Faith Through the Journey

We’re Not Alone!

Every time my husband and I watch television or listen to radio programs that express ideas that seem outrageous to us, we look at each other and wonder if the rest of the world has gone off the rails, or whether it’s US that are completely out of step with the world in which we live. As Christian believers, we know that we are “aliens and strangers on earth” (Hebrews 11:13). Knowing that our earthly life is but a small part of our eternal existence, we live with the purpose of preparing for eternity in heaven with God. Because our desire is to hear our Savior say to us when we reach that final home, “Well done, good and faithful servant!” (Matthew 25:21), we seek to live our lives according to His Word and base our everyday decisions on whether or not our decisions line up with Him. The Bible tells us that this world is definitely NOT a place where most people want to follow God; rather, Paul tells us in Ephesians 2:2: “…in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.”

That is why, when we DO hear someone express ideas that line up with ours, we want to shout “Yes!” Living by principles of truth, integrity, personal responsibility, respect for life, financial decisions that are not reckless or irresponsible, sexual purity and morality, these are the ideals that line up with we learn from God’s Word. We’re always greatly relieved that, when we hear these ideas embraced, we’re not alone or completely crazy.

Interestingly enough, our own national history is replete with examples of leaders who also believed these principles were very important to our national survival. Abraham Lincoln said: “America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedom, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.” He also said: “My concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God’s side, for God is always right.” It is truly sad that this great American president’s words have been misused by those who would want to have him “be on their side” of issues. He was not confused about right and wrong, and didn’t change with the winds of popular opinion. He also said: “Be sure to put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.”

Along our earthly journey, God gives us wonderful encouragements when we live by His Word. The assurance of His love and approval, the joy of experiencing His abundant earthly life, and the expectation of eternal life with Jesus in heaven, these are the blessings and privileges we can enjoy as children of the King of Kings. No, we are not alone. God has given us the gift of people who share our values and principles, and He has given us the greater gift of Himself and His Holy Spirit who indwells, teaches and comforts us every moment of our journey.

I Couldn’t Have Said It Better Myself!

As I began 2013, I wanted to know what God wanted me to focus on in terms of prayer and study of His Word. Studying the book of Isaiah for the past three weeks has already been wonderful and amazing in terms of what I’ve learned about prophecy and how it relates to us today as the New Covenant people of God. Warnings, blessings and promises are still as true today as they were 3,000 years ago.

With regard to prayer, I felt convicted to pray for our country. While this was not a new prayer focus, the thing the Lord has impressed upon me was what and how to pray. The Apostle Paul wrote many years ago in I Timothy 2:1-8: (The Message) “The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know. Pray especially for rulers and their governments to rule well so that we can be quietly about our business of living simply, in humble contemplation. This is the way our Savior God wants us to live. He wants not only us but everyone saved, you know, everyone to get to know the truth we’ve learned: that there’s one God and only one, and one Priest-Mediator between God and us–Jesus, who offered Himself in exchange for everyone held captive by sin, to set them all free. Eventually the news is going to get out. This and this only has been my appointed work: getting this news to those who have never heard of God, and explaining how it works by simple faith and plain truth. Since prayer is at the bottom of all this, what I want mostly is for men to pray–not shaking angry fists at enemies but raising holy hands to God.” Paul was divinely inspired; what could anyone possibly add to that? Praying for our leaders that we might live in peace, and praying that EVERYONE will hear the wonderful news of salvation through faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ does not need any addition or improvement!

“May Your kingdom come to the nations, Your will be done in the peoples of the earth, Till the whole world knows that Jesus Christ is Lord! May Your kingdom come in us! May Your kingdom come on earth!” (Hosanna! Music)

…Men Who Had An Understanding of Their Times…

None of us live in a vacuum. We are all affected by the world in which we live, and the events of the world will impact our lives, sometimes in ways which will not become clear until years after they occur. If we are wise, we will “look both ways” when evaluating how today affects our lives. We are products of both our past and our future. We can see the past, and we see today, but the future is definitely a mystery.

A passage of Scripture kept running through my mind today, a phrase which occurs only twice in the Bible. It concerns “men who understand their times”. The passage which stood out to me was I Chronicles 12:32, and occurs when the men of Israel are uniting behind David after King Saul had been killed in battle by the Philistines. It is used of the men of the tribe of Issachar, and they were described as “men who had understanding of the times who knew what Israel ought to do”. They knew, as directed by God, that their future was tied to the rule of David, who would lead them to victory over the Philistines and return the ark of the Covenant, the “glory of God”, to Israel. They knew Israel’s past, her present, and now saw the hope of Israel’s future in soon-to-be-King David.

My past was spent in an all-American traditional home, with a stay-at-home mom and a dad who was the breadwinner and loved his family greatly. We lived in the suburbs, and church was a big part of our family life. My brothers and I rode the bus to public schools, they ran track and I took piano lessons. I feel tremendously blessed to have had the foundation of family and faith I did. Quite amazingly, my present life is remarkably similar to my past. I graduated from college, worked for a number of years, and then married a wonderful man. We felt strongly that, as long as we were able, I should be a stay-at-home mom to our three children. Our children went to Christian schools, so I was the “bus” and spent many entertaining hours in carpool and driving them to sports games and practices and church-related activities. Now that they are all adults, and college graduates, I see their “futures” as open to whatever they were created to be.

The one constant I see in my life and my family’s life is that our values are set in stone. The absolutes of God’s Word I learned as a child were also learned in my husband’s home and taught to our children as well. They are our “past” and play a tremendous role in our “present”. All of us are very aware of the volatility of the world in which we live, and we would be foolish not to “understand our times”. Each of us knows that the central part faith plays in our lives puts us at odds with society in general. While their Christian school education taught our children that the roots of the United States were decidedly those of faith, secular revisionist history has all but wiped out the fact that we have been blessed as a country because of the faith of our Founding Fathers. Our future as a society depends greatly upon whether we will embrace our past and the values upon which our country was founded, or whether we will choose to walk away from those values and put ourselves at odds with the God who has blessed and preserved the United States of America from its birth until the present day.

“God of our fathers, please help us be people who understand our times, who know that our future is tied inextricably to our past. Our heritage in this land is rich, and we would indeed be foolish to turn our backs upon all You have done for us and how you have preserved the United States. Please have mercy upon us and continue to bless America!” 

Seeing and Hearing Without Understanding

With the beginning of the new year, I began a personal inductive Bible study authored by Kay Arthur (kind of a Precepts “light”, if you will). For years I have both taken and taught Precept Upon Precept Bible studies, but while I wanted to do a study, our travel schedule now would take me away from a class on a regular basis. When I saw that these new studies were available, I was excited and chose to start a study in the book of Isaiah. So far it’s been interesting and eye-opening, particularly since it’s a warning to God’s people of what awaits them if they don’t repent.

Isaiah had a hard message to deliver to Israel, for God had been patient with Israel throughout the disobedient leadership of a number of kings. God’s righteous anger, however, had reached a point where He would wait no longer for the people to repent and return to Him once again. Isaiah was first cleansed by God, and then sent to His people with the very difficult prophecy that they would be carried off into captivity by a nation He would send to conquer to them. As hard as that was to do, the people of Israel woould not listen to anything else. His direction to Isaiah was to tell the people: “Keep on listening, but do not perceive; keep on looking but do not understand.” God was done; there would be no more chances at that time.

I can’t help but think that there is a message here for God’s people today. Are we listening to God’s warnings about our moral compromises? Are we more concerned about our own comfort than doing what God’s Word says is right? Do we hear without understanding? Do we pay lip service to the correctness of God’s assessment of our lives, but then walk away without changing anything about the way we think or live? Do we see that not living by God’s standard of holiness robs us of the abundant life Jesus came to give us?

I’ve been privileged to be able to spend many years studying God’s Word, the Bible, and there are many times the words have come off of the page at me. I’m so grateful that the Holy Spirit who lives in me is my Teacher, helping me understand what He wants me to learn and apply to my daily life. All the Bible study in the world is worthless if it’s only information and not application. God’s people, those who confess Jesus as Lord, lose out on a wonderful life if all they do is read without allowing God to speak to them through His Word! That’s why He gave it to us! All the writers through history that God chose to write down His divinely-inspired Word did so for the express purpose of leading people to believe and then to teach them how they are to live.

We have the assurance that, once we are in Christ, we can never lose our place of salvation. We are eternally secure; no one can ever take us from His hand, and He will not cast us aside. The thing we will lose out on is the joy of the life Jesus wants us to have, and standing before Him with nothing to show for the time we have walked with Him here on earth: people we have told about Him, the fruit of the Holy Spirit produced in our lives, all of the blessings God wants to give us as a result of our obedience to Him.

“Lord, please help me to see, to hear, to understand and apply EVERYTHING You have for me! May I stand before You with NO REGRETS!

The Winner

With our many political involvements, we have known wins and losses, triumphs and disappointments. As an election official, I can’t voice my preferences during the course of my work. I have had to ask voters not to voice any preferences in the polling place and also enforce any electioneering within 100 feet of the poll site. I’ve had to offer voters a jacket or a large t-shirt to cover any kind of campaign apparel. Once, when I went outside to make sure all campaigns were behaving lawfully, one of the candidates I knew quite well was being interviewed by a local television station. When she saw me, she waved and called me by name. All of this would have been fine, except that I was wearing my “official’s uniform” and was trying to enforce the legal boundaries of the election site! And all capable of being captured by the press! Oh well, one can only do so much…

As our local, state and national leaders begin the work they have been elected to do, there are definitely mixed feelings about their ability to accomplish the work they have been elected to do. There are those whom I can heartily endorse and support, and those who were not my choices. For all of them, I am directed to pray this, as stated by the Apostle Paul: “I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people–for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior” I Timothy 2:1-3. “Thanksgiving always pleases God, and the Bible specifically tells us to include thanksgiving when talking to God about authority” (excerpt from Billy Graham Library).

Ruling over all creation, however, is One who will never be up for election or re-election. He is the King of every king, the Lord of every lord, One who has been present in the universe from the time of its creation. King Jesus has always been, and will always be, the King of the universe. There are “heavenly skirmishes” between the King of kings and the prince of the power of the air (Ephesians 2:2), Satan.  But in the end there will be only One still standing. In Revelation 1:18, Jesus says of Himself: “I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.” Jesus says that only His Father knows the time of His ultimate kingdom coming to earth, but what an incredible truth that the end has already been written. And there will be no election: Jesus has been declared the King. Period!

Bread and Stones

Last night I was reading through all of the blog entries I’ve posted since I started writing on March 1 of last year. I wanted to make copies of them, mainly to be able to leave them behind for my children and grandchildren. A song written a number of years ago best expresses this: “Oh, may all who come behind us find us faithful! May the fire of our devotion light their way. May the footprints that we leave lead them to believe, and the lives we live inspire them to obey.” I will not leave my family much in the way of worldly goods, but I do have the opportunity to leave them something far more important and lasting: a legacy of faith that points them to Christ.

As I read through each of the entries, I realized that, while they were not all profound in terms of what was said, the whole body of work pointed to one main theme: God’s faithfulness through a number of life’s challenges. Beginning with the most recent journey through my health issues, through political ups and downs, and then through a family tragedy, God has been there through all of them. Sometimes when we’re going through hard or challenging times, we may not be able to see God’s hand in the midst of everyday life. But when we stop long enough to look back on those seasons, we see that God has truly given us our “daily bread”,  just what we needed to go through each and every day.

Along with His daily provisions, however, He also gives us specific events to mark points in our lives He wants us to remember. These “milestones” are as necessary to our lives as our daily bread. Joshua marked the crossing of the Jordan River by the nation of Israel by having each tribe pick up a stone taken from the middle of the river and putting them together as a memorial to God’s faithfulness when they reached the other side safely. He did it specifically for future generations so the men and women would recount to their children how God parted the waters of the river so they could cross through it on dry land. As we finish the different seasons God brings us through, there are those “milestone moments”, those specific events to which we can point as the place where God kept His promises to us. 

We can’t eat stones, nor can we build memorials out of bread. Yet each are necessary for us, in their turn, to give us provision to live our daily lives and to remember those significant events when we saw God’s hand move in miraculous ways.

Not Home Yet

“…Being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Jesus Christ.” Philippians 1:6

How special is this promise! It is not up to me to complete the work of salvation and servanthood to which God has called me! What a precious privilege to be a daughter of the King! I can be completely sure that, whatever God calls me to, He will equip and enable me to accomplish.

And how wonderful to realize that, even though I am “middle aged”, have raised my children and will any day become a grandmother, I am still a “work in progress” as far as my Heavenly Father is concerned! I remember so well something I read many years ago, from one of the dear “senior saints”. At 96, this lady was still busy studying the Word of God. When a younger woman asked her why she was bothering to keep studying at her advanced age, she gently told this one, “I’m cramming for finals!” She wanted to be sure to be ready to face her Savior, and I am quite sure she passed with flying colors.

We need to remember, as followers of Jesus, that no work He has begun in us or called us to will ever be wasted. There are many places in Scripture that speak of people who “ministered to the Lord”. I used to have as the on/off screen for my cell phone the phrase “Live for an audience of One”. Even if God is the ONLY One blessed by my devotion or whatever He calls me to do, that is enough. After all, no one has ever done for me what He has done. God gave up His Son’s life so that we might be forgiven of our debt of sin; we could never repay Him for that. There is no one whose approval I crave more, not even that of the people on earth I love most. If my God is pleased and still wants to work in me, how can I argue with that?

I like to think about heaven, my eternal home, and all of the loved ones who are already there. In Hebrews 12:1,2, the Word says: “Therefore since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race (conflict) marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfector of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Father.” How amazing is it that, as we follow the course God has marked out for us, the saints who are already on the other side are cheering us on! It will never be easy for us who follow Jesus to face the world’s opposition, but what a great reward we have waiting for us at the end! Persevering unto the end will please our Savior, shrinking back will not (Hebrews 10:38).

How great is our God! Even so come, Lord Jesus!

Go Back…

As with many of my fellow American Christian believers, I find myself in some anguish over the moral state of our nation. I’m afraid that our society has gone over the “moral cliff”, and coming back from that place will be far more difficult than coming out of our current financial crises. While we can’t figure out how to stop spending money we don’t have and try to figure out how to get more money from American taxpayers, we are completely ignoring our rapidly accelerating slide into an abyss from which we may never recover. If we see things in our society that distress us, that indicate how far we have come from the Biblical principles on which our nation was founded, we need to look ourselves in the mirror and ask ourselves whether WE are living our lives according to the Word of God. To be very clear, I am speaking specifically about those of us who have received Jesus Christ as our Savior and desire to follow Him and His teachings as the habit of our lives.

Are we being careful or careless about keeping the teachings of Jesus in our everyday lives? Do we love our God with all our hearts, souls and minds, and love our neighbors as much as we love ourselves? Do we go out of our way to show love and care for those outside of our families? Have we chosen to be casual and compromising in what we tolerate with regard to our own behavior, what we watch for entertainment, the language that comes from our mouths? How much do we condone our failures and excuse ourselves from keeping God’s commands in our lives? Are we being conformed to this world rather than being transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2)? Have we become complacent and compromising, worrying more about our own convenience rather than sacrificing our comfort in order to follow our Savior?

Jesus Christ went to the cross for us to take our punishment for sin so that we might be forgiven and have a home in heaven when our earthly life ends. He also meant for us to be conformed to the image of Christ (Romans 8:29), for we have been called by Him! No one can bring a charge against God’s elect, those who are chosen by Him, and we can never be condemned. In fact, because we are in Christ,, we are more than conquerors through Him!

To the extent we have “slipped” from the place we were when our faith was new, when we were in love with Jesus and wanted to read His Word, to spend time with Him and do whatever He wanted us to do, we need to go back to that place and repent of our sin (because that’s what God calls anything that gets in the way of our obedience to Him!). Only then can we begin to be part of the solution for our beloved country to be rescued from the “moral cliff”.

Yesterday our pastor read a passage of Scripture that I haven’t noticed recently, but the words just came off the page at me and expressed everything I have been thinking and feeling: “Then those who feared the Lord talked with each other, and the Lord listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in His presence concerning those who feared the Lord and honored His Name. ‘They will be Mine,’ says the Lord Almighty. ‘In the day when I make up My treasured possession. I will spare them, just as in compassion a man spares his son who serves him. And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not'” (Malachi 3:16, 17).

“Father, forgive me for the places where I have compromised Your standard of holiness, where I have become careless and conformed to the world’s standards rather than being transformed, where I have condoned sin and been more concerned about my own convenience than about You. Make me more than a conqueror through Your power and show me how to encourage others to do the same.”

Faithfulness and Thanksgiving

“…Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow–Blessings all mine with ten thousand beside! Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness! Morning by morning new mercies I see; All I have needed Thy hand hath provided–Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord unto me!”

I don’t remember the exact date I began writing this blog, but it’s been around a year since I started, mainly to keep in contact with the many family and friends who were walking through my latest health crisis with us. With great certainty, I can say that without your prayers and support, I’m not sure how we would have made it. There were certainly days that I KNEW heaven had to be so much better than what I was living through, and I did ask the Lord if it wasn’t time for me to join Him there. Obviously He had something else in mind for us, and today I stand as a testimony to God’s faithfulness and healing touch. Once again, God used the avenue of medicine and surgery to bring about the current level of remission and relief I now enjoy. I am off of all narcotic pain medication, and while that is somewhat scary after using a number of different drugs during the past 2 years, it is also a great relief not to be dependent on them for pain control. I don’t pretend to think for one minute that I am or ever will be out of the woods completely where Crohn’s disease is concerned, but for THIS DAY I feel good and am able to once again enjoy life. Extra medications are presently, as far as we know, keeping the presence of the disease under control.

To all of you who have prayed and supported us through this time, we say a heartfelt “Thank You” that is totally inadequate to express how much we appreciate you. You have been a tremendous blessing in our lives and we are so grateful for each of you, your friendship, your prayers, and your love.

Most of all, we are compelled to again say to our great and powerful God, “Great is Thy faithfulness!” Without Him we know we would be in a very different place than the one we find ourselves in today. He knew what He had planned for us, and He used all of you to be part of His plan.

While I will continue to write, my thoughts can now turn to things other than how to put one foot in front of the other and get through each day while dealing with a debilitating disease. As I’ve already begun to, I will probably continue to write about national and world issues, as well as how I believe God is working in that arena and in our lives in particular. I would love to hear from you and am so grateful you have taken time to continue to read all of the things I’ve written. And if you feel led to share anything in your lives we can pray for and support you in, PLEASE allow us the privilege to do so!

To God be the glory!

On New Year’s Resolutions…

The practice of making New Year’s Resolutions has always irked me to a degree. Making such  lofty resolutions carries with it a large opening for failure, with some reasoning that if they break such resolutions even once, they’re null and void for the rest of the year. You’re “disqualified” from making another one until January 1 of the next year, even if you break the resolution before the end of the first day of the present new year! I’ve been amused the years I’ve gone to the gym and find it full for the first 3 weeks of January, and by March there are only a handful of people still sticking with the promises they’ve made.

I guess I prefer the idea of setting goals for oneself rather than trying to be so iron-clad and inflexible with the concept of resolutions. Perhaps it seems more forgiving, making allowances for one’s humanity rather than trying to attain perfection. We can become too quickly discouraged with our inability as humans to be perfect, thus abandoning our desire to improve our lives in whatever way we feel led to attempt such a feat. If we fail to live up to whatever goals we may set for ourselves, there is always the ability to try again without feeling as defeated as we might be if we expect perfection of ourselves and fail.

My husband is very focused on making to-do lists, and he takes great joy in every item he is able to cross off as having been accomplished. I used to do that when our children were younger and at home, mainly because if I didn’t I’d forget to do something important like be at a game or pick someone up! I’m going to TRY to be better about making such lists again, if for no other reason than to be able to have the satisfaction of seeing specific things accomplished.

In the larger arena of life, I see as the constant goals of my life those set forth in a couple of Bible passages. Micah 6:8 says: “He has showed you, O man, what is good.  And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”  Jesus Himself said in Luke 10:27: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and love your neighbor as yourself.” If I am doing those things, then I will be a better follower of Jesus, a better wife, mother, friend, and citizen. I know that I am unable to live up to those standards in my own strength, and I am SO glad that the Holy Spirit lives in me and can enable me to live this way as I allow Him to control my thoughts, words and actions.

In our humanness, we will always have stumbles and we should give ourselves permission to be less than perfect. The wonderful thing about belonging to Jesus is that there is always hope of doing better, of being better and having second chances, because we are not alone in our attempts to live as He would have us live.