Letters Never Sent

 

...following are some recently discovered letters that were (thankfully) never sent.

(from the region around Mt. Ararat)

Dear God,

Thank You so much for Your kind words about my character. I really appreciate it and I do hope to shine bright for You in these dark days. Honestly, though, I’m not drawn to Your idea about building a boat. Building a boat on dry ground would make me look pretty foolish. So, I respectfully decline Your invitation to build an ark. By the way, what is rain?

Sincerely, Noah

 

(from Ur of the Chaldeans)

Dear God,

Thanks for offering Sarai and me the chance to move to Canaan - and Your promise of all of those blessings is very touching. However, while I’m sure Canaan is a lovely region, Sarai and I like it here in Chaldea. I’m sure You’ll be able to find just the right person to make the trip.

Sincerely, Abraham

 

(from the capitol of the Persian Empire)

Dear God,

I know that I agreed when Uncle Mordecai told me to use my position as the Queen of Persia to benefit the Jews. And I really do care for my people. But my uncle’s suggestion that I enter the king’s throne room to make petition for the Jews is suicidal. Surely You understand why I must decline.

Yes, my fellow Jews need protection from that wicked Haman. But if I don’t act, surely You’ll raise up deliverance from someplace else? Right?

Sincerely, (Queen) Esther

 

(from the city of Capernaum)

Dear God/Jesus,

Thank You for Your kind offer to join Your traveling band and to follow You. I’m honored by the invitation, as I’m convinced that You are what you say You are. The problem is that, as a tax-collector, I wouldn’t be worth much as one of your witnesses. Nobody would listen to anything I might have to say.

Jesus, You need more credible followers (maybe someone like that Judas guy). I just don’t measure up to what You’re looking for. I’ll never be anything but a tax-collector.

Sincerely, Matthew

 

Thankfully, these letters were never sent. Noah and Abraham and Esther and Matthew didn’t refuse God’s invitation to serve Him. They all said “Yes!” to God’s call.

 

But I’m not at all sure that it was a slam dunk that they would say “Yes!” After all, the Bible is filled with stories of people who said, “No” to God’s invitations.

 

For instance, He invited the entire nation of the Jews to enter the Promised Land during the days of Moses. Instead, they rebelled at Kadesh-barnea. Imagine how differently history would read had that generation said “Yes!” to the report given by Joshua and Caleb.

 

If Noah had refused the command to build an ark, would God have approached someone else to do it? Would He have found another way to press “re-start” on the human race?

 

And, yes, Mordecai did tell Esther that if she remained silent, deliverance would come for the Jews in another way. But if Esther had remained silent, what would have happened? Who would have “stood in the gap”? (Ezekiel 22:30)

 

If Matthew had refused Jesus’ invitation to “Follow!”  the Lord might well have invited someone else to take his place. But Matthew would have missed the opportunity of a lifetime watching from the sidelines.

 

Every day, opportunities knock on the doors of our lives, inviting us to serve Jesus. He knocks and invites us to be involved in what He is doing in the world.

 

Be an agent of grace and reconciliation to a world in desperate need of both.

Serve the poor.

Tell a friend about your Jesus.

Give above and beyond to meet a Gospel need abroad or a pressing need nearby.

Contact the person who just popped into your mind.

Pray fervently.

Speak the truth in love.

 

God is constantly inviting us to the abundant life of faith and obedience.

 

Let your mind wander.

 

Go ahead and wonder, “What would the world look like had biblical characters or more modern ones - St. Patrick of Ireland; Martin Luther; Billy Graham; Martin Luther King, Jr.; the person who shared Jesus with you - said, ‘No’ to God’s nudge?”

These all said, “Yes” so the “What if...” game is a safe one. Their stories are written. Our stories, though, aren’t yet set in concrete.

Part of the enormity of being human is that we are free-will agents who can choose to say “Yes” and enter the adventure of serving the living God. Or, we can say, “No”.

 When the story of your life is written, will it be a story of “Yes, Lord!”?  The key thing is this: When opportunity knocks, open the door.

 

Yours...His,

 Dave

 

BIG DOUBT

July 31, 2020

In recent weeks, the Care Group that Kathy and I are a part of watched a series of videos where the presenter (Andy Stanley) cheered us on to what he called “big faith”. I needed the encouragement, since my “mustard seed” faith often seems stuck at sapling size. I’m more familiar with “big doubt.”

I haven’t made it a secret that before I believed in Jesus, I didn’t believe in God at all. I was a teen-aged, church-going atheist. But, when I was presented with the reality of my sin, the possibility of forgiveness, and the witness of some really good friends, I believed the seemingly too-good-to-be-true news that Jesus saves - and He saved me!

Having come to faith in Christ, though, my faith journey has included periodic strayings into the world of doubt.

On a doubting day, I am assailed by uncertainty about the existence of God and wonderings about the seconds after a person’s final breath.

My pre faith-in-Jesus mindset refused to believe in the spiritual realm, and I can still "go there" on a doubting day.

If you are one who doesn’t wrestle with doubts, I’m truly happy for you. But I know that I’m not the only “doubting Thomas/Dave” out there. There are plenty of others who are tempted to doubt the big and the small stuff of the Jesus way.

Today, I’m writing to those who doubt.

What do you do when you read in your Bible about a talking donkey, about a floating ax head, or about a day when the sun stood still - and you wonder…?

What do you do when you read, “In the beginning, God…” - and you wonder…?

What do you do when you read, “To live is Christ and to die is gain” - and you wonder…?

After all, you haven’t been to the other side. And you’ve never seen a Class A, “parting of the Red Sea” type of miracle. (Or maybe you have. The record of the Bible is that lots of people saw miracles and still didn’t believe. So, seeing a miracle isn’t a guarantee of a doubt-free faith, either. Just saying)

What do you do when you find yourself doubting any of the things that you might doubt? (the goodness of God, the truth of the Bible, the reality of heaven)

Here’s what I do on a doubting day and it is what I urge people I know and love to do when they wrestle with doubts.

Remember Jesus.*** (go to end)

You will read in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John of the words and works of Jesus.

As you do, notice His strength of character to speak truth to power. Notice His claims to be God in the flesh. Notice His love, especially seen in His giving Himself to die on a Roman cross. And notice His power, seen in every miracle over nature, disease, and demons, but most especially in His resurrection from the dead.

Recall that, with rare exceptions, the first disciples held to the story of Jesus’ resurrection when to do so frequently led to their deaths. Remember that the first generation of Christians risked their lives to take the message of Jesus to dangerous places. Why? Because they had seen Him, post-crucifixion, alive. Those who knew Him were thoroughly convinced.

Recall that early on, Christianity was a cult, despised by Greeks, Romans, and Jews, and that recording Jesus’ stories made the Gospel writers marked men. They did themselves no favors by promoting the stories of Jesus. Why write them down except that they were true?

What was it that caused the first Christians - who were all Jewish - to change the day of worship from Saturday to Sunday? What prompted them to abandon worship at the temple in Jerusalem? What drove them to welcome non-Jews to their Jesus-centered fellowships?

Nothing explains these dramatic changes - and many more besides! - better than this: An alive then dead then alive again Jesus turned their worlds upside down.

When my doubts hit, I remember Jesus.

 After remembering, I see that He clearly was who He claimed to be (God in the flesh) and that He obviously did what He claimed to be doing (winning salvation for all who believe in Him).

Doubts dissipate, not when I redouble my efforts to believe. They fade when I remember in Whom I have believed.

***Maybe you balk at this counsel because the primary source of our knowledge of Jesus is “the Bible” and you doubt the veracity of the Bible. Please know that by the standards applied to evaluate a piece of literature’s credibility, the Bible has been repeatedly vindicated. There is every reason to believe that what you will read in the four Gospels is historically accurate in what it asserts about the life, words, and works of Jesus. Give me a call or drop me a note if you are looking for resources toward which I can point you that will give you great confidence in the historical reliability of the Bible.

Friday

A couple of weeks ago I went down to the Chapel in the Woods, a simple, natural clearing on our church's back property where we have placed terracing and benches. It’s a great place for reflection and prayer.

I had gone there on a Tuesday evening a few minutes before others would come for prayer and found the benches already occupied. The threesome sitting there greeted me when I walked up. I told them that I was a pastor (and they didn’t run away, screaming). They introduced themselves, all high schoolers, and we chatted for a few minutes.

During our brief time together I mentioned that Easter was coming and invited them to the 6:30am Sunrise Service that would be held right there in the Chapel in the Woods. They seemed genuinely interested. Then I told them about our Good Friday evening service.

When I said “Good Friday” one of the teens had a quizzical look on her face, so I explained, “We call the day Jesus died ’Good Friday’”, immediately realizing how incongruous that must sound to someone who doesn’t know the story.

So, I proceeded to explain (the two minute version) that Jesus died on the cross for our sins. He paid the price for our forgiveness. He invites everyone to place their trust in Him for eternal life. Good Friday is good for us.

When I finished, the gal with the quizzical look on her face turned thoughtful and said, “I’ve never heard that before.”

On this Good Friday, listen to the story as if you’ve never heard it before.

Jesus of Nazareth lived a perfect life. He taught as no one had ever taught, loved as no one had ever loved, and performed miracles by the power of God.

At the end of the His three year public ministry, Jesus turned His face toward Jerusalem and walked into what He knew would be a crucible of unparalleled suffering.

On the last night of His life (Thursday) He was betrayed by a friend, delivered over to His own people and condemned for blasphemy. During that trial He was denied three times by another friend.

Early on Friday morning He was turned over to the civil authorities who condemned Him to death by crucifixion for treason.

He endured a brutal beating called “scourging” (called “the halfway death”) and then was force marched from the place of beating to the place of execution. There, soldiers nailed His hands and feet to a wooden cross and raised the cross to an upright position.

Jesus hung on the cross for six hours on Friday. While on the cross He took care of His mother and gave salvation to a fellow sufferer. He spoke a word of forgiveness to His tormentors, suffered physically like few ever have and suffered spiritually like no one ever has.

At the end, having accomplished the work He came to earth to do of offering Himself as a sacrifice for your sins and mine, He cried out, “It is finished” - and breathed His last.

Today is Friday. We call it Good Friday. At first blush it is an odd name for us, Jesus’ followers, to give to the day our Lord died.

On THAT Friday not one of Jesus’ disciples would have dreamed of calling it “good.” Not then. But that was Friday.

By late on Sunday morning, of course, everything had changed! Jesus was alive!! And today you and I now see the events of that Friday in a whole new light.

Nothing has changed concerning the suffering of Jesus. It was still an unfathomably terrible day of torment for Him. But now, in light of the empty cross, we see the redemptive meaning behind the cross. And we call it good.

On the cross, Jesus suffered and died to bring us to God. He died, not as a martyr and not as an example. He died as a sacrifice. He took the punishment that was due us. And now, anyone who believes in Him (John 3:16) has eternal life.

Good Friday is good for you IF you have believed in Jesus. If you have never placed the treasure of your trust in Him for eternal life, do so now.

Run to Jesus and find mercy, forgiveness, a clean slate and a fresh start. Let His, “It is finished” be applied to your soul. Trust Him for salvation and you will understand just how GOOD Good Friday really is.