Category Archives: Christian Life

Be Careful of Your Strengths

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Be careful of your strengths

I don’t consider myself to be good at public speaking. Even in a few interviews I’ve done, when I’m responding and not talking by myself, I don’t feel I do well. I don’t think quickly “on my feet.” It takes me a moment to process and respond (which is one reason I like writing better).

The nerves usually calm down exponentially once I get started. But for days afterward, I think of things I should have said or could have said better.

But I want to be faithful with opportunities the Lord gives me. So when they come, I spend time in prayer while I prepare. It comforts me that Paul told the Corinthians that he had been with them “in weakness and in fear and much trembling” (1 Corinthians 2:3), though it probably wasn’t public speaking itself that made him feel that way.

Hopefully, these skills will improve over time.

I told someone recently that these things would be so much easier if I could turn off the nervousness. But then I realized those nerves probably keep me dependent on the Lord, so ultimately they’re good.

When we’re asked to do something that we’re not sure we can do, that feels too big for us, that isn’t in an area where we feel gifted, it’s almost instinctive to run to the Lord.

When we attempt something that we failed at before, we plead for and depend on the Lord’s help.

When we know we might be facing a big temptation in an area where we’re weak, we fortify ourselves with prayer and Scripture.

But what about the areas where we feel strong, where we feel our best gifts are, where we feel we can function well? Those things that we do without even thinking to pray?

It’s not that we can’t approach some tasks with confidence or the assurance that comes from experience. But we often forget we need God’s help in those areas, too. Whatever gifts we have, He gave them to us. We don’t hold them in perfection yet: we’re still growing and learning. Jesus said, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).

One of the most chilling Scripture passages to me is the story of Uzziah in 2 Chronicles 26. He began to reign in Judah at the age of sixteen. “And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that his father Amaziah had done. He set himself to seek God in the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear of God, and as long as he sought the Lord, God made him prosper” (verses 4 and 5).

The next several verses tell about Uzziah’s victory in battle, his buildings, herds, crops, army, and machines. He was skilled in many areas. “And his fame spread far, for he was marvelously helped, till he was strong” (verse 15).

“But when he was strong, he grew proud, to his destruction. For he was unfaithful to the Lord his God and entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense” (verse 16).

It’s sadly possible to receive God’s grace and help for a task and then get puffed up as if we accomplished what He wanted us to do on our own.

He forgot where his strength, gifts, and skills came from. His pride led to presumption. Only the priests were consecrated to burn incense in the temple. They withstood him. He got angry.

Then leprosy broke out on his forehead. In that era, leprosy required quarantine. He lived the rest of his days in a separate house, and his son reigned in his stead.

His situation reminds me a bit of Samson, who took his gifts casually and flirted with the wrong kind of woman who tried to find the secret of his strength in order to tell his enemies. When she told him the Philistines were coming for him, “he awoke from his sleep and said, ‘I will go out as at other times and shake myself free.’ But he did not know that the Lord had left him” (Judges 16:20).

Jerry Bridges said in The Discipline of Grace, “Your worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God’s grace. And your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God’s grace.”

Jeremiah 9:23-24 tells us, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight,’ declares the Lord.”

I don’t want to go about my tasks without God’s power. I want to remember that I don’t have anything except what I have received from Him. I want to be just as dependent on Him when I feel sure of myself as when I feel overwhelmed. I want to remember that every good gift comes from Him and is to be used for Him.

The prayer in the song “O Great God” is what I want to express for myself. The last stanza talks about living a life dependent on His grace, for His glory:

2 Chronicles 26:15-16a

Some additional songs that help my thinking:

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

“All Sunshine Makes a Desert”

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"All sunshine makes a desert."

Rain can be awfully inconvenient.

Outdoor activities planned months in advance can be ruined, or at least need to be rearranged, when an unforeseen rainstorm blows in. Grocery shopping becomes a big mess when we have to cart our bags in and out in the rain. Rain makes roads slick, creating driving hazards.

Rain can also be gloomy when we haven’t seen the sun for days.

One of my worst rain experiences came when I was driving home alone. The rain fell so heavily, my windshield wipers couldn’t keep up. I literally could not see anything around me except the faint glow of other headlights. I somehow made it to the parking lot of a convenience store and waited til the showers abated, hoping no one would run into me.

And then there are thunderstorms with the potential to down power lines, send limbs crashing from trees, or strike lightning.

Yet, we need rain.

Rain softens the ground, making it easier to plant seeds. Then those seeds transform into flowers or food with more rain and sunshine.

Rain relieves the scorching heat of summer.

Rain provides water to drink and replenishes water tables for future needs.

Rain washed impurities out of the air.

F. B. Meyer wrote:

We all love the sunshine, but the Arabs have a proverb that ‘all sunshine makes the desert’; and it is a matter for common observation that the graces of Christian living are more often apparent in the case of those who have passed through great tribulation. God desires to get as rich crops as possible from the soil of our natures. There are certain plants of the Christian life, such as meekness, gentleness, kindness, humility, which cannot come to perfection if the sun of prosperity always shines. (1)

That’s true, isn’t it?

Just as I don’t like rain to interrupt my plans or make my tasks harder, I don’t like when trials and problems come up. They’re hard, painful, and sometimes costly. They take time and thought and energy from things I’d rather do.

But they have a good purpose.

When life is going well, we can get complacent. People who get everything they want and have everything just the way they like it sometimes start to feel entitled.

Though we know we need God’s grace and help in every circumstance, we feel our need of Him more during trials.

Trials soften us by humbling us. They show us our lack of strength and our need for His. They help us depend on Him more.

Trials help us grow. “We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Romans 5:3-5).

Trials help us to be grateful for what we have.

Trials can help wash impurities out as we search our hearts and confess wrong thoughts, deeds, and attitudes to God. Trials don’t always come because of sin, but when they do, they have a cleansing effect.

Trials point us to those unseen resources I mentioned last week. Hidden water tables of grace sustain us during dry periods.

God’s Word refreshes us with His promises:

And I will make them and the places all around my hill a blessing, and I will send down the showers in their season; they shall be showers of blessing (Ezekiel 34:26).

Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the Lord, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you (Hosea 10:12).

Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth (Hosea 6:3).

He did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness (Acts 14:17b).

One of my favorite childhood memories involves rain. My mom let us put on our bathing suits to go outside and play in a mild rain shower. I don’t know what time of year it was, but it had to have been during warm enough weather to get wet outside. Perhaps the rain was cooling on a hot summer’s day.

There was no thought of mess or inconvenience or disrupted plans. Instead, there was pure joy at the opportunity to do something so different and refreshing.

I can’t honestly say I dance for joy when trials come. But I am trying to learn to “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing (James 3:2-4). God has good purposes in trials and sends them in love and faithfulness.

Rain can be inconvenient, but also refreshing. All sunshine, as the saying goes, makes a desert. God keeps us from desert hardness and barrenness by sending trials our way. As William Cowper says in his hymn, “God Moves in a Mysterious Way“:

Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take;
the clouds ye so much dread
are big with mercy and shall break
in blessings on your head.

Hosea 6:3

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

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(1) This quote comes from Our Daily Homily by F. B. Meyer. I’ve not read this book, but I have seen the quote in Warren Wiersbe’s book Be Satisfied as well as other places.

Are You Thirsty?

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Are you thirsty?

Even before summer officially began, we experienced record heat waves.The Farmer’s Almanac predicts hotter than normal temperatures for much of the country this summer.

I admit, I prefer sunshine to rain, particularly thunderstorms. But even I can appreciate the need for rain to cool the air, replenish the water supply, and help crops grow.

I don’t know that I have ever been in a true drought. We’ve had dry conditions where fires were banned in the county, water for lawns was restricted, and people were concerned about the water table.

I’ve been thirsty. I’ve had that cotton-mouthed feeling at times, but I don’t know that I have ever been parched.

That imagery came to mind this week as I read Jeremiah 17 this week:

Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord. He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land (verses 5-6).

Jeremiah had to preach God’s judgment on His stubborn people who looked to other gods and nations for help instead of Him. When hearts turn away from the Lord, they dry up. They can’t grow and prosper. They’ve cut themselves off from their source of life and nourishment.

By contrast, Jeremiah says:

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 (7-8).

The tree by the water is continually nourished and fruitful. It “is not anxious in the year of drought.”

So is the soul who trusts in and depends on the Lord. Have you ever watched someone go through a great trial or heartache and wondered how they seemed to be at peace? They had unseen resources feeding their soul, because their trust was in God.

We see this imagery in other places in the Bible as well:

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.

He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away (Psalm 1:1-4).

Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’
If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness, if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted,
then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday. And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your  bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail (Isaiah 58:9-11).

Here we see the importance of not just hearing, but delighting in and obeying the Word of God.

Though I don’t recall feeling parched physically, I have been spiritually. I’ve had times I would not have made it without God’s help, grace, and word. I’ve cried out with the psalmist, “I remember the days of old; I meditate on all that you have done; I ponder the work of your hands.I stretch out my hands to you; my soul thirsts for you like a parched land” (Psalm 143:5-6).

And I have found God faithful to strengthen and uphold me. God can turn “a desert into pools of water, a parched land into springs of water” (Psalm 107:33-38).

Do you feel dry spiritually? Is your soul parched? Do you fear you might not have the resources for a coming trial?

Jesus says, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water’” (John 7:37-38).

Come and drink, as often as needed. His well will never run dry.

You shall be like a watered garden. Isaiah 58:11b

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

What If You Have Good Reason to Fear?

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What if you have good reason to fear?

I was sure a headhunter watched me while I slept.

As a child, I woke up one night to see a rounded shape beside my pillow on the top bunk. I was convinced a headhunter was standing by my bed, looking at me. I’m not sure why—headhunters weren’t known to roam southern Texas in the mid-1960s. Perhaps I had recently read a book or watched a program that included headhunters.

I decided to handle the situation by shutting my eyes tight. Perhaps if he thought I was asleep, he would go away. But if I tried to get past him, I was sure to be no match for him.

Somehow I did go to sleep. When I woke up the next morning in the full light of day, I saw the rounded shape by my head was my teddy bear.

I felt foolish, but relieved.

Since then, I’ve wrestled with many unreasonable fears.

What if:

  • No one chooses me for their team?
  • I get lost?
  • I stand up in front of my speech class and my mind goes blank?
  • My husband is late from work and might have had an accident?
  • Something might be wrong with my unborn child?
  • My husband loses his job?
  • One of us gets cancer?
  • He dies before I do?

. . . and more. I have an uncanny knack to imagine all the ways in which something could go wrong.

There’s some chance that any of these things could happen. But there’s no sense worrying about what might happen. If what we’re worried about doesn’t occur, we’ve wasted all that time and energy and angst. And if it does come to pass, we’ve doubled our pain by adding worry to it beforehand.

But what if what we fear is a very real possibility?

Almost thirty years ago, I woke up one morning with my left hand feeling funny. Thinking I had just slept on it wrong, I went about my morning routine. But that numbish feeling grew in area and intensity. Within three hours, my whole left arm, both legs, and my lower torso were numb. I couldn’t walk on my own.

The eventual diagnosis was transverse myelitis, an autoimmune response to a virus that attacks the spine. The body attacks the myelin sheath around the nerves of the spine as well as the virus.

I’ve told that story in more detail elsewhere. Thank God, I was able to walk again after a lot of physical therapy and prayer. Most of the feeling came back to my limbs, but my left hand still feels like I have a glove on, and my lower legs don’t have full feeling. My biggest after-effect has been trouble with balance.

Like many illnesses, healing from TM is not a straight, steady upward path. Sometimes the numbness and tingling were worse than others. In addition, sometimes I felt odd sensations in other parts of my body–a buzzing feeling, or involuntary movement, or a feeling like something was touching me when nothing was.

When symptoms escalated, especially that “slept on it wrong” feeling anywhere, I’d panic that I was having another TM attack. TM doesn’t often occur twice, but it can. If it does, the doctors begin to suspect multiple sclerosis rather than TM. The “multiple” in MS means these kinds of attacks could occur throughout life.

I wondered how people who had heart disease lived, knowing they could have another heart attack at any time. Or how people who had recovered from cancer coped, knowing their cancer could return. These issues felt like living with a medical sword of Damocles hanging over people’s heads.

I had to remind myself that, if God allowed another episode of TM, or if I was diagnosed with MS, He would be with me and help me through it just as He did the first time.

A passage I pondered with amazement in my early Christian life was Psalm 46:2-3: “Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling.”

I’ve been in a couple of very minor earthquakes, and even those mild tremors were quite disconcerting. I can hardly fathom something of this magnitude. Mountains falling into the sea? That sounds like good reason to be scared.

But this passage says, even in that scenario, “Therefore we will not fear. . . ” What’s the “therefore” that causes the writer not to fear?

Verse 1: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”

You know what comes later in this psalm?

Verses 10-11: “‘Be still, and know that I am God.’ I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth! The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.”

Whatever our fears, real or imagined, unlikely or plausible, God is with us. He is our refuge, strength, and help. In Isaiah 41:10, He promises: “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

In Running Scared: Fear, Worry, and the God of Rest, Edward T. Welch says:

The sheer number of times He speaks to your fears says that He cares much more than you know…The way He repeats Himself suggests that He understands how intractable fears and anxieties can be. He knows that a simple word will not banish our fears.

Search Scripture and find that our fears are not trivial to God. ‘Do not be afraid’ are not the words of a flesh-and-blood friend, a mere human like yourself. They are not the words of a fellow passenger on a sinking ship, who had no experience in shipwrecks, can’t swim, and has no plan. These words are more like those of a captain who says, ‘Don’t be afraid. I know what to do.’ When the right person speaks these words you might be comforted.

Another verse that comforted me during my TM recovery was Lamentations 3:32-33: “Though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; for he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men.” He’s not capricious. Whatever He allows is for a purpose.

Trusting God’s presence and purpose in whatever He allows, trusting His ability to sustain and assist us through any situation, trusting His character and love for us, will all help us deal with any fear, real or imagined.

Psalm 46:1-2

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

Honoring Fathers

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Honor your father and mother. Exodus 20:12

It’s not easy to be a father.

TV comedies portray most fathers as bumbling fools.

Society argues about what is masculine or feminine and whether masculinity is “toxic.”

Pressures arise from different fronts: how to provide for the family yet have time to spend with them; deal with disciplinary issues; keep up home and yard maintenance; answer questions, guide children, and point them to God.

No father is perfect, of course. Some fathers are very far from it. Only God is all a Father should be. But the best fathers seek His help to try to show in some measure what He is like. Some have fatherly hearts and mentor others when they have no children of their own.

We don’t thank fathers and father figures nearly enough. Today we honor fathers, though most of them would be embarrassed and not want a fuss made.

Our thanks, O God, for fathers who follow in Your way,
And who, with glad and trusting hearts, exalt You ev’ry day.

Our thanks, O God, for fathers who show, by word and deed,
Commitment to Your will and plan, and Your commandments heed.

Our thanks, O God, for fathers who meet You oft in prayer,
And who, for all life’s toil and care, find strength and wisdom there.

How blessed are the children who in their fathers see
The tender Father-love of God, and find their way to Thee.

Author unknown

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

Jesus Satisfies the Longing Soul

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Jesus Satisfies the Longing Soul

How do you feel after Thanksgiving dinner?

Stuffed, right? Sated. Glutted. You feel like you won’t need to eat again for days.

But what happens in a few hours? You start rummaging around for leftover turkey or pumpkin pie.

Are you eating again because your first meal was so unsatisfying that you need something else?

No–you’re eating again because your first meal was so good, you want more.

Isn’t it that way with Jesus as well?

Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied” (Matthew 5:6). Adrian Rogers points out that “We often think of righteousness as something we do, but righteousness in the Bible is wrapped up in a person whose name is Jesus (1 Corinthians 1:30). Jesus Christ is our righteousness. He is made righteousness for us. When we hunger and thirst after righteousness, we are hungering and thirsting after Jesus Christ.”

Jesus is the bread of life.

When we come to Him, we find that “he satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul he fills with good things” (Psalm 107:9).

That’s one reason Paul prays, and we can pray for ourselves and each other, “that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:16-19).

And you know what verse comes right after this one? It’s one we pull out of context to apply to any number of other things, but it was written in this context: that we might know God’s love and be filled with Him: “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen” (Ephesians 3:20-21).

Jeremiah prophesied that after Israel returned to the Lord, He would “satisfy the weary soul, and every languishing soul I will replenish” (Jeremiah 31:25). Other translations say “satiate,” “to satisfy to the full”.

God “redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s” (Psalm 103:4-5).

We can pray with Moses, “Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days” (Psalm 90:14).

Now, as we “[behold] the glory of the Lord,” we “are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians 3:18). Someday, we “shall behold your face in righteousness; when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness” (Psalm 17:15).

We try to fill up with other things. But only Jesus can satisfy our souls. We continually seek His truth, His fellowship, His presence, not because He didn’t satisfy us the first time, but because He satisfied us so well, we want to keep coming.

He satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry souls he fills with good things. Psalm 107:9)

(I don’t know the folks in this video—I just liked this arrangement. I have a lovely arrangement of this song sung by Sena Rice and Julie Potter on a CD titled Love Lifted Me, but I couldn’t find it on YouTube.)

(This post, especially the first few lines, was inspired by part of a message by Adrian Rogers titled The Secret of Satisfaction.)

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

Life Doesn’t Always Turn Out Like We Thought It Would

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Life doesn't always turn out like we thought it would.

Several years ago, two individuals from my college who were known for their close walk with the Lord found each other and began to date. They married and attended a local church, the same one we came to later, while the husband finished his graduate degree. He became an elder. The wife was active in the ladies ministry and teaching children. They had a couple of children.

After several years, they left to go to the mission field. There never seemed a family more perfect for missionary work.

After a few years, our pastor went to visit them on the field. He had nothing but positive things to say. He reported that the wife, in particular, seemed in her element.

A few years later, though, we received devastating news. The husband had been caught in infidelity. The family came home, and the elders met with the husband. He refused to repent, saying he loved his sin too much.

The wife was crushed. Not only had her husband turned into someone she didn’t know any more, but she lost the ministry she loved and was so suited for. Plus their coworkers back on the mission field had to pick up the pieces and minister to the people who were shattered by the fall of their leader.

I don’t know if the wife asked herself these questions, but in her place, I would have wondered if I made a mistake somewhere along the way. Had I married the wrong man? Had I missed signs that he had fallen away from the Lord? Had I failed him in some way that caused him to turn to someone else?

I do know that the pastor encouraged her that the situation was not her fault. Not that she was sinless, of course. No one is. But her husband’s sins were his own and he bore the responsibility of them. She was in the center of God’s will even with such things going on in her life.

It’s a shock that you can do everything “right,” so to speak, and end up with a life seemingly in shambles.

I imagine Joseph must have felt the same way, going from the favored son to being sold as a slave by his own brothers and then thrown into an Egyptian prison.

Or Job, described by the Lord as an upright man, yet he lost everything he owned as well as ten children all in one day.

Or John the Baptist. He was the forerunner of the Messiah, preparing the way for Jesus, pointing people to Him. Yet he ended up in prison, and ultimately was beheaded.

The Apostle Paul enjoyed a little over twenty years of public ministry. He took three long missionary trips, shared the gospel with who knows how many people, instructed and encouraged believers, and wrote several epistles which were incorporated into the canon of Scripture.

To be sure, life wasn’t all rosy. Paul experienced beatings, stonings, shipwrecks, sleeplessness, hunger, and more (2 Corinthians 23-28). But overall, his life could be considered a success in terms of being able to minister to large numbers of people.

But then Paul got arrested. He had not done anything wrong, but others supposed he had, and the resulting riot ended with Paul being taken into custody.

Paul was imprisoned for two years, released for a couple, then imprisoned again for a couple of years until he was beheaded.

Paul went from a leading apostle and well-known traveling preacher to a prisoner for many of his last years.

To the world, it might look like Paul’s life ended in failure.

But God encouraged Paul all through the book of Acts that he was on the right path.

And Paul’s ministry didn’t end just because he was in prison.

In the course of explaining why he was imprisoned, Paul was able to share his testimony before Felix, the governor of Judea, Festus, the governor who replaced Felix, and King Agrippa—all people he would not have been able to talk to under normal circumstances.

Paul wrote Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon during his first imprisonment and 2 Timothy during his second. Philippians is one of the most joyful books in the Bible, and Philippians and Colossians both have an emphasis on Thanksgiving—though they were written from prison.

Paul was chained to a Roman guard while imprisoned, so the guards heard all he had to say to his visitors. Paul tells the Philippians, “All the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar’s household” (Philippians 4:22). So evidently the gospel had filtered even into Caesar’s staff from Paul’s witness.

Friends were able to come talk with Paul and be taught or encouraged by him. Acts ends by telling us Paul “welcomed all who came to him, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance” (Acts 28:30-31).

“Without hindrance.”

In 2 Timothy 2:9, Paul says, “I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound!” Though Paul was bound, the word of God was not.

God can redeem and work in and through a life in shambles.

It was Paul who wrote of God’s strength in our weakness: “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).

And what God can do in our lives through suffering: “Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Romans 5:3-5).

And the glory that waits us after suffering: “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).

Others in the Bible found the same grace to endure.

Joseph was released from prison and became second to Pharaoh, eventually saving his own family, the future nation of Israel, from starvation.

Job’s fortune, family, and health were all restored to him, but most important of all, he encountered God in a way he never had before.

John was not spared in this life, but there was a place prepared for him in heaven.

The wife I mentioned at the beginning found God’s grace to sustain while she did the best she could in difficult circumstances.

We tend to equate spiritual success and God’s blessings with smooth sailing and positive circumstances. Saints through the ages have not found this to be the case. In fact, some whose lives seem to shine brightest for the Lord have experienced great trials—maybe because they have to seek the Lord and His strength to navigate their circumstances.

Meanwhile, God’s Word encourages us to “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer” (Romans 12:12) because “after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you” (1 Peter 5:10).

1 Peter 5:10

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Old Age Syndromes to Avoid

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Old Age Syndromes to Avoid

In our early married days, I worked in a fabric shop where we had a variety of customers of all ages. Among older ladies, there seemed to be two distinct types. One was very sweet, thankful for any little thing we did to assist them. The other was . . . not sweet.

I remember thinking, “I hope I am the nice kind of older lady when I get that age.”

At some point it dawned on me that if I wanted certain attributes when I got older, I needed to incorporate them while I was young.

“Old” always seems twenty to thirty years beyond my current age. But I am older, and I don’t know that I am yet the kind of older lady I want to be or should be. We’re all a work in progress, no matter how long we’ve lived.

But as I have been around the block a few times, I’ve seen some behaviors I want to avoid.

The “Know it All” Syndrome. When we’ve read the Bible and walked with the Lord for decades, hopefully we’ve acquired some wisdom along the way. But we misuse it if we try to answer most of the questions in Bible Study or Sunday School or feel we have to have the last word that sets everyone straight.

I’ve struggled with this recently. Bible teachers want participation. But I don’t want to monopolize the conversation. Yet I do want to share if I have something helpful to say. I’ve started praying before class that God would give me wisdom to know when to share and when to be silent.

The “We’ve Always Done It This Way” Syndrome. Every new generation brings with it new vocabulary, new technology, new methods. Older people can help younger ones discern between new methods and old truth and try to keep the latter from sliding into oblivion, but we shouldn’t insist that everything be done the way we always did it (or gripe when it isn’t).

The Busybody Syndrome. Busybodies can be any age. Paul is speaking of young widows when he speaks of “idlers, going about from house to house, and not only idlers, but also gossips and busybodies, saying what they should not” (1 Timothy 5:13). But older women can tend this way, too.

Many years ago, an older lady in our church at the time told one young mom of seven that she was having too many children too close together. She told another young married lady, who, with her husband, wanted to wait until he was out of school before starting a family, that she needed to get busy and start having children. You can imagine that both women were hurt and offended. I am sure that was not the older woman’s intent and that she thought she was helping others with the benefit of her accumulated wisdom. But she overstepped. Before sharing advice, we need to seek the Lord about whether it is really needed and how and when it should be shared.

Gossip Syndrome can also occur at any age or gender, but it’s something Paul specifically mentions in Titus 2 when speaking of the commendable kind of older woman. She’s not to be a “slanderer”–other translations say “gossiper” or “false accuser.” Slander can involve saying things that are untrue about someone else. Gossip can be untrue but seems to include spreading things around that may be true but aren’t anyone else’s business. The Bible has much to say about right and wrong uses of our words.

The Old Wives’ Tales Syndrome. The KJV and a few other Bible versions mention these in 1 Timothy 4:7: “But refuse profane and old wives’ fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness.” Other versions, like the ESV, leave out the “old wives” part and just say, “Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness.”

This overlaps gossip a bit, but “old wives’ tales” or fables often seem to involve health issues or warnings that aren’t based on fact. These days, they take the form of urban legends. When we were expecting our first child, someone told us not to get a cat because cats can suck a baby’s breath away. When my husband responded skeptically, the woman teared up because she was just trying to “help” us.

I see a version of this when people share dire warnings on FaceBook without fact-checking “just in case” it’s true. Some people do this so often, it’s like the old story of the “boy who cried wolf”: people don’t take the sharer seriously any more. Once again, we need to be careful of sharing falsehoods and unnecessarily scaring people. It’s usually easy these days to search online and find out the facts before we share.

The “Good Old Days” Syndrome. When we look back, our younger days can seem idyllic. We tend to forget or gloss over the negative aspects of certain eras. It’s not wrong to talk about some of the changes that have occurred over our lives or share history we’ve experienced. But we shouldn’t live in the past. We need to be alert for the good gifts God put in our present time as well.

The “I’ve Done My Time” Syndrome. I hear of women who are still teaching VBS or serving in the church kitchen well into their nineties. Good for them. 🙂 Many of us lose a certain amount of oomph over the years and can’t do all we used to. I wrote posts a few years ago on Why Older Women Don’t Serve and How Older Women Can Serve. We’re always in the Lord’s service as long as we live, but how we serve will probably change over the years. We shouldn’t have the mindset of checking out of active service. We might not be plugged into an official church ministry, but we can still minister to people by walking closely with God and being alert for opportunities to listen, giving a word of encouragement, praying, sending a note, etc.

It’s good to not only look at what to avoid, but what to emulate. Godly older women are to be “reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good” (Titus 2:3). They have “a reputation for good works: if she has brought up children, has shown hospitality, has washed the feet of the saints, has cared for the afflicted, and has devoted herself to every good work” (1 Timothy 5:10).

Thankfully, in every stage of life, God has placed godly women just ahead of me to observe and learn from.

Instead of gossip, slander, and fables, we share truth. Instead of showing off our accumulated knowledge, we humbly seek God’s timing to share His truth. We hold fast to truth but stay flexible about methods where we can. Instead of tearing down, we build up and encourage. Instead of being busybodies or folding inward towards self, we take kind interest in others and seek to serve however He opens doors.

May God give us grace to walk with Him and serve Him and others well at every stage of life.

Titus 2:3

Revised from the archives

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Supposing

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Supposing

I was shocked a few years ago when someone I respected urged her kids to make fun of a couple in a restaurant who were looking at their phones instead of interacting with each other.

Much has been written about the way our devices are intruding themselves into our lives. That’s a concern, no question about it.

But seeing a couple at a table using their phones doesn’t necessarily mean they are ignoring each other. Perhaps they’ve been traveling together, talking while on the road. Maybe they’ve been doing yard work all day, and this is their first chance to rest and check their messages or email.

One word stood out to me in a recent Sunday School lesson: the word “supposed.” In Acts 21-22, Paul inadvertently started a riot, twice. Why? People “supposed” that Paul had brought a Gentile man into the temple. That might not sound like anything to start a riot about to us. But in that day and time, Gentiles were not allowed into the temple.

The mob grabbed Paul, dragged him out of the temple, started beating him, and sought to kill him. They stopped beating Paul only when the Roman tribune came. The tribune couldn’t get a straight answer about what the problem was, so he took Paul away. Paul actually had to be carried part of the way because of the mob.

All because of a supposition.

Granted, the Jewish people were primed to suspect Paul. He had been sharing the gospel with Gentiles. He taught that Christ fulfilled the law in our place because we never could. Nowhere did he teach against the law and the temple, as they asserted. But because people didn’t take time to find out the facts, they turned into a mob at a supposition.

We see similar virtual mobs and “cancellations” on social media these days. People grab onto one rumor or build up a whole scenario based on one piece of news, and there’s just no reasoning with them.

But even if we don’t join the mob, we can be guilty of silently judging people in our hearts. The couple on their phones. The fans of the candidate we don’t like. The person with a different view of masks and the pandemic. The person who cut us off in traffic. The friend who walked by without acknowledging us.

We even carry suppositions into our homes: when we hear a crash and see our son with a bat, when our teenager comes in past curfew, when our husband leaves a mess on the counter. If we’re not careful, tempers flare and we react based on our assumptions. Then we create even more problems: we hurt the feelings of our loved ones if we assumed wrong and we make them defensive if we accuse them.

How can we avoid or combat “supposing?”

Ask or research. A lot of our supposing and the judgments that result would be eliminated if we acknowledged that most of the time, we don’t know the whole story. We can’t see people’s hearts, thoughts, or motives. “The one who gives an answer before he listens — this is foolishness and disgrace for him.” (Proverbs 18:13, CSB). The New Testament reinforces this truth in James 1:19: “My beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.”

I was struck some years ago when a visiting preacher at church spoke about God’s questioning Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden after they sinned. He knew where they were, why they were hiding, and what they had done. So why did He ask them? This preacher suggested it was to disarm them and give them a chance to process what they had done. When we accuse, people become defensive. 

When the matter is personal, we should ask the other person what happened instead of assuming.

If the matter is something online or in the community, we should make sure we know the facts before we jump in. We should also ask ourselves if the matter is any of our business.

Give the benefit of the doubt. A former pastor said that when the Bible tells us love “believes all things, hopes all things” (1 Corinthians 13:7), another way we could say it is that love cherishes the best expectations of others. We shouldn’t assume the worst. Early in our married lives, I told my husband that when he left stuff out, I felt like I was being treated like a maid. He said he wasn’t leaving things out with the expectation that I was supposed to pick them up: he either forgot or overlooked them or ran out of time.

Don’t share unless necessary. When we share our assumptions, whether online or to our friends, we need to consider two things. If what we assume is not true, we’re spreading lies. And even if our assumption is true, do we really need to share it? What’s our motive? Do we want to defame the person involved, or stir up negative feelings against him? Do we want to feel superior or “in the know?” There are times it’s necessary to discuss others’ wrongdoing, but we need to be cautious.

Treat others as we want to be treated. “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 7:12). We’ve all been misjudged at times. We need to remember what that feels like and let it motivate us not to misjudge others.

Remember we reap what we sow. In Matthew 7:2, Jesus said, “For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.” His previous statement is “Judge not, that you be not judged.” We often stop at the first phrase: judge not. This is a passage that is highly misunderstood. Jesus wasn’t saying we’re never to evaluate what people do and decide if it’s right or wrong. We’re called to discernment throughout the Bible. But we’re to be careful, because how we judge is how we’ll be judged.

Take care of our own faults first. The next verses in Matthew share an ironic, almost humorous picture of someone with a big log in his own eye trying to take the speck out of his brother’s eye. We do the same thing some times when we pick at others while we ignore our own sins and faults.

That little word “supposed” was a rebuke to my spirit and a reminder to be careful with assumptions.

Have you ever been misjudged? Do you find yourself sometimes making wrong assumptions about others? What helps you remember to evaluate fairly and kindly?

Be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger. James 1:19

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)

God’s Love Compared to a Mother’s

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God's love is like a mother's


God has given us many pictures to help us understand how we are related to Him and how He cares for us.

  • Father/children: “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are” (1 John 3:1).
  • Bridegroom/bride: “And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” (Revelation 21:2).
  • Shepherd/sheep: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11).
  • Savior/sinners: “And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world (1 John 4:14).
  • King/subjects: “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son” (Colossians 1:13).
  • Teacher/disciples: “You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am” (John 13:13).
  • Master/servants: “ For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him” (John 13:15-16).
  • Relatives: “For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother” (Mark 3:35).
  • Friends: “ You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you” (John 15:14-15).

Many passages could be shared for some of these categories: I tried to choose one representative verse for each.

Some of these apply specifically to Christ (Bridegroom), some to God the Father, some to both.

Some of these might seem to contradict each other. But none are meant to be exclusive of the others: each relationship has some facets of it that help us understand our relationship to God.

One we don’t often hear about is when God compares His love to a mother’s.

God is a spirit and thus is neither male nor female. The Bible speaks of Him with masculine pronouns. But we are made in His image, so it makes sense that He reflected aspects of His love in an earthly mother’s. Here are a few:

God comforts us like a mother comforts her child.

“For thus says the Lord: “Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream; and you shall nurse, you shall be carried upon her hip, and bounced upon her knees. As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem” (Isaiah 66:12-13).

God cares for us like a parent.

“Listen to me, descendants of Jacob, all who are left of my people. I have cared for you from the time you were born. I am your God and will take care of you until you are old and your hair is gray. I made you and will care for you; I will give you help and rescue you” (Isaiah 46:3-4). Although mothers aren’t mentioned specifically here, they do care for their children.

God draws us with love.

“I taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by their arms; But they did not know that I healed them.I drew them with gentle cords, with bands of love, And I was to them as those who take the yoke from their neck. I stooped and fed them” (Hosea 11:3-4, NKJV).

God guides and bears us.

“Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that flutters over its young, spreading out its wings, catching them, bearing them on its pinions, the Lord alone guided him” (Deuteronomy. 32:11-12).

God protects us.

Several times, Scripture uses the image of a hen gathering its chicks under its wings.

“Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, or in you my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge until the destroying storms pass by” (Psalm 57:1).

“The Lord repay you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge!” (Ruth 2:12).

“Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings” (Psalm 17:8).

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” (Matthew 23:37).

God yearns for us even in discipline.

“Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he my darling child? For as often as I speak against him, I do remember him still. Therefore my heart yearns for him; I will surely have mercy on him,
declares the Lord” (Jeremiah 31:20).

God will never forget or forsake us.

“But God’s people say, ‘The Lord has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me.’ Can a mother forget the baby she is nursing and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!” (Isaiah 49:14-15).

Commenting on the Isaiah 66 passage, Matthew Henry says, “As one whom his mother comforts, when he is sick or sore, or upon any account in sorrow, so will I comfort you; not only with the rational arguments which a prudent father uses, but with the tender affections and compassions of a loving mother, that bemoans her afflicted child when it has fallen and hurt itself, that she may quiet it and make it easy, or endeavours to pacify it after she has chidden it and fallen out with it.”

Perhaps you have not known the warmth and comfort of a mother’s love. Or perhaps your mother was not a good example of sacrificial love. David wrote, “For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the LORD will take me in” Psalm 27:10. Jesus said, “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you” (John 14:18).

Even if we haven’t had good parental examples, we know what a good parent is supposed to look like. No earthly parent is perfect. But God gave us a picture of parents’ love to give us some glimmer of what His love is like.

His love is perfect but patient, holy yet compassionate, correcting but gentle, kind and understanding. Let His love draw you to Himself.

My mother’s gentle love, my mother’s gentle love
Has taught me of God’s tender care, and turned my eyes above.
I’ll bless her all my days for all her gentle ways.
Oh, how I thank my Lord above for my mother’s gentle love.

— Ron Hamilton

As one whom his mother comforts, so will I comfort you. Isaiah 66:13

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