My Hope from the Heart
In spite of the dire circumstances
that we may face, I’m here to tell you that there is hope. As the brave men and
women put their lives on the line in our hospitals and face COVID-19, as the
virus strikes closer and closer to home, as people we know become sick and some
end up in the ICU—I have faith that there is hope. Why? God tells us, “Faith is
the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Hebrews
11:1 NASB).
During this time and once
this unsettling time has passed, there will be those among us who turn to God
and there will be those who rail against God and blame Him for COVID-19, they
will blame Him for all of the deaths and we can be sure that there will even be
those who ask, “Where was your God when all of this happened?” I know that this
will happen because I would have been one of the one’s to ask such a question
before Jesus turned my heart away from what it used to be. I used to ask God
why He let my sister die? Why did it have to be because of me that she died?
Why did He allow a 14-year-old to go to prison and hit a maximum-security yard
at age 15? Why did my family and I have to endure such pain?
He finally opened my eyes
to why and the truth that NONE of this is His fault. All that we endure, all
that we struggle through and all that happens is not on God. He is eternal and
He is unchanging. As parents, we talk about parenting in a style that is
consistent. Dolling out punishment in a manner that holds up time and time
again. Well, as our Heavenly Father, we know God told us that the moment we ate
of the fruit, we would die and when did not only was our soul at risk, but our
flesh was, too (Genesis 3). He told us what would happen to us if we disobeyed
and that punishment, that consequence has been there since the Garden. Death is
part of the consequence for our disobedience. Sickness and decay and our world
being in a state of fallenness, enduring the consequences of our own personal living
and other people living in a fallen and sinful state is all part of it.
The truth of the matter
is that neither God, nor Jesus ever promised us a life on this side of eternity
that was going to be easy, beyond blessed, full of wealth or without sickness. Find
it in the Word of God. In fact, one of the most misquoted sayings is that God
will never give us more than we can handle. That is not actually true. The
Bible does tell us that none of us are tempted beyond what is common to man and
that He provides a way out for us (1 Corinthians 10:13). But, that is regarding
the temptations that we face in life. Be it the temptation to slander or gossip
about others, the temptation to lie on others, the temptation to tear one
another down rather than build one another up; or the temptation to give into
our flesh while living out it’s lusts: be it in extramarital trysts (sex
before marriage, affairs while married, including delving
into porn—all the same in God’s eyes),
disobeying the law/authority of the land (Romans 13:1-5, Titus 3:1, 1 Peter 2:13-17)
as well as drunkenness (Ephesians 5:18).
We are only ever promised
a way out of temptation. That may look like going to your spouse and having Covenant
Eyes placed on all of your digital devices, so that you aren’t looking at porn.
That may be deciding to actively share all passwords to your social media
account, while blocking people on various platforms (as well as in your phone)
so that you are not tempted to sext, SnapChat or in any other way talk to members
of the opposite sex in an inappropriate manner.
Unfortunately, this may
even include keeping distance between those who choose to continuously bring up
your indiscretions, missteps and failures because if you have asked for
forgiveness and turned from your sins, God does not keep a record of our repented
wrongdoings (1 Corinthians 13:5). Our sins are forgiven if we have repented and
confessed them with our mouth, and those sins are cast as far as the East is to
the West (Psalm 103:11-12). In fact, Micah 7:19 tells us that He will cast all
of our sins into the depths of the sea. Thus, be wary of those who seek to
constantly point out or point to that which you have turned away from and have demonstrated
repentance by the fruit you have produced. Now, understand, I am not referring
to our choosing to use our stories to encourage others or our pastors asking us
to share our stories so that others may see that they are not alone. No. I am
referring to those who bring up our pasts as digs, as passive aggressive barbs
and as a means to check us or put us in our place because we used to be…that is
not of God. Therefore, be wary of those who demonstrate self-righteousness.
I used to be a lot of things. I have been the
liar, the pariah, the addict, a cheat, the angry, the anti-Jesus, a thief,
guilty of being responsible for another person losing their life due to my own
gross negligence, stupidity and actions which were focused on taking my own
life. In fact, there really is not much that a person can call me that my wife,
those who do life with me and our amazing God is not already aware of. Might I
direct your attention to such posts as Post-Prodigal, as well as There is Hope:
Persevere! However, I use all that I have failed miserably at within my own strength
to show that there is a strength that we can rely on. That strength
is found in Jesus Christ. He may not promise to give us only things that we can
handle. He may not promise that our wildest dreams will come true on this side
of eternity. But, He does promise us that in Christ Jesus we can do all things
because it is Christ Himself that will give us strength (Philippians 4:13). The
trick is relying on Christ and not ourselves.
That is where having faith in what we do not
see comes into place. If we draw our attention back to Hebrews, we can see that
through faith we understand how the Word of God prepared the worlds (Hebrews
11:3). We know that that Word was God and is God and that the Word became Flesh
and that the Word was with God in the beginning and nothing came into being
apart from the Word (John 1:1-3). We know that Abel had great faith and God saw
him as righteous even though he suffered death at the hands of his brother
(Hebrews 11:4). We know Enoch had such great faith that God took him up rather
than let him die (Hebrews 11:5). We know Noah’s faith better than most, and he
was laughed at, ridiculed and scoffed at even as he built the ark; but he continued
to do what God required of him (Hebrews 11:7). Most everyone has heard of
Abraham. Here is a man who told kings that his wife was his sister in an
attempt to avoid being attacked due to them wanting her. Sort of the reverse of
what we see in today’s society where some call non-related people brother or
sister to mask the inappropriate closeness that exists between them. Abraham
repeatedly dropped the ball, even had a kid with Sarah’s “assistant” but God
still saw his faith and counted it to him as righteousness (Hebrews 11:8-12).
All of them had faith in
God to do what they knew God said He would do. In spite of what their kin ended
up doing to them over being faithful. In spite of what the town had to say
regarding the crazy project that they undertook that made no sense. In spite of
even facing possibly having to give up the very promise that God had given.
They had faith that God was faithful even when we are not, and He would keep
His promises. Thus, knowing that all they lived through was, but part of what
God promised throughout Scripture which pointed to Jesus Christ, what a
blessing we have that we can have faith in Him and His strength!
Micah 7:7-20 tells us
that God is the source of Salvation and Light. Micah says that he will wait
expectantly for Yahweh, for He is the God of his salvation. I love what Micah
goes on to say: “Do not rejoice over me, O my enemy. Though I fall I will rise;
though I dwell in darkness, Yahweh is a light for me. I will bear the
indignation of Yahweh because I have sinned against Him, until HE
PLEADS MY CASE AND EXECUTES JUSTICE FOR ME. He will bring me out to the
light, and I will see His righteousness. Then my enemy will see, and shame will
cover her who said to me, ‘Where is Yahweh your God?’”
We know that Jesus’s name
in Hebrew was Yeshua, Yahweh will Save. We know that Jesus was Yahweh in the
flesh. We also know that He came, He lived a sinless life, and He chose to die
for our sins so that we could be restored to Him without the need of a priest
between us, without need of a temple-system, where obedience and not sacrifice reign
because He was our sacrifice and He is our Holy High Priest. We also know that
He died on that cross and He rose on the third day as a testament to His
redeeming us from all of the curses of the Fall. Part of the curse that we
suffered from Adam and Eve’s disobedience is death. Yet, Jesus rose from that
death to show us that He has power over all things, including death. This world
is fallen, this world is Satan’s playground, but we do not have to be afraid of
any of that! We have a hope that cannot be quenched: Jesus rose from the grave.
He conquered death and for those of us who call on His name, who profess Him as
our Lord and Savior, we do not have to be afraid of the viruses and ails of
this life. We have the promise of life eternal in His Kingdom.
But how can we have such
faith? How can we know for sure that the Gospel is real? That it is not just
some story that we tell ourselves to allay the twinge we feel when we consider
our own mortality? Well, that is pretty simple. We often look back at the time
of Christ and those who lived then as being so different from us. Yet, their drives,
feelings and motives for doing things are no different from what we experience
today. They wanted to feel safe and loved and special as we do today. We can
see that in the Apostles wanting to know who the greatest was going to be in
the Kingdom, or in more modern terms, who the favorite was with Jesus (Luke
9:46, Matthew 18:1), as well as when they were terrified in the boat out in the
middle of the sea’s storm swearing they were going to die. We can see that they
feared men and authority by how they fled from Jesus at His arrest and denied even
knowing Him. John Mark got grabbed by the “cops” and he fled butt naked (Mark
14:51-52); and Peter denied Jesus not once but three times.
Sounds like us, right? Who is the favorite of
the pastor? Or, just another episode of LIVE P.D.! Right?! But, those same guys
went from that sort of mentality, to boldly professing the Gospel wherever they
were, no matter the cost, even when told to stop and even in the face of some
of the most gruesome deaths imaginable, nerves severed as they were crucified, the
agony of being burned with oil and then exiled to an island, being beheaded or
being hit with rocks like Stephen until they ceased breathing. The fact that
they had such an about-face tells me one thing: something happened after Jesus
died that changed them. Something so major occurred that they did not care
anymore what was done to their bodies. They knew that He was risen. They knew
He had been with them! They had seen Him, touched Him and ate with Him because nothing
else lends a logical explanation to why so many of them were as eager to endure
all that they did if He never ventured out of that tomb.
So, in this crisis, we have
hope because Christ conquered the grave. We have strength because He lends it
to us. And, if it falls on us to help our neighbors and our fellow men, let us
do so in wisdom, let us follow the authority God has placed over us in the CDC
and Federal Government. Yet, when our systems fail as they will because we are
all human, let us be brave in showing our love toward our friends and toward
those who need it because our faith gives us hope, and strength; and ultimately:
Christ commands us to love one another, just as He has loved us. He tells us
that there is no greater love than for us to lay our lives down for our friends
(John 15:12-17). In faith, we can rise to this commandment because we know, we
have faith that He conquered the grave and He is Salvation!
Until Next Time,
God Bless
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