Can You Give Me a Hand Here? I'm Drowning!

In the early 1970s when my husband was finishing up his undergrad degree at Hampton University, then, Hampton Institute in Hampton, Virginia, we would often go to the Naval Air Station at Dam Neck. This small naval installation located near Virginia Beach, Virginia had the most beautiful beach and we would slip away from the studies and take the kids and make a day of it.  I love the water, but never really learned to swim proficiently. Most of my experience was at the shallow end of the local public swimming pool, so my familiarity with the ocean was non existent.

I had just purchased this cute little black and white swimsuit with a jazzy red belt attached. It really didn't have straps, just two little holes on the sides, which when I slipped my arms into them... voila, it became a backless swimsuit. So cute! My idea of a fun day at the beach was to sit serenely in my cute little swimsuit and watch the antics of my kids and husband, and dole out the goodies. 

 My husband, this particular day was not content to let me be an observer, and coaxed me into the water. He promised we would not go further than knee deep and if I would just follow his instructions I would be just fine. He very carefully explained that when a wave comes in, just jump a bit and avoid the impact of the wave. Sounded easy enough, and we were only going to be knee deep. It should be simple enough, and, if by chance a wave should catch me off guard, I would only be in knee deep water, so I should have no problem regaining my footing. Right? And he was there to keep me from all harm!

Well, we started out into the water, wave... jump... See, no problem. Wave, jump, wave, jump higher! WAVE! The next thing I knew I was in and under the water, with waves coming at me like a baseball batting range. I was struggling for all I was worth to get up, but every time I tried to gain my footing another wave would knock me down. I was thrashing around like a beached fish, when I realized my husband was not helping me to stand up, he was trying to keep my cute little swimsuit on my body! Wave! Hey! Can you give me a hand here? I'm drowning! His concern for my nakedness should not have been the primary focus at that moment...keeping me from drowning was! I am sure it was a funny sight and I laughed with everyone else when it was finally over and we were safely on the beach. 

Even though the water was really less than knee deep, my inexperience with the ocean, the waves and how to flow with it left me vulnerable to drowning, even in, perhaps, ankle deep water. I just could not gain my footing before I was slammed again by another wave. Help! I truly have fallen and I can't get up!

  My husband and I were talking about this recently, and as He usually does, Father God used the incident as a teaching moment. I have been doing some volunteer work at one of the ministries that serve people who find themselves in challenging life situations. Some are homeless; some have addiction problems, and some may be escaping from abusive environments. The one thing I have learned in the six or so months I have been serving is that I don't know anything about the desparation of their conditions! My life experiences are so far removed from what some of these people are facing, I often find my perception skewed.

We can become overly focused on what is "proper"; more concerned with how something looks to others, rather than recognizing the the life threatening state a person may be in. My focus should be how I can be a source to finding true resolutions for the problem. A simplistic approach, as I might see it, may not be  adequate for the situation at hand. I was quick to share God's word, but sometimes we need to offer more than a scripture, with a promise to pray for the need. (James 2:14-18) Not to say that prayer is unnecessary, because it is essential, however, in addition to the spiritual, we need to be willing to supply the practical as well. This is not to say just throw some money at the problem...same as my husband trying to keep my swinsuit on me.

As in the situation with me in the ocean and my husband's response, each of us had a different perspective; I thought I was drowning and that I would die, while he could see that I was not drowning, but very close to being stripped naked before the eyes of everyone around. His actions were two fold; to protect my modesty, but also avoid embarrassment if his coworkers saw my nakedness. My response, given what I was experiencing, was I am dying here and he doesn't see it, nor is he doing what I thought was necessary to save me. If I had been able to calm down, I could have just stood up! I did not realize the power I had to save myself. I had to see that I could do something about my situation, but because of the onslaught of the waves and with no other perspective, I could not get myself out of the situation alone.

This illustration challenges me tremendously! It challenges me to see a broader picture, and to view it from more than one aspect. How can I help the person in crisis to see truth? What are my motives, what are my limitations, how can I be of assistance? All necessary to be able to provide a successful rescue.  How can I help that person see what I see?  What do I see? Am I seeing truth? My truth or thier truth? What a powerful analogy and what an amazing opportunity to be a co-laborer with Christ!

  I think it is important to be willing to be a part of the solution, if it is in your power to do so, or to assist in helping to find the one who is able to rescue.  According to James, this is faith.  He, James, said your actions are an indication of your faith. It is when we step out to be a part of the solution that God has an opportunity to be made manifest through us.  We are his workers here on earth and may be the only “Jesus” someone in need has ever seen. Each time we allow Him to walk into a persons life through our obedience, we leave God’s footprint in the earth.  

Leviathan

I was visiting a church with a friend and heard a message from the man who would become my pastor. He preached a message on Leviathan, taken from Job 41. The whole chapter is about a formidable beast that is impervious to almost everything.  He talked about the improbability of taming Leviathan or making friends with it. 

It is impossible to pet it without losing a vital part of your anatomy; he also spoke about the scales, or shields that cover and protect this creature from attempts to kill it.  As this pastor drew a picture of this living armor-clad, natural annihilator, destructive as a tank, he then connected the subject of his message--pride.

Pride is a fierce, terrifying opponent built for battle and all but impossible to destroy.  It glides along, smoothly, under the surface like a crocodile. Dangerous, deadly and not at all willing to be denied. It's strength is legendary; it's fierceness is unequaled.  It lies deceptive,  just under the surface of the water and it is only when a prey, careless, steps too close to the crocodile 's lair that the realization of danger becomes apparent. Once in the jaws of Leviathan, it is all but impossible to escape it's grasp.  Death is almost always inevitable; if not death, vicious maiming is a result.

Pride is much like Leviathan. It is powerful, deadly and a formidable foe. It is deceptive to the one who is the victim and to the one who operates in pride.  Pride disguises itself with many different appearances.  It can mask itself in false humility, it can show up dressed as a martyr, or a multi-tasking answer to everyone else's needs. Often, the only way one might uncover pride as the root of a person's personality is to step on his/her 'pride-thing'. You know you have touched it when you hear that tell-tale 'click'!

This can be a dangerous, accidental discovery. Sort of  like Linda Blair in 'The Exorcist', just short of head spinning, and green vomit.  The sweet person who manifest some totally different person in reaction to a situation; or an angry outburst over what started out as a pleasant conversation.  The victim inadvertently stepped on the pride-thing when a certain topic is introduced. It isn't until Leviathan surfaces and they are in a death-roll, does the unsuspecting prey realize what is happening.

A great analogy of the way pride masquerades was illustrated to me with an incident that happened to my mom.  She has quite a few skin tags, most of which are totally harmless. She had one under her arm and it had become painful.  She was a bit concerned and asked me to take a look at it because it seemed to be getting larger.  I looked at her arm and saw this unusual looking skin tag. Taking a pair of tweezers, I tried to lift it to see if there was a break in the skin. When I touched it with the tweezers, legs stretched out and started moving.  It was an engorged tick!

We often don't recognize pride until we touch it or someone touches our pride-thing.  The only way we were able to safely remove the tick was to suffocate it, then we could remove it with the head in tact.  We put clear nail polish over the area the tick had attached itself to and allowed the polish to harden. We could then remove the insect, without the possibility of it growing again.

In life, the word of God, living in you makes a hostile environment for things like pride, anger, and envy, just to name a few. Let the word of God dwell in you richly. Then there will be no pride-thing! What ever is on the inside is what will come out when you are squeezed.  Be constantly being filled with the Holy Spirit of God.

Is There Any Other Way? Part I

As we approach the sacred season of the ressurection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, my heart leads me to share a piece I wrote many years ago.  The study of this event continues to captivate me and ever increases my love and devotion to my loving Redeemer.

Grace & Peace

 I remember attending an Easter play several years ago and I was quite disturbed by the portrayal of Jesus’ agony in the Garden of Gethsemane the night he was taken captive.  This particular actor made Jesus seem like a wimpy, sniveling whiner who was mainly concerned about how he was going to suffer and how much pain he was going to experience.  His blubbering about what was going to happen to him sent my spirit man into orbit because Jesus was depicted as being primarily focused on his physical torture.  Not to minimize the agony of his passion and the gruesome crucifixion, but I don’t believe his anguish was entirely over physical pain.

I left that evening grieved at how my Lord’s passionate plea to the Father had been misinterpreted and with a determination to receive revelation from the Holy Spirit about the real reason for His desperation in the garden.  What did make Him sweat great drops of blood?

I asked Father God to show me Jesus, the son of man, and Christ, the Son of God.  In the media and in art Jesus has been characterized as unsmiling and frail, usually walking barefoot or wearing sandals and tattered, often unsavory looking clothing.  He looked more like a beggar than a Messiah. I know the Word says He became poor, so that we could be rich, but I don’t think this is the kind of poor meant.  When you stop to think about it, just leaving the glories of heaven to come to earth is a major downgrade.   He is often portrayed as solemn, and usually looking up to heaven with this wistful longing, and forlorn expression.  Perhaps those are the artists’ renditions of holiness or piety.  Good grief! (No such thing as good grief.)  The bible talks a lot about joy, the joy of the Lord. Jesus is rarely portrayed as someone having joy.  How could one seemingly so miserable and uptight promise us so much joy? How could I believe Him to deliver what He promised? He did not even seem to be able to help Himself.   I wanted Father God to give me a better revelation of my Savior.

When God created mankind, He gave them dominion and authority to represent God in the earth and to expand the kingdom of heaven until it covered the whole earth.  Gen 3:6b”...and she gave some also to her husband, and he ate.” When Adam disobeyed God and lost his authority, God was not taken by surprise.  He already had a plan in place.  He had already covenanted with Himself – He swore by Himself in Heb 6:13 (Amp) For when God made [His] promise to Abraham, He swore by Himself, since He had no one greater by whom to swear,  In Gen 3:15, God told the serpent ‘…you will bruise His heel, but He shall crush your head.”   Because God had given man dominion, God couldn’t just call a “time-out” and start all over again with some new people.  He, then, would be like satan, a usurper and violate His own word, so He made a promise that there was One coming who would restore man to his original position.

 Jesus is our Redeemer.  He came as the Son of God and the son of man.  He had to be born into the earth through a woman to have legal right to restore what Adam gave up and lost.  John 10:1-3.  In verse 3 the Greek word for watchman or porter is Thurôros.  It means a door-keeper. (thura, a door, ouros, a guardian)

The womb of woman is the door into the sheepfold.  One translation of that scripture reads, “She who keeps the door…”  Scripture tells us in John 10:8 that any one who comes a different way is a thief and a robber.  Those are two very interesting words.  A thief is someone who steals the property of others; desiring darkness, or secrecy and wants to avoid being seen or recognized, on the other hand a robber is blatant.  A robber: one who will take and/or threaten to use force or violence; one who will accost you in broad daylight and not care if he is seen, confident that they have the power and ability to overcome you.

As I continued to study about God, and His glory, His holiness and the separation of man from God, I was led to many scriptures.  It was and is an awesome journey, but when I came to the story about King David’s first attempt at trying to bring the Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem, I was very puzzled by II Sam 6:6-8: 6 (NIV) When they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah reached out and took hold of the ark of God, because the oxen stumbled. 7 The LORD's anger burned against Uzzah because of his irreverent act; therefore God struck him down and he died there beside the ark of God.

Lord, I said, I know you to be a God of love and mercy, how could Uzzah’s attempt to steady the Ark, meet with such a deadly judgment?  So, again I began to study; how is the Ark to be transported? Who can touch or handle this holy object? Why was Uzzah penalized?  Here is what I believe I received from the Lord.  For one thing, man can not keep God from falling. Man cannot rescue God, it is God who must rescue man.

Ex 25:10-22: 10 "Have them make a chest of acacia wood—two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit and a half high.  11 Overlay it with pure gold, both inside and out, and make a gold molding around it. 12 Cast four gold rings for it and fasten them to its four feet, with two rings on one side and two rings on the other. 13 Then make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. 14 Insert the poles into the rings on the sides of the chest to carry it. 15 The poles are to remain in the rings of this ark; they are not to be removed. 16 Then put in the ark the Testimony, which I will give you.

 17 "Make an atonement cover of pure gold—two and a half cubits long and a cubit and a half wide.  18 And make two cherubim out of hammered gold at the ends of the cover. 19 Make one cherub on one end and the second cherub on the other; make the cherubim of one piece with the cover, at the two ends. 20 The cherubim are to have their wings spread upward, overshadowing the cover with them. The cherubim are to face each other, looking toward the cover. 21 Place the cover on top of the ark and put in the ark the Testimony, which I will give you. 22 There, above the cover between the two cherubim that are over the ark of the Testimony, I will meet with you and give you all my commands for the Israelites.

Exodus 37:4: Then he made poles of acacia wood and overlaid them with gold. 5 And he inserted the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark to carry it.

Num 3:5-9: 5 The LORD said to Moses, 6 "Bring the tribe of Levi and present them to Aaron the priest to assist him. 7 They are to perform duties for him and for the whole community at the Tent of Meeting by doing the work of the tabernacle. 8 They are to take care of all the furnishings of the Tent of Meeting, fulfilling the obligations of the Israelites by doing the work of the tabernacle. 9 Give the Levites to Aaron and his sons; they are the Israelites who are to be given wholly to him.     10 Appoint Aaron and his sons to serve as priests; anyone else who approaches the sanctuary must be put to death."

Deut 10:8 8 (NIV) At that time the LORD set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the LORD, to stand before the LORD to minister and to pronounce blessings in his name, as they still do today.

Basically, God established the Levitical priesthood to perform the holy duties of maintaining the temple and transporting the Ark. The Ark was always to be transported on the shoulders of the priests not on an ox cart.  And the priests were to be of the lineage of Aaron and the Levitical priesthood.  Uzzah was none of these.  Ok, so he really messed up, but Lord… Why such a high price for a seemingly good deed?  The bible does tell us that the works of man can not and will not accomplish the purposes of God.

Most of the time all of the finite details of the protocol of scripture gives me a brain freeze.  The many ceremonies and order and line upon line is dizzying normally, but I was on a quest for some real answers to these perplexing questions and this was like fodder to a fire.

One day I poured some water heated in the microwave into a glass container sitting on the counter.  The container was not able to withstand the temperature of the hot water and broke; literally exploded!  Wow!  Since I was still studying the experience of Uzzah, I got the picture!  I got the revelation.  Maybe it was not that God was indignant because Uzzah would dare to touch the holiness of the Ark, which represented the holiness of God!  Perhaps it was the sin in the man, which touched the holiness of God that killed Uzzah!  Anytime sin touched the holiness of God, it was destroyed.  Remember at Mount Sinai?  God told Moses to warn the people not to touch the mountain or they would die. Ex 19: 10 And the LORD said to Moses, "Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow. Have them wash their clothes 11 and be ready by the third day, because on that day the LORD will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. 12 Put limits for the people around the mountain and tell them, 'Be careful that you do not go up the mountain or touch the foot of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death. 13 He shall surely be stoned or shot with arrows; not a hand is to be laid on him. Whether man or animal, he shall not be permitted to live.' Only when the ram's horn sounds a long blast may they go up to the mountain."

So, Uzzah when he touched the holiness of God, the sin in him was destroyed and the vessel that contained the sin, Uzzah, was destroyed as well, like the glass container was destroyed when I pour the heated water into it.

All scripture text, unless otherwise noted are taken from the Amplified Bible.

The Voice Of Many Waters

One day as my husband and I were praying and asking the Lord to meet a specific need, I heard in my spirit, 'Speak the Word only'.  Then the Holy Spirit reminded me of Matt 8:8, when the Roman centurion told Jesus to 'speak the word only, and my servant will be healed.' He recognized Jesus' authority over time, distance and circumstances.  The Lord reminded me of the scriptures, Ezekiel 43:2b and Revelation 1:15b which tell us that the voice of God is as the sound of many waters, 

I had just recently viewed a video clip that described how water from the Great Lakes feeding into Niagara  created the Niagara Falls. The falls were formed when melting glaciers began to form the large freshwater lakes now known as the Great Lakes. The water in Lake Erie ran downhill toward Lake Ontario, forming a river. This river crosses a ridge known as the Niagara Escarpment. The area where this river falls over the cliffs of the Niagara Escarpment is known as Niagara Falls.

Next the Lord showed me Matt 8:23-27, the day Jesus with His disciples took to the boat and Jesus said,"'let's go to the other side.' The scripture says that Jesus was asleep in the bow of the boat when a tempest or hurricane arose on the sea so that the boat was covered with the waves.  The men were in disparate fear for their lives because of the violence of the storm.  They cried out to the Lord and shook Him awake.

He said, 'Why are you fearful, O ye of little faith?' He arose, rebuked the winds and the sea and there was a great calm .  The Holy Spirit said to me it was the Voice of many waters that caused the winds and sea to drop in reverence before Him and bow down.  The elements heard and recognized the Voice of many waters, the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking through Jesus. This is what made the men say, 'Who is this that even the winds and waves obey Him?

The essence of what the Lord was telling me is He has given us authority in His name. Luke 10:19.  He has given us instructions; He wants us to use what He has given us to subdue and take our enemies captive.  When we speak the Word of God, directed by the Holy Spirit, that same Voice will be heard by the enemy.  Every time you allow the Voice of many waters to speak through you amazing things will happen!  He is seated at the right hand of the Father, expecting until His enemies be made a foot stool.

What then shall we say to these things?  If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Rom 8:31-32

He Is Not Looking At You...

Have you ever energetically waved to someone you thought was waving to you, only to realize to your chagrin, they were not waving to you? There have been times that I could sense someone looking at me, and especially if I did not know the person, I felt uneasy, and uncomfortable, even defensive, until I discovered they were not looking at me, but past me to someone else! This is what God does regarding our sin, salvation and redemption.  He is not looking at us.  He is looking past us to the One who represents us, Jesus.

Jesus made a declaration as He hung on the cross.  The last thing He uttered was, "It is finished!" The demands of a Holy God had been satisfied.  The full weight of sin, poured out, was laid on Him as He willingly took our place.  That was so we could be with Him in the presence of God forever.  Judgment had been meted out, the price has been paid, once for all; and grace has been released to all mankind.  The barrier between God and man has been broken down and access to God has been restored as He, Himself, ripped the veil that separated God and man from top to bottom.

The price Jesus Christ paid was so horrific that God had to turn His face as Jesus cried out in anguish, My God, My God! Why have You forsaken Me? But it had to be this way; it had to be payment in full. Anything less could not satisfy the demand for justice required by a Holy God to lift the weight of sin from man.  Anything less would require us to try to pay for our own sins and history has proven we can not.

I am encouraged to know that my pitiful efforts to be good, are smiled at (my impression) by God.  He knows that we couldn't pay the price or carry the weight.  Sort like a little child trying to carry a burden too heavy for him/her, while the stronger parent is really bearing the weight.  The child thinks they are carrying what in reality the more powerful One is carrying.  My efforts don't count. It is already finished. 

I remember when I would call my dad for his birthday or Christmas to ask what he wanted on that particular special day... he would always say, "I just want you to love your dad."  Of course, that was never enough in my mind, so I was faithful to give him something 'tangible'.  God is saying to us, just love your Dad and believe what He has already done for you.  What we can best do for God is love God and love His people.  The rest, well, He will tell us what to do.