Prepare

Posted on December 7, 2009 by Jody Neufeld

Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, in the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness. He came into all the region around the Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for remission of sins. As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet,

“The voice of one crying in the wilderness,
‘Make ready the way of the Lord. Make his paths straight.
Every valley will be filled. Every mountain and hill will be brought low.
The crooked will become straight, and the rough ways smooth.
All flesh will see God’s salvation.’” Luke 3:1-6 (WEB)
I love the gospel of Luke and during this season of Christmas season, Luke has been teaching me … yet again.
Luke reminds me that this was a difficult time for God’s chosen people. Rome was in power. Absolute power. My husband tells me that Pilate, the governor, was a violent, foul ruler. If you disagreed with him or in any way angered him, you usually found yourself in jail, tortured, and disgustingly killed.
I know from previous chapters that John was sent by God as a prophet. He was to prepare the road that Jesus, the Messiah, was to walk. And so John is preaching a message of repentance. He is reminding us all that we are sinners and we need a Savior. We need to make a change in our lives; stop trying to make our life work on our own and turn to God for our hope. Just as the chosen people in Luke’s time needed a savior from Rome and needed hope for their future. Like us, their vision of what they really need was limited to the day, not eternity.
Often we Christians will bemoan the fact that Christmas is “too commercialized”. And yet that very statement characterizes our way of looking at our lives with Christ. We talk a good talk – but do not walk the path. By that I mean that I know, I know in my heart that Christmas is about Jesus. It is about the extravagant love of God that has come to us, in the flesh, to show us, by example, how to have a relationship with Him. And we can do that – because God haas made the sacrifice Himself so that we can have that relationship. How can I compare the joy of receiving a new robe to the gift of an eternal life with my Creator? How can I be disappointed with what I do not receive, when I have already received my heart’s true desire?
Let us begin today … this very day … to prepare the way for this Christmas to be the celebration that it is … All flesh will see God’s salvation.
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Dry? Have the Best Drink on God!

Posted on December 4, 2009 by Jody Neufeld

8There will be a highway there,
A passage that will be called the Holy Way.
Nothing impure will go up on it.
But it shall be for God’s people.
No traveler, even a fool, will go astray.
9There won’t be any lions there,
Nor will ravenous beasts enter it.
They won’t be found there.
But the redeemed will travel on it.
10And YHWH’s ransomed ones will return
And enter Zion with singing.
Eternal joy will be on their heads.
They will attain gladness and joy.
And sighing and sorrow will flee. — Isaiah 35:8-10 (HN)

Isaiah 35 is one of the most beautiful passages in the Bible. It is a song of longing, but also a song of encouragement and of promise. It can speak to you in the dry places of your life, and it keeps right on speaking when things are going so much better.

This passage was first written for those who would go into exile and then return. It was the promise of return. God speaks of judgment a great deal in the Hebrew scriptures, but he intersperses these judgments with the promise. God doesn’t bring judment on his people to destroy, but to correct and ultimately to restore.

We also needn’t argue about who these scriptures apply to. They were indeed spoken first to Israel, or more specifically to Judah. There is a specific prediction involved. But when we read Bible prophecy in this way, looking for the one time that the prophecy applies, we often miss the major point.

This chapter reveals in a most powerful way who God really is. We look for this text and that to tell us about God’s attributes, and there are some good ones, but what about God’s actions? With people we would say that actions speak louder than words—and I think God sees it that way as well. That’s why so much of the Bible is about his actions.

We also say that the way you’ll truly know a man’s character is by how he behaves when the going gets tough and trouble is all around. Can God get in trouble? Can God suffer hardship? Well, God expresses sorrow over his people’s failures, over their disasters, and hope that they will return to him. Picture Jesus weeping over Jerusalem. Sometimes we forget our trinitarian doctrines, but Jesus is God, and God was there weeping. Why would they not come to him? God feels the sorrow of one who passionately desires a connection, a relationship with another person, and that passion is not returned.

So how does God behave under pressure? He ransoms! He redeems! He recreates!

This passage, one of the greatest songs of God’s redemption, comes out of the most difficult time. From the time of Hezekiah, who heard Isaiah preach, Judah went downhill with only the briefest of blips of reformation. God looked forward, saw that his people would reject him over and over again. He saw that they would reject the work of the prophet Jeremiah and stand up against the Babylonians until Jerusalem was destroyed and they were taken into exile.

If a father were told that his children would reject him, refuse all help and all advice, and finally end up—all of them—on death row, he would be discouraged. God, however, follows the path as far as it will go, and says, “I will make a path back!”

As God’s people, we are the ones who act in God’s world. (Perhaps I’ll mention some of the scriptures on which I base this in future devotionals.) We bring God’s redemptive power to people. We should be the most optimistic people around, because we know that no matter how bad things get, God remains a God who redeems.

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Anticipating…

Posted on December 3, 2009 by Jody Neufeld

– Henry Neufeld

1Let the desert and the dry place rejoice
Let the dry land blossom like a crocus.
2Let them spring up abundantly
With exultation and shouts of joy.
The glory of Lebanon will be given to it,
The splendour of Carmel and Sharon.
They will see the glory of YHWH,
The splendour of our God.
3Strengthen the weak hands,
And straighten the lame knees.
4Say to the worriers, be strong!
Don’t be afraid!
Behold, your God comes in vengeance
Our God is a God of retribution,
and he’s coming to save us.
5Then the eyes of the blind will be opened,
And the ears of the deaf unblocked.
6Then will the lame leap like a deer,
And the tongue of the dumb will shout for joy.
Water will indeed spring forth in the desert,
Streams in the dry land.
7The mirage will become a pond,
And the dry place springs of water.
The haunt of jackals will become a resting place,
Grassland will become reeds and rushes. — Isaiah 35:1-7 (HN)

Have you ever wanted something very badly, and felt that you could actually see and feel it? Perhaps it was an article of clothing, and you could just see yourself appearing in church wearing it or at a party. Most of us guys have experienced this looking at a new car, I suspect. You take a test drive, and you picture yourself parking that car at work, showing it to your friends. You’ll feel great driving it down the road.

Yesterday I talked about being the same person here on earth and in the kingdom of heaven. New body, new address, but both persons are there to please God. Today, I’m using a scripture that talks about that anticipation. This scripture is written to people who are toiling through the desert. They are not currently living in that flowering land with the majestic forests of Lebanon. They are not traveling among springs of water, nor are they on a safe highway.

They’re anticipating. Anticipation can get so strong that we can see where we’re headed, we can feel what it would be like to have what we want, but it isn’t there. You won’t find many translations that use the word “mirage” in verse 7. (The Revised English Bible is one.) But it’s a legitimate translation, and I think it fits with the theme of the chapter.

As you travel through the desert, you see where you’re going and it looks like a mirage. There’s a pool of water just ahead. You may have seen many such in your Christian journey, only to reach that place and find that it’s not really there.

Many of us have experienced times of worship that felt much like this—almost, but not quite. I just about made it to the cool waters, but it didn’t quite happen. We get disappointed, but hopefully we keep on looking, waiting, and trusting in God.

Because our passage today talks about a time when that mirage becomes a pool of water, when our thirst will be quenched and our joy will be complete. We’re not good at anticipating. We’re very quick to assume that something we can’t have now will never be available. We give up hope.

Are you looking for that one, greatest spiritual experience? Are you waiting for God’s next move in your life? Are you hoping for full fellowship?

The mirage will become a pool of water! Hope for it! Expect it! Wait for it!

(Note: I got some ideas for this devotional at Rev. Geoffrey Lentz’s “Lectionary at Lunch” at First UMC, Pensacola. If you live in the area and can get away at lunch, consider attending. It’s a great experience.)

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Singing With the Saints

Posted on December 2, 2009 by Jody Neufeld

– Henry Neufeld

6So we are confident always, and we know that while we are in the body, we are away from the Lord. 7For we walk by faith and not by sight. 8But we are confident though we would prefer to be away from the body and to be with the Lord. 9Therfore our ambition is to please him, whether with the Lord or away from him. 10Because all of us must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one might receive what is deserved for the acts done in the body, whether good or bad. — 2 Corinthians 5:6-10 (HN)

Yesterday we talked about how, as Christians, we are torn between here and there. There’s the pull of two kingdoms, but this one is familiar, so there is a bit of a tendency to cling to it. But faith shows us what is truly important.

Paul sometimes takes a while circling around his point before he gets there, and this is one of those times. We remain confident in God, he says, even though we’re far from him. The reason for that is that we are seeing through the eyes of faith and not with just our physical eyes. The very thing that keeps us torn between the two kingdoms—our spiritual sight—also keeps us confident in God. We can see what is to come.

I really didn’t really get a good picture of what this meant until the time that James had surgery to remove his lung. I had committed to go to Springfield UMC to teach on prophecy for four weeks. Perry, whom most readers of these devotionals know, told me he wasn’t going to withdraw the invitation and free me to stay home that way, but he would understand if I thought I couldn’t make it.

I felt that I was supposed to go. Now it wasn’t hard to teach. Teaching a group of people who are actively praying and reaching out for more of the Lord is a joy. The hard part was driving to Panama City. For me that was about 2 ½ hours of torture. I would live through it by playing songs of the kingdom on the CD player.

Now those who know me well know that music is not my primary form of worship. One time just as I had arrived in Panama City, Jody and James called me, and I missed the first couple of tries. When I explained that the music was too loud, they were stunned! I never listen to music that loud. But I was listening to the worship group we met in Hungary, and the song was “Singing with the Saints.”

“You may think it’s a dream, but it ain’t. I’ll be singing with the saints.” There were times listening to that song when I thought I could feel the grass of heaven’s fields under my feet. Everything’s going to be alright then!

But what type of people are we going to be? For some Christians everything is about what we’ll be when we get to heaven. It’s all about then. And there is certainly a wonderful hope waiting for us. We can indeed be confident and hopeful.

But Paul is telling us to get started now, that whether we are here or there it is our honor to please God. While we aren’t going to be perfect people here, we are to be God-pleasing people.

Whether we are here on earth, or there in heaven, we are to be the same type of people—kingdom people, seeking to please God, and conscious of the fact that everything we do must stand eventually in judgment before God.

There’s something else though, and it’s a precious promise. Look who’s judgment seat it is: the judgment seat of Christ. The one who paid the penalty will be our judge. How can you lose when the judge is your advocate and has already paid your penalty?

That’s the great news of the gospel. Here or there, you can’t lose. It’s no dream!

Posted in 2 Corinthians | 1 Comment

‘Hate’ from God’s View

Posted on December 1, 2009 by Jody Neufeld

16There are six things the Lord hates,
Seven that are abominations to his very being:
17Haughty eyes,
Lying tongue
Hands pouring out innocent blood.
18A mind fashioning wicked plans,
Feet running toward evil,
19Breath carrying falsehood,
False testimony,
Anyone who sends out strife between brothers. — Proverbs 6:16-19 (HN)

I have a survey idea. I’d like to ask a representative sample of church goers what the things are that God hates, really hates, in fact, considers to be abominations. I’m guessing that we would get many different answers. I’m fairly sure that sexual sins would be fairly close to the top of the list. And there certainly are sexual sins that are listed as abominations in scripture.

Yet here in this list in Proverbs, the things that God hates are a bit different. Look at these items:

Haughty eyes – which we could call, with the CEV, being “too proud.” Pride goes before a fall, and pride is underlying most other sins. Paul uses the phrase “not think of yourself more highly than you ought (Romans 12:3).” I can relate this to my “other” work in computers. If I announce that I can fix something, but I actually lack the knowledge, my downfall is coming soon. What I have to do is know my capabilities.

Lying tongue – lying is almost a way of life, I think. We at least become very careless with the truth and we tolerate a great deal of lying in others. Yet it is an abomination.

Hands pouring out innocent blood – here’s where we think we’re safe, right? None of us are murderers. But wait! Jesus said that a murderous anger, murdering in your heart, was the same as murder. It certainly damages you. Oops! Maybe I’m not so safe from “abominations” after all!

A mind fashioning wicked plans – I don’t know whether this means they must be carried out or not. I would prefer to work on my tendency to fashion a revenge on someone, and then oh so righteously give it up because I’m such a good person. It seems that God doesn’t see that as all that good.

Feet running toward evil – which way are your feet pointing? If we ran away from evil more often, we’d find temptation much weaker.

Breath carrying falsehood – have you ever encountered someone who literally lived and breathed falsehood? Sometimes it seems their whole life is a lie. It’s nice to point it at someone else, isn’t it? But if we start with the lying tongue, eventually our lives become just layer after layer of falsehood, and we “breath out lies” on a constant basis.

False testimony – Wow! Did you notice how many of these deal with falsehood?

Anyone who sends out strife between brothers – this one we like to point at others. When there is conflict it is always someone else’s fault. There are times when conflict is inevitable. Then you have to ask yourself this: “Am I creating the strife, or standing up for the right?” We always want to think we’re just standing up for the right while the other guy is creating the strife. But there’s another element. This refers specifically to the person who creates a conflict between other people. It will generally lead right back to the sin of gossip, probably the most prevalent sin of the church.

How do we avoid all these abominations? Jesus summarized it: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and your neighbor as yourself. That’s what this passage says in a nutshell.

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Torn Between Two Desires

Posted on December 1, 2009 by Jody Neufeld

— Henry Neufeld

1For we know that if this earthly body that houses us is destroyed, we have a place to live that comes from God, an eternal place to live that is eternal and not made by hands. 2For while we are in this body we groan, wanting to put on that body that is from heaven. 3For if it happens that this body is taken off, we won’t be naked. 4We do indeed grown, weighed down by this earthly body, because we don’t want to take it off, but to put on the new one, so that the corruptible can be swallowed up in the immortal. 5God has been working in us to accomplish this very destiny. He is the one who has given us the Holy Spirit to prove to us what he is doing. — 2 Corinthians 5:1-5 (HN)

It’s advent season, in one sense the season of waiting—waiting for Jesus. Christians are used to waiting, though we can’t really get happy with it. Christians have expected the return of Jesus for nearly 2,000 years.

We also like to get things clear. When will the Messiah come? “Soon” doesn’t work all that well for us. We’d like a date, just like the Israelites would have liked in their time. There’s the struggle of waiting and being faithful where we are, while at the same time we stretch ourselves forward for what can be. Waiting and uncertainty are not popular. We are like Tolkien’s hobbits. He says that they liked books filled with lots of things they already knew set down plainly without contradiction. But our walk with God is often filled with uncertainties and paradoxes, and we have to deal with them.

As we grow older, I suspect we think of this more. There’s going to come an end to this life. There will be a last breath here, and then the next one will be in the kingdom. There are those who think that if one really believes in the afterlife, a place that is much better than this one, one should be in a hurry to get there. Perhaps not suicide—no mortal sins please!–but a certain amount of risk taking would be in order. Let’s get it over with and get to the other side!

But Paul points out the struggle that we all have. We have this one. We don’t necessarily feel safe losing it to be replaced with the heavenly body that Christ will provide. It’s a constant struggle, and Paul doesn’t try to pretend it’s anything else. Don’t feel guilty if you don’t instantly yell out “Hallelujah” the instant someone talks about Jesus coming, perhaps even today. There are lots of other people out there who feel much the same way. It’s just not “holy” to admit it.

We kind of like our lives here. We enjoy them and we don’t want to lose them. And that’s not a bad thing. God is preparing us for that new body, that great future, and as the first payment he has provided is with the Spirit. We truly are people divided between two kingdoms. The Spirit is working in us to prepare us for eternity, and at the same time we are enjoying this present life.

Advent is a good time to be torn. It’s not unnatural. That conflict is appropriate. Notice that Paul uses the word “we,” and he’s talking about his mission and ministry. Advent is, in many ways, the essence of the Christian life. We are in one world, longing for, waiting for, the next.

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New Thanks

Posted on November 25, 2009 by Jody Neufeld

Grace to you, and peace from God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God whenever I remember you, always in every request of mine on behalf of you all making my requests with joy, for your partnership in furtherance of the Good News from the first day until now; being confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. It is even right for me to think this way on behalf of all of you, because I have you in my heart, because, both in my bonds and in the defense and confirmation of the Good News, you all are partakers with me of grace. For God is my witness, how I long after all of you in the tender mercies of Christ Jesus.

This I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and all discernment; so that you may approve the things that are excellent; that you may be sincere and without offense to the day of Christ; being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.        Philippians 1:2-11 (WEB)


It is Thanksgiving 2009. It is a celebration of what I am to do every day – GIVE THANKS!

God has been extravagant to me in the many, many people that He brought into my life to show me who He is. They have truly been His ambassadors.

There are two groups of women, Sisters in Christ and Sisters of the Vine, who have prayer warriors, giving their time and gifts in abundance. They go quietly into their closets and cry out to God, often for people they have never met. Thank You, Lord.

My husband, Henry, has encouraged me to follow my Lord into deeper wells of His love through study and obedience. I do not believe I would have had the courage to do so many things these last ten years if I had not had my gentle, strong husband by my side. Thank You, Lord.

My daughter, Janet, a woman of profound faith who shows me the power of faith – whether mustard seed size or simple faith of a child. She also brought Chris, her husband, who has shown me the balance between my personal relationship with God and putting that relationship into active evangelism, watching for God’s opportunities in all aspects of my life to share His Good News. Thank You, Lord.

My son, John, who has had to travel many diverse roads. The apostle, Paul, shared in 2 Corinthians 1 that he was sent down a path and then – oops! – no, God sent him down another. John, and his family, have had to be flexible. That is a hard path to walk. It can seem very unstable and comes (as God’s plan does) with a heavy cost. John has a tender heart which is the kind of heart where God likes to live. Thank You, Lord.

Grandchildren show me the best of my Lord as they have such hope and joy and trust. I have five grandchildren. I think we sometimes discount a child and think they have ‘easy’ lives. Each of my grandchildren has a life of ups and downs and they, too, are learning to trust God when they cannot always see how or why He is doing (or allowing) what is going on in their lives. In some ways, they may even have less control in their lives because they are children! Thank You, Lord.

I am blessed with children of my heart like Erin and Kyle, Brett and Shauna, Amy and Aaron, and Geoffrey and Liz and all of their children. God gives in extravagance and brings me tangible evidence of the the many, many facets of His love. Thank You, Lord.

So many have gone before me and on this day I remember them with great joy and many thanks. My parents laid a foundation of faith that while I did wander away, it was those roots that I believe brought me back. James who showed me the importance of embracing opportunities because I do not know when my journey here on earth will be done. I have also learned that death does not separate us because Jesus connects us.

I hope this is a time of new thanks for all of us. May God’s Spirit reveal His love in big and small ways. May our hearts be open and our eyes be clear to see our wonderful Lord. Thank You, Lord!

Jody note:  See you back here on Monday, November 30th.

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Are You Smart?

Posted on November 24, 2009 by Jody Neufeld

– Henry Neufeld

97Oh how I love your instruction (Torah),
I meditate on it all day long!
98Your commands make me wiser than my enemies,
Because they are always mine.
99I am smarter than all my teachers
Because your testimonies are in my thoughts.
100I understand things better than the elders do,
Because I work according to your decisions.
101I keep my feet away from every evil path
So that I may keep your word.
102I don’t turn aside from your judgments
Because you have taught me.
103How pleasant to my palate are your words
Better than honey to my mouth.
104From your decisions I gain understanding
So I hate every deceitful way. — Psalm 119:97-104 (HN)

Every so often someone will tell me that I’m smart. It’s usually the result of amazement that I have learned to read Greek and Hebrew, or that by merely passing nearby I appear to have repaired their computer. The first is the result of a great deal of hard work, and the second is surely a coincidence. But the Lord has given me some gifts for learning certain things, and for that I am thankful.

But there is another part of being “smart” that is not something that just happened, the result of genetics and of God’s plan. Did you know that there is a Biblical way to make yourself smarter? There is, and if you read the text today, you’ve just been reading about it.

The formula is simple: Study God’s word and you are going to become more intelligent and wiser.

I was given certain gifts to start out with, but then in addition I was given the gift of parents who introduced me to God’s word in the Bible early, and not only encouraged and required me to learn, but also demonstrated doing this themselves. I have a pocket Bible that belonged to my father that is close to falling apart and has notes pretty much on every page. Many of them I can’t read, but they show that he was “meditating in God’s word.”

In elementary and high school I was again required both to study and to memorize the Bible. The result is a facility in both reading and in memorizing that has helped me in almost everything I have done. I take our passage seriously. I believe that I am better off intellectually because I spent so much time in my youth studying and memorizing scriptures.

I would extend this concept beyond just studying the scriptures. God’s word is displayed not only in his written word, the Bible, but also throughout all of creation. There is an attitude shift that should take place here. When we study nature, we should realize that we are examining God’s thinking. We’re seeing how God works. That attitude of study can, I believe, make us more careful and more thorough in our studies, and can also make us more intelligent. (It often does not, because some of us decide we have to make God say what we want him to, rather than listening to what he has said and looking at what he has done. The trouble, as C. S. Lewis once noted, is that when you try to be stupider than you are, you very often succeed!)

But for today I’d like to focus on the Bible. There are two aspects of the approach I teach to Bible study that are very generally ignored. First, I talk about multiple readings. Today I started on the next week’s lectionary texts, because I just left the discussion class I attend for the last set. I made myself a list of those texts in the notebook I carry so I can read them over. I will read them many, many times during the week. In this way I both get an opportunity to look at them from different angles, and also to fix the key points in my memory. That way I can meditate on those passages and listen for what God wants to teach me from them. Most of these devotionals come to me during times of meditation, and not times of formal study. Meditation can happen at a set time, but for me it often happens when I’m walking the dog or doing the dishes. If I didn’t read the passages and fix those high points in my mind, I wouldn’t be able to meditate, would I?

Second, however, is memorization. I do this less regularly, but it is also a help to meditation. If I can say a text while I’m driving in the car, that helps me to think about it and to hear what God may have to tell me about that text. Many people don’t want to memorize. It’s hard work. But there is a blessing there for those who use one or another of these means of meditating on the text.

I would urge you, especially those who are younger, to spend some time, serious time, meditating on God’s word. I’ve only given a couple of pointers here. There are many more. Find the way that works for you to really let God’s word work on your mind. It’s the Biblically guaranteed way of making you smarter. I believe it works.

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Perspectives

Posted on November 23, 2009 by Jody Neufeld

16So we don’t get discouraged. Though what’s on the outside [the one that can be seen-HN] is decaying, what’s on the inside is being renewed day by day. 17For this insignificant short moment of trouble is preparing us for an eternal fullness of glory that is ever so much more abundant. 18We don’t pay attention to the things that can be seen, but to the things that can’t be seen. For the things that can be seen are temporary, but the things that can’t be seen are eternal. — 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (HN)

– Henry Neufeld

Last night I was think that something that was annoying to me had gone on long enough. “Forget about mission, ministry, and call,” I said to myself. “I’m going to have to do something about this.” Then this morning I come out, without any idea what to right for a devotion, and my eyes fall on this text. Now I’m working on some material on 2 Corinthians 5, and in connection with that I’ve read the passages around it several times. So I had “seen” these verses several times, but apparently I hadn’t quite truly “seen” them!

Paul is talking about the difficulties of his ministry. We interpret many texts in 2 Corinthians as applying to our daily Christian lives, and they can apply to that. But many of them were spoken first in the context of carrying out one’s call—for Paul, the call of an apostle. Why would he go to all the trouble he went to, just so he could carry the gospel to others? If we really think about it, most of us would reject the type of life Paul led. It would simply be too hard.

In answer, Paul tells us a few things about “now” vs “eternity.” Whatever is happening now, he tells us, is really, really tiny, an “insignificant, short moment” in which we have trouble. What this prepares us for is an overwhelmingly huge burden of glory. The exact word Paul uses there suggests a heaviness, a huge quantity. It is so great a glory that it goes on and on past our best imagining.

We have a statement about seen and unseen in all three verses. In verse 16, it’s your outer person, the part the world looks at that is seen. Often we’re not too happy with our outer persons. Then there’s your inner person, the one you and God see. That’s what is being renewed day by day.

In verse 17, what we see is this short moment of trouble. It just seems long to us because we don’t have perspective. What is not seen—yet!–is that eternal glory. If we look only at what we can see, then we will fail to see the glory that is to come.

Verse 18 finishes it off. The true minister of Christ, as Paul was, looks at the unseen, the glorious, the eternal, and not at what is seen, which is only temporary. It’s because of that greater perspective that God’s servants don’t get discouraged.

I’d like us to try looking at this a little differently than normal. There are many reasons why we might not be able to see something. It might be too far away. It might be small, like a bacterium or a single molecule. It might be around the corner, blocked by some other object. We might think of the eternal glory that we don’t see as blocked by our temporary troubles, as long as we keep looking at the troubles. Look past the troubles with spiritual eyes and we’ll see the glory.

But another thing that can prevent us from seeing something is perspective. For many centuries, most uneducated people thought that the earth was flat. (Note that educated folks knew the earth was a sphere for many centuries before Columbus. His problem was that he underestimated the size of the earth.) Unless someone had performed very difficult experiments and measurements, the earth certainly appeared to be flat. Careful measurements would allow one to realize that the earth was spherical.

You see, something can be too big to see as well as too small. We have such a small perspective that we can’t really see all of the glory that God has for us. We need to let our faith pull us back so that we can fix our eyes on the bigger picture, the glory that so massively outweighs all of our troubles.

How about applying this to the coming week? It’s Monday. But this short, momentary, insignificant week will fade with the perspective of the glory to which God is leading you. Be encouraged!

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Every Day with Praise

Posted on November 20, 2009 by Jody Neufeld

– Henry Neufeld

1A praise song, for David.
I will exalt you, my God and King,
I will bless your name forever and ever.
2I will bless you every day,
I will praise your name, forever and ever.
3YHWH is great and fully deserves praise.
No one can fully comprehend his greatness.
4One generation praises your works to the next,
They tell of your heroic deeds.
5Of splendor, honor, and majesty,
Of your marvelous deeds I will sing! — Psalm 145:1-5 (HN)

The Psalms are a wonderful book, not only for the many things we can learn from them, but because they provide us with something to read or to pray for almost any mood and any occasion. When we’re down, there are laments (Psalm 28). When we’re up, there are short, lively praise Psalms (Psalm 150). In trouble, we find prayers for safety and rescue (Psalm 140). Ready to meditate? Look for Psalms of wisdom (Psalm 104), telling you of God’s power (Psalm 29), his law (Psalm 19, Psalm 119), and his covenant (Psalm 89). Angry? You can even find some Psalms with a tone of vengeance (Psalm 137). Overcome by temptation? There are Psalms of penitence (Psalm 51, Psalm 32). (The Psalms in parentheses are just examples.)

There is a time and place for all of these things, and there are ways for us to bring our joys and our sorrows to God on all those occasions and more. God can handle the way you’re feeling and can help to lift you up from wherever you are to place your feet on a rock.

But there is something that we find easy to leave out of our life, and that’s praise. I know some of you will wonder just what I mean. After all, you praise the Lord in church on Sunday. Perhaps you play praise music in your home during the week. I know some people who leave songs of praise on the CD player 24/7. That’s not a bad thing.

But have you ever come to a time of prayer when you have a hard time finding something for which you can thank God? Maybe you are having one of those days in one of those months in one of those years, or at least it feels like it. The idea of expressing praise to God seems hypocritical in some way. You’re not feeling thankful, why should you speak thanks? If you’ve never been in such a place, I envy you. If you understand what I’m talking about, read on.

Even when you don’t feel thankful, there are things to be thankful for. I recall sitting down to eat one night recently after a day in which almost everything went wrong. I did not feel like praising God or thanking anyone. I started my prayer by saying, “Lord, you know I’m not feeling thankful right now, but I’m going to thank you anyhow.” Once I had said that, I started to remember things for which I really was thankful. There were blessings the day before, and I knew there would be blessings the day after, and at a minimum, I could thank God that I had a roof over my head and a meal to sustain me while I yelled at him!

There are Psalms for your bad moods. Take advantage of them. Realize that you can be honest with God. But remember the Psalms for all the time. “I will bless you every day!” Yes, even on the bad ones. Even on the day of your death. “Of splendor, honor, and majesty . . . I will sing.” God’s splendor, honor, and majesty don’t diminish when I have a bad day.

There may be a duty here, a duty to praise, but that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about the benefit of praise. If I deny myself the opportunity to praise God when I’m down, I’m going to stay down. Things are going to get worse, not better. I need to praise, because I need to get out of the pit and get on with life. Psalm 145:1-5 gives me that opportunity. These things are not things that change with the moment. They are there all the time. You can honestly praise God, no matter what.

“I will bless you every day!” Call that a plan!

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