Month: April 2019

I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end He will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God.  Job 19:25-26 (Job 9-21)

Job and his three friends enter into a great debate.  Job insists he is not wicked and on several occasions, declares his righteousness to both his sages and God. However, his theology, bad things only happen to bad people, doesn’t square with his reality and the agony is bitter!

Evil people experiencing no visible evidence of God’s judgement or wrath while righteous Job’s pain and loss are excruciating, is noted. Job adds, he could accuse the same friends that hold him guilty of unseen, unspoken, yet ‘obvious’ transgressions, of worse sin than any possible wrong doing on his part. His sarcasm doesn’t set well and he finds himself completely alone. Chapter 19:13-19 lists all those who have abandoned him. Still, Job defends his righteousness and asserts, God sees him as he truly is.

Then! Job’s heartbroken, at times sarcastic, defense becomes faith! Not his old faith, but new and improved with clarity and definition. I KNOW my Redeemer, the one who sacrifices for man’s soul, lives and therefore, I too will live. (ARE YOU LISTENING SATAN?) Job finds hope, born of a faith that didn’t die of natural causes, and begins to understand an everlasting life.

From his primitive understanding of a Creator God and misunderstood justice comes a story of faith with a ‘no matter what’ endurance. When you have this, you have everything!

Love,

Gretchen

He will yet fill you mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy. Job 8:21 (Job 4-8)

Mary, the mother of Jesus, knew without doubt, that Jesus was the Son of God. With as much certainty as Mary understood Jesus’ virgin birth, Job knew his righteousness. His faith was in God, not the blessings God bestowed. So why?!

Job is depicted as a patient, all enduring man, but on closer inspection a vocal protester is found. He pours out his heart to God, but God doesn’t seem to be listening, so Job longs for death and an end to his misery. In his grief his friends come to comfort. In their efforts to console, they begin a feeble attempt to explain God’s behavior. In many ways they are correct. No one is blameless, God does judge and discipline. These thoughts turned into outright rebuke over Job’s apparent, secret, horrible sin. They suggest Job’s only hope is in repentance so restoration may occur. Here is where they go terribly wrong.

It is in seeking a reason and placing blame that Job’s friends deviate from correct counsel. For example, Job is suffering greatly, therefore his sin is tremendous. I am not suffering, therefore, God must be more tolerant of my foibles. Yeah for me! Bummer for him, just repent and be done with it! (Please insert mild sarcasm.)

We are designed to define, explain and perpetually seek answers, but there is a fine line where we must stop with the questions. Knowing why the earth takes 365 days to orbit the sun is much different that understanding why an innocent child suffers from cancer or abuse. One answer we are entitle to, the other…… But! This I know, in everything, just as Job will soon discover, God is waiting to reveal a greater, deeper understanding of His Sovereignty and boundless love. Where answers can’t be found, faith does its best work.

Love,

Gretchen

In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing. Job:1:22 (Job 1-3)

Job was a wealthy desert prince, descendant of Abraham through Esau, and a really good man. His story takes place during Israel’s sojourn in Egypt, prior to the Exodus. The recording of his story is accredited to Moses who may have known him personally or in the very least, met his immediate family while in Midian for 40 years.

Satan approached God with an accusation against Job. He charged God’s favor as the source of Job’s faith.  Who wouldn’t praise God when one was enviably rich in every way?  God allowed Satan to put Job to the test. In the course of a day, Job lost his wealth, his children and his health. Three friends, wise men of their age, and his wife, promoted four misconceptions: Suffering is punishment, suffering is for correction, suffering stomps out hypocrisy by exposing hidden sin, and final justice happens in this life. Job’s story asks the ageless questions, “How can a good God allow so much bad?” and “Where does man’s destiny fit into God’s sovereign authority?”

Jesus Himself, suffered an unfathomable loss. He became fully man to experience the staggering pains and sorrows of human flesh. Job cursed the day of His birth, but never turned his anger toward God. Jesus had the power to curse, not just those who brought Him harm, but mankind for all eternity. Love stayed His hand and although Satan’s goal was to turn God completely against humanity, it didn’t work. 

Somewhere in Job’s life, He understood God’s love and anchored his only hope in Him alone. It was enough, it was God’s way and his destiny.

Love,

Gretchen

My sister Gayle has a repeated phrase, learned from an experience in our childhoods. She speaks it every time someone is caught red handed and should have known better, “Warm TV’s tell no lies.” 

As my siblings and I entered adolescence and could be trusted to keep ourselves alive until mom and dad got home from work, we were given daily chores to be done each afternoon in addition to our studies and music lessons.  Life was full and mom and dad wanted us to have the best they could offer, so everyone had to do their part. Quality of life depended on it.

There was a television in our home, but it wasn’t on much. At the time there were only four channels, the three major networks and PBS. We were not to have the television on when mom and dad weren’t home. But…… real children work harder at circumventing set norms than living up to them. We were mostly real! Some days we rushed through our chores and studies, doing a substandard job, and sat down to catch a show before the sound of car tires crunched on the gravel driveway.  One afternoon dad came home earlier than expected and there was a scurry of turning knobs, leaping over furniture and looking like we had been diligently powering through a drudgery of responsibilities. Dad never asked a question he already knew the answer to, such as, “What have you been up to?” or “Were you watching TV?” He recognized the temptations we faced and he parented in such a way as to protect us from things we weren’t mature enough to process and confront while leading us as we grew and matured. He knew when he laid his hand on the TV and it was warm that it had been on, and we had disobeyed and acted beneath his expectations.

You may be wondering what consequences he pronounced…… None, except, we were made to understand that hidden sins are still sins. It wasn’t an issue of trust, but a lesson of faith in those who know best and long for everyone to remain physically, mentally and spiritually healthy. We were not held corporately responsible, but individually made to know that lies are festering boils and rot everything they touch, and habits of rebellion and defiance end in noses cut off to spite perfectly reasonable faces.

Each person’s spiritual journey is much the same as a warm TV. Questions of authority, autonomy and fairness arise in every conflict until the moment you realize there are no secrets between you and your Loving Creator. He sees you EXACTLY, with perfect, unfiltered clarity, as you truly are.  This is a tremendous peace or terrifying prospect. But, along with the certainty of taxes, you will face judgement for yourself alone. Make things right. Confess, repent and walk in righteousness.

The one who sins is the one who will die. The child will not share the guilt of the parent, nor will the parent share the guilt of the child. The righteousness of the righteous will be credited to them, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against them.                                                                                                           Ezekiel 18:20.

Blessings,

Gretchen

At the end of that time, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward Heaven, and my sanity was restored. Then I praised the Most High; I honored and glorified Him who lives forever. Daniel 4:34 ( Ezekiel 29:17-21, Daniel 4, Jeremiah 51:31-34) 

At the age of 59, Ezekiel’s prophecies come to an end as far as is recorded in scripture. With the prophecies of Tyre and Egypt’s destruction he grows quiet. It is possible that he lived long enough to see the Israel’s restoration begin, but it is not known with certainty. As Ezekiel’s work is concluding, Nebuchadnezzar is seeing the miraculous power of God over and over.  First in Daniel’s ability to describe and interpret dreams the king had never even spoken aloud, second, when he witnessed the Angel of the LORD rescue the three Hebrew men from his own wrath in the fiery furnace and finally, when he was boasting of his great success and was stricken with a mental illness for three and a half years.

Nebuchadnezzar  becomes delusional, believing he is an animal.  He lives in the woods around the palace, but following his time of infirm, this great and proud man is humbled to the point that he finally understands his sinful state and need for the redeeming Grace of God. Babylon was a polytheistic culture, but the presence of a personal, exclusive and creative deity, The One True God, never stops reaching out to each one of us so that we will repent and become His child again and know there is no other. 

Until we realize that nothing good comes of our own strength, machinations and resources, we will never fully understand the omnipotence, omnipresence and omniscience of our Loving Heavenly Father.

Happy Weekend!

Gretchen

And I saw the glory of the God of Israel coming from the east. His voice was like the roar of rushing waters, and the land was radiant with His glory. Ezekiel 43:2 (Ezekiel 40-48)

Ezekiel is taken, for a second time, back to Israel. The first journey drew him to the complete destruction of the Temple. Now, the LORD has taken him by the hand and shown him, symbolically and in great detail, a New Jerusalem and a new Temple. This new Temple has an eastern gate reserved for the entrance the LORD and from beneath the threshold a river flows. Along its banks are trees who’s fruit provides food and gives healing. God reminds Ezekiel of the debauchery and corruption that occurred at the former altar of the LORD and shows that only the holy, obedient and pure of heart will worship in this Temple who’s name is THE LORD IS THERE.

Ezekiel’s prophecies begin with God leaving the presence of His covenant people. His life’s work ends with a vision of His returned Glory to Israel (Israel represents all believers). In Revelations 21:22 John sees this Temple that embodies the name Ezekiel heard. It is not a building. Being in the presence of God and The Lamb will be our Temple.

Our hearts must be a Temple for God’s glory and our lives a living sacrifice, so that someday we will forever dwell in the Temple/Presence of the LORD.

Love,

Gretchen

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and He will rescue us from your hand O king,. But even if He does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” Daniel 3: 16-18 (Daniel 3)

An arrogant king makes and image of himself, possibly using gold taken from Jerusalem, and then mandated its worship. When the three Hebrew boys did not comply because their God’s law forbade it, some Babylonian astrologers tattled on them. The star gazers didn’t want the foreigners to make the local gods angry and bring down curses, and the king of a great empire just wanted to affirm in everyone’s mind, that he was indeed, the center of the universe.

The strong words of the three Hebrew men brought the full wrath of the king raining down. These men stood before the one who thought he held their fate in his hand, and informed him he did not. The king, in his fury, had a furnace heated up as hot as possible just for them, but their steadfast faith wasn’t shaken. They chose the possibility of death for worshiping the One True God, over living in disobedience to God.

In the end, the three men came out of the furnace without even a heightened temperature and all recognized the saving power of God. They were promoted to greater esteem and the king of a vast empire was humbled in the knowledge that there was One True God……and it wasn’t him.

If your faith, in action, was proof enough to convict you, what would the crime be? Where is your absolute loyalty? What will you be standing for when everyone else has left the building? The answers matter a lot!

Love,

Gretchen

“I will make known My Holy name among My people Israel. I will no longer let My Holy name be profaned, and the nations will know that I the LORD am the Holy One in Israel. Ezekiel 39:7 (Ezekiel 38-39, 33-34)

The chapters of 38-39 are apocalyptic and known to be symbolic rather than literal. Gog is the ruler of the the wicked land of Magog. As far back as Genesis 10:2 the lands of Magog, Meshech,Tubal and Gomer are associated with complete evil and a people that delight in other’s misery. Ezekiel is commanded to prophesy the news that God is going to exact due punishment for rebellion and idolatry. Satan will amass a mighty army and attack, but God will single handedly wipe away all evil from the world and unlike all other judgements against nations in the past, this one will be eternal.  There will be no second chance, God’s act of death and destruction will be universal, cataclysmic and final.

When God has finished with Gog and his minions, there will be a world of peace, joy and righteousness for those who remained faithful. The carnage among the wicked will be so great it will take seven months to bury the dead and for seven years, the weapons of these foes will provide fuel for cooking and heating.  For the Jewish people, the number seven represents completeness and perfection.

Gog and Magog are symbolic of those person’s and or nations across the globe who persecute Christians. God’s answer to this offense? He alone will judge and destroy them with complete finality and those they harmed will bask in God’s radiant love for all eternity. Once and for all, God’s name and His Glory will be held in highest esteem, never to be profaned again!

Have a Great Wednesday!

Gretchen

He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I said, “O Sovereign LORD, you alone know.” Ezekiel 37:3  (Ezekiel 37)

God’s nation is dead and has been for ten years. They are scattered, becoming part of other cultures and forgetting who they were created to be, but God sends Ezekiel an exciting vision of what He alone can do; restore life where death was thought to be final.

In the valley of dry bones Ezekiel walks back and forth among bones with no flesh. They are very dry, completely separated from life for all eternity, AND THEN! A rattle is heard and new life begins. Hope is not gone. The best is yet to come!

A second vision pertains to the rejoining of Israel and Judah as a people of peace and victory. Both of these prophecies/visions are restoration prophesies and God shows that there will be a time when evil will be destroyed forever and those who believe will be led by The Good Shepherd, the Prince of Peace, Messiah.

There is far more than, “The leg bone connected to the thigh bone……” When it seems all hope has gone forever and we can’t fathom anything but misery, God is just beginning to really show out, and the best is just beginning. Death doesn’t ever get the last word. God does, and He is LIFE!

Love,

Gretchen

“I will make a covenant of peace with them and rid the land of wild beasts so that they may live in the desert and sleep in the forests in safety.”  Ezekiel 34:25 (Ezekiel 33-36)

Because of Israel/Judah’s fall, many believed that the God of Abraham was powerless. These misperceptions will soon be put to rest. The sheep that have been scattered will be gathered and live in prosperity and peace.

When the siege of Jerusalem began, Ezekiel became mute, coinciding with the death of his wife. Now, Jerusalem has completely fallen and God opened his mouth to speak a message of  condemnation to those who lead others astray. Responsibility for the captivity of God’s covenant nation lies firmly at the door of greedy, cruel kings and corrupt spiritual leaders. However, there IS coming a true shepherd and Israel will flourish because they will be made new. God has humbled them, cleansed them of their idolatry and they will glorify His name.

God is not powerless. In unfathomable, perfect strength, He chooses to reign with peace, justice, perseverance and boundless love. He can and will make all things new when people believe, trust and obey. Sin brings death, but God alone provides abundant, full life throughout all eternity.

Happy Monday,

Gretchen