Do You Trust Me?

You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.

                           Isaiah 26:3

“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
    whose trust is the Lord.
He is like a tree planted by water,
    that sends out its roots by the stream,
and does not fear when heat comes,
    for its leaves remain green,
and is not anxious in the year of drought,
    for it does not cease to bear fruit.”

                           Jeremiah 17:7-8

The other day I watched the movie Enola Holmes, a period piece about the teenage sister of the famous British detective. I enjoyed it tremendously, as it was engaging and full of intrigue. There was a scene in which she and a young man are being chased on a train when she spies an escape that would require jumping off onto a grassy slope as the train slowed down while approaching a bridge. She didn’t get the chance to explain her plan to this young man; seconds before it was time to jump (because the villain was ever so close), she looked him straight in the eye with outstretched hand and said, “Do you trust me?” He hesitated for a brief moment, clasped her hand and jumped. Despite the bumps and bruises, they safely escaped to London.

The next morning that scene’s question reminded me of another movie in which the question was posed the same way—Aladdin. In fact, it’s posed twice—both by Aladdin, and both to Princess Jasmine, in different situations but both with the same outstretched hand and almost challenging way in which it was posed. Jasmine’s character of course takes Aladdin’s hand and flees harm’s way in the first scenario, and sees a whole new world while riding a magic carpet in the second.

There have been a lot of challenges going on for me this year, both personally and professionally. In addition to my husband having been laid off from his job back in March because of the lockdown (don’t worry—he found another one in July), I found out in February that the service that I was the program manager for was going to end in October and that I would have to find a new job after the end of January 2021 or receive a severance package. It’s a standard practice and it isn’t anything personal; “it is what it is”, as the saying goes. My stepmother passed away suddenly at the end of May, leaving my dad to have to sort out family issues with her children and navigate trust paperwork and car titles all through the midst of a pandemic. I’ve experienced a couple of health-related concerns (don’t worry—I’m okay) and not too long ago, I had to run a close family member to the emergency room for chest pains for which we still don’t know the cause (it wasn’t a heart attack). I am burdened with concern for the church family still feeling like a family, given the separations we’ve experienced as of late. Add to all of this the emotional and mental overhead and toll that the pandemic, extended political drama, concerns about civil unrest and division, and I am admittedly overwhelmed.

I’ve grappled with the fact that I’m feeling stressed at times, not because I feel like I shouldn’t be experiencing hard times—no, I know that the difficult times are purposeful for my spiritual growth. I grapple with that fact because I feel that as a believer, I shouldn’t be stressed because I know He has my whole life with its heavy and silly drama in His hands. I have even written about the liberty I have felt in knowing that those big boulders are all taken care of in Him. Husband gets laid off—God has us. I have to undergo a nuclear stress test because the cardiologist saw an irregularity in my regular stress test results—God’s got this (and He does—my heart is fine). I’m faced with working to shut down a program I gave four years of my blood, sweat, and tears to and have to find a job when it’s through—God has me through and through. So why am I stressed? Do I not have enough faith?

These questions were rattling around in my head during my prayer time the other day when the scene I described earlier from Aladdin popped into my head (where Aladdin reaching out to Jasmine asking “do you trust me?”) I remember thinking that the topic would make a great devotional, made a mental note of it, and continued to pray. It wasn’t until later that it hit me that the question was more than a devotional topic—that it was a question He was posing to me. “Do you trust Me?” I’m ashamed to admit that my initial reaction was one of fear to the point of almost dread—if I say “yes”, does that mean that something else is going to happen? Is He going to test/prune/grow me even more?

What I’ve realized since then is that to truly surrender and die to myself, as I am called—as we as believers are called to do—I have to acknowledge with both my words and my actions that He is the Lord of my life and as such, has all of my tomorrows in His hands. And even if those tomorrows come with even greater challenges to my so-called earthly security, ones that threaten to add water to the deep end of the pool in which I feel at times that I’m barely treading water, I know that my life preserver comes in the promises of hope my Father gives me in His Word, and in the comforting presence of His Holy Spirit. When the waves of chaos start to close in, I need to be deliberate in my calling out to Him, through direct prayer and requests to friends to pray for me. He will never leave me nor forsake me. I also know I do not have to bear the burdens alone, and I will be better about asking for prayers from my Christian brothers and sisters.

Yes, Lord, I do trust You. I trust You in all things.

 Prayer Requests

·      For Maurice Perkins, who fell last week and is in the hospital, and for encouragement and support for Betty.

·      For Bill Horn, who fell and broke his elbow while visiting family, and for comfort and support for Grace as they seek an orthopedist

·      For unity within the Church as we face untold distractions and challenges

·      For us to trust in Him and to seek His will in all things

Dear ones, let us always seek to trust the one Who created the heavens and earth, determines the number of stars and calls them by name.

Quotes

“God isn’t asking you to figure it out. He’s asking you to trust that He already has."

“Surrender your pen. Trust God to write your story.”

The Great British Baking Show

 Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.

                           Philippians 2:3-4

Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment

                           1 Corinthians 1:10

And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

                           Colossians 3:14

I know that I am tremendously late to the game, but I’ve started watching The Great British Baking Show on Netflix. I don’t watch a whole lot of reality television, so I’m not really in the best position to judge it against the whole of reality television, but I absolutely love this show. It could be that I’m fascinated by the lilt of the British dialects and the way they pronounce oregano as “or-eh-GONE-o” or basil as “BAZZ-el” or the “h” in the word herb or the seemingly delectable and magnificent-looking pies, breads, and pastries they create despite a ridiculous time limit. Actually, it’s both of those things and more, but I’ve recently realized what exactly it is that makes me love this show so much: the way the contestants and the judges & hosts seem to genuinely care for each other. If you’re unfamiliar with the show, let me bring you up to speed: 12-13 amateur bakers are competing for the prestige of being named Star Baker each week, culminating in winning the competition at the end of the series. Each show consists of the bakers having to bake three different recipes, and alas, one baker is eliminated each week. In most of the episodes, it’s not a surprise to the one who is not asked to return, because they know how well they did based on the feedback from the judges. The thing that just touches my heart is that right after the host announces the baker who will be leaving them, the two female hosts, the two judges, and the rest of the bakers all surround that person and just love on him or her. Tears are shed, not just by the person going home, but also by some of the remaining bakers, for genuine sadness at that person’s impending departure. There is an authentic sense of caring for all involved, and I have to admit that it’s quite refreshing.

I’ve also seen instances in which the bakers are helping each other out. Mind you, they are competing against each other for the title of UK’s Best Baker, but I’ve watched a baker help a younger baker plate her pastries because of an earlier baking debacle; I’ve seen two bakers help another get his cake out of a very sticky pan. There is sincerity in their willingness to help, and a humility in the recipient of the weekly Star Baker award. (Mind you, I’m only into the second season, so future seasons may show something completely different, but I’m betting they won’t).

There is something to be said in the unity that comes from having going through such a shared experience as a televised baking competition, with its ridiculous time constraints applied to technically difficult challenges designed to test the skill of each person. Common experiences such as these produce a camaraderie that most would not understand. This can create a bond and an empathy that can help sustain each person during their challenging trials.

Similarly, as believers, we can experience the same thing. (Wait, am I actually comparing the life of Christ’s followers to the Great British Baking Show? No, silly, I am not). As believers, we are each a child of the Living God, of the body of Christ, and recipients of the greatest gift ever conceived: that of eternal life and with it, the surety of never living this temporary life alone. Because we are in His family, bought with His blood, we have His Spirit working in us to mold and temper us into having the mind of Christ. We have the same commands from Jesus, and as such, the same goal. Proverbially, we are on the same team.

It is concerning to me when I hear of divisions in the Church. Internal denominational squabbles are punchlines in clean humorists’ jokes—tiffs about the color of the carpet in the sanctuary, the placement of the pastors’ parking spaces in the church parking lot, and the strength of the coffee, to name a few. The thing is, though, is that I daresay that each of you nodded in uncomfortable understanding to at least one of those things I just listed. Add to those squabbles some of the latest Church struggles – to have both in-person and livestreaming worship services; to allow the ordination of homosexual pastors; traditional versus contemporary services; and the list goes on—and you have an opportunity ripe for the enemy to do a “slip and stir”—he slips in through a crack in the church’s armor caused by a slight disagreement over the length of the church service or how songs are sung and then stirs things up in other areas, and pretty soon there are people truly upset with their brother or sister in Christ and a rift setting in. Because it’s human nature to choose sides, what starts as a crack grows into a crevice which could grow into a chasm.

Friends, this year has been tough on all of us, worldwide. There is a plethora of stressors threatening to overwhelm even the most spiritually mature and disciplined of us. I am not meaning to be alarmist, I promise. I am speaking about the Church universal—the body of Christ right now. Now, more than ever I’d say, we need to remember and act on the greatest commandments—to love God with our whole heart, soul, and mind and to love your neighbor as yourself. Focusing on these commandments on a personal and individual note will enable us to be united as a church and as the Church, of one accord. As the bonds of unity are strengthened, we are able to withstand both the overt and the stealth attacks from the enemy.

The world is watching. May they see Jesus in us.

Prayer Requests

·      For Gina Sheftall’s surgery this week

·      For Grace, the four-year-old daughter of Cynthia Wilkerson’s former nurse, for her recovery from surgery to remove cancerous lymph nodes and her tonsils. She will continue to need prayers as she has a malignant brain tumor, the course of treatment for which has yet to be determined

·      For those family members and friends stricken with COVID—Jack’s sister and brother-in-law, Witt Mitchum, and others

·      For us to continue to seek His will and direction for His church

Friends, we take heart because we know that the enemy has been and is defeated. We must remain vigilant, though, for we are not immune to his attacks. Let us seek to fully understand, support, and love each other as He has called us to do. He will honor this sacrifice, and He will be glorified in it.

Quotes

“Your most powerful testimony is how you treat others after the church service is over."

“It’s easy to judge. It’s more difficult to understand. Understanding requires compassion, patience, and a willingness to believe that good hearts sometimes choose poor methods.”

Pray With Me

I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me

                           John 17:20-23

 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.  Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.  Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.  Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight.

                           Romans 12:12-16

We are now in November, almost six months into a pandemic for which there may be some relief in the form of a vaccination sometime next year, but there are no guarantees that everyone is going to even get the vaccine. This pandemic has taken a toll on everyone, regardless of whether one chooses to admit it or not. Add to that the political upheaval the presidential election has caused, as well as the difficulties exacerbated by health concerns, financial woes, plus other stressors, and you have a ground that are quite ripe for the seeds of division to be sown, even within the body of Christ. The enemy has had a field day poking his proverbial finger into people, causing a maelstrom of angst, hurt, and heightened sensitivities. I have been sensing that angst for a while, across a variety of different groups of folks I interact with, and I have been praying for those different groups, both individually and corporately.

I am now calling on you to join me. It’s not that I don’t think that my prayers are effective, because they are – James 5:16b tells us that “The effective prayer of a righteous person has great power.” I am asking you to join me because of the effect prayer has on you and on those for whom you pray.

If you are hesitant to join me because you are unsure of how to pray, allow me to allay your fears. There are prayer models (mnemonics that will help you remember how to pray) like ACTS: Adoration (praising God for who and how He is), Confession (repenting of those sins you committed, and asking Him to reveal those secret sins you didn’t realize you had and asking forgiveness for them), Thanksgiving (thanking Him for what He has done for, in, and through you), and lastly Supplication (presenting requests to Him on behalf of others and yourself). Or you can use the Lord’s Prayer as a framework. However you to choose to pray, just do it. Spend time with our Almighty God—sincere, unadulterated time with Him—and He will honor it.

Join me in praying for the following:

·      For our Pastor: Lord, I lift up Pastor Wayne to You. Thank You for His servant’s heart that offers so much love to You and to Your sheep. Uplift and protect him during these unprecedented times. Help him continue to deliver the messages You want us to hear, and be with him as he goes through the process of becoming an ordained Cumberland Presbyterian minister. Thank you for bringing him to our church! We thank You also for Jody and her sacrifice, love, and support.

·      For our Worship leader and Youth Director: Lord, we are thankful for your work in Skylar’s life and ministry. Continue to watch over him and his bride Erica, as they dive into building those ministries that You brought him to Stone Oak Church for. Thank You for his passion and love for You.

·      For our Session: Lord, it is a challenging job to be an active elder, as it is purely a volunteer workforce! Give them the direction to make the decisions that are accordance to Your will and the wisdom to curate the spiritual health of the congregation.

·      For behind-the-scenes workers: Lord, we are so very thankful to have those who are willing to give of their time and talents, all of which run the gamut in their service to You and this church. Continue to fill them with joy as they serve You, and add to their numbers, if it is Your will, so that they do not become burdened in their service

·      For the lost among us: Lord, if there are people who sit among us who are lost, we pray that their hearts, ears, and eyes would be opened by the Holy Spirit through Your inspired Word, preaching, and the love of the body of Christ. Use us, please, to present the gospel to them and to those in this world who need to know Christ.

·      For connection: Lord, these are tremendously challenging times. There are members of Your body who are hurting, who are feeling disengaged and forgotten, and may not feel like they are a part of Your church right now. We praise You for what You’ve accomplished thus far from a technology point of view and sharing the service, meetings, Sunday School and the like; please show us what else we can do engage our brothers and sisters who are unable to fellowship in person.  

·      For unity: Lord, the turbulent times we’re in right now are a breeding ground for the seeds of division. Help us to empathize with each other; help us to understand the impacts of the words that we use and how they might be interpreted or misconstrued; help us to assume positive intent in all things. Protect us from the fiery darts of the enemy whose sole purpose is to divide and distract us from true worship of You by pitting us against each other.

Friends, this is not an exhaustive list. These are those things the Lord has put on my heart right now, the heaviest being the last two. Those two have been on my heart for a while, and I’ve struggled with how to even address and share them with you, especially when I don’t have a silver bullet fix for them? The Lord, in His abundant wisdom, patience, and love, led me to understand that although He made me a problem solver, there are some things that I can’t solve alone. Hence the need to involve you guys—the body of Christ—and ultimately Him, the One to Whom we will pray.

This concept is a work in progress—I reserve the right to continue to add to the list as the Lord leads, so watch out for possible sequels to this devotional topic.

Quotes

“Prayer does not change God, but it changes him who prays." - Soren Kierkegaard

“Church isn’t about where you meet, how often you meet, or how many or what types of songs you sing. It’s about coming together as a family of believers in Christ and worshiping the God of the universe.”

Truth

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

                           John 14:6

But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.

                           John 16:13

I have a daily routine-- now that I’ve been working from home lo these almost eight months! – in which I walk to the neighborhood mailbox after I log off my work laptop. It’s not a far jaunt by any means, but it gets me out of the house and my blood flowing a bit, after a long day of sitting at the computer. I’ll rifle through the mail, setting aside the few bills we get along with the various charity requests we receive, and after tucking away my beloved Readers’ Digest when it arrives, I’ll recycle the extraneous ads and offers from credit companies and the like.

The makeup of my mail has changed over the past couple of months, as I’m sure yours has, matching the pace by which television commercials and radio ads have been airing for the upcoming local, state, and federal election. For every Wendy Davis flyer I and each of my family members have received (we once received four of the same flyer—two addressed to me, one to Troy, and one to my husband), we get the same tit-for-tat flyer from Chip Roy. On the television, it’s John Cornyn and MJ Hegar, and of course, Trump and Biden. Each candidate touts that their opponent’s leadership will lead to ruin, and that theirs is the correct and genuine key to success, health, and personal satisfaction for everyone. ‘Murica!

Whatever is one to believe? Is the truth truly something that can be defined and represented by one candidate or another? I’m afraid not, as everyone’s truth seems to be relative these days, as it best aligns to one’s views. The uninformed voter is likely to fall victim to following the one with the loudest voice, or the one who slings the most amount of mud, and will be lucky if there is a modicum of truth in the message. The informed voter does all that he or she can to understand each candidate’s positions, cutting through the political maneuvering and sleight of hand to find the truth.

As believers, we face the same challenges as we navigate the world on our journey through life. We are accosted by a barrage of opinions presented as truth and volleys of politically appealing promises meant to affirm who the world says that we are or should be. The enemy has a fine array of weaponry with which to distract and confuse, to disarm and deter us from understanding truth. But fret not, my dear friends, for we have the actual Spirit of Truth living with us at all times. He directs our focus onto Lord Jesus, conforming us more into the image of Christ through our study of scripture, through prayer and communion with our heavenly Father, and through fellowship with like-minded brothers and sisters in Christ. It is through the work of the Holy Spirit in us that we are able to grow in spiritual maturity and seek more of His truth in our lives. With more of His truth in us, the less affected we are by the chaos and confusion of this world.  

Dear ones, it would be an understatement to say that these are challenging times of late. Add to that mix a contentious and volatile presidential election and, regardless of who wins that election, angst, anger, and less-than-ideal behavior and action on both sides of the political spectrum. Once all of the ballots are counted and a winner declared, there will be a cacophony of accusations, political posturing, and division. However, as believers, we will know what truth truly is. I pray that we all find comfort in the fact God is going to allow the person who is best suited to fulfill His purpose and plan to be elected, regardless of whether we voted for that person or not. I pray that the Spirit of Truth leads us to ask for God’s will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. I pray that we can still understand our bond to each other and our unity within the family of Christ.

Prayer Requests

·      For the passing of Dora Santillano’s sister—may Dora and the Santillano family be comforted by the Lord’s peace and encouragement during this time

·      For those burdened with addictions

·      For those sharing their faith and being persecuted for it

·      For us to be of one accord in seeking His will for His church

To those still worried about the election, I invite you to read the devotion I shared in George’s Sunday School class yesterday: https://www.1517.org/articles/gods-not-worried-about-the-election

Quotes

“Throw yourself upon God’s faithfulness as you do upon your bed, bringing all your weariness to His dear rest.”   -- Charles Spurgeon

“Before you ever had this problem, God already had the solution.”

Out of Sorts

Anxiety in the heart of man causes depression,
But a good word makes it glad.

Proverbs 12:25

I woke up Friday morning a bit out of sorts. The past couple of weeks had brought challenges from all angles—health, work, family, spiritual, and although I thought I’d worked through most, if not all, of these issues, there was still apparently something lingering below the surface. My morning routine was off as well—though I’d dressed in workout clothes for after my morning time with Him, I decided not to work out and instead scrolled through Facebook and Reddit.

When I logged into work, I discovered an email that just bothered the dickens out of me, regarding a piece of feedback that we were supposed to troubleshoot back in July but had been stuck in someone’s queue until the previous night. The state of my being out of sorts increased dramatically and I vented a blue streak with my team in our stand-up meeting. It was so out of character for me that a coworker reached out to me afterwards asking me if I was all right.

I wasn’t proud of how I’d responded during that meeting. I don’t like feeling like I’m on the verge of losing my cool, helpless to control the irritability inside of me. As I am wont to do, I got into my head to see if I could determine what truly was bothering me. As I have learned to do, I asked the Holy Spirit to help me in my emotional and mental quest, and He did not disappoint. He and I are still working on me turning over every single concern over to Him, knowing that some are more immediate than others, and that all of that relinquishment relies on active work on my part.

Friends, if ever there were a time that stress would or could impact us, now is that time. The worries about COVID-19 and its physical and financial impacts are tremendous. Of equal impact is the political environment we find ourselves in, with the endless mud-slinging commercials and mailers or Supreme Court justice nominations. Of even more or targeted impressions and influence, in my opinion, are the “discussions” or inflammatory comments that appear in our various social media platforms. Add to that volatile mix the challenge of distance learning, racial injustice, as well as any potential disagreements within the family or church, and you have a recipe for a tinderbox of emotions, be they irritability, anger, or depression, or any combination of the three.

What is a believer to do?

·      Understand that, despite what the enemy may tell you, having feelings like these does not mean that we have failed as a Christian. It simply means that we are still on this side of heaven, living in an unglorified body that is subject to the ravages of this world. Seek to understand what may be at the root of these responses. Spend some time in communion with the Lord, asking His Holy Spirit to reveal the true source of what you are experiencing. If you need help unpacking any of it, or delving further into it, seek out counseling services through Pastor Wayne or others.

·      Acknowledge that if you do need to reach out for help, it is not a sign of weakness to do so. It is actually a sign of maturity and recognition of your humanness.

·      Give yourself grace. Piling negative self-talk with the emotions you’re experiencing does you no good, and can actually be detrimental to any healing you may need to experience.

·      Be purposeful in spending time in His Word. Don’t read a devotional or two and think that you’ve satisfied the need for bible reading. King David and other writers (some known and some unknown) of the Psalms wrote of despair, distress, deliverance in times of trouble, healing, and joy, among other things. Study Romans 8 to understand the depth and breadth of the love that our Father has for you, and study the gospels to see how Lord Jesus demonstrated that love. Allow the Word to speak to your heart, and ask the Holy Spirit to help you understand its message.

·      Actively identify those triggers that may be affecting you. Do you find yourself in a foul mood after visiting a certain family member? Are your emotions in turmoil after watching the television news or viewing various social media platforms? Remember, negativity begets negativity. Take an active break from those activities that adversely impact you. Trust me, your Facebook friends may not even notice your absence, but your mental health may benefit greatly from it.

·      Truly know and trust that the Lord has this whole thing. In fact, I’m not even telling you to trust that He has it all figured out, since there is nothing for Him to figure out! To say that He has to figure it out implies that things are a mystery to Him and that He has no control over the current and future events. Poppycock! No, friends, the Lord is sovereign and omniscient. The Lord either causes things to happen or allows things to happen. Nothing is a surprise to the Lord. Stressed about the election? Know that the Lord will allow the election of the person best suited to fulfill His plan. Concerned about a battery of medical tests you may be facing? Experience the refuge and the very present help in trouble that the Lord provides (Psalm 46:1), knowing that all things work together for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. Anxious about what else 2020 could possibly bring? Spend time in prayer and communion with Him, confident that “He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.” (Psalm 91:1). Remember, He is the Lord of our valleys as well as our mountaintops. He has this and He has you.

2020 has been a heck of a year. If you are struggling, please know that I am praying for you, and know that you are surrounded by your brothers- and sisters-in-Christ who are praying for you as well. Not all of us may know your specific situation, but please glean comfort from the knowledge that you are being lifted up in prayer.

Prayer Requests

·      For Cheri Williams and her family at the loss of her mother Mary Lou

·      For the Santillano family—for Ray and April, as he is at the Pentagon and she is in San Antonio; for Dora; for their children Noah and Crystal and grandson Maxxen  

·      For Wayne and Skylar, for their protection, discernment, and wisdom

·      For God’s will to be done in the church and beyond, on earth as it is in Heaven

Just a gentle reminder—some people are fairly forthcoming about sharing their struggles; others of us, not so much. May we seek to have empathy and grace for each other, as sometimes the inner battles are not always obvious.

 Quotes

“In Heaven we shall see that we had not one trial too many.”    --Charles Spurgeon

“When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don’t throw away the ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust the engineer.”   -- Corrie Ten Boom  

No Condemnation

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

                           Romans 8:1

Growing up, I felt like I was a pretty good kid—I enjoyed school, got good grades, rarely got in trouble, and I remember getting spanked only once when I was in kindergarten because I went into the street to see a frog that had gotten run over by a car (isn’t it funny how distinctly I can recall that memory but there are times that I can’t even remember why I walked into a room for? I know I cannot be the only one who experiences this…) My parents were kind and good people; my mother was a stay-at-home mother at least until I got into high school, and my dad was an officer in the Air Force who helped guide and develop my spiritual walk. My dad was more of the disciplinarian—ours was the quintessential “wait until your father comes home” type of house of the 1970s and maybe a bit later. That threat straightened me right up—not because I was afraid of any physical punishment—no, that was never necessary; no, it was because I didn’t want to disappoint him. Fear of disappointing him was a tremendous motivator in my desire to “fly right”.

Please don’t misunderstand and stare daggers at and give cold shoulders to my dad the next time he visits and comes to church with me—he never lectured me on how upset he was in me or told me how I would never live up to his expectations of me—on the contrary, he always told me how proud he was of me and how much he loved me. *I* was the one who didn’t want to cause him to lose faith in me, or to experience any angst because of something that I did or didn’t do. My fear of disappointing my dad was self-induced, and stayed with me for a while, eventually transitioning from my earthly father onto my heavenly Father.

You see, I know that we are all supposed participate in the Great Commission. The words of Jesus to “make disciples of all nations” weren’t just thrown out by our Lord as parting shot, afterthought, or suggestion—no, He was instructing the disciples and His followers (us) to be purposeful in sharing the gospel with the lost while we are out in this world. I just don’t do that enough (or at all on some days). There are others who seem to have absolutely no problem at all talking to everyone and anyone about Jesus. I am not a part of that camp. I have analyzed myself fifteen different ways to Sunday to find out why I don’t easily share His love—heck, I’ve even wondered if I’m truly His child, because if I was walking with the love of Jesus in my heart and living in in the depth of it, why in the world would I not want to share the gift with others so they could experience the same? Was I afraid of something—of how others might perceive me? I didn’t think so, but I couldn’t say so with certainty.

In my musings of this conundrum, I often thought of what it would be like if the Lord were to call me Home tomorrow, in full knowledge of what I didn’t do for Him. It’s a given I would be awestruck, not able to stand before His gaze, but would He even want to look upon me, the one to whom so much had been given, the one for whom He died and I couldn’t be bothered to share Christ’s message with others? Would I, the one without excuse, even be able to be before Him? Would His disappointment in me be palpable, deservedly crushing me in its heaviness?

I am almost embarrassed to say that while this concern was hugely real to me, it did not motivate me into immediate action. I justified my inaction to a degree, telling myself that we are all members of the body of Christ, and that others are more cut out for the sharing of the gospel with strangers, or that my spiritual gift leans more on the side of exhorting and mercy and less on the side of evangelism. I was not 100% convinced with my reasoning, though, and I visited the thoughts of disappointing Him regularly, feeling like a hypocrite whenever I communed with Him. Fear of disappointing Him was the price I begrudgingly paid for my inaction, and I accepted the exchange, forlornly resigned to hope that the Holy Spirit would work more diligently in me to get me to the proper mindset and obedience.

It wasn’t until I read Romans 8 again for the umpteenth time did I finally feel the weight of the burden begin to slip. You see, the realness of what Paul writes about in chapter 7 has always resonated with me—why do I do the things that I do not want to do and why do I not do the things that I know that I should do? (Paul expresses it better in Romans 7:15 “For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do.”). I identify so with the intensity of the emotion he expresses in verse 24: “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”. But there is the hope and declaration of goodness in verse 25: “ I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.”

Romans 8:1 introduces a reinforcing thought to what we read in the last verses of chapter 7 with the use of the word “therefore”:  There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.”. Though I had read this verse many a time before, as Romans is one of my favorite books, and chapter 8 one of my most beloved, it was the assurance of the “no condemnation to those who are in Christ... who walk according to the Spirit” that unshackled me from the worry of disappointing Him. My mindset had been all wrong—my heavenly Father doesn’t look down at me with a disapproving stare, resigned to constant disappointment at what I don’t do for His kingdom. On the contrary—because of what Christ did on the cross for me, my Father looks down at me with an indescribable intensity of love! I am not a disappointment to Him. He loves me, despite the sins I have committed and despite the fact that He knows the ones I am going to commit. God is not conditioning His outpouring of love based on what I am doing or not doing. I am not a disappointment!

And my friend, neither are you, despite what you may think. Do not give into the lies of the enemy who will tell you otherwise. The Creator of the heavens and earth loves you more than you can ever imagine, knows you more intimately than any human possibly could, and delights in you. There is no condemnation to those of us who are in Christ, who are led by the Spirit. Bask in that thought and promise, for it is glorious!

Prayer Requests

·      For Mary Lou, Cheri Williams’ mom, who is recovering from a kidney infection and whose medications were causing her to faint. She is doing better, and we praise Him for the fact that Cheri was able to spend time with her on Sunday, when she was taken to the hospital

·      For those dealing with health issues, be they physical, emotional, or spiritual—if this describes you, dear one, know that you are being lifted up on prayer

·      For the impact of COVID worldwide—in India alone, 6 million people have been diagnosed

·      For us as the body of Christ to be of one accord and to support each other and lift each other up

The Lord and I are still working through my evangelism challenge, but it is with love, spiritual introspection and discipline that these conversations are happening. To God be the glory!

Quotes

“When I understand that everything happening to me is to make me more Christlike, it resolves a great deal of anxiety.”    –A. W. Tozer

“Child of God, you cost Christ too much for him to forget you.” -- Charles Spurgeon

It’s Romans 8:28, friends!

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

                           Romans 8:28

About 16 years ago I developed what looked like a large gash on my right calf. (Apologies to those who have heard this story. I think I may have even written on about it before, but here we are again). The skin wasn’t broken but there was an ugly red jagged line on my leg and it was quite warm to the touch. I hadn’t done anything to my calf and was flummoxed as to what in the world had happened. My calf got more painful and I finally saw the physician’s assistant at my doctor’s office about it, as it hurt to walk. She diagnosed it as a subcutaneous infection and prescribed antibiotics.

A couple of days later, the pain in my calf has not gone away and out of the blue, I passed out at work. I saw the PA the next day and pointed out a bulge in my upper thigh near my groin. Both she and the doctor sent me to the hospital to be hooked up to stronger antibiotics and to have a Doppler (basically like a detailed ultrasound of the veins in my leg). While in the hospital, my chest started hurting, and my heart pounded when I walked from my bed to the bathroom. I alerted the hospitalist who put a heart monitor on me. Heart readings were fine. I was released 23 hours after I’d been admitted.

A couple of days later while at Troy’s soccer game, I passed out twice and was rushed to the same hospital. It turns out that I had developed a deep-vein thrombosis (DVT), some of which had broken off and traveled to my lungs, resulting in pulmonary emboli (PE). I was given mega doses of clot-busting medicine, and was in ICU for three days and in a regular hospital room for another week. I had a cardiologist, pulmonologist, and hematologist watching over me. Having never been hospitalized except for a couple of days for the births of my sons, it was quite an experience.

The doctors were able to determine that I had a genetic mutation that predisposed me to blood clots, and the birth control pills I had been on up until that time apparently had triggered the DVT. Because it was genetic, the hematologist advised both my dad and my sister to get tested.  While my dad tested negative, my sister tested positive for the same genetic mutation I had. We had some insight! You see, not too far long before all of this had happened, my sister had suffered a couple of miscarriages. I cried with her and comforted her when they happened. I had not experienced one myself, and had no explanation. But now that she had been tested for this odd mutation, she was able to work with a high-risk obstetrician when she got pregnant again, and I am the proud aunt of two wonderful nephews!

This is one of my real-life, personalized examples of the promise of Romans 8:28 coming to life. Had I not experienced the life-threatening condition I had, how many more miscarriages would my sister have gone through? I would gladly go through something like that again to have spared her additional pain and suffering.

Friends, I know some of you may be wondering why I’m sharing this story again. It’s just that in all of the chaos and challenges the year 2020 has thrown at us all, I want us to keep in mind the perspective of Romans 8:28 during this pandemic:

·      Although we had talked about and probably planned for livestreaming our services at some point in the year, look how quickly we were able to make it happen and help connect the Stone Oak Church body.

·      I now take part in a weekly Zoom meeting with three to five other ladies of different ages and races, and at different spots on their spiritual walk. We connected through the Walk to Emmaus and hold each other accountable for commitments, all the while lifting each other up, laughing, and praising God for having brought us together. We have committed to continuing to Zoom even if/when things return to “normal”. We did not do this before the pandemic.

·      The Zoom meeting started when one of the ladies wanted to have a real dialogue after the George Floyd murder and protests. That whole issue in and of itself enabled an open sharing of hurts and perspectives.

·      My husband was laid off from his civil engineering job back at the end of March for four months because of the lockdown and economic impact of COVID. He has since started at a new company, and told me just the other day that he realized that he just never seemed to be the right fit for his old company. He worked a tremendous number of hours for them, was always stressed, and seemed to be caught in a power play between two of the leaders at the firm. Had the layoff not happened, he wouldn’t be at his new company now, loving every minute there.

·      We were blessed that Pastor Ray’s PSC orders were delayed by at least what—four months or so?—and that he was able to remain home with his family (and his church family to a lesser degree) during that time.

I’m not saying what we’re going through isn’t without its challenges—it is. For some of us, this pandemic with its restrictions and life-changing burdens has resulted in the loss of family members and friends, severely reduced (or eliminated) visitation with ailing or elderly family, increased stress levels in having to be both parent and teacher to school-aged children, and the list goes on. I am not discounting these challenges or trying to gloss over them euphemistically. But if we cling to the promise that is in His inspired word in Romans 8:28, we know that the Lord will work things for good for those (us) who love Him and are called according to His purpose.

It bears noting that sometimes that good may not always be evident or revealed to us this side of heaven, and we must be okay with that. I am also of the opinion and understanding that the “us” who will benefit from these good workings may be the corporate “us”. Hear me out—if tragedy strikes a family and it results in a grief-stricken not-yet-believing family member seeking God in the thick of it—isn’t that good? If a challenging medical diagnosis for one person causes a team of people to intercede in prayer for him or her, causing faith to grow and spiritual disciple to sprout in the pray-ers, isn’t that good?

May we seek to embody the hope and promise of Romans 8:28. 

Prayer Requests

• Praise for Steve Kale’s successful heart surgery and recovery

• For those physically, emotionally, financially or otherwise impacted by this pandemic

• Praise for Mark Hardison’s negative bone biopsy!

• For our nation now and in the weeks leading up to the election

• For us to pray as Paul exhorts us to in Ephesians 6:18  And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people

Dear ones, I pray that you would have eyes to see the love that is in Romans 8:28. Words are not adequate to describe the love the Father has for His children. I will, however, use Paul’s from just a few verses after Romans 8:28:

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Quotes

“Job never saw why he suffered, but he saw God, and that was enough.” –Tim Keller

“My faith rests not in what I am, or shall be, or feel, or know, but in what Christ is, in what he has done, and in what he is doing for me.”  -- Charles Spurgeon

Coram Deo

For you have delivered my soul from death, yes, my feet from falling,
that I may walk before God in the light of life.

                           Psalm 56:13

Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory,
for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!

                           Psalm 115:1

I have been reading Paul’s letter to the Romans. I read somewhere that not only are you supposed to study Romans, but you’re also supposed to read it like a book. Since I finished my study of it last week, I started reading it less for study and more for pleasure and insight. As I was reading chapter six, I came to a term that piqued my curiosity—“slaves to righteousness” in verse 18. Now the odd thing is—I don’t recall it piquing my curiosity within the past month or so when I truly studied it, so why now? (dontcha love it when the Holy Spirit calls your attention to something that you’ve read before but now has new meaning or curiosity to you? I love it when He does that!!)

So I Googled the interesting phrase, and of course, found a number of results. The very first one what a devotional on the Ligonier Ministries website, which calls itself the “teaching fellowship of R.C. Sproul”. The devotional talked about the processes of justification and sanctification, and then had a Latin term that I had never heard of (not that I know a lot of Latin, but it, too, piqued my curiosity and down that rabbit hole I fell): Coram Deo. I Googled coram Deo and found another blog post on the Ligonier Ministries website, this one written by R.C. Sproul himself. According to Mr. Sproul, “this phrase literally refers to something that takes place in the presence of, or before the face of, God. To live coram Deo is to live one’s entire life in the presence of God, under the authority of God, to the glory of God.” It literally means “before the face of God.” In simpler terms, the phrase acknowledges the omnipresence of our heavenly Father and declares that everything that we do is done unto Him.

Coram Deo provides the basis for us to understand that we should be aware of His constant presence and to live a life that demonstrates that awareness. It is God whom we live for, not ourselves nor others. It is God’s approval that we seek; His is the ultimate authority for which we live. As one website says, “coram Deo reminds us that we live for an audience of one: the Lord God.”1 He alone is worthy of our praise and worship. He alone is sovereign; He alone is glorious.

Friends, living our lives “before the face of God” is not meant to be a scary thought. It can perhaps be a sobering one, but only through the conviction of the Holy Spirit in an attempt to mature us. Coram Deo calls for us to live out our faith in utter transparency and openness, allowing our beliefs and convictions to influence our actions, even (and maybe especially) those outside of our time spent in worship, all to the glory of God. Living coram Deo informs our spiritual maturity as we yield to the teaching and direction of the Holy Spirit to become more like Christ, all to the glory of the Father.

Prayer Requests

·      For travel mercies for Pastor Ray as his PCS to the Pentagon is happening now, and for comfort and support for April, Dora, and his children.

·      A multitude of thanks for His bringing Skylar and Erica to Stone Oak Church and for the enhanced worship we are engaging in on Sunday mornings

·      For us to be a church that believes in the power of prayer and prays continually

·      For the victims of the west coast wildfires and the committed first responders who are battling those blazes

If you’re curious, Coram Deo is pronounced like “core-um Day-o”. Perhaps this two-word four-syllable Latin term can be an easy reminder for how we are all to live as followers of Christ and children of the Living God.

Quotes

“Stop listening to every dysfunctional thought. Tell your mind to align its thoughts with the Word of God and to dwell on what He says about you. You were made by a King. You are loved. You are of great worth.”

“God uses our trials to build our faith, draw us closer to Him, and give us a testimony of His faithfulness for others to see.”   -- Dr. Michelle Bengtson

1 https://www.gotquestions.org/coram-Deo.html

You Are Not Alone, Part 2

Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

Galatians 6:2

 Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another; 

                                    Romans 12:10

I set out to go walking one Saturday morning a couple of weeks ago, to get a cardio workout in since I didn’t quite feel like going to the gym. I brought a six-ounce water with me, put in my AirPods and started listening to the last minutes of Francis Chan’s Letters to the Churches on Audible (side note: this is an absolutely terrific book, by the way!). I started down a main street in the greater Stone Oak neighborhood, mapping out in my head where I’d walk and bump that against the time I needed to run errands I’d intended to run later that day. Off to a great start, I decided to deviate from where I had originally intended and went up to the back end of Huebner road, where it intersects with Hardy Oak. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s a new stretch of road that has provided shortcuts and time savings to travelers going to Costco and the medical center area. That specific corner is nothing but concrete and asphalt and fenced-off dry land.

Proud that I was getting in a good workout by merely walking in the oppressive Texas humidity (it was only 90 degrees but it sure felt hotter), I looked down at my watch after a while to see that it was tracking my heart rate at an impressive but insane 180 beats per minute. Looking for some shade, I found a small tree that provided a smidgeon of it and sat down, willing my heart rate to go down and drinking some water to hydrate. When it finally got down to about 146 beats per minute, I figured it would be safe to start up again. I walked slower this time, not wanting to tax my system any more than I needed to in the head and humidity. When I found my heart rate back up to 180 in less than two minutes and feeling kind of woozy, I sought shade in which to sit down. Because it was 11:20, the sun was nearly straight above me and this being Texas, there really aren’t the types of trees around that can provide a decent amount of shade. I sat near a concrete barrier, debating with myself what my figurative next steps should be. You see, I pride myself on being in decent shape—I don’t run marathons and am certainly not a gym rat, but I do work out with a personal trainer twice a week and do cardio workouts the other days, resting on Sundays now that we’re back in person at church. It was only 90 degrees—I’ve walked and worked out in hotter weather. I was only a mile and a half from home—once I got up the slight hill, it would have been a fairly simple return. I should have been able to go on in my own strength. However, my heart rate wasn’t decreasing at the rate it seemed to before, and the wooziness got worse, turning into nausea. Reluctantly, I called my husband to come pick me up and sat on the curb, defeated.

My husband showed up just a couple of minutes later, handing me my water bottle and drove me home. I apologized and thanked him, telling him I felt like such a wuss for having to call him. He said that he was glad that I had, saying that the main message he heard when he was going on rucksack runs and other physical fitness exercises in the Air Force was to not overdo it in the heat—to not let yourself get overheated and risk heat exhaustion or even heat stroke. When we got home, I sat on the couch cooling off, exhausted, doing absolutely nothing (which is not like me at all) but rewatching season one of The Good Place.

Fast forward to a little bit later that week when I was on a weekly Zoom call with five other Christian women from my Emmaus group. One of them had written a devotional about the emotional valley she had been in for a bit. In this devotional, she reminded those who may be feeling too overwhelmed in their valley to reach out to those in the body of Christ for help, and exhorted Christian brothers and sisters to reach out and check on those they may not have heard from in a while. When I gently asked her why she herself hadn’t followed her own advice and reached out, she said that she felt that she should have been able to go through it by herself. Sound familiar?

My dear friend is one of those who is constantly watching out for her family and friends, to lift up and take care of them. She dislikes feeling like she is burdening someone else with her problems, and felt that she should have been strong enough to handle this time alone (well, not fully alone, because she did cry out to Him). The five of us lovingly fussed at her, explaining that when she is overburdened, we can come along side of her and help carry her load and pain. We asked her to let us be a blessing to her, understanding that it is in that helping that we are blessed as well.

Friends, life is not without its challenges, especially as of late with the absolute chaos that has been the year 2020. It is difficult to not be impacted in some way by the pandemic and action resulting from it, racial injustice, the political arena, riots, unemployment, and so much more. It’s understandable and normal for your emotional health to be impacted by these things. Be watchful, however, for those signs that may indicate that your handling of things may be getting too stressed and that help, professional or otherwise, is needed. Some of those signs (this is not an exhaustive list) can include withdrawing from friends and family (like not wanting to answer the phone when someone calls or declining invitations to meet (not COVID-related)); not coming to church or watching the livestream; or finding yourself spending less time in the Bible or less time in prayer.

If you do realize one or more of these signs, I ask you to reach out to someone—a Christian friend, a counselor, Pastor Wayne—someone who can help you or at least listen. Resist the urge to think that as a believer, you should have all it all together. Resist the urge also to think that anyone will think less of you because you reached out—quite the opposite, I’d say!  

Friends, you are surrounded by the body of Christ. Paul reminds us in his first letter to the Corinthians that we, who are many, were all baptized into one body, and that when one member suffers, all members suffer with him or her. Just like we surrounded our friend in that Zoom call, your church family can do the same for you. We can do that for each other.

There is a song that we sing at each Walk to Emmaus event entitled The Servant Song (here is a link to it on YouTube) and its lyrics fit so wonderfully here in this lesson:

Will you let me be your servant?
Let me be as Christ to you.
Pray that I might have the grace
To let you be my servant, too.

We are pilgrims on a journey.
We are brothers on the road.
We are here to help each other
Walk the mile and bear the load.

I will hold the Christ-light for you
In the night time of your fear.
I will hold my hand out to you;
Speak the peace you long to hear.

I will weep when you are weeping.
When you laugh, I'll laugh with you.
I will share your joy and sorrow
Till we've seen this journey through.

When we sing to God in heaven,
We shall find such harmony
Born of all we've known together
Of Christ's love and agony.

I will echo my friend’s admonition from her devotional: if you find yourself in a valley, reach out. If you are not in a valley, check in on your friends and family who just might be. Pray, text, call, visit, or do all of the above, but attend to them.

Prayer Requests

·      For Mark Hardison who will be receiving treatment for the additional signs of cancer recently discovered. Pray for Roseann as well.  

·      For positive change and healing in the racial and social landscape of our nation

·      For law enforcement, first responders, healthcare workers, pastors and church leaders

·      For families who are dealing with school starting in the midst of a pandemic

Know that you are being prayed for, even if I don’t know your specific situation. Know that the Lord is with you—cling tightly to His promise to never leave you nor forsake you. Know that you are a member of the body of Christ and are loved tremendously.

 Quotes

“Remember He is the artist and you are only the painting. You can’t see it. So quietly submit to be painted.”    --C.S. Lewis

“God’s plan for your life far exceeds the circumstances of your day.”

Talk Less, Smile More

 Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; 

                           James 1:19

 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 

                           Romans 8:14

I don’t know if you’ve had the chance to have seen the Broadway musical Hamilton while it was on its run, or if you’ve streamed it on Disney+ several times like I have, but the devotional title is a reference to a bit of advice Aaron Burr’s character gives the titular Alexander Hamilton when he first meets him. Hamilton’s character tends to be not only talkative but also frank and brash in sharing his thoughts on various subjects, which runs counter to how Aaron Burr’s character handles himself. 

It’s advice that we could avail ourselves as well. It ties fairly well with the message James shares in the first chapter of his book, with an emphasis on the “talk less” part.

There were times at the beginning of my spiritual walk as an adult when I found myself realizing that I had either a) missed an opportunity to say something or b) reacted in a way to someone in a way that is perhaps less reflective of His presence. This realization oftentimes would happen at least a good while after the opportunity or incident, when it was too late to rectify the situation. I’m sure the Holy Spirit in me shook His head at my situation several times, wanting to thump me on mine each time words came out my mouth before my brain had fully formed them. As time went by and I was growing in maturity in Him, however, the time between the realization of the event and the actual event seemed to shrink, thus enabling me to quickly counter the effects of what I did or did not say or do.

After a while of this, I recognized that there were times that the Holy Spirit moved the proverbial time table, and that I was able to take the appropriate witness opportunity that was presented to me OR, a more likely scenario, to not say something or react to what was being presented to me—all while still in the moment. 

I had always understood the sensible lesson behind the wisdom James shares in verse 19 of the first chapter of James: practice counting to 10 in those situations that can set you off, thereby allowing you to cool off and not overreact. And the “quick to hear and slow to speak” piece of it aligned with the truism of God giving us two ears and one mouth, so as to enable us to listen twice as much more than we speak. Made sense to me as quite practical advice. But, as I realized recently in prayer, it’s more than that. Heeding James’s words is an active way through which you yield your spirit to the prompting of the Holy Spirit. Consciously and actively overcoming your natural response in heightened or unique situations and submitting yourself to the Holy Spirit allows Him to do His work in and through you.

Be quick to hear – truly seek to listen to what the other person is saying, and for what he or she is not saying. Strive to understand, relate, and validate or empathize, and to not judge or condemn. Focus on the relational aspect of the communication between you and the other person.

Be slow to speak – this is where those of us who pride ourselves on being the first to answer, or being quick with a clever response will find ourselves challenged to truly slow down and be sensitive to the Spirit. Doing this will help to ensure that our words are intentional and guided by Him. 

Be slow to anger – this one seems pretty self-evident as to the purpose behind it, but I’m going to mention it anyway. Hot-tempered anger is not good for anyone, you or the other person, and it does nothing to help any situation. James also continues in verse 20 to say that “the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.” Solomon tells us in Proverbs 14 that “Whoever is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who has a hasty temper exalts folly.” 

Prayer Requests

·      For Cheri Williams’s mother, who has a lung infection, and for Cheri and her family who are concerned about her  

·      For Pastor Ray and April, and Miss Dora, for their PCS to Washington DC, that the Lord grant peace, encouragement, and protection to their move and to their friends and family

·      Praise and gratitude for the new faces the Lord is bringing into our church family!

·      For us to be the church that Jesus calls us to be in the midst of what is going on in this world

Friends, I am constantly amazed at the work that the Holy Spirit does to lead us into all truth. Not only does the Lord tell us in His word how we should act in ways of righteousness and love, He also gives us the means by which to do, though His Spirit. May we never cease to praise Him for His goodness!

Quotes

“You grow when the Word of God means more to you than the words of people”.     –Christine Caine

“If all your prayers were answered, would they change the world or just yours?”

Divine Transcendence and Immanence

The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.

                           Acts 17:24-25

“Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him?” declares the Lord. “Do I not fill heaven and earth”? declares the Lord

                           Jeremiah 23:24

 
O Lord, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up;  you discern my thoughts from afar. Even before a word is on my tongue,  behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.
You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.
Where shall I go from your Spirit?  Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there!  If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!

                           Psalm 139: 1-2; 4-5; 7-8

A while back, as I read the commentary of a passage of scripture I’d just read, I came across a phrase that I had never heard before. It fascinated me so much that I wrote the phrase down in the Notes app on my phone or iPad. I have apparently deleted since as I can’t find it anywhere. I’ve Googled the concept of what this phrase was trying to convey, and I still cannot find the exact terminology. I recall thinking that I’d never forget what it was and yet here I am (there’s a meme I’ve seen on Facebook that describes me justly: the biggest lie I tell myself is “I don’t need to write that down—I’ll remember it!”). Give me your grace though, please, and stroll with me a little bit.

I do recall that I had been ruminating on the dichotomy between the vastness and majesty of God the Creator and the sweet personal nature of His Son’s life-giving salvation, the promise of which dwells in me in the form of my Paraclete, the Holy Spirit. It is mind boggling to me to entertain the thought that the Creator of the universe—God Almighty, my heavenly Father, maker of the heavens and the earth and the limitlessness of the universe, whose enormity none of us is able to fathom—deigns to commune with me in those times of prayer and Bible reading. Like a superhero—no, THE penultimate superhero--who makes time to share a conversation over coffee with an adoring yet gawky fan—the One whose traits include omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence not only meets me in that holy time of prayer, but is also a part of the prayers themselves, where He as the Holy Spirit “intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words,” as Paul tells us in Romans 8. I am gob smacked, to be honest, each time I think about the unfathomable experience that I get to have each and every time I need to! Not only does my heavenly Father meet me in prayer—He wants to meet me in prayer and wants the same of me! Utterly boggles the mind, I tell you!

Alas, none of the concepts and terms that displayed in the search results as I sought to name this ring the proverbial bell for me. There were two, however, that came close—divine transcendence and divine immanence. The first term describes the fact that God that is distant and above His creation—that He transcends us. He is distinct and set apart, wholly sovereign and holy. His thoughts are not our thoughts, nor are His ways our ways, as we read in Isaiah 55. He alone is God, and we are most certainly not.

The second term immanence describes the concept of God being near us, fully active and involved in His creation and their lives. He is intimately a part of our lives, dwelling with His people. The quintessential example of this is seen in John 1:14—"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” The second Person of the Godhead stepped out of heaven and “who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.” Jesus walked among us, fully human yet fully divine. Emmanuel—God with us—indeed!

Friends, it is our God who embodies both contrasting concepts—His pure holiness (transcendence) intersects with His relationship to us as our Father (immanence); His omnipotence is juxtaposed with His offer of rest for all who are weary and burdened; the Shekinah Glory of the Lord that led the Israelites in the desert is contrasted with Jesus being called the bright morning star and the light of the world. These seemingly oxymoronic concepts are all wrapped up in the very one Who created us, gave us the breath of life, and Who redeemed us. How wonderful it is to explore these great and mysterious concepts, presented to us by a loving God!

Prayer Requests

·      For Steve Kale and his heart valve surgery—for quick healing during his convalescence

·      For families stressed by the demands of work and online schooling

·      For relief for those impacted by natural disasters: the California wildfires and hurricanes Marco and Laura

·      For us to be the church that Jesus calls us to be in the midst of what is going on in this world

I continue to be amazed at what the Lord shows me on my spiritual journey. I pray that you are as well, and that He continues to reveal abundantly more as we seek Him with a hunger and passion to know Him more.

Quotes (both by A.W. Tozer)

“We need never shout across the spaces to an absent God. He is nearer than our own soul, closer than our most secret thoughts”.

“God is looking for people through whom He can do the impossible. What a pity that we plan only the things we can do by ourselves.

Politics

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

                           Matthew 28:18

He changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings;
he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding;

                           Daniel 2:21

The political aspect of my Facebook feed increased dramatically following the swell of the Black Lives Matter movement and the protests that resulted from the George Floyd murder, and continues at the same or perhaps even an accelerated pace the closer we get to the election. As I’ve written before, I tend to abstain from posting anything political because I am less than equipped to argue or defend my position, and it would be ridiculous to do so on social media, because it’s…well, social media and the internet and you can never win an argument or change someone’s mind on social media. It’s simply not worth the headache.

However, some of the points that both sides (let’s go with progressives and conservatives, which tends to translate into Democrats and Republicans, respectively, but I’m not getting political right now, even though that’s the title of this devotional) of the socio-political spectrum make sense. Regarding immigration, I’ll see Bible verses from one side: “You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” (Deuteronomy 10:19) and “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me.” (Matthew 25:35). You’ll also see the contrasting verse that calls for the obeying of the law: “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.” (Romans 13:1). On the topic of the protests, I saw posts that stated that Jesus supported peaceful protests by citing the example of when Jesus overturned the tables of the money changers in the temple (Matthew 25:12), and in support of the call of “Black Lives Matter”, people used the example of the Parable of the Lost Sheep (Matthew 18). Countering the latter, I saw posts like “Two thousand years ago, Jesus ended the debate on which lives matter. He died for all.”

And then there’s the issue of politics, with citations about biblical character, morals, and leadership qualities, or lack thereof, in our current commander-in-chief, again from people on both extremes of the political spectrum, with a lack of voice from the moderates, all peppering my Facebook feed.

If you’re like me, though you long for a world in which things can be black and white and operate best in such an environment, you see 62 shades of grey in virtually every situation. I see applicability of most of the examples that I listed above, and agree with them, to a large degree, even those who seemingly contradict each other. And because I can see those variations, it’s difficult for me to take a stance on a topic, and I’m left a bit confused and concerned as to the correct side to take. What adds to that unease is the loudest voices of my progressive friends are of those who are retired ministers and church laity—does their involvement in the church make them more “right” than anyone else? What is the Church’s stance on social and political issues? Should there even be a stance?

I’ve pondered this question so many times, and have prayed about it a couple of times, longing for an answer. I was pleased to hear an answer this past Sunday, in a sermon I heard at the church I attended with my in-laws. My in-laws live in Frankfort, Kentucky, the state capital, where politics is a way of life. The pastor felt called to preach a series on the topic, and titled his sermon “Politics v Faith”. I listened raptly, as this seemed to be an answered prayer. He started off explaining that he was confident that one week he could explain how the Republican party was the party of Jesus, from its policies and programs, and the next week he could preach the same about the Democrats. He said that both sides choose scriptures that support their platform or agenda as well as getting Jesus “on their side” (Amen!). He then gently suggested that instead of starting with an agenda and fitting Jesus into it, we should start with Jesus, regardless of where that takes us. He reminded us of what Paul tells us in Romans 12:2: “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind”, as well as what he said in his letter to the Corinthians: “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” (2 Corinthians 10:5). Christ should be the source of our decisions and voting habits. He exhorted his flock to have their faith inform their politics rather than their politics inform their faith. He also shared a quote by Tony Evans, a popular pastor and author: “Jesus did not come to take sides. He came to take over.” Lord Jesus didn’t come to set up anything that would support your political position or mine; He came to “set up a kingdom that is infinitely more important than anything we fight about here.” The pastor also said that “it’s foolish for the Church to be divided over political issues or any political party, because one day, those parties will all be dead and Jesus will be still be king.”

Friends, we are called to be different than the world; we are called to be the salt and the light in this world. We need to remember that we while we are in this world, we are not of this world—our citizenship resides elsewhere. Let us show the world what it truly means to follow Jesus—to have Him lead us into all truth. Seek to understand how the Lord will have you think, act, and vote on key social and political issues, and how the Holy Spirit will guide you into all the truth.

 Prayer Requests

·      For the Santillano family in their upcoming PCS to Washington, DC, and for their family who will remain in the San Antonio area

·      For those families whose children are starting new chapters in their lives, from kindergarten to college

·      For those who are lost right now—may we be lights that shine as beacons to them

·      For pastors and leaders in the church, as we experience inevitable change with the pending [tremendous] absence of the Santillanos, the resumption of our in-person services, and whatever other changes we may encounter

So, I am not 100% sure if I have a fully informed understanding of my original question, as far as the Church proper goes. However, since we are the Church, figuratively, I have the answer I was seeking for me. I’d be curious to know your thoughts on the matter as well.

Quotes

“There are only two kinds of people: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, ‘All right, then, have it your way.             C.S. Lewis

“Why do bad things happen to good people? That happened once, and He volunteered.”    R.C. Sproul, Jr.  

Paraclete

Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?

                           1 Corinthians 3:16

And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever

                           John 14:16

About 11 years ago, I was standing in church listening to Pastor Kevin read a passage from Romans on being led by the Spirit. I recall bursting into tears to the point where I had to escape to the restroom to try to collect myself, and I admit that I was in there a long time, trying to figure out why I was crying, and why I was crying so desolately. The only reason that kept coming to mind was that I had not experienced being led by the Spirit and something deep inside of me longed for such an experience. The next day, after talking with Kevin, I started reading The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit by R.A. Torrey, beginning a beautiful relationship with the Third Person of the Trinity.

Torrey tells us that there are at least 25 different names used in the Old and New Testaments for the Holy Spirit. Some of them include The Spirit of God, of Jehovah, of the Living God, of Jesus Christ; the Oil of Gladness; the Spirit of Grace, of Grace and Supplication, and my favorite: the Comforter. We find the reference to the Comforter primarily in the book of John. The simple translation of the Greek word παράκλητος is Paraclete (or Parakleetos or Parakletos), and it means “one called alongside”—as Torrey puts it “that is one called to stand constantly by one’s side and who is ever ready to stand by us and take our part in everything in which his help is needed. It is a wonderfully tender and expressive name for the Holy Spirit.”

He is our constant companion, our divine best Friend who convicts us and holds us accountable, and walks with us as we experience the smooth roads and the trials. He is all-encompassing, reminding us that we are never alone. How utterly blessed are we to have Him as our Friend?

And yet…as it is with relationships, we can often lose focus on that friendship, especially when the busyness of the world elbows its way into our daily lives and becomes a routine. I do make it a point to get up early before the workouts and the workdays and spend time with Him, and I am successful on most days to do so. And boy howdy, am I blessed by His presence, communing with Him in prayer and the study of His word. The minute the clock indicates that it’s time to work out and then rush to prepare for the day ahead, I admit that the warmth of the companionship fades into the mental and physical preparation for the task at hand. I allow the work calendar to drive my day, each meeting’s subject and takeaways to commandeer more of my mental faculties. Each morning I pray that He will help me be more aware of His presence, knowing that it will take a supernatural act for that to happen. However, I am not blind to the fact that, as with any relationship, I have a part to play in it as well. I must be an active participant for the relationship to thrive and for my spiritual maturity to blossom.

It occurred to me one morning as I was praying that perhaps I could be more aware of His presence if I were to think of Him as my Paraclete—as He by my side, His constancy assured. It is a mindset I am excited to try, and I am joyously hopeful that it will help.

I’d be curious to know how you maintain that connection with Him throughout the day—please let me hear from you if you’re willing to share!

Prayer Requests

·      Praise for God bringing us Skylar and Erica Weber, to lead our contemporary worship service and work with our youth

·      For us to be the disciples He has commissioned us to be

·      For the Lord to comfort and heal the hearts of those who carry worry and anxiety  

·      For pastors and leaders in the church, as we sense the Lord moving in our church!  

Like I said, it is a blessing to have His constant presence with us. As Torrey so eloquently states, “To have as one’s ever-present Friend, and to be conscious that one has as his ever-present Friend, the Holy Spirit and to surrender one’s life in all its departments entirely to His control, this is true Christian living.”

Quotes

“Winners of souls must first be weepers for souls.”  Charles Spurgeon

“God’s plan for you is bigger than your mistakes.”

The Glory in the Suffering

And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope.  Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

                                    Romans 5:3-5

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed— always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. 

Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.  For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory,

  2 Corinthians 4: 7-10; 16 & 17

A wonderful Christian sister shared information about the virtual Desperate for Jesus Women’s Conference that was being livestreamed this past Friday and Saturday. I watched part of the conference Saturday morning, focusing mainly on a speaker by the name of Katherine Wolf whose incredible story captivated me. This young woman suffered a massive brain stem stroke out of the blue, six months after having her first child. To save her life, over half of her cerebellum was removed and many viral intra-cranial nerves were sacrificed in a 16-hour long micro-brain surgery. She spent 40 days in ICU and has had 11 surgeries. She is blind in her right eye and deaf in her right ear, and the right side of her face is paralyzed, drooping downward. She endures chronic back pain and has a special chair outfitted to help with the pain when she is not in her wheelchair. Yet, despite all that she has and continues to endure, the joy with which she expresses her love of the Lord is one like I have rarely encountered. She shares the high times and the difficult times with the same genuine exuberance, steadfastly crediting God as the One who sustains and provides her joy and strength. She was not a Pollyanna, declaring that all was just sweetness and light; no, she was real—she did not balk at sharing some of those challenges and she didn’t sugar coat anything. The closeness of her relationship was almost enviable to me, and I was a little bit ashamed of that feeling of envy.

I’ve known others who have responded to health challenge after health challenge like Katherine has, and most of you reading do as well, to varying degrees. Sandy Williams, who was a member of our church several years ago, faced several extreme health conditions—diabetes, leg amputation, chronic pain from a car accident—and yet she always had a smile on her face and a praise for the Lord. Our dear sister Cynthia Wilkerson faced not only scleroderma, was on dialysis for a while until her kidney replacement, suffered from ALS, a progressive nervous system disease, which ultimately led to her passing from it quite recently. Throughout all of her health issues, however, Cynthia’s faith never seemed to waver or falter. Her perseverance enabled her to cling to God to sustain her, and His goodness and light shone in her, even into her last days.

And we can’t forget Paul. In his own words, we hear all of the hardships he endured: five different times he received thirty-nine lashes, three times he was beaten with rods, once he was stoned and left for dead, three times shipwrecked, one time he spent a whole night and day adrift at sea. He traveled on long journeys, facing dangers from rivers and from robbers. He tells the Corinthians that he worked hard and long, enduring many sleepless nights. He has been hungry and thirsty and often went without food. “I have shivered in the cold,” he writes, “without enough clothing to keep him warm.” He had to escape the city of Damascus by being lowered in a basket through a window in the city wall. But the relationship Paul had with our heavenly Father is one unlike any in the scriptures. He continually praised the Lord, confident in the love that His father had for him. Paul suffered for preaching Christ crucified, and glorified God throughout. Paul experienced a closeness in his walk to the Lord that I daresay many of us strive for. The man experienced being caught up into the third heaven—Paradise—for goodness sake! Again, like Cynthia’s situation, I wondered how he was able to attain that closeness despite all that he had endured.

I have often wondered what special qualities a person had to have to withstand some of the trials and tribulations that they have experienced. I used to buy into the thought that “the Lord doesn’t give you more than you can handle” until I realized that a) it’s not scriptural and b) if that were the case, then wouldn’t logic dictate that people wouldn’t die from diseases or tragedies? What was it that the Lord was looking for in a person’s soul and walk to decide whether to allow this trial or that tribulation to happen? Was I thankful that I didn’t have to experience such tragedies, that I’d dodged those proverbial bullets? I would look at Sandy, Cynthia, and others, and shake my head, firm in the knowledge that I simply would not be able to handle what they have handled. But how is it that they had such a strong relationship despite all they suffered through?

What I realized after having listened to Katherine Wolf’s story is that my thought process was fundamentally wrong. These people did not develop such a love and deep trust in the Lord despite what they had experienced—they had such a relationship with Him because of what they experienced. Paul himself reminds us to “glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance character; and character, hope.” James tell us to “count it all joy when we fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of our faith produces patience, and to let patience have its perfect work, that we may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”  Peter shares that “the genuineness of our faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ…” If we accept these exhortations to be true, and we should, then we have to see the benefit and the glory of experiencing the challenges that the Lord allows to happen in our lives. He is growing, pruning, and molding us, and all for the ultimate goal of us growing more into the image of Christ in our spiritual walk. He is the Potter, and we are the clay. The clay gets to experience the constant and steady touch of the Potter as He turns the wheel, beauty being created out of nothingness.

Prayer Requests

·      Thanks and praise for the uplifting worship service with Skylar and Erica this past Sunday, and for God’s will in filling the Youth Director/Worship leader position

·      For Pastor Ray and April, and their loved ones, at the upcoming Washington D.C. PCS

·      For those suffering from COVID, as well as those who have lost loved ones to this virus

·      For healthcare workers, law enforcement, and first responders  

·      For us to seek His will in all things

Beloved, Almighty God is a loving and giving Father Who wants the best for us, even if our betterment has to be attained through suffering. He has promised to never leave us, and we have that surety in the being of the Holy Spirit with us. Oh, what comfort and care He gives us throughout, for He is the God of the mountaintops as well as the valleys. What opportunities abound for us to grow closer in each obstacle we face, knowing that we do not face them alone.

 Quotes

“Be a mess with Him. Cry and yell and be broken before Him. Be ridiculously excited about your dreams – talk to Him about them. Let Him be the first one you run to with anxious thoughts, gratefulness for blessings, and everything in between.”   --Sydney Stephens

“A soft reminder: not everything that weighs you down is yours to carry.”   

Cancel Culture

who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed. 

  1 Peter 2:24

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.  For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.

                                    Romans 5:8-10

The recent trend of celebrities and other public figures facing the fall out and implications of the cancel culture came to mind as I was praying the other day. If you’re unfamiliar with the term, I’ll share a few definitions I have found, courtesy of the interwebs. One of them is from an article I found on vox.com: A celebrity or other public figure does or says something offensive. A public backlash, often fueled by politically progressive social media, ensues. Then come the calls to cancel the person — that is, to effectively end their career or revoke their cultural cachet, whether through boycotts of their work or disciplinary action from an employer.

And another, courtesy of Dictionary.com: Cancel culture refers to the popular practice of withdrawing support for (canceling) public figures and companies after they have done or said something considered objectionable or offensive. Cancel culture is generally discussed as being performed on social media in the form of group shaming.

Somewhat recent examples of “victims” of the counter culture include comedians Dave Chappelle, Kevin Hart, and Louis C.K. Roseanne Barr  was fired from her own show for a racist tweet and even beloved author J.K. Rowling, who was accused of writing a transphobic tweet, has dealt with the sting of an Twitter backlash from former Harry Potter fans. A very recent example is the boycott of Goya products, based on positive words the Goya CEO had for President Trump.

Ordinary people have been fired for stances taken and statements made in their much younger years; college-bound young adults have lost scholarships over pictures and tweets made by still-developing teenage brains. Sometimes the inevitable punishment seems to fit the crime—witness the public falls from glory powerful men like Bill Cosby, Kevin Spacey, and Harvey Weinstein. In other aspects, however, it does seem that the court of public opinion has quickly become that of Napoleonic law—that the accused in guilty until proven innocent, but many times even if innocence is proven, irreparable damage has occurred, fragments of hopes and dreams lying in pieces all around the victim and his or her family.

Can you imagine what it would be like if God decided to remember the sins we committed even before coming to Christ, before we were a new creation? All the security from His word and the promise of eternal life would slip through our grasp as we face the righteous wrath of a holy and just God. We take comfort in His word that He will never do that, however, as His word tells us that “as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.” Through the sacrifice of Jesus, we have the forgiveness of all of our sins—big, small, and in between—and we rest secure in the knowledge that we are God’s children. All glory and gratitude to our Savior and Lord, for all that He has done and continues to do for us!

Prayer Requests

·      For us to seek the lesson He has for us in this pandemic    

·      For us to be obedient and understand our place in the message of the Great Commission

·      For healthcare workers, law enforcement, and first responders  

·      For us to be studiers of his Word who put our faith into action

The enemy has an insidious way of trying to remind us of the sins, hoping to separate us, even if it’s temporary, from our relationship with God. Do not let him to this. You will not be a victim of his cancel culture campaign! As the cliché says, “when the devil reminds you of your past, remind him of his future!”

 Quotes

“When God calls us to step out of our comfort zone, He is not calling us to be comfortable in the situation. He is calling us to be comfortable in Him, despite the situation.”

“God is looking for people through whom He can do the impossible. What a pity we plan to do only the things that we can do by ourselves.”   -- A. W. Tozer

Powerful and Effective Prayer

Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

James 5:16

This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.

                                    1 John 5:14

You’d think it was my husband’s first day of kindergarten, the way I followed him out of the house this morning, asking if he had his keys, his phone, his breakfast, and if he needed some water to take with him. I then stood on the walk by the front porch and waved at him as he drove away. No, this was not his first day of kindergarten; it was his first day at a new job after having been out of work for a little more than three months, due to the economic downturn from the COVID pandemic 

My husband is a civil engineer and has been one for almost 30 years. He loves his work. He was at his last employer for about 18 months and before that, he was at CPS Energy for most of his career. Since having been laid off, he has applied for numerous civil engineering jobs but was able to land only two interviews—for the first company, he made it to the second-round interview, only to not hear from them at all. When he followed up with them after a good amount of time, he was told that they instituted a hiring freeze and that the postings were taken down.

When he landed a job interview for a company last week, I initiated a prayer chain of sorts—I texted our prayer group, some friends from my Emmaus group, my work team, and a few errant believers whom I’d met through work. I asked for folks to pray for God’s will to be done—not necessarily that he would get the job, but that regardless of how things played out, His will would be accomplished. Don’s  interview was for 1:00 PM on a Wednesday. Buoyed by the prayers of my friends, though perhaps not fully acknowledged by my husband who doesn’t seem to be in the same point on his spiritual walk as I am, he went to the in-person interview, face mask and everything. The interview went all right; he felt that they were looking at the person they hired to bring clients with him or her. Since Don’s projects were with the US military or other government agencies, he didn’t really have clients to bring with. He was a bit bummed by that.

After the interview, he went to visit a friend named Raymond, a wonderful guy that Don had worked with before who owned his own engineering firm; I’d even worked with him at USAA. Our families exchanged Christmas cards every year, and he has been a wonderful friend and mentor to Don. When Raymond told Don that Don’s prior employer had just hired two engineers, Don was supremely disappointed—his boss had told him after they had laid him off that he would work really hard to bring him back on when things started looking up. In Don’s eyes, I’m sure the whole day was a bust and the kernel of hope he had from getting the opportunity to interview turned into a boulder of disappointment and doubt.

Later that evening, Don got a phone call from Raymond. He put it on speakerphone when I came into the room, one so that I could say hi to Raymond, but more importantly so that I could hear what Raymond was saying. Raymond told Don that his engineering firm needed someone to work residential projects and that while Don’s experience was more on commercial building projects, if Don was willing to be trained by one of Raymond’s employees, Raymond would be happy to offer him a job. Raymond and the other two owners run their company in such a way as to offer great benefits and opportunity to do quality work in a supportive environment, so it was a wonderful gift being offered!

After Don hung up the phone in shock and humility, I started dancing and hollering praises to the Lord, telling Don that the Lord had come through and that the prayers of all of those who were praying had had their impact! When we called his mom to tell her the good news, I was whooping it up. When we called his dad to tell him the news, I was declaring His praises and grinning from ear to ear. When Don talked to his brother about it and commented that the job seemed to come from out of the blue, I corrected him and declared that it was a God thing through everyone’s prayers! I couldn’t contain that excitement and praise as I shared the news with our prayer group, and was met with an outpouring of the same declarations of praise for our mighty God!

An even cooler, mind-boggling aspect of the prayers of my Christian brothers and sisters is that Wayne shared that when he prayed for Don that morning, he asked God to give him favor and to give him the job, but more specifically, that Don would see and know that it was through the prayers of all those who were praying for him, that he got the job. I am confident that Don was blown away by how all of this came to be, and he acknowledges that God was at work.

This whole thing, from layoff to employment, has been a great witness opportunity, one that I did not want to blow. I’m confident that it’s due to the prayers of many of you all that have helped in that, and I am eternally grateful! To God be all the glory!!

Prayer Requests

·      For our nation to repent and return to the Lord

·      For those suffering from the impacts of COVID—the ill, the healthcare workers, medical researchers, those laid off and unemployed

·      For those struggling with the impacts and implications of this “new normal”

·      For us to have compassion on those who are struggling, those who are lost, and those who need to know the love of Jesus

We each have the opportunity to participate in praying for our brothers and sisters in Christ. Each time we do, we are blessed to be instruments of His love and grace. To God be all the glory!  

 Quotes

“If you can no longer understand what’s happening, ask God to open the eyes of your heart so that you will see a better perspective.”

“Pray, not until God hears you, but until you listen to God.”  

On Edge

 Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous

                           1 Peter 3:8

with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love

                           Ephesians 4:2 

There have been a number of memes and cartoons about 2020 floating around—my favorite one thus far was a response to a weather station’s announcement about a Saharan Dust Model that showed the dust making its way into North Carolina over the weekend, and that if the trend persisted, the dust would be substantial enough to dim the incoming sunlight. The response: “Awesome! I always wondered what it was like to live during the times of the Civil War, Spanish Flu, Great Depression, Civil Rights Movement, Watergate, and the Dust Bowl. Not all at once mind you, but ya know, “beggars/choosers” and all.”

2020 sure has been quite a year, hmm?

The pandemic has changed the landscape of our everyday lives—whereas before when we would leave the house to go to a public place and check our pockets or purses to ensure we had our keys, wallet, and phone, we now add face mask to that list of things we cannot leave the home without, if we even go out. Many of us are working from home instead of going to the office. Virtual happy hours on video conferencing have replaced real-life ones. Telemedicine has supplanted routine doctor’s appointments, and as we have recently experienced, the livestreaming of church worship services has taken the place of in-person worship.

Some of us have adapted relatively well; others are struggling a bit.

To add proverbial insult to injury, in social media and in mainstream media, there seems to be a staggering amount of conflicting information lately about everything—pros and cons of wearing a mask (side note—just wear the mask already); praise on one hand for Governor Abbot’s leadership and critique on the other; political views and statements about protesting, race relations, voting, cancel culture, defund versus defend the police; and the list goes on. There is an overwhelming amount of information and misinformation, on both sides of the political aisle, and through those people whose politics align with their respective party.

Add to that fear and concern over the increasing number of local COVID-19 cases, impacts from unemployment, and in some cases, a firm enforcement of stay-at-home orders. All of this is added on top of the normal challenges that life on this planet produces.

I felt compelled to write about this topic after a good friend of mine, when talking about a mutual friend whose actions caused a bit of concern, said “everybody’s on edge.” And it seems that he is right about that.

It can be too much at times, even for the resilient ones. We all react in different ways—some of us push all of the pain and uncertainty down, gruffly refusing to acknowledge it; others search for an escape in a bottle or pillbox, while others seek healthy ways of dealing with their emotions through counseling. Because each of us handles stress differently, we may not recognize that our brother- or sister-in-Christ is struggling. Heck—they might not even realize that they are struggling to the degree that they are. But my ask is that we seek to find out how each other is doing, because we are all children of the living God. It’s not a duty or requirement of only the formal (Pastors Wayne and Ray) and informal leaders (Session members) of the church to reach out to the congregation and body of Christ—it’s bigger than that. It takes each of us and all of us caring for each other and building each other up—building up the body of Christ. May we be sensitive to the unspoken needs of our fellow brother or sister in Christ, open to the leading of the Holy Spirit to bring kindness and grace to one another, and overflowing in the love that we have for each other. Together, solidified by His love and guidance, we can make it so that folks are no longer “on edge.”

Prayer Requests

·      For our nation to return to the Lord

·      For the victims of COVID-19 and their family members  

·      For pastors and church leaders who must navigate in unchartered waters, balancing the safety of those in their flock while acknowledging that there are people who want to worship in person

·      For our nation’s leaders, regardless of whether you agree with their politics or not

·      For us to shine and share Jesus to this broken world

I’d be remiss if I failed to remind my fellow brothers and sisters that it is perfectly acceptable to ask for help as well. It is not a sign of weakness; it is nothing to be ashamed of. I am 100% confident that you will not get shut down or laughed at if you reached out and asked anyone in this church for help or to at least pray for you.

Quotes

“If you want God to close and open doors, let go of the doorknob.”

“Don’t let the noise of the world keep you from hearing the voice of the Lord.”

Extending Grace

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 

Romans 3:23

If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

                                    1 John 1:8

I was in Academy the other day, looking for workout equipment that I could use at home. Their shelves were surprisingly void of weights and resistance bands. Disappointed, I turned to go when I heard a comment from a fellow customer in the same area, which I will not repeat out of decorum. She loudly expressed her dissatisfaction with the F word and the taking of the Lord’s name in vain. I cringed at hearing those, and while I longed to say something to her (which you and I both know I’m too chicken to do) or even stand there and shoot her dirty looks, I knew my better course of action would be say a prayer for her at the day she was having, as well as to pray for the store clerks as well as the young teenager she walked in with (in typical teenage fashion, he walked way ahead of her and didn’t seem to engage too much with her).

Her comment bothered and offended me, though. I’m not trying to come across as a Pollyanna Goody Two Shoes who never gets angry or curses, because that would be a misrepresentation of who I can be at times. But to hear a grown woman drop the F bomb and swear using the Lord’s name in a public store where children and families frequented was just too much.

I don’t watch a lot of the critically acclaimed and popular series on streaming services—I’ve never seen Game of Thrones, Orange is the New Black, Breaking Bad—mainly because of the subject matter, violence, and the cussing. (I’m not judging you if you watch them—I promise I am not)! I have watched a couple of episodes of a series I looked so forward to—Picard—only to be put off, to a small degree, by the F word peppered throughout some of the dialogue. I enjoy the intrigue and action of the latest Jack Ryan series on Amazon Prime, because a) it’s got John Krasinski and b) Jack Ryan’s character from The Hunt for Red October is one of my favorites. And yes, there is a lot of violence, given the backdrop of the storylines, and darn it, there is a tremendous amount of bad language in it.

Our mayor even used the Lord’s name in vain in an impassioned speech to the protesters the other night. I admit that I have heard words like that in casual conversation at work, and am surprised every time I hear it in an office environment.

Perhaps this is the norm and I’ve just been living in a naïve idealistic bubble. Perhaps everyone talks like this and television shows like Picard and Jack Ryan are merely portraying the reality of life that is different than the one I’m used to at my office.

Now again, I want to make sure I represent myself appropriately to my sisters and brothers. I have dropped the occasional F word here and there in moments of frustration or while watching the Dallas Cowboys (oh wait—those examples were redundant. Kidding…). I am a fan of the show Schitt’s Creek, and while its use has been infrequent, they have used the F word. My point is that I am not perfect and do not claim to be. I am a sinner.

If I, a sinner, am offended and dismayed by the degradation of civility by the common use of offensive language, can you imagine how our heavenly Father feels? I envision Him wincing the same way I did when I heard that lady in Academy every time His name is said in vain, but with even more sadness, pain, and disappointment, especially exacerbated when He hears that language from my lips.

But because of Christ’s atoning work at the cross, though I pain Him, I have every assurance of the love He has for me and the grace He has given me. Instead of living shackled by sin and dreading that every evil thought and bad word will pass from my lips, I have the presence of the Holy Spirit to convict me not to say them in the first place. I have His inspired Word that tells me to change the focus of my thoughts and direct them onto whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, if there is any excellence or anything worthy of praise. It also inspires me to, as Paul writes in Ephesians 4, to “put off my old self, which belongs to my former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of my mind, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”

I am not a lost cause. When the Lord looks at me, He sees me as righteous, only because of Christ’s imparted righteousness. My Lord and Savior took the punishment for sins I would commit 2000+ years later, and I move in His incredible grace. Since I have been given grace, I must extend it to others, which is why I chose to pray for that woman in the Academy store instead of condemning her for her attitude and language.

May we always seek to have eyes that see others as God sees them.

Prayer Requests

·      For us to love our neighbors as Jesus did, regardless of their race, sexual orientation, politics, or other dividing attribute    

·      For our nation to heal

·      For our nation to turn to the Lord

·      For us to share the love of Christ and the gospel message to a world in desperate need of it

I thank God for His love, grace, and that He brought us all together in service to His kingdom.

 Quotes  

“Never wish them pain. That’s not who you are. If they caused you pain, they must have pain inside. Wish them healing.”

“Followers of Jesus are on a straight and narrow road that offends many. Pleasing God separates you from this world.”  

“When you finally learn that a person’s behavior has more to do with their own internal struggle than it ever did with you…you learn grace.”              

The Golden Rule

“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 

                           Matthew 22:36-39

So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets

                           Matthew 7:12

Before I start, I want to share that I have started and stopped writing this devotional a couple of times over the past week. I have agonized over the message to ensure that it is coming from the Lord and not from my heart or thoughts. If there is any Laura that eked through, I ask your forgiveness for that.

I am shell shocked over the events that have taken place in our nation over the last two weeks, a condition exacerbated by the state of the worldwide pandemic and its impact on people close to me (my husband’s job loss) and those afar (the close-to 400,000 deaths (as of June 7) from COVID-19) over the past couple of months. My heart is broken for the pain of it all.

As I have written before, I am not one to normally comment on social media, mostly due to two things: I am afraid to get into an argument with someone who may be more well versed in the topic and I am loathe to really rock the boat with people. I know my beliefs, and I am comfortable in them, and don’t feel the need to bash people over the head with them.

On Facebook, I have friends that are on both ends of the political spectrum, and I admit that there are some whose political rhetoric have made me snooze them (basically, not have their Facebook posts come up in my newsfeed), basically because I’m too much of a people pleaser to unfriend them. However, some of the posts that both sides have shared have been quite thought-provoking, from the ones that cite the example of Jesus turning over the money changers’ tables in Matthew 21 as an endorsement of protesting to the ones that defend actions taken by police to clear out protesters in front of St. John’s church in what has been painted as Trump’s bible photo op. Which stance is the correct one?

My mind is most happy when the world in which I operate is black and white—at work, when expectations and goals are clearly defined and boundaries given—boy howdy, watch me go! I can knock it out of the park. Throw me into an environment in which there are 73 different shades of grey, and I will admit that I struggle.

My heart, however, can see the 73 different shades of grey when it comes to people and situations. I acknowledged, albeit quietly, Colin Kaepernick’s (and others) peaceful protest of taking a knee during the National Anthem while appreciating the anger from those who felt it disrespectful. I agreed with those who quoted Romans 13:1(submitting to established governing authorities) to denounce illegal immigration but agreed also with those who quoted Matthew 25:43 (“I was a stranger and you did not invite me in…”) to demonstrate our responsibility to those less fortunate than us.  

I can totally identify with those latest rounds of Facebook memes that show Venn diagrams with three circles with “Me” in the middle; one is about COVID-19: “People taking COVID-19 seriously, people concerned about impending economic devastation, and people worried about expansion of authoritarian government policies”. Another about current events: “Outraged by George Floyd’s death, supports good cops, and does not condone looting and rioting.” The same tagline is on both: “it’s okay to be all three”. That is where I am, on both accounts.

I don’t know what stance the Lord is asking me to take on any of these topics—heck, I don’t even know if I am supposed to take a stance. But here is what I do know, and it came to me through prayer this morning: I don’t have to figure all of this out; I am simply supposed to love people. I am supposed to love my neighbor as I love myself, living the Golden Rule like Jesus told us to do in Matthew 7, regardless of my neighbor’s skin color, belief system, sexual orientation, whether or not they like the Dallas Cowboys—regardless of any of that and more. That is pretty black and white to understand, albeit challenging at times to do. I’m thankful for the presence of the Holy Spirit to help enable me to do so.

Prayer Requests

·      For our nation to return to the Lord

·      For unity and peace instead of division and chaos

·      For the ability to love as Jesus loves and extend grace like Almighty God does

·      For pastors and leaders in the church, as church buildings reopen

A pastor friend of mine posted this message on Facebook with the Matthew 7:12 verse: “Imagine how different our nation and world would be right now if Christians not only knew this rule, but actually lived it out. Today, in the midst of such challenging times, let's embrace this high calling on our lives. Let's make a GODly (sic) difference in this world one relationship at a time. Remember, the change you can control is the change in you!”

Quotes

“If Christ didn’t come to condemn the world, it’s probably not our job either.”

“The strongest people are not those who show strength in front of us, but those who win battles we know nothing about.”

The Alpha and the Omega

We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.

                           2 Corinthians 5:8

And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts.  He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son.

                           Revelation 21:6-7

 My father Glenn married Helen, a woman he had met through a Christian dating site about six years after my mother had passed away suddenly in their home. Helen was a kind and giving woman with a beautiful soul, seven years younger than my dad, and my sister and I welcomed her into our family with love and thankful anticipation that my dad would have a companion in his proverbial golden years. Since they got married when I was 40, I would inadvertently start to refer to her mistakenly as my mother-in-law, stopping midway before correcting myself to call her my dad’s wife. It felt a little odd to refer to her as my stepmother. Estranged from her own daughter for reasons unbeknownst to her, Helen sought to provide the friendship and support adult children need, and I loved her for it.

Dad and Helen traveled fairly extensively, something for which I am thankful, as my mom didn’t feel very comfortable traveling. Helen grew up the daughter of missionary parents in Africa, and she and Dad returned there on a couple of trips, Helen’s heart full of love for the place she called home. In the past couple of years, however, their travels slowed down a bit as Helen faced a series of unrelated health problems, some due to medical conditions, and others caused by errant falls and trips. As my prayer meeting friends can attest, Helen was on our prayer list quite frequently. Throughout each bout of physical challenge, despite the pain or resultant discomfort, Helen’s countenance shone brightly, powered by her faith and love for the Lord.

The Lord called Helen home last Friday, a couple of days after a successful rotator cuff surgery, when she passed away in their home while sleeping. She had taken a tumble in the middle of the night, being disoriented, and I believe that something occurred in that fall that eventually caused her to pass. Regardless of what caused it, she is with our Lord right now, without physical ailment, without pain, without tears. A beloved daughter of the King is now with her Father, and although I mourn her passing and the resultant gap in our family, I am overjoyed that she is with Him as I write this.

In the book of Revelation, The Lord tells us that He is the Alpha and the Omega. I was thinking about that this morning in my prayers. In the Greek alphabet, I’m sure you know, Alpha is the first letter and Omega, the last. To oversimplify His word—God the is the beginning and the end. Many of us look at death as an end of sorts, and it is—of this mortal life and body. But for those who believe in Him, death is not the end of “us”; it is simply and beautifully the beginning of our physical and eternal time with Him. Think of it—to be in the presence of Almighty God—our Creator, our Father, the One who loves us unconditionally—what a mind-boggling, overwhelming, amazing and indescribable joy we will experience at that moment, and in the ones to come with our resurrection bodies, and the new heaven and new earth. Glory be to God!

Prayer Requests

·      For those who do not know our Lord yet – that we can be instruments in the hand of a loving God in sharing the good news

·      For families like Bruce Richter and Bob Gaffin, facing the eventual loss of their family members

·      For families and individuals facing the impact of COVID-19, health-wise, financially, and the like

·      For government leaders and people of influence – that they be united in seeking godly wisdom

Folks, it is because of what Jesus did on the cross that we have the hope of what Helen is experiencing right now. His sacrifice meant that instead of eternal damnation, we as believers have eternal life. May we share that message of hope with those yet to believe.

Quotes

“Be an Esther, bold and courageous enough to stand for the truth, to voice your opinion and fight for the good of others, even when it means to sacrifice yourself. If God has put you in a position, it is for a purpose. Never be afraid to heed that inner voice.”

“You’ve got to preach with your life before you can preach with your mouth.”               --Brian Beasley