faith

Fellowship of the Unashamed

An African martyr’s last words…….
I am part of the Fellowship of the Unashamed.
The die has been cast, I have stepped over the line.
The decision has been made. I am a disciple of Jesus Christ.
I won’t look back, let up, slow down, back away, or be still. My past is
redeemed, my present makes sense, and my future is secure.
I’m finished and done with low living, sight-walking, small
planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tame visions,
mundane talking, cheap giving, and dwarfed goals
My pace is set, my gait is fast, my goal is Heaven, my road is narrow, my way
is rough, my companions few, my Guide reliable, my mission clear.
I won’t give up, back up, let up, or shut up until I’ve preached up, prayed up,
paid up, stored up, and stayed up for the cause of Christ.
I must go until He returns, give until I drop, preach
until all know, and work until He comes.
And when He comes to get His own, He will have no
problem recognizing me. My colors will be clear.
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes………” Romans 1:16
Since time is short today, I thought I would share this writing that I found. When I read it I can hear the echoes of the Apostle Paul as he travels from city to city with the Gospel message. Once his life’s work was persecuting the church, and by the end of his life he is ready to die and does die for the cause of Christ. What happened in between? He met Jesus. What happened to this African martyr? He met Jesus.
Will He be able to recognize me?……it is a sobering question, but one I think I can never stop asking.
 “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

The view from the top

The climber climbs for the joy of it, and because he believes the view from the top will be worth it. We climb too, knowing the Keeper of our steps holds our feet fast; though we slip He keeps us from falling headlong. Though the climb is strenuous and sometimes difficult He surprises us with joys unspeakable on the journey at every turn and infuses us with the hope of victory at the top where He waits…… 
“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 hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. Acts 17:24-27
There will be many people at malls in the coming weeks, and rushing too and fro on the freeways, working, eating, visiting, sleeping, and all the while there is a God who waits for them to look His way. He does not need us, but He wants us!
His heart aches for knowing that those who do know Him will not speak of Him often enough, though they know the wonderful truth, the wonderful story…….Lord, make Your Word sing in our hearts and make the melody so bright, so clear, so strong that we can no longer keep it in!

A Rational Response

Faith is a rational response to the evidence of God’s self revelation in nature, human history, the Scriptures, and His resurrected Son. W. Bingham Hunter, “The God Who Hears.”

In my reading of Scripture today about Jesus resurrection I was thinking about how people want proof that God is real, proof that the Bible is real, proof that Jesus really was raised from the dead. If they only had “proof” they say, then they would believe. Yet there was proof. Is proof:

Since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. Romans 1:19,20

All the evidence is in…….Jesus was seen by hundreds of eyewitnesses after the resurrection. Nobody ever denied that the tomb was empty, but instead they offered up different theories as to why it was empty….by His very resurrection from the dead, He proved that everything He said was true. Mary was the first to see the empty tomb, then she ran to tell the disciples. Peter and another disciple ran to the tomb and saw it empty…….”Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.” John 20:8-10 

But Mary stayed behind at the tomb and Jesus appeared to her……… John 20:11-16

He is a rewarder of all who seek Him.

“A man rejects God neither because of intellectual demands nor because of the scarcity of evidence. A man rejects God because of a moral resistance that refuses to admit his need for God.” Ravi Zacharias

Continuing my gratitude count today, gratitude that God has left so much evidence around us…..He wants so very much for us to find Him, to know Him……Thankful today for the endless traces of His presence…..Just enough oxygen for us to breathe, just enough warmth from the sun, just enough heartbeats to keep us going, just the right amount of blood that pumps through, carrying life……shelter from the elements…..laughter to give us hope, just enough gravity to keep our feet on the ground and keep us from spinning off the planet, enough wind to make us wonder…..enough faith and joy to keep us from giving up, and more than enough love to save us, even when we don’t deserve it…..#538-548

holy experience

In the trenches of life

Tlaquepaque Chapel, Sedona Arizona
“But let all who take refuge in You be glad; let them ever sing for joy. Spread Your protection over them, that those who love your name my rejoice in You.” Psalm 5:11
This morning wasn’t a calm prayer time for me……I was restless, I was worried. I was wondering why circumstances seem so hard for people who are just trying to do the right things. Why does it seem that certain people sail through life with little difficulty? If they need something done they just pay to have someone do it, with money no object they are unscathed by the things that bog the rest of us down. They don’t have to mess with details, they don’t lose sleep over what is not getting done because someone else is doing it…..or not. Either way, they live above the fray unaffected.  
So this prayer is for the rest of us here in the trenches of life. The ones who look around and realize they are standing alone, with no backup in sight. The ones who get robbed themselves because they are caring for others. The ones with anxious prayers like David, who was not a stranger to adversity.
He lost sleep, he was anxious, fearful, distressed and tired. But He also knew his God. He knew that his God was big enough to handle anything. He also knew that God was a refuge where he could always find shelter.
As I was reading, but mostly worrying this morning. I read these lines…..the ones that God highlighted for me, the ones where my finger stopped moving across the page.
“In the morning O Lord you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before You and wait in expectation.”
I pray, but so many times I don’t wait in expectation, I try to figure things out my own way. I don’t wait in expectation to see what God will do, I don’t even give Him the chance. I believe that is what He wanted me to see this morning. I marvel at the faith of David, a man after God’s own heart. He knew how to wait the right way. 
I love how David poured out his heart to the Lord. I can always find comfort in the Psalms because I know that I can find everything there that mirrors exactly what I am feeling at any given moment!
“I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” Mark 9:24
Jesus with children, Sedona Art Studio


What is faith?

Earth’s crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God; ~Elizabeth Barrett Browning

My definition of faith: “Faith is the absolute certainty that what we believe will come to pass.”

Websters definition of faith: b (1) : firm belief in something for which there is no proof (2) : complete trust

Ever tried to explain your faith to someone? It is like explaining the concept of eternity. Our finite minds just can’t get a grip on it. It is a good exercise though to think about why you believe a certain way and how you came to those beliefs.  Trying to articulate it is not easy. People say, “How can you be so sure?” Here are a few reasons why I have faith in God.

God has proven Himself over and over through circumstances and changes in me and other people…He is faithful, even when I am not.

Because the Bible says so and I believe the Bible to be God’s inspired word. “So faith comes from hearing, that is, hearing the Good News about Christ.” Romans 19:17 NLT 

Through answered prayer and miracles that can be explained no other way.

Because of everything I see in the world around me.  

The Holy Spirit within me verifies that it is true.

“When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” John 16:13

Many people take issue with the fact that Christians seem so dogmatic in their beliefs, that we refuse to entertain the possibility that we may be wrong. The question then becomes, why would I want to devote my whole life to a belief system that I really wasn’t sure of? 

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” Hebrews 11:11

If we have evidence of things not seen, that would mean that there is evidence that we can see, hear and touch. Something that is tangible. What it takes is opening up our hearts as well as our eyes.  I came to the conclusion that the odds of all of this just happening on its own were a statistical  impossibility.

And I had praying parents……

To me, this question of faith is fascinating. I found myself going down a rabbit-trail that wouldn’t end. I couldn’t find a place to end this post, I kept thinking of more verses, more questions. The simplest way to put it is, I once was lost but now as found, was blind but now I see!

God writes the gospel not in the Bible alone, but on trees and flowers and clouds and stars. ~Martin Luther

Photo Mark Wilson, Globe Photo

Starting the Day Right


PSALM 143:8-10

Let the morning bring me Word
of your unfailing love,
for I have put my trust in you.
Show me the way I should go,
for to you I lift up my soul.
Rescue me from my enemies, O Lord,
for I hide myself in you.
Teach me to do your will,
for you are my God;
may your good Spirit
lead me on levelground.

I started the day the only safe way to start it….By rolling out of bed, placing my forehead to the carpet and uttering a prayer….first for strength, then a thank you for another day on the earth….for my health, for the miracle of being able to start again. All over the world, others are waking too. Some with prayers, some with curses, some with a combination of both.

Really, I start the day with an advantage. An advantage of weakness. A knowledge that I can’t do this on my own. When I am off work, I don’t start off nearly this needy. But I should, since I have no guarantee of what may happen on any given day only that You walk beside me.

So I gave my day over, and whatever happens. God is in it. And it will be good because He is with me.

The most wonderful moment of the day is that when creation in it’s innocence asks permission to “be” once again, as it did on the first morning that ever was. Thomas Merton

Finding grace along the path


On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?”

Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you? What if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. Yet there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. He went on to say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him.”

From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve. Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” Book of John

I think this is the wisest thing Peter ever said. I have wondered about this passage many times. I wonder how these disciples could have been with Jesus, witnessed miracles, and still turned away? To me it is one of the saddest passages in Scripture. Sadder still because I think of my own times of turning away. Moments, years, where I went my own way, did my own thing. Keeping Jesus in the background was my own form of turning away.

But God in His great mercy, pulled me back in, as He did Peter….”But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.” Luke 22:32

The more I experience His grace, the less I look back. Like Peter, I can echo, “Where would I go Lord?” There is nothing in the world that I would trade for my relationship with the Lord. Each day that goes by gives me another opportunity and reason to say, “Yes, Lord, I am staying on Your path because it is the only one worth walking down, even when the way is rocky and I can’t see my way around the next bend in the road, because You are on it with me.”

With His Grace, we get the strength to keep walking!

Filled to the brim


On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.”
“Dear woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied, “My time has not yet come.”

In reading this passage over again today and reading some commentary along with it, I felt more and more like I was watching a very intimate moment between mother and Son. Certain versions of these verses almost make it sound like Jesus was being harsh or abrupt with Mary, but I don’t think this is the case at all. Jesus and his mother undoubtedly had a very close relationship, He being her oldest son, and she knowing who He was from the beginning. She was probably used to taking problems to Jesus and He was always adept at fixing them. When the wine ran out, she knew where to go. Another possibility, maybe this was Mary’s way of gently nudging Jesus into the limelight, like a stage mother urging her charge to “get out there on stage, and show them who you are already.”

Mary was a strong woman with just the right characteristics to handle everything that went along with being the mother of God’s Son. She wasn’t a lightweight. From the first dire warning from Simeon in the temple, this was a woman who was told that her heart would be pierced by a sword of great sorrow. But she also had great faith in her Son. That is why she brushed over His comment and went to the servants anyway……His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

I liked this commentary I found by John Reed:

It is important to understand the response Jesus made to his mother’s indirect request. The Authorised Version conveys the sense better than any other version I know. Jesus replied: Woman what have I to do with thee.” v4. This can be read with the emphasis on the ‘do’ which sounds as if Jesus is saying, “Woman I haven’t got anything to do with you.” In other words Jesus told Mary the shortage of wine was nothing to do with him – it was her problem.

I am pretty sure that Jesus would not speak to his mother like that. Jesus probably used an idiomatic expression in Aramaic. It would be difficult to translate this into the Greek. We use many idiomatic expressions in English like, ‘put that in your pipe and smoke it.’ It is not easy to convey the belligerence of that phrase in Japanese. Mary would hardly have asked him to assist if that was the sort of son he was.

Jesus spoke to his mother, as he had done many times in the past, in an amused, jocular fashion. He had a twinkle in his eye. He addressed her with a tolerant smile and Mary knew that he would do something to rescue the situation. Jesus had a sweet, easy and affectionate relationship with Mary. It is no bad thing to treat our parents with good humour and consideration and to do our best to please them.

“Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim.” John 2:7 And the rest is history…..

God, please remove obstructions in my life that prevent You from filling me completely and then spilling that love onto others. Amen

Need a touch today?


“A large crowd followed and pressed around him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.”

If I just touch His clothes….
Jesus knew that someone had touched Him specifically for healing. This wasn’t just someone in the crowd jostling against Him. This was someone who had touched Him in faith. Someone who took a risk, someone who had tried everything, and now was ready to try Jesus.

Ever feel like that? I think about this woman and know that she was shunned from her community. If she was bleeding she was ceremonially unclean and therefore could not join in to any aspect of life in her community. I imagine her hiding in the crowd, pushing her way through, and finally getting a glimpse of the back of his hem dragging the ground. Almost there….

At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”
“You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ”

She probably just wanted to disappear from the crowd but Jesus wanted to make sure that she was recognized. He wanted to make contact with her, see her face, let her know that He appreciated her act of faith…

But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”

She didn’t seek Jesus out because he was a good teacher, a good role model, a person with high moral standards, or a charismatic preacher, she sought Him out because she believed that He was the one person who could do what nobody else had been able to do for her. Heal her. What she found was the One who could not only heal her body, but her soul as well.

What we believe about Jesus can make all the difference in life here and now and for all eternity…….

Scripture selections taken from Mark 5

The glory of being human


It is a glorious destiny to be a member of the human race, though it is a race dedicated to many absurdities and one which makes many terrible mistakes: yet, with all that, God Himself gloried in becoming a member of the human race. A member of the human race! To think that such a common realization should suddenly seem like news that one holds the winning ticket in a cosmic sweepstakes.

I have the immense joy of being a member of a race in which God became incarnate. As if the sorrows and stupidities of the human condition could overwhelm me, now I realize what we all are. And if everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun. Meditation from Thomas Merton: A Book of Hours

As awoke this morning at 4:00 AM I wasn’t exactly glorying at being human. I would much rather have slept and gloried a bit later, but just the same, somewhere in my spirit I echoed these thoughts of Merton. What a miracle to be able to get up, live another day healthy enough to work, to praise God for the fact that I am even here….every minute we have on this earth is a treasure and a blessing because God holds us in His mighty palm. Whatever comes my way today, Jesus be my strength!

In spite of my weakness, my frailty and failures, help me be a blessing to someone today, Lord. Amen

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 2 Corinthians 12:9