Shell and Shield

I can still remember the first time I ever held a box turtle. It was at my grandmother’s house – in her backyard. I was totally enamored with it’s shell - bright orange, green and yellow. It amazed me that an animal could be so soft and so hard, all at the same time. I was intrigued by the way the turtle could retreat into his shell and stay perfectly hidden. I tried in vain to coax him out of his shell with a handful of fresh-cut grass. In the end, I had to wait patiently until the turtle decided to stretch his arms, legs, head and tail out of his shell again.

Have you ever noticed the similarity of the words “shell” and “shield”? The similarity doesn’t stop with words – the turtle’s shell is indeed a shield from predators, from injury and even inquisitive children. The bony shell is covered in a natural camouflage to the turtle’s environment. It is both a shield of sight and touch. It is a most amazing and effective shield in that it totally surrounds the turtle. There is no direction the turtle can turn and be uncovered. He is protected on all sides.

In Psalm 144:2 David says of God:

“He is my loving God and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer. My shield in whom I take refuge.”

Just like the shell is a shield to the turtle, God is a shield for us. It is God who keeps us safe in times of trouble. It is God who is our strength against predators and potential injury to our heart, mind, soul and body.

There is no time, no place, that God is not our shield. In Psalm 139:5, 7-10 David speaks of God being an ever-present shield.

“You hem me in – behind and before; You have laid your hand upon me.

Where can I go from your Spirit?

Where can I flee from your presence?

If I go up to the heavens, you are there;

If I make my bed in the depths you are there

If I rise on the wings of the dawn,

If I settle on the far side of the sea,

Even there your hand will guide me,

Your right hand will hold me fast.”

Regardless of how far away, how hidden from God we can imagine being, there is nowhere we can go that God will not be with us. But how? Why?

A turtle is always connected to His shell. A turtle cannot survive without it. Not simply because the shell protects him, but because the shell is part of him and he is part of the shell. While the shell is mostly separate from the turtle, the strength of the shell (the bony ridge on top from head to tail) is actually part of the turtle’s backbone. In essence, the turtle is in the shell and the shell is in the turtle.

Several times in Scripture, Jesus talks about living in

us as we live in Him. In John 15:5, Jesus says:

“I am the vine; you are the branches.

If a man remains in me and I in him,

He will bear much fruit;

Apart from me you can do nothing”.

And then there is the wonder of instinct. While the shell is a perfect shield, it would be of no help to the turtle if the turtle didn’t use it. God created an awareness of both safety and danger in the turtle. When it is safe, the turtle walks about carrying a large shield with him that may appear to be of no help at all. But in an instant – at the first sense of danger, the turtle retreats to safety behind his shield. Suddenly what seemed empty and useless is now the most precious and valuable part of Him.

Sometimes in our lives difficulties may come that beg the questions: “Where are you God?” “Why aren’t you protecting me?”. These questions often bring us to a place that our faith feels like an empty shell. But if our faith seems to be an empty shell it is simply because we have not filled it by putting ourselves completely into God’s protection through our full faith in him.

Doubting God is like laying down your shield in the middle of a battle. You are totally exposed to the predator of your soul – Satan – who “goes about like a roaring lion – seeking whom he may destroy”. Believe me, Satan is not in this for the battle – he is in it to win the war. The last thing he wants you to do is trust in God – whether it is for the first time or the hundredth time. Satan’s goal is your utter destruction. He is your enemy. Satan, not God, comes to “steal, kill and destroy.” When you see death, poverty, sickness trouble surrounding you – be assured it is not God’s doing – it is Satan.

John 3:16-17 says,

“For God so loved the world that he gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”

So I encourage you today – take up your shield of faith. Use the “instincts” God put in you. Call on God and trust in Him. Ask Him to live in you. Depend on Him as your source for everything – your strength, your shield, your very being. He will not let you down. He is the shield that never fails.

Oysters & Pearls

Precious pearls…

Pearls are one of my favorite stones. They are so beautiful, elegant in their simplicity. And for all their delicate beauty, they have been transformed from a grain of sand to precious stone through resistance to constant pressure and being covered over and over again by the oyster.

In Matthew 13:45-46, Jesus said that the kingdom of heaven is like a precious, costly pearl. Like a merchant who sells all that he has in order to buy that one precious pearl – God did the same for us.

Ugly oysters…

In stark contrast to the beauty of the pearl is the ugliness of the oyster from which it came.

When God created the world, He made everything beautiful, perfect and pure – even man. But when Adam and Eve (the first man and woman) sinned they were no longer pure and therefore He had to banish them from the beautiful garden He had created. They were turned out of the Garden of Eden into a stark world. The world was their oyster – difficult, painful and full of pressure. The ease of Eden was only a precious memory.

But God did not leave them hopeless. He promised that one day, He would send a Savior. Yes they would have difficulty – they were now the sand in their “oyster” world. But God would make them able to withstand the pressures of sin and be layered over and over again with forgiveness as they lived a life of obedience to Him.


Purchasing the pearl…

Part of the price of any pearl is the cost of the oyster. You can’t buy the pearl without buying the oyster first. Not only that, but you can’t buy the pearl without buying the oyster it came in as well as other oysters that hold no pearls. When harvest comes, everything is harvested at once – pearl or no pearl.

God illustrated this through the gift of our Savior, His one and only Son, Jesus. God “sold all that He had”, His perfect and sinless son, Jesus to purchase each and every one of us - a world of “oysters”.

When Jesus gave His life to pay the price for us, He knew that He was paying for both those who would choose to accept Him and live for Him (pearls) and those who would reject him (empty oysters).

Romans 5:6 says,

⁶You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. ⁸But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Retrieving the pearl…

No one purchases a pearl just to let it sit on the water’s floor hidden in an oyster. Neither did God purchase us to leave us in this oyster of a world forever. God sent Jesus to purchase us so that we could be reunited – restored to a pure and perfect relationship with Him, the Garden of Eden relationship He once had with Adam and Eve. Walking and talking together in the cool of the day – seeing Him face to face – never separated again.

1 Thessalonians 4

¹⁶For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.

Dear God,

Oh I thank You for sending Jesus, your most precious Son to purchase me. Thank you for your forgiveness that covers over my sin and makes me new in You. Thank you for not giving up on us and leaving us separated from you forever. I look forward to your coming again so I can walk with you, hand-in-hand, never to be separated again.

Amen.

Candlelight

I have a tray of about 10 different candles in my living room. Some of them are short, some are tall, some are scented, some are not, and none of them are the same color. Yet at different points in time each of them had something special that made me want to purchase them. Yet, sitting in my living room, they are “just a bunch of candles”. What makes any of them attract attention compared to anything else in the room?

Light one, any one.

It doesn’t take long for a flickering candle flame to catch everyone’s attention. If only one candle on a tray of ten candles is lit, it is that one lit candle that will get the most attention. Why is that? It doesn’t matter if that one candle is shorter, fatter, taller, skinnier, prettier, more functional, more perfumed than the others – it matters that the candle holds the flame.

Darkness…
Think back to the last time there was a severe storm during the night at your house and you lost power. What was your first thought when the lights went out? My first thought was – do I have fresh batteries in my flashlight? My second thought was – light every candle in the house. Why is that? Why do we desire light? Darkness brings us into the world of the unknown – we are isolated by sight from one another, we are unfamiliar with our path and often stumble because we cannot see what lies ahead of us. There is a certain hopelessness that comes from “living in the dark”…but it only takes a spark to bring us out of the darkness and into the light.

Jesus – the Divine spark.
Zechariah (John the Baptist’s father) prophesied about the life work of his son and in so doing revealed how Jesus, the son of God would be the light of our world:

76And you, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High;
for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him,
7to give his people the knowledge of salvation
through the forgiveness of their sins,
78because of the tender mercy of our God,
by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven
79to shine on those living in darkness
and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the path of peace."
(Luke 1:76-79)


And just as Zechariah prophesied, Jesus did come as a light to our world.

Jesus said, “…I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." (John 8:12) And again He said, “I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness”. (John 12:46)

Throughout Jesus’ life here on earth, He brought light everywhere He went. Where there was sickness, He brought healing
Where there was sin, He brought forgiveness
Where there were lies, He brought truth
Where there was confusion, He brought clarity
Where there was captivity, He brought freedom
Where there was judgment, He brought mercy

He lived His life on earth as a light among men, and died – innocent but judged guilty – that we might also have His light living in us, shining through us as His light to our world.

Catch fire!
In Matthew 5:14-16, Jesus imparted his legacy of light to those who believe in Him when He said: “You are the light of the world.”

In my living room, on that tray of candles, if I only light one candle, only one candle will burn. If I want to light the other candles, I must bring a spark to each candle that I would like to burn. A candle cannot burn without first coming close to the flame.

In the same way, we cannot bring light without first coming into contact with Jesus – the divine spark. Think of the last time you lit one candle with the flame from another candle. When the dry wick came into contact with the flame, there was a burst of bright light as the two candles burned together. In the same way, the closer we stay to Jesus, the more we live our lives like His, the more we depend on Him for our light, the more we lean on His understanding more than our own, the more time we share with Him, the brighter and stronger our light is.

Stay lit!
Each candle has a life. At some point every one of the candles in my living room will burn until all the wax has melted away. But throughout the life of each “used up” candle – is a candle who has lived it’s purpose. God created each of us with a purpose – to accept the light of His love and to carry the flame of His love to our world. How do we live up to our purpose? How do we avoid “burning out”? We first recognize that a candle doesn’t light itself. While good works are a fruit of our Christian walk – just as an apple is the fruit of an apple seed, it is not: our works, our efforts or our good intentions that keep our light shining – rather, it is our commitment to spending time with Jesus every day.
Psalm 18:28 says, “You, O Lord, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light”.

Dear Lord Jesus,

Thank you for coming to us as a light to our world. Thank you for shining your light in my heart – both revealing sin and completing forgiveness. Because of this – I carry your light – your hope – your joy. Let “this little light of mine” shine brightly as I remember to lean on you and spend time with you each day. Let me be drawn to you “as a moth to a flame”. May I live my life with purpose, holding your light aloft in this dark world that others may find the same hope and joy I have found in you.

Amen.