Category: Devotional

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Living Your Identity

“The Father had put everything in Jesus’ control.

Jesus knew that.

He also knew that he had come from God

 and was going back to God.

  So he got up from the table, removed his outer clothes, took a towel, and tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and dry them with the towel that he had tied around his waist.”

John 13:3-5

Jesus knew exacty Who He Was.   And what an identity He had!!  He knew where He had come from, where He was going, and He knew the fact that he was in full control of everything!   He was One-of-a-Kind, in all of eternity.

Yet, directly tied to that Ultimate Identity, “because of that” look what He chose to do:

  • “So…He got up from the table.” Jesus got up from the cushion He was to sit on for this historic meal.  He stepped away from the table where His dearest friends would share the most important meal of the year, the Passover Meal.    Celebration. Family.  Remembering their people’s miraculous relationship with God.
  • “…Took off His outer robe”…His “good robe” . . .a mark of His identity and standing in that culture.  Jesus’ robe “had no seam”, a detail identifying the skillfully woven style of His outer robe, something of high quality.(John 19:23)
  • …”and instead took a towel and tied it around His waist.” The “uniform” of a servant, a slave.
  • “He poured water into a basin…” His friends knew exactly what that basin was for.  Jesus was preparing the “foot bath” for them.  This was the task of a servant, an act of total humility and practical necessity to be shown to guests.  This was a most lowly servant’s job.
  • “…and began to wash the disciples’ feet…” Dusty, dirty roads and hot climate made for sweaty, dirty people.  Sandaled feet took the worst of the dirt.  I would imagine smellyas well.  No one wanted to track dirty feet into someone’s home.  Keeping floors clean was difficult on its own, much less having a dozen men track the sand and dirt from outside into the room where they would eat the most important meal of the year.  Showing honor and hospitality in that part of the world was/is a high, high priority given to guests.  It would be shameful for the host to allow a guest to begin a visit without the best treatment they had to offer.  Jesus would have been the MOST honored guest that night, yet He purposefully took on the most lowly, humble role with His friends.  He put aside His Power and Identity and took on the lowest identity – that of a servant – who has no power at all.
  • “…and dry them with the towel He had tied around His waist.” This task takes time.  Washing….gently working the soap and water between toes, on the soles of each foot, and to the ankle.  It probably required changing the basin’s water many times, especially with 12 men. There is a humbling intimacy that occurs through this experience of having ones feet washed by someone of the home you are visiting.  There is personal care, gentleness, and time given in the process.  It is done with a heart of care and honor to each guest. It is not done quickly, as a dirty task that is finished as hurriedly as possible.  For the recipient, it is humbling.  Imagine the rough shape that open-sandaled feet are in, especially in a hot, dry, rocky land as Israel.  Cuts, bruises, calouses, blisters and hard, crusty skin (I don’t want to even think about the toenail situation)… each foot, by the hand of the host, is lifted, put into the basin of water, gently soaked and washed by the hand of the servant.  Then, the towel is carefully brought out to pat the freshly washed foot until it is dry.

“Jesus knew He had come from God and was going back to God.”   Very soon. Within the next few days.  He knew Who He Was….Whose He Was.  He knew “…everything was put in His [Jesus’] control”  by His Father.  He had the most miraculous, super-human, powerful, perfect Identity that ever walked the earth.  And He knew that these men, dear friends, would woefully fail Him in the coming hours and days.

Yet, in that Identity,  He chose humility, kindness, and love for His friends. He chose to serve them, notbe served by them.

 May we find such confidence in knowing Whose we are, that we can kindly, lovingly serve as Jesus served. . . even those who may hurt and disappoint us most.

 

Consider:

  • How do you handle “serving”?
  • When do you struggle with thoughts of “deserving better” than what comes your way?
  • How might Jesus handle “being in your shoes [sandals]” in those moments?

 

 

 

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Shelter and Shadows

“Whoever lives under the shelterof the Most High

    will remain in the shadow of the Almighty.

I will say to the Lord,

    “You are my refugeand my fortress,

my God in whom I trust.”

Psalm 91:1-2

Shelter…..shadow…..refuge….fortress…..all words that were extremely important needs in the life of David, the Shepherd-King.  He knew what it was like to spend long stretches of time out in the arid, wide-open, unprotected lands, leading his father’s sheep to find good pasture.  He lived the long, lonely days of moving sheep toward better feeding grounds, followed by long, lonely nights of creating enough of a safe place for the skittish sheep to be able to rest.

David was very familiar with living out in the open, without a house or any other structure that would provide safety for himself or his sheep.  No roof, no walls, no door… no sense of safety. Windstorms blew, driving the stinging sands into eyes and skin,  and scaring the sheep which scattered in fear.  Shelterprovides a safe place within its boundaries.  In this dangerous world, He is our immediate Shelter.

Shadows provide relief from the sun.  In a dry land there are not many trees, and any shade is a treasure, breaking the intense heat of the sun.  We all know the great relief we experience when, standing in the sun “cooking”, we step into a shadow.  There is immediate relief in that moment’s shadow.

Shepherd David clarifies that the Holy Shelteris the place we must live…not simply visit or jump in and out of.  It is safe there…immediately. Evil cannot  touch us there.  And withinthat Shelter is the Shadow of God Himself.  It isn’t a “place.”  It is an experiential reality of God’s Presence coming between me and the “heat” that could eventually be my doom. His “Shadow” doesn’t come to me.  I must choose to step into that Shelter of His, and to then experience His Shadow where I find immediate relief, rest,  and the clear evidence of His own Presence wrapping itself around me.

Experiencing His Shadow and Shelter, who could help but clearly acknowledge that He is my Refuge….my safe place from all that intends to destroy me.  And more than refuge,(an immediate, temporary safe place in times of crisis,)  . . . He is my Fortress!   Strong! Impenetrable!  Lasting through the ages.  My Fortressis fully armed, prepared and intent to do battle for me.  And while the battle rages, I am protected and safe within my Mighty Fortress.

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By a Desert Spring

“The Messenger of the Lord found her

 by a spring in the desert,

 the spring on the way to Shur.”  

Genesis 16:7

She was a slave.  Her family, home, and former life was far, far away…in another country.  She was pregnant, mistreated by the wife of the father of her child, and now utterly alone in this harsh desert.  No shelter.  No man to protect her from the many, many dangers in the desert.  A woman without the protection of a man was doomed.  It would be a slow death, surely.  But most excruciatingly painful of all would be to lose the baby she carried.  She would never see his face or hold him.  There was nothing she could do.

Springs in a desert are well-known to all the people of that region.  It was a matter of life or death to know where to find a spring.  She was there, the only place of any hope for her.  But water alone was not enough to keep her alive.  It would merely prolong death.

Her despair must have been unfathomable.  Her story had been one of being “used”…first as a slave with no rights, taken from her home and family.  She had to learn a new language, new culture, new rules and expectations, with strangers now deciding everything concerning her life.  Everything of her former life was gone.   She had to survive an entirely new life, not by her own choice.  That’s what slaves do.  They are “used.”  Eventually she was “used” in the ultimate way…with her own body and deepest intimate part of her heart.

Now, their lives would end together, she and her unborn, only child. . . alone.

But God saw.  He knew. He loved and cared in a deeply personal way for this young slave woman at the little spring, waiting to die.  He had a Plan.

And for the first of only two times in Bible history, God’s Messenger came to a simple young woman, and called her by name.  He then went on to tell her that she would give birth to a son.  He even described what her child would be like.  And God’s own Messenger named this son she carried, “Ishma-el…which means ‘God hears.’”  Every time she would say her son’s name for the rest of her life, it would be a reminder of the God Who Hears….her!

Then, this foreigner, a slave, a girl, so “unqualified” to be having such a conversation with God’s own Messenger, named Him: “Lahai Roi, meaning: The God Who Watches Over Me.”

When we are in those “desert places” in life, no matter how deeply we are feeling alone, forgotten, rejected, or hopeless, thinking that life is over, God isthere.  The “little spring” to which we cling as our hope slips away is not the end of the story.  God Himself “hears”…it’s Who He Is. And in the most hopeless times in life, we can hold on to Who He Is: “The God Who Watches Over Me,” even in our most desperate, hopeless desert moments.

 

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All That Night

“All that night

the Lord drove the sea back.”

Exodus 14:21

God’s desert refugees were running for their lives.   Behind them in traumatizing, deadly pursuit was the most powerful army in the world.  Ahead of them was the Sea.  Men, women, children, grandparents, the sick, elderly, newborn and soon-to-be born babies. The terror and chaos had to have been unimaginable.  Death was in hot pursuit behind them . . . no safety nor “home” lay ahead.   Well over a million traumatized slaves. . . now refugees. But there was no refuge for them. Death loomed . . . at their backs and in their faces.  In the darkness, when terror and danger was all around them.

BUT GOD WAS THERE, saying “Go . . .”   Go to your new life . . . your new home . . . your new freedom . . .   I Am here.  I Am making a way for you.  It’s scary, it’s not easy.  One foot in front of the other.    I Am right here, making the Way for you!

 Nighttime seems to hold far more fear.  Darkness surrounds us, and fears grow.  We cannot see.  Our human frailty and vulnerability becomes far more tangible.  We long for the light.

God’s people…His refugees, saw the turbulent sea open before them, and the command came to step into that unimaginable journey in the darkness of night.  There was really no other option…theyhad to go.  

God was there. In the darkness.  He, Who had opened the sea and created the path to the other side, was there.  “All the night” . . . holding the sea back from utterly wiping out the people He had chosen to carry His Story to the world.  He had created the way for them, and He was holding the sea back.  No movie creation of man could begin to depict that scene.  We can only try to imagine it.  As His dearly loved people stepped onto the bottom of the sea, with the waters of that sea towering above them. . . in the darkness of that long, long night.   No words were necessary as He “held the sea back…all that night.”  They just needed to keep putting one foot in front of the other….He was doing all the rest.

I know He continues to “drive the sea back” throughout the nights of our souls.  May we continue to put one foot in front of the other on the Path He has made for each of us.

 

 

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Desert Song

“Spring up, O well!

Sing about it.”

Numbers 21:17

God’s people had been going through a horrible time!  Slaves of Egypt for hundreds of years, running through the desert andthe Red Sea from Pharoah’s army, with the wall of the sea looming all along their panicked flight. . . then into another desert.   They had been bitten by snakes, struck with plague, learning how to follow leaders who didn’t know where they were going.  Frustration, hunger, running for their lives with children, animals, elderly, and sick people. They’d seen people swallowed up by the earth, being led through the days by a cloud…and the most awesome “nightlight” of fire. All through desert. No convenient natural water sources.  Always on the move, sleeping in temporary shelters, days..weeks…months….eventually 40 years. Including the hundreds of years as slaves in Egypt, this has to be the most horrendous refugee situation in history.

But all the while, God continued to be with them, tolerating their disobedience, bad attitudes, and complaints. They’d lost a lot of ground in Egypt.  He always gave them another chance. . . through miracles He orchestrated. They’d learned so much about Who God Is through that journey.

Now they were on the move again.  God had allowed poisonous snakes to bite His complaining people.  But He also provided a remedy:  Moses’ bronze snake on a pole.  They only had to look at it to live.

Still in the desert, they arrived at a well.  God told Moses, “Gather the people, andI will give them water.” (Num.21:16-18)

And God’s people sang this song,

  “Make your water spring up!

                                                            Sing to the well,

                                                            The well dug by princes

                                                            Dug out by the nobles of the people

                                                            With their scepters and staffs.”

Did those past Princes, using their scepters, know that they were digging a well for God’s refugee People?   Did those Nobles of the past, using their shepherd’s staffs, realize that they were digging a well that would be used by God to bless His people, led by a Shepherd who had been trained to be a Pharoah?  Did they know that God had prepared it long ago to keep them alive?

God knew exactly what was coming in the future.  He knew that His beloved people would pass through that desert place in desperate need of water.  He had provided long before their need passed that way.

We do not know what will come tomorrow in our lives.  Perhaps we would not even what to know.  We do not know how things we do today will affect our tomorrow…or the tomorrow’s of others.  But God knows. . . exactly.  And His Plans of how He will use those human efforts for His Purposes are already reality in His Mind.  Nothing escapes Him.

We can hold tightly to the Truth that He can use anything for our good.  It’s our job to hold tightly to His Hand as He continues to bring into existence the proof of His unfailing Love and Purposes for us.

Unlikely people . . . unlikely circumstances . . . unimagined tragedy may invade our lives.  Yet, whether we truly believe it or not, He’s got this!     And we can join that ancient song of Hope and Truth:   “Spring up, O Well!”

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Walking Before God

“Now when Abram was ninety-nine years old,

the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him,

‘I am God Almighty;

Walk before Me,

and be blameless.’”

Gen. 17:1

Abram had lived for 99 years walking his own path in life.  What an interruption….disruption….this Divine Encounter must have been for him.  And coming from an Entity he knew nothing about, this is one of the most history-making experiences recorded in the Bible.  He was a successful desert man.  A shepherd, with a lot of animals, property and history.

But he had never encountered GOD.  His world was one of idols and all the godless activities that were part of that picture.  Then came his Divine Interruption.  Simple. Clear.  But utterly Life-changing.  History-changing.  History-making.

God makes an extremely brief introduction identifying Himself as El-Shaddai (All-powerful; All-mighty….far surpassing any of the gods in Abram’s world.)  He then establishes the new Path, the new Life, to which He was calling Abram.

No explanation.  No details.  No organizational blueprints.

“Walk before Me…”

Walk:  Put one foot in front of the other.  Don’t run.  Don’t plant yourself in the sand.  Move forward.

Before Me:  God had His Eye on him.  He kept Abram in His Sight.  God didn’t put Abram behind Him, where he might fall unnoticed or get off-track. God was trusting him enough to walk ahead of Him, but His Eye was always on him.  God had Abram’s back.  “Walk”….don’t run.  Don’t stand still.  Move forward, with the confidence that God was there, covering his most vulnerable position – behind him.

Be blameless:   The most challenging, yet most crucial responsibility to which God was calling Abram.  There were no 10 Commandments yet.  Abram was stepping into an utterly unknown experience of walking with God.  Sin and disobedience was a way of life since the time of Adam.  But God was calling him to a life that would have to be far above that of his world. Blame is a very human reality. Abram’s life would have to be one that was blameless in the eyes of the world around him.

May we, the sons and daughters of Abraham, follow God’s clear, simple instruction to him knowing that our Father walks with us.

 

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What Are You Thinking About?

“Take no thought for your life,

What you will eat,

Or what you will drink;

Nor yet for your body what you shall put on.”

Mtt. 6:25 

I have spent SO much time packing clothes for my trips, trying to project what weather, circumstances, activates, and days for which I will need to be prepared.  I consider a lot of “what if’s” and try to plan for the unexpected.  In reality, I often come back home having worn about half of what I had packed.  And I have used but a handful of the products and materials I have brought.  I return home with new aches and pains from dragging all my “preparations” through airports, staircases, and vehicles.

“Taking thought” requires a lot of time, energy, and resources.

I watch my desert family and see the simplicity of the amount of “stuff” in their homes.  For my family there, one shopping bag per child holds most of their clothes.   All of their collective “products” could fit in a shoe box.  Life is far from simple in their refugee conditions, but what they wear and how they look is not high on the priority list.

Jesus had been addressing the practical needs and attitudes of His followers.  Many, many were beginning to follow Him.  They found Him exciting. . . different . . . authentic.  Curious, they wanted to hear what profound things He had to say.  But Jesus brought it down to a very practical level.  He addressed the common, everyday, practical activities and values of the people in that culture.  He laid it out in everyday language and everyday life.

But first, He lived it.

Jesus turned their values upside-down.

Jesus did not just talk about letting go of the values and “stuff” of the world He stepped into . . . He lived it.   Modeled it.  He shook it up, not only with His Words, but with His Life.  His ministry was face-to-face, heart-to-heart.  His example was purposeful.

Was it only for that time and place?   Or are His Words and Life for All Time . . . for us now?

Yes, He challenged heart values.  But those values show up in our everyday lives.

May we “take thought” for those things that mattered most to the One Whose Name we carry.

 

 

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Giving in Grief

“Bring them here to Me.”

Matthew 14:18

It’s Memorial Day.  The local parade began early this morning, and marched within a block of my home.  They ended in the cemetery directly behind me, along the river.  It’s where I had spent time this past weekend, placing and planting two urns with flowers at the grave of my Love…a first-time experience in my life, and one I had never imagined.

Jesus knows that human feeling.  He had lost His dear cousin John…tragically, and not in a natural, earthly way.   Jesus went out in a boat overlooking the Galilee Sea to be alone.  We can only imagine the grief He was experiencing.  But the crowds followed Him, and He put His own grief aside as He touched and healed them. That evening, His closest friends came to Him, concerned that He was alone, people were hungry, and they were all out in the middle of nowhere.  It was getting dark.  Having no food, His friends recommended that He send the huge crowd away to find their own food.

But Jesus, in the midst of His own grief, did not send them away.  Hearing that there were two fish and five loaves of bread, He said, “Bring them to me.” They all sat down.

Jesus looked up to Heaven, and blessed the food He held in His hands.

Soon, all of the people who had come to Him were eating…with lots of food left over.

As evening came, Jesus sent His disciples back across the lake.  Then He sent all the people home.

Jesus went up the mountain alone that night.

In the midst of His own personal loss and grief, He had focused on those who were waiting to meet Him…wanting  to be with Him.  They needed Him, and they longed to have their lives touched by Him.

As we pass through this earthly life, we experience loss, pain, … grief.  We feel that we have nothing left to give.  Jesus felt that, too.  Yet, in the midst of His human loss, He used what was placed in His Hands and all those around Him were blessed and filled.

The little we have left in our own sorrow, when placed in His Hands, can bless those around us.  He is so very near to the brokenhearted, and this broken world longs to see Him…hear from Him.

He sees.  He knows.  He gives. He loves, choosing to use us.   And this broken  world waits…

 

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Impossible Ways

“God’s riches, wisdom, and knowledge are so deep

that it is impossible to explain his decisions

or to understand his ways.” 

Romans 11:33

I think this is a challenging passage for people in the Western world.   We seem to thrive on figuring out anything that comes our way.  We discuss it…analyze it….figure out the why’s, and make plans and decisions so that whatever went wrong will never happen again.  We love to feel safe, secure, well-prepared, and we set up as many plans and strategies as possible so that “it” cannot touch us again.   We love to be in control.

When God first “invited” me to the Sahara Desert to interact with the Saharawi people living in the refugee camps there, I was utterly terrified. I’m sure that I left skid-marks all the way across the Atlantic. Nothing was as I had imagined, and the “mission” to  gather 9 children, get them on a plane, and bring them to the US turned upside-down from the get-go.

The next trip, I had gathered a team and we had all focused on trying to cover every detail so that everything would go as smoothly as possible.  We had a great plan.

Well….. By Day #2 in the desert, I had a clear picture in my mind of handing my pages of plans, strategies and details to God, watching Him patiently look through it, then crumpling it up in His Hand, tossing it over His Shoulder and with a big smile and twinkle in His Eye, saying,  “OK…. now here’s what we’re going to do…”  And I was again flying by the seat of my pants, hanging on for dear life to His Coattails.

The Path God has led me along in these past 20 years would have NEVER, ever, ever been a thought in my own mind.   Certainly not anythingI would have considered, hoped, or wanted to do.  Yet, I wouldn’t change it for anything.  The challenges, the tears, the sense of loneliness, the spiritual warfare at every turn . . . none of that outweighs the depth of joy and awe that I’ve experienced by having a front row seat to watch God’s Spirit, in an impossible place and impossible situation, moving, working, bringing awareness of His Love, and touching..changing hearts and lives for eternity.

His Ways, His Decisions have been SO far beyond what my plans could have done.  More than I could have even imagined.  They have also involved deep pain and loss, also more than I could have imagined. But even in that, His riches, wisdom and love have been deeper still.

And in my heart of hearts, I wouldn’t want it any other way.

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The Right Hand

“…Then He laid His right hand on me

And said,

‘Don’t be afraid! 

I am the first and the last, the living One.

I was dead,

But now I am alive forever.

I have the keys of death and hell.’”

Rev. 1:17-18 

John had been living in a forced exile and was nearing the end of his life when he had this experience with Jesus.  John had knownHim.  He had walkedwith Him.  He had spent yearswith Him, and had shared a close, loving relationship with Jesus in those years.  John had known Him well.

Yet, in his exile, loneliness, and all the memories which he held in his heart, he didn’t recognize this One he loved so much. John hadn’t humanly known Him in his present context.  He was suffering and alone.  John had communicated with God’s Angel before, but this would be different.  (Rev. 1:12-18)

Jesus came.   But not as John had experienced or known Him before.

Jesus’ tender, powerful words to John were unexpected. John was frightened.  It had been a long time since he had experienced any human tenderness . . . perhaps any human interaction at all.  He must have thought that his life was over. Everything revolved around memories . . . the past.

In the desert, my people there have taught me so many things that were not of my experience in the Western world.   There, the “right hand” has significance, on a daily basis.  The right hand is treated differently than the left.  It is the hand that touches another person.  The greeting of a hand-shake, the friendly touch on a shoulder, . . . these touches of affection are done with the right hand. The left hand is used for dirty tasks, and the friendly touch is not done with the left.  Respect is demonstrated by the use of the clean right hand.

The noted detail of Jesus laying His right handon John’s shoulder has meaning.  It silently expresses the touch of a Friend, with tenderness, respect, and affection.  John must have needed that touch.  He had been isolated. . . alone . . .for such a long time.  And Jesus was asking him to write the things He was about to show him.  Things belonging to the future that had not been revealed before.  John would have needed that unspoken reassurance from his dearly loved Friend as he took pen in hand and began to write.

Such kindness, tenderness, and respect Jesus wove into this Divine Encounter.