echoes of redemption | steven dilla

It is so easy to become disconnected from other people in the world. After reading Arlan’s post on the nations, I remembered an email someone sent that challenged my thinking and prayer patterns for one nation in particular.

Right behind the nation Israel, the second most mentioned nation in the Bible is the nation of Iraq. You may not recognize it at first, because in the Ancient Near East it was called a number of things (including Babylon, Land of Shinar, and Mesopotamia).

Some Biblical events involving Iraq:

• Likely the location of garden of Eden 
• The Tower of Babel was in Iraq
  
• Abraham was from Ur (southern Iraq)
• Jacob met Rachel in Iraq
  
• Jonah preached in Nineveh (jut of the Tigris)
• Daniel was in the lion’s den in Iraq
  
• Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were throne into the furnace in Iraq
• Belshazzar, the King of Babylon saw the “writing on the wall” in Iraq
  
• Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, carried the Jews captive into Iraq
• Peter preached in Iraq

“God treats his most faithful servants like crap. They suffer all the time. Go down the line:  Joseph (unjustly accused and thrown into prison), Moses (banished by God for 40 years into the desert for some “character development”), Samuel gives his life for his people and they never really listen to him, David constantly running for his life from a King God appointed, Solomon like his father had kids who hated him and hated each other, Jeremiah quite possibly a sufferer of clinical depression, Hosea is told to marry a whore so that Israel has a picture of God’s love, Ezekiel’s wife dies in the middle of his ministry.” (author withheld)

So the glass is half empty?

Never mind that Joseph, because of God’s desire to interpret dreams through him, rose to a level of power and authority in the world that no Hebrew could dream of.

Let’s not talk about how the creator and guider of the waters lead Moses’ basket into the arms of a Pharaoh’s daughter, split the waters at the touch of his staff or brought the entire Jewish legal system into existence through his relationship.

Don’t look at how Samuel’s entire life was anointed by God - that such a simple boy, from such an unlikely past, would become one of God’s most powerful voices in a dark and unjust time.

And David - you mean the Hebrew hillbilly who became the namesake king in the lineage of our Savior? His son Solomon, the wisest man ever to live - given his wisdom as a gift from God, unparallel to any other gift in Scripture.

Then, Jeremiah came along, the one man in all of time that God entrusted with His vision - not only for generations to come, but for all of humanity.

And Hosea, the man to whom God gave such a vivid and powerful message of His will that generations today are still gasping at his clarity, integrity and resolve.

But all these things are but waste compared to the unmachless reward these men receive because of their faith. It wasn’t the earthly rewards, the accolades of man or the promotion of self that drove any of these men - therefore the earthy struggles, insults from men and demotion of self did not deter them from their faith in God.

If the glass is half empty, it is only for the brief time these men served their God on earth. Now the glass is full - even overflowing.

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How we view things impacts how people around us view things. How we talk about God changes the way people who listen to our voice interact with God. It is critical we do not get caught up in negativity, but focus our lives on the greatness of God and the name of Jesus as the only truly good thing in life and the promise for all of creation’s restoration.

What are your thoughts? What would you change or add?

Each series at Elevate, there is one element we spend more time during production on than any other element - the Bible story. We want to communicate the message of the Bible in a clear, age-appropriate and applicational way.

During preproduction we work on our theology, narrative, flow and logic. We’ll spend hours hammering out a single story. When the story hits the art department our team works to come up with an engaging style for the characters, then the material heads to animation to bring it all to life. The audio department scores, adds the voice over and sound effects and passes it on to video post for final touch ups.

Take a look at one of our preschool Bible stories, the story of David and Mephibosheth:

And here is an elementary Bible story telling the story of Ruth and Naomi:

For more information on Elevate, visit elevatekids.com.

Last week I spent some time flipping through the first half of the Psalms. I was looking for major themes, similarities that jumped out, stuff I miss when I’m reading one at a time. Here are three major thoughts from Psalms 1-75:

• There is an inseparable link between God’s character and His blessing. God is totally authentic. Every interaction He has with us in an overflow of part of His character.
• David cried out a lot - but he wasn’t needy. In Psalm 73:26 David says, My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart; and my portion forever. I’ve always loved the power of the thought of God as our portion - all we need. Everything. No seconds, extras or fillers. God is it. For David, God was his portion and when he cried out to Him, every need was met
• Many Psalms begin in lament and rise to trust. David would cry out to God and through his time with God, David would be built up in trust for His Father and end His prayer with his life submitted faithfully before God.

One thing is for sure, David’s relationship with God was unlike anything else. It was a blessing David never knew to ask for, yet certainly did not take for granted. He was totally dependent on God, yet he wasn’t outside community on earth. His God was his portion and his community was support to that relationship, not substitute for it.

If you’ve been following the Scripture links out of my posts the last couple of days you noticed I switched to YouVersion for my online Bible.

Really it’s more of an online community around the Bible. You can highlight a verse (or verses) and post links, videos, comments, audio files, etc all to the verse.

Check it out -> YouVersion.com