What Are You Looking At?

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By Larry Short, Elder Chair

Turn your eyes upon Jesus
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of His glory and grace.
(Lyrics & music by Helen Howarth Lemmel, 1863–1961)

I’m currently working my way through Isaiah during my daily reading time. At first it was fun, but along about chapter 10 the prophet begins to pronounce God’s judgment, and it’s not pretty. He singles out arrogant Assyria, Babylon, Philistia, Moab, Damascus, Cush, Egypt, Dumah, Arabia, Tyre, Sidon . . . even the holy city of Jerusalem.

And then, in case anyone feels left out, in chapter 24 Isaiah presents God’s judgment against the whole earth:

Behold, the Lord will empty the earth and make it desolate, and he will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants . . . the earth shall be utterly empty and utterly plundered; for the Lord has spoken this word. (Isaiah 24:1, 3 ESV)

The rest of the chapter goes on to describe in chilling detail the disturbing events that will accompany this “emptying” judgment upon the earth for its sin: “Its transgression lies heavy upon it, and it falls, and will not rise again” (v. 20).

Should I keep reading? I wondered. Could it possibly get any worse than this?

Thankfully, in chapter 25 we find a dramatic turnaround, as the prophet begins to praise God for His ultimate victory over sin—what Isaiah calls “plans formed of old, faithful and sure,” as God “has done wonderful things.” The culmination of victory comes when God “will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth” (Isaiah 25:8).

It will be said on that day, “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the Lord; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.” (Isaiah 25:9)

Encouraged, I continued reading into chapter 26, where this familiar verse jumped out at me:

You keep him in perfect peace
Whose mind is stayed on you,
Because he trusts in you. (Isaiah 26:3)

In the midst of all the turmoil and pain of God’s judgment poured out on a sinful world, it is possible to be “kept in perfect peace!”

When I had awoken this morning, before I read these words, I first checked the news. That’s not always a good idea. Pandemic deaths in the United States have topped 581,000, putting us on track to possibly equal or surpass deaths from the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic. The death rate seems to be slowing, thanks to immunizations and other measures, but of course, as we know, things can change quickly.

If the pandemic news is bad for us, it’s equally bad, if not worse, for millions of others. In India, the pandemic is a terrible disaster right now, with numbers quickly catching up to ours. They’ve just surpassed 400,000 new cases per day, with over 246,000 total deaths. Most sick people can’t even get into a hospital or have access to oxygen, so many are asphyxiating on the streets. A pall of smoke from overworked crematoria hangs over many cities in India.

Other nations also struggle: the virus is ravaging Brazil, France, Russia, and Turkey, among many others. And the global economic damage is almost incalculable. In February alone, the world saw a loss of more than $50 billion in trading revenue.

And there is plenty of other dire news to cause despair, from violence in Jerusalem to a bombing outside an Afghan school that killed dozens of schoolgirls and seriously injured hundreds.

But . . . you keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you!

What does it mean to “stay your mind” on God? I love the instruction in Hebrews 12:1-3 (NIV):

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

As we turn from our sin and the circumstances around us, the first gaze of the eyes of our hearts must be upon the face of our Savior, who has already won the battle that rages all around us. As we turn to Him, we offload the weight of the world around us, even that of our own sin!

We cannot ignore the world around us. Jesus Himself urged His disciples to lift up their eyes because the fields are white for harvest. Upon seeing the need of a hurting world, He had compassion for them, “because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” He responded by going throughout all the cities and villages, “teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction.” And he calls His disciples to be co-laborers with Him in these fertile fields (Matthew 9:35-37).

Our Shepherd engaged with the suffering sheep of the world, but that engagement was rooted in “the joy that was set before him” and what was primary to Him, His relationship with His Father. As the compassion of Christ moves us to better reflect the heart of God for suffering people, how can we be the hands and feet of Jesus to a hurting world?

Our Savior, who sweat great drops of blood as He faced the agony of the cross, knew what perfect peace looks like! And He offers that to us, in the midst of all the pain and turmoil, sin and suffering within and around us. Will we start each new day by turning our gaze upon Him?

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The “Unknown God” Revealed

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By Geneva Mooney

Sometime in 2003, I accepted Jesus into my life, but my heart was not following Him yet. I was broken and I still am. I first needed to invite Him into my journey of life, then I had to learn to walk with Him, as we all do. It was a journey through the desert, a journey to fight, a journey to trust, and a journey to love as He first loved us. This is a journey with Him by my side, no matter how dark or joyous.

Like many others, this journey is redemptive and continues to be. As I walk more closely with my Father, I’ve learned to love Him and desire to do what is right through His Word and Holy Spirit (“If you love me, you will obey me” [John 14:15, NIV]). But it has not always been that way, because I loved myself and my emotions more. We can be conformed to this world, the thinking of this world and the judgments of this world, and not even know it.

In 2003, I also made a decision out of fear—fear of being judged by my parents and judged by Christians. At the time I was conformed to this world, but now as I walk with my Creator I am continuing to be transformed by the renewing of my mind (“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” [Romans 12:2a]; “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ” [2 Corinthians 10:5]). Today, through repentance and obedience, my Father has made me whole again.

In that moment of fear and brokenness, 18 years ago, when Jean and I were not yet married but living together, I chose to have an abortion. My healing journey then began several years ago when I chose to be open and honest with my parents and ask for their forgiveness. I then had to go to my Heavenly Father and ask Him for forgiveness, as I had judged my parents and did not honor them at the time of my decision because in my childhood, I decided in my heart that they were unsafe and not worth honoring. I also needed to ask my Heavenly Father to forgive me for sacrificing my own child out of fear, judgment, and shame.

I then forgave Christians (my fellow brothers and sisters) and asked my Father to forgive me for harboring judgments against them for being unsafe and not loving me where I was at, a sinner. I had to dismantle the lies, judgments, and vows that were seared into my heart and mind. This journey of sin in my heart and mind has taken years to build and years to dismantle, because it was only several weeks ago that I realized I had judged Christians 18 years ago.

We can’t overcome anything until we know Jesus. And until we know Jesus, we will create “unknown gods” to fill His void. That unknown god for me at the time was fear, judgment, and shame. I have had many other unknown gods that have needed to be dismantled and destroyed with the help of my wonderful, loving Father, through His Word and the Holy Spirit. I know I will yet have other unknown gods that will need to be dismantled as He directs me and guides me, but I can sit on my Father’s lap and soak up His love for me, and I do not have to do anything to deserve it. I just need to climb on His lap in truth, trust, and love for Him and His life for me.

While most of our unknown gods are actually false gods or idols, Scripture tells us about one unknown god who revealed truth and love and beauty to those who sought him. In Acts 17, Paul noted that amid all their detestable idols and false gods, the Athenians had set up an altar with the inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. In verse 23, Paul told the Athenians, “What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.” Then he began to teach them about Jesus and His Father! As the unknown god became known to these Athenians, they began to abandon and dismantle their idols and false gods.

Any idol or unknown god will always require a sacrifice. Our Father in Heaven only asks us to be living sacrifices (“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship” [Romans 12:1]). I believe through the sin in our hearts we build altars to unknown gods that block our view of our Father’s loving lap. When we are willing to take our sins to Jesus‘s feet on the cross and lay them there, we can be forgiven. God becomes known, and unknown gods can be torn down.

What is taking the place of our Father? What lies are we believing, or vows or judgments are we harboring that keep us from loving well and from sitting on our Father’s lap and soaking up His perfect love for us? What unknown gods are blocking you from seeing and experiencing the love of our FATHER, the one true God, and His Son Jesus Christ?

If you’ve had an abortion, you are pregnant and scared, or if this topic upsets you, know that the emotions are real, and you don’t have to navigate this journey alone. Jesus is right there with you—and I would be delighted to walk along your side, as well.

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Anger

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By Larry Short

JonahWe’re living in a day and age where an outflowing of national anger and disillusionment with broken government promises, increasing bureaucracy, and taxation are having a significant impact upon presidential politics. Whether that impact will be negative or positive for our country is hotly debated and beyond the scope of this Last Word.

What I am concerned about here is the impact that anger has on us personally. And I speak from that of which I know. I was raised by Christian parents, but the general mood in our household was often very angry. My parents fought a lot. Usually they were angry with each other, for a variety of reasons; and sometimes they were angry with us kids. I remember once my mom was very angry with my brother and me about something (I don’t remember what; I’m sure we deserved her wrath). She went for the belt to administer a whipping, which she rarely did. As the oldest, I was, unfortunately, first in line. She was so angry she didn’t realize she was holding the wrong end of the belt when she hit my backside with it. The first (and, as it turned out, only) blow landed with the metal buckle coming in contact with the target.

My mother was instantly horrified when she realized what she had done in anger; she burst into tears and ran off sobbing. It was the last time she ever took a belt to any of us five kids, as far as I know.

The fortunate part of the story for me is that my mom wasn’t very strong, and even in her anger the metal belt buckle, while it stung a bit, didn’t do much damage!

Some of this anger transferred to me. As a young father, I had a hard time not getting angry at my kids, particularly my son, who was very good at goading me. By the time he was 17, he knew exactly what buttons to push to get me pretty much out of control. Once he sent me into a blind rage, and I was so angry I grabbed a telephone (the cordless kind) and launched it at him with all my might. Fortunately, he had good reflexes and ducked the missile, which punched a hole right through the drywall of our staircase.

He grabbed some things out of his room and left the house, announcing that he was going to report me to Child Protective Services. I probably deserved that. I was appalled and dismayed and spent three days just pleading with the Lord to help me get my anger under control. At the end of that time, realizing that through the Lord’s empowerment I indeed did have control, if I only had the discipline to exercise it, I vowed I would never be goaded into that kind of anger again. And I have kept that vow to this day, some 15 years later. As a result, my relationship with my son has vastly improved. (Not that he hasn’t occasionally tested the limits!)

I realize now (and I probably realized then, to some extent, at least) that my anger was holding me back from becoming the kind of father, and the kind of disciple, God wanted me to become. I am so grateful to be able to look back and see how God has helped me get some victory over this particular broken and sinful aspect of my life. I am hoping that it has made me not only a better dad, but also a better husband, employee, brother in Christ, and citizen. (Now, on to the next big project!)

A Prophet with a Problem

At worship on Sunday, I mentioned what I am learning from the book of Jonah. Jonah was a prophet who had a problem with anger. And the Ninevites deserved his anger! They were among the most brutal people ever to inhabit the planet. The records of their horrific brutality, if you read about them in the history books, make you feel ill even now, thousands of years later. I won’t go there; I’ll just assure you that whatever your imagination can conjure up, what they did to their enemies was worse.

And they didn’t like the Hebrews. And the Hebrews didn’t like them. Which is why many people think Jonah ran in the opposite direction when God told him to go and deliver His message to Nineveh. Wa-a-a-ay in the opposite direction!

But the real reason Jonah ran is revealed in Jonah 4:1–4.

But it [God’s mercy on the Ninevites after they repented] displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” And the Lord said, “Do you do well to be angry?”

The answer to the Lord’s question was, of course, “No.” But instead of answering, Jonah just sulked. He went and staked out a position on the hillside overlooking the huge city of Nineveh, hoping against hope to see God rain down fire and brimstone on it while he ate popcorn.

It’s amazing, when you think about it, that the reason for Jonah’s anger was the kindness, grace, and mercy of our steadfastly loving God! In his anger against the Ninevites, Jonah wanted vengeance. He was only all too happy to preach God’s simple message: “Forty days, and Nineveh will be destroyed!” No love lost there, as far as he was concerned.

So Jonah set himself up on the hill, and verse 6 says “the Lord God appointed a plant” that provided shade over Jonah and gave him relief from the heat. And Jonah was glad for the plant. (He’d apparently had enough of discomfort after spending three days and nights in the gastrointestinal tract of a large fish!)

But then our merciful, gracious, and loving God did something very interesting. Verse 7 says that at dawn of the next day, God “appointed a worm” that attacked the plant so that it withered, and Jonah lost his comfy shade. (For the fascinating biblical story behind the worm, check out this blog post.) After the sun rose, “God appointed a scorching east wind” to make Jonah really uncomfortable. And, once again, Jonah was angry and “asked that he might die.” (You can almost hear him thinking, “I’ll show God! We’ll see how he feels after His prophet has died of heat stroke.”)

The discomfort was, of course, intended by God as an object lesson for Jonah. “Do you do well to be angry about the plant?” God asked him in verse 8. And Jonah replied, “Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.” And the Lord said, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?”

I hope Jonah saw the divine humor in this. God was under no illusions that the Ninevites were model citizens. His view of them was that they did “not know their right hand from their left.” Not very flattering, eh? And to drive his point home, God adds, “And also much cattle.” Come on, Jonah, at least feel for the cows!

(Something about this reminds me of that strangely hilarious scene in O Brother, Where Art Thou?: “Oh, George! Not the livestock!”)

I continue to be blown away by a recognition that I probably share with Jonah that God is so good at love, and I am so bad at it. He is indeed “a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.” Thank God He often (probably more often than we know) “relents from disaster,” even though we certainly deserve it!

What do you do if you struggle with anger?

Do you struggle with anger? Be honest. I don’t think I’m alone in this one. We know there is a “righteous anger,” an anger at sin and its effects on innocent people, and injustice, and man’s inhumanity to man, and so much else that has resulted from the Fall. But how often can our anger truly be counted in this category? Or how often is our anger instead a result of the fact that we haven’t gotten what we want or think we are owed? Our anger blinds us. We think we are concerned about a mote in someone else’s eye, when our anger has blinded us to the log in our own.

And our anger separates us from the blessings God wants to bestow on us, and through us, to others. My advice is: Deal with it! Lay it before the cross. Recognize how the blood of Christ absorbed the righteous anger of God, anger at the sin we so willingly partake in. If you need help, get it. Ask brothers and sisters around you to pray for you and hold you accountable. Get professional help if you need it. Please don’t wait for God to give you a loving sunburn to drive His point home, as He did with Jonah!

Larry welcomes your comments and questions, either here or on his personal blog.

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The Nations in America

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By Stan Peterson

Recently I’ve been working in the UW district of Seattle on Brooklyn Avenue at an old apartment complex named Campus Apartments. I’m a fire sprinkler fitter installing a new system in the basement. As I work from unit to unit I get a thorough vista of all around the site. From that view last Wednesday I saw a young man walking down the alley with a friend smoking a cigarette, when all of a sudden I got an impression or unction to go to this young man and share the Gospel. I hesitated and uttered a quick prayer, something like, “Do You really want me to go to him?” I dropped my tool bags, ran up the stairs and out into the alleyway, and looked hard into the direction he was traveling, but it was way too late. I asked forgiveness for my slothfulness and asked God if this young man really needs to hear the message that He would bring him back to me.

Friday came and right around my usual break I was working in a different unit, in the front not the back. I happened to be working right at the window, and I caught a movement and looked — it was the same young man! In shock, I hesitated for a second (literally), then dropped my tool bags and ran out the front after this young man. What do I say? I thought. What do I do? I was in my grungy work clothes, and I just ran, blurting out “Excuse me, I am working in this building and I saw you pass the other day in the alley, you were smoking a cigarette and talking to your friend, was that you?” I confirmed that it indeed was the young man I saw the other day. I started in with saying that God has a message and it is urgent for him to hear this. His eyes got real big and his countenance changed and he leaned closer to understand what I was saying.

I found out that this young man is from Saudi Arabia and is here studying at UW. He is a Muslim who had never heard of Jesus Christ before that day! I explained to Him God is Creator, Man is fallen and in great need, and the gospel of Jesus Christ and the sacrificial atonement in layman’s terms, making sure that he understood what I was saying. He asked me if he could get my phone number, and, shocked, I gave it to him. As he pulled out his iPhone it was all in Arabic, and I watched him type my info into his phone. He said that he wanted to hear more and would call me. His name is Anas; please pray for God to continue to move in his life and for salvation for him and his family. (I have not heard from him yet.)

The next morning as I was walking into work I contemplated a frightening thought. Matthew 25.32 says that God will one day separate the people who are saved from the people who are not saved. Will I see the numbers of people I knew but did not share the Gospel with as we are being separated?

Do I mourn for my sin? Do I mourn for the sin of my brothers and sisters in Christ? Do I mourn for the sin of the lost, for the sin of those who if not confronted with grace and truth will be led to condemnation and eternal conscious punishment? These thoughts sobered me and awakened me to all I have seen in the week prior, whom I had passed by without a thought toward their eternal destiny. The students hurrying off to class; the parking police busy writing tickets; the alcoholic who sleeps just outside the alley; a lady who has lost her bird and frantically comes up to me while I am waiting one morning to be let inside of the locked complex; the apartment manager who asks me nicely to be sure to clean up after I am done; not to mention the very people working beside me, such as the two plumbers who are from England, two electricians from Ukraine and Bulgaria, the general contractor, and two carpenters. God has laid the nations before us right here in the United States of America.

May we be a people who intercede for ourselves, our brothers and sisters, and the nations.

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