Quoteworthy -- From Prince Caspian - C S Lewis (Narnian Chronicles)

Lucy shuddered and nodded. When they had sat down she said, "Such a horrible idea has come into my head, Su."

"What's that?"

"Wouldn't it be dreadful if some day in our own world, at home, men started going wild inside, like the animals here, and still looked like men, so that you'd never know which was which?"

"We've got enough to bother about here and now in Narnia," said the practical Susan, "without imagining things like that!"

                  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Welcome, child,"  he said.

"Aslan," said Lucy, "you're bigger."

"That is because you are older, little one," answered he.

"Not because you are?

"I am not. But every year you grow, you will find me bigger."

A Many-Splendored Thing

I am still having trouble absorbing the fact that God loves us as much as He loves His Son.

But that is what He said!

May they be brought to compete unity to let the world know that You sent Me and have loved them even as You have loved Me.  (John 17:23)

So I am re-reading John 17 today.

There are many pictures of God's love in Scripture. The Cross is the greatest picture of God's love for us. But there are many more.

I think of the story of the prodigal son. He wasted all the wealth his father gave him, ended up with nothing, but in desperation returned home. And, we all know the story, was welcomed back into the family.

The story has been told for generations for wayward children, as we all are.
And think of the hymns...here's just one...

I've wandered far away from God
Now I'm coming home
The paths of sin too
Long I've trod.
Lord, I'm coming home.
Coming home, Coming home
Never more to roam
Open wide those arms of love
Lord, I'm coming home!

Prodigal as we use the word means wasteful and reckless. It refers to people who squander all they have with no thought of anyone else, nor even of the consequences for themselves!

That is the negative meaning of the word. But prodigal can also mean lavish, bountiful, unsparing, extravagant. That's the kind of love the father had! So we could also call this parable the Story of the Prodigal Father!

He never exhausted his supply of love. His household, and probably most his neighbors, thought he was excessive and extravagant, even recklessly wasteful of his love. Throwing it away. Of course, none of that matters if you have an unlimited supply!

In John 13 Jesus tells His disciples to love one another. By this shall all men know you are My disciples, if you have love for one another. John 13:35. It was a "mandate" and that is why we call Holy Thursday, Maundy Thursday.

Christ taught us to love God with all our hearts, souls and minds. And then to love our neighbors as ourselves. Those were the two greatest commandments.

It's all so profoundly simple. God loves His Son totally (that word is such an understatement, but I don't think there is a word to say what we need to say about God's love) and He loves us the same way, to the same extent (I still find it hard to type that phrase...to the same extent...so I guess I still can't comprehend it.)

That must make God our model. The One we are to copy. He loves His Son in that never-ending, unlimited, always available way. And His Son loves Him the same way. And God loves us the same way, and we are to love Him and each other the same way and then it just circles upward in the celestial realm.

So if God tells us to love each other as we love ourselves...then He is our model for that! He loves us as He loves Himself !

We are to love each other just as God loves His Son....which is the same way God loves us...which is the way we are to love Him....and each other....and His Son.....
It's an ever-widening circle of never-ending love.

Grace - For Real? or Just Something We Sing About?

                          Grace - Is it for Real? 

"When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, I was senseless and ignorant. I was a brute beast before You. Yet I am always with You. You hold me by my right hand. You guide me with Your counsel, and afterward You will take me into glory. Whom have I in heaven but You? And earth has nothing I desire besides You."  (Psalm 73:21-25)

Only by facing the darkness and ugliness within us are we able to receive the glorious grace of our loving Father.

The deeper the darkness, the brighter the stars shine!

And the more I recognize and admit my sin, the more His grace becomes a reality, instead of just an abstract theory, or dream we sing about.

And then it can cleanse me and shape me.

Only when I see the depth of my sin will I be electrified by the wonder of His grace.

And maybe the greatest wonder of all is that He will never let go of me! 

C S Lewis - We Are Far Too Easily Pleased

The New Testament has lots to say about self-denial, but not about self-denial as an end in itself.

We are told to deny ourselves and to take up our crosses in order that we may follow Christ; and nearly every description of what we shall ultimately find if we do so contains an appeal to desire.

If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith.

Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak.

We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered to us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.

We are far too easily pleased.

    -- The Weight of Glory, by C S Lewis

At His right hand, there are pleasures forevermore.....for us!

How Does God Describe Himself to Us?

 

                                          How Does God Describe Himself to Us?

A great verse for this morning:

     The LORD your God is in your midst. The Mighty One will save. He will rejoice over you with gladness; He will quiet you with His love; He will rejoice over you with singing" (Zephaniah 3:17).

 Ever notice how often, in Scripture, God compares Himself to us as our parent or spouse - the 2 most intimate of human relationships - that's  how He describes Himself to us!

Here He is a Parent holding His beloved child, comforting and singing His love. Quieting the fears and ending the tears. The loveliest lullaby in the universe!

Seems to me we talk a lot about loving God - as we certainly do and should - but maybe sometimes we should just sit quietly and let Him love us! Just let  His love surround us, wash over us, fill us to overflowing - apparently that  gives Him  great pleasure --  let's do it now!

Prayer Hint - Place of Prayer - William Law

I remember Sammy  Tippit's visit a couple of years (?) ago....He told an amazing story about a connection between him and his grandmother, a woman he had never met.

It seems Sammy has a special place for prayer -- his meeting place for daily prayer with God. For over 20 years, every morning before going to his office, he gets a cup of coffee, and goes to that place where he meets with God for his TAWG (Time Alone With God). He describes it:

To everyone else it is just an ordinary clump of trees. However, to me it is holy ground. I have shared my deepest sorrows and greatest joys with the One who created me in that place. For decades my meeting place has been under those trees.

Imagine his delight when he learned, in recent years, that his grandmother had a similar practice. He learned about it from a note from his aunt:

I think that mother felt she could talk to her Redeemer better in a garden near a peach tree than in other place on the farm. So many time she would steal away and pray under that peace tree.  When I heard her pray I knew there was a direct connection between her and God...

She often prayed for her son, Sammy's father, that he would receive salvation. Years after she died, Sammy received the Good News and men from his new church came to their home and led Sammy's father to salvation. She never saw the answer to her prayer for her son,  but it came -- a different route -- through her grandson. 


It appeared to her sister that she 'had a direct connection with God'...so did she, through her faith, know -- for certainty-- that someday her prayer would be answered?


A Place Apart...a place of prayer ... a sanctified and holy place.


Sometimes I have visited in homes of girlfriends from my church -- and often they show me the place where they or their husbands meet alone with God -- their TAWG place. Sometimes it is a special chair  with a good light and a small table to place their Bibles and prayer lists.



Sometimes it is in a small side room.  It is their "closet" as we are instructed in Matthew 6:6.



What makes it such a special place? I like this description from William Law:


Now if you could always pray in the same place, and reserve that place for devotion and not allow yourself to do anything common in it, and only be in the room yourself during times of devotion, that little room, or even some particular part of a room thus consecrated as a place consecrated as holy unto God, would have an effect upon your mind and heart and create in you faith and dispositions that would very much assist in your devotion.

For a sacred room, or a sacred place in your room, would in some spiritual measure resemble a chapel or a house of God.

This would inspire you to be always in the spirit of devotion when you are there, and fill you with wise and holy thoughts when you are there by yourself.

As time passed, using such a place would raise in your mind the kind of sentiments you have when you stand near a true altar of prayer in a sanctuary, and you would be concerned of thinking or doing anything that was foolish in that place, which would increasingly become your place of prayer and holy communion with God.

--William Law, A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life, written in 1728.

This is MY God!

                                              This is MY God!       

Remember these  words written by Horatio Spafford?    

   "My sin -- O the bliss of this glorious thought --  my sin, not in part, but the whole -- is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more! Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord, O my soul!"*

Just think about it: ALL our sin, not just part of it, but ALL of it, was taken care of by Jesus at the cross!

God doesn't look at our sins, divide them into separate piles, and say, "OK, I'll take care of this pile. But you knew better when you did these things. You knew they were out of my will and against my holy plan for your life, and you did them anyway. I had warned you about them. So you'll just have to take care of them yourself!"

No!  He put them ALL in a very large -- cosmic-sized -- garbage bag -- and hurled them into the depths of the deepest sea, out of His memory forever!

In Micah we read, "Who is a God like You who pardons sin and forgives transgressions. You do not stay angry forever, but delight to show mercy. You will hurl our iniquities into the depths of the sea" (Micah 7:18-19).

But You delight to show mercy! Who can imagine it? He delights to give us mercy!

I believe in THIS God! Not just any so-called god, but this God who gets pleasure by forgiving me and who never gives up on me.

He promises that when we "confess our sins" He will be faithful and just" and forgive us and "cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).

This is the God I have put my faith and hope - Have you?

*These words are from his hymn "It Is Well With My Soul," written about 1875.

Holiness - Intend to fly? - William Law

 This selection is from William Law's (1686-1761) The Holy Life:


Just as we cannot live a holy life without prayer, so we cannot have prayer without a holy life. To be foolish in the way we spend our time and money is no greater mistake than to be foolish in relation to our prayers.

If our lives cannot be offered to God, how can our prayers?


.....


Our lives should be as holy and as heavenly as our prayers. It is our strict duty to live by reason, to devote all of the action of our lives to God, to walk before Him in wisdom and holiness...and to do everything in His name and for His glory.

If our prayers do not lead to this, they are of no value no matter how wise or heavenly.

No, such prayers would be absurdities. They would be like prayers for wings though we never intended to fly.

What Alice Learned in Wonderland

"But I don't want to go among mad people," said Alice.
"Oh, you can't help that," said the Cat. "We're all mad here."


I keep thinking about these words as more and more tragedies
get news coverage - from family disasters here, chemical weapons in Syria, hostage situations, gang violence in our large cities.....

Are we all "mad" down here?

More from Alice in Wonderland....

     Alice opened the door and found it led into a small passage, not much bigger than a rat-hole: she knelt down and looked along the passage into the loveliest garden you ever saw. How she longed to get out of that dark hall and wander about among those beds of bright flowers and cool fountains, but she couldn't even get her head through the doorway; "and even if my head would go through," thought poor Alice, "of would be of very little use without my shoulders."


So eager was she to be able to get through that small doorway into the perfect exquisite garden, that she risked her very life by  picking up the bottle that said "Drink Me"-- knowing it might be poison -- and then to drink it all -- hoping it will enable to get her into that garden!  (She had to get smaller!)

C. S. Lewis recalls a time when he and his brother, as children, created a sort of small miniature garden. It was perfect and throughout the rest of his life he remembered the yearning he felt for a place of quiet beauty and safety - the kind of desperate longing we all feel for something more than this -- surely there is something more....or is this all there is? It is just not possible that this is as good as it gets? Is it?

Lewis reminds us that we have those feelings simply because there is more -- we were not created for this world! We were created for a far more perfect and glorious life. This world is only The Shadowlands, he says.

Anyway you look at it, we have to be very small to get into that garden! To get to where we yearn to be.

And Jesus told us we had to be humble and like little children....in order to be a part of His Kingdom.







P.S. Alice ate little cakes and got smaller....I eat cakes and get larger -- what does that mean?

How Should I Act Today? - C S Lewis

 

                                                     How Should I Act Today?

Wise words from C S Lewis...

"Let me make it quite clear that when Christians say the Christ-life is in them, they do not mean simply something mental or moral.

When they speak of being 'in Christ' or of Christ being 'in them', this is not simply a way of saying that they are thinking about Christ or copying Him.

They mean that Christ is in fact operating through them: that the whole mass of Christians are the physical organism through which Christ acts -- that we are His fingers and muscles, the cells of His body..."

[And so we are truly the Body of Christ here on this earth -- His heart, His hands, His voice, His physical acts of love and kindness are originating in Him but coming through us - His Body on earth.]

What is God's Will? from David Platt

The more we know God, and the more we walk in His will, the more we understand how foolish it is to think He would ever want to hide it [His will] from us.

Instead, we realize that His desire for us to know His will is exponentially greater than our desire to know it.

He desires for us to know His will so much that He reveals it to us in His Word.

God has a will and He has made it clear. From cover to cover in the Bible, God wills to redeem men and women from every nation tribe, language, and people by His grace and for His glory.

At the beginning of history, God created man and woman to enjoy his grace and extend His glory across the earth. (Genesis 1:26-28).

The patriarchs then show us how God blesses His people so that His blessing will be spread to all people. (Genesis 12:1-3; 26:4; 28:14).


The psalmist in the Old Testament knows this is God's will, so he prays, "May God be gracious to us and bless us and make His Face to shine upon us, that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations." (Psalm 67:1-2).

The will of God is clear from cover to cover in Scripture. From beginning to end, God wills to be worshipped.

He wills for all people to hear, receive, embrace, and respond to the gospel of His grace for the sake of His glory all over the globe.

This will is not intended to be found; it is intended to be followed.

We don't have to wonder about God's will when we've been created to walk in it.

We have no need to ask God to reveal His will for our lives; instead we ask God to align our lives with the will He has already revealed.

---From Follow Me, By David Platt, Chapter 6.

Whining at our pity party - William Law

Selection from A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life, by William Law, written about 1728.



A dull, uneasy, and complaining spirit, which is sometimes the spirit of those who seem mindful of religion, is, of all temperaments, the most contrary to religion, for it disowns that God whom it pretends to adore.

A person disowns God when he does adore Him as a Being of infinite goodness. If a man does not believe from his heart that all who believe that Jesus is the Christ are born of God and in His Kingdom, where nothing happens by chance, but everything is guided and directed by the care and providence of a Being that is all love and goodness to all His children, then he cannot be said truly to believe in God.

...he that believes that everything happens to him for the best, cannot possibly complain for the lack of something that is better.

If, therefore, you live in murmurings and complaints, accusing all the accidents of life, it is not because you are a weak, infirm creature, but it is because you lack the first principle of Christianity -- a true belief in God.

For as thankfulness is an express acknowledgment of the goodness of God towards you, so discontentment and complaints are as plain accusations of God's lack of goodness toward you.

A Prayer for Almost very Day

                                                     A Prayer for Almost Every Day

Father,

I sometimes do doubt You.

 ......That's sinful of me. 

I think of the man who told You, "Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief."

I do generally believe You are with me and You are caring for me. But sometimes I get distracted by my fears and anxious thoughts. They consume me! And I return to old habits.

Who can I trust more than You? Myself? That would be the most foolish thing of all!

Thank You for being my Abba, Father who takes my fears seriously and doesn't reject me when I fail.

Thank You that I can bring all my thoughts to You and You lovingly hold me and reassure me that I can always count on You to protect me and keep all Your promises.

There's no one else I can count on and I desire You above anything else.

Thank You forever for Your unfailing and unlimited love.

Amen.

  

Mine Again!

I am remembering a story a youth leader told us when we were teenagers. It is about a young boy, in Scotland, whose grandfather, a master wood carver, was teaching him how to diligently craft from wood a small boat. The boy worked hard, detailing his model with masts and ropes, and his mother handmade perfect sails.

One day the young boy took his finished boat to the creek to proudly sail it. It had been a rainy week and before he knew it, the usual gentle currents of the creek were rushing away downriver to join other creeks on their way to the sea. He lost his boat!

A few years later, while walking through shops in Edinburgh, he spied his little boat -- it was his, no doubt, even the initials he had carved into its deck attested to that!

He cried out, "That's my boat!" And the shop keeper replied, "Well, son, that might have been your boat, but right now it is mine and you'll have to pay for it if you want it back!"

So he did. He purchased back his boat, because in order to possess it again, he had to pay the required price. He wasn't even given a discount! Full price!

The point? Of course, that's what God did. He made us, crafted His image into us, and when we wandered away, He had to pay a great price to get us back.

A simple story with profound meaning.

The story will be retold in eternity.

Picture God sitting on the throne, and Christ, the 'Lamb slain from before the world' standing beside Him.

The elders "fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives for ever and ever. They lay down their crowns before the throne and say:

You are worthy, our Lord and God,
To receive glory and honor and power
For you created all things,
And by your will they were created
and have their being.
Revelation 4:10-11

And then,

I saw a Lamb looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne...He came and took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne. And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb...And they sang a new song (Revelation 5:6-10):

You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals
Because you were slain and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and
language and people and nation.
You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God,
And they will reign on the earth.

So they gave their praise and worship to the God who created everything, and then they gave it to the Lamb who purchased His kingdom back!

Back to original ownership - signed sealed and delivered.

Now let's picture ourselves there!

How Should I Pray for My Friends?

                                               

                                                How Should I Pray for My Friends?

           "I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and divine revelation, so that you may know Him better."

                                            -- Ephesians 1:17

I love this verse. In Paul's opening thoughts in his letter to his dear friends in Ephesus he reminds them that he is thankful for them and that he prays for them.

And what does he pray? That God will give them "wisdom and divine revelation" - both of which come only from God, the Source of both -- and for what reason? That they may know God better!

Isn't this our pattern for praying for our friends? 

We pray for their health, safety, success, happiness, etc. and all the myriad of things that come to our minds. But isn't the real goal that they can know God better? 

Knowing God better will help us to equip ourselves for life here on earth and -- remember the old lullaby -- "fit us for heaven to live with Thee there"?

This should be our prayer model. 

Remember reading, probably years ago, Tennyson's Morte D'Arthur (The Death of King Arthur)?

These words from Arthur as he is in the barge saying good-bye to his friends:

"The old order changeth, yielding place to new

And God fulfills Himself in many ways..,.

I have lived my life, and that which I have done

May He within Himself make pure! But thou,

If thou shouldst never see my face again,

Pray for my soul. More things are wrought by prayer

Than this world dreams of. Wherefore, let thy voice

Rise like a fountain for me night and day.

For what are men better than sheep or goats

That nourish a blind life within the brain,

If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer

Both for themselves and those who call them friend?

For so the whole world is in every way

                                Bound in gold chains about the feet of God."

Read it again....

The Thing with Feathers -Emily Dickinson and R C Sproul

Hope is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul,

And sings the tune without the words,

And never stops at all.

And sweetest in the gale is heard,

And sore must be the storm

That could abash the little bird

That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land

And on the strangest sea;

Yet, never, in extremity,

It asked a crumb of me.

  -- By Emily Dickinson

One of my best remembered poems from high school literature class.

Hope perches in the soul - not flies over, migrating to search for another home - it can always sing (hum?) the tune, even when the words are forgotten - and never stops at all.....

From R C Sproul:

Though he slay me, I will hope in him (Job 13:15).

Scripture says the just shall live by faith, which doesn't mean believing something when you're not sure if it's true.

It means that the just shall live by trusting God.

Paul distills the essence of the Christian life when he says, "Rejoice in your hope" (Romans 5:2), since our joy is vested in the future that God promises for His people.

Our joy as strangers and sojourners in this valley of tears is that God has prepared a place for us -- a better world that will be consummated at Christ's return.

Paul's use of the word hope isn't the way we use the term today to refer to things that are uncertain.

He and the other biblical authors talk about hope that is certain, hope that cannot fail, and hope that will not disappoint or embarrass us.

The New Testament calls hope the anchor of the soul.

Why? What is it that makes it certain?

The answer is God's sure promises and the demonstration of His faithfulness in the history of Israel, in the lives of the Apostles, and most clearly, in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us. Romans 5:5

Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of His purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, He confirmed it with an oath.

God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged.

We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.

Hebrews 6:17-19



What Should We Be Doing Now? C S Lewis

 

How should we be living in these difficult days as we wait for Jesus to come back?

C S Lewis reminds us that some, or many, of the things we see in the world today are contrary to God's will. He says: "Christianity is a fighting religion. It thinks God made the world -- that space and time, heat and cold, colors and taste, animals and vegetables, are things He created. But it also thinks that a great many things have gone wrong with the world He made and He insists, and insists very loudly, that we put them right again! (From "Mere Christianity").

Then again, in the Narnian Chronicles, after the evil witch has entered Narnia, Aslan, the great Lion, gathers the Narnians around and says, "But do not be cast down. Evil will come of that evil, and I will see to it that the worst falls on Myself. In the meantime, let us make this a merry world. And as Adam's race has done the harm, Adam's race will help heal it."

Looks like that's how we live in these ungodly times -- we start putting things right again! Looks like quite a task for us! But the worst, by far, fell on Jesus!

We want to work now and then hear Him say to us, "Well done, good and faithful servant!"

Maranatha, Lord Jesus!

From An Old Monk

                                             From An Old Monk

I'm reading a great book: "On Loving God" by Bernard of Clairvaux, who lived about 900 years ago.

We often think of those ancient saints as being rigid and austere. And we are often wrong. He is loving and joyous in his faith and  displays that in his writing.

He also wrote one of my favorite hymns: "Jesus, the Very Thought of Thee."

Here are some of the lines:

   Jesus, the very thought of Thee, with sweetness fills my breast.
   But sweeter  still Thy face to see, and in Thy presence rest.

   O hope of every contrite heart, O joy of all the meek
   To those who fall how kind Thou art, how good to all who seek!

   But what of those who find? Ah, this no pen or tongue can show
   The love of Jesus,  what it is, none but His loved ones know!

Sort of reminds me of a more modern hymn, "And He walks
with me and He talks with me, and He tells me I am His own...
And the joy we share  as we tarry there, none other has ever known."

We can magnify the Lord!

For I know that this will turn out for my deliverance

through your prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ

according to my earnest expectation and hope

that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness,

as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body,

whether by life or by death.

Philippians 1:19-20 (NKJV)

In the preceding verses we read Paul's initial evaluation of his imprisonment -- in verses 12 and 13 he says that his

trials have served to advance the gospel, even throughout the palace guard...that he is in chains for Christ. 

And in verse 14 he says his boldness to preach the gospel has encouraged other Christians to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly.

So because of his imprisonment the gospel has been spread and other Christians have been strengthened.

Not only that, in verses 19-20 he declares it is his earnest expectation that Christ will be magnified in his ordeal.

Earnest expectation conveys the meaning of watching for something so intently that one's head is turned away from everything else.

So here he is in prison in Rome, sort of a house arrest, because he is allowed to have visitors. But he is chained, day and night, to the guards, and unable to move about.

His upcoming trial could likely lead to his condemnation as a traitor to Rome and to his execution.

But, because he is single-minded -- desiring only God's glory -- he faces his circumstances fearlessly and joyfully.

Nothing else matters to Paul - except God!

But can we really magnify God?

O magnify the LORD with me, let us exalt His Name together, we read in Psalm 34:3.

Does God need to be magnified? Isn't He already bigger than anything else?

How can we mere human being make God bigger?

Well, what is a telescope? The Latin root word, telescopium,

means seeing from a distance. The instrument we call a telescope is used to make distant objects, such as stars, appear closer, and consequently appear larger.

The stars are huge objects, much larger than our largest telescopes, and yet the tiny instrument makes them look larger because it makes them appear closer!

A believer's body serves this same purpose. We are to be telescopes that bring Jesus Christ close to people.

To most people Jesus is a misty figure who lived many years ago, if they think about Him at all.

But when they watch Christians going through crises, they can see Jesus magnified and brought much closer.

The persecuted Christians  throughout the world today are making Jesus bigger and closer to all of us!

I am wearing a T-shirt from Voice of the Martyrs that has a large read Arabic letter on the front - a letter that stands for "Nazarene." This symbol is today being spray-painted on the homes and businesses of Christians in Iraq to single them out for persecution and death, much as the Jews in Nazi Germany were singled out.

As I wear this T-shirt, I am able to tell people about the plight of the persecuted church all over the world.

And I can focus on their trials and pray for them, and like Paul mentioned, I feel strengthened.

Hopefully, I am able to bring Jesus closer to the people I talk to. I would like to think I am glorifying and magnifying Him.

Anyway we do it, our task is to bring God closer!

Paul was not afraid of life or death. Either way, he wanted to use his body to magnify Christ.

Every Moment Counts!

I was just thinking about the calendar. 

We are about 3 weeks since December 22 -- the shortest day of the year. So the days are getting longer as we head toward the summer solstice --June 22 -- the longest day of the year. 

How much longer is today than yesterday? How much longer will tomorrow be?

I researched it -- just ONE MINUTE! True, the days are getting only one minute longer! Not even noticeable. Hardly even worth counting.

On the other hand, in 90 days, on March 22 --  the first day of spring -- that day will be 90 minutes longer. That's an hour and a half! And till June 22  - the first day of summer -- that's 3 hours!

What a huge difference a minute a day makes!

Maybe we don't take minutes seriously enough.

A song we used to sing:

   "Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee. Take my hands and let them move at the impulse of Thy love...Take my voice and let me sing, always, only for my King....Take my moments and my days -- let them flow in ceaseless praise! Let them flow in ceaseless praise!"

Life's moments....how long does it take to text a verse or prayer to someone who needs encouragement? Or call a lonely friend? Or drop by the nursing home to say hello? Or sing our own song of praise and worship to our Lord and Savior? Or send a message of love and thank you to one of our pastors?

After all, all our time belongs to God anyway; we are just stewards.

Investing a minute a day can add up to a wonderful treasure chest of praising God through loving acts of kindness and goodness.

Our moments....Let them flow in ceaseless praise!

(Is it too late to make New Year's Resolutions? I think I need to start thinking differently about time!)

P.S. That sentence..."Take my hands and let them move at the impulse of Thy love"....I love that picture! Spontaneous acts exhibiting God's love to all around us....

He hasn't lost one yet!

"To whom will you compare Me, or who is My equal?" says the Holy One.

The Prophet Isaiah says......

Lift your eyes and look to the heavens; who created all these?

He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name.

Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.

Why do you say, O Jacob, and complain,  Israel, "My way is hidden from the LORD; my cause is disregarded by my God"?

Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.

He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.

Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall, but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength.

They will soar on wings like eagles, they will walk and not faint.                  ---Isaiah 40:25-31

What Einstein Considered

 

                                                    What Einstein Considered

Einstein once observed that there are two different ways of thinking about our world. One way is to consider nothing as a miracle. And the other way is to consider everything as a miracle!

He chose the second option.

And so do I.

In Genesis we are told that when God created our world and all its amazing creatures, He pronounced everything "good." -- not OK or adequate or acceptable or interesting, but GOOD! Their creation bought Him pleasure.

Psalm 104 says,  "How many are your works, LORD! In wisdom You made them all; the earth is full of Your creatures."

Witnessing His creation causes us to bow in worship and adoration! There are 5,000 known species of sponges on the ocean floor. Over 300,000 species of beetles! Multitudes of different flowers, trees, and birds.

Some are enchantingly beautiful and others are enchantingly odd. They reveal the unsearchable wealth of God's creativity, His love of beauty and color and variety even His sense of humor!

And "in wisdom He made them all."  Its an invitation to us to stop and observe, marvel and explore and worship every day!

Lord, Your word tells us that Your creatures display Your existence and greatness. Open my eyes and ears today as I walk about in Your World -- help me see more about You. "In reason's ear they all rejoice, and utter forth in glorious voice, Forever singing as they shine, 'The hand that made us is divine!'"

Who Really Knew God Best? (Part 2)

Now here's another one who really knew God well: Jonah!



When the king of Nineveh and his people repented of their sin, God had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction He had threatened (Jonah 3).

But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry at God when their Assyrian enemies were forgiven.

Listen to these words of this runaway, disobedient prophet:

He prayed to the LORD:

"O LORD, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity." (Jonah 4)


Jonah knew God really well - that he was forgiving and full of mercy.

He knew God so well that God's mercy became his own reason for disobedience! - that's knowing God really well!

But Jonah maybe did not know that God would keep after him - would pursue him relentlessly - that God would not leave him alone, even in that small shelter on the desert.

Jonah pouted and God stayed with him.

Jonah got angry and God stuck by him.

Jonah disobeyed and God came after him.

God never gave up on Jonah.


There is another priceless gem in Jonah, chapter 2, verse 8:  Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.

The Ninevites did not cling to their worthless idols. They gave them up and received God's grace.

Am I still clinging to worthless idols of money, prestige, influence, power?

Psalm 145:16 tells us: You open Your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing.

We can't receive God's gifts if our hands are already full.


But going back to our biblical lessons: Notice what these men knew about God:

Abraham knew that God, the Ruler of the earth, would act righteously - that He was holy. And that He was merciful and compassionate to and forgiving to His children.

David knew that God was forgiving and holy and merciful and compassionate.

Moses knew that God was holy, forgiving, merciful and compassionate.

Jonah knew that God was holy, forgiving, merciful and compassionate.

See a consistent current of truth here?

Pretty important things to know about God!


These men did not go to seminary. They didn't go to
catechism or new member instruction classes.

They learned what they knew about God from listening to Him, by talking with Him, by watching His actions.

They learned about God, because they came to know God.

Who Knew God the Best? (Part 1)

The Old Testament has multiple stories of men and women who knew God really well.


There's David for one. "A man after God's own heart" (1 Samuel 3:14).

A man who sinned greatly, but who understood God's mercy and forgiveness.

There was no specific sacrifice designated by God to atone for adultery and murder.

So David knew he had to throw himself on the grace of God to have forgiveness.

We see his heart in Psalm 51:

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions....my sin is always before me...cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean, wash me, and I will be whiter than snow....create in me a pure heart...do not cast me from your presence....

He had a "broken and contrite heart."

So David understood that God was merciful and compassionate. He also understood that we are born in sin (also Psalm 51) and that God has to actually give us a new heart to love Him and be in His presence.

So David knew a lot about God!


And Abraham also knew a lot about God. And he knew God well enough to challenge Him, to argue with God about the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah and Lot's family.

And God spared Lot and his family because "the LORD was merciful to them" (Genesis 19:16).

Abraham knew God was merciful and compassionate.

Will not the Judge of the earth do right? (Genesis 18:25) He knew God was righteous.

And in Genesis 15 we see that he could even say to God 'how can I be sure You are telling me the truth?'

God showed him the night sky and promised his descendants would be more than the stars in number - but Abraham wanted more - a clearer guarantee.

'But, LORD,' he said, 'how can I know for sure that You are going to do this?'

Abraham could even ask God for more proof!

Someone would have to know God on an intimate level to be able to challenge to Sovereign God of the Universe like that.

And so God treated him to that mysterious covenant agreement, made while Abraham slept, when God appeared as a blazing torch amidst the  animal sacrifice and swore His covenant anew.

A contract, not based on the agreement and faithfulness of both parties, but based on God's unconditional covenant promise only! 



How about Moses? Now there's a man who knew a lot about God, too. He knew God was faithful and holy.  (He had himself received the original holy commandments from God.)

He knew God well enough to  question God's judgment and justice on occasion, to argue with Him, and even to ask for a special revelation of God's glory, and God accommodated him (Genesis 33)

And the LORD said, "I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your Presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion of whom I will have compassion."

Again, Moses understood that God was merciful and compassionate. He had witnessed many displays of God's mercy in leading the Jews out of Egypt and through the wilderness journey.  He understood why "without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin."


(see Who Really Knew God Best? Part 2)

The 12th Day of Christmas

This is the 12th Day of Christmas!

One of the traditional prayers for this last day of the Christmas season is this:

"We pray that You would saturate us with Your peace from the inside out. That we would be beacons of light and hope in the world, and that as this season closes, we would recommit ourselves to be the peacemakers, purveyors of hope, love, joy and justice in this world."

This day, January 6, is also called "Twelfth Night," the night before the Feast of the Epiphany -- and it closes the Christmas season by commemorating the arrival of the Wise Men to see Jesus, the King of the Jews, in Bethlehem.

"Epiphany" comes from a Greek word that means "appearance" or "manifestation" and refers to the manifestation of Jesus to the world, witnessed by the Wise Men from the East.

We know the Wise Men did not arrive on the 12th night after our Lord's birth (and we don't even know what day He was born).

Scripture is clear -- Jesus was not a baby, and they were living in a house by the time the Magi arrived. But celebrating it at this time makes the Christmas story complete.

And King Herod's reaction to the Wise Men's claim that they wanted to find the "King of the Jews" reminds us that there is always only room for one King --  and any other so-called called "King" would have to be eliminated! 

And so Herod was determined to do that -- because there is only room for one King!

A reminder to us  - there is only room for one King in our lives!  We must choose which one we will worship and serve and reject the others!

No one can have more than one King!

 --

 --

What We Learned in 2024

 

                        What We Learned in 2024

The important stuff - the most important stuff - is still the same.

1. God is still on His throne

2. Jesus  is still King of Kings and Lord of Lords

3. The Bible still has the answers to all our problems

4. The tomb is still empty

5. Jesus is still the only Way to bring us back to God. To change us from being

     enemies of God to being His friends

6. Prayer  still works and God hears our every prayer

7. The cross, not the government, is our salvation

8. There is still room at the cross...'though millions have come there is still  room for one!' - Me!

9. Jesus will save anyone who places their faith and trust in Him

10.  God will be with us always. He will never leave us --  He will never let go of our hand!

11. Our life here is just a temporary assignment- a great future is planned for us!

[I'm sure you can think of more - just add them to the list!]

Isn't it great to know we can still count on the most important things to be stable sand secure - 

no matter what is happening right now! 

                  

                GOD IS GOOD -- ALL THE TIME!