The Number One Problem in Marriages—Strife
Harmony at home is one of the greatest blessings in life. It’s also one of the easiest blessings to lose if we don’t make a decision to do all we can to nurture our marriage relationship.

From the Scriptures you can learn the proper attitude about marriage: “Let marriage be held in honor (esteemed worthy, precious, of great price and especially dear) in all things. And thus let the marriage bed be undefiled (kept undishonored); for God will judge and punish the unchaste [all guilty of sexual vice] and adulterous” (Hebrews 13:4, The Amplified Bible).

When a couple ceases to view their marriage as precious and dear, they can become selfish and contentious with one another. Left uncorrected this attitude will lead to full-blown strife and can eventually lead to things such as sexual sin, divorce, physical injury or death.

We must learn from the Word of God how to live in harmony with each other. If we aren’t doing what it takes to live in harmony, then we are choosing to live in the destructive arena of strife.

Strife is deadly. It opens the door for the devil to steal, kill and destroy our home life. Any time we’re in strife, we give the devil permission to take us captive—at his will. Second Timothy 2:24-26 says, “And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient. In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.”

Strife gives the devil the upper hand! Throughout the Scriptures, God warns us about the danger of strife. Yet, it’s still one of the most common problems among believers. Of course, we don’t purposely let it in. We don’t wake up in the morning and say, “I think I’m going to stir up some major strife at home today.” We just inadvertently let it slip up on us—one minor irritation at a time.

If you have a tendency to let things irritate you, then decide to overcome that tendency. Take a big stand against those little opportunities for strife. If you’ve spent a lifetime getting your feathers ruffled over every little thing, it may take a while for you to break that habit, but you can do it. You may have to work at it a moment at a time, but when you do, you’ll be in a place where God can guide your steps and save you from some grave mistakes.

Strife feeds on selfishness. And one of the easiest places to remain selfish is with those dearest to you, in your own home. Being in front of other people often provides an added incentive to operate in love. You can find yourself being nicer and more courteous to friends and acquaintances than to your own family. At home with your family, temptation can come to allow selfish privileges that promote disharmony—as if selfishness had no consequences at home. You may find yourself saying things to those close to you that you wouldn’t dream of saying to anyone else. Thoughtless, hurtful words spoken to our spouse or children can set us up for a strife-ridden home life.

Disagreements happen in every relationship, but it’s more important to avoid strife than to appear justified in our opinions.

So how do we stop strife? We do it by going to the Word of God to seek His wisdom in settling disputes. The wisdom from above is peace, loving and easily entreated, willing to yield to reason.

A husband and wife will see things differently, but if they are both committed to the Word, strife can’t exist. If each of them walk in love and give the Word of God first place in their life (instead of selfish desires), Satan will have no foothold to bring disharmony and division. Allowing the Word of God to be the final authority in settling disagreements will take the pressure off everybody and it will restore harmony in your home.

A Christian husband and wife who learn to live and pray in harmony are mighty instruments of the Lord Jesus. When they agree and pray together about something, it will come to pass (Matthew 18:19). The rewards of living in harmony and backing each other with prayer are more than worth the effort it takes to walk in love with each other.

Don’t let the devil trick you. The moment that you become aware of Satan trying to move you into an area of strife, stop him immediately with the Name of Jesus. Learn to resist strife just as you learned to resist sin and sickness. The Word says, “Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory…” (Philippians 2:3). Obey God’s Word and be free from Satan’s evil works.

If you need further counsel, please consider contacting your local pastor or a pastor in your area who is full of the Word of God. Allow him to minister and counsel with you.

Pastor Chris sat down on the floor in front of the pulpit to see from their perspective. When the children arrived and sat down on the red carpet—some leaning against the altar, some sitting next to the pastor—they all looked at the children’s minister, a kind woman with a calm voice.

She said to them, “Does anyone know how the wise men found the baby Jesus on that night so long …”

And before she could finish her question, a little boy, maybe 5 years old, jumped up on both feet and yelled, “STAR!”

It took a few minutes for the laughter to die down from the congregation. Somebody had taught this little boy the story of the wise men who took a long journey to see the baby Jesus, an event celebrated as Epiphany on the Christian calendar. And this little guy was excited. He knew how the wise men had found their way.

ON THE LOOKOUT FOR GOD

The Bible says, “The star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him” (Matthew 2:9-10, NIV).

The wise men were some of the first people to worship Jesus as Lord. But because it takes some time to travel—and back in Jesus’ day, there were no GPS systems or online mapping services, much less, cars—the Christian calendar places Epiphany on January 6, twelve nights after the celebration of Jesus’ birth.

Journeying perhaps 500 miles or more, the wise men sought after the Christ child, following the prophecies from Hebrew Scripture, specifically those from the book of Micah.

In the fifth chapter of Micah, Scripture says, “But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel” (Micah 5:2).

God’s people were the Jewish people, the people of Israel. But the the wise men were not Jewish. They came from the east and were known as “magi,” or people educated in the ways of astrology. They were pagan, or pre-Christian; but they also knew that the prophets had foretold the birth of the King of the Jews in Bethlehem.

When the magi saw Jesus, they fell down and worshiped Him. They had brought precious gifts with them for the child, who they recognized as a king appointed not by people or family name, but by God. They had an epiphany, or a sudden insight into the true nature of something. They realized that they were in the presence of God.

Theophany, a theological term, also describes the wise men’s experience that night: a moment when God manifests Himself to the world. The birth of Christ represents the introduction of God’s Spirit into human form, or incarnate.

And this incarnation of God, the man Jesus Christ, had arrived for the sake of all people—Jews as well as non-Jews, or Gentiles.

In the book of Ephesians, Paul writes about the amazing grace of God shown through Jesus Christ—amazing because it is Good News for everyone, both God’s people, the Jewish people, and everybody else as well.

Paul writes, “Surely you have heard about the administration of God’s grace that was given to me for you, that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation … This mystery is that through the Gospel, the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus” (3:1-3; 6).

The wise men were Gentiles, but they were on the lookout for God, searching for Him in Scripture, listening for Him in the words of the prophets, and watching for signs of His revelation on earth. And through Christ, they were able to become God’s people as well.

SEARCHING FOR THAT STAR

Before Christ came, many people expected the Messiah to enter the world with fanfare, on horseback and brandishing a sword. God had other plans.

No colorful lights and ribbons decorated the trees and houses when Christ was born. It was just another day in Bethlehem, a small town that had no movie theater, shopping mall, or even a vacant room in the inn. Some sheep and shepherds rested and wandered in the fields nearby. And a beautiful star in the clear night sky shone more brightly than the millions of other stars.

But God, being unpredictable, amazing, and holy, was up to something that would change people forever: His revelation in the person of Jesus Christ and His gift of salvation for all who would believe that Christ came, lived, died, and rose again for their sake.

The Bible says, “For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit” (1 Peter 3:18).

Amazing! It’s no wonder that the magi fell down on their faces at the sight of Jesus Christ.

When you look at something that you may have known about for a long time, and suddenly you realize that it is very special, much more meaningful than you’ve ever acknowledged; then at that moment, you’ve had an epiphany. You’ve uncovered something that was there all along, but was hiding, in a sense, just below the surface. It wasn’t so obvious. It took a second look.

The magi realized that Jesus was their king, too, so they went out of their way to yield to Him and bring Him the praise that He deserved. Recognizing Jesus as King is the ultimate realization that anyone can have—it’s a life-changing epiphany.

EPIPHANY MOMENTS: GOD IN THE EVERYDAY

At this time of the year, life can seem a little lonely or dreary. The Christmas trees have been taken down, lights packed away, and wrapping paper trashed. Children have played with their new toys until they don’t seem new anymore, and the new year has come and gone. You already may have broken a resolution.

But the joy of Christmas isn’t over yet because we can choose to recognize the mercy of God in the everyday stuff. With open hearts and an expectant outlooks, believers can have epiphany moments any day.

Try looking at life through the eyes of a child who is so excited about the Christmas story that he can’t contain himself. Or see the events of the day through the eyes of a traveler who has journeyed many miles to find something very small, new, and precious.

In fact, Jesus commanded that His followers have this kind of wide-eyed faith.

The Bible says, “At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, ‘Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’ He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: ‘I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven’” (Matthew 18-1-3).

After all, it is this childlike hope, this irresponsible passion, this wild, seemingly naive faith that allows someone to …

laugh with others,
appreciate a warm cup of coffee,
enjoy the silence of a morning,
delight in making a new friend,
reach out to someone who is hurting,
listen for God’s voice,
open the Bible, seeking a fresh perspective

… or be astonished at the wonderful mystery of God, that He would reveal Himself to the world through Jesus Christ.

Four billion who would not go to heaven if they died today. Four billion who need to be told the truth about Jesus Christ and His love for them. The question is, who’s going to tell them?

In the church today, we frequently speak of needing “revival.” That’s good, but perhaps we have drifted so far from the true heart of God that reviving what exists won’t get the job done. I believe we need more….

I believe we need a Love Revolution. A revolution doesn’t just try to stir up what’s already there…a revolution brings complete change.

What’s my goal?

I hope to get millions of people all over the world to see that receiving God’s love and then letting it flow through us to others is the most excellent way to live…and is one sure way of reaching our world for Christ. In fact, Jesus says our love is the very thing that identifies us as Christians:

“I give you a new commandment: that you should love one another. Just as I have loved you, so you too should love one another. By this shall all [men] know that you are My disciples, if you love one another [if you keep on showing love among yourselves] “(John 13:34,35).

Love Gives, Love Sacrifices, Love Lays Down Its Life for Others
I believe we need a revolution in our way of thinking and behaving because love is expressed in how we treat people.

Love is patient, kind, humble, gentle, meek and lowly. It is not easily offended, it is not jealous or rude, and it always believes the best. It pays no attention to a suffered wrong, it rejoices when truth prevails, and it never gives up! (see 1 Corinthians 13:4-8).

Love is not merely a sermon we preach, a theory we discuss or a feeling we wait to have. It is a decision we make to take action and help someone else have a better quality of life. When we do, the quality of our life becomes better.

Perhaps you want to help but don’t quite know how to go about it.

One of the things you can do is join with someone else who is already established…someone who is reaching hurting people. Although you may never have an opportunity to travel to a foreign country yourself, you can help finance the preaching of the Gospel by supporting ministries and outreaches that relieve the suffering of those less fortunate.

God Is Asking, “Who Will Feed My Babies?”
As Dave and I travel the world, it breaks our hearts to see so many children on the brink of starvation.

In Ethiopia, for example, parents flock to our feeding centers, literally holding out their children to us for help. And I thank God that with the support of our friends and partners, we are saving lives and offering hope to thousands of these children.

But as we look into the crowd…as we look into these parents’ eyes…we know that we can’t help them all—at least not yet. The truth is, there are literally millions more who still need help.

I know one group of women who desperately wanted to get more involved in world missions. They were so serious about feeding the hungry and helping the poor that they decided to have a garage sale and give the money to charity.

It worked so well that they went into the garage sale business, letting customers know that all proceeds benefit the less fortunate. To date, these women have given our ministry more than $60,000 to support our work in Cambodia and various other outreaches worldwide. And they’re not stopping there. Today, they operate a store in a strip mall, donating all profits to charity.

Another woman who traveled with us to India was greatly affected by what she saw and looked for a way to do even more. As she pondered what to do, she remembered that she was really good at baking pies. With her pastor’s permission, she started baking pies and selling them after church each Sunday, just to give money to missions.

Must face every moment of your life, declare it as positive for the future and finally resume the path towards the promises of the Lord.

In life there are moments we want to perpetuate and others who would like to forget. Every moment we must live it and make it with faith, then take the right direction. Do not evade your moments. When a baby is born, we should celebrate it, just as we must mourn when someone dies. A divorce is not desirable, but inevitable if we must overcome. It is useless to deny reality, you must learn to live, no matter how difficult.

Enlarge the circle to put inside.
The did not die for me to love me.
Make a list of ones that fail.
Undoubtedly, there are three great treasures of today was regalártelos and Ortiz did one day with me. You just have to take care and remember every time you hate your shirt color and throw you into a tank. If you remember the three pearls, one day you’ll open up the barns and you share with your brothers, without rancor, much of what God gave you.

For the last 35 or 40 years I have read Oswald Chambers’ classic devotional My Utmost for His Highest every morning before I get out of bed.  This year Good Friday happened to fall on the day when the book offers some of Chambers’ thoughts on the Apostle Paul’s inspired statement of union with the Savior: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me (Galatians 2:20).  It struck me that this was as appropriate a reading for Good Friday as one could hope to find, and the more I pondered it and prayed over it the more it seemed that I should write this week’s commentary on it, for in this one Bible verse the Holy Spirit gives us the essence of how we Christians should view our relationships with Jesus.

“I have been crucified with Christ.”  What a starkly dramatic and riveting statement!  What is Paul saying to us?

The Apostle is, of course, speaking for every Christian.  And he is telling us that he has come to realize that when Jesus died on Calvary’s Cross for our sins that He put to death our former sinful life.  When He died, we too died - not a physical death like His, but a very real death nonetheless - a death to the power exerted over us of our naturally sinful ways of acting, thinking, and feeling.  When we accepted Jesus as our personal Savior and Lord a supernatural transaction took place - we were joined to Him in His death on the cross, and then joined to Him in His resurrection from that death!  This is true for every believer, even if we don’t understand it, or feel it.  Paul states this explicitly in the next clause: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”  The old Paul is dead and gone.  The old “I” is dead - crucified with Christ.

What does this mean for us?  It means that if we want to experience the power of the Risen Christ (”Christ who lives in me”) then we need to fully embrace the reality of “It is no longer I who live.”  In other words, we can only experience the fruits of Jesus’ resurrection to the extent that we are willing to accept the reality of our old life having been put to death with Him on the Cross.

It strikes me that many of us Christians are living in a kind of “half-way” dead position vis-à-vis our old life.  We’ve accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior, and we’re trying to live the Christian life as best we know how, but in many ways self is still in the center of our lives instead of Jesus.  For example, for much of my Christian life I have made my own plans, or dreamed my own dreams, and asked the Lord to enable those to come to fulfillment.  When I do this, I’m actually still trying to stay in control, and asking the Lord for His help to enable me to do so!  But, the reality is that because I have been crucified with Christ, I have to start operating from the place of not having plans of my own.  If I belong to Him, if I am His disciple, then I have to stop making my own plans.  I am to be available to His command; not to seek for Him to be available for my command.  I am in His service, not He in my service.  I have been crucified with Christ, and dead men don’t have any plans.

This sounds terribly unpractical and irresponsible and disorganized to those of us who are used to making plans about things.  But, I’m not suggesting that we never make plans - I’m saying that first, last, and always we had better learn to seek His plans, and then plan on the basis of them.  Isn’t that what Paul means by “It is no longer I who live”?

But it’s more than learning not to make plans of your own.  To accept “It is no longer I who live” means that I no longer have the right to live for my own fulfillment.  Now, how honest are you willing to be with yourself, and with God?  Isn’t it true for you, as it surely is for me, that most of the time we are living for our own fulfillment - pleading with the Lord to give us the things that we consider essential for a fulfilled life - whether those things are more income, or a loving spouse, or a better job, or whatever they might be?  Truth be told, when you and I became Christians we gave up our right to live for ourselves, in exchange for all that Christ is coming to live in us.  But, we don’t live like that much of the time, do we?

How can we live that way more than we do?

The key is in the last part of the verse: “The life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”  This weekend the Holy Spirit has impressed on me that Jesus’ giving of Himself for you and me was personal, not abstract.  Jesus didn’t die for “mankind,” He died for you and me by name.  Paul isn’t just using poetic and pious language here to generalize the truth of Christ’s death.  No, we are being individually addressed by the Holy Spirit in this verse.  Ever since I became a Christian I have always believed that if Jesus and you or I or any other single individual were the only people alive at the time (except for the Roman soldiers who crucified Him) He would have willingly gone to the Cross just for that one person.  I don’t think that we appreciate that enough; I suspect that most of the time we view Jesus’ death as if He just died generally, for everybody.

And notice that the Apostle says that “He loved me” before he writes “and gave Himself for me.”  Jesus went to the Cross because He loved us - each of us.  That personal crucifixion for each of us was because He loved each of us.  The whole thing was done out of love, not because He had to.  Yes, the Bible makes clear that the Father sent His Son to die on the Cross, but Jesus didn’t have to do it, He could have avoided it, if He had chosen to do so.  In the Garden of Gethsemane, when Jesus was arrested (after Peter had impetuously tried to defend Him with the sword) he told Peter that He could summon twelve legions of angels to defend Him if He chose.  Earlier, Jesus had said “No one takes (my life) from me, but I lay it down of my own accord” (John10:18).  Jesus chose to go to the Cross for each one of us, because somehow, in ways I don’t understand, He had each of us in mind, and loved us.

Paul says “The life which I now life in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God.”  How can he do that?  Because he knows that Jesus loves him so much that He willingly endured the horrible rejection and shame and agonizing torture and death of the Cross in order to save him.  And so also for each one of us.  The Jesus who died for you and me is the Jesus who loved you and me.  That’s why He did it.

And if He loves you and me that much, then it is “safe” for us to relinquish our plans, dreams, demands, and all the rest that comes with our right to ourselves and a life the way we want it.  If I truly know that He loves me that much, then all my “stuff” is safe with Him.

In another place, Paul expresses this truth like this: “For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His” (Romans 6:5).  “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.”  Because in my heart I have received Jesus as my Savior and Lord He now lives in me - by His Spirit living in my human spirit.  So, to the extent that I consciously accept the reality of my position in Christ - the “it is no longer I who live” part - to that extent I can experience the “Christ lives in me” part.  If I am accepting my dying in Him, I can experience His resurrection in me, and everything the Risen Christ is can be expressed in my life by His Spirit.

But, until I embrace the Cross, and my death in Him, I’m not going to experience the fullness of the Christian life.  The Cross comes before the Resurrection, dying to self comes before rising to new life.  The signing away of my rights to myself has to come before I can lay claim to all that Jesus won for me in His resurrection.  Until I’m willing to have my independence from God broken, and seek to live in true union with Jesus as His bondservant, I’m not going to prove to be a very good saint of God.  As Chambers puts it in another devotional on this same verse: “Has that breaking of my independence come?  All the rest is religious fraud.”

In this Easter season, may you and I so learn to live as bondservants of Jesus that we may be true sons and daughters of the Resurrection!

“For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us” (vv. 11-12).

Consider the greatness of God’s love. Astronomers tell us that the farthest known light source from the earth is ten billion light years away. That means that light starting from that source (a quasar) would take ten billion years traveling at the speed to light to arrive at the earth.  By contrast the nearest star is “only” four light years away from us. That’s four years traveling at the speed of light, which is 186,000 miles per second. Light from the sun reaches the earth in a little over eight minutes. So even the nearest star is a vast distance from the earth. And using ion drive propulsion, you could reach the nearest star in a modern spaceship in “only” 81,000 years.  You can turn it around any way you like and we are left with two inescapable realities. First, we live in a tiny corner of the universe, and second, the universe is vast beyond our comprehension. But God’s love is greater, vaster, larger, deeper, longer, broader, and bigger in all dimensions that the universe itself. Get in a rocket equipped with any sort of sci-fi system you can imagine. Fly at warp speed if you like. Go as far as you can go, to the end of the known universe and beyond. And when you have gone as far as you can go, look up and smile because God’s love is still going. You will never reach the end of it.

Consider the magnitude of God’s love. Let’s suppose you want to go east until you finally reach the west. So you take off from Baltimore in a hot air balloon. When you land in Lisbon, you get in a Honda Civic and drive across Europe until you come to Varna, Bulgaria. There you hop on a freighter than takes you through the Black Sea, the Aegean Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, the Suez Canal, the Red Sea, and on to the Gulf of Aden where you narrowly escape getting caught by the pirates, and on into the Indian Ocean where you finally put ashore in Colombo, Sri Lanka. From there you catch a flight to Singapore and then down south to Perth, Australia. There you hitchhike across the Outback, eventually arriving in Sydney where you join a passenger ship heading for Easter Island. You then fly to Santiago, Chile where you rent a beat-up Jeep and start driving north. It’s a long way but you eventually make it all the way to Nome, Alaska where you hire a dogsled team so that you can run the Iditarod Race in reverse, ending up in Anchorage so you hop on a cruise ship to Vancouver, BC, where you take the Trans-Canada Railway, ending up in Halifax, Nova Scotia. And there you buy a high-end road bike and start peddling through New Brunswick, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey and Delaware. Finally you make it back to Baltimore. Besides having circumnavigated the globe, what have you proved? Among other things, you have proved that no matter how far east you go, you will never find the west.

Never the twain shall meet. The farther east you go, the farther you are from the west.

That’s the magnitude of God’s love. Here is great good news for all the sinners of the world. When God forgives, he removes our sins, he lifts them up, he takes them away, and he puts them so far away from us that we could never find them if we searched for them for a thousand years. They are gone forever.

My sins can never come back to haunt me again.
Even Satan can’t bring them back.
In his sermon on these verses Jim Nicodem says that God has . . .

A long fuse - “slow to anger” (v. 8),
A short memory-”does not harbor his anger forever” (v. 9),
A thick skin-”does not treat us as our sins deserve” (v. 10), and
A great heart-”so great is his love, so far has he removed our sins” (vv. 11-12).

I’m glad we have a God like that because that exactly the kind of God we need.

5. He Understands Our Weakness.

“As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him” (v. 13).

I never understood that verse until I had children. When our boys were very young and would have trouble going to sleep, and when Marlene was tired and needed to sleep herself, I would carry the boys in my arms. Sometimes I would sing to them, sometimes (often) I would make up a song. I remember when Joshua was very young, I would sing Scripture verses to him, such as “The wicked they flee when no man pursues, but the righteous are bold as a lion” (see Proverbs  28:1). I would sing it over and over again until he finally fell asleep in my arms. I just made the tune up, but as I typed the words, the tune came back to me as if I had last sung it yesterday and not 25 years ago.

Earthly fathers-however imperfect-point us upward to our Heavenly Father. When an earthly father has done his job well, he makes it easy for his children to believe in their Heavenly Father. Our children learn that we do not worship a god of stone or an empty idol or a remote deity or an impersonal machine in the sky. We serve a Father God who knows our weakness and loves us anyway.

When our son Mark was a young child, he developed a persistent ear infection that would not go away. After trying antibiotics for a time, our family physician told us we needed to see a specialist so he referred us to Dr. Culbertson, a highly respected specialist in Dallas. After examining him carefully, he announced that Mark needed to have tubes put in his ears to prevent further scarring from the infection. Even though the operation is quick and fairly simple, the doctor could see that Mark was scared. So he picked him up and carried him piggy-back to surgery. That was the last image we saw-the great physician carrying our son on his back so he wouldn’t be afraid.

So it is with our Heavenly Father. The Great Physician knows our weakness and understands our fears. And when we can’t go on, he carries us on his back.

6. He Remembers That We Are Dust.

“For he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more” (vv. 14-16).

Here is a truth we all understand, especially in this season of the year. Yesterday’s green leaves soon turn brown. It is an inexorable law of nature that the green leaves of spring end up in a pile on your lawn. In October Marlene and I spent a few days on Prince Edward Island, home of the famous “Anne of Green Gables” books. We happened to be there near the peak of the fall foliage season so as we traveled the narrow country roads, we saw leaves in every hue imaginable-scarlet, orange, pink, bright red, russet, maroon, bronze, yellow, purple, and every possible shade of brown. We especially noticed it in the evening, when the low angle of the sun seemed to backlight the entire forest and set it ablaze in a kaleidoscope of color. Why do the leaves lose their green? There is a scientific explanation having to do with the loss of green chlorophyll, but that simply means the leaves are slowly dying. Their beauty comes from their death.

Who remembers each leaf? Not the tree. One by one the leaves fall to the ground where they disintegrate and return to the soil from which they came. No one names them or numbers them or even thinks about them. And by now on Prince Edward Island most of the leaves are gone from the trees. It is the way of nature, the way God arranged the changing of the seasons.

Twenty years ago Marlene would sometimes tease me by saying, “There’s a little gray in your beard.” She stopped that a long time ago because the little has become a lot. Just this morning I realized that I hadn’t shaved in two days. And when I looked in the mirror I saw little bits of gray stubble all over my face. I think if I let my beard grow, it would be mostly gray. When God puts gray in your beard, it’s like the leaves turning brown in the fall. It’s God’s way of saying, “You won’t be here forever.”

Every now and then I’ll run across a bit of cemetery humor that makes me chuckle. I was driving down a major thoroughfare in Chicago next to one of those cemeteries that seems to go on forever. Because it is a long stretch of road with no stop lights, people tend to break the speed limit routinely. So I laughed when I saw a billboard sponsored by the cemetery that said, “Slow Down. We’ll save a place for you.” I’m sure they will.

If that’s all there is, if we are here today and gone tomorrow, if that’s the end of the story, then there isn’t much hope. But let me share something with you. If you don’t have anything else to be thankful for this year, here’s something you can hang your hat on. Our hope is not in man or in anything man can do.

Our hope is in the everlasting God!

7. He Links Us With Eternity By Linking Us With Himself.

“But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord’s love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness  with their children’s children- with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts” (vv. 17-18)

There is nothing we can do about our frailty. We come from the hand of our Creator stamped, “Fragile: Handle with care.” We are like the dust devils that blow across the desert. We make a big scene and then suddenly we disappear. Try as we might, we can’t cancel our humanity. Nothing can change what we are. Vitamins and exercise and clean living may slow down the process. Positive thinking may improve our mood. But for all of us, the end is the same:
Ashes to ashes,
Dust to dust.

Psalm 103 offers us one strong ground of comfort that lifts us up above the transitory nature of this life. It is the “but” of verse 17, the blessed “but” that changes everything. That one word offers an eternal contrast between

The fading flower and the everlasting God,
Our mortality and God’s eternity.

That one word-that little “but”-stands at the demarcation between this life and the next. Here is our real hope of life that never ends.

God’s tender mercy.
His unfailing love.
His abounding grace.

Someone has said that life without Christ is a hopeless end, but life with Christ is an endless hope. And this endless hope is not only to us but to our children’s children. What will we leave our children? A vast estate? A large inheritance? A huge life insurance policy? Whatever we may say about earthly possessions, they pale next to the privilege of passing down a godly heritage, a tapestry of truth, and a pattern of believing that our children and grandchildren can claim as their own.
We are richer than we think, we are more blessed than we know, and we have more than we realize.

In a transient and passing world where everything fades away, we have the promise that we are linked to the future even after we are gone by the faithfulness of God to our children to our children’s children. This, too, is the mercy of God.
Take Me to the Cross

What is Psalm 103 telling us? We are richer than we think, we are more blessed than we know, and we have more than we realize. We frail, mortal sinners are rich in the mercy of God.

And we have found that mercy–or rather, that mercy has found us-i-n the cross of Jesus Christ. During one of his sermons Billy Graham told the story of a patrolman on night duty in a town in northern England.  As he walked the streets, he heard a quivering sob. Shining his flashlight into the darkness, he saw a little boy in the shadows sitting on a doorstep and tears were running down his cheek. The child said, “I’m lost. Please take me home.” And the policeman began naming street after street, trying to help the boy remember where he lived. He named the shops and the hotels in the area but the little boy could give him no clue.

Then he remembered that at the center of the town there was a church with a large white cross that towered above the rest of the city. The policeman pointed to the cross and said, “Do you live anywhere near that place?” The little boy’s face immediately brightened up. He said, “Yes, sir. Take me to the cross and I can find my way home.”
Go to the cross and you will find your way home to God.

All that we believe, all that we have, all that we hope for is found in the cross of Christ. Go to the cross and you will find your way home to God.

Are you weak? So am I.
Are you needy? So am I.
Are you guilty? So am I.
Are you frail? So am I.
Are you like dust? So am I.

And God says to us, his weak, needy, guilty, frail, dusty children, “I know you through and through, and I love you anyway. Come to me. Rest in me. Make me your Rock.” God’s mercy in Christ is more than enough for all of us. Amen.

Have you wondered what God really thinks about you?

Our greatest barrier to knowing God better may be how much we know about how much God knows about us. We struggle with God because we feel so bad about ourselves, and if we know the truth about ourselves, think of how much more God knows us!

We can’t fool him.

Sometimes we don’t want to pray or read the Bible or think about God because when we look in the mirror, we feel like saying, “You’re a big disappointment” or “You ought to be a lot better by now.”

We’ve all felt that way from time to time, and I imagine that many people reading these words feel that way right now. It’s been a hard week, or a bad month, and now we’re near the end of what seems like a wasted year. Sam Storms captures the truth in one simple sentence:

I think we run from God rather than to him because we know our own hearts all too well and his barely at all.

I probably don’t need to spend any time convincing you that you are a sinner. You probably know the truth about yourself all too well. But it’s the other side that we need to talk about. We don’t know God’s heart very well.

That’s where Psalm 103 can help us tremendously. Perhaps no other chapter in the Bible so clearly reveals God’s compassion for his people. If you’re wondering what God thinks about you, let’s take a journey through Psalm 103 and discover seven liberating truths about God’s heart.

1. He Loves to Help the Needy.

“The Lord works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed. He made known his ways to Moses, his deeds to the people of Israel” (vv. 6-7).

The “oppressed” are those who can’t help themselves. In the Old Testament the word especially referred to widows, orphans, foreigners, and the poor. When we are tempted to take advantage of others because we are strong and they are weak, God says, “Think about that first.” He takes the side of the weak. Our God keeps his eyes on the helpless, and when others hurt them, he moves to balance the scales of justice. In the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., “The arm of the universe is long but it bends toward justice.” There are days and times when this is hard to believe, especially in light of events like the terrorist bombing in Mumbai. But this truth stands like a solid rock for the believer. If all of history is a book, we haven’t reached the final chapter yet. We’re somewhere near the end, but we’re not sure how far away we are. But we know this much. Eventually God will bring everything to light, and he will judge with impartiality. In that day there will be no hiding, no excuse-making, no bribes, and no way of escape.

All those who labor for a better world and a more just society and those who stretch out a helping hand–you have to believe this or you can’t go on. The words of James Russell Lowell come to mind:

Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne,-
Yet that scaffold sways the future, and, behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own.

Are you needy? The answer is yes whether you know it or not. You are needy and God is on your side. That’s a great place to start.

2. He Shows Mercy to Those Who Don’t Deserve It.

“The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love” (v. 8).
See the four great attributes of God in this verse:

1)      The Lord is compassionate-He pardons us.
2)      The Lord is gracious-He gives us what we don’t deserve.
3)      The Lord is slow to anger-He is patient with us when we fall.
4)      The Lord abounds in love-He loves us more than we can imagine.

There’s no fishing like fishing in the sea.
There’s no eating like eating at the king’s table.
There’s no love like God’s love.

When he saves, he saves completely.
When he forgives, he forgives all my sins.
When he sets free, we are free forever.

The King James Version translates the last phrase of verse 8 by saying that God is “plenteous in mercy.” Spurgeon (in The Treasury of David) takes that phrase and offers this application (italics added):

All the world tastes of his sparing mercy,
those who hear the gospel partake of his inviting mercy,
the saints live by his saving mercy,
are preserved by his upholding mercy,
are cheered by his consoling mercy, and
will enter heaven through his infinite and everlasting mercy.

I like that! Six kinds of mercy in just one sentence. That’s plenteous mercy for anyone who needs it.

3. He Tempers His Wrath.

“He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever. He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities” (vv. 9- 10).

Have you ever known anyone who loved to argue? We all know people who love to keep a quarrel going because they are so angry. God is not like that. He is willing to end the quarrel and welcome us back home. Sometimes the real problem is that we want to keep fighting him.
He’s more ready to forgive than we are to be forgiven!

When we forget to pray, he remembers to feed us.
When we forge to give thanks, he sends us restful sleep.
When we idle in sin, he sends his Holy Spirit to convict us.
When we refuse to give, he keeps on giving still.
When we fall, he lifts us up.
When we disappoint ourselves and others, he still calls us his children.

He even blesses those who don’t believe in him. An unbeliever like Christopher Hitchens writes a book called “God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything,” and sells a boatload of copies, along the way merrily debating every religious-type person he can find. He is clever, witty, a gifted wordsmith, widely read, quick with a comeback, and completely committed to debunking religion of every type and even more committed to the concept that God is simply not necessary. But see the mercy of God. Instead of crushing him like an empty eggshell, the Lord feed him and nourishes him and gives him health and love and life. It is the longsuffering of God that allows Christopher Hitchens to deny him. And why would God show such kindness to someone utterly dedicated to eradicating his influence in the world? Because if there is a God at all, he is not in the least intimidated by Christopher Hitchens or Richard Dawkins or Sam Harris. If you think of them as part of the atheist artillery, they shoot at God on ground he provides from them. And the fact that God withholds punishment to his enemies, that too is evidence of his mercy for “God’s kindness leads you toward repentance” (Romans 2:4).