Full Time

Now Elizabeth's full time came for her to be delivered,

and she brought forth a son.

Luke 1:57

The long awaited day had come. Elizabeth and her husband Zacharias hadn't just been waiting nine months; they had waited a lifetime for this day. Years and years of loving but childless marriage had passed in patient petition to the Lord, interrupted finally at Pentecost the year before with an angelic announcement: Your prayer is heard. In a celebraation of the most intimate expression of human communion, a moment of tender affection and climactic passion, Zacharias and Elizabeth acted in faith upon the promises of God, and in the womb of a woman thought beyond child-bearing, a prophet was conceived. For nine months, through the morning sickness and the expanding belly and the false labor pains, Elizabeth waited in hope. And now at last, all of the prayers and promises culminated in this day when she finally reached full term and gave birth to her son.

At least with a pregnancy, one knows--within a certain range of days--when the awaited day will come. I've never been pregnant (nor ever will be), but one day I hope to share the joys of fatherhood with the wife God sends to me. There will be a realization, a discovery, perhaps a test will be taken, a doctor's visit to confirm. Questions will be asked, between doctor and patient, between husband and wife, and then the calculations begin. I find the mathematical gymnastics a little confusing, but somewhere between 37 and 42 weeks from whatever point the formula starts, a new life is going to enter the world. Perhaps a date will be circled on a calendar somewhere. Trips will be planned. Anxious relatives will hold their cell phones in great anticipation. A suitcase will be packed and ready by the door. The car better be full of gas for the trip to the hospital. And in the final days of waiting, there may be alot of false starts. But one day for sure, if all things go as they are supposed to, that baby will arrive and it won't be a surprise, for he was expected.

But what about the other promises God makes? What about the things for which there is no time limit...just a "someday." What do we do then? I'll tell you what we do. We wait, and we pray, and we believe. If God has planted something in your heart, a seed of hope for a future you cannot see, a seed of faith to believe for some miracle, some Divine action, some earthly event to occur...if God has made a promise, you can rest easy in knowing that God will fulfill it. And depending on what it is, there are probably certain steps you can take toward that fulfillment. But God must direct the steps. We must never try to get ahead of God, or help God out, or otherwise try to make it come to pass. He who promised us is faithful, He will perform it. We need to wait.

It may not be a physical pregnancy, with a definite start date and a definite end date. But that promise still grows like a child in the heart of the believer, gestating, maturing, turning over and kicking from time to time. Life goes on around us, we continue with whatever it is God has called us to do. But inside, a little promise is growing. We may not know the due date, but if we stay in touch with God, He will keep us encouraged and expecting, He will continually pour out His Spirit and speak through His word. His voice will ease our anxieties if we will but incline our ears to Him. And then one day...

Something surprising will happen.

It may not be a heavenly visitation.

It may not be a seven-foot angel with a telegram on the end of a flaming sword.

It may not be a vision of Jesus standing at the foot of your bed in the midnight hours.

It may not be anything spectacular at all.

It may be as simple as a tiny stone being tossed into a pond. It makes a tiny plop and disappears, but the ripples it causes go on and on and on. Toss that same stone at the right spot on a mountainside, and it could cause an avalanche.

It may be as simple as a tiny spark, igniting a candle or a forest.

It may be as simple as a word fitly spoken, a stranger well met, an accident that is really an incident.

But whatever it is...it will be a God moment. It will be the right place at the right time. And in the fullness of time, that promise that God made to you--though it seemed it would never be fulfilled--will come to pass.

And what a day of rejoicing that will be!

Good Grief!

Have you ever felt like Charlie Brown?

There's Lucy, the perpetual holder of the football. And here comes Charlie Brown, determined this time to finally kick the ball. Perhaps he can run faster than Lucy can snap the ball aside. Perhaps this time she will relent and let him have a go. But always and forevermore, Lucy pulls the ball aside, and poor Charlie Brown goes flying, never to learn the lesson.

Or perhaps he learned the lesson after all. The point may not be to actually kick the ball, but to never give up. Often we scratch our thick skulls and wonder, why didn't Charlie Brown just quit tyring to kick the ball? Or why didn't he learn his lesson and not play games with Lucy, choosing instead to play catch with Linus or somebody? Or why didn't he hold the ball for once, and let Lucy kick? And yet I don't really think those were the things either Charlie or us were meant to understand. I think, rather, that it is a lesson in persistence.

Call it whatever you'd like--persistence, determination, perseverance, stubbornness, confidence. Patience. Hope. I heard one preacher call it "sticktuitiveness". It's a virtue, a fruit of the Spirit, the character of Christ created in us. It's something we are told never to pray for, and something we hate to learn. And yet there are rewards for persistence, for patience, for perseverance, especially when the thing waited upon is the right thing. Persistence eventually pays off, they say. I rather prefer God's version--perseverance builds character, character builds hope, and hope does not disappoint!

Of course, you have to know your persisting for the right and not the wrong, for good and not for evil, for God and not your own glory. You have to know the truth, and trust the Lord in the things you cannot see. You have to listen to His voice, hear His direction, follow His lead. But if the Lord says persist...you stick to it!

So your enemies surround you and cry out against you, calling you ugly names and spitting their curses, all the while swearing that you are never going to make it. Stick to it!

So your troubles are many and your triumphs few. Stick to it!

So things don't go as you plan, or turn out like you thought they ought to. Stick to it!

So disappointment and discouragement hound your heels, mocking your every move when nothing you do works or turns out right. Stick to it!

So the work is hard and long, and you weary in what you are doing. Stick to it!

So the way is rough and your companions few. Stick to it!

If you know you're right, though everyone says your wrong. Stick to it!

If you've heard from God, stick to it!

And suddenly I'm reminded of Tolkien (or at least Peter Jackson's version of Tolkien), and the words of Samwise Gamgee:

It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo,

the ones that really mattered.

Full of darkness and danger they were,

and sometimes you didn't want to know the end

because how could the end be happy?

How could the world go back to the way it was

when so much bad had happened?

But in the end it's only a passing thing, this shadow,

even darkness must pass.

A new day will come,

and when the sun shines it'll shine out the clearer.

Those were the stories that stayed with you,

that meant something even if you were too small to understand why.

But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand,

I know now folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back,

only they didn't.

They kept going because they were holding on to something.

And then Frodo asked:

What are we holding onto, Sam?

And Sam replied:

That there's some good in the world, Mr. Frodo.

and it's worth fighting for.

Three Months

And Mary remained with her about three months,

and returned to her house.

Luke 1:56

Elizabeth conceived John and hid herself for five months. In the sixth month, Gabriel made the Annunciation to Mary and she conceived Jesus by the Holy Spirit. If she immediately set out for the Judean hill country to visit Elizabeth and then stayed three months, it stands to reason that Mary was still with Elizabeth when John was born.

What do you think transpired during those three months?

There are parts of the story the Holy Spirit simply left blank in the Bible, stories that--as a story-teller and detail person myself--I would love to hear in eternity. You know, I'd like to just pop by Mary's mansion in heaven someday and say, "Hail Mary! What was it like when..." But until then, my technicolor imagination will have to suffice.

If anyone understood the significance of what was going on in Mary's life, it had to be Elizabeth, for she herself was part of the experience. Barren for years, perhaps even decades, after her marriage to her beloved Zacharias, Elizabeth had been visited and favored by the Lord. Like Sarah of old, like Rebekah and Rachel, like Hannah and Mrs. Manoah, in her advancing years she received the strength to conceive God's next instrument of faith and power, God's next messenger. Secluding herself for five months, shutting herself in with the Lord, there is no limit to what she may have learned from intimate communication with her God. She was full enough of the Spirit that when the barely pregnant mother of the coming Savior stepped into her room and spoke her name, even the baby within her leaped for joy in the presence of the Lord.

Now these two women, vessels of honor chosen for God's glory, could sit together for hours and hours and hours on end talking about the goodness of God. Did they go through the Scriptures together? Did they discuss the ramifications of God's promises and expectations? One old woman, one young woman; one married, one not; neither of them had experience as mothers, but undoubtedly they had been raised to be wives and mothers in a culture that celebrated the family as the oldest and highest of God's institutions. What did they talk about?

Did Mary have questions and doubts concerning the child growing within her womb? Did she fear for her own life once her friends, family and fiancee found out about her condition? Did she wonder what kind of mother she could possibly be to the son of God? And did Elizabeth have any guidance to help her?

Though they aren't included in Paul's treatment of the heroes of faith in Hebrews 11, undoubtedly they walk those halls today. These were women of faith, who walked by faith in the words and promises of God. By faith, Elizabeth received the strength to conceive and bring forth a son who would be the first prophet of her people in 400 years. By faith, Mary consented to the will of the Lord and conceived a son through supernatural means, that she might become the mother of salvation to a world that world that would believe.

Thank God for their faith!

Morning is Coming!

Sing praise to the Lord, you saints of His,

and give thanks at the remembrance of His holy name.

For His anger is but for a moment,

His favor is for life;

Weeping may endure for a night,

but joy comes in the morning!

Psalm 30:4-5

Why do we weep?

David wrote this Psalm about ten years into his reign over the kingdom of Israel, and was by then a man acquainted with griefs and sorrows. Anointed as a boy to be the king, he spent more than two decades in constant peril from enemies within and without. The king personally tried to kill him on numerous occasions. Promised one daughter of the king as wife, he had to stand by as she was given to another. Given another daughter, he was forced to abandon her and she was also given to another. Because they helped David, an entire family of priests--80 men, their wives and children--was slaughtered. At one low point in his young life, both friends and enemies raised their voices against him. His house was burned to the ground, his possessions stolen, his wives and children kidnapped. His mentor was dead, his covenant brother was giving his life on a bloody battlefield, and his staunchest supporters wanted to stone him to death.

And the Bible says, "David encouraged himself in the Lord."

Why do we weep?

Sometimes we weep because our enemies find many reasons to laugh at our fate.

Sometimes we weep because we are sick and in pain, and it seems no relief will come.

Sometimes we weep because we believe we have failed God one too many times, and His anger will never be satisfied.

Sometimes we weep because we are assaulted and violated in the places we thought most safe.

Sometimes we weep because God seems so distant, or deaf to our cries, like there is no hope for us.

But we must remember--God doesn't plot for our destruction; He plans for our salvation. God isn't out to get us; He is out to bless us. The Psalmist recognized the anger of God, but he says "It only lasts a moment! The blessings of God are for always!" When God saved you and began to bless you, it was for life, with no intentions of taking that blessing away as long as you walked in the safety of His love and grace. Yes, we can willingly step away from God's goodness; but even then, God does not give up on us. His Holy Spirit follows us wherever we go, calling us back to the love of God.

Sometimes we weep, but David knew the weeping would only be for a little while. Joy was coming with the morning!

And what a wonderful morning it is, when dawn breaks over the horizon, flooding the darkness with marvelous light! It bespeaks a fresh start, a new day, and hope that things are going to be alright! David wrote:

You have turned for me my mourning into dancing;

You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness,

To the end that my glory may sing praise to You

and not be silent.

God is good; let the whole world know! And know it yourself.

Liberated

So speak and so do as those who will be judged

by the perfect law of liberty.

For judgment is without mercy

to the one who has shown no mercy.

Mercy triumphs over judgment.

James 2:12-13

I know alot of people, both in the world and in the church, whose concept of God is that of a stern and vindictive judge who sits enthroned in His high court of justice and hands out punishments to those who displease Him. People either cower in fear of His sovereignty, or defiantly shake their fists and rage against the system. We anticipate God's anger, God's wrath, God's vengeance when we make mistakes. We expect God to do away with us, or at the very least dissolve His connection to us. Many who truly love God spend their waking hours worrying over whether or not they have succeeded in pleasing God, or if they have successfully failed in doing so. And that if it is the latter, at any moment a dark thundercloud may appear over their head and dispense lightning bolt justice.

Can I tell you, it just isn't so. There is nothing in the Bible that indicates this is what God is like. People want to point to certain examples of God's wrath and say, "That's going to happen to you if you mess up!" But consider the examples...

God drowned the whole earth and all of its inhabitants with a flood...but that was only after 1500 years of warning, the last 120 accentuated by the preaching of Noah while he built the means of escape.

God demolished Sodom and Gomorrah with fire...but that was only after the righteous examples of Abraham and Lot showed the Sodomites how to live in God's blessing.

God devastated Egypt with ten plagues...but that was only after Pharaoh resisted (and might I say, resisted and resisted and resisted again) the request of Moses to let the Israelites go into the desert to worship their God.

God destroyed an entire generation of Israelites in the wilderness...but that was only after they rebelled against Him, flagrantly disobeyed His law, and continually complained about how good He had been to them.

God didn't kill Cain when Cain killed Abel.

God didn't kill Noah when Noah got drunk.

God didn't kill Moses when Moses hit the rock instead of speaking to it.

God didn't kill Samson for letting Delilah cut off his hair.

God didn't kill David for sleeping with Bathsheba, or for having her husband killed.

God didn't kill Jonah for running away from his calling.

God didn't kill Peter for denying Jesus, or Judas for betraying him.

God didn't disown Jacob for being a conniver.

God didn't disown Judah for being a hypocrite.

God didn't disown Aaron for being a people-pleaser.

God didn't disown Saul for his first mistake, or even his second.

God didn't disown Solomon for having 1000 wives that pulled his heart in 1000 different directions.

Now granted, sometimes there were consequences for sin. Anyone sowing seeds of sin will reap a wild harvest in one form or another. But when it comes to serving God and pleasing God, there is a whole more to life than not sinning. We can let the laws of sin and death scare us and keep us captive, always fearful of breaking a commandment. We can let worry and self-doubt consume us. We can spend our time fretting over the possibility of making God mad. Or we can accept that we are saved, sanctified, spirit-filled and heaven-bound...and that God is lifting up His countenance upon us and causing His face to shine upon us as we serve Him.

Through His mercy we are not consumed. Because of His grace we are not condemned. Because of His love we are blessed and highly favored. Yes, we are going to make mistakes in life. Yes, sometimes we are going to make the wrong choice. Yes, sometimes we are going to look like fools because of something we said or did. But God is a good God, and He doesn't inflict pain and punishment on us because we sometimes stumble. He is the One who picks us up, dusts us off, makes sure we are okay, and holds our hand as we continue on our way.

The law of the Lord is perfect; it revives the soul; it is more precious than gold and sweeter than honey! But the law is not restrictive; it is liberating! Even the ten commandments are meant for our blessing, and not for our destruction. I mean, really! Who wants to be a lying, stealing, adulterous, murderous, blasphemous, greedy, godless, hateful workaholic? Those are the things that destroy us! The law of the Lord is a law of liberty, that has set us free from sin and death!

So let us serve God in the liberty that His law really gives, and know that He is a good God!