Great Words of God – Wait – Part 4

We Shall Behold Him

And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.  And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.

Acts 1:9-11 (ESV)

I was ten years old when I responded to an “altar call” to receive Jesus as my Lord and Savior.  To be entirely candid, it was not the power of the truth that was being preached, that cold Christmas Eve, to which I responded.  No.  It was fear of the fires of Hell, which the preacher had described so well that I thought I could feel the heat.

I had become a “born again” Christian, although I had very little understanding of what that really meant.  One of the things I did understand was that Jesus was coming soon, for all who believed in Him.  We sang about that and talked about it ceaselessly.  We lived as though it could be that very day that the clouds would part, and Jesus would appear to take us away to be with Him.

We believed the promise:

For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God.  And the dead in Christ will rise first.  Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.  Therefore encourage one another with these words.

1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 (ESV)

We still hold the promise as certain of fulfillment, and so, as we wait we encourage each other.  For me, it is almost 50 years since those heady days of childhood – still waiting.  For over two thousand years, Christians have been waiting.  Yet, lest we become weary in waiting, the words of Peter echo across the centuries,

But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.  The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.  But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.

2 Peter 3:8-10 (ESV)

What can be said about all of this watching and waiting?  Just this.  For the one who awaits the appearance of Jesus, our Waiting Time will one day be over.  This is also true of our daily lives.  According to Dutch Sheets, in his book, God’s Timing for Your Life, there are three stages of God’s timing for us.  He uses the Greek words chronos, kairos and pleroma, as found in the New Testament, to describe them.  Respectively, these words describe the general march of time, the right (strategic) time, and the fullness (completion or now) of time.  Whichever kind of time you are talking about, it is clear that you only have so much of it.  Time brackets your life, and as it passes you may have a growing sense of urgency to use it well.

Waiting is the chronos and kairos time where we follow and acquire spiritual maturity (modeling Jesus), where we seek truth and direction (purpose) for life, and where we learn what it means to trust (abide) in Christ.  It is in times of waiting that we expectantly anticipate God’s response to our prayers and petitions.  It is also at these times when it may seem that God is silent.

That’s where we will go in the final part of this discussion on the Great Word of God – Wait.

Strength and Honor

Bill

Speaking of the question of the Great Word of God – Wait– do you have a comment or a question?  Please feel free to make a comment entry – just click immediately below this note, on the phrase “Leave a Comment” at the end of the tag lines.

Great Words of God – Wait – Part 3

Miss Liberty

Where there is no vision, the people perish…
(Proverbs 29:18 KJV)

Like many millions of others, my Norwegian ancestors came to America on a boat that gave them a passage to hope, grounded in a vision of great opportunity in a land that seemed almost mystical to them.  They were leaving a homeland that could no longer support their needs for survival, to journey to a place they knew only by story and legend.  Swedish novelist, Vilhelm Moberg, in a four-volume series of fictional accounts called The Emigrants, chronicled the similar movement of Swedes to America.  If you are looking for some wonderful reading, give them a try.

All of those entering the country through New York after 1886, passed by the Statue of Liberty, which was located on a small island in New York Harbor, immediately adjacent to another island called Ellis.  In 1892, Ellis Island became the first Federal immigration station and the nearby statue came to represent the hope of America – a vision of freedom that was worth sacrifice, and hard work; blood, sweat, and tears.  For them, waiting was more than just sitting around looking for the sun to rise; it was wrestling with hard times on a daily basis in order to rear families and to build a future and a hope.

It was Scottish teacher and pastor, Oswald Chambers, who said, “Life without war is impossible…”(1) and in his terse way he puts in a nutshell what happens in the lives of all those who wait, meaning everyone.  He goes on to observe that it is through opposition in both the natural and spiritual realms that we learn what life is all about – we learn to overcome.  And it is in that Waiting Place that we find clarity, purpose, and destiny.

The idea of waiting inevitably brings up the question of pain and suffering in the world.  Waiting is the time of life where purpose is revealed, but why does it have to be so painful?  Volumes have been written, including the recent one by Randy Alcorn (see Part 4 of the discussion of the word, Come).  I can’t even begin to summarize all of that except to say that it is through adversity in our lives that God shows Himself to be trustworthy, and we come to truly depend upon Him.

If we did not suffer, would we ever know hope?  If we did not have adversity, would we ever learn to depend upon God, rather than ourselves?  I am convinced, and I believe that the Bible teaches, that God is not just some remote, benign, allower of circumstance, as though our lives have unintended consequences that He did not expect.  If that were so, then why should we ever turn to Him?  Why ever seek Him?

Our natural state is to desire life without conditions, and success without risk.  We often want someone else to do the heavy lifting while we enjoy the fruit of that labor.  We want great accomplishment without failure.  We want a world of our own design, without God to direct or constrain us until something goes wrong, and then we want Him to make it better and take the blame.

Jesus calls us to something else.  He calls us to wait upon the Lord, and as we do so He promises that we will gain new strength.  Weariness will be replaced by the excitement of rising and soaring as if on eagles’ wings (Isaiah 40:30-31).  In Hebrew, the word translated wait can mean to be bound and twisted together in expectation – to grow strong like a cord or rope.

That is the pathway of the seeker, the learner, and the disciple.  The seeker is one who intentionally pursues the fulfillment of a passionate desire.  The learner is one who perseveres in perfecting knowledge, skills, and understanding.  The disciple is one who intentionally acquires the essential elements of another in order to influence outcomes in a fashion similar to his teacher.  Each is motivated by the formation of beliefs, values, attitudes, motives and behaviors, which reflect something I will call the noble life – a life characterized by strength and honor.

So it was for the families of many nations who came to these shores, needy but willing, to build a new life in the shadow of liberty and in the power of freedom.  So it could be for you and me, if we are willing.  We are certainly needy.

We’ll pick this up next time.

(1) Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest (Grand Rapids: Discovery House Publishers, 1992), December 4.

Strength and Honor

Bill

Speaking of the question of the Great Word of God – Wait– do you have a comment or a question?  Please feel free to make a comment entry – just click immediately below this note, on the phrase “Leave a Comment” at the end of the tag lines.

Great Words of God – Wait – Part 2

Blossoms of Spring

(We have been looking at four of the Great Words of God, Yes, Come, Wait, and Go.  This is the second part of the third word – WAIT.  Each installment is about 750 words.)

O Lord? Will you forget me forever?  How long will you hide your face from me? (Ps. 13:1 ESV)

February in Minnesota is the longest month of the year.  It seems like Spring is never going to arrive as we struggle through days of ice and snow waiting for the first sign, longer days.  Then the snows of March dampen our spirits until we notice crocus buds, pussy willows, greening lawns, and the blossoming trees of April.  May comes like a surprise, but perhaps you have noticed that Summer seems always to be late.  Won’t it ever get here?  Waiting for the change of season sometimes seems a bit like waiting-in-line for fast-food, and woe betide any person who jumps ahead.

Waiting

We all wait for the passage of time.  One of my Mother’s sentence sermons, “Don’t wish your life away,” still comes back to me when I become impatient for something to happen.  But I’ll admit getting frustrated when I am put on hold, when I sit in the doctor’s office for an hour past my appointment time, or when I come to a total stop in freeway congestion while on my way to work.  Waiting.  Waiting.  How long do I have to wait?

The Bible has a lot of things to say about waiting and we could take any number of directions in looking at them.  The first might be the approach of looking at our moods while we WAIT for God to do something for us.  After all, is He not the God of promise, provision, protection, pardon, blessing, mercy, and grace?  Waiting is hard.

We could also look at this Great Word of God from the standpoint of how it is engaged.  Here is a list of ways that we might take on the battle of the Waiting Place.

With depth of soul
With earnest desire
With submission
With patience
With endurance
With faith-hope-love
With certainty
With expectancy
With fortitude
With perseverance
With urgency
With resolve

Another way to talk about the word WAIT would be to consider how it is exemplified in the lives of Bible characters, such as:

Abraham
Isaac
Jacob
Joseph
Ruth
Esther
Job
Nehemiah
David
Isaiah
John (the Baptist)
Mary and Martha
Peter
Paul

Or, we could look at the word WAIT from the perspective of the life of preparation for all who are seekers, followers, and learners.  That is you and me.  I believe that the blessing of God is upon those who WAIT, not in the sense of forlorn anxiety or immobility (see discussion on inertia), but in anticipation of a great future and wonderful hope (Jer. 29:11), as God leads us into the kind of friendship with Jesus that calls us into discipleship.  That’s the way we will go with this study.

Check in on Part 3 of this series – I’ll try to get it posted no later than next week.

Strength and Honor

Bill

Speaking of the question of the Great Word of God – Wait– do you have a comment or a question?  Please feel free to make a comment entry – just click immediately below this note, on the phrase “Leave a Comment” at the end of the tag lines.

Great Words of God – Wait – Part 1

Let's Run!

My momma always said, “Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you gonna get.” -Forrest Gump  1

My grandkids run everywhere.  No matter where we are going or what we are doing, they want to run there without waiting.  When we are not going anywhere they still want to run, so they chase in circles around the house until someone or something stops them.  Bumped heads and scratched knees seem to halt the fun, which is not unlike how we all react to adversity.  We wonder, what was that all about?

It has been my observation that people often experience the uncertainty that comes with wondering what it was all about.  Give a person enough bruising and it seems like there is a tendency to hold back, to get defensive, and to avoid risk.  Perhaps that happens when markets turn sour, or when people disappoint.  Sometimes it is because we just missed the mark in our decision-making, or began running in circles thinking that we were going somewhere.

It is not at all unusual to wonder about God’s will at these times as we begin a process of retrenchment.  For some, the connection with God’s favor and blessing seems to wane and there comes a time of what Philip Yancey has called, “Disappointment with God.”

Sometimes the most important questions, those that float in vague suspension for much of our lives, can crystallize in a single moment…Does God really care?  If so, why won’t he reach down and fix the things that go wrong – at least some of them. 2

And so, while things are changing it is easy to slip into a state of suspended animation – we might call it inertia.  One kind of inertia is found in the place where one waits for God to do something.  It might even be a place where one indulges in anger and loneliness, challenging God to strike the death blow.  Perhaps you remember the scene in the film, Forrest Gump, where the legless Lt. Dan Taylor hoists himself to the top of the shrimp boat mast in the midst of a gale, to shout at God.  Can you identify with such emotion?  I was captivated by the scene, because I can.

Or, you might have read Dr Seuss (Theodor Geisel), who was unable to see the usefulness of the Waiting Place, and penned an adult’s picture book, Oh, the Places You’ll Go! This excerpt expresses a common view of waiting.

You can get so confused
that you’ll start in to race
down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace
and grind on for miles across weirdish wild space,
headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.

The Waiting Place…

…for people just waiting.

Waiting for a train to go
or a bus to come, or a plane to go
or the mail to come, or the rain to go
or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow
or waiting around for a Yes or No
or waiting for their hair to grow.
Everyone is just waiting.

Dr. Seuss has it wrong, the Waiting Place is not useless.  Waiting like this is grounded in at least five pause causes: anger, fear, loneliness, distraction, and confusion.  I would certainly like to meet the person who has been around for any length of time, and has not experienced such feelings.  They don’t need to be explained to you, because they are immediately recognized as a part of your own world.  But, whether you are waiting or traveling, inertia can be an enemy of finding and doing God’s will in your life (for a full discussion of inertia see www.livenobly.com).

Inertia is not only inactivity, but might also be moving and doing.  Running in any direction, or running in place for that matter, and filling your life with busy-ness, can be a way to avoid dealing with the call of God to prepare and then move on.  So, you practice the inertia of resting or running aimlessly, until the day comes when you realize that it is through the running, the stumbling, the bruising, the misdirection, the circling back, and the running again, that God gets your attention and directs your path toward the goal of your personal destiny.  Something happens that propels you outward and forces you to move on – I liken it to the process of extrusion in the plastic injection molding business.  You reach the point where you are heated, molten, and under great pressure are forced out into a place you did not choose, but which you fit perfectly.

As you begin to move, God begins to build in you His own vision for your life.  Moving further, He teaches you the kind of trust that overcomes the things that cause you to pause, or that hold you back from fully committing your life to your dream.  In the following articles we will discuss the Great Word of God, WAIT.  It is not the place of inactivity, but of learning, growing, trusting, hoping, dreaming, preparing, for all that God has intended for you.  I hope you’ll join me on this narrative journey.

Strength and Honor

Bill

Speaking of the question of the Great Word of God – Wait– do you have a comment or a question?  Please feel free to make a comment entry – just click immediately below this note, on the phrase “Leave a Comment” at the end of the tag lines.

(Portions of this article were first published on 06/26/2007 in the author’s CNT Series – Inertia, which may be found on the Internet at www.livenobly.com)

___________________________

1Forrest Gump. 1994. Produced by Steve Tisch and Wendy Finerman, directed by Robert Zemeckis, book by Winston Groom, screenplay by Eric Roth. 141 min. Paramount Pictures. DVD.

2Philip Yancey, Disappointment With God (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Books, 1988), 35.

Great Words of God – Come – Part 4

Click Image to View Details

The world is a wonderful but broken place and it is easy to get lost in the tumult of changing times.  “If God is good,” Randy Alcorn asks in his new book of that title, “why all this suffering and evil?”  You may have wondered that same thing, and perhaps accepted that there are many things we cannot understand about the nature of God.  But, this we do know, He has called us to come to Him and we have been looking at this powerful word.

In this final reflection we will look at three applications of God’s call to come.  He calls us to come to new life, to new vision, and to new hope.  Let’s take them up in that order.

For most people, I imagine that God can seem remote and unapproachable as one considers the dilemmas of life – how could a person ever come to Him with personal problems?  How would you do that with someone who cannot be seen, touched, or heard?  Then you encounter the story of Jesus and find that you cannot be neutral about Him.  He either is the person He claimed to be, or He is not.  If He is not, then nothing matters and we are all just collections of protoplasm without purpose or hope in life.  If He is, then the doors of invitation swing wide to a world of wonder and promise that cannot be found in any other philosophy or religion.

“Come to me,” He called, “all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28 ESV).  God is beckoning you, in Jesus, to come to Him not as His high and mighty Royal Majesty, who He has every right to be, but as a loving father who calls his children for an embrace.  Galatians 4:6 says, “God has sent the Spirit of his son into our hearts, crying ‘Abba!  Father!’ ”  Because Jesus came we can know God intimately.

I remember a hymn we used to sing: “There’s within my heart a melody, /Jesus whispers sweet and low: /Fear not I am with thee, peace be still, /in all of life’s ebb and flow.  /Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, /sweetest name I know, /fills my every longing, /keeps me singing as I go” (Luther Bridges 1910).  My friend, if you are honest about it, there is something about Jesus that speaks to the core of your being and cannot be ignored.  He does not call you to a practice of religion, but to a new life grounded in Him, personally – a relationship.  “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Cor. 5:17 ESV).

Just as Jesus was raised to new life (Romans 6:4), so shall those be raised, who trust in Him (1 John 5:13).  What wonderful perspective it brings to your life when your future takes on the brilliant hues of a heavenly eternity.  Without that kind of new vision there truly is no hope (Proverbs 29:18).

Your worldview changes, your new vision, as you go from discouragement to hope, not dependent upon human reasoning, politics, or religion, but upon the person and promises of Jesus.  He calls you to Him, from no hope (Eph. 2:12; 1 Thess. 4:13) to new hope , hope which assures you of the outcomes – both temporal and eternal.  As the Apostle Paul wrote, “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs…” (Romans 8:12-17).  Another old hymn reflects this truth in it’s opening bars, “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness” (Edward Mote 1836).

Prepare yourselves, then, for a thrilling journey of great importance (1 Peter 1:13), as you trust in Jesus for new hope.  It is a living hope reserved for you (1 Peter 1:3-5), and an inheritance that is secure and imperishably certain (Eph. 1:11, 14, 18; Col. 1:12, 3:24; Heb. 9:14; 1 Pet. 1:4).   Does your spirit resonate with Jesus’s call for you to come to Him?  Is there something deep inside that is stirring?  You know it is there, churning, but you cannot explain what it is?  May I suggest that the Spirit of God is at work in you?  Perhaps the prospect of living a powerful and abundant life (John 10:10) appeals to you.  Maybe you desire a new life, a new vision, and a new hope?  You can have all of this and more, today.

You can live an overcomer’s life, whether you have been a follower of Jesus for many years, or whether you have never responded to His call to come, but want to.  Simply say to Him, “Jesus, I come.  Here I am.  Forgive me for my sin and doubt.  Save me.  Use me.”  He will come to you.

The “Use me” part of that prayer is where we are going next.  We have considered two great words of God, Yes and Come.  The third word is wait.  You may feel that is where you are right now and so I invite you to come back for a discussion of this powerful Great Word of God.

This we affirm – God is good – all the time.

Strength and Honor

Bill

Speaking of the question of the Great Word of God – Come – do you have a comment or a question?  Please feel free to make a comment entry – just click immediately below this note, on the phrase “Leave a Comment” at the end of the tag lines.

Great Words Of God – Come – Part 3

Persuasion

Have you ever tried to persuade a person or group to do something, and failed?  Business presentations are often like that, and I have failed at enough of those to have a sense of whether my audience is with me, or not.  If it seems that they are not, is there anything I can do to change my presentation to be more powerful, or to appeal at some different level?  Lawyers do that in speaking to juries, which often requires fast thinking, flexibility, and a bit of drama.  Knowledge of human nature also helps.

People are incurably curious but for different reasons.  As we discussed in Part 2, the speaker’s demeanor may inspire a trust in whatever he has to say, because of his perceived character, and that may be enough to persuade.  Or, a person may be one who needs a logical explanation in a cost-benefit analysis sort of way.  Many people make decisions based upon how they feel at the moment, and are often swept away by a rah-rah spirit.  At times you may find yourself responding in all three ways.

We can see this in the Bible, as God relates to us in persuasive ways.  Some of His appeals are direct, and others indirect.  Let’s look at a couple of examples of direct appeals.

In Isaiah 1:18, the writer relates the words of God this way, “Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord; though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.”

How do you react to that?  I love it for its invitation to a relationship with God that is not dictatorial, and also for its promise of reward.

The Hebrew word for come in this passage is halak (haw-lak’).  It has a variety of applications, but here seems to carry the idea of walking alongside, to be continually conversant and at ease.  The phrase, “let us reason together” is an Anglicization of the Hebrew word, yakach (yaw-kakh’) meaning to reciprocally argue.  What’s that?  It means that God cares about your opinion and wants to know what you have to say.  Wow!

Let’s look at one more.

Mark 1:17 says, “‘Come, follow me,’ Jesus said, ‘and I will make you fishers of men.  At once they left their nets and followed him.’” It has always been the “at once” that has attracted my attention – why would Simon, Andrew, James, and John have responded so quickly to one sentence?  “Well, Bill,” you might say, “it was Jesus who called them.”  Exactly; but who was He to them?

The Greek word for come here is deute (dyoo’-teh).  It is an imperative that might be a little like calling your dog, with an exclamation point after it.  My guess is that being the curious guys that they were, and being businessmen who were in on all the news from around the area, they had heard about Jesus and wanted to find out more about him.  Note that the account does not say that they left their nets for good (and we know from later scriptures that they did not).  The appeal here is based upon the character of the speaker that engages the emotional curiosity of these men.

There are many other instances that we might look at, but you get the idea.  If you wanted to look at some, you might read Matthew 6:10, and 11:28.  Also, Galatians 4:4.

The idea conveyed in the use of this powerful word, come, can also be an indirect call or proclamation.  In past articles, I have mentioned Deuteronomy 33:26-27 as one of my favorite passages of Holy Scripture.  It’s an energizing proclamation of God’s power exercised on our behalf as He comes to our support.  Another is Luke 2:9 where we find the greatest proclamation of all time, so appropriate at this time of year, as the coming, the arrival, of the Savior is announced.  He has come to us.  Then, in Romans 10:14-15 we are instructed in the means by which one comes to Christ.  Look them up and see if they speak to you.

Scripture is filled with direct and indirect calls, decrees, announcements, and proclamations based upon the idea represented by the word, come.  In the final part of this reflection we will consider some applications of what we are learning.  God, in Christ, is calling us all to come to new life, to new vision, and to new hope.  How shall we respond?

Strength and Honor

Bill

Speaking of the question of the Great Word of God – Come -  do you have a comment or a question?  Please feel free to make a comment entry – just click immediately below this note, on the phrase “Leave a Comment” at the end of the tag lines.

Medical Update

A Season of Hope

I normally only post this kind of a note on my Caringbridge blog site at http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/billkinney.  But, I just wanted visitors here to see my latest report, and to be glad with me.

__________________________

My monthly blood counts were taken yesterday.  All the numbers came into the normal range, which means that they have been stable for many, many months.  I don’t know what to think, except that God has blessed me with renewed hope for a longer life.

My oncologist is Dr. Stuart Bloom, a great, knowledgeable, supportive, doctor.  He told us yesterday that when chemotherapy does not achieve remission (my case) they normally expect a survival of only three to six months.  Here I am, ten months down the road and feeling well.

Dr. Bloom is very excited about that, and feels that possibly I am back to dealing with the underlying condition.  That is something called MDS (Myelodisplastic syndrome), and Dr. Bloom feels that I have probably had that going on for many years, as I have run a low hemoglobin at least since 1997.  He feels that MDS was likely the cause.

They really don’t know how to predict things from here.  It could turn very quickly.  But, he has now put me on a visit schedule of every two months, rather than monthly.  I will still have blood drawn once a month.

So, I’m grateful for the time I do have, and I’m looking forward to the Christmas/New Year holidays.  My family has been so supportive, as have hundreds of friends, acquaintances, and others I don’t really know.

As I have said, every day is a gift.

Blessings to you.  We’ll talk again soon.

In His Strength, To His Honor, And For His Glory

Bill

Great Words of God – Come – Part 2

Hugs can Heal

When our kids were very young we were living far from family and had traveled back to  Minneapolis for a visit.  While shopping at a local mall, with one stroller and three tired children, I turned to talk to our oldest little guy, and found that he was not with us.

In near-panic we searched everywhere, retracing our steps, looking in bathrooms, checking displays where a curious seven-year-old might stop to play.  Nothing.  He was gone, and I couldn’t think what to do next.  Had he been taken by someone?

Just as I was about to report a missing child to security, I noticed a shopping cart coming out of one of the department stores.  Pushing it was our son.

I don’t remember what I said to him but I do recall opening my arms and saying, “Come here.”  Grabbing him in a bear-hug, I literally poured my relief and love into him.  He didn’t have a clue.  He had just gone to find a cart that his brother could ride and seemed surprised that we had been worried.  That moment did something to me, and I can still feel the emotion of the hug.

Among other things, hugs are expressions of affection and some kinds of hugs have healing powers.  I am not talking about the brief, three pats on the back, hi-g’bye style of hug.  I mean the kind of hug that reaches your soul with comfort.  The nonromantic kind that calls you to an embrace that says, “I know.  I understand.  I am with you.  Count on me.  You are a person of great value.”

When Jesus says, “come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 19:14 ESV), I think of that kind of hug waiting for me.  It is an emotional, powerful, nurturing, invitation to come that is quite different from the way we often use the word.

Come Down, Tigger!

“Come here!” you may say in a commanding way to a child, or to an animal – your dog, for instance.  Implied: “Now!”  It’s all in the tone of voice.  “Come on now,” you say sarcastically.  Or, with the same words you may protest, beg, or plead with someone to join you, agree with you, or stop doing something.

You might use it by way of a promise to attend, as in, “Yes, I will come.”  You might express a hope, “He will come.”  Perhaps a fear, “to come before the judge.”  It might be the order of a superior officer to, “Come, follow me!”  Jesus used this latter as a beckoning call to one who refused him (Mark 10:21).

Clearly, the meaning of the word come bounces all over the place, based upon the context and even the tone of voice.  Its significance is something else again.  When used as an invitation, an imperative, or a persuasive device, it requires the hearer to exercise great caution and discernment before responding.

It was Aristotle who defined the three main forms of rhetoric:  Ethos - appeals based upon the perceived character of the speaker, Logos - appeals to logic or reason, and Pathos - appeals to emotion.  The call to come might fall into each form.  Are all such calls honorable?  Well, what about the indirect call of greed that we discussed in Part 1 of this reflection?

The Bible uses the word in a number of interesting ways, which ask us to consider the character of the speaker, the logic of the call, and the emotion of the situation.  We will look at some Biblical examples in Part 3.

Strength and Honor

Bill

Speaking of the question of the Great Word of God – Come -  do you have a comment or a question?  Please feel free to make a comment entry – just click immediately below this note, on the phrase “Leave a Comment” at the end of the tag lines.

Great Words of God – Come – Part 1

Gold Calling - COME!

On January 24, 1848, an event occurred that changed Americans as a people more than all the wars that have ever been fought, more than all the social upheaval that has ever fomented on the streets or campuses of this land, more than all the inventions that have improved our lives, and more than all the political strife that we still deal with every day.  That was the day that James Wilson Marshall bent over in a creek near Sacramento, California, where he and John Sutter were building a sawmill, and picked up a gold nugget.

By May, 1848, over 30,000 people, primarily men, massed on the edge of the prairie in places like Missouri and Kansas and began to launch themselves in a trek that eventually drew over 400,000 people to the California gold fields.  Many found disease, violence, and death, but the call to COME to find an easy fortune was irresistible.  In a day when the total population of the U.S. was 23 million, 15% of the adult male population responded to the call (based on 1850 US Census).  By 1864, it was mostly over – at least in California.

But on August 17, 1896, four vagabond prospectors, Robert Henderson, George Carmack, Tagish Charlie, and Skookum Jim Mason, struck it rich near Dawson, Yukon Territory, and the Yukon Gold Rush was on (sometimes called the Klondike Stampede).  The cities of San Fransisco and Seattle became major staging destinations, as the Forty-Niners were followed by frenzied Stampeders who responded to the call of gold, and the lure of effortless riches, to come west and gather wealth without limit.

Come, whether express or implied, is a powerful word that needs a Biblical perspective.  God has issued his call to come to Him.  Come to find the wealth of His kingdom, the riches of His grace, and the power of His daily presence in our lives.  Let’s look at how we use it, and how it is used in Scripture.  We’ll consider some caveats, and then see how the Bible uses the word.  Finally, we will look at three aspects of God’s call to come: come to new life, come to new vision, come to new hope.

Please feel free to make a COMMENT if you have a thought, clarification, question, or even disagreement.

Strength and Honor

Bill

Great Words of God – Yes – Part 3

Famous Fist Pump

When Tiger Woods arrived on the scene, fist-pumping was raised to new levels.  You see it everywhere, and not just in sports.  When I was young, it was something kids did when they were alongside an 18-wheeler on the highway, trying to get the truck driver to pull a blast on his air-horn.  You would pump your fist at him, and scream “YES!” if he complied.

I can imagine that expressions of that kind of exuberance are not just limited to humans.  While we don’t often picture Him that way, God has emotions, too.  One of my favorite drawings is of Jesus, laughing.  There are a number of versions out there.  He delights in His creation, especially in His children, and He says yes to them in direct and indirect ways.

Jesus Laughing

If we were to look for some examples of His indirect affirmations we could start in Genesis 1 and the account of creation, where at each step along the way, at the end of each creative day, he proclaimed a yes.  When He had concluded He said it was “very good” [Genesis 1:31 NIV].  I think that means He was pleased.  Happy.  Maybe exuberant, even.  Kind of like a holy fist-pump.  I hope it will not stretch your theology too far if I imagine that, at some level, God was admiring His creation and crying, “Yes!  It is complete, finished, beautiful, best, good.  I will rest; cease the labor” [Genesis 2:2].  In Hebrew that reads, shabath or shavat.  God did not rest because He was tired, but rather because His work was complete and He pronounced the yes over all of it.

Just a couple of examples from Jesus might underscore this idea that God seeks to deposit yes values into our lives in all kinds of indirect ways.  In John 16 we find Jesus teaching His disciples.  In verses 16 through 33, He teaches in a plain manner so as to be clearly understood, and He praises the men for their belief.  This is a strong yes deposit into their lives.  Or, look at Luke 11:5-33.  Here Jesus is again teaching His disciples of the riches of grace, and the depth of God’s love for them; building God’s yes in them.

So, what more can be said, to highlight the power of the word yes?  At least three things.

First, it is within the character of God to affirm us and our petitions, while teaching us more about His ways.  You may be saying, “but Bill, I asked God for [fill in the blank] and it did not come about.”  That can be hard.  We tend to want our answers right away, and consistent with how we view the best possible outcome.  Our focus is here and now.  His focus is eternal.  We often need a vision correction in order to see more clearly, and so God takes us through difficult times.

One of the most popular books of recent years is Rick Warren’s volume called, The Purpose Driven Life, where the very first chapter starts out, “It’s not about you…you were born by his purpose and for his purpose.”  While we may understand that, intellectually, we still long for deliverance from the problems of our lives.

Relax, there is nothing wrong with that.  That’s the second thought to consider.  Asking in faith is a good thing and something we are exhorted to do (see the John 16 passage, and also Matthew 7:7-8 and Philippians 4:6-7).  Don’t ever stop asking God for help with your needs – that kind of prayer relationship is a part of the vision repair process that helps you to think eternally.  Joseph Stowell is the author of a book called, Eternity: Reclaiming a Passion for What Endures.  He says, “When eternity is off the screen, all of life is compressed into the distorted assumption that this is all we have…We are built for eternal, unhindered relationship with God, who created us to know the deep pleasure of His companionship.”

So, finally, it is not a failure of faith if we do not receive our healing, or our deliverance, within our expected time frame, or even if answers do not come by the time that eternity pulls into view.  It is not so much about your measure of faith as it is about God’s plan for the ages, and your part in it.  He is listening for you and watching over you.  Are you doing the same with Him?  Are you seeking to hear Him and to know Him?  Are you ready to partner with Him?

We’ll tackle that in future articles.  Meanwhile, go out and make some yes deposits into the lives of others.

Strength and Honor

Bill