Hope in the Lord

Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, And whose hope is the Lord.    —Jeremiah 17:7

People seldom get the opportunity to be in the woods during the early moments just before dawn away from artificial light and heat. I recall my first turkey hunting experience over thirty years ago. It was shortly before the sunrise, and I thought I could no longer bear the cold.

I lived on a 100-acre farm and had numerous friends who asked permission to hunt on our property. I had never seen a turkey in the wild and had never hunted them. After getting some basic instructions about where to go and how to hear gobblers in the morning, I set out very early to listen for and locate turkeys. Not realizing how cold the morning hours can become, I was woefully underdressed for the experience. As I sat quietly listening in the pre-dawn hours, the cold seemed to penetrate my very being. I learned the hard way that the coldest time of the day is the moment just before the warming rays of the sun appear.

This is also true in life as the Bill Gaither song, Joy Comes in the Morning, encourages, “Hold on my child; joy comes in the morning. The darkest hour means dawn is just in sight.” Many persons struggle with the challenges they face in life. They believe things will never get better. Hopelessness overcomes them as they begin to think they can no longer stand under the weight of their problems.

Kings Saul and David are examples of persons handling the stresses of life differently. Saul, after being rejected as king, obsessively hunted David down to take his life. During a battle against the Philistines, Saul’s sons were killed and he was severely wounded (1 Samuel 31). Saul’s response was to kill himself before the enemy could torture and kill him and desecrate his body.

Suicide never solves anything. As it turned out, Saul was still beheaded by the Philistine army, and his body hung on the wall of Beth-Shan. David’s troops were already returning from defeating the Amalekites and would surely have marched into the Philistine camps. The Lord could have healed King Saul, but rather than put his trust in the Lord, Saul took his own life in hopelessness.

King David, on the other hand, had been running for his life for years. At one point, his band of men returned home to find that the Amalekites had destroyed their city and taken their wives and families captive. “Moreover David was greatly distressed because the people spoke of stoning him, for all the people were embittered, each one because of his sons and his daughters. But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God” (1 Samuel 30:6). Not only was David a fugitive, his city destroyed, and his family taken from him, but now his own loyal men were threatening to kill him. Rather than give up in hopelessness, as many of us might do today, David strengthened himself in the Lord.

God is still on the throne, and there is always hope as long as we are alive. Psalm 30:5 says, “For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for life; Weeping may endure for a night, But joy comes in the morning.” Many times our rescue, our breakthrough, our answer to prayer is just around the corner. We can and must stand firm in hope; the darkest hour means dawn is just in sight. “Blessed is the man … whose hope is the Lord” (Jeremiah 17:70).

Let's Get Going

Get up, let us be going.    —Mark 14:42

My family has enjoyed the summer months of baseball. My grandson, 11, played on a little league team that traveled around Somerset County playing teams from other small towns. They had a great season and were runner-ups in their league championship tournament.

As a coach, a parent, and now a grandparent, I find it frustrating to watch a little league game (all baseball games for that matter) when a batter watches good pitches cross home plate and gets called out without swinging. Passively watching a third strike is such a big deal that coaches circle the “K” standing for a strikeout to indicate a called or non-swinging third strike.

Some may say, they are just kids and are under a lot of pressure standing inches away from a fast flying baseball. Yes, they are just children, but I watch in frustration the same passive, hesitation in adults as they face daily life. God calls us all to walk in faith, make new starts, or reach out to help in ministry, but we often wait just long enough for the moment to pass or for someone else to act first.

We may have prayed long enough about a certain action we need to take. Some of us are quite certain that God is calling us to act, move, and get going, but we wait. Moving ahead in uncertainty is always scary, but the Lord tells us we can do all things through Him. If you have prayed and received direction from God, then plan your next step, and get going in faith.

Jesus was facing one of the hardest challenges of His life: taking upon Himself the sins of the entire world, suffering on a Roman cross, and dying separated from His heavenly Father. He asked His closest three Disciples, Peter, James, and John, to pray with Him. As you probably know, the disciples fell asleep three times as Jesus agonized in prayer just a short distance away. After the third time, Jesus told them, “Get up, let us be going.” The time for praying was over; the time for action had come.

Many of us who call ourselves Christians fail the Lord on both sides of the pray-act continuum. We either pray, pray in uncertainty as to whether we can do something and God will come through for us. Or, on the other side, we do not pray at all but overconfidently blunder ahead in a fool hearted fashion believing that things just work out. The challenge for the true Christian is knowing when to prayerfully wait and when to get going in faith.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 tells us “There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven.” Although not included in Ecclesiastes 3, I would like to add, “A time to wait, and a time to get going.” When Jesus ascended back to heaven, He told His followers to wait in Jerusalem until they received the power of the promised Holy Spirit. After the Holy Spirit fell upon them, they burst open the doors and got going.

God has given us everything we need. Let us pray, listen for his voice, and then get going. Can’t you just hear Jesus’ voice, “Get up, let us be going.” Jesus promised to be with us until the end of the age. Jesus goes with us; let’s go.

Over 1,000 Rehearsals

After singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.    —Matthew 26:30

Spring and summer are seasons for weddings. Along with each wedding comes a wedding rehearsal. At each rehearsal, I usually direct the wedding party to walk through the service from beginning to end two times and maybe three if the details are complicated.

My understanding of rehearsals was greatly expanded this past year after reading a book by Mark Biltz, Blood Moons. The Blood Moon phenomenon concerns the four consecutive total lunar eclipses occurring three times in our modern era. During a total lunar eclipse, the moon appears blood red. NASA calls four total eclipses in a row a tetrad. In recent history, two tetrads have fallen on the Jewish feasts of Passover and Tabernacles (1948 and 1967).

What enlarged my understanding of rehearsals was the way the Jewish feasts represent rehearsals for the events in the life and ministry of Jesus. Leviticus 23 lists the Jewish feasts also called holy convocations or solemn assemblies: Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread, Offering the First Fruits, The Festival of Weeks, The Festival of Trumpets, The Day of Atonement, and The Festival of Tabernacles.

The Hebrew word for convocation means something called out, a public meeting, also a rehearsal. The rehearsal concept is similar to the way we celebrate Holy Communion. 1 Corinthians 11:26 records, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.” The sacrament and the Jewish feasts are present blessings that also point ahead to a coming reality. Here is where the rehearsal gets exciting.

After Jesus instituted Holy Communion at the Last Supper, a Jewish Passover meal, they sang a hymn and departed for the Mount of Olives where He would be arrested. Mark Biltz in Blood Moons remarks that we likely have the hymnbook and know the words to the song (51). The Jews sang the Psalms at Passover, particularly what is known as the Hallel, Psalms 113-118.

The last hymn Jesus sang before He was betrayed and arrested might have been Psalm 118, “I shall give thanks to You, for You have answered me, And You have become my salvation. The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief corner stone” (vss. 21-22). Just before Jesus is arrested and rejected by the Jewish leaders, He sings about the stone rejected by the builders becoming the chief cornerstone.

Think about it! The last words Jesus may have sung with His disciples before being tied (and nailed) to the Cross might have been, “The Lord is God, and He has given us light; Bind the festival sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar” (118:27).  Jesus, Himself, was the festival sacrifice tied to the altar, the Cross.

Most Christians acknowledge that the entire Mosaic sacrificial system pointed ahead to Jesus’ sacrificial death as the Lamb of God, His burial, and resurrection on Easter morning. But consider the preparation and rehearsal for these events. God commanded the Jews to celebrate these events each year. The Jewish people have been keeping these feasts for 1,500 years. They have rehearsed these great moments in the life of Jesus and salvation history over 1,500 times. We serve an awesome God!

All Out Search

Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?          —Luke 15:4

In recent days the news media has been flooded with reports of all out searches for lost things and persons. Two 14-year old Florida boys have been missing at sea for over a week. The Coast Guard has expanded its search to 41,000 square miles off the coasts of three states. Hundreds of friends and family members have joined a prayer vigil in hope that the boys will be found alive.

In another story, a new twist occurred in the search of the Malaysian Airlines Flight 370. Debris from what appears to be part of a wing of a Boeing 777 washed up on an island off the coast of Madagascar. The search has gone on for nearly a year and a half. The debris washed up on a shore over 3,000 miles from where the plane is believed to have gone down.

These two searches dramatically demonstrate what great lengths we will go to in order to find those who are lost. In Luke 15, Jesus tells three stories, parables, to emphasize how important lost people are to God. The lost people Jesus speaks about are not those physically lost at sea or in a plane crash, but rather, people lost and alienated from God by sin.

The three parables are the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. Each of the parables demonstrates that something of great value was lost. You and I are of great value to God. We matter so much to God that He gave His one and only Son to die for our sin and reconcile us to Himself. Each parable describes an all-out search for that which was lost. The parables all end with a description of the huge celebration that occurs when the lost is found.

The parables also describe different ways folks become lost. In the first story, sheep by nature tend to wander off. They need a shepherd to direct them to green pastures, lead them to good water, and protect them from predators. Sometimes, you and I unintentionally get sidetracked by everyday life and wander away from God. God still loves us, misses us, and searches for us.

In the parable of the lost coin, someone did something to the coin. The coin was dropped, misplaced, or hidden. Many times in life, you and I have terrible things done to us that cause us to become lost. God knows and cares.

Finally, in the parable of the lost son, the prodigal son willfully rebelled against his father’s love and went off to the far country into sinful living. Even when we outwardly rebel against God, He loves us, searches for us, and awaits our return home.

Do you have family and friends who are morally and relationally lost, those who are living lifestyles contrary to God’s will? Of far greater importance is their relationship to God who loves, created, and redeemed them. If we held prayer vigils and spent millions of dollars in all-out searches for them, think how many might come to know and experience God’s love for them in Jesus Christ.

Let us hope and pray the MA-370 is found and the family members find closure. Let us pray the Florida boys are found safe and alive. But, more importantly, let us join with Jesus Christ, seeking to save that which was spiritually lost. God so loved the world that He gave His Son.