Category Archives: Protection

Where was God at the Boston Marathon?

Posted by pastorchrisjackson on

Participants in the 2010 Boston Marathon in We...

Where was Jesus when multiple bombs exploded along this year’s Boston Marathon route, shattering loved ones’ hearts and instilling fear into an already anxious culture?

Where was He ten days earlier when Pastor Rick Warren’s son took his life into his own hands?

Where was He during recent tsunamis, natural disasters, and cruel expressions of man’s inhumanity to man?

Where was He during your darkest hours?

Fortunately, the Bible is not silent on this desperate, all-important question. Two thousand years ago one of Jesus’ closest friends, Lazarus, died of an illness, and when Jesus arrived at the grave site Lazarus’ sister, Martha, greeted Him with the indictment: “If you had been here my brother would not have died.”

Martha’s bitter words were an ancient re-phrasing of our modern question: “where was God.” When Jesus responded to Martha He revealed how He might respond to us. When confronted with the question “where were you when we needed you most” Jesus responded in three ways.

First, He assured Martha that natural death and tragedy are not the ultimate trump cards. In John 11:23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”

Second, He wept. He entered Martha’s pain and cried beside her at her brother’s tomb.

Third, He released God’s life-giving power, raising Lazarus from the dead and calling him out of the grave as a timeless picture of God’s final victory over death.

It’s impossible to adequately explain why God would allow so many senseless tragedies. However, through Jesus we know that God is neither indifferent nor inactive to our plight. He sees, He cares, and He offers an eternal life that is able to heal even the greatest of our earthly traumas. So while we ache, weep, question, and serve we also hold out hope for Jesus’ promised life.

Kept

Posted by pastorchrisjackson on

Kept: past tense of keep, verb.

  1. Held or retained in one’s possession; held as one’s own.
  2. Held or used for a set period of time.
  3. Held or reserved in a given place; stored.
  4. Maintained, especially in accordance with specific requirements, a promise kept or watched.
  5. Reinforced in a given position, state, course, or action.

Do you know that you are being “kept” today and that your “keeper” is the one who holds the universe together?

“He is before all things and in Him all things hold together.” (Colossians 1:17)

“The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful word…” (Hebrews 1:3)

“Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James, to those who have been called, who are loved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ.” (Jude 1:1)

In the middle of today’s fragile existence with its harried pace and endless demands, please remember Jude’s words: you have been called, loved, and kept by the power of Jesus Christ. He loves you. He is for you. And nothing can take you out of His hand.

Job versus the Proverbs

Posted by pastorchrisjackson on

The biblical books of Proverbs and Job appear to be polar opposites. The former presents practical wisdom for living the best life possible, and the latter is a story of the best life gone bad. The one offers success formulas that are supposed to work, and the other says, “I’ve done all of those things and my life is still a wreck.” The books of Proverbs and Job are so opposed to one another that it can almost be difficult to see them in the same Bible.

In fact there are really only two things that these books have in common: God and you.

The same God who promises to honor right living in the Proverbs is the God who rescued and restored Job at the end of his calamity. And you and I will live through each of these books as well.

Fortunately, the majority of our lives will be spent in the book of Proverbs. In fact about 9/10ths of our life will probably be simple, manageable, and quietly rewarding based on how well we follow the principles of Scripture. The book of Proverbs addresses these 9/10ths.

What Job addresses is the 1/10th, the unexpected and unexplained. We will all be touched by the unexpected and unexplained; however, even though we might live through some Job “seasons” very few of us will have an entire Job “life.” Not even Job did—many scholars believe that his crisis lasted about nine months before the Lord intervened and started rebuilding and restoring him.

Don’t be afraid of the 1/10th. Calamity isn’t lurking around the corner. God is faithful, and He will take care of you. And even if you do touch on some Job-like moments, you too, will eventually be able to say with Job, “I know that my Redeemer lives.”

One of my favorite teachers in Bible school (a woman in her eighties), said, “When God showed up, my deepest valleys became my highest mountaintops.”

I hope your life is mostly mountaintops. But when it’s not, I hope you, too, can find Him in the valleys. He’ll be looking for you.

What Super Mario Bros. is teaching me

Posted by pastorchrisjackson on
New Super Mario Bros. Wii

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In recent months my daughters and I have become addicted to the Wii version of Super Mario Bros. My wife laughs at us as we alternately cheer, scream, and groan while our respective characters, Mario, Luigi, and Lemon-head face off against giant mushrooms, poisonous fish, and nasty snapping turtles. We’ve gotten pretty good—we’re more than halfway through the entire game—and we’ve also learned an important lesson along the way.

Heroic fights can seldom be won alone.

Through our Mario Bros. exploits we have discovered the incredible power of synergy, and we’ve learned to rely on one another during the tougher parts of the game (Amber is the best at dodging falling rocks, and I’m the best at jumping on the giant frog at the end of each level). When we pool our strengths, and guard each other’s backs we progress much further than we could ever do on our own.

That sounds almost biblical doesn’t it? :)

The Bible makes it clear that life’s adventures should be tackled in community. Jesus never sent His followers out to do great works alone—at the very least he sent them out in pairs so that the power of unified synergy would accompany them. Leviticus 26: 8 says, “Five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand, and your enemies will fall by the sword before you.”

The principle in that verse has proven repeatedly true in my life–and it will likely be proven again tonight when Amber, Maddie, and I attempt to conquer level 5.

God in a tank top

Posted by pastorchrisjackson on
Superman

Image via Wikipedia

I hope this doesn’t sound too irreligious, but sometimes I wish I could see Jesus dressed in something other than His baggy, white robe, and blue sash.

Sometimes I’d like to see Him in a tank top.

Six times in the book of Deuteronomy Moses refers to God’s “Mighty hand and stretched out arm.” In Psalm 89:10 it says of the Lord, “You have scattered Your enemies with Your strong arm.” And then in verse 13 it says, “Your arm is endued with power…your right hand is exalted.”

One of our recurring failures as humans is to rely too heavily on the strength of our own “arms.” I do it all the time. I look at a situation through the grid of my personal strength and ability, and then gauge whether or not I have what it takes to come through. And that’s a terrible thing to do because Jeremiah 17:5 says, “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and who makes flesh his arm.” In its original Hebrew language the word “curse” means to hem in with obstacles, and render powerless. When we trust exclusively in our own strength we will eventually find ourselves surrounded and stuck.

We need to recapture a view of God that shows Him sustaining the universe by the word of His power. He is big enough to sustain you. He is vast enough to provide for your deepest needs…He is wise enough to help you navigate life’s tricky mazes…and He is strong enough to carry you through every twist and turn you might encounter during the course of your Christian race.