God of storms and souls

He said to them, “Where is your faith?” And they were afraid, and they marveled, saying to one another, “Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?”

Luke 8:25

Jesus showed His controlling authority over the raging storm. The disciples are afraid. Most of them were fishermen. They had spent a lot of time in boats on this same lake. They knew how to handle wind and rough water. They had seen storms. But this time they were very scared. The wind and waves were strong enough that despite their experience and best efforts, the boat was quickly filling with water. It was turning into a survival situation.

The disciples do the very best thing possible in that moment. They turn to Jesus in their crisis. They are helpless and admit their great need. And Jesus changes the situation in an instant. With one rebuke, the winds and swamping waves cease. An immediate, unexpected calm settles in. And in that calm Jesus asks one penetrating question that rocks the souls of His men: "Where is your faith?"

The impact of that statement in the miracle calm out of the chaos has the affect of wondering fear falling on His disciples. They had a faithless fear in the storm, but now a holy, bewildered fear filled them in the calm. They just witnessed a powerful miracle where Jesus rebuked a storm. And the same God over the storm, calmly turned His penetrating gaze on them and rebuked their lack of faith. That is why they were afraid. The God Who rebukes storms also rebukes souls.

the treasure chest in our chests

The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.

Luke 6:45

Jesus is the best authority on human motivation and behavior. And Luke's account of Jesus teaching in His "sermon on the plain" shows the wisdom and convicting insights that Jesus gives us. Who better to know us than our Creator? Who better to point out our biggest flaws and deepest need than our Savior? Jesus knows why we do what we do. We live and love from our hearts.

The heart, or inner man (or whatever you wish to call the immaterial part of us that is the sum of our thoughts, feelings, and will) is what drives our outward actions. The heart guides our speech. The heart moves our activity. In simple terms I see it this way... I do the things that I think about. And the evidence of that is in my life for all to see. Jesus says this with all confidence, declaring that good trees bring forth good fruit, implying that the impact of what each life produces will come directly from the outflow of the heart.

Jesus describes how the heart works with the compelling word "treasure". We hold our motivations as valued personal treasure deep within us. If we store up negative, sinful thoughts and feelings in the treasure box of the heart, sin will spill out as we speak and act. But if we fill up that same treasure chest in our chests with what is good, with God's truth and holy commitments, allowing Christ to remake us on the inside, our lives will show the good that Jesus is to the world.

Lord,

I pause to place this valuable truth into my treasure chest today. May I let my mind ponder this simple but vital truth from Your lips so that I may treasure what is good. From that, would You by Your grace and Holy Spirit produce good in what I say and do today?

Amen

God and sleepless nights

I said, “Let me remember my song in the night;

let me meditate in my heart.”

Then my spirit made a diligent search:

Psalm 77:6

Sometimes remembering God's grace and love is hard when life circumstances overwhelm us. Psalm 77 calls us to not let difficulties tempt us to run away from God, but rather to let the worries, pains, and cares force us to consciously remember God. It is written because of an anxious, sleepless night (Psalm 77:4). But even then, this scripture shows how remembering in that moment what God does can get us through such hard times.

It begins with an uncomfortable experience. Sometimes remembering hurts as God seems to be at a distance (Psalm 77:1-3). In those moments faith cries out from the soul as it seeks God (Psalm 77:1-2a), but then feelings confuse the soul leading to pain and confusion (Psalm 77:2b-3). The Psalmist (Asaph) lacks comfort, expresses sorrow, and feels weak, doing the best thing by telling God exactly how he feels.

Continuing in this process, the psalm tells us that remembering not only hurts, but haunts as unanswered questions shake our souls (Psalm 77:4-9). In a fitful, comfortless night there are a litany of questions fired at God in the sleeplessness: 1) Will You turn away forever and never again show favor? 2) Has Your grace ceased? 3) Are Your promises done? 4) Have You forgotten to show grace? 5) Has Your anger shut down Your love?

The questions are shot out without aiming, rapid fire toward God. But God can handle our troubled thoughts as shown in how the psalm then turns...

The psalm comforts us by showing how remembering heals, as we focus on God's wonders and works (Psalm 77:10-20). Asaph writes down a process where he chose to believe the facts about God, despite his feelings. He turned to the truth (Psalm 77:10). From there a growing stability took root, resulting in firm conviction based on the facts of Who God is and what God does (Psalm 77:11-20). It is all centered on five things God does that nobody else can do, and they match well against the five disturbing questions fired at God earlier. 1) The uniqueness of God's work in the world (Psalm 77:11-12). 2) The uniqueness of God's person in His holiness and power (Psalm 77:13). 3) The uniqueness of God's revelation (Psalm 77:14). 4) The uniqueness of God's salvation (Psalm 77:15). and 5) The uniqueness of God's relationship with His people (Psalm 77:16-20).

So when God seems distant, the best thing to do is to drill down by faith and choose to trust His faithful past. He will lead us again in trust, in praise, and to joy.

to know and be known

I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.

John 10:14-15

Jesus know His "sheep" (and one of them is me) like no other shepherd knows sheep. Jesus employed the terminology of shepherding to answer His enemies who wanted a very different Messiah than He was. He explained that unlike other parties who might be interested in sheep (thieves, hired hands, wolves), He alone was the good shepherd.

The audience to whom Jesus spoke knew all about shepherding, probably much better than must of us do today. And they knew sheep required constant care... that shepherds got to know their flocks well as they tended to them. The sheep were comfortable only with their own shepherd and would not follow strangers.

Jesus builds on this to explain that the way He knows His sheep, the relationship He builds with us, is stronger. He brings an intimate friendship to His flock. It is a relationship just like the one that He enjoys with the Father. That's what makes Him the "Great Shepherd".

Several times in John 10 Jesus emphasizes that as the "Great Shepherd", He will lay down His life for His Sheep. What's more, He will die and rise again for us. Unlike any earthly shepherd who might risk life but would not die for a flock (after all, if the shepherd dies, the sheep will scatter and the predator will win) Jesus would die, rise again, and bring His flock together, obeying His Father by so doing.

As one of Jesus' flock, I am known and I know Him. I am led by my Great Shepherd. I know Jesus, and in seeking to know Him, I know the Father. I am comforted by His Shepherd's staff, the cross that He bore for me. Because He willingly laid down His life and took it up again I can have life and have it to the fullest! That is why I will follow Jesus.

sin = death

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins

Ephesians 2:1

The gospel is a slap in the face to my self-centered ego. To believe the gospel is to accept my own inability and gross condition. I am by nature a dead man. I was born spiritually dead in my sin. I was in need of real life. Dead people can do nothing but rot as death controls them. And spiritually, before I came to Jesus, I was in that helpless, decaying, stinking state.

So I ask myself a simple question today: Do I see sin as death? I mean, do I view it from its spiritual reality? I have to confess that when I sin (which is all too much), I am not seeing real sin for what it is -- a rotten stench on me as a corpse. I dress up anger, or pride, or sensuality, or any of their limitless variations. I apply heavy makeup to the zombie's dried skin and act like the skeleton of a corpse of sin is outrageously fun and attractive. But if I really own what sin is, I must see it as death.

There's a huge mental advantage for me in this reality of embracing the equation here of (sin = death). Honestly, I don't want to physically die. I naturally am reluctant to deal with my own death. And that's exactly what advantages me to see sin as death. If I believe that sin is indeed death, I'll stay clear from it for the same reasons I don't want to consume rat poison! I don't want death... I want life.

Thank God that even as I was once a dead man, He sent His Son to die and to rise again, so that by faith I might be made alive again by trusting in what Jesus has done. In Jesus I am a living man once again, not dead in sin, regret, guilt, and shame, but resurrected to walk a whole new life... fresh skin on live bones. I was dead. Now Jesus lives and gives me life.

When God seems silent

We do not see our signs;

there is no longer any prophet,

and there is none among us who knows how long.

Psalm 74:9

Asaph mourns for a nation that is without any light. Written in the situation of the destruction of the temple, probably during Babylon's invasion of Jerusalem, the viewpoint of this psalm is bleak. It is a lament. It is a song of weeping sung to the music of tears.

In verse nine Asaph laments not just the loss of the temple building itself, but the loss of any communication from the Lord. God has gone silent. And this was the hardest part of the situation to understand. The nation did not see God at work (there were no signs), did not hear from God (no prophet), and had no knowledge from God to understand their present pain (no one knows how long). It was an awful place to be... aware of sin and judgment and feeling so distant from God.

Yet, I notice that even as God seemed to give only silence toward them, they were not silent in respect to God. The judgment of God brought them back, in pain and with unanswered heartache, but back nonetheless in prayer to the Lord. And that may be the best strategy for dealing with the silence of God. If God seems far away (though really He is not) go after Him in prayer and pursuit of Him. Seek the Lord. Cry out to Him. Let Him know you are longing to see His hand at work, hear His voice in His Word, and know His will in the circumstances of your life. You will worship, and will find He answers such prayer!

near to God despite frustration

But for me it is good to be near God;

I have made the Lord God my refuge,

that I may tell of all your works.

Psalm 73:28

Asaph wrote about the vital importance of cultivating a heart close to the Lord. He needed to do so in worship because life can easily skew the believer's perspective. The psalmist begins the 73rd Psalm with a theological assurance: God is good to the nation of Israel and to sincerely worshipful and obedient individuals (Psalm 73:1). The author then interjects his own confession in verse 2: he came close to stumbling because of his sinful envy of the prosperity of the wicked. He questioned his faith commitments in the light of what seemed to be contradictory evidence. Wicked people seem to live more prosperous lives than the godly. This is a bold journal entry of Asaph's... one I could echo in the age of social media and easy access to what's on display in the lives of all people.

Well nigh half the Psalm is then spent on describing this contradiction (Psalm 73:4-15). Like a well-filtered Instagram album, what Asaph sees in the lives of wicked people has him more than theologically puzzled, it just doesn't seem to make sense that they should be so stinking happy while showing off their sin. He is considering his faith to be fruitless. He sees all his investment in worship and obedience to the Law as wasted (Psalm 73:13). Yet he cannot himself fully resign himself to this contradiction as a sound reason to abandon God. He wisely cautions himself with the reality that a generation will be lost if he does so (Psalm 73:15).

Asaph turns the corner on his doubts and frustrations with one act of worship. His questions drive him to worship and there in God's sanctuary in the nearness of God he saw the end of the wicked. He saw the way in which even the most prosperous wicked person will be judged quickly. And the author repents of the sins of doubt and frustration. Don't think those two things are sins? Asaph said his soul was bitter, he was brutish, ignorant, and beast-like in his attitude. He repented of sinful emotions... yes, sinful emotions. Our feelings can be sinful and must be repented of before God. This psalm leads the way for us in this understanding.

Thankfully, even in Asaph's worst struggle, God is always present. The psalmist is always before the Lord, guided by God's counsel. Even though his heart and flesh failed, God was his strength (Psalm 73:23-26). And in that awareness and with his repentance, he rejoiced to be near God. God was there all along, Asaph is just recognizing it again. And so should I. I need to guard my heart from letting feelings feed contradictions and doubt. I need to be quick to repent of my envy of the wicked and to throw myself into the nearness of my God.