God – Page 3 – JIM MARTIN

Facebook and Friends

Yesterday, I was on my Facebook page and was looking at my list of "friends." If you are not familiar with this, each person has a friends list. Before someone is added to this list, you must request their friendship or they must request yours. As a result, you end up with the most interesting list of friends.

What makes it interesting? Here, in this one place, are pictures of people I have known at different times and places in my life.

Friends I graduated from high school with.
Friends I have known at various churches where we’ve been.
Friends of my children. Parents of my children’s friends.
Friends in Waco and in many other places.
Friends I have known for decades and those I have known only for a few months.
Friends I have known through my work.
Friends I know through this blog.
Friends I have met through other friends.

It is amazing to see pictures of these people, some of whom I have not seen in many years, on a page with people I now see on a regular basis.

Yesterday, I was looking at these pictures and thought about some of these people I have interacted with at some level over the years. I thought about how blessed I really am.

What about you?

Maybe you had coffee with a good friend the other day.
Perhaps you called a friend yesterday whom you had not seen in years.
Maybe you recently invested in your relationship with your daughter or son.
You may have recently expressed to a friend how much he means to you.

Yes, I know that some people rarely, if ever, take the initiative to connect. In some relationships, you may feel as if you are the only one making the effort to initiate any kind of time together. Sometimes friendships just are not sustained over a period of time, for whatever reason. I realize that these can be real issues in friendships.

Nevertheless, I don’t want these issues to distract me right now from just how grateful I feel for certain people in my life at various moments. Unbelievable!

What about you? Can you look back at your life and see the incredible investment that some have made in you? Are there some people who have been significant encouragers?

When God is a Refuge

This morning I came across this prayer by William Barclay. (I actually came across this prayer as I was reading through a part of A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and Other Servants by Job and Shawchuck.) I read through this prayer once and then read it again. This is a prayer that reminded me today of God’s provision through the stress of life.

O God, you are our refuge.
When we are exhausted by life’s efforts;
When we are bewildered by life’s problems;’
When we are wounded by life’s sorrows:
We come for refuge to you.

O God, you are our strength.
When our tasks are beyond our powers;
When our temptations are too strong for us;
When duty calls for more than we have to give to it:
We come for strength to you.

O God, it is from you that all goodness comes.
It is from you that our ideals come;
It is from you that there comes to us the spur of high desire
and the restraint of conscience.
It is from you that there has come the strength to resist any temptation,
and to do any good thing.

And now as we pray to you,
Help us to believe in your love,
so that we may be certain that you will hear our prayer;
Help us to believe in your power,
so that we may be certain
that you are able to do for us
above all that we ask or think;
Help us to believe in your wisdom,
so that we may be certain
that you will answer,
not as our ignorance asks,
but as your perfect wisdom knows best.

(Be sure to check out God-Hungry Live, a companion page to this blog, which features various videos of people whose writing or speaking has blessed me in some way. Look for the yellow button to subscribe to updates.)

Only God

Only God can work through situations that seem impossible to human beings.

Like yesterday.

OK — maybe I am exaggerating. Maybe it was not an impossible Sunday. Still it was an unusual Sunday.

Yesterday, while I was attempting to preach, the following happened:

The air conditioning stopped working. (Remember that I live in Texas and it is late May.) Fortunately, our very fine volunteer who takes care of many of our maintenance issues was dealing with it. At various times, I could see him walking around at the back. I could see another person walking around at the same time. Wasn’t sure if he was trying to help him or not.
At one point, there was a loud noise behind me as the air conditioning attempted to turn on. (I just remember that this noise seemed to happen twice.)
Somewhere in all of this there was a loud boom at the back. It happened twice. It seemed to come from behind a wall near one of our back rows. (I later learned that it came from the nursery where one of our toddlers kicked the wall.)

Finally, the message was over. Someone led a prayer during which three cell phones went off. Again, all of this is in one Sunday morning.

The morning ended and people stood around for a while talking. Just as Charlotte and I were getting ready to go home, a man stopped me near the stairs and said, "I want to tell you about a conversation that I just had." He went on to say that the message had deeply touched a woman he had been talking with and as a result she was planning to deal with a situation in her life in a very Christlike manner.

I know that God was at work. Only God could take that morning and redeem it for good. 🙂

Yesterday — a Funeral

Author Jim Martin
PublishedApril 22, 2008

Yesterday, I did a funeral.

I did a funeral. That statement has meaning to anyone in ministry. It means I spoke at a funeral. Yet, it usually means so much more. It means that I was with the family. It means that I got to see a family up close during a very difficult time in their lives.

I have no idea how many funerals I have participated in. I do recall at least some of the situations:

A 26-year-old woman who died of cancer.
A 70-year-old man who died in a traffic accident.
A baby, born to a quiet West Texas couple, who only lived a few days.
A 17-year-old boy who died when he wrecked his truck one Saturday night.
A woman in her 80s who passed away in a nursing home.
A man in his late 40s who ended his own life.

Participating in a funeral is not something to be taken lightly. I really don’t know how to be involved in a funeral without being engaged emotionally because it is so personal for that family.

A funeral is personal because this is often a time during which a minister is allowed to peak inside that family. I generally meet with the family prior to the funeral. This time together might be long or it might be short. One thing is for sure. It is very personal. They will usually tell stories about their loved one. Funny stories. Sad stories. Tragic stories. Very often they will tell rich stories about their loved one that speak of that person’s character and values. Again, these stories are very personal. When hearing these stories, one is allowed to look at some emotional snapshots of what goes on within that family.

A funeral is very personal because it elicits in that family so many thoughts, feelings, and memories about that mother, father, son, daughter, etc. Of course there are many factors at work in all of this. What was the nature of the relationship? How close do family members feel to this person? Are their memories primarily positive or primarily negative?

Worried and Anxious?

I am not sure where you are at the moment. You may be reading this early in the morning. Perhaps you are reading these words in the middle of your workday. You just can’t get that situation out of your mind. I am talking about that particular situation that really has you concerned.

Perhaps you are very concerned about your high school age son. He seems to be drifting farther and farther away.
Perhaps your financial situation is weighing on you. You wonder again and again why you bought that car and then allowed yourself to carry such debt on your credit card.
Perhaps you wonder how much longer you will have a job. You hear rumors at work that make you feel very uncomfortable and insecure about your job.
Perhaps you have been betrayed by a friend. You wonder if you can be close to anyone again.
Perhaps you have a family member whose life is spinning out of control. You wonder how much longer it will take before she finally hits bottom.

These kinds of situations can become very heavy. You might wake up in the middle of the night worrying about the situation. You imagine what life will be like if things continue to get worse.

I have found great help and encouragement in the Psalms. The Psalms often help me shift my focus from the source of my anxiety and fear to the source of all comfort and encouragement. In particular, I have found it helpful to read these Psalms looking for God. I look for his name and descriptions of his work or character. I look for phrases that describe his action or that detail his promises. In recent years, I will read the Psalms highlighting in yellow everything that in some way says something about God. When I am doing this, I often pray aloud (if I am where I can do this) that particular Psalm.

Consider Psalm 100. Consider what this Psalm says about God.

He is the Lord.

He is the object of my joyful and exuberant praise.

He is worthy of worship.

He will receive my joyful song.

He is our creator.

He is the one to whom we belong.

He has made us "a people."

He will receive us as we enter his presence with thanksgiving and praise.

He wishes to receive our thanksgiving and the praise of his name.

He is good.

His love endures forever.

His faithfulness continues through all generations.

Life Can Be Difficult

You know the feeling. Just pick the word that most aptly describes you right now:

Discouraged.

Defeated.

Depressed.

Overwhelmed.

Exhausted.

Burdened.

Weary.

Frustrated.

Confused.

Hopeless.

Lost.

Do you know these feelings? At one time or another I think that one of these words could have described the way I felt. Does one of these words describe the reality of your life right now?

Today, I was reading through a portion of Deuteronomy 33 in which Moses gives some parting words to the tribes of Israel. I love these encouraging words:

There is no one like the God of Jeshurun, who rides on the heavens to help you and on the clouds in his majesty. The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. (33:26-27)

Perhaps in spite of the way we feel, we actually have security and safety because God is holding us with his everlasting arms. Maybe he really is a refuge we can count on regardless. Perhaps when we are feeling as if we are losing our joy and our grip on things, maybe we can turn to God and savor what it means to be carried in his everlasting arms.

What a Relief!

This morning I woke up at about 5:00. It was dark in our bedroom. I put on the fleece jacket that was on the chair on my side of the bed and slipped out of the bedroom. Once in the kitchen, I began making coffee. I always enjoy the smell and taste of coffee early in the morning.

I opened my Bible to the book of Isaiah. Chapter 46. With a yellow marker in one hand, I began reading the chapter.

Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all you who remain of the house of Israel, you whom I have upheld since you were conceived, and have carried since your birth.

Even to your old age and gray hairs, I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.

To whom will you compare me or count me equal? To whom will you liken me that we may be compared? . . . (Isaiah 46:3-5)

I sipped the coffee and thought about these words. After all, just days earlier I had told Charlotte that I felt overwhelmed. You know that feeling. You think about what you need to do, what should have been done yesterday, and feel tired just thinking about it. Then I read these words,

". . . I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you."

When I savor these words, when I let them soak in, I feel lighter. No, the work doesn’t go away. The problems don’t disappear. However, the heaviness and gloominess that I might be consumed by becomes less dominate. I am approaching a new day in which God has been at work long before I get to the office. He has already been working on issues that overwhelm me. My workload may feel overwhelming to me but that may be because I am focused on the work and not on him who sustains me.

Regardless of what the week appears to hold, I can still expect to experience joy. After all, experiencing joy is not dependent on having a perfect week. Rather, it is rooted in the source of all joy — God himself.

Is this reality useful for you today as you begin your week?

The God Backstage

Many years ago, I used to watch "The Invisible Man" on television. I was very young at the time so I don’t recall many of the details. However, I do remember that he would enter a room, be totally invisible, and yet something happened because of his presence. You might see on your television screen an object moving from one side of the room to the other. The object appeared to be floating through the air and yet, as a viewer, you knew that object was moving because of the presence of the invisible man. On the screen, the viewer might see four people in a room and yet you knew that a fifth was actually present. However, he was invisible.

Many years later, I think about this old television program as I reflect on the presence of God in my life.

Think for a moment about your day. Think about the week you are anticipating. My day and week involve people. Sometimes this involves one-on-one time with a person. Sometimes this involves interacting with a group of people. As I think about the evenings this week, this too involves people such as my wife and my college-age daughter who is home this summer. By phone, I will relate to my other daughter and my son-in-law.

These are the people on the "stage" of my life. Yet, as with any play, there is something very important happening backstage.

When I was in high school, the senior class play was Thornton Wilder’s "Our Town." I recall being amazed at how many people worked backstage (crew, technicians, director, costumes, etc.) in order to make the play happen on stage. What the audience sees are the people on the stage. What the audience does not see are the people backstage who are making an incredible difference in what happens on stage.

God is the God who is "backstage." No, you don’t see him like you see the cast of characters who are on the stage in whatever life setting you happen to be in. You don’t know what he is doing at any given moment. Yet, his work and his activity are making all the difference in what is happening on stage.

Think for a moment about Joseph’s story as recorded in Genesis. In the beginning, he lives a charmed life as he enjoys the favoritism of his father. Then he is sold into slavery by his jealous brothers. Meanwhile, his father thinks he is dead.

He ends up in Egypt working for a guy named Potiphar. Then, in Genesis 39, we are told repeatedly that God was with Joseph and that his presence with Joseph was very real.

"The Lord was with Joseph and he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master" (39:2).

"When his master saw that the Lord was with him…" (39:3).

"…the Lord blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph…" (39:5).

Joseph ends up in prison. Still, we are told that God was with him.

"But while Joseph was there in the prison, the Lord was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden."

If God were writing the book of your life, how would it read? I suspect that the story of your life or my life, authored by him, would read very differently from what you or I might write about ourselves. I suspect that at some places in your story (or mine) that God would repeatedly remind the reader that God was with us.

Why am I writing this? I have to admit that I am writing this as a reminder to myself. I need to remember that God is at work. I am prone to forget and to feel as if much of life is up to me.

Feel free to listen in and claim this as your own reminder.

The Reality You Can’t See

Author Jim Martin
PublishedMay 31, 2007
15 Comments on The Reality You Can’t See

The other day, Christine (our older daughter) and Phillip bought their first house. They closed on their house, etc. on Tuesday.

How strange! To think of one of your children with a mortgage. Surely this must be some sort of passage in life. (I mean for me as a parent.) How quickly time moves along — from needing lunch money in grade school to all of a sudden (Okay, that is what it seems like anyway.) having her own mortgage!

This is reality.

So much of reality is practically ignored in this life. In fact, some of the wonderful realities are practically ignored in our churches. I am thinking, for instance, about the reality of what God is doing among us. Yet, when we ignore this reality, it is our loss.

Far too often, we get overly focused on what we are doing or not doing. We may get overly focused on what we should be doing or should not be doing. As a father or mother, as a husband or wife, we often don’t give a lot of thought to what God might be doing in our family. Being a father or mother is a ministry. As a Christ-follower, being a married person means that I see myself in ministry to my spouse. When I go to work (and it doesn’t matter where you or I happen to work), I need to see myself as God’s minister/servant. Yet, it is possible to completely ignore what God might be doing in those relationships.

This minister/servant identity is not primarily about tasks or making a list of things I need to do for the Lord. Rather, it is primarily about believing that God is at work through me, as a part of a larger community of people (the church) through which he is accomplishing his purposes in this world.

The reality of everyday ministry is that the "Spirit of the living God" (2 Corinthians 3:3) is at work on the hearts of people to whom we relate and minister. He tells these people (the early believers at Corinth), "… you yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody" (3:2). Who has done the writing? Christ (3:3).

Sometimes I feel as if I am really accomplishing nothing. Do you relate to this at all? You may go through those seasons when you wonder if you are making any sort of difference in your family, among your friends, in your church, or in your community. I have certainly felt this way at times. At times, my own self-doubt and discouragement have been completely overwhelming and defeating. Far too often this sense of defeat has been felt most deeply as I have ignored the reality of what he is doing through my life and in the church (whether I can see it or not).

Today, I want to thank God for the reality of his work and his accomplishments. While I slept, he was at work. He will be at work today. Rather than get too caught up in what I am doing, I want to center my confidence on what he has done and continues to do.

Prayer: With Open Hands

I am a part of a wonderful church. Flaws? Shortcomings? Things that can drive me batty? Oh yes. But, I am a part of a wonderful church. I love the church — flaws and all. I am sure they love me — flaws and all.

Several weeks ago, I told our church about an opportunity I had to teach in a graduate school at a Christian college (basically a seminary). I would be teaching ministry courses. I asked our church to pray about it. Several weeks later (today), I thanked the church for their prayers and told them that I was declining the offer. Things had just not come together. I believe this is the right decision. I also believe it is an answer to prayer.

Meanwhile, the past few days I have been praying for my daughter who is in Ghana working at the Village of Hope. She is with twenty-five college students. When I first began praying for her, I primarily prayed for her safety, her comfort, her peace at times when she was lonely and discouraged, etc. All of that is understandable for a father who is praying for his daughter. The problem was that prayers never really dealt with what was most important in her life or in the kingdom of God.

Several days ago, I began to also pray that her ministry, with the other college students, would make a significant difference in someone’s life. I prayed that the gospel would be spread in Ghana. I prayed for Village of Hope and their ministry with those children.

A few minutes ago, we received the first e-mail from her since arriving in Ghana a week ago. She said that she was writing from the only "non-mud hut building in the whole town." This town or village was 17 hours from the Village of Hope. She described northern Ghana as a place where "everyone is Muslim." Hmmmm. She is thinking about much more than her comfort or peace. Maybe her dad should as well.

Finally, I am thinking and praying about the future. I am free to think about the present and future because right now, I have everything I need. (I don’t mean this in a glibe way.) Rather, I mean that God really does give us everything we need for a completely satisfying relationship with him.

You have probably heard more than you have interest in knowing. Yet, I would be very interested in knowing what you are praying for. What is the prayer of your heart that is repeated again and again?