Author Archives: Barbara Harper

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About Barbara Harper

https://barbarah.wordpress.com

What God Does With Our Sins

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I was just looking through Rosalind Goforth’s book, Climbing, for another post I am working on, and came across this study she did. I thought it might be a blessing to some.

She was often oppressed and burdened with a sense of sin, even though she knew she was forgiven, even after she was a missionary to China. One evening she searched the Scripture, determined to find out what the Bible said God did with out sin. This is the result of her study (wording and emphases are hers):

1. He lays them on His Son — Jesus Christ. Isaiah 53:6

2. Christ takes them away. John 1:29

3. They are removed an immeasurable distance — as far as the east is from the west. Psalm 103:12

4. When sought for are not found. Jeremiah 50:20

5. The Lord forgives them. I John 1:9, Ephesians 1:7, Psalm 103:3

6. He cleanses them ALL away by the blood of His Son. I John 1:7, Revelation 1:5

7. He cleanses them as white as snow or wool. Isaiah 1:18, Psalm 51:7

8. He abundantly pardons them. Isaiah 55:7

9. He tramples them underfoot. Micah 7:19 (ASV: KJV says “subdue)
10. He remembers them no more. Hebrews 10:17, Ezekiel 33:16

11. He casts them behind His back. Isaiah 38:17

12. He casts them into the depths of the sea. Micah 7:19

13. He will not impute us with sins. Romans 4:8

14. He covers them. Romans 4:7

15. He blots them out. Isaiah 43:25

16. He blots them out as a thick cloud. Isaiah 44:22

17. He blots out even the proof against us, NAILING IT TO HIS SON’S CROSS. Colossians 2:14

Missionary Biographies

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When I was in college, I heard an older woman speak about the impact that reading missionary biographies had on her life. Then the church that my husband and I joined after we were married (which, incidentally, this lady also belonged to) had a Ladies Missionary Prayer Group which included, in its monthly meeting, a “book report” of sorts about a classic missionary biography.

Next to the Bible and being under good preaching regularly, I believe that reading missionary biographies has had the greatest impact in my own Christian growth. I think most missionaries would not want to be put on a pedestal or thought of as some type of super-Christian. In fact, the ones I benefit from the most are the ones whose biographies reveal they are “of like passions as we are.” (I think some older biographies tended to venerate their subject so much that they seem almost sinless. It must be hard for a biographer to want to put their subject in the best light and to want to avoid sounded gossipy by including negative things. Yet sometimes a “warts and all” type of biography tends to go too far the other way. I’m sure it is hard to strike the right balance.) Yet I’ve learned much from the examples of those who have gone before, whose lives have been shining testimonies to God’s grace. I listed some of my favorites in a previous post.

We learn history for a number of reasons, among them: to better understand our current times, to appreciate our heritage, to avoid repeating mistakes. There are heroes in our national history who inspire us to a love of country and duty and courage. There are heroes of our spiritual heritage who inspire us in love and dedication to God and to greater faith in remembering that the God they served and loved and Who provided for and used them is the very same God we love and serve today and Who will provide for us and use us. Though times and culture change, human nature at its core doesn’t change much, and God never changes.

An idea came to mind a few days ago to share some of the things I’ve read about these “heroes of the faith” in hopes that they would in turn encourage you. I thought for the next week or so I would post a series about answers to prayer. As I’ve thought back through some of the other things I’ve learned and been blessed by through reading missionary biographies, I’ve come across other anecdotes I’d love to share; but I decided for now it would be best to stick with the original idea.

The following poem is recorded in the front of Rosalind Goforth’s, book, Climbing, and it illustrates my viewpoint in reading missionary biographies. The author is unknown.

Call Back!

If you have gone a little way ahead of me, call back-
It will cheer my heart and help my feet along the stony track;
And if, perchance, Faith’s light is dim, because the oil is low,
Your call will guide my lagging course as wearily I go.

Call back, and tell me that He went with you into the storm;
Call back, and say He kept you when forest’s roots were torn;
That when the heavens thunder and the earthquake shook the hill.
He bore you up and held where the very air was still.

O friend, call back, and tell me for I cannot see your face;
They say it glows with triumph, and your feet bound in the race;
But there are mists between us and my spirit eyes are dim,
And I cannot see the glory, though I long for word of Him.

But if you’ll say He heard you when your prayer was but a cry,
And if you’ll say He saw you through the night’s sin-darkened sky-
If you have gone a little way ahead, O friend, call back-
It will cheer my heart and help my feet along the stony track.

There’s a new teen-ager in the world today

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Jesse turns 13 today. 😯 😮

It’s a milestone for him to become a teen-ager, start junior high, and join the youth group.
It’s a milestone for me because he’s my youngest child to become a teen-ager.
(Too bad there’s not a wistful smiley face.)

A wise older mom told me years ago not to dread the teen years of our children. If we approach those years with fear or with the thought that it’s going to be awful — it might well be. But if the relationship has been good and the lines of communication have been open all along, there’s no reason both parents and teens can’t enjoy this time of life and work through the transitions. I’m so glad she told me that. For the most part I’ve enjoyed the teen years of my older two sons, and I think they have, too.

We know all along as parents that we’re “working ourselves out of a job,” training our children to one day become responsible adults. That doesn’t make it any easier, though, to know that they won’t always be at home. I won’t look too far ahead and waste the time now missing them before they’re gone. But I’m becoming ever more aware that that time is coming all too quickly.

I hope you have a great birthday, Jesse! Always stay your sweet, sunny self. I trust in these next several years you’ll continue to grow into the young man I hope you will someday become, a man who loves God with all of his heart.


This was Jesse during his first birthday.

Jesse this summer.

Limitations

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Elisabeth Elliot’s writings just bless my socks off. I know she would not want to be glorified for herself: the blessing that comes through her is a result of the Lord’s working in her life and teaching her for these many years. Because she’s walked the road ahead of us she can encourage us not just by theory but by experience that God is faithful and His path of obedience the best path.

I receive a daily e-mail devotional from from Back to the Bible taken from some of her writings. A couple of days ago the topic was limitations, and she wrote

Yesterday as I was reading my brother Tom’s book, The Achievement of C.S. Lewis, I was admiring again the scope of his knowledge, his ability to comprehend another’s genius, and his wonderful command of English. By contrast my own limitations seemed severe indeed. They are of many kinds–analytical, critical, articulatory, not to mention educational. But my limitations, placing me in a different category from Tom Howard’s or anyone else’s, become, in the sovereignty of God, gifts. For it is with the equipment that I have been given that I am to glorify God. It is this job, not that one, that He gave me.

For some, the limitations are not intellectual but physical. The same truth applies. Within the context of their suffering, with whatever strength they have, be it ever so small, they are to glorify God. The apostle Paul actually claimed that he “gloried” in infirmities, because it was there that the power of Christ was made known to him.

If we regard each limitation which we are conscious of today as a gift–that is, as one of the terms of our particular service to the Master–we won’t complain or pity or excuse ourselves. We will rather offer up those gifts as a sacrifice, with thanksgiving.

I have thought often in regard to dealing with the after-effects of transverse myelitis, “Lord, I could serve you so much better without this.” But it’s as if He were saying, “No, this is what I am using to shape your service for Me.” Most people who have gone through any type of trial or affliction in life would say that, although they didn’t welcome the trial itself, they were drawn closer to the Lord, and the lessons learned were invaluable.

Even limitations that are not from some type of trial but rather from the seasons of life shape what our ministry is supposed to be. I remember as a mother of young children often having this desire to do something — I wasn’t sure quite what — and I was discouraged that I was too busy trying to keep my head above water in everyday life to try to figure it out. The Lord had to keep reminding me that that was His ministry, my service for Him, at that season. I needed to focus, to relax and enjoy it. And now, getting older (that sounds so much better than aging! 🙂 I’m still in the middle of middle age) I can already foresee that there will be different limitations in the coming seasons of life that will shape who I am and what I do for Him.

Our limitations are God’s tools. As Elisabeth said, “For it is with the equipment that I have been given that I am to glorify God. It is this job, not that one, that He gave me,” and they “become, in the sovereignty of God, gifts.”

Wordless Wednesday: Surprises

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(Forgive me, I haven’t yet had a truly Wordless Wednesday. :))
When you live with all boys, this is the kind of little decorating touch you might find around the house…

along with this kind of little surprise…

Boys! 🙄 🙂
I love ’em! 😀

For more Wordless Wednesday pics, visit 5 Minutes For Mom.

Works-For-Me Wednesday: Book Weights

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I write a monthly booklet for my church’s ladies’ group, and frequently I quote from or review good books. I’d have to set the stapler (and maybe an assortment of other desk accessories) on the book to keep it open while typing — but then often couldn’t see what I was trying to quote from, or would have to move it all around to see different lines or turn the page. Then one day someone in my family bought me one of these from the local Barnes and Noble. I wasn’t even sure what it was called: I searched on the B&N site and didn’t find it at first, then I Googled things like “book holder opener” and found a listing for “book weights,” searched B&N with that term, and voila! (Amazon.com calls it a weighted bookmark.) I love it because it holds the book open flat and is easily moved around.

As I was searching for this I saw various other devices for holding books open, but I still like this best.

I have a couple of cookbooks that tend to try to flop closed, and I have something like this in the kitchen for holding them not only open but propped up, but I rarely bother getting it out. There’s no good place to store it in our kitchen and I usually don’t want to bother with setting it up or going upstairs to get the book weight — so I grab a can of green beans or two instead. 🙂 The book weight might not work for a very big, heavy book (unless they make them in different sizes or you use more than one), but it’s great for most books.

Check out Rocks In My Dryer for a multitude of other great tips.

Love Story

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Barb over at A Chelsea Morning asked fellow bloggers about their love stories. Here’s mine. 🙂

I worked in the library at my alma mater for 4 1/2 years. That was the old library — they had just started building the new one my last year there. In those days, most of the books were in 4 floors of “stacks” behind the desk. A student would look up in the card catalog what book he wanted, fill out a slip, and bring it to the desk, then we’d run up and get their books for them (my job was also my major source of exercise. :)) Later on I worked the files, checking books back in and rechecking them for students.

Jim worked in the periodical room. I had actually seen him before across a crowded amphitorium when he worked as an usher. I thought he was handsome. 🙂 I knew he worked at the library as well, but we weren’t scheduled at the same times, so we didn’t meet that year (his freshman year, my sophomore year. Yes, I’m an older woman — by about 6 months). Finally at the beginning of my junior year we were scheduled at the same time and met. He was always a lot of fun to be around. There was another guy whose job was to put the books back in order and back on the shelves when they were turned in, and if it was not busy at the front desk or in the periodical room, Jim and I were assigned to help this guy. So we all got to know each other and had a lot of fun. Some time after Jim and I had been dating, he told me that at first he was trying to get the other guy to ask me out because this guy was very shy and didn’t date much. That guy declined, then Jim thought to himself, “Well, if she’s such a nice girl, why don’t I ask her out?” So he did. 🙂

The very first time he asked me out, I was scheduled to go on a nursing home ministry in another town, so I had to decline. That’s always a little awkward for the guy, because even though it is a plausible reason to say no, he can’t help but wonder if there is some other underlying reason. But the day I was supposed to go, it snowed, and our ministry for the evening was canceled. As I was leaving the dining common after dinner, I saw him waiting for me. He still doesn’t remember saying this, but he greeted with me with, “Well, since you can’t serve God, would you like to serve mammon?” (Can you believe I did actually go out with him after that? :P)

We began dating, and I really enjoyed my time with him. With other dates I was always a little tense and nervous, but I think because Jim and I had gotten to know each other at work, I was more relaxed. Even though he was a lot of fun, though, I wasn’t sure about the relationship going any further — I wanted a guy with a sense of humor, but I wanted a little more than that to him, too. Well, as we continued to get to know each other at work and through dating, I began to see a bedrock of character. I saw him intercede for a student at work who was having problems and needed to go home, and discovered his compassion. I saw his genuine kindness and concern for others. I saw that there was an underlying love for God and a desire to please him. I saw his “sanctified common sense”. I realized that spirituality in a man could manifest itself in a quiet undercurrent rather than overflowing waves. (Another very fine young man had asked me out several months earlier, and as we sat down together, he took out his Bible and shared a little mini-sermon. I’m certainly not opposed to sharing things from the Bible with each other — Christian friends can and should, and dating couple should feel a freedom to do that as well. But this instance left me a little cold — there was no sharing or interaction. The young man was a ministry major and had certain ministry requirements to fulfill each week. I sort of wondered if I was his preaching opportunity for that week. 🙂 I had just become a Christian in my later teens and was fairly new to dating Christians and thought, “Okay….it this what it’s supposed to be like?” It took a while to realize that a guy didn’t necessarily have to pull out his Bible and convey a message for him to be considered a spiritually-minded man. 🙂 But I mean no disrespect at all to the young man in question — he was a great guy who loved the Lord. We just didn’t hit it off.)

So…I was discovering there was much more to Jim than a sense of humor, and I was finding myself more and more interested. I had two areas of struggle, though. First, I had been engaged before, so I knew it was easy to confuse feelings with the Lord’s will. Secondly, in my circles around that time, preaching to teen-agers routinely included appeals for salvation, surrender, and “full-time Christian service.” I had been saved at about age 17 and surrendered my life to the Lord for anything He wanted me to do. The next logical step seemed to be “full-time Christian service,” and the opportunities for that, as far as I knew at the time, were to be a missionary, marry a preacher or a missionary, or be a teacher in a Christian school (I didn’t know that there were so many more opportunities to serve God until later. 🙂 ) I had thought for a long time that the Lord wanted me to be a missionary, but through a variety of ways the Lord didn’t seem to be leading that direction. Jim was not planning to be a preacher: he was a Physics major. So part of the struggle with whether or not things could progress with him was the struggle with what the Lord wanted me to do with my life. After a long while I came to the conviction that all Christians are supposed to be in full-time service to God, not matter what our physical occupation. And God reminded me of something I had forgotten: just before Jim asked me out, I had grown weary of “dating games” and told the Lord I only wanted the guys to ask me out that He wanted to ask me out — and Jim was the very next person to ask me out. And He reassured me that since I had been earnestly seeking and asking for His leading all along, there was no reason to doubt that this was the way He was leading.

So once I felt I had the “green light” from the Lord, I felt I could continue on in the relationship with Jim. We had been dating for about a year and a half when we got engaged, and were married six months after that. That was almost 27 years of wedded bliss and three sons ago. 🙂

I can’t believe we looked so young!

(By the way, the Lord has reinforced that truth over the years that all Christian are — or should be — in “full-time Christian service.” Jim has had opportunities to minister to and witness to people in the course of his work who would likely never come to a church service or who would be guarded and defensive with a preacher. And He has shown me that ministering to my husband and family first, then just doing whatever is at hand needing to be done at church or even in the neighborhood is a ministry in itself.)

I Remember

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911.jpg

I used to volunteer at my sons’ school every Tuesday. On that particular Tuesday morning in September, a little after 9 a.m., I turned on the car radio to catch a bit of news on my way to the school. I was confused at first — I could tell something serious had happened, but couldn’t make out what. Finally the newscaster explained that an airplane had hit the World Trade Tower. I was stunned. I sat in the parking lot at the school and listened to the news coverage for a few minutes. Then I went into the school office, with the words, “Did you hear…?” on my lips. They had heard and someone had set up a TV in the office. Many of us stood, motionless, stunned, shocked, and watched the coverage. We thought we couldn’t be any more stunned — then we saw footage of a second plane hitting the other tower. Then we saw people leaping out of windows to try to escape. Then we saw the first tower collapse.

I don’t remember how long I stayed there. The function that I usually helped with was canceled for the day. Several parents came to pick their children up and take them home: they just wanted to have them near. The principal had a TV set up in the gym for those students and teachers who wanted to watch the coverage. I think most of the high school classes were canceled and students could either watch the coverage in the gym or study quietly in one of the classrooms.

For the rest of the day and the next several days, with most of the country, I was almost glued to the TV as more news came in and pieces of the puzzle came to light. I clicked on news sources online and read coverage and looked at pictures in magazines.

There are several things I remember from that time:

  • Feeling in shock.
  • Feelings of vulnerability.
  • Feelings of fear, wondering if this was but the beginning of a larger effort, of a war.
  • Feelings of empathy with those who had died, those who had lost loved ones, those in parts of the world for whom terrorism is an almost everyday occurrence.
  • A feeling of unity in our country that I had never experienced in my lifetime. That is one thing I miss.
  • Feelings of…awe? gratefulness? wonder? inspiration? I am struggling with the right word to express what I felt on hearing the stories of heroism, of bravery, of decency.
  • Feelings of more joy upon hearing the stories of so many who unexpectedly missed flights or were late to work at the towers.
  • Feelings of comfort as the Lord ministered to hearts afterward.

Regarding that last item, one of the young men in my sons’ youth group shared this verse with the teens, I believe that first Wednesday afterward:

Isaiah 25:4: For thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.

How that ministered to my heart! I shared it with many loved ones via e-mail.

The question has come to many a mind, “Why did God allow it?” I don’t know that we’ll have the answer until time is over and we are with Him. But, surely we don’t mean why did God allow that to happen to us? We’re such a blessed nation, even in the state of spiritual forgetfulness and indifference we are in now — do we think we’re exempt from the troubles many nations experience daily? This was of a greater magnitude, yes, but many countries face the possibility of car bombs and suicide bombers every day. Then we get into the larger question of why God allows evil at all. All I know is that He allows for us to have and exercise a free will, and that results in sin, because we all choose our own way over His all too often. There will be a time when “sin shall be no more,” when every tear shall be wiped away and there shall be no more sorrow, sadness, death, crying (Revelation 21:4). That time is not yet. Until then we have to deal with a fallen world. But those who love God have this promise:

Romans 8:28: And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

It is at the point of deep need that we learn the truth of that verse and others. We know it so well it almost become cliched to us, until we truly need it.

One of the “good things” to come out of 9/11 was the salvation of one of my son’s friends. He realized that life can end suddenly and unexpectedly and that he needed to be ready.

There are some who think we should remember 9/11 only with silence, who feel that replaying and reliving the events of that day only plays into the hands of the terrorists, inspiring more terror. I disagree. I can understand those for whom it might be too painful to reflect on much, but I disagree that we’re playing into the hands of the terrorists by remembering that day. It’s good to remember. We need to remember the fallen, to memorialize them. We need to remember those whom they left behind. We even need to remember our vulnerability. Psalm 9:20 says “Put them in fear, O LORD: that the nations may know themselves to be but men.” I can’t presume to say that that was one of God’s purposes for allowing this, but we do need to remember that we are “but men” (or women) even though we’re a “superpower.” We need to remember that “The horse [or the fighter pilot or the tank or whatever we might use in warfare] is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the LORD” (Proverbs 21:31). We need to remember the empathy, the inspiration, the acts of courage.

My husband and I were saying yesterday morning that we wished they would do away with the Labor Day observance and instead have a 9/11 observance. But then we thought that, after a while, it would just be another Monday holiday. It would seem the height of disrespect to turn it into another day for retailers to have sales. I wonder if WWII veterans are horrified that Memorial Day and Veterans Day, beyond the occasional parade and wreath-laying ceremonies, are regarded by most people as an opportunity to be off work and go to the mall. May we as a country remember all of our fallen better than that.

There are more 9/11 memories linked at Shannon’s place.

This page lists individual tributes to each of those who died during the 9/11 assault.

Deep Joy

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OUR Christianity is apt to be of a very “dutiful” kind. We mean to do our duty, we attend church and go to our communions. But our hearts are full of the difficulties, the hardships, the obstacles which the situation presents, and we go on our way sadly, downhearted and despondent. We need to learn that true Christianity is inseparable from deep joy; and the secret of that joy lies in a continual looking away from all else–away from sin and its ways, and from the manifold hindrances to the good we would do–up to God, His love, His purpose, His will. In proportion as we do look up to Him we shall rejoice, and in proportion as we rejoice in the Lord will our religion have tone and power and attractiveness.
–CHARLES GORE

From the September 8 reading of Joy and Strength, compiled by  Mary Wilder Tileston.

By Grace I’m Saved

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This song has been on my heart throughout the day. I had only heard this version on Stephen Eagar’s CD Breath of Life, but in searching for the lyrics, I found a slightly different (and fuller) version on Cyberhymnal. The music on Eager’s CD is from a traditional Gaelic melody which was also used for the song Morning Has Broken.

By Grace I’m Saved

by Christ­ian L. Scheidt

By grace I’m saved, grace free and boundless:
My soul, believe, and doubt it not.
Why should we stagger at God’s promise?
Hath Scripture ever falsehood taught?

By grace I’m saved, not by my own merit:
Our works, our conduct have no worth.
God in His love sent our Redeemer.
Christ Jesus came to sinful earth.

By grace I’m saved, O, wonderful promise
When thou art by thy sins oppressed.
When Satan plagues thy troubled conscience,
And when thy heart is seeking rest.
All of man’s reason never will comprehend
All that God’s grace alone doth send.