Monthly Archives: April 2010

“Thou dost keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusts in Thee. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.” Isaiah 26:3

Perfect peace. Let that sink in. Peace is not the absence of trouble or conflict, but the sense of God’s presence and assurance of His activity on your behalf in the midst of trouble. Perfect peace. That is what all of us want every day.

The remarkably good news is that God’s greatest desire is to give this perfect peace to His children. The way He offers it is our challenge. The passage for this week’s GraceWaves highlights both the gift and the means of receiving the gift. Let’s take a closer look at the passage and its context and see how God offers you His perfect peace even though you may be surrounded by trouble.

The “Isaiah Apocalypse” is four chapters running from Isaiah 24-27. God gave Isaiah the foresight to see the approaching Assyrian armies and describe in graphic detail the destruction that terrible force would bring to the land and people. But in typical Isaiah fashion, he also included the theme of hope. Even during the apocalyptic events that would occur in the northern kingdom, culminating in defeat and annexation in 721 B.C., a faithful person could find peace in God. Right in the middle of these dreadful four chapters, Isaiah reminded God’s people that even during an apocalypse, God will bless and keep His children.

We all face various forms and degrees of apocalypses. The challenge you encounter this week may be a threat to your health, the welfare of your children, lack of job security, or any of a dozen other stresses and anxieties. The fact that your apocalypse might not be as serious as another person’s apocalypse does not decrease its seriousness for you. In fact, I am not in sympathy with the effort to find someone who is worse off than you, and then breathe a sigh of relief. No. Your apocalypse is yours. Now what do you do?

Someone has said that the mind is like Velcro, whatever you throw at it tends to stick. What are you throwing at your mind? Your greatest challenge is to have your mind “stayed,” or fixed, on God. This means that you have settled the issue as to what is most important. You will keep God at the forefront of your thoughts throughout the day no matter what shifts and tumbles around you. You look at all of life through the lens of God’s providence and trust Him no matter what.

God’s promise for this discipline is truly wonderful: He will keep you in perfect peace. All that troubles you finds its solution in God. He provides a spiritual resource for your physical problems. When you try to take over a problem and solve it on your own, you are attempting a task that only God can accomplish. Attempt nothing without having a mind stayed on God.

Keep “throwing” this commitment and promise at your mind! When you feel the rising fear, quote the verse above. Let it be your reminder this week. Whatever the nature of your “personal apocalypse,” I pray that you will experience God’s perfect peace.

Grace,

Dr. Terry Ellis

“Don’t you understand yet?” Mark 8:21

In seminary, my favorite area of NT studies was the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), and in fact I wrote my dissertation on a topic from Mark. The word synoptic means to be seen together, and refers to the fact that the Synoptics often overlap in the stories and travels they share about Jesus. Because they contain so much common material, a careful reader has the opportunity to compare the stories and analyze selection, arrangement, and detail and discern what emphasis a particular writer was trying to convey. The feeding of the four thousand in Mark provides a good illustration. Only Matthew and Mark record the feeding of the 4000, and Mark is especially clear about the meaning of the miracle.

It’s the meaning of the miracle that we really want. Jesus never simply provided a power display to show how great He was. Certainly the miracles did point to His divinity, affirming that He is God’s Son, but the miracles also point the way to what God would do for us, or what our response to Him should be. In fact, John, apparently the latest of the gospels, dispels any confusion about power displays by never using the word miracle in his gospel. He called them signs. Signs point to something. In the feeding of the 4000, Mark helps us understand the sign.

After the miracle, Jesus was in a boat with the disciples as they began talking about the fact that they had forgotten to bring any bread with them. They had no food! How were they going to eat? Jesus overheard their discussion and wondered how they could be so dull. He specifically asked them how many extra baskets of food they took up after the feeding of the 5000. They answered “twelve.” And how many after the feeding of the 4000? “Seven.” Then He asked the question for this week’s GraceWaves, “Don’t you understand yet?”

Mark did not record the disciples’ answer, but it was likely, “Well . . . no.” In fact, I laid out this scenario for Leslie last week, and she had the same answer, “No, I don’t understand.” I usually have the same answer too. So do you. We don’t really understand what Jesus is trying to teach us about God’s presence and work in our lives.

I think Mark anticipated our confusion, and so included the discussion in the boat for our benefit. Think about it. Five thousand people had nothing to eat and no prospects for finding anything. Jesus provided. Then 4000 had nothing to eat and no prospects for finding anything. Jesus provided. Now what is your need today? Jesus will provide. That’s the meaning behind the miracle.

Your situation, your lack, your fear is not new to God. It did not take Him by surprise. Just has Jesus could take a few dried fish and loaves of bread and provide for thousands, God has already planned a way to meet your need. You might argue that you lack even the fish and loaves right now. Do you think that will stop a God who created everything out of nothing? Of course not!

Paul said it clearly and from abundant experience: “My God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:19). God has brought you this far. You can trust Him to take you through today, this week, and the remainder of your life. I suppose we tend to look at what we don’t have right now and fear that somehow that need will be permanently overlooked. That has never happened in a Christian’s life! Life takes away nothing that God does not provide for in greater abundance either here or in eternity. One purpose of GraveWaves is to remind you of the constant grace God washes over your life. It never fades, and it never fails.

“Don’t you understand yet?” That’s Jesus patient and loving question to you. All your years, He has walked beside you, and even carried you when necessary. Don’t live in fear of an exception. Trust Him. Stay faithful. Relax in His presence. He will provide.

Grace,

Dr. Terry Ellis

“When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish lying on it, and bread.” John 21:9

This week’s text may seem unusual. I doubt you ever memorized it for a Bible drill. It’s not included in any great devotional that I know of. But after reading this week’s GraceWaves I doubt you will ever forget it, or will ever look at a backyard cookout the same way.

The scene is the shore of the Sea of Galilee, some undetermined time after Jesus’ resurrection. “They” are the disciples, and the fire was prepared by Jesus. The narrative order in John’s gospel is very important. In chapter 20, Jesus had appeared a few times, He breathed the Holy Spirit on the disciples, and commissioned them to go out and change the world. After an appearance to Thomas the gospel ended.

Or so it seems. Though John 20:31 does sound like a fine ending, we find chapter 21. The disciples’ de facto leader, Peter, said “I am going fishing,” and a handful of the disciples returned to their previous work. They fished all night and caught nothing. Then in the early morning mists they saw a figure on the shoreline they soon realized was Jesus. Peter, always impulsive, jumped in and swam to the shore. And that brings us back to the fire and the fish.

You see, Jesus had prepared this fire so He could cook a breakfast for these hungry disciples. But it was not just any fire. The text is quite specific, John used a word that we find only twice in the NT, anthrakia, a charcoal fire. He wanted us to know Jesus had prepared a charcoal fire.

Along the shores of a lake (the Sea of Galilee is a large fresh water lake) you can always find plenty of driftwood. It has dried out in the sun and is perfect for a fire. But Jesus did not use driftwood. He used charcoal. Now we have to use our imagination here, but it might be fun, so play along. Before Jesus left heaven again to make this appearance, He got some charcoal. Maybe He had Gabriel go for it. “I need some charcoal,” He might have said, and Gabriel obeyed. He was a bit puzzled but he obeyed. And so Jesus appeared on the shore and built a charcoal fire.

Now let’s get back to the narrative. Recall that Peter had jumped out of the boat and swam ashore. He crawled up on the beach and ran to Jesus. He saw the fire, and, more importantly, I am sure he smelled the fire. Charcoal has a distinct smell, doesn’t it? Not like wood at all. Peter smelled the charcoal fire. One or the most powerful memory triggers is the sense of smell. A certain aroma will fire synapses and take you back to an event associated with that smell.

Remember I said that the word anthrakia is only used twice in the NT? The first time is in John 18:19 where Peter stood and warmed himself while denying that he even knew Jesus. Don’t you think that when Peter smelled that breakfast fire on the shores of the sea, he might well have remembered the last charcoal fire he stood by? Don’t you think that he remembered at that moment the denials and felt the shame? Don’t you think that is probably why he went fishing in the first place?

John 21 is best remembered for Jesus’ asking Peter three times if he loved Him, Peter affirming three times that he did, and Jesus telling him three times to go and get back to work feeding and tending the sheep. A threefold grace for a threefold denial, prefaced by a charcoal fire that would drive home the genuineness of that grace. The literary symmetry is a beautiful and unmistakable reflection of Jesus’ intent.

Peter went fishing because he believed that was the only thing he could do well. Jesus knew better. He knew Peter loved Him. He knew Peter’s faults. He knew what Peter could become through grace. And Jesus knows all of these things about you as well.

Sometimes you shy away from God because you are ashamed. You’re convinced God is disappointed in you, and so you have pulled in on yourself. You may feel that way this week. If so, come to the charcoal fire. Remember that God was not surprised by a single stumble on your part. In fact, He meets each failure with a grace that is so puzzling, so limitless, so real that all of us limping saints can find courage in that grace to get up and serve. Peter did, and so can you.

Your Father in heaven loves you dearly. Trust His grace and live in its power.

Grace,

Dr. Terry Ellis

“That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection.” Philippians 3:10

What happened on the Monday after Easter? We have no time-table for the resurrection appearances in the New Testament other than the obvious appearances on Sunday. We know He appeared to Thomas “eight days later” which would have been a Tuesday, I suppose. The appearance on the shores of the Sea of Galilee (John 21) was apparently much later. Matthew’s account of His appearance on a mountain in Galilee is uncertain in time and place. The same can be said of several appearances in Paul’s list in 1 Corinthians 15 (i.e. to 500 believers, James, and all the apostles). We do not know what happened on the first Monday right after Easter.

We are left to speculate. Preachers often portray the resurrection as an earth-shattering event, and while it certainly was that, it also took some time to sink in. I’m not sure it immediately transformed every disciple. The appearance in John 21 (“Peter, do you love me?”) seems to have occurred because the disciples went fishing for fish instead of men. Of even greater interest, is Matthew’s note about Jesus’ appearance to the eleven on the mountain in Galilee where “they worshiped Him, but some doubted” (28:17).

Modern Christians suffer from “chronological snobbery” particularly when it comes to the resurrection. We shake our heads at the dullness of the disciples who apparently simply did not pick up on the “and on the third day He will be raised” predictions. We seem to imagine that we would have been out in front of the tomb in lawn chairs waiting for His emergence. We’re sure, at least, one appearance would have been enough, and we would have turned from that glorious experience to immediately and unflinchingly change the world! The truth is very few of us, if any, would have done any better than the disciples.

That Monday after Easter was likely filled with puzzling uncertainty. Like you, they had to return to the business of living. And again like you, they did so with a sometimes faltering faith. In fact, I would argue that is why Jesus returned a few more times, to convince them that He was alive and they had a real message to share. He appeared, and then left them to wonder and try to sort it out. The Monday after Easter may have been a bit . . . normal. The disciples had to go about somewhat normal daily activities. Like you.

In many ways, I am sure, all Christians face the same challenge: how do you live in the glory of Easter? Or as Paul put it, how do you “know the power of His resurrection?” The simple answer is that through faith, each day, you cling to the fact of His life. He is not just a memory, or a “spirit that is still with us.” Paul’s constant refrain is that Christ is not only alive, but that He is alive in you.

One overlooked and very striking characteristic of the resurrection appearances in the New Testament is their paucity. We have maybe 7-8 depending on how you count them. Only 7-8. Why? Wasn’t Jesus trying to wean them off of a physical presence? (“do not hold on to Me, Mary!”). In the same way God works in all events today, wasn’t Jesus forcing them to grow in faith, just as He is forcing you to have faith in His presence?

On Monday, allow the brightness of Easter to shine gently. While you will never on a moment by moment basis be able to sustain the brilliance of an Easter service, you can bask in the glow. He has proven that He rose. You have felt His presence before. You were reminded in Sunday services. Now live by faith. Hear Him say “Do not fear. I am with you, and I will never leave.” Knowing the power of His resurrection means that while life may still be daunting, it is also filled with joy, meaning, and purpose because He is alive in you, the Monday after Easter. And every day.

Grace,

Dr. Terry Ellis