Fire & Flood

I love Isaiah 43.  It's usually the first passage I read when I'm feeling scared, discouraged, overwhelmed or insecure.  I've picked out my favorite verses and pasted them below.

It was written to encourage the Israelites when they were in captivity in Babylon.  They were slaves.  I'm sure they didn't feel like they were "God's chosen people."  They needed a reminder of who they really were in God's eyes.  

They also needed a reminder that He was still with them even in this dark place.  He promises that He will preserve and care for them as they walk through some of the toughest days of their lives.   

This pain won't last forever, God promises them, and us.  Wait for Me!  Watch what I'm about to do!

Whenever I read the first two verses, I substitute my own own name every time it says "Jacob" or "Israel."  Try it with your name:

But now, thus says the LORD, who created you, O Jacob, 

And He who formed you, O Israel: "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; 

I have called you by your name; You are Mine. 

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; 

And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. 

When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, 

Nor shall the flame scorch you. 

(Isaiah 43:1,2) 

 

God knows us better than anyone.  He made us!  He knows my name and He knows your name.  We can have a real, intimate relationship with Him.  

We are HIS!

God never promises that He'll always keep the fire and flood away from us.  The fire and the flood will come.  But He does promise that if we cling to Him those painful experiences will not get the best of us.  They can't destroy us!  He will never leave us to face anything by ourselves.

He is with us. 

----------------------------------------------------------------

These next verses remind the Israelites how God had saved them in the past.  He saved them before; He would do it again! We can use this reminder, too.  We can stop and think of all the ways God has helped us in the past; and most of all how God has saved us from the biggest fire of all: He gave Jesus for our ransom.  

He gave His Son in our place so that we could have eternal life.  This life and salvation is free to anyone who will accept it from Him!

For I am the LORD your God, The Holy One of Israel, 
your Savior; 

I gave Egypt for your ransom, 

Ethiopia and Seba in your place.

Since you were precious in My sight, You have been honored, 

And I have loved you; 

Therefore I will give men for you, 

And people for your life.

(Isaiah 43:3,4)

Did you hear that?  The God of the universe is saying to you and to me, I have not forgotten you!  I have rescued you in the past and I will do it again.  You are precious to Me.  I love you!  I love you so much that I gave My Son to die in your place. 

----------------------------------------------------------------

Fear not, for I am with you...

Everyone who is called by My name,  

Whom I have created for My glory; 

I have formed him, yes, I have made him.

Indeed before the day was, I am He; 

And there is no one who can deliver out of My hand; 

I work, and who will reverse it?  

(Isaiah 43:5a, 7)

We have no reason to fear.  God knows our name!  And then, when we become His children by trusting in Jesus, He gives us HIS name as well.  We are Christians.  We exist to bring Him glory.  

Have you ever wondered, "What is the meaning of life?  What is my purpose in this world?"  God tells us right here.  

He created us to bring Him glory; He chose us (!) to showcase His glory, or (as John Piper would say) His spectacularness.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Behold, I will do a new thing,  
Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? 

I will even make a road in the wilderness And rivers in the desert.

This people I have formed for Myself;  They shall declare My praise.

(Isaiah 43:13, 19, 21) 

When we find ourselves in the raging fire, or knocked over by stormy waves...we have hope!   It won't last forever.  God is "on the move."  

Watch for Him...and He will do something new.

Ruby’s Mom and the Lotus Flower

Most days I'm immersed with life in Dallas.  Diapers, dinners, church, friends, chores.  But some days, like today, my mind is back in China.

One of the most beautiful people I met during the year we lived in China was my student Ruby’s mother.  

One weekend Josh and I traveled with Ruby and two other girls to a very small community in Jiang Xi province in Southern China, only a couple of hours by train from Nanchang, where we lived.  We were going there to meet Ruby’s family.  

We took a non-air-conditioned train to the nearby town and then hopped on a rickety bus that took us from the train station far out into the middle of some rice fields.  The bus let us off at the end of a long, straight dirt road that stretched as far as we could see through green rice fields.  

Ruby’s high school aged brother was waiting for us there when the bus dropped us off.  He shyly said “hello” and tried out his English on Josh and me as he led us down the road toward a small gathering of houses we could see in the distance.

Ruby’s village was one of the smallest and poorest I had ever seen.  There were maybe 10 or 12 houses making up the village.  As we approached the houses we left the road and followed a path into the village.  There were no roads in-between houses, just pathways.  And that made sense, because few (if any) there owned a car...the majority of Chinese people travel by bicycle or motorcycle.  

We had to walk around several cows that were lazing in our pathway and we keenly watched our step...there was garbage and cow dung everywhere we looked.

As soon as we entered the village a group of about a dozen children came running up to us and followed us toward Ruby’s house.  We smiled and tried to interact, but they held back at first, shy.  They laughed and skipped behind us, whispering about us and giggling.  I felt vaguely like the pied piper. 

As we neared the back edge of the village, Ruby pointed out the cut stone house at the very end of the row.  That was her house, and her parents were waiting in the doorway.  

I knew already that this was no ordinary woman I was about to meet.  Ruby had confided in me several months earlier, with tears, that her mother is blind.   Several years before she had battled a brain tumor that left her with her life but stole her eyesight.

Blindness is never an easy thing, but in China her handicap is considered shameful.  When she first went blind Ruby’s father was very harsh with her.  He told her again and again that she was worthless, and Ruby’s mom believed him.  Several times she tried to end her life by swallowing pesticides.  

Thankfully, she failed!  A sweet Christian woman in the village took Ruby’s mother under her wing.  She helped her as she learned to live with her blindness and eventually introduced Ruby’s mom to Jesus!  She still visits her every day to check on her and see if she needs any help.  

God used Ruby’s mother’s blindness to show her how much she needed Him.  And another miracle had happened only weeks before we visited the family.  Ruby had run breathless from her dorm room to our apartment to tell us the news: her mother had led her husband, Ruby's dad, to Christ as well! 

I held Ruby’s mother’s hand with both of mine when Ruby introduced us, and she beamed.  Her hair was cut short for easy care, and her skin was rough from years of hard labor.  But her face was absolutely radiant.  Tears are pooling in my eyes as I type this.  I have rarely seen so much quiet joy in someone’s face as I did in Ruby’s mother’s face. 

We watched in awe as she helped her husband prepare our dinner.  She took a large, sharp knife and chopped raw chicken and vegetables with quickness and precision, like a gourmet chef.  She knew we were watching her, and she smiled with delight.  

There was no such thing as a gas or electric stove in this village.  After she finished chopping, Ruby’s mom took position by the woodpile and fed the fire and fanned it while her husband stir-fried our food.  I was scared for her as she threw log after log into the fire.  But she knew exactly what she was doing, and how much distance to keep from the flames.  She had her husband chattered away and laughed and joked in Chinese as they worked. Every once in a while Ruby would translate for us so we would know what they were saying.

At one point during our visit some of the children from the village picked me a huge pink lotus flower from the pond just outside Ruby’s parents’ house (and made us costumes from the leaves).  The flower was stunning.  

I so wanted to share the beauty of the flower with Ruby’s mom, so I took it to her and pressed it into her hands.  

She gently fingered the blossom and her face lit up like the sun.  She nodded and murmured a Chinese phrase I knew.  Piao liang.  Beautiful. 

It struck me then that Ruby’s mom was so much more beautiful than the lotus flower.  She is a breathtaking picture of how God can take a horrible situation and use it for His glory.  

I know every single day is still incredibly difficult for her.  Her son and daughter are far away in school.  Her husband, like most men from rural China, is a migrant worker constantly traveling from city to city trying to find work so he can bring a little money home for his family.  She is alone, and life is hard.  She still lives with a lot of heartache. 

But she has Jesus. 

She has met Him in her darkest hour, and anyone who meets her can see Him shining through her.  All I could do as I watched her was praise God.  She is blossoming despite – or perhaps because of – her pain.  God has seen her suffering, in that hidden little village in the middle of rice fields in Southern China, and He is using it for good.   

Impossible Situations

We all, at one time or another, face impossible situations.

Tasks that are too big for us.  Bad habits that can't be conquered.  Employers who hang us out to dry.  Marriages that are filled with pain.  Babies that can't be conceived.  Children who ignore everything we've taught them.   Loneliness that doesn't let up.  Bills that can't be paid.  Depression that suffocates us. Sickness that threatens to destroy.  Goals that can't be met.  Dreams that aren't fulfilled...

When we meet Gideon in Judges 6, Israel was facing a very impossible situation.  The Midianites were in control and continuously ransacking and destroying them.  The Israelites had to leave their homes and hide in caves in the mountains.  Every time they tried to sow crops the Midianites would come and tear up their fields.

This went on for seven long years.  The Israelites were left without food, without safety; and almost without hope.

Almost.

Before they had turned away from God; but now, in desperation, they cried out and cried out to God to save them.  And God heard their cry.

When we are in an impossible situation, and we cry out to God, He hears our cry.

Still, when the Lord appeared to Gideon "under the terebinth tree" He didn't find what we would consider a fiery man of great faith.  God appeared to a broken man: bitter, confused, disappointed, tired and scared.  Gideon was hurt and he was angry with God.  "If the Lord is with us," he asks in 6:13, "why then has all this happened to us?  And where are all the miracles which our fathers told us about?  ...The Lord has forsaken us."


God wants to help us, even when we're struggling with doubt. 

I've been there.  Have you?

God knew the condition of Gideon's heart.  But do you know what God called him?  In verse 12 He declares, "The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor!"

To me that is one of the coolest verses in the whole Bible.  I absolutely love it!  Here is Gideon.  Frustrated, disillusioned Gideon.  By his own recognition from the "weakest clan" and "least" in his father's household.  But God chooses him as His instrument and calls Gideon a mighty man of valor.

God says it again in verse 14, "Go in this might of yours and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites.  Have I not sent you?"  And in verse 16, "Surely, I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man."

This is grace.

We may feel weak, but the truth is that we are strong.  We are strong because He is with us.

When we are weak and wobbling, God comes down, looks us straight in the eye, and tells us:  Go in this might of yours, you mighty man of valor!  You mighty woman of valor!  You are strong because I AM WITH YOU.  I have heard your cry of despair and I want to turn your story of an impossible situation into a story of victory.

God wants to turn our impossible situation into something beautiful.

But it doesn't always happen right away.  I can only imagine what might have been going through Gideon's mind in chapter 7.

First, God tells Gideon that he has too many people in his army (7:2).  God doesn't want the Israelites to get puffed up and take the glory away from God for this victory.  So He sends 22,000 men packing for home and leaves Gideon with only 10,000.  God makes the impossible situation even more impossible.

Next, God tells Gideon that 10,000 is still too many (7:4)!  Again, He wants it to be clear that this victory is HIS, not theirs.  So God tells him to send another 9,700 men home.  This leaves Gideon with 300 men.  Three hundred men to defeat a huge army of formidable Midianites.

Gideon must have been shaking in his boots.

Sometimes just before God conquers our impossible situations He makes them even more impossible!  He doesn't want us to mistake His power for our own.

The story gets even crazier. God tells them to blow a bunch of trumpets and break some pots and yell.  That was their battle strategy (7:20).  Okay, God, sure.  If you say so...  Here we go!

It worked.

All Gideon's army of 300 did was blow their trumpets, break some pots, and yell.  And God caused the Midianite army to melt into complete chaos and self-destruction.  They fled.

God's answer to our prayer doesn't always look like we expect it to, but He always answers.

Our God is a God of impossible situations.