It’s a scene – it’s not the story!

Since I started speaking I have read commentaries and watched preachers online, just kind of trying to find my lane. I recently watched a video of a pastor preaching and a phrase he used resonated with me. It’s a scene – it is not the story. How often do we think that the situation we are in right now in the present feels like it is our forever place?

I love to read. Have you ever gotten so caught up in a book or a movie that you found yourself holding your breath and thinking that the main character will never get out of this?

Scholars do not all agree but many think that Job may be the oldest book in the bible. It tackles the thorny issue of theodicy or divine justice. The thought that God rewards virtue and punishes sin. Job was my least favorite book of the bible. It doesn’t fit my picture of the loving Father, waiting to welcome me home with open arms, to dry my tears, and give me my heavenly assignment (which is probably going to be heavenly garbage person but that’s okay – long as I get in the door!)

The story of Job always left me with more questions than answers. Why would God give so much grief to this good man? Just because satan challenges him? It seems very unfair, arbitrary. Is this one of those lessons in trust? I know that for me, very often, the problem is not with God, but with the limitations of my understanding.

Proverbs 3:5-6 says Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways submit to him,  and he will make your paths straight.

Isaiah 58:8-9 reminds me:

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

So I decided I needed to dig a little deeper.

You all know the story but here is the condensed version. Hopefully you can picture some of this story in your mind always keeping in mind – this is a scene – it is not the story!

We start out with Job. He has a good good life. He has a good wife, a beautiful home, livestock, servants and kids. He loves the Lord and the bible tells us he is blameless.

There are two confrontations between God and satan. God points out his faithful servant Job and satan says if you take away his blessings he will curse you. God gives satan permission to do that only not to harm him physically. Job loses his livestock, his servants, his home, and his children, but he doesn’t blame God, in fact he praises him. He said “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.

So God points this out to satan – Job has lost his earthly blessings and he is still faithful. Satan says take away his health and he will curse you to your face. God gives satan permission to take Jobs health but not to kill him and so Job is covered now with boils from head to toe. He sat in ashes scraping himself with a piece of pottery. Even his wife said “curse God and die” She gave up fast!

Now Jobs’ three friends enter the story and they see this awful sight and sit down in the ashes with Job and they stay there for a week with him, not speaking. Finally Job breaks his silence. What does he do? He complains. Well wouldn’t any of us? He wishes he had never been born, and if he had to be born he wishes he had died at birth. What good is living if it brings so much pain? He, like any of us would, was crying out. Why?

Do his friends offer sympathy and support? Nope. They point out to him that he used to encourage the weak. He should take his own advice. If all these trials have come upon him he must have sinned. He needs to confess his sin and repent so the Lord will restore him.

Job defends himself and pretty much tells these guys they are “fair weather” friends.

At about verse 36 apparently there is a storm. One of Job’s friends, Elihu compares God to the majesty of the storm and makes a speech. God speaks to Job out of the storm and asks him a series of questions and Job admits his understanding is too limited to answer and he repents. God rebukes Job’s friends/critics and tells them to make a sacrifice and that Job will pray for them so that God won’t give them what they deserve for not telling the truth about Him. Not too happy with their theology. After Job prayed for his friends, God restored him and blessed him in the latter part of his life more than He had in the former.

Wow.

So what if we walk this out looking for signs or comparisons with Jesus? Where is Jesus?

Job as one of the oldest books in the bible happened a long time before the birth of Jesus…but!

John 1 says  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

John 8:12 says When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

And John 14:6

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

We saw at the beginning – Job was blameless. The most upright man on earth suffers the most.  Remind you of someone else?

Job said “Naked I came from my mother’s womb and naked shall I return there. (Job 21). Jesus died naked on a cross.

Eliphaz at one point started just making up stuff that Job never actually did. (Job 22:6-9) Jesus was falsely accused by false witnesses at His trial before the high priest.

Eliphaz taunted Job – told him to call out to God for help. Matthew 27:43 says “He trusted God; let him deliver Him now if He will have Him.”

At one point Job cried out “Why do you hide your face, and regard me as your enemy? Jesus cried out from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

At the time that Job needed his friends the most, they failed him. Peter denied Jesus 3 times. I have failed people I love. Not intentionally but it caused pain none-the-less.

Job was raised up from his suffering when he interceded for his friends. After Jesus’ suffering, He was raised up as our intercessor.

So…Picture Job, a good and happy man, livestock, servants home, children – picture it. Beautiful life. The scene, but not the story.

Now see Job sitting in ashes, disfigured, bereft. At first too sorrow-filled to speak for a whole week! Still…A scene, not the story!

Then? Job still in ashes but his three so-called friends pointing fingers and lecturing him. Looking all high and mighty while Job is still crying out to God – asking why?

A storm, God speaks! Job in awe, realizes how little he understands. I can just picture this. Darkness, clouds and thunder and lightning and Job with his face turned to God’s voice while his friends are standing to the side, arms crossed, feeling pretty smug. Boy, Job is going to get it now!  And God proceeds to ask questions.

“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?

Tell Me, if you have understanding.

5 Who determined its measurements?

Surely you know!

Or who stretched the line upon it?

6 To what were its foundations fastened?

Or who laid its cornerstone,

7 When the morning stars sang together,

And all the sons of God shouted for joy?

And more, so much more. You have to read the book of Job – the pictures of the glory and power and majesty of God are some of the most beautiful verses I have ever read….and Job is humbled and repents.

And then God turns just a bit and there is that moment when the three friends realize that oh oh….now they have their arms behind their backs and their heads bowed…

When I was a kid we had a glassed in porch called a breezeway. The kitchen door going to the porch had a square window covered in curtains my mama made. Those curtains were ALWAYS closed. I had just gotten a whipping for something. I don’t even remember what. I went out the door and turned around to face that window and stuck my tongue out. The curtains were open and there stood my mama – frowning and crooking her finger at me. I imagine those friends having that same feeling I had multiplied by a gazillion.

A scene but not the story.

After Job prays for his friends, God restores Job’s health and blesses him with a house and more livestock and children and his life is different. You can’t go back and losses are losses but there are new blessings.

Jesus arrested, tried and crucified. You can’t judge a story by one scene.

When you are sitting in the ashes? Well if you give up when you are in the pit, you will never see the palace!

The health scare? That job you didn’t get? That problem with your marriage? Worries for your children?  A layover, not the destination!

The storm? The set up for the story!

It can be real and hard and painful, but it doesn’t define you – there is more to the story!

There are hard things that happen in this life. Sometime we cry out to God and there doesn’t seem to be an answer. We wonder how can God allow bad things to happen to good people?

There is pain, trials, suffering…death. Scenes.

There is grace, restoration, resurrection. The story!

Phillippians 1:6 being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ

When trials come – you can sit in the ashes and you can cry out to God. Just don’t stay there. Look for Jesus. Amen?

Unity in the Body of Christ

Ephesians 4:1-6 I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.

Psalm 133:1 

A Song of Ascents. Of David. Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!

When Dale and I first started coming to Powderly Methodist Church we experienced having lay speakers on a regular basis for the first time. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. Ironic? I mean, it’s not the pastor so you don’t have to pay as close attention right? I’ll admit that sometimes my mind wandered. I’d think boy is it hot up in the choir loft today and wow, I hope no one heard my stomach growl..I can hear God telling me “Little girl you are mine but sometime you need a whooping!” But then one day it hit me. I had a ring side seat to what God was doing in someone else’s life! I have come to view it as a gift. Not because every sermon is perfect. Nobody hits it out of the park every time. Sometimes I might not even agree with the speaker. But I have found that if I try to see beyond the words being spoken to what God wants me to hear, I can look for what God is doing in this person’s life as they prepare to speak. I try to find one “take-away” – something I can think about in the upcoming week. I can think on how I would have approached the lesson and marvel at how scripture can speak to each of us right where we are at any given time. As time passes I grow to love each of our lay speakers for what they bring to us, their prayers, their thoughts as they wrestle with God about what He wants them to say and praise God for what He does in their lives and in ours as we share.

I am reading a book called The Message of the New Testament by Mark Dever. In his book Mr. Dever suggests that you read the Old Testament with the view that everything points to Jesus. Then read the New Testament to answer the question – did the deliverer that was promised in the old testament come?

The author describes the New Testament as three concentric circles. The circle in the center is Christ. That is the gospels and Acts. Jesus is the new covenant – a covenant is used biblically to make a new relationship. Jesus came to make a new relationship with God’s people because our relationship had been destroyed by sin. So now you have the next circle – as the church spread you read about God’s covenant people and how they are to live out this new relationship. The first letters are to the brand new baby churches that were just trying to figure everything out and then to individuals who have been instrumental in spreading the gospel. Next is the outer circle as the Church grew and spread to the rest of the world.

The book of Ephesians is one of those letters and in the first three chapters we are given a picture of what biblical unity looks like. In today’s scripture, Paul makes the case for unity. Now you and I when we study the bible even today, we may interpret things differently. Meanings seem to change with the perspective of where ever we are right now. Not our core beliefs but the details. At the time this letter was written, the Jews and Gentiles were dealing with coming together as one church so you had Jews “US” who brought their Old Testament laws and traditions that were so ingrained coming together to worship with brand new Christians who came from other faiths and had traditionally been “them”.

Paul makes a case for Christian unity with these two groups. Not that they were expected to agree on each and every little thing. But to remind them that if they were focused on each other and their differences they were not focusing on God.

Paul lists seven ways that unity has already been given by God for the church to walk in.

1. There is one body – Christ’s body
2. One spirit – the Holy Spirit
3. One Hope – Eternal Life
4. One Lord – the Triune God
5. One Faith – the Christian faith
6. One baptism – the baptism of the Holy Spirit into Christ’s body
7. One God & Father – The heavenly Father

What do all these things have in common? The unifyer – the work of Christ’s death on the cross ties all these things (and us!) together

Notice – no where does is say we have to agree on everything – that we all have to be the same. Paul just asks that we WALK worthy of our calling.

This week as I prepared my talk, I was thinking about baby Jessica and the well. Do you remember? It was 1987 and it seemed that the entire world was watching and praying. People sent money and prayers and equipment and for 2 days we were all united in the hope of one thing – that that baby would be rescued and be okay. For two days it didn’t matter what your location, your politics, your religion, everyone was united in the hope that this story would have a happy ending. Maybe if we stretch this a little, it gives us a picture of what Christian unity can look like.

All of the people who were involved, from the folks actually present all the way to the ones like me that were glued to their tv sets and praying – all focused on one thing and one thing only – a happy ending, a human life being saved.

People brought different things to the table, some had equipment and knowledge of drilling and geology and all that goes in to safely making a way to Jessica. Some had money to help transport the necessary people and equipment and some could offer food and showers and places to stay and some were there just to share the story with the world as it unfolded. They were not all copycat robots who looked and thought and spoke the same, but their differences paled beside the rescue of one tiny soul and so they used their individual gifts to help each other focus on that and a miracle happened. Jessica McClure was brought out of a deep dark hole into the light. (And I am sure there was a lot of light –  photographers flash bulbs and the lights for the video cameras! Wow.)

And then, the whole word rejoiced. We rejoiced.

God’s covenant people, storming heaven with prayers for one thing and then not just waiting for prayers to be answered, became Christ’ hands and feet and saved someone. Paul doesn’t say you have to be a member of this or that denomination, this or that political party, be male or female, rich or poor, just walk united in Christ, coming alongside brothers and sisters in the hope that all will be saved.

In 1st Timothy Paul writes: “ First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone,  for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity. 3 This is right and is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

In Galations 3:26-28 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Our Father knows we are different – He knit us together in the womb and He knows we will not all agree all the time. Some of us won’t agree ANY of the time…on some things. But what matters is how we walk this out and this preaches to me.

1 Peter 3:8 Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble

1 John 4:12 No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

it’s not about who we are, it’s about who we are in HIM

It’s not about what we want to do, but it is about what He has done for us

It’s not about what we want out of this life, it’s about what He wants for us in the next

It’s not about who or what we hear on a Sunday morning – it’s about how we live every day until He comes back for us

My challenge to all of us this week is to take that one person that is getting on your last nerve, that hurt you for no reason, that really pushed your buttons…and look at them through the lens of Christ and the sacrifice He made for THEM as well as us. Look at them from the perspective of God desiring all meaning them as well as us to be saved. It’s my prayer that while we still most likely will not agree with them, our perspective will have changed. It can’t hurt,  and maybe, just maybe, someone will be saved.

I have recently started a new chapter in my life. I have started being on the rotation as a lay speaker at two of the four churches in our district. I have spoken a few times before but just as a sort of pinch hitter – I was a little afraid to commit to a regular schedule at least until I got my feet wet.

It’s both a joy and a scary thing for me – the joy is that I am passionate about teaching from the bible and being a “regular” makes me more intentional about studying the Word myself. The scary thing is actually doing it! I’m always afraid that I may make someone angry or say something that causes someone to stay away on the Sunday’s that I speak. I have seen people do this with other lay speakers so it isn’t totally me being neurotic.

The next Sunday I am scheduled to speak I will talk from Ephesians on Christian unity. The last few times I have written what I would say in the weeks proceeding the actual Sunday and then I would wake up at 4 in the morning that day and rewrite the entire thing. I would ask for prayers that if God has something for me that He would help me see it sooner so that I have time to run through it several times beforehand so I will feel more prepared!

So far my process is to read through the scripture multiple times, read a couple commentaries, look for outlines online and pray for God to give me insight and clarity. If you are reading this and you are a praying person I would ask for prayers for this ministry. I’m not altogether sure what a calling is but this feels like a calling and so I am also praying for affirmation and direction.

Do you have a story that you feel illustrates a time or situation where God spoke to your life? Something you would be willing to share and let me use? I would love to hear it.

Peace!

John 4:1-26 and 39-42

I Love the pictures the bible gives us. Pictures of Jesus and pictures of God’s people wrestling with how to live out their faith in the real world. Regular people just like us. The story of the woman at the well is one of those kind of stories.

Sometimes stories become so familiar that I think I know them and because of what I think I know, sometimes I miss details.

God orchestrates ordinary circumstances to accomplish extraordinary things.

In this scripture there is a little passage, kind of a side note that caught my attention. Jesus HAD to go through Samaria. Some translations say Jesus needed to go. Jews at that time had as little to do with Samaritans as possible. They would take the long way around to avoid going through Samaria. So that makes me wonder…why did Jesus, a Jew, HAVE to go through Samaria?  So, if we walk this out –  Jesus did His Father’s will. So if Jesus had to go through Samaria, then logically, it was His Father’s will that He go that way. If he had not obeyed His Father’s will, He would not have met the Samaritan woman. (sometimes when we listen to the prodding of the Holy Spirit we may go through unfamiliar and even uncomfortable territory.

If you have an encounter with Jesus, you might do something out of the ordinary (like leaving your water jug behind)

So here we are. Jesus, wholly divine and fully human is sitting at this well, tired and hot. A woman shows up at the well to get water. She must not have been rich or she might have had servants to fetch water for her.  But Jesus listens to her. He SEES her, right to the heart of her life. Maybe his words caused her to see herself through His eyes, and made her realize how badly she needed grace. I’m not sure what His words meant to the woman but we know from the text, they were personal and He revealed Himself to her as the messiah! The words must have had a profound effect on her because she was so excited that she went off and left her water jar. In the desert. Left. it. THAT is what an encounter with Jesus can do to you. I imagine if I went to Walmart for milk and was gone several hours and came back empty handed, Dale and I would be having a conversation. Now notice what happened. She went back and told the others that this man told her everything she had ever done and they BEGAN to believe. Something about what she said or maybe just how she was, made them want to meet him.

Sharing our faith doesn’t convert anyone. We just have to point them to Jesus. Jesus does the heavy lifting. It is their own encounter with the Christ that changes them.

Whatever effect Jesus had on this woman, something about her caused the people she spoke to, to have a desire to meet this Jesus for themselves and once they met Him, they wanted to hang out with him and because of their time with Jesus, Christianity spread throughout that part of the world. Pretty extraordinary!

So what are we to do with this? How does this story speak to each of us? For me, it reminds me we are all walking through a desert. It can be beautiful but also it’s dry and dusty and just harsh sometimes. On Sunday morning we come here – to our well where we can rest and be refreshed.

We are tired and thirsty. Maybe we have spent the week wrestling with our faith, trying to work out how to live as one of God’s kids. Maybe we have had one of those weeks where we resembled the Samaritan. We have worshipped on a different mountain and hung out at different wells, and our own beliefs have gotten muddied. Maybe it was wonderful and we just need to say our thanks and praise the one who sustains us. Whatever the week was like, we are here now with with our empty cups held out.  We need an encounter with Jesus. We need that thirst to be quenched. We need to be filled with living water.

But just showing up at the well isn’t enough. Like the woman at the well, we have to seek Jesus for Him to reveal Himself to us and ASK Him for that water. If we walk into the sanctuary with our empty cup held out, asking Jesus to fill it, to fill US with living water then it isn’t going to matter who is behind the pulpit. It isn’t going to matter that our favorite hymn wasn’t sung. It may not even matter what team’s playing or where we are eating after church because we will have in some way met Jesus and we will be changed. And maybe, just maybe, if we are paying attention, there will be someone we encounter in the next week that needs to meet this Jesus and we will have a conversation, or perform a kindness, or just seem different and it will point them in a new path in the desert, not just to fill a pew at our church, though that would be wonderful; but because every single person needs to know that they are not alone in the desert, needs their own encounter with the risen Christ, and needs to know that at the end of that long walk through the desert, Jesus is waiting for them.

I have been inactive here for too long. My dry spell for writing began with the election but while shocked at the results, the continuation of that dry spell has been more a response to the willingness of people to not only strongly take sides, but spew hate without even seeming to be aware of what they are saying. I fear for this world, not for myself, but for my children and their children. There are hard times coming.  Some writers can take their pain and turn it into poetry. My poetry comes from a place of peace in my soul and that is what I have been working on, but it has taken my thoughts in a different different.

Next Sunday I will give the message at church for the first time. I will post it here after Sunday. I am speaking on John 4, the story of the woman at the well. Walking though the desert to get water and meeting Jesus seemed a good place to start. I would appreciate prayers. I am not a public speaker and this is so very far out of my comfort zone. Luckily I will have a stool to sit on as it makes it even more difficult to concentrate on your words when your knees are shaking!

I’ve also had some ongoing health concerns this year and as of this post, I have a shiny new grand daughter – Nola Mae. So cares and blessings. Life moves on.