Pleasantly Surprised

Acts 3:1-12 (NIV)



1 One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer--at three in the afternoon. 2 Now a man crippled from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts. 3 When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. 4 Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, "Look at us!" 5 So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them. 6 Then Peter said, "Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk." 7 Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man's feet and ankles became strong. 8 He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God. 9 When all the people saw him walking and praising God, 10 they recognized him as the same man who used to sit begging at the temple gate called Beautiful, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. 11 While the beggar held on to Peter and John, all the people were astonished and came running to them in the place called Solomon's Colonnade. 12 When Peter saw this, he said to them: "Men of Israel, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk?
 

Well, today marks the end of a long journey for me.  Today I had my final checkup after several months of recovery and healing from eye surgery.  No more lying completely still, face down.  No more eye drops several times a day.  The healing process is declared complete.  The doctor was "pleasantly surprised" at how well everything healed.  He was "surprised" at the quality of vision I have in the repaired eye.  My vision in that eye without glasses is "better than expected."
 
For my wife, Lynne, it raised some questions, like, "What did you expect?"  But for me, I could only smile because I knew God had touched me and therein lies the "unexpected" result.  I had so many dear friends go to the throne God to ask for full restoration of sight.  Thank you so much.
 
What did I expect?  I think my answer would be, "Something unique."  I have learned in the last few years that it is not about me.  It really wasn't about my eyesight.  Rather it was about how God would display Himself.  How would He be glorified?
 
Was I surprised?  No, I don't think that is the word for it.  I don't really have a word for it.  I know that once again, today, I was touched by God.  Today, He touched my spirit.
 
Ephesians 3:20-21 (NASB)


20 Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, 21 to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

Lord, You Are Good, Everything You Do Is Good

Psalm 119:68 (NIV)

68 You are good, and what you do is good; 
 
Our former pastor would often start his prayer by saying, "Lord, You are good, and everything you do is good."
 
I've taken that as a launching point for many of my prayers as well.  It puts God in His proper place.  It puts me in my proper place as well.  Let me explain.
 
First, we agree with God that he is good.  Scripture teaches us that his creation was "very good." (Gen. 1:31)  From that point on, through the Old and New Testaments, we see God's acts of love, promise, protection and redemption.  
 
Secondly, it reminds me that what I read about in scripture, he continues to do today.  God does not change.  He is still good and everything He still does is good.
 
OK, so what about the bad stuff?  We live in a broken, fallen world with people who are broken and fallen.  Some folks are good-willed people prone to making poor decisions.  Others are simply evil in their intent.  David found himself in the  midst of his enemies.  They were people who sought to damage his reputation if not cause him physical harm.
 
Read carefully what David says to the Lord, in the midst of trial.
 
Psalm 119:68-72 (NIV)
68 You are good, and what you do is good; teach me your decrees. 69 Though the arrogant have smeared me with lies, I keep your precepts with all my heart. 70 Their hearts are callous and unfeeling, but I delight in your law. 71 It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees. 72 The law from your mouth is more precious to me than thousands of pieces of silver and gold.
 
I was listening to my iPod this morning and the words of a modern psalmist, David Crowder, caught my attention.

"And all of a sudden, / I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory / And I realize just how beautiful You are / And how great Your affections are for me / Oh how He loves us / Oh how He loves us / How He loves us all"

The phrase that jumped out at me was "these afflictions eclipsed by glory." 

This brings me to my third point.  If He is good, and everything He does is good,  then my afflictions aren't necessarily a bad thing.  I must surrender them to Him so that I may witness His glory.  It reminds me of my place as His child.  If I hold on to my afflictions, that is all I will see.  My afflictions.

My afflictions this year have dealt mainly with eye health.  I just received an excellent report and prognosis from the doctor after 3 surgeries and 8 months of recovery.  But I have to tell you, I would not change a thing about these past 8 months, because I now understand what it means to be suddenly "unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory."

Lord, You are good, and everything You do is good.

Solemn Assembly Continued - A Lifestyle of Confession and Forgivness

1 John 1:9 (NASB)

9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

How can we bring what we learned at Solemn Assembly into our everyday lives?  Dr. Paul Tripp gives us thoughtful insights into a lifestyle of confession and forgiveness in our marriages.  I would suggest that these insights apply to all our interactions with other people.

The following is excerpted from What Did You Expect? – Redeeming the Realities of Marriage by Dr. Paul David Tripp (pp. 80 – 83):

“[W]hat does it look like when we take the grace of confession seriously, to get the elephant out of the room and make honest admission of wrong the regular habit of a marriage? Well, here are the daily habits of a confession lifestyle.”

1. “We will be lovingly honest. …It requires a willingness to approach the other when he or she has acted or spoken in a way that God says is wrong. We must be committed to deal with such issues in a way that is driven by Christlike love. This means that before we can speak to the other’s heart issues, we first need to deal with the hurt, anger and bitterness in our own heart. Remember, truth not spoken in love ceases to be helpful because the message gets twisted and distorted by human emotions and agendas.”

2. “We will be humble when exposed. Humility when we are approached by the other means willingness to consider. It means quieting that background noise of our inner defense system. It means remembering that we have not yet arrived, that we are still sinners in need of daily grace, and that at this moment we are being loved by our Redeemer. Humility means the willingness to look in the mirror of God’s Word and being glad that whatever we see there is already been covered by the blood of Jesus.”

3. “We will not excuse. It is such a typical impulse for us all: someone points out a wrong and we are immediately filled with an alternative view that places us in a very different light. Refusal to excuse means resisting the urge to build arguments for our righteousness. It means refusing to turn the tables on the other, making sure that he or she knows that we are not the only sinner in the room.”

4. “We will be quick to admit wrongs. … We refuse to pout. We refuse to live in the silence of hurt, anger, and vengeance. When we have done wrong, we will be quick to approach the other and lovingly help him see what he has said and done. We will make our approach in the spirit of forgiveness and hope. We will refuse to let the ‘sun go down our anger’ (Eph. 4:26).”

5. “We will listen and examine. Each of us has to work to quiet our emotions and the self-righteous tendencies of our hearts. When approached, we all need to require ourselves to hear clearly and to think carefully. This means working to understand and consider. It means taking the light that is handed to us by the words of the other and shining it on ourselves, being willing to see things about ourselves that we have never seen before. Change is not only about admitting wrong; it is about progressively growing in self-knowledge. It is about developing a greater and greater grasp of the themes of strength and weakness in our marriage. It is about being ready, willing, and waiting to learn new things about ourselves and our marriage that will lead to lasting growth and change.”

6. “We will greet confession with encouragement. Few things crush a confession lifestyle more quickly than judgment. It is a tendency in every sinner to want the person who has hurt us to hurt in the way we have been hurt… Nothing encourages the courage of confession more than grace. If God were only a judge, nobody would confess anything to him. It is his goodness that leads us to repentance. His love draws us. His grace encourages us. His patience gives us hope… When we greet the confession with the same grace that we have been given by the Lord, we give the other hope to confess all the more.”

7. “We will be patient, persevering, and gentle in the face of wrong. The fact of the matter is that change is most often a process and seldom an event… Change is pushed upon us by a persevering Redeemer, who will not walk away from the work he has begun in both husband and wife. He will put the need of change before us in the most inopportune moments. He will not submit to our schedule or agenda for our day. He has not promised that change will be enjoyable each time or a comfortable process over the long haul. He has promised to stay near us, giving us everything we need, and he has guaranteed that we will be more than we ever thought we could be… He calls us to be patient. He calls us to be willing to wait. He calls us to continue when continuing is hard, and as we are continuing, to look for any way we can to incarnate his transforming love.”

8. “We will not return to the past. Sadly, many marriages are held hostage by the past. Every current discussion of wrong gets kidnapped by the failures and hurts of the past… The conversations don’t move toward resolution; each conversation is just a reminder of how bad things are and of how long they have been that way… So we establish a pattern of short accounts where a daily cycle of confession, forgiveness, and reconciliation settles issues, alleviating any need to address them again. And we will resist, in moments of hurt and anger, resurrecting what has already been resolved.”

9. “We will put our hope in Christ. Confession is all about hope. First, confession unavoidably leads us to give up hoping in ourselves. It calls us to abandon our trust in our own wisdom, righteousness, and strength. It welcomes us to admit how weak, selfish, needy, fickle, and rebellious we actually are. It faces us with the reality that we are still people in deep and daily need of rescue… So, we lay down the hope we had in ourselves, and we take up a new, brighter hope. This hope is at the cross of Jesus Christ… He became the perfect sacrificial lamb, taking our sins on himself, satisfying the Father’s wrath and purchasing our forgiveness… We can live in the liberating light of humility and honesty, a needy and tender sinner living with a needy and tender sinner, no longer defensive and no longer afraid, together growing nearer to one another as we grow to be more like him.”

What Did You Expect? - Paul Tripp Ministries

Solemn Assembly

Joel 1:14 (NASB)

14 Consecrate a fast, Proclaim a solemn assembly; Gather the elders And all the inhabitants of the land To the house of the LORD your God, And cry out to the LORD.
 
2 Chronicles 7:14 (AMP)

14 If My people, who are called by My name, shall humble themselves, pray, seek, crave, and require of necessity My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.
 
Psalm 66:18 (NIV)

18 If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened;
 
1 John 1:9 (NASB)

9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
 
Last Sunday our church gathered for Solemn Assembly.  The Solemn Assembly is a sacred service of prayer, confession, repentance and reconciliation.  I am sure that we will look back on this service as a turning point in the life and ministry of our church.  But even as we look at a specific time or event we are not called to remain there, but to move forward.  What is it that we can take with us that God taught us at Sacred Assembly?
 
It is important for us to remember that we left our sins, our differences, and our failures at the cross, never to be taken up again.  As Pastor Brooks reminded us, "to take them up again is to deny the power of the cross."

What I Learned in 2010

Matthew 21:21-22 (AMP)

21 And Jesus answered them, Truly I say to you, if you have faith (a firm relying trust) and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, Be taken up and cast into the sea, it will be done. 22 And whatever you ask for in prayer, having faith and [really] believing, you will receive.

Needless to say 2010 has been a very different year for me.  For the first time, really, I've had to deal with the frailty of the human body.  The parts sometimes wear out and need repair or replacement; like the frame on my 2001 Toyota.  Or the retina (repair) and lens (replacement) in my eye. 



In spite of it all, I don't think I'd ask for anything different or seek to change any of the events of the past year.  God has been good to me; I mean really, really good. I've had lots of quality quiet time to spend with Him.  I feel like I'm just learning to study God's Word and interact with it.  This blog has been part of that experience.  If it has been a blessing to you, the blessing is from God.  My blessing doesn't mean much in the scheme of things.

If there is one big lesson I've learned, it is the correlation between being a student of the Bible and confidence in prayer.  I've learned that often we don't know how to pray because we don't fully understand how God acts or what He wants for us and others.  I can easily fall into the trap of making the will of God into a huge mystery.  When we study scripture, we know that we are naturally separated from God and that it is His will to redeem us through the giving of His Son on the cross.  It is His will that we should love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, and our neighbor as much as we love and care for ourselves.  It is God's will for us to meditate on His Word, and to pray about everything with thanksgiving in our hearts.  We are to worship the Lord in spirit and in truth and speak the truth in love. 

This is part of the revealed will of God.  There is no mystery here.  He wants us to know clearly His plan for us.  While God has some plans that are still hidden from us, like when He will return to earth, much of His will is made plain if we take the time to look for it.

E. M. Bounds said, "Unless the power of prayer is supplied by God's Word, prayer, though earnest, is empty."



That is what I've learned.  Knowing God's Word and prayer go hand in hand.  Knowledge of God through scripture breathes life into prayer.  Now the challenge for me is to know God so intimately that prayer becomes second nature to me.  To be at a place where I don't have to wrestle with how I should pray is what I really long for.  My desire for 2011 is to witness the power of God in answer to prayer.

I want to declare, "That's something only God can do.  No plan of mankind could produce that result."

Have a Merry Christmas.  God bless us, every one.

All Things

Colossians 1:15-20 (NASB)



15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. 17 He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. 18 He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. 19 For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, 20 and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.
 
We all have Christmas songs that we like to play on our stereos and iPods that remind us that "Christmas Time Is Here."  That one that will do it for me from Charlie Brown's Christmas.  Bing Crosby singing "White Christmas" is another.  Music from the movie "Polar Express" will turn me into a kid in an instant and gets me pumped for Christmas.  Moving from the secular to the sacred, I love Michael W. Smith's first Christmas Album.  Ray Charles' rendition of the familiar Christmas song, "What Child Is This?"  is running through my head as I reflect on the passage above that was part of my devotions this morning.  If you are familiar with it it's probably in your head now, too.
 
What is the apostle Paul telling me and telling the church at Colossae about this child we know as Christ the Lord?
 
He tells us that Jesus is the image of the invisible God.  The invisible is made visible.  What we could not see or fully comprehend, we now can see and begin to understand.  He was not created as we were.  He was involved in the Creation itself.  All of creation is for Christ.  Paul refers to Jesus as the "firstborn of all creation."  The hearers of Paul's letter would have understood this term not as the first thing God created, but as have the same rank, privilege and position of the firstborn.  As we read our Old and New Testament we read over and over the value God places on the firstborn. So therefore, we can understand the statement that all of creation is for Christ.  It's His.  It was created for Him.
 
He is the head of the church.  The church is His.
 
Not only is Jesus the image of God.  All of God, "the fullness of God", dwells in Him.  In our culture we place a lesser value on a copy of the original.  We may find the copy to be interesting, but we don't value it as highly as the original.  The fullness of God dwells in Christ, who was involved in Creation. 
 
Jesus was not only fully God, He was fully human.  In Paul's account we see the terms "fleshly body", "blood", and "death." 
 
Colossians 1:21-23 (NASB)



21 And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, 22 yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach— 23 if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister.
 
Here's the best part.  The Firstborn, the Creator of all things, was given so that all things could be reconciled to Himself, the One to whom all things belong.  He came to restore broken relationships with God.  He came to restore broken relationships with His people, even though we "were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds."  Though we were ugly and undeserving, He gave Himself through death "in order to present [us] before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach."
 
What a gift we are given!  The God of all things is given as a ransom for us.  This is reason to celebrate!
 
 

Quantity or Quality Membership

18 “Listen, you who are deaf! Look and see, you blind! 19 Who is as blind as my own people, my servant? Who is as deaf as my messenger? Who is as blind as my chosen people, the servant of the LORD? 20 You see and recognize what is right but refuse to act on it. You hear with your ears, but you don’t really listen.”

Isaiah 42:18-20 (NLT)

I was given a copy of a collection of writings by E.M. Bounds on prayer.  The entry for November 16 caught my attention.

"There is a blindness in the church with regard to members choosing a life of sin over God's way of life.

The truth is, there is such a lust for members in the church, that the officials have entirely lost sight of the members who are living in open disregard of God's Word.  The idea now of quantity in membership, not quality.

Prayer can change this.  Through prayer, members would either confess their sins, or leave the church."

"I pray, God, that you will open the eyes of Your people.  Especially those in leadership positions in Your church so they will focus more on quality than quantity of members.  Amen."

-- taken from The Power of Prayer by E.M. Bounds, compiled by Kobus Sandenbergh, published by Christian Arts Gifts