But God

My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me,
And from the words of My groaning? But you are holy. (Psalms 22:1, 3a NKJV)

 

There are times when all believers may feel like God has gone on vacation.  We should not be too surprised when we experience this feeling, as David and even Jesus on the Cross felt abandoned.  The key to dealing with these times is to say, as David did, but God is good.

In 1871 Christian businessman, Horatio Spafford lost everything in the great Chicago Fire.  He planned a trip for his wife and four daughters to Britain. They traveled ahead of him and their ship was rammed by another vessel. His wife survived, but his daughters perished. Spafford immediately left to meet his wife, and as his ocean liner approached the area where his daughters had drowned, he composed the song that has become a memorial to the sovereign goodness of God, “It is Well with My Soul.”  

It is not really easy to feel abandoned.  God knows your pain.  Jesus expressed his pain on the Cross and David often conveyed his grief without condemnation from God.  Yet, in David’s dialogue with God, most often there was a point where David said, but God is good.  In our sufferings, we must always have that “but God moment.”

At some point in our conversation with God, it is necessary to interject in good times and in bad, the sovereignty of God.  All things that happen to us may not be caused by God, but he at least allows them.  A very therapeutic thing for us is to realize that in all our trials and struggles, God is still in control, and for all who love him are for our ultimate good.  Remember Joseph, who told his brothers who had sold him into slavery, you meant it for evil “but God” meant it for good (Genesis 5:20).

 If we never come to the “but God” stage of our trials, we will devolve into the “why God” juncture and start to doubt the character of God.  Spafford eloquently wrote, “When sorrows like sea billows roll; Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say, it is well, it is well with my soul.”

Image used with permission by Microsoft.

Ken Barnes the author of “The Chicken Farm and Other Sacred Places”  YWAM Publishing
Email:  kenbarnes737@gmail.com
website:https://sites.google.com/site/kenbarnesbooksite/

Blogs: http://kensblog757.blogspot.com

            http://gleanings757.blogspot.com

Stinking Thinking

But Moses said before the Lord, “Behold, I am of uncircumcised lips, and how shall Pharaoh heed me?” (Exodus 6:30 NKJV)

 

Clearly, Moses did not view himself as up to the task that God had placed before him. Things can start out as an honest evaluation of your deficiencies, yet repeated over and over again, can devolve from humility to inferiority.  It is never wise to deny what God says you can do, it’s “stinking thinking.”

Moses declared to God that he had uncircumcised lips, or he was unskilled in speech.  We all realize that in ourselves we are all unable complete the tasks that God gives us to do, yet there is a point in time where we have to take our eyes off of ourselves and put them on God.  In Exodus 4: 14 the Lord became angry with Moses as he tried to persuade the Lord of his incompetence in speaking.  At this point, Moses was not walking in humility.  God never gets angry with humility.  The Lord responded to Moses, “So the Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the Lord?”  God was trying to get Moses’ eyes of himself and look to the Lord. Humility is not dwelling on our weaknesses but recognizing our strengths and weaknesses, and understanding that God can use both.  It believes that God’s grace is bigger than all our deficiencies.  

Even the best of us, like Moses, sometimes get into “stinking thinking.  Don’t bore the Lord, he is well acquainted with your inadequacies.  Don’t continually replay the narrative of unbelief. You are what God says you are.  It is never humility to say you can’t when God says you can.

 Image used with permission by Microsoft.

Ken Barnes, the author of “The Chicken Farm and Other Sacred Places”  YWAM Publishing
Email:  kenbarnes737@gmail.com
website: https://sites.google.com/site/kenbarnesbooksite/

Blogs: http://kensblog757.blogspot.com

            http://gleanings757.blogspot.com

The Ultimate Question

Satan answered the Lord, “Does Job fear God for nothing? (Job 21:6 NLT)

Satan asked a question about Job that every believer must eventually answer.  The inquiry questioned Job’s motive.  Religious people down through the ages have dwelt on what they have done for God and ignored why.  

 

Love is always based on what we give and not receive.  Christ’s example of love for us is exemplified by his giving his very life for us. Inherent in Satan’s question to God, is the suggestion that Job loved what he got from the Lord more the God himself. The enemy was questioning Job’s motive. The implication was evil, but it still needed to be answered.  

I have observed that people who are serious about loving and serving God most always go through a period where God seems to take and not give.  People, like Job’s counselors, will be adept at pointing out your flaws as the reason for your trials.  They may be right about your faults, but wrong about their being the reason you are suffering.  Job teaches us that life is more than a cause and effect relationship.  Job was suffering not because he was unrighteous but righteous, and so might you be.

In this story, there are two high points of Job’s character.  When Job’s wife says to him, “Curse God and die” (Job 2:9) and he replies, “Shall we accept good from God and not accept adversity?” (v.10)   Also, when Job says, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust him” (Job 13:15).  If God is not good all the time, he is not good at all.  God never causes evil, but he does sometimes allow it to touch us. Are you suffering my friend? God may be asking you the ultimate question.

Image used with permission by Microsoft.

Ken Barnes the author of “The Chicken Farm and Other Sacred Places”  YWAM Publishing
Email:  kenbarnes737@gmail.com
website: https://sites.google.com/site/kenbarnesbooksite/

Blogs: http://kensblog757.blogspot.com

            http://gleanings757.blogspot.com

Returning Good for Evil

And he said again, “I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into slavery in Egypt. 

 But don’t be upset, and don’t be angry with yourselves for selling me to this place. It was God who sent me here ahead of you to preserve your lives.

Joseph Sold into Slavery

 (Genesis 45:4b-5 NLT)

There is a natural tendency in the human heart to be treated fairly, yet Joseph marched to a different drummer.  He responded not just humanly, but divinely. He showed his brothers mercy instead of justice by returning good for evil.

At times in my life, I have reminded the Lord that it is tough to show grace to people when they are not showing much to you. After I made these reminders to the Lord, there would generally be a pregnant pause in the conversation. After a few moments, I would get the feeling that the Lord was saying to me, been there done that.  At that point, Christ was referring me back to the Cross where he said, “Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34 NLT). In this life, people will spitefully use you. Jesus taught us in Matthew 5:47 that if we are only kind to our friends, is this different than anyone else?  Even the non-believers do this.  What distinguished Joseph from his brothers was his willingness to return good for evil. As Christians, what sets us apart from the world, it’s our willingness show grace to those who don’t deserve it. Not doing so, contradicts who we are.

As believers, are you surprised in how you have been treated by the world?  Read the Book, it is part of the territory.  Take courage, people may have meant it for evil, but God intended it for good.

Image used with permission by Microsoft.

Ken Barnes the author of “The Chicken Farm and Other Sacred Places”  YWAM Publishing
Email:  kenbarnes737@gmail.com
website: https://sites.google.com/site/kenbarnesbooksite/

Blogs: http://kensblog757.blogspot.com

            http://gleanings757.blogspot.com

Never Despise the Ordinary

Then he (Jesus) said, “Throw out your net on the right-hand side of the boat, and you’ll get some!” So they did, and they couldn’t haul in the net because there were so many fish in it.(John 21:6 NLT)

The Disciples casting their nets.

We often complain about the mundane circumstances of our lives.  Jesus did his best teaching in the commonplace venues of peoples’ lives. Never despise the ordinary.

Someone once said that the thing that is difficult about Christianity is that it is every day.  Some of us are always looking for that spiritual pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, and we miss those spiritual lessons right in front of our nose. We look for God in the unusual or spectacular events of our lives.  At times they do occur, yet most often God is in the ordinary or mundane experiences of our existence.  Jesus spoke to people where they lived.  The scene in our scriptural reference had been replayed by his disciples’ numerous times, yet Jesus invaded the natural with the supernatural.  This appears to be how God works. In the feeding of the five thousand (Matthew 14:13-21) he asked his disciples for what they had, five loaves and two fish, and then he gave them what they did not have, enough food to feed the multitude.  Miracles are a combination of the ordinary and the extraordinary.  At a common event like the wedding at Cana, they gave Jesus water, and he gave them wine.  God asks us to do the possible, and he does the impossible.

We may miss God in the ordinary because we are not looking for him to show up in the details of life.  God does not just live on the mountaintop, but in the valley also. 

Image used with permission by Google.

Ken Barnes the author of “The Chicken Farm and Other Sacred Places”  YWAM Publishing
Email:  kenbarnes737@gmail.com
website: https://sites.google.com/site/kenbarnesbooksite/

Blogs: http://kensblog757.blogspot.com

            http://gleanings757.blogspot.com

The Tamarisk Tree

Abraham planted a tamarisk tree at Beersheba, and there he called on the name of the Lord, the Everlasting God. (Genesis 21:33 NLT)

The Shade of a Tamarisk Tree

Abraham planted a tree, but not just any tree.  It was a tamarisk tree.  Abraham was making a statement of faith.  He would never sit under the shade of this tree, but future generations would because of his great faith.

Faith is seeing past what we can observe with our natural eyes.  He never owned one acre of the Promised Land, save the burial plot for his family, yet by faith he did possess the land. Based on God’s promise to him, he saw it as being done.

In the Middle East, the tamarisk tree was a very slow growing.  You never planted it to benefit yourself, but those who would come after you.  In the Bible, honor was expressed by passing the blessing from one generation to another.  Abraham was blessed through the promise of his son Isaac.  David praised God when he was told that his son Solomon was to build the Temple and not him.  He saw it as God blessing him through future generations.  

This process of extending the truth and the blessing from one generation to another goes on today.  It may be through your natural descendants, or spiritual offspring like Timothy was to the Apostle Paul.  Like Abraham, we must plant our own tamarisk tree, by doing things for the Lord that may not benefit us directly, but will profit those who come after us. When told he could not build the Temple, David went about collecting materials so his son could complete it.  Some plant, some water, and some harvest (1 Corinthians 3:6-8) but the rewards are equally shared.

Planting your tamarisk tree will provide shade for future generations and will bring the ultimate blessing, world evangelization and the return of King Jesus.

Image used with permission by Microsoft.

Ken Barnes, the author of “The Chicken Farm and Other Sacred Places”  YWAM Publishing
Email:  kenbarnes737@gmail.com
website: https://sites.google.com/site/kenbarnesbooksite/

Blogs: http://kensblog757.blogspot.com

            http://gleanings757.blogspot.com

The Silver Tsunami

Then the Lord told him, “I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their cries of distress because of their harsh slave drivers. Yes, I am aware of their suffering.  Now go, for I am sending you to Pharaoh. You must lead my people Israel out of Egypt.”  (Genesis 21:33 NLT)

Ten thousand people are turning sixty years old every day in our country.  It has referred to as the silver tsunami.  For Christians, what is God purpose in having this vast number of people come to this stage of their lives?  Maybe, God is ready to raise up a sleeping giant for world evangelization. 

In our Scripture above, Moses was eighty years old when God spoke to him to lead his people out of Egypt.  Yes, eighty years of age was a little different in those days than today, yet age has never been the limiting factor in our usefulness for God. 

Moses spent forty years in the best educational environment the world had to offer. Then, he labored the next forty years learning to be a servant.  God never wastes any of our experiences.  For some of you reading this blog, all your life experiences may have been to prepare you for what God wants you to do now.  If you are retired, you have a precious commodity, time.  If you have planned well, you have some financial resources, and you have experience.  You know how the world works and how to get a job done.  Don’t waste those resources.

You can spend the rest of your days having breakfast at McDonald, discussing the good old days.  God may have more for you.  Get on that wave of the silver tsunami and see what God does.

Image used with permission by Microsoft.

Ken Barnes the author of “The Chicken Farm and Other Sacred Places”  YWAM Publishing
Email:  kenbarnes737@gmail.com
website: https://sites.google.com/site/kenbarnesbooksite/

Blogs: http://kensblog757.blogspot.com

            http://gleanings757.blogspot.com