When the Sphinx Can't Save You

As I was reading through Isaiah 31 this morning, it brought up an idea that is really, really common in the Old Testament.  Israel as a country would find itself attacked by a bigger, stronger nation, and over and over they would run to Egypt, pay them money, and have them come send the Egyptian army up to help defend the nation of Israel.  They were hired soldiers.  It seems like Israel did this over and over.

I had read that a ton of times, but I got thinking about how that must have felt to them.  They had been slaves in that country.  Egypt had owned them.  It took a ton of miracles by God to pull them out of there, and from the time they left, there were people who kept choosing to go back to Egypt instead of trusting God.  Egypt was a source of embarrassment for the country, a constant reminder that they were not a world power, that they were very little, and really struggled to even protect themselves, let alone be a threat to anyone.  I mean, if you're going to claim to be God's chosen people, you'd think you'd be the dominating force in the world.  They weren't.  They came close under David and Solomon, but that was short, and did not last.  And even then, they were only able to defend themselves.  They never went on a huge warpath and took over other countries to build an empire.  The best they could do was to just manage to be safe for a couple of decades.

As a country, that's embarrassing.

But to have to run back to the very nation you had to scrape and claw your way out of only made it worse.

Yet, most of the people and the kings would rather run back to Egypt with their tail between their legs than to depend on God to save them.  Why do we do that?

Why do we trust in habits, people, or systems that we know, 100% without a doubt, that they are broken?  We know those addictions don't set us free.  We know that relationship can't actually make us happy.  We know that habit only leaves us empty.  We know that grab for power is always temporary.  In spite of that knowledge, when we come under attack, and life becomes scary and unsure, instead of turning to God, we run to Egypt, the land of darkness.

Why?

God is trustworthy.  He always has been.  He always will be.  He is not the problem.

It's our expectations.  The nation of Israel couldn't understand that maybe God's plan didn't call for them to be a military powerhouse.  He didn't even want them to have a king.  He wanted them to follow Him, to be blessed, and to bless the people around them.  That is not what they wanted.  They wanted power and revenge, just like everyone else around them seemed to have.  So, they ignored God, and ran to the center of ancient power and revenge.  Even when Egypt was way past their glory days and were no longer a world force, Israel still ran to them for help.

What goals, hopes, values, dreams, or desires do you have that keep you from running to God?  Are they working out for you?  It's probably time to find some new ones, some dreams that come from Him, and that He will honor in your life.

Eyes Wide Open

Throughout the years, I have asked God over and over to let me see the world through His eyes, to hear the world the way He does, and to love people with His heart.  In 2 Kings 6:17, the story of Elisha takes this idea to a whole new level.  Elisha is in a city surrounded by his enemies who want to kill him.  A huge army takes up defenses, and is going to destroy the whole city to get to Elisha, the prophet.  His servant panics, like any of us would.  But Elisha doesn't.  Instead, he prays for his servant.


17 And Elisha prayed, “Open his eyes, Lord, so that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.


What is going on is God's army is there to protect Elisha,  He never worried.  He saw the world around him through God's eyes.


We don't need the army of angels around us.  Jesus tells us that He will live in us.  He tells us not to worry, because He has us, and everything around us, covered.  But we forget.


A couple of weeks ago I was riding my mountain bike in Brown County State Park.  The trails there are sweet and fast.  But on a slow part, I took my eyes off the trail for a minute.  My glasses had fogged up, and I quit looking at the trail to look at the fog on my glasses.  In that 2 second window, I went over the bars, and I'm still healing up the wounds from that stupid fall.


When we take our eyes off of God, we fall just as fast, and just as hard.  What we focus on makes all of the difference.


So today, pray that prayer with me.  "Lord, open our eyes so that we can see."

Why Won't God Show Up on Cue? (new blog post)

Psalm 30 says:

1 I will exalt you, Lord, for you lifted me out of the depths and did not let my enemies gloat over me. 2 Lord my God, I called to you for help, and you healed me.
3 You, Lord, brought me up from the realm of the dead; you spared me from going down to the pit.
4 Sing the praises of the Lord, you his faithful people; praise his holy name.
5 For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime;
weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.
6 When I felt secure, I said, “I will never be shaken.”
7 Lord, when you favored me, you made my royal mountain stand firm;
but when you hid your face, I was dismayed.
8 To you, Lord, I called; to the Lord I cried for mercy:
9 “What is gained if I am silenced, if I go down to the pit?
Will the dust praise you?  Will it proclaim your faithfulness?
10 Hear, Lord, and be merciful to me; Lord, be my help.”
11 You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy,
12 that my heart may sing your praises and not be silent.
Lord my God, I will praise you forever. 

I'll be honest, I'm only 50% with this Psalm today.  The part in verse 7 where David says "when you hid your face, I was dismayed."  Yeah.  I'm a bit "dismayed" today.  Some close friends are going through an incredibly tough time, and a ton of prayers are going up in their name.  But the bad news seems to multiply on itself in this situation.  

I'm frustrated.  


I want things to be better for them.  Happier.  More peaceful


I want God to ride in on the white horse and save the day.  Save the day, today.  Right now.


But it's not happening.


And I'm impatient.  Even as I write this, I hear Him lovingly telling me He has it.  I want the government to come to the rescue.  They aren't.  I want to be able to save my friends.  I can't.  My friends want to fix it all.  They can't.


Just Him.


So I can only pray "Hear, Lord, and be merciful to me; Lord, be my help."  Be our help today.


Please.

God Wants You to Fight Like You're In a Cartoon

God cracks me up in Deuteronomy 20.  He is giving instructions to the people of Israel on what to do when they are in a war.  He says that before they go into war, they are supposed to tell anyone who has a new house, a new wife, or a new vineyard that they are excused from fighting and can go home.  If anyone is afraid or worried about going into battle, they can go home.  God just releases soldiers from duty left and right with no concern.

Then later He tells them that if they march up to a city and have to lay siege to it, not to cut down any fruit trees around the city, because they will want those to eat from later.  It's okay to cut down the other trees, but keep the fruit trees.

This is crazy talk.  We're talking about war here.  Take no prisoners, fight to the end, use every ounce of resources you have to win.

Unless you KNOW that you will win.

Then you aren't so worried.

When you have a secret weapon that is invincible, you can let soldiers go home.  You can leave trees standing for later, because when you take the city, you WILL eat from them.  When you're certain of victory, you can afford to do crazy things like this.

God is certain of victory.  He never doubts.  He is fighting for them.  They will win.  Period.

What about us?  Does God fight for us in life?  He tells us not to worry, not to get vengeance, not to defend ourselves.  Why?  Because He will do all those things for us.  They sound crazy, UNLESS you have a secret weapon.  Then you can act looney in the middle of a battle, you can live without worry as you march off to war.

What's your secret weapon?  Do you trust Him?

When It Seems Dark, Where Do You Look?

God is really, really good.

I know it's true.  I'm struggling today with some stuff going on.  Some students in the youth ministry are hurting, and I hurt with them.  Some are hurting and seeking for God.  I'm so grateful for how He is working in their lives.  Some students are hurting and want nothing to do with God, and I hurt with them.  I know God is working in their lives too, and for that I am grateful.

But it's tough.  It's hard not to take it personally when someone rejects Jesus.  It's not so much that I feel like my ministry if failing or anything, it's just that I love Him so much, and can see so clearly that if they would just trust Him a little, radical life change would come.  Things would be SO much better for them if they would let Him have control.  But they won't.  For now.  So my heart breaks.

That is why I say

God is really, really good.

He keeps reminding me that He has been rejected before.  By me.  Yet He never gave up on me.  He kept loving, calling, speaking, creating.  He kept going when I stopped.  He will do the same for them.  In that reminder, I feel His love all again.  It's not about my fears, it's about His strength.  It's not an issue of "What do I need to do to help this student/family out?"  It's a fact that He IS helping them out, in the middle of this all.  I may not see it, and it may be a bit dark right now.  But He IS working, today, in the middle of it.

I just need to trust Him.

I can do that, because

God is really, really good.

God is NOT Your Ex-Boyfriend

I'm reading in Numbers and have hit chapter 13 where God sends the 12 spies into the Promised Land to check it out.  They come back with good news (It's amazing and God has kept His promise.  There is food and land and a ton more!) and bad news (The people living there right now are giants and they will destroy us.)

Except Joshua and Caleb.  They came back with just good news.  The people didn't scare them.

While this story has been taught a million times, and we get the idea that we are supposed to keep our eyes on God and trust Him to fight our battles for us, my question is why didn't all of them?

They had God leading them with a cloud by day and a fire by night.  He spoke to them.  They had seen him work miracles.  He had destroyed Pharaoh's army, and it was the biggest world power there was.  Why didn't they believe God?

I  wonder if it had to do with how they viewed God.  I don't think their God was "too small".  I've often heard that and even taught it.  But how in the world could they have a "small" God after all they had experienced?  I think it was more that they viewed God as their provider, but not much else.  He fed them and took care of some of their needs.  But that was what their relationship was all about.  He was like Pharaoh, a wealthy slave driver.  They were still in slave mentality.  They hadn't grasped the fact that God loved them, they may have just thought He owned them.  They were still trying to survive, and He was calling them to freedom.  They couldn't grasp it.  Their past and their deep seated fears kept them from trusting that God wanted them to love them.  So they didn't really trust Him.

How often do we do that?  How often do we let what people have done to us, or what we have done to others, cloud how we view God?  We doubt He can love us, because no one else has.  We doubt He can protect us, because no one else really wants to.  We doubt He will stay with us, because everyone else leaves.  I mean, it makes sense on one level.  It's our experience.  We live off what we have seen and felt.

But it doesn't make sense on the other level.  He proves Himself every day.  He provides for us, He cares for us, and He works miracles around us everyday.  We have to choose to see them. 

He is good, and He is trustworthy.  Yeah, I know, no one else is.

But they aren't Him.

And He is not them.

You Can't Always Get What You Want... But You Get What You Need...

Today we hit Job 38 and 39.  God answers.  The whole book has had Job and the other guys discussing / arguing about why this has happened to Job.  Job doesn't get it, the others claim its a lack of faith or due to sin.  They get nowhere.  Then God answers.

But God's answer isn't the answer we might want.  He doesn't explain to them that Satan was getting it stuck in his face with this whole scenario.  He simply asks them why they think they are wise enough to question Him?  He gives a long, and beautiful list, of what He has done, and what He does.  It's amazing to read.  If you've never read it, take some time today to work through these chapters and think about all that God describes, and ask yourself why He describes the things He does.  He could have picked anything.  Why these?

He moves from creating the earth, to the universe high above, to the oceans deep below.  He goes from the process of birth to death.  He talks about how He created each of the animals.  And in it all, you hear His love for each and every thing in the list.  That's what I was hit with; how much God loves to create, and how much He loves His creation. 

He answers.  And it's not what everyone wanted to hear.  But if you stop and listen, it's much better than what they asked.  It's not the answer to "why did You do this?"  It's the answer to "who are You and can I trust You?"  The answer to THOSE questions is a loud, resounding "YES!"

And that's enough.

That's His answer.