Unraveling

My early morning art. Looks like the talent of a two-year-old, right?

Actually, this is how I view my past right now. A big fat wad of yarn. A few identifiable, obvious stands sticking out, but for the most part... An indiscernable mess. My memory is so clouded that I can't really even recall certain events that have shaped me. The thought of healing root issues overwhelms me. How do I even spot the roots?

But God...

God showed me today this is what He will do:

He will bring healing, one piece at a time. He will unravel this mess, one strand at a time. He will make things plain, clear, straight. One at a time. In this I have faith, hope, and peace.

Are you struggling under the weight of something? Something that seems impossible?  Maybe you have no idea where to start to tackle this beast.

It is my prayer that just as God encouraged me today with this visual of how He will unravel my mess, may He encourage you as well. What is impossible for us to do on our own, God can do. One piece at a time, He will show us what we need to see and bring us healing. Resolution. Freedom.

Let us place in His hands our messy, overwhelming things. He will delight to show us His faithfulness and reveal his power over the impossible!

A One Word Gospel

If you had to summarize the entirety of the Bible – God’s love, Jesus’ sacrifice and redemption of all, the hope of eternity – the whole bit, could you do it in one sentence? 

Perhaps John 3:16 is a great one-sentence summary: 

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

How about in only three words? We might come up with words like Grace, Love, and Mercy. Or Hope, Forgiveness, and Heaven. Or Sin, the Cross, and Salvation.

But what if you had to summarize the entire gospel message of God’s love, Jesus’ sacrifice and the hope of heaven in ONE WORD? What would your one word be?

This is where I was floored. The speaker I was listening to offered up one word I did not expect.

With.

That’s right, with. Let me walk you through it. You will see how awesome this is!

Let’s start in the beginning, which is NOT in Genesis but in John chapter 1: verses 1- 3 tell us:

In the beginning was the Word and the Word was WITH God, and the Word was God. He was WITH God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made…

Who or what do you think the Word is that was WITH God before the creation of the Earth? Biblical commentaries and even the study notes in our Bibles confirm that in these verses we see JESUS as fully God – the eternal God who has always existed, the Creator and Sustainer of all things and the Source of eternal life.

In Genesis when God created the heavens and the earth, we need to remember that Jesus was there WITH God "in the beginning", although not yet in his human form. We see this alluded to again when God created Adam on the 6th day,, saying “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness” [Genesis 1:26, my emphasis].

So, bearing that in mind, let’s trace WITH from the beginning of scripture to see if this one word is fitting. We are only hitting highlights…

In the Garden of Eden, God was WITH Adam and Eve, walking and talking among them.

God was WITH Noah after He promised to protect Noah and his family during the terrible flood that washed away every living thing outside of the ark.

God was WITH Abraham when he made the everlasting promise to give him descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky, and a land where they could settle.

God told Moses, “I will be WITH you” when he was to lead the enslaved Israelites out of Egypt.

God was WITH the Israelites in the dessert as He provided manna, quail and water from the rock to sustain them.

The Lord was WITH Joshua and the Israelites as they overtook the land promised to them: 

The Lord himself goes before you and will be WITH you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. [Deuteronomy 31:8]

When Samuel anointed the shepherd boy David King of Israel, the Spirit of the Lord fell on him. From then on, the Lord was WITH David, “a man after God’s own heart”.

Years later the shepherd king pens the words in which we still find comfort today: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are WITH me.” Psalm 23:4

Daniel and his friends experienced the manifest presence of the Lord WITH them as three of them were thrown into a fiery furnace and Daniel into a lion’s den. They each emerged without a single scratch, completely protected by their God.

And in the fullness of time, God took WITH to a whole new level:

After an immaculate conception, the Virgin Mary gave birth to a son named Jesus, also called Immanuel – God WITH us. John 1:14 confirms this: 

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.

For 33 years – Jesus was Immanuel, God WITH us, as he walked among his people on earth. But before he left, he made a promise: “I am WITH you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20)

After the crucifixion and Jesus’ ascension into heaven 40 days later – The Holy Spirit was sent on Pentecost and entered the very souls of those who believed. Now the very Spirit of Jesus and God the Father is WITH anyone who believes in Jesus!

And in the last days, God will send Jesus back to earth, this time to claim his eternal throne. This time to defeat death, sin and Satan a final time. And – he’s coming for us who believe in him.

Soak up the promises of Revelation 21:3-4 and Rev 22:3-4

Now the dwelling of God is WITH men and he will live WITH them. They will be his people and God himself will be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. // No longer will there be any curse…They will see His face and His name will be on their foreheads.

So – do you see WITH throughout the story of the gospel?

Here is an acrostic to help us remember the core message of WITH:

Where 

I am, 

There 

He is

What is WITH supposed to mean to us, anyways? I think it represents intimacy. Relationship. WITH illustrates God’s desire for intimacy and connection with us. And, hopefully, our desire to be WITH God, too.

Togetherness naturally breeds intimacy.

This is Holy week – remember on Friday, "Good Friday", what was really happening when Christ humbled himself by becoming obedient to death on a cross.

Christ had chosen to fully confine his deity to flesh and blood, taking the blows for our sin – yesterday, today and tomorrow. When he died, it was OUR spiritual death he endured.

He underwent the separation from the Heavenly Father that our sin should bring US. We see it when he cried out from the cross in those last moments, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”. Because God is Holy, sin cannot exist in his presence.

And so Jesus was separated from the Father the first time in FOREVER. For US.

Ok, a quick side trip into the Temple in Jerusalem before we tie all of this together…

In the Temple in Jerusalem, there was a massive outer courtyard where all the people could congregate (one area for men and one for women), present their offerings and sacrifices, hear the lessons from the priests and worship. This was as far as they could go into the temple grounds. This was as close to God as they could get.

Within the courtyard was the Holy Place, the first of two enclosed spaces, where priests would burn incense and place the consecrated bread before God. Only the priests were permitted into the Holy Place.

Beyond that, separated by a thick, heavy curtain, was The Most Holy Place. The Most Holy Place housed the Ark of the Covenant, the golden chest which held the stone tablets given to Moses, among some other sacred items. The very presence of God hovered above the Ark.

This place was so sacred that the priests themselves only entered it once per year, and never without sacrificial blood, which the priest offered for himself and the people. No one else was allowed into The Most Holy Place. Ever.

What does The Most Holy Place have to do with Christ on the cross and intimacy WITH God? Stay with me here while we tie this together. In three of the four gospels, we find a similar account.

Picture the climactic moment of Jesus' death:

"And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split." (Matthew 27:50-51)

Can you imagine the priests in the temple when they looked up after the shaking of the ground beneath their feet and noticed the curtain ripped in two, revealing The Most Holy Place for all eyes to see? I wonder if a holy fear came over them? Now, any ol' body could go in!

Exactly. Any ol' body could go in. Glory to God!

Hebrews reveals to us the amazing truth of what happened that Good Friday when the curtain was torn:

"Since we have confidence to enter The Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body....". (Hebrews 10:19-20)

Stop. Do you see it? Jesus not only made a way, through the sacrifice of his body, but He IS the Way. "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6) It is through him, our High Priest, that we are able to pass through the curtain and come into the very presence of God the Father. Wow!

What is the promise of hope that the torn curtain of Jesus' body offered us? God tells us himself - he doesn't want us to miss it:

He will make himself known to us, he will put his laws in our hearts, we will share intimacy with him, and he will forgive our sins and remember our sins no more. (paraphrased: Jeremiah 31:33-34; Hebrews 8:10-13)

How's that to make a Friday 'good'?

WITH. It’s what God has desired from the beginning of time. It’s what he will pursue until the end of time. And the amazing gift of being WITH God the Father, in an intimate, everyday relationship is all because of Jesus and that curtain being torn.

Is God uprooting you so you will learn the reality of WITH? Will you choose to leave the outer courts and boldly pass through the curtain opened for you, and into the very presence of God?

As you face the challenges of everyday life, never forget:

He is WITH you always. Where I am, There He is. Even to the very end of time.

Wrestling with God

You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule. (Matthew 5:3, The Message)

I listened to a friend today really struggling with a difficult issue. Something has her stuck and unable to move forward. After she was encouraged to pray and really talk with God about what is holding her back, the story of Jacob wrestling God kept coming to mind. 

Jacob was heading into a very anxious and uncertain situation. He was actually in a moment of panic and fear when a "man" suddenly appeared and began to wrestle with Jacob. Remember the story of how Jacob tricked his father Isaac into giving him the blessing intended for his older brother Esau? Well, suffice it to say, things did not go well between the brothers after the truth came to light. Esau had it in for Jacob, and rightfully so. That led to Jacob running away to live with his uncle in Haran. Now, Genesis 32 begins to tell the story of Esau and Jacob seeing one another after many years apart following their ugly separation. Jacob is understandably extremely nervous, thinking Esau still wants to kill him for that little trick he played. He begins to send ahead of him extravagant gifts for Esau, to soften him up. Then he sent ahead his family and all of his possessions.

 I am not sure what made Jacob stay behind all alone on the eve of this fateful reunion, but we see that his being alone on this night made all this difference:

Genesis 32:24-30 (The Message) 

24-25 But Jacob stayed behind by himself, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When the man saw that he couldn’t get the best of Jacob as they wrestled, he deliberately threw Jacob’s hip out of joint.
26 The man said, “Let me go; it’s daybreak.”
Jacob said, “I’m not letting you go ’til you bless me.”
27 The man said, “What’s your name?”
He answered, “Jacob.”
28 The man said, “But no longer. Your name is no longer Jacob. From now on it’s Israel (God-Wrestler); you’ve wrestled with God and you’ve come through.”
29 Jacob asked, “And what’s your name?”
The man said, “Why do you want to know my name?” And then, right then and there, he blessed him.
30 Jacob named the place Peniel (God’s Face) because, he said, “I saw God face-to-face and lived to tell the story!”

The first thing that strikes me about this passage is that Jacob is alone. If our wrestling with God is ever going to be effective, we need to devote time to being alone with God. So many people are afraid of being alone with or still before God, present company included. We must get over that! The results of Jacob's wrestling match required focus, time and lots of effort. So should our wrestlings with God. 

Next, while this passage says Jacob wrestled with a "man", it is believed it was God himself in the form of a man (as Jacob realized in v.30). And let's not skip over the fact that they wrestled "until daybreak". That means all night. How's that for a rough night? Really, though, I am sure many of us have had times when it seemed like the "nights", the dark times, in our lives would never end, so unrelenting they can be. It can be hard to cling to God through a dark night, full of unknowns! But even the darkest, most painful night brings the promise of a new day and a fresh start. 

We see that wrestling with God can cause discomfort and pain: "[the man] deliberately threw Jacob's hip out of joint". He would walk the rest of his days with a limp, as a reminder of his encounter with God. Sometimes God will dislocate things in our lives in order to bring us to the end of ourselves, so that we realize we cannot go on without Him.

You may be wondering why, if this man is supposed to really be God, verse 25 says he couldn't get the best of Jacob. It's not the he couldn't - but he allowed Jacob to hold on to him. That illustrates the grace of our God who will never leave us in our trials, fears and battles.

By the end of this wrestling match, we see that Jacob is not the same as he began it. In a literal sense, his name is changed. Jacob means "deceiver" or "grabber". But as he engaged the Lord that night, the Lord issued him a new identity after the struggle was over. He is not who he was. Israel, "God-wrestler" was his new name. He went from "deceiver" to "prevailer". We, too, will be transformed and prevail when we cling to God! We, too, will not be who we were after a time of wrestling with God.

We also see that being persistent and bold with God brings blessing. We may struggle throughout he pain and loneliness of the dark night, but by daybreak, His blessing will come. God honors us when we cling to him!

What are you wrestling with today? Choose to get on the mat with God and work this thing out. Wrestling with God, even when we are angry or hurt, is better than running away - for we are still holding on to Him.

Loving Father - you never let us go. Thank you! Work out in us all that you must, for our holiness and effectiveness in your kingdom. By your grace, we are transformed and blessed!

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Application:

+ How long does God have to wrestle with you before  you yield every area of your life to Him?

+ What does God have to dislocate in your life before you come to the end of yourself?

+ Do you need God to rename you to receive your blessing?

The Word:

+ I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go..I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you. (Genesis 28:15)

+  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! (2 Corinthians 5:17)

+ [Jesus:] “You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule. 4 You’re blessed when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you. 5 You’re blessed when you’re content with just who you are—no more, no less. That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought. 6 You’re blessed when you’ve worked up a good appetite for God. He’s food and drink in the best meal you’ll ever eat. 7 You’re blessed when you care. At the moment of being ‘care-full,’ you find yourselves cared for. 8 You’re blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world. 9 You’re blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That’s when you discover who you really are, and your place in God’s family." (Matthew 5: 3-9, The Message)