Look

Have I mentioned that I love the books of the prophets?  Today's word is "look" and I picked a verse from my favorite book of the Bible.  It's Lamentations 5:1, which says "Remember, O LORD, what has befallen us; look and see our disgrace!" (ESV)


This verse is a reminder that God is the God who sees.  What's interesting is that this verse is inviting God to look upon our disgrace- the very thing we normally try to hide from God and others.  Yet if we are to repent and find healing from God, we have to acknowledge the damage that sin's done in our lives and we have to invite God into it.  It is in telling God how desolate and desperate Israel's situation is and begging for Him to see it that Jeremiah begs the Lord to restore Israel to Himself.  The more I realize the damage sin inflicts in my life, the more I seek God's restoration.


I'm also drawn closer to Christ as I imagine Him praying something similar on the cross.  He bore our shame.  Crucifixion was a disgracelful death and He died that death with a crowd looking at that disgrace.  Our disgrace.  But He took it upon Himself and I'm sure He called on God to look at what was happening to Him and to remember and restore His life.

The Day In Between

Holy Saturday.  It's the day in between death and life.  The day when the harsh, unbelievable realities of the day before began to sink in.  The day when there seemed to be little hope for the future.  A day of confusion and pain.  A day that reminds us just how hopeless we'd be if Jesus had only been crucified and not raised from the dead.  His death is crucial to our salvation and His resurrection is equally as crucial.  There is no hope in death if the promise of new life is not fulfilled.  The time in between is important too.

Throughout our lives, sin will cause many deaths and God will bring about new life. But we will also have to face the time in between.  How we deal with the time in between is crucial to the direction our faith will go.  Will we believe all is hopeless, get angry at God, and lose faith?  Or will we rely on what He has taught us thus far and dare to keep believing against all hope?  There is a reward for this who dare to trust Him even when all seems hopeless- restoration.  The time in between May be the most difficult because it forces us to come to terms with a death brought about by sin.  It's painful.  We often feel powerless. Hope seems to have died.  But His mercies are new each morning.  His plans are to prosper us, not to harm is.  To give us a hope and a future.  He will do something we wouldn't have believed even if we had been told if we will watch and pray.  This is the time that are faith is tested and stretched.  This is where drastic growth can take place.  But all 3 days are crucial to this process.

Life From Death

As usual, we enjoyed a great discussion in my life group tonight.  We have been going through the book of Acts since September.  One of the things that has amazed us is how much the church grew in times of heavy persecution.  Large numbers of people came to Christ even as the people preaching the Gospel suffered hardships many of us here can't even imagine for sharing their faith.  The suffering wasn't a deterrent.  These people wanted Christ.

Should this surprise us, though?  After all, our faith is built on the horrific death of Christ and the hope that comes from Christ defeating death.  The apostles had seen the risen Christ.  They knew death had no power over them.  As the enemy came after their lives, the church only grew.

A similar situation is currently being seen where unimaginable persecution is taking place.  I've read stories about how fleeing from ISIS has allowed Christians to reach people that had previously been unable to reach.  In Niger, the Gospel is spreading after attacks on the Church. The pastors are filled with joy believing that this will lead God's Kingdom to grow.

All of this has shown me that there are two different ways to look at the situation.  One is to look at it as the enemy defeating the church.  The other is to look at it as as God defeating the enemy. The latter is counterintuitive, but Biblical.  I am choosing to believe the latter and think that it will be proven to be true.  Our God is a God who brings life from death. Death is equated to a seed being planted in order that new life and more of it may be brought forth.  I think that is what will happen here.  I think there will be a large harvest that will come from this time when Christian persecution is at a high.

I think we also have roles to play here.  WE are the Church.  WE are being attacked.  Let's be in constant prayer for our brothers and sisters that face persecution.  Some of us might be able to help financially.  There are groups trying to provide for ISIS victims.  There are groups trying to help Christians who may have lost everything in Niger rebuild. The world is more connected than ever.  I think the most amazing thing that could come out of this would be for the Church to stand together in unity in whatever ways possible in the power of Christ.  I think that would make Satan tremble.  Let's do it!

Broken

One of the most powerful communion experiences I've ever had was one Sunday morning during the months before my trip to Niger in 2012.  A song about following Jesus had been song either before or during communion.  Fancy that, a song about following Jesus being sung at church.  Who would have thought?  Anyways, something struck me that morning that going on this trip would mean that I would need to be willing to possibly follow Jesus in having my body broken for the sake of the Gospel.  Not necessarily to the point of death, but nonetheless, this trip would mean subjecting my body to a vaccine that had the potential to be fatal and subjecting it to the possibility of diseases such as malaria.  This moment happened shortly before I received the yellow fever vaccine, the one that can potentially be fatal, and at the very least, typically causes a lot of pain.  It was a moment of surrender.  Of mentally offering my body as a living sacrifice before I was asked to physically do so.  A moment of counting the costs and accepting them.  A moment of choosing to follow Jesus even when it meant my body might be broken, all the while remembering the way that His was broken for me so that I might believe and be saved.  Was I willing to offer mine to whatever might happen on this trip in the hopes that others might believe and be saved because Christ had done the same for me?  I was.  Communion that day felt like my acceptance of that.


I ended up not even experiencing any pain from the yellow fever vaccine.  I was spared from all of the ill effects that came with that.  However, I was not spared from malaria, though I only suffered a minor case thanks to the fact that God had a plan in place that was better than any human plan could have ever been and I was able to start treatment within 7 hours of the symptoms starting.  As afraid as I had been of malaria, I didn't feel any of that fear when I actually had it.  All I felt was a peace that surpassed understanding.  I knew it was a risk, but because I entered that risk knowing that I was following God, I felt Him very near to me when the symptoms hit.  I wouldn't trade the moments I had with God at that time for anything; they are some of the most precious I've ever experienced.


Fast forward to communion on Ash Wednesday 2015.  A time to remember God's body being broken for us.  The communion I just mentioned flashed through my memory.  But this time, so did the image of 21 bodies that were recently broken for the sake of the Gospel- the 21 Christians that were recently killed by ISIS.  Thoughts of all the bodies broken for the sake of the Gospel in the middle east and in other countries such as Burma, China, and North Korea just to name a few.  I've read that Christian persecution is at an all time high.


During worship, Romans 12:1 was shown on the screen.  "Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship."  Although we may not all be called to literally offer our bodies as a sacrifice to be broken perhaps unto death, but Paul certainly meant for us to be willing to go that far.  He was.  Many brothers and sisters today all over the world are doing so. 


The question that remains in my mind is  is, what am I going to do with a faith so precious that the body of the One and Only Most High was broken for it?  That countless others have given their bodies to be broken for?


This is how I want to respond: "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,  fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart." (Hebrews 12:1-3)


Ours is a faith that's worth giving everything for, because our God already gave everything for us.  We are promised that he who loses His life shall find it.  We are told that the death of God's saints is precious in His sight.  We are given the hope that not only was Christ's body broken, but it was raised back to life and can no longer be broken and that the same will someday be true for us.  There is a battle being fought that will leave us broken, but as Easter reminds us, Christ took on our brokeness in order to make us whole.  It is this hope that allows us to endure temporary brokeness and perservere while we wait to be made whole with Him.