Wait for it
1 a: to remain stationary in readiness or expectation
2 a: to look forward expectantly
We have been waiting for a long time. Tuning into daily news sends a sense of apprehension through me. We are waiting for good news on the war. We are waiting for some relief in global warming. We are waiting in anticipation for the fighting to end in the Middle East, especially Israel.
We wait to hear a newscast that does not include child abductions, child rape or child pornography. We wait to read a newspaper that does not include murder-suicide, or how high the murder rate is climbing in the city.
I apparently made a big mistake when I became a Christian. I prayed for patience, because I knew I needed it. Well, I was told the only way to develop patience was to be tried and tested.
“We continue to shout our praise even when we’re hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we are never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary-we can’t round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit.” Romans 5.3-5
Surprise: we all are tried and tested. That’s the way the earth is right now. Whether it’s feeling like our hands are tied, not able to help all the people who need helping, or thinking that there is simply no hope for the world at all.
It is easy to become a fatalist in today’s age. There seems to be one catastrophe after another, with no way to stop them. What is God waiting for?
“With God, one day is as good as a thousand years, a thousand years as a day. God isn’t late with his promise as some measure lateness. He is restraining himself on account of you, holding back the End because he doesn’t want anyone lost. He’s giving everyone space and time to change.” 2 Peter 3.8-9
See, I cannot give a good explanation why bad things happen. I know the basic answer, “His ways are not our ways,” and “Everything happens for a reason,” but I cannot even begin to comprehend God’s workings on this earth.
So, the only thing left to do is wait for the end. Define ‘end’ for yourself. But that’s where the mistake comes into play. That causes apathy. The definitions for wait listed above are examples of active waiting. Not just us waiting, in tears, not knowing what to do. But active waiting, knowing that no matter what things look like, God is indeed in control.
How do I know, you ask? Well, in my life I have seen His hand working through my situations. When I was a drug addict roaming the streets in the middle of the night. When I was determined to leave my husband and children for a ‘better life.’ God was the only One able to stop the crash course my life was one. I believe that with my whole being. When I thought things were hopeless, He saw the redemption on the other side.
And so, now I know the truth. And I can practice active waiting too. Things may seem bleak on a day-to-day basis, but I know that God has much to reveal to the world that will make these days pale in comparison. Check out what Paul says. It’s kind of long, but definitely worth the read.
“That’s why I don’t think there’s any comparison between the present hard times and the coming good times. The created world itself can hardly wait for what’s coming next. Everything in creation is being more or less held back. God reins it in until both creation and all the creatures are ready and can be released at the same moment into the glorious times ahead. Meanwhile, the joyful anticipation deepens.
“All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it’s not only around us; it’s within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We’re also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don’t see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy.
“Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.” Romans 8.18-28
And that my friends, is a promise I can cling to.
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Thursday, June 14, 2007
inhale
1 : to draw in by breathing2 : to take in eagerly or greedily
intransitive verb : to breathe in
"But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life. And who is equal to such a task?" 2 Corinthians 2:14-16
Smells started to come alive for me after I quit smoking. My olfactory senses seemed to start working overtime. My first experience with the power of the human nose was when I was pregnant with my first child. That was before I had ever smoked. I was working in a restaurant. I remember the smell of fish would almost knock me out with its potency. I remember having a perfume that was expensive and having to give it to my grandmother because I couldn’t even stand to have it in the house. Years later, I started smoking, and those memories faded. Four years and 8 months ago, when I quit, the sensory overload started up all over again. Of course, taste changed for me as well, but I still haven’t completely gotten used to my nose and how smells can affect me. Things I used to like the scent of I no longer like, and things I didn’t like the scent of I now love. I’ve been driving my husband nuts for years now with questions of “what’s that smell?” He’s been smelling with the same nose for 33 years, so he doesn’t notice the change in things like I do. Each of my children have a unique, individual smell I never noticed.
And so, when I found this particular passage in 2 Corinthians 2:14-16, written to engage the olfactory senses, I could relate to Paul’s words and it really made me stop and think about the similarities of my nose and how that has changed, and how my life changed when I surrendered my life to Christ. I’ve read the scriptures that cover the eyes, being a light. And I’ve read the scriptures that cover the taste, to be salt. But I’ve never thought about having an aroma for Christ, and that is why I needed to look into these verses closer.
Paul begins to speak of the adequacy of God’s grace for every situation. He writes, “But thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those we are being saved and among those who are perishing: to the one an aroma from death to death, and to the other an aroma from life to life, and who is adequate for these things? So let’s examine each of the smells that God calls us to be by comparing Paul’s Corinthian congregation to our lives here today.
Let’s start with the first fragrance in verse 14. Paul writes “But thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.” Paul is making a reference in this verse to a Roman general, who in victory would lead his soldiers and their captives in a procession through the streets, which would be met by the people burning spices in their honor. The Hebrew word for triumph Paul used here is to have an effect upon another. Paul is talking about the triumph of men and women who were spreading the Gospel. The triumph in Christ is over the persecution, the ridicule, over men and the devil. As Oswald Chambers puts it in his devotional, “Paul says, I am in the train of a conqueror, and it does not matter what the difficulties are, I am always led in triumph.” Paul uses the word always. Where the Gospel is preached there will always be some good, and the thanks and glory go back to God. When the Gospel is preached, it manifests a sweet aroma that spreads to every place.
In researching on this particular verse, I read that Paul’s secret joy was that God took him, a red-handed rebel against Jesus Christ, and made him a captive, and that was all he lived for. I love that image, and yet I struggle against becoming more and more captive to Christ myself. This verse makes me think about what my aroma is. When I meditate on these verses, I sense that I have a sweet fragrance for God only sporadically at best. I find myself being led by my emotions far too often. With my family, I am by far considered very peculiar, and that is exacerbated by the fact that I too was a red-handed rebel before being taken captive. Did my new found life not just make me a hypocrite? Who was I to change directions in what seemed to be an instant? I am often criticized for actions that others deem “not very Christian.” I want to agree with Paul’s words and have that aroma that comes from standing firm and preaching the knowledge of Jesus in every place, despite whatever opposition I may face.
So what do we do to become the people that God can manifest the sweet aroma of His knowledge through? For me, it is to keep myself focused on Christ, despite the external situations at hand. I release my feelings of inadequacy, feelings that He could never use me to spread His Gospel. But even more importantly perhaps, I keep focus off of the emotion, off of the roller coaster that will carry me away from that triumph.
The second fragrance that Paul speaks of is the scent of Christ to God among those who are being saved. That we are an aroma from life to life. Christ’s death includes a resurrection to the believer. That is a sweet smelling aroma for us. Paul is writing about the sweet aroma of believer to believer, that helps guides one another, that exhorts one another, that supports and maintains our present spiritual life until the time of our eternal life to come.
What a simple, but beautiful idea. That we carry the aroma of life to help support one another. I know of the aroma that Paul speaks of, life to life. The Lord has blessed me mightily with the gift of friendship with another woman as well. She answers my many questions by helping me find scriptural truths, she calms my fears, and probably the greatest gift of all is that she holds me accountable. Our eyes stay focused when we blend our sweet aroma of life together.
And so our job is to seek out one another, to find other believers in the workplace, or stay connected to one another as best as possible while we’re in our respective corners of the marketplace of life. Even if we stay at home, we are not safe from the world at large. Loneliness and isolation are dangerous for us, especially when we’re surrounded by the world.
The third fragrance Paul speaks of is the scent of death to those who are perishing. That we are an aroma of death to death. That can only be the scent of a dead Gospel with a dead Christ. Those that don’t know the Gospel, and the resurrection smell of a new life in Jesus. To the unbeliever, we are the stench of the reflection of themselves, dying in sin. By rejecting us, they are choosing death for themselves. The opposite of life spiritual to life eternal, here, it is death spiritually to death eternal. We preach foolishness to those that can’t smell the truth. Our message never changes, it is the reaction to the message that causes the aroma to change.
As Paul writes, I speak the truth no matter what the cost, and I spread that sweet fragrance of knowledge despite what my family or the world thinks.
And we all should do the same. And expect that there will be those that wrinkle their noses at us. And seek to find the same joy that Paul had no matter what people thought he smelled like. We need to be brave enough to speak the truth at our workplace, to stand ready, as Peter talks about, to give account of the joy that is within us. There is no time and no room for half-truths and shaded, watered down versions of the knowledge we have of Him that resides inside us.
And Paul ends verse 16 by asking, “And who is adequate for these things?” and the simple answer is not us. Not us alone, it is only the competency in Christ that gives us the sufficiency through grace to be adequate. It is in God’s perfect reason and perfect timing and even more perfect grace that our fragrance becomes pleasing.
1 : to draw in by breathing2 : to take in eagerly or greedily
intransitive verb : to breathe in
"But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life. And who is equal to such a task?" 2 Corinthians 2:14-16
Smells started to come alive for me after I quit smoking. My olfactory senses seemed to start working overtime. My first experience with the power of the human nose was when I was pregnant with my first child. That was before I had ever smoked. I was working in a restaurant. I remember the smell of fish would almost knock me out with its potency. I remember having a perfume that was expensive and having to give it to my grandmother because I couldn’t even stand to have it in the house. Years later, I started smoking, and those memories faded. Four years and 8 months ago, when I quit, the sensory overload started up all over again. Of course, taste changed for me as well, but I still haven’t completely gotten used to my nose and how smells can affect me. Things I used to like the scent of I no longer like, and things I didn’t like the scent of I now love. I’ve been driving my husband nuts for years now with questions of “what’s that smell?” He’s been smelling with the same nose for 33 years, so he doesn’t notice the change in things like I do. Each of my children have a unique, individual smell I never noticed.
And so, when I found this particular passage in 2 Corinthians 2:14-16, written to engage the olfactory senses, I could relate to Paul’s words and it really made me stop and think about the similarities of my nose and how that has changed, and how my life changed when I surrendered my life to Christ. I’ve read the scriptures that cover the eyes, being a light. And I’ve read the scriptures that cover the taste, to be salt. But I’ve never thought about having an aroma for Christ, and that is why I needed to look into these verses closer.
Paul begins to speak of the adequacy of God’s grace for every situation. He writes, “But thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those we are being saved and among those who are perishing: to the one an aroma from death to death, and to the other an aroma from life to life, and who is adequate for these things? So let’s examine each of the smells that God calls us to be by comparing Paul’s Corinthian congregation to our lives here today.
Let’s start with the first fragrance in verse 14. Paul writes “But thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.” Paul is making a reference in this verse to a Roman general, who in victory would lead his soldiers and their captives in a procession through the streets, which would be met by the people burning spices in their honor. The Hebrew word for triumph Paul used here is to have an effect upon another. Paul is talking about the triumph of men and women who were spreading the Gospel. The triumph in Christ is over the persecution, the ridicule, over men and the devil. As Oswald Chambers puts it in his devotional, “Paul says, I am in the train of a conqueror, and it does not matter what the difficulties are, I am always led in triumph.” Paul uses the word always. Where the Gospel is preached there will always be some good, and the thanks and glory go back to God. When the Gospel is preached, it manifests a sweet aroma that spreads to every place.
In researching on this particular verse, I read that Paul’s secret joy was that God took him, a red-handed rebel against Jesus Christ, and made him a captive, and that was all he lived for. I love that image, and yet I struggle against becoming more and more captive to Christ myself. This verse makes me think about what my aroma is. When I meditate on these verses, I sense that I have a sweet fragrance for God only sporadically at best. I find myself being led by my emotions far too often. With my family, I am by far considered very peculiar, and that is exacerbated by the fact that I too was a red-handed rebel before being taken captive. Did my new found life not just make me a hypocrite? Who was I to change directions in what seemed to be an instant? I am often criticized for actions that others deem “not very Christian.” I want to agree with Paul’s words and have that aroma that comes from standing firm and preaching the knowledge of Jesus in every place, despite whatever opposition I may face.
So what do we do to become the people that God can manifest the sweet aroma of His knowledge through? For me, it is to keep myself focused on Christ, despite the external situations at hand. I release my feelings of inadequacy, feelings that He could never use me to spread His Gospel. But even more importantly perhaps, I keep focus off of the emotion, off of the roller coaster that will carry me away from that triumph.
The second fragrance that Paul speaks of is the scent of Christ to God among those who are being saved. That we are an aroma from life to life. Christ’s death includes a resurrection to the believer. That is a sweet smelling aroma for us. Paul is writing about the sweet aroma of believer to believer, that helps guides one another, that exhorts one another, that supports and maintains our present spiritual life until the time of our eternal life to come.
What a simple, but beautiful idea. That we carry the aroma of life to help support one another. I know of the aroma that Paul speaks of, life to life. The Lord has blessed me mightily with the gift of friendship with another woman as well. She answers my many questions by helping me find scriptural truths, she calms my fears, and probably the greatest gift of all is that she holds me accountable. Our eyes stay focused when we blend our sweet aroma of life together.
And so our job is to seek out one another, to find other believers in the workplace, or stay connected to one another as best as possible while we’re in our respective corners of the marketplace of life. Even if we stay at home, we are not safe from the world at large. Loneliness and isolation are dangerous for us, especially when we’re surrounded by the world.
The third fragrance Paul speaks of is the scent of death to those who are perishing. That we are an aroma of death to death. That can only be the scent of a dead Gospel with a dead Christ. Those that don’t know the Gospel, and the resurrection smell of a new life in Jesus. To the unbeliever, we are the stench of the reflection of themselves, dying in sin. By rejecting us, they are choosing death for themselves. The opposite of life spiritual to life eternal, here, it is death spiritually to death eternal. We preach foolishness to those that can’t smell the truth. Our message never changes, it is the reaction to the message that causes the aroma to change.
As Paul writes, I speak the truth no matter what the cost, and I spread that sweet fragrance of knowledge despite what my family or the world thinks.
And we all should do the same. And expect that there will be those that wrinkle their noses at us. And seek to find the same joy that Paul had no matter what people thought he smelled like. We need to be brave enough to speak the truth at our workplace, to stand ready, as Peter talks about, to give account of the joy that is within us. There is no time and no room for half-truths and shaded, watered down versions of the knowledge we have of Him that resides inside us.
And Paul ends verse 16 by asking, “And who is adequate for these things?” and the simple answer is not us. Not us alone, it is only the competency in Christ that gives us the sufficiency through grace to be adequate. It is in God’s perfect reason and perfect timing and even more perfect grace that our fragrance becomes pleasing.
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
SUCH A STRETCH
2: to reach out: EXTEND
3: to extend in length
6: to draw up (one's body) from a cramped, stooping, or relaxed position
9: to cause to reach or continue (as from one point to another or across a space)
10 a : to amplify or enlarge beyond natural or proper
b: to expand to fulfill a larger function
(Merriam-Webster)
About a year ago, I wrote down 27 words. They were written on banners that were hanging in a church I was visiting. I had no direct cause for jotting down the words; I just knew they meant something.
I have been compelled to write about these words now, one at a time. The first one I will dwell on is the word, “Stretch.” Normally, when you hear the word stretch, you think of something being pulled, something spread out. I challenge us to see something differently tonight.
The first definition, ‘to reach out: extend.” It reminds me of the beginning of one of my favorite psalms, Psalm 40.
I waited patiently for the Lord;
And he inclined to me
And heard my cry.
He brought me up out of the
Pit of destruction,
Out of the miry clay,
And set my feet upon a rock making
My footsteps firm. (vs. 1-2)
That is how the whole journey starts for all of us. Imagine the Lord inclining to you, extending His mighty hand as a demonstration of His love. The Lord always makes the first move. We just have to be ready and listening, with the desire to say “Yes.”
The next definition, ‘to extend in length.’ The psalmist, David, continues in Psalm 40:
How blessed is the man
Who has made the
Lord his trust,
And has not turned to
The proud, nor to those
Who lapse into
Falsehood. (vs. 4)
We have the next move. We are the ones who need to extend in length to meet Him. We have to rely on His strength, combined with our growing love in Him, to resist the unrelenting powers of this world.
We come to our next definition, ‘draw up (one's body) from a cramped, stooping, or relaxed position.’ David says this,
I delight to do your will,
O my God;
Your law is within my
Heart.
I have proclaimed glad
Tidings of
Righteousness in the
Great congregation;
Behold, I will not restrain my lips.’ (vs. 8-9)
We have to admit, those of us who became Christ followers later in life, or those who are still questioning Christ, that we are awfully complacent in our old lives. It is easy to be cramped, weighed down with the heaviness of this world, and resigned to being relaxed with something that resembles apathy.
But God has something different in store for us. His remarkable love causes us to delight in doing His will. We can no longer restrain our lips.
Next definition, ‘to cause to reach or continue (as from one point to another or across a space)’ David says,
I have not hidden your
Righteousness within
My heart;
I have spoken of your
Faithfulness and your
Salvation;
I have not concealed your
Lovingkindness and
Your great truth
From the great congregation. (vs. 10)
The unrestraint rages on in our hearts. We want to tell people about this new love we have found that is unlike any other love. We proclaim how He has saved us. His truth refuses to hide in our hearts.
To amplify or enlarge beyond natural or proper. David’s witness to that truth:
You, O Lord, will not
Withhold your
Compassion from me;
Your lovingkindness and
Your truth will
Continually preserve me. (vs. 11)
It is not within our natural human nature to have that kind of trust. We have come to learn that it is virtually impossible to trust any other human 100 percent. To have the trust in the Lord that David writes of takes amplification that goes far beyond anything natural.
Finally, ‘to expand (as by improvisation) to fulfill a larger function.’ One last thought from David:
Let all who seek you
Rejoice and be glad in you;
Let those who love your
Salvation say continually,
“The Lord be magnified!” (vs. 16)
That is the ultimate gift of God’s love to us. The truth is, those who seek God will rejoice and be glad in Him. We call the world’s attention to His mighty love and His beautiful stretch.
2: to reach out: EXTEND
3: to extend in length
6: to draw up (one's body) from a cramped, stooping, or relaxed position
9: to cause to reach or continue (as from one point to another or across a space)
10 a : to amplify or enlarge beyond natural or proper
b: to expand to fulfill a larger function
(Merriam-Webster)
About a year ago, I wrote down 27 words. They were written on banners that were hanging in a church I was visiting. I had no direct cause for jotting down the words; I just knew they meant something.
I have been compelled to write about these words now, one at a time. The first one I will dwell on is the word, “Stretch.” Normally, when you hear the word stretch, you think of something being pulled, something spread out. I challenge us to see something differently tonight.
The first definition, ‘to reach out: extend.” It reminds me of the beginning of one of my favorite psalms, Psalm 40.
I waited patiently for the Lord;
And he inclined to me
And heard my cry.
He brought me up out of the
Pit of destruction,
Out of the miry clay,
And set my feet upon a rock making
My footsteps firm. (vs. 1-2)
That is how the whole journey starts for all of us. Imagine the Lord inclining to you, extending His mighty hand as a demonstration of His love. The Lord always makes the first move. We just have to be ready and listening, with the desire to say “Yes.”
The next definition, ‘to extend in length.’ The psalmist, David, continues in Psalm 40:
How blessed is the man
Who has made the
Lord his trust,
And has not turned to
The proud, nor to those
Who lapse into
Falsehood. (vs. 4)
We have the next move. We are the ones who need to extend in length to meet Him. We have to rely on His strength, combined with our growing love in Him, to resist the unrelenting powers of this world.
We come to our next definition, ‘draw up (one's body) from a cramped, stooping, or relaxed position.’ David says this,
I delight to do your will,
O my God;
Your law is within my
Heart.
I have proclaimed glad
Tidings of
Righteousness in the
Great congregation;
Behold, I will not restrain my lips.’ (vs. 8-9)
We have to admit, those of us who became Christ followers later in life, or those who are still questioning Christ, that we are awfully complacent in our old lives. It is easy to be cramped, weighed down with the heaviness of this world, and resigned to being relaxed with something that resembles apathy.
But God has something different in store for us. His remarkable love causes us to delight in doing His will. We can no longer restrain our lips.
Next definition, ‘to cause to reach or continue (as from one point to another or across a space)’ David says,
I have not hidden your
Righteousness within
My heart;
I have spoken of your
Faithfulness and your
Salvation;
I have not concealed your
Lovingkindness and
Your great truth
From the great congregation. (vs. 10)
The unrestraint rages on in our hearts. We want to tell people about this new love we have found that is unlike any other love. We proclaim how He has saved us. His truth refuses to hide in our hearts.
To amplify or enlarge beyond natural or proper. David’s witness to that truth:
You, O Lord, will not
Withhold your
Compassion from me;
Your lovingkindness and
Your truth will
Continually preserve me. (vs. 11)
It is not within our natural human nature to have that kind of trust. We have come to learn that it is virtually impossible to trust any other human 100 percent. To have the trust in the Lord that David writes of takes amplification that goes far beyond anything natural.
Finally, ‘to expand (as by improvisation) to fulfill a larger function.’ One last thought from David:
Let all who seek you
Rejoice and be glad in you;
Let those who love your
Salvation say continually,
“The Lord be magnified!” (vs. 16)
That is the ultimate gift of God’s love to us. The truth is, those who seek God will rejoice and be glad in Him. We call the world’s attention to His mighty love and His beautiful stretch.
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