Jump Start # 2463

Psalms 34:8 “O taste and see tha the Lord is good; how blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him.”

I have a friend who owns a ‘vette. He’s been trying to convince me that I’d look nice in one. I agree, especially a red one. It would go well with my eyes. He thinks I ought to buy one for myself. That would be sweet, but it won’t happen. There are many reasons why it won’t happen. I don’t have a place to keep it. You don’t let a corvette sit outside through Indiana winters. That would be bad. And, then there is the cost factor. The money it would take needs to be in other places.

Thinking about that made me realize that there are many things that will not happen. I’m in my ‘60’s and reality tells you that certain goals, dreams, wishes are just not going to happen. I once had in my mind that I’d like to own a small farm, with a tractor. That’s not going to happen. I thought at one time I’d like to be a history teacher in a small college on the East Coast. That’s not going to happen either.

The end of our verse today is so helpful for a person who may feel like they haven’t done much in their life. We are in Jesus Christ and we are a people who are bound for Heaven. Nothing here touches that. Nothing here equals that. Instead of holding one’s head down and feeling sorry for yourself, one needs to see the rich blessings he has in the Lord.

Life is full of disappointments. They often start very early in life. You don’t get the birthday or Christmas present that you really wanted. What you got was nice, but it’s not what you were hoping for. Sometimes meal time is a disappointment, especially for kids. Leftovers! But the list of disappointments grows as one ages. You didn’t make the team. The girl you like doesn’t want to go out on a date with you. You don’t get the teacher that you wanted. Later on, the job you wanted, you didn’t get. The promotion you wanted, you didn’t get. The dream house is sold before you could buy it.

All of us have our own disappointments. Some seem much bigger than others. I have a friend who played professional baseball. His teams never made the World Series while he was on them. That’s a disappointment I will never have nor understand. I know a couple who tried and tried to have a baby. It never happened. That’s a sadness and a disappointment that is hard to understand. I know someone whose child is in the far country. He longed to see his child come back to the Lord before he died. That didn’t happen. I know another family who no longer talks to one of their grown children. They have never seen their own grandchildren. The holidays are painful as they see families getting together, but know that won’t happen in their home. What a huge disappointment.

What can we learn from disappointments in life?

First, disappointments can turn us bitter and against other people. Jealousy is real. It can happen among brethren and it can happen within the family. Some feel as if they have been cheated in life. They feel as if they did not get what they should have. That disappointment has left a chip on their shoulders. It’s a raw feeling and they are very sensitive about those things.

We can’t keep disappointments from happening to us, but what we can do is keep those disappointments from ruining us and destroying our faith in the Lord.

Second, from our verse today, we must realize how blessed we are. God loves us, forgives us, blesses us and includes us. This world is not our home. The things of this world really do not matter. You are loved and accepted by others. You are part of God’s eternal kingdom. You have a Heavenly home awaiting you. The rest of this stuff really doesn’t matter.

Put this all in the proper perspective. People are people and our natures are all pretty much the same. So, a poor famer living in the 1200’s in Europe, dreamed of having his own little farm. He dreamed of having a cow and a horse. He dreamed of being able to get by on his farm and not having to work for someone else. Well, that dream never came about for him. Plagues, hard times, famines, wars all kept that dream from coming about. But if he was a believer who walked with God, his name is in the book of life. That is what matters today. One hundred years from now, if God allows this world to go on, will it matter that you owed a ’vette, had a farm, sang in a band, or million other dreams that may not come about? It won’t matter. What will matter is whether or not our names are in the book of life.

Third, some dreams are selfish. Some dreams are vain. Some dreams are materialistic. Some dreams, if they did come true, might ruin us spiritually. We might lose our perspective and place. We might think too highly of ourselves. We might get too big for our britches, as my grandma used to say, and get to the point where we don’t even need God. Some dreams just do not need to come true. Some dreams need to change.

Finally, who among us can say that they are not blessed? We are all blessed. God has treated all of us better than we deserve. Even for crushed dreams and disappointments, we are blessed. Often, our Plan A is not God’s. Paul wanted to preach in Asia. God said “No.” God sent Paul to Macedonia. Great things happened there. God had another Plan A than what Paul did. The same can happen to us. A great lesson from this is to learn to bloom where we are planted. Life doesn’t always turn out as we expected. However, what do we do with where we are? Do we continue to walk with God, glorify our Lord and be faithful to Him, or do we use disappointments as an excuse for disobeying God and not keeping our promises with him?

Disappointments…they will happen. What do you do with them and what do they do to you?

Roger

Jump Start # 2012

Psalms 34:8 “O taste and see that the Lord is good; how blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!”

Our congregation picks out a theme each year. All of our classes, our special meetings, our VBS and many of our sermons revolve around that central theme. This year it’s “Good news for tough times.” Tough times isn’t anything that’s new. All through the Scriptures we read about tough times. Famines and wars, persecution and oppression, prisons and fiery furnaces threated the people of God. And tough times is something that has been felt by many of us. Heartache, pain and disappointment are all too common for many homes.

I’ve been reading a little diary that my grandmother wrote. It’s worn, hard to read and her spelling makes it difficult to know just what she was talking about. My dad gave this to me with the hopes that I would transcribe it and we could have it for others in the family. So, I’ve been working my way through her daily entries. In March 1933, my grandma was 31 years old, married and had the two sons that she would have. She wrote on Monday March 6, “Monday morning and eggs are 8 cents and all of the banks are closed in the state. I don’t know what will happen next.” Just two months earlier, in January, she reported that eggs were selling for 23 cents. The bottom seemed to drop out. It was the depression. My grandparents were simple, country people. They were poor people. They had their vegetable garden and didn’t have to stand in soup lines like many people in the city did. That one line stood out for me, “I don’t know what will happen next.”

That probably has been repeated by many people. They guy who loses his job and has a mortgage and a family, “I don’t know what will happen next.” The woman who buries her husband and leaves the cemetery thinking, “I don’t know what will happen next.” Or, it could be the person who sits in the doctors office and hears the word, “Cancer.” “What will happen next,” he wonders. Tough times. Troublesome times. What will happen next?

I wonder, reading ‘what will happen next’, if that thought caused my grandma to lay awake at night. I wonder if her prayers were more fervent. Somehow she got through this. When I knew her, I was young and she was old. We didn’t get to have deep conversations about “what happened next.” But she was a Christian, a believer. Her faith, more than anything else is what got her through.

Our verse today is a great reminder for us when we do not know what will happen next. Four thoughts can be found in this amazing passage from Heaven.

First, God is good. What a great declaration. He is good. He gives good gifts. He sends blessings from Heaven. God does not delight in trouble. Death is His enemy, not His friend. Too many begin on the wrong foot with God. They start with the premise that God is mean or evil. They blame all the bad stuff on God. He’s not the one to point our finger at. It’s Satan who is wrong. It’s Satan who confuses us and causes us to blame a good God for things He never did. God is good.

Second, the Psalmist knew that God was good. He knew because he had tasted. Tasting God is an expression found in both the O.T. and the N.T. We can be like kids at the kitchen table. If they see something that they never had before, the first thing that they will do is to turn their nose up at it. Give it a try, mamma pleads. If it’s a veggie some won’t like it. If it’s green even more won’t like it. But how can one say that they don’t like it until they have tried it? How many are opposed to the Bible who have never read it? They have heard what others said, and based on that, they have turned their noses up at it. Or, they have had a bad experience with someone who wasn’t very serious as a Christian. Maybe the Christian was judgmental or offensive. The person assumes all Christians are like this. They are not. Jesus wasn’t.

How does one taste God? Try Him. Give Him a serious try. Not just two seconds. Find a congregation that is serious about following the Bible. Give them a try. Spend a hour in the gospel of Mark. Just an hour. Impressive. Remarkable. Amazing.

God is good because the Psalmist knew that. Do you know that?

Third, there is refuge in God. The word refuge means shelter. In a storm you try to find cover. What you find is a refuge. I was caught in a downpour last summer. I went from store overhang to the next store overhang. Refuge. We remember the “cities of refuge,” from the O.T. If someone accidently killed another person, they could beat it to one of the six cities of refuge and be safe there. If they left, the deceased family could get justice against them. Refuge.

In tough times, God is our refuge. He’s the one that brings comfort. So Paul said to the Thessalonians when talking about the death of Christians. “Comfort one another with these words,” is how Paul ended that section. A refuge. A place of shelter. A place of protection against the storm. The Scriptures are just that. They are a place of comfort. They are a place of shelter. Prayer is like that. We pour our hearts out to God, often filled with fear, fright and worry. We don’t know what will happen next. For my poor grandma, the price of eggs had fallen, the banks were closed and from history we know that it would take a World War to pull the nation together and out of that long depression.

When outside and a rain storm comes up, we run inside. When storms of life come, we run to God. He is good. He is our refuge. He will help. He will shelter us.

Fourth, the one who takes refuge in God will be blessed. He will find security, hope and life with God. The storms are intense, but greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world. Blessed because he turned to God. Blessed because he knew that God knows what will happen next. Blessed because he trusts God. Blessed because he knows that God is good.

My dear grandma wrote in 1946, “My, six years have gone by since I wrote, and what sad and troublesome years these have been. One of the awfulist war’s of my life. They took almost all of our boys around here, but thanks to the good Lord He sent them all back that is close to home except two.” Both of my grandma’s boys, one being my dad, were in that war. Tough times. Troublesome times. God is our refuge.

I tend to think every generation could write their own diary of tough times. Some barely make it though. Some don’t make it. Others seem to get along well. I never heard my grandma speak of those days. She found refuge in a God that loved her and saw that she trusted and believed in Him.

My troubles seem like nothing when I read her diary. It makes me think I complain too much and I have it too easy. I don’t know what I would do if all my boys were off in a war. I’d cry a lot. I’d pray more. I’d find refuge in God.

My sweet grandma got to hear me preach a few times before she left this world. I’m thankful for that. I’m thankful that her troubles are over. Someday ours will be as well, if we trust, walk and believe in the Lord.

Indeed, God is good.

Roger