The Shepherd's Voice: In the Wilderness

"Jesus answered him, 'It is also written:  "Do not put the Lord your God to the test."'"

At the time of this quote of Jesus, we find Him still in the middle of a 40-day trek in the wilderness, where He is being tempted by Satan.  Here there are recorded three separate instances in which Satan tempted Jesus, and the first time, Jesus responded to Satan with a scripture that was from Deut. 8, as an instruction to the Israelites, during their own wilderness trek.

In this second temptation recorded, Satan tries to twist scripture himself, in order to make Jesus do what is sinful.  Jesus again responds with scripture, again with an instruction from the Israelites' time in the wilderness.

Jesus response to Satan is taken from Exodus 17.  I turned to this passage in an effort to find out just what this means.  Because Jesus tells us--as the scripture says--not to put the Lord to the test.  And yet there are a couple of other examples I can think of in scripture, when people seem to do just that (Gideon, for example).  So I took another look at Exodus 17, to see exactly what the Israelites did that so angered the Lord.

The above passage describes a time when, in the middle of Israel's wanderings in the desert, the Lord brings them to a place where there is no water.  Because of this, and because the people are thirsty, they begin to "quarrel" with Moses, so heatedly that he apparently believes the people are ready to stone him.  They began to even question why Moses brought them out of Egypt (where they had been enslaved), if only to die of thirst in the desert!  The verse that really grabbed me, though, was their question at the very end of this passage, "Is the Lord among us, or not?"

After all that the Israelites have been through thus far by the hand of the Lord, they still ask that question.  Up to this point, the Lord has:

• Performed ten plagues in Egypt
• Caused Pharaoh to let the Israelites leave Egypt
• Parted the Red Sea, so that the Israelites could escape the Egyptian army
• Guided the Israelites with a pillar of cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night
• Made the bitter, undrinkable water at Marah sweet so that the Israelites could drink it
• Provided manna for the Israelites to eat
• Provided quail for them to eat

And still they question the presence of the Lord among them.  I would say that it surprises me. 

Except that it doesn't.  Because I know I do the same. 

The Lord has given me grace upon grace, blessing upon blessing.

And still, when I don't receive exactly what I want, or He doesn't answer my prayer exactly as I had expected, and I feel plunged into my own wilderness without the specific blessings of God that I desired...well, let's just say I've got a thing or two still to learn from the Shepherd.

Do Justice; Love Mercy; Walk Humbly

"With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God?  Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?  Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil?  Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?  He has showed you, O man, what is good.  And what does the Lord require of you?  To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."--Micah 6:6-8

One of my favorite things to do for fun in Little Rock is go to The Firefly, a paint-your-own-pottery studio, located in a shopping center near my church.  It's an inexpensive (usually--depending on what you decide to paint!) and relaxing way to have some fun and let the creative juices flow a little bit.  Except mine don't really flow.  It's more like a drip.  But that's beside the point.  I still manage to have a good time, and have painted everything from a small cross, to several tiles/coasters, a jar, a couple of coffee cups, even a couple of big platters.  Most of the stuff turns out alright-but-not-great, and I usually keep it to myself.  A few items, however, have been given away as gifts.  One was a platter that I painted for my friends Johnathan and Haley when they got married; another was a Buzz Lightyear piggy bank that I painted for one of my nephews;  another was a platter that I painted for one of my nieces last year; and yet another was this tile, pictured below.

 

I painted this tile back sometime in the late spring/early summer of 2009, as a gift for my blogfather, Keith.  I knew that Micah 6:8 was his favorite verse, and I asked him what his favorite color was (dark green).  So I went in one Saturday morning and painted for a couple of hours, and a couple of weeks later it was done.  I think I had planned to give it to him sometime around his birthday (July) but decided I couldn't wait.  At the time, he worked at our church, so I was able to slip into his office and just leave it on his desk while he was in 2nd service that Sunday morning.

 

I've dubbed Keith my "blogfather" for several reasons:  his blog was the first one I ever read (before I found his page, I had never even seen one!); he's one of my favorite writers (people like him are the ones that I envy when I think about creative juices flowing while mine are just dripping); and it was after reading his blog for a year that I decided to start writing one of my own (they say imitation is the highest form of flattery). 

 

I've got a lot of favorite posts of Keith's, that he's written over the years, but I wanted to share a couple of them here.  You see, Keith is certainly a unique individual, but one of the very first things I noticed about him years ago was that in church on Sundays, Wednesdays--anytime, really--Keith would always kneel whenever we prayed.  It didn't take me long to figure out why, as I was going through his blog archives and came across where he had written (on two separate occasions!) about why he kneels.  Those posts can be found here and here.  In them, he explains what he noticed in Scripture: 

 

• How many good people in Scripture, including Jesus Himself, knelt to pray;
• How many people approached their king/master by kneeling; 
• How many people approached Jesus, with either a need or a word of praise, by kneeling.

 

He observed how so often it was a way for people to express their humility, their brokenness, their need, and their respect for the God they came in contact with.  Knowing the heart behind his actions, it was always a blessing whenever I had the chance to witness Keith kneeling in prayer.

 

Keith has always struck me as a person of humility, and I've never witnessed that more magnificently than I did this weekend, when he stood up to say a few words at his sweet wife's funeral on Saturday.  In his speech, Keith said that if he was able to properly paint a picture of Ms. Angi's life, he was convinced that the only people who would leave there sad would be those who didn't have the chance to know her.  I would have to say that he was successful, as I didn't have the pleasure of knowing his precious wife.  But it was apparent that she was a marvelous educator, and Keith very bravely shared with us some of the most important lessons that he learned from his nearly twenty-three years of marriage to Ms. Angi: 

 

• How to love people unconditionally;
• How to be a good listener; 
• How to be a good spouse;
• How to forgive;
• How to be like Jesus. 

 

At Ms. Angi's graveside, our preaching minister read the above passage of Scripture, from Micah 6, and as another minister led us in prayer, I once again saw Keith's humility, his brokenness, his need, and his respect for the God that we worship, as I once again saw him kneeling in prayer to our God.  Keith, your attitude of humility continues to bless those around you.  Thank you, dear brother, for allowing your heart for our Father to continue to shine--even on the darkest of days.  

 

"With what shall I come before the Lord and bow down before the exalted God?...And what does the Lord require of you?  To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."

'Twas the Night Before Dump Day

‘Twas the night before Dump Day 2013,

And what a fantastic and wonderful scene,

With all of the people in Trey’s blogosphere

Excited that Dump Day soon would be here!

 

All who were feasting the night before last,

Would soon be replacing their feast with a fast.

With prayer and a cause that they just can’t ignore,

They’ll fast for near thirty hours or more.

 

The first thing they’ll do is to bow and to pray,

Asking our Lord God to bless this Dump Day,

Then open up wallets with marvelous cheer,

Making a gift at the Bread website here.

 

Bread for a Hungry World, they’re supporting,

Making their gifts, as they are affording.

Helping out Bread to distribute some food,

They’re doing their best to do what is good.

 

For God and our Savior will always be pleased

When we love and care for “the least of these”.

He wants us to help set the oppressed free,

and to share of our food with all the hungry.

 

If you’re wondering if you can help, well you bet!

Just go make your pledge at treymorgan.net

There you’ll find answers to all of your questions,

And on ways to give, he’s got several suggestions.

 

If you think you might like to participate,

Please know any amount that you give would be great.

So what are you sitting and waiting there for?

Go make your donation at givebread.org. 

Comfort in the Storm

Am I the only one that sometimes takes comfort in storms?  I'm not talking about comfort in spite of the storm; but rather comfort because of the storm.

I know that comfort's not typically what we associate with storms.  In fact, I've lived all my life in "tornado alley", and although I've never witnessed/experienced such a powerful storm as that, I do know that storms can do much damage to property and harm to people, even to the point of claiming lives.

And yet...the storms still remind me of the power and greatness of God. 

In the Old Testament, at a time when the man Job has been facing some personal storms in his own life, he begins to question God's goodness and justice, and he demands an audience with God.  Amazingly, God shows up.  It's also interesting to note that God speaks to Job out of the storm.  His response to Job includes the following statements:

"Have you entered the storehouses of the snow or seen the storehouses of the hail, which I reserve for times of trouble, for days of war and battle?  What is the way to the place where the lightning is dispersed, or the place where the east winds are scattered over the earth?  Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain, and a path for the thunderstorm, to water a land where no man lives, a desert with no one in it, to satisfy a desolate wasteland and make it sprout with grass?  Does the rain have a father?...Can you raise your voice to the clouds and cover yourself with a flood of water?  Do you send the lightning bolts on their way?  Do they report to you, 'Here we are'?...Who has the wisdom to count the clouds?  Who can tip over the water jars of the heavens when the dust becomes hard and  the clods of earth stick together?"

Part of the answer to Job's questions about God's justice included the rain and the hail, thunderstorms and lightning, as evidence of God's power and authority over all the earth. 

That's why when it was storming here late last night, and the noise was loud enough to awaken me, and the thunder sounded as if it were literally shaking the walls, I simply thanked the Lord for the storm, rolled back over, and went back to sleep. 

That's why as I went to worship this morning, although I didn't enjoy driving through the torrential rain to get there, I had an extra sense of peace in the fact that the storm was blowing outside.  As we sang songs, and as I listened to one of my most respected brothers lead our thoughts in communion, and then as I listened to his kid read scripture and lead us in prayer, I enjoyed getting to hear the gentle rumbling of the thunder, as evidence that God is still alive and active in our world. 

He is with us.

"...For God is present in the company of the righteous."--Psalm 14:5

The Shepherd's Voice: Jehovah-Jireh

"It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"

This verse has been one of my favorites for a long time, but just a few years ago, it came to hold even more significance for me.  The above statement of Jesus is found in Matthew 4:4, and it's one that my home church used back in 2010, when coming up with a title for our year-long trek through the entirety of scripture; we called our journey "Project 4:4".  (Incidentally, that quote of Jesus is also in Luke 4:4!)

This quote of Jesus is found as His response to Satan's temptation.  Jesus has been in the desert, fasting 40 days, when Satan tells Him, "If you're the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread."  But rather than give in to temptation, Jesus responds with a quote from the Old Testament, one which emphasizes that as humans, our real sustenance comes from God alone.

Jesus' quote here from Deut. 8 is Moses' instructions to the Israelites after they have wandered forty years in the desert.  Before they would enter the promised land, he instructs them, "Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.  He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.  Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years."

Ever since God has been calling man and challenging him to journey with and toward Him, He has also been fully providing and equipping each person with everything needed to make that journey.  It was true for Moses & the Israelites.  It was true for Noah...Abraham...Gideon...Samuel...Jeremiah...Jonah...Peter...John...Paul...and everyone in between.  Show me someone God has called into relationship with Himself, and I will show you someone for whom God has provided. 

Yet sometimes this can still be such a difficult lesson to remember.  Since Jesus seemed to be so well aware of this while fasting, it's something that I also try to remember through prayer and fasting.  So that as I present my requests to Him--and they are many--the hunger reminds me that I should desire nothing as much as I desire a relationship with Him.  It serves as a reminder that He alone is the one that can satisfy all the other needs; and He alone knows best how to satisfy all the other needs.  For He is the God Who Provides.  He is Jehovah-Jireh. 

Remembering Stories

This morning I went to worship at a church other than my home congregation.  I went with a friend who is a member there, to hear one of their guest speakers that they had invited for the weekend.  I enjoyed visiting at that congregation; class was very practical, and the sermon was very encouraging.  But I also have to say that part of what I enjoyed there this morning was the communion meditation.

The man leading the communion thoughts began by mentioning the fact that when we remember people, we like to remember particular stories about them.  He talked about remembering his grandmother and the time he spent with her when he was in high school, the times that she would send him books, etc.  He transitioned from that into why we do what we do each Sunday--because we want to remember Christ, and we want to proclaim His death and resurrection (I Cor. 11).

So before we took communion this morning, he encouraged us not just to remember Jesus, but to remember a particular story about Jesus, our favorite story about Jesus.  He even gave us a few seconds to flip open to it, so we could have the particular story to meditate on.  Now, I'm a pretty indecisive person; it's usually pretty hard for me to pick a "favorite" anything, much less a favorite story of my Savior, about whom there are so many incredible stories, which I each love for different reasons.  So if you were to ask me tomorrow what my favorite story about Jesus is, I might give you a completely different answer.  But today, the answer came from John 11, and I wanted to share it here: 

John 11

New International Version 1984 (NIV1984)

The Death of Lazarus

11 Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. ² This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair. ³ So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”
⁴ When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” ⁵ Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. ⁶ Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days.
⁷ Then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”
⁸ “But Rabbi,” they said, “a short while ago the Jews tried to stone you, and yet you are going back there?”
⁹ Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? A man who walks by day will not stumble, for he sees by this world’s light. ¹⁰ It is when he walks by night that he stumbles, for he has no light.”
¹¹ After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.”
¹² His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” ¹³ Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.
¹⁴ So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, ¹⁵ and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”
¹⁶ Then Thomas (called Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

Jesus Comforts the Sisters

¹⁷ On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. ¹⁸ Bethany was less than two miles^[a] from Jerusalem, ¹⁹ and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. ²⁰ When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home.
²¹ “Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. ²² But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”
²³ Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
²⁴ Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
²⁵ Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; ²⁶ and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
²⁷ “Yes, Lord,” she told him, “I believe that you are the Christ,^[b] the Son of God, who was to come into the world.”
²⁸ And after she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. “The Teacher is here,” she said, “and is asking for you.” ²⁹ When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. ³⁰ Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. ³¹ When the Jews who had been with Mary in the house, comforting her, noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there.
³² When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
³³ When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. ³⁴ “Where have you laid him?” he asked.
“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.
³⁵ Jesus wept.
³⁶ Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”
³⁷ But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”

Jesus Raises Lazarus From the Dead

³⁸ Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. ³⁹ “Take away the stone,” he said.
“But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.”
⁴⁰ Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”
⁴¹ So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. ⁴² I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”
⁴³ When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” ⁴⁴ The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.
Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”


Just a few things I wanted to point out as reasons I love this story:

1.  We get to see more of the human side of Jesus.  Jesus was God in the flesh.  And with all the stories of all the miracles, signs, and wonders He performed, I don't have any problem understanding the first half of that sentence.  Jesus was God.  It's the second half--that "in the flesh" part--that is mind-boggling to me sometimes.  It's difficult to imagine the God of Heaven living on this earth, going through the day-to-day, experiencing feelings and dealing with situations that we as humans must experience and deal with.  But He did.  And we see examples of that in this story.  It says that Jesus loved Mary and Martha and Lazarus.  When Jesus arrives, Martha goes out to meet him; later it says that He was also asking for Mary.  It's evident that He cared about these women and their brother.  Twice, it says He was deeply moved; it says His spirit was troubled; it says He wept.   There's a lot of speculation about why He wept that day, but I prefer to believe that it's because He loved these women, and they were hurting.  As I once heard a minister put it, "The things that break our hearts break His heart."  I believe that, and I believe Jesus was hurting for His dear friends.

2.  We get to hear one of the best "I AM" statements of Jesus.  At least, in my opinion, it's one of the best.  He says, "I am the resurrection and the life.  He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die."  Amen, friends?  As God, He is the Author and Giver of all Life, and as our sacrificial Lamb, He made resurrection possible for all who believe in Him.

3.  I love Martha's practicality.  Alright, I'll admit, this is the bit of comic relief in the story, but I love when Jesus says to remove the stone from the entrance to the tomb, that Martha tries to remind Him, "But Lord, he's been in there four days now...it's gonna stink!" (my translation).  Jesus just reminds her to believe, and promises her that she will see the glory of God.

4.  A dead man walked out of his grave!  Yup.  Jesus said, "Come forth,"  and a dead man, who had been wrapped in linens, enbalmed, and sealed in a tomb four days literally breathed again, got up, and walked out of his grave.  I can't imagine what it must've been like for all who were there that day.  But my all my faith is riding on the fact that this happened, and it happened again when Jesus rose from the dead, and it'll happen again at the Last Day. 

"Where, O death, is your victory?  Where, O death is your sting?  The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.  But thanks be to God!  He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."--I Cor. 15:55-57

How about you?  What would be your favorite story to remember Jesus by?

Praying Continually...

"Don't back down.  In future generations, your story will be the one that encourages someone else to follow hard after God."--Priscilla Shirer, Jonah: Navigating a Life Interrupted

Last week I began a new study on the book of Jonah.  So far, I've really enjoyed it, and last night as I was doing my studying/homework for today's early-morning discussion, I tweeted several quotes (at least one from each day's homework) that really spoke to me or inspired me.  But this particular quote by Priscilla Shirer is one that I've not been able to get out of my head all day. 

Perhaps because it reminds me of the impact my "blogfather", dear brother Keith Brenton, has had for me.  For starters, I'm sitting here at nearly midnight, writing on a blog.  I didn't really know what a blog was until I stumbled upon Keith's, about seven years ago.  There I've seen where he's written and read, questioned and answered, wondered and responded, and participated in dialogue with friends online, based mostly on his faith.  (I say "mostly" because there may be a small handful of his posts that are not particularly spiritual/religious in nature.)  While I'm sure there are plenty of his life experiences not documented there, a lot of his story is, quite literally, an open book there.  So for the past seven years, his story--with examples of his faith, his circumstances that have brought him to his beliefs, and his reasoning for those beliefs--has been one that has encouraged me to follow hard after God.  That's why he's my dear brother.  That's why I call him my "blogfather." 

Also, though, perhaps this quote makes me think of him because he and his family have been on my heart for awhile now.  I began praying for Keith and his family occasionally, at his request a few weeks ago, though I was unsure why.  Sunday evening, he sent me a message similar to the one he's posted here.  Since then I have been, per the instructions of the Apostle Paul in I Thessalonians, praying continually for Keith's & his family. 

I know that scripture teaches that "the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective."  Well...I am not a man. :)  And the only righteousness I can claim is that of Christ Jesus.  But I know that His grace is sufficient.  So I approach His throne of grace with confidence, praying that God will help in this time of need.  And I ask you to join me in that effort, on behalf of my beloved blogfather and his family.