Tending the Soil of Your Heart

Posted on March 23, 2025 by Barbara Harper

In Mark 4, Jesus tells a story about different kinds of soil and how they each react to seed. Later, the disciples come to Him privately and ask what the story means.

Jesus said that the seed is the word of God. Some seed in the story fell on the hardened pathway, and birds came and ate the seed. This represents people for whom Satan immediately comes and takes the word from their minds.

Others are like rocky ground. The seed may sprout, but there’s no depth of soil, so the plant dies.

Others are like ground covered with thorns, which represent “the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things.” These “choke” the word, so, again, plants can’t grow.

But the good soil is like people who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit.

On first reading this parable, you might get to the end of it and think something like, “Well, that’s that. I feel bad for the people whose hearts didn’t receive the word, but what can you do?”

I don’t think that’s meant to be the end of the story, though. Surely, at the end of our lives when we stand before the Lord, we’ll be responsible for how we heard and received God’s word.

But right now, there’s still time to hear and respond.

The word “hear” is repeated eleven times in this chapter. Twice, Jesus says, “If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” Then “he said to them, ‘Pay attention to what you hear: with the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you. For to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.'” When you listen and respond, you’ll hear more. But if you turn away, you can lose whatever you have heard.

So what do we do if our hearts seem unfruitful, rocky, shallow, or choked by distractions and concerns?

Pray, asking God to search us and change our hearts:

Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting! (Psalm 139:23-24).

Incline my heart to your testimonies, and not to selfish gain! Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways (Psalm 119:36-37).

Examine ourselves:

Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the Lord! Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven (Lamentations 3:40-41).

Break up our fallow ground:

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).

For thus says the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem: “Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns (Jeremiah 4:3).

Fallow ground is unplowed, uncultivated. It needs to be dug into, loosened, aerated, so seed can grow down deep. The Hosea passage goes on to talk about plowing iniquity and trusting in one’s own way. Jeremiah adds, “Circumcise yourselves to the Lord; remove the foreskin of your hearts.” We need to get rid of anything we know is standing between us and the Lord.

Don’t harden your heart.

Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years (Hebrews 3:7-9; also verses 13 and 15 and 4:7; also Psalm 95:8).

Other passages associate hardened hearts with pride, unbelief, willfulness, and disobedience.

God would not have said “Don’t harden your hearts” if there was no hope. We can ask Him to soften us and help us to repent of our unbelief and pride. Hebrews 3:13 says, “Exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today,’ that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” If we haven’t been listening to that exhortation, it’s a good time to start.

Pull out the weeds.

“The cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful (Mark 4:19).

This reminds me of the man we call the “rich young ruler” in Mark 10. He came to Jesus asking what he could do to inherit eternal life, thinking he had a pretty good chance since he kept the commandments. But Jesus told him to sell all he had, give it to the poor, and follow Him. Jesus does not call everyone to do this, but he knew this man loved his possessions too much. The man went away sorrowing rather than obeying.

Jesus remarked how difficult it was for a wealthy person to be saved–more difficult than a camel going through the eye of a needle. Astonished, the disciples wondered who then could be saved. Jesus said it was impossible with man, but not with God. Because of what Jesus said here, and the man’s sorrowfulness, and the fact that the text says Jesus loved him, I have hope that this man eventually did repent and turn to God.

But riches and possessions aren’t the only “thorns” that can choke the word. The cares of this world can distract us as well, like John Bunyan’s muckraker in The Pilgrim’s Progress, who wouldn’t look up from his busyness to see the hand of mercy extended to him.

Jesus warned that the desire for other things can distract us from His word as well. Five seconds after we die, we’ll realize that whatever we were holding onto wasn’t worth it. “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul?” (Mark 8: 36-37).

Sometimes the rocks or weeds in our hearts are intellectual. A woman in one of our former churches had been a biology major, and her biggest obstacle to salvation was her belief in evolution. One doesn’t have to believe in creation rather than evolution to be saved, but evolution was a hindrance to this particular woman’s faith. When God opened her heart to believe in His creation, she was able to believe in Him for salvation as well.

Likewise, Lee Strobel (author of The Case for Christ) and Viggo Olsen (Daktar) didn’t believe in God because they didn’t believe in things like the Bible’s reliability or the resurrection of Christ. Both men set out to disprove Christianity. But each became believers when they researched the truth. What we call apologetics (“the study and practice of giving answers for the reasonableness and truth of the Christian faith,” as defined by Answers in Genesis), is not in itself the gospel, but it can pave the way for the gospel by removing intellectual obstacles.

Read the Bible.

The unfolding of your words gives light; it imparts understanding to the simple (Psalm 119:130).

So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ (Romans 10:17).

Even if you don’t believe the Bible yet, or you’re not sure, God can speak to you through scripture and open your heart to Him.

If you don’t know the Lord, I pray you’ll leave no stone unturned to come to Him, and that He’ll give you understanding, repentance, and faith.

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

Defeating the Devil

Posted on March 2, 2025 by Barbara Harper

C. S. Lewis wrote to a friend, “There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them.”

When I first became a Christian and hadn’t developed a lot of discernment yet, I came across books about “spiritual warfare” that embodied the second view. They scared me rather than helping. I had an almost superstitious fear of the devil.

The February 25 reading of Daily Light on the Daily Path shared a collection of verses dealing with Satan, embodying things I had learned about him over the years. I thought I’d use them as a base and expand on them.

Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 2:11, “We would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs.” It helps to learn about an enemy and his tactics. But that doesn’t mean we need to study the occult. I once read a Christian fiction book about rescuing someone from a satanic cult that went into far more detail than I needed to know. I was troubled by some of that information for a long time.

The Bible tells us Satan’s tricks.

Accuses. Revelation 12:10 calls Satan “the accuser of our brothers . . . who accuses them day and night before our God.” We see this in the first chapter of Job. When God points out “my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil,” Satan responds that Job only serves God because of His blessings. Satan suggests that if God took away what He had given Job, Job would curse God. The rest of the book disproves Satan’s accusations. God knew Job would be faithful. But he had things to do in Job’s heart and ours by what He allowed Job to endure.

But what if Satan’s accusations are right? What if we failed in an area where we promised to change? What if we committed the same sin we repented of yesterday?

Romans 8:33-35 and 37-39 tells us:

Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Questions God’s Word. When Satan talked with Eve in the garden of Eden, he asked, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” Yes, God did say that. But when Satan questions what God has said, we sometimes start questioning, too.

Contradicts God’s Word. After questioning God’s Word in Genesis 3, Satan flat out contradicts it.

Misrepresents God and His Word. Satan planted in Eve’s mind that God had ulterior motives for keeping Adam and Eve from the forbidden fruit. When Satan tempted Jesus in Matthew 4, he quoted Scripture out of context and misapplied it. Peter wrote that “There are some things in [Paul’s writings] that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures” (2 Peter 3:16).

Lies. Jesus said Satan “does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44). Satan lies about us to God, about God to us, and about everyone and everything else.

Pretends to be an angel of light. 2 Corinthians 11: 13-15 tells us, “For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.” Most of the books of the Bible warn about false prophets and false teachers.

Murders. Jesus said Satan “was a murderer from the beginning” (John 8:44). I think Satan must be behind mass murders even if the murderers don’t consciously follow or acknowledge Satan. Who else would inspire people to kill so many others?

But the Bible also links hatred with murder (Matthew 5:21-22 and 1 John 3:15). Jen Wilkin comments on this in Ten Words to Live By, her book about the Ten Commandments.:

Is Jesus adding to the law by broadening our attention from murder to anger and contempt? By no means. He is pointing out the seedling that grows into the thorny vine that chokes out life. He is appealing to us to fastidiously weed the garden of our personal holiness. He is teaching that if every person dealt with anger quickly and rightly, there would be no need for the sixth [commandment] at all (p. 94).

First, I am angry with you in response to a hurt. Next, I begin to question your character with an insult. Then, I begin to question your worth as a person. As anger degrades into contempt, the personhood of another is devalued (p. 93).

How then do we defeat Satan?

Awareness. “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8).

Prayer. “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41),

Resist him. “Resist him, firm in your faith” (1 Peter 5:9).

Submit to God. “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7).

Put on God’s armor in Ephesians 6:

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints.

Know God’s Word. The “sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God” and prayer are the only offensive spiritual weapons given to us. Jesus responded to each of Satan’s temptations with Scripture. 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 says, “For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.” Whether wrong thoughts about God are whispered into our hearts, or we’re reading something false about God, we counteract those thoughts with the truth of God’s Word.

Live for God, by His grace. “Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them” (Ephesians 5:8b-11). “Put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:22-24). The passage goes on to say that if you used to steal, now work to give to those in need, use edifying rather than corrupting speech, and so on. Don’t just focus on what you’re not supposed to do: actively do the right thing.

Look for the way of escape. “Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it” (1 Corinthians 10:12-13). Too often I look for ways to justify what I want to do rather than looking for a way to avoid temptation.

Don’t give Satan a foothold. “Give no opportunity to the devil” (Ephesians 4:27). This may involve being careful about what we read and watch and where we go.

I don’t go looking for the devil behind every trouble. Once, when discussing a misunderstanding with a neighbor, she blamed the devil for our lack of communication. But the problem was in our human failures. I don’t give the devil more credit than he is due.

I don’t rebuke him: I leave that to God, like the archangel Michael did. “But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, ‘The Lord rebuke you'” (Jude 9).

Satan is stronger than I am, but God is stronger than Satan. “Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:57).

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

Laudable Linkage

Posted on March 1, 2025 by Barbara Harper

Here are some good reads for the first weekend in March.

The Great Danger is to Assume We Are All Headed for Heaven, HT to Challies. “For every American who believes they’re going to Hell, there are 120 who believe they’re going to Heaven. This optimism stands in stark contrast to Christ’s words in Matthew 7:13-14: ‘…wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.’”

The Sacred Mundane, HT to Challies. “What about the ordinary and mundane tasks of the homemaker? Can they possibly be more than they are? the making of breakfasts, of lunches and dinners, the folding of laundry, wiping of counters, changing of diapers, the picking up, and the dropping off. Can these have meaning beyond the day after day ‘sameness?’”

All My Heroes Are Broken. “Disappointment. Once again, a Christian leader has fallen off the pedestal. Of course, I should never have placed them on it. But in my mind, they are not what they once were. Maybe they never were. I need good examples–role models who live out what it means to walk by faith and reflect God’s glory. My heart cries out for inspiration to live for God day by day. Can I really do what God made me and saved me to do? How have others done this before me?”

A Congregation Is a Voting Body. I share this because it never occurred to me anyone would think otherwise until a few years ago, when I heard someone say that they didn’t have the church vote on things because there was no instance of it in Scripture. But there is.

You Probably Won’t Get a Book Deal. But We Still Need You to Write, HT to Challies. “It’s difficult to be published. Unless you have a large following, or catch a break, you may face an uphill battle in getting your book published. And yet, I would argue, it’s still important for you to write for at least a couple of reasons.”

The Three Lost Pieces of a Good Romance, HT to Challies. “Today, I’ll be discussing the three essential elements of a good romance novel that have gradually been vanishing from mainstream romance tales, and why these three elements are necessary for a good story.”

“But tho’ there is much to be puzzled about, there is nothing to be worried about.”
–C. S. Lewis

He Knows My Name

Posted on February 16, 2025 by Barbara Harper

I was named for two aunts. My mother’s sister was Barbara Ann, and my father’s youngest sister was Lora Lee. So I became Barbara Lee. I supposed I could have ended up with Lora Ann, or a name from another aunt, Faye Elisabeth, whose name was the same as my grandmother’s.

From time to time as I grew up, interest arose in name meanings. My friends were always tickled to discover that my first name, Barbara, means “stranger.” I’d hear good-natured comments the speakers thought were witty, like, “Yeah, you’re the strangest friend I have.”

When I was taking a class in some New Testament epistles in college, the teacher said something like, “I don’t know if we have any Barbaras in here . . . ” (at which point everyone who knew me looked at me), “but the name Barbara comes from the word barbarian.” He said “barbarian” arose from how Greeks described foreigners, whose language sounded like “bar bar” to them.

I loved my aunts and didn’t mind my name. I don’t think my parents had name meanings in mind when they named me. But after I became a Christian I was encouraged to discover the concept of being a stranger in the Bible.

In Ephesians 2, Paul writes that we were “strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace . . .” Through the cross, He reconciled us to Himself, so when we believe on Jesus Christ, we “are no longer strangers and aliens.” The Getty’s hymn, “Jesus, Joy of the Highest Heaven,” puts it this way:

Jesus, laid in a lowly manger,
Facing a world of dangers,
Come to turn me a stranger
Into a child of God.

Isaac Watts’ hymn, “My Shepherd Will Supply My Need,” captures this beautifully in the last stanza.

The sure provisions of my God
Attend me all my days;
O may Thy house be mine abode,
And all my work be praise!
There would I find a settled rest,
While others go and come;
No more a stranger, nor a guest,
But like a child at home.

When we were at home in a world that doesn’t know God, we were strangers to Him. But once we became His children, then we also became strangers to the world. Hebrews 11 says the people listed there “all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth” (verse 13). This world is not the ultimate home of believers. We seek to do good and enjoy God’s gifts and shine as lights for Him here, but ultimately, we “desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one” (verse 16). C. S. Lewis put it this way in The Problem of Pain: “Our Father refreshes us on the journey with some pleasant inns, but will not encourage us to mistake them for home.”

As strangers here, 1 Peter 2:11 urges us “to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.” This urging follows the verses that say believers are “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” Because we have become God’s people through faith, we live and act differently from what we used to.

Deuteronomy 10:18-19 really elevated my name in my eyes: “He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner [stranger], giving him food and clothing. Love the sojourner [stranger], therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.”

In Bible times, name meanings were special. People were given names according to character traits they either had, or that parents hoped they would have.

God often changed a person’s name in the Bible after a significant encounter with God. Thus Abram (“exalted father”) became Abraham (“father of many nations”). Jacob (“planter or deceiver”) became Israel (“prince with God”). Simon (“hearing”) became Peter (“rock”).

Revelation 2:17 contains an interesting situation: “To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.”

This is the only place where such a white stone is mentioned in the Bible. Some sources say ancient jurors cast white stones for a “not guilty” verdict or a black stone for “guilty.”

Some say the stone hearkens back to the breastplate the high priest wore which contains twelve jewels with the twelve tribes of Israel inscribed upon them. The high priest brought the names of the tribes before God as he ministered. So Jesus bears our names before the Father.

GotQuestions.org poses this as the best theory:

The best theory regarding the meaning of the white stone probably has to do with the ancient Roman custom of awarding white stones to the victors of athletic games. The winner of a contest was awarded a white stone with his name inscribed on it. This served as his “ticket” to a special awards banquet. According to this view, Jesus promises the overcomers entrance to the eternal victory celebration in heaven. The “new name” most likely refers to the Holy Spirit’s work of conforming believers to the holiness of Christ.

Jesus said of a good shepherd “The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out’ (John 10:3). Then He said, “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me” (verse 14).

Imagine–the God of the universe, who made and knows millions (billions? trillions?) of people, knows our name. Those who know Him will receive a new name in heaven known only between Him and them.

I don’t know what my new name will be. But I am immeasurably thankful to be known and loved by God.

He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out (John 10:3).

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

Lesser Lights

Posted on January 19, 2025 by Barbara Harper

Before the invention of electricity, it was rare to see a whole city lit up. One could see candlelight or lanterns in windows. Gaslights helped illuminate sidewalks. But if the whole city seemed alight, that meant something unusual was going on.

These days, though, cities seem to dwell in perpetual light.

G. K. Chesterton commented on this in The Illustrated London News in 1927:

In every civilised age and country, it has been a natural thing to talk of some great festival on which “the town was illuminated.” There is no meaning nowadays in saying that the town was illuminated. There is no point or purpose in having it illuminated for any normal and noble enthusiasm, such as the winning of a victory or the granting of a charter. The whole town is illuminated already, but not for noble things. It is illuminated solely to insist on the immense importance of trivial and material things, blazoned from motives entirely mercenary. . . .

It is no good to send up a golden and purple rocket for the glory of the King and Country, or to light a red and raging bonfire on the day of St. George, when everybody is used to seeing the same fiery alphabet proclaiming the importance of Tibble’s Tooth Paste or Giggle’s Chewing Gum. The new illumination has not, indeed, made Tibble and Giggle so important as St. George and King George; because nothing could. But it has made people weary of the way of proclaiming great things, by perpetually using it to proclaim small things. It has not destroyed the difference between light and darkness, but it has allowed the lesser light to put out the greater (quoted in Winter Fire: Christmas with G. K. Chesterton by Ryan Whitaker Smith, pp. 107-108).

Light is one of my favorite symbols of Christmas and one of the things I miss most when we take decorations down.

But light is not just a symbol of Christmas. It’s a symbol of God, a thread running through the whole Bible.

From the Old Testament: “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” (Psalm 27:1).

To the New: “Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life'” (John 8:12).

From prediction: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.” (Isaiah 9:2).

To fulfillment: “And leaving Nazareth he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: ‘The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned'” (Matthew 4:13-16).

From the Father: “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5b).

To the Son: “In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. . . . The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.” (John 1:4-5, 9).

My husband loves astronomy and will take his telescope out when some phenomenon is happening in the sky. He often says that to really see the stars best, one needs to get away from the lights of cities, towns, or neighborhoods.

It’s not that lesser lights put out the light of the stars, but they obscure and distract from them.

The lesser lights in our lives do the same. They may be harmless in themselves, but their number and seeming urgency take our attention. They can’t put out the Light. But they make it harder to see Him.

Some day, there will be no lesser lights: “And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever” (Revelation 22:5).

Until then, may our hearts cry out with the psalmist, “There are many who say, ‘Who will show us some good? Lift up the light of your face upon us, O Lord!’” (Psalm 4:6).

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

We Can Trust God On Our Journey

Posted on December 29, 2024 by Barbara Harper

Imagine a child or two or three in the back seat during a family trip:

Mom, did you pack my toothbrush?

Dad, are you sure you know the way?

Will we be able to find somewhere to eat at dinner time?

Will Grandma have room for us?

Weren’t we supposed to turn there?

What if the road is out?

Or a tornado comes?

Or a robber comes to our house while we’re away?

Is the GPS working right?

After a while, a weary parent would be tempted to respond, “Just trust me. I’ve traveled before. I know what to do. Even if we have problems along the way, we’ll take care of them. Just relax and enjoy the trip.”

Yet, earthly parents can fail. I did, in fact, forget one child’s underwear one trip, necessitating a stop at Wal-Mart when we arrived at our destination. Once, my husband took us to the airport the wrong day. Drivers can take wrong turns and get lost.

Sometimes we seem like anxious children with God, our perfect Parent. We wonder if He’s really guiding us the right way, if He can truly meet our needs. We wouldn’t put it quite this way, but we act as if we don’t trust that He knows what He’s doing.

God not only knows the way, He is the way.

“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me‘” (John 14:6).

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths” (Proverbs 3:5-6).

He will take care of all our needs.

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you (Matthew 6:33).

And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19).

He promises to be with us and help us every step of the way, “From life’s first cry to final breath.”*

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 (Isaiah 41:10).

Even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save (Isaiah 46:4).

Whatever need we have, God is more than able to meet. We may not like some sections of the path of life. There will be bumps in the road, dark valleys, and occasional detours from the way we thought we should go. But He has good purposes in all He brings us through.

As we face a new year, He bids us cast every anxious care on Him, because He cares for us.

Casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. 1 Peter 5:7

*From “In Christ Alone” by Stuart Townend and Keith Getty.

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

A Christmas Boomerang

Posted on December 22, 2024 by Barbara Harper

Boomerangs, according to G. K. Chesterton, are “things that return.” He names sleep and a new day as boomerang blessings–something we experience which comes back to us to experience again. No matter how many times we go to sleep and wake up again, we continue to enjoy those recurring cycles.

In Winter Fire: Christmas with G. K. Chesterton, Ryan Whitaker Smith comments that feasts in the Jewish calendar were like boomerangs, recurring reminders of God’s grace in delivering and providing for His people. He quotes Chesterton again:

It is the very essence of a festival that it breaks upon one brilliantly and abruptly, that at one moment the great day is not and the next moment the great day is . . . The thing is done at a particular time so that people may be conscious of a particular truth; as is the case with all ceremonial observances, such as the Silence of Armistice Day or the signal of a salute with the guns or the sudden noise of bells for the New Year. They are all meant to fix the mind upon the fact of the feast or memorial, and suggest that a passing moment has a meaning when it would otherwise be meaningless (pp. 68-69).

Whitaker goes on to say, “As the Israelites’ festivals were a perpetual retelling of the same story, so are our Christian traditions a form of continually re-grounding ourselves in the narrative of redemption. The consistent ‘return of old things in new times,’ Chesterton tells us, . . . . the regularity of our holiday rituals is a way of maintaining godly sanity in an unstable and unpredictable world” (p. 56).

Our modern church and personal calendars may not follow the feasts given Israel in the Old Testament. But regular observances with their symbols and rituals remind us of great truths.

Christmas reminds us:

We need a Savior. “She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” Matthew 1:21).

God loves us enough to rescue us at great cost to Himself. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16).

God’s timing is perfect. “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons” (Galatians 4:4-5).

And so much more.

May the “boomerang blessing” of Christmas never be stale or empty, but rather a regular reminder that God loved us enough to send His Son to be our Savior, to die for our sins so we could become His.

"She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." Matthew 1:21

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

Laudable Linkage

Posted on November 23, 2024 by Barbara Harper

I came across quite a few good reads this week:

What Would Happen if You Became a Christian? A Thought Experiment, HT to Challies. “Let me invite you into a thought experiment. What if you became a Christian? What would change? I’m talking about an actual disciple of Jesus, not a Christian in name only. What would be different if you became a Christian?”

He No Longer Sleeps. “Do you remember that Jesus is in your boat? He’s with you. He sees you. And He’s not asleep or unaware or busy with someone else.” (This post has Mendelssohn’s “He, Watching Over Israel” from Elijah in my thoughts this week.)

When You Long for Justice, HT to Challies. Mixed emotions after a sexual assault.

When Offenses Come: How to Forgive and Move On, HT to Challies. “The air of our Father’s home is grace — grace from basement to attic and floor to ceiling, grace in every room. He crowns us with grace, clothes us with grace, sings over us with grace (Romans 5:2). Far be it from us, then, as the children of this God, to replace his grace with malice, gossip, passive-aggressive paybacks, or bitter distancing from a brother or sister whom God has forgiven.”

Do Children Need to Consent to Puberty? HT to Challies. I am continually amazed at the world’s warped thought processes. This article explains why the answer to the title question is “No.”

On Winning the War: The World. This is the second in a series of fighting against a Christian’s enemies: the world, the flesh, and the devil.

On the Other Side of the Wall. A lovely tribute and a great way to think about loved ones who have passed on.

The Messages We Receive, HT to Challies. “Messages about who we are—our identity—are powerful. They can shape how we see ourselves, how we see the world, and how we see God. It is a matter that regularly comes up in counseling conversations. When people have hard experiences in their lives or have been mistreated by others, it always proves valuable to explore what messages those experiences have communicated about who they are.” I especially like her examples of reframing messages with God’s truth about us.

What Is My Spiritual Gift? Maybe You’re Asking the Wrong Question, HT to Challies. “In view of the ink spilt and bytes downloaded on the matter of discovering one’s spiritual gift, you might be surprised to learn that such introspection is completely absent in all these passages. Either Paul and Peter failed to answer such a vital question . . . or we are asking the wrong question. I think the latter is the case.”

The Plimsoll Line, HT to Challies. “’The Plimsoll line is a reference mark located on a ship’s hull that indicates the maximum depth to which the vessel may be safely immersed when loaded with cargo.’ . . . . Years ago I decided to include the Plimsoll line in my marriage.” In this case, the Plimsoll line has to do with one being an extrovert and one being an introvert.

10 Correctable Mistakes We Make When Preaching and Teaching, HT to Challies. Some of these would apply to writing as well.

67 Screen-Free Activities for Kids, HT to Redeeming Productivity.

“Better to be disappointed a thousand times—yes, and be deceived—than once miss a chance to help a soul. The love of God suffices for any disappointment, for any defeat. And in that love is the energy of faith and the very sap of hope.” Amy Carmichael

Enjoy the 80 Percent

Posted on November 17, 2024 by Barbara Harper

Many of you know that writer Elisabeth Elliot has been my “mentor from afar” for over forty years.

One of my favorites quotes comes from her book Love Has a Price Tag:

My second husband once said that a wife, if she is very generous, may allow that her husband lives up to eighty percent of her expectations. There is always the other twenty percent that she would like to change, and she may chip away at it for the whole of their married life without reducing it very much. She may, on the other hand, simply decide to enjoy the eighty percent, and both of them will be happy

That’s so true, isn’t it? We tend to fixate on the small things that bug us rather than the great majority of things we love.

I was thinking recently that this principle applies to more than marriage.

Take friendship, for instance. My best friend in high school had a lot of good qualities, but she was slow-moving, especially when we were to go somewhere together. Any attempts to hurry her led to even more slowness. Constant harping on this one issue would only have driven a wedge between us.

Or neighbors. A good neighbor is a treasure. A bad neighbor is a pain. We don’t want to offend the person who is going to live right next door to us for years, maybe decades. So we pick our battles. We can live with some irritants to keep peace.

We might love our work, but it’s not all sunshine. Even with the best job, there are always a couple of unpleasant aspects.

And what about churches? None is perfect. You’ve probably heard the old cliche: “If you find a perfect church, don’t join it, because then it won’t be perfect any more.” No one church will be and do everything we might like.

When I hear of people leaving church because of some disappointment, I often think of the Corinthians, the epitome of dysfunctional churches. If we had visited such a church in our searches, we would not have gone to this one twice.

Yet every time I read 1 and 2 Corinthians, I am amazed at how patient the apostle Paul is in dealing with them. They had much more than 20 percent that needed to be dealt with, but he never gave up on them.

Enjoying the 80 percent of any relationship doesn’t mean we can never address the aspects we don’t enjoy. But sometimes, as the KJV puts it, we need to forbear with one another. Other translations say bear with, make allowance for, tolerate, or even put up with each other.

And the Bible goes beyond just bearing with each other. Ephesians 4:1-3 says: “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”

Humility, gentleness, patience, love, unity, and peace: these are all more important than whatever irritates us about each other.

A couple of other thoughts that help me with this: there’s probably more than 20 percent about me that others have to “put up with,” yet they graciously do. My husband and friends don’t constantly find fault and criticize or insist I do things their way. I can extend that grace to them.

Also, even though God is in the business of correcting and sanctifying us, He does it with patience and grace. He doesn’t pile up everything we need to deal with all at once. We’d be crushed under the load.

One caveat to this 80 percent principle: it depends on what’s in the 20 percent. If a wife likes everything about her husband except the fact that he beats her, that behavior is not something that should be overlooked or ignored. If one friend learned that the other was embezzling his company, or cheating on his wife, he would be wise to step in. If we love the music, fellowship, people, and preaching of a church, yet the leadership denies that Jesus is God, or tells us we get to heaven by doing good works, then we need to find another church.

But in most cases, the 20 percent we don’t like is comprised of smaller issues. Can we not overlook them, for God’s glory and for the love and fellowship of His people?

Ephesians 4:2-3: bear with one another in love

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

Laudable Linkage

Posted on November 16, 2024 by Barbara Harper

I hope you’ll find something of interest in this collection of good reads.

Love the Church Like Jesus, HT to Challies. “Imagine you see a bride early on the morning of her wedding day — and she is a mess.” But she’ll look very different at the wedding, and it would be wrong and foolish to tell others how awful she looked that morning. The author provides an interesting comparison to the imperfections of the church and what it will be someday, and how we look at it as Jesus does.

Why Am I So Spiritually Dry? HT to Challies. “As I crunched my way through my neighborhood and watched the clouds for rain, I realized that dry seasons can be for our good. Sometimes spiritual dry spells come with a diagnosis and sometimes they don’t, but the only way through them is through them.”

Do You Feel Overwhelmed When You Pray? 3 Reasons not to Lose Heart. “Take heart, weary prayer warrior. When our feelings overwhelm us and the trials of life threaten to drown us, we can look to the unchanging truths of the Bible for strength and hope.”

Responding When Those We Respect Disappoint Us, HT to Challies. “While we understand intellectually that every person we meet is fallen and desperately needs God’s grace, that knowledge gets tested when someone we deeply respect disappoints us.”

The Spiritual Gift Inventory I Believe In. “In many churches, it is standard practice to have Christians take some kind of a spiritual gift inventory. Through a series of questions that probe an individual’s interests, passions, and successes, these tests claim to help people discover the ways the Holy Spirit has gifted them to better love and serve his people. Much has been written about such inventories and many people have expressed a degree of skepticism about their usefulness or accuracy.”

Marriage Happy, Marriage Holy. I really don’t like the saying that marriage is to make us holy, not happy. Scripture depicts marriage as happy. Yet when two sinners live together, they are bound to have differences and irritations. Tim Challies shares some of the surprising ways marriage can help sanctify us.

God’s Good Gift of Hobbies, HT to Redeeming Productivity. Steve Lindsey discusses many valuable benefits of hobbies. .

Why I’m Grateful to Live in 2024. Though there’s a lot wrong in the world, we’re also immeasurably blessed.

The Criticized Leader, HT to Challies. Good advice even for followers.

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago Ciara Dierking, who lost all four limbs after a near-fatal illness. Revive Our Hearts has two episodes of a podcast with her. You can listen to or read the transcript of Part 1: What Did I Do to Deserve This? here, and Part 2: More Grateful Than Before, here.

He makes us wait. He keeps us on purpose in the dark. He makes us walk when we want to run, sit still when we want to walk, for He has things to do in our souls that we are not interested in. –Elisabeth Elliot, Secure in the Everlasting Arms