No Rival

Let's play a game! It's an "opposites" game. Should be easy, right? We learned opposites almost before we could learn to read. I say, High? You say, "Low." Got it? Okay, let's begin.

Stop? That's right, "Go."

On? Yep, "Off."

Light? Right again! "Dark."

Right? "Wrong." Wrong! I mean, "Wrong" is correct, of course!

Next one. Satan? Did I hear you say, "God"? 

Welp, sorry, that's not it. Nope, not "Jesus" either. In fact, when it comes to Satan, a created being, a fallen angel, there might just be more than one opposite. It might be you, for instance: he's running around trying to steal God's glory, but you're living a life that bring God glory. An angel might rival Satan: angels are known to go around spreading good tidings of great joy, while Satan thrives on chaos, fear, worry, and spreading bad news. Really, whatever the opposite is, it is certainly not God. God has no rival, no equal, no opposite; there is no one and no thing on par with God and, therefore. no one and no thing that can be contrasted with God. 

So, why the game? Why the speech? For a long time, I would have answered "God" if someone had asked me the opposite of Satan. Good-Bad. Right-Wrong. God-Satan. It was sort of the way I was conditioned, but there are so many dissimilarities between God and Satan, it doesn't even make sense to me anymore. Satan is a created being; God is not. Satan answers to God; God answers to no one. Satan is not omnipotent, omnipresent, or omniscient; God is all those things. Satan possesses only the power and authority granted to him; God is sovereign. And though it doesn't make sense (as I sit here in the quiet of my climate-controlled environment) I still find myself thinking in such a way as to give the devil far more credit than he is due. I still get that sick feeling in my stomach when I read another school has fired a teacher for mentioning God in the classroom. I still feel anxiety rising when I hear laws are being passed to accommodate abortions. When will it stop? something within me moans. Oh, things are just getting so much worse. But isn't this the world we are warned will come? Isn't this part of the plan for God's glory? Hasn't the Lord already promised He has overcome all this? Why give Satan so much credit? God is on His throne. Satan is not being permitted to do anything God has not allowed as part of His ultimate victory. If you belong to Jesus Christ, whatever you are going through --financial difficulty, eviction, homelessness, joblessness, false accusations, a terminally sick child, abandonment, whatever --you have two options:

• Know God will deliver you from it before you leave this earth, OR
• He will deliver you from it when you leave this earth.

Either way, God is allowing it for your good and for His glory. Satan is not running amuck. Satan has not been able to sneak in the backdoor with this. Satan hasn't gotten one over on God. God hasn't suddenly checked out, gone on vacation, turned a blind eye, thrown up His hands and said, Oh, this is just too much for Me! He is still God. With absolutely no equal. With no one to whom He is accountable. Perfect in character and power, "merciful and compassionate, slow to anger, rich in grace and truth; showing grace to the thousandth generation, forgiving offenses, crimes and sins; yet not exonerating the guilty, but causing the negative effects of the parents’ offenses to be experienced by their children and grandchildren, and even by the third and fourth generations." (Exodus 34:6, 7 CJB) 

Disciples have got to think rightly about who God says He is, and who Satan is not. We have got to fix our eyes on the One who holds all things in His hands. We have got to trust in the character and authority of the One who has victory over death and calls us to be servants and heirs in His kingdom; the One who promises all things are for our good and for His glory; the One who has none to compare, none to contrast, the One who has no rival!

For All of Your Days

How big is God? Have you ever stopped to really think about that? I mean, just how knowledgeable is He? How good of a multi-tasker can He be? When you pray, if you do, does He give you His full attention, or is it like being in a crowded restaurant -- the person you're having dinner with is talking and, yes, you're listening, but you are somehow still aware that the couple next to you is celebrating their anniversary and the guy standing at the maître d's station has a twenty-minute wait for his table? 

Psalm 139:13-16 says:

For You formed my inward parts;
You covered me in my mother’s womb.
I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Marvelous are Your works,
And that my soul knows very well.
My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.
And in Your book they all were written,
The days fashioned for me,
When as yet there were none of them.

God made me. And He made you as well. But this was not so we would just live out our days as we please. God fashioned our days for us. Just think about that for a second. God has made days --the rest of your days --for you. The day that pipe leaked? Yep. The day I got the rejection letter from the publisher? Yep. The day I was fired? Yep. The day my grandson was born? Yep. Now, if He's fashioning days for you and at the same time, fashioning days for me and everybody else in this world, what kind of God must He be? What kind of God is able to manage all of these moving parts, address each one of His children personally, give them His full attention, and still work things out for their good and His glory? Never mind all those he is still calling, who have not yet followed His voice. Never mind all those who will simply go to their death having refused Him. God created each one of us, saint and sinner. Scripture says the rain falls on the just and the unjust, and God is the author and purveyor of that rain. We are all loved enough that the blood of His Son is sufficient for all who believe. We are all made in God's image --body, spirit, and mind. We all have days planned for us --a first one, a last one, and everything in between.

So many people today are searching for purpose, for identity. What is the reason for our days? Westminster Catechism asks, What is man's chief end? In other words, what is the primary goal of humanity? The answer given is, Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. We, and every day God has fashioned for us, are created to bring Him glory, to reflect and take in the peace, wonder, joy, fruitfulness, worship, and wholeness that is a life lived in accordance with God's plan. Before we drew our first breath, God --Author of time, Creator of heavenly bodies that mark our days, Lord of lords and chronology, One not at all beholden to this moment --fashioned your days. And mine. And your son's. And your neighbor's. And that lady walking her dog in a stroller. And the guy who sings loudly and off-key in the row behind you. And everyone else. All for His glory and the good of those who are His. That is a BIG God! With a very big purpose for our life --every bit of it, the fun as well as the difficult, the things we like as well as the things we'd rather not encounter --because if we trust Him, all of it will be for our good, for our benefit. Days fashioned for us by a very BIG God. And if He's big enough to turn a water leak into something good, a rejection letter into an opportunity, unemployment into a dream come true, and yet personal enough He can hear the cry of your heart across a crowded restaurant --not simply hear it, but give it His full attention --isn't that the God you want to serve for all of your days?

Feeling Uncomfortable

What makes you feel comfortable? Cozy pjs? A piping hot bucket of coffee? Rainy days? A weighted blanket? Snuggling on the sofa reading to the littlest residents of your heart? Lots of different things make us feel comfortable. The things we believe can make us feel comfortable. It doesn't make them true. Or good. Or healthy. I'm going to be perfectly upfront with you, believing it's okay for men to have intimate, even sexual relationships with men, believing it's okay for women to have intimate, even sexual relationships with women makes me feel comfortable in a few ways. 

First of all, I have several people I care for who are in homosexual relationships. I'm not talking about one-night stands or some creepy hook-up --things even they would condemn. These dear ones are married in the legal sense, living together as spouses and committed to their partner. They are wonderful, kind, compassionate people. To say that their choices are sinful, to say I cannot support or recognize their "marriage," to right here in black and white stand against their home and their most important relationship --the relationship that makes them the most comfortable --as I stand against everything this month of "celebration" in the gay community is about, to do those things makes me feel very uncomfortable. Ignoring the truth can make me feel comfortable. 

Secondly, I would never have to stutter or twitch as I nervously seek for words to explain to our youngest what Gay Pride is all about and why it goes against everything Christ taught. (It's really not the why that makes me twitch as much as it is the how of a gay relationship.) As someone who grew up knowing homosexual behavior was an abomination to God and socially taboo, knowing God created men and women and all our parts to complement and serve one another in a God-blessed, God-ordained marriage, and being heterosexual myself, explaining heterosexual biology is much more natural and appealing than the homosexual perversion of God's design. Explaining how body parts God designed for one purpose are being used for another makes me feel uncomfortable. Ignoring the truth can make me feel comfortable.

Third, I would never have to second guess my decisions with regard to activities we permit or relationships our son has developed. If our society was not so fixated on accepting sin, on indulging sin, on side-stepping what God has said for the purposes of making everyone feel comfortable, I wouldn't have to wonder if our son wanting to see the Barbie movie was innocent fun or a seed planted by society's acceptance of gay life. Do I sound paranoid? Good. This is my child we're talking about. I wouldn't have to speculate as to whether a sleepover is just a sleepover or danger is lurking. I wouldn't have to vet every adult who wants to take my child for ice cream or has a child who wants to play with ours. What would be the chances if homosexual behavior was still viewed --at least by the Church in America --as the sin it is? Ignoring the truth can free up my to-do list and make me feel very comfortable.

But I'm not called to be comfortable. Even sitting around in cozy pjs day after day, too much coffee or rain can be detrimental. Even a weighted blanket needs to be washed on occasion, and you can't very well lug it to the market week after week. And as much as I love all my teenies, all my littles, and every other young person in my life, other things require my attention from time to time and even tiny people need a break from me 😏. Feeling comfortable is a luxury, not a given and certainly not an entitlement. In truth of fact, I am called to be uncomfortable, uncomfortable with people I care about doing things that will harm them or condemn them; uncomfortable with having to explain to our youngest why people choose sin over Jesus and then publicly, willfully, crassly, impudently celebrate it; uncomfortable with the possibility our child is living in a world where innocence is a commodity and not all people are on the up and up. I am called to defend truth and uphold God's standards for myself and my family at all costs, even if it makes me feel uncomfortable. The very way those who have chosen to live in homosexual relationships or endorsement are called to do the same.

For His Glory

Ten years ago this month, I was rendered unable to speak. During a "simple" surgery I experienced some pretty significant complications. The end result was damaged vocal cords and a warning my voice may never return. Given everything I'd been through up until that point, I really didn't care: I was alive, and I was okay with that. Being an introvert, I enjoyed the silence. Having a passion for reading and studying Scripture, I was content to sit for hours and do so. It was a period of sweet serenity that seems to occur only once every few years or so. Realistically, however, silence was an impossibility in my world. When it was time for me to return to work --a job which required me to give instructions over a radio and answer phones --it became ridiculously evident I was going to need my voice. And by God's grace, it returned --not instantaneously, but over a period of a year or so, my voice grew louder. A voice, given to me on loan by a God who wants me to use it for His glory, until the day He says I no longer need it. It has taken me ten years to come to that realization.

Psalm 89:1-18 is a powerful meditation on the authority and worth of God. Verse 6 poses the questions, For who in the heavens can be compared to the Lord? Who among the sons of the mighty can be likened to the Lord? In answer, the psalmist declares of some of His attributes and wonders (v. 8-14): 

O Lord God of hosts,
Who is mighty like You, O Lord?
Your faithfulness also surrounds You.
You rule the raging of the sea;
When its waves rise, You still them....
You have scattered Your enemies with Your mighty arm.
The heavens are Yours, the earth also is Yours;
The world and all its fullness, You have founded them.
The north and the south, You have created them...
You have a mighty arm;
Strong is Your hand, and high is Your right hand.
Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne;
Mercy and truth go before Your face.

There is no one like our God! He has created all things for His glory. Time is for His glory. Currency and talents are for His glory. Our families, fields, and friends are for His glory. The walrus is for His glory. There is nothing created that truly belongs to us; it is all His and all for His glory. And, yes, even our voices --maybe especially our voices --were given to us for His glory. Praise and encouragement, correction and the sharing of the Gospel --we use our voices to bless others and bless our God. 

As I thought about this today, I realized what a great privilege it was to not only have my voice restored, but to have the blessing of speech reiterated by allowing me to hear the progression of that restoration. We typically grow up with our own voices. We don't recall our first sounds or words. By the time we are capable of understanding the marvel of language, we have been speaking for quite some time. Our own voices become much less a miracle to us and more of a "given." I had the privilege of having my voice restored when I was old enough to appreciate the miracle of speech and God's purpose for it. To hear me speak today, you may notice a certain hoarseness or breathlessness, but if circumstances are optimal (i.e. I've had plenty of sleep, my allergies are not affecting things, I've not overused my voice) you may not notice a thing. It was given to me as a child and restored to me as an adult for the purpose of glorifying my God! It doesn't belong to me. That's kind of a weighty thought, given about nine years have passed since my voice was restored.  So, what have I been doing with it all this time? Honestly, I can't say I've been using it the way I should. I've said unkind things; I've been critical. I can't say I've been using it to its full potential. There have been times I should have spoken up, should have called someone to pray with them. I have failed, despite this privilege of bearing witness to a miracle. What an offense to such a gracious God!

And yet, miracles happen every day. The miracle of sight, of hearing, of each next breath, of a God who loves His enemies so much He would die in their place. These, too, are created to bring glory to God. They are not ours to keep buried in our hearts; we are not to sit around being quietly grateful the rest of our lives, though gratitude is a wonderful start. Miracles are demonstrations, object lessons given to us by God to share with as many people we can reach. I once was blind, but now I see. So, what is your miracle? and what have you done with it?

Photo courtesy LuAnn Martin