It [the wilderness] was no place for a fellow who didn’t have a lot of sand in his craw and a boundless store of hope in his heart.”
                    –Ernest Haycox  (A Rider of the High Mesa)

       “See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”
                    –Isaiah 43:19 (NIV)
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Progress marches on, so they say.  Sometimes it is for the good, but often it is greed, selfishness, and vanity that pushes it forward.  I am often reminded of the verse in Romans, “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time” (8:22, NIV).  There is a new house coming in where we live.  Now I don’t begrudge folks wanting to live out here where we are, but I hate to see the forest being torn down.  What was it John Denver sang?  “More people, more scars upon the land.”  Sigh.  Progress??
     With that being said, my mind goes back to the pristine forests of yesteryear.  The wilderness.  If you have found yourself in a wilderness, no matter what type, stop and look around.  Take a moment and see.  What is there?  Is it fearful or oppressive?  If you are truly in the creation of God’s making know and realize that you are standing in the Great Cathedral of His voice.  Standing there, gazing around, remember, “God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands” (Acts 17:24, NKJV).  Perhaps that is one of the things to learn why you are in this particular experience–learn to worship God for Who He is, not what He does, or where you might think He resides.
     Yet even knowing that this is God’s place, the terribleness may be seen.  There is a vastness in its solitude; traveling through it can cause fear to deepen and even overwhelm you.  Gaze into the immense canyons and gorges, stare into the heat waves as they float above the desert floor, behold the awesome wonder of the majestic peaks as they push through the clouds, and even take time to look out over the vast, seemingly endless plains.  The dreadful, majestic power of nature looms over you as you traverse through it.  And still–God is transcendent over His creation.
     The wilderness may suggest danger, it may also beckon you to come to it.  Moses requested of Pharaoh that the Israelites be allowed to enter so they could offer sacrifices to God.  There is more truth here than what is seemingly on the surface.  Cannot one worship God anywhere?  Isn’t it more comfortable in a nice building?  The issue is that the wilderness demands attentiveness, focus, and sacrifice.  It demands diligence and solitariness, endurance and fulfillment.  To enter the wasteland of the wilderness may be to die to self so that you may live unto God.  Maybe that is the allusion that Paul leaves in Romans 12:1-2, to become, now, a living sacrifice.
     I have pondered many times why the Israelites had to go to the wilderness to meet with God and offer sacrifices to Him there.  Could they have not done this in the safety of Egypt?  Maybe it was because they could not properly meet with God in that location.  Possibly the atmosphere “of the world” would be a great hindrance to them; that part of worship required them to come apart and be separate.  In Scripture, Egypt often represents “sin” or “the world”; it was a place of bondage and oppression.  Is there part of the world involved when you try to worship?
     One more thought this morning–their leader was a man of the wilderness.  Moses knew life there.  He knew what it was to meet God in the wasteland, the desert, and the rocky crags of the mountains.  Could it possibly be that to really come to know God a person must face the same perils as the wanderers of the wilderness?  Perhaps God has now placed you in the wilderness to understand what worship truly entails.”

The nightmare, the attacks will happen, but He will see us through them if we trust and rely on Him.”
                    –Henry McLaughlin  (Journey to Riverbend)

       “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, and whose hope is the LORD.”
                    –Jeremiah 17:7 (NKJV)
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When I taught my apologetics classes, I always wrote on the board the first day of school three character traits.  These remained throughout the year and were often referred to during the year.  It might be: ENDURANCE–HONOR–ATTITUDE.  Or this:  INTENSITY–HONOR–FORTITUDE.  Always honor was in the middle.  Without personal honor we are nothing.  Look at what is happening in our cities–it is because there is a lack of honor.  Honor is necessary for a person, a society, a nation to survive and act within a moral boundary.  Those rioting are mocking honor and want to live by anarchy which has no honor or laws at all.  I was then thinking one morning, I do that once in a while and this came to my mind for Christians:

          TRUSTING—-THANKING—-PRAISING

     The Oxford Dictionary states that “trusting” means “showing or tending to have a belief in a person’s honesty or sincerity.”  Therefore as we go through this life we place our trust in the character of God.  We believe in His Word, the foundations of our lives are in this trust.  He is the God who is there; He is the God who is faithful and true and we place our complete trust in this.  Great is His faithfulness, great are His mercies.  We can trust Him!
     Second is “thanking.”  I wrote last week about the need to be thankful.  We cannot, as believers, go through this life without being thankful.  Thankful for the large things in life, thankful for the small, seemingly insignificant things in life, thankful for our salvation and His sustaining power.
     The third thought is “praising.”  Praising is an act of the will.  I am not speaking of jumping up and down spontaneously to an event, a speech, or an outcome.  Yes, we can praise an individual by indicating with a mode of exuberance, but real praise takes some thought; it comes from a purpose, knowledge, and an act of the will.  Praise and thankfulness can be mixed together, in fact, we can add trust to the mix.  Since God is faithful, we can trust Him, we can thank Him for being so, then we can offer praise for the fact that He is.
     Put that all together and we have the concept of living in faith.  “For we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7, NKJV).  “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20, NKJV)  This old hymn speaks of how we are to live.

               “Living by faith, in Jesus above,
               Trusting, confiding in His great love,
               From all harms safe, in His sheltering arm,
               I’m living by faith and feel no alarm.”
                      –James Wells

     Living by faith is trusting in Him, thanking Him, and praising Him.  What a life!  We have this assurance as we walk on our daily journey–this journey of living by faith–that the Lord is with us each step of the way.  We trust Him for that, then we thank Him for being with us, then we give Him praise for all He does and for who He is.  Look now, as I close at two of the verses then go out into the world triumphant and trusting.

               “Tho’ tempests may blow and the storm-clouds arise
               Obscuring the brightness of life,
               I’m never alarmed at the overcast skies,
               The Master looks on at the strife.

               I know that He safely will carry me thro’,
               No matter what ever betide,
               Why should I then care, tho’ the tempest may blow
               If Jesus walks close to my side.”

You boys have saddled your bronc, now let’s see if you can ride him!”
                    –Louis L’Amour  (Conagher)

I could have unsaddled his horse for him, but that was something a man did for himself.”
                    –Elmer Kelton  (Eyes of the Hawk)

       “For His anger is but for a moment. His favor is for life; weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.”
                    –Psalm 30:5 (NKJV)
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          “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” –Matthew 5:4, NKJV

The Amplified Bible has it this way, “Blessed [forgiven, refreshed by God’s grace] are those who mourn [over their sins and repent], for they will be comforted [when the burden of sin is lifted].”  Do not forget that the beatitudes deal primarily with the spiritual life of a person.  Yes, they do include the natural, but more importantly the spiritual.  Mourning, in general, is over the death of a loved one, but it also can mean the sorrow for sin or for condoning it.
     In this context we see that sorrow can be a source of blessing.  Blessed are those that mourn–a special kind of blessing from the Lord.  This is not carnal mourning; it is not primarily the loss of a loved one, but the loss of innocence, righteousness, and self-respect.  It is the kind of grief that has such a hold on a man that it cannot be hidden.  William Barclays puts it this way, “There are certain things which only the rains will produce, and certain experiences which only sorrow can begat.”  Or in the words of an Arab Proverb:  “All sunshine makes a desert.”  Tears may be involved for sure, but often it is the deep thought process and the grieving of the heart that is noted.  A deep sorrow over sin, a deep sorrow for hurting our heavenly Father.
     This beatitude is a sort of paradox:  happy are the unhappy.  This is the sorrow of repentance; it is a godly sorrow.  Grief, guilt, shame, are all present, then there is relief and rejoicing.   Notice that Jesus mourned.  He wept over the sins of others, over Jerusalem who would not receive Him.  What was His message to these?  Repent!  The man who is desperately sorry for his own sin and unworthiness needs to repent to experience the joy of the Lord.  “The thing which really changes men is when they suddenly come up against something which opens their eyes to what sin is and to what sin does.” (Barclay)  Thomas Watson tells us that, “True mourning begins in the love of God–and ends in the hatred of sin.”  Remember, it is not mourning for the dead.  John Chrysostom reminds us that “They are not blessed who mourn for the dead–but rather those who mourn for sin.”
     This is a war, a fight within man.  There is sorrow over sin, this inner war that can at times be grievous; it is the flesh versus the spirit.  It is a perpetual war for even after one is born again there is the fight with sin, the old man-flesh trying to regain its position.  We sorrow at our failings, our sins, our guilt now because we failed the Lord.  We now have a godly sorrow.  David wrote, “For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.” (Psalm 51:3, NKJV)  
     In the next few weeks we will continue to look at this beatitude.  In the meantime don’t be ashamed if you find yourself in spiritual morning.  Just to look at the news should bring mourning to our hearts as men and women turn their backs on God, mock His name and His holy standards.  When we sin, we fail to maintain the righteous ways of God, we should be in mourning.  Then, joy comes in the morning–we are blessed because of His great faithfulness and His wondrous mercy and grace.