Plans Change

This week a friend’s granddaughter headed out on a mission journey with other young people, then plans changed.  Their overseas flight was delayed due to stormy weather – then news arrived from their original destination that cancelled their arrival.  At the same time, another mission field opened up.  Here’s part of the notification sent to family and friends following their journey:

“Often, when involved in ministry in the midst of this crazy world, we encounter situations that at first seem frustrating. Sometimes they force us to be flexible and change plans. Thankfully, in the end we can usually look back and see how God had his hand on the situation the whole time and was working it for his glory.”

“While this is an obvious shift in plans, we are celebrating the fact that God’s plan is bigger than ours and that we’re already seeing evidence of his hand at work. Now they will be able to engage in ministry sooner than we expected.”

On trips of my own, I’ve encountered ‘challenges’ that placed me where I met people I would not have under any other circumstances.

Once, headed to Cyprus on business, I left on a flight earlier than necessary just to make certain I had plenty of time to make the Olympic Air out of La Guardia.  We were delayed at DFW, due to weather in New York, then circled for a long time over New York City before we could land.  I’ll never forget the glowing clouds over the city, then the sweep to darkness as we flew out over the Atlantic.  Over and over again.  Landed, deboarded and reached the shuttle to the Olympic terminal – only to get stuck in a tunnel behind a car whose owner abandoned it while unloading.  Didn’t make that Olympic flight and had to stay over night.

Had I made that flight, I would not have been in the airport the next afternoon to have a couple of hours to talk with a man from Macedonia.

Not the Macedonia of biblical Greece in Paul’s time, but the Republic of Macedonia of 1991.  I heard of Kosovo and Serbia; of changes in the Balkans; all first hand.  I heard of faith and trials; peace and violence; newness out of old.  We shared our witness, not just of history, but of faith.

As Peter explain his trip to Cornelius’ home, the Spirit will lead:

And the Spirit bade me go with them, nothing doubting. (Acts 11:12a KJV)

And at times lead elsewhere, as Timothy and Paul discovered:

After they were come to Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia: but the Spirit suffered them not. (Acts 16:7 KJV)

Abraham, Joseph, Daniel, Esther, Jonah, Peter, Paul – the list goes on and on – chosen to do God’s will in ways they never envisioned, in ways they never would have chosen.  Yet each will be remembered for making their lives examples under the most difficult situations, in the strangest of places.

Are we prepared for change?  Better be.

Sweet Smell of Success

I can’t say I know much about that phrase – I’ve heard it all my life and still do not understand how success can smell sweet – unless it is something as this pineapple upside down cake, which smells so good while it’s baking, and when it comes out of the oven.  But then metaphors seem to escape my understanding.

What I do know is that I’m a sweet smell (no, not because of any soap I’m using!)  The Bible tells me so:

For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish: To the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things? For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ. (2 Corinthians 2:15-17 KJV)

Of a certainty, in the sight of God I speak of Christ.  I do so out of His word, hopefully directing my readers to check out what I type just to be certain that Bible says what I think it does.

It was easy for me to understand about “them that are saved,” for they will understand God’s word and be enriched by reading it.  His word does not return void.  (Yes, it’s a reference to scripture – look it up; you can find it.)

What I didn’t understand is how we could be a sweet smell unto God “in them that perish.”  I’ve often felt a failing when one rejects Him and makes it blatantly apparent.  A pastor’s wife recently wrote of a lost relative, one who derides family members’ beliefs and continually pricks at them openly in front of friends.  This has gone on for years, with many witnessing to him of God’s love, to no avail.

To me, this has come to mean that our witnessing is sufficient to God. What we do is the sweet savour.  How it is received is not within our grasp.  Neither our will, nor God’s will, is imposed on another’s soul – it is theirs to offer to Him, or to hold selfishly as it withers.  My responsibility is the same as all mankind’s – what I give to God, not what another gives.

Just as Cain was responsible for his sacrifice and his anger taken out on his brother, we should be prepared for resentment as a response.  We should be prepared for derision – is this not what our Lord received from those to whom He was sent?  Should we expect our reception to be any better than His?

We are told He is sufficient.  We aren’t, but He is.  He is worthy.  The Bible tells me so, in Revelation 5.

Prepare For Your King

Esther was very well prepared to come to her king.  In this copy of a still from the movie, One Night With The King, we see her very well dressed. The Bible tells of of two preparations to go to him.  The first time for her wedding.  The second, to save her people. The first took months:

Now when every maid's turn was come to go in to king Ahasuerus, after that she had been twelve months, according to the manner of the women, (for so were the days of their purifications accomplished, to wit, six months with oil of myrrh, and six months with sweet odours, and with other things for the purifying of the women;) (Esther 2:12 KJV)

A year of preparing for meeting her king the first time.  I know of young couples who sit their wedding date a year in advance, but it is usually spent working, laboring, thinking, planning – and she has no time for months of myrrh and sweet odors! 

The second time she faced great danger.  To go unbidden to the king could cost her life.  This time she took three days, asking Mordecai and others to fast, too.

Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maidens will fast likewise; and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish. (Esther 4:16 KJV)

So, how should we prepare to come before our King? 

We do it every Sunday morning, to hear His word, to worship Him. Seeing some of the women in churches tells us their preparations were for something besides worship.

Some dress immodestly.  Should they choose to kneel at the altar, there would be some concern as to portions of their anatomy remaining covered.  Others display the latest and greatest fashions. In either case, their choices appear to be calling attention to themselves.

In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; (1 Timothy 2:9 KJV)

Does that mean no braids?  Of course not, and earrings (whether gold, pearl or costly) are not out of order. If they do not cause eyes to turn nor thoughts to run rampant.

What if they do?  What if there is immodesty?  This is nothing new, and you and I both know that.  Fashions are not usually designed with worshiping our King in mind.  But fashionable choices can be made with a few guidelines in mind.  Last year I wrote of our Princess Program and gave an update when the girls went shopping. They bear repeating.

We have a wall mirror in our Sunday School classroom.  When (not if, but when!) a girl comes in with a too short skirt on, we ask her (either before or after class) to set in a chair facing the mirror, then tell us what can be seen.  It’s an opener to very good discussions about modesty in a private situation.

Unlike Arab or Israeli ‘modesty squads’ I wrote of in 2008, we need not encourage confrontations, but we cannot ignore the lack of courtesy before our King.  This requires examples as we come to worship our Lord.

Timelines

Because it was written down first, the stories of ancient Babylon appear to some as being a forerunner to the Hebrew accounts of creation.  I don’t, but I’m not a scholar.

Since Abraham was called out of that same area, I would expect  the stories passed down from generation to generation to be more than similar, I would expect they did have the same roots.  The differences would be in the perceptions of the story-tellers.  It would be in their desires to tell the stories to their best advantage.

Sort of like the Cain/Abel story.  Do you think Cain told his descendants how he disregarded God and slew his brother?  Or would he, in a most human manner, place the blame on them – or on another?  Did not both of his parents do the same, Adam blaming God for giving him Eve and Eve blaming the serpent?

The stories that passed from Adam downward to Noah, on then to Abraham, through Isaac and Jacob into the children of Israel as they toiled in Egypt are not newer, but were written later.  Why?  There is insufficient evidence to say. 

Does it change the message because Genesis was put down in ink after Enuma Elis was written in cuneiform? Why would it?

Genesis clears up the creation story.  In the beginning God.

Genesis sets the record straight.  While there have been many fallen angels, expelled from heaven, there is but one God.  Though these fallen desired there to have been another, there is but one God.

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: (Deuteronomy 6:4 KJV)

This is the record that has lasted and has been lived since that time. This is the record of He who walked with Adam in the cool of the day, until sin entered:

And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden. (Genesis 3:8 KJV)

He is described throughout the ages.  He has been ignored, too.  He has been prayed to, praised, worshipped and denied.  Everyone who hears about him makes a decision as to what they will do with Him.

My decision was to heed His word, follow His commands and always remember what He has shown me:

He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? (Micah 6:8 KJV)

Search and Research

A very kind lady once asked me not to challenge people to search scriptures regarding the Messiah.  Her concern was for the family divisiveness she discovered when she did so, for the pain it caused her and those she loves.

Yet, our Lord sends us to those very scriptures.

Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. (John 5:39 KJV)

These scriptures He speaks of were the story of creation, the family of Abraham, of Israel, the laws of God from the TORAH, the prophets read in NEVI'IM, the writings of others in KETHUVIM . These are Tanakh, the acrostic of Torah, Nevi'im and Ketuvim. There was no “New Testament,” it had yet to be written.  These are what Christ referred to when He said:

Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. (Matthew 22:29 KJV)

These are the scriptures that Jesus said must be fulfilled:

But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be? … But all this was done, that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Then all the disciples forsook him, and fled. (Matthew 26:54, 56 KJV)

Mark gives specifics in his search of the scriptures:

And the scripture was fulfilled, which saith, And he was numbered with the transgressors. (Mark 15:28 KJV)

Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. (Isaiah 53:12 KJV)

Jesus gave specifics, too, when He said:

And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. (Luke 4:21 KJV)

The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; (Isaiah 61:1-2 KJV)

How wonderful it would have been to have walked with Him after the resurrection along that road to Emmaus:

Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. (Luke 24:25-27 KJV)

… beginning at Moses and all the prophets! If Christ cannot be found there, the New Testament has no value.  Just as Paul wrote:

But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: (1 Corinthians 15:13 KJV)

If He cannot be found in the Tanahk, He is not the Messiah.  My heart, mind and soul cry out that He is.  My prayer is that those who do search and research will find themselves saying, as those who met Him on the road to Emmaus:

And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures? (Luke 24:32 KJV)

May it be the same for each of us.

Comparing?

We’re comparing things all the time, making decisions as to what comes into our lives.  This chart shows a small comparison of what software is used to view my blog.  Each of those users chose their software.  We determine what we will eat, selecting from menus in our favorite restaurants.  Every day in so many ways, we compare.  With what do you compare the biblical God of creation?  First off, remember who He says He is – there is only One God.  If you disagree, by what measure was that decision made?

Isa 40:25  To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One.

Look around, did it really come from millions of years of accidents?  Was there no intelligent design behind this world of ours?  Look:

Isa 40:26  Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth.

Do you think He does not know?  Do you think your ways are hidden.  That mankind is of such unimportance to Him that He does not care about His creation?

Isa 40:27  Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the LORD, and my judgment is passed over from my God?

 Don’t you know Him?  Haven’t you listened?

Isa 40:28  Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.

We’re certainly not the first to consider Him, nor will we be the last.  He is available to all who seek Him.  I like this St. Augustine quote:

“Therefore do not seek to understand in order to believe, but believe that you may understand."

I know Augustine believed that because he is quoted more than once about understanding:

"God is not what you imagine or what you think you understand. If you understand you have failed."

That lack of understanding does not negate our search for Him, our acknowledgement of Him nor our gratefulness to Him.

Wait

Waiting is not one of my strong points.  I don’t like to make other people wait, either.  Yet it happens.  I have to wait, and I cause others to wait, too.  We all do.

I’ve wondered what kind of patience David must have had.  Anointed king of Israel, then sent back to herd the ship for years more.  Called to service King Saul, the very king he was to replace – but when. Did he think Samuel got it wrong?  Did he question God?  Ask “Why?”

We know what he wrote later:

Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD. (Psalms 27:14 KJV)

‘Patience’ isn’t found in the KJ Old Testament, but it is mentioned 33 times in the new. Jesus used it in Luke when He spoke the parable of the sower:

But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience. (Luke 8:15 KJV)

He used it again when speaking to the disciples about what would be coming in the future:

In your patience possess ye your souls. (Luke 21:19 KJV)

Paul took quite a few words to tell us that tribulation not only brings patience, but that patience brings hope.

Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope:  (Romans 5:1-4 KJV)

Can we wait?  Up to half a lifetime, as David did, before what we are promised comes to pass?  When we do, it is worthwhile.

But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. (Romans 8:25 KJV)

Wait, on the Lord – and He will keep his promise.

Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. (Psalms 37:5 KJV)