Fix Your Eyes

If you watched the Sochi Olympics last winter, you might recall the women's super-g downhill skiing event. The race isn't memorable because a favorite finished first, rather it's memorable because of who didn't finish. A record 18 women either crashed or skied off the course not finishing the race. When that many skiers failed to finish, spectators and athletes started pointing fingers.

The Austrian coach who set the course received the most scrutiny, especially after two of his racers finished 1st and 3rd. Had he set similarly hard courses before? Probably. Had his team practiced on those hard courses? Probably. Were his racers more prepared for the difficult maneuvers required to finish? Probably. But should we fault him for preparing his team for victory?

When you get tripped up and fail in your own life, who do you blame? Depending on who you are, the onus could fall on many different people. Maybe it falls on your spouse or your kids or your coworkers. If you're a Christian, maybe the blame falls on God; He is the one who set your course after all.

"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, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith."(Hebrews 12:1, 2 NIV)

The course is marked out for us. If you belong to God, He is the one who drilled those gates into the snow. He set the hard turns, the fast and also agonizingly slow straightaways, and He even built some tricky jumps. But why would He set such a hard course? Could it be, that like the Austrian coach, He wants to prepare us for victory?

While ski coaches train their athletes to have balance, strength, endurance and technique, God trains us to be holy and righteous. He wants us to look more like Christ every day.

"For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son..." (Romans 8:29 NIV)

Olympic skiers spend hours in the gym lifting weights, running miles, and stretching muscles. Their bodies aren't naturally adept at turning at high speed while chattering over icy snow. It takes sweating, straining, pain and even occasional injuries to force their bodies into Olympic shape. Similarly God puts us through tremendous trials to take us from the image of sinful man toward the image of sinless Christ.

"God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it."(Hebrews 12:10-11 NIV)

In the midst of the race it can be nearly impossible to see yourself becoming more like Christ. Sometimes we're just trying to make the turns without crashing and we doubt we'll ever reach the finish. But unlike ski racing, those of us who are truly in Christ need not worry about falling short of the finish line.

"And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. "(John 6:39 NIV)

In Christ we will reach the finish line. But what about now. How do we handle all the challenging turns God has set before us? How can we not only keep our balance but accelerate toward the finish line? God has given us specific instructions on the techniques needed to race well. To find those instructions we don't need to look any further than the passage at the start of this post.

"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, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith."(Hebrews 12:1, 2 NIV)

The first thing we're instructed to do is to throw off the sin that holds us back. Would you want to ski on an Olympic course with bowling balls tied to your legs? Then why try to navigate God's course with your sins tugging you off track? The only way to throw off those sins is to ask God for His strength to do so. Like the psalmist, ask that He would create in you a clean heart (Ps 51) and that like Joseph He would help you flee from sin (Gen 39), regardless of the cost.

The second thing we're instructed to do is to fix our eyes on Jesus. He suffered through the worst of trials for us, his enemies, so that He could adopt us as His own. That truth is a huge comfort in our current adoption struggle. He knows exactly what we're going through and He's willing and able to help us.

"For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." (Hebrews 4:15, 16 NIV)

That's easy to forget sometimes. When your son is forced to visit the man who could have killed him in the womb, it's easy to forget. How could God do this to us? But on one of those visits, God re-focused my eyes on His sovereignty. He made everything in that park we were standing in; none of this is too big for him to handle.

I pray God uses this difficult course to remove sin from my life. I pray He gives me the strength to fix my eyes on him and not the hard turns ahead. And instead of blaming God for setting this course for me, my desire is to praise Him for loving me enough to prepare me for victory.

Will Our Rescue Ever Come?

Riding into work this morning I was thinking about our adoption struggle and the road that has been much longer than we ever expected.  Sometimes it seems God hasn't acted when He obviously could have, and it leaves me wondering why.

As I was thinking about these things, God reminded me of the Israelites of Exodus and the plagues God brought through Moses. When they saw the first of the plagues, they might have thought to themselves, this struggle in slavery is finally over, God has come to our rescue! Certainly God could have rescued them at that point, but He hardened Pharaoh's heart so he would not let them go. Another plague came and another and another and still no rescue. Was God just teasing them only to leave them there? He was not. He had a plan to bring himself glory through these plagues and a dramatic rescue.

And what a rescue it was. After the tenth plague, God through Pharaoh finally let them go. But as they were heading home, God sent the entire Egyptian army after them. They felt completely betrayed. God released them from slavery just to have them captured or killed on their way home. What was God doing? He was getting ready to bring himself glory. That was His objective from the beginning when He said, "And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out My hand on Egypt and bring out the children of Israel from among them.” (Exodus 7:5 NKJV)
With an army on their heels, the Israelites couldn't see God was about to bring himself glory. All they could see was a mass of angry men storming toward their way.

And Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever."(Exodus 14:13 NKJV)

Soon after Moses said this, God parted the Red Sea and destroyed the Egyptian army. God could have saved them much earlier but He instead chose to maximize His glory by saving His people when it looked hopeless.

I don't know what God has planned for us, but I do know we've thought many times he was about to bring us out of this battle, only to find out about another delay or about the hardened heart of an attorney or a judge. I pray God is multiplying these plagues so that He can burst onto the scene and claim glory for Himself; parting the seas that stand in the way of this adoption!

Lord rescue us! We are watching for your salvation...

The Light Shines in the Darkness

Since I am a meteorologist, it probably doesn't surprise you that I spend a lot of time watching the sky. What might surprise you is that clear nights can be just as exciting for me as stormy ones. One of my favorite places to watch the sky is Minaret Vista near Mammoth Lakes California. Minaret Vista has an elevation over 9000 feet and a panoramic view of mountain forests below and open skies above.  It can be a great place to watch storms, but it's an even better place to watch the stars.  On clear nights you can see the bright band of the Milky Way, satellites tracking across the sky, and even the occasional streaks of meteors flaming through the atmosphere. One of my favorite times to watch the stars at Minaret Vista is during the Perseid meteor shower that happens every August.  Under the right conditions, the Perseids can produce over 100 brilliant meteors per hour.

If you've ever tried watching the Perseids near a city, you've most likely been disappointed. City lights create a bright haze that makes it nearly impossible to see any meteors. While city lights aren't a problem at Minaret Vista, the natural light of a bright moon can ruin a good show. That's why I get most excited when the Perseid's happen during a new moon. The darker the backdrop the brighter the meteors.

But what if those meteors were glimpses of God, and the dark backdrop the trials of my life? Do I get excited about those dark nights the way I might on Minaret Vista? Of course not. I pray for light. I pray for the times of refreshing promised in Acts 3:19 and the good gifts from God in Matthew 7:11. But when those refreshing moments and good gifts come, I don't always find myself yearning for God. When things are easy my faith can get lazy, and my view of God grows dim. While I believe there's nothing wrong with praying for times of refreshing, I also believe I see more of God's light on dark nights.  

This fight for Samuel's adoption has brought some very dark nights. But those dark nights have revealed His light more clearly than any sunny day.  His light shined outside the courtroom on Thursday as we gathered in prayer with family and friends. His light shined through my wife's words of encouragement to Samuel's birthmom. His light has shined through His provision to us in generous unexpected gifts. His light is showing up in many ways that we can only see because of the darkness of the situation. That's how God has always worked. He uses dark times as opportunities to show His glory.  A storm raged over Jesus and His disciples so He could be glorified in it's calming (Mark 4). A man was born blind so God could be glorified in his sight (John 9). The Israelites were enslaved by Pharaoh so God's glory could be revealed in their redemption (Exodus).  

I have never wanted anything more than I want to be Samuel's dad and I pray I will have the chance to glorify God in that victory soon. But I also pray that in the meantime, God continues to reveal His glory despite the darkness of the battle. 

God's Design

Riding the bus home from work last week I was reading through 1 Corinthians and came across a sobering passage of how serious God is about sexual immorality.  In light of Valentine’s Day I began thinking of the many people that would give up their most precious gift to someone they just met at a local bar, or someone they've known for years who’s not their spouse. It made me think about how far our culture has gotten away from God’s design for us.  Television is saturated with a celebration of sex outside of marriage, glamorization of teenage pregnancy, the “New Normal” family, and many other perversions of the beauty God intended for our sexuality.  My wife and I have even struggled in our marriage enjoying the beautiful gift God has given us due to the modern portrayal of sex.  I pray this post would challenge us (myself included) to get back to God’s design for our sexuality.

The motivation behind this post is love and I pray I approach it with a humble heart because no one (including myself) is without sin. “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God…” Rom 3:23. “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us” 1 John 1:8.  I don’t desire to alienate anyone from my life through this post, rather I pray it would show my desperate heartfelt desire to spend eternity worshiping God with everyone who reads.

Sexual Immorality – Who defines it?

In short, the one who defines sexual immorality is God.  The One who created us revealed His will for our lives through His word, the Bible.  I agree with those who say that the Bible was physically penned by the hand of sinful/flawed/finite men, but I also believe that a sinless/flawless/all powerful God produced the exact results he wanted in Scripture regardless of man’s intentions.  I believe the Bible when it says in 2 Tim 3:16 that all scripture is God breathed. And 2 Peter 1:21 when it says, “prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” And Isaiah 40:8 “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.”

So with the Bible as the source, let’s look at what sexual immorality is.  If you read His word from cover to cover, God reveals that sexual immorality is sexuality that violates His original design. “But for Adam no suitable helper was found.  So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. The man said, ‘This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.’ That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.” Jesus reiterates in Matthew 19 that a man will be united to his wife. That is God’s design for our sexuality. Examples of things that violate His design include David committing adultery with Bathsheba who was not his wife, those in the Old Testament with multiple wives, those in Romans 1 who exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones, and if I’m being completely honest, it also includes me when Jesus says in Matthew 5:28 “But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Jesus is saying that sexual immorality is deeper than our outward acts; the root of it is in the condition of our hearts. The acts that fall under sexual immorality in the Bible are much more numerous than I've mentioned, but the bottom line is we are all guilty outside of Christ.

What we've discussed so far are the various manifestations of sexual immorality. In its most basic form, the Bible says sexual immorality is simply sin against God. Like all other sins, the consequences of sexual immorality are death and eternal separation from God.  “The wages of sin is death” Romans 6:23. “Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.” Isaiah 59:1-2. We were created to bring Him glory (Isaiah 43:6-7), the only true joy is in bringing Him glory, and I desire that each of us would be able to experience that joy for eternity.  But we can’t have that joy or bring Him glory if our sins make it so He can’t hear us.  When I look at the world around me, I can relate to what Paul felt when he said, “I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race, the people of Israel”.  Like Paul, I don’t hate those who are living in sexual immorality; I desperately pray that all would be saved. And I don’t wish on even my worst enemies the words Christ speaks in Matthew 7:22-23: “On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’  And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ ”

So where does that leave us? I pray that it leaves us crying out to God to save us. I pray it produces repentance in us that leads to faith and salvation in Christ.  We were born into sin and death, but Christ through his death and resurrection can raise us back to life. And once alive, I pray that we would die to ourselves daily, pick up our crosses and live for Him.  “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.” (Romans 6:12-14)