Jesus, On His Terms

Condescended - It means 'to descend to be with.' 
It's a unique word to describe what God did in the incarnation; how God chose to speak to us through Christ. He 'descended to be with' us.

Whether people realize it or not - God is fairly creative in how He has spoken to humanity.
To Abraham, He appeared at the door of a tent as a traveler. 
To Moses, He appeared on a hill side as the Burning Bush.
To Joshua, He appeared before Jericho as a soldier.
To Hagar, in the wilderness as a friend.
He spoke each time with words they needed to carry out the will of God. 
And when God chose to speak to the Nation - He used prophets.

But none of these matched the Son of God becoming a man in the person of Jesus Christ through the incarnation. After 400 years of silence, God chose to speak in authority and finality through His Son. 
And even today, the words He spoke still linger

The first words God spoke to Abraham, Isaac, and Hagar were 'Fear Not.'
The angels as messengers of God, speaking to Gideon, Daniel, Mary and the Shepherds was 'Fear Not.'
As you read the Bible, you sort of get the feeling that 'Fear Not' was a divine 'Howdy.'
But what it tells us is that the appearance of God always struck fear in the hearts of man.
Yet, when God to speak in finality, He came in the most unassuming and least threatening way He possibly could - God became a new born baby.
And unless you have a volcanic diaper to change - babies just aren't scary.

But even though God came in a manner which would not frighten, people were disappointed with the Messiah. 
In truth, not much has changed. 
Millions upon millions of Christians are disappointed with the Lord for one reason or another. Maybe it is because of a lost love or a lost child; disease may have ravaged a person you deeply care about; rejection from others - all in all, there are thousands of reasons we may feel that God has disappointed us.
Like the ancients, Jesus wasn't what they expected at all - nor is He often what we expect in our lives.
What we need to learn is to not make Him into the Jesus we want Him to be, but allow Him to be the Jesus Christ He is - the Lord of All.
That is the place where our desire ends, His begins and worship in our hearts starts to praise our Everlasting Father.

Think About It:

When we have difficult times even tragic times, many Christians will demand that God speak from the heavens and decree a change in our situation.
We want a voice that tells us His will and way for our lives; we believe if this happens we will listen with obedient hearts and follow Him with strict adherence to all He desires. 
But truthfully, does that really sound like something we would do?

You see, Jesus came and made God's will absolutely clear, and it was rejected.
As He spoke, "Follow Me," or "This is how you should pray...." people tended not to listen and many times they didn't like what He had to say.
The fact is, many still didn't follow Him across the street much less to the Cross; and as far as praying goes - we have the example and the knowledge, but even today we still don't pray.

Instead of instant and absolute obedience to His voice, Jesus received what He receives now - open questions. Anybody can debate what God "really" wants, but only the Holy Spirit can communicate to us exactly what God demands of us in our obedience.
He was not silent, nor is He silent today.

Also when in a hard time, we want God to show Himself and prove that our faith is not in vain and that we haven't been wasting our time in serving Him. 
Well, God isn't hidden today - He's seen through His people; but in the first century they actually saw God in flesh. He took shape in the world.
God showed up with a name, a face and an address in Nazareth. His message about seeing God: 'Anyone who has seen Me, has seen the Father.'
It was blunt, but true; and the people just couldn't accept it.

Jesus' visibility and bold claims about being God in flesh brought on a new problem: Where was the smoke and fire from the Old Testament experiences with God?
Where was the lightening and the striking dead of evil people?
Jesus as a person just didn't match up to what people thought God should be.

Jesus was Mary's boy; even His brothers thought He was nuts (that's a clinical term we use for psychologically challenged). He was ordinary. 
The truth is that Jesus' skin got in the way.
Our problem today is not that God does not show Himself, it's that we so often reject Him because we will reject His body which comes in the form of fallen men and women in the world. 

Then we have another problem - when we go through a trial, we question the 'fairness' of God. You know, like Job - going through something that he didn't deserve and wondering why.
We go through things like this as well in our lives and we still wonder why God is being so unfair to us.

In Jesus' time, all people believed the Messiah would come and set things right just as we all believe about God's involvement in our lives. He is going to come in our lives, kick around the evil doers and set things right. If I was mistreated wrongly, He will vindicate me.
Isn't that what we believe?

The prophets even promised as much when they claimed the Messiah would swallow up death and wipe tears away from all faces.
When the Messiah did come it is true that He did heal many but it is also true that Jesus left many more not healed. Lazarus was raised from the grave but thousands more died during His life and they remain dead today.

Now, this problem of God supposedly being unfair bothers many Christians today and it can be disturbing. But the problem is not 'is God fair?'
We tend to confuse God with life.
Life is not fair, but God is fair; this tension in the world sometimes causes doubt because we cannot fully grasp it in our minds.
For example, Jesus said of John the Baptist, 'of woman, no greater man has been born.' Yet, in a jail cell and in the process of losing his head, John the Baptist voiced doubt - 'Should we look for another?'
Was life unfair to John? Yes.
Was God unfair to John? No.
For in the life and death of John the Baptist, Jesus was glorified; and this is the ultimate end to our lives as Christians - to glorify God through His Holy Son.

If we were to accept Jesus for who He is and not who we want Him to be for us personally, a lot of things would instantly change.
Jesus prayed about our faith, forgiveness and about our ability to resist the devil in the world. 
The physical world wants answers to end poverty, sicknesses and oppression.

In His time, Jesus failed to measure up to what the world thought a King should be.
As sad as it is to say, nothing has changed today.
Today, people want to focus on health and prosperity; instead the real, persistent problems for the Church are problems of pride, hypocrisy and legalism.

The reason Jesus prayed about faith, forgiveness and resisting evil is because these things in our walk with the Lord are the very attributes which overcome the world and glorifies Him through our lives.
Don't lose heart in times of struggle - allow Him to make you into a mighty weapon in the Lord's Army.

Until next time, go win one for the Good Guys.

God & Silence

Recently, I read once again the story of Jesus Christ's temptation in the wilderness after His baptism by John the Baptist. 
What Satan was tempting Christ with isn't really that much different from today's questions concerning God. That may be why they are so interesting.

Satan challenged Jesus' ability to provide; His response though on a 40 day fast was, 'Man shall not live on bread alone...'
When He was tempted with the seduction of earthly glory, thereby taking a short cut around His ultimate mission, Jesus responded, 'You shall worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.'
In the last temptation, He was challenged concerning His ability of protection. Jesus would not throw Himself off the Temple, nor challenge God's ability. He simply answered, 'You shall not put the Lord you God to the test.'

In our times of trial and tragedy, these are the very things we seek from God.
We want to see His power in our lives. We desire to see His protection. And we want to see Him glorified in what He can do in our bodies or families when we are physically ailing - we usually expect this from some type of healing power.
Unlike Satan, we do not taunt God; instead, we ask sincerely and we often hope frantically.
And it is in those times, when God does not answer, that we experience a time much like Jesus experienced in the last few hours of His life on earth.

When Charlemagne, King of the Franks and the First Holy Roman Emperor, heard the account of Christ's betrayal, arrest and execution, he exploded into a rage. Shaking his sword, Charlemagne exclaimed, 'Oh, if only I had been there; I would have slain them all with my legions.'
Well, Charlemagne's courage is gallant - but he was not there for he was about 8 centuries later on the world stage. 
But I will tell you who was there - God Himself.

One of the darkest and saddest things that is known from the death of Christ is the fact that God was present, Jesus His Son called out to Him; yet, God the Father did not lift a finger to help Him.

In Gethsemane, Jesus said to His disciples of the inner circle that He was 'grieved to the point of death.'
As Judas was leading the Temple police and Sanhedrin to the olive grove, Jesus was praying for another way. He was praying for a way out so that the Cup of God's Wrath would not fall on Him.
And yet, even as Judas arrived, God remained silent.

Many Christians have been in a place during their lives just like Jesus was in those last hours where they felt God was ignoring them, turning a deaf ear to them or even forsaking them. 
No - God hurts when we hurt and loves us dearly; but sometimes He is silent.

Like Jesus, all that is wrong with the world sometimes seems to be triumphing over all that is right. 
When it happened to Christ, he was beaten before Pilate, ridiculed before Herod and slapped around by the Sanhedrin. 
Even as we read in horror today of the event, we know that there was no rescue.
While they clamored for a miracle, there was no miracle; only pain and suffering.

As Jesus took His last breath on the Cross and died, do you know what the response was?
Nature convulsed.

The death of the Son of God was so irrational and so out of place, nature itself could not remain silent.
Sometimes it is similar in our lives as believers, things are so out of whack - and our world convulses as we hurt.
But rest assured, God has not turned a deaf ear nor has He stopped loving us. 
His intervention may simply be delayed for a greater reason in your life.

Do you realize of all the events that happened to Jesus just prior to the crucifixion and immediately afterwards, only Calvary was open to the public?
Everything else, took place privately or a semi-private location.
After He was raised, Jesus also only appeared to those who believed in Him previously.
As far as we know, He never appeared to one nonbeliever.
Because of what He endured on the Cross, we may have eternal life.

That time of suffering and silence of God enables us today to obtain eternal happiness and joy.
While it was taking place Jesus voiced His disappointment with God: 'My God, My God, Why have You forsaken Me?'
But today, that silence can be seen as necessary because it was through Jesus' sacrifice and God not rescuing Him that He may save us from our sins and rescue us today through the power of the Gospel.

Remember that the next time you hurt and it seems God is silent; He may very well be planning a greater day ahead with future deliverance.

Until next time, try to win one for the Good Guys.

Can God Be Trusted?

I had an interesting experience today with two friends; both are older than me and both are battling severe sickness. 
Together, they illustrate the extreme emotions on suffering.
One, whom I've grown to love over the years, lies in a rehab facility - trying to recover from surgery. He continues to lose weight and have problems eating.
Today I learned he has lost another 12 pounds and is getting dangerously close to double digits on the scale. He is weak. He is tired. He is fighting to return home.
Although he expressed a disappointment with God in His situation, we prayed together for strength and recovery.

The second was much more hopeful - a woman who received excellent news. She has struggled with cancer and with tumors. 
Today we received news that the PET scans were good; the outlook hopeful and therefore, the praises solid to the Lord for what He has done.
With her - we rejoice together, not only now but also in the days to come; for if the tumors return, we are steadfast in our faith in the Lord's hand with this matter.

Now - these are two situations that are strikingly similar, but also very different. 
How can you explain why a person should place their faith in Almighty God when it seems there is no rhyme or reason as to who He heals and who He allows to suffer?
Is God capricious?
Does God love one more than the other?
How does God receive Glory from these situations and how are we to understand it?

These are not easy questions to answer.
But I believe I can boil it down to one question with one answer - Can We Trust God?

As Christians, we often pray to God that if God will descend or do something extraordinary when we are sick, when we need assurance, or when we are in trouble that we will believe and follow without question.
If I contract a disease and God certainly heals me, then we think we will follow God as a puppy dog follows his master.
Yet, when we turn to the Bible, history proves otherwise.

When we examine Israel, they had everything provided by God while in the wilderness - riches given by Egypt, food in the morning and evening, water from rocks, leadership by Moses, the will of God revealed by a cloud and the presence of God revealed in the Tabernacle.
But the first time Moses goes up to the mountain for an extended period of time - they gather around a gold calf and worship it as if it were God.
Throughout Israel's history, the more God attempted to draw near, the more they seemed to push Him away.

Later, when Solomon was king, Israel as well as the king had everything they could want.
David had brought peace to the land, expanded the borders and gathered materials for the Temple.
Solomon inherited it all - building the Temple while also acquiring unfathomable wisdom and a ridiculous number of wives.
Yet, but the end of Solomon's reign, Israel looked like the Egypt they had left years before; slave labor and idolatry permeated throughout the land.
From David to Solomon, less than a generation, Israel had descended and fallen away. To be sure, they enjoyed the gifts, but forget less and less about the Gracious Giver.
And many times we will do the same - rejoicing in the gifts and blessings of God while soon discarding the One who has blessed us.

At the situation in the land, as the Kingdom became divided, the people wondered about trusting God.
The prophets then rose in Israel, for the Kings who were to lead the nation in His will, with a few exceptions, became increasingly wicked.

The prophets spoke and in their words we can read what can be described as nothing less than sheer disappointment with God.
They, like all the people, had been raised on the victory stories of God reaching its zenith in the Temple, but now the People of God were being carted off to Babylon.
To them it was as confusing as a solid Christian having cancer and slowly wasting away in pain as they await death. 
It seems to make no sense as we struggle with our heavenly trust issues with the Lord.

Yet, like in modern times, back then the Lord did speak to His people - He spoke to and the through the Prophets.
As we read in the Old Testament, we see God challenging wickedness on Mount Carmel with a flash of Divine Power and we hold instances like this in our minds to be more important and convincing than a depressing sermon from Jeremiah.
But the truth is, those Divine Power Displays did very little to nurture long term faithfulness of the people.

As the people questioned God's honor in the sense of His concern for them, God continued to speak.
The ironic thing of the situation was that God would point to the people questioning His concern as evidence of His concern.
And the reality of it was that if God didn't care, He wouldn't have listened at all.
Therefore, we can conclude since God loves us and cares for us today - He does indeed hear our cries of anguish and our prayers filled with pain.

The prophets of old teach us one more thing.
In their writings, they are not concerned with intellectual questions about the suffering of the people in relationship to the love of God.
Instead, they are far more interested in God's passion towards His people.
Whether it was the Kingdom in a Civil War after Solomon died or the final kings being drug off to a foreign land - the people struggled with hearing the promises of God in victory while seeing their defeat and reduction at the hands of wicked, pagan men.

Again, the issue for us in sickness and trials is the same as the ancients had in their lives - Can God be Trusted? 
The answer is both 'Yes' and 'No.'

God can be trusted to respond as God and according to His attributes; but God can not be trusted to respond to situations and sickness in our lives as we think He ought to respond.

If we look to Jonah, the crux of his complaint and faithlessness was that he did not trust God enough to be harsh on the hated people of Nineveh. 
He did not trust God to do what he wanted Him to do, which was destroy Nineveh and its people. 
Jonah knew, as God has prove countless time, that He is a merciful Lord when people repent of their sins; which is exactly what happened in Jonah's case.
Nineveh was spared and Jonah was right - God acted like God; He did not act like Jonah wanted Him to act.

Another example of how God views humans and His love toward them can be seen in how we act with our own children; especially when it comes to new parents.
A new parent will spend hundreds of dollars on video equipment to record a child babbling and the child rolling over, crawling and then walking.

Even though nearly 5 billion people on earth have already accomplished the feat of talking and walking, new parents take pride and joy in these first acts of the new child.
God desires that type of relationship with us; a return to a relationship of child-like love and trust, similar to the trust a new child has in his parents through each of those cautious steps of learning early in life.

The Prophet Hosea demonstrated in a visible way God's treatment and love toward His people.
Hosea's life could double as a Soap Opera or the characters could have been found on a daytime TV talk show.
Hosea had the ominous task of demonstrating to the people how God felt towards them.
Therefore, Hosea was commanded to marry a prostitute. When his wife betrayed him, he offered to whisk her away to the wilderness to heal and be restored.
There was no condemnation, although there was disappointment; yet, healing and restoration was offered in love and mercy.
And this is what God offers to us.

You see, the Prophets do not end in universal, final defeat for the people of God. 
Instead, the prophets speak of a final joy.
They speak of an impending hope.
At the beginning of God's Word we see Eden, a Paradise. At the end, we read of a New Heaven, also a Paradise. Everything else is human history and means we are in a time of transition.
But excluding those two time periods, we live in that transition - so, what about now?
Can God be trusted NOW?

The unequivocal answer is 'Absolutely.' 
God can indeed be trusted with our hearts, souls and lives.
But remember - God cannot be trusted to do what we think He ought to do; that's not trusting God, that is an expectation of God conforming to what we desire.
I can tell you from experience - that isn't going to happen and you really don't want that to happen.
However, God can be trusted to respond to our problems, our issues, our illnesses and our crisis as God in His holiness and all other attributes.

But before you can trust God in all of who He is with all of your situations in life, you must first trust Him with your soul in forgiveness and mercy.
You can make that happen by receiving Christ as Lord.

Until next time, go win one for the good guys.

Being Chosen

Recently reading once again in the Book of Deuteronomy, an amazing thing jumped from the pages into my eyes - as if I had discovered a truth for the very first time:
After 40 years of wandering in the desert and in the sight of God's presence, only two people survived; Joshua and Caleb.
This tells me that being one of God's chosen does have its personal cost.

And we find this to be true today.
Many times Christians suffer and it doesn't make sense to us; sometimes, we never know why a person has numerous tumors throughout their body even though they have lived for Christ.
Sometimes we can't explain why infants drop their toys and are forced to struggle with the Iron Grip of death.
Sometimes we just don't know why bad things seemingly happen to good people while the wicked go unpunished.

We cry for God to show Himself, to make Himself known with vengeance and eradicate injustice, revealing His truth to our understanding.
Yet, though He loves us, many times we hear nothing but silence from the heavens.

The nation of Israel was constantly in the presence of God; what we routinely ask for from God, they experienced - whether it was by signs, audible voice, a miracle or through nature. There was no question among the people that God was present among them.
Yet, even though they knew fully God's will, they found it nearly impossible to live in the presence of our Holy God.
You see, though we clamor for answers to our diseases, solutions to our problems - wanting God to come and make all things right; we often fail to look to the history of our faith to discover that here are some disadvantages to direct acts of God and living in the full presence of God.

When you look to Israel, they had experienced 10 Awesome Miracles in Egypt - the Plagues. It never touched them, but it put Egypt on her knees. They saw the smoke and fire of Mt. Sinai; they witnessed God's Law written by His very finger, followed His cloud, watched His pillar of fire and heard His voice audibly.
But being the Chosen of God also meant the lack of any personal freedom. God gave them a list of 613 Laws with Blessings and Cursings that went along with them. If they followed the Law, they were blessed; if not, God's wrath would fall.
Sounds pretty simple how it was all to work - but it didn't work out well for the humans involved.
God's Law micro-managed freedom - sexual relations, the very content of the fabric of their clothing, even their diet fell under God's purview. 

Even though God supplied all their needs, as He does the modern Christian; Israel back then, like us today, though blessed, still found a way to complain. In fact, petty complaints persisted and even bordered on the absurd.
Several times their trivial complaints in the camp were compared to their 400 year period in slavery!
REALLY???
Can any suffering be compared to slavery?
And what was their complaint? At this particular juncture it was Manna, which literally means, 'What is it?'
Later God gave them quail to eat in the evenings, the attempt of the food was to help them trust God for their needs; but the Scriptures tell us even while they had meat in their teeth they were complaining.
And from my perspective, the more God drew near to His Chosen People, the further they fell away.

Today, we speak of not a strict obedience because we have to; but rather, an obedience because we want to due to the fact that Christ has changed our hearts and nature.
We speak of a personal relationship with God through Christ; the Israelites had no concept of this. They didn't even want to enter the Tabernacle nor hear the voice of God out of fear they would die.
If our hearts are truly changed, we do want to seek Christ and be in His presence for the right reasons; not vindictive reasons, not reasons that would explain suffering.
You see, life in Christ is not a mystery to be solved but an experienced to be lived by faith.

Many years ago a genius named Isaac Newton tried an experiment where he stared into a mirror while looking at the sun. I call him a genius but I have to wonder what in the world he was thinking.
After several minutes, the predictable happened; Newton was blind.
This blindness was only temporary, but if he'd stared much longer it would have been permanent. 

I tell this story because we should be thankful for those times when we experience the mystery of God's hidden absence. 
Christians are the Chosen of God, but like the Israelites, we would struggle constantly in His presence unless we are changed from within. That change will happen at the Resurrection when we are perfected in Christ - and not a day before.
In the meantime, we may mentally struggle with why God allows things to happen or not happen in our lives, but the truth is, His absence as we perceive it is not forsakenness. 
It is however a faith growing endeavor for the Child of God.

Until next time, try to win one for the Good Guys.

The Message & Messenger

In the last week, I have seen several examples of Christians being Christians in the world. If our main purpose in life is to emulate Christ, then our actions should be quite telling: 
- One minister was seen in the streets with protesters of a recent judicial verdict; social equality and racial justice phrases written on poster boards and being shouted from the lips.
- A Christian nurse frustrated over lack of care of her superiors on some patients in the hospital.
- A person testifying to the evident kept promises of God - he had sowed financial seed and God had greatly blessed him personally and financially. His conclusion was that all people should give more to the particular ministry he supported.

But a question remains - Which of these advanced the faith?
May I submit that none of them did because none of them are about the faith; rather, they are about what the individual believes, not what God has said.

True faith is a testimony in our hearts and lives as to what God has said and what God has done. 
The Christian is a witness; we are not attorneys. A witness tells what He knows; an attorney argues a point. A witness need not argue.
True faith therefore, from the witness of truth, brings the message of eternity to a finite world for all to hear.

What we speak of God and how we act must speak to the world in which we live of our Holy God. 
It must be timeless and on time - an eternal truth with a personal application and meaning for today. 
But this is a problem for us today because our message and our messengers of God's truth isn't what it use to be; or rather, it is what it use to be and that is the problem.
Many Christians have not yet adapted to this generation.

With this adaptation, it does not mean that we sacrifice the truth of God, the holiness of God or any other attribute of God; it does mean that these things come in a way or in a medium which can be accessed by today's generation.
That is why you see these words in a blog from the internet and not a pamphlet on a street corner. 

I caution all Christians not to reject the new because it is not the old way; I also caution not to accept the new simply because it is new and different.
No - we must speak in an appropriate, solid, even, manner and refrain from jumping to fad after fad. God never changes - nor should we in values or in our faith in the absolute truth. 
Yet, we must make the truth understandable and readily available in this generation.

With that said, it should be cautioned and pointed out that we have lost or are losing one of the most valuable thoughts we have ever enjoyed - a lofty concept of a Holy God.
It seems that in the last 20 or so years, a high, lofty concept of God and His matchless majesty has been substituted for a lower one.
And this low view of God is responsible for many of the other things we have seen take place within the realm of Christianity.
- Priests that have been removed from parish to parish because of inappropriate sexual activities; this was the solution rather than prosecution.
- Evangelists who are more of entertainers than preachers, guiding their 'show' from town to town; but when they leave, local pastors have deal with the hurting, confused seekers of God that are left behind.
- Pastors who remove church money or use a church credit card for their own personal items; or even using a church's non-profit status to buy themselves a car.

Each of these show a lack of integrity and holiness as God is Holy.
This new Philosophy of a low view of God has caused us to have more open and informal worship, which is good; but it has also caused us to lose the awe of the Divine Presence when we worship - and that is bad.

When a minister of any flavor or stripe defiles the sanctuary of God and God's people, we stand amazed, hurt, betrayed - and we never really gain the trust back like we once had in our hearts.
In fact, due to such publicized activities - modern churches have trouble producing Christians who can enjoy a Spirit-Filled life walking with God.
The sad truth is that few ministers and even fewer parishioners know what it means to walk with God.
When in trouble, God has said, 'Be Still and know that I AM God...'
Those words mean next to nothing to the modern, bustling, self-confident worshiper of today.

So many churches today, especially in larger areas, are experiencing the phenomenon of what it means to be 'mega.' There are churches who have had greater gains in the last 20 years, than some churches have had in the last several hundred years.
Sadly, many have gained outwardly but have lost inwardly.
We have grown numerically in many ways but spiritually we have become big time losers.

The decline of the holy has caused all types of problems - sexual failings, moral earthquakes, and financial struggles, as well as ethical nightmares.
If the church regularly deals with these issues among its own, what does that say for the rest of society?
The message must be of Christ and the messenger must always be true to Him.

If you are having trouble with this or of your view of God - a rediscovery of God's holiness and majesty will go a long way in your life.
The simple truth is that erroneous thoughts of God will lead to erroneous living.

If Christians were reading the saints of old such as Augustine or of John Calvin, we would not be in the condition that we are in today.
But Christians aren't reading anything much at all, and certainly nothing that would take heavy concentration. The modern mind is full of knowledge, but dying of starvation from lack of the Bread of Life.

As a Christian, you are the Messenger of the eternal Message of the Gospel.
Our greatest joy should be honoring the Lord through our lives - and if we do that repeatedly, our lives and our hearts turn more to God.
And that will produce more good, more of an understanding of who God is and what it means to be a Christian, than the labor it took to deliver the Message.

Until next time, try to win one for the good guys.

Here We Go Again?

Several months ago, God healed me of Stage-4 cancer; I had been given six months to live at the time of the diagnosis. 
It wasn't that the doctors were wrong it is the fact God is fairly persuasive in His decisions about who will live and who will die - and He is the One who makes those decisions, not mankind.

Having said that, it has often come to my mind as to why I was given this road to walk. 
Once I was healed and walked out of the Cleveland Clinic, I pretty much thought I was on the road to recovery and soon I'd be back to my normal self if there is such a thing.

I was wrong.
There seems to be yet another chapter in this unfolding saga of 'Cancer with Christ.'

Today, I began a genetic test with a simple blood draw to determine if I have the genetic disease called 'Von Hippel-Lindau Disease.' 
This condition sometimes evidences itself with hair-trigger temper flares, racing hearts, or high blood pressure. 
It attacks the body through tumors, such as an adrenal cancer; but not just one tumor, many. These tumors tend to attack the Central Nervous System and plague the victim.
Now, I may not have this disease, but all indications and symptoms (which are more than I have listed) point that direction.

So, let's reflect  on the past.
When I was diagnosed with cancer, I was fairly certain how it was going to end and I was wrong. 
Yet, however it ended, I had enough trust and faith in God that it would end appropriately and for His glory - on that point, I was right.
And so it will be with VHL, whether I have it or not it is still going to end appropriately because God is on His throne in heaven and has never, not once, lost control of His Creation.

And that brings me to the question of 'Why?'
I imagine the most asked question of pastors is 'Why?' 
It is also one of the most difficult.
'Why Pastor, did my wife treat me this way and leave?'
'Pastor, if God is so compassionate, why did we lose our baby girl?'
'Why if God wants to bless me, did I get fired?'
'Why....Why...Why?'

The simple truth is that your pastor doesn't have all the answers to those questions - but we wish we did.
We wish we knew all the questions that plague your heart so that we could put your mind at ease, help you sleep better and begin to heal the wounds the world caused.
We wish it was that simple, but many times we don't have the right words and we pray that God will use us in our lack of words, or lack of knowledge, or lack of everything.

When people hit a difficult time in their life, and by difficult I mean tragic; in general, we all ask the same questions.  The questions are universal - 'Why did God allow this to happen, it isn't fair?'
'What is God's Will in this situation?'
'Why doesn't God show up and tell me what to do?'

Do any of those sound familiar?
These are usually uttered in some way by someone who is hurting; this is especially true if that person is a Christian.

Many times, a Christian will struggle with God being Fair.
I know this may sound odd but it is true - millions of people struggle with God's fairness. We wonder why good things happen to bad people and bad things happen to good people. That question is nearly as old as history itself and played itself out in the Biblical Book of Job - which ends without giving a real answer to the problem.
Before the birth of my son, my wife and I lost one child in a miscarriage. I didn't think that was fair, especially when I saw people on the welfare roles sucking up tax dollars and having more children by multiple partners than a dog has fleas. 
There are many who struggle with God's fairness in a similar manner - and those small unspoken struggles begin to chip away at our faithfulness to God over time. It begins to put doubt in our head because we can't understand the infinite mind of God in our finite world.

Sometimes we think if God would just give us a set of rules to follow, whatever happened to us would have to be fair and just because we would know all the rules and things wouldn't be haphazard as they seem right now in life.
Well, let's just think about this for a second.
If I'm not mistaken, I believe God has already done that and it didn't work out too well.

In the Old Testament, God gave His people a law of 613 Laws. It was comprised of ceremonial rules, religious practices, ethical behavior and universal/moral law.
With each law, there was a stipulation - God would promise, 'If you do this....I will bless you. If you do not do this....punishment.'
That was the basic system of the Old Testament and it was wonderfully fair; but the problem is that mankind just couldn't keep the Law. Let's be honest, mankind never even came close.
Therefore, most of the Old Testament is about the failure of God's people.
Ouch.

At other times, we don't so much wonder about God's fairness as we do about His Will in our lives. Personally, if I were to guess, I would say this is the one most people wonder about - How in the world can we be sure of God's Will in our lives?

I knew a woman once who struggled greatly over whether or not to divorce her husband. Her husband was guilty of adultery, battery and a host of other nasty ailments. He just wasn't the greatest person to be around, not as a spouse and not as a person.
Yet, deep down, she loved him and struggle with divorcing him because she saw herself as the only person who could help him.
The main thing she struggled with? She was trying to discern what the will of God was in this situation because her decision would effect so many other people. It was a heartbreaking experience to watch.

Searching for the will of God can be heartbreaking at times; it can hurt.
And when we struggle with finding God's will we want God to give us obvious signs as to what we're to do and how we are to follow. Then we think to ourselves, 'Man, that sure would be nice.'
Really?
Again, I believe this has happened once before.

As Moses led the Israelites out of captivity, God made it clear what He wanted them to do.
Before them was a cloud during the day and a pillar of fire at night. In the morning if the cloud had moved, the people moved because they knew that was what God wanted them to do. If the cloud stayed put, so did they.
God told them, through Moses, when to fight, when to make peace, when to travel, when and what to eat. And guess what happened?
They failed miserably - fighting when God said it was a time of peace and making peace with those they were suppose to fight.
Following God's will from Egypt to the Promised Land, even thought they knew exactly what God wanted, DID NOT work out well for them.

Then there are those extreme situations or thoughts where we think we want God to show up and tell us exactly what we're supposed to do in our lives.
I have actually heard people say, in times of anguish, they want a personal appearance from God Almighty. Now, don't get me wrong, this would be cool to the nth degree and certainly would give me bragging rights at the Pastor's Conferences - but that's not the point.
Seeing God in person would be awesome but also terrifying because the simple truth is that I am not yet fit for the Holy Presence of God.

In fact, those same Israelites that hoofed it through the desert with Moses - they rejected the idea of meeting God on a personal level. Instead, they insisted Moses meet with God alone because they were afraid they would die.
And Moses met with God all the time; even to the point where his face had to be covered with a veil after their meeting. Their intimacy was so close that Scripture tells us that Moses spoke to God as if He was a close personal friend. 
Truthfully, that's the relationship I want with God - a friendship as Moses had.

But what is amazing is that the Children of Israel had seen so much of God in personal experience and yet, they still didn't do too well.
They had seen the plagues in Egypt, but were untouched by them all.
They had crossed the Red Sea on dry ground, then watched the pursuing Egyptian Army drown by God's command.
They had seen manna fall from the sky in the morning and captured quail in the evening, eating out of the very hand of God twice a day.
And yet, with all of this evidence, the very first time God communes with Moses for any length of time in solitude, Moses returns to find God's People dancing around a Golden Calf as if the image was anything but an expensive imagination deduced from their personal sinful yearnings.

The simple fact is that we are misguided in wanting God to do these things with us in our lives; the Israelites had each of them but it didn't help.
Instead of helping them keep the faith, these instances actually deterred their faith.
And I think the reason is because in this type of system, you don't need faith - you only need perfect obedience for it to work. 
And since mankind cannot adhere to the perfection God desires from us, we can't have the obedience we're to have before Him.

In the New Testament, we see an amazing break with the tradition of the past. Instead of the Apostles pointing to the Old Testament and the Children of Israel as our example to follow as Christians, the Apostles do the exact opposite.
They hold the Children of Israel up as an example of how to do everything wrong.
Instead of perfect obedience, the Apostles insist we need a system of mercy, forgiveness and grace - which is all given to us by faith in God's Son, Jesus Christ.
In Jesus' New Covenant, we have Mercy, Forgiveness and Grace.

The truth is that we don't really want God to be fair - fairness would mean getting what we deserved. I don't want what I deserve; I want God's mercy to forgive me of what I deserve.
And we don't really need to see God and we don't really need to know the entirety of His will. As great as these things may seem, the truth is it would all backfire on us.

We wrongly believe that if we had these elements, we would have no doubts about God. 
That is true, but we would also have little faith.
You see, in life, to have faith - you need a few failures.
To have faith, there needs to be a small degree of doubt.
Where there is no room for doubt, there can be no room for faith.

Therefore, if you are going through a tragic trial at this point in your life and you find yourself filled with doubt at times - that isn't necessarily a bad thing.
God loves to dispel doubt - whether it is about a marital situation, about cancer or on just about anything in life; but He must be given a chance.
The Bible teaches us that Christ came in the fullness of time; in the same manner in the fullness of time in our lives, God does reveal Himself, His Will, and His Way. As He does, the doubt we have is dispelled and faith takes root to become a triumphal victory in our lives.

I may very well have VHL and a recurrence of malignant tumors.
If true, so what? 
It will be no match for what God has planned for my life through the situation.
Remember, God works all things to the good of those who love Him.

Until next time, try to win one for the good guys.

Losing Faith

He is the Lord, God Almighty.

It is that simple and certainly true; being so - how do believers not lose their faith?

Amid the trials and difficulties of life, the pain that comes physically with age and emotionally through time's experiences, when confronted that we do live in an imperfect world where God does not always move on our behalf, does not always act like we believe He should and seemingly abandons us to our circumstances (or so we believe), how do we not lose faith in the Lord, God Almighty?

It is a difficult question; one that should be asked and considered - not in halls of theological discussion but in a real way; a way that renews our personal commitment and life for Him.

With physical pain and suffering, questions tend to surround the victim of pain. 
'Why do bad things happen to good people?'
'Why doesn't God just take me out of this pain?'
'What have I done to deserve this severed leg?'

These are but a sampling of physical issues that confront believers, but we tend to grasp some type of understanding with them. We can see cause and effect.
Sometimes, there seems to be no reason at the time for someone to physically suffer and then later find out there was indeed a reason present; God just revealed it at a later time.

With these things, we can cope - but it is much harder when it comes to emotional pain.
It is the pain of feeling you have been betrayed; it is feeling that God has let you down.
And when we feel this way we struggle, we struggle with being disappointed with God.

Let me give you some fairly strong examples of believers feeling abandoned by God.

There was a woman who was pregnant; she and her husband spent months readying the home for their new arrival whom they considered a blessing from God. The shower was given, the nursery prepared in soft, baby-like colors; family and friends alike were rejoicing with them.
The woman never had an ultra sound or anything else that would indicate a gender or a problem with the child in her womb. And the pregnancy had gone unbelievably well for the new, expectant mother.
But when the baby arrived, although arriving in a world of love from the mother, it was found to have one extra chromosome and diagnosed as having Down's Syndrome.
The couple had prayed for the child before it was even conceived; yet, they couldn't understand why they didn't have a child like all the other children in the hospital ward.
As time went forward, the child had other medical issues and the mother, who was now stressed and worried, spent herself into bankruptcy.
The relationship with her husband also went into default; he left several months into the new family he had fathered. Maybe it was jealousy over the amount of time with the child she spent, maybe it was feeling he had failed, maybe it was anger at God - but it didn't matter, he left never to return.
And while all of this was happening, the woman grew disillusioned with her faith until she gave it up completely.
Simply put, she just couldn't believe that a loving God would 'bless' her in such a way.

And what about the man who struggled with depression for most of his adult life while listening to sermons about 'living triumphantly?'
He was embarrassed to even admit he was depressed.
Admittedly, he had a fantastic job, a great family and conceded that he had no reason to be depressed. Still, daily he struggled to get out of bed and then it was only to struggle with suicidal tendencies.
He prayed and prayed and tried to 'confess' his reality - but he still had those tendencies anyway; soon, he felt God wasn't answering and later he felt there was no God at all.

These type of struggles seem to make the proclamations of many evangelical churches silly. 
The root of each of these situations we face in life where we feel despair is - 'IS GOD TRUSTWORTHY?'

Often, we hear evangelicals preach a sermon or repeat lines that basically tell us that God wants us to be healthy, happy and prosperous. Anything less than this ideal is because you lack faith; therefore, whatever is wrong in your life must be your fault.
On the other extreme is trying to rationalize praying and thanking God for the safe arrival, ministry and return of missionaries to Iraq, while other missionaries were caught, tortured and beheaded and we can only pray for their families.
If God is to be glorified for one, why is He not blamed for the other?

If all Christians are to be healthy, happy and prosperous, what does that say for the solid, elderly woman who has served the Lord her entire life - but is now suffering because cancer has riddled her body and placed her in constant pain?
Is our lack of faith the cause of the world's multiplying tombstones?

I think not.

You see, what we believe really, really matters.
God does sometimes act in puzzling ways and sometimes, He doesn't act at all.

Here on Earth, we expect God to act and move and do what we have seen and read Him do. When He doesn't move or act the way we think He should, we are sharply disappointed and begin to lose faith, one grain of sand at a time.
At times, we even feel betrayed; and betrayal in our emotional state is as bad as murder in the physical realm.

So, what are we to do about this?
Well, it begins with thinking rightly, because what we believe really matters to our life.

You see, what we revere the most about God is what we will value about God- it is also what we will become; that's what it means to be a 'follower.'
No civilization in the history of the world has ever risen above their image and thought of God, not in morality, or ethics or spirituality. 
No faith has ever been greater than their idea of God.
For the Christian, if you serve the Lord, God Almighty, then there can be no greater thought than your thought of God.
So, the real question is - Right now, what do you believe about God?

One of the problems we have today in the Church is the fact that so many have a very low idea of God. 
There is no one culprit, although some blame contemporary Christian music; others blame the loose morals of the publicly exposed evangelists; still others blame corrupt religious denominations that function like political machines.
This cannot be because each of these is a 'thing;' 
Christianity involves people with a personal relationship with the Lord. The blame on music, immoral preachers or immoral/unethical/doctrinally unsound churches is misplaced because the greatest blame lies with those who have let degeneracy continue.
None are guilty in and of themselves but rather, all Christians hold the blame for this low view of God because we have gained outwardly while watching ourselves deteriorate inwardly and spiritually. 
As a result, over time, we have sacrificed the holy for a 'common' approach to God.

It is important to think of God how He really is - not how we want Him to be. 
If you will study the history of the church, you will find that if God's people believe rightly, many of our temporal problems are solved.
These problems are also solved when the one, main problem is solved - the eternal problem that each person has with their soul.

In the Bible, whether it is speaking of Israel or a pagan nation, the degrading passionate acts and fleshly desires of worship began first with idolatry. 
And idolatry is a substitute for the real God.
When people believed perverted notions of God, it soon rotted the religion in which it appeared. 

The first step down is the surrender of a high view of God.
The next step is surrendering God altogether.

What are we to do about it? 
How can we preserve our faith and not go by the wayside or despair and disappointment?

First - we must never give up a high view of God; He is the Lord, God Almighty. We should never bend this view, and when others disagree with us, we can defend our belief but always in love.

Secondly - You must make the decision not to give up on God.
I know emotional challenges, depression, despair and loss are just as painful as physical ailments. I know because I have experienced them. It is hard to persevere.
But don't give up.

I have heard of people giving up and abandoning the faith because they could see what happened to Job in his book and their life didn't have a happy ending to it at all. So, they walked away from God.

If nobody has ever said this, let me be the first - it doesn't always work out that way. The truth is that some of the most precious saints I have ever known have endured some of the most difficult trials in their life and some of them without relief.
And sadly, I can't explain this and I don't know why this is; but I do know that God has used their faithfulness to bless others. Maybe that was the purpose; maybe it is something I cannot yet see.

Either way, don't give up on God.

Finally - Remember who He is and who you are.
He is the Lord, God Almighty; you are His. Nothing will ever change that fact if you are a Christian.

When I was dying of cancer, my faith did not waver; it actually grew stronger.
I did not know why I had the disease, but I had it anyway. 
Though I did not like the prospect, I accepted early on that I was probably going to die; but I was going to die rightly. I held to the truth that there were only two escapes; one was death and the other was a miraculous healing.
I was healed.

Yet, if it had went the other direction and I had died, I was OK with it because I knew who God is and who I am. 
If I had died, the worst thing that could have happened to me was heaven; my main concern and prayers were for my family, but I digress.

The point is that regardless of how thing are working out in the present, God is still on His throne and if you are a Christian you are still His child. 
And friend, there is a lot of comfort in that relationship.

In closing, I want to stress the importance of a right view of God; a holy view; a high view. 
A view that He is the Lord, God Almighty, maker of Heaven and Earth.
It is to Him, that I preach each week and witness of daily.
It is Him who is to have No Rivals in our lives and No refusal in our hearts.

And it is to Him that I speak of when I testify and ask you -
Until next time, win one for the good guys.