Jesus

When It Seems Jesus Doesn’t Care

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Here I am with another mostly borrowed blog post. But this one spoke to me as deeply as the one I posted yesterday. Some days, God can feel distant and silent. If we trust in our feelings, we’re very much tempted to give up on God. But if we trust in the promises of God that are all Yes and Amen, we will find that God is present even in the silences and we can see Him near just as our eyes adjust to the darkness around us:

“Martha came to him Jesus and asked, ‘Lord, do you not care?’ (Lk 10:40).

Lord Jesus, when Martha called your empathy and compassion into question, thank you for giving her grace and not taking offense. Though she ‘only’ felt under-appreciated, there are times when we experience crises, stories, and heartaches that seem to contradict your compassion, care, and control.

When ‘darkness hides your lovely face’ we become vulnerable to all kinds of graceless voices:

•The devil’s toxic whisperings … ‘Where IS your Jesus now?’.

•Karma replacing the Gospel, telling us, ‘You’re sick because of hidden, unconfessed sin’.

•The narration of a cynical friend or weary family member, or nosy neighbor. Like Job’s wife telling Job, “Curse God and die” Job 2:9.

•Our own emotionally exhausted, pain-fueled monologue … ‘Maybe there is no Jesus. Maybe I’d be better off dead.’

Lord Jesus, though you don’t always explain yourself or fix things on our timetable, you will never “crush the weakest reed or put out a flickering candle” (Matt.12:20). The Scriptures are very honest about life between your resurrection and return: We will have days when mystery is more real than mercy, heartache is more tangible than hope, and pain is more convincing than providence. But, we will never have a Jesus-absent day.

When we’re angry like Jonah (Jonah 4:9), disillusioned like Job (Job.10:15), fearful like Elijah (1 Kings 19:3), doubt you like John the Baptist (Matt. 11:3), ‘beastly’ like Asaph (Psalm 73:21-22), despairing of life like Paul (2 Cor. 1:8)… you welcome us, and meet us right there… taking no offense, only giving us grace.

Jesus, no one cares like you. No one understandings suffering like you. No one has done more to eradicate all ‘death, mourning, crying and pain’ (Rev.21:4). Thank you. Meet us today, and meet our most weary friends through us. So Very Amen” (Scotty Smith).

A Prayer of Confession for 2024

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I found this prayer penned by Scotty Smith on Facebook and thought it was worth sharing. I think more than anything the Church in America needs to posture itself for the new year in a position of repentance and seeking forgiveness for not living up to biblical standards.

I think on one hand we’ve been too legalistic and self-righteous, looking down on others who sin differently than we do. I also think at times we’ve tried to look too much like the culture we’re called to reach out to and have compromised the message of salvation in the process.

So here’s my prayer for 2024:

“Abba Is Changing Us. Let’s Cooperate.

‘If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness’ (1Jn.1:8-9).

Heavenly Father, for your steadfast love, we bless you. For your patience and kindness, we praise you. For your daily mercies, we trust you. Hallelujah… you’ve already declared us righteous in Christ, and now you’re at work to make us as beautiful as Jesus. Here are some of the areas of heart and life for which we need grace and the Spirit’s work—clear manifestations we’re not as Christ-like as you intend.

•We confess thinking of ourselves too much and marveling at Jesus too little.

•We confess it’s easier for us to rush to judgment than linger in your presence.

•We confess over-believing our fears and under-resting in the Gospel.

•We confess scheduling ourselves into bad attitudes and diminishing health.

•We confess indulging a critical spirit more than we seek your Spirit’s filling.

•We confess being more upset by the news than at peace through your Word.

•We confess making more of other’s sins and weaknesses than our own.

Father, thank you for the full forgiveness we already have in Christ, and the sure hope of being like Jesus one Day. We look to you for strength to repent quicker when you convict us of these and other sins. Humble us. Change us. Heal us. Free us. Thank you… and So Very Amen (Scotty Smith).”

True Faith Prevails

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“Christendom has had a series of revolutions and in each one of them Christianity has died. Christianity has died many times and risen again; for it had a God who knew the way out of the grave” (G.K. Chesterton, The Everlasting Man).

It seems that in every generation, people have tried to modify Christianity to make it more culturally acceptable and more palatable to modern ears. The Bible even promises that people won’t want to hear the truth but will follow after those who tell them what they want to believe and want to hear.

But true faith has a way of outliving all those who want to change it. True orthodox Christianity will always exist because it alone has the power to transform people and truly set them free. There is only one gospel with the power to save.

I don’t claim to be smart enough to understand how true faith has managed to stay alive all these centuries, even when it was just about dead in the world and hardly any recognizable form of the gospel could be found.

But I believe that just as God promised Elijah that there was a remnant in Israel who remained faithful, so God again promises that there will always be a true remnant who will hold fast to the teachings of the Bible and of the true Jesus of the gospels. And it won’t be because of any of us who are super faithful and super spiritual, but because it is God’s truth and God will preserve His truth.

My prayer for those who have fallen into false teaching and a pseudo-faith is that they will come to THE truth — not my truth, not their truth, but God’s unchanging and unwavering truth as found in Scripture. I pray they will embrace true faith and find the true joy of salvation.

And I will trust that God is able to keep that which He has created and committed to us, the real and true gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Bread of Life

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I ate dinner at The Cheesecake Factory with the family today. Yes, that place that has a menu the size of War and Peace. But they also have bread.

One of my favorite pleasures has to be freshly baked bread right out of the oven, covered in just the right amount of butter. The taste, the texture, and the way it melts in my mouth all make for happiness. I could live without a lot of things, but I seriously doubt I could live without bread.

And think about it. Bread is such a staple for so many parts of the world. Back in Jesus’ day, bread was a daily part of their lives and integral to every meal. So when Jesus said that He was the Bread of Life, he was saying more than He was one of the four food groups, spiritually speaking. He was saying that the more we know and love Jesus, the more we find Him completely satisfying on every level.

If I had let myself, I could have eaten basket after basket of bread and not had any room left for the entree. That would have been foolish. But when Jesus is the bread of life, we find that there’s no such thing as too much. The more we learn and the more we see, the more we want and the more our desire grows to know and love and serve Jesus. The more we want to share this Bread with others.

May the love of Jesus never grow old for any of us, but may we always savor Jesus and carry His aroma wherever we go to those around us in all the places we go.

Church Is Hard

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I’d say Church is hard because we’re all broken and flawed people, scarred and marred by the ravages of sin. Church is filled with imperfect people. Yes, Church is filled with hypocrites because as much as we want, our lives never exactly line up with our words.

Let these words sink in and remember that while Church is hard, is where God has never failed to meet us:

“CHURCH IS HARD.

Church is hard for the person walking through the doors, afraid of judgement.

Church is hard for the pastor’s family, under the microscope of an entire body.

Church is hard for the prodigal soul returning home, broken and battered by the world.

Church is hard for the girl who looks like she has it all together, but doesn’t.

Church is hard for the couple who fought the entire ride to service.

Church is hard for the single mom, surrounded by couples holding hands, and seemingly perfect families.

Church is hard for the widow and widower with no invitation to lunch after service.

Church is hard for the deacon with an estranged child.

Church is hard for the person singing worship songs, overwhelmed by the weight of the lyrics.

Church is hard for the man insecure in his role as a leader.

Church is hard for the wife who longs to be led by a righteous man.

Church is hard for the nursery volunteer who desperately longs for a baby to love.

Church is hard for the single woman and single man, praying God brings them a mate.

Church is hard for the teenage girl, wearing a scarlet letter, ashamed of her mistakes.

Church is hard for the sinners.

Church is hard for me.

It’s hard because on the outside it all looks shiny and perfect. Sunday best in behavior and dress.

However, underneath those layers, you find a body of imperfect people, carnal souls, selfish motives.

But, here is the beauty of church—

Church isn’t a building, mentality, or expectation.

Church is a body.

Church is a group of sinners, saved by grace, living in fellowship as saints.

Church is a body of believers bound as brothers and sisters by an eternal love.

Church is a holy ground where sinners stand as equals before the Throne of Grace.

Church is a refuge for broken hearts and a training ground for mighty warriors.

Church is a converging of confrontation and invitation. Where sin is confronted and hearts are invited to seek restoration.

Church is a lesson in faith and trust.

Church is a bearer of burdens and a giver of hope.

Church is a family. A family coming together, setting aside differences, forgetting past mistakes, rejoicing in the smallest of victories.

Church, the body, and the circle of sinners-turned-saints, is where He resides, and if we ask, He is faithful to come.

So even on the hard days at church—

The days when I am at odds with a friend, when I’ve fought with my husband because we’re late once again. When I’ve walked in bearing burdens heavier than my heart can handle, yet masking the pain with a smile on my face. When I’ve worn a scarlet letter, under the microscope. When I’ve longed for a baby to hold, or fought tears as the lyrics were sung. When I’ve walked back in, afraid and broken, after walking away.

I’ll remember, He has never failed to meet me there” (Pat Smith).

An Advent Prayer from Henri Nouwen

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I realize that we are past Advent. If you follow the ancient ways, then you are aware that this is the third day of Christmas, so it still counts. Also, this time of the kingdom of God being now and not yet feels like an extended Advent season as we wait for Christ’s return:

“O Lord,

How hard it is to accept your way. You come to me as a small, powerless child born away from home. You live for me as a stranger in your own land. You die for me as a criminal outside the walls of the city, rejected by your own people, misunderstood by your friends, and feeling abandoned by your God.

As I prepare to celebrate your birth, I am trying to feel loved, accepted, and at home in this world, and I am trying to overcome the feelings of alienation and separation that continue to assail me. But I wonder now if my deep sense of homelessness does not bring me closer to you than my occasional feelings of belonging. Where do I truly celebrate your birth: in a cozy home or in an unfamiliar house, among welcoming friends or among unknown strangers, with feelings of well-being or with feelings of loneliness?

I do not have to run away from those experiences that are closest to yours. Just as you do not belong to this world, so I do not belong to this world. Every time I feel this way I have an occasion to be grateful and to embrace you better and taste more fully your joy and peace.

Come, Lord Jesus, and be with me where I feel poorest. I trust that this is the place where you will find your manger and bring your light. Come, Lord Jesus, come.

Amen” (Henri Nouwen).

Lessons Learned Slowly

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“‘A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices.’

This tiny window when the world falls asleep (or attempts to) on Christmas Eve is my favorite. Anticipation. What a gift!

Yes, we will wake up in the morning and devour our presents. We will rip our wrapping paper to shreds and down our favorite Christmas fare at the table. And then, we will feel it. The air falls flat. The glow from the lights fails to warm us fully. What’s different? Time has betrayed us. Another thing we love just cannot last.

That’s when my favorite Christmas song kicks in. “The thrill of hope” doesn’t expire tomorrow afternoon. We can access it anytime, even on a random Tuesday in March. The promise lingers. The truth remains. His birth was an entry point into time and space. His life and death? A timeless revolution. When will we ever learn that our silly calendars hold no sway.

Let us come together tomorrow with the understanding that the joy that this world affords is always tinged with sorrow, an afterburn that leaves us unsettled. Even still, let us lift our eyes to the eternal and everlasting promise. Our world IS weary, but our ‘thrill of hope’ can never, ever die!” (Jennifer Whitwell Christensen).

I used to love and dread Christmas Day.

I loved seeing all the presents as a kid and feeling all the nostalgic emotions as I got older, but I dreaded the inevitable letdown of Christmas being over for another year. I knew all those festive decorations would be going back into boxes and back into storage for another 11 months.

I dreaded coming to the end of Christmas Day and hearing the words “Christmas is over” when I was not even close to being ready for it to be over. Especially lately, when the whole season seems to fly by as quickly as one of Santa’s sleighs in the night sky.

It’s like the magical part disappears and the humdrum reappears and life goes back to grey after bursting forth in green and silver and gold and a multitude of other colors for a while. No more Christmas for 364 more days.

But the older I get, I realize that what I love most in this world are merely shadows pointing to a truer form I will know in the next. Everything that brings me joy now is a foretaste of a greater joy that no sorrow can steal nor death destroy.

When all the packages are gone and decorations put away, the hope of the season remains. I can truly be like Scrooge and honor Christmas in my heart all the days of the year because Christmas means that God has come near, and that remains true into January and beyond.

Highly Favored

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“This hit me.. Another perspective of being ‘highly favored.’

She was ‘highly favored’ but was almost put away by the man she loved the most.

‘Highly favored’ but she was rejected by every person in Bethlehem.

‘Highly favored’ but she laid on the dirt floor of a barn and gave birth to a baby she carried nine months.

‘Highly favored’ but in the middle of the night had to leave all she knew and move to a strange town because God said so.

Favor never looks like favor at first. Favor sometimes takes you through frustration, failure, and fear. You want to be favored of God? It may be in darkest night or deepest valley. But there in that place where no one sees you and you feel like no one understands whisper to yourself, ‘This is only the beginning not the end. This will turn out for my good and His glory. This is because… I’m Favored.’”

Repost Brent Carr

#thelindsaychronicles #highlyfavored

You’ve probably heard of the expression “favor ain’t fait.” I think in this case, it’s true. Mary’s life would have been way less complicated if she hadn’t been chosen and favored by God. But no one would have remembered her name. No one would have her example of faith to follow.

Because of her embracing God’s calling, she got to witness the in-breaking of God into the world as a baby. She got to hold Emmanuel, God with us, in her arms.

She also lived to see that same son crucified. She also witnessed all of His agony and weep while He was tortured to death. She saw the place where they laid Him in a tomb and saw the stone rolled in front to seal Him in.

But best of all, she was eyewitness to Jesus rising from the dead and from that tomb. She saw with her own eyes the hope of the world and how death and hell had been defeated and how the grave would no longer have the last word. She saw the true fulfillment of salvation that was to be for all people, given to those who receive it in faith.

She was highly favored. That doesn’t mean she was guaranteed an easy or a comfortable path, but she knew the glory that awaited at the end of the road. She knew God was with her on that journey and that at the end was the redemption she had hoped and prayed for all her life.

Who Is Jesus?

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Recently, I read a post that bothered me. It basically stated that Jesus was a bleeding heart liberal socialist whose sole purpose was to stand for everything that conservatives hate. To me, that’s just as wrong as reinventing Jesus as a middle-class white Republican who is all about capitalism and the American dream.

The problem with both is that they make Jesus too small. Way too small. To reduce Jesus to something that fits comfortably into your social and political worldview is to recreate Jesus into your own image the way God created us in His. It’s to pare the claws of the lion of Judah and make Him tame, as Dorothy Sayers put it.

But Jesus is far beyond and above our politics. He’s far beyond and above our likes and dislikes and our opinions. He’s fully part of the Godhead trinity just as He is 100% God and 100% man. You can’t take in the totality of His words and believe what He said without recognizing Him as no less than God incarnate in human flesh.

Jesus Himself stated that to get Him wrong is to get the Father wrong. Did you get that? To get Jesus wrong is to get God wrong. To get God wrong is to get life and eternity wrong.

Those in the Bible who met Jesus and understood who He was fell on their faces and worshipped Him as God. They left everything behind and followed Him, willing to take up their crosses and suffer the way He suffered. They were all willing to lay down their lives for Jesus rather than deny Him (even Peter who got it wrong the first time was willing to die for the sake of his Savior).

This is the Jesus of the Christmas story. Not a Democrat or a Republican, liberal or conservative, socialist or capitalist. This Jesus is the very God who made the heavens and the earth and who is Lord of lords and King of kings. This is the one who came to save us from our sins. This is Jesus.

White Stones

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“Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it” (Revelation 2:17, NIV).

I learned something interesting recently. When the Romans were building their roads, sometimes they used small white stones known as either tiger eyes or cat’s eyes in between the larger stones. The purpose was for those smaller white stones to reflect the moonlight at night to help people see where they were walking at night.

I don’t ever want to be guilty of reading too much into any biblical text or seeing something that isn’t there, but I wonder if there’s a connection. If the white stones were guideposts along the road, then someone with a white stone would be able to help others find their way to God.

I remember that Jesus told us that we were the light of the world and a city on a hill that can’t be hidden. When we live out of the overflow of God’s provision and in accordance to His will, we reflect God to those around us and help those who are lost find their bearings and their way.

Just as the moon doesn’t generate its own light but only reflects the light of the sun, so we don’t in our own strength or wisdom lead people but only so far as the image and light of God is reflected in us and through us. That only comes through surrender and obedience.

When the people of God truly live out their calling, they don’t point people to themselves or to their impressive churches or activities but to the awesome power of God who meets us where we are but doesn’t leave us that way.