Deceptive / Direction

Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail.

Jeremiah 7:8

It is easy to be taken

by a lie.

When i have put my trust

in the liar.

Some I have heard.

Some I have rejected.

Some I have accepted.

Some I have turned away from.

Yet deceptive words still

can be heard.

“It will never change.”

DECEPTION

“Happiness is gone.”

DECEPTION

“Joy is in things.”

DECEPTION

“Just knuckle down, shut up, and trust yourself.”

DECEPTION

By faith I repent from

lie reception

and seek to put my trust in

The Way, The Truth, and The Life.

His Word I now hear.

His Truth I now accept.

The lies I clearly reject.

His ways show me my way

and deceptive words are known

to fail.

“Follow Me.”

DIRECTION

“Rejoice in Me.”

DIRECTION

“I will give you rest.”

DIRECTION

“I am the resurrection and the life.”

DIRECTION

amazing hope

…having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might…

Ephesians 1:18-19

I write more reflection concerning this past year. As I meditate on this prayer of Paul’s I am encouraged for the days to come. One of the wild discoveries of 2023 for me, the gracious flip side of grief and loss, is the anchoring reality of hope in Christ. There is more hope than I ever dared to imagine there ever could be! What’s more, it is a hope that is brighter than the darkness, more sustaining than my weakness, richer than my losses, more powerful than my powerlessness, and surrounds me with the saints in my loneliness!

These are more than eloquent sentiments from Paul. In my year’s experience, I’ve come to know a kind of hope I’ve always said I believed — a confident expectation in Christ — that has been substantially and tangibly real to me. I have never been much of a mystic. I’m wary of experientialism’s damage to good theology. I have always sought to play down my experience, testing it by the clear facts of scripture. Yet in this year, as overwhelming emotion has literally floored me, driven me often to my knees begging for relief, I have known the light of true hope burning into “the eyes of my heart” (that’s a weird experiential kind of phrase, isn’t it?) just as Paul has prayed here in Ephesians. I’ve seen by faith how Jesus can heal and help my deepest wounds. Trauma that I had buried over four decades in my past resurfaced in bizarre ways but with the help of biblical counsel and care was illuminated by the gospel and was changed into the glory of His story in me. And for that I am grateful well beyond my ability to properly communicate. Hope runs deep! 

Heaven is so real in my hope. God’s power to change is so significantly personal right now. The riches of Christ are a treasure more valuable and more tangible than anything else I have ever owned or known. And all of that is what God has worked in me through disappointment, pain, anger, fear, devotion to the care of another person without holding back, and the loss of what I never in my wildest dreams would have imagined I would lose. The light of hope shines like a floodlight ahead to 2024. There are more rich spiritual experiences and great joys still ahead. With confidence, I will hope!

hope in Christ

…so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.

Ephesians 1:12

As this year winds down I will inevitably reflect on the way 2023 has massively changed my experience. The one big thing though that has not changed and will never change is captured in this prayer of Paul’s: hope in Christ. In that hope I am secure. And the big lesson… the great experience of this past year has been my renewed hope in Jesus Christ. As one new and precious voice has so aptly and graciously been used by God to show me: “God… certainty amid our uncertainties.”

I have real hope. I have known a peace in the raging fury of the storm. I have felt His presence in my aloneness. I have known His mercies in my confusion, anger, doubt, and disbelief. I feel His grace pour over my sins, inabilities, paralysis, and failures. I know His comfort in my loss. I have known how God’s truth has confronted the lies I have believed about my life and this world. His strength has carried me in my weakness. His power has enabled me to go on with each day. His touch heals my hurts. His hand provides all I need. His love fills my needy heart. Yes… I have hope ahead of me and it is all the work of Jesus Christ.

In quite another kind of prayer, Paul was convinced of hope: “…I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me…” (1 Timothy 1:12). Yes, I know Whom I have believed. Yes, I am convinced He will guard all I am, all I have, safely in Him until I too enter eternal dwellings safe in Him. This hope illuminates my view back on 2023 with perspective on the painful parts of the experience and the joy of Jesus right in the center of it all! It also shines a bright light on the mystery and adventure ahead in this coming year!

Lord Jesus,

It is to the praise of Your glory that I thank You for this certainty that You have centered my heart upon for this past year. And in hope of You I face a new year of expectation and confidence in You.

Amen

False love destroys

And you, O desolate one,

what do you mean that you dress in scarlet,

that you adorn yourself with ornaments of gold,

that you enlarge your eyes with paint?

In vain you beautify yourself.

Your lovers despise you;

they seek your life.

Jeremiah 4:30

Craving what all worldlings seek:

acclaim, pleasures,

power, treasures

But these will always reek:

selfishness, need,

ignorance, greed

It is a vain attempt.

And God will not relent.

His justice will burn

as from Him we turn.

“Your lovers despise you!”

As judgment falls on you.

Seeking instead God’s kingdom:

truth, righteousness,

submission, holiness

There is a real freedom:

love, service,

provision, obedience

It is abundant living

that Jesus is giving.

Eternal life now known;

Grace to us always shown.

“Jesus, Lover of my soul!”

Hidden in You, all joy I know.

they are no gods

Has a nation changed its gods,

even though they are no gods?

But my people have changed their glory

for that which does not profit.

Jeremiah 2:11

There is more than disappointment in God’s voice as He walks through His care of Israel through Jeremiah’s prophecy. This is a mix of many emotions. This is God with a broken heart. This is God angry at being deserted and disobeyed. This is a holy God offended by sin. This is a loving God hurt at rejection of His perfect love. This is a providing God Who will no longer stand being taken advantage of and taken for granted. This is a glorious, worship deserving God Who has been replaced by worthless idols. He will not stand for any of this from Israel. The time had come for all of this to change. Through Jeremiah His prophet, God announces what He will do to deal with the desertion, disrespect, and dereliction of duty.

All this is easy to blame on Israel’s blindness. I mean idols? When you have a unique relationship with the only God? Really? It seems so clear to modern minds. But I can have my false gods too. And they are equally unprofitable. True confession: I have struggled with various idolatries over the years. Here are a few I have found utterly worthless:

• Comfort. This is the lie of the “hard work yields a happy, restful retirement” mantra of our culture. I have chased entertainments, vacations, experiences, and hobbies to source my comfort. I have trusted them sometimes more than God. They fall short. They are not God.
• Approval. The praise of man is only partially fulfilling. It is better to praise God. Fickle human praise does not fulfill. Darling one day… Dog the next. I’ve seen how unreliable pleasing people can be.
• Stuff. Materialism looks promising… Until maintenance controls you with its relentless unsustainability! God however gives good gifts and supplies my need. Worshiping things is completely unfulfilling.

So Lord, You have taught me to seek only You. That which is no god does not profit. I heed Your words! Amen.

What I need to be: a reflection for the coming year

I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers, because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and for all the saints…

Philemon 4-5

Lord,

My prayer this morning is informed by the testimony of Philemon. Oh how I long for others to know in me the reputation that Paul found in Philemon. I want to be a cause for thanksgiving. I desire to be used by You, among Your church, and in the world, in such a way that there is not a negative thought of me in the hearts of those who know me. I am far still from the character of Christ. The fruit of the Spirit is still but a vine in me. But oh how I want two very profound one syllable words to be what people get from knowing me. I want to always be a man of love and a man of faith. I want to be known as a man whose love and faith is rooted in Jesus and displayed to His people.

Lord, I confess I get in the way of this reputation. Help me to lay aside selfish concerns, past hurts, and my pride. Help me Jesus, in Your healing and redeeming work in me, to love you well. I believe only in that way can I truly love others as I should, as the love of Christ compels me.

Lord, I also confess my plans and my doubts riddle my faith, making it harder to simply lean into You like I should. Forgive my stubborn need for control. You are my Lord. Your Spirit is my guide. Your Word lights my way. I believe You! I also believe You call me to trust others that You bring to speak wisdom to me. Help me, I pray, to trust in You and to trust Your people when You use them to make me more like Jesus.

My love and faith toward the Lord Jesus and for all the saints must be exhibited from a heart God is transforming. Keep me focused! A fresh year is soon upon me… Love and faith in my Lord and toward His church is my hopeful goal! Amen

the King in your midst

The LORD has taken away the judgments against you;

he has cleared away your enemies.

The King of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst;

you shall never again fear evil.

Zephaniah 3:15

The God Who judges is also the God Who forgives and restores. Despite all the stern language of wrath in the prophecies of Zephaniah, despite the exile of the Jews and the destruction of Jerusalem, God promises to bring back a people who will worship Him wholeheartedly. He will restore a cleansed and repentant people who will once again live under His rule, love His law, thrive under His blessing, and enjoy freedom from fear.

And how will this happen? The Lord will do it. It is God Who takes away His judgment (now accomplished by Christ). It is God Who clears away all Israel’s historic enemies (a promise as yet unfulfilled). God promises to directly rule in Jerusalem as King. That is yet to be realized in the return of Jesus. But God never lies. And this is why I still cling to an interpretive stance (ridiculed as it often is and sometimes rightly so for its extremes) that there are yet promises that Jesus will keep as King of Israel. Yes, the Jews must trust the gospel. They must see Jesus as Savior and Lord by virtue of His life, death, and resurrection. But God will not let His Word return to Him without accomplishing His purpose. It is for that reason that as I celebrate the first advent of Jesus in a manger, I also anticipate His coming advent as Messiah!

I’m completely unsure as to whether the current war in Israel has scriptural prophecy associated with it. I know it is NOT to be proof-texted by biblical citation. I am not compelled to do so. I do know that historically Gaza represents Philistine enemies of Israel. And even in my current reading of Zephaniah, I see that the prophet foretold of Gaza (and all Philistine oppression of Israel) to be made desolate and uninhabited (Zephaniah 2:4). Maybe that could happen now. Perhaps not. It seems to me that it would only occur as a prerequisite to Jesus doing this physically restorative work mentioned in Zephaniah 3:15 to rule as King. And that seems to be still on the horizon. I’ll never geek out on biblical prophecy concerning Israel. I want to understand it, but it is complex. Instead, I will always marvel at how it all points to Jesus, King of Kings, Messiah, and Lord of Lords!