Jonathan, Man of God

If I had to choose a favorite Bible character, I think it would have to be Jonathan, son of Saul. His claim to fame is his friendship with David, and while that friendship is a great tribute to him, the rest of his accomplishments are often overlooked. The story in 1 Samuel 14:1-23 of his bravery and trust in God surely deserves recognition along with David's classic victory in chapter 17. The setting is this: King Saul's army has dwindled to 600 men, only two of whom are suitably armed. The Philistines have come against them in droves, and are camped at a fortified garrison. While Saul's little force waits in fear, Jonathan sets out on his own with his young armor bearer to scope out the enemy. After a look at the stronghold on the hill, Jonathan turns to his companion with a very bold suggestion: go up to the garrison, just the two of them. He reasons, "it may be that the Lord will work for us. For nothing restrains the Lord from saving by many or by few."

The fearlessness of Jonathan is astonishing, but almost more so is his leadership -- his armor bearer trusts him so fully as to immediately and unquestioningly agree to his idea. Only when he is assured of his comrade's support does Jonathan lay out the plan: they will come out into the open, and if the Philistines call them to come up to them, that will be the sign that God will give them the victory. Sure enough, when they step out of hiding, the Philistines mockingly call them to come up so they can teach them a lesson. Without another thought, Jonathan and his armor bearer climb up to the fortress and promptly take down twenty men. From there, God takes over -- He causes an earthquake, and the camp of the Philistines is overcome with fear. After discovering Jonathan's absence, Saul and his men show up just in time to see the enemy fleeing, killing each other in their confusion. "So the Lord saved Israel that day," the story concludes.

Jonathan was a man who trusted in God against all odds. In every episode Scripture gives of his life, he shows his total confidence in God's plan, from an impossible victory to David taking his rightful place as Israel's next king. He was known as someone who "worked with God" (1 Samuel 14:45). What an example for us to follow -- when things look grim, can you step out with complete confidence in the Lord's ability to work for you? Can you be committed to seeing God's plan fulfilled, even if it means you lose your status? Is your mind and your life focused on the Lord above all else, like Jonathan, the man of God?

And They Call This "Misery"?

When I announced that I was going to Children's Ministries Institute in Missouri this fall, a common response was, "So, you're going off to 'misery'?" Today marks one month since my arrival at Child Evangelism Fellowship international headquarters -- the longest I've ever been away from home. But so far, I've found it to be anything but misery. Some things I love about being here:

. . . Real thunderstorms. We've had four so far.
. . . Amazing instructors.
. . . People from all over the world. Especially when they speak other languages.
. . . Crazy classmates and thoughtful ones (sometimes in the same person).
. . . In jokes. Slurp it up, people.
. . . Laughing until my head hurts.
. . . Being stuck in traffic and talking about God. Even if we broke curfew.
. . . Blazing sunsets and a bigger horizon to see the stars.
. . . Writing a theology paper. You already know how much I like that.
. . . Little blue butterflies.
. . . Amazing prayer warriors. And the prayer plaza.
. . . Acoustics in the stairwells of a remodeled monastery.
. . . Dressing up.
. . . Internet. And sending newsletter e-mails.
. . . Hearing first-hand about God's works around the world.

I'm not one to get homesick, but of course there are things that just aren't the same so far away. Some things I miss about not being home:

. . . Fresh food.
. . . Sleeping outside.
. . . Playing piano whenever I want.
. . . Coniferous forests.
. . . My family.
. . . Quiet and darkness.
. . . Animals.
. . . Children (ironically scarce).
. . . Going barefoot.
. . . Friends who know me.
. . . My church.
. . . Driving.
. . . Living in a house.
. . . My Good News Club.
. . . Doing chores.

I'm very happy where I am, because it's very obvious that God wants me to be here. I love my good old Pacific Northwest, and I always will, but I begin to believe I could be happy almost anywhere. No doubt God will test that statement, but if home is where the heart is, I hope that I could feel at home anywhere, my heart all for the One who is everywhere.

Puzzle Pieces

The frame of the puzzle was complete, and nearby, a jumbled pile of pieces waited to be fitted into the center. The size and shape had been determined -- now what would the picture be? Looking at this scene on a friend's desk, I saw a perfect analogy for our lives. It's easy enough to agree that God has a specific plan for each of us, but we all know that finding out that plan seems to be a wild goose chase at times. Too often, the problem is that we want God to show us the whole picture all at once. But in the puzzle of our lives, we don't get the box with a picture to refer to -- only God has that. He gives us the pieces, one at a time, and our task is to put them together.

Throughout your life, you will collect pieces: where you were born, how you were raised, your personality, influences, experiences, and opportunities all contribute to the picture. Sometimes they are edge pieces, defining the shape of your life. Those tend to be the easy ones because they're pretty logical. They expand your boundaries and set clear limits. Then comes the daunting part: filling it in.  The rest of the pieces don't have a straight edge to guide you -- they could go anywhere. And God rarely hands you each piece in the order it was made to fit. The pile of loose pieces gets larger and larger, and as impatience and frustration build, the tendency is to start smashing pieces into any possible space just to make some progress. Often, one piece must wait for another that may come much later to connect it to the picture.

Sometimes God will hand you a piece you can't make sense of -- it's dark and ugly, and doesn't appear to have any place in a beautiful picture. So you shove it under the pile and struggle on, when that may be just the piece that was needed to make an important connection. Other people will have their own view of your puzzle, and sometimes, perhaps with the kindest of intentions, might hand you a piece and say, "Here, try this one." But if it didn't come out of God's puzzle box with your name on it, it won't fit. And try as you might, it will only cause fruitless stress. You may be able to make it work for the moment, but the picture is guaranteed to be a sorry mess of the picture God had in mind.

When nothing seems to be fitting together and you feel like you've been staring at an empty frame longer than you can stand, don't give up! Ask for help from the One who knows the picture, because without it, your chances of making a right connection are very slim indeed -- your life is far more intricate than any 1,000-piece puzzle. With His guidance, keep trying patiently until something fits, and wait for Him to give you the next piece that might make all the difference. Nothing could be more sad than to come to the end and have all the pieces, but no beautiful picture because you refused to work with what God gave you.

"His divine power has given us

everything we need

for life and godliness."

2 Peter 1:3

The World, the Flesh, and the Devil

A month ago, amidst the usual beauty I yearly enjoy in the coastal forests of Drift Creek Camp, I and others also came up against some unwelcome encounters – Satan’s forces were on the move. Even there, hidden in the mountains away from the world, they found us, and set about to make life difficult and tie down God’s work. I have seen the enemy in action before, but never met him in such a battle as swept through the camp in those few days, on the fringes though I was. Seldom in the experience of American Christians do we see Satan attack undisguised, which of course is one of his strategies to keep us unprepared. I was reminded that the source of all our troubles is threefold: the world, the flesh, and the devil; and we must be aware of what we are dealing with to know how to best respond.

The world is of course where we live, and it is certainly less than ideal. Since the fall, everything around us is deteriorating and corrupt, and the natural result is hardship. Storms, sickness, death, accidents, pain, ugliness and decay all come from an earth that is falling apart. Certainly, nothing pleases Satan better than seeing God’s creation suffer, but he does not truly have control over the state of nature – it is a condition that God has allowed as the result of man’s violation of His order. God is neither responsible for the world’s decay, nor has He lost control of it – the sorrows of the world give some of the greatest opportunity for God to show His redemptive power and bring glory to Himself. Our response to trouble from the world should be recognition that we live in a fallen state, but God is still in control even in this world as it is, and through His Son has provided a home for us in the perfect world to come.

The flesh is the nature of sin that each of us struggle with daily. Temptations to selfishness and pride are ever present, and these manifest themselves in sins as varied as the people in the world. Hatred, divorce, laziness, slander, injustice and addiction are all examples of man’s flesh upsetting his own life and the lives around him. Satan’s deception in the Garden of Eden destroyed man’s innocence, and he has surely been laughing ever since at the conflict of men against each other and against God. But it was man’s own choice that brought him to this sad state, and man’s choice makes him responsible – God cannot violate his chosen inclination to evil, nor is Satan to blame for his willful acts of sin. The flesh plagues every one of us, and time and time again, we give in and bring disaster on ourselves. But in contrast to our hopeless condition, Jesus had perfect victory over the flesh. And our response to trouble from our flesh should be to turn to Him, confessing our inability, and receive His righteousness in place of our own.

The devil is Satan, our very real enemy with an army of demons at his command. He was the first to rebel against God, and out of hatred for Him, set about to destroy His creation, particularly that special creation made in His image. Satan undoubtedly uses the world and the flesh in more or less undercover ways to trouble us, but at times he will make a personal attack. As the devil and demons are spiritual beings, this attack is on our souls. Supernatural fear, darkness, oppression, and even possession are his direct works to keep us in chains. The child of God belongs to God and can never be possessed by another, but Satan, the prince of the world, may still come against us while we are in his domain. If ever we meet with trouble from the devil, we should respond not flippantly to this skilled destroyer, but with boldness take up our armor and wield the sword of God’s word, for Christ, who has provided this to us, has already won the victory!

Put on the whole armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes.
Ephesians 6:11

When God Speaks

The human race communicates primarily by the spoken word: sounds grouped together in a vast variety of ways to convey meaning. These sounds, words, are the means of revealing the mind of the speaker. Adam was created in God's image with the ability to speak so that he could talk with God, but after the fall, verbal communication between God and man became very rare. Then came the confusion of languages at the tower of Babel -- God saw that because all people had one language, there were no boundaries for them. Their common communication allowed them to manifest their pride in a unified way. So God created a very effective boundary to prevent that unity: whatever language had been before, it became quite inadequate for universal expression of the mind among people.

But God still desired to express His mind to mankind, and He did so in human language, through one nation, a group of people with one language. And through that one nation and language, God kept His promise of sending redemption for all nations and languages. The Word came. Jesus, God in the flesh, walked the earth and revealed God's mind to man. Though the Man Jesus spoke Aramaic and Hebrew, His portrayal of God's heart could be understood by people of any language. His very words had power to create, heal, and even restore life, not because there was anything special in the sounds He spoke, but because they were an expression of God's thoughts. And when God speaks, things happen. The word of God is the revelation of His will, and the word of man will never stand against it.

By the word of the Lord the heavens were made . . .

[He upholds] all things by the word of His power.

 Then God said . . . and it was so.

 Psalm 33:6, Hebrews 1:3, Genesis 1:9

My Country, 'Tis of Thee . . .

My country, ’tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty,
Of thee I sing;
Land where my fathers died,
Land of the pilgrims’ pride,
From every mountainside,
Let freedom ring!

My native country, thee,
Land of the noble free,
Thy name I love;
I love thy rocks and rills,
Thy woods and templed hills;
My heart with rapture thrills,
Like that above.

Let music swell the breeze,
And ring from all the trees,
Sweet freedom’s song;
Let mortal tongues awake;
Let all that breathe partake;
Let rocks their silence break,
The sound prolong.

Our fathers’ God, to Thee,
Author of liberty,
To Thee we sing;
Long may our land be bright
With freedom’s holy light;
Protect us by Thy might,
Great God, our King.

~Samuel F. Smith

America has been a nation chosen and blessed by God.  She has been given stewardship of one of the richest and most beautiful lands in the world.  She has been the protector of many other nations.  She has been given power among the peoples of the world and prosperity and security for her citizens.  She has been the birthplace of many great men and women, people who have taken the gospel to the farthest parts of the earth and changed the world.  Truly, God has blessed America, because from the beginning, America blessed her God.  Our freedoms are based on the principles of God's perfect law, and so long as our nation is under His rule, so long will she remain blessed.  God bless America . . . America, bless God!

Blessed is the nation

whose God is the Lord.

Psalm 33:12

I Will Hold Your Hand

The warrior squinted across the shimmering heat of the battlefield, eyes blurred with sweat and blood. The fight he had entered for the love of his king had become a fight for his life, and he was alone -- alone in a sea of foes. He could remember nothing now but the violence he had endured, and could endure no longer. He swayed as the dark swarm of enemies advanced, and his hand trembled, dropping his sword. His legs gave way, and the empty quiver rattled against his back as he fell to his knees. Suddenly, a strong arm encircled him from behind, raising him to his feet again. A voice he knew well spoke in his ear, "Fear not, I will help you."

"My lord!" the warrior cried, and new vigor entered him as he remembered the one he served. He willed himself to stand, but his quivering fingers could not hold the weapon that lay in the dust. He felt shame for his weakness, but his king stood beside him, took his shaking right hand in a kind and firm grasp, and turned toward the enemy, holding his own sword aloft. The warrior took up his shield, sheltering himself between it and his king. He heard the shouts and cries of the battle, but they seemed far away -- nothing mattered but the hand that stilled the trembling of his own. When he opened his eyes, all was still. He scanned the battlefield once more: not one foe remained. Again he fell to his knees, this time in wordless gratitude to the one he fought for, the one who fought for him.

For I, the Lord your God,

will hold your right hand,

saying to you,

'Fear not, I will help you.'

Isaiah 41:13

Friends . . . and Family

Many years ago, two fathers paced expectantly in the waiting room of a Southern California hospital.  Both of their wives were laboring to bring a child into the world, and as the two husbands waited impatiently for the moment they would see their offspring, they struck up a conversation that would lead to a lifelong friendship.  One of the two men, a pastor, welcomed a daughter that day.  The other, a restaurant owner, welcomed a son.  Years passed, and the friendship between the families grew.  Then the pastor moved his family to Oregon.  They did not forget their friends in California; in fact, they invited them to join them in the lovely Willamette Valley.  So the restaurant owner and his family packed up and headed north as well, where they started a successful new restaurant.

Meanwhile, a college girl in South Dakota was bored.  That is, she didn't have any plans.  She had another bored friend, and they had one friend who had moved to Oregon.  This friend invited them to join her in the lovely Willamette Valley.  So they packed up their cars and headed west.  The college girl needed a job, so her friend told her about a restaurant that was hiring -- a new one owned by a Californian.  The college girl got the job, and she met up with the restaurant owner's son.  It wasn't long before they fell in love, then they got married, and the pastor who was there the day the son was born happily officiated at the wedding.

The restaurant owner's son and the college girl are none other than my parents.  Through their friends, God brought them from their widely separated homelands and introduced them to each other . . . and here I am!  God is splendidly creative, and there is no detail that doesn't tie into the story He writes for each of us, from one's birthdate to a wild "why not?" whim.  Very often, He uses our relationships with others to shape our own lives -- how might He be using you in the story of someone else?

 

And in Your book they all were written,

The days fashioned for me,

When as yet there were none of them.

Psalm 139:16

When God Gets Angry

Canyons, deserts, coastlines, plains, downs, hills, mountains, cliffs, crags, bluffs . . .  As I journeyed through widely varied terrain recently, I was struck by the awe-inspiring beauty of even the most forbidding and untamed landscapes.  In the days of Noah, God displayed His wrath against sin in a truly violent fashion with a world-wide flood.  Yet even in this terrifying revelation of anger, God was masterfully creative.  Whatever the world may have been before the flood, it was transformed by this raging catastrophe into a vast gallery of breathtaking scenes carved and sculpted to monumental perfection.

Why a flood?  Why didn't God just send a plague to destroy all the wicked people and leave the earth the way He originally created it?  And why do we actually like the "revised version" so much if it's a destruction of what we were made for?  God displayed His holiness in the flood -- He hates sin so much that He had to purge the earth itself of it, and a flood was certainly the most practical way to do it.  God also showed His awesome power through the flood, creating reminders everywhere of how majestic He is.  Never again would anyone be able to miss the fact that God's power is infinitely superior to man's.  The power to shape the earth so dramatically in endless variety is a power to be feared!  Perhaps God knew that man needed the limits that the redesigned earth would impose -- mountain passes definitely slow people down, even today.  The obstacles that the flood created serve to control the spread of wickedness so that the unchecked corruption of Noah's day may not reoccur on that scale.

God designed us for grandeur of the kind that the flood brought about.  Though they came about as a result of sin, we respond to such things as mountains and canyons because they are intrinsically beautiful and good.  They teach us of God's character, they humble us, they lift our hearts.  Through His response to sin, God gave us a great gift.  In destroying, He created, in hate of sin, He showed love for man, and as the ark shows us, in wrath, He showed mercy.  He still does the same today in the lives of His children -- He will destroy our sin, often violently, and recreate our hearts to display more of Him.  Sin is always ugly, but God in His wisdom turns it into a great tool for His glory.  After the flood, He will bring mountains out of the waves!

God's anger toward sin is a vital part of who He is.  He could not be God without it, not in Noah's day, not today.  And two thousand years ago, God again took out His wrath for a wicked world, not in another flood, but in the death of His Son, Jesus.  The earth still bears her scars, Jesus still bears His.  And they are both unspeakably beautiful.

It's All Good

And what adventure it has been!  In the past few weeks, I have:

. . . Seen the Grand Canyon from the air

. . . Prayed for favor with border guards

. . . Visited Mexico to participate in the ministry of FFHM

. . . Worshiped in Spanish

. . . Made dozens of duct tape bracelets

. . . Built new relationships and improved old ones

. . . Prayed for rain and seen it come

. . . Gotten lost in Mexico

. . . Been rescued by a “Harley-riding angel”

. . . Gotten out of Mexico to get stranded in San Diego

. . . Gotten out of San Diego to America’s Midwest

. . . Met the cutest cousin ever for the first time ever

. . . Explored the ruins of a historic house

. . . Been “on tour” at Mt. Rushmore’s stage

. . . Stood by an overheated truck on top of a mountain

. . . Seen a moose in Yellowstone

. . . Found no room in the inn

. . . Seen a handful of bolt halves and an axle sticking through the hub

. . . Been rescued by a “pot-smoking angel” mechanic

. . . Come home humbled by God’s provision

Through all the culture differences, beautiful scenery, and unexpected delays, God has showed Himself exclusively good and tremendously in control. The clear blessings and the “mishaps” were all opportunities to see Jesus and praise Him. It’s all good because He is good! Amen!

You are good, and do good;

Teach me Your statutes.

Psalm 119:68