America the Beautiful

I listened to a song this morning, a beautiful and moving song...a recent rendition of Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA” with Home Free and Air Force Singers.  I found myself praying as I listened, “Oh God, we need your blessing on this land more than ever before in my lifetime!”  

As the chorus sounded -
“And I’m proud to be an American where at least I know I’m free”..., well, pride wasn’t what I was feeling.

I’ve never sensed an egotistical arrogance in these words anyway, but rather, much like what a parent would feel as he looks at the wonderful man his son has become.  He beams, and his heart floods with joy to see the hard-working, loving individual that cares and provides for his own family and others, unselfish and good. He sacrifices and gives back, grateful for who he is and all he has. He loves God. He loves people.  And the parent is “well-pleased”, proud.  

The Father expressed this for Jesus, His only beloved Son, at Jesus’ baptism. God the Father spoke from heaven saying:  “this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased” (Matthew 3:17). It brought joy and honor to the Father to know that the beloved Son was willing and committed to fulfil His plan and purpose in providing redemption for all mankind, even though it cost Him dearly.  It was love personified, and the Father was “well-pleased”.  

That’s the emotion that the song had always stirred...thoughts of humility and blessing and gratitude. You could say I was proud, or “well-pleased” with my heritage.  I didn’t do anything to deserve being born in this country. Yet I was, and I have enjoyed and appreciated so much of it’s beauty and opportunity, it’s freedoms.  I was taught to appreciate them.  Maybe some have not been.  Or maybe they’ve only seen a side of America that doesn’t foster that sentiment.  

But this morning an array of emotions stirred in me.  Humility, gratitude, sadness, anger, shame, bewilderment.  I was more perplexed than pleased. This year, 2020, the year the world went mad, it just all seems so surreal.  So much change, yet so little change.  So much prosperity and greatness, yet so much poverty and perversion of justice and everything that is right and good.  So much opportunity and possibility, yet numbers still hopeless and disadvantaged.  Such shows of sacrifice and courage and consideration and healing, yet so much hurt, hostility, and unrest.  I hate the division and destruction.  I hate there are those that don’t know peace, only anger and bitterness.  I hate there are those that cause it.  

Yet at the same time, I love the show of the human spirit. Love is powerful. Forgiveness is powerful.  Mercy is powerful.  And I believe God is moving as people allow these powerful forces of God to be at work in and through them. When it is easy to look around and be afraid and confused and disheartened, I want to see that God is doing a great work in all of this. His Word promises that “He works all things together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to His purpose”(that all-famous Romans 8:28).  And He also proclaims that His purposes will be accomplished; “The Lord of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand” (Isaiah 14:24).  

I want to be a part of that work of faith over fear, of a compassion that compels merciful actions, and a love that just won’t quit because someone doesn’t want or understand my love for them.  

The problem is not the American ideal. The problem is the human heart.  And the human heart needs a Savior no matter the country.  And even the person that has experienced the love of Jesus needs a fresh perspective every now and then, a fresh measure of the great grace of God to wash over us and open our eyes and ears of understanding.  We need patience.  We need to listen.  We need supernatural, divine intervention.  We need God’s protection, God’s provision, God’s wisdom, God’s immeasurable, unexplainable, undeniable love flowing to us and through us to others.  We need His grace and mercy moving in our own hearts to be able to show it to others.  We need His ways and His wisdom like never before guiding the choices we make and the actions we take.  It is not an easy time to be a believer.  To be black.  To be white.  To be a Native American.  To be Asian.  To be Muslim.  To be Jewish. To be hispanic.  To be mixed.  To be human!  

But it can still be all that God would have it be.  It can still be beautiful.  As followers of Jesus, we have a stewardship in the country, in the place in which we live.  God would have us be faithful in this stewardship, being responsible and respectful, prayerfully aware of our world and its great need, trusting Him to see us through what He brings us to.  We may be called on to sacrifice and submit to the authorities over us.  We may be called on to contend for the faith and freedoms that are God-given...and we MUST know what those are and aren’t.  It’s time to think about what it means to be Human...not just American. 

My mother-in-law said this morning when I wished her a Happy 4th of July, “I shudder to think what next year’s Independence Day will be like.”  It may be very different. I may have to make some adjustments, ones I don’t like.  I may have to do things a little differently.  I am grieved to think that I may not be able to worship and fellowship freely, share Christ openly.  Even though the reason it is happening is supposed to be for the greater good, the way I worship and fellowship is being affected, changed.  The way I live my life, the way I work and shop and enjoy family and community events is changing. It’s a strange feeling that makes me uncomfortable. Is it temporary?  Time will tell. In the meantime, Satan is often getting the upper hand in the division and distance and disunity being created.  

In Luke 7, Jesus was moved with compassion when he saw a grieving widow about to bury her only son.  Without being asked or sought out, Jesus approached the pall, touched the man, and he lived again.  “Then fear came over everyone, and they glorified God saying, A great prophet has risen among us, and God has visited his people” (v.16). God has visited his people!  Some versions render this, “God has come to help His people.”  What a wonderful, glorious thought!  Oh God, visit your people again.  Bless your people once again.   

How I need it, a glorious, powerful visit from God bringing help and healing in a troubling time. I pray for it, look for it. Jesus brings true freedom and blessing.  And I celebrate it, today and everyday.  But today, enjoy all the food, the family fun, the fireworks, all of it ...I am.  But also take some time to reflect, be grateful.  And pray.  Pray for others.  Pray for peace and unity.  Pray for protection of freedoms.  Pray about how you can be involved in making a positive difference. 

Pray that God will visit His people again.   

Shipwreck

I was reading in Acts 27 this morning of the Apostle Paul’s shipwreck experience. My breath halted when I realized I was saying to myself, “Yes, this ship is definitely sinking.”  The parallel…. of situations and struggles currently running rampant in my life right now... to a sinking ship in a storm, was too close. 

Your emotions can get so raw, your thoughts so scattered and tired, and it just feels like you’re going down.  

I won’t elaborate.  I don’t need to. The details don’t matter nearly as much as the Truth we both need in those times. And when it’s how I FEEL vs what I KNOW, His Truth is what I need to know.  His Truth will carry me through. It will carry you through too.  

God revealed to Paul that the ship was going to sink.  But He also told him that if everyone just stayed on board and did not try to abandon ship they would ALL survive. They all reached the island shore safely. Please take time to read this amazing account.   

The natural tendency and easiest thing to consider when life gets too much is to “abandon ship”; find a way to avoid the inevitable, escape the pain somehow.  Trusting God for the way of escape, which may mean seeing the ship go down so to speak, and just grabbing hold and hanging onto His promises, is not so appealing and doesn’t always make sense.  God told Paul in this instance it was exactly what everyone needed to do. But how do we do that exactly when life’s blows hit us hard and heavy? When decisions are weighty and we don’t know which way to turn?  

The promises of God are so very real, they are trustworthy and strong, timely and relevant.  We have to determine to hold onto them, believing that God’s way is what He will honor and is what we most need.  He could take our circumstances and certainly could intervene in so many ways. But there are so many lessons to be learned in it all.  Christ wants our full attention and obedience to His word and ways. There is always more of Christ to know and love, and our hearts and hurts need to heal.  

        “So take courage!  For I believe God. It will be just as He said.”  Acts 27:25

Do you grasp the power in those words?!  Paul was able to say, with a literal shipwreck looming, I BELIEVE GOD!  IT WILL BE JUST AS HE SAID. Those that could swim were told to jump and swim when the ship started to break apart.  Application? There may be something He equips you to DO that will make a difference. It will direct you, help you, heal you.  Do you pray? That’s certainly something we can all DO. Others that could not swim were told to find a fragment and hang on. They would float to safety. Application?  Resting in His Divine providence for us, staying in His Word, waiting for His healing work in us, will bring safety and assurance. He will carry us to the place we need to be.  

Sometimes it is pretty evident that a shipwreck is looming in a life that will change it forever --a sudden death, a terminal diagnosis, a struggling addicted child, a job loss or financial disaster, false accusations or work-place bullying, a declaration of divorce.  Do I blame God? Do I abandon God? Or do I believe God, that His good purposes in me can and will be accomplished (Philippians 1:6)?

No, we do not always escape suffering and loss. But help and healing for our hurting hearts is where God’s unfailing love is so evidenced. I have found myself at times, sitting in my front room in the quiet, with just the glow of soft light, letting Him love on me.  I can’t say anything. But I listen, and wait. Sometimes in tears, sometimes numb, His word begins to come into my thoughts, it rises up in my heart and memory, these promises and Truths I have read and cherished...and I let them wash over me.  

Let this fill you with peace and comfort and enabling grace today.  Jesus has you. We have His words to cling to. They are profound and powerful; life-saving, life-changing, soul-settling.  They are the way of escape from the torment of all the turbulence of life’s storms.  

Pray with me...Oh God, it’s time for You once again to stretch my faith, increase my confidence in Your word, strengthen my resolve to praise You in my storm, and keep me ever leaning into Your grace!  Jesus, if all is lost, You are enough. Your unfailing love is overwhelmingly enough. Your word is life and light. Your joy is unspeakable. Your presence with me is peace.   

The ship may be sinking, but there is a quiet calm shore just on the other side of this storm.  

And Jesus is already there.  

Promises for the New Year

As my faith journey takes me into another year there are some thoughts that encourage and comfort me, and I don’t know about you but I need that.  This past year was not the kindest, but it held all God allowed and His grace was sufficient to carry us through to this point. At different times yesterday as I sat down with my Bible and various devotional books, these truths spoke volumes to me.  As I move into all the tomorrows God will give this new year, I cling to them.  

“Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.”  1 Samuel 7:12  

What a wonderful verse to end and begin the year!  The NLT says, “Samuel then took a large stone...and named it Ebenezer (which means ‘the stone of help’), for he said, ‘Up to this point the Lord has helped us!’”  He literally found a large stone and placed it in a specific location as a visible reminder that the Lord had brought them by His help to this point. I love that old KJV word “Hitherto”.  The entirety of the past is held in that one word. I can look back over this past year in its “unkindness” and yes, see the hardship, the hurt, the loss and grief. But I also see a great and good God, faithful in every way, having guided, protected, provided and answered both personal prayers and prayers for others.  I think especially of a friend that saw her Dad come to know Jesus at age 92 just hours before he died. God honored and answered prayers and broke the strongholds that had hardened his heart toward God. What a glorious work of grace! I have no reason to doubt that God’s grace and mercy will follow me into this new year because He is unchanging.  He will continue to be faithful to Himself and His Word, and that means I can count on His faithfulness and unfailing love to me. I will continue to have His help, not because of who I am but because of who He is.  

“Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?  I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” Isaiah 43:19

It was as if the Lord shouted when I read this, “Pay attention!! You need to be looking 

forward with excitement and anticipation...and faith! Because I am doing something new. And it’s going to be like a way being made in the wilderness, where there seems to be no way; or like a river of life-giving water would be to a desert.  Look back, but only to be reminded of His faithfulness to this point, not to lament and labor over things that can’t be changed now. They’re in the past. I want to be greeting each day with a keen perception of God’s presence and what He may be doing in my life at any given moment.  This year will bring change, some unexpected and even unwanted, just like last year. But not without the blessed hand of God in it all! So I will take courage and rejoice in that, and look forward to all this year holds, not dread it or fear it. It is no doubt we will experience disappointment, but God never disappoints when I choose to see things through His eyes.

“And when He puts forth His own sheep, He goeth before them, and the sheep follow him; for they know His voice." John 10:4

The Psalms tell us that “we are his people and the sheep of His pasture" (100:3). We follow a Great Shepherd that leads us with care and compassion.  But in this particular verse I am comforted to know that as I move into this new year, He has already gone before me! I am not being thrust into the great unknown without a careful and compassionate Guide!  There is uncertainty for sure. Life can change and change drastically in a moment. And some change is inevitable. But He is leading. I will follow. And again...I will keep saying it!!! He is great, and good, and faithful.  

I have had His help to this point, I will have it as I move forward.  He is doing something new and I will see it as good or trust Him to bring good from it because He is great and good.  And, I can know that whatever it is I will face, He has already gone before me, and I can embrace it by His grace with courage and confidence because He is faithful.  

Find your “Ebenezer” today, and Happy New Year!  

Faith and Flames

This morning I sat down to my Bible with a heavy heart.  I opened my Bible app to read,

 “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid: for the Lord Jehovah is 

My strength and song.”  (Isaiah 12:2) 

I didn’t feel like singing.  I felt like crying. And I didn’t feel very strong.  I felt weak and helpless. I knew I could do nothing to change the pressing situation.  We were doing what we could, what we knew to do, but it wasn’t enough. “How long Lord?” I asked.  “How long can we hang on?”  

I am so grateful that God has given me His gracious gift of eternal salvation, but this morning we need another kind of “salvation”, a deliverance, a rescue, an intervention.  We need to see God do something only He can do to meet a pressing need. I want to continue to trust and not be afraid. And I know I can because He is a faithful Father.  

In the book of Daniel the three Hebrew children as they are often referred to, faced a huge crisis that could cost them their very lives.  (Read the account in Daniel 3.) Their commitment to King Nebuchadnezzar was called into question, but that was not the issue of greatest concern to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.  They were faced with a question of devotion and loyalty to the one True God. Up to that point they had been able to peacefully serve God, and faithfully fulfil their responsibilities to the king and the kingdom they were a part of. But that was no longer enough to some of the government officials.  They wanted complete and total allegiance to their king and their gods at the expense of freedom to worship otherwise. The “three Hebrew Children” should never have been asked to make that choice, but they were. They were given an ultimatum: bow down and worship “our god our way”, or lose your lives.  Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego knew God was able to intervene. That was not questionable. And renouncing their devotion and worship to the only God that deserved it was not negotiable. So they responded to the ultimatum in this way:

“O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter.  If this be so, our

God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will 

deliver us out of your hand, O king.  But if He doesn’t (italics mine), be it known to you

O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have 

set up.” Daniel 3:17-18

This was not about Nebuchadnezzar and his gods or statue, and whether or not they should be worshipped.  This was not even about the three faithful God-followers and whether or not they would bend and give worship and allegiance to another god other than the One True God they served.  Those are lessons in all of this for sure. This was about who God is. Nebuchadnezzar asks the million-dollar question earlier:

“But if you do not worship (the statue I have set up), you shall immediately be cast into

a burning fiery furnace.  And who is the god who will deliver you out of my hands?” 

(italics mine) Daniel 3:15

Who is this God???  Is there One able to deliver from the powerful king?  Why is He to be trusted, worshipped, obeyed to the point of death?  Nebuchadnezzar’s question was about the Creator God’s sovereign nature and work on behalf of His Person and His children.  God was indeed able to deliver them from Nebuchadnezzar’s power. And He chose to intervene and rescue Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, keeping them from certain death in the flames.  Not only did God keep them from burning alive, He was there with them in the furnace!! And Nebuchadnezzar recognized Him as the Son of God! God gave this awareness to Nebuchadnezzar allowing him to recognize the Sovereign God and honor Him for Who He was.   

An amazing account... courage, commitment, crisis, undying devotion, determination, deliverance, faith.  And in all honesty, I am humbled. My situation pales in comparison to this, and the many dire circumstances and situations and suffering and heartache and loss and persecution that many are facing.  But that does not lessen the seriousness of my situation, or make it any less a concern of God’s. I am to “cast ALL my care on Him because He cares for me” (I Peter 5:7). I am His loved and valued child.  What I face by way of life’s challenges does matter to him, great or small. And in many ways it feels right now as if the heat has been turned up! The pressure is on!  

Needs can be great on a variety of levels.  Where does that leave us? As children of God we know, like the Hebrew children, that God is able to intervene in a miraculous way no matter the need.  His resources are limitless. He has made that clear in His Word. But God does not always choose to act in the way we most desire or expect. As His child, one who believes His Word and understands what He is certainly capable of, I have grappled with this from time to time as I face my own fiery furnaces, times when there are pressing needs and limited resources, limited abilities, times when there is absolutely no way to take away the hurt, fix the problem, provide the necessary finances, heal the sickness, fight the demons.  What do I do then? What is the answer? Where is the help, the hope, the comfort?

God stepped in and answered Nebuchadnezzar’s question, “Who is that god that shall deliver you out of my hands?”  Nebuchadnezzar was able to exclaim:

“Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel 

and delivered his servants, who trusted in Him, and set aside the king’s command, and

yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any god except their own God...for

there is no other god who is able to rescue in this way.”  

This passage provides some answers.  First, I go back to WHO GOD IS. He is Sovereign over this world He created; He is Sovereign over this soul He has saved; He is Sovereign over this life He has given.  “There is no other god who is able to rescue in this way!” He is able. I know personally, am loved by, this great Sovereign God! And my part? Look at those words…”trusted, yielded up”.  That’s my part. I am to trust and yield to His sovereignty, His authority, His control over the details of my life. He can be trusted. His work, His reason, may be greater than what we can understand at the moment.  We may not be able to figure it all out this side of eternity, why He did what He did, does not do what we know He could, why He allowed certain sufferings into our lives. But His great love for us grounds us in Who He is and compels us to keep trusting, trusting in the fact He is God and He is able, regardless.  

“He that spared not His own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?”  Romans 8:32

Until we come to the point in our faith-walk as “his devoted servants”, those He “spared not His own Son” for, that He is worthy of that kind of devotion and commitment; until we can trust Him in His Sovereignty, “yielding up” control and all the emotions of the moments--- fear, doubt, anger, “yield up” all the workings of our lives into His righteous, loving and just care;  until then we won’t see His amazing ability to work on our behalf. And when He determines that someone needs to see just Who He really is, He’ll step in. 

That’s just Who God is.   

What fiery furnace are you facing today?  What do you need to “yield up” to your loving, Sovereign Savior today?  In what ways are you trying to maintain or manipulate control of your situation? Have your decisions been made out of faith and devotion to Christ regardless of the cost, or out of fear of the consequences and changes that may come because of that decision?

The Infamous "If"

I have begun my journey through the pages of Scripture once again this new year to read it in its entirety.  (If you have not, I would really encourage you to do so. My 14 year-old granddaughter read through the Bible last year and is starting again this year.  You can do it!) I have used a number of different approaches over the years, and the Lord has helped me finish my goal, and encouraged my heart with the growth accomplished even when I failed.  I also journal along the way (with a file cabinet full of notebooks to show for it!), trying to capture those moments when a truth freshly jumped off a page, or a concept became so clear, or I saw something from a new perspective.  I also wanted to cement Truth into my thinking, especially when it served to correct me in some wrong, or comfort me in some distress...and there have been lots of those times through the years. I especially remember how precious and intimate it was to have the Lord meet me exactly where I was emotionally and spiritually when I would be up in the middle of the night with one of the kids sick or unable to sleep. I would turn to my Bible, not randomly, but where I was last in my reading, only to have the Lord use that specific passage at that specific time to lift my heart heavenward, grateful that He knew about some specific concern or struggle I was having.  Its Truth would so amazingly be applicable to my situation. Have you ever had that happen? I hope so. It still awes me that God would and still does this.

Why does that awe me?  Well, in Genesis this morning reading of Jacob I found myself considering two sides of an “if”.  

“Then Jacob made a vow, saying, If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God.” (Genesis 28:20).  

I must admit my first thought on reading this was that Jacob was a foolish, faithless man. “If?”  Really Jacob? You really did not understand this great God of your ancestors. You knew of Him no doubt, but did you really know Him in all His greatness and holiness?  Did you not understand that God is faithful and can be completely trusted to carry out His will and perform His Word? Why would you question “if”, unless there was some doubt in your mind that He could not? It sounds at first like Jacob is bargaining with God, much like we might attempt to do...."God, if You do this, then I'll do this."

This passage of Scripture details an encounter with God after Jacob has fled his home in fear of his life...at the hand of his own brother!  And it began with Jacob deceiving his father and stealing the birthright and blessing that rightly belonged to the oldest, Esau. Many of you may be familiar with this story and remember Rebekah, Jacob’s mother, putting him up to this scheme.  That’s a thought for another time. For now, my focus is Jacob, and he agreed to go through with it. After all, he had already taken advantage of a famished (and careless) Esau at an earlier time, gaining the birthright for a pot of beans.

Jacob, the deceiver. Lies, deception, manipulation, and whatever his motives for obtaining the blessing and birthright of the family, he did not come by them honorably. It is probable, and likely that Rebekah had told him what the Lord had told her about her twins when they were born, that the older would serve the younger, and the struggle in her womb would become a lifetime of struggle between the brothers.  Perhaps it was completely unnecessary for Rebekah or Jacob to manipulate and manhandle situations to see God’s Word accomplished. If God had already determined that Jacob would be the son of blessing, then God would see to it that circumstances and situations worked to bring this to pass. In other words, God did not need their help to see to it that His divine plan was carried out. In fact, God’s plan was much bigger than either of them realized.  

Foolish and/or faithless as he may have been, God chose Jacob, directed him, provided for him, protected him.  And for the first time I considered that maybe Jacob did understand. Perhaps his great “if” moment was not about his understanding of God at all.  Maybe it was more about his understanding of himself. When Jacob laid his head down on that rock that night on the run, God revealed himself to him in a powerful and life-changing way, promising Jacob He would be with him and would keep him wherever he went.  Jacob was probably no more sure of God’s abiding presence with him at this point, as he was of God’s protection and provision for him. His future was uncertain, and after all, he had not shown himself to be an honorable man, one that necessarily revered God and His Word up to this point.  In all of his failures, weaknesses, lies, deceit, fear, why would God care for him or promise him anything? Why should He?

Was this “if’ moment for Jacob a question of God’s ability, as in “is God able?”, or was it rather, “will God really do this for me?  Me, after all I’ve done?” God was most definitely able, and willing. Jacob just needed to choose to believe and accept it, in spite of himself.  

This is such a beautiful picture of grace.  Jacob would indeed receive something from God that he did not deserve and certainly didn’t earn through his righteous behavior.  No, he came face to face with the Lord God, was provided a promise, and all he had to do was believe and act upon it. That, is faith.  Jacob chose at this moment, even though there would be other failures, to exercise faith and say, “If God would indeed do this for me, then He will be my God”.  This seems more a declaration of Jacob’s feeble faith than a bargain he is making with God.

We don’t bargain with God about anything.  He offers the great gift of salvation, inviting us each personally to come to grips with our own sinfulness and inability to be free from the weight and penalty of our sin, and gain forgiveness and an eternity with Jesus by trusting Him.  We exercise faith, believing what God has told us in the Bible about Himself and His Son, about the death of Christ on the cross and the fact that He rose from the dead. That simple choice changes everything. It provides an everlasting life with God throughout eternity to come, instead of eternal punishment and separation from God.  It provides the chance for an abundant life now, not just an empty existence with no real and lasting purpose.

No, we don’t bargain with God about anything.  He has promised so much, made so much available to us in choosing to live for Him...Great joy, peace, provision, protection, wisdom, guidance, comfort, encouragement, grace.  But we must trust His ways, His timing, His plans and purposes that are higher than ours, not attempt to finagle and finesse our way through life. God is the one over all, in charge, ruling and reigning, even when it does not seem like it.  He is good at being God; He has been doing it a very long time….eternity. Let Him be God!

What side of the “if” are you on?  Are you struggling to decide if God is truly who He says He is and is able to do what He says He will do?  Do you see Him as the all-powerful, saving God that He is, able to care for you and all your concerns? Or, are you wondering if this great God, seeing you and knowing you for who you are (and He does see and know), would actually want to have a real and personal relationship with you? And if He does, would He care enough about what you are going through to want to come alongside and be your help and guide, never leaving you or abandoning you to yourself or your situation?  

“If” moments.  Jacob had one in Genesis 28.  I had mine. I was on the side of complete wonder that God loved even me.  I had no reservations about my sin, failures, inadequacies, weaknesses. They stared me in the face...stare me in the face...everyday.  But Jesus lives in and through me. I am an overcomer because of Him. It may not seem as apparent to others all that Jesus has done for me, but I know God is great and good and FULL of grace and mercy to love the likes of me, and to care and be involved in the details of my life.  

Oh God, even though I sometimes question why you would love me, why you would die for me, I thank you that I never have to question your greatness or goodness, your willingness to reach to me where I am.  You are able and faithful and amazing.

God is bigger than your “ifs”.  

A Christmas Fix-it Project...Me

Love is fixing me.

I have been reading a great deal of Lysa Terkeurst lately, on disappointment.  It has hit home in so many ways and has been such an encouragement as I am well aware of those times I need to be fixed.  At times everything gets out of sorts...my emotions, my focus, my expectations.

Christmas is a time of great disappointment for many; those trying to push through a holiday for the first time without a loved one, and something they certainly never expected they would so soon have to do.  Neither is it any less painful or any easier to deal with the hurt and loss just because it is somewhat expected. Relationships end, people find themselves in financial straits and thinking “Christmas just won’t be what it usually is.”  The disappointments loom large, maybe even larger at Christmas.

Sometimes it takes these very painful and personal experiences to bring Jesus and His healing touch to the forefront.  For me it was just a matter of being able to accept a situation I could not change. I wanted very much to be willing, and thought I was until the opportunity to move back to my normal seemed like a very real possibility.  When that didn’t happen I was quickly before the Lord asking Him to help me re-adjust my perspective, change my focus, desiring to be abundantly satisfied in Him regardless of my circumstances, and knowing that is His desire for me.  I needed Him to heal my disappointed heart so that I could move forward.

I love Christmas, and I am so grateful that it comes this year at a time when Jesus is “fixing me”.  Because all that Christmas is, makes shifting my focus so much easier, but I must choose. And it is a choice. You, and I, must choose to shift our gaze and dwell on the divine, not the disappointments.  I am praying you choose joy, that same joy heralded by the angels to frightened shepherds, deep joy that a Savior was born.  Yes, Christmas is about us and our need to be saved from the sin that enslaved us. The Savior came, lived and died, then rose again to bring us abundant life here and eternal life with Him when this life is over. Choose to rest in the peace that the gift of Christmas provides,the peace of a quiet but powerful presence, the very presence of God, with us. Choose hope, the hope promised Mary that she grabbed hold of that enabled her to accept her very frightening, confusing, precarious, unbelievable situation.  That same hope is available to us. It is Christ Himself and the riches of His great grace, grace that does not abandon but overshadows. Yes, it overshadows all our sorrow, all our need, all our disappointment, all our confusion and fear. Choose to adore Him for this wonderful gift, a gift of unconditional and forever love that never disappoints.

Mary was told, “For the Word of God will never fail.  Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant; let it be to me according to your word.”  

Abundant satisfaction comes at the moment we surrender to God in faith, accepting whatever He is doing (or not doing) in our lives at any given time.  For Mary this was demonstrated in a lifetime of hope, hope in the very child she had born, one day seeing him die for her as the very son of God, her Savior and mine.  For us, it is sometimes easier experienced though, than explained to others.

In the mid 1980’s, Mom and Dad Harding (my in-laws) found themselves without a ministry, with no income, and facing the loss of their home and a move to, well, somewhere.  We were there the day all their furnishings were auctioned off, personal possessions that could fit in their car and ours were packed, and a lock put on the house. They came to stay with us for a while, until another ministry opened up.  It was a time of healing from the hurt and loss. But they kept joy and hope that God had plans. They eventually did find themselves in another ministry but not for very long. Dad’s health worsened and the Lord finally took him home in March of 1991.  Mom was left alone. She still had her children, but they were scattered and living lives of their own, and except for Roger and me, not living for the Lord which was a continual heartbreak for her. But I remember hearing her the morning of the funeral on her knees in her bedroom crying, and praying a verse of Scripture from Isaiah, “Lord, please be my husband. I don’t even know what to do next.”  (Isaiah 54:5 For thy Maker is thy husband; the Lord of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.) You see, for years, Dad had been Mom’s eyes. She has suffered with retinitis pigmentosa for nearly 40 years, progressively going blind. In Dad’s last years, as his health deteriorated, he had encouraged her to go through the training to use a low-vision cane and she had done that. Little did she know it would be guiding her as she walked everywhere after Dad was gone.  And finances? Now what would she do? Well, the Lord had been working even when she was not aware and Dad’s time in the military would end up providing for her for the rest of her life because of an injury he had sustained that eventually contributed to his early death. The Lord put just the right people in her life that asked just the right questions and made the inquiries for funds that she would never have imagined would be available to her after Dad was gone. And now? After a year alone in Ohio, we were able to have Mom come to live in Beckley near us, in a senior independent living facility.  And she did just that, lived independently for 19 years before coming to live on the farm in a second home on the property, the farm we purchased five years ago. After two major life-threatening surgeries in 2017, and a fall in July of this year, she is now living in our home with me as her primary caregiver.

Why share a bit of her story?  Because Mom could have lived a life of self-pity, indulging in the lie that God had abandoned her but she has always chosen to see the good in every situation, or that God could bring from every situation, even losing her husband and home (Mom has never again owned another home). Mom is no saint. Neither am I, but she is an example of how God has a way of making a way for His children, sometimes in spite of us.  Choosing to trust opens the door to being abundantly satisfied in Him. There continue to be daily struggles and challenges for sure. They do not just go away. This is not about finding some source of freedom from fiery trials. No, it’s about being abundantly satisfied in Him, living life by faith with joy that gives strength to keep living by faith with joy….abundantly satisfied in Him.

This Christmas season finds us under a great deal of pressure, dizzy from being pulled in different directions, having to adjust yet again to major life changes and roles.  But choosing to accept what God is doing in our lives right now rather than fume or fret over it brings that abundant satisfaction. There are some tears no doubt, and lots of prayers, but at the same time confidence in His great faithfulness.  

He is in the business of fixing the broken focus. He fixes me, every.single.time.

I can not but adore Him.  

A Child-like Faith

A friend (and co-worker) was sharing with her young son that our grandson Ephraim was going to be able to have his kidney transplant.  They have been faithfully praying for him all this time.  “Oh, thank God!” he exclaimed.  Then, in that precious child-like innocence he asked, “What is that, anyway?”

Lord, I want that kind of faith!   Children don’t have to know or understand; they just believe God.  And isn’t that what He has asked us to do, just trust Him?  Unfortunately, our idea of prayer and faith is often like a trip to visit Santa at the mall.  We have our list.  We’ve been good.  Why wouldn’t He make sure we get what we ask for? 

Scripture tells us that his ways are not ours, His plans are best*.  And even though that may be hard to accept, it’s best if we do.  And that is not just a pat answer.  It’s Truth.  God is so good and patient that even when we struggle with that, He understands and holds us in His hands.  And just like a loving parent with a trusting child, He won’t let go. 

“Lord I believe; help thou mine unbelief.”  Mark 9:24

 *Isaiah 55:8-9 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

Jeremiah 29:11 “I say this because I know what I am planning for you,” says the Lord. I have good plans for you, not plans to hurt you. I will give you hope and a good future.”  (NCV)

"Fruitful in the Land of my Affliction"

Our youngest son Seth and his wife Rebecca have been on an incredible journey.  Their oldest child, one of our precious grandchildren, Ephraim Josiah, was born with….wait, first things first…he was born, and he lived.  He lived beyond what anyone had thought possible from a medical perspective.  Ephraim will be four years old on the 18^th of May. 

What a bright, beautiful child he is.  He has been through so much in his four years.  God has seen fit to sustain him with very minimal kidney function.  And even though there have been surgeries and procedures, medications and treatments, he has survived major setbacks, and thrived.  Now it is clear and a decision has been made to begin moving him through processing for a kidney transplant.  Seth, his daddy, is the first donor candidate and will soon begin the process as well. 

Rebecca emailed me today with a preview of Ephraim’s logo with COTA (Children’s Organ Transplant Association) that will be ascribed with the message “fruitful in the Land of my affliction”.  My thoughts went immediately to the Scripture in Psalm 119.

“It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn Thy statutes.”  “I know, O Lord, that thy judgments are right, and that Thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me.  Let Thy merciful kindness be for my comfort.”  Ps. 119:71,75,76

Good? Good to be afflicted?  What a paradox.  But God specializes in those.  And I am so glad.  I would not want to even consider accepting the truth of it otherwise.  He is faithful, so I can trust Him.  I do that through faith, not dwelling on how I feel.  Knowing God is altogether Good, and that all He does He does with divine kindness that is beyond my ability to even understand, is the comfort that sustains. 

It is not just possible; being “fruitful in the land of my affliction” is a reality.  Ephraim is.  And he is not the only one.  God is great and God is good.  When we are confident that we are walking with Him, we can be confident He is with us in any and every affliction.  There are no accidents or mistakes with our loving Creator God and Savior, only divine appointments. 

Rest in Him.