Tag: Faith

Opportunities Come and Go

I mull over this phrase from time to time as I consider the many opportunities I’ve had, the many opportunities I’ve botched and the many opportunities I’ve either missed or passed up through the years.  The missed and passed up opportunities have probably hounded me as much or more than the opportunities I’ve botched.  Usually, but not always, I’ve had or take a second opportunity to repair or at least attempt to make up for that botched opportunity and usually (but not always) things have turned out okay.  But still, it’s those occasions I missed or passed up — those opportunities are the ones I most regret.  It’s probably bcz I’ll never know what could have come out of what should have been.  But then… even as I share this I know this flies in the face of my strongly held belief that God is, indeed, sovereign.   It is in these times I could be labeled a Calarminian. :-S  I know God is sovereign and what will be will be — it’s just that I can’t ever seem to be fully reconciled to that fact in the face of missed or rejected passed up opportunities.

For example:  I may botch up talking with someone about the Lord — I may get all intense or neglect to be succinct or whatever and come away feeling like I really messed up that opportunity to share the gospel, to draw someone into conversation and prayerfully into the kingdom.  But then I must consider that faith is of the Lord, and that person’s redemption is of the Lord — though He does use cracked pots to pour out His message of salvation and redemption.

My missed opportunities or passed up opportunities have been those times, though I may not have recognized it at the time,  when I clearly had the grace of God to do this or that thing and I frittered away the time or I didn’t make a call or I made the wrong call or I thought my way of handling a situation would suffice or whatever… and an opportunity to do good, to help, to encourage, to correct, to confess an offense or whatever was missed or lost.

I can’t go back and recreate those opportunities — but I can seek to correct losses and offenses and as I do so, I must leave the results to the Lord and then I can use those missed or passed up opportunities to prompt me the next time such an opportunity arises, presents itself or even seems to be present.  God is mercifully helping me through the years in His loving kindness,  all my missteps, my failings, miscommunications, misunderstandings, resentment, fears, regrets, losses, etc., etc., to watch — really watch — for opportunities and seek to not miss them.  All these problems, especially in the last couple of years,  have surely taught me that opportunities come and go — good ones and difficult ones, and it’s really imperative to daily be in the Word, to daily be in prayer, to keep short accounts and, perhaps above all, to seek God’s will and direction for each of the opportunities He brings my way.

This phrase continually comes to mind: “God does not call the equipped, He equips the called.”  So, that being understood, as responsibilities go,  I know that mine is to watch and receive, His is to present and provide, mine is to obey, His is to guide, mine is to be willing , His is to be filling, mine is to be poured out, His is to be glorified.

Opportunities come and go… O, that I would be found faithful in them.

♥ Gleanings

This morning I’m reading in 1 Chronicles 21 & 22.   There King David, yielding to the Lord’s chastening, chooses his punishment:  “…let me fall now into the hand of the LORD: for very great are His mercies; but let me not fall into the hand of man.” (21.13)   For his sin of numbering the people, it’s interesting that David would choose not three years of famine, nor three months being chased by his enemies, but three days, the sword of the LORD — choosing to place himself at the mercy of the Living God.  He emerged from that time repentant, humbled and beseeching the LORD — and having just been chastened by the LORD, David found Him to be only faithful, only merciful, only just.  It was God’s great mercy David sought and found; he found the LORD to be not only merciful but worthy of all worship.

So, in an act of worship — of love, in an act of remorseful obedience, he set out to build an alter — an alter of offering: repentance, adoration, peace.  His recognition of self and His recognition of God compelled him to fall before the Living God in repentance and adoration.   It is only when we see ourselves as we are — and see God — that He is just in His dealings, that He is just in His chastening and He is the epitome of  love and mercy.  We can come to such a conclusion when we have a right view of Him and a right view of ourselves — for, surely, He has not dealt with us according to our sin or our past deeds — even according to our feeble works of “righteousness.”  He has dealt with us mercifully and graciously.  For this, we can take the cup of Salvation and say: Thank You.  Thank You, Thank you, LORD — for You alone have saved me, not given me as I have deserved but according to your mercy, You have saved me.  Thank You.

“Return at my reproof; behold,
I will pour out my spirit unto you,
I will make known my words unto you.”
–Proverbs 1.23

And isn’t this what we want so desperately — the Spirit of the Lord and His words?   We reject reproofs and we reject chastening — but it is the mercy of the LORD to reprove us, to chasten us.

We can learn a great deal from Kind David — there he erred, there he acted foolishly (admitting this himself, 21.8) and, in addition, he would seemingly lose a great deal.  In his zeal, he sought to construct an alter for the LORD as a burnt offering, as a peace offering.  But for his sin, he would not be the man to build the house of the LORD.  This would seem such a heavy burden to bear — but, again, we do see the mercy of the LORD: for He gave David the heart and mind to gather the materials his son, Solomon, would need for the construction of the house.  How merciful of the LORD!

I believe the great blessing of this whole event was was not simply God’s mercy on David, but God’s great mercy on Solomon — according to God’s great plan for blessing Solomon’s life with peace and quietness in Israel all his days.  It is from such Scriptures that we can glean that God does much more in and through the trials and tragedies we face than we could ever begin to ask or imagine.  We have much to glean from what David learned and from how he blessed and admonished his son, Solomon.   I believe we’ve been given a glimpse of the potential each life — a glimpse of how God might use us or our children, how He might redeem our failures and how He might work for our good and His glory.

Let us glean from the Word, let us be mothers who seek the Lord, mothers who don’t faint in the day of adversity or fail to carry out the great calling on our lives.   Let us glean from this and be mothers who seek His will for our children.  Consider and glean from the many blessings in what David said to his son, Solomon.

11  Now, my son, the LORD be with thee; and prosper thou, and build the house of the LORD thy God, as he hath said of thee.
12  Only the LORD give thee wisdom and understanding, and give thee charge concerning Israel, that thou mayest keep the law of the LORD thy God.
13  Then shalt thou prosper, if thou takest heed to fulfil the statutes and judgments which the LORD charged Moses with concerning Israel: be strong, and of good courage; dread not, nor be dismayed.
19  Now set your heart and your soul to seek the LORD your God…”  1Chronicles 22.11-13, 19

What prayers we can glean from this portion.   I’m ever more thankful that the Lord has given His living, timely, instructive Word.  I don’t know what I would do as a mother without the ever present Hand and witness of the Lord, without His Word, without His Holy Spirit or without the gift of Faith.

“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.” 2Timothy 3.16

May you always be blessed. ♥

Moonless Trust

There are times when nothing soothes or encourages me quite like the writings of women who’ve journeyed with the Lord a long while and have traveled paths paved by those who’ve forsaken all and have followed Christ to “the ends of the earth” literally or when they’ve come to the end of themselves and pressed on in faith.

This devotional was a great blessing to me as I consider the living sacrifice or both women’s lives — Elisabeth Elliot’s and Amy Carmichael’s.  So, it is with great respect and gratitude to the Lord that I share this piece with you.

Moonless Trust – by Elisabeth Elliot

Some of you are perhaps feeling that you are voyaging just now on a moonless sea. Uncertainty surrounds you. There seem to be no signs to follow. Perhaps you feel about to be engulfed by loneliness. There is no one to whom you can speak of your need.

Amy Carmichael wrote of such a feeling when, as a missionary of twenty-six, she had to leave Japan because of poor health, then travel to China for recuperation, but then realized God was telling her to go to Ceylon. (All this preceded her going to India, where she stayed for fifty-three years.) I have on my desk her original handwritten letter of August 25, 1894, as she was en route to Colombo. “All along, let us remember, we are not asked to understand, but simply to obey…. On July 28, Saturday, I sailed. We had to come on board on Friday night, and just as the tender (a small boat) where were the dear friends who had come to say goodbye was moving off, and the chill of loneliness shivered through me, like a warm love-clasp came the long-loved lines–‘And only Heaven is better than to walk with Christ at midnight, over moonless seas.’ I couldn’t feel frightened then. Praise Him for the moonless seas–all the better the opportunity for proving Him to be indeed the El Shaddai, ‘the God who is Enough.”‘

Let me add my own word of witness to hers and to that of the tens of thousands who have learned that He is indeed Enough. He is not all we would ask for (if we were honest), but it is precisely when we do not have what we would ask for, and only then, that we can clearly perceive His all-sufficiency. It is when the sea is moonless that the Lord has become my Light.”

May you always be blessed.

 

a friend’s anniversary letter

I received this letter… and it’s too sweet to not share with you.
I console myself with this letter — that perhaps one day I will
have a mind to write such a letter. I loved his wife, Florence, even
giving our last baby, our daughter Amelia her name as a middle name…
and I added “Joy” to it because Florence brought me great joy and encouragement.
Amelia bears the name well… as she does for the other woman she’s named after.
Although, I never called Mrs. Pais: Amelia, it was, in fact, her name.

Paul Turnidge writes:

Hello All, and a blessed year ahead.

A year ago today, Florence began a new day in Heaven. By this time she
has joined with Peter, James and John, with Lydia, Mary and all the
friends that have gone there ahead of her. I’m sure she has probably
gotten the gals together and said, “Let’s start a Sisterhood.”

Every day I praise the Lord that she is in Heaven enjoying herself rather
than having to be in a nursing home, sitting in a wheel chair wondering
why she can’t get it going.

Somebody sent me the following prayer:

THE SENILITY PRAYER :
Grant me the senility to forget the people
I never liked anyway,
The good fortune to run into the ones I do, and
The eyesight to tell the difference.

My biggest problem is that I can’t think of anybody I don’t like and my
eyesight is so bad I couldn’t tell the difference anyway.

Hope you’re finding this an encouraging year, and it’s wonderful to know
the Lord never leaves or forsakes us. (Hebrews 13:5)

God bless you all,

Paul

Let them understand the pattern

Throughout this past week, I’ve been steeped in thinking of patterns and pieces and things fitting together and how God creatively and masterfully gathers pieces of our lives from here and there — new and old — and fits them together according to His pattern.

Ezekiel 43.10-11  Thou son of man, show this house to the house of Israel that they may be ashamed of their iniquities; and let them understand the pattern. And if they are ashamed of all that they have done, show them the form of the house, and its pattern, and the goings out thereof, and the comings in thereof, and all its figures, and all its descriptions, and all its paintings, and all its laws; and write it in their sight that they may keep the whole form thereof and all the ordinances thereof and do them.

It’s interesting how we all tend to, at once, demand and reject patterns and forms.  I was thinking about this earlier when I was mulling over different forms and patterns I’ve used through the years for quiet time and Bible study.  Using forms, we might find ourselves feeling spiritually dry and quiet times might seem to become rote performances — then we might seek to be free from form and we may find ourselves floundering and then possibly ignoring the Word or prayer.  Seasons of these cycles repeat and we often find ourselves looking for the old ways… what was I doing, saying, thinking, reading, etc., etc., when I was daily walking with the Lord?  What gave me faith, understanding and trust?  What pattern had the Lord worked in my life?

The following is not meant to be a “form” per se, but as I read passages of Scripture and come to a portion that arrests my attention in some way or another, I have in mind any one, or many, of these questions.

  • is there a praise I can give the Lord?
  • is there a trespass I need to confess and restore?
  • is there a sin issue to confess and repent?
  • is there a promise I can claim as my own?
  • is there a command for me to obey?
  • is there a blessing for me to remember?
  • is there a failure from which I can learn?
  • is there a victory for me to seek to win?
  • is there a new understanding of God, of the Lord Jesus, of the work of the Holy Spirit?
  • is there a new understanding about the presence and schemes of the devil or of lies I might tend to believe?
  • is there an action of any sort I need to take?

    • These sorts of questions make the living Word the Word living in my life.  It is by faith in Jesus and through the Holy Spirit illuminating the Word of God I gain understanding.  As I wrote about yesterday: How is it that you do not understand? I must ask myself this question when my thoughts are not in line with the Word or when I question what the Lord is doing (or not doing) in my life.  I must realize that it’s not God who’s not working or present or speaking — it’s me not listening or trusting or following Him in faith — it’s me not continuing in the patter He’s given me.  And, above all that, I must remember that it’s not my faith that gives me understanding, it’s His faith working in me that gives me understanding… it’s His Word living in me that gives me understanding.Psalm 119.104  Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way.

    Proverbs 4.5  Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth.
    Proverbs 4.7  Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.
    Proverbs 16.16  How much better is it to get wisdom than gold! and to get understanding rather to be chosen than silver!

    How is it that you do not understand?

    I mull this thought over and over as I stir my coffee:  How is it that you do not understand?  It is a question Jesus asked His disciples *after* the feeding of the four thousand as they were reasoning among themselves about their lack of bread.  (Mark 8.16-21) We ought to ask ourselves this question — especially if we’ve walked with Jesus a long time — especially if we’ve seen Him do above and beyond all that we could’ve asked or imagined.

    So this must be us, too, because we have seen and experienced the provision, the miracles, the touch of Jesus on our lives and we, too, give in to fears and doubts and faithless thoughts. Where is Jesus when we do this?  Well, we answer, He is right here. Yes!  Yes, He is, but why do we think and act as though He is not (or was not or will not be).  Why do we so often live as though He’s never passed by, never taken our hand, never touched our eyes, never made a difference in our lives.

    We are like those who sought and received healing, but continue on having eyes that see not, ears but hearing not and experiencing but remembering not.

    But Jesus.  But Jesus — ever compassionate Jesus — doesn’t leave, does not forsake us, does not think us insignificant.  As further demonstration of His amazing love and precious care, Jesus continues to show mercy.  Mark 8.22: A blind man is brought to Jesus — for a cure, for sight to his eyes.  And what does Jesus do?  He takes the blind man by the hand.  Has Jesus done this for you?  Have you sought Him for this or that or some other thing — and He takes you by the hand?  Before the blind man saw, he was led by the Lord Jesus.

    O, that ought to be us. O, that we would trust Jesus when He takes us by the hand *before* we see — that we would be led by Him – in blind faith.

    1 Peter 2:9  “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood,
    an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises
    of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”

    When Jesus was reminding His disciples of the miracles they had seen and experienced, He didn’t simply point to the miracle of feeding four thousand or of feeding five thousand — but He pointed out to them what remained — what was left over.  Do you think on that in your life?  After the miracles He has done… and all the “fragments” or overage or abundance left over. This is where (I believe) the above and beyond comes in when considering that the Lord has done/is doing/will do above and beyond what we ask or imagine.  I think we’re just too often to blind to see — even though we’ve been given sight.  May the Lord open our eyes that we may see — that we may understand — and remember — and live in His marvelous light.  May it be for us, today, the testimony:  whereas I was blind, now I see.  O, what a difference since Jesus passed by.

     

    Testing of Faith

    “Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:”  –1Peter 1.6-7

    There seems to be no lonelier place than the den of rejection — few trials more painful and few trails more uncertain.  And for us, as Christian women – wives and mothers, the enemy is at his fiercest when we give in to despair or, worse, self pity in the face of rejection.   If we’re not tempted to retaliate, then we’re likely tempted to be defensive.  If we don’t give in to self pity, then we’re probably headed down any of a number of other destructive roads — either literally or mentally.

    Rejection is happening all over.  It seems the devil is pulling out all the stops in his prowling around to see whom he may devour — and a devourer he is (or seeks to be!).

    In a recent conversation, comments were being made regarding the number of marriages undergoing strife or, worse, separation and the incredible number of people in conflict in some manner or another.  And I observed that never in my life have I witnessed such damage in homes, friendships, marriages, churches… not to mention the moral decline of society all around us.  It’s staggering.  It’s distressing.

    So what do we do?  What should our response, our reaction or action be regarding these things?

    Puzzled, I recall the scripture that tells me to rejoice.  Rejoice?  Rejoice at rejection? Rejoice that things are falling apart all around me?  Rejoice that there is so much division and squabbling?  Rejoice that there are so many messes? Rejoice at all the loss? Rejoice at the decline and decay?

    Rejoice: I am to rejoice and be exceeding glad.  Not at the rejection. Not at the particular mess.  Not at the sin or the gossip or the slander.  Not at the loss.  I am to rejoice in my Saviour.  I am to greatly rejoice even when I am in heaviness through manifold temptations.

    He has made a way… He is the way. I need to remember this. I need to live this.

    1Peter 4.12  “Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:”

    2Peter 2.9  “The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:”

    I reminded in John 16.22 that no man can take my joy from me.  He is my joy.  And that I am the only one who can determine to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.  The devil only dwells in and dictates my thoughts if I let him and if I entertain his devices and his intent to destroy.

    I cannot — I must not — do that, for I am to:  (1Thessalonians 5.16)  “Rejoice evermore!” I am to “Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, rejoice!”  –Philippians 4.4

    Ultimately, I know that I know that I know:  I want to please the Lord — I know I want strong faith and I know I want to honour Him.  So my response to trials and testings and temptations must be filtered through 1Peter 1.6-7 so that I will be: found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.

    Joy and Sorrow

    The older I get, the more I see it: the look — the longing look in a mother’s eyes when things didn’t turn out like she hoped.  It’s not necessarily disappointment or despair or even bitterness — it’s just sort of: sorrow.   There’s another look, too — it’s the hopeful look in a mother’s eyes at the mention of one of her children, a memory or an event from days gone by… it’s joy.  Joy is in her eyes.

    Well, that’s what I’ve come to think motherhood’s all about:  joys and sorrows.  Motherhood is a call to sorrow; Motherhood’s a call to joy.  Truly, sorrow skips no home — but joy — joy’s not far behind, either.

    Throughout these many years of motherhood, I look back and see the braided events… the joy, the sorrow — and the Lord.  I know I’ve got sorrow in my eyes — but I’ve got joy in my eyes, too.  All around me is the braid: the cords of joy and sorrow.  It’s as if He’s just been holding the whole braid together — for, were it not for Him, the joy and sorrow would just be a tangled, knotted twist — but somehow — marvelously — He’s the central strong cord that’s made it a long braid: a long braid of years — a long braid of joys and sorrows intermingled with His cord of grace and mercy lovingly held in His gracious hands.

    I suppose He could’ve prevented or not allowed some of the sorrows — but I so needed them, for without them I’d not have appreciated or understood the deepness of joy.  And, I suppose He could have withheld some of the joys — but without them I wonder if I’d not have been able to accept or endure the sorrows.  Without the sorrows I’d still be going along unrepentant, unchanged, unrestored.  Without the joys I’d be weary, weak and probably feel without hope.  He could have done many things differently. He could have given or withheld.

    But He didn’t.
    And I’m glad.

    In His great wisdom and merciful kindness, He allowed a blending of the two — and as I’ve experienced the reality that He’s the one with the cords in His loving Hands I see more and more how surely I have needed both.  But I forget that sometimes.  I wonder: how will a situation be resolved?  I fret: _________ will never be different than it is today.  I weep: how will this son or daughter make it?  I cry to Him: what will the end of all of this be?  I laugh with joy and ask Him:  how could I possibly be this blessed?  I smile and exclaim to Him: how could I be so fortunate to have the life I have or the family or the health or strength I have today or  have had all these years?   All the while all of these facets of the cords of joy and sorrow are gently (though sometimes it feels anything but gently) turning in His hands gently twisting, braiding, blending, strengthening the braid.

    Sorrow’s right around the corner.
    Joy’s right down the path…
    I need them both.

    This Could Be…

    As I read year-end letters, more Christmas cards and letters, headlines and articles, a common theme is always revisited this time of year — sure as New Year’s resolutions, are the slogans and affirmations: Out with the old, in with the New! This Year’s the Year for You!  The sentiments may have very different motivation, very different context, but the intent is the same: This year’s going to be the best year ever!

    And they always are.  Today.

    Today is the first day of the New Year… clean, fresh slate, an unmarked calendar, a new dawn, a bright new day unmarred by the oft repeated sins of our youth.  We may look back at previous years and see the failings that trip us up, the habits that chain us, the bitterness that superglues us to the past — but somehow, today, we have before us a new year with all the possibilities and none of the failures of the year that’s just passed by.  Every thing we ever wanted to do – to be – to say – to think: we can now plan (again) to do because THIS is going to be the best year ever.

    And, you know… this could be.  This could be the best year ever.  This could be the year to crown all years.  It will all depend on what we say and do and think in response to all the God says and does and thinks toward us.  This could be the best year of our lives and not at all for all the reasons we might imagine. This could be the best year of our lives because of what God is doing in and through us or will do in and through us.

    As you look back on the year that’s just passed, the year that’s so last year… Count your blessings, name them one by one… count your many blessings see what God has done.

    This could be the year for you. I pray as I write this, that this will, indeed, be the year for you — and I pray all of these things for myself and my family, too, by the way — whenever I write “you” — I mean: me, too.  ♥

    I pray this will be the year you see the loving kindness of the Lord.  I pray this will be the year you will take His hand and leave your hand in His.  I pray this will be the year you will trust Him, follow Him, obey Him, love Him, yield your self to Him and His leading.  I pray this will be the year you lay down your life, quit trying to go it alone — that you let go of all those things that bind you and lay them at the foot of the Cross.  I pray you will finish well —  this will be the year you will have been found faithful.

    Could this be the year for you?

    Crowned with Goodness

    May the Lord, indeed, crown your year with goodness ♥ and may the coming year be your most blessed year in the Lord.

     


    Praise waiteth for thee, O God, in Sion: and unto thee shall the vow be performed.
    2  O thou that hearest prayer, unto thee shall all flesh come.
    3  Iniquities prevail against me: as for our transgressions, thou shalt purge them away.
    4  Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts: we shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple.
    5  By terrible things in righteousness wilt thou answer us, O God of our salvation; who art the confidence of all the ends of the earth, and of them that are afar off upon the sea:
    6   Which by his strength setteth fast the mountains; being girded with power:
    7  Which stilleth the noise of the seas, the noise of their waves, and the tumult of the people.
    8  They also that dwell in the uttermost parts are afraid at thy tokens: thou makest the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice.
    9  Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it: thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God, which is full of water: thou preparest them corn, when thou hast so provided for it.
    10  Thou waterest the ridges thereof abundantly: thou settlest the furrows thereof: thou makest it soft with showers: thou blessest the springing thereof.
    11  Thou crownest the year with thy goodness; and thy paths drop fatness.
    12  They drop upon the pastures of the wilderness: and the little hills rejoice on every side.
    13  The pastures are clothed with flocks; the valleys also are covered over with corn; they shout for joy, they also sing.
    ——Psalm 65