48. Daniel In the Lion's Den (Daniel 6:1-28).

by Wesley Blackburn

Over the past season of my life, I've been feeling and learning a lot of different things. Two of those in particular are:

1. God thrives in situations where we need Him to show up. I need to put myself in more positions and situations where things will work out only if God shows up, for that's where He receives glory the most.
2. God usually doesn't want me to do the impossible; He just wants me to be faithful.

I think that we see these themes in the story of Daniel. It starts with Daniel's faithfulness. Despite a decree to pray to no other God than the King of Persia, Daniel continues to remain faithful. What I find interesting in Daniel's decision is that he didn't make any overt efforts to broadcast his faithfulness. He didn't march before the king and outright defy him. He just continued serving God and being faithful in this humble, unassuming way.

But the other thing is that Daniel wasn't afraid to own up to the consequences of his actions. He wasn't afraid to put himself in a situation where God would have to show up or else the consequences would be dire (literally, his death). It just makes me wonder: Am I willing to put myself in situations where if God doesn't show up then I'm in trouble?

I think that oftentimes, I'm willing to put myself in positions where maybe I need to trust God a little bit, but I can also take control of my own future. I don't know that there are too many situations in my life where I've known beforehand, "God, there is absolutely nothing that I can do here. If you don't show up, I'm toast. But I believe You're here, You've called me to this, and You aren't going to let me down." But yet, those are the situations where God thrives. I wonder if maybe I don't see God's presence more in my life not because God doesn't show up, but because I don't really put myself in positions where He really can show up.

God wants me to be faithful. But He also wants me to not be afraid to step into situations that look impossible. That's where He thrives. That's where He receives glory.

47. Jeremiah's Call and Message (Jeremiah 1:1-3:5).

by Wesley Blackburn

The story of Jeremiah is a really difficult one. Like most of the prophets throughout Israel and Judah's history, Jeremiah was commissioned by God to take a very difficult message of the people's sin to the people.

Obviously, you can imagine that people who were commissioned by God to tell the people of their sin were not very popular with the people. No doubt many sneered and jeered at the prophets, perhaps even calling into question whether they were truly receiving a message from God at all, or whether or not they just wanted to get on a moral "high horse" and judge people. Frequently, prophets were punished, humiliated, beaten, imprisoned, and even killed.

Jeremiah would be no different. His message would earn him lots of trouble from people and rulers of Israel. He would actually earn the name of "the weeping prophet" because of his deep concern for the people not following God's laws, but also in part because the pain and torture that Jeremiah would endure over his ministry would be enough to make any grown man weep.

As Jeremiah receives his initial call to go and talk to the people, God gives him one message: Come back to your first love. This would pretty much sum up Jeremiah's message to the people of his day. He would ask them to turn away from their worthless idols, to turn from doing evil in God's sight, and to come back to God, live a right life before Him, and worship Him.

Jeremiah's message makes me think: Have I forsaken my first love? In this season of life, I think that I'm honestly struggling to keep God as the first love in my life a lot of the time. Mostly, I'd rather serve me. I'd rather do the things that make me happy. There have been a lot of times in my life where I have been genuinely motivated by a desire to live a life that honors and glorifies God; I feel that's been a struggle for me recently. I think that is where much of Israel's struggle stemmed from as well.

It's especially silly because we see the repercussions of our sin. Broken relationships. Bitterness. Hate. We leave a trail of destruction in our path and we don't even realize it. In Romans 6:21, Paul talks about how we were all once slaves to sin. Paul basically asks this blunt question of, "How's that working out for you?" The answer is, pretty simply, it doesn't. When we continually live in a habitual pattern of sin, it's usually blatantly obvious to everyone around us that things aren't working. But we still stubbornly continue. Again, that's the story of Israel. But I think it would be silly if I didn't also admit that that is also the story of me.

So what does God ask of us? He wants us to turn to Him. He wants us to call on Him. But more than just calling on His name (anyone can do that in the dark moments of their lives), God wants to obey Him. God restores us and loves us so that we can, in turn, follow Him and play a part in His story of restoring and redeeming the lives of others. Let's all be a part of that story; let's turn to God, submit our lives to Him, and boldly follow where He is leading.

46. The Suffering Servant (Isaiah 51:1-53:12).

by Wesley Blackburn

I think that if we let it, this can be one of the most moving passages in all of Scripture.

Think about it; because of my sin, because of what I did, a man had to die.

And this man didn't just die a regular, old death. He died a death that was truly terrible. He had his clothes taken off of him, leaving him naked. He was beaten and flogged. He was nailed to a cross.

Truly, Isaiah 51-53 is probably one of the most graphic, prophetic portrayals of Jesus' crucifixion that we have ever seen. With startling accuracy, it predicts the future events of Christ's death. But with even more startling accuracy, it predicts exactly what this death would give us:

Healing.

In the midst of the darkest hour, the biggest Plan B circumstance ever imaginable, God offered us something incredible. As Isaiah 53:5 says:

He was wounded for our transgressions;

He was crushed for our iniquities;

upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace,

and with His stripes we are healed.

We are healed. That's a pretty cool promise to me. But I also don't want to lose sight of the fact of how big a deal our sin is, either. The Son of God died because of it. But that only goes to show just how much He loves us.

45. The Proverbs of Solomon (Proverbs 16:1-18:24).

by Wesley Blackburn

So, I'm not going to lie... when it comes to reading material, Proverbs isn't exactly an easy read. However, there's still a lot of wisdom in there, and after reading through Proverbs 16, 17, and 18, I think I picked up on two major themes:

1. Living an upright life is important. Through the first couple chapters, Solomon really hits home on the importance of living an upright life. To be "upright" simply means to live a life that is upstanding; a life that does what is right and seeks righteousness.

People who live an upright life are desirable in all areas of life. Think about it; you've probably never met a good person who didn't have some sort of draw to them. People who just want to do the right thing have this natural draw. You can trust them. You can get wise advice from them. They make good friends. People who live an upright life are just great to have around.

We've probably all seen the consequences of a life that hasn't been lived in an upright manner. Yes, you may get ahead for a while, but eventually it all comes crashing down because God just has this uncanny knack for allowing the poisonous sin we practice the most to come and hit us hard at the most inopportune time. What's so ironic is that when it happens in my life, I usually come back to the same, tired old refrain: "That's not fair!"

But with people who seek good, it's different. Number one, you don't have to deal with the cruddy consequences of cruddy choices. But I think there's another benefit: you gain moral authority and credibility. Recently, I've been reading a book entitled Visioneering by Andy Stanley, and just this morning I finished a chapter that talked about how when what we say we believe and what we actually practice come into alignment, we gain moral authority. Basically, that means that people start to listen to us, even if we don't necessarily have a position that dictates that they have to listen to us. We gain influence in people's lives not because of the position we have, but because of the way we live. What a great way to earn an opportunity to share Jesus with others!

2. The tongue carries incredible power. And responsibility. Chapter 18, though, served as a humbling reminder for me about the incredible power of my tongue to heal and also to destroy. Proverbs 18:21's promise that "the tongue has the power of life and death" has proven to be true in my life time and time again.

I still have some problems controlling my tongue today, but I was really bad when I was younger (hard to imagine, I'm sure). But what was so terrible is that my tongue would just spout off so many hateful, angry, and judgmental things that it was unbearable. I burned a lot of relational bridges between myself and many of my classmates. I wonder if I would have had better opportunities to share Christ with them, but just couldn't because I'd lost all credibility to speak truth into their lives. Not to mention the fact that I lost opportunities for friendships all because I couldn't control my tongue.

You've probably seen it before in your life as well. That word you said in a heated debate with your spouse. The thing you didn't mean to say to a friend but just let slip. Those words can do damage in relationships that just can't be repaired, or at the very least take a long time to heal. But the opposite is also true. A well-timed, meaningful piece of encouragement for people can speak volumes. It can make even the most broken, hurting heart smile. Truly, the tongue does have the power of life and death. We just need to learn how to make the right choices with it.

Beyond Sunday - You Don't Have What it Takes: You can't control the future

...by Larry Walker

Embracing the uncertain can be so difficult. I imagine you have to be strong in your faith to do it. Just when I think I have strengthened it, something even more uncertain comes along to test how strong it really is. Didn't Greg just hit the nail on the head when he talked about leaving the knowns behind that hold you back? Whether it's a relationship, a job, or habit... there is just something too comfortable about the certain. But, if we are to live a life that is full of Christ-like adventures, isn't it right for us to put it away and grow? Trusting God with our future instead of snuggling in with our old comfortable certainties is something Jesus calls us to do.

I thought later that night about two nineteenth century families from Holland that chose to embrace something uncertain and left everything they knew behind that kept them in that cozy comfortable safe place. They trusted in God's future for them and came over on a boat and decided to farm in the onion fields of Chicago. If these two sets of families would have chosen the safe path, my grandparents would have never met in that tiny one room school in South Holland back in 1925. As I was kissing my daughters goodnight tonight, I thought about how grateful I was for those two families and their faith in letting God control their future. I wonder if they are smiling down from heaven when they look at what that one single "Trust Him": moment has evolved into over the past 150 years. Wouldn't you like to have your great great grandchildren be that grateful for your faith as well?

44. Godly Wisdom (Proverbs 1:1-4:27).

by Wesley Blackburn

As I read through the beginning of Proverbs, I'm really struck by two different things. Number one, I'm really hit with the impact of the statement in 1:7 that "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge."

What in the world does that mean? Well, the fear of the Lord isn't exactly to say we're scared to death of God, though you could argue that there is a bit of an element of that in it. The "fear of the Lord" in the Bible simply refers to a healthy reverence and respect for God. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom because when I realize the magnitude of exactly who it is that has called me, I am going to humble myself before God and submit my life to him. I'm going to do what He asks and what His word teaches. Just like with a parent or teacher we respect, we listen. And we obey.

Secondly, I was continually reminded in this passage about the rewards of people obeying God. We've probably seen both sides of this. For instance, we've probably seen lives destroyed (maybe even our own) by people who just don't live the way that God wants. This is why we have broken families. This is why we have relationships that are torn apart. This is why our world is at times dominated by greed and selfishness.

But we've also probably seen the rewards of what happens when we obey God. Good things happen. We discover something more wonderful than we could ever imagine. Maybe that's part of your story. You took the leap of faith, you sought God, you obeyed God... and then you saw Him do something incredible in your life. In a lot of ways, that's part of my story even being here at Suncrest. Maybe that's the story of how you met your spouse, how you got that job, how you found that best friend, or something else. When we obey God, good things have a tendency to happen. That isn't to say that following God is always easy (or always comes with some sort of physical, earthly reward), but just to say that on the whole, people who follow God seem to find their lives full of good things.

That's what wise living is. It starts with us humbling ourselves before an Almighty God and ends with that same God choosing to bless us with some incredible things.

43. Praise the Lord (Psalm 103:1-22).

by Wesley Blackburn

So, I have got to be honest. As I sit here this morning writing this entry, I opened up my to-do list and saw that it was entitled "Praise the Lord." Just being honest here... not quite yet in the mood to praise the Lord. I'm tired. I'm probably a little cranky. I'm stressed with several big tasks that I would just rather not want to do... ever.

But even reading this passage this morning really helped me to focus on what's important. It helped me to be thankful to the Lord for what He has done in my life. It reminded me that He loves me in an incredibly huge way beyond what I can even begin to imagine. That's a neat reminder.

Earlier this week, I had one day where as I woke up and got ready to face the day, I just really felt God putting on my spirit a reminder that sin has no power over me, that I am forgiven. For whatever reason, this song below was the one that just popped into my head all during that day:



To me, that's the framework that this psalm starts with and seeks to remind us of: we are forgiven and redeemed. And it's really a great framework for our lives. We are forgiven of our iniquity and healed of the disease of sin. We have been redeemed and given God's steadfast (love that adjective) mercy. As Psalm 103:5 states, "[God] satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's." I think as believers, we've all felt the incredible renewing power of the Holy Spirit's presence in our lives.

Psalm 103 gives us some awesome reminders about God's incredible blessing and provision in our lives. Even when things aren't going my way, it will definitely serve as a reminder of who God is and what He has done for me, for you, for all of us... if we only let Him.