A Gideon Call

 

Judges 6:11-24

The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.”

“Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.”

The Lord turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?”

“Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”

The Lord answered, “I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.”

Gideon replied, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me. Please do not go away until I come back and bring my offering and set it before you.”

And the Lord said, “I will wait until you return.”

Gideon went inside, prepared a young goat, and from an ephah[a] of flour he made bread without yeast. Putting the meat in a basket and its broth in a pot, he brought them out and offered them to him under the oak.

The angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened bread, place them on this rock, and pour out the broth.” And Gideon did so. Then the angel of the Lord touched the meat and the unleavened bread with the tip of the staff that was in his hand. Fire flared from the rock, consuming the meat and the bread. And the angel of the Lord disappeared. When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the Lord, he exclaimed, “Alas, Sovereign Lord! I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face!”

But the Lord said to him, “Peace! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die.”

So Gideon built an altar to the Lord there and called it The Lord Is Peace. To this day it stands in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

In this hour, Holy Spirit is calling Gideons. This is a critical time, a strategic time, and God is calling Gideons. Have you heard a Gideon call?

Think of Gideon. He was not idle. He was working, threshing grain. Because of the raids of the Midianites, he had to thresh the wheat in a winepress so that the enemy would not sweep in and steal the fruit of his labors. He was providing for himself and his family – a good thing to do.

But God had another plan, another identity for Gideon. God called him “mighty warrior”.  God had a higher calling and purpose, and with that calling, a higher authority for Gideon.

We are in a critical time, a strategic time in history. Our circumstances are, in many ways, not unlike Gideon’s circumstances. Many hope to just keep a low profile and thresh out a little wheat hidden away down in the winepress. But God has other plans. This is not a time to be on the sidelines. There is war in the spiritual realm. God is calling winepress Gideons to their role as mighty warriors. You are one of them. God is with you, mighty warrior. He is putting you into the game. Each objection, every excuse He pushes aside.

If you have not already heard a Gideon call, ask God. “Where are you calling me to battle? What prayer burden do you want to place on my shoulders? What is the will of God in this particular circumstance that I have heard about? Then pray, “Father, Your will, Your plan, Your desire be done on earth just like it is in heaven.”

I am impressed that this is a strategic time, a time when God is realigning and shifting things both in the natural arena and in the spiritual. It is a time for Gideons to come out of the winepress.

God has appointed specific strategic times for accomplishing His kingdom purposes. Romans 5:6 tells us that “at the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.” Galatians 4:4 tells us “But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son”. Acts 3 tells of Peter and John going up to the temple at the hour of prayer and seeing the man lame from birth who had been taken daily to the temple gate which is called “beautiful” to beg. In all the times Jesus had been to the temple, He had not healed this man. But on this day, at this hour of prayer, Peter and John were made aware that this was the time. As a matter of fact, the word translated as “beautiful”,  ὡραῖος, which is used to describe the gate, means “an hour, the time of fulfillment, a particular hour, beautiful in timing” (from Strong’s concordance). We are at a “beautiful” moment. It is for such a time as this that God has placed you here. Come up out of the winepress. Hear God’s sending call, mighty warrior!  

I just finished recording and uploading O Come O Come Emmanuel/Hope is Born. This song pairs the ancient prayers of O Come O Come Emmanuel with words I penned in 2012.

You can listen here

O Come O Come Emmanuel/Hope is born

O come O come Emmanuel
And ransom captive Is - rael
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear

Rejoice rejoice Emmanuel
Shall come to thee O Israel

Shine into this darkened corner
With the light from Eden’s morn
You who are the world’s former
By your touch a hope is born

O come Thou Dayspring come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night
And death's dark shadows put to flight

Rejoice rejoice Emmanuel
Shall come to thee O Israel

Interrupt the mindless chatter
Of a world that turned from you
Speak the only Word that matters
Word made flesh, the Word that’s true

O come Thou Wisdom from on high
And order all things far and nigh
To us the path of knowledge show
And cause us in her ways to go

Rejoice rejoice Emmanuel
Shall come to thee O Israel

Break into my moment’s sadness
Solitary, lonely, then
Suddenly angelic gladness
Peace on earth! Good will to men!

O come Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan’s tyranny
From depths of hell thy people save
And give them victory o’er the grave

Rejoice rejoice Emmanuel
Shall come to thee O Israel

Hallelujah! I will join them
Praising Father, praising Son
Let us hurry then to see him
Jesus is the promised one

Rejoice rejoice Emmanuel
Shall come to thee O Israel
John Mason Neale | Thomas Helmore Public Domain
© 2012 Willing Captive Mark Stenson CCLI License Number 105784

Relaunching recording projects

I was looking at folders of songs that I wrote some time ago, and I encountered songs I had forgotten about. Worse yet, I don’t have them recorded. I had started recording years ago using my desktop computer running Windows 95 (so you can guess how long ago that was!) When the computer was retired, the recording project was also put on hold. Running across the folders of forgotten music made me realize I needed to get back to recording. I needed a solution for recording. I decided to try the Tascam dp-008ex. I have recorded the first project, and I’m pretty happy with the results. So now onward!

The Voice of the Lord

The voice of the Lord is over the waters;
the God of glory thunders, the Lord, over many waters.
The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.
The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars; the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon. He makes Lebanon to skip like a calf, and Sirion like a young wild ox.
The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire.
The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness; the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.
The voice of the Lord makes the deer give birth and strips the forests bare, and in his temple all cry, “Glory!”

- from Psalm 29

What does the voice of the Lord sound like to you? Does God's voice thunder? Is his voice loud and clear? Or does his voice sound muffled? Do you wonder if what you heard was him speaking or whether it was just some other background noise?

Adam and Eve heard the voice of the Lord clearly in the garden. They heard his voice until they started to listen to the whispers of the serpent. Then they began to question the voice that used to be so familiar and unmistakable. The voice of the Lord grew dim, muffled, frightening, unintelligible.

As years passed Adam and Eve's children and grandchildren, if they perceived the voice of the Lord at all, failed to hear God's voice loudly and clearly.

Occasionally there would be one, a prophet, who would hear the voice of the Lord like a rumbling in the distance, or a whispered voice while waking from sleep. And they shared what they could hear. But the voice of God was garbled to most of the people.

The Father longed for his children to hear his voice loud and clear, to know his heart of love. So he  sent Jesus, the Word made flesh, to speak again with a voice that could be heard.

On the cross, as Jesus cried out with a loud voice, "It is finished", the veil was torn in two. The voice of the Lord thundered. The voice of the Lord shook the tombs open.

May the voice of the Lord still all other voices. May the voice of the Lord be loud and clear in our ears. May we too cry, "Glory!"

Out of the boat

This is one of the devotions that was intended to be shared on a recent short-term mission trip...a devotion which I finally relocated after I was back home from the trip.

Out of the Boat

Jesus Walks on the Water

²² Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. ²³ And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, ²⁴ but the boat by this time was a long way^[b] from the land,^[c] beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them. ²⁵ And in the fourth watch of the night^[d] he came to them, walking on the sea. ²⁶ But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, “It is a ghost!” and they cried out in fear. ²⁷ But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.”

²⁸ And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” ²⁹ He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. ³⁰ But when he saw the wind,^[e] he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.” ³¹ Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” ³² And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. ³³ And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

Questions to discuss:

·         Who do you most identify with in this story?

·         Boats were familiar and comfortable to Peter. At least most of the time. Was the boat a comfortable place in this story?

·         Has Jesus called you out of your comfort zone? Share about that.

·         Pray for each other about the call of Jesus to you to “get out of the boat” and come to Him on the water.

You give them something to eat

Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand

¹³ Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. ¹⁴ When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick. ¹⁵ Now when it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a desolate place, and the day is now over; send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” ¹⁶ But Jesus said, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.” ¹⁷ They said to him, “We have only five loaves here and two fish.” ¹⁸ And he said, “Bring them here to me.” ¹⁹ Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass, and taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. ²⁰ And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over. ²¹ And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.

Questions to discuss

Jesus keeps stretching the disciples as he calls them to new faith adventures.

·         What are some of the challenging elements in the story above?

·         How would you have felt if you had been one of the disciples there that day?

·         At what point do you think the loaves and fish were multiplied? In the hand of Jesus? In the hands of the disciples? Other?

·         How has Jesus called you to take the little you have and distribute it?

·         Have you seen Jesus multiply the “loaves and fish” you have placed in His hands? What are the loaves and fish in your life?

·         Pray for one another that Jesus would bless and multiply what we place in His hands.

Idols

Little children, keep yourselves from idols.
1 John 5:21

This is the last verse in 1 John. It has always struck me as an abrupt ending to the book. And this is a book that, at first blush, is not focused on idolatry. So why does John seemingly shift gears in the last sentence of his letter?

Isaiah, now there is a book that hits the topic of idols. Just take a look at Isaiah 41. The idols are made by craftsmen from the materials he has chosen. See Isaiah 40:18-25.  The idols are strengthened by nailing them down, held together by the skill of the craftsman's soldering.but the idol has no power to speak, either in providing insight into the past or declaring what is to come. the idol has no power to act.

Idols are not always so blatant as a craved piece of wood overlaid with gold. Our culture has more idols of the mind. A person's ideas about God, unless they have the foundation of God's revelation of Himself, are idols, false gods, the work of a thought craftsman. The person may craft their own concept of God, or they may buy into the ideas of someone they know, or someone they heard on the radio, or someone who has written a book.

But God, the true God, reveals Himself in His Word. See Isaiah 40:6-17. All flesh is like grass. Man's ideas too - they fade and fail. But the word of our God stands. His revelation of Himself is faithful and sure. It doesn't, like the idols, need nails to hold it firm in place. The nails that pierced the Word made flesh demonstrate how firm God's revelation of His love and His atoning sacrifice are. They do not fade like grass. They endure.

Here is where I now begin to see why John ends his letter as he does. "Little children, keep yourselves from idols." The contrast between the idols of thought constructs of mortal men and God revealed in the word of life that John introduces in 1 John 1 is the contrast between God and idols.

John's exhortation to keep ourselves from idols makes sense alongside the life from the Father that was made manifest in His Son Jesus, in the Light that overpowers the darkness, in the blood of Jesus that cleanses us from sin. It makes sense alongside the false claims that we have not sinned. "If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us."

It is an appropriate exhortation from one who cares with the love of God himself for those to whom he is writing.

Keep yourselves from idols.

Thorns

A crown of thorns. Menacing. Malicious. Mocking. Piercing. Painful.

O sacred Head, now wounded, with grief and shame weighed down,
Now scornfully surrounded with thorns, Thine only crown;
How pale Thou art with anguish, with sore abuse and scorn!
How does that visage languish, which once was bright as morn!

See Adam in the garden.  It was a garden without thorns. It was a garden marked with harmony, beauty, and bounty. It was a garden of open communion and conversation between creation and Creator, between man and his Maker.

But into the harmony comes dissonance and discord. Not content to exercise dominion over creation in the context of loving submission to the Creator, the poisonous seed of rebellion sprouts and invades the beautiful garden. Its fruit is death and brokenness. Thorns.

Casting aside their crowns as royal offspring, Adam and Eve grasp dust and sweat and thorns.

But from eternity past God planned an interposition of life into this spinning vortex of death. The hand of God reaches in rescue.  He reaches into this broken world to ransom, to redeem each of us who have sold ourselves as slaves to destruction. His hand does not hold gold or silver as the redemption price. Rather his hands are scarred by nails. And on his head, a crown. But this is not the royal diadem of power. It is thorns: menacing, malicious and mocking. It is the thorns that invaded and spoiled the garden, now twisted into a crown and roughly, violently pushed onto the head of Jesus. It is the crown that we grasped with Adam in the garden. Our crown, our punishment on his head.

Surely he has borne our griefs

    and carried our sorrows;

yet we esteemed him stricken,

    smitten by God, and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions;

    he was crushed for our iniquities;

upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,

    and with his wounds we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray;

    we have turned—every one—to his own way;

and the Lord has laid on him

    the iniquity of us all.

 

In A Relationship

I saw it recently on my Facebook feed.  A friend had posted that he was now in a relationship. Relationship...what does it mean?  Like some other things in the world of Facebook, it may have a slightly different meaning than in the real world.In Facebook land, it typically has a romantic or sexual connotation. 

Another example: think of the term, "friend".  What is a friend?  In Facebook nation, it can be merely an acquaintance. But what does the Bible say? Here are a few verses that demonstrate a Biblical understanding:

Exodus 33:11
Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.

We see a closeness and honesty of communication. God is speaking. He speaks to Moses looking him in the eye.

And another:

John 15:13-17
Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another.

This is the relationship that matters. There is a friend that laid down his life for you.

Do you recall that relationship that you had with him, that first love?

Revelation 2:3-5
I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.

Friend, Jesus calls you to remember your first love. Remember and love him, because he first loved you.

Luke 2:14 Glory to God in the highest,
 and on earth peace, good will toward men.

Some of you who are our age will recall 7 O'Clock News/Silent Night recorded by Simon and Garfunkel in 1966. This recording juxtaposed the music and words of Silent Night with an actual news cast from August 3, 1996. The result was powerful. It echoes the thought of Longfellow’s 1863 Christmas Bells which states, “For hate is strong and mocks the song of peace on earth, good will to men”. 

Going back across the years, from Simon and Garfunkel in the turbulent 60s, Longfellow in the time of the Civil War, and certainly Bethlehem in the days of Herod and his slaughter of the children, the words, “on earth peace” can seem an impossible hope.  In our day of racial tension, terrorism, and growing dread of what comes next, the hunger for peace on earth aches in the hearts of men and women around the globe.

Peace on earth seems so distant as we look at the smoldering, and at times blazing, circumstances of the world around us. But there is the problem. Peace will never be found, and was never intended to be found, in the circumstances. Micah 5, the familiar prophesy of Bethlehem as the birthplace of Jesus, was spoken at another time of political turmoil. The prophet lays out the hope. “And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.  And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth. And he shall be their peace.”

Do you hear it? Do you see it? Peace is not circumstances. Peace is a person. Ephesians 2:14 says it outright: “For he himself is our peace”. And in Isaiah 9:6, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Jesus is the Prince of Peace.  Hebrews calls him the King of righteousness and the King of peace.

When the angels announced the coming of Peace to the broken world, that Peace is Jesus himself. Receive Him. He is your peace.  

Snow drifts

As I write the snow is falling. Well, actually it is mostly going sideways.  This is not one of those gentle, big fluffy flakes falling slowly, softly to the ground type snows. This is a blowing, drifting, reduced visibility snow event.  Winter storm warning, blizzard conditions at times...

How can the same precipitation (snow) have such varying personality? There is the gentle, silent snow, and then there is the wild, howling snow like we are seeing today. Yet each has its beauty. Each proclaims God's glory.

Praise the LORD! Praise the LORD from the heavens; Praise Him in the heights! Praise Him, all His angels; Praise Him, all His hosts! Praise Him, sun and moon; Praise Him, all stars of light! Praise Him, highest heavens, And the waters that are above the heavens! Let them praise the name of the LORD, For He commanded and they were created. He has also established them forever and ever; He has made a decree which will not pass away. Praise the LORD from the earth, Sea monsters and all deeps; Fire and hail, snow and clouds; Stormy wind, fulfilling His word; (‭Psalms‬ ‭148‬:‭1-8‬ NASB)

Yes, even the snow fulfills His word.

You have reached your destination

I attended a funeral this week. I hadn't been to the particular funeral home, so I put the address in my phone's GPS app.  It dutifully routed me through the various turns.  At last I pulled up at Church and Chapel Funeral Home.  As I did so, the pleasant voice of the app said, "You have reached your destination."

It struck me how accurate the GPS was. My destination, your destination, every person's destination...

Hebrews 9:27
And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment

Every person on this earth has an appointment, a destination.  Unless Jesus returns first, all will die. And the judgement awaits.

Thank God that 9:27 is not the last verse of Hebrews.

Hebrews 9:27-28
And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:
So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.

The funeral home may be my destination, but not my final destination. For those that look to Jesus, it is just a brief stop along the way to the real destination. Our destination is at the side of Jesus, in his presence forever.

Grace, Mercy and Peace

Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. (2 Timothy 1:2b)

Becky and I read this verse this morning as a part of our Bible reading. The words are familiar, comfortable. Reflecting further, perhaps they are too familiar - part of an opening greeting of a letter from Paul, brushed past in our hurry to get to the real message of what is being said.

But wait! This is the real message. This is God's word, spoken to our hearts and lives. This is God himself addressing the deepest longings of our souls.

Where can humanity hope to find peace? Where can we hope to glimpse grace and mercy? These will be found only as we look to our God who calls us his children and who invites us to call him "Father". They are found when we recognize the anointed One, the Messiah, Jesus.

She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. (Matthew 1:21)

His name means forgiveness, grace, mercy, and peace. He is the Prince of Peace. And he is Lord.

And what of those three words? How rich, how full of God's heart toward you!

Grace

Mercy

Peace

These words are pulled from dusty storage where they have been packed away with the lights and tinsel, tree stands and ornaments.  "Peace on earth. Good will toward men."

In the next weeks and days, let take these three gifts from the hand and heart of God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. Let's unwrap these gifts. Le't stop in our rush to pack away the ornaments and thoughts of the Christmas season. Let's discover afresh the grace, mercy, and peace that our Father intends to fill our lives.

Too deep for words

Romans 8:26

In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words

My dad's health has taken a turn that make it very difficult for him to express himself in words. He is able, with great effort, to say a few words or an occasional phrase. One phrase that he is still able to say is, "I love you too."  These are words that I treasure.

My dad's inability to express himself in words is a frustration to him.  He so much wants to speak, but most of his vocalization is, like we read in Romans 8:26, groanings.

God hears our groanings. He himself groans with us. In those places where words fail, His Spirit groans on our behalf. He knows intimately the meaning of each cry of our heart. What love, what compassion, what identification and friendship, what understanding...he has taken our groanings upon himself.

Perfect Fear?

In 1 John 4:18 there is a familiar, frequently quoted verse:

"Perfect love casts out fear."

But have you ever turned the phrase around?

Perfect fear casts out love. This is also true.  Proverbs 8:13a says "To fear the Lord is to hate evil".

I am reminded of a Keith Green song: "You love the World and You're Avoiding Me".



God, teach us such a perfect fear that hates evil!

When a song crashes and burns

Today in church, as is my most normal practice, I chose the song for during the offering while listening to the sermon.  I do this to try to target most closely what I sense that God's Spirit is saying to us in our Sunday morning time together.  This morning I picked Keith Green's "How Can They Live Without Jesus".  I have done this song before, but not for a while.  I quickly wrote out the words during the sermon so that I wouldn't suffer from lyrical memory lapse in the middle of the song.

Then I got up to sing the song.  It started out OK until I got to the place where it goes into a different key...and I couldn't find what chord to use.  I kept singing and fumbling with trying to get the guitar back on track...without any success.  It was truly a crash and burn offering song.  I felt sorry for the people who had to listen.  It was painful. I felt sorry for those that I knew were visiting our church for the first time.  What kind of impression were they getting?  Ouch!

So what about when we crash and burn?  What about when our offering falls so far short of what we had intended to share?

Blessed.  Yes, blessed.

Matthew 5:3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. 5 “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. 6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. 7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. 8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. 9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons[a] of God. 10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Blessed are you when your song crashes and burns, for you will again see clearly your dependence on God. Blessed are you when your song crashes and burns, for you will pray that the message can still somehow reach the hearts of the hearers, despite your weakness (a great prayer to pray when the song goes right too, by the way). Yes, blessed are you when your song crashes and burns.  You are still held in the hands of a loving God whose love is not based on some level of performance, but purely on who He is.

Yes, blessed.

Not an ordinary carpenter

What does a carpenter know about water?  Wood?  Sure.  Hammers and saws? Of course.  But what does a carpenter know about water?  Not too much…except for this carpenter.  This carpenter is different.  I remember when we, my brother and I, first encountered this carpenter. We had been fishing all night, and we had caught nothing.  Then along came the carpenter.  “Push out into the deep water and let down your nets.” We were fishermen.  We knew the water.  Why take advice about fishing from a carpenter?  But this carpenter was different.  We let down our nets and caught more fish than our boat could hold…actually more than two boats could hold safely.  He is no ordinary carpenter.

Then there was the storm.  The carpenter had said that we should all go across the lake.  Then he fell asleep in the back of the boat.  Not too long and the storm hit out of nowhere.  Waves were crashing over the bow.  We all felt sure we were going down for good.  “Master, don’t you care that we are perishing?”  The carpenter woke up. We wanted him to help bail out the water.  But he stood and spoke to the storm.  The carpenter spoke with authority.  And the storm listened.  “Be still!”  And it was still.  He is no ordinary carpenter.

It seems this carpenter knows about water.  He knows more than us fishermen when it comes to water…well, when it comes to everything.  I remember that other time when he sent us off in the boat and said he would come later.  We were pulling on the oars as hard as we could, but the wind was against us.  It had gotten dark, and the wind had come up, and the waves with the wind.  That’s when the carpenter came.  He came on the water, but he wasn’t in a boat.  He was walking.  “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.”  His reply – one word:  “Come”.  So I stepped over the edge of the boat.  I stepped out onto the water, looking into his face.  Then the wind and waves caught my attention.  What am I doing out here?  I started to sink down.  I called out to him.  And he caught my arm, lifting me up.  “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”  He is no ordinary carpenter.

We saw the carpenter heal the sick.  We saw him give sight to the blind. And we saw him beaten, and we saw him die. But in three days, we saw him alive again.  Death was no match for this carpenter. 

Later Nathaniel, Thomas, James, John and two of the others and I were together.  I suggested that we go fishing, and they agreed.  So we went out in the boat, but we caught nothing.  “Children, do you have any fish?”  “No.” “Cast your net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.”  Some?  There were so many we couldn’t pull the net in.  It was John who recognized him first.  “It is the Lord!”  He didn’t have to say it twice.  I was in the water and made for the shore. 

What does a carpenter know about water?  Well, this carpenter is not a regular carpenter.  He is not like any other carpenter you have ever met.  He is the Lord of the wind and waves. He is the Light in the storm. And He is the one who gives living water.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says.

Seven times in the book of Revelation we read the phrase, "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."  This echos the Words of Jesus in Luke 8:8 and Mark 4:9 at the end of the parable of the sower:  “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

What would the church be like if we had hearing ears?  God's Word is powerful!  Look at John 11:43.  Two little words from Jesus: δεῦρο ἔξω - Come forth!  His word brings life!

As Morning Breaks

As morning breaks upon the tomb

Despair and sorrow flee and hide

For standing strong is Life himself,

The One who once was crucified.

The walls of Hell are broken down

And fallen before heaven’s Son

The halls of death lie crushed beneath

The King of kings, victorious One!

The blood stained shroud is laid aside

That held the sinless One who died

And running there to look inside

We see that death has been denied

And joy like sunrise starts to dawn

As hearts believe what angels know

And to the Savior we are drawn

To worship Jesus, bowing low

Amazing joy!  For Jesus lives

He’s conquered sin and death and hell

For us, and life eternal gives

And sends us with the news to tell

©2014 Willing Captive, Mark Stenson

Open Up the Doors

On the evening of that first day When they gathered there together
They locked the doors to try and shut out all their fears
But the doors and locks were useless
And the fears came crashing in
Into their place of secret sorrow
And their place of hidden fears

And it seems we’re not so different
Than the one who gathered there
We try to hide our broken hearts and broken dreams
And we shut out nagging questions
And pretend that we don’t care
We know that what is on the inside
Isn’t always what it seems

But the very doors we hide behind
Can hold us captive too
And the locks become a prison to our heart
‘Till the risen Jesus enters in
And His words bring peace
And we see the wounds He bore
So we would never be apart

And just like those first disciples
We are taken by surprise
As He sends us out into the world we dread
When He breaths on us His Spirit
And the joy begins to rise
As we celebrate the Living One
Who is no longer dead

So open up the doors and let them know
That Jesus is alive and He’s made you whole
Break the locks that used to chain your life
Come into the freedom of the light

And Jesus will be with you
As you walk along the way
And His words will be like fire in your heart
And then as your eyes are opened
And you see that it is He
Who has bought you back from darkness
Oh yes, let the music start

So open up the doors and let them know
That Jesus is alive and He’s made you whole
Break the locks that used to chain your life
Come into the freedom of the light

c 2010 Willing Captive Mark Stenson