Have You Lost Your Way?

OK, admit it.  At least once in your life, you thought you knew where you were going and you were mistaken.  Maybe you turned right when you meant to turn left? Perhaps you thought you were headed east when you were actually driving south?  Possibly you were thinking about something else and missed a sign?  Life is like that, isn’t it?  Maybe you’ve heard that college freshman announce to the world that she’ll finish school, get married, head to med school to become a cardiologist, then have 3 kids, make tons of money, save lives and retire rich.  Yeah, how did that work out?  The directions we think we’re headed – the life maps we’ve drawn in our minds – never seem to work out as we expect.  But that’s not all bad.  Just think of the adventures you’ve had when you ended up in an unexpected place.  Consider that where you are now wouldn’t have been possible if you had stuck to your original plan!

Sometimes, we who follow Christ find ourselves believing we have been appointed for a specific purpose.  We believe God has “called” us to a certain task or direction.  If that is true, how do we know?  How can we be certain we are following “God’s will” for our lives?  Can we be absolutely sure we are on the right path?  I would agree that if you walk as closely to the Father as Jesus did, then you’ll always know which turn to make and what direction to head.  But I’m not there, are you?

In fact, my life has been more like that of the apostle, Paul.  Just when he thought he had God’s plan all figured out, he discovered that perhaps God had a different direction in mind:

Next Paul and Silas traveled through the area of Phrygia and Galatia, because the Holy Spirit had prevented them from preaching the word in the province of Asia at that time. ⁷ Then coming to the borders of Mysia, they headed north for the province of Bithynia, but again the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them to go there. ⁸ So instead, they went on through Mysia to the seaport of Troas.  ⁹ That night Paul had a vision: A man from Macedonia in northern Greece was standing there, pleading with him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us!” ¹⁰ So we decided to leave for Macedonia at once, having concluded that God was calling us to preach the Good News there.   Acts 16:6-10

The great apostle to the Gentiles, called by Jesus himself on the road to Damascus, thought he was headed in one direction to serve his Lord, yet the door closed.  OK, maybe God’s leading me to Bithynia?  Nope, not there either.  Alright, then, which doors are still open?  I guess God is directing me to Macedonia.  Right!

God has a plan for sure.  And you, if you are a follower of Jesus, have a part in that plan.  But the plan isn’t built around you, it’s built around Him.  Your job isn’t to sit around wondering which way to go, it’s to figure out which way God is going and get with the program! 

Do you imagine you’ve made a wrong turn and now God can’t use you?  Wrong.  Find the path and get back on it!  You failed in your last effort for your Lord and now you think He’s done using you?  Wrong, again.  Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and get back in the fight!  While God cares intimately for you and cares about your successes and failures, He cares MOST that His will is done “on Earth as it is in heaven”.  If you’ve lost your way, look for the signs of God’s activity in your life – they are all around you.  He’s busy, whether you’ve noticed or not.  He still has a job for you to do, whether you’re willing or not.  But if you don’t do it, someone else will, because He always has a contingency plan.

If you get lost in the woods, it’s good advice to sit down and wait for someone to find you rather than wandering around the forest.  But if you aren’t sure which way to go in your efforts for Jesus, just sitting around waiting for the Spirit to hunt you down and extend a personal invitation for you to participate isn’t the way it works!  When God called you to be His, He gifted you so you could play a part in what He’s doing to redeem the world.  So get up and pay attention; look around and see what God is doing; and plug in.  Maybe the problem isn’t that you’ve lost your direction, but just your motivation.  For Paul, when one door was closed, he tried another.  Eventually, he found the door God intended.  If you aren’t already, start tugging on some doorknobs.  I guarantee at least ONE of them will open.

Jacob

Who Turned Out The Lights?

Have you ever been sitting quietly watching TV in the evening and suddenly the lights go out?  Perhaps a transformer blew out or a storm caused some damage, but you were instantly cast into darkness.  It gets your attention!  Next week, God has a plan to do the same to all of us when He turns out the lights on our nation.  While I don’t live in the Total Eclipse Zone in the United States, I will be traveling there with millions of other people to watch the first total solar eclipse visible within the US in 99 years.  Consider how rare this event will be – no one you know has EVER seen a total eclipse unless they traveled outside this country to do it.  And this is the first total eclipse visible ONLY in the continental United States since 1776.  A rare event, indeed.  And believe it or not, another total solar eclipse will be coursing across part of the United States (including the area where I live) again in 2024.  Some of you who read this might even see three or four more eclipses during your lifetime.  Astronomically speaking, these are amazing times to be alive!

If you haven’t been caught up in the eclipse hysteria, understand that when the moon passes between the earth and the sun, it will cast a small complete shadow on the earth that will be slightly less than 70 miles wide and traveling more than 1600 miles per hour, leaving each spot in its path completely dark for about two minutes.  Though the path of complete totality is very narrow, you should be able to observe a partial eclipse (with proper protection) no matter where you live.  The whole process may take a couple of hours, but during the event, the moon we admire in the night sky will perfectly cover the sun that dominates the day. 

Is it just “chance” that the size of the burning sphere that lights our days is exactly covered by the lifeless ball that only reflects its light at night?  Our sun is 400 times the diameter of our moon, yet when the moon crosses between us and our sun, how can it be the same size?  Because the moon has been perfectly placed in its location by its Creator, exactly 400 times closer to us than the sun.  Scientists know of no other planet-sun-moon system where this total eclipse is possible.  Can’t you see God’s hand at work in what He created?  That’s really His point:

For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.   Romans 1:20

Then God said, “Let lights appear in the sky to separate the day from the night. Let them be signs to mark the seasons, days, and years…God made two great lights—the larger one to govern the day, and the smaller one to govern the night…God set these lights in the sky to light the earth,  to govern the day and night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.  Genesis 1:14-17

Whether you believe in God or not; whether you cling to the idea of random life on a random planet in a random galaxy or not; please don’t miss what the last Bible passage said: “…the larger one…the smaller one.”  Now isn’t THAT interesting!  From our earth, both the sun and the moon appear the exact same size.  So how could the person who penned Genesis have understood that they are different sizes?  He had inside information.  The Spirit of God that moved in creation is the same Spirit that revealed all truth to the writers of Scripture.  GOD knows they are different sizes because He made them.  Scientists didn’t learn that truth until thousands of years after Moses wrote the words of Genesis.  Now who are you going to trust?

The heavens proclaim the glory of God.  The skies display his craftsmanship.  Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known.  They speak without a sound or word…Yet their message has gone throughout the earth, and their words to all the world.   Psalm 19:1-4

When the lights go out next week, go ahead and be amazed!  You SHOULD be in awe of what is taking place because the God of the universe is reminding you He’s still there and He’s still running things.  And in the darkest days of your life, that’s a comforting thing to know.

Jacob

Now You See It; Now You Don’t

Sight, smell, touch, hearing, and taste.  Those are the five senses we identify which provide sensory input for our life experiences.  Which is most important to you?  We use them all, but which one would you most fear losing?  I can tell you with some certainty that most people would say SIGHT.  The eye is an amazing apologist for our creation by God rather than through some random combination of chemicals.  Though we take it for granted, opening your eyes and being able to see the world around you is a stunningly complex function, requiring chemistry, physics, anatomy, and psychology to dance in unison. 

What happens when any portion of this complicated system fails to function properly?  Life changes.  But it needn’t end.  Here’s an example of someone who suffered significant vision loss, but didn’t let it get him down:

And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. ⁸ Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. ⁹ And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.   2 Corinthians 12:7-9

Don’t you hate it when someone just pulls something out of the Bible and tries to apply it when it may not fit?  But let me make the case – you can look up all these verses if you wish.

It appears to me, and I base this opinion on a good understanding of the facts, that the apostle, Paul, suffered from a significant visual impairment – perhaps macular degeneration, or end-stage glaucoma, or advanced cataracts (they didn’t remove them in those days).  His vision was so poor that he used others to write out the text of his letters (Romans 16:22); occasionally he signed them at the end as a formality (1 Corinthians 16:21); and when he did write anything himself, he even mentioned that he was using BIG letters (Galatians 6:11), not for their benefit, but for his!

Add to that his statement that the Galatians would have “torn out your eyes and given them to me” (Galatians 4:15); he insulted the High Priest because he couldn’t tell who he was (Acts 23:3-5); and he mistook a snake for a piece of wood (Acts 28:1-3) and the case is closed.  Paul just couldn’t see near the end of his life.  He didn’t like it, but God didn’t heal him.  And Paul was OK with that, because his deficiency was overcome by God’s power and grace.  Paul did more in his life without being able to see than most of us do with all our faculties.

What have you lost that you didn’t think you could do without?  One of the other senses or do you share the same fate as Paul?  Perhaps you’ve lost some motor function and don’t get around as well as you used to?  Maybe you’ve lost a family member you never thought you could live without, and now you feel paralyzed?  Or have you just lost hope because life hasn’t worked out as you expected?  The remedy for each infirmity is the same for you as it was for Paul.  God says, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”  Weakness.  I can certainly identify with that, regardless of the cause.

No matter who you are, and no matter what you face, God’s power in you can do amazing things.  Just ask Paul.  By the way, have you had your eyes checked lately?

Jacob

Shark Week Always Starts on Sunday

If you are younger than 30 years old, you have never known a summer without Shark Week.  It has become a summertime rite of passage on the Discovery Channel and most of us have grabbed the TV remote to check in on those sandpaper-skinned denizens of the deep.  What you may not realize is that the number one location IN THE WORLD for shark attacks is Volusia County, Florida.  Not the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, or the Cape of Africa, or Nantucket – but the sun-drenched beaches just south of Daytona Beach.  Why do 15% of all shark attacks worldwide occur here?  Lots of people are in the water and most attacks are “test bites” by baby bull sharks.  These non-lethal attacks occur when these small sharks nibble on surfers and swimmers who have been mistaken for normal prey.  Once the shark realizes your foot dangling from your surfboard isn’t the fish it sought, it will release its toothy grip.  Oh, pardon me! 

Is there a spiritual application to Shark Week?  You know there is.  Paul writes in Galatians:

For the entire law is fulfilled in one statement: Love your neighbor as yourself.   ¹⁵ But if you bite and devour one another, watch out, or you will be consumed by one another.   Galatians 5:14-15

You likely recall that when Jesus was asked:

“Teacher, which command in the law is the greatest?”  He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.  This is the greatest and most important command.  The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.   Matthew 22:36-39

You may be surprised to learn that the command to “Love your neighbor” was first given in Leviticus 19.  Then it was repeated three times by Jesus in Matthew; followed by Paul’s reminder in both Romans and Galatians; and finally urged by James, the half-brother of Jesus, in the book he penned.  Once should have been enough, but apparently all the urging fell on deaf ears in the early church, as it still does today!  Why so many reminders?  Because – as Paul said in Galatians 5 – we continue to “bite and devour one another” rather than loving one another.  It seems it’s ALWAYS Shark Week in the Church!

Why do we do that?  Why do we choose to inflict non-lethal damage on others in the church or our families by taking a “bite”?  I didn’t say the bites don’t hurt, but they usually don’t destroy our fellow believers.  But after every test bite, someone who cares about our victim (apparently more than we do) must administer first aid to repair the damage we’ve done.  Someone did something to you this week and now you see them at church – CHOMP.  The Pastor didn’t do as well on his message as you thought he should – CHOMP.  That mother of five really has lots of trouble controlling her children in public – CHOMP. 

Let me make this clear.  Your fellow Christ-followers are not your prey.  Your family members are not intended to be dinner.  Taking a bite out of them, no matter what you might think at the time, will not satisfy you, nor will it leave them unharmed.  Paul was so worried about the bad habits of his fellow Christians that he lamented they would “consume” one another.  What a shame that an admonition that belongs more appropriately in a Peter Benchley novel would have to be penned by an apostle to those who say they love one another! 

John 13:35 says, “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”  Can we agree that it’s a good idea to live in such a way that you make sure your relatives and church family know you love them?  And if you’re too disobedient to do that, at least leave them off the menu!

Jacob