DECEMBER 23, 2022

  “One of the main ways we move from abstract knowledge about God to a personal encounter with him as a living reality is through the furnace of affliction.” 

― Timothy J. Keller, Walking with God through Pain and Suffering

HABAKKUK

17Though the fig tree does not bud

and there are no grapes on the vines,

though the olive crop fails

and the fields produce no food,

though there are no sheep in the pen

and no cattle in the stalls,

18yet I will rejoice in the Lord,

I will be joyful in God my Savior.

19The Sovereign Lord is my strength;

he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,

he enables me to tread on the heights.(3:17-19)

REVELATION 14

There will be no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the mark of its name.” 12This calls for patient endurance on the part of the people of God who keep his commands and remain faithful to Jesus.

13Then I heard a voice from heaven say, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.”

“Yes,” says the Spirit, “they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them.”

JOURNAL 

A few years back we were coming off of a period in our lives where the where we did not understand what God was doing. Doors closed that seemed like they should open, often it felt like we were headed off a cliff and at times, things seemed so messy and negative that it was hard to find a greater purpose. Reading through Habakkuk I can fully identify with the sentiment of the book. "God what in the world are you doing?" Ultimately God revealed a path that made more sense and helped us understand the years of doubt and uncertainty. 

Following God in the midst of suffering is what produces courage, love, faith and joy. The temptation often is to run from pain and suffering...to avoid them at all cost. Yet doing so will be a path away from God rather than to him.  This is one of the great paradoxes of life...accepting the hard path often produces the greatest rewards. The point though is not to seek the harder path just for the sake of getting a better reward, but seeking God because I believe, love and trust God. 

In the end all things from God will produce a greater work in us, when we follow him in faith, believing that each day, each moment, hold great opportunity and are part of his EPIC story. To fully embrace that we are a critical part of God's plan can turn days and moments that otherwise seem insignificant into EPIC battles and victories for the kingdom. 

12Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.

ROMANS 12:12-13

DECEMBER 22, 2022

  “We cannot be sure of having something to live for unless we are willing to die for it.” 

― Ernesto Che Guevara

NAHUM

7The Lord is good,

a refuge in times of trouble.

He cares for those who trust in him,

8but with an overwhelming flood

he will make an end of Nineveh;

he will pursue his foes into the realm of darkness. (1:7-8)

REVELATION 13

9Whoever has ears, let them hear.

10“If anyone is to go into captivity,

into captivity they will go.

If anyone is to be killed^c with the sword,

with the sword they will be killed.”^d

This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of God’s people.

JOURNAL 

God is either a refuge or your worst nightmare. To read Revelation along with predictive prophecy from the Old Testament is definitely enlightening. God is our refuge no matter the situation we find ourselves. Good times or bad he is our ultimate source of hope and direction. 

Reading these verses in the comfort and ease of my life makes the life of the Bible seem so foreign and unrelatable. Yet comfort and ease are not what make life great, purposeful or meaningful. The chance to live and have impact on this world for good, that is what makes life meaningful and that is only truly accomplished when God's love is active and fruitful in our hearts. Because regardless of our physical condition in either comfort or suffering, having a purpose and fulfilling that purpose is what truly brings joy to our lives. 

The world is full of those that have everything they could ever want or need yet are miserable and joyless. So the miracle and beauty of God is that he makes everything better, he gives those with plenty as well as those with little a reason to live. That reason is to give and live love. What a word, what a message. 

12My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14You are my friends if you do what I command. 15I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17This is my command: Love each other.

JOHN 15:12-17

DECEMBER 21, 2022

 “If God were small enough to be understood, he wouldn’t be big enough to be worshipped.” 

― Timothy J. Keller, Walking with God through Pain and Suffering

 

MICAH 6-7

8He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.

And what does the Lord require of you?

To act justly and to love mercy

and to walk humbly^a with your God. (6:8)

REVELATION 12

“Now have come the salvation and the power

and the kingdom of our God,

and the authority of his Messiah.

For the accuser of our brothers and sisters,

who accuses them before our God day and night,

has been hurled down.

11They triumphed over him

by the blood of the Lamb

and by the word of their testimony;

they did not love their lives so much

as to shrink from death.

JOURNAL 

• Act Justly
• Love Mercy
• Walk Humbly with God
• Triumph through Sacrifice
• Obedience over self-indulgence

Here are  pearls of scripture, sitting right in the middle of confusing prophecy . Although every word of scripture is "God-breathed" I often wonder if part of the purpose is to have us persist in reading even when it doesn't make sense or is confusing. 

That is precisely how I have experienced God. So often life is confusing...doesn't make sense and yet we are commanded to trust and follow regardless of the circumstances. Often in private moments and some public I have questioned the process. I have wanted guarantees and logical explanations. But what I find is that guarantees and logical explanations seem to be on the opposite end of the spectrum when it comes to faith. In fact if we had fully explainable facts then it would no longer be faith. We don't have faith in gravity.

Most of the details about Jesus and his life is somewhat illogical. On the surface, God sacrificing his son and having him pay the penance of sin makes no sense. Then there is the manger, the running from Herod, the shepherds, pagan wise men...it's all messy and illogical and yet when it comes to the Christmas story, that's exactly what makes it beautiful. God never really seems to work in the obvious or the logical...yet too often that's what I want. 

Hmmm...maybe that's the problem, hoping and expecting God to act in sensible, human ways. Is that why we have scripture...to show us that God logic is not human logic? I think so...and even more reason to trust it and follow it. 

 9He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, 10but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.

2 TIMOTHY 1:9-10

DECEMBER 20, 2022

  “Yet as I read the birth stories about Jesus I cannot help but conclude that though the world may be tilted toward the rich and powerful, God is tilted toward the underdog.” 

― Philip Yancey

MICAH 4-5

He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they will live securely, for then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth. And he will be their peace. (5:4-5)

REVELATION 11

7Now when they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the Abyss will attack them, and overpower and kill them. 8Their bodies will lie in the public square of the great city—which is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt—where also their Lord was crucified. 9For three and a half days some from every people, tribe, language and nation will gaze on their bodies and refuse them burial. 10The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and will celebrate by sending each other gifts, because these two prophets had tormented those who live on the earth.

11But after the three and a half days the breath^b of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and terror struck those who saw them. 12Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here.” And they went up to heaven in a cloud, while their enemies looked on.

JOURNAL 

Reading through Revelation is really bizarre, it is just so dark and confusing. Yet here is a scene which is so central to our lives on earth and relationship with God. These two "witnesses", annointed and sent by God prophesy for 3 years...3 years! Then they are killed and left to rot in the street.  Quite a horrible end for doing God's work.  Public opinion would say "game over", God's anointed are dead, laying in the street for over 3 days...starting to discolor and smell. Then it happens, God shows up in ways never expected. Turns the table, flips the script, changes the game.

This same story plays out so often in life...not the rotting in the street part, but the part where the cause seems lost and then out of the blue something changes...something no one saw coming. These are the sports stories that I love to watch. The classic underdog story that warms our heart and makes for great TV, or books or posts on the internet. Reality is that it strikes such a chord because it is God's story. Death on a cross or dead and rotting in the street would never have been deemed a great victory...in those moments. 

I love this about life and God. Most of the stories from the Bible are unpredictable, Adam and Eve, Noah, Job,  Abraham, Lot, Isaac, Joseph, Moses, David, Daniel, Peter, Jesus, Paul...God defies convention and when he flips a switch it's usually pretty dramatic. 

This time of year that same story is what we celebrate...who could ever have predicted that the Messiah...would be born into a smelly dirty barn. Who would have predicted that this boy born into meager conditions would become the savior of us all. These stories give us hope but more importantly they give us a clue as to how God works and his love for defying our predictions, opinions and judgements. It's the truth that guides and directs me to live today, this moment and let God handle tomorrow.  

 We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives,^e 10so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, 12and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you^f to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. 13For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

COLOSSIANS 1:9-14

DECEMBER 19, 2022

 

 “Be true to yourself.
Make each day your masterpiece.
Help others.
Drink deeply from good books.
Make friendship a fine art.
Build a shelter against a rainy day.
Pray for guidance and give thanks for your blessings every day.” 

― John Wooden

MICAH 1-3

11Her leaders judge for a bribe,

her priests teach for a price,

and her prophets tell fortunes for money.

Yet they look for the Lord’s support and say,

“Is not the Lord among us?

No disaster will come upon us.”

12Therefore because of you,

Zion will be plowed like a field,

Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble,

the temple hill a mound overgrown with thickets. (3:11-12)

REVELATION 10

5Then the angel I had seen standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven. 6And he swore by him who lives for ever and ever, who created the heavens and all that is in them, the earth and all that is in it, and the sea and all that is in it, and said, “There will be no more delay! 7But in the days when the seventh angel is about to sound his trumpet, the mystery of God will be accomplished, just as he announced to his servants the prophets.”

JOURNAL 

Here from Micah is a warning that to me, seems against those that have found profit and comfort in their current position. It also is a reminder of the dangers and the subtlety of comfort. Yet many times I find that my heart longs for comfort and ease, but when I get it and it's outside of the normal weekend break or vacation I find that it no longer is satisfying. I get bored and long for challenge and something that matters. Fortunately or unfortunately this hasn't happened very often, and  I do wonder if it's an indication of the dangers of things being too easy. 

Rest and vacation are all wonderful things.  They are definitely gifts that are good.  Just as the Kingdom of Israel, Solomon's wealth was a blessing. But I think the danger is when they become the end goal rather than a blessing for a small period of time.  One of the things that used to bother me as a financial advisor was always focusing on planning for the day that people will do nothing.  The more I think about it...it almost feels like a way to take people out of the game and render them ineffective. We aren't meant to check out of life. We are here for a purpose and it's not to simply rest and take it easy. 

16Rejoice always, 17pray continually, 18give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

1THESSALONIANS 5:16-18