In the desert of my heart

I am appreciating more and more the "outline" or "format" Derek Prime talked about. In my prayer journal for today the Lord's Prayer connection is "Thy Kingdom Come" and the topic is stated as "The extension of the church and the coming of God's Kingdom through the preaching of the gospel."

Derek Prime's system is really helpful. But, when you get back to basics, it is not the understanding of the thing, or the systems used, or the helpful hints we all search out so diligently -- it is so much more profoundly simple -- it's the doing of the thing -- that's what keeps me back at the starting point instead of running steadily toward the goal ... the problem is not in the learning or understanding -- it's in the doing -- a knot in my will, not in my brain.

I need to look at that knot and begin unraveling it. Oh, I know it is the Holy Spirit that does that. But right now, these days, I don't go to Him for that. Why? I feel dry and empty these days. It shocks me how much harder it is to lean on Jesus, to come to Him in need and desperation, when my spirit is dry -- you would think it would be the opposite.

I am thinking about W. H. Auden's elegy to William Butler Yeats -- the last verse:

In the desert of the heart
Let the healing fountains start....

I need those healing fountains. And I know where they are.....why don't I just hurry up and GO?!?!?

Ye who are weary.....COME HOME!!!!

The last two lines of the verse are:

In the prison of his days
Teach the free man how to praise...

This intrigues me...teach the free man how to praise...not the prisoner...the free man...

Can I get there from here?

As a hart longs for flowing streams, so longs my soul for thee, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God?

O God, thou art my God, I seek thee, my soul thirsts for thee; my flesh faints for thee, as in a dry and weary land where no water is. So I have looked upon thee in the sanctuary, beholding thy power and glory.

I stretch out my hands to thee; my soul thirsts for thee.

With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.

I will open rivers on the bare heights and fountains in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water

.

Ho, every one who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat!

For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water.

And on the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for food. Their leaves will not wither nor their fruit fall, but they will bear fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows form the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing.

Then he showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

Can I get there from where I am now? My soul trusts in Him who made me and carries me in His arms. YES, He can bring me back. Yes, He can take me there, even from where I am now, and YES, He will!


(Psalm 42:1-2; Psalm 63:1-2; Psalm 143:6; Psalm 87:7; Isaiah 12:3; Isaiah 41:18; Isaiah 55:1; Isaiah 35:6-7; Ezekiel 47:12; Revelation 22:1-2; RSV)

Screwtape Letters - - C S Lewis

When I was growing up, C. S. Lewis' Screwtape Letters was a big hit. Later he wrote so many more books that Screwtape's (Screwtape was a senior demon) letters to his trainee (Wormwood, a junior demon)) have been almost forgotten, at least neglected.

Narnia, Mere Christianity, Weight of Glory and Til We Have Faces are on most people's bookshelves. I don't see Screwtape much any more.

These "Letters" were among Lewis' earliest writings. He was still a relatively new Christian.

He describes Screwtape  as a demon who holds an administrative post in the bureaucracy ("Lowerarchy") of Hell. He is mentor to Wormwood, the new, inexperienced apprentice tempter.

Screwtape gives Wormwood detailed advice on various methods of undermining faith and promoting sin.

Here's Screwtape's letter to Wormwood about Pleasure:

Screwtape -- Hell's View of Pleasure

Never forget that when we are dealing with any pleasure in its healthy and satisfying form, we are, in a sense, on the Enemy's ground.

I know that we have won many a soul through pleasure. All the same, it is His invention, not ours. He made the pleasures: all of our research so far has not enabled us to produce one.

All we can do is to encourage the humans to take the pleasures which our Enemy has produced, at times, or in ways, or in degrees, which He has forbidden.

Hence we always try to work away from the natural condition of any pleasure to that in which it is least natural, least redolent of its Maker, and least pleasurable.

 An ever-increasing craving for an ever-diminishing pleasure is the formula. It is more certain; and it is better style. To get the man's soul and give him nothing in return--that is what really gladdens our Father's heart.
             
                                                             ***********************


Lewis includes a lot of doctrine and observations of human nature in these illuminating letters.

The world that Screwtape and Wormwood live in is a messed-up (or bent as Lewis would say) morally reversed world, in which greed and self-indulgence are seen as the greatest good. Neither demon is able to understand, or acknowledge, true virtue when he sees it.

Sounds like the same world we live in today!

Satan Wants Food - Our God wants Sons

                (How Satan views us and how God views us)

A conversation between Satan's head demon recruiter and one of his new recruits - He is explaining how Satan's goals are different from The Enemy's (our savior God's) goals --

The Demon trainer is named Screwtape. He tells his new apprentice --

"To us a human is primarily food; our aim is the absorption of its will into ours. But the obedience which our Enemy demands of men in quite a different thing. 

One must face the fact that all the talk about his love for men is not (as one would gladly believe) mere propaganda, but an appalling truth. He really does want to fill the universe with a lot of loathsome little replicas of himself, not because he has absorbed them but because their wills freely conform to his. 

We want cattle who can finally become food; he wants servants who can finally become sons. We want to suck in; he wants to give out. We are empty and would be filled; he is full and flows over."

                    - From Screwtape Letters, by C S Lewis

Talking to Yourself

Psalm 103:1-2

   "Praise the LORD, my soul; all my inmost being, praise His holy Name. Praise the LORD, my soul, and forget not all His benefits."

  Here is a good example of the psalmist talking to himself. When David writes phrases like "my soul" and "o my soul" he is saying, "I am talking to myself."

(What do you say when you talk to yourself?)

What is he telling himself in this Psalm? He is saying "Praise the LORD," and "don't forget how God as blessed you!"....really great things for us to say, too, when we talk to ourselves!

(You could take out those words - 'my soul' -  and put your name in their place.)

 Maybe it would be good for us to stop now and remember how God has blessed us! 

Remember the old song, "Count Your Blessings"? We used to sing it a lot - I don't hear it much anymore. Maybe that helps explain why we are so cynical and pessimistic these days.

Count your blessings. 

Name them one by one.

Count your blessing 

See what God has done!

Count your blessings

Name them one by one

And it will surprise you

What the Lord has done!

Maybe this would be a good time to take out your journal - your big one - and start making that list...and it may surprise you -- what the Lord has already done for you!

What's first on your list?

Did YOU forget to ask? John 4 -

What Jesus Reminds Us....(Recorded in John 4)

Remember the woman at Sychar? 

She was a Samaritan woman and I purposed to meet her at the ancient Jacob's well.

I asked her for a drink of water. She was surprised
at the request. But she didn't ask Me for anything.

Right there, in front of her, the Creator and Sovereign Lord of the Universe, the One able to bestow any gift to any humble creature.

But she didn't ask. I had to call it to her attention -
Look, I said to her, If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked Me and I would have given you living water.

She still didn't understand. She didn't "know the gift" and she didn't know who I was.

I explained it to her, just as I have patiently explained it to you.

Now you do know.  You know the gift I bring and you know who I am.

It delights Me to give my Children gifts.

So why don't you ask for more?

You have not because you ask not.

James 4:2

The Seventh Trumpet-- - Are you listening for it?

 

"The seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, 'The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and  ever.'"

(Revelation 11:15)

Jesus has already begun His kingdom reign, in us, His willing subjects.

As He reigns in our hearts, the rest of creation is groaning in eagerness and longing as we await the return of our Righteous King to His throne He was ordained to rule from since before earthly time began.

His reign will cover the whole cosmos and all His subjects will be the willing, loving, redeemed and rescued ones He brought into His eternal family.

We spend a lot of time analyzing and investigating visible signs of His coming, but maybe we should have our ears tuned to hear that trumpet!

Matthew 24:29-31 tells us how we will all be gathered from all over the earth to join His reigning kingdom.

And in the Old Testament book of Daniel we read how the prophet Daniel explained and predicted that coming kingdom to  Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon: centuries earlier:

     And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up  a  kingdom that will never be destroyed..it shall stand forever....

     (Daniel 2:44-45)

With all this information recorded for us, certainly no one should be surprised when it happens!

Who Could Imagine?

                                     

                                      Who Could Imagine?   

      Jeremiah 31:34 tells us that God says, "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more." And in Hebrews 10:17 He says, "Their lawless acts I will remember no more."

      In both of these passages 'remember no more' is equated with 'forgiveness.' 

      Psalm 130:4 states this truth another way: "If You, O LORD,  kept a record of sins, O LORD, who could stand?  But with You there is forgiveness."

      So God deliberately chooses to not only forget our sins but also to not even keep a record  -- a list somewhere that He could go back to and check if He wanted to refresh His memory...like if He got tired of fooling with us and wanted to really punish us! 

     Since God is all-knowing, this act of forgetfulness is a conscious deliberate act of His divine will. And  'no more' means it is permanent! 

      Who could even imagine a God like this?

      Thanks to Him and praise Him forever that we don't have to imagine -- He has explained it to  us - and showed us at the Cross!    

Faith Floats

My life seems unusually difficult these days. Dealing with car and health insurance companies, doctors, family issues....I feel like I am struggling just to tread water.

I imagine those buoys out in the harbor. They, like the little red robin, just keep "bobbing along!" They don't get far, but they keep bouncing up! They are anchored -- placed in a special place to alert sailors to rocks or shoals, or to mark a channel.

They just keep doing their job. Does a buoy ever just give up and sink?
The Holy Spirit gives us buoyancy. He asserts pressure from below to keep us floating and He anchors us just where He wants us. Just where we need to be.

I read these words from R. C. Sproul today:

Have you ever felt you were living your life swimming upstream?

Swimming upstream is difficult, if not impossible. You might make some headway in a wide, slow-moving river. But, if you are in whitewater rafting territory, forget it.

You are going downstream, and no matter how hard you paddle, your strength will not save you. You might even die.

Instead, picture yourself seated in an unsinkable inflated boat as you head down the river. It's inevitable; you will wind up downstream at your destination simply because you are in the boat, whitewater or not.

As a believer, you were chosen in Christ from before the foundation of the earth. Your destination, holiness and blamelessness before God, is assured because you are in the unsinkable boat: Christ. (Ephesians 1:4)

It is not because you have been paddling so hard to meet God's standard of holiness that you arrive.

It is because He is taking you.

Be assured that when you "pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you" (Isaiah 43:2) because He is with you!

O God, please restore my buoyant spirit today!

P.S. When you reach the end of your rope, reach out and touch the hem of His garment!

               This IS How He taught Us!

Thinking about those special words  Christ gave His disciples when  He began to teach them how to pray....

He began, "This then is how you should pray." That sounds pretty specific to me.

Then He started: "Our Father in heaven, hallowed by Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven..."

So that's how we should begin.

Prayers are not fanciful good luck charms. There is a divine method He is showing us.

The very first thing we are to recognize is who we are approaching -- the Sovereign Creator, king and Ruler of everything, reigning right now...and He is our Father! 

We should consider how to get our desires into harmony with Him and His will --not to get Him to do our will.

I usually get it wrong at the very beginning! Do you?

And  when I recognize who God really is, then I have a clearer understanding of who I am!

Then I can offer my worship, which is of course the only possible response

 open to me.  

So this is how we should start every prayer. 

After all, that IS how He taught us!  

  

What to do when Satan comes around?

 

What do you do when Satan sneaks around? 

I had a friend who told me once that when Satan knocks on her door, she just turns to Jesus, and asks, "Would you get that for me, Jesus?" 

Yes, Satan is on the prowl out there, looking "for whom he can devour!"

He is strong. But his time is short.  

Max Lucado reminds us: "Don't face Satan by facing Satan. Face Satan by facing God." And "Glance at Satan, but gaze on Christ." 

Remember who Satan is...but focus on who you are!  

"I cannot be separated from the love of God" (Romans 8:35).

"I have been bought with a price - I belong to God" (I Corinthians 6:20)

And "I have not been given a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind" (2 Timothy 1:7).

Remind him, and yourself, that in God we have "grace and mercy for help in time of need" (Hebrews 4:16). Any time and every time!

Then tell Satan to just "get lost!"

C S Lewis - No Ordinary People

     There are No Ordinary People....


It may be possible for each to think too much of his own potential glory hereafter; it is hardly possible for him to think too often or too deeply about that of his neighbor.

The load, or weight,  or burden of my neighbor's glory should be laid on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken.

It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare.

All day long, we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or the other of these destinations.

It is the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics.

There are no ordinary people.

You have never talked to a mere mortal.

Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations -- these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat.

But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit -- immoral horrors or everlasting splendors.

This does not mean we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously -- no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption.

And our charity must be a real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner -- no mere tolerance, or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment.

Next to be Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses.

If he is our Christian neighbor, he is holy in almost the same way, for in him also Christ vere latitat - the glorifier and the glorified, Glory Himself, is truly hidden.

    --- From The Weight of Glory, by C S Lewis

Mercy and Grace Before We Ask?

 In John 8 we read the well-known account of the woman caught in adultery. The religious leaders brought her to Jesus -- for punishment -- but  mostly to trap Him and find cause to accuse and discredit Him publicly. 

The first, and obvious question, is "Where is the man?" They said she was 'caught in the act.' The law was clear -- the man was also guilty. They didn't seem to care very much about that detail!

So she is standing there alone -- obviously guilty -- no defense lawyer to plead her case. Alone. A cruel death waiting for her.

What is Jesus doing? Starting to write something on the ground with His finger....in a kneeling position as we picture it. He makes His famous answer, "Let any of you who is without sin be the first one to throw a stone at her."

They begin to walk away and then only Jesus and the guilty woman are left. "Neither do I condemn you. Go now and leave your life of sin."

Notice He forgave her first! He didn't parole her; didn't tell her to change her life and then come back and report to Him.

He forgave her first! He gave her mercy and grace before she even asked. Freedom. A  second chance. A new life. 

What an amazing God we have!

Questioning God

 It's truly amazing how God's words in His Word speak to us just when we need to hear them!

I say, "Lord, how could You truly love someone like me?"

He answers, "I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving kindness" (Jeremiah 31:3).

I say, "Lord, why would You draw me to You?"

He tells me that He takes great delight in me and that He rejoices over me, singing to me while quieting and soothing me with His words (Zephaniah 3:17). He tells me I am His (Psalm 100:3).

"But, Lord," I protest. "How can You accept me? My weaknesses, my return to sin, my disobedience! Even I wouldn't want me!"

He answers, "Though the mountains be shaken  and the hills be removed, yet My unfailing love for you will not be shaken, nor My covenant of peace be removed"(Isaiah 54:10).

Doubts press in. But He overrides them with His perfect promise from Lamentations 3:22 that His love and compassion never fail -- in fact, they are new and fresh every morning!

He has spoken! Case closed!

Nothing can stop His love.

LORD, help me accept Your love for me and to joyfully display it every moment of every day! Amen.

{Thoughts from Anchor Devotional, November, 2024}

Restore My Joy - Is it too much to ask?

 

                                          Restore My Joy - Is it too much to ask?

"Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin...Create in me a pure heart, O God....restore to me the joy of your salvation." (Psalm 51:1, 2, 10, 12)

I find it necessary to read this psalm multiple times. It appears in centuries past that congregations recited it together every week at worship services. I can see why.

David  composed it just after he was confronted with his sin with Bathsheba and his attempt to cover it out by having her husband Uriah killed.

When I was younger I was amazed at David's presumptuous attitude! -- What gall, I thought! Such serious sins and to ask God to restore his joy!!?

Asking forgiveness -- that's OK. But asking for his joy in God's presence to be restored? That's just too much!

But now I am older and have seen more clearly - and more frequently - the darkness of my own heart and realize that all sin is treason against our holy God-- all sin is serious - displeasing to Him and deserving of judgment and death.

But His gracious forgiveness of all our sins does restore us - brings us back into our close fellowship with Him and brings back our joy in His presence.

Yes, it is hard to believe, and that's why we call it 'Amazing Grace'!

His total complete forgiveness does this for us.

And so I pray, with David, when I confess my sins and experience the miracle of forgiveness,  please restore the joy of your salvation to me, a sinner saved by your grace!

Who Wants a Tin Can Without a Can Opener?

                                      Who Wants A Tin Can Without a Can Opener?

We  can always count on God's timing. It's perfect, down to the last second accurate.

In Ephesians 2:10 He tells us that "We are God's handiwork [masterpiece], created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

Not only did He prepare the tasks He wanted us to do, but He also prepared us to be able to do the tasks!

We read in 2 Timothy 2:16-17, that "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."

His timing is perfect! When the task is ready for us we are ready for the task!

Our human timing is not so great. I remember reading that Napoleon Bonaparte, in the 1790's, discovered that food, when heated, could be preserved for long periods of time and still retain flavor if kept safely in a secure container.

I don't know how he discovered that - but he talked about it - he didn't realize that by killing the bacteria and applying a sealed vacuum it was kept from recontamination - he just knew it kept food longer and preserved more of its taste.

A British inventor in 1810, applied this study to his own work, and created the world's first canned goods. But his 'cans' were wrought iron and so thick they had to be opened with a hammer and chisel!

It wasn't till 50 years later that an American inventor, with thinner steel cans, invented an actual can opener that had a blade that could puncture a can and saw the lid off!  And it wasn't until 1870 that a rotary can opener  appeared on the market that could actually be used by home consumers.  A huge advancement in food consumption!

But it took 60 years for the practical, operational can opener to be invented so those marvelous cans of food could be opened!

I am thankful for the variety of food tin cans made possible. And how the ideas of "canning" food right at home changed our diets forever. But I am also thankful we can get into them without a hammer and chisel! 

Nothings compares to God's perfect timing in all He does.

He has a job He wants us to do. And He has already prepared us to do it!

The Problem With Trying to Make Yourself Look Stupid

Looking  back to the beginning -- When the Lion (Aslan) Created Narnia 

(From "The Magician's Nephew," The Chronicles of Narnia, by C S Lewis)

"When the Lion had first begun singing, long ago when it was still quite dark, [Uncle Andrew] had realized that the noise was a song. And he disliked the song very much. It made him think and feel things he did not want to think and feel. Then, when the sun rose and he saw that the singer was a lion ('only a lion,') he said to himself, he tried his hardest to make believe that lion had never been singing, only roaring as lions do in our world.

And the longer and more beautifully the Lion sang, the harder Uncle Andrew tried to make himself believe that he could hear nothing but roaring.

Now the trouble about trying to make yourself stupider than you really are is that you very often succeed. And Uncle Andrew did. He soon did hear nothing but roaring in Aslan's song. Soon he couldn't have heard anything else even if he had wanted to.

And when at last the Lion spoke -- 'Narnia, AWAKE!' -- he didn't hear any words, just a snarl. And when the Beasts spoke in answer he heard only barkings, howling, baying and growling."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Poor Uncle Andrew. He didn't want to see or hear the truth. He preferred to hear and see a lie. He didn't even hear the Talking Beasts! He was there, but he missed it all! Missed the joyous magnificence of Aslan personally creating Narnia!

And so he exchanged the truth for a lie, as explained in Romans 1. He had ears and eyes, but he could not hear or see!  I know some people like that around me right now - and we aren't even in Narnia! You probably do, too!]

More about baby birds....

I ran across these verses in Deuteronomy:

                When you come across a bird's nest beside the road, either in a tree or on the ground,
                and the mother is sitting on the young or on the eggs, do not take the mother with
                the young. You may take the young, but be sure to let the mother go, so that it may
                go well with you and you may have a long life.
                                          Deuteronomy 22:6-7

Why are these verses in the Bible? If there is, as I believe, no "filler" in God's Word -- if, as I believe, every Word from Him is important...then what is the importance of this?

I turned back to the Chumash (the Jewish commentary).

Here are some thoughts from the venerable Rabbis....

1. It is referring to an ownerless bird - not someone's poultry from their farm
2. The oldest commentaries say that the Torah forbad  taking an ownerless bird while sitting on the nest of eggs or young because it is cruel to do so.  

 Here's the exact wording in the Chumash:

 "The Torah forbids one to take an ownerless mother bird when it is sitting on its eggs or young. One must send away the mother bird --  even many times if it keeps returning to the nest -- and only then is one permitted to take the eggs or young....the reason for this commandment, as the prohibition against slaughtering a mother animal and its young on the same day (Leviticus 22:28) is because it is cruel to do so, especially since animals instinctively love their young and suffer when they see them slaughtered or taken away...Another reason is to symbolize that people should avoid doing things that will destroy a species, for to slaughter mother and children on the same day is akin to mass extermination.....these commandments are meant to inculcate compassion in people...that people should accustom themselves to act mercifully."

I am so touched by these thoughts from the ancient Jews.

The reference to Leviticus 22:28 is when God told the Jews "do not slaughter a cow or a sheep and its young on the same day."


Another thought from the Chumash....the Rabbis said that God would honor obedience to this simple commandment, that involved no financial loss, and so it demonstrated how much He would honor obedience in areas that caused hardship.

If we would obey God in small areas it showed that our hearts are yearning to be obedient in all areas.

The next verses in the passage from Deuteronomy talk about being responsible human beings, not only within nature, but within our communities, with each other. Verse 8 says that the Jews were to build a fence or other form of barrier around his roof, to keep people, who often entertained visitors on the flat roofs of their houses in the Holy Land, from falling off the roofs. Modern Jews use this verse to require them to build protection around their pools, or tall stairways that need railings.

The earlier verses in the Deuteronomy passage  talk about an ox, or sheep or goat that has strayed. They are to be returned to their brother. If the owner lived too far away, or perhaps was unknown, the finder was to keep the animal safe and fed until the owner came to claim it. He was to do that for any lost items -- even a garment.

 [And Jesus talked about a lost coin, a lost sheep, a lost boy .Just because the item is lost doesn't mean it changes owners!  Finders keepers, losers weepers is not God's description of holiness.]

And you were to help your neighbor, whose ox or donkey had fallen, get the struggling animal to his feet.

The Torah says, "Do not hide yourself" from these everyday situations. Our NIV says, "Do not ignore it."

So God is deeply concerned with all details of our lives. He is watchful that we care for His creation. That we care for the endangered species around us. That we not treat carelessly the animal world nor our great natural resources that have come to us from the bounty of God.

And that we are watchful of the welfare of our neighbors -- helping them whenever we can. We must not 'hide oursevles' or ignore problems we can help fix!

What a wonderfully caring God we worship!

Bro Mike says he is himself a "tree hugger" in the sense that he recognizes that God has put us "in charge of" His vast creation. We are to be careful, thoughtful stewards of the bountiful world we live in.

From the words of our Redeemer Savior:

         Are not five sparrows sold for two copper coins? And not one of them is forgotten before God.
                Luke 12


And from my childhood, the Westminster Catechism:


Question 11. What are God's works of providence?
Answer: God's works of providence are, his most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing all of his creatures, and all their actions.
(Psalm 145:17, Psalm 104:24, Hebrews 1:3, Nehemiah 9:6, Ephesians 1:19-22, and Psalm 36:6.)

How He Went Back Home

 Jesus' resurrection and appearances to His followers removed any doubt that He was, in truth, their long-awaited Messiah! Their Immanuel!

He apparently only appeared to His believers and followers -- not to Herod, or Pilate, or His outspoken belligerent critics in the religious circle.

He only stayed around 40 days before He left them and ascended to His place of honor and glory --He went back home! Certainly His best day!

Here's how Luke describes it in Acts 1:9-11 -- As the disciples watched in wonder -- 

"He was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid Him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as He was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 'Men of Galilee,' they said, 'Why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen Him go into heaven.'"

As I write this I am looking at the sky -- some lovely morning pinkish clouds and billowing white displays of morning beauty -- I am looking for Jesus! You probably are, too. This would be a perfect day for Him to come back and call us up to be with Him!

Yes, Maranatha!  Our Lord Jesus!

(I guess we'd better get busy - there's lots to do yet!)

So what's new?

The more things change, the more they remain the same...



Words from the Parson:

"...Then his face got serious...You know, Harriet, sometimes I get the feelin' that people are beginning to be a little ashamed of religion. They seem to think there is something old-fashioned about it. In this house we wouldn't notice it. Religion is part of our everyday life. It should be because it's mah business. But there's something about religion that seems to make people uneasy nowadays. Some of them seem to think it makes them look a little ridiculous if they say they believe in God and what He stands for."

-- From Stars In My Crown, written in 1946, by Joe David Brown. In the book he recalls his minister grandfather (Josiah Grey, a Civil War veteran) and events and conversations with his beloved and much admired grandfather occurring between 1900 and 1910. Stars in My Crown was made a movie in 1950.



For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes...for in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith... just as it is written, "The righteous shall live by faith."
  -- Romans 1:16

(God's own righteousness is revealed in the gospel)

Do we have a soul?--C. S. Lewis & Eugene Peterson

Spirituality is the attention we give to our souls, to the invisible interior of our lives that is the core of our identity, these image-of-God souls that comprise our uniqueness and glory.  -- Eugene Peterson, Subversive Spirituality.




We do not have a soul; we are a soul. We have a body.
                                   -- C. S. Lewis 



And the Lord God formed man from the dust of the earth and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. (Genesis 2:7).   .

Reveille - Winston Churchill

 

Jesus said, "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). 

Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in Me will live, even after he dies (John 11).

One man who believed this was Winston Churchill, the Prime Minister of England during World War II. He died in January, 1965. He carefully planned his own funeral, paying close attention to every detail and leaving his instructions with his family.

He wanted to make certain that everyone understood that he believed in the truth of Christ's words about the glorious resurrection of believers.

(About 6,000 people attended Winston Churchill's funeral service. And it is estimated that one million people lined the streets as the funeral procession passed by and that 350 million watched it globally!)

He was particularly interested in the concluding moments of the service.

Here is how he planned it:

He directed that two buglers were to be positioned in the dome of St. Paul's Cathedral. At the conclusion of his funeral service, the first bugler would play "Taps," the recognized signal that proclaimed "Day is Done." This call told soldiers to lower the flag, turn off the lights, and end their day. And the second bugler was to then to play "Reveille," which told soldiers to "Wake up! Raise the flag and go to roll call!"

-- a new day had begun!

Churchill wanted everyone to consider these two ideas: that death is not the final chapter of our life story! It opens the first chapter of our eternal life story!

He also loved these words from Isaiah: "Your dead will live, LORD, their bodies will rise  -- let those who dwell in the dust wake up and shout for joy!" (Isaiah 25)

Don't you wish you could have been there for his funeral?

He wanted to go with Jesus

 

                                                      He Wanted to go with Jesus!

"The man from whom the demons had gone out begged to go with Him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, 'Return home and tell how much God has done for you.' So the man went away and told all over town how much Jesus had done for him." 

(Luke 8:38).

Think about it --! Simple, immediate joyful obedience from an overflowing grateful heart!

Isn't that what Jesus wants from us?

Are you too easily pleased? C S Lewis

 

                                                Are You Too Easily Pleased?

"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 is no-part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of rewards 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."

     -- C S Lewis, "The Weight of Glory"

(He wants to do so much more for us!)

The Art of Being Wise - Abraham Lincoln

 "A man's wisdom gives him patience. It is his glory to overlook an offense" (Proverbs 19:2).

I read once that the art of being wise is the the art of knowing what to overlook -- part of what this verse teaches us!

To overlook someone's offenses allows us to drop our pretentions and defenses (in my case usually pride, arrogance, and self-righteousness) and just humbly drop the burden and move on.

And we can choose to do that!

Abraham Lincoln chose to overlook an important offense -- he was wise.  Once his secretary of war, Edwin Stanton, called him "a damned fool." Lincoln didn't retaliate in any way. He didn't relieve Stanton of duty, didn't come back with an angry retort, didn't replace him, argue in any way. Didn't try to make Stanton look bad.

Lincoln simply responded, "Mr. Stanton is very smart. He is usually right, and I usually agree with him. And he usually means what he says. So I must be a damned fool."

By being neither offensive or defensive, Lincoln killed the story! If he had responded others would have gotten involved, the press would hear about it and promote it and the fight would continue ad nauseum. (It certainly would have made the history books! Sort of like what would happen today!). Think about it -- have you ever heard this story before? No, I just dug it out of an old journal...by responding as he did, Lincoln killed the story forever! He was wise....

By the way, their friendship survived this challenge and apparently when Lincoln was fatally shot, Stanton was the one who announced, "Now he belongs to the ages," indicating he understood Lincoln's greatness.

Overlooking offenses give us joyous freedom!

Remember, "Love covers a multitude of sins." And "love is not easily angered; it keeps no record of wrongs..." And we are told repeatedly that God Himself keeps no records of our wrongs!

We should always keep the big picture in mind -- petty offenses have no effect on God's big picture. They are meaningless.

Prayer for today: "As You have been to me, loving Father, help me to be to others today."

A well is not a stream.....

The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."

"Sir," the woman said, "You have nothing to draw and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?"

Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
                                            ----John 4:9-14


Jesus offered the woman "living water."

What did that mean? In Jewish speech the phrase "living water" meant water that was flowing, not water that was stagnant, as in a cistern or a well.

Fresh, flowing water would always be preferred over
well water.

So the woman He was speaking to naturally thought of a stream.

She seems skeptical. Here was a man who thought he could produce better, finer water than did her ancestor Jacob.

After all, had Jacob known of a stream he certainly would not have taken the trouble to dig a well, probably a hundred feet deep.

He goes on to talk about living water that cures thirst forever. Not only that, it becomes a spring inside us that wells up continually.

No one as ever seen a well of water spring up. Only the water in a spring springs up.

The water in a well just lies there.

So Jesus is not talking about a well at all.

The woman had come to a well. Jesus has invited her to a spring.

Now He adds that if she allows Him to place this spring in her, the spring will never cease but will continue to bubble and bubble on forever.

Perhaps you want to build a house on a piece of property on which there is a well. But you don't want the well -- you will have city water.

You will just ask the bulldozers to push some dirt into the well and the well will be gone forever.

This won't work with a spring on your property. (Of course, you probably wouldn't want to stop up a lovely spring of fresh water, but if you did you would find it a much more difficult task.)

You could push a large pile of dirt over the spring and it might appear to have stopped the flow. But by morning, the stream will be there again, simply by pushing its way through the ground.

A well can be covered. A spring seeps through anything you may place over it.

That's what Jesus is talking about. He is promising to place a spring within the life of anyone who will come to Him.

His spring will be eternal, free, joyous, and self-dependent.

But He is also warning us that we will never be able to stop it - we can't bulldoze anything over it to stop its flow!

We might try -- I know I have.

Sometimes His Presence in my life has seemed inconvenient and maybe intrusive - certainly He seemed to interfere with my plans.

So I tried to "put a plug on it" and go my own way.

But, like the stream the builder tried to cover up with dirt, my life became muddy water.

Obviously, muddy water did not come from the stream itself -- the stream water was clean and pure -- it was because I pushed dirt into the water source that it produced filthy, not fresh and clean, water!

So I came back to the Source of the Living Water, to Jesus, and asked Him to clean me up again - to remove the dirt and grime and let His lovely sparkling water flow freely again!

It took some work, but He did it!

And if I mess up again, He'll certainly clean me up again. I'm confident of that.

Being confident of this, that He who began

a good work in you will carry it on to completion

until the day of Christ Jesus.  

Philippians 1:6

Thoughts of an old Monk

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

We often think of these ancient saints as rigid and austere.
And we are often wrong. He is loving and joyous in his writing
and displays those attitudes in simple, yet dignified, language.

He also wrote a favorite hymn: "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!"

These words are from "In the Garden,"  a favorite of my father's, written about 100 years ago by Charles Austin Miles.

My Dad's favorite line was: "He speaks and the sound of His voice is so sweet, the bird hush their singing!"  (My favorite line, too!)

So wouldn't it be glorious to meet these two men someday and
"Jesus talk" with them!  Maybe we will!

What I Missed at Christmas

                                                         What I Missed at Christmas

It feels so strange. Christmas only a few weeks away, but it feels like it was months ago!

Now I remember what I missed this year!

I never heard the Hallelujah Chorus! I never heard any of The Messiah!

Feels like I missed the best part of the season!

Our ancestors were right to celebrate both comings of Christ at Christmas -- not only His appearance in disguise as a baby born at Bethlehem,  but also His victorious return in the future to reign in power and glory as King of Kings!

I am focusing on the Hallelujah Chorus right now - I have the words playing on my phone and also Alexa to give a sort of stereo affect -- Sing with me --

"Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

For the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth!

Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

The Kingdom of this world is become the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ!

And He shall reign forever and ever!

King of Kings and Lord of Lords!

And He shall reign forever and ever!

Hallelujah! Hallelujah!"

Now I feel like we've truly celebrated Christmas....but nothing like we will in the future when we see it all happen with our own blessed eyes! 

Hallelujah!

Living with eyes wide open.....

Open my eyes that I may see
Wonderful things in your law.

(Psalm 119:18)

This was one of those mornings when I just don't seem to get it.

Like I am reading a scriptural passage I know is important but I can't get my brain to focus on what that message is. The ideas are blurry and indistinct. I know there is something more....something that adds to my picture of God's character and would direct me toward more holiness and obedience....but I can't seem to shake off the feeling that I am hopelessly distracted from what He is wanting to tell me.

So I pray: "Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law." I am asking, not just for assistance at this moment, I am asking for a miracle.

The word open used in this verse is the same word used in the story in Numbers 22 when the Lord opened Balaam's eyes so he could see the angel of the Lord standing on the road in front of him with his sword drawn.

And when Hagar was fleeing with Ishmael and was in the desert, thirsty, desperate for water -- Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water.


And in Luke 24 we read about the two grief-stricken disciples on their way to Emmaus, who didn't realize they were walking and talking with the risen Savior --
then their eyes were opened and they recognized him.

When I ask God to "open my eyes" to more of His truth, I am asking Him to reveal Himself to me, not in an ordinary physical way, but in a supernatural way.

When Hagar saw the well, when Balaam saw the angel, and when the disciples saw Jesus, they were not seeing things that had not been there before.

God wasn't miraculously causing the well and the angel to appear -- they were already there.
The miracle was not in the appearance of the well and the angel and Christ, but the miracle was the Holy Spirit's work so they could see what was already there.

Were they so distraught by grief, by unbelief, by desperation that they couldn't see?


I think I am sometimes that way. The words and phrases are there, but because of my distractions, my disobedience, or my unbelief I just can't really get His message.

The word has to do with removing a veil, or a covering from our eyes. And I can't do that for myself.

It is a good time to remember that everything we have is a gift from God: our faith, our joy and peace, and even our repentance -- He is the source of all. And that includes our understanding of His Word --

Another Miracle When God Opened Someone's Eyes....

William Tyndale translated much of the Bible into early modern (contemporary) English in the early 1500's. He was the first to draw directly from the Hebrew and the Greek texts. (He was a well-known linguist -- fluent in at least 8 languages.)
He was also the first to take advantage of the new printing press and so copies could be distributed fairly quickly.

The Catholic Church and the English monarchy arrested Tyndale and he was burned at the stake in 1536.(Some records say he was strangled by one of the King's men before being tied to the stake, and some say a dear friend pierced him with his sword so he wouldn't feel the fiery pain -- I hope one of those is true.)

His last words, though, expressed his final prayer: "God, Open thou the King of England's eyes."

Was this prayer answered? Well, within 4 years of Tyndale's death, there were already 4 English translations being circulated in England. These included the Miles Coverdale version, Thomas Matthews', Richard Taverner's, and the Great Bible.

And then in the early 1600's the England's King James was gathering an assembly of the great linguists and theologians of the day to publish a brand new translation which would be called The Authorized King James Bible. It was completed in 1611.

So Tyndale's last prayer was answered in ways he could not even imagine.


(And we think things change fast these days!)

King James' scholars owed a great deal to Tyndale-- 83% of the King James New Testament and 75% of the Old Testament came directly from Tyndale's translation.


So really most of the credit for the "Authorized Version" should not go to all those scholars, it rightly belongs to William Tyndale!

Tyndale was the first one to substitute "love" for "charity." And he was the first to use the word "Jehovah" for the transliterated sacred Hebrew tetragrammaton, YHWH.

Living With Eyes Wide Open...

But back to David, the writer of Psalm 119. He doesn't just pray that God will open his eyes. He tells us why. He wants to live by God's law. And if he is to live by it, God will have to teach him from it (verse 26), give him understanding (verse 27)and keep him from false ways (verse 29).

And David was acknowledging that he would do his part: he would cherish and long for God's law (verse 20), he would meditate on God's decrees (verse 25) and delight in God's statues (verse 24), and let God's statues be his counselor (verse 24) and that he would obey God's law (verse 21).

Asking God to open our eyes is not something to be taken lightly. There are obligations and responsibilities for me when I am being instructed by the Holy Spirit. It makes me more accountable!

I should not pray this prayer without serious intent to live out what He is teaching me within.