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Taking a Risk to Find Lasting Peace

by | Apr 20, 2021 | Weekly Gospel Meditation

Taking a Risk to Find Lasting Peace

Hi Friends,

Do you long for peace? Join me today for the true story of a woman who so longed for healing and peace that she took a great risk to find it.

(Excerpted from From Recovery to Restoration: 60 Meditations for Finding Peace & Hope in Crisis [affiliate link]).

Go Into Peace

Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace. Luke 8:48

Maybe it’s been twelve long years, and healing hasn’t yet come. Or maybe your child has been pronounced “cancer-free,” but your heart has yet to feel anxiety-free. When you live daily in the ongoing effects of disaster as the bleeding woman in Luke 8 did, it may seem too risky to believe that Jesus can and will save you and bring you into his peace.

The day of the diagnosis has long since passed. The bleeding woman has now suffered with her illness for twelve tense years. She has spent all her money on doctors, but none could heal her . She has lost all community because she is considered unclean (Luke 8:43). She is out of options. She is, frankly, desperate. Maybe that’s why she reaches out to touch the healing Rabbi’s garment. Maybe desperation is what drives us all to commit our wildest acts of faith.

Jesus, jostled and pressed by the throngs of people who have come to see him, asks an odd, even preposterous question, “Who touched me?” but no one fesses up (Luke 8:45). Peter, ever ready to speak his mind, points out the absurdity of the question, but Jesus insists, “Someone has touched me, for I perceive that power has gone out from me” (Luke 8:45-46). 

The once-bleeding woman, now healed, realizes she must confess. Trembling, she falls before Jesus, and right there in front of all those people, tells him her story, describes her years of illness, her years of loneliness. “I was desperate,” she might have said. “And I was healed instantly” (Luke 8:47). As she finishes her confession and looks up, does she fear finding condemnation in the mighty Rabbi’s eyes? After all, she, a woman, an unclean woman, had touched him, a man and a Rabbi.

But Jesus has no words of condemnation for her, only words of healing and forgiveness, words of peace, words of hope. “Daughter,” he begins. He names her tenderly as his own. “Your faith has made you well.” Yes, he labels her wild act of desperation, her betting belief that Jesus could make her clean, “faith.” “Go in peace” he commands her. My pastor, Rev. Joel Treick, pointed out that the word translated “in” means literally “into”— “Go into peace.” Because Jesus has healed all of our sins, we can now live into his peace. Therein lies our deepest hope.

Dear friends, hear Jesus’ call to trust him, to seek him in your sickness and exhaustion and stress. He has saved all who believe in him, all who take hold of him, and he has given us his peace. We may or may not know the instantaneous healing and full recovery in the next few days or the next few years, but we will one day know them finally and forever. Until that day comes, let us in desperation reach for the hem of his garment and lean into the peace he gives.

Prayer

Dear Jesus,

We are desperate to be healed; we aren’t even strong enough to reach for you. Give us the faith we need. Help us to live into your peace, even when ongoing struggles threaten to unsettle us. In your healing name, Amen. 

Further Encouragement

Read Luke 8:42-48.

Listen to “In Christ Alone” by Stuart Townend and Keith Getty at https://youtu.be/oZuIyrwSqHY.

For Reflection

Imagine Jesus speaking directly to you, “Daughter (Son), your faith has made you well. Go into peace.” Write out or pray aloud your response to those words.

5 Ways to Keep Living the Resurrection

by | Apr 13, 2021 | Easter, Gospel living, Weekly Gospel Meditation

5 Ways to Keep Living the Resurrection

Is your resurrection wonder fading fast?

It is two weeks after Easter, and as always, Resurrection wonder is in danger of fading as fast as the pretty pastel eggs.

What do we do when the celebration of new life gets lost in the drudge of daily life? Remember the story!  As we look back at what the followers of Jesus did post-resurrection, we re-discover the joy of living the resurrection.

5 Ways to Keep Living the Resurrection

1. See the Lord and be glad!(John 20:19-20). Some might object, “But we can’t see Jesus the way the disciples could!”Jesus insists that with the Holy Spirit’s help, we can see him as well as the first disciples did. Read a book or passage of the Bible and remember the day you first understood it. Remember a story of how Jesus changed your life when all appeared lost.

2. Run to tell others (Matt 28:8). In 2014, the year after the Boston marathon bombing, the Boston Athletic Association, rather than decreasing the number of people allowed to run, increased the registration limit to 36,000—over 30,000 people entered to prove that “terror will not triumph.” We stake our lives on an even more astonishing message: Jesus rose from the dead. He defeated violence, sin, and death—the final enemy (Hebrews 2:14-15). We should walk, not run, to tell others this good news.

3. Risk to tell others (Luke 24:11)Will you risk mockery, apathy, or even pity for sharing this story of great news? The women ran back from the empty tomb to tell their own community, and those dense disciples thought their words were an “idle tale.” It is, admittedly, hard to believe this story, but we must tell it anyway!

4. Doubt and disbelieve; then stop disbelieving and believe (John 20:27). Poor “doubting Thomas,” who has been much maligned throughout history for demanding to see and touch Jesus’ scars before believing he had risen. How did Jesus respond to Thomas’s doubts? Simply, warmly. “Put your finger here…place your hand in my side.” “Do not disbelieve, but believe.” If you, like Thomas, feel the need to see the proof, persevere. And—look out—the Holy Spirit will sow belief into your heart. Do not disbelieve, but believe.

5. Feed his sheep (John 21:1-21). Reread Jesus’ loving encounter with Peter on that beach. Have you failed Jesus? (Yes.) Have you betrayed him? (Yes.) Are you sometimes a rotten friend like Peter? (Yes.) Then there’s good news! Jesus wants you to share the only story that will satiate the starved sheep of this world. This, as Romans 12:1 says, is our spiritual service of worship!

A Prayer for Living the Resurrection

Lord Jesus, We believe, help our dry, stale, unbelief. Help us to continue living in resurrection wonder, awed at the goodness of our God, awed at the kindness of the cross, awed at the gentleness of our Jesus. Thank you for feeding us your abundant grace; empower us to feed others with this good news. In Jesus’ resurrected name! Amen.

Further Encouragement

1. Read John 20:19-20; John 21:1-21; Matthew 28:8; Luke 24:11.

2. Listen to “Power in the Blood”.

For Reflection

1. Which of these ways of living the resurrection resonates with you today? What ways do you see God calling you to continue living the resurrection?

Holy Week Devotional: Teaching Tuesday

by | Mar 30, 2021 | Easter, Lent, Weekly Gospel Meditation

Holy Week Devotional: Teaching Tuesday

Dear Readers,

I love Holy Week, intentionally setting aside time to remember the week before  Christ died on the cross for our sins. Today I share from the Gospel Day-by-Day Devotional I wrote for my subscribers to celebrate Holy Week. If you don’t already have a copy and would like to follow for the rest of the week, be sure to subscribe now. You’ll also get a new free gospel-centered resource every month.

A few years ago, I realized I knew a lot about Palm Sunday and Good Friday, but I could never remember what Maundy (Thursday) meant, and I had little idea of what Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of Holy Week were all about.

I decided to spend some time with Jesus in the various gospels. With the help of some good resources, I read different accounts of the different days of Jesus’ last week of earthly life as a human.

I learned a lot about funny names of days I’d never heard, but the biggest thing I discovered was the good news of the gospel announced again in this astounding story.

This year I decided to rework and revise all of the devotionals for you, my wonderful Living Story subscribers. I urge you to set aside twenty minutes each day of Holy Week to remember the strange and wonderful events. This guide includes:

  • links to Scripture
  • a very quick devotional with gospel implications
  • a brief prayer

I hope you enjoy using it as much as I enjoyed making it! Please feel free to contact me if I can help you!

Teaching Tuesday

Historically, there is no name assigned to Tuesday, so I chose these names myself (can you tell!?!). Jesus continues teaching—both his disciples and the religious leaders who are trying to trap him.

  1. Jesus teaches the disciples: Mark 11:20-25.

Passing the cursed fig tree on their way back to Jerusalem, the disciples notice it is now withered. Jesus gives a brief but significant lesson on faith, prayer, and forgiveness.

Gospel implication:

The disciples will soon face a task that will seem far more impossible than praying a mountain into the sea. In Jesus’ dark-houred death, they will desperately need faith that hope will rise again.

They will come to know that Jesus’ death and resurrection profoundly changes their story: they are forgiven, freed of sin, guilt, and death; and they are empowered to forgive others.

  1. Jesus teaches the religious authorities trying to trap him: Mark 11:28-12:40; Matthew 23:39.

The religious leaders question Jesus’ authority: who authorized him to take the actions in the temple? In the sections that follow, Jesus pulls out all of his teaching stops: questions, parables, illustrations, and finally, the provocative “woes” of Matthew 23:1-37 (WHOA!). We might say Jesus had a “come-to-Jesus” meeting with them.

Gospel implication:

Jesus, knowing his teaching will further enrage them, persists in pointing them (and us) to their/our desperate need for a Savior. God’s grace is the only hope for their/our hardness of heart, self-righteous attitude, and stubborn refusal to see.

Prayer

Lord, forgive us for our lack of faith and forgiveness. Soften our hearts that we may see our sin. When we doubt your strength and might, help us to remember that you are the God who raised Jesus from the dead. Help us to trust you enough to forgive others and to pray with the faith that moves mountains, knowing that you are the Redeemer and Restorer of all things. Amen.

5 Marks of a Servant Leader

by | Mar 23, 2021 | Gospel Coaching, Lent, Weekly Gospel Meditation

5 Marks of a Servant Leader

“Lord, do you wash my feet?” John 13:6

 Our elder son will never forget the words Truett Cathy, the founder of Chick-fil-A, Inc., addressed to him after his job interview there. Touring the facility with the vice-president who interviewed him, they arrived at the “treehouse,” the then ninety-one-year-old’s office. After a brief conversation, Mr. Cathy looked at our son and said, “I look forward to serving with you.” Our son had two (inward) responses:

  1. Does that mean I got the job? and
  2. Wait, don’t you mean, “You look forward to me serving you?”

With his words, Mr. Cathy had demonstrated the principle of servant leadership that derives from Chick-fil-A, Inc.’s mission statement.

That story always reminds me of Peter’s response when Jesus approached him to wash his feet (John 13). Peter objects, not wanting Jesus to stoop so low as to serve him in such a menial way. Jesus gently rebukes Peter, instructing his followers about servant leadership in the kingdom of God. Let’s revisit the story.

Jesus: The Ultimate Servant Leader

The time, Jesus knows, has now come, for him to depart this world. Even as he is enjoying his feast with his beloved disciples, he is eager to prepare them for their new life of service. He rises from his place at the table, removes his outer garment, and wraps a towel around his waist. Now dressed as a servant, he begins doing what only a servant, or a wife, or a child, the lowliest in the hierarchy of that culture would do—washing feet. At this point, Peter raises his objection. As we continue the story, we learn five realities about Christ’s servant leaders:

Five Characteristics of Servant Leaders:

  1. Servant leaders must be willing to be weak, even despicably so.In removing his outer garment (John 13:4), kneeling before his friends, and taking their dirty feet into his hands, Jesus performs the role of the weakest and most despised in his culture—a servant. Jesus’ menial act is the basis of Peter’s objection, just as it was the basis of my son’s objection to Mr. Cathy.
  2. Servant leaders serve even in times of travail and turmoil.Jesus washes his disciples’ feet, knowing that he is facing the torment of the Cross and separation from his Father, not to mention separation from his beloved friends. Jesus washes his disciples’ feet, knowing that some will betray him in coming days. Trials do not excuse us from servant leadership.
  3. Servant leaders open themselves to the care of Jesus and others.When Peter objects to Jesus’ washing of him, Jesus responds, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me” (John 13:8, ESV). It is Jesus who empowers us to serve others. Without receiving his care and love, we have no love to share.
  4. Servant leaders serve because Jesus first served us, just as we love because Jesus first loved us (1 John 4:7-8).Jesus washes his disciples’ feet to illustrate a spiritual point—he alone can cleanse them from their sin. Then he instructs them, “If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet” (John 13:14). Jesus’ foot washing is more than an example to the servant leader; it is the empowerment for servant leadership. Because we have the riches of his grace, we pour them out on others.
  5. Servant leaders will get down and dirty, physically, spiritually, and emotionally.Jesus calls his disciples to go into all the world, even the uncomfortable and unfamiliar world. To wash another’s feet may mean sitting on the sidewalk next to the homeless man while he eats the chicken sandwich we brought him; or it may mean enduring the stench of urine in the nursing home as we visit residents there. It may mean entering messy conversations or not exiting miry conflicts.

As you ponder Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross, do not miss meditating on his sacrificial service to his disciples. Let us serve because he first served us, just as we love because he first loved us!

A Prayer about Servant Leadership

Lord Jesus, you not only showed us the way to servant leadership, you dug the path for us by your death on the Cross. Thank you for lowering yourself that we might be raised to new life. Help us to follow you into the down and dirty places you call us to lead. In your saving name we ask. Amen.

Further Encouragement

Read John 13:1-17; Philippians 2:1-11.

Listen: Take My Life and Let It Be, written by Frances Havergal

For Reflection

  • How do you feel about having your feet washed, literally or spiritually? What encouragement or conviction does this passage bring you?
  • In which of the five areas of servant leadership would you like to grow? Ask God to help you in this area.

Hope for Hard Times: Be of Good Cheer

by | Mar 16, 2021 | Lent, Suffering, Weekly Gospel Meditation

Hope for Hard Times: Be of Good Cheer

Dear Friends,

In this season of Lent/preparation for Easter, it’s a good time to reexamine our reason for hope, even when we are facing disastrous circumstances. Enjoy this excerpt from my devotional, From Recovery to Restoration: 60 Meditations for Finding Peace & Hope in Crisis. 

These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. John 16:33, NKJV

 Here on the Gulf Coast of Florida, hurricane season threatens every year, tossing its mighty winds and roaring waters through our mind’s eye, arousing fears of future devastation and memories of past disaster. It’s been about fifteen years since Hurricane Ivan wreaked its havoc on our hometown, Pensacola, Florida, leaving a swath of blue roofs in its wake.

We’ve recovered. But some never did. Some lost homes, businesses, even marriages to the disaster. They may have found a new home or started a new business, but the heartache of the catastrophe lingers. Maybe you haven’t been hit by a hurricane; maybe it was a divorce, a sudden revelation of a spouse’s affair. Maybe you were slapped with a cancer diagnosis. Or maybe your twenty-three-year-old has just renounced her faith.

The hard reality is that in this life we may never fully recover from some disasters we endure. How can we live with hope in a world in which some losses will never be recouped? Jesus, in his final words to his disciples, anticipated this question. Shortly before his brutal crucifixion for a trumped-up crime, he prepared his followers for the disasters that mark life in a fallen world:

“In the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world” (John 16:33 NKJV).

Jesus’ words confound many of us, because western culture has fed us a lie: “This world is all there is,” it tells us, “and the things in it are here to make us happy.” Jesus contradicted this lie, telling his disciples, “Yes, in this world, you will suffer. I’m teaching you how to live in my world, my kingdom. Not only that, when I die and am raised again, you will have the resurrection power to live a different life, a new life, to begin to recover what was lost in the fall. When you suffer, remember these things I have told you, and you will have peace. Not only that, you can be ‘of good cheer,’ ‘take courage,’ ‘not be afraid,’ ‘take heart’—because ‘I have overcome the world.’”

One day, not yet, but “soon,” Jesus said, “I will return” (Revelation 22:7). In that day, we will live with him in a new world, the world we were really made for. In that day, all of the pain and sorrow of the disasters we have faced will be washed away. All the sin—the clawing to get our own way, the clashing against loved ones over minor differences, the clinging to things we think will satisfy—it will be over. Overcome. Defeated. By him—our King.

Dear friends, let’s take heart. There is something better that awaits. It is beyond recovery. It is restoration. It is renewal. It is reunion. Cheer loudly and long. Jesus has overcome the world.

Prayer

Lord Jesus,

Thank you for setting us straight. We are far too focused on finding joy in the things of this world. Help us to trust you when we suffer, to know that in you alone we will find peace and hope. In your cheering name we pray. Amen.

Further Encouragement

Read John 16.

Listen to “What a Friend” by Sara Groves.

For Reflection

What hope do you find in Jesus’ words to his disciples?

 

Get Hope for Troubling Times

Advance Review for From Recovery to Restoration

“When the storms of life crash into our lives, the devastation left behind is often overwhelming. Recovery and healing is slow and arduous. Elizabeth Turnage’s devotional is for all those laboring toward recovery. From Recovery to Restoration is a hope-filled, gospel-laced, and Christ-exalting book which invites us into God’s story of redemption and helps us see how he is at work to redeem and restore all things, even the aftermath of our personal losses, heartaches, and trials.”

Christina Fox

Writer, Counselor, Speaker

author of A Heart Set Free: A Journey to Hope Through the Psalms of Lament.

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Counting Our Losses: The Hope of Lament

by | Mar 2, 2021 | Suffering, Weekly Gospel Meditation

Counting Our Losses: The Hope of Lament

Dear friends, as we move through the season of Lent toward Easter, as many continue to experience loss in 2021, it seemed like a good time to share this excerpt from The Waiting Room: 60 Meditations for Finding Peace & Hope in a Health Crisis. I hope it meets you or someone you know with the hope you need.

You keep track of all my sorrows.
You have collected all my tears in your bottle.
You have recorded each one in your book.  Psalm 56:8, NLT

  • Missing our daughter’s white coat ceremony for PT school.
  • Cancelling our trip to celebrate our 35th anniversary.
  • Missing my uncle’s funeral.
  • Caring for my dad in the latter stages of his illness….
  • One day I began listing all the losses I had endured during our season in the waiting room. I didn’t even count the profound loss our son endured or all of the losses that affected my husband, our other children, and our extended network of family and friends. During a health crisis, the losses mount like so many soldiers on the beaches of Normandy. Is it appropriate to count them, to take stock of our sorrows?

The Psalmists say, emphatically, yes. Of the 150 Psalms, somewhere between 65 and 67 are “psalms of lament,” depending on how they are categorized. Asaph, for example, cried: “You don’t let me sleep, I am too distressed even to pray! I think of the good old days, long since ended, when my nights were filled with joyful songs…. Has the Lord rejected me forever?” (Psalm 77:4-5a, 7, NLT). And David, the man after God’s own heart, moaned, “My eyes are swollen with weeping, waiting for my God to help me…Their insults have broken my heart, and I am in despair. If only one person would show some pity; if only one would turn and comfort me.” (Psalm 69:3, 21, NLT).

As each person cries out to God, even as he raises his fist at God as the one responsible for his sorrows, a tectonic shift of the heart occurs. God’s unfailing love drives this shift, and the lamenter begins to assert hope in God.

After his outcry, Asaph’s focus shifts to God’s power: “Oh, God, your ways are holy. Is there any God as mighty as you? You are the God of great wonders! You demonstrate your awesome power among the nations” (Psalm 77:13-14, NLT).

David’s heart also changes: “For the Lord hears the cries of the needy; he does not despise his imprisoned people. Praise him O heaven and earth, the seas and all that move in them” (Psalm 69:33-34, NLT).

As we tally our tears, we discover a compassionate God who is counting them right alongside us. The same God who counts our tears sent his Son Jesus to weep human tears for and with us. The same God who counts our tears will one day wipe every one away when Jesus returns to restore all broken things. Remembering God’s kindness helps us wait with hope for the day when all losses will be accounted for.

Prayer

Tear-tracking God, help us to count our losses and to discover your amazing love even as we do. Help us weep tears over our own sin as well as the pain we encounter in a fallen world. In Jesus’ compassionate name we pray, Amen.

Further Encouragement

Choose one lament Psalm: Psalm 56, 69, or 77, and read it all the way through.

Listen to “We Will Feast in the House of Zion” by Sandra McCracken at https://youtu.be/ujVBV3lNSbQ.

For Reflection

Make a list of the losses you have suffered during this season. Ask God to reveal his compassion to you in the midst of such loss.

Do you know someone who needs this message? Please use one of the share buttons to share it!

Photo by Anton Darius on Unsplash 

A Good Read for Hard Times: The Waiting Room Devotional

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Advance Review for From Recovery to Restoration

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