You Are Here: An Inside Job

“We view ourselves on the eve of battle. We are nerved for the contest, and must conquer or perish. It is vain to look for present aid: none is at hand. We must now act or abandon all hope! Rally to the standard, and be no longer the scoff of mercenary tongues! Be men, be free men, that your children may bless their father’s name.” ~ Sam Houston

A lack of hope. The news headlines are full of many things; anger, poverty, cruelty, fear, hate, and the latest opinion on the latest opinion. One thing it lacks, among many others, is Hope. The headlines report that the bomb is dropped, the casualties are mounting, the child is lost forever, the families shattered, the money gone, the places of worship burned, the fields are salted, the cities mere rubble. Eventually, everything ends in death. After death and destruction, what is there left to do but mourn?

“THE HAND of the Lord was upon me, and He brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full of bones. And He caused me to pass round about among them, and behold, there were very many [human bones] in the open valley or plain, and behold, they were very dry.” ~ Ezekiel 37:1-2 (Valley of Dry Bones)

“THERE WAS a certain man of Ramathaim-zophim, of the hill country of Ephraim, named Elkanah son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite. He had two wives, one named Hannah and the other named Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had none.” ~ 1 Samuel 1:1-2 (1 Samuel 1)

“Now when Jesus came back [to Galilee], the crowd received and welcomed Him gladly, for they were all waiting and looking for Him. And there came a man named Jairus, who had [for a long time] been a director of the synagogue; and falling at the feet of Jesus, he begged Him to come to his house, For he had an only daughter, about twelve years of age, and she was dying.” ~ Luke 8:40-42 (Luke 8)

“It was now about the sixth hour (midday), and darkness enveloped the whole land and earth until the ninth hour (about three o’clock in the afternoon), While the sun’s light faded or was darkened; and the curtain [of the Holy of Holies] of the temple was torn in two. [Exod. 26:31-35.]And Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit! And with these words, He expired. [Ps. 31:5.]” ~ Luke 23:44-46

The Bible is full of examples of despair, bitterness, want, grief and hopelessness. One day or another, the shadows fall on all of us. The main thing which distinguishes the Bible from so many other books is that it offers Real Hope for those on whom the shadows have fallen.

Joshua 1 talks about such a time in the history of Israel. The swelling masses had just been witness to some of the most amazing miracles ever performed by God. They had followed Moses, the man who faced down the Pharaoh and at long last had led them through to a long-awaited life of being free after being under slavery for generation after generation. However, things don’t always go as planned. Their dynamic leader, Moses, died. What was going to become of the teeming crowds of Israelites somewhere in the desert of Sinai? These men and women knew how to be slaves. They needed a strong leader who was going to help them and not take advantage of them, they were in every way refugees on a massive scale. So, God raised up a new leader, and generation, to pick up the torch and carry on with the plan for the Children of Israel to finally have a permanent place to call home.

“Moses My servant is dead. So now arise [take his place], go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land which I am giving to them, the Israelites. Every place upon which the sole of your foot shall tread, that have I given to you, as I promised Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon to the great river Euphrates–all the land of the Hittites [Canaan]–and to the Great [Mediterranean] Sea on the west shall be your territory. No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you. Be strong (confident) and of good courage, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. Only you be strong and very courageous, that you may do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you. Turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go. This Book of the Law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may observe and do according to all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall deal wisely and have good success. Have not I commanded you? Be strong, vigorous, and very courageous. Be not afraid, neither be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” ~ Joshua 1:2-9

Whoa. That’s a seriously huge thing to ask of someone, and to say it all blunt like that: “Moses My servant is dead. So now arise.” It would be understandable that Joshua might need a teensy bit of encouragement…or probably more like a ton. God is ready. “As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you. Be strong (confident) and of good courage, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.” Uh, say that again, please? So God repeats himself and continues to give Joshua instructions and heartening encouragement.

See, in our very sad world, the story ends with bad news. It’s just so easy. Heavy diagnosis, loss, death, rejection, betrayal…..those things bring us to our knees. In the stories that God tells, however, people start out, not on their knees, but on their faces. A desperate cry is heard, borne out of the anguish for the thing that is desperately desired and yet impossible to attain.

For my own part, I went to bed and woke up with a terrible attitude. I have been fighting against telling someone off, but in my head I am letting them have it. This is a bad place to start off. Nothing good can come out of me if a bunch of bad stuff is going on inside of me. Of course, it just so happens that this is December. Christmas music is blaring at us from all sides and the competing philosophies of Feel-Good Festival of Stuff vs. Honoring the Gift of Christ’s Birth are in full swing. And here I am in the middle of all of that with a frown on my face, tightness in my chest, and bitterness in my heart.

Enter, stage left, the person of Christ in the form of a baby. What an unassuming form for Jesus to use. Even the stretching and lengthening of his human body as he grew were just the same old thing that had happened to every other baby since forever. God has been knocking on the doors of our hearts longer than we can imagine. Why? It’s easy to blame God for the terrible things that happen, but you can’t actually have it both ways. He is not a god of our own making. He does not follow our rules. He is GOD. He does not choose the things that make this world an ugly and scary place to live. He gave us life, and then he came to give us eternal life.

The Bible calls him El Roi, the God Who Sees (Genesis 16 The Story of Hagar). God does, indeed, see our physical crises as human beings. So much of our suffering is too plain to miss. Underneath, though, inside our hearts is a much bigger problem. Our hearts are where all the ugliness of the world begins. God look at our hearts. (1 Samuel 16:7)

“And He will establish you to the end [keep you steadfast, give you strength, and guarantee your vindication; He will be your warrant against all accusation or indictment so that you will be] guiltless and irreproachable in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah). God is faithful (reliable, trustworthy, and therefore ever true to His promise, and He can be depended on); by Him you were called into companionship and participation with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” 1 Corinthians 1:8-9 (whole chapter)

So, we see that the Valley of Dry Bones is inside of us as well, but Jesus came with rivers of living water (John 7:37-38). God can restore more than just our circumstances! God can restore our hearts and relationships as well! Now for me to take that message to heart myself and let him restore my own.

“1 THEREFORE, SINCE we are justified (acquitted, declared righteous, and given a right standing with God) through faith, let us [grasp the fact that we] have [the peace of reconciliation to hold and to enjoy] peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One).

2 Through Him also we have [our] access (entrance, introduction) by faith into this grace (state of God’s favor) in which we [firmly and safely] stand. And let us rejoice andexult in our hope of experiencing andenjoying the glory of God.

3 Moreover [let us also be full of joy now!] let us exult and triumph in our troubles and rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that pressure and affliction and hardship produce patient and unswerving endurance.

4 And endurance (fortitude) develops maturity of character (approved faith and tried integrity). And character [of this sort] produces [the habit of] joyful and confident hope of eternal salvation.

5 Such hope never disappoints or deludes or shames us, for God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit Who has been given to us.

6 While we were yet in weakness [powerless to help ourselves], at the fitting time Christ died for (in behalf of) the ungodly.

7 Now it is an extraordinary thing for one to give his life even for an upright man, though perhaps for a noble and lovable and generous benefactor someone might even dare to die.

8 But God shows and clearly proves His [own] love for us by the fact that while we were still sinners, Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One) died for us.

9 Therefore, since we are now justified (acquitted, made righteous, and brought into right relationship with God) by Christ’s blood, how much more [certain is it that] we shall be saved by Him from the indignation and wrath of God.

10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, it is much more [certain], now that we are reconciled, that we shall be saved (daily delivered from sin’s dominion) through His [resurrection] life.

11 Not only so, but we also rejoice and exultingly glory in God [in His love and perfection] through our Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom we have now received and enjoy [our] reconciliation. [Jer. 9:24.]

12 Therefore, as sin came into the world through one man, and death as the result of sin, so death spread to all men, [no one being able to stop it or to escape its power] because all men sinned.

13 [To be sure] sin was in the world before ever the Law was given, but sin is not charged to men’s account where there is no law [to transgress].

14 Yet death held sway from Adam to Moses [the Lawgiver], even over those who did not themselves transgress [a positive command] as Adam did. Adam was a type (prefigure) of the One Who was to come [in reverse, the former destructive, the Latter saving]. [Gen. 5:5; 7:22; Deut. 34:5.]

15 But God’s free gift is not at all to be compared to the trespass [His grace is out of all proportion to the fall of man]. For if many died through one man’s falling away (his lapse, his offense), much more profusely did God’s grace and the free gift [that comes] through the undeserved favor of the one Man Jesus Christ abound and overflow to and for [the benefit of] many.

16 Nor is the free gift at all to be compared to the effect of that one [man’s] sin. For the sentence [following the trespass] of one [man] brought condemnation, whereas the free gift [following] many transgressions brings justification (an act of righteousness).

17 For if because of one man’s trespass (lapse, offense) death reigned through that one, much more surely will those who receive [God’s] overflowing grace (unmerited favor) and the free gift of righteousness [putting them into right standing with Himself] reign as kings in life through the one Man Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One).

18 Well then, as one man’s trespass [one man’s false step and falling away led] to condemnation for all men, so one Man’s act of righteousness [leads] to acquittal and right standing with God and life for all men.

19 For just as by one man’s disobedience (failing to hear, heedlessness, and carelessness) the many were constituted sinners, so by one Man’s obedience the many will be constituted righteous (made acceptable to God, brought into right standing with Him).

20 But then Law came in, [only] to expand and increase the trespass [making it more apparent and exciting opposition]. But where sin increased and abounded, grace (God’s unmerited favor) has surpassed it and increased the more and superabounded,

21 So that, [just] as sin has reigned in death, [so] grace (His unearned and undeserved favor) might reign also through righteousness (right standing with God) which issues in eternal life through Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One) our Lord.” Romans 5