Now that I'm Waiting, What Now?

Yesterday, we addressed the need for all those in a season of hurt to wait upon God.  When life has knocked you down, take that as an opportunity to bow before God and wait on Him.  But what do we do, if we do anything, while we wait?  I think the primary activity of one waiting is not praying, as we learned yesterday, but spending time in His Word.

Murray used Psalm 25:4-5 to teach that often when we wait we are waiting on instructions. The instructions of God always come from His Word, the Bible.  Much of the hardships of life are too complicated for us to truly solve.  Life can be overwhelming.  Only God, our creator, can give sound teaching on how to deal with these issues.  Sometimes these instructions are words of wisdom, such as those found in Proverbs. Other times they are the promises of God scattered throughout the Bible.  In all of God's Word we must have faith; faith in His righteousness, faith in His ways, faith in His promises.

If you find yourself in a time of waiting, be quiet before God and listen to and read His Word.

I will see you tomorrow.  Murray's devotional can be found here.

For All Those Hurting

Day four of the devotional was wonderful, for it made me think of all those hurting people. Of late, we at Wakefield Valley Bible Church have endured much heartache - disease, death, and the uncertainties of life. (How am I going to pay my bills? What's going on in my marriage?) Today though, God speaks to all those that are enduring such.

The passage for today is Psalm 145:14-15.  In these simple lines are some beautiful words for all that hurt, "The Lord upholdeth all that fall, And raiseth up all those that be bowed down. The eyes of all wait upon Thee."  Do you feel knocked down? Well just stay down there but turn and bow before God's throne, and wait.  Do you feel like you cannot go on?  Bow down before God and then raise your eyes toward Him and wait.

When we wait, we do not pray, but we wait.  There is a difference, and Murray addresses this.  He writes, "If the question be asked, whether this be anything different from what we do when we pray, the answer is, that there may be much praying with but very little waiting on God. In praying we are often occupied with ourselves, with our own needs, and our own efforts in the presentation of them. In waiting upon God, the first thought is of the God upon whom we wait. We enter His presence, and feel we need just to be quiet, so that He, as God, can overshadow us with Himself. God longs to reveal Himself, to fill us with Himself. Waiting on God gives Him time in His own way and divine power to come to us."

So for all those hurting, all those in doubt, all those longing, go before God, bow down, and wait. And as you wait, look up to Him, because in His time He will reveal Himself and overshadow you with Himself.

I'll see you tomorrow.  You can read Andrew Murray's devotional by clicking here.

-Mark

The Value of God - Day Three

On day three of the devotional, Murray looks at Psalm 104:27-28. In this passage the psalmist considers the creation and its dependence on God.  In the psalm God is portrayed as the great creator God, clothed in splendor; and through His word mountains rise and valleys sink to the their appointed place. 

God is not only the creator but also the provider.  He provides the needs of His creation.  The creation looks up to God to provide.  And it on this idea that Murray lingers and it is this idea that Murray links to man; our needs are provided by God, so wait on Him. "And just as this is the very place and nature of God, to be unceasingly the supplier of every want in the creature, so the very place and nature of the creature is nothing but this - to wait upon God and receive from Him what He alone can give, what He delights to give."

This idea should shape and change our worship.  When we find our dependence in Him, then our love and passion for Him should increase and thus be reflected back to Him.  The very word worship means to show worth.  If we are totally dependent upon God then His worth cannot be measured.  God's worth far exceeds even our imagination.  Therefore our worship back up to Him should note that. "Let us resolve at once that it shall be the one characteristic of our life and worship, a continual, humble, truthful waiting upon God. We may rest assured that He who made us for Himself, that He might give Himself to us and in us, that He will never disappoint us. In waiting on Him we shall find rest and joy and strength, and the supply of every need."

See you tomorrow.  You can read an online version of Waiting on God by clicking here.

-Mark

The Creator Working in Us

Last Sunday night in small groups we were studying Philippians 2:12-30.  One of the members, Doris, pointed out the wonder - that God, who created the stars, is doing a work in her!  It is this same idea that Andrew Murray shares in day two of his devotional titled Waiting On God. In day two Mr. Murray uses Genesis 49:18 to teach that, "...there is no salvation but God’s salvation... ." Later he says, "What He asks of us, in the way of surrender, and obedience, and desire, and trust, is all comprised in this one word: waiting on Him, waiting for His salvation." 

These are the ideas he links to the Genesis passage.  However, it was Doris' observation concerning Philippians 2:12-15 that came together for me in the Murray reading.  God is working in me. This same God, the only God, the Creator of all, is doing that work in me! Murray picks up on this idea when he states, "Again, I say, let us meditate on the divine glory of the salvation God purposes working out in us, until we know the truths it implies. Our heart is the scene of a divine operation more wonderful than Creation."

Now that's a thought! But how is it that we daily forget this fact, the fact of the Creator God working in us?  It is because we have boiled our existence down to the daily routine - family, work, eat, sleep - and have forgotten God. Or at best, we have shunted God off to Sundays and then ignore Him Monday-Saturday.  I need to live daily aware of God working in me. I need to live daily waiting on God.

See you tomorrow.  You can read an online version of Murray's devotional by clicking here.

-Mark

Man, I hate to wait!

So here I sit waiting on a man form the city water department to come and repair our water meter.  When the appointment was set, it was made for 8 AM to noon.  I assumed that this meant it would take four hours to repair the device. Well what it really meant was that sometime during these four hours he would show up and make the repair. So here I sit - waiting.

When I set an appointment for my doctor, I never have to wait, but I am quickly taken to the little room and he soon appears. My dentist is even more efficient. I sit down in the waiting room and before I can finish the People magazine article on Tiger Woods, she calls be back. Even my plumber arrives when he says he will arrive.  Why then do I have to wait for this service?

While I am waiting I thought that I would consider what it means to wait upon God.  I began to look at verses and search the internet for articles on this subject. While on the internet I came across Andrew Murray's book Waiting on God. Murray was a Dutch Reformed pastor that served in South Africa.  From my understanding he wrote devotional literature. Waiting on God is such a book.  It takes the subject and divides it up into 31 days. So I thought I would take the 31 day challenge, read his thoughts and comment on them.

Day One
Murray starts with Psalm 62:1 and titles the first day "The God of Our Salvation."  (I wish that he had included Psalm 62:2 and 62:5-6 in this first day, for they flesh out the idea of waiting.)  God is the God of my salvation! And He is my rock, my defense, and I know that because of Him, along with salvation, or victory over sin, I shall not be moved!   Thus I depend on Him for salvation and defense.  Because of Him alone, I can stand.  It is in that place, dependence upon God, that believers need to wait.  Murray says, "All that the Church and its members need for the manifestation of the mighty power of God in the world, is the return to our true place, the place that belongs to us, both in creation and redemption, the place of absolute and unceasing dependence upon God."

Why then do I, and probably you, hate to wait?  Even on God we show this impatience.  Because we either do not understand our dependence upon Him or we would rather attempt it on our own. The latter idea, attempting on our own, is part of our fallen nature.  So the old man calls us to abandon God and return to doing things like we used to do.  Also, I think it is because we do not know or understand Psalm 62:5-6, "...for my expectation is from Him."  My hope is found in and only in God.  Take a moment and think upon your hopes and dreams.  Are they the hopes and dreams God has for you or are they void of Him?  Murray says it this way, "It is, then, because Christians do not know their relation to God of absolute poverty and helplessness, that they have no sense of the need of absolute and unceasing dependence, or the unspeakable blessedness of continual waiting on God."

For me to learn to wait I must realize my absolute poverty and then turn to Christ and find my hopes in Him, my victory in Him, and my salvation in Him.

See you tomorrow.  You can read an online version Murray's book Waiting on God here. There's the doorbell. I think the repair man has finally arrived!

-Mark

Frank Caliendo & God

Ephesians 5:1 calls all believers to follow or imitate God.  The Greek word behind follow or imitate is mimetes.  It is the word from which our English word mimic is derived.  To me a mimic is someone like Frank Caliendo, or for us older folks, Rich Little.  These men mimic the voices and mannerisms of famous people.  However, their mimicry is in part, for they only mimic the outward acts - the voice and recognized movements of the person.  God calls us to mimic Him both in action and in attitude. Here are two examples from the passage.

In Ephesians 4:32 we are told to mimic God in the action and attitude of forgiveness.  Like God, we are to forgive those who sin against us, and we are to forgive them fully and completely as He forgave us.  A great passage, a parable of Christ that teaches this is found in Matthew 18:23-35.  Read this passage and think of those who have wronged you.  Have you fully forgiven them or are you like the wicked servant?

The second example of how we are to mimic God is found in Ephesians 5:2.  We are told to walk in love, to live our lives out in love.  And of course the example given is that of Jesus, who walked in love all the way to the cross.  Other verses that speak to this are Romans 5:8 and Hebrews 12:2.  Jesus loved us and loves us even when we are unlovable.  We then are to mimic God in this way.  We are to fully live our self-sacrificial love to all others, even when they are unlovable.

So where do we begin?  A day does not go by when we are not in the presence of people, people that we must love sacrificially, people that often are unlovable.  They might be your spouse, your boss, your neighbor, your child.  Along with this love, forgiveness must be granted.  Why should we love and forgive? Because God did so for us and because He has told us to mimic Him in this way.

-Mark

Pondering Dementia

There is a form of philosophy which teaches that people are a sum of their memories.  I don't know much about philosophy, but this idea - sum of memories - has begun to make me ponder how it may fit into biblical fact.

1 Thessalonians 5:23 teaches that man is made up of three parts.  The body is the outer shell of a person. The spirit was born dead because of sin, but for those who receive Christ it is made alive and communes with God (Romans 8:16).  The soul, then, seems to be that which defines a person. Many would say that the soul is comprised of our mind, emotions, and will.
If I am correct in my above understanding, then how does dementia, the destruction of memories, fit biblical teaching?  Dementia is a desease that attacks the mind, like cancer may attack the lungs. In a sense, dementia effects the soul of a person.  A person with dementia seems to lose in bits and pieces their personality, the who of who they are.  They lose connection with the past and stare blankly ahead.  We might say the soul of the person seems to be fading away. However, for those who are in Christ, they can be assured that God will restore them upon death.  Not only will they receive a new body, but the mind, too, will be restored.
I might be all wet. Some of the above ideas may not square.  But as I watch two parents battle with the onslaught of dementia I look for understanding from the only true source, Scripture, and I seek hope for the future.

-Mark