Thanks, Tyler Fox. In a strange way, as you now stand in the presence of God, I am thankful. I’m not happy that your young life was seemingly cut short on Wednesday. I’m not happy that those you love and care about are feeling a supreme sense of loss. I’m saddened that what could have been a longer, more productive life, on the surface seems to have tragically ended.
I don’t like thinking about eternity, at least not yet. Whenever someone dies at a young age, it forces us to rethink our priorities, our joys and sorrows, what is real and what is fake. We too come face to face with our mortality and begin to question all that seems mundane and trivial.
But beneath the surface, Tyler is in more than just a ‘better place’. His contagious smile that always lit up the room is now enjoying the fellowship of Jesus. I don’t want to speak about Tyler in ‘past tense’, because he is more alive now than last week. He is, not was. Tyler is filled with an inexpressible joy, receiving the goal of his faith, the salvation of his soul. He is in Heaven, in God’s presence, and for this I’m thankful.
Thanks, Tyler Fox. Thanks for living your life, even now, eternally. We miss you but we also long to be where you are. Thanks for reminding us even in your death that we are not promised tomorrow. Thanks for showing us the need to live with Jesus today, knowing that we will be with Him forever.
Pilgrim
Psalm 119:50
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Comfort
(A few years ago our extended family faced an unexpected tragic death. This article was originally written during that time.)
2 Cor 1:3-5 (NIV)
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.”
Comfort. In our day and age, we are constantly looking for ways to make ourselves more comfortable. We take long ‘comforting’ vacations on cruise ships, pay extra for the more ‘comfortable’ furniture, strive to get the most ‘comfortable’ loan rates, save money each paycheck for a more ‘comfortable’ retirement, and are constantly looking for a company that will help us feel more ‘comfortable’ as an employee.
I remember selling shoes part time at Bible college, and the best sales technique I learned was to allow the customer to try on the shoes to see how ‘comfortable’ they were. As Americans, we trust our military and law enforcement to keep us ‘comfortable’ and safe from harm. Even in our relationships, we find the need to be ‘comfortable’. We surround ourselves with those who make us ‘feel’ good, and rarely allow anyone close enough to upset our delicate personal lives! We like calm waters, not rough seas!
But God’s comfort transcends the materialistic and physical comforts I’ve just mentioned. God is known in this passage as ‘the God of all comfort’. The word ‘comfort’ means to call to one’s side, and is the same word that Jesus used to describe the Holy Spirit in John 14:16, “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever”. The Holy Spirit of God is our Comforter, the One who God has sent to come alongside us and help us in our times of pain, suffering, loss, doubting, fear, and anger.
The comfort that God gives isn’t based on circumstances. It’s based on a Person. When King Nebuchadnezzar was about to throw those three young men into the fiery furnace, they looked confidently into his eyes and said, “The God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand…But even if He does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods” (Daniel 3:17-18, emphasis mine). And with that incredible faith, they were thrown into the furnace, the fire, the trial, where everyone around would expect them to be burned.
But when the king looked into the furnace, he said, “Weren’t there three men that we threw into the fire? Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like the Son of God”(verses 24 and 25). You see, they weren’t delivered FROM their trial, but they were delivered IN their trial. It wasn’t based on the circumstances changing; it was based on a Person being there to comfort them in the midst.
And so you and I will walk into fiery trials that will test our faith. The enemy would want us to be tied up and bound, thinking we were facing certain destruction. Yet in the midst of the fire, though the heat is consuming and the flames are pressing in around us, God’s Spirit is there to bring comfort to us. By trusting in Him, we will be as these three young men were: unbound, unharmed, and in the presence of the Son!
2 Cor 1:3-5 (NIV)
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.”
Comfort. In our day and age, we are constantly looking for ways to make ourselves more comfortable. We take long ‘comforting’ vacations on cruise ships, pay extra for the more ‘comfortable’ furniture, strive to get the most ‘comfortable’ loan rates, save money each paycheck for a more ‘comfortable’ retirement, and are constantly looking for a company that will help us feel more ‘comfortable’ as an employee.
I remember selling shoes part time at Bible college, and the best sales technique I learned was to allow the customer to try on the shoes to see how ‘comfortable’ they were. As Americans, we trust our military and law enforcement to keep us ‘comfortable’ and safe from harm. Even in our relationships, we find the need to be ‘comfortable’. We surround ourselves with those who make us ‘feel’ good, and rarely allow anyone close enough to upset our delicate personal lives! We like calm waters, not rough seas!
But God’s comfort transcends the materialistic and physical comforts I’ve just mentioned. God is known in this passage as ‘the God of all comfort’. The word ‘comfort’ means to call to one’s side, and is the same word that Jesus used to describe the Holy Spirit in John 14:16, “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever”. The Holy Spirit of God is our Comforter, the One who God has sent to come alongside us and help us in our times of pain, suffering, loss, doubting, fear, and anger.
The comfort that God gives isn’t based on circumstances. It’s based on a Person. When King Nebuchadnezzar was about to throw those three young men into the fiery furnace, they looked confidently into his eyes and said, “The God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand…But even if He does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods” (Daniel 3:17-18, emphasis mine). And with that incredible faith, they were thrown into the furnace, the fire, the trial, where everyone around would expect them to be burned.
But when the king looked into the furnace, he said, “Weren’t there three men that we threw into the fire? Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like the Son of God”(verses 24 and 25). You see, they weren’t delivered FROM their trial, but they were delivered IN their trial. It wasn’t based on the circumstances changing; it was based on a Person being there to comfort them in the midst.
And so you and I will walk into fiery trials that will test our faith. The enemy would want us to be tied up and bound, thinking we were facing certain destruction. Yet in the midst of the fire, though the heat is consuming and the flames are pressing in around us, God’s Spirit is there to bring comfort to us. By trusting in Him, we will be as these three young men were: unbound, unharmed, and in the presence of the Son!
After we have been saved through the fire, we can then go and be a blessing to others. We can comfort others with the same comfort the Holy Spirit gave us. With the fiery furnace, their deliverance so radically affected the king that he began to praise God! When Jesus and His disciples walked near a blind man, the disciples asked, Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" "Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life” (John 9:2-3). Jesus went on to deliver that man from blindness. Perhaps we are facing our trial simply because God wants to display His work in our lives. May our lives be such that when we withstand the fire, others will see God’s work being displayed, and they will give glory and praise to Him.
Pressed but not crushed,
Thursday, September 03, 2009
"Daddy, I'm on a Mission"
This morning I woke up to London, my two-and-a-half-going-on-twelve-year-old daughter, refusing to play with her older brother Aiden. What was her response to his pleading? From the living room I awoke to, "I can't. I'm on a mission." Then she came running into my room yelling it with determination: "Daddy, I'm on a mission, I'm on a mission!" What daddy wouldn't wake up with a smile in these moments?
Though her mission was to find some gum, our mission as believers is clear and with great reward (Matthew 28:18-20, Acts 1:8). God's mission is to draw His elect into a right relationship with Him from the ends of the earth, with kindness and grace leading us to repentance and faith. He does so not by angelic proclamation or a high-tech gospel billboard from space, but through you and I, the church. Our mission is a mission of love, sent by a loving God to win people to a loving Savior by living lives of loving obedience and laboring in love until our last breath. I've heard some people say with a profane tone, "for the love of God!", and I would say, "yeah, absolutely right!"
William Carey, the great missionary to India, once said, "Expect great things from God, attempt great things for God". I echo his exhortation but my prayer is not that I would attempt great things for God. My desire is for God to attempt great things through me. The only way this is possible is for you and I to live submitted lives to the gospel of grace, to yield to the work of the Holy Spirit in every area, and to take risks and go boldly wherever He leads us.
Can you say like London, "Daddy, I'm on a mission"?
Pilgrim
Though her mission was to find some gum, our mission as believers is clear and with great reward (Matthew 28:18-20, Acts 1:8). God's mission is to draw His elect into a right relationship with Him from the ends of the earth, with kindness and grace leading us to repentance and faith. He does so not by angelic proclamation or a high-tech gospel billboard from space, but through you and I, the church. Our mission is a mission of love, sent by a loving God to win people to a loving Savior by living lives of loving obedience and laboring in love until our last breath. I've heard some people say with a profane tone, "for the love of God!", and I would say, "yeah, absolutely right!"
William Carey, the great missionary to India, once said, "Expect great things from God, attempt great things for God". I echo his exhortation but my prayer is not that I would attempt great things for God. My desire is for God to attempt great things through me. The only way this is possible is for you and I to live submitted lives to the gospel of grace, to yield to the work of the Holy Spirit in every area, and to take risks and go boldly wherever He leads us.
Can you say like London, "Daddy, I'm on a mission"?
Pilgrim
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