Lifting Up Hands

"...As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. When Moses hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up - one on one side, one on the other - so that his hands remained steady till sunset. So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword." (Exodus 17:11-13)

Man, did this portion of God's Word strike me deep in the heart, as well as coming separately to mind to a sister, who echoed and confirmed this thought...

The defeat of the enemy, the Amalekites, was dependent on Moses holding up his hands. But notice, he did not have to do it on his own. In fact, had he been left to do so (so it seems from the message in this Scripture), there would have been no way that he could have continued persevering in his assignment, and the enemy would have overcome Joshua.

There is an obvious lesson in this for anyone - and that is we were not meant to try to do things entirely on our own. Daily, we are dependent on others -those we know and those we don't - for those things that sustain us. In fact, according to this real-life event, not only was it important that Moses had aid, it was essential to both his and the whole group of Israelites' survival.

This "lesson" (or now, we should call it truth) becomes even more imperative - or perhaps I should say it becomes that much more central to those who are members of Christ's eternal body:

".so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others." (Romans 12:5)

"From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work." (Ephesians 4:16)

There is a gigantic need (and command) for those who have been reconciled to God through the blood of Jesus His Son (2 Corinthians 5:18-19), to not only each do his or her own work but to consistently be attuned to the indwelling Holy Spirit as to when he or she needs to be an "Aaron" or a "Hur" and to hold up a brother's or sister's hand.

And this does not mean simply praying for him or her. Certainly, as Paul states, we should be praying continuously both in general, and specifically for those who share in Christ's body with us - the saints (Ephesians 6:18). But sometimes, instead of clasping our hands in prayer, we should be using them to help carry the load of a brother or sister, which often may be the deciding factor of whether or not he or she is temporarily defeated by the enemy - whether that enemy be the cares of the world, the sinful nature, or demonic entities. A very explicit example of this follows:

"See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness." (Hebrews 3:12-13)

Turn this around and it basically says, "There is a very strong potential that you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin unless you encourage one another daily. You will be defeated because unless you give (and receive) help with the holding, your hands will become too heavy to raise up." This speaks to the temptations of the sinful nature; but this principle most likely applies to the heaviness of the cares of this world and to the treachery of Satan's attacks as well. We need to help one another in and through them, or the potential for temporary defeat is quite large. The battlefield of those in the body of Christ is meant to be one of victory; not of tired, weary bodies scattered amok.

This warning from the inspired writer of the book of Hebrews concludes with:

"We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first." (verse 14)

Moses had to basically "hold firmly" till the end - his hands held in the air - until the enemy was defeated. But he did not do it by himself. Nor were his two assistants commissioned to only sit at a distance praying that his strength would not give out. They were there, by his side, ready to set a stone beneath his tired body and willing to support the weight of his weary arms. This is love.

"Greater love has no one than this that he lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:13)

.but this is also a command to those who are members of the body of Christ:

"SEE TO IT, brothers."

Amen.

CAUGHT

"'Come,'  he (Jesus) said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, 'Lord, save me!' Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him..." (Matthew 14:29-31)

In the Hebrew Greek, the word "caught" means "to take in addition," "to lay hold of," "take possession of," to "overtake," and metaphorically, "to rescue one from peril, to help, to succour" (StudyLight.org).

Often the focus of this event found in the Gospel of Matthew is the fact that the moment we take our eyes off of Jesus and give our heart-mind's focus to anything else, just like Peter on the water, we will sink. No doubt this is absolutely, positively the truth, which is why we are told to fix our eyes on Jesus, "the author and finisher of our faith" (Hebrews 12:1-2) and that apart from Him, we absolutely, positively cannot do ANYTHING (John 15:5). (Welllll, we can still "do stuff," but boy, does it turn out messed up!).

But what captured my "heart-mind" in this verse was the fact that "immediately (when Peter began to sink), Jesus reached out his hand and caught (laid hold of, took possession of, rescued...) him." Wow, thank you, Lord.

I would say that the entire walk of a believer is about being asked to walk on water, since it is so very contrary to our human (natural) nature (Galatians 5:17). In order to journey through the world in this way, we must fix our spiritual eyes on Jesus (and our minds on things above: Colossians 3:1-2) or else our flesh, the world, and/or satan will find a way into even the tiniest crack in this earthen vessel, hone in on our weak spots, and try to do (and often succeed in doing) damage. And in this life, it is all-too-often far-too-easy to remove our gaze from our True Lover's eyes and place them on something...anything...else. It is almost inevitable that we will have our own "beginning to sink" times...

...and Jesus knows this. For it is also into these jars of clay that God has sent the Spirit of His Son (Galatians 4:6; Colossians 1:27):

"For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us..." (2 Corinthians 4:6-7)

When (not if) we take our spiritual eyes off of Jesus, and start to experience that sinking which means we have somehow strayed off of the right path, HE IS STILL RIGHT THERE TO CATCH US to keep us from "going down" even further: He knows we cannot yet perfectly walk on water (Romans 7:18-24; 1 Corinthians 15:42-54; 2 Corinthians 4:8-10; Galatians 5:17; Philippians 3:12-13). And it is because we have the Holy Spirit...the power of God...inside of us, that we can reach out (or in this case, reach in) our hand, cry out...SCREAM OUT...and be rescued by Jesus; and He says, "immediately." Continue to focus on that "other thing"...or worse, think that IT can prevent a perpetual plunge into sadness, confusion...into sin...and we move closer to those states described by Paul such as being crushed, in despair, feeling forsaken, and leaving ourselves vulnerable to perhaps not spiritual destruction, but certainly major damage (2 Corinthians 4:8-10).

"But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, 'Lord, save me!' Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him..."

Our challenge here is to walk on water, when almost everything within and outside of us conspires to drag us under. But we have a Savior who knows this and is always there to keep our feet (hearts, minds...) on that firm - and higher - ground. He won't force us to grab His Hand; but if we cry out, He will always answer:

(From Hinds' Feet on High Places, by Hannah Hurnard. The Good Shepherd, Jesus, talking to the main character, Much Afraid...or any one of us...):

"...you will not at first be able to accompany me or keep up with me...However, you must remember that as soon as you reach the slopes of the mountains there is a wonderful system of communication from end to end of the Kingdom of Love, and I shall be able to hear you whenever you speak to me...

...Whenever you call for help...

...I promise to come to you at once..." (p. 29, Deuteronomy 4:7)

In His Mighty, and Holy, and Everlasting Precious Love,

Terri

She put in All She Had

The widow who put her two small copper coins into the temple treasury was noted by Jesus as one who had “’…put more into the treasury than all the others…’” – those who had put in more money than she had (Mark 12:43). Jesus said that she had given out of her poverty, and that she had in fact put in everything that was hers to live on (v. 44).

I think we have a way of generalizing and even trivializing what this type of giving looks like. Quite often, we still focus on money or other material resources (as was the case here) as being the items of“sacrifice.” Giving people time also has become something that, if given gladly and sacrificially, is seen as precious because sometimes it is this resource in which we feel most impoverished – especially if we are trying to claim it as our own.

Notice how Jesus knew that this widow had put everything into that treasury. He didn’t know this by asking her, nor did he have the biographies of everyone who was giving at that time. Because he was God incarnate – he knew. He could see things that no one else could see. Perhaps others could tell by her clothes or other externals that she was poor, but only Jesus could see the true extent of, in other words, what was being “laid down” in this giving, and what it meant as it related specifically to her.

Jesus gives us the opportunity constantly to “put in our last two copper coins” and only he, at each moment, can see to the core if what is being “put in” is a true act of sacrifice, cutting to the heart of who we are, or if it is just more of a routine, external event. Let me give some examples.

…For someone who indulges and maybe even thrives on self-pity – to resist this temptation by the power of the Holy Spirit and to perhaps focus on another person – this is their “two copper coins.”

…For someone who is holding a grudge against someone, and is seeking to be justified, but instead allows God to work in them and to help them love that person – this is their “two copper coins.”

…For someone who wishes that their circumstances were different, but, instead of becoming bitter towards God or anyone else, offers praise to God and shares His glory with others – this is their “two copper coins.”

And there are even those responses that to many might seem just the opposite of “giving,” but because Jesus knows that person’s heart, he knows that he or she is really giving up something:

…For someone who worries about what people think, he or she may need to begin saying “no” to things that are asked of him or her, knowing that he or she will be doing it grudgingly and/or for the sake of approval –this is their “two copper coins.”

…For someone who seeks too much attention from people, he or she may decide to limit for a time their interactions with others in order to just spend time with the Lord – this is their “two copper coins.”

So why would putting in these things be likened to the depth of what the widow offered? The answer to that lies in the fact that she had put in “everything she had to live on.” Very often it feels like we are “living on” some of the things mentioned above: feeling sorry for ourselves becomes a way of getting attention or feeling protected; holding a grudge gives us a feeling of justification and power; envy or bitterness compensates us in a twisted way for the things we wish we had; and approval/attention-seeking feeds our egos. In fact, these are the very things – among a whole host of others that may be a lot less obvious – on which our old nature (flesh, old self, sinful nature) feeds in order to stay alive. And for each person at any one given moment, any one or more of these things may provide a major temptation to the old, sinful nature.

I believe that it is here, on a daily basis, where the circumcision of the heart takes place (Romans 2:28-29; 1 Corinthians 15:31; Luke 9:23): “In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ…” (Colossians 2:11). Each time the Spirit enables us to lay one or more of these things down – to essentially place ourselves on his altar in order to remove the dross so that some day only silver will remain – we are indeed putting in “all that we have to live on” – in the old nature.

But of course it doesn’t end there. We aren’t enabled to put in those copper coins just to be left impoverished – something happens when those coins hit the bottom of that pan. That sound evokes a celebration in heaven that a saint has stepped even one more millimeter into the kingdom of God; Jesus delights in the fact that that person has just now become even more of his brother and friend; and if that person is aware, he or she can sense a change – a softening – like something has actually just been done to his or her heart and spirit. But it is only Jesus who can make us aware at each moment what our specific copper coins are and when we need to put them in; and it’s only he who can enable us, by the Holy Spirit’s power, to do so. Yet it is wewho seem to reap the greatest rewards through this interaction. What a gracious God we have. Praise the Lord!