From Death To Life

“Australian doctors have saved the life of a woman who was clinically dead for 42 minutes.  The miracle patient was rushed to the hospital after a major heart attack, but was declared clinically dead soon after arrival.  With the aid of a hi-tech machine that kept blood flowing to her brain, doctors at Melbourne's MonashHeart managed to unblock vital arteries and return her heart to a normal rhythm.  The hospital today described her survival as "astonishing".  Doctors say Vanessa Tanasio, 41, a mother of two from the suburb of Narre Warren, needed numerous defibrillator shocks, including one in the ambulance on her way to hospital.  In a telephone interview from the hospital, she said she was eager to get home. "I'm feeling excellent. For someone who has been dead for nearly an hour of this week I am feeling tremendously well."  Emergency medics used a device called LUCAS 2 to keep her blood flowing last Monday while cardiologist Dr Wally Ahmar worked to unblock the arteries to her heart” (foxnews.com, 8-20-13).

Modern technology truly is incredible.  But medical scientists still have a ways to go to match the Great Physician.  Reviving a person who was clinically dead after 42 minutes is impressive but how about accomplishing the same thing after four days?  You can read about it in John 11.  Lazarus, brother of Mary and Martha and friend of Jesus, had died.  By the time the Lord reaches Bethany, Lazarus has been dead for four days.  His body had been prepared for burial and placed in a tomb.  The process of decay had already begun.  But at the command of Jesus, “...the man who had died came forth” (John 11:44).  Lazarus couldn’t walk out because he was still wrapped in the burial cloths, but he was alive and came out anyway!

The grave is no match for the Son of God!  It doesn’t matter whether you have been dead for 42 minutes, 4 days, or 400 years.  When Jesus says “Come forth!”, the dead live again.  That truly is astonishing!

God loves you!

Mike

Getting Historical

“A man, who was telling his friend about an argument he'd had with his wife, commented, "Oh, how I hate it. Every time we have an argument, she gets historical." The friend replied, "You mean 'hysterical.'" "No," he insisted, "I mean historical. Every time we argue, she drags up everything from the past and holds it against me"” (sermoncentral.com).

Keeping a record of wrongs is not a problem limited to marriages.  It can plague workplaces, classrooms, and church buildings.  Grudges are nourished.  Forgiveness is withheld.  And if it goes on long enough, relationships are destroyed.  What is so tempting about bringing up the past anyway?  Perhaps we feel empowered by having such a potent weapon in our arsenal.  Maybe we think we hold the trump card that allows us to win any argument.  Whatever our reasoning, its wrong.

The Bible tells us that true love “...does not take into account a wrong suffered” (1 Corinthians 13:5).  I like how the NIV renders this verse: “...it keeps no record of wrongs.”  Nothing good is gained by keeping a running list of offenses committed against us.  In fact, to do so evidences a lack of love on our part.  How much better it would be for us to follow the lead of our Heavenly Father, who promises to forgive our sins and remember them no more (Jeremiah 31:34, cf. also Isaiah 43:25).

Make no mistake -- it stings to be hurt by someone.  It’s natural to want to keep a record of such wrongs and to hold those transgressions over the heads of those who have mistreated us.  But we are called to live above our human nature.  No, it is not easy.  But we must release the past before we can truly live in the future that God wants for each one of us.  No one benefits when we start getting historical.

God blesses those He forgives by not taking their sins into account (Romans 4:7-8).  Let’s bless other by doing the same.

God loves you!

Mike

Slow Down!

By now, most of you have probably read the news accounts or watched the video of the horrific train derailment in Spain on July 24, 2013.  Seventy nine people were killed and dozens of others were injured as the passenger train jumped the tracks as it rounded a curve.  The investigation continues but it is apparent that the train was travelling too fast to safely negotiate the curve.  Information recovered from the train’s “black box” data recorder backs up theory of excessive speed.  The train was equipped with an automatic warning system to alert the operator when train speed was too high.  Three such warnings were given before the crash occurred. “Police forensic tests on the train's black box data recorders showed the last warning came just 250 meters before a dangerous curve where the accident occurred...At that point, the train was going 121 mph when the speed limit was set at 50 mph.  Four seconds later the driver applied emergency brakes.  By the time Francisco Jose Garzon Amo applied the brakes, the train was already beginning to lose contact with the rails, the statement said. The total derailment occurred at 111 mph.  Garzon has admitted in court that he was traveling too fast but could not explain to an investigating judge why he didn*t slow down earlier” (Harold Heckle, Associated Press).
Our lives can look like this trainwreck if we are not careful. Commitments, deadlines, and responsibilities can begin to accumulate and we find ourselves speeding along at breakneck speed.  That speed can often be managed when the tracks of life are straight but serious problems arise when we encounter life’s curves.  The spiritual and physical warning alarms of excessive speed begin to beep or flash but, too often, we ignore them.  And, before we know it, we experience a derailment and the resulting crash.
Is it time to slow down a bit?  Don’t ignore the warning signs.  With God’s help, we can safely negotiate any curve in life.  Often, we just need to reduce our speed long enough to listen.

God loves you!

Mike

Numbering Our Days

“So teach us to number our days, that we may present to You a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:12).

The focus in the early part of Psalm 90 is on the contrast between the eternalness of God and the transience of humanity.  God has been the dwelling place of faithful people “in all generations” (v. 1).  The One who created the world is the God who exists “from everlasting to everlasting” (v. 2).  He is not subject to time as we know it (v. 3).  Humans, on the other hand, are just the opposite.  We know the ravages of time.  Our physical bodies came from dust and will return there (v. 3).  Time, for us, comes and goes like grass that flourishes and then withers (v. 6).  There are limits on our longevity (v. 10).

It is this relative brevity of human life that prompts the psalmist to appeal to God for instruction regarding the wise use of the time we have.  It is a perspective that appears in other places in the Scriptures.  “LORD, make me to know my end and what is the extent of my days; let me know how transient I am” (Psalms 39:4).  “Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:15–16).  “Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity” (Colossians 4:5).

Time is short, even for those who have been blessed with long life.  Rather than becoming obsessed with how much time we have left, perhaps our time would be better spent making good use of the time we have been given.  The only time we really have is the moment in which we are living.  Anything beyond the present is not promised to us.  “Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away” (James 4:13–14).  Make today count as you serve God!

God loves you!

Mike

Opposition

Opponents can make life miserable.  They are the kind of people who watch you carefully, waiting for you to make a mistake that they can exploit.  They set themselves up as rivals to your own progress and success.  They seem to take great joy in causing you distress and harm.  Perhaps you already have a mental picture of an opponent in your own life. It may be someone where you work.  Sadly, it could also be someone within your own family, maybe a spouse or a relative.  Or it might be the brother or sister in Christ who sits on the other side of the auditorium on Sundays.  Whoever it is, an opponent can be a real thorn in your side.

As troubling as an earthly opponent can be, imagine how much worse it would be if God Himself became your opponent!  Notice God’s words to the captive Israelites in Babylon: “Therefore, thus says the Lord God, ‘Because you have more turmoil than the nations which surround you and have not walked in My statutes, nor observed My ordinances, nor observed the ordinances of the nations which surround you,’ therefore, thus says the Lord God, ‘Behold, I, even I, am against you, and I will execute judgments among you in the sight of the nations’” (Ezekiel 5:7-8).  What chilling words!  To have God declare Himself as an opponent!

The Bible teaches that when God is for us, it doesn’t matter who or what else seeks to oppose us (Romans 8:31-39).  We will ultimately conquer all opponents when God is on our side.  But the inverse is also true.  When God is opposed to us, it doesn’t matter who or what else claims to be our allies.  We are guaranteed to fail when God is our opponent.

Lord, please help me to live in such a way that You can be for me instead of against me.  I desperately need You to be on my side.  May I forever claim You as a friend instead of an opponent.

God loves you!

Mike

Hard-Headedness

Ezekiel had a difficult job ahead of him.  God was giving him the unenviable task of bringing a message of discipline and judgment to His people.  “Then He said to me, “Son of man, I am sending you to the sons of Israel, to a rebellious people who have rebelled against Me; they and their fathers have transgressed against Me to this very day.  I am sending you to them who are stubborn and obstinate children, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD’” (Ezekiel 2:3–4).  Doesn’t sound like much fun, does it?  But, thankfully, God also had a plan in place to prepare Ezekiel for what lay ahead.  “Behold, I have made your face as hard as their faces and your forehead as hard as their foreheads. “Like emery harder than flint I have made your forehead. Do not be afraid of them or be dismayed before them, though they are a rebellious house”” (Ezekiel 3:8–9).

Some children are more compliant than others.  Compliant kids don’t take a lot of parenting expertise.  But other children seem to be born shaking their little fist at the world around them.  These small packages of defiance are a whole different ballgame.  We euphemistically refer to them as “strong-willed.”  Parents of strong-willed children have their work cut out for them.  They learn (some sooner and some later) that the strength of their will must exceed the strength of the will of their little “rebel.”  Strong-willed children require strong-willed parents!

God had some stubborn, obstinate, and rebellious children on His hands.  That is why He needed a hard-headed prophet!  As a spokesman for God, Ezekiel was going to need a determination that matched and exceeded the determination of those who heard him.  He would be tempted to give up.  His patience would be tested to the limit.  But with God’s help, he could do it!

Lord, help me to be hard-headed without being hard-hearted.  As a disciple of Jesus, may I learn to speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15) in every circumstance.

God loves you!

Mike

Dangerous Prayers

The famous English mariner, Sir Frances Drake,  penned the following prayer in 1577 as he prepared to embark on another adventure: "Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves, when our dreams have come true because we have dreamed too little, when we arrive safely because we have sailed too close to the shore. Disturb us, Lord, when with the abundance of things we possess, we have lost our thirst for the waters of life; having fallen in love with life, we have ceased to dream of eternity; and in our efforts to build a new earth, we have allowed our vision of the new Heaven to dim. Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly, to venture on wider seas where storms will show your mastery; where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars. We ask you to push back the horizons of our hopes; and to push into the future in strength, courage, hope, and love."

These words challenge me.  Frankly, when I reflect on my own prayers, I struggle to remember a time when I prayed for God to disturb me.  Much more common are the times when I pray for difficulties to be taken away or resolved.  While there is nothing wrong with those kinds of prayers, perhaps I need to expand my prayer horizons.  Instead of always praying for ease, do I have the courage to pray for struggles?  Instead of always praying that my needs are met, do I have the courage to pray for seasons of deprival?  Instead of always praying for safety, do I have the courage to pray for opportunities to exercise my faith in dangerous ways?  I wonder...

Jesus prayed a dangerous prayer in John 17:1: “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You.”  Those words might not sound too perilous, but, in essence, He is saying, “Bring on the cross!”  Disturbing? Yes!  But God-honoring as well.  Lord, as a disciple of Jesus, give me the courage to pray dangerous prayers!

God loves you!

Mike