O Precious Thought

 At times it seems as if God is leading us into confusion. He leads us to a place of service, and then places what appear to be insurmountable obstacles to our service there. He puts us in a situation that the world would call no win scenarios. I was reminded this week that if God leads to such a place, it is not a no-win situation. He has never faced a no-win situation. If He has brought you there, it's because He desires to reveal Himself to you in a new way. He has made it impossible for you to do anything about it even if you are one of those who believes that "God helps those that help themselves." Your only option is to trust in Him and pray for the ability to see Him more clearly and to know Him more deeply. He is our Rock, our Fortress, our Shelter in the time of storm, our ever present help in time of need. Though we are confused about where He is leading us, He is not confused or troubled at all. As the hymn exhorts us, "He leadeth me, O precious thought." That is enough.

Remembrance

 Celebrated the life of one of the most courageous men I know yesterday: James Callahan. Spent his entire adult life going toe-to-toe with physical suffering. I never heard him complain once. He had one of the sweetest, kindest dispositions ever. Years ago I watched a movie Dances with Wolves. One of the native American young men had been given---based upon his character--one of the loveliest names ever: Smiles A Lot. That was James--always a smile, always a word about the goodness of God, always a word of encouragement. He lived a life of simple faith reflected in a life of elegant faithfulness. He will leave an empty hole in the lives of those he loved and served. But it will be a hole filled with the sure hope that they will see him again.

As he would have wanted, the clear message of redemption and forgiveness was shared with all who attended. Now, the Holy Spirit can use that word to do His work. For some it will be an aroma of life; for some it will be an aroma of death. Believe and live.

And if there was a wife's Hall of Fame somewhere--Lisa, his wife, would be at its center. For richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, for better or for worse--she was his loving, caring wife and the pillar he needed to be all that His Savior had called him to be.

A gifted musician--his life, too, was a symphony of praise to his Redeemer and Sustainer. Thank you James and Lisa for lives well-lived in service to each other, to your children, and to Him. We look forward to seeing you again--soon. Your going Home immersed Heaven with more of His joy as He welcomed a son to his room in the Father's eternal house.

In Heaven

 We pray to our Father who is in Heaven. Perhaps some might think that that limits His accessibility. I mean, here we are struggling away on earth, and He's "way up there" in Heaven. But He is accessible to us moment-by-moment. The writer of Hebrews tells us that we have access to the very throne room of God for the grace and mercy we need each day--moment-by-moment. And He wants us to come boldly into His presence in eager anticipation of His response to the children He loves. As we enter the throne room, we breathe in the incense of our prayers--it surrounds His throne--a reminder of how beautiful our prayers are to Him. They are the perfume of Heaven. You and I can walk into His presence at any time and present our requests to Him knowing that He longs to have us come to Him. longs to breathe in the perfume of our prayers, longs to give us the grace and mercy we so desperately need. "Come," He pleads with us. "Come boldly." Access to His throne room and His presence there is His loving gift to us. Wherever you are at any moment in the day, you are one step away from His presence, from the throne room of God.

And do not forget as you contemplate the depth of your needs that it is from the riches of glory that He meets those needs. Do you really think that you have a need greater than His eternal resources? And the riches He lavishes on us are always good gifts. He is the Father who always gives good gifts. Never a stone instead of a loaf of bread. Never condemnation in place of infinite mercy and grace. Heavens wealth is inexhaustible, and the God who "distributes" it is our loving Father who knows exactly what we really need.

And since Heaven is His Home, and we are His children, guess we are headed when our struggles in our earthly assignment are complete? Heaven is our Home, too. He is building a room for us in His house. Then, our prayers will be conversations of gratitude and praise--face to face.

We pray to our Father in Heaven--always accessible, His riches dedicated to meet our needs inexhaustible, and His Home, His dwelling place, our journey's end--so shall we ever be with the Lord.

Intercession

 The centrality of Christian prayer is intercession for others. When Paul prays to start his epistles, he intercedes for the church, no himself. The Lord in teaching His disciples to pray tells them to pray to "Our Father"--not my Father. Romans 8 teaches that the all things that work together for good are for "those" who love God and are called. Even our personal prayers for our own individual needs should plead with God for an answer that is "good" for all not just me. We are a spiritual house. We are one body. And the most powerful testimony to Jesus claims as Son of God and Savior of mankind is the unity of the body of Christ. Intercessory prayer engenders that unity. May our prayers be others focused. May the requests we make to God plead with Him for an answer that will unify and edify the church--do good for all those who love Him and are the called according to His eternal purpose..

Focus

 Today's Heresy.

Most of the great philosophers and thinkers of the past would look at today's "geniuses" and ask in bewilderment are you really wasting your brain power on mechanical ingenuity? Don't you know that the important issues in life are the spiritual ones--the issues that impact man's eternal soul?

A culture's whose focus is on making things more comfortable will have very little impact on the world. Those who are looking at their world and asking what can I do to change those things going on all around me that make me uncomfortable are the source of true change.

A culture's whose focus is on length of days will never find the true purpose of life. Those who know that there is so much more to learn about what really matters in life at a funeral than at a birthday party will live meaningful lives--no matter how long they live.

A culture's whose focus is on entertainment will never find true joy and contentment. Those who embrace the circumstances--good, bad, challenging--the reality that the Holy Spirit is writing into this chapter of their life will learn to be content in all things, strengthened by His joy, and confident in the inexhaustibility of the riches in glory set aside to meet their every need. (Naturally, I love the book metaphor--thanks Dawn--and what an "entertaining" writer the Holy Spirit is!)

A culture whose focus is on making life convenient will never find the power that a life focused on others can bring. There is nothing convenient about sacrificing one's time to minister to others. There is nothing convenient about using one's resources for the good of others and not yourself. There is nothing convenient about doing all that's necessary to be a genuine, spontaneous. loving friend to others--no matter how much that labor of love will make the things that you want to do for you inconvenient.

A culture's whose focus is on building an earthly paradise through technology will lay the groundwork for a hell on earth. No lasting purpose, no meaning, no joy, no contentment, no deep and lasting relationships. A culture who is trying to replace God with what machines can do for them to enrich their lives have deluded themselves into believing as one writer has said, "that though they don't have much to gain, they don't have much to lose either." No. they just lose a sense of God's presence in every moment of their lives, a dynamic purpose, true meaning, unquenchable joy in all circumstances, an earthquake proof contentment, deep and lasting relationships. Nope, not much to lose at all.

Destiny

 The main character in my favorite novel is an old preacher in his seventies. He is still ministering despite the fact that his heart is so weak that he can't even walk up stairs anymore. He doesn't even have the strength to play catch with his young son. Yet, he continues to get up every day and minister to others. His struggles in that book end with his blessing a younger man he had long doubted and mistrusted--a man he wrestled with forgiving things that the man had done in his past. His conclusion is that after all those years as a minister, he now knows why God has kept him going--to bless that younger man was the one reason God had called him to minister and kept him serving into his late seventies.

So it is with us--with me. The reason He is still using us is because we have not yet completed what He has for us to do. The service He has called us to do has at least one more day to be fulfilled, one more life to bless. Today is not just one more day; the people He has called me to minister to are not just random encounters. My ministry is not yet finished. Neither is yours--no matter your age. I do not know if God will make it plain to me when that last act of blessing has occurred. But as I was reminded lately, I must use whatever energy and time He gives me to fulfill the destiny He has planned for me--even if I have to crawl to get where He needs me to be today. When He has used me to touch that last life, then I will be able to identify with the last words of the old faithful minister, "First, I'll pray. And then I'll sleep."

This day is God's greatest gift to you. Will you use it to glorify Him, to touch that last life with the love He has ordained for you to use to touch one more life for Him? I pray that He will empower me to finish strong, to fulfill His plan for me--down to the last step.

Always

 "Lo, I am with you always."

What does that mean?

He is not the "light at the end of the tunnel." He is the light that dwells in your deepest darkness.

He is not the peace at the end of the war. He is the deep peace in the midst of the hottest battle.

He is not the escape hatch from the chaos all around you. He is the deep calm in your heart as the world disintegrates around you

He is not going to take away your sorrow. He is going to immerse your life in His joy so that your sorrow can be used by Him to touch the comfortless.

He is not going to fill your loneliness with someone to love you. He is going to fill your loneliness with a deep sense of His presence, the God who is unconditional love.

He is not going to erase the record of your failures. He is going to stoop down, gently lift you up, and remind you that His most useful disciples all rose from out of the ignominy of defeat, embraced the humility needed in their lives, and became broken vessels fit for the Master's use.

He will not meet you on the other side of death; as you walk through the Valley, He will be your companion: "Fear not, I have been here before and destroyed death's power. Death is a stingless wasp. Death is dead."

He is not the God of I will be. He is the God I AM.

Change

 

Change:

Autumn is here.  The leaves are starting to change.  The weather is turning cooler; the days shorter.  I love living in Ohio where we get to experience the change of the seasons.  At my acres, the giant red maple starts the color parade.  The poison ivy changes to its dark red early on as well.  Though an irritant, it is beautiful and provides a berry feast for my feathered friends.  Autumn’s palate is marvelous.  A few flowers wait until this time of year to bloom as well—asters, fall crocus, monkshood.  Some iris will take a second turn at blooming.  Change.

People change, too.  Mark changed and became a trusted helper of the Apostle Paul.  Demas changed and deserted Paul for the lures of an empty, temporary world.  People we have known and loved—still love—have changed as well.  I am always amazed at the change that takes place in the students I teach.  Some are surprising.  That student who I thought would never become a faithful disciple changes into a diligent, fearless follower of Christ.  Sadly, some who I was sure would follow Him choose not to do so.  We teachers, too, have our Mark and Demas.  Change.

Obviously, circumstances change.  Anyone who has lived very long has a string of, “Oops, didn’t see that coming.”  And sometimes they change in a split second, and we wish we had seen it coming.  There were people we needed to remind of our love.  Things that needed to be done that now can never be done.  The nations we live in change.  As a majority turns away from worship of the Creator and suppresses His morality replacing it with their own whims, nations decline and chaos of every kind becomes the rule of the day.  And then, tomorrow, there is a new rule of the day.  Change.

Change can be beautiful, frustrating, encouraging, confusing—but you can count on change occurring. 

Thankfully, there is One who never changes.  Yesterday, today, and forever He remains the same.  His love for us is loyal, relentless, and eternally inescapable.  Every care we cast on Him, He embraces as His own—as another chance for Him to demonstrate how much He cares.  In times of trouble, His unwavering faithfulness is our Shield and our Strong Tower, our Rock.  He never turns away the repentant sinner no matter the depth of his or her sin.  His grace is greater than our sins.  His willing testimony echoes through all of eternity, “I Am the Lord, I change not.”  A beautiful, encouraging, empowering changelessness.  Surrounded by a world, people, nations that are always changing, may we rest and rejoice in our immutable God.  “Yesterday, today, forever, Jesus is the same.  All may change but Jesus never.  Glory to His Name!”