When Crises Come

[This was shared during worship with the people and friends of Living Water Lutheran Church, Springboro, Ohio, this morning.]

1 Kings 19:1-8
Into every human life, times of crises come. 

Pastor H. Beecher Hicks, Jr. calls our life’s crises, storms. 

It seems an apt metaphor. Like storms, crises can toss us around, make us lose our bearings, challenge our stability, make us wonder whether we’re going to go under or stand upright. Hicks says that in this life, we are either about to go into a storm, are in a storm, or have just emerged from a storm. I think he’s right.

Some of our storms--or crises--are self-created by our sin or carelessness. Others, the Bible teaches, come from the devil. Still other crises are ones that God allows to come into our lives in order to help us grow in our faith, integrity, courage. And there are times when other people can be the sources of our crises. 

But whatever their sources, crises are an inevitable part of life in this fallen and imperfect world. Now, given their inevitability and the fact that God can even use our crises for good, the real question that should occupy us when we’re in the midst of a crisis is not, “How can I avoid having crises in my life?” The question should be, “How will I handle the next crisis to come my way?” 

Or to put it another way: “Where will I turn when my next crisis arrives?”

Elijah was the greatest prophet in the history of God’s people. When, centuries later, Jesus went to the mount of Transfiguration, He was greeted by the two figures who represented the two great strands of Old Testament history: the Law, embodied by Moses, and the Prophets, embodied by Elijah. 

A prophet is one who speaks God’s Word fearlessly. 

When people have wandered from God--by doing things like failing to trust in Him, deciding which of God’s commands they’ll obey and which they’ll disobey, putting other things or people in place of God, or by perpetrating injustices against the weak or the despised, the prophet’s job is to confront people with God’s commands. 

When people suffer or are tempted by sin or feel convicted for the sins they’ve already committed, or when they feel discouraged or overwhelmed or empty, the prophet is to speak God’s seemingly impossible Word of hope and grace and forgiveness to them. 

As we discussed in Journey Through the Bible recently, the prophet’s message is often viewed with skepticism or hostility, meaning that prophets have to be confident in God. Prophets aren't usually A-listers for parties and they don't make red-carpet appearances. 

Because of this, prophets have to be people of strong faith and strong spine. They must be unafraid of human opposition, willing to stand with God no matter what. 

Elijah fit this understanding of the prophet par excellence. He spoke God’s Word with boldness, conviction, and faith.

Yet today’s first lesson, 1 Kings 19:1-8, finds Elijah in a crisis under which he nearly crumbles. 

Just a short time earlier, at God’s direction, Elijah had engaged in a contest on Mount Carmel with the prophets of the false Canaanite deity, Baal. Through Elijah, God showed His people once again that there is only one God and King of all creation, the God Who, today, through faith in His Son saves us from sin and death. 

The contest at Mount Carmel was the great triumph of Elijah’s career as a prophet, God’s proof that the words proclaimed by Elijah had, all along, been God’s Word. Elijah was vindicated and victorious.

But then, incredibly, a textbook case of crisis began for Elijah. Through Elijah and his experience in today’s first lesson, God can teach us how to cope with the crises in our lives. 

Look at verse 1: “Now Ahab [Ahab was the seventh king of Israel, the breakaway northern kingdom that came into being after the reign of King Solomon] told Jezebel [Ahab’s wife] everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, ‘May the gods [notice she doesn’t acknowledge the one God of the world, as God’s people had been taught by God Himself] deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them.” 

Jezebel vowed that within twenty-four hours, she would be sure that Elijah was dead. 

So, how did the great prophet Elijah react? 

“Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there,  while he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. ‘I have had enough, Lord,’ he said.” 

Do you know the first thing that often happens to Christians when we confront a crisis? Our memory goes. 

Faced by temptation, we sometimes forget how destructive sin is, how it can destroy our relationship with God and harm others. 

Faced by unwelcome news or a challenging problem, we forget how God has helped us face past unwelcome news and challenging problems; we think we’re on our own. 

Faced with the reality of a sin we’ve committed--some shady business about money, a cutting comment we’ve made about someone else--we either forget how God’s Law teaches us the seriousness of our sin or we forget that the God we know in Jesus Christ died and rose so that sinners like us can experience God’s forgiveness and live new lives. 

In his moment of crisis, Elijah forgot the power of God Who had just given him victory at Mount Carmel. Crises may be inevitable in this life, but we always make them worse when we focus on the crisis instead of focusing on God! 

Frightened out of his mind, Elijah focused on Jezebel when he should have focused on God. 

Eventually, Elijah does turn to God. But his prayer doesn’t, at this moment anyway, mark him as a profile in courage. He prays to God: “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.” 

Elijah prayed for the easy way out. Rather than confront his crisis, Elijah wants to be dead. 

I know that feeling. Six years ago, when the denomination of which many of us were part fully affirmed a trend that had been ongoing since at least 1991, of utterly rejecting the authority of God's Word and the truth of the Lutheran confessions, I remember wishing that I had died before this great betrayal had come to fruition. I could easily have been persuaded to pray a prayer like Elijah's.

And I have often prayed for the easy way out in my life as a Christian. 

Even Jesus, God in human flesh, did this as He confronted the prospect of the cross. In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed that it it were possible, God the Father would remove the cup of suffering and death from Him that He had come into the world to bear. But then Jesus prayed in Luke 22:42 “yet not my will, but yours be done.” 

The only way to the resurrection is through the cross. 

The only way to make it through crisis is to go through crisis with the God we know in Christ and trust Him to get us to ther other side. And Jesus' resurrection is the certain proof that He always will.

The next thing that Elijah did after running miles and miles away from Jezebel, was sleep. He slept a lot. 

Sleep can be a way of avoiding crisis, you know, especially those crises associated with sustained depression. 

But sleep can also be part of the rest and restoration we need to face our crises. This is especially true when, like Elijah, we pray for God’s help. 

It’s true that God didn’t give the help that Elijah asked for; God didn’t bring death to Elijah. But when we pray for God’s help with our crises, even when we have suggestions on the type of help God may offer us, we’re really inviting God into do what He thinks best. 

To reach up in helplessness and need to the God we know in Jesus Christ is to give him total access to our lives. It was good that Elijah did just that, because God had more for the prophet to do on this earth.

Twice in the midst of Elijah’s long nap, God sent an angel to feed Elijah bread and water. The reason was simple. Verse 7: [The angel touched Elijah and said;] “‘Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.’ So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God.” 

God was sending Elijah to Mount Horeb, which is another name for Mount Sinai, the place where God gave His Law to Moses. It was 200 miles from where Elijah was at that moment. He needed strength from God!

When you’re going through a crisis, know that God has not forgotten you, even though we may sometimes forget God. Psalm 121:8 promises all who trust in God: “the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.” Even when we confront crisis. 

Through Jesus, Who promises everlasting life to all who turn from sin and trust in Him, we have the same promise that God gave Israel through the prophet Jeremiah long ago: “I know the plans I have for you...plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” That promise belongs to us in times of crisis and times of calm, as we live, as we die, and as, in eternity, we face the God Who made us and sent His Son to die for our sins and give us eternity with Him. As was true of Elijah, God has plans for us...as individuals, as a congregation. Never forget that!

We all either have just come through a crisis, are going through a crisis, or are headed for a crisis. But we can weather them faithfully if we learn the lessons today’s incident from Elijah’s life teach us: 
focus on God, instead of the fear induced by the crisis; 

• commit to going through the crisis with God, rather than sidestepping it or running from it; 
• trust that God will respond to our prayers, usually in ways we couldn’t have imagined; 
• trust that God will give us what we need for the next step in our journeys--just as God strengthened Elijah with bread and water; and 
• finally, trust that God has plans for us, plans that no crisis can derail. 

Crises come in this world. But for the Christian, they are opportunities to remember and observe Jesus’ promise, “With God all things are possible." Amen

1935 Mercedes-Benz 150 Sports Roadster

Maybe the coolest car I have ever seen and of course, I've never seen it in person. And when I speak of "it," I mean "it," because the one pictured here is the only one still around. Multiple sources assert that only five were created by Mercedes, and this one alone survives.

According to Hemmings Motor News:

Although Mercedes had been hoping for volume production, the Sports Roadster suffered some disadvantages in the marketplace. The mid-rear engine configuration and short wheelbase ruled out any possibility of a back seat, while the 16-gallon gas tank mounted in the car's nose ate into already scarce luggage space. And the price, at 6,600 deutschemarks, was nearly double that of a basic 130 sedan.

Despite the factory's best efforts to promote the 150 as "a spirited sports car" with acceleration that was nearly equal to that of larger, supercharged cars, buyers were not interested. The 150 Sports Roadster remained in the catalogue through 1936, but few were sold. Even Mercedes-Benz doesn't know how many were produced: One record says that 20 examples were built, while another puts the number at five. There is proof of the sale of just two cars, one of which was reacquired by Daimler AG in the 1950s.

The 150 was impractical, especially during the Depression. But it was and is beautiful.

Recently, I watched a re-run of a 2010 episode of Chasing Classic Cars in which classic car-restorer and show host Wayne Carini drove the surviving 150. That had to have been fun!

I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For by U2

I remember first hearing this song and being utterly blown away by it.

It seems to speak to me on two different levels. One is about the things that we can rightly look for in this world. Love, for example.

The second level is about the one thing we can never find in this world, that only comes from the God we meet in Jesus Christ, through Whom God's kingdom comes and only comes in its fullness when, like our Lord, we die are raised from death by the One Who becomes our Father through Christ and our faith in Him.

It's sad when the things from the first category prove ephemeral or beyond our reach.

It's sadder, eternally sadder, when the eternal gladness God wants to give to us proves elusive to us beyond the gates of death because we turn our backs on Christ, the Savior Who refuses to turn His back on us.

In this world, we will never find all that we're looking for. We have eternal appetites; this world is finite, time-bound.

But, as we trust in Christ, we can be assured that God will not only give us what we were always looking for, even when we have no idea that He is what we were looking for all the time, but more. Saint Paul writes: "Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen" (Ephesians 3:20-21).

I believe that one day, in the words of another musician I love, John Ylvisaker, God "will make sense of our loving and hoping."

The Holy Spirit enables me to trust that the God Who sent His Son to die and rise for me (and for you) will do that for all who dare to trust in Him. Jesus promises that "the one who endures [in faith in Him] will be saved" (Matthew 24:13). I try to remember that every day because I still haven't found what I'm looking for.

Somewhere in time or eternity...



Isn't The Edge the most exquisitely wonderful guitarist ever?

The Plague?

Here

The Other Side of Me by Michael W. Smith

You Angel You by Bob Dylan

OK, get past the fact that Dylan doesn't have a great voice. This tune, from Planet Waves, which he recorded for David Geffen's label when he was in a dispute with Columbia Records, is not in the category of Like a Rolling Stone or Blowin' in the Wind. It's a simple, happy love song. And I'm good with that.

"You know I can’t sleep at night for trying
"Never did feel this way before
"Never did get up and walk the floor
"If this is love then gimme more
"And more and more and more"

Read more: http://www.bobdylan.com/us/songs/you-angel-you#ixzz3hj4bUGxX

[Note: At this moment, I can't get to sleep for trying.]

Growing Up

[This was shared during worship with the people and friends of Living Water Lutheran Church, Springboro, Ohio, this morning.]

Ephesians 4:1-16
Today, I want to talk with you about growing up, becoming mature. 

We all know people, I’m sure, who have grown older, but have not grown up. They’re just as childish at fifty-five as they were at five. They go through jobs, partners, and friends as quickly as Kim Kardashian produces selfies. 

The reason for this is simple: Growing up is hard work. It’s easier to be childish. 

Growing up means learning things like deciding on our values and if we will live in accordance with them, the art of compromise, how to handle disappointment, how to handle success, being accountable to others, living within our means, or striving to be better today than we were the day before. Growing up means moving away from being me-centered to being we-centered.

Since we all have to live together, it's the responsibility of every human being on the planet to grow up. And to never stop growing up because every new phase of life, right up to the moment of death, challenges us to grow, change, adapt, and create. 

We are either growing or we are dying; there is no third choice. 

Now, we all know this about growing up in how we relate to our families, our friends, our jobs. But in my years as a pastor, I have been astounded by the number of church-going Christians who work hard and intentionally at maturing in every other aspect of their lives except the most important one, their relationship with the God we know in Jesus Christ and with the people of Christ’s body, the Church. 

I can’t tell you how many good adult people I have watched over the years try to confront the big challenges of their lives--job loss, the loss of loved ones, relationship issues--with the faith of a newly-confirmed fourteen year old. 

There's nothing wrong with the faith of a newly-confirmed fourteen year old for as long as the confirmand is still fourteen years old. 

But because many people don’t keep growing as disciples of Jesus Christ beyond the age of fourteen, they’re ill-prepared to deal with the challenges and possibilities of adult life. 

Listen: We only more fully experience the greatness of God’s love, grace, and power in our lives when we commit ourselves, intentionally, to daily maturing, as disciples of Jesus Christ. 

“When I was a child,” the apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13:11, “I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.” 

As Christians, we need to daily commit ourselves to putting away the ways of childhood behind us. 

All three of our Bible lessons for today present God’s call to those who would follow and claim to believe in Jesus Christ to grow up in their faith. This call comes through with crystal clarity in the second lesson, Ephesians 4:1-16. 

In verse 1, Paul writes: “As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.” 

The calling that the Ephesians received is the same calling that Juliet has received this morning: to live and be the trusting children of God that Christ’s death and resurrection has set us free to be. 

We are to live our calling as people who have been bought and paid for by Jesus Christ through the expenditure of His body and blood on the cross. We’re to live our faith like we mean it. 

Do we mean it when we confess the words of the Apostles’ Creed or offer the Lord’s Prayer? Paul would say, then we need to live it. 

Do we mean it when we say we have been saved by God’s grace through faith in Christ, that we are committed to love God and love neighbor, that we accept Jesus’ great commission that we make disciples? Paul would say, then we need to live it.

Are we repentant for our sins and committed to showing humble compassion to our fellow sinners? Again, Paul would say, then we need to live it.

In Luke 16:10, Jesus says, ““Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much…” When we were growing up from childhood to adulthood, it was exciting and exhilarating being entrusted with more demanding tasks as we showed ourselves to be increasingly capable. We need to work at being grown-up in Christ so that we're people who can be entrusted with more and more of the challenging and important work of being Christ’s ambassadors in our everyday worlds. Nothing is more exhilarating.

Paul next describes how it looks when we’re living out our call as disciples of Christ: “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” 

Christians are not Lone Rangers. The Christian life is not about "Jesus and me," but about "Jesus and we." You can’t do Christian faith solo because you can’t do Church solo. 

When Juliet was claimed by God this morning in the waters of Holy Baptism, she was also welcomed into the Lord’s family, the body of Christ, the Church. 

As Christians, as disciples who are part of the Living Water community, we’re to be gentle and humble in our dealings with each other. We’re to be patient with each other, knowing that, though we may all be committed to growing up as followers of Jesus, the Lord isn’t finished with any of us yet. 

Just as life in our families is meant to fortify and prepare us to deal with the world each day, so life in the Church is meant to fortify and prepare us to move out into our daily lives with faith and hope, the power to resist temptation, the power to share our faith, the inspiration to keep surrendering to Christ in prayer and study of His Word. And the Church is also meant to fortify and prepare us for all that God will have for us to be and do in eternity with Him.

Paul goes on to explain, starting in verse 11, how disciples are empowered for growth in the Church: “So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers,  to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up  until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” 

In churches committed to helping disciples grow up, leaders equip the rest of the body of Christ to use their gifts, talents, abilities, and lives to live their faith out in the world, not just to be volunteers for church activities. 

The point of Living Water's mission trips and other mission efforts, for example, isn’t just to serve the people we serve together in Jesus’ name. It’s also to take us out of our everyday comfort zones and teach us to commit the same acts of witness and service in Jesus’ name in our everyday lives. 

And my job, Dan’s job, Mark’s job, the job of every Sunday School teacher and ministry leader, is to equip you to be disciples in your everyday world, to set you free to grow up as disciples of Jesus Christ. To equip you grow up. 

We are called to equip you to reach up to God and reach in to others in this church family and to pray and study God’s Word with others in our church family, so that you can reach out to the world with confidence and hope and faith in Jesus Christ. 

And we do that by encouraging you to adopt six central disciplines of Christian faith: 

(1) regular daily prayer (we will be providing you with tools for that in the months to come);  

(2) regular corporate worship on Sundays;  

(3) regular reading and study of God’s Word, both on your own and with small groups of Living Water folks (more help with that is coming, but you can still be part of Journey Through the Bible);  

(4) being part of intentional Christian friendships, small groups of people with whom you share your daily journey of faith, who encourage you when you’re down, and give you a kick in the seat when you need to grow more; 

(5) service and witness in Jesus’ name;  and  

(6) finally, giving of yourself and your possessions to the cause of Jesus Christ in the world. *

As we implement Simple Church and the discipleship culture at Living Water, you will hear more and more about these disciplines of the Christian life. 

In coming months, we’ll begin some tiny small groups that will carry the seed of deepened discipleship and spiritual growth to the next step in our congregation and we will offer frequently-changing educational opportunities for you wherever you are in your life, wherever you are in your spiritual growth--from reaching up to reaching in to reaching out. 

We want every disciple of Christ who is part of this congregation to have the chance to grow up and keep growing up. That process should start for all of us, from the moment we are baptized and continue to the moment we pass from this life into the presence of our Lord Jesus.

Taking our cue from Paul in today's second lesson, the aim of all this equipping is simple. Verse 12 on: “to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,  until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.” 

God’s Holy Spirit is at work in this congregation. You can sense it every time we gather--whether for worship or a church council meeting or a mission effort. 

My experience is that every time God is doing great things in a congregation, Satan tries to mess things up. He attacks. He sows division. He puts up obstacles. That's because Satan is the biggest jerk in the universe. 

But, we must always remember that, no matter what trouble he may cause us, Satan has already lost. Jesus has already conquered sin, death, and Satan. And we who confess Jesus Christ as God and Savior and Lord belong to Jesus Christ forever. 

If we will commit ourselves to working at growing as disciples of Christ, to lives in which God will keep us growing and thriving through daily prayer, corporate worship, the study of God’s Word, service in Jesus’ name, engagement in small groups, and giving to the cause of Christ, both through Living Water and elsewhere, we will be ready for anything, unshakeable, able to speak God’s truth to anyone with love and respect and compassion. 

And we will grow to be a united force in the world for the One Who died and rose to make us children of God, Jesus Christ. 

Wherever we may meet for worship, Sunday School, Bible study, mission work, or planning meetings, folks, this is where God is taking Living Water: to a life growing up, of continuous maturation, as disciples of Jesus Christ, so that God can use us to do all the wonderful, remarkable things He wants to do in us and through us for the world He loves. 

I ask you today, right now, to commit yourself to continued maturity as a Christian, to continued surrender to Jesus Christ, to continued commitment to each other as Christian sisters and brothers, for the good of every other disciple who is part of Living Water and for the good of the world we are called to reach with the gospel, the good news, that all who repent and believe in Jesus Christ will be saved. 

By the grace of God, I commit myself to that right now as well. Amen 

*The colors in which the six spiritual disciplines are printed correspond with the three aspects of our mission as a church:
Reach up
Reach in
Reach out

Kite by U2

"You don't need anyone or anything at all...
"I know that this is not goodbye."

Seems like a sound basis for a relationship, doesn't it? When two people know that all they need is God, they're free to love each other and never have to say goodbye. Codependency, bad; mutual interdependence, good.

Love Bono's lead vocal on this.

Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own by U2

Magnificent by U2

Original of the Species by U2

Song for Someone by U2

Ordinary Love by U2

Mysterious Ways by U2

"It's so cruel, but I don't understand the whole fuss, there are so many pressing issues in Zimbabwe..."

"...— we have water shortages, no electricity, and no jobs — yet people are making noise about a lion?" said Eunice Vhunise, a Harare resident. "I saw Cecil once when I visited the game park. I will probably miss him. But honestly the attention is just too much."

If the allegations that this magnificent animal was lured from the protection of a national park to become a hunter's trophy is true, it's horrible. But Zimbabweans struggle to understand why the death of a lion has raised such a furor in the United States.

Once in a blue moon...like on July 31

We have a "blue moon" tonight. Thanks to Howard Wilkinson for sharing this. The moon was beautiful last night.

Why the Rainbow?

[This was shared during worship with the people and friends of Living Water Lutheran Church in Springboro, Ohio.]

Genesis 9:8-17
First, a little science lesson: Rainbows are formed when rays of the sun pass through drops of rain. The raindrops act as prisms refracting the true colors of the rays. These colors usually fade into white on entry into the earth’s atmosphere. That’s what rainbows are.

But it’s often our arrogance as modern human beings to think that if we can describe what something is made of--a rainbow, for example--we’ve described it completely. We think that we fully understand it. But knowing what rainbows are cannot tell us why rainbows are. 

Fortunately, we can know the answer to that question. It’s in God’s revealed Word in Scripture, particularly today’s first lesson, Genesis 9:8-17.

But before we get to the rainbow, we need to first talk about water. The Bible makes clear that, untamed by God or His agents, human beings, water can be a destructive thing. Just this past week, we received this picture from friends in northwest Ohio. It was taken from the front entryway of the church building and that lake with the rainbow over it is the church parking lot.

Even worse than that, water filled the church basement, including the kitchen and the Sunday School classrooms. Members of the congregation worked twelve hours just to get it out. Water has its place. It can cleanse and refresh. It can allow for shipping and boating and fun activities. But when water goes where it shouldn’t be, it’s chaos. 

In fact, Genesis 1 tells us that before God began creating the universe, all was a watery chaos. Genesis 1:1-2: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” 

It was as God the Holy Spirit moved over this chaos that chaos was brought under control and God created what the Old Testament Hebrew called shalom, God’s peace and order, a creation with God at its head, human beings God’s overseers, and a creation that was at peace with humanity and itself. 

Of course, we know how long that lasted. The serpent tempted Adam and Eve into ignoring the will of God and chaos came tumbling in on every subsequent generation of human beings, on you and I who confess that “we are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves.” 

And because human beings were created to be overseers of this earth, Romans 8:22 says that the whole of creation has been groaning to be set free from our sin. That freedom will finally come when the crucified and risen Jesus Christ returns. 

If it weren’t for God acting on our behalf in Christ, we would have no help from God in this life, no hope from God for the life to come. 

Jesus Christ bore our sin in His body on the cross and rose from the dead so that all who trust Him as their only help and hope have shalom with God...and will enjoy it perfectly in His new creation in eternity.  

The Bible’s first book, Genesis, tells us that God was enraged by the chaos human beings unleashed in His creation. Genesis 6:5-8: “The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth,and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. So the Lord said, ‘I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.’ But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.” 

You and I can thank God for Noah. None of us would have been born and we wouldn’t have the opportunity for a renewed relationship with God if it weren’t for one person who trusted in God. 

Noah wasn’t perfect; he trusted in God. 

That’s part of what disciples are, you know: They’re imperfect people who trust in God and commit themselves to live and walk close with God, even when they’d rather walk other pathways. When the world would make it easier to walk other pathways. When they may ache to do what feels like the right thing, but that God says is the wrong thing.

Disciples dare to get close to God: to seek forgiveness and correction, to take direction, to soak up God’s infinite grace and love and peace. 

Noah was one single disciple and God used his faithfulness to change the course of human history. 

That raises a question for you and me: What plans for His creation does God have that can only be fulfilled by your being a disciple who walks closely with the Lord: who worships with God’s people, studies God’s word, shares the Good News, serves others in Christ’s name beyond the walls of this church? What kinds of disciples will we be? All of us who bear the name of Christ need to answer this question! 

I pray God will help me answer this question more faithfully in the future than I have in past.

God’s plan was simple. He would destroy the whole earth, while Noah and his family and all those animals would be sent by God to the ark. Then God allowed the chaos He had once subdued to fill the world and destroy everyone outside the ark. 

God let a world that had given itself over totally to evil to experience the consequences of its evil. 

And that raises another question: Given the current state of this planet...

• when we give trophies to people whose narcissism we call courage...
• when the Supreme Court labels what God calls sin “marriage”...
• when thousands of babies die because they’re inconvenient...
• when millions go hungry while millions of others of us scrape our leftovers into the garbage...
• when violence and greed and misogyny seem to be the order of the day...
• when injustices go unchecked and unnoticed...and 
• when we Christians fail to keep our great commission, sharing the good news of new life through Jesus Christ and making disciples of those whose lives are mired in chaos...

given all of this...why isn’t God letting this evil generation, of which I am a part, of which we are a part, experience the consequences of our evil or our silence in the face of evil?

Why, I wonder, when I consider the evil in me, hasn't God destroyed me, as I deserve?

The answer can be found in the rainbow. Genesis 9:11: “[God told Noah and his sons] I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth….This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.” 

God made a covenant that He would never destroy the entire earth with water. The world will one day come to an end. Several passages of Scripture say that the earth will be destroyed by fire. Many scientists, for different reasons, seem to agree.

But why? Why does God show us this grace? Why, I ask when I look at myself in prayer, hasn’t He just given up on me as a bad job, an experiment gone south? 

The early Church saw the world mired in evil and wondered why Jesus hadn’t returned to establish God’s new heaven and earth. When, they wondered, would God deliver them from this mess? 

The apostle Peter responded to their questions: “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” [2 Peter 3:9] 

There are some today who misappropriate the rainbow. Some say that it’s a symbol of equality. And while God does love all people equally and seeks all people to come to faith in Christ to be saved from sin and death, God hasn’t made the rainbow a symbol of equality. 

Some even say that the rainbow symbolizes God’s endorsement of sin. Hardly. Sin is serious business. So serious, in fact that the rightful punishment for sin--any sin--is death. 

But Christ carried the weight of our sin on the cross so that all who repent and believe in Him have the power of sin over their lives removed and have life with God. God doesn’t give the rainbow to endorse our sin.

Instead, God says that the rainbow reminds Him of His promises to us. 

It’s also given as a reminder to those of us who are Christian. It tells us: Don’t give in to despair. God has control of things, even when they seem out of control. And don’t give up on your neighbor, even if he or she derides God and dismisses their need for a relationship with Christ. 

Listen: If you can be transformed from an enemy of God to a friend of God because of what Christ has done for you and because of your faith in Christ, then your neighbor can be transformed as well. 

The rainbow reminds us that God wants to deliver all people from the evil of this world, forgive their sins, and give them everlasting life. 

Our job as disciples of Jesus Christ is to pray for our neighbors, share Christ with our neighbors, serve our neighbor as though they were Christ, give ourselves to the good of our neighbor as if we were Christ. 

Just as God used Noah, God can use you to bring His life and message to the world. You have the rainbow as His guarantee. 

So, after we’ve received Christ’s body and blood again this week, been fortified by the blessings of God and the fellowship of the saints, our job this week and every week is to be Christ’s ambassadors, inviting all to trust in Christ and live. Let’s get to it! Amen

When should you stop praying for something? [Spoiler: Almost never]

In his classic book on prayer, Ole Hallesby gives great advice on what and whether to keep praying about a desire of our heart. After all, if we've been praying for something for awhile and nothing seems to be happening, we might wonder, "Is what I'm asking for wrong? Has God already told me, 'No.'"? (And no can be an answer from God to our prayers.)

But if we love God and still desire the thing for which we've been praying, Hallesby suggests, we should keep praying, even if we've been praying about a particular subject for a long time. We should continue praying with a willingness to accept any answer God gives when it becomes clear to us and with one desire taking an even higher place than the thing for which we've been praying.

He says that we should tell God, in our own words and from the heart, "Grant this request only if it will bring You glory." Our one prevailing desire should be the glory of God.

One might pray: "This is what I'm seeking, God, for so-and-so or for myself. I could be wrong in asking for it. If I am, I trust You to show me. But for now, in case You're delaying a response in order to orchestrate events or to build my character or someone else's character, until we're ready to receive Your blessing, I keep offering this petition. Your will be done and, please, grant this petition if it will bring You glory."

And of course, such a petition, like all prayer petitions, needs to be offered in the name of Jesus, the only way to God's Father heart. Praying in Jesus' name is not a formula for "prayer success." Praying in Jesus' name is an authentic plea on the petitioner's part that what is prayed for will be consistent with the will and honor of God as revealed in Jesus.

I like Hallesby's advice. It's Biblical. Jesus commends persevering prayer. In Romans 8, Paul talks about how we don't really know how to pray as we ought, but we're called to trustingly commend our prayers to God, believing that the Holy Spirit can turn them into the God-honoring petitions that, in our spirits, we want to offer. And the Bible teaches that believers are to do all things to the glory of God, not their own.

Speaking personally, there are some prayer petitions I've experienced lifting up to God regularly for a decade or more, with no answer. In those petitioning years, sometimes I wondered if I should stop. Or, if my petitions were selfish. Or, if they were trite or deemed unnecessary by God. Or, if I was being immature in offering them. Or, if my petitions would somehow not bring God glory.

But believing that there was something God-honoring about them, I kept praying these petitions, all along submitting to God's will and asking God to grant them only if they brought Him glory.

When, after years of praying petitions like that--whether, as I say, for ourselves or for others doesn't matter--we finally experience God's positive answers, as I have, it's a humbling experience. You know you didn't accomplish the blessing that could come from God alone and you know that, in this granted petition, God is being glorified.

In other instances, I've gotten to the point where I was convinced that I needed to stop praying for some things, that God had said, "No" and I must accept that.

And in still other instances---inexplicable, tragic, and sad, people for whom I and others have fervently prayed, have died. The depths of sadness experienced by Christians who lose loved ones or friends after offering desperate prayers is a grief non-believers, with their resignation to the fates of this dying world, cannot understand. It represents one of the most haunting struggles of the Christian life, especially when someone we care about dies and our prayers didn't result in God bringing them healing in this world. We wonder why. Our faith can be shaken.

The only things that make such a tragedy bearable are (1) the promise of Jesus, God-in-the-flesh, to be with His people always in our time on earth, sustaining us, bringing other believers alongside us to bring Christ's love to us, AND (2) the promise of resurrection life in God's perfect kingdom for all who turn from sin and trust in Christ as their God and Savior.

All of the sadness of this world, all our grief in this world, I believe, will one day be explained in the world to come when we live in the direct presence of God.

More than that, we have the promise that God will dry the tears of our earthly griefs; mourning, death, and loss will be gone forever. We will more fully understand the wise words of the apostle Paul, when he says, "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us" (Romans 8:13).

But as we continue to live on this earth, I think Hallesby's suggestion stands.

You should keep praying that petition that's on your heart.

If you seek to be a faithful follower of Jesus and it hits you to pray for something, there's a good chance you should keep praying for it.

God may answer the prayer in ways you can't imagine. After all, when we pray, we don't command God as to how He answers our requests; we submit to His sovereignty, to His will.

That's why Hallesby tells us that when we're not sure about our petition, but feel compelled to offer it anyway, we should tell God with authentic submission: "Grant this request only if it will bring You glory."

I'm definitely in the keep-on-praying camp.

Amen!

Long Ago and Far Away by James Taylor

"And in between what might have been and what has come to pass,
"A misbegotten guess alas"

Not perfectionism, closeness to God

"When the desire to live all of life from the perspective of faith is built upon God's love and forgiveness for us disclosed in Jesus Christ, the self-imposed expectation of spiritual perfection dims and finally disappears. Disciples don't expect to be perfect. They simply expect to live close to God." (Pr. Michael Foss, Power Surge: Six Marks of Discipleship for a Changing Church)