest of my body. We waited patiently for the results to appear in the hospital poral, and when we got them, I shared them with my son, who is well on his way to a biology degree so he knows a little bit and can look up even more, and then we showed it to my sister-in-law, who worked as an RN for many years.

Unfortunately, the results showed more stuff we didn't want to see. In addition to the tumor in my esophagus, the reports pointed out areas of concern in part of my lungs, liver, and adrenal glands. But there was also a lot of "this appeared normal, that was unremarkable" stuff that you want to see (if it's unremarkable, that means it's healthy). A CT scan is not very deterministic when it comes to cancer - it just points out what to look at more closely - and my sister-in-law said that it was possible that some of those things were not cancer, but some other problem (leftovers from having COVID, for example). But we would have to wait and see what our oncologist said in our appointment the next Monday. She predicted that he would order a PET scan (she was right, he did) because that gives a pretty clear indicator of what is cancerous and what is not.

Meanwhile, she had some Bible Scripture for me. "Whenever I think about this, I keep thinking about the Bible passage about making the crooked places straight. Where is that?" We got our phones out and started researching it - she was probably remembering Luke 3:5 where this is applied to John the Baptist, but we found the source of that quote first, Isaiah 40:4. But we also found another similar passage in Isaiah: Isaiah 45:2-3.

I will go before you
   and level the exalted places,
I will break in pieces the doors of bronze
   and cut through the bars of iron,
I will give you the treasures of darkness
   and the hoards in secret places,
that you may know that it is I, the LORD,
   the God of Israel, who call you by your name.

That passage really seemed to speak to me directly - of course in context God was talking to the future king Cyrus, but I believe that God can use Scripture to speak to us in a lot of different contexts. "Level the exalted places" (some translations say "level the mountains") seemed to me to be God saying, I'll make things work out for you through this. Getting immediately referred to the very busy oncologist we would have wanted to have seemed like the first indication that this was happening. "Breaking in pieces doors of brass and bars of iron" seemed to me to be a metaphor for destruction of the blockage in my throat. And the part about God working in me (and Cyrus) to show us something great about Himself seemed amazing to me!

I didn't really know what the part about "treasures" and "hoards" (or "riches") meant, and actually I'm still looking forward to what treasures might come out of this situation, but I do know that my faith and confidence in God has grown by leaps and bounds through this so far, and that has been riches of incomparable value for me. I'll tell you more about what good stuff I expect to come out of this in upcoming posts!

Continued in Part 3...

It's a Long Story... Part 1

It was May 15, and I had an appointment to see my doctor. Nothing serious, really... it was a checkup to make sure the blood pressure medicine he had prescribed for me was working well, and because I had been checking it daily, I knew it was. There was also something I had forgotten to mention to him at my last visit, several months before, but I did remember it this time. I told him had been having a little bit of trouble swallowing when I ate too fast. I could eat just fine - I just needed to slow down and chew and not suck down my meal like a starving wolf who just caught a rabbit. He recommended that I go to a GI specialist and get scoped, so he gave me a referral and everything got set up.

Three weeks later I woke up from the scope procedure and my wife was in the room. This was unusual, because usually they just tell the person you came with to come pick you up at the door and they wheel you out to your car in a wheelchair so you don't fall down from the sedation. We figured there must be something important they wanted to tell us.

And we knew we had guessed right when the doctor himself walked in. He very professionally and gently told us that he had found an obstruction that looked to him like cancer, and he had taken a biopsy to send to the lab. We would hear back soon. And we certainly did hear back - it definitely was cancerous. The procedure was on a Thursday, and the next Tuesday I was in a CT scan machine, finding out how good I was at lying still while the bed moved underneath me!

Two and a half years before, my wife had had surgery after a long process of chemotherapy and radiation, and her cancer has been gone ever since then. We were looking forward to a day in the near future that we wouldn't have to see the inside of the cancer treatment center again... now it was looking like that day might be further in the future than we thought. The GI doctor had referred us to the same oncologist who had treated my wife; we were pretty excited, because he's a terrific doctor and we were really happy with the care he and his team had given her! The first time he walked into the room and she was sitting in the visitor chair and I was sitting on the exam bed, he did a double take. I told him "We aren't glad to NEED you, but we are sure glad to GET you!" He talked us through what he knew so far, prayed with us (doctors who pray are awesome!), and set me up for what felt like a million scans and tests and appointments (it was probably more like 5-6 in about a two week period). It was a pain the neck just to remember where to show up and when, but we made it!

Meanwhile, we started to tell a few people what was going on. The Sunday after we found out about it but before I even had my CT scans, we got to church and my wife chose a seat away from where we usually sit. When we sat down we noticed that we were sitting in front of an older couple that we've become friends with over the past year or so. As the service went on, I started to feel like I wanted to ask them to pray for us after the service, so when it ended, I said, "Hey, can I talk to you for a minute?" I knew they would pray for us, but what I didn't know is that God had brought us together that day for a reason. I was to have my test on Tuesday, but it turns out that the husband also had a medical test scheduled on Tuesday (not for cancer)... so we prayed for each other that Sunday! Their outcome was very positive - mine not as immediately positive as theirs, but to me it was clearly God saying, I'm going to make things happen for you through this!

Continued in Part 2...

Police and Fire

Every morning (and by "every morning" I mean "every morning that I don't accidentally oversleep"!) I get up early to listen to the Word, pray, read, and basically prepare myself for the day. This is something I've been doing for two years or so, and I highly recommend it. I pray for my family, for our leaders in government, and I pray for myself that I will follow God's leading. One topic that almost always comes to my heart in those times is our local fire and police departments. These are people who have dedicated their lives to protecting others, and from my point of view, since they are protectors of the people of God, they have a mantle of ministry on them, whether they have put their trust in Jesus or not. That's certainly not to say that they shouldn't serve people who aren't Christians... of course they should and do! But I believe that because that mantle of service includes God's people, first responders are entitled to God's protection, and even God's anointing to do their jobs.

I was thinking about how police officers confront dangerous situations all the time – there will always be crazy people doing crazy things. But I believe that the mere existence of a police force discourages a lot of stuff that would happen if there were no consequences. Every time a police officer has to face down someone who is trying to shoot people, there are a dozen more people who would try to shoot someone if they weren't afraid of being captured and punished by the police. Even in days when all they are doing is sitting on the side of the road waiting to catch someone speeding, by their very existence they are protecting you and me. 

First responders wake up every morning with the potential of having to do or see something that could haunt them for the rest of their lives. They know this, and yet they get out of bed anyway. There's a nonzero chance that today, a police officer or fireman in my town may not come home because of something that happened to them as part of their duties. Still, they get out of bed, suit up, and head out into whatever awaits them. So my prayer for them every morning is that their lives and their minds will be protected by God. I pray that their training and best practices are at the forefront and followed perfectly, because those things are in place because they have been found to de-escalate situations effectively. I pray that they will have wisdom when it is time to make a decision, and that they will make the right choice quickly. I thank God for the mantle of protection He places on them as the protectors of the people of God.

Pray for your local police and firemen. They don't have to do what they do. They could work in an office, or open an auto repair shop, or start a business, or teach school, or any other job, but they have chosen to protect you. That's a God thing. They're in your corner and my corner, and you and I should be in their corner too.

Suffering vs. Faith

I've always had trouble understanding the point of this Bible verse:

Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. - James 5:13–14 ESV

Today I read that, and suddenly it was crystal clear to me. These aren't actually specific instructions to follow. I mean, those are good things to do, but that's not a "how to" formula for those specific situations. What if you start suffering but you forget to immediately start praying? What if you're cheerful but you're in a library and can't just bust out your favorite Chris Tomlin song? What if you're sick but your cell phone battery is dead, and there are no church elders in shouting distance??

Those verses don't contain specific instructions that you must follow to the letter, like a recipe for baking a cake or a medical prescription to make warts go away. Those are examples of how a Christian might respond appropriately in a given situation. You might feel cheerful because you are thinking about what God has done, but you don't burst into song - instead you begin to pray and thank God for all He's done for you. You might feel sick when you're volunteering with your church youth group - not an "elder" in sight, but a dozen faith-filled teenagers pray for you instead. These are not precise procedures that must be followed. The specific instruction from this passage is this: no matter what happens to you, respond in faith. It's as simple as that!

His Plans

I was thinking about the Scripture verse on a sign I received recently as a gift:

“For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” - Jeremiah 29:11

Sometimes I wonder what God's plan is. Sometimes it seems like maybe his plan is not as good from my perspective as it is from His. Like maybe something that is a good thing in the grand scheme of His plan might just feel exactly like a disaster to me. Sometimes I think that maybe His plans are working out a bit more slowly than I want them to, you know? Ever feel that way?

So I looked up the chapter in my Logos software to remind myself of the circumstances surrounding this prophecy. I've read through Jeremiah before, but it's been a while, so I wanted to get a refresher. What I found surprised me a lot!

I had forgotten that Jeremiah was a prophet during the time that God's people were in exile from their homeland - they had been invaded, captured, and been deported to a foreign land. It was the ultimate disaster for them! Yet Jeremiah had a message of hope for them: God's plans for you are for good, not disaster.

Of course, Jeremiah had an additional message for them: settle in, boys, because you're going to be here for a while.

WHAT?

Jeremiah's message of hope was that God was going to redeem his people... later?

It certainly was. Let's read more of that chapter:

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare....For thus says the LORD: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. - Jeremiah 29:4–7, 10-11 (ESV)

God's plan was for them to be in a seventy-year time out, and then He would miraculously rescue them. And we find out in the book of Daniel that that's exactly what happened! God rescued them exactly when He promised!

Do you think the people wanted to live in exile for seventy years? Of course they didn't. But God's wisdom, His plan, was that things would happen at a certain time, and that was the right time.

Years ago I asked a man I knew had a lot of wisdom about the Word about a Scripture from Galatians:

And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.- Galatians 6:9 (ESV)

There was something I was waiting on, and I wanted to know what "in due season" meant. He told me it was like the "due date" for a baby. You can know roughly what the right date is, and you can hope for a certain date, but in the end, the baby is going to be born at a time over which you have limited control. The baby is "due" at the right time. You may want him or her to be born three months after conception, so you can see his or her sweet little face, but that's not the right time. The right time is the "due" time.

Sometimes your and my idea of the right time for God to answer our prayers doesn't match up with His idea of the right time. In general, you shouldn't try to modify the due time for a baby, and in general, it's probably not a good idea to try to influence God's "due season" for your answer to prayer. It might take longer than you want it to, but when the right time comes, God's going to make sure it happens!

Peace, part 2 - Guard

© 2011 Loren Javier, Flickr | CC-BY-ND | via Wylio

...do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
-Philippians 4:6-7 ESV

I blogged here about the mind-blowing peace described in verse 7 - but lately I've been thinking about something else in this passage. It describes that mind-blowing peace as a guard. God's peace is there for protection. Protection from what? From anxiety, says verse 6! If you're feeling anxious, if you're feeling fearful, for some reason peace isn't guarding your mind and your heart right.

In that case, you need to make an adjustment. That adjustment is taking your requests to God in prayer. Actually, it can involve two kinds of prayer, or maybe two intensities of prayer. "Supplication" just means that you're still making a request, but there's a little more desperation to it. Maybe your emotions are coming into it a little bit more. Maybe you're asking God for something that means an awful lot to you. It's getting personal; it's getting real. You're laying it on the line: "God, You're my last hope for this. Please help me!"

But you're not praying selfishly. You're bringing your need to God, but you're also bringing a heart filled with thankfulness. Somehow I think that's a key. What if God doesn't give you what you asked for? Even then, your heart is still filled with thankfulness, because you know God has something even better in store for you.

And maybe that's also how the peace of God can guard your heart and mind. You've presented your requests to a God that you know loves you, and you're filled with thankfulness, because you know that God either is going to fill that request, or do something even better. With that kind of certainty, who can stay anxious?

Now continue on to Part 3!

Peace - part 1

This past January, I came to the end of my rope. I had spent the whole year trying very hard to accomplish something I felt was important, something I felt was God's will, and it just wasn't happening. I was stressing out, and I didn't know what to do about it. If you've been around this blog for a while, you probably know that I believe that what we call "stress" is actually just plain old fear - but knowing that didn't really help me this time. This particular stress was so bad that it was barely even trying masquerade as anything but fear anymore; a couple of times over the course of the year I had seriously thought it was going to erupt into a full-blown panic attack.

So, there I was, at the end of my rope, fresh out of ideas, and I knew that the only thing I had left was Jesus. That sounds very pious and comfy, but if it ever happens to you, you'll realize that it is NOT a fun place to be in. It can feel very scary.

I was not enjoying myself. I was not feeling confident. I was crying out to God... which also sounds very pious, except I wasn't being pious. I was being raw. I was being honest. I had discovered something about myself: I had grown up in a subculture of Christianity that proclaims God's grace, but still tends to apply certain rules to Christianity. Do this, and this, and this, or else you may stop God from blessing you. Approach God with proper reverence as your King while also approaching Him as your Father. And don't phrase your sentences a certain way, because if you do, you are displaying a lack of faith. Sometimes in my prayers, I bring those things with me, and I wind up sort of formulating a prayer instead of just being me talking to God. What I discovered was that what I had thought was faith and humility was actually insecurity and pride.

So this time, I wasn't following the Christiany rules. In fact, I was being very deliberate to avoid trying to follow the rules. I needed help, not to feel like I was doing things right. I was clearly not doing something right, was how I figured it, because the situation wasn't resolving! I made a decision that I had no reasons left to try to do anything right. I basically just took out my heart and showed it to God, without trying to dress the situation up at all. Look here, God. Look at this heart. This hurts. And I don't know what to do. I know you can help me... will You?

You, my friend and reader, are right now telling me that yes, God would help me. And that's exactly the point. I know the Word of God says He can and will. But I couldn't see it happening, and I had to bring my sadness and fear and discouragement to God, not my solid theology. My brain was fine; it was my heart that was having problems. So that's what I brought to Him.

And the strangest thing happened. I told God that I was going to leave the situation up to Him. I wasn't going to try to force things anymore - I would do what needed to be done, but I would let Him bring the right results to me in His time. And to my amazement... God gave me peace. Not an immediate solution: peace. Peace with no visible results to back it up. Peace with no logic to it at all. Mind-blowing peace. I was not stressed at all. I was not panicky. I was just filled with peace.

Fast forward to now. I wanted to tell that story here, and I want to share over the coming weeks some things I've been learning from the Word about peace. Of course, you can also check out what I've written in the past here about both Peace and Fear, but stay tuned for some new entries coming up. I hope you get something good out of them!

The situation I mentioned still hasn't completely resolved itself, by the way. In fact, I've had a couple of fearful moments since then, and I've had to deliberately return to this attitude of approaching God as someone who is helpless without Him, not someone who thinks he can pray the right prayer to get Him to spring into action. But when I do approach Him with humility - and, honestly, with faith, because if I know I can't do it and I don't even try, then that's putting all of my eggs in His basket - when I approach God that way, not only do I immediately begin to receive His peace, but sometimes amazing things start to happen before too long.

Maybe I'll share one of those stories soon!

Now continue on to Part 2!

Know The Author

In my last post I mentioned a new book written by a couple named Danny & Darci Cahill. Danny is best known as the winner of Season 8 of the United States edition of TVs The Biggest Loser. But Danny's story doesn't end, or even start there... like everyone else, Danny has a back-story that begins in childhood; his explains why he wound up so obese he could barely walk. And there are of course others in his life whose stories intersect with his, one of the most important being his wife Darci. Their book Losing Big is a double autobiography, a kind of team effort where their childhood narratives are told up until the time that they meet, and then their two stories are weaved together from that point throughout their marriage to the present. It's a very interesting way to write a book, laying out the whole tale in the third person so you never know who actually wrote the specific part you are reading. It almost has a voyeuristic flavor to it, as though you are looking at them through a window instead of having their story told to you by them personally, but it retains the flavor of having been written by the couple themselves. It is at times exciting, at times heartbreaking, and at times joyful... just like real life.

But for me, the book is a little different than it might be for you, because I am actually acquainted with Danny and Darci. And not via emails, phone calls, or interviewing them for a Web site... my wife and I know them personally, and have for several years (even before Danny went on The Biggest Loser). We sang on a church worship team with Danny playing bass. My wife taught Vacation Bible School with their daughter; my son and their son are friends. We've had a chance to interact with them socially. We already have an idea of what they are like, so when we read the book, we see it a little differently. Because we know the authors.

As a Christian, I know a lot of people who read the Bible, or at least who are familiar with parts of it. I've discussed it with people, and I've read other books discussing parts of the Bible. I've blogged about it here, of course. But there is a problem with reading the Bible: you can't truly understand what it is trying to say unless you know the author. Okay, okay, I know that pen was put to paper by Moses, David, Solomon, Paul, various disciples, and maybe a couple dozen prophets and other people, but as a Christian, I believe that the whole of the Bible was inspired by one single author, God Himself. The Bible is one one level an anthology of writings by many writers, but the whole thing is a narrative about God's redemption of humankind. That bigger story cannot be fully appreciated, or maybe even comprehended, until you become acquainted with God Himself, in the person of Jesus Christ.

I perceive Losing Big differently because I know Danny and Darci (by the way, Danny does speaking engagements quite frequently, so check his calendar and you may get a chance to meet him too!). I'd like to think that I understand their book a little better because I know them, and maybe I understand them a little better because I've read the book. The Bible is the same way, and this is why prayer and personal worship times are so critical: when you know Jesus, you can understand God's Word better, and when you know the Bible, you can understand God a little better. Either without the other gives you an incomplete picture. Experience without knowledge only goes so far, and scholarship without intimacy only goes so far. Both are critical to live a balanced and successful Christian life.


Have something to say about knowing "the author" of the Bible? Do you think personal communion with God is more important than Bible study, or vice versa? Have I been name-dropping Danny too much? (I probably should tell him I've been blogging about him!) Sound off by clicking the "Comments" link below this post!

Mind = Blown

I gave my wife this plaque a couple of weeks ago.

There's a very familiar Scripture verse in Philippians about peace. Here it is:

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. -Philippians 4:7

The verse is referring to a kind of peace that God provides when we bring our requests to Him in prayer. Recently I was reading this verse and got curious about the word "understanding," so I looked up the Greek word. Do you know what it means? It means "mind"! See for yourself. It gave me a giggle... God's peace will blow your mind!

Then I got to looking up other words. Moving backwards, I looked up the Greek word translated "surpasses" (or "passes", depending on the translation you're reading.) It actually means to stand out above something, to be superior to it or to have more authority. So you could read it as saying that God's peace actually holds more authority than whatever's in your mind. Nice!

I noticed that there is actually a word that is translated into the English word "mind", so I got curious what shades of meaning it might hold. I looked it up, and it actually means your thoughts, the stuff that goes on in your mind. Then to be complete, I looked up "heart", and guess what it means? It means "heart". You know, the thing that pumps the blood through your body. So the peace applies to both what goes on in your mind, and what goes on in your body. Have you ever been stressed out? It affects your mind, doesn't it, but it also has physical repercussions. It makes your heart beat faster, for one thing. If you bring your requests before God in prayer, this verse seems to promise that those sorts of symptoms will be a thing of the past.

So, based on those simplistic, shallow-end-of-the-pool word studies, you might restate the principles in that verse this way: "God's peace is far superior to and more authoritative than any solution you could figure out on your own. Let it do its work, and it will calm your thoughts and de-stress your body."

How's THAT for something you can use on a Monday morning?

Sins of a Nation

Most of my friends don't care for Barack Obama.

Let me rephrase that: most of my friends strongly disagree with many of President Obama's policy decisions. Sometimes this turns into outright dislike for the man himself (even though they haven't actually met him), and occasionally it causes some of them to teeter over into the zone where people believe that he is not a legitimate President because of where they think he was born, or that he is a militant Muslim of some kind trying to overthrow freedom of religion, or some other difficult-to-prove but inflammatory viewpoint. Most of my friends seem to be quite indignant at any suggestion that gun control is a good idea. They are angry when they perceive the President and members of Congress using tragedies as a way to promote what could be seen as a reduction in freedoms. They are incensed if someone says "...one nation..." and does not follow it up with "...under God...". They dislike Obama's foreign policies and his domestic policies. They were quite disappointed when he was elected again, although as I mentioned right after the election, I was quite proud of their response afterward.

I don't mean to distance myself from their viewpoints... as is often the case among friends, I share some of their concerns. What I am trying to do is paint a quick picture of the mindset of the Christian who is also politically right-leaning. Based on things I see on Facebook, comments posted on YouTube videos of political nature, responses to online news articles, and that sort of thing, there seem to be a lot of Christians who think that sin is dragging this country to its grave. And they are pointing their fingers at the "sinners" (Congressmen, abortionists, gun-control activists, Obama supporters, etc.) who they believe are the cause of it.

Last night I was reading the book of Daniel, and I came to a place where Daniel began to pray. Daniel was in forced exile from his country of Israel, but he knew that the reason for his exile was the sin of the Jewish nation, and Daniel began to pray for his country. I invite you to take a look at his prayer in Daniel 9:3-19 to see what he said.

Do you know what I noticed last night as I read it? Although Daniel was one of the most righteous among his people (remember, he was the guy who wound up getting thrown to the lions because he refused to betray God and pray to the king), Daniel did not pray to confess the sins of others. He confessed and asked for forgiveness of the sins of his country, including himself. He did not differentiate between idolaters back home dancing around on the hilltops making sacrifices to Baal, and himself, stuck in Babylon but praying three times a day facing Jerusalem. "We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land," he prayed, despite the fact that his prayer was in response to his own reverent reading of the writings of the prophet Jeremiah. He included himself among the ranks of those who "...have rebelled against [God] and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God by walking in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets," despite the fact that Daniel was so careful to follow God's Law that years earlier when he was brought to Babylon in captivity, Daniel had "...resolved that he would not defile himself with the king's food, or with the wine that he drank," risking his life in the process. Although Daniel appears to have been quite a meticulous follower of God, certainly not someone we would look on as a "transgressor", he prayed as though he were. Because he knew that he was a member of God's people, and a member of his country, and he knew that they would live or die as a unit.

"United we stand, divided we fall." That's a good motto. If we point at someone else as the one who is messing everything up, we divide ourselves from others around us... we become a divided country. That sort of thing is what caused the awful "Civil War" that nearly destroyed us once. The United States of America is not quite like Israel... a nation primarily of one ethnicity and chosen specifically by God to be His people. I don't think the United States is chosen to be God's nation; I think the Church (meaning all Christians across the world) is now ultimately God's nation, His "Kingdom." But I do think that Christians should take a play out of Daniel's playbook and call out to God for forgiveness of the sins we have committed as an earthly nation, humbling ourselves as though we are among the transgressors. Because really, we are. Every time an official or governing body we have elected to represent us makes an ungodly decision, we have made that decision by proxy. And "I didn't vote for him" is no excuse. United we stand; divided we fall.

I personally don't think that we (the United States) will ever be able to right every wrong that we have committed or will commit as a country; I'm not sure that is even possible for any country. But if we seek God's face as His people and pray for the cleansing of our country, I think God will honor our prayers and we will see change for the better. And if we take the attitude that we are all Americans and dispose of the "us vs. them" mentality which has plagued us for the past few decades, it's possible that maybe some of "them" might come to Jesus and become "us". Or, we may find that although we may disagree on some of the details of politics, some of "them" actually turn out to be some of "us" already. But whether we all come to a consensus on political, ideological, or religious ideas (fat chance!) or not, we are all "us". We are all America. The UNITED States. If we become divided because we disagree, we risk failure. If we remain united, we as a nation can remain strong.

Election Results and the Christian: Part 3

Many of my Christian friends were sorely disappointed by the results of the election. Some are downright nervous about what might come of a second term from a President they didn't care much for the first time around. The first impulse in that kind of situation is to sort of freak out, become very fearful, maybe lash out verbally on your social networks. I was surprised and impressed that my friends did not do that... many of them instead took time to seek God, look to Him in prayer, and discover hope in His Word. Now, it's very easy to use the Bible as a weapon against people - find some scriptures that beat people up or make them look bad. That's not what the Bible is for; it's a weapon, but it's a weapon against spiritual forces, not against human beings that God loves. But my friends didn't misuse the Scriptures. Here are some of the things that I found in my Facebook stream after the election (I won't quote the commentary that was with the verses quoted; I'll let the Scripture stand on its own).

No king is saved by the size of his army; no warrior escapes by his great strength. A horse is a vain hope for deliverance; despite all its great strength it cannot save. But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love, to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine.

We wait in hope for the Lord; he is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. May your unfailing love be with us, Lord, even as we put our hope in you.
-Psalm 33:16-22 NIV

It is better to trust in the LORD Than to put confidence in princes.
-Psalm 118:9 KJV

Do not trust in princes, In mortal man, in whom there is no salvation.
-Psalm 146:3 KJV

...the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever He chooses.
-Daniel 4:32b NKJV

We use God's mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments.
-2 Corinthians 10:4 NLT

I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour...
-1 Timothy 2:1-3 KJV

Do not fret because of evildoers, be not envious toward wrongdoers. For they will wither quickly like the grass and fade like the green herb. Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He will do it. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light and your judgment as the noonday. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him; do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who carries out wicked schemes. Cease from anger and forsake wrath; do not fret; it leads only to evildoing. For evildoers will be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord, they will inherit the land. Yet a little while and the wicked man will be no more; and you will look carefully for his place and he will not be there. But the humble will inherit the land and will delight themselves in abundant prosperity.
-Psalms 37:1-11 NASB

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all who were carried away captive, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and dwell in them; plant gardens and eat their fruit. Take wives and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, so that they may bear sons and daughters—that you may be increased there, and not diminished. And seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to the Lord for it; for in its peace you will have peace... For thus says the Lord: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.
-Jeremiah 29:4-7, 10-13 NKJV

...if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer made in this place.
-2 Chronicles 7:14-15 NKJV

What does the Holy Spirit seem to be saying to His people? Seems like He's saying something like: Calm down... you're going to be all right. Live your life in peace and confidence, praying for your leaders, knowing that no man is worth your confidence anyway, and neither is any man worth your fear. Even the most evil of people can't destroy what I protect. I'm here, and I'm listening to your prayers.

I'm so proud of my friends for seeking answers from the Word of God instead of giving in to fear and panic. I'm actually humbled by the breadth of the wisdom they've culled from the Scriptures on this. Whether their political opinion that a second Obama Presidency is a Really Bad Thing is correct or not, they have found that God's answer is peace. That's always a really good answer to any situation!

Here's the original post, and here's Part 2 of this impromptu series!

Heroes: Fictional, Past, and Future

I've been reading a story about a bunch of monsters.

Well, technically, I wasn't reading it; I was listening to an audiobook. And technically, it's not about the monsters; it just has a lot of monsters in it. It's called The Lost Hero, and it's the first book in the second series of books about Percy Jackson.

Well, technically, Percy Jackson's not even in it, so I guess it's not about Percy Jackson, either.

Anyway, I've been listening to the audiobook version this time (I read it last year) because now I have about a 40-minute drive in to work, and I don't have as much time to read now as I did when I rode the bus for the same amount of time. But I wanted to refresh my memory on where the series had left off, because the sequel (The Son of Neptune) just came out and I wanted to remember where the plot was going when I get around to audiobooking that one.

The Percy Jackson novels take place in a world where the gods and goddesses from Greek and Roman mythology actually exist, along with lots of other beings, some nice and some monsters. As in those old stories, the gods and goddesses sometimes get a little bit hot and bothered, and wind up producing children with human mortals; these children are called "demigods" because they are half-god, but they are not immortal. (Remember Hercules? In the ancient myths, he is a demigod whose father was Zeus.) The demigods in the Percy Jackson stories are teenagers, but they go on quests, battle monsters, and generally do a bunch of heroic stuff, just like the demigods in the legends. It's a very exciting fantasy world, and the books are quite popular.

A key plot point in this second story arc is that the gods and demigods find that they have to work together in order to defeat their enemies. In one pivotal scene (mild spoiler here, BTW, in case you haven't read the book), one of the demigods is able to defeat an almost invulnerable enemy by praying to Zeus and then attacking the enemy, knowing that if Zeus doesn't back him up somehow, he will be killed. Zeus does send lightning to assist him, and the enemy is defeated. Isn't that interesting? The boy prays to a god, acts in faith even though he cannot see his solution yet, and then the god backs him up. Isn't that so much like what the Bible asks us to do? Pray in faith and don't doubt, knowing that what you are praying is God's will and not just yours, and God will do His part and the answer will be there when you need it.

Music Inspired by The Story

The book series that begins with The Lost Hero is called the "Heroes of Olympus" series; a demigod who goes on quests and succeeds at them is known as a Hero. When I've been between audiobooks lately, I've been listening to a music CD called Music Inspired by The Story which is a series of songs performed by a pretty amazing group of Christian rock, pop, and even rap artists, sung not about Bible characters, but in their voice. These songs imagine what thoughts might have gone through the mind of David, or Paul, or Moses, or Mary the mother of Jesus, or about a dozen more Bible characters. Characters? Let's call those guys what they are: they are also Heroes. Except these Heroes didn't battle cyclopes and storm spirits; the Heroes in the Bible fought the fight that each Christian faces every day. They trusted, and they doubted. They succeeded, and they messed up. They got confused, nervous, frightened. They didn't understand what was going on sometimes. But ultimately, when their lives were done, the Holy Spirit saw fit to inspire someone to write their stories out for future generations to read. And because of that, I can have Joshua or Daniel or Esther or Joseph, who lived thousands of years ago, as an inspiration. A role model. A Hero.

Do you ever wonder if somewhere, God's still writing our stories into the Bible? What if the Acts of the Apostles actually isn't finished, and won't be finished until this world ends and all of us who follow Christ cease to do our "acts"? What if what we have in our Bibles is the very first few pages of a scrapbook God's been keeping about His children ever since? What if thousands of years from now, someone gets to read in the Bible about... me? What if God is recording my quests... I mean, my "acts"... in a sequel to the Acts of the Apostles? One day I might get to be a Hero!

You know, though, if you let God speak through you, you are a Hero. When I lead my household in a Godly way, I am a Hero to my family. When I share something from the Word with someone by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, I am the Hero that person needed to deliver that message to them. When I pray in faith and God adds His power to the situation, incredible, impossible things happen. It's not because I'm a powerful human; it's because He is the powerful God.

I'm not a demigod. Both of my parents are human beings, and I'm pretty sure yours are too. Mine aren't from Olympus; they're from Louisiana. Demigods aren't real, but Heroes of the Faith are. And today is your chance to be one! Accept the quest you are offered today, and be the Hero God has created you to be. Like Esther, you were created for just this time, just this situation. The challenge isn't too hard, because God equips you. Get out there and do something worthy of God's scrapbook! Maybe one day, weeks or years or decades or centuries or eons from now, your acts will be an inspiration for others!

Power in Weakness

photo © 2011 Kyle Eertmoed | more info (via: Wylio)

So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. (2 Corinthians 12:7-9 ESV)

There has always been, and will probably always be, a lot of debate over what is meant by Paul's "thorn in the flesh." I personally think it's most likely that it was just some person that was continually bugging him, but that's not what I'm here to talk about. I'm here to mention something very interesting that I noticed several weeks ago, not about the "thorn in the flesh" but about the "power made perfect in weakness."

There have been any number of times in my life, and I'm sure there have been in yours as well, when I felt helpless. Unable to cope with something. Pleading with God to make it go away. Sometimes it felt like my pleas were falling on deaf ears. That seems to be what Paul is describing: praying, no answer, praying some more, no answer, then finally receiving an answer. But look again. Does it really say that God waited until the third prayer to answer? I think it's probable that God gave him the same answer every time, and it just took Paul three times to accept it! But whether God answered three times or only one, God did answer, and His answer is quite interesting.

God's answer has two parts: 1. My grace is sufficient for you; 2. My power is made perfect in weakness. The grace of God is the favor of God, Him saying to you that He loves and accepts you. All of us who have accepted the gift of Jesus' righteousness by faith are smiled upon by God's grace. God is happy with you when you are in Christ; that's the message of grace. But how does our weakness "make" God's power perfect? Isn't God's power perfect already?

Of course it is. We're not doing anything to God's power by experiencing weakness. What we are doing is exposing that although we ourselves are weak, God's power is so strong that it is able to work through us. When we are weak but we allow God to work through us, we show the perfection of His power.

I think it is interesting to note that Paul prayed three times for his difficulty, whatever it was, to be removed before he mentally accepted God's answer. There is another character in the Bible who did basically the same thing: he prayed three times that he would not have to experience a difficulty, but he received strength from God and went on to triumph over the situation by the Father's power, not by his own human effort. Ironically, although Paul probably did not literally have anything embedded in his flesh, later on in this second story, the character ultimately does. Let the example of these two major Bible characters come to your mind the next time you are experiencing a "thorn in your flesh." Here's the story:

Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.” And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, “So, could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.” And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. So, leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again. (Matthew 26:36-44 ESV)

...saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. (Luke 22:42-43 ESV)

More about these stories: Pleading Three Times

Fire, Light, and God's Way

photo © 2007 Jalal HB | more info (via: Wylio)

Into marvelous light I'm running out of darkness, out of shame
By the cross You are the Truth, You are the Life, You are the Way
(from "Marvelous Light")

This is my prayer in the fire, in weakness or trial or pain:
There is a faith proved of more worth than gold, so refine me, Lord, through the flame
(from "Desert Song")

Tonight during worship we sang several songs (including those quoted above) that described God in terms of "light" and "fire." That's one of my favorite images of God; not only does He illuminate and bring clarity, but He also burns up the bad stuff and purifies us until there's nothing but good stuff left (or, at least we approach that goal more and more as we let Him refine us and root out the messy parts of our lives and personalities). Being purified is usually an uncomfortable process, but when it's over, the result is something much better than what existed before!

My pastor briefly mentioned during worship that we should praise God for answers to prayer even before we see them... the easy example of this is Jericho, where the people shouted victory before the walls fell down. And Pastor said that this way of thinking is totally counter to our way of thinking as human beings, which is true, but it got me thinking: if human beings have one way of seeing something, and God has another way, and they are opposite, which one is the valid way? God's way, of course! God's way is: (1) we ask, (2) we believe His statement that when we ask we will receive, and (3) we begin to celebrate the answer even though it's not here yet. It's like getting word that your Christmas present is on the way by mail. You know you're going to get what you wanted, so why not rejoice? Instead, our "natural" impulse is to wait until we have the answer in our hands before we rejoice. It's like Grandma telling you that that Christmas present is in the mail, and you choosing to be skeptical about whether she is telling you the truth or not. Looked at it that way, which is the truly "natural" attitude to have: the "human being" way, or the "God" way?

Maybe the reason we don't rejoice is because we think that we may not be asking within the parameters of God's will. To solve that problem, we have to get God's Word into our hearts. I'll be posting a short series about the Bible soon; it's so critical to living the life God wants for us that we dig into God's Word! If you don't know if what you're praying is God's will or not, check the Book (which is MUCH easier to do if you already have a good grasp of what it says in there!) and get sure. Then pray according to the Will of God, and REJOICE!

While They Sleep, Redux

Remember this post where I talked about a time when God provided what I needed through the love and kindness of friends while I went to sleep thinking there was no hope? Guess what... I realized that there's a situation just like that in the book of Acts! Check out Acts 12:1-17 in which Peter is thrown into jail and sentenced to execution, and his friends spend the whole night praying for him while he's asleep in the jail cell. You'll love the comedy when he shows up at the house where his friends are praying for his release, and they initially don't believe it's him. They figure it can't be Peter... because Peter's in prison... so it must just be an angel that looks like Peter. Just goes to show you the lengths to which we will inexplicably go sometimes to explain away the miracles of God!