Category Archives: Humility

No Room – When the hustle and bustle replace the joy

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Joseph and Mary went to Bethlehem because it was decreed by Caesar, but when they arrived, there was no room for them in the inn, so Mary delivered her firstborn son in a stable filled with animals, basically, the barn.

Or did she?

The picture I have had most of my life is of the two of them standing at an ancient bed and breakfast and a kindly elder gentlemen shaking his head telling them he was sorry he could not accommodate them. Everything was full because of the census. Even though Mary was with child they still could not find a place to stay, but this innkeeper did offer his stable and a clean bed of hay where she could give birth. Yikes!

But a little deeper look at the Greek wording might give us some insight and a better understanding of that holy night.

The Greek term translated inn (kataluma) had more than one meaning. It could be a small inn, or a group of people traveling together, a caravansary. This word is used only one other time in the New Testament… “And ye shall say unto the goodman of the house, The Master saith unto thee, Where is the guestchamber, where I shall eat the passover with my disciples? And he shall shew you a large upper room furnished: there make ready.” Luke 22:11.

This is the place where Jesus shared the Last Supper with His disciples! What kind of room does Luke say this was? “A large furnished upper room…” 

So the last night of Jesus’ ministry on this earth was spent in an upper room in an inn or kataluma. Sort of a guest room.

Now let us look at His entrance into this world…when they discovered the inn was full, it was no doubt filled with others, possibly even relatives, who had also traveled to the city for the same reasons. Older members of the family would be accommodated first so they could have possibly taken the rooms.

In this culture and time period, the animals were brought inside at night for several reasons. Mangers (animal feeding troughs) were also found inside the house, tools were stored and the animals were safe from harm. Their being inside also added warmth with their body heat, milk supply and dung for fuel.

So when it is said that Joseph and Mary could find no room in the inn and Jesus was born in the manger, in reality they were likely in a house of humble stature. The stable was on the ground floor, where they brought the animals in at night, the sleeping quarters were on the second floor.

True, it was never the best of conditions; it was still a very humble birth! And if all the rooms in the sleeping quarters were full, and they were, then Mary and Joseph did sleep with the animals on the first floor…the sounds, the smells, the shedding! Everyone was busy getting to the city of their birth to pay their taxes and be counted. There was plenty of hustle and bustle and no one had room for the King of Kings.

No fanfare, nothing flashy or royal by the world’s standards. But all of heaven took notice that day and the heavenly hosts sang, “Glory to God in the highest!”

Hustle and Bustle

Sadly, ever since then, our world has never had room for Jesus. Isaiah prophesied it would be so, “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.” Isaiah 53:3.

We  have continued to push Him out of our government and our schools. Many now call it Winter Break instead of Christmas Break. It is no longer politically correct to say, Merry Christmas; that has been replaced with Happy Holidays, which they says covers everything and makes everyone happy.

I have even heard of a school on the east coast that gave a performance where the 5th grade sang Silent Night and the teacher had removed all of the references to Jesus in the presentation. What would be the point?!

There was a song back in the 1970’s that we used in a Christmas play titled No Room. The lyrics went like this:

No room,–no room for Him.
No room to let Him in.–
No room for Jesus in the world He made, no room.
No room for the King of Kings;
Room for others, and for other things.
No room for Jesus in the world He made, no room

No room,–no room for Him.
No room to let Him in.–
No room for Jesus in the heart He made just for Him.
No room–for the King of Kings
Room for others, and for other things.
No room for Jesus in the heart He made, no room.

Room for houses, lands and pleasures,
Room for things that pass away;
But for the One who reigns forever,
There’s no room today. 

Have you made room for Him? Are you taking time to remember the Reason for the Season? Is the hustle and bustle distracting you from the meaning and purpose of that first Christmas?

Take time each day this week to pause, pray and thank God for His entrance into this world. His birth made all the difference in our lives and is the Hope that will take us to be with Him forever one day soon.

When we make room for Jesus, our silent nights become holy nights. Let Him in today…make plenty of room!

 

The Daniel Fast: What if my prayer isn’t answered?

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The Daniel Fast: What if my prayer isn’t answered? How are you doing on your fast? If you have already started your fasting, whether it is a complete fast, a partial fast, juice fast, Daniel Fast, no matter what you have chosen, you have probably already encountered a bump or two in the road. Do not despair! Just keep going, start over, whatever you have to do. God isn’t sitting in Heaven with a ruler in His hand ready to smack you every time you make a mistake. Just determine to stick with it and remember to pray; that is where your strength comes from.

Today, we are talking about what to do when you fast, you pray, you petition God but He doesn’t answer your prayer the way you had envisioned. (Catch up on missed posts here!)

In the 11th and 12th chapters of 2 Samuel, we read the shocking and heartbreaking story of David and Bathsheba. If you aren’t familiar with the story, you can read about it here. The shortened, condensed version is that David had an affair with another man’s wife, Bathsheba, and had her husband killed. He then took Bathsheba as his own wife and that is where we enter the story with Nathan, the prophet, confronting David about his sin:

“Nathan said to David, ‘You are the man! Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul. And I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your arms and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. And if this were too little, I would add to you as much more. Why have you despised the word of the Lord, to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’’” 2 Samuel 12:7-10 ESV.

King David acknowledged his guilt and Nathan goes on to tell him his sin has been “put away” but the child born out of the sin will die.

What does David do next?

“And the Lord afflicted the child that Uriah’s wife bore to David, and he became sick.  David therefore sought God on behalf of the child. And David fasted and went in and lay all night on the ground. And the elders of his house stood beside him, to raise him from the ground, but he would not, nor did he eat food with them.” 2 Samuel 12:16-17 ESV.

David was a man of war, a mighty man of valor but he was also repentant and always readily admitted his sin. He was humble and petitioned for the life of his son even though this child would be a continual reminder of his sin! He knew HE was the reason for the Lord’s displeasure and so he humbled himself with prayer and fasting in the hope that the Lord might change His mind. And, surely, he even felt it was his DUTY to petition on behalf of his son.

David fasted until the seventh day but the baby died.

“Then David arose from the earth and washed and anointed himself and changed his clothes. And he went into the house of the Lord and worshiped. He then went to his own house. And when he asked, they set food before him, and he ate. Then his servants said to him, “What is this thing that you have done? You fasted and wept for the child while he was alive; but when the child died, you arose and ate food.” He said, “While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, ‘Who knows whether the Lord will be gracious to me, that the child may live?’ But now he is dead. Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me.”

The members of David’s household were confused and told him so. David replied that he was hoping the Lord would be gracious, that He would spare the child’s life, yet it was not to be. There was no need to fast once he was gone. Matthew Henry’s commentary says it so well here:

matthew-henry

“Then David arose from the earth, and washed, and anointed himself, and changed his apparel, and came into the house of the Lord, and worshipped…” David worshiped the Lord because He knew that God had spoken, He had answered and He was sovereign. If God does not answer your prayer the way you think it should be answered, and you even accompany that prayer with fasting, it doesn’t mean your fasting was in vain! Remember, we talked about the fact that fasting changes that inner man, it changes YOU (and me!). David knew life was to go on; he had repented, he had prayed, he had fasted and God had answered. Yes, he had sinned but he had found forgiveness and restoration through his repentance and humility.

He fasted and prayed because there was still life and when that life was gone he knew to worship God.

“The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised.” Job 1:21 NIV.

Obviously, in this post, we are looking at David’s mistake, his sin that cost him, big time. But your prayer may not have anything to do with your actions. But yet, God’s answer is not what you wanted to hear.

Fasting prepares your heart for God’s answer, no matter what it might be. We may not get the answer we want but we can rest assured God is working all things for our good. If He says, “No”, we can trust Him that He knows what is best, He can see down the road! Remember, we don’t fast to change God, we fast to change US; to make us more like Jesus and cleanse us from things that would hold us back or cause us to stumble.

Fasting brings hidden things to light! And while fasting and praying, God can reveal things to us that may be a hindrance in our walk. Because we are fasting, our mind becomes more clear and nothing is in the way of our hearing His voice.

So be encouraged today, if your prayer isn’t answered the way you preferred, it doesn’t mean God doesn’t love you, in fact it means HE DOES LOVE YOU, He is protecting you, covering you, leading you and He knows that His answer is the best answer. And you will too, one day soon.

Be blessed as you continue to make fasting a regular part of your spiritual walk.

Don’t forget to grab your copy of The Daniel Fast Devotional! Good for any fast, it is a great, easy read with devotions for every day of a three week fast. Get yours on Amazon here!

Jesus Uses Broken Things

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When The Sweetheart and I first arrived in the country of Latvia in 2011, we were part of a team; a team we had never even met. We were of varying ages, from different areas of the United States, most married, some not, others with small children, some conquering life with teenagers. But, we all discovered we had one thing in common, we had been through STUFF. The Sweetheart even fondly called us The Misfits. Why, we wondered, with our different backgrounds, did God bring us all together to start churches in another country, another world to us? (You can read part of my story here.)

If grace is a kingdom
I’ve stopped at the gate
Thinking I don’t deserve to pass through after all of the mistakes I’ve made

The Apostle Peter experienced plenty of STUFF on his own. As a follower of Christ, he was able to see so many of the miracles of our Lord and vowed to follow Him to the very end. We know that instead, out of fear of the people, he actually did what Jesus said he would do: he denied Him, not once, but three times!

But I heard a whisper
As Heaven bent down
Said, “Child, don’t know you that the first will be last and the last get a crown.”

Peter’s mistakes didn’t keep him from being used of God, and in a mighty way! He preached the first message after the Upper Room Outpouring at Pentecost and saw 3,000 people saved in one day. He didn’t stop there, but right along with Paul and many others; kept preaching the Gospel until his death.

Now I’m just a beggar in the presence of a King
I wish I could bring You so much more
But if it’s true You use broken things
Then here I am Lord, I am all Yours

King David was christened with the title, Man after God’s own heart. Yet David committed adultery and murder! Of course we know sin is sin but David paid dearly for his sin against God and Uriah, the Hittite, with the death of his infant son, born from his relationship with Uriah’s wife, Abigail.

The pages of history they tell me it’s true
That it’s never the perfect; it’s always the ones with the scars that You use

Did that mean it was over for David? No, David repented and God forgave because David desired to please God, he loved the law of God! David is credited with writing over half of the 150 Psalms in the Bible. Most of them were born out of trouble and over and over David repeats how much he loves God’s Word. Psalms 119:47–48: “For I delight in your commands because I love them. I lift up my hands to your commands, which I love, and I meditate on your decrees.” 

It’s the rebels and the prodigals; it’s the humble and the weak
The misfit heroes You chose
Tell me there’s hope for sinners like me

There are many, many other people in the Bible who failed God.

  • Jacob cheated
  • Peter had a short temper
  • David had an affair
  • Noah got drunk
  • Miriam gossiped
  • Martha worried
  • Thomas doubted
  • Sarah couldn’t wait
  • Moses stuttered
  • Zaccheus was short! (there’s hope for me!)
  • Jonah ran away
  • Gideon was afraid
  • Rahab owned a brothel
  • James and John wanted special seats beside God
  • And Lazarus was dead

True, they, and many others too numerous to mention, made mistakes, they fell down, stumbled and maybe even involved others in their mishaps. But, the good news is they got back up and allowed God to take their slip-ups, their bloopers, gaffes and outright sins and forgive, forget and then empower them to do great things in the Kingdom.

I hope you haven’t missed reading the lyrics in this post. They are from a powerful song, Broken Things by Matthew West. The first verse grabs me because he stops at the gate. Why? He didn’t feel worthy to enter, the enemy was whispering in his ear his past, his many mistakes, and it hindered him from being all God wanted him to be.

It’s never the perfect that God seeks out! It’s the ones with the scars, those that have been through STUFF, such as our team in Riga, Latvia. Maybe just like you. But who better to reach broken people than people that have been broken?! We have learned, we have persevered and we have compassion for others who may also be struggling. (I could turn this into a series on my mistakes alone!)

It is said that if God chose the perfect, those that seemingly have no mistakes in their past, then the credit would go to them, not to God. But when He chooses the imperfect, those that have humbled themselves before God, discovered that they can’t make it without Him, have needed Him to bail them out, save them, deliver them, etc., then God receives the praise and the glory!

“For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.  But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.” 1 Corinthians 1:26-29 ESV.

Do you feel as if you belong in the band of misfits? That maybe you have made too many mistakes for God to forgive? Or maybe you have accepted His forgiveness but think that you can’t be restored to ministry? Remember these heroes of the faith that believed GOD was able to take their mess and turn it into ministry.

Grace is a kingdom
With gates open wide
There’s a seat at the table just waiting for you
So, come on inside

He calls the broken because they are dependent on Him, they rely on His power and His might and when they turn it over to Almighty God, no one can turn them away from the King’s table. They are not perfect but continually chase after the One who is.

Enjoy this song, let it be a blessing to you today or pass it on to a friend. God is ready to restore and use you again! And be sure and comment, share with us someone in the Bible that may have messed up or had a past to overcome that God was able to use regardless of circumstances.