Joseph - Reflections (6)

 

 

“The king sent and released him, the ruler of peoples, and set him free. He made him lord of his house and ruler over all his possessions, to imprison his princes at will, that he might teach his elders wisdom” (Psalm 105:20 – 22).

 

2 Corinthians, 1 Peter, and Revelation are three New Testament letters that especially focus on suffering for Christ and others. As Peter moves to his conclusion he writes:

 

“But resist him [the devil], firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world. After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you” (1 Pt. 5:9 – 10).

 

Paul writes that we suffer with Christ, “so that we may also be glorified with Him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us” (Rom. 8:17 – 18).

 

As an element of Joseph’s exaltation was to rule in judgment, so does Christ Jesus in His exaltation judge the world; Joseph is a picture of Christ. As members of the Body of Christ we participate with Christ in judging the world.

 

“Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? …  Do you not know that we will judge angels?” (1 Cor. 6:2 – 3).

 

God’s People, the Church, the Israel of God is to have, “The high praises of God in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand, to execute vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples, to bind their kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron, to execute on them the judgment written; this is an honor for all His godly ones. Hallelujah!” (Psalm 149:6 – 9).

 

Jesus says, “He who overcomes, and he who keeps My deeds until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations; and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of the potter are broken to pieces, as I also have received authority from My Father” (Rev. 2:26 – 27; see also Psalm 2:8).

 

Whatever all of this means, it is beyond me. Whenever that Day comes in which these things are fulfilled, I will look to Jesus and brothers and sisters far greater than I am to teach me the Way I should go. There may be a measure of this happening today, there may have always been a measure of this throughout history, for certainly God gives words of judgment to His saints to speak into the world. Sometimes these words are public, sometimes private. Sometimes people claim to speak God’s Word of judgment, but rather than it being a Word from God it is a word of their own imagination, a word of their own emotional and mental confusion. Let us remember that all of God’s Word is Christocentric.

 

My sense is that it is generally presumptuous to declare God’s specific purposes in world events, the reasons for disasters – man made or otherwise. We may discern our sin and foolishness, we may see (to one degree or another) things in the realm of the Spirit, we may have insight granted to us as individuals or groups to help us through seasons of life; but I think until our exaltation in Christ is fulfilled that we continue to “see through a glass darkly.”

 

I think that when we have a sense of judgment or warning, that more times than not it is for our own instruction and for those immediately around us. When we hear grand pronouncements, sweeping in scope, from Christian “leaders,” they are typically an embarrassment to those with eyes to see and ears to hear, flowing from speculation.

 

This is not to say that we don’t need prophetic messages calling us back to the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ – and perhaps herein we may find the validation of true prophetic messages, that which points us to Jesus Christ and His Cross is likely to be valid, that which does not is to be suspect. Messages of judgment ought to come from broken hearts, Jesus lamented over Jerusalem, as did Jeremiah, Abraham interceded for Sodom and Gomorrah, Moses pleaded with God to judge him rather than blot out Israel, Daniel bore the sins of his people in intercessory prayer. Haughtiness and pride have no place in a message of judgment.

 

I touch on this image of judgment because it is in our text, “to imprison his princes at will,” but let’s note that the story of Jospeh in Genesis provides no example of Jospeh disciplining the princes of Egypt. This isn’t to say that Joseph didn’t do this, but it is to say that the Biblical narrative focuses on other things.

 

We will pick this back up in our next reflection in this series, the Lord willing.

 

The Missing Persons of Noah's Ark

 

 

Have you ever been saved from doing or saying something stupid? Have you ever stopped yourself from doing something really dumb?

 

“Where are the people with Noah’s Ark?” I asked.

 

“I don’t know,” Vickie replied.

 

We both looked through the room in which the Ark was displayed but could not find the wooden figures of Noah, his family, and the two-by-two set of animals. We had seen the two small daughters of our friends playing with the figurines, where could they have put them?

 

Prior to our friends coming for dinner, Noah and company had been in their usual place, on a shelf outside the Ark in our sunroom; the same place they had occupied for years. Now they were gone.

 

Surely the girls did not take them home with them. Surely not.

 

We looked in the living room, which was adjacent to the sunroom, no Noah.

 

We looked in the office adjacent to the living room, no Noah.

 

We looked in the hallway adjacent to the living room,  no animals.

 

We looked in the bedroom off the hallway, no figurines.

 

We looked all over the sunroom again, we looked in cabinets, pulled drawers open, looked under furniture – no Noah, no Mrs. Noah, no two-by-two animals.

 

What to do?

 

Should we call our friends and ask them to ask their girls if they know where Noah and the animals are?

 

Surely not.

 

What to do?

 

Have you ever been saved from doing or saying something stupid? Have you ever stopped yourself from doing something really dumb?

 

We knew that calling our friends would not be the best thing to do.

 

When you are accustomed to seeing something in a certain place and then it’s gone, it can feel strange – the place is suddenly empty. The Ark looked isolated, alone, abandoned. No Noah, no Mrs. Noah, no animals standing two-by-two. No elephants, no giraffes, no cows, no hippos.

 

“If they don’t turn up, maybe we can find replacements,” I said.

 

I am, as many of you know, not the brightest. Sometimes it takes a while for me to catch on, and when I do catch on it isn’t so much that I’ve figured it out, but rather the result of perseverance, of turning all the pieces of the puzzle over and trying each one to see what fits.

 

An hour or two after our search for the missing people a thought mercifully came to me, an impulse more than a thought. I went into the sunroom and over to the Ark. I lifted the roof of the Ark and looked inside…and there were the missing persons with their animals.

 

When the girls had finished playing with the figurines, they put them where they belonged – not outside the Ark, but inside it.

 

What might we learn from this?

 

For sure this is a reminder of how children can teach us if we will only pay attention to them. They can convict us, challenge us, encourage us, and call us back to the simplicity, awe, and wonder that God created us to enjoy. Chesterton wrote that all he really needed to know, he learned in the nursery – as a child. Right and wrong, good and evil, grandeur, the numinous, love and kindness, our high calling, joy, love. 

The world of adults educates the image of God out of us, it is an olive press – crushing the life out of us, forming us into the image of things, power, pleasure, making idolaters of us – whether we are “Christian” or non-Christian.

 

Finding Noah within the Ark is also a reminder that “we have died and our lives are hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3). We belong to Jesus and we live in Him, we can’t really see who we are, not really. On the one hand we couldn’t stand to see sin and our hearts outside of Christ as they truly are, on the other hand the glory which God has placed within us in Christ is reserved for the fulness of eternity – when all things are made new; this is a glory that will take our breath away. 

As Lewis wrote, if we could see the true nature of the person beside us, we would be tempted to fall down and worship the person as a god – so great is the glory which our Father has placed within us in Christ.

 

Why do we treat each other so poorly?

 

If we wouldn’t (let us hope) desecrate Leonardo’s Mona Lisa or Michelangelo’s David, why do we desecrate the image of God both in ourselves and in others?

 

Another thing we can learn is hiding in plain sight, do you see it?

 

People belong in the Ark, but we can be so accustomed to seeing them outside the Ark that we think nothing of it, in fact, we expect to see them outside the Ark.  Whether our family, our neighbors, our coworkers, fellow students, partners in civic endeavors; we can become so used to seeing them outside the Ark that we think nothing of it.

 

Jesus commands us to “make disciples.” This goes beyond talking about church, it goes beyond sharing our thoughts about right and wrong, it is far beyond mentioning God now and then, and it even goes beyond talking about Jesus…as vital as that is. To make disciples requires engagement, commitment, and service.

 

To make disciples requires that we bring people into the Ark; the door must be open, the welcome ramp must be extended, and we must both invite and guide. Our Father is the God of hospitality and we ought to be the most hospitable people on earth. Our destiny is the Marriage Supper of the Lamb – let there be no empty places at the Table.

 

There was once a highly successful family-owned regional grocery store chain based in Richmond, VA named Ukrops. Ukrops was a national leader in terms of market share in their highly competitive industry. Eventually the family sold the business to a large company that assimilated it into their multi-state grocery business. 

The new corporate owner promptly destroyed the level of service and profitability of the stores it purchased; it was a textbook example of how to take the best and make it the worst. For those of us who enjoyed the Ukrops experience, it was disgusting. The new owners so damaged their reputation in Richmond that they had to either close or sell the stores and leave the market.

 

If you were in a Ukrops store and asked an employee where you could find an item, the employee would not tell you where the item was, he would not give you directions to the item, instead he or she would escort you to the item, even if it was on the other side of the store. That was but one difference between Ukrops and its competitors – personal service, personal touch, personal care.

 

We invite and guide by serving and loving, by asking and listening and praying, by affirming our Father’s love and care and His desire for deep relationship, by being the Presence of Jesus Christ, by portraying hope. We encourage others to shop for healthy foods, not food with additives of sin and spiritual and moral poison in them. 

We point out the difference between food and drink which nourish, and that which deadens the senses and makes us less than who our Father created us to be. We do not lead people into a diet with cancer-causing agents, but rather to eat the Bread of Life which is Jesus Christ.

 

Are there people in my life outside the Ark? Have I grown so used to seeing them outside the Ark that I no longer think about them as being outside rather than inside? Does it no longer bother me that should (or when!) the Flood come that they will perish?

 

What about you?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Confrontation in Nazareth (10)

 

“He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read” (Luke 4:16).

 

I asked, in closing the previous reflection, “Are we one with the Word of God, and is the Word of God one with us?”

 

This is a process, it is an “already – not yet” proposition, an experience that ought to be ever unfolding. We enter the Book and the Book enters us; we become one with the Word and the Word becomes one with us. This is an element of the continuing Incarnation of Jesus Christ, the Word which was in the Beginning is the Word which is in our new Beginning – it is the imperishable Seed through which we are born again, the Seed which is “living and enduring” (1 Peter 1:23). As we “receive the Word implanted,” our souls are saved (James 1:21).

 

“In the Beginning was the Word” (John 1:1).

 

“In the Beginning God created” (Genesis 1:1).

 

“All things came into being through Him” (John 1:3; see also Colossians 1:15 – 17).

 

“The Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God” (Rev. 3:14).

 

When we read the word “beginning” in Genesis 1:1, John 1:1, and elsewhere, we typically think of a chronological beginning, of the first point on a timeline. While this is a facet of the word “beginning,” there is more to the vision than a timeline, much more. The Beginning is a Person, that Person is the Son of God, who we often term the Second Person of the Trinity, not “second” in terms of rank, but second in a referential sense, so that we can distinguish One from another in that mystery in which there is One in Three and Three in One.

 

This is along the same line as seeing that God, who was All, is becoming All in all (1 Cor. 15:28). (I do not use the term “becoming” to suggest a change of Being, but rather to indicate His unfolding Presence and expression – a mystery! The Grain which has fallen into the ground and died is coming forth in much fruit – John 12:24.)

 

As we know Jesus Christ as our Author and Finisher, as our Beginning and our End, as our First and our Last, as our Alpha and our Omega; we see ourselves in Genesis through Revelation. We see ourselves in Creation and in Consummation. Therefore Paul writes, “God, who said, ‘Light shall shine out of darkness,’ is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6).

 

Genesis speaks to us of Christ, it speaks to us of our salvation in Christ, and while we may see physical creation in Genesis, this is of little benefit if we do not experience Genesis in our own lives. Are we new creations in Christ Jesus? Has God said, “Let there be Light” in my own life?

 

Has the ark of Noah become the Ark of Christ to me? I may believe that there was such a thing as Noah’s ark, I may believe there was a flood, I may go visit a replica of the ark, but this all does me little good if I do not see that Jesus Christ is my Ark and that I must enter into Him. Telling others about Noah’s ark is of little value to them if I am not telling them that Jesus is our true Ark, if I am not imploring them to enter into Him.

 

Do I see myself in Christ in Genesis? In Revelation? In Isaiah?

 

When Jesus stood up to read in the synagogue, He saw Himself in Isaiah Chapter 61.

 

When we stand up to read we ought to see Christ in what we read, and we ought to see ourselves in Christ in what we read. When we see ourselves, we ought to see ourselves as individuals and also see ourselves as the People of God. I see myself and I see “us.” I speak to myself and I speak to us.

 

Therefore, when we read, we read the story of Christ, and in reading the story of Christ we read the story of Jesus Christ the Head, the story of the Body of Christ, and the story of the members of that Body…which means I am reading my story, you are reading your story, we are reading our story.

 

And this in turn means that when we stand up to read, that we are not reading an unfamiliar account of something that happened somewhere else, in another time and place, to other people; but rather are reading that which belongs to us and to which we belong.

 

For sure what we read has its expression in history – of course it does. But that expression in history has its roots in eternity past and it continues its manifestation with us as it reaches forward into eternity future. The heavenly patterns flowing from the Throne Room flow through the ages and ascend upward back into the Throne which is in that City whose Builder and Maker is God. “From Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Hm be the glory forever. Amen” (Romans 11:36).

 

When we stand to read from the Book, we are standing to read from our Book. This is not a foreign document from which we are reading, this is our very own Book given by our Father to His sons and daughters. He has given us His very Spirit so that we might understand the Book, understand our heritage and our life in Him (John 16:12 – 15; 1 Corinthians Chapter 2). He has given us the Book, our Book, so that we can partake of His Divine Nature (2 Peter 1:4).

 

In the Book, the living Book, is Jesus Christ the Word; in Jesus Christ the Word is the Book.

 

In the Book is your story, is my story, is our story.

 

How foolish we are when we allow ourselves to be brainwashed into thinking that we can find our story in politics, in economics, in entertainment, in materialism, in nationalism, in sports, in pleasure, in fame, in ever-shifting values…how foolish to trade our love and glory in our Father for garbage (Phil. 3:8).

 

I am puzzled when people stand to read before congregations and it is as if they are reading a foreign document, pages with which they are unfamiliar. If they were reading a proclamation bestowing one million dollars on each hearer what would their posture be like? How would their voice sound? What would be the facial expression?

 

Do you think it would matter if they couldn’t pronounce unfamiliar names?

 

Do you think there might be excited anticipation?

 

Might there actually be a sense that Good News was being read and proclaimed?

 

O dear friends, this is indeed your story in Christ, from Genesis to Revelation…so much so that when you stand and are handed the scroll and open the Book that you can find your place within it. You can read it and say, “Today, this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

 

I’ll close with this…

 

I often read the Bible in bed, or on the sofa before taking a nap (old people get to take naps!). As I fall asleep, I am holding my Bible. I love holding my Bible as I doze off, I love having it in my hand, close to my body. I want to hold the Bible close to me, as the Bible holds me close to Christ.

 

O dear friends, let the Book of Christ become your Book too.

The Cat in the Box - Part II

 

As Time Goes By

 

               Looking back, time really did move quickly. The first photo I took with my phone is dated November, and Lady’s Jane’s big transition didn’t occur until August, but it seems like everything happened so fast. Yet, time also moved slowly. The slow time was critical for the fast time; there would have been no fast time without the slow time. Isn’t it like this with much of life?

               A couple is building a home across the street from us. It seemed as if it would take forever for the land to be cleared, the lot to be graded, the footing to be poured, the water and sewer lines installed, the slab to be poured, and the foundation to be completed. However, once all of this happened things moved quickly (at least for a while!).

               When we had a vegetable garden I knew the cycles of soil preparation, seed and seedling planting, watering and feeding, weeding, training plants up to grow, protection from critters and insects and disease, and eventually harvest. Often when harvest arrived it came in bunches, quickly, demanding to be picked and processed and enjoyed and given away. In vegetable gardening we have s-l-o-w times so that we can enjoy fast times.

               The slow time with Lady Jane, November through July, consisted of taking time with her, mostly on our rear deck. This included making sure water was available for her, providing food, sitting on the deck and talking to her, being patient as she came nearer and nearer to us as time passed. We began opening the back door of our home to her to give her the option of coming inside to explore.

               Princess was a help during all this because Princess liked us and not only came up to us for pets and to give us affection, but she was also curious about the open door and eventually made some expeditions inside to explore the new terrain. Lady Jane observed all this.

               As the weather grew warmer Lady Jane went from sleeping in her condo to on a deck chair just outside the door. I’d look for her first thing in the morning and be relieved when I saw her and anxious when I didn’t. When I didn’t see her, I’d call for her, sometimes she’d come and sometimes she wouldn’t. Princess/Duchess would always come. Sometimes it might be 30 minutes or more before Lady Jane showed up. Occasionally it might be an hour or more.

               I know what you’re thinking. “She’s an outdoor cat, what do you expect?”

               Fair enough, but she was capturing our hearts.

 

The BIG Decision

 

               On the night of August 1, we had a terrible storm, lightning, thunder, sheets of rain, wind. A bolt of lightning struck a 100-foot-tall pine tree 15 feet from our home and shook our house and those of our neighbors. Where was Lady Jane though all of this? Was she safe? She must be frightened. We’d open the door and call for her, but no Lady Jane.

               The next morning I called and called for her, I walked around our house multiple times…no cat. I walked around the neighborhood, praying, hoping, looking, worrying. No Lady Jane.

               Then, as I returned home and walked up on the back deck I saw her on the other side of the deck, but she wouldn’t approach me. She looked at me, but as I called her in a soft voice and went toward her, she moved away. I brought some food out in a bowl and left it on the deck and went back inside.

               As the day wore on we were finally able to go outside without her running away.

               At this point we decided to try to get her to spend nights inside, we’d try to make an indoor-outdoor cat out of her.

               Within the next week we were able to get her to come inside in the evening, which led to a test of wills – would we let her out on her schedule or ours? Some mornings she was let out earlier than others, 3:00 AM, 4:00 AM, 5:00 AM. It depended on how much noise she made by pawing at the venetian blinds and the door sill. Even though we raised the blinds, she kept finding ways to make noise. She doesn’t have a loud voice, so that wasn’t much of a factor, but she was persistent in behavior which yelled, “Let me out now!”

               In the evenings sometimes she’d come inside of her own accord, other times we’d pick her up and bring her inside.

               One evening she didn’t show up on the deck to come in. She’d been around during the day and things seemed normal, but as evening came there was no Lady Jane. During the night I’d get out of bed and go to the deck to look for her, calling for her; no Lady Jane.

               With sunrise I was outside, walking around the house, sitting on the deck, calling for her, watching and waiting and…yes…praying.

               Finally she appeared. Tentatively she climbed the stairs to the deck, warily she approached me. She had a scratch next to an eye and looked exhausted; she had little energy. I picked her up and brought her inside. We fed her and she slept for hours.

               That was the last night that Lady Jane spent outdoors. In fact, it was the last time that Lady Jane was outdoors. That was when we made the Big Decision to keep her inside, explaining to her that from now on she was an indoor cat. We couldn’t take the risk of anymore injuries…we loved her.

               The Cat in the Box had become the Cat in our Hearts.

 

Joseph – Reflections (5)

 

 

“And He called for a famine upon the land; He broke the whole staff of bead. He sent a man before them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave. They afflicted his feet with fetters, he himself [his soul] was laid in irons; until the time that his word came to pass, the word of the LORD tested him” (Psalm 105:16 – 19).

 

There are seasons of life in which our soul is “laid in irons.” During this time the Word of God tests us in at least two ways. The first way is our vision, our dream, our calling in God’s Word is tested and purified. The second is that there is a purifying of our souls by the Word (Heb. 4:12 – 13).

 

Jospeh’s dreams were tested while in captivity. Were the dreams from God, or were they the result of eating bad mushrooms? Could God bring His Word to Joseph to pass? Would God bring His Word to pass? In spite of appearances, was God going to fulfill His Word?

 

On the road to Damascus Jesus gave Paul an expansive Word that was Messianic in nature, telling Paul that he was being sent to the nations “To open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me” (Acts 26:18).

 

This Word was tired many times in Paul’s life (2 Cor. 6:1 – 10; 11:23 – 33; 1 Cor. 4:9 – 13). Perhaps at no time to the extent as when he and his coworkers “despaired of life” (2 Cor. 1:3 -9).  

 

When God gives us His Word, He will likely try that Word within us, and in testing that Word He will test our hearts and minds, thereby transforming us into the image of Jesus Christ.

 

“The words of the LORD are pure words; as silver tried in a furnace on the earth, refined seven times” (Psalm 12:6).

 

Are we not the furnace on earth, both individually and collectively?

 

There is a reason the Word of the LORD is often portrayed as a burden in prophetic writings. It is a burden in that we must carry its import and message. It is a burden in that we have no choice but to fulfill it, to be a steward of it. It is a burden in that it tries our minds and hearts and souls, it affects every fiber of our being. The Word of the LORD will bring a man or woman to the end of himself or herself. The Word of God will wring every ounce of ego and self-generated strength out of a person. The Word of God will make a person the prisoner of the call of God, the message of God, a debtor to all men.

 

“I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish” (Rom. 1:14).

“For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion; for woe is me if I do not preach the gospel” (1 Cor. 9:16).

 

So called Christian leaders who act as if they are God’s entrepreneurs, who appear to be operating motivational enterprises and selling franchise opportunities, who are selling experiences – are not faithful stewards of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Gospel brings us to the end of ourselves, we take up our cross and follow Jesus (Mark 8:34 – 38), we live for others and not for ourselves, and we submit to the Word of God through the Holy Spirit.

 

Faithful stewards of the Gospel are well aware of what they are calling people to in the name of Jesus Christ, as Bonhoeffer writes, “When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die.” How cruel to substitute cotton candy for the Cross of Christ.

 

Faithful stewards also know that the call to the Cross is the call to treasures beyond comprehension, it is a call to the glory of God, to the New Jerusalem, to eternity with Living Water and the Tree of Life – to fellowship beyond what we can imagine.

 

As God’s Word works within us, it is not unusual for us to gravitate toward a particular facet (or facets) of that Word in different seasons of life – all centered in Christ and flowing from Christ and portraying Jesus Christ. After all, we are on a lifelong pilgrimage.

 

We may be focused on Isaiah, or Haggai, or 1 Corinthians, or the Gospel of Luke…often we are challenged by a combination of elements of Scripture – but whatever the case, Jesus Christ is the center, the beginning, and the end.

 

During these seasons the Word will test our hearts and minds, our souls may be in challenging places, we may face severe opposition – all so that we are transformed into the image of Jesus and in order that others may have the life of Christ.

 

Just as Jospeh, we may not understand why we are facing such things. In fact, our circumstances may appear to contradict our vision of the Word. When Joesph was betrayed by his brothers do you think he thought, “Great, God’s Word is being fulfilled!”? When Potiphar put Jospeh in prison, do you think Jospeh shouted, “This is wonderful. God is fulfilling the dream I had, the Word I saw!”?

 

What did the disciples think as Jesus was betrayed and crucified? Were they rejoicing that God was fulfilling His promise of a Messiah?

 

It is not unusual for us to have seasons when our “souls are laid in irons.” Such times are when the Cross does its work, they are times when the Word of God tries us, times when the heat is turned up in our very own “furnace of earth.” In such times we do not want to medicate ourselves out of God’s work within us, we do not want to avoid the Cross – instead we want to know Jesus in the power of His resurrection and the koinonia of His sufferings, being conformed to His death (Phil. 3:10).

 

Before Joseph could be exalted, his soul first had to be laid in irons. Before resurrection, there is crucifixion and death.

 

How has your Father taught you in difficult times?

 

How is He teaching you?

 

“I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18; see also 1 Peter 1:3 – 9).

 

The Cat in the Box - Part I

 

The Cat in the Box

 

Robert L. Withers, 2026

 

The Beginning

 

               The wind blew the box off the deck and onto the patio. Was the cat inside? Is she okay?

               When we lost our Border Collie Lily after 15 ½ years we didn’t think we’d get another dog, the pain was just too much and we were getting older, truly older. There was, however, Princess, our neighbor’s cat. When Lily was still with us Princess, a tabby, would visit on our back deck from time to time, she and Lily ignored each other. After Lily was gone we saw more of Princess.

               We decided to bestow a new name on Princess. When Princess was on Pete and Lisa’s property, she would be Princess, when she crossed onto our property we would call her Duchess. We took a photo of Duchess and sent it to Pete and Lisa, telling them that we had a new cat named Duchess.

Pete said to Lisa, “It looks like Princess.”

Lisa replied, “It is Princess.”

You can’t fool a momma!

As winter approached we were concerned about Duchess having a warm place to sleep. Princess is an outdoor cat and not keen on coming inside, whether in the cold (she is from New York) or even during storms. Since Pete and Lisa have two rambunctious young dogs, Princess doesn’t find peace and quiet in their home even when she wants to be inside.

We decided to purchase Duchess a heated kitty condo (we do not call it a cathouse).

Duchess immediately took to her new digs. She would come over in the evening to spend the night and sleep as long as she wanted in the morning.

About the time Duchess took possession of her new condo, we began feeding her. Not long after our food service was established a rather small calico began to appear. She wasn’t as small as a kitten, but she was much smaller than Princess. Naturally we expanded our food service to accommodate the calico.

What to call her?

We wanted something that was in line with Princess and Duchess and settled on Lady Jane.

As cold weather set in, we worried about Lady Jane. Since we didn’t know if Lady Jane would move on from us, we took a sturdy cardboard box, lined it with a soft blanket, placed it in proximity to Duchess’s condo, and waited to see what would happen.

Lady Jane moved in on the first day.

During wet weather I covered the outside of the box with tarps.

In spite of our hospitality, Lady Jane did not want us near her and certainly didn’t want us touching her. She trusted our food, she trusted our box, but she did not trust us.

Then one day we had a storm with strong winds and before we knew it, despite our efforts to secure her box, Lady Jane’s box blew off the deck and five steps down onto the patio. What a ride that must have been!

I went outside, looked down the stairs, and Lady Jane was outside her box with a puzzled look, as if to ask, “What am I doing down here?”

Well, this would not do, especially as it was getting progressively colder and the box was not heated. We purchased another heated kitty cottage!

Would she make the switch?

She inspected the outside of the cottage, smelled all around it, but she would not venture inside.

Our kitty condos have transparent plastic flaps at their entrances. This was not a problem for Duchess, but it was for Lady Jane; she was not going to push her way through the flap to get inside.  (In case you’re wondering, they also have back doors that only push outward just in case kitty needs to make an emergency exit.)

Once we saw the problem, we employed the handy man’s secret weapon and used duct tape to keep the flap open. The result was immediate occupancy by the calico.

Within a few weeks Lady Jane had gone from living in bushes and woods in the neighborhood, to inside a cardboard box, to enjoying the heat and protection of a kitty cottage. She had progressed from having to hunt for her food, and scrounge scraps from patios and decks, to having two personal chefs cater to her. She now had a sister of sorts, Princess, who also invited her to meals at Pete and Lisa’s. While the two cats had their occasional spats, they were comfortable around each other and looked for each another.

An element of Lady Jane’s behavior was constantly looking around when eating. I suppose she learned that she needed to beware of cats and other animals who were after her food. There was less and less of this behavior when Duchess was around.

 

Confrontation in Nazareth (9)

 

 

“And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book and found the place where it was written, “The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the favorable year of the LORD” (Luke 4:17 – 19).

 

Could the attendant have given Jesus any Old Testament book? I suppose in one sense he could have, but in the cycle of synagogue readings, for this time and this place it must be Isaiah. In the Divine appointments of our Father, it could only have been Isaiah.

 

John the Baptist has already been preaching Isaiah. In fact, John has been quoting Isaiah 40:3 – 5 and declaring himself the fulfillment of that Word of God (Luke 3:1 – 6).

 

Why is it that John can quote Isaiah and declare himself its fulfillment without apparent persecution, yet when Jesus quotes Isaiah and proclaims that He is the fulfillment of the passage that the people of His hometown synagogue try to murder Him?

 

Jesus “opened the book,” or we might better say, “He opened the scroll.”

 

Jesus begins His public ministry in Nazareth by opening the book. This is the ministry of Jesus Christ, the ministry of opening the Book, the Book of God’s Word, the Book of Creation (both heaven and earth) the Book of God’s holistic and total and complete Revelation. God’s Book is an integrated whole (see Psalm 19), a whole that includes not only what is outside us, but also inside us (see Psalm 139; John 4:29; Heb. 4:12 – 13).

 

In Jesus Christ, the Son, “the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth…No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has made Him known” (John 1:14, 18).

 

In opening the book, Jesus is revealing God, He is expressing God, Jesus is unveiling God. When we open the Book, we ought to be doing the same, for even as the Father sent Jesus, so Jesus sends us (John 17:18; 20:21).

 

When the Book is “open” to us, we will see Jesus, when the book is closed to us, no matter how much information and data we may have about the Book, we will not see Jesus (John 5:39 – 40; 2 Cor. 3:4 – 18). It is possible to have a “high view” of Scripture, and yet not see Jesus; the scribes and Pharisees certainly had such a view; let us not be so foolish as to think that we cannot fall into that same trap.

 

For the Book to be open to us, we must be open to the Book. Jesus and the Holy Spirit must open us to the Book and open the Book to us (Luke 24:45; 1 Cor. Chapter 2).

 

For many, God’s Word always was or always will be, it is always in the future or in the past, but it is never today.  Yet Jesus, the Word, is the I AM. “I AM the Bread of Life. I AM the Resurrection. I AM the Light of the Word.”

 

In Christ Jesus, the Word of God is for us today.

 

“For the Son of God, Christ Jesus, who was preached among you by us – by me and Silvanus and Timothy – was not yes and no, but is yes in Him. For as many as are the promises of God, in Him they are yes; therefore also through Him is our Amen to the glory of God through us” (2 Cor. 1:19 – 20).

 

Do we have the courage to read the Book out loud and proclaim, “This is for us now, this is for today”?

 

If it is for us today, then we must live in its reality, we must submit to the Book and allow the Book to transform us. We cannot hide in the past, we cannot hide in the future; for sure we can be grounded in ages past and our hope can be anchored in ages that are unfolding – for we most assuredly live in the “already – not yet.” Living in the I AM means that all is in Him, that all is now, that eternity is now, that we live in the “communion of saints” (Heb. 12:2; 22 – 24).

 

But most of us live and speak in either the past tense or the future tense. God and His Word either “was” or “will be.”

 

If we attend a gathering of Christians during the coming week, and a book of the Bible is given to us to read aloud, will we find “a place where it is written,” read it, and say, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing”?

 

Are we one with the Word of God, and is the Word of God one with us?

Joseph – Reflections (4) Redemptive Suffering

 

 

“And He called for a famine upon the land; He broke the whole staff of bead. He sent a man before them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave. They afflicted his feet with fetters, he himself [his soul] was laid in irons; until the time that his word came to pass, the word of the LORD tested him” (Psalm 105:16 – 19).

 

“He sent a man before them.” God has a funny way of sending, does He not?

 

Suppose you and I were observers of Joseph and his brothers in Canaan. Suppose we saw the brothers plotting against Joseph, suppose we saw them throw Joseph into the pit and then sell him into slavery.  What would our thoughts have been?

 

Suppose we saw Joseph gain favor with Potiphar, only to be thrown into prison.

 

At any time during our observations, would you have said to me, or would I have said to you, “God is sending Joseph ahead of his family so that his family might be saved”? Would we have seen the redemptive hand of God in the betrayal of Jospeh and in his sufferings?

 

During the betrayal, trial, and crucifixion of Jesus Christ, would we have said, “God is sending Jesus ahead of us so that we might be saved and become the sons and daughters of the Living God”?

 

Suppose Joseph had become bitter? Suppose a seed of hatred had been planted in Joseph, suppose that hatred grew and became Joseph’s very nature?

 

The Scriptures teach us that we are to share in the sufferings of Christ for others (1 Peter 4:13; Phil. 3:10; Col. 1:24; 2 Cor. 1:6; 4:12). They also teach us that when we suffer that we are to commit ourselves to God:

 

“For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth; and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously” (1 Peter 2:21 – 23).

 

“Therefore, those also who suffer according to the will of God shall entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right” (1 Peter 4:19).

 

We simply cannot rely on appearances in discerning the will of God, in understanding why certain things happen…or why they don’t happen. As with Joseph, as with Jesus, what appears to be evil (and indeed is evil) is not the entire story, for God’s purposes are worked through unspeakable evil, through heartache and suffering; without us seeing the entire picture, perhaps without us getting even a glimpse of the picture in this life.

 

What we do know is that we can trust our heavenly Father, our faithful Creator, our dear Lord Jesus who has suffered more than we will ever experience. What we do know is that suffering, in Christ, is redemptive – we know this, but we cannot understand this, and so we must trust, we must surrender ourselves into the arms of God.

 

I am afraid that our American brand of Christianity is opposed to the Cross and suffering, we teach our congregations how to be successful and affluent, we insulate ourselves from the suffering of those around us – in our own country and beyond. Yes, yes, there are exceptions to this, but they are exceptions.

 

We seek to tame the Cross, rather than allowing the Cross to work its Way of Life within us. We force the Cross to submit to us, rather than submitting to the Cross of Christ.

 

The One whom we are called to follow, is the One of whom it is written:

 

“He will not quarrel, nor cry out; nor will anyone hear His voice in the streets. A battered reed He will not break off, and a smoldering wick He will not put out, until He leads justice to victory. And in His name the nations will hope” (Matthew 12:19 – 21).

 

Is this the testimony of the professing church in our nation?

 

What is our response to difficulty, to suffering? Do we offer these things to God? Do we submit ourselves to our Lord Jesus in the midst of difficulties and pain and suffering and distress? Do we ask Him to form us into His image? Do we plead with Him to use our suffering for the blessing of others?

 

Do we consider that just as God sent Joseph before others for their deliverance, that God may be sending us before others for their blessing and deliverance?

 

We can’t possibly see all of these things in our own lives, but we can trust our Father and Lord Jesus in all of these things. As Paul writes, “In all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us” (Rom. 8:37).

 

“For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake” (Phil. 1:29).

 

Do we see that this is our calling? Is it possible that we are so shackled with pleasure and self-indulgence that we no longer have eyes to see and ears to hear what the Holy Spirit is saying?

 

The calling of Joseph is our calling. The calling of Jesus is our calling.

 

We will all have opportunities, I think, to be sent by God ahead of others for their salvation and blessing. We may all be thrown into a pit. We may all be considered dead by others. We may all be sold into slavery. We may all know types of prisons.

 

Whatever our pilgrimage may be, whatever the vicissitudes of life may bring us as we live in Christ, we can be certain that a Day of Ascension awaits us, exaltation in Christ to the right hand of the Father – for this life is but a portal through which we enter that Great Life to come – yes, an important and critical portal to be sure…

 

“He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne” (Rev. 3:21).

 

What in your life might you offer up to God right now?

 

How might God be using you to prepare a place of deliverance and safety for others?

 

Confrontation in Nazareth (8)

 

 

“And He was teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all” (Luke 4:15).

 

Why did Jesus return to Nazareth when He was being so well received by the rest of Galilee? Having returned, why did He choose a passage and an interpretation of that passage that was certain to elicit backlash? Having returned, why didn’t Jesus modify His message?

 

Why didn’t Jesus simply build on (what we would term) His momentum and bypass Nazareth, at least for the moment?

 

We can ask a similar question when we consider Mark 1:35 – 38 (also at the beginning of His ministry). In this instance “everyone was looking for Jesus” but Jesus replies, “Let us go somewhere else…for that is what I came for.” Again, why didn’t Jesus remain in Capernaum and build on His momentum?

 

Jesus obviously was not reading church growth literature, nor was He reading the latest in leadership material, nor was He aware of how important financial support was and growing a budget, nor did He understand the importance of securing a solid homebase of operations. Nor was Jesus aware of how important it is to win your audience over to you.

 

Having shocked the congregation with Isaiah 61, why push them over the edge by bringing into His message the widow of Zarephath and Naaman the Syrian?

 

The only response I have to these questions is: Man builds on success; God builds on obedience.

 

“Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner” (John 5:18 – 19).

 

Perhaps we should recall Paul’s words to the Galatians, “For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ” (Galatians 1:10).

 

“As was His custom” (Luke 4:16)

 

Throughout His ministry Jesus visited synagogues and the Temple in Jerusalem, visits which resulted in clashes between the Spirit and the flesh, grace and the Law, man’s tradition and God’s Word, the self-righteousness of man and the holy righteousness of God. In the passage before us, the congregation attempted to murder Him. In Mark 3:1 – 6 (again, early in His ministry), healing in a synagogue resulted in the Pharisees and Herodians plotting how to murder Him.

 

Jesus’ visits to Judea and Jerusalem entailed the risk of death (John 5:16; 7:32; 8:59; 10:31; 11:53, 80), and of course finally led to His betrayal and crucifixion – as well as His resurrection!

 

Jesus may have entered the synagogue in Nazareth as was His custom, but He did not enter that synagogue, nor any synagogue, to do what was customary. The same is true for His visits to the Temple in Jerusalem.

 

I suppose we could say that Jesus was not very well behaved in that He did not conform to the old wineskins, but rather spoke the Word of His Father; comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable.

 

As we ponder these things, perhaps we ought not to be too hard on the synagogue folks, after all, how do we respond when Jesus comes into the synagogue of our own heart to speak the Word of His Father? When I read of Jesus cleansing the Tempe, both in John 2:13 (at the beginning of His ministry) and in Matthew 21:12 (at the conclusion of His earthly ministry), I picture Him in the temple of my soul, my heart, my mind…casting out those things which ought not to be there, overturning the tables in my own life.

 

What is my response to Jesus when He comes into my temple? Do I submit to Him or do I try to kill Him? Jesus begins in me with cleansing, He continues in me with cleansing, and now, toward the conclusion of my pilgrimage, He continues to cleanse, to overturn tables – to get my attention.

 

I suppose I could say that the Lord Jesus continues to interrupt my “order of service.” How impolite, yet how merciful.

 

Malachi writes, “The Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple.” We see this in the Gospels, we see this on the Day of Pentecost, and we see this in our own lives (if we will receive Him) and (more rarely perhaps) in the lives of our congregations.

 

What book of Scripture is Jesus opening today in our temple? What is He saying in our individual lives, our marriages, our families, our congregations? We can be pretty certain that whatever Jesus is saying will challenge our customs, our ways of doing things – because you just can’t put new wine into new wineskins (Matthew 9:17).

 

We can also trust that He will be teaching us from things “both old and new” (Matthew 13:52).

 

And may I add, that Jesus is patient with us – while He is impatient with evil and unrighteousness and oppression – He is patient with us, He has come that we might have life and have it abundantly. We see His patience with Peter, not just in the Gospels, but also in Acts and in Galatians (Chapter Two). This gives me hope…great hope for myself in Christ.

 

I hope I am not presuming to much when I suggest that when Jesus overturns the furniture in our temples, that He will dispose of the mess and bring the glorious furniture of the Holy Temple into our hearts, that He will furnish us with the Presence of the Trinity, with the Bread and the Light and the Altar and Oil and Living Water…O my…who can understand these things. Well, we may not understand them, but in Jesus we can most certainly experience them.

 

Most importantly, we can trust Jesus to teach us how to love God with all that we have and all that we are, and to lay down our lives for others…it is always about Jesus, always about Him.

 

New Year Prayer

 

NEW YEAR

 

Length of days does not profit me except the days are passed in Thy presence, in Thy service to Thy glory.

 

Give me a grace that precedes, follows, guides, sustains, sanctifies, aids every hour, that I might not be one moment apart from Thee, but may rely on thy Spirit to supply every thought, speak every word, direct every step, prosper every work, build up every mote of faith, and give me a desire to show forth Thy praise, testify Thy love, advance Thy kingdom.

 

I launch my bark on the unknown waters of this year, with Thee, O Father, as my harbor, Thee O Son, at my helm, Thee O Holy Spirit, filling my sails.

 

Guide me to heaven with my loins girt, my lamp burning, my ear open to thy calls, my heart full of love, my soul free.

 

Give me Thy grace to sanctify me, Thy comforts to cheer me, Thy wisdom to teach, Thy right hand to guide, Thy counsel to instruct, Thy law to judge, Thy presence to stabilize.

 

 May Thy fear be my awe, Thy triumphs my joy.

 

The Valley of Vision, pages 206 – 207, Banner of Truth Trust.