Coffee With The Lord

Rescue!!  I guess I am just a visual guy… I’ve been reading Psalm 18 the past several days and a graphic picture has come to mind… A victim struggling in swirling, violent, treacherous waters of a storm… Hope is gone!  Death seems certain!  Plaintive cries of despair barely heard above the howling wind and roaring waves!!  In sweeps a huge, powerful, apocalyptic-Divine rescuer who reaches down and snatches the victim from the terrifying waters and flies away to a place of peace and safety!!!  Kind of a combination of scenes from “Lord of the Rings” and “Narnia” movies…

My daughter, Shari Dresselhaus, knows a little bit about that… What started out as a personal victory in the Mission Trails Regional Park near San Diego, climbing the North Fortuna Peak, turned into an emergency and the need of a terrifying air rescue almost 2 years ago! (See the pics)

Here’s the deal… scenes like that – language like that is found in your Bible!  In fact, it is used to describe how the Living God recues us when we are in deep distress!!  Psalm 18 describes it (you should read it for yourself this morning… I did!)  How encouraging!  I can only give you a taste of it here…

“I called to the Lord, who is worthy of praise and I have been saved from my enemies! … In my distress I called to the Lord!  I cried to my God for help!  From His temple he heard my voice; my cry came before Him, into His ears! … He parted the heavens and came down … He reached down from on high and took hold of me!  He drew me out of the deep waters!  He rescued me from my powerful enemy – from my foes, who were too strong for me.  He brought me out into a spacious place!  He rescued me because he delighted in me!” (from Psalm 18.1-19 NIV)

He can and does that for those who “cry out to Him!”  Don’t know what you’re going through right now – how desperate, discouraging, demanding and frightening it is – but here’s one voice urging you to “cry out to the Lord for help!”  He can help you – He can deliver you – He can rescue you!!!

Lent, 40 days leading up to Good Friday and Easter, is kept as a time a spiritual preparation, self-denial, and selfless service.  It is not too much to say that Lent and fasting are linked together.  In fact, my friend, Alicia Britt Chole, has written a wonderful little devotional and prayer guide that many use during Lent entitled 40 Days of Decrease: A Different Kind of Hunger. A Different Kind of Fast.  I recommend it highly!

This morning during my time of “coffee with the Lord” I read and reflected on a great Old Testament passage in which the Lord Himself speaks to the issue of the kind of fasting that He desires!  It prompted me to write this principle in the margin of my Bible: “True fasting is not simply what you deny yourself of, it’s what you devote yourself to!”

The passage?  Isaiah 58:6-12

“This is the kind of fasting I want: Free those who are wrongly imprisoned; lighten the burden of those who work for you. Let the oppressed go free, and remove the chains that bind people.  Share your food with the hungry, and give shelter to the homeless. Give clothes to those who need them, and do not hide from relatives who need your help.  Then your salvation will come like the dawn, and your wounds will quickly heal. Your godliness will lead you forward, and the glory of the Lord will protect you from behind.  Then when you call, the Lord will answer. ‘Yes, I am here,’ He will quickly reply.  Remove the heavy yoke of oppression. Stop pointing your finger and spreading vicious rumors!   Feed the hungry, and help those in trouble. Then your light will shine out from the darkness, and the darkness around you will be as bright as noon.  The Lord will guide you continually, giving you water when you are dry and restoring your strength. You will be like a well-watered garden, like an ever-flowing spring.  Some of you will rebuild the deserted ruins of your cities. Then you will be known as a rebuilder of walls and a restorer of homes.” (From the New Living Translation)

In other words, God through His prophet warns us… Beware when fasting simply becomes an institutionalized religious exercise – something thought of as an expected “religious activity” practiced during “Lent” – it needs to be more than that for God to be impressed and honor it!  Don’t know about you, but during Lent I want to do the kind of “fasting” that makes a difference – the kind that accomplishes what God desires!  Help me Lord!

I was reminded of two big theological words often used to describe God this morning during my Bible reading … “Transcendent” and “Immanent”!

Transcendent means that God is very big and great – beyond anything we can imagine… Webster defines the word as “exceeding the usual limits: surpassing.  Extending or lying beyond the limits of ordinary experience, beyond the limits of all possible experience and knowledge, beyond comprehension, transcending the universe or material existence.”  My response? WOW!!!

Immanent, however, means that God is very near – very close – very approachable… Again Webster defines it like this: “Being within the limits of possible experience or knowledge (even indwelling!).”  My response? I’m so glad I have a God like that!  WOW!!!  I mean, WOW!!!

That’s right!  According to the Bible GOD IS BOTH OF THESE AT THE SAME TIME!  You doubt it’s possible?  Well here’s what Isaiah 57:15 declares…

“Thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is ‘Holy’: ‘I dwell in the high and holy place (i.e. I’m ‘transcendent’), AND ALSO with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit (i.e. I’m immanent), to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.”

Believe me, we need a God who is BOTH!  (And He is both!!)  Bigger and more powerful than ANYTHING you could imagine … Bigger and greater than the universe He created… “transcendent!”  Yet  He is “immanent” – close – near to help those who are in need!  One word… WOW!!!