Prickly Escape Routes

Many people are familiar with the promise in 1 Corinthians 10:13:

"No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to humanity. God is faithful, and He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation He will also provide a way of escape so that you are able to bear it."  

This is where the common, if slightly questionable, phrase: "God won't give you anything you can't handle" comes from.  But many of us find ourselves in situations where we know we are in over our heads so this verse seems a little naive to us.  But if you look back, the part we focus on, of course, is the section talking about the part we play. On second glance we notice it is sandwiched between, "God is faithful" and "He will also provide a way of escape" both of which describe what His part is in all of this.

So...what do we KNOW?

1) We KNOW that God promises to provide a way of escape when we are tempted, so it will definitely be there.  There will always be a release valve when we feel pressured to go against what God has told us to do.
2) We KNOW that He is faithful.


So, what is this "way of escape" you ask?  Well, as anyone who's been alive for more than 5 minutes knows, it's not typically a paved, pot-hole-free super-highway.  It often looks MUCH scarier than the way we know is wrong.  

Finding the Escape Route:
In so many situations, escape requires someone to sacrifice.  In our Ultimate Escape from sin and its consequences, the Great Jailbreak was only accomplished through Christ's sacrifice on the cross and resurrection.

I think it may be the same principle, reenacted in miniature each time we face sin ourselves. Sometimes it seems that we are only given a way of escape through thistle bushes and locust trees!  But make no mistake, we will walk out of that temptation one way or another.  

We will either choose to believe the enemy of our souls and walk out of a temptation in the way he recommends, choosing his way of escape for us (hint: no real escape at all, its just a tunnel leading back into the prison) or holding the hand of our loving, rescuing Father as he leads us out into greater and more abundant Life.  There is no contest.

So the next time we face temptation and there seems to be know way out but to give in, may we all take a second look and choose the way out, no matter how prickly the path seems.

Walking by Faith, Halley's comet, and the Law of Conservation

We humans are a pretty self-focused lot, no surprise here.  We tend to think because something isn't happening in our life, it means that it can't happen.  You know, because the universe revolves and exists within our experience of it. Right? Right?  

Thinking ourselves very scientific, we create a "law" based on our observations.  We have a million observed laws, Law of Conservation of Singleness, Law of Conservation of Barrenness, Law of Conservation of Weakness, Law of Conservation of Sickness, Law of Conservation of Addiction.  Whatever our personal Law is, EVERYthing we've seen, observed, and measured points to the validity of our hypothesis, which we've now convinced ourselves is a law of nature.  As a defense mechanism against our own disappointment, we teach ourselves not to hope for anything more than what we can see.  

But we have to ask ourselves, what about Halley's comet? (Uh oh, she's really lost it this time...where is this going exactly?) Stick with me here.  What if the comet's failure to show up in the night's sky each day made someone disbelieve in its existence?  What if they'd heard about others seeing it but never actually seen it themselves?
Here's the thing with Halley's comet, it shows up exactly when it supposed to, once every 74-79 years.  Right on time.  I feel like the timing of God is like that.  We hear about other people getting the things we pray for but we don't see it in our own lives, so we assume that it can't happen.  We choose to believe only what is directly in front of our own faces, without regard for the way God has moved in the lives of others around us and throughout history.  So lets try something new, lets stop assuming facts not in evidence and do a little more investigation into the character of God before we assume that He's going to disappoint us.  Let's investigate his faithfulness throughout history like good little scientists and stop making assumptions based on small sample sizes.  

God, please help our unbelief, help us walk by faith in Your ability to act and not by sight.  We are not stronger people for resigning to the assumption that You will not act on our behalf, that resignation and disbelief makes us weaker people.  Not fully realizing the life of faith and wonder you've called us to.  Lord, we don't need a meteor shower every day, we are trusting you for that one comet that you send, in your timing.   Thank you Lord for your steadfast love shown to us through Jesus. Amen. (Let it be so)

Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen. Hebrews 11:1

He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. Ecc. 3:11

Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord! Ps. 27:14

What USBs teach us about trust...

Let me start by acknowledging that I may have waded off too deep in the electronic allegory pool this time, but here we go.

I noticed the other night that the first time I plugged my phone into the USB charger on my laptop, it asks me if I trust the computer.  Am I willing to share my photos, notes, and such with it?  The first time it asks, but the second time, it doesn't bother asking.  It just assumed that the walls preventing communication need to stay up and it just needs to get what it needs from the arrangement.  The phone just needs power.  So they sit side by side, seemingly connected via a cord but without a very meaningful connection, just harvesting the minimum benefit from the relationship.  They can't back each other up if the other one suffers data loss or trauma.  They are both on their own when the going gets tough.  

True, there is a risk in trusting that laptop, it could have a virus or try to update you and make changes.  But what if that update saves battery life and gives you access to new applications you never knew could exist?  Is the connection worth the update and the new possibilities worth the risk?

What are your connections like?  Are you sharing and updating with others or are you settling for simply getting a temporary charge?  Do you need to reset and select "Trust"?

If My People Pray: Verses to Pray for Our Nation

It seems as if every 4 years there is an epidemic of hand-wringing leading up to the presidential election.  Supporters of each side fears that their opponent will bring certain destruction and annihilation by their dangerous policies.  With my political observations stretching back as far as childhood, having been raised on AM news radio, I feel that I can say with some degree of certainty that NEVER in my lifetime has there been an election cycle where so many were afraid of both candidates.  I know of many splitting from the party they’ve supported their entire lives to support a third party or write in candidate, while some are even casting their ballots across the aisle. 

Despite being immensely fortunate to live in a democracy, political predicaments like this can leave us feeling completely powerless.  We do our duty and cast our vote but are tempted to think, “I know which way my state will go, this is an exercise in futility.”  While I’m sure that there are many political science majors who could argue either side of this fatalistic thought until the next election, the rest of us are thinking, “Ok, I voted, what else can I do?”  The answer is one that may sound cliché at first but is, in fact, the most powerful… you can pray.

Please don’t misunderstand this as a call to toss up the ol’ last resort, hail mary pass prayer.  No, I’m talking about taking advantage of your access, as a follower of Christ, to have direct communication with the sovereign master of the universe.  As I’ve heard Chip Ingram say, “This is not a ‘now I lay me down to sleep’ prayer”.  We’re talking about earth-shaking, history-making, hell-shattering prayer.  So how do we do that?

Well, the Bible is pretty clear that our prayers are most effective when they are prayed with faith and when they are aligned with God’s will rather than our own.  As 1 John 5:14 says “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.” This is modeled for us in the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”  And the fastest way I’ve found to identify God’s will is by looking at what He’s already revealed in scripture.

This helps us avoid the trap of praying for things that align with our politics or our reasoning but don’t align with what The Lord wants.  After all, he’s the one who has all the information, the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.  He’s not relying on what a political candidate said on the campaign trail for his decisions.  He knows what crises will come and how each candidate would react.  He knows about private character and hidden loyalties.  He knows it all.  So let’s get with His program and pray that His will be done, on our little patch of earth, as it is in heaven.

Below are a few prayers that have been derived from the scripture listed beside it.  I hope you will join me in lifting up our nation and our leaders:

Lord, we come to you, praying for our nation and its leaders because your word says that you are both willing and able to answer our prayers, Your Word says that if your people, not everyone else, but your people, who are called by your name will humble ourselves, pray and seek your face and turn from our evil ways, you will hear from heaven, forgive our sin, and heal our land. (2 Chron 7:14) Lord, we humble ourselves now and lay our sins, not the sins of our neighbors, before you and ask for your power to help us turn from them so that you may heal our land.   

We know that it is you, Lord, who changes the times and seasons; You set up kings and depose them. You give wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning.  Please cause our leaders to ask for your wisdom and discernment that you may give it to them.  (Dan. 2:21) Your Word also says that kingship belongs to the Lord, and You rule over the nations." (Ps. 22:28)

We come to you with petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving for all people— for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.  We know that it pleases you when we pray for everyone from the least to the greatest because you want everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

 (1 Tim. 2:1-4)

 Finally, Lord your Word tells us "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." (Phil. 4:6-7) We have come to you now with our requests and give thanks that you are in control, please enable us to continually walk in your peace, which boggles our minds.

Your Word says that the one who trusts in You, whose confidence indeed is the Lord, is blessed.  He will be like a tree planted by water: it sends its roots out toward a stream, it doesn’t fear when heat comes, and its foliage remains green. It will not worry in a year of drought or cease producing fruit. (Jer. 17:7-8) We know that regardless of what events happen around us, IF we put our trust and confidence in You alone, we will flourish and will not be concerned or in a panic when tough times come.  Instead, we will continue to be fruitful and thrive.

We love you and are thankful that you care for us and involve yourself in the affairs of humans.  We thank you for the sacrifice of Christ, because it is only through his blood that we are even able to come to you at all.  It is in His name and for His sake we pray.  Amen.

Reflection Lake, Mt. Rainier National Park

I Believe, Help My Unbelief

Unbelief is one of those topics that we Christians tend to steer clear of like a sewer manhole without a cover. Wouldn’t admitting to bouts and struggles with unbelief be tantamount to divorcing ourselves from our very identity?  We call ourselves “believers” for crying out loud!  Not at all.  In fact, we even see in scripture (Mark 9:24) the story of a man who said “I believe, help my unbelief”.  We sometimes chuckle at his mid-sentence realization that what he was saying didn’t match up with what he was actually experiencing.  But I think if we look closer we find almost a formula for how to deal with doubts.  He stated that he did believe, but recognized there were still pockets of doubt lurking in his heart and mind and instead of only saying “I believe” to look good in front of Jesus, he was honest with where he was and immediately blurted out the confession, “help my unbelief”. 

And this, my friends, is what I think Jesus was after all along (and still is).  He’s after a relationship with us and he has already paid dearly to make that possible.  But as anyone with even cursory social skills knows, every true healthy relationship is built on honesty.  We fall into our enemy’s trap when we think that something we have thought or done needs to be hidden from God. Newsflash: He already knows.  Hiding from God when we’ve screwed up is literally one of the oldest tricks in The Book and the Enemy’s purpose of it is to create relational distance between us and the one who created us. 

Interestingly, I don’t think that the answer to unbelief is to avoid every topic we run into that causes confusion or doubt, tossing them back into the corner of our minds until they become an overwhelming avalanche of questions we’ve convinced ourselves that God can’t answer before we’ve ever even asked Him directly.  While the word is clear that we should not waste our time on a lot of pointless debates (2 Tim 2:23) with other people, I do believe that we are supposed to bring those doubts to God; Immediately, if not sooner. (as my 5^th grade teacher used to say).

There was a time in my college years that I secretly began to doubt if God was real or not.   Given that my entire identity, family, and friends were all rooted in the belief in Christ, this was a very real crisis for me.  In some of those really hard moments, I would pray like this, “God if you are real,…”.  I now look back on this time as me banging my fists against God’s chest while He held me in his arms.  While I hope that you are not that far down into the pit of despair, one thing I can tell you from experience.  He can handle it.  He is still God.  His feelings won’t be hurt when you tell him where you’re really at, He, in fact already knows and is waiting for you to bring it to him rather than trying to fix it yourself by drumming up religious feelings and listening to more Christian music.

So I guess my point is, whether you are doubting that He promised you what you think he did, that He really meant what he said in the Bible about (insert countercultural verse here), whether or not Christ is really God, or if you even finding yourself questioning if there is a God at all, TAKE IT TO GOD, regardless of what you believe at this second, He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  He’s not insecure.  He can take it.

-Renee Moreland

Sea of Galilee, Israel Trip 2016