Laudable Linkage

Posted on June 8, 2024 by Barbara Harper

I have a short but good list of links to share from this week’s reading.

Between Faith and Doubt: Five Questions for Our Skepticism, HT to Challies. “I sympathize with doubters who may feel drawn to Christianity but find plenty of objections to keep them at arm’s distance. If you’re drawn to the message of Jesus but can’t seem to get past your doubts, perhaps it would be helpful if I share how I worked through some of my doubts.”

The Sanction of Sin, HT to Challies. “Does a wolf in sheep’s clothing know what he’s doing? Of course. That’s what makes it so terrifying when you catch the glint of teeth inside the fleecy face. He came to eat sheep. But he knows if he comes leaping and snarling, his targets will scatter. He has to look nonthreatening. He has to look like one of them. He has to earn their trust.”

Lessons From a Job Season, HT to Challies. “In my own recent Job season, I yearned for answers that did not always come and prayed for relief that often seemed long delayed. But there were also plenty of ways in which I saw God’s hand clearly at work, and I want to share just a few of them.”

Is the Trend Reversing? “Where I live, in Scotland, for at least the last 75 years, Christianity has been in decline. (I wrote more about it here.) . . . It’s hard to imagine and sad to see how far we have come. However, over the last six months or so, I’ve had a growing sense that maybe things are changing, maybe the trend is starting to reverse. I’ve seen too many things and heard too many stories recently to reach any conclusion other than: God is doing something in Scotland!”

While it looks like things are out of control,
behind the scenes there is a God who has not surrendered authority.
A. W. Tozer

Laudable Linkage

Posted on June 1, 2024 by Barbara Harper

Here is some of the good reading that caught my eye this week:

You’re Gonna Lose Everything, HT to Challies. “Pursue life apart from Christ and you will lose your life. But if you lay it all down, you will find life indeed. And this is the turning point for us. As we call others to follow Christ at the expense of everything else, we are calling them not to poverty, but to unsearchable riches: Yes, you’re gonna lose it all, but you have everything to gain.”

The Actual Divisive Ones, HT to Challies. “The divisive ones are those who reject what God has revealed in Scripture and through the preaching of the apostles. Being able to properly label the divisive ones is important.”

What to Do With the Nice Things People Say, HT to Challies. “Because just as we have blindspots that keep us from recognizing our weaknesses, some of us have trouble seeing the good God has entrusted to us and the good he is doing in us. Thus, humility here might look less like deflecting encouragement and more like saying, ‘Perhaps what I am seeing when I look at myself is not the most accurate picture.’ Growth then might begin with learning to believe trustworthy people when they tell us things about ourselves that we wish were true, but we’re not sure are.”

Be Quick to Listen, Slow to “Therapy Speak,” HT to Linda. “But all of us, and Christians in particular, should be careful about overrelying on therapy speak to describe our relationships with others. This language has consequences—not only for understanding our own lives rightly but for living together as the body of Christ. How we speak shapes what we do, and therapy speak might be limiting our ability to love our neighbors well.”

3 Things to Consider Before You Pick Another Fight. “A quarrelsome spirit never stays slow and steady. Unchecked, it becomes a torrential downpour of misery, soaking a home in resentment, pettiness, and frigid silence.”

Parents, Are You Raising Angry Partisans? HT to Challies. “Christian parents are called to raise our children ‘in the discipline and instruction of the Lord’ (Ephesians 6:4). Our children, in other words, should be able to look to us to see what a life submitted to Christ looks like. We should live in a manner that makes the gospel more intelligible to our children. I wonder, however, if our angry partisanship models the way of the flesh more than the way of Christ.”

What Does “Train Up” Mean in Proverbs 22:6? “Probably the most quoted verse in Proverbs is 22:6. Over the years, the verse has held as a precious promise to parents that if they do everything right, their kids will turn out right. It has also been used as a guilty club to beat up parents who are feeling defeated over the choices of a rebellious child. Both responses are a misinterpretation and a misapplication of the text.”

King Crimson—my thoughts on that portrait, HT to Challies. A thoughtful analysis of King Charles’ portrait in red, by someone who has actually seen it in person.

How the Legal System Enabled—and Will Curtail—the Transgender Movement, HT to Challies. This is both scary and hopeful.

There are rare Christians whose very presence incites others to be better Christians.
–A. W. Tozer

Laudable Linkage

Posted on May 25, 2024 by Barbara Harper

There was quite a bit of good reading posted this week:

The Power of Prayer, HT to Challies. “Sometimes, to protect a passage of scripture from the abuses it receives from those who twist it, we add so many qualifications that we eliminate not only the false teaching but also the profound truth it communicates. We find one such passage in the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus says, ‘Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you (Matt. 7:7).'”

The Missing Years, HT to Challies. “We were preparing for our daughter’s wedding when she called me one day in a slight panic, ‘Mom, I have no pictures of myself from 2009-2011! What happened?’ ‘What happened’ was, I was in the “desert years’- both literally and spiritually.” This is a lovely piece of writing as well as a comforting truth that God can redeem our “desert years.”

Too Much Times, HT to Challies. “Everyone experiences what I call Too Much Times,’ perfect storms where our most demanding challenges meet our most significant weaknesses and can lead to our lowest moments. Too Much Times are days, weeks, or whole years marked by too many demands, responsibilities, and burdens and not enough internal and external resources to keep all the balls in the air.”

On a Christian Approach to Education. “A materialistic worldview reduces education according to its usefulness in the here and now. But as Christians, we walk by faith and not by sight. We believe in the ‘deeper magic,’ the unseen things that are often more true than the seen things.”

Counseling Children Who Have Already Professed Faith in Christ. “I asked my children if they had any prayer requests. One of them responded, ‘Daddy, pray for me, that I would believe in Jesus and be a Christian.’ This wasn’t the first time that my son has mentioned this request. Like many children who’ve grown up in a Christian home, my son professed faith in Christ at an early age. But, like so many other young people who profess faith early, he struggles with doubts.”

Raising a Leader: 3 Leadership Qualities Your Kids Need. “Regardless of our personal style or our leadership resume, as mothers, we sit in the seat of influence with our kids. How we respond to their initiative, their creativity, and their all-pervasive energy in our home goes a long way in defining our children’s confidence.”

You Are an Influencer, HT to Challies. I appreciated this thoughtful, reasonable take on influencing, curating, and social media.

Don’t Complain; Be the Light. “Instead of moaning about the darkness, look to the light. The solution to a dark, crooked, perverse generation is not to complain and argue with them, but to keep being the light. To keep on being pure and blameless and harmless. To keep living in your identity as a child of God.”

Going to the Party. “Christians faced with terminal illness or imminent death often feel they’re leaving the party before it’s over. They have to go home early. They’re disappointed, thinking of all they’ll miss when they leave. But the truth is, the real party is underway at home—precisely where they’re going. They’re not the ones missing the party; those of us left behind are. (Fortunately, if we know Jesus, we’ll get there eventually.)”

Monday, the US celebrates Memorial Day to honor those who have died in the service of their country. On Sunday evenings before Memorial Day, I enjoy watching the National Memorial Day Concert to be reminded of what this day means.

Our debt to the heroic men and valiant women in the service of our country
can never be repaid. They have earned our undying gratitude.
– President Harry S. Truman

We take this day to mourn for those
Who suffered fates of ills and woes,
For those who fought until the death,
Who gave this nation their last breath.
To these passed on—we now salute.
Their legend we will ne’er dispute,
And as they sleep let us bestow
The highest honor that we know.

Author Unknown

Laudable Linkage

Posted on May 18, 2024 by Barbara Harper

I have just a few good reads to share this week:

God is SO Good! “It is a vice—not a virtue—to add to Scripture’s rules our own ascetic prohibitions: “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch,” and “Do not marry” (Colossians 2:21; 1 Timothy 4:3). Such rules may appear to be ‘super holy,’ but they are an offense to God, substituting legalism for the simplicity of the gospel. They deny the very pleasures God created us to enjoy.”

We Are Standing on Holy Ground. “It’s so sweet to walk into a church and know that God’s people are gathered for worship. Of course He is near. A holy moment. But isn’t it a holy moment, too, when you are sitting in a doctor’s office, holding hands with your faithful wife, enduring the bad news with faith? As believers we tread on holy ground in every school building, nursing home, leafy forest floor, and in every possible scenario we could dream up. Isn’t it just so thrilling to know that when we praise Him He is near, and when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, there too, there especially, He is wrapping us up in His presence. Carrying us. Seeing us through. Never leaving, never forsaking.”

Who Can Understand Sin? Deep Mercy for our Dark Insanity, HT to Challies. “As Christians, we have all looked at ourselves and felt sorrow over sin. But have we ever deeply considered why we do it in the first place? Why do we sin?”

God Will Give Us More Than We Can Handle—But Not More Than He Can, , HT to Challies. “The sufferer may object, head shaking and hands up. But you insist, ‘Look, seriously, the Bible promises God won’t ever give you more in life than you can handle.’ There it is—conventional wisdom masquerading as biblical truth. You’ve promised what the Bible never does.”

Our Skewed View of Wealth, HT to Challies. “These case studies show how money is a litmus test of our true character and our spiritual life. If this is true of all people in all ages, doesn’t it have a special application to us who live in a time and nation of unparalleled affluence where the ‘poverty level’ exceeds the average standard of living of nearly every other society in human history, past or present?” This was especially poignant to me since I just read a novel discussing wealth, All My Secrets by Lynn Austin.

Bad Therapy, HT to Challies. “To become a lover of pleasure is to prioritise ‘feel good’ throughout life. We want to feel good, and we want others to feel good too. This is the ethic. We abandon a moral view of reality in which there is a good and right way, outside ourselves, to which we should train ourselves and our children to live up to. All that matters is feeling okay. This is therapy culture.” This has devastating effects on child discipline, as the author shows.

When You’re at Your Wit’s End. “When he was at his wits’ end, he was not at his faith’s end.”

The end result of all Bible study is worship--Warren Wiersbe

“The end result of all Bible study is worship,
and the end result of all worship is service to the God we love.”
–Warren Wiersbe, With the Word

Frustrated with God?

Posted on April 28, 2024 by Barbara Harper

“Do you get huffy with God?”

I had just turned on the radio as I came into the kitchen and heard these words via Elisabeth Elliot’s radio program.

I shifted uncomfortably.

In my more logical moments, I’d say, well, not with Him. With frustrating circumstances, maybe. Yes, that’s it: it’s more like frustration when something happens that He could have prevented.

But in all honesty, I’d have to confess that, in trying moments, sometimes that initial flare-up is directed toward God, followed by much self-chastisement and thought correction.

You know the kind of moments I’m talking about . . .

When you’re running late getting ready for church and drip toothpaste down your front.

When you’re stirring red sauce (why is it always the red sauce?) and some sloshes over onto the stove, floor, and you.

When the computer glitches just before you finish your last task of the day.

When timing matters and you hit every red light on the way to your destination.

When the shortest check-out line contains a customer with a time-consuming problem.

When a much-planned and -prayed for event at church has to be canceled due to bad weather.

When you can’t fall asleep on a Saturday night and you struggle to stay awake in Sunday services.

What’s frustrating about so many of these things is that God could have prevented them. He created the universe and holds it together. He led Israel through the Red Sea on dry ground. Couldn’t He have kept the rain at bay until after the special event? Couldn’t He help us sleep just as well on Saturday nights as any other?

Of course He could. But He doesn’t always.

Some of these situations are our own fault. Toothpaste dribbles and sloshed sauce could be avoided if I were more careful. Red lights wouldn’t make me late if I allowed extra time for travel.

Some irritations come from living in a fallen world. God “makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45). We all get some of God’s blessings, like air to breathe, sunshine, and needed rain. But we all also have to deal with the thorns of life that begin with the fall of mankind.

We also have an enemy of God and of our souls who tries to disrupt God’s work and disturb our peace. God could thwart or restrain the devil at any given moment, but sometimes He doesn’t.

Even though God could, and often does, intervene in these situations, many times He doesn’t. He has a higher purpose in mind.

I found Elisabeth’s radio program on BBN’s site and tried to transcribe a few paragraphs (1).

Do you get huffy with God? Do you just get mad at the world in general? You think maybe God doesn’t have anything to do with this, but you just get peeved, put out.

I think of the words of the Orthodox morning prayer: “In unforeseen events let me not forget that all are sent by you.”

Would God send such a picky little thing as no first class seats, no air conditioning, no choice of meal [situations she had mentioned earlier in the program]?

You really want to know what I think? I think He does. I know He does send such things to me because God is working on shaping in me the image of Christ.

Now, how am I going to learn acceptance, humility, and contentment if my acceptance, humility, and contentment depend on the way I think things are supposed to be going?

She goes on to define contentment as “positive acceptance of conditions we can’t change.”

She quotes Ephesians 3:20, which says God “is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us.” Some translations say “more than we can imagine.” Our imagination likes to focus on deliverance and everything going just like we want. But God’s version of doing something above our imagination might be not changing the situation, but using it to develop in us patience and Christlikeness.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance” (Galatians 5:22-23).

Even in a slow check-out lane or on the highway when someone cuts us off.

It seems easier to trust God with the big trials of life—maybe because they are larger than us or our capacity to handle them. We can’t do anything but entrust Him with them.

But we feel like we should be able to handle the little things. I like what Amy Carmichael once wrote:

The hardest thing is to keep cheerful (and loving) under little things that come from uncongenial surroundings, the very insignificance of which adds to their power to annoy, because they must be wrestled with, and overcome, as in the case of larger hurts. Some disagreeable habit in one to whom we may owe respect and duty, and which is a constant irritation of our sense of the fitness of things, may demand of us a greater moral force to keep the spirit serene than an absolute wrong committed against us (2).

Those little irritations reveal our flesh to us: our sense of entitlement, our selfishness, our impatience. They show us that we need God’s grace and help for everyday frustrations as we do for everything else.

Thank God there is forgiveness with Him, His mercies are new every morning. If we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).

God invites us to “with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16).

Maintaining time in the Word so He can speak to me through it, yielding to His control throughout the day, memorizing verses in the areas I am having trouble with, sending out a quick prayer for help when I feel that agitation and frustration building up will all help in gaining the victory.

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Hebrews 4:16).

__________
(1) BBN Radio keeps the recordings for Elisabeth’s programs up on their website for the week they aired. Some of them are also on the Elisabeth Elliot site, but I couldn’t find this one. BBN lists this program title as “More Questions and Answers (A Simpler Life- Power of Christ #10.” It aired April 11.

(2) Houghton, Frank. Amy Carmichael of Dohnavur. (Fort Washington, PA: Christian Literature Crusade, 1983), 86-87.

(Parts of this post have been revised from the archives.)

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

Laudable Linkage

Posted on April 27, 2024 by Barbara Harper

Here are a few of the good reads seen online this week:

Borrowing a Death, HT to Challies. “When was the last time you were at a funeral when someone didn’t take the opportunity to talk about their own life when eulogizing the person who has died? We all do it. It’s nearly impossible not to.”

What Is the Ache You Can’t Get Rid Of? HT to Lois. I was very moved by this piece. “What is the ache you can’t get rid of? Whatever it is, listen to it. It might be divinely inspired. A magical calling. Make it your creative offering, and you just might change the world.”

Spiritual Mothers Point Us to Christ, HT to Challies. “The average married couple realizes at some point in their marriage that their spouse will not meet all their needs. As a single woman, I have learned in a different school. God has used Spiritual Mothers to teach me this lesson. Spiritual Mothers are a gracious provision in our lives given by God to both meet needs and to point us to Christ.”

Loosening My Grip. “Maybe you have experienced the same inner war, yearning to risk it all to serve the Savior you are learning to love more and more, but still clinging to the safe and certain.”

For Everything There Is a Seasoning, HT to Challies. A poignant reflection on the loss of a parent.

The taking up of the cross is not going to be something heroic or dramatic or enviable.
It’s going to be a daily practice of acceptance of small duties which you don’t really like.
— Elisabeth Elliot

Laudable Linkage

Posted on April 20, 2024 by Barbara Harper

Here’s my latest roundup of good reads found online:

Courage for Those with Unfatherly Fathers. HT to Challies. “This is our Heavenly Father. Though our earthly dads were meant to reflect him, he in no way mirrors them. Take courage, and run with abandon to the open arms of your Father.”

Should Ethnicity and Race Never Cross Our Minds When We Meet Another Believer? “The notion of being ‘colorblind’ doesn’t lend itself to oneness but to blindness. It suggests that if we recognize or admit differences, we would be forced to say some are better than others. No, we should recognize the differences and celebrate that God’s image-bearers come in all shapes and sizes and colors, and we are the beneficiaries of His providence in creating us this way.”

4 Reasons You Shouldn’t Be Colorblind. This was referenced in the above post but was so good I wanted to list it separately. “I’d like to suggest that we aren’t colorblind, we don’t need to be colorblind, and we actually should strive to not be colorblind. Colorblindness leads us in the wrong direction. Instead, I want to encourage us to be colorsmart.Here are four reasons why.”

Theology and the Eclipse. “An eclipse is more than a cool phenomenon of nature. It is an extra gift that God built into the structure of the universe to arrest the attention of humans amid their busy little ant-like activities long enough to listen to creation’s silent, speechless declaration of the Creator’s glory (Ps 19:3).”

What to Expect When a Loved One Enters Hospice. “With a million and a half people in the U.S. receiving hospice care annually, many families will walk this troubling road, suffering doubts and heartache along the way. How do we shepherd caregivers and families as they aim to love the dying? How do we walk with them through the valley of the shadow of death, reminding them all the while of the Good Shepherd whose love covers them when the light dwindles (Ps. 23:4)?”

Lessons Learned from a Wolf Attack, HT to Challies. “Some of the most painful lessons of ministry are learned when a wolf in sheep’s clothing infiltrates your church. We had a wolf once, a local man I’ll call Ahab*, and it has taken me years to know how to write about it. The things we learned from exposing him, trying to counter him, and then responding to the carnage he caused have been forever branded on my soul.”

It’s Okay to Be a Two-Talent Christian. “There is no shame in being a one-talent servant when God gave you one-talent ability. There is no need to compare yourself unfavorably to those who have achieved more success on the basis of their greater gifts. And that’s because God’s assessment of you is made on the basis of what you did with what he gave you.”

Hospitality Is not a Personality Trait. “If you limit your idea of hospitality to what can be flawlessly presented in social media squares, you’ll miss her: the woman who is more comfortable working a spreadsheet than a room full of people . . . the woman who is analytical and introverted and a hospitable force for the kingdom of God. “

“Quite . . . Able to Communicate,” HT to Challies. A sweet story from Brother Andrew’s book, God’s Smuggler, about a time when he and his contacts didn’t speak the same language.

No amount of activity in the Father’s service
will make up for the neglect of the Father Himself.
– Robert Murray McCheyne

Don’t Just “Don’t”

Posted on April 14, 2024 by Barbara Harper

What happens if someone tells you not to think of the number “eight?”

It’s likely that “eight” will be all you can think about. The more you try not to think about it, the more it fills your mind.

But if we think of other numbers, work equations, read or concentrate on something else, then it’s easier not to think about “eight.”

Erwin Lutzer shared that helpful illustration in How to Say No to a Stubborn Habit.

When we try to avoid doing the wrong thing, too often we concentrate on that thing even in an effort to keep from it.

Every dieter knows that if your mind is filled with trying to avoid a certain temptation (chocolate for me), sooner or later you’re going to find an excuse to partake of it.

We once knew a preacher whose main sermon topic was battling sexual sin. What happened to him? He fell into sexual sin.

The Bible does tell us what things are wrong, what things we should stop doing. We shouldn’t minimize or overlook the “don’ts” in the name of love and positivity or an effort to be inoffensive.

But the Bible doesn’t stop with telling us what to avoid.

It also tells us what to pursue.

For instance, Ephesians 4:28 says, “Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.” It’s good and necessary to stop stealing, but the converted thief shouldn’t stop there. He needs to work not only to provide his own needs, but to give to others.

Likewise, 2 Timothy 2:22 instructs us to “flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.” Telling yourself over and over “Don’t think about lust” is probably not going to work. We not only flee youthful passions, but we pursue “righteousness, faith, love, and peace.” And we don’t do this alone, but “with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.”

The next couple of verses in 2 Timothy tell us to avoid “foolish, ignorant controversies” which lead to quarrels. Instead, “the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness.”

Colossians 3:5-9 tells us to “Put to death ” or “put away” “sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry . . . anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another.”

But then it goes on to tell us “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.”

And how do we do this?

We’re not aiming just for “positive thinking”: we’re seeking a balanced focus. We don’t do good things in order to gain favor with God. We focus on these good traits not to become righteous but rather to demonstrate that God has changed us and made us righteous.

Ephesians 4:17-32 tells us to “be renewed in the spirit of your minds.”

Colossians 3:16:17 says, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him”

Romans 12:2 tells us “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.”

Colossians 3:10 says us our “new self…is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.”

How do we renew our minds in the knowledge of Him? By beholding Him in His Word: “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18).

As we see Him in His Word, we get to know Him better, and we become more like Him. As we pursue the pure and good and holy, lesser things fall away.

(Revised from the archives)

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

A Gradual Dawning

Posted on April 7, 2024 by Barbara Harper

We don’t think of Isaiah as an evangelistic book. We perceive evangelism as a New Testament concept rather than an Old Testament one.

Yet we find many admonitions in the OT for Israel to be a testimony not just to its own people, but to the nations.

Our ladies’ Bible study is going through Isaiah using Tim Chester’s book, Isaiah for You, as a springboard. Chester says this about evangelistic encouragement in Isaiah:

They [Israel] were to live under God’s rule expressed in the law in such a way that the nations would see that it is good to know God (Deuteronomy 4: 5-8). Isaiah himself uses this kind of language in Isaiah 2: 2-5: “Come, descendants of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the Lord.” Why? So that “many peoples will come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord’”. The people of Israel were to attract the nations to God.

The ladies discussed how we can do that in our day, when many people don’t seem to want to hear it. There was a time in the USA when people were more open to Christianity. But now, we feel like we’ll get a negative reaction if we try to share Christ with others.

A verse that came to mind during that discussion was Psalm 119:130: “The entrance of Your words gives light; It gives understanding to the simple” (NKJV).

Even if someone says they don’t believe God’s Word, it can shine God’s light into their hearts.

That light is not always a blinding Damascus Road experience like Paul had. Sometimes people understand fully when they are first presented with the gospel. But I would guess that doesn’t happen often.

When I spent the night with my best friend in high school, her mother would often wake us up in the morning by coming in with a cheery voice while throwing open the curtains.

Going from darkness and sleep to bright light was not welcome. It was a shock to the system, though perhaps in some cases it’s necessary.

When I wake up these days, I look toward the bathroom, where the nightlight is on, to get my eyes adjusted to a bit of light. Then I turn on my phone to guide me to the bathroom. Then I turn on the bathroom light, usually squinting in the process. Gradually my eyes get adjusted so I can take in the full light of day.

I think sharing God’s light often works the same way. We receive a little, get our spiritual eyes adjusted, and then we’re able to receive a little more.

When I was in college, a new family came to my church who I became very close to. I called them my adopted spiritual family. The father told us once that when he was younger and not a Christian, he took an acquaintance home from a school function. As she tried to talk to him about the Lord, he answered her gruffly.

When he dropped her off, she probably felt her efforts had failed. But he thought to himself, “What was she talking about, anyway?” That conversation was a catalyst to his finding out more and eventually coming to know the Lord.

Peter writes in 2 Peter 1:19, “We have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.”

As we share God’s Word, we can trust that He will use it to open understanding. We may not see any response at first, or we may see a negative one. Not everyone will receive His light. But for those who do, perhaps the light will gradually dawn like a slow sunrise until they see clearly.

The entrance of God's words give light and understanding.

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

The Tomb Is Empty that We Might Be Filled

Posted on March 31, 2024 by Barbara Harper

Some people only think about Jesus at Christmas. Perhaps they are inspired by sweet paintings of a mother and child and promises of peace on earth and good will to men.

But Jesus is no longer in the manger.

He grew up to be a man, led a righteous life, kept all of God’s law in our place, and died on the cross for our sins. His death on the cross canceled our sin debt, demonstrated His love, reconciled us to God, took the punishment for our sins, made it possible for us to be saved, and more.

But Jesus is no longer on the cross.

Some of His last words were “It is finished.” He had done everything necessary to make it possible for people to be saved.

He was taken down from the cross and buried in a borrowed tomb.

But Jesus is no longer in the tomb.

When friends came to care for His body, instead they found an angelic messenger declaring, “He is not here; He is risen, just as He said.” “God raised him up, ending the pains of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by death” (Acts 2:24, CSB).

Jesus’ resurrection testifies that Jesus is the Son of God, validates His claims, removes death’s sting, gives hope in sorrow, show’s God’s power, and so much more.

Now Jesus is sitting at the right hand of the Father, praying for us, and preparing a place for us to be with Him. Yet He also dwells in our hearts through faith. “Christ in us” is “the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27).

The manger, the cross, and the tomb are all empty—that we might be filled with His presence, pardon, power, and peace.

Emptied that Thou shouldest fill me,
A clean vessel in Thy hand;
With no pow’r but as Thou givest
Graciously with each command.

Witnessing Thy pow’r to save me,
Setting free from self and sin;
Thou who boughtest to possess me,
In Thy fullness, Lord, come in.

Mary E. Maxwell, “Channels Only”

“If you come to seek His face, not in the empty sepulchre, but in the living power of His presence, as indeed realizing that He has finished His glorious work, and is alive for evermore, then your hearts will be full of true Easter joy, and that joy will shed itself abroad in your homes. And let your joy not end with the hymns and the prayers and the communions in His house. Take with you the joy of Easter to the home, and make that home bright with more unselfish love, more hearty service; take it into your work, and do all in the name of the Lord Jesus; take it to your heart, and let that heart rise anew on Easter wings to a higher, a gladder, a fuller life; take it to the dear grave-side and say there the two words ‘Jesus lives!’ and find in them the secret of calm expectation, the hope of eternal reunion.” —John Ellerton