TURNING THE HEARTS

And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children…  Malachi 4:6  (KJV)

 

 

I was with a small gathering with friends when someone shared a story about her young grandson.  He was playing ice hockey when another player ran into him and broke his leg.  The little guy was patched up and spent the remainder of the day in bed with a cast.

Some days later, his teacher asked the class to tell about the best day of their lives.  When it came time for this youngster to share, he said, “It was the day I broke my leg.”  The teacher interrupted, saying, “You didn’t understand.  I asked you to tell about the best day of your life.”  Again, the little fellow said, “It was the day I broke my leg.  That was the day my daddy spent the whole day with me.”

To this day, the father cannot tell the story without tearing up.  He says it was a wakeup call.  He had been leaving the house at 5:00 in the morning and coming home when it was dark.  His children hadn’t needed all the things he provided; they needed him.

How many of us can think of the times or events with our children that we could have handled differently?  Of the goals we’ve wanted to reach, thinking those would benefit our children most when all the time they’ve just wanted to be with us, to be loved by us.

Children tend to create the image of their heavenly Father based on what they know of their earthly father.  In all our learning, we move from the concrete to the abstract, and it’s so spiritually.  We learn unconditional love from our earthly father; we observe his character traits and assign those to our heavenly Father; we believe that our heavenly Father accepts us in the same measure as our earthly father.  All the traits, temperaments, dispositions, characteristics, and values that we see demonstrated by our earthly father we transfer to our heavenly Father.  True or not.

It’s no wonder that our children sometimes have trouble relating to God as one who has pursued them with an everlasting love (Jer. 31:3), who will never leave nor forsake them (Deut. 31:6), who always keeps his promises (Josh. 21:45), and who has good plans for them (Jer. 29:11).  But there’s no need to despair.  As long as we’re alive, there’s still time to love and to heal.

So what if we weren’t the perfect parent in the past?  Who was?  As we grow, we learn, and we can repent of the mistakes of the past.  Can you imagine the wonder of a grown child whose parent asks his forgiveness?  God had given us the marvelous promise to restore the years the locusts have eaten (Joel 2:25), and we can claim that as we reach out in faith to our children.  With our cooperation, he can heal the wounds we’ve inflicted and turn their hearts to him and to us.

 

Thank you, Father, for showing us your love through Jesus Christ.  Make us into the parents and grandparents you’d have us to be; help us to receive your unconditional love and to lavish it on our children and grandchildren. Forgive us our sins; give us courage to repent; and bring healing to our children and our families.  In Jesus’ name.  AMEN.

DO GOODERS

 

And you know that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. Then Jesus went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.  Acts 10:38  (TNLB)

 

 

You probably remember the Wesley brothers, John and Charles, for their sermons and songs.  John is credited for averting in England the kind of bloody civil war that occurred in France.  Although they were both known for preaching salvation by faith in Christ rather than works, John famously said,

Do all the good you can

In all the ways you can

In all the places you can

At all the times you can

By all the means you can

To all the people you can

As long as ever you can.

We don’t reach out in love to others in order to win favor with God, and we don’t do our good deeds in order to earn our salvation.  However, when we love him, we just can’t help ourselves from wanting to please him.  Any good that comes from us is an expression of our love for God and an evidence of his presence in us.  Jesus told Peter that if Peter loved him, he would show it by doing what Jesus told him to do (John 14:15 Message).

It’s already late in the afternoon, but I’m thinking of ways to do all the good I can, however, and wherever I can.  Not only will it bring joy to the people I touch, but it brings pleasure to my Father and great joy to me.

 

Heavenly Father, remove from me every obstacle that blocks me from doing good.  Remove the self-orientation, and use me to bless your world—as long as ever I can.  In Jesus’ name.  AMEN.

REMINDERS EVERYWHERE

…I will always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you already know them, and have been established in the truth which is present with you.  II Peter 1:12

 

Our family has a fun tradition that was begun in 1977 with the release of the first Star Wars movie.  My parents and our young family sat in a little line in the theater to watch the parade of fantastic characters march across the screen depicting their amazing struggle to defeat the evil empire.  And as the epic continued, the children got older, married, had children, and we still went together to sit in our extended line for the anticipated entertainment.  But now my parents are no longer with us.

With the newest release this year, I’ve had to review some old DVD’s to remind myself of what occurred in previous episodes.  In doing so, I’ve picked up a few kernels of wisdom.  One of the characters tells a youngster, “When you give in to fear or hatred or anger, you go to the Dark Side.”   And then there is always the admonition to “Use the Force.”  As the trainee learns to listen and use the Force, he becomes more powerful and does astonishing things.

I imagine John of the Revelation would readily understand the images and messages from Star Wars.  After all, he used images and symbols to portray important truths and warnings for the Church of his day (and the future) including the cosmic battle between good and evil.  And John also warns against being fearful (Rev. 21:8), something we tend to dismiss as a little thing.  In actuality, when fear isn’t a natural response to danger, it’s a state of distrusting God.  Then John tells us in I John 2:9 that if we hate a brother or sister, we walk in darkness.  And Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5:22) that those who are angry with a brother or sister will be in danger of judgment.  I expect we can all agree that fear, hatred, and anger does pull a person to the dark side.

But the reminder I especially like are the words that were repeated over and over by the Jedi warrior, “Use the Force.” In our constant battle against our eternal enemy, how often do we rely on ourselves rather than remembering that greater is he that is within us than he that is in the world (I John 4:4)?  As we decrease, the Spirit of God grows stronger and more powerful in us and can do more than we can ask or think (Eph. 3:20).  We really are more than conquerors through him who loved us as we rely on the power of God within us.

Lest you scoff that my little jaunt into the Star Wars world is a bit trite, I recall that on a visit (the 4^th day of May) to one of our esteemed seminaries, which shall remain nameless, I entered the chapel only to see a white Storm Trooper helmet on the head of one of the carved saints in a niche high above the chancel with the notation, “May the Fourth be with you.”  I love seeing God’s reminders everywhere.

 

Father, thank you for the gift of humor and for your principles that are all around us.  Give us eyes to see, hearts to obey… In Jesus’ name.  AMEN.

LIVING WATER

 

Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.  John 7:38

 

Our church offices are located on nineteen lush acres that have been inhabited for thousands of years before Christ.  Massive, ancient oaks, mountain Laurel, native grasses, and indigenous plants provide the habitat for birds and bugs and other critters.  Why has this particular spot drawn creatures great and small and hosted glorious trees and plants for eons?

A walk through the grounds, particularly after a time of heavy rains, reveals the secret.  Artesian springs bubble unexpectedly in crannies throughout, and we’re told that geysers spouted up to 20 feet in the days before urbanization.  In fact, a small lake several feet deep was a community draw with people coming for picnicking and boating.  People are attracted to water.  In fact, a community can’t exist without it.  And neither can we.

Jesus told the woman at the well that if she drank of the water he gave her, she would never thirst again.  Jesus satisfies, and nothing can really quench our thirst other than him.  Once we taste living water, we can never be content with anything less.  And once we begin abiding in him, we become conduits through which he freely pours water for other thirsty souls.

The water on our office grounds ebbs and flows with the rains just as the outflow in our spiritual lives ebbs and flows depending on our attachment to Jesus.  When we allow distractions, self –serving, or sin to clog our lives, the flow of living water is diminished, and others suffer through our neglect.  Perhaps we need spiritual housecleaning from time to time so that, as keepers of the spring, others can always be refreshed.

If we actively believe in Jesus Christ—which entails loving, obeying, and trusting him—that living water will flow in and out of us all the time.

 

Father, help us to mature into our calling to be keepers of the spring.  Remove from us anything that blocks the flow of your Spirit and water this thirsty land.  In Jesus’ name.  AMEN.

IS GOD REALLY IN CONTROL?

For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?  Esther 4:14

 

 

There are two overriding principles taught in the book of Esther:  God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility.  Esther is the Jewish girl, blessed by extraordinary beauty, who is chosen by King Xerxes to be his queen.  One of the king’s nobles, Haman, becomes angry that Esther’s cousin, Mordecai, won’t bow down to him, so he gets Xerxes to agree to have all the Jews exterminated (genocide goes back a long way).

Esther learns of the plot from Mordecai who challenges her to fulfill her responsibility to her people.  Mordecai implies that God has placed Esther in a high position so that she might save her people.  And, lest Esther decides to shirk this calling, Mordecai tells her, “…if you remain silent…relief and deliverance…will arise from another place…”  Do you see that Mordecai is imploring Esther to do her duty by her people?  But he goes on to say that whatever she does, God will provide deliverance.  GOD IS SOVEREIGN AND WILL NOT BE DETERRED BY THE DISOBEDIENCE OR FAILURE OF MAN.  He will find a way to fulfill his will.

We often hear people say, how can God permit…  (wars, illness, suffering, death, poverty…)  We rarely hear a call to our responsibility as his children to be peacemakers, to alleviate suffering, essentially, to be God’s hands and feet to the people of our world.  Instead, we blame God for corporate greed, for personal indulgences, for jaded sensitivities, for hearts of stone.  Simply put, we put the onus for the world’s ills on God’s back rather than accepting God’s call to us to bring deliverance.

I know a family whose baby became critically ill.  The mother begged the father to take the baby to the doctor, but he said that he had prayed for the baby and refused to consult the doctor.  The baby worsened, and the mother became distraught.  Eventually, as the baby’s condition declined, the father relented, but it was too late.  While I strongly believe that God heals, I am convinced that he works in myriad ways and often it is through the medical community.  Was God powerless in this situation or did the father fail to take responsibility and see that the doctor was the healer?

This is a good time to reflect to see if we are waiting for God to do what he’s called us to do.  I once heard that God will do what we cannot, but he will not do what we can.  Although not a scripture verse, God’s Word seems to corroborate this truth.  God is faithful, and he is sovereign to work through us to do his will.  But if we fail to obey, he will find someone who is willing.

 

Father, thank you for choosing us to participate in your work in the world.  Thank you that you are in charge and can be trusted to fulfill your plan no matter what.  Strengthen us to be readily available to do your will.  In Jesus’ name.  AMEN.

FAIRY TALES

…weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.  Psalm 30:5  (KJV)

 

 

She was tall, blonde, beautiful, and with all the proportions of a runway model—our new staff member.  She was charming, naïve, and newly married.  Carrie reminded us of the thrill of new beginnings and the dreams of great accomplishments.  She was visionary, and she caught us up in thinking that fairy tales just might come true.

The school year rocked along through the fall, and then we enjoyed the camaraderie of the Christmas holidays with numerous festivities.  Valentines brought a plethora of love notes and an abundance of sweets.  And then the honeymoon was over.  As Carrie moved into life as we know it, she came to my room and said with wide eyes, “I really believed the Cinderella story.  I thought all I had to do was make some promises, and I would live happily ever after…”

And that’s what many of us do in our lives as believers.  We get the heartbreak/rescue/ ever after business, but somehow we miss the classes that prepare us for the intensity of life following the rescue segment.  We look at rescue (salvation) to mean “immunization” –from worry, struggle, cares, hardship, pain, suffering, unpleasantness, heartbreak, and so on.  In actuality, rescue means access.

As God’s children, we can now access his grace in difficulty, his peace in suffering, his joy in heartbreak, his strength for struggles, his comfort in pain, and every single thing we need for life and godliness (II Peter 1:3).  We no longer have to merely “make it through” hard times; we discover the ability to be more than conquerors—being strengthened by virtue of the struggle (Ro. 8:37).

Dear little Cinderella needs her prince to rescue, provide, and care for her.  We have a constant, unfailing (Josh. 23:14) Father who sets a course for us that goes through stresses and storms while all the while ensuring that his Son is with us navigating the winds and waves (Matt. 8:23-27) and bringing us through to safety.  Our trust is strengthened, our confidence renewed, and we are better prepared for the next challenge of the voyage.

We have not been rescued to be put on a shelf and admired.  We have been and are over and over rescued as a testament of God’s grace, his power in our weakness, and his faithfulness to his promises.  Hebrews 12:12, 13 (NLT) invokes us to “take a new grip with [our] tired hands and strengthen [our] weak knees. Mark out a straight path for [our] feet so that those who are weak and lame will not fall but become strong.”

We have more than a Prince (or Princess) Charming.  We have access to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  AND we can live happily ever after.

 

Father, how blessed we are to be walking with you every day of our lives.  We don’t have to wait for eternity for our joy.  We have YOU.  Amen.

LIKE HIM

Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed.  I John 3:2

 

 

This week in chapel our preacher was relating his enthusiasm for the New Year and his plans for a fresh start.  To begin with, he decided he was going to get to work early.  On Monday morning he walked out the door at 7:30 fully motivated only to realize that he had forgotten to shave.  When he went inside and admitted his oversight, his wife replied that, although this might be a new year, he was still the same person.

And that’s our problem, isn’t it?  We have any number of wonderful intentions, but we find over and over again that we’re still the same person.  We keep trying, and we wind up with Paul’s lament:  “For I know that good itself does not dwell in me… For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.  For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing” (Romans 7:18, 19).

But Paul doesn’t leave us there.  He writes in his letter to the Philippians that he who began a good work in [us] will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus (1:6).   If God initiated his work in us by his Holy Spirit, he will continue it, not abruptly abandon us because he’s run out of patience or we’re not yet perfect.  Then in Philippians 2:13 we’re encouraged that God works in [us] to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.  God himself sets out to mold and shape us after his plan for our lives while strengthening us to become like Jesus.

Going back to Romans, in the narrative of chapter 8, after Paul has bemoaned the struggle with his human nature, he announces that because of Jesus, There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit (verse 1).  The whole eighth chapter of Romans is full of God’s promises of what he will do in and through us when we take up residence in him.

The first verse cited above (I John 3:2) refers to resurrection and end times.  But I think we can apply it to our everyday life with Christ.  After all, he is the Creator Christ who was in the beginning (John 1:1), and we are new creatures in him (II Cor. 5:17).  Every single day we can experience his transforming power as we realize the changes his Spirit is affecting in us (II Cor. 3:18).

Instead of being discouraged that we’re not yet everything we want to be, we must remember that it does not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him (I John 3:2).  Every single day…more like Jesus.

 

Father, make us like Jesus.  Thank you that you daily give us opportunities to grow into his likeness.  Have your way.  In Jesus’ name.  AMEN.

A GOOD WORD (OR TWO)

I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.  II Timothy 1:12b  (KJV)

 

 

At the outset of a New Year, it seems good to consider the security of our families and ourselves in this rapidly changing cultural, political, and spiritual environment.  As the gatekeepers of our households, how will we guard and provide for the welfare of those we love?  How will we keep them safe?

In the Middle Ages it was common for the nobility to erect towers as part of the fortification of their castles.  These towers, called keeps, were built of wood or stone and often served as places of last resort when outer defenses fell to attackers.  From Ireland to Wales, throughout England, France, and Spain, there remain vestiges of these early structures.  Tourists love to explore the ruins and imagine the stories held secret in the decay.

While physical security may not be the primary danger to present-day western families, at every turn there seem to be assaults upon our core beliefs, family values, institutions, and even our way of life.  Today’s parents of young children and teens have to be especially “wise as serpents and harmless as doves” in dealing with today’s threats (Matt. 10:16).  Information (and mis-information) barrages all of us relentlessly, while political correctness is a constant challenge.  It’s critical to our spiritual health that we know how to discern and keep ourselves and our loved ones.

The word keep can be used both as a noun and as a verb with God’s Word giving us plenty of indication of his and our responsibilities in this keeping relationship.  To begin with, there are numerous injunctions of what God expects of us, his covenant people.  For example, we are to keep his commandments (Ex. 20:1-17; Deut. 7:12, 29:9; I Chron. 28:8, John 14:15, 23), and in exchange, he promises to keep us, show us mercy, and prosper us (Deut. 7:12, 29:9; II Chron. 6:14).  In Psalm 91:11 God says his angels will have charge of us and will keep us in all our ways while Proverbs 3:26 says that he will keep our foot from being taken, referring to physical (and spiritual) protection.  (The 91^st Psalm, sometimes called the Soldier’s Psalm, is often prayed for those on the battlefield.)

While I appreciate the promises for mercy and physical oversight, I particularly relish those verses that refer to mental, emotional, and spiritual protection.  God has promised to keep us in his perfect peace when we trust him and stay focused on him (Isa. 26:3).  This supernatural peace that cannot be understood (because it only comes from God) will keep our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus (Phil. 4:7).  It follows, then, that remaining at peace is a product of abiding confidently and securely in Christ.

And if we ever get concerned about losing our place in him, Jesus prayed that his Father would keep us from evil (John 17:15).  Of course, we have to exercise our own will and cooperate with his leading, but he can be trusted to do his part.  Finally, Jude 24 describes Jesus’ power as able to keep us from falling, and to present us faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.  That is the ultimate protection, and these verses are only a smattering of God’s expressions for guarding, for keeping, his children.

They are good words to ponder for ourselves and to teach our children and grandchildren as we go forth into this New Year:  obedience and trust results in being kept.  Just like those families in the Middle Ages, we, too, can run to our strong place of safety and protection—but ours is one that never fails.

 

Father, thank you for so many precious promises that give us life and hope.  May we glorify you as we trust your keeping power.  In Jesus’ name.  AMEN.