Our Savior comes in the empty and seemingly void of promise!

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9, NIV)

Instead of promises that end up being empty and void of their reward; God surprises in what can seem and look quite empty and void of hope. In a world and culture where things are over promised and yet found to be illusive in their satisfying ability; God promises become a truth that will always sustain and satisfy us. God comes in what seems empty and void of hope to bring us the tremendous and priceless gifts of His grace and love. He comes in loss with His presence.

He comes in the broken to heal. God comes when His promises seem impossible in the empty and void with His steadfast love to uphold us and His mighty power to deliver us.

There is something quite powerful in God’s coming to His children in empty places, void of even the smallest amounts of promise. We tend to delight in God’s blessings of joy, provision and abundance but seldom recognize or acknowledge the greater importance of the reversal He brings when things are empty and hopelessly void of promise. God created life itself on this earth in the empty and void and He certainly will create new in the empty of all loss and the void of all uncertainty.

It is at the empty cross, we find forgiveness and grace. At the empty tomb, we find eternal life and victory over death. In the empty Easter clothes left behind by the Risen Lord, we find the gift of the Holy Spirit. In the empty places in our life, lacking in hope … we often find the wings of God which can lift us up to hope again and His hands which redeem us by His love and provide for our every need and healing.

The guarantee and surety of our Savior coming in the empty places where the void is glaring and hopelessly bleak, is truly remarkable and incredible. God comes because His steadfast love endures forever and He will always deliver grace sufficient for each and every void we may find in our lives. Rejoice … your Savior delights in coming in the empty and seemingly void of promise. He will come.

For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations. (Psalm 100:5, NIV)

Suggested Reading … Psalm 100

The Melody of God's Love

Shout for joy in the Lord, O you righteous! Praise befits the upright. Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre; make melody to him with the harp of ten strings! Sing to him a new song; play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts. For the word of the Lord is upright, and all his work is done in faithfulness. (Psalm 33:1-4, ESV)

What is it about music that captivates us? What is it about a melody that touches us deeply in our hearts? What is it about a song that can cause our spirits to soar to a place high above our normalcy of what we are immediately experiencing around us? Music can be a balm like consolation to the deepest of hurts and it can bring a joyful outlook to the bleakest of surroundings.

It was through song and music that a horribly tormented Saul was quieted through the soft voice and melodies of David. Essentially the psalms are really songs … full of emotion from heartache to joy, speaking of deep yearning and struggle but often offering both glimpses of hope and the assuredness of God’s enduring love.

Midst all struggles, music can break into the realm of the difficulty with the assurances of God becoming interrupting notes plunging into stifling discord with a beckoning melody of hope. Love is much like music in this way. We can be touched by the smallest of kindnesses that come from those who love us and we can be encouraged and sustained by the faithfulness of love through all times and all circumstances.

Thus the love of God becomes the melody of hope we can sing, even if it comes out a bit silted and hesitantly in our disconcerting times when we have to wait on the Lord. Somehow our faith carries us until we can sing the joyous refrain as rescuing and sustaining God comes with His steadfast and enduring love bringing mercy and compassion as a soothing song. There is a melody to the love of God and it is always compassionate and joyous. Something good will always happen, when we sing along.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. (Colossians 3:16, ESV)

Suggested Reading … Psalm 33

Hope in all hopelessness!

Once after a sacrificial meal at Shiloh, Hannah got up and went to pray. Eli the priest was sitting at his customary place beside the entrance of the Tabernacle. Hannah was in deep anguish, crying bitterly as she prayed to the Lord. (1 Samuel 1:10, NLT)

The sad women poured out her anguish and heartbreak in a prayer beyond what her words could possibly convey. Her tears flowed like tiny rivers down her cheeks as nothing could hinder their descent to flooded floor laden with the sorrow of her current circumstances. She had endured years of ridicule from another wife, living in the same household but jealous of the affections that the husband had lavished on this sad and broken woman. Years of sharp and stinging, insulting and lingering words had been layered heavily on her heart about her position as a childless wife in a culture that saw motherhood as the gesture of great blessing in the following of the Living God. All seemed so hopeless.

She seemed to be in such a drunken state that her language sounded like gibberish and was incoherent in meaning. When she explained the deepness of her aching heart, she was given the blessing of the priest who had incorrectly discerned a false sense of her being unholy in a holy place. This woman named Hannah lived to see her childless state completely reversed by the miraculous blessing of the Living God.

How deep is your anguish in the circumstances of your life? How painful are the gossiping, stinging and ridiculing words of those that despise you? How deep is the shame that has been falsely layered upon you? How flooded is the floor from the tears of your sorrow? Is it so deep that your prayers might sound incoherent to anyone that might by chance overhear them?

Hopeless, might be the place where your sorrow and heartbreak seem like your closest friends, just as it was for Hannah so many long years ago. Even in this place of hopelessness, there is a Living God who hears and comes to all in such broken places. Even if the times of anguish have slowly become years, it does not mean your prayers are unheard. It does mean … He will not come to you. Joy is found in His presence, no matter what the circumstances that surround us because we know His steadfast love remains the rock of our faith. There will come a day when He will deliver us from this place. We cannot answer as to the time but we can trust that the Living God will come. This is and will forever be the hope in any and all hopelessness.

Then Hannah prayed: “My heart rejoices in the Lord! The Lord has made me strong. Now I have an answer for my enemies; I rejoice because you rescued me. No one is holy like the Lord! There is no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God. (1 Samuel 2:1-2, NLT)

Suggested Reading … 1 Samuel 1 & 2

Longing to see “The One” who sees the all of us.

Jesus was leaving the shambles of the old city of Jericho and entering the bustling center of commerce in the new city of Jericho. A short man who had become quite wealthy in the settling of tax matters with the Roman government had heard about the great Rabbi named Jesus and he was desperate to see him. The crowds were horrendous and so he ran ahead of the throng of people climbing a great tree to see this Jesus.

As Jesus walked by, he saw this man and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down here. We are going to your home to visit.” What could Zacchaeus say, but “Okay, let’s go.” Oh, how the people in the crowd fussed and fumed, “What kind of a holy man visits the home of a dirty low life tax gouger.”

In their time together, Zacchaeus was touched in his heart by the truth Jesus gave to him and promised the Lord, “I now see the answers to my life are found in living righteously and I will make things more than right with those I have wronged.” Jesus proclaimed a great joy had come in the salvation of the man, named Zacchaeus. (Luke 19:1-10, Paraphrase, 2015, srm)

Crowds clamored around Jesus as he healed and taught. Many tried to see over the throngs of people clustered around this great healer and teacher. Of course there were distractors, skeptics and mockers but most people came to see this man who did great things. A determined man desperate to see this Jesus, climbs a tree and he is rewarded not only with a view of the Rabbi but with an attentive focus and impending visit to his home from the Rabbi.

We do not know what Jesus said to Zacchaeus nor do we know why Zacchaeus had a complete change of heart in matters that matter in life. We do know that salvation came to him and salvation changed him.

Do we desire to see above those clustered around Jesus? Do we desire more than just to see Jesus or to know about Him?  Do we desire to see “The One” who sees and knows all? Do we desire what the Master can freely give? Do we really desire the "Master" to be the master of our lives? Are we willing to let Him see into our hearts and change what he sees in us? He brings salvation to all, even to those despised and rejected by others. Salvation that changes us comes to our hearts when we listen and fellowship with our Lord. These are changes that will always bring real blessings to others and grace to us.

Suggested Reading … Luke 19

Letting the Risen Christ Live in Us

Most Christians can talk about Christ being a real person who lived on this earth many years ago. Most Christians speak of Christ being alive in the Scriptures through His words and deeds.  Almost every Christian believer can share about the fundamental gift of Christ dying on the cross for our sins and the fact that Christ rose again on the “Third Day.”  Most Christians will be able to relate to others the importance of the Resurrection in their Christian faith. Still, are we as Christians really letting the Risen Christ live in us?

If the Risen Christ is truly living in us, would not all of our living be about the Risen Christ? Instead of us trying to be Christian in our living by trying to “Do everything in the name of Christ” (Colossians 3:17), would not our living, simply be “Doing everything in the name of Christ?” How do we go from trying to be like Christ in all we do to simply being like Christ in all we do? I have nothing against trying but above all my trying, I want to just let the Holy Spirit have His complete way with my heart.  I want the presence of the Risen Christ in every moment of my life.  I want the Risen Christ to come into my being like air and flow out of me as His love, in all that I do.

How do I do that? Do I simply release every moment to the Risen Christ? Do I simply choose to make His ways, the pathways that I will follow as the Holy Spirit reveals them to me by the Word and His presence? How then do I hear everything that the Holy Spirit would speak to me?  Even if I only want what the Risen Christ wants for my life, how to do I dismiss every other want that comes into my mind?  How do I see, discern and reject every impulse from the human heart that would that run counter to truth of the Risen Christ in me?

My desire and intention to be like the Risen Christ can seem so circulatory that I am at times left with a bit of a quandary in the wanting and trying. Still it seems to always bring me back to some sort of prayer. Prayers of confession, prayers of desperation, prayers of releasing my will, prayers of invitation, prayers of hope, and  prayers to simply follow the Risen Christ in all that I do.  Maybe I just need to be still to all the other voices in the culture around me and simply say yes to follow the Risen Christ in all I do?  I guess it is not in the wanting or even in some kind of doing but in my saying yes to the Risen Christ.  Maybe “Doing everything in the name of Christ,” is simply praying yes to everything that the Risen Christ wants me to do? I  say yes, Risen Christ and Lord … yes, yes, yes!  

“Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy.

O, Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love; For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; it is in dying that we are born again to eternal life.” St. Francis of Assisi

Suffering that Heals

Then He said unto them, “O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” (Luke 24:25-26, KJ21)

Would it be that human beings could make a way for salvation to come to them for their sins, would they not make it easy to obtain and without hardship? They would most likely require little in the way of cost requirements to bring this triumph over failure about. They would probably delight in the spectacular without requiring having any kind of hardship.

The Jewish people longed for the Messiah to come and for the glory that He would bring to the chosen nation. They envisioned a kingdom with strength and superiority in their individual lives and as a people. This kind of thinking brought about a hope of dominance and future pride even as they lived out their days oppression throughout much of their daily existence. Thus their thoughts would have been focused on a Messiah would conquer and release them from their oppression not on a Messiah who would suffer, be killed and set aside from His rightful kingdom.

After the resurrection various disciples were still wondering about how this great kingdom would now come about especially since Christ had risen from the dead. They were excited, yet confused and ignorant of what had really happened. Christ gently listens and then explains to them about the gate of suffering that He came through to usher in the glory of the Kingdom of God and how it has been promised since the beginning (Luke 24). Moses had declared that Christ was to come (Deut. 18:17-19) but Isaiah had offered that the Messiah would suffer for sins of those whom he would redeem (Is. 53).

Christ the Messiah had come, suffered and died but now He was alive amongst His perplexed Apostles. It would take time for them to understand all that happened and it would take time for the Holy Spirit to penetrate and clear out their expectations in order for them to understand and convey the message of salvation in their Christ, the true Messiah. The great message of the cross is that it is the all sufficient power to save (1 Cor.1:18) to those who believe. Nothing was withheld by Christ that was required to secure salvation. The power of the resurrection is complete victory over sin. Christ lives now and forever, reigning with God not just in an earthly kingdom but a Kingdom without end (1 Cor. 15:17).

As we acknowledge the sufferings of Christ, we are saved and we are healed (1 Peter 2:24). As we look to the cross for salvation and celebrate Jesus Christ is raised from the dead, we find our faith and hope. In the fullness of His presence through the Spirit we can truly live now and forever. All of this came about because of God’s great love for us, even as we are sinners (Ro. 5:8). All persons have access to this great love and this saving relationship. No one is excluded except by their turning away. We must never forget what was given for us and what we now have in Christ. God is indescribable but it is also beyond words, what Christ suffered and did for us. Any sufferings that followers of Christ may encounter, experience or even die under; pale in regard to what was given for us and what is guaranteed by Christ’s sufferings. Amazing, unbelievable and impossible for any of us to even envision or comprehend but promised, given and guaranteed by the God who loves us all.

Suggested Reading … 1 Peter 2

There are no words!

He himself bore our sins" in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; "by his wounds you have been healed" ( 1 Peter 2:24, NIV).

There is a word for the inability to express, contain or bring forth adequately in words something too great or extreme to be expressed or described in words. It is a word beyond indescribable because even something being indescribable seems to venture possibility of trying to express something in words but failing in the end to accomplish the goal of expression. The word, ineffable defines the inability to express, contain or bring forth adequately in words something too great or extreme to be expressed or described in words. Yet even this stronger word is inadequate to express or contain the smallest amount of all that the Crucifixion of Christ offers, brings about, guarantees and entails to us and for us, in redeeming and saving us through the mercy, love and grace of God. There simply are no words for all Christ does in His suffering and death and all He gifts us through the laying down His life.

There are no words to express what Christ suffered before, leading up to His death and upon the cross. There are no words for what Christ endured as He died for our sin. There are no words to describe the loneliness of being alone in His decision to submit to Father’s will as He was being abandoned by most of His followers and admirers. There are no words to describe the massive and incomprehensible amounts of rejection as He faced His impending death. From the taunting and scoffing to the damming condemnation by the religious, the common and those in authority is unrelenting even though He only loved, taught and healed as the “Light of the World.” The weight of this indescribable psychological, unbelievable emotional and ineffable spiritual pressure upon His heart and mind brings us again to the complete inability to express all that was laid upon on the “Son of God” as He offered himself willingly to His destiny.

There are no words to describe the scourging, roughness and brutal beatings inflicted with sadist glee upon the Savior. Just shy of the bringing death; the flesh, muscle and tissue opened up to bleed forth much of life of this fully human, god self-limiting man stumbling towards the cursed cross. The crown, He wore … both literally and symbolically brought excruciating pain as it was pressed viciously upon His brow through the smashing in purposeful intent to mock and torture our Lord.

There are not words to describe the crucifixion, where death was seemingly both intended and denied as time passed in the wretched planned duration of judgment inflicted through its excruciating methods and procedures of torture and pain. The weight of the body of the Savior pulled against the tendon and bone barely sufficient to sustain the continuing of this terrible and brutal agony. Even if the physical pain could be somewhat described; again there are no words which can describe the weight of the sin of the world hanging upon the Holy Son by His dying to redeem all the people of the world for all time.

Finally, there are no words to describe the separation at the Crucifixion of the Son from the Father (Matthew 27:46). A separation unknown from everlasting to everlasting as the Father turned away as the Son took on the sin of the world to redeem the world in bringing eternal salvation to all who would believe. This is the ultimate act of love of the Christ in His willingness to bear the sin of the world separated from His Father as He completely guarantees the salvation of all people from their sin. When Christ said, “It is finished!” from the cross (John 19:30); all that was required had been given as to secure God’s grace for all time to all of the world.

At the cross God takes all that Christ suffered and released in the laying down of His life, to forgive all sin totally and completely. His forgiveness towards us is without measure or limitation as to guarantee our relationship as His child by Christ’s grace with His immeasurable love sealed by His Holy Spirit as our eternal inheritance. This is gift, given to us at the cross.

Are there words to describe such a gift to each one of us?

This is a re-post of an earlier devotion from last year and I still feel the same; "There are no words!" I seriously doubt that I will ever have the right words or if I wrote thousands and thousands of additional words; I would ever be able to express my thanks to my Savior!

A Great Crushing in the Garden

When He arrived at the place, He said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” And He withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and began to pray, saying, “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.” Now an angel from heaven appeared to Him, strengthening Him.  And being in agony He was praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground. 

(Luke 22:40-44, NASB)

The Garden located on the side hill of Mount of Olives called Gethsemane derives its name from the Hebrew word for “Olive Press.”  How remarkable that this garden so named was the place Jesus favored in His coming to His Father for times of prayer and fellowship.

The Son continually sought blessing, direction and relationship with His Heavenly Father in all matters assuring that He might be in constant and complete unity with His Father’s will. On all the occasions up until this point, the Son had never had any difficulty with the Father’s will but now massive amounts of untold heaviness were pressing in and on the body and spirit of the Son. It was a time of extreme and unbearable crushing in this place of “The Pressing.”

The Son staggers under the weight of the judgment about to come upon Him. Although He never wavers in His submission to His Father … He does plead for a possible release from the course of destiny now before Him.  Some people explain the hesitation on the part of the Son as coming from the tremendous pain, torture and suffering that was about to come upon the Savior because of our sin and the sin of the world.  Others suggest the hesitation comes from Jesus being fully human and alive alongside His being fully God.

These are significant pressures but the massive heartache and agony that would crush the Savior, came from carrying of the weight of the sin of the world and the knowledge of the intentional and required abandonment that was to happen when the Father would turn His face away from the Son on the cross.  This had never happened, not for even the tiniest of moment in the unfathomable everlasting to everlasting unity that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit had dwelt in without beginning or end. 

The severing of this love between the Father and the Son was required for the redeeming of all people for all time.  It a great and indescribable love the Father has for us that even while we are hopelessly lost in our sins, He loves us (Romans 5:8).  It was an incredible love that demanded our Heavenly Father to turn away from His beloved Son and allow the crushing weight of that redeeming abandonment to save a world of sinners. It was an incredible love our Savior had for us to lay down His life and to submit to this unfathomable crushing for our sins. We cannot imagine or comprehend the crushing that took place in the Garden of Gethsemane to our blessed Savior but we can be ever so thankful for the forgiveness and freedom it gives us.  What was pressed out in the place of “The Crushing” was the amazing gift of our salvation. Thanks, be to God!   

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5, NIV)

Suggested Reading … Luke 22; Isaiah 53