Bridges

I wrote this several years ago as we prepared to launch a new outreach at Hope called Connection Groups. As I was reading in Joshua this morning the Lord reminded me of it and I felt compelled to post it. - Tom

As I think about the adventure we are embarking on with Connection Groups, bridges keep coming to my mind. All of us have seen a bridge, most of us have crossed a bridge, and if you have ever laid a plank down over a stream or puddle, you have built a bridge. Bridges are a common part of everyday life. They are so common in fact that we often overlook what went in to constructing them and what a valuable service they provide. As an engineer the construction and mechanics of bridges fascinate me. You can ask Jan, I rarely miss a special on A&E or Discovery that relates to bridge construction (much to her dismay). The real importance of bridges though is more of a social issue than a mechanical one. Bridges have one purpose, to join together those who are separated by impassable obstacles. Bridges are really all about connecting people. There are three basic types of bridges. The type selected for use depends on nature of the obstacle that must be crossed.

Well our Connection Group is also about connecting people, so maybe we could learn something from bridges and their builders.

If you were to list the characteristics of a bridge they might include:

• They are strong and sturdy and bear great loads
• They are easily visible and accessible
• They have name recognition, i.e. The Golden Gate Bridge, The Brooklyn Bridge, etc.
• They are teaming with traffic
• They connect two points that are separated for some reason

Those sound like great characteristics to have in our Connection Group, don’t they? Wouldn’t it be great if people knew that the Monday Night Connection Group at HBC could help them bear their burdens and that we were easily accessible to them anytime they needed us, that we had a testimony of helping many folks, and most importantly we could help connect them to others and to God!

We could study some great bridge designers and builders like Joseph Strauss the designer of the Golden Gate Bridge or John Roebling the designer of the Brooklyn Bridge and glean great insights. But I want to focus on the world’s greatest bridge builder and three of His bridges. God built three bridges that are recorded in scripture, two in the Old Testament (just for Pastor Mike) and one in the New Testament. Each was a different type specifically suited to the obstacle to be crossed. God’s bridges defy human logic as God usually does.

For the Jews ask for signs and the Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles. Yet to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is God's power and God's wisdom, because God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength. Brothers, consider your calling: not many are wise from a human perspective, not many powerful, not many of noble birth. Instead, God has chosen the world's foolish things to shame the wise, and God has chosen the world's weak things to shame the strong. God has chosen the world's insignificant and despised things--the things viewed as nothing--so He might bring to nothing the things that are viewed as something, so that no one can boast in His presence. But from Him you are in Christ Jesus, who for us became wisdom from God, as well as righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, in order that, as it is written: The one who boasts must boast in the Lord.

(1Co 1:22-31)

What contradictions to human logic do we see in these verses?

• Foolish things shame the wise
• Weak things shame the strong
• Nothing is viewed as something

Some others may come to mind from other scripture like:

• The first shall be last
• You must lose you life to find it
• God comes to earth as a poor infant
• The meek shall inherit the earth
• A shepherd boy is great king

You get the picture. What appears logical and appropriate to us is often the exact opposite of what God will use.

Thinking about this, some questions came to my mind:

• What do God’s bridges look like?
• What are they made of?
• Where are they?
• How do they function?
• How are they used?

Let’s look at His bridges and see if we can answer those questions and apply them to what we are trying to do in our Connection Group.

Bridge #1 – Across the Red Sea

Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. The LORD drove the sea back with a powerful east wind all that night and turned the sea into dry land. So the waters were divided, and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with the waters like a wall to them on their right and their left.

(Exo 14:21-22)

Here we see a bridge God had in place since creation and had hidden from our view. It was made out of dry ground located at the bottom of the sea. It was large enough to allow millions to cross it in a short time. That pretty well confounds human logic doesn’t it?

Does this meet the characteristics of what we think a bridge should be? It wasn’t visible, it wasn’t recognizable, it wasn’t easily accessible, it was not teaming with traffic and it didn’t connect anything. It’s not much of a bridge according to our definition. However at the exact instant it was needed, God made it very visible. God made it so recognizable that it is recorded in scripture and we still talk about it today. Millions of people used it. It connected millions of people in desperate fear for their lives to the safety of being where God wanted them to be. It may not have looked like a bridge but it sure fulfilled the purpose of one. This bridge was only used once and no one even knows where it is today. It was a truly divine appointment. The greatest part is that anyone who boasted about it had to boast about the Lord. God was glorified!

Maybe God has some bridges hidden in our Connection Group that He is just waiting to reveal at the exact moment they are needed. Maybe that bridge is you or me, just waiting for that divine appointment.

Bridge #2 – Across the Jordan River

Now the Jordan overflows its banks throughout the harvest season. But as soon as the priests carrying the ark reached the Jordan, their feet touched the water at its edge and the water flowing downstream stood still, rising up in a mass that extended as far as Adam, a city next to Zarethan. The water flowing downstream into the Sea of the Arabah (the Dead Sea) was completely cut off, and the people crossed opposite Jericho. The priests carrying the ark of the LORD's covenant stood firmly on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, while all Israel crossed on dry ground until the entire nation had finished crossing the Jordan. After the entire nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the LORD spoke to Joshua, "Choose 12 men from the people, one man for each tribe, and command them, 'Take 12 stones from this place in the middle of the Jordan where the priests' feet are standing, carry them with you, and set them down at the place where you spend the night.'" So Joshua summoned the 12 men selected from the Israelites, one man for each tribe, and said to them, "Go across to the ark of the LORD your God in the middle of the Jordan. Each of you lift a stone onto his shoulder, one for each of the Israelite tribes, so that this will be a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, 'What do these stones mean to you?' you should tell them, 'The waters of the Jordan were cut off in front of the ark of the LORD's covenant. When it crossed the Jordan, the Jordan's waters were cut off.' Therefore these stones will always be a memorial for the Israelites." The Israelites did just as Joshua had commanded them. The 12 men took stones from the middle of the Jordan, one for each of the Israelite tribes, just as the LORD had told Joshua. They carried them to the camp and set them down there. Joshua also set up 12 stones in the middle of the Jordan where the priests who carried the ark of the covenant were standing. The stones are there to this day.

(Jos 3:15-4:9)

This bridge has several similarities to the first bridge. It was hidden from view, it was not recognizable and it was not accessible. It was made from dry ground located at the bottom of a river. It has one great and important difference though. Most of the year the river could be crossed, but during this season it could not be crossed due to flooding. A person would be swept away in its currents. Notice also that a memorial was set up at the site of this bridge to remind future generations of the crossing.

Many times we lose connections to each other due to the raging waters of life. We may be quickly get caught up in those currents and swept away to a place we really don’t want to be with no idea how to get back where we were. We are often beat up emotionally and physically by this process. God can and does restore relationships and fellowships that are broken during these times. Again, God was glorified in this situation. Notice that the water stopped flowing and stood up upstream of the Ark and the flood dried up downstream. This was probably noticed along the entire course of the river. It is also interesting to see in this passage that God knew the event would probably be forgotten when the flood had passed. How often do we forget that God bore us through the flood when the current of life is back to its normal flow?

Maybe God will use our Connection Group or you personally to be a lifeline to someone caught in the raging currents of life. Or perhaps your testimony is a memorial God has set among us to remind us that He will bear us safely through the floods of life.

Bridge #3 – Across the Great Chasm

Tne day the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried. And being in torment in Hades, he looked up and saw Abraham a long way off, with Lazarus at his side. 'Father Abraham!' he called out, 'Have mercy on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this flame!'" 'Son,' Abraham said, 'remember that during your life you received your good things, just as Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here, while you are in agony. Besides all this, a great chasm has been fixed between us and you, so that those who want to pass over from here to you cannot; neither can those from there cross over to us.'

(Luk 16:22-26)

This Jesus is The stone despised by you builders, who has become the cornerstone. There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved."

(Act 4:11-12)

Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in Him will have eternal life. "For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world that He might judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. Anyone who believes in Him is not judged, but anyone who does not believe is already judged, because he has not believed in the name of the One and Only Son of God. "This, then, is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. For everyone who practices wicked things hates the light and avoids it, so that his deeds may not be exposed. But anyone who lives by the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be shown to be accomplished by God."

(Joh 3:14-21)

This is the most spectacular bridge of all. Using the crucifixion of the Lamb, God bridges the great chasm that separates sinners from Him. This is a bridge only God could make and only the Holy Spirit can bid men to cross. However, we can surely point out the way to the bridge. In the last few verses of the passage in John, how is judgment addressed? If Jesus was not sent to judge, should we judge others? According to this we don’t need to, they are already judged. This should help us look past where they are and show them to the bridge that can transport them from judgment to salvation.

Perhaps our Connection Group will be used as a beacon to the bridge of salvation. God may use you personally to give directions to the bridge. God will most likely deal with our judgmental attitudes toward others. Perhaps your life is the light in the darkness someone needs to see to draw them toward Jesus.