Soul Comfort

Soul Rainbow

(Thoughts after PS, teaching elder at Sojo’s church, led us into Noah’s life in Genesis 8 & 9)

600 years strong, Nepic4oah was.

His “right” heart before God kept God from wiping out the whole race in his fury. (Gen. 6:7,8) Noah was a rock! He diligently obeyed for many years while withstanding ridicule & opposition, then weathered the terror of the flood.

Fast forward to the rainbow (Oh the bliss of this glorious thought!) depicting the unconditionally loving, utterly merciful, personal, 2nd chance-giving God of ours! Even when He knew those on earth would blow it again, His faithful love dictated that he make a way to really be right (eventually through the only Right One – Jesus).

But the insight we discovered together was the contrast in Noah’s stance before and after the rainbow. His fear of the Almighty One kept him from swaying as he built the ark and preached apocalypse to his jeering contemporaries. The fear of the catastrophic power of the God who brought the flood could have paralyzed him as he again stepped down onto dry ground. So the rainbow’s promise must have brought astounding relief for him and his family.

But, things were not all rosy after the rainbow. God’s word doesn’t hide the sin of the man whom God had called “righteous and blameless”. He’s found shamefully drunken… resulting in ruinous impact on his family for generations…

Did Noah lose his sense of purpose after the flood… and his alertness when there were no opponents hounding him? Could the fledgling remnant of humanity have fallen prey to more subtle, inner temptations of “self, home and the menial”? The confusing scene after the rainbow seems to scream a warning about the fragile human condition where inner temptations may actually outweigh outer ones.

The rainbow points to the Right One who walks alongside us in our sin, and kindly brings us to repentance again and again to make our hearts right. And we need that as much “at home” as “on the job” – maybe more! – When our guard is down and there’s not a big accomplishment we’re reaching for… when it’s down to the menial things of life.

“What would our house say about us?” …The place where we’re off duty and not on display building our arks?

That’s where we need the fear of God in us even more – for our good and protection! The inner temptations are more subtle and insidious, so our vigilance and our open ears to the Right One need to be alerted and strengthened.

As Brennan Manning puts it: [Accepting the gospel of grace]

“…means hanging in there with God, learning our mind tricks by experiencing how they defeat us, recognizing our avoidances, acknowledging our lapses, learning completely that we cannot handle it ourselves. This steady self-confrontation requires strength and courage. We cannot use failure as an excuse to quit trying.”  The Ragamuffin Gospel, p. 86

There’s a rainbow for your soul today – pointing to the promise of Jesus who saves us from ourselves, from the wrath of God….and from giving in to defeat.

What part of your heart needs that rainbow today?

 

Soul Comfort

Soul Peace

The stunning promise of peace was penned approximately 700 years before the Prince of Peace arrived; and penned in the midst of a battered, disappointed, dysfunctional, sorrow-filled world. Two of the prophets that foretold the coming of this Prince lamented similar problems of their day.

  • Isaiah – the degraded political condition of Israel
  • Micah – the social ills that sound like things we see on the news today

Micah predicted the fall of the capital of Israel with messages of doom, but then of hope. Reading his Old Testament writings you see the extent to which his nation had fallen, and the lies they lived by despite warnings and pleadings.

 

“Listen to me, you leaders of Israel!

You hate justice and twist all that is right.

You are building Jerusalem

on a foundation of murder and corruption.

You rulers make decisions based on bribes;

you priests teach God’s laws only for a price;

you prophets won’t prophesy unless you are paid.

Yet all of you claim to depend on the LORD.

“No harm can come to us,” you say,

“for the LORD is here among us.”

Because of you, Mount Zion will be plowed like an open field;

Jerusalem will be reduced to ruins!” Micah 3:9-12

And we thought today’s world was bad….

Micah goes on to warn that their enemy would eventually come to destroy Jerusalem, but in the next breath he promises that a ruler would come from the little town of Bethlehem.

Bethlehem

“But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,
who are too little to be among the clans of Judah,
from you shall come forth for me
one who is to be ruler in Israel,
whose coming forth is from of old,
from ancient days…to be their source of peace”. Micah 5:2,5

In the mire of violence and abandonment, a whisper of peace, like a mirage, gives hints of hope.

“He will be called… the Prince of Peace” Isaiah 9:6

 

As prophesied, that Prince born in Bethlehem, came to buy our peace and later said,

 

“My peace I give to you not as the world gives…” John 14:27

 

It’s beyond this world, it’s incomprehensible!

 

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

(DS) Peace is not sleepy, lethargic passivity. Peace is freedom from anxiety – often in the midst of intensity and pressure. Peace is not the avoidance of risk, stress and tension – that’s just boring life! Peace is the choice to turn from self-reliance, which leads to destructive anxiety, to God-reliance, right in the middle of the high-stakes challenges. That’s where the gusto is – not in avoiding the risks, but in enjoying them with God. What happens when I turn from self-reliance to God under stress?

 

“Do not be anxious…let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Phil 4:6

 

By taking hold of his precious and magnificent promises, I partake of the divine nature – PEACE. Right in the midst of the battle and intensity …yes peace, beyond comprehension because I just tapped into the divine nature!

* * *

Where in your life do you need to tap into His promise of peace today?

Soul direction

Soul Time

“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.
“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” 

J.R.R. Tolkien, Fellowship of the Ring

 

Facing our world and our lives can be daunting.  Here are some beginning tips on how to go for it.

 

Video Player

 

Check out the pdf for reflection in my last post.  reflect2106

Soul direction

Wisdom to your soul

How do we get wisdom into our soul?

CANfield

In our busy-ness we’re in danger of mismanaging ourselves.  “Your toughest management challenge is always yourself” Bill Hybels says.  Make it a priority to find time to set aside for your own reflection and planning for the year ahead.  It will make a big difference in your sanity!

“The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding.” Proverbs 4:7

“Teach us to number our days,
That we may present to You a heart of wisdom.” Ps. 90:12

 “Jotham became mighty, because he ordered his ways before the LORD his God…”  2 Chron 27:6

 

“Be very careful, then, how you live–not as unwise but as wise. ”  Ephe 5:15

 

 “He who offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving honors Me; And to him who orders his way aright I shall show the salvation of God.”  Psalm 50:23

 “The wisdom of the sensible is to understand his way, But the foolishness of fools is deceit.” Prov. 14:8

For a pdf download on some steps to ordering your days before God click here.  reflect2106

Soul training

Overtaken Soul

ManPushingRock

In moments when my sin wants to get the upper hand, to assign to me deserved condemnation, I have an Advocate, a Way out of that; something much more powerful than even my sin!

The fact that I am guilty is clear. The greater fact that upon confession I am free from that guilt takes faith in the reality of what Jesus did. I can live under the shadow of guilt or take the gift of forgiveness that leads to freedom and change. Sometimes I can stare at forgiveness or freedom like a beautiful, expensive gift, unopened and unappreciated.

Psalm 40 has intrigued me.  After a verse like

Ps 40:5 – “You have multiplied, O Lord my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us; none can compare with you.”

and

Ps. 40:11- “O Lord you will not restrain your mercy from me; your steadfast love and faithfulness will ever preserve me.”   

Then he says,

Ps. 40:12 – “For evils have encompassed me beyond number; my iniquities have overtaken me…my heart fails me.”  40:13 – “Be pleased to deliver me…”  

This shows quite a contrast, from high praise to near despair, crying to him for help.  So we’re in good company when we feel amazed at God as we look back on his goodness, but then get overwhelmed as we see our shortfalls and the obstacles before us as we look forward.

When things in our lives want to overtake us, there are ways out.  “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man…”  1 Cor 10:13

Here are some valuable words on dealing with sufferings of life when you feel overtaken from Michael Hyatt’s podcast by Michelle Cushatt 11-2015:

Lessons from suffering:

  1. The unexpected is unavoidable. It’s just unavoidable. That sounds like bad news, but when we incorporate that into our daily lives, into our stories, we realize it’s totally unavoidable, so we shouldn’t be surprised by it. Don’t let yourself be completely derailed by the phone call you didn’t expect, the promotion that didn’t work out, the child who’s struggling, or whatever it may be. The unexpected is unavoidable for all of us. We’re in good company.
  2. The second lesson is that the suffering is invaluable. I tell people, that’s not a good party conversation. Nobody wants to talk about suffering, but it is invaluable. In the midst of suffering, you can be mad at it, you can be angry at it, but if there is a way to lean into it, the rewards on the other side are just incredible. So somehow we have to figure out how to not resent it and resist it. It’s going to come. We can’t do a lot about it, so if we can somehow not resent it or resist it and instead lean into it, the suffering becomes a great teacher.
  3. The third takeaway would be that the reward is incomparable. We know we run those 26.2 miles of the marathon because of how it feels when it’s done, to know we accomplished it, and that’s just a race. Imagine how much more rewarding this life is when we choose to run it well to the very end. So the unexpected is unavoidable and the suffering is invaluable, but the reward is incomparable.

“. . . often God leads us through the land we most want to avoid in order to produce the fruit we most desperately desire.” The Land Between: Finding God in Difficult Transitions by Jeff Manion p. 191

What unopened gifts are you staring at?