powerless before the storm

“Can you lift up your voice to the clouds,

that a flood of waters may cover you?

Can you send forth lightnings, that they may go

and say to you, ‘Here we are’?”

Job 38:34-35

When the storms come, God knows exactly what He is doing. The winds blow, the rains pour, and the lightning all strikes at His command. I can only observe the power of the storm. God is the One Who directs it. I am powerless before the fury of the storm. God is powerful over the storm.

So when the winds blow, when lightning strikes and thunder crashes and the deluge soaks the world from above, I will remember my place. I am a frail man at the mercy of God Who controls all things... even the path of the storm. By His control the earth is watered and the storm powerfully moves across the landscape, providing nourishing rain, and sometimes rearranging the earth and the lives upon it... all at the Creator’s control. It teaches me to respect the mighty power of God.

“There’s no a plant or flow’r below

but makes Thy glories known;

And clouds arise, and tempests blow,

by order from Thy throne;

While all that borrows life from Thee 

is ever in Thy care;

And everywhere that man can be,

Thou, God, art present there.”

— Isaac Watts

engaging memory for God’s glory

I remember the days of old;

I meditate on all that you have done;

I ponder the work of your hands.

Psalm 143:5

I remember. It is good to remember God and what He is doing in the world. Part of the reason I journal is that in writing down my reflections upon scripture, I remember what God is doing. I can go back to “days of old” (that started in 1981 with my journaling in high school) and can read and remember how far God has taken me. And with 100 journals now on my shelves, that is a lot of “hard evidence” for God’s work in my life. It is good to remember the past work of God.

I meditate. But remembering is just the start. I also need to actively think on just how greatly God has worked in my life. And that involves the process of meditation. I fill my mind with the word of God while remembering what God has done. This is one reason why I choose to frame my journaling around scripture. This is not a diary of events or a calendar agenda that I choose to remember when I journal. It is deeper. These are the thoughts and events and work of God that He is doing to shape my soul! I meditate on scripture and God’s activity in my life to gain an eternal perspective on the here and now.

I ponder. From that scriptural saturation, I can ponder what God has made of this life. And in that insight I am grateful. I should not have the joys, the blessings, the leadership, or the responsibilities I have based solely on my natural talents. These are instead, all gifts from God... blessings that have come from the sanctifying work of His Son, His Spirit, and His Word. I ponder what He has made of this life... I am humbled and worshipful. God gets the glory.

all are naked and exposed

For his eyes are on the ways of a man,

and he sees all his steps.

There is no gloom or deep darkness

where evildoers may hide themselves.

Job 34:21-22

You cannot hide from God. You can reject Him. You can scoff at the thought of His existence. You can try to explain away good and evil as psychological constructs created by humans for social order. You can do all this, and smugly go on about your life, but You will not hide from God Who knows and sees and understands it all. No evil hides from His scrutiny. No righteous deed is unknown. God sees every step and every blunder and every spark of His image in us.

And this all knowing, all seeing God holds us to His standard of holiness. We fall far short. He is thus our judge. This is implicit in the biblical teaching that God sees all our ways and that we cannot hide from Him. It is as early in human history as the first fig leaf reaction hiding in the garden after the Fall. It is as current as “stealth browsing” and VPN’s on our electronics. Yet no matter how much we may cover our tracks, we will all be responsible to God. He holds each human being responsible for his or her actions. This is an inescapable reality according to the scriptures. No one gets a pass on the explanation of every action. No one can do evil and hide it from God, though no other human may ever know.

The New Testament amplification of this truth is Hebrews 4:13: “And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” And this calls us to hold fast our confession because our Great High Priest, Jesus, know how we struggle with temptation and gives us His mercy and grace so we don’t have to live in the consequences of our sin any longer (Hebrews 4:14-16).

lowly

For though the Lord is high, he regards the lowly,

but the haughty he knows from afar.

Psalm 138:6

God sees the humble

from His heavenly home

and reaches to them

to call them His own

Though on high in heaven

God is moved in love

to reach to the lowly

and lift them above

For a humble sinner

in repentant prayer

is heard by the Savior

and rescued there

But a proud hypocrite

who cannot repent

cannot be saved by God

nor know the Son He sent

Humble faith is what

God always receives

and the needy soul

in Christ believes

why you can’t accuse God

For he is not a man, as I am, that I might answer him,

that we should come to trial together.

Job 9:32

You cannot charge God with any wrong. He is holy and perfect, sovereign and all powerful. And we are fallen, imperfect, broken sinners who suffer in a broken and fallen world. Job knew this and did not resist it. He knew that only God is God. And Job had no power, no priviliges, no joy unless God was its source. He knew this before his great suffering. He affirmed it in his suffering.

The thing about God that we may struggle through the most in hard times is this very observation that God is not a man. He doesn’t fit into human terms and conditions. He cannot be evaluated by human systems. He cannot ever be wrong. He cannot be measured in our ways. Our finite minds are limited when it comes to comprehending Him. All we know of Him, He has revealed to us and we must accept it by faith. Only God is God.

What Job knew in ancient trial is still true today. God is in control. He is God and we are not. And submission by faith to His ways and His will are the best ways for us to be human. The good news is that He has sent His Son to save us from it all. God Himself suffered unimagineable under human injustice, carrying all human sin, so that we might know the love of God in Christ. He may be hard to understand, but God is loving and accessible through Jesus and in Jesus we see God and know Him. And that erases all the vast distance between a holy God and sinful humanity.

thanks to the Lord

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,

for his steadfast love endures forever.

Psalm 136:1

Thank You, Lord

for all the good gifts

of my life

for saving my soul

to eternal life

for life and breath

for food and drink

for all I have

I thank You, Lord

Thank You, Lord

for all You are

to my soul

by Your grace

making me whole

for grace and peace

sin’s death release

I thank You, Lord

Thank You, Lord

for Your faithful love

found in Christ

for Jesus

Who is life

for a Savior’s grace

Who always loves us

I thank You, Lord

from reprieve to ruin

For the Lord is restoring the majesty of Jacob

as the majesty of Israel,

for plunderers have plundered them

and ruined their branches.

Nahum 2:2

God would restore His plundered people in the judgment of Assyria and Ninevah would fall. That’s right, the same Ninevah that God spared when they repented at the preaching of Jonah was later judged as described here in the prophetic oracles of Nahum. God was doing this to bring glory to Himself and bring justice for His people. It wasn’t that God changed His mind capriciously between the two different prophets. Rather, it is that Ninevah hardened itself against God and would reap the consequences of its own cruelty. Just as Israel was plundered and ruined, so Assyria would fall.

Ninevah had a gracious reprieve under Jonah’s preaching. But by the time of Nahum, the brief revival of respect for Yahweh was gone. And ruin was God’s decree now. The nation that once prided itself on a brutal and efficient murdering army would itself be invaded and brutalized. Chariots would race through the city chasing people down in the haste of the invading army to plunder Assyria’s wealth. What would be left? Only desolation and smoking ruin (see Nahum 2:10).

When God has His day of judgment, no one can stop it. And the past is irrelevant to the present relationship with God. He calls people to believe, know, and worship Him NOW! A past of faithfulness won’t save a generation from His judgment if their present is only faithfulessness and unbelief! And His judgment is meant to call sinners back to faith, so that futures might be fixed on Him and His mercy, grace, and provision.

calmed and quieted

But I have calmed and quieted my soul,

like a weaned child with its mother;

like a weaned child is my soul within me.

Psalm 131:2

Peace is known when hope in God is experienced by faith and trust in God’s Word. We know a calming rest, a work of God’s Spirit in our hearts when we truly trust God. Our souls can be calmed and quieted. We can know a remarkable, amazing calm as we rest in the hope of eternal life through the work of Jesus Christ.

No matter what happens to me, in life or in death, my soul is at rest because of Christ. he carried my griefs and my sorrows to the cross, so I might know His peace by faith. He bore my sins so I might have forgiveness and eternal life.

Really, what can shake my world if this is what I know in Christ? I can be at peace, no matter what the future holds, because my final future is at rest with Christ. I can be as trusting as a small child with its mother. I have been calmed and quieted by my Lord’s love. And that peace will never end!

ruling the assembly of the lame

In that day, declares the Lord,

I will assemble the lame

and gather those who have been driven away

and those whom I have afflicted;

and the lame I will make the remnant,

and those who were cast off, a strong nation;

and the Lord will reign over them in Mount Zion

from this time forth and forevermore.

Micah 4:6-7

God’s beauty and grace shine through those who are broken. His power is given to the lame and He gathers a strong nation made up of refugees. He brings the homeless sojourners into His new home and those who limp along are assisted by His power as He reigns in restoration. This promise from Micah the prophet to the nation of Israel is that God would rebuild what His judgment had torn down. He would regather what He had scattered. He would forever rule those who had once rejected Him.

But the people that God would do this with would not be a proud, self-sufficient people who made themselves better by their own efforts. These people would be weak and helpless. They would be lame and homeless. They would need God, and God would not only rescue them, but He would regather them into a strong nation and forevermore reign over all the earth among them from Zion. This future hope will fully honor the covenants God made with Abraham, with Israel, and with David.

Jesus fulfills the covenants, as a son of Abraham, son of Israel, son of David, and the Son of God. And there will come a day when in the new heavens and the new earth He rules everything, fully acknowledged as King of kings and Lord of lords. And He shall reign forever and ever. Amen.

God blesses hard work.

Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord,

who walks in his ways!

You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands;

you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you.

Psalm 128:1-2

The blessing of the Lord is not a passive experience. It comes most often in the day to day diligent work that we do. We don’t sit back in the old Lazy Boy recliner and just wait for God to bless our inactivity. No... we work and God blesses. That has always been God’s plan for people. When Adam and Eve were first created sinless in God’s original creation, they were put into a garden and instructed to work in it. Work is part of God’s plan for us and is not a curse upon us! God blesses the labor of our hands.

I was raised to respect hard work by a blue-collar dad who wore himself out with physical labor. He was a dock worker, truck driver, and union man. Growing up, we were never rich, but we certainly weren’t poor. God blessed his hard work. That example has been my own model, and even though my life has had a different trajectory, I have been motivated by what I experienced, growing up to work hard, at times doing physical labor without complaint... not afraid to work two jobs when needed, and for most of my adult life now going into three decades of ministry vocation, serving the church through the hard work of pastoring.

Generally speaking, God has blessed this hard work. My family also is neither poor, nor wanting, but not what Americans would call rich. In global terms however, we are wealthy. And I know it and want to give back accordingly. Never in the Burch house had there been a worry about food, shelter, or clothing. For that I am thankful. And though there are times we may feel stressed more than blessed, God is always faithful to get us through!

God’s judgment is not a laughing matter.

But do not gloat over the day of your brother

in the day of his misfortune;

do not rejoice over the people of Judah

in the day of their ruin;

do not boast

in the day of distress.

Obadiah 12

In this short prophetic message of Obadiah, God warns the people of Edom that their destruction is sowing. Part of their judgment would be the ironic result of their own mockery of Judah’s fall. God doesn’t care for it when we make light of another person’s downfall. All the comedy clubs in Edom had bits about Jerusalem’s ransack. But God would not let them laugh over the destruction and judgment that befell Judah. Edom would not get to laugh untouched by judgment themselves.

God’s work is serious business and when He brings judgment upon sin it is not something we should applaud, no matter how much we have longed to see or how notorious the sinner. It should grieve us when bad consequences come as the result of sinful choices. We do not rejoice at the ruin of an enemy. We should not boast over sin’s destructive effects as the justice of God falls on another, especially since we ourselves are sinners equally deserving of judgment by God.

And in the cross of Christ all judgment on sin was taken. So when I see that as the place where sin is judged, I cannot gloat over any other person’s sin misery. It should sadden me. It isn’t right to laugh at such pain. It isn’t a gospel focus. It is sin itself and in a way it makes light of Jesus’ sacrifice. Instead, I must grieve that all sin deserves the wrath of God poured out on Christ on the cross. Jesus took that for me, for everyone, in His death. And I don’t laugh, but cry in my soul, grieving that cost.

a prayer from the good and upright

Do good, O Lord, to those who are good,

and to those who are upright in their hearts!

Psalm 125:4

This is a prayer in keeping with the covenant, asking God to remember the blessing that should come to His people as they worship the Lord and obey His law. It was part of a song that was sung by Israelites as they journeyed to Jerusalem and ascended the Temple Mount on holy days and feasts. So being mindful of the covenant with this prayer in song would become something of a family tradition in each generation.

This prayer for God to be faithful to His Word is readily answered. God will do this. He never lies. He always is beyond faithful to His promises. So the reason for this prayer was more for the people that it was for God. The song pulled people into an awareness of their obligations to the Law. They were to do good so that God would do good to them. They were to be upright of heart to know the blessing of God.

Now God has given us what is greater than the Law... we have Jesus. And in the freedom of the gospel we have Christ’s righteousness applied to us so we may now please Him by doing good. He has made our hearts upright before the Lord. We remember Him in our prayers and seek to live in what He has saved us to do... created to do good works and to worship our Lord.

kings we crave

Where now is your king, to save you in all your cities?

Where are all your rulers—

those of whom you said,

“Give me a king and princes”?

I gave you a king in my anger,

and I took him away in my wrath.

Hosea 13:10-11

One of the root sources of Israel’s idolatry was the nation’s constant clamor to God to have a king over them “like all the other nations”. They coveted a king, and God would eventually let them have what they craved to their own hurt. 1 Samuel 8 chronicles the history of this craving. And although God warned them against the consequences of having a king, the nation selfishly demanded one to rule over them. And God let them have their desire, designing it as a kind of judgment upon them.

Having a king could have drawn them closer to God as their true King. Most of the time it did not do so. There were, however, a few bright spots under David and Solomon, perhaps later also with Josiah and Hezekiah, where imperfect men were used by God in this way. Yet for the most part the kings of Israel and Judah led the nation away from God and not toward worship and the keeping of the covenant. The problem was that kings are imperfect sinners just like those whom they rule. They could never lead perfectly.

Eventually both Israel and Judah fell into deep, immoral, unrepentant idolatry, heavily influenced by wicked kings. And the wrath of God would be revealed through the prophets, warning the nation of the curses of the Law coming upon them and their evil kings. As this went unheeded, God’s wrath eventually brought destruction, with the kings being the worst to suffer. Israel was decimated, never to exist as a group of people with a king over them in Samaria. Ten tribes were totally wiped out. Judah also was taken captive, never to see another king ruling in Jerusalem without some sort of foreign power behind the throne. Until Jesus rules from David’s throne again, this judgment will stand. God will rid his people of the false kings they crave.

looking up

To you I lift up my eyes,

O you who are enthroned in the heavens!

Psalm 123:1

Sometimes all I can do is look up, because what is going on in my life in the horizontal dimension needs to be understood in the light of God’s rule in the vertical dimension. I am prone to easily confuse the two. That is why I need the Word of God and the Spirit of God to keep me looking up in prayer! I struggle with thinking that the stuff of my life, the people in my life, or the difficulties of my life are all that there is to life. Or I may place the kind of vertical trust that should go only to God on something that is on this earth. And that is why I need to lift my eyes to God in worship, faith, and prayer.

Looking up cures my soul from any improper ruling idolatry. Looking up provides insight. Looking up humbles my “always ready to assert itself” pride. Looking up shows me wisdom that I need. Looking up focuses my soul upon desiring God. Looking up helps me live for the glory of my King enthroned in the heavens, and my Savior at work in my heart.

And so, with proper humility and with repentance, I look to You, my God. You know my need. You know my failures. You know how my foolish soul is prone to wander. And so I trust Your Word as You call me to look to You! Forgive my failings. Forgive my sinful fixations on the temporal and pull me toward a love for Your eternal grace and mercy!

Amen

God will get my attention.

I will return again to my place,

until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face,

and in their distress earnestly seek me.

Hosea 5:15

God takes it seriously when His people do not take Him seriously. The prophet Hosea has been repeatedly warning Israel and Judah that their idolatry is bringing the judgment of God. And this coming judgment was going to be swift and brutal, bringing desolation and pain to jar the Jews back to a knowledge of God again. In the previous context the LORD describes Himself as a rampaging young lion, attacking and striking fear in the hearts of the disobedient.

And now at the end of the fifth chapter of Hosea, God is still the lion, but now He has returned to His den, awaiting the response of His people to the judgment that has come upon them. There is a four-fold expectation from God for how His people will respond: 1) that they would confess their guilt to Him, knowing their sin. 2) that they would seek the LORD again for forgiveness and in worship. 3) that their souls would be in distress. 4) that their hearts would be genuinely repentant as they return to earnestly seek the LORD.

God will get our attention when we drift from Him. And my soul can be just as idolatrous as those of Israel. I may not pray to a carved image, but I can easily worship the stuff of my culture that is offered to me as a god-substitute. Money, position, privilege, leisure, health, or the admiration of others all clamor for my soul’s affection. And I must diligently guard my heart through soul-audits, confession, seeking forgiveness, and living in grace!

Keeper

The Lord will keep you from all evil;

he will keep your life.

The Lord will keep

your going out and your coming in

from this time forth and forevermore.

Psalm 121:7-8

Eight times in eight verses this psalm emphasizes the Lord’s protection with the word “keep”. God keeps His people. None are lost. None are unsafe. The Lord’s protection of His people is non-stop. God doesn’t sleep on the job, nor does He look away from us (Psalm 121:3-4).

When God keeps us, He provides protective care. He shades us from heat that could wither us (Psalm 121:5-6). He will protect us from the evil that Satan has planned against us (Psalm 121:7). God will spare our lives from what the enemy wants to use to destroy us (Psalm 121:7).

God keeps us safe in our daily business and guards our travels by His grace (Psalm 121:8). At every level: day or night, sun or shade, rain or shine, good or evil, at home or on a journey, the LORD will protect those who are His own. This provides security and hope for us no matter what we may face.

In the gospel we have the deepest protection of all. Jesus saves us from evil and the worst that sin can do to us by delivering us from death’s sting and saving us from eternal punishment. Jesus is our cooling shade. Jesus has beaten hell and all the Devil’s schemes. Jesus is with us every day and His grace fills each hour. Jesus sends us into each day and throughout the world with His saving gospel message. Thank God... Jesus is our keeper!

fruitful Word

For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven

and do not return there but water the earth,

making it bring forth and sprout,

giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,

so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;

it shall not return to me empty,

but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,

and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

Isaiah 55:10-11

God’s Word will always accomplish God’s purpose. When God says something, it is guaranteed. He will send out His Word through and to His people to bless their lives like a needed rain. The Word of God will nourish life and cause growth. It will feed hungry souls. It will never be just empty words that never accomplish anything.

It is springtime and I love a rain storm! The rains are life-giving and awe-inspiring all at the same time. The winds and the rains bring life out of the earth, even as they shake everything in the storm. In just a few days everything suddenly greens and blooms. It is marvelous.

And the same process occurs spiritually with scripture. Sometimes it thunders in with straight line winds, shaking my soul to the foundation before the rains pour. Other times the Word of God is a gentle shower bringing the water of life to my parched soul. I need both experiences regularly. It is how God is accomplishing His purposes in me.

Thank You, God, for Your Word! Let it fall on my dryness and bring me back to life. May Your will be done as Your Word speaks. I will listen, follow, and love what You say!

Amen

light for my path

Your word is a lamp to my feet

and a light to my path.

Psalm 119:105

God’s Word is truly the lamp of my life. I am not disappointed that from my childhood this has been the case. I may have had individual Christians discourage me. I may have been frustrated by churches and imperfect human-derived theological pronouncements. But God’s Word, living and powerful, with the amazing strength of simple text inspired by the Holy Spirit, as I have read and understood it plainly, has emboldened, empowered, strengthened, rebuked, encouraged, and amazed me! It do not regret making a daily habit of starting my days in its pages. I have lived here and hope to always do so!

That daily saturation illumines my thinking and hopefully changes my actions. The Word of God is my light. God shows me what I should be and do through the Bible’s multi-faceted message. And from the first page revealing God as my Creator, to its last page revealing Jesus as my King Who is coming soon... all the story points to my need of a Savior and a Sovereign in Jesus. Submitting to His rule over me by living in the light of God’s Word is the daily purpose of my life.

Waking up early to light scripture’s lamp and place myself under the Bible’s authority is the best way to start every day. God speaks here... loudly, boldly, encouragingly, and clearly. And as I apply what He says in the Bible, I know Jesus, love Jesus, learn to follow Jesus as the Word lights each step of the way.

Jesus,

Thank You for Your Word and that You are the Word made flesh. In the Bible I see You, behold Your glory, walk with You, and learn to love and follow You.

Amen

Don’t fear people.

“Listen to me, you who know righteousness,

the people in whose heart is my law;

fear not the reproach of man,

nor be dismayed at their revilings.

For the moth will eat them up like a garment,

and the worm will eat them like wool;

but my righteousness will be forever,

and my salvation to all generations.”

Isaiah 51:7-8

We tend to put more stock in what we see than in what we know we should believe. That is why the warning and encouragement of this passage exists. It is easy to fear what people can do, because after all, we live in human society every day of our lives. And there are some powerful people in the world. But God is always more powerful since they are placed under His design. And many of those powerful men have crumbled like moth-eaten clothing by the just hand of God.

This is one reason why Christian involvement in culture and politics is quite cautious and not an ultimate aim. Our priority is God’s glory, and to live for that in human culture is why we are here. But to live in some way serving human efforts first and foremost will always fail. We will fear man instead of God and thus waste efforts when human achievement decays and crumbles.

Fearing and serving God builds a life that lasts. God’s righteousness outlasts human culture because God is forever. God’s salvation extends to all people in all generations, far beyond the confining limits of human culture or political accomplishments.

I will not fear the reproach or revilings of people as I choose to invest my life in Your eternal, far-reaching, perfect salvation, O Lord!

Oh My King!

Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him. And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head and arrayed him in a purple robe. They came up to him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and struck him with their hands.

John 19:1-3

Jesus, my King, was mocked and beaten by those He came to save so that salvation might be accomplished once for all. As I read of what was done to Him, my tendency is to think “How could they do this to the God Who made them?” But then I remember that my sins put Jesus through all this. There is a sense then in which my voice mocks and my hands strike Jesus in my sin.

It was the Father’s will for the Son to suffer so much for the sins of the world. This is just the beginning of what it took to put an end to the penalty of our sins and take the sting from death. And looking just at the scourging and mocking, I cringe at the price of my sin. But from this point on in The Passion, each step with the cross, marching toward His death, every second of His suffering at Calvary, was borne for us all so that sin could be done away.

And in this good news that Christ died for our sins, we find new life. From our beaten and mocked King come power over hell and death for He is our Savior! By His shed blood sin is atoned and guilt is taken away. In His resurrection is new life... eternal life... joyful life in Him right now! And all this my King freely gives to everyone who will believe! Oh my King! Oh my Savior! Oh my blessed God!