Delightsome Land

Deflect Despair [God] gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.  — 1 Corinthians 15:57 NIV There is a story about Martin Luther going through a period of discouragement and depression. For days his long face graced the family table and dampened the family’s home life. One day his wife came to the breakfast table all dressed in black, as if she were going to a funeral service. When Martin asked her who had died, she replied, “Martin, the way you’ve been behaving lately, I thought God had died, so I came prepared to attend His funeral.” Her gentle but effective rebuke drove straight to Luther’s heart, and as a result the great Reformer resolved never again to allow worldly care, resentment, depression, discouragement, or frustration to defeat him. By God’s grace, he vowed, he would submit his life to the Savior and reflect His grace in a spirit of rejoicing, whatever came. When was the last time you praised God in the midst of despair? Don’t wait until you “feel like it,”...

Christians  should  be the happiest people we know.  Agree? Yet, I have felt for a while now that doesn’t seem to be the general consensus…and maybe you’ve felt it, too.  Why is that?  Why is it that the people who claim to have found true joy and abundant life in the person of Jesus Christ don’t reflect it in their faces, attitudes, thoughts, business dealings or home environments?  Listen, I get it.  I really do.  It’s hard, y’all. Like the famous quote from the movie,  Forest Gump : Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get. Have you ever woken up in a great mood, ready to take on the day, and then after one unexpected let down, disappointment, or choice, you find yourself becoming a yelling “mommy monster” to your kids, and a “negative Nancy” to everyone else?  Life derails our positivity and joy like nothing else.  And, more than often, we cave to whatever circumstances are thrown our way. Now, jus...

Being the Hunted What did Jesus call people who were attacked by dragons, regardless of the righteous way they were conducting their lives? Jesus called these people normal. Jesus made a few promises about what would happen to us, regardless of our faith. Here is what Jesus promised those who love Him the most: In this world you will have trouble. –  John 16:33 Jesus didn’t say, “In this world, there is a slight chance that you will go through hard times.” Jesus didn’t say, “If you don’t have enough faith, you will have trouble.” Jesus didn’t say, “If you go to church, stop cussing, don’t drink too much, and always keep your promises, then you won’t have any trouble.” Instead, Jesus said that trouble will hunt you. Period. If you are alive and breathing, you will have trouble in this world. Either you will hunt the dragon, or the dragon will hunt you. There is no escaping it. Jesus had every right to make this statement. Jesus believed all the right things, and He had stronger fai...

In the church, we have a sin problem. The problem is not just that we sin — everyone has that problem. Our problem is that we can’t talk about it. Our problem is that we pretend we don’t have a problem. We are comfortable with stories about people who used to sin, and people often get invited to give testimonies as long as they have happy endings, the way television sitcoms used to in the 1950s: I used to have a problem, but then I met God, and now I’m doing much better. Imagine going to see a counselor and saying, “I only want to talk about problems I used to have. Please do not ask me to acknowledge having any current problems. It would be embarrassing. I’m afraid you might reject me.” Why would anyone go to a counselor to try to convince the counselor that they don’t need a counselor? Why would anyone go to church to try to convince the people there that they don’t need a church? Years ago in southern California, I was part of a small group in which we were all relatively new husba...

Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do:  Forgetting  what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. —  Philippians 3:13-14 NIV, emphasis added We all have a past. I grew up in church, I’m a pastor’s kid, and I felt like I was always hearing someone say this famous line: “You know, we all have a past.” I always thought to myself,  Yeah, but some of us have a bigger past than others. The older I get and the more I study the Scriptures, the more I understand that we all have a past! In fact, 1 John 1:10 NIV says, If we claim we have not sinned, we make Him out to be a liar and His Word is not in us. We all have a past because we all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God! For  all have sinned  and fall short of the glory of God .  — Romans 3:23, emphasis added The interesting thought...

Thanksgiving offers us an annual pause from the pace of life, return to places we do not often visit and gather with people we do not often see. Indeed, I live in what some call a “flyover state” — Minnesota — a placed that many visitors fly over while hopping coast to coast. I know that it takes a Thanksgiving-like event to bring people here — often reluctantly. We also have “flyover verses” — obtuse lists of names, places, and pedigrees that make for good skimming and quick page-turning. These genealogies appear to be intended for another time and place, where the names meant something — perhaps a millennias-old precursor to Facebook’s “Mutual Friends.” Thanksgiving can not only be a return to our flyover states, but a reason to seek out these flyover verses. Take this list from Matthew chapter 1 and carefully study it. Read every name as if it’s the first time you’ve seen them. If you can, print it out these names and circle the ones you recognize.   2 Abraham was the father...