Faith Through the Journey

Remembering – Again

Another day of remembrance for a day of horror, and the fact that 14 years have passed since they lost their loved ones doesn’t erase the hurt the survivors still feel. They feel the loss every time they see an empty place at their table, or pass another milestone like today.

As the speakers of the day continue to ask God to bless America, my heart sinks. Fourteen years and the loss of thousands of lives later, we still go on our way, not giving God a thought except on days like this or at some other place of need or sorrow. How in the world can we ask God to bless us or protect us when we have deliberately and unceremoniously kicked Him out of our national lives? We don’t read His Word, we don’t obey Him, we pass laws in contradiction to His commandments and defy Him openly. We celebrate sin and go our own way until we feel a sudden need for God.

God is a gentleman. He will not impose Himself where He is not wanted. With each act of national and personal defiance, the hand of God’s protection comes off of our nation a little more. George Washington prayed for God’s blessing and protection upon America as He became our first president. God has blessed America beyond anything we deserve, and yet we have pushed Him so far out of our everyday lives that He has begun to remove His presence from us. We don’t want Him, so He has left. II Chronicles 15:2 says: “The Lord is with you while you are with Him. If you seek Him, He will be found by you. But if you become indifferent and forsake Him, He will forsake you.” What might happen if God does leave us alone? And if we DO want Him to protect and bless us, doesn’t it make sense that we need to let Him back into our everyday lives as well? Abraham Lincoln said, “My concern is not whether God is on our side. My great concern is to be on God’s side. For God is always right!” We still have a chance, because God says “You will seek Me and find Me, when you seek Me with all your hearts” (Jeremiah 29:13). He still wants to hear from us! He still loves us!

When Did The Rules Change?

What happens to public officials who have the audacity to live out their faith? To people who don’t check their Christianity at the church doors but actually DO what the Bible says to do? When, in America, did practicing Christianity put people at risk? When these issues came into our nation’s headlines, I decided to look at what the original Supreme Court Justices said on the matter. John Jay, the original Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, made the following statement: “Providence has given our people the choice of our rulers, and it is the duty as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation, to select and prefer Christians as their rulers.” That seems like a pretty clear guideline for the American voter, a high bar of qualification set up by a Supreme Court Chief Justice! And what was Justice Jay’s guidebook? “The Bible is the best of all books, for it is the Word of God and teaches us the way to be happy in this world and the next. Continue therefore to read it and to regulate your life by its precepts.” Joseph Story, also an early U.S. Supreme Court Justice, wrote the following: “One of the beautiful boasts of our municipal jurisprudence is that Christianity is a part of the Common Law. There never has been a period in which the Common Law did not recognize Christianity as lying at its foundations.”

So, the first Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court stated that Christians were the preferred “rulers”, or elected officials. How does that line up with the current hostile environment toward people of Christian convictions who hold elected office? There is a clear disconnect. We are a nation of laws, and those we elect to positions of authority are expected to uphold those laws. That being said, we seem to have come to a point in America when any Christian  considering running for elective office will have to research ALL of the laws he or she must enforce before making the decision to seek that office. Because our legislatures, executives and judicial systems have set aside the standards the founders of our country originally set and are now passing down some laws that are in direct conflict to the Word of God, a Christian will have a crisis of faith and conscience when they are forced to choose between God’s laws and man’s laws. This is not a new dilemma, for the same one was faced by Jesus’ followers in the first century, when they were commanded by the Roman rulers not to teach about Him. Acts 5:29 says “We must obey God rather than man.”

It seems that we have moved far from what the early leaders of the United States believed to be the critical qualifications for our officials. It is particularly difficult when unelected men and women pass down rulings that are game-changers after men and women have already been elected to carry out existing laws. When elected officials are people of faith who desire to live that out in their everyday lives, it becomes more complicated when laws are enacted that may cause them to violate their conscience and practice of faith. Living out one’s faith does not require that they cram it down the throats of others, but rather live their own lives in obedience to the Word of God as they understand it.  Add to this the statement in the First Amendment to the Constitution: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” When a person accepts the responsibilities of public office, are they required to give up their First Amendment rights?

Sadly, the day may have come in the United States when men and women of faith may not be able to hold elective office if, in the course of their official duties, they have to choose between the laws of the land and the laws of God. The rules have definitely changed from what the original United States Supreme Court Justices described as the standards by which our leaders should be elected. I have hope that people of faith can still be included in public life, for the standards of justice and mercy are necessary qualities in our leaders. In times of national crisis, it has often been those leaders who exercise faith and point the American people to God as the source of hope and comfort that have helped us get through those difficult days. Luke 1:47 says, “For nothing shall be impossible with God.” The final chapter has  not yet been written, and for those of us who believe that God is still in control of the world He created, there is always hope!

The Apple of God’s Eye

How Should We Live?

Since 1987, I have had the opportunity to be involved with Precept Upon Precept Bible Studies, children and health permitting! Kay Arthur is a marvelous teacher, and the Bible studies are inductive in nature. All that means is that, before any commentaries or other teachers are consulted, the students must study only Scriptures and listen to what God is teaching them through His Word. Time spent in God’s Word is never wasted and gleaning truths for yourself is one of the most meaningful experiences a person can have. The important lessons learned in personal Bible study are ones that will stick with you, coming back to you when you need them the most (and sometimes when you wake up in the middle of the night!).

With the political climate of our country and our world, there are SO many Scripture passages that I’ve been able to study over the years that pertain to our lives today! As I said, they come to me in the middle of the night (yes, I’ve reached the age where sleeping through the night is a rare occurrence). During the days following the 2000 presidential election when the outcome was still being decided, I woke frequently during the nights to pray and read my Bible. Those nights were priceless in my walk with Jesus, as I continued to claim the promises of the Word and pour my heart out to my Heavenly Father. What God continued to remind me of was that, throughout history, there were times when His people had to take a stand, to trust Him even when the culture all around them was collapsing. In the days of Noah, God was grieved that he had made men and determined to destroy mankind from the face of the earth through the Flood. However, there was one man who was righteous, who walked with God and found favor in His eyes. That man was Noah, who listened to God’s voice and not the culture in which he found himself. He was ridiculed and laughed at when he told the people among whom he lived that God was going to destroy the earth and everything that lived on it. When God had shut Noah and his family and all the living creatures from upon the earth (2 x 2), the rain came and the people suddenly realized that they should have listened to Noah. Every living thing outside the Ark perished, and God preserved only Noah, his family, and the creatures that would repopulate the earth once the floodwaters had receded.

In I Chronicles 12, David had just become king of Israel and was still fighting against some of King Saul’s family who believed that the throne of Israel belonged to them. David gathered men from the tribes of Israel with specific assignments for each group. When the author of I Chronicles 12 records the contribution of each group, the tribe of Issachar was described as “men who understood the times and knew what Israel should do”. How important was the gift of this group of men, having understanding of the times in which they lived.

The prophet Ezekiel was another man of God who listened to His voice and wrote what God told him to write in His Word. God was once again going to have to bring judgment on His people Israel because they had strayed far from Him. In Ezekiel 9:4, God’s words to his servant were: “Go throughout the city of Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of those who grieve and lament over all the detestable things that are done in it.” The messenger of God was told to destroy everyone in the city, “but do NOT touch anyone who has the mark. Begin at My sanctuary.” The people who called themselves by God’s name but who had not received the mark of loyalty were the FIRST to be judged.

The whole counsel of God, beginning with the Old Testament teachings, is replete with examples of times and people groups who did not follow His leading. This began in the garden of Eden, when Eve disobeyed God and encouraged her husband Adam to do the same. Disobedience to God’s plan is the very nature of every human being ever born on the earth! Romans 3:10 says “There is none righteous, no not one.”

So how do all of these eternal truths come together? The answer is as simple-and as complicated-as the thread that runs throughout the Word of God. In every generation, God preserves people who want to follow Him, who love Him with all their hearts, souls and minds. We can pray (and SHOULD pray!) for the world in which we find ourselves, beginning with our leaders and going through every level of society down to our families. When given the opportunity to impact our world, we should not shrink back from those places of influence open to us. We never know whether or not God has opened a door for us to speak for Him in a way that can impact the life of another. If we can be people who “find grace in the eyes of the Lord,” who “understand the times” and know what our nation should do, and who “grieve and lament over all the detestable things that are done in it”, we will find ourselves solidly on the side of the God of the universe. The words of James 4:17 are a sobering warning: “Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.” God’s Word is unmistakably clear, from Genesis through Revelation, that God loves the people whom He has created. He does, however, have a standard of holiness that cannot be compromised: those who wish to follow God with their hearts, souls and minds must come to Him through the saving blood of Jesus Christ, receiving the priceless gift of eternal life with Him, and then live their earthly lives with the help of God’s indwelling Holy Spirit according to the standards He has established. Micah 6:8 lays out the simple plan of the earthly life of the believer: “do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God”. “He who does these things will never be shaken” Psalm 15:5.

The Momentous and the Mundane

Someone recently asked me about my writing, and I realized my last blog post related to my colonoscopy in April–that was a cheery subject! I began writing three and a half years ago as a way to communicate with the many people who were walking with us through the most recent bout with Crohn’s Disease. After a sixth surgery, I’ve done remarkably well and no longer live my life 24/7 in crisis mode. In fact, it suddenly dawned on me that I don’t have as much time to write now because I’m healthy and doing things with my days other than lying on the couch and waiting for my next pain pill!

So, what is my life now, and do I do anything that anybody wants to hear about? The “routine” days start with coffee and my Bible, reading through the Bible for the second consecutive year. I love starting the days hearing from the Lord, whatever He has for me each day. Then, of course, I have to check in with Fox News to see what’s happened overnight and what the day will be like in the world outside my house! Part of my new routine, since the last surgery, has included an almost daily trip to the gym. If and when the next Crohn’s recurrence happens, I want my body as strong as it can be in order to better withstand the destructive effects of the disease. I’m also eating better, and taking daily oral medications and bimonthly injections to prolong remission.

The rest of my life? Not so routine! This is where the momentous and mundane come in! When I am able to travel with my husband, I do whatever is on the docket wherever we are. We’ve enjoyed being able to travel together in the empty nest years of our marriage, and even more so now that I finally feel good on a regular basis. In fact, the past six months have been very full of milestone events. In March, we were able to travel to Israel, a lifelong wish of mine. My husband had made the trip once before, but my health has not been such that I would be able to keep up on a tour that was full of physical activity. Having studied the Bible since childhood, I wanted to see all the places I’d read about for so many years. It was truly an experience I will never forget, walking where Jesus walked, sailing on the Sea of Galilee, standing on Mt. Carmel where Elijah once stood, and praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. Traveling with other Christians, and also missionaries to the Jewish people from around the world, was a huge blessing. I found myself overwhelmed on a daily basis at the people I was with and the experiences we shared. Shortly after returning home, we were able to share in the joy of welcoming our second grandson. Being a grandparent is one of the most wonderful joys God gives! Spending time with our first grandson while Mom and Dad were a little busy with the new little guy was so much fun, letting him know how important he is to us. He is brilliant and wonderful, by the way!

And the mundane? Well, for four and a half months, our lives were “disrupted” by bathroom renovations! After living in our house for 30 years, it was finally time for us to tackle this monumental project. Fortunately, other people did this, not us! We would have probably rendered our home uninhabitable had we tried to do it ourselves! Tearing an existing space back to bare wood is pretty daunting, so it took us many years to get that brave. Choosing tile, paint colors, cabinetry and fixtures is a tedious process, one which requires husband-wife teamwork and compromise, and thankfully we were able to do it together and remain friends. Two full bathrooms later, the project is finally done and we are happy with the results–and will NEVER do those two rooms again! The process taught me much about myself, as I had to work around others on an unpredictable schedule, constantly wondering whether the workers would come at 8:30 or 5:00, trying to figure out whether I could go to the grocery store without missing someone and having to wait three more days until they could “reschedule”. I had to remember constantly that I needed to be “Jesus” to the people who were working in my home, thanking them and smiling at them as they left each day. This was a little more challenging when they couldn’t speak English and I couldn’t speak Spanish!

For those of you who have gotten to this point, thank you for reading this! I hope to write more often, although something within me says that if I’m not at a crisis point, what I have to say may not mean as much. Having walked with Jesus for many years, I’ve discovered that what He teaches in the smooth places of life is important, for the next crisis point may not be far away. Blessings to you!