EmmDev 2022-12-06 [Rest for the Weary] Eccentric?

Eccentric?

Then Jesus said, "Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light." (Matthew11:28-29)

Eugene Peterson writes an insightful passage about being eccentric in a Biblical sense of the word. The Greek prefix "Ecc" means "out of" or "out from." Therefore to be "eccentric" is to be "out of the centre."

His argument is that the further away we move from having God at the centre of our lives, the more unbalanced and unstable our lives become. Imagine a the bumpy ride we have when the axle is not in the centre of the wheel. The more we allow the wrong things to take centre place in our lives, the less peace we will have and the more weary we become.

Restful lives and lives that stay stable and fulfilling in the long run are lives that have God at the centre.
1. To realise that there is no God but Him
2. To realise that life makes no sense if He is not on the throne.
3. To find our rest in Him

Fortunately for us, Jesus reveals the Father to us in a clear way - we don't have to wonder what God is like. There is no lurking fear that God may be a self-serving tyrant who has been ultimately corrupted by ultimate power. At Christmas time especially, we remember that God gave His Son....

And in His Son, God is perfectly revealed and we know His love and find our rest in Him.
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This concludes this series on Rest for the Weary - it's my prayer that we will learn more and more to keep God at the centre of our lives. My prayer is that you and your loved ones will have a blessed Christmas and that you'll enter the new year rested and centred on God and that you'll know His peace, love and restoration. May you "sleep in heavenly peace..."

I will resume the devs in second week of January.

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EmmDev 2022-12-02 [Rest for the Weary] Tired from Ambiguity

Tired from Ambiguity

My soul is weary with sorrow; strengthen me according to your word. Keep me from deceitful ways; be gracious to me through your law. I have chosen the way of truth; I have set my heart on your laws. I hold fast to your statutes, O LORD; do not let me be put to shame. I run in the path of your commands, for you have set my heart free. (Psalms119:28-32)

Psalm 119 is a long poem about God's Word. Each stanza consists of 8 verses that all start with the same Hebrew letter. The first stanza starts with the first letter of the alphabet, the second with the second and so on. (We call this an acrostic poem.) Today's reading comes from the fourth stanza where the letter is "Daleth" which, when stylised, looks like a door.

Now a door can serve both as a boundary and an opportunity. When we live in world where values and norms have become subjective and people are selective about what is right and wrong, it can be quite exhausting. We need boundaries and guidance on the right opportunities.

That is the sense we get from our reading today.
The Psalmist is tired and sorrowful, but the door of God's word gives him a path to walk on.
He has chosen a "way of truth" that will keep him from deceit and lead him to God's freedom.

When we live in ambiguity and changing values, it can be quite exhausting. In Frank Peretti's novel "Piercing the Darkness" the main character, Sally Beth Row, has lived her life in the New Age "anything-goes-as-long-as-it-is-good-for-you" camp. She finds herself exhausted, friendless, foundationless and desperate. She has a chance encounter with Pastor Hank and asks him for a scripture to read. Prompted by the Spirit he tells her to read Psalm 119 where she finds boundaries, guidelines, truth and ultimate freedom and grace.

When we need a clear voice in the midst of clamouring opinions, God's Word will give us a solid foundation.
His Word not only gives us life-guidance, but leads us to Jesus.

And in Him we will find rest for our souls.

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EmmDev 2022-12-01 [Rest for the Weary] Sleep

Sleep

Many are asking, "Who can show us any good?" Let the light of your face shine upon us, O LORD. You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound. I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety. (Psalms4:6-8 )

It may seem ridiculously obvious, but when we're weary, we need sleep.

The problem is that when we are weary in body, mind and soul, the weariness of the mind and soul can make it hard for us to sleep. We struggle to get to sleep, or we wake up at 2AM or 4AM and toss and turn. Some weary souls manage to sleep but struggle with nightmares or end up grinding their teeth in their sleep.

So, sleep, while an obvious and theoretically simple cure or aid to weariness, can often be complicated and elusive.

There's all sorts of practical advice for sleeping well: Darken the room thoroughly, go to bed at a regular time, avoid screen time just before bed, quiet your soul with thanksgiving and so on. These and many other tips are helpful, but I think we need to go deeper...

We need to understand the nature of sleep and God's purpose for it.
When we sleep we surrender control. While we sleep, the world continues revolving and the machinery of society and industry keeps ticking. Sleep is, in many ways, the ultimate act of trust: "Lord I'm going to close my eyes and let my brain go into neutral self-care and tidy-up mode. I am vulnerable and passive in this time but I trust in You and I believe that You will work while I sleep. So this is in Your hands O Lord." To sleep is surrender.

Our Psalm for today seems to have been written at a time of national upheaval and calamity and at one point David says: "Many are asking, 'Who can show us any good?'" Yet he is able to affirm that he will lie down and sleep, secure in the goodness of God.

So, if sleep is what you need, approach it as I have suggested above. Create a going to bed routine. Give thanks for all that is good and hand over to God - "Lord I'm going to sleep now, but I believe that I am secure in Your love and that while I'm sleeping, You will work in me and my circumstances."
You could have the best sleep of your life!

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EmmDev 2022-11-30 [Rest for the Weary] A Farmer's Grit

A Farmer's Grit

And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. (Galatians6:9)

I had the privilege of spending 7 years in Grahamstown as a student, a probationer and then an assistant minister. During this time I got to know a number of the Eastern Cape farmers in the congregation. It is not easy to farm in that part of the world. The land is dry and droughts come often. With four seasons in a day, cold snaps can come in a moment and wise farmers must quickly get their lambs into the barns. Crops can be lost to drought or frost and one can easily overgraze precious land and be left with nothing.

These were not veranda farmers, sipping lemonade in the shade while workers and machines took care of the farm. These were men and women with strong hands, weather worn skin, light in their eyes and fire in their bellies. They had learned to face hardship and the value of hard work. Some Sunday mornings I could see by their movements that it had been a long week, and they more than anyone knew what it was like to wait for the rain. There would be times that I know that their crops were bedraggled in the dried out fields and they were spending long hours fetching feed for flocks because the fields were bare, but there they were in church, faithful in worship and patient in prayer. These same farmers would serve and give generously in cash and kind even if the rain hadn't come.

Paul is urging the Galatians to have a "farmer's grit" in doing good.
To work hard, hang tough and to trust God.
The rains come, the crops grow and we get to fight another round.

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EmmDev 2022-11-29 [Rest for the Weary] Still Standing

Still Standing

Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything. (2Corinthians6:4-10)

This beautiful passage reminds me of an advert that used to play in movie theaters in South Africa. It featured a "Parktown Prawn" (African king cricket (Libanasidus vittatus) aka cockroach on steroids.) This "parkie" appeared on screen in a kitchen accompanied by a blood curdling scream (obviously the mother of the house). This was followed with numerous attempts to eradicate the fellow, including poison spray, a hammer, a shotgun, a flame thrower and a hand-grenade. In the end, the cricket emerges through the smoke feelers twitching and Elton John's "I'm still standing" blaring in the background.

This is the scene Paul is depicting. He's been through a lot, he's seen the congregations he serves also going through a lot. The great truth he conveys is this: "We are still here!"

When we're tired from relentless battles and numbing fatigue, Paul reminds us that the Holy Spirit will work in us to carry us through. We will receive strength when we're weary, courage when we're afraid, hope when doubts assail us.

When we're weary, here's the good news: God doesn't promise an easy life, but He promises to help us through. We'll receive endurance and the ability to work hard through sleepless nights and hunger. We'll be able to exhibit the fruit of the Spirit like purity, patience and love. We'll receive unexpected weapons of righteousness and even when persecuted and accused we will come through and we'll be rich in the things that matter.

We had a service in October where we had an opportunity to write our thanks to God on a board. I thought about many things that I could write about, but ended up writing "I'm still standing!"

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EmmDev 2022-11-25 [Rest for the Weary] Marathon Inspiration

Marathon Inspiration

I saw this picture on a t-shirt many years ago.
While it may not be everyone's cup of tea, it does make a powerful point.

The Hebrews author describes our Christian journey as a marathon and a battle.
We're to run, to push, to fight.
We're to fight off resistance from the outside ("everything that hinders") and push through the struggles we have on the inside as we deal with our own temptations and weakness ("sin that so easily entangles".) Through all of this there is the danger that we grow weary, and even worse, lose heart.

How do we get through this weariness? How do we keep our hearts beating warmly?
We look to Jesus!
But not gentle Jesus meek and mild with perfect hair and perfect complexion holding cherub-like children.
But sweaty dusty Jesus, faithfully teaching when His voice was tired and scratchy, confronting demons and healing even when it meant that power flowed out of Him leaving Him tired and drained. Not Jesus of the ivory tower comfortably teaching from some temple college, but staggering up the hill of Calvary with a shredded back, a crown of thorns and a heavy cross to bear.

Consider Him.
Him who endured the ultimate injustice and the unbridled ferocity of human cruelty.
Him who while nailed to the cross found the grace to forgive and the power to carry our sin entirely.
Him who was not executed, but gave up His life and while doing that still had the focus to care for his earthly mom and his teenage disciple.
And He'd have done it all if you were the only one...

You can persevere! You can get there!
Just look at Him!

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.               (Hebrews12:1-3)

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EmmDev 2022-11-24 [Thanksgiving] Today!!!

Today!!!

I'm interrupting our "Rest for the Weary" series to mark today as Thanksgiving. (Sadly in South Africa, we imported "Black Friday" but not "Thanksgiving" - so this is my little revolution... The picture you can see down below was sent to our whole congregation yesterday...)

Happy Thanksgiving!

This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. (Psalms118:24)

Psalm 118 is a real gem...
It starts out like this:
"Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; His love endures forever."
and follows with calls to various parts of the community to echo the cry "His love endures forever!"

Then the Psalmist recalls victories God has given him over the years:
"The LORD is with me; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?" (v.6)
and "I was pushed back and about to fall, but the LORD helped me." (v.13)

Interestingly enough the Psalm also contains two passages that are explicitly quoted in the New Testament as prophecies of Jesus:
"The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone." (v.22)
"Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD." (v.26)
Jesus is the ultimate securer of our salvation and deliverance.

The Psalm ends as follows:
You are my God, and I will give you thanks;
you are my God, and I will exalt you.
Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good;
His love endures forever.

But it is verse 24 that has grabbed me:
THIS is the day the Lord has made; LET US rejoice...

Each day is a gift to be seized, an opportunity to be enthralled at God's providence.
When troubles loom and boom we can think back of God's faithfulness and move forward in faith and trust.

This verse has become my battle-cry.
Today is not the day of the criminals, load-shedding or the bad-news headlines.
Today is not the day of Satan and his cronies.
Today is not the day of negativity, depression and cynicism.
NO!!!

TODAY is the day that the LORD has made and I will rejoice and be glad in it!!!!

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Hope many of you will be celebrating some form of thanksgiving tonight or this weekend and that your day is blessed.
P.S.
Apart from its content, here are some fun stats about Psalm 118...
- It is sandwiched between the shortest (117) and longest (119) psalms.
- It contains the so-called "middle verse" of the Bible. Yep, someone went and counted all the verses in the Bible and worked out that the middle ones are Ps.118:8-9 "It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man.It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in princes."
(Now we know that verse numbers were only added to the text later on so we don't build a theology from this, but it is a fun stat!)

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EmmDev 2022-11-23 [Rest for the Weary] The art of the Pause

The art of the Pause

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. Selah There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day. Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; he lifts his voice, the earth melts. The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah Come and see the works of the LORD, the desolations he has brought on the earth. He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth; he breaks the bow and shatters the spear, he burns the shields with fire. "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah (Psalms46:1-11)

The word Selah occurs in a number of Psalms. It is a puzzle to commentators and scholars because there are no indications as to what this word actually means. We only find it in Psalms and in Habakkuk's song of praise and not in any other literature.

The best guess that scholars have as to what the word means is that it may indicate a "rest" for the singers while the musicians play a musical interlude. Many have suggested that "Selah" means "stop and think" or "reflect."

When we find it in the psalms it is almost always in the right spot for the "stop and think" interpretation to be correct...

Here in Psalm 46 "Selah" helps us understand the Psalm better as it divides the Psalm into three parts:

1. God is our refuge in trouble of all kinds....
   (Stop and think about that!)
2. God has a city with a river (the Holy Spirit) for us and He will defend us
   (Stop and think about that!)
3. God is more powerful than the agents of chaos and we have to turn from them and trust in Him.
   (Stop and think about that!)

But the "Selah" word also draws our attention to the refrain that is uttered, refined and repeated:

• "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble"
• The LORD Almighty is with us;the God of Jacob is our fortress.
• The LORD Almighty is with us;the God of Jacob is our fortress.
  

When it rumbles Ps 46 calls us to "stop.... and think":
The LORD Almighty is with us;the God of Jacob is our fortress.

Very often, when we are weary then setbacks trip us up and our immediate reactions are: "Not again!" or "I can't take this any more!" But before we go into "panic mechanic mode," we need to learn the "art of the pause": That we "Selah" for a moment and say "God is my refuge and my strength an ever-present help in trouble..."

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EmmDev 2022-11-22 [Rest for the Weary] Unloading and Reloading

Unloading and Reloading

Weariness is always more than tiredness of the body. Weariness is when our souls and emotions are depleted of goodness and often overloaded with sadness and brokenness. We are often overloaded and overwrought by the darkness of our broken worlds, and, when we're brave enough to admit it, the brokenness of our own selfish, stubborn and arrogant sinfulness.

Paul gives the Philippians some good life advice for living in a broken world. This advice is especially significant if we recognise that the advice comes just after Paul had to deal with the conflict between two prominent people in the church. It's a good reminder that the church is not perfect.

So what do we do?

1. Rejoice in the Lord always. Take stock of the good things and celebrate them as gifts from above. Rejoice not only in the blessings, but the Blesser.
2. Be gentle. I have found it incredibly helpful and effective to do whatever I can to de-escalate interactions. Tired people tend to escalate the moment a situation becomes tense. When we gently work toward de-escalating tired-tense situations, we can be great blessing to all in the situation.
3. Take anxiety to God. Be real with Him, tell Him how you are feeling and bring fear and frustration to Him. He will unleash peace - deep resilient peace - in your soul.
4. Take time to fill your heart, soul and mind with good and not junk.

I could speak about each of the above in lots of detail, but actually the basics are there and clear. We can unload the tension, guilt and brokenness of our crazy lives in God's presence and He can give us peace. But we also need to reload our hearts and souls with the goodness of God's working in our lives.

What do you need to unload today?
What do you need to reload?

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things. (Philippians4:4-8)

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EmmDev 2022-11-18 [Rest for the Weary] It's just a Broken World

It's just a Broken World

Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. (1Peter4:12-13)

There's a meme I love: It pictures a battered and droopy person and the caption reads "I normally try to take one day at a time but recently a couple of days all attacked me at once!"

Sometimes it feels like the world is overwhelming and we feel singled out, picked on and victimised. Inevitably we cry "Why me?" and our frustration and inability to understand or make sense of our struggle can be just as exhausting as the trouble itself.
But Peter gives us some good advice: "Don't be surprised by a broken world."

Jesus did the same thing for His disciples when He prepared them for life after His ascension when He said: "In this world you will have trouble..."

Hardship is exhausting by itself, but when we begin to have a victim mentality and frantically search for explanations for our trouble, then we can exhaust ourselves even more. Yes, sometimes we can explain our troubles: We did something stupid and are reaping the fruit thereof or someone else was stupid or mean and this caused our trouble.

But sometimes our pain is inexplicable. It's simply the result of being in a broken world. We can wear ourselves out trying to bend our brains around it, or we can take Peter's advice: "Trouble comes, but you are not alone! Your trouble is but a subset of what Jesus carried on the cross for us - He is able to restore and renew.

You see, when things seem meaningless, it depletes us even more. So Peter invites us to make peace with brokenness so that we can discover an even greater and more permanent reality...
That reality is the healing power of a Saviour who carried it all.

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