A whale of a tale...

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[An excerpt from last week’s message “I am Jonah: I Have Been Forgiven”]

Jonah 1:17, “Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.”

James R. Edwards, in his book, The Divine Intruder, makes a rather shocking confession. He writes this: “Like many people, I was shocked by the catastrophe on Mount Everest in May 1996 in which a dozen mountaineers perished. One of the most disturbing sideshows in that circus of tragedies was the story of two Japanese climbers who in their summit bid bypassed three injured, starving, and freezing climbers. The Japanese had sufficient provisions to render aid to the stranded climbers, but they did not want to jeopardize their ascent by stopping to assist them. As a result, all three climbers died. Later, when asked why they had not stopped to help, one of the climbers said, "We were too tired to help. Above 8,000 meters [26,000 feet] is not a place where people can afford morality."

“The actions of the two climbers and the statement attempting to justify them were, in my judgment,” Edwards writes, “a callous and contemptible example of egoism. On a number of occasions I retold the story in my preaching and teaching to illustrate the true face of egoistic ethics, base and unjustifiable—and doubly so in the mountains, where the dangers inherent in climbing should make all climbers their brothers' keepers.

Edwards goes on to write, “A few years later, while leading a college study tour to the Middle East, I was hiking up Mount Sinai in the darkness before dawn in order to be on the summit at sunrise. The hike up 7,500-foot Mount Sinai is tame in comparison to Mount Everest, where oxygen deprivation impairs physical exertion and judgment itself. “As my students and I neared the top of Mount Sinai we were passed by two Bedouins carrying a man down the mountain. The man was unconscious. His sporadic breathing, rattled and gurgling, indicated he was in critical condition. He was, I suspected, suffering from pulmonary edema, a malady of mountaineering caused by ascending too rapidly. Pulmonary edema is fatal unless the climber affected is taken rapidly to a lower altitude. For a brief moment I considered halting my ascent and helping the Bedouins carry the man down the mountain. But my desire to make it to the top checked my impulse. Without further thought, I gave one of the Bedouins my flashlight and continued upward. They seem to be doing all right by themselves, I assured my uneasy conscience.

“The sunrise from the summit was glorious, but it was overshadowed by what transpired on the way down. Not far below the place where we had passed the Bedouins, a figure draped with a blanket was lying on the ground. Two shoes protruded from under the blanket. The man carried by the Bedouins was dead. Whether he died while being carried down, or was put down and died, I do not know. I do know, however, that every step down the mountain smote my conscience. What I had found so loathsome in the two Japanese climbers on Everest had been essentially repeated in my own action on Mount Sinai.

“That is the message of the book of Jonah. What Jonah detests in Nineveh is present in himself. If only Jonah can see that his heart is as contrary to God as is the heart of Nineveh: "There is no one righteous, not even one" (Romans 3:10). [James R. Edwards, The Divine Intruder (NavPress, 2000), pp.103-04]

When Jonah finally comes to the realization he cannot run from God he comes to a stop. He admits his sin (“ I know that it is my fault…” Jonah 1:12).  He then puts himself completely in the hands of God (“Pick me up and throw me into the sea…” Jonah 1:12). But what Jonah finds is not death or judgement, what he deserves, but rather grace (“Now the Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah…” Jonah 1:17). We sin. We run from God. We think, ‘There’s no way God will forgive me for this.’ Yet, when we finally stop and admit our sin God surprises us. God doesn’t want to punish you. He wants to restore you. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). In Jonah, God’s grace is a whale of a tale. In your life God’s grace can take the simple but beautiful words, “I forgive you.” Will you stop running from God? Will you admit your sin and put yourself in His hands. I can tell you there are no more beautiful words than hearing God say these: “I forgive you.”

Prayer: Father God, we thank You that when we stopped and finally admitted our sin You did not punish us or give us what we deserved. Instead we have received Your amazing grace. It’s by that grace that we move and have our being. And by that grace we come and pray to You. And in that grace we pray, in Jesus name, amen.

Is God in pursuit of you?

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Today’s devotional thought...

Ezekiel 34:11-12, “‘For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness.”

Throughout the Bible God is seen as looking for something. He is in pursuit. He is searching the earth high and low. He is relentless in his quest. What does He look for? It could be you.

Max Lucado tells the story of Christine in his book, No Wonder They Call Him Savior. He writes, “Longing to leave her poor Brazilian neighborhood, Christina wanted to see the world. Discontent with a home having only a pallet on the floor, a washbasin, and a wood-burning stove, she dreamed of a better life in the city. One morning she slipped away breaking her mother’s heart.

“Knowing what life on the streets would be like for her young, attractive daughter, Maria hurriedly packed to go find her. On her way to the bus stop she entered a drug store to get one last thing. Pictures. She sat in the photograph booth, closed the curtain, and spent all she could on pictures of herself. With her purse full of black-and-white photos, she boarded the next bus for Rio de Janeiro.

“Maria knew Christiana had no way of earning money. She also knew that her daughter was too stubborn to give up. When pride meets hunger, a human will do things that were before unthinkable. Knowing this, Maria began her search. Bars, hotels, nightclubs, any place with the reputation for street walkers or prostitutes. She went to them all. And at each place she left her picture--taped on a bathroom mirror, tacked to a hotel bulletin board, fastened to a corner phone booth. And on the back of each photo she wrote a note. It wasn’t too long before the money and the pictures ran out, and Maria had to go home.

“The weary mother wept as the bus began its long journey back to her small village. It was a few weeks later that young Christiana descended the hotel stairs. Her young face was tired. Her brown eyes no longer danced with youth but spoke of pain and fear. Her laughter was broken. Her dream had become a nightmare. A thousand times over she had longed to trade these countless beds for her secure pallet. Yet the little village was, in too many ways, too far away.

“As she reached the bottom of the stairs, her eyes noticed a familiar face. She looked again, and there on the lobby mirror was a small picture of her mother. Christina’s eyes burned and her throat tightened as she walked across the room and removed the small photo. Written on the back was this compelling invitation. “Whatever you have done, whatever you have become, it doesn’t matter. Please come home.” She did.“ [(Lucado, No Wonder They Call Him Savior, pg. 158-159)]

At one point or another we are all like this girl who leaves the love of home thinking that the world can offer us something better. It never does as our Father rightfully knows. Instead it puts us in great peril. Instead it demoralizes us. Instead it strips us of our God given humanity. Can you imagine how that makes our Father feel? 

God feels like a husband of a prostitute. She gets tired of the humdrum of home and leaves to be enslaved and used. The Husband does not abandon her despite her unfaithfulness. He seeks her out going to the slums and seedy world to buy her back from her pimp. Once He buys what is His own He brings her home and tries to teach her faithfulness. This is the story of Hosea.

God feels like a Father whose son comes to Him to ask for His inheritance. The Father has to sell some of His estate and pays His son what should not be His until the Father wills it to him at His death. The Father watches from the window as the son heads off with a skip in his step and adventure glinting in His eyes. The Father’s heart breaks. One day He is standing at the head of the road looking far off, and then He sees him. His son’s appearance is life to His dry bones. His son’s appearance is teary dreams coming true. He cannot restrain Himself. He looses all dignity and runs down the road. Desire overcomes His self-respect. His feet cannot propel Him fast enough to the bedraggled, filthy, smelly, poverty-stricken, slump-shouldered son. When He finally meets His son the son barely gets his rehearsed speech out. The Father does not hear. His son who was dead is alive! His son who was lost is found! He does not delay. Commands are given for the son's restoration and a celebration begins. (Luke 15:11-32)

God feels like a shepherd who loves His sheep. The Shepherd knows each one intimately. His care and concern for His sheep means He risks His life to protect the sheep from wolves, lions and bears. He spends all day watching over His sheep. He has them named and when He calls they come. He plays a flute at night near the entrance of the sheep pen and the sheep are lulled into sleep in utmost security. Then one day as the sheep graze He notices one is missing. A sense of panic sets in. There is a hundred different ways a sheep can die. The sheep is not wise or shrewd but blindly strikes out not even realizing its danger. This is the Shepherd’s sheep. Nothing can stop the Shepherd from leaving all the rest of the flock to find the one who has gone astray. He seeks the sheep out over hills, across streams, down dusty roads. When He finds the sheep His relief is palpable. He slings the sheep upon his shoulders and makes the long road home lighter than He’s been in days. (Luke 15:3-7)

“We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way;” (Isaiah 53:6a) So our heavenly Shepherd pursues us; He seeks us out; He searches until He finds us; He waits at the mouth of the road day after day, month after month waiting for us to come home. This is the heart of our indefatigable, undeterred, undaunted Father who stops at nothing to extend His love to His rebellious children. This is how He feels about you. He will pursue you to the very ends of the earth to bring you back. Or, we can just go home and watch as He runs to meet us. Either way your God is in pursuit of you, putting reminders everywhere that He loves you and wants you back. Can you turn your back on such devotion, such love? I can't. God pursued me and when He found me in my pigsty of a life I did the sensible thing. I fell into His open arms.

Prayer: Father God, You are love. Your love pursues us wherever we go. Your love calls to us, longs for us, hopes for us, searches for us. Who are we to fight such love and determination. You have won us; You have found us. We are Yours. Remind us today to be found by You and fall into Your arms. Thank You for being the Hound of Heaven and the lover of our souls. In Jesus name, amen.

CAUTION!

 1 Corinthians 10:12, "So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!"

When I read this verse I think of the movie The Walk. Have you seen it?The Walk is the 2015 motion picture, and true story, about high-wire artist Philippe Petit. In 1974 he fulfilled his dream of walking between the World Trade Center towers, but in an early scene from the film he's in a Big Top circus in France tying a rope to a beam. Philippe says, "So [my mentor] Papa Rudy let me travel with his troupe. Of course I never did any performance. But any time the big top was empty, I would practice on the wire."

In the next scene, Philippe is high up just under the tent's ceiling and balancing himself on a wire with a pole. Papa Rudy enters the tent and looks up at Philippe, who was walking carefully but confidently across the thin wire. He hesitates as he is about to reach the platform and then takes a more assertive forward step. But suddenly Philippe and his wire start shaking precariously. He falls to the side, grabbing on to the wire with both hands, barely avoiding falling to his death as the pole plummets to the ground.

As he hangs onto the wire with both hands, the ground a great distance below, he slowly works his way to the platform. Breathing heavily and making his way down the ladder he faces Papa Rudy who tells him, "Most wire walkers, they die when they arrive. They think they have arrived, but they're still on the wire. If you have three steps to do, and you take those steps arrogantly, if you think you are invincible, you're going to die." [The Walk. DVD. Directed by Robert Zemeckis. 2015; Tristar Productions]

Paul is warning us in 1 Corinthians 10 about the results of sin by looking at examples from the history of Israel. He seems serious about getting across an essential point—caution! There is an arrogance that precedes sin. It is the arrogance that says, "I can handle this. I won't give in." Paul calls it the attitude that says, "I'm standing firm!" And I wonder if Paul was thinking of Proverbs 16:18, "Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall," when he wrote this verse.

A young Priest went to an old Priest to ask his advice. The young Priest had been struggling with sexual temptation and he was tired of fighting. He asked the Priest, "When will I get over this struggle? When will I be able to trust myself in this area?" The older priest thought a moment and said, "Son, I wouldn't trust myself until three days in the grave."

There is a sense where we should live lives of caution because temptations will always be there. We're not dead yet. So we cautiously walk the tightrope of our lives.

 Prayer: Father, we know we are only one step from falling. We pray that You lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. We thank you for the grace when we do fall. Help us to live with caution. In Jesus name, amen.

The Divine Melody...

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Zephaniah 3:17, "The LORD your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing."

When I was a child my Mom would sing me songs. She would sing me a waking up song, "Today I will be happy..." She'd sing it with laughter in her voice and my morning grumpies would melt away. And sometimes she'd sing songs just to make me laugh. Like the one that talked about a birdie who would sit on the steeple and poopie on the people. As a little boy that was funny stuff and we would laugh and laugh.

But there was one song she might sing several times a day. Often she would sing it before bed. This was a song of her love for me. Its words spoke of her utter delight in me. "You are my sunshine," she would sing and I would look into her curiously sparkling eyes and try to sing along. There was a love etched into her singing that I found, even today, deep and amazing. She, of course, would often say, "I love you," but when she sang to me I didn't just hear the words, I experienced them. I swam in love and sank into love. I danced in love and basked in the warmth of the flames of love.

My Mom has been gone for some time but if I hear a song she sang over me today it instantly stops me. I bow my head, listen and smile. Even as a grown man I'm a child again feeling her love cascade inside me; marveling again at her delight in me.

And I don't know whether it was her intention or not, but when I think of God singing over me I do not just give intellectual ascent to His love, I experience it. I sink down into it. I float on top of it. I bask in its warmth. I smile and try to sing along. Even so, just like with my Mom, there is a depth to the love of God that remains a mystery to me. I am mesmerized by it, enchanted by it, and soundly mystified by it. That God should delight in you, that God should sing songs over you, this is the greatest mystery of existence.

Jean Fleming writes, "When I picture God's rejoicing over his people with singing, I think of Snowflake Bentley. Wilson "Snowflake" Bentley, a New England farmer born in 1865, couldn't get enough of snowflakes. For forty years, he ran around in the snow, raucously joyful, catching snowflakes on chilled slides and photographing them, seeking to capture for others the beauty he saw in those one-of-a-kind masterpieces of frozen crystals. Over his lifetime, he photographed more than five thousand individual snowflakes. His notes were effusive: "No. 785 is so rarely beautiful." He wrote of the "feast of [their] beauty." As I imagine Snowflake careening in the snow, giddy with joy, I marvel with the psalmist, "LORD, what are human beings that you care for them, mere mortals that you think of them? They are like a breath; their days are like a fleeting shadow" (Psalm 144:3-4). I'm like a vanishing, vaporous breath, and God cares for me."  [Jean Fleming, Pursue the Intentional Life (NavPress, 2013), page 50]

Who are you that God should delight in you, sing over you? Well, you are His child. "See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!" (1 John 3:1). We are the children He delights in and sings to. Can you hear it?

At some quiet moment today stop, bow your head and listen. Can you hear it?—the edge of some refrain that God is singing over you? Hear the words of love he sings over you and you will not simply hear God say, "I love you," you will experience it, bask in it, sink down into it. Shhhhh! I think I can hear Him singing over you even now.

 Prayer: Our Good Father—the One who delights in us, who sings over us in love—we are mystified, mesmerized by Your song. All of Heaven must stand stock still when You open Your mouth to sing, and marvel even deeper at whom You sing to. Help us to stop and listen. Help us to hear the melody leap up inside us today. We can't fathom Your love, only experience it. Forgive us when the song we sing back isn't as beautiful. We can only love You because You first loved and sang to us. But we do. In Jesus name, amen.

Stand firm!

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Today’s devotional thought:

Galatians 5:1, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”

Before walking out of jail a free man in February, Albert Woodfox spent 43 years almost without pause in an isolation cell, becoming the longest standing solitary confinement prisoner in America. He had no view of the sky from inside his 6 foot by 9 foot concrete box, no human contact, and taking a walk meant pacing from one end of the cell to the other and back again.

Then in April 2016 he found himself on a beach in Galveston, Texas, in the company of a friend. He stood marveling at all the beachgoers under a cloudless sky, and stared out over the Gulf of Mexico as it stretched far out to the horizon. "You could hear the tide and the water coming in," he says. "It was so strange, walking on the beach and all these people and kids running around."

Of all the terrifying details of Woodfox's four decades of solitary incarceration … perhaps the most chilling aspect of all is what he says now. Two months after the state of Louisiana set him free on his 69th birthday, he says he sometimes wishes he was back in that cell.

"Oh yeah! Yeah!" he says passionately when asked whether he sometimes misses his life in lockdown. "You know, human beings … feel more comfortable in areas they are secure. In a cell you have a routine, you pretty much know what is going to happen, when it's going to happen, but in society it's difficult, it's looser. So there are moments when, yeah, I wish I was back in the security of a cell." He pauses, then adds: "I mean, it does that to you." [Ed Pilkington, "43 years in solitary: There are moments I wish I was back there," The Guardian (4-29-16)]

They don’t tell you that when you come to Christ, when you die to self and are raised to walk in newness of life, the dead you reaches back from the grave. That self, the old you, is like a jail cell. You were a slave to sin. It had mastery over you--confining you, hemming you in, directing your choices and path--but when you became a follower of Jesus he says, “You are free!” And it can be like standing before a vast vista and marveling at the vision before you. Where once you were blind now you see. Not only is the view majestic, sweeping and surreal, it is also a bit frightening. Freedom can be disorienting, perhaps a little scary. And the familiarity and comfort of the cell will call your name. This is has been the reality since Peter preached at Pentecost and started the church of Jesus.

Did you think you were the only one who struggled overcoming some secret sin? That those Christians that seem to have it all together are some how above you, better than you and you could never achieve their level of spiritual success? The truth of sin is that the ground at the foot of the cross is level. We all must stand there as sinners. Therefore, we all will hear a call to return to the cell of our old selves. Paul’s advice? “Hang in there. Don’t give in. Don’t give up. Stand firm.” You will never be sinless but you will sin less. Christianity is a journey and any journey can only be judged after some ground has been covered. One day you will look back and marvel. One day you will look at yourself and the person you were before Christ will be the stranger. Stand firm!

Prayer: Our Holy Father, help us to stand firm, help us to remember the horrors of our sin. You are holy. Help us to be more like You today than we were yesterday. Help us to give you glory by the choices we make, the words we use and the lives we live. May You receive all the glory You are due. In Jesus name, amen.