THE LORD SPOKE (November 2)

Daily Reflections from Scripture:

Lamentations 1-2

Ghost town.

The very words stir up the imagination. A tumbleweed rolls across the dusty street. Wind whistles through a broken window pane and makes a shutter bang. A once bustling thoroughfare is now filled with the sound of silence.

In this book (Lamentations), the city was Jerusalem. “How deserted lies the city, once so full of people! All her gateways are desolate.” (1:1,4). Imagine that. The busiest place in the city was the gate. People came and went constantly, the market was there, the city elders sat there and judged civil cases, announcements and meetings - clandestine and open - took place there any time of the day or night. Now it was all silent, run down, insecure.

Words like deserted, desolate, despised, departed, distressed, dishonored, and dead all appear in the first two chapters. There are multiple “groans” and “grief” is mentioned frequently. It lies “trampled” and “swallowed up” and there is “multiplied mourning and lamentation”.

Note the progression in 2:9...

1. Jerusalem is destroyed (“sunk into the ground”)
2. the people are dispersed (“exiled among the nations”)
3. there is no word from the Lord (“the law is no more”)

In the ordinary Jewish perception, listing the destruction of Jerusalem first may have seemed to be putting the worst first but it’s really the other way around. Nothing could be worse than to have the Heavens shut up. By far, the worst was that “the law is no more.” The Hebrew word translated “law” is torah and it means so much more. The root word comes from “instruction”. What’s missing is a word from God - there is no more teaching coming from the Lord. Now that is a ghost town existence.

Have you been there before? Maybe you even tried, but He didn’t seem to be communicating with you anymore. Did you try? Really? Remember: If you seem far away from the Lord, there’s no question as to who did the moving. So come back to Him. Seek “a word from the Lord”. Not some mystical, horoscopic instruction but good, solid teaching from Scripture. To do that you must read it. You must read it expectantly. You must read it with an open heart. And you must read it regularly. Beware the barrenness of a busy life.


Psalms 93-94

When I said, “My foot is slipping,”
Your love, O Lord, supported me.
When anxiety was great within me,
Your consolation brought joy to my soul.
Psalm 94:18-19

“Get a grip!” they say. But how do you do that when you have no strength in your hands to hold on?

“Don’t cry,” they say. But how do you do that when the tears just keep welling up and won’t stop coming?

“Be a man,” they say. But what if you’re needing someone else to lean on right now. What if your knees are sagging and your shoulders are stooped?

In the previous verse, the psalmist says, “Unless the Lord had given me help, I would soon have dwelt in the silence of death” (Ps. 94:17). Surely, the One who made ears, hears, and the One who created eyes, sees (Ps. 94:9). He pays heed and comes to our aid.

It might be in the form of discipline. It’s quite possible that our troubles are the result of our own folly and He must needs correct us first. The psalmist says, blessed is the man (literally, “how happy”) who receives such correction (Ps. 94:12). Solomon put it this way:

My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline and do not resent his rebuke, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in. (Prov. 3:11-12)

The writer to the Hebrews quotes that passage and then goes on to say:

Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. (Heb. 12:7-11)

“A harvest of righteousness and peace.” The psalmist calls it “joy in my soul” (Ps. 94:19). You’ll call it the greatest blessing you’ve ever experienced when you learn to say,

The Lord has become my fortress, and my God the rock in whom I take refuge. (Ps. 94:22)

THE LORD SPOKE (August 15)

Daily Reflections from Scripture:

Old Testament: Psalms 59-65

Belt and suspenders policy. Ever heard of that? In many cases, it’s a very wise policy. If the ripcord on your parachute doesn’t work, you for sure want a backup plan. If the automatic shut-off valve doesn’t function properly, you better have a manual valve to turn it off.

Having a Plan B is a good idea. Except when it comes to God. He will have no others before Him - or behind Him either, for that matter. He will share His space with no other. That’s why David says, “My soul finds rest in God alone...He alone is my rock.... Find rest, O my soul, in God alone” (Ps. 62:1,2,5).

What do people usually turn to in place of God, or alongside of God? What backup plans do they often use just in case He doesn’t “kick in” at the right moment or in the way they expect He should? Here are the substitutes people use:

• fortresses (Ps. 62:2) - a safe place where problems can’t penetrate
• friends (Ps. 62:4,9) - safe people who will tell them what they want to hear
• finances (Ps. 62:10) - a safe plan to provide a shelter in the time of storm

It’s like the first un-piloted passenger flight from New York to Los Angeles. After take-off a voice came on the intercom announcing, “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to flight 777. We have just taken off from JFK without a pilot in the cockpit. The plane will be flying for the next five hours entirely by instruments. We will be landing at LAX without a pilot, for the cockpit is empty. But there is no reason to fear because nothing can go wrong...can go wrong...can go wrong....”’

David’s testimony is that a fortress can be shaken and will crumble, friends may turn against us and may even curse us when we need them most, and finances may increase but then they melt away all too quickly. The “impenetrable” strongholds we erect for ourselves are, in fact, no guaranty of security. Our band of brothers may, in fact, let us down in our hour of need. That nest egg we’ve laid away for our future may, in fact, actually be cracked and already draining out without our knowing it. There is only one sure Security and He will share His space with no other.

How are you doing on that score? Have you hedged your bets? Are you depending on suspenders to do what the belt might fail to do? Are you trusting God and _______? It doesn’t matter how you fill in the blank. If there’s anything after the “and” you’re headed for a crash landing. Only one Pilot can get you through the storms of life.

Trust in him at all times, O people;
Pour out your hearts to him,
for God is our refuge. (Ps. 62:8)

New Testament: I Peter 5

Sometime between John 21 and I Peter 5, the fisherman became a shepherd. The jobs are quite different, you know. For one thing, the relationship between the fishermen and the fish is not at all the same as that between the shepherd and his sheep. The fisherman doesn’t get down among the fish and speak to them to calm them down. Fishermen have been known to talk to themselves while fishing but they don’t lead the fish to greener water. They spend most of their time trying to figure out where the fish are! A fisherman rarely makes up endearing names for the fish he catches unless maybe he has a big one mounted and put on his wall. A shepherd never does that.

This passage is one of the two that use all three New Testament terms for a spiritual leader. (The other is Acts. 20:17f.) Peter begins by addressing the elders (presbuteros). He tells them to be shepherds (poimein) and refers to their service as overseers (episkopos). This is important to note because he is speaking in all three cases to the same people. These are not different offices but different functions of the same office. Some churches have distinguished between pastors and elders. Neither Paul nor Peter does that. When addressing the church at Philippi, Paul makes it clear that there are only two offices in the church: pastor and deacons (Phil. 1:1). It’s clear from passages such as I Timothy 5:17 that there may be different functions among the pastors/elders/bishops, such as teaching, administration, shepherding, etc. but the three terms are used consistently for one office. (Note: two offices also excludes a separate office of “deaconness” in the church. Women may serve, of course, but not in an official position.)

Peter doesn’t involve himself with giving a list of qualifications for the pastor/elder/bishop like Paul does in I Timothy 3 and Titus 1. However, in the process, he does make mention of several important qualities for the position:

• willing disposition (I Pet. 5:2)
• generous (I Pet. 5:2)
• servant spirit (I Pet. 5:2)
• submission (I Pet. 5:5a)
• humility (I Pet. 5:5b-6)
• dependence upon God (I Pet. 5:7)
• self-control (I Pet. 5:8a)
• spiritual vigilance (I Pet. 5:8b-9a)
• faith and faithfulness (I Pet. 5:9b)

None of those qualities are the exclusive domain of a pastor. Far from it. Each finds ample emphasis throughout Scripture and apply to every believer. Every one of them should characterize the believer who is committed to the Lord.

How do you stack up?