The Hand of Jesus

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you live long enough you are going to feel it.  That sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach.  Worry sets in.  Uncertainty reigns.  Before you know it, you are descending into full-fledged panic mode.  Your heart races and your palms are sweaty.  Your mind takes over and fills your head with a thousand “what-if” scenarios.

Eventually, you feel like you won’t be able to go on by yourself and you need someone, anyone to give you a hand to lift you up and pull you through…

So do not fear, for I am with you;
    do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
    I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Isaiah 41:10

My pastor was preaching this morning about not quitting in spite of the difficulties and discouragement that you may face in this life.  Make no mistake, if you are living obediently, you will face troubles in your Christian walk.  Jesus told us so.  But he also said that he would be there with us.  I loved the illustration that my pastor spoke this morning.  He said that sometimes when he is on stage preaching (he’s been doing this thirty years) that he thinks of this verse in Isaiah and when he holds out his hand to the congregation, he is really visualizing Jesus holding onto his hand.

Pretty powerful imagery, don’t you think?

You see, we often forget that Jesus is right beside us.  He is there to give us strength.  Day in and day out.  There is nothing that we go through alone, because he is there with us.  Our friends and family may desert us, but He never will.  He is always by our side.

Look at the verse again.  Fear, dismay, weakness and faltering are the things that God will overcome for us.  I don’t know about you, but I have known these four well over the course of my life.  These are not adjectives that I want to describe me, but they come visit me when I focus on the circumstances of my life instead of the One who promised to walk beside me through the darkest valleys of life.

When I focus on the storms instead of the One who works all things together for good, fear, dismay, weakness, and faltering are my companions.  They anchor me down during the storm.

When I, instead focus on the One who gathers every tear I cry in his hands, then this I know:

I AM is with me

I AM is my God

I AM strengthens and helps me

I AM will uphold me with his righteous right hand.

So in times of trouble, when my strength is small, this is where my focus turns.  I look to my feeble, empty hand and I envision it clasped in the hands of the Carpenter.  His hands are calloused and they have been pierced, but they are strong.  They defeated death and they conquered sin.  They hold onto me when I have no strength to carry on.  They lift me up when I falter.  They wipe away my tears in this life and they prepare a place for me in heaven.

That is my truth.  

That is my hope.  

That is His promise.

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Preparing As We Wait…

God may give us transition periods and times of waiting to help us depend on him and trust his timing.  If we patiently do his will during the transition times, we will be better prepared to serve him as we should when he calls us.

(Note from Genesis 11:31—Life Application Study Bible)

I am not by nature a very patient person.  I don’t like being behind slow drivers when I am in a hurry.  I hate choosing the wrong line at the grocery store.  I get frustrated when things don’t always go as I think they should. 

All of which makes life very interesting when you are waiting on God’s timing and direction 

These last few years have been an extended period of waiting for me.  I have waited on God’s provision for my family as my work dried up.  I have waited to find the place that God wants me to serve.  I have tried to be obedient to him and wait for his calling. 

Now things are starting to move and I can see how these last few years have prepared me to step out in faith and obedience to him now.  Just as the note above states, my transition periods and times of waiting have helped me depend solely on him and trust in his perfect timing.

It now appears that his timing is near and he is calling me on to new and exciting things.  This push he is giving me has drawn me even closer to him as I earnestly seek him in prayer and make sure I am going where he wants to lead me.

If you find yourself stuck, waiting, and impatient to move on, I would encourage you to continue to seek his face.  Be content to wait on the one that knows you best.  Look for ways to worship Him and serve Him as he holds you for a time.  His timing is perfect and when he calls you, you can be sure that when he has you move forward it will be to the exact place he needs you to be.

 

Stronger On My Knees

Stronger on My Knees

God brings us things sometimes that drive us to our knees.

It’s tough being the type of Christian that God wants me to be.  I don’t know why I am surprised at this.  Jesus said that the way to follow Him was narrow and that many would not be able to make it.  He said that I would have to deny myself and take up my cross to follow Him.  Being a disciple of Christ is so much more than being baptized or being a church member or simply saying the sinner’s prayer.  Being a disciple of Christ is hard work. 

I am convinced that there are two types of Christians:  the ones who know just enough to be saved and the ones who have an earnest desire to be remade into the image of Christ.  The first group has accepted Jesus and then goes forward with their life trying to do the best they can to live like it.  The second group realizes that they can’t be like Christ without some radical remaking taking place. 

Therein lies the difficulty.  When Jimmy said that God brings us things sometimes that drive us to our knees, it resonated with me this week.  I once heard a preacher say that you are either in a storm, coming out of a storm or heading into a storm.  Right now I am in the midst of a storm that has put holes in my jeans and calluses on my knees.  This time, however, I am not despairing.

This time, there is a change in me.  I know that my present storm is necessary, even good for me.  This storm is there because God is using it to reshape me, yet again.  This storm is driving me to my knees because I have exhausted every option in my feeble mind.  I know that all I can do is fall down before my Creator and raise my hands and wait for His voice. 

Would I rather be standing on my own two feet?  Absolutely!  But I also know that I am most able to be shaped by God’s hand when I kneel and submit at His feet.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, I urge you to allow God to shape you into the image of Jesus.  Allow the circumstances that drive you to your knees to be the catalyst that drives you closer to God.  Allow His gentle and to smooth away anything that is of you and replace it with all of Him.  Be willing to be remade and be ready for where He leads you.  When your time of struggle is finished and He picks you up from your knees, know that you will be a little bit closer to where He wants you to be.

Father, help me to recognize that you should be the first place I should turn to, not the last.  Help me to rely on you for my strength and my peace.  Give me direction through the storms that life throws at me and help me to be obedient to you when the rain blows away.  In Jesus Name, Amen. 

 

 

         

Do You Have The “Jesus Spirit?"

So the other day I was riding with my daughter and son in my truck.  I have a little truck so we were all riding together with my daughter in the middle and my son beside her.  We pulled into a fast food restaurant to grab some breakfast on the way to where we were going.  After I ordered I pulled around to the second window as instructed.  When the window opened and the total was announced, I handed my cash to the lady inside.  There she promptly handed me my change and then I heard my daughters voice in my right ear.  “She doesn’t have the Jesus Spirit, Dad.”  I turned to look at her and said, “What?”  My daughter says, “That lady in there doesn’t have the Jesus Spirit.”  Insightful, clever guy that I am, I had an idea of what she was referring to, but I asked, “How can you tell?”

Gracie replied, “You can just see by the look on her face, she doesn’t have Jesus in her life.”

Wow.  Out of the mouths of babes.

We pulled away with a fresh order of French toast sticks, sticky syrup and chocolate milk in hand, and my mind started working. 

You see sometimes it takes the untainted and unjaded vision of a child to notice the obvious.  Now I’ve never worked at a fast food drive through window, so I have no idea what this ladies story was.  But I do know that she looked like she wasn’t particularly excited with her station in life.  

We all know people that walk around with an expression that is a cross between sucking on a lemon and smelling a really foul odor.  You know the ones I am talking about.  People they write country songs about.  If you asked they would tell you everything that is wrong with their life, their truck, their dog, their job, etc.  (No offense country musicians and listeners, I like country music, really, I do.)  Maybe they are like Eeyore, the sad donkey from Winnie the Pooh.  His catch phrase is “Oh bother.”  He shuffles about with his head down, moving as if carrying a tremendous burden and with a general acceptance that nothing good will ever come his way and that’s just the way it is.  I believe you could say that people like this just don’t have the Jesus Spirit. 

So my question to you is this:  “Do you have the Jesus Spirit?” I ask that question of myself too, although I ask myself do I show Jesus to others with my spirit?

I will be the first to admit that this world is a tough place.  This past year in particular has been tremendously trying for a lot of people.  The economy is down; unemployment is up, a new type of potentially deadly flu epidemic lurks, sweeping changes in government, just to name a few.  However, should any of that cause us to not radiate Christ from within? 

No matter what happens on the outside of me,

I still have Jesus living inside of me. 

No matter what this world throws at me,

I still have a future that is secure. 

No matter what gets taken away from me,

I know that I am storing up treasures in heaven

that cannot be wrestled from the grasp

of the One who holds them there for me.

So why should my face show anything else?  If I am called to be different, to be salt and light to this world, then my face and demeanor better show it.  Like I said before, your life should demand an explanation.  Your face tells a story for all to read.  It is an open book every single day.  Whether you mean to or not you reflect what is inside of you by the way you look and carry yourself. 

So I ask you again, “Do you have the Jesus Spirit written on your face?

If not, think about what you have been given by Him and put it there!

Indiana Jones, Me and A Big Step of Faith

All right, I am not afraid to say it… I wish I could be Indiana Jones.  For those of you in the Sunday school class I teach, you can flash back to “the hat” and laugh.  It’s true.  To me, you can’t get much cooler than a guy who is a professor by day and a gun-toting, whip-slinging, dapper fedora wearing, bad-guy defeating adventurer any other time.  And I seem to get myself into just as many scrapes, but I don’t have the cool music to play in the background. 

But anyway, I digress…

Today I got to be Indiana Jones, just a little bit.  If you have seen Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade, yes the one with Sean Connery, then you will remember this scene.  Towards the end of the movie, after Indy and of course the Nazis have been searching for the Holy Grail, Indy’s father has been shot.  The only thing that will help him is the Holy Grail filled with water from “the Holy Grail filling trough.”  So of course, dashing and dapper Indy must go through the booby traps to get it.  The last challenge is to cross a seemingly impossible chasm by faith alone.  As Indy looks down (which you are never supposed to do by the way!) and then looks across the divide at the other side, where he must go to save his father, he faces a choice.  Step out in faith and believe that something will be there to catch you or stand frozen in place unwilling and unable to move.  Our hero boldly lifts his foot, hesitates only briefly, and then steps out in faith.  Instantly a path that looks very much like the bottom of the chasm appears and he is able to cross to the other side. 

How does that relate to me?  I am glad you asked.

Today, I faced a similar situation.  Not over priceless artifacts that belong in museums, but with my life and my job.  I have been in a bit of a sticky situation with my work; where my work ethic, my character, and my integrity have all been unfairly judged and questioned.  Over the past few weeks, I have tried to stick to the high road and I have refused to sling the mud back that was slung at me.  Last night I received an email that was the straw that broke the camels back.  I knew that I had to leave my job.  By staying it was only adding fuel to my fire that I didn’t want to burn.  The problem is that this is a pretty scary time to be leaving a job no matter how miserable it is.

Enter my Indiana Jones moment.   This morning I faced the chasm of uncertainty and had the choice to step out and live by the faith I profess to have or to stand there unwilling and unable to move.  I chose the former.  I am now without a job and yet I am at complete peace that I did the right thing.  As I struggled and prayed about this decision, I came to the following conclusion:  God doesn’t always reveal the next step to you while you stand in comfort on the step you are on.  Sometimes you are forced to take a step FIRST before knowing where your foot will land. 

With that thought in my mind I, like Indiana Jones (but without the hat and whip—I thought that would be too confrontational) stepped out on faith. I turned in my keys, gave my resignation, and walked away with my head held high. I have absolutely no idea where my foot will land.  But I know the One who built the next step in my life long before I would make the decision to step out towards it.  Somehow, I am able to rest content in that knowledge.

So my words to you are this: God requires us to trust Him.  How many of us really do?  How willing are we to let go of the things that we think comfort us and give us peace?  What is waiting on the other side of that step of faith?  Could it be that He has something even better for us than what we have for ourselves?  I think deep down you probably know the answer to that question.

So pick up your whip, don your fedora and step out with me.  I don’t know where we are going, but I know we will love the view when we get there.