Christian living

Peace Be Still…..

“He said to them, “Why are you afraid, you men of little faith?” Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and it became perfectly calm. The men were amazed, and said, “What kind of a man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?” Matthew 8:26,27

The people of Japan are experiencing the horrific effects of a massive earthquake. The footage is heart-breaking. To see homes, buildings, streets washed away is devastating. It was unexpected and there is never any preparation for something like that….It happened around 2 PM right in the middle of a work day. The fear is resulting Tsunamis up and down the coast…..

The truth is, there are all kinds of Tsunamis in life. My best friend feels like she is standing in the midst of one right now. She is under so much stress she actually forgets to breathe. She has the burden of taking care of both elderly parents, neither one of whom can get around, one suffering from Dementia and one from Alzheimer’s. Most of the time, they don’t talk, they bark orders.

She feels like her world has stopped, and it pretty much has. Life is going on normally without a hitch for others, but hers has stalled out. There is no time for herself. And it is affecting her health…..Life can feel very much like you are standing in the middle of an earthquake that is still going on. Nothing feels stable, nothing can be planned, because the job is never over………Whether it is a natural disaster, or a family problem, the symptoms are the same. Stress is stress, and the body doesn’t know the difference. It screams, fight or flight.

She longs to hear the words of Jesus, “Peace Be Still.” Oh, how she wishes she could be still, just for a moment. How she longs to be in that boat with Him.

Hear the wind cease…..feel the torrential wind die down……hear the sound of the waves lapping gently against the boat…..

But she can. As believers we have the assurance that He is keeping us. That He is here with us, this He has promised us. His peace is for us. And we have help…..”But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be afraid.” John 14: 26,27

Know right now……..He is keeping you. You may not feel Him there, but you know He is. You have not blown up, hit anyone, exploded, and you are still laughing at times. He is keeping you…..and He will continue to keep you. Sometimes it just boils down to that. And one minute, one hour at a time.

When I was writing this post I remembered this song that was popular back in the seventies….

“Put your hand in the hand of the man who stilled the water
Put your hand in the hand of the man who calmed the sea
Take a look at yourself and you can look at others differently
By puttin your hand in the hand of the man from Galilee….”
(As recorded by Ocean) GENE MACLELLAN 1970

I am so glad I know that Man, and so glad my friend does too…….Please pray for those in Japan today and all others affected by stress of all kinds. If you can, help them carry their burden today…..

Lesson by the sea

That day Jesus went out of the house and was sitting by the sea………
……..And large crowds gathered to Him, so He got into a boat and sat down, and the whole crowd was standing on the beach. And He spoke many things to them in parables, saying, “Behold, the sower went out to sow; and as he sowed, some seeds fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate them up.
“Others fell on the rocky places, where they did not have much soil; and immediately they sprang up, because they had no depth of soil. “But when the sun had risen, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. “Others fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked them out.
And others fell on the good soil and yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty. He who has ears, let him hear.” Matthew 13:1-9
If you have ever planted a garden, you know the importance of getting all the elements right. Way before you plant the seed, you meticulously mix the soil. You add everything you think it needs, just the right balance of every chemical component you can think of that might help turn seeds into plants. You plant the seeds…..you water, you pray for sun, then rain, you go out every morning and if you are like my friend, you speak encouraging words to them….
Then, magically the first green shoot appears and you feel an exultant joy, you are the proud parent of a little sprout! They really do begin to feel a bit like your children! But here is what every farmer or gardener knows. Sometimes no matter what you do, they don’t make it. I know this feeling of helplessness. I recently babysat some little sprouts while the master gardener was gone. I took it personally when some of them died. I asked myself, “What did I do wrong?’ “What could I have done to save them?”  
Sometimes we beat ourselves up because we think we could have done more, said something different, but the truth is, we can only lead them to the living water, we can’t make them drink.
There is not one thing more Jesus can do to save us. I think when He went out into the wilderness for that forty day test, He was thinking of us. He was already praying for those who would accept His message joyfully, but He also knew not everyone would.
“Listen carefully: Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground, dead to the world, it is never any more than a grain of wheat. But if it is buried, it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over. In the same way, anyone who holds on to life just as it is destroys that life. But if you let it go, reckless in your love, you’ll have it forever, real and eternal.’ The Message

all photos from publicdomainpictures.net

Ashes to ashes……

Yet even now, says the Lord,
Return to me with all your heart,
With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
Rend your hearts and not your clothing.

Today I will wear ashes not on my forehead, but I will be wearing them on my heart. I wasn’t raised in the tradition of ashes, in fact I can’t remember ever seeing someone wearing ashes on Ash Wednesday. My own denomination didn’t do that, but sometimes I wish they had. This morning though, I realized something about myself when I was meditating on everything this season means. I was thinking of my habits. How much do they control me, my little rituals?

I am one of those people who love the little things. By the time I get up, my coffee is done. I would never buy one without an auto-setup. That first cup is eagerly anticipated, coveted. It gets me up  in the morning…..And my books, my piles of books. I have them organized, the ones I am reading now in a stack by the bed, and the ones next on the list on another pile in my bookshelf. I am riddled with habits, rituals.

When did they start controlling me? How easily could I let them go? Lent starts all these questions for many people. What should I give up? I tend to want to control that too. I am going about it all wrong just in the question itself. “What should I give up?” As if it is my decision!…..I am worse off than I thought.

I realized it is an open heart He wants. A pliable, yielding heart……one He can work with.

Return to the Lord, your God,for he is gracious and merciful,


slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love,


and relents from punishing.

It saddens me that we don’t see people wearing ashes anymore. It seems we are too cool for that. I hear the lament all the time, “Nothing is sacred anymore.” It does seem to be true. We used to close businesses on Sundays. Then we stopped selling alcohol on Sundays. Then it was changed to selling it after noon. When nothing is sacred anymore, everyone loses.

I admire Chick-fil-a for sticking to their guns and remaining closed. I am glad they are so successful. They understand that when you do things God’s way, you will be blessed. And even if you are not, you did what you knew to be right.

Today I will be wearing ashes on my heart, the ones God put there. I will try my best to keep it open and soft…..and to release all those little things I hold so dear.

You can’t outgive God

“Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.” Malachi 3:10

There is much talk and debate about tithing in the church today. I grew up with the idea of tithing. People say now that we are in the “church age” we are no longer under the Old Testament law of “tithing.” People go back and forth about how much we “should” give. But I think that is missing the point. Giving is all about the heart. This is how Paul put it: “Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”

The New Testament is full of verses about giving…….

When we take the obligation out of giving, everything changes. It liberates us to give out of the abundance and gratitude of our heart.  We give because God has given so much to us. We can never outgive God, He has already given all He has. He gave us His very treasure, the thing that was nearest and dearest to His heart.

God gave His Son…..
And Jesus gave Himself…..

Out of our tremendous gratitude, we give ourselves.

This is not easy sometimes. Especially giving that calls for a sacrifice. Giving that hurts, costs us something. But God attaches a blessing to that, when we do it……”Give generously to him and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to.” Deuteronomy 15:10

He knows it is not easy. All her life my Mom had to budget. Before computers and online banking, which she has never used, she knew exactly how much money she had in the bank. She still does. My Dad worked two and three jobs, always. He hardly ever took sick time. Mom did childcare in our home. They saved. We didn’t go to fancy restaurants, didn’t go to Disneyland……but they always gave.

They are a testimony of what happens when you spend a life giving……..My Mom says: “I told your Dad how much money we had in our checking account and he just laughed!” She says, “The money just keeps coming in.” And my Mom keeps giving it out! To friends, neighbors, everyone with a need…….She always runs it by Dad, who says, “Don’t tell me how much, just do it.” He has learned you can’t outgive God.

There is one who scatters, and yet increases all the more, and there is one who withholds what is justly due, and yet it results only in want. The generous man will be prosperous, and he who waters will himself be watered. Proverbs 11:24-25 NAS

Here is the same verse in the Message…..”The world of the generous gets larger and larger; the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller.”

So don’t worry about how much you should give, just give and you will be blessed!

Today I give thanks for all who have sown seeds of giving in me:

the blogging community for contributing their time and talents back to God…..my parents, who went without themselves to give me braces and send me to a dermatologist among many other things……so many friends who over the years, gave me time, support, kindness, laughter, prayers and shoulders to cry and lean on…..relatives now gone who went above and beyond to pay medical bills when I was born, teachers who stayed to visit after school, giving encouragement….Pastors who rightly divided the Word of truth all along the way……And lived it….God, of course, who gave all He had so that I might live…….#639-646

holy experience

Which type are you?

The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” John 3:8

Today I am continuing my thoughts and reflections from John 3. Yesterday I came to rest on this section of verse 8: “you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” I stopped……. It seems that Jesus is saying here that I have to be ready at a moments notice to go where He sends, where He leads. This verse was somewhat convicting to me…….I am not crazy about spontaneity, I only like planned change, when I decide!


I am a person who likes to dig in, settle down, burrow in, put down roots. I don’t like uprooting, moving, or picking up stakes. I lived in my hometown for the first 30 years of my life. Then I moved to two different states…..but I wasn’t crazy about it. I did it for work. I am a long term person, I was at my first job for 14 years, and the one I have presently for 15. If I were a vegetable I think I would be a potato, very comfortable and secure in my warm happy place until final harvest. It takes a lot to make me move!
 
When I was a kid, whenever we would come across a dandelion that had gone to seed we just had to blow it. That is just what we did. We didn’t have all the sophisticated games we have now so we had to invent our own. The challenge was to not leave one seed attached left after just one puff…….I was thinking how this relates to God and me and John 3:8. The Holy Spirit, working in me will blow those seeds onto whomever I am rooted next to. Sometimes He needs to help me along by a powerful gust, and sometimes He needs to do something drastic and rip me out by the roots and blow me another direction. This can be a very painful process……and yet, I can see why it is necessary.
 
The truth is, God needs both kinds of people, movers and shakers, and those who like to stay put. He is able to work equally well with both types of personalities. Sometimes I beat myself up for not being more willing to move, to go where He sends, and I am sure others beat themselves up for not being more stable, for always bolting at the next opportunity. He works patiently with each of us, in all of our glorious individuality moving us this way and that.

I think the key is to be open…….to listen with an open heart, to hear and obey when He speaks. To be ready. And He won’t hate me if I don’t, He will lovingly keep prodding me along.

I think a good writing project would be to describe what kind of vegetable you are and why?

On being Born Again…..

 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” John 3:5-8
In our culture it is somewhat acceptable to be a “Christian,” or “Religious,” or “Church-going” and it seems everyone is “Spiritual” now. But just tell someone you are “Born-Again,” and see how their expression changes. But after all, that is what Jesus said we have to do to enter His Kingdom. This term “born-again” illicits some very interesting reactions from people at times. Someone I know used to say “those born-agains.” There was some derision in the tone. I think they thought we swung from the light fixtures in church.
I can’t honestly say that I blame them, especially when I watch some of the “Christian” programming on TV, some of it really does make me cringe.
I will say that it was the best thing that has ever happened to me! And so far, I have never heard anyone say, “Oh, I wish I hadn’t done that.”
Further thoughts on John 3 tomorrow………

Bear one another’s burdens

“Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves. Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else,  for each one should carry their own load.” Galatians 6:2-5
At first glance I was confused by these verses because they seem to contradict one another, first it says to carry each other’s burdens and then it turns around and says for each to carry their own load. But after some online study I found that it does not. The key is in the meaning of the words burden and load.
The word for burdens is baros, which means “heaviness, weight, burden, trouble” In verse six the word for load is phortion and means, “of burdensome rites.” While the first speaks of helping one another through troubles the second speaks of the responsibility each person has for their own troubles and sins.
Helping someone to carry a burden is a very good thing. But, actually taking the load on yourself is much different. It is like two people walking, one carrying a very heavy pack. They make it look easy so you say, “Here friend, let me take that awhile”…..WHOA! once you strap that pack on yourself you realize just how heavy it is. I got a picture of Frodo and Sam this morning while I was thinking about this. Sam was always supporting Frodo as he carried the weight of the ring, but there were times when Sam actually wore the ring himself, and immediately he felt the montrous weight of the burden Frodo carried.
What started this whole train of thought was yesterday. I felt just a tiny bit of the load that my very best friend carries dealing with a Mom with Alzheimer’s and a Dad with Dementia, that is, Dementia with quite a bit of meanness thrown in, I might add. I was on the way to get them groceries for them, as a favor to her. It’s the least I could do since she actually got to get away for a bit. I stopped at a red light. Just for a second, I felt just a bit of what she must feel all the time……….Tears sprang to my eyes. She has dealt with the loss of both of them this year, but still they hang on.

“God, there but for the grace of You go all of us……” 
I thought of how you have to put your own mind in a very strange state to deal with people who aren’t in their right mind. I am sure she wonders at times if she is losing her own sanity just trying to deal with them. She does amazingly well. She knows who her God is and that He is a very Big God. He can handle it when she cannot.
And behind it all, one thing stands out……
There was One who took our burden for all time. A very awful burden. One that only He could carry, and He did it willingly for us. He didn’t want us to have to. He knew that we couldn’t carry it, not even for one moment. I think, in light of that we are “more than conquerors in this life.”
When all the dross of this life is burned up, there will be one thing left.
Endless Gratitude.

pictures from google images……

A bouquet of praise………

“If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.” 1 Peter 4:11

Corrie Ten Boom was released from Nazi Death Camp Ravensbruck due to a “clerical error.” All women her age were killed soon after her release. Shortly before her sister Betsy died there, she and Corry led church services from inside Barracks 29. She or her sister would read from their one “secreted” Bible. Here is how she describes one of those typical evenings there surrounded by the unspeakable evil of everything that was going on around them:

“At first Betsie and I called these meetings with great timidity. But as night after night went by and no guard ever came near us, we grew bolder. So many now wanted to join us that we held a second service after evening roll call. . . (These) were services like no others, these times in Barracks 28. A single meeting night might include a recital of the Magnificat in Latin by a group of Roman Catholics, a whispered hymn by some Lutherans, and a sotto-voce chant by Easter Orthodox women. With each moment the crowd around us would swell, packing the nearby platforms, hanging over the edges, until the high structures groaned and swayed.”
“At last either Betsie or I would open the Bible. Because only the Hollanders could understand the Dutch text we would translate aloud in German. And then we would hear the life-giving words passed back along the aisles in French, Polish, Russian, Czech, and back into Dutch. They were little previews of heaven, these evenings beneath the light bulb” (Ten Boom 1971, p. 201)

Betsie’s last words to Corrie before she died there in that concentration camp were: “…(we) must tell them what we have learned here. We must tell them that there is no pit so deep that He is not deeper still. They will listen to us, Corrie, because we have been here.” (Ten Boom, 1971, p. 217)

Corrie spent the rest of her life traveling around the world and speaking to people about all the things she had learned through her experiences. After every engagement people would gather around her and thank her for so greatly encouraging them in their faith. Every time she would give the glory to the Lord. She would go back to her room, get down in her knees, and present those compliments in thanks to God. She called it giving God a “bouquet of praise.”

I like that…….Corrie learned the secret of praise, and counting your blessings even when it seems there are none to count. She learned that if you start praising and thanking God, the blessings come……I am counting with Ann today and everyone else in the Gratitude Community, and remembering Corrie.

people who give even at the risk of their own life, people who have inspired me, encouraged me in my faith, some I have known, some I have not, people who have not only shared my burdens, but worn them, people that have stood behind me all my life so that I never had to go through anything alone, God who is faithful, who never asks me to do anything without His strength! 631-638

holy experience

A Great Mystery

“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.” Acts 17:24-26

Our lives will never be complete until we are reunited with our Father who created us. God has not hidden Himself, it is really rather easy to see Him every single day. When you listen to a child pray you hear how easy it is for them to speak freely without inhibition. They will pray about everything from a sick pet, to something that happened on the playground. When do we lose that?

The truth is, God is very close to us all and it is very easy to see Him every day.

When our heart is receptive….
When our minds dare to hope for what seems impossible.  Jesus said, “If? There are no ‘ifs’ among believers. Anything can happen.” Mark 9:23 The Message

To me it is one of the great mysteries. How two people can hear the gospel message and one accepts, while the other rejects.

What would make my as yet unbelieving sister in law listen to a song called “Give Me Jesus,” a song I barely understood the words to as sung by Jessye Norman, filled with inflection and operatic overtones. What would make her understand and respond to every single word……and in her shaky hand, her body weak from cancer and chemo write the name of the artist and song title down?


And what would make my very liberal sister in law, also accept an invitation to a play one night, a play about Heaven and Hell, something I thought she would never attend? We were all surprised, and even more so when she walked down the aisle at the end to say “Yes” to Jesus.
 
Yes to Heaven, where she resides now.
 
Somebody prays, someone is sent, somebody preaches, somebody listens and responds……. Yes, it is a great mystery!

“How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?” Romans 10:14

Sometimes we preach with actions, sometimes with words, and hopefully always with lots of love behind them both….
 
What about you? What made you decide to follow Jesus?
 
God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing. C.S. Lewis

True Freedom

“For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Romans 6:23

The latest addition to my video library includes a concert given by the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir inside Angola Prison. I knew about the prison but I had no idea what has been going on there for the past 15 or so years that Burl Cain became warden. What an eye opener! Come to find out there are scads of articles all over the net about this and how everyone is amazed at how the whole atmosphere of this prison, at one time one of the bloodiest and most violent prisons in existence. It used to be called “the Hole,” and “The Alcatraz of the South,” but now approximately 1,600 of the 5,000 inmates are born again Christians.

This prison has a very dark past that began before the Civil War. It is a place of no second chances and 85 percent of these prisoners will die within it’s walls. And yet……Everything started to change with the arrival of Burl Cain. He allowed Prison Fellowship to come in, and church groups to hold Bible studies. It now has 3 Chapels and a 200 student Bible college. They intentionally built the church steeples higher than the guard towers. They also have a Christian radio station on site.

Most moving to me were the testimonies of these prisoners, many of them as young as 18 when they entered. They know they may be in for life, but now they have hope for the first time because they have met the only one who can make anyone truly free, Jesus Christ. No longer hopeless, you can now see the light of Christ behind their eyes.

Everything they had was stripped away, including their freedom. It was there that Jesus met them. Really, that is how we all must meet Him isn’t it?

When you get to the point where you realize we can do nothing to save ourselves, and nothing we do on our own is good enough, that is where He comes in. It is there He meets us. The tragedy is, some out here in the land of what we call freedom will never find Him because they are too busy chasing everything this world has to offer……

Because of their new life in Christ, these prisoners can taste true freedom for the first time, and they are sharing it with everyone who will listen! Burl Cain says: “When these guys step into church, they have a small island of freedom, because this is no longer prison, it is church.” That just about says it all.

We are all being rehabilitated really aren’t we? They are being rehabilitated for the outside world, and we are all being rehabilitated to live in Heaven someday. That is what this life is all about, getting us ready for the next!

“I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart and, whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me.” Philippians 1:3-7

Church at Angola Prison

Photos from Google