Living in God's Shadow

Follow the Recipe!

July 22, 2020 by Tim

I know it is incredible, but I have been in the kitchen before. Not just raiding the refrigerator or getting a drink. I have cooked. Yes, my abilities exceed cooking grilled cheese and hotdogs. I even figured out how to modify meatloaf into a dish I call “Italian meatloaf.” (Hint: it includes ground meat, cheese, ketchup, and Italian seasonings) Because I am a guy, I even figured out how to cook this in the microwave. When I am hungry, I don’t have two hours to spend cooking. I can cook, but that only means that I can keep myself from starving when I am home alone. It does not mean that I eat well or should be relied on to cook for others. I must admit that usually, if I am in the kitchen, I prefer baking, not cooking.

My wife is thrilled by the fact that I clean up after I use the kitchen. She enjoys the things I cook or bake. However, it seems to bother her that I get very consistent results with whatever I am baking. I watched my wife one day and discovered why my results were more constant than hers. I measure everything meticulously. If the recipe calls for one cup, I measure precisely one cup and not a speck more or less.

When she bakes, she uses rough measurements. Her baking includes pouring the ingredient directly from the canister into the mixing bowl and estimating how much is there. Most recipes are forgiving enough that her method works with slight variance in results. There is one cake that I am the only one of us who can bake it successfully. I view the recipe as the instructive laws governing the final result. She considers the food formula as helpful and suggestive information pointing you in the general direction.

I have found that living in God’s shadow requires us to follow the recipe that He laid out for us in the Bible. Exodus 20 gives us the Ten Commandments, which tell us the requirements to live a life pleasing to God. The instructions in 2 Chronicles 7:14 tells us how to live in God’s shadow. Jesus summed up both when He said, ” ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” Matthew 22:37-40 (NRSV) Following this recipe precisely is imperative.

Following the specific order that recipes generally are written in is very important. One cake recipe I have used calls for boiling water or coffee to be stirred into the other ingredients just before putting it into the oven. If I added the boiling water at the beginning or forgot it, the cake would not turn out.

Reading through the Ten Commandments, I notice that keeping the first two commandments enables one to keep all the rest possible. The only way to complete this recipe is to follow the order.

When following a recipe, I have found that it is necessary to put in all the ingredients. God wants us to apply the formula for living in His shadow to every part of our lives. Attempting to skip or alter the parts of the recipe never ends well. Even if parts of the prescription are uncomfortable for us, we must follow it. Imagine if I tried to bake my favorite chocolate cake and then decided to substitute mashed peas for the cocoa powder and used orange juice to replace the boiling water. Does anybody want some of this cake?

I find it very interesting that we will take a recipe at its word. We will follow it exactly, hoping for a mouthwatering final result. Why do we consider the method God gives us to be different? Many times we only want to follow the commands that are easy and comfortable for us. Why do we try to claim to live in God’s shadow if we are unwilling to comply with the instructions on how to get there laid out in 2 Chronicles 7:14? I do not write this as a master of the recipe, but as one who is trying to follow it and challenge others to pursue it. The goal is to enhance our relationship with God, not to seek to outperform other people. God was not attempting to make things difficult by giving us instruction. He was trying to make it easier for us by providing clear directions on living in His shadow.

I challenge you to pursue God. Follow His recipe. Live in His shadow. Encourage others as they attempt to follow God’s recipe for a close relationship with Him.

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Big Scary Things

July 15, 2020 by Tim

While my son was still a toddler, he was afraid of dogs. It likely came from the fact that I owned a Siberian Husky at the time, and the dog was much larger than my son. When the dog turned suddenly and accidentally bumped my son causing him to fall, this added to his fear of dogs. The Husky was always gentle with the children, but the sheer size scared my son. I tried to convince him that the dog was gentle and kind. I told him the dog loved him. No one could persuade him that the large dog he saw was not dangerous. It took getting a miniature Schnauzer puppy to help him overcome his fear of dogs.

Experience has shown me that the challenges in life that appear insurmountable cause us the most fear. When there is a cancer diagnosis or more bills than money. When we face uncertainty, and no one else believes in our dreams and plans for the future. These things look gigantic. They appear like they will gobble us up. a

I recall one time that I told a pastor about an area of ministry I desired to develop to help a specific group of people. He responded by laughing at the very idea. It seemed like an impossibility to offer the assistance needed. While I could not form a support group for people with that specific need in the church, I did choose to provide support and encouragement to them apart from the church. It can be intimidating to start something believing that you have no support system. We must remember that God will support us in whatever He asks us to do.

Living in God’s shadow gives us the ability to have a different perspective of the giants that we face. When my son was so fearful of my big dog, he would only go near the dog if he were with me. He knew that I had a greater size than the dog, and he believed I could control the dog. When we live close to God, we recognize that He is significantly larger than any problem, criticism, or adventure we will face. Our ability to deal with the situation will be directly proportional to our reliance on the fact that God is bigger than the circumstance. God allows big, scary things to enter our lives to grow our confidence in Him.

Expressing the fact that we believe that God is bigger than the circumstance we face is not always effortless or fashionable. Scripture tells us about when the Israelites were preparing to invade that land that God had promised them. (Numbers 13-14) Attempting to understand where they were going and what they would face, they sent twelve spies into the land. The men chosen as spies inspected the area as they traveled through it. When they returned, the spies all agreed that it was fertile and prosperous land. They all agreed that some of the people in the area were very tall. Their belief in God’s abilities is where the division among the spies began. Ten of the spies said the people who live in the land are too tall and powerful, and even God cannot help us with this problem. The other two spies believed that God could do anything and encouraged them to follow God’s command to invade the land.

The Israelites chose to listen to the majority and refused to enter the land promised to them. Once they refused to invade, God gave the command to return to wandering in the desert. The people then presumed they could resist God’s second order to return to the desert and instead invade the Promised Land. This presumption that they could pick and chose which commands to follow caused them to lose the battle.

This story illustrates the fact that there is a difference between faith and presumption. If the Israelites acted in faith, they would not have allowed the ten spies to dissuade them from following what God had formerly commanded. They chose to hold back in fear. When God said to wander in the desert for a while longer, they decided it was time to invade. They presumed that God would be with them and fight for them even though they had disobeyed Him. Faith is essential to living in God’s shadow. Acting on presumption tends to move us out of God’s shadow.

We can only live in God’s shadow if we follow His directives. We cannot choose which ones to obey or follow them only if they are comfortable and convenient. Our understanding of how to apply God’s commands to our lives will increase as we spend time living in His shadow.

When God asks us to do things outside our comfort zone, He expects us to trust Him. He knows the matter is big and scary to us. He understands we do not see how things will work out. Sometimes the big, frightening circumstance that we face is God redirecting us.

Approximately a month after I graduated from college, I became the pastor of a small church. My training and interests were in foreign mission work. At that time, the denomination I worked for required two years of service as a pastor to be considered for missions work. I thought I was pastoring to fill that requirement. God had me stay at that church for six years. During those six years, God allowed various circumstances to prevent me from going into foreign missions. Eventually, God redirected me to the area where I currently live.

I have learned that God will not send us into any circumstance without giving us the courage and endurance we need for the situation. This grit will usually come on a minute-by-minute basis, as it is required. Living in God’s shadow is not a matter of lacking fear of anything. Instead, it is the ever-increasing confidence that God is in control and will be with us, providing us strength through each situation.

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Learning In The Garden

July 8, 2020 by Tim

My family had a huge garden when I was a teen. The garden stretched out to about 200 feet in length, and each row that crossed it was fifty feet long. I recall my father planning the garden each year. He regularly rotated the vegetables to new places each year and tried to keep only friendly crops beside each other.

Working in the garden taught me many things. I learned things like, never plant onions beside the potatoes, salt would kill the slugs on cauliflower and cabbage, and that raw corn in the garden was delightfully sweet, sticky, and satisfying. Perhaps the biggest lesson learned was to work hard and be persistent.

As I have pursued God, I have come to understand that, like a garden, God has a plan for each thing He plants in our lives. We may not enjoy everything in our lives, but each item has a purpose. I know that as a teen, I did not enjoy the hours weeding and hoeing the garden. There were times when I would have preferred to go hiking instead of helping the family shell a large wheelbarrow load of peas, but it was not about what I liked, it was about having food for the winter.

Gardening is challenging this year. Over the past few years, I was too busy to get the garden planted. I would till the soil but never find the time for planting each year. The problem with plowing but not planting is that I had no reason to pull the weeds, so the garden area had reverted to a rather wild state. This year I began by tilling the soil and picking up all the quackgrass roots I could find. I tilled again and turned up even more root pieces, which I picked up before planting. I hoped I was saving myself some weed pulling, but when the vegetables came up, so did the weeds. I am always amazed that weeds seem to grow at twice the rate of the things I planted. Pulling weeds in the garden gives me time to think.

I have come to realize that growing a garden is very similar to living life. Once I bury my seeds, I must leave them alone. If I dig up the seeds to check to see if there is any growth going on, I will most likely destroy any new growth. Patience is a requirement for gardeners.

Living in God’s shadow is very much like growing a garden. We can believe the promises and obey the commands in scripture. However, it requires patience to see the fruit of the Spirit develop in our lives. Failure to see any growth in our lives may indicate that we are only acknowledging the commands in scripture. Spiritual growth comes when we are following the instruction of scripture.

I have a love/hate relationship with pulling weeds. I do not enjoy spending the time required to remove the unwanted plants, but I do receive a sense of accomplishment once I get an area of the garden clean of weeds. It is refreshing to see the clearly defined rows of vegetables separated by weed-free strips of loose earth.

I think while I remove weeds. I realized that cleaning the garden of unwanted plants must be very similar to how God operates in our lives. When we choose to live in God’s Shadow, we move closer to God. Moving closer requires that we align our lives more closely with His commands. Thus moving closer to God naturally reveals the “weeds” in our lives. To continue to move closer to God, we must allow Him to remove the weeds. When I review my life, I know there were times when removing the weeds from my life was overwhelming for me. I had to rely on God to do the weeding. There were times when the plant I wanted to pull was something God wanted to cultivate.

Where I live, the growing season varies from year to year. This year we had our last frost in June. Some years we will have our final frost in mid-May. Some years we will have our first fall frost in the third week of August, and other years it will not come until October. Due to this unpredictability, I have to be very selective about what I plant. I need plants that mature quickly but will continue to produce should frost come later than expected.

Our lives are as varied as the weather in the area where I live. We must trust God. He is the master gardener. He will know what will produce the most substantial amount of good fruit in our lives.

I usually have difficulty getting the rest of my family excited about tilling the soil, planting the seed, or weeding the garden. Harvest time is entirely different. Everyone is eager to help. Each person can now see and hopes to taste the results of the work that produced the harvest. Only the person who tills, plants, weeds, and helps to harvest will know the harvest’s real cost. Others may try to imagine the effort required but cannot fully understand it until they have done it.

When we look at another person’s life and marvel at the beautiful things that God has grown in them, we are looking at the harvest. We do not see the time spent pursuing God and living in His shadow. We do not know the time God spent weeding and pruning their life. We often forget that a fruitful life does not magically happen one day. It is the culmination of many years of living in God’s shadow and allowing Him to nurture and direct our growth.

This year it was a very windy day when I tried to plant carrots. The result was that when the carrots came up, I had extra carrots. Some of the carrots formed their little row alongside the primary row, and others grew in between the usual uniform rows. I know that there have times when I have tried to give God some “help” with my life. Those times when I thought I did not need instruction or assistance from God. It is those times when I tried to instruct God that caused irregular rows and random planting in my life.

Sometimes we get impatient with God because we cannot see the harvest. We fail to understand that He is still doing the planting. Several years ago, God generated an interest in me for missions work in South America. So far, I have been unable to engage in such work full time. Sometimes this frustrates me, but then I recognize that it must not be harvest time yet. God will provide the way and work when it is time to harvest the fruit of the desire He planted in me.

Living in God’s shadow requires us to have a gardener’s patience if we want to see a bountiful harvest. The Apostle Paul encouraged the Galatian church about this very idea in Galatians 6:9. “So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up.” (NRSV) Let God plant and weed your heart and life. Doing so will enable you to live closer to Him and see the bountiful harvest He is preparing for you.

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Why?

July 1, 2020 by Tim

Have you ever had the question, “Why?” asked you multiple times in quick succession? If you have been around children, the answer is likely yes. My children started asking, “Why?” at a very young age. Why do I need to get dressed? Why can’t I have a snack right now? (It was five minutes before a meal.) Why do you tell me what to do? I recall being thankful when sleep overcame the children, and I could stop answering the question, “Why?’ for a few hours. While my children have learned more advanced ways of wording questions, I find that the intent remains the same.

Asking, “Why?” seems to be part of the human experience. Part of the question comes from curiosity and a desire to understand. Almost every invention has sprung from some form of the question, “Why?” It is a question that visionaries and leaders curiously ask in a desire to make things better.

The other part of the question seems to be a challenge to authority. I have observed that when “why” is used this way, the person is trying to ask, “Can I trust you? Are you considering what is best for me?”

When my children were small, there were occasional conversations that ended with, “because I am the dad.” The children did not understand that I was considering their best interests when I had them nap or eat healthy food. They saw me as an oppressive authority to defy. If we find that we are resisting God’s rule, it is time to recognize that He is thinking about our best interests.

Even as I have gotten older, I have never stopped asking why. Usually, I ask because I want to understand. Occasionally, I ask because I am trying to avoid some new thing that is about to be added to my schedule. Asking the question, “Why?” is healthy as long as you do not do it to be defiant or obnoxious.

I cannot find any scripture where God forbids or even discourages us from asking, “Why?” God is not looking for robotic obedience. He desires willing obedience. Often, we have to understand, at least to some degree, to take action; therefore, we ask, “Why?”

God understands that as humans, we are curious and often will supply the answer to why before we ask. Think of Noah. When he received instruction from God to build the ark, God prefaced the direction with the explanation, answering, “Why?” (Genesis 6:13-14) Usually, understanding the reason behind a request makes it easier to comply with the demand. Comprehending the rationale does not mean that the task will be easy; it just means that it can be logically understood. In Noah’s case, God was clear. Destruction was coming to the earth, and obedience would bring salvation, a logical reason why.

When God gave the Ten Commandments, it seems that the “why” was primarily to enable the people to live in God’s shadow. The secondary “why” appears to be to create a society where people lived in peace with each other. (Exodus 20:1-17) If each of the Ten Commandments were fully practiced by every person today, most, if not all, crime would disappear from society.

I wish I could say that God prefaces all instructions with the answer as to why, but he does not. Abraham received a directive from God to go to a distant mountain and there to sacrifice his son Isaac. You can read the story in Genesis 22. God did not give the reason for the command until Abraham had proven that he was obeying. Just before Abraham sacrificed Isaac, God stopped Abraham and provided an alternate sacrifice. When it was all over, God then revealed the “why.” This test answered the question, “Does Abraham trust God enough to obey completely?”

I wonder why I do not follow Abraham’s example. The faith that Abraham exhibited through his obedience is a challenge to me. It also causes me to ask questions like, “Why do I not grasp every promise in scripture? Why do I feel the need to restrict the scope and reach of these assurances instead of taking them literally?” The curiosity of the question, “Why?” excites me. How much fuller could life be? Why am I allowing myself to hold back from fully living in God’s shadow, and what is holding me back? Why does what anyone thinks, what society says, or even what my church says, prevent me from trusting in God completely? Why does it seem such a scary thing to allow God to guide me in planning? Why do I live like I doubt the words of Jesus Christ?

Perhaps the reason we ask God, “Why?” so often is that experience has taught us that we cannot trust ourselves. It is common for individuals to project the perception they have of themselves onto others. The idea that humans project their opinions onto God is not an unlikely scenario. The difference is that God never breaks our trust. We may fail to meet expectations with each other and even with ourselves, but God is always faithful. While we may question why God trusts us, we never need to wonder whether we can trust God. We know that God’s goal is to enable us to live in His shadow and enjoy His presence.

I do still ask, “Why?” I remain curious and sometimes hesitant. I know that I am not perfect. I find comfort in the words of the Apostle Paul. He said, “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.” Philippians 3:12 (NIV) Living close to God places us in His care whether we understand the reason for what we are experiencing.

Living in God’s shadow is not an exercise in never asking why. It is a willingness to obey whether the “why” is explained to us or not.

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Conversations About Others

June 3, 2020 by Tim

Did you know that we can live in God’s shadow and still have conversations about others? Yes, it is possible when we are having a conversation with God. Anyone listening to most conversations would ask, “Is it even possible to have a conversation without ever mentioning another person?” It is human nature to talk about other people. I believe that God wants us to have conversations with Him about others. I am aware this idea may sound far-fetched, but the reason for these conversations is not to pass on juicy tidbits of information to God. He already knows.

The key to understanding this is that scripture instructs us to pray for one another. The Apostle Paul lived this out. Throughout his epistles, he tells the readers many times that he is praying for them to be made complete in some aspect of Christian living. Paul was not gossiping about the people he was writing to; instead, he was praying for their spiritual welfare.

When we have conversations with God about other people, we should not be doing it to gossip to God. God is not interested in gossip. He already knows every person’s secrets. What God wants to hear is your requests on behalf of others. He wants to listen to your desire for their well-being.

We find examples of people making requests on behalf of others throughout the Bible. Abraham pleaded on behalf of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. (Genesis 18:22-33) Moses interceded on behalf of the Israelites several times. Jesus made requests on behalf of the disciples and even the believers of today. Yes, Jesus also prayed for the believers of today in John 17:20-21. Each of these cases is a situation where the person making the request did so without being asked to do so by the person for whom they were praying.

One thing I have noticed intercessory conversations with God is that they almost always are about other people. Elijah interceded on behalf of the kingdom of Israel, and God ended the three and a half year drought. Moses interceded for the Israelites, and God forgave the people. Intercession is the act of seeing others’ needs so clearly that you passionately converse with God about resolving the need, whether there is any benefit to you or not.

When we participate in intercessory prayer, we act out the fact that we believe that God hears and answers prayer. We demonstrate that we believe in prayer so strongly that we make passionate requests for God to benefit others. Moses is an example of this style of praying. While Moses was receiving the Ten Commandments, the people started worshiping an idol. Following this incident, Moses pleaded with God on behalf of the people. He prayed, “Alas, this people has sinned a great sin; they have made for themselves gods of gold. But now, if you will only forgive their sin — but if not, blot me out of the book that you have written.” Exodus 32:31-32 (NRSV) Moses was not gossiping about the people, nor was he telling God anything God did not know. He risked his life and reputation for the people he led. Even though Moses was innocent of wrongdoing, he was willing to be identified with the wrongdoers if it would cause God to forgive them.

Living in God’s shadow changes us. Dwelling near God causes us to stop being focused only on ourselves. Allowing God to make changes in us helps us recognize others’ needs and make requests for God to resolve those needs.

Writing this blog has caused me to analyze what I believe and why carefully. It has also presented questions to me. The most recent inquiry was, “How often do you pray for the readers of the blog you write?” I realized that this was an aspect that I had not given any thought. God used this question to broaden my perspective and to cause me to recognize that only writing articles to encourage others to pursue Him was not enough.

I quote the words of the Apostle Paul, “I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power.” Ephesians 1:17-19. (NRSV)

I will remember my readers in prayer this week. I challenge you to intercede for someone this week as you try to live even more passionately in God’s shadow.

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