Noah did everything just as God commanded him.
Genesis 6:22

There is so much power in that simple statement. Noah was a man – a human no different from you or me. He lived in a corrupt time – not a lot different from you and me. He did everything just as God commanded him – how different is that from you and me? No waffling. No hedging. No resistance.

God said “I am going to destroy the earth and everyone in it. Build a boat.” Then He elaborated a bit:

¹⁷I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. ¹⁸But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you. ¹⁹You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. ²⁰Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. ²¹You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them.
Genesis 6:17-21

And the amazing thing – amazing to me anyway – is that Noah did “everything just as God commanded him.”

I was listening to a sermon by Tony Evans recently and he made a statement that impacted me. “Our expectations impact our actions.” If we expect that it’s going to rain while we’re out, we take an umbrella. Because I expected to have a business meeting today, I dressed a bit differently and took more care with my hair & makeup than I would on a day when I expect to work alone in my office.

Clearly, Noah must have expected God to be true to His word, because he acted immediately. He started building a boat, undoubtedly causing everyone around him to think he was crazy. But God hadn’t spoken to everyone around Noah. From the description God gives of those around Noah, even if He had spoken to them, they wouldn’t have started to build a boat. Because they had no expectation that God was who He said He was and that He would do what He said He was going to do.

I can’t help but wonder – what are my spiritual expectations? If I work Tony Evans’ statement backwards, we can determine my expectations based on my actions. Do my actions reveal that I believe God is who He says He is and that He will do what He says He is going to do? Do my actions reveal that I expect God to move on my behalf? Do my actions reveal that I expect God to deal with me according to my behavior – good or bad?

Noah didn’t have the benefit of a Bible to read. We obviously do. My “Let’s Be PC!” series encourages us to do the things we know God wants us to do. I want to be a Practicing Christian (“PC”) not one in name only. (I took a break from the series over the Christmas season, but will be adding to it soon – what topic would you like me to address?)

Back to my expectations (and yours). Do we live our lives as if we expect God to be true to His promises and His Word? Or do we live our lives our own way and hope God will bless it? Like Paul, I’m not there yet, but I keep pressing on to live according to God’s Word.

¹²Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on… ¹³…I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, ¹⁴I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:12-14

Why would I (or anyone) not want to do as Paul did? Yes, life is hard, and yes, pursuing God brings us to the attention of our adversary, satan…but to not pursue God puts me in a place of dealing with life in this fallen world without the nearness of a loving Savior and the blessings He promises to those who follow His plan for their lives.

“Practical Atheists” is a term used to describe people who say they believe in Christ but whose actions are more consistent with those who don’t believe at all. I’d rather be a PC than a PA!

God gives us the tremendous freedom and responsibility of free will. At each step in our journey, we have the opportunity to choose practical atheism or Christianity. At each challenge we can be obedient to pursue God’s way (and accompanying blessing) or act according to our own “wisdom” and desires.

I want to be like Noah and do everything God commands. I want to be like Paul and press on to win the prize (which is Christ, Himself). How about you? Will you join me in pursuing God throughout 2011? There’s plenty of room in the boat!

Lord, may my actions reveal that my expectations are consistent with all You have promised in Your Word. Where my expectations fall short, reveal Yourself to me anew so that I might know you better.

While getting dressed for work this morning, I heard a news report about Christians travelling to Bethlehem to celebrate Christmas. God used that news story to interrupted me and change my attitude. Today, the day we celebrate the birth of our Savior, I want to make Him the focus of every minute of my day.

I have to work all day. We are quite busy and I’m catching up on looming deadlines. Still, I want Him to be at the center of it.

I’ve not been looking forward to this evening. Just about the time I get home from work my husband leaves. He’ll leave for work about 6pm tonight and he’ll get home about 8am Christmas morning. I’ve thought of several things I could do on Christmas Eve, and haven’t settled on any of them. My natural inclination is to stay home alone – following the principle of inertia. And that holds a bit of sadness for me. On the other hand, going out holds a bit of stress for me. Which will I choose? I don’t know yet. But God whispered to me this morning that it doesn’t matter – what matters is that I keep my focus on Him.

Interestingly, when I started writing this blog, I had tremendous peace in my heart. But what preceded the first paragraph you’ve read here were three paragraphs I deleted. They explained about some of the challenges in my life over the past month. I deleted them because by the time I typed “While getting dressed for work this morning…” my peace was gone and depression was creeping in. In the act of writing about how God put it in my heart to keep my focus on Him today (and everyday), I shifted my focus to the cares of this world. Ugh! Our enemy is so deceiving sometimes!

God has impressed on me over and over again this holiday season the need for me to allow Him to shine through me as I spend time with family and friends. (I blogged about it here.) I think we (God and me) are working up to that being the theme of 2011. Christ in me, my hope of glory. Christ in my mind while I accomplish my work. Christ in my heart when I am prone to depression. Christ on my lips when I am tempted to answer wrongly. Christ my focus as I take each step of the journey He has for me.

Today, the day we celebrate the birth of Christ, I am reminded that He made it possible for me to exchange my less-than-what-I-want-it-to-be life for a life in Him that is beyond my expectations in joy and purpose. Today, the day we celebrate the birth of Christ, I want Him to be my focus even while my mind, heart and hands are required to be doing other things.

Merry Christmas, readers! May Christ be in your heart and minds today, and may He bless the works of your hands mightily!

Here’s a “dessert” to today’s blog…

Today’s Resting at the River’s Edge was such a blessing to me. The birth of Christ is the backstory. Revelation provides the story’s climax:

⁶Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting:
“Hallelujah!
For our Lord God Almighty reigns.

⁷ Let us rejoice and be glad
and give him glory!
For the wedding of the Lamb has come,
and his bride has made herself ready.

⁸ Fine linen, bright and clean,
was given her to wear.”
(Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.)

⁹Then the angel said to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!’” And he added, “These are the true words of God.”

¹⁰At this I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, “Do not do it! I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”

¹¹I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war. ¹²His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. ¹³He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. ¹⁴The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. ¹⁵Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.” He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. ¹⁶On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written:

KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.
Revelation 19:6-16

Hallelujah!

By guest blogger Phil Hovatter

The fifteenth chapter of the book of Second Kings tells the brief and odd story of the reign of King Azariah of Judah. This man (whose name means “God has helped”) was king of Judah. That’s a pretty significant job. He reigned for 52 years. That’s a very significant amount of time. And yet the book of Kings summarizes his entire life in just seven short verses.

So what does Second Kings tell us about King Azariah?

• He was the son of king Amaziah, one of the “good” kings of Judah
• His mother Jecoliah was from Jerusalem. (We can presume from this that Azariah’s dad had married a nice Jewish girl instead of hooking up with a pagan princess for political reasons.)
• He became king when he was just 16 years old
• He reigned for a long time – 52 years
• He “did what was right in the eyes of the Lord,” which is to say that he promoted observance to the Mosaic Law and proper worship of Yahweh
• He didn’t remove the “high places” in Judah, where the people offered incense to pagan gods
• And here’s the kicker: “The Lord afflicted the king with leprosy until the day he died, and he lived in a separate house.”
  2 Kings 15:5 (NIV)

Disney gave us the Lion King. God gave Judah the Leper King.

This is one of those passages that makes me scratch my head and wonder what the heck is going on here. Azariah was a good king, the son of another good king. Good kings were in short supply in those days (much as they are in ours). God allowed him to stay in power for over half a century. And yet Scripture is very definite about giving credit to the Lord for afflicting Azariah with leprosy.

Why would God do such a thing? What (if anything) can we learn from this?

First and foremost, bad things happen to good people.
Entire books have been written on this subject, some of them seeking to tap into the ways and wisdom of God, others being total nonsense. But the fact remains that in this fallen world, even “good” people will have to endure some degree of difficulty and trying circumstances.

Everything that the Psalms declare about the Lord being our rock, our fortress, our high tower, our shield, our defender, and our hedge of protection is true. But read the Psalms carefully. All those titles are ascribed to God by people who were facing the worst personal circumstances. It’s from within those times and places of difficulty that we see that the Lord is all of these things for us, and more.

Remember that “Azariah” means “God has helped.” That was the name his Mama gave him. He could have asked to be called by something else that denied that sentiment if he didn’t believe it. You might remember in the book of Ruth that Naomi (“pleasant”) asked people to call her Mara (“bitter”) when the chips were down for her. Her circumstances weren’t pleasant at all and she didn’t want a name that denied her reality. Azariah could have done the same thing, but he didn’t. And in fact, Azariah is known by another name in Scripture. Later on in the same chapter of Second Kings, the writer refers to him as King Uzziah. This name is also used of him by the prophet Isaiah in chapter 6 of his book, where he says that he had his vision of God on His throne in the year that King Uzziah died. “Uzziah” means “my power is Yahweh.”

The Leper King of Judah didn’t wallow in self-pity or accuse God of being unloving or unfair to him. He let God be God and he went on about the business of being king despite his leprosy.

Another lesson we might learn from this passage is that bad circumstances don’t necessarily disqualify us from significant service to God.
The Lord intentionally afflicted King Azariah with leprosy, but He didn’t remove him from the throne. If you’ve read the gospels you have some idea of what the lifestyle of a leper was and what their standing was in the community. “Unclean! Unclean!” The Leper King had to live in another house, but he still fulfilled the duties and responsibilities of ruler of the nation. His son Jotham served as his go-between so that the people could avoid contact with their diseased king.

A prevalent opinion in Old Testament times that we see even in some passages of the New Testament is that disease and affliction is assumed to be a judgment by God on the sin in a person’s life. “Who sinned? This man or his parents, that he should be born blind?” The entire book of Job was given by God to dispel this false notion that calamity only comes as a judgment on sin. Job was the most godly and righteous man of his time, and yet God allowed horrible catastrophes to afflict him.

Afflictions will test your faith, but they don’t mean that you have been disqualified for service.

Lastly, afflictions don’t have to diminish your fruitfulness. In fact, they might enhance them.
While Second Kings gives a very brief sketch of the life of King Azariah, the book of Second Chronicles goes into considerably more detail. The Leper King, forced to live in seclusion from his people, had an illustrious career as king:

He rebuilt the defenses of Jerusalem, modernized the army, and retook Gath. He pushed the borders of Judah to the southern extent of David’s empire, and fortified them. He rebuilt Ezion-geber, the Red Sea port, and got the mines of the Arabah working again, These accomplishments gave him copper products to exchange with lands to the southeast and with Tyre, and trade all through the region flourished. Agricultural lands were developed, and as a result, Judah experienced prosperity unparalleled since Solomon’s day.
New Commentary on the Whole Bible: Old Testament

This is just speculation on my part, but perhaps his seclusion allowed him to focus more on governing the nation and less on the distractions that come from being king. I heard a story recently on Moody Radio about a man who, as a child, was afflicted with a dangerous brain tumor. The tumor was surgically removed, but it destroyed his sense of smell. When he grew up, he became a missionary to a third world country, ministering to people who lived in a garbage dump. The smell was so horrible that no one else ever went there to work with the people who lived there. His affliction uniquely qualified him to be fruitful in ministry to these poorest of the poor.

And let’s not forget Joni Eareckson Tada, a promising high school athlete who severed her spinal cord in a diving accident and became a quadriplegic. God has used her and her affliction to minister to handicapped people around the world. Would she ever have taken this path without first becoming a quadriplegic herself?

So what about you? What sort of adversity or calamity are you facing in your life? Could it be that God is allowing it so that He can work something in you or through you that wouldn’t likely happen if it weren’t for the difficult situation you find yourself in now? We’re called to be witnesses for the gospel and ambassadors for Christ wherever He puts us. How can God use your lousy circumstances to bring about something of eternal value and beauty?

King Azariah could say unequivocally that “God has helped” and “my power is Yahweh,” despite his own personal affliction. He remained faithful and fruitful despite suffering from a catastrophic disease. The Leper King of Judah is one dude that I really look forward to meeting.

³While he [Jesus] was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of a man known as Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head.

⁴Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, “Why this waste of perfume? ⁵It could have been sold for more than a year’s wages and the money given to the poor.” And they rebuked her harshly.

⁶“Leave her alone,” said Jesus. “Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. ⁷The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me. ⁸She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. ⁹I tell you the truth, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”
Mark 14:4-9

What surprised me the most as I read this story last week was Jesus’ reaction. I began to think over other stories and parables and it seems to me that Jesus always commended extravagant actions of worship and faith!

While it was customary to anoint the heads of important guests, this woman’s action went above and beyond. The IVP Bible Background Commentary on the New Testament points out that “Her anointing of Jesus represents a major sacrifice and indicates the depth of her love.”

Upon reading the commentary, the Holy Spirit brought two questions to mind:

How long has it been since you gave Jesus a gift that represented a major sacrifice?
Or have your gifts indicated that the depth of your love for Him has grown shallow?

And so I pose the question to you, dear reader:

How long has it been since you gave Jesus a gift that represented a major sacrifice?
Or have your gifts indicated that the depth of your love for Him has grown shallow?

It seems like a long time since my gift to Jesus has represented a major sacrifice. My service has been steady, but my sacrifice has been light. Steady service is good, and we probably can’t live our lives in “major sacrifice” mode all the time. But if our love for Jesus is genuine, there will be times when our actions are extravagant and represent a major sacrifice.

During this holiday season, I encourage you to seek God with a sincere heart.

Ask Him what gift He would like you to give Him for His birthday.
Ask Him what He wants from you in 2011.

And celebrate the season with extravagant praise to the One who is worthy of more than our greatest sacrifice and our greatest extravagance.

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
James 1:27

It seems to me that the Church is much better at emphasizing the latter point than the first one – when was the last time you heard a sermon encouraging you to look after orphans and widows? When was the last time you were given the opportunity to participate in ministry to orphans and widows? Does your church budget reflect this priority of God’s or is it more heavily weighted toward helping you become/remain unpolluted by the world? I can’t think of a single church I’ve belonged to where there would be anything close to a balance in the church budget between looking after orphans/widows and pursuing holiness. Now you might say that there are fewer orphans and widows than there are healthy people who need help pursuing holiness. OK, I’ll buy that, and I would also agree with you that the percentage of a church budget associated with a specific ministry isn’t a final determination of the church’s support of or involvement in that ministry. For example, nursing home ministry is relatively inexpensive. Still, the point is valid that the Church as a whole does very little to serve “the least of these.” Which means individually, most of us are probably doing little to serve “the least of these.” Jesus said:

³¹“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. ³²All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. ³³He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

³⁴“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. ³⁵For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, ³⁶I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

³⁷“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? ³⁸When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? ³⁹When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

⁴⁰“The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’

⁴¹“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. ⁴²For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, ⁴³I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

⁴⁴“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

⁴⁵“He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

⁴⁶“Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
Matthew 25:31-46

There are 16,000 nursing homes in the United States, and another 35,000 assisted living facilities. 1.6 million people live in those nursing homes, and 800,000 people die in them each year. The statistic that hit me the hardest, though, is that about one third of all the people who die in the US will have lived in a nursing home for three months or longer before their death. One third. Another statistic that got to me was that eighty percent of people who live in nursing homes receive less than one visitor each week. These people are among the sick Jesus talked about. I would argue that they are also among the strangers because they have been moved to a place that was not their home, and the prisoners because they cannot leave (in most cases). Yet they are the people who built the world we live, who taught in schools, who worked in factories, who cooked and served in restaurants, and who taught in Sunday Schools. They are people who are lonely, confused and disappointed. Some are feeling defeated.

For just a moment I want you to remember and think about the most difficult trial you have ever gone through. Now multiply your suffering, confusion and stress by some large number. That’s the kind of trial that our nursing home friends are going through. What did you need when you were going through your trial? You needed Jesus to comfort, heal, protect, provide and love you. And when He seemed far away, you needed a friend to come alongside you, put their arm around your shoulder and walk you over to their Friend, Jesus. You needed your earthly friend to be a sort of conduit between you and the Lord because your circuits seemed to be closed at the time you most needed to hear from God. Your friend did that by reminding you of God’s faithfulness and His promises, by praying with you, and simply by being there.

We have the awesome opportunity to become friends with people who desperately need someone who can introduce them to Jesus and/or be their conduit during times when He seems far away. They need someone to take their hand and lead them to the feet of Jesus with their pains and their cares. They need someone to give them the cold cup of living water that comes from Christ.

Those who live in nursing homes, have been moved from their home into a strange place where people who are as young as their grandchildren now tell them when and what to eat, when to wake up and go to bed, when it’s time to take a shower and when it’s time to take their medicine. Much of their privacy is lost as they share rooms with people they don’t know and the doors are kept open most or all of the time. Their world has become quite small and they have no control over it. They are probably in pain most of the time. Everyone has authority over the residents and many people treat them as if they were invisible. Most will struggle wondering if their life has any purpose or ever will have purpose again.

For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Ephesians 2:10

This verse is God’s commission to you and me. We are saved by grace through faith, but we are commanded to do good works. The verse is also God’s commission to those who are in nursing homes. Those in our nursing homes who know Christ need refreshing and encouragement that God still has purpose for them. God still has works that He has prepared in advance for them to do. From personal experience, I can tell you that some of those works are to minister to the people who befriend and serve them. Nursing home residents have been such a blessing to me as I’ve ministered to them.

You are all familiar with Jesus’ final commandment to the church:

He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.
Mark 16:15

A significant percentage of those in our world live in nursing homes. They are most likely at the time in their lives when they are in more need than they have ever been – socially and spiritually. The fields are ripe for harvest and the saints are in need of encouragement. Will you consider going?

I introduced a new series of posts a little more than a week ago – Let’s be PC – Practicing Christians! I never intended for the first post to about serving in nursing homes, but it seems God did. I was just about to hit the publish button on this post when I realized it’s all about practicing what God commands and should be the first in this series. I had planned on blogging about a subject that will have to wait for the future. I guess God wanted to draw our attention to religion that He accepts as pure and faultless. I won’t argue with that call!

Resources: To become involved in nursing home ministries, contact God Cares Ministry if you live in northeast Ohio – they offer training, resources and teams you can join if your church doesn’t have one; the Sonshine Society for large-print resources and to find ministries in other areas of the country, or a local nursing home to ask the Activities Director if they have a church service for the residents and if you might visit residents one-on-one. Be the catalyst that begins a ministry at your church that reaches into the lives of men and women who helped create the community in which you live.

But the king replied to Araunah, “No, I insist on paying you for it. I will not sacrifice to the LORD my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.”
2 Samuel 24:24 (NIV)

If you’re Resting at the River’s Edge with us, you read this story late last week.

• David sins
• God gives David his choice of judgments
• David chooses three days of plague
• Near the end of the third day, God instructs David “Go up and build an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” (2 Samuel 24:18)
• When David arrives, Araunah makes him an offer: “Let my lord the king take whatever pleases him and offer it up. Here are oxen for the burnt offering, and here are threshing sledges and ox yokes for the wood. O king, Araunah gives all this to the king.” (2 Samuel 24:22-23)
• David’s response ought to give us all pause:

“No, I insist on paying you for it. I will not sacrifice to the LORD my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.”
(2 Samuel 24:24)

David was King and Araunah was happy to give him his land and everything he needed for the offering. But David was making an offering and a sacrifice to his King. Taking the free gift from Araunah would not have been much of an offering/sacrifice from David. It is to David’s great credit that he didn’t take the easy way out here.

Matthew Henry’s English is a bit dated, he hits the nail on the head. In his Commentary on the Old Testament, he says this about the passage:

Note, Those know not what religion is whose chief care it is to make it cheap and easy to themselves, and who are best pleased with that which costs them least pains or money. What have we our substance for but to honour God with it? and how can it be better bestowed?
Matthew Henry Commentary on the Old Testament, 2 Samuel 24:24

Or put in modern English, he’s saying something like this:

Those whose primary goal is making things as cheap and easy on themselves as possible aren’t seeking God with all their hearts. What is the purpose of all we have, if not to honor God? Can there be a better use for our possessions, energy and time but to use them to serve Him?

I was convicted by David’s statement and doubly challenged by Matthew Henry’s. I wonder – am I serving God sacrificially? Do my offerings cost me something or is He getting the leftovers? Is He getting service in my spare time and with my spare energy and money?

Let’s look at some examples.

Tithing: If giving 10% is easy – if your income is such that you can easily live on 90% – would God be honored by you giving more? And is there any better thing you can do with the “more” than give it to God?

Ministry/Service: Have you said “yes” to so many opportunities to serve that perhaps your service is costing you time, but you have no effort or “overflow” to minister out of? Or maybe it’s not so many opportunities to serve that takes your time, but all the other activities in your life. Is God getting the dregs, last minute, jump in the car and go, then wing it when you get there service? If so, I would contend that your service isn’t costing you what it ought. Maybe you need to be involved in less activities, and perhaps even less ministry activities, so that your offerings of service are complete offerings of all that you are.

Time with God: Is your time with God filled with constant distractions of this world, shortened by earthly demands, and less consistent than your other commitments? The enemy is a master at distracting us during our quiet time, and I’m not here to bring condemnation about it. But there are distractions that are brought on by the enemy and there are distractions that come up simply because of our own lack of discipline or planning. I’m talking about the latter here. My time with God ought to cost me something – it ought to be a sacrifice of all I am to focus on Him. Sadly, often it is not.

This is not a word meant to bring condemnation, but it is a word that is meant to encourage you and me to do better. I want my offerings to the Lord to have value – that means they must cost me something – because that’s how we value things here on earth – and if it’s not of value to me, I haven’t given an appropriate offering to God.

Lord, forgive me when I have taken You for granted! Help me to change. Help me to love you more, and to demonstrate that love by giving honestly of my time, money, talents, energy, and love to You.

From my last blog:

¹Then Hannah prayed and said:
“My heart rejoices in the LORD;
in the LORD my horn is lifted high.
My mouth boasts over my enemies,
for I delight in your deliverance.

² “There is no one holy like the LORD;
there is no one besides you;
there is no Rock like our God.
1 Samuel 2, V1-2:

The first two verses of a ten verse song of worship and praise! After giving Samuel to the Lord, “then Hannah prayed and said: ‘My heart rejoices in the Lord.’” Wow!

OK – I know I wrote this two days ago. But I woke up this morning and what shouted in my brain was that Hannah prayed after giving her son to the Lord!

There is no record of a song of praise when Hannah became pregnant after being barren so many years. There is no record of her rejoicing when God gave her the desire of her heart. I don’t doubt that she did praise God when she became pregnant with Samuel, but I find it significant that we have no record in Scripture of that. Instead, what we have a record of is her ten-verse song of praise when she gives her son back to the Lord. That’s the nice way of saying it. The earthly reality is that she was giving her son, the one she had longed for, to someone else to raise – someone who had raised two sons who were acting wickedly before the Lord. From this point on, Hannah would see her son only once a year. And She praised God – she said “There is no one holy like the Lord, here is no one besides you, there is no Rock like our God.”

What an amazing perspective she had!

• She praised God that He had given her a son – instead of being angry that she had been given a son for such a short time.
• She praised God that He had enabled her to give Him an offering – instead of being angry that He accepted her offering.
• She praised God by faith for the future sons He would give her – instead of despairing that she may never have another son to hold in her arms.
• She praised God because He is sovereign – He is the God of all Gods and He is victorious over all.

Throughout this story of Hannah’s desire for a child, her promise to God that she would give her child back to Him, her making good on that promise and rejoicing while doing so has challenged me. I’ve reached an age when my parents’ generation is dying. Grieving is hard. And as the deaths pile up, it’s easy for there to be a drag on my spirit. I remember something my mother-in-law said as she lived into her eighties – that she knew more people who were dead than living. Hannah’s son wasn’t dead, but she was sacrificing the life she would have had with her son – that life was essentially dying as she gave Samuel to the Lord. And she sang her heart out in praise.

I am challenged that I hold too tightly to things of this world and I don’t trust (rest in) God’s sovereignty enough. Singing that praise doesn’t always come easily to me. Perhaps it didn’t come easily to Hannah, but there’s no indication of that.

Lord, Thank You for the people you’ve put in my life, whether for a short time or a long time. Help me to release all of them to You and rejoice at Your great power and goodness.

¹¹The angel of the LORD came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. ¹²When the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon, he said, “The LORD is with you, mighty warrior.”

¹³“But sir,” Gideon replied, “if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about when they said, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the LORD has abandoned us and put us into the hand of Midian.”

¹⁴The LORD turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?”

¹⁵“But Lord,” Gideon asked, “how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”

¹⁶The LORD answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites together.”

¹⁷Gideon replied, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me.
Judges 6:11-17

2 Lessons of Hope

Did you catch Gideon’s perspective and attitude?

He is living his life in the midst of a terrorist state. Verses 3 through 5 of the chapter paint the picture for us:

³Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples invaded the country. ⁴They camped on the land and ruined the crops all the way to Gaza and did not spare a living thing for Israel, neither sheep nor cattle nor donkeys. ⁵They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts. It was impossible to count the men and their camels; they invaded the land to ravage it.
Judges 6:3-5

Imagine living in a place where every time you are ready to receive your paycheck, terrorists invade your business and steal your check, then ruin all the equipment and set the building on fire. OK, so the first time that happens you’re pretty devastated, but you pick yourself up and you build again and you work and work until you’ve earned enough money to actually take some money out of the business. Or maybe you find someone else who has built again and you work for them and you are about to get your first paycheck in quite a long time. In either scenario, just as you’re about to receive your paycheck, terrorists strike again. They steal your paycheck and all money in the building, again demolish the property and set fire to the building. What do you do? How do you feel?

That’s where Gideon lived. He was doing the best he could for his family, but he was clearly not at the top of his game spiritually. He was secretly threshing wheat in a wine press to feed his family. I imagine as he sat there alone that he struggled to hold onto the faith of his fathers. I imagine that the voices in his head were leading him to despair instead of hope.

You can hardly blame him for his responses to the angel –

“If the Lord…why? Where are all His wonders…?” (v. 13)
“How can I…” (v. 15)
“If…give me a sign…” (v.17)

Yep! Gideon is at a very low point spiritually. I’ve been there. I’m guessing you have as well.

It’s fascinating that this is the person God chooses to use to save the Israelites.
Lesson #1: God can use us in the midst of our own personal crisis of faith!

Did you catch how the angel addressed Gideon?

Gideon – who is at an emotional and spiritual low point and who is hiding from the enemy in terror – is addressed by the angel of the Lord as “mighty warrior.” The word that is translated “warrior” is chayil and means “strength, might, efficiency, wealth and army.” It is often translated valor. (Tomorrow I’ll blog about more about this word – it’s pretty exciting.) The angel makes his point even stronger by adding an adjective (gibbor) that means “strong, mighty.”

I repeat – the angel of the Lord called Gideon “mighty warrior.” I imagine Gideon looked around to see who the angel was talking to. Given his current mindset and experience, I wouldn’t be surprised if a moment of terror seized his heart as he imagined that the angel was talking to someone about to steal his family’s food again.

Lesson #2: God sees us as the finished product, not as we are in the midst of our failures.
Yes, He sees our sins and our failures. But He sees BEYOND our sins and our failures to the person we truly are. Our sin and failure does not need to define us for all our life.

Perhaps my real-life example helps illustrate this: Yesterday, I was experiencing a moment of weak faith, wandering about mentally and emotionally and fighting against despair about my future (I’ll blog about this in a few days). But even in that moment, God knew that I would skirt the brink of despair and settle on the Rock of Hope. He would have been totally correct to address me as “Rock of Hope settler” had He spoken to me as I was resting at “Despair Place” because that is where I ended the day.

“Mighty warrior” is the person God saw in Gideon. “Rock of Hope settler” is the person He sees in me.

Where are you, friend? Are you hiding from the world, having been terrorized by the enemy? God can still use you. He sees beyond your weaknesses and failures and even beyond your sin. Be encouraged. Gideon went on, after a bit of coaxing by the Lord, to be that “mighty warrior” the angel found hiding in the wine press. You can too.

²⁸And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. ²⁹For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. ³⁰And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

³¹What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³²He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? ³³Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. ³⁴Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. ³⁵Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? …

³⁷No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
Romans 8:28-37

The following question was asked in a Christian forum of a professional social network I’m a part of:

What do you think – Is every Christian in the workplace just there to work, or are they called/placed by God to be a full time missionary in that workplace?

That’s an easy question for me – I’ve always viewed myself as called to the workplace. For years it was the place where I was most effective and had the most significant influence. I am blessed that my ministry now rivals my secular job in the areas of effectiveness and influence, but I am still called to be a part of the workplace. And I believe that we are called as missionaries wherever God has placed us, no matter how permanent or temporary that place might be.

The question challenged me anew, though, as I realized that I had become lazy about thinking of myself as a full time missionary at work each day.

I participated in a missions trip to Mexico City a number of years ago. I remember the emphasis we put on something as simple as always smiling because we didn’t want to communicate anything but the love of Jesus while we were there. Throughout the trip we had a heightened sense that everything we did had an impact for Christ. We looked for opportunities to share Christ. We were careful how we interacted with people. We were conscious of not offending because of the difference in cultures.

We were always aware of our purpose during that trip – to represent and present Christ to those around us. If we have a missionary mindset (now often referred to as a missional mindset), we view that as our purpose in all that we do throughout our day. I’ve lost some of that purpose in recent years. I’m not saying that I haven’t felt called to the workplace or that I haven’t represented and presented Christ during that time. I’m saying that I’ve lost the “always aware” part of the formula. I was glad to be challenged by the question – challenged to re-orient my thinking back to that of a missionary in my world.

You, too, are a missionary in your world. It doesn’t matter if your world is the workplace, caring for children or your retirement community – if God has placed you there, it is to represent and present Christ to those around you.

Let’s begin to take our missionary responsibilities more seriously. Think about representing Christ to everyone you meet or talk with today. Ask Him who you should be more forthright about presenting Christ to.

Father, help us to begin each morning with praise and then a dedication to represent You throughout the day. Open doors for us to present Christ to those who are ready to meet Him.

³¹So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. ³²Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God—³³even as I try to please everybody in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved.
1 Corinthians 10:31-33

¹¹In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. ¹²Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. ¹³Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. ¹⁴For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.

¹⁵What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! ¹⁶Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? ¹⁷But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. ¹⁸You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
Romans 6:11-18

We are blessed in America to no longer live in a place that accepts slavery as the norm. We don’t live with the consequences of owning other humans and controlling their lives to the extent that a slave master controls the lives of his or her slaves. Freedom is a wonderful thing. I appreciate that I have choices that eventually define my life – choices about where to live, with whom to live, what to do with my time, and even who to talk with. Slaves do not have those choices.

In this passage in Romans, Paul makes it clear that we have a choice to make about who we belong to – who our owner is. Will it be sin or righteousness?

As I get older, I’m becoming more and more aware the reality of this principle. The wonderful strength and optimism (and dare I say arrogance?) of youth is believing that you are in control of your own choices. And to a degree that is true. The reality, however, is that when those choices involve sin we become bound to that sin. The invisible cords that keep us attached to that sin are as real as any visible thing that places boundaries in your life. More real, actually. The more we sin, the more tightly those cords are bound.

When we choose Christ those cords are broken. We have the power to untangle them and walk in freedom. They have been cut and we can walk freely. Better yet, we can run and jump and play freely. Each time we choose righteousness, we step further and further away from the cords gaining more freedom.

Each time we choose to sin, however, we allow the enemy to tie knots in those cords that had been cut and begin to re-establish the bonds from which Christ freed us. Every step back into our old life, every obedience to our old self, is an obedience to our old slave master, sin. Every step toward our new life and in our new self are steps in obedience to our new master, Jesus who is righteousness.

Joshua gave the challenge well after the Israelites had entered the Promised Land and shortly before his death:

¹⁴“Now therefore revere the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness; put away the gods that your ancestors served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. ¹⁵Now if you are unwilling to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”
Joshua 24:14-15

Joshua was choosing righteousness and freedom. Paul was exhorting the Romans for choosing righteousness over sin. What sin easily besets you, friend? May I encourage you to choose righteousness in that area today? Walk away from the cords that Satan wants to bind you with. Jesus has cut them off and given you the power to choose to walk in freedom from sin – choose righteousness today.