Dear Sons and Sunshine,
I was thinking about connecting the dots. I have said to you often that all things are connected and although I believe that, I know that, I often forget it nonetheless. You remember the story of Joseph revealing himself to his brothers? Judah connects the dots…He confesses that all the calamity, is because of what they had done to Joseph all those years before. He connects the dots. He then does two things that when I read them brings me to tears. First, he confesses the evil he had done. God is so gracious and long-suffering with us. Look at how many years it took to bring Judah to repentance…and yet theLord never forsook him. And then, he offers himself for Benjamin…Judah’s life for Benjamin’s life. He offers himself as the substitute for his sins and the sins of his brothers that another might be set free. Judah finally becomes the true picture of his greater descendant, our Lord Jesus.
I see in Judah, God’s kind work of grace and I pray that for you; The work of grace that teaches us not simply to know the gospel of God, but to live the gospel, to have the reality of Jesus coming out of our mouths, our hands and our feet. And I am thankful for the Lord’s long-term approach with us all. But I also stand in wonder at how the Lord weaves our stories into His greater story and how He connects all the dots of our lives so that they will be a testimony to one thing, His glory in the salvation of sinners…God’s glory in your story and mine.
I love you all and miss you deeply.
May your father’s God bless you and keep you.
Dad
Friday, August 10, 2012
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Christ As Bigger Than Our Storms
Mark 4:33-41
With many such parables hespoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it. 34 He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his owndisciples he explained everything. 35 On that day, when evening hadcome, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” 36 And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as hewas. And other boats were with him. 37 And a grea twindstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. 38 But he wasin the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” 39 And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Bestill!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. 40 He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” 41 And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
Sons and Sunshine,
It is good to be back home. Being away for longer periods of time gives one an appreciation of God's work in far away places, His word of creation and redemption, but coming home gives a renewed sense of the story He is writing in your own life, and for this renewed sense I am grateful.
I was thinking of you all when I heard this passaged preached while I was away. The disciples had advantages the others did not have. Jesus spoke to them differently, as we read he explained everything (34) but only to his disciples did he do this. So there was knowledge of Jesus. He called them to follow Him, which they did, (35) and He brought them into intimacy with Him, as He did for no others. (36) They had knowledge, obedience, and intimacy. Often times it seems we Christians can be pretty pompous with that information. We have knowledge of Jesus, we are following Him and He is with us always. But what happens next? Storms. One might be tempted to think that this is not to happen with those who are close to Him, that we are immune from suffering, fear, and loneliness, but that is not the case. They were afraid of the storm, those disciples, but they were MORE afraid after Jesus calmed it, afraid of Him. Sons and my dear Sunshine, Jesus must be bigger than the storms and He brings them so that we might learn that, as all disciples must. As great as the storms are, and as painful, as frustrating and confusing, Jesus works in their midst so that we are more afraid of Him, of displeasing Him, of being away from Him, of doing things our own way, than we are of any and all the circumstances that He allows to come. Did you ever wonder why or rather how Jesus could sleep in a storm? He knows He will not die in this storm, and He knows that because He knows how he WILL die...on a cross, outside of Jerusalem. He will accomplish the salvation of sinners and nothing is going to stop that, and because He knows redemption is His purpose, He is at peace in the most difficult of surroundings. You too must rest and be at peace. Nothing can stop or thwart the redemption Jesus has won for you, nothing.
I am reading a massive novel called A Father's Tale. It is of a father going to Russia to find his missing son, it is powerful for many reasons. I have learned a lot about the Russian Church and our brothers and sisters in that land. In the story I read of a Russian Orthodox priest and a Roman Catholic priest who met in a communist prison camp where they were tortured for years. I realize this quote loses something if you are unfamiliar with the story, but I wept through this section:
Because he had obeyed the call of God, because he had been willing to lose his life, he had gained his life.” “Not without suffering.” “Not without unimaginable suffering. Life always has a cost, you see. For him it cost not only the years of imprisonment, the loss of the monastery, and all he had worked for as a young monk, but the destruction of his brethren as well. This was the most terrible suffering of all. It cast him into the test that had afflicted the bishops and metropolitans. Should they have compromised in order to save the lives of the flock? Or should they not have compromised, thus condemning the flock to more severe persecution and possibly extinction? Now he asked these questions of himself. Was the blood of his brothers upon his head? Had his pilgrimage to speak the truth in Moscow been an act of disguised spiritual pride? Had others been forced to pay for his heroic gesture? With many such questions did the devil torment him.”
Sons and Sunshine, there will be suffering, for their must be. And it isn't always so easy to know what the Lord requires of us in the storms...it just isn't so simply. So we must, you must, and I must, keep Him close, very close, we cannot afford for a moment to stray, or to wander.
I love you all, and miss you with my heart.
May your father's God bless you and keep you.
Dad
PS-Always remember, whenever Satan cannot entice you into direct evil, he will try to allure you into passive evil.
With many such parables hespoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it. 34 He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his owndisciples he explained everything. 35 On that day, when evening hadcome, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” 36 And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as hewas. And other boats were with him. 37 And a grea twindstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. 38 But he wasin the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” 39 And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Bestill!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. 40 He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” 41 And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
Sons and Sunshine,
It is good to be back home. Being away for longer periods of time gives one an appreciation of God's work in far away places, His word of creation and redemption, but coming home gives a renewed sense of the story He is writing in your own life, and for this renewed sense I am grateful.
I was thinking of you all when I heard this passaged preached while I was away. The disciples had advantages the others did not have. Jesus spoke to them differently, as we read he explained everything (34) but only to his disciples did he do this. So there was knowledge of Jesus. He called them to follow Him, which they did, (35) and He brought them into intimacy with Him, as He did for no others. (36) They had knowledge, obedience, and intimacy. Often times it seems we Christians can be pretty pompous with that information. We have knowledge of Jesus, we are following Him and He is with us always. But what happens next? Storms. One might be tempted to think that this is not to happen with those who are close to Him, that we are immune from suffering, fear, and loneliness, but that is not the case. They were afraid of the storm, those disciples, but they were MORE afraid after Jesus calmed it, afraid of Him. Sons and my dear Sunshine, Jesus must be bigger than the storms and He brings them so that we might learn that, as all disciples must. As great as the storms are, and as painful, as frustrating and confusing, Jesus works in their midst so that we are more afraid of Him, of displeasing Him, of being away from Him, of doing things our own way, than we are of any and all the circumstances that He allows to come. Did you ever wonder why or rather how Jesus could sleep in a storm? He knows He will not die in this storm, and He knows that because He knows how he WILL die...on a cross, outside of Jerusalem. He will accomplish the salvation of sinners and nothing is going to stop that, and because He knows redemption is His purpose, He is at peace in the most difficult of surroundings. You too must rest and be at peace. Nothing can stop or thwart the redemption Jesus has won for you, nothing.
I am reading a massive novel called A Father's Tale. It is of a father going to Russia to find his missing son, it is powerful for many reasons. I have learned a lot about the Russian Church and our brothers and sisters in that land. In the story I read of a Russian Orthodox priest and a Roman Catholic priest who met in a communist prison camp where they were tortured for years. I realize this quote loses something if you are unfamiliar with the story, but I wept through this section:
Because he had obeyed the call of God, because he had been willing to lose his life, he had gained his life.” “Not without suffering.” “Not without unimaginable suffering. Life always has a cost, you see. For him it cost not only the years of imprisonment, the loss of the monastery, and all he had worked for as a young monk, but the destruction of his brethren as well. This was the most terrible suffering of all. It cast him into the test that had afflicted the bishops and metropolitans. Should they have compromised in order to save the lives of the flock? Or should they not have compromised, thus condemning the flock to more severe persecution and possibly extinction? Now he asked these questions of himself. Was the blood of his brothers upon his head? Had his pilgrimage to speak the truth in Moscow been an act of disguised spiritual pride? Had others been forced to pay for his heroic gesture? With many such questions did the devil torment him.”
Sons and Sunshine, there will be suffering, for their must be. And it isn't always so easy to know what the Lord requires of us in the storms...it just isn't so simply. So we must, you must, and I must, keep Him close, very close, we cannot afford for a moment to stray, or to wander.
I love you all, and miss you with my heart.
May your father's God bless you and keep you.
Dad
PS-Always remember, whenever Satan cannot entice you into direct evil, he will try to allure you into passive evil.
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