faith

Step Away From the Puzzle

/ pastorpete51 / 3 Comments 
These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 
Hebrews 11:13 ESV

Years ago, book lovers often subscribed to book-of-the-month clubs and one of the most popular was the Reader’s Digest. Their angle was to condense books down from their original length, and then bundle 4-5 novels into a single volume. (Think War and Peace down to 120 pages!). Though this was usually a big hit, one of their flops was an ill-conceived attempt to condense the Bible. Turns out folks didn’t want the Good Book being slimmed down! Yet, in Hebrews chapter eleven, God does, what those editors couldn’t, and gives in just forty verses a condensed version of all the heroes of the Old Testament. Today’s passage tells us that these people hadn’t received all of God’s promises, but they got a glimpse of them from far away.

That long distance perspective reminded me of putting together a jig-saw puzzle. God’s promise is the beautiful picture on the front of the box, but what I see is more like a heap of pieces dumped on a table. Some of them I put aside for edges, while others I group by color, but few fit easily together. But just as the Bible heroes stepped back and greeted their promises from afar, sometimes the best puzzle strategy is to step away. After too much time up close, we need to rest our eyes. Then, almost miraculously, on when we return, we see patterns that just leap out at us, and we make progress. The worst thing is to keep trying to force pieces together without perspective. In the Bible, that approach has led to some terrible decisions. Abraham took a second wife when Sarah didn’t get pregnant, Moses killed an Egyptian, and David got tangled up with Bathsheba, just to name a few. If our own lives were condensed into forty verses, I am sure there would be enough to scandalize all our friends and family! But if we just step back, God will help us see His promises from afar. That viewpoint is a reminder that we aren’t on a predetermined schedule and only God can see the whole picture on the front of the box. So, take a breath, step away from the puzzle for a moment and God will give you the wisdom to fit together that puzzle, one piece at a time!

Built for the Storm

/ pastorpete51 / 7 Comments 
And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. Mark 4:39 ESV

Because its founding dates back to 1650, my home state of Connecticut, has many interesting historical sites, and one of my favorites is Mystic Seaport, because it shows how the old whaling ships were built. For me, the most astonishing things of the construction of those boats was the prow. Any good prow began its journey as the lower trunk of a large white oak tree, and rather than the usual practice of cutting the tree at its base, it was cut as far above the ground as possible. Then, the men would dig out the entire stump, and from that mass of roots and tree trunk an almost unbreakable piece was sawn for the prow.

Photo by Sang Adjie on Pexels.com

In today’s verse we see Jesus confronting a storm that had His disciples frightened to death. The waves had begun swamping their small fishing boat, and the wind was so wild that they had to shout to be heard. Terrified that they were all about to drown, they woke Jesus, who was somehow calmly taking a nap in the midst of the chaos. Maybe they hoped that Jesus would help bail or at least pray that they could survive. But what He did next, no one even imagined. Jesus calmed the storm with three words. “Peace be still!” His faith was like the prow of those ancient whaling ships. He had come from heaven’s throne to be born a stable and with all the universe under his rule he chose to grow up in a small village. Though Jesus could have made stones into bread, He fasted forty days in the wilderness and overcame every temptation of the devil. But more than even these things, Jesus was, just like that oak tree that was cut down, dug from the ground and fashioned into the forerunner of our salvation. He is the anchor of our soul, the Captain of our ship, the prow of the ark, which is His church, and our shelter in every storm!

Facing Failure

/ pastorpete51 / 5 Comments 
But Peter boasted. “No way Lord! Even if everyone fails, You can count on me!” 
Luke 22:33 MNVIT (My not very inspired translation) 

The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: “Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times.” And he went outside and wept bitterly. 
Luke 22:61-62 NIV

When in the middle of the temptations and stresses of daily life, it feels impossible to have the kind of faith that I read about with Daniel spending the night with lions, David facing Goliath and Moses the Red Sea. But when I come to the story of a disciple named Peter, I have hope. Now Peter certainly had his days of great faith, such as when he walked on water and or when he boldly confessed that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Yet when we come to the night of Jesus’ arrest in the garden of Gethsemane, something unexpected happened. At first, Peter seemed brave as he pulled out a sword and hacked off the ear of one of the guys coming for Jesus.  But when Jesus put a stop to his tactics, Peter ran away. Then from a safe distance he sneaked into the courtyard where Jesus was being held. We can’t be sure what Peter had in mind, but maybe he was hoping to find any way to free Jesus. But instead of helping Jesus to escape, Peter ended up denying Him three times.

Sadly, just like Peter, there are times when, despite our good intentions, we utterly fail. Circumstances that we hoped to change, spin completely out of our control and we are left as helpless observers. The things we thought we would never say, we blurt out and the things we never promised not to do; we do. After all our boasting about our faith, we end up falling flat on our faces. But at that moment, while we weep bitterly about our failure, remember what Peter did. He remembered what Jesus said. When three days later, Jesus rose from the dead and showed Himself to the disciples He came for Peter also. But this was a Peter who was a changed person. He had discovered that the strength of His faith did not lie in his determination, strength or ability, but on the love, power and forgiveness of Jesus Christ. He found, just as we can, that our faith does not grow from our successes, but from remembering God’s word in our failures.

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