Sitting Shiva

When they saw him [Jōb] from a distance, they could hardly recognize him; they began to weep aloud, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads. Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. No one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was.  Job 2:12,13 (NIV)

Job (Jōb) was a righteous man who it is believed lived before the time of Abraham. The biblical book that bears his name tells of the catastrophes and suffering Satan brought upon this godly man and his family.

When Job’s friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar learned of his plight they dropped everything and went to comfort him. In the course of the story, their “comfort” quickly turned to judgement, saying the reasons for his calamities were due to his many sins and arrogance. In reality his sufferings were things he held no control over (Job 1:10-12). The three friends meant well and began well, but throughout their visit the wisest thing they did was sit in silence with him for 7 days and nights.

The Jewish people have a custom when bereaved or devastated, called Sitting Shiva. Shiva (shib’ȃh) is the Hebrew word for seven and seems to parallel the Book of Job. In Shiva, a Jewish household opens to visitors (usually for a 3-day period), under a set of certain protocols, where family and community can come and pay their respects. As a people, we more often than not, are uncomfortable with those who suffer and in not knowing what to say will offer comments that are gratuitous, insulting, and can be calloused to their pain. Sitting Shiva means that listening and support more often than not supersedes talk. Sometimes just a simple hug, a meeting of the eyes that says “I see and sense your pain, and I’m here to support you,” is adequate. Sometimes silence is enough said.

You may be in a world of hurt right now and no one has called on you except your own types of Job’s comforters. Most all of us have been there at one time or another.

Christ Jesus is sitting Shiva with you. He’s got your hand in His and He’s looking eye-to-eye with you in your pain, giving you His support. He is perfectly aware of that throbbing heartache, that relentless pit in the stomach and that band of tightness that plays on your every breath. He watches every tear that falls, on your face and in your heart, and has known from eternity past, the darkness you will face in this, the valley of your struggle.

Let me encourage you that God in His silence does not mean God in His absence. If all you’re hearing is silence it doesn’t mean the Lord doesn’t care. It means He’s Sitting Shiva with you, His beloved Child. He’s there. He knows. He cares. Meanwhile, when all you hear is silence, be assured, He’s at the right hand of the Father, pleading your case! He intercedes for you, as your personal advocate. (Romans 8:34).  

Silence may be golden, but the Word of the Lord is His bond. All His words are trustworthy and true. He offers you His peace in the quietness of His presence, with a tender and calming touch. He sits Shiva with you. And that silence, Beloved, speaks volumes.

Ken

Faster Than That

In a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 1^st Corinthians 15:52

We’ve all heard that well-worn quotation about the certainty of death and taxes, but did you know the Bible teaches there will be some believers in Christ who will not experience physical death?

The Apostle Paul, who received his knowledge of the Gospel through Christ’s revelation (Galatians 1:11,12), wrote of the harpazo (removal with great power) of all believers, both living and dead (1^st Corinthians 15:51,52, 1^st Thessalonians 4:13-18). The dead in Christ will be resurrected first, then those who are alive will be caught up (harpazo) to be with them and the Lord forever. This is also known as the Rapture. Our modern word rapture comes from the Latin translation of the Greek harpazo. They mean the same thing.

Jesus said He would go away for a time unspecified to prepare a place for us, but He would also return for us (John 14:2,3). We can’t know the exact time of this historical event, but He revealed to us the signs of what would be happening as that day approached (Matthew Chapter 24, Luke 21:5-36).

How quickly will the great gathering of the Church happen when it happens? Paul speaks of it being in an instant (Greek, atomos), and in the twinkling (rhipē) of an eye. The reference is not to the speed of the blink of an eye, but to the movement, or jerk, the eye makes when moving to look at something. To give some reference to the speed that is implied here, it takes an eye 400 milliseconds (4/10s of a second) to blink. For an eye to do one movement, or saccade, it can take only 200 milliseconds (2/10s of a second)! Christ will bring to Himself both dead and living believers in less time than it took your eye to move to read this last word!

How should we then live our lives in light of the current chaos and evil in the world? Jesus said to not allow our hearts to be weighed down with disobedience and the anxieties of life, but to always be on the watch and pray that we may be able to escape the coming judgments and stand before the Son of Man (Luke 21:34, 35). He encourages us to look up with anticipation and joy, for His redemption is near (Luke 21:28).

God tells us these things not to scare us, but to prepare us. Jesus says He will make all things new (Revelation 21:5). The darker things get only reveal the greater brilliance of His Light. He did say if He went away, He would return for us (John 14:2, 3).

What He has already made known to us through the Law & the Prophets, and eye witness and historical accounts, can only be the pre-dawn glow of the Son’s Rising, that will give a new and brilliant radiance to eternity’s skies. When He does all He promises to do, His righteous Kingdom will come. He Himself testifies that what He says is trustworthy and true (Revelation 21:5). He has proven Himself faithful-the unchangeable God-Yesterday, Today, and Forever (Hebrews 13:8). And when He does it it will be faster than the blink of your eye.

Ken

Is Atheism Dead?

If you're really looking for something that will challenge and encourage your faith, find the time to watch this video by best selling Christian author and apologist/speaker, Eric Metaxas.

Ken

 

Atheism is Dead

Why You Can Stay

From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. “You do not want to leave, too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve. John 6:66, 67

Back in the early 1970s, David Wilkerson wrote a book titled I’m Not Mad at God.  I’ve never forgotten the title. It has come to mind many times throughout my own life experiences.

I have shared in the past how one day I felt pain when I stood up from my desk, and how that pain evolved into two years of living hell and suffering for myself, and especially for my wife and two teenaged daughters who were held captive in it, yet unable to offer me lasting relief from it.  Doctors, including specialists, misdiagnosed my symptoms time after time, leaving me in my uncertainty to lie in bed to quote Job 13:15 through clinched teeth: “Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him; I will surely defend my ways to his face.”

In my suffering I was attacked from both secular and spiritual sides.  My own doctor’s nurse was convinced I was faking and was constantly telling him so. And one of the ladies from my church, whose identity I later discovered, sent me an unsigned card saying, “If you’ll just get your focus off yourself and onto Jesus, you won’t be suffering.”  

The short story is a medical team at the Scottsdale, AZ, Mayo Clinic were able to identify my issue as a fast growing, mostly benign, brain tumor called an acoustic neuroma. In the interim of the time it went undiagnosed, it grew against my brain stem into the size of a lemon, lodged in a space the size of a walnut. Because it lay against my brain stem and was so massive, the five Mayo surgeons would only removed half of it. I was told I was in surgery 20 hours. The surgeons felt because it was so close to the brain stem, any more aggressive surgery could either kill me or leave me in a vegetative state.

The Mayo team said to wait 6 to 9 months and it was possible the residual tumor could move away from the brain stem and the rest of it could be safely removed. That is what happened. The residual was removed 9 months later in a second surgery and I have remained tumor-free to this day. When my doctor told his nurse of the tumor, my wife heard her exclaim, “You mean there was really something wrong with him?”

I’ve been asked more than once why, through such an ordeal, I didn’t get mad at God or people and lose my faith. I said, “It never occurred to me. God may have allowed it, but He didn’t do it to me. When Jesus asked the Twelve if they would leave Him, Peter said ‘Lord to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe you are the Holy One of God.’ I came out with my faith and confidence in God strengthened.” 

I’m not putting myself on the par of Job. That brother suffered far more than I could have ever endured. But God’s grace was sufficient for my particular season of suffering. 

In the darkness you may be stumbling through, I can only say Christ is there with you and He’s placed His angels around you to hold you up so you will not stumble (Psalm 91:11, 12). 

No matter the outcome, if you trust Him, His perfect will for you will be accomplished. Where else will you go to find that kind of peace? Only He, as the Holy One of God, has the words of your eternal life. Hold onto Him whose words and promises are true. He knows what you’re facing. He’s skin close to you right now and in the very next breath you take.  Trust in Him Beloved! He will never leave you or forsake you. This is why you can stay. I speak from experience. Blessings to you this week.

Ken  

The Penalty and the Price

 The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.  Genesis 3:21

When God created everything, it was perfect. Mankind’s purposes and priorities were perfect also. The Big Lie, Lucifer (Satan), used to deceive Adam and Eve out of their eternal inheritance was that God’s motives were questionable at best and His commandments were biased with suspicion and jealousy. 

In reality, in mankind being placed into a perfect and eternal setting, the Creator knew the suffering and destruction sin would bring to Creation and warned of its consequences. God was not withholding anything from our first parents; He was protecting them.

The penalty for sin was the price.  No one could pay it.  There was not enough righteousness outside of God, Himself, that could satisfy His wrath against it. Sin was something so heinous it would hurl mankind into a pit of wretchedness, death, and despair. 

A payment so terrible was demanded to cover it and that demand was the shedding of innocent blood.  The first blood shed was by the animals God sacrificed to clothe Adam and Eve. Scripture doesn’t say how it happened, but I believe God had Adam and Eve watch Him kill two of their beloved, (and innocent), animals, to bring home to them the ruin sin had brought and how horrible a price to Creation it would be. 

So why did God allow humanity to become slaves to sin?  Because He knew Adam and Eve would fail and His plan all along was to reveal His glorious Love and Nature by paying the debt Himself.  He gave the promise in Genesis 3:15, that was fulfilled through the shedding of the innocent blood of His own dear Son, Christ Jesus. Jesus would crush the head of the serpent (destroying slavery to sin) and the serpent would bruise His heel (death by crucifixion). The Perfect Sacrifice was made not with a temporary covering, but a once-for-all offering, meant to bring us into eternal redemption with God when we accept it (Hebrews 9:12).

Satan questioned God’s goodness when he said to Eve, “Did God really say that?” (Genesis 3:1).  While God did say it, the LORD immediately put His payment on the table to deal with it. In a generation yet to come, the world would watch as He allowed His Lamb to be crucified by the very race He came to save.  John the Baptist so rightly declared of Jesus Christ, “Behold the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world,” (John 1:29). And indeed, that Lamb clothed the world in robes of righteousness to His honor, glory and worship.

People will ask, “But at what price to us?”  The statement ought to be, “What an astounding price God paid with His own little Lamb, while we laughed and mocked Him!” It was truly amazing grace. That is a price that will never be matched.  It is a price that can never be repaid. Thanks be to God for the perfect lamb and the Robe of Righteousness He placed upon us. One Lamb was enough.

Ken   

Family Aflame

And he [Christ] has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.  1^st John 4:21

There are times when Christians will do things, unfortunately, to the detriment of a brother or sister in Christ. Most times it is a struggle of the wills and the offending brother or sister will be right. But it is said, “Doing the right thing is very different than always having to be right.”

I know a man whose wife was caught in an adulterous affair.  She refused his attempts to get her to go to Christian counseling. After months of refusal, she filed for divorce in spite of his pleas to work toward reconciliation.  When this man returned to his home church, because of his wife’s willful sin of adultery, his church body made him guilty by association and shunned him.

One parishioner who was a senior citizen (and ought to have known better), went at this man one night and castigated him because he had remarried.  My friend brought up Matthew 19:9 to his antagonist, where Jesus spoke of the sin of adultery being the only grounds for divorce, reminding him of what his wife had done to him.  This senior lost his temper and said, “I don’t care what it says!  You’re divorced!”  It is interesting this senior believed all the words of Jesus were inspired, except these, and allowed his biases and lack of love and grace, to attack a brother who was wounded and hurting.  It has been said, “The Christian Army is the only army in the world that shoots its own wounded.”  A saying so aptly demonstrated by far too many Christians.

Paul likens the character of walking in the Spirit to “fruits.”  Some of these fruits are Love, Forbearance, Kindness, and Gentleness.  There is no law against these (Galatians 5:22-23).  I don’t see anger, wrath, blame, judgment, or shunning there.

It is well we remember people tend to become angry when they talk about their beliefs, but seldom do when they speak of their convictions. If in reading this you are angry at what I share today, take a look at where those feelings are in your body.  Are they coming from your beliefs, or convictions? From sound Scriptural doctrine or a religion of legalism?  Jesus does call us to doctrinal purity, for sure, but in love, and not our biases. 

We will all have to give an account to Him for everything we’ve done in this body, both good and bad (2^nd Corinthians 5:10). He was our example of how to respond in righteousness (John 8:1-11).  It would do well to imitate His example when the anger tends to leave family members aflame.

Ken   

Timeless Truths Worth Retelling

The law of the LORD is perfect, refreshing the soul. The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy, making wise the simple. Psalm 19:7 (NIV)

The realities of God’s timeless truths come directly from His thoughts to remind us, and from His heart of pure love to protect and heal us.  This week I was again reminded of these things and thought it would be appropriate to share them:

People who die, young or old, don’t become angels.  Not everyone who dies goes to heaven. In Matthew 7:14 Jesus said there would be few.  Dad may pray for you, but Dad can’t put you in heaven.  You may join a church, but membership can’t get you into heaven. Being baptized won’t get you into  heaven. A minister, may speak at your funeral, but a minister can’t preach you into heaven. Doing a lot of good things is great but won’t gain you access. There’s only one way for your journey on earth to end well.  Jesus said to him [Thomas]: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6.  Repent of your sin, believe on Jesus, follow HIM and leave this world clinging to HIM in faith, knowing HE has you in HIS hands. His grace is sufficient.

It's Christianity 101; Timeless Truths Worth the Retelling.  They always bear repeating.

Ken