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Emails to God – Humoring Satan (Matthew 4:1-11)

10 Nov

1 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”

5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6 “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:

“‘He will command his angels concerning you,

and they will lift you up in their hands,

so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”

7 Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9 “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”

10 Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”

11 Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.

Dear God, I find it interesting that Jesus played along with Satan and humored him so much during this interchange. First, Satan came to him and tempted him with food. That makes sense. I can see how that would happen. But why did Jesus go with him to the holy city (presumably Jerusalem) and get on top of the temple? Why did Jesus go with him to a very high mountain? Why allow himself to be tempted in that way? Why didn’t he tell Satan to leave immediately?

There are a lot of question marks in that last paragraph. I guess I am just trying to figure out how much I am supposed to be in the world, but not of the world. My theory (and that is all that it is—a theory) is that Jesus knew that part of his earthly existence was to be tempted like we are tempted and to withstand those temptations. He knows that we are faced with temptations all of the time. He knows that we find ourselves in compromising situations, and I figure he wanted to ensure that we knew that he experienced big temptations and gave us an example of resisting them.

One of the struggles I have as a parent is knowing where to draw the line between not letting my children be exposed to temptation and then allowing them to be exposed to temptation. If I totally block off their exposure to temptation and put them in a box then they will not know 1.) how to deal with it as an adult, 2.) what it is to choose you and your glory over evil, and 3.) the wonder and beauty of repentance.

Father, guide me. Guide me in my own rejection of sin and help me to parent my children through their own decisions regarding sin. Life is hard. Life is complicated. Help me to glorify you in this life so that others might be drawn to you.

 
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Posted by on November 10, 2011 in Matthew

 

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Emails to God – Seeing Someone for the Last Time (No verse)

09 Nov

Dear God, over the last couple of years I have had an experience that was new for me. I have visited someone who was terminally ill, and I when I left the room I knew I was seeing that person for the last time. Sure, I have seen people for the “last time” before, but I never KNEW it was the last time. But a about 20 months ago I took our kids to see my mother-in-law for the last time, and I knew at the moment it was my last time to see her too. Then, about a month ago, I went to visit a volunteer in the hospital. At the time they thought he would pass away any day. Any day ended up being yesterday. But the day I visited him in the hospital I knew when I said goodbye that I was doing it for the last time. I knew that he knew it too.

Why am I talking about all of this and praying about it? I don’t know except that I am grateful that as I get older I am seeing more precious friends and loved ones die, and I am getting more and more comfortable with the idea of death. What is on the other side? I am not sure. I don’t know exactly what I will find when I die, but I know that billions of people have lived and died before me, and my experience will be the same as at least a few of them. I read an interesting quote about Steve Jobs when he was dying. His sister said his last words were, “Wow! Wow! Wow!”

Father, there is nothing that can separate me from your love. Neither life nor death can separate me from your love. Help me to be a source of peace for the sick and dying. Help me to be a source of strength for those who are sick. Help me to remember to pray for your healing so that we will know that if you choose to heal then the healing is with your power. Death is not to be feared. There will be grief for those left behind. But fear for ourselves as we face our own death is wasted fear.

 
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Posted by on November 9, 2011 in Uncategorized

 

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Emails to God – Baptism Invented? (Matthew 3:1-12)

07 Nov

1 In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea 2 and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” 3 This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah:

“A voice of one calling in the wilderness,

‘Prepare the way for the Lord,

make straight paths for him.’”

4 John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. 5 People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. 6 Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.

7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. 9 And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. 10 The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

11 “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

Dear God, where did the whole baptism thing come from? This is the first time it appears in the Bible, to my knowledge. Did John just make it up out of his own eccentricities? Was it something that you wanted the Israelites to do all along? What is interesting is denominations have taken this issue through the years and used it as a way to divide us as Christians. But there is very little here that describes the practice from a theological perspective. Why do we do it? Why did it become so important? But it is something that even Jesus had to submit to for whatever reason, so it must be important.

Having grown up Baptist, I think I am definitely influenced by that tradition in how I see baptism. I see it mostly as an outward symbol of humility and submission to you. Other denominations see it as a cleansing of original sin from the soul, and that is why they do it with infants. I’m not sure where John got it, or what, if anything, he expected us to do with it after he was gone, but it became part of what Phillip did with the Ethiopian, and it became part of Jesus’ great commission.

Father, I need to know more about this. I want to understand it better and not ignore something that is obviously important to you. Help me to know if there is something here for me to pay attention to. Help me to also not be like the Pharisees and Sadducees. I do not want to be like a brood of vipers, but I want to produce fruit in keeping with repentance. Help me to repent and be the best man I can be for your glory’s sake.

 
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Posted by on November 7, 2011 in Matthew

 

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Emails to God – Jesus in Egypt (Matthew 2:19-23)

05 Nov

19 After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt 20 and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.”

21 So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. 22 But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, 23 and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets, that he would be called a Nazarene.

Dear God, it is interesting that Luke’s account of Jesus’ birth totally skips Egypt, the death of the babies, and Herod. I wonder why. Luke’s account is supposed to be from Mary, so I wonder why Luke would have left this out. Did he not think it was important to the narrative he was trying to tell? He obviously goes into more detail about a lot of other things regarding the birth, including John the Baptist, Mary’s angel visit, etc.

I can’t imagine the strain of this period for Joseph and Mary. They had to have been thinking, Okay, when I signed up for this I never imagined I would have to move to Egypt in order to save the child’s life. Now they are left with moving here and there trying to keep the kid safe, eventually ending up in their hometown after a few years.

I wonder what the Egyptian years were like. I wish we had some kind of account of them here. I just read some Wikipedia explanations of the time in Egypt, and they sound interesting, if not a little fantastical. There is apparently a lot of apocrypha about Jesus’ family in Egypt, and the Coptic church in Egypt uses them extensively as they describe Jesus’ time in their land. Some of the miracles include palm trees bowing to him, idols falling before him, springs of water suddenly appearing out of the ground, etc.

I guess my point in all of this is that there is sooooo much that I do not know. There is sooooo much that I do not understand. Are these stories true? I don’t know. I wasn’t there. But, in the end, there is certainly an indication that this man made an impression, even when he was a baby. There was certainly something heavenly and divine about him. His arrival changed the course of time wherever he went. It’s amazing.

Father, I read this story and I simply worship you for it. I can only try to appreciate what Joseph and Mary suffered through this time, but it is more than I can imagine. But through it all I see that I owe you my complete submission. I give myself to you. All that I am for all that you are—that is the exchange I make with you.

 
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Posted by on November 5, 2011 in Matthew

 

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Emails to God – Helpless Parents (Matthew 2:13-18)

04 Nov

 13 When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”

 14 So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, 15 where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”

 16 When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. 17 Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:

 18 “A voice is heard in Ramah,
   weeping and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children
   and refusing to be comforted,
   because they are no more.”

Dear God, I cannot imagine feeling this helpless as a parent. I have spent some time in the past talking about Joseph and his faithfulness/obedience to you here. His responsiveness to your word was impressive. But I don’t want to focus on that today. I want to focus on the idea of the powerless parents who saw the government come through and kill their children. They had absolutely no power to stop it. All they could do was watch in horror. And why did it happen? Because an insecure man couldn’t stand the idea of his successor having been born. If only he had known how the plan could work out.

So there are a few things here:

  1. The obedience of Joseph:
  2. The horror the Bethlehem parents experienced
  3. Herod’s insecurity over invalid presumptions he made

I have heard stories about the Sudan and the atrocities there. Women and girls being raped and killed. Men being beaten and killed. And there is nothing the fathers can do to protect their families. They are helpless. They are impotent in the worst way.

I think that there are similar forces at work against my family, but they are harder to see because they infiltrate the mind. Media is the worst. Television. Internet. Music. They are all working against my family, and while I can make some draconian rules against allowing such things in the house (and we do have limits), there is simply no way I can completely shield my children, wife, or myself from them.

Father, protect families in a way that only you can. Protect the families of the Sudan and everywhere else where atrocities are occurring, including human trafficking. Bless those who have suffered and give them peace. Free the captives. Ease the souls of those who were charged with protecting them but were unable to. And protect my family. I feel the attacks. I feel the insidiousness. Please help me to navigate my way through parenting my children so that our family might be a place where we feel your presence and love despite my sin.

 
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Posted by on November 4, 2011 in Matthew

 

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Emails to God – Who were the Wise Men? (Genesis 2:1-12)

03 Nov

1 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem 2 and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

3 When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. 5 “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:

6 “‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,

are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;

for out of you will come a ruler

who will shepherd my people Israel.’”

7 Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. 8 He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”

9 After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 11 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. 12 And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

 

Dear God, there are so many mysteries about these men. Who were they? Where did they come from? What made them follow the star? Why did they choose the gifts they brought? When did they arrive? Why didn’t Herod send a representative with them to ensure he learned more about Jesus? How did they know about the Jewish prophecies?

 

Given all of that, I think the overall takeaway from this story is that something significant happened when Jesus was born. People like these men could see it. Time changed. I don’t know how they counted years before the B.C. and A.D. system came about, but somewhere along the way it was so significant that they decided to go back and renumber everything around his birth almost 600 years afterward. Jesus’ arrival rippled throughout creation, even into the heavens. No only did earth experience it, but the universe experienced it too.

 

Father, I look at this story and, while I have more questions than answers, it is simply a reminder that you are to be worshipped. Jesus is to be worshipped. I accept this blessing and offer you my love. I submit my life to you. All I am for all that you are. I submit my life to you regardless of what is in it for me, for you are worthy of living my life for.

 

 
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Posted by on November 3, 2011 in Matthew

 

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Emails to God – Joseph is Remarkable (Matthew 1:20-25)

02 Nov

20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).

24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 25 But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.

Dear God, again, it is hard to journal on these passages about Joseph because I have studied them so closely before. I am now too close to them to see anything new. But the things I have learned about Joseph from the past are still valid lessons for me today.

  • Joseph decided to do the benevolent thing to Mary BEFORE his angel visit. Makes you wonder why the angel didn’t visit Joseph before he knew about the pregnancy. Was it a test?
  • He obeyed the angel and took Mary home. This obedience would cost him more than he could know—reputation, standing in the church, business (those are the things he could foresee). Then there were the things he couldn’t foresee—taking a pregnant woman to Bethlehem, delivering a baby in a stable, fleeing to Egypt, returning, eventually, to Nazareth, the stress of raising God’s son.
  • He denied himself his husbandly rights by not consummating the marriage with Mary. Frankly, he could have proven whether or not she was a virgin by having sex with her before the baby was born. But he decided that the best thing for your plan was to deny himself. Is it any wonder that you picked him to be Jesus’ earthly father?

Father, I will never be a man like Joseph. I will never live up to that standard. You were wise to not wait until 1990 for Jesus to be born and have me be his father. You were wise to pick a man who was seemingly so selfless that he could totally give himself to you, his wife, and his children. Thank you for this example. Please help me to get a little closer to it as I strive to completely submit myself to and worship you.

 

 
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Posted by on November 2, 2011 in Matthew

 

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Emails to God – Re: Tim Tebow (no verse)

26 Oct

Dear God, since I finished Genesis a couple of days ago, I have been trying to figure out where to go next with my prayer journals. Should I break into new territory and go and do books I have done before? This morning I checked out 1 Chronicles, but the first 9 chapters were lists of names and genealogies. Now, I know that there is probably something in there for me, but not today. By the time 1 Chronicles picks up the narrative it is in chapter 10, and it starts with Saul being killed and David becoming king. It mentions that you withdrew from Saul because of his sin, but you were with David and he had success.

That made my think of Tim Tebow. You know that he has been pretty maligned as a quarterback. He has a lot of athletic talent, but very little quarterback ability. It’s weird because all of the sports announces and analyzers sit around and talk about what an awful quarterback he is, and on paper it seems that they are right. The offense looks ugly and he doesn’t seem to be able to play the position in a classic quarterback way. The other thing that every announcer will tell you is that he is a man of great Christian faith and character, and they have no qualms with him personally or off of the field.

The weird thing is that he wins. In fact, his team did something this last Sunday that no team has done in NFL history. They came back from being scoreless through the first 57 minutes of play and down by 15 to win the game by 3 in overtime. Apparently, there was a critical two-point conversion during which the defense called timeout and the players still feel like they had the wrong personnel on the field to stop the play they expected. Confusion.

As I was driving around and listening to the sports announcers talk about what an awful quarterback Tebow is and how improbable the win was, I couldn’t help but think back to some of the stories of Gideon, David, and the like. Now, I am the first to say that I don’t think you care who wins a football game. If you did, then I am convinced that Baylor would win a lot more than it does. However, I couldn’t help but think this week that if the Bible were still being written today, there might just be a chapter in a book somewhere about this faithful man of God named Tim Tebow, through whom God used his athletic abilities to draw attention to the needs for mission work in the Philippines, Africa, etc.

Father, I guess my point is that I think you might be working in the details of more situations than I would normally think. I look at the donations for our clinic in September. We had a great month because of two extraordinary donations: One for $25,000 and one for $7,000. Both were more than these people had given before. I could look at those and say, “Boy, aren’t we lucky to get those,” or I could look at them and say, “Wow, God worked supernaturally to provide for our needs. Praise be to God.” I hope that I will say the latter more and more often as I become aware of how much you are truly providing for us every step of the way.

 
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Posted by on October 26, 2011 in Uncategorized

 

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Emails to God – The End of Genesis (Genesis 50:22-26)

24 Oct

22 Joseph stayed in Egypt, along with all his father’s family. He lived a hundred and ten years 23 and saw the third generation of Ephraim’s children. Also the children of Makir son of Manasseh were placed at birth on Joseph’s knees.

24 Then Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die. But God will surely come to your aid and take you up out of this land to the land he promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” 25 And Joseph made the Israelites swear an oath and said, “God will surely come to your aid, and then you must carry my bones up from this place.”

26 So Joseph died at the age of a hundred and ten. And after they embalmed him, he was placed in a coffin in Egypt.

Dear God, I wonder what kept the Israelites from going ahead and taking off back for their homes. Why didn’t they leave Egypt? Were they afraid they had been away too long and wouldn’t be welcomed back to their own land? Were they happy in Goshen and saw no reason to leave? I supposed this would have been the time to leave if they were ever going to do it. Why didn’t they?

I also wonder what Joseph died from. He obviously died before a lot of his brothers, and he died comparatively young when you consider how old everyone else was living. So did he get sick from a disease? Probably. Funny, but we don’t often think of a Biblical character’s cause of death. They just die because they didn’t have a lot of doctors going around giving an accurate diagnosis.

As I finish off Genesis with this passage, I suppose the overarching message of the book is that you had a plan, you placed the fate of your plan in very fallible people (from Adam, to Noah, to Abraham, to Jacob, etc.), and your plan somehow endures until this day. Is every date in here correct? Every story precise? I doubt it. But there is certainly a sense that you were there, you are here, and it is going to be okay in the long run.

Father, help me to sense your presence over my very flawed life. Help me to turn loose of the need to get everything perfect and simply let you live through me. Bless others through me, even though there are times when I am not tuned into you. Move beyond my abilities into a place in my life where you live through me even beyond my ability to consciously channel you. I am a fool, and I know your plan if foolproof. Let your plan reign.

 
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Posted by on October 24, 2011 in Genesis

 

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Emails to God – Testing Forgiveness (Genesis 50:15-21)

22 Oct

15 When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “What if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrongs we did to him?” 16 So they sent word to Joseph, saying, “Your father left these instructions before he died: 17 ‘This is what you are to say to Joseph: I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and the wrongs they committed in treating you so badly.’ Now please forgive the sins of the servants of the God of your father.” When their message came to him, Joseph wept.

18 His brothers then came and threw themselves down before him. “We are your slaves,” they said.

19 But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? 20 You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. 21 So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.” And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them.

Dear God, this family was deceptive until the end. These guys are awful. Up until now there is no indication that they had told Jacob what really happened to Joseph way back when (although this story intimates he found out somewhere along the way). But here they are lying to him and telling him that their father (whom Joseph loved) gave him instructions that he never gave. In fact, if Jacob were really to have given those instructions, wouldn’t he have more likely given them directly to Joseph than gone through the boys?

On the other side of this is the fact that Joseph was able to see beyond the pain of his situation and even any anger he had towards you for the way your plan unfolded. He accepted the suffering. He accepted the trials. Now, would he have accepted it if things hadn’t worked out so well for him in the end? Probably not, but it would still have been easy for him to not let his scars heal and hold on to the pain and bitterness.

Father, I still have grudges against people that I have got to let go of. In fact, while I was writing this my wife talked about some physical symptoms she felt during a recent illness, and it reminded me of a woman in this town who has done some things to hurt me because she is basically afflicted by the same symptoms on a constant basis but she doesn’t realize it. So when the thought of her crossed my mind I was instantly angry. So I still have issues. I still have grudges. Give me your perspective on these things and give me healing because I am, frankly, the only one they really hurt, and yet the feel so good to hold on to.

 
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Posted by on October 22, 2011 in Genesis

 

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