When Hard Times Come Our Way

I love the story of Ruth in the Bible.  I was told it was a love story growing up in church. But the story of Ruth is much more than a love story. It is a life story.


The Book of Ruth is about two ladies, Naomi and Ruth, who met when hard times came their way. A famine in Bethlehem led Naomi’s husband to relocate his wife and two sons to the neighboring country Moab. The two sons each married local Moabite girls. Over the course of time, the father and both sons died leaving behind three widows and no children which was a double whammy for women in those days. Today this would equal foreclosure, bankruptcy, homelessness, unemployment and total destitution. The younger women had options. They could remarry and have children. Naomi however, was old and beyond child bearing years. Who would want to take care of an old destitute, childless woman? She became bitter and angry at God. “[T]he Lord’s hand has gone out against me!” (Ruth 1:13) I am certain many of us can relate to Naomi. Many of our members are experiencing trials of many kinds. Most of us know people who have lost their jobs, their homes and are going bankrupt. It is hard not to take it personally when it happens. We find ourselves saying repeatedly: “God, why are you destroying my life?”


John Lennon once said: "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." I don't usually consider Lennon a source of wisdom, but he had a point. We have very little control over what happens to us in our lives. When bad things happen, it does not mean God’s love and grace are not present in our pain. In fact, God often shows up with more grace and love than we are able to see or recognize in the midst of our suffering.


Naomi urged her two daughters-in-law to return home so they could make a fresh start at life. One took her advice but “Ruth clung to her.” (Ruth 1:14) She refused to take the easy road and made the conscientious decision to live with Naomi in her destitution. She became God’s grace and love incarnate, yet Naomi was unable to see it initially. Despite Ruth’s commitment to her she returned to Bethlehem bitter and convinced God was her adversary. ^{ “}I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty.” (Ruth 1:21) What a slap in Ruth’s face! Have you ever tried to love someone who constantly insists no one loves them? Not only will Ruth become the breadwinner later in the story, she will also become the means through which God redeems Naomi’s family name. At the end of the story, Ruth is married to a man from Naomi’s family. They have a son together who becomes the heir of the family’s property. Naomi’s friends tell her having Ruth as a daughter-in-law was actually better than having seven sons!  Naomi was not ‘empty’ as she initially thought. If only she had the privilege of seeing further into the future she would have learned the son born to Ruth was to be the grandfather of King David through whom the Lord Jesus Christ was to come. If only Naomi could have seen how her circumstances were going to play a role in God's ongoing plan to bless and redeem all the nations of the earth!


The Apostle Paul said: "[W]e know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." (Romans 8:28) This may sound like a typical “pastor-thing” to say, but it is the truth. We may not see how our circumstances are all working for good, but if God is good and in control of everything as the Bible teaches we can say his design behind the bad stuff is actually good. It may be the pain is meant to help us see God’s “Ruth-like” love and grace which he demonstrated in Jesus Christ. C.S. Lewis said: “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” Has God been shouting at you? It is my hope that we as a church family will stand with one another in all of life’s tragedies by being the Ruth of God’s grace and love in the lives of others. I especially hope that no matter what we may be going through that we will be able to identify the Ruth of God’s grace and love in our own suffering and pain, especially as it has been revealed in Jesus. 

Tying up loose ends in Romans 2

One of my professors in seminary had a saying: "You can't say everything about something. If you try you won't be saying anything, you will only be saying everything else." I am probably butchering his words but you get the point: it is impossible to say everything that can be said about any particular matter.  This is especially true when it comes to preaching.  Often I find that I have no trouble finding things to say in any given text. The struggle is deciding what not to say. Many preachers face the tension of how long they should spend going through a book like Romans. We could easily spend 3 years in Romans. We could also spend 16 weeks if I decided to go at it one chapter per week. I always try to find a healthy balance. But it is inevitable that things will get left out and that some things addressed will not be addressed adequately.


Romans 2 has alot of content to reflect on. Paul begins by making the reader understand that he is no better than the people he despises. The Jews easily could have taken what he said in chapter 1 to be an "us and them" statement. So he turns his guns on them telling them they are no better than those who do such things.    It may seem odd that the nature of hell was brought into the sermon that week. Let me explained why a right view of hell is necessary for understanding Romans and how it fits into the text.


That same professor I mentioned above had another saying: "all doctrines form webs of multiple reciprocities." In other words, no doctrine stands alone unrelated to others. What we believe about X affects what we believe about Z.  Same is true of what we believe about hell. Granted, Paul's point in Romans 2 is not explicitly about the nature of hell, but Paul does assume a view about the nature of hell which can be seen in his urgency that the Romans get the gospel right. If we do not take into account his views of hell as we interpret his warnings in Romans 2 we can find ourselves missing much of his purpose for writing the book.When he describes divine wrath and judgment in his writings referring to the day of judgment as the final day, it assumes the outcome is permanent. In Romans 2:7-8 he presents "eternal life" with "wrath and anger" as two contrasting paths that one might be on. Elsewhere he says judgment is eternal punishment that is away from the presence of the Lord. (2 Thes. 1:9) Eternal punishment takes place in a place Jesus described as hell, a place where the terrors and torments are never quenched (Mark 9:43-48). If we do not assume this view of eternal judgment, the warnings and urgency of his message in Romans 1 and 2 fall flat.


Another potential point of confusion in Romans 2 might be Paul's view of his kin - the Jewish race which I was unable to address. It might seem Paul is anti-Semitic. You may be surprised to know that some have interpreted Paul this way and used his writings to justify the mistreatment and oppression of Jews. Paul clearly loves his lost family (Romans 9:2-4) but he makes no apologies for calling them lost and under wrath either. And this gets into another issue of what we are to think of Jewish people today as Christians. This will come up later in Romans but it is clear that Paul does not describe them as on some other path of salvation like some Bible interpreters have taught. The only Savior for mankind (Jews and Gentiles) is Jesus. Unless they are in Christ they are lost. This should not lead anyone to be hostile or hold to anti-Semitic views for the same is true of every non-Jew in the world.   Therefore, it should fill every believer with urgency and zeal to reach them with the hope of the gospel.

In Jesus' name, amen.

"What does that mean?" my son asked me the other night after praying with my kids before they went to bed. "Good question!" I said. I got to thinking later that it may be good to share this here. Many Christians don't understand what it means to pray in Jesus' name.  Sometimes we treat the name of Jesus as some sort of magic word. I remember singing a song growing up that said "In the name of Jesus, we have the victory. In the name of Jesus, demons will have to flee." Tell that to the seven sons of Sceva! (Acts 19:13-16) Or we think if we do not say "in Jesus' name" at the end of our prayer that its like mailing a letter without a stamp: it ain't gonna make it!

Jesus said: "Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son." (John 14:13) The desire of the Christian is identical to the desire of Christ which is to glorify the Father. When Jesus prayed in the garden just before his betrayal, we see that what he wanted more than anything was to glorify the Father. Even when his prayer was for his benefit - it had as its end goal the glory of the Father (John 17:1). Praying in Jesus' name is not merely how we end our prayers but how we pray entirely. Praying in Jesus' name is a confession of submission to the will and purpose of God, that he is sovereign, and that his will is perfect and good. However, doesn't this immediately expose the problem with so many of our prayers? Aren't many prayers merely about bringing glory to self rather than to the Lord? This does not mean we should not ask for things we need - or for God to change our circumstances - we should and he does answer these prayers. But we must ask: what is the chief focus in this prayer? Am I asking God to give me this or that, or to change my circumstances so that I might live to bring glory to him?  Praying in Jesus name is something that we say for our benefit, not for God's. When we pray in Jesus' name we are saying: "Father, we are asking you to grant our requests which we have asked with motives, goals and desires Jesus would approve of. " It's scary to me that we may often be guilty of bearing false witness when we pray. We might also be using the name of Jesus in vain at the same time! But the good news is that Jesus' righteousness covers our imperfections. Without the righteousness of Christ, our prayers would be terribly offensive to God since they are always riddled with sin.  

This leads me to another aspect of what it means to pray in Jesus' name. We know our prayers would not be heard apart from the atoning work of Christ on the cross. This is where the stamp and letter metaphor is seen to have the most merit. If someone who does not believe that Jesus Christ is Lord attempts to pray - his prayer will not get there. "The Lord is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous." (Proverbs 15:29) To elaborate: Jesus is our Great High Priest who intercedes for us by speaking to the Father on our behalf. Praying in Jesus' name is to pray through our High Priest  who has the ear of God the Father. But we should not take this to mean the Father is grumpy and Jesus has to calm him down before he will listen to us. Jesus said: In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf. No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God." (John 16:26-27). If we believe in Christ; if our faith is in him then we have the Father's ear! He loves us and so praying in Jesus name is also one way we acknowledge the Father's love for us. If he loves us and is good then we know that he desires to give us good things. We should not see the will of God as something coldly predetermined. Rather we need to understand that God's will utilizes secondary means such as our prayers! Sometimes he turns up the heat so that we will seek him for relief! Prayer requests for healing, safety, strength, wisdom, heart transformation and faith are answered with an emphatic YES by God all the time! God is glorified by answering our prayers offered in the name of his beloved Son! 

Keeping Focus on Hope

I find it is very easy to forget what I am doing here. When I say "here" I don't mean our church, but why I am here on this earth. I get caught up in the busy-ness of life, ministry, the details of this and that and forget what the big picture looks like. Isaiah gives us many vivid snippets of the big picture consisting of wrath, forgiveness, destruction, rebuilding, exile and restoration. The picture in Isaiah overall is a beautiful, glorious picture. Even the wrath part is beautiful. This may seem strange, but divine wrath equals divine justice. It means God does not let the bad guys get away at the end of the story. They get what they have coming to them. But so do God's people. They have something coming to them too: a new heavens and new earth, life without end, evil, sin, suffering and death are no more. Believers get all this and then some. They get God in the end! The end result of what God is doing in the world can be seen in Isaiah 59.


"So they shall fear the name of the Lord from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun; for he will come like a rushing stream, which the wind of the Lord drives. “And a Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who turn from transgression,” declares the Lord." (Isaiah 59:19–20)

Last week I wrote about praying for revival. Revival is not just something we need - revival is what we have to look forward to. Isaiah describes revival as a "rushing stream which the wind of the Lord drives."  But I forget this sometimes with the busy-ness but also when it seems like nothing is happening. I find it easy to forget that God is at work right now and is leading us towards this glorious end spoken of in Isaiah. Our hope is this: that Jesus will return in power and glory and make all things new. Our hope is that the rushing stream of his awesome glory and power would wash over the world and sweep away the sin and sadness in the world. Have you lost focus on this hope? If you have then you have also forgotten why you are here. We are called to bear witness to what God is doing. When we lose focus on hope then we get caught up in the other things of life. We become so focused on lesser things we forget that we are here to testify of the hope that we have. This hope is what fuels our service to Christ. When serving in the church becomes a struggle, its because our hope-tank has run dry. We need fuel! We need to get our eyes back on to what God has promised to do! We need to revisit the big picture of redemption. But more than that - we need to believe that this rushing stream is rushing right now! We may not always see it - and that may be God's way of inviting us to ask for it. I invite you to join me in asking for it!