Did the Raindrop Fall From His Hand?

Is it harder to believe that God sends a raindrop than to trust natural processes God set up millions of years ago? Does it seem superstitious and “backward” to imagine that Almighty God crafts the clouds, kindles the lightning, and blows the wind?

I’m been thinking a lot about this because Dionne and I have started reading John M. Frame’s Systematic Theology. When Frame discusses miracles, he prefers not to call them an interruption of divine law or natural process but “extraordinary manifestations of God’s lordship.” (p. 131)

A Life Cut Short?

When they woke up on Saturday, December 20, neither Officer Rafael Ramos nor Officer Wenjian Liu knew it was their last morning on earth. They were murdered as they sat in their squad car. Their killer had been targeting cops.

Evidently Officer Ramos was a believer in Christ. World Magazine has a great story (click here)  about his funeral and the church where he and his family worshiped for the last 14 years.  Ramos, who just turned 40, was due to graduate from the NYPD’s chaplain training program the day after he was killed. He left behind a wife and two sons.

The senseless murder of a young, godly man reminds us that evil is real and that our world is in its grip. It lives within each of us sinners, and flares like a malarial fever in some, erupting in rage and violence.

We might be tempted to conclude that this dark world is irredeemably out of control, and that the enemy of our soul won yet another ugly victory in cutting short the life of a man like Rafael Ramos.

When You're Spinning Out of Control

We all have weeks when it feels like everything that could go wrong does. You begin to think God has taken a break from watching over your life, and you’re on your own, spinning slow-motion like a hydroplaning car on a mountain road, heading for the cliff.

Maybe that’s overly dramatic, but you probably know what I mean.

Christ hasn't gone anywhere, of course, and what you have to do is ride it out. Keep praying, and ignore the sense of vertigo you feel when it seems like your circumstances are spiraling out of control. And, of course, continue to read your Bible.

You never know when a very familiar, or seemingly dull, portion of holy Scripture may be just the encouragement you need. This week, for example, the Lord helped me through a genealogy. Usually you think of long lists of names – So-and-So begat Such-and-Such – as the boring verses you skip to get to the action parts of the Bible.

"What is God's Promise?" - Casting Your Burdens on the Lord, Part 3

When we cast our burdens on the Lord, what happens? What does He promise to do about our distress and pain? Cast your burden on the LORD is His command, in Psalm 55:22. And His promise follows: and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.

God’s promise in Psalm 55:22 is in two parts. He makes a promise for right now, while we’re struggling with our burdens, and He also makes a promise for forever, for any and all burdens we might experience in the course of our lives.

Casting Your Burden on the Lord - Part 2: "What are Your Options?"

Everybody has burdens, and Psalm 55:22 tells us what to do with them. Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.

Last time I asked “what is your burden?” Burdens may seem heavy, wearisome, painful, unfair, and destructive. But they are also given to us by our wise, kind, loving, and all-powerful Heavenly Father. 

So in this post I want to focus on how we’re supposed to deal with our burdens.

What are your options?

As in most things, there are only a limited number of possibilities to deal with the burdens of life.

1. Resent them. Sometimes people express their resentment at the burdens they carry by bitterness and blaming. But resentment only increases the weight of the burden. Not to mention that ultimately the resentment is aimed at the God of the universe. Not a good option.
   

Casting Your Burdens on the Lord - Part One: "What is Your Burden?"

When I became a Christian many years ago, one of the first verses I ever “hid in my heart” was Psalm 55:22: Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.

At the time, those words seemed almost too good to be true. They helped me deal with my problems and encouraged my growth in grace. I read them over and over, memorizing them without even trying. Now, four decades later, Psalm 55:22 is even more precious to me. Its truth and comfort and promise remain constant, even though my life circumstances (and burdens) are much different.

I thought it might be a blessing to share the verse that has been such a blessing to me. My plan is to focus on asking and answering three questions: for this post, what is your burden? Next time, what are your options? And for a final post on the verse, what is God’s promise?

My Times are In His Hands

I’m at an age when the road ahead is a lot shorter than the one I have already traveled. So I think a lot about the years past, maybe more than I should. The other night I was praying about this, and I started meditating on Psalm 31:15a: My times are in your hand.

I have often shared this beautiful verse in funeral services. It’s a reminder that, when a believer dies, it is in the Lord’s timing. But there is more to it than that. All our times are in His hand. He holds the past just as much as He holds the future.  

This is a great antidote for regret, an encouragement against melancholy for days gone by, and a steadying, peaceful foundation for what’s ahead.

I think about my early years, growing up on a ranch in Western Colorado. My parents were full of enterprise and hope in those days, and my memories are idyllic and warm, filled with animals and apple trees and satisfying work. But small farms have a hard time turning a profit, and after ten years Dad had to sell. We moved closer to town, and life was never the same. But those times are in His hands.

My teen years were filled with pain – Dad’s death, Mom’s struggle to recover from it. But those times are in His hands.

I have a tendency to worry about opportunities I might have missed, and to obsess about “what if.” Maybe if I’d tried harder, worked longer, struck out more boldly, risked more, I would have accomplished more for Christ. But those times, and the fruit of them, are all in His hands.

Then there’s this week, there's tomorrow, and the pressure of right now. I have decisions to make, meetings to prepare for, people to pray for and encourage. It’s a busy time. But it’s all in His hands.

And of course there is the future, “when time shall be no more, and the morning breaks eternal bright and fair.” That time is in His hands.

Often I don’t understand my times, but I do know something about His hands.  I know why they bear such terrible scars. They are good hands, and I am glad to be in them.

No Wasted Pain - Through the Flood and the Fire: Part 2

“No wasted pain, no wasted pain.” I heard my wife whisper that many times when the pain was nearly unbearable. I found myself calmed by her courage, and came to believe the truth of Isaiah 43:1-3 because I saw her living it out, even when her health was at its worst.

We Christians are not spared suffering and heartache, but we have God’s word to interpret our pain and His presence to sustain us through it. That’s what Isaiah 43 has meant to Dionne and me.

Here’s the passage again, with my own highlights: But now thus says the LORD, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior (Isaiah 43:1-3a).

Last time I spoke of three simple lessons my wife and I learned (and are still learning) from this ancient prophecy. The first is that we belong to Him. When the flood waters rise or the fires threaten, courage comes from knowing that we are His, and that He is in control.

Here’s the second truth: The flood and the fire are inevitable. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. Please notice: it says when you pass through these hard times, not if.

Through the Flood and the Fire: Three Triumphant Truths - Part 1

Sometimes Bible passages become more than good advice or practical principles. In times of heartache and trouble, God’s word can be a foundation on which to stand when everything else starts crumbling. So let me begin by telling you why Isaiah 43 means so much to me.

In 1998 a tornado nearly destroyed our home. We were trying to sell our house, but in one afternoon the storm did so much damage that we thought no one would ever want it. Both our house and garage were smashed up and our acre property was strewn with the destroyed remains of a dozen trees that had been snapped off in the wind.

In the middle of the night God led my wife to Isaiah 43:1-3. It was incredibly comforting to us both. And the next day, despite the devastation, we sold our house.

God used the same passage in our lives in 2006. Dionne’s “simple out-patient procedure” became a health catastrophe that nearly took her life. In the middle of great pain, she asked me to quote Isaiah 43:1-3. The Lord used His promises to enable to hang on. 

But now thus says the LORD, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior (Isaiah 43:1-3a; my highlights).

The Lord taught us three very simple, but quite wonderful, lessons from this passage. They gave us strength to walk through “the flood and the fire.” In the next few posts, I’d like to share them with you.

The Prayer of Relinquishment

Dionne wrote the following for a daily devotional book for church planters. We read the book together every morning, and the June 30 entry seemed prophetic in light of her health challenges. (If you'd like to check out the book, it's available at Amazon. Click here.)

After we read it Sunday morning, I asked her, "Is there anything we need to relinquish?" She said, "No, we're not demanding anything of the Lord. Just asking for His timing and way."

Within hours we were back for another long night in the ER. She was diagnosed with a serious kidney infection, and by midnight she was having a stent put in to deal with kidney infection.

“Abba, Father,” He said, “everything is possible for You. Take this cup from Me. Yet not what I will,

but what You will.” Mark 14:36

READING:  Genesis 22:1 – 14

I had the timing all figured out when we transitioned from our second church plant to the third. We prayed like crazy to sell our house by June 30, calculating the sale would be completed in time for us to move by the start of our son’s schools in September.

But no buyer came. I fumed all through July. God, how could You fail us like this? By late July, I surrendered the timing of our move to God – dejected but yielded. 

We all come to periodic crossroads in our Christian walk. Something suddenly takes center stage: something we dearly love, something we’ve assumed, or maybe something we’ve been praying for with all our might. God gives us an unmistakable choice: Will you lay this down? Will you trust even this to Me, to do with as I will? This crossroad moment always addresses an issue that, left unchecked, could poison, divert or dilute our single-hearted devotion to Christ. Whatever the details, praying the prayer of relinquishment leaves the taste of death on our tongue because, of course, it always is a kind of death. 

Sometimes God removes what we surrender, and because He has kindly allowed us the dignity to choose, we find peace. But often He returns to us, in purified form, the thing we gave to Him. Our buyer showed up two weeks after my surrender.

I thought the deadline was June 30. I was wrong. God used that painful delay to teach me to trust His perfect timing, then sent us buyers whose terms gave us plenty of time to move into our new house just in time for the first day of school.

Dear Father, Help me to walk at Your pace. Amen.

Written for church planters, this is really for all of us who are trying to follow Christ. Relinquish means to voluntarily cease to keep or claim; give up. We cease claiming our "rights," our timing, our outcomes, and give everything up to Jesus. Is there anything you need to relinquish to Him? Putting everything in His hands in always best, because He knows best and has the best planned. Really, because He is the best.

By the way, I brought Dionne home today. We have lots of challenges ahead, but we're trying to relinquish each of them to our Savior.

Lucky Break?

I was just looking at the story in Luke's gospel of the woman at Nain—a poor widow whose only son had just died. Jesus showed up right as the funeral procession was headed outside the town for the burial.

And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, “Do not weep.” Then he came up and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, “Young man, I say to you, arise.” And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother.  (Luke 7:13-14 ESV)

Fortunate that the Lord showed up just then, right? What a lucky break for the dead guy and his mom, huh?

Not really. Not luck, but providence. Providence means that God is absolutely in control of everything, and works His will through all things. "God's works of providence are his most holy, wise, and powerful, preserving and governing all his creatures, and all their actions" (Westminster Shorter Catechism Q.11).  

It wasn’t luck that brought Jesus to the little town of Nain. He walked 20 miles from Capernaum to arrive just in time to heal the heartbreak of a lonely widow by raising her son from the dead.

Christ shows up at just the right time and in just the right place to work His will and touch broken people with His grace.

• He comes in the heat of the day to a well in Samaria, a place any other Jew would have tried to avoid. The Savior is there, not to draw water, but to draw a sinful woman to salvation. (John 4:1-42)
• He leads His disciples into a ferocious storm on the Sea of Galilee, and their perilous journey was for the sake of a demonized man on the other shore. (Luke 8:28-39 - I wrote about it in Rescue Mission.) 
• Only eight days from the cross, Jesus is en route to Jerusalem. But He spends precious hours in the bustling marketplace town of Jericho to intervene in the life of a corrupt little man named Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10).

I don’t know where you are in your spiritual journey, or even what prompted you to read this blog. But I do know that what is at work in your life and mine is not luck, but the provident grace of our compassionate  Christ, whose plans for us are exercised with infinite wisdom and limitless power.