This I Call to Mind

Posted on August 18, 2024 by Barbara Harper

In some ways, it’s easy to call on the Lord for help when some outside issue comes upon us—illness, job problems, weather threats, and so on.

But when we’ve gotten ourselves into a mess because of our own actions, lack of action, thoughtlessness, or selfishness—well, that’s a different story. We’re ashamed. We feel we deserve whatever trouble we’re in, so why would God help us out of it?

Actually, we don’t deserve any blessings or help, whether we’ve done good or bad. God blesses us out of His grace, not what we deserve.

But sometimes the consequences of our actions are designed to bring us to the end of ourselves so we’ll look to Him.

I’ve just finished reading through Jeremiah and Lamentations. The prophet Jeremiah’s task was to warn God’s people of impending judgment. God had reached out to them and sent various messengers for years. But the people continued to worship idols, rely on nations that did not know God for help instead of going to Him, and various other transgressions. Now God was sending the Babylonians to desecrate their land and bring most of the population into exile.

The book of Lamentations is set just after the Babylonian invasion. As the title indicates, the author mourns the devastation. Jerusalem had been under siege for so long before being taken into exile that parents were cannibalizing their own children. People had died. The temple was destroyed. The author says, “I have forgotten what happiness is” (3:17).

In the middle of these Lamentations, the author makes an astonishing statement.

Remember my affliction and my wanderings,
    the wormwood and the gall!
My soul continually remembers it
    and is bowed down within me.
But this I call to mind,
    and therefore I have hope (Lamentations 3:19-21).

What does he call to mind?

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
    his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.
“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
    “therefore I will hope in him.”

The Lord is good to those who wait for him,
    to the soul who seeks him.
It is good that one should wait quietly
    for the salvation of the Lord.
It is good for a man that he bear
    the yoke in his youth (3:22-27).

In the midst of an utter wreck of his life and country, the writer remembers God’s mercy and faithfulness.

God’s chastening is not a sign that He’s done with us. The ESV note on verses 31-33 says, “[God] sends judgment in order to effect restoration . . . God’s first instinct is not to punish. He only does so when his patience with sinners does not lead to repentance” (p. 1488).

The prophetic books of the Bible are known for their condemnation of sin and warnings to turn back to God. But they are also full of God’s expressions of mercy and pleading in love for the return of his wayward children.

I have blotted out, like a thick cloud, your transgressions, And like a cloud, your sins. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you (Isaiah 44:22, NKJV).

Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he my darling child? For as often as I speak against him, I do remember him still. Therefore my heart yearns for him; I will surely have mercy on him, declares the Lord (Jeremiah 31:20).

Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord GOD, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live? (Ezekiel 18:23).

“Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster (Joel 2:12-13).

When we’re down in the dust, God doesn’t want us to stay there. He wants to give us hope. He wants us to look up to Him. He wants us to recall His love and mercy and come back to Him.

Let us test and examine our ways,
and return to the Lord!
Let us lift up our hearts and hands
to God in heaven . . .

I called on your name, O Lord,
    from the depths of the pit;
you heard my plea, ‘Do not close
    your ear to my cry for help!’
You came near when I called on you;
    you said, ‘Do not fear!’

You have taken up my cause, O Lord;
you have redeemed my life (Lamentations 3:40-42; 55-58).

Come, let us return to the Lord.

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

Laudable Linkage

Posted on August 10, 2024 by Barbara Harper

Here are some of the good reads found this week:

Everything Short of Hell Is a Mercy, HT to Challies. “Everything short of hell is mercy. This one truth should change the way we view our hardships and frustrations, no matter how terrible they may be. If we, as sinners, are not facing the wrath of the infinitely Holy God at this moment, our life is better than we deserve. That is true for every Christian and non-Christian alive right now.”

What to Say to Dave About Regular Bible Reading, HT to Challies. “Few of us have it fully sorted, and so we don’t feel qualified to tell others what they should be doing. I certainly don’t feel like I can speak from anything other than the wisdom that comes from regular failure. But failure is a good teacher, even if I’m not a good student, so here are five tips I might give to Dave.”

Should You Send Your Kids to Catholic School? HT to Challies. Some considerations.

In a Day’s Work: God’s Pattern for Productivity. “I’ve been studying the book of Genesis in depth, and something struck me recently about how God structured the days of creation. I think there may be something in this pattern that we can imitate in our own work.”

How Vocational Stewardship Leads to Human Flourishing, HT to Redeeming Productivity. “By ‘vocational stewardship,’ I mean the intentional and strategic use of one’s vocational power (skills, knowledge, network, position, platform) to advance human flourishing.” I would add that those things can be done on a smaller scale with neighbors, relatives, and church members.

The Porcelain Room. “Do I worry so much that I’ll forget to give them something they’ll need that I forget to point them toward the Lord who knows what they’ll need—and who will make sure they have it? Am I so preoccupied with the thorns and thistles of life that I allow them to crowd out the good growth of the gospel in our family?”

The Best a Man Can Get, HT to Challies. I enjoyed watching the American men’s gymnastics team win their bronze medal, the first US men’s team to medal in some time. This article about the team was great, too. “It’s a quintessentially American success story about a quintessentially American team, made up of distinct, memorable characters. The phrase ‘Diversity is our strength’ has become a cheap leftist nothing, but there are times and places when it actually means something, and the Olympics is one of them.”

The Curse of Knowledge, HT to Redeeming Productivity. “Have you ever had a teacher who was very smart but terrible at teaching? An expert who used so much jargon you could not follow their explanation? This is called the ‘curse of knowledge.'” The author shares ways to bridge the gap.

The Quiet Grief of Caregiving: Four Balms for the Overburdened, HT to Challies. “I forced a smile, swallowed down the tightness in my throat, and struggled against the tide of grief that’s become as familiar and worn as a tattered coat. It’s a mantle common to many who walk beside the hurting — the heaviness that presses upon the heart when we’ve witnessed others’ suffering over and over and over.”

Church Skills: Use Them or Lose Them, HT to Challies. “You might not think you have church skills, but you almost certainly do. You will have developed ways of making conversation, showing interest in people, caring for them, serving in all sorts of ways and lots of other such things. But as with anything we have learnt to do, if you don’t keep using it, you will lose it.”

I’ve experienced His presence in the deepest darkness hell that men can create. I’ve tested the promises of the Bible, and believe me, you can count on them.” — Corrie ten Boom, survivor of Ravensbruck concentration camp after helping hide Jewish people during WWII

Come, let us return to the Lord

Posted on May 4, 2020 by Barbara Harper

God pictures His relationship to His wayward people in the prophet Hosea’s relationship to his adulterous wife, Gomer. Gomer didn’t just drift away, nor was she seduced unaware. Chapter 2:5-7 says she pursued other lovers. She had children by men other than her husband. She thought they would give her “my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink” (2:5).

However, God declared, “she did not know that it was I who gave her the grain, the wine, and the oil, and who lavished on her silver and gold, which they used for Baal” (2:8). She not only didn’t acknowledge God, didn’t even thank Him for His gifts, but she used His gifts to worship a false god.

Later God likened Israel as a child whom He loved and taught to walk, yet “they did not know that I healed them” (11:3).

The Bible says God “richly provides us with everything to enjoy.” (1 Timothy 6:17). “He makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45). “The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything…In him we live and move and have our being” Acts 17:24-28).

God gives us everything we have, even our very breath. Do we acknowledge Him? Thank Him? Or use His gifts in wrong pursuits?

Warren Wiersbe says, “The essence of idolatry is enjoying the gifts but not honoring the Giver” (Be Amazed (Minor Prophets): Restoring an Attitude of Wonder and Worship).

Romans tells us:

For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened (Romans 1:20-21).

The chapter goes on to say that since people persisted in living without acknowledging God,

“Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity” (1:24).
“For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions” (1:26).
“Since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done” (1:28).

Wiersbe says, “One of the greatest judgments God can inflict on any people is to let them have their own way.”

Fortunately, God doesn’t give people up easily. Further in the Acts passage that we looked at earlier, Paul says God “made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us” (Acts 17:26-27).

Back in Hosea, God disciplines His people and then shares these “I will” promises:

“I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her” (2:14).
“I will give her her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope” (2:15).
“For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more” (2:17).
“I will make for them a covenant on that day” (2:18a)
“I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety” (2:18b).
“I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord” (2:19-20).
“I will answer” (2:21).
“I will sow her for myself in the land” (2:22).
“I will have mercy” (2:23).

God draws us with “cords of kindness, with the bands of love” (Hosea 11:4). He seeks out the lost sheep.

From Wiersbe’s book one more time:

The key word is return (Hos. 3: 5), a word that’s used twenty-two times in Hosea’s prophecy. When Israel repents and returns to the Lord, then the Lord will return to bless Israel (2:7–8). God has returned to His place and left Israel to herself (5:15) until she seeks Him and says, “Come, and let us return to the Lord” (6:1 NKJV).

Sometimes the return we need to make is a simple confession of loss of focus, lack of acknowledgement, thankfulness, or love. Sometimes it’s a full-blown 180-degree change of direction.

That’s the essence of repentance: turning from our way to God’s way (for more on repentance, see here). That happens at salvation, but it also needs to happen throughout our Christian walk. As we learn more of His will and Word, we continually adjust ourselves to them as we walk with Him.

May we return to His gracious love quickly and wholeheartedly.

(Sharing with Inspire Me Monday, Global Blogging, Senior Salon, Hearth and Soul,
Purposeful Faith, Tell His Story, InstaEncouragement, Anchored Abode,
Recharge Wednesday, Worth Beyond Rubies, Share a Link Wednesday,
Let’s Have Coffee, Instant Encouragement, Grace and Truth,
Faith on Fire, Blogger Voices Network)

Thoughts about God’s wrath

Posted on April 8, 2013 by Barbara Harper

I’ve come across various reactions to God’s wrath in the Bible from various quarters and wanted to set down some of my own thoughts about it.

Sometimes people seem to see a dichotomy in the Bible between a seemingly angry God in the Old Testament and the loving, patient, and merciful Jesus of the New. But they are not two different Gods: they are part of the same Trinity. The Bible has much to say about God’s longsuffering, mercy, and lovingkindness even in the Old Testament, and Jesus rebuked the disciples for unbelief, had some pretty harsh words for the Pharisees, overthrew moneychangers in the temple, and Revelation says in the future judgement people will cry out for rocks to fall on them to try to protect themselves from the wrath of the Lamb of God.

God’s wrath shows first of all His justice. Just looking at a few verses about God’s wrath shows that He unleashes it against those who knowingly commit sin or worship false gods. People seem to see only His wrath when He punished the Israelites in the wilderness but forget the longsuffering He showed: He miraculously delivered them out of Egypt in a way only He could have that showed Israelites and Egyptians alike that that He was the one true God and all of their gods were false and helpless (many of the ten plagues had to do with a specific god Egypt worshiped), He miraculously delivered them again when they were caught between the Egyptians and the Red Sea, He miraculously provided food and water for them. They complained at the outset and He did not do anything but deliver them and provide for them. But instead of getting to know Him, to trust that He cared for them and would provide for them, they continued to complain and even wanted to go back to what He had delivered them from. He was patient with their complaining until they got to a place they should have known better.

His wrath also shows His righteousness, holiness, and love. God’s jealousy against false gods is not the same as that of an insecure boyfriend: other gods will lead people to hell. Sin will cause great harm to those who indulge in it and those whom they influence.

His wrath shows the magnitude of sin. The fact that we don’t see people being demonstrably punished in the same way these days does not mean God feels any differently about sin.

But the good news is that though “the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness,” (Romans 1:18), “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.” (Romans 5:8-9).

In a chapter of Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross: Experiencing the Passion and Power of Easter titled “The Most Important Word in the Universe,” Raymond C. Ortlund, Jr., says:

The first thing to say is that the wrath of God is a part of the gospel. It’s the part we tend to ignore. Yet we don’t mind our own anger. There is a lot of anger in us, a lot of righteous indignation. Listen to talk radio. In our culture it’s acceptable to vent our moral fervor at one another…. But the thought of God being angry-well, who does he think he is?

Great question. Who is God? He’s the most balanced personality imaginable. He is normal. His wrath is not an irrational outburst. God’s wrath is worthy of God. It is his morally appropriate, carefully considered, justly intense reaction to our evil demeaning his worth and destroying our own capacity to enjoy him. God cares about that. He is not a passive observer. He’s involved emotionally.

The Bible says, “God is love” (1 John 4:8, 16). It never says, “God is anger.” But it couldn’t say that God is love without his anger, because God’s anger shows how serious his love is.

His wrath is the solemn determination of a doctor cutting away the cancer that’s killing his patient.

In human religions, it’s the worshipper who placates the offended deity with rituals and sacrifices and bribes. But in the gospel, it is God Himself who provides the offering.

He detests our evil with all the intensity of the divine personality. If you want to know what your sin deserves from God, …Look at the man on the cross — tormented, gasping, bleeding. Take a long, thoughtful look…God was saying something about his perfect emotions toward your sin. He was displaying his wrath.

The God you have offended doesn’t demand your blood; he gives his own in Jesus Christ.

A longer excerpt, though unfortunately not the whole chapter is here.

There is much more that could be said about this subject, and I’m debating with myself about whether I should go ahead and post this or wait for more reading and study. But I think I’ll go ahead.