A lot of Christians today like to talk about “spiritual warfare.” Up until fairly recently I always thought spiritual warfare was this demons versus angels thing that happened on some plane of existence that I couldn’t see, and therefore didn’t really need to worry about that much. But spiritual warfare is real, and it does affect us.
After sorting through several very wordy definitions on the internet, I decided that spiritual warfare is most easily defined as the constant battle raging between the forces of good (God, His angels, and His human followers) and evil (Satan and his minions). In a way, it’s like a giant game of chess played across the vast board of time. God makes a move, and Satan makes a quick countermove. Back and forth, back and forth. Personally, I like to think of human beings as the pawns on that giant chess board. When you begin a game of chess, pawns really aren’t good for much. They can only move one direction, forward, and only one space at a time. Occasionally you can use them to take out an opponent’s piece, but it doesn’t happen very often. But, as every good chess player knows, it is possible to transform a pawn into something extremely useful. If you can somehow manage to sneak a pawn behind enemy lines to the very back of the board, then you can “promote” that pawn to any piece you choose. That seemingly-useless pawn suddenly becomes a rook, a knight, a bishop, or a queen. Not only that, but the new piece is behind enemy lines. Suddenly the pawn has transformed into a vital asset. In my opinion, this is a bit like what happens when we become Christians. Suddenly we have a place in this battle, and God is able to use us to do great things. Not to say that He couldn’t use us before, because He can do anything. But any chess player knows it’s far easier to play with a board full of rooks, knights, and bishops than with a row of pawns. (I am a huge fan of chess, and could probably write an entire book on chess analogies. But for the sake of your sanities, I’ll spare you. :)
So when we get saved, we become soldiers for Christ. The difference between this and a regular war, however, is that we fight a war that we can’t always see. At least, not with our physical eyes. In 2 Kings 6:14-17, Elisha’s servant is actually allowed to see the angels protecting him and his master with his own eyes. It’s a pretty cool scene. Sometimes we, like Elisha’s servant, are allowed to actually see these battles going on. Sometimes we can sense it in a way that is almost like seeing it with our spiritual eyes. These encounters are often on one hand terrifying, but on the other hand they often leave us in awe of our God and His power. I’ve had a few of these experiences myself and would love to share them, but I won’t go in to them now for the sake of time. But if you’re curious, or want to share a story of your own, let me know.
So how exactly do we fight this war? In 2 Corinthians 10:3-4 Paul says this: “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.” During a church camp I was at a few years ago, the speaker said a stronghold is any place in our life that the Devil has a hold on. But Paul says our weapons are strong enough to demolish (not just put an end to, but actually demolish) the Devil’s hold on those places. Pretty cool. But first we have to understand our weapons and how to use them. Check out Ephesians 6:10-17 and then I’ll see if I can break this down for you guys.
Okay. So. The first thing you have to do when you fight a war is you have to know your enemy. In verse 12 Paul tells us that “our struggle is not against flesh and blood”. In other words, we aren’t fighting against an opponent that is always visible. We aren’t really fighting people that we can go after with guns. Instead, we are fighting against something much higher: “against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Wow. That’s a pretty tough order. If we’re going to fight against authorities and against spiritual forces, we’re going to need something a little stronger than a machine gun. Thankfully, that’s exactly what we have. (Something stronger, I mean. Not the machine gun. Sorry guys.) Paul tells us in verse 13 to “Put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.” He then spends verses 14-17 describing this “spiritual armor” that God has given us. Paul takes each piece of armor and attaches it to a particular noun, such as peace or truth. Why does he choose this particular examples and these particular nouns? I’m going to try and break this list down into something that we can: 1) understand and 2) use.
First up on Paul’s list is the “belt of truth.” Now, at first glance, a belt doesn’t exactly sound like something you would take to war. But let me remind you that Paul was writing this in Bible times. There were no jeans in T-shirts. Most people wore robes and togas. (“This is not a dress. This is a tunic. It was the height of fashion 3,000 years ago, I assure you.” -Kah Mun Rah, Night at the Museum 2) That’s all fine and good, except it’s kind of hard to do pretty much anything when you’re wearing a long piece of cloth that looks like a dress. (“Were you not listening? I just told Mr. Capone here that this is not a dress. It is, in fact, a tunic. Very big difference.” -Kah Mun Rah) So people wore belts to keep all of that loose material together and out of the way, enabling them to go about their daily lives. But what’s the significance of a belt of truth? Check out John 8:31-32. Interesting connection, huh? As Christians, we have the truth. So instead of always searching for it like the rest of the world, we’re free to do the things we need to do. For a soldier in Paul’s day, a belt was central to his armor for another reason: it kept his sword close by. This way, whenever he needed it, he could simply reach down and draw it out. Just like how the belt held the soldier’s armor together, truth does the same for our faith. If the crucifixion or the resurrection or the Bible were not true, then Christianity falls apart. Truth is what holds it all together.
Next Paul talks about a “breastplate of righteousness.” Anyone who has seen a movie like Gladiator or Spartacus knows what a breastplate is: a piece of tough, shaped metal designed to protect a soldier’s vital organs. As Christians, we are covered by Christ’s righteousness, and this protects us from the fires of Hell. Psalm 89:14 says “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne.” Imagine a Roman soldier going into battle without his breastplate. No matter how good he is with his sword, and no matter how big his shield is, his chances of being hit in a vital organ (and therefore his chances of dying) have just gone up considerably. Not to mention he would look like an idiot. The breastplate is more or less the “foundation” of the soldier’s armor, just as a Psalmist says righteousness is the foundation of God’s throne. And like a soldier without his breastplate, if we are without the righteousness of Christ, no amount of good deeds are going to save us.
Verse 15 of Ephesians 6 talks about having our feet “fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.” What’s the big deal of having our feet ready? In the time of the Romans, not everyone had shoes. In fact, most of the so-called “Barbarians” that the Romans often fought probably wouldn’t have worn shoes in battle. The Romans, on the other hand, always wore sandals. Why? Battlegrounds often tended to be dangerous places covered in sharp rocks, arrowheads, broken pottery, fallen spears, and other dangerous things that could shred the feet of anyone who was not properly prepared. With their sandals on, the Romans didn’t have to worry about that. Their feet were well protected. They could therefore move much faster on the battlefield than their bare-footed opponents who had to be careful where they stepped. But why did Paul choose to associate shoes with the gospel of peace? I believe the answer to that question lies in Romans 1:16. The Romans were not ashamed of their sandals. On the contrary, they used it to their advantage! We should do the same.
Up next is the “shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.” At first glance, that statement doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense. What does a shield have to do with extinguishing flaming arrows? When I was at a church camp a few years ago I heard a speaker give an explanation that just might have been what Paul had in mind. He said that back in the days when soldiers had wooden shields, they would drench their shields in water before going into battle. Then, when the battle began, both sides would shoot a volley of flaming arrows at each other. Once that was done they would move forward for hand-to-hand combat. The objective of firing all those flaming arrows was this. If your arrow managed to hit an enemy soldier, that was fine. But your real goal was to hit his shield and burn it up. It was much easier to kill a man who no longer had a shield. But if he had gotten his shield wet enough, the fire would have no effect. Our life is like that. Satan is continually throwing things at us in the hopes of “burning up our faith,” so to speak. It’s our job to “soak our shields,” or in other words, to be sure that our faith is strong enough to withstand attack. Faith is a pretty incredible thing. In Matthew 17:20 Jesus tells us that even faith as small as a mustard seed can to incredible things. Have you ever actually seen a mustard seed? They’re typically only about 3mm in diameter. That’s TINY! And yet Jesus says that a faith that small can move entire mountains. And if a faith that small can do such crazy things, think about what an entire shield of faith could do. It would be able to withstand anything.
The next item on Paul’s list is the “helmet of salvation.” Anyone who has ever ridden a bicycle knows what the purpose of a helmet is: to protect our heads. More specifically, it protects our brain. Likewise, the knowledge of our salvation should protect our minds from Satan’s lies, such as loss of salvation, not being good enough, etc. Psalm 62:2 says, “He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.” It seems to me that is the Psalmist puts salvation in the same list as rocks and fortresses, then this salvation should be a pretty strong thing. So a helmet made of it would be practically impossible to get through. Unless, of course, we let something through. Just something to think about.
Lastly Paul mentions “the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.” The author of Hebrews uses a similar illustration in Hebrews 4:12. To really understand this verse, we have to first understand the significance of a double-edged sword. Look at a kitchen knife. There’s only one sharp edge. That means you can only cut one way. Now, in the kitchen this makes perfect sense. You wouldn’t want to cut through both the carrot and your finger. (Reminds me of high school cafeteria horror stories about finding a finger inside of a burger.) But if a soldier is in battle and his sword only has one sharp edge, then he can only cut in one direction. This makes it incredibly easy to attack him from the other side, because he will have a hard time striking back. So instead soldiers used double-edged swords which allowed them to cut in both directions. If the sword we have is sharper than any double-edged sword, then it must be a pretty incredible weapon. And if it can do all the things that Hebrews 4:12 says it can, then it sounds to me like we have a pretty incredible weapon.
Throughout the years, people looking at Paul’s list have noticed two important things. First, the sword is the only offensive weapon in the entire list. Everything else is defensive. This means that the Word of God is not just a weapon, it’s the weapon. And that means we have to learn how to use it. A soldier going into battle isn’t just going to pick up a sword and go. He’s going to spend months and even years beforehand learning how to use the weapon. We should do the same. We need to be constantly in the Word. We need to study it, learn it, know it inside out. Only then can we use it effectively. When the Devil came and tempted Jesus in Luke 4, Jesus quoted scripture to defend himself. Obviously it works.
But people have also noticed another important thing about this passage. In the whole list, there is nothing protecting the back of the soldier. I think this tells us two things. First, there is no provision for retreat. When we become Christians and join the fight, we’re in it to the end. There is no backing down. At the same time, I think it also means that God is looking out for us. He has our backs. And that’s a pretty cool thought.
In Ephesians 6:18 Paul goes on to talk about prayer, but there’s just so much that can be said there that I figured it should get a study all its own. But in the meantime keep praying. Pray for each other, and for me, that we’ll all stay strong in the midst of this warfare. And if anyone has any prayer requests, please let me know so that I can be praying for you.
Being a person who likes music, I found a few songs about spiritual warfare. One of my favorite bands is Pillar. Their song “Frontline” talks about the concept of being in a war. “Echelon”, another of their songs, also uses lots of imagery dealing with battles.
Okay, so now that we understand our armor and our weapon, it’s time to get to work learning how to use them. Stay in the Word. Be in constant communication with God. Spend time with other Christians, getting to know them and building strong relationships. These will be your strongest assets in our battle. It’s not going to be an easy fight. You will be knocked down more times that you can count, and be hurt beyond imagining. There will be days you won’t even see the point in fighting anymore. But I’m going to let you guys in on a little secret here. See, this is the only battle in history where the outcome is 100% certain. God will win, and there is absolutely nothing Satan can do to stop Him. Nothing. Because in reality, God has already won. He’s the one holding all the cards here. And there is nothing Satan can do to stop Him. One of Michael’s W. Smith’s early songs, “End of the Book” talks about being in a war and knowing we will win. Remember that on the hard days. We’re fighting on the winning side. And as bad as things may look now, we’ll come out on top in the end. And that’s a pretty cool thought. :)
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Roadblocks (a.k.a. When Life Gets Rough)
(This was written in July.)
A lot of people in America like to think that getting saved is sort of like fire insurance or your get-out-of-jail-free card. That once you become a Christian everything is happy and easy and God takes perfect care of you and that’s it. But if we’re really honest with ourselves, we know that becoming a Christian doesn’t solve all our problems. We still have to struggle with things, and there are still days with life just completely sucks. Christianity doesn’t take away all the hard stuff. It just changes how we deal with it.
I really don’t like being vulnerable. I don’t like people to know what’s really going on in my life. It’s just easier to toughen up and deal with it on my own. But quite honestly that gets old. And I think in order for you guys to understand where this post is coming from, I’m going to have to get really uncomfortable and be at least partially honest with you people. Which basically means being honest about how my life is going right now. But I’ll try and be brief. The short version is that my relationship with certain people in my life has suddenly gotten very rocky, and there has been a lot of anger and hurt. And then it’s felt the past few months like God has more or less checked out of my life. I know He hasn’t, but I haven’t been able to find Him anymore and it’s made things really hard. It’s almost like there’s a glass wall between me and Him: I know He’s there, but I can’t quite get to Him. The song “Storm” by Lifehouse talks a little bit about that, about being surrounded by the storms of life and knowing that if you could just see God everything would be okay. I’ve spent a lot of the last several months pretty much just surviving, trying to wait things out and hope they get better. And in a way they have, little by little. But over the past few months I’ve done a lot of thinking about things, so this post is really just me processing through things and hoping I’ll come across something that will help some of you somehow.
When something bad happens, the first thing people ask is: “Why would God let this happen?” I think He lets bad things happen for two reasons. The first is to further His glory. Our God is all-powerful, and can use even bad things for His glory. Daniel was thrown into the lion’s den, seemingly to his death, but when he was found alive the next morning, King Darius believed in God’s power and sent out a decree that his people should fear this God (Daniel 6). Joseph was thrown in a pit, sold into slavery by his brothers, accused of adultery, and thrown in jail. But in the end he came out as Pharaoh’s right-hand man and was able to save God’s chosen people from starvation (Genesis 37, 39-46). God is powerful enough to turn bad things into good, to use them to bring glory to His name. At the time, though, that’s usually pretty hard to remember. But that’s the thing that sets Christianity apart from other religions. When things get rough, we have someone to cling to, to trust in. When things get hard, we can turn to God. Romans 8:28 says that God works all things together “for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.” Most people just take the first part of that verse and say that God works all things together for the good of everybody. That’s not what this verse is saying. But it IS saying that God will work all things together for the good of those “who love Him” and “have been called according to His purpose.” That means us. Christians. God promises that in our lives, He WILL work all things together for good. While that can often be hard to remember and it can be pretty hard to see how God could ever make anything good out of some situations, He promises that He will, and that promise gives us something to cling to when times get rough.
Sometimes I think God allows bad things to happen for another reason: to get our attention. Sometimes it’s so easy for us to get caught up in our easy, comfortable lives that we forget to listen for God’s voice. Sometimes our lives get so noisy that the still small voice gets drowned out (1 Kings 19:11-13). Sometimes when things are going good we start to think that maybe we don’t need God anymore. I was thinking about that concept during AGM and starting scribbling down my thoughts. This is what I wrote:
“We are so stupid, and so selfish, and so stubborn, and so short-sighted that God usually has to put a wall in front of us just to get our attention. And it’s only after we’ve tried to climb over the wall, dig under the wall, walk around the wall, and even push through the wall and we finally realize that it isn’t going to move that we finally look at God and say, “Oh, did you want something?” That’s why He compares us to sheep. Because despite being the smartest things on this planet, if we’re really honest with ourselves we realize that, compared to God, we’re really not that bright.”
Sometimes the only way for God to get our attention is for Him to put a roadblock in our path that we simply can’t move by ourselves. For the Israelites in the Old Testament that meant going back into slavery again and again and again. Sometimes for us that roadblock is something visible, such as a tragedy or illness or death. Sometimes it’s just the feeling of being separated from God. Sometimes God is just trying to help us get our eyes back on Him. Sometimes He’s actually trying to teach us something or get us to notice something that we keep missing. Sometimes He just wants us to run back to Him and cling to Him like He really is our everything. I’ve been thinking a lot about roadblocks lately, so these are just kind of some of my thoughts. I hope some of it is helpful.
When you (I say “you” because it’s easier to write to “you” than to “we”, but I’m still talking to myself as well as you guys) run into roadblocks, one of the first things you should probably do is ask yourself what the roadblock is about. Is there something you can do to fix it? If God is feeling distant, is it maybe because you haven’t been in the Word and haven’t been talking to Him lately? Something like that is fairly easy to remedy. Did you do something that you’re pretty sure wasn’t in accordance with His will or not do something that you know He wanted you to do, and now everything is falling apart? Maybe you did something wrong and haven’t asked Him for forgiveness. Now, I’m not saying that doing something wrong will result in God completely shutting you out and letting your life fall apart and refusing to have anything to do with you. Just because everything is going wrong doesn’t necessarily mean that you did something wrong. Most roadblocks result from something much bigger than this. But it is worth at least thinking about, because if the root of the problem is your heart or your actions, then that’s the place to start.
Most times, however, you can’t think of any reason for there to be a roadblock. Those are the times when you need to take a step back and look at the situation. Could God be trying to teach you something through the situation? If so, what do you think it might be? Talk to God about it. Dig into His word. Ask Him to show you what it is He’s trying to teach you. Two or three years ago I spent several months feeling completely isolated from God, and it was horrible. Looking back now, I can understand the reason. God was asking me to surrender some things to Him that I wasn’t ready to let go of, to trust Him to do what was best with my life. And, to be honest, I just wasn’t ready to go there. So God waited. And when I finally came before Him in tears and told Him that I was ready to give Him control, it was like a weight lifted off my shoulders. The roadblock lifted, and suddenly I was closer to God than I had ever been. Now I can see that God never really left me. He just wasn’t able to use me until I surrendered to Him. So He waited until I was ready to do that. When you hit a roadblock, see if there might be something God is trying to teach you. Is He trying to strengthen your faith? Is He waiting for you to surrender something to Him that you aren’t ready to give up? Or maybe He’s just waiting for you to trust Him.
I’ve discovered that most roadblocks in my life deal with two things: faith/trust and praise. When things get rough, God is usually waiting for me to just trust in Him. He’s trying to make my faith grow stronger, trying to teach me to trust in Him completely, no matter. Can I still trust Him when my life is crumbling around me and I can’t see anything through the smoke? God says in Jeremiah 29:11 that He has plans to prosper us and not to harm us, plans to give us a hope and a future. But do we really believe that? Do we really trust that God knows what’s best for us? Are we still willing to serve Him when everything is going wrong? That tends to be the biggest test of faith. Serving God when things are easy is one thing. But serving Him when I don’t understand what He’s doing takes some serious faith. Britt Nichole’s song “Have Your Way” is one of my favorites, and it is basically a cry to God telling Him that you’re willing to trust Him even when things don’t make sense. For me, this is one of the hardest things to do, and God has had to put several roadblocks in front of me to get me to come to the place of accepting that I can’t make it on my own and that I have to trust Him. The song “Let the Waters Rise” by Mikeschair talks about being willing to trust God and follow Him even when “the waters rise.”
Another song I like is “Here With Me” (also by Mikeschair), and it talks about trusting that God is always with us even when we can’t see Him. The song’s first lines are “God I’m desperate for a sign / that I’m not praying to the night sky.” BarlowGirl’s song “Never Alone”, although exhibiting a very different sound, talks about the same idea. I’ve spent a lot of time lately in that place of being on my knees just begging for God to show up, to come in and heal the hurts and let me know that I’m not alone. I know from experience that one of the most painful places to be in life is one where you can’t feel God. It feels horrible beyond description, one of the worst roadblocks I have ever experienced. And really the only way around it that I know of is to just seek God like crazy. Talk to Him, read His word, spend time with His people. At one point I made the mistake of more or less giving up, thinking that it was pointless and I would just have to wait it out. Let me tell you, it doesn’t work. When you can’t find God, seek hard after Him, no matter how hopeless it seems. Jesus promises us that if we seek Him, really truly seek Him, we will find Him (Luke 11:9, Matthew 7:7). Eventually you will find Him again. And when you do, it’ll be kind of like in the poem “Footprints in the Sand.” You’ll realize that He never actually left you. You just thought He did. But in reality, He’s always with you, no matter how it seems (Matthew 28:20, Joshua 1:9, Isaiah 41:10).
But I digress. I said earlier that a lot of roadblocks in my life deal with faith/trust in God. A lot of them also deal with, as strange as it may initially sound, praise. God wants to see if I can continue to praise Him when things get rough. Can I praise Him when everything is falling apart? Can I praise Him when I don’t understand? And arguably the hardest of all: can I still praise Him even if He chooses not to fix this situation? The greatest example of this is probably Job. Job was a very blessed man. He has several children, TONS of livestock (which in those days was equivalent to being rich), and many servants. (See Job 1:1-3 for exact numbers.) Then one day four of his servants come to him and tell him that all of his livestock is either dead or stolen, the rest of his servants have been slaughtered, and that his children have all been killed (Job 1:13-19). Job tears his robe and shaves his head as was customary for mourners, and then he falls to the ground in worship, saying: “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.” (Job 1:20-21) Wow. (I can say it backwards too: wow. Sorry, bad joke.) Let me say that again. Wow. That scene just completely blows my mind. To be able to praise God after having lost everything (and this man had a LOT to lose) is just incredible. Actually it’s beyond incredible. Those words are now the bridge of the popular worship song “Blessed Be Your Name”, which is one my favorites. Two more of my favorite songs are Nichole Nordeman’s “Gratitude” and Casting Crown’s “Praise You In This Storm”, which also talk about this concept of praising God when it’s hard.
My all-time favorite song right now, which I highly encourage all of you to listen to, is “Broken” by Lifehouse. It talks about being completely broken inside, but also about holding on to God through all of that. While the verses deal a lot in symbolism, the chorus is brutally honest about how it feels to be falling apart inside. But there’s also a sense of hope that if we hold on to God we can make it through and find the healing we’re looking for. That thought has helped keep me going on some of my worst days, and more or less sums up how I’ve felt a lot over the past few months. But I have found a bit of hope, and things are beginning to get just a bit better. Not they’re fixed, not by a long shot. But I am beginning to catch small glimpses of God from the corner of my eye, starting to feel a whisper of something touching my heart. I’m still way messed up inside, and it’s going to take a long time to fix and heal. But with God’s help, I know it will continue to get better. So for now I’m doing what the song says: “I’m hanging on another day just to see what you threw my way. And I’m hanging on to the words you say. You say that I will, will be okay.”
So those are just some of my thoughts. I’d like to end this with a bit of encouragement. If you will, take a look at the first two chapters of the book of Job. In the first chapter, Satan asks God’s permission to hurt Job. God gives him permission to hurt whatever Job has, but forbids Satan from touching Job himself. Later in the chapter all of Job’s possessions and children are taken from him, but he himself remains unhurt. In the second chapter Satan comes back and asks permission to strike Job himself. God gives him permission to hurt Job so long as he does not kill him. Job comes down with a horrible sickness and painful boils on his skin, but he does not die. Most of us know that story. But I think often times we overlook the incredible truth of those two chapters. First of all, before Satan could do anything to Job, he had to ask God’s permission. He had to ask! How incredible is that? He couldn’t lay so much as a finger on Job unless God gave him permission! And even then he had to obey the boundaries God placed upon him. That’s pretty cool. In fact, it’s beyond cool. It’s pretty awesome! Think about it. Nothing in this universe can touch us unless God allows it. And God never does anything without a reason. Now, while that thought doesn’t always help during the hard times, it’s still nice to know. God has a plan, and apart from it nothing at all can touch us.
A while back I was having a particularly rough day and one of my closest friends texted me and told me to never forget that God loves me and that He’s crafting me, “warrior-training” me to be who He wants me to be. You guys are all incredible people, and God has incredible things planned for your lives. But, like clay (Isaiah 64:8), sometimes we requires a little shaping first. Once He’s done shaping, however, we’ll be incredible tools that he can use to do great things. But in order to see those incredible things, we first have to survive boot camp. But in the end that just makes it all the more beautiful. Nichole Nordeman’s song “Sunrise”, another beautiful song that you should all hear, talks about experiencing all of the hard times in life and then looking back and deciding that you wouldn’t trade any of it in for the world, not even the hard and broken parts, because, as Nichole so profoundly puts it, “how would I know the morning if I knew not midnight? You’re my horizon. You’re the light of a new dawn. So thank-you, thank-you that after the long night, you are sunrise.”
Whatever’s going on in your life, remember to stick with God. He really does know what He’s doing, even when we can’t always see it.
A lot of people in America like to think that getting saved is sort of like fire insurance or your get-out-of-jail-free card. That once you become a Christian everything is happy and easy and God takes perfect care of you and that’s it. But if we’re really honest with ourselves, we know that becoming a Christian doesn’t solve all our problems. We still have to struggle with things, and there are still days with life just completely sucks. Christianity doesn’t take away all the hard stuff. It just changes how we deal with it.
I really don’t like being vulnerable. I don’t like people to know what’s really going on in my life. It’s just easier to toughen up and deal with it on my own. But quite honestly that gets old. And I think in order for you guys to understand where this post is coming from, I’m going to have to get really uncomfortable and be at least partially honest with you people. Which basically means being honest about how my life is going right now. But I’ll try and be brief. The short version is that my relationship with certain people in my life has suddenly gotten very rocky, and there has been a lot of anger and hurt. And then it’s felt the past few months like God has more or less checked out of my life. I know He hasn’t, but I haven’t been able to find Him anymore and it’s made things really hard. It’s almost like there’s a glass wall between me and Him: I know He’s there, but I can’t quite get to Him. The song “Storm” by Lifehouse talks a little bit about that, about being surrounded by the storms of life and knowing that if you could just see God everything would be okay. I’ve spent a lot of the last several months pretty much just surviving, trying to wait things out and hope they get better. And in a way they have, little by little. But over the past few months I’ve done a lot of thinking about things, so this post is really just me processing through things and hoping I’ll come across something that will help some of you somehow.
When something bad happens, the first thing people ask is: “Why would God let this happen?” I think He lets bad things happen for two reasons. The first is to further His glory. Our God is all-powerful, and can use even bad things for His glory. Daniel was thrown into the lion’s den, seemingly to his death, but when he was found alive the next morning, King Darius believed in God’s power and sent out a decree that his people should fear this God (Daniel 6). Joseph was thrown in a pit, sold into slavery by his brothers, accused of adultery, and thrown in jail. But in the end he came out as Pharaoh’s right-hand man and was able to save God’s chosen people from starvation (Genesis 37, 39-46). God is powerful enough to turn bad things into good, to use them to bring glory to His name. At the time, though, that’s usually pretty hard to remember. But that’s the thing that sets Christianity apart from other religions. When things get rough, we have someone to cling to, to trust in. When things get hard, we can turn to God. Romans 8:28 says that God works all things together “for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.” Most people just take the first part of that verse and say that God works all things together for the good of everybody. That’s not what this verse is saying. But it IS saying that God will work all things together for the good of those “who love Him” and “have been called according to His purpose.” That means us. Christians. God promises that in our lives, He WILL work all things together for good. While that can often be hard to remember and it can be pretty hard to see how God could ever make anything good out of some situations, He promises that He will, and that promise gives us something to cling to when times get rough.
Sometimes I think God allows bad things to happen for another reason: to get our attention. Sometimes it’s so easy for us to get caught up in our easy, comfortable lives that we forget to listen for God’s voice. Sometimes our lives get so noisy that the still small voice gets drowned out (1 Kings 19:11-13). Sometimes when things are going good we start to think that maybe we don’t need God anymore. I was thinking about that concept during AGM and starting scribbling down my thoughts. This is what I wrote:
“We are so stupid, and so selfish, and so stubborn, and so short-sighted that God usually has to put a wall in front of us just to get our attention. And it’s only after we’ve tried to climb over the wall, dig under the wall, walk around the wall, and even push through the wall and we finally realize that it isn’t going to move that we finally look at God and say, “Oh, did you want something?” That’s why He compares us to sheep. Because despite being the smartest things on this planet, if we’re really honest with ourselves we realize that, compared to God, we’re really not that bright.”
Sometimes the only way for God to get our attention is for Him to put a roadblock in our path that we simply can’t move by ourselves. For the Israelites in the Old Testament that meant going back into slavery again and again and again. Sometimes for us that roadblock is something visible, such as a tragedy or illness or death. Sometimes it’s just the feeling of being separated from God. Sometimes God is just trying to help us get our eyes back on Him. Sometimes He’s actually trying to teach us something or get us to notice something that we keep missing. Sometimes He just wants us to run back to Him and cling to Him like He really is our everything. I’ve been thinking a lot about roadblocks lately, so these are just kind of some of my thoughts. I hope some of it is helpful.
When you (I say “you” because it’s easier to write to “you” than to “we”, but I’m still talking to myself as well as you guys) run into roadblocks, one of the first things you should probably do is ask yourself what the roadblock is about. Is there something you can do to fix it? If God is feeling distant, is it maybe because you haven’t been in the Word and haven’t been talking to Him lately? Something like that is fairly easy to remedy. Did you do something that you’re pretty sure wasn’t in accordance with His will or not do something that you know He wanted you to do, and now everything is falling apart? Maybe you did something wrong and haven’t asked Him for forgiveness. Now, I’m not saying that doing something wrong will result in God completely shutting you out and letting your life fall apart and refusing to have anything to do with you. Just because everything is going wrong doesn’t necessarily mean that you did something wrong. Most roadblocks result from something much bigger than this. But it is worth at least thinking about, because if the root of the problem is your heart or your actions, then that’s the place to start.
Most times, however, you can’t think of any reason for there to be a roadblock. Those are the times when you need to take a step back and look at the situation. Could God be trying to teach you something through the situation? If so, what do you think it might be? Talk to God about it. Dig into His word. Ask Him to show you what it is He’s trying to teach you. Two or three years ago I spent several months feeling completely isolated from God, and it was horrible. Looking back now, I can understand the reason. God was asking me to surrender some things to Him that I wasn’t ready to let go of, to trust Him to do what was best with my life. And, to be honest, I just wasn’t ready to go there. So God waited. And when I finally came before Him in tears and told Him that I was ready to give Him control, it was like a weight lifted off my shoulders. The roadblock lifted, and suddenly I was closer to God than I had ever been. Now I can see that God never really left me. He just wasn’t able to use me until I surrendered to Him. So He waited until I was ready to do that. When you hit a roadblock, see if there might be something God is trying to teach you. Is He trying to strengthen your faith? Is He waiting for you to surrender something to Him that you aren’t ready to give up? Or maybe He’s just waiting for you to trust Him.
I’ve discovered that most roadblocks in my life deal with two things: faith/trust and praise. When things get rough, God is usually waiting for me to just trust in Him. He’s trying to make my faith grow stronger, trying to teach me to trust in Him completely, no matter. Can I still trust Him when my life is crumbling around me and I can’t see anything through the smoke? God says in Jeremiah 29:11 that He has plans to prosper us and not to harm us, plans to give us a hope and a future. But do we really believe that? Do we really trust that God knows what’s best for us? Are we still willing to serve Him when everything is going wrong? That tends to be the biggest test of faith. Serving God when things are easy is one thing. But serving Him when I don’t understand what He’s doing takes some serious faith. Britt Nichole’s song “Have Your Way” is one of my favorites, and it is basically a cry to God telling Him that you’re willing to trust Him even when things don’t make sense. For me, this is one of the hardest things to do, and God has had to put several roadblocks in front of me to get me to come to the place of accepting that I can’t make it on my own and that I have to trust Him. The song “Let the Waters Rise” by Mikeschair talks about being willing to trust God and follow Him even when “the waters rise.”
Another song I like is “Here With Me” (also by Mikeschair), and it talks about trusting that God is always with us even when we can’t see Him. The song’s first lines are “God I’m desperate for a sign / that I’m not praying to the night sky.” BarlowGirl’s song “Never Alone”, although exhibiting a very different sound, talks about the same idea. I’ve spent a lot of time lately in that place of being on my knees just begging for God to show up, to come in and heal the hurts and let me know that I’m not alone. I know from experience that one of the most painful places to be in life is one where you can’t feel God. It feels horrible beyond description, one of the worst roadblocks I have ever experienced. And really the only way around it that I know of is to just seek God like crazy. Talk to Him, read His word, spend time with His people. At one point I made the mistake of more or less giving up, thinking that it was pointless and I would just have to wait it out. Let me tell you, it doesn’t work. When you can’t find God, seek hard after Him, no matter how hopeless it seems. Jesus promises us that if we seek Him, really truly seek Him, we will find Him (Luke 11:9, Matthew 7:7). Eventually you will find Him again. And when you do, it’ll be kind of like in the poem “Footprints in the Sand.” You’ll realize that He never actually left you. You just thought He did. But in reality, He’s always with you, no matter how it seems (Matthew 28:20, Joshua 1:9, Isaiah 41:10).
But I digress. I said earlier that a lot of roadblocks in my life deal with faith/trust in God. A lot of them also deal with, as strange as it may initially sound, praise. God wants to see if I can continue to praise Him when things get rough. Can I praise Him when everything is falling apart? Can I praise Him when I don’t understand? And arguably the hardest of all: can I still praise Him even if He chooses not to fix this situation? The greatest example of this is probably Job. Job was a very blessed man. He has several children, TONS of livestock (which in those days was equivalent to being rich), and many servants. (See Job 1:1-3 for exact numbers.) Then one day four of his servants come to him and tell him that all of his livestock is either dead or stolen, the rest of his servants have been slaughtered, and that his children have all been killed (Job 1:13-19). Job tears his robe and shaves his head as was customary for mourners, and then he falls to the ground in worship, saying: “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.” (Job 1:20-21) Wow. (I can say it backwards too: wow. Sorry, bad joke.) Let me say that again. Wow. That scene just completely blows my mind. To be able to praise God after having lost everything (and this man had a LOT to lose) is just incredible. Actually it’s beyond incredible. Those words are now the bridge of the popular worship song “Blessed Be Your Name”, which is one my favorites. Two more of my favorite songs are Nichole Nordeman’s “Gratitude” and Casting Crown’s “Praise You In This Storm”, which also talk about this concept of praising God when it’s hard.
My all-time favorite song right now, which I highly encourage all of you to listen to, is “Broken” by Lifehouse. It talks about being completely broken inside, but also about holding on to God through all of that. While the verses deal a lot in symbolism, the chorus is brutally honest about how it feels to be falling apart inside. But there’s also a sense of hope that if we hold on to God we can make it through and find the healing we’re looking for. That thought has helped keep me going on some of my worst days, and more or less sums up how I’ve felt a lot over the past few months. But I have found a bit of hope, and things are beginning to get just a bit better. Not they’re fixed, not by a long shot. But I am beginning to catch small glimpses of God from the corner of my eye, starting to feel a whisper of something touching my heart. I’m still way messed up inside, and it’s going to take a long time to fix and heal. But with God’s help, I know it will continue to get better. So for now I’m doing what the song says: “I’m hanging on another day just to see what you threw my way. And I’m hanging on to the words you say. You say that I will, will be okay.”
So those are just some of my thoughts. I’d like to end this with a bit of encouragement. If you will, take a look at the first two chapters of the book of Job. In the first chapter, Satan asks God’s permission to hurt Job. God gives him permission to hurt whatever Job has, but forbids Satan from touching Job himself. Later in the chapter all of Job’s possessions and children are taken from him, but he himself remains unhurt. In the second chapter Satan comes back and asks permission to strike Job himself. God gives him permission to hurt Job so long as he does not kill him. Job comes down with a horrible sickness and painful boils on his skin, but he does not die. Most of us know that story. But I think often times we overlook the incredible truth of those two chapters. First of all, before Satan could do anything to Job, he had to ask God’s permission. He had to ask! How incredible is that? He couldn’t lay so much as a finger on Job unless God gave him permission! And even then he had to obey the boundaries God placed upon him. That’s pretty cool. In fact, it’s beyond cool. It’s pretty awesome! Think about it. Nothing in this universe can touch us unless God allows it. And God never does anything without a reason. Now, while that thought doesn’t always help during the hard times, it’s still nice to know. God has a plan, and apart from it nothing at all can touch us.
A while back I was having a particularly rough day and one of my closest friends texted me and told me to never forget that God loves me and that He’s crafting me, “warrior-training” me to be who He wants me to be. You guys are all incredible people, and God has incredible things planned for your lives. But, like clay (Isaiah 64:8), sometimes we requires a little shaping first. Once He’s done shaping, however, we’ll be incredible tools that he can use to do great things. But in order to see those incredible things, we first have to survive boot camp. But in the end that just makes it all the more beautiful. Nichole Nordeman’s song “Sunrise”, another beautiful song that you should all hear, talks about experiencing all of the hard times in life and then looking back and deciding that you wouldn’t trade any of it in for the world, not even the hard and broken parts, because, as Nichole so profoundly puts it, “how would I know the morning if I knew not midnight? You’re my horizon. You’re the light of a new dawn. So thank-you, thank-you that after the long night, you are sunrise.”
Whatever’s going on in your life, remember to stick with God. He really does know what He’s doing, even when we can’t always see it.
Radical Jesus
(This was written back in January.)
Right after Christmas our family was having a devotion and my dad said something that made me think. He said that we as Christians spend a lot of time focusing on the manger and a lot of time focusing on the cross, but that we tend to overlook a lot of what went on in the middle. Yes the Christmas story is miraculous, and yes the cross is central to everything we believe, but in between those two things was a man who lived and breathed and taught things. And when we do remember to talk about this man, we often have the wrong idea. We tend to think of Jesus as something I like to call Hippy Jesus. Everything is all about peace, love, and happiness. We talk about Jesus as this kind, loving man who spent His life walking around talking about loving everybody and how nice it would be if we all got along and how wonderful heaven will be. But it wasn't like that. Yes Jesus loved people and cared for them, and yes he taught that we need to forgive. But that wasn't all. Jesus was not some Jewish hippy. In fact, quite the opposite. As teenagers we like to throw around words like "radical" and "intense". You want to see something really radical? Look at Jesus. Seriously. This guy was so radical that the people of His day didn't even know what to do with Him! But before we start talking about the radical side of Jesus, we need to get some things straight. Picture Jesus in your mind. What do you see Him looking like? I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume that most of you have an image of a white man in a spotless white robe with brown hair. I can pretty much guarantee you that Jesus didn't look like that. So let's fix that image. First look at His sandaled feet. After walking around on the dirty, dusty streets all day everyday those feet are going to be caked with dirt. And while the robe may have been white, it was probably pretty dusty too. Now look at His hands. They aren't spotless either. And they're hard, covered in callouses from years as a carpenter. Next take His brown hair and make it darker until it's black, or something close. The same with His white skin. It would have been more brown. And there was probably a lingering smell of fish, thanks to His disciples. Look at the man in front of you now. He looks like a typical Middle Eastern carpenter. And yet He's so much more. He did and said things that made Him impossible to forget. Things that were radical.
The Jews of Jesus' day were waiting for a messiah, someone they expected to rise up and lead them, someone who would help them push the Romans out of Israel and set himself up as their king. Jesus was the total opposite of what they expected. They wanted to fight the Romans. Jesus taught to forgive. They hated. He taught that they should love their enemies as themselves. Have you ever tried to forgive someone who has hurt you terribly? It's not easy. In fact, it's incredibly hard. A lot of times we get angry over things that are small. The Jews actually had a reason to be angry. The Romans made their lives miserable. When Jesus told them to forgive their enemies, He wasn't just talking about forgiving friends who had said the wrong thing. He was telling them to forgive the men who slaughtered their animals and stole their crops, the men who burned their homes and taxed them within an inch of their lives, the men who raped their daughters and killed their sons. The Jews were not only supposed to forgive the Romans, they were supposed to LOVE them! When Jesus taught love and forgiveness, it was not easy hippy stuff. It was hard work. And it didn't end there. Jesus also taught to be kind to others even when you don't feel like it, and to serve them to the point of becoming like a lowly servant. This part in particular did not sit well with the religious leaders of the day. Not only that, but Jesus refused to back down before them. He told them to their faces what they were, and they couldn't stand it. He devotes the entire 23rd chapter of Matthew to telling the people just what the Pharisees are. This was no hippy "peace, love, and happiness" Jesus. This was a radical teacher with a power unlike any the Jews had ever seen. This was the man who went into the temple, made a whip, and drove out all of the people who were making money there (John 2:13-16). This was the man who told a giant storm to "Be quiet!", and immediately the wind died down (Mark 4:35-41). This was the man went into the desert for 40 days without food, and at the end of those forty days was able to battle Satan and win (Matthew 4:1-11)! This was the man who could heal the sick (Luke 17:11-19) and the crippled (Luke 5:17-26), give sight to the blind (Mark 8:22-26), hearing to the deaf, a voice to the mute (Mark 7:31-37). This was the man who could leave the Pharisees speechless every time he spoke. This was the man who drove out demons (Mark 9:14-27) and turned five loaves of bread into five thousand (Mark 6:35-44). This was the man who went His entire life without sinning once. This was the man who always had enough time to serve others, and was even willing to wash His disciples' filthy feet (John 13:1-17). This was the man who suffered death on a cross, the most painful death of the day, with the weight of the sin of all of humanity weighing on His shoulder. And this was the man who rose again three days later, having conquered death for all of eternity!! If that isn't radical and intense, I don't know what is. Check out Michael W. Smith's song "Secret Ambition" for a really good look at this radical Jesus. This man was INCREDIBLE. And He left behind an incredible example for us to follow. There is so much we can learn from His life, and His Word. Lessons of love and forgiveness, of grace and service. Things that, despite their hippy appearance, are in fact incredibly tough. And radical. I’m going to challenge you guys to get into the Word and re-discover Jesus for yourselves. Really get to know this Middle Eastern carpenter, this radical leader. Study his life, turn His teachings inside-out, learn what He stands for. Because when you really get to know this Jesus and really start to understand what he taught, your life will begin to change. So let's dig in and get to know this AWESOME Savior together.
Right after Christmas our family was having a devotion and my dad said something that made me think. He said that we as Christians spend a lot of time focusing on the manger and a lot of time focusing on the cross, but that we tend to overlook a lot of what went on in the middle. Yes the Christmas story is miraculous, and yes the cross is central to everything we believe, but in between those two things was a man who lived and breathed and taught things. And when we do remember to talk about this man, we often have the wrong idea. We tend to think of Jesus as something I like to call Hippy Jesus. Everything is all about peace, love, and happiness. We talk about Jesus as this kind, loving man who spent His life walking around talking about loving everybody and how nice it would be if we all got along and how wonderful heaven will be. But it wasn't like that. Yes Jesus loved people and cared for them, and yes he taught that we need to forgive. But that wasn't all. Jesus was not some Jewish hippy. In fact, quite the opposite. As teenagers we like to throw around words like "radical" and "intense". You want to see something really radical? Look at Jesus. Seriously. This guy was so radical that the people of His day didn't even know what to do with Him! But before we start talking about the radical side of Jesus, we need to get some things straight. Picture Jesus in your mind. What do you see Him looking like? I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume that most of you have an image of a white man in a spotless white robe with brown hair. I can pretty much guarantee you that Jesus didn't look like that. So let's fix that image. First look at His sandaled feet. After walking around on the dirty, dusty streets all day everyday those feet are going to be caked with dirt. And while the robe may have been white, it was probably pretty dusty too. Now look at His hands. They aren't spotless either. And they're hard, covered in callouses from years as a carpenter. Next take His brown hair and make it darker until it's black, or something close. The same with His white skin. It would have been more brown. And there was probably a lingering smell of fish, thanks to His disciples. Look at the man in front of you now. He looks like a typical Middle Eastern carpenter. And yet He's so much more. He did and said things that made Him impossible to forget. Things that were radical.
The Jews of Jesus' day were waiting for a messiah, someone they expected to rise up and lead them, someone who would help them push the Romans out of Israel and set himself up as their king. Jesus was the total opposite of what they expected. They wanted to fight the Romans. Jesus taught to forgive. They hated. He taught that they should love their enemies as themselves. Have you ever tried to forgive someone who has hurt you terribly? It's not easy. In fact, it's incredibly hard. A lot of times we get angry over things that are small. The Jews actually had a reason to be angry. The Romans made their lives miserable. When Jesus told them to forgive their enemies, He wasn't just talking about forgiving friends who had said the wrong thing. He was telling them to forgive the men who slaughtered their animals and stole their crops, the men who burned their homes and taxed them within an inch of their lives, the men who raped their daughters and killed their sons. The Jews were not only supposed to forgive the Romans, they were supposed to LOVE them! When Jesus taught love and forgiveness, it was not easy hippy stuff. It was hard work. And it didn't end there. Jesus also taught to be kind to others even when you don't feel like it, and to serve them to the point of becoming like a lowly servant. This part in particular did not sit well with the religious leaders of the day. Not only that, but Jesus refused to back down before them. He told them to their faces what they were, and they couldn't stand it. He devotes the entire 23rd chapter of Matthew to telling the people just what the Pharisees are. This was no hippy "peace, love, and happiness" Jesus. This was a radical teacher with a power unlike any the Jews had ever seen. This was the man who went into the temple, made a whip, and drove out all of the people who were making money there (John 2:13-16). This was the man who told a giant storm to "Be quiet!", and immediately the wind died down (Mark 4:35-41). This was the man went into the desert for 40 days without food, and at the end of those forty days was able to battle Satan and win (Matthew 4:1-11)! This was the man who could heal the sick (Luke 17:11-19) and the crippled (Luke 5:17-26), give sight to the blind (Mark 8:22-26), hearing to the deaf, a voice to the mute (Mark 7:31-37). This was the man who could leave the Pharisees speechless every time he spoke. This was the man who drove out demons (Mark 9:14-27) and turned five loaves of bread into five thousand (Mark 6:35-44). This was the man who went His entire life without sinning once. This was the man who always had enough time to serve others, and was even willing to wash His disciples' filthy feet (John 13:1-17). This was the man who suffered death on a cross, the most painful death of the day, with the weight of the sin of all of humanity weighing on His shoulder. And this was the man who rose again three days later, having conquered death for all of eternity!! If that isn't radical and intense, I don't know what is. Check out Michael W. Smith's song "Secret Ambition" for a really good look at this radical Jesus. This man was INCREDIBLE. And He left behind an incredible example for us to follow. There is so much we can learn from His life, and His Word. Lessons of love and forgiveness, of grace and service. Things that, despite their hippy appearance, are in fact incredibly tough. And radical. I’m going to challenge you guys to get into the Word and re-discover Jesus for yourselves. Really get to know this Middle Eastern carpenter, this radical leader. Study his life, turn His teachings inside-out, learn what He stands for. Because when you really get to know this Jesus and really start to understand what he taught, your life will begin to change. So let's dig in and get to know this AWESOME Savior together.
The Reason
For several months now I have been trying to do a sort of mini-Bible study with some friends of mine once a month or so. I pick a subject, study it, write a sort of devotional on it, and then send it out via e-mail. Then somene suggested I turn it into a blog so that it could reach more people. So here I am. The main purpose of this blog will be to share with others what I am learning on my walk with my King, Jesus Christ. Hopefully some of this will be helpful or encouraging to the people who read it. If you want to contact me at any point, feel free to e-mail me at jesusfreak.Lk923@gmail.com. I welcome any and all comments, particularly constructive criticism, and would also love to know how I can pray for the people who read this blog. Thanks for reading!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)