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Thursday, January 4, 2018

JE! KUNA AMALI KAMILIFU?


Image result for sitting on high cliff
Mara nyingi mkristo amezoelea mabadilko ya mazungumzo na marafiki zake juu ya imani yake . wakati akieleza ni imani zipi ambazo kipekee zilikuwa na umuhimu wa kipekee katika maisha yake binafsi.na vilevile katika kanisa najamii , mjadala ulijikita zaidi juu ya amali maalumu na mambo maalum. Siku hizi, maswali hayo mara nyingi si yenye kuvutia kwa kuwa sasa hivi mjadala.
Unajikumbusha juu ya suala  la haki za mtu binafsi kulazimisha amali zake mwenyewe juu ya wengine .suala la utandavu wa amali limekwishaibuka mbele ya amali za kipekee zilizo kwisha tajwa.
Ni rahisi kudai kuwa hakuna amali kamilifu . suala ni kujua iwapo tamko hili laweza kulindwa. Mtu hahitaji muda mrefu kutafuta bila kutambua amali binafsi za mpinzani wake . hakatai amali kwa ujumla , bali  ana mfumo wake wa kima adili.
Wanafalsafa wachache wamejaribu kufikiri kikamilifu wazo hilo kuwa hakuna amali kamilifu, na kwamba kila kitu ni chenye uhusiano  na kingine.Mmoja kati ya watu muhimu kabisa ni mwanafalsa wa kifarasa , Albert Camus  1913-1960, ambaye alikifinyanga kizazi kizima cha wanafunzi , Ingawa wachache walitamani kwenda umbali aliokuwa amekwenda yeye.
Camus aliunda “falsafa ya Mpumbavu”,ambayo kwa ujumla ilinga amali kamilifu.Alikuwa akitambua matokeo ya mfumo wa amali zenye uhusiano.

“Ikiwa mtu haamini chochote , Ikiwa chochote Kina maana,na ikiwa hatuwezi kuthibitisha amali, kila kitu kitu chawezekana na hakuna kilicho muhimu”.

Hakuna kwa ajili ya au kinyume na mwuaji si mwenye haki wala asiye haki .mtu aweza kuwasha matanuru kwa utayari ulio sawa na Yule  anayetoa msaada kwa kilema .uovu na wema hutokea kwa bahati au ghafla.
Kwa ujumla hakuna miongoni mwetu ambaye yuko tayari kukubali matokeo ya kupinga kabisa amali kamilifu –kwa hakika.

“Iwapo ningepaswa kuandika bubuso (dogma) la kimaadili , kitabu kingekuawa na ukubwa wa kurasa 100, lakini kurasa 99 kati ya hizo zingekuwa wazi. Katika ukurasa wa mwisho ningeandika , ‘Ninajua  jukumu moja tu, jukumu la kupenda’.Na kwa hayo mengine yote nasema hapana”.

Kikamilifu ningechagua Uhuru . kwa kuwa wakati haki inaposhindwa kutambuliwa,basi uhuru hulinda  uwezo wa kupinga dhidi ya ukosefu wa haki, na hivyo kuikokoa jamii”.
Hoja za camus zinapingana zenyewe. Kwa mujibu wa tamko la kwanza, ikiwa maana na amali ni vitu ambavyo havipo, basi tamko kuwa kila kitu ni sawa katika thamani haliwezi kufanywa,kwa kuwa linafanya tathmini, japo ni katika  hali hasi . Mkusanyiko katika hoja ya pili ni wazi zaidi . Jukumu la kupenda ni kanuni ya msingi,kamilifu naya kimaadili, bali lina ikinga mbali na mjadala  na uchunguzi wa kina .msisitizo  wa Camus juu ya kuhuburi mfumo usio na maadili hutengeneza mfumo wake wa kikamilifu na usiopaswa kuulizwa na ‘jukumu’ lake kuwa asili ya mawazo yote.
Mbali na hayo,wazo kuwa wajibu wa kupenda ni desturi ya hali ya juu kabisa, ni kanuni ya msingi ya Maadili ya Kikristo.Camus , aliyeamini juu ya uwepo wa Mungu, hawazidi wapinzani wake wakristo, kwa chochote anachoweza kumaanisha kuhusu Upendo.


ITAENDELEA


Tuesday, January 2, 2018

Find Joy in Staying Put When You Long for Adventure

Image result for you long for adventureIf there is an opportunity to travel, I am the first to jump on it. I hear the name of a country I haven’t visited and start plotting how to find the cheapest plane ticket. I always feel ready to pack my bag and drop everything. Nothing is more thrilling than the feeling of the plane lifting off the runway, rising through the air and taking me to a new adventure. In the past, my wanderlust has paid off—I’ve gone on safari in East Africa, prayed in Jerusalem, eaten crepes on the French Rivera.
But in more recent years, I am finding the subtler, slower joy in staying where I am.
I am witnessing the changes in each season: leaves in their cycles, daylight shortening and lengthening. I am watching babies grow into toddlers and friends grow into parents. I am engaging in the life of my church, investing in my friendships and cultivating my work.
Perhaps adventure doesn’t always lie “out there.” While much of the biblical story is about people stepping out to follow God’s call, often God asks people to be rooted where they are, and most importantly, to first be rooted in God.
Are you longing to escape, to travel somewhere new? Before you purchase that plane ticket, spend time meditating on these verses. Ask God how you can sink deeper into the adventure God has for you—right where you are.
Philippians 4:12-14 (GNTD)

I know what it is to be in need and what it is to have more than enough. I have learned this secret, so that anywhere, at any time, I am content, whether I am full or hungry, whether I have too much or too little. I have the strength to face all conditions by the power that Christ gives me.

Jeremiah 29:5-7 (GNTD)

Build houses and settle down. Plant gardens and eat what you grow in them. Marry and have children. Then let your children get married, so that they also may have children. You must increase in numbers and not decrease. Work for the good of the cities where I have made you go as prisoners. Pray to me on their behalf, because if they are prosperous, you will be prosperous too.

Psalm 1:1-3 (GNTD)

Happy are those
who reject the advice of evil people,
who do not follow the example of sinners
or join those who have no use for God.
Instead, they find joy in obeying the Law of the Lord,
and they study it day and night.
They are like trees that grow beside a stream,
that bear fruit at the right time,
and whose leaves do not dry up.
They succeed in everything they do.

Care Too Much About What Other People Want? Find Your Self-worth in God’s Word

Image result for living for othersThe knot in my stomach grows larger with each letter I type on my phone in the half-light glow of my bedroom.
Although I'm sick and need rest, I feel guilty about cancelling weekend plans with my friend. After thirty minutes of careful crafting, I finally have a "cancelled plans" text I feel mildly comfortable to send. Pressing my screen, I hear that familiar sending whoosh, wait, and resist the urge to look over my sent text and overanalyze every word.
She texts back immediately. No worries, she writes, this weekend is going to be crazy anyway. Feel better soon!
I let myself breath for what feels like the first time in forever.

Living for Others

But that sigh of relief was soon followed by questioning.
Why am I so sensitive to other people's feelings? I wondered. I thought of all the times I've kept my mouth shut to avoid confrontation. I reflected on the things I've done and places I've gone to make others happy. I remembered the moments in high school and college when the approval of my classmates and teachers mattered more to me than my own estimation of myself.
I realized that, often, I cared about what others thought more than what I thought. I cared about what other people wanted more than what I wanted. And I suffered guilt for having wants and desires of my own.
Far from a perpetual posture of humility, my worry about other people's feelings stemmed from fear and guilt and a twisted sense of pride. I felt responsible for other people's feelings.
Then I was reminded of Paul's words in his letter to a church in Galatia: I am not trying to please people. I want to please God. Do you think I am trying to please people? If I were doing that, I would not be a servant of Christ (Galatians 1:10 CEV). I realized that my concern for other people's wants and feelings was a form of people-pleasing. I lost sight of what God wanted for me and my life. I forgot I was loved by God—that he made me worth of love. I am called to live for God, not for other people.
If you're struggling with caring too much about what other people think, I encourage you to take a few moments to meditate on these verses. As you read, remember that you belong to God and that God loves you for you:
You are special. God created you as a unique individual. You are allowed to have feelings and wants of your own. God knows you.
You have looked deep
into my heart, Lord,
    and you know all about me.
You know when I am resting
    or when I am working,
    and from heaven
    you discover my thoughts.
You notice everything I do
    and everywhere I go.
Before I even speak a word,
    you know what I will say,
and with your powerful arm
    you protect me
    from every side.
I can't understand all of this!
    Such wonderful knowledge
    is far above me.

Psalm 139:1-6 (CEV)
You are enough. God loves you. You don't have to prove to the world that you are worthy of love.
In everything we have won more than a victory because of Christ who loves us. I am sure that nothing can separate us from God's love—not life or death, not angels or spirits, not the present or the future, and not powers above or powers below. Nothing in all creation can separate us from God's love for us in Christ Jesus our Lord! — Romans 8:37-39 (CEV)
You belong to God. You do not belong to others. You are not responsible for fixing everyone around you.
So then, my friends, because of God's great mercy to us I appeal to you: Offer yourselves as a living sacrifice to God, dedicated to his service and pleasing to him. This is the true worship that you should offer. Do not conform yourselves to the standards of this world, but let God transform you inwardly by a complete change of your mind. Then you will be able to know the will of God—what is good and is pleasing to him and is perfect. — Romans 12:1-2 (GNTD)
You are allowed to rest. Find your rest in God. Take time to sit in God's presence and ask God to show you his truth.
As it is, however, there still remains for God's people a rest like God's resting on the seventh day. For those who receive that rest which God promised will rest from their own work, just as God rested from his. Let us, then, do our best to receive that rest, so that no one of us will fail as they did because of their lack of faith. — Hebrews 4:9-11 (GNTD)

Feel like life is out of control? These prayers will help you refocus

It used to be so much easier to do it all.
Back then, you could handle the kids, the carpet stains, the many work projects, the constant calls from family and friends and the occasional telemarketer. Looking back, you're not sure how you did it.
When I feel like this—overwhelmed by all of the commitment, chores, and obligations I've taken upon myself—I think of myself as Wile E Coyote from the Looney Tunes cartoon. Wile E Coyote, intent on capturing Roadrunner, his nemesis, often darts after his prize without any thought of where he's going. He runs and lunges and chases the Roadrunner with confidence and singular intent—until he realizes that he's run off a cliff and is hanging in mid-air. Suddenly aware of the insanity of his position—a wingless coyote dangling in the clouds above a rocky cavern—he loses his confidence and plummets to the ground.
It's easy to ignore mounting stress and obligations when you're like Wile E Coyote, rushing through your day without taking the time to see you're running in mid-air. It’s tempting to chase goals at the expense of your health and your family. It may even seem natural to sprint headlong into your long list of impossible duties and goals until you crash.
But there is a better way. In the Bible, Jesus tells us, "If you are tired from carrying heavy burdens, come to me and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28, CEV). If you're feeling anxious and overwhelmed by the mounting chaos of life, you can bring your worries to God.
Although it may seem impossible or impractical to stop moving and to silence your crowded mind, it is in those quiet moments with God where you can find the strength to refocus and face the rest of your day. So, while it may feel counterintuitive, consider taking a few moments to look away from your calendar, sit still, and pray these words with me:
Lord, I'm overwhelmed by my long list of goals and obligations. It all feels like too much to me. Help me to focus on you and nothing else in this moment.
Image result for Feel like life is out of controlDon't worry about anything, but pray about everything. With thankful hearts offer up your prayers and
requests to God. Then, because you belong to Christ Jesus, God will bless you with peace that no one can
understand. And this peace will control the way you think and feel. (Philippians 4:6-7 CEV)
It's so easy for me to be so focused on my goals and obligations that I forget what truly matters. Help me to move past all the noise of my chaotic day and to hear what you have for me in your Word.
Lord, are my shepherd.
I will never be in need.
You let me rest in fields
of green grass.
You lead me to streams
of peaceful water,
and you refresh my life. (Psalm 23:1-3 CEV)
God, thank you for showing me how to rest and refocus my priorities amidst the overwhelm. Please help me to remember what truly matters when daily stressors cloud my mind. Remind me that you love me and are in control. Amen.
I give you peace, the kind of peace that only I can give. It isn't like the peace that this world can give.
So don't be worried or afraid. (John 14:27 CEV)

How to Stop Worrying About What Other People Think

Do you feel overwhelmed by other people’s judgment? Like you’re always the one who gets blamed for everyone’s mistakes? Like everyone expects you to anticipate their every little need and resents you when you can’t live up to their impossible expectations?
Maybe you feel like you constantly let your family down. Perhaps coworkers talk about you behind your back. People you thought were your friends remind you in a thousand tiny looks, comments, and gestures: you’re just not good enough.
You feel like all you do is take on everyone else’s feelings—like a doormat where everyone wipes their frustrations and moves on. You might wonder, Will I ever actually feel good enough? Will they ever actually be pleased with me?
God thinks you’re good enough. The Bible says that God loves you no matter what (Ephesians 3:17-19). You don’t have to do anything to deserve God’s love (2 Corinthians 3:5). And you don’t have to worry that God will judge you unfairly (Ephesians 2:8)
In God’s Word, Jesus says that he wants to take your pain and anxiety—and trade them for peace. When you’re overwhelmed by the judgments of others, he offers you a safe space where you won’t be harshly judged.
But don’t take my word for it. Discover God’s love and promises for yourself in these 4 verses:
Image result for worrying about other people thinkYour prayers are powerful. Try setting aside time to write your worries and requests in a prayer journal during the morning. Then try to leave those worries in your journal until the next morning.
Don't worry about anything, but in all your prayers ask God for what you need, always asking him with a thankful heart. And God's peace, which is far beyond human understanding, will keep your hearts and minds safe in union with Christ Jesus. — Philippians 4:6-7 
God wants to listen to your troubles.
Leave your troubles with the Lord,
    and he will defend you;
    he never lets honest people be defeated. — Psalm 55:22
You don’t have to carry your burdens on your own.
Come to me, all of you who are tired from carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke and put it on you, and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in spirit; and you will find rest. For the yoke I will give you is easy, and the load I will put on you is light. — Matthew 11:28-30 
People might still unfairly blame and judge you, but you can hold onto Jesus’s promise of peace.
Peace is what I leave with you; it is my own peace that I give you. I do not give it as the world does. Do not be worried and upset; do not be afraid. — John 14:27

This Advent Pray for Jesus to Come Quickly

Image result for endtimeThe year has been dark.
As I write this, the headlines announce that someone has driven a truck into a group of pedestrians, killing eight people. Hurricanes, fires, war, refugees, political turmoil—a succession of loss. Haunting photos capture the starvation of children besieged from within and without the walls of Syrian cities. This is all old news, but its tragedy compounds as it is repeated throughout history. For people affected by these disasters, the future feels bleak, hope nonexistent.
In another walled city, not far from Syria, almost a millennium before Jesus’s birth, God sets watchmen on the walls of Jerusalem. Their context is grim: hostile armies approach their city. To these watchers, God gives a specific task: “All the day and all the night they shall never be silent. You who put the LORD in remembrance, take no rest, and give him no rest.” (Isaiah 62:6-7a)
What are they waiting for? What are they saying as they wait?
This passage is part of a promise God makes through the prophet Isaiah. A time is coming when God will make a home with the people who have been waiting. Keep waiting, Isaiah urges. And in the meantime, pray.
Come, Lord, they say. Come quickly.

Things Fall Apart

Part of the church’s focus during Advent is the second coming of Jesus. Since Jesus returned to God in a resurrected body, his disciples have been waiting for him to come back. When he does, he will fulfill all the promises of Scripture: that our relationships will be healed, that nature will flourish, that violence will be replaced with gardening (Isaiah 2:4). But the world doesn’t seem to be heading in that direction.
In “The Second Coming,” W.B. Yeats describes a ghastly world waiting in dread for the advent of a mysterious beast. The poem remains popular because Yeats helps us capture the way our world often feels: “Things fall apart, the center cannot hold.” Yeats sees the watchmen on the walls looking for the final collapse, while “mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.” I’m sure I won’t be alone in returning to his poem this year.
Often, our world seems chaotic: justice is perverted, people suffer without purpose. The outlook is bleak. But in contrast to Yeats’s vision, Isaiah’s watchmen are waiting and praying for the advent of someone who will restore the world, who will bring not anarchy but a just and peaceable kingdom. It’s hard to imagine. It may seem like a fairy tale. Even Christians can struggle to count on Jesus’s return as a reality.

Praying with Confidence

Despite our difficulty to believe, we are called to be a part of this reality. Isaiah’s words teach us how to pray expectantly. We are instructed to “put the LORD in remembrance,” to keep pestering God to show up in our world. We remind God who God is, and we also remind ourselves. We sing songs that retell the story of Jesus. We read Scripture. The more we talk and think with each other about God’s promises, the more these promises become part of our vocabulary, our perspective on life. As we do so, our expectation in God’s promises grows.
The watchers on Isaiah’s walls know that they are waiting for someone who will deliver them and will love them. During Advent, we reflect on God’s love for us.
I will recount the steadfast love of the LORD, The praises of the LORD, According to all that the LORD has granted us, And the great goodness to the house of Israel That he has granted them according to his compassion, According to the abundance of his steadfast love.
Isaiah 63:7
The people in Yeats’s poem wait for the dreadful beast, “slouching towards Bethlehem to be born,” who will only increase their misery. We’re waiting for a Savior who suffered with and for us, who comforts us in our pain and gives us peace in the midst of our anxieties.
He became their Savior. In all their affliction he was afflicted, And the angel of his presence saved them; In his love and in his pity he redeemed them; He lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.
Isaiah 63:8b-9
Jesus’s advent is the opposite of what Yeats described. We know who is coming, and he knows all of our grief and disappointment. Even when we contribute to the pain and suffering of those around us, he loves us and has compassion on us. Yeats’s beast has “a gaze blank and pitiless as the sun.” Jesus’s eyes look at us personally, generously. As we think and talk about Jesus, we’re more eager to pray for his return. The more we read his words and learn his personality, the more we trust him to do what he says.

The First Coming

Throughout the centuries and throughout the world, Christians have returned to a simple prayer during these weeks before Christmas: Maranatha! Come quickly, Lord! We follow in that tradition. Now, we watch and wait (and work), praying that Jesus will come back to us to make all things new. When he comes, the people who have fled injustice and been wounded by poverty stream back to the city to rebuild its walls under God’s good government. (Isaiah 61:4)
But the season of Advent isn’t only about Jesus’s second coming. There was a first coming. Jesus has already made himself available for us—he can be a part of our lives now. Isaiah constantly reminds God’s people that God is with them.
Have you grasped that promise for yourself? Maybe this year has held griefs and disappointments for you. Maybe you haven’t gone through war—and hopefully lost a home or loved one—but you feel a pinched and painful absence. The Savior promised in Isaiah has come and feels your suffering. Wait for him. Pray while you wait.
I know I feel the power of Yeats’s diagnosis. I can feel like I’m in the desert he describes, without hope. But even in the desert, God comes to us, and we can come to God. The closing words of the Bible invite us: Come. Let the one who is thirsty come (Revelation 22:17). This Advent, repeat those words back to the one who can satisfy our thirst: Come, Lord Jesus! And watch for his response: “I am coming soon.”

The End of the World as We Know It?

Related image"We're living in the end times." My friend's eyes matched her tone: fearful.
"Why do you say so?" I asked.
She listed reason after reason: political crises, world events, cultural climate, devastating hurricanes and wildfires, immorality. It was a list mired in anxiety and dread. Nothing she shared hinted at God's power and promises.
As I listened I couldn't help but hear the 1980s REM song go through my mind: "It’s the end of the world as we know it … and I feel fine." I'm not detached from what is going on in the world, but somehow, even in all this doom and gloom, I am not freaking out. Fortunately, I managed to keep the thought inside.
Do I believe we're living in the end times? Sure, I can pick out newsworthy items from the media and circle a date on my calendar. We do it all the time—the most recent one I heard was a claim that September 23, 2017, was to be our final day on earth. I must admit I considered tossing my diet and gorging on Chicago-style pizza—just in case.
We really should know better. The Bible tells us that no one knows when God will declare an end to the present order of things (Matthew 24:36; Mark 13:32).
But the Bible is clear on three things we can know for sure:

1. God isn't finished working with us.

Every Christmas the same thing happens—I run out of time. I try to observe daily meditations to prepare for Christ's birth, send Christmas cards, clean and decorate the house, meet friends for brunches, attend every party and seasonal shindig in my community, bake, shop, and … every year I still arrive at Christmas Eve with a list of undone to-dos.
"I need more time!" seems to be my yearly holiday theme.
I think it's God's theme too. God wants to give us more time. The writer of 2 Peter 3:9 says that "the Lord is not slow to do what he has promised, as some think. Instead, he is patient with you, because he does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants all to turn away from their sins."
And we are reminded of God's motivation in 1 John 3:1: "See how much the Father has loved us! His love is so great that we are called God's children." God is patient so everyone can experience that love and the ability to be called children of God. The Lord isn't rushing us into the end times because God isn't finished wooing and working with us.

2. God won't rush the work of the kingdom.

I'm not a protesting kind of gal, but I respect when others take to the streets to expose injustices. I do cringe, however, when I hear protestors shout, "What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? NOW!" I want justice now too—but not the way some protestors mean. They want it by any means necessary, even if their own actions are unjust.
The prophet Habakkuk could have been one of those protestors. He saw the injustices around him and questioned why God wasn't doing something about it immediately. “O LORD, how long must I call for help before you listen, before you save us from violence? Why do you make me see such trouble? How can you stand to look on such wrongdoing?" (Habakkuk 1:2-3a). In other words: "God, get a move on!"
God's response to Habakkuk is the response for us, as well: "It may seem slow in coming, but wait for it; it will certainly take place, and it will not be delayed" (Habakkuk 2:3b).
In essence God was telling the prophet—and us: "I've got this. I see what's happening and I won't let it go unpunished. But I am working in ways you don't understand. Don't rush the process. Don't be so eager to see my wrath."
God's plans take time to develop and come to fruition, and we need to keep the long view in mind: "God, who began this good work in you, will carry it on until it is finished on the Day of Christ Jesus" (Philippians 1:6). When we are tempted to think God has forgotten us and we find ourselves longing for the world to just end already, it's critical to refocus our sights on the greater things of the kingdom: "God's Kingdom is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of the righteousness, peace, and joy which the Holy Spirit gives" (Romans 14:17)

3. God has important work for you and me to accomplish.

Several years ago while at a friend's house, my friend's uncle decided to ask my thoughts on end-times prophecy.
I knew the uncle. He wasn't interested in a discussion. He was angling for an opportunity to lecture me on the ills of society and God's coming judgment. When I didn't take the bait, he taunted me: "Do you even believe in salvation?"
Thinking about this question later, I realized that our call from Jesus is not to endlessly discuss how terrible the world is and when it might end. Jesus wants us to do something about it. He says to pray that the Lord will raise up workers to bring in the harvest (Matthew 9:38), and to make sure we ourselves are ready (Matthew 24:44). We are to focus on the things that matter: imitating God (Ephesians 5:1) and becoming willing partners with God to be the harvest workers the kingdom needs.
We will always have crises and hurricanes and upheaval. If we aren't careful, it is easy to fall prey to end-times fears. But we can take comfort in knowing that even though "heaven and earth will pass away," Christ's "words will never pass away" (Mark 13:31-37). And these are some of those words: "Do not be afraid" (Luke 12:32) and "I will never leave you; I will never abandon you" (Hebrews 13:5).
As we embrace what the Bible says about who God is and who we are in Christ, you and I can rest assured that we will be ready when the end does come. In the meantime, we have an important role in the history of the world, and God will not give up on us. We know who is coming back, so when our Lord returns, let him find us not living in fear but faithfully at work (Mark 13:34).

Ask God to Rebuild What Is Broken


The last year has been one of the most confusing, troubling, and heartbreaking for many Christians in America, especially for younger believers. It has felt at times like every new day has brought its own dark wave of reasons to be discouraged or to despair.
Does your heart break over the racial tensions in our nation?
Are you fearful about the threat of war?
Do you grieve over the behavior of our president?
Have you followed the devastation from the hurricanes or wildfires?
Have you lost a loved one in the last year?
Is your family facing even larger trials in 2018?
Are relatives more distant and estranged than ever before?
Do your children seem even further away from the Lord?
Are you not where you thought you would be by now?
Are you less content in your work, maybe even ready to quit?
Have you stopped praying?
Did you fall back into an old pattern of sin this year?
2017 has probably raised more questions and fears than most, leaving many of us asking over and over again, God, what are you doing?

The Rebuilding God

As I processed the trials and sorrows of the last year, personally and across the United States, I reread what the Lord said to Jeremiah when he called him into ministry:
“See, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms,
to pluck up and to break down,
to destroy and to overthrow,
to build and to plant.” (Jeremiah 1:10)
God sent Jeremiah to pluck up, break down, destroy, and overthrow. That kind of judgment and destruction makes up most of the book of Jeremiah (and the rest of the Prophets for that matter). But the commission to Jeremiah doesn’t end with destruction. He also says, “I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms . . . to build and to plant.”
The same power with which God brought judgment against the brokenness of Israel is the power with which he promised to eventually rebuild what was broken. Again he says, “I will set my eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up, and not tear them down; I will plant them, and not pluck them up” (Jeremiah 24:6). One day, he would not pluck them up, not tear them down anymore. He even says, “I will rejoice in doing them good” (Jeremiah 32:41).

How Does God Rebuild?

The Lord uses the same language even later in Jeremiah: “It shall come to pass that as I have watched over them to pluck up and break down, to overthrow, destroy, and bring harm, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, declares the Lord” (Jeremiah 31:28).
What will it look like for God to build and to plant? Just a few verses later, the Lord says,
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” (Jeremiah 31:31–34)
God promised to rebuild what had been destroyed and to replant what had been plucked up. He proved himself to be a righteous, powerful, and just Judge. And he promised to prove himself to be an equally patient, compassionate, and merciful Redeemer — a Rebuilder. And the rebuild began when he sent his Son.

God Was Broken Down

When God promised to build us up — to give us a new heart and a new covenant — he was promising to tear down his beloved Son.
Instead of plucking us up, like we deserved, he placed his own Son on the cross (John 3:16). Instead of breaking down our pitiful defenses and excuses, he sent his own Son to have his body broken in our place (1 Corinthians 11:23–26). Instead of destroying us, he crushed his own Son under his unbearable wrath (Isaiah 53:10). Instead of overthrowing our rebellion and tossing us into hell, he tossed his own Son to the wolves of evil where he was crucified (Acts 2:23).
God the Son was plucked up, broken down, overthrown, and destroyed so that he could make us new. And now that Son “has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises” (Hebrews 8:6). In the new covenant, through Jesus Christ of Nazareth, God finally redeems, rebuilds, and replants.

Ask God to Rebuild in 2018

If God can rebuild a relationship with us ripped apart by sin, and replant and revive souls like ours dead in sin, what new thing could he do in your life this year — in your family, in your workplace, in your neighborhood, in our nation, in you?
Ask God to rebuild what is broken in our nation — to reconcile deep and growing racial divisions, to bring peace to the international hostility, thwart the plans of evil rulers, and quiet the threats of war, to bring salvation and revival to our nation’s leaders, to draw near to those devastated by Hurricane Harvey or Maria or Irma, or by the fires in California.
Ask God to rebuild what is broken in your family — to comfort you and your loved ones after your loss, to strengthen you for overwhelming trials ahead (expected and unexpected), to bring harmony and healing to strained or estranged relationships, to finally save your son or daughter.
And ask God to rebuild what is still broken in you — to teach you the secret of contentment with which you can face any setback or disappointment, to give you wisdom and discernment, patience and joy in the work he has called you to, to meet you in prayer and the word every day in the new year, to once for all purify and refine away any sin that entangles you.
If you ask him, and trust him, “[You will be] like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit” (Jeremiah 17:7–8). You will be fearless, satisfied, and fruitful, even if 2018 brings more confusing, troubling, and heartbreaking days.

Taste the Goodness of God

Like newborn babies — so he’s picking up on “You just got born.” So 1 Peter 2:2–3, Like newborn babies, desire the pure milk — meaning the word, not distinguishing it from meat at all. That’s not what’s going on here.
This is just to get at: how do babies want the Bible? “Wah, wah, wah, wah.” “Drive me crazy. Shut up!” “No, feed him. Feed him.” That’s the point. These babies won’t shut up. They’re hungry.
“The Bible is the only place that I can taste that God is for me today.”

So, like that, desire “the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation.” And then, he adds this if-clause, which has always blown me away. Peter, why’d you add this next clause in 1 Peter 2:3? Earnestly desire the pure spiritual milk, which I think is the word, by which we were born again. So, you were conceived by the word; you’re going to grow by the word. Desire the word, that you may grow into salvation “if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good” — or the goodness, the kindness of the Lord. What do you mean “if”? What’s that?
What that means is: if you’ve never tasted in and through the word the precious kindness of the Lord to you, then you’re not going to come like this. You’re not going to come. I’m saying, “Come, come drink, come drink.” And if you haven’t tasted, you’ll come to church — friends at church, good reputation in the community. But you’re not coming to him. You’re not drinking. You’re not eating, because you’ve never tasted. This taste is everything. This is what the new birth gives you: a new taste.
Natural people don’t want to read their Bibles. Spiritual people with a new taste want to read their Bibles, because they love Christ — they love the kindness of the Lord. They get up in the morning and they need to feel the kindness of God. They can’t live without the kindness of Almighty God on them. It’s draining out like a leaky bucket, and so the Bible is the only place I can taste that he might be for me today. I have to be told again by an authority above me that he’s for me again today.
That’s the way spiritual people live: by every word that comes out of the mouth of God.

Watch Where You Walk in 2018


The Christian life is not a sprint. It is a journey of ten million steps.
Day after day, and year after year, we put one foot in front of the other as we flee the wreckage of our sin and follow Jesus on the path of life. We step away from self-protection toward love, away from darkness toward light, away from foolishness toward wisdom. Step after step after step — ten million times.
“The Christian life is not a sprint. It is a journey of ten million steps.”
But unless we stop every so often, and take a careful look backward and forward, our feet will gradually drift from God’s paths and stumble onto others. Like a hiker who never checks his compass, we’ll set out in the right direction and end up miles off the mark. Slowly, subtly, and perhaps imperceptibly, we’ll exit the narrow and hard path that leads to life and merge onto the wide and easy way to destruction (Matthew 7:13–14).
The new year is a time for course correction — a time for taking out the map, consulting the compass, and heeding Paul’s command to “look carefully . . . how you walk” (Ephesians 5:15).
In Ephesians, Paul commands his readers five times to “walk” — in good works, in a manner worthy of their calling, in love, in light, and in wisdom. As we consider three of Paul’s “walk” commands, take a look backward and forward: Where have you drifted off the path? What steps might you take this year, with God’s help, to follow Jesus down these hard but happy roads?

Walk in Love

Walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. (Ephesians 5:2)
For Jesus, love meant nails through his hands and feet and a spear through his side. Love meant climbing onto a cross and offering himself up as a sacrifice. Love meant inconvenience and sorrow and an excruciating death. This is the love that breathed life into our dead lungs (Ephesians 2:4–5); the love that is broader, longer, higher, and deeper than the galaxies (Ephesians 3:18–19); the love that is washing every stain of sin from our souls (Ephesians 5:25–27); the love that God commands us to imitate — even if our strongest love is a whisper compared to his symphony.
“Jesus knows how to repay everything you lose on the path of love.”
Therefore, walk in love — go low to lift others up. Spend your time with the lonely. Bend your body to bear burdens. Ransack your imagination to meet needs. Give your presence to the grieving. Fix your attention on the forgotten.
Such love will cost us, of course; we’ll have to relinquish handfuls of time and comfort and convenience. But in the end, Jesus knows how to repay everything you lose on the path of love, “Whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord” (Ephesians 6:8). Go low in love, and Christ himself will lift you up. Walk in love this year.

Walk in Light

At one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. (Ephesians 5:8)
When the light of Christ broke into your life and dispersed your constant midnight, he shone on you so that his light might make its home in you. The God of light made you a child of light — a little candle lit from the sun of Christ.
Therefore, walk in light — drive out the shadows from your soul. Train your tongue to heal others instead of cutting them up. Relish the deeper pleasure of purity instead of giving yourself over to sexual immorality. Grow in gratitude for all that God has given instead of stewing over all that he’s withheld. Ache for “all that is good and right and true” (Ephesians 5:9).
You can walk in these paths of light this year because you already are light in the Lord. The dark version of you died with Jesus at the cross, was laid with Jesus in the tomb — and will never rise again. Even if you feel like a smoldering wick right now, if you are in Christ, your destiny is to “shine like the sun in the kingdom of [your] Father” (Matthew 13:43). And that transformation will happen as you keep on stepping out of the shadows, repenting of the specific darkness that still grips you, confessing it to God and others, and shining the light of God’s word upon it. Walk in light this year.

Walk in Wisdom

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. (Ephesians 5:15–16)
Every path in this world cuts through our enemy’s backyard. We don’t yet walk in the safety of the new heavens and new earth; we walk in “the present evil age” (Galatians 1:4), an age where the devil stalks the earth with a quiver of burning arrows, his eyes keen for careless travelers (Ephesians 6:16). If we do not apply God’s wisdom to how we are walking in every area of life, the devil will be more than happy to chart the course for us.
“Grow in gratitude for all that God has given instead of stewing over all that he’s withheld.”
Therefore, walk in wisdom — seize your days from the devil’s hand. Clutch onto every opportunity in your life, and turn it in a Godward direction. Make a plan for your marriage this year. Go to work on your parenting. Gauge the health of your friendships. In each of these areas of life (and every other), ask, In this part of my life, how can I live like Christ is precious, the gospel is powerful, the Spirit is inside me, and eternity is coming?
God has already broken the devil’s spell on you. He has already handed you a shield to extinguish his arrows and a sword to swing back (Ephesians 6:16–17). These days may be evil, but you don’t have to be — no part of your life has to be. With a lot of careful looking, and the Holy Spirit’s help, you can make the best use of these evil days. Walk in wisdom this year.

God’s City of Joy

One day soon, you will not need to look carefully to how you are walking. Perfect love will course through the veins of your resurrected body. The light of God’s righteousness will radiate from your every thought, word, and action. Unclouded wisdom will rest upon your immortal shoulders.
Until that day, 2018 is another year to “look carefully . . . how you walk” (Ephesians 5:15). Walk in love — go low to lift others up. Walk in light — drive the shadows from your soul. And walk in wisdom — seize your days from the devil’s hand. These are three roads that lead us to God’s city of joy, where our journey of ten million steps will finally end.

He Will Restore Your Soul


King David wrote Psalm 22 and Psalm 23, but if we weren’t told that, we might not believe it. These two ancient songs of the faith are about as different as they could be. The first few verses of each psalm capture its tone. Here are the first two verses of Psalm 22:
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest. (Psalm 22:1–2)
Now, read the first three verses of Psalm 23:
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. (Psalm 23:1–3)
In Psalm 22, David feels forsaken by an unresponsive God. In Psalm 23, David feels shepherded by an ever-attentive God. In Psalm 22, David’s soul is in restless agony. In Psalm 23, David’s soul is restored to a trust-fueled rest in the Good Shepherd’s care.

Two Perspectives on Reality

It is a beautiful and merciful providence that these two starkly different psalms are placed right next to each other, authored by the same person. Because they illustrate the diverse ways we experience the strange reality that is the life of faith in our world. If we live long enough, we all experience the occasional agonizing phenomenon of God’s apparent silence. And we all will also experience God’s kind restoration, peace, and protection. In fact, we eventually come to realize that what felt like abandonment was a merciful nearness and shepherding of a kind we hadn’t previously understood or perceived. We discover that God’s promises are infinitely more substantial and reliable than our perceptions.
But there’s an even deeper beauty and mercy in this poetic and thematic juxtaposition. Both psalms are messianic — they foreshadow and prophesy of Jesus. And in this profound realization, we discover that the order in which these psalms appear is no accident.

Jesus Was Forsaken

We know Psalm 22:1. Its first sentence is among the most famous in the Bible. For Jesus screamed them out while in unfathomable agony on the cross: Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani? (Matthew 27:46).
Stop and think over this sentence. Delve into it as deep as you can. You will never get to the bottom of it.
There was a moment, at the crux of history, when God was God-forsaken. To we who are not God, and who are only able to experience a few dimensions of reality, this is mysterious. But it was not a mystery; it was horrifyingly real. God the Son, the eternal delight of the Father, the radiance of the Father’s glory, the exact imprint of the Father’s nature, and the Father’s earthly visible image (Hebrews 1:3; Colossians 1:15) became in that incomprehensively dark moment unholy sin — our unholy sin (2 Corinthians 5:21). And while that moment lasted, the holy Father and the Holy Spirit could not abide the holy Son made unholy. God became the object of God’s wrath. A terrible, once-for-all-time fissure rent open between the Father and Son.
For Jesus, it was a truly hellish moment, which is why, in the words of R.C. Sproul, Jesus’s Psalm 22:1 scream “was the scream of the damned. For us.” Out of a love for us we have hardly begun to fathom, he took upon himself our damnable curse, becoming the propitiation for our sins (Galatians 3:13; 1 John 4:10). And he did it for us so that our curse would be eternally removed and we might become the objects of God’s eternal mercy, clothed forever with the holiness and righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Psalm 22 does far more than give us words to pray during our seasons of spiritual desolation. It gives us words to grasp the desolation God the Son experienced to purchase our peace and restoration.

So That You Will Never Be Forsaken

This restoration, the great messianic restoration, is what made David sing for joy in Psalm 23. The Good Shepherd, having laid his life down for the sheep (John 10:11), gives his sheep eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will be able to snatch them out of his hand (John 10:28).
No one. Not “death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord,” the great Shepherd of the sheep — even though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death (Romans 8:38–39; Hebrews 13:20; Psalm 23:4).
Our great Shepherd has walked through this valley before us and for us. In this valley, he was stricken and afflicted, betrayed, beaten to a bloody pulp, and brutally crucified by evil. He was pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities (Isaiah 53:5). He was smitten and forsaken by God (Isaiah 53:4; Psalm 22:1).
And he did this for us so that he might say to us, “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5).

He Will Restore Your Soul

In this world we will have tribulation (John 16:33). The Bible’s portrayal of tribulation is realistically horrible. Psalm 22 is a description of David’s tribulation, and it was severe. But it is also a description of Jesus’s tribulation, which was infinitely more severe than David’s — or ours.
Do you feel forsaken by God? Jesus understands. He truly understands more than you know. We can feel forsaken by God; Jesus was forsaken by God. We feel lonely; Jesus was, for a horrible moment, truly alone. As our Great High Priest, he is able to sympathize with us in all our weaknesses, since he was tempted in every way that we are, yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15).
But Jesus does far more than sympathize with us. As our great sacrificial Lamb, he atoned for every sin we commit in all our weak, faithless stumbling, removing our curse forever by becoming our curse. And as our great Shepherd, he is leading us through every tribulation — no matter how severe — to eternal restoration.
That is the promise of Psalm 23, purchased by the price of Psalm 22: your Good Shepherd will restore your soul forever. He was forsaken by God, scorned and mocked by men, and his hands and feet were pierced (Psalm 22:1, 6–7, 16) for your sake. So that he could guide you through every evil valley, honor you before every evil enemy, pursue you with goodness and mercy every day of your earthly life, and bring you to live with him in his house forever (Psalm 23:4–6).
Psalm 22 may be your song for a brief night, but Psalm 23 will be your song for an eternal morning (Psalm 30:5).