Beautiful on the Mountains

“Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. ¹³ But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.”

I’m always surprised by suffering. I’m not sure why, but I expect good things to happen to me and am caught off guard by the “fiery ordeals.” I forget that Jesus was a man of sorrows. I don’t think this meant that Jesus walked around in a bad mood all the time, but rather that the arch of Jesus’s life was bent toward suffering. He was born to die. He was sent into the world as God’s Lamb and the Lamb was meant for sacrifice. 

Peter wants the suffering Christians of his day and ours to see our sufferings as connected to our identity in Christ. Our suffering is a “participation” in the sufferings of Christ. When we suffer as Christians we should count it as an honor. Our salvation from sin came through the suffering of Jesus and perhaps our suffering with Jesus, will lead to others knowing the source of their salvation. We should be ready and count it an honor to suffer for and with Jesus. 

Growing up there were a number of U.S. Senators who had been wounded in combat. One such Senator was Daniel Inouye. Inouye was a Japanese American whose parents had immigrated to Hawaii. He was a senior in High School when Pearl Harbor was bombed. He sought to enlist in the U.S. Army but was initially banned because all Japanese Americans were deemed “enemy aliens.”  When later the Army created a Nisei combat unit, Inouye joined. During the battle in Italy, Inouye was struck by a German grenade that led to the amputation of his right arm. He was reported to have ordered his fellow soldiers who had stopped to tend to him back to their positions yelling, “Nobody called off the war!”

Once I heard Senator Inouye’s story I had new respect for the empty sleeve that hung from his shoulder. It signified a connection to a sacrifice from which I had benefited undeservedly. Our society honors those who gave themselves for our nation. How much more should we not only honor our Savior who gave himself for us, but count it an honor when we also suffer for the name of Christ? The suffering of Christ came to an end. His humiliation preceded his exaltation. So, it is with the followers of Christ. We may be humiliated now, we may suffer now, we may be filled with sorrow now, but that will soon be turned to joy. Christ is returning. Our pain is limited. Our joy, glory, and honor will be unlimited. Live your life in a way that shows the honor of being a follower of Jesus. 

1 Peter 4:7 “The end of all things is near. Therefore be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray.”

Prayer keeps our mind engaged with spiritual matters. We wake up in the morning with a million things on our minds. My mind can flit between a dozen things in a mere moment: family, sports, bills, groceries, things that need fixing, aching body parts and back again. It takes concentration and intention to focus on spiritual things. Because we are in the final stages of God’s redemptive plan on earth we need to be focused. Perhaps Peter’s past mistakes informed his admonition here. Peter is like a father who remembered the mistakes of his youth when instead of praying with Jesus, he dozed off and then dozed off again. He doesn’t want us, his readers, to make the same mistakes he made. He wants us to keep track of the time and to pray. 

Peter did not know when Jesus was coming back, but he knew that it could be at any time. There was nothing preventing Jesus’s return and Christians needed to be busy and ready. I don’t think Peter would have been surprised if Jesus had returned in his lifetime, but I don’t think he’d be surprised that two thousand years later we are still waiting. In Peter’s second letter he wrote:

“⁸ But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. ⁹ The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:8-9).

Jesus is never late. He arrives precisely as he has planned. Peter understood that while we are told to wait and watch, Jesus’ has his purpose and plan. The Lord is patient and is working through his people to bring people to repentance. He sent prophet after prophet for 800 years to the children of Israel before he allowed the Babylonians to wipe out Jerusalem and take Judah into captivity.  The Lord’s patience is because of his desire to save, “Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation” (2 Peter 3:15). 

When times are tough, I really want to see my Savior’s face. When times are good, I can easily drift. Peter reminds us that in the good times and bad we need to stay focused. The return of Christ is near so be ready, but every day that the Lord tarries, we see God’s patience in bringing sinners to himself. Let us encourage each other to be sober minded, clear headed, and engaged in the hard ministry of prayer so that when the Lord returns for us he will find us faithful. 

1 Peter 4:4 “They are surprised that you do not join them in their reckless, wild living, and they heap abuse on you.”

Humility and integrity are crucial characteristics of believers. As Christians we must know who we are and live what we know. We should be humble because we know the sinful thoughts, actions, and attitudes that Christ rescued us from. Peter reminded the believers of this in verse 3, “you have spent enough time in the past doing what the pagans choose to do…” Christ rescued us from that life—we did not rescue ourselves. When we see the brokenness of the world around us, the Christian is moved with pity and humility because we know that except for Christ that is where we would be.

We must also live with integrity. We must live what we know. As soon as we separate ourselves from the mainstream, we are inviting attention. It is uncomfortable to have all eyes on us. It would be easier to go with the flow, but we are no longer part of this world’s kingdom. We belong to Christ. If we say we are Christ’s, we must live like we are Christ’s. Living in the world but not living of the world will make us stand out in ways that invite scrutiny. If we live with integrity, we may incite some to test our integrity through abuse.

One of the enemy’s chief tactics is confuse people with the mistaken idea that majority makes right. If everyone is doing it, it must not be wrong. You hear phrases like, “popular consensus,” “mainstream,” and “right side of history,” which make us feel like if we don’t agree with the majority then we must by default be wrong. When the lost are confronted with ideas and behaviors that make them question the safety of their position they may lash out. When the Holy Spirit confronts their sinfulness through the contrasting light of a believer’s righteous life, the natural response is to attack.

This is where it is crucial that we have humility and integrity. We must not take on superior airs but remember that the only difference between us and them is that we were rescued. We must patiently endure the trial, because God may be using this to bring them to repentance. We must act in integrity, because the authenticity of our faith may be being tested to see if what we are claiming is real.

Does your life hold up to scrutiny? Do your neighbors, family members, and children see that you are growing in your walk with Christ? How do you respond when you are attacked for not going along with the sinful ways of the culture? Do you respond with the attitude of Christ? Do you have humility and gentleness that might win the lost or do you respond with the pride and defensiveness that the world would expect? If not, confess and commit that to Christ.

Let us remember the sufferings of Christ and the holiness of Christ and arm ourselves with the same attitude as Christ, no matter the cost.

1 Peter 2:20-21 “But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God.  To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.”

Whether we suffer or not, our lives are to be lived in a way that is wholly devoted to God. Suffering is not part of God’s original design for humanity. God made the world and humanity perfectly—very good. Suffering in all its varieties and contours, is ultimately the result of the sin which we so foolishly chose over God. That does not mean however that each instance of suffering is the result of a specific sin. This was one of the issues that Jesus addressed with the religious leaders of his day. In John 9 they pointed out a man who was born blind and ask Jesus whose sin was responsible for his blindness? Was his suffering because of his sin or his parents’ sin? Jesus responded, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned… but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.” For this man, his temporary suffering was given to him as an occasion for an amazing miracle that highlighted who Jesus was. 

That may seem somewhat callous of God. Is God right to permit suffering in our lives if the purpose of it, is to bring glory to him? As Christians we say, “yes!” When we say yes, we are committing to a value judgement. We trust that the good that God is doing in our lives is of such higher comparative value, that the temporary suffering worth it. This is what Scripture affirms in Romans 8:18, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” 

We see this illustrated in our daily lives. When my son comes home from football practice with sore muscles and skinned up knees, we tell him, “No pain, no gain.” His suffering in practice will be worth it when the games begin. When we take a child to get a vaccination and they cry out from the pain of the needle, we remind ourselves that the pain of the needle is far less than the pain of polio. When the musician’s fingers are sore and blistered from practicing endless hours, we deem it as worth it as we enjoy the skillfully played concert. 

God redeemed Christ’s suffering for our good. God is redeeming your suffering as well. There is coming a day when all suffering will cease. Won’t that be amazing? But until that day we can count on hardships. How do we endure? We must keep our eyes on our example. We must follow in his steps by trusting God and allowing him to do his work in our lives. We must glorify God by maintaining our holiness and faith as God does his purifying work in our lives. The blind man had no idea that his many years of blindness were going to serve the purpose of displaying Jesus’ glory to the billions who have read that story and believed. You do not know how God is going to use your current pain in your life or in the life of another. 

• How has God used pain in your life for his glory? 
• How can you encourage someone else who is going through a season of suffering? 

“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep.” John 10:14-15

Jesus is the Good Shepherd. We understand what it means to be good and we understand what it means to be a shepherd, but what does it mean to be a “Good Shepherd?” It doesn’t just mean that Jesus is good at the task of shepherding (which he is of course), but that he is the archetype of all shepherds. He’s morally and ethically superior, and even beautiful in the way that he cares for the sheep. John 10:11 makes it clear that the Good Shepherd is not just willing to defend the sheep, but to lay down his very life for his sheep. He cares for the sheep in a way that the hired hand cannot. He seeks out the lost sheep and brings them in to his fold. He knows his sheep and his sheep know him. They follow him, and nothing can snatch them awayfrom his care.  

What an amazing thing to be cared for by such a Good Shepherd! What amazes me even more is the way that Jesus restores us when we fall away. Jesus shepherded his disciples right up to the very end. Peter was very close to being snatched away. When Jesus was seized and taken to be killed, Peter’s faith waivered and nearly failed. He was not the strong and steady rock, but he was unstable and denied Jesus when the moment of trial came. For Peter the shame was too much to bear. He had not just been a follow of Christ; he was a leader. He was bold and had made brash statements about his faith that all proved to be hot air. When Jesus came to Peter on the beach following Jesus’ resurrection, Peter was a broken man, not fit to lead anything or anyone. 

Peter could not match Christ’s love, but Christ condescended to Peter’s level, took him where he was at, and restored him to where he needed to be. Not only did he remind Peter of his love for him, but he restored Peter to a place of meaningful ministry. “’Do you love me?’ He said, ‘Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said, ‘Feed my sheep.^’” Jesus is the Good Shepherd, because he lays his life down for us, he knows us, he leads us, he protects us, but he also restores us. 

Many people let past failures keep them serving Jesus now. They let shame keep them from true fellowship with Christ and his people. Christ not only took our guilt upon himself on the cross, he also took our shame. There is nothing left to keep us from being free and open to serve Jesus Christ. What can someone bring against you that he doesn’t already know? What new sin can they discover that he hasn’t already covered with his blood? Give it to Jesus. Give it all to him. Let him bear you up, heal you, and restore you to the place of ministry he has prepared for you. 

A special thank you to Pastor Tae Kim for his charge on Sunday from John 21.

The song is so stuck in our heads that we miss the meaning of the Psalm, “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God.” We imagine the exhausted deer making its way down to the peaceful stream finally finding what it needs at the water’s edge. We imagine a hope realized, but that is not where this Psalm leaves us. The Psalmist cries out, “when can I go and meet with God? My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me all day long, ‘Where is your God?’” That is not a cry of hope realized. That is a cry of hope yet deferred. 

People often a assume that a pastor’s ears are virgin ears that aren’t accustomed to hearing the harsh reality of the world. The truth is our ears are world weary. We hear the cries of broken saints whose faith is holding on by a fingertip. The cries of mother’s suffering from their prodigal child’s self-destructive addiction, rock our souls. The broken-hearted curses of the cheated on, beaten up, and let down, break our hearts too. We hear the worst of this world and sit mute when there are no answers on this side of eternity. At our best we sit silently, not adding to the chorus of Job’s friends, and point to the Rock that is higher than all of us. 

“Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me…I say to God my Rock, ‘Why have you forgotten me?’”

The pain of grief is old every morning. We live in community with suffering, and yet our pain isolates and separates us. The panting deer of Psalm 42 is the panting of deer that is longing for refreshment that it can’t find. And yet, there is hope. There is pain in remembering the good that God once did for us. There is pain in remembering the joy we once had in the presence of God that we can’t currently enjoy. There is pain, but there is hope. God is not quite visible, but that does not mean he is not there. The psalmist musters up the threads of faith that still bind his wandering heart to God’s and with the last bit of strength he has left, preaches to his own heart, “Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.” 

The Psalm ends not with hope satisfied, but with hope, nonetheless. The Lord is your Savior and your God. He will not fail. 

“Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor” (1 Peter 2:17).

In our individualistic culture, it is a temptation to reduce the Christian life to a private, internal matter between God and the believer only. While it is true that each individual stands before the Lord by him or herself and must personally put their trust in Christ, our salvation has social consequences. Our new birth radically transforms the way we view every part of life and society. 2 Corinthians 5:17 speaks specifically to the individual: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” The context however, speaks to the transformed nature of our relationship with others. Notice the following verses (18-20) “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.”

Our freedom in Christ is a freedom to represent Christ to the world. How does this play out practically? Peter begins and ends this verse with the concept of honor. It is no accident that he uses the same word in Greek (translated both respect and honor) to describe the Christian’s attitude not only to the emperor, but to every person. This attitude has leveling affect. We don’t honor governmental leaders as if they were gods and we don’t dishonor others as if they were common. Instead, we treat everyone as worthy of dignity and respect. There are “no mere mortals” as C.S. Lewis once wrote. Every person is made in the image of God and is endowed with dignity by his or her Creator. The gospel frees us to show honor both to the high and mighty and to the down and dirty of this world.

Our relationship with our fellow believer goes beyond mere honor. We are called to love the family of believers. Love is deeper, stronger, and more intimate than honor. Of course, we must honor believers too since they are included in the “everyone,” but our relationship is transformed from outsider to family by our adoption into the family of God. Love takes commitment and effort. It is hard to love some people. Even people that we find easy to love are not easy to love all the time. We don’t choose to love the family of God simply because they are lovable, we love them because of who they are in Jesus.

This brings us to the foundational relationship in this list. We are reminded to fear God. This is a strange concept to our Western minds. How can we fear someone we are supposed to love? Fear of God is connected in the Bible with worship and praise. In Matthew 9:8 for instance the crowds saw the miracles of Jesus and “they were filled with [fear]; and they praised God…” Fear doesn’t have to mean malevolent terror. Instead, the fear of God is holy reverence in the presence of the supremely awesome. When I walk up the edge of the Grand Canyon, I’m filled with both fear and wonder—wonder, because it’s amazing, and fear, because I know if I take a wrong step, I’ll be dead. The beauty of the fear of God is that it is the only fear that makes no room for any other fear. A proper fear of God actually drives away other fears. When I am in proper awe of the power and wonder of God, what else could I be worried about? In this sense, fear of God is the basis for all other relationships. I don’t have to worry about someone of higher status than me. Who are they compared to God? I don’t have to be bothered by the petty insults of my neighbor. I am free to honor, and I am free to love. I am free to serve, and I am free to worship, because I now have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Because I know God through Jesus, and Jesus has demonstrated God’s love and acceptance, I am free to love and serve with the confidence.

• How should being known and loved by God give you a sense of freedom?
• What are areas of ministry where fear of man is holding you back from serving with freedom?

This week Monday was my 46^th birthday. Birthdays are a great time to reflect on all the ways that God has blessed. Psalm 119:1-16 is a great Psalm to start to the week. Had you ever thought before about what is a blessed life? When I woke up on Monday morning to my wife’s sweet birthday greeting, when I got to spend relaxing time with my family, and with each text, card, and comment I received, I was reminded of God’s good graces in my life. As I sit and write this, I feel overwhelmed by the good life God has given to me. At 46 I’ve lived long enough to know that every day won’t feel like this one. There will be plenty of days that don’t feel good. There will be days when although I know God won’t be any less good, my active awareness of his goodness will be veiled. In those moments I won’t be able to trust my senses. In the darkness faith must be my sight. 

Psalm 119 reminds us not only of how to conceive of the good life, but how to live the good life. We all need instructions we need a pattern. Our heroes are those that we perceive as living the good life—the blessed life.  The blessed life is a life that is at peace with God and others and only in God’s Word do we find God’s instructions on how to live that life. Psalm 119 is a reminder that we need to let the Word of God become our treasure and delight so that we can know it, love it, and live it. God’s Word teaches us about God, his world, and our place in this world. But not only did God give us the Bible, he gave us a living breathing example. He gave us a hero to follow. God’s Word is the instruction manual and Jesus Christ himself, the Word made flesh, is the pattern for us as Christians.

As we grow in Christ our heroes change because we grow in our understanding of what the good life really is. As you read this you may be thinking of others in the body of Christ who help you follow Christ through their faithful example. Someone might be looking at you as an example right now. This is our joy and our obligation to one another. The fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22-26) will grow at different rates in each of us and at different seasons in our life. God uses our church family to celebrate with us in the easy times, but also to keep us going during those dark times when we can’t see God’s hand as clearly. That is one reason why we need each other, so that together we can be conformed to the image of Christ and live the life that God intended for us to live.

Psalm 147:1 “Praise the Lord. How good it is to sing praises to our God, how pleasant and fitting to praise him!”

One of my favorite fairy tales (or faerie tales if you want to seem olde timey) is the Princes and the Goblin by George MacDonald. The hero of the story is a boy named Curdie who uncovers a plot by an underground kingdom of goblins to kidnap the princess and destroy Curdie’s village.  The goblins are fearsome creatures with only two weaknesses: sensitive feet and a strong aversion to singing. I love the mental image of young Curdie bouncing through the night, turning back the hordes of darkness by smashing feet and singing at the top of his lungs.

Nothing pushes back the darkness like the cry of halleluiah. Praise calms our minds, lifts our spirits, and encourages our brothers and sisters. Why is that? Because when we sing praise to the Lord our heads, our hearts, and our emotions are lifted in the same direction. 

Sometimes our heads betray us. We start thinking about all that could go wrong. We start imagining worst case scenarios. We begin to doubt in the dark what we saw clearly in the light. Sometimes our hearts betray us.  We find ourselves loving the wrong things. Our affections get tangled up in the empty issues of this world. We lose our first love and wonder if we can ever recover it again. Sometimes it is our emotions that betray us. We feel dead inside. Our sorrow blocks out the light. The feeling of faith doesn’t match what we know or love and that unsettles us. 

So what do we do when shadows fall? Where can we turn when worry worms its way into the recesses of our minds and won’t get out? What would God have us do when our heads, hearts, and emotions are misaligned? Force your mouth to sing. Sing songs of praise to the Lord. Sing songs that drive you deep into the depths of who God is. Sing songs that remind you of God’s might acts. Shout to the Lord with a loud Halleluiah! 

Here are some practical suggestions for how you can incorporate worship into your Monday-Saturday week:

1. Take the bulletin home and sing through the songs at home. The songs we sing on Sunday can also be found on the Redeemer Church Spotify playlist so you can sing along at home throughout the week.
2. Get a hymnal and sing some of the old hymns of the faith as part of your regular time of daily worship. 
3. Read the Psalms and sing them! Maybe you’re like me and like to make up your own tunes or if you are less inventive there are collections of Psalms set to tunes that can be sung. The 1650 Psalter App is one helpful tool. There are also a number of Christian recording artists such as Shane and Shane, The Corner Room, and Sons of Korah who have recorded many Psalms in contemporary styles.