Are you struggling with a very difficult time in your life?  I know several people close to me who are having a hard time with the situations they find themselves facing.  “I am sorry” seems like a pretty pathetic attempt to help in a life crisis. So where does that leave us? Satan loves nothing more than to enter into our lives at a pivotal weak point. He causes our minds to wonder, maybe even to occasionally doubt our faith and purpose.  He causes us to ask hard questions.  I don’t know about you, but I am glad God allows us to come before him just the way we are.  We can bring whatever questions we have before him. So for my dear friends that are struggling, I offer you Psalm 56:8. He has not forgotten you, and in fact loves you dearly. This verse tells of the extremely intimate side of God’s love.

“You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle.  You have recorded each one in your book.” Psalm 56:8

We perhaps are so confused after a long course of trouble, that we hardly know where we have or have not been; but God remembers all in detail; for he has counted them over as men count their gold, for even the trial of our faith is precious in his sight.

This text speaks of David.  He says that God would take notice of his afflictions and troubles, which had caused so many tears, and remember them, and deliver him out of them: these being desired to be put into a bottle was, that they might be kept and reserved.  It seems probable, that this eludes to the custom of collecting tears shed in a time of calamity and sorrow, and preserving them in a small bottle or "lachrymatory," as a memorial of the grief. The Romans had a custom, that in a time of mourning - on a funeral occasion - a friend went to one in sorrow, and wiped away the tears from the eyes with a piece of cloth, and squeezed the tears into a small bottle of glass or earth, which was carefully preserved as a memorial of friendship and sorrow.  David is trusting the Lord will be so considerate of his tears as to store them up as men do the juice of the vine, and he hopes that the place of storage will be a special one -- thy bottle, not just any bottle.

“Are they not in thy book?” Yes they are; that is, the tears and afflictions of his people. They are in his book of purposes; they are all appointed by him, their kind and nature, their measure and duration, their quality and quantity; what they shall be, and how long they shall last; and their end and use: and they are in his book of providence, and are all overruled and caused to work for their good; and they are in the book of his remembrance; they are taken notice of and numbered by him, and shall be finished; they shall not exceed their bounds. These tears will be turned into joy, and God will wipe them all away from the eyes of his people. (Gill’s Exposition of the Bible)

I love the picture of a dear friend wiping away the tears with a piece of cloth, and squeezing them into a jar, which was carefully preserved as a memorial of friendship and sorrow. What a picture of love and devotion to someone. However, one day our Savior will wipe our tears, but will not place them in a bottle, but will deliver us from them forever. In James 1 the Bible says, 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything….. 12 Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.  I want to leave you with these words from Casting Crowns song Just Be Held:

Hold it all together
Everybody needs you strong
But life hits you out of nowhere
And barely leaves you holding on

And when you're tired of fighting
Chained by your control
There's freedom in surrender
Lay it down and let it go
So when you're on your knees and answers seem so far away

You're not alone, stop holding on and just be held
Your worlds not falling apart, its falling into place
I'm on the throne, stop holding on and just be held
Just be held, just be held

Who Do You Say I Am

Mark 8:27 And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. And on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” 28 And they told him, “John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.” 29 And he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Christ.”

Sometimes as I teach kids worship I have these thoughts “Are they listening?” “Do they understand what I am saying?”  Sometimes it can be so frustrating because you will do everything you can to teach the lesson, but walk away wondering if you even scratched the surface.  Then there is the day when you ask what they have learned so far.  There is silence, and then all of a sudden the silence is broken, and your heart is overwhelmed because you realize they were listening, and they do understand.  This was my experience this week when I asked, “what does it mean to take up your cross and follow Jesus daily?”  A first grader slipped his hand in the air and said, “It means you pick Jesus up in the morning and take him everywhere you go.”  It made my day! For the last month we have been getting ready for our Easter Journey, which will begin this Sunday after Lent.  We have been studying two questions based out of Mark 8 “Who is Jesus to me?” and  “How do my actions show I love Jesus?” You see their view of Easter is determined by how they answer these questions.

Who is Jesus to you?  I am not asking for the Christian answer, or what people would assume you would say, I am asking you to really think about the question. How you answer this question will directly affect how you live your life.  You see every morning when you wake up; you make a case either for or against Jesus.  Every morning you have the choice to live your day as Christ has commanded, or to walk in the flesh.  It doesn’t matter what we say about Jesus, if we have no actions to back it up.  Paul is a wonderful example of not only making claims about Jesus, but also living his life as though he truly believed it. I imagine Paul would have answered the question above something like this; Jesus is my- Savior, Redeemer, Healer, Son of God, Comforter, Jehovah, Deliverer, Shepherd, Priest, Everlasting, King, Messiah, Prince of Peace, Aba Father, just to name a few. We may also answer in the same way, but do our actions match what we claim.  Sadly enough, we are guilty of uttering empty words because we do not believe what we are saying, or we fail to have the faith or discipline to live it out. 

This week in Bible Study we covered Acts 20.  Paul is getting ready to say good-bye to the Ephesian Elders after spending several years with them.  Paul knows they will never see him again, but can walk away with no regrets because he has poured himself out to the Ephesians. (Romans 12:1 …. present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.)  In chapter 20 Paul is talking to the Ephesian Elders……
Acts 20:24
You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, 19 serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews; 20 how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, 21 testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. 22 And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by[c] the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, 23 except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. 24 But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. 25 And now, behold, I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again. 26 Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all, 27 for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. 28 Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God,[d] which he obtained with his own blood……  35 In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

Paul not only told us in scripture who Jesus was to him, but he gave us numerous examples of actions that solidified his claims.  Is Jesus something so special that you would not shrink away from proclaiming the Gospel to everyone you meet?  Is he so dear to you, that you count your life of no value, unless you are glorifying Him?  Is he so important that you would travel to a land where you knew persecution awaited?  If the answer is uncertainty, there is no time like the present to settle it. May we as Christians be able to answer as definitively as Peter, “You are the Christ.”

Here is a little Reminder

Lent is tomorrow, which marks the forty-day march to Easter.  Every year I write to you about Lent because it has made a big impact on how I celebrate Easter.  It is a time of preparing, and making ourselves ready to celebrate the biggest event in Christian history. I cannot imagine a better time to visit the question  “Who is Jesus, and do my actions agree?”