April 1 - God Wins

Isaiah 13:9-13

I have a confession to make...

This week, whenever anyone asks how I'm doing, my response is usually something in the neighborhood of, "I'm fine."

But.
If I'm honest, I'm not "fine."

This week, I have been an absolute basket case of emotions. I can swing from being grateful for daffodils and sunshine to being absolutely undone--and often overwhelmed to the point of tears--by the latest news report of disease running rampant through our world.

If I'm honest, I'm scared.
I think a lot of us are scared.

But do you know what else I discovered this week? Sitting at the foot of the throne of my Father, pouring out my thoughts almost as fast as the tears poured down my face, I heard three surprising, honest words come out of my own mouth:

"I'm so angry."

I did not even realize that it was true until I said it out loud. But as I began to think about how devastating it is that hardworking people are losing jobs, families are losing loved ones, and students are losing delightful dreams of varsity sports and schoolmates and proms, I realized that I really AM angry. I cry out, "this is not how it was supposed to be!" and seethe with fury at a silent enemy who is threatening to steal, kill, and destroy.

Do you know what?
God is angry, too.

In Isaiah 13, we see God coming in a day described as "a cruel day, with wrath and fierce anger." In the face of darkness that overwhelms us, we can be assured that this disease will not have the final victory. God's rage burns against the evil, darkness, and death surrounding us. The fear sweeping our world does not get the last word. The evil one does not get to win.

God wins.

GOD. WINS.

So even though I may not know how long these dark days will last,
Even though I don't know when I get to hug my family again,
Even though I don't know what tomorrow will bring,
I know that in the end, on that Day, all will be made right.

And in that truth,
I find hope.

Thanks be to God.

King Jesus Defeats His Adversary

Scripture Reading:  Revelation 20:7-10

Since the beginning of time on this earth, Satan has been trying to dethrone the God of the universe.  He decided in his heart to “make [himself] like the most High God (Isa 14:14),“ and, as a result he has “fallen from heaven…and [has been] cast down to the earth (Isa 14:12).”  Now relegated to earth, Satan claims the world as his by conquest. There is some truth to this, in that he won his position by power and politics, yet “conquest” is actually a misnomer. Satan presents a counterfeit “deed of gift” from God to claim the earth as his. In a sense, God did deliver this world to Satan, but not to do whatever he pleases. The devil is prince of the world, not by the preference of God, but by His permission. *

 

Over time, Satan has tried to claim victory over Christ:

·         During the temptation of Christ, Satan offered Jesus all the kingdoms of the world if He would bow down and worship him (see Matthew 4:8-10).

·         On that first Good Friday, Satan seemed to have victory over Jesus’ life (see John19:30).

·         From that day until now, Satan continues his rampage against Christ and those who follow Him – seeking to deceive, defeat, and destroy. “Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour (I Peter 5:8).”

·         Even near the end of the world, there was the appearance of victory for Satan and those he talked into going to war.  “They came up on the broad plain of the earth, surrounding the camp of the saints and the beloved city (Rev 20:9a).”

 

Imagine yourself among the saints.  How would you feel? I would be thinking, “These are impossible odds – we’re done for this time.”

 

But, guess what?  God’s present concession to Satan’s claim is temporary.* In the end…the King utterly defeats His adversary: “…and fire came down from heaven and devoured them. And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone…and will be tormented day and night forever and ever (Rev 20:9b-10).”  The ultimate, complete and final victory of King Jesus – and we will be in the victory parade!

 

May we encourage one another in this truth when it seems as though Satan will win the day:

            This is my Father’s world; Oh let me not forget

            That though the wrong seems oft so strong,
            God is the ruler yet.
            This is my Father’s world, why should my heart be sad?
            The Lord is King, let the heavens ring;
            God reigns, let the earth be glad! +

 

*Thoughts in bold gleaned from Daily Readings from The Christian in Complete Armour by William Gurnall, edited by James S Bell. Jr, Moody Publishers Edition, 1994, Readings from March 8, 9 & 10.  I discovered this 17^th-century Puritan theologian two years ago and continue to be blown away by his wisdom and ability to concisely put great truth into few words.

 

+ verse 3 from This is My Father’s World ©Franklin L Sheppard, Lutheran Book of Worship, 1978

Victory in a Broken World!

Revelation 19:1-8

We live in a broken world!

·         In 2017 Columbus had a record setting number of homicides of 143.

·         Opioid addiction has become an epidemic in the United States.

·         Virtually every day in the news there’s a new revelation about a sex scandal. Most recently, it involved a world renowned doctor who sexually abused young girls.

 This is a very short list of headliner examples of our broken world. Sometimes we don’t even need to go any further than our front door for an example. Is the world any worse today than the first century when women and children were considered property, temple prostitutes were common place and Christians were martyred?

 John wrote Revelation from the island of Patmos, a Roman penal colony. While there God spoke to him through an angel in a highly symbolic style. 

“Praise the Lord!
    Salvation and glory and power belong to our God.
² His judgments are true and just.
    He has punished the great prostitute
who corrupted the earth with her immorality.
    He has avenged the murder of his servants.”           NLT

 The “great prostitute” that John refers to is symbolic for Babylon which was the political, commercial and religious center of its day. It was also the center of moral decay and decadence. Today, we have our own version of the Great Prostitute still seducing people to do evil.

“Hallelujah!” which means “Praise the Lord”, is written four times in these eight verses. Why? Into this broken world, God sent His only son as an innocent baby. How ironic. His son brought the Good News. He brought hope and a future. He brought forgiveness and redemption. Therefore, let us…

⁶ …”Praise the Lord!
    For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns. NLT

Hallelujah! The Almighty reigns!

Victory is Ours

Philippians 3:10-14

(Use the link below to read the verses.)

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Philippians%203%3A10-14&version=NIV;NLT

 

Tom Brady is the starting quarterback for the New England Patriots. Last Sunday, the Patriots defeated the Jacksonville Jaguars making them eligible to play in the Super Bowl. It’s not so amazing that the Patriots won, but how they won.

 

At the ripe old football age of 40, and with an injured right hand (his throwing hand), Brady lead his team to victory by overcoming a double digit deficit with less than three minutes left in the game. No matter what adversity he faced, he kept his focus, and his team’s focus, on attaining their goal.

 

Paul had the same mindset for himself and for the Philippians.

 

¹⁰ I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead… ¹³ I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, ¹⁴ I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.      NLT

 

In football, the temptation is to lose sight of the goal; to think about the injured hand, the penalty, the fumble, the double digit deficit or the teammate out with a concussion. The reverse is also true. When you get a lead, there’s a temptation to ease up on the gas pedal; to think you’ve got the game in the bag; to coast.

 

Life is the same way. There is a temptation to either obsess on the problem to the point of being overwhelmed. Or to focus on how good things are and coast. Either way, you lose sight of the goal.

 

Paul was a fighter. Here’s what he wrote to Timothy, his son in the faith.

 

⁷ I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. ⁸ Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.    2 Timothy 4:7-8 NIV

 

How do you respond to problems and blessings? Are you a fighter? Do you keep your eyes on the goal? Victory is ours, if we only take hold of it.

 

 

The Shuot of Victory

Revelation 19:6-8

(Use the link below to read the verses.)

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation%2019%3A6-8&version=NIV;NASB;NLT

 

⁶ Then I heard again what sounded like the shout of a vast crowd or the roar of mighty ocean waves or the crash of loud thunder…     NLT

 

This verse reminds me of a Buckeye game I went to years ago. The opposing team, which happened to be the team I was routing for, had marched the length of the field. There were only seconds left in the first half. A touchdown would give us the lead, and a decided edge going into the second half.

 

With the momentum and the ball, we were at the closed end of the Shoe. As my team came to the line of scrimmage, the crescendo of the crowd noise was deafening. The ball was snapped; a pass floated into the flat; and a Buckeye intercepted it and ran for a touchdown. That was the game. A shout rose from the stadium to celebrate the victory.

 

Another joyous occasion is a wedding. The bride, and oftentimes her mother, spend months in preparation for the momentous occasion. A dress must be picked; colors chosen; flowers ordered; a meal planned. The details of preparing for an event like this can become overwhelming at times.

 

But it’s all worth it on the day of the wedding, as people smile broadly at the bride as she walks down the aisle to the traditional music of the Bridal Chorus. Songs are sung, words are proclaimed, vows are taken, the bride and groom kiss and are presented as the new couple. The people rejoice.

 

The victorious shout of a vast crowd and the smiles and tears of a wedding, celebrate temporal events that dot our lives with joy and meaning. However, John is writing about something not temporal, but eternal. The celebration of the wedding of the Lamb of God (Jesus) and his bride (the church), who has prepared herself.

 

“Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns.

⁷ Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.” ⁸ It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.        NASB

 

The Lord is with us always. He loves us and is always at work in our lives. He is

sovereign. He is victorious over death and still reigns. Can you hear the shout of victory? Can you see the Lamb of God waiting for his bride?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Victory!

Every year about this time, I try to find one of my favorite movies on television - Yankee Doodle Dandy. This year it was playing on TCM and I don't subscribe to that channel, so I settled for another favorite - Air Force One. 

The battle of right over wrong will bring out the flag-waver in me every time. I wait with anticipation for one of the final scenes in the movie when the ultimate bad guy is close to defeat and our hero says, "Get off my plane."

There is one more line to give me chills and get the flag moving wildly. When the cavalry, in this case, the Marines, rescue our beleaguered champion and report to the world, “We are changing our call sign to Air Force One.” Those words tell the world, all is well. 

Many of the Psalms provide a similar sense of victory and fill my heart with the swelling sense of knowing all is well. David was often in the midst of battle when he would call upon his God for help and protection from the evil forces around him. 

"I have a message from God in my heart concerning the sinfulness of the wicked and deceitful; they fail to act wisely or do good." (Psalm 36:1)

David is preparing to do battle, to fight for his country's freedom and the God he loves so much. As a man after God's own heart, he knows his task is justified and he understands how important is the fight for good over evil. In fact, this is a war to will be waged over and over until Jesus makes His final appearance.

"How priceless is your unfailing love, O God! People take refuge in the shadow of Your wings." (Psalm 36:7)

 Now, when I find myself battling with the distractions life flings in my path to discourage or derail me, I turn to the Psalms for comfort, direction and encouragement. If David can defeat a giant, I can overcome my problems knowing Jesus is at my side. I can shout to Satan, "Get off my plane!"

 Psalm 36

Tom Izzo is Mr. March

Revelation 20:1-15

 

 

If you don’t know it by now, I’m a huge Michigan State sports fan. Not surprisingly, I believe that Tom Izzo is one of the best college basketball coaches active today. What is his secret to success? Accountability.

 

At the beginning of every school year he has all of his players write down their goals – individual, team, academic and off court. He then collects those goals and during the year if he sees that a player isn’t working towards his goals, Izzo will pull him aside and talk to him about it.

 

Consider Revelation 20. God keeps us all accountable. First, the angel bound Satan for a thousand years. Then after being released for a little while, Satan is thrown into the lake of fire. Finally, anyone whose name isn’t found in the book of life is thrown into the lake of fire.

 

Some of the images in this chapter could come right out of a Stephen King novel. But let’s think about this, not in a literal sense, but as a piece of the big picture of the Bible. If we don’t get bogged down in the details of it, what can we learn about our Heavenly Father? I would suggest these three things.

 

First, He is just; and He is true to His character. His yes is yes and His no is no. What this means is that He must judge evil. He must judge the unrighteous. He must judge us. He must keep us accountable. I don’t particular care for this lesson, but it’s there, and it’s true. However, there is Good News to go with this.

 

Because He is just, our sins have to be paid for. He did this by using the sacrificial system as a metaphor to show the Israelites in a tangible way the need for a sacrifice; the need for atonement; the need for redemption. The only way to pay for our sins was with a pure lamb, a spotless lamb – His son Jesus.

 

Therefore, the second lesson from this chapter is that God loves us so much that he sacrificed His one and only son so that we might know Him; so that we might not be thrown into the lake of fire; so that we might spend eternity with Him.

 

The final lesson is that God wins! He wins over Satan; over evil; over death. He wins in the end! Why is that important for us? Consider what John wrote in his first letter: “Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world”. Ultimately, there is victory for us. Jesus will return.

 

Tom Izzo is known as Mr. March because of his record during March Madness. He knows how to win when it counts. He builds his team on accountability to help them be better; to help them win when it counts. God does the same thing for us. He keeps us accountable and paid the price for our sins. Because He wins, we win too.

 

So, who’s keeping you accountable?

 

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=revelation%2020%3A1-15&version=NIV;TLB
https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/mclean/niv/Rev.20.1-Rev.20.15

 

 

 

The Story - Chapter 7 - Joshua 6

VICTORY!

There are times when there are more questions and answers. Times when the next move we must make just does not make sense and we doubt the instructions we have been given. There are seasons when there is no accounting for the storms and the madness that appears to have overtaken our days.

Joshua 6:2-3 (NIV)

“Then the LORD said to Joshua, "See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days.”

God instructed Joshua and his men to overtake Jericho, one of the oldest and most heavily fortified cities they would encounter. When He issued the peculiar battle plan He assured them they would not fail if they followed His words; he said the enemy was already defeated!

God tells us the same thing. Satan may be prowling like a roaring lion, he may be hiding around every corner, he may be putting doubts and worries in our heads, but he has already been defeated. We can take comfort in that fact and blow the trumpets of victory with all the confidence of a victor. There will still be battles to fight and hearts to claim for Christ, but the outcome of the final battle is assured.


Read Joshua 6 here

Listen to Joshua 6 here

Joshua 12

Today we read a listing of all the nations defeated by Joshua, 31 of them.  We may wonder why an entire chapter is devoted to this list and what is the importance of it to us?  This list is a summary of the first half of the Book of Joshua and from it we can see that as long as the people were faithful to God, obedient and trustworthy, He led them to victory.

The parallel here for this writer, the theme I can discern, is perseverance.  Perseverance has been a battle cry for years, especially since I claimed a personal relationship with Jesus.  Becoming a Believer isn't the end of the story or journey, it is the beginning.  Claiming Christ as Savior doesn't bring to a close the chapters of my life that were filled with pain and suffering, it makes them understandable and gives them meaning.

I can look back on the battles for my soul that were fought by Satan.  I am witness to the way he fights dirty.  How he knows my weaknesses and uses my past to cause me to doubt my future.  I have learned to recognize that the enemy is real, very real.  The battle is a lifetime war with evil, it will not conclude until the day Christ claims it is finished.

Joshua and Israel spent their lifetime searching for peace and the good life.  We do the same.  There were many time times God spoke to his warrior, "Be strong and courageous."  His courage and strength carried them to victory.  His faithfulness to his God ensured victory in the end.  Ours will too.  There will be many battles, perhaps daily, but if we are strong and courageous and faithful to God, we will be victorious,

Evil will fall and we will stand before Him one day.

Read Joshua 12 here

Listen to Joshua 12 here

Joshua 8

"Then the LORD says to Joshua, 'Do not be afraid, do not be discouraged." (Joshua 8:1)  These words must have been like balm to a blistered finger.  Imagine the discouragement Joshua and others must have experienced when they lost the battle for Ai.  They were part of such a glorious victory in Jericho and then they were chased from Ai in defeat.  What a tremendous blow.

Can you relate to Joshua?  Have you had a great victory in your life, one that made you feel like finally things were going to be Okay, only to experience a major setback?  Maybe you married the love of your life after years of searching and praying for God to send the right person.  You are feeling as if God is smiling on you and life is wonderful. Then illness or death or infidelity invades your perfect home. What happens next?  Where do you turn?

We learn in this chapter of Joshua, another valuable lesson.  When things go bad, when the plan doesn't seem to be a good one, God will redeem it.  When I read chapter 7, my immediate thoughts were negative.  I could not help but be disappointed in the behavior of some of the Israelite people.  I was disappointed, but not surprised.

We are such a fickle creation.  One day we are strong and steadfast in our faith and our actions.  We want only to do what is right, but the next minute we see a chance for self-gratification and all the good intentions and the powerful life-lessons we learned are out the window.  As I continued reading in Chapter 8 I began to feel better about things.  Of course, we are going to sin, of course we are going to fail and disappoint God as well as those we care about.

But there is wonderful news.  God will forgive, God will use our weaknesses to strengthen us.  God will use our faults and failures to further our mission in this world.  Once again we hear the words, "Do not be afraid, do not be discouraged."  God will make it right, God will make us whole, God will make it all better in the end if we just Trust and Obey.

Read Joshua 8 here

Listen to Joshua 8 here

Romans 8:1-17

Many years ago, I was a cheerleader.  I know, that is difficult to grasp and perhaps even a bit scary to envision, but true none-the-less.  It is the Cheerleaders duty to keep everyone involved in the game; cheering with enthusiasm and confidence they have the winning team.  There is one particular cheer they always learn to sing loudly; spelling out the word, V-I-C-T-O-R-Y.

That is what Romans 8 is all about for me, VICTORY.  Because God sent his Son to save us, we have victory over the grave.  Because at baptism we are filled with the Holy Spirit we have victory over shame, there is no condemnation.  The Holy Spirit is the power behind the rebirth of every Christian.  The Holy Spirit can be our constant companion and we can turn to him for help in every situation.  The Holy Spirit want to be our loudest cheerleader.

"For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God."

(Romans 8:14)

There is no condemnation

There is no shame

For us there is salvation

The Gospel does proclaim


Holy Spirit is our power

He works to set us free

He is our shining tower

So we have the victory

Read the Romans 8:1-17 text at Biblegateway.com

The Enemy is Real- So is The Champion 1 Corinthians 15:20-28

Our scripture today is full of hope. It is all about Jesus reigning and ruling. There is one line that really stood out to me and that was, “Christ will rule until he puts all his enemies under his power, and the last enemy he destroys will be death.” Did you see it, death is our enemy.

When my father was dying, my husband couldn’t take off of work and see him so we would talk on the phone a lot. I remember one day Steve told me to tell my dad that death is our enemy and that Jesus is victor over death. I felt enormous peace from his words ‘cuz I was angry that my father was dying and now I had a legitimate adversary, death.

We are not supposed to glamorize death, embrace death, or fear death because it is our enemy. Now here is the really cool part, if death is our enemy who is our allay? Jesus! The King of kings and our Lord of lords, he is our All in all both the beginning and the end.

With Jesus on our side we should live each day as the victor. Will we die? Yes, unless Jesus comes before, but death will not defeat us. I remember calling my husband at four in the morning to let him know my father had died. The first thing I said to Steve was, “I wonder what dad is doing right now, now that he is living again.”

Let’s live each day truly believing our enemy has been defeated.

Read today’s passage at Biblegateway 1 Corinthians 15:20-28