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Emails to God – A Coded Message from Jesus to John (Matthew 11:1-6)

14 Jan

Matthew 11:1-6

1 After Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in the towns ofGalilee.

2 When John, who was in prison, heard about the deeds of the Messiah, he sent his disciples 3 to ask him, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?”

4 Jesus replied, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: 5 The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. 6 Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.”

Dear God, there are two interesting things here: 1. John the Baptist doubted. Sure he was in prison, but his faith waned. 2. Jesus said, “Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.” That implies that there will be those who stumble, but it is their fault that they stumble. But there will also be those who do not stumble over Jesus and his teaching, but embrace it and walk with it. Those people will be celebrated (blessed).

Regarding John’s doubts, this is so encouraging for me because he knew Jesus for most of his life. He somehow knew who Jesus was in terms of being the messiah at Jesus’ baptism. And yet, sitting in prison, facing death for being so outspoken, he doubted. He wondered if he had done it all for nothing. He had been so radical in his life. Should he have been?

So Jesus affirmed him. The affirmation is a little cryptic. I wonder if it was an inside deal with them. I wonder if they talked as children and dreamed of what would happen when Jesus came into his ministry. In essence, this seems cryptic, but it is a code that John would understand?

I wonder if this second part (about the stumbling) was part of the code too. I wonder if, as children, they talked about how they would offend and be rejected by some. John was looking for some peace and restoration of his faith. I never thought of it before, but I wonder if Jesus was doing that by taking advantage of the personal relationship they had had since their childhoods.

Father, there are times when my faith fails. Frankly, my faith was needing some affirmation on Monday. I took a day to fast and pray and then you spent the rest of the week affirming my faith. Thank you. Thank you for how you have answered my prayers. Thank you for how you will continue to answer my prayers. You care about me. You care about those around me whom you want to bless through me. So I submit myself to you and thank you for not rejecting me for my mini crises in faith, but, instead, you affirm me and bless me.

 
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Posted by on January 14, 2012 in Matthew

 

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Emails to God – Accepting and Rejecting Prophets (Matthew 10:40-42)

12 Jan

40 “Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. 41 Whoever welcomes a prophet as a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person as a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward. 42 And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.”

Dear God, I have both accepted and rejected your “prophets” over the years. The trick is trying to discern whether or not they are from you. For example, there is a popular television preacher out there that I have rejected as your prophet. That’s not to say that I would treat him badly if I saw him, or that I wouldn’t give him a drink of water if he needed it, but I absolutely reject his teaching. If I am wrong on him then I have, indeed, rejected anything you might try to say to me through him.

I am also in a situation where I am in a class right now to possibly join a new denomination, and I am trying to reconcile the things that I agree with and the things I don’t agree with. What is important and what isn’t? Where should I draw the line and say, “That is too far,” where should I say, “I disagree, but it isn’t important,” and where should I say, “Hmm, perhaps I should consider rethinking my position”? It can be hard to parse through the different items that make up our theology and figure out where we can come into the truth you want us to know and also come into community with each other, even though we each might understand truth a little differently.

Father, help me to find truth through this process. Help me to discern what you would have me to believe, what you would have to be just accept in an “agree to disagree” kind of way, and what you would have me to reject. If I reject something, help me to do it in love. Even this one preacher that I reject, help me to love him—especially if you consider him to be your prophet and disciple. Speak truth to him. Speak truth to me. Help me to know you more and more.

 
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Posted by on January 12, 2012 in Matthew

 

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Emails to God – Loving God More than All Others (Matthew 10:37-39)

11 Jan

37 “Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.

Dear God, Jesus is really on a roll here. This whole chapter seems to be a little out of character for him, but I don’t suppose it really is. In this case, he is simply saying, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart…” He is saying that your devotion has to be to your God first because if you love your children more than me then you will fail your children. If you love your parents more than me, you will fail your parents as well as me and everything else. Whenever you figure you that you have to lose your life, dreams, goals, ambitions, priorities, etc. in order to live a life that is fulfilled and at peace then you will have to love me more than anything else.

One of the things that is hard for me to do is to remember to call you in when I am in crisis. Sure, I might throw up an occasional prayer, but do I really seek your provision and comfort? Two days ago I was very stressed. A family member was discovered to be sick. I had some overwhelming circumstances come up at work. I was pretty down. So I decided to do something I hadn’t done in a while. I fasted and prayed. I don’t remember the last time I took a day to fast, but it has been a while. Well, it was really good and purifying. Every time I felt hungry I thought of the relative I love and the problem at work and I simply turned it over to you. I didn’t really beseech you for anything as much as I surrendered to you. The hunger pains were a reminder that I needed to let go and rest in you.

Father, help me to carry that lesson into today. Help me to continue to rest in you. Thank you for the people you sent to me yesterday who encouraged and blessed me. Thank you for hearing my prayers. Thank you for caring about my prayers. I am doing my best to love you more than anything else, although I often fail, and I want to be continually be in your peace. So I give myself over to you in this moment and ask that you carry it all through the day.

 
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Posted by on January 11, 2012 in Matthew

 

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Emails to God – Turning fathers against sons (Matthew 10:32-36)

10 Jan

32 “Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. 33 But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.

34 “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to turn

“‘a man against his father,

a daughter against her mother,

a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—

36 a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’

Dear God, it is interesting that at some point they will be looking for the one who is going to bring a sword, but he will be saying that he is bringing peace. Matthew knows this when he is writing this in retrospect, so why is he focusing on this now? What is Matthew’s message to me?

I think that Matthew realized, looking back, that Jesus’ message and being his disciple would “turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, etc.” While Jesus preached a message of hope and reconciliation, he knew that there would be conflict about this. He knew that his message would offend some. It is pretty amazing how fortunate I am to not have these kinds of conflicts with my family over faith. I wonder, however, what kinds of conflicts I might have with my children over the years with faith. How will what they see in me influence their relationship with you? Will it push them away from you because it appears unappealing to them or will it draw them closer to you because they find it is something that they want? What will happen with my relationship with them over the years? As I said a few days ago, my greatest fear is that I am failing them spiritually.

Father, my heart is heavy today and distracted. You know what is going on in the different areas of my life. I have decided to make this day about sacrifice to you. Some can only come out through prayer and fasting. Well, if that is what it takes then that is what I will do. I will fast and pray about some of the issues I am facing and ask that you hear my prayers. Whether they be for family members or for work issues, I beseech you to hear me. If you are willing, hear my prayers.

 
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Posted by on January 10, 2012 in Matthew

 

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Emails to God – “So do not be afraid…” (Matthew 10:24-31)

09 Jan

24 “The student is not above the teacher, nor a servant above his master. 25 It is enough for students to be like their teachers, and servants like their masters. If the head of the house has been called Beelzebul, how much more the members of his household!

26 “So do not be afraid of them, for there is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. 27 What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs. 28 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. 29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. 30 And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

Dear God, it is interesting that verse 26 starts out, “So do not be afraid of them…” How are they not supposed to be afraid of them? You just finished telling them that they will be arrested, flogged, put before governors and kings, etc. Now, you say, “…do not be afraid of them…” So what emotion are they supposed to feel when they are in these situations?

Am I ever supposed to feel fear? Is there ever a time when you think it is reasonable for me to be afraid? My first instinct is to say, “Sure. There are lots of times when I should be afraid.” But then I start to think about the various things that would normally bring me fear and I think that, in each of them, right down to losing my own life or the lives of my family members, you are not calling me towards fear, but faith that it will all be okay in the end. Sure, it’s okay to grieve. Sorrow was part of your life. And I think that Jesus battled fear in the garden the night he was betrayed. But in the end he didn’t leave that garden with fear. He slayed it and said, “Not my will, but Your will be done.”

Father, THAT is the prayer you call me to: “Not my will, but Your will be done.” It kind of goes along with the man earlier asking for healing who told Jesus, “If you are willing…” Those are my prayers, in combination: “Father, if you are willing…Not my will, but Your will be done.” Help me to live these prayers and to be at peace in the midst of any storm that brews around me and heads my way.

 
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Posted by on January 9, 2012 in Matthew

 

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Emails to God – “It is Well with My Soul”

08 Jan

We are going to work with “It is Well with My Soul” tonight. But before you read the lyrics you need to start with what the writer was experiencing in his life at the time he wrote it. Here is the tale as told by our friends at Wikipedia (so it must be true):

“It Is Well with My Soul” is a very influential hymn penned by hymnist Horatio Spafford and composed by Philip Bliss.

This hymn was written after several traumatic events in Spafford’s life. The first was the death of his only son in 1871 at the age of four, shortly followed by the great Chicago Fire which ruined him financially (he had been a successful lawyer). Then in 1873, he had planned to travel to Europe with his family on the SS Ville du Havre, but sent the family ahead while he was delayed on business concerning zoning problems following the Great Chicago Fire. While crossing the Atlantic, the ship sank rapidly after a collision with a sailing ship, the Loch Earn, and all four of Spafford’s daughters died. His wife Anna survived and sent him the now famous telegram, “Saved alone . . .”. Shortly afterwards, as Spafford traveled to meet his grieving wife, he was inspired to write these words as his ship passed near where his daughters had died.

Bliss called his tune Ville du Havre, from the name of the stricken vessel.

The Spaffords later had three more children, one of whom (a son) died in infancy. In 1881 the Spaffords, including baby Bertha and newborn Grace, set sail for Israel. The Spaffords moved to Jerusalem and helped found a group called the American Colony; its mission was to serve the poor. The colony later became the subject of the Nobel prize winning Jerusalem, by Swedish novelist Selma Lagerlöf.

Amazing story. It reminds me that I don’t know what it means to suffer. The heart of a man capable of writing the following lyrics in the midst of so much pain explains why he was later able to start a ministry in Jerusalem in the 1800’s.

When peace like a river attendeth my way,

When sorrows like sea billows roll

Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to know, (remember what the story said about “say” and “know” here)

“It is well, It is well with my soul”

 

Though Satan should buffet, tho’ trials should come,

Let this blest assurance control,

That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,

And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

 

My sin–O, the bliss of this glorious thought,

My sin–not in part but in whole,

Is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more,

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

 

And, Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sight,

The clouds be rolled back as a scroll,

The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend,

“Even so”–it is well with my soul.

Wow. Here is my summary of the verses.

  1.  Straight up confessing his sorrow and telling God that he trusts Him through it.
  2. He knows that Satan attacks him, but recognizes Jesus’ provision for the attacks.
  3. He recognizes his sin and claims his freedom from it through Jesus.
  4. He looks to the day when the faith he is proclaiming, and sometimes doubts, becomes sight.

Knowing the background of this hymn, it has to be in anyone’s top-five.

 
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Posted by on January 8, 2012 in Hymns and Songs

 

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Emails to God – Fathers and Children (Matthew 10:21-23)

07 Jan

21 “Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. 22 You will be hated by everyone because of me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. 23 When you are persecuted in one place, flee to another. Truly I tell you, you will not finish going through the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.

Dear God, I’m sorry, but I’m not sure I’m willing to pay this price. I don’t want my brother, father, or children to betray me. I don’t want to have to feel persecution in one place. I know this was said to the disciples, but I think, at least at some level, this is meant for me too.

I’m at a men’s retreat right now, and men’s retreats inevitably end up centering around the idea of fathers and children. I was in a small group yesterday where we were each to tell a story about our father. Some were great: “I grew up in the Cleaver home.” And some where awful: “I always hated guys like you because of your fathers.” At one point in the day, we were also asked what our greatest sorrow is and also our greatest fear. My greatest sorrow was hard. I have had sorrows in my life, but, thankfully, nothing too debilitating. But my greatest fear was easy: Am I failing my children spiritually? In essence, am I failing you and them as their father?

I always start my last paragraph of every one of these emails by addressing you as “Father.” Well, Father, I don’t know what my future holds in terms of my relationships with my children, but let me say this: I offer my relationships with my children to you. Do with it what you will. I adore both of them and I commit to you that I am willing to pay whatever price it takes, personally, in order for them to lead lives that are joyful and peaceful through submission to you. I don’t know what price you will ask of me, but I tell you now that I will pay it. You have put me on this earth, first and foremost, to be my wife’s husband, and then to be their father. Help me to be the best one that I can be for their sakes and your glory’s sake.

 
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Posted by on January 7, 2012 in Matthew

 

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Emails to God – “What Wondrous Love is This”

06 Jan

What wondrous love is this,

O my soul, O my soul!

What wondrous love is this,

O my soul!

What wondrous love is this

That caused the Lord of bliss

To bear the dreadful curse

For my soul, for my soul,

To bear the dreadful curse

For my soul.

When I was sinking down,

Sinking down, sinking down,

When I was sinking down,

Sinking down,

When I was sinking down

Beneath God’s righteous frown,

Christ laid aside His crown

For my soul, for my soul

Christ laid aside His crown

For my soul.

To God and to the Lamb

I will sing, I will sing,

To God and to the Lamb

I will sing,

To God and to the Lamb

Who is the great “I Am,”

While millions join the theme,

I will sing, I will sing,

While millions join the theme,

I will sing

And when from death I’m free,

I’ll sing on, I’ll sing on,

And when from death I’m free,

I’ll sing on,

And when from death I’m free,

I’ll sing and joyful be,

And thro’ eternity

I’ll sing on, I’ll sing on

And thro’ eternity

I’ll sing on.

I thought I would pick another hymn to get into tonight. I rolled through about 170 of them in the hymnal and landed on this one. I’ve always liked the somber tone of the tune. The music really makes this song work.

It’s almost as if the writer (hymnal doesn’t list a writer, but just says, “American Folk Hymn”) is getting a revelation of what their sin cost Jesus and God, but the first question focuses on Jesus and not the write: “What wondrous love is this…?” The writer apparently already realizes the depths of their sin before the song is written and starts the song with the marveling at Jesus’ love.

The second verse then goes back and picks up the writer’s knowledge of their own sin: “While I was sinking down beneath God’s righteous frown…” and then picks up Jesus’ sacrifice again: “…Christ laid aside his crown for my soul.”

Now, the third verse shows us that the write knows it’s time to worship while they are still living: “To God and to the Lamb, I will sing…While millions join the theme, I will sing.”

And the fourth verse takes us to heaven. Jesus’ sacrifice from the first verse saved us from God’s righteous frown, and now we will sing for eternity. I used to get a little freaked out about the idea of heaven and being joyful forever. My imperfect human heart doesn’t quite grasp that concept and it scares me, but I take comfort from those who have seen heaven in near-death experiences and talk about the pure joy they felt while they were there.

Let me know if you see anything in this song that you think I missed.

 
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Posted by on January 6, 2012 in Hymns and Songs

 

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Emails to God – Shrewd as snakes and innocent as doves (Matthew 10:16-20)

06 Jan

16 “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves. 17 Be on your guard; you will be handed over to the local councils and be flogged in the synagogues. 18 On my account you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles. 19 But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, 20 for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.

Dear God, okay, these folks must have been absolutely Spirit-filled at the time if they followed through with this. Otherwise, how could anyone be excited to go out and get ready to be arrested, flogged in the synagogues (church of all places, meaning their message will be considered heresy to most—especially the Jews, the people Jesus is specifically sending them to), brought before governors and kings (how often does it work out well for the common person to be brought before a governor or king?), etc.

But verse 19 says that they shouldn’t worry because they will be given what to say. I think that is the part of this I want to grab onto today. I want to have the peace to know that, when I face trials of different sorts that I shouldn’t worry because you will provide for me in those situations. I am thinking of our building situation right now. We had more developments this week that made me start to feel overwhelmed again. This mountain seems so big to me. What are we to do next?

Father, give me the words to say and the actions to take. Let it be you and the Holy Spirit that speak and move through me, and not me. Let this process ultimately be a blessing to everyone involved. Draw each person closer to yourself and give them your peace and presence. From our board, to our staff, to our patients, to our volunteers, to our contractors, to the people who originally built the building, be glorified in each life and make this process a peaceful as possible.

 
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Posted by on January 6, 2012 in Matthew

 

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Emails to God – “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing”

06 Jan

“Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” (Text by Robert Robinson; adapted by Margaret Clarkson)

Come Thou Fount of every blessing

Tune my heart to sing thy grace

Streams of mercy, never ceasing

Call for songs of loudest praise

Teach me some melodious sonnet

Sung by flaming tongues above

Praise his name—I’m fixed upon it—

Name of God’s redeeming love

 

Hither to Thy love has blest me;

Thou hast brought me to this place

And I know Thy hand will bring me

Safely home by Thy good grace

Jesus sought me when a stranger,

Wandering from the fold of God;

He, to rescue me from danger,

Bought me with His precious blood.

 

O to grace how great a debtor

Daily I’m constrained to be

Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,

Bind my wandering heart to Thee

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,

Prone to leave the God I love;

Here’s my heart, O take and seal it;

Seal it for Thy courts above

Amen

I am at a retreat tonight and the rest of the weekend out at Laity Lodge. We aren’t suppose to have Internet access, but I am staying in a place that accidentally provided it (of course, I helped it along by finding a modem and getting it plugged in so that the Internet could start working). So I feel like this is a great power I have, to access the Internet, and I should use it for good and not for evil. I will do my best to stay away from ESPN3 and try to stay focused on God. To that end, I thought I might use my Emails to God blog to share some of what I experience here.

At the retreat tonight we were singing this song. It is one of my two favorite hymns. My favorite is “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee.” The place where I am staying has the old Word Hymnal that I used to sell in my days of working for Word, and would you know that my two favorite hymns are hymns numbers 1 and 2 in the hymnal—and in the right order at that. What are the odds?

But I digress. Sometimes when I am singing a song and I feel like it isn’t hitting me like it should I stop and try to put myself in the mindset of the write while they wrote the lyric. They sat there with nothing and looked for words that expressed how they felt. What then can I tell about how they felt at the time by the words they chose?

I did this with this song tonight, and it really opened it up to me even more. The last verse is too easy to relate to, so I won’t even deal with that except to say that I heard once that the writer of this song, Robert Robinson, struggled with his faith throughout his life. Here is a quote from Wikipedia (so it must be true): “An unverifiable story is widely told of Robinson that one day while riding in a stagecoach a lady asked him what he thought of the hymn she was humming, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. He responded, “Madam, I am the poor unhappy man who wrote that hymn many years ago, and I would give a thousand worlds, if I had them, to enjoy the feelings I had then.”

But I digress again. I want to think about the first verse. There is a lot here:

  • “Come Thou Fount of every blessing, Tune my heart to sing Thy grace” – Again, thinking about his mindset when he was writing this, I got the image of someone who so badly wanted for his worship of God to be adequate. Do I have that feeling as I worship before God?
  • “Streams of mercy, never ceasing, Call for songs of loudest praise” – Because God has given me so much love and mercy He deserves for me to get this right.
  • “Teach me some melodious sonnet, Sung by flaming tongues above” – I know that angels know how to sing to God. Teach me how to sing like the angels.
  • “Praise His name—I’m fixed upon it—Name of God’s redeeming love” – My worship is to focus on Him and His Name—really focus.

 

This is good stuff. If you are so inclined, do your own for the other two verses. Find something in here from God that you’ve never seen before.

 
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Posted by on January 6, 2012 in Hymns and Songs

 

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