Book Review: Every Now and Then

Posted on June 5, 2009 by Barbara Harper

Every Now and Then is the third in Karen Kingsbury’s 911 series dealing with various people affected by the tragedy of 9/11. Though the major characters from the previous books are also in this story, it can be read and enjoyed as a stand-alone book as well.

Alex Brady’s father was a firefighter who died on the job when the Twin Towers collapsed on 9/11. Alex had been a teen-ager with everything going for him — good grades, good family, sweet girlfriend — but he shut down after 9/11. He closed himself off to everyone else in his life and moved away to California. Since he felt God had failed him in allowing the bad guys this horrendous victory, he made it his mission to take as many of them off the street as he could and to prevent tragedies from happening to others. He became a sheriff’s deputy with the K-9 unit, establishing a reputation for courage, bravery and dedication — almost to the point of recklessness and danger. Alex was totally unaware that his boss’s family and circle of friends, who were trying to include Alex, had also been personally affected by 9/11, nor that the girl he loved and turned away now lived in the area.

Eco-terrorists targeted some of the higher-end residential building sites for arson to make their point that excess and affluence was taking a toll on the environment. Alex decided to infiltrate the organization on his own time to try to find the leaders and stop them.

Though I could tell fairly early where the plot was going to lead, the climax still had me riveted, on the edge of my seat. The plot line seemed more realistic to me than the previous two books, and Alex’s struggles in regard to the evil God allows in the world are some that every thinking Christian wrestles with. Karen brings up some points in that regard that are new to me and very helpful.

There were just a few problems I had with the book. The most minor one I’ve mentioned before when reviewing Karen’s books, and that is her penchant for ending chapters with a sentence fragment, as well as sprinkling them throughout. It can be done every now and then for effect, but when it becomes a noticeable habit, it loses its effect. Secondly, it seems odd that a group concerned about the environment would make a point with arson, which is bad for the environment, especially during California’s windy season. That point is made several times in the story, and I suppose the idea is that the terrorist group is not really interested in the environment at all. My last “issue” is a theological and therefore more major one: at the beginning of the book it seems that Alex is a believer, but he turns his back on God in bitterness and grief. Yet in the midst of a fire, he “wondered… if this was what hell felt like…maybe he was about to find out” (p. 263). If he was a true believer, he wouldn’t be facing hell.

Karen’s books are always easy to read, her characters likable and easy to relate to, and her plot lines easily draw one in, while she deals effectively with issues of the heart. This was my favorite of the books in this series.

(This review will be linked to Semicolon‘s Saturday Review of books and Callapidder Days’ Spring Reading Thing Reviews.)

Book Review: In Trouble and In Joy

Posted on June 2, 2009 by Barbara Harper

The first part of the title of In Trouble and In Joy: Four Women Who Lived for God by Sharon James comes from a line in a hymn by Nahum Tate and Nicholas Brady:

Through all the changing scenes of life,
In trouble and in joy,
The praises of my God shall still
My heart and tongue employ.

The four women Sharon James writes about in this book exemplify that truth: in varying degrees of trouble and joy, they lived for God.

Margaret Baxter was a rebellious, glamorous, well-to-do teen-ager who became a Christian under the preaching of her Puritan pastor, Richard Baxter. Though he was twice her age, Margaret fell in love with him, and in time her feelings were reciprocated, and they married. The union was a step down for Margaret financially (Richard took care to arrange their finances in such a way that he did not have access to her money so it would not be thought he married her for her money) and socially, but she had found her purpose in life and blossomed. This was a time when “Non-conformists” were persecuted, and when Richard was imprisoned for a while, Margaret voluntarily joined him. Both were, like all the rest of us, very human. Margaret was known for being generous, cheerful (Mrs. James notes, “It is simply not true that the Puritans went around looking miserable. Indeed, Richard Baxter wrote, “Keep company with the more cheerful sort of the godly; there is no mirth like the mirth of believers'” [p. 49]), industrious, competent, capable, patient, supportive — and anxious, fearful, perfectionist, and over-zealous. Yet she was aware of and grieved by her faults, and it was her desire to live a holy life for God.

Sarah Edwards had eleven children as the wife of Jonathan Edwards in the early 1700s. The Edwards were known for their “uncommon union,” their great love and respect for each other, and Sarah’s hospitality. Sarah thrived as a wife and mother, but the Edwards’ faced their share of difficulty as well when Jonathan was dismissed from the church where he pastored and some of their children died.

Anne Steele lived in a small English village in the 1700s, never married, suffered from poor health most of her life (with what is thought now to have been malaria), published two volumes of hymns and poems, and was known for her cheerfulness and faith. It was expected at that time that young women would marry and have a family, and there is some correspondence of teasing between Anne and her sister about Anne’s unmarried state even though the sister admitted her life was not all rosy.

Frances Ridley Havergal lived in the Victorian 1800s and is best known as the writer of hymns such as “Take My Life and Let It Be” and “Like a River Glorious.” Her father was a pastor and she was very active in the ministry of the church, thriving in personal work, one-on-one discussions with others about the gospel and spiritual truth. When her father died, her step-mother made unusual demands and seemed to even be mentally unstable, but Frances did her best to honor her. She did travel a lot and kept running, amusing accounts of her experiences: letters from her travels to Switzerland were gathered together in a book titled Swiss Letters. She turned down several proposals of marriage, though she “once wrote of the sense of ‘general heart-loneliness and need of a one and special love…and the belief that my life is to be a lonely one in that respect…I do so long for the love of Jesus to be poured in, as a real and satisfying compensation'” (pp. 193-194). She was a prolific writer of hymns and books. She “loved life, enjoyed people, revelled in nature, and laughed a lot” (p. 200).

The book deals with each woman individually, detailing her historical setting, the story of her life, her character and significance, and excerpts from her writing. Mrs. James’ style of writing is somewhat academic, more like teaching a class than telling a story: that’s not a bad thing, but I had picked up this book because I had read and enjoyed her earlier one, My Heart In His Hands about Ann Judson, and I don’t remember it being quite that way, though it has been years since I read it.

I didn’t agree with all of Mrs. James’ conclusions about why the women did what they did or the few things for which she criticized them: for example, she faults some of the women for not being more socially active. She wrote of Frances: “Although she was always ready to give benevolent help on an individual level, there is little evidence that Frances had strong feelings about the blatant social and political inequalities of that time” (p. 201). Some of us feel that dealing with individual hearts, resulting in a true heart change, will take care of the larger issues, and that Christians are called to share the gospel and make disciples, not necessarily battle the culture itself (though it’s not wrong to fight social ills). Mrs. James does go on to say of Frances, “And yet the ‘limiting’ of her vision to gospel issues meant that she was extraordinarily focused. Her mental and spiritual energies were not diffused into many different areas,” allowing a greater concentration on vital issues of “salvation, consecration, and worship” (p. 201). These women had their hands full enough with what they did do to warrant criticism for what they didn’t do.

I did appreciate Mrs. James research, insight, and masterful compilation of the details of these women’s lives. There is much about each woman’s life to instruct Christian women. To give just one example, one of Frances’s letters tells of the hostility and “appalling service” she received at an inn in Switzerland. Where most of us would be fuming and calling for the manager, Frances reacted patiently and finally said to the angry, spiteful woman, “You are not happy. I know that you’re not.” the woman was startled, “tamed…made a desperate effort not to cry” and listened while Frances spoke to her “quite plainly and solemnly about Jesus.” She received a tract, promised to read it, and thanked Frances over and over. Frances concluded, “Was it not worth getting out of the groove of one’s usual comforts and civilities?” (pp. 250-251). I have to confess that was a rebuke to me: I rarely think of such situations as a means of service to others.

Mrs. James concludes:

They had different personalities and varied situations, but each of these four women lived focused lives, wanting to praise God through days of trouble as well as joy. As is true of many women, they had to juggle all sorts of responsibilities. Pursuing holiness did not mean running away from these responsibilities: it involved living every day wholeheartedly for God (p. 253).

(This review will be linked to Semicolon’s Saturday Review of books and Callapidder Days’ Spring Reading Thing Reviews.)

Preaching personalities

Posted on June 1, 2009 by Barbara Harper

Last night we had a guest speaker at church. He wasn’t new to our assembly — he had married one of our girls — but we had never heard him speak publicly before. For various reasons both my husband and I thought this man was going to be a bombastic, in-your-face type of preacher, but we were pleasantly surprised. He wasn’t that way at all. Of course, he was mainly just sharing his testimony and the mission God had called him to rather than preaching a message, but, still, we enjoyed what he had to say and the way he said it.

That reminded me of another time I had misjudged a preacher. Well, actually, I hadn’t misjudged in this case: this man was a bombastic, in-your-face, ranting and raving type of preacher. There was a Christian radio broadcast I used to listen to while cleaning up the kitchen after dinner, and this preacher’s program came on afterward. As soon as he came on I would turn the radio off in disgust. I did that for months, if not years. Then I got convicted that that was a bad attitude. This man did preach truth. I didn’t have to like his style or listen to him, necessarily, but I shouldn’t have that negative attitude toward him. His style wasn’t wrong just because it didn’t appeal to me: God had used him to reach many people — evidently some people like that style. (This doesn’t mean that the end justifies the means and as long as he’s getting “results” it’s all good. I don’t agree with that principle. But there was nothing unbiblical in his doctrine or even in his style.) The Bible teaches that, while preachers are to be held accountable for their doctrine and their lifestyles (whether or not their lives match up to what they preach), we’re supposed to respect them as men of God. So I began to leave his broadcast on while I was finishing up in the kitchen. And on one particular day God used something he said to help me in an area I had been struggling with for years.

One former pastor we had said, while speaking about the Old Testament prophets, that many of them were contemporary with each other (in my ignorance as a young Christian reading the Bible through for the first time, I had thought all the books were chronological), but God had sent the same message out through different men because they each had different personalities that would appeal to different people.

The pastor I had while in the last year of high school and in college and then the one my husband and I were under during the first fourteen years we were married definitely had the gift of teaching. They rarely raised their voices except occasionally for emphasis, they spoke to people and not at people, they taught logically and delibrately through a passage, they didn’t often move around much. That is still the type of preaching I long for and respond to best. I don’t like shouting, ranting, using a verse as a jumping-off point only to express one’s opinions, walking back and forth across the stage (and down the stage and up the aisles — that’s very distracting to me), shooting from the hip rather than logically proceeding through a passage. We’ve had speakers who have done all of those things, and I have to be careful lest my dislike (and criticalness) of those things distract me from the message. There have been times I’ve heard other people talk about how blessed they were by a message, and I think, “Where was I?” Other times I’ve been blessed by a more ordinary talking speaker (or writer) who had perhaps a more intellectual approach, and other people’s response seems to be, “Well, that was…nice.”

The bottom line is I am responsible for receiving the truth I hear despite how it is conveyed.

O hope of every contrite heart

Posted on May 31, 2009 by Barbara Harper

These are some of the lesser-known stanzas from the hymn “Jesus the Very Thought of Thee” by Bernard of Clairvaux: the rest is here.

O hope of every contrite heart,
O joy of all the meek,
To those who fall, how kind Thou art!
How good to those who seek!

But what to those who find? Ah, this
Nor tongue nor pen can show;
The love of Jesus, what it is,
None but His loved ones know.

When once Thou visitest the heart,
Then truth begins to shine,
Then earthly vanities depart,
Then kindles love divine.

O Jesus, light of all below,
Thou fount of living fire,
Surpassing all the joys we know,
And all we can desire.

Jesus, may all confess Thy Name,
Thy wondrous love adore,
And, seeking Thee, themselves inflame
To seek Thee more and more.

Sin

Posted on May 28, 2009 by Barbara Harper

On my way home from taking Jesse to school, I caught the very end of a radio broadcast in which the speaker read a letter to the editor in which the author said he was sick of hearing about sin and wanted only a religion that taught things like gentleness and tolerance.

That’s understandable: no one really likes hearing about sin, especially their own. But that attitude is a bit like going to a doctor and saying, “I just want you to teach me about wellness and health: I don’t want to hear anything about this mass that you’re going to tell me needs to be removed.” What kind of doctor would be doing his patient any favors by telling him only the positive and neglecting to deal with the unpleasant negative of the ailment that will destroy him?

What exactly is sin? Besides detailing specific sins, the Bible speaks of these broader characterictics:

1. Falling short of God’s glory

Romans 3:23: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.

2. Failure to believe God

Hebrews 11:6: But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

3. Failure to do good

James 4:17: Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

4. Unrighteousness

I John 5:17a: All unrighteousness is sin

5. Acting against conscience, acting apart from faith

Romans 14:23: And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin

6. Transgressing the law

I John 3:4: Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.

We might think, well, sure, defined like that, yes, we’re all sinners, but my sin isn’t as bad as other people’s. Going back to our patient analogy, that’s like saying my illness isn’t as bad as the other guy’s, so I don’t have to worry about mine. According to Romans 3:23 mention above, the standard is not how we compare to others: it’s how we compare to God. I heard it once described like this: if we all needed to leap over a 500 foot chasm, some would make it farther than others, but we’d all fall short.

The sin Adam and Eve engaged in which plunged the rest of the human race into sin was not what we would call gross sin: they simply did what God told them not to do. Jesus said the greatest commandment is “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” It follows, then, that the greatest sin is to fail to love God with all our hearts, souls, and minds.

So, a sinful nature is there within all of us. We can’t ignore it. It’s too destructive. We know it’s destructiveness and painfulness when others sin against us. It separates us from God: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. Isaiah 59:2. Psalm 38 details the physical and mental anguish resulting from sin, not to mention the eternal punishment.

Thankfully there is a remedy: I Corinthians 15:3-4: For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.

Isaiah 53:5-6: But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Because the Lord Jesus, who was inherently sinless and who is God Himself, took on our sin and the punishment for it, when we believe on Him, all our sin can be forgiven. Even after becoming believers, on the basis of Christ’s death and resurrection, when we sin we can come to Him and have the slate wiped clean. I John 1:9: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

When He has cleansed our sin away, dwells within us, and given us a new nature, then we are enabled to show forth love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance (Galatians 5:22-23)– all the good and positive qualities that are a blessing to other people.

I hadn’t planned to write about this today: I had two other posts in mind and was trying to decide which one to go with when I heard that bit of a radio broadcast, and as I thought meditated on what I had heard, some of these other truths came to mind, so I felt that perhaps this was what I should write about today.

Proverbs 28:13: He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.

Sometimes the joy comes after

Posted on May 21, 2009 by Barbara Harper

Yesterday was the kind of day some harried mother must have had when she coined the phrase, “If a woman’s place is in the home, why am I always in the car?”

I knew I had to be at one place at 9 a.m., but I hadn’t foreseen several other things coming up and errands piling upon errands throughout the day. I won’t bore you with a blow-by-blow account, but by 5:30 p.m. I ended up bringing fast-food dinner home to sit down for a few minutes until church. During the course of the day I was informed of an opportunity for service at church that evening — actually more of a responsibility than an opportunity. Maybe because it was unexpected, maybe because I was already tired — I’m a homebody, and being out all day makes me tired and a little cranky — I did not react with joy and enthusiasm at the news. Some of the unexpected errands had to do with preparations for this unexpected event. By church time, honestly, if I hadn’t had this responsibility, I might have talked myself into being too tired to go.

Yet we live by faith, not by feeling, and part of faith is not just what we believe but also the outworking of that faith into our daily lives, sometimes in spite of feelings. So I went. And as so often happens, I was glad I did. I had begun the evening tired and harried, and came home joyful and refreshed.

That has happened so often in my life: I remember times of being asked to do something and not feeling the liberty to say no (it’s not that I never say no — I feel perfectly free to decline at times), yet instead of “serving the Lord with gladness” I dragged my feet and chafed at the intrusion on my time and energy. Then afterward I was so ashamed of myself for my negative feelings and so immensely glad I done the task — not just in the satisfaction of having done one’s “duty” or “a good deed” but — I don’t know how to describe it — just joy in actually serving.

Last night I picked up a copy of Joy And Strength, a devotional book of quotes and verses compiled by Mary Wilder Tileston. I had gone through it a few times several years ago and had it nearby to glean some of the quotes of it I wanted to remember. The reading for yesterday fit perfectly:

He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.
EPHESIANS 1:4

O LOVE, who formedst me to wear
The image of Thy Godhead here;
Who soughtest me with tender care
Through all my wanderings wild and drear;
O Love! I give myself to Thee,
Thine ever, only Thine to be.
JOHANN SCHEFFLER

WE live not for ourselves, but for God; for some purpose of His; for some special end to be accomplished, which He has willed to be accomplished by oneself, and not by another; something which will be left undone, if we do it not, or not be done as it would have been done, if the one ordained to it had done it. We live gifted with certain forms of spiritual grace embodied in us, for some purpose of Divine Love to be fulfiled by us, some idea of the Divine Mind to be imaged forth in our creaturely state. To devote oneself to God is to concentrate the powers of one’s being to their ordained end, and therefore to have the happiest and truest life–happiest, because happiness must be in the accordance of these powers with the law of their creation, and truest, because the attainment of the highest glory must be in the accomplishment of the end for which we were created.
T. T. CARTER

The May 21-25 readings are good and applicable as well.

Sometimes I am greatly embarrassed by my fellow Christians

Posted on May 16, 2009 by Barbara Harper

I was reading an article earlier this week wherein the author quoted from a source that had a Biblical fact wrong, and the snide, ridiculing comments were just atrocious. Of course, not all of the people who responded that way were professing Christians, but I am sure some were. Good grief, people. What does it say to a non-Christian when Christians come across with such arrogance and self-righteousness? How does that reflect on Christ, whom we’re supposed to be representing? Where is the grace? Then another friend spoke with sorrow on the attacks his friend received online due to a lifestyle that most professing Christians could not condone. How did Jesus deal with people — the women at the well and the adulterous woman, for two examples?

I Timothy 2:24-26: And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient,In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth;And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.

Colossians 4:5-6: Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time. Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.

In Philippians 4:5, “Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand,” the word “moderation” means “a sweet reasonableness” according to Word Studies in the Greek New Testament and is translated “genetleness” or “reasonableness” in other translations. The KJV translators probably meant moderation in the sense of moderation of spirit.

And of course I am not saying we should just condone everything. I’ve written before on what “judge not” doesn’t mean and the fact that sometimes the most loving thing you can do is confront someone about their sin.

Contending for the faith doesn’t mean we have a generally contentious nature. We can stand for Biblical truth without being obnoxious and driving away the very people Christ loves and for whom He died. We need to show the same grace we have been shown. “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

When someone falls

Posted on April 22, 2009 by Barbara Harper

I had a bit of a wait in a not-so-fast-food drive-through last night, and I was listening to a radio preacher in the mean time. I think the general topic of the message was about temptation — he did talk about that a while. But at one point he mentioned (not by name) someone well-known in a particular church who said all the right things and took all the right stands and yet fell into the sin of adultery: worse yet, he would not admit it until he realized irrefutable evidence was available. Members of the church were hurt and scandalized…and it was at that point my turn came at the drive-through window, so I don’t know the rest of the story or why the preacher brought it up.

I don’t know (or want to know) who he was talking about, but it brought me back to my early married days when someone I had looked up to as a spiritual leader in college fell into the same sin. He was on the mission field at the time, would not repent when confronted, then went on to live a very secular lifestyle, lived as though he never had been a professing Christian, and antagonized his wife when she attended church.

I have to admit that hurt. And I was only a friend: I only had a glimpse of what his wife went through, and I was especially concerned for his children and for the students at the Bible institute he had been a part of on the mission field. When things like this happen, it can cause some to be shaken in their faith. Perhaps they think if this person fell, anyone can fall (and I think this may have been the point the radio preacher was getting to). Or perhaps they think if this person wasn’t genuine, as in the case mentioned (though genuine believers do fall into sin, too, as David did with Bathesheba) then how can any of it be real?

For some people it’s not a distant scandal involving a famous preacher that has shaken them, or even a spiritual leader in their own church, but someone much closer: a father, brother, or personal friend.

However much it hurts and baffles, someone else’s fall is no reason to become confused or discouraged and throw in the towel — or, as some unbelievers might, to point the finger and use the situation to discount all of Christianity. “Every one of us shall give account of himself to God” (Romans 14:12). We’re responsible for our own walk and our own lives no matter what anyone else does. His grace is sufficient for our every need.

What are some wrong reactions when someone falls?

1. “I knew it all the time: I knew something wasn’t right about them.”

Love “believeth all things, hopeth all things” (I Corinthians 13: 7b) — not to the point of naivety, but in general expecting good rather than suspecting evil. In the situation I mentioned, after the fact several people brought up to the pastoral leadership situations and concerns they had from years before when the man was in graduate school. The pastor and elders had to say this was not the time for that: those things should have been brought up at the time, if it was something serious enough to be of concern. Who knows, perhaps a confrontation then would have prevented the serious damage that occurred later.

2. “Can you imagine? Can you believe it? I would never do such a thing!”

Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall (I Corinthians 10:12). We’re all sinful beings: given the right circumstances and temptations, any of us is vulnerable. Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall (Proverbs 16:18).

3. “If he fell, if he couldn’t live the Christan life, there is no way I can.”

There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it (I Corinthians 10:13). These situations can be a wake-up call, reminding us of how much we need to walk closely with the Lord and how much we need His grace to keep from sin, but, as mentioned earlier, we should not lose hope.

There are Biblical ways to respond to such a situation that are beyond the scope of this particular post, but I’ll just mention them in passing: Galatians 6:1 says, “Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.” Matthew 7 speaks of taking the “beam” out of our own eye before trying to remove the speck or “mote” from someone else’s (interestingly, most people stop with the first verse of that chapter, the “judge not,” and misapply it in all kinds of ways, but miss the fact that verse 5 indicates we are supposed to help each other with these things — but we’re supposed to have the right attitude and take care of our own issues first). Matthew 18:15-20 outlines the course of church discipline, and what steps are taken depends on the reaction of the offender; I Corinthians 5 shares the extreme end of church discipline when the offender does not repent after every other attempt has been made. If you read both of those chapters closely, the hopeful outcome is restoration and forgiveness, not a self-righteous denunciation of the offender. There are other reasons for church discipline: the purity of the church (someone going around in open, unrepentant sin is going to tempt others to do so just by their “getting away with it”) and the testimony of the church (many times the New Testament lays out a certain course of action so that unbelievers won’t blaspheme). But the primary purpose of these actions is to help bring the offender to realize what he has done, confess and repent of it, and to restore him to fellowship with God and others.

Also, all of these verses about church discipline do not mean that we turn into spiritual policemen, constantly watching out for others to misstep so we can pounce on them. No, there are times to exercise forbearance, to overlook a fault. We handle an unkind word or leaving socks on the floor far differently than we would handle stealing, lying, or immorality, though those “lesser issues” might still need to be dealt with.

But my main reason for writing today is not so much to talk about church discipline: I wanted rather just to encourage us that, even though it wounds us when someone else falls, and we pray for that person and do all in our power to see them get things right, our ultimate focus should be on the One Who will never fail us.

Hebrews 12:1-2: Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Am I a stone and not a sheep?

Posted on April 11, 2009 by Barbara Harper

3crosses2gif

Am I a stone and not a sheep
That I can stand, O Christ, beneath Thy Cross,
To number drop by drop Thy Blood’s slow loss,
And yet not weep?

Not so those women loved
Who with exceeding grief lamented Thee;
Not so fallen Peter weeping bitterly;
Not so the thief was moved;

Not so the Sun and Moon
Which hid their faces in a starless sky,
A horror of great darkness at broad noon –
I, only I.

Yet give not o’er,
But seek Thy sheep, true Shepherd of the flock;
Greater than Moses, turn and look once more
And smite a rock.

~ Christina Rosetti (1830-1894)

I see the scourges tear His back,
I see the piercing crown,
And of that crowd who smite and mock,
I feel that I am one.

‘Twas I that shed the sacred blood,
I nailed Him to the tree,
I crucified the Christ of God,
I joined the mockery.

Yet not the less that blood avails,
To cleanse away my sin;
And not the less that cross prevails
To give me peace within.

~ Horatius Bonar

Characteristics of faith

Posted on April 6, 2009 by Barbara Harper

I’m thinking out loud here…

I’ve mentioned that for our ladies’ luncheon this year, instead of a speaker giving a devotional, we’re having a lady do a dramatic presentation of Evidence Not Seen by Darlene Deibler Rose, an autobiographical book about her confinement in a Japanese prison camp while serving as a missionary to the Philippines during WWII. I read it years ago: it’s a tremendous book. So I was excited to hear that this lady did this presentation.

In determining the theme and theme verse for the luncheon, I’ve been dipping in and rereading parts of the book. You can’t read much of it without the theme of faith becoming prominent. What I don’t want to happen, though, is for people to walk away from the presentation thinking, “Wow, how inspirational. She had such great faith. I could never do what she did, but what a great story.” I don’t think she would have wanted people to magnify her, or even her faith. In her acknowledgments, she wrote,

“More than ten years ago I began to write the story of my experiences during World War II for Bruce and Brian, my sons. I wished them to know, if ever difficult circumstances came into their lives, that their mother’s God is still alive and very well, and His arm has never lost its ancient power.”

She would want God, the object of her faith magnified, not the size of her own faith.

That reminded me of the time the disciples asked the Lord Jesus to increase their faith. He didn’t give them a three point formula for increasing faith. He responded in Luke 17: 6: “If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.” You have probably heard it said that the mustard seed is one of the smallest seeds. He seems to be saying, “It’s not the size of your faith that matters: just exercise what you have.”

Another passage that has been coming to mind in connection with Darlene’s story is from I Peter 1:

⁶ Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:

⁷ 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:

⁸ Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory…

One idea for a theme for the luncheon was “Golden Faith” — a faith tried, purified, and precious.

It seems that what is more important to the Lord is not the size of our faith, but its purity, from the above verses, and it’s simplicity, from Mark 10:

¹⁴ But when Jesus saw it [that they were turning away the children], he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.

¹⁵ Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein.

¹⁶ And he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them.