between promises

Wandering comes when you've missed the rest. Rest comes when you step into the promise. But what about when you are between promises? When you are resting, knowing how far God has brought you and looking ahead to what he has for you, and yet you also are wandering? This is where I find myself, between promises. This is also where Joshua found himself. 

Joshua was sent into the promise land along with other spies, the land of which God said, "I am giving to you..." That's present & progressive action. It was already begun before the people were even there. That's how promises work with God: we meet him among the promises he has already put into motion. We step into them. We don't wish nor will them to appear or work out. With God, the I AM, they already ARE.

Yet, to the majority of the spies, the promise looked like a problem. Though the land was full of good things, provided in abundance by God, it was also full of strong people and big cities, and this overshadowed the promise in their eyes. But Joshua and Caleb were ready to receive. They quieted the peoples' fears and said, "We are well able to overcome it; let us at once go up and occupy the promise!" 

Joshua knew that the promise was worth the fight. He knew that after a few battles, rest would be found for the people. He was ready. But the other men (minus Caleb) said, "We are not able." I can hear Joshua and Caleb groan, "Of course we're not! But this is God's promise--is He not able!?" But their cries for rest did not win out; the people cried out and wept for fear and doubt, and Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before them, anguished as to what would happen. Joshua again spoke up, urging the people not to rebel against the Lord, who is with them and able to protect them. But they started picking up stones, ready to have their own way. The the Lord himself showed up.

"How long will this people despise me? And how long will they not believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them? I will strike them with the pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make you a nation greater and mightier than they." 

Moses intercedes, and the people are spared. But they missed the rest. They missed the promise. So he turns them around, and for 40 years they wandered, and the generation that refused to enter died before entering. Even Moses only got to peer into the promised land just before his death. But Joshua did get to enter and led the people to victory and rest for a season.

But for 40 years, he was exiled along with them. He wandered without rest. God provided for their every need, over and over again, but at the same time, it was not the promise. He had seen the promise, he had eaten of its fruit, and yet was not granted to remain. 

Why? Because the wilderness, walking between promises, forces us to trust, to follow, and to depend on God more than ever before. Sometimes we must remain between promises to keep our eyes on the giver of the promises more than the promises themselves. Once Israel was settled in the promise, for many it became their idol. They saw themselves as invincible, not because of their God, but because of their privileged dwelling place. 

Being between promises is hard. Rest is hard to come by, contentment even harder. But it is preparation. It is worth it. It will make the promise to come sweeter, yet also help you resist the temptation that the promise is above the promise-maker. God is sovereign over it all. He could have let those who saw the promise as already fulfilled and ready to receive remain there, but he didn't. He sent them with the others to wander with them. The promise is meant to be fulfilled in community. Since we are all wandering, that is where true community is rooted and established. 

"Hope must be in the future tense. Faith, to be faith, must be in the present tense." - Catherine Marshall

Hope in the promise to come. But have faith between that the wandering is not out of God's control. It has purpose and it is worth it. 

It is of concern to Him.

I find myself troubled this morning. Flooded with cares and concerns. It started last night. I take on burdens like a second skin. To put it bluntly, my prideful heart wants to be like God, and this comes out when those closest to me are hurting. I long to help, to fix, to carry it all for them. But I cannot. I become overwhelm, rightly, because my pride breeds ignorance of my own burdens that I'm not laying down. I buckle under the weight of it all, and get so upset because I don't understand anything. I don't understand anything. Sin leaves my heart breathless with pain. Not sin as in my shortcomings like this pridefulness. But Sin (capital S) as in the power that looms over us all, holding the whole creation captive in its grip. 

Grace is relentless in its pursuit of us. Freedom can be found if we let grace take us captive.

Why do we run? 

We are so afraid. I am so very afraid.

But even in simply admitting that, the chains of fear loosen. Because grace swoops in when we admit our neediness. When we realize that we cannot bear it any longer, the words of Jesus can finally be more clearly heard than ever before: "Come to me, all who are burdened and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, for it is light and not burdensome. Learn from me, for I am gentle and my heart is soft and deeply moved by your cares." And Peter's exhortation can be taken up: "Cast each of your cares upon the Him, because it is of concern to Him!"

It is of concern to Him. 

Do we believe that? That He indeed has our best interests at heart? That He loves us so intimately and is so intricately involved in the details of our days? He is not far off. We are not forsaken. He is here. Deeply entrenched in the valleys. Emmanuel. With us. 

Are my troubles gone? No. "In this world you will have trouble. But take heart, for I have overcome the world." But they do not control me. They do not lead me astray, because they no longer have power. They are under the feet of Jesus. I have cast each one of them there, and He has covered me with His peace and strength and love. I rest in the shelter of His wings. I refuse to pick them up this morning. I choose instead to take up my cross, boldly walk ahead with my eyes fixed on Jesus, the author and perfecter of my faith. He chose to cast himself on the joy that lay ahead, though He could not see it yet as He lived on this earth and headed to the cross. I choose to cast myself on that future joy and hope as well. Though I cannot see, I still believe. 

"You who have made me see many 
troubles and calamities
will revive me again;
from the depths of the earth
You will bring me up again."
Psalm 71.20

the constancy of faith.

"Hope is nothing else but the constancy of faith." (John Calvin)

I've been learning a lot lately about hope and faith. I've been reading through a devotion called Jesus today, and its center is found in the hope we have in Christ. I've been slowing walking through Hebrews, where faith is the forefront of the challenge & encouragement. the unknown author is penning to his audience of persecuted believers. I've been seeing God's immense faithfulness to a faithless, rebellious humanity as I've been in a class on the book of Romans. The biggest lesson I've been learning? Both these concepts are unseen and yet are called upon every single day in order to keep plodding on in our journey with Jesus.

Now sometimes, we do get glimpses. God does tangibly fulfill a promise. He provides when we weren't looking. He guides when we weren't seeking. He answers a prayer we had almost given up on. I've been clinging to Hebrews 2:8-9 a lot this semester:

"At present, we do not yet see everything under Jesus' control...BUT WE SEE HIM, who for a little while put on humanity, becoming a little bit lower than the angels, now crowned with honor and glory at the right hand of God, because he was willing and obedient to suffer unto death, for the purpose that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone."

Just let your heart rest on that fact. We can't see, let alone know, everything. God's sovereignty often gets lost in the pages of our sufferings and struggles and frustrations. But we can look to Jesus a whole lot more clearly than we give him credit for: just by sitting at his feet in the pages of the Word. 

But sometimes, our faith and hope get tested, and God's sovereign hand is veiled for a season. Or two. Or three. 

Sometimes, we thought we heard a whisper, we thought we started off on the right path, we thought we were seeking God with all our heart. Then a giant roadblock hits the path, there is no way around it, and we are forced to turn back. Doubts assail our hearts. We weep with confusion and frustration and--dare I say it?--disappointment. It seems as though our Father has abandoned us, has left us to strive on our own, and has neglected the things he promised to us for so long? 

What do we do with that? The easy answer is to gloss it over and repeat maxims of rote belief to ourselves. The easy path is to just follow the advice of others. The easy path is to trust ourselves. Our enemy is crafty and he knows, oh he knows so intimately, how easily deceived we are and how quickly we can adapt to spiritualize the most grievous things to make them "easier." 

Easier is not what God is about, though. Not ever. I mean, remember that day, that Saturday of Easter weekend? The day where it seemed that all hope was snuffed out, where it seemed that the faithfulness of God was at an end. Sit in that same silence for a few minutes, remembering what Saturday was all about, forgetting for a moment that "Sunday's comin'." How quickly the easy path fades away in light of the sacrifice and death of God's only Son. 

But God had not abandoned Jesus. Unlike the very popular thought: God did not turn his back on his Son that day. Not in the least. How could he? If he turned his back on Jesus in this time, how could he ever be trusted? No. Instead, He played a trump card, as my Romans professor points out. He played the ultimate trump card and Jesus did walk out of that tomb on Sunday morning.

So we can trust him. But, going back to the original question, what about those times when we really cannot see the faithfulness of God? What do we do with the thoughts if we refuse to take the easy path? 

We embrace them. Because we. are. embraced. 

Faith is not about a happy face that ignores the emotions that destroy and enslave us. Faith is about a joy-filled heart that weeps when it is necessary. That cries out in agony. That doesn't ignore but embraces even the deepest, darkest emotions that plague us, because to embrace our Jesus is to embrace the cross itself. Faith recognizes suffering as an identification with our Savior Himself. Easy? No. 

Let me quickly give an example. Yesterday I found myself in a place I've never sat before. I went to a Summer Missions commissioning service, where several of my friends and about 100 others were prayed over, challenged, and prepared for serving as summer missionaries around north america and the world. For the past 2 years prior to 2012, I sat among them. This year, I was on the other side. Sitting there was one of the hardest things I have ever done, and you know I do not say that lightly. From the moment I sat down to the moment it was finished, I just WEEPED. Pain, agony, heartache, confusion, frustration--and about a million other emotions ran through my mind in those moments. But I cannot explain to you how freeing it was to be vulnerable as I allowed myself to cry more than I have cried in years. I was able to be vulnerable with God, with myself, and with those around me. Not everyone understood why I was crying so much or how hard it was. But my God understood. His arms of healing were around me. I asked Him questions and He gave me promises. 

That is the constancy of faith. Not that all things are worked out. Not that everything makes sense. Not that everyone gets it. My Father gets it. He joins in the midst of it and is working all things out, from the messy inside out, for good. Not that I see it. But I do see Him. And that makes all the difference. He is constant. He is faithful. 

"Lift our eyes, to greater things, far beyond our finite dreams. We lift our eyes to greater things, and set our hearts on eternity. Come and set our hearts on eternity." (from "Kneel" by Pinelake Worship)

Hebrews 4:14-16

"Therefore, because we have a who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the son of God, let us hold fast the confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to be sympathetic to our needs, but on who has been tempted in every way just as we have--yet without sin. Therefore, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, with the result that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help in our need." (4:14-16)

This is the beginning of a new section for the writer. It is definitely closely related to the REST that has been defined and is our goal as believers, but in order to enter that rest we need a high priest. And not just any priest. This letter is written to Hebrew, Jewish Christians, who were sorely tempted to return to Judaism. They might have lost everything upon their conversion; similarly, they may have been promised everything back if they would just renounce this confession of Jesus as their Messiah. But the point of this letter is not to destroy or condemn Judaism, but rather to point them back to the NEW covenant by point them back to the greater-than Jesus who fulfilled the old covenant and really broke the powers that it (Torah/the Law) helped only to point out. In Jesus, God saves all the world by intervening in a way we never could. In a way no priest ever could, except for the GREAT high priest. Jesus > priesthood.

This title is only used of Jesus. No priest in the OT could assume it, and we will see why later on. But Jesus could. Why? Because not only was he a man who lived, but He was raised, and made alive again. That resurrection and the Spirit he has given us are the 2 defining proofs that Jesus is greater. No high priest has every "passed through the heavens" from death to life. You could argue that some did not taste death, but it has already been established that Jesus has done that on our behalf (2:9). And yet Jesus lives, forever the Son of God.

Because of Him, we must hold fast to our confession. He who, just like His covenant Father God, did not forsake us but has become our great high priest, will we now forsake him? Will we live in negation of what He has done by going backwards to religious deeds and duties (striving)? May it never be! 

The writer may not have gone of on that much of a tangent, but it has to be implied when one considers the ramifications of going back, of hardened hearts returning to captivity (remember Israel's grumbling?) instead of entering into the Sabbath Rest. It makes me go crazy! But we do the exact same thing! We are tempted in the exact same was! To go back to this religious routine, to strive, and to neglect this great salvation and our great high priest.

Jesus, keep us from this!

Looking at the next 2 verses, I am assured that he can and that he will do just that. He gets it. Just think of what he grew up in. He was Jewish. He has the same laws we still read in the OT, plus many more traditions regarded as law. He was without sin in that respect, but also in the deeper sense of being without sin in true fellowship with his Father. He did not profess with his mouth to live him yet stand off at a distance in his heart. Not at all. And we say, well, he was the Son of God. And I say, are we not sons & daughters too?! 

See what love the Father has lavished over us, that we should be called children of God--and that is what we are!
(1 John 3:1)

Sure, we are not "in very nature God" (see Philippians 2), but we are His. And He is ours. And in Christ, as children, we can draw near with this unshakeable confidence to His throne of grace. And that results in mercy being poured our over us. And that grace transforms into a powerful agent of help to us in our need.

Do we believe this? Are we drawing near? Or are we backing away, shrinking back from the REST we are promised, somehow afraid of the great high priest who has made the way for us?

Lord, enact confidence and assurance within us as we draw near. Remind us that there is not ever condemnation or guilt awaiting us; because we are in you there is mercy and grace and help. Thank you for adopting us and sealing that adoption with your Spirit, who enables us to cry out, ABBA, DADDY! as precious children of Him. Make us wide-eyed with wonder to yourself as we seek your face above all others. We are so in love with you. And you fully reciprocate that to us. Bless the Lord, o my soul, and forget not all His benefits. Saved from death. Healed from all sickness. Received into mercy and grace. Given the Spirit of assurance, the Helper. Praise be to our God and Father!

Striving to Rest

Oxymoronic, much? Yes. When you lay down to go to sleep, do you ever lay there and literally toss & turn to try and will yourself to sleep? Ok, maybe that's just me, but as this happened last night, I realized how much I was trying to will myself to sleep instead of let God give me rest. I was resisting Him in that small way, rather than accepting the rest He was trying to give me. Because of that resisting, it took me hours to fall asleep. The Spirit kept me praying, but I wasn't relaxing. It was really strange. But when I finally did relax, still my mind, I fell asleep and thanks to the Lord and the prayers of others, I woke up so very rested. I truly felt renewed by the night's rest. What's more, I only needed one cup of coffee to further stimulate my mind as I prepared for day by having Jesus time. If you know me, you know that's pretty incredible. God is good. 

Why did I go on that rant then? Because I've been reading a lot about this thing called rest in Hebrews over the past few days. In my last post, I wrote about fully receiving the help that Christ offers us. Opening our hands from all our efforts and things, and holding fast to the confidence that we have in Christ (see Hebrews 2:14-3:6). There is both a purpose in this and a result from it, namely REST. 

So the writer takes us back to what was said of Israel in Psalm 95. They did not hold fast to their confidence in YHWH (the Lord God), and because of their unbelief, the hardening of their hearts to His voice, which beckoned them to enter a place of rest, literally for them the Promise Land, they missed the opportunity to enter it. In a very real example, it turned a rather quick trip from Egypt to Canaan (what we now know as Israel/Gaza/ Palestine/Syria area in the middle east) into a 40-year roundabout of testing and troubles and hardship and restlessness. Yet, God showed up even in that to provide for His people. Even this reference gives voice to that time, though they were in the wilderness, "where your fathers put Me to the test and saw My works for forty years." 

The writer is using this reference to show us how we need to hold fast to our confidence in Christ. We do this by striving. We tend such a backwards view of the gospel of God. We put so, so much emphasis on ourselves and our works. This isn't anything new. Israel did the same thing. As they looked into the promised land, they said, "We are not able!" A few (Joshua, Caleb, Moses) said, "GOD is ABLE!" But they resisted. They rebelled. They shifted their confidence from the Lord to themselves, and in that they were not allowed to enter that place of rest. In fact, that entire generation did not enter it at all. Joshua & Caleb's generation did. 

But here the emphasis is rightly shifted back to God. His voice, His rest, His good news. Even the fact that He Himself rested on the 7th day after creation as the very beginning of this rest, also as the example of this rest. As I have been reading this passage and meditating on it over and over again, I've just realized how often I strive to rest instead of resting from my striving. We so often quote that verse, "Cease striving, and know that I am God," but do we know it as a foundation for how we should be living? Living FROM rest, not FOR rest? 

How then do we rest? We stand on what GOD has done, and what He will do, not on what we might add to it or accomplish for Him. We do not neglect the latter, we do not neglect working, indeed faith without works is dead, but we must not stand upon it. We are not a firm foundation; God alone is. We stand upon what He has done, how He has transformed us and brought us into this glorious inheritance of rest and hope. And we live a life of response to that. Today as I read, I was reminded that Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath (see Mark 2:23-28). In the context of when he speaks this, the Pharisees had made the Sabbath just another working day by establishing so many traditions as laws for the people to follow. They were not resting just as God rested (Heb. 4:9-10). They were striving to rest, which makes ZERO sense! Before we are quick to judge and thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought, let us remember that we do the same thing; we too strive to rest instead of stilling myself before the Lord and find rest in God alone. 

Let us take care not to harden our hearts and to exhort each other away from hard heartedness as long as it is called "today" (see 3:13), because the door to this rest, which was opened by Christ, still stands wide open! But we must respond with faith, with a heart softened by His grace, and in humility cease striving. With Jesus as our Lord, we can cease worrying about what we should or shouldn't be doing, and instead live in response to Him in all things. We can rest from our strivings. Striving says, I can rest when I'm done. Resting says, I have ample strength to do whatever God asks of me because I am resting continually in His presence, where all strength and fullness of joy resides. 

Oh my soul, find rest in God alone. From Him alone comes sufficiency and strength to abide in Him and to bear fruit for His name's sake. You can do nothing apart from Him. So be found in Him always, oh my soul. Cease striving and know that He is God. He will be exalted among the nations. He will be exalted in all the earth. Trust Him. He will move the mountains.

Encouragement in Endurance

"Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, who was faithful to Him who appointed Him, just as Moses also was faithful in all His (God's) house. For Jesus has been counted worth of more glory than Moses--as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. (For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.) Now Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, but Christ is faithful over God's house as a son. And we are His house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope." (Hebrews 3:1-6).

We are holy brothers, adopted by God through Jesus. He is not ashamed to call us His children. No, He willingly stepped off His throne, taking on every single aspect that we too possess (except the sinful nature) and came to gather us like a flock, and make us holy by His sacrifice and by His continual ministry as our high priest, interceding on our behalf to God.

We have a heavenly calling; that is, we have an apostle who came from God to testify to us of God, and a high priest who is now back with God to testify to God on our behalf, so that we might trust in Christ and thus prove this confession of what He has done for us by our unwavering steadfastness, confidence, and joyful hope. In this great calling, we are motivated to keep on living for our Savior even when the going gets tough; we can live unburdened of our past, live free from the threatening present, and "live in the future tense" by fixing our eyes on Jesus, the "blessed hope," who will soon return to us.

Both Jesus and Moses were faithful, but Moses was faithful in God's house, whereas Jesus was faithful over God's house, being the very builder and cornerstone of that house, which is the Body of Christ, the Church. We too can be a faithful part of His house, "if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in hope."

Confidence in Christ + Confession of Christ = joy and hope.
Enjoy your spiritual experience, don't just endure it. 

Know that Jesus Christ is using any and all experiences in your life to equip you for service that will glorify His name. Earlier in chapter 2, Jesus is seen as coming down to earth and becoming "in every respect" like us. He gets it. Better yet, He knows how to endure it and how it is equipping us. He endured in our nature, physically, emotionally, and mentally was like us, for the purpose that He could help us endure as well. 

So, are we receiving that help He so graciously offers us? 

We need to learn how to gaze at Jesus, and only glance at all the problems we feel confronted by. Open your hands, open your eyes, open your ears. Let all the things you cling to fall. Consider carefully this Jesus we confess. Hold fast to the confidence that Jesus is all we need. 

Oh Christ, be the center of our lives,
be the place we fix our eyes, be the center of our lives.
We lift our eyes to Heaven,
we wrap our lives around your life.
We lift our eyes to Heaven, to You.
Oh Christ, be the center of our lives.

"Behold, I am making all things new." (Revelation 21:5)

Receive

Today, I sit in my apartment, with Philip Philips playing in the background, sipping some coffee, and, even after two weeks of being back in my favorite small town, it feels so surreal. Literally like a dream. But a very good dream that God has crafted into a far greater reality than I could have ever asked for or imagined. Immeasurably more. That is how our God works. I find such rest in that. 

"Cease striving, and know that I am God," I hear Him whisper over me. I cannot earn more of Him, I cannot please Him more than the level of pleasure that Jesus has already accomplished on our behalf. The crux that haunts me is this: am I living in light of that? Or am I striving, striving, striving for more, when all has already been given. Will I receive or will I strive?

I choose to receive. Palms up, hands out in front of me. I receive.

"But I trust in you, O LORD;
I say, 'You are my God.'
My times are in your hand; 
rescue me from the hand of 
my enemies and from my persecutors!
Make your face shine on your servant;
save me in your steadfast love!
O LORD, let me not be put to shame,
for I call upon you;
let the wicked be put to shame;
let them go silently to Sheol.
Let the lying lips be mute,
which speak insolently against 
the righteous in pride and contempt.
Oh, how abundant is your goodness,
which you have stored up for those who fear you
and worked for those who take refuge in you,
in the sight of the children of mankind!
In the cover of your presence you hide them
from the plots of men;
you store them in your shelter
from the strife of tongues.
Blessed be the Lord,
for He has wondrously shown his steadfast love to me
when I was in a besieged city.
I had said in my alarm,
'I am cut off from your sight.'
But you heard the voice of my pleas for mercy
when I cried to you for help.
Love the Lord, all you his saints!
The LORD preserves the faithful
but abundantly repays the one who acts in pride.
Be strong, and let your heart take courage,
all you who wait from the Lord!"
Psalm 31:14-24

Open your hands. Receive all that has already been given. Cease striving. He is your God.