Faith Through the Journey

Sorrow That Turned to Joy

Sorrow That Turned to Joy

— Read on faiththroughthejourney.com/2012/04/08/sorrow-that-turned-to-joy/

There is a disturbing phenomenon that has entered our society–it’s the insidious practice known as cancel culture. There is an anonymous, self-righteous “they” that have appointed themselves as the arbiters of acceptable behavior and language. Once these people have pronounced judgment and “cancelled” someone, there is no second chance. That unfortunate cancelled person may as well crawl under a rock or live on a deserted island because their usefulness to society has ended. One mistake–according to some anonymous group–and someone’s life and reputation can be ruined. The concept of forgiveness is completely out of the question–one mistake and there is no mercy. The hopelessness and despair felt by these unfortunate people is so unfair and sometimes tragic.

Enter HOPE. The entire message of Jesus is that there is ALWAYS a second chance…and a third chance…and a 71st chance, and a 2,945th chance! The cross, the Easter story is ALL ABOUT forgiveness, about second chances. As long as we are breathing, there is ALWAYS a chance! A chance to confess our sins and be forgiven and welcomed by a Father who wants us. Even when we mess up and have to keep asking for forgiveness, He is ALWAYS willing to forgive us. The Bible tells us in Psalm 103:12: “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.” God not only forgives, He FORGETS! Hebrews 8:12 says: “For I will forgive their wickedness, and I will remember their sins no more.”

Someone has wisely spoken that God sent Jesus to pay a debt He did not owe because we owed a debt we could never pay. Our sins were nailed to the cross the day Jesus died, and His resurrection finished the magnificent payment. In effect, when Jesus paid, our debt was CANCELLED! It’s amazing, isn’t it, to think that God KEEPS us but cancels our sin! Unbelieving society does exactly the opposite: there is no forgiveness, the people are discarded. The transgression is forever remembered and held against an individual by those who espouse cancel culture. The God who loves and forgives the individual values them above all and FORGETS their wrongdoing! What a wonderful, loving God He is!

Unanswered prayer is one of life’s great mysteries, at least to our finite understanding. We wonder if God has heard, if He is listening, if there is something else we are supposed to be doing, what is wrong with us that our prayers don’t seem to be reaching heaven or being answered, so many agonizing questions that can plague us as we wait and wonder.

The short, simple answer is that we are not God. We do not understand the whole picture. In our society where everything is seemingly available almost instantaneously, anything that takes a length of time we deem unnecessarily long, we assume that something must be wrong. Surely something needs to be fixed in order to get the answer or solution we seek.

The answer that we find much more difficult to deal with is one that occurs many times in the Bible. God’s plan is SO much bigger than anything we can understand, and while we are each very important to Him, everything He does is connected to His bigger plan. The prayers were being answered; the work just wasn’t finished yet. God was STILL at work. It wasn’t time yet…

In Exodus, the people of Israel were crying out to God for deliverance from their oppression in Egypt. But, Moses was on the back side of the desert, hiding out and not nearly ready to take on the mission God had for him of leading Israel out of Egypt. God had not forgotten the promise He made to Abraham in Genesis 12, it just took several hundred years and lots of work on His part to work through all the people He would use to bring about this fulfillment. It took 6 whole books of the Old Testament from the place of the promise being made to the people of Israel possessing the land! The answer finally came, but NOBODY who prayed the original prayer saw the end! They looked forward in faith, they kept on, even when they didn’t see the end.

The book of Daniel also records a time that as Daniel prayed, an angel was dispatched with the answer. He had to fight with Satan in order to get through to Daniel. Daniel kept praying, not knowing about the heavenly war, but God was working on getting the answer to him.

The Old Testament ends with the book of Malachi, the last prophet that would speak to the people of Israel for 400 years before the birth of Christ. Up until that time, there had been prophets periodically given to give the people a message God wanted them to hear or be reminded of. But this was it: 400 years of silence, or so it seemed. But during that time, God was STILL working; He was preparing the world for the greatest event yet, the birth of His Only Son. The Roman Empire had systems of transportation and communication that were going to make it possible to travel throughout the known world; though it was far from a perfect world, there were things present that made it the exact right moment for Jesus to come from heaven. Even the prophesied crucifixion was a Roman punishment.

And there were still devout Jews looking forward to the coming Messiah; they never forgot to keep looking and keep praying! In Luke, when Mary and Joseph presented Jesus in the Temple, the devout Anna and Simeon had never stopped praying or believing that God would indeed send the promised Messiah. God rewarded their faithful devotion by allowing them to see Jesus!

As we pray, we come to understand the heart of our Heavenly Father. Prayer becomes less about us asking for stuff and wanting to know Him better. God’s Word tells us of His love and His desire to have fellowship with us, and our relationship with Him becomes more important than any other. Spending time in prayer changes us, as God goes for changes in us that make us more like Jesus and give us a much better life than our own human efforts will yield.

And in the end…in the fullness of time…God WILL answer our prayer as He knows best. He will give us an earthly answer, if He deems that best, or it will no longer matter when we get to heaven. Ultimately, the prayer we must ALWAYS conclude with is this: “Thy will be done”. He is ALWAYS on time: HIS time!

For the past 35 years, my husband and I have been an active part of a church that has met in a converted mall. The massive building has been used for many different ministries under the umbrella of our church. The building is 40+ years old with major foundation problems, astronomical utility bills because the energy efficiency is not good, and the wear and tear a building that has served thousands of people with a wide variety of service opportunities just goes through. Last year construction was begun on a new building on the other end of our existing property that will serve the church family going forward. Yesterday at the end of the service, my husband pointed out to me that this was our last service in the existing building. The first service will be held in the new building in a few weeks, but we will be out of town until then.

As soon as he said that, the tears started for both of us. Since the church came into existence in the fall of 1987, we have been involved in nearly every aspect of the ministry. We taught Sunday school, worked in the nursery, helped with the children’s AWANA ministry, listened to thousands of Bible verses the children memorized, we sang in the choir, taught adult Bible studies, prayed with many people who needed prayer, and various other service opportunities. When the doors have been open, we have been there many thousands of hours. We have made many lifelong friendships, laughed and cried together with so many dear friends. Our two oldest children were baptized in the baptistry in the sanctuary, our youngest daughter was dedicated there as a baby, and our now adult children and their spouses and children have also been there on their visits to San Antonio. It’s been home for us for so many years, and the memories yesterday were overwhelming. The Christmas program when our daughter brought the house down when she ad libbed her way through a solo, our son as one of the lead parts in the Easter pageant, the Vacation Bible School programs with hundreds of children and the children’s pastor and the organized chaos of it all, all of it came flooding back as we looked around that big sanctuary one more time. The building will be coming down at some point in the next months, and I’m not sure I can watch.

It’s just a building, after all…and the church ministry will go on in its new earthly home. There have been many hundreds of people who have come and gone from the church, many of them going on to new places of ministry around the world. It’s been a place where hurting people have come to heal, people who saw our sign from a hotel room nearby where they had gone to end their life and instead met Jesus, people who needed food and clothing and even a safe place to sleep, so many stories and so many miracles. The main message we have always stood for is JESUS: Jesus. Period. He has led us, He has blessed us, and the work will continue, in a slightly different location, as He continues to show us what He wants us to do and we are obedient to follow where He leads.

As we were about to occupy the original building back in 1988, the verse we read was Isaiah 55:12. Our move to the other end of our property will be with the same mission and celebration. “You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.”

Recently I reread the account of Jesus’ last days on earth, as He met with His 12 disciples. These were the people with whom He spent the most hours, teaching them truths about following God that were most important, things they were to teach others when He was no longer with them. Of course, they couldn’t have known all that would transpire and what a horrible ending Jesus’ earthly life would have. They were trying, as much as their finite minds could take in, but I’m sure they thought they had many years left of Jesus’ teaching and training before they would be without His earthly presence.

In the upper room at what has come to be known as the Last Supper, Jesus spoke about betrayal and desertion by these with whom He was about to entrust with the most important mission in all of history. The struggle to comprehend what He was telling them must have been rather overwhelming, to say the very least! Meanwhile, Jesus was getting ready to undergo the greatest injustice in human history and physical agony that was unimaginable. Even though He was God, the human part of Him facing this ordeal had to have been staggering. Judas left to betray Him to those who sought His life and the rest of the 11 accompanied Him to the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus prayed and the disciples slept!!! Three times this happened, and then the last time He woke them, Judas came with those who would arrest Him and would ultimately put Him to death. Then, the 11 men left who had been Jesus’ closest earthly friends, ran away in fear.

This picture has stayed with me for a few weeks in a way that it never has before. Now, Jesus is the Son of God and of course He knew that what was taking place had to do so in order that His ultimate purpose for coming to earth would be fulfilled. But the human part of Him had to be crushed as He saw this happen. Here He was, undertaking the most important work ever, and the ones He would entrust it to after He was gone had all just RUN AWAY!!! He was, in the human sense, completely alone in the worst moments of His life, deserted and betrayed. If these all ran away, how was the world ever going to know the wonderful truth of eternal life that He was about to give His life for?

Fast forward to the third day, the ultimate victory, and Jesus was alive, resurrected and never to die again. He had set a meeting place for His 11 remaining disciples to meet Him following this miraculous event, and some of them were skeptical even then that it was really Jesus. His words to them: “God authorized and commanded Me to commission you! Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life.” The past performance of the disciples may have shaken them completely as to how in the world this was ever going to be accomplished. However, He also told them to WAIT in Jerusalem for the Helper He would be sending them after He returned to Heaven. He never intended for them to do it on their own! The work to be done was way beyond anything they could do or understand. It would be the power that would come when Jesus did what He said He would-He sent His Holy Spirit to live inside His followers so that His plan would be fulfilled.

On a human level, the plan seemed doomed to fail. After all, how were 11 men, 11 previously terrified men, ever going to do this? The whole world? Jesus obviously didn’t get an MBA or set up an organizational chart to diagram how this was going to take place! But was His plan ultimately successful? That answer has to be a resounding YES!! It required God doing what ONLY God could do through the work of His Holy Spirit-despite how it may have looked on the surface so many years ago. Those of us who have come to faith in the finished work of Jesus are forever grateful for the obedience of those 11 men who waited for the Spirit Who enabled them to go and teach everyone they met about the wonderful gift of being a child of God through Jesus.

Recently I was walking on the treadmill and doing what I usually do during that time, listening to praise music and spending time talking to the Lord. We have had a very busy number of weeks, and circumstances and schedules have meant I was out of my usual Bible reading and prayer time routine. As I listened to the music and started telling the Lord that I was sorry for the busy times and that somehow it meant I wasn’t spending my regular time with Him, I realized a couple of things. The “voices” I was listening to at that moment weren’t encouraging or uplifting, in spite of the praise music playing on my earbuds. Instead, I was hearing condemnation and judgment, that I certainly wasn’t walking closely enough with the Lord or I would have been keeping my usual reading and prayer time.

At that point, I heard another voice, reminding me that those negative voices belonged to the enemy of my soul, the one who seeks to steal, kill and destroy. I was certainly getting myself all worked up about what I WASN’T doing rather than focusing on the Lord Himself. As I continued to walk and listen, the negative voices faded and the sweet voice that said “I just want YOU” began to crescendo.

The truth is, God doesn’t need us to do all of the things we impose on ourselves. He is God, after all, not in need of anything because He is all-sufficient. The gift He gives us is His desire to be with us. All of our box-checking has to do with making ourselves feel better, not making ourselves more acceptable to God. There is nothing we can do to make God love us more or earn extra points with Him. Spending time reading the Bible and praying is for our benefit, as we learn and communicate with the One Who loves us most.

Psalm 46:10 is often quoted as the “Be still” verse. The actual term can also be translated as “Cease striving”. I was certainly in “striving” mode that day, but the Lord very gently reminded me to STOP. The example of Mary and Martha came to me as well. In reality I am definitely more Martha than Mary when it comes to “getting after it”. Give me a to-do list and I will see to it that it gets done! When Jesus went to visit this family, Martha was busy fixing an elaborate meal to honor their special Guest, and of course it was quite an undertaking for one who is concerned about making sure everything goes well. She was a little annoyed at her sister Mary who just wanted to hang out with Jesus instead of helping her in the kitchen. Finally an exasperated Martha appealed to Jesus Himself, complaining that she was doing all the work while Mary was just sitting around visiting with Jesus. Jesus, in what was I’m sure a gentle rebuke, told Martha that, while He appreciated her concerns, He wasn’t going to tell Mary to leave His presence and go fix dinner! And if Martha wanted to join them, He would be happy with a much simpler meal.

When God gives us assignments, He will do the equipping for us to get them done. But such assignments are the overflow of our time spent with Him. He loves US and wants US to spend time just enjoying Him, not trying to move mountains or do great things for Him. I am so grateful that God doesn’t hold us to the standard of perfection that we often impose on ourselves-no one can do that! He just wants US! He already loves us, imperfections and all!

The concept and practice of blessing someone is as old as the Garden of Eden. God blessed Adam and Eve as soon as they were created, telling them to be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. Blessing confers upon the one being blessed a special status, that they are receiving something wonderful and valuable from the one who confers the blessing. God continued to bless His people throughout their history, although in many cases they spurned this gift and treated it as nothing valuable.

The privilege of parents to bless their children is something that came alive for us when our children were young. My husband began to bless them nightly as we put them to bed. He even called and blessed them over the phone when he had to be out of town! The words spoken were those of Aaron in Numbers 6:24-26. “Now may the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make His face to shine upon you, and be gracious unto you. The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace.” Those words are simple yet profound, and all of our children could recite them verbatim, I am sure! We even shared a special moment before our youngest daughter’s wedding. The “original 5” gathered as we had for so many years, and my husband blessed them all once more. Now that we’re grandparents, we speak these words over our grandchildren at every opportunity. It’s not a good luck charm or anything like that, but what better things can you confer upon those you love most than that the Lord will bless and keep them, be gracious to them, give them peace?

In 2021, my 90-year-old mother suffered a major medical event and her days on earth were coming to an end. I was able to travel to spend some of those last days with her, reading her Bible to her as I know she wanted to spend those last hours. She was ready to go to heaven, and one of the last passages I read to her was the Numbers blessing. I played a song for her then called “The Blessing”, with those words set to music. The song also contained words from Deuteronomy, which say “May His blessing be upon you for a thousand generations, to your family and your children and their children, and their children…” My parents were faithful to teach their children the truths of Scripture, that following and obeying God’s Word would bring blessing to a thousand generations of their descendants. I reminded Mom that she and Dad had been faithful to teach us the Word of God, and that because of their faithfulness, her descendants would continue to be blessed. Those were some of the last words I spoke to her, and a few hours later she saw Jesus face to face. As we looked through her plans for her funeral-she was very efficient and told us exactly how she wanted things!-we found that the final words she wanted to leave her family at her graveside were those of Numbers 6:24-26. My husband read those words to us, her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, as her last blessing to us.

We may not be able to leave our children and grandchildren great earthly riches, but those are all going to disappear someday anyway. Teaching our families the Word of God is the MOST important thing we can do for them, and speaking blessing over them at every opportunity is a legacy that will last for eternity. Reminding them that they are loved and valued by us and, most importantly, by the God Who created them, is a privilege and honor.

Today I listened, for the first time this Christmas season, to one of my favorite contemporary Christmas songs, “Our God is With Us” by Steven Curtis Chapman. I don’t know what took me so long, but I’m glad it came up on one of my playlists as I put in time on the treadmill! I love the truth and hope the song expresses, that God doesn’t keep bad things from happening to us but the assurance that He will ALWAYS be with us in those circumstances. Isaiah 7:14 first told of the coming Savior and calling Him by the name Emmanuel. Its meaning is simply “God with us”. When Jesus came that first Christmas, it meant that for the first time since the Garden of Eden, God was actually walking with His creations on earth.

Before Jesus was born, God told Joseph about this child Mary was carrying, and that he should name Him Jesus because He would save His people from their sins. Jesus Himself promised that, if we choose to accept this gift He freely gave, He would never leave us but would send the Helper to be with us always. Jesus came to earth, walked with men for 33 years, died, came back to life and returned to heaven with the promise that, if we accept this gift, He will be with us always and take us to heaven to be with Him forever.

“Our God is with us, Emmanuel! He’s come to save us, Emmanuel! And we will never face life alone, now that God has made Himself known. As Father and Friend, with us through the end, Emmanuel!”

The gift He gave us is a priceless one indeed. Having Him with us always is a wonderful promise that is available to all who receive it. He is, and always will be, GOD WITH US!

On that memorable Sunday afternoon in May as we prayed on the steps of the Supreme Court (something which sadly cannot now take place), we also prayed for the preservation of the First Amendment to the Constitution, specifically regarding freedom of religion and freedom of expression. The Supreme Court has ruled 6-3 that a football coach is allowed to pray privately on the field after a game; his right to exercise his freedom of religion and expression is indeed protected by our Constitution.

With the opinions being rendered by the Court seeming to uphold specifically enumerated constitutional rights, and correcting former rulings where “rights” were “found” that never truly existed, there is reason to hope for those who value the Constitution on which our country was founded. The justices who have deliberated the cases presented and rendered their opinions based on their understanding of and loyalty to the Constitution have been both praised and vilified depending on the opinion of the citizens involved. Sadly, those who have disagreed reacted with vitriol and anger, even violence. The Bible talks about “the acts of the sinful nature being obvious: hatred, discord, fits of rage…”(Ephesians 5:19, 20). Contrast this with the fruits of the Holy Spirit which include love, joy, peace, patience, kindness and goodness.

There is no doubt that the United States is in a very bad way because of the sin that is embraced and endorsed by leaders, celebrities, and even educators who view parents as the enemy. The source of these is not hard to find as his tactics are spelled out in John 10: the thief (Satan) comes to steal, kill and destroy. Follow the hate and destruction, and you will find the enemy of our souls doing everything in his power to take as many people down with him as he can. His days are growing short and he is getting more desperate, so his attacks are ramping up. There is, however, one Judge before whom all people will stand one day and His is the only opinion that matters. The one question He will ask everyone is what we have done with His Son, Jesus Christ, and the answer will determine where we spend eternity.

But, there is hope….”Yet I call this to mind and therefore I have hope: because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. The Lord is good to those whose hope is in Him, to the one who seeks Him (Lamentations 3:21-23).

Last week my husband and I were privileged to visit our nation’s capital, Washington, D.C. There’s always something about being in the city where so many decisions that affect our nation are made that causes us to be proud of America, even with all of our flaws. On Sunday afternoon, May 1, my husband and I walked to the Capitol building and the Supreme Court, two revered landmarks of our beloved country. The Supreme Court was very quiet that day, with very few people around the building. We climbed the steps of the building and found a bench and prayed, as many others have, that the holocaust of abortion in our nation would cease, that Roe v. Wade might be overturned. We asked God’s forgiveness on our nation for the more than 50 million innocent lives that have been taken through abortion, that He would heal our land and stop the taking of more innocent lives.

Fast forward 24 hours, and things were suddenly very different! An unethically leaked draft opinion from one of the justices changed the entire narrative in the emotionally charged issue of abortion. On Tuesday, just 48 hours after we had prayed, we walked among protesters who weren’t exactly sympathetic to the pro-life movement! One brave older woman holding a “Pray to End Abortion” sign was surrounded and shouted down by dozens of unfriendly people. Looking into their faces I felt immense sadness for them. Because when all is said and done, these people have been lied to by the father of all lies, Satan himself. They have been deceived, convinced that it’s all about them without thinking of the consequences.

While we might look at this issue as a legal one, it is really a matter of the heart. The enemy of our souls would have us believe that our convenience, our rights and our choices are the most important things. As long as it makes my life easier and brings me what I want, then it’s all good. Except, of course, that there is another life involved, the “invisible” victim who didn’t get to make the choice to live or die. Rather than living in a warm, safe place until he or she is old enough to live outside their mother’s body, they are violently ripped from their mother’s womb and thrown away as “medical waste”.

It is tragic that women who have chosen abortion may not have had the information and support they needed in order to make a better choice for themselves and their babies. Women should always have a choice about whether or not to become pregnant. There are many contraception options available to enable women not to become pregnant. However, that choice MUST be made before another life is involved, the life of an innocent unborn child. When Roe v. Wade came into being, there weren’t sonograms available to women to be able to see their baby, someone with a body that was IN NO WAY pat of theirs. A person with their own heartbeat, their own face, their own DNA and fingerprints. But the women who have bought the lie that their child is just a blob of tissue, an inconvenience to be disposed of, deserve better. Withholding knowledge about the child they carry robs women of the tools they need to make a wise decision about their future and the future of their child. The Bible has this to say in Psalm 139: “For You created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother’s womb. All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be.”

Whenever the final opinion is handed down by the Supreme Court, it will not end this debate. The decision, if Roe is overturned, will go back to each state. Some states will make abortion illegal after a fetal heartbeat is detected, usually about 6 weeks into pregnancy. Others will restrict abortion after certain other time periods. Still other states will become “abortion destinations”, offering the procedure up to the point of birth, even giving incentives to travel to those states to have abortions. Women who are determined to have an abortion will still be able to find a way to end the life of their baby and rid them of the “inconvenience” of an unplanned pregnancy. The pro-life movement will continue to try to persuade women that there is support for them if they decide to continue their pregnancies and give birth to their child. SOMEONE wants their baby and they have a wonderful opportunity to bless a childless couple who aches to become parents.

I realize this brief essay on abortion is far from exhaustive and I set myself up for a barrage of anger from anyone who disagrees. Women who have had abortions carry scars for the rest of their lives, having to live with the knowledge they ended their baby’s life. God alone can heal and forgive this awful sin, and He is always ready to do so. Any woman who has ever aborted a child can rest in the fact that her baby is safe in the arms of Jesus, who is the author of life.