A Breath of Fresh Air

How about the weather these last two days? Monday and Tuesday have felt like spring! And I am most thankful, not just for the warmth itself, but for how the warmth has beckoned me to breathe fresh air. Monday afternoon found our family on a lovely walk, breathing in more such air than we have for many days. And today (Tuesday), after many weeks breathing the stale, re-circulated, indoor air of a cooped up winter, windows are opened wide, allowing both home and office (and their occupants!) to breathe the fresh breaths of spring! And how good such breaths are, both for mind and body!

And it occurs to me that we can speak similarly about “a Sabbath well spent”.* It occurs to me that, after six days of breathing what often feels like stagnant air – after six days in the office; after six days in the rat race; after six days of toil; after six days of paperwork, or computer screens, or deadlines, or sweat, or stress, or pressure, or difficult co-workers – “a Sabbath well spent” (a  Sabbath used in the way God intended it, in other words) can be a breath of fresh air! It can be like the throwing open of windows, or the taking of a brisk spring walk, after a week trapped indoors.

Think of it that way! Think of your Sunday opportunities – for physical rest, for praise (at church and at home), for prayer, for sitting under the preached word, for fellowship, for edifying reading – think of them as a weekly fresh air walk, or as the flinging open of the windows, so that the draft of a different and healthier air can blow through the corridors of your life. Think of Sunday as a spiritual fresh air day!

Strive, yes, to breathe more and more of that air, seven days a week! But recognize that, if some days and weeks are more like a cooped up January, there is always a fresh-air day just around the corner! There is always this one day on which you don’t have to breathe the same old air, as it were – a day on which you are entitled (and commanded!) to get out of the rat race; to lay down the labors of the rest of the week, and to throw open the aforementioned spiritual windows of praise, fellowship, the word, and so on!

So commit to doing so!  

Commit, first of all, to setting aside your normal labors on the Lord’s Day – which is commanded, by the way, even if those labors are not stressful, or like stagnant air!  This commitment is right and healthy, whether you think you need to get away from your work or not!  And, if the Monday-Saturday routine is stressful or stagnant, such a commitment will get you, one day a week, out of the stale air!   

And commit your Sundays also, not just to getting out of the rat-race, but to positively breathing the fresh air!  Commit to open the windows, or to go on a fresh-air walk, so to speak.  Commit, in other words, to really do the things that make Sunday a breath of fresh air!  Breathe that air in – by means of rest, praise, prayer, fellowship, the word, and solid Christian books. Don’t sit, on a spring-like day, in the same stagnant air in which you’ve been languishing. Breathe the fresh air!


———
*I quote this phrase from Matthew Hale’s classic poem “a Sabbath well spent”. In this poem, Hale rightly points out how a well-spent Sabbath brings contentment and health for the week that follows, though I have used his words  in writing about the blessing of the Sabbath coming on the heels of the week that was.

"Who can stand before His cold?"

It’s been chilly, has it not? Six below zero when I checked the weather app on Tuesday morning! And, though it’s been warmer since, it’s still been pretty frigid for the most part! And it got me thinking of the psalmist’s question, quoted above. Here’s a little more of the context, from Psalm 147:

12Praise the LORD, O Jerusalem!

Praise your God, O Zion!

…

16 He gives snow like wool;

He scatters the frost like ashes.

17 He casts forth His ice as fragments;

Who can stand before His cold?

In short, snow, frost, ice, and cold are listed, here, as reasons to “praise the LORD.” In them we should see cause for magnifying our God, rather than for murmuring in our grumpiness; inducements to song, rather than to sourness! And so praise the LORD for these phenomena of winter! Praise Him, for instance, for what the snow has to teach us about His forgiveness (Isaiah 1:18) and His word (Isaiah 55:10-11). Praise Him for His creativity, seen in the beauty of the frost, and in the glory of a tree branch glazed with ice. And praise Him for the mighty power by which He brings these weather events to pass!

Indeed, I think it’s that mighty power that is in view when the psalmist asks, at the end of verse 17, “who can stand before His cold?” How mighty is our God? Well, one example of His power is that He can so drop the temperature (v.17) that the human body cannot long stand before it without substantial help! Yes, with coats, and gloves, and hats, and thick socks we can stand (for a while) before the coldest days of winter. But not on our own. And not even in our normal attire. And all sorts of bad things can happen to us if we try!

And so “who can stand before His cold?” No one!

And when we realize this fact; when we realize that it’s so cold outside that we cannot long stand before it without significant protection, our response should be to recognize the amazing power of the God who sends the cold … and to praise Him for it (v.12)!

When God hems us in with the cold, He is demonstrating that He is God, and that we are not! And we should be thankful that we have a God like that – a God who is actually God; a God who is powerful enough to hem us in; a God before whose power we actually cannot stand! Because the God whose might is potent enough to produce unbearable cold is the same God who also wields that invincible power to protect, provide for, and redeem His people! And we need a God like that, don’t we? Indeed, we wouldn’t have Him any other way!

So praise the LORD that He is so much mightier than we! And remember (and praise Him for!) that glorious reality the next time you find yourself unable to stand before His cold!

Rain, Rain Go Away?

This past Sunday evening, I looked at the weather app on my phone and, after clouds on Monday, it showed eight consecutive days of rain! And when the little weather icons on a phone app look so depressing, how much more might the actual weather?! And so, even as I type, the clouds are thick, the ground is saturated, and the days have been exceedingly gray. Such is often winter in Cincinnati, I suppose. And I don’t doubt that it can have a dampening effect on our minds. Maybe that’s even by God’s wise design. Maybe the rainy, cloudy days help us appreciate the sun all the more (both literally, and in a spiritual sense … see 2 Samuel 23:3-4). But if so, that still makes the gray days … well, gray.

But it occurs to me that I shouldn’t be too quick to sing ‘Rain, rain, go away, come again another day.’ For God has good purposes for the rain (does He not?) even outside the purpose of making us appreciate the sun when the rain finally goes away! Rain is so often spoken of, in Scripture, as being the blessing of God. Rain was one of the examples Paul marshalled, when preaching to a group of pagans in Acts 14, to demonstrate to them the reality of the Creator God! And rain was one of the blessings God promised to Israel, in Deuteronomy 28, if they carefully obeyed His word!

So rain is a good thing! And of course, when we are thinking big picture, we understand these things. Much as we may not personally like the rain falling down, day after day, in the winter time … we’d not trade it for a drought, I can promise you! We need rain … not only for the lawns and flowers and trees to be beautiful around our homes, but (all the more) for the crops to grow which provide us (and the animals we eat) with grains, vegetables, fruits, and so on! The rain, says Isaiah, makes the earth “bear and sprout … furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater” (Isaiah 55:10).

And, if you know well that passage in Isaiah 55:10-11, you’ll remember that, embedded in it, is yet another reason to be thankful for the rain.  And that is the way the rain (along with the snow!) reminds us of the blessing of God’s word – not in the grayness that accompanies the rain, but in its fruitfulness!

“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,
And do not return there without watering the earth

And making it bear and sprout,

And furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater;

So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth;

It will not return to Me empty,

Without accomplishing what I desire,

And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.”

Think of that, when the rain falls, day after day! Think of the blessing that the farmers, and grocers, and consumers (like us) will reap from it in the weeks and months ahead. And then thank God that His word works like that as well – even when (like the rain) you may not always realize or even appreciate it, at first! It will produce its fruit. And you will be glad, when the blossoms begin to open, for the rain!

The Sky is not Falling

When Wednesday morning comes, a good many of our co-workers, neighbors, and friends will be speaking as though the sky were falling. Whichever way the presidential election turns out, there will be millions upon millions of Americans with serious concerns about our country’s future. And rightly so. We are in a sad time as a nation, make no mistake. The American experiment, barring a revival of true religion, has been heading toward its sunset for some time now – well before Election 2016. The present state of political affairs is a reflection of America’s soul, not an intrusion upon it. And so maybe the America sky is indeed going to fall, or just slowly continue morphing into a much darker shade of blue. May God help us.

But having said all of that, I remind you that, if we are in Christ, we do not live under the American sky only. Yes, the decline of our national morals, civility, government, and sanity will profoundly affect us. But even if the American sky should fall, isn’t it true that we are citizens of an entirely other kingdom – “a kingdom which cannot be shaken” (Hebrews 12:28); the kingdom of Christ? This kingdom was flourishing with great glory well before the words Plymouth, and Washington, and Lincoln were woven into the tapestry of world history. And this kingdom will still be advancing long after Clinton and Trump have finished writing their part of the American epic. Indeed, the kingdom of Jesus will thrive even if America as we know it should someday cease to exist. “His kingdom will have no end” (Luke 1:33).

And so, for the Christian, a sky may be falling … but not the sky! Christ is still on His throne. As Handel reminds us every Christmas (from Revelation 19:6, KJV), “The Lord God omnipotent reigneth.”

Let that be your anchor, no matter how disappointed you wake up on Wednesday morning. And let it be your ballast, even when you are elated with political victories or turnabouts.

And just to remind you of who is ultimately on the throne, have a look, on Wednesday morning, at the burnt orange reminders of God’s faithfulness dangling from the tree branches against the backdrop of the American sky. God promised, six millennia ago, that the earth would always cycle through its seasons (Genesis 8:22):

“While the earth remains,
Seedtime and harvest,
And cold and heat,
And summer and winter,
And day and night
Shall not cease.”

And the autumn leaves, on Wednesday, will remind you that God is keeping that covenant! And that is enough, brothers and sisters. That is enough. God is still God. God is still faithful. God still reigns. And the future is secure in Christ. So pray for America; cast your vote for the good of America; “seek the welfare of” America. But put your trust in Christ!

A Winter's Covenant

While the earth remains,

Seedtime and harvest,

And cold and heat,

And summer and winter,

And day and night

Shall not cease.

Genesis 8:22

Here is the most poetic portion of God’s promise never again to destroy the earth by the waters of a flood. The weather will never go so out of whack again, says the Lord in Genesis chapters 8-9! On the contrary, as long as the earth exists, there will be fall and spring, summer and winter, cold and heat … such that the changing of the seasons is a four-times-yearly reminder that God is still doing what He said He would do; still sparing and upholding the earth just as He promised in His covenant with Noah.

That’s a wonderful thought, isn’t it? That when the daffodils begin to sprout from their winter sleep, God is being faithful to His promise. And when the long days of summer sun are upon us, God is being true to His word. And when the greens of summer flame into the crimson, gold, and pumpkin of autumn, God is keeping His covenant! The seasons are not spinning all out of whack, but marching in time to the rhythm of God’s covenant faithfulness.

But do we think that way even when winter comes on – with all of its biting cold, and its grey days, and its dead branches, and the wrenches it sometimes throws into our pace? I wrote last winter that we aren’t necessarily meant to see the dead shades of winter brown as beautiful. But they do serve a purpose in the sermons that God preaches to us in His creation. And one of the purposes of winter is the same as the springing flowers of spring and the falling leaves of fall – to remind us that God is keeping His covenant; that the earth is still rotating around the Sun and the keeping up its customary routine just as God promised that it would. “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease” (emphasis added).

That doesn’t mean that there won’t be catastrophes, or that nature isn’t also under the curse. It is (witness the deaths from the recent blizzard on the East Coast). But what Genesis 8 is telling us is that the weather, while it may rage locally from time to time, will never wreak havoc on the whole world like it did in the days of Noah. And the fact that we still have spring, summer, fall, and winter every successive year confirms that God is faithful to that covenant!

So think of that when the crocuses blossom, and when the days grow long and warm, and when the forest is ablaze with the colors of autumn. And think of it, too, when the skies grow murky, and the nights grow long, and the mercury rests deep in the glass like a hibernating bear, not to arise until April! Winter may not be the most comfortable reminder that God is keeping the earth in orbit just according to plan. But it is a reminder just the same! And it’s better than the alternative that our sins deserve!

Reading the Leaves

Recently our family had occasion for an autumn walk at Amberley Park.. The leaves were just beginning to change, and some to fall, brittle, down upon the earth. And the children had just a delightful time in piling them together, and sprinting like Olympic long jumpers, down an invisible track, and into the pile. Oh, to be a child again! And to be able to enjoy God’s creation, whether in old age or young. That is the primary lesson I want to draw, autumn by autumn, from the changing of the leaves. God is a marvelous Creator; and the changing of the seasons also reminds us of His promise to be a marvelous Preserver, too. “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest … shall not cease" (Genesis 8:22). And the reds and yellows that signify the onset of fall remind us of that every October.

But the leaves have something else to teach us – especially in those days when, after their brilliant chameleon act, they fall to the earth dry, and brown, and dead … crackling under our feet, and soon to be blown away like chaff and forever forgotten. Because here in the deadness of autumn’s leaves is a portrait of lost mankind in his own deathly falling down into the earth. “The wicked” says Psalm 1, “are like chaff which the wind drives away.” Or, if you read the famous poet George Gordon (Lord Byron), the wicked are like the autumn leaves, fallen from the trees and never to return to their heights again.

That’s what Lord Byron wrote in his famous poem, “The Destruction of Sennacherib”, which is based on the biblical events described in 2 Kings 18-19. Sennacherib, king of the Assyrians, was threatening to sack Jerusalem and raze it to the ground. And godly King Hezekiah trembled within his palace. And he prayed! And. in the night, the angel of the Lord passed over the Assyrian encampments and slew 185,000 of Sennacherib's men in their sleep. Or, as Lord Byron put it majestically:

Like the leaves of the forest when Summer is green,

That host with their banners at sunset were seen:

Like the leaves of the forest when Autumn hath blown,

That host on the morrow lay withered and strown.

The whole poem is worth your time, and I’d urge you to read it … both as a sample of excellent writing, and as a testimony to the power and glory of God. But for now I just draw your attention to Byron’s autumn leaf imagery. The wicked “lay withered and strown”, he says, like the leaves of autumn, fallen dead from the trees. And I say to you, so it will be with all the wicked when such a scene as we find in 2 Kings 19 is repeated on a worldwide scale at the coming of Christ. The wicked will crackle under His feet … and in the eternal flames … like fallen leaves at a campground. And perhaps, in addition to beholding the beauty of the fall, we should also think of this when we hear the leaves crumbling beneath our steps in the weeks that are ahead. God forbid that any of us should continue in our sins, and suffer this fate! And God forbid that we should have no concern over those who are hurtling headlong toward this fate with no sense of what their death will really mean, apart from Christ.

This autumn, then, let us read and apply the lessons of the leaves, both as they bask in the afternoon sun; and as they grind, lifeless, beneath our footfalls. And let us turn ourselves, and point others, to Jesus – our Maker and Preserver, and the giver of autumn's beauty; and also the One who, alone, can save us from being gathered like autumn leaves and thrown into the fire.

The Gathering Snow

Not long ago I wrote about what we can learn from the withered grass of these winter months. But such lessons have been a little more difficult to visualize in these recent days, have they not? The brown grass is still with us, of course … but it is buried beneath a blanket of glittering white! And the snow brings its lessons, too – about the forgiveness of sins (Isaiah 1.19), and also about the certainty with which the word of God accomplishes its work:

“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,

And do not return there without watering the earth

And making it bear and sprout,

And furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater;

So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth;

It will not return to Me empty,

Without accomplishing what I desire,

And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.”

Isaiah 55.10-11

So the snow is accomplishing something, isn’t it? Something beautiful, in fact! It is part of God’s plan for making the crops grow, and thus putting bread on our tables. But we won’t really begin to see the fruits of it all until spring! The snow is achieving God’s purpose … s l o w l y.

And, while Isaiah does not make this point himself, it occurs to me that this is often how God’s word accomplishes its work, too – slowly; gradually; like the snow.

Sometimes we pour out the water of God’s word, as it were, in the warmth of May. We share Jesus with co-workers, we teach the Bible to our children, we give our Sunday School lessons and sermons … and we see fruit blossoming fairly quickly, as with the spring rains. People take the truth in, and it makes an immediate difference in their lives. And we rejoice in the fresh blooms of springtime!

But other times, we empty the blessing-clouds of God’s word during a spiritual winter. Sometimes the atmosphere into which we speak God’s truth is a fairly cold one. And so the word goes forth more like snow than like rain. The truth still goes out, yes! But much of it seems just to gather on the surface of the ground, the spiritual chill preventing most of it from trickling into the soil. And that can be discouraging. It can feel, in the short term, like much of our watering has been in vain. But we must pray and wait for spring! We must pray and wait for warmer spiritual days, when the temperature of men’s souls will rise, and the snow will begin to melt, and the ground of people’s hearts will be soft once again … and the word that was there all along will begin to sink in. And when those days come, we may just find that much of what we sowed in the winter will produce far more fruit that we thought!  Indeed, the snow of winter will be one of the reasons the spring is so fruitful!

So do not lose heart, you who water the earth with God’s word. Both rain and snow – the word showered forth in warm seasons and in cold – will achieve God’s good purposes! 

 Keep pouring it forth!

The Colors of Winter

Some days I look out my window, and absolutely love the winter time! When the ground is blanketed with snow, and that whitest of carpets is muting the sounds of the world round about, and all is quiet, and still, and bright … on those days, I am certifiably in love with winter! Especially with a warm mug of apple cider in hand!

But then there are other days, when the snow is gone away, and the landscape is a barren brown, and the sky is a lonely gray, and the scene outside my window is frankly hard to look at. Sometimes it can tempt the soul to morph into the same cheerless tones.

But the varying colors of winter all have their place. Both the sparkling white and the desolate brown of winter have their place in God’s plan.

The white we contemplated on a Wednesday night a few weeks ago – as a picture of the forgiveness of our sins (Isaiah 1.18), and as a reminder of the radiant glory of our God (Daniel 7.9-10, Revelation 1.12-16). Read those passages again … and think about them the next time the yards begin to be filled with snow. Do not look on the falling flakes merely as an obstacle to your commute, but as a real-life illustration both of the glory and of the gospel of our God!

But what about winter’s brown? What’s the point of that? Is there a point to all this bleakness? Well, the prophet Isaiah would remind us that the browns and beiges of the winter scene are there to remind us of our own mortality (Isaiah 40.6-7):

“All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field.
The grass withers, the flower fades,
When the breath of the LORD blows upon it;
Surely the people are grass.”

With Isaiah’s explanation in mind, I’m not sure the browns and beiges of winter are supposed to necessarily be beautiful. We should still see the handiwork of God in them, of course. And there is always a splendor in that! But the darker tones of winter are in total contrast to the verdure and green of the spring and summer! And they are meant to be! For they are the colors of withering, and of death. And God included them in His color pallet, and paints them onto the canvas each winter, to remind us that there will be a winter for us someday, too. There will be a time when our own bodies will wither just like the last roses of autumn. “All flesh” – your flesh and my flesh – “is grass”. And the fact that this is so should motivate us to hope in something more permanent; something that will last; something that is evergreen amidst the barrenness and russet of winter. And Isaiah tells us what that something is (Isaiah 40.8):

“The grass withers, the flower fades,
But the word of our God stands forever.”

Here is our hope in the midst of a world in which everything will eventually fade to winter – “the word of our God”, which is ever green, and never languishing through a winter season, and always producing fruit! And for those who put their hope in that word – and in the incarnate Word about whom it is written – well, for them, the winter will indeed be only a season. The grass of our flesh will indeed wither. But in the springtime of Christ’s return it will sprout anew, never to fail again.

So, if you belong to Christ, you need not fear the withering of your flesh, nor close the shades to the barren colors of winter that foreshadow it. For your sins have been washed “as white as snow”; and your flesh will someday sprout afresh from the earth like the flowers of spring. And the grey of winter will forever give way to the full light of the Son.

"Like the spring rain"

Part of a series of articles, entitled 20 years a Christian, recalling some of the important lessons I have learned in nearly two decades as a believer in Jesus.

One of the most valuable lessons I have learned in my nearly two decades as a Christian is the great need for (and hope of!) revival.  Not revival meetings ... but genuine, Holy Spirit-sent refreshing from on high. Because there are drought seasons in the Christian life. There are times – in the life of the individual believer, in the life of the local church, and sometimes in the broader Christian world – when the showers of the Holy Spirit seem few and far between, and when the fruit seems scarce and unripe, and when the ground all around seems hard to the gospel. Both history and experience tell us these times will come. Perhaps you are in the midst of one of them even now – maybe by means of your own sin and neglect; maybe because of Satan’s attack; or maybe for reasons you can’t quite pinpoint. But you know that you are dry. Or perhaps the ground around you seems hard, and dusty, and inhospitable to the words about Jesus that you have been trying to share. And maybe you’ve begun to simply punch the clock a little bit. You’ve lost your zeal, or your hope, or your dreams. And spiritually speaking, you are just going through the motions. And why not, really? No matter how often you read the Bible, or share Jesus, or come to Sunday meeting … very little seems to change. Maybe this is all there is. Just trust Jesus so that your sins are forgiven, and then muddle through life as best as you can.

I understand these feelings completely – the sighs, the resignation, the aridity of soul. I understand the desire to just stop caring so much, to stop trying so hard, and to just hunker down.  But such feelings also make me think of one of my favorite passages of Scripture: Hosea 6.1-3. The people of Israel and Judah had grieved the Lord, and brought down His discipline upon themselves because of their sin. And, as a result, they were “torn” and “wounded” (v.1), and in the midst of spiritual drought. And it may have seemed like hope was gone. They may have been tempted to just roll over and die. But Hosea exhorts them – even in the midst of their sin and drought – to “return to the LORD” and to believe in Him for healing and revival (vv.1-2). And then he makes this remarkable statement about the Lord’s faithfulness and refreshing (v.3):

“So let us know, let us press on to know the LORD.

His going forth is as certain as the dawn;

And He will come to us like the rain,

Like the spring rain watering the earth.”

What a promise! If His people would but seek Him, God would come “like the spring rain” to water their dry, cracked souls. He would water the ground again! He would cause the blossoms and the fruit to grow once more – if His people would “press on to know the LORD.”

And if He is willing to do so for those whose drought has been brought about by their own sin and idolatry (as in Hosea) … then surely He will also do so for those who are oppressed by the devil; or who are just spiritually exhausted; or who have been dried out by the hot winds of difficult circumstances. “He will come to us like the rain, like the spring rain watering the earth” (emphasis mine). If we will press on; if we will not roll over or quit; if we will not lose hope … but continue praying, continue fellowshipping with the people of God, and continue sowing the seed of the word (both on our own hearts, and on those of others), then we can be sure that the rain will eventually begin to fall (and the fruit begin to blossom) once more!

Sometimes the showers we were praying for may not fall on the land until after we have left it in the hands of others. Sometimes it may not be until eternity that we see how God did indeed come “like the spring rain” to revive His people and His cause. But He will not fail to come. He will not fail to satisfy your soul if you will “press on to know” Him. He will not allow the seed of His word to lie dormant on the ground forever.

A few years ago our family watched a film about one of the great deserts of our planet – a vast stretch of ground which can go for months and months on end without seeing any significant rain. And, of course, the ground is barren, cracked, and almost completely devoid of plant life. Until one day the skies darken, and the heavens open, and the rain comes down in buckets, drenching the ground with a torrent of water. And soon the desert floor is covered, garden-like, with the lushest green plants!

But how can that be? Where did the seed come from, in such a barren place, to produce all that life? It came from the last downpour, and the last flourishing of plant life on the dessert floor! Those plants grew, and blossomed, and eventually wilted back to the earth … leaving their seeds lying dormant on the desert floor. And they laid there, and laid there, and laid there – seemingly pointlessly. Had they been planted by a farmer, he may have long since given up and moved on. But when God sends the great rains, everything is different! “He changes a wilderness into a pool of water and a dry land into springs” (Psalm 107.35).

And so it is in the Christian life. Often because of our own neglect; and sometimes because of factors beyond our control, the spiritual ground (inside and outside of the church) can seem almost like the floor of a dessert. Sometimes our own hearts may seem like a wilderness. But in my nearly twenty years of following Jesus, I have come to a place of hope that God will not leave the seeds lying dormant forever; that God delights in reviving His work "in the midst of the years" (Habakkuk 3.2).  If we will “press on” with our God, the rain will eventually come. God Himself “will come like the spring rain watering the earth.” The Holy Spirit will come in revival.  So “let us press on to know the LORD.”

"The storehouses of the snow"

The book of Job is, on many different levels, a fascinating read. It gives us keen insights into the sovereignty of God, the suffering of mankind, and the work (and limitations) of the devil … as well as providing some very helpful do’s and don’ts of true Christian friendship. Furthermore, the final chapters are an incredible series of reminders as to just how small we human beings are; just how little we know in comparison to our omniscient, omnipotent, omni-competent God. God asks Job such questions as:

“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?”
“Have you ever in your life commanded the morning?”
“Do you know the time the mountain goats give birth?”
“Have you entered the storehouses of the snow?”

The purpose of such questions, of course, is to humble Job; to remind him that he is not God, and that his questioning of the Almighty has been out of place, and has been done in far more ignorance than Job has, thus far, been willing to credit to his own account. Job is not God! And if we read the final five chapters of the book, we will be reminded that neither are we!

God sees – and controls – things that happen on the tops of craggy cliffs, and at the bottom of ocean deeps, that human eyes rarely see. He keeps all the stars fixed in their constellations, and the planets in their orbits. And yes, He is the one who sends the snow … how, we don’t really understand. We haven’t entered into its storehouses!

Well, Job certainly hadn’t, anyway. But we might read the book of Job, all these centuries later, and think: ‘Well, today, there are people who actually do “know the time the mountain goats give birth.” And there are meteorologists who, by means of their equipment and scientific acumen, actually have, in a manner of speaking, “entered the storehouses of the snow.” So maybe we have caught up with God. Maybe mankind is not so small as the book of Job makes him out to be.’

Well, there certainly are people today who understand God’s world to a much greater extent than Job could have done. Such are the advances that science, plus technology, plus time have afforded us. And we’re thankful for these things, in many ways. But, because meteorologists can now explain the origin of all the winter white we have seen in the last few days, does that mean we are catching up with God? That maybe the final chapters of Job ought no longer make us feel as small as they might once have done? I think not.

So a select few individuals, with lots of study and expensive technology, can explain and even predict the coming of the snow. That’s impressive, I’ll admit … and really quite fascinating (and, indeed, very helpful when your family is travelling on a winter storm weekend!). But, for all our understanding of the snow, humankind can still do absolutely nothing to control it, or curtail it, or confine it. We’re still not God, even if we understand His working a lot better than we once did!

Furthermore, the meteorological insights that have been gained into “the storehouses of the snow” reveal that the process of snow making is even a lot more complicated than God lets on in Job 38.22. “The storehouses of the snow” are not just simple barns, set up in the heavens, with remote control doors ready to open at God’s command. No! They are actually gigantic meteorological engines, engaged in a process that (best I can tell) seems to involve such various cogwheels as the jet stream, and air pressure, and surface temperature, and temperature aloft, and moisture, and perhaps a handful of other factors that normal people like me don’t really understand! So, by figuring out where the snow comes from; by entering into its storehouses, mankind hasn’t actually demystified the power of God, but simply realized that His working is actually far more intricate and complex than we might have before recognized!

That is the wonder of all true science, in fact. Scientific enquiry and discovery do not render God obsolete, because now we supposedly have the real explanation for things that the men and women of Job’s day did not understand (and thus blindly ascribed to the idea of ‘God’). No! The more we discover about how the world works, the more we realize just how big God must be … because the processes He uses to create the snow, or to bring the baby mountain goats to birth, are far more complex than we might have otherwise dreamed! And complexity – even complexity that human beings have finally (in measure) figured out – speaks to an even greater God than we might have otherwise dreamed. So praise God for science! And praise God for the snow of recent days! Both of them, if we see aright, tell us that God is great … and that we, even with all our discovery, are still small.

Snow in October

Yes, it's still October in Ohio.  And yes, it snowed this morning.  Kim, the almanac was right!  Thanks, Sandy.

A Good Word for the New Year ...

... especially if you're in Cincinnati on this wintry day:

Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean;

Remove the evil of your deeds from My sight.

Cease to do evil,

Learn to do good;

Seek justice,

Reprove the ruthless,

Defend the orphan,

Plead for the widow.

“Come now, and let us reason together,”

Says the LORD,

“Though your sins are as scarlet,

They will be as white as snow;

Though they are red like crimson,

They will be like wool.

If you consent and obey,

You will eat the best of the land;

But if you refuse and rebel,

You will be devoured by the sword.”

Truly, the mouth of the LORD has spoken.
Isaiah 1.16-20

"Though your sins are as scarlet ...

They will be as white as snow." Isaiah 1.18

Psalm 29 in Real Time

3The voice of the LORD is upon the waters;

The God of glory thunders,

The LORD is over many waters.

4The voice of the LORD is powerful, the voice of the LORD is majestic.

5The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars;
Yes, the LORD breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon.

6He makes Lebanon skip like a calf,

And Sirion like a young wild ox.

7The voice of the LORD hews out flames of fire.

8The voice of the LORD shakes the wilderness;
The LORD shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.

9The voice of the LORD makes the deer to calve

And strips the forests bare;

A great storm. That is what David is describing. Thunder. Waters. Broken cedars. Lighting (hewn flames of fire). The wilderness shaken and the forests stripped bare. And David says it is all caused by “the voice of the LORD.” That is important to remember after what we experienced this past Sunday afternoon. We definitely saw broken trees of every sort. 70+ mile per hour winds. Frightening cracks above our heads. Flying debris. And all of it a reminder of how small we are … and how big God is. The voice of the LORD has shaken a large portion of mid-America this week.

Now in the midst of it all, there is a lot to do. We have been sawing, dragging, pulling, and hauling a whole heap of trash, leaves, and wood this week. And, on behalf of our fellow men in southeast Texas, there is a lot more hauling, cutting, repairing, and generosity ahead this fall. We have a lot of praying to do, too – for people who have lost their earthly all from the Gulf Coast to the Great Lakes. And we certainly have a gospel to share. All of these things, I hope, leap immediately to your mind once the voice of the Lord is done heaving the winds and waves.

But notice what the Psalmist says. Yes, when the voice of the LORD breaks the cedars, we have to clean them up. Yes, when His voice is above many waters, we have to minister mercy to those whose homes and livings have washed away with the tide. But Psalm 29 reminds us that, in the midst of the restoration, there needs also to be adoration. What should we do in response to the LORD’s storm?

1Ascribe to the LORD, O sons of the mighty,
Ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.
2Ascribe to the LORD the glory due to His name.
Worship the LORD in holy array.

Not just restoration. Adoration! Have you done that yet this week? Have you allowed the broken cedars to put you in awe of our “majestic”, “powerful” God? If not, before the memories fade away and life goes back to the routine and the mundane … make sure you pause to admire the power of God, and to ascribe to the LORD the glory due His name!