Jesus wept.

John 11:35

One of the shortest verses in the Bible is John 11:35. I have lost count of how many times this verse has been used as a joke of sorts when the topic of Scripture memorization is being addressed. I have used it myself as I challenged AWANA attenders to challenge themselves to hide even more of God’s Word in their hearts. However, this joking was never meant to negate the importance of having this small poignant verse hidden as well. I myself have clung to it all week.

We find this verse in the context of the death of a friend and a brother. Lazarus had been sick for many days and Mary and Martha had sent word to Jesus. They had asked Him to come and to heal their loved one… the one that Jesus Himself loved. Yet, Jesus did not come.

Oh my goodness it hurts when Jesus does not come.

Jesus received the news. He heard the cry for help, but He stayed right where He was. The text says,

Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when He heard that he was sick, He then stayed two days longer in the place where He was.

John 11:5-6

In the very beginning of this chapter the love and devotion that Mary and Martha had for Jesus was established. The text says,

It was the Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.

John 11:2

The love, devotion, and commitment that Mary, Martha, Lazarus, and Jesus had for each other is, at the very beginning of this chapter, made clear. Jesus loved them and they loved Jesus. The choice for Jesus not to come had nothing to do with His love for them. It didn’t mean that He was refusing to hear their prayer to Him. He hadn’t put a hand up to stop their cry for help or closed His ears to them. He had heard, but He didn’t come.

Lazarus died. Martha and Mary cried. Jesus seemed to hide.

Oh my goodness it so very much hurts when Jesus seems to hide.

Then He came. Four days after they had laid down their loved one in death, He came. Martha and Mary came to Him accusing. They accused because they believed. They knew who He was and what He had the power to do. It was because they believed that it hurt so very much.

When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled…

John 11:33

Oh the sovereign power it must have taken to keep to the plan when Jesus could have displayed, to our eyes anyway, even more greatly His insurmountable might over death and the grave.

He was angry. The phrase “deeply moved” is embrimaomai and it means to be moved with anger, to admonish sternly, express indignant displeasure with some one; I charge sternly, snort like an angry horse; (literally) “snort (roar) with rage” (BAGD) which expresses strong indignation, i.e. deep feeling that is moved to sternly admonish.

Was Jesus angry at Mary and Martha for accusing Him? Was He angry that they wept? Did He find their weeping offensive, seeing it as a statement of their disbelief?

No, I don’t think so. I believe Jesus was angry at death. He was as mad as a snorting horse at the pain that death brings. I believe He was absolutely enraged with the separation that death brings. 

He was also agitated. The word “troubled” is tarassó and it means to stir up, to trouble, put in motion (to agitate back-and-forth, shake to-and-fro); (figuratively) to set in motion what needs to remain still (at ease); to “trouble” (“agitate”), causing inner perplexity (emotional agitation) from getting too stirred up inside (“upset”).

Then we have the verse, that very short verse, Jesus wept.

The word for wept is dakruó and it means to shed quiet (actual) tears; to weep silently (with tears).

Then the kicker of it all… the question.

But some of them said, “Could not this man, who opened the eyes of the blind man, have kept this man also from dying?”

John 11:37

YES! Yes, He COULD have, but He didn’t.

The raising of Lazarus from the dead is the seventh miracle recorded in the book of John. It’s the seventh and the last, until the miracle of the empty tomb. This means something. The culmination of all the earthly signs, miracles, and wonders were always to climax at the empty tomb of the Christ.

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies…

John 11:25

I have been crying out to God for healing on behalf of many for years now. Specifically and especially here in these last few months… and yesterday morning as my heart hurt so very much and I opened up His Word to meet with my God and I turned to cry out to Him through Psalm 30 I understood the word “troubled”. I understood tarassó. I could not stop my body from shaking back and forth as I read the words of this psalm back to my God in my prayer.

I have begged Him to move this mountain, but He has made it stand strong. I have sent for Him. I have cried out to Him, but He has chosen to stay hidden and I am so dismayed.

Yet in my pain I heard Him speak, Nicole what healing are you looking for? I have healed. I have healed with the only healing that matters. I never promised earthly healings. I promised to heal the soul. I promised that I would heal your sin and that the grave would not be able to keep any that I have healed. This is My promise, that death has no victory over My godly ones. Weeping may last for the night, but joy comes in the morning.

Jesus wept. Knowing that Lazarus would be raised by His very own word in minutes, He still wept.

Weeping doesn’t mean you don’t believe. Weeping doesn’t mean you have given up. Weeping doesn’t mean it’s over. Weeping just means it hurts.

Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.

Hebrews 13:15

Sometimes praise is a sacrifice. Hebrews 13:15 is tucked away in the last chapter of the book of Hebrews in the context of the suffering of Jesus Christ. It falls right after words that remind us that here on earth we do not have a lasting city… and we are not to be seeking to… but we seek the city that is to come. A reminder that we are to follow Jesus outside the camp, outside the safety and protection of the wall, and there we are to suffer, to bear His reproach, and as we do so we are to offer up a sacrifice of praise. Our lips are to praise His name in our pain.

Sometimes worship hurts.

But really, did we truly expect it not to?

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.

Romans 12:1

God gave us our bodies. He formed them out of the dust in the beginning and from then on He formed in the womb of our mothers. He alone breathes the breath of life in them. Our greatest offering that we have is to submit this body to Him and allow Him to use it however He deems worthy.

Sometimes the way He chooses does not make sense to us. Sometimes offering up our bodies as a living sacrifice to Him means submitting to that cancer diagnoses and saying, “Okay, LORD, if it be Your will… I will drink this cup.“

My sister-in-law, Phillis Nelson, said, “Yes Lord, I will drink.”

She laid her body on the altar of the will of God and He has taken her cancer diagnoses and used her to inspire many. Only God and her husband knows the extent of her suffering because to all others around her she has kept smiling. She IS fighting the good fight. This is the testimony that the Lord her God gave her and she has been His witness from Alabama to Afghanistan.

When the world tells us that a cancer diagnoses is our permission to put our bodies to death to escape suffering, Phillis instead has listened to the Creator of her body, and her story, and embraced the suffering so that her body could be used to proclaim the excellencies of the One who called her out of darkness into His glorious Light (1 Peter 2:9).

When so many today proclaim the name of Christ as a means of selfish gain, Phillis has been a contrast to the selfishness of the worldly professors, as in her suffering she has proclaimed His name. In Him alone she stands and He is faithful to hold.

These past few years our family has been learning the depth of the meaning of a sacrifice of praise. It’s not a fun lesson. It’s not at all. It hurts. It hurts a lot.

Will you still worship Him when worship hurts?

How blessed is he who considers the helpless;

The Lord will deliver him in a day of trouble.

Psalm 41:1

This is a serious question. One I hope to receive some answers on, because as a woman, I am at a loss. Why is ministry to men such a failure in the church?

Just a few weeks ago we were watching “Mom’s Night Out”and after Bones gives his profound speech at the police station, my ten year old daughter turns to me and says, “Momma why is it that boys that end up in gangs or in jail never had a Daddy?”

My ten year old daughter sees it… statistics state it… yet ministry to men and boys in the majority of our churches remains purely recreational… and please do not give me the excuse that women stay home and don’t have jobs and that’s why they have more time for ministry to one another. There are plenty of retired men in the church. Plenty of men with evenings and weekends off. Plenty of men with swing shift schedules. Plenty of pastors that don’t have to work outside the church through the week in order to pay their bills. Plenty.

Why is it that we can hear that a man’s wife, a man and a wife, a family that has been long standing members and attenders within a church, has come home and his wife has told him that she is leaving and all the other men in the church simply say, “Well that sucks. We’ll be praying for him.”

What happened to the days of leaders of the church calling the family in to talk to them, to DISCIPLE them, to try and save that marriage, that family, that home? Why does everyone leave the husband. The one who has just been punched in the gut and had his world jerked out from underneath his feet to pull his own self up.

Oh we might send an I’m-thinking-of-you card, or shoot them a text, maybe even leave a voicemail… but where are the men that show up on the doorstep and say “I am with you until you can stand again”?

What about when we see a man in our church, a father, struggling to just be a father because he never had one to show him how to do this father thing in godly way. Or maybe he has a child that is struggling with things he has never dealt with before. Where are the men who go to him, who INITIATE the opportunity to step in and say, “I see you’re struggling here. Let me help you. We’ll do this together”?

How is it that a man who is sick and fighting for his life or a man who is homebound because he can no longer see to drive or just simply no longer has the strength to get himself to church sits alone… every day… because no other man shows up to visit with him. Why is it that no man brings the FELLOWSHIP to him when he can’t get to the fellowship?

My husband is a supervisor at his place of employment. He takes his position serious. He takes his responsibility over his crew serious. He watches them as individuals, not just as a whole. He meets with each and every one at least once a year and sits down with them and goes over what he calls, “Do Wells and Do Betters”. He shows them where they have grown throughout the year and what they need to work on and then he holds them accountable. He offers them opportunities to advance and receive more training. Even going to training with them on his days off because he knows they will get paid for going even when he does not. He knows his crew. He knows their accomplishments as a whole and as individuals. And because he purposely does this, his crew feels safe and comfortable coming to him with their struggles, whether they be work related or not.

In our home he studies his children. He watches them and he takes his position as father serious. He can tell when they are struggling with something. He can tell when they are hiding something. He knows when they need coaching and he knows when they need discipline. He knows their accomplishments and he knows what they need to work on and he holds them accountable. He knows his children. 

He doesn’t wait for the red carpet of invitation to be rolled out to him. His position is the invitation.

When we served as leaders together in the church for a group of college aged young men and women, he used the same principles for those we taught. He knew them as a group. He knew them each as individuals. He checked on them. He held them accountable. He didn’t wait for them to ask him. He just saw the need and met it. He felt the prompting of the Spirit and he made the call.

He has always been a shepherd who knows his sheep. All the flocks that have been given to him, he has personally and purposely invested in.

There are many ways that women can serve and lead in the ministries of the body of Christ, but there is one area that they simply will never be equipped to do and that is men’s ministry.  They will never be able to teach boys how to be men. They will never be able to teach men how to teach other men how to teach boys to be men. They will never be able to just “pop-in” at a man’s house who for whatever reason cannot come to the church and spend hours with them ministering to them.

Where are the Pauls that ministered to the Timothys?

Where are the Barnabases that take the Marks under their wing?

Where are they?

Where are the doers of the Word?

Several Sunday’s ago our Pastor at Central Baptist Church shared about how he and our entire staff all have men, especially new believers, that they meet with once a week for at least six to seven weeks in order to disciple them in the faith. They do not just baptize them and send them out into the sea of the body. They, personally, as these men’s shepherds, take on the responsibility of making sure they receive a solid foundation in the Word of God.

I am so glad… so very glad that God does not wait for us to ask Him for His help… but He comes because we are helpless.

For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly

Romans 5:6

What ministry to men is there in your church?

What works?

What has not?

If you are a man reading this what could your church do to help minister to you?

What keeps you from being a man who ministers to other men?

Several weeks ago I taught this lesson to our homeschool co-op and I thought that while I am down from surgery I would take the opportunity to share it here on my blog.

This is one of my favorite proverbs…

As a ring of gold in a swine’s snout
So is a beautiful woman who lacks discretion.

Proverbs 11:22

Well ain’t that a pretty picture?

For us to understand the depth of this proverb we have to understand the value of this nose ring. In the days of this proverb a nose ring was a big deal in this region. As a matter of fact when Abraham sent out his servant to find a bride for his son Isaac it was a nose ring that was given to Rebekah to denote her as “the one”.

When the camels had finished drinking, the man took a gold ring weighing a half-shekel and two bracelets for her wrists weighing ten shekels in gold,…

Then I asked her, and said, ‘Whose daughter are you?’ And she said, ‘The daughter of Bethuel, Nahor’s son, whom Milcah bore to him’; and I put the ring on her nose, and the bracelets on her wrists.

Genesis 24:22, 47

This gold nose ring was meant to outwardly adorn the inward beauty of a woman… it was the inward beauty that Abraham’s servant was looking for…

So I came today to the spring, and said, ‘O Lord, the God of my master Abraham, if now You will make my journey on which I go successful; behold, I am standing by the spring, and may it be that the maiden who comes out to draw, and to whom I say, “Please let me drink a little water from your jar”; and she will say to me, “You drink, and I will draw for your camels also”; let her be the woman whom the Lord has appointed for my master’s son.’

Genesis 24:42-44

Abraham’s servant wasn’t out looking for the most beautiful woman, but a woman with a kind and gracious heart. Just like a gold ring in a pig’s snout doesn’t make a pig not be a pig, neither does the outward beauty of a person cover an ugly heart… all it takes is a little time watching and listening to see that truth.

The word for discretion in Proverbs 11:22 is taam and it means taste, judgment, reason, understanding, advice

As I do with my co-op family let’s take a walk through the movies to see that this truth in action…

 

Did you catch the words of the mirror?

Not even the rags could cover the beauty of Snow White because of her gentle grace… and no amount of outward beauty could cover the ugly heart of the queen.

But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

1 Samuel 16:7

I know this Proverb seems to speak to women alone, but as with most all Scripture, it applies to us all with no regard to any of our external qualities… the Scriptures are meant to measure the heart, therefore I believe Proverbs 11:22 is true for men as well…

What this outwardly handsome prince lacked was exposed by the enchantress. He had no love in his heart. His outward appearance might have been appealing, but he too was a nose ring in a pig’s snout. He lacked discretion. So the enchantress made his outside to match the beast that was his inward character.

Have you ever wondered what would we would look like if God turned us inside out?

 You are near to their lips but far from their mind. But You know me, O Lord; You see me; and You examine my heart’s attitude toward You…

Jeremiah 12:2-3

***

It is He who reveals the profound and hidden things; He knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with Him.

Daniel 2:22

We can pretend all we want before others… but God knows the truth.

Let’s look at one more…

Oh she looked beautiful on the outside… but the mirror revealed the truth. I actually love that in each of these clips the mirror is a common factor. As I watched each of these clips and studied on this proverb the Holy Spirit reminded of this verse in the book of James…

Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls. But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.

James 1:21-25

The only way we can truly ascertain our beauty or the beauty of others is by looking at ourselves in the mirror of God’s Word. There is so much to be said about the value of kindness… when you look at all these examples, the Evil Queen, the Beast, Ursala… they all lacked kindness.

When we look at Jesus… He never lacked kindness. When we look at our God He never lacks kindness… He is the One with everlasting lovingkindness.

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; For His lovingkindness is everlasting.

Psalm 118:1

Kindness never gets ugly… just think about it… how many of us have great grandparents or grandparents who are on up there in age and they are head over heels in love with the LORD and with you?

When you see them do you say, Ugh! Gross, you are so old and ugly! Do you cringe from their touch and hide and dread spending time with them?

Or do you run to them and look into their eyes and give them big hugs and kisses. Do you see the absolute beauty of the kindness of their heart?

The simple fact is that true beauty just gets more and more beautiful…

When I go back and think about that Prince and that enchantress who showed up at his door… I realize what a gift it was that she gave him. A gift for him to see, really see, who he was… so that he could become better. Had she never showed him his true self he would have lived on in the deceit of his own mind. He would have died an old bitter unloved man…

My family and I watched the movie, Saving Mr Banks, and due to curiosity from the story of the movie I dug into PL Travers life a little bit looking more info on her. I had hope that I would see a turn around of sorts in her life, but instead what I learned was that after her death her grandchildren were quoted as saying, “she died loving no one and with no one loving her“. This, beloved, is the saddest thing that I have ever heard… can you imagine this coming from the mouths of your grandchildren?

We may not have an enchantress that shows up at our door, or a talking mirror on the wall, but God gives us plenty of opportunities to see who we really are on the inside.

He gives us circumstances.

He gives us interruptions.

He gives us distractions.

He gives us family.

He gives us a work place.

He gives us challenges.

He gives us people.

He gives us traffic.

He gives us Wal-Mart.

He gives us telemarketers.

He gives us waiting rooms.

He gives us His Word.

He gives us His Son.

He gives us His Spirit.

When we refuse to acknowledge who we really are… when we refuse to agree with God about the condition of our heart… that’s when we stay ugly and just keep getting uglier.

You shall say to them, ‘This is the nation that did not obey the voice of the Lord their God or accept correction; truth has perished and has been cut off from their mouth.

Jeremiah 7:28

As I was talking to my niece this morning after we watched an episode of Law and Order she asked me isn’t there a different law for a crime of passion? So I answered her with Scripture and how God had set up the cities of refuge and how yes, there was mercy was crimes of passion, but there was none for someone who “waited in the bush” someone who planned it out. I went on to share how the reason our country has worked for so long is because our government was founded on Biblical truth… and today even the church has decided that the Old Testament is irrelevant… thus we are where we are and are headed where we are headed. All we have to do is read through Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel to see that it happened in Israel when they decided the Law of God was not relevant to them anymore.

Where God is not… kindness is not.

Love is patient, love is kind…

1 Corinthians 13:4

Where God is not… truth is not.

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me

John 14:6

***

But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth

John 16:13

Where God is not… love is not.

The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

1 John 4:8

Look into the mirror of the Word of God and when you walk away don’t forget what it showed you… and if what it revealed showed you that you needed some changes… there is only one who can change you… and that is God.

He wants to make you beautiful.

He wants transform you from the inside out.

When we meet God at the mirror of His Word we will either break it or embrace it… love it or hate it… fight it or kiss it.

Lovingkindness and truth have met together; Righteousness and peace have kissed each other.

Psalm 85:10

Can I do it? Can I trust Him? Really trust Him? This is a question that I have asked and re-asked and then asked again.

Each time the answer has been Yes. Yes, I can trust Him.

This morning as I dug into Jeremiah 15 I read these words of Jeremiah as he makes his plea before his God…

You who know, O Lord,
Remember me, take notice of me,
And take vengeance for me on my persecutors.
Do not, in view of Your patience, take me away;
Know that for Your sake I endure reproach.
Your words were found and I ate them,
And Your words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart;
For I have been called by Your name,
O Lord God of hosts.
I did not sit in the circle of merrymakers,
Nor did I exult.
Because of Your hand upon me I sat alone,
For You filled me with indignation.
Why has my pain been perpetual
And my wound incurable, refusing to be healed?
Will You indeed be to me like a deceptive stream
With water that is unreliable?

Jeremiah 15:15-18

Jeremiah asked these questions of the Lord. One of my favorite things about our God is that He is not afraid of our questions. He doesn’t shout at us from behind the safety of His curtain…

When we need a heart (Ezekiel 36:26) and when we need wisdom (James 1:5) and when we need courage (Deuteronomy 31:6)… He gladly receives our request. He desires that we come to Him for help. Our God, in fact, becomes greatly offended when we DON’T come to Him.

Has a nation changed gods

When they were not gods?
But My people have changed their glory
For that which does not profit.
“Be appalled, O heavens, at this,
And shudder, be very desolate,” declares the Lord.
“For My people have committed two evils:
They have forsaken Me,
The fountain of living waters,
To hew for themselves cisterns,
Broken cisterns
That can hold no water.

Jeremiah 2:11-13

He wants our questions. He wants our prayers. He wants our cries for help. He wants us to come to Him for help.

Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Hebrews 4:16

Sometimes, like Jeremiah, we can have wounds that refuse to be healed. Wounds that just when we think the scab is forming and the healing has begun, something happens to jerk that scab off and reopen the wound.

We sit alone in our pain and outside we see others go on… merry making.

The word merrymaking in this verse is sachaq and it means laugh, including instrumental music, singing and dancing

So many go on… sitting in their circles… they continue their laughter, playing their music, they just keep on singing and dancing… Jeremiah couldn’t do that. Jeremiah couldn’t laugh and jump and shout and dance around. It was not a time to laugh. It was a time to weep… and unfortunately Jeremiah saw that he wept alone.

Sometimes it’s hard to shout “praise God” and “Amen” around and with some people. I have learned that it is okay to feel that way. However… God doesn’t want us to stay there in that feeling.

We see that in the way He answers Jeremiah.

Therefore, thus says the Lord,
“If you return, then I will restore you—
Before Me you will stand;
And if you extract the precious from the worthless,
You will become My spokesman.
They for their part may turn to you,
But as for you, you must not turn to them.
“Then I will make you to this people
A fortified wall of bronze;
And though they fight against you,
They will not prevail over you;
For I am with you to save you
And deliver you,” declares the Lord.

Jeremiah 15:19-20

No matter how bad it looks. No matter how bad it hurts. No matter how little we understand. No matter how great the temptation to keep walking away from the reality revealed… our God says keep returning to Me

If we return to Him, He WILL restore us.

Here’s the thing though… that restoration is to fellowship with Him. Restored to Him. That may not mean restored to health, restored to a marriage, restored to financial prosperity, restored to a position of power. It means restored to Him… and that should really be all that matters.

He told Jeremiah to extract the precious from the worthless. That seems hard, but it’s not… not really. I have watched my sister-in-law do this over and over again… as she has walked from breast cancer, to colon cancer, to liver cancer (metastasized from colon). She has been fighting the cancer in her liver with chemo for over three years… and a month ago she was told that the tumors were no longer responding to the chemo and they were going to have to change it again. They were returning to a chemo that caused her great cold sensitivity and neuropathy… and when I asked her if this chemo was make her lose her hair, she said “No. That was a different one thank goodness!” I responded with, “Oh good! A praise in the midst!” Then she said, “There is always a silver lining if you look hard enough!“

I believe that is exactly what God meant when he told Jeremiah to extract the precious from the worthless. That “silver lining” was the “precious in the worthless” and she was extracting it.

In doing so she has become a spokeswoman for God. She stands in the face of cancer and is able to be a representative to the grace of God and a testimony of His faithfulness to others as they face cancer or any other trial of this life.

So can I do it?

Can I trust Him?

Can you?

Here’s one thing that I have learned… When it seems like we have the least reason to trust Him is when we need to trust Him most.

Related posts:

God If This Is Loving Me I Sure Am Glad You Ain’t Mad At Me

God Forbid It

God Forbid It (Continued)

Sovereign Savior

Our Pastor at Central Baptist Church is teaching through the book of Jonah. With all that is going on in our family I laid down to sleep last night on the brink of tears and then the Lord reminded me “It ain’t over til the fat fish sings” and then the words of Isaiah 49:1-4 ran through my heart and mind and the peace of God washed over me and I found rest.

“It ain’t over til the fat fish sings” was the title of the sermon that our Pastor shared as he taught through Jonah 1:17- 2:10. We don’t always see the belly of the fish as the mercy of God… but it is. We don’t often see how a storm can bring glory to God, but it does.

Isaiah 49:1-4 is a section of Scripture that our Sunday night guest speaker shared that the Lord used to get her through her own trials as well as inspired her to write a beautiful song of praise to Him. I immediately turned to the passage and read the verses as soon as she mentioned them… just knowing that God had her share them for me… and He had.

Jumping back to Jonah… It’s believed that the boat full of men that threw Jonah overboard, as commanded by God, were all saved… not just from the present storm… but also from the eternal storm of eternal death. It’s believed that these men went to Jerusalem and there made sacrifices to God. God even used Jonah’s rebellion and his running from Him to reach and save the lost.

As our Pastor shared, he mentioned that Jonah was a living sacrifice unto the Lord on behalf of these men. These men, worshiped idols, they knew all about the false gods that required human sacrifice to appease there wrath. However, our God is not like that… I believe Jonah knew this and believed this. When Jonah said, throw me over… this was an act of faith. Had he stayed in the boat he would have died, but in faith he said toss me over… and so he lived.

He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal.

John 12:25

Jonah’s disobedience to God had brought these men into this situation. However, as always with our God, what the enemy intends for evil… our God will use for good (Genesis 50:20). Jonah accepting the fact that he had sinned against God and brought this storm (Micah 7:9) willingly, at that moment, offered his body as a living sacrifice unto the Lord. He offered himself on behalf of all the others on that boat. This is why Jesus said that the only sign that will be given to us is the sign of Jonah (Matthew 12:39). Jonah was a picture of what Jesus would do for all those in the boat that were being ravaged by the storms of this present world and our own personal sin. Although He, unlike Jonah, had never known sin (2 Corinthians 5:21).

God gives us Jonah… because we CAN be a Jonah.

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Romans 12:1-2

Our family is in the belly of the fish. Here in the belly of this fish we cry out as Jonah did

I called out of my distress to the Lord,
And He answered me.
I cried for help from the depth of Sheol;
You heard my voice.
For You had cast me into the deep,
Into the heart of the seas,
And the current engulfed me.
All Your breakers and billows passed over me.
So I said, ‘I have been expelled from Your sight.
Nevertheless I will look again toward Your holy temple.

Jonah 2:2-4

and we cry out as Job did…

Why should I take my flesh in my teeth
And put my life in my hands?
Though He slay me,
I will hope in Him.
Nevertheless I will argue my ways before Him.
This also will be my salvation,
For a godless man may not come before His presence.

Job 13:14-16

We cry out because we can… because we know He hears… and because we know He cares. We may not understand what is going on or who it is in the boat of the storm that the Lord is using us to reach… but what we do know is that whatever, WHATEVER, we face in this life is with purpose.

WE WILL NOT FORGET OR FORSAKE OUR GOD.

I WILL NOT FORGET OR FORSAKE MY GOD.

I don’t have to understand why to know the Who that formed me and my family in the womb and brought us forth in Him, born again to be children of His very own possession. We are the select arrows in His hand… and we trust His aim.

Listen to Me, O islands,
And pay attention, you peoples from afar.
The Lord called Me from the womb;
From the body of My mother He named Me.
He has made My mouth like a sharp sword,
In the shadow of His hand He has concealed Me;
And He has also made Me a select arrow,
He has hidden Me in His quiver.
He said to Me, “You are My Servant, Israel,
In Whom I will show My glory.”
But I said, “I have toiled in vain,
I have spent My strength for nothing and vanity;
Yet surely the justice due to Me is with the Lord,
And My reward with My God.”

Isaiah 49:1-4

Here’s the thing about being in the belly of the fish or an arrow in the hand… In the belly of that fish Jonah could do nothing and the arrow in the hand trusts completely in the decisions of the one who holds it.

In the belly of that fish Jonah couldn’t fix his situation. He didn’t know the Lord would have that fish vomit him up… that had never happened before. What he did know was at that moment, as our Pastor shared Sunday, God was giving him another chance to repent and to turn to Him just like He did those men in the boat.

Jonah had no gift to bring. He had no sacrifice in which to offer. He had no works that He could do. All he had was the Word of God, the knowledge of the heart of God, the knowledge of his own heart, and the words of his own mouth. Jonah 2:7 says that he remembered the LORD. He chose to surrender to what he knew of God and offered up his praises to Him. Jonah did not cry out to another god or put his hope in his own possible ability to defeat and escape the fish. He remembered God and he offered up the only sacrifice he had… a heart of repentance and voice of thanksgiving.

The life of a believer in the One True God is one with a constant return to a heart of repentance and a voice of thanksgiving.

Repentance because of a heart that so easily finds itself suffering from fear and doubt and then a voice that rejoices with praise and thanksgiving as that once doubting and fearful heart remembers the Lord and once again stands on His love in hope and assurance, knowing once again, that it ain’t over until God says it’s over.

for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.”

Romans 10:10-11

How can you say, ‘We are wise,
And the law of the Lord is with us’?
But behold, the lying pen of the scribes
Has made it into a lie.
“The wise men are put to shame,
They are dismayed and caught;
Behold, they have rejected the word of the Lord,
And what kind of wisdom do they have?
Jeremiah 8:8-9

As I study through Jeremiah chapters 7 – 9 this week in my​ precept class I could not help but see the familiarity in these chapter with our present day. Here in my home state of Alabama debates wage across social media concerning the same sex marriage and the about to be released Fifty Shades of Grey. If you follow my Facebook page you know that I am part of Dr Juli Slattery and Dannah Gresh’s book team for their new release Pulling Back the Shades.

Here’s the thing… I am against same sex marriage and I am against the erotica/porn of Fifty Shades of Grey. However, I am not ready to go and storm the capital over them. I am more concerned about praying that God would prepare me to be able to love and minister to those who will be hurt through these things.

Those reading Fifty Shades for entertainment, obviously have never heard the true stories of the brutality that this entertainment breeds. They have never wrapped their arms around a 15 year old girl who had to have a hysterectomy because the stepfather who chose to rape her over and over was into BDSM and then when someone tried to rescue her the courts sent her back into that home and within months she was dead from abuse. That’s the reality of the “world” of BDSM… Fifty Shades just dips your toe in for a quick visit. It’s just the frog in the pot.

Deceived… so very deceived are we. So very blinded by the desires of our flesh and the whispers of the serpent of old. I have learned that the line between between being deceived and willingly embracing evil can be a very fine line. Evil I shall hate, but deception I shall pray for truth to be revealed. Yet, to both I will equally speak because sometimes I simply cannot tell which is which.

I won’t storm the Capital because it doesn’t matter what the law of the land states. Abortion is legal in our land, however as a Christian I will not choose to have one. Pornography is legal in our land, however as a Christian I will not choose to participate in it. Marijuana is legal in our land, however I will not choose to smoke it. Therefore, just because same-sex unions become legal in our land does not mean I, as a Christian, join myself in one.

What the current downhill moral decline of our nation does do is cause one to have to truly choose to obey the Lord because it is a Spirit given conviction and not just an outside conformity to culture. As for me and my house we will obey the Lord.

Sadly, the changes occurring to marriage in our nation is our own fault. We, the one man for the one woman for one life, opened the door to this because we ourselves chose to not treat marriage as a holy covenant before God. We chose to live with each other without a promise. We chose “sexual freedom”. We chose this… with our lives as the roadside billboard display for a divorce under $200 no questions asked. We stuck our toe in. Once again it’s just the frog in the pot.

Sometimes it’s easier to stand up and yell louder than to go to our knees and be humbled before our God and seek His forgiveness for our own part in the decisions of our nation. Judgment always begins with the house of God (1 Peter 4:17). The first thing that always has to be cleaned out is the temple (John 2:14-16). When the church in America is no longer a profitable business… who all will remain?

We have chosen this.

 

 

 

 

I was watching the video lesson for our Jeremiah precept class and in it Kay Arthur was sharing some of the trials that her family had been facing… as she shared her trials it hit home. As my family has been bombarded.

As I read in Jeremiah this past couple of weeks I read of the nation of the north coming to set siege on Jerusalem. This nation didn’t come to make an in and out sneak attack. They showed up with their tents and livestock and set up house all around the city walls (Jeremiah 6:3). They were there for the duration. Our family has been attacked in this way…

We have had the in and out sneak attacks from which we still carry the scars. Now what we are under is the circled round about siege. Cancer has set up camp all around us, my Daddy, my Sister-in-Law, and my Father-in-Law. What we hoped would be a short fight or at least remain a maintenance camp has proven to be a full throttle war.

Looking from the outside it’s easy to wonder as Eliphaz, Zophar, and Bildad the Butthole (as I like to refer to him) did in the book of Job what sin we could be committing to cause such an act of discipline… and I have even asked what in us needs so pruned that it requires such a fierce fire of refinement. I have struggled with God. I have asked Him to show me… and all I have heard is “trust Me“

So a strange painful peace has enveloped me as I have stood on “trust Me“

There have been so many moments that I have wanted to have a “moment”. I have wondered in my times of anger and hurt if I could just say to hell with God and walk away from Him and His Church and any attempts at serving Him.

There have been moments of stunned numbness that I have just wanted to go into a zoned out stupor and just run from reality and pretend it all isn’t true.

There have been moments of overwhelming confusion when I have wanted to fall into a heap in the floor and cry and crumble and melt away.

There have been moments of desperation when I have said God give it to me… I’ll take it. Take it away from them and pour it all on me.

There is nothing so paralyzing as helplessness. Watching a loved one battle an illness makes you feel utterly helpless. I know why the four friends grabbed their friend and carried him on his pallet to a roof and ripped off the roof to lower him down to Jesus… it was finally something they could do. Finally they could help!

The amazing thing about believers today… is that we don’t have to grab our friend and rip off a roof to get them before the feet of Jesus… we have been given direct access from any place at any time through His rent flesh. We just need friends who are willing to go boldly to the throne (Hebrews 4:16) and get us help in our time of need.

As the evil from the north circled and set up camp around the city, they came as direct call of God in order to bring judgment upon the land of Judah. The prophets and priests and leaders of the land had led the people away and were not listening to God or having any regard for His Word. They mocked Him to His face within the land that He had given them.

However… Jeremiah remained. He remained to reach the remnant. Jeremiah would suffer much persecution for His faithfulness to proclaim the truth to a people who preferred their own understanding and the sweet pleasant non condemning words of the charismatic.

As I have studied through just these first chapters of Jeremiah my God has set a resolve within me… as Kay stated “I will not fall apart!” My family also declares, “We will not fall apart!“

We will not fall apart because we serve the God who holds all things together (Colossians 1:17). You see my family is choosing to be Jeremiah’s in this day. We choose to stand for Biblical truth. We choose to not stay silent. We choose to not bow the knee to apathy or mediocrity. We choose to hold the banner of the Standard high. We choose to blow the trumpet.

Though a host encamp against us our hearts will not fear. Though war arise against us in this we will still be confident… because one thing we have asked from the Lord and this one thing we will seek… that we will dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of our life and behold the beauty of the Lord in His temple… we sing praises to the Lord… in the midst of the battle we will sing. For we know that as God made Jeremiah a fortified city so has He made us. Though the walls of our city be damaged, dented, and devalued they will not be defeated. We will be delivered. The walls of the city of our God will never fall. They will never crumble. For not even the gates of hell themselves can prevail against them.

As I was teaching the name El Shaddai in chapel to my preschoolers last Thursday one of the kids in our 4 year old class shouted out and pointed at me and said “You look like God!“

Oh I hope so!

How I hope and pray that when others look at me it is JESUS they see…

We are in the wall of God (Colossians 3:3). We are the watchmen on the wall (Isaiah 62:6). We will not fall apart. We will stand. We still trust Him.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth…

Ephesians 6:10-14

 

My Daddy needs the prayers of the saints.

When my Daddy was first diagnosed he was put on big gun chemo. This chemo had a 70% chance of being effective. It was. It worked. However, it was also giving my Daddy neuropathy. My Dad was scheduled for six rounds of chemo, he had received five of those six. The neuropathy had reached the point that the doctors explained one more treatment could put my Dad in a wheelchair. The last PET scan had showed that the cancer was dead in the tailbone and dying everywhere else. So the doctor felt it would be safe to continue with only an Avastin chemotherapy without the drug that caused the neuropathy. Everything seemed to be going well…

My Dad planned to return to work, all seemed hopeful.

Then my Dad received word from his employer that if he could not return to work without his 25lb weight restriction they would have to let him go. The doctors could not lift the restriction because the cancer was in the bones. One wrong lift could break my Dad’s back. Therefore his employer let him go. Yeh… let that sink in.

Now my Dad fights cancer and job loss. My Dad just turned 6o years old in December. Now we wait for my Dad to be able to be “approved” to receive HIS money. HIS money that he has payed in for over the past 40 years of his life. In the meantime… the doctor bills keep coming.

Then my Daddy started feeling worse… the last PET scan results showed that the cancer was “acting up”. It was hopeful that the Avastin would have held it at bay for 6 to 8 months… it didn’t. It didn’t hold even two months. The cancer has proved to be aggressive.

With cancer, my Dad can’t just go back to the treatment that was working before. He has to go to something else. He will begin a new mixture of chemo tomorrow. This mixture has a 50% chance of working. This means, according to the doctor, that it is effective in 5 out of 10 people. My Dad needs to be one of those five.

I just finished writing a devotional in my latest book and in that devotional I studied up a little on the number five in Scripture…

The Number 5

Because man has 5 fingers, 5 toes, and 5 senses the number 5 is significant and thought to be the number of human weakness. He is considered weak and dependant. The number 5 may speak of man’s weakness and inability or God’s strength and ability. Some interesting examples:

• The 5 loaves were not enough to feed the great multitude.
• The 5 brothers in Lk 16 could not keep themselves out of hades.
• The 5 husbands could not satisfy the woman at the well.

~ biblehistory.com

I am well aware of the weakness of man. I am well aware of the weakness and limitations of the greatest among us. However, in this weakness our God is strong!

Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me—to keep me from exalting myself! Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.

2 Corinthians 12:7-10

My two specific prayer request for my Daddy is that you would pray that

1) He would be One Of The Five.

2) He would receive 1st time approval of His social security benefits.

With God nothing is impossible…

I believe that… Lord help my unbelief! (Mark 9:24)

We have not… because we ask not…

So I’m asking… again.

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!

“In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.”

Matthew 7:7-12

I will be wearing white for my Daddy tomorrow… will you join me?

Will you join me and will you post it with a prayer request from your circle of influence with the hashtag #teamwayne