Hot Showers and Creaky Knees

How easy it is to take things for granted!  Often it takes lack or denial of what we are accustomed to  before we recognise with gratefulness the gifts God has graciously supplied.

About 10 years ago I went on a trip to Israel and stayed in the Mugraby hostel in Tel Aviv.  It was a clean, affordable option close to the beach.  The only downside was in chilly November our group returned to the hostel late at night.  The toilet and shower facilities were shared between several rooms on a single floor.  By the time I was ready for a shower before bed, all the hot water had been used.  Let me tell you, I was surprised the water flowed from the shower head at that temperature!  Surely it was spitting sharp icicles, not water!  Ever since that experience, I have always been so thankful for hot showers.  I have had some cold showers since, but I thank the LORD the water is not always so cold.

Have you ever thanked God for your knees?  I hadn't - until I fully ruptured my ACL and needed surgery.  I can't recall ever thanking God specifically for my knees until I endured the pain of recovery and physical therapy.  Now that I am walking normally, can kneel when necessary, am able to golf and play baseball, I am not sour over minor swelling, tightness, and pain which will be likely part of my life for the duration.  I am so grateful to God that He has seen fit to heal me and enable me to do things I enjoy.  It took a major injury for me to understand sport and physical activities I have always been able to do are not a permanent fixture.  My knees are a gift God has provided me for this season of my life, and when God moves me into another season where sport is not possible I will still have Him, the Giver of abundant life.

I encourage you to thank God for something today you use all the time without thought but have never specifically thanked Him for.  You will discover quickly there is much more to thank God for than there are seconds in the day.  Every one of your trillion cells in your body cry out with thanksgiving to God.  All of eternity will not be enough time to praise and thank God enough for who He is and all He has done.  1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 says, "Rejoice always, ¹⁷ pray without ceasing, ¹⁸ in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."  Thank God for making His will known to us, and let us seek to fulfill it!

Just Business

"Ye shall have just balances, and a just ephah, and a just bath."

Ezekiel 45:10

God's people were to be a reflection of His honest and just character.  Proverbs 11:1 says, "Dishonest scales are an abomination to the LORD, but a just weight is His delight."  He commanded His people, "Be holy, for I am holy."  They were not to be like people who naturally showed partiality, favouritism, or nepotism, but to be honest, trustworthy, just, and conduct their business matters with integrity.  When discovered some people shrug at their own dishonest business practices and say, "That's just business."  If the God of Israel is also your God, the call to just weights and measures remains true regardless of what is socially acceptable.  In a "dog eat dog" world, we are to walk in light of the new nature God has given us through faith in Jesus and live His way.

From an early age people have the knack of always seeking preferential treatment for ourselves.  We eye the biggest slice of dessert, naturally seek the best deal, the most profitable investments, the biggest return for our money.  Both in Monopoly and real life we don't mind the concept of "Bank error in your favour."  Man shows partiality to himself over all, but those who are God's are to consider others more important than themselves.  That is the essence of biblical love displayed by Jesus Christ:  sacrificing self for the good of others.  If our benefit or profit comes at the expense of others through dishonesty, we ought to mourn rather than rejoice and seek to put things right.  The chief tax collector Zacchaeus demonstrated the connection between becoming a disciple of Christ with returning wealth gained dishonestly with interest in Luke 19.

Christians are not perfect, but we ought to strive to live justly in an unjust world.  If we skew the numbers for our own selfish benefit, we have become thieves worthy of just punishment.  To deceitfully enrich ourselves shows a fundamental lack of faith in God to provide for our needs.  Willful dishonesty for gain reveals we are greedy, dissatisfied, and ungrateful with what God has given us.  Our call as believers is not to measure ourselves by the world's distorted view of fairness, but to make decisions in light of God's justice.  Our assurance of forgiveness and salvation hinges upon this immutable characteristic of God as it is written in 1 John 1:9:  "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

We expect God to justly keep His Word, and we bring glory to His name when we trust Him, love others, and deal justly in our business.  In just business God delights!

Remember and Believe

When we see negative examples in the Bible of unbelief, folly, or wickedness, it is a portrait of stunning detail of ourselves.  Let us not scoff or shake our heads disapprovingly of what we do ourselves but learn from the unerring truth of scripture.  We can say in every case, "It is I, LORD!"  We may not have taken all sins to their ultimate fulfillment, but the potential and willingness to transgress is always present in our mind and members.

Last night I read Psalm 78, a comprehensive account of God's faithfulness, power, and miraculous dealings with the children of Israel.  Asaph provided a historical overview of many things God had done to deliver, provide, guide, and establish His people.  The common issue at the core of Israel's problems was their unbelief of God.  Though God had done much in the past and given great promises for the future, the people seemed incapable of connecting God's faithfulness in the past to assurance of His future faithfulness.  No matter what God did - the ten plagues in Egypt, deliverance through the Red Sea He parted, or provided water from rocks - the people tended to doubt God would come through in their current situation.  This unbelief provoked God to anger.

God did great wonders, but the people did not live in light of His certain love, strength, and power.  Here are a handful of verses all of God's people can relate to at points in our pilgrimage:

• The people forgot:  Psalm 78:9-11 reads, "The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle. ¹⁰ They did not keep the covenant of God; they refused to walk in His law, ¹¹ and forgot His works and His wonders that He had shown them."
• The people tested God in unbelief:  Psalm 78:18-22 says:  "And they tested God in their heart By asking for the food of their fancy. ¹⁹ Yes, they spoke against God: they said, "Can God prepare a table in the wilderness? ²⁰ Behold, He struck the rock, so that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed. Can He give bread also? Can He provide meat for His people?" ²¹ Therefore the LORD heard this and was furious; so a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also came up against Israel, ²² Because they did not believe in God, and did not trust in His salvation." 
• They flattered God with lies and their hearts did not remain steadfast:  Psalm 78:35-37 says, "Then they remembered that God was their rock, and the Most High God their Redeemer. ³⁶ Nevertheless they flattered Him with their mouth, and they lied to Him with their tongue; ³⁷ for their heart was not steadfast with Him, nor were they faithful in His covenant." 
• The people tempted and limited God because they forgot His deliverance:  Psalm 78:40-42 states:  "How often they provoked Him in the wilderness, and grieved Him in the desert! ⁴¹ Yes, again and again they tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel. ⁴² They did not remember His power: the day when He redeemed them from the enemy..." 
• They were unfaithful and turned aside to idolatry:  Psalm 78:55-58 reads, "He also drove out the nations before them, allotted them an inheritance by survey, and made the tribes of Israel dwell in their tents. ⁵⁶ Yet they tested and provoked the Most High God, and did not keep His testimonies, ⁵⁷ but turned back and acted unfaithfully like their fathers; they were turned aside like a deceitful bow. ⁵⁸ For they provoked Him to anger with their high places, and moved Him to jealousy with their carved images."

We may not have seen God's deliverance in battle, seen water flow miraculously from the rock, or experienced His deliverance from slavery, but we have more practical evidence of God's character and power than the children of Israel:  we have the Word of God provided for us!  There is the testimony of fulfilled scripture, Jesus Christ, and the indwelling Holy Spirit.  We also have our own testimony of God's faithfulness, power, and deliverance from the power of sin.  Though we are without excuse, we can justify the habit of making them!  I encourage you to read what God did for His people in Psalm 78 in full and consider the wondrous things He has done for His people and for you.  Let us not be as the children of Israel, forgetting what God did in the past so we doubt His present power.  Instead of bringing condemnation or guilt, the end of such considerations is genuine hope.  This is one necessary application of scripture, as it is written in Romans 15:4-6:  "For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. ⁵ Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus, ⁶ that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Comfort Beyond Words

Paul and Silas had a rough day.  Though innocent, they had been falsely accused, arrested, beaten, humiliated, thrown into prison, and their feet secured in stocks.  Acts 17 tells us they were praying and singing praises to God at midnight when suddenly there was an earthquake, the chains fell off the prisoners, and the doors swung open.  The jailer woke up and panicked at the sight of the open cell doors.  He was about to kill himself when Paul called out he should do himself no harm.  No one had escaped, and the man's life would not be required at the hand of his superiors.

Deeply moved the jailer asked, "What must I do to be saved?"  Paul answered, "Believe on the LORD Jesus Christ and you shall be saved, you and your whole house."  The man believed, rejoiced, and was baptised.  He washed the stripes of Paul and Silas, having been whipped terribly.  When Paul and Silas were released the following day, their miraculous, amazing story was not nearly over.  They went to visit a new born-again Christian Lydia who had offered them hospitality previously.  Acts 16:40 reads, "So they went out of the prison and entered the house of Lydia; and when they had seen the brethren, they encouraged them and departed."  Who encouraged who?  One would have thought Paul and Silas could have used some encouragement because of their terrible experience the previous night.  Yet it was Paul and Silas who encouraged the brethren.  Lydia and the others were no doubt distressed over the harsh, unfair treatment endured by Paul and Silas.  They had been beaten down, but not destroyed.  They came out of the prison battered yet were an encouragement to others through the power of the Holy Spirit who dwelt within them.

As A.W. Tozer said, Christianity is not designed for the classroom but for use in real life.  A life following Christ is to be lived out on the street, in a prison, during times of pain and tragedy, in spite of unfair treatment, and to encourage others.  Paul wrote the exhortation of Philippians 4:4 during house arrest:  "Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!"  Paul and Silas did not rejoice in physical pain or incarceration, but in the midst of those things they devoted themselves to rejoice in the LORD.  He is always worthy of praise, despite our sufferings.  He will never leave us or forsake us, knows what we are going through, and provides comfort and peace which passes understanding.  It is a peace which cannot be logically explained but only experienced through a life of faith in God.

As I considered how I would conclude this post, this morning I read a Facebook status of a Christian woman.  She posted the immortal words of 2 Corinthians 1:3-4:  "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, ⁴ who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God."  This verse was not shared by a person who had just received a promotion at work, received a permanent resident visa, or won the lottery:  it was shared by a woman who just heard her father suddenly and tragically passed away.  Who was encouraging who?  I was the one who was encouraged as I in awe considered the strength God grants to all who stand on the solid bedrock of faith in Jesus Christ and His Word.  Our God is a God of all comfort who comforts us in all our tribulation so we may be able to comfort others facing trouble.

Do you experience this comfort which defies description?  God offers it freely to all who trust in Him.  He graciously grants this divine strength not only so you can receive comfort and be strengthened, but so you can comfort others with the comfort you have received from God.  Praise God nothing can separate us from the love and comfort of our glorious Saviour Jesus Christ.