God Is For Us

This is a strong word of hope and grace for all of us.  We live in an age when we seem battled on every hand.  We face obstacles, lack, discouragement and defeat. 

We are prone to wonder …

  Does God like me?

  Does God know my name?

  Has God lost my address?

The ultimate question that goes unanswered is this:

Is God for me?  Is He on my side?

Allow me to use the scriptures to help define this ponderable question.

This is one of the great verses of hope found in the New Testament.  I find tremendous encouragement simply from resting my eyes on this idea.  I want to want to believe this verse, and I am coming to believe it, for I have great faith and trust in the God I serve.

Now, it is important to note this.  This is a faith statement.  That means we don’t have a written document stating exactly how God will be for us, how He will walk with us in the middle of every adversity or circumstance.  We just have this amazing promise.

I ran across this insightful quote recently and it has been turning my spiritual understanding upside down.  It is from Richard Rohr, a Roman Catholic priest and prolific author/speaker.

“My scientist friends have come up with things like principles of uncertainty and dark holes.  They are willing to live inside imagined hypotheses and theories.  But many religious folks insist on answers that are always true.  We love closure, resolution, clarity, while thinking that we are people of faith.  How very strange that the word “faith” has come to mean it’s exact opposite.”

Hold onto that thought for a moment while we revisit our key verse.  “If God be for us who can be against us?”

In the final resolution of things we know and hopefully accept the idea that God is on our side and He is with us through all of life’s steps. 

He has never promised nor demonstrated that He will keep us from hardships.  He simply promises to be with us in the middle of our hardships.  FAITH!

We want ready answers, signs in the heavens, a phone call right at the eleventh hour that spells deliverance for our dilemma.  What God wants most from us is TRUST! 

He wants a trusting heart that says “Even in the middle of my misery, God I know you stand with me.  I know you will never leave me nor forsake me.” 

That is giant-size faith.  We don’t know the “HOW” or the “WHEN”.  All we know is God is on our side and in the end, we will conquer. 

Meanwhile, God is with us. 

I take great comfort in that verse tonight.

Thanks be to God.

P Michael Biggs

Offering Hope

Encouragement Inspiration

One Word at a Time

Grace Like We've Never Seen

Don’t you love abundance?  I like it when I get a bonus.

I got an extra helping of potatoes recently at our favorite restaurant

Carolyn is giving me an abundant back rub right now.

I love abundance. 

Does God ever shower us with abundance?

He does indeed.

The scriptures remind us of this:  

Where sin abounds, grace abounds more.

~Romans 5:20

For comparison purposes, let’s say that you and I commit a series of sins.  On the Richter scale of sins, this amounts to 100 sins. 

That’s a whole lot of sins, would you agree? 

100 sins – and they fill the house and overflow the windows.

And along comes God.  

So God sees our 100 sins.  Does he give us a measure of grace equal to 101 sins?  Not according to our key verse.

Let’s be generous.  Let’s say he gives a measure equal to 150 sins.  Surely one and a half times more grace than sins is a good thing, right?

And to add to our dilemma, tomorrow and for the next four days we commit these sins five days in a row. 

Wow.  That means our sins now amount to 500 sins.  Surely God will run out of grace on that one.

Hold on, worried child of God.

His word promises, PROMISES I say, that where sin abounds, grace abounds more.

Not grace in a measure of 150 per day, or the 750 for five days. 

Think more in terms of the “thousand” power, even the “ten thousand” power.

God loves us so much that he gives and gives and gives in abundance, overflowing, pouring forth.  He gives more grace than our sins can handle.

He floods our sins with abundant grace, grace like we’ve never seen before.

The question is this – can we accept that kind of grace?

Can we accept that kind of love?

Can we believe in the abundant, lavish love of God?

We hear the scriptures that proclaim …

God so loved the world that He gave his only Son …John 3:16

I have loved you with an everlasting love.  Jeremiah 31:3

But to receive grace in such magnitude?

Is God really that rich in grace?  You bet He is. 

As Philip Yancey says, “God is looking more for ways to bring you home to heaven than He is in seeking ways to keep you out.”

My favorite author, Brennan Manning, says this:  “Only God knows how to pardon.”

And He does it very well indeed.

Where sin abounds grace abounds more.

Thanks be to God.

P Michael Biggs

Offering Hope

Encouragement Inspiration

One Word at a Time

What Does God Look Like

Once upon a time there was a kindergarten teacher who wanted her class to have a moment of art.  She told them to draw anything they wanted, and while they worked quietly she walked around the room looking at each child’s artwork.

She stopped at one little girl’s desk and asked innocently, “What are you drawing?”

The girl replied, “I’m drawing God.”

The teacher paused, smiled and said, “But no one knows what God looks like.”

The little girl replied, “They will in a minute.”

And so we wonder, what does God look like. 

I’ve seen God a few times.

I saw him once toting a bag of groceries up the sidewalk of an elderly lady who couldn’t get out and fetch them for herself.

I saw him looking on as a husband and wife walked hand in hand down Sunset Street in the town where I live.

And I saw Him the other day when a lady stopped on the corner of Ravenna and 63^rd and handed out a brown bag and a bottle of water to a homeless man begging for money.

God shows up in a thousand ways every day.  If we look for Him we just might catch a glimpse of Him walking our streets, patrolling our neighborhoods and taking a disguised hand in our world.

We can even seen glimpses of him in some significant places in the scriptures.  He appeared in the form of a cloud by day and a blazing fire at night when He led the Israelites through the wilderness for forty years

He appeared in the form of a bread-like substance called manna to feed that same group on their wandering march.

Moses was allowed to look at God’s back-side once.

He was with Jonah in the belly of a whale.

He appeared to young Samuel in the middle of the night.

And He showed His hand to a mother and her son by continuing to refill her oil supply and grain supply until the seasonal rains came and allowed the local crops to grow to full harvest.

I’ve seen God in an envelope filled with cash that was given at a critical moment of need.

I’ve seen Him when He delivered me from a serious auto accident one Valentine’s day in Texas.

And I’ve seen Him in a hundred sunsets, bounty on my table, and in daily food for daily need.

I am keenly aware of God in all the various forms He chooses to assume

I’ve seen Him as …

 My provider

  My healer

   My comforter

    My Redeemer

     An act of Grace

      The one who supplies all my needs

What does God look like?

He often looks like ordinary humanity performing sometimes extraordinary acts of kindness, grace and hope.

Above all … God looks like a man on a cross, with arms outstretched, offering you and me redemption, hope and love.

And God looks like this –

  

P Michael Biggs

Offering Hope

Encouragement Inspiration

One Word at a Time

The Beautiful and the Terrible

Do you want to hear the beautiful or the terrible?

Do you like the good news first or the bad news?

I have some awfully encouraging news to offer you today.  When I use the word ‘awfully’ just now that is on purpose. 

~Wouldn’t life be wonderful if all pain and suffering were eliminated?  

~Wouldn’t it be paradise if we had no struggles, no off-putting circumstances?  And if everybody in the whole world got along, now wouldn’t that be just about heaven?

Of course, the answer is “YES” – a thousand times yes.

However, we all know life is at best a hodge-podge of ups and downs, good days, less than stellar days, and sometimes it hardly seems worthwhile for us to get out of bed.

So where is the good news in the middle of all this mixed bag of good and bad?

We find a nugget of hope in this quote from Frederick Buechner. 

“Here is the world. 

Beautiful and terrible 

things will happen. 

Don't be afraid.” 

It almost seems like a slap in the face when he inserts that last comment, doesn’t it?  “Don’t be afraid” he says.

What?  Are you out of your mind?  Have you read a newspaper lately or watched the evening news?

That is our response, for sure. 

Okay – take a deep breath and tighten your shoe laces.  Things are about to get hopeful again.

There is a somewhat obscure passage in the Bible that speaks to our concerns today.  Here it is in my own paraphrase.

“I have told you some of these things because I want you to have peace.  You will have troubles in this world, but hang on.  I have overcome the world.”

~John 16:33

Christ himself is speaking these words, and they are perhaps some of the most encouraging words we could find in the scriptures, especially for such a time as this one in which we find ourselves.

“I have overcome the world.” 

     Powerful words

          Hope-filled words

               Encouraging words

And in one of my favorite passages, we find this – “Be not afraid nor dismayed.  I your God will be with you wherever you go.”

That comes from Joshua 1:9.  These words were spoken to Joshua after his leader, Moses, has died. 

  Joshua feels inadequate. 

    He feels overwhelmed. 

      He feels that he is not quiet up to the job at 

      hand. 

You see, he is an untried leader, especially after walking in the shadow of Moses for all these years. 

God speaks these words to Joshua and they filter down to us today. 

“Be not afraid.”

“I will be with you no matter where you go."

In other words, beautiful and terrible things will come your way.  Don’t be afraid.

Can we rest on that anchor?

I do believe we can.

Is God capable of sustaining us even in the midst of the most severe difficulties?  I do believe He can.

We must acknowledge this – we were never promised smooth sailing.  We WERE promised that he would sail with us into whatever seas our path takes us and into whatever strong gales we may face.

What is left to be said?

Thanks be to God.

Michael Biggs

Offering Hope

Encouragement Inspiration

One Word at a Time

When God Looks at You

If God were to sit across from you, what would He see?  As He gazed deeply into your eyes, what revelations would come to Him?

Do these questions make you feel uncomfortable?  Does fear strike at your heart at the very thought of sitting down with God in an intimately close conversation such as this?  It probably does for most of us.  Yes indeed, it would be unnerving.

Perhaps there is another way to view this kind of intimate close-up with God.  Keep reading please.

If God were to sit across from you and me, I think the He might say some affirming and esteeming words such as these ...

“You are my beloved child.  I love you with such a depth of love.  I doubt you will ever understand just how much I love you.  The greatest poets and song writers try to un-wrap this love relationship I have with you, but they pale in comparison to the real deal.”

God is still talking.  “Here are some thoughts I think toward you.

“I love you right now, this very minute, just as you are and not as you should be.  I love your torn jeans, your sweaty tee-shirt, your dirty tennis shoes and your bad breath.

“I love your efforts to do right, and I even love you when you are so far from me. 

“I love you as you run away from me and try and drown your fears and angst in a bottle of cheap bourbon or at the end of a needle stuck in your arm.

“I love you when you piously attend church dressed in your Sunday best, though your mind is on the football game, or you are thinking about the last deal you made or the next one coming up.

“I love you even as you pull up to your secret rendezvous to meet your lover.

“I love you when you do your taxes, and when you take a shower. 

“I love you when you are 95 and can hardly move out of bed and need help with simple bodily functions.

“I love you when you discipline your kids, hard as that may be, and I love you in the middle of the madness of an argument with your spouse.

“I love you on Monday mornings on your way to work, and I love you on Friday afternoons at 6PM when you head into your weekend.

“I think of you all the time.  I watch over you.   I hear your angst, your frustrations in conversations, and your laughter in the fun moments and the tender moments you express to that one person above all others who holds your heart’s affections.

“I have used the word love 15 times already, and yet that doesn’t measure the immense amount of compassion and deep feelings I have for you.

“I know your disappointments.

“I know ever fear.

“I know every wish that is yet unfilled in your heart.

“I know what you are best at and what task you dread doing.

“Do you see?  I like you and I love you.

“So, when I say ‘I want to be nearby, just remember I won’t intrude.  I’ll slip only into the places and spaces you offer up to me. 

“However, I will never stop loving you.

“Never!

Your God!

P Michael Biggs

Offering Hope

Encouragement Inspiration

One Word at a Time

A Light that Still Shines

I want to retell a story from Mother Teresa that is just a wee bit important.

Here goes:

Mother Teresa tells the story of an old man in Australia.  He lived in a small village and he was all alone.  He was worse than alone for he was ignored.

One day Mother Teresa visited him and asked if she could clean his home and wash his clothes.  He denied her this privilege.  She persisted.  He finally relented.

As she was cleaning, she discovered a beautiful lamp covered in dust.  Only God knows how many years had passed since he last lit it.

She asked, “Don’t you ever light your lamp? Don’t you ever use it?

He answered, “No.  No one comes to see me.  I have no need to light it.  Who would I light it for?”

She asked, “Would you light it every night if the sisters came?”

He replied, “Of course.”

From that day on the sisters committed themselves to visiting him every evening.  We cleaned the lamp, and the sisters would light it every evening.

Two years passed. 

Mother Teresa had completely forgotten that man when he sent a message to her:  “Tell my friend that the light she lit in my life continues to shine still.”

She says, “I thought it was a very small thing.  We often neglect small things.”

~In the Heart of the World - Mother Teresa)

This story moves me on two levels. 

First – it was a small thing for the sisters to do each evening.  Their job was to light the lamp.  They were bringing light to the dark corners of this man’s home. 

I’ve never thought of the idea of turning on a light or touching a flaming match to a kerosene lantern as a major event.  It is something we do to brighten the space in which we are for the moment. 

As she pointed out, it was a small task.  It took so little effort that it could hardly be called ministry.

Second – she and the other sisters lit more than a lamp in that man’s world that day.  They lit his existence.  They gave a gift of attention and esteem.  They brought a warmth to his soul.  They said to him, "You matter."  He was worthy of enlightenment in his corner of the world just as you and I are worthy of enlightenment. 

And the enlightenment brought more than physical light. 

It brought significance. 

It brought joy.

It brought hope.

This little old man’s life was transformed in small and lasting ways by this act of charity.

To whom have you and I dispensed light this week?  Whose world have we made a little bit brighter because of some small, random act of kindness.

~Have I brought a smile to someone’s face this week?

~Have I encouraged one to hold on a bit longer, or shown some light on a dark and dismal problem.

~Have I let someone know that there are some people in this world who still have a heart of compassion?

Those gifts, those moments, those random acts of kindness matter as much as giving a thousand dollars in some offering or to some ministry.

Have a blessed day … and pass the blessing to someone who crosses your path this week.

P Michael Biggs

Offering Hope

Encouragement Inspiration

One Word at a Time

Calming Words

When troubles come, the first thing we want to hear are calming words, reassuring words.  We want to hear words that give us hope.

There is a story in the Bible that I want to relate to you.

Jesus and his disciples have been in a remote place and have just fed five thousand men, not counting the women and children.  They are exhausted.

Even before the last person has left to go home Christ tells the disciples to get in the boat and go to the other side of the lake.  He, Christ, wanted to stay behind to pray and be alone.

As the disciples made their way across the water some terrifically strong winds began to blow and the disciples feared for their lives.

Suddenly they saw a ‘vision’ walking on the water headed straight toward them.  They thought surely they had met their end.  They became very fearful. 

And then they heard a voice. 

Now, do you have the picture?

  12 men in a boat

  Fierce winds

  They are dog tired

  They see a specter

  They hear a voice

What would you and I do in that situation?  We would probably fear for our lives as well.

But the voice … the voice spoke those magical words.

“Take courage. It is I.  Don’t be afraid.”

~Matthew 14:25-27

The voice was the voice of their master – Jesus Christ.  The words He spoke, well they are the words He still speaks into our hearts and lives today.

We face strong winds of adversity.

We face hardships.

We face relationship conflict.

We face financial woes.

We face disappointments on ever hand.

We face loneliness.

And the voice of God comes to us just as surely as it did to the men in that boat. 

Don’t worry.

Have courage.

Be not afraid.

I am here.

I am with you.

He says to us …

~I’ve got this.  I’ve got whatever plagues your life at this moment.

~Are you facing surgery?  Don’t worry.  I am with you.

~Are you afraid?  I’m with you even now.

~Are you thirsty?  I will give you drink.

Our part in this conundrum … listen for the quiet voice of God.  Trust His stable hand to work in spite of circumstances. 

He always has a calming word for us in our greatest moment of need.

Thanks be to God.

P Michael Biggs

Offering Hope

Encouragement Inspiration

One Word at a Time