Identity: God’s and Your’s

Now the Israelites’ cries of injustice have reached me. I’ve seen just how much the Egyptians have oppressed them. So get going. I’m sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.
   But Moses said to God, “Who am I to go to Pharaoh and to bring the Israelites out of Egypt?
   God said, “I’ll be with you. And this will show you that I’m the one who sent you. After you bring the people out of Egypt, you will come back here and worship God on the mountain.”
   But Moses said to God, “If I now come to the Israelites and sat to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ they are going to ask me, ‘What’s this God’s name?’ What am I supposed to say to them?”
   God said to Moses, “I Am Who I Am. So say to the Israelites, ‘I Am has sent me to you.’” This is my name forever; this is how all generations will remember me.
-Exodus 3:9-15 (CEB)

Picture: Pixabay

Do you have an identity?  I mean a way that you identify yourself.  We might say that we are a self-identified _____.

Moses did not identify himself as a deliverer or even as a leader.  He was just a shepherd, had a family, and lived among a group of people.  In the very distant past, he was in Egypt and had a sort of career and lifestyle that did not work out.

When Moses is confronted by God and called, he asks, “Who am I?”  We might ask the same question.  Perhaps our identity puts us at odds with others and we don’t know how that opposition will work out.

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Moses is perhaps coming from a place of humility when he asks, “Who am I?”  God is restoring him to his calling that did not work out and that Moses had probably given up on.  Instead of saying, “What took you so long?”, or, “You bet I’m your man”, Moses says, in a sense, “Who me?”

I reluctant leader is better than someone with a puffed up idea of themselves.

I don’t see God coddling Moses and explaining how he is the one to lead, to go, to confront Pharaoh.  What God does say is, “I will be with you”.  Your identity will come from God being with you.

That is the key to your identity.  Wherever you have come from, whatever your weaknesses, struggles, or disqualifying traits; your identity is that God is with you.  We get too wrapped up in or tied down with notions of this or that being our identity, and so we say we can’t be with these people and those people are opposed to us.

Like Moses, we might say and others might say of us, that we are  not qualified.  But, God’s says, “I will be with you”.  Imagine being ‘qualified’, but not having God with you.

So, I think that we get too caught up in identity that is outside of just being God’s vessel.  Only God qualifies and disqualifies, ordains and denies.  We need to view others with a spiritual point of view, instead of a worldly perspective (2 Cor. 5:16).

“Who am I?”, is the wrong question.  The real issue, is, “Is God with you?”  And I don’t mean, “God on our side.”  I do mean, “Are you coming in your ‘sent-ness’ by God?”

The better question is, “Who is this God?”  Is God your idea, your explanation, or your ‘teaching’?  Or is this God, the living, being, real God who is.  Not, ‘was’ or ‘will be’; but is.

God is “I Am” because God is being, God is, and God is active.  This is especially important to realize in situations where we have suffered long, and where we assume things will never change and will stay crooked.  It is not true, because of God; who is “I Am”.

God is always alive, always actively involved and knowing what is going on, and always attentive.  God today is the same God who did things in the past.  God does not change and is the same as when he was faithful in the past.

There is no special dispensation of unfaithfulness.

Every day is a new day and a day of possibilities.  Even if or when it does not happen, God is active.  God’s loving, compassionate mercy is always alive and active.

We are broken failures like Moses, but God is that God is, and God is faithful.  Some have given up and believe that bondage is permanent, but God is getting ready to deliver.

The story of God is that God is active and relentlessly alive.  God is always working, being, living; and caring for us.  We can turn away from God, close our eyes, ears, and minds; distract ourselves, delude, and deceive ourselves with things that are not true about God.

But, God is always there, always here, always near.  How close we are to God is our choice.  The cultivation of the relationship is our choice.

God is a living person, the I Am.  God is alive.

Your identity is wrapped up in God.  Each of us have personalities, talents, gifts, and destinies that differ.  But God is the same to each one of us as Father.

Let It Rain

You showered down abundant rain, God;

When your inheritance grew weary,

You restored it yourself.

-Psalm 68:9 (CEB)

Photo: Pixabay

Are you dry?  Are you weary?  God will refresh you.

God gives us rest.  God restores us.  God fills us when we are in need.

Are we in need?  We cannot be filled if we don’t recognize our need.  God gives rest and restoration to those who seek him.

Do you seek Him?  Are you thirsty?  Are you weary?

Come to the Lord.  Return to him.  Let him fill you again.

We are thirsty.  We are dry.  We are weary.

We need refreshment.  We need restoration.  Let it rain.

God, let it rain.  God, let it rain on me.  God, let it rain on your inheritance.

Restore your inheritance.  Let your rain restore us, for your glory.  Amen.

The Lord Will Make A Way For You, If You Make Him The Way

Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.

Sing to God, sing praises to his name; lift up a song to him who rides through the deserts; his name is the Lord; exult before him!

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

-Isaiah 43:19, Psalm 68:4, John 14:6 (ESV)

You and I are each in a place in life, but many of us would like to be in another place.  Call it your promised land.  We have a dream, a destiny, a calling, an inheritance, or a birthright not yet fully received.

The path to the promise is the one who is the way.  The Lord will make a way for you, if you make him the way.  It is as simple and profound as that.

In between here and there looks like a desert.  Maybe to you it looks like an ocean, or a mountain range that is in your way.  But the word of the Lord is that God will make a way for you.

The way through the desert, the way through what seems impossible is the Lord.  He has always been the way for you and I.  Our part is to abide in him and let him take us on his journey.

The path is the one who is Lord.  He is the way to the Father and the way to the kingdom.  The Lord will make a path and lead you, if you abide in him.

The story of Isaiah 43 is the people of God going back to their land of promise, and God encouraging them, that he would make a way for them, in the desert.  This same principle holds true for believers today, because Christ is the way.  Wherever you are in your journey, Christ is with you; you are in Christ who is the way.

The past is our important story.  We learned and we gained good things and we also have scars from how we were hurt.  We are not victims of our past, nor triumphalistic deniers of our brokenness; but we have been redeemed and God redeems out past.

We are overcomers, wounded warriors, the walking wounded; we are all broken people, being made whole by Christ.  We have been receiving provision for our losses, exchanging crowns of beauty for ashes; having oil of joy instead of mourning; and being clothed with praise instead of despair. (Isa. 61:3)

Christ is the way to heaven and the way for life here on earth.  The Christian life is, “Christ in you” (Col. 1:27).  He is the way and the life, so he sustains you on your journey in and on the way.  The way in is the way on.

The past is in the past.  We can make amends and reconcile with people.  We obviously can not go back in time and it is foolishness to be obsessed with the past, idealizing it or wearing shame and despair because of the failure or defeat in the past.

God says, “Behold, I am doing a new thing, now it springs forth.  Do you see it?”  We can be blind to the present, because of an obsession with the past.  The past is over and gone.  Let it go.

God does not erase our past, but redeems it.  You get to keep the wisdom you gained from your past, while you get released from the sin and free from any bondage to the past, including the people, places, and things in your past.  You may still be with those people, in those places, and have those things; but you have changed and you have been redeemed.

The Christian life is life in Christ and it is inside out.  We have Christ in our hearts, so that he changes our identity and how we think and then how we live.

We love him and trust him with our hearts.

We often refer to getting saved as, “asking Jesus to come into our hearts”.  After we invite him in, we give him permission to live there, and make him Lord.  When he lives in us, we enter into a transformational relationship with him, that we call discipleship, which is where we learn how to live in Christ, letting him live his life through our lives.

In order to find the way, we have to let go of the past; grieve it and receive healing for how we were hurt, forgive others, and be forgiven for our blunders.  Then we can be ready to see and believe the new thing that God will do.  And the only way to get to the land of promise, our destiny, and receive our inheritance and come into our birthright, is to abide in the Lord.

Trust in him at all times.

It starts and continues, inside out, from the heart.  Have faith by walking by faith, with the one who has saved you and is taking you in and on his way towards your destiny, on the journey that is unique to you.

He is the way for you.  Other ways are detours, holding patterns, and cul-de-sacs.  This is the good news.

The path is the one who is the Lord.  He is the way to the Father and the way to the kingdom.  The Lord will make a path and lead you, if you abide in him.

Your Life on The Shelf

Do you feel like your life is on the shelf?  Do you feel like you are not living the life you were designed to live?  Do you feel like a big question mark, sitting on the sidelines of life?

Photo: pixabay

If you have this awareness, it is actually a good thing.  Somehow, you are in the wilderness, in some aspect of your life.  The wilderness is a common motif in the Bible.

Life on the shelf is where you suffer the loss of something.  You lose your job, you lose relationships, or you lose your place.  You go from active to in active.

Now what?  On the shelf, things shift from outer to inner.  Rather that doing things going outward, God shifts you to intensive inner work.

When we get put on the shelf, there is a dying that occurs, so that God can form Christ’s life in you.  God teaches us to live in his love and be accepted by him, and not live for the applause of people.  A purging happens that can not happen when we are constantly engaged in activities with people.

When we go through a stripping where things are taken away that gave us esteem, it is time to embrace God and find our whole worth in him.  We get to and have to decide how we will spend our time on the shelf.  Will we exercise faith and press into God, even if God seems distant or absent; or will we misbehave?

The choice is ours, bitter or better.  Waiting on God, when there seems to be no tangible reward, because the reward is not immediate, is the test we face.  If we lean into the experience that God puts before us and learn what lessons he is wanting us to learn, then we will be able to say that we were refined and when we come out on the other side, the gold was left.

The time on the shelf is a time to grow in loving God.  It is a time to discover God’s relationship with you: who God wants to be to you and who you are to him.  When we first get put on the shelf, we might view it as punishment or disfavor or failure.  Actually, it is a blessing.

Consider this song:

Ain’t Misbehavin’

No one to talk with
All by myself
No one to walk with
But I’m happy on the shelf

Ain’t misbehavin’
I’m savin’ my love for you

I know for certain
The one I love
I’m through with flirtin’
It’s just you I’m thinkin’ of

Ain’t misbehavin’
I’m savin’ my love for you

Like Jack Horner
In the corner
Don’t go nowhere
What do I care?
Your kisses are worth waitin’ for

Believe me
I don’t stay out late
Don’t care to go
I’m home about eight
Just me and my radio

Ain’t misbehavin’
I’m savin’ my love for you
Like Jack Horner
In the corner
Don’t go nowhere
What do I care?
Your kisses are worth waitin’ for

Believe me
I don’t stay out late
Don’t care to go
I’m home about eight
Just me and my radio
Ain’t misbehavin’
I’m savin’ my love for you

Writer/s: RAZAF, ANDY / BROOKS, HARRY / WALLER, FATS

New & Old

He also told them a parable: “No one tears a patch from a new garment and puts it on an old garment. Otherwise, not only will he tear the new, but also the piece from the new garment will not match the old.  And no one puts new wine into old wineskins.  Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins, it will spill, and the skins will be ruined.  But new wine should be put into fresh wineskins.  And no one, after drinking old wine, wants new, because he says, ‘The old is better.’”
-Luke 5:36-39 (HCSB)

Photo: Pixabay

There is an observation, that Jesus makes, and that observation is that sometimes, the old containers will not hold the new thing; and some people do not want the new thing, but prefer the old. 

God is a God of the new.  God does new things (Isa. 43:19).  Jesus brought about the new covenant (Jer. 31:31, Lk. 22:20, 1 Cor. 11:25, 2 Cor. 3:6, Heb. 8-10).  And in the second to last chapter of the Bible, the new heavens and the new earth and the new Jerusalem are described and God says, “Behold, I make all things new”.
 
He does not throw away the old, but renews it.  God also redeems, rebuilds, reforms, and restores.  God transforms people.  Transformed people function differently.  The new wine and the new fabric are the new or renewing work of the kingdom of God.

This parabolic saying about the new and old fabric, new and old wine, and the new and old wineskins  is also found in Matthew and Mark.  But in Luke, we have this last word, where Jesus remarks that, “And no one, after drinking old wine, wants new, because he says, ‘The old is better.”

Wineskins were holders of wine, like bottles, in ancient times.  New wine would expand a bit in it’s wineskin.  New wineskins were soft and flexible, allowing for expansion.  Once the expansion occurred, the skin would become harder.  If you tried putting new wine in old skins, the new wine would burst the old skins.  That’s what Jesus is saying.

Originally, Jesus was saying that his ministry was the new wine, which requires a new wineskin.  It will frankly burst the old.  He comments at the end that older wine does taste better to some people and they have no desire for the new.

We know that Jesus’ ministry in word and deed, was out in the open.  He walked from town to town, throughout regions, and ministered even in the temple courtyards.  His “new wine” was on display and flowing, yet some people watched and said, “no” to it.  And that is what this word is about, “the old is better”.

How does this apply to today?  If the wineskin signifies the holder of the wine and Jesus is dispensing new wine, we need new wine-holders.  But what does “new” mean?  Jesus inaugurated the new testament, new covenant over 2000 years ago. 

The big new thing, new wine, came in Jesus; so the old holder of the older wine was not going to hold the new wine in Jesus.  On a macro level, we have the old covenant, given through Moses, that we call the Mosaic Covenant; and then the new covenant, given by and through Jesus, called the New Covenant.

But on a micro level, we have a people, at the time of Jesus, who developed a system, a style, a way of life, or an institutionalization of how to live out their lives before God.  On the scene were rabbis, scribes, pharisees, priests, and synagogue rulers who were all functioning in a way, and in different ways, at odds with one another; that were their wineskin, metaphorically, to hold and dispense their expression of religion.

The person who says, “I like my old way.  I am very comfortable in it and have no use for new ways”, does not want the new wine.  Another side-note about wine, aged wine, is that it does not last for ever, but does go bad.  It has a shelf-life, like any food.

Jesus is not saying that fads and trends and novelties are where he wants us.  He is saying that it is not good to resist the new and be suspicious of it.  New will not fit in the old.  The holders must be renewed to hold the new and new is good. 

The test for the new is, “Is it true?”  Is it true to the scriptures, not to just how we’ve always done it or believed it.  Are we willing to be renewed, refreshed, and revived?  Some of us need rebuilding.

The reformation was and is about getting back to the authentic Christian life that we have wandered from, with our traditions, that are our wine holders and dispensers.  The reformation was incomplete under Luther and his friends, but continues today.

Jesus is reforming, restoring, renewing, reviving, and rebuilding his church.  He is still doing the kingdom, with people and building his church.  This is the new wine today.  Our customs, traditions, and well-meaning religious activities often can not handle or hold Jesus’ authentic ministry of the kingdom, so we oppose, resist, and reject it.

The New Testament scriptures brilliantly give us this account of people coming into Jesus’ authentic life in their lives and working it out together.  I believe there are so many stories and words about the folks who were religious and claimed to follow God and the Bible, yet opposed Jesus and his church, because we would need to see and know about falling into that trap, that is as easy to fall into and be captured by today and it was when Jesus lived, as a man.

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For further reading:
Custom and Command by Stan Firth (paperback), or PDF
The Problem of Wine Skins,   by Howard A. Synder (1975, dated, but timely principles)
Bursting The Wineskins, by Michael Cassidy (1981, historical testimony of personal renewal)

Seeing The Other Side of The Mountain

The Bear Went Over The Mountain by yancy9, CC BY 2.0

For now the winter is past; the rain has ended and gone away.  The blossoms appear in the countryside. The time of singing has come, and the turtledove’s cooing is heard in our land. The fig tree ripens its figs; the blossoming vines give off their fragrance. Arise, my darling. Come away, my beautiful one.

-Song of Solomon 2:11-13

Some of us have been waiting for springtime for a very long time.  We have been in a sort of hibernation, waiting for our wintertime to be over.  I believe it is finally that time.

The winter has finally passed.  You will no longer complain about a distant God, but now have a voracious appetite for the Bible, to read God’s written words.  You will hunger for and desire to feed on the word of God.

We have been like a bear in hibernation, who was looking forward to spring.  We would awaken and venture out of our caves, again and again, only to find thick winter clouds obscuring the other side of the mountain.  Then, we would go back to our cave and hibernate some more.  We would keep getting the grace to awaken, but we could not see the other side of the mountain.

There was not enough sun shine for us to see, because of the cold clouds.  We have believed that the mountain was there, but our vision was obscured by the winter clouds.

Then, again, we had the grace to wake up, once more, and things were different.  The winter was now over and we can see the other side of the mountain.  We went back and demolished our winter den and have been heading for the other side of the mountain.

Now, on the other side of the mountain, it is spring, and we can begin to see the river, that we will cross to the other side of, into our destinies, on our life journeys.  Spring is now here for many people.

Do you know this song?

The bear went over the mountain, the bear went over the mountain
The bear went over the mountain, to see what he could see.
And all that he could see, and all that he could see
Was the other side of the mountain, the other side of the mountain
The other side of the mountain, was all that he could see.

The bear went over the river, the bear went over the river
The bear went over the river, to see what he could see.
And all that he could see, and all that he could see
Was the other side of the river, the other side of the river
The other side of the river, was all that he could see.

Sing To The Lord A New Song

Sing to the Lord a new song!

-Psalm 33:3, 96:1, 98:1, & 149:1; Isaiah 42:10

When God works in your life it is always fresh and new.  God is about redeeming us.  He does new merciful work in our lives every day.  New mercies, new deliverance, and new redeeming works call for new songs.

Even though we have and sing older songs that are good, we should have new songs to celebrate the new, and there will be fewer and fewer old songs on our lips, because there will be more and more new ones.  We don’t throw the old ones away, but God constantly gives us new songs to celebrate the new things He does.  

God is always inspiring new songs.  At one time, each song was new, and celebrated God’s work for the people of that time.  If you look up a favorite old hymn, you might find that the same poet or song writer, of whom you love their song; wrote hundreds of other songs.  Each of those unknown songs were new and fresh, new songs, at one time, and graced the people who sang them.

When we sing a new song, our spirit’s leap within us, because of the fresh message of worship to God that the song puts in our hearts.  Since ancient times, there have always been new songs, because music and words contain endless combinations of expressions of worship and praise to God.  God created us with the endless creativity or our creator.

When you select a greeting card or write a greeting or note, prose, or poem in that card, to your loved one; do you write the same exact words every time, or do you say something new?  It takes some effort to say something, to write something fresh, but some people make the effort, and the receiver of the card is pleased.

The new song we sing is about what God is doing in our lives now.  It is about what God just did for you.  What new thing is God doing in your life?  That is your new song.  If you have no new song, you might not have anything to report on God working in your life.  You might want to look again and re-engage with God and find out what He is doing in your life and get your new song.

God is always working.  God is always redeeming.  That is what God does.  The Father is at work, on the move.  What is He doing in your life?  That is your song.

The new song is a celebration of God’s redeeming work in your life.  What’s the new song, now, for you?  What is the, “wow”, the, “oh my”, or the, “I stand in awe”?  Experiencing God will give you those reactions.  

God does new things all the time.  What new thing has God been doing in your life?  There is your new song.  The old songs are fine, but God gives new songs.  God is the living God who is active doing new things.  Do you see the new thing He is doing in your life?  See it and celebrate it with a new song.

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Photo credit: Carolina Wren from Bungalow Retreat website 

Suffering, Restoration, and Rest

I will restore (repay) to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten,
the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent among you.
-Joel 2:25 (ESV)

It is hard to rest when we focus on our losses, disappointments, and unfulfilled dreams; but we must.

What about all this lost time?  Why do we have to wait for our promises?  Not to have what we have dreamed about and been promised is a loss and we keep losing time in the time between the times.

But God is the great restorer.  The whole Bible is a story of restoration.  God is all about restoration.

While you wait, God is upgrading you in many areas; stretching you and maturing you: enlarging your heart.  God walks beside you in your losses, when you are betrayed, passed over, and hurt.  You are growing in faith, hope, and love.  You are learning deeper and deeper forgiveness and grace.  You must choose God a thousand times over bitterness.

The person called to healing ministry that prays for a thousand people without success or the person called to write or preach messages that writes or preaches a thousand times with little fruit; what is the difference inside of them after the one thousand compared to how they would be if they had immediate success?  The “one thousand step” people experience a lot of pain through the one thousand, a lot of death to self.  Finally, they are doing it (there could be a hundred other examples), for One.  They are doing it from and to love.  They are praying for the sick out of the Father’s heart for the sick or writing and preaching out of God’s love.

So, you might think that there’s something wrong when your gift does not work or is not called upon; but God is implementing a larger, deeper, longer plan for you.

You will also notice people along your journey who seem to have had it easy.  They got married easily, had children easily, found a great job, or are living in prosperity, got healed, have succeeded in ministry; and the list goes on and on.  Two things: You don’t know their suffering- God’s unique plan for their lives which also involves their personal brokenness and you are called (like Peter in John 21:22) to follow him and not compare yourself to other people.  Jesus had to tell Peter that it’s none of his business what he does with the other person.  You have to find your way as a unique child of God.  God has a perfect plan for you that very well may involve delays.

When God shows us his plans for us (Jer. 29:11), it is a destination that requires a journey and it is a finished thing that requires building, starting with a foundation and that all takes time.

“I will restore the years”

“It will strike you at once that the locusts did not eat the years: the locusts ate the fruits of the years’ labor, the harvests of the fields; so that the meaning of the restoration of the years must be the restoration of those fruits and of those harvests which the locusts consumed. You cannot have back your time; but there is a strange and wonderful way in which God can give back to you the wasted blessings, the unripened fruits of years over which you mourned. The fruits of wasted years may yet be yours.” (Charles Spurgeon)

In your in-between-time, you feel like you are dying.  Your patience is stretched and broken.  You are not resting well.  You are getting burned out, standing still.  You cry, “what’s happening to me?”  Job went through a terrible time of suffering.  He lost everything except his wife, some friends, and God.  Job is a long, 42 chapter book in the Old Testament.  Job tries to figure out why.  Job’s friends try to figure out why.  Job gets some bad advice from his friends and his wife.  Job never gets the answer to the why question.

In his loss and perplexity (suffering), Job cries out:

“Though He slay me, yet I will trust him.”
-Job 13:15

This is what Oswald Chambers has to say about this statement:

• God frequently has to knock the bottom out of your experience as His saint to get you in direct contact with Himself.
• God wants you to understand that it is a life of faith, not a life of emotional enjoyment of His blessings.
• The beginning of your life of faith was very narrow and intense, centered around a small amount of experience that had as much emotion as faith in it, and it was full of light and sweetness.
• Then God withdrew His conscious blessings to teach you to “walk by faith” (2 Corinthians 5:7) And you are worth much more to Him now than you were in your days of conscious delight with your thrilling testimony.
• Faith by its very nature must be tested and tried and the real trial of faith is not that we find it difficult to trust God, but that God’s character must be proven as trustworthy in our own minds.
• Faith being worked out into reality must experience times of unbroken isolation.
• Never confuse the trial of faith with the ordinary discipline of life, because a great deal of what we call the trial of faith is the inevitable result of being alive.
• Faith, as the Bible teaches it, is faith in God coming against everything that contradicts Him— a faith that says, “I will remain true to God’s character whatever He may do.”
• The highest and the greatest expression of faith in the whole Bible is— “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him” (Job 13:15).

-Oswald Chambers, My Utmost, June 20

“When it was beyond hope, he had faith in the hope (Even when there was no reason for hope, Abraham kept hoping-) that he would become the father of many nations, in keeping with the promise God spoke to him: That’s how many descendants you will have.”

-Romans 4:18

Abraham was in the midst of a 25 year wait for his promise. In our instant culture, waiting this long seems unimaginable, but big things and big times sometime require big waits. Jason wrote this:

 ..at the ages of 75 and 65, long after their bodies were as good as dead, and they had settled in their hearts that they would never have kids, God shows up, tells Abraham to leave his father’s household and head somewhere in “that” direction, and promised him the one thing Abraham and Sarah had been praying about for years: Abraham would be the father of many nations.

But the odds were stacked against them.

They had tried for decades to have a child, and were never able to conceive. They were leaving their home, the only place where they found support and encouragement and knew that people were praying for them. They were going to make a long journey to only God knew where, and they knew that Sarah was well beyond child-birthing years. The circumstances weren’t looking too good.

But Abraham still believed.

In a place with no hope, in a situation where logic and science told them that God’s promise would never come about, in circumstances that shouted that God didn’t want to give Abraham and Sarah a son… Abraham dared to hope…

And received the promise of Isaac 25 years later.

Maybe, that promise you’ve been holding onto isn’t dead just yet. Maybe that marriage you’re believing for, that child you’re praying for or that job you’re looking for is going to happen. Maybe the deepest desires of your heart really will be yours.

Maybe, just maybe, the waiting is an opportunity to hope.

And so, my brothers and sisters, as you journey through your promise, waiting for God to bring about what He said He would, may you remember to hope. May you keep your eyes on Him rather than the circumstances. And may you, as you dare to hope that God will keep His promise to you, see that promise come to pass…

Even if it is 25 years in the making.

Daring to hope…Jason

Near the end of Abraham and Sarah’s wait, they both laughed when God told each of them that the baby will be here in about a year.  I believe their laughs were a bit cynical or out of incredulity.  Then God said, “as a matter of fact, you are to name the child Isaac”.  Isaac means “he laughs”.  God will turn their incredulous laughter to joyous laughter.

If you have ever received a promise that you waited a long time for, you know that having the promise makes the wait worth it.  God really does restore those years that the locust figuratively ate in your life.  We can rest in peace as we wait with God, who has upgrade upon upgrade for us in our spiritual growth, preparing us to be the person he sees us as in the future.

on the contrary, you ought rather to forgive and comfort him

Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.

Now is the time to forgive this man and help him back on his feet. If all you do is pour on the guilt, you could very well drown him in it.

2 Corinthians 2:7 (NIV, TMB)

We need to be encouraged to forgive and restore those among us who fall into sin. The one who has fallen needs to repent, yes; but often we don’t embrace the repentant one and restore them.

Some notes on this from others:

“Forgive and comfort him: They were just as wrong in withholding forgiveness and restoration to the man when he had repented as they were to welcome him with open, approving arms when he was still in sin. The Corinthian Christians found it easy to err on either extreme, either being too lenient or too harsh… Paul told them to do more than forgive, he also told them to comfort.” (David Guzik)

“There may be a judicial forgiveness which is hard, and leaves the soul always conscious of the past. Comfort takes the soul to heart, and forgets. That is how God forgives, and so should we who are His children….. If discipline is largely lacking in the Church of today, so also is the grace of forgiving and comforting those who, having done wrong, are truly repentant. How often, alas! souls have been indeed swallowed up with overmuch sorrow because of the harshness and suspicion of Christian people toward them in view of some wrong which they have done . . . .” (G. Cambell Morgan) (These quotes are taken form David G.’s commentary at the studylight website here.)

The context for us is that today, the church has a reputation of “shooting their wounded” and shunning people who have fallen from grace, making repentance virtually impossible. Not good. This ought not be. Time to learn this.

Restored tent

Amos 9:11, Acts 15:16
In that day I will restore David’s fallen tent. I will repair its broken places, restore its ruins, and build it as it used to be.

God is a restorer. He restores things and He restores people. In these last days, God is restoring David’s fallen tent. David is the man after God’s own heart. God is calling out and bringing together a people who’s sole concern is God’s heart and going after God’s heart.

The difference between David’s tent and Moses, is that there is no veil.