jumpingjersey

Life · Ministry · Faith

Tag: testing

Even So

March 22, 2018 /

burning match

Dear Friends,

The story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego found in Daniel 3 has always intrigued me.  In the story, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, a man with significant leadership issues, concocts a scheme to construct a giant gold statue, place it in the plain of Dura, and then command all of the people to bow down and worship his golden abomination. Those who failed to bow down and worship the golden figure were to be given the opportunity be special guests in the king’s sauna of fire.

Three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, exiles from Isreal, are not too keen on this new plan of the monarch. They unequivocally refuse to bow down to worship the shiny man because to do so would be an anathema to their God. This royally ticks off the king who forgets everything he learned in his years of therapy for anger management issues and he orders the three men to be thrown into the blazing furnace but just to make sure the men are really dead dead and not just dead he orders the furnace to be heated seven times hotter than normal. Unfortunately, this story happened in the days before OSHA. The heat from the furnace was so extreme it killed the soldiers who had been given the charge to toss the three men into the furnace. We all know how the story ends. Once they are tossed into the furnace the three men are joined by a fourth for a little furnace warming party. When the festivities are over, the original three walk out of the furnace without a scorch to a hair on their head or even the smell of fire on their clothes.

What fascinates me most about this story is not their miraculous deliverance from the furnace, as amazing as that is, but the speech they give to Nebuchadnezzar just prior to his attempted murder. With defiant courage they boldly declare to the king, ” If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand” (vs. 17). That had to take some major chutzpa to declare with such confidence their deliverance to the king who was about to have them burned alive. It is their next words that are the words of dazzling faith, “But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up” (vs. 18). That’s unconditional faith.

How often do we pray with conditional faith? Conditional faith is a faith that says to God, “I will worship and follow you so long as you __________.” There are so many things we could finish the sentence with:

So long as nothing bad happens.

So long as I get to live the way I want.

So long as you give me what I want.

So long as you don’t ask me to give up anything or move to another country or change jobs.

Our three friends have a very different kind of faith. Their unconditional faith recognizes our ways are not God’s ways and his plans are not our plans, and even when things don’t go the way we would want them to we will still worship God.  Their faith says:

God, I know you are are able to rescue me from the furnace, but even if you don’t I will still worship you.

God, I know you are able to heal this sickness but even if you don’t I will still worship you.

God, I know you are able to provide me a better job, a new house, a car that runs but even if you don’t I will still worship you.

God, I know you are able to mend my broken relationships but even if you don’t I will still worship you.

God, I know you are able to take this depression, darkness, and anxiety from me but even if you don’t I will still worship you.

God, I know you can remove the cancer from my body but even if you don’t I will still worship you.

God, I know you are the one who raises the dead but even if you don’t rescue me from death (my own death or that of someone I love) I will still worship you.

God, I know you are able to prevent wars and famines but even if you don’t I will still worship you.

This is the profound faith in God demonstrated to us by Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Their faith in God remained unchanged even if God didn’t “come through” but what about us?

Blessings,
Stephen

Tempted to Use Political Power

March 15, 2018 /

castle kingdom

As Christians, there is one group of people found in the Bible we like to pick on more than any other. They are the quintessential picture of blind ignorance leading to destruction. Or at least that is how we preachers like to talk about them. Despite their glaring failures, many of the Pharisees and other religious leaders had a noble purpose for their fanatical insistence upon keeping all of the rules and a few extras too. They desired the nation to turn back to God. There were seeking the holiness of God’s people and the restoration of the nation to better times. But their impassioned commitment to righteousness would cause them to be tempted make a most unholy alliance.

In Matthew 4, Jesus is taken by Satan high up on a mountain and shown “all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor” (vs. 8). The vision of the kingdoms came with an offer. If Jesus would simply bow down to Satan and worship him, then all these kingdoms and their splendor could be his. Of course, for Jesus to accept this offer would be to try and achieve God’s purposes and plans for the world through a means other than God intended.

For us today, this second testing of Jesus strikes at the heart of any attempt we might make to use the power of the kingdoms of this world to achieve the ends of the Kingdom of God. The kingdoms of this world, yes even our great country, are inherently selfish and focused on their own self-preservation through the accumulation of power, prestige, and splendor.

The Pharisees, in their zeal for God, would attempt to harness the power of Rome to purge the nation of Jesus and his followers. It would be a confederation doomed from the very beginning. But before, we are too hard on them, we must ask ourselves, how often have we failed to learn the lesson of Jesus’ testing and the Pharisees’ failure? How often have we looked to kingdoms of this world to be our savior rather than God alone? Maybe we are not so different after all.

Blessings,
Stephen

Grace in the Wilderness

March 8, 2018 /

wilderness

Driven by the Holy Spirit to the place of desolation, for forty days Jesus would be in the wilderness. In the wilderness, Jesus would be tested by Satan. His identity as God’s son, the one whom God loves and is well pleased, would be challenged. From the wilderness, having been tested and approved Jesus would emerge to proclaim the good news that “the Kingdom of God has come near” (Matthew  4:17).

Like Jesus, we too experience the wilderness in our lives. The wilderness is the place where all that is non-essential is stripped away. In the wilderness, that which is most important comes into laser focus. How often have you heard the question asked, “If you only had a week to live, what would you do?” The question and intimacy of near death are wilderness experiences. In the wilderness, we are challenged to align our priorities with those things that really matter. So maybe . . .

Instead of spending six hours on the phone with Comcast sales, pick-up the phone and mend a bridge that has been broken.

Instead of racing through the drive-thru, invite a long forgotten family member to dinner.

Instead of insisting on being right, forgive the one who has offended you.

Instead of building bigger barns and amassing more stuff, give it away to those who have need.

Instead of mortgaging your future, invest in the future of others.

While no one likes being in the wilderness it can be a place of blessing and grace. God will often put us in the wilderness to cause us to strip away the many distractions in our life that keep us from seeing Him clearly and depending on Him fully.

Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (NIV). But what is the good that God is working out in the life of those who love him? Is it health, wealth, perpetual happiness, a new BMW in the driveway, a six-figure raise? Paul tells us the good God is working in the very next verse. The good is that you might “be conformed to the image of his Son.” In Matthew 5:48 Jesus exhorts, “Be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect.” To be perfect is to be whole and complete, to be fully everything God created you to be. In short, it is to be conformed into the image of his son, Jesus.

In the wilderness, God will work to cleanse you and make you holy and righteous. Therefore, as one friend says, “any day is a good day to rejoice” even days in the wilderness.

Blessings,
Stephen

Standing Strong in Difficult Times

March 1, 2018 /

Jesus Suffering

Temptation
Testing
Struggles
Crisis
Death
Pain
Suffering
Confusion

We all face them. We all experience them. Why? We are in a world broken by sin and we have an enemy actively working to destroy us. Satan has a wonderful plan for your life. His plan is to kill you, to steal from you, and to destroy you (John 10:10). What he cannot take from you he will lie to you to get you to give it up. After all, he is a liar and he is the father of lies (John 8:44). How do you know Satan is lying? His lips are moving.

How do we stand strong in difficult times? Follow the example of Jesus. In Matthew 4 and Luke 4 Jesus demonstrates the first thing about standing strong when being tested to one’s limits: Know who you are. Prior to Jesus being led by the Holy Spirit into the desert where he is tempted by Satan to abandon his divine mission Jesus is baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River. As he is coming out of the water the heavens open and we hear a voice say, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). Jesus’ knowledge of himself as God’s son, the assurance of his father’s love and pleasure provide the foundation on which Jesus stands in his times of testing. It is our foundation as well. Do you know who you are?

  • You are Christ’s friend. (John 15:15)
  • You are a joint heir with Christ, sharing His inheritance with Him. (Romans 8:17)
  • You are God’s workmanship – His handiwork – born anew in Christ to do His work. (Ephesians 2:10)
  • You are chosen of God, holy and dearly loved. (Colossians 3:12 / 1 Thessalonians 1:4)
  • You are an enemy of the devil. (1 Peter 5:8)
  • You are a child of God (John 1:12)
  • You have the right to come boldly before the throne of God to find mercy and grace in time of need. (Hebrews 4:16)
  • You are the recipient of eternal life. (John 3:16)
  • You have been redeemed and forgiven of all your sins. The debt against you has been canceled.  (Colossians 1:13-14)

And so much more!

One of Satan’s greatest lies is to cause us to doubt the love of God and our identity as children of God during times of suffering and testing. We stand firm in these times by remembering who we are and who God is and never letting go.

Do you know who you are?

Blessings,
Stephen

© 2024 jumpingjersey

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑