Month: May 2023

“Now if you invoke as Father him who judges impartially according to each one’s works, conduct yourselves with reverence during the time of your sojourning,”

1 Peter 1:17 ( NAB)

Peter refers to our time in this life as our sojourning. To “Sojourn” means to stay or live in a temporary place. The apostles never looked at this life as a permanent residence, but rather as a place of sojourning that prepares us for our eternal home. 

If there was ever a good biblical example of a sojourner, it was Abraham. He was the Patriarch of our faith, a nomad who believed in the one true God. He didn’t grow up in that faith, and was surrounded by idolatry all during his early life, until his spiritual hunger for the true God, led him to hear God calling him out, saying, “Go forth from your land, your relatives, and from your father’s house to a land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. All the families of the earth will find blessing in you.” (Genesis 12:1-3)  

Abraham was sent out of his home town, with the promise of blessing others and being blessed, but as he sojourned through various places, he had many problems along the way. During his journey to that promised land, with every challenge that he faced, he kept his gaze upward, remembering what God said to him. With God’s promise in his heart and mind, Abraham was able to keep his trust in God. 

We are sojourners during our temporary life here, and we can learn from Abraham, how to trust instead of worry. Our promised land is not a geographical place, but an eternal place that Jesus is preparing for us. We will face many challenges as we sojourn to our promised land, just as Abraham did, and we can cope with each problem by moving forward, keeping our gaze set above. 

We are inspired by those who went before us in the faith, and Abraham is a prototype for all believers. Over two hundred years after Abraham, came Moses, who trusted God as he and his people sojourned to their geographical promised land. They also faced many challenges, but like their patriarchal example, they kept their gaze on the pillar of cloud and pillar of fire, that led them all the way to their promised land. I recently read a meme that went like this:

“Worry is glancing at God while gazing at circumstances. 

Trust is glancing at circumstances while gazing at God.”

A glance or a gaze, when placed in the right direction, is what will determine whether we live in trust or in worry. I call it the “sojourning gaze”, and Abraham did it first, as an example for all to follow. 

May God help us to glance briefly at our problems, while we gaze with endurance at our Savior, His cross and the empty tomb. His Holy Spirit is sojourning with us, and however He leads, He will never leave us or forsake us, and we are never alone. 

“But God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love he had for us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, brought us to life with Christ, raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

Ephesians 2:4-7 (NAB)

If I could choose only one section of scripture to read and meditate on the rest of my life, these would be the verses I choose. For anyone who has ever doubted God’s love for them, this is the scripture of proof. It’s full of phrases like rich in mercy, great love, raised us with Him, seated us with Him, and best of all, “immeasurable” kindness for ages to come. To bring us into harmony with Him, God gave every human being a conscience. We have the freedom to respond to God or run away from God. Adam and Eve are examples of people who at first, ran from God. Beginning in Eden, we can see an image of God as a loving Father, pursuing His children, by asking Adam the same question, which He is asking every restless soul today, “Where are you?”  Psychiatrists do therapy by asking questions and getting us to ask and answer our own questions. The mental health professionals tell us that most mental unrest comes from unresolved guilt, which is exactly what made Adam and Eve hide from God. Unresolved guilt makes people do strange things. They hide within the gifts God gave them. Adam and Eve did this by hiding within the foliage of the beautiful garden God created for them. Then they made themselves clothing from leaves God gave them, in order to cover their nakedness. It was as if to say to their Creator, “Don’t look, we can handle our problems without you, God.” 

It’s this attitude that results in unresolved guilt and the increase of mental anguish in the world today. God doesn’t sit back on a throne, puffed up with pride, waiting for people to come groveling to Him. He left His throne 2,000 years ago and came down to our level, to pursue us and give His life for us. God keeps calling all souls wherever they are hiding today. He will call a man or a woman for years, never giving up on them. That’s why He described Himself as the Shepherd seeking the one lost sheep. God loved each of us so much, He spoke through Jesus, telling us to Come unto Him in our weariness and cease our labors, and He will give us true rest. Hell may put a fear of God in people, but it is His immeasurable kindness and love that leads us to repentance. I speak from my own journey of faith, since in that moment I first repented, I didn’t even think about Hell. I was much too desperate for His peace and forgiveness here and now. When I felt His immeasurable love and kindness, I repented, and was flooded with His forgiveness, His immeasurable love and peace. Through the cross, He resolves all our guilt, and He puts it as far away as the East is from the West. God first called man in the garden asking “Where are you?” Jesus called all people saying, “Come unto me.” Paul tells us in Romans, “where sin increased, grace overflowed all the more.” 

(Romans 5:20) It’s up to us to believe it. This is the image of God which Paul describes in this scripture to the Ephesians. God’s kindness and grace is immeasurable and it outmatches the productivity of sin. Where sin increases, grace is always greater. It’s hard to wrap our self condemning, guilt ridden heads around the grace that God gives us.

We are used to meriting and earning our rewards in life. We try to measure everything based on our own worth, but God’s kindness and grace is a free gift, it cannot be measured. We were meant only to cooperate with Him instead of hiding from Him. Jesus spoke a lot about the deeds we should do that will bring rewards later in heaven, yet even those deeds are the after effects of His mercy and grace. God saves us because He loves us, and we cannot earn kindness that is immeasurable.  God desires a relationship with our cooperation. Paul wrote that He raised us up and seated us with Him in heaven. In the parallel language of the Easter story, we have all died to sin and are spiritually resurrected, living in a state of grace here and now before another resurrection yet to come. Some people never fully receive His grace, thinking they are not worthy, and others take advantage of His grace and trample over it. It’s to our advantage not to hide, or try to fix ourselves, or to trample His grace, but to come before Him and receive all that Jesus came to give us. He resolves all our guilt with such immeasurable love and kindness, which He will continue to reveal for the ages to come. 

Lord God, you are so rich in mercy, help each of us to know the immeasurable love you have for us. When you ask where we are, may we always respond, “Here I am, Lord,” and grant that we receive all the peace and forgiveness you have given us through your son, Jesus. Amen

“Because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.”

James 2:13 (NIV)

Mercy is both awesome and frightening. It’s awesome because it’s given freely to all of us who are undeserving. It’s frightening because it’s the hardest virtue to live out, yet it affects our eternity. It’s easy to show mercy to someone who we genuinely like, or feel true pity and compassion for, but when we come up against a person who mistreats or betrays us, or hurts our loved ones, the hardest thing is to live out the beatitude of showing mercy. Jesus said “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy”. All that Jesus taught was radically different than typical first century Palestinian morality. Instead of an eye for an eye, He taught that by showing mercy, we would receive mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgement. When we stop to think about it, receiving mercy or showing mercy both have eternal consequences. We are invited to freely receive God’s mercy to be saved, but we also need to show mercy, or else we will be accountable to God one day. If there has ever been a person who didn’t deserve your kindness, but you showed it anyway, that is mercy. Mercy is our first experience in life. Without mercy, we are born as cold, helpless, naked and hungry infants. It’s the mercy of God that we are nurtured, fed, clothed and loved by at least one or two parents. Satan despises God’s mercy and would rather see us live a defeated life with unresolved guilt and feelings of unworthiness. A death bed conversion is mercy at its highest power, forgiving the undeserving of all sin just before their death. God pours out His mercy and love to all people, and then He searches the earth for anyone who will receive it, as the thief on the cross did. Mercy triumphs over judgement and snatches souls out of the pathway to hell. After we receive His mercy, Jesus desires that we show it to others. Every father wants his children to reflect his good traits and in showing mercy, we reflect the traits of our Father in heaven. If mercy means that much to Jesus and His father, then we all need to have more of it. 

Lord, thank you for your abundant mercy that searches the darkness to find all the blind and lost souls to save. Grant that we, who have received your abundant mercy, may show mercy to others. Amen

“I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.”

Revelation 3:15-16 (NIV)

Jesus said a lot about not being neutral or moderate. He said if we are not with Him, we’re against Him.

If we do not gather with Him, we are scattering. He wants us to be either hot or cold, but never lukewarm, or else He spits us out. 

These are powerful scriptures. It keeps us on our toes, since no one wants to be spit out. It’s interesting because I’ve always heard people give advice saying “Everything in moderation.” That may be true in some things regarding food or alcohol, but when it comes to loving Jesus, He looks for the hot or cold passions, but never lukewarm or neutral. The coldest ones can still be touched and transformed by His Holy Spirit and the hottest ones are already on fire, but the lukewarm are neither for or against Him, and that seems to bother Jesus the most. After all, the first commandment is to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. The neutral people are those who say things like, “I’m not religious, I’m just spiritual”, or “I prefer to keep my faith private.” The parable of the King throwing a big banquet, but no one showed up, seems to be about the neutral ones, who wanted to keep their faith private and hidden. Jesus told us not to hide our light under a bushel, because salvation is too great a gift to keep secret. God’s love and mercy is such good news that He deserves our enthusiasm. When it comes to sharing His truth, God has a history of using flawed people to work for Him. Those He uses are either hot or cold, but seldom lukewarm. Paul, who was formerly Saul, was a Pharisee who was dead cold against the Christian faith. He was killing Christians until Jesus appeared to him and knocked him off his horse one day, forever changing his heart. He repented and became the apostle Paul. Peter, on the other hand, was fiery hot with passion and zeal, even though the heat of his passion was often misdirected. He pulled out his sword to defend and fight for Jesus. He thought the gospel message was only for Jewish people, and he thought he was still supposed to keep a kosher food diet. God is okay with hot or cold, because at least He sees all the potential He has to work with. So if someone has a passion like Peter, even if it takes a wrong direction, God will redirect and use that passion for His kingdom. Someone could feel ice cold about something, or in a situation they don’t like being in. They may be riding their horse in a wrong direction, like Saul was, but Jesus can work with it and reroute them. Whether we are hot or cold, God will change us for the good, as He changed Peter and Paul. When we are gathering with Jesus, He is pleased, and when we stand with Jesus, He will stand with us. For those we pray for every day, I pray that whether hot or cold, Jesus is not denied in the end, and that God will reach the hearts of those lukewarm friends and loved ones. I’ve always found the following scripture so powerful and convicting:

“Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father. But whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father.”

(Matthew 10:33-33) This scripture keeps me moving forward in spite of my fears or my selfishness.

Lord, help us to become people of passion who love and serve you, always allowing you to change us, and never let us settle for a lukewarm faith. Amen