He Restores My Soul

It was the mid-90s when I walked into my parent's house and Mom told me Dad had been diagnosed with cancer.  With tears streaming down my cheeks, I found my father sitting in his chair.  His eyes were red from tears, his Bible lay on his lap.  It was open to Psalm 23.

In the darkness of the diagnosis, he found comfort in the words of David.  Words no doubt read hundreds of times, yet in the bitterness of an unwanted reality the words breathed new life.

How often it happens - words we've heard over and over, that they've lost their impact.  Words read so often, we quickly pass over them barely paying attention.  Until one day it sticks.  

The words become powerful once again.

This past week I struggled. I beat myself up.  I made wrong choices, said ungrace-filled things.   I got tired.  I began to read the words my Dad found comfort in so many years ago.  

...He makes me lie down in green pastures...
God, I could really use some green pastures about now.  Things are feeling a little barren and brown.

...He leads me beside still waters....
Still waters sound peaceful.  I could use some peaceful.  Life has been hectic, could you still the waters for me Jesus?

...He restores my soul...
The blinders came off, and the words laid like a weight on my heart.

He restores my soul.
He does not fix it.
He does not transform it.
He does not make it like new.
He restores it.

The claw marks left from sin grabbing at my soul will be gone.
The black paint my wrong choices have smeared all over my soul, will be no more.
The chips and dings marked on my soul by my brokenness, will disappear.

Jesus restores my soul.  With the pain-staking perfection of the Artist who created the original, He will restore it.  The vivid colors He always intended me - us - to have, will once again shine through in all their vibrancy.

At the still waters, the chaos strips away.
At the still waters, I lay it all open.
At the still waters, I whisper for help.
At the still waters, He hears me.
At the still waters, He begins.

He leads me besides still waters.
He restores my soul.

The Cross in The Middle

"When they came to the place called The Skull, there they crucified Him and the criminals, one on the right and the other on the left."  Luke 23:33

Two men deemed worthy to die by Roman torture and crucifixion.   Why are they here in the Easter story?  What had they done to be placed on the right and left of Jesus? 

Two men and a single choice.  Their lives were over, this is without a doubt and they knew it.  Romans had mastered crucifixion and they would all die that day.  Their final 6 hours on earth and they were granted the right and left of Jesus.  And they were faced with a choice - what were they going to do with the cross in the middle?

Two men watched the people of the crowd.  Some from the crowd looking at Jesus in disgust; some crying.  Some were angry; some were weeping.  They watched the people, they watched the cross in the middle.

Two men heard the words spewed from the crowd.  In the life they led, they would have been no strangers to hateful speech.  Yet today, the crowd was angry and vengeful and Jesus remained silent.  Jesus held no anger at their hate.  Instead they heard Jesus plea, "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing." Luke 23:34  


Two men watching the cross in the middle.  

They each made their choice.

One hurled insults, the other rebuked.
One spewed hate, the other sought love.
One was lost, the other found.
One was blind, the other saw.
One wretched, the other grace.
One rejected, the other asked for acceptance.
 
And Jesus was in the middle.

The bridge between insults and rebuke.
The bridge between hate and love.
The bridge between the lost and the found.
The bridge between blindness and sight.
The bridge between rejection and acceptance.

The cross in the middle is the bridge between hell and heaven.

Easter is about the cross in the middle.  You and I are about the cross on the right and the left.  Those are our stories.  Those are our choices.

Two men.
One choice.
What are you going to do with the cross in the middle?

Salted With Fire

"For everyone will be salted with fire." Mark 9:49, NASB

Jesus continues in verse 50 " Salt is good: but if the salt becomes unsalty, with what will you make it salty again?  Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another."

Salt.  A preservative and a flavor enhancer.

​These verses have been in my forethought lately.  Words ruminating in my mind; specifically the word "everyone". 

For EVERYONE will be salted with fire.  It doesn't matter if you're a Christian or not, you will be tested with fire and it will produce salt in your life.  The key is Who do you turn to while in the fire?

As my mind swims in this verse I think back to Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah.  3 men kidnapped from their homes and forced to live another world.  A world where their beliefs were made fun of, their God ridiculed and everything was thrown at them to get them to conform.  They were even forced to change their names to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

​Yet they stood firm in their belief in God.  One would think being kidnapped and forced into a different life would be their testimony; their salt with fire.  It wasn't.

Refusing to bow and worship the king of the land, they were thrown into the fire.  Literally.  A fire burning so hot those stoking the fire died from it's exposure.

Stop and think about what Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were thinking at that moment standing outside the fire.  Their life was over.  They were about to be thrown into a fire that killed those near it.  There would be no escaping this.  How would you feel standing there?

Maybe they still thought God would save them.  That single thought giving immense power to a small flicker of hope.  But then they are thrown into the fire and they find themselves air born and falling. 

They knew it was over.

Until it wasn't.

Jesus showed up.

When the despair had taken all the hope - as they stood IN the fire - Jesus showed up.  In the midst of the flames, Jesus was there with them.  Did they look around at the flames with faith?  Did they become fearful like Peter did when walking on the stormy water? 

I don't know.  But what I do know is Jesus didn't put out the fire.  He stood in it.

As the king knew 3 men were thrown in the fire and now could see 4 men walking around, he called them to come out of the fire.  Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego came out.

Jesus did not.

You see, the men had been salted with fire and it was their story to share.  Jesus left it to them to tell others how He showed up in their most desperate moment.

Most of us won't find ourselves in a literal fire.  But pain and trials and testing may lay a fire to us unlike one we've ever known.  For everyone will be salted with fire.  Everyone. 

So when you feel those hot flames licking at your soul, look around.  You'll find Jesus standing in the flames with you.