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Our Surprising God: A True Story

by | Jul 27, 2016 | A Woman's Story, Bible study, Podcast, Scripture, Spiritual Growth

Our Surprising God: A True Story

Our Surprising God: The True Story of Isaac

by Elizabeth Turnage | Living Story Podcast

I have the great privilege of being on a team that leads a worship service once a month at the local jail. Last month, I decided you might enjoy hearing the message I delivered on the “true story” of God’s grace, so I turned it into a podcast. This month, I did the sequel, and have again posted it. I hope you enjoy listening to these true stories and that the Word seeps deep into your heart.

Note: I’m still a newbie to the podcasting work, so you can play it from this page, or scroll to the end of the page to download, or search for the Living Story podcast in iTunes.

This time, for you who prefer reading, I’ve included the transcript of the podcast :-)! Please let me know if you enjoy these. I love doing them and wouldn’t mind doing more :-)!

A true story about people who are tired of waiting on God’s surprising plan

Last month we considered the TRUE BIBLE story of two flawed women, one flawed man, and one amazingly gracious and faithful God. We remembered that God had a plan, a plan for a nation, a plan to redeem the world left broken by sinners. This plan would come about through one baby – the baby of Sarah and Abraham.

Abraham and Sarah have shown a lot of faith in leaving their homeland, Ur, and coming all this way[FIND OUT HOW FAR], and they’ve shown a lot of faith in trusting God to care for them and to fulfill his promise. But they’ve also stumbled a lot along the way.

In the true story we looked at last month, in Genesis 16, Sarah and Abraham decided to take things into their own hands and try to get this promised baby through Sarah’s maidservant Hagar. THAT was a disaster. THAT WAS CLEARLY NOT GOD’S PLAN!

Despite the fact that Abraham and Sarah keep making a mess of things, God continues to show them GRACE, FAITH, AND LOVE – the 3 words we talked about last month.

Do you like surprise stories?

Before we get into today’s story, I want to talk about SURPRISE for a moment.

Have you ever been really and truly surprised? Maybe either received a very surprising gift or given a very surprising gift? Or maybe had a surprise party?

I once heard of a woman who planned a great surprise party for her 12-year-old daughter. So she made a plan, and she invited everyone and told them all to keep it a secret. She got decorations and hid them at her neighbor’s house. She went to her neighbor’s house and made a cake. She worked for months planning the surprise. On the day of the party – which was NOT the girl’s birthday, her mom took her to the movies in the afternoon, and all of her friends and her neighbor got everything ready for the party. When the mom and the daughter walked into the house, everyone yelled SURPRISE!

But what happened next was NOT what the mom expected when she planned the party. HER DAUGHTER BURST INTO TEARS! Her mother was freaking out. She was afraid she did something wrong. But then her daughter started laughing and smiling and jumping up and down. She was SO HAPPY and GRATEFUL to her mom and her friends that she had started crying.

That is what SURPRISE can do to us. It can affect our emotions intensely.

God’s surprising plan is no secret…

Today we’re going to talk about how God is a SURPRISING GOD! God hasn’t kept his surprise a secret from Abraham and Sarah – from the beginning, he has told them he would bless them and give them a baby, that they would have as many descendants as the sand in the seashore.

What IS SURPRISING about God is how he keeps his promise even when they don’t keep theirs. What is surprising about God is how gracious and faithful and loving he is to people who aren’t always like loving and obedient to him. In fact, God is loving and gracious to them – and us – even when we don’t believe he will come through with his promise.

Abraham laughs at God’s surprising plan…

God keeps telling Abraham that he is going to give him a baby, and he keeps giving him signs of his love.

In Genesis 17:15, he repeated the promise, this time specifically saying it would be by Sarah,

“I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be a mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her.” Genesis 17:15

You know what Abraham did when he heard this?

“He fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself,

“Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?” Genesis 17:18

And then Abraham asked God if maybe Ishmael could be the blessed son.

Rather than being “surprised” and delighted by God’s promise, Abraham doubts. He is not laughing because he’s happy. He’s laughing because he thinks it is impossible. And I think that sometimes I, sometimes we, are a LOT like Abraham.

This whole story we’re looking at today makes us ask,

“Are we laughing cynically – like, “THAT’S NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN!!!”

…or are we laughing nervously, even, “Hahahaha…that would be cool if it happened, but it’s probably not going to happen…”

…or are we laughing at the sheer hilarity, the stunning, shocking, SURPRISE that God has been that good to us and done something that impossible?

You know what God’s response was to Abraham laughing so hard he fell down?  You guessed it – SURPRISING. He simply says,

“Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call his name Isaac.”

It’s a joke. It’s not a joke because God is completely serious. But you have to know that the name Isaac in Hebrew means, Isaac means “He laughed.”

The God of surprising redemption…

You know what — God laughs at our cynical, doubting laughter, because he is the God of SURPRISING REDEMPTION.

In the true story we’re looking at today, God does something even more SURPRISING – he shows up in person.

READ GENESIS 18:1-15.

Let’s look at some of the surprises of this story:

  1. Surprise visitors. Abraham clearly isn’t expecting anyone, but it was not too (surprising) in that world for travelers to stop in and stay because there was no Quality Inn. At first, it doesn’t seem that Abraham recognizes that one of the 3 visitors is the Lord, even though we are told it is from the beginning. But even so, Abraham treats the visitors with great honor and hurries (it’s also surprising that this 99-year-old man is running around in the heat getting Sarah to cook bread and his servants to prepare a calf.) So, we could say he is happily surprised by his visitors.
  1. The surprise visitor is God. By verse 9, Abraham has to realize this is the Lord, because they ask, “Where is Sarah, your wife?” And since her name has just been changed from Sarai to Sarah BY THE LORD, that’s something only they would know. And in those days, God didn’t just go around visiting people, so it is a BIG SURPRISE that Abraham is visited by the Lord.
  1. Sarah’s surprise. Sarah is eavesdropping, hiding behind the tent, listening to the conversation. Imagine her surprise when she hears her name called! Imagine her surprise when she hears the promise, “I will return to you about this time next year, and your wife, Sarah, will have a son.”

The storyteller reminds us, in case we’ve forgotten:

“Abraham and Sarah were both very old by this time, and Sarah was long past the age of having children.” Genesis 18:9

Now, Sarah was surprised – but what kind of surprise is it? She laughs. TO HERSELF. Her response is similar to Abraham’s in Chapter 17 – “How could a worn-out woman like me enjoy such pleasure…!” She is afraid to imagine such a surprise. She doubts such a thing could be possible.

Have you ever felt like Sarah?!

If so, then you will love the next SURPRISE:

  1. The Lord talks to Sarah through Abraham, verse 13: “Then the Lord said to Abraham, ‘Why did Sarah laugh? Why did she say, ‘Can an old woman like me have a baby? IS ANYTHING TOO HARD FOR THE LORD?”

Remember – Sarah isn’t in plain view, and Sarah said this to herself. So God is surprising her by knowing what she’s thinking.

  1. The Lord talks to Sarah directly, and he is surprisingly gracious to her.

Because after God says this to Abraham, she gets afraid, and she lies – saying, “I didn’t laugh.”

“But the Lord said, ‘No, you did laugh.’” Genesis 18:15

Sarah LIED to God, but he forgave her, and he fulfilled his promise to her. THAT IS WHAT OUR SURPRISING GOD IS LIKE.

God pulls off his surprising plan…

And now we fast forward to ONE YEAR LATER. In the meantime, Abraham has AGAIN tried to pass his wife off as his sister, so as you can see, what happens next is another example of God’s surprising grace to people who have not done anything to earn it.

Read Genesis 21: 1-7

Let’s notice 3 things about this true story:

  1. How did it happen that Sarah and Abraham conceived a child?

v. 1: “The Lord KEPT HIS WORD and did for Sarah exactly what he had promised.”

  1. When did it happen?

At just the time God had said it would!!! Genesis 21:2

So, in a way, this is really NOT SURPRISING, because God has said all along that he would bring an heir through Sarah and Abraham.

  1. What was the effect, and who caused it?

LAUGHTER – and God brought it, verse 6.

Sarah’s response is similar to the overwhelmed response of the woman’s daughter. Except she doesn’t cry first.

Sarah is SURPRISED – not the cynical, doubting kind of surprise, but the nervous giggly kind of surprise …

The overwhelmed awe, that is amazing, wow, I can’t believe it’s really true kind of surprise that fills your heart and makes you want to laugh and cry and jump up and down and shout and tell the world, “I can’t believe this happened to ME!”

Abraham and Sarah name their baby laughter, because GOD HAD TOLD THEM TO.

Just think, whenever they call Isaac’s name, they will remember that they laughed at God’s promise, doubting, disbelieving, kind of wanting to believe, but not really sure. And he had the last laugh. Because he came through.

It is a SURPRISING GIFT. The gift of God’s grace, faithfulness, and love coming through to people who go in and out of believing his goodness.

God has an even more surprising gift in store…

But it isn’t the last surprising baby born in the Bible. Because this story points us forward to another, even more surprising true story of a baby born in even more impossible circumstances.

That baby is our Lord Jesus Christ, whom God promised would come to defeat all evil in Genesis 3:15.

That baby is a fully human, fully divine baby, come to earth to call sinners to repentance. That baby grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man to live a perfect life and die a sacrificial death.

That baby was the MOST SURPRISING BABY – THE MOST SURPRISING GIFT…

Of a faithful God to people who aren’t always so faithful.

So as we wrap up this story, let’s just notice a few things about our surprisingly gracious God, our perfectly holy God, the great planner of the best surprises.

  1. We shouldn’t be so surprised when God does impossible things.

God asks a question we should all ask ourselves,

“Is anything too hard for the Lord?”

When we are in tough circumstances, we need to remember this question.

  • Then we need to remember all of the ways God has been faithful in the past.
  • We need to remember the surprising “laughter” of redemption – in the Bible, and in our own lives.
  • We need to remember that Jesus has not only saved us from our sins, but he is changing our hearts.
  • We need to remember that nothing can separate us from the love of THE SURPRISING GOD who is working all things for his glory and our good.

SO WE SHOULDN’T BE SO SURPRISED at what the Lord can do.

  1. It IS the best surprise EVER that God is such a friend to sinners.

He comes to visit Abraham as a FRIEND.

He is being a good friend to Sarah in also ‘visiting’ her but doing it in a way she can handle. He is gentle with her in correcting her lie, and gracious to fulfill his promise. That is what it means to be a FRIEND to SINNERS.

But even more surprisingly, JESUS WAS A FRIEND TO SINNERS. If you ever doubt that Jesus wants to be a friend to a person like you, to a person who has messed up her life pretty bad, I dare you to read the Bible. I dare you to ask around. Because Jesus came to be a friend to sinners, and to give us a way back to being friends with God.

In Romans 5:10, it says,

“For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son.”

SO YES, GOD IS FULL OF SURPRISES, AND EVERY SINGLE ONE OF US SHOULD WALK AROUND ALL THE TIME LAUGHING HILARIOUSLY, NAMING OUR KIDS AND OUR DOGS AND OUR FRIENDS ISAAC, BECAUSE GOD HAS PUT SO MUCH SURPRISING GOODNESS IN OUR LIVES BY HIS GRACE, FAITHFULNESS, AND LOVE!
Photo credit: Copyright: sutichak / 123RF Stock Photo

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Is God Your Mother?

by | May 17, 2016 | A Woman's Story, Theology

Is God Your Mother?

Is God your mother?

I’ve always loved that beginner book by P.D. Eastman where the hatchling bird goes around and asks elephants and boats and steam shovels, “Are you my mother?”  As I revisit the Creation chapter of Learning God’s Story of Grace, I am thinking about Genesis 1:26-28:

So God created human beings in his own image.
    In the image of God he created them;
    male and female he created them.

I remember when a teacher first enlightened me — this verse suggests that both male and female reflect God’s nature. It was the beginning of the end of my picturing God as a cross between Great Grandpa in the Sky and Santa Claus.

The problem of God as mother

This much is true — it is far too easy to lose the femininity of God in the abundance of masculine language in Scripture. That being said, this is where the conversation can get a little crazy. Today, I want to focus particularly on the discussion of God as mother.

Some feminist theologians, concerned that women are marginalized by so much male language for and about God, suggest that we may call God Mother as well as Father.

Many conservative theologians strongly disagree, stating that biblical language guides us, and it names God as Father.

How do we approach this theological difference (and others, for that matter)? I’ll offer 3 suggestions, share some quotes from both sides, then reveal my conclusion on the matter.

Caution in the conversation about God as mother

  1. Whichever side you’re on – be humble and kind. Writers and speakers on both sides can be caustic and/or flippant. Always, always, in theological conversation, we need to be “kind to one another.”
  1. Study the Bible and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the truth. Don’t merely read what someone you agree with says. Read what the Scriptures say, in the context of all of Scripture and the particular verse and story.
  1. Remember that God is the Creator and Redeemer, and we, including our minds, are fallen. In any theological exploration, we may discover something we don’t like or don’t want to be true. At this point, it’s crucial to recall that “now we see in a glass darkly, but then we shall see face to face.” We will be called to greater faith – to trust that God’s good and glory is involved.

3 thoughts on God as mother

Check out these 3 resources that suggest God may be called “Mother,” or addressed with feminine language.

  • Julian of Norwich, 1342-1416, wrote that Jesus is our metaphorical Mother.
  • Elizabeth Johnson, feminist theologian, points out that no language can comprehensively communicate the nature of God.
  • Rachel Held Evans, author of A Year of Biblical Womanhood, uses the feminine pronoun to remind us that God is not a mere man.

3 thoughts on God as Father

Check out these 3 resources that explain why God should be called Father.

  • John Cooper, author of Our Father in Heaven: Christian Faith and Inclusive Language for God, emphasizes the difference between calling God Father or Mother – the Bible names God as Father; it never assigns the title Mother to God.
  • J.I. Packer, theologian, author of Knowing God, stresses that the concept of Fatherhood is woven into the fabric of adoption theology. For more on the first two authors’ thought, see Our Mother, Who Art in Heaven.
  • Jared Wilson, pastor and author, notes that Jesus called God Father and never Mother.

My Conclusions: Is God My Mother?

  1. God is Spirit (Genesis 1:2; John 4:24).
  2. There is something about both male and female that reveals God’s nature (Genesis 1:26-28).
  3. Jesus called God, “Father,” and taught us to pray to God as Father (Mark 14:36; Matthew 6:9).
  4. There are numerous comparisons to God as a mother (Numbers 11:12; Job 38:28-29. See this article for a comprehensive list).
  5. God the Father adopted all believers as his “sons” (Galatians 4:4-5). In Christ, there is neither male nor female, so I too as a woman am a “son of God” (Galatians 3:28). (Yes, this is confusing ;-)!! The point is – our gender language fails to fully communicate the wonder of who God is and what God has done in Christ to save people who have presumed that we know better than God.

So, yes, I will pray to God our Father. I will not pray, “God, our Mother.” I will remind myself and others often that God is not a man, that he is definitely not a Bama fan, and that he is often compared to a mother in her capacity to conceive, nurture, grow, and show mercy and compassion.

And…I will need to be frequently humbled and forgiven for holding this position too tightly :-)!

4 Things You Need to Know about a Woman’s Story

by | Mar 8, 2016 | A Woman's Story

4 Things You Need to Know about a Woman’s Story

A New Woman’s Story for International Women’s Day

As I wrote last week, the theme for March is “new things,” and today, in honor of International Women’s Day, I’m going to tell about a new – very old – way of understanding a woman’s story. It is new because it challenges many of the current understandings of a woman’s story. It is old because it is the first story ever told about women.

Let’s look at the structure of the Biblical story to see how God has written a woman’s story.

  1. Creation (Gen. 1:26-31; Gen. 2:18-23). Women were created with dignity and purpose for God’s glory.

  • God created women with dignity, differentiation, and dominion. God created women alongside men to join together in praise and purpose.
  • If you are a woman, you, together with man, are created in the image of God – you reflect God’s glory.
  • God created women different from men, described in Hebrew as  “ezer kenegdo” (Gen. 2:18), which literally means “helpers  as corresponding to” a man. (To give you an idea of the strength of an “ezer,” take note that the word is used mainly to refer to God.
  • Women, with men, have a crucial mission, summarized in the mandate, “be fruitful and multiply and have dominion over the earth.” While being fruitful and multiplying does refer to childbirth, it also refers to multiplying God’s majesty on earth. Women can be fruitful and multiply as scientists, missionaries, housecleaners, mothers, wives.

  1. Fall (Gen. 3:1-19). Women are sinners who have fallen short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23).

  • Women sin. (Men are complicit in woman’s sin when they fail to speak into their lives and lead as God instructed (Gen. 3:6). We are easily seduced by things that seem pleasing to the eye, things that promise to give us the control we desperately want, things that we think will crown us the Queen of our Own Universe.
  • Women feel shame (as do men). Women feel shame over their sin and want to hide from God (Gen. 3: 7).
  • Because of the Fall, women also claim shame for sins perpetrated by others – emotional, physical, or sexual abuse.
  • Women suffer from a curse – physical and emotional pain in our bodies, relational pain resulting from loneliness, and the temptation to control and manipulate the men in our lives (Gen. 3:16).

  1. Redemption (Gen. 3:8-9; 2 Cor. 5:17-21). God has redeemed women and freed us to live our stories for his glory.

  • God pursues women (and men) in our sin. He goes looking for us in hiding, even when he already knows where we are (Gen. 3: 8-9)!
  • God dignifies woman with the mission of bearing the offspring that will defeat the evil one once and for all (Gen. 3:15; Matthew 1:18).
  • He covers our shame, both with clothing (Gen.3:21), and with a Savior who will die for our sins and cover us with his righteousness (2 Cor. 5: 21).
  • When women realize our own works are rubbish (as are men’s) (Phil. 3:8) and turn to Christ as our only Savior (repentance and faith), we are freed from the shame that has defined us. No longer “not enough,” we are made “more than enough” in Christ.
  • Redeemed women now live for Christ as new creation – yes, struggling with sin until the day he returns (Romans 7:18-19), but nonetheless new and becoming more like him every day (1 John 3:2).

  1. Consummation (Rev. 21-22). God will one day fully restore a woman’s peace, and we will rest in his honor, glory, and love.

  • One day, Christ will return to claim the church as his bride (Rev. 21:2). God will be with women and men, and he will wipe every tear from our eyes (Rev. 21:3-5).
  • At the end of the story, when sanctification is completed in glorification, we will begin a new and unending story of living as we were created to live (Rev. 21:5). Women and men will no longer be divided; no longer will we suffer from our own selfish demands. We won’t murder our friends or family with mean words. We won’t be tired by our exhaustive efforts to please people; we won’t be torn by our desire to be known and our fear of being known.
  • We will love to be loved and we will love to love.

A Prayer for a Woman’s Story

On this International Women’s Day, let’s take time to pray for the women of the world and the women in our lives.

Creator God,

We thank you for the way you created the first woman, Eve, and endowed all women with strength and dignity, dominion and purpose. We are glad you made women and men different; we praise you for creating male and female in your image.

Women: Forgive us for the harm we have done as women — seeking our own way, trying to manipulate and control our worlds, grasping for power that was meant for You alone.

Men: Forgive us for the harm we have done as men — misusing authority to oppress and suppress women, failing to honor the wisdom and unique insight of women, and even demeaning women by treating them as our objects rather than Your subjects.

Thank you that you are redeeming and renewing us as women and men day by day. Thank you for writing a new story in a woman’s heart, for freeing us from slavery and clothing us with your righteousness. Thank you for creating us anew and giving us a fresh vision for who you have called us to be!

We pray for restoration for all of the women of the world. We lift up especially women who are abused and trafficked, women who do not have equal opportunities for education, women who are treated in ways Jesus never would have treated them. Bring hope to the dark places of women’s lives. Come Lord Jesus, come soon, to complete your renewing and reconciling work among all the women of the world.

In the name of the Savior who loved women perfectly we pray,
Amen.

For Moms Who Wish They Were God

by | Oct 27, 2015 | A Woman's Story, Parenting

For Moms Who Wish They Were God

Some days, as a mom, I wish I were God…

  • To know what God knows.
  • To have the certainty God has.
  • To be in total control of the cosmos.
  • To have the power to bring justice.

Even as I write those words, I know how short I fall of the God who knows the plans he has for us, executes them with all loving wisdom, reigns with grace over the very universe he created, and uses his power to love unlovely people. I don’t really want to be God.

What I really want is to be Queen of My Own Mommy Universe.

  • I want to know which program will get my babies to sleep through the night in 5 weeks or less. I want to know how to get them to “Just say no to drugs.”
  • I want to be certain that sending them to Greenwood Prep Pre-K instead of Learning Barn is going to produce the stellar student I’ve always assumed I’d have.
  • I want to control their lives’ outcome. When they have sniffles, I want them to be well enough to attend school. When they have threatening health issues, I want them to be cured – yesterday, but I’d really rather they not have those at all.
  • Finally, I want the power to bring justice (or is that vengeance?) to anyone who does them harm…Unjust teachers…watch out for the well-written nasty note. Best friends turned bullies – Beware my smiting eyes when I see you at the junior high football game.

The truth is I’m a terrible Queen of My Own Mommy Universe because…

sin clouds my vision for my children.
fear makes me want to keep them close, to protect them (and me) from all suffering.
selfishness shuts down my capacity to write larger stories for them, stories that would require them to depend on God.

Oh, who will rescue me from this body of sin and death?
Thanks be to God, THE GOD! He has rescued me and all mothers like myself! He has reminded us that He has written a much wilder story for us and for our children….

But now, O Jacob, listen to the Lord who created you.
    O Israel, the one who formed you says,
“Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you.
    I have called you by name; you are mine.
2 When you go through deep waters,
    I will be with you.
When you go through rivers of difficulty,
    you will not drown.
When you walk through the fire of oppression,
    you will not be burned up;
    the flames will not consume you.
3 For I am the Lord, your God,
    the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.
Isaiah 43:1-3

A Prayer for Moms Who Want to Be God
Lord, thank you for being God, THE GOD, the loving, saving, faithful, all-knowing, all-powerful, ever-present God. Thank you for showing us our folly when we think we want to take your place and run the universe in a way that seems more to our liking. Thank you for the peace that comes from what we do know – that you are making all things well for your children in your time.

In the name of our Precious Savior, Jesus,

So Very Amen