The doors of the house … were locked … John 20:19

We do not generally lock doors to keep ourselves in but to keep others out. There are many in our world whom we have locked out because we find them unimportant, uninteresting or offensive to us. We have preconceived notions that they are not to be trusted and convince ourselves so. All of this in the name of “being safe”—and who doesn’t want to be safe? But it is also a clever disguise and denial of our true feelings toward others.

What we are unaware of in all of this is how much we have also become locked in to just ourselves. Our hearts become hardened not only to others, but also to God—whose creatures we and all others are. Brothers and sisters are crying for our help, but that thought never enters

our mind as we turn the bolt. It would be damning were it not that all barriers—even the barriers of our isolated hearts—are no final obstacle to our risen Lord. Watch for the Stranger!

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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,
 

When it was evening on that day … John 20:19

What is it about nightfall that the events of the day—or many days past—come back to us? What is it about these happenings that we cannot so easily dismiss or move beyond? The first disciples remembered how Jesus was arrested, tried, beaten and crucified unto death. The funeral

was over. They remembered his dead body laid in the tomb and thought it was still there, but it wasn’t. Would those who crucified him seek out them next or seek to hold them accountable for his body’s disappearance? These were their evening scars.

What are our evening scars? What are the thoughts that haunt us and makes us toss and turn at night? We often seek to deny them, to put them out of our mind. But have we considered looking at them directly; confessing what it is about them that really troubles us; praying that God will help us in this hour? It was the evening of Easter that the disciples first celebrated in the breaking of bread. God will be present with forgiveness and peace, even as we struggle.

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Psalm 86:8-13

Among the gods there is none like you, Lord; no deeds can compare with yours. All the nations you have made will come and worship before you, Lord; they will bring glory to your name. For you are great and do marvelous deeds; you alone are God. Teach me your way, Lord, that I may rely on your faithfulness; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name. I will praise you, Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever. For great is your love toward me; you have delivered me from the depths, from the realm of the dead.
 

David asks for an "undivided heart". A divided heart can have many forms. There is the insincere heart, in which what is said out loud is not matched by the inner attitude (Psalm 12:1). There is the irresolute heart, which cannot fully commit itself (James 1:6-8). Even hearts regenerated by the Spirit and loving God retain much of their older willful resentment of his authority (Romans 7:15-25). David's goal is not psychological healing for its own sake but to "fear" God - to give him joyful, awe-filled love with his entire being. The way to this new heart is not introspection but deliberate worship. "I will praise you," he says.

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Psalm 86:1-7

Hear me, Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and needy. Guard my life, for I am faithful to you. You are my God; save your servant who trusts in you. You are my God; have mercy on me, Lord, for I call to you all day long. Bring joy to your servant, Lord, for I put my trust in you. You, Lord, are forgiving and good, abounding in love to all who call to you. Hear my prayer, Lord; listen to my cry for mercy. When I am in distress, I call to you, because you answer me.
 

This is a psalm of King David, and he is surrounded by enemies attacking him. The psalms provide a clinic on how to face life when it seems out of control. David feels solitary, defenseless. He responds by reminding himself over abd over who God is. He most often calls God "Lord," the Hebrew word adonai, meaning "sovereign." David is drilling his own heart to remember that God is in control. Discern how many of your most difficult emotions, bad attitudes, and foolish actions come from losing your grip, at that moment, on who God is.

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The local church is not the hope of the world. Whoever said that might have been well-intentioned, and the statement may have come with the expected qualifiers and modifiers. The local church is not the hope of the world. Jesus is, always has been, and forever will be the only hope for this world. Jesus is the hope of the world and the head of the church. The gates of hell itself will not prevail because Christ himself has conquered.

Christian hope, in a word, is resurrection.

If Christian hope is resurrection, we are saying it is something other than progress.. Resurrection sayys, "This is not the end." It is a voice calling from beyond, not from within. Resurrection is God being faithful to his creation to bring it through death into completion and perfection.

Jesus the crucified and risen Lord is the hope of the world.

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Psalm 83:14-18

As fire consumes the forest or a flame sets the mountains ablaze, so pursue them with your tempest and terrify them with your storm. Cover their faces with shame, Lord, so that they will seek your name. May they ever be ashamed and dismayed; may they perish in disgrace. Let them know that you, whose name is the Lord - that you alone are the Most High over all the earth.

The psalmist seems to want only death for his enemies, but the surprise in verses 14-16 is his prayer that wrongdoers be brought to see the truth and come to know God's name (verse 18). In biblical times that would have been a remote possibility for the pagan nations surrounding Israel. And the psalmist is more interested in God's vindication than his enemies' salvation. But in light of Christ and the cross, we see that this is the main way we are able to defeat evil.. Christ gives us great resources for turning enemies into God's friends. He died for us while we were yet God's enemies (Romans 5:10), which motivates us to overcome evil with good (Romans 12:14-21).
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,

Psalm 83:9-13

Do to them as you did to Midian, as you did to Sisera and Jabin at the river Kishon, who perished at Endor and became like dung on the ground. Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb, all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna, who said, "Let us take possession of the pasturelands of God." Make them like tumbleweed, my God, like chaff before the wind.

How do we respond to these "imprecatory" psalms that ask God to destroy enemies instead of forgiving them? We should recognize something important here, namely that even in the Old Testament the psalmist is not trying to take revenge himself. These psalm, then, "allow us to turn our anger over to God for him to act as he sees fit" and align us with Paul's advice to "not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God's wrath" (Romans 12:19). Once you relocate your enemies - taking - them out of your hands and putting them into God's - you may find yourself developing sympathy for them. Ultimately, no one will get away with anything.
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Helping people live life with Jesus everyday,