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.

The American-Christian Tension

We must obey God rather than human beings!          

—Acts 5:29b

I still love America. Over the past month, many people have either celebrated or condemned the Supreme Court’s ruling on same-sex marriage. Whether you agree or disagree with the ruling, we can still thank God for and pray for the United States of America.

After being away for a few weekends, I returned to Oakland Church to worship, pray, and celebrate the greatness of our God and His Son, Jesus Christ. I exercised my freedom to worship as I saw fit, and in November, I will exercise my freedom to vote for the candidate of my choice.

After the last Presidential election, Rev. Franklin Graham told many in the Christian community who were unhappy with the results that we only had ourselves to blame. Out of the 80 million evangelical Christian adults eligible to vote, less than half voted.  

The early Church was born into a world ruled by the Roman Empire. Living under an antagonistic government, Christians were urged to be subject to that government and acknowledge its authority. “Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God” (Romans 13:1). They lived within the tension of being subjects of two kingdoms: the Kingdom of God and the Roman Empire.

Two passages illustrate this tension of being subject to the governing authorities and being obedient to God. The apostles in the book of Acts were instructed by the Sanhedrin Council not to teach in the name of Jesus, but they continued teaching and preaching in Jesus’ name and were arrested. Upon examination, Peter and the apostles responded, “We must obey God rather than human beings!” (Acts 5:29)

In the book of Daniel, a law was passed that no one should pray to any god or man except to King Darius for thirty days. Daniel, the man of God, continued his life of faith and obeyed God rather than human law. “Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before” (6:10).

Daniel was not protesting, criticizing, or fighting against the government. He was an obedient, faithful subject, as much as he could be as a Jewish man exiled in a foreign land. After spending a night in the lions’ den, Daniel responded to King Darius, “My God sent his angel and he shut the mouths of the lions. They have not hurt me, because I was found innocent in his sight. Nor have I ever done any wrong before you, Your Majesty” (6:22).

American Christians, today, live within a similar tension. We are citizens of a country designed to be ruled by its people and also citizens of heaven sojourning in a land on earth that we also love. We have the opportunity and privilege to be faithful citizens of the United States of America to the point it does not contradict our obedience to Jesus Christ. We are urged in Scripture to go the extra mile, pray for our leaders, and remain subject to the governing authorities. We also know we must obey God in all things rather than humans. We live in the tension of being in this world but not of this world. God bless America, but Jesus is Lord!

Randy Bain is the Senior Pastor of Oakland UM Church located at 1504 Bedford Street in Johnstown. You may reach him through the church website www.oaklandumc.com.

Seeing Potential In Others

And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.    —Matthew 16:18

During a recent Father’s Day message at Oakland, the preacher asked the question, “As a child, who did your parents or family say you were?” We were challenged to fill in the blank, “I was the ____ child.” Although I have a pretty good self-image today, the message really hit home for me in this point. You see, I could have filled in the blank, “I was the fat child.” “I was the middle child.” Or, “I was the blamed for everything child.”

The speaker went on to say, “You are not who your parents and family say you are; in God’s eyes, you are special, chosen, capable, and God’s own child full of potential.” Many of us today still live with the labels and judgments of others rather than our blessed potential in Christ.

The Apostle Simon was renamed “Peter” by Jesus meaning bedrock. Jesus said, “On this rock, I will build my church” (16:18). Jesus knew everything God planned to do in and through Peter’s life. Jesus also knew all Peter’s weaknesses and every failure that was ahead. Jesus named Peter based on his current profession and future potential. Only if we would be so positive and supportive of ourselves and others.

If Peter would have been listening with me to the Father’s Day sermon, he might have filled in his blank, “Peter is the ___ child” with “denier, impulsive, bold, unbelieving, critical, or violent.” Jesus did not judge Peter based upon his weaknesses but on his potential as a child of God transformed by the Holy Spirit.

Jesus came as a nobody, was born in a barn, and lived His early life as a country bumpkin in obscurity. When selecting the Disciples, He called fisherman, revolutionaries, tax collectors, and uneducated men. Jesus spent time with the poor not because He pitied them but because He saw their potential. Paul, also, describes this kingdom attitude and discernment, “So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view” (2 Corinthians 5:16).

According to the Lord’s Prayer, our forgiveness is partially based upon how we forgive others (Matthew 6:12). Jesus taught us, “For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you” (Matthew 7:2). Judging is the negative side of seeing others only in their brokenness and human weakness. Seeing the potential in others is the positive side of living, thinking, and seeing with the eyes of Jesus Christ.

When is the last time you based your opinion of someone according to their potential rather than on their mistakes and failures? Are you living and behaving today based on what people said or are saying about you or based upon who you are and who you can be in Christ?

In Christ, all the promises of God are ours. We can do and be anything God calls us to. The labels of our past do not define us. We are heirs of God and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ. (Romans 8:17). God sees and knows our great potential in Jesus. Let us walk and see others in light of that potential. 

Is Jesus Enough?

My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.     —2 Corinthians 12:9

This past week, I heard two statements that got into my head upsetting my spirit. Difficult questions stalked me for days. Is there hope? One person, alienated from friends, family, children, and a productive life in general, asked the question, “Is there hope?” Is hope something that drives you with a passion to get through anything or is hope a carrot dangled in the face of the desperate?

A second person, after years of leading the life of the prodigal son, ruining his life, body, and prospects for a future, hopes that God will show him a way to a new life and independence. Is there hope for him? Is there hope for you and me?

We all face trials and challenges; some never seem to go away. When will my children grow up and become responsible adults? Will this depression and anxiety ever leave me? Will I survive the cancer that seeks to destroy my body? I need a job. Does anyone care? Is there hope amid these questions? Is Jesus enough?

The missionary and evangelist, Paul, asked the Lord three times to remove a thorn in the flesh. This fleshly thorn may have been some physical challenge, disease, or emotional scar. Scripture does not tell us, but Paul prayed to God for deliverance. Our Lord’s response was not what we would expect. “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” God responded by saying, “No. I am not going to remove this burden, but I am enough for you.”

Paul, who gave up everything to travel the world proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ received the message and lived it. He responded, “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).

To Paul, Jesus was enough. He gave up everything for the sake of gaining Christ. He goes on to write, “I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead” (Philippians 3:10-11).

According to Paul and Christians down through the ages, Jesus is enough. Jesus gives grace and strength to cope with the trials of this present life. His grace is sufficient. Jesus, as the firstborn again from the dead, also promises to give us life with Him for all eternity. We live in hope for this life into the next. Jesus is enough, we can trust Him.

We can’t compare our life to others’. To some, hope is rewarded in this life with miraculous deliverance. To others, God says, “Trust me in this. I am the same yesterday, today and forever. I will be with you now and forever.” We may never receive the same job, health, family, or peace that the person next door has, but Jesus is enough. Enough for this life and enough for all eternity.