What can you do with a stump?

There it sat. Just a stump. The tree is gone. The stump is barren, ugly, a reminder of better times when the healthy tree grew there. But it is gone and the stump remains. That is what Isaiah saw when he looked at Israel in exile under the discipline of God's hand. He cried out to God "Lord, how long?"[Isaiah 6:11] In other words, Isaiah wanted to know how long God would allow Israel to languish in a foreign land away from home. Israel was there because she deserved to be. She had rebelled royally against her God. And she was paying for it. We have all been there. God's answer to Isaiah's question is specific: "Until the cities are laid waste and without inhabitant, the houses are without a man, the land is utterly desolate, the LORD has removed men far away, and the forsaaken places are many in the middle of the land [Isaiah 6:11b-12]. Kind of depressing, isn't it. But read on...God is not finished speaking: "BUT yet a tenth will be in it, and will return and be for consuming, as a terebinth tree or as an oak, whose stump remains when it is cut down, SO THE HOLY SEED SHALL BE ITS STUMP." [Isaiah 6:13]. That stump is going to grow back...called the holy seed. This has to be a reference to their Messiah who is coming. It is in Christ hope is restored for the ugly, barren stump. Only Christ can take what once was and restore it to what can be. This chapter in Isaiah began with a vision of Christ in the temple, totally in control when Israel's national life was in total chaos. And the chapter ends with Christ not only in control, but rescuing those caught up in the chaos of their own making. That is what Christ does. He forgives sin! He restores "trees." Think about it!

The unreality of the "Time March?"

Why is it that we do not notice the relentless "time march" draining away the minutes of our lives? I wonder if this is what Moses was after when he wrote those familiar words in Psalm 90:12 "So teach us to number our days so that we may obtain a heart of wisdom." Do the math. Recognize that our time here on this planet is painfully short. In the words of an old 19th century writer: "It is not for me to be seeking my bliss, or building my hopes in a region like this."
Perhaps we are not "numbering our days" because no one else around us "does the math." We shop with a frenzy, we pursue our leisure hobbies as if we have eternity to do that. We refuse to read the road signs...this highway is only 30 miles long and then you must get off. Thus, our choices do not reflect eternal ideas, only short-lived earthy ideas. And the end of life just keeps sneaking up on us.
Perhaps too, we find the thought of the end of this life here as we know it too depressing or pre-occupying. We cannot imagine there is anything better than obtaining that new car, or taking that dream vacation or earning that elusive degree that will proclaim we have arrived...we have reached a real, tangible life goal, only to suddenly realize we cannot keep it for long. I recall [it seems like only yesterday] when my father-in-law was camping with us, pointing out the mysteries of a wooded section of land in the mountains of Pennsylvania to my wide-eyed kids, only today to be confined to a hospital bed fighting for every breath. But he has numbered his days and spoke to us about his next step as a good one. How quickly life brought him and us to this moment. Soon it will be our turn...sooner perhaps than any of us know, and sooner than most are ready for because our hearts have not been prepared with wisdom. Paul's words to the Corinthians should resonate with us "...to depart and be with Christ is far better, but it is more needful for me to remain here for your sake" [Philippians 1:23]
My prayer is that God will make me time conscious, time ready, embracing the reality of the relentless "time march" ticking off the minutes of my life. Why? Not to plunge me into depression, but to lift my eyes to the reality of all of my life ...that is intended to be spent both in time and eternity. Perhaps then I will enjoy this life even more fully and joyfully because I hear the pad of the marching feet of time and can say..."do the math, boy" you only have so much of that coin to spend! Moses was right. Think about it.

Your work has no handles...

A man loses his job at the peak need of his family...a young mother suffers a major health crisis that impairs her ability to care for her little children...a college student fails the crucial test that removes him from the program of study he thought sure was God's will...a fire destroys the home of an elderly couple who could not afford to carry insurance on their paid-for home and they lose it all...an only child of a sweet Christian couple is diagnosed with terminal illness...Everything on this list I have seen...and frankly it doesn't make sense to me. But there is another side too...a man who is a brute of a man to his family, inherits 300,000 dollars and blows it on cocaine, alcohol, and...well you get the picture. It is the old good verses evil...why do the righteous suffer and the wicked do so well.
I want to suggest that we often personally skew the picture. We only chose to see the wicked who are doing well. Many are not.
Perhaps there is another problem with our view of these "tragedies." You see our ability to see and understand these events come only from the side of our limited nature and experience. Our perspective is very small and very blurry. We think life should have certain "handles" to make sense of it. And when those handles are missing we balk and say...it makes no sense. Think about this.
There is a wider, deeper, better, and more invigorating perspective out there that we must gravitate toward. God is at the console of the ship we call life. We are passengers on this ship and his navigation may not make sense to us, but He holds the whole perspective of the journey itself. He knows where He is taking the ship, and He knows how to get it there. And in the process He keeps everyone one board from disaster. The sharp turn of the boat, the bumpy waters, and the windstorm he seems to guide the ship directly into makes no sense to the passengers...but it makes perfect sense to the Captain. He holds the wider, deeper, better, and more invigorating perspective. I take you to the words of Isaiah in 45:9..."Woe to him who strives with him who formed him, a pot among earthen pots! Does the clay say to him who forms it, 'What are you making?' or 'Your work has no handles.'" Maybe the work really does have handles or maybe it does not need our kind of handles. His perspective always makes sense. We just have to trust it. Think about it.

The wrongful science of forgetfulness?

Is it possible that we are more tuned into forgetting God's blessings than into remembering them? If that is so, why? I fear we have made forgetting God's good things in our lives into an exact science. It is almost a right we have carefully adopted. Could it be we enjoy the negative exercise of remembering all the bad stuff? It enables us to have a "pity" party any time we choose. It gives us a sense of how unfair life has been to us. It enables us to "wallow" in our frustration, and even justify our feelings of having been some how taken advantaged of by life. Ultimately, [perish this thought] is it a subtle way we have of getting back at God for allowing such "undeserved" things to come into our lives?
God warned Israel when they were about to enter the new land he had promised them & receive the houses, lands, vineyards, and crops that they would forget all the things he had done for them in the wilderness, and forget Him altogether. [and it did happen...remember the period of the judges?]
I have thought a lot about how easily I allow the blessings of God to slip from my mind, and how quickly I recall the disappointments, frustrations, and negative events that march through my life. Perhaps some of it IS Satanic. After all, to lose sight of the blessings is to dismiss the blesser in my mind. Perhaps some of it IS fleshly self-centeredness. The tendency to build my world all around me and view all the circumstances as just about me is a strong and overwhelming impulse in me.
How do we negate the wrongful science of forgetfulness when it comes to God's blessings? One of the devices God used to help Israel recall His blessings was the commands to erect memorials during the Exodus journey. He gave the building of stone markers, the observance of certain days and weeks [with jubilee and festival events], and other exercises to make recall of those blessings and victories a priority. I think I need to erect some memorials in my life. Maybe a shadow box that commemorates certain family blessings [like my oldest daugther practices with her family] would be helpful. Or the creating of cards [blessing cards] that I take out periodically and review [like my son creates to remind him of too easily forgotten blessings]. Or perhaps just schooling myself to pray everyday over the blessings. The discipline of bringing them up in prayer will force my mind to return to those blessings.
I don't like the wrongful science of forgetfulness. It is a blind man's journey and I want off of it.

Unsolvable?

I must admit...some problems appear unsolvable. There have been times when certain problems, no matter how hard you pray, or how much counsel you seek, remain stubbornly unsolvable. Even the internet yields no solution! [imagine that...tough on some who give almost sovereign status to the modern technology of the super information source].
Of course this unsolvable-ness of some problems appears on the earthly plane. I am not suggesting God does not have the answer or could not reveal the answer should He so choose. What I am suggesting is the possibility that some problems may be allowed to remain frustratingly unsolvable by God. The word of God will give us help in coping with the unsolvable problem, but may not give the answer to the problem itself. I am not saying the Word of God is not sufficient. Just the opposite. It is totally sufficient for coping with any issue. BUT...those unsolvable problems...they seem to hang around to bug us.
As I think about these kinds of problems, I am wondering if God is not deliberately reminding us that we will always need Him...that our confidence and faith in Him is an ongoing necessity, and that...were it not for some of those unsolvable problems, our prayer life would debiliate into something resembling an anemic and pathetic whimper, instead of a robust cry for help.
Think about it...man with all his genius and inventive prowess is allowed to hit a brick wall quite regularly in unsolvable problems [The Iraq war may be one of those unsolvable problems or that difficult human circumstance for which you cannot seem to get an answer]. Just maybe we need God Himself more than we need the answer to that problem. God may allow that problem to hang around for awhile unsolved. Maybe even until we get to heaven. Can we live with that?...I don't know. I must admit...I don't like living with unsolvable problems. But then...I am not calling the life shots, am I? And my friend, neither are you! I am learning to pray for grace to live with some things that just don't seem to get solved.

Can you roll your burden...really?

When someone you love...when someone you care for departs from a righteous life style...and leaves you disappointed...sorrowful...can you roll that kind of burden? Can you REALLY get out from under that crushing weight and go on with life? What if your best friend has an affair? What if you child departs from the truth? What if your spouse leaves? Is the rolling off the burden possible? Can we follow the advice of the Psalmist in Ps. 55:22 when he counsels us to "Roll your burden on the Lord, and he will support you; He will not allow the righteous to be moved."
John Piper makes this insightful comment in his book Taste & See: "God does not put the strings of our hearts in the hands of sinners. He puts them in the hands of Jesus, who loves sinners." Who can forget that scene in the Gospels where Jesus broken-heartedly wept over the sins of Jerusalem. We can all recall that scene when the rich man walked away from Jesus and chose his riches. Jesus looked on him with love and a broken heart. Yet Jesus spoke of giving us his joy.
Perhaps the answer to rolling off the burden on the Lord lies in absolute trust. Piper went on to say that "No one can blackmail the saints of God with bad behavior and threaten to nullify our love if we will not pay up with the sacrifice of our joy." We must come to the realization that we can weep and grieve over the sins of others and yet at the same time place absolute trust and confidence in the One who does all things well and works all things for good after the counsel of His own will [Mark 7:37; Rom. 8:28; Eph. 1:11; Ps. 110:5]
Piper concludes with the idea that we should never be content with sins, but always content with God in relation to sinners. Can we be content IN circumstances and yet not be content WITH circumstances?
Think about it...

"Bless me," said Pharaoh?

The tenth plague was a disaster! Every family in Egypt was touched by the death angel. Finally, after many confrontations, Pharaoh released the children of Israel. You remember the story set in Exodus 7-12. Through the hardening of his heart to the regular meetings with Moses and Aaron, this man was learning about the true God of Israel. F i n a l l y, after all the plagues, but especially after this last, devastating blow he says, be gone [get out of here...we have had enough]. But there is an intriguing request that Pharaoh presents to Moses as a parting shot. "BLESS ME ALSO." There it is leaping out of the page of Biblical text [Exodus 13:32, ESV]. What is that all about?
Why would a pagan, unbelieving, idol worshipping political ruler ask for a blessing from the Hebrew leadership? Did he not understand what a blessing from God entailed?
I do not think Pharaoh was converted to the Hebrew God. There is no indication in the text of this. Later, in fact, he pursues the Israelites to recapture them and bring them back.
I cannot find that Moses ever gave that blessing. I believe that he could not. Pharaoh's little concession speech is a sad commentary on someone who repeatedly resists God's will. I believe in the end, when the dust settled, he found that he had to accept everything on God's terms.
Earlier Pharaoh had asked Moses to pray for him. Now he wanted a blessing. Is it possible to pass up "blessing" opportunity? The answer is yes for you cannot get God's favor without ever turning to him in faith and repentance.
Almost everyone wants God's blessing. Even people who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ. I do not believe God will give his blessing to those who have not come to Christ, repenting of their sin and placing all of their trust in his finished work on the cross.
One final note: Phil Ryken wrote these tellings words in his book on Exodus: "He [Pharaoh] gave no recognition of any personal responsibility--he wanted the blessing without the liability, the shame, or the consequences." Then it seems to be a biblical fact that God will not bless a man who will not repent of his sin. Pharaoh received not a blessing from God. And neither can we unless we come to Chist for salvation.