tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40635756728082969482024-03-05T07:58:33.488-08:00Dawn PonderingsFor God, who said, 'LET LIGHT SHINE OUT OF DARKNESS,' has shone in our hearts... Here I share my own ponderings about life as seen in the light of God's WordLindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16682029173527471837noreply@blogger.comBlogger292125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4063575672808296948.post-702922068832817292017-04-08T10:37:00.001-07:002017-04-08T10:39:44.170-07:00I've moved!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">No doubt you've noticed the long silence here. It has been a productive one and I'm up and running (pondering) again but at a new and improved site. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Drop in for the housewarming at:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I hope you'll join me over at <a href="http://ponderings.theskeltons.org/" target="_blank">my new place</a> and <a href="http://ponderings.theskeltons.org/contact/" target="_blank">leave me a note.</a> I've missed you. My latest regular post is <a href="http://ponderings.theskeltons.org/2017/04/07/not-ours-for-keeps-giving-up-the-things-we-love/" target="_blank">Not Ours for Keeps</a> and deals with giving up things we love. You can read it <a href="http://ponderings.theskeltons.org/2017/04/07/not-ours-for-keeps-giving-up-the-things-we-love/" target="_blank">here</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Thanks for stopping by,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Linda Dawn Skelton</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fffdd3; color: #01103a; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , "sans serif"; font-size: 14.4px;"><i>From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the Lord is to be praised. </i> </span><span style="background-color: #fffdd3; color: #01103a; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , "sans serif";"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Ps. 113:3</span></span></div>
<br />Lindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16682029173527471837noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4063575672808296948.post-14234035818109557942016-05-17T17:51:00.001-07:002016-05-17T17:51:34.813-07:00Words with Friends<p>I've been playing a lot of Words with Friends lately. If you're not familiar with this, it's basically Scrabble for smart phones, and you can play it with friends far and near. My sister and I have been keeping a game going--a simple way to keep in touch across the miles... <p>I'm not sure I can explain the draw of such word games... Arranging letters to make words is just, well...satisfying in a way. To take a random collection of seven letters and shuffle them until you spot a great word is a fun pastime. Add strategic placements to earn points and it's addicting! I'm always just a little sad though to forego a long and wonderful word that uses almost all the tiles for a short boring one that will make me more points. I wish there were someway to measure the inherent value of words... <p>Which brings me to the point of what's missing in this game. When all the tiles are laid and the score is tallied, all that's there is a tangle of words without meaning. They have no context. Some of them defy definition besides: "QI" ? "TEL"? "SUPE" ? I can't use these in a sentence but they make nifty fillers and they count as words, along with things like OW and EX and AI which serve to further illustrate the meaninglessness of using words in this way. <p>So I thought it would be fun to take the words from one of our last games (one of the rare ones that I actually won) and play with them a little--dig for meaning. Thus today's Word Trivia post. <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaxzNQB-n6Sd72Jijh4Hivyaw6OjibnpGLCYOe2b1jln5Qg4-p9pgrPSFdPmnpq382OZVcx66khClgSjyk8vVfjhhyWRR9fZxgAccvQ0UhB6QnKDTJ9-KuUZ-_7siAzFjK6sGBDRWUvEj4/s1600-h/Words%252520with%252520Sister%25255B4%25255D.jpg"><img title="Words with Sister" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="Words with Sister" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRdsxuD9F7zFM_STbN3yiysB9SzXQ4CpDSK2i7tRT0u74yHCt1OcjUyy39ZmZr3vtzcbgqa4iBvTBMweDeCoIFc1cbmsRMeDels5O6MeyhvrNsI9DTkU18m6xBEhvq0s9Pp4WfylARkfM6/?imgmax=800" width="457" height="608"></a> <p>I sorted them first on paper---words that represent quantifiable 'stuff', words that represent actions, and 'other' words that really don't say much--for example 'to' and 'as' and 'or'. Then I just had fun jotting down the memories associated in my mind with each of these words. <p><strong>WAX</strong> was first--It reminded me of my pre-adolescent venture into candle-making after receiving my most memorable Christmas gift ever at Grandma's house with my aunts and uncles and cousins. I don't even know who gave it to me but I remember the molds--a mushroom, a star, a ball and a quirky little turtle, and the colors and scents of blueberry and cinnamon and orange and blue... And the candles I didn't want to burn after I'd made them... <p><strong>BERTH</strong> was next. Ah, flashback to an unpleasantly memorable train ride into the deep south of Mexico when we were a young family. I was pregnant; it was hot. It was my first experience of train travel. We had chosen a sleeping berth, thinking it would be more comfortable than riding in regular coach class. Big mistake. The inexplicable stops in no-man's land were not only lengthy but nerve-wracking. Were we being ambushed like in the Wild West movies?! The berth was tiny and stuffy with no place to sit comfortably and I was queasy for the duration. Never again. We preferred the overnight bus! <p><strong>KNIFE</strong> brings to mind the beautiful hunting knife with the faux-ivory handle that Jim bought me to protect myself in case of....?.... while out hiking. I carry it. Sometimes. But can't imagine drawing it to ward off a cougar! <p><strong>DOE</strong> ("a deer, a female deer...") Other than the <i>Sound of Music</i> jingle, this word reminds me of deer in general which I was fonder of before they became garden pests eating strawberry patches and stunting immature fruit trees... Now that we've moved and I no longer have a garden, I'm becoming more appreciative of their graceful beauty again. I stopped on my walk just last night to snap a picture of a trailside pair... <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn3bqUtI6cq35WeHA2Wm1Ci_XwdeTXF3ptZNq4TcHZmzkDyEDmxQ-DHydX3ZliWbkJ1t0z19s1cliysY0sgMiE9K0qsrQIK5J6ljlDSUkYH4uj9T2fVquPkmhRv3afJkFQo01HRl61Jsp_/s1600-h/IMG_20160516_203807371_HDR%25255B7%25255D.jpg"><img title="IMG_20160516_203807371_HDR" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="IMG_20160516_203807371_HDR" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-4L8SnjEDlYY/Vzu8lZpSlII/AAAAAAAAiyI/WDwP6elLTF8/IMG_20160516_203807371_HDR_thumb%25255B1%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" height="184"></a> <p><strong>GOO</strong> is a generic catchword that conjures up a vague sense of concoctions created for 'Science' class in our homeschooling era. It is also the perfect description of what happens when you microwave marshmallows to create instant "Some-mores" without the campfire. <p>To rhyme with that is <strong>EWE</strong> which is the meaning of my youngest daughter's name, Rachel, a fact that seemed important when she was a newborn. More important to me now is the consolation that I too am a sheep--God's own. He knows and cares. "I am your sheep," is for me a consoling prayer. <p><strong>PIETY</strong> is a word that can smack of self-righteous arrogance or genuine humble Christ-likeness. Is it a good thing or a bad thing? Depends on your definition and motive. <p><strong>JAVA</strong> is a word I've never used in writing. I'm not a coffee drinker, and don't stop at Java Huts, but it still has a friendly, relaxed connotation in my mind... <p><strong>WAVE</strong> brings to mind the Jersey shore where I played and got pummelled in the surf growing up. The California surf was a nearer drive when our own kids were little. We boogie boarded there just once and were mistaken by some enthusiastic Texan tourists as picture-worthy 'real surfers!!'. It was a humorous moment of 'glory'. <p>Well, if you have read along this far, you are beginning to wonder when this will end. There are many more words---<strong>STAIN</strong>, what blood and sin does and what paradoxically only Jesus' blood can wash away. <strong>PLAZA</strong>, and my mind flits back to the zocalo in Oaxaca, a central plaza of benches and happy family meanders, and toddlers and popsicles. <strong>BIER</strong>, ah, the widow of Nain is all that comes to mind for this one. Jesus stopped the funeral procession and turned it into a joyous parade by giving her back her son alive! Did the son go on to outlive his mother? For her sake, I hope so. And with the word DREG I'm back to Zapotec-land in Mexico. Dregs are what’s at the bottom of the Coffee cauldron brewing on the fire. You don't want the last drop! <p>But that's enough of trivia. After I'd scribbled down two sides of a page of word associations from my own history, I got to wondering how many of our game words are recorded in Scripture? That sent me off on a whole new line of thought... If you care to come along here's what I found: <p><strong>WAX</strong> is about more than candles melting. Mountains are said to melt like wax at the Lord's presence and Jesus' heart melted like wax in the agony of crucifixion (Ps.22). <p>And, if you're reading King James English, wax is a verb. God's wrath waxes hot when widows and orphans are harmed and when His people disregard His covenant. Eyes wax old (Eli's) as do people, their clothes, and the earth itself! Love waxes cold because of sin. And evil men shall wax worse and worse. This world isn’t getting better! <p><i>Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished.</i> Is.51:6 KJV <p>Do we find a <strong>KNIFE</strong> mentioned in the Bible? <p>Abraham carried one along with the fire to burn his sacrifice. Isaac shouldered the wood. But God provided the ram. <p>Oh, and I just read this one in Judges. Gruesome. A gal was cut in twelve pieces with a knife and her body parts sent throughout the land to notify all Israel of the outrage that had been committed against her, (resulting in her death) and to rally all Israel to battle against the offenders (Judges 19) <p>Much later in Israel’s history a scroll containing God's warning to the King of Israel, as dictated by Jeremiah, was sliced section by section with a knife and thrown into the fire in disregard. The words however did not go away. They were re-dictated and written down and they came to pass... (Jer. 36:24) God's words are worth noting well. They are not going away. <p>A graceful <strong>DOE</strong> in scripture is used as a picture of the wife of one's youth--an object to be delighted in. <p><em>"<strong>Doe</strong> of the Dawn"</em> is an expression describing the morning star, the last star to shine at the break of day. And interestingly this was the name of the tune assigned to accompany the prophetic Psalm 22 which begins, <i>"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"</i> <p align="center"><em>I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and <strong>the bright and morning star.</strong></em> <font size="1">Rev.22:16</font> <p><font size="4"><em>And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and <strong>the morning star</strong> rises in your hearts...</em></font> <font size="1">II Pet.1:19</font> <p><strong>EWE</strong> occurs nearly fifty times in Scripture, mostly in passages detailing the sacrificial system requirements. But the most poignant passage is Nathan's parable told to King David of the poor man who kept his one little ewe lamb as a pet...until a rich lord seized and slaughtered it for a meal for his company. This is what David had done to Uriah, in taking his wife, Bathsheba, for himself. (II Sam.12) The ewe lamb's story hit its mark. David repented and was forgiven. <i>"Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions...Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart...wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow....a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise." </i>(Ps.51 excerpts) <p><strong>PIETY</strong> in Scripture refers to reverence or respect and is used of the Athenians who worshiped 'The Unknown God'. It is also expected that believers in the true God will <em>'show piety at home'</em> in practical ways such as the care of one's own widowed relatives. <p>The <strong>WAVES</strong> of the Jersey shore aren't specifically cited in the Bible, but their actions are. The one who doubts that God will grant his request for wisdom is likened to a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. I recall this text in <a href="https://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/jas/1/5/s_1147005">James (1:5-8)</a> often, as I am naturally a doubter, but by God's grace I am learning to trust. His Word is a trustworthy foundation that will keep us from being washed away in the flood surges of life! <a href="https://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/mat/7/24/t_conc_936024">(Mt.7:24)</a> <p>The thing about <strong>STAINS</strong> is that when it comes to sin, the stains are indelible, not removed by any amount of human effort. I like the way Jeremiah says it: <blockquote> <p><i>Though you wash yourself with lye and use much soap, the stain of your guilt is still before me, declares the Lord GOD. </i><font size="1">Jer.2:22 ESV</font> </p></blockquote> <p>This is a good reminder of our need for the Gospel continuously and brings to mind my week's memory verses: <p><font size="4">Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and<strong> <i>by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you--</i></strong>unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that <b>Christ died for our sins</b> in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,...</font> I Cor.15:1-4 ESV <p>With that I will conclude this meandering trivia lesson. (Thanks for coming along!) It brings us full circle to the Words worth holding onto and building our lives around day by day. <p>Whether or not you play <em>Words with Friends</em> (or sisters!) is irrelevant. Only be sure that you are digging deep for the Words that matter! <p><em>--LS</em> <p><font size="4"><em>Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.</em></font> <font size="1">Ps.119:105</font> <p><font size="3"><em>P.S. It would be fun to hear what associations come to your mind with some of these words. Add a comment if you like!</em></font></p>Lindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16682029173527471837noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4063575672808296948.post-35569848181424145312016-05-06T19:32:00.001-07:002016-05-06T19:34:14.107-07:00An Obsession with the Unseen<p>I'm obsessed with the unseen today--scarcely able to concentrate on anything else but this research, this looking, this wanting to know what has caused these painful, irritating, worrisome bites, and what to do about them! <p><img alt="Image result for bedbug" 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"> <p>I've taken the hide-a-bed all apart, wiped and vacuumed and searched crevices with flashlight in hand. I've done the same with our bed mattress--washed the bedding, looked and looked again. Nothing. But the bites are with me. Hard uncomfortable evidence that something is lurking somewhere, something tiny yet able to handicap me physically, and worst of all, mentally. I woke tired, having been wakeful during the night alert for bug bites, mindful of exposed skin, hot with too many covers. And these red hot spots are sore, swollen, the skin all around them sensitive. Just a few mangy bites and I can think of nothing else. I've booked an appointment with the doctor this afternoon. Maybe he will know something more than I have gleaned from the rest of the world via the internet. <p>But this parallel occurs to me... <p><em>"Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth,"</em> Paul says, <em>"for you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God."</em><font size="1"> (Col.3:3)</font> Here is a legitimate preoccupation with the unseen. The Kingdom of God is likened to a leavening agent that though unseen works its way through the whole batch of dough and grows and grows. The Spirit at work in us is likened to the wind, that though we cannot see drives with great and visible force wherever God wills. Things above are unseen but we don't necessarily feel them in the way I feel these irritating bites. My body is wired to pay attention to what pains me and to look for comfort. The Spirit meanwhile invites me to act on truth whether I feel like it or not, whether I see it or not. He bids me to react based on truth, not just my impressions. Only truth feeds the rhythms of what is truly life. <p>Unlike passing bug bites, the Word is here today and tomorrow and forever, alive and well, unchanging in the midst of life's catastrophes. While fires engulf communities to our north, and bed bugs are on the rise, inflicting sores that seem to last forever, the truth is that neither bodies nor possessions are going to stick around, but God's Word stands forever.<strong> It remains unchanged while instigating great changes.</strong> It is living and active, outlasting the most living and active itch a bed bug can create. <p>The fires will die down. My sores will heal and be forgotten...political crisis will rise and fall, culture will ebb ever toward iniquity, but the Word will remain the same, absolute, enduring, true though all hell rise up against it. This is the Word I'm trying to give my attention to this morning... <p><i>[Fast forward to later in the day:]</i> <p>Well, I've just returned from the doctor where I had the biggest surprise of my week. She looked very briefly at my bumps and declared: <i>"You have shingles."</i> Not bedbug bites <u>or</u> fleas? Me? Shingles?! This was a reality I hadn't even conceived of. Though I was incredulous at first I drew her out to make her case and she being the experienced professional did so directly. I had to bow to reality. Here I've been so busy researching biting creatures and what to do about them that I have missed the truth of my situation! I am sick. There is an invisible gremlin at work <i>in</i> my body; it is not external. It is the chickenpox virus... <p>I walked out of the doctor's office in relieved wonderment--at least we don't have bedbugs and I'm not carrying the Bubonic Plague! Here is something with a label, identifiable, survivable, and true. I have shingles. No more scouring dark places for mysterious creatures. No more fearing to sit on my own couch or lying awake in my bed for fear of a bite. <p>But on the heels of my relief is a sobering realization: I was entirely misled by my impressions and the 'facts' that I so neatly pieced together into a logical string... I have worried in vain about bugs that bite in the night. I have conjured up notions of flea-borne Bubonic Plague. And I have carried on at an exhausting pace hiking and biking (and scouring my home for bedbugs!) while all the while being overtaken by the truly unseen--the chickenpox virus at work on my nerve-endings! This is a startling reality which forces me to wonder what else I have overlooked in jumping to wrong conclusions. What other false beliefs and crazy notions do I hold dear while the actual issues elude my notice? <p><i>[Fast forward to the following day]: </i> <p>Settling into the reality of shingles today has been less pleasant than the initial relief of just knowing. There are more pox today. The accompanying pain is distracting and the itch that was merely annoying yesterday is maddening today. I'm back to where I began--having to take my mind off the unseen things that are so acutely felt and to turn it to less tangible but more significant unseen realities. For instance, this object lesson staring me in the face: What other crazy false presumptions am I carrying around and allowing to drive my thoughts and actions day by day? If I can mistake shingles for bed bugs and all their accompanying paranoia, <b>what other wrong beliefs am I allowing to commandeer my life energies?</b> In what other areas am I convinced of a lie that needs to be uprooted by truth? <p>So, today I'm no longer desperately asking God to help me find marauding bugs, I'm asking for wisdom and for eyes to see the lies I believe and the truth that will set me free. What are my <i>real</i> problems and what is their antidote? And more importantly, what do I need to see more clearly about my God and His sovereign ways? <b>What wrong assumptions do I hold about the way life works best, that run contrary to God's design manual for my life? </b> <p>Let me not waste my life chasing phantom bedbugs and miss recognizing the idols of my heart that undermine my enjoyment of Christ. Let me be free of all that obscures His image in me. <p><strong><em>Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day</em></strong>. <font size="1">Ps.25:5</font> <p><strong>Teach me thy way, O LORD; I will walk in thy truth: unite my heart to fear thy name</strong> <i>(not a host of other fears that rob me of the life You've intended for me).</i> <font size="1">Ps.86:11</font> <p>So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." <font size="1">Jn.8:31-32</font> <p>I am grateful today for His indwelling Spirit to guide and teach me all I need to know in His perfect timing. This has been a good wake-up call. <p>"And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you."—Jesus <font size="1">Jn.14:16-17</font> <p>“Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God...” <font size="1">(I Cor.2:12)</font> <p>But for now, I think I need a nap...without fear of bedbugs! <p>Thanks for joining me here today. <p><i>--LS</i> <p>May God, the Father of glory, give you [and me!] a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe!... <font size="1">Eph.1:16-19</font> <p>God chose... so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord." <font size="1">I Cor.1:28-30</font></p> <p>"...that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God." <font size="1">(I Cor.2:5)</font> <p align="center"><font size="4"><em>Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for His judgments are true and just</em></font>...<font size="1">Rev.19:1</font> <p><font size="1"></font>Lindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16682029173527471837noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4063575672808296948.post-36152223555326794632016-04-30T16:09:00.001-07:002016-04-30T16:09:58.532-07:00Always Abounding…<p>I arrived this week at the end of a passage I've been memorizing since January. At just two verses per week it's been a slow but steady crawl. But I can now recite it thoughtfully to the echoey walls of my new home beginning with: <p><strong>"If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep…"</strong> <font size="1">(I Cor.15:19)</font> <p>And concluding with the resoundingly familiar: <p><strong><font size="4"><em>"Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain."</em></font></strong><font size="1"> <br></font><font size="1">(I Cor.15:58)</font> <p>It's that last verse I'm stuck on, not because I can't say it, but because I wonder, is it true of me? here? now? And I've had to go back and be walked through the reality of what this <em>"work of the Lord"</em> is because I don't feel as though I am abounding in anything right now. <p>It sounds somehow more descriptive of saints who have gone before--great 'missionary statesmen', or even of friends we trained with who are still pouring out their life energies in poorest Africa. <p><strong>What is <i>'the work of the Lord'</i>? </strong> Is it synonymous with <em>'full-time Christian service'</em> (interesting old expression...)? Or maybe my Grandmother would qualify; she was a cheerful servant to whomever she met. But me? I am just a 'stay at home Mom' in a place that does not yet feel like home and minus the kids that merited me the title. I do still qualify mostly for the<em> 'stay at home'</em> part! People ask if I will get a job. Maybe. New friends inquire what I've done with my life. No, I never worked. (HA!) I homeschooled my five kids. (That falls flat--an alien thought for most of my current social group). Well, so yes, I suppose I'm retired, sort of... <p>But just now as I was beginning to slip into morose self-pity I glanced to the wall beside my desk. There hangs a strategically placed photo--a precious reminder of why I am in this place: <p><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Ios1wwMlOpk/VyU7JJPcKwI/AAAAAAAAiCM/TF1UrY5QusA/s1600-h/P1200582%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="P1200582" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="P1200582" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-rQxN-m6yj7U/VyU7KJkc_pI/AAAAAAAAiCQ/nnk-0Ld5R0c/P1200582_thumb%25255B1%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="447" height="336"></a> <p>Four eager faces grin back at me. I can’t help but smile and wipe away happy tears that I am here, at home, ready to welcome them in the door tomorrow, to have a special dessert ready, to go out for a nature hike, to play another game of Crazy Eights and stick some more decals on the front window...to get down the little wooden tractor and trailer my Dad made and let them zoom it across the floor... These kids are what I'm here for, at least in part. I am here so they can come to Grandmom's house, as I once went to my Grandma's house--just to be welcomed and loved and known, to belong. <p>To be here for them in this season of our lives is to abound in the work of the Lord. <p>How did I acquire so grand a calling anyway? I who could have, would have (but for Jim, but for God) been a single woman Bible Translator to some remote tribe, I who did not grow up playing with dolls or dreaming of a houseful of my own babies--preferring the company of the woods and a ramble with Shags and some time in the Good Book... How did I inherit this high calling--to have these little folk look up adoringly at my entrance into the room, or race eagerly now to my door: <em><font size="3">"Let's do something!"</font></em> <p>And though I sit here alone for now, dreaming up baby quilts for the new one coming along next month, and wondering how to shake the echo from our new suite and make it feel like home... I am not alone. God's Word marches through my thoughts bringing truth to dispel the lies that threaten to swamp my boat, bringing LIFE in its timely reminders of who I am--God's own child, accepted in the Beloved, His workmanship created in Christ Jesus... I am not the sum of my earthly accomplishments. <p><font size="3"><strong>I am the work of the Lord,</strong> and as I walk each day by faith in His power to transform the ordinary into the eternal…I showcase His glory. </font> <p align="left"><em>These are some of the verses I've been reflecting on this week:</em> <p>Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal. Then they said to him, <strong>"What must we do, to be doing the works of God?" </strong>Jesus answered them, <font size="4">"This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent."</font> <p>...It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. <font size="1">Jn.6:27-29,63</font> <p>For we are his workmanship, <strong>created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand,</strong> that we should walk in them. <font size="1">Eph.2:10</font> <p>In him we have obtained an inheritance, <strong>having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will,</strong> so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. <font size="1">Eph.1:11,12</font> <p>So, whether you eat or drink, or <em>whatever you do</em>, do all to the glory of God. <font size="1">I Cor.10:31</font> <p>Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; <br>and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; <br>and there are varieties of activities, but<strong> it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.</strong> <br>To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. <br><font size="1">I Cor.12:4-7</font> <p>...and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power<strong> toward us who believe, </strong>according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places...<font size="1">Eph.1:19,20</font> <p>…for<strong> it is God who works in you</strong>, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. <font size="1">Phil.2:13</font> <p>But<strong> by the grace of God I am what I am,</strong> and His grace toward me was not in vain.<font size="1"> I Cor.15:10</font> <p><font size="1">---------</font> <p>These good Words remind me that because of the Gospel, I am delivered from the need to DO in order to be acceptable in God's sight. Jesus did what was needed. He died. And conquered death. In Him I live and move and have my being. <p>By faith in Him I am declared righteous and enabled to please God. <p>By His Word, His truth, I am led in paths of righteousness---even as I sew baby blankets, make chocolate cake for the kiddies coming out tomorrow, and prepare hot lunches for my hubby... <p><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-s5M93YZFq_Y/VyU7L0JlyuI/AAAAAAAAiCU/KIcj3TsxN54/s1600-h/P1200577%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="P1200577" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="P1200577" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-myjmU2UqItU/VyU7M6yfzTI/AAAAAAAAiCY/MiFEPg3XzHE/P1200577_thumb%25255B1%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="391" height="294"></a> <p>By faith I can abound in the work of the Lord, in unseen homebody ways, giving thanks for His enabling, asking for His guidance, and walking in the works prepared for me from the foundation of the world... <p>By His grace I am what I am...and by His energy working in me I am sufficient in all things at all times to fulfill His calling in my life. <p><font size="3"><strong>And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.</strong></font> <br><font size="1">II Cor.9:8</font> <p>When I get side-tracked into worrying about my productivity for the Kingdom I find I must go back to the basics of the Gospel. It’s not about what I’m able to do, but about what Christ has already done. <strong> My confidence in Him as I attend to His Words is what will bear fruit over time.</strong> And as I’ve been considering what passage next to memorize I’m drawn back to the beginning of I Corinthians 15, the verses I skipped over: <p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Now <strong>I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you,</strong> which you received, in which you stand, and <strong>by which you are being saved,</strong> if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as <strong>of first importance</strong> what I also received: <strong>that Christ died for our sins</strong> in accordance with the Scriptures…that He was buried, that he was raised on the third day…and that He appeared…” (I Cor.15:1-5)</font> <p>I think I’ll begin there—at the heart of the Gospel. It’s my only hope of ever abounding in truly Good works. Jesus Christ is our hope, not only for this lifetime, but for an eternity to come when these perishable bodies have been transformed into His image. And all this is by faith. <p>What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith...Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offence: and <strong>whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed</strong>.<font size="1"> Rom.9:30-33</font> <p>The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory<strong> through our Lord Jesus Christ</strong>.<font size="1"> I Cor.15:56,57</font> <p>For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness <strong>to everyone who believes.</strong> <font size="1">Rom.10:4</font> <p><em><font size="4">Now the God of peace,</font></em> that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,<font size="4"> make you perfect in every good work to do his will,</font> working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen! <font size="1">Heb.13:20,21</font></p> <p><br><em>--LS</em></p> <p><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Bz4w1a13YAk/VyU7On8tYjI/AAAAAAAAiCc/ln2iZSbt66Q/s1600-h/P1200573%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="P1200573" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="P1200573" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb1MohdqkgojQLoOV9X7WQG2Gv51HrYUpBZxZF9XBM75W9jwBpEQpMX8A0wsaSN8liCmbS5pepKongx36V94lKZ-0zl9t_osqGjZJQQip7NPx1p3-VSNla77GmaI4MlqBvvd6JDVHDvEf0/?imgmax=800" width="408" height="307"></a>Lindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16682029173527471837noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4063575672808296948.post-60663529349653969282016-04-24T14:51:00.001-07:002016-04-24T14:51:17.521-07:00No Words of My Own Today…<p><em>I have no original thoughts today, but these words--my gleanings from the Word of God--are enough to make the guilt-ridden rejoice, the rejected take heart, the fearful relax, and the richly blessed give thanks!…. Who is a God like our God?!</em> <p>Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity, and passing over transgression for the remnant of His inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love. He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea....<font size="1"> Micah 7:18-20</font> <p>You will say in that day: "I will give thanks to you, O LORD, for though you were angry with me, your anger tuned away, that you might comfort me. Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the LORD God is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation." <font size="1">Is.12:1-2</font> <p>The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning...<font size="1">Lam.3:22,23</font> <p>The LORD has taken away the judgments against you; he has cleared away your enemies. The King of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst; you shall never again fear evil...Fear not, O Zion; let not your hands grow weak. The LORD you God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing. <font size="1">Zeph.3:15-17</font> <p>For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!"...heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ...What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies... Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? I am sure that [nothing] in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. <font size="1">Rom.8:15,17,31-33,35,39</font> <p align="center"><strong>Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!</strong> <font size="1">II Cor.9:15</font> </p> <p align="left"><em>As Christ dwells in our hearts by faith, and we are rooted and grounded in His love, may we all have strength to comprehend what is the breadth and length and height and depth of this love that surpasses knowledge, so that we may be filled with all the fullness God intends for us! This is my prayer for all who read here.</em></p> <p align="left"><em>--LS<a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-y40khXyOJsQ/Vx0_yyylwCI/AAAAAAAAh3c/swdvs9frxJg/s1600-h/Prairie%252520Crocus%25255B4%25255D.jpg"><img title="Prairie Crocus" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="Prairie Crocus" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqiUW-VIZff6yVc36tqGolXaT9Xja4iefSzne4Qago-h8q5yM1wPGbBh5lA3ftNP9W0slBoUqXeCduubVATgGxVRtH1EkARL9DSWi9C95s11td3pfrxDwPH4biEtkaT2QrWnT-CKn7vOIf/?imgmax=800" width="463" height="348"></a></em></p>Lindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16682029173527471837noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4063575672808296948.post-39400672178539771112016-04-16T07:07:00.001-07:002016-04-16T07:07:34.664-07:00Come and drink…<p>I found myself in a new place among unfamiliar faces this past weekend, but sharing in a very familiar tradition—the passing of tiny cups of juice and bitty cubes of bread while old, old verses were read:</p> <p><b>In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me." For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. <font size="1">I Cor.11:25</font></b> <p>There was an invitation for all who are trusting Jesus as their Saviour to partake. It was a rightly sober few moments of remembrance and of gratitude for a Lamb slaughtered, for blood shed…for me. How many times before have I chewed and swallowed, upended the tiny plastic cup of Welch’s best…but a new thought occurred to me in the process this time, perhaps because I am currently making my way through the book of Leviticus chapter by chapter. And there is so much blood there!</p> <p>For every infraction of God’s law, an offering must be made, an animal sacrificed. Even unintentional sins resulted in bloodshed. The procedures were very specific—a perfect and specific animal, an exacting procedure. This was holy business. Just this morning I finished reading the instructions pertaining to sacrifices. I don't quite get the distinctions between the burnt offering, the peace offering, the sin offering and the guilt offering but one thing they have in common is BLOOD and <em>always</em> this blood is poured out at the base of the altar after being applied to the horns of the altar or thrown against the sides of the altar. And <em><strong>never</strong></em> is this blood to be consumed. It was strictly forbidden to eat blood.</p> <p>"If any one of the house of Israel or of the strangers who sojourn among them eats any blood, I will set my face against that person who eats blood and will cut him off from among his people.”. <font size="1">Lev.17:10-11</font> <p>The explanation God gives is this: <strong><em>"the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.”</em></strong> <font size="1">Lev.17:11</font> </p> <p>Life is represented by the blood. Under no condition was it to be consumed, always poured out. </p> <p>But something changed when the perfect Sacrifice came along, God’s Lamb, Jesus. He invites, even commands His disciples to drink His blood--not literally, of course, but symbolically, to take the cup in recognition of their participation in the New Covenant. <b>"Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. <font size="1">Mt.26:27-28</font></b></p> <p>This marked a radical departure from the endless round of sacrifices required by the Old Covenant. At last an offering had been made which put an end to all other offerings. At last here is an offering that actually has the power to do away with sin, to nullify its deadly effects, to pronounce the worshiper clean! <p><b></b> <p>And at last, the worshiper is offered the LIFE that is represented by the blood. For the perceptive follower, this new paradigm had already been strongly hinted at. Jesus had laid it out in pretty graphic language: </p> <p><b>So Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. <font size="1">Jn.6:53-56</font></b> <p>Many of His followers had turned back at those words. Drinking blood? They would have known this was a violation of the law. What then could He possible mean? They didn’t stick around to find out. <p>But those closest to Him persisted in following, listening, and believing, even when they did not understand. What alternative was there? Peter put it well: <em><strong>“Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” </strong></em><font size="1">Jn.6:68,69</font> They hung on His Words and they followed even when they had questions. <p>And I too have been chewing this week on His words, considering this Life that I’ve been invited to participate in, to drink deeply of, to let flow through me… Do I understand completely how this works? How do I <em>‘feed on His flesh and drink His blood’</em> daily? Do I comprehend how the Spirit makes this life real in me? No, but I am counting on this Life to be lived out in me by faith, this Life like no other, that God has provided at the cost of His own life… <p><b>And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. <font size="1">I Jn.5:11-12</font></b> <p>The Gospel makes some pretty bold claims, some would say exclusive claims. Is there really no other way to find life?! Aren’t other religious systems plausible means to life? <p>I heard it explained this way—yes, the Gospel is exclusive in this sense--<strong>it excludes all the ways that lead to death!</strong> The Gospel of Jesus Christ is about Life, the way it was meant to be lived. And it is in fact exceptionally <u>inclusive</u>! Consider this all-expenses paid invitation: <p><em>The Spirit and the Bride say, "Come." And let the one who hears say, "Come." And let the one who is thirsty come;</em><strong><em> let the one who desires take the water of life without price.</em> <font size="1">Rev.22:17</font></strong> <p>Unlike any other offers this Life is free, not hinging on my performance, my goodness, my devotion, or my ability to keep the rules. And it’s all made possible by the blood of Jesus having been poured out as the ultimate Sacrifice. <p>So I come in awe, and I come grateful. I believe and drink deeply. The whole weight of who I am (and who I’m not) I cast on Jesus. His Life is for me and for You. He tasted death for us so that we might experience True Life! <p>And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.<font size="1"> Jn.17:3</font> <p>But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; <strong>that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.</strong><font size="1"> Heb.2:9</font> <p> "Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to me; <strong>hear, that your soul may live;</strong> and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.<font size="1"> Is.55:1-3</font></p> <div id="scid:0ABB7CC8-30EB-4F34-8080-22DA77ED20C3:c364b1ac-9285-44a2-9aa6-dde6fc8c12e6" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent" style="float: none; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px"><div><object width="425" height="239"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/yOXZqMq8B9k&hl=en"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/yOXZqMq8B9k&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="239"></embed></object></div></div> <p><em>--LS</em> <p>Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God… You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. ... If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you… I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me<font size="1">…(I Cor.15:50;Rom.8:9,11;Gal.2:20)</font> <p>For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, <strong>how much more will the blood of Christ,</strong> who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.<font size="1">Heb 9:13-14</font> <p>In him <strong>we have redemption through his blood</strong>, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight<font size="1"> Eph 1:7-8…</font> <strong>making peace by the blood of his cross</strong>”<font size="1">Col 1:20 </font> <p><font size="4"><em>To him who loves us and has <strong>freed us from our sins by his blood</strong> and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.</em></font> <font size="1">Rev 1:5-6 </font>Lindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16682029173527471837noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4063575672808296948.post-67104541099331364682016-04-08T09:53:00.001-07:002016-04-11T10:59:22.456-07:00Too good to be true?<p>We have arrived—it seems too good to be true, and yet, here we are, unpacked and at home in a new place with a one-year lease. </p> <p>We arrived in town on a Monday morning with a job promised but no place to live. It was time to get our feet wet. We'd booked a hotel for four days hoping somehow against all likelihood to find a permanent place by week’s end... <p>We checked ads, booked appointments, viewed places, and got invited out to a community dinner! That was day #1. <p>Tuesday Jim started work and I checked ads alone, followed up on appointments and viewed places I could certainly <u>not</u> imagine living long-term—a makeshift basement solution, a dismal miniscule condo. Then came the last viewing of the day, a suite we had supposed would be too small, but may as well have a look…. It was just out of town on a quiet street at the top of a hill, backed by towering mountains. A great field sloped away at the doorstep, (a frisbee-golf course actually) and I could imagine my city grand-kids coming to play here, to visit 'Grandmom and Grandad'. I have dreamed of this for a long time. And when the viewing was over I was so excited I could hardly sit still. It was beautiful, affordable and had wild places for grandkids to run. YES! This was it--just what we needed. And it was only day #2. Unbelievable. Surely God had gone before and held this treasure for us. <p>The rest of the week was just a matter of hoping and waiting for approval, getting papers signed, and meeting at the appointed time on Friday, the first of April to get the key! Incredible. God had made a way for us in a place where this sort of thing just doesn't happen. Long are the wait-lists and many the persons looking for a place to live in this town. Yet here we are, that river crossed; all we had to do was take a step of faith and get our feet wet and God did the rest. <p>That is the short and sweet story of our week's home-hunt. We had braced for a long drawn out 'crossing', for the awkwardness and inconvenience of temporary housing of some sort, for dashed hopes and rugged perseverance, stress and strain... Instead God simply led us right away to the place He had reserved for us. And more than that, he gave us harmony and peace together in the process and a calm trust that all would be well in His time...We had a sense that we were being buoyed up by the prayers of God's people and carried along on the current of God's great grace. If you were one who prayed on our behalf, THANK-YOU! God gave me courage to make my way around a strange town and meet with strangers alone...He gave me sweet repose each morning as I sat quietly with Him in a quaint chapel with stained glass windows reading and meditating on His Word...He filled my days with beauty and peace… <p>I won't pretend there weren't moments of anxiety, especially in the night when things overlooked by day become monsters breathing terror: <em>" What will the heating bill be like?...what have we gotten ourselves into?! Surely there's a 'catch' to this; it's too good to be true. hiss, hiss.." </em>But God is faithful, present by His Spirit restoring my faith with the reminder that we are just sheep having entrusted our lives to the Good Shepherd. What happens to us is <u>His</u> responsibility. Sheep are not expected to recognize every potential pitfall in the path ahead. They are not noted for their cleverness. They need only follow the Shepherd and trust His leading. <i>The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He lead me beside still waters. He restores my soul...</i> <p><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-UGhWMBsno9U/VwfiEurljSI/AAAAAAAAhUc/nPWZqAFYaA8/s1600-h/River%252520view%252520panorama%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="River view panorama" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="River view panorama" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9AgLjgALB5SFMmoZpEoWuEI0H0B0bdy0LZAToyoSD0V2DTRSuu24lZwwC_2AN-M2mRV5Mu5N9rdxki0Wm3E5vLYKBwaeIxtKu1GgEF-zqEsrohMrLxTnu8UCRJ3tbfvn6B6OYGbgjU4xV/?imgmax=800" width="647" height="134"></a> <p>One peaceful afternoon with nothing left to do but wait, I sat on a bench by the river in brilliant afternoon sun, water sparkling, runners passing on the trail, dogs being walked, families enjoying vacation time together... Snow-capped mountains rose in front of me and all around in an impressive panorama bringing to mind the psalm: <em>"As the mountains are round about [our town], so the LORD is round about his people from henceforth even for ever."</em> <font size="1">Ps.125:2</font> I don't yet know the names of these peaks that surround us but for me they bear God's signature, and have become a constant reminder of His presence and protection. <p align="center"><strong><font size="4">A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing!</font></strong> <p>What more can I say? It has been a week (now stretching to two weeks, as we've unpacked and gotten organized) of things <strong>too good to be true, were it not for the True and Good God that we serve,</strong> who sees and grants the desires of our hearts and has only good in store for His children! He is a good, good Father. Thank-you for sharing the journey with us. Now please share our joy! <p><em>--LS</em> <p>The lyrics of this hymn come to mind as perfectly apropos for my heart to sing: <p><font face="Times New Roman">Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of creation!<br>O my soul, praise him, for he is thy health and salvation!<br>All ye who hear,<br>Now to his temple draw near,<br>Join me in glad adoration.<br></font><font face="Times New Roman"><br>Praise to the Lord, who o'er all things so wondrously reigneth,<br>Shelters thee under his wings, yea, so gently sustaineth!<br><strong>Hast thou not seen<br>How thy desires e'er have been<br>Granted in what he ordaineth?<br></strong><br>Praise to the Lord, who doth prosper thy work and defend thee!<br><u>Surely his goodness and mercy here daily attend thee;<br></u>Ponder anew<br>What the Almighty will do,<br>If with his love he befriend thee!</font></p> <p><font size="1">Joachim Neander,<i>pub.</i>1680<br><i>tr. by Catherine Winkworth</i>, 1863</font> <p>Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him! <font size="1">Ps.34:8</font> <p>"Behold the eye of the LORD is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love, that He may deliver their soul from death and keep them alive in famine. Our soul waits for the LORD; He is our help and our shield For our heart is glad in Him, because we trust in his holy Name. Let your steadfast love, O LORD, be upon us, even as we hope in you. <br><font size="1">Ps.33:18-22</font> <p>….your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you…<font size="1">Mt.6:32,33</font> <p>Let those who delight in my righteousness shout for joy and be glad and say evermore, "Great is the LORD, who delights in the welfare of his servant!" <font size="1">Ps.35:27</font> <p>The LORD redeems the life of his servants; none of those who take refuge in him will be condemned. <font size="1">Ps.34:22</font> <p>Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever. <font size="1">Ps.23:6</font>Lindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16682029173527471837noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4063575672808296948.post-83174800807995513852016-03-25T08:20:00.001-07:002016-03-25T08:20:13.931-07:00On the brink…<p>Two men camped at the brink of the Jordan about to cross over to the land of their enemies. One wrestled the night away in terror and unbelief, intent on wresting from God what He had already promised: <em><strong>“I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea…”</strong></em><font size="1"> Gen.33:12</font> He was lamed in the process and walked with a limp ever after, a reminder that no man shall hold God hostage. He will bless whom He will bless. God had already chosen to bless him and to make him a blessing. He would father the twelve heads of the tribes of Israel.</p> <p><u>Five hundred years later</u> this man’s descendants would camp on the banks of this same Jordan awaiting their crossing to the land of their enemies. Though the Jordan was flooding its banks the man who would lead them was ready. He had waited forty years for this opportunity, forty years of watching an entire generation die in the wilderness because of their unbelief. Only he and Caleb had lived to see this day. </p> <p>In those forty intervening years He had been Moses’ understudy. He had seen the glory of God and when his time came to lead He had believed God’s reassurances<em>: "just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. <strong>Only be strong and very courageous,</strong> being careful to do according to al the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go..."</em> <font size="1">Joshua 1:7,8 </font></p> <p>His name of course, was Joshua and there he was, up early and ready to go. The Ark of the Covenant was with them, a sacred symbol of God’s covenant promises and of His presence with His people. What more did they need?</p> <p>The instructions were simple. The priests carrying the Ark were to lead the way because the people <em>‘had not been this way before.’</em> They had only to take a step of faith, to wade into the water and God would do the rest.</p> <p>This story resonates for me right now. I’m not sitting on a riverbank exactly but there is quite a torrent around me—boxes and totes and antique apple crates being filled and stacked and ready for a crossing in the morning…We’re going to get our feet wet, ready to make a move into a new province, without knowing the particulars of where we’ll get to unpack and settle. But we have a calling—to a job and to family. And we are ready to take a step of faith.</p> <p>Would it be stretching the analogy here to observe that we as believers, are also priests? We’re ‘a kingdom of priests’, appointed to trust God and follow His directives, to step out in faith even if it means getting our feet wet, because others follow behind us and may find dry land on which to follow….</p> <p>This miraculous crossing was to be for them a sign that the living God was indeed among them and would go before them and drive out their enemies.<font size="1"> (Joshua 3:10)</font> And sure enough, as the priests carrying the Ark took the first steps, the waters stood up like a heap and the people were able to cross over on dry ground.</p> <p>During the crossing twelve stones were chosen to be set up on the far bank as a memorial for the generations to come, as an object lesson for the stories parents would tell their children <em>“so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the LORD is mighty, that you may fear the LORD your God forever."</em> <font size="1">Jos 4:24</font> </p> <p>Joshua's story inspires me—the way he just believed God and 'rose early in the morning and set out...'<font size="1">Joshua 3:1</font> to do what God had prepared him to do. He didn’t know all the details but he knew God would lead the way. I want to be like that, strong and courageous, trusting, obeying, moving forward as He directs, overcoming obstacles in His timing... <p>Joshua’s name is the Hebrew equivalent of the One we know as Jesus, meaning, “The Lord is salvation”. This is the likeness God is pleased to conform us to as we walk by faith. Christ in me, my Hope of glory. Rejoicing in His strength, I am strong. Believing His promises I am made courageous. Holding His hand I am led to my inheritance… <p><em>And now, I had better get closing up boxes and readying for the ‘crossing’ .<br>Thank you for your prayers. The next post, Lord willing, will come from Alberta!</em> <p><em>--LS</em> <p><font size="4">Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, who keeps faith forever</font>. <font size="1">Ps.146:5.6</font></p> <p>Not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass. <font size="1">Joshua 21:45</font> <p>Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go." <font size="1">Joshua 1:9</font>Lindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16682029173527471837noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4063575672808296948.post-73823353109594673742016-03-18T22:17:00.001-07:002016-03-18T22:17:28.652-07:00Requisite to Encouragement<p>Encouragement, whether you’re extending it or receiving it, requires faith. Ability to encourage is contingent on believing that what will be is more than what is now. It takes vision, hope in what is yet unseen. For faith is the stuff of things hoped for, things not visible, things yet to be...</p> <p>If I have doubts that things really can get any better, I will be a poor encourager. If I want to ignite faith in you, I must have faith myself. This makes sense to me. <p>But it occurs to me this week that <em>receiving</em> encouragement also requires faith. If I don’t believe that what you say is true, how will it encourage me? if I doubt your motives or overthink your kindnesses, your attempts at encouragement may only serve to strengthen my cynicism. <em>“You’re just saying that.” “That’s sounds too good to be true.” “No, really? I don’t think so…”</em> <strong>Whether I find encouragement where it is offered all depends on faith. And faith is strengthened or shattered by the messages I choose to believe.</strong></p> <p>Twelve spies took a peek at the land the Lord had promised them. It was good, very good. Too good to be true. Their gaze was quickly averted from the good things God intended for them to the obstacles that lay in the way. Fearsome giants. Fortified cities. Their own weakness. <em> “We are like grasshoppers before them.”</em> Only two spies believed, disregarding the strength of the opposition in comparison to the Word and proven character of their God. <em>"Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it."</em> <font size="1">Num.13:30</font> <strong>Their encouragement came not from what they had seen but from what they knew to be true.</strong> But the people chose to listen to the faithless voices: <em>"We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are."</em> <font size="1">Num.13:30-31</font> They refused the encouragement that comes of faith and ended up in despair and rebellion, looking for a leader to take them back to Egypt! They missed out on the good land God had for them. <p>We've been spying out the land ourselves this week. It has resulted in an invitation to work an hour away from our grandkids, something we've dreamed of for years now. (Our oldest grandchild will be 7 this summer!)We can start the job any time, as soon as we can get there. <p>But rent is high and places to rent are very scarce. Looking too closely at rental listings is demoralizing. Are we crazy? Why are we moving there of all places?! And yet we are confident that God is making a way and we are intent on following by faith. So yes, I’ll be packing up a contingent of things this week, enough to live on, and just after Easter we plan to be heading out, for new beginnings in a new place. <p>It is not clear just how this will work out. But we want to be like Joshua and Caleb, not focused on the impossibility of doing this thing, but trusting that God will provide as He leads the way. <p>God knows my sometimes faint-hearted faith; it is not beyond His ability to encourage. I noticed a sweet thing yesterday as I meditated on the story of the two Mary’s showing up at the empty tomb early ‘Easter’ morning (in Matthew 28) What did they expect to find? Jesus had told them he would rise from the dead yet they came with spices to anoint His body…Did they not understand? Did they not believe? <br> <h3 align="left">All the truth in the world will fail to encourage the broken-hearted if it is not believed. </h3> <p>But there is help for the faint-hearted. God knows. When they arrived at the tomb they found the stone blocking its entrance had been rolled away. Why? <p>Did Jesus need it out of the way in order to escape the tomb? Certainly not. I have a hunch it was rolled away in order that His followers could see and believe. God Himself was at work to encourage their faith in what Jesus had already told them. <strong>The only thing holding them back from the joy of the resurrection was their unbelief.</strong> Now they are given opportunity to see and believe. <em>“Come, see the place where He lay”</em> the angel invited. <em>“He is not here, for he has risen.” <font size="1">Mt.28:6</font></em> <p>They hurried away to spread the good news with fear and GREAT JOY! <font size="1">Mt.28:8</font>They had seen and believed. Faith had made the difference. <p>I know my faith falters easily. At the same time I know it is faith that pleases God; without it there is only sin and its assorted miseries <a href="https://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/rom/14/23/s_1060023">(Rom.14:23).</a> But I don’t always know what to do about my feeble faith. But God does. Here I glimpse the heart of my God who not only desires faith, but also encourages us toward it. Here He arranges for the stone to be rolled away so we can see. He arranges for a welcoming committee of angels who point out the obvious truth:<em> “He is risen”</em> and more than that they give instructions for a rendezvous: <em>“…behold he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him. See, I have told you.”</em> And He graciously repeats Himself as often as needed: <em>Fear not, fear not, fear not….</em> <p>But best of all He gives us His Word, with its abundance of <strong>outrageous promises that would <u>all</u> be too good to be true if they were spoken by anyone but Him.</strong> There are things here that should make us live out the rest of our days skipping like spring lambs! Things like: <p>There is therefore now <strong>no condemnation</strong> for those who are in Christ Jesus. For <strong>the law of the Spirit of life</strong> <strong>has set you free in Christ Jesus</strong> from the law of sin and death.<font size="1"> Rom.8:1-2</font> <p>As the Father has loved me, <strong>so have I loved you</strong>. Abide in my love.<font size="1"> Jn.15:9</font> <p>And behold, <strong>I am with you always</strong>, to the end of the age. <font size="1">Mt.28:20</font> <p>God has given us His Word and He has given us His Spirit to breathe life into those words, to ignite faith and so to fulfill in us His joy. May He soften our hearts always to believe that we might be perennially encouraged and able to encourage. <p>May He give us all <em>‘a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him’</em> that we may know <em>‘what is <u>the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe,</u> <strong>according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead</strong> and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places’</em>…<font size="1">Eph.1:17-19</font> <p>This is my prayer for me, and for you ( : <p><em>--LS</em> <p><strong>Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus</strong> who was crucified. He is not here, for He has risen, as He said….See, I have told you. <font size="1">Mt.28:5 </font> <p>“…<strong>let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice!</strong> Seek the LORD and his strength; seek his presence continually!” <font size="1">Ps.105:3-4</font> <p>You have said, <em>"Seek my face."</em> My heart says to you,<em> <strong>"Your face, LORD, do I seek." ...</strong></em> Wait for the LORD; be strong, and<strong> let your heart take courage</strong>; wait for the LORD! <font size="1">Ps.27:8,14</font> <p>Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: <strong>blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed</strong>. <font size="1">Jn.20:29</font>Lindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16682029173527471837noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4063575672808296948.post-39983501287339098192016-03-11T17:50:00.001-08:002016-03-11T17:50:52.045-08:00The Only Thing that Counts<p>How do <u>you</u> measure the worth of a day? <br>What’s your criterion for <strong>‘a good day’</strong>?</p> <p>Most of my life I’ve kept journals—recording happenings, feelings, revelations, and just plain history. They’ve become repositories of words that track my life. When I was young I wrote of actual things that were happening. Things that seem mostly mundane now, or overrated, or downright silly:<em> “Today is Friday. I played at the shale pit and took Heather to see the fort and to feed the geese…I watched Brady Bunch and Partridge Family. They were not re-runs.” <font size="1">[March 16, 1973]</font></em></p> <p>These days journaling is mostly a record of my inner life and of God’s words intersecting my own thoughts in ways that beg to be recorded. But at night before I turn out the light, there is a book for the little things, the happenings, just a few lines per day. I’m not sure why I keep it, really. <em> “What did I do today?”</em> is a pretty mundane question at this stage in my life. <font size="2"><em>[I need perhaps another question that would help me milk the beauty of the day for the record, if you have any suggestions?]</em></font> Though this book comes in handy for verifying dates when ‘such and such’ happened I’m not sure why I feel compelled to keep jotting down things in it every night, as though the day doesn’t ‘count’ unless I’ve recorded something here.</p> <p>My measure of a day’s worth is pretty warped. I feel good about a day if I’ve checked off the things I’ve chosen as priorities. If I’ve spent time in the Word, if I’ve done a bit of writing, if I’ve created something, and if I’ve spent some time reading a good book…these things frame the essentials of a ‘good’ day. My ‘to-do’ list is pretty basic. You can no doubt see some glaring deficiencies with it. So can I. Some ‘givens’ are simply not listed…feeding my husband for instance! Getting exercise. Praying. And there are other priorities that don’t lend themselves to a check-off list, relationships, for instance.</p> <p>But the question I’ve been asking this week is: <strong>How does God evaluate the worth of a day’s accomplishments? </strong>My checked off lists, mental or written, console me that the day wasn’t <em>wasted</em>. Does He see it that way? Or can lists become false comforts, distractions even, from the opportunities that matter most? <strong> If my list takes priority over the things that pose as interruptions but are really God-sent moments, what then?</strong> Where do random conversations fit? or the phone call that catches me ‘in the middle of something’? What of interruptions, sick days, and changes of plan outside my control? Do these ‘count’ in the valuation of a day? Or are they just irritants that prevent me from ‘getting stuff done’?</p> <p>Though their value is not quantifiable or visible the value of these unplanned moments may far surpass the value of reading # pages toward my monthly goal, or adding a daily doodle to my portfolio. Hindsight shows that it’s the interruptions to my routines that have brought flavor and richness to my life. <em>(Thank God for a husband that drags me away from my desk to ride and to ski and to sit in the sun!)</em> In retrospect I am thankful for the non-routine elements that shape my days. I see in them God’s hand going about His work to rub off my sharp edges, to mellow my compulsions, to bring me delight and shower me with undeserved mercies. They remind me that it is not my work but His that matters most. <strong>The orderly things over which I claim control are the least likely to build my faith.</strong> Of course, being faithful in the small things matters, but this is different than being compulsive about the small things! If I do them to bolster my self-worth or gain ‘brownie points’ for my diligence while neglecting weightier things (like relationships) they have become dead works, a waste of time and energy!</p> <p><em><font size="4">There remains a sabbath rest for the people of God,</font> for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.</em> <font size="1">Heb.4:9,10</font></p> <p>What matters most to God is not my compulsive need to be ‘doing something’ but my persistence in the hope of the Gospel, that teaches me that it’s what God did that matters most and my role is to believe and to rest in the reality that <strong>Christ has done all the right things in my place.</strong> He has finished the work that matters most. The real ‘to-do’ list is done. </p> <p><font size="4">He has canceled the record of debt that stood against us</font> with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. <font size="1">Col.2:14</font></p> <p>This changes the way I operate. I will probably always be a list person. I work best with goals and schedules. But these do not measure the worth of a day or a lifetime. Complete or incomplete they do not establish my worth or a day’s value. Faith does. In inviting me to share His yoke Jesus calls me to walk by faith, to allow Him to direct and energize the good works He has prepared for me to walk in. He must be Lord of my ‘to-do-today’ lists, with the right to cancel them all and re-direct my focus completely. They are not the measure of a ‘good day’. </p> <p align="center"><font size="3"><strong>The only thing that counts is faith <br>expressing itself through love</strong>.</font> <br><font size="1">Gal.4:6NIV</font></p> <p>By faith…I can still establish priorities and carry them out, but also by faith I can welcome interruptions, alternatives, and days when nothing ‘gets done’. I can trust that God is working where my best efforts are stymied, and that He will enable me to do what He wills me to accomplish. By faith every day can be a good day.</p> <p><em><font size="3">For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.</font></em> <font size="1">Phil.2:13NLT</font></p> <p>The obvious question becomes how do I know whether I’m operating out of<em> faith</em> in the mundane of day-to-day? Where’s the <u>evidence </u>that I’m actually depending on God as I go about my work? </p> <p>I’d love to hear your feedback on this question. So far what I’ve come up with are these two attributes that will be present in a day walked out by faith. Can you suggest others?</p> <ul> <li>Thankful prayerfulness—<em>The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication <u>with thanksgiving</u> let your requests be made known to God.</em> <font size="1">(Phil.4:5-7)</font> Faith expresses itself in praying without ceasing, committing what I am doing to Him, and even welcoming what I didn’t intend to be doing, in His name. <strong>Talking to Him about everything with a thankful disposition reflects faith.</strong></li> <li>Peace of mind—a deep seated contentment with the way things are at this moment, even with the things that need to change eventually, reflects faith. There is a patience in faith that reflects the knowledge that God is in control and will accomplish all that concerns me in His perfect time. He is the Head of the Body. He orchestrates its growth as its members are yielded to each other and to Him. And <strong>He gives the ones who trust Him peace.<em> </em></strong><em>“And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”</em> <font size="1">(Phil4:7) </font></li></ul> <p>And those are qualities I want to be the measure of my days! <br>I’d very much appreciate your prayers that they would be so.</p> <p>“Let us therefore strive to enter <u>that</u> rest!” <font size="1">Heb.4:11</font></p> <p><em>--LS</em></p> <p><font size="3"><em>Make me to know your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths. Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long.</em></font> <font size="1">Ps.25:4,5</font></p> <p>To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ: May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. <font size="1">Jude 1,2,20,21</font></p> <p>Whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. <font size="1">Col.3:23,24</font></p> <p><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-BUEhJY-XV6Q/VuN19Vvy7nI/AAAAAAAAgs0/7bcsg8IAslA/s1600-h/Rejoice%25255B8%25255D.jpg"><img title="Rejoice" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="Rejoice" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE8tGXXOHoji3XrKaO6fgBGAtEwxEkfAvnZobjAs1yV23g0HKnNYzIa08VqnyZ-paoWZI0VfzJL4Ae019E6he_6Z4e5L1zF_hqby-JOAYzCD4f0KkuJCX_oQ_c1NMDmMfCV4Yss-H-1RCu/?imgmax=800" width="486" height="352"></a></p> <p><font size="1"></font></p>Lindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16682029173527471837noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4063575672808296948.post-11780038757400034022016-03-04T20:51:00.001-08:002016-03-04T20:51:24.519-08:00Good and Plenty<p><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-gsoZO4519YA/VtplvZurSAI/AAAAAAAAgiY/5DsmN2wpLN8/s1600-h/clip_image002%25255B4%25255D.jpg"><img title="clip_image002" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="clip_image002" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyQHlfWER2mIX3r73L15efAUZKdzDMgQx-0xkhGk3d9GU5ETbL9uiMjjFINtby1FT0_W4U9ClejAcGQdIK6Xl_hCp8tyMqHe9RPI7uNHumimXsoz2Sn3AvbQGhzOBuLreZJmO2gZsSceC_/?imgmax=800" width="396" height="324"></a> <p>My box ran empty at last. I've been parceling them out a few at a time ever since our Christmas trip to the states. Now they're gone. I quite like these delectably disguised nibs of licorice with the pink and white candy coating; they remind me of my childhood somehow. But that's beside the point. As I plunked the empty box on my desk the other day I realized what an apt descriptor it bore of the God we serve. <strong>He is good and He is plenty</strong>--all we need, ever, to handle anything and everything. <p><font size="4">And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.</font> <font size="1">II Cor.9:8</font> <p align="right"><em>“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”<br><font size="1">II Cor.12:9</font></em></p> <p><font size="4">For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.</font> <sup><font size="1">Ps.84:11</font></sup> <p>It's a simple concept really, with endless Scriptural support, but it’s not so easy to grab hold of in the day to day demands of our lives—God is Good and Plenty for all our needs. <p>I am easily intimidated by open-ended tasks, especially creative ones. What if I can't come up with what is needed? What if it's not good enough? What if it's not ready in time? What if I-just-C-A-N'-T?! These questions are ultimately only answerable by faith. What God calls me to accomplish He will enable me to accomplish, maybe not in my timing, maybe not to my specifications, maybe it will be a different product than I envision, but He will enable me to do whatever He has called me to do for His glory. He is GOOD and He is always enough for my lack; He is the definition of 'PLENTY'. <p>The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want...right? <p>I read the parable of the workers in the vineyard this week with its picture of the Master we serve. The early birds agreed on the day's wage before starting in at the crack of dawn. They slaved away through the heat of the day. As they worked others were added to the workforce, some at mid-morning, others at noon and mid-afternoon, and some didn't get to work until an hour before quitting time. To each the master promised: <font size="4"><em>"Whatever is right I will give you."</em></font> But when the foreman handed out the pay, not only did he start with the late-comers, but he paid them a full day's wage, the same as everybody else, even the hard-working early birds who had born the brunt of the burden in the vineyard that day. <p>When they protested to the Master, despite His having paid them exactly what was agreed upon at the start of the day, his response was: <p><i><font size="4">'Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?'</font></i> <font size="1">Mt.20:15</font> <p>We serve a <b>good and plenty</b> God. He is lavish in dispensing His grace. It is enough for the first and the last, for all who serve Him, no matter what strength or weakness they bring to the task. <p>Oh, there may appear to be inequities in this lifetime. Some are called to suffer the heat of the day while others seem to get a free ride. Most of us live in mansions while multitudes live in ramshackle huts. Life doesn't appear to be fair. Some people seem to have all the talent while others get stuck with the grunt work...but in the big scheme of things, God's wage is good <i>and</i> plenty. And <strong>His grace is sufficient for each and every calling</strong>. And besides, what present challenge can compare with what's to come at the end of the Day? Those He calls He grants an inheritance. We are God's heirs, and joint-heirs with Christ! <p>"This shall be their inheritance: <strong>I am their inheritance</strong>: and you shall give them no possession in Israel; I am their possession. <font size="1">Ez.44:28</font> <p>But I digress. Because God is Good and because He has Plenty He is only too willing to share, He is well able to equip us for whatever He calls us to do. <p>This couldn't have been better illustrated than in my morning's reading in Exodus 31. The detailed plans for the tent of meeting have been given to Moses. God has designed it to be gloriously beautiful--with gold and silver and bronze and fine linen ornately embroidered in blue and purple and scarlet yarns... The details go on and on. Now the people must create it as per His instructions. But He doesn't leave them to their best efforts. He gifts them two men and He fills these two men with His Spirit and <em>"with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze, in cutting stones fro setting, and in carving wood, to work in every craft."</em> <strong>God gives the ability He requires to accomplish the task He commands</strong>. <p><font size="4">"I have given to all able men ability, that they may make all that I have commanded you." </font><font size="1">Ex.31:6</font> <p>His designs are grand and His Spirit will bring them to pass using mere men (and women). Wow! So take heart if you have a calling that seems way over your head. God is Good and Plenty to bring it to pass through you for His own glory. <p>He calls us to assess with sober judgment our calling according to the measure of faith that He has assigned and then... “having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us,<strong> let us use them...</strong> “ <font size="1">Rom. 12:3-6</font> <p>We serve a God who is GOOD and who is PLENTY for all we need.</p> <p><em>Taste and see that the Lord is good! <font size="1">Ps.34:8</font></em> <p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje2j9W2acIyLJK3JXfKN5zm4U0sAAidcPjZabn804Omr5F_H7vcGMF5k4VSiN6ddNlnfJhkHYZYT5HvzJ6HUF2bO5kPz47pJrcSUa433VVgLiSt3rDzK19rSNSelLr1EHjqb8SVpayl2dk/s1600-h/Good%252520and%252520Plenty%25255B4%25255D.jpg"><img title="Good and Plenty" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="Good and Plenty" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhadFWNUpQV1jwjajvW4jqmiaKHxu-o44L0N_-zTvUGOwoVvl8qBcSYi3A_EiY-5-V863MA9yuppELsfMYHLzrLoqCV54wBzED6DUBasN63075sfjkpv6Wc5fy7eR4GmQogvEAUEDvCwNFo/?imgmax=800" width="291" height="316"></a> <p><em>--LS</em> <p>Then he said to me, "This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: <strong>Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts.</strong> <font size="1">Zech.4:6</font> <p>Truly God is good…to those who are pure in heart. <font size="1">Ps.73:1</font>Lindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16682029173527471837noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4063575672808296948.post-10609101408602199112016-02-26T16:08:00.001-08:002016-02-26T16:08:39.144-08:00Anchoring Fickle to Faithful<p>I am fickle. The longer I live with myself the more I realize it. Adolescent mood swings gave way to mommy tantrums (I never thought I had anger issues and then came a husband and kids, even once a flying saucepan). Then once the kids were gone and you'd think peace might reign over the middle-aged empty nest, there have come menopausal moments and the uncertainty of who I am to be in this new stage of life. Life is forever dishing out change... And I am forever reacting. This is part of the biological definition of life I suppose--this capacity to grow, reproduce, and continually to react/adapt to change until this body dies. <p>Some days it is laughable, this fickle me. And I wonder aloud to Jim what it must be like for a Mr. Steady to be married to someone so subject to change without notice--looking like she's headed to her doom on the drive out to the ski trails and bubbling over with endorphins and happy exhaustion at day's end... <p>Other days it's not so laughable. I am prone to carry things in my head, to ponder in my heart, and to carry the weight of <i>me</i> too long alone...weighing and wondering how best to balance all the <em>shoulds</em> and <em>coulds</em> and <em>mights(?)</em> that rattle around in my head. <i></i> <p>I've been thinking lately, for instance, about what 'taking up my cross' and following Christ is meant to look like in this strange middle-age. At the same time I'm trying to figure out exactly who I am and what I do have to offer... What does it look like to lay down my life in the day-to-day? to die to self? to be crucified with Christ and yet to be fully alive, a living sacrifice fulfilling all the 'good works' He has prepared from before the foundation of the world for me to walk in?! I scrawled in my journal this morning on the way to the gym: <i>"Lord, deliver me from myself. Free me to live wholly pleasing, wholly yours according to YOUR design. Let me be content with that."</i> <p>And while I carry all these thoughts around I'm prone to lapse into an introspection that is my undoing. In wanting to lose myself doing His bidding I end up fixating on myself. <i>(Am I doing what I'm meant to be doing?...) </i>Chris Rice's lyrics resonate in the background: <p><font face="Times New Roman">Curse-reversing day of Jesus<br>When You finally seize my soul<br>Freedom from myself will be<br>The sweetest rest I've ever known...</font></p> <div id="scid:0ABB7CC8-30EB-4F34-8080-22DA77ED20C3:2e2afff8-9043-45fa-85ee-d3e87324e5de" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent" style="float: none; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px"><div><object width="425" height="239"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/iR7MXFupz6E&hl=en"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/iR7MXFupz6E&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="239"></embed></object></div><div style="width:425px;clear:both;font-size:.8em">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iR7MXFupz6E</div></div> <p>Amen to that!! <p>Paul said it this way: "Who shall deliver me from this body of death?!" <p>He then continued: "<em>But thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord...<u>the law of the Spirit of life</u> has set me free from the law of sin and death."</em> <font size="1">(Rom.7:24,25)</font> <p>And that’s where I’m at, the law of the Spirit of life at work in me, despite me, working out the realities of Romans 8 in me…this life as God intends it to be seeps through my fluctuating feelings. This Spirit I have inherited as a child of God woos me to another mindset, one of life and peace, again and again! Here's what it looked like this week. <p>It came in the suggestion of my good man this afternoon to just take a break and go out and sit in the sun for a few minutes. <i>Too cold, too much trouble, I have things I should be doing, no place to sit, sun's almost gone...</i> all these objections murmured in my head but I knew he was right. I took my Bible and went, out to the sunny slope where the deer and elk sometimes loiter in fall and winter, the slope I first discovered <a href="http://lindaskelton.blogspot.ca/2015/03/my-new-backyard.html">last year at this time</a>. The snow has finally melted away... I sat, and opened the Word and felt the sun on my face for the first time in too long and cried <em>"Abba, Father"...</em> <p><em>"I need you, Father",</em> is more and more the best expression of my heart. I murmur it often; <em>“…I always need you…."</em> And when I don't know what to ask, as is so often the case, I am reassured that the Spirit knows; He helps us in our weakness; He intercedes with groans that transcend words' ability. And into this sweet quiet space, this rest on a sunny slope, came the Word. God's perspective. Words He spoke through his prophet, Isaiah, many, many years ago. Words that never grow old, or dim, or meaningless. Eternal words directed at His people Israel in a dark age. I paraphrase: <blockquote> <p>Comfort, comfort my people...Tell her that her warfare is over; her sins have been forgiven. Make way for your God--He's coming. Get ready<i>. (John the Baptist would repeat this call to repentance; it is apropos still...)</i> </p></blockquote> <p>And then this, who I am, who He is, what matters most: <blockquote> <p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"All flesh is grass..."</font> it withers and fades when the Lord blows on it <font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman">"BUT the Word of our God will stand forever."</font> </font></p></blockquote> <p>Perspective. I'm listening... <blockquote> <p>Good News is here! Get a herald to shout it: "BEHOLD YOUR GOD!”</p></blockquote> <p>And the verses that follow are all about HIM... <blockquote> <p>He tends His flock like a shepherd.. he holds the oceans in His hand and measures the skies and weighs the mountains! Who can fathom His Spirit? He consults no one. <i>[But think of it, <u>this Spirit is alive in me</u>, <u>now</u>-- wooing, instructing, reminding, renewing my mind to line up with God's Word, at this very moment!]</i> The nations are no more than a drop in the bucket to Him. Who is like our God? What idol compares to Him? <font size="4">"Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told you from the beginning?..." </font> <p>"It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers..."</p></blockquote> <p>As the Word speaks, my perspective is lifted away from myself to its rightful Object-- <p align="center"><font size="4">"Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these?"</font> <p>I look up to the trees towering all around and above me, the blue skies beyond them. How can I not see His greatness? It is all around me. <p>Then the Word becomes more personal, directed to Israel but applying to my own heart in principle-- <blockquote> <p>Why do you say, O Jacob,...<em>'my way is hidden from the LORD, and my right is disregarded by my God?'</em> <font size="1">(Is.40:27)</font> <p><em>"Have you not known?</em> <p><em>Have you not heard?</em> <p><em>The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.</em> <p><em>He does not faint or grow weary;</em> <p><em>his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength...</em> <p><em>they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength..."</em></p></blockquote> <p>I was glued to the page, my heart drawn to listen to God's words echoing down all these ages to a woman on a hillside yearning to know and fulfill His purposes despite her incorrigible self-centeredness... <p>And here is meaning and purpose declared by my God and Creator, first to Israel, but by extension, as His redeemed one, to me also... <blockquote> <p><em>"Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine...<strong>created for my glory</strong>, whom I formed and made...</em> <p><em>You are my witnesses, and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may KNOW and BELIEVE ME and UNDERSTAND that I am He....besides me there is no Saviour. </em> <p><em>“I declared and saved and proclaimed, ...and you are my witnesses,” declares the LORD, “and I am God.... I am the LORD, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King....I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake and I will not remember your sins...Fear not, nor be afraid; have I not told you from of old and declared it? And you <b>are</b> my witnesses! Is there a God besides me? There is no Rock; I know not any.’"</em></p></blockquote> <p>Here is purpose, plain and simple, and yet big enough for a lifetime: Know me, Believe Me, Understand that I am God (and you are not!) and that you , as part of a corporate Body are my witnesses. God's priority for my life is first that I<em> know Him</em> and <em>believe Him</em>. His Word serves this purpose. It must be my first priority. In it He reveals who He is; feeding here faith is born. ("Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God"). Meanwhile life happens... with all its opportunities to exercise faith. <p>Picture the children of Israel in the desert, coming to know the walk of faith, coming to recognize the ways God worked on their behalf... Actually, they failed in this endeavor. They refused to believe and failed to see His faithful hand. They died in unbelief. <em>"They have not know my ways...they shall not enter my rest"</em> <font size="1">Ps.95:10</font> But their children were brought into the promised land and God brought Himself great renown through their conquests. He led. He gave the victories. He used their lives to showcase His glory. They were His witnesses by default as they came to know and believe Him. <p>Our lives too will showcase His glory in unique ways as we come to know God and to believe all He has said. For this I am created and molded. For this purpose He directs my days even when I cannot see His Hand at work...If there’s something to be learned from the children of Israel in the wilderness, it’s that whether I co-operate or not, God will be glorified in his dealings with me. He is faithful. He is sovereign. But if I harbor hardness of heart, I will be the one to die in the desert and miss out on the inheritance He has prepared… Hmm. Don’t want to take allegory too far. You can take or leave that last thought…just pondering ( : <p>At this point in the Bible narrative, with the nation of Israel in view, it's not so much a matter of their going out and intentionally BEING a witness (in the Great Commission sense). There is a sense in which our lives simply <i>become</i> testimonies to His greatness as we yield soft hearts to believe His Word and follow His leading. We are transformed and in the process, God gains renown as one who works wonders with clay!<i> </i> <p><i></i> <p align="center"><font size="4">"And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. </font> <p align="center"><font size="4">For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit."</font><font size="1"> II Cor.3:18</font> <p align="center"><font size="4">I formed you for myself to declare my praise</font> <font size="1">(Is.43:21)</font> <p>But what does this all have to do with me and my fickle heart that is so readily turned inward and disheartened? My afternoon time on that sunny slope soaking up Son-shine through the Word put my focus back on this One who works wonders with clay and spins galaxies from air. Here is a worthy focus that won't come up short. He is a Rock like no other to steady my fickle heart. <p>And as I read from Isaiah Paul's advice to the converts of Phillipi resounded in my heart: <i>Rejoice in the Lord, let me repeat it, for it is a safeguard for you, REJOICE <u>in the Lord</u>. </i>If I only rejoice when I've had a 'good' day--gotten stuff done, gotten a shot of endorphins, been encouraged by what I've seen or heard...whatever it is that entails a 'good' day--I will know only erratic rejoicing. I will be disheartened when my source is myself. <strong>I was never intended to be satisfied with my own glory; it falls short. But His never does.</strong> When I anchor my thoughts in Him, taking Him at His Word, there is always cause to rejoice. He is a Rock like no other. His Words anchor Fickle to Faithful. <p><strong>For who is a rock, except our God?</strong> <font size="1">Ps.18:31</font> <p>This post is already longer than I'd intended it to be. There is all manner of treasure in Isaiah 40-44. I've only touched on a smattering of it. I commend it to you if ever you need a focus shift to something greater than yourself... <p>So, have I found all the answers to my ponderings about laying down my life in this strange middle age? <p>No, but I've been reminded of my primary purpose: <p>To Know Him <p>To Believe Him <p>and as I go on my way rejoicing in Him to be a living witness to His Greatness. <p>That should be enough for a lifetime! <p>--LS <p>“We ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies." <font size="1">Rom.8:23<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjskbZXD_xMU2vs9ddY3F91-osyK6qKwCNcXWeWTV4rKCIU495UAacHmj3KOTv6SyjG5DaOQrbLTrnnojhTMq4KwDy6Jl1MmQtUX2d50FaHCF-xSE-QkE8uGTOiobc5I8cIhecoUep0vARK/s1600-h/IMG_20160224_164907496%25255B4%25255D.jpg"><img title="IMG_20160224_164907496" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="IMG_20160224_164907496" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWHY-pWh3E8imKHR9Jyju84f4G__uCyNX6DVJjNaPmL6Vgn3dvpl-s7ZDnJwTUm_C3uPyyillaAaj7thdgqhstAKfgiXil3jgQXUxE-Klu-t7ItHnuWe4C5V_3vrcpxC_4VaNShnWJB9Yb/?imgmax=800" width="450" height="338"></a></font> <p>"...who by God's power are being guarded <em>through faith</em> for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith--more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire--may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”<font size="1"> I Pet.1:5-7</font> <p>“Though you have not seen him, you love him. <strong>Though you do not now see Him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory,</strong> obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” <br><font size="1">I Pet.1:8,9</font>Lindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16682029173527471837noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4063575672808296948.post-32156121331024259992016-02-17T14:06:00.001-08:002016-02-19T11:09:45.583-08:00STUCK! In a Snowy Pit<p>Benaiah went down into a pit on a snowy day and killed a lion. As one of David's mighty men he distinguished himself as a 'doer of great deeds' <font size="1">(II Sam.23:20).</font> I am not so brave. I can't fathom <i>choosing</i> to go down into a pit with a lion. I did however choose to go skiing once again yesterday, defying my latent fears that this could be the day that...the inevitable catastrophe happens. And I did end up consequently in a pit on a snowy day, but not on purpose! I rolled there inadvertently after doing a face plant in the snow at the finish of a rather frightening hill on a narrow track, a track that ran too close to a softening edge... <p>Snow was all I could see. Wet snow filling my glasses. I wasn't hurt and I've had quite a bit of practice getting up from these sorts of spills. So, since cold can set in pretty quickly when you lie about in snow, without stopping to clear my vision I proceeded to roll to my side to get up. But Whaaa! NO!!!...the snow moved away under me and down I tumbled blind in very slow motion sideways and a bit headlong to land firmly shouldered in a semi-fetal position, skis firmly wedged in place, feet painfully fettered to them at an intense angle--STUCK nearly immobile in a snowy pit. My fears had come to roost. I had observed these trail-side holes on other days and had avoided letting my imagination play with what it would be like to fall in one. This one I had not seen. And here I was. <b>What do you do when your fears come to roost?</b> <p>I did the first thing that came to mind: I hollered "HELP! HELP!" knowing even as I did it that it was useless. Noone could hear me. I was alone in this neck of the woods. (And there is no cell-phone coverage in these parts either.) The only threesome of people I'd seen were back up at the hut I'd left, just settling in to wait for foil-wrapped sandwiches to warm on the stove. I was supposed to have been with Jim but had taken the wrong fork in the trail a while back and ended up at the wrong hut, miles from the hut where Jim presumably sat waiting for me to show up... Making the most of my poor choice I had grabbed a quick snack at the hut, warmed up a bit, and headed back down the mountain to home base solo, a little unnerved by the steep trails. But managing. Until this. <p>I was stuck! Pulling my hands free of their pole straps I wiped the snow crystals from my lenses to see where I was. It was a cozy pit of snow, just big enough for me to plunk into in a topsy-turvy muddle, but not big enough to move in. Water trickled over rocks at the bottom, water I hoped to keep myself out of! A season's worth of snowfall formed its walls and precluded my view of the trail above. But at least there was no lion in my pit. No lion but my own fears. <p><em>"Lord, help me..."</em> I pleaded struggling to free my boots from their bindings so I could move! It's as simple in theory as pushing a button, but for the life of me I could not get the leverage needed to both push hard enough and pull at the requisite angle to detach my ski boots. There was too much pressure on the binding from my cramped feet. I had to give it up. But I had to get my feet out of that awful position! Loosing the velcro straps I pulled my feet right out of their boots, and stood sock-footed on the wet cold rocks in my snowy pit. (Yay for wool socks!!) What a relief to be able to stand up! <p>After that it was pretty straightforward: Extract skis and toss them up to the surface. Pull poles out of the snow walls and see about using them to hoist me out of that pit. No go. Snow just moves away, especially soft melting snow. What a pickle. Wet, chest-high snow is not so simple to scale. But I lunged at it a few times and on about the third jump managed to crawl out onto the trail beside my skiis and boots and ski poles. Whew! There I was, stocking-footed, wet-seated, in a spectacular snowy wilderness! I was cognizant of the absurdity of it even as I scrambled to put myself back together. I was relieved and grateful to be standing there but also shaken and not far from tears. Jim's frequent admonition echoed in my head: <i>"Work quickly. It's cold out here." </i>Highly motivated by fingers now getting cold and feet eager for boots, I was back in gear in no time, pausing only long enough to snap a picture of a now rather innocuous-looking hole in the snow. And to regret that alas, my water bottle lay at the bottom of that pit where it must have fallen from my pocket in the tumble down. Sigh. I was thirsty already. But in just a few more miles I would be 'home'... <p>Never did the warming hut at the trailhead look so welcoming. As I removed my skiis and trudged up toward the parked van to retrieve some warm dry clothes I just wanted to have a good cry, but instead found myself reciting all the ways God had in fact protected me from the worst.<em> "Yes, Lord..."</em> I was neither cold nor injured. (Later I would feel the black and blue toenail, and the stiff neck and shoulder.) My glasses were intact, as were my skiis and poles. I had been perfectly able, though shaky, to ski back safely with just a couple falls along the way. All was in fact well. <p>I had lived through a scary situation. Shaken but not debilitated. Frightened but not paralyzed. On my own, but not alone. God had carried me through fears I had wished only to skirt. He does this at times. As I've pondered just why I've been compelled to drag you through this dramatized account, which has taken far longer to write about than to live through, I have realized something. Threats to my physical well-being are not my greatest liability. I'm learning that with God at hand I can rise to the occasion and scramble out of these as necessity requires.<strong> It's the invisible fears that paralyze our souls and immobilize us from living out God's design for us that pose our greatest threat.</strong> <p><strong></strong> <h3 align="center"><em><font style="font-weight: normal">Through many dangers, toils and snares </font><br><font style="font-weight: normal">I have already come…</font></em></h3> <p>My greatest dangers will not be faced on a ski trail or the back of a tandem bike rocketing down a highway. These are only practice for facing my more debilitating fears and keeping going--a blank page in Live Writer, for instance, or another Friday's blog post, another chance to share my story of hope in the Living God who rescues His children continuously from themselves--when they get all balled up in a pit with their fears of inadequacy and can't seem to move…. <em><font size="4">He gently lifts them out, sets them on their stocking feet, and frees them to tell of all He has done</font></em>. It's not about getting the words perfect or gaining an impressive audience. It's not about competing with all the talented writers out there. It's about sharing<em> my</em> story of what God is doing in <em>this </em>life He’s given me for His own fame. It's about sharing the manna He feeds me daily from His word. <p> <h3 align="center"><em><font style="font-weight: normal">'Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far, </font><br><font style="font-weight: normal">and grace will lead me home...</font></em></h3> <p>And just maybe this means you'll begin to see posts appear here once again. If so, each will be, by default, a testimony to His grace overcoming my insecurities. I have not been called to descend into a pit to fight a lion, but I am called to resist that lion's paralyzing roar. And to climb from the pit of my own fears of inadequacy and do the next thing. <strong>God's strength is sufficient for His calling. It shows up best in the place of weakness.</strong> <p><em><font size="3">Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust and will not be afraid for the Lord God is my strength and my song, and He has become my salvation.</font><font size="1"> (Is.12:2)</font></em> <p><strong>Are you stuck?</strong> May I share a checklist based on my own experience? <ul> <li>Call for help--God hears when noone else can.</li> <li>Clear your vision: <em>Where am I? Where do I want to be?</em></li> <li>Resist fear and panic--keep breathing and moving... </li> <li>Do the next thing--whatever it is you <i>can</i> do, one bit at a time.</li> <li> Make it a priority to GET UP! <em>('Arise' is how Scripture repeatedly puts it!)</em> This may require getting your feet wet. That's ok.</li> <li>And remember, God is at hand providing everything you need to get unstuck. He died to set you free!</li></ul> <p>Oh, and when the snowy pit is behind you, don't forget to tell your story, for from it God's glory will shine! <p>God calls us to overcome our fears, but never alone. He is always there, to instruct, to calm, to help us to do the next thing, and to bring us safely home. <strong>He who died to redeem our lives from eternal destruction, can surely assist us out of unforeseen pits on snowy days...</strong> <p><em>--LS</em> <p><font size="3"><em>"Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits...<strong>who redeems your life from the pit, </strong>who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy..."</em></font> <font size="1">Ps.103:2-4</font> <p>“But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation I will sing to the LORD, because he has dealt bountifully with me."<font size="1"> Ps13:5,6</font> <p>"I have set the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken." <font size="1">Ps.16:8</font> <p><strong>So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed!</strong> <font size="1">Jn.8:36</font> <p>Behold, the LORD thy God hath set the land before thee: <u>go up and possess it,</u> as the LORD God of thy fathers hath said unto thee; <u>fear not, neither be discouraged.</u> <font size="1">Deut.1:21</font> <p><em><font size="4"><strong>Arise, shine;</strong> for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee.</font></em> <font size="1">Is.60:1</font> <p>For God has not given us the spirit of fear; <br>but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. <font size="1">II Tim.1:7</font> <p>"Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: Whom<u> resist stedfast in the faith...</u><font size="4"><em>But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you."</em></font> <br><font size="1">I Pet.5:8-10</font></p>Lindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16682029173527471837noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4063575672808296948.post-79527230891341043062015-11-14T11:58:00.001-08:002015-11-14T11:58:00.644-08:00The Barebones of a Godly Legacy<p><font size="3" face="Calibri">Just before he died, Joseph gave his sons instructions concerning his bones, and for this he is commended as a man of faith </font><a href="https://www.blueletterbible.org/esv/heb/11/22/s_1144022"><font size="3" face="Calibri">(See: Heb. 11: 22)</font></a><font size="3" face="Calibri"> . He died and was embalmed in Egypt, among foreigners, leaving his progeny to the whims of a future and hostile king (<i>"Now there arose a new king over </i><i>Egypt</i><i>, who did not know Joseph." </i>Ex.1:8) So concludes the book of Genesis--the historical account of the generations of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.</font> <p><font size="3" face="Calibri"><strong>The land of their prospering and multiplying had become the place of their enslavement</strong>. God foreknowing this, had told Abraham generations earlier that this would be their lot-- <i>"Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years!"</i> <font size="2">Gen. 15:13-16</font> But God had also promised that this bondage would not be the end; in the fourth generation He said He would bring them back to the land where Abraham now only camped and they would settle there, displacing its inhabitants, becoming a people among whom God would dwell--a nation unlike any other, on whose behalf God would show Himself strong. <a href="https://www.blueletterbible.org/esv/deu/4/32/s_157032">(See: Deut. 4: 32-35)</a></font> <p><font size="3" face="Calibri">Abraham had not seen this promise fulfilled but he had believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. <a href="https://www.blueletterbible.org/esv/rom/4/20/s_1050020">Rom.4:20ff</a> </font><font size="3" face="Calibri">Now three generations later, Joseph lay dying in a foreign land. Still God had not brought His people into their inheritance. But Joseph was confident He would. And on his death bed he said<i>: 'God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here.'</i> Joseph died far from the land God had promised to his descendants. But God had promised... and Joseph knew in his bones God would keep His Word. <strong>This was the legacy he left--this God-confidence that despite his own helplessness to contribute to their redemption God would somehow, sometime, bring it about!</strong></font> <p><font size="3" face="Calibri">I've been reading day by day the account of the exodus of the children of Israel from Egypt--how God let his people fall into harsh oppression there. Perhaps this was the only way they'd ever have wanted to leave behind its lushness and plenty, its leeks and garlic? <a href="https://www.blueletterbible.org/esv/num/11/5/s_128005">Cf.Num. 11:5</a> . In their oppression they cried out to God and He sent a saviour, a kinsman-- Moses, to intercede on their behalf with Pharaoh.</font> <p><font face="Calibri"><font size="3">It was a hard won victory. Pharaoh wasn't quick to release them from such a lucrative enslavement. But this too God used on their behalf (and for the enlightenment of all the nations watching!), that they might never forget His greatness and power, that they might <i>'tell in the hearing of your son and of your grandson how I have dealt harshly with the Egyptians and what signs I have done among them, that you may know that I am the LORD.' <a href="https://www.blueletterbible.org/esv/exo/10/1/s_60001">Ex.10:2</a> </i></font></font> <p><font face="Calibri"><font size="3">For generations to come they would recall this night of their deliverance, this night when the blood on their doorposts would save them from the death angel, this <i>'night of watching by the Lord'</i> <font size="2">(Ex.12:42)</font> to deliver them from bondage. They would recount God's mighty deliverance again and again for generations to come, <a href="https://www.blueletterbible.org/esv/psa/107/1/s_585001">(eg.Ps.107)</a> , that night of the tenth plague: the death of every firstborn in Egypt, the urgent summons to Moses and Aaron, the emancipating edict: <i>"Up, go out from among my people...and serve the LORD as you have said. Take your flocks and your herds... and BE GONE!"</i> and the desperate plea from Pharaoh: <i>"and bless me also!".</i></font></font> <p><font face="Calibri"><font size="3">This was the night of their deliverance. It had come just as God had foretold it would, not one day early, not one day late. <i>"At the end of 430 years, <b>on that very day</b>, all the hosts of the LORD went out from the </i><i>land</i><i> of </i><i>Egypt</i><i>."</i> <font size="2">Ex.12:41</font> And in their hasty exit Moses took the bones of Joseph with him in accordance with Joseph's dying wish: <strong><em>"God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones with you from here." </em></strong></font><font size="2">Ex.13:19</font></font> <p><font size="3" face="Calibri">Joseph is only one of many in the great Hall of Faith who died not having received what was promised. But physical death is not the end all. Being interred, embalmed, cremated... for those who believe <b>these are just the commencement of life as we have yet to know it.</b> Joseph believed. And it was counted to him as righteousness, the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. <a href="https://www.blueletterbible.org/esv/phl/3/9/s_1106009">(Phil.3:9)</a> </font><font face="Calibri"><font size="3">And it occurs to me that <strong>this is the very best legacy we can leave our children and all those who have known us in this lifetime--this confidence that <u>'God will surely visit you...'</u></strong></font></font> <p><font size="3" face="Calibri">My own father sits slumped in a wheelchair, beyond reach of human reassurances but having lived his life in faith that God is to be trusted and served come what may. His body is in bondage to decay. Day by day he grows weaker in mind and body but not so his spirit. The Spirit within is helping him in his weakness. The Spirit himself is interceding for him with groans that words cannot express, bringing about the fulfillment of God's purposes in his body, the redemption of which is just around the corner. <em>Yes, Dad, God will surely visit you...</em></font> <p><font size="3" face="Calibri">He may not come with signs and wonders but the upward call will come and it will be glorious! Whether in life or in death the Saviour is coming for each one who has trusted in His salvation. God is not slow concerning His promise <a href="https://www.blueletterbible.org/esv/2pe/3/9/s_1159009">(II Pet. 3:9)</a> He is accomplishing His purposes in us, in our progeny, in the world around us... Those God has chosen, He justifies. Those He justifies, He glorifies. <a href="https://www.blueletterbible.org/esv/rom/8/1/s_1054030">(Rom.8:30-34)</a> A glorious day is coming when these bodies will be freed from their bondage to sin's decadence and brought into the glorious freedom prepared for the children of God. <strong>We can live and bless and die in this assurance: <em>"God will surely visit you..." </em>Let this be our legacy.</strong></font> <p><i><font size="3" face="Calibri">--LS</font></i> <p><i><font size="3" face="Calibri"></font></i> <p><i><font size="3" face="Calibri">I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. <font size="2">Rom.8:18</font></font></i> <p><i><font size="3" face="Calibri"></font></i> <p><font size="3" face="Calibri">According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, <strong>so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death.</strong> <font size="2">Phil.1:20</font></font> <p><font size="3" face="Calibri">For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. <font size="2">Phil.1:21 </font></font> <p><font size="3" face="Calibri"><strong>These all died in faith,</strong> <strong>not having received the things promised,</strong> but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. <strong>But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God,</strong> for he has prepared for them a city. <font size="2">Heb.11:13-16</font></font> <p><font size="3" face="Calibri"><strong>Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.</strong> For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. <font size="2">Heb.10:35</font></font></p> Lindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16682029173527471837noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4063575672808296948.post-64731004381923001022015-11-07T17:45:00.001-08:002015-11-07T17:45:27.291-08:00Teach us to number our days…<p>I was in a Bible study group lately where the question was posed to a couple of retired couples<em>—“So, what’s it like being retired? What do you do with your time?” </em> Free time is one of those coveted commodities in the busy-ness of our ‘working’ years. We’re sure that if we had more of it we would be able to fulfill all our dreams, develop our talents and find true contentment. We would be… well, Happy!</p> <p>I remember being in the throes of homeschooling family life—that was my career--designing and implementing curriculum to shape the minds and hearts of the five young people under our roof, and making our house a home besides. They were busy times.</p> <p align="center"><font size="4"><em>“So teach us to number our days <br>that we may get a heart of wisdom”</em></font> </p> <p>was emblazoned on my teacher notebook. I didn’t want us to be just busy; I wanted us to end up wise and God-fearing, knowing His thoughts in all the areas we studied… Friday was Lesson Plan making day. I loved setting goals and filling in the squares for each weekly assignment sheet. I am a lover of order and books and learning new things in a bookish way. My career seemed a perfect fit. God knew.</p> <p>Considering my own school days, this was really no surprise. I thrived on a rigid schedule, prescribed reading, regular lectures, note-taking, gaining head knowledge irrespective of its practical value… ahh yes, school was my ‘thing’. And there was even homework to take home to give direction to the free hours of time and provide an excuse not to do extracurricular social things…Then the bells would ring and another predictable school day would commence. I was good at regurgitating a fixed array of knowledge and the tidy rows of A’s on my report cards made it all seem worthwhile. Life was simpler then, but it left whole parts of me underdeveloped, neglected in the satisfying busy-ness of achieving grades and filing knowledge away on paper…</p> <p>Being busy can be a great stand-in for being truly significant. So long as you’re busy in approved practical ways, you are OK in North American culture. And better yet if you’re making lots of money at it. It’s generally recognized that to be busy is to be important. </p> <p><em>“How are you doing?”</em> </p> <p><em>--“Oh, I’ve been busy….”</em> is the unquestioned right response.</p> <p>To ‘read books all day’ is irresponsible, lazy, and frowned upon. As are other occupations that don’t appear ‘productive’. But what is God’s measure of our days? </p> <p>I find myself now neither making money nor directing a busy household and yet confident that God has directed us to this place and time. We have abandoned the American dream and are in fact both jobless and homeless by some definitions. And worst of all for this ISTJ personality of mine which functions best with a carefully delineated job description and a schedule, my days lie uncharted, free for the filling. But don’t be too quick to say, <em>“I wish.”</em> With freedom comes responsibility and decisions! How do I best fill my days? What will be my priorities? How can I best use this stage in my life to prepare for the next unknown one? I wrestle with these questions on a daily basis. I’ve even considered drawing up a schedule and Lesson Plans for myself to keep me on track. I’m just not sure how to fill them out, for now I am the pupil. But my Master Teacher hasn’t changed. The promises I held onto back in the busy homeschool/parenting stage of my life are still relevant. Though they were not given directly to me—they speak of God’s covenant with Israel—they stand as warnings and reminders of the character of God and of man. These have not changed.</p> <p>In Isaiah 30 the Lord addresses His people: [here’s the warning part!]</p> <p><em>Ah, stubborn children, who carry out a plan, but not mine, and who make an alliance, but not of my Spirit…unwilling to hear the instruction of the LORD.”</em></p> <p>To <u>this</u> people God speaks that oft repeated promise:</p> <p><font size="4">“In repentance and rest you shall be saved: in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.”</font><font size="1">Is.30:15</font></p> <p>Alas, His people weren’t wiling. They couldn’t wait. They looked to the nations around them for direction; they copied their worship and were led astray by their idols. </p> <p>So Isaiah reminded them:<font size="4"> “…the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and he exalts himself to show mercy to you…<strong>blessed are all those who wait for Him.”</strong></font></p> <p>I’ve read and re-read these words over the years when decisions have had to be made, and curriculum developed and schedules arranged. They remind me still that God is eager to direct our steps. He only asks that we give Him our attention and wait for Him to point the way:</p> <p>The passage continues: <font size="4">“your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, <em>“This is the way, walk in it,”</em> when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.” </font><font size="2">(Isaiah 30:20,21)</font></p> <p>So these days I bring my heart back to these evidences of God’s character <em>and</em> my propensity to doubt His guidance, and my prayer continues to be that of Moses: </p> <p align="center"><em><font size="4">Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations…<br>from everlasting to everlasting you are God…<br>the years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; <br>they are soon gone, and we fly away….<br></font></em><em><font size="4"><strong>So teach us to number our days <br>that we may get a heart of wisdom…<br></strong>Let your work be shown to your servants, <br>and your glorious power to their children. <br>Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, <br>and establish the work of our hands upon us; <br>yes, establish the work of our hands!</font></em></p> <p>And as I have prayed asking for guidance to direct the nitty-gritty of my days these six principles point the way:<br><br><font size="4"><strong>A heart of wisdom…</strong></font></p> <p><strong>1-—trusts that God’s Spirit within is leading</strong> through thick and thin and in the plain mundane, regardless of the seeming ‘significance’ of the product. It is the privilege of the child of God to be led by the Spirit of God. He only asks that I present this life of mine a daily sacrifice at His disposal. “Take my yoke and learn of me…”</p> <p><strong>2—makes the Word of God a priority.</strong> I read and meditate to know God’s heart, to see what matters, to hear His voice. His Word is light and life to me. <a href="https://www.blueletterbible.org/esv/psa/119/105/s_597105">(Ps.119:105)</a></p> <p><strong>3—knows that the value of an action</strong> (or even apparent inactivity!) <strong>is not in its tangible product.</strong> Virtue does not derive from check-off lists of accomplishments but from the motive and dependence with which they are done. No good thing will be accomplished apart from the empowering of the Spirit. Apart from abiding in Christ and learning to live with my ear to His directives, whatever I fill my days with is nothing! By the same token, my day may appear a ‘wasted’ bunch of time but if the Spirit has directed it that’s enough.</p> <p><strong>4—discovers that faith working itself out in love is all that matters,</strong> not <em>how much</em> I got done but <em>how</em>. Have I done it all to the glory of God, in conscious dependence on Him and in gratitude for His enabling. Are my actions driven by love? <a href="https://www.blueletterbible.org/esv/gal/5/6/s_1096006">(Gal.5:6)</a></p> <p><strong>5—learns to just do the ‘next thing’ </strong>when there are too many choices to prioritize.<strong> </strong> My worth in God’s eyes is not based on my time management skills. Wasting time is not the unpardonable sin. I can relax and enjoy this stage of life as I learn to walk by the Spirit. It’s a process He is glad to accompany me on, without condemnation! <a href="https://www.blueletterbible.org/esv/rom/8/1/s_1054001">(Rom.8:1)</a></p> <p><strong>6—pauses often,</strong> not just to smell the roses (or to look up and notice that the first snow of the season has begun to fall just now!) but to thank her constant Companion for this daily bit of life, as is. <a href="https://www.blueletterbible.org/esv/1th/5/17/s_1116017">(I Thess. 5:17)</a></p> <p><em>Thirty-two years ago this song was sung at our wedding. It is still the song of my heart::</em></p> <p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQ93HVuYd5Y">Take my life and let it be</a><br>Consecrated, Lord, to Thee.<br>Take my moments and my days,<br>Let them flow in endless praise….</p> <p>Take my hands, my feet, my voice…</p> <p>Take my lips, my silver and my gold, my will, my heart…</p> <p>Take my love, my Lord, I pour<br>At Thy feet its treasure store.<br>Take myself and I will be<br>Ever, only, all for Thee.</p> <div id="scid:5737277B-5D6D-4f48-ABFC-DD9C333F4C5D:058ddacd-a901-49b1-91b6-722c4220aa6a" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent" style="float: none; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px"><div><object width="448" height="252"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/lQ93HVuYd5Y?hl=en&hd=1"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/lQ93HVuYd5Y?hl=en&hd=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="448" height="252"></embed></object></div></div> <p><em>--LS</em></p> <p><font size="4">I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; <br>I will counsel you with my eye upon you. <br>Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding, which must be curbed with bit and bridle, or it will not stay near you. <br>Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the LORD. <br>Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!</font> <font size="1">Ps.32:8-11</font></p> Lindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16682029173527471837noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4063575672808296948.post-47471820185308115562015-10-30T21:48:00.001-07:002015-10-31T10:07:04.106-07:00Loved, Still.<h5>When our sin has made us miserable enough to cry out for His mercy—God is there welcoming our return. His love has never stopped.</h5> <p>I've been stalled over Jeremiah 31 for a week or so now. It is a beautiful must-read holding out hope and reassurance of God’s love for ones who've resisted His overtures and sought satisfaction elsewhere. And who of us hasn't at one time or another? <p>It is of course directed specifically to Israel but points forward to the covenant God will establish in Christ, a covenant that goes well beyond Israel to include every one whom He has called to be His own. Despite Israel’s failure to keep God's commandments, despite her unfaithfulness and chasing after other lovers, God remains faithful to Israel. Yes, he has disciplined her severely; this is a critical part of His faithfulness. He will not allow her to find joy or satisfaction in her wandering. He sends her into exile. As a good father God disciplines his sons and daughters, for their own good. <a href="https://www.blueletterbible.org/esv/heb/12/7/s_1145007">(Cf. Heb.12:7)</a> Discipline is painful but never intended as a shunning from the Father. Rather it is intended to turn us back to Him, to bring us into subjection to Him so that we may find LIFE! and share His holiness. <a href="https://www.blueletterbible.org/esv/heb/12/7/s_1145007">(See Heb.12:9,10)</a> So it was with Israel. So it is with us. <p>And in this joyful passage the Lord makes all manner of promises to faithless Israel based on His tender love. The discipline of letting her be taken captive by her enemies has worked wonders. <strong> Joy is just ahead. He’s bringing her home!</strong> <p>But I will let His words speak for themselves. Let them be salve to your own heart if you have found yourself in misery far from any sense of God's pleasure in you. He welcomes your return. <p>"The people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness; when Israel sought for rest, the LORD appeared to him from far away. <em><font size="4">I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you..."</font></em> <p>With weeping they shall come, and with pleas for mercy I will lead them back, I will make them walk by brooks of water, in a straight path in which they shall not stumble, for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn. <p>"Hear the word of the LORD, O nations, and declare it in the coastlands far away; say,<em> 'He who scattered Israel will gather him, and will keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock.'</em> <strong> For the LORD has ransomed Jacob and has redeemed him from hands too strong for him.</strong> They shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion, and<strong> they shall be radiant over the goodness of the LORD,</strong> over the grain, the wine, and the oil, and over the young of the flock and the herd;<strong> their life shall be like a watered garden, and they shall languish no more.</strong> <p>Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old shall be merry.<strong> I will turn their mourning into joy; I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow.</strong> I will feast the soul of the priests with abundance, and<em> </em><font size="4"><em>my people shall be satisfied with my goodness,</em> declares the LORD."</font> <p>Thus says the LORD: "Keep your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears, <strong>for there is a reward for your work,</strong> declares the LORD, and they shall come back from the land of the enemy. <strong>There is hope for your future,</strong> declares the LORD, and your children shall come back to their own country. <p>I have heard Ephraim grieving, 'You have disciplined me, and I was disciplined, like an untrained calf; <font size="4">bring me back that I may be restored, for you are the LORD my God. ... </font> <p>Is Ephraim my dear son? <strong>Is he my darling child?</strong> For <u>as often as I speak against him, I do remember him still. Therefore my heart yearns for him</u>; I will <em>surely </em>have mercy on him, declares the LORD. <font size="1">Jer.31:9-14,16,18,20</font> <p><font size="1"></font> <p>Jeremiah’s prophecy looked toward the time God would send Jesus and through Him provide forgiveness once and for all to all who believe. It pointed to a time when God's very own Spirit would reside in man—the promised Comforter, sent in token of Jesus’ ascension to the Father--writing His law upon their hearts, making them righteous, enabling obedience, inclining their wills to do His will out of love for the One who has so loved them. <p>We live on the other side of this event! We who are ‘in Christ’ are blessed indeed. I was reading Ephesians 1 the other morning. Have you pondered it lately? <ul> <li>We’ve been chosen before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight.</li> <li>We’ve been predestined for adoption as sons which will bring him praise because of His grace</li> <li>We’ve been bought from the slave market of sin, forgiven all the ways in which we’ve violated God’s commands</li> <li>We’ve been lavished with the riches of his grace</li> <li>We’ve been made heirs of God!</li> <li>We’ve been marked as His by His Holy Spirit within us….</li></ul> <p>And all this so that we can be included in God’s plan to culminate all of history in the glory of the Son. We, as recipients of His lavish grace actually bring Him glory as we revel in His lovingkindness. <p><strong>It is God’s design for us that we be satisfied with His goodness.</strong> He will stop at nothing less; His heart yearns that we return and find in Him our satisfaction: <p>“Set up road markers for yourself; make yourself guideposts; consider well the highway, the road by which you went. Return, O virgin Israel, return to these your cities. How long will you waver, O faithless daughter? … <strong>For I will satisfy the weary soul, and every languishing soul I will replenish." ...</strong> And it shall come to pass that as I have watched over them to pluck up and break down, to overthrow, destroy, and bring harm, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, declares the LORD. ... <p>For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. <strong>And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. ...</strong> <p>Thus says the LORD: "If the heavens above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth below can be explored, then I will cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done, declares the LORD." <font size="1">Jer.31:21-22,25,28,33,37</font> <p>Are you satisfied with the goodness of the Lord, or weary and languishing? He longs for your return. <p><em>--LS</em> <p><em>I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is <strong>the hope to which he has called you</strong>, what are <strong>the riches of his glorious inheritance</strong> in the saints, and what is<strong> the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe</strong>, according to the working of his great might…</em> <em><font size="1">Eph.1:16-19</font></em></p> Lindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16682029173527471837noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4063575672808296948.post-52100470377995959752015-10-24T00:26:00.001-07:002015-10-26T12:42:15.539-07:00But Am I Pleasing?!<p>If you, like me, go a little crazy sometimes with wondering if God is pleased with you, may I share some things I’ve been pondering this week?</p> <p>It is the most natural thing in the world for a believer indwelt by the Holy Spirit to want to please God. It would indicate a serious problem if this desire were <em>not</em> present to some degree in the heart of a believer. BUT I’m pretty sure it is not God’s intention that we be obsessed <u>and doubtful</u> as to whether or not this, that and the other thing is just exactly what He would have us be doing at any given moment. It is not His desire for us to be continuously anxious about how well we’re doing? Are we praying enough, giving enough, doing enough of the right things… Are we pleasing to Him or is He just a bit exasperated with us and well, just putting up with us and wishing we were doing better… </p> <p>This is not faith. This kind of thinking casts God in a bad light, as if He were a begrudging Father, exacting and hard-to-please. So it’s a kind of thinking I want to be rid of! It is not as ‘spiritual’ as it may sound on the surface, because it is not based in faith or in truth. The fact is mankind can’t and doesn’t please God apart from His intervention. For this we have Jesus. He is very pleased with His Son.</p> <p>We were discussing Jesus’ baptism in Bible Study this week. Why was He baptized if He was sinless? There are various conjectures but the primary reason we have to go by is of Jesus’ own insistence in the face of John the Baptist’s reluctance: <em>"Let it be so now, <u>for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness</u>.</em>" <font size="1">Mt.3:15 ESV </font>Jesus never failed to please the Father. In every circumstance He knew and did the Father’s will. And God was pleased with Him and said so on more than one occasion: <strong><em>"This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased."</em></strong> <font size="1">Mt.3:17</font></p> <p>Now the application that is commonly given at this point is that God said this of His Son before He had even ‘done anything’ (as though living a sinless life for the thirty years up to this point were nothing!) and since we too are God’s children, this is naturally true of us regardless of what we’ve done or left undone. And quickly the attention is diverted from Jesus as God’s perfect spotless Lamb to assuring <em>ourselves </em>that God is saying this to us despite our spotty histories, because we too are His children. It makes us feel very special and fills up that craving to know we are pleasing, at least for a split second…But if you’re like me, one affirmation is never quite enough. One more is always nice. Where does it end? Maybe we’ve missed the primary point being made in this passage? Maybe it’s not about us. </p> <p>In this historical moment in history Jesus is being presented to the world as<strong> ‘<em>The Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!’</em></strong><font size="1"> Jn.1:29</font> It is crucial that the lamb offered for a sin offering be spotless. This, in my opinion, is the significance of God’s affirming voice from heaven. This is the Lamb of God who has come to die in our place. This statement from heaven is not about us. But that’s a good thing. We are not always pleasing, anymore than a two year old having a temper tantrum is especially pleasing at that moment to his parents. We are not naturally good, or sweet, or loveable. But God provided the Lamb and that has made all the difference.</p> <p><strong>We are no longer dependent on our own virtues or law-keeping or dutiful sacrifices to gain favor with God.</strong> We don’t have to be obsessed with <em>‘am I pleasing’</em>. God, knowing our inability to please Him provided the Lamb. And we can be glad Jesus was baptized as a part of <strong>‘fulfilling all righteousness’</strong> because we never could do this on our own. Instead, <u>what the law was powerless to do, God did,</u> by sending Jesus as a sin offering and so he condemned sin in the flesh ‘in order that <strong>the righteous requirement</strong> of the law <strong>might be fulfilled in us</strong>, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. <font size="1">Rom.8:4</font></p> <p>Jesus’ baptism was a part of fulfilling the righteous requirements of God’s law on our behalf. This is the wonder of this moment. We don’t need to try to get the passage to say that God is pleased with us. <strong> God is pleased with His Son and it is our response to His Son that determines whether He is pleased with us.</strong></p> <p><em><font size="2">[As a side note, it is a fact sometimes overlooked that though God loves everyone in the whole wide world, He is not <u>pleased </u>with everyone. Most have rejected the sin offering provided in Jesus. God is not pleased. Apart from faith it is not possible to please God. Unless one in faith lays his hand, so to speak, on the head of the Lamb and claims His blood as having been shed on his behalf, sin will still separate him/her from God and the wrath of God will abide on him instead. But I digress…}</font></em></p> <p>So, what then is the ‘take away’ cure for my obsessive desire to ‘be pleasing’? Better to look on the Son and revel in God’s words about Him and thank God for this perfect sacrifice on my bumbling behalf. In Him I am complete despite my weaknesses and failings, my inherent inadequacies and even my floundering doubts. By faith in the Son I can walk in confidence that I am loved without doing anything and <strong>any ‘pleasing’ that follows will be on account of the life of the Son lived through me by His Spirit.</strong> </p> <p>Faith is evidenced not in struggling to ‘be pleasing’ but in rejoicing to have been adopted, ‘accepted in the Beloved, holy and perfect in God’s eyes because of Christ. He sees the end from the beginning and those He’s justified are as good as glorified in the eternal scheme of things! (See Rom.8:30). It’s hard to imagine, but isn’t that what faith is for?</p> <p>But practically speaking, surely there are specific things that please God. I did a quick concordance look-up and these are things that popped out at me:</p> <p><u>What pleases God?</u> <p>His Son pleases Him. <p>The glad doing of His will pleases Him. <p>Faith pleases Him. <p>A contrite heart pleases Him. <p>Seeking Him, fearing Him, praising Him, thanking Him, making much of Him---all these things please Him. I didn’t find any grounds for a petulant insistence on asking ‘Am I pleasing’. It’s the wrong question. Rejoicing in the pleasing Son might make a better focus! <p>A few other considerations have been helpful to me in re-framing my mindset. <ul> <li>God is the one who leads me in ways that please Him, who works in me to make me willing and able to accomplish His pleasure. <font size="1">Phil 2:13</font> The pressure is off. I am dependent on the Spirit to lead me in ways that are pleasing to Him--to direct me into all His perfect will. <li>I cannot please God by any effort of my own apart from that which His Spirit accomplishes in and through me. “Apart from me you can do nothing.” <font size="1">Jn.15</font> <li>Without faith, active dependence on Him, it is not possible to please Him. Doubt is no virtue here. <font size="1">Heb.11:6</font> <li>Though sin does not please Him--He hates it--a contrite heart does. An acknowledgment of my sin, including my doubts, pleases Him. <font size="1">Ps.51</font> <li>The best gift I can offer is my grateful praise for who He is and what He’s done on my behalf! <font size="1">Ps.69:30 I will praise the name of God with a song; I will magnify him with thanksgiving. 31 This will please the LORD more than an ox or a bull with horns and hoofs.</font></li> <li>Generosity pleases Him, perhaps because it shows I am truly trusting in Him to supply all I need and am aware how generous He has been with me! He's pleased to give us the Kingdom! Why do we sweat the small stuff--food, clothes, cares of this world...<font size="1">Luke 12:22 </font></li></ul> <p>And those are my scattered ponderings of the week. This area is somewhat of a stronghold in my life so I welcome your prayers for me as I continue to take these truths to heart in a way that liberates me to live as God has intended for His children. </p> <p>I’d also welcome your feedback in the Comments below. Is this an area where you have struggled. What has been of help to you?</p> <p><em>--LS</em></p> <p>Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, <strong>working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ;</strong> <strong>to whom [be] glory for ever and ever.</strong> Amen.<font size="1"> Heb.13:20,21</font> <p><em><font size="4">“…but the LORD takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love.”</font></em> <font size="1">Ps.147:11</font> </p> <p>And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. <p> May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. <font size="1">Col.1:9-12</font></p> Lindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16682029173527471837noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4063575672808296948.post-74211530186686429972015-10-16T23:36:00.001-07:002015-10-17T12:04:21.601-07:00The Best Advice a Befuddled Sinner can Hear<blockquote> <p><em>Do not be afraid; you have done all this evil. <u>Yet do not turn aside from following the LORD</u>, but serve the LORD with all your heart.</em></p> <p><em>And do not turn aside after empty things that cannot profit or deliver for they are empty.</em></p> <p><em>For the LORD will not forsake his people, for His great name’s sake, because it has pleased the LORD to make you a people for Himself.</em></p> <p><em>Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by ceasing to pray for you, and I will instruct you in the good and the right way.</em></p> <p><em>Only fear the LORD and serve Him faithfully with all your heart. For consider what great things he has done for you.</em></p> <p><em>But if you still do wickedly, you shall be swept away, both you and your king. <font size="1">I Sam.12:20-25</font></em></p></blockquote> <p>I love these words of Samuel! <br>They hold out hope for the one who knows they have blown it. They point out a path of restoration. They demonstrate both the justice and the mercy of our King. And <strong>they invite us to follow Him still though we have failed Him grievously.</strong></p> <p>They are addressed to the people of Israel after they have rejected Samuel as their judge and God as their King and have insisted on having a ‘real’ king like the nations around them. They wanted a king to be their judge and most of all to go ahead of them and fight their battles. After all, Samuel, their priest and judge, was getting old. His sons were corrupt. And besides, the Ammonites were attacking! They were sure they needed a mortal king like the ones the nations around them had, despite Samuel’s warnings of what this would cost them--<em>He will take your sons for his chariots and horsemen, his farmers, his arms makers. He will take your daughters as perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and orchards. He will take from your grain and your vineyards to feed his household. He will take your servants, and your donkeys to work for him. He will take from your flocks and “YOU SHALL BE HIS SLAVES”.</em> <font size="1"><a href="https://www.blueletterbible.org/esv/1sa/8/1/s_244001">(I Sam.8)</a></font></p> <p><strong>They were willing to be slaves for the perceived benefit of being safe and secure.</strong> And they would not be denied. They demanded to have a mortal king to reign over them in place of Almighty God! So God granted them their request and instructed Samuel to fulfill it. Tall, dark and handsome Saul was anointed king.</p> <p>But in his final address to them Samuel is clear that this is not cause for rejoicing, as they have been doing up till this point <font size="1">(I Sam.11:15).</font> He recites his own faithful track record in being their judge and then he recounts God’s righteous deeds on their behalf despite their apostasy. On each occasion that they have forgotten the Lord He has allowed them to be dominated by their enemies. And on each occasion that they have cried out to Him, God has sent a judge to deliver them and restore their peace and safety. <strong>God has been faithful but they have insisted on having a human king instead.</strong> </p> <p>There is no indication up to this point that they even comprehend the evil they have committed. So now for the object lesson: It is the dry season, time for the wheat harvest. Samuel calls on God to send untimely thunder and rain as a demonstration of His might and His anger toward them. As He had once thundered to rout the enemy <font size="1"><a href="https://www.blueletterbible.org/esv/1sa/7/10/s_243010">(I Sam.7:10),</a></font> now God thunders against His own people to instill in them the fear of the LORD. <strong>They are terrified, and convicted and desperate for Samuel’s prayers on their behalf:</strong> <em>“Pray for your servants to the LORD your God, that we may not die, for we have added to all our sins this evil, to ask for ourselves a king.”</em> <font size="1">(I Sam.12:17)</font></p> <p>And this is the point at which Samuel gives them <strong>the best advice a convicted sinner can hear</strong>: </p> <blockquote> <p><em>Do not be afraid; you have done all this evil, [it is true], yet don’t turn aside from following the Lord…</em> </p></blockquote> <p><strong>The fear of the Lord is not meant to drive us from Him but toward Him.</strong> For He is the only one who can acquit us of sin and spare us from judgment. Unless we turn toward Him in repentance God remains our worst Enemy. This God of love who extends the offer of reconciliation to all who will come and bow the knee, will be our Judge if we opt to find peace and safety apart from Him. Why then do we run? Why do we hide? Why do we turn our backs even temporarily on the only One who can deliver us from our worst Enemy, the only One with whom we are safe!</p> <p>I find Samuel’s words compelling. </p> <ul> <li>They compel me to pray for ones who have rejected God’s Kingship in pursuit of things that cannot profit or deliver. <li>They encourage me with the reminder that the Lord will not forsake His own <u>for His name’s sake</u>. Our bad judgment, even our rebellion, is not the final word. He goes to great lengths to rescue lost and wandering sheep. <li>And they show me the path back—the fear of the Lord that brings to conviction and repentance and a fresh zeal to follow Him. It is never too late to turn around.</li></ul> <p><strong>Ours is a jealous God who will contend with all suitors that would draw our hearts away from His own.</strong> He is the One to whom all our praise and devotion is due. He will not yield it lightly to another. He hates the sin that would destroy us yet looks with compassion on the contrite sinner. </p> <p>These are the things I am pondering this week, for myself and for so many others who have yet to realize, or have forgotten, the tender mercies of our fearsome God.</p> <p><em>--LS</em></p> <p>You will say in that day: <strong>"I will give thanks to you, O LORD, for though you were angry with me, your anger turned away, that you might comfort me. Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the LORD GOD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation."</strong> <font size="1">Isaiah 12:1-2</font></p> <p><font size="2"><em>Consider the following passages that beautifully demonstrate both the discipline and the mercy of our God:</em></font></p> <p>"Thus says the LORD: Behold, I will restore the fortunes of the tents of Jacob and have compassion on his dwellings; the city shall be rebuilt on its mound, and the palace shall stand where it used to be. Out of them shall come songs of thanksgiving, and the voices of those who celebrate. I will multiply them, and they shall not be few; I will make them honored, and they shall not be small. Their children shall be as they were of old, and their congregation shall be established before me, and I will punish all who oppress them. Their prince shall be one of themselves; their ruler shall come out from their midst;<strong> I will make him draw near, and he shall approach me, for who would dare of himself to approach me?</strong> declares the LORD. <strong>And you shall be my people, and I will be your God</strong>." <font size="1">Jer.30:18-22</font></p> <p><font size="1"></font> </p> <p>‘…my soul is bereft of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is; so I say, <em>“My endurance has perished; so has my hope from the LORD.”</em> Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall! My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me. But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: <strong>The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end;</strong> they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. <em>"The LORD is my portion,"</em> says my soul, <em>"therefore I will hope in him."</em> ... For the Lord will not cast off forever, but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; for he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men. ...I called on your name, O LORD, from the depths of the pit; you heard my plea, <em>'Do not close your ear to my cry for help!'</em> <strong>You came near when I called on you; you said, 'Do not fear!'</strong> You have taken up my cause, O Lord; you have redeemed my life. <font size="1">Lamentations 3:17,19-24,31-33,55-58 ESV</font></p> <p><font size="1"></font> </p> <p><font size="3">And you will say in that day: <em>"Give thanks to the LORD, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples, proclaim that his name is exalted. <strong>Sing praises to the LORD, for he has done gloriously;</strong> let this be made known in all the earth. Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, <strong>for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel</strong>.”</em></font> <font size="1">Is.12:4-6 </font></p> Lindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16682029173527471837noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4063575672808296948.post-18823935745024742812015-10-10T23:47:00.001-07:002015-10-10T23:47:46.131-07:00Jesus, Thank-you!<p><font face="Calibri">I’ve been working my way through Isaiah 12, one verse per week, hoping to put the entire wee chapter in my memory bank. But more than that I’d like it to be true in my life. Here’s what it says:</font></p> <blockquote> <p><font face="Century Schoolbook">1<strong> </strong><u>You will say in that day:</u> "I will give thanks to you, O LORD, for though you were angry with me, your anger turned away, that you might comfort me. 2 Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the LORD GOD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation." </font></p> <p><font face="Century Schoolbook">3 <strong>With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.</strong> 4 <u>And you will say in that day:</u> "Give thanks to the LORD, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples, proclaim that his name is exalted. <br>5 Sing praises to the LORD, for he has done gloriously; let this be made known in all the earth. 6 Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel." <font size="1">Is.12:1-6 ESV</font></font></p></blockquote> <p><font face="Calibri">Now from the context (Is.11) it is pretty clear that this prophecy is specifically referring to Israel and is descriptive of their Messiah’s return to set up His Kingdom and to deliver them from their enemies. But there’s also a pattern here which I believe holds true for all who have found peace with God, all those who have found the comfort of knowing that their sins are no longer held against them and God’s wrath toward them has been turned away because of Jesus.</font></p> <p><font face="Calibri">The pattern I see is one of deep<strong> heartfelt gratitude</strong> for God’s salvation, and of <strong>fearless trust</strong> in light of who God is to me. It is one of <strong>confidence and joy</strong> as a result of continuing to drawing on this salvation for daily strength. This phrase: <em>“With JOY you will DRAW WATER from the wells of salvation”</em> is a beautiful one. Salvation is not a one-time thing, but a continual life sustaining refreshment. The reality that I’ve been ‘saved’ from God’s wrath and made His child is never meant to grow ‘ho-hum’ or irrelevant to my daily experience, but rather to result in a continual consciousness of God’s greatness and His active presence in my life and in all the world around me. </font></p> <p>“Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel." </p> <p><font face="Calibri">We live between Jesus’ first and second comings. His salvation has been provided through the cross for all who will look and live. <strong>The wells of salvation have been dug</strong>, so to speak. <strong>And they are sufficient to sustain life and godliness in this broken world</strong> despite the blight of sin within and without, despite its consequences, despite disappointments and pain and sadness. At the wells of salvation there is always strength, always grace, always rest, always wisdom, always joy! This is a great salvation we are meant to draw from and to keep drawing from.</font></p> <p><font face="Calibri">We were never intended to settle for fearful, joy-deprived, burdensome living. Instead, we are invited to draw water and drink deeply from the wells of salvation and there to find joy unspeakable. And if this passage is any clue, it all seems to begin with gratitude for what Christ has done in turning away God’s wrath so that we might know His comfort.</font></p> <p><font face="Calibri">And curiously enough, the words of a song entitled: “Jesus, Thank-you” have been playing over and over in my mind this past week. They’ve been just what I’ve needed! I commend them to you.</font></p> <div id="scid:5737277B-5D6D-4f48-ABFC-DD9C333F4C5D:07fd1ecd-c7a0-46ce-8132-66699e6defd7" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent" style="float: none; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px"><div><object width="448" height="252"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/tHp8eThI2qk?hl=en&hd=1"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/tHp8eThI2qk?hl=en&hd=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="448" height="252"></embed></object></div><div style="width:448px;clear:both;font-size:.8em">Jesus, Thank-you!</div></div> <p><font face="Calibri"><strong>VERSE 1<br></strong>The mystery of the cross I cannot comprehend<br>The agonies of Calvary<br>You the perfect Holy One, crushed Your Son<br>Who drank the bitter cup reserved for me<br></font><font face="Calibri"><strong>CHORUS<br></strong>Your blood has washed away my sin<br>Jesus, thank You<br>The Father’s wrath completely satisfied<br>Jesus, thank You<br>Once Your enemy, now seated at Your table<br>Jesus, thank You<br></font><font face="Calibri"><strong>VERSE 2<br></strong>By Your perfect sacrifice I’ve been brought near<br>Your enemy You’ve made Your friend<br>Pouring out the riches of Your glorious grace<br>Your mercy and Your kindness know no end<br></font><font face="Calibri"><strong>BRIDGE<br></strong>Lover of my soul<br>I want to live for You.</font></p> <p><font face="Calibri"><em>May you (and me too!!) know the joy of drawing deeply from the wells of salvation this week, and for eternity</em></font></p> <p><font face="Calibri"><em>--LS</em></font></p> <p>“…so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.” <font size="1">Heb.9:28</font></p> <p>Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. <font size="1">I Pet.1:8,9</font></p> <p>“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” <font size="1">Mt.11:28-30 as paraphrased in The Message by Eugene Peterson</font></p> Lindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16682029173527471837noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4063575672808296948.post-21264363512431250562015-10-02T23:03:00.001-07:002015-10-02T23:03:09.533-07:00When Strivings Cease…<h5>Jacob’s all-night wrestling match with God has long been a fixating story for me. I returned to this post this week because I still need the reminder that rest is found in surrender to our Faithful and Almighty God…</h5> <p><img src="https://dwellingintheword.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/jacob-dore.jpg?w=422&h=530"><br><font size="1">“Jacob Wrestling with the Angel,” by Gustave Dore, 1855</font></p> <h5><font style="font-weight: normal" size="3">What is the essence of this story from </font><a href="https://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/gen/32/1/s_32001"><font style="font-weight: normal" size="3">Genesis 32</font></a><font style="font-weight: normal" size="3">? Is it a model for prevailing prayer? A template for securing God’s blessing? Or is there more to this story than meets the eye in its sparsely told format?</font></h5> <p>Up to this point in Jacob’s life there has been little to commend him as a man of faith. <strong>He has lived up to the meaning of his name</strong> mostly, and has struggled with everyone in his life in order to secure himself a blessing. He’s been a cheat and a conniver, looking out for his own interests and enjoying the blessings of God without acknowledging God as His rightful Lord. He has spent the most productive years of his life living in exile from his own family, putting in slave labor for his uncle, being cheated and taken advantage of himself but always rising to the top, always making things work out… and now he has a big family, two wives, and a whole lot of progeny, not to mention flocks and herds. <strong>He left home with just a staff and now he’s returning with his own entourage…</strong> <p>Yes, he’s returning at last. This was God’s idea. <p>But years ago when he set out on this journey <strong>he had made a promise</strong>—granted it was an unabashedly conditional, ‘Jacob’ sort of promise—but a promise it was. God had ‘seen him off’ on his journey with a vision by night in which He said:<i> </i><em>“I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. … and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” (Gen.28:13</em><i> </i>Jacob was awestruck by God’s presence and made a sort of altar out of his stone pillow in the morning, christening the place, “Bethel” (house of God), and vowing that <strong>if God would keep him in food and clothes and bring him safely home again that he, Jacob, would make this God his own God. </strong> <p>And now here he is, almost home. But this is scary. The immediate dilemma in Jacob’s mind is that his presumably embittered brother, Esau, is on the march with 400 men. Jacob could lose everything, including his own life. <strong>But there’s another One he’s been running from.</strong> This God to whom he vowed allegiance has not forgotten Jacob’s vow at Bethel. He loves Jacob far too much to let him go on living by his own strength. And when Jacob has taken every last measure he can think of to gain his brother’s approval, and has sent his loved ones across the stream ahead of him…when he’s all alone at last, <strong>God shows up</strong>. <p>I love this about Jacob’s story. It’s really a story of God showing up, intervening, blessing, protecting, and guiding Jacob’s life <strong>in spite of himself</strong>, to a point where he will rest from his conniving and let God be God. <strong>It’s a story of God pursuing man. It’s our story…</strong> But I run ahead of myself. <p>The details of the all-night wrestling match are sparse. A ‘man’ wrestles with Jacob until morning light. Jacob refuses to yield until his hip is dislocated and finally, clinging on for dear life he declares<i> </i><em>“I will not let you go unless you bless me.”</em> (Gen.32:26) Who does he think is in charge? Who’s not letting who go? It seems to me that it is God who has initiated this match and God will say when it is finished. <p>Hosea’s commentary on this event helps: “<em>The LORD hath also a controversy with Judah, and will punish Jacob according to his ways…He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and by his strength he had power with God: Yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed:</em><i> </i><strong><i>he wept, and made supplication unto him: he found him in Bethel, and there he spake with us… Therefore turn thou to thy God: keep mercy and judgment, and wait on thy God continually.:”</i></strong><b><i> </i></b><em>Hosea 12:2-6</em> <p>I see a picture of a repentant Jacob finally yielding to God’s power, finally willing to admit that he really does <em>need</em> God’s blessing. He has found that ‘place of repentance’ that eluded his brother Esau. God, like a kind Father has brought him to repentance, first matching his strength till he is spent, then with a mere touch dislocating Jacob’s hip…all to bring Jacob to the point of crying “Uncle!” (or could we say “Abba”)? Or as he puts it: “ I will not let you go until you bless me”. Jacob acknowledges that he is dependent on God’s mercy. <strong>He cannot coerce God to bless him but he desperately needs what only God can give him</strong>--a new name, a new allegiance…God has orchestrated this moment. <p><font size="4">It is not so much Jacob’s persistence that is to be lauded, but his crying out with the last of his strength for God’s mercy--recognizing that he is beholden to God for everything, even life itself.</font> <p><em>“It depends not on human will or exertion but on God, who has mercy.”</em> Rom.9:16 <p>All night long God has hung on to Jacob awaiting his surrender, like a Father feigning weakness as he ‘wrestles’ with his toddler, but this is no game. God knows what Jacob needs most, the blessing of forgiveness and acceptance <i>despite</i> all he has done. He needs to be rightly related to this God as <i>his</i> God. A precious thing transpires at this point. God asks him a question that seems so obvious as to be silly. <em><b>“What is your name.”</b></em> <p>Long years ago Jacob had been asked this very question by his own father. And he had answered with a lie, the consequences of which have dogged him down through all these years and brought him full circle to this moment. He had said<em>‘I’m Esau’</em> to procure his father’s blessing. And now he is here, a grown man pleading for a blessing from the God who has brought him to this moment for that express purpose. <p>But first he must confess his real name: <em>“I’m Jacob”</em> (the cheat, the deceiver, the usurper). And God is pleased to bless him with a new identity. He has come to the end of his struggling and will now bear the name <em>Israel</em>, denoting his life-long struggles with man and God, but also that <em>“God Perseveres”.</em> <strong>And I start to see that this is not so much the story of Jacob as it is that of God’s mercy and unrelenting love, carrying out all He has promised.</strong> <i>For the gifts and the calling of God <em>are</em> irrevocable.</i> Rom.11:29 Jacob, now Israel, goes from this encounter, a reconciled man—finished with his struggles with God and with man. First chance he gets he buys up a parcel of land on which to pitch his tent and erect an altar. And guess what he calls it?! <strong>El-Elohe-Israel</strong>—God, the God of Israel. <p>His story gives me hope…for this God is my God. This God is the One who holds me in the night of my fears for myself and my family. When I struggle to work things out myself, He reminds me it’s His game plan that matters. When I question ‘Why did you make me like this?!’ He reminds me that He is the Potter and that’s no way for clay to talk…When I see how weak I am, He reminds me this is the best place for His strength to be on display… <p>Ah, which reminds me. There was another conversation God had with Jacob. The night of wrestling was past. The reunion with Esau had gone splendidly. And God told Jacob to build an altar at Bethel. There God answered the question Jacob had asked of Him on the dark night of their wrestling: <strong>“Please, tell me </strong><em><b>your</b></em><b> </b><strong>name.”</strong> Gen 32:29 <p>God answered, <em>"Your name is Jacob; your name shall not be called Jacob anymore, but </em><em>Israel</em><em> shall be your name…And God said unto him,</em><i> </i><em><u>I am</u></em><i><u> </u></i><strong><i><u>God Almighty</u></i></strong><em>: be fruitful and multiply…”</em><i> </i>Gen.35:10,11 The introductions were over. God Almighty is now the God of Jacob and Jacob will in turn invoke this name to bless his own sons and their sons (43:14) just as his own father had done for him. <p>The story of Jacob at this point gets all but buried in the narrative of Joseph’s life. Jacob grieves the loss of his favored son Joseph until he is surprised beyond belief at the announcement that Joseph is alive and ruling in Egypt—a literal God-send for his family’s preservation. <strong>Life in God Almighty’s care goes beyond anything he could have schemed or dreamed up for himself.</strong> And so he grows old in the land of Egypt. But do you know <u>what he is commended for in the great Hall of Faith</u> (Hebrews 11)? It is not for his ‘power with God’ in that long ago wrestling match. It is not for his big family. <em>He is commended for the faith expressed in his dying breath as he</em><i> </i><strong><i>blessed the sons of Joseph</i></strong><i> </i><em>bowing in worship on his staff.</em> (Heb.11:21) <p>This was his blessing: <p><em>"The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked,</em><i> </i><em><b>the God who has been my shepherd all my life long to this day,</b></em><i> </i><em>the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the boys; and in them let my name be carried on, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth."</em> Gen.48:15,16 <p>How was this an expression of faith? Here are these two Jewish/Egyptian lads, Manasseh and Ephraim, being reared in a pagan culture, but Jacob is confident that God Almighty is well able to take them and weave them into a great nation as He has promised. <strong>Jacob has traded in his wrestling for worship, his self-confidence for faith</strong>. <em><b>And so he is commended for his faith not in wresting a blessing for himself, but in passing it on…</b></em> <p>I’ve been magnetized to Jacob’s story for two weeks now, perhaps because I see my own propensity to struggle with God to bless me and mine, as if He were not faithful, as if all depended on my faithfulness…As if the struggle were requisite to the blessing. <p>One morning early last week I was bemoaning my perceived woes, filling my ‘quiet time’ with rankling memos in my journal of all that is not right in my little world…It was time to put on the teapot and fix breakfast and still I could not see God’s truth through my self-absorbed fog. At that moment I was reminded of these words from Isaiah: <strong><i>“In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.”</i></strong> And a little farther along in the same passage, <em><b>“The Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.”</b></em> (Is.30:15,18) Old familiar verses freshly applied to my heart. They are the story of Jacob’s life and the requirement for my own. <em>It is not in the struggle that I prevail but in repentant rest and quiet trust.</em> And when I cannot see the blessing that is promised, <strong><i>it is the waiting that will be blessed.</i></strong> <p><em>--LS</em> <p><em><strong><font size="3">"So you, by the help of your God, return, hold fast to love and justice, and wait continually for your God."</font></strong></em> <font size="1">Hos.12:6</font> <p><font size="3">“We do not present our pleas because of our righteousness but because of your great mercy.”</font><em> <font size="1"> </font></em><font size="1">Dan.9:18</font> <p align="center"><em><font size="4">“O Lord, be gracious to us;</font></em><i><br><font size="4"><em>we wait for you.</em><br><em>Be our arm every morning,</em><br><em>Our salvation in the time of trouble.”</em></font></i> <font size="1">Is.33:2</font></p> <p align="center"><font size="1">___________________________________________</font></p> <p><em>--I know this has been long but there are two songs that beg to keep company with Jacob’s (and my) story. Take a few minutes to bless the God of Jacob as you listen:</em> <p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENtL_li4GbE"><strong>In Christ Alone</strong></a> [Click title to listen] <p>In Christ alone my hope is found<br>He is my light, my strength, my song<br>This Cornerstone, this solid ground<br>Firm through the fiercest drought and storm<br><strong><i>What heights of love, what depths of peace</i></strong><b><i><br><strong>When fears are stilled, when strivings cease</strong></i></b><br>My Comforter, my All in All<br>Here in the love of Christ I stand<br>…………..<br>And as He stands in victory<br><strong>Sin’s curse has lost its grip on me</strong><b><br><strong>For I am His and He is mine</strong><br></b>Bought with the precious blood of Christ<br>No guilt in life, no fear in death<br>This is the power of Christ in me<br>From life’s first cry to final breath<br><strong>Jesus commands my destiny</strong><b><br></b><br>No power of hell, <strong>no scheme of man</strong><b><br><strong>Could ever pluck me from His hand</strong><br></b>Till He returns or calls me home<br>Here in the power of Christ I stand <p><font size="1">Songwriters: Julian Keith Getty, Stuart Richard Townend</font><br>-------------------------------------------------- <p> </p> <div id="scid:5737277B-5D6D-4f48-ABFC-DD9C333F4C5D:00404720-842f-4b6e-8679-3e1cde4d08d8" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent" style="float: none; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px"><div><object width="448" height="252"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/96P0bwvpbk4?hl=en&hd=1"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/96P0bwvpbk4?hl=en&hd=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="448" height="252"></embed></object></div></div> <p>I am not skilled to understand<br>What God has willed, what God has planned<br>I only know at his right hand<br>Stands one who is my Savior<br><br>I take him at his word and deed<br>Christ died to save me this I read<br>And in my heart I find a need<br>For him to be my Savior<br><br>That he would leave his place on high<br>And come for sinful man to die<br>You count it strange, so once did I<br>Before I knew my Savior<br><br>My Savior loves, my Savior lives<br>My Savior's always there for me<br>My God he was, my God he is<br>My God he's always gonna be<br><br>Yes, living, dying; let me bring<br>My strength, my solace from this spring<br>That he who lives to be my King<br>Once died to be my Savior.</p> <p><br><font size="2">--Aaron Shust’s adaptation of the original by:<br></font><a href="http://www.cyberhymnal.org/bio/g/r/e/greenwell_d.htm"><b><font size="2">Dor­o­thy Green­well</font></b></a><b><font size="2">, <i>Songs of Sal­va­tion</i>, 1873</font></b></p> <p>---------<br><font size="2">Originally posted Feb.10, 2012 as <u>Wrestling with God</u></font></p> Lindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16682029173527471837noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4063575672808296948.post-15145809540148016482015-09-26T14:27:00.001-07:002015-09-26T14:27:51.859-07:00Our Fire-tending God<p>I had a hurried time in the Word one day this week, catching just a few snatches, a short Psalm, but even a few snatches are powerful when the Spirit applies them to the heart. I read Psalm 93: </p> <blockquote> <p><em>“<strong>The LORD reigns</strong>…the world is established; it shall never be moved…The floods have lifted up, O LORD, the floods lift up their roaring!! <br></em><em>Mightier than the waves of the sea, <strong>the LORD on high is mighty! </strong>Your decrees are very trustworthy; holiness befits your house, O LORD, forevermore.”</em> </p></blockquote> <p>And I scribbled these words in my journal before scooting off to breakfast and on with the day: <em>How will this truth live in my thoughts and actions today and bring life to damaged belief systems?</em></p> <p>I struggle with varied nagging fears. It is my nature not to trust completely and to feel instead that it’s up to me to insure my well-being, and that of those I love. This is problematic when circumstances are clearly outside my control! I have been thinking about these things and on this particular day I got a little object lesson in how senseless and peace-robbing my fears are, and how trustworthy and holy-making is God’s Word at work in my heart.</p> <p>Jim was burning brush in the backyard—a great mound of it left from his landscaping work… It has been so <strong>very </strong>dry here this summer. Fire bans were in effect while forest fires raged in record breaking ways nearby. But the rain has returned and cooler temperatures allow for burning once again. Still there is always a risk. And the crackling of fire, the smoke, the consciousness of its heat and potential make me wary... Well, so I took lunch out to Jim as he stood sentinel by his blazing inferno. And we sat together at a short distance to eat. But I could not relax, could not enter into our usual discussion of life and faith… I kept straining to see if the fire was within its parameters and had not reached to lick up dry grass and spread out of control...It wasn't my job. Jim was in charge. He was mindful. (And he is after all a trained fire fighter!) But I felt an undue responsibility and it robbed me of a peaceful lunch and meaningful conversation. But I recognized it, and that’s a start. <p>Well, the day was too lovely to be holed up indoors so after lunch I brought my current project out to sit and keep Jim company--stitching a pine needle basket. There’s nothing quite so peaceful and therapeutic, especially on such a day when there’s just enough sun to be warm and enough cool to feel refreshed, enough autumn in the air to luxuriate in the remains of summer! A perfectly restful idea, EXCEPT for the presence of that crackling blazing fire. <p>Could I actually relax and attend to MY business and let Jim attend to his as if there were no fire crackling nearby, no smoke lazily rising, no threat of catching the world on fire! I almost chose to stay inside rather than wrestle with my fears. <p>It seems a silly example but for my heart it was a moment to rest in a bigger reality. God is the Fire-tender. (He is Himself a consuming fire!). His domain reaches infinitely beyond my own. He has given me a calling within it along with its attendant duties; these are my domain. He intends for me to carry them out at peace with the world--to <i>stay calm and carry on</i>, so to speak, to mind my own business, looking to Him for the wherewithal to do so and let Him mind His. <strong>When I do my task with inner peace and quiet joy, confident in His superintending care, I honor Him as a very good King.</strong> I am a subject; He the King. How blessed are the subjects of a wise King, as Queen Sheba commented in observing King Solomon’s impressive court. <strong>And what glory contented subjects bring to their King.</strong> <p>And with these thoughts fed by the morning’s reading of the Word, I sat and stitched…and let the fire be somebody else’s business. The LORD reigns. Forever. Period. The noise of a flood (or a fire!) may be in my ears, but HE reigns. It can do no harm but what He allows. This was a relevant object lesson for me. I can trust Him to manage the fires in my life—the burning away of dross, the disciplining of His children for the sake of our holiness. My response? I can REJOICE in GOD even as I tremble at His Word. Abiding in Him I can ask, knock, and seek, confident that He hears, that He knows, and that He will grant what is in line with His purposes. There is great peace in such an arrangement. <p>If you were to ask Jim whether I have fully learned this lesson of trust, he would let you know I’m still querying him about the smoke drifting past the window as the roots continue to burn day and night…I still remind him to check on things (as if he needed my reminder), and to be honest, I’m still a little on edge about this fire business in the back yard. I’ll be relieved when it has burned itself out completely. But there it is, my object lesson about needless fears. Were God only a consuming fire and not perfect LOVE, were I not His by means of a covenant He established and I have entered into by faith, I would do well to fear the FIRE. But as it is, He is committed to my good, bringing all that He is to the task, for His glory’s sake. He is a covenant keeping God. I can rest in this… and go on stitching my little pine needle baskets to His glory… <p>So whatever you are doing today, do it to the glory of God—with quiet confidence that He reigns in all the raging world around, as you fulfill His purposes for you in the here and now. <p><em>--LS</em> <p><a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-qnnrq_KZ_9g/VgcN0Gsk-FI/AAAAAAAAbAw/UvaB8EzKhVo/s1600-h/image%25255B2%25255D.png"><img title="image" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; margin: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="image" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgETz2ercXjDfk7aAaKsuloGzjPlVzA5GgLQ6-87fpD2bjed4qS73TX_J2Vc_-HssX9HPB5H6JzxOPJo5EDmP8KxC44jaFMqgLxa1WX8GwbITgNkXlq6T8-PE_j1ZXTjP82-g1ftWlcPfu4/?imgmax=800" width="244" height="184"></a> <p>“…we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God…” <font size="1">Rom. 5:1,2</font> <p>More than that, <strong>we also rejoice in God</strong> through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. <font size="1">Rom.5:11</font></p> <p>For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, <strong>much more will those who receive the abundance of grace</strong> and the free gift of righteousness <strong>reign in life</strong> through the one man Jesus Christ.”<font size="1"> Rom.5:17</font></p> <p>But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. <font size="1">Jude 1:20-21</font></p> Lindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16682029173527471837noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4063575672808296948.post-76701783860332677702015-09-19T22:50:00.001-07:002015-09-20T09:21:01.832-07:00All that Matters in the Messy Moments<p>You’ve no doubt had those moments--when harsh reality hits and the world stops spinning for just a bit, or for weeks and months… You didn’t see it coming, you had hoped and prayed it never would. But it is here and is not welcome. It could be a death, a crash, a conversation, a crisis. But in the moment life lies shattered at your feet. This is not what you’d planned.</p> <p>If we haven’t yet lived through such moments, we’ve surely seen them: Babies die; marriages self-destruct; dreams unravel; children depart; heroes fall; and, if we are honest with ourselves, we fail, miserably. It is in the messes of our lives that we discover where our hope lies. </p> <blockquote> <p><em><font size="3"><strong>Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.</strong></font></em> <font size="1">Rom.8:24,25</font></p></blockquote> <p>It is in the crushing of our hopes that we discover how we have defined success. For me, I had thought never failing, or at least avoiding mistakes, was tantamount to success. Keeping my nose clean, making only the best choices, and training my children to do the same--in hopes of us all living happily forever and always-- was my definition of success. But it’s not God’s. </p> <blockquote> <p> <em>For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but <strong>only faith working through love.</strong></em> <font size="1">Gal.5:6 </font></p></blockquote> <p>He’s not so concerned that we fail (nor is He surprised!). His concern is that we repent.<br>It is not the sister caught in a sin that He resists, but the one who refuses to call upon her Saviour.<br>And it is not the good-deed-a-holic that impresses Him, but the one who believes.</p> <p><strong>Faith in the One who is our very Life is what matters.</strong> And growing and fortifying that faith is God’s priority for His children. Without it we cannot please Him. Without it we haven’t got a life.</p> <blockquote> <p><em><strong>“…but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.</strong></em> <font size="1">Jn.20:31</font></p></blockquote> <p>So He allows us to make mistakes, to bring heaps of trouble on ourselves, to parent badly, to make poor choices and even to live with the consequences. Though He can, and we pray and plead that He will, God doesn’t always prevent disasters or circumvent consequences, or override our choices. <strong>But He always uses them for our good and His glory.</strong></p> <p>It’s not that He doesn’t see or care. It’s just that He has a bigger purpose in mind than our perfect track record or our seamless happiness. If your own story doesn’t bear this out (yet), pick a Bible story, any story, and slow it down to feel the moments as they play out. Stop the video as Naomi’s husband and sons die, one by one, leaving her alone in a foreign land… <br><br>Listen in as the gate clangs shut on Joseph’s prison cell. He’s done nothing to ‘deserve’ this; he’s been faithful; but here he sits. <br><br>And how was Samson’s mom feeling the day he married Delilah? She’d followed God’s instructions and raised him as a Nazarite, but he wanted this girl so badly…</p> <p>John the Baptist, faithful forerunner to Jesus, knew of faithfulness unrewarded. He lost his head in prison. </p> <p>Peter knew failure. He had betrayed his most valued friend-- His Lord and God! Talk about disillusionment, what would it have been like to watch the One you’d trusted to save you be crucified Himself? </p> <p>Messy moments. Painful moments--moments that were impossible to comprehend <em>in</em> the moment. But each was a masterpiece God was creating. We see this in hindsight. But only the eye of faith could have imagined it. </p> <ul> <li>A Moabite, Naomi’s daughter-in-law is planted in the family line of Jesus displaying the glorious grace of God that outshines the Law’s demands. <li>Joseph emerges from the dungeon to sit at Pharaoh’s right hand with the power to save God’s people from starvation! <li>Samson regains his faith and his strength and conquers God’s enemies by the laying down of his life. </li></ul> <p>We would not have scripted these stories this way. At least I wouldn’t have! But each is a story of redemption and of faith. God saves the day. Messes are made to serve His purposes. Faith is made strong. </p> <p>[A little side note, do you know what Joseph was commended for? <em>“By faith, Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and <u>gave directions concerning his bones</u>.”</em> <font size="1">Heb.11:22 </font>He would not live to see his beloved home again but he died believing God would be faithful in taking His people back home to their own land one day…]</p> <p>This is God’s heart for HIs children—that they would believe and so see His great glory. This is our destiny and it is the overarching story of our lives. All else pales in importance. </p> <p>I read the story of Lazarus’ death today. There was a crisis. Lazarus lay dying. Mary and Martha sent for Jesus to come and heal Him. He delayed, on purpose. And Lazarus died. Why? Martha couldn’t understand it: <em>“If you had been here, my brother would not have died.”</em> She knew Jesus could heal him. But what she did not yet know was that He could raise the dead. He delayed <em>for the sake of</em> his friends and followers, so that they might believe and behold the glory of God.<font size="1">Jn.11:14,21,40 </font></p> <p><strong>Our most painful moments may be the ones through which God is most greatly glorified.</strong> </p> <p>Peter rebounded from his painful failure to write us this encouragement: </p> <blockquote> <p><font face="Times New Roman">Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! <br>According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to <strong>a living hope</strong> through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is<strong> imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, </strong>who by God's power are being guarded <u>through faith</u> for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. <br>In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of <u>your faith--more precious than gold </u>that perishes though it is tested by fire--may be found to result in <strong>praise and glory and honor</strong> at the revelation of Jesus Christ. <br>Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, <strong>you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory,</strong> obtaining <u>the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.</u></font> <font size="1">I Pet.1:3-9 ESV</font></p></blockquote> <p>Faith is the victory that overcomes the world--faith in the God who sees where we cannot, faith in the God who is good when it’s NOT all good with us and ours. And as I sweep up my own pieces, wipe away tears and look around for Bandaids to patch my heart, I hear the distant strains of a symphony. It is faint, just barely audible. It’s the sound of hope, a better hope, dreams yet unimagined. God is orchestrating circumstances for His own glory and for the refining of His children. Ours is a God who redeems. I will set my hope on Him. </p> <p><em>--LS</em> </p> <p><strong>[Our] Redeemer is strong; the LORD of hosts is his name!</strong> <font size="1">Jer.50:34</font></p> <p><em>“…I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers."</em> –Jesus <font size="1">Lk.22:32</font></p> <p>For everyone born of God overcomes the world. <strong>This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.</strong><font size="1"><strong> </strong>I Jn.5:4</font></p> <p><em>The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all.</em> <font size="1">Ps.34:18,19</font></p> <p><font size="1">-------------------------------------------</font></p> <p><font size="2">May I offer you a song in hopes that it will bless your heart as it has mine?<br>Listen here or <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMeFzFUbmJo&feature=player_embedded" target="_blank">go to YouTube</a> : <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMeFzFUbmJo">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMeFzFUbmJo</a><font size="2"></font></font></p> <div id="scid:5737277B-5D6D-4f48-ABFC-DD9C333F4C5D:60ee8140-a3d7-47e5-9482-c65c0c4385a9" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent" style="float: none; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px"><div><object width="448" height="252"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/XQan9L3yXjc?hl=en&hd=1"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/XQan9L3yXjc?hl=en&hd=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="448" height="252"></embed></object></div><div style="width:448px;clear:both;font-size:.8em">“Blessings” by Laura Story</div></div> <p>Better yet, two songs ( :</p> <p><font face="Times New Roman"><u>We Believe<br></u>Listen on You Tube here:</font></p> <p><a title="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtPmX7e_Rpw&feature=youtu.be" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtPmX7e_Rpw&feature=youtu.be">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtPmX7e_Rpw&feature=youtu.be</a></p> <p><font face="Times New Roman">In this time of desperation<br>When all we know is doubt and fear<br>There is only one foundation<br>We believe, we believe<br>In this broken generation<br>When all is dark, You help us see<br>There is only one salvation<br>We believe, we believe</font> <p><font face="Times New Roman">We believe in God the Father<br>We believe in Jesus Christ<br>We believe in the Holy Spirit<br>And He's given us new life<br>We believe in the crucifixion<br>We believe that He conquered death<br>We believe in the resurrection<br>And He's coming' back again, we believe</font> <p><font face="Times New Roman">So, let our faith be more than anthems<br>Greater than the songs we sing<br>And in our weakness and temptations<br>We believe, we believe!</font> <p><font face="Times New Roman">Let the lost be found and the dead be raised!<br>In the here and now, let love invade!<br>Let the church live love our God will save<br>We believe, we believe!<br>And the gates of hell will not prevail!<br>For the power of God, has torn the veil!<br>Now we know Your love will never fail!<br>We believe, we believe!</font> <p><font face="Times New Roman">He's comin' back again!<br>He's comin' back again!<br>We believe!<br>We believe </font></p> <p><font face="Times New Roman">--by Newsboys</font></p> <p>Amen!</p> Lindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16682029173527471837noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4063575672808296948.post-60613655911871073662015-09-12T10:09:00.001-07:002015-09-16T20:17:57.397-07:00When RIGHT goes wrong…<p>I cannot take the words back. They’re in print. But they caused such pain. What went wrong? I’ve re-read them for content and I still stand by them. They represent what I wanted to say, what I felt I needed to say. I believed I was sending them in love, ‘for your good’. But they cut like a knife; you’re bleeding. Now what?</p> <p>I have retraced my steps this week to think about what it means to <em>‘speak the truth in love’</em>. These thoughts have synced with my pondering of what it means to <em>love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.</em> I’ve been thinking about each of these facets of me, wondering what it would look like to love God as He intends. For instance, if I am to <strong>love the Lord my God with all my<u> </u><em><u>heart</u> </em></strong>what does this look like?</p> <p>It’s one thing to love Him with the use of my <em>mind</em>; this seems to be my preferred mode. With my mind I study His Word. With my mind I compose thoughts. Knowing the truth. Pondering the truth. These things I enjoy doing. But sometimes my heart gets left behind.</p> <p><strong>I can write right words without letting a heart of love control them.</strong> Love is <em>patient</em>, love is <em>kind</em>. It is not arrogant or rude insisting on its own way of thinking. It is not driven by irritation or resentment. (Words composed out of frustration are seldom words that effect the desired result!) Words fired like rock salt from a shotgun, though true, will only burn and wound. These aren’t the wounds of a friend. </p> <p>I’m not big on mercy. As those nearest me have already realized, it does not come naturally to me. I’m all about TRUTH! But without tender mercy truth only wounds, doing more harm than good. Like a bleach bath for eczema, the proportions matter! Too much bleach irritates, burns and destroys the skin it is intended to heal.</p> <p>To love God with all my heart means I have to apply truth with kindness and gentleness, keeping truth and mercy in careful proportion. <strong>Knowing and SAYING(!) what is right is not enough.</strong> To love the Lord with all my heart means loving others in my dispensing of the truth they need to hear. It is not enough to <em>say</em> I’m speaking because I love them. I must “<em>speak the truth IN LOVE’’. </em>Love builds up. It encourages with the aim of motivating change for the other’s good.</p> <p>Paul shows how this is done in advising Timothy how to negotiate with those who oppose him: <em>“The Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but <strong>kind</strong> to everyone, able to teach, <strong>patient</strong>ly enduring evil, correcting his opponents with <strong>gentle</strong>ness.”</em> Why? Because the object is not to spout off the truth in offensive ways so that I can wear an “I’M RIGHT—YOU’RE WRONG” badge with self-congratulatory smugness. (Love “<u>does not rejoice at wrongdoing</u>, but rejoices with the truth.”) The object is to win over the ‘opponent’ to the truth. To help him see rightly. Caustic words don’t do that. Gentle words may. But <strong>ultimately it is God who grants the repentance that leads to a knowledge of truth.</strong> Humble words delivered gently are much more apt to engender this coming to one’s senses and so escaping the snare of deception. Isn’t this the object? </p> <p>Too often I have thought that <u>being right and saying so</u> would suffice.</p> <p>But God speaks gently. He is kind. And patient. He leads me to repentance…by means of the Truth. </p> <p><em>--LS</em></p> <p><em><font size="3">Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer</font></em>. <font size="1">Ps.19:14</font></p> <p>Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but <em>only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace</em> to those who hear. <font size="1">Eph.4:29</font></p> <p>And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but <em>kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness.</em> God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will. <br><font size="1">II Tim.2:24-26</font></p> <p><font size="4">Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned, <i>as it were,</i> with salt, so that you may know how you should respond to each person.</font> <font size="1">Col.4:6</font></p> Lindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16682029173527471837noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4063575672808296948.post-9425988279922015772015-09-05T21:46:00.001-07:002015-09-05T21:46:12.151-07:00God in the ordinary<p>There are a lot of very ordinary days, very quiet ones, at this stage in our lives. Nothing to write home about. A simple list of tasks accomplished represents the day, at least to all outward appearances. <p>What did I do today… <p>--pedaled 40 miles with my honey, to keep us in shape, body and soul<br>--peeled apples for a crisp<br>--made a quick dish of fresh applesauce with roadside apples<br>--beat up a pan of fresh hot buns for supper with company<br>--threaded my way around another row of pine needles out on the porch in the late afternoon sun, shaping a wee basket, while the coolness of fall invited thoughts of Thanksgiving on the way…<br>--sat here at my laptop wondering what to say this week, what is the Lord teaching me?<br>--and got distracted from my ponderings to research hand eczema and what to do about its persistent and maddening itch!</p> <p>These are the externals, this is what you would have <em>seen</em> if you were here today watching… pretty uneventful. <p>But then there are the quiet unseen things—the<em> ‘aha’</em> moments of reassurance that I am just where God intends for me to be. He has purposes for me here in these simple quiet days. He doesn’t give all the answers to our questions and frustrations but He gives peace. And that is enough for now.</p> <p> <a href="http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-CnDBx9Va-v0/VevFDi5y03I/AAAAAAAAadE/8rIB6_lgU3w/s1600-h/Pine%252520Needle%252520Basket%252520%2525232%25255B2%25255D.jpg"><img title="Pine Needle Basket #2" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="Pine Needle Basket #2" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXh_2NgAvrPqD6Lv7XkvvwTucQqwa0jooOCxqlbM4AqAZl1nOMGU6dXVFwYBhr6CFEdBCCinahzE0poBqec2b_WC7o4Cefuj_hPn4rdlsXdin7JeDTkBNDPBfdi2xI8RSsvFfRoaF6Z4eo/?imgmax=800" width="184" height="244"></a></p> <p>Even in the ordinary days God is at work directing, influencing, leading, sustaining, enabling—not just in my little world but in His whole universe! It’s sometimes just a matter of learning to see the unseen, to hear the inaudible, and to believe He is who He says He is. <p>And in the backdrop of my daily-nesses lie the grand truths that make it all worth living. I woke up with these lyrics in my mind: <blockquote> <p><font size="4"><em>…Let this blessed assurance control,<br>That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,<br>And hath shed His own blood for my soul.<sup>1</sup></em></font></p></blockquote> <p>And snatches of these verses too which I looked up to get straight: <p><em>Not the labor of my hands</em><br><em>Can fulfill Thy law’s demands;<br>Could my zeal no respite know,<br>Could my tears forever flow,<br>All for sin could not atone;<br><strong>Thou must save, and Thou alone.</strong></em></p> <p><em><strong>Nothing in my hand I bring,<br>Simply to Thy cross I cling;<br>Naked, come to Thee for dress;<br>Helpless, look to Thee for grace;<br></strong>Foul, I to the fountain fly;<br>Wash me, Savior, or I die.<sup>2</sup></em></p> <p><em>No condemnation now I dread;<br><strong>Jesus, and all in Him, is mine;<br>Alive in Him, my living Head,<br>And clothed in righteousness divine,<br></strong>Bold I approach th’eternal throne,<br>And claim the crown, through Christ my own. <sup>3</sup></em></p> <p>And on a very ordinary days these are thoughts to ponder that go far beyond the ordinary!</p> <p><em>--LS</em></p> <p><em>Let me hear what God the LORD will speak, for he will speak peace to his people, to his saints; but let them not turn back to folly. Surely his salvation is near to those who fear him, that glory my dwell in our land.<br>Ps.85:8,9</em></p> <p><em>______</em></p> <p><em><sup>1 </sup>It is Well with My Soul –Horatio Spafford</em></p> <p><em><sup>2</sup> Rock of Ages</em> --<em> Augustus M. Toplady</em></p> <p><em><sup>3</sup> And Can It Be that I Should Gain –Charles Wesley</em></p><strong></p></strong> Lindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16682029173527471837noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4063575672808296948.post-58178410146982005282015-09-01T23:40:00.001-07:002015-09-02T16:15:26.891-07:00The Tenth Leper<p>Ten lepers cried out to Jesus for mercy. They could not come near so they called out from a distance<strong><em>—“Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.”</em></strong> </p> <p>Jesus heard, and He had mercy. </p> <p>He sent them to the priest to diagnose their condition. Only the priest could declare them clean and sanction their re-entrance into society. On the way their leprosy vanished. They were new men, on the surface anyway. </p> <p>But only one had a heart change. He came running back to the One who alone could see beneath his skin and give him a whole heart. </p> <p><strong>This story is told to children as a lesson in being thankful.</strong> We should always say ‘thank-you’. I read it one morning this week to my granddaughter. She was called to breakfast before I could deliver the moralistic punch line. It’s probably just as well. But I was left pondering this story. What does it teach us? </p> <p><strong>This tenth leper was more than just thankful.</strong> When he looked down at his hands and recognized he’d been healed, he made an ‘about-face’ and<em> <strong>“praising God with a loud voice”,</strong></em> he rushed back to Jesus and <em><strong>‘'fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks.”</strong> </em> He was a man transformed from the heart into a worshipper of the one true God. He had been doubly an outcast, both a leper and a despised Samaritan, but Jesus being no respecter of persons had extended mercy to Him. His response was a demonstration of his faith and because of it Jesus declared him ‘saved’, made whole.</p> <p>It seems to me in reading this story that there is more here than a mere physical healing. For the other nine lepers this was the case; they were happy to trot off to the priest and be declared fit for society. <strong>But this one returned to Jesus and was declared ‘saved’—fit for fellowship with God!</strong> If I read correctly between the lines of this story, he was not only healed of leprosy, he was forgiven--made clean inside and out. He had only to cry out for mercy and then to acknowledge the One who extended it as His rightful Lord.</p> <p>Leprosy in the ancient world was regarded as a judgment of God for a person’s sin. It was incurable, loathsome and progressively deadly. It was a scourge that made an outcast of its victim. The leprous person was to <em>‘wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose’.</em> He was to <em>‘cover his upper lip and cry out, <strong>“Unclean, unclean”</strong></em> lest he come in contact with anyone unawares. He was sentenced to live alone. <em>“His dwelling shall be outside the camp.” <font size="1">(Lev.13:45,46)</font></em> Leprosy is an apt description of the incurable nature of sin. From almost imperceptible beginnings it spreads destructively till its host is destroyed, without ability to free himself.</p> <p>No wonder Jesus made a point of healing lepers, demonstrating that even the grossest of sins is not beyond his reach to heal and forgive. This is a poignant reminder in light of the scandals being unearthed by the media these days. Christian men, trusted leaders, are among those whose private lives have been exposed by the hackers of a website promoting adulterous liaisons. Sin cannot stay hidden anymore than leprosy’s infective virus can remain symptomless. </p> <p>“The sins of some men are conspicuous, going before them to judgment, but the sins of others appear later.” <font size="1">I Tim.5:24</font></p> <p>But in the wake of sin’s exposure there is hope that the lepers so exposed will cry out for mercy and find forgiveness, and that those sinned against will find the grace to forgive, knowing how much they themselves have been forgiven.<font size="1"> <a href="http://www.blueletterbible.org/Bible.cfm?b=Luk&c=17&t=KJV#s=990019" target="_blank">( Luke 17:3,4)</a></font></p> <p>Like leprosy, sin is a great leveler. Leprous Jew and Samaritan alike lived as outcasts from society. Even so no one of us stands ‘better off’ than another and beyond need of mercy.<font size="2"><em> ( ‘All have sinned and fall short of God’s glory’)</em></font> <strong>Apart from God’s mercy we are all lepers for life,</strong> disfigured from God’s original design, cast out of the garden and out of fellowship with God and with others. None can stand tall at the Cross, worthy of Jesus’ favor. But all can cry out for His mercy. All can find forgiveness and newness of life.</p> <p>In the boundless mercy and acceptance offered in the Gospel is a haven where strength is found to say 'no' to sin and "yes” to the Spirit who points us to the way of escape and to Christ. There is no hope for the weak to pull themselves out of the mire of sin anymore than for a leper to heal himself. But in Christ there is mercy and strength and forgiveness again, and again as we learn to walk humbly with our God. <p>These then are the things I read between the lines of this simple children’s story: <ul> <li>I am never so weak and helpless that I cannot call out for mercy, nor so ‘together’ that I don’t need it! <li>It is never too late to do an ‘about face’ and fall at Jesus feet in awe-filled gratitude. He has freed me from the ravaging clutches of leprosy so that I can live near Him, rejoicing in His abundant forgiveness, forever. This is the right response to His mercy. <li>Not only is being thankful a good idea, it’s a declaration of faith in God, and a worshipful posture.</li></ul> <p>Have I bowed at Jesus feet in awe-filled thanks lately?</p> <p>--LS</p> <p><font size="3"><em>Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved, for you are my praise.</em></font> <font size="1">Jer.17:14</font></p> <p>Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. <font size="1">James 4:8</font></p> <p><font size="3">If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.</font><font size="1"> I John 1:9</font></p> <p>…and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith. <font size="1">Acts 15:9</font></p> <p><font size="1"></font><font size="1"><br><a title="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HLyhEdh92E" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HLyhEdh92E"><font size="3">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HLyhEdh92E</font></a> </p> <div id="scid:5737277B-5D6D-4f48-ABFC-DD9C333F4C5D:2da1ed79-0d48-4a83-b241-806ff1413a65" class="wlWriterEditableSmartContent" style="float: none; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px"><div><object width="448" height="252"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/9HLyhEdh92E?hl=en&hd=1"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/9HLyhEdh92E?hl=en&hd=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="448" height="252"></embed></object></div></div></font> <blockquote> <p><font size="4"><em>My sin—oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!—<br>My sin, not in part but the whole,<br>Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,<br>Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!</em></font></p></blockquote> Lindahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16682029173527471837noreply@blogger.com1