Three reminders for Days of Trouble Reminder 2 — God will deliver and protect.

 by Bonnie Scasta, Women's Ministry Director

“Blessed is the one who considers the poor! In the day of trouble, the Lord delivers him; the Lord protects him and keeps him alive; he is called blessed in the land; you do not give him up to the will of his enemies.” Ps 41:1-2 (ESV)

Last week we saw the blessing that comes from considering the poor by looking at the opening verses of Psalm 41. This week we will see that these same verses also remind us that our hope in the “day of trouble” is that God delivers and protects.  Is that what you think when you face trials or hardships? Do you focus on the Lord’s deliverance and his protection?  Do you continue to center your attention on this even when these trials last for a long while?  

Another translation of this verse uses the word “adversity” instead of “trouble”.  Adversity is defined as “a state or instance of serious or continued difficulty or misfortune.”[1]This seems to show that the day of trouble applies to those times when things go from bad to worse.  When the bad doesn’t seem to have an end. When nothing seems right or like it will get any better.  When your heart is shattered.  When the hope seems sucked out of you.  When you are weighed down by the sorrow of your heart.  In these circumstances, do you find hope in the truth that God will deliver?  That God WILL protect you keeping you alive.

God is active, continually moving toward his people.  He does indeed look out for their good.  You are not left alone to fight these enemies and trials on your own.  He is not telling you to buck up and get over it. You don’t have to muster up your own deliverance.  You don’t have to seek control at every move through manipulating relationships or by seeking an escape with different addictions.  You don’t have to look to the world, unhealthy relationships, your own strength, or anything else to save and deliver you. Rather, you can look to him. Deliverance and protection is sure. When and how is completely up to the Lord, but it is sure!

I don’t know about you, but often when I am faced with adversity, I actually go from believing God is my deliverer and the one who will protect me to accusing him of being my attacker.  I completely forget his character and any protecting he has done for me in the past, suddenly believing that he is against me.  I believe He will leave me in these circumstances alone and without any hope. I forget the cross.  I forget how Jesus endured such suffering, taking on the wrath that I so rightly deserve to show God’s unfailing love for me.  I forget how the cross proves once and for all that he does rescue me from my sin and my shame to relationship with him and that NOTHING can keep me from him and his love.  I forget that this is my ultimate rescue and protection from anything this life can throw at me.

How are you facing your “days of trouble”?  Are you like me, forgetting who your rescuer is and that your rescue is sure? If so, remember that your deliverance and protection are sure in the Lord.  Repent of ways you try to bring about your own deliverance or for accusations you bring against the Lord in your adversity. Stop seeking to be in control and trust the Lord for his deliverance and protection.

Father, thank you that you are our deliverer and our protector.  Remind us you move and act toward us so we don’t have to save ourselves.  When we feel tempted to bring accusations against you during long seasons of adversity, help us remember Jesus and all he has done for us.  Thank you that you send Jesus to deliver us from sin and death. Amen.

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[1]dictionary.com

Three reminders for Days of Trouble: Reminder 1

by Bonnie Scasta, Women's Ministry Director

Blessed are those who consider the poor.

“Blessed is the one who considers the poor! In the day of trouble, the Lord delivers him; the Lord protects him and keeps him alive; he is called blessed in the land; you do not give him up to the will of his enemies.” Ps 41:1-2 (ESV)

These are the first verses to a psalm about the trouble—sickness, mockery, and betrayal—that David experienced during his life. These two verses can be broken down into three parts, a set of reminders that we should keep in mind during our own days of trouble: 

1.  Blessed is the one who considers the poor.

2.   In the day of trouble, the Lord delivers him; the Lord protects him and keeps him alive.

3.  You do not give him up to the will of his enemies.

Each of these is helpful and hopeful reminders in our days of trouble.  Over the next three weeks, we will look at each, starting today with the first. 

The first reminder speaks of the blessedness of those who consider the poor. It seems odd to me that David would begin in this way.  In my flesh, I would want to begin with a complaint against the Lord for the “day of trouble” I am experiencing.  I would want to ask the Lord what he is doing and why these days are so hard?  David, however, has much greater wisdom than I. By starting this way, he reminds himself and us of two truths about those who consider the poor.  

First, he reminds himself of how God responds to those who consider or move to help the poor.  David experienced hard trials, and he possibly felt like one who was cast off and not seen.  He knew that many would look on his affliction and respond by simply walking the other way.  He also knew that, in contrast, a few would respond with care and consideration.  He was thankful knowing they would be blessed just as he was blessed when he moved to help those in need.

How are you at considering the poor or those in need around you?  Often, we are so wrapped up in ourselves and our own struggles that we do not look around to consider anyone else.  We miss opportunities to be blessed by seeing and meeting the needs of those with great need. Think about how your small group, church, work, or neighborhood would change for the better of everyone if you really considered other’s needs and moved to meet them.  

On the flip side, how are you at allowing others to bless you when you are in a poor position?  Perhaps people would move toward you with considerate care, kindness, or actions to help if you shared your needs and trials with them.  This requires being brave and allowing others to see your weaknesses, your vulnerabilities, and that you don’t have it all together. But doing this could lead to great blessing for you and for others.

Secondly, David reminds himself that his greatest hope is in God’s ability to rescue as He is the ultimate One to consider our poor position.  He praises the Lord for how He responds to his troubled and poor state.  God knew how those that were supposed to come through for David actually failed and betrayed him. Yet God was faithful despite other’s faithlessness.  What a great truth for us to embrace: God sees, cares, and faithfully rescues us.

Are you in a poor position like David?  Do you feel alone and like no one considers you? Are you experiencing heartache and affliction as your struggle doesn’t seem to end?  Do you feel overcome by addictive patterns? Has your community failed to be what they should be?  Is your family still stuck in their unhealthy, hurtful patterns?   Are you anxious about life’s many twists and turns?  

In whatever way that you feel poor, do you believe that God considers you?  Do you believe he sees your helpless state and responds with certain care and rescue? Because He does.  

Father, thank you for these reminders from your word. Thank you that you see and respond to our helpless state.  Thank you for those that also see and move toward us in our poor condition.  Help us be people that consider the poor around us so we can look more like you and be blessed. Amen.

Character and Hope

By Bonnie Scasta, Women's Ministry Director

Are you going through a hard season right now?  Does life just seem to have one hardship after another?  Do the pieces keep falling apart?

We often find ourselves in this situation and, even worse, the struggles continue even after we have prayed and prayed for deliverance.  The bottom seems to fall out of plan after plan.  We try to continue on, doing our best to look for and believe there will be good in the future, yet it can be hard to keep pushing forward.  

It’s in these hard times that we seek true hope—a hope that will enable us to continue on through the struggles of life, through trials that come again and again, and through the pain that never seems to end. But if hope is what we are after, where do we seek it? Where can it be found?  

The world seems to communicate that hope is found in things going right.  That hope is the good feeling that comes when the pieces seem to be put back together.  That hope is achieved when it isn’t so hard anymore. When the struggle ends.  When you can finally pay your bills.  When that loved one is finally restored to you. When you finally stop acting out of your sinful ways.  When you get that relationship.  When you find those friends.  When things go well and begin to work out.  When you have wealth, fame, positive experiences, and things go your way.

But as those who trust in Christ, we see something different in God’s word about where hope comes from. Romans 5 shows that hope doesn’t come from everything working out ok, it actually comes from enduring suffering and developing character.  

Romans 5:3-5:

Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

How countercultural and counter-intuitive is that?  God says that it is actually going through hard times and coming out on the other side with character that will produce hope in your life. In other words, the trials and suffering in your journey are actually God trying to grow character and hope in you, NOT Him trying to destroy your hope. 

Take heart if you are in a dark season that seems hopeless. God isn’t trying to remove your hope, but instead, he is trying to grow deeper character in your heart so you will have hope all the more,  a hope that cannot be put to shame and that is rooted in His love poured into us.  

Where are you struggling with Hope today?  How is your endurance and character building going?  Will you respond to trials with obedience and faith believing that the character he is working out in you will bring about the hope you so desperately need?

Pray:  Jesus, will you help me look to you when suffering comes, and I am in need of hope.  Please remind me that these trials are not to remove my hope, but to actually grow a deeper, greater hope not tied to my circumstances.  Help me endure and build character that will result in hope that will not disappoint.  Amen.

I AM the Way and the Vine

by Jacob Roberts

Just after celebrating the Passover and washing His disciple’s feet, Jesus makes His last two I AM statements right before His arrest and trial: “I AM the way, and the truth, and the life” (John 14:6) and “I AM the true vine” (John 15:1). These two declarations of His identity center around a common theme explored throughout the Gospel of John, the concept of “remaining” or “abiding.”

More than any other New Testament writer, John repeatedly uses the word meno, which means (among other things) to live or reside in a permanent location, to remain or abide.[1]This concept of remaining or abiding comes to a symbolic climax through Jesus’ declaration to be “the way” and “the vine.”

Right before Jesus asserts “I AM the way, and the truth, and the life,” He tells his disciples, “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you” (John 14: 2). The word John uses for “dwelling places” is monai, a word very closely related to the word he uses for remaining or abiding. Through this word association, we can infer that Jesus intends this dwelling place to be a place of permanent residence with God, a home where one lives and flourishes in the presence of the Father. 

When Thomas states that the disciples do not know the way to the Father’s house, Jesus then declares, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” After this astounding statement, Jesus then asserts his divinity: “Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me” (John 14:11). By having these two ideas back to back, Jesus demonstrates that He is both the wayand the destination. He is the path to God and the true source of life. Thus, the permanent “dwelling place” that the disciples need is Christ himself, for the only way they will reach the Father is by abiding in Him. 

Jesus Amplifies this teaching just a few versus later when he declares, “I AM the true vine:”

I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit…I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. (John 15:1-2,5)

The image that Jesus uses here is a thick grape vine with smaller branches coming off of it. If the branches become separated or are cut off from the vine, then they wither and die from a lack of nutrients. Thus, to have life and to bear fruit, a branch must permanently abide within the vine. 

By being both “the way” and “the vine,” Jesus demonstrates His supremacy, asserting that He is everything we need and that without Him we will never find God, nor bear fruit in our life. In this way, the Father has subordinated everything to Christ so that all creation must find itself in Him to truly live (Ephesians 1:22). 

Given that these two I AM statements demonstrate the extreme importance of abiding in Christ, we must ask, what does it mean to actually abide in Him? Although the answer to this question could literally fill volumes, I will suggest that much of this has to do simply with our focus. 

If Jesus is “the way,” then we are travelers along that way. Travelers typically head in the direction they face, so we must fix our gaze on Jesus. It is the only way, the only path to the Father, the only route to life. Yet we often instead focus our eyes on other seemingly spiritual tasks. For instance, we often fixate on eliminating all of the sin from our life, becoming so consumed with “becoming holy” that we forget that Jesus is the only way to holiness. 

This truth is the very reason that the mission of Living Hope Ministries is to “journey with those who are seeking sexual and relational wholeness through a more intimate relationship with Jesus Christ.”  The only way that we find wholeness is through pursuing “the way,” through abiding in “the vine.” We must take our eyes off of the sin that so easily entangles us and instead fix our gaze on the author and perfecter of our faith, Jesus Christ. 

Are you pursuing “the way”? Do you have your eyes fixed on Him or are you consumed by “dealing with your sin”? Are you abiding in “the vine” or are you trying to bear fruit apart from Him?

Only by abiding in Him, by truly and permanently living with Christ, do we understand who we are. When we abide with I AM, His light shines on the darkest part of ourselves, revealing our identity and restoring us to what we were originally created to be before sin. If you truly seek I AM, if you abide in Him as you travel the way, then you will assuredly discover who you are.  

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[1]Liddell and Scott Greek English Lexicon

I AM the Resurrection and the Life

 by Jacob Roberts

In the 11^thchapter of John, the book’s narrative undergoes a change of direction. Up to this point, Jesus had used Jewish custom as a vehicle for self-revelation. We saw this with his first four I AM statements, all of which were connected to major Jewish holidays. However, starting in the 11^thchapter, Jesus begins to reveal his identity in increasingly complex ways. This is particularly true of His next I AM statement—I AM the resurrection and the life—which demonstrates his mastery over both physical and spiritual death. 

At the beginning of the chapter, we are told that one of Jesus’ close friends, Lazarus, was ill. Given the time of death indicated in verse 17, it is safe to assume that Lazarus had already been dead a day or two by the time that this news reached Jesus. When Jesus arrives in Lazarus’ home town of Bethany, He tells Lazarus’ sister, Martha, “your brother will rise again” (John 11:23). Thinking that Jesus was referring to the resurrection of the dead during the final judgment, she replies, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day” (John 11:24). To which Jesus responds, “I AM the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die” (John 11:25-26). 

Now, look carefully at Jesus’ I AM statement. He does not say that he bestowsor provideslife and resurrection. No. Jesus says I AM life and resurrection. Thus, both spiritual and physical life cannot be separated from Him but are, instead, aspects of what it means to live in relationship with Him. In other words, to abide in Jesus is to know life and resurrection (more on this in the coming weeks).  

So, if Jesus is the resurrection and the life, what does that make us? To put it bluntly, we are dead without Him. I know that none of you who are reading this article are physically dead like Lazarus, but Jesus uses the resurrection of Lazarus to point out the more important reality of spiritual death and, moreover, His power over such death.

Paul speaks directly to this spiritual resurrection in his letter to the church at Colossae: 

And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him. (Colossians 2:13-15)

In these few verses, Paul brings together two very important ideas. First, he reminds the church that they were once spiritually dead but that through Christ they have now been made alive, just like we see in Jesus I AM statement in John 11. Paul then pairs this truth with a second, namely that through the life found in Christ, “the rulers and authorities” of this world have been “disarmed.” Thus, when we are made alive in Christ, we are no longer in bondage to sin. 

Paul pairs these two ideas together because we often forget that to live in Christ means that we have life NOW. We do not have to wait until the end of human history or for the resurrection at the judgment to enjoy the power of life in Christ. Yet we often act as if we are still dead in our sins, that we do not have resurrection and life. We say things like, “I will never be able to overcome this sin,” or “this is just who I am and I will never change.” However, as demonstrated by the resurrection of Lazarus, Jesus is all about bringing dead things to life, taking things that are not and making them things that are. 

This passage begs several questions. Do we actually “know [Christ] and the power of his resurrection”? (Philippians 3:10) If so, are we living in the truth that we are now spiritually alive or do we act as if we are still dead in our sins?  Do we look to other experiences and people to offer us life, or do we turn to Christ? As you think over these questions this week, remember the truth that those who have trusted Christ have been made “alive together with him” (Colossians 2:13)