The King is Revealed - Shh!

Reading: Matthew 17: 1-9

 

How are you at keeping a secret? Today we join the disciples as they become privy to an extraordinary truth which they were to hold top secret at Jesus’ command.

Just days before the incident in Matthew 17, Jesus was walking with His disciples and asking them who people were saying He [Jesus] was. They offered various thoughts:  John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, one of the prophets. Then He asked, “But who do you say I am?”  “You are the Messiah, the Son of God,” Peter answered…and Jesus warned them strongly not to tell anyone who He was.

Later, Jesus took Peter, James, and John up a mountain, where they were joined by the Old Testament saints Moses and Elijah.  Then an amazing thing happened (as if seeing these two men wasn’t amazing enough!) – God the Father revealed to them what Peter had professed a week earlier, Jesus was, God’s “beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased.”

Wow, what great news – everyone should know this!

Again Jesus told them to keep secret what they had seen.  What? Are you kidding?  This is such good news – the word needs to be spread, doesn’t it?  Why would Jesus put the brakes on the disciples’ enthusiasm?  Two words we perhaps don’t like to hear, “God’s timing” seem to be at the heart of it.  He told them to wait until He had risen from the dead, until they had received His Spirit (Acts 1:8).  When the Spirit came, bringing power to them, now was the time to go and tell – once they were equipped.  

They needed to wait on God before stepping out to proclaim Jesus to the whole world.

Through them, we, who have come after the Apostles, see the King revealed; And today, through us, others see Him as their King.  Through us, God “manifests the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place (2 Cor 2:14).”  He equips His saints in every generation to manifest His Messiah, His King.  Without His power, we are inadequate for the task. Praise God, our adequacy is from Him (2 Cor 3:5)!

 

Father, thank you that you plainly revealed Your Son to the world through your word and your people. We pray that this Lenten season many more may see Jesus as Their Messiah, their King. Amen

Father Time

“Do not interfere with the work on this temple of God.  Let the governor of the Jews and the Jewish elders rebuild this house of God on its site.”  Ezra 6:7

It had been roughly 15 years since temple construction stopped.  The former king, Cyrus, had ordered its rebuild, but political maneuvering by the opposition had brought the effort to a standstill until this subsequent decree by King Darius.  A 15-year wait ... that’s an eternity for us today.

I don’t know how our world shifted gears into its break-neck pace.  (“Break-neck” and accelerating toward “maniacal,” I suspect.)  Maybe it all started with the automobile.  Older folks among us might cite McDonalds as a major influence behind our “right now!” insistence.  Of course, the internet has propelled our instant access expectations to levels unimaginable a generation ago.  (Encyclopedia Britannica ran out of breath and published its final printed edition in 2010.)

Our need for speed is brand new, perhaps only a century of race car red, vividly contrasting the gray track of relative sameness through much of human history.  Certainly there is and has always been a category for immediacy.  Brought in to clean up Hurricane Katrina’s mess, for instance, commanding general Russell Honoré instilled a needed urgency among all factions with refreshingly simple clarity, “You’re looking at a calendar, and I’m looking at my watch.”  His focus and decisiveness were refreshing, exactly what New Orleans needed at that moment.  But everything need not rise to crisis level.

What would we do today if our plans came to a 15-year standstill, as it did for the Jews returning from exile?  Would we despair?  Blame God?  Lose faith?  Ironically, instant access to everything has made us oblivious to the fact that God’s sovereignty extends over time, itself.  It’s still his world.  He’s still in control.  And he still does things in his time. 

God is not rushed.  And it’s not safe to pass him on either the right or the left.  We need to trust him, settle in and adjust to his pace.

So if you’ll please excuse me for now … I need to go and synchronize my time to his watch.

[Read today’s text, Ezra 6:1-12, in the NIV, or in The Message.]

Prayer is Waiting

Psalm 143:7-8 (MSG)  Hurry with your answer, GOD! I'm nearly at the end of my rope. Don't turn away; don't ignore me! That would be certain death.  If you wake me each morning with the sound of your loving voice, I'll go to sleep each night trusting in you. Point out the road I must travel; I'm all ears, all eyes before you.

When reading through the Psalms I generally want to use my comfortable version; the one I recognize and draw comfort from, but today let's use the words from Eugene Peterson's, The Message Bible. This version is using the language my heart often imparts to my head.  Maybe it is the other way around, my head imparts to my heart.  Often I allow my humanness to override sensibility and I take on an attitude of impatience, or worse yet, impatience with attitude.

Trusted friends tell me it is okay to be honest with God, to tell Him just how I am feeling.  They say He has big shoulders and can handle my temper tantrums and defiant rantings. God is the only one who truly understands my heart and the only one who can make me whole again.

Praying through the Psalms is quite a journey.  It would be interesting to sit down with all of you and discuss just what this trip has been like.  I would love to ask if there was one general theme or word you heard from God during this time.

God knows us so well and because of this He speaks to us often in ways that surprise. I am in a season of change and challenge.  I find myself passing through valleys I thought I had visited years ago. God has been laying the word "wait" on my heart.

Waiting is not something I do well.  But as I find myself in the midst of just such a season I might as well obey.  I know that God's timing is perfect.  That should make me so excited that I wait without questioning. It is about time I learn from the past.

He has always been faithful, even when I wasn't.  He has always walked at my side, even when I tried to escape. His arms are always open for my return.  He has spent much of my life waiting for me to wake up.

Waiting is now the next stage of my life. Point out the road I must travel; I'm all ears, all eyes before you. Has God given you a word to work on, to pray about and to ponder?

Psalm 142, 143, 144

Luke 1:57-66 -- Birth of John The Baptist

 God’s timing appears to be the theme for today and this week in general; His perfect timing in particular.  His perfect timing brought John the Baptizer into this world at the precise moment of his birth. He brought His Son, Jesus, to us at just the right moment in history. The same can be said for your birth and mine also.  God’s perfect timing will become evident someday.


Luke 1:64 (NIV)
“Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue was loosed, and he began to speak, praising God.”

God waited for the perfect moment to loose Zechariah’s tongue, to restore his ability to communicate verbally.  Are you waiting for God to act, to respond to your prayers, to do something?  Sometimes these are the most difficult days.  We don’t do the waiting thing well, I know I don’t.  When my needs seem to be on a time table, I am impatient for them to be met.  When I finally remember to pray about something I expect those prayers to be answered right then and there.

God’s timing and my patience do not usually line up. I noticed today, while reading from Isaiah, God was teaching me a lesson again.  “The LORD will guide you always; He will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame.  You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.” (Isaiah 58:11)  These words may not speak to you today, but because of God’s timing in my life, they do touch me.

I am beginning to understand a few things about my life.  God has been revealing some truths to me that until now have escaped my understanding.  I had to turn to Him; to pour out my heart to Him before His perfect timing came to be.  I needed to make a move, turn a corner, surrender the moment.

What are you waiting for God to do?  What sort of action needs to happen in order for you to feel God is moving in your life?  Is it possible that He is waiting on you?  Whose move is it?

Read Luke 1:57-66 here

Listen to Luke 1:57-66 here

God's Timing is often a Puzzle - Acts 23:34-24:27

When two years had passed, Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus, but because Felix wanted to grant a favor to the Jews, he left Paul in prison. (Acts 24:27 NIV)

When two years had passed...really? Two years? I tend to question God's timing when He doesn't do something today! Paul must have prayed for patience, always a mistake if one is in a hurry. But obviously, Paul was not in a hurry, he understood that God's way is the best way and he was OK with that. This is where I need help, an area I must work on more.

Are there things you are afraid to pray about? Are there things in your life you really want God to take care of, to handle, but fear the answer to your prayers might be more painful than the situation that brought you to your knees? Oh, I am right there with you. I understand that my trepidation is because I do not trust, do not believe that God will truly take care of me and my loved ones in a timely fashion.

One thing I am learning from reading about Paul in the Book of Acts is that he really trusted, truly believed and absolutely loved God. He had faith in God’s timing and His way. Oh, for a faith that strong.

Jesus, my prayer this day is for myself and everyone reading this devotional; that you would grow our faith and instill a sense of the perfection of Your timing in our lives. Amen.
Read the Acts 23:34-24:27 text here.

Anticipation Genesis 40

Waiting is hard. My four year old does not like to wait through commercials. He is growing up in a world with recorded TV shows and when he watches one in “real” time he gets frustrated. He wants me to fast forward through the commercials. When I explain to him that I can’t and he needs to wait he says it’s too hard.

My husband and I have been waiting for a church to call him as their pastor. We have been interviewing at churches and praying for God’s will. The wait is hard but we would rather wait for God’s timing than move forward in our own. There are churches who have wanted to hire him but we did not feel they were where God wanted us, so we wait.

In our passage today we see two prisoners waiting for Pharaoh to let them out of prison. For one of them the wait will be worth it. The other will meet disappointment. We are never sure where our waiting will lead us but God is. I believe that God loves us and wants us serving Him. I have to trust that though the time we wait seems hard and long, to God it’s no more than a commercial break.

 

Read the entire passage in Biblegateway Genesis 40