The Wonder of God's Faithfulness

When my kids were little, I spent hours reading to them. More often than not, I read them the same story over and over. “Read it again!” they’d ask, just as excited to hear it the tenth time as they did the first time. But after reading the same story on repeat, I wasn’t as thrilled. I lost my fervor to speak in different voices. I found myself reading it faster just to get it over with.

This is true with many things in life. I get excited about something new and enjoy the task. It might be experimenting with a new recipe or starting a new job or learning a new skill, but after doing it over and over again, the newness wears off and I get bored. I find the mundane tiresome.

How different is our God!

From the beginning of time, he ensures the sun rises and sets and each day. The seasons come and go at their appointed times year after year. Animals are fed and cared for. The earth is watered so that food grows and is harvested. God does these things not begrudgingly, but in spectacular fashion. Sunsets never cease to amaze and thrill. The crimson and amber hue on the leaves outside the window are just as beautiful this year as the they were the last. All his works are perfect and he is faithful to perform them.

Even more, he is faithful in our lives. He hears the same prayers from my heart day after day and never tires to hear from me. When I ask him to “provide for me again!” or “deliver me again!” he does so with joy. He never tires or grows bored or desires something new and different. He is the same, yesterday, today, and forever (Heb. 3:8). He is faithful in all that he does. As Moses sang, “The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he” (Deut. 32:4). This means we can depend on God. We can know he is present and with us at all times. We can trust in his steadfast love and faithfulness. Like a child, we can take delight in a God who never ceases to perform wonders for his people. What he promises always comes to pass. What he decrees always stands.

Just as my children loved to hear the same story, “just one more time” and just as they trusted in me to be there to read it to them, how much more so can we find joy and wonder in our God who awakens us each morning with brilliant colors splashed across the sky. How much more will our God be present with us, hear us, and deliver us, no matter how many times we ask.

How have you seen God’s faithful works today?

“Bless the LORD, all his works, in all places of his dominion. Bless the LORD, O my soul!” (Ps. 103:22).

Photo by Dawid Zawiła on Unsplash

Our Risen Savior

When our family toured Israel a few years ago, we visited a museum filled with Jewish antiquities. In the museum’s section from the time of Christ, we saw items belonging to Herod and Pilate, including their “bone boxes.” These were boxes made out of stone that were used to keep the bones of these leaders who lived at the time of Christ. You may remember that these two men interviewed Jesus to find reasons to crucify him. Luke 22 tells us that Herod had wanted to see Jesus do some kind of sign (v.8) and when he did not, he sent him to Pilate. John 19 describes Jesus being brought before Pilate, where he sat at the judgment seat (v.13). In our tour of Jerusalem, we went underground to where that place had been excavated. I stood in the same place where Jesus stood before Pilate that night and I could not help but weep in both sorrow and gratitude. Though Pilate did not find that Jesus had violated any law, he yielded to the demands of the people and handed him over to be crucified (Luke 22:25).

What stood out to me at the museum as I looked at these “bone boxes” is that there is not one for Jesus. While these two men of great power and authority—Herod and Pilate—who ruled and executed judgement in their day, they eventually breathed their last breath and were buried. The King of Kings, the One they crucified, does not have a “bone box,” for the grave could not hold him. He rose again and now reigns on high. That’s why Easter Sunday is the apex of the Christian calendar. Jesus’ resurrection is what makes his death accomplish atonement for sin. Had he not risen, we would still be dead in our sins.

As the Apostle Paul wrote:

But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain…And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied” (1 Cor. 15:13-14, 17-19).

I once had a professor in college who always preached of Christ’s life, death, resurrection, and ascension. Every sermon, no matter the passage, culminated in what Christ had done. Too often, when we think of the gospel, we zero in on the crucifixion—on Jesus’ sacrifice for sin. But that’s not the complete picture. Anyone can die for another person, but only the perfect and righteous Son of God can take on the sins of his people and then rise again from the grave. Only Christ can ascend into heaven and rule over all creation. And only Christ will return in judgement at the last day.

As we celebrate what our Savior came to do for us this weekend, let us rejoice in the truth of the resurrection for without it, we are without hope. Celebrate the wonder and glory that Jesus has no “bone box.” He reigns in heaven and will return again in glory. Maranatha, Lord Jesus!

Photo by Ann on Unsplash

The Comfort of Our Good Shepherd

I’m a city girl. I was born in a city and know little of what life is like on a ranch or farm or even a small village. Yet the Bible often uses illustrations related to agrarian life: sowing and harvesting, vines and vineyards, sheep and shepherds. These illustrations were ones God’s people could relate to for most people lived off the land and knew the work involved. Even today, just outside the city of Jerusalem, the hills are dotted with sheep and their shepherds. When our family toured Israel, we got to meet shepherds and learned about their nomadic life as they herd sheep from one hill to the next.

Psalm 23 is a psalm that is beloved by many and is one I memorized as a child. Midway through, it says: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me” (v.4). I remember visiting a place in Israel referred to as “the valley of shadow of death.” It was a dark valley that sojourners often traveled on their way to the city of Jerusalem, a place where thieves often took advantage of travelers. Seeing that valley helped put this passage in perspective for me.

In Psalm 23, the shepherd’s rod and staff are a comfort in the dark valley. A shepherd was known to carry a staff to use in keeping and guarding his sheep. As our shepherd, God comforts us with his rod and staff. Here are just a few ways we find comfort in God’s staff:

He uses his rod to rule: A shepherd used his rod to rule over the sheep. He told them where to go; he was their master who led them from one grazing hill to another. Likewise, God is our ruler; he reigns over all things. He governs our life. He determines where we go. He is the one we look to for guidance and wisdom. When we go through dark valleys, he leads us. He shows us the direction to take. He warns us away from dangerous paths. And we can trust him to bring us through the valley and to the other side.

He uses his rod to count:  A shepherd often used his rod to count his sheep as they walked by him. Likewise, our Father chose us in Christ to be a part of his flock and he knows each of us by name. Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me” (John 10:14). When we wander from God, he goes to whatever lengths necessary to bring us back to him, “What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray?” (Matthew 18:12). When we walk through dark valleys and lose our way, we can rest assured that our shepherd will never lose us. He will seek us and find us and bring us back to himself.

He uses his rod to guide: A shepherd used the crook of his rod to pull back sheep when they wandered from the flock. He also used it to chastise them. When they were slow or distracted, he used the rod to prod them. So the Lord does with us. As the writer to Hebrews 12:5-6 said, “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” Sometimes our dark valleys are places where the Lord brings us for purposes of training or discipline. We can trust that he does so out of love. He desires that we grow and mature. His rod is a tool used to guide us into greater holiness.

He uses his rod to protect: The shepherd also used his rod to protect his sheep from wild animals. So too, God protects us from evil. Some valleys are so dark it seems as though God has forgotten us. It can be tempting to doubt his love and goodness. We can wonder if we’ll ever see the light of day. We can fear being lost forever. Psalm 23 teaches us that we can have confidence that our shepherd will never leave us or forsake us. There is nothing and no one that can keep us from his love. He will keep us from all evil (see Romans 8:38-39). He will ensure we make it safely home to him.

While I am a city girl, I know what it’s like to wander and stray from where I belong. I know what it’s like to need guidance and direction. And I know what it’s like to walk through dark valleys of life. I am a sheep in need of a good shepherd. God is my Good Shepherd who protects and keeps me in his care.

Even when I walk through the darkest valleys.

Photo by Antonello Falcone - The Wiseman on Unsplash

Remember the Wilderness

“And you shall remember the whole way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not” (Deut. 8:2).

Think back on a time in your life when you wandered in the wilderness. Perhaps you were without a job and as the months went by without a single job offer, you wondered if you’d ever find one. Or maybe you journeyed through the wilderness of physical pain. Your doctors ran test after test and you thought you’d never find an answer or relief. Maybe you journeyed through the wilds of grief, a journey that seemed unending. Whatever the journey, would you want to remember it? I don’t know about you, but such journeys I want to keep in the past. I want to forget they ever happened. But in Deuteronomy 8, Moses calls the people of Israel to remember their desert wanderings.

God’s people had wandered in the desert for forty years and they are about the enter the Promised Land. Moses describes their years of wandering as a time of testing and of discipline (vv. 2-3,5). During all those years, God provided for their needs. He fed them manna. He kept their clothes from wearing out. Their feet didn’t swell. They were never on their own; he led them by fire and a cloud. He brought them through the wilderness and to a land flowing with milk and honey.

Deuteronomy 8 is a warning for Israel as they exit the wilderness. It is a warning for them to remember who God is and what he has done. Because what happens when they forget? Pride and idolatry. “Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day” (v. 17-18). When they forget who God is—the God who rescued them from slavery, who provided for them all their needs, the One upon whom they are dependent for all things—they exalt themselves. Such forgetfulness leads to arrogance, thinking they are the reason for their success.

Idolatry is second thing that happens when they forget the wilderness. “And if you forget the LORD your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish” (v.19). Once they forget the God who delivered and sustained them, they then yield their hearts to false gods. It had already happened during their time in the wilderness. When Moses was on the mountain talking with God, the people had Aaron make them a golden calf to worship. As we know, they did not heed this warning for the Old Testament is filled with accounts of God’s people worshipping false gods. And as God promised in Deuteronomy 8, they experienced the punishment for it when they were taken into captivity.

On this side of redemption history, we too need to remember the wilderness. We need to remember how the Lord has carried us through past trials and temptations, through sufferings and hardships. We need to remember his provisions of grace. Not to wallow in it. Not to get stuck in the past. But so that our hearts won’t grow prideful. So that we won’t depend upon ourselves. So that we won’t turn to counterfeit gods and look to them for help and hope, deliverance and rescue. We need to remember the faithful love of our Father, who brings us through such wanderings in order that we would know him and depend upon him (see Heb. 12). He uses the wilderness to discipline and shape us—to transform us into the image of Christ. “Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the LORD your God disciplines you. So you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him” (vv.5-6).

Moses wants the people to remember God’s grace for them. In the next chapter, Moses points out that it is entirely because of his grace and his covenantal love for them—not Israel’s righteousness—that he brought them through the wilderness and into the land he promised: “Know, therefore, that the LORD your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stubborn people. Remember and do not forget how you provoked the LORD your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day you came out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the LORD” (Deut. 9:6-7). So too, God brings us through the wilderness and into the land of his goodness, not because of anything we’ve done, but because of his grace for us in Christ. We too are stubborn. We too rebel against him. We too turn from God to do our own thing. Praise him for his steadfast love and faithful grace!

In Deuteronomy 9, Moses recounts to the people how he interceded for them when they sinned and worshipped the golden calf (vv.18-29). His intercession is a foreshadowing of Jesus Christ, the One who would come as our perfect mediator. He too wandered in the wilderness, but in his wandering he never sinned. He didn’t give in to the devil’s temptation to pride or idolatry (see Matt. 4). In fact, Jesus responded to the devil with a quote from Deuteronomy 8: “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God’” (Matt. 4:4). When we are forgetful—when we forget the wilderness and what God has done for us there—Jesus remembers for us. He stands before the Father on our behalf, interceding for us. And his righteousness covers us.

Let us remember our wilderness wanderings. Let us remember how God carries and provides and sustains by his grace. But above all, let us remember our Savior, whose own wilderness wanderings is credited to us.

When You Don't Have the Answers

When my kids were little, they were curious about everything. How does the car engine work? Why is thunder so loud? How tall will I get? Why…? I often didn’t know the answer to their questions and had to do some research in order to respond. Sometimes, my answer was, “Let’s look at a book on that topic” or one time, I gave my son a model car engine for him to build.

We live in a day when answers are just a click away. We merely have to ask our phone a question and we receive a ready response. In some ways, this makes us think there is an answer to every question. That we can know everything.

But the Bible teaches otherwise.

In Ecclesiastes 3, the Preacher makes observations about the world. He notes that there are seasons in life, including a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to harvest what is planted, a time to weep and a time to laugh. Then he writes:

“I have seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man. I perceived that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people fear before him. That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already has been; and God seeks what has been driven away” (Ecc. 3:10-15).

God has given us tasks to do in life and they happen in seasons and times that he determines. Whatever the season we are in, there is beauty found there. He then tells that God has placed eternity into man’s heart. We know deep down of God’s existence and his work in this world. We know deep down that we are created beings, dependent upon our Creator. But, we don’t know everything. “…he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end” (v.11). We are finite beings. We do not know the end from the beginning. We don’t know the answer to all the questions. We don’t know how to do all the things. We don’t know why things happen as they do. We are not God.

What do we do with that? As people who want all the answers—who want to ask Siri why we continue to struggle or when our trial will end or how to navigate a difficult decision—the Preacher is telling us to be okay with the fact that we don’t know. To trust that God knows. To rest in the sovereignty of God. There are things he has revealed to us and the rest only he alone knows: “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law” (Deut. 29:29). He is the Alpha and the Omega (Rev. 1:8). He is before all things and he holds all things together (Col. 1:17). While we cannot know all things, we were created by an infinite God who does. He not only knows, he determines what is to come and ensures it comes to pass. As his creatures, we are called to fear him, delight in him, and keep our gaze fixed on him (vv.14-15). As we do, we find joy and contentment in what God provides, in the season he provides it (vv.12-13).

Matthew Henry commented on this passage: “Though we see not the complete beauty of Providence, yet we shall see it, and a glorious sight it will be, when the mystery of God shall be finished. Then every thing shall appear to have been done in the most proper time and it will be the wonder of eternity…We must wait with patience for the full discovery of that which to us seems intricate and perplexed, acknowledging that we cannot find out the work that God makes from the beginning to the end, and therefore must judge nothing before the time. We are to believe that God has made all beautiful. Every thing is done well, as in creation, so in providence, and we shall see it when the end comes, but till then we are incompetent judges of it. While the picture is in drawing, and the house in building, we see not the beauty of either; but when the artist has put his last hand to them, and given them their finishing strokes, then all appears very good. We see but the middle of God’s works, not from the beginning of them (then we should see how admirably the plan was laid in the divine counsels), nor to the end of them, which crowns the action (then we should see the product to be glorious), but we must wait till the veil be rent, and not arraign God’s proceedings nor pretend to pass judgment on them. Secret things belong not to us.”

I am just like my children in that I long to know all the answers. I don’t like to wait or live in the unknown. I want to know everything that is going to happen before it does. But God is a good Father and I know him. I know that he makes all things beautiful—even the messy, frayed fabric of my life. I can’t judge it as I see it now. I must wait for its completion when I will stand in wonder and awe at all God has done.

I don’t have the all the answers. But I trust the One who does.

Photo by Daiga Ellaby on Unsplash

The God Who Remembers

When I was pregnant with my oldest and started registering for baby items, I was overwhelmed by all the choices. One online supplier of all things baby had pages and pages of themed nursery items. You know, coordinating bumper, sheets, and skirt for the crib that come with matching mobile and wall decorations and anything else you can imagine. What was really popular at that time was having a Noah’s Ark themed nursery. While part of me understood why—what child doesn’t love animals? But part of me also was confused, after all, the story of Noah is the story of God wiping out nearly all of humanity because of sin.

Noah’s story is a story of both punishment for sin and a story of redemption. It’s a story that Jesus connects with himself in Matthew 24. It’s also a story of God’s covenant commitment to his people.

In Genesis 8, we read what happens after the flood. Noah and his family had been shut up in the ark for weeks and weeks. The flood had destroyed all living things on the earth. The chapter starts with: “But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided.” But God remembered. It seems like a strange use of words. Did God put Noah and his family in the ark, shut the door, turn on the spouts of the earth, then walk away and forget it all? Did he get busy doing other things while the ark floated along on the waves? Did he not remember all that took place leading up to the flood?

Unlike you and I, God is not forgetful. He knows all things and remembers all things. “The LORD looks down from heaven; he sees all the children of man” (Ps. 33:13). “And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account” (Heb. 4:13). That word, “remember” is a covenantal remembering. It refers to God keeping his covenant commitments. In this verse, it is used to show God remembering Noah by showing kindness, protection, and deliverance. God kept his covenant promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, by completing his work of redemption in the remnant of Noah and his family. He then makes the waters recede so that Noah and his family can leave the ark. It’s the same remembrance God had for his people when they were in slavery in Egypt. Exodus 2:24 says, “And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.”

Our God is a covenant making and covenant keeping God. It’s how he relates to us. And nothing can keep his word from coming to pass. “God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?” (Num. 23:19). “…so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it” (Is. 55:11). This means, God always remembers.

And he will keep his promises to his people.

John Calvin, in commenting on Genesis 8, pointed out that Noah may have thought God had forgotten him in the ark. After all, he and his family were in there a long time. He suggests that their endurance in the ark was so that they would “meditate the more profitably on the judgments of Gods and when the danger was past, to acknowledge that they had been rescued from a thousand deaths.” Calvin then exhorts us, “Let us therefore learn, by this example, to repose on the providence of God, even while he seems to be most forgetful of us; for at length, by affording us help, he will testify that he has been mindful of us. What, if the flesh persuade us to distrust, yet let us not yield to its restlessness; but as soon as this thought creeps in, that God has cast off all care concerning us, or is asleep, or far distant, let us immediately meet it with this shield, The Lord, who has promised his help to the miserable will, in due time, be present with us, that we may indeed perceive the care he takes of us.”

Calvin encourages us that whenever we begin to wonder if God has forgotten us, or wonder if he might be busy doing other important things, to remember God’s promises to us. As Paul points out in Romans 8, “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (v.32). If God has kept his promise to redeem us from sin, how could we think that he would not meet us in our current struggles and trials? After all he has done to rescue us, how could we think he has forgotten us now?

Our God has bound himself to us in covenant love and nothing can stop that love. Our God never forgets. He is a God who remembers.

Photo by Sebastien Gabriel on Unsplash