We get to do the watering!

Hot weather is wonderful for a garden as long as the gardener keeps up the watering.  I was out in the garden before breakfast this morning making sure the tomatoes got their water, and peeking through the zucchini jungle for more offspring.  Oh no!  2 going on 4 more!  Watering is one of those unrelenting chores.  It’s kind of a peaceful operation, if you’re not in a hurry to do anything but watch water be absorbed into thirsty dirt!  Soaker hoses and drip systems are great inventions.  Unfortunately I did not make sufficient use of these this year so… there is watering to be done, unendingly.

I could give it up I suppose, but what’s sadder than the sight of a dead plant, especially when you know it was due to your own neglect.  I have a couple planters even now the sight of which is a reproach; they got forgotten while we were away enjoying our carefree cycling holiday with nary a thought of home, or parched plants…My last minute watering instructions did not include the window box full of  once thriving thyme and oregano plants…nor the carefree purple alyssum blooming their hearts out on the front steps.  Sigh.  Watering is important, non-negotiable.

But watering is not the glory of gardening—it’s just the brainless part that seems to make it work.  The  real wonder is the way things grow.  Nasturtiums rise from forgotten seeds and tumble all about in vivid yellows and oranges.  Zucchini kick in high gear when the sun shines hot.  Tomatoes that grew from teensy weensy seedlings coddled indoors when summer was yet a dream now reforest the greenhouse in great green sprawling masses… Well might the nonsensical Mother Goose Rhyme ask: “How does your garden grow?”.  Can you explain it?  I can plant seeds. I can apply water.  But I cannot bring out the sun and I cannot cause a plant to instinctively rise up toward it and put forth leaves and flower and fruit.  This is the wonder that keeps me in the garden prowling about to inspect the latest bit of growth.  This is the wonder that keeps me watering.

And no wonder I Corinthians 3:7 caught my eye this week: “So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.”  The statement is made to quell the clamoring competition over which prestigious personage one should follow.  ( I follow Paul.  Well, I follow Apollos. Oh yeah, well I follow Christ…) Paul goes on to say that both the planter and waterer will be rewarded for their work-- in this particular case, Paul and Apollos, the church planters in Corinth,  but that they are not the main honchos.  However, get this, they are God’s fellow workers!  Isn’t that a neat picture?! What a privilege.  So what if we only get to plant seeds or do some mundane watering, God considers us his fellow gardeners!  He’s at work giving life to those seeds and making those watered shoots spring up and produce fruit, he only tasks us with the simple stuff:  plant the seed I have provided and water it well….

I wonder what that looks like?  In this context it would seem the seed is the Word of God and particularly, the Gospel. Paul’s mission was to take the Gospel where it had not yet been heard.  The watering, at least in Apollos’ case was about teaching and defending the truth against naysayers and in so doing bringing great encouragement to the believers (see: Acts 18:24-28).  In both cases these were tasks for which these men were gifted and to which they were called.  My planting and watering may look different than theirs.  I’m no skilled orator.  Nor am I a church planter.  But each of us is gifted with something to be used in God’s garden as we work alongside Him making His garden grow.  This is a wonder and a privilege.  I will gladly hold the hose if it lets me be up close to see things growing in that wonderful way only God can bring about.  I’m reminded too that holding hoses and watching water sink into dry dirt may not be glamorous and the results may not be seen straightway, but even in the mundane, I am called God’s fellow worker and that’s amazing!

Blessings on you as you ‘garden’ with Him.  Keep the water flowing and watch what God will do!

--LS

“I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus,  that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge—  even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you—  so that you are not lacking in any gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ,  who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.  God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”  I Cor. 1:4-9

And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. Gal.6:9

On Purpose

“Your life’s purpose may remain a mystery to you, as may the events of your world, but that’s okay. God is in control. We are relieved of the responsibility of understanding everything and the need to change it.”*

I 'happened upon’ these words earlier this week. It was no mistake. Had I not just been journaling my own questions about my purpose in life…dragging a bit with disappointment at my 'performance', dismayed at feeling so 'stuck' artistically—an otherwise 'happy homemaker' content in her pumpkin, yet with her neighbors heading obliviously to Hell! Ouch.

I was doing a sort of New Year's assessment I guess, wondering all the while whether my guilt, disappointment and dismay were legitimate or just my 'wrong-headed' way of motivating myself to 'DO SOMETHING!" Wondering, in fact, whether I was even asking the right questions: "How am I doing?" and "Am I pleasing?"

As per my last blog, that old hymn came to mind, a prayer:

Open my eyes, that I may see
Glimpses of truth Thou hast for me;
Place in my hands the wonderful key
That shall unclasp and set me free.

Silent, I waited. Well, to be honest, I suppose I just went off into the daily details. That was Saturday.

Then came the sermon on Sunday from Acts 3 and 4. Peter and John are at the Beautiful Gate giving what they have to the lame man begging for alms. No, not money. But Jesus. They lifted the lame man to his feet and for the first time in his life he walked, no he danced! into the temple praising God. Peter and John had been at the right place at the right time—after 40 years of waiting, this was the day chosen by God to heal this man. Of course that episode was just the beginning; the 'greater work' was the telling of the Gospel to the crowd gathered in wonder and amazement. The calling to repentance. The winsome invitation to find forgiveness and 'times of refreshment' from the Lord. Yes, Peter and John had quite the mission that day. Exciting. Mind you it landed them abruptly in prison when the religious leaders caught wind of the goings on. Did Peter and John even realize how many people had come to faith that day?

Then there it was again: "What is your calling?" Pastor said. And I thought of Peter's words: "Look at us" (not much to look at?) "I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you." (Acts 3:4-6) What I do have, this I can offer… hmmm . The message went on to other illustrations of seeing people as Jesus sees. There were pointed challenges to follow Jesus out of comfortable places into the world, to make the work of God's redemption known to those around us… but most of all the message confirmed my desire to answer the question: "Am I doing what God has designed and 'prepared before the foundation of the world' for me to do?"

Fast forward to the wonderful devotional clip on life's purpose, pasted on my mom's Facebook page-- the story of a man who spent his life longing to reach the Koreans with the Gospel back in the day when Korea was closed to outsiders. After years his chance came-- a trading ship going there to see if maybe… but NO! They were not welcomed. The ship was caught on a sandbar and burned. The stragglers ashore were brutally murdered on the spot. Was this the missionary's reward after a lifetime of praying and waiting? But he held copies of Chinese Bibles that day. These were seen as valuable for their fine paper. Some illiterate man tore out pages to paper the exterior walls of his house. And one day these pages drew the attention of a scholar who could read. And the Gospel he read there won his heart…And would you know, it was his nephew a generation later who would assist another little known missionary to translate the Bible into the Korean language. ** God had a plan…

The devotional ended with these reassuring words: "The meaning of life does not consist in what we make of it, but in what God makes of it. Success is not about achievement or what we make of ourselves. It’s about placement, or what God makes of us. We take the lesson from the persecuted church that it is okay to die quite unaware of our life’s meaning. We can rest in trust that God, in His mercy, has used us to help build His eternal kingdom." [Ronald Boyd-MacMillan, Faith That Endures (Grand Rapids: Fleming Revell, 2006), p. 314].

God is building an eternal Kingdom. We who have committed our lives to Him are stuck in the perspective of time, seeing days, weeks, years, maybe a generation but God sees all of Eternity and weaves all for the best display of His glory. We see life from our own perspectives, feel our disappointments, our pains, our comforts. He sees the big picture. There have been other nudges, other confirmations, other answers to my questions. God is not silent when we sit in muddled wonder at what He could possibly be up to. He may not unveil His whole plan but He knows just what we most need for this moment. And there are glimpses, mostly in retrospect, of how He has led us along so far. That's a story for another day. For today He's not asking me for dramatic deeds but that I listen for His promptings, pursue the passions that He's planted in me, and trust Him with what I cannot accomplish.

Peter, in his address to the crowd gathered around the once-lame, now dancing man, called Jesus 'the Author of Life' (Acts 4:15). I love that! He is the One who writes my story. Through faith in His Name I am made strong—given confidence to walk, yes even to dance!—in praise for His work in my life. He calls me to repent of dead works and present my members, these hands, these eyes, this voice, this mind…as instruments for righteousness, and to follow Him in adoration all the days of this life!

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,
let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely,
and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith,
who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross,
despising the shame,
and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Heb.12:1-2

--LS

* Ronald Boyd-MacMillan, Faith That Endures (Grand Rapids: Fleming Revell, 2006), p. 315.

** Story drawn from Paul Estabrooks devotional in “Standing Strong Through The Storm” (SSTS), Open Doors Int'l, 2011

Rooted and Grounded in Love

I had a silly dream the other night--the kind you wake up from shaking your head at the preposterous suspension of good sense and logic in dreams. Anybody knows you cannot sustain a cut tree by periodic submersion in water, and yet this was the challenge that beset me in my dream: how to keep this silly ornamental fig propped up in a bucket long enough to give it a drink. Weird. Upon waking the solution was obvious—a Christmas tree stand of course! That took me off on another tangent—how strange the tradition of propping up dying trees and dressing them all pretty to celebrate the birth of a Life-giving Savior. All the while the tree is dying, if not dead. The charade is prolonged as long as needles remain (or until the housewife cannot stand the quantity of needles on the rug, or her firefighter husband recognizes the fire hazard this no-longer-evergreen is presenting…)

But I assure you we still haul in Christmas trees year-by-year. They are a beloved tradition. Now we grow and cut our own, a readily renewable resource. They grow like weeds along the roadside here, readily transplantable and voila, in a few years time, your own Charlie Brown tree! With more patience and a little trimming, a more refined look. Still, once that tree is severed from its roots, it becomes unstable and as good as dead. There will be no more growth, only a delayed wilt if we dig out the Christmas tree stand and water it well… And it occurs to me that this is my life in Christ—

I am rooted and grounded in Love (Eph.3:17). As I come to comprehend the extent of this perfect Love it will be to me a stabilizing, energizing, sufficient supply for life. Apart from it I am vulnerable to wilt. I reel from harsh words. I cringe when misunderstood. I slump and drop needles… But rooted and grounded in Love I can be like the tree planted by a stream "and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit" Jer.17:8. I'm thinking on these things this week--this love beyond measure, this love that extends forgiveness and acceptance.

I guess I am still reeling from a wound unwittingly delivered—I didn't see it coming. It hurt. It still hurts. Yet I am forgiven so that I may extend forgiveness. It is the overflow of Love. Love that bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things…this love that is not easily provoked and refuses to assume the worst…(I Cor.13) This is the Love I have been shown. This is the Love that I can extend because I am rooted and grounded in Love.

Forgiveness is a much hashed-over topic. Is there anything new to say? I thought I understood it pretty well. But it never becomes quite so clear as when it is required of you… A friend pointed me to this clarification of the nature of true forgiveness written years ago by George MacDonald. He suggests there are forms of 'forgiveness' which do not truly 'send away' the offence but only refrain from revenge. We say we 'can't forget' when what we are doing is holding onto the memory in case we need to substantiate our claim to having been wronged. We hang onto the evidence, just in case… It bolsters our ego to be the one in the right. We hold hostage the wrongdoer to serve our pride. Is this true forgiveness? Is it the sort we have been shown?

God instead sends our sins as far away as the East is from the West. He removes all that would prevent our fellowship with Him. Restoration is the aim of forgiveness, not merely a refusal to retain resentment or take revenge. Is this my ideal? Or does my smug 'I forgive you' backhandedly imply 'but I'm not forgetting what you've done!'

George MacDonald explains the ideal forgiveness as one that hates the sin, not because it hurt me, but because it has broken fellowship with my brother…

One more will say: "He has wronged me grievously. It is a dreadful thing to me, and more dreadful still to him, that he should have done it. He has hurt me, but he has nearly killed himself. He shall have no more injury from it that I can save him. I cannot feel the same towards him yet; but I will try to make him acknowledge the wrong he has done me, and so put it away from him. Then, perhaps, I shall be able to feel towards him as I used to feel. For this end I will show him all the kindness I can, not forcing it upon him, but seizing every fit opportunity; not, I hope, from a wish to make myself great through bounty to him, but because I love him so much that I want to love him more in reconciling him to his true self. I would destroy this evil deed that has come between us. I send it away. And I would have him destroy it from between us too, by abjuring it utterly." [Unspoken Sermons I, "It shall not be forgiven"]

And here I am brought back to consider the poor fig tree. The truth is, there is more to its need to be rooted and grounded in love than merely allowing it to extend love and forgiveness to others who are in the wrong! This smacks of the noble-sounding sentiments of the Pharisee gone down to the temple to pray: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men…’ Lk.18:11 No, the greater reason for needing such grounding is that I need to be forgiven, continuously. I have been the one to do the hurting. It has done costly damage. Perhaps these wounds I reel from are nothing compared to the ones I have myself inflicted. Could it be I have unwittingly offended, worse yet stabbed, ones who had not seen it coming? Could it be they are reeling from my callous thoughtlessness? Yes, I know this to be true. And for this reason, I need more than a temporary dip in water to reinvigorate my leafy tips. This will take more than a Christmas tree stand. I must be rooted and grounded in love. There is no other hope for this old fig tree. I have been forgiven and continue to need forgiveness at least as much as anyone I perceive as having wronged me. I'm so glad a Savior has been born to us—One who took the initiative to seek and to save that which was lost before they had even come to their senses. (Lk.15)

We, without Him are feeble trees, parched and quaking, Charlie Brown trees, if you will. We carry about in these bodies the death of Jesus "so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies…in our mortal flesh". II Cor.4:10 But rooted and grounded in a living supply of water, there is life, forgiveness, grace! This is why I need this living supply of water.

There was once another tree, cut and formed into a Cross. For this, Jesus was born. "He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree." Why? "that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed." I Pet.2:24 Yes! I can string the lights and celebrate! I am rooted and grounded in love.  Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift! II Cor.9:15

'It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found.' Lk.15:32

--LS

"…but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Rom.5:8

Blessed [is] the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is. Jer.17:7

He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, [so] great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, [so] far hath he removed our transgressions from us. Ps.103:10-12

"…according to the riches of his glory [may He] grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love,  may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.Eph.3:15-19

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us,  to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Eph.3:20-21

-----------------------------

This beautiful song sums it all up:

How deep the Father's love for us,
How vast beyond all measure
That He should give His only Son
To make a wretch His treasure

 

The “W” Word

Louie was a dog with a serious side, being of German extraction. Playing 'fetch' was no game. It was growling serious that he 'win', that he possess that stick and keep it from lying lost on the lawn or being snatched away from him…This was his work and there was nothing playful in it. He was focused and serious. I suppose that's why German Shepherds are chosen for police dogs and working occupations…

We made a good pair that way. I too see the serious side of any given incident, even if it's meant to be a joke. I suppose I take even myself too seriously. Always have. It was once about earning A's, pleasing the teacher, and so establishing my identity as a 'good' student. Did I transfer this mentality to God? I wonder sometimes. Do I work still for A's so He'll be pleased?

There's one snag in the whole thing. I'm not really an 'A student' when it comes to the heart of the matter. 'Full of dead men's bones' is how Jesus described anyone trusting in their own performance but not concerned about the hidden matters of the heart. Only Jesus can change that. I've just finished listening to an excellent series of messages by Charles Price, addressing what's to be done to live the Christian life without it becoming a 'try-harder-to-be-good' sort of thing (which is futile, frustrating and a booby trap for prideful self-delusion!)

The concept of welcoming death to self in exchange for union with Christ keeps popping up for me. I'm a slow learner? No sooner did I finish this very encouraging series, then the following morning in church the message was taken from Romans 6—a matter-of-fact presentation on our 'union with Christ'—the key to having any capacity to please God. United with Him in His death—so we have died to our old sin nature. United with Him in His resurrection—so we have a new life, His life, motivating us from within.

So there it was again, this Christ who IS my life. I so readily fall out of grace and into effort. Surely I must need to DO something myself to be really pleasing. I so readily forget it's faith that pleases God and the obedience it engenders. To attempt obedience without faith is to follow Abraham's misguided effort to fulfill God's promise in his own strength. Disaster!

Another tell-tale sign of misunderstanding my standing as one dead, but alive despite myself, is that when I do fail or disappoint (myself or you!) it's a hard blow, as if it threatened my whole identity! God is not disappointed. He knows me through and through, knows my points of weakness, knows what I'm made of and has all that covered with Jesus! From me He expects repentance and a confident coming to the 'throne of grace' for all I lack. It is enough. I am able to resume life, humbled maybe at the recognition of my own propensity for sin, but forgiven and unashamed, accepted in the Beloved. As I write this I am preaching it to myself. It does not come naturally or easily for this would-be-perfect-in-her-own-strength girl. Reminders come.

I guess that's why I've so appreciated Price's messages this week with their emphasis that the Christian life is not about self-improvement but about dependence on Christ to live HIS life through me. The devil's not to blame, (or anybody else!). I am. But that's OK. Repentance is a breath away. And it's a relief to cast myself on One who really is good and wants to live His life out in me. He knows how to do it right!

What's the trick? There is none. The most confusing thing about the Christian life, Price suggests, is its simplicity. You cannot live it without Christ but when you're abiding in Him, by faith, things happen. It's like flying. You can't, until you're in the plane. Then there's nothing more to do but trust the plane to get you there. Even the anxious traveler arrives, though he may miss the pleasure of the trip! It boils down to faith. Just as I came to Jesus in the first place by faith acknowledging my helpless sin-bound state, so this is how He expects me to live the Christian life, by faith, dead to my old self and alive to Him.

I can get in a pretty serious state looking at the 'old mare' and her propensity for selfishness. I can be like Louie, taking life way too seriously. 'This stick is mine and I'm going to see that it stays in my control'…But Louie had another side. A single word could transform him into an ecstatic, tail-wagging, happy bundle of energy. The "W" word, my friend used to call it. And if you have a dog, you know it well.

(shhhh… I'll say it quietly) The word is walk. Why keep it quiet? Well once it's out, there's no rest for the speaker until the leash is fetched and the door opened!

I smile to myself to realize how the "W" word applies also to me. What will rescue me from my moribund hold on good intentions?

The Spirit invites me to WALK with Him. And as I do, all the rest of the Christian life falls into place. He's got the trail planned. He knows the destination and all the highpoints and muddy crossings along the way. He directs my steps. I need only obediently trust His lead. This is the way to live the Christ life, not fixated on the flesh and what it's up to but ambling down the road eager to comply with my Master's directions. By faith heeding his: Heel, Fetch, Sit, Down, Wait… He's got my days planned and my trails are by His appointment. I'm his concern after all. How carefree is that?

And look at the side-effects of walking by the Spirit..Not only will I not gratify the desires of my sin-bent nature (Gal.5:1) which do damage to myself and those around me, but there'll be an overflow of love and joy and peace, patience and kindness and even goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Gal. 5:22,23) Sounds like something to get excited about!

As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him… (Col.2:6)

Did Someone say, "WALK" ?!!!

--LS

For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. Gal.5:5,6

Having begun by the Spirit are you now being perfected by works of the flesh? Gal.3:3

If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. Gal. 5:25,26

Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Phil.1:6

Before I scamper off down the trail may I leave you with a poem that grabbed my heart this week. It portrays so well the relief of repentance and the joy that is its reward. Would we not cease to trudge downcast through life if we kept this gracious prospect in our mind's eye?

"Prodigal"

"Come to myself, I trudge down distant roads.
Tired of the husks of life, I hurry home.
Knowing the cross awaits, I still must come,
Prepared to be a servant, not a son.

Your longing love outreaches me, outruns
My tardy progress borne on dragging feet.
Blessed, kissed, forgiven, lifted to my place,
I find the dreaded welcome sudden sweet.

Is this your punishment for sin, dear Lord?
The father's kiss? The ring? The robe? The calf?
Heart-heavy, I had feared repentance, Lord.
I came to cry, and now you tell me, "Laugh!"

--Elizabeth B. Rooney
[from Storing September, 2001, p.75]

-----------------------------------------

Note:
Charles Price’s series of 5 messages on letting Christ live His life in us were delivered at Prairie Bible College during "Christian Life Week", Sept.25-27, 2012. They can be heard and/or downloaded at Prairie's website under "Special Events" at:  http://www.prairie.edu/page.aspx?pid=450

They are also available on YouTube.

The Work of Faith

I went out in the backyard to catch up on a little watering this morning. The sweet peas have risen like a curtain of green and delicate pinks and purples to hide the unsightly rickety fencing that surrounds the old chicken yard…Their fragrance is everything I remembered it to be when, daring to hope, I planted those unassuming hard dry peas. First there was the eradication of crab grass entangled in the chain link—the tugging and digging out every trace of a dry root that might spring to life and foil my plans of beautification…It was hard duty on my knees, carried forward only by the vision of sweet peas climbing happily to the sun and the memory of an inimitable scent… This was an act of faith, an undertaking inspired by the yet unseen.

Would these unlikely dark balls even germinate or was the seed too old? Would the tender greens be devoured by rampant slugs or brazen deer? Was it worth the effort? This morning as I watered the thirsty roots with bucket after bucket of cool water a verse came to mind, a prayer… for you, for me, for us to pray for all to whom our prayers extend…"that our God may count you worthy of His calling, and that by His power He may fulfill every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith." (II Thess.1:11)

Paul first prayed these words for the Thessalonians who were suffering persecution, needing hope that their perseverance would be rewarded. He commended their growing faith and obvious love for each other in the middle of hard times and even hinted that their persecution was itself  evidence of their calling to a Kingdom not of this world. But the focus of his encouragement was the coming of Jesus to grant them relief and avenge their suffering "when he comes on that day to be glorified in His saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed…"
(II Thess.1:10) Then he prayed this prayer of blessing on their lives: that God would fulfill the desires He had placed within them and whatever they put their hands to by faith He would likewise bring to fruition by His power. Awesome blessing!

I can pull weeds on my knees. I can plant seeds in faith. I can pray…I can believe…but it is God's good hand that causes the seed planted in faith to sprout and grow into a beautiful vine that covers all the ugliness and effuses a heavenly fragrance…Precisely His intent-- that through our faith-filled enterprises 'the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in [us], and [we] in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.' (II Thess.1:12)

So don't lose heart if your harvest is not yet in. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with an eye to what it will become with God's blessing. He will prosper that which He inspires us to undertake, for His glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus. May the fragrance of Heaven exude from our lives by His grace.

"…but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not." Gal.6:8,9

--LS

In Christ Jesus the only thing that matters is faith working through love.
(Gal. 5:6)

Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward  of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve. Col. 3:23,24

“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.” I Cor.15:58

Got Containers?

 

She was destitute, about to lose her own children to bondage…She didn’t know what to do but she knew who to turn to—the man of God would help. This widow was at her own wit’s end but not at the end of her resources. Elisha’s help started with the question: “Tell me what you have in the house?” (II Kings 4) It wasn’t much but there was a bit of oil tucked away in a jar. It was all that she had, and it was enough--that oil.

But first the gathering of jars, the getting out of her house and her helpless inactivity and seeking her neighbors’ favor: “May I borrow an empty jar, please?” She recruited her sons to the task of scouring the neighborhood in search of recyclables… the more the merrier. And then, as per Elisha’s instructions, she closed the door, pulled the curtains I suppose, and with just her two sons watching began to pour her ‘little’ treasure into the neighbor’s jars... And it just kept coming, filling the jars as fast as her sons could hand them to her till there was nothing left to contain the oil. Then it stopped. There was all she’d need to pay her debts and live happily ever after in freedom with her two sons at her side. All she had was all she’d ever need.

What do I have in my ‘house’, all tucked away and dwindling? As God’s own child indwelt by His very Spirit, all He’s given is all I’ll ever need for life and godliness (II Pet. 1:3). His Spirit residing within may seem a small thing but if I’ll open my doors to opportunity, if I’ll start looking for containers and quietly begin pouring my ‘little’ store into them it will be like streams of living water flowing from me to fill whatever containers I’ve gathered. Question: Am I collecting containers?

Now, it took a bit of faith on the widow’s part to just go ahead and follow those simple instructions. There’s no record of skepticism, or of her making excuses that her little store of oil could never amount to much. We don’t see her staring into the depths of her jar waiting to see the supply grow. She just collects a bunch of ‘vessels’ (any sort will do) and following instructions, starts pouring. What if she hadn’t gone scavenging for those jars or had settled for just what she had kicking around the house? She’d have missed the abundance of the supply God intended to give. He intended for her and her children to be debt-free and supplied for life! But the oil only flowed till the available jars were filled and then it stopped.  “According to your faith be it unto you.”Mt.9:29

Without the pouring out, the supply remained a dwindling bit. But given empty vessels to fill, there proved to be plenty. Why would I expect to realize the power of the Spirit in my life without seeking out empty receptacles and starting to pour out my little trickle? It would be like plugging in a lamp but forgetting the lightbulb and the lightswitch! The electricity is there all right, but the circuit is incomplete and the power lies dormant. Screw in a light bulb and flip the switch and ‘Voila’, radiance!

Jesus’ own illustration is of a vine and branches. The sap flows as we stay connected to the vine. As we absorb His life and listen to His Words, we will know His heart. But it will be in the ASKING that the fruitfulness will come: “Ask whatever you wish [when you’re immersed in My Word] and it will be done for you. By this my Father Is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.” (Jn.15:7,8) The proof is in the (fruit) pudding as they say. The actual disciple is the one who follows the instructions—abide in me, let what I say abide in you, and ask!

Ask for empty containers. Where can this oil be poured? Where’s an empty spot I can fill? What do you want to do in the lives of people I touch with this drop of oil I have? I may not have much, but I can go into my prayer closet and begin to pour…and I can take what comes of it and follow-through. James puts it bluntly, “You do not have because you do not ask.” He goes on to add, you don’t get what you ask for because you ask for selfish reasons! (James 4:2,3) John says much the same thing: “And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.”  That’s the part I’ve memorized, but what he says next clarifies that our asking isn’t about us, it’s about God working through us to bless another. The very next verse says: “If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life… (I John 5:15,16)

As believers, boundless power is at our disposal, the power that raised Jesus from the dead! (see Eph.1:19,20)  But it’s tucked away like a little store of oil in ‘jars of clay’ to insure that the neighbors know this power belongs to God and not to us! (IICor.4:7) We may not look like much but watch out world, when we start looking for empty containers to fill… because all we have is all we’ll ever need when God is in it!

God bless you in your scavenging of containers; may He pour you out a blessing that cannot be contained!

--LS

“But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.” Matt.6:6

Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full. Jn.16:25

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**Read the  widow’s story for yourself in II Kings 4 at Blueletterbible.org **

[I’m indebted to Andrew Peterson and his lyrical song: “All You’ll Ever Need” for the seed thought behind this blog, though I’ve interpreted his idea in a slightly different light…]

What’s to Eat?

A timely book came to my doorstep this week (How I love when those little brown parcels arrive!) which has offered a refreshing reminder of how transformation into Christ-likeness works. This is a practical book, no formulas, no elite ‘spiritual’ exercises. In fact the bulk of it is built around the premise that it will be in really seeing Jesus that we will be transformed. He is the one after all that invites us to come to Him, find our hungers and thirsts quenched in him, rest in Him, and follow Him. He didn’t talk like we do about a ‘plan of salvation”. He said, “I AM the Way, the Truth and the Life” (Jn.14:6)….’Come to Me that you may have life’… ‘I AM the Bread of Life’ (John 6,7) ‘Eat Me, drink Me, Abide in Me’… It will be in knowing Him intimately that we will be changed.

So I was taking a closer look at Jesus in the boat with his disciples. They’re fretting about not having enough bread with them. Now, mind you, this was very shortly after the feeding of the thousands with just a few loaves. Jesus is grooming these men to advance the Kingdom of God and they are hung up on ‘what’s for lunch?’. Nonplussed he uses the teaching moment to warn them about the bad ‘yeast’ of the Pharisees but goes on to ask them if they really didn’t get the point of the miracle of the loaves and fishes…

Now, I can sympathize with those disciples. Have you ever been stuck on a boat with no food? Good food is an essential element of a good sailing trip for me. Last weekend was our first overnight sailing trip of the season. The captain being an eager sailor was glad to take the clothes on his back and set sail but I was not fully ‘ready’ to embark till I’d made a quick trip to the grocery store for ‘provisions’. Not that we wouldn’t have had enough to survive otherwise—canned things and emergency snack food, but there’s an improved morale for me in a trip that includes a fresh, crusty-but-soft loaf of French bread… and some chops to grill… and maybe some fruit and chips…OK, so all the disciples wanted was bread; but they too knew it’s no fun being stuck on a boat without food. So they were pre-occupied. Jesus says, ‘Don’t be, this is just stuff. I’ve got you covered.’ He was disturbed that they hadn’t gotten that lesson when they’d collected the TWELVE BASKETS of broken pieces leftover from the breaking of the five loaves for the five thousand. Twelve baskets was enough for one basket each for the disciples… plenty to eat and to share! When Jesus is with you, there is no want. When Jesus breaks the bread there is always enough and plenty to spare.
He is the one who broke the bread at that last supper they shared and handed it to His disciples saying: “This is my body, which is given for you. Take. Eat.” (Mt.26:26; Lk.22:19) What more could He give? What more could we need?


Paul spells it out in Colossians when he says: “in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete.” This word ‘complete’ means filled up to the brim so that nothing shall be wanting, complete in every particular, rendered perfect. It is the same word used of a fulfilled prophesy, of something realized or accomplished. This is us, in Christ. So what is the obvious necessity for growth or service or any other aspect of fulfilling my calling as a believer? It must be in cultivating this connection with Jesus.


Which brings me back to that book I mentioned….Subtitled, Experiments in Christlikeness, it’s all about weaving simple disciplines into the ‘ordinary fabric’ of our days for this very purpose. From the start this clarification of motive jumped out at me. The point of doing any ‘spiritual’ exercise, for instance daily Bible reading, is not ‘to be a better Christian or to be holy’. It isn’t? (I had to read that one over again.) What then is the point? I am to discipline myself to read or to pray or to spend time in quiet… for the purpose of connecting with God, of learning to abide in Christ, to hear His voice, to share my heart and know His… A simple discipline is only a tool toward the cultivation of relationship. And it will be in the cultivation of that relationship that I will be transformed into Christ’s likeness. This transformation will be a product of abiding in the Vine. Now that does make sense. But how easily I can forget the point and think that my ‘doing’ is making me ‘holy’

“The distinction of where to put the effort is crucial: not in trying to be good (or do what Jesus did) but in connecting with Jesus himself….You do the connecting (with God), and God does the perfecting (in your behavior).” (Johnson,21,22) I find this thought tremendously freeing. I have long recognized myself to be a ‘pleaser’ with a strong desire to come across as ‘nice’ regardless of what is beneath the surface. I was the model child they say—‘good little Lindy’, an “A” student, quiet, an ‘easy’ child…but little known. My few best friends knew I wasn’t so quiet (and not so ‘nice’ all the time perhaps?) Unfortunately, growing up in a sub-culture that valued a ‘holiness’ that was easily mistaken for outward conformity to multiple “do’s” and especially “don’ts”, I learned to believe I was truly ‘nice’, even before God. I had better be--sinlessness was the goal! Covering sin up or denying it was the practical outcome. Relationship was really not emphasized as much as behavior. So, I toed the line and took my ‘nice’ disposition and circumspect behavior as being ‘holy’.


How woefully wrong was I. It’s not about being ‘nice’ anyway; it’s about being perfect—“brought to its end, finished, wanting nothing necessary to completeness”. This is no self-study program! Divine intervention required. Have you ever squirmed in reading, "Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matt.5:48) ? I was intrigued to find this same word used when Jesus instructed the rich young ruler in what he must do to inherit eternal life. After a quick review of the commandments Jesus said, "If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me." There was something keeping this man from treasuring the Kingdom above all else, and that something kept him from following Jesus. I think this is the point. It’s not so much about what he needed to DO as it was about exposing his heart and its treasure. If I will cultivate a heart that treasures Jesus, that ‘feeds on’ Him above everything else, the doing (and the being) will fall into place. Everything ‘necessary to completeness’ was accomplished at the Cross when Jesus declared: “It is finished (perfect)” (Jn.19:30) That’s enough for even me. Let’s eat!

"If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me." (Rev.3:20)

“Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.” (I Thess. 5:23,24)


--LS


I always enjoy Twila Paris. Here’s a reminder to “Hold On” to the real treasure and let the rest go.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZwelxYavVY (Never mind the Hungarian (?) subtitles. Her words are clear.)

“Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days…” Deut.30:19,20

Planting Seeds…

When spring springs cold and the ground lies chill and sodden it’s a risk to plant seeds.

The seed may rot in the ground before it can germinate, or be scavenged by a watchful crow.
The seed may sprout only to succumb to ‘damping off’ disease.
The seedling may emerge to beckon a voracious slug and become his lunch.
The plants may fail to thrive for want of a better soil, a better season, a better care-taker.
Mysterious maladies, competitive willow-tree roots, invisible predators may secretly sabotage the whole crop by day. Or by night a blundering bear or hungry deer may un-do a whole season of diligence.

Why plant?

So I hang onto my seeds--boxes and envelopes and recycled plastic containers of them… from last year’s harvest, and the year’s before and before that… My cupboard grows cluttered with them. The names and the pictures stir hopeful ideals. But the planting of them seems so treacherous an alternative, so risky. I fancy the harvests they could produce but cling impotent to their potential in the package, fearful of the sowing. Yet how will a seed have any hope of growing to flower and fruit if it stays in my hoard for ‘safe-keeping’? There is no hope where the seed is not planted. It may seem safe, but it will die inside its shell over time. Its potential can only be realized where risk is taken.

The promises of God are like that. Seeds, that must be planted in the ground of life-as-it-is, by faith. Seeds that must be watched over in undying hope. When the promises of God are planted like seed in ground that is hard, and circumstances that loom destructive, to hope in their fulfillment is a daunting thing.

A child may well be hopeful when he plants his first bean seed in a cup in a sunny window, just knowing a miracle will happen. But what happens when his experience has brought disappointment? Or frustration. Or discouragement. How do we keep hope alive and keep planting those seeds?

I read that tough times are good for us; they breed endurance (how many times have I been reminded that I need to develop perseverance?) But that’s not all; endurance produces ‘experience’(KJV), or in other words, ‘proven character’, which in turn is supposed to yield hope (Rom.5). What then has derailed in my process of learning hope? Why am I so prone to ‘casting away my confidence’? I stood out in the garden leaning on my shovel staring off into space the other day and just felt the whole enterprise was hopeless. Plagued with such insinuations, I struggled through an afternoon of weeding and turning earth and finally managed to transplant some vulnerable seedlings from their safe hothouse to the wide world of the garden. I even tucked some sunflower seeds in the ground in hopes of glory to come. But I must say, the process which is usually a therapeutic ‘fix’ of soil and sun, was a struggle to hope against hope, and keep going. It was oppressive, these almost audible messages of hopelessness that overlaid my every thought and move that afternoon in the garden.

Ha! Did I say I was wondering about the ‘fight of faith’? Is it a real fight? This was more than an afternoon with the plants. It was a ‘heads-up’ to shore up my weaknesses in the area of persevering in hope and learning to ‘take every thought captive’. If the garden be the battleplace, then so be it. I’ve got to get training somewhere! Abraham stands as my hero of faith: “Who against hope believed in hope” (Rom.4:18) His hope lay in the future, secure in God’s unchanging promises. The fruitfulness of my garden has no such guarantee, but the fruitfulness of my life must be pegged to God’s promise and faithfulness—I am heir to Abraham’s promise: ‘Surely I will bless you and multiply you’ and to the sure hope of the ‘glory of God’. The fact that God has vowed it and it’s impossible for Him to lie gives us a refuge to flee to and “strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us” (Heb. 6:18).

Truth is, I find I don’t have all the answers to responding when doubts fly. That day in the garden singing the old hymns was a start. Filling my mouth with thanks to God for every little thing I could see (and the things I can’t yet see that I’m trusting Him for) helped. By prayer, turning all my efforts over to Him for whatever results--only that His Kingdom come, His will be done on this piece of earth and in this heart and in the lives of those my prayers touch… these are the seeds I planted that afternoon while I plugged away at pulling weeds and turning soil and tucking little seedling into place in hopes of brighter days to come…

For every little prayer of faith is a seed planted. As it must be planted in hopes of what is not yet seen, that means I open myself to potential for disappointment--a big bad word in the book of my personality. But I’m called to confidently plant seeds anyway for the Kingdom’s sake. Will cold springs and damp rot, slugs, insidious roots and wild animals thwart my best efforts? Perhaps. My call is to be faith-filled, to persevere, and to plant the seeds God supplies. The rest is up to Him.

And seriously, I do have some beans to get planting, come what may, today!

--LS

‘Though the fig tree should not blossom
And there be no fruit on the vines,
Though the yield of the olive should fail
And the fields produce no food…
Yet I will exult in the LORD,
I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.’
Hab.3:17,18


‘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.
More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,
and endurance produces character,
and character produces hope,
and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.’ Rom.5:2-5


'Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the LORD.' Ps.31:24


'Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.' Ja.5:7,8


'For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.' Heb.10:36

'Now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness; you will be enriched in everything for all liberality, which through us is producing thanksgiving to God.' II Cor.9:10,11

P.S. If you’ve read all the way down here to the very last morsel, may I bless you with some faith-building  music I found this week? Laura Story has her own story of trusting God through real trials—her husband is facing a brain tumor.  The  songs of trust and praise that this has yielded are precious.  A playlist of her songs is available on YouTube at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CSVqHcdhXQ&feature=BFa&list=AV4oVf-d_DwKDCIGIf8Ri4NE-9jfiELxTu&index=1

Don’t miss “Blessings”   and  “Perfect Peace” (my favorites)!

 –LS