Wednesday, July 12, 2023

“For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are. But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses[a] and the prophets long ago. 22 We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are.”  (Romans 3” 19 22, New Living Translation)

                [I am taking a few weeks break. I hope to be back on August 9^th. Blessings!]

                 I really, really, really hate filling out forms of any kind. I know that my six-year-old grandson would tell me not to use the word “hate,” so let me say, then, that I really, really, really despise filling in forms. Inevitably, I fill in the wrong box with something that should go elsewhere. Or I miss a box. Yesterday, I was at Service Ontario with a form. What a disaster! Didn’t have the right information. Didn’t have the right ID.  I had to go home and with Susan’s help (per usual) start over again. I am terrible at filling out forms. It probably would help if I read them more thoroughly before hand, but who’s got time for that silly nonsense?  That is why white-out was invented.

                If I have to fill out forms to get into heaven, it may take a while before I gain entry. On the other hand, my idea of Hell would be a stack of forms, and never being ever able to finish any of them and being sent to the back of the line and starting over again and again, for eternity!

                 Paul reminds us that what it takes to be in God’s perpetual Grace and  Love is not strict obedience to the Law, as good and helpful as the Law may be. But ticking off the boxes when it comes to living according to the Law (i.e. the Torah) can be a never-ending, no-win situation. None of us can ever be that perfect. The high standards of the Law point to excellence, but as Paul also points out, “its purpose is to keep people from having excuses, and to show that the entire world is guilty before God.” Try as we might, none of us can ever truly complete the forms God has set out for us.

                So, instead, we have been given a complimentary process to assist us in reaching out for God. “But in our time, something new has been added. What Moses and the prophets witnessed to all those years has happened. The God-setting-things-right that we read about has become Jesus-setting-things-right for us… Out of sheer generosity he put us in right standing with himself. A pure gift. He got us out of the mess we’re in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ.” (Romans 3: 21- 24, The Message Bible)

                A gift. This is God’s Grace at work in Jesus Christ. In effect, Jesus has filled out all the forms on our behalf. He has co-signed the application so that we might indeed gain entry into God’s  Realm of Love and Benevolence. “Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law. It is based on faith. So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law.” (Romans 3: 27 28, NLT)

                This is not to say that we get to do anything or say anything we please. What Christ has done for us, so freely and graciously, has expectations and responsibilities. It may seem like Monopoly’s “Get Out Of Jail Free” card but we still have to live out the life we have been given. We are called to follow Jesus by living as his example.  In the joy and hope of being saved by faith, we are freed to let go of the sins which bind us and live generously, lovingly, compassionately, with a big-heart and an open-hand toward others. In fact, Paul reminds us that “if you love your neighbor, you will fulfill the requirements of God’s law.” (Romans 13:8, NLT)

We are loved so that we can love. We are saved by faith in God’s unconditional Grace and we need to love others as graciously. Seems too simple. Where is the fine print? What am I missing? What else do I need to do?  

                Just get in line with Jesus! He will carry us through.

                "Because we know that this extraordinary day is just ahead, we pray for you all the time—pray that our God will make you fit for what he’s called you to be, pray that he’ll fill your good ideas and acts of faith with his own energy so that it all amounts to something. If your life honors the name of Jesus, he will honor you. Grace is behind and through all of this, our God giving himself freely, the Master, Jesus Christ, giving himself freely.” (2 Thessalonians 1: 12, TMB)

Dale

Wednesday, July 5, 2023

“You throw me into the whirlwind and destroy me in the storm.” (Job 30:22, New Living Translation)
“Then the Lord answered Job from the whirlwind…” (Job 38:1, NLT)

                Do you ever feel like you are caught in a whirlwind, life buzzing chaotically, frantically around you faster than you can keep up?

                This week, I watched a video of a Little League baseball game being played somewhere in the USA.  The kids were about 7 or 8 years old. From behind, it showed the catcher in his position behind home plate, getting ready to receive the ball. All of a sudden, a small whirlwind, kicking up the sand, spun around the catcher, just him.  There he was, caught all by himself in the middle of this personal, miniature whirlwind of wind and sand. He stood there until the umpire had the presence of mind to go and pull him out. The boy was not ever really in danger, but it must have been scary, a least a little.

                Metaphorical whirlwinds come in many forms. Busy family schedules.  Work stress. Money problems. Debt loads. Health issues. There may be days when some feel that they don’t know if they are coming or going or have already been there and are back again. The world spins and we get caught up in its vortex of demands, pressures, stresses and an unrelentless pace to life. Even in my retirement, I get caught up in the things that should be done around the house, but physically find arthritically difficult to keep up with anymore.

                Job cries out in the whirlwind of suffering and complaint which he is experiencing. Who could blame him? Loss of family. Loss of property. An attack on his personal health. Satan has put a heavy load on Job when he challenged God, “But what do you think would happen if you reached down and took away everything that is his? He’d curse you right to your face, that’s what.” (Job 1: 111, The Message Bible) Job got his own, terrible life’s twister as a result. And although Job didn’t get to cursing God, exactly, he, certainly, in no uncertain terms, blamed God for creating this whirlwind and accused God of being very hard hearted and callous.

    I shout for help, God, and get nothing, no answer!
    I stand to face you in protest, and you give me a blank stare!
    You’ve turned into my tormenter—
    you slap me around, knock me about.
    You raised me up so I was riding high
    and then dropped me, and I crashed.
    I know you’re determined to kill me,
    to put me six feet under. (Job 30: 20 -23, TMB)

                But eventually God speaks out of the whirlwind, ironically – a physical storm that comes upon Job but one which carries God’s Voice to him. Job doesn’t ever get a perfect answer as to why good people suffer. But he begins to understand that God has not totally abandoned him or forgotten him. God speaks out of the whirlwind, reminding Job that God’s creative ability to shape the world has no equal. In effect, God sees the little sparrow fall, it meets his tender view and so God recognizes, hears and responds to Job out of his anguished storm.

                Perhaps, we are reminded of the Gospel story when the disciples are caught out on the Sea of Galilee during a storm. “A huge storm came up. Waves poured into the boat, threatening to sink it. And Jesus was in the stern, head on a pillow, sleeping! They roused him, saying, ‘Teacher, is it nothing to you that we’re going down?’” (Mark 4: 35 -38, TMB) Like Job, the disciples can’t quite figure out the apparent indifference of a sleeping Jesus. But then Jesus awakes; “he told the wind to pipe down and said to the sea, ‘Quiet! Settle down!’ The wind ran out of breath; the sea became smooth as glass. Jesus reprimanded the disciples: ‘Why are you such cowards? Don’t you have any faith at all?’” (Mark 4: 39 -40, TMB)

                Quiet! Settle down. Presumably, he was speaking to the windy storm, but perhaps he was also speaking to his disciples. In the full brunt of our storms, we need to keep the faith, hold firm, trust God, and with Jesus’ help, see our storms through.

                I appreciate how the Message Bible has it: the wind ran out of breath. Jesus Christ stills our fears and worries, calms our anxieties, and pulls us out and through our whirlwinds.

                “He quieted the wind down to a whisper, put a muzzle on all the big waves.” (Psalm 107: 29. TMB)

 

Dale