God Can Surprise Us

  • July 22, 2015
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  • Bethany Jenkins

Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest 2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. —Acts 9.1-2

One of the worst feelings in life is fatalism – that is, the feeling of resignation that this is the way things will be forever and nothing will change. This is the way that I am or my spouse is or my kids are or work is or my small group is or government is or society is. I am powerless to do anything about it. It will go on this way forever and, most likely, it will just get worse.

“On the day that Stephen was killed, a great persecution arose against the church in Jerusalem, which scattered the believers throughout the region.” One of the main leaders of the persecution was a young Pharisee named Saul: “Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.”

Imagine how hopeless the church felt – they had no Bill of Rights to protect them, the Roman government was hostile toward them, and the religious leaders had letters of authority to imprison them. The momentum against them was enormous. Would this ever change? Would there ever be peace?

Then, out of nowhere, God took Saul and turned him around. Saul was on his way to Damascus, “still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord,” and God opened his heart. He changed so much that he went from being the worst enemy of Christ to being his strongest advocate.

In fact, his former Jewish colleagues and brothers began conspiring to murder him. What happened to the church? In the entire region, it “had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.”

Prayer
Lord, You are near and strong and interested in the affairs of this world and in the mission of your church. You continue to change us and make us into your image to reflect the glory of your name. Today, remind us – especially those of us who struggle with despairing without hope – that you are full of surprises for churches, nations, families and individuals. Give us expectant hearts about our futures and increase our faith in your freedom and sovereignty. Amen.

Today’s Readings
Judges 5 (Listen – 4:36)
Acts 9 (Listen – 6:05)

A Bible That Confronts

  • June 26, 2015
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  • Bethany Jenkins

June26

Psalm 119.97
Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day.

“Americans may love the Bible or loathe it,” wrote Ann Monroe in Mother Jones. “But for the most part, they read it the same (when they read it at all): as the manifesto of a God who has a lot of laws and a definite inclination to punish those who don’t follow them.” 

We may think that an authoritative text precludes intimacy, but a personal relationship requires someone who talks back. A one-sided relationship is exploitive, not personal. How can we pursue a relationship with God in which our will is crossed and our thoughts are contradicted?

The Psalmist celebrated the Word for its authority and ability to cross and contradict us. For the Lord’s wisdom transcends the wisdom of those from whom we traditionally seek it: “I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the aged, for I keep your precepts.”

In Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, Donald Whitney writes, “No Spiritual Discipline is more important than the intake of God’s Word. Nothing can substitute for it. There is simply no healthy Christian life apart from a diet of the milk and meat of Scripture. The reasons for this are obvious. In the Bible God tells us about Himself, and especially about Jesus Christ, the incarnation of God. 

“The Bible unfolds the Law of God to us and shows us how we’ve all broken it. There we learn how Christ died as a sinless, willing Substitute for breakers of God’s Law and how we must repent and believe in Him to be right with God. In the Bible we learn the ways and will of the Lord. We find in Scripture how to live in a way that is pleasing to God as well as best and most fulfilling for ourselves. None of this eternally essential information can be found anywhere else except the Bible. Therefore if we would know God and be Godly, we must know the Word of God – intimately.”

Prayer
Lord, We need more than just words to survive. We need the Word himself. Since the Bible is the essential place to find him, we turn to it and long for a more disciplined intake of it. Make it our meditation all the day. Amen.

Today’s Readings
Deuteronomy 31 (Listen – 4:57)
Psalm 119.97-120 (Listen)

Ancient Word in Modern Life
Part 5 of 5, read more on TheParkForum.org

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Why We Want Objective Good

  • June 8, 2015
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  • Bethany Jenkins

June8

Psalm 97.10
O you who love the LORD, hate evil! He preserves the lives of his saints; he delivers them from the hand of the wicked. 
Our post-modern culture may teach that there is no such thing as an objective good or an objective evil, but no one really wants to believe that this is true. For when there is no objective standard, then “might makes right” — and that is unacceptable.
When there is an objective standard, John Piper says, “the simplest peasant in Russia, the simplest Jew in Germany, the simplest slave in Georgia or the simplest Christian prisoner in Rome can say to the most powerful Stalin, the most powerful Hitler, the most powerful plantation owner or the most powerful Caesar, ‘Excuse me. No, sir, this is wrong. Your power does not make it right. There is a God above you and there is a right and a wrong outside of you and your might does not make it right.’”
God defines objective good and objective evil. Good is that which honors Him and helps others, and evil is that which dishonors Him and hurts others. And He calls us to conform our emotions to this reality.
Yet loving an objective good and hating an objective evil – although somewhat easy to talk about when it comes to international injustices – gets complicated when we start talking about our own hearts.
In the Gulag Archipelago Alexander Solzhenitsyn reflected, “Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either, but right through every human heart, and through all human hearts … even in the best of all hearts, there remains a small corner of evil.”
Prayer
Lord, Jesus himself is the ultimate objective good. There is nothing better for us than him. In light of this reality, we beg you to give us your mercy for the miracle of new affections. Help us love good and hate evil, especially the evil in our hearts. Lift our eyes to Jesus, who died at the hands of evil to bring us the ultimate good. Let us not merely reject evil and choose good; let us hate evil and cling to good. Change our affections and, thereby, change our lives. Amen.
Today’s Readings
Deuteronomy 12 (Listen – 5:11)
Psalms 97-98 (Listen – 2:11)
Life and Eternity
Part 1 of 5, read more on TheParkForum.org

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All of Life: Enshrouded in Mystery

  • June 5, 2015
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  • Bethany Jenkins

June5

Psalm 92.5-6
How great are your works, O LORD! Your thoughts are very deep! The stupid man cannot know; the fool cannot understand. 

Ironically, one thing that we can know about God is how little we can know about Him. In large part, he is a mystery – not because he chooses to withhold himself, but rather because he is God and we are not.

As A.W. Tozer puts it in The Knowledge of the Holy, “Exactly what He is He cannot tell us. Of what God is conscious when He is conscious of self, only He knows. ‘The things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.’ Only to an equal could God communicate the mystery of His Godhead; and to think of God as having an equal is to fall into an intellectual absurdity.”

In Psalm 92, the Psalmist sings praise to God and rejoices, “How great are your works, O Lord!” Then he continues by describing those things that the fool cannot understand—namely, the ways and judgments of God.

When we approach the Lord, how often are we conscious of his “deep thoughts”? Even his personhood is mysterious! 

Tozer continues, “Our sincerest effort to grasp the incomprehensible mystery of the Trinity must remain forever futile, and only by deepest reverence can it be saved from actual presumption. Some persons who reject all they cannot explain have denied that God is a Trinity. Subjecting the Most High to their cold, level-eyed scrutiny, they conclude that it is impossible that he could be both One and Three. 

“These forget that their whole life is enshrouded in mystery. They fail to consider that any real explanation of even the simplest phenomenon in nature lies hidden in obscurity and can no more be explained than can the mystery of the Godhead. Every man lives by faith, the nonbeliever as well as the saint; the one by faith in natural laws and the other by faith in God.”

Prayer
Lord, like the Psalmist, we look upon your creation and see your mysterious glory. Our world is full of the visible and the invisible, the material and the spiritual. It is a wonder that we are not constantly overwhelmed by even the simplest phenomenon in nature. We marvel in your presence. Fill us with wonder for knowing you. Let us not be arrogant or presumptuous for we live by faith. Amen.

Today’s Readings
Deuteronomy 9 (Listen – 5:06)
Psalms 92-93 (Listen – 1:28)

Investing With Your Life
Part 5 of 5, read more on TheParkForum.org

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This Weekend’s Readings

Saturday: Deuteronomy 10 (Listen – 3:12); Psalm 94 (Listen – 2:08)
Sunday: Deuteronomy 11 (Listen – 4:38); Psalms 95-96 (Listen – 1:09)

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The Gospel Is Lasting, Not Fleeting

  • June 2, 2015
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  • Bethany Jenkins

June2

Psalm 89.1
I will sing of the steadfast love of the LORD, forever; with my mouth I will make known your faithfulness to all generations. 

Ina Drew invested over $350 billion throughout the course of her career as the Chief Investment Officer at JPMorgan Chase. She is remembered, in the New York Times Magazine’s words, as “the public face attached to a $6 billion mistake, a trading loss so startling in size that it dominated the business press, put [CEO Jamie] Dimon on the defensive and cost Drew her job.”

One headhunter noted that her fall is just part of the process: “That’s what they pay you so much money for. To take the fall when things go wrong.” Careers and incomes are fleeting. We can hold the economic lever for a major bank one day and take the fall for its loss a few months later. 

Although God has not promised to make us C-level executives, He has promised — through David — to make us co-heirs with Christ, who sits on the throne forever.

Psalm 89 celebrates God’s covenant with David and begs Him to apply that covenant to David’s descendants: “You have said, ‘I have made a covenant with my chosen one; I have sworn to David my servant: ‘I will establish your offspring forever, and build your throne for all generations.’” 

Since David was already dead when the psalmist wrote this psalm, we know that he himself was claiming that the covenantal promises made to David applied to him, too: “Lord, where is your steadfast love of old, which by your faithfulness you swore to David?”

The gospel is not merely that Jesus lived and died; it is also that he was resurrected from the dead and glorified. Today, he sits at the right hand of the Father, where he lives to intercede for us. This is the gospel, and it is lasting.

Prayer
Lord, the circumstances of our lives are constantly changing. Yet we do not react to our uncertainties with fear, hoarding our resources and being timid about the gospel. Instead, we react with faith, knowing that we have the unchanging covenantal love that you made to David and kept in Christ. Therefore, we claim your promises – that goodness and mercy will follow us all our days and that you will make us co-heirs in Christ to that covenant promise to David if we seek our satisfaction in you. Amen.

Today’s Readings
Deuteronomy 6 (Listen – 3:13)
Psalm 89 (Listen – 5:29)

Investing With Your Life
Part 2 of 5, read more on TheParkForum.org

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