Category Archives: Thoughts From Scripture

Poor Suzie

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Our poor dear dog hates thunderstorms. It started raining this afternoon and Jesse put Suzie-the-dog in her cage where her doghouse is. She went straight in where it was dry and seemed fine. Then it started to thunder. I heard a little sound outside the door — and there she was. She had gotten out of the fenced area outside and come to the door of the house. So we let her in and dried her off and she sought refuge near a real live person.

Poor Suzie

We let her in at night and set up a partition between the sunroom and the rest of the house (there is tile out here, so it’s not so much a problem for the doggy smell and occasional accidents, but carpet everywhere else). But if there is any kind of storm, she pushes through and looks for somebody.

I can’t blame her. I don’t like thunderstorms either.

I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest. Psalm 55:8

I wish I could tell her in a way she would understand that it will all be over in a little while.

For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.
They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble.
They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wit’s end.
Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses.
He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.
Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven.
Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!
Psalm 107:25-31

Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusteth in thee: yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpast. Psalm 57:1

Freedom and discipline

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It doesn’t seem like those two words would go together, does it? People who want freedom in their personal lives usually don’t want discipline. Today’s e-mail devotional from Elisabeth Elliot’s writings, sent out by Back to the Bible, shares some intriguing thoughts along these lines. Here is just an excerpt from the longer article, which is an excerpt from her book All That Was Ever Ours.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a man who epitomized true freedom in his acceptance, for God’s sake, of the prison cell and death, wrote: “If you set out to seek freedom, then learn above all things to govern your soul and your senses. . . . Only through discipline may a man learn to be free.”

Freedom and discipline have come to be regarded as mutually exclusive, when in fact freedom is not at all the opposite, but the final reward, of discipline. It is to be bought with a high price, not merely claimed. The world thrills to watch the grace of Peggy Fleming on the ice, or the marvelously controlled speed and strength of a racehorse. But the skater and horse are free to perform as they do only because they have been subjected to countless hours of grueling work, rigidly prescribed, faithfully carried out. Men are free to soar into space because they have willingly confined themselves in a tiny capsule designed and produced by highly trained scientists and craftsmen, have meticulously followed instructions and submitted themselves to rules which others defined.

I spent some time living with a jungle tribe whose style of life looked enviably “free.” They wore no clothes, lived in houses without walls, had no idea whatever of authority, paid no taxes, read no books, took no vacations. But they had a well-defined goal. They wanted to stay alive. It was as simple as that. And in a jungle, which can look very hostile indeed to one not accustomed to living there, they had learned to live. They accepted with grace and humor the awful weather, the gnats, the mud, thorns, snakes, steep hills, and deep forests which made their lives difficult. They never even spoke of “roughing it.” They didn’t know anything else. They’d walk for hours with hundred-pound baskets on their backs and when they reached their destination, perhaps in a tropical downpour, they did not so much as say, “Whew!” They knew what was expected of them, and did it as a matter of course. None asked, “Who am I?” They asked only, “What am I to do this next moment?” If it were to hunt or to make poison for darts, a man did that, or if it were to go out and clear new planting space, a woman did that. Their freedom to live in that jungle depended on a well-defined goal and on their willingness to discipline themselves in order to reach it. No one could “give” them this freedom.

I lived with these footloose people in their “jungle” environment–a nonproductive member of their community–and enjoyed a kind of freedom which even hippies might envy. But I was free only because the Indians worked. My freedom was contingent upon their acceptance of me as a liability and, incidentally, upon my own willingness to confine myself to a forest clearing where all I heard was a foreign language.

The Best Freedom

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(Graphic courtesy of Snapshots of Joy)

Glorious Freedom

by Haldor Lillenas

Once I was bound by sin’s galling fetters,
Chained like a slave, I struggled in vain;
But I received a glorious freedom,
When Jesus broke my fetters in twain.

* Refrain:
Glorious freedom, wonderful freedom,
No more in chains of sin I repine!
Jesus the glorious Emancipator,
Now and forever He shall be mine.

Freedom from all the carnal affections,
Freedom from envy, hatred and strife;
Freedom from vain and worldly ambitions,
Freedom from all that saddened my life.

Freedom from pride and all sinful follies,
Freedom from love and glitter of gold;
Freedom from evil, temper, and anger,
Glorious freedom, rapture untold.

Freedom from fear with all of its torments,
Freedom from care with all of its pain;
Freedom in Christ, my blessed Redeemer,
He who has rent my fetters in twain.

John 8:32, 3: And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.

Romans 3:23-26: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.

Romans 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

Revelation 21:6: And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.

Revelation 22:17: And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.

Having devotions when you’re not feeling very devoted

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Several days ago, I was starting out my devotional time as I usually do by reading the day’s passage from a book called Daily Light for the Daily Path. The verses for that day were mostly about attributes of God. As I got to the end of the page, instead of being thankful and full of praise or uplifted and inspired, I merely thought, rather tiredly, “Yeah, I know that already.” I was immediately rebuked by the coldness of my heart, asked the Lord to forgive me and quicken me, and went back though the verses, praising the Lord for each of the attributes I read there. Then I was thankful, full of praise, uplifted, inspired…and humbled.

There are a few thoughts from this experience I’d like to share:

First, sometimes we feel that “deadness of spirit” when we’re tired or not feeling well. Sometimes it actually works better to go ahead and take a little nap and come back to devotions later. Sometimes we’re just distracted and need to ask the Lord to help us focus. Sometimes we need to ask Him to show us any sin in our lives that needs to be confessed. Sometimes we need to ask Him to forgive us for our coldness and quicken us — a visiting preacher during one summer had an excellent message on the phrase “quicken me,” which recurs nine times in Psalm 119. For example, verse 25 says, “My soul cleaveth unto the dust: quicken thou me according to thy word” (the NKJV and the NASB use the word “revive”).

Secondly, when we come across passages that are familiar to us, we can try to read them with new eyes, as if we’ve never seen them before. If it is a story, like David an Goliath, we can try to picture it happening before our eyes. We can ask the Lord to help us get the lessons from it He has for us.

Thirdly, we need to remember we won’t always find something “new” in the Bible if we have been reading it for a while. We’ll never exhaust it — there will always be new things to learn. But we also need the repetition of the old truths we have learned so we don’t forget them. Over and over in the Bible we see God repeating Israel’s history to them, reminding them of things He had told them before. We see how people drift away from Him when they forget His truth. Sometimes the repetition is a deeply needed blessing. But if it seems “old news” to us, we can ask God to help us appreciate it anew. We can praise Him for it. We often don’t praise the Lord as we should. I’ve wondered at the phrase “the sacrifice of praise” in Scripture, wondering why the Lord called it a “sacrifice.” It may be because it is a “sweet smell” unto Him, or it may be that we have to give up thinking about ourselves and our problems for a while to focus on Him.

Sometimes we think we have to compartmentalize our devotions into reading, confessing, praising, and requesting. There is nothing wrong with that, but we can also let the confessing, praising and requesting flow as we read. When we come to a verse about an attribute of God or a promise, we can praise Him for it right then reflecting back to Him what His Word says. In fact, there is a Hebrew word that can be translated “confession,” “praise,” or “thanksgiving.” When we confess our sin, we say the same thing about it God does. So, too, when we praise Him, we say the same things about Him that His Word does, and as we do, we come to know Him as He truly is, love Him more, and align ourselves more closely with what He wants us to be.

Sometimes it helps to take a break in our usual routine and spend time is the Psalms or in favorite passages or in a Bible study book or do a word study we’ve been wanting to do.

Proverbs 27:7 says, ”The full soul loatheth an honeycomb; but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet.” Sometimes we are too full of other things to hunger after God’s Word as we should. We can ask Him to show us what “junk food” we’ve been filling our souls with so we can replace it with His truth, and to create a hunger in us for Him.

Above all, I think, we shouldn’t wait until we’re “feeling” more “devoted” to sit down with the Bible. A former pastor of ours once said that one of his best times of prayer occurred when the last thing he felt like doing was praying, but he went ahead and just started out by confessing that to the Lord. Somehow in the process the Lord melted his heart. As I mentioned in the beginning, just going back through some verses I had just read and asking the Lord to forgive me and quicken me opened them up to me in a new way, and my heart was completely different afterward than it was the first time through.

In John 6:63 Jesus said, “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” It is His very Word that the Holy Spirit uses to quicken us. The last thing we need to do when we’re feeling low spiritually is to avoid the Bible. That’s exactly what we need to revive us.

Majestic Sweetness Sits Enthroned

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This hymn was one of the favorites of a dear former pastor, Jesse Boyd (for whom our Jesse was named). Pastor Boyd has been with the Lord for several years now. I hadn’t thought about this hymn in a long time, but the other night I had the Christian radio station on late, and someone sang a few lines from it during a sermon. I was only going to post a few of the verses I was familiar with, but as I read these over, I don’t see how I can leave any out. But I think among my favorites are stanzas 4 and 5. You can find a MIDI version of the tune here.

Majestic Sweetness Sits Enthroned

Words by Samuel Stennett, 1787
Music by Thomas Hastings

Majestic sweetness sits enthroned
Upon the Savior’s brow;
His head with radiant glories crowned,
His lips with grace o’erflow,
His lips with grace o’erflow.

To Christ, the Lord, let every tongue
Its noblest tribute bring
When He’s the subject of the song,
Who can refuse to sing?
Who can refuse to sing?

Survey the beauties of His face,
And on His glories dwell;
Think of the wonders of His grace,
And all His triumphs tell,
And all His triumphs tell.

No mortal can with Him compare
Among the sons of men;
Fairer is He than all the fair
Who fill the heav’nly train,
Who fill the heav’nly train.

He saw me plunged in deep distress
And flew to my relief;
For me He bore the shameful cross
And carried all my grief,
And carried all my grief.

His hand a thousand blessings pours
Upon my guilty head:
His presence gilds my darkest hours,
And guards my sleeping bed,
And guards my sleeping bed.

To Him I owe my life and breath
And all the joys I have;
He makes me triumph over death
And saves me from the grave,
And saves me from the grave.

To Heav’n, the place of His abode,
He brings my weary feet;
Shows me the glories of my God,
And makes my joys complete,
And makes my joys complete.

Since from His bounty I receive
Such proofs of love divine,
Had I a thousand hearts to give,
Lord, they should all be Thine,
Lord, they should all be Thine.

Time Travel Tuesday: Salvation Edition

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My Life as Annie hosts Time Travel Tuesday in which we look back at some time in our lives in relation to the topic of the week. Annie asks, ”
This week I decided we should revisit our time of salvation, or a special time in your spiritual life. Was there a moment when you became a Christian, or did it take a while? Can you remember that special time in your life?”

My testimony was one of the first posts on my blog, and when I figured out how to make “pages” (listed across the top of my blog), I made a page for that there so that people who visited could easily see it and click on it if they wanted to, because one of my desires in making a blog was to be a witness to people. I thought about writing a shorter version here, but since I thought it through carefully and wrote it out there, if you don’t mind, I am going to refer you there: here’s the link.

Good reads this morning

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I came across a couple of excellent posts this morning I wanted to share with you.

Elle at A Complete Thought has an excellent, excellent post about using the things of God as “catchy” advertising slogans.

And Nancy Wilson at Femina writes on “There is not a man on earth who can satisfy the heart of a woman.”

No merit of my own

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I was reading tonight of an acquaintance who was thinking of going into a religion that is very much based on one’s works plus the church’s directives plus Christ for a right relationship with God — and my heart is so pained. I wish folks could see and understand that we can’t “do” anything to earn a right standing with God except repent and believe. One old song says it well:

My hope is in the Lord Who gave Himself for me,
And paid the price of all my sin at Calvary.

Refrain:
For me He died, For me He lives,
And everlasting life and light He freely gives.

No merit of my own His anger to suppress.
My only hope is found in Jesus’ righteousness.

And now for me He stands Before the Father’s throne.
He shows His wounded hands and names me as His own.

His grace has planned it all, ‘Tis mine but to believe,
And recognize His work of love and Christ receive.

(Words and music by Norman J. Clayton)

But a song is only as good doctrinally as it is based on Scripture. And the Scriptural basis for this one can be found in the following:

Titus 3:5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;

6 Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour;

7 That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Romans 4:4 Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.

5 But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.

Ephesians 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.

Book Review: To Fly Again

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It’s beginning to look like Book Week here at Stray Thoughts, isn’t it? 🙂 Sorry about that. The last two I have just finished up in the last couple of days. I normally would have spaced out the discussion of them a little more except that the Spring Reading Thing Wrap-Up is today!

I had read Gracia Burnham’s In the Presence of My Enemies during the fall reading challenge, the story of how she and her husband, Martin, were captured by Islamic militants in the Philippines and held for a year, ending in Martin’s death during a rescue attempt. Gracia has written another book with Dean Merrill, To Fly Again, which kind of updates us on how the family is doing and shares more of what she has learned in the time since this ordeal. Actually, the whole title is To Fly Again: Surviving the Tailspins of Life, using an analogy from her husband’s experiences as a pilot.

Gracia, as her name implies, is very gracious in her dealings with others, yet she doesn’t shy away from facing the hard questions and problems she has dealt with. She deals with many topics — faith, anger, confusion, impatience, forgiveness, contentment, praise, and so much more, sharing something of the wrestlings of her own heart and mind, always coming back to the God Who loves us and is trustworthy even if circumstances are excruciating.

This book is an excellent read, really, for anyone, but especially for those who have gone through a crisis and wrestled with some of these same topics.

I want to share just a couple of excerpts. In a chapter dealing with praise, she writes:

I am not claiming that the praise of Paul and Silas directly triggered the earthquake. But I do believe it is fair to say that affirming the goodness and power of God is always appropriate. It tells God we have not lost our bearings. We still know who is ultimately in charge of the world. And we invite his intervention in the midst of our trauma.

She refers to the battle King Jehoshaphat faced against overwhelming odds in II Chronicles 20 and is prayer that “We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon You.” The king then appointed singers to walk in front of the army to sing to and praise the Lord — and the Lord provided a marvelous ad unexpected deliverance. Later in the same chapter Gracia writes:

In the battles of our life, when we face overwhelming threats to life and limb, it is always good to praise the Lord. It states a higher reality than what we see with our natural eyes. It affirms our place in the hands of a loving and strong heavenly Father, who will never stop caring about our welfare. He is, indeed, worthy of every accolade we can offer, whether circumstances seem to agree or not.

In another place she quotes a poem by Annie Johnson Flint that I think sums up the experience of those whose lights are to shine in dark places, as the Burnhams’ did:

His lamp am I, to shine where He shall say,
And lamps are not for sunny rooms,
Nor for the light of day;
But for the dark places of the earth,
Where shame and wrong and crime have birth,
Or for the murky twilight gray
Where wandering sheep have gone astray;
Or where the lamp of faith grows dim
And souls are groping after Him.
And as sometimes a flame we find,
Clear-shining, through the night
So bright we do not see the lamp,
But only see the light:
So may I shine — His light the flame,
That men may glorify His name.

Book Review: Renovating Becky Miller

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Renovating Becky Miller by Sharon Hinck is one of the books on my spring reading challenge (which is rapidly drawing to a close this week!!) I had read Sharon’s first book, The Secret Life of Becky Miller, last year (it was one of the first books I discussed on my blog!) and just loved it — the characters and situations and struggles were very real — so I knew I’d get the sequel as soon as I saw it. I finished it last week, but this is my first chance to sit down and get my thoughts together.

Becky Miller is a young Christian mom, married with three children, heading up the women’s ministry at church. In the first book she struggled to “do big things for God.” Each chapter started with a “daydream” in which Becky somehow saved the day. This book starts each chapter with a spoof of a movie scene (I didn’t realize that at first because I hadn’t seen the first film alluded to. 🙂 I thought it was a spy scenario like the first book might have had. After a while I began to realize those scenarios were strangely familiar — then I “got it.”) It was fun figuring out what movie the scenes were from. I got most of them even though I hadn’t seen all the films. If I had just read the back cover of the book more thoroughly, it would have given me a tip-off.

Becky faces a number of pressures — her new job at a new church is taking a lot more time than she thought it would; the people there feel that increasing and expanding their programs will reach more people for Christ, so there are constantly new projects and more work added on; her husband’s mother is having physical problems and comes to live with them; something’s bothering her husband, but she can’t get him to open up; something is wrong with one of her closest friends, but she can’t get anyone to tell her what the problem is; her husband think they need to find a new home, and the ideal one in their price range that just needs “some fixing up” is an old farmhouse. Becky think the bigger house in the country will mean a slower, simpler lifestyle, and the “fixing up” will be a good project to draw the family closer. If you’ve ever had a house that needed work, you’re probably smiling and shaking your head right now. 🙂 On top of all of that, the leg that has been having problems since the accident she had in the first book is getting worse because she is so busy with everything else she hasn’t had time to do her physical therapy.

In other words — she is under a lot of pressure.

I could relate to thing on so many levels. The first home we purcahsed was a “fixer-upper” and we didn’t realize how much money, time, and energy it was going to take. I head up the ladies’ ministry at church, and though we haven’t had any church growth pushes, there is always the pressure to do more. We have had parents in just for a short time but have had discussions about what we might need to do in the near future, as many in the “sandwich generation” have. I’ve had physical problems that I wished the Lord would just go ahead and heal so I could get on with my life and minister for Him more effectively. Just keeping in touch with your family (even living under the same roof it is all too easy to just pass by while getting other things done) and trying to be a good mother to your children can be enormous pressure, not to mention these other things.

At one point, Becky asks, “Lord, is serving You supposed to feel like this?”

I think many of us have asked or have felt like asking that question.

I’ll leave you to find the answers Becky found in the book.

Because I have four bookcases filled to overflowing already, usually after I read a book, if I really don’t think I will ever reread it, I pass it on to my mother-in-law or someone else. But I am keeping the Becky Miller books. I want to revisit them again some day. Once again the characters and the struggles were very real (even though my kids are older than Becky’s, I could remember a lot of the “young mom” struggles, and some of them still apply though in slightly different forms) and the answers Becky found, though not new to me, were wonderful reminders.

If I had a rating system, this book would get the highest rating, plus a couple of plus signs. 🙂 It’s everything that good Christian fiction should be. It will have you smiling in some parts and pondering its truths in others.

By the way, Sharon Hinck has a website and a blog and a “Book Buddies” newsletter you can sign up for. She has another book out already, The Restorer, that is on my to be read list. It is a fantasy, and I have no doubt she can handle it well, from the fantasy preludes in her chapters of the Becky Miller books!