Author Archives: reveds

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About reveds

Occupation: Pastor, Ebenezer Presbyterian Church, Lennox, SD Education: BS - Christian Education, Sterling College; MDiv. - Princeton Theological Seminary Family: Married, with Four children. Hobbies: Running (will someday run a marathon), Sci-Fi (especially Doctor Who and Sherlock), Theater, and anything else my kids will let me do.

Your Strength Isn’t Strong Enough

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“Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit says the Lord of hosts.”
(Zechariah 4:6)

 Do you remember the Daily Affirmations by Stuart Smalley on Saturday Night Live?  Poor Stuart suffered from “stinkin thinkin”, negative thoughts that just brought him down.  He’d try to encourage himself, and those who came on his show, helping them to think positive.  And always, his mantra was, say it with me…

“I am good enough.  I am smart enough.  And doggone it, people like me.”

Now, not to be one who contradicts such sound philosophy, but there are times in our lives when, unfortunately we are not good enough, we are not smart enough, and doggone it, nobody likes us.  There are times when it seems the rug has been pulled out from underneath us, when conventional wisdom fails us, and our strength isn’t strong enough.  We face trials and persecution from the things we thought would bring us security; our jobs, our friends, our family; our world seems upside down.  The things we counted on for strength fail us, the people we trust let us down.  We find we are weak, we are tired, and we want to give up.  No amount of daily affirmation, no power of positive thinking, can get us out of this mess.

This is why we walk in faith.  We see from the very beginning of the story of Scripture that man was created to be dependent upon God.  We were designed to be in relationship with God, depending on Him, trusting in Him, walking with Him.  The Lord’s Prayer is so basic, yet so revolutionary, because it reminds us, restores us to this absolute dependency upon God.  We are taught to come to God for our daily bread, to turn to God for deliverance from evil, to seek God for forgiveness as we forgive others, and ultimately, to seek God’s glory and His kingdom and His will rather than our own.

Too often, though, we forget our dependency.  We buy the delusion of our success, get drunk in our own power, and we rest in our own accomplishments.  This was what God warned the Israelites about in Deuteronomy, knowing that when the people had success, they would take all the credit, saying, “My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth” (Deut. 8:17).  No, the Lord reminded them, “It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples,  but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt” (Deut. 7:7–8).

Friends, the truth of the matter is, so often we begin to rely on our own strength, to believe our own press (which we’ve probably printed), and have forgotten that our strength is in the Lord alone that truly the cross we carry becomes too heavy and begins to crush us.  It seems defeating, overwhelming, and humiliating; but even then the cross has purpose.

John Calvin wrote of the purpose of our cross saying,

When we are humbled, we are taught to rely on God alone, and we shall not stumble or sink down in despair.  For it is not small profit to be robbed of our blind self-love so that we become fully award of our weakness; to have such an understanding of our weakness that we distrust ourselves; to distrust ourselves to such an extent that we put all our trust in God; to depend with such boundless confidence on God that we rely entirely on his help, so that we may victoriously persevere to then end; to continue in his grace that we may know he is true and faithful in his promises; and to experience the certainty of his promises so that our hope may become firmer.

When your cross is too much to carry, find your strength in the one who carried the cross for you.  Learn to trust less in yourself, and to trust more in His grace and mercy.  Let his strength be made perfect in your weakness.  And remember it is “not by might, nor by strength, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts.”

SDG

Transformed by His Glory

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“When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God.”
(Exodus 34:29)

Throughout his life, Moses had several encounters with the Lord, and it began to show.  Moses met God in the burning bush that was not consumed, and in that encounter was called to proclaim the release of God’s people from captivity in Egypt.  Through Moses, God’s mighty hand worked signs and wonders before Pharaoh, through the plagues and the parting of the sea.  And most spectacularly, Moses met with God on Mt. Sinai, where he received the 10 Commandments and the instructions for the life of the covenant nation of Israel.  All this time in the presence of God began to have a transforming effect.

Moses hungered for the word of God.  He would often set up a tent away from the camp (unlike the Tabernacle that was to be in the middle of the people), where Moses would pray and intercede for the people before the face of God.  We are told in Ex 33:9 that when Moses went into the tent, the cloud would descend upon the tent and the Lord would speak with Moses.

Moses hungered for the presence of God.  God had told Moses to lead the people up to Canaan, to a land flowing with milk and honey, but added that he would not go up with them, lest he consume them, for they were a stiff-necked people (Ex 33:3).  As he came before the Lord, Moses prayed “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here.”  Moses had such an experience in the presence of God that he could not imagine going forward without God.  Life would be unbearable, the obstacles too high to overcome.

Moses was transformed by the glory of God.  When Moses came down from the mountain, his face shone because he had been talking with God.  The people, who had not had such an encounter, couldn’t handle the glory, it was too much for them, so they asked him to put a veil over his face.  But the people could see, they knew, that Moses had been in the very presence of God, and his life would forever be changed.  That is the effect of God’s glory in the life of man.

What’s fascinating is this: Moses, through all his encounters with God, never saw the Lord face to face, for no one could see the face of God and live.  To satisfy Moses’ longing to see the glory of God, God placed him in the cleft of the rock, covered him with his hand until he passed by, then took away his hand so that Moses could see his back (Ex 33:21-23).  Moses was completely transformed by the passing, veiled encounter with God, and everyone took note.

We, however, have seen a greater glory in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” John 14:9.  We all, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3:18 “with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.”  If you know Christ, you know the Father.  If you have walked with Christ, you have walked with the Father.  If Christ dwells in you, the Father dwells in you as well.  If, in times of worship, prayer, meditation upon the Word, you have gazed upon the face of Christ, you have seen the face of God.

Does the world know you’ve had this encounter with the glory of God?  Is there evidence in your life of having been in His presence?

Has His love transformed yours, recreated you, so that you love differently, sacrificially, redemptively, as Christ loved you?

Has His Spirit created in you a hunger for His Word, for His presence, so that, you can say with the Psalmist, “One day in your house is better than a thousand elsewhere.”  Do you long to feast on His Word, ready to hear it more and more, so that one hour in worship, twenty minutes of a sermon, are just the beginning?

Friends, one of the reasons the world isn’t drawn to God is because we have taken God’s name in vain.  No, I don’t mean we’re swearing and blaspheming God’s Holy name.  We take the Lord’s name in vain when we make it meaningless, powerless, empty in the eyes of the world.  The world isn’t drawn to God because we haven’t come down from the mountain showing that we’ve been in His presence, shining with the light of His worth, His glory, His wonder.   Maybe our worship, our devotion, our prayers, have been halfhearted and misguided, so that we haven’t encounterd God at all.  Maybe we have, but we’ve been too afraid to let the world know, so we veil His glory, hiding our lamp under the basket.

Friends, this cannot be.  The Church exists to make known the glory of God, to lift high the cross of Christ in proclaiming salvation from sin, to grow as a body in holiness through the power of God’s Spirit.  Such glory is the hearts true desire.  May we encounter the glory of God as we walk with Christ our Lord, so that the world may see His glory in us.