God's "No's" are Always Good "No's"

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

Jeremiah 29:11

I have told this story in a couple of my sermons.  I was in my first call in Nebraska.  It was the Sunday in January when I was going to announce to the congregations that I was taking a call to go and serve in Texarkana, TX.  It was my first time to ever make such an announcement.  I was nervous.    One member walking into church before the service sized me up and said to me, “Pastor Braun I hope you have good news for us this morning.”  As this fellow turned away and walked into church I let me head fall against my chest.  I sighed deeply. I hate disappointing people and that was exactly what I was about to do.   One of the church elders standing behind me saw my reaction.  “Pastor,” He said, “You just tell them that God’s news is always good news.” 

Yesterday, I was reminded of that story.  A member of Trinity stopped by my office.  For the past three years she and her husband and their two children have been praying and looking for a new place to live.  The place they lived, for all sorts of reasons was not a good one for their family – too small, too far from the kids school and so on. For three years they have been frustrated.  Every time they thought that they had found a place, they would get their hopes up only to see everything fall apart.  It was very frustrating and discouraging.. Why couldn’t they catch a break?  Why did God keep telling them “no?”  Then a few weeks ago, they found an apartment.  This apartment had everything they were hoping for, praying for and looking for. The lease went through.  Now they have been able to rent their old apartment to someone else.  She stood in my office and said to me, “Now we know why God kept telling us ‘no.’ He had someplace better in mind for us.”

As I sat there listening to her, I thought of a variation of what that elder said to me all those years ago – “God’s no’s are always good no’s.”  We all have or are perhaps going through a time it seems like God’s answers to our prayers are one “no” after another.  They are moments when it seems that things we hope for never seem to work out.  They are times of discouragement.  Sometimes we get frustrated and angry.  Where is God?  Isn’t God listening to our prayers? 

At those moments I love the Bible verse I choose for today’s blog – Jeremiah 29:11.  This verse was written by the prophet at just such a time in the life of God’s people. The Babylonians had destroyed their nation, their capital, their temple.  The people of Judah were to be taken into exile in a foreign land. Where was God?  Why was this happening?  Why was He saying “no” to them?  At just that moment the Lord speaks through His prophet.  “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”  What a great verse, a reminder that even when things all seem to be falling apart we can still count on God’s love for us.  Even when we can’t seem to catch a break we can be confident that our loving God is still in control. Even when we can’t see a way that things will work out, we can trust Him with the outcome.  Even when God says “no” we can trust that He knows better than us… that He has plans to give us a hope and a future.  After all, as St. Paul wrote, “If God did not spare His own Son but gave Him for us all how will He not also, along with Him, freely give us all things?”  Be patient in those difficult moments.  Trust your loving God.  Live in the confident faith that “God’s ‘no’s’ are always good ‘no’s.”

Bloom while You Can

All flesh is grass and all its beauty is like the flower of the field...

 The grass withers, the flower fades but the word of our God will stand forever.

Isaiah 40:6b, 8

You have heard the old saying, “Bloom where you are planted!”  It’s an old cliché reminding us to not always be looking over the fence for greener pastures.   Instead until God moves you some place, do your best to live life, serve others and walk with God right where you are.  If you are constantly planning how you will live and serve in the next place, you will never truly live well anywhere.  So instead of always hoping for something better, rejoice in and walk with God right where you are – “bloom where you are planted.”

Today however, I want to change that cliché a little.  I want to say to you “Bloom while you can.”  What do I mean?  Well I thought of this today while I was walking to work – looking at all the beautiful flower boxes hanging from window after window.  Germans love their flowers.  This time of year, and I am told, throughout the summer, Germany is decked out with flowers.  Linda and I were remarking the other day about all the beautiful roses you see.  They are everywhere..  This starts as soon as it gets warm and stays warm.  The Germans don’t waste any time in buying flowers and planting them.  After all the season for flowers won’t last forever.  Fall and winter will come.  The days will grow dark and cold again.  There will be harsh frost.  Then the flowers will fade and die.  So if you are a flower you have to “bloom while you can.” 

I think Isaiah is saying the same thing about you and me in the 40^th chapter.  “All flesh is grass and all its beauty is like the flower of the field...  The grass withers, the flower fades…”  The meaning of that text is obvious.  Our time here is limited.  We are born, we grow strong for a while but then our strength fails.  We fade.  Eventually we die.  We won’t live forever.  Just as for the flowers, the fall and winter of life are coming.  Therefore we need to “bloom while we can.”

Now I know that all sounds very sobering and full of law.  But I think there is Gospel here.  After all, temporary though we are – we have beauty to offer.  He compares our beauty to the beauty of the flowers.  Wow!  God has made us as His beautiful creation. Even marred by sin, this beauty is still there.  You see it in the love between a husband and wife, mom and a baby… in the little acts of kindness people do for one another.  This is good news for all who struggle to like themselves or see any beauty in themselves. God looks at you and He sees beauty…beauty He created in you. 

Indeed in Jesus you and I have a beauty to offer that erases all traces of ugliness from life.  We have the beauty of God’s love shown us in the manger, on the cross and at the empty tomb… the beauty of forgiveness that Christ purchased for all people… This is the beauty God gives us to offer to the world… to our friends and enemies… to neighbors and strangers… We offer it not by pressuring and condemning people around us but by loving and caring for them unconditionally just as God has loved and cared for us.  It bothers me that far too often we Christians are known for condemning people around us. When it comes to the world around us, what we should be known for is the beauty of loving people unconditionally!

That’s the one permanent lasting thing that we have in this world… that we have to offer others… 

the beauty of God’s love in Jesus.  He is the Word of God who stands forever.  Isn’t that cool?  

Even through our lives are temporary.  Even though we will wither and our beauty will fade, as 

we love the people God brings into our lives, we are able to share with them a beauty that lasts

 forever – the beauty of God’s love in Christ.  So knowing the fall and winter are coming it’s 

important that we get to it… that we not waste time… that we “bloom while we can.”  

Everyone Needs a Good Guide

“But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on His own; He will speak only what He hears, and He will tell you what is yet to come.  He will bring glory to Me by taking what is Mine and making it known to you.”

John 16:13-14

Last Sunday we celebrated the one festival that is both an Old Testament and a New Testament Festival, both a Jewish and a Christian Festival  - Pentecost.  In the Old Testament this Festival, coming exactly fifty days after the Passover, was a time for celebrating the summer wheat harvest.  For us as Christians Pentecost is also a harvest festival – for on this day, fifty days after Easter, the great harvest of the Kingdom of God began. The church was born.  The mission to go into all the world  and make disciples began that day.    Connected with this harvest, indeed at the heart of this harvest is another connection between the Jewish and the Christian celebrations.  On Pentecost the Jews traditionally celebrate what the Rabbi’s called “the giving of the Guide.”  By that they meant the giving of the Ten Commandments.  On Pentecost we Christians also celebrate “the giving of the Guide” - the giving of the Holy Spirit, the one Jesus promised who “will guide you into all truth.”

Since living here in Frankfurt, I have experienced firsthand how important it is to have a guide.  I have gotten lost 3 or 4 times.  Two of those occurred on the same day trying to go to the same destination from the same starting point.  Both times I was trying to find my way to the major road that goes past Trinity.  The first time I got lost because I failed to understand how that road curves away towards the river.  The second time, I got lost because I didn’t understand that the road the church is on changes names 3 or 4 times.  Thank God I had a guide with me – actually an App I have on my phone. I use it to figure out what train or bus I need to take to get places.  It uses GPS.  Even though I couldn’t figure out where I was, it could.  It guided me home. 

That’s why we celebrated Pentecost last Sunday.  As we face choices between right and wrong… as we make decisions about which direction to take at moments when that direction is hard to discern… as we seek to follow Jesus through this life to our Father’s eternal home, how thankful we are that Jesus has not left us as orphans.  He has given us the Spirit as our guide.   However the Holy Spirit is not like an App on your phone where you bunch in a little information and then you get an automatic answer.  Oh sometimes He is very clear.  He uses the commandments to let us help us know right and wrong when faced with temptation.  The commandments make it clear when we have wandered away… when we are gossiping or coveting, lusting or hating.   When we wander the Holy Spirit draws us home through the Gospel of Jesus, makes it clear that our Father’s arms are open, that He wants us back, that our sins are forgiven.

But then there are times when we learn the truth of our Lord’s words - “The wind blows wherever it pleases.  You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going.  So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”  (John 3)  Sometimes He guides you to places you never expected to go – Germany for instance.  At other times He puts multiple doors before you and all choices are good.  What He is guiding you to, is to live faithfully for Him in whatever choice you make.  Sometimes He points you in a direction by your interests, abilities and giftedness.  I remember one young lady who was afraid to switch her major to music because it seemed selfish to her to pursue a career in something she enjoyed.  I asked her, “Do you think that perhaps the fact that you enjoy music is how God is leading you in this direction?”  It is good to be careful of using feelings as the Spirit’s guideposts.  Our feelings are fickle. Sometimes we are “at peace” because we decided to do what we want to do, not because the Spirit is guiding us.   I know one man who knew he had made the right decision to ask a girl to marry him.  However his first reaction was not peace, but panic.  When she said yes, it sank in what a big decision he had made  He was terrified.  That’s why is it important to seek the counsel of Pastors and parents, and other believers who know you… and who will speak to you honestly.    Always test your decisions against the Word of God.  The Spirit will not contradict God’s Word.  Often He will use that word to urge you in a certain direction.  .  When considering the call to Texarkana, He used 1 Corinthians 3.  In this call to Germany the passage that kept coming up was the story of Peter walking on water.  To me the call to come here became a call to trust Jesus and “get out of the boat.”  It was a story one of my sons sent me in an email, that God used to help Linda and me take the step out of the boat. 

My point in all of this is Linda and I aren’t the only living in a different land far from home.  That’s true of all of us.  We are but strangers here in this world.  Heaven is our home.   As Linda and I can testify, the one thing you really need when living in a different land far from home is a good guide.  That’s what God has done for us.  That’s what we celebrate at Pentecost – the giving of the Guide -  The giving of the Holy Spirit   

"Planes, Trains and Automobiles"

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart,

And do not lean on your own understanding

In all your ways acknowledge Him,

And He will direct your paths.”

Proverbs 3:5-6

Linda left Milwaukee at about 9am on Monday morning.  A little over 41 hours later she is finally home in Frankfurt.  What took so long?  The plan was for her to drive to Chicago, fly from there to Philadelphia and then on to Frankfurt, arriving here 15 hours later.  What happened instead reminds me a little of the old Steve Martin movie – “Planes, Trains and Automobiles.”  She got to Chicago, got on her plane to Philadelphia and then sat on the runway for an hour and a half.  They finally pulled back into the gate and let half of the passengers, including Linda, get off because they were going to miss their connections.  It took the airlines another hour and half to figure out a new way to get Linda home.  Then she sat in the Chicago airport for 22 hours before taking off for Charlotte North Carolina.  Last night she took a flight to Frankfurt.  When she got home this morning she had to put in a claim for lost luggage.  While she was doing that they shut down the exit from customs because of an abandoned bag.  They brought in the bomb squad and checked it out.  It was just a bag but it seemed the appropriate ending to Linda’s journey home. 

She did get home – just not the way we planned it.  That got me to thinking about our plans.  We make our plans in life as if we have some insight to the future… as if we are in control.  For me, that is very often when God steps in and reminds me of how very little control I have.  When my mom and dad moved to Texarkana back in 1994, my plan was for many years enjoying having both of them close by.  God had a different plan.  9 months later my dad died.  Two years ago, Linda and I had no plans to live overseas.  Then my name appeared on call lists in Hong Kong and South Korea.  That scared us to death.  We wondered, “What is God doing? Does He really want us to move to Asia?”  That wasn't His purpose at all.  His plan was to use the call process in Hong Kong to give that call to another man.  His plan was also to use that process to get my name on the list in Germany.  What?  How?  Well a lady from Trinity, Frankfurt was in worship at the Hong Kong congregation on the day of their call meeting.  She got my name, took it home and put it on the list here.  What’s more God used the experience of the Hong Kong call process to soften up our hearts and to prepare us to say yes to the call to Trinity, Frankfurt.

There are some lessons in all of this.  First, it’s okay to make plans as long as we remember that we are not lord over our plans - God is.  He can and will change them as He sees fit.  We can either complain about that or humbly submit our plans to His.  Second, He sees things that we can’t.  He can see over the horizon of the future.  He knew that my dad’s death was near.  Third, He loves us.  He loves us so much that He gave His own Son for our salvation.  We can trust Him with our future, even when we don’t understand where He is taking us.  He was making sure mom was take care of when dad died..  Fourth, He plans better journey’s than we can ever imagine.  Even when they scare us (bringing out the bomb squad) or frustrate us (having to sit in airport for 22 hours) He knows what He is doing.  The words of Proverbs 3:5-6 say it all - “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And do not lean on your own understanding In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths.”

There is a prayer I love on page 262 in the old Lutheran Worship hymnal.  This prayer takes Proverbs 3 seriously.  Would you pray it with me? 

“Lord God, You have called Your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown.  Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go but only that Your hand is leading us and Your love supporting us; through Jesus Christ, our Lord.  Amen.”

Oh, and Linda’s luggage still isn't here.

Holy Day or Holiday

Hebrews 4:14–16 (ESV)

¹⁴ Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. ¹⁵ For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. ¹⁶ Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

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Is today a holy day or a holiday?  We tend to make a distinction.  We think of a holy day as a day set aside to remember and offer God worship for some great act He did on our behalf.  A holiday, on the other hand, is a day off to go hiking or camping - to cookout and has friends over. So which is it – a holiday or a holy day?  The answer is yes!   It’s both.   

In Germany everyone has today off.  Even our neighborhood bakery is closed.  Today is a holiday.  It is also a holy day.  The fact that our local church bells were ringing at 10 a.m.. on a Thursday was a sure fire sign it’s a holy day.  In fact it’s one of the holiest days of the Christian year. Today is the Festival of the Ascension of our Lord.  The Germans call it Christi Himmelfahrt. Sadly, Ascension is sometimes called “the forgotten festival.”  I have yet to be the Pastor of a church that actually has a worship service on Ascension Day..

The Ascension of our Lord has so much meaning for our faith.  Let’s think about that for a moment. As we do we need to note that when Jesus ascended into heaven, he ascended bodily.  It’s so important that we understand that Jesus is still both God and man. He didn’t leave his body behind.  He didn’t stop being a man. 

So what does the Ascension of our God/Man Savior Jesus mean for our faith?  It means first of all, that now a flesh and blood man is King of kings and Lord of lords.  Think of what the Scriptures say.  Philippians 2 – “God has highly exalted Him and placed on Him the name that is above all things.”  In Ephesians 1 Paul writes that God “has seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority…”  God “has put all things under His feet and gave Him as head over all things to the church…”  Ascension Day is our Savior’s coronation day. 

Think what that means.  The Savior who loved us and gave up His life for us, now rules all things.  We can trust Him.  We can face the unknown future with confidence because He is the one who holds us and our futures in His loving hands.  Take this a step further.  The King of kings is one of us.  He has walked around in our shoes.  He has been tempted in every way as we are except He is without sin.  He has known thirst, loneliness, betrayal, physical and emotional anguish, grief and more.  When you come to Jesus with your concerns in prayer you come knowing He understands what you are going through. He went through it Himself.  Now all power and authority in heaven and on earth are His.  That means He has the power to answer our prayers.  The passage above says it so well – Because Jesus has ascended “let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”  Holiday or holy day?  Ascension Day is both - a Day for celebrating that Jesus the Son of God who became our brother to save us, has now become our King to rule over us and take care of us.  

The Best Hiding Place

“You are a Hiding Place for Me…”

Psalm 32:7

There was a door in my first bedroom that used to scare me to death.  Behind that door were a set of stairs that led up to our dark, creepy attic.   Because that door scared me, I figured that it scared everybody.  That made it the perfect hiding place.  Play hide and seek? That’s where I would hide.  Surely no one would look behind that scary door.  I was wrong.  They always found me.

Of course hiding isn’t always a kid’s game. Often hiding is about something far more serious.  Often it’s is about covering up our sin, and avoiding responsibility for our actions.  This kind of hiding is as old as creation.  When Adam and Eve sinned they hid their nakedness with fig leaves.   When they heard God walking in the Garden, they hid from Him.  When He questioned them about their sin, they blamed each other.  King David did it.  To cover up his adultery – He hid behind deception.  When that didn’t work, he fixed it so that it would appear as if Bathsheba’s husband had been killed in battle.   What are your hiding places – a good lie?  Just pretending as if nothing happened?  Blaming others?   Making excuses? 

There is one big problem with all of our hiding places – they don’t work.  .  Fig leaves dry up and crumble.  Lie and we get caught in our own web.   Oh we may be able to hide the truth from each other.  But we can’t hide from God.  He knew what Adam and Eve had done.  He knew where they were hiding and why.  David fooled everyone but God.  Just when David figured he had everything well hidden, God sent the prophet Nathan to say, “I know what you did.”  Even before that David’s guilty conscience was a heavy burden.  “When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.  For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as in the heat of summer.”  (Psalm 32:3-4)

There really is only one good hiding place for sinners – that is in God Himself.  To hide yourself in God is simple.  All you need do is quit hiding.  Listen to David’s testimony – “Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity.  I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord and You forgave the iniquity of my sin.”  (Psalm 32:5) Isn’t that amazing?  When David quit trying to hide his guilt… When he quit the cover up and confessed what he had done… it was only then that his sin became truly and permanently covered… hidden beneath the comforting blanket of God’s forgiving love.

God is the best, the only hiding place for sinners.  Why?  Because He doesn’t avoid our sin.  He deals with it.  He gives us Jesus, His one and only Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sin!  He pays the debt we owe with His own life on the cross.  In Him our sin is truly covered once and forever, covered in His blood shed for us.  He takes our sin away from us – as far as the east is from the west so far has He removed our sin from us.

Do you want to know a good hiding place?  Here it is – the cross of Jesus.  Just  quit hiding!  Instead lay out the truth in honest confession before our loving God.  Lay it before the cross of Your Savior.  You will find in Him a hiding place that is so good that He Himself will remember your sin no more.  Heed the words of Kind David, “Therefore let everyone who is godly offer prayer to You at a time when You may be found: surely in the rush of great waters they shall not reach him. You are a hiding place for me; You preserve me from trouble: You surround me with shouts of deliverance.”  (Psalm 32:6-7)

Are You Safe?

"God is our refuge and Strength

An ever present help in trouble..."

Psalm 46:1

"God is our refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble..."  Psalm 46:1. "Did you feel safe?"  "Were you ever in any danger?"  Those are the kinds of questions people ask when you take a trip to Israel.  I know many don't take this trip because of fears about security.  I understand that.  The news reports in the west make this seem like a dangerous place.   But the truth is that the only violence I've seen since being here was on TV - a news report about rioting in Baltimore.

Oh, there is danger here.  Israel has enemies all around it.   Security is very important here.  You see that in the very thorough check you go through before boarding a flight to Israel.  I often tell people that I never feel safer than when I am flying to or from Israel. Except that wouldn't be true because I hate turbulence.  

That all brings me to my thought today.  Is there any real security in this world?   Recent events suggest that even the White House can not be kept 100% safe.  Every parent who has sent their child out with the car alone for the first time has learned that they can't and won't always be able to protect their kids.  

Is there any place we can feel 100%safe?  These words from Psalm 46 give the answer.  "God is our refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble..."  The only real security we have in this life is knowing that we are in God's hands.  As those baptized into Christ that is precisely where we are!  His hands hold us and they are amazing.  They are the strong hands of the Almighty God who created the heavens and the earth.  They are the loving, nail scared, living hands of our Savior who died for us and rose again.  His are hands we can trust.

Please understand this - this security is not a guarantee that nothing bad will ever happen.  This is a security that knows that even when the worst happens - we will be safe.  Psalm 46 does not say, God is our refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble, therefore everything will always be fine."  No it says, 

"God is our refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble, therefore we will not fear though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea..."

I read these words to my father in ICUS, when he had his heart attack.  Moments later he died.  Did God fail to keep my dad safe?  No, in fact He kept his promise.  He became in the face of death my dad's most secure refuge!  Now my dad is safe in the hands of Jesus awaiting the Day of the Resurrection.  Even now you and I by faith are in those same hands - no matter what happens.