Preparation

As an Eagle Scout, I know and believe in their motto, “be prepared.” This slogan opens the door to a good example of the contrast between what we say we believe, and the difficulties we experience in putting it into practice. No one would argue against being prepared, but we all run into many pressures, schedule constraints, and excuses for shortchanging the time and effort required for good preparation. Today we will look at wonderful examples of results of good preparation, and even go beyond into putting our life on the line to back up what we say we believe.

Daniel and his three Hebrew friends were taken captive by King Nebuchadnezzar to become reeducated, re-mediated, and made ready for politically correct service to the King. In passing we can note that the foundational freedoms fought for by founding father patriots, are being eroded and replaced today with legally required political correctness which redefines freedom of speech and freedom of religion as hate speech. Thus the pot calls the kettle black by intolerantly requiring politically correct speech in the name of tolerance. It has only gotten worse since Jeremiah.  “Everyone will deceive his neighbor, And will not speak the truth; They have taught their tongue to speak lies; They weary themselves to commit iniquity.”(Jeremiah 9:5)  Today in the US, the government is ordering citizens who are used to free speech to attend politically correct speech class which violates the Constitution, the Bible, and the consciences of God fearing people.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had already experienced retraining in Babylonian culture school. But when they refused to bow down and worship King Nebuchadnezzar’s 90 foot statue, he threw them in to a burning furnace in a fit of furious rage. Their preparation prior to age 15 equipped them to withstand both of these extreme tests without compromise, self-defense, disrespect, lectures, or accusations. Much like Jesus, they committed themselves into the care of their God, trusting in his provision. God stood with them in the furnace, which prompts one of my favorite sayings, “if you stand up, you’ll stand out, but you won’t stand alone.”

Because jealous peers of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego became tattletales, these three came into the public spotlight of the world’s most powerful King. Fortunately their preparations included the integrity and authenticity of honoring God both privately and publicly.  My own issues include the challenge being faithful to God, rather than being fearful of men or attempting to please them (including wanting public affirmation). Three things that help my focus and perspective include: To keep eyes of faith on God and be faithful to him over any fear of man or desire to please men, and recall that to be with him and like him forever certainly is worth dying for. This kind of focus also prepares me daily to reply with love and silence to derision, ridicule, and “smart-mouth” answers to my words and actions.

In summary, the outstanding stability of these Hebrew teenagers, due to their preparation, allowed them to serve God and be his witnesses both in private and in public, in such dramatic ways that it totally transformed the heart and theology of King Nebuchadnezzar. I think it is a no-brainer to deduce that the parents of these teens instilled God’s word and principles into the lives and decision-making of their children in highly motivational and practical ways.

Because of God’s powerful word, promises, and merciful blessings, I am prepared for eternity by accepting Jesus’ payment for my sin and allowing him to dress me in his righteousness. How about you?  If you enjoyed this, you will surely enjoy the source of its inspiration, Big God in a Chaotic World, book just published by our senior pastor; available at http://brucebmiller.com/books/

I’ve been thinking a lot about the book of Ruth lately and the subject of “starting over.” The story describes two women, one old and one young, and both of them needed a new beginning.

Naomi and Ruth had experienced traumatic losses when their husbands died, and sometimes traumas like that can leave people “stuck” and emotionally paralyzed. 

But Naomi makes a radical decision—she will return to Bethlehem, the place she and her husband originally lived before a famine led them to relocate to Moab. Ruth made a radical decision too—she would accompany her mother-in-law Naomi back to Bethlehem.

One of the intriguing things about this story is that Naomi received a fresh start by returning to her roots, but Ruth received a fresh start by going somewhere she had never been before.

I encourage you to take a moment and ask yourself what kind of new beginning you need today, whether in your health, your finances, your family, or perhaps even your relationship with God.

The next question is whether your fresh start will come from returning to your roots or through taking a bold new venture to do something you’ve never done before. Are you willing to listen to God’s instructions on this?

After Naomi lost her husband and sons, she would have thought you’re crazy to suggest that the rest of her life could truly be the best of her life—but it was. Not just for Naomi, but for Ruth as well.

Read the story for yourself sometime. You’re never too old or too young to get a fresh start.

Last week's entry was about you receiving forgiveness. This week, it’s about you extending it—to others, and ultimately to yourself as well. So yes, this week we’re still more focused on the “negative” pieces of our lives, but the bigger focus is on finding our way past those pieces.

So let’s pick up where we left off. This time, though, rather than dwelling on the things that have caused us deep shame—and for now, the need to forgive others in those areas—let’s go broad instead of deep. Let’s explore the width and breadth of all those “little” things from our past that nonetheless work together to hold us back from believing in God’s best for us.

And let’s start here: The person least immune to all of this is me. As I warned in the introduction to this book, by laying out all these issues before you, I’m also taking a buzzsaw to the undergrowth in my own life.

As I finished the previous devotion (“Lay Down Your Shame”), I was confronted by my own accusations—not by shame, but by all the negative things in my past that I nevertheless allow to define me. To be sure, some of my counter-reactions to those negative things have had some very positive results. You’re reading one of them right now. For that matter, I spent three years writing a six-book bible-study series that was very much a counter-reaction to some decidedly negative circumstances in my life at the time (“I’ll show you what discipleship looks like!”). And as I reflect upon it now, my counter-reaction to my childhood is what gave me the determination that my marriage and the way our children were raised would be different—and they were.

Yet, there’s a part of me—no doubt bigger than I realize even now—that spends an inordinate amount of time identifying myself against those negative things in the past that I’m not. Seeing this in other people’s lives—and I think it’s even truer for those trapped by shame—I observe what I like to call a “spiritual Stockholm Syndrome.” That is, the penchant to identify ourselves with—and perhaps excuse but not truly forgive—those who have hurt us deeply.

I, too, am often just as trapped by it.

Our experiences, to a large degree, have made us who we are. But we are more than our experiences, let alone our negative ones. There’s a life in Christ waiting for us that goes beyond what we would limit ourselves to. “Laying down what’s done” doesn’t mean we forget the things in our past. And it certainly doesn’t mean we stop feeling anything when they come to mind, although hopefully we learn to move on more quickly. It does mean that we no longer allow ourselves to own those things, and that we no longer allow them to own us.

God can use the things of our past to create something far better than the prison those things have often become for us. (That goes for positive things as well; we’ll spend more time there in future weeks.) Very often, as we share how God has changed us in those areas, God brings deliverance and transformation to others—as well as through our vulnerability in confessing our willingness to be changed, as we continue to work through those issues.

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them (Ephesians 2:10).

Let’s face it: We’re all “pieces of work” in some way. And yet, all of us are also works in progress. By being willing to lay down our baggage, we give God full permission to get on with the work he’s prepared us for since the day we were created. And we might be surprised by how far-reaching that work will become.

Lay It Down Today

1) Take a chunk of time right now to think about how God has transformed one or more areas of your life. Thank God for the changes he’s already brought about through that.

2) Perhaps this devotional has stirred up something you’d really thought/hoped you’d moved on from, but where God needs to do an even deeper work. Spend some time giving that issue up to God. Allow him to transform it into what he wants.

3) Either way, think about this: How could sharing about your past enable someone else to get past theirs? If someone came to mind, make time to share with that person. Remember: If something truly required—or requires, if you and God are dealing with it right now—God’s intervention, it’s already important. That’s enough. So look for an opportunity to let God speak through your life, and let God take it from there.

“To persevere, trusting in what hopes he has, / is courage in a man. The coward despairs.” [Euripides, 422 B.C.]

Love’s eternal flame is inextinguishable—death’s horrors are unable to kill it; life’s busyness cannot suffocate it; demonic opposition will not quench it; fear never overshadows it; worry only intensifies it; hell’s hatred will not disturb it. The fire of God’s passion for life never cools; the light of God’s presence never dims.

God stirs the flame of eternal hope in our hearts—quickening the spark of love into worship, fanning faith into service. The fire on our heart’s altar may flicker in doubt’s wind, but God expects us to tend the flame for His honor.

Living as a child of the Light is never easy. Lesser lights attract us, but we should keep in mind that evil advertises pleasure but poisons the soul; it promises illumination but delivers insanity.

We can refuel zeal by drawing on Christ’s infinite strength. We can burn fervently for God by relying on His Holy Spirit energizing our soul. Walking with the Light of the world we learn the secret of surviving tough times with equanimity, taste the recipe of invulnerable joy, and find reasons to sing an uninterrupted praise song through all our days.

Here are heaven’s directions for avoiding burnout—place ego on the altar, letting self-centeredness be consumed by the blaze of absolute holiness; never allow devotion’s fire to be extinguished, proving our love for God by undying obedience; surrender to God’s holy purpose, daring to be His fuel. If we follow our Lord’s orders, He will transform us into “a burning and a shining light” (John 5:35) that will never burn out.

Johnny R. Almond

Author, Gentle Whispers from Eternity

[This devotion based on Day 62 of Gentle Whispers]

Interim Pastor, Nomini Baptist Church; Montross, Virginia

http://GentleWhispersFromEternity-ScripturePersonalized.com/

I invite you to leave a reply or like the blog by clicking on the heart.

Tis’ the season – baseball season, that is - my favorite season of the year.  One of the things I love about baseball is the unique jargon that is not heard in any other sport.  No other sport has “ducks on the pond” or a “bull pen” or “tools of ignorance.”  A few games ago, the pitcher had suddenly begun to give up hit after hit, in mid-game.  Someone described him as being “out of gas,” meaning he had grown tired and unsuccessful.  While some baseball lingo must remain forever within the sport, this phrase transfers beyond.  In fact, I know some Christians, and a few ministers, who are “out of gas.” The more acceptable term is “burn-out.” But whatever you call it, it is sad to see, and difficult to correct.  When this malady befalls us, we try to remedy it by acting more spiritual, serving harder, employing more spiritual discipline, saying things like, “I’d rather burn-out than rust-out,” while the real cure is within.  Quoted by E. Stanley Jones, someone said, “If we haven’t that within us which is above us, we will soon yield to that which is around us.”  Even God rested on the seventh day, and blessed it as a day of rest and refreshment (Genesis 2:2-3).  Likewise, Jesus “withdrew” (Mark 3:7) from the crowds, understanding that life in general and ministry in specific needs times for renewing and refueling.  Out of gas? It’s hard to gas-up on the move. Stop long enough for God to re-fill your spiritual tank.

Dr. Dan Crawford, Senior Professor at Southwestern Baptist Seminary, is also the WestCoast Baptist Association (Vancouver, Canada) Spiritual Life & Leadership Mentor. Follow Dan on Twitter @DrDanRC and Facebook www.facebook.com/dan.crawford.

“Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” (Luke 5:8, NIV).

One of the very first things Peter says to Jesus captures a huge issue for many of us. After a night of fishing and catching nothing, Jesus blesses Peter, James, and John with more fish than they can handle—and all Peter can see is how short he’s fallen of God’s perfection.

Which, in itself, isn’t a bad thing. It’s not unusual for us, either, to react this way when we first encounter Jesus; and we always need to remember the truth in Peter’s words. But Jesus didn’t come just so he could “go away.” Instead, he calls us to lay down a life that’s often consumed by shame at who we are or what we’ve done.

The things we’ve done—and the evils done to us—are done. We can’t undo what happened, but we can undo the hold of those things upon us. We can own our sin without it owning us. Jesus’ response to Peter, James and John confirms this: “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” (Luke 5:10). Jesus calls each of us to lay down our shame, and follow him forward instead.

If we continue to base our identity in our past instead of allowing it to die, we will never approach God—or more to the point, we’ll never let him in; God is already approaching us. Instead, we’ll do just about anything to fill the hole that the Spirit should be occupying. We believe we need to be successful, popular, powerful, constantly entertained, or occupied, because what we are and what we have isn’t good enough. That’s where the power of temptation lies: in the idea that who God created us to be, and what he’s created us for, isn’t good enough. That God got it—and us—wrong.

This brings us full-circle to where we began this series. Letting go of this old, false self and embracing who we were truly meant to be in Jesus is what this laying-down process is all about. We’re called to acknowledge our guilt and move on, not to take up permanent residence in our shame and hurt.

In a (hopefully not blasphemous) sense, Jesus has carried and shared in our guilt all the way back to the Garden of Eden. The Fall could have been prevented—but it wasn’t. Like the first Adam, Jesus chose to look on instead of stopping those events from occurring. But let’s not forget another incident, in another garden several thousand years later, which Jesus also could have stopped from happening—but he didn’t. Jesus stopped in Gethsemane, and saw through at Calvary, what began in Eden.

The cross removes our guilt. All of it. However, it leaves responsibility. Jesus says to us, just as he did the woman caught in adultery, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more” (John 8:11). And, to “take up the cross, and follow me” (Mark 10:21, KJV).

It’s not all work and struggle, though. Let’s circle back to Peter, because God uses him to give us a great “before and after” picture. Three years later, mere days after Jesus’ resurrection and appearance to the disciples—and for that matter, Peter’s repeated denial of Jesus—we see almost the exact same scene as the one in Luke 5, this time in John 21. Peter, James, and John go fishing again; this time they’ve got Thomas, Nathanael and two other disciples with them (and after all the bickering throughout the gospels, it’s nice to see them finally starting to work together). Again, they have another bad night of fishing.

This time Jesus shows up on the shore—close enough to yell, but far enough that they can’t yet tell it’s him. He tells them to cast out their nets, and again, the nets can’t hold all the fish they catch. Peter’s been here before; he realizes it’s Jesus.

But what’s Peter’s reaction this time? He throws himself into the sea and swims as fast as he can toward the shore. He doesn’t wait for the boat to dock—or freak because the guy he’d betrayed only days earlier is maybe a hundred yards away, back from the dead, and knows how to walk on water. This time, Peter’s going as fast as he can to Jesus. Clearly Peter’s still an impetuous kind of guy, and “a sinful man!”, but equally clearly he’s learned something about his relationship to Jesus. Peter, quite literally, is shame-less.

Now it’s our turn. Whatever has happened in our past is an opportunity for Jesus to transform it, and us, if we’ll let him. “Blessed are the poor in spirit” (Matthew 5:3). You are in fact already blessed because you don’t deserve grace, and no matter who you are or where you stand with Jesus at this moment, his grace is offered to you anyway, right now. Therefore, the challenge now becomes to receive and rejoice in that grace. The past is gone; let it stay gone. We’ll look more into that next month.

Lay It Down Today

What issues from your past came to mind as you read today? Get a piece of paper and write them down. Then bury your past—literally.

First, take some time to pray, giving over to God whatever you’ve written down, and asking the Spirit’s help to empower you to keep letting those things go. Then, take your paper and bury it (or tear it up). Thank God for your past—because it’s made you who are today, and in brand-new ways you’re now willing to let him reveal—but let whatever shame that remains in your past die, so your future can live.

When you remember sports stars of yesteryear, you probably remember their finest moments. Babe Ruth is famous for hitting 714 home runs in his career, and few people remember that he also struck out 1330 times, almost twice as often.

I guess the moral of the story is that if you want to hit a lot of home runs in life, you can’t be afraid to strikeout from time to time. If Babe Ruth had spent time thinking about his strike outs, he would have become too discouraged to be the great ballplayer that he was.

Basketball great Michael Jordan said on a TV commercial toward the end of his NBA career: “I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost more than 300 games. Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot—and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life, and that is why I succeed.”

Should we consider Michael Jordan a failure at basketball because he missed a lot of shots and lost a lot of games? Of course not. Yet missing the winning shot in a big game would have sent some players into a tailspin. They might have gone into a slump for several games, unable to shake the memory of their failure. But not Michael. He learned to start each game with a clean slate.

Michael Jordan had actually learned to overcome failure several years before starting his career in the NBA. In 1978 he was cut from the basketball team at Laney High School in Wilmington, North Carolina. Instead of giving up, he worked hard to improve his game. He made the team the following year, and by 1985 he was the NBA rookie of the year.

No one ever became a great success in life without also experiencing some failure along the way. The person who’s intent on never making a mistake has probably never made much of anything.

The key is your ability to shake it off and bounce back. You have to forget about that last shot that you missed.

In my mid-20s I went on a date with a girl and ended up telling her my life story. “You sure have failed a lot!” she told me after a while.

Well, I’ve failed many more times in the years since then.

However, when I examine the lives of the Biblical heroes in the Hall of Fame of Faith in Hebrews 11, I see plenty of failure before their ultimate triumphs. And I love the apostle Paul’s conclusion in Philippians 3:13-14: “One thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

I guess we all need some “selective amnesia” as we age. We have to forget about the strikeouts and missed buzzer-beaters and focus on the great opportunities ahead. Let’s keep swinging for the fences. Let’s keep shooting, particularly after we’ve missed our last shot.

To review some reasons why confession is good for the soul, read my blog on this subject at http://GentleWhispersFromEternity-ScripturePersonalized.com/

Recently, 85 men and women from 7 military bases attended a Discipleship Practicum Retreat. There was no main speaker, there was no formal band, and there was no comedian to hype up the crowd before we got started. There was, however, a Testimony Scavenger Hunt, four workshops, a fun night and a close-out session.

Friday night we held a Testimony Scavenger Hunt where we practiced giving our Jesus stories to each other. Everyone was given a sheet of paper with twenty categories, being instructed to find one person for each category, tell them your Jesus Story, and have them tell you theirs.

Saturday we held four workshops, each being facilitated by area Navigator Staff and co-facilitated by someone they were discipling/training. The purpose for this was so the attendees of the retreat would see discipleship in action.

The plan for each workshop was to have a topic presented to, an illustration explained to, and information practiced among workshop attendees. Next, each attendee was paired with one from another workshop to share with each other what had just been passed on. The purpose of this was to have each attendee practice "discipling" another as they shared what had just been learned.

Saturday night was fun night, where skits, music, and testimonies were presented to the group by members of the seven military bases. The testimonies were presented by those of specific categories: a new believer told how they had come to Jesus, a growing believer told how they were being discipled, one who is discipling others told how they came into relationship with the one being discipled, and a mature disciple-maker told how to make disciple-makers.

Sunday morning we talked about the processes of the weekend: seeing disciples being trained, learning information to pass on, and practicing to pass on to another what had been learned. We told the attendees that the intention is not to sit on what they were taught nor to stuff their notes on a bureau drawer, but to ask God for one with whom they can do as they learned during the weekend.

The theme for the weekend was Philemon 1:6"I pray you are active in sharing your faith so that you may have a full understanding of every good things we have in Christ." That is my prayer for each one who came to our weekend Discipleship Practicum Retreat.

No matter where you are in relation to Jesus, “sin” is an ugly word. Just saying the word causes problems, so let’s get on the same page before moving forward. In the days and weeks to come we’ll break this down into much smaller pieces. Today is about defining our terms—and our solution.

“They should have known that he was God. His patience should have proved that to them.” (Tertullian)

“He wakes desires you never may forget; He shows you stars you never saw before.”

     (Alfred, Lord Tennyson)

“Is it any wonder that to this day this Galilean is too much for our small hearts?” (H. G. Wells)

“When Christ came into my life, I came about like a well-handled ship.” (Robert Louis Stevenson)

Here is a staggering reality that is not too good to be true—our Creator yearns to enjoy daily fellowship with us. Here is an opportunity that is not wishful thinking—our Father cordially invites us to enjoy quiet communion with Him.

The Master of the human heart stands at the door of our personality and patiently knocks. If we hear His gentle rap and open the door, He will become our greatest Friend.

Friendship with God is more than a dream—it is a dramatic adventure we can personally experience. Immanuel is God with us—a Friend nearer than our hands and feet, closer than our breathing.

Jesus is our best answer to prayer and our supreme blessing. His mercy enables us to recover from moral defeat. His grace helps us face turmoil tranquilly. His promises reassure us so we can hope perpetually. When perplexity crowds our inmost self, His consolation cheers our soul. When we need help the most, He is right beside us.

There’s no need to attempt to plot our own course through life’s storms—we can navigate by the Bright Morning Star.

Until we stroll heaven’s golden streets, we can walk earthly roads with a spring in our step—if we let Jesus take our hand.

I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends. Revelation 3:20 NLT

Johnny R. Almond

Author, Gentle Whispers from Eternity

[This devotion based on Day 60 of Gentle Whispers]

Interim Pastor, Nomini Baptist Church; Montross, Virginia

Blog & book info http://GentleWhispersFromEternity-ScripturePersonalized.com/

If you’re like me, the word “anchor” has some negative connotations. For example, dictionaries say an anchor is a device for preventing or restricting a ship’s motion. I certainly don’t relish the thought of having my motion prevented or restricted, do you?

Another undesirable connotation of “anchor” is that it either ties you to where you ARE (your present circumstances) or where you’ve BEEN (your past). In either case, that kind of anchor sounds very dreary to me. Who wants to remain stuck to their present circumstances or their past?

However, the Bible describes a very different kind of anchor, one that connects us to a hope-filled future instead of to our present or our past:

We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf (Hebrews 6:19-20).

While faith is a “now” kind of reality (Hebrews 11:1), hope is an optimistic attitude about our future. The writer here says God wants us to have His supernatural hope as “an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.”

Look at how revolutionary this is. While maritime anchors lock a ship in place and prevent progress, this spiritual kind of anchor is tethered to the positive future God has promised us (Jeremiah 29:11).

How do we know this? Because we’re told the anchor goes before us, tied to “our forerunner, Jesus.” It’s not an anchor that settles for our present circumstances. Quite the contrary, it’s an anchor that’s pulling us toward a whole new realm of living.

Also notice that our spiritual hope isn’t supposed to be based on anything we see around us. Just as a ship’s anchor disappears below the water line, the hope described here “enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain.” This hope isn’t locked in to any kind of earthly circumstances or events, but rather to God’s destiny for us in the unseen realm (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).

Just as an earthly anchor will prevent a ship from drifting, an anchor of hope serves the same purpose. Yet there’s a key difference. If you pull on a maritime anchor, you will go nowhere. But when you pull on your anchor of hope, you’re propelled forward into more intimacy with Jesus and greater fulfillment of His plan for your life.

Even on cloudy days when your circumstances look bleak, you can count on this anchor to hold. Your Forerunner has already overcome death and defeat, and He’s the One your hope must be constantly anchored to.

May your soul find rest in Him today as He draws you forward into His presence and His purpose.

Now that we know who we are in Christ and have our heads on straight, now we can begin to deal with laying down our sin. We’ll explore this more broadly in the next entry, but today let’s start with one sin in particular, and arguably the most basic: Pride.

“A person can be a person and not know Greek or algebra. But a person cannot be a person and not know God.” (Anonymous)

To be the person God intends us to be, it is imperative that we travel the Way to the Truth of Life [John 14:6].

To get to know the true God, we must live in fellowship with His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ [1 John 5:18-21].

To know a rich and satisfying life as a human being, we must stay close to the good Shepherd [John 10:10].

To know Christ experientially—and not merely academically—is the mind’s noblest goal [Philippians 3:10].  

To experience intimacy with Christ as He makes himself real to us, we must obey Him in every dimension [John 14:21].

To experience the holy presence of Christ, we must permit His Spirit to change our behavior [Galatians 5:22-25].

To experience the power that raised Christ from the dead, we must yearn for a moral resurrection [Romans 6:4].

To experience the joyful fellowship of Christ’s sufferings, we must walk in His footsteps day by day [1 Peter 2:21].

To experience the lifestyle of Christ’s servanthood, we must die to self at the foot of the cross [Galatians 2:20].

To experience transformation from the inside out, we must resist cultural pressure to conform to evil [Romans 12:2].

To experience the mind of Christ, we must repent of rebellious thoughts and learn His way [2 Corinthians 10:5].

"Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." [Philippians 2:5 KJV]

Johnny R. Almond

Author, Gentle Whispers from Eternity

Interim Pastor, Nomini Baptist Church; Montross, Virginia

Are you bummed out about something today? Perhaps the condition of your nation…your church…your health…your finances…your emotions…or your family? Then I think you’ll find hope and encouragement through the words of the prophet Jeremiah, sometimes called “the weeping prophet.”

As Jeremiah wept during the devastation of his beloved city, Jerusalem, his initial reaction was not to blame the Babylonian invaders for his agony. He blamed God, concluding that his nation’s afflictions had come “from the rod of God’s wrath” (Lamentations 3:1-20 TLB).

You have to admit, this was a logical conclusion. The Lord had promised to defend and protect His people if they walked in His ways. So the Babylonians weren’t actually the real problem—it was an issue between God and His people.

As Jeremiah witnessed the troubling events befalling his nation, he reasoned, “[God] has turned against me…and surrounded me with anguish and distress.” And he also was baffled by the fact that “though I cry and shout, he will not hear my prayers!”

Jeremiah was having a very bad day, and God didn’t seem to immediately come to his aid. Perhaps you can relate.

To make matters worse, Jeremiah felt “stuck,” unable to find any quick or easy solution to his pain: “He has walled me in; I cannot escape.” Perhaps you’ve wanted escape too. In frustration, you’ve been tempted to leave your country, your job, or your marriage. But escape is rarely the answer.

While Jeremiah knew that God promises freedom to His people when they trust and obey Him, he must have been horrified by the realization that “he has fastened me with heavy chains.” How traumatic!

But the chains of the Babylonians were not much different from the chains of debt we now find ourselves in as a nation. One estimate says that every baby born this year will immediately owe $250,000 as their share of the national debt. Chains of bondage, don’t you think?

Jeremiah probably once had a nice plan for his life, but now everything had changed. Instead of getting closer to his destination, just the opposite seemed true: “[God] has filled my path with detours.” Perhaps you’re one of the thousands of people who’ve had to defer your retirement plans because of “detours” in the economy. I can relate.

If you find yourself lamenting today, you no doubt feel a need for comrades who understand and sympathize. But Jeremiah wasn’t given this luxury. He felt very much alone, even rejected: “My own people laugh at me; all day long they sing their ribald songs.”

Hmmm…sounds like a cultural war is going on, doesn’t it? While Jeremiah lamented, the people around him laughed. Seemingly without a clue about the destruction they were facing, people mocked God’s prophetic message and chose to flaunt their worldly ways. Jeremiah must have faced opposition from leaders who, like some today, belittle godly people for “clinging to their guns and religion” instead of embracing cultural trends.

Recognizing peace and prosperity as two key pillars of every nation truly blessed by God, Jeremiah was disturbed to realize that both were slipping away: “All peace and all prosperity have long since gone, for you [God] have taken them away.”

As Jeremiah surveyed this dismal situation, he made another quite logical deduction: “The Lord has left me…All hope is gone.” Who could blame him for feeling melancholy, hopeless, and even bitter?

Fortunately, this wasn’t the end of the story. Jeremiah went on to describe how the Lord broke through the dark clouds of disillusionment and gave him a sudden ray of encouragement:

Yet there is one ray of hope: his compassion never ends.

It is only the Lord’s mercies that have kept us from complete destruction.

Great is his faithfulness; his loving‑kindness begins afresh each day.

My soul claims the Lord as my inheritance; therefore I will hope in him.

The Lord is wonderfully good to those who wait for him, to those who seek for him (Lamentations 3:21-25 TLB).

What an incredible change in Jeremiah’s perspective! Even in his gloomy place of lament, he saw an amazing ray of hope. From the pit of despair, he saw the Lord’s compassion and faithfulness. From an attitude of blaming God for his anguish, he ended up praising God and declaring His goodness.

So what about you? If you are experiencing a time of lament today—concerning your own life, your loved ones, your church, or your nation—may the Lord break through the clouds and give you a fresh glimpse of His faithfulness.

Like Jeremiah, the apostle John faced some frightening times when he wrote the book of Revelation. Yet everything changed when he saw “a throne in heaven and Someone sitting on it” (Revelation 4:1-2).

Praise God, He is still faithful and still sitting on the throne of the universe.

There’s a popular adage that’s been the chorus of at least a few good songs, which goes like this: “Everything you know is wrong.” That’s not entirely true, obviously (I think), but there’s still a lot of truth to it.

On the one hand, we put way too much stock in our own opinions and experiences, however true they may or may not be. On the other hand—and sometimes even simultaneously—we allow ourselves to become paralyzed by our lack of knowledge, lack of wisdom, or just plain lack of confidence. And by doing so, we end up acting in a way that betrays what little real knowledge we do have.

So with all this in mind, allow me the grace to put an absolute statement out there anyway: Just about everything you know might be wrong. In fact, most of what we know is some entangled mess of right and wrong. But God is never wrong.

And now, allow me to undercut even that: Because of our own fallenness and self-deception, we often don’t even get our understanding of God’s perfect will totally right.

If all of this sounds confusing, it should.

A big part of the problem—but also, the solution—lies in the connection between our minds and our hearts. There’s a refrain in Jeremiah that captures this well—“the imagination of their own heart” (Jeremiah 9:14, et al., KJV). In fact, Jeremiah often throws in “evil” before “heart,” lest we miss the point.

So often, we believe what we want to believe because we want to believe it, as if our desire by itself—or even more often, our pride—makes it all come out right. I suspect that God is far more offended by our arrogance than by our “going off the deep end,” but both miss the mark badly. Both are about us.

So where do we turn to get it right? Facts? Nope. Facts are good, but facts aren’t always the truth. Surf between news channels reporting on the same story on any given night, and you can readily see how easily different channels bend the facts to fit “the imagination of their own heart.”

Conscience? Better, but not perfect. Our conscience testifies that something’s wrong— that we’re somehow already disconnected from God—even as it potentially points us in the right direction. But though our conscience might alert us correctly, we often do wrong things in response to what it tells us. We take short cuts. We run the other way. We do everything we can to avoid the problem we know is there. More often than not, we’re more concerned with easing our consciences than we are with trying to address the disunity in our souls that our consciences have correctly perceived.

So let’s cut to the point: Our conscience tells us something’s wrong; the Spirit tells us what’s right. To receive what the Spirit’s telling us, we need to lay down our “heads”—our thought lives—before God. We need to humble ourselves enough to let God work, and to allow our convictions—or lack thereof—to be replaced by his.

True story: Romans 12:2 was my life verse even before I came to know Jesus. Here’s the King James version I first read it in more than thirty years ago: “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” There’s so much packed into that verse, and space doesn’t allow us to fully unpack it here. Maybe my own pre-Christian experience with it will help illustrate, though.

When I first read this passage as an I-believe-in-God-but-I’ll-be-anything-but-a-Christian thirty years ago, I immediately sat down and wrote an essay on the power of saying “no.” There was truth to that response—but it wasn’t the whole truth. I had locked squarely into “And be not conformed to this world,” and was on board with “but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind,” but “that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God”? Who cared? I didn’t. Not yet. However, without it the little truth I genuinely knew was as good as a lie.

Our lives are no longer our own. The key to a renewed mind is the willingness to lay down our thoughts in order to learn God’s. As we let go of what’s “ours” and take hold of what we know to be God’s, our minds begin to be purified. The Spirit begins to untangle truth from untruth, the wheat from the weeds. God’s will becomes less of a mystery, even as God himself remains an ever-deepening mystery. Even when we can’t immediately see or understand where God is leading us, he honors the spirit of submission he’s given us—and our resolve to stay in submission—and leads us there anyway.

yes, if you call out for insight
and raise your voice for understanding,
if you seek it like silver
and search for it as for hidden treasures,
then you will understand the fear of the LORD
and find the knowledge of God.
For the LORD gives wisdom;
from his mouth come knowledge and understanding….
Then you will understand righteousness and justice
and equity, every good path;
for wisdom will come into your heart,
and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul (Proverbs 2:3–6, 9–10).

To know yourself better only makes you more like you. To know Jesus more is to become more like Jesus. That’s what God has desired for us since the day of creation. So lay down your head, and be transformed.

Lay It Down Today

What’s your “life passage”—or at least a passage from God’s Word that’s spoken to you recently? Take fifteen minutes now, and let it speak to you some more. Sit quietly before the Lord and simply meditate on this passage. Then close your time in prayer. Here are a few guiding questions to help you process:

• Why is God bringing this passage to my mind? Why now?
• What’s the one thing that most needs transforming in my life—that God wants me to lay down right now?
• How can I invite God deeper into that part of my life and let him work?

"Christ is not valued at all unless he be valued above all." (Augustine)

Christ invites surrender like no other--He asks to be Master of the human heart.

Christ commands like no other--He demands obedience, not merely applause.

Christ reigns like no other--He rules an empire of love unrivaled by earth's fleeting kingdoms.

Christ leads like no other--His likeness is more than an ethical ideal; it is an absolute imperative.

Christ blesses like no other--He gives songs in the night, hope in despair, and peace in chaos.

Christ loves like no other--He loves unchangeably, unstintingly, unfailingly, and unconditionally.

Christ means more than any other--He is not just a line in a creed, but our Center of Gravity.

"Christ is all, and in all." [Colossians 3:11 KJV]

Johnny R. Almond

Author, Gentle Whispers from Eternity

http://GentleWhispersFromEternity-ScripturePersonalized.com/

This article makes a provocative statement: "Christianity isn’t just a system of belief. It isn’t a lifestyle. It’s a life transformed by Jesus." 

 “Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul.” (Marcus Aurelius]

To live without praying to our Father is to behave as if our Savior were still entombed. To “pray without ceasing” [1 Thessalonians 5:17] is literally to “come to rest” in grace.

To neglect conversation with Christ is to miss the joy of intimacy with the living Lord. To listen for His voice is the prelude to indescribable peace and incomparable cheer.

To attempt do-it-yourself living is to forfeit the enabling assistance of the Holy Spirit. To humbly depend on Immanuel is to find God with us unfailingly more than enough.

“The person who has My commands and keeps them is the one who really loves Me, and whoever really loves Me will be loved by My Father. And I too will love him and will let Myself be clearly seen by him and make Myself real to him.” [John 14:21 Amplified New Testament]

Johnny R. Almond

Author, Gentle Whispers from Eternity

Interim Pastor, Nomini Baptist Church; Montross, Virginia

Blog & book info http://GentleWhispersFromEternity-ScripturePersonalized.com/

“God is not in the business of granting wishes. God is in the business of raising the dead, not all of whom are willing.” (Barbara Brown Taylor)

To experience the power that raised Christ from the dead is infinitely superior to gloating in our achievements and possessions. Anything that we let take God’s place in our hearts is a false god unable to satisfy our deepest desires (1 John 5:21).

Ambition to succeed by human standards puts us on a path that is invariably frustrating. About the time we think we’ve caught up with the Joneses, they’ve refinanced and started all over again. And even if we think we’re ahead of everybody else in the rat race, who wants to be a rat? No matter how much we acquire or achieve, this world, as Scripture reminds us, is fading away (1 John 2:17). What we hold in our hands is temporary; what we hold in our hearts is eternal.  

The best ambition is to know Christ. But to know him requires that we walk the high road above the moral swamp. Voltaire once remarked that all people are creatures of the age in which they live, and very few are able to raise themselves above the ideas of the time. The truth is none of us can raise ourselves above the prevailing norms of our day. A moral resurrection from corrupt society is only possible by supernatural power—the power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead.

Are we willing?

“That I may know him” (Philippians 3:10)

W

Johnny R. Almond

Author, Gentle Whispers from Eternity

Interim Pastor, Nomini Baptist Church; Montross, Virginia

Blog & book info http://GentleWhispersFromEternity-ScripturePersonalized.com/