Our Stubborn Nature

Read Isaiah 48:1-11

The trouble with our generation is that it doesn’t take any work to make your own god.  At least in millennia past, you had to carve something out of wood or chisel it out of stone or smelt it and shape it into the graven image of your choice.  If you didn’t want to do this, you could take your hard-earned money and pay an artisan to make your god.  If you weren’t too picky, you could just buy one off the shelf.  It was sort of like prescription gods and over the counter gods.

Today you don’t even need a graven image to have a false god.  You decide what your god does and does not like, would or would not do, and just how close all of his opinions happen to match yours. If you must have a graven image, you can make a Facebook post with color and emojis. 

Now if you worship the twin gods of apathy and ambivalence, they don’t really care if they have an emoji or not.

The good thing about making your own god is that if your thinking or feelings change later on, your god changes with them.  That’s the way we roll.

The bad thing is—and you know this all along when you make your own god—is that a god made in your own image is not the one true God.

The one true God is not obliged to agree with you on everything.  If fact he is not required to agree with you on anything.  He is sovereign.  He is holy.  He is righteous.  He is your Creator.  He is your Judge.  And in spite of ourselves, he is our Savior, Redeemer, and the Atoning Sacrifice for our sins.

In spite of our stubborn nature, he still loves us. His blood was spilled on a cross for a stubborn, stiff-necked people.  I am not just talking about the Jews.

Here’s a news flash.  The past 2000 years did not really make us more enlightened, receptive, or conducive to hearing the truth.   In fact, our advances in society have made is very easy to construct our own gods.

Of all the sins of God’s Chosen People, the one that would lead them into exile in Babylon was this tendency to worship other gods.  They turned away from the one true God in favor of those made by human hands.

Let’s turn back the calendar a bit from Isaiah’s time.

Even when God’s Chosen People entered the Promised Land, they were not truly right with God. Their hearts and minds would wander again and again. 

Even among God’s first people in a world begging for human life, Cain would bring death by murder.  Well brother, I guess this world is just not big enough for the both of us. 

Sometimes when we are in a contemplative mood, we might wonder:  God what were you thinking?  Knowing our tendencies if we were given a free will, how could you make us in this way?  How could you give us a free will?  Surely, you knew that we would make a mess of it.

In the time before the captivity, God’s Chosen People were saying all the religiously-correct words.  We are God’s People.  We live in the Holy City.  We take our oaths in God’s name.  None of these were done in truth or righteousness.  What was done in God’s name was perfunctory.  It was going through the motions. 

God’s corrective action was severe and came at the hands of the Babylonians, and it was not like it was some kind of surprise.  It’s not like one day, God just said:  Surprise, I’m letting these pagans have their way with you.

Again and again, God had warned his people.  The prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah were prominent during this time.  It’s not like the people had not been repeatedly warned, but they were a stubborn people.

God would refine them not as silver, but in the furnace of affliction.  God disciplines those that he loves.  We are not talking wrath, but discipline.  Now, when the Babylonians destroyed the temple and the holy city, the people who were left probably thought that this looks a lot like wrath, but it was discipline.

Of all the things that I could have brought into this discussion of love, love and action, love and rest and peace, God disciplines those whom he loves could have been left for another time.  Or not!

To skip over this would be to deny that we do have trouble in the world.  If it is because we follow the Christ and the world persecutes us for it, count yourself blessed.  If it is because you have decided to redact your Bibles and take out the parts about God that you don’t like, your trouble might be God’s discipline. 

Actions have consequences.  You drink too much, you might just have a hangover.  You don’t work, you might not pay your bills.  You satisfy your every selfish need, you might be making a god in your own image and losing sight of the one true God.

This sounds like a lead-in to law-based salvation.  It is not. It is simple optometry.  It is about having eyes to see.

From creation to the present, humankind has never truly accepted God’s divine guidance for how to live.  Some periods might have been better than others but this one unique characteristic kept resurfacing—stubbornness.

Here is the definition of stubborn from the Oxford Dictionary.

Having or showing dogged determination not to change one's attitude or position on something, especially in spite of good arguments or reasons to do so.

In spite of knowing better…  Think about it.  Stubbornness is doing what we have decided to do in spite of knowing better.

In every age, it’s not that God’s people did not know, they chose their way over God’s way.  That continues today.  It is very much present today.  If you are going to do things God’s way, you will be the oddball and sometimes the outcast from the mainstream.

If you profess one true living God who sent his Son into this world to take away your sin, you will be dismissed as archaic and out of touch with modern times.

If you insist on speaking the truth in a spirit of love, you will be called a radical and your life will be a free-fire zone for hateful comments.

James told his fellow Hebrew believers, that if this sort of stuff happens to you, count it as pure joy.  Count it as a blessing.  You are not being confused with the world and its ways.  You have not signed up for the flavor of the month god.

If you have a hangover because you drank too much last night, do not count that as a blessing.  Take it as an admonishment. 

If you got fired, again, because you told your boss what he could do with his policies, do not count that as a blessing.  Take it as a warning sign.

If you got a speeding ticket for going way over the limit and it’s going to take a week’s pay to cover it, do not count that as a blessing.  It is a wakeup call.

We are a stubborn people.  Left to our own inclinations, we can make a mess out of anything.  But in our stubbornness, God still loves us.

He loves us when the world persecutes us for his namesake.  He loves us when we abide in our own stubborn nature. His love is manifested in different ways for each.  Blessing for the former and discipline for the latter.

Does God send bad things into the world to discipline us?  No.  But what about the Babylonians?

The Babylonians were on a course to conquer the known world.  Jerusalem was beyond their reach until God stood back and let his people deal with the consequences of their stubbornness.  But it did not have to be that way.

Consider what the prophet said in the second part of this chapter.

This is what the Lord says—

    your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:

“I am the Lord your God,

    who teaches you what is best for you,

    who directs you in the way you should go.

If only you had paid attention to my commands,

    your peace would have been like a river,

    your well-being like the waves of the sea.

 Your descendants would have been like the sand,

    your children like its numberless grains;

their name would never be blotted out

    nor destroyed from before me.”

So what are we to take from all of this?

We are stubborn.  Don’t take this as always being a bad thing.  We are equipped to be stubborn for the Lord.  We can stubbornly follow the Lord and his ways even when the world does everything it can to convinces us otherwise.

Historically, we are often stubborn in the ways of the world even when God has been clear in his commands and decrees that he gave us for our own good.

God loved his people and loves us even in our stubbornness.  He does not discipline those whom he does not love.  He is not pleased when we stray, but he does not cast us aside.  God sends wake up calls on alarms that we did not set.  His Spirit is at work in our lives.

If we don’t like what the Spirit is telling us, we had better examine if we are being stubborn in God’s ways or stubborn in our own ways.  Are we seeking the one true God or living by the rules of the god that we made in our own image?

When we hit a bump in the road of life, is it the world trying to throw us off course; or is it God sending us a wakeup call?  How can you know?

Several years ago, I published an article titled, Can a Democrat be a Christian?  I posted the link to the article on Facebook and it got a lot of likes and almost as many hateful remarks.  Realize this was before you could select the heart or the angry face emojis.

I didn’t accidently happen upon that title.  It was meant to be provocative.  Titles are hooks to get readers to read, except in this century when reading an entire title is just so exhausting that you can never make it to the article.

For those who did make it to the article, I answered the provocative question, Can a Democrat be a Christian?  And the answer was, of course, no.  No!

Now for those who completed the entire article, I also posed the question, Can a Republican be a Christian?  The Republicans got the same answer. 

What? Do I think only Libertarians or Tea Partians or is it (Tea Partiers) can be Christians? No.  I am sure that somebody is going to be upset that I did not equally abuse the Independents. 

The question itself is not a matter of party affiliation but of identity.  My identity is in Christ alone. I am a Christian.  I belong to the Christ and I am stubborn about that.  There is no argument to sway me from that stance.

I register in accordance with my political leanings, but that is not my identity. I agree with some things the party stands for and disagree with others.

I am not the party with which I am registered. I belong to Christ alone. I follow Christ. My allegiance is to him. I love America and cherish the very liberty that we enjoy every day, register as I choose, and vote my convictions.

But my identity is as a Christian.  I am stubborn about that.  I belong to the Christ.

I am not permitted a second and third and fourth identity. I live as a Christian and fulfill many roles.  Many of them have a great impact upon who I am.

Son

Husband

Father

Brother

Grandfather

Pastor

American

Oklahoman

Writer

Marine

And surely some others.

Some of these are callings. I know without any doubt that I was called to be a Marine officer. I know with even greater certainty that God called me to ordained ministry. But I have only one identity. I am a child of God. I am a Christian—by definition committed to following Jesus wherever he leads me.  I belong to him.

I am not following any political party wherever they lead me. On any given day I can change my political affiliation. I follow Christ forever. He is Lord. He is King. He called me servant, trusted servant, and even friend. My identity is in him.

That identity gives me incredible freedom. I can live fully. My future is not in the hands of the next president. My identity does not come from a political party. I belong to Christ. I am a Christian.  I am stubborn about that.

The articles that I wrote made subtle title twists to get people to read them, but my point is as unchanging as it can be.  I belong to the Christ and that is not going to change.  I am stubborn when it comes to this.

So, back to the bumps in the road.  Am I stubborn in the ways of God or am I stubborn in the ways of the world?  That’s how you know what the bumps in the road are all about.

My challenge to us this day is to be stubborn in the ways of God.  He showed us his way for our own good.  His plans are not to harm us but to prosper us. He gives us hope and a future.  He has never stopped loving us and never will.

Our salvation is all from him.  Let’s respond by being disciples of Jesus who stubbornly follow in the ways of our Lord.

God loved humankind when we were stubborn in the ways of the world.  Let’s love him back by being stubborn in the ways of the Christ.

Amen.

Ready Without Worry

Read Luke 12:22-40

Trust, obey, love seem too simple sometimes.  Trust God with all of your heart.  Obey what he has told us to do which comes mostly in his word—commands and decrees and a guide for holy living given to us for our own good—but also at the prompting of his Holy Spirit that lives inside of us.  Love him above anyone or anything else that we love.  Most of this love for God is manifested in loving others.

Follow Jesus.  He said that his yoke is easy and his burden is light.  He said, learn from him.  Learn from him!  The instructions are simple but not simplistic.

We have been on a course of delving into God’s word concerning love, love and action, and now we come to rest and peace. 

Jesus said, learn from him.  When we take his yoke, we as his disciples have committed to learning from him.  Here is something that we are well served to learn.

Do not worry.

Do not worry about food or clothing or shelter or other provision.  God provides.

For people, much of that provision comes in work.  If you can labor, you labor.  It you can make something of value, you make it.  If you provide a service, then you serve, but most of us are provisioned to provide for our basic needs and the needs of our family.

If you think about the Parable of the Talents, trusted servants became managers and investors and produced a return that pleased their master. 

Don’t worry doesn’t mean sit on the curb and wait for God to send you three squares a day and a limo to take you to the Embassy Suites each night.  It means do what you know to do and don’t worry that you won’t have enough to meet your needs.

Let’s pause for a brief provocation that I will provide in the interrogative.  Who needs more to meet their basic needs, the Christian or the person without God?  I am not talking about the need for God but for all of those other things in life.  Who needs more, Christian or non-Christian?

I will proffer that the Christian needs more.  The Christian has more needs.  He needs food and water, clothing and shelter, and general provision for his family.  Well, so does the pagan.

But the Christian also needs something more through which he can bless others.  Part of who we are as Christians is that we are people to be known by our love.  We are now wired to bless others.  We are not complete unless we love others.  We must bless others to be complete.

The person who only knows the world, craves the things of the world even though the world can never satisfy their cravings.  It is a vicious cycle that can never be satisfied.  The person without God thinks that they need more but they truly only crave more.  Meeting basic needs is not enough.  They have selfish cravings to satisfy.

Meeting basic needs is never enough for the Christian either.  We have unselfish needs to satisfy as well.   God meets those needs!

Jesus used the birds of the air as an example.  Where are their barns and storehouses?  What have they done to provide for their tomorrow?  Have you ever seen a bird with an IRA or 401K?

God provides for them.

Even the fields are adorned with flowers and grass. What splendor and these are just plants that are here for a short time.

How much more are you who are made in God’s image worth to God?  Will he leave you naked and hungry?  No!

We sing, “His eye is on the sparrow and I know he cares for me.”

We are told to seek God’s kingdom.  Pursue the things of God.  Paul would later write that whatever you do, do it as if you were working directly for the Lord and not for human masters.  It is the Lord, Christ whom we serve!

Seek God’s kingdom and don’t worry about the things of this world.  The godless spend their lives in pursuit of temporal things.  You who are of God seek eternal things.

The godless are consumers of what this world has to offer.

You are investors that produce good returns for God.

The godless seek to satisfy themselves.

You seek to please God and bring glory to his name.

Here is the paradox.  You who worship and serve the one true God and seek after his kingdom and his righteousness will be given so many things of this world that the godless have made into their gods.

You will not do without because Jesus is your Lord.  You will do great things with what the Lord has provided. 

It gets under my skin every time that I hear a Christian must be poor to be a real Christian or a preacher must be poor if he is following Jesus and living what he preaches.

But the Bible said that Jesus became poor.  Yes, it does.  He stepped out of heaven and lived a human life.  There is a difference in the standard of living.  The King of kings became a servant for our sake.

But there are no scriptures that note once he arrived, he was begging on the side of the road or had to line up each night for the homeless shelter.  The disciples had a treasurer and bought food when they needed it.  They were not on food stamps or sent to beg on a regular basis.

Jesus sent out his disciples telling them to take minimal provisions as they proclaimed the Kingdom of God was at hand.  He told them they would be provisioned wherever they went.  If they were rejected, move on.

In fact, Jesus had food that his own followers did not know about.  It was to do the will of his Father who sent him.  Other than 40 days when he fasted in preparation for a three-year trek to the cross, Jesus did not do without unless it was by his choice or in obedience to his Father, and those two are really one.

But Jesus said, foxes have holes and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.  Jesus had provision wherever he went.  He didn’t seem to spend much time at home because the house he had on this earth was not his home.  He would not truly rest until he was once again at his Father’s side.  He was on a mission.  He was not homeless or poor.  He was on a mission!

He already knew what the Kingdom of God was like.  That was home and Jesus said that his Father was pleased to give you this vey kingdom. 

It’s not about what you own.  It’s about what owns you.  What to you have that owns you?  Jesus said give it to the poor or sell it and give the money to the poor.  Don’t spend too much making an eternal home in a temporary place.

Jesus is the King of kings; yet, he lived not to acquire that which was already his.  He lived to do the will of his Father.  By worldly standards, you might say he was poor because he did not store up treasures on earth. He came with purpose and was not weighed down by the things of this world, but when he need a boat, he had a boat.  When he needed a place to stay, he had a place to stay.  When he needed a young donkey to ride into town, there was one waiting for him.  When he needed a meal, he was given a meal.  Jesus was focused on doing his Father’s will and not on storing up treasures on earth.

Must we be poor?  No, we must be purposeful.  What we have is already God’s, but what will we do with it?  Sometimes we give to him sacrificially.  Most times we give out of our abundance.

Your home is in the Kingdom of God.  Your treasure is in the Kingdom of God.  Your future is in the Kingdom of God.

Seek God’s kingdom and his righteousness and God will provide more than enough for you while you journey through this life. 

What is it to seek God’s kingdom?  Trust him, obey him, and love him; and Jesus tells us to do it without worry. 

DO NOT WORRY!

What is the return on investment for worry?  Can you add an extra day or even an hour to your life?  The answer to those questions is that worry provides nothing good.  That should be the end of the discussion, right?

But I worry by nature.  Worry is not part of the new creation that we have become.  This is not the nature of the born again believer—of one born of the Spirit.  OK. What can I do instead?  If you can put forth effort to worry, you can put forth effort to pray. You can serve and be ready instead of worrying. 

You can live a life of trusting God with all of your heart.  You can obey his commands. You can love him by loving others.  If you are focused on these things, you have neither the time nor the inclination to worry.

You will be ready for your Master’s return.  Every day is a day of trust, obedience, and love and you will be ready for the return of Jesus Christ when he comes to claim you.

We know that our salvation is a gift.  Our hearts long to do something in response to this gift.  That’s our discipleship.  Our response to the gift of life eternal is our discipleship, and we want our discipleship to be pleasing to God.

We don’t want to spend our lives worrying that we were not good enough for God.  Thus, we need to understand two things.

First, we need to understand that we could never do anything to be good enough for God.  That’s why Jesus offered his blood as a divine sacrifice.  God himself provided the sacrifice for our sins.

Second, we must not spend one second in worry but invest all of our life in loving God.  We trust him, obey him, and love him mostly by loving others.  When we do that, we are pleasing to him.  Our very lives are an offering to him.  Because of the divine blood shed for our sins, our lives are now a pleasant aroma to him.  We are truly a living sacrifice that is pleasing to God.

We become poor in our desire for the things of this temporary world and rich in our desire to live fully in his kingdom.  In the pericope that precedes today’s scriptures, we find a parable that prompts the question:  Are we rich towards God?

When we become poor in our desire for the things of this world, don’t expect to be signing up for welfare.  Don’t expect that you will miss out on the good stuff in life.  God will meet our needs according to his limited resources…

No! God meets our needs according to his glorious riches.  God will bless us as his children that he loves very much, and we will take that with which he has blessed us and bless others.  We will do it without worry.  We will do it in pursuit of God’s kingdom which he has opened to us.

We will still contend with trouble in the world, but we take courage that Jesus has overcome the world.  This world was not his home.  It is not our home.  It is the place where we learn to grow in God’s grace.

We are ready for Christ’s return because we live each day to the full as a day of trusting God with all of our heart, a day where obey his commands are not burdens, and a day full of loving God by loving each other.  We are living our God-given purpose and that makes us ready for his return.

Sometimes our human nature—the old nature—chooses to complicate the simple.  We must live as people of the Spirit, as people of the truth.

We are ready and we live without worry.  None of us know the day nor the hour when Christ will return for us, but we should all know that in this day and this hour—in each day and each hour—we are ready and we are not worried.  In fact, we know God’s peace.

Does this assurance make us complacent?  On the contrary!  It energizes us to live to the full!

We are not spending too much time making an eternal home in this temporary place.  Our investment is in the Kingdom of God.  We invest daily with trust, obedience, and love.

We live without worry.  We are ready for Christ’s return. We are ready and without worry.

Do not worry!

Amen.

Not Void, but Accomplished!

Read Isaiah 55

Israel received some of its most encouraging prophecies while it was at its worst as far as worshiping the Lord goes.  Yes, there were plenty of warnings delivered to God’s Chosen People, but there were also words of eternal assurance.

While God stood back and let the world have its way with his own chosen people for a time; he concurrently and continually is proclaiming their restoration.  Judah was taken into exile for decades; yet God knew he would deliver them from Babylon even as he had delivered them from Egypt.

God’s ways are not our ways.  His thoughts are not our thoughts. His thinking and his operation is so far above our comprehension that it often does not make sense to us.  We say, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding” and it seems to carry us through most of our week. 

Sometimes, it seems that there is not much distance between trusting God and our own understanding.  Then something hits us.  We lose a job.  We lose a loved one.  Bills are piling up. The kids won’t listen.  The car won’t start.  The car somehow drives too fast and there is a $300 ticket or two that were not in the budget.

The family vacation was a bust and nobody is rested or renewed.  We’re in a tornado watch again.  No, wait, it’s a warning, again.  Now it’s a watch.  I made it to work and discovered that my shoes don’t match.  The ice cream truck is getting close and I don’t have any money to give the kids.

If you try to keep up with everything in this world—you are like a jugular trying to keep too many balls in the air—then you will feel like you have been ripped to shreds.   If you try to solve every problem that comes your way, you will be exhausted every day and wonder if you accomplished anything.

The logistics of life love to leave you lifeless.  Yes, you may check the alliteration block for today’s message.

Sometimes it seems that nothing that you do produces any tangible results.  We are on a treadmill.  We are the hamster on a wheel.  We are jogging in quicksand.  We just need to know that our efforts are for something.

If my metaphor mania had not gone far enough already, we can’t see the forest for the trees.

Have you ever seen it rain—I thought I might have to show a video to remind you what rain was but we had a couple reminders this past week.  Have you ever seen it rain for 10 minutes and then the rain goes right back up in the heavens?  Rain comes down.  Rain goes back up.

Of course not.  Well, unless you live in Florida.  The rain comes down, stops, and then starts rising as steam a couple minutes later.  Rain comes down and soaks into the earth, runs off into gullies, ponds, and rivers. 

It brings life to the earth.  What was brown turns green.  What seemed lifeless now blooms with life and beauty.  Rain accomplishes its purpose.  Eventually, it makes its way back to the atmosphere.

This is how the prophet Isaiah explains God’s word.  God’s word does not go out and return void.  God’s word accomplishes its purpose.  Because of God’s word, the insanity will turn to peace for us.  The insanity is still out there  You may have rest in the midst of turmoil.

Sometimes, we can’t see the forest for the trees.  We get so fixed on what we are doing and what we are accomplishing and what we have left undone, we forget that God is at work in our lives.  We overlook that God’s word is effective.  We forget to trust God and we lean on our own understanding.

God’s word promises us life, abundant life, eternal life, peace, hope, rest, and a future—a prosperous future.  We are charged to keep God’s word fixed in our hearts and minds.  Yes, we will have trouble in the world, but we are to take courage because Christ told us that he has overcome the world.

We must trust that God’s word is always at work, even when we can’t see it.  Perhaps, especially when we can’t see it.

We are to trust in the Lord with all of our heart.  To do that, when trusting God and our own understanding are miles apart, we must first trust that God’s word never returns void.  It always accomplishes its purpose.

Even if the bills seem insurmountable; even if the kids seem uncontrollable; even if all of the beer cans in Burns Flat continue to blow into my yard; God’s word accomplishes its purpose.  The circumstances of the world do not dictate the will of God.

God’s word will accomplish what it was sent to do.  In fact, God’s word has answers that precede our questions and requests. 

Before they call I will answer;

    while they are still speaking I will hear.

Every 3 or 4 years I find I reason to tell this story.  It is very much a true story.  It comes from a missionary sent from England to Zaire many decades ago.  Her name is Dr. Helen Rosevere.  She died at the age of 91 in 2016.  I have read most of her books and can say without equivocation, that the things that she went through in God’s service would make most Marines feel like a bunch of wimps. 

One night, in Central Africa, I had worked hard to help a mother in the labor ward; but in spite of all that we could do, she died leaving us with a tiny, premature baby and a crying, two-year-old daughter.

We would have difficulty keeping the baby alive. We had no incubator. We had no electricity to run an incubator, and no special feeding facilities. Although we lived on the equator, nights were often chilly with treacherous drafts.

A student-midwife went for the box we had for such babies and for the cotton wool that the baby would be wrapped in. Another went to stoke up the fire and fill a hot water bottle. She came back shortly, in distress, to tell me that in filling the bottle, it had burst. Rubber perishes easily in tropical climates. “…and it is our last hot water bottle!” she exclaimed. As in the West, it is no good crying over spilled milk; so, in Central Africa it might be considered no good crying over a burst water bottle. They do not grow on trees, and there are no drugstores down forest pathways. All right,” I said, “Put the baby as near the fire as you safely can; sleep between the baby and the door to keep it free from drafts. Your job is to keep the baby warm.”

The following noon, as I did most days, I went to have prayers with many of the orphanage children who chose to gather with me. I gave the youngsters various suggestions of things to pray about and told them about the tiny baby. I explained our problem about keeping the baby warm enough, mentioning the hot water bottle. The baby could so easily die if it got chilled. I also told them about the two-year-old sister, crying because her mother had died. During the prayer time, one ten-year-old girl, Ruth, prayed with the usual blunt consciousness of our African children. “Please, God,” she prayed, “send us a water bottle. It’ll be no good tomorrow, God, the baby’ll be dead; so, please send it this afternoon.” While I gasped inwardly at the audacity of the prayer, she added by way of corollary, ” …And while You are about it, would You please send a dolly for the little girl so she’ll know You really love her?” As often with children’s prayers, I was put on the spot. Could I honestly say, “Amen?” I just did not believe that God could do this. Oh, yes, I know that He can do everything: The Bible says so, but there are limits, aren’t there? The only way God could answer this particular prayer would be by sending a parcel from the homeland. I had been in Africa for almost four years at that time, and I had never, ever received a parcel from home. Anyway, if anyone did send a parcel, who would put in a hot water bottle? I lived on the equator!

Halfway through the afternoon, while I was teaching in the nurses’ training school, a message was sent that there was a car at my front door. By the time that I reached home, the car had gone, but there, on the veranda, was a large twenty-two pound parcel! I felt tears pricking my eyes. I could not open the parcel alone; so, I sent for the orphanage children. Together we pulled off the string, carefully undoing each knot. We folded the paper, taking care not to tear it unduly. Excitement was mounting. Some thirty or forty pairs of eyes were focused on the large cardboard box. From the top, I lifted out brightly colored, knitted jerseys. Eyes sparkled as I gave them out. Then, there were the knitted bandages for the leprosy patients, and the children began to look a little bored. Next, came a box of mixed raisins and sultanas – – that would make a nice batch of buns for the weekend. As I put my hand in again, I felt the…could it really be? I grasped it, and pulled it out. Yes, “A brand-new rubber, hot water bottle!” I cried. I had not asked God to send it; I had not truly believed that He could. Ruth was in the front row of the children. She rushed forward, crying out, “If God has sent the bottle, He must have sent the dolly, too!” Rummaging down to the bottom of the box, she pulled out the small, beautifully dressed dolly. Her eyes shone: She had never doubted! Looking up at me, she asked, “Can I go over with you, Mummy, and give this dolly to that little girl, so she’ll know that Jesus really loves her?”

That parcel had been on the way for five whole months, packed up by my former Sunday School class, whose leader had heard and obeyed God’s prompting to send a hot water bottle, even to the equator. One of the girls had put in a dolly for an African child — five months earlier in answer to the believing prayer of a ten-year-old to bring it “That afternoon!” “And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.” Isaiah 65:24

Sometimes we know exactly what we need.  All the time God knows exactly what we need.  It’s nice when the two coincide.  It’s a blessing and an affirmation when it all plays out before our eyes, but sometimes we can only see the trees.

All things considered, I would rather trust God that he knows what I need.  Sometimes, we get wrapped up on the little things and miss the big things.  Sometimes, as in Helen Rosevere’s testimony, the little things are the big things.

Sometimes we don’t see the forest for the trees.  We see so many individual obstacles and problems and things to be worked out before we can have peace when God has already given us peace.

Jesus, only hours before he would be apprehended and dragged from one kangaroo court to another until arriving at the cross, gave his followers these words, that we too should remember.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

Trust in the Lord with all of your heart.  I doubt that I will ever be the Christian servant that Helen Rosevere was, and she was amazed at the faith of a young child who prayed so boldly, not for herself but for two others who had much greater need.

God’s word does not return void.  Before we call, God answers.

In 2012, my niece was beginning her final year of a 3-year assignment in Nairobi, Kenya.  Rick Ellis and I would visit her the following year after our first mission together in western Kenya.  Months before, I had put a care package together for her.  I had done this before.  I had red Twizzlers and some other items that she craved but could not get while she was there.  There was $65 worth of goodies for which I paid $165 in shipping. 

I packed the box as full as I could and there was one little spot left.  It was just the right size for a Gospel of John.  My niece already had a Bible, but I wasn’t going to leave the space empty.

It took over two months for the box to reach her.  Most of that time it set in customs.  It just sat there.

Meanwhile, my niece had been talking to a Muslim student about Jesus.  The student said that she could not bring a Bible into her house, so my niece said that the next trip home, she would pick up a Gospel of John for her.  That same day, my care package finally arrived.  On the very top was the Gospel of John that I had placed in at the last moment. 

Months later, I got to meet this young girl during my visit.  That was a treat.  We don’t always get to see what God is doing through us.  We do need to trust that Spirit of God that lives inside of us.

We need to trust that God’s word does not return void.  We need to trust in the Lord over our own understanding.

We need to trust that before we call, God has already answered.

We need to trust that God’s got this whole thing figured out and just trust him, obey him, and love him by loving others.

There is a peace that comes from trusting God in everything we do.

Amen.