May 2008
May
1
Ascension Day:
Jesus “was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid Him from
their sight.” (Acts 1:9) So now we
find ourselves in the greatest “hide and go seek” game of our lives, seeking
after a hidden God. There are times
I resent God’s hiddenness, but that’s the way it is.
In part because God is too much for us to behold.
“You cannot see My face, for no one may see Me and live” (Exodus
33:20) In part because we have
fallen from His holiness. “Your
sins have hidden His face from you.” (Isaiah
59:2)
But there is a focal point for seeking after God.
“From the fullness of His grace we have all received one blessing after
another. No one has ever seen God,
but the only begotten who is at the Father’s side has made Him known.” (John
1:16, 18) The focal point is Jesus
Christ, a focal point not for our eyes but for our trust.
“We live by faith, not by sight.” (2 Corinthians 5:7)
“Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
(John 20:29)
So when it seems like a great cosmic game of “hide and go seek,” you know
where to look and you can trust He will find you.
“We shall see face to face.” (1
Corinthians 13:12)
May
2
50, 45, 30,
20, 10. Abraham prayed again and again for Sodom,
"Sodom" synonymous with the most sinful conducts. The Lord
answered, "For the sake of 50, then 45, then 40, then 30, then 20, and
finally 10 righteous, I will not destroy it." (Genesis 18:20-33)
"He causes His sun to rise on the
evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and unrighteous."
(Matthew 5:45). God has a heart for all people, wants all to be saved (1
Timothy 2:4), even those who refuse to walk in His ways. 50, 45, 40, 30,
20, 10. Not esteemed by society, the faithful are the most precious to
God. When judgment comes, as it must, He will save His people. Today
is the day after the National Day of Prayer. 50, 45, 40, 30, 20, 10.
Are you still praying for those who don't walk in His ways?
May 5
Daughter
Elizabeth and sons Christian and Connor spent last week with us.
All good things end, so Saturday they went to the airport.
Sin shows itself in many places. Last
Saturday we met sin in heartless bureaucracy.
Elizabeth
was sick, very sick.
We had called American Airlines to ask if Diane could help Liz and the
kids to the gate. Yes, they said,
but when we got to the airport, the hard-hearted gate agent showed no sympathy.
Neither did her supervisor, who summarily said, “No.”
Bureaucracy covers a multitude of sins.
So sick Liz and the wild things had to go through security on their own.
You know those bins at security where you put your shoes, toiletries, and
computer? Two-year-old Christian saw
people taking those bins and decided to help.
He unpacked the whole stack of bins.
How can a sick mom cope with this? Diane
and I watched helplessly.
Thank God for people who care. Two
TSA
people saw Liz’s plight
and helped her and the kids to the gate. They
were wonderful. So was American
Airlines ticket agent Judy Levinson who was in and out of the whole infuriating
story. She couldn’t change the
heartless bureaucracy but she showed us real care.
Do you let
bureaucratic rules excuse your heart-heartedness…or do you rise above and show
care?
May 6
Some
months ago I happened to watch Charles Stanley on TV.
Rev. Stanley is a good teacher and spoke about the value of getting down
on your knees to pray. Not just
figuratively but actually, physically getting down on your knees to pray.
He said that posture is a reminder to be humble before God.
“Pray without ceasing,” (1 Thessalonians
5:17
).
Christians have often puzzled over that command.
Certainly you can’t always have your hands folded, your head bowed, and
maybe even your knees bent all day long. I’ll
admit when it comes to the formal postures of prayer, I’m not very good.
As I get older, I think I’m starting to understand better.
To “pray without ceasing” is not about the posture of your body but
the posture of your mind. Is your
every waking thought, word and action before others done in dialogue with God?
Are you constantly thinking vertically as well as horizontally?
And some of those times you also put your body in a special posture.
I wrote yesterday about our daughter Elizabeth, mother of Christian and Connor.
She is ill and tomorrow will enter the hospital.
I think I’ll go off today where almost no one sees and almost know one
knows and bend my knees. Affliction
cooperates in sanctification.
May 7
This is
the date of
Germany
’s surrender in World War
II. On the 5th,
representatives of the German High Command came by train to
Rheims
,
France
.
On the 7th at
2:30 a.m
….yes,
2:30 a.m
….they announced they were
ready to sign papers of surrender.
James Ballard was there. He had
landed at
Omaha
Beach
, was later wounded, and
after recovering was assigned to the staff of Brigadier General “Beetle”
Smith. It was serving Smith that
young Ballard witnessed the surrender. When
he died at age 85, his daughter Mary Ballard Deffenbaugh said, “It’s hard
for those of us so much younger to realize that his generation was pretty
private about things. We talk about
everything today. I wish Daddy had
told me more stories. But he came
from a time when people felt that some things were not meant to be spoken.”
(Claire Martin, The
Denver
Post;
April 25, 2004
; 34A)
“Still waters run deep.” Some
things are too horrible, like war, like 22,500 killed by the cyclone in
Myanmar
.
“The prudent man keeps quiet in such times, for the times are evil”
(Amos
5:13
). The reserve
of older people is something to emulate, not regret.
May
8
I love
those sermons that challenge the way I think. Yesterday
Dr. David Schmitt did that when he preached in chapel on 1 Peter 4:7-8, “Be
clear-minded and self-controlled so that you can pray.
Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude
of sins.”
Dr. Schmitt said that when he prays he often asks God to put things right in his
life. Most of us do the same thing.
Something is out of kilter in our lives and we ask God to help make it
right. But in this verse St. Peter
puts it the other way around. Live
your life right so that you can pray. Be
clear-minded, be self-controlled, love others…so that you’re in the right
posture for full and unhindered prayer time with God.
By the way, Peter follows that same line, live right for the sake of
prayer, when he says to husbands: “Husbands, be considerate as you live with
your wives…treat them with respect…so that nothing will hinder your
prayers” (3:7)
When things get out of kilter in life, we should go to God for help.
Do we want to hear Him say, “You’re asking Me for help when you’re
living your self-willed way, not My way?”
Be clear-minded, self-controlled, love one another…so that you can
pray.
May
9
A loving
mother’s heart for her children is so large that hurts enter from many sides.
When Simeon saw the baby Jesus, he told Mary, “a sword will pierce your
soul” (Luke
2:35
).
Was Mary hurt when Jesus asked, “Who is my mother and who are my
brothers?” (Matthew 12:48). She
believed her Son. When there was no
wine at the wedding in
Cana
, she told the servants,
“Do whatever He tells you” (John 2:5). Who
could describe how she felt at the crucifixion when Simeon’s prediction came
terribly true? (John 19:26) A loving
mother could!
“I will turn their
mourning into gladness; I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow.”
(Jeremiah 31:13) God fulfills that
promise for every Christian mother in Easter, in the resurrection of His Son and
Mary’s Son from the dead. Easter,
resurrection, hope for children, each centered in a loving Savior who is alive
and present. “He has sent Me to
bind up the brokenhearted” (Isaiah 61:1). For every mother filled with Easter
hope we praise God!
Now thank we all our God with heart and hands and voices,
Who
wondrous things has done, in whom His world rejoices;
Who from
our mother’s arms has blessed us on our way,
With
countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.
May
12
Jesus said, “The wind blows wherever
it pleases. You hear its sound.”
(John 3:8)
Oh, we hear the sound of wind, Jesus, we hear it.
In parts of the
Midwest
it was like the sound of a freight train. With
that came the sounds of metal twisting and tossed, of wood cracking,
splintering, and strewn…and then crying. 23
victims of tornadoes. The sounds of
burials and feeble clergy attempts to make some sense.
Those are small sounds compared to
Myanmar
where the death toll could rise to 100,000.
Add the sounds of a humanitarian disaster, insufficient relief supplies
and disease. Oh, we hear alright.
Jesus was talking about the work of the Spirit giving new birth to people for
the
kingdom
of
God
. Yesterday was Pentecost when God
gave the Holy Spirit to the first disciples.
“They were all together in one place.
Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and
filled the whole house” (Acts 2:1-2). Today
that Spirit gives new birth with the word of Jesus.
“My words are spirit and life” (John 6:63).
When the winds of life blow hard at us, we cling desperately to this conviction
the Spirit gives kingdom people, that God is good, despite the evidence.
“Take not Your Holy Spirit from me!” (Psalm 51:11)
May
13
Hi,
Christian here! I am happy.
My Mommy, I call her “Mimi,” is coming home today.
Mimi was sick. So she went to
that place with long halls and many beds. It’s
the place we got my baby brother Connor. This
time there is no new baby. Mimi
rested. Mimi had needles and tubes
in her. Did she cry?
I would! Daddy took care of
me and Connor. Just us boys!
What’s a clean house?
Opa and Oma came to help. They went
with us to church. Big people asked
about Mimi. Thank you, big people.
When we folded our hands and bowed our heads, the man said Mimi’s name.
Opa remembered Psalm 41:3, “Blessed is he who has regard for the weak;
the Lord delivers him in times of trouble, the Lord will sustain him on his
sickbed and restore him from his bed of illness.”
When all the big people were done, they said, Amen.
I can say that word Amen. Opa
says it means, “It shall be so!”
Psalm 103:2-4, “Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits
– who forgives all yours sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your
life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion.”
Amen; it shall be so!
May
14
May
15
May
16
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