A Dark Place to Pray

If Jonah is a well-known biblical character, it’s most likely because he was swallowed by a great fish, or possibly, by a whale. This mammoth sea creature became a tool in the hands of God to rescue His prophet from drowning in the stormy waters, to bring Jonah back to the dry land, and to be a resting place in which Jonah could reason with himself and repent of his rebellion against God.

For three days and three nights, Jonah was safe and secure in the fish’s belly. What was it like in there, I wonder? What thoughts went through Jonah’s mind during those many hours? Did he fear that he’d never see the light of day again? That he would die of suffocation or starvation? Surely he thought a lot about his disobedient behavior--how he’d run from the presence of the Lord, and how the Lord had pursued him with a mighty storm.

Whatever Jonah may have been thinking, the Bible tells us what he DID: “Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish.” The opening of Jonah’s prayer tells of his heart-cry to the Lord as he sank into the murky depths of the sea. It also tells of a living God who not only hears the desperate cries of His children, but answers them. We often take it for granted that God hears and answers our prayers. But this is a precious, precious truth! Those who bow down to other gods might wish and hope for some kind of answer, but they hope only in vain! Believers in the God of the Bible can be assured that every prayer of theirs finds their heavenly Father willing and eager to listen...able and willing to help them in their time of need.

The next part of this prayer recounts how Jonah found himself in trouble: “For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas...all your waves and your billows passed over me.” Notice how the prophet gives glory to God. Gives the Lord the credit for everything that happened. Even though it was the sailors on the ship that physically threw Jonah overboard, Jonah knows that the sovereign God of heaven acted behind the scenes to engineer the whole thing. “YOU cast me into the deep...YOUR waves and YOUR billows passed over me.”

Several weeks ago, a great theologian and Bible teacher, R.C. Sproul, went home to be with the Lord. In his teaching, he’d often refer to his favorite fiction book, Moby Dick. This great American novel tells the tale of a ship’s captain named Ahab, who uses his ship and crew to hunt down a great white whale, Moby Dick. The whale had attacked Ahab in the past and taken off one of the captain’s legs. It had crippled both Ahab’s body and his soul. Ahab searched and searched for Moby Dick to get his revenge by killing it. R.C. Sproul believed that this was a symbol of man’s pursuit of God, not out of love, but a hunger for vengeance.

Yes, there are those who know that our God exists, and yet do all they can to put Him out of their thinking--to kill God off in their hearts and minds. They do this so that they can be free of His laws and demands and expectations. In effect they are, like Jonah, running away from the presence of the Lord. But when those same people get into some kind of deep, dark trouble, where do they turn? Many of them turn to God out of desperation. They come to the end of their rope and have nowhere else to turn, so they PRAY.

Prayer, however, is no panacea--no magical formula that automatically solves all of my problems. People wrongly think of God as a kind of supernatural bellhop who is just waiting for us to ring for Him when we have a wish or request. What we discover in the book of Jonah, is that God is SOVEREIGN. That is, He is in control of all that exists in His creation, and all that happens to all His creatures, all the time. When he was sleeping in the hold of his ship, and even when the storm was raging all around them, Jonah failed to pray. But God arranged the events and circumstances in such a way that when Jonah was cast into the sea, at last he was willing to cry out to the Lord his God.

Do you see the purpose in God’s treatment of Jonah? The story began with Jonah running away from the presence of the Lord. He was running from the responsibility of being God’s prophet, of going to Ninevah and preaching against that city. But the Lord pursued him. The Lord didn’t give up on him. The Lord loved him and planned to return Jonah to a life of loving obedience. At first Jonah’s reaction to God’s casting him into the sea was: “Then I said, I am driven away from your sight.” But soon, inside the fish, he prayed: “yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.”

When dangers and tragedies happen to you and me, often we are tempted to become bitter like Captain Ahab. We are tempted to say, “Lord, why are you treating me this way? Are you trying to drive me away? I don’t deserve this harsh trial.” Or, perhaps we think, “I really DO deserve this. God must be doing this to punish me because He has stopped loving me.” When Jonah was tempted to turn bitter, he remembered instead the lesson of God’s “holy temple.”

What did the temple represent to God’s people Israel? A God who dwelt in their midst. A God who didn’t want to keep away from those He loved. A God who chose to share His own holy presence with them in a special, concentrated way. A God who wishes to be available for fellowship, not just with perfect, holy people...but with fallen, rebellious, guilty sinners.

Jonah went on in his prayer to describe the terrors he experienced as he sank deeper and deeper into the angry sea. He was staring death in the face. The concept of Sheol that he mentioned earlier is a shadowy underworld where the wicked dwell after death. Even as he drew closer and closer to drowning in the waters, Jonah’s hope in His God welled up inside him and he prayed for help!

The temples of false gods are so often UNHOLY temples. They are places where idol worshipers released their sinful passions and broke the laws of decency in order to please their wicked deities. But Jonah’s God came close to His people in a HOLY temple. A place where people were cleansed from their sins and gave sacrifices to a God of truth and purity and beauty: a God who called His people to be holy as well. A God of great and precious promises about a coming Savior who would bless not only Israel, but ALL the nations of the earth!

God longs to bless His people, to answer our faintest prayers. Remember this when you are weak, discouraged, fainting, even drawing close to death! Remember that this is often WHY you are tried and tested by dangers and difficulties: because God desires that we turn to Him for His blessings. He is well able to bring us up from the deepest pits just as He did for Jonah. Even our weakest, faintest prayer is heard in the heavenly courts of our all-seeing Father. He can but speak a word, and his almighty life-giving power can be unleashed to save His child.

Even the bonds of death are no match for the strength of our mighty God. Think of all the people in the Bible who were raised from the dead! Our Lord Jesus suffered death on a terrible cross at the hands of sinners and under the curse of God the Father, so that believers could be freed from their sins and receive eternal life. Then Jesus arose from the tomb three days later, fulfilling what He called “the sign of the prophet Jonah.”

The three days Jesus spent in the tomb were not like others who died. He saw no decay, because God had promised He wouldn’t. And the three days Jonah spent in the belly of the fish, God also preserved him from decay. Both Jesus and Jonah still had work to do. Jesus rose from the tomb to send His followers into all the world to make disciples of all nations...Jonah rose from the fish to take the message of the true God to the lost sinners of Ninevah.

But before Jonah fulfilled his mission, Jonah had a pledge to pay. A vow to fulfill. The Israelites would sacrifice to the Lord for several different reasons. They would make offerings for the covering of sins--to acknowledge their guilt before a holy God. But they would also bring offerings of thanksgiving, sacrifices to celebrate the answers to prayer they had received. Jonah was now more than ready to lift his voice in thanksgiving to the Lord of his salvation.

“Those who pay regard to vain idols,” he prayed, “forsake their hope of steadfast love.” Even after running from God’s presence, Jonah hadn’t lost his basic awareness that the false gods of the sailors could do nothing to assure their salvation. He knew that the One pursuing him with a storm was the Maker of heaven and earth, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He realized that his own people were making a grave mistake by paying regard to the vain idols of the neighboring nations.

“As for me,” Jonah concluded, “I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to YOU.” The covenant-keeping God of the Bible, the One who keeps all His promises. And then he tells us why: “Salvation belongs to the Lord!”

MNA
1/14/2018

The Amazement of "ALL"

The word “all” appears in the Bible over 5,000 times. Here are just a few of the “alls” of the Scriptures:
Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. (Gen. 2:1)
And behold, I Myself am bringing floodwaters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life. (Gen. 6:17)
Suppose there were five less than the fifty righteous; would You destroy all of the city for lack of five? (Gen. 18:28)
And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “See, I have set you over all the land of Egypt. (Gen. 41:41)
The fish that were in the river died, the river stank, and the Egyptians could not drink the water of the river. So there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt. (Ex. 7:21)
And it came to pass at midnight that the Lord struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of livestock. (Ex. 12:29)
Then He said, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” (Ex. 33:19)

I gave you just eight examples from just 2 books of the Bible. In those 2 books, Genesis and Exodus, “all” appears over 500 times. One of the most important things about God’s Word is its universal truth. Here are some major ways the word “all” applies to what we read in the Scriptures:

--The God of the Bible, who appears in the first verse of Genesis as the Creator, is the only God that is. He is the Creator and Sustainer of all that exists besides Himself.
--Therefore, all creation--every creature that exists--owes its love, worship, thanksgiving and service to the God of all.
--Our first parents, Adam and Eve, disobeyed the Lord, and because of their sin, God brought the curse of death and judgment upon all of their offspring--including you & me.
--Because God Himself is the Truth, all truth flows from Him. All the words of God are true, and therefore, all the words of the Bible are divine truth.
--The Scriptures are true for you and for me, they are true for all people, in all places, at all times, for all generations, through all of history, and to all eternity.
--The Bible declares that the Son of God--Jesus Christ--became the only Savior for all people. He claimed: “No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
--Those who turn from their sins and fully trust in God’s Son to save them, receive forgiveness and cleansing from all their sins. Jesus Christ paid for all their sins on the cross of Calvary 2,000 years ago. So, believers have no more payments to make for sin!
--That brings us to my main topic for this article: Our risen Savior Jesus reigns today, right now, in Heaven, and is in sovereign control over ALL THINGS.

Everyone knows that the Bible is all about Jesus--the people of Israel anticipated Him as their coming Messiah, the prophecies of the Old Testament foretold His coming, His ministry, His sacrifice and His everlasting kingdom. Then, the New Testament Gospels--Matthew, Mark, Luke and John--give the story of His incarnation, His life and ministry, His miracles and teaching, His betrayal and arrest, His trial and crucifixion, and then His resurrection and ascension.

But Jesus’ followers had their Master’s promise that the Holy Spirit would lead them into “all the truth” about Him. This was accomplished as Christ’s Apostles received direct revelation from the Son of God through the ministry of the Spirit--revelation that was written down by both the Gospel writers, and by the writers of the New Testament epistles. One of the most important of these letters to the churches was the book of Romans, authored by the Apostle Paul.

No other book of the Bible gives such a complete explanation of what makes the coming of Christ such good news for all people. And Paul himself was such an enthusiastic preacher of that gospel message for a very surprising reason: he started out as one of Christ’s biggest enemies!

The gospel is so amazing because it is good news for sinners--sinners like you and me, those guilty of the smallest sins and the biggest sins, those who admire Jesus and those who hate and despise Him, rich and poor sinners, foolish and wise sinners, young and old sinners, Jewish and Gentile sinners. All sinners in the world can receive Paul’s message as “good news”!

The good news Paul describes to the Christians in the church at Rome is all about receiving. When Paul was known as Saul of Tarsus, he was a Jewish Pharisee, committed to keeping God’s law as strictly as possible, and counting on his own strict obedience to make him acceptable in God’s eyes. His religion was based on doing, on offering, on giving something to the Lord that was demanded of him.

But when he finally met God’s Son on the road to Damascus, Saul found out that salvation from his sins was all about receiving. Jesus Christ had come to provide a free gift of forgiveness and perfect righteousness that is offered by grace and through faith alone. He discovered that all of his law-keeping put together could never earn the favor of a holy God. God is so high and holy and perfect, that no one’s obedience is good enough.

Isaiah 64:6 tells us that “all our righteous deeds are like filthy rags” in the eyes of the Lord! So, how many “filthy rags” would it take to make our holy Creator pleased with us--pleased enough with us to allow us into His perfect presence? Our only hope for salvation from God’s judgment would have to be based on His mercy and grace. We must trust in a God of mercy to save us.

So, Paul explains to the Roman believers--and to you and me--that “the righteous will live by faith” (Romans 1:17), that Christ offers us a “righteousness apart from the law” (3:21), that faith in Christ is “credited as righteousness” (4:22), that believers are identified with Christ so that “we too might walk in newness of life” (6:4), that our freedom from sin makes us “slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification” (6:19), that the Spirit of God dwells in us to help us in our weakness (8:26). All of these benefits are love-gifts of grace from our heavenly Father.

Of course, our faith in Jesus Christ doesn’t end as soon as we become Christians. The challenge and the power of living out our life in Christ requires that we go on trusting Him. Jesus’ ministry to His people didn’t end after He died and arose and ascended to His heavenly glory. The risen Lord Jesus is ruling and reigning on the throne of the universe. Romans 8:28 is one of the most reassuring verses in Paul’s entire epistle: “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”

For believers in Christ, faced with the weaknesses of our own fallible flesh, a fallen world full of persecution and temptations, and the craftiness of the devil and his fallen angels, Romans 8:28 is a source of strength, comfort and confidence. Our progress on the path to heaven doesn’t depend totally on our effort, our faithfulness, our strength of willpower. No, our Savior and King is always providing us with supernatural help. He is in control of all things. And He causes all things to work together for our benefit. The good purpose of making us like Jesus Himself!

Just think about it:
~ All of the circumstances of your birth, your family, your physical traits and talents,
~ All of the events of your past, your upbringing, your education, your victories & failures,
~ All of the relationships you’ve made, your spouse, your children, your friends & enemies,
~ All of the problems in your life, your disappointments, your diseases, your weaknesses,
~ All of the situations you worry about, your doubts, your fears, your joys & your sorrows,
~ All of the lessons you’ve learned, are learning, or have yet to learn,
~ All of the local, national, or world situations we read about or see in the media,
~ All of the decisions made by those who have authority over you, those who care about you or don’t care at all,

All things are under the control of your good God, Lord and Savior, who plans them for your good.

At the same time, you and I must keep in mind that knowing about Romans 8:28 and believing it are two different things. Many of God’s most precious promises are some of the most difficult to fully accept. The world, the devil, and our own weak flesh can cause us to doubt God’s sovereign control over life’s circumstances. When we doubt His loving power over all things, we can start to lose the peace, the joy, and the hope that sustain us through the storms and trials of life.

Believe me, Paul certainly understood that this earthly life is filled with storms and trials, especially for Christians. Chapter 8 of Romans is concerned with the sufferings and weaknesses that take place in our world. Paul writes that the whole creation is “groaning,” as if it is in labor, waiting to be delivered. You mothers know what the pains of labor are like. Paul goes on to say that we Christians have a “groaning” in our souls as well. It is a longing for our heavenly home, for the pure, beautiful, eternal state where we will leave all suffering behind, and dwell in the glorious presence of our Lord Jesus forever.

Mothers, when your baby is born, I’m told that the memory of your labor pains quickly fades away--there is such overwhelming joy and relief that your new child has arrived safe into the world, the agony of the delivery process all seems to have been worth the effort. In fact, isn’t it true that the joy is actually ALL THE GREATER because of the part you played in bringing the son or daughter into the world--painful though it was?

That is very much like the suffering we go through as believers. At times it is extremely hard to see the loving hand of a sovereign God at work in and through those difficult, painful trials. When we lose a job...when fire or violent weather strikes our property...when a loved one leaves...when our bodies grow tired and weak...when we get confused, depressed or frustrated…

All of those hardships, the Bible assures us, are the pains leading up to our DELIVERANCE into glory! And when we trust our heavenly Father to cause our pains and sufferings to “work together for good,” we are following the example of our Lord Jesus. Remember, HE took on our weak, limited human flesh when he became a man. HE experienced poverty, hunger, thirst and physical pain. HE suffered the loss of loved ones and the misunderstanding of his own people. HE was accused of being false, demonic and guilty of crimes he didn’t commit. HE was nailed to a terrible cross to pay for sins that were not his own!

Paul describes Jesus in Philippians 2: He “made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow.” All that Christ suffered as a man, led up to the glory that He received in Heaven from His Father--glory that will be His forever. Glory that you and I will share in when we see Him face to face!

Paul writes: “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Rom. 8:18). Our sufferings are being worked by God together for our ultimate good. In fact, our sufferings make us more like our Savior, who suffered so much for us!

And think of the great scope of the “good” God is preparing for those who love Him! The pains and struggles of this life are only for that long: “this life.” But the glory and blessings of the life to come will NEVER END. The inheritance that awaits all of God’s children will outweigh this life’s sufferings so much, we will think it strange that we ever doubted or complained about them.

Think of the “good” God accomplishes through our hardships even IN this life: They cause us to pray more often and more fervently. They strengthen our faith as we lean on Christ. They increase our desire and expectation for Heaven. They make us more humble and less self-dependent. They give us more sympathy and compassion for others so we may comfort them. In other words, trials and sufferings make us more like Jesus. They sanctify us.

“Every human tie may perish; Friend to friend unfaithful prove;
Mothers cease their own to cherish; Heaven and earth at last remove;
But no changes Can attend Jehovah’s love.

In the furnace God may prove thee, Thence to bring thee forth more bright,
But can never cease to love thee; Thou art precious in His sight:
God is with thee, God, thine everlasting light.”

At the end of chapter 8 of Romans, Paul gives a frightful list of things that might conceivably make our Lord “cease to love” us. “Tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” “In all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (v. 37).

All things work for our good,
We are more than conquerors over all that threatens us.
All that we suffer cannot be compared with the glories of Heaven.
Because God loves all those who are called according to His purpose,
And His love is eternal. It will outlast it ALL!

MNA
4/3/2017

Timetables

“Life is just a game...at the end, the one with the most toys is the winner!”

Such homespun philosophies become the stuff of clever bumper stickers, but I don’t seriously believe that most people think in such fatalistic terms. Deep down in even the most calloused human heart, there is much more of a hunger for significance and a confidence that life and death are so much more than a game--some kind of cosmic joke.

But, to be sure, there are episodes in every life--many of them prolonged and agonizing--that make it appear confusing, tragic and disillusioning. The Bible certainly reflects this. Read the Old Testament books of Job and Ecclesiastes if you doubt that!

For millenia, all men, including all men of God, have wrestled with the troubling questions involving life and death:

- Why do the righteous often suffer while the wicked prosper and outlive them?
- What is the purpose behind the deaths of infants and the promising young people who are taken?
- If God is all-powerful, why doesn’t He deal with the wicked before they unleash their evil?
- Is it really necessary for natural disasters to occur throughout our fallen world?

In a way, it’s understandable that avowed atheists throw such challenges in Christians’ faces, because, in all honesty, we believers also struggle with those kinds of conundrums. We believe in a God of mercy and love, yet we behold tragedy again and again, bred in the cauldron of this sin-sick world. And we can’t help but wonder from time to time, “Where is God in all of that?”

Simon Peter, former fisherman, Jesus’ right-hand man, fierce, fiery preacher of the early book of Acts--Peter sat in a dark, dank prison cell, chained between two soldiers, scheduled to be beheaded the following day. King Herod had very recently executed James, another of Jesus’ close friends, to the great delight of the enemies of Christ. Now, it was Peter’s turn to be martyred. Or so Herod thought.

But Acts 12 goes on to tell of Peter’s miraculous release from that prison. You see, in God’s timetable, Peter had a lot more ministry ahead of him. Actually, as we read at the end of that chapter, it was almost time for Herod to become worm-food, rather than the Apostle he had thrown in prison.

James’s death...Peter’s rescue...both for the glory of God.

James and Peter were both strong pillars of Christ’s early church. Persecution had driven most of the believers away from the church’s birthplace: Jerusalem. Where Jesus died and was buried and rose again--where the Holy Spirit had descended and thousands had heard the Messiah’s message in their own miraculously given languages. James and Peter both remained where the opposition was hottest. They knew the dangers, the murderous threats. Yet they stayed to teach and encourage the Jerusalem believers.

Herod beheaded James...and because that pleased the Jews, he planned to do the same to Peter. Now the enemies of Christ’s church had the civil government on their side, with the combined might of the Roman empire behind it and them.

James was dead...Peter was next in line...the little church gathered to pray the night before the execution. The little prayer meeting lengthened far into the night...

Then, there came a knock at the door. Keep on praying, brothers and sisters, Rhoda will run and see who it is at this late hour.

Rhoda...who was it?...Who?? Peter??? Rhoda, you’re out of your mind!

But it was Peter. The believers were “astonished.” But God’s timetable always runs “on time.” It was time for James to graduate to glory. Perhaps that was the sacrifice necessary to encourage the church to pray earnestly for Peter’s release? It was time for Peter to be rescued for future ministry. Perhaps to reward the church for its earnest prayer and convince them of its power to move the arm of the Almighty!

Ecclesiastes 3:11 says “He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, He has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.”

We can look at the world of life, death, delight and tragedy in two very different ways: Some, like Herod, look at events as only things that he has the power to manipulate and react to with his own limited wisdom. Others, like the tiny Jerusalem church, see events as under the sovereign control of an all-wise, all-powerful God who decrees from all eternity that those events will serve His own glory and His people’s best good.

When those events trouble and provoke us to doubt, isn’t it only because we are failing to take our wise Father’s timetable into account? Eternity is in our hearts. Let’s keep remembering that everything is--or will be--beautiful in its own time.

Because God has made it that way.