Happy Fourth of July!

I just wanted to wish all of you a happy and fun-filled week, leading up to the Fourth of July holiday! I will be taking some time off to rest and recuperate, and I hope that all of y'all have some time to do the same.

Let's thank God for this country -- we can look around the world and see other places where people are not as fortunate as we. We can freely express our opinions and freely exercise our faith.

Other countries persecute and oppress citizens who do not fit in with their government's ideas of what should and should not "be."

We may have grave concerns for the future of the United States of America, but there is no other country that affords the freedoms we have -- let's bless God for all of this. Let's praise Him for His blessings, instead of demanding that "God bless America." He already has!

Praise Him!

And save some lemonade and cake for me, OK? (grin)

Friday Slowdown

Ere you left your room this morning
Did you think to pray
In the name of Christ our Saviour
Did you sue for loving favour
As a shield today?

Oh how praying rests the weary
Prayer will change the night to day
So when life seems dark and dreary
Don't forget to pray.

When you met with great temptation
Did you think to pray
By His dying love and merit
Did you claim the Holy Spirit
As your guide and stay?

Oh how praying rests the weary
Prayer will change the night to day
So when life seems dark and dreary
Don't forget to pray.

When your heart was filled with anger
Did you think to pray
Did you plead for grace my brother
That you might forgive another
Who had crossed your way?

Oh how praying rests the weary
Prayer will change the night to day
So when life seems dark and dreary
Don't forget to pray...

It's a disaster, part II

Continuing on in John chapter 11, we are studying and thinking on what to do when disaster strikes. We need our Father all the time; we should strive to walk with Him, trust Him, and rely on Him all the time.
When a disaster comes, we will have a shelter that can protect us from the storm. Our relationship is with the God Who will shield us and deliver us.
I'm sure that we have all heard the saying, "When the going gets tough, the tough get God." In this chapter we see two sisters who faced a horrific time in their lives, and they did just that. We can learn from what they did in a time of crisis.

Remember the story from chapter 11? Jesus was close friends with Lazarus, Mary and Martha. Lazarus got sick, and his sisters sent word to Jesus. But Jesus does not leave immediately; when He does arrive in Bethany, Lazarus has been in the tomb for four days.

Martha and Mary are distressed and grieving and ask Him, "Why didn't you come?" You have to imagine that tears were streaming as they said, "If you had been here, our brother would be alive!"
In the stunning climax to the chapter, Jesus tells them that this is not the end. He makes His way to the tomb, and prays, and Lazarus arises, coming out of the tomb bound up in the grave clothes. Jesus tells them to remove them so he can move around -- he's alive!

The first thing I think we can learn from this, and apply to our lives, is this: Our prayer-life must be a priority.

The first thing that Mary and Martha did was to send word to Jesus.
When the one we love is sick, or when a crisis hits our lives, the first thing we need to do is just what they did . . . send word to Jesus. Whether it is a death, an accident, a diagnosis, the breakdown of a relationship -- no matter what it is, the first thing to do is tell Jesus. You see, when a crisis hits us, and knocks us down to our knees, instead of struggling to stand up, we need to realize: we are in perfect position to pray!
 
Prayer changes things. Seriously. It does.
We are communicating with the creator of the universe, and things happen. We are calling on the greatest power in the world or beyond. But too many times we lack the faith that our prayers will make a difference.
Why?
Because many times, we fall into the trap of not praying until we have tried everything else. We should not use prayer as a last resort -- it should be our first option!

Mary and Martha could send word to Jesus because they had a close friendship, a relationship with Jesus. If they had not known Him, they would have been in an awful position. Where could they have turned?

If you are without Jesus as your Lord and Savior as you read this today; if you have not accepted His gift of salvation, then it is plain. You don't know Jesus. All of us must take Jesus as our Savior, and repent of our sins. We will have new life with Him, and we'll never be alone again. When disaster hits, we will have Him to help us.

If you are not certain that you've accepted Him, please look over to the right-hand side of this page and click on the link labeled, "What is Salvation?" Please read it carefully and decide for yourself to take Him at His word, and accept the gift of salvation. Pray and tell Him your desire, and then make time each day to talk with Him and to study your Bible. If you like, you can let us know of your decision, but you don't have to.
You can rest assured that He hears you, He loves you, and He rejoices in your coming to Him. And when disaster hits, He is going to be there for you!

It's a disaster, part I

The following was written by Jack Jordan, newspaper editor, recording the events of April 3, 1974.

"An uneasiness nagged at me as I checked over proofs for the next day’s paper. It was Wednesday, April 3, 1974 about 4 o’clock on a gray afternoon. More than 100 tornadoes had been sighted to the southwest. We had had such warnings before the twisters had always missed Xenia, Ohio.

Suddenly the radio crackled: “Tornado! Southwest of town, expected in six minutes.” I leapt from my desk and hurried out into our office which faces the main downtown street. Police shouted “Take Cover” through bullhorns. Already white faced shoppers and business people were streaming into our new annex building for the protection of its steel beam and thick concrete construction.

Suddenly an ominous green darkened the street. A rumbling roar like a thousand freight trains crossing the ceiling filled the building with a grinding thunder. Our street doors flew open, I rushed to close them and found myself looking up into a black swirling sea of debris and giant tress. I fought my way back and threw myself down on the stairs among the other praying and sobbing people.

Then an eerie stillness filled the air. The monster had passed. My family and home were two miles away. I ran to my convertible, its windows sucked out, I sat in broken glass and drove down the street. There were no more streets , just mountains of debris and dazed and confused people wandering around. After making sure that my family was okay, I returned to the newspaper office.

The tornado had bulldozed a seven mile path half a mile wide right through Xenia, Ohio. 33 men, women, and children were dead. Almost half of Xenia’s buildings were destroyed. Nearly 10,000 people were homeless. Six of nine schools were smashed, nine churches, and 180 stores and businesses were destroyed.
In the coming months the city would pull together and begin to rebuild houses, businesses, churches, schools, and lives. One afternoon, seven months later I walked downtown and remembered the houses that owners had spray painted with the words “Oh God, why us?” and “Only God knows.” And I remember what Dick Pope, a minister, had said at an Easter celebration just eleven days after the tornado. “For the first time people are really going to understand what resurrection is about. You have to realize that Christ was even more effective after the resurrection than before. And this storm can be a turning point for this town. The Christian faith does not promise that we will not have suffering, but it does create the character in us that can face it and know how to use it.”

That is the end of the article excerpt.
In continuing to study this chapter of John's gospel, we are going to talk about our own lives, and how we deal with disasters that come.  Whether we are impacted by a natural disaster like a tornado, or perhaps a health disaster like a leukemia diagnosis, the death of a loved one, or even a relationship disaster . . how do we respond?  What do we do, to make it through the disaster?
Does God allow disasters?
How can we see disaster and "rejoice in all things"?  Can we "use" disaster in the way the minister in the article mentioned?
We'll be searching our hearts as we study. I'd like to encourage each of us to turn to II Corinthians 2:3-7, and read prayerfully those verses. Maybe we should even memorize them. They tell us that God is the God of all comfort, and that He has the power and the willingness to see us through all of the disasters that we may encounter.
The title of this post is "It's a disaster" but I don't think we'll be depressed when we finish our study!

Verses that inspire

Every so often, we pause to share verses that have meant a great deal to us. They may have comforted us, or inspired us, or answered a question from our deepest thoughts.

God's Word is a gift to us, a blessing that we simply can't take for granted. Try each day to spend time reading it. Ask God to guide you and show you what you need for that particular day. The Holy Spirit will help you as you read.

Choose a verse or passage and work to commit it to memory. Write it on a card to take with you through your day. Read it and try to repeat it, without looking at the card. You'll be amazed at how well you can do! And you will be blessed by both your efforts, and the times that the Holy Spirit will bring that verse to your mind, to help you. Or to help you help someone else.

This passage has meant a great deal to me recently, and I'd like to share it:

Psalms 5:11-12 But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy, and spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may exult in you. For you bless the righteous, O LORD; you cover him with favor as with a shield.

Please feel free to leave a comment with a verse that has inspired you this past week.

John 11 -- the love of God, conclusion

We're studying about our loving God, and winding up the passage today. We'll move onward in this inspiring chapter at our next "meeting" here in blogland.
Let's refresh our memory of these verses:
Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. It was the Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped His feet with her hair. So the sisters sent word to Him saying, `Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.' But when Jesus heard this, He said, `This sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified in it.'  Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus. So when He heard that he was sick, He stayed two days longer in the place where he was.

We talked about how it was difficult for our finite, human minds to comprehend that He was showing love in the verses above. To our way of thinking, He should have rushed over and prevented Lazarus from dying. But we are seeing as we study, that God shows His love by doing whatever is necessary to show us His glory, and to encourage us to be satisfied with Him.

We've studied how He deserved all honor, yet sacrificed Himself. We've seen that He is a happy Savior, and will share all His joy with us in heaven. Now let's look at His power and authority.
We humans are drawn to power like moths to the flame. We stand in awe and watch rockets, thrusters flaming, power their way into the atmosphere. We resist the efforts of emergency personnel who desire us to evacuate, and hunker down to experience a hurricane first-hand. We listen to the screaming wind, hear the pounding of sheets of rain, wince at lightning and thunder that seems too close . . . but we love the rush of adrenaline. Every year, some of us shake our heads in amazement at hardy (foolish) souls who stay put and "ride out" storms. The awe-inspiring power and force is something that we are drawn to. It seems to put us on the brink of eternity; it wakes us up to reality.
What it should do is reinforce the idea of Jesus having all power. He could speak one word and the storm would abate. He has the power and the authority to do that. And we love that about our God.

Here is another thing to consider about our God: He is all-wise and all-knowledgeable. Let's put that a little differently, just to make it more clear. He is infinitely wise and infinitely knowledgeable.
Remember the scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz? He wanted people to look up to him for his knowledge and brain-power. He talked about how admirable it was for people to know a lot. Well, we humans do seem to love people who know a lot. We pay scholars and scientists loads of money and admire them. We put them in charge of universities and foundations, read their books and make much of them.  We seem to love to lavish attention on those people who know a lot.

Have we ever thought about what Jesus knows? Well, it's not enough to say that He knows everything . . . He actually knows everything there is to know. All of the scholars who have known deep thoughts and intricate theories? Jesus knows all of that; it's a first grade primer to Him, all of it. He knows all of the infinite creation that we are just beginning to peep around and explore. After all, He was there in the beginning!
When our kiddos were small, we enjoyed going out to see the meteor showers when the astronomers predicted good views of them. Late at night, bundled up in blankets, lying in the back of our pickup, we would count the meteors as they shot across the sky. Pretty amazing, don't you think? That they can predict what night the meteors will appear, and even what hours they will peak. That's pretty cool. But you know what? That's nothing compared to what Jesus knows about this universe and this creation. He is an infinitely knowledgeable God.
He's an infinitely wise God, who knows what we need.
And He's an infinitely loving God, who wants to give us the best gift ever.
The love of God for us is His work at great cost to give us the gift of Jesus to enjoy forever. It is to give us all that He is. It's not just about escape from hell, though that is far too precious to express with our mere words. It's not mainly about a conscience that is clear, though that is something truly incredible that He gives to us. It's not just about all the ways that He heals our bodies, our minds, and our relationships, though that again is something beyond words -- so precious to us. Here is the main thing:
            Christ suffered once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring us to God.
            (I Peter 3:18)
His gift is to bring us to Himself! That is the love of God.  At great cost to Himself, it (that love) brings us to God! It brings us to something amazing, and full of splendor. If we think the Alps are something to marvel at, or the Grand Canyon, or some famous person . . . these are just faint echoes of splendor compared to the love of God.
We should admit, though, that there is a massive obstacle between us and God. We all know what it is -- sin. Some have said that the root of sin is this -- we exchange the glory of God for the blessings that He gives. Let me explain . . . we are offered the fellowship of God, the infinitely wise and loving Father, and it's FOREVER! And instead of accepting that, we lay it aside and take His gifts. We do this and it says to God, "No thanks. I'm not interested in fellowship with you. I'm not into that. Enjoying you and being satisfied with you? Nope. I want your gifts -- wife, children, the applause of men, fame, wealth. Yep, that's what I want."

God's love is His doing everything it takes -- even the death of His own Son in order to work in our hearts. He wants us to stop feeling loved by people making much of us, and start feeling loved by the enjoyment of making much of Him. Forever. In all that we do.

David said it gloriously:
                Whom have I in heaven but you?
                And earth has nothing I desire besides you.
                      My flesh and my heart may fail,
               but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.  Psalm 73:25-26

As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the children of God . . .  (John 1:12) And if children, then heirs, heirs of God . . . (Romans 8:17)

He is our portion, our inheritance forever. Let us be satisfied with Him, and in Him. Our joy will be full!

Friday slowdown

Two of our faithful readers mentioned this song early in the week . . .little knowing that it would be our Friday song selection!
Hope this is a blessing to all -- and a reminder to praise Him in the storm.