August 7 - Courage and Hope

August 7 - Courage and Hope
Hebrews 3:6

“But Christ is faithful as a son over God’s house. And we are his house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast.”

Sometimes it requires courage to have faith.  We have to withstand attacks from all sides; from those who hate our faith and sometimes even from those who claim that their faith is better than ours.

But, the faith we have is in Christ, not in things of this world.  And one of those things that we can boast about is the hope that comes from having faith in Christ.  This gives a Christian hope where no one else can seem to find it.  In the midst of all that is falling apart around us, knowing that our faith is in something beyond this world is what gives us hope.

It is that knowledge and that hope that send us out into the world as ambassadors.  We have something that the world doesn’t have. But, remember, that hope and faith aren’t necessarily about a life that is perfect in this world. We walk forward in courage because of the house that has been built for us in the next world.

That’s a pretty big concept for many of us to grasp.  We want everything to be perfect here.  We want for there not to be massive climate change, or for there to not be any terrorists, or for financial worries to be gone or for there to be no homelessness.  That just isn’t reality. We live in a world that has fallen, we live in a culture that offers immediate satisfaction whether you live well or live poorly.

But, there is hope. We have to have courage to move beyond the things of this world to the hope of the world to come.

The Cowardly Lion saw terror at every turn.  His world wasn’t easy.  But, he learned that courage is facing those things and having hope.

August 6 - Be People of Courage

August 6 - Be People of Courage
1 Corinthians 16:13

“Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong. Do everything in love.”

You know, one thing the Cowardly Lion had in abundance was love. He cared for his traveling companions and got emotional when it was time for Dorothy to go home.

I think we forget the importance of doing everything in love.  We screw up our courage to tell someone off who has done us wrong.  We stand firm in our faith against those we believe might be out to harm it.  We act out in strength, we say things and we feel quite righteous and justified in our words and our actions.  We’re absolutely certain that we are on the right side.

Today, as I was thinking about some of the more horrendous things that have occurred in the last few weeks, I thought of things people did and said in the name of their faith and then I thought about how so many awful things were done in the name of faith throughout the centuries.

Wars have been fought, people have been burned at the stake. Slaves have been taken from their homes, murder has been committed. Awful things are said about and to people with whom we disagree and we say that it is because we are protecting our right to believe and we are standing up for our faith.

But, we forget those four words.  “Do everything in love.”

Those should be our watchwords.  Try it for a few days.

August 5 - Courage is Noticed

August 5 - Courage is Noticed
Acts 4:13

“When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.”

Every day, ordinary people act courageously. They leap out of their car when they see an accident to pull those involved free, no matter that they might place themselves in danger. Firefighters walk into fire, police move into dangerous situations, parents confront their children who have walked away from doing what is right, friends stand up to bullies.  The list goes on and on.

Peter and John had stood before the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem.  They stood before Annas and Caiaphas, who had not long before, put their best friend on a cross to die.  They were there to defend themselves for healing a crippled man.

Their words lifted up Jesus Christ when they said, “It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you completely healed … Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:10-12)

People remembered that these men had been with Jesus and they heard the words Peter and John said that day. They saw the man who had been healed and those people were praising God.

The Sanhedrin was hoping to crush this little band of disciples. They thought they had done what was necessary by killing their leader, but his death and resurrection gave Peter and John courage to not only reach out with healing in their hands, but to face down those who would have them imprisoned.

They were freed and returned to their friends.

The Lord’s touch on their lives gave them courage.  You can have that same courage to reach out to others with healing and love.  Take it!

August 4 - Take Courage!

August 4 - Take Courage!
Matthew 14:27; Mark 6:50

When the Wizard of Oz pinned the Medal of Courage on the Cowardly Lion (Are you kidding me with this?  That took courage in and of itself!  We all know that a lion’s coat is his skin. Ow!), that dear lion stood up straight and proud. Even when it seemed too terrifying to press on, the lion had hung right in there with Dorothy and the gang.

One evening, Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and head for the other side of the lake while he left them for a while and went off to pray.  In the middle of the night, he simply walked out across the lake to join them. I’m not sure about you, but I would have been cowering in the boat if I saw someone walking across the water in the dark of the night.  My senses would have been messed up because of the darkness and my sensibilities would have been messed up as I tried to shake off the grogginess of sleep.  I’m not sure my first response would have been to think it was a ghost, but I would have been terrified of something that was so far out of my idea of normal.

Matthew tells us that Jesus ‘immediately’ said to them: Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

Jesus knew that the sight of him coming toward them would be frightening and he didn’t wait to assure them, he gave them comfort immediately.

I have a very high ‘startle’ response.  Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe it’s a low startle response.  Whatever.  I startled easily.  And loudly. And violently sometimes. I tend to flail around and scream. It might be a dead mouse in the utility sink or a snake slithering across the room or it might be a character leaping out in a movie. My husband has been known to sit two seats away from me in a movie theater because he’s afraid of my reaction, which can be physical and violent.

Sometimes I need immediate knowledge that everything is going to be ok and I can handle the next step (like removing the dead mouse from the utility sink or continuing to walk down the path after the snake has passed).

Today.  Take Courage. There is nothing that comes at you which can not be faced, especially when you know that Jesus Christ can walk on water and will be there to comfort you.

August 3 - Because of God, I Have Courage

August 3 - Because of God, I Have Courage
Ezra 7:28

Ezra had just received a letter from King Artaxerxes affirming that any Jew in his kingdom who wished to return to Jerusalem was free to go.  He sent a great deal of silver and gold with them and the promise that enough funds would be provided to rebuild the temple.  In that letter, the King returned the power of the rule of the Law to Ezra and the priests, other than the authority to tax the people.  However, Ezra was given permission to appoint a judicial system for all who claimed to be part of the Jewish faith.

After all the Jews had been through, with a few strokes of the pen by a Persian king, they were free once again.

Ezra recognized the hand of God at work in the life of King Artaxerxes.  He knew that it had nothing to do with the letters he’d sent and the pleas he’d made before Artaxerxes and Darius. It was the grace of God.

“Praise be to the Lord, the God of our fathers, who has put it into the king’s heart to bring honor to the house of the Lord in Jerusalem in this way and who has extended his good favor to me before the king and his advisers and all the king’s powerful officials. Because the hand of the Lord my God was with me, I took courage and gathered leading men from Israel to go up with me.” (Ezra 7:27-28)

Because the hand of the Lord was with me, I took courage.

We are nothing like the Cowardly Lion. His medal showed that he truly had courage within himself.  But, that was all about a medal and personal courage.  Our courage comes from within us, but it needn’t be based on our own fortitude.

Today, take courage. The hand of the Lord is with you.

August 2 - You Servant Has Found Courage

August 2 - You Servant Has Found Courage
2 Samuel 7:27

Have you thought about the courage that it took for the Cowardly Lion to stand in the presence of the great and power Oz? He may have stood there with trembling knees, but he stood there just the same.

In 2 Samuel 7, the Lord had just promised David that his kingdom would endure forever, David’s throne would be established forever.  David went in and sat before the Lord and said: “Who am I, O Sovereign Lord and what is my family, that you have brought me this far?” (2 Samuel 7:18).

David had been the smallest, youngest son of Jesse.  His brothers were powerful, strong, bright, outgoing, motivated.  When Samuel came to Jesse looking for the next king of Israel, no one expected it to be that little shepherd who was out in the field.  But, God knew who he was looking for.  He was looking for the man with a heart who would find the courage to go up against a giant with five stones and a slingshot.  He was looking for a man who would play his harp for the current king who was losing his mind and do it because the man was a king.

The Lord made promises to David and because of those promises, David was able to say to him, “…your servant has found courage to offer you this prayer” (2 Samuel 7:27).

Have you ever thought about the ease with which you pray?  Do you stand on trembling knees before the Sovereign Lord?  Probably not, though sometimes we should.  But, we have been given the courage to come before the Lord with our prayers because of the promises he has made to us through Jesus Christ.  Our relationship with him is based on the fact that we aren’t strangers to him, we are children of God.

We have been given a gift in that we are invited to have a relationship with God and can go before him with our prayers.  This is where our courage comes from.

August 1 - Be Strong and Courageous

August 1 - Be Strong and Courageous
Deut. 31:6, 7; Joshua 1:6, 7, 9, 18; 10:25, 1 Ch. 22:13; 28:20; 2 Ch 32:7

Moses told Israel that Joshua would take them into the Promised Land.  Then he told them the Lord would be preparing the way for them.  They were to go forth with that knowledge in the hearts and minds.  “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord Your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”  Moses brought Joshua out and in front of everyone, he repeated the words directly to  Joshua, “Be strong and courageous, for you must go with this people into the land that the Lord swore to their forefathers to give them.”

That was in Deuteronomy.  By the time we get to the opening verses of the book of Joshua, Moses has died.  The Lord himself said to Joshua, over and over … “Be strong and courageous.  Be strong and very courageous.”  “I have commanded you. Be strong and courageous.”

Then, the greatest thing happened.  Joshua began organizing the people and giving them orders to go forward.  The people answered Joshua, affirming that he was their leader.  They would obey him in the same way they had obeyed Moses (for my money, that should have scared him more than encouraged him).  At the end of their response, they said to Joshua, “Only be strong and courageous!”

We don’t see these words again until the tenth chapter of Joshua.  The Israelites had captured the Amorite kings and destroyed their armies.  After the battle was over, Joshua ordered that the kings be brought out of the cave in which they’d been imprisoned.  This time it was his turn to say to his commanders, “Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Be strong and courageous. This is what the Lord will do to all the enemies you are going to fight.”  Then, he killed the kings and they went on to conquer more of the territory.

Do you notice the progression that has occurred?  Courage was built up in people until they could encourage others.

Moses reminded the people and Joshua himself to be strong and courageous.  The Lord told Joshua three times to be strong and courageous.  When the people affirmed his leadership, they encouraged him.

Then … when it was necessary, the true strength of Joshua’s leadership came forth and he was able to encourage his people.  Be strong and courageous, the Lord is with you.

This is the story of the Cowardly Lion.  The others encouraged him all along the road and when he needed to be courageous, he was!

Who do you need to encourage today.  Remind each other.  Be strong and courageous!  The Lord is with you.