Friday Five: Refuge

He is a shield
for all who take refuge in him.

2 Sam 22:31

How priceless is your unfailing love! Both high and low among men find refuge in the shadow of your wings.

Psalms 36:7

The LORD delights in those who fear him,
who put their hope in his unfailing love.

Psalms 147:11

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"

John 11:25-26

I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.

Romans 1:16

(This painting and similar ones can be viewed at The Genesis Project.)

Crashing

It was a blow that would have laid me out a few years ago. The anger would have gripped my day like a baby kitten latching onto a pant leg.

My laptop crashed on vacation.

Leisurely days of writing and of Bible study had beckoned on the horizon of our holiday. But it didn’t happened.

Now I face days of rebuilding. I have to re-install programs, locate passwords, download new patches.

My biggest grief was the loss of three years of journaling, my love letters to my Lord.

But I am not David, mourning the loss of a son. I am not Abraham, moving to a land I do not know. I am not Esther, facing possible death depending on king’s mood or Paul sitting in jail depending on the political winds.

God has been good to me. Virtually all my documents were on an external hard drive so I haven’t lost those. And I discovered a back-up of my journals from about 6 months ago, so I haven’t lost all of them. We have another computer at home for internet connections.

While we were gone last week, I opened a notebook and felt drawn to the book of John (more on that later).

I began a new love letter to my Lord and we’ll move forward. His presence, not a laptop, is all I need.

Wrestling with God

Maybe he built a small campfire and ate a simple supper of cheese and bread. Maybe he paced the campsite counting the stars. We don’t know for sure, but we know the night began with haunting emptiness. Jacob had sent his family ahead of him. His possessions were split into two groups, a practical precaution in case his brother started a war. Hopefully one group could escape.

Jacob’s life had been about accumulating. He had coveted Esau’s birthright and the blessing as well, scheming to get both. He had desired Rachel and worked 14 years to her hand. Many years before, on his way to Paddam Aram where he was to meet Rachel and Laban, he had encountered God in a dream.

God made a simple contract with him: I am the Lord your God. Your descendants will be as plentiful as dust. I will not leave you until my promises are complete. (Gen. 28:10-22)

Now, the schemer sat alone. He had prayed: God, please don’t let Esau kill me or my family (in that order). Remember that you promised descendants as plentiful as the sand. Please don’t let them be killed.

After he prayed, Jacob, the man with a thousand schemes, had played his hand and spun his plans. Now he waited alongside a stream, isolated. What could he trust? An old dream about God’s promises? His strategies?

Jacob thought his problem is Esau. His problem was his allegiance. He had met God and basked in God’s provisions. “I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two groups.” (Gen 32:10) God kept his part of the bargain.

Many years before, Jacob had promised that, if God brought him back to his father’s house safely, then the Lord would be his God. Now the time of reckoning was at hand. Esau stood in his way, a formidable foe who might be looking for an understandable righting of wrongs.

And so the schemer wrestled with God. He had given the Lord lip service and had basked in the riches of provision. But when the crisis came, Jacob trusted in his own schemes. He did the “first I’ll pray, then I’ll take care of this” approach to his problem.

God was not to be set aside. He came to Jacob on that lonely campsite. They wrestled. They struggled. Jacob demanded blessing. God wanted commitment. He continued the scuffle until it was Jacob who refused to let go. Jacob was so changed by the encounter that he was given a new name. No longer was he “deceiver” but Israel, “he struggles with God.”

The schemes were over in that incredible reversal. Jacob had a new name and a new identity. He had met God in a powerful, painful battle and he had chosen to grab hold of God rather than his own methods.

His life had been about gathering in God’s promises. But now it was about hanging on to God. Once his hand had been open to receive; now it was clasped tight on the Lord.

“I saw God face to face”

Gen 32:30

Friday Five: Quotes

Here are five quotes that influenced me in the last week:

“We act like pagans in a crisis; only one out of a crowd is daring enough to bank his faith in the character of God.”(Oswald Chambers)

“It is not only wrong to worry, it is infidelity, because worrying means that we do not think that God can look after the practical details of our lives, and it is never anything else that worries us.” (Oswald Chambers)

“What you do reveals what you believe about God, regardless of what you say.”(Henry Blackaby)

“The reason much of the world is not being attracted to Christ and His church is that God’s people lack the faith to attempt those things that only God can do.” (Henry Blackaby)

“It is my pleasure to tell you about the miraculous signs and wonders that the Most High God has performed for me. How great are his signs, how great his wonders!” (King Nebuchadnezzar, the mighty king of Babylon)