itsawonderfilledlife

Week 3
Faith

Time …

such a valuable resource!

We think that time only exists here, in this life. We think that purpose only lives here. We think that all there is is here and now. We think that today and all of our hopes for today is all that matters. We want our prayers to be answered, people to be healed, families to be happy, troubles to be no more … and we want them now and how we might dream them to be fulfilled.

But, we are myopic … blind as a bat to the bigger story.

Only God himself has a view on the rest of the story (I can hear Paul Harvey’s voice as I write that). Only He knows how the pieces of our lives fit together … with each other. Only He can make beauty from the ashes of our lives.

Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice.
Philippians 4:4

But God asks to live this life, never without Him. And a life with him means a life with joy … that unmistakable joy that has nothing to do with our current circumstances. It is a joy that comes from belief, the faith in Him. When Paul wrote the above words about rejoicing, he was instructing other believers how to live … and his joy-filled message came from prison. This man was in chains. He did not know what any tomorrow had in store for him.

The beautiful hymn It is Well with My Soul, was written our of loss, tragedy and brokenness as Horatio Spafford stood on the deck of a ship sailing to meet up with his wife in England … in the very spot where his four daughters drowned.

though Satan should buffet
though trials should come
let this blest assurance control
that Christ hath regarded my helpless estate
and hath shed his own blood for my soul
it is well
with my soul

His words show us he understood joy in the midst of unspeakable loss. He does not communicate Pollyanna, sugar-coated joy, but an understanding that in his trials, his utter helplessness, Christ had ensured that the state of his soul was solid, secure. Because of this he could still have hope.

“Someday we won’t need to hope. Someday we don’t need courage. Time itself will be wrapped up with a bow, and God will draw us all into the eternal moment where there will be no suffering, no disease, no email.”

Kate Bowler

Advent is all about joy, but it is also all about waiting for someday.

Someday when the pieces of the puzzle come together.
Someday when the misery of the heartache, the loneliness, the torture ends.
Someday when fear is extinguished.
Someday when … Jesus returns

In the meantime … rejoice always!

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Week 3
Faith

All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
-Hebrews 11:13-16

I don’t say this in many social situations, but I love a good funeral.

I love hearing the stories of someone’s life, the footprint that they left on this world, the people they loved, the stories that seem to never be told until after. A good funeral motivates me to live differently … with the end in mind.

In Hebrews there is a hint at the end goal of these heros of the faith.

all these people were still living by faith when they died

The faith they held onto during their lives was in their grasp until their dying breath. But, it is not necessarily because they got to see the fruit of their faith during their lives. They held onto their faith because …

they had faith,
not in the fruit of their lives,
but in God who they trusted
had their lives in the palms of his hands.

CS Lewis spoke of such faith :

“If we find ourselves
with a desire
that nothing in this world can satisfy,
the most probable explanation
is that we were made for another world.”

These heros of faith knew that this earthly walk was temporary, that the greatest life experience was to happen after death (something that is etherial to me). They knew that while here, on this side of heaven, their life was about the One who gave it, so they trusted Him with their todays, their tomorrows.

Years ago, I was feeling quite hopeless about a situation in my life. A wise woman gifted me the following phrase (and I hold tightly to it even now) :

This (today) is not the end … while there is time, there is hope.

And, if I were to add to her words, I would say,

And there is time, even after I take my last breath.

Thank you, God, for the reminder that today is not the end, that your promises go on beyond my life and that the best is truly yet to come.

Amen.

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Week 3
Faith

By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.
-Hebrews 11:17-19

My favorite, most personally challenging biblical example of faith is the one known as Abraham’s test, or Abraham’s sacrifice, or God asks Abraham to sacrifice Isaac.

It is the story of the long-awaited, promised son of Abraham. The one who would bless the nations, the one known as the child of promise. One day God asks Abraham to take Isaac and to go and build an alter for a sacrifice … Isaac to be the one sacrificed (I have written a two-part post about this story. To read it, click the following … God’s Test: Isaac (Part 1) ).

At the last moment, in that moment of the eleventh hour, God provides a ram for the sacrifice … a replacement for Abraham’s son … a replacement for all who have sinned (therefore all of us).

This story of Abraham and Isaac hints at the coming Messiah. It hints at the great cost of the sacrifice that would come, the sacrificial lamb who would be our atonement … the atoning sacrifice for the sin of the world.

I think that beyond the hints at the cost that God paid for us, it is also a parallel story that many of us can relate to (even if we do not want, or do not understand). For we all have loved someone and for those of us who have loved a child, the thought of God asking for the spilled blood of one’s child is unimaginable. For to ask such a thing is too much … it is too great a sacrifice.

Yet … that is what God has done. That is the choice he made to save us. That is what the waiting is for … for the birth of one whose life trajectory was toward humiliation, torture, crucifixion and, ultimately, death …

for us …

Faith costs … it cost God, his son and it costs us in having to accept such sacrifice in humility.

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Week 3
Faith

Hebrews 11 is the faith chapter.

It begins by defining faith for us …

 faith is
confidence in what we hope for 
and assurance about what we do not see.

Then the chapter goes on giving examples of those who were living examples of ones who had faith in God … his promises and plans … above what they could see.

As I write this post, my dog is illustrating another example of faith … faith diminished by fear.

He drinks a significant amount of water each day (thanks to a new ‘special’ food), so I replaced one of his little water dishes (because he has three in the house) for a large one. He is not impressed! For some reason, even though it looks exactly like the previous (except in size) he is scared of it, will not drink out of it.

Earlier this morning, I sat on the bathroom floor (yet again), trying to lure him to it, to show him that it’s contents are indeed familiar and good. I put my finger in the water then moved it near him so he could taste it. Gradually I moved my finger closer and closer to bowl, so that he would have to move toward it to get the water drops. Then I gradually moved treats closer to the bowl. But, each time he would reach an invisible line which he refused to cross.

I decided to try something new today. I placed treats on the rim of the bowl and moved it to where you see it in the image (above), then placed a couple of treats on the opposite side of the bowl. Then, I closed the door (as shown in the pic). I figured he would just leap over the bowl … an easy task for him) or push the door open (again, something he has easily done numerous times in the past).

The thing is he did neither … he moved back and forth by the opening, he moaned, he growled, he stared through the opening longingly … but he was not able to get over, or past. the bowl.

his fear
diminished his faith

As I watched him struggle, I was mesmerized by his fear … perhaps in my pup I saw reflected how my own fears have, at times, held me captive. Situations in all of our lives can cause us to fear, but do stay in our place of fear … even when there is a way out … even when we know we can rest in the security of our faith in God.

Faith in God is a trust in Him even when the doors are shut and it seems there is no way our, except over or through that which we fear the most.

As we are in the waiting of advent, as we consider our faith, I would suggest considering a couple whose faith must have been tested by intense fears …

By faith Joseph,
though unmarried but betrothed (engaged) to Mary,
when he discovered that she was pregnant …
and he knew it was not his child.
Though he planned to divorce her quietly (for betrothal was a legal commitment)
Though the law of land was behind him
and would have supported, encouraged him
to disgrace her, to stone her.
Though he knew that tongues would wag
behind his back,
for the rest of his life,
in his sleepy hometown,
of the sin he had nothing to do with …
He awoke from his revelatory dream of the angel

“Joseph did what the angel of the Lord
had commanded him
and took Mary home as his wife.”
Matthew 1:24

By faith Mary,
though young and unmarried.
Though facing the possibility
of being abandoned by her betrothed, Joseph.
Though facing the possibility of being rejected by
her community,
her friend,
her family.
Though she knew she would surely be
humiliated,
abused,
and disbelieved by all who heard her story.
Though facing the possibility (probability)
of social disgrace, maybe even stoning.
Responded, then lived her words,

“Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.
May it be done to me according to your word.”
Luke 1:38

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Week 3
Faith

Faith is … the substance of things …

Social media had told me to google the words faith is, then see how the sentence is completed, and the above is how my sentence was finished.

the substance of things …

Perhaps (probably) I had been googling what faith is at some point and the technology remembered my search. Whatever the case that led Google to complete my sentence I like it. Mainly I like it because the sentence is still not complete.

Faith is the substance of things … it is like saying faith is the stuff of stuff.

What Google is leading me to is the well-known verse in Hebrews 11:1 :

Now faith is the substance of things
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Faith is what we are hoping for, what we are dreaming of, but is yet to be in our direct sight.

It is a little bit like children waiting for Santa to deliver a special toy at Christmas. This child knows what they want, what they hope for, but it is not yet in their clutches, their possession. They think of it, dream of it, anticipate how life will improve when they have it … but it is still just a dream, just a hoped-for thing. Because they want it so badly, they not only hope, but believe it will one day be theirs … they have faith in it breeds hope.

That is what advent should be for each of us, faith that breeds hope.

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Week 3
Faith

I read a little story … weeks ago (below). It is the story that created within me the desire to return to writing for a season …

for I wanted to hear the music that plays from the darkest place.

God,

In this world we walk through dark places, places filled with sadness, hurt, rejection, loneliness and pain (just a few of the dark and nasties). This is our reality, our experience of being fully human.

But, we also know that we do not walk this life alone, for you sit with us in the darkness. You hold our hands and embrace our pain … as your own.

And, we know, that if you walk into the dark with us, we can trust that your will make something new out of this darkness, that we can trust you to keep your promises to us, that you will bring music out from within our dark valleys.

May me hold tightly to you, trusting all that you say and do. Grow our faith, dear God …

Amen

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.

Hebrews 11:1

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Week 2
The Promise of the Prophets

The long awaited Messiah, the King of the Jews, did not come to Earth as a physical warrior. He came in human form, as a babe … as we all began.

He was innocent, dependent and helpless … yet he was the also the Savior of the world.

This historic Christian doctrine of the divinity of Christ does not simply mean that Jesus is like God.
It is far more radical than that. It means that God is like Jesus.

D. Elton Trueblood

The mystery of this all human, all God birth can muddle the most level of heads. It leaves the most brilliant wondering. It confounds any who dare to pause and consider a babe to be the divine. One cannot entertain this thought without a hallelujah reverberating through our souls.

For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 9:6

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Week 2
The Promise of the Profits

“A voice of one calling in the desert prepare the way of the LORD; Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill brought low; The crooked places shall be made straight and the rough places smooth; The glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

Isaiah 30:3-5

The prophets and prophesies of the coming Messiah were not only in the Old Testament. Isaiah tells of one coming to prepare the way for the coming LORD. This one spoken of is John the Baptist.

John’s first New Testament reference is the angelic announcement to Zechariah, that he and his aged, barren wife Elizabeth were to have a son, who they would name John, The shock of this unbelievable announcement made Zechariah unable to speak for months. The angel continued this birth announcement with regulations for John’s life (aka no alcohol drinking) and this :

“And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” (Luke 1:17)

He was to get people ready, to straighten the path for this coming Messiah.

I think that the most tender evidence of the bond between John and Jesus came when Mary entered the home of Zechariah and Elizabeth, who was about 5 months along.

“When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit” (Luke 1:41).

Mary, not long pregnant, only spoke a greeting, yet Elizabeth’s child within (John) leapt in her womb. In that dark place where John was growing and developing, he saw the light …

And so, as a man, John the Baptist prepared the way for his cousin, his own redeemer, to fulfil the prophesies of old, with the message (that is still for us today) :

repent and be baptized

“I baptize you with water for repentance, but after me will come One more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” Matthew 3:11

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Week 2
The Promise of the Prophets

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign:
The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel

Isaiah 7:14

The prophet, Isaiah, gave the world a hint about the arrival of the new King … he would arrive as all other monarchs before and after him … born, from a woman. In this amazingly common manner of being born :

the physical has brought the eternal
miraculous in the mundane

This king would have an earthly mother. One who would care for him, change his diaper, nurse him, raise and nurture him. She would also be part of the typical, nine month period of waiting for his arrival. That long and aching waiting for her babe to be born … to be delivered …

and her own delivery would come through the one she delivered.

God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus.

He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”
“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month.
For no word from God will ever fail.”
Luke 1:26-37

God chose Mary … she was part of his plan to deliver all of humankind, in love and compassion.

“In Advent, we put all our hope in the sacred blackness of a womb. As we wait, we remind ourselves that darkness (which is far too often reduced to a trite symbol for sin and death), actually has the unique capacity to bear the divine. In Advent, we reclaim the holy dark.”

Cole Arthur Riley

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Week 2
The Promise of the Prophet

Micah 5:2
“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,
though you are small among the clans of Judah,
out of you will come for me
one who will be ruler over Israel,
whose origins are from of old,
from ancient times.”

Bethlehem … meaning house of bread.

The prophet Micah told of the setting of the birth of the highly anticipated ruler of Israel. How interesting that, of all the prophesies regarding the birth of the Messiah, the town is mentioned.

From this small town of Bethlehem (once called Ephrathah) came the Redeemer. But, it is also interesting that this was not the first redeemer from Bethlehem, for years before (but still in the line of Jesus) was Boaz, that kin or relative of Naomi, who married her widowed daughter-in-law, Ruth … becoming their kinsman redeemer, providing them a safe and secure future.

Then, generations later, in that same sleepy town, God allowed his Son to be born. A babe, like that first born of Ruth and Boaz, named Obed. Obed was born to a wealthy and prosperous dad, whose roots were deep in this town. Jesus was born to a poor man (Joseph), a carpenter who was just travelling through … no wealth, no roots.

Yet, in this house of bread rose the one from the stump of Jesse … one with deep roots, the one who came to be known as the very bread of life.

When he had called together
all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law,
he asked them where the Messiah was to be born.

“In Bethlehem in Judea,”

they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:

“‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for out of you will come a ruler
who will shepherd my people Israel.”

Matthew 2:4-6

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