January 4, 2018

Take the Step

By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. – Hebrews 11:8

The New Year is calling to us. It is inviting us to new places, new adventures, new roads to travel. Are you heading out or hunkering down?

Abraham didn’t have to go when God called him. Abraham could have said no. God gives us the freedom to make choices, good or bad, as we live life on this earth. Abraham chose to follow God, even though he had no idea where he was going or what challenges he might face.

In a very real sense, Abraham took a chance on God. He believed God and the promises God had made to him. We look at those passages in the Bible and, still, we hesitate on the calling God has made on our own lives. We explain that times were different then. We rationalize that Abraham was a very special person and, thus, much more qualified to follow God.

Except that we’re really no different than Abraham. We’re special because God made us. We’re qualified because God provides all that we need to accomplish the task He sets before us. The difference between us and Abraham? Faith.

Somewhere along the line we’ve gotten the notion that following God should be easy. We’ve come to believe that stepping out in faith should come without hardship and doubts. We truly think that God’s calling doesn’t involve actual work or sacrifice on our part. Where in the world did we get that belief? Certainly not from the Bible.

Jesus promised that in this world we would have trouble. I know. It’s not what we want to hear. We want an easy life filled with blessings and little to no heartache. That’s not the life Jesus promised. That’s just not reality.

Faith means we trust God when we can’t see the way forward. Faith means we trust God when doubts set in and naysayers abound. Faith means we trust God in the storm, certain that it will pass and God’s blessings will come in abundance.

Faith also means understanding that our journey here is not about us. Sure, God wants us to enjoy life. But this life He’s granted to us really isn’t about us. It’s not. But we sure do have a hard time with that, don’t we?

Putting God first doesn’t fit with who society tells us we should be. Isn’t life supposed to be about us? Isn’t it supposed to be fun, filled with blessings, with little to no sacrifice on our part?

This isn’t our home. We know that but sometimes we have a difficult time wrapping our minds around it. We are restless, hungry for something more but we can’t seem to understand that we’ll never really be content so long as we live on this earth.

So, what has God called you to do in this New Year? It’s probably won’t be an easy journey. It might not be something you particularly want to do. It might require sacrifice and hardship and skills you never thought you had. Do it anyway.

December 28, 2018

Consider the Consequences

Once when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the open country, famished. He said to Jacob, “Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I’m famished!” (That is why he was also called Edom.)

Jacob replied, “First sell me your birthright.”

“Look, I am about to die,” Esau said, “What good is the birthright to me?”

But Jacob said, “Swear to me first.” So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob.

Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. He ate and drank, and then got up and left.

So Esau despised his birthright.

– Genesis 25:29-34

Area Boy Scouts gather each year for what is termed an authentic camping trip. They dress in period costumes and seek to relive life as it once was. One of the more popular events happens on the trade blankets, when the kids barter items with each other.

It’s easy to see what each boy’s priorities are. One might give away something valuable, such as a knife or deer antlers, for a piece of candy. Another might hold on to those things, waiting for something like a mounted fish or pottery.

Some can only see what they want in that moment and they react accordingly. Others are willing to wait for the right thing to come at the right time. We aren’t any different.

Esau and Jacob were fraternal twins who had battled to be first even in the womb. They had emerged with Esau as the elder, and his father’s favorite, and Jacob as the younger, and his mother’s favorite.

Being the firstborn male came with additional privileges and responsibilities. He would one day inherit a double portion and be the leader of the family. But birth order didn’t always reveal the best man for the job.

Esau didn’t value what was given to him by chance of birth. He was focused on the moment and didn’t consider what he was giving up. So he sold his birthright for a bowl of stew.

Jacob was certainly not without sin. He, with help from his mother, later tricked his dying father into giving him the paternal blessing rather than allowing it to go to Esau. In the end it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. Selling his birthright wasn’t the only mistake Esau made. He also married two foreign women, something that simply couldn’t happen to Abraham’s descendant. Though Esau later married an acceptable woman, it was too late to undo what he’d already done.

We reap the consequences of our actions. It’s a sad truth. We can’t undo what we’ve done. We can’t always rebuild what we’ve destroyed. We can’t change what our actions reveal about our priorities.

The child who trades something valuable for a piece of candy can’t come back and change his mind when he realizes what he’s done. And we can’t come back later and undo the consequences of what we’ve done.

A sweet man I know once remarked that if he could change one thing it would be letting his wife go. She’s fine. She remarried a wonderful man and is happy. He, on the other hand, now realizes what he destroyed with his words and actions. He is alone and living with the consequences of what he can’t undo.

What’s the lesson in all this? Think about the consequences before you do something that can never be undone. Consider your words and actions before you destroy a bridge that can never be rebuilt.

February 9, 2016

Truth Always Reveals Itself

9 “Where is your wife Sarah?” they asked him.

“There, in the tent,” he said.

10 Then one of them said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.”

Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him. 11 Abraham and Sarah were already very old, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing. 12 So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, “After I am worn out and my lord is old, will I now have this pleasure?”

13 Then the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really have a child, now that I am old?’ 14 Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return to you at the appointed time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”

15 Sarah was afraid, so she lied and said, “I did not laugh.”

But he said, “Yes, you did laugh.” -- Genesis 18:9-15

The truth is sometimes hard to believe. We see what we want to see. We hear what we want to hear. We dismiss what seems unbelievable.

Truth. Fact. I was trained as a journalist. As reporters, we were told to pay close attention so that we would report the facts correctly. There was no room for opinion unless it was a quote attributed to someone else.

Later I became an editorial columnist. That was all opinion. I backed up my opinions with facts but they were still opinions. People might disagree -- and many of them did -- but opinions are the views of one person.

Sarah laughed when the visitor said she would bear Abraham a son. She couldn’t see it. They were old and likely had prayed for a son for much of their lives. It was completely understandable that she would have trouble believing that God would grant her request when she was long-past childbearing age.

Her laughter showed her unbelief. And the visitor called her own it. She was afraid and rather than admit it, she denied her laughter. She made the situation worse with her lie. But you can’t lie to God.

Have you ever denied a truth, then tried to hide it? Probably. It’s like a child who breaks something and hides it because he doesn’t want to get in trouble for breaking it. Then he denies it when he’s found out. We don’t want to face the consequences of our actions so we lie instead.

Our lies don’t change the truth. We can’t reinvent the facts. We can continue to deny the truth and hope everyone believes our lies or we can confess our sins and admit the truth. Either way, the truth always comes out.

January 20, 2016

Wait On God

Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar; so she said to Abram, “The Lord has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.”

Abram agreed to what Sarai said. So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. He slept with Hagar, and she conceived.

When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress. Then Sarai said to Abram, “You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my slave in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the Lord judge between you and me.”

“Your slave is in your hands,” Abram said. “Do with her whatever you think best.” Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her. -- Genesis 16:1-6

God promised Abraham that he would have heirs more numerous than the stars in the sky. Abraham waited. And waited. And waited. Then his wife decided to take matters into her owns hands. And, well, it didn’t turn out well.

Waiting for God isn’t always easy, is it? Is it worth it? Yes. Because when we rush ahead of God and try to “help” Him, we create nothing but chaos and heartache. Sarah sure upset her own life and destroyed Hagar’s life too.

Sarah (as we later knew Sarai) didn’t even take responsibility for what she’d done. Not that Abraham was innocent. He should have known better. This is a man who loved God and, years later, would offer up his son as a sacrifice because God told him to. He had to have known that God would keep His promise and provide Abraham with a son. But he went ahead, had sex outside of marriage and then washed his hands of it when his wife got mad.

But getting back to Sarah: Have you ever known someone who made a decision that resulted in bad things and then the person refused to own the original decision? It’s pretty frustrating and probably more common than we all realize. No one really wants to admit to a mistake. A disastrous mistake sends us running in the opposite direction.

So much heartache could be avoided if we just did a few basic things. First ask God what He thinks. Slow down. Wait on His timing. Second, admit it when you make a mistake. Trying to hide your bad decision -- even if your intentions were for good -- only heaps heartache on top of heartbreak.

Trust God. Trust His timing. Trust His promises. And wait.

Sunday, August 28, 2011

A Lesson In Waiting

Then the LORD said to him, “No, your servant will not be your heir, for you will have a son of your own to inherit everything I am giving you.“ -- Genesis 15:4

God promised Abram (later Abraham) that he would become a great nation. Abram, being human like the rest of us, immediately pointed out the problem: Abram and his wife Sarai (later Sarah) were old and they had no children. It seemed like an insurmountable problem to Abram. It was nothing to God.

And Abram believed the LORD, and the LORD declared him righteous because of his faith.

-- Genesis 15:6

Abram understood that God could make anything happen. He also knew that God would keep His promise. Sarai doubted. She didn’t believe. She wasn’t patient. She decided to “help” God along. News flash: “Helping” God is never a good idea.

But Sarai, Abram’s wife, had no children. So Sarai took her servant, an Egyptian woman named Hagar, and gave her to Abram so she could bear his children. -- Genesis 16:1-2a

Sarah just decided to take things into her own hands and “make” God’s promise happen. Forcing something when God calls us to wait is never a good idea. Really. He knows what He’s doing. The problem for us is that God’s timing and ours are rarely the same. We would do well to remember that God’s timing is perfect and ours is a bit warped at best.

So Abraham ended up with Ishmael, his first son but not the heir promised by God. While it is easy to condemn Sarah for her really bad idea, let us remember that Abraham could have said no. Fortunately, God didn’t give up on Abraham and Sarah the way they gave up on Him.

Then one of them said, “About this time next year I will return, and your wife Sarah will have a son.” -- Genesis 18:10a

Sarah laughed when she heard this. Laughed. I’d like to make an awful observation about now but I know it would only come back on me. How many times have I disbelieved God’s promise over my own life? It’s easy to believe when it’s someone else’s life but not so easy when turmoil is all around you and you can’t see the light because of the darkness.

Then the LORD did exactly what he had promised. Sarah became pregnant, and she gave a son to Abraham in his old age.

-- Genesis 21:1-2a

Finally Isaac was born. The child God promised -- twenty years after the promise. Yeah. That puts a different perspective on things, doesn’t it? When God made the original promise to Abraham, He didn’t say when it would happen, just that it would. I would have trouble waiting two months but Abraham and Sarah had to wait twenty years. Yet, God remained faithful and He kept His promise.

It comes down to trust. Do you trust God to do what He says He will do for you? Do you trust Him to take care of you, to strengthen you, to walk beside you? Do you trust God with your money, with your home, with your family? Do you trust God to handle difficult situations, to grab you if you start to sink?

It’s when we try to take over, to force the issue to our time frame rather than God’s, that disaster inevitably happens. Ishmael came because Sarah didn’t believe and decided to make sure God’s promise was fulfilled. She later resented his mother and because jealous of them both. There’s nothing quite like getting what you think you want and then realizing that you shouldn’t have had it to start with.

Isaac was God’s promise fulfilled. It takes great spiritual maturity to wait for God. It’s hard. Our timing isn’t His, especially in this age of instant gratification. Yet when we do wait, God blesses us immeasurably. He fills us with His Spirit, His peace, His promise. His blessings multiply when we trust God and wait for Him.

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Believe God’s Promises

He (Abraham) was absolutely convinced that God was able to do anything he promised.

-- Romans 4:21

Do you trust God? Do you believe His promises over your life? Or are you so caught up in the blame cycle -- aimed at both yourself and others -- that you can’t open yourself up to the blessings He’s offering to you?

Abraham and Sara desperately wanted a child. But it never happened. They didn’t have the fertility experts and medicines we have today. It either happened or it didn’t. Now here these two were living out their old age. They both were long past the age where hope for a child would have died. Surely the want hadn’t passed but the reality had tempered their hope.

Then God told them that Sara would have a child. Abraham was 99 years old and Sara 90 when God told Abraham that he would become father to a might nation. Their child, the one God promised to give them, was the first of millions of descendants. How truly awesome and unbelievable that had to seem.

Yet, Abraham believed. He believed and the Bible tells us that Abraham’s belief was credited as righteousness. Abraham believed when everything around him said it was impossible. But, then, God is in the business of the impossible.

We forget that sometimes. God promises to care for us and provide for us but we get so caught up in the struggle that we forget we don’t have to do it all by ourselves. We can simply turn it over to Him and He will do what He said He would do.

Simple? Not really. We humans want to be in control. And that’s the catch. Turning over our worries and concerns to God, trusting Him to take care of us, also means relinquishing control. We resist that. It isn’t until we absolutely have to give it all to Him -- whether it’s a health issue, a financial concern, a heartbreak -- that we finally feel His peace.

Paul tells us in Romans that faith is the key. We must believe what we do not see. We have to trust what we do not feel. We have to walk forward in faith, blindly trusting and understanding that even when we can’t see Him or feel His Presence, He is right there beside us.

God is the maker of all miracles. What have you failed to trust Him with today? Let it go. Turn it all over