Faith in Happy Endings

I'm not a scholar.  Not a historian, nor a scientist, nor an archaeologist.  I have nothing but a lowly Bachelor's Degree in English, and even for that, I'm not particularly well read.  I do recognize a good story though.

I suppose you could (possibly even fairly) say that I believe the Bible because I am ignorant.  You might be right.  You might be wrong.

I'm tired, and I've been sick, and I don't really want to get into some big defense of why I see things the way I see them, and why I could possibly think that I, of all people, might be able to discern what is true.

Tomorrow is Easter, and here is what I am thinking about:

Happy endings follow terrible events.

In fact, you never even know how happy you can be, until you have experienced a loss of happiness and had it returned.  This is the truth, and I know it because I have seen it and experienced it, hundreds of times.

Stories are not any good without a conflict and a resolution.  Such is the basic pattern of every story.  Something goes wrong, and somehow this changes things fundamentally.  Some stories do not have a happy ending, and yet, even in stories where the main characters die tragically and the world is left scarred, the author almost always ends with some sort of poignant hope, veiled though it may be.

The human spirit hopes.  The human spirit hopes, and hope is from God, and hope is fulfilled in Jesus.  Those who turn to Jesus, to the light, to life and hope and joy and peace, those people will see a happy ending.

The Bible is the Best Story, the story of God, who created all things and infused His creation with beauty, love and great expectation.  Because it is a story, the Best Story, a problem had to arise: betrayal, separation, brokenness.  The Bible word for this problem is sin.  Adam and Eve brought sin and death into their perfect world, separating themselves from their perfect, holy Creator.

Throughout the Best Story, time after time, God reaches into His broken creation with signs of hope, words of hope, promises of restoration.  Over many, many centuries, smaller stories come together from the quills of many different writers, and these stories all fit together, sometimes creating patterns, telling simplified versions, partial versions of the amazing rescue to come.  Sometimes they give hints or present riddles; always, they remind of the promise of a Savior.  These little stories that fit together to tell the Best Story show us people just like us, people who make mistakes, people who do things that are stupid (and sometimes even wicked), people who are not particularly strong or smart or special.  When they stray from the Lord they are worthless, but when they cling to Him, He makes them invincible.

Like all the good stories, The Best Story has a climax.  Easter is the climax.  God Himself, having taken on mortal flesh, surrenders to a ghastly execution.  The glorious One who dreamed up the universe and spoke it into existence stood silent as deluded men whipped Him, swore at Him, spit on Him, pressed a ring of thorns over his His head and into His temples, and finally nailed His hands and feet to a cross of wood and stood it on a hill where crowds could mock and jeer at His suffering.  The sky turned black at midday, and Jesus Christ the Lord God died.

It was terrible.  All those who had believed in Him figured they must have been wrong.  Devastation, loss and despair reigned for three days.

But, on the third day, early in the morning, the most amazing thing happened.  There was a resurrection.  It happened mysteriously, and the dawning of understanding came slowly.  Nevertheless, the stone in front of the tomb had been rolled away.  The tomb was empty.  Angels appeared, saying things like, "He is not here, He has risen!"  And finally, He started to appear here and there, Himself, talking to His friends, reassuring and offering hope.

There is hope.  This is the Real Story, the story all other stories try either to emulate or to obfuscate.  No matter how bad it gets, we can always hope, because God is here, alive, attentive, almighty.  It's going to be okay.  If we can just hang on through the dark night, joy comes in the morning.  Every winter that turns into spring, every baby that arrives after a painful labor, every sunrise after a sleepless night reminds us of the same story: God plans good for us in the end.

There are a lot of stories in circulation that aren't true, but the truth is, there is a God.  He loves His creation, and He is working on the most glorious rescue operation ever.  It's going to take us all of eternity in heaven to study all the intricacies of His plan to bring His will to pass, all the millions of plot threads that He wove together for our ultimate joy and His surpassing glory.

It is going to be amazing.  It is going to be so good.

Please read Psalm 30.

Spring is coming slowly this year, but I'm holding on.  All I've got blooming is crocuses (it's the first year we haven't had Easter daffodils since we moved here).  But the crocuses are nice:

And here is my bleeding heart, which came back, even though it never bloomed last year . . .

If you liked this, here's another Easter post you might enjoy (from last year).

Paradox

I have been having trouble writing lately.   The gears, they have ground to a halt.

But.

I've been thinking about paradox.

Dictionary.com defines paradox as, "a statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth."

My old Merriam-Webster says essentially the same thing.

It seems to me that when we use the word paradox, we often mean, "enigma."  Again, according to dictionary.com, an enigma is a puzzling or inexplicable occurrence or situation, a person of puzzling or contradictory character, or something that contains a hidden meaning (a riddle).

Our quest is to find a word that describes something that is not what it seems, something that does not appear to make sense, and yet is true.

Lots of things about Christianity are paradoxical (or seemingly paradoxical, depending on how you understand the term paradox).

In Christianity, you give up everything to gain even more.

In Christianity, suffering leads to joy.

In Christianity, those who serve the most humbly are the best leaders.

In Christianity, weakness is a vehicle to display strength.

In Christianity, admitting to and apologizing for what you have done wrong leads to righteousness and freedom.

In Christianity,
God humbled Himself, giving up His divine glory and becoming a man;
God, who is holy and altogether good, died a gruesome death
so that humanity, perverted by sin and desperately wicked, could receive eternal life.

It's hard to understand, but it's true.

In Christianity, thinking like a child can lead you to wisdom.

Sweet Potato Hash

Okay, this is delicious.

If you want something that's fast, easy and tremendously yummy, here you go:

I got the idea from some of my kids, but it was never written down.  This is my spin.  Of course, I never measure anything, so all measurements are approximate guesses.  I would rather say, "Sprinkle liberally with . . ." or, "Add a tiny pinch of . . . "  but I know that more definitive language is helpful to many.  However, feel free to use your own panache with the seasoning.

Apart from the seasonings, there are essentially two (2) ingredients in this dish!  If you have a well stocked seasoning cupboard, it should be nearly effortless to put together.

Sweet Potato Hash

Ingredients:
2 large sweet potatoes
1 lb. ground beef
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
1/2 + 1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. molasses
1 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. (+ more) Italian seasoning (a blend that has marjoram, rosemary and thyme, along with oregano and basil)
1/2 +1/4 tsp. granulated garlic or garlic powder
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1 tsp. fennel seed
1 tsp. curry powder
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
1/3 cup + 1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese

Method:
1.  Peel and cube the sweet potatoes.  Place in a bowl and sprinkle with the lemon juice.  Set aside.
2.  Brown the ground beef in a large, heavy pot.  If it was fatty, drain off a good deal of the fat.  Leave some . . . enough to continue browning a selection of the seasonings into the beef, as well as to be used to saute the sweet potato when you add it later.
3.  Add 1/2 tsp. salt, molasses, 1 tsp. oregano, 1 tsp. Italian seasoning, 1/2 tsp. garlic, 1/4 tsp. black pepper, 1 tsp. fennel.  Saute over medium heat until fragrant (your mouth might start to water a little).
4.  Start oven preheating to 400F.
5.  Dump the lemony sweet potato cubes in with the ground beef and continue to saute, stirring over medium heat.
6.  While sauteing, sprinkle with another 1/2 tsp. salt, another 1/4 tsp. garlic, 1 tsp. curry powder and 1/8 tsp. nutmeg.
7.  Remove from heat (or turn off gas burner).  Stir in 1/3 cup parmesan cheese.
7.  Turn into a baking pan (buttered if it's one that sticks) -- I use a "baking stone" -- round, 11 inch, straight sides.
8.  Top with another 1/3 cup parmesan cheese (or more, if you wish), and sprinkle with Italian seasoning and black pepper.
9.  Bake at 400F for about 30 minutes.  Check so you don't burn it.  Ovens vary.  It's perfect if you can get it when the potatoes are turning golden brown and crispy on the outside, soft and tender on the inside.  The meat on the edges should be slightly crisped, and savory.
10.  This is fabulous served with steak sauce (like A1) for a condiment.

This serves approximately 2-4 people, depending on who they are, and how long it has been since their last meal.  I think a 9 x 13 glass baking dish would be the right size for a double recipe.

What is marriage?

The concept of marriage has changed increasingly over the last couple of generations.

It is much easier to define a wedding than a marriage.

A wedding is a ceremony and celebration of two people declaring their love for each other.  Weddings used to be more about the ceremony, and then were celebrated by a party afterwards, with cake, punch and coffee, or perhaps a meal.  Currently, as far as I can tell, the ceremony part of many weddings is sort of a quick precursor to a huge, elaborate, expensive party.

Catholic and Orthodox churches speak of marriage as one of the sacraments: the Sacrament of Matrimony.  Other sacraments include Baptism, Confirmation, the Eucharist, Penance (Confession), Anointing of the Sick (Last Rites?), and Ordination.  In Protestant churches, the only sacraments are Baptism and the Eucharist, which were both instituted by Christ.  This is arguably more scripturally supportable; yet, in losing the idea of the Sacrament of Matrimony, I feel that we lose a valuable tradition.

I, personally, think it was nicer when a wedding was a religious service where two people made a vow before God and witnesses, under the authority of a clergyman, that they would commit to a life of being faithful partners to one another.  I liked when a wedding was something that showed up in the church bulletin as part of the life of the church, and the church family, the fellowship of believers, comprised the majority of the group who would witness the vows.

These days, it seems like a church service is a show, often a combination of a rock concert and a comedian who throws some motivational content in at the end of his spiel, along with the ever-present invitation to join and support financially.  A shocking percentage of weddings are bacchanalian festivals performed in honor of the goddess Aphrodite, staged for the purpose of outdoing all previous weddings with a stunning photographic presence on social media afterwards.  The fellowship of the saints is a foreign concept, and true communities of believers are increasingly difficult to find.  So much fragmentation of life and faith.

This is just something that occurs to me.  Just a remembrance.  I think weddings changed long before the idea of same-sex marriage evolved.  If weddings had remained what they used to be, I don't think most same-sex couples would be particularly interested in having one.  I'm not trying to make any judgments here.  I'm just saying.  I don't understand why anyone who isn't a Christian would want to participate in the Sacrament of Matrimony.  How did the Christian Sacrament of Matrimony become intertwined with the idea of a secular government marriage license?  And why?

Why couldn't people who don't believe in Jesus Christ just purchase a license of civil union from the government, and have a party?  Why should Christians expect people who don't share their beliefs to adopt their way of living?  At the same time, why would people who don't embrace Christ want to participate in Christian traditions?  Is it a fight over the meanings of words like marriage and wedding?  Or is it about tax advantages and healthcare benefits?

The Bible tells us to fulfill our vows to God.  Marriage vows are one of the few vows we make these days, perhaps the only vow many people ever make.  For those of us who are Christians, what does this mean to us?

Random thoughts without many answers.

On a lighter note, here are some pictures of my spring shamrock:

Can you see that sweet little plant in my sunny kitchen window?

It seems pretty happy here, and blossoms are beginning to open.

I remember to water it because it is right next to the sink.  

Unfortunately, I occasionally splash some dish water--with dish soap--on it, 

which is probably not a good thing.

It's happy.  I'm happy.

Everything goes to a state of rest as the sun sets.

Thankful for the color blue

We can always learn new things about ourselves.

I always considered my favorite color to be red.  Indeed, I do think red is uncommonly pretty, a shiny red sports car zooming down the highway, an eyecatching shade of snazzy red lipstick, sparkling ruby slippers, a ripe strawberry glistening after I've rinsed it under the faucet.  A classic rose.

However, since I've been living in the Midwest, I've developed a staggering love for the blue sky.  Blue sky was sadly rare in New York, but here I awaken to it almost every day.

This is a picture of blue sky in my neighborhood.  It isn't a great picture, but it shows the beautiful color just the same.

Everything is more colorful when the sky is blue.  Isn't God wonderful, to give us the gorgeous blue canopy of a sunny day?

The other day I came home from buying supplies and discovered that I had chosen the blue option for everything, even the Q-tips.

Haha! I had already filled a hand soap dispenser with that blue shower gel . . .

I'm realizing that I have tucked blue surprises for myself all around my house.  Who knew?

I love these blue glass flowers that Laura and Jonathan made when we visited the Corning Museum of Glass about 7 years ago.  I keep them behind my kitchen sink, where the afternoon sun splashes through them.

Above my kitchen sink, I alternated blue and yellow antique dessert plates on little display shelves that Shawn built for me.

To the right of my kitchen sink, I have a little display of blue "artifacts."  A tiny pitcher I bought at an estate sale, a toothpick holder from Japan that a friend in the Air Force brought me, a perfect blue flowered creamer from Laura, an antique milk of magnesia bottle dug out from the foundation beneath Aunt Nunie's house, and salt and pepper shakers I use every day (they often have smeary fingerprints on them).

Of course, there is the quintessential blue tea kettle that always sits on the stove.  I realized that my kitchen scissors in the knife block have blue handles; I'm sure I chose the blue pair without thinking about it.

Here's a closeup of the blue spoon rest to the right of the stove.  It makes me smile every time I see it.

I've had cobalt blue glasses forever.  Milk tastes delicious out of cold cobalt blue glass.

You might think my house is blue, from perusing these pictures, but it really isn't.  There isn't a speck of blue in the dining room, which has cherry floors and furniture, pale gray walls, and white curtains.  The living room has the same cherry floor and gray walls, with a burgundy leather sofa and Persian style rug (with only the tiniest dollops of gray-blue in the pattern).

My family room isn't blue, either, but it has a few pops of blue that make me happy.

See that lone blue book in the middle of the ones that match the room?  It gives me a wicked sense of delight.  Also, I just realized that the few "toys" I keep in the corner by the fireplace happen to be blue.  And then there is the star that hangs from the lamp.  It's an ornament I got once at a Christmas ornament exchange.  I was not enamored originally, because I am adamantly opposed to blue as a Christmas color.  Then one day I realized that I did not have to use it as a Christmas ornament.  It's fabulous as a non-Christmas decoration!

A closeup of my blue star non-Christmas ornament.

My study was supposed to be gray and white with pastel accents, but somehow this blue futon setup crept in.  This week, I nested in here with Schubert while Shawn was in Pittsburgh.  You can see a sweet depression in the duvet, where Schubert has been enjoying himself.  He's such a good little companion, and keeps my feet warm at night.

Here's our real bed, which is also blue.  I think blue is absolutely the very best color for sleeping.

Here's the blue chair in the corner of our bedroom, where Shawn sits to drink his coffee in the mornings.  I love to wrap my shoulders in the soft blue cotton blanket draped across its back.  This chair also usually has a blue blanket in the seat, to protect it from little dogs.  I removed that for the photo, but if you notice some blanket fuzz left behind, please forgive me.

You can see the bottom of a wall hanging behind the chair.  Here's a closeup of it; it's also blue.  Perhaps I will tell you story behind this wall hanging some day.

My bedroom and all three of our bathrooms are painted "silver gray," which is actually blue.  It's an extremely soothing color.  I do not tire of it.

Once I hung this (blue) necklace over the spare towel by our bathtub.  I like looking at it there, so now this is its permanent home.  Except when I wear it.

It was very recently that I realized how good I feel when I wear pretty shades of blue.  I went on a quest for blue shoes and found these, which were suede and not satin, as I had hoped, but they are very comfortable, and satisfyingly blue.

I've become comfortable enough with my love of blue that I've actually purchased three items for myself in the last few years, without agonizing, knowing immediately that I liked them:

This necklace:

This fluffy dotted swiss scarf:

And this crushed velvet flared tunic:

. . . which I was not wearing the day I took the picture, because I was feeling lupus-y and hanging out in these:

We haven't even discussed my precious blue flowered teapot that Shawn brought me from England, or my big cobalt blue fruit bowl, or my kitchen vase, or my canisters, or the sweet blue pendant Jonathan gave me when he worked for the jewelry store . . .

Yes, I guess I like blue.  I like red too, but I'm much more at home in blue.

Isn't it amazing that God made colors for us to enjoy?  They are all beautiful in different ways and in different places, but today I'm drinking up the delight of blue.

You are holy to the Lord

And I said to them,

"You are holy to the Lord,

and the vessels are holy,

and the silver and the gold 

are a freewill offering to the Lord,

the God of your fathers.

Guard them and keep them

until you weigh them before the chief priests and the Levites

and the heads of fathers' houses

in Israel at Jerusalem,

within the chambers of the house of the Lord."

~Ezra 8:28-29

Recently, I've had the privilege of studying the book of Ezra.  Although I had read Ezra, I never studied it before.  When I studied chapter 8, the above passage caught and held my attention.

You are holy to the Lord.  And so is the treasure I am weighing out for you to carry.  Guard it and keep it, until you have brought it all the way safely to the officials in Israel, in Jerusalem, in the Lord's temple.   (That is my own paraphrase.)

Here's the background of the story:

Throughout history, God's chosen people, the nation of Israel, had struggled to be obedient and faithful to their Lord.  Again and again, they broke His commandments and (worst of all) worshipped false gods.  Again and again, they were unfaithful to their covenant with the Lord.  Again and again, God reached out to them, to get their attention.  He sent prophets, whom they disregarded, mocked and sometimes even killed.  At times, God humbled them by allowing their enemies to overwhelm them in battle.  These defeats usually caused the Israelites to run back to God temporarily, and beg for help.  However, as soon as they won the next battle, they forgot that God had been their strength and their source of victory.

After many cycles of faithless disobedience, it was time for God to call Israel to account.  By now, the disobedient nation had fractured into two kingdoms, a northern kingdom and a southern kingdom.  In 722 BC, the northern kingdom (Israel, sometimes known as Ephraim) fell to Assyria.  In 586 BC, the southern kingdom (Judah, where the line of David ruled as kings) fell to Babylon.

The Babylonians broke down the walls around Jerusalem, and burned down the glorious temple that King Solomon had built, as well as all the other important buildings.  They gathered up everything that was made of precious metals, plundering the temple treasuries and chopping up large artifacts and architectural features of bronze, for easier transport to Babylon.  Along with the treasures of Jerusalem, the Babylonians carried the surviving Jews into exile in Babylon, except for a few of the poorest people, whom they left behind to farm the land.

Now, the prophets had predicted all these events.  Over 800 years earlier, Moses had written that Israel would disobey the Lord, that they would be driven out of their land, and ultimately that God would gather them back to the land and restore their blessings (Deuteronomy 29-31).  Isaiah had prophesied around the time of the fall of the northern kingdom, predicting the fall of the southern kingdom, and remarkably prophesying (100-200 years before it happened) that God would raise up someone named Cyrus to rebuild Jerusalem and the temple (Isaiah 44-45), after the destruction had taken place.  Jeremiah wrote during the last days of the southern kingdom of Judah, suffering a great deal as he watched, with his own eyes, the sacking of Jerusalem.  Jeremiah prophesied that the exile of the nation would last seventy years (Jeremiah 25, 29), and encouraged the Jews to be cooperative and agreeable while they waited it out.

Learned, God-fearing Jews like Daniel and Ezra studied the ancient scriptures to try to understand what was happening to them during the difficult years of punishment, and to find hope.  Of course, in His great mercy, God had left a very traceable record of hope to which they could cling.

Daniel served in the courts of the kings of Babylon, gifted by God with supernatural wisdom and the ability to interpret dreams and predict the future correctly, consistently outperforming the Babylonian magicians.  Daniel's study of scripture led him to discover that the Jewish captivity should end after seventy years (Daniel 9).  Daniel was in royal service when the Medes and Persians seized Babylon and took over world dominion in 539 BC.  By this time, Daniel was quite an old man.  He had been deported in 605 BC, approximately 66 years earlier.  He would have been well aware that 66 years were getting close to 70 years.  Daniel himself would have been between 81-86 years old when King Cyrus of Persia overthrew Belshazzar of Babylon in 539 BC.  Although he was too old to undertake the long journey back to Jerusalem, I imagine that his heart filled with joy when he learned that the new ruler was named Cyrus, just as the Lord had prophesied more than a century earlier.

The book of Ezra recounts the miraculous hand of the Lord working to restore His people to their land and their temple worship of the one true God.  It opens with the amazing edict that Cyrus wrote, granting both permission and provision for the Jews to go back and rebuild the Lord's temple.

By the eighth chapter of Ezra, which I quoted above, the temple had been rebuilt, even despite opposition.  However, the practice of worship had not become what it needed to be.  Nearly twenty years had passed since the first group of exiles returned to Jerusalem with their leader, Zerubbabel (who was the living remnant of the line of Davidic kings).  The newly rebuilt temple lacked much of its original splendor, and the people did not have good background in or understanding of the Word of God.  The hand of God moved Ezra's heart to go back to Israel and teach the scriptures to the Jewish people.

God continued to pour out miracle after miracle.  The ruler of Medo-Persia, King Artaxerxes, gave Ezra an official letter to carry on his travels, granting him permission to go to Jerusalem and to take silver and gold which Artaxerxes and his counselors had given him, as well as freewill offerings of silver and gold from all the people.  The letter also gave Ezra permission to use the resources to buy whatever was needed for making sacrifices (animals, oil, grain, wine, etc.), and anything else required for the house of the Lord.  The king furnished Ezra with beautiful vessels made of precious metals, to be used in the Lord's service.  Furthermore, King Artaxerxes decreed that all the treasurers of provinces beyond the river needed to participate in providing supplies to Ezra, and that Ezra and all his traveling companions would be exempt from any taxes, duties, tolls and tributes.

Ezra thanked God for these miracles, and took courage, knowing that the hand of God was on him in his endeavor.  When Ezra assembled his group and discovered that he was short-staffed in certain areas of personnel, he prayed, and again God provided exactly the right people.  When everyone was finally all together, they fasted and prayed for safety, because Ezra was ashamed to ask the king for a guard, after he had proclaimed the Lord's reputation as his mighty Protector.

It was at this point when Ezra picked out particular people, priests, and placed them in charge of seeing that all their treasures arrived safely at the Lord's temple.  Ezra meticulously weighed out the silver and the gold, and counted the vessels, recording the inventory.  Then he passed the treasures out to these chosen men, keeping records of who was carrying what, and gave them this charge:

"You are holy to the Lord,

and the vessels are holy,

and the silver and the gold 

are a freewill offering to the Lord,

the God of your fathers.

Guard them and keep them

until you weigh them before the chief priests and the Levites

and the heads of fathers' houses

in Israel at Jerusalem,

within the chambers of the house of the Lord."

~Ezra 8:28-29

Now, this was obviously good practice, good leadership, good accounting.  Ezra was both carefully responsible and warmly encouraging.  He demonstrated that he would hold his men accountable for their cargo, but he also inspired them to fulfill their calling by reminding them that they and the cargo were holy to the Lord.  He entrusted them with valuable, holy treasures to be used in the service of the Lord, and he exhorted them to guard them carefully until they could be delivered and weighed in the chambers of the house of the Lord.

Ezra's word to the priests who carried the treasure were good words for the time, but they are also good words for our time.

We are holy.

Each one of us who believes in Jesus, depending on Him in faith for salvation, is holy to the Lord.  In fact, we are considered priests.  Peter wrote, "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light."  (1 Peter 2:9)

The treasure we carry within us is holy.

The leaders among the priests who traveled with Ezra carried a load of precious treasure.  The priests were holy, and the treasure was holy.  Believers in Jesus also carry a precious treasure: the very Spirit of Christ.  Jesus said, "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you . . . In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me and I in you." (John 14:18, 20)

The Holy Spirit of Jesus is the treasure in us.

That their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.  (Colossians 2:2)

To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.  (Colossians 1:27)

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of His glory He may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may live in your hearts through faith.  (Ephesians 3:14-17a)

Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? (1 Corinthians 3:16)

I simply cannot get over this.  The Spirit of the God of the Universe, the Sustainer of all Creation, dwells inside my body.  He is my strength, my hope, my treasure.  He actually fills me with power and wisdom.  Imagine that.  Can you imagine that?  My God lives in me, and because He lives, I live.  Because of His grace, I can walk in His power, with His wisdom, confident of the hope He gives me.  This is utterly astonishing; yet, how rarely we seem to ponder it.

I'm not making it up.

But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us (2 Corinthians 4:7). We are jars of clay, filled with the treasure of the all surpassing power of God.  By His power, we can withstand whatever comes our way.

Christ, our treasure, abides in us and makes us holy.  We are holy to the Lord because the treasure that abides in us is holy.

We are called to guard our treasure.

Ezra charged the priests to guard the treasure that he was entrusting to them.  In the New Testament, Paul writes twice to Timothy, "O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you." (1 Timothy 6:20a)  And, "By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you." (2 Timothy 1:14).  But what was this deposit, this good deposit?

The deposit could be the Spirit Himself, but when Paul is writing to Timothy, a fellow pastor, it seems likely that the deposit is something from the Spirit, precious and essential for the nourishment of the church and the expansion of the Kingdom of God.  In this case, my guess would be that the deposit is the truth, the truth of the gospel of Christ.  Of course, Jesus said that He is the Truth:  "I am the way, and the truth, and the life . . . " (John 14:6).  Everything seems always to come back to Jesus in the end.  However, in the meantime, I think we believers are tasked with guarding the truth, sharing it while making sure that it is never changed or twisted.  At the same time, Jesus Himself guards us! (2 Thessalonians 3:3)

We will need to account for how we handled our treasure.

Ezra's crew of priests knew that they would be called to account for the treasure they carried, and so do we.  One day, we will stand before the Lord, and give account for how we handled His truth, whether we lived in accordance with His Spirit in us, whether we were led by the Spirit and bore Spirit fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  We will give account for whether the truth permeated our souls and changed us.

Our job, as members of the church, is to carry the presence of the Holy Spirit into the world, as He dwells within us, so we might radiate the beauty of Christ and demonstrate the love of Christ.  Our job is to be part of the expansion of the Kingdom of God by communicating the truth of the gospel, but also by living and demonstrating the love of God that draws souls into His body, the church.  Our job is to enhance the beauty of the church by serving with whatever special gifts the Holy Spirit has given us.  We all receive different spiritual gifts, so we can complement one another and work together, along with the miraculous power of God, to build something that would be exponentially more than the sum of its parts, if it weren't for the priceless value of the Holy Spirit and the blood of Jesus.*

Like the servants in the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30), we are entrusted with a measure of our Master's riches.  In Romans 12:3, Paul calls it, "the measure of faith that God has assigned."  In the Parable of the Talents, a nobleman gave three servants each some money, and then he went away.  Two of the servants invested their money and presented their master with a gain when he returned, but the third sat on his money, and had only the original amount to give back to his master when he was called to account.  To the two who had wisely invested, the master said, "Well done, good and faithful servant."  But when the lazy servant came with nothing to show for himself, the master rebuked him and ordered others to drag him away.

Ezra chose particular men to carry the treasure on the long journey.  He clearly communicated to them that he knew what they were carrying, and that they would be expected to account for it when they arrived at God's temple in Jerusalem.  God has clearly communicated to us that we will give a reckoning for how we lived our lives, on the last day (1 Corinthians 3:11-15, Revelation 20:11-13).

Ezra's priests arrived in Jerusalem, and everything was counted, weighed and recorded (Ezra 8:34).  It was all good.  When the last day dawns for us, the New Jerusalem will come down out of heaven (Revelation 21:2).  Our journey will end when our destination comes to us.  We will live in the glorious presence of God and see His face, and He will be our light (Revelation 22:4-5).  We will reign in glory forever and ever.

Yes, we need to live out our calling, but we can do this.  We can work out our salvation with fear and trembling . . . because it is God who works in us to will and to act according to His good pleasure (Philippians 2:12-13).  God works in us.  His power is shown to be perfect when it envelops us and compensates for our weaknesses.  As Jesus promised, He will not leave us as orphans.  He has come to us and He lives in us, transforming our minds, and even our appearance, with ever-increasing glory (2 Corinthians 3:18).  If God is for us, nobody can stand against us.  Nothing can separate us from the love of God; He will never leave us nor forsake us.

We do not need to be afraid.  God demonstrated His love for us when, while we were still sinners, Jesus Christ died for us.  Jesus has conquered sin and death, and with Jesus on our side we also will surely triumph.  He has sent His very Spirit to live in us as a foretaste of the beautiful fellowship we will experience when we are finally gathered into His full presence forever.

The Holy Spirit lives in me, and I am holy.








*In other words, our value would be greater than the sum of our parts, if one of the parts were not the Lord Himself, who is of infinite value, thus automatically making it impossible for any combined value that includes Him to exceed the sum of its parts, since His value is infinite from the outset, which is why we are so thankful that He is with us.