Monthly Archives: July 2010

"The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his thigh." (Gen. 32:31)

In this corner, Jacob, a man who had schemed his way through life beginning in the womb. Remember his little hand grasping his twin's heel, trying to win the race down the birth canal? Here is Jacob, remembered for cooking a stew for which his impulsive brother traded a vast estate. Here is Jacob, who deceived his old and blind father into giving him the blessing that should have gone to his elder. Here is Jacob, whose name at its best can mean "one who strives" but at its worst connotation "one who cheats." Here is Jacob who had lived out the latter meaning most of his life.

And in this corner, God, who needs no further introduction.

These two were destined to wrestle, and the great match took place one evening at the river Jabbok. Jacob was returning to his homeland, and feared for his life. Esau might not have been the sharpest knife in the drawer, but he was big, strong, and likely still angry. He had a right to be. Jacob knew it.

Jacob had spent his life trying to outdo everyone around him, and was largely successful. His scheming, however, had left a trail of bitterness, pain, and broken relationships. Had he learned anything? Probably not. He was just scared.

And that brings us back to the wrestling match. They went at it all night, Jacob and God. When the sun rose, Jacob was left with a thigh out of socket. The man who had never really lost would limp the rest of his life, but he never would have been the man God wanted him to be apart from that wound.

We do not have to be cheating usurpers to learn the lesson of this strange tale. The wrestling match at Jabbok is but one of countless illustrations of one of the basic axioms of God's gracewaves.

You see, we spend most of our time attempting to avoid all pain. There is nothing wrong with that. We spend a great deal more of our time trying to make life as easy as possible. Again, there is nothing wrong with that. The problem begins with the fact that life is neither painless nor easy, and it never will be. Our greater error comes when we attempt to transform the Christian faith into a kind of spiritual anodyne. We want faith to be an insulation from all pain and suffering.

We are like Jacob in that respect, always trying to "win," and surprised or disillusioned when life hurts. You will take a great step in faith when you learn the hard lesson that God's greatest interest is in transforming your pain, not necessarily removing it.

Your wounds are the portals through which God's grace enters more deeply into your life. He heals from within, so the scars remain. Or the limp. Ah, but what a glorious limp! For only after you have wrestled with God do you understand more deeply the wonder of grace and let go of more of the need to prove, defend, or promote yourself. This greater and cherished wisdom only comes through the wounds. Only through the wounds.

This is the principle Jacob learned at Jabbok. It is the same insight Paul gained through the abiding thorn. It is the glory that Jesus demonstrated on the cross.

This lesson is a hard one, and we resist it on many levels. That is why God is a wrestler. He keeps coming at us! In fact, the name Israel appears to mean "God strives" or "God persists." God wrestled with a hard-headed Jacob, trying to turn him from a self-directed life that had brought him a great deal of misery, to a life of simple trust in Him.

God strives and persists in your life as well, trying to get across that same message. He is calling to you in your pain, not necessarily to remove it, but to teach you that only when you limp can you learn to lean on Him. We all limp, it's just that some of us haven't learned the lesson that comes with the pain.

I can't say I'm proud of my limp, or any of my scars. But I am very glad I have them, for I know what I have learned, or let go of, through each struggle with God. These grace-filled lessons only come through the wounds. Only through the wounds. Don't seek the pain. It will find you. But don't fear it either. Each blow is an opportunity to lean more completely on your Father who loves you dearly.

Grace,

Dr. Terry Ellis

"I called to the Lord, out of my distress, and He answered me." Jonah 2:2

Jonah's story is one of the most familiar and favorites in the Bible. Children love to hear the story of a giant fish swallowing a man. Adults often spend useless energy arguing over how a man could live inside a fish, and miss the real point of the story that even God's people (Jonah) can misunderstand and puzzle over His amazing grace (He even loves the Ninevites?!?!?). Grace is eternally puzzling, and for that reason, so hard to accept, trust, and live by.

Another overlooked part of this little book is Jonah's prayer while inside the fish (2:1-9). I listened yesterday as someone read it in a worship service and knew I had to remind you of it in today's GraceWaves.

The verse quoted above is the opening line of the prayer. Jonah had wrestled with God's will and ran the other way. Sometimes God's will is gentle direction, other times it is divine mandate. Some people respond to the light. Other need to feel the heat, or in this case, feel the fish. Inside the belly of this great fish, Jonah began his prayer with confidence in God's attention. Even a reluctant and recalcitrant prophet like Jonah knew where to find grace. God is always glad to see His children return to Him, even when we are limping.

In the prayer, Jonah continued to describe his situation and how he arrived there. He was in the darkest place imaginable, "the belly of Sheol" (v. 2), believed he was "cast out from Thy presence" (v. 4), and sought deliverance from "the pit" (v. 6). Then he "remembered the Lord" (v. 7) and offered a prayer that ends with thanksgiving and confidence "Deliverance belongs to the Lord" (v. 9). Read the whole prayer. It will resonate with your soul. Now let's learn two important lessons.

First, Jonah recognized he was in a situation completely beyond his power to solve. More importantly, he had arrived there by taking his life into his hands and resisting God's will. We are quite good at making a mess out of our lives. Often we try to manage and manipulate situations and people, and then wonder why we are having such a hard go of it. In truth, we always live on the edge of chaos and the sooner we forsake the illusion of control the better. Jonah should have "call out to the Lord" early in his crisis, when he first felt the pressure of being called to go to Nineveh. He would have gained strength for the journey and avoided the unpleasantness of residing in a fish for three days. So, walk closely with God, and call out to Him regularly, not as a last resort. At the very least you will lessen the frequency of that chaos invading your life.

Second, Jonah's soaring prayer and confidence came before deliverance. Not until verse 10 did God speak to the fish to spit out Jonah on dry land. Jonah's prayer came while he was in "the pit." Faith, thanksgiving, and praise are wonderful any time, but much more persuasive and helpful when coming while in the pit. I love my personal stories of deliverance, but find that I grow in grace best while still surrounded by darkness and while the thorn remains. So learn to believe, thank, and praise God when you are sliding down into the pit or standing on the bottom of the pit, not just when you are walking away from it. Consistent awareness of God's gracewaves creates a certain spiritual state which God uses for your deliverance.

David also spent occasions in the pit. He wrote Psalm 34 while standing on the bottom. His plea to God can be yours as well, "Say to my soul, 'I am your deliverance!'" (v. 3). Pray that prayer. Tell God you need to hear the words "I am your deliverance." He will answer.

Grace,

Dr. Terry Ellis

"And He said to him, 'Rise and go. Your faith has made you whole.'" Luke 17:19

There's a great difference in biblical terms between being healed and being made whole. The statement above is Jesus' final words to the one leper who returned to thank Him for being healed. You recall ten were healed, but only this "foreigner" (v. 18) came back to express his gratitude. Jesus then drew the distinction. He noted in verse 17 that ten had been healed (from which we get the English word catharsis). Only this man was "made whole."

The word can be translated as "saved," as in Christian salvation, but that is not what Jesus meant here. The basic meaning of the word is to be delivered or rescued. Yes, it can refer to being rescued from spiritual death, but in this passage we are definitely to understand the contrast between healing and being made whole. The leper had taken another step beyond healing.

Let's look at it this way. Healing happens to many people, in fact most people, not merely in the physical sense of surviving a disease, but in the spiritual sense of benefitting from God's manifold grace. Thus all ten lepers enjoyed the benefit of being free of a disease. So all of us enjoy a certain default grace from God. That is His nature. He "graces" us all.

But do even 10% of us make the connection between healing and wholeness? Probably not. Most people take for granted the healing that comes in an infinite variety of ways, and fail to take the next step of genuine gratitude and devotion to God. Many are healed, few are made whole. Actually, the chief purpose of GraceWaves is to alert you to God's grace so that you can move toward wholeness. Very few people are aware. I want you to be one of them.

So, what about you? Are you healed? Or made whole? Better yet, how can you make the transition?

First, wholeness means a deeper commitment to God, a more constant awareness of the indwelling Christ. "Every good gift comes from above, from the Father of lights" (James 1:17). Stop attributing blessings to your own skill or good fortune. You are deeply loved by a heavenly Father who knows how to give good gifts to you. He has. Be devoted to Him.

Second, begin seeing yourself as the leper. What I mean here, is that sometimes your inability to draw close to God results from not recognizing your need for healing. Think about it this way: who are your biblical role models? Most might choose John, or Paul, even Peter. But they choose these characters in their redeemed best. It's far better to relate to their weakness and need, not just to their triumph.

Recently, someone close to me said she had a new role model, Mary Magdalene. She told me that Mary had seven demons and may have even been a prostitute, but became extraordinarily close to Jesus. She identified with Mary's struggle, her need for grace, and identified with that same need. That dawning realization brought her closer to Jesus. That's being made whole.

We do far better to see ourselves in Mary, or in the prodigal, or even Paul with his thorn, rather than imagining ourselves to be great spiritual giants. You are not, and the sooner you realize a basic and enduring need for grace, the closer you move to wholeness. Trust me, God loves that attitude. That is why Jesus "ate with sinners" and why they felt so comfortable around Him. Mary's tender gratitude brought her so close to Jesus that she was the last one at the cross, the first one to the tomb, the first to see Him raised, the first to proclaim the resurrection. It all started with a healing (seven demons exorcised) and quickly moved toward wholeness (an enduring devotion to Christ).

So every time you feel a special moment of grace in your life, turn back to Jesus. Thank Him for the healing, limp a little closer, and grow in your devotion to Him. Let "the things of this world" dim a bit more. And hear Him say "you are made whole."

Grace,

Dr. Terry Ellis

"Keep your life free from the love of money, and be content with what you have; for He has said, 'I will never fail you nor forsake you.'" Hebrews 13:3

Do you remember your first job? Do you recall what you were paid? I do. My first job was at Rosemont Grocery, a little, full-service grocery store, originally on the outskirts of town but long since having been swallowed up by an ever-growing Lexington. It was across the street from where we lived, and I had been going there on errands for a loaf of bread or a gallon of milk ever since we moved to that house. The owner and clerks knew me and had watched me grow up to some degree. It was just natural, I suppose, that when they wanted another sack boy, I was it. I was paid $1.10 an hour, and during the summers when I could work more hours I took home $24.10 a week.

A few months after I began working there another friend of mine got a job at Kroger, the big chain grocery store. Now I don't know what his hourly wage was, and I don't know how many hours he was working. Come to think of it I don't even know if he was telling the truth, but he said he took home $80 per week. $80! I can remember thinking, "what would you do with all that money? How could you possibly spend $80 per week?"

Suddenly my weekly income seemed inadequate. "If only I could reach that level I would have no more worries! Life would be easy when I made $80 per week." Well I surpassed $80 per week at some point, only to discover that if I made $100 per week (triple figures!!) life would be easy. Having reached that level, I discovered a new level of desire. Nothing ever seemed quite enough. I was always dissatisfied. I had fallen in the trap of always wanting a little bit more.

The principle at work here is called discontent, and it can affect every avenue of life. Money, relationships, career, health, etc. Discontent invites you to focus on what you do not have, makes you believe that something else will satisfy you, and forces you to miss what God has given you.

The result is you are always straining, straining to make something of yourself. Straining to get more. Straining to justify yourself or feel more important. It comes in a number of expressions, but the result is always the same. Being discontent means missing out on the joy that God has placed right before you.

The Biblical antidote to this spiritual malaise is called contentment. Verses are sprinkled through the Bible. We find it in Philippians 4:11-13 where Paul wrote that he had learned to be content and to trust that in Christ he can do all things necessary.

A very interesting appearance of this theme is from Solomon. First, in Proverbs he wrote, "the fear of the Lord leads to life, then one rests content, untouched by trouble" (19:23). Sounds great doesn't it? I don't think Solomon stayed with that wisdom. In his darker days of Ecclesiastes he wrote of the man who is never satisfied with riches (4:8), and that a man of wealth may not have the power to enjoy his wealth (6:2). It sounds autobiographical.

The key is found in Hebrews 13:5: "Keep your life free from the love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, 'I will never fail you nor forsake you.'" Focus on stuff and you will always want a little bit more. Focus on God and you will wonder at the abundance of His blessings.

Of course, God is what you always needed. You just did not realize it. Perhaps you will one day reach the spiritual contentment of the anonymous author who wrote:

"Once it was the blessing,

Now it is the Lord.

Once it was a feeling,

Now it is His Word.

Once the gift I wanted,

Now the Giver own.

Once I sought the healing,

Now the Healer alone."

Discontent knows no economic ceiling or floor. You can have a great deal or very little and be discontent. God can free you from the curse of always wanting a little bit more. And in that state you will find the grace of being content.

Grace,

Dr. Terry Ellis