Lent - a time to wrestle with God… even it means pulling an all-nighter! (Genesis 32:24)

SCRIPTURE: Genesis 32:24 (TM) – larger reading Genesis 32:22-32

But Jacob stayed behind by himself, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak.

STORY:

Watchman Nee tells the story of his stay in China with twenty other Christians. The bathing accommodations were inadequate in the home where they were lodging, so they went for a daily dip in the river. 



On one occasion, one of the men got a cramp in his leg and began sinking fast. Mr. Nee motioned to one of the other men, who was an excellent swimmer, about the drowning man. To his astonishment, however, the man did not move. He just stood there and watched the drowning man.

Mr. Nee was agitated, but the swimmer was calm and collected. Meanwhile, the voice of the drowning man grew fainter and more desperate. Mr. Nee hated the swimmer who just stood and watched on the shore when he could have jumped into the river and rescued the drowning man. As the drowning man went under for what looked like the last time, the swimmer was there in a moment, and both were soon safely on shore.

After the rescue, Mr. Nee chewed out the swimmer, accusing him of loving his life too much and being selfish. The response of the swimmer revealed, however, he knew what he was doing. He told Watchman that if he had gone too soon, the drowning man would have put a death grip on him and they would have both drowned in the river, and he was right. He told Mr. Nee that a drowning man cannot be saved until he is utterly exhausted and ceases to make the slightest effort to save himself.

OBSERVATION:

Jacob struggled with God. Do we? Have we? Lent is a time to struggle with God. Jacob struggled long and hard. All night long he wrestled with God.

We can and often do become too comfortable with our relationship with God. We begin to take it and him for granted. It is just my opinion, but I believe that when our relationship with God becomes a “buddy-buddy kind of thing” it is time to go to the mat in a life-or-death struggle. Jacob wrestled through the night. Jacob became the victor only because of the struggle. Now, Jacob did come up with a limp because there ought to be definite change in us when we wrestle with God.

It was a Christian from China who commented that in America our Christian faith comes too easily. There are no life or death challenges. Our freedom has made it cheap. There is no cost, no struggle to us believing.

Our Lenten journey usually includes a few moments here or a few moments there where we pray, mediate, read a few verses of scripture and then go off and do our normal life things. Too often I am as guilty as the next person, but where’s the struggle with that? Jacob wrestled all night long. Now the last time I wrestled with anything all night long it was do to the fact that I had eaten something that didn’t agree with me… but with God? To be honest, I didn’t even pull an “all-nighter” when I was in college no matter how bad my grades where.

Here is to a fruitful Lenten struggle!

We are climbing Jacob’s ladder


We are climbing Jacob’s ladder


We are climbing Jacob’s ladder


Soldiers of the cross



Ev’ry round goes higher, higher


Ev’ry round goes higher, higher


Ev’ry round goes higher, higher


Soldiers of the cross



Sinner, do you love my Jesus?


Sinner, do you love my Jesus?


Sinner, do you love my Jesus?


Soldiers of the cross

PRAYER:

Do not give us peace until we have wrestled with you… even if it means an all-nighter? Don’t allow us to become comfortable. Stir the pot. Spiritually we need it… boy, do we need it!

QUOTE:

William M. Batten: When I hear my friends say they hope their children don't have to experience the hardships they went through--I don't agree. Those hardships made us what we are. You can be disadvantaged in many ways, and one way may be not having had to struggle.

Lent - discovering the hope that Jesus has been there before. (Psalm 27:14)

SCRIPTURE: Psalm 27:14 (CEB) – larger reading Psalm 27

Hope in the LORD! Be strong! Let your heart take courage! Hope in the LORD!

STORY:

Our Daily Bread: During the Thirty Years' War in the 17th century, German pastor Paul Gerhardt and his family were forced to flee from their home. One night as they stayed in a small village inn, homeless and afraid, his wife broke down and cried openly in despair. To comfort her, Gerhardt reminded her of Scripture promises about God's provision and keeping. Then, going out to the garden to be alone, he too broke down and wept. He felt he had come to his darkest hour.

Soon afterward, Gerhardt felt the burden lifted and sensed anew the Lord's presence. Taking his pen, he wrote a hymn that has brought comfort to many. "Give to the winds thy fears; hope, and be undismayed; God hears thy sighs and counts thy tears; God shall lift up thy head. Through waves and clouds and storms He gently clears the way. Wait thou His time, so shall the night soon end in joyous day."

It is often in our darkest times that God makes His presence known most clearly. He uses our sufferings and troubles to show us that He is our only source of strength. And when we see this truth, like Pastor Gerhardt, we receive new hope. Are you facing a great trial? Take heart. Put yourself in God's hands. Wait for His timing. He will give you a "song in the night." 

OBSERVATION:

When is hope truly hope? When everything else seems lost!

The Psalmist states that joy comes in the morning (30:5). As a young man I claimed that verse even though I didn’t know it. It fell to my lot to assist one of brothers in delivering his Miami Herald paper route during the summer. There were certain parts of his route that scared me to the core... strange shadows, strange noises, strange smells. On moonless nights I would put off delivering papers to “those” places until the very last… hoping against all hope for an early sunrise. The sun seldom beat me and therefore, with extreme reluctance, I had to pedal my bike into those dark alleys or walk the apartment buildings very dark hallways.

Life is like that sometimes. Dark and scary. Strange shadows and things that go bump in the night. We would much prefer to walk through life with knowing all the facts and having great insight. We would much rather have everything come at us in broad daylight. But life isn’t like that no matter how much we cross our fingers, close our eyes real tight and make pinky swears. At the very least life is scary and that is where hope comes in… as well as faith in the Lord!

Lent reminds us that no matter what we face, no matter how dark the night, no matter how scary the shadows… Jesus has already been down that path and faced what we are facing… and therein lays our hope. Joy really does come in the morning.

No one jumped out of the shadows and nothing went “boo” … and I always got safely home as the sun was just starting to break the horizon.

PRAYER:

In the face of everything that we face in life, O Lord, give us hope that you are really in charge, you know the outcome, you are the purveyor of hope. And thank you for sunrises!

QUOTE:

G.K. Chesterton - Hope means hoping when things are hopeless, or it is no virtue at all...As long as matters are really hopeful, hope is mere flattery or platitude; it is only when everything is hopeless that hope begins to be a strength. 

Lent - a time for spiritual spring-cleaning (Hebrews 12:12-13)

SCRIPTURE: Hebrews 12:12-13 (TM) – larger reading Hebrews 12:12-17

So don't sit around on your hands! No more dragging your feet! Clear the path for long-distance runners so no one will trip and fall, so no one will step in a hole and sprain an ankle. Help each other out. And run for it!

STORY:

School just beginning. One morning went out to start car to go to church. Flat tire. Lucky I had a spare. Changed tire quickly and on way. Didn't think to drop spare off to be fixed. "I'll get around to it." Within five days went out to car to go to school. Another flat. Only this time no spare! Had to roll it to nearest station and wait while it was fixed. When something breaks, fix it now. Don't wait until you need it and then don't have it! 

OBSERVATION:

What is getting in the way of a more intimate relationship with God? Get rid of it! What are the things that bog us down? Get rid of them! What occupies our spiritual energy and diverts our attention from things that really matter? Get rid of them!

Clear the path. Get ready to run the marathon. Make sure there isn’t anything to hinder our journey.

Lent is an exercise in path clearing. Preparation to run the spiritual race of a life time.

We’ve allowed cobwebs to gather in the corners of our soul. We’ve permitted less important things to take center stage. We’ve relaxed our guard against negative thinking. Lent allows us an opportunity to do some spring-cleaning… spiritual spring-cleaning.

What are we waiting for? A golden invitation? Don’t waste this chance for God to do something fantastic.

PRAYER:

We desire to be more faithful. We wish for a great spiritual connection with you oh God. May this Lent be a holy Lent.

How to heal our world - a Lenten meditation (Philippians 2:1-2)

SCRIPTURE: Philippians 2:1-2 (CEB) – larger reading Philippians 2:1-11

Therefore, if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort in love, any sharing in the Spirit, any sympathy, complete my joy by thinking the same way, having the same love, being united, and agreeing with each other.

STORY:

A. W. Tozer writes: Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshipers [meeting] together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be, were they to become 'unity' conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship. 

OBSERVATION:

Unless you have been living under a rock for the last many years it will come as no surprise that we are a divided society. Most of the men and women on the great divide claim Christ as their savior. Let me surmise as to how we got to this state: We have taken our eyes off of Christ, the great unifier.

I believe it was John Wesley who said: “If your heart belongs to Christ give me your hand and we will walk together.”  If he didn’t say it he could have given his belief in the powerful catholic spirit which should drive all hearts and minds into one body.

Lent stands as a 40-day journey were we once again begin to allow the spirit of Christ to dwell in our hearts allowing the Holy Spirit to unite us in a bond of love. Anything less denies his resurrection and simply nails Jesus to the cross all over again.

Matthew 5:23-24 (TM) - "This is how I want you to conduct yourself in these matters. If you enter your place of worship and, about to make an offering, you suddenly remember a grudge a friend has against you, abandon your offering, leave immediately, go to this friend and make things right. Then and only then, come back and work things out with God. is often quoted, but seldom followed.

Bring society has to start someplace. It should start with those who say they follow Jesus. Lent is a great time to start since it is a season of repentance and reconciliation.

We all want a God-centered reconciliation. We desire our relationship with Christ to be rock solid. That which stands in our way is our relationship with those on the other side of the divide. By keeping our eyes fixed on God we will automatically move closer to each other. It is called grace!

PRAYER:

Our desire is unity. We long for ones in spirit and in truth. We hate it when we out of sorts with our brothers and sisters in Christ. Bring us together Lord, bring us together.

Lent: Dealing with the clutter of our soul. (Psalm 19)

SCRIPTURE: Psalm 19: 14 (CEB) – larger reading: Psalm 19

Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be pleasing to you, LORD, my rock and my redeemer.

STORY:

From the little devotional material, Daily Bread, comes the insight: The following illustration from A Primer on Meditation points out what happens when the mind is directed and focused on one thing: "M.A. Rosanoff, long associated with Thomas Edison, had worked futilely for over a year to soften the wax of phonograph cylinders by altering their chemical constitution. The results were negative. Rosanoff relates how he mused night after night trying to 'mentally cough up' every theoretical and practical solution. 'Then it came like a flash of lightning. I could not shut waxes out of my mind, even in my sleep. Suddenly, through headache and daze, I saw the solution. The first thing the next morning, I was at my desk; and half an hour later I had a record in the softened wax cylinder...This was the solution! I learned to think waxes...waxes...waxes, and the answer came without effort, although months of thought had gone into the mental mill.'" 

OBSERVATION:

Our minds, like our lives, are cluttered with “stuff”… tons of stuff… layers of stuff… “collectibles” of sorts… relics from the past… just plan ordinary stuff… stuff that demands attention… requires a dusting off… just plain unadulterated stuff. And oh my, how this “stuff” weighs us down.

Such is the case with some of our faith “stuff”. It is ideas that we have carried since our earliest days of elementary thinking. It made sense once, but does little to assist us along on our spiritual journey. It is about as important to our faith development as flannel graphs are to the teaching children today. And yet, we hold on to them.

Lent is an important time in our spiritual journey. It has been a historical time of sorting out ones faith... to bring out all the “stuff” from our closets and down from the shelves… to lay it side-by-side out on the table for a long contemplative look.

May I suggest that as all this “old” thinking lays before us we allow it to become the focus for our meditation during these 40-days. Choose just one idea and zero in on it. Meditate. Contemplate. Turn it over. Look at from various positions. And try to hear what God is really saying to you. Does this idea help or hinder? Put it through the wringer or the “mental mill” of our spiritual being. Move on to the next idea when we really feel that God is through with us on this particular issue.

Some of us will only get to one or two ideas, while others will fully address most of the “stuff” on the spiritual table. It really depends on how good we are at listening to God speak in the silence.

PRAYER:

And so our spiritual journey begins. Easter will be here before we know it. May we not waste these days with business as usual. Help us to center in on you.

HINT: Suggested reading during Lent: “Voices of Silence: The Lives of the Trappists Today” by Frank Bianco