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Do you know the legend of the Cherokee Indian youth’s rite of passage? His father takes him into the forest, blindfolds him and leaves him alone. He is required to sit on a stump the whole night and not remove the blindfold until the rays of the morning sun shine through it. He cannot cry out for help to anyone. Once he survives the night, he is a MAN. He cannot tell the other boys of this experience, because each lad must come into manhood on his own.

Finally, after a horrific night the sun appeared and he removed his blindfold. It was then that he discovered his father sitting on the stump next to him. He had been at watch the entire night, protecting his son from harm.

Think about the book of Joshua in the Old Testament. The children of Israel had wandered around the wilderness for forty years. When they first came out of Egypt, they were afraid to go into the Promised Land as God directed, so they were told they would not enter it (Numbers 14). After that generation had died, their descendants were ready to enter the land. Moses was passing the leadership role to Joshua, and encouraged Him with these words:

Deuteronomy 31:6 Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified … for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you

After the death of Moses, the Lord Himself reiterated those words to Joshua:

Joshua 1:9  Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.

Those should be comforting words for all who have put their confidence in Jesus. And don’t be fooled into thinking those words only apply to those in positions of leadership. God’s promise to be with you in all things is for all believers. Jesus said that to His disciples before He ascended back to heaven:

Matthew 28:20 And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.

Your Maker desires to be in a relationship with you. He is not simply asking you for a bit of your time on Sunday mornings. He wants a relationship with you every day. He is already with you every step of the way, and wants you to remember that. Involve Him in your daily conversation. Speak to Him in your thoughts and prayers, but also let Him speak to you in His Word. Listen to the wonderful things He has already done for you and the fantastic things He has in store for you. The one who sent Jesus to pay for the sins of everyone – including you – has an abundance of good that He wants to share.

Romans 8:32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

Too often we live like that frightened, blindfolded child, sitting on a stump in the dark, uncertain of what is around us, what will happen to us, thinking we cannot bear it. How different would it be for you if you would just remember that the Lord your God goes with you? When you put your faith in Jesus as your Savior, you have the assurance of God’s love, His forgiveness, and His presence with you. You have every reason to be strong and courageous!

A few years ago, we had one of those rare occasions:  we had all our children together in the same place at the same time. We look forward to those times. But at one point, I was sitting in the room with two of my daughters and their husbands, and each of us was using either a cell phone or tablet or laptop. My wife came in the room and pointed out that we could do that anytime – we should be talking to each other! So that is what we did.

Later during that visit, my youngest daughter told me what she had been doing before my wife told us all to stop using our electronic devices. She introduced me to an app used for learning languages. She was using it to refresh herself on the German she had studied in High School.

Since Cheryl and I have a couple of trips to Germany coming up in the next year, I have been working on relearning German with a newer app on my phone. I had also studied German in High School and college. In fact, I have studied five languages in my life other than English: Latin, German, Greek, Hebrew and Spanish. But for now, my focus is on refreshing my German to the point where I will not feel completely helpless while in that country. I enjoy taking a little time each day to once again challenge myself with another language. While I remember some vocabulary and sentence structure, some of it is being learned all over again. Trying to remember gender and case gives me the most trouble.

My point in bringing this up is a truth that I rediscovered through this exercise: translation is a difficult thing. There is not always a word for word translation from one language to another. In fact, I would say that is seldom the case. There are all kinds of variables and context clues you have to take into account to be sure you get an accurate translation. Expressing yourself clearly is not as easy as we would like it to be. And the only way to get better at translation is to do it!

I think this is just as true in our lives as followers of Jesus. When we interact with those who have not been led to faith in Jesus Christ, there is a translation problem. We may be speaking the same English language, but we won’t always understand each other. It is hard for those who have faith in Jesus to understand what is going on in the lives of those who do not have that faith, which means we don’t always understand what they say to us. And when we speak about God’s mercy and forgiveness, those who don’t know that Jesus paid for the sins of the world will not understand what we are talking about. Our challenge is to speak in a way others will understand.

In order to be understood, we need to be clear and precise. It also helps to keep it simple. Being a follower of Jesus does not mean we have all the answers or that we have everything figured out. It does mean that we have experienced God’s love in a personal way. We know who Jesus is and that He did what only He could do: He took our punishment when He died and rose in victory over death. He gives those things to us as a gift. We get that gift when we believe in Him.

So keep it simple and stick to the basics. As you interact with people, let them know that Jesus made a difference in your life, and He wants to do that for them, too.

Another thing to remember is what my wife suggested: we need to talk to each other. Don’t be afraid to have a conversation with someone. It might take some doing, but most of the time you will find it is well worth the effort.

Yesterday I started sharing some thoughts about being “Just like your Father.” This a a continuation of that today.

1 John 3:1-2  How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

Why would God choose people like you and me for His kids? Did He look into the future and see that we would be obedient and faithful to Him, making us good candidates to become His children? Was there some kind of cosmic screening process in which God decided that He would save some and not others? No, John tells us the only motive God had was His LAVISH LOVE. It was not even our response to His love that led Him to choose us. We have been made His children purely because of His love, which this translation says He “has lavished on us.” The emphasis in this passage is that the love of God is something tremendous, He has an ample supply, and He offers it freely.

I have been blessed in being able to spend more time with my children and  grandchildren in retirement. When I am with them, I wonder if they know just how much I love them. They may never comprehend just how much I care about them, love them, and want only the best for them. If I, as an earthly father, have that capacity to love and cherish my children and grandchildren, how much more is this true of our heavenly Father. He wants all men to be His children. The death of Jesus has made that possible for anyone and everyone.

As I mentioned yesterday, those who know our parents will often notice some of the characteristics and traits of our parents in us. If only that were always true about us to the world around us in regards to our heavenly Father. Do others see His traits and characteristics in us? Years ago Amy Grant recorded the song “Her Father’s Eyes” in which she prayed that she would look at the world with the eyes of her Father in heaven and that the world around her would notice that she was a child of God. We should all want that kind of resemblance to our Father. One of the amazing things about our God is that He does the work to make us like Himself. He makes us PERFECT. We have no perfection in ourselves, nor can we achieve it through our own efforts. However, His command to “be perfect” was accomplished for us — it comes to us as a gift in Jesus Christ. God has worked it out so that we will stand before Him as perfect on the last day. Perfection in God’s sight is ours because of what Jesus did for us and our faith in Him. That is part of that love He has lavished on us.

I’ll finish up my thoughts on this tomorrow.

2 Kings 20:1-7 In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to him and said, “This is what the LORD says: Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover.” Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, “Remember, O LORD, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly. Before Isaiah had left the middle court, the word of the LORD came to him: “Go back and tell Hezekiah, the leader of my people, `This is what the LORD, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will heal you. On the third day from now you will go up to the temple of the LORD. I will add fifteen years to your life. And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city for my sake and for the sake of my servant David.’ ” Then Isaiah said, “Prepare a poultice of figs.” They did so and applied it to the boil, and he recovered.

Hezekiah was one of the good kings of Israel. He had all the usual problems of a king: roads to build, budgets to balance, people to satisfy, taxes to collect, wars to fight. He made it a habit to consult God in all of these things through prayer. So it was only natural that when faced with a personal problem, he prayed. Hezekiah was critically ill. In fact, Isaiah comes to him and tells him he is terminal. He gives this advice to the king: put your house in order – you are going to die!

The good king had the faith and commitment to take it to the Lord in Prayer. It was as natural to him as breathing. He talks to God and asks Him to change what He had decreed. This came from his prior relationship with God in which He talked to Him regularly. It is not so hard to ask a favor from someone you know well and talk to on a regular basis. So Hezekiah asked the Lord to reconsider and spare his life.  We read that Isaiah was not even out of the palace when the Lord told him to go back. He had heard the prayers of the king, seen his tears, and would heal him in three days. More than that, He promised to extend his life by 15 years. Because Hezekiah had prayed, God gave him what he asked and even more.

Did you catch the part at the end about putting the poultice of figs on the boil and Hezekiah being healed? I would imagine there were some observers who said or thought: “Wow! Those figs really helped.” They missed the whole point that God did the healing as an answer to prayer, just like so many today after being critically ill and then recovering say “Wow! Those doctors really did the trick!” They miss the point that healing is a gift from God, no matter how it may be delivered.

Why did God answer the prayer of Hezekiah? Not because of flowery language, not because he repeated his prayer, not because he wailed loudly or shouted. He was heard because he prayed to the one who could hear. He prayed to the true God. He was surrounded by idolatry, religious people who directed their worship to the wrong directions. Hezekiah prayed to the true God, the Living God, the one who made the heavens and the earth and is still in control and will be forever. His prayer came from the heart. He didn’t try to hide who he was or what he had done. He trusted God to receive him as he was. He lived the life of a follower of God, what we would call a “Christian life.” Repeatedly Scripture tells us “He did what was right in the sight of God.” Hezekiah had an ongoing prayer relationship with God. In response to God’s gift of healing, Hezekiah said, In your love you kept me from the pit of destruction; you have put all my sins behind your back. (Isaiah 38:17) He knew his salvation, physical and spiritual, came from God.

You need to have that same kind of confidence. Yes, you have sinned, and deserve only punishment. But you need to know and believe that God has put your sins behind His back, out of sight and out of reach, for Jesus’ sake. You have a relationship with God, too, one that He established by claiming you as His own through Baptism. You have put your confidence in Jesus as your Savior, knowing that He has done what was necessary for you to be forgiven. His perfect life was lived for you. His horrible death was endured for you. His resurrection gives you life. Remembering all that will make it easier for you to talk to God in prayer.

“I’ll never forgive him for what he did.” 

Ever heard those words? Maybe you’ve said them, or something very close to that?

God could have taken that attitude toward us. He had every right to do so. Not just for the first sin in the Garden of Eden, but for all our subsequent disobedience that continues down to this very day.

But God had a different plan. He let someone take our place and our punishment so that we could be forgiven, even though we do not deserve it. That is what the life and death and resurrection of Jesus are all about. He endured all the temptations we have, but never once sinned. Then he allowed himself to be crucified even though he had done nothing wrong. He went through all that to accomplish your forgiveness.

As those who have been forgiven by God for Jesus’ sake, we have been called to be forgiving people. In the prayer our Lord taught us, he said, “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” And the Lord led Paul to write these passages:

Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. (Ephesians 4:32)  

Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. (Colossians 3:13)

We are called to be forgiving people. Yet we often have the thought and attitude expressed in the first sentence above. We act as though not forgiving someone will hurt that person, when in fact the one you end up hurting is yourself. Lack of forgiveness is harboring a grudge, which is a sin on your part! And the longer you let it eat at you, the longer you remain in your sin.

Think of it this way: if you refuse to forgive someone who has already confessed his sin to God and been forgiven by the Almighty, how much do you think your refusal to forgive will hurt him in the grand scheme of things? All it will do is keep you angry and keep you from living the joy-filled life that God desires for his redeemed children.

However, when you forgive someone, the weight of anger and resentment is lifted from you. You no longer have to carry it around and allow it to drag you down.

And let’s be clear about something. Your forgiveness is not the same as God’s forgiveness. We forgive because we have been forgiven by God, but your forgiveness does not equate to God’s remission of sin. When you forgive someone, it is to keep you from sinning. It is still up to that other person to confess his or her sin to God and ask to be forgiven for Jesus’ sake. That is the forgiveness that matters in the long run.

If we confess our sins, [God] is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1: 9

“Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. His son by the slave woman was born in the ordinary way; but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a promise. These things may be taken figuratively, for the women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar. Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother. For it is written: “Be glad, O barren woman, who bears no children; break forth and cry aloud, you who have no labor pains; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband.” Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. At that time the son born in the ordinary way persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now. But what does the Scripture say? “Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman’s son.” Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.” (Galatians 4:21–31)

What happens when you try to do something the wrong way?

That’s what Abraham did with Hagar, Sarah’s servant. God called him at 75, told him to go to a new land and that he would become a great nation. Ten years later he and Sarah still had no children. So he decided to do things his way. His union with the servant of his wife produced a child. It looked like it worked out. He didn’t have any children, but now he did. God said he would have descendants, and now he did. But this was not God’s plan or God’s way. God said he would have descendants with Sarah. Ishmael’s descendants would become the Islamic people, hostile to God’s people. Doing things the wrong way does not produce good results.

People are constantly trying to do things the wrong way. Couples decide to live together without marriage, justifying their actions by saying “but we love each other and are committed to each other.”  Research shows that just over half of the couples who decide to move in together marry within five years. In that same amount of time, 40 percent of couples split up (which is as traumatic as a divorce). Roughly 10 percent of them continue to live together without being married. (Source)  It used to be true that about 50% of the couples who lived together before marriage ended up divorcing. New research says that on average, couples who cohabited before marriage had a 33 percent higher chance of divorcing than couples who moved in together after the wedding ceremony. (Source)  Doing things the wrong way does not produce good results.

Paul cautions against trying to do things the wrong way. People who think they have to earn God’s favor with their own efforts are doing things the wrong way. On the other hand, those who put their faith and confidence in Jesus for forgiveness are doing things the right way. Paul calls them “children of promise,” comparing them to Isaac who was the child of promise for Abraham and Sarah, and also the one through whom God would fulfill His promise of a Messiah.

Jesus was the one who did everything the right way. He never sinned. He kept all of God’s Laws. Even though the Jewish leaders tried to trap Him and trip Him, He remained steadfast. He fulfilled all righteousness for us. And He offered His perfection, His life, as the payment for the sins of the world. He did everything necessary to earn our salvation. All we have to do is trust Him. That is doing things the right way.