You answer us with awesome and righteous deeds,
God our Savior,
the hope of all the ends of the earth
and of the farthest seas,
who formed the mountains by your power,
having armed yourself with strength.
(Psalm 65:5, 6)
Month: January 2013
By Faith
By faith we see the hand of God
In the light of creation’s grand design
In the lives of those who prove His faithfulness
Who walk by faith and not by sight
By faith our fathers roamed the earth
With the power of His promise in their hearts
Of a holy city built by God’s own hand
A place where peace and justice reign
We will stand as children of the promise
We will fix our eyes on Him our soul’s reward
Till the race is finished and the work is done
We’ll walk by faith and not by sight
By faith the prophets saw a day
When the longed-for Messiah would appear
With the power to break the chains of sin and death
And rise triumphant from the grave
By faith the church was called to go
In the power of the Spirit to the lost
To deliver captives and to preach good news
In every corner of the earth
We will stand as children of the promise
We will fix our eyes on Him our soul’s reward
Till the race is finished and the work is done
We’ll walk by faith and not by sight
By faith this mountain shall be moved
And the power of the gospel shall prevail
For we know in Christ all things are possible
For all who call upon His name
We will stand as children of the promise
We will fix our eyes on Him our soul’s reward
Till the race is finished and the work is done
We’ll walk by faith and not by sigh
(Keith & Kristyn Getty, Stuart Townend)
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Walking Home on a Winter Evening
The sun sets early in the winter in this country. I fondly recall summer evenings when we can safely go out for a hike after the supper dishes are done. Now we trudge home before the table is set.
Too soon! Too soon! There is still work to be done, and fun to be had!
But the sky says it’s time to go home. I hear my Lord’s voice calling, “Come to me , all you who have been working hard and carrying loads too heavy for you. Come to me and I will give you rest. Walk in partnership with me and I will carry the bulk of it. I will make the task easy and your burden light.”
This is a season of rest. I may not choose the timing, but there is much to be learned in rest.
Heading home now.
For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel,
“In returning and rest you shall be saved;
in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.”
(Isaiah 30:15)
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Rise and Stand
I’m a night owl. If I never desired contact with regular people I could happily live with my days and nights almost reversed. My mom used to catch me studying after midnight and say, “Honey, why don’t you get up at 5:30 with me and study when you are fresh?”
The only way I could study at 5:30 a.m. would be if I stayed up until 5:30 a.m. pulling an all-nighter –or I had the flu, and the word fresh would not dare enter the room.
Owls marry larks. We didn’t know that. The first year of marriage neither of us slept. In our 41st year he gets up at 5:30 a.m. and works when he’s fresh. I accuse him of giving up and going to bed before the day is over, but he just harumphs and toddles off and I put the kettle on for my next round. One of the reasons I think we have managed to stay together this long is that we have a rule. I will not take seriously (or emotionally) anything he says after 10 p.m. and he will tell me nothing of importance before 10 a.m. –unless it’s an emergency.
Morning people always talk about rising before dawn for prayer and Bible study or to meditate and prioritize their goals for the day.
“Jesus rose up before dawn,” they say, “We should follow his example.”
I tried that for a while, and then I realized I was giving the Lord the worst part of my day. My prayers were something like, “Um…yeah.. uh.. thank you for this day…. anda… um………………..zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…oh, sorry,….for ….. for… something. There was somethingsomething…”
I was awful when I had early-rising babies. I could easily diaper the wrong end. When the kids were grown (or almost grown) and my workday didn’t start until afternoon so I didn’t have to get up early, I started watching late-night T.V.. Alas, David Letterman, although a witty conversationalist, never acknowledged my input, so I started talking to God. He’s a good listener.
Then he began to talk back (God, not David Letterman. I’m not that crazy.) Questions I asked him were answered -in dreams, or scripture passages that came to mind, in co-incidences like the same book being mentioned by three totally different sources in the same day, in pod-casts or blogs I stumbled upon, or in nature, or in songs that get stuck on repeat in my head until I stop and pay attention to them. I still felt guilty for being undisciplined and not “doing morning devotions” but that’s when I realized he wants a relationship with me and not with someone who punches a time clock out of duty and is glad when that’s done and can be crossed off the list. He doesn’t mind that I wake up slowly or that I’m at my peak when others collapse and fall into bed. He gets it, because he made me this way.
We rise and stand to do battle in the night, or sometimes just be, saying and doing nothing in particular. Now that sleep doesn’t come as easily as it used to, some of our best times together happen in the wee hours, even at 5:30 a.m. -and it’s all good.
Now may he grant you your heart’s desire
and fulfill all your plans!
May we shout for joy over your salvation,
and in the name of our God set up our banners!
May the Lord fulfill all your petitions!
Now I know that the Lord saves his anointed;
he will answer him from his holy heaven
with the saving might of his right hand.
Some trust in chariots and some in horses,
but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.
They collapse and fall,
but we rise and stand upright.
(Psalm 20:4-8)
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Extol Him Who Rides on the Clouds
May God arise, may his enemies be scattered;
may his foes flee before him.
May you blow them away like smoke—
as wax melts before the fire,
may the wicked perish before God.
But may the righteous be glad
and rejoice before God;
may they be happy and joyful.
Sing to God, sing in praise of his name,
extol him who rides on the clouds;
rejoice before him—his name is the Lord.
A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows,
is God in his holy dwelling.
God sets the lonely in families
he leads out the prisoners with singing;
but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land.
When you, God, went out before your people,
when you marched through the wilderness,
the earth shook, the heavens poured down rain,
before God, the One of Sinai,
before God, the God of Israel.
You gave abundant showers, O God;
you refreshed your weary inheritance.
Your people settled in it,
and from your bounty, God, you provided for the poor.
The Lord announces the word,
and the women who proclaim it are a mighty throng
(Psalm 68:1 -11)
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Go With the Flow
Sometimes you just need to trust and go with the flow.
Through God we shall do valiantly,
And it is He who will tread down our adversaries.
(Psalm 60:12)
“Live in the excellency of (His) expectancy.
Don’t just wait on the Lord,
wait in expectancy… Selah”
-Apostle Gabriel Cross (Pure Glory)
http://pureglory.net/2013/01/15/wait-in-expectancy/
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Rest
There still exists, therefore, a full and complete rest for the people of God.
And he who experiences his real rest is resting from his own work as fully as God from his.
Let us then be eager to know this rest for ourselves,
and let us beware that no one misses it through falling into the same kind of unbelief as those we have mentioned.
For the Word that God speaks is alive and active;
it cuts more keenly than any two-edged sword:
it strikes through to the place where soul and spirit meet,
to the innermost intimacies of a man’s being:
it exposes the very thoughts and motives of a man’s heart.
No creature has any cover from the sight of God;
everything lies naked and exposed before the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
Seeing that we have a great High Priest who has entered the inmost Heaven,
Jesus the Son of God,
let us hold firmly to our faith.
For we have no superhuman High Priest to whom our weaknesses are unintelligible
—he himself has shared fully in all our experience of temptation, except that he never sinned.
Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with fullest confidence,
that we may receive mercy for our failures and grace to help in the hour of need.
(Hebrews 4:13 – 17)
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Shelter
My little granddaughter and I were watching the snowstorm out the big front window yesterday when I noticed how the bright colours of the flowers a friend sent mommy contrasted with the harshness of the weather outside. Inside the house is a warmth that shelters the delicate blooms sent from some place where the sun shines kindly.
The storms may rage, but close to the heart of God, in His shelter, tender hearts are safe.
I run continually to the shelter of Psalm 91, and there I find delight in the precious colours of Love.
Those who live in the shelter of the Most High
will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
This I declare about the Lord:
He alone is my refuge, my place of safety;
he is my God, and I trust him.
For he will rescue you from every trap
and protect you from deadly disease.
He will cover you with his feathers.
He will shelter you with his wings.
His faithful promises are your armor and protection.
Do not be afraid of the terrors of the night,
nor the arrow that flies in the day.
Do not dread the disease that stalks in darkness,
nor the disaster that strikes at midday.
Though a thousand fall at your side,
though ten thousand are dying around you,
these evils will not touch you.
Just open your eyes,
and see how the wicked are punished.
If you make the Lord your refuge,
if you make the Most High your shelter,
no evil will conquer you;
no plague will come near your home.
For he will order his angels
to protect you wherever you go.
They will hold you up with their hands
so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone.
You will trample upon lions and cobras;
you will crush fierce lions and serpents under your feet!
The Lord says, “I will rescue those who love me.
I will protect those who trust in my name.
When they call on me, I will answer;
I will be with them in trouble.
I will rescue and honor them.
I will reward them with a long life
and give them my salvation.”
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Clouds
It’s one thing to sing about joy and peace when all is sunny and warm; it’s another when clouds hang over the horizon like dismal forebodings.
It’s one thing to praise God when healing comes and everything works according to design specifications; it’s another when undeniable pain interrupts sleep and a doctor says we need to schedule a biopsy.
I have often heard the expression “struggling with…” as in, “He is struggling with an alcohol/porn/Oxycontin addiction,” or, “She is struggling with a victim mentality/sympathy addiction/negative attitude problem.” I’ve used the phrase myself.
It is easier for him to say, “I am struggling with an addiction,” than it is to say, “I confess that I am giving in to an addiction,” or for her to say, “I am struggling with discouragement,” than “I am choosing to obsess about how much harder my life has been than other peoples’.”
It’s a euphemism, a prettier way to lie to ourselves and others. The truth is he has stopped fighting his addiction and she is deliberately wallowing in self-pity. The devil can custom-make the temptations he waves in front of our eyes, but we are the ones who choose to bite into them.
Here’s another crazy thing: it is so easy to divert attention by criticizing others for taking bites from forbidden fruit that are unattractive to us, while our own mouths are busy chomping temptation tidbits. I am not tempted by a case of beer (I can’t get it past my nose) but if a loved one driving on winter roads is an hour past estimated arrival time I can go from re-checking my watch to worrying about funeral plans in a ridiculously short period of time. I have habitually docked my boat in Worry Bay for far too many years. This is a change that doesn’t come easy.
My confession: I have been giving in to fear. For about three weeks I have allowed the “what-ifs” to drown out God’s promises to never leave me or forsake me. Fear has not been there the whole time, but often enough to distract me from enjoying precious moments with my new grandchild.
At first I kept the secret of ominous symptoms to myself, but then I had a dream about putting make-up on with a spatula and someone telling me that putting on a good face doesn’t make the problem go away, nor is it honest. That’s not faith; that’s denial. There is a greater truth that is seen from God’s perspective, but it doesn’t make the mere facts seen from human perspective untrue — merely limited.
This morning I read Psalm 57:
Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me,
for in you my soul takes refuge;
in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge,
till the storms of destruction pass by.
I cry out to God Most High,
to God who fulfills his purpose for me.
He will send from heaven and save me;
he will put to shame him who tramples on me. Selah
God will send out his steadfast love and his faithfulness!
It’s a choice, the fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control) or the fruit of temptation (“Did God really say…?”).
This is a storm on the horizon. Maybe it will blow over, maybe it won’t. The Lord has safely seen me through many storms and He will safely see me through this one as well. Today I choose to listen to Holy Spirit.
Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name!
Related post
At a Standstill: https://charispsallo.wordpress.com/2012/05/20/at-a-standstill/
Charis: Subject to Change 