His Unchanging Grace

We were singing an old hymn last night. As has so often happened, the words of a brother long gone from this world remind me of my Hope.

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly trust in Jesus’ Name.

Refrain:

On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

When darkness seems to hide His face,
I rest on His unchanging grace.
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.

Refrain

His oath, His covenant, His blood,
Support me in the whelming flood.
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my Hope and Stay.

Refrain

When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh may I then in Him be found.
Dressed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne.

Refrain

That second verse (after the refrain) is so... real. 

Darkness does seem to hide His face. 

But His grace is unchanging, and we must rest in it. 

We do get beaten on by high and stormy gales (think 'hurricane force winds'), but our Anchor holds.  

Christ is our anchor. 

And He is within the veil -- in the very Presence of the Father making intercession for us. 

Our Advocate. 

Our Propitiation.

His oath, His covenant, His blood 

support me in the whelming flood.

Not my oaths,  

my covenants,  

my blood. 

My oaths make me a liar. 

My covenants make me a failure.

My blood is stained with sin.

When all around my soul gives way 

He then is all my Hope and Stay

Here is no delusion of grandeur: my soul gives way. 

I do not stand the flood. 

But my Jesus does. 

My Anchor. 

My Rock of salvation. 

My High Tower. 

My Shield. 

My Hope and my Stay.

When He shall come... 

let me be found in His Righteousness, and in nothing else. 

Not in my self-righteousness.

Not in my own garments. 

I want to be wearing Him.

Dressed in Him, I'm faultless. 

Before even the throne of God. 

In Him.

Long Before It Does

I am still mulling over restoration.

Having lived in many an unfinished house, I am familiar with the lifestyle.
You rejoice over what is done.
You look forward to what's to come.
You bear with the mess and inconvenience.
And you work on another corner.

What is finished is worth taking pictures of and sharing. In fact, sometimes what isn't finished is worth posting. I like to record the whole process -- the horror, the demolition, and the renewal. When we ripped our rotten front porch off, I was excited. Because rot is always better gone. But it wasn't done.

We dug holes around our foundation, and yanked loose stones out of it. I took pictures of that, too. And then we formed and poured support. But we still had no porch. When the porch was done, but not painted, I was too eager to share the beauty of it to wait for paint. And because my family appreciates potential, they enjoyed the pictures as much as I enjoyed sharing them.

Sometimes you have to look past urine-soaked shag carpet, or missing flooring. Someone with no imagination, and no sense of investment in your home may walk in and see nothing but dirt-stained plywood floors, and hideous drop ceilings. But when you look with the eyes of a renovator, you can see it sparkling long before it does.
  
"Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, 
and to present you faultless 
before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy,
To the only wise God our Savior, 
be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. 
Amen." 
~Jude 1:24, 25 

He Restores

"He restores my soul."

I like to watch House Hunters. But most of the people on that show are not looking to buy heaps and to renew them to beauty. They want perfection. They reject wrong paint colors.

It has become a tradition in my family to buy homes that need to be restored. You can buy them cheap, because they lack so much. My sister once bought a house that had to be completely gutted  -- because it had a sweet corner cabinet and a beautiful old window in the living room. Every member of our family helped to rip out the bad, to clean up the serviceable, and to build back what could not be repaired.

When you are buying a property to restore,
you aren't looking so closely at its flaws, its failures.
Because you intend to make it what it should be.

Is it ugly?
Yes, but it will be beautiful.
Is it smelly?
Yes, but it will smell good when I am done with it.
Is its foundation sagging?
We'll pour in support.

The skill of the workman is the most important factor.
Can He do the work?
Can He afford the materials?

But what a joy to see restoration.
And our Father, the Master Builder, sees the value of our souls.
When He takes ownership, He sets to work.
He knows how to do it, and He can afford to fix it.
And as much joy as I get in thinking about my house being a beautiful little home instead of the tired old hole it was when I bought it -- I think He is truly delighted to restore our dirty, mold-saturated, maintenance-neglected lives with weak foundations and faulty wiring into the very temple of the Holy Spirit.
And He lives there while He works.

For it is not ourselves that we preach; 
we preach Jesus Christ as Lord, 
and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake.
The God who said, "Out of darkness the light shall shine!" 
is the same God who made his light shine in our hearts, 
to bring us the knowledge of God's glory shining in the face of Christ. 
~2 Corinthians 4:5,6

Directed His Transportation

1 Samuel 5 and 6, there is an intriguing and sobering story.
In seven months, without an army,
the Lord wreaked havoc on five cities of the Philistines.

They 'captured' the ark in a battle, after killing over 34,000 Israelites.
The Lord's people mourned that His glory had departed.
The Philistines were persuaded by their victory
that their god Dagon had more power than Yahweh.
The ark was placed in the temple of Dagon, as though to serve him.

In the morning, there was Dagon,
fallen on his face to the earth before the ark of the Lord.
They picked him up and brushed the dirt off him
and put him back in his place.

But in the morning, his face and hands were broken off on the threshold,
and his stump was face-down before the ark.

It says the Lord's hand was heavy on that city -- so they gave it to their neighbors.
Destruction came to the Philistines in every city they sent the ark.
Who captured whom?

To escape Yahweh's hand they provided the ark with undirected transportation.
They gave unwilling but available labor
in the form of milk cows with babies at home --
and the cows pulled the ark all the way back to Beth Shemesh,
ignoring the cries of their babies,
and the pleas of their own bodies.

For seven months the Philistines directed the transportation of the ark --
and destroyed themselves by it.
(Which thing, I might note, the Israelites had also done the day they were so utterly defeated.) 

Their own god Dagon required their direction --
their muscles to move him when he had fallen and couldn't get up.
But of the ark, they finally said, 'Let it go back to its own place.'
And the ark of the Lord went back to its own place.

I think that it is safer, when accompanying the Lord,
to be following His direction,
and not giving Him directions.
Safer to follow Him than to lead Him.
When Israel followed the ark,
there was safety through the sea
and through the desert
and through the river
and in battle.
But when Israel directed His transportation,
it ended in destruction.

O Lord, please help me to follow.

Shall be Mine

"Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another,
And the Lord listened and heard them;
So a book of remembrance was written before Him
For those who fear the Lord
And who meditate on His name.
'They shall be mine,' says the Lord of hosts,
'On the day that I make them My jewels.
And I will spare them
As a man spares his own son who serves him.
Then you shall again discern
Between the righteous and the wicked,
Between one who serves God
And one who does not serve Him.'"

I often listen in when my children are talking together. They amuse me.
Sometimes I hear something that requires correction,
but quite often I just listen,
and pull out my journal and write what they said down.
I want to remember it -- either for its sweetness, or its funny-ness,
or its insight into their minds, or its childish profundity.
I love to pull out my old journals and laugh over their past antics -- or share them with other people.

This passage is so moving to me. The Lord listens in, too.
And those who fear Him are His special interest.
He has it written in His journal.
And He says, 'That's My girl.' Or, 'That's My boy.'

And Stay Upon His God

"Who is among you that feareth the LORD,
that obeyeth the voice of his servant,
that walketh in darkness, and hath no light?
Let him trust in the name of the LORD,
and stay upon his God.
Behold, all ye that kindle a fire,
that compass yourselves about with sparks:
walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled.
This shall ye have of mine hand;
ye shall lie down in sorrow."
Isa 50:10,11

I read a little further in Edith Schaeffer's book Affliction this morning. It was a chapter about affliction and guidance. "Guidance? The Lord so often gives it in the midst of what looks like hindering affliction."

"He wants us to walk along with our hand in His, waiting for Him to give our hand a little tug when we are to go a bit to the left on a path hidden by leaves, or a bit to the right and past that fern-covered rock. We are not given a map and then left to run ahead on our own. We are meant to stay close and wait for His tug on our hand or His push away from a pitfall."

"Here is the warning, the clear, negative promise that trouble will result if we rush for help away from God. There is an impatience pictured here, a specific walking in the opposite direction, going somewhere for help and advice from a source that is neither the Bible nor the Lord's guidance in answer to prayer."

"The rushing-to-Egypt for help is a pushing aside of God, a decision that prayer is too slow a way to go about anything, a disregarding of the truth that God is able to give guidance, and an unbelief that God can communicate His plan or that He can lead in any practical way."

"Here we are in our deep trouble and great need, without a clue as to what to do next. The command is to take this opportunity to trust the Lord. The command is to stay, to wait, to not move until He leads us through all the fog, cloud, darkness... We may choose to wait for His direction and leading, His plan to be unfolded." (all Edith Schaeffer quotations)

Or, we can kindle a fire with our own sparks, walk in the light of our own fire, and lie down in sorrow.

I love that phrase 'stay upon His God'. I keep thinking of the passage where the Lord is chiding Israel for turning to Egypt instead of to Him.
He wanted to be their help, but they said,
"No! We will flee on swift horses!"
So He said their enemies would be even faster.

Waiting, staying upon our God is counter-intuitive.
Our hearts say 'RUN!'
But our God says, "Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord."

What is interesting to me about that, is that they were leaving Egypt when He said it to them.
Trapped between a pursuing army and the sea.
It wasn't a permanent inactivity the Lord was asking of them.
They were on their way out, but they were not to flee.
The Lord went before them, and was their rear guard,
and they needed to choose to trust Him -- with the enemy on their heels.
To stay upon their God.

So That Your Trust

"Incline your ear and hear the words of the wise,
and apply your heart to knowledge...
So that your trust may be in the Lord;
I have instructed you today, even you."
~Proverbs 22:17-19

So often Proverbs is used to bring 'financial peace' and 'wise stewardship'.
There is in a sense, an investment guide for us in God's word.
But it doesn't pay in gold.

"Do not let your heart envy sinners,
but be zealous for the fear of the Lord all the day;
for surely there is a hereafter,
and your hope will not be cut off."
~Proverbs 23:17, 18

I don't think in this case being zealous for the fear of the Lord means waging war against the enemies of God. It is directly contrasted with 'not letting your heart envy sinners'. It has something to do with MY heart. Instead of envying sinners, I ought to fear the Lord.
I ought to trust the Lord.
That's wisdom. That's wise investment.
And my hope will not be cut off.

The purpose of the 'wisdom and knowledge' given in the scriptures is that our trust may be in the Lord. Not in myself, my diligence, and my financial planning.
Trust in the Lord.

Coming and Going

The LORD will preserve thy going out and thy coming in
from this time forth, and even for ever.
~Psalm 121:8  

It's a comfort.

River Squash

My great grandmother was poor her whole life, as far as I know. I think in some ways, it is the poor who see God's tender care most visibly.

My mom told me last night about a conversation she had with her grandma years ago. Grandma was telling her about God's faithfulness. She told her a story about a time when she had hungry children and nothing to feed them. Nothing. So she prayed. She prayed, and squash came floating down the river. She fished it out, cooked it, and they had dinner.

My grandma, her daughter, has told me so often I hear her voice saying it to me: "Philippians 4:19 says, 'My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus!'"

My mother gathered us together to read God's word and pray for our needs. And we saw the squash, too.

So now I pray with my kids. They are learning to wait upon the Lord with us, to hope in His mercy, to trust in His grace. And they see river squash.

When I get to heaven, I'm going to make my great grandma tell me whose faith she caught.

Tritisms

Tritism. That is a home-made word. A word for something I cringe at.

"Don't worry. Nothing's ever as bad as it seems."  
Um, sometimes things are even worse than they seem.
"God won't let anything bad happen."  
Can you explain the Holocaust using that philosophy?
"It's all good."  
No, it's not. Some things are evil through and through.  
God is good. And He loves us. But some things are just rotten.
I could add misquoted out-of-context scriptures to the list, but I don't want to give anyone the impression I don't love God's word.

I think sometimes we use trite little sayings as a way to say to hurting people: "Stop complaining, I don't want to think about your pain." I have seen people who are suffering try to do what the scripture says and get prayer, and be slapped with a tritism for it. So the pithy little phrase has effectively been used as an excuse not to pray for them, and to blame them for their pain, and to disobey the scripture that tells us to weep with those who weep.

The other day I read a bunch of 'advice' for the heartbroken, and was disgusted.

"Stop being a moron and realize that emotions can be controlled. Proceed to control emotions and never feel bad again for rest of life. Not that hard."

"Broken hearts, makes you learn to be stronger. Without pain, we won't know how strong we are today. However, its the person's choice to put themselves back together again. If the person doesn't then of course they won't learn..."

The heartbroken are morons?
People who are weak and emotionally out-of-control?
They've just got to get it together?
What miserable comfort.

We have really bad reactions to other people's distress outside of Christ.

The Bible says the Lord is near to the broken-hearted;
He heals the broken-hearted, and binds up their wounds.
Wound care is such a labor of love.
Deep festering wounds are a whole other subject than skinned knees.
They take gentleness and patience, and a tolerance for the disgusting.
They require care for the whole person.
They don't heal overnight: there are bandage changes.

Distilled in Silence

"As the Spirit of God descended upon the Lord Jesus, the head,
so He also, in measure, descends
upon the members of the mystical body.
His descent is to us after the same fashion
as that in which it fell upon our Lord.
There is often a singular rapidity about it...
Yet is there none of the hurry of earthly haste,
for the wings of the dove are as soft as they are swift.
Quietness seems essential to many spiritual operations;
the Lord is in the still small voice,
and like the dew, His grace is distilled in silence...
Blessed Spirit, as thou didst rest upon our dear Redeemer,
even so rest upon us from this time forward and for ever."

~From Morning and Evening, C.H. Spurgeon

Signs of Life

 Yesterday my children sniped at each other all day. Every other minute it seemed I was saying, "Stop talking like that to your sister! Don't talk to your brother like that!" I decided deafness is a reward for years of parenting. It was not very pleasant.

At dinner tonight, I realized that they had been speaking politely to each other most of the day. Saying 'please' and 'thank you', and playing cheerfully with each other. Very little sulking and stomping and snapping, and not demanding things from me, but asking politely and waiting patiently.

"So, you guys are being much more polite and pleasant today. What changed?" I asked.
"We had a talk with each other last night in our bedroom," one said.
"About what?"
"About how we were acting to each other," another said. "We think it's boring to be so rude. And we were hurting each other, so we decided to stop."
"And we apologized to each other," he said.
"How did this talk start?" I asked.
"It started because we were crying. So we talked about how it made us feel to be left out. And how we feel when bigger kids are mean to us."
"And I was leaving her out a lot," he confessed.
"And I was leaving myself out of having fun with them," she said. "I prayed that I would stop being mean to my brothers and sisters."

Quieted

"Then Haggai, the Lord's messenger,
spoke the Lord's message to the people,
saying, 'I am with you, says the Lord.'"
~Haggai 1:14

For many years, I have been reminded of the Lord's love and presence through what might seem like silly things to some. The last few days, a mourning dove has been hanging around this house. Whenever I see a dove remaining near where I am, I feel quieted.

I am with you. 
Be at peace.

At That Time

Summer's Coming

"Behold, at that time
I will deal with all who afflict you;
I will save the lame,
and gather those who are driven out;
I will appoint them for praise and fame
In every land where they were put to shame."
~Zephaniah 3:19

Comfort Overflows

 A hundred times or more I've read it. But this morning, I noticed it.

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Father of compassion
and God of all comfort,
who comforts us..."

Another version says 'the Father of mercies'. But the Father of compassion. Do you recognize God in that title?

So often, when we are devastated, we let Satan define Him for us. Or we let pain define Him for us. We let other people's sins and failures define Him for us.

'He wasn't kind -- God is not kind.'
'He isn't fair -- God isn't fair.'
'I'm suffering -- God doesn't care.'

But He is the Father of compassion.

It goes on to say a few verses later: "For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows."

Bless the Lord,
the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Father of compassion,
the God of all comfort,
who also comforts us.

I don't understand all the whys. But I'm thankful for the comfort.

Grief and Mercy

One of the most precious scenes in the Gospels to me is the one where Jesus comes to His friends in their grief. Several times it says that Jesus loved Martha and her sister Mary, and Lazarus.

And it tells us He didn't come when He heard Lazarus was sick. After Lazarus died, Jesus said to His disciples, "Nevertheless, let us go to him."

I love this story for its truth. For the real grief the sisters had. For the honest outbursts. And for Jesus' response to their grief.

It says when He saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping, He groaned in the spirit and was troubled.
And Jesus wept.

I have heard the people who invalidate grief say that He was weeping for their unbelief.
He was not!

The New Testament says to weep with those who weep. And it isn't over their lack of faith. It's what love does.

'Beloved, let us love one another.'
Love weeps, too.
It doesn't say, "Suck it up, wimp."
It brings out the tissues, and sits down to cry. 

We do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses,
but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.
We can come to the throne of grace -- because He has grace.
He is grace.
He'll give mercy.

Our High Priest lets our sicknesses and our griefs and our pain touch Him. And I love Him for it.

Because He Delights

The tombstone says: Perpetual Care

"Who is a God like You,
pardoning iniquity
and passing over the transgression
of the remnant of His heritage?
He does not retain His anger forever,
because He delights in mercy.
He will again have compassion on us,
and will subdue our iniquities.
You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea."
~Micah 7:18-19

Because He delights in mercy.

"He has shown you, O man,
what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
But to do justly,
and to love mercy,
and to walk humbly with your God?"
~Micah 6:8

We ought to delight in it, too.

Coming in Unarmed

"Incline your ear and hear the words of the wise,
and apply your heart to my knowledge...
So that your trust may be in the Lord;
I have instructed you today, even you."
~Proverbs 22:17-19

"But the wisdom that is from above is first pure,
then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated,
full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality,
and without hypocrisy.
And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace
by them that make peace."
~James 3:18

Proverbs is so full of instruction in wisdom. It's full of relational advice, and moral advice, and financial advice. But these few verses stood out to me because they indicate that the whole point of listening to wisdom and hearing the wise, and applying your heart to knowledge is so that your trust may be in the Lord. Not in your wisdom.

I included the James verse because it is such a contrast to wordly wisdom. Wisdom from the Lord is pure. It's innocent. It's clean, first. But then it is peaceable. Not provoking. Inclined toward peace. It's gentle.

Wisdom from the Lord makes it past the security forces of the resistant because it comes in 'unarmed'. His kindness leads us to repentance. Does it speak the truth? Yes. But I think about how Nathan approached David in his sinful state. He came and told him a story about a lamb. David was tender-hearted about sheep. So Nathan got to his heart through sheep. And David was broken.

I was reading a news story the other day about the increased numbers of 'no-knock warrants' that have been issued lately. There was this sad story about the police breaking into a man's home in the middle of the night, guns drawn. The man, no doubt feeling himself the victim of a home invasion, came into the hall with a golf club, which the hyped-up law enforcement officers thought was a sword, so they shot him dead. I don't know what the offense was they wanted to arrest him for, but the approach to the arrest resulted in his execution without a trial. If they had knocked and spoken to him through the door, it's quite probable he would have come to the door and been arrested. But instead they busted the door down, came upon him in his sleep, and in his reasonable attempt to defend himself, they killed him. I think wisdom would have considered what the aim of the warrant was. If the aim is to apprehend the man, and not to kill him, a softer touch would have accomplished that.

Wisdom does not bust down the door with gun drawn, hyped up on adrenaline, likely to kill in misjudgment.

And that last line in James would seem to indicate that the kind of seed-spreading that results in righteous fruit is planted by peacemakers in peaceable ways.

Has Made Room

Some time back, in need of direction, I determined to search the entire book of Genesis and record every instance of God's guidance of His own, both overt and covert. It is an enlightening study, and one I recommend you try one day.

The overt instances include things like God saying to Abraham, "Get out of your country... and go to a land I will show you." And then there are His covert leadings. Looking at them now, they are clearly God's hand. Had I been on the ground living them, I would have been confused.

In Genesis 26 the Lord told Isaac, in the midst of a famine, not to go to Egypt, but to 'live in the land of which I shall tell you'. Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines, in Gerar. Time passed.

Isaac prospered, and continued prospering until he was very prosperous. (Do you get the feeling it just snowballed?) So the Philistines envied him. And Abimelech said, "Go away from us, for you are much mightier than we."

So Isaac left. Isaac was a peaceable man.
He went to a valley in Gerar, and tried to live there.
"Also Isaac's servants dug in the valley,
and found a well of running water there.
But the herdsmen of Gerar quarreled with Isaac's herdsmen,
saying, 'The water is ours.'
So he called the name 'Quarrel', because they quarreled with him.
Then they dug another well, and they quarreled over that one also.
So he called its name 'Enmity'.
And he moved from there and dug another well,
and they did not quarrel over it.
So he called its name 'Spaciousness',
because he said, 'For now the Lord has made room for us,
and we shall be fruitful in the land.'"

And the Lord appeared to him and said,
"I am the God of your father Abraham; do not fear, for I am with you.
I will bless you and multiply your descendants for my servant Abraham's sake."

Afterward Abimelech came to him with some officials of his.
Isaac said, "Why have you come to me, since you hate me
and have sent me away from you?"

But they said, "We have certainly seen that the Lord is with you...
You are now the blessed of the Lord."

The covert leading of the Lord:
'Go away.'
'You are too mighty for us.'
'It's our water.'
'For now the Lord has made room for us.'
'We have found water.'

Isaac had the Lord's overt direction about not going to Egypt. But the 'land of which I shall tell you' appears to have been communicated to him by means of conflict and water sources. Isaac just tried to follow His lead.

If the well had defenders, although Isaac and his men had labored to dig it, he left it to them and dug another. None of that land was Isaac's land. He had the promise, but not the possession. And he trusted the Lord to make room for him. Where there was not room, he did not stay.

But I love that after the Lord assured him that He was with him, and would bless him, there came along Abimelech who had told him to get out, telling him he was the blessed of the Lord, and the Lord was with him.

We Must Through

"Then Jews from Antioch and Iconium came there;
and having persuaded the  multitudes,
they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city,
supposing him to be dead.
However, when the disciples gathered around him,
he rose up and went into the city...
And when they had preached the gospel... and made many disciples,
they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch,
strengthening the souls of the disciples,
exhorting them to continue in the faith, and saying,
'We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God.'"
~Acts 14:19-22

And doesn't it ring true when it comes out of his mouth? It is a comfort and encouragement to be exhorted to perseverance by those who have suffered themselves. He went to the very hometown of those who had stoned him to encourage the ones who lived there to continue in faith, through tribulation.

I don't know about you, but I get no comfort from the exhortations of the comfortable. From the corrections of the well-fed. When my friends from the tropics complain of rain at the beach, I do not sympathize. The trite assurances of "everything's going to be alright" from people who buy new clothes every week never mean much to me. But I listen very carefully to those whose pains I am familiar with. When I have watched them suffer, and I have seen them bleed, and they tell me there is hope, it has weight with me.

From All Things

"Therefore let it be known to you, brethren,
that through this Man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins;
and by Him everyone who believes
is justified from all things
from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses."
~Acts 13:38,39

From all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses. Everything.

Over the years, I have sometimes heard people say sadly that they could not accept God's forgiveness because their sins were so horrible. We recognize the validity of the law's judgment against us. And although we might feel justified over some of our sins, and our good deeds to pay society back for them, there are sins that no human conscience justifies. There is no sacrifice I can make that will right murder. There is no sacrifice I can make that will right adultery. Enslaving another human cannot be righted by the law. Under the law of Moses, those guilty of certain sins have no recourse. Death is all there is.

The thrilling news that comes to us in Jesus is that everyone who believes is justified from all things from which we could not be justified by the law of Moses.

Are you a witch?
Moses says you have to die.
Jesus says, "Believe and be clean."
Are you a prostitute?
Moses says 'die'.
Jesus says, "Believe and be clean."
Are you an adulterer?
Moses says stoning would suffice.
Jesus says, "Go, and sin no more."
Are you a Gentile?
Moses says you have to stay in the outer court, and never come any closer.
But Jesus broke down the dividing wall of separation, and made us one with Him, and gave the promise of the Holy Spirit to all of us who believe.

Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.

His Work

"Honest weights and scales are the Lord's;
all the weights in the bag are His work."
~Proverbs 16:11

It is the work of God to trade honestly and fairly. He concerns Himself with our measuring tapes, our scales, our contract negotiations. I love that. I love that He loves fair dealing. He considers our deals to be His deals.

What tool have I got in my bag? Is it the Lord's tool? When I use the Lord's tools, I do the Lord's business. On the other hand, if the tools I work with are dishonest implements, all my work is dishonest work.

Awaiting the Eagles

"Where is heaven?" Silas asked at breakfast today.
"Heaven is where God is," I answered. "I don't know how to tell you where it is. But it is where God is."
"Is Jesus in heaven?"
"Yes, He is."
"How can I get to heaven?" he asked.
"It is Jesus's job to take us there."
"I think Jesus will send His eagles to come and get us, and they will take us to heaven," he assured me.
"Um, Jeff -- we've got a little Lord of the Rings theology going on here."

To Send Relief

"And in these days prophets came from Jerusalem to Antioch.
Then one of them stood up and showed by the Spirit
that there was going to be a great famine throughout all the world...
Then the disciples, each according to his own ability,
determined to send relief to the brethren dwelling in Judea.
This they also did, and sent it to the elders
by the hands of Barnabas and Saul."
~Acts 11:27-30

I read this with my kids the other day. This is contrary to the 'wisdom' your financial planner might offer. Being responsible means providing for yourself, you know. Having a retirement. Planning ahead for emergencies, and not ever allowing a famine to interrupt your prosperity. The predicted famine was not only going to affect those in Judea. It was going to affect Antioch. But the response of the Antioch Christians to this news was to give away their own sustenance.

I heard conventional financial wisdom summed up the other day: Get all you can, and can all you get.
But Jesus said, "They will know you are Christians by your love."

"There is one who scatters, yet increases more;
and there is one who withholds more than is right,
but it leads to poverty.
The generous soul will be made rich,
and he who waters will also be watered himself."
~Proverbs 11:24,25

"He who trusts in his riches will fall,
but the righteous will flourish like foliage."
~Proverbs 11:28

Trusting in riches is such a snare. It comes in wearing the clothes of 'wisdom': "It wouldn't be wise to spend money right now. I don't have enough myself." But quite often, it's the soul grasping at an anchor that cannot hold.

My heart and mind fight this battle sometimes every moment. I often have to say to myself:
"Some trust in chariots, and some trust in horses.
But I will trust in the name of the Lord my God."
Sometimes I change the words:
some trust in bank accounts, and some trust in paychecks -- 
but I will trust in the name of the Lord my God.

And I reason with myself regularly: if God can't save me with less than what I have, He also can't save me with what I have. If He isn't worth trusting, my money is even less worthy of that trust. Sometimes no one knows the battle I just fought. Maybe it's been going on for days, but I feel such a sense of relief when I decide, "I will trust the Lord." And I pray, "Lord, You see the choice I'm making here. You know what I need. Please take care of me."

I have many times heard the believers in Jerusalem faulted because they tried out 'Christian communism', and failed. Did they fail? Or did they make a conscious choice to trust Him with their upkeep? They had many widows among them, and those who had something gave what they had. They cast their bread on the waters, so to speak, and after many days, the Lord sent it back to them by the hands of Barnabas and Saul. 'He who waters will be watered himself.'

A City For Them

Speaking of Israel, the Lord said,
"They shall come trembling like a bird from Egypt,
like a dove from the land of Assyria.
And I will let them dwell in their houses," says the Lord.
~Hosea 11:11

"These all died in faith, not having received the promises,
but having seen them afar off
were assured of them, embraced them
and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland.
And truly if they had called to mind that country
from which they had come out,
they would have had opportunity to return.
But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country.
Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God,
for He has prepared a city for them."
~Hebrews 11:13-16

David said:
"Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear to my cry;
do not be silent at my tears;
for I am a stranger with You,
a sojourner, as all my fathers were."
~Psalm 39:12

"Therefore let us go forth to Him, outside the camp, bearing His reproach.
For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come."
~Hebrews 13:13,14

"Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem,
coming down out of heaven from God,
prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying,
'Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men,
and He shall dwell with them, and they shall be his people.
God Himself will be with them and be their God.
And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes;
there shall be no more death,
nor sorrow,
nor crying.
There shall be no more pain,
for the former things have passed away."

~Revelation 21:2-4

I've been reading American revolutionary history with my children. It stirs our blood. Freedom from tyranny is such nobility. I'm a patriot, myself. I love my country. I've heard about 'The American Dream' my whole life. The American dream is the dream of a home and a homeland. Of the freedom to build and be without the stifling tyrant of an overlord exacting his due like a mobster. The freedom to pursue happiness, to be left alone to live in liberty.

How can anyone oppose that? Watching the dismantling of our foundations bothers me immensely. It grieves my heart. I read the Hosea verse this morning and found myself sighing at the promise He gave them: I will let them dwell in their houses. Vineyards, crops, a safe home. Oh, the simple bliss.

I went looking for the Hebrews passage about those who wandered as strangers because they were seeking a homeland, and how the Lord has prepared a city for them. My Bible cross-referenced me over to the Psalms passage. It leaps off the page that it was sobbed out to the Lord. Tears, human heritage, and not being at home here...

Back to Hebrews. 'Here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come.' Here, we have no continuing city. America, 'the last best hope of man on earth', is not a continuing city. Not a heavenly homeland. Not 'the one to come'. As sad as it is to see it decline-- our freedoms eroded, our foundations crumbling, I have citizenship in something better. Full citizenship. With dignity, and a home to dwell in, and gardening to do without weeds. Fellowship with my neighbors, my family all around me, and God living with us.

And, oh! John's vision.
He shall dwell with them.
They shall be His people.
He will be their God.
He shall wipe away every tear.
No more death.
No more sorrow.
No more crying.
No more pain.

Not only does He live with us, and comfort us for the pain and sorrow and death we've come out of, He sends it packing. No more walking around with death sitting on our hearts, with sorrow strangling our lungs, with tears leaking out when we get a chance to be still. It isn't just the tears He wipes away. He wipes out every reason for them. No secret misery to try to smile through. And no more pain. The former things have all passed away. I'm looking forward to pain and sorrow and death and crying being a 'former thing'.

O Lord, You know our longing for homes: to be settled in peace and security. We long to have a true homeland -- one where our citizenship is full. Where we can live in real safety, dwelling in our homes, planting our gardens, in harmony with every neighbor. Without drama, in full fellowship, with the government on the shoulders of Jesus. Thank You for Your promises. Come quickly, Lord Jesus.

With the Lord

I just read a little more sickening national history. Beastly. I am so disturbed. So I think about this:

"For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout,
with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God.
And the dead in Christ will rise first.
Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up
together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
And thus we shall always be with the Lord.
Therefore comfort one another with these words."

~ 1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17

Thus we shall always be with the Lord. Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus. Catch us up. Meet us. Be with us. The reign of beasts has gone on long enough.

Like the Rain

"Let us know,
Let us pursue the knowledge of the Lord.
His going forth is established as the morning;
He will come to us like the rain,
Like the latter and former rain to the earth."
~Hosea 6:3

And don't we need Him like the earth needs the rain? The Lord's coming is described here as 'like the morning', and 'like the rain'. Both things men long for in this world. We long for morning to break, for daylight to come. And we long for rain.

My husband and I got to visit Israel almost a year ago. One of the first things our guide explained to us was their desperate need for rain. It was supposed to be the rainy season, but the rains had not fallen. It was hot, and dry, and everywhere we went, we had to make an effort to bring water. Without water, nothing lives.

Come to us, Lord, as the rain.
Rise on us like the morning.

At This Time

"The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham and said to him,
'Get out of your country and from your relatives,
and come to a land that I will show you.'
He moved to this land and God gave him no inheritance in it,
not even enough to set his foot on.
But even when Abraham had no child,
He promised to give it to him for a possession,
and to his descendants after him.
So Jacob went down to Egypt; and he died, he and all our fathers.
But when the time of the promise drew near which God had sworn to Abraham,
the people grew and multiplied in Egypt
till another king arose who did not know Joseph.
This man dealt treacherously with our people,
and oppressed our forefathers,
making them expose their babies, so that they might not live.
At this time Moses was born, and was well-pleasing to God."

~ From Acts 7

God asked Abraham: 'Come, follow Me.' And Abraham followed. A promise was given to Abraham, which Abraham believed (although at the time of the promise, Abraham did not even possess the means to receive the promise). He received no inheritance. Abraham's grandchildren and great-grandchildren had to flee their 'possession', which as yet was still not theirs, in order to get enough food to eat. They entered Egypt as guests, and stayed there over four hundred years.

But a king arose without any respect for Joseph. He did not know him. And Israel suffered. If I had been among them in these days, I would have brooded over the national decline. The loss of civil liberties. The horrible oppression. Surely God had forgotten them: it can't be His will that they be oppressed.

At this time Moses was born. The time of decline. The time of misery. The time of babies left to die. The time of beatings and forced labor. Do you ever wish you were born for another time? I do. Constantly. I don't like this time in history. I long for quietness and peace and security.

But it says that Moses was well-pleasing to God at this time. In this hour of treacherous oppression.

And before that, it said:
"When the time of the promise drew near
a king arose who did not know Joseph."

I am reminded of something Jesus said.
He described a whole lot of terror coming upon the world.
But then to His disciples He said,
"When you see all these things beginning, look up.
Your redemption draws near."

Look up.
Here at this time -- the time in which you are born, please Him well.
At this time.
In this treacherous hour.
The time of the promise draws near.

And Doesn't Regret

I was having a conversation today about housekeeping and saving money with some ladies. Tricks and tips to spend less money or less time on certain tasks. It brought out the guilt we all feel over certain housekeeping tasks. You know: not recycling enough; not reusing enough; using paper products instead of cloth, not making your own bread, buying canned goods instead of canning them yourself. (Add your personal housekeeping splurge to that list.)

I admire women who seem instinctively to know how to spend the least amount of money on life. I hate wasting money. But when one lady confessed to years of feeling guilty over buying paper napkins, I started thinking again about my feelings towards some of the 'good stewardship' teaching I have heard over the years. Please don't misunderstand. I like saving money and I happen to use cloth napkins. I think 'being wise' is ideal.

But can I just say this pithy little saying? (Certainly not to condemn frugality, but just to point out that it is not necessarily godliness.)

Here it is: God is not a skinflint.

He is generous,
lavish in His gifts,
gives cheerfully,
willingly,
heaping blessings and benefits on undeserving people.
And doesn't regret what He paid for it afterward.

His Baby

 A thought about the prodigal:

He wasted everything he was entitled to by his position in the family. In his mind, he he had forfeited his position in the family. He was 'no longer a son'.

But in his father's mind, when he came home battered, he was his baby, found after a dreadful absence -- needing a bath and some new clothes. His father allowed no separation. He didn't even punish him. It was pure joy and acceptance from Daddy. Not a trial run of sonship (with all the responsibilities, and none of the privileges).

Jesus wants us to know the heart of God. We do not know the heart of God without seeing this in Him. The Father loves His children. He longs for their return. And when they come home, His arms are open.

Only Until

In Daniel 7, Daniel dreamed of a succession of beasts representing all the world-controlling powers of history.

A lion with eagle wings. (Have you watched the YouTube video of an eagle attacking young goats, flinging them off a cliff to kill them? Lions stalking and attacking their prey?)

A bear. (Accounts from the Lewis and Clark expedition of the grizzlies they saw could install the proper view of this stately animal.) A bear to whom they say, "Arise, devour much flesh!"

And a leopard... with bird wings... and four heads. The better to eat you with, my dear. And dominion was given to it.

And the fourth beast, Daniel doesn't even seem able to describe, just to say it was dreadful. Terrible. Exceedingly strong. With huge iron teeth. Devouring. Breaking in pieces. Trampling everything with its feet. Different from the rest, and having ten horns. One of the horns was a loud-mouthed jerk.

While the little horn mouthed off, Daniel watched thrones being set up, and the Ancient of Days took His seat. He watched a courtroom scene, and the Judge sat on a fiery flame of a throne. The books were opened. The little horn still wouldn't shut up. The beast is slain, its body destroyed, and given to the burning flame which came from before Him. All the other beasts were allowed to live, but had their power stripped from them.

"I was watching, and behold, One like the Son of Man,
coming with the clouds of heaven...
To Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom,
that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away,
and His kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed."

Humans who control the world are beastly. There's a good reason so many people are anti-government. Governments are always run by people. And people have issues. Power issues. Corruption issues. Murdering-our-enemies issues. If you had to see in advance how world history would play out, you would be grieved in spirit, too. Troubled. Daniel was severely bothered. He asked what it meant.

"Those great beasts, which are four,
are four kings which arise out of the earth.
But the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom
and possess the kingdom forever, even forever and ever."

Reading this today, I noticed that this was what the answer was. Even though Daniel probes for more information about that fourth beast, which so distressed him, the point of this vision is above. All those beastly kingdoms -- they do not remain.

Those governments arise out of the earth. It is amazing to me that of all the things that arise from the earth, a man to be King wasn't one of them. One of the beasts is given a man's heart, but all the kings that arise from the earth are animals. Only the Son of Man will rule as a man.

And the kingdom goes to the saints. Which would not be apparent by studying the details of the fourth beast. Because Daniel says, "the same horn was making war against the saints, and prevailing against them." Except that there is no period in the text. It continues: "until the Ancient of Days came, and a judgment was made in favor of the saints of the Most High, and the time came for the saints to possess the kingdom."

"He shall speak pompous words against the Most High,
shall persecute the saints of the Most High...
then the saints shall be given into his hand for a time...
But the court shall be seated, 
and they shall take away his dominion,
consume and destroy it forever.
Then the kingdom and dominion,
and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven,
shall be given to the people,
the saints of the Most High.
His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
and all dominions shall serve and obey Him."

I hear the Hallelujah chorus in my head every time I read about His dominion. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus. Amen.

It is so tempting to only see the dominion of the beast. But that animal is lumped in with all the other world powers by the angel explaining the vision. 'Four kings which arise.' But the saints receive the kingdom. The Son of Man gets it all. The beast is slain in the midst of his boasting. And all that trouble is only until.

And they lived happily ever after.

The end.

Of Keeping Thee Where Thou Art

"Do not say in thine heart that thou wilt or wilt not do,
but wait upon God until He makes known His way.
So long as that way is hidden it is clear that there is no need of action,
and that He accounts Himself responsible for all the results of keeping thee where thou art."

(From Streams in the Desert, October 19th)

A Meditation

"Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!
For His mercy endures forever.

Let Israel now say...
Let the house of Aaron now say...
Let those who fear the Lord now say,
'His mercy endures forever.'

I called on the Lord in my distress;
The Lord answered me and set me in a broad place.
The Lord is on my side: I will not fear.
What can man do to me?
The Lord is for me among those who help me;
...It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man.
It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes.

...You pushed me violently, that I might fall,
But the Lord helped me.
The Lord is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation.

The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tents of the righteous;
The right hand of the Lord does valiantly.
The right hand of the Lord is exalted; the right hand of the Lord does valiantly.
I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.
...He has not given me over to death.

Open to me the gates of righteousness;
I will go through them, and I will praise the Lord.
This is the gate of the Lord, through which the righteous shall enter.

I will praise You, for You have answered me,
And have become my salvation.

The stone which the builders rejected  has become the chief cornerstone.
This was the Lord's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.
This is the day the Lord has made; I will be glad and rejoice in it.

Save now, I pray, O Lord; O Lord, I pray, send now prosperity.
Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!
We have blessed you from the house of the Lord.
God is the Lord, and He has given us light;
Bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar.
You are my God, and I will praise You.
You are my God, I will exalt You.

Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!
For His mercy endures forever."

~From Psalm 118

My attention was drawn to this psalm this morning as I read Acts 4 to my children. Peter quoted this in answer to the priests and Sadducees when they asked him in what power or by what name he healed a cripple.

Just a couple of verses above Peter's quoted verse, my eyes fell here: "This is the gate of the Lord, through which the righteous shall enter".
Jesus said: "I am the Door. No man comes to the Father but by Me."
The Good Shepherd.
The Door of the sheepfold.
The Way.
The Gate.

Just below that, it says: "I will praise You, for You have answered me, and have become my salvation." Jehovah's salvation.
Yehoshuah.
Y'shua.
Jesus.

Afterward, it says: "This was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it."
The day of salvation.
The day of the rejected stone.
The gate by which the righteous enter.
This was the Lord's doing.

"Save now."
Hosanna.
They said that, didn't they?
"Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!"
Yehoshuah.
Jehovah is salvation.
He has become our salvation.
He came in the name of the Lord.

"God is the Lord, and He has given us light."
"I am the Light of the world."

"Bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar."
"This is My body, which is broken for you..."
Behold, the Lamb of God, which takes away the sins of the world.

Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!
For His mercy endures forever.

The Lord is for us, among those who help us! In our distress, He answers us. He answered us with this salvation. I am set in a broad place. I am set in Christ. The Lord is on my side.

"It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man."
That is the central verse of the entire Bible. That is the central message of the entire Bible. Put your trust in the Lord. His right hand has done valiantly, and is exalted. Jesus Christ is at the right hand of  the Father.
He has done valiantly.
He has accomplished salvation.
He has become our salvation, and ever lives to make intercession for us.
That means He goes between us and God. He envelopes us in Himself, and stands for us.

We were pushed violently, that we might fall.
But the Lord helped us. He has become our salvation.

That's why the voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tents of the righteous.
We shall not die, but live.
He has not given us over to death.
Walk through the gate of the Lord, the gate of righteousness.
He has become your salvation.

Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!
For His mercy endures forever.

Thank You, Jesus.

And Light Dwells With Him

"Blessed be the name of God forever and ever,
for wisdom and might are His.
And He changes the times and the seasons;
He removes kings
and raises up kings;
He gives wisdom to the wise
and knowledge to those who have understanding.
He reveals deep and secret things;
He knows what is in the darkness,
and light dwells with Him."

~Daniel 2:20-22

As You Really Are

Show me Thy ways
Teach me Thy paths
Free me from all of my fears.
Trusting in You is so easy to do
When I see You as You really are

As You really are ~ God and King
As You really are ~ Lord of everything
As You really are,
Help me to see You as You really are.

As You really are ~ risen and living
As You really are ~ just and yet forgiving
As You really are,
Help me to see You as You really are.

I love this song. I was reminded of it again this morning when I read the end of Andrew and Emma Murray by Leona Choy:

"Murray urges us to 'gaze and gaze again, worship and adore,
and the more we see Him as He is, the more like Him we must become...
by letting the heavenly likeness reflect itself
and shine out in our life among our fellow men.
This is what we have been redeemed for, and let this be what we live for.'"

Look at Jesus. Behold the Lamb. He takes away the sins of the world.

Aware

I want to always have my ear turned to hear Him, like a mother is always listening for the new baby's cry -- even in her sleep. "Sorry -- gotta go. I hear the Lord calling."

When I would have a new baby, sometimes my husband would send me away to shop for a little while alone. It blew my mind how a couple of hours into it, my body would make me aware that my baby needed me. I would head to the checkout, wherever I was, and drive home. Sure enough, I would arrive to find a wakeful baby who was ready to eat. To think the Lord is like that with us. Aware of our needs. We ought to be assured that the hunger pang that wakes us connects us to Him as surely as the insurge of milk connects the nursing mother to her baby.

At The Table

"Now, behold, two of them were traveling that same day
to a village called Emmaus, which was seven miles from Jerusalem...
While they conversed and reasoned,
Jesus Himself drew near and went with them.
But their eyes were restrained, so that they did not know Him.
...Beginning at Moses and all the Prophets,
He expounded to them in all the Scriptures
the things concerning Himself.
Then they drew near to the village where they were going,
and He indicated that He would have gone farther.
But they constrained Him, saying,
'Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent.'
And He went in to stay with them.
Now it came to pass, as He sat at the table with them,
that He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them.
Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him;
and He vanished from their sight."
(From Luke 24)

As I read this to my children this morning, I thought about Hebrews 13:2, which tells us not to forget to entertain strangers, remembering that some who have done so have 'entertained angels unaware'. Such a colorful phrase.

They did not recognize Him on their seven mile walk with Him. They did not recognize Him through His heart-burning exposition of the entire Old Testament to them. And although Jesus was not above inviting Himself to peoples' houses for a meal, in this instance, He would have just kept going had they not pressed Him to stay. They recognized Him at the table in the breaking of bread and in prayer. What if they hadn't shown hospitality?

Don't you love being pressed to stay with people? Having your plans changed by urged hospitality? My husband one time came home from work and told me that some people were coming to stay the night with us and have dinner with us. They were only five minutes behind him. They were a touring German couple he had run into. We spent that night and a day later talking about the things of the Lord with them, stirring them to holy living, and it was so fruitful and so obviously Spirit-led. I don't normally invite foreign strangers to stay in my house with me. It scares me. But a Bible study would not have produced the beautiful fruit the hospitality did. We asked some friends on short notice to eat dinner with us one night, and the girl said, "Oh, I love spontaneous hospitality!" I like that expression.

Just as this was on my mind, we read an account of George Washington's life in Virginia. It said that he sent someone to stand near the crossroads sometimes to 'waylay travelers' to come to dinner at his house. I love to be 'waylaid' to come to dinner.

And the Hills Disappear

"For the mountains may move
and the hills disappear,
but even then
My faithful love for you will remain.
My covenant of blessing will never be broken,"
says the Lord, who has mercy on you.

~Isaiah 54:10

God in a Body

 The language in the old hymn is far more beautiful than what follows. But, oh, the Incarnation -- the beautiful mystery of the ages. Making it plain only sets off its dazzling splendor.

Listen: the announcing angels are singing
the magnificence of the newborn King:
the end of hostilities; free pardon to the offenders--
friendship restored between God and sinners.

Full of joy, stand up, everyone!
Join the victory celebration of heaven;
Yell out with the angels,
"The Savior was born in Bethlehem!"

Messiah, worshiped by highest heaven--
Messiah, the everlasting Lord:
Wanted for a long time, see Him come
and live in a hovel here.

Clothed in flesh, look at the Godhead,
Welcome God in a body!
Happy to live as a man with humans,
YHWH is salvation, our God with us.

Greet the Prince of Peace from heaven!
Welcome the Source of Holiness!
He brings Light and Life to all
He lifts Himself up with healing for us.

Softly, He lays His magnificence aside,
and is born to put an end to death,
born to lift the sons of dirt,
born to make them live again!

Listen, the announcing angels are singing
the magnificence of the newborn King.

Do you recognize the hymn I paraphrased?

A Bookmark in Affliction

I have been for some time slowly working my way through Edith Schaeffer's book Affliction. I bought it in 1995, I think: I started it in 2010. It is a book that sometimes leaves me weeping, and often leaves me nodding, and writing a prayer in the margin. The bookmark I have in it is a plain strip of card stock upon which I wrote, "In all our afflictions, He is afflicted."

That ministers to me so much. Fellowship with Jesus in suffering makes a temple out of a pit.

I read some time back about a study that showed that being touched by a loved one reduced pain in patients -- I think it even lowered their blood pressure. In the midst of wracking pain I remember the comfort I received from my husband's hand laid on me. When we suffer, learning to recognize the touch of His hand is one of the benefits of the experience. Unlike our medical caregivers, who have often not experienced whatever we are being treated for, our Great Physician is afflicted in all our afflictions. The difference between care administered by doctors and nurses who have suffered themselves, and those who have only read of suffering is huge. Our High Priest is touched with our weaknesses -- He suffers our hurts. And He lays His hand on us in them.

The Darkest Day

For many years, I have overheard disdainful comments about the celebration of Christmas in December.

"It's a pagan celebration of the winter solstice."
The trees are evil.
It's too commercial.
It's the feast of Saturnalia.
Jesus was not born in December.

Personally, though, I love that for a short season every year I hear the Gospel in song in public places. That the whole world considers Immanuel, God With Us. That His humility and His compassion for us are something to pause over even to those who haven't yet received Him.

It is the darkest time of the year, and He came to us in our darkness -- the Light of the world. When my third child was born, I looked at her and broke down because I thought about Him. That He would condescend to a human birth -- an arrival that requires washing for its messiness -- just overwhelmed me. I think it is appropriate to celebrate the arrival of the Light of the world in the darkest days of the year. He is Light, and every one of us who has received Him has had Him come to us in our darkness. Dark minds. Dark hearts. Dark futures.

I saw a news article today that said that this year the winter solstice and a lunar eclipse are coinciding for the first time in 456 years -- making Tuesday the darkest day in over four centuries.

Joy to the world: the Lord is come--
Let earth receive her King!

A Consciousness of Failure

"Let us trust Him and praise Him
in the midst of a consciousness of failure and of a remaining tendency to sin.
Notwithstanding this,
let us believe that our God loves to dwell in us;
and let us hope in His still more abundant grace.
...No more speak of the feebleness of your consecration.
Our mistake is, I think, that we form our own ideal
of an abiding exhibition of power and success
which is not according to the mind of God."

~Andrew Murray

Just Like Losing Time

"When you first begin waiting on God,
it is with frequent intermission and failure.
But, do believe God is watching over you in love
and secretly strengthening you in it.
There are times when waiting appears just like losing time,
but it is not so.
Waiting, even in darkness, is unconscious advance,
because it is God you have to do with,
and He is working in you.
God, who calls you to wait on Him,
sees your feeble efforts, and works it in you.
Your spiritual life is in no respect your own work;
as little as you begin it, can you continue it.
It is God's Spirit who has begun the work in you of waiting upon God.
He will enable you..."

~Andrew Murray, Waiting on God

God's Plan

"Understand God's mysterious plan, which is Christ Himself.
In Him lie hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
I am telling you this so no one will deceive you with well-crafted arguments...
Let your roots grow down into Him, and let your lives be built on Him.
Then  your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught,
and you will overflow with thankfulness."
(Colossians 2:2-7)

God's plan is Christ. Mysterious. Beautiful. We have no wisdom and no knowledge in ourselves. But in Him they lie hidden. And when we let our roots grow down into Him, we draw our strength and our sustenance from Him. Letting our lives be built on Christ, we reject the alternate foundation of anything else. Christ is our base. He is our soil if we would bear fruit. He is the plan of God. God has no alternative route to holiness for me. If I would be sanctified, if I would live -- it is Christ I must live in. If I would be God's child, Christ is my only hope.

If I am trying to grow in holiness outside the soil of Christ Himself, I will wither and die. When I consider Him, I can lift my head in faith, because of who He is. My faith grows strong, because it isn't in me, and thankfulness is unavoidable because He works in me.