Things look different depending on where you sit. And sometimes, things in our lives look a whole bunch worse from where we sit, than from where God sits.

 

The View from Heaven’s Balcony

I was recently confronted with a situation that really tested my faith. You see, I don’t want you to think that just because I happen to be this smooth voice on the radio – that I somehow get an exemption stamp in my passport, from turbulence on the journey. In fact, probably the opposite is the case.

Because I’m out there, sharing the fantastic news of Jesus with people all around the world, week after week through these radio programs, our enemy the devil’s got me in his sights. I’ve got a target painted on my chest as far as he’s concerned. So, here’s what was going on.

There was one particular country, one of the world’s most populous countries, where our team had been working to get these programs to air on a radio station with a huge listenership. The daily audience for the program was going to be over one million people – that’s actual listeners.

That’s a big deal! I mean one listener is a big deal to me. A million – I can’t even imagine that many people. It’s a big deal. We’d been working for two years on this project, including finding translators and a voice to record the messages in the local vernacular language.

Quite an investment of time and effort and money. And then the day came when finally, the radio network in question accepted the program and placed it in a prime time slot. Amazing stuff. We rejoiced. We gave thanks. Really – it had been such a long road and so much was at stake. So many lives, so many people to hear the good news about Jesus. Wow.

But on the first day we were due to go to air they told us, well … we can accept the program for the moment, but in a few weeks’ time, we’re having a review of all externally provided programs and we don’t know what that is going to mean.

When our team in that country got in touch with me to tell me the news, they were gutted. I can understand how they felt. All that effort and now, all of a sudden, the whole thing was up in the air again. Devastating. What would happen? I’ll share my reaction to that whole thing with you in a minute. But first I want to go to what Isaiah has to say into situations like that.

Remember, if you’ve been able to join us these past few programs, you’ll know that Israel has been in slavery in Babylon for 70 years, since about 586 or 587 BC. And God comes to them through His Prophet Isaiah and brings them the good news that He is about to set them free; that they are about to return to the Promised Land. Whoopee! You’d think. But just like you and me, when everything’s bleak, they struggled to digest the good news.

You know what it’s like. When all your circumstances are screaming gloom and doom at you, it’s very hard to believe that something good is going to happen. Even if you believe in God. Even if you’ve put your trust in Jesus. Even if you’ve heard a million sermons on trusting God.

When your Goliath comes stomping into your life with weapons of destruction pointing at you – yah, believing that God is there to protect you, that God has a good plan for you – that’s really, really hard. It was hard for Israel, way back then and it’s hard for us today. Here and now. So here’s what God says to His people through the Prophet Isaiah. Have a listen Isaiah 52:12:

For you shall not go out in haste, and you shall not go in flight; for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.

You see, they were going to leave Babylon and their slavery behind. But how does that actually happen, they’ve been wondering? Babylon – the global world power of the day. The most fearsome and powerful of armies. Are we going to have to run for our lives? Are some of us going to be killed? What? How’s this going to happen?

All well and good for Isaiah to be carrying on with all this good news, but what if he’s wrong? What if God doesn’t show up?

Have those thoughts ever crossed your mind when you’re between a rock and a hard place? Yep – well, Israel too. And so God points back to a time when He’s done exactly the same for them before. He’s pointing back to a time in their history that every man, woman and child knows from top to bottom, inside out, back to front, because it’s been handed down from generation to generation for centuries.

He’s pointing back to the Exodus of course, to their escape from Israel. Remember? They fled and God hardened Pharaoh’s heart and so the greatest army of that time, Egypt, came after them. In front of them was the Red Sea – an uncrossable body of water for a million men, women and children. Behind them, coming up fast was the mightiest army on the planet. Here it is.  Exodus 13:21–22:

The Lord went in front of them in a pillar of cloud by day, to lead them along the way, and in a pillar of fire by night, to give them light, so that they might travel by day and by night. Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people.

So God went ahead of them. But what about the rear, as the Egyptians closed in on them? Exodus 14:19–21:

The angel of God who was going before the Israelite army moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud moved from in front of them and took its place behind them. It came between the army of Egypt and the army of Israel. And so the cloud was there with the darkness, and it lit up the night; one did not come near the other all night. Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. The Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night, and turned the sea into dry land; and the waters were divided.

There it is. God went ahead of them, and behind them. He led them and opened the way, and He protected them from an attack from the rear. So when He promises now all these centuries later to do exactly the same – what is it that He’s doing? Is He asking them to rely on blind faith? Is He asking the to conjure up courage that they don’t have? No! He’s asking them to look back at what He has already done.

That’s the amazing thing with God, He never takes us to the point, where we can’t take it. Each challenge, He comes through. And so the next time, when the challenge is bigger and scarier than last time, He asks us to look back on what He’s already done in our lives.

We forget that each time. We forget He’s already proven Himself faithful and true. Oh yeah! He did that last time. Of course, in fact as I look back, He’s always come through, He’s always been there, He’s always somehow some way made it happen. Wow! And there is the bedrock of our faith this time.

When I heard the bad news about the radio program in that country, my reaction was this. We have seen this happen so many times. Today God has tens of millions of people listening to this very same program that you’re listening today in 160 plus countries around the world. There are so many times when we shouldn’t have ended up on stations and God opened the door. He went ahead of us.

There are so many times when the ministry should have folded because there weren’t the resources. But He brought up our rear. He’d trained me to trust in Him over and over again by putting me between a rock and a hard place and showing up and making things happen. After a while even someone as spiritually thick as me starts to get it. We don’t have to listen to the theory, God plans for us to put it into practice over and over again and then shows up and proves Himself true. He teaches us in our experience that this verse is absolutely true:

For you shall not go out in haste, and you shall not go in flight; for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.

He’s teaching us to stop sweating it. He’s teaching us at each and every transition and trial and temptation that He is faithful and true. What an awesome Dad. What an awesome God.

 

The Answer is Jesus

I would love to be able to tell you today that I have a secret that can take all the uncertainty and change and surprises out of your life’s journey. I’d love to be able to tell you that I have a secret that’ll take all the wrinkles, and lumps and bumps out of your life. But alas, no, I’d be lying if I told you that. There’s no such thing! Every life is a journey, every life has surprises, and every life takes twists and turns that we wouldn’t choose for ourselves. The sooner we get used to that truth, the better.

‘It’s just not fair!’ I hear you say. Well, whether it’s fair or unfair, whatever, the reality is that there isn’t a perfect life out there. There isn’t a life out there that’s all peaches and cream. We kind of kid ourselves that there is. We aspire to living that sort of life, but I’ve been racking my brain and so far as I know, there’s not a single person I’ve met in my life who can tell me that their life has been completely perfect.

However, what I can share with you is the amazing truth that in the midst of the imperfections and the storms and the onslaughts and the wrinkles and the surprises; in the midst of the disappointments, the tragedies, the loneliness that we find ourselves in; in the midst of those things, there is an answer. There is an answer that brings joy and peace in the middle of those troubled times – a special kind of joy and peace that is only available in those difficult times.

I hope you’ve been able to join me these past few weeks on the programme, because we’ve been talking about the huge transition that the nation of Israel faced, from certainty (such as it was) – the certainty of their slavery and captivity in Babylon over the past 70 years, to the uncertainty of God’s blessing as He set out to restore their freedom and take them back to the promised land, to rebuild Jerusalem; to rebuild the wall; to rebuild the temple. It’s really ironic that we’re more comfortable often with an ugly certainty than a potentially beautiful uncertainty, but as we saw before the break, that’s just the way it is; we are.

And so, through the prophet Isaiah, as we’ve been tracking through chapters 51 and 52 of that book in the Old Testament, we’ve seen God rousing His people and convincing them of the amazingly beautiful journey ahead of them, back to the Promised Land. Isaiah 52:4-6, he says:

Listen to Me, My people, and give heed to Me, My nation: For a teaching will go out from thee, and My justice for a light to all the peoples. I will bring near My deliverance swiftly; My salvation has gone out, and My arm will rule the peoples. Even the coastlands wait for Me, and for My arm they hope. Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth beneath, for the heavens will vanish like smoke, and the earth will wear out like a garment, and those who live on it will die like gnats. But My salvation will be forever, and My deliverance will never be ended.

It’s a beautiful promise of deliverance, but as we’ve seen, Israel has been struggling with that. So the question is, in the middle of that struggle, what’s the answer? Where do we turn? Where do we find that courage and strength and peace and comfort and calmness that we need to get through the tough trials?

Well, this is the really exciting bit. This is the end of those 2 chapters and unbeknown to the Israelites in that sixth century before Christ, what Isaiah gives them is a prophecy – a prophecy that wouldn’t be fulfilled for centuries; a prophecy about the One who would bring the comfort of God into their very midst. Are you ready for it? Isaiah 52:13-53:6:

See, my servant shall prosper. He shall be exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high. Just as there were many who were astonished at Him, so marred was His appearance beyond human semblance and His form beyond all that of mortals, so He shall startle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths because of Him, for that which has not been told them, they shall see; and that which they have not heard, they shall contemplate.

Who has believed what we have heard, and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? For He grew up before Him like a young plant, and like a root out of the dry ground. He had no form or majesty that we would look upon Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by others, a man of suffering, and acquainted with infirmity. As one from whom others hide their faces He was despised, and we held Him of no account. Surely He has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases, yet we counted Him stricken, struck down by God and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the punishment that made us whole, and by His bruises we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

And on it goes in Isaiah chapter 53. This is truly amazing. Centuries before that starry night, on which Jesus was born in that stable in Bethlehem, God through Isaiah’s prophecy tells us exactly what this Jesus would be like – Jesus the suffering servant; Jesus the plain, ordinary man who would bear our sin, whose suffering would set us free; Jesus the Son of God, who would show us exactly how much this God of ours loves us – a God who not only does things powerfully for His people, but a God who would come into our very midst and suffer for us.

This is what sets God apart from all the other so-called gods. It’s the fact that He shows up; that He walks 30 years or more in our shoes on the dusty highways and byways of life: This Jesus who understands our suffering not merely because He is God, but because He became one of us and suffered for us and suffered like us and suffered with us, dying a terrible death so that you and I might live.

My friend, with all my heart, I tell you that this Jesus is the answer. You may be going through indescribable suffering and pain; you may be going through an exhausting or an uncomfortable transition in your life, but Jesus has been there ahead of you, and He knows how you feel, what you’re going through, the pain and the loneliness – hallelujah! God is the God who suffered for me and for you, and that is the answer. He is the answer. When you pray to God in the name of Jesus, you’re praying through Jesus, who knows you and your journey better than you know them yourself, ‘cos He’s been there.

I want to leap forward now to something in the New Testament about Jesus – this Jesus who wants to bring you peace; this Jesus who wants to be your companion on this journey so that you are never, ever, alone. Just before He was crucified, He said this to His disciples:

If you love Me, you will keep My commandments, and I will ask the Father and He will give you another Advocate to be with you forever – the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees Him nor knows Him, but you know Him, because He abides with you and He will be in you. I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will also live. And on that day you will know that I am in the Father, and you in Me and I in you. They who have My commandments and keep them are those who love Me, and those who love Me will be loved by my Father and I will love them and reveal Myself to them.

Hallelujah! ‘Cos Jesus is on our journey with us. Jesus is on your journey with you. He’s on my journey with me. We’re not orphaned. We’re not alone. We’re never alone! We’re never without Him! Have you asked Jesus into your life? Have you called out to God in His mighty name? If you have, Jesus dwells in you. God dwells in you (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) – in you to hold you, and to comfort you, and to strengthen you ... That’s the honest truth, and it’s a truth that I would tell you with my dying breath because it’s the most important truth I know. Friend, there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

 

A Battlefield Perspective

I was recently in a little place called Lincoln, Nebraska, in the USA – the home of the global media ministry Back to the Bible, the very same ministry that way back in 1957 planted Christianityworks in Australia. And I was over there on a weekend, so I wandered down to my favourite church in that town – the Lincoln City Church, and it turned out they had a visitor speaking at the church that morning. Her name was Bo Stern – mid-40s, great communicator – but what she spoke about was something that I just didn’t expect. You see, everything had been going perfectly for her and for her husband Steve and their family. They were a family that served and honoured God. Steve in particular was a great man of faith, as the head of the home, and he sought to honour God with all that he was. It was all going along swimmingly, until the day Steve was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease, and in an instant, Bo found herself out on a battlefield.

She found herself out there in one of those places where she needed to learn how to trust God not just in theory, but in practice. And as she remarked: ‘Don’t you just hate it when people come along with glib platitudes like oh, don’t worry dear. All things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose?’ Hey, now that’s a Scripture. Romans 8:28. How can that be a glib platitude? Well, easy. ‘Cos when people who haven’t really experienced the pain of your battlefield come along and try to drop a simple solution in your lap, it doesn’t work.

"Hey; don’t you get what I’m going through here? Don’t you understand the ferocity of the battle, the onslaught on my family, my husband’s disease?" She’s written a book about this journey and it’s called "Beautiful Battlefields" by Bo Stern. Definitely worth a read; you can buy it online. The central thesis, the big idea of this book if you will, is this (and I quote from her book):

“Some beautiful things can only be found in the hardest times. Can you turn that idea around in your mind for a bit, and let its size and scope seep in? God is for us. He is for our growth; for our joy; for our success; our maturity; and He will use every struggle we face as the delivery agents for His most remarkable gifts. Our beautiful God has hidden beauty in the soil of our battlefield. He has placed treasure there that we simply would not be able to find in another, more peaceful place. Before we faced this fight, I knew this in theory, but I hadn’t experienced a fire hot enough to prove and refine it. Now I can say with great confidence: I own it. On good days and on bad, in war and in peace, in sickness and in health, I know in the deepest part of my heart that He is the God who brings beauty from battle.” (Beautiful Battlefields by Bo Stern).

The power of what she’s saying here lies in the fact that Bo is speaking from her vantage point in the midst of a most terrible battle. No glib platitudes or shallow theories; just a real, gritty, Spirit-breathed understanding, that can only come from out there on the battlefield. In that book she grapples with issues and shares insights that’ll warm your heart and strengthen your soul, and fill you with hope.

My point in sharing this with you is that I think sometimes, when we’re going through some transition in life, from A to B, from comfortable to uncomfortable, from safe to unsafe, from certain to uncertain, we expect there to be an instant, magic solution. We expect God to heal now! To provide now! To do whatever we want Him to do now, while all along He holds back because there are treasures hidden in the dirt out there on the battlefield.

My friend, it’s true on my battlefields, and it’s true on your battlefields. God has hidden treasures out there that you can only find because you’re out on the battlefield – the treasure of knowing Him in the battle; the treasure of discovering His faithfulness under fire. And I would encourage anyone out there on their own personal battlefield, you on your battlefield, to start looking for those treasures – for they are treasures only available to you out on your battlefield – and when you discover them, they are truly, truly exquisite.

My friend, God is with you on your journey, as He was with Israel; as He went ahead of them to lead the way, and behind them to protect them, your God is travelling with you through your battle, doing exactly the same thing for you, and here’s one thing for certain: In years to come, when you look back at this battle, you’ll be able to see how your God has proven Himself to be faithful and true, ‘cos that’s just who He is.