Unwanted Blessings

I’ve written before (here) about the frequent use (and misuse) of the word “blessed,” not just among Christians but unbelievers as well. My church is currently working through the beatitudes in Matthew 5, so that has been on my mind. I came across this biblical definition of blessing from Rachel Gilson: “A gift from God; a gift with spiritual meaning and power.” Our problem today is that we automatically associate blessing with health, wealth, relationships, or anything else that makes us feel good. Many Christians have unknowingly adopted a version of the prosperity gospel, but the beatitudes point us in a different direction. What if we rephrased them this way:

“God has gifted the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

God has gifted those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

God has gifted the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

God has gifted those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.

God has gifted the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

God has gifted the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

God has gifted the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

God has gifted those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

God has gifted you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on My account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

What blessings has God bestowed upon us that we don’t recognize because they are painful and unwanted? Or to put it another way, what events or circumstances have spiritual meaning and power in our lives even if they are difficult and unwelcome? Losses can be blessings in disguise because they force us to look to God. The loss of a job makes us notice God’s provision for us. The loss of health makes us rely on God’s strength. The loss of a loved one makes us long for eternal life with Him. Loss of comfort and security makes us look to God for our comfort.

The things that we tend to call blessings are usually things that make us comfortable and content in this life we have now. But God’s blessings are intended to remind us that this broken and sinful world is not our final home and we have work to be doing while we are still here.

“Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love Him” (James 1:12).

“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:11-13).

What blessings from God have equipped us to do His work in this world? Have we grown in compassion because of our suffering? Have we grown in holiness as we’ve faced the consequences of sin? Do we desire to share the gospel with others because we know this world can never really satisfy anyone?

Let’s take time to thank God for His blessings—both wanted and unwanted.

“And behold, I [Jesus] am coming soon. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book” (Rev. 22:7).

© 2021 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture are ESV and all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

Forgetting the Past

Listening to the audio book of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe recently, this part caught my attention:

“‘You have a traitor there, Aslan,’ said the Witch. Of course everyone present knew that she meant Edmund. But Edmund had got past thinking about himself after all he’d been through and after the talk he’d had that morning. He just went on looking at Aslan. It didn’t seem to matter what the Witch said.”

How often do we get distracted and distressed by looking at the past instead of looking at Christ? The enemy wants to keep reminding us that we are sinners, traitors, and failures. But God doesn’t want us to stay there. The Apostle Paul said, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost” (1 Tim. 1:15), but he didn’t stop there. He continued, “But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display His perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in Him for eternal life.” Paul was redeemed in order to display God’s mercy and grace.

King David said in Psalm 51, “For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me” (v. 3). Sometimes we get stuck there and never move on to remind ourselves that “a broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise” (v. 17) and “You, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon You” (86:5). He is quick to forgive, but we are slow to remember.

“Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life form the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy” (Psalm 103:2-4).

We need to cling to the truth of who we are in Christ when past sin, shame, and regret rear their heads. Those voices can be so loud, and God’s whispers of truth seem to be drowned out. I don’t know how many times I’ve repeated Romans 8:1, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,” but I need to hear it again and again, not just in my own head but from people who know me. We in the Body of Christ need to be that voice of truth for one another, but to do that we first need to drop some of our barriers of self-protection. (I know how hard it can be to believe that there is security to be found in being known and loved by a few safe people.) We can be part of the cloud of witnesses to one another that the author of Hebrews referred to:

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith” (Heb. 12:1-2a).

May we keep our eyes fixed on Him and let go of all that drags us down.

“Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:13b-14).

© 2021 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture are ESV and all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

Still Waiting

It seems like the past year and a half have been one long lesson in patient waiting. Waiting for lockdowns to end; waiting for schools to reopen; waiting for the church to return inside; waiting for a vaccine; waiting for appointments to get the vaccine; and now waiting to get gasoline. Curiously, none of that waiting would have been necessary if we didn’t live in a broken and sinful world.

We’re all tired of the status quo, but the question is, are we waiting as anxiously for the things of God? The psalmists wrote,

“For God alone my soul waits in silence; from Him comes my salvation. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken” (Psalm 62:1-2). Are we waiting for God alone or for some change in our circumstances?

“I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in His word I hope” (Psalm 130:5). Is our hope founded in the Word of God or in politics, government, technology, or something else?

“Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices!” (Psalm 37:7). Does evil and brokenness occupy our thoughts and words more so than the goodness and provision of our Lord and Savior?

“Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!” (Psalm 27:14). Are we more discouraged by the world than we are encouraged by the Body of Christ?

What can we do to better trust in God’s promises and faithfulness and to help others to do the same?

***

Here’s an encouraging reminder in song from Keith & Kristyn Getty, “I Will Wait for You.”

“But for You, O Lord, do I wait; it is You, O Lord my God, who will answer” (Psalm 38:15).

© 2021 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture are ESV and all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

Under Construction

I came across this quote in The Robe, by Lloyd C. Douglas:

“This faith is not like a deed to a house in which one may live with full rights of possession. It is more like a kit of tools with which a man may build him a house. The tools will be worth just what he does with them. When he lays them down, they will have no value until he takes them up again.”

There are a lot of people associated with the Church who have never picked up those tools. They may have come to faith at a revival or camp, but have not taken any real steps after that. Jesus said, “Everyone then who hears these words of Mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock… And everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand” (Matthew 7:24, 26). There are those who’ve sat down on the Rock but have never gotten around to building anything. In Douglas’s words, they think they’ve been handed the deed to a completed house and can now settle in and do nothing.

The Apostle Paul told the Corinthian church:

“I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it… Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done” (1 Cor. 3:10-13).

Though Paul was writing to the church as a group, the same is true of individuals, and the church is not built up if the individual members are not growing. I picture a house with a wall here and a window there, but nothing holding it together.

I was talking this week with a publisher of Christian education materials, and we were wondering what church programs are going to look like after the pandemic, because even before COVID many churches only had older adults in Sunday school and small groups. It’s a struggle to get young adults and kids involved in the church. Many of them attend so sporadically that they are never getting the big picture of the Bible and redemption. The tools are there, but they have not chosen to pick them up and use them.

The Church always has and always will struggle to compete for the time and attention of people, even those who say they are Christians. The world, the flesh, and the devil will provide abundant distractions from spiritual growth. Church leaders all want to do everything possible to engage people with their faith, and we must start with prayer for the hearts and minds of our friends, family members, and church members. Apart from the Spirit’s work, we can accomplish nothing through human ingenuity.

“Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving” (Colossians 2:6-7).

© 2021 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture are ESV and all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

Breaking the Rules

Soon after the Israelites came out of Egypt, they were given the Ten Commandments. God told them through Moses:

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy” (Exodus 20:8-11).

Forty years later, they were entering the Promised Land and God gave Joshua instructions on how Jericho was to be conquered.

“You shall march around the city, all the men of war going around the city once. Thus shall you do for six days… On the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. And when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, when you hear the sound of the trumpet, then all the people shall shout with a great shout, and the wall of the city will fall down flat” (Joshua 6:3-5).

Wait, didn’t God say no work on the seventh day? And yet He then gave them instructions for seven consecutive days of marching around the city. In the thousands of sermons I’ve heard in my lifetime, I’ve never heard anyone address this apparent exception to the command to keep the seventh day holy by not working.

The text doesn’t specifically say this, but I think a case can be made that the seventh day of marching around the city was probably the Sabbath day. One big clue is the fact that God was the One who brought down the wall of Jericho. Marching around the city and blowing trumpets didn’t accomplish that. (Some might argue for the resonance frequency of synchronized marching, but when have thousands of untrained men ever marched in unison?) The lesson for the Israelites was “The Lord has given you the city” (v. 16). It was not their work but God’s work on that day.

The Pharisees of Jesus’ day had no room for subtleties of interpretation when it came to the Sabbath. They added rules upon rules to avoid the risk of accidentally breaking the commandment. Jesus chastised them: “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27-28). God showed His authority at Jericho, and Jesus retained that authority during His life on earth.

The Pharisees and many other Jews (and even some Christian groups) missed the whole point of the Mosaic Law. It was never about man’s perfect obedience, but about God’s work on our behalf. “We know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ… because by works of the law no one will be justified” (Galatians 2:16). Faith is not about trying harder to obey the law, but trusting in the One who has all authority over heaven and earth.

“Come and see what God has done: He is awesome in His deeds toward the children of man” (Psalm 66:5).

© 2021 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture are ESV and all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

How Long?

Most days I go online and skim through the headlines on my preferred international and local news sites. I may read a few articles, but often the headlines are enough to discourage me from reading further. Murders, wrongful deaths, pandemic deaths, accusations, abuses of power, political maneuvering, etc. The list is endless and nauseating. I repeatedly wonder with the psalmist, “How long, O God, is the foe to scoff? Is the enemy to revile Your name forever? Why do You hold back Your hand, Your right hand?” (Psalm 74:10-11).

Jesus encountered similarly disturbing scenes in His day.

“When [Jesus] saw the crowds, He had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:36).

“‘O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you?’ …And Jesus rebuked the demon and it came out of him, and the boy was healed instantly” (Matthew 17:17-18).

“‘And when He drew near [Jerusalem] and saw the city, He wept over it, saying, ‘Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes’” (Luke 19:41-42).

“When Jesus saw [Mary] weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in His spirit and greatly troubled… Jesus wept” (John 11:33, 36).

“And a leper came to Him, imploring Him, and kneeling said to Him, ‘If You will, You can make me clean.’ Moved with pity, He stretched out His hand and touched Him and said to Him, ‘I will; be clean’” (Mark 1:40-41).

“As He drew near to the fate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow… And when the Lord say her, He had compassion on her and said to her, ‘Do not weep.’ Then He came up and touched the bier… And the dead man sat up… and Jesus gave him to his mother” (Luke 7:11-15).

“In the temple He found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. And making a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And He poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables… ‘Take these things away; do not make My Father’s house a house of trade’” (John 2:14-16). [This was an act He apparently repeated at the end of His ministry—see Matt. 21:12-13.]

Jesus healed many people and restored a few to life and He had the power to do much more, but His immediate purpose was not to fix every perceived wrong then and there. Instead, He provided the means by which eternal perfection would be made possible. He wasn’t the revolutionary reformer that the Jews expected of their Messiah. He knew that the only cure for the sin and brokenness of the world was for Him to carry it to the grave.

Because of His death on the cross and His resurrection, we now live in the time of “already but not yet.” The door to perfection has been opened, but we cannot enter in until we are resurrected to eternal life. In the meantime, we continue to groan and weep over this fallen world where there are so many things we can’t fix. “For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies” (Romans 8:22-23).

We can take comfort in the fact that Jesus knows how we feel because He’s been through it Himself, and we cling to the hope that the day is coming when all things will be made new and perfect.

“Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:58).

© 2021 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture are ESV and all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

The Gift of a Pastor

After the Israelites left Egypt and were wandering in the wilderness, God gave instructions for the construction and use of the Tabernacle. Aaron’s family were put in charge of the sanctuary and its activities. God told Aaron, “And behold, I have taken your brothers the Levites from among the people of Israel. They are a gift to you, given to the Lord, to do the service of the tent of meeting” (Numbers 18:5).

Although pastors aren’t exactly analogous to the priests and Levites of the Old Testament, they are still God’s gift to His Church.

“And I will give you shepherds after My own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding” (Jeremiah 3:15).

“And He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:11-12).

“Every good gift and perfect and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change” (James 1:17).

The question is, do we recognize that pastors are a gift from a gracious God, and do we treat them as such? They aren’t perfect, but neither are we. Like any good gift, we ought to take care of them to the best of our ability. I know of pastors who’ve been worn down by petty bickering in their churches. Others struggle to make ends meet because church members don’t give regularly, much less tithe. Many pastors feel like they are alone in ministry and have no one they can talk to.

But many churches love their pastors well. They pray for them, encourage them, support them through their regular attendance and financial giving, and make sure they have the people and tools they need to lead the church well.

The author of Hebrews wrote, “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you” (Heb. 13:17). We all have days of groaning, but I don’t think any of us want to be the cause of groaning for the people we love. If we contribute to the joy of our pastors, they multiply our joy as well.

As I was writing this I did a quick internet search and stumbled across an article that said “Your pastor is not your friend.” I understand that there are limits to what a pastor can share with an individual church member, but my gut reaction was “How sad!” I would not want to attend a church where I knew the pastor would never be a friend, and I can’t imagine anyone wanting to be a pastor if he had to keep himself distant from everyone. Jesus told His disciples, “No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you” (John 15:15). God-incarnate called men His friends!

The modern world has an anemic view of friendship anyway. The Apostle Paul told Timothy, “Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity” (1 Tim. 5:1). We in the church should be closer than friends, because we are siblings in the family of God.

The pastor is not the CEO of a corporation, nor a hired servant, but a brother in Christ. “And this commandment we have from [God]: whoever loves God must also love his brother” (1 John 4:21). All the “one another” commands of Scripture apply just as much to our spiritual siblings who are pastors as to anyone else. We are to love them, honor them, pray for them, encourage them, live in harmony with them, be kind to them, forgive them, serve them, show hospitality to them, and spur them on to love and good deeds.

Let’s not wait for Pastor Appreciation month to do so!

“For I have derived much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you” (Philemon 1:7).

© 2021 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture are ESV and all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.