Psalm 51 - A Willing Spirit

Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me from Your presence 
or take Your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation 
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
Psalm 51:12

Several years ago, while I was preparing to preach a sermon on this psalm, I received an anonymous letter from someone in my congregation saying that he was a Christian but was involved in a very serious and continuing moral failure. The letter was an attempt to be honest and tell me the trouble in his life. I didn't know if that person would be in the service the next Sunday or not, but I hoped he would be.

I decided to refer to the letter in my sermon for two reasons: first, because it was anonymous, and I could do it without betraying a confidence; and second, because the problem was of such a serious nature that I wanted to help the person if I could.

The writer had acknowledged that he knew the action was wrong but finally excused himself on the basis that God had not yet given him the power to break away from it. That was self-deception. The truth is that God has given us the power to break away from these things. Peter clearly declares: "His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness" (2 Peter 1:3). The very possession of the life of Jesus Christ in us is the power that it takes to break away from habits of sin. No one will ever be free from the awful grip of evil upon their lives until they understand that they already have from God all that it takes to be free, if they will but step out upon it.

David is also asking for help. "Lord, give me this willing spirit," he says, and God immediately gives it. Then it must be acted on. That is the point. Do not wait for a feeling to come that you are forgiven. God has said you are forgiven. Do not wait for a feeling of power to possess you. God has declared He has already given you the power. As you believe Him (and that is what faith is), you can do what you need to do and what God wants you to do.

That is what happened with David, and that is what happened with the anonymous letter writer. After preaching that sermon, I found out the person had been in that service, because he later wrote a second anonymous letter. This time he shared how God had used that message to deliver him from the grip of the evil relationship he had described before.

Prayer: Lord, thank You for giving me all that I need for both forgiveness and power through the Lord Jesus. Help me to act according to Your will and to have a willing spirit. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Life Application: We can choose to be helpless victims of ruinous habits, but God provides an alternative. Are we willing to be set free by Christ's divine power?

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Psalm 51 - A Cry for Mercy

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.
Psalm 51:1-2

What a marvelous understanding of the nature of sin and the character of God's forgiveness is found in these verses! There are three things David asks for. First, he understands that sin is like a crime. If criminals are to be delivered from the effects of their crime, they do not need justice but mercy. Sin is an illegal act, a violation of justice, and an act of lawlessness and rebellion and therefore requires mercy.

Then he says, "Blot out my transgressions," and thereby he reveals that he understands sin is like a debt. It is something owed, an account that has accumulated and needs to be erased.

Finally he cries, "Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin." He understands that sin is like an ugly stain, a defilement upon the soul. Even though the act fades into the past, the dirty defiling stain remains a stigma upon the heart. So he cries out and asks to be delivered from these things.

Notice that David understands well the basis for forgiveness. He asks on the basis of two things: first, "according to your unfailing love." He understands that he himself deserves nothing from God, that God is not bound to forgive him. Some people are never able to realize forgiveness because they think they deserve it, that God owes it to them. But David knows better. He realizes that only because of God's love may he even approach God to ask. On the basis of that unqualified acceptance, that marvelous continuing love-that-will-not-let-me-go, he says to God, "I am coming to you and asking now for this."

Second, as David appeals to God "according to your great compassion," he again indicates his understanding of the character of God. God is not a penny pincher; He does not dole out bits of mercy, drop by drop. No, He pours it out. His are abundant mercies. When God forgives, He forgives beyond our utmost imaginings. Two figures of speech that are used in the Old Testament depict the forgiveness of God. "As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us" (Psalm 103:12). How far is that? Well, how far do you have to go east before you start going west? You never come to west. Then God says He will "hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea" (Micah 7:19). Someone has added that he puts up a sign that reads "NO FISHING." Do not go down there and try to fish old sins out once God has dealt with them. What relief comes when we begin to understand this fullness of God's forgiveness.

Prayer: Father, thank You that I can come to You with my sin and cry out for mercy and love. Your love is steadfast; your mercy is abundant. I trust that You are always willing to forgive. Help me to do the same Lord Jesus. In Your name I pray, Amen.

Life Application: The Word of God teaches the true nature of sin, and the astounding basis for God's forgiveness. Are we learning to live in these liberating truths?

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Psalm 50 - A Sacrifice of Thanksgiving

Sacrifice thank offerings to God, fulfill your vows to the Most High. And call on Me in the day of trouble and I will deliver you and you will honor Me...Those who sacrifice thank offerings honor Me and to the blameless I will show my salvation.
Psalm 50:14-15, 23

What does God want from us? He does not want mere hymn singing, although that is fine. Nor does He want only prayer, although that too is fine. He does not simply want our attendance, although that is fine. What He wants, first, is a thankful heart. That is what He seeks, a thankful heart. Each one of us is to offer to Him the sacrifice of thanksgiving. A sacrifice is something into which we put effort; it costs us. Have you ever asked yourself why the Scriptures stress thanksgiving so much? Both the Old and New Testaments emphasize that above everything else, God wants thankfulness. "Give thanks in all circumstances," says the apostle Paul, "for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus" (1 Thessalonians 5:18). Why is this? It is because thanksgiving only comes as a result of having received something. You do not give thanks until you have received something that comes from someone else. Therefore thanksgiving is the proper expression of Christianity, because Christianity is receiving something constantly from God.

Of course if you have not received anything from God, then you have nothing to thank Him for. Though you come to the service, you really have nothing to say. God is a realist. He does not want fake thanksgiving. I know there are certain people (and they are awfully hard to live with) who think that Christianity consists of pretending to be thankful. They think it means screwing a smile on your face and going around pretending that troubles do not bother you. That is a most painful form of Christianity. God does not want you to go around shouting, "Hallelujah! I've got cancer!" But there is something about having cancer to be thankful for. That is what He wants you to see. There are aspects of it that no one can possibly enjoy, but there are other aspects that reveal purpose, meaning, and reason. God wants you to see this--what He can do with that situation and how you can be thankful. Thanksgiving is the first thing He wants in worship.

The second thing is an obedient will. "Fulfill your vows to the Most High." Notice the kind of obedience it is. It is not something forced upon you; it is something you have chosen for yourself. A vow is something you decide to give, a promise you make because of truth you have seen. You say, "I never saw it like that before. I really ought to do something about it. God helping me, I'm going to do such and such." That is a vow. God says, "I'm not asking you to do things you have not yet learned are important. But when you have vowed something, then do it. Act on it. Obey it."

Prayer: Lord, I offer to You right now the sacrifice of thanksgiving. Thank You that You are at work for good both in me and through me. Grant that I might obey your truth out of a heart of gratitude. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Life Application: We can expend much energy complaining, blessing no one. How can we re-focus our thoughts so that we have an attitude of gratitude no matter our circumstances?

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Psalm 45 - The King in His Beauty

All your robes are fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia; from palaces adorned with ivory the music of the strings makes you glad. Daughters of kings are among your honored women; at your right hand is the royal bride in gold of Ophir.
Psalm 45:8-9

These verses describe a marriage service. Traced for us here is a remarkable series of preparations. First, the groom has prepared himself. The writer says, "All your robes are fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia." These are burial spices. You remember that when the women went to the tomb on Easter Sunday morning, they carried with them a quantity of spices--myrrh and aloes--in order to wrap the body of the Lord and preserve it in its death. And yet here these same spices are present at the wedding. What does this mean? This marriage is made possible out of death; somehow out of death comes this fragrant incense that makes glorious the scene of the wedding. You can see how beautifully this fits with what the apostle Paul describes for us in Ephesians 5:25 when he says that Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it. He died for it. He went into the bonds of death for us. Why? In order that He might present to Himself a glorious church, a beautiful bride, without spot or blemish or any such thing.

Then, he has prepared a place. We read of where this wedding is to take place: "From palaces adorned with ivory the music of the strings makes you glad." It is a picture of a beautiful place, and it reminds us immediately of Jesus' words to His disciples before the cross. He said to them, "I am going there to prepare a place for you" (John 14:2). That place is being prepared now. It is a place of beauty and glory beyond any possible description. These terms used here are simply a way of suggesting to us what it is like: ivory palaces filled with music and gladness with a rejoicing company around.

And finally the bride herself is prepared: "At your right hand is the royal bride in gold of Ophir." In Oriental custom, the bridegroom himself, who paid for the golden dress, always presented this golden dress to the queen. This is also a wonderful picture for us. Who is it that is preparing us for this day, for this sharing of life together? It is He who is preparing us. He has clothed us with His own righteous golden robe. Gold, in Scripture, is always the picture of deity, and this is a hint of what Peter speaks of: "You may participate," he says, "in the divine nature" (2 Peter 1:4). Do you really grasp this? This is true! Jesus Christ is blending our lives with His and giving us all His position and all His privileges. All that belongs to Him belongs to us. One of the things that is most seriously wrong with the church today is that we are forgetting the privileges we have. We do not reckon on them, we do not think about how tremendous they are. Yet here stands the bride, ready to join Him, dressed in gold that He has provided.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, You are our beautiful King, and we long for you like a bride longs for her husband. Thank You for adorning us in Your own righteousness that we might dwell with You forever. We love you Jesus. In Your name we pray, Amen.

Life Application: Do we truly by faith grasp how we participate in the divine nature? How does Jesus blend His Life with ours to give us His position and all His privileges?

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Psalm 40 - A Song of Resurrection

He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the LORD.
Psalm 40:2-3

The Holy Spirit spoke marvelously through David, causing him to record his own experiences and yet express truths that were beyond his experience. His language grew greater than the event he was trying to describe. The only ultimate fulfillment was to be in those coming days when the Messiah would appear among men in the flesh. Psalm 40 is, in a sense, our Lord's own autobiography. He Himself tells us why He came to earth, what was accomplished, and what His experiences were.

This is a description of resurrection. "He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire" or, as the Hebrew has it, "out of the pit of tumult," out of a terrible experience, out of a place of desolation and despair and death.

Life is often filled with death. Every experience that is opposite to what God has designed for us is an experience of death. Bitterness and shame and sorrow, hate and greed and loneliness, are all forms of death that come into our lives right now. That is what our Lord was experiencing. He understands these things because He has been through them Himself. Ultimately they led Him, as they will lead us, to that final moment when life ends and death is before us--the deep, dark desolation of death. But, He says, the Lord drew me out of that. He lifted me up from a slimy pit, out of the mud and mire, and set my feet upon a rock and made my steps secure.

That is a beautiful description of the experience of resurrection. None of us has ever been resurrected. There is a great difference between what happened to Lazarus and what happened to Jesus. Lazarus was really resuscitated; he was restored to this life almost as though he had been given mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. But Jesus was resurrected. He was the firstborn from the dead. He stepped into a whole new experience of life that God had designed from the beginning for humanity. That is what the Messiah is describing here. The result is, "He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God."

A new song describes a new experience. When God does something great for you, you do not sit down and recite a proverb or compose a paragraph or devise a recipe. You write a song, because singing is one of the best ways we have of expressing what is happening to us. And so He has a new song to celebrate a new kind of living, resurrected life. The effect of that resurrection life, He tells us, is going to be widespread. "Many will see and fear and put their trust in the LORD" (Psalm 40:3). The effect of the resurrection of Jesus was that the story of Christianity, the message of the Christian gospel, exploded in the Roman world as the church literally thrust out in every direction and shook the world of that day.

Prayer: Oh Lord, You have the power to bring life from death. Thank You that through the resurrection of Jesus You have given me new life. May I proclaim Your saving acts to others. May I not hide Your righteousness in my heart but speak of Your faithfulness and saving help. I love you Jesus. Amen

Life Application: Bitterness, shame, hate, sorrow, and loneliness are all forms of death. Do we believe and act on His indwelling Presence to dispel every form of death we experience?

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Acts 4 - Astonished

Intentionally Posturing Our Hearts & Lives in Surrender to the Holy Spirit


Acts 4:1-16
Astonished
 
My father used to have a saying. Well, he had many sayings, but this is one of my favorites:

“There is a man impressed with the sound of his own voice”.

A man so enveloped in his own pride, he loved his thoughts and his intellect and thought them superior to anyone else. I have a feeling many members of the Sanhedrin in Jesus’ day loved the sound of their voices too.

And then there’s Peter. An unschooled ordinary man. These prideful leaders could not wrap their minds around how an uneducated common fisherman could preach so eloquently and assert himself so boldly. They were astonished.


I love how Luke tells us they had “been with Jesus”. There is no amount of education that can replace that. We can know all about Jesus. We can study every word He’s ever said and every miracle He’s ever performed. We can listen to a thousand sermons, but until you sit at His feet and ask Him to teach you through His Holy Spirit, you’re just an unschooled ordinary person.

Nothing in Peter’s circumstances had changed during the last fifty days. What changed was his understanding and perspective. His priorities shifted. His focus sharpened. His purpose paved a mission that he relentlessly pursued. His whole sense of reality expanded and Jesus’ resurrection became his abiding reality.

Circumstances became inconsequential, resulting in Peter’s becoming filled with courage and faith and the urgency to tell others about Jesus. Maybe the most unexplainable thing in our lives wouldn’t be changed circumstances, but a change in us. As we allow the Holy Spirit to change us, the way we handle circumstances is bound to change as well, because our perspective toward them and our reaction to them will be different. By the power of the Holy Spirit we are able to walk through those circumstances with a confidence, peace, or joy that becomes unexplainable apart from God to those who are watching us.

What are some of the circumstances you need God’s perspective and power to react differently?

A fractured marriage?
A failed relationship?
Victory over a recurring temptation?
Development of a healthy habit?
Peace with a difficult circumstance?
Boldness to share your faith with a loved one?
Something else?

As we allow the Holy Spirit to fill us with His peace, joy, and confidence in God’s goodness, our enemy’s hands become tied. (I love how these religious leaders knew there was nothing they could do to stop Peter- and you and I become unstoppable when we are driven and empowered by the Holy Spirit!). When we submit to Jesus, the enemy loses control. Just as in Acts 4 and Luke 20, those opposing the work of God stood by astonished, wringing their hands.

Will you and I come and sit at Jesus’ feet and allow Him to teach us? To make us people who live unexplainable lives? Will we “be with Jesus”?

Today’s reading is an excerpt from An Unexplainable Life: Recovering the Wonder and Devotion of the Early Church 

Psalm 22 - The Suffering Savior

The Suffering Savior — Psalm 22

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?...
a pack of villains encircles me; they pierce my hands and my feet. 
All my bones are on display; people stare and gloat over me.
They divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment...
I will declare Your name to my people; in the assembly of men I will praise You...
They will declare His righteousness, declaring to a people yet unborn: He has done it!
Psalm 22:1, 16-18, 22 31

In many ways this is the most amazing of all the psalms. In it we have a picture of the crucifixion and resurrection of the Lord Jesus painted by the psalmist David one thousand years before Jesus Christ was born. It constitutes one of the most amazing predictions of all time.

At least nine specific events or aspects of the crucifixion are described here in minute detail. All of them were fulfilled during the six hours in which Jesus hung upon the cross. Moreover, the latter part of the psalm clearly depicts the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. The probability that the predictions of these nine events would be fulfilled by chance in one person, on one afternoon is inconceivably small. The chance that all this could occur by accident is beyond any realm of possibility our minds could imagine. Yet all was fulfilled as predicted in this amazing psalm.

It is common knowledge that on November 22, 1963, President John Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, while riding down a Dallas street in a car. Suppose there had been in existence a document that predicted this event, and we knew it had been written in AD 963. That was about the time of the height of the Byzantine Empire, when most of the Western world was ruled from Constantinople, much of Europe was only sparsely inhabited by barbarian tribes, and America was not yet discovered.

Suppose that a document had been prepared in that ancient day that predicted that a time would come when a man of great prominence, head of a great nation, would be riding down a street of a large city in a metal chariot not drawn by horses and would suddenly and violently die as a little piece of metal hurled from a weapon made of wood and iron penetrated his brain. This weapon would be aimed at him from the window of a tall building, and his death would have worldwide effect and cause worldwide mourning. You can imagine with what awe such a document would be viewed today. Such a prediction would be similar to what we have in Psalm 22. That hypothetical prediction would have been made even before the invention of the automobile or firearms and five hundred years before the discovery of America. It would be regarded as fantastically accurate. Yet we have that very sort of thing in this psalm.

The psalm has two major divisions. The first twenty-one verses recount for us the torments of an unknown sufferer who is entirely alone and is crying out to God in His agony. Many scholars assert that these first twenty-one verses represent the thoughts that went through the mind of the Savior as He hung upon the cross and suffered there. From verse twenty-two to the end the sufferer is no longer alone but is in the midst of a large company and is praising God and shouting in victory. It ends with His claiming the worship of the entire world.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, it is unfathomable to me what You endured on the cross. Thank You for Your willingness to suffer and die. I worship you as my Savior and Lord. In Your name I pray, Amen.

Life Application: When Jesus became sin for us He endured unthinkable separation from the Father fulfilling amazing prophecy. What implication does that have for us today?

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Psalm 20 - Help From the Sanctuary

Help From The Sanctuary —  Psalm 20

May the LORD answer you when you are in distress; may the name of the God of Jacob protect you. May He send you help from the sanctuary and grant you support from Zion. May He remember all your sacrifices and accept your burnt offerings. May He give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed. May we shout for joy over your victory and lift up our banners in the name of our God. May the LORD grant all your requests. Now this I know: The LORD gives victory to His anointed. He answers him from his heavenly sanctuary with the victorious power of His right hand. Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God. 8 They are brought to their knees and fall, but we rise up and stand firm. LORD,  Answer us when we call!
Psalm 20:2

That is wonderful—"help from the sanctuary"! The sanctuary is always a picture of the place where we meet with God. In Israel it was the temple, the place where the Israelites came to get their thoughts straightened out, to get their thinking corrected. There they met with God, and there they heard the Word of God, the mind and thoughts of God.

In Psalm 73 the psalmist is deeply troubled by the prosperity of the wicked, that perennial problem that can still bother us: Why do the ungodly prosper while the righteous seem to be downtrodden all the time? This had upset him—until he finally went into the sanctuary. There he began to perceive their end. There he began to see the whole story; he began to see the full picture, and his thoughts were corrected. This is what the sanctuary does.

For us the sanctuary is the Scriptures. There is where we get help. It is there that our minds are illuminated, that we begin to see the world the way it is, not the way it appears to be. There is not one of us who has not already learned that life is not the way it seems to be, that what looks to be the answer and what we are convinced at first is the way things are often turns out to be exactly the opposite. Life is filled with illusion, with deceit; things are not what they appear to be. Doesn't your heart cry for somebody to tell you the truth, to tell you the way things really are, to open your eyes to what is going on? That is what the Bible does. And unless you are in the Scriptures, there is no help. "May you find help in the sanctuary, in the Scriptures," is the psalmist's prayer, "that your eyes might be enlightened and you might understand."

Help from the sanctuary and support from Zion. Zion is another name for Jerusalem, the capital of the kingdom. In the Scriptures it stands as a symbol of the invisible kingdom of God with which we are surrounded, made up of ministering angels sent forth to serve those who are to be the heirs of salvation. In other words, all the invisible help that God can give you in the day of trouble, in the hour of pressure, is made available by prayer.

Remember that in the Garden of Gethsemane, as Jesus was praying and sweating drops of blood in the height of His agony, an angel appeared and ministered to Him and strengthened Him. That angel was made visible to Him in order that we might be taught a lesson of what happens when we pray. I have gone into prayer depressed and defeated, but while I have prayed I have felt my spirits caught up, changed, and strengthened. I came out calm, at rest, and at peace. Why? Because I have received help from Zion.

Lord, there are far too many places I turn in times of trouble. Teach me to turn to your sanctuary for the help that I need. Thank you that You hear my prayer and answer me with invisible help. And thank you, dear Lord, for the sanctuary, the truth, the guidance, found in Your Word. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.

Life Application: Where do we turn when our hearts are troubled and our minds confused by all that is happening in our world? Where is a place of quiet confidence and rest?

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Psalm 19 - Hidden Faults

Hidden Faults — Psalm 19

Forgive my hidden faults. Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then will I be blameless, innocent of great transgression.
Psalm 19:12b-13

"Forgive my hidden faults." Is that your prayer? Do you know what will happen when you pray that way? You might think that God will take a sponge and wipe around inside you so you will not even know what those hidden faults were. But God does not do that. His way of dealing with hidden faults is either to send somebody to point them out to you or to bring them out through some circumstance in which you are suddenly confronted with what you have done or said and you find that it is ugly and you do not like it. That is the way God cleanses us from hidden faults. He opens up the secret places.

Usually he does it through other people because, as God well knows, we cannot see ourselves, but other people can see us. These faults are hidden to us but not to others. They see them very plainly. And we can see their hidden faults better than they can. You know that you can see the faults of somebody you are thinking about right now better than that person can. You say, "I don't see how that person can be so blind." Someone is thinking that very same way about you. That is why it is always proper to say, "Lord, cleanse me from hidden faults. Help me to see myself through the eyes of a friend who loves me enough to tell me the truth."

And then, "Keep me from willful sins." Willful sins are those in which you are confident that you have what it takes to do what God wants. Self-confidence is presumption. God never asks us to do anything on that basis. If we depend upon ourselves, we are acting presumptuously, and any activity that stems from self-confidence is a presumptuous sin. "Whatsoever is not of faith is sin." For me to act as though there is anything that I can contribute is to be guilty of this kind of sin. The cure for this is dependence upon the activity of God in you as a believer. So David is praying, "Lord, let me realize that without You I can do nothing. Help me to depend upon You to work through me. Then I will be blameless and innocent of great transgression."

Lord You speak to me through the world You have made and the Word You have spoken. Give me a teachable heart. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Life Application: What are two crucial areas for our lives that need exposure? Are we open to praying about them and to allowing God to answer our prayers in His way?

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Psalm 139 - A Prayer of Passion

A Prayer Of Passion: Psalm 139:19-24

If only you would slay the wicked, O God! Away from me you bloodthirsty men!
Psalm 139:19

Why do these psalmists seem all of a sudden to interject these bloody thoughts? Why this sudden word of passion, "If only you would slay the wicked!" This has troubled many because it seems so far from the New Testament standard, "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you" (Matthew 5:44). How shall we understand these things?

We need to recognize that everything the psalmist asks for is not necessarily a reflection of God's will. We are reading the experiences of believers, and their thoughts are not always reflections of God's perfect will. At times, the Psalms earnestly mirror the human viewpoint, and we need to understand these passages in their context. In this paragraph, the psalmist, having been gripped by his close relationship with God, now naturally comes to the place where he asks God for something. That is also what we do. When we are aware of being near to God, being dear to Him, we tend to ask God for things, but those things are not always in keeping with God's best for us. That is what this psalmist is doing.

He asks God to take care of the problem of the wicked. His suggested manner of handling it is rather naive. He says, "Lord, wipe them out," as though such a simple remedy for human ills had never occurred to the Almighty. Have you ever felt that way? One of the refreshing things about these psalms is the honesty they reflect.

There are several things we need to note about this: For one thing, this psalmist's request falls short even of the Old Testament standard. It is the Old Testament that first says, "Love your neighbor as yourself" (Leviticus 19:18). The New Testament and the Old Testament are not opposed to one another in this matter of moral standards. But this man has not yet learned this. In his honesty, he says "Lord, it seems to me the easiest way for You to handle this problem of evil would be to slay the wicked. Why don't you do that?"

Here is the case of a man who has felt God's hatred against sin but not yet God's love for the sinner. That is why, I think, he concludes with these words: "Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting " (Psalm 139:23-24). Is he not saying, "Lord, I don't understand this problem of evil? It appears to me the easiest way is for you to eliminate the evil person. But Lord, I also know that I don't think very clearly, and I don't often have the right answer. So Lord, in case I don't have the right remedy for this problem, let me add this prayer: 'Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."

Father, how desperately I need to be led through the complexities of my life. Help me not to settle for simple yet wrong solutions but to be willing to let You work out Your own purposes knowing that You have taken all the factors into consideration. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen

Life Application: How much of our prayer time is occupied with petitions formed by our finite understanding? Is there a better way to pray? Have we yet felt God's love for sinners?

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Thor, St. Boniface and the Christmas Tree

When the average person thinks of a Catholic saint, I’d venture to guess that it’s not a fearless, axe-wielding, hammer-breaking, oak-crushing, converter of heathens that comes to mind. And yet, that’s exactly the kind of guy St. Boniface was.

Born around 680 in England, Boniface entered a Benedictine monastery before being commissioned by the pope to evangelize modern-day Germany, first as a priest, and eventually as a bishop. Under the protection of Charles Martel, Boniface traveled through all of Germany, restrengthening regions that had already been introduced to Christianity and bringing the light of Christ to those that hadn’t. Boniface, “with his tireless activity, his gift for organization, and his adaptable, friendly, yet firm character,” found a great amount of success in his travels, said Pope Benedict XVI in 2009.

Here Boniface is described (albeit dramatized for story-telling) by Henry Van Dyke in The First Christmas Tree (1897),

“What a man he was! Fair and slight, but straight as a spear and strong as an oaken staff. His face was still young; the smooth skin was bronzed by wind and sun. His gray eyes, clean and kind, flashed like fire when he spoke of his adventures, and of the evil deeds of the false priests with whom he contended.” (1)

Around the year 723, Boniface was traveling with a small party in the region of Lower Hesse. He knew of a community of heathens near Geismar who, in the middle of winter, would make a human sacrifice (a child, typically) to the thunder-god Thor (yes, THAT Thor) at the base of their sacred oak tree, the “Thunder Oak”. Boniface, in part from advice from a brother bishop, wished to destroy the Thunder Oak to not only save the life of the human sacrifice, but also to show the heathens that he would not be struck down by lightning at the hands of Thor.

As the story goes, Boniface and his companions, reaching the village on Christmas Eve, arrived at the place of the sacrifice in time enough to interrupt it. With his bishops’ staff (crozier) in hand, Boniface approached the pagan crowd, who had surrounded the base of the Thunder Oak, saying to his group, “Here is the Thunder Oak, and here the cross of Christ shall break the hammer of the false god, Thor.”

With a small child laid out for the sacrifice, the executioner raised his hammer high. But on the downswing, Boniface extended his crozier to block the blow, miraculously breaking the great stone hammer and saving the child’s life.

Afterward, Boniface is said to have proclaimed to the people:

“Hearken, sons of the forest! No blood shall flow this night save that which pity has drawn from a mother’s breast. For this is the birth-night of the Christ, the son of the Almighty, the Savior of mankind. Fairer is He than Baldur the Beautiful, greater than Odin the Wise, kinder than Freya the Good. Since He has come sacrifice is ended. The dark, Thor, on whom you have vainly called, is dead. Deep in the shades of Niffelheim he is lost forever. And now on this Christ-night you shall begin to live. This blood-tree shall darken your land no more. In the name of the Lord, I will destroy it.” (2)

Boniface picked up an axe nearby and, as legend has it, took one mighty swing at the oak when a great gust of wind arose through the forest and felled the tree, roots and all. It lie on the forest floor, broken in four pieces. Though afterwards Boniface had a chapel built from the wood, our story takes us to what stood immediately beyond the ruins of the mighty tree.

The “Apostle of Germany” continued to preach to the astounded Germanic peoples, who were in disbelief that this slayer of Thor’s Thunder Oak had not been struck down by their god. Boniface looked beyond where the oak lay, pointing to a small, unassuming fir tree, saying:

“This little tree, a young child of the forest, shall be your holy tree tonight. It is the wood of peace… It is the sign of an endless life, for its leaves are ever green. See how it points upward to heaven. Let this be called the tree of the Christ-child; gather about it, not in the wild wood, but in your own homes; there it will shelter no deeds of blood, but loving gifts and rites of kindness.” (3)

And so, the Germans began a new tradition that night, one that stretches to the present day. By bringing a fir into their homes, decorating it with candles and ornaments, and celebrating the birth of a Savior, the Apostle of Germany and his flock gave us what we now know as the Christmas tree.

Taken from Churchpop

Early Christianity in Iran and China

Nestorian priests in a procession on Palm Sunday,
in a 7th- or 8th-century wall painting from a
Nestorian church in China

"And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come."  Matthew 24:14

Nestorian missionaries

Christianity is growing in modern-day China and Iran, but it is not a new religion to these regions. As early as the 7th century AD, Christianity had spread to the Arabian Peninsula (most notably Persia - modern day Iran), India and China. It was spread by Nestorian missionaries. 

Nestorianism was a Christian doctrine advanced by Nestorius, Patriarch of Constantinople from 428–431 AD. Because there were doctrinal differences between the Nestorians and the Roman Catholic Church, the Nestorians branched out, spreading the Christian faith to Persia. 

"Missionaries established dioceses in the Arabian Peninsula and India (they were known there as Saint Thomas Christians, after the apostle Thomas who is believed to have spread Christianity as far away as India). They made some advances in Egypt as well. 

Missionaries entered Central Asia and had significant success converting local Tartar tribes. Following the Muslim conquest of Persia, completed in 644, the Persian Church became a protected  community under the Rashidun Caliphate. The church and its communities abroad flourished under the Caliphate; by the 10th century it had fifteen metropolitan sees within the Caliphate's territories, and another five elsewhere, including in China and India. (History shows that at one time, Christianity and Islam co-existed in peace). 

Nestorian missionaries were firmly established in China during the early part of the Tang Dynasty (618–907) - more on that below. The Chinese source known as the Nestorian Stele records a mission under a Persian proselyte named Alopen as introducing Nestorian Christianity to China in 635. These Christian missionaries, led by Alopen, established the Church of the East, or Nestorian Church. It was the first church to spread Christianity to China. 

Emperor Taizong, of the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD), welcomed the Nestorian Christians to China. His successor, emperor Gaozong, was pleased to continue emperor Taizong's policy of toleration towards Christianity. He was sufficiently pleased to permit the building of Nestorian Christian churches in every province of China, and to decree Alopen the title of "Great Conservator of Doctrine for the Protector of the Empire" (i.e., metropolitan Chang'an).

The Nestorians built and staffed monasteries in China's key cities. They were also quite aggressive in their proclamation of the Christian faith. They persevered in their efforts to phrase the Christian message in the philosophical language of the Confucian court in order to make it intellectually acceptable to the literati.

Nestorian artifacts such as the Daqin Pagoda (see picture below), the Jesus Sutras (the Sutra of Jesus the Messiah, sought to introduce the Chinese to the Christian faith and specifically pointed out that the gospel contained nothing subversive to China's ancient traditions, loyalty to the state and filial piety being of the essence of the law of Christ.), and the Nestorian Stele testify to the place of church in Chinese society at the time. 

The Church of the East in China faded with the fall of the Tang Dynasty, but the Nestorian Church continued to flourish throughout Central Asia well into the fourteenth century among the northern tribes, such as Uyghurs, Turks, and Mongols. 

Under the leadership of the Mongol-established Yuan Dynasty, Nestorian Christianity once again gained a foothold in China. When it was overthrown by the native Chinese Ming Dynasty, foreign influences once again became suspect, and Christians were expelled from China. 

One of the last known monuments referring to Christianity in China seems to be one dating to c. 1365 and found at Sanpen Mountain, near Beijing. The monument relates the story of a Buddhist monk who visited the site of an old Christian monument and had a vision of a luminous cross. A nearby inscription reveals the presence of a Christian monk near the site as late as 1438.  (much of the above information came from Wikipedia). 

Daqin Pagoda - the remnant of the earliest surviving
Christian church in China. The church and
the monastery were built in 640
by early Nestorian missionaries.

Columba and the Loch Ness

Columba and the Loch Ness Monster

"And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come."  Matthew 24:14

For the past few months of this blog we have looked at a few of the lives of missionaries through the ages. I will continue to do this as I move forward. It is my hope that you will be encouraged and strengthened in your faith as you see God's hand working through the lives of ordinary people as they followed the will of an extraordinary God.

We will next look at the Church in the Dark Ages, from 500-1000 AD. After Patrick took Christian faith to Ireland, 

- Scottish monks, to include Columba, evangelized lower England around 600 AD

- Irish monks returned to Europe as missionaries from 500 to 1000 AD 

- The first Christians were reported in North Yemen and Sudan

- Huns living in China and Central Asia were taught to read and write by Nestorian missionaries

- Gregory the Great sent Augustine and a team of missionaries to (what is now) England to reintroduce the Gospel. The missionaries settled in Canterbury and within a year baptized 10,000 people

- The Lombards, a German people living in northern Italy, became Christians

- A church building was erected in Ch'ang-an (Xi'an, China), then perhaps the largest city in the world

- 680 AD saw the first translation of Christian Scriptures into Arabic

- In 716 AD Boniface began missionary work among Germanic tribes

- Charlemagne, king of the Franks and head of the Roman Empire,  commissioned Bible translations

- In 828 AD the first Christian church in present-day Slovakia was built and the first missionaries reached the area that is now the Czech Republic

- In 912 AD the Normans became Christian 

- Harold I of Denmark converted to Christianity and smoothed the way for the acceptance of Christian faith by the Danish people

- Mieszko I of Poland converted to Christianity and began the period of Christian Poland

- In 1000 AD  the leader of the Magyars (modern day Hungary) Stephen I converted to Christianity

(information taken from Timeline of Christian Missions) 

The missionaries that will be highlighted during this period are:

Columba (521-597)
Nestorian missionaries
Early church in China
Boniface
Harold I of Denmark
Mieszko I of Poland
Stephen I of Hungary 

Columba (521-597)

Columba was born in northern Ireland, the great, great grandson of an Irish high king. In early Christian Ireland, the druidic tradition collapsed due to the spread of the new Christian faith. The study of Latin learning and Christian theology in monasteries flourished and Columba became a pupil at the monastic school at Clonard Abbey. During the sixth century, some of the most significant names in the history of Irish Christianity studied at the Clonard monastery. It is said that the average number of scholars under instruction at Clonard was 3,000.

Twelve students who studied under St. Finian became known as the Twelve Apostles of Ireland. Columba was one of these. He became a monk and was ordained as a priest. During this time he is said to have founded a number of monasteries. Unfortunately, a dispute with St. Finian led to a battle where many men were killed. As a result, Columba sent himself into exile to Scotland and vowed that he would win to Christ as many men as were killed in the battle.

In 563 he travelled to Scotland with twelve companions and was granted land on the island of Iona, off the west coast of Scotland. This became the center of his evangelizing mission to the Picts, a people group who worshipped many gods.

Aside from the services he provided guiding the only center of literacy in the region, his reputation as a holy man led to his role as a diplomat among the tribes. There are also many stories of miracles which he performed during his work to convert the Picts. One such miracle has been interpreted as the first reference to the Loch Ness Monster. According to Adomnán (author of a work entitled Vita Columbae), "when Saint Columba was traveling through the country of the Picts, he had to cross the River Ness. When he reached the shore there was a group of people, Picts and Brethren both, burying an unfortunate man who had been bit by a water-monster. Columba ordered one of his people to swim across the river and get the boat on the other side so that he might cross. On hearing this, Lugneus Mocumin stripped down to his tunic and plunged in to the water.

But the monster saw him swimming and charged to the surface to devour poor Lugneus and everyone who was watching was horrified and hid their eyes in terror. Everyone except Columba who raised his holy hand and inscribed the Cross in the empty air. Calling upon the name of God, he commanded the savage beast, saying: "Go no further! Do not touch the man! Go back at once!" 

The monster drew back as though pulled by ropes and retreated quickly to the depths of the Loch. Lugneus brought the boat back, unharmed and everyone was astonished. And the heathen savages who were present were overcome by the greatness of the miracle which they themselves had seen, and magnified the God of the Christians."  Fisheaters

Columba was very energetic in his evangelical work and, in addition to founding several churches in the Hebrides, he worked to turn his monastery at Iona into a school for missionaries. He was a renowned man of letters, having written several hymns and being credited with having transcribed 300 books. One of the few, if not the only, times he left Scotland after his arrival was toward the end of his life, when he returned to Ireland to found the monastery at Durrow.

Columba died on Iona and was buried by his monks in the abbey he created. Columba is credited as being a leading figure in the revitalization of monasticism, and his achievements illustrated the importance of the Celtic church in bringing a revival of Christianity to Western Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire. Columba

Easter Devotions - Come Lord Jesus!

Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
Revelation 21:1-4

He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.”
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen.
Revelation 22:20-21 

The last book of the Bible, Revelation, can be summed up in two words: God Wins! Believers in Jesus Christ can look with joy and anticipation to the future, when our risen Lord joins heaven and earth together. We know, with the certainty of a promise from Jesus Himself, that the glorious, amazing day described in Revelation 21:1-4 will someday come true. Every tear will be wiped away and we will finally live as God created us to live, totally within His will, reaching our full potential. Our prayer, "Come, Lord Jesus!" is a cry that that day comes soon! 

But it is also a cry for today. Our work now is to bring glimmers of this future glory to our present reality. We can only do this with the help of our living, risen Lord. As Christians, our task is to cry out, "Come, Lord Jesus!" at the face of injustice, poverty, heartbreak and anguish, and together with Christ reach out to offer righteousness, relief, solace and grace. Jesus asks to be invited into every place where His kingdom has yet to be realized, even the depths of our hearts. Come, Lord Jesus! 

Prayer: Thank you for Easter! Thank you that you rose from the grave! Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven! Come, Lord Jesus! In Your precious and beautiful name I pray, Amen

* This devotion taken from The Sanctuary for Lent 2016 by Sue Mink

Easter Devotions - Sacred Moments

As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going farther. But they urged him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them.
When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”
Luke 24:28-32 

These two disciples (Cleopas who was Jesus' uncle, the brother of Joseph, and another disciple) came so close to missing Jesus! On the day Jesus rose from the dead, as they traveled to an inconsequential town, they chanced upon a stranger. After a compelling conversation, the stranger began to hurry on His way. It was only because of their strong urging that He stayed behind with them. They had no idea that they were about to witness a sacred moment. As Jesus broke the bread, they were able to recognize Him for the first time that entire day. The stories were true! Jesus had risen from the dead!!! As quickly as they comprehended the miracle before them, Jesus vanished, leaving them astounded. 

Isn't that how we often encounter the risen Lord in our lives? Sacred moments come upon us in unexpected places and times. Epiphanies and revelations catch us unaware, and as quickly as we recognize the presence of the Lord, the commonplace closes in again. God's presence is real, but elusive, always at the edge of our vision. Yet as fleeting as that moment was for the disciples,they would never be the same. Whenever we encounter Jesus in our lives, it is our personal Easter experience. When we recognize the living Christ, we are compelled to cry out with the disciples, "The Lord is risen indeed!"

Prayer: Lord Jesus, bless me with Easter moments, when I encounter Your presence in my life. I can't imagine a life lived without You. You are my Lord, my Savior, my Best Friend. In Your name I pray, Amen. 

*This devotion taken from The Sanctuary for Lent 2016 by Sue Mink

Easter Devotions - A Race to the Tomb

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance.

So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him!"

So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb.

Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.

He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in.

Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus' head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen.

Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)  John 20:1-9

The fact that John and Peter raced to the tomb, shows that in their hearts they still held out hope that all was not lost after Jesus' death, even though they did not understand His statements that He would rise from the dead. Peter, ever the leader and eager follower, pushes past John and enters the tomb. What do you think his thoughts were after he had, just two days before, denied ever knowing Jesus? Graciously, God allows Peter and John to see, with their own eyes, the empty, neat and orderly tomb. They believe even when they do not understand. We can learn a lesson from Peter and John. We may not always understand how or why God is doing something, but we can believe Him, have faith in Him and eagerly await the day when our faith will become sight.

In order to understand the significance that "The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen.", you have to understand a little bit about Hebrew tradition of that day. The folded napkin had to do with the Master and Servant, and every Jewish boy knew this tradition. When the servant set the dinner table for the master, he made sure that it was exactly the way the master wanted it. The table was furnished perfectly, and then the servant would wait, just out of sight, until the master had finished eating, and the servant would not dare touch that table, until the master was finished..
Now if the master were done eating, he would rise from the table, wipe his fingers, his mouth, and clean his beard, and would wad up that napkin and toss it onto the table. The servant would then know to clear the table. For in those days, the wadded napkin meant, “I’m finished..” But if the master got up from the table, and folded his napkin, and laid it beside his plate, the servant would not dare touch the table, because The folded napkin meant, “I’m coming back!”

Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you for rising from the dead! Thank you for giving us the Bible so that we can know this truth. Help us to have faith in You, even when we don't understand everything that is happening around us or to us. We celebrate your resurrection every day! In Your name, Lord Jesus, we pray, Amen. 

Easter Devotion - He is Risen!!!

Then the disciples went back to their homes, but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.
They asked her, "Woman, why are you crying?" 
"They have taken my Lord away," she said, "and I don't know where they have put him."
At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.
"Woman," he said, "why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?" Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him."
Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" (which means Teacher).
Jesus said, "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, 'I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.' "
Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: "I have seen the Lord!" And she told them that he had said these things to her.  John 20:10-18


We can only imagine what Mary's thoughts were that Sunday morning upon seeing her Lord alive! She had watched Him be killed and seen His dead body placed in the tomb. While all but one of the disciples (John) didn't dare show their faces at the cross out of fear, she stayed there, supporting Jesus' mother Mary, and showing her love and dedication to Jesus up to the bitter end. And for Mary, even His death was not the end of her devotion. She risked her life to return to the tomb that Sunday morning. Jesus rewarded her faithfulness by choosing Mary, a woman who had been possessed by seven demons (we can only imagine the horror she experienced), to be the first one to see Him after He rose. Oh praise You sweet Jesus! You reveal Yourself to children and women...the ones who society so often abuses and persecutes. What a wonderful Savior we serve!

Prayer:
Sweet Jesus...how precious You are! We can't wait to see you face to face the way Mary did in the Garden. Some day, we know, You will return and take us to live with You forever. Until that day, may we live our lives with all the devotion and love of Mary Magdalene. Thank You Jesus!

Song: Christ the Lord is Risen Today

Christ the Lord is ris'n today, Alleluia!
Sons of men and angels say, Alleluia!
Raise your joys and triumphs high, Alleluia!
Sing, ye heav'ns, and earth reply, Alleluia!

Love's redeeming work is done, Alleluia!
Fought the fight, the battle won, Alleluia!
Death in vain forbids Him rise, Alleluia!
Christ has opened Paradise, Alleluia!

Lives again our glorious King, Alleluia!
Where, O death, is now thy sting? Alleluia!
Dying once He all doth save, Alleluia!
Where thy victory, O grave? Alleluia!

Soar we now where Christ has led, Alleluia!
Foll'wing our exalted Head, Alleluia!
Made like Him, like Him we rise, Alleluia!
Ours the cross, the grave, the skies, Alleluia!

Easter Devotion - His Final Words

We can learn so much about Jesus if we consider what He said on the cross as He was about to die.

His first words were a prayer to the Father: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do” (Luke 23:34).

His second words were a pardon to a sinner, a criminal who was crucified next to Him who had said, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” Jesus replied, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise” (Luke 23:42-43).

Third, seeing His mother standing at the foot of the cross, Jesus said, “Woman, behold your son!” And, no doubt nodding toward the Apostle John who stood beside Mary, He said, “Behold your mother!” (John 19:26-27).

His fourth words were a plea to the Father, most likely when the sin of the world was poured upon Him: “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46). There on the cross, Jesus bore our sin. On the cross, God the Father treated Jesus as if He had lived your sinful life. And He did this so He could treat you and me as though we had lived His perfect life. That is the good news of the Gospel.

His fifth words were of a personal nature: “I thirst!” (John 19:28). Imagine, this is the Creator of the universe saying, “I thirst.” He could have called in an angel, who would have flown from Heaven with a chilled bottle of water for Him. He could have spoken and a river would have appeared.
But though He was God, He never did miracles for His personal benefit. He only did miracles for the benefit of others. Jesus was fully God and He was fully human. He gave up the privileges of Deity and came to us as a servant. And so He said, “I thirst.”

Now we come to the sixth statement. Jesus said, “It is finished!” (John 19:30). In the original language, it’s the word tetelestai. It means it is completed; it is accomplished; it is done; it is finished. He didn’t say, “I’m finished.” He said, “It is finished.”
“Because the power of sin is broken, you don’t have to be under the power of any sin, any vice, any lifestyle. … You don’t have to be under the power of anything or anyone, because Jesus has purchased your freedom at Calvary.”
What was finished? The work that the Father had given Him to do. Finished were the sufferings of Christ. Never again would He bear the sins of the world. Never again would He even for a moment be forsaken by God. Finished was Satan’s stronghold on humanity. The Bible says, “Through death, Christ destroyed him who had the power of death, who is the devil” (Hebrews 2:14). Death was defeated at the cross of Calvary and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Death died when Christ arose.
And He finished our salvation. It’s done. It’s paid for. It’s bought. You don’t need to add anything to it. It’s a gift to you. If you put your faith in Jesus, you can say with confidence, “I know that my sin is forgiven.”

Finally, He gave His seventh and final statement, “Father, ‘into Your hands I commit My spirit’” (Luke 23:46).

Taken from an article by Greg Laurie Why Did Jesus Have to Die?

Easter Devotion - The Grave Couldn't Hold Him

Now there was a man named Joseph, a member of the Council, a good and upright man, who had not consented to their decision and action. He came from the Judean town of Arimathea and he was waiting for the kingdom of God.

Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus' body.

Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen cloth and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock, one in which no one had yet been laid. It was Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was about to begin.

The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment.  Luke 23:50-56

Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jews. With Pilate's permission, he came and took the body away. He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy‑five pounds.

Taking Jesus' body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. John 19:38-40

The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate.

"Sir," they said, "we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, 'After three days I will rise again.'

So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first."

"Take a guard," Pilate answered. "Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how."

So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard.

Matthew 27:60-66

It is encouraging to read of Joseph and Nicodemus. Not every Jewish religious leader wanted to crucify Jesus. Most likely these men were not at the trial of Jesus or else their voices were drowned out by the crowd. Even though they could not prevent His death, they did what they could to provide for Jesus' burial, along with the women. In life and in death, Jesus was greatly loved by His followers. And even in death, He was feared by those who hated Him. That is why the Roman guard was posted...in case someone came to steal His body. We can only wonder at what point, before Sunday morning, Jesus left that tomb, but praise God, it is empty today!

Prayer: 

We thank You Jesus that You are alive today. Your tomb is empty and we rejoice. May we be loving, devoted followers of you like Joseph, Nicodemus and the women. We love you Jesus!

Easter Devotion - His Great Love for Us

It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon,  for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last.
The centurion, seeing what had happened, praised God and said, “Surely this was the Son of God.” When all the people who had gathered to witness this sight saw what took place, they beat their breasts and went away. But all those who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.
Luke 23:44-49 

After examining Jesus' last words in the Gospel of Matthew, today we read the Gospel of Luke. At first glance, they seem very different. Matthew's account is a cry of despair and abandonment, whereas Luke's version shows us Jesus' great trust in God and submission to His will. Yet both of them contain quotes from Psalms, so each psalm should be examined in its entirety to understand fully what Jesus was saying. Luke's quote is from Psalm 31:5. Psalm 31, like Matthew's Psalm 22, is a cry for rescue from persecution that ultimately turns to praise. Like Matthew's account, Jesus' death cry holds the promise of hallelujahs to come. 

Yet Luke's story asks us to linger a moment at the foot of the cross. A soldier who had mocked Him realized at the moment of His death that Jesus was righteous - not just merely innocent but loved by God. Imagine the shock and fear he must have felt when he realized what he had just done! Where could one who had just murdered the Son of God find hope and mercy? The beautiful old hymn says it best. Beneath the cross of Jesus is where we are all confronted with "the wonder of redeeming love and my unworthiness." 

Prayer: Lord, keep me at the foot of Your cross, aware of the incredible gift of Your love to me, a sinner. Help me to see anew the awesome wonder of what You did for me. May I be eternally grateful and never ashamed of You. I love You Jesus. In Your name I pray, Amen.

*This devotion taken from The Sanctuary for Lent 2016 by Sue Mink

Good Friday Devotion - The Cry of a Son

From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land. About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).
When some of those standing there heard this, they said, “He’s calling Elijah.”
Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. The rest said, “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to save him.”
And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.
Matthew 27:45-50 

What a horrible cry for the Father to hear from His Son!!! How it must have torn the very heart out of God! Yet during His time on the cross, Jesus was the only person who ever was or ever will be truly God-forsaken. Jesus took on all of humanity's sins and suffered execution at the hands of human beings in order to break the power of evil in the world. Because God is the very antithesis of sin, at that moment, God had to turn from the heartrending cry of His only Son.  

Yet this cry is also the first line of Psalm 22. Take a moment to read through the psalm. It is an encapsulation of Jesus' execution, resurrection, and salvation of all of humanity (written hundreds of years before these events actually took place). Although God had turned away at the moment of Christ's cry, by calling out the beginning of the psalm, Jesus was letting all who would hear know that He knew the end of the psalm too. God would rescue Him from death itself!!! 

Through the cross, the world would undergo a radical transformation. Every human being, Jew and Gentile, born and unborn, would recognize the power and the grace of God. Hidden in Jesus' heartbreaking cry from the cross was the hope of all humanity. 

Prayer: Lord Jesus, teach me to trust in the Father, even in the depths of despair. Father God, thank you for the incredible love that You have for us that would cause You to be willing to watch Your Son suffer and die for each of us. I praise You, thank You and love You with all my heart! In Your Son's name, Amen. 

*This devotion taken from The Sanctuary for Lent 2016 by Sue Mink

Good Friday Devotion - He Became Sin

About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"--which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"  Matthew 27:46


Thoughts: (the below article was written by Joni Erickson Tada and Steve Estes)

The face that Moses had begged to see--was forbidden to see--was slapped bloody. The thorns that God had sent to curse the earth's rebellion now twisted around his own brow.... 

"On your back with you!" One raises a mallet to sink in the spike. But the soldier's heart must continue pumping as he readies the prisoner's wrist. Someone must sustain the soldier's life minute by minute, for no man has this power on his own. Who supplies breath to his lungs? Who gives energy to his cells? Who holds his molecules together? Only by the Son do "all things hold together". The victim wills that the soldier live on--he grants the warriors continued existence. 
The man swings. 

As the man swings, the Son recalls how he and the Father first designed the medial nerve of the human forearm--the sensations it would be capable of. The design proves flawless--the nerves perform exquisitely. "Up you go!" They lift the cross. God is on display...and can scarcely breathe. 

But these pains are a mere warm up to his other and growing dread. He begins to feel a foreign sensation. Somewhere during the day an unearthly foul odor began to waft, not around his nose, but his heart. He feels dirty. Human wickedness starts to crawl upon his spotless being...The apple of his Father's eye turns brown with rot. 

His Father! He must face his Father like this! 

From heaven, the Father now rouses himself like a lion disturbed, shakes his mane, and roars against the shriveling remnant of a man hanging on a cross. Never has the Son seen the Father look at him so, never felt even the least of his hot breathe. But the roar shakes the unseen world and darkens the visible sky. The son does not recognize these eyes. 

"Son of man, why have you behaved so??" You have cheated...stolen, gossiped--murdured, envied, hated, lied. You have cursed, robbed, overspent, overeaten...disobeyed...Oh the duties you have shirked, the children you have abandoned! Who has ever so ignored the poor, so played the coward, so belittled my name?? Have you ever held your razor tongue? Who gave you the boldness to rig elections, foment revolutions...and worship demons? Does the list never end! Splitting families...acting smugly...accepting bribes. You have burned down buildings, perfected terrorist tactics, founded false religions, traded in slaves--relishing each morsel and bragging about it all! I hate, loathe, these things in you! Disgust for everything about you consumes me. Can you not feel my wrath??" 

Of course the Son is innocent. He is blamelessness itself. The Father knows this...but the divine pair have an agreement, and the unthinkable must now take place. Jesus will be treated as if personally responsible for every sin ever committed. 

The Father watches as his heart's treasure, the mirror image of himself, sinks drowning into raw, liquid sin. Jehovah's stored rage against humankind from every century explodes in a single direction. 

"Father, Father, why have you foresaken me?!" 

But heaven stops its ears. The Son stares up at the One who can not, who will not, reach down or reply. 

The Trinity had planned it. The Son endured it. The Spirit enabled him. The Father rejected the Son whom he loved. Jesus, the God-man from Nazareth, perished. The Father accepted his sacrifice for sin and was satisfied. The Rescue was accomplished. 

Prayer: 

Lord Jesus, thank You! Thank You from the bottom of our hearts for rescuing us from sin, from rebellion, from eternal separation and hell. Thank You Jesus. Help us to remember, each day, each moment, what You did for us. Help us to tell other people so that they too, can believe and be saved. May our lives count for Your glory and for Your Kingdom. In Your precious name I pray, Amen