Rise Again

I’ve always confused righteous with perfect, or holy with flawless. But in Proverbs 24:16 it says, “for though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again.” I had to read that verse a couple of times to make sure I understood it.

 

If I wrote the Bible, that verse would say, “If a man wants to be righteous, he better not fall seven times.” That’s not what it says though, it says the very opposite of that. It promises that a righteous man is going to fall. There is little doubt in the author’s mind a fall is going to occur.

 

That doesn’t prevent the man from being righteous at his core, but note what happens after the comma, “he rises again.” I think that’s what this verse is ultimately about, rising again. In fact, I believe a lot of life is about what we do after the comma, how we react to a situation.

 

Perfect Gary or Perfect Mary or Perfect Frank, regardless of what your name is, don’t want you to know commas exist. They want you to focus on making the first half of that sentence perfect. But God loves commas and more importantly than that, he loves watching us rise again.

Adversity Affliction Healing

In Isaiah 30 it says:
“Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction,” and “the LORD binds up the bruises of his people and heals the wounds he inflicted.”

Wow, that’s a hard message to make sexy. Would you want to worship a God that bruised you and wounded you and fed you the bread of adversity? Probably not, but at the end of the day, that’s the God I know.

One that loves me enough to discipline me.

One that cares enough about me to put affliction in my path to strengthen me and grow me.

One with enough compassion to teach me through adversity and prosperity.

God is the God of untold blessing. I believe he wants great things for us. I believe the “gospel” message of prosperity is probably small in comparison to how much God wants to give us. But that’s not the whole story of God. I think that God is also the God that loves you enough to “take you out behind the woodshed.”

One Smart Man-Me

Shut Up

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve tried to talk less, to use less words, to be more careful about the way I ramble but it never works. If someone makes just fleeting eye contact with me in an elevator I swear I’ll open a flood of words.

When I’m faced with a challenge, I ramble. I get a little sweaty. I try to “word my way out of trouble.”

I like that idea, allowing my words to be small and God to be big. Allowing my mouth to be silent while God’s hands are loud. Allowing him to be him and me to be me. Even if that means being quiet.

I WILL

I read something in Ezekiel that hit home. Here are some verses from chapter 36:

1. I am concerned for you and will look on you with favor

2. I will show the holiness of my great name

3. I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land.

4. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean

5. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols.

6. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you

7. I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

8. I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.

9. I will be your God.

10. I will save you from all your uncleanness.

11. I will call for the grain and make it plentiful and will not bring famine upon you.

12. I will increase the fruit of the trees and the crops of the field, so that you will no longer suffer disgrace among the nations because of famine.

13. I will resettle your towns, and the ruins will be rebuilt.

14. I will do it.

15. I will yield to the plea of the house of Israel and do this for them:

16. I will make their people as numerous as sheep

Wow, 16 times God tells the people that he’ll be the one to do the action. He puts it on his shoulders. Read the list again and look at the things he promises.

Tomorrow when I wake up, I can trust that he’ll put a spirit in me and move me to follow his decrees. I don’t have to go it alone.

I can rest safely in the words “I will.”

Sabbath Rest

I read something in Luke 23 that I thought was interesting. This is the chapter where Luke details the death of Christ, but these two verses are at first glance, very tiny. This is all they said;

55 The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. 56 Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment.

When I looked at these, I was surprised to find a powerful testament to the importance of the Sabbath. Christ had died. These women were going to perfume and honor his body. But they waited a day because it was the Sabbath. They put the Sabbath above the need to treat Christ’s body with respect and tenderness. They “told” Christ “wait” so they could keep the Sabbath.

I don’t keep the Sabbath right now. But maybe I need to rethink that. Maybe I need to treat it like these women did. Maybe I need to jump it above everything else and just be still. Maybe you and I need to just rest.

Recognizing Christ’s Presence

The two disciples whom Jesus joined on the road to Emmaus recognized him in the breaking of the bread. What is a more common, ordinary gesture than breaking bread? It may be the most human of all human gestures: a gesture of hospitality, friendship, care, and the desire to be together. Taking a loaf of bread, blessing it, breaking it, and giving it to those seated around the table signifies unity, community, and peace. When Jesus does this he does the most ordinary as well as the most extraordinary. It is the most human as well as the most divine gesture.

The great mystery is that this daily and most human gesture is the way we recognize the presence of Christ among us. God becomes most present when we are most human.” - Henri Nouwen

Prayer

The Simplest Message of All

Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up, “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?”

They missed it. It was so simple. Something impossible was about to become possible. Something unreal was about to become real. I think when God does that, he does it in a really simple fashion because it shows his glory best.

But when he moves with big, wild thunder, it’s impossible to deny his hand. The blind get sight, the lost get found, lives are changed in ridiculous ways.

Have you ever experienced that? Found yourself facing odds that only God could overcome? Found yourself in a room so dark that only God could light the way out?

You will, at some point, you will.

When you do, keep your eyes open for the simple. The enemy loves to complicate and confuse and tangle, but at the core of God’s message is a single reality, he loves you.

And that’s the simplest message of all.

What God Collects

“Record my lament; list my tears on your scroll are they not in your record?” Psalms 56:8

I admit, that’s not the clearest word in the world, so here’s what the New Living Translation says:

“You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book.”

I think that’s beautiful. Can you imagine that? Can you picture God doing that?

Taking his giant hands and tenderly picking up every single one of your tears?

Knowing why it came, understanding what it means, placing it in his bottle.

A hand holding that bottle and wishing it was you instead that he was comforting.

That’s how God spends his days.