silence Archives – Sonshine's Journal

June 13, 2020

What is the Right Advice in Times Like This?

Psalm 62 Do you find it hard to wait? David was in a desperate situation. Jesus was nearing the end of his earthly life, and he told the disciples to stay alert and watch lest you fall into temptation. How often do we fail to stay alert and ‘wait?’ How often do we fall asleep like the disciples or try to manipulate circumstances as we see fit? The irony is that God knows our past, present, and future. He knows the very hair on your head, and He knows each heart, whether it is single-minded or double-minded. David was busy waiting, not knowing when his adversaries would arrive on the scene. Like David, Jesus was busy praying, but the disciples were asleep. Is this our pattern too?

In his waiting, David noted that his enemy was like a leaning wall, like a tottering fence, but God was His stronghold. Years earlier, Nehemiah also heard the taunts of the enemy: “Even what they are building-if a fox should jump on it, he would break their stone wall down!” Neh 4:3 At desperate times, we need to take our concerns to God. David reminded himself: ‘wait in silence for God only.’

Therefore Beloved remain steadfast, immovable, always abounding, and focus on the God who never fails.

April 2, 2014

What Do the Eyes of Jesus See?

The ways of Satan should never surprise us for he walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he can devour and one of the tools he uses is temptation to draw us away from God and into sin. James reminds us of this principle and its stages of development. First we are lured, then enticed, sin is born, and finally this sin leads to death. Satan may have desired to devour but God had two points that He wanted to reveal in this chapter: the true heart of the religious leaders and God’s heart of compassion for the poor and needy.

Like many atheists today, the religious leaders in Jesus’ day really did understand that he was the Son of God. But with superimposed religious hypocrisy they came to “worship” but were really judges with evil motives. James asked: “Did not God choose the poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom…” which is the reason why God intended for this divine appointment. It was so that this man might leave giving glory to God and present Him as his defense to the world: Jesus is who he said he was.

Now as to the religious leaders we have this addition to the story “Would not any one of you, if he had one sheep that fell into a pit on the Sabbath, take hold of it and lift it out?” And so then not hearing a response Jesus asked: “Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath, or evil, to save a life or destroy it?” Hampton Keathley IV points out: “He is trying to save life and they are trying to destroy life (His to be precise.)” Oh the depth to which men’s hearts have fallen: “The human mind is more deceitful than anything else….I, the Lord, [alone] probe into people’s minds. I examine people’s hearts.” [Jer 17] And this gives us the backdrop of why Jesus looked about upon them with anger (righteous indignation).

The silence is deafening, the hearts begin to palpitate, and the faces turn crimson red as He posed questions. Jesus said stand up and the man stands alone as if a slave on the auction block. But as grieved as Jesus was for the religious leaders his heart of compassion poured out with a simple command: stretch out your hand. It is then that one can run, hide or obey. He chose the latter and found he has been restored whole!

And where are the supposedly righteous worshipers, those who had been given the right and privilege to teach the very Word of God? They left immediately the holy place where God’s Word and the Word Himself was proclaimed to counsel how to break the commandment “thou shalt not murder.” Pascal said, ‘Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.”

Beloved, what do the eyes of Jesus see when he looks at you? Does he see righteous indignation because you have been lured by the entrapment of the evil one and care more for the spotted owl than the needy next door to you? Or are you the needy next door in need of hearing the Word stretch out your hand …I will heal you? What do His eyes see?

August 2, 2013

Chasing Sleep…for the Umpteenth Time.

Last night was one of those nights in which I chased sleep. If you have never had insomnia then you can forget Psalm 77 but if you are like me or you have ever spent a night chasing sleep, you might want to stop and think about what Asaph is teaching us through his experience.

Insomnia is defined by the dictionary as an inability to obtain sufficient sleep, especially when chronic; difficulty in falling or staying asleep; sleeplessness. This what Asaph experienced and I do quite often. Why is that? What is the cause? For some it is the worry syndrome, a sin for sure since we are commanded to not worry. For some it is a metabolic imbalance and for others it is being wired due to some exciting news. No matter the cause the results are the same: bone weariness upon arising.

In Ps 77 Asaph tells us what he does in those times. Note vs 1,2, 3, 5 and 10. He cries out to God, He recalls God and His attributes, He prays all night long, He consider a possible cause, and finally comes to the conclusion that if he verbalizes his frustration at the lack of sleep and its cause this too will pass. What do you do at times like this?

But more importantly than verbalizing his state of mind he begins to consider the character of God and how although himself has become a vagabond, God has been there even in the silence. He questions God’s character but then in vs. 10 realizes how futile an exercise this is because God is “Num 23:19 God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a human being, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not make it happen? It is when Asaph realizes this that he changes from “oh woe is me,” to “How Great Thou Art!”

George Rogers once wrote: A good man cannot rest upon his bed until his soul rests upon God. That is a truth we need to remember when we have nights when we are chasing sleep.