The Best!

Wednesday, feeling great after surgery and a long hospital stay, I got out my Miata, put the top down and drove, soaking up the sunshine. I didn’t care who could hear me singing! As I gave thanks, it came to me that the joy I was experiencing was about my present state, my sense of well-being. It is good to give thanks.   

It is true that my life overflows with good things – a comfortable home, my amazing and great children, loving friends, resources beyond my needs, food in abundance, a sense of safety and security. However, these are not the greatest of my blessings.  As my recent brush with mortality revealed again, this earthly existence will end one of these days. Someone else will live in my house, spend my money, and drive my convertible.

What is the best of all, the center of my joy?

Paul expressed it profoundly in these words -"… a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." (Romans 3:21-24, NIV)   

 When Jesus’ disciples experienced spiritual authority, they were excited. He pointed them to their best treasure - "The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.” He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”" (Luke 10:17-20, NIV)

Do not misunderstand me. The privilege of living a good life is not to be overlooked or taken for granted. With those blessings come the responsibility of stewardship, using the opportunities to help others, to be the hands of Jesus in a world of need.  A person will not necessarily be ‘more spiritual’ or pleasing to God if he suffers greatly or lives with deprivation. 

As the blessed children of God, we are commissioned by Jesus to advocate for the poor, to care for the sick, to comfort the dying, to work for justice, and to share what we have with others.  I cannot read the whole of the Bible without concluding that it is good to live securely, with plenty. But, even when hardship comes, when unexplained suffering overwhelms – there is a blessing that is available to all – the promise of being God’s own child, with an eternal home prepared with Him!

“Rejoice that your names are written in heaven!”  Let that phrase fill up your mind, inspiring your emotions today. Make that fact the center of your joy.  And don’t forget that you cannot be moral enough, dutiful enough, selfless enough, or churchy enough – to gain that relationship. God gives this gift to us through the work of His Son, Christ Jesus, because of grace. It cannot be earned, only received by faith.  Trust Him this day. Breath a simple prayer – “Christ Jesus, thank you, for the gift of Your ‘righteousness’ that makes me a child of God who lives without shame, guilt, or fear of the future. Amen.”  Then, rejoice in the best of blessings.

Here is a word from the Word -
"I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit
—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—

that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in.
And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love,
you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love.

Reach out and experience the breadth!
Test its length!
Plumb the depths!\
Rise to the heights!
Live full lives, full in the fullness of God. " (Ephesians 3:16-19, The Message)

(Video of this blog at this link)

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Who Am I

Who am I that the Lord of all the earth

Would care to know my name

Would care to feel my hurt

Who am I that the Bright and Morning Star

Would choose to light the way

For my ever wand'ring heart

 

Not because of who I am

But because of what You've done

Not because of what I've done

But because of who You are

 

I am a flower quickly fading

Here today and gone tomorrow

A wave tossed in the ocean

A vapor in the wind

Still You hear me when I'm calling

Lord You catch me when I'm falling

And You've told me who I am

I am Yours

 

Who am I that the eyes that see my sin

Would look on me with love

And watch me rise again

Who am I that the voice that calmed the sea

Would call out through the rain

And calm the storm in me

 

Mark Hall

© 2003 Be Essential Songs; My Refuge Music

CCLI License # 810055

 

Time Limited

Just about everything I know of has an expiration date. Batteries lose their charge. Milk goes sour in the refrigerator. Cereal gets stale. Bread molds. I was reminded again that my life is time limited during my recent stay in hospitals, 2 facilities, 10 nights in 11 days!  Though I feel much better today, there are still a couple things that require additional medical care.  Am I going to die in the near future? No doctor seems to think so, a fact for which I am grateful, but I know in a new way just how quickly a person can go from strong to weak, from feeling great to awful pain.  

 When I first met my terrible pain I would like to be able to say that I knew a calm and gentle spirit, but … alas, I am all too human and I cried out in great fear. But, loved by God, by family, and friends - I quickly regained a sense of perspective and the balance of my confinement was mostly a time of great peace, resting on faith, entrusting myself to His care.          

Here is the first choice that was impressed on me by the Spirit, through the Word. “Be Thankful!”  Repeatedly, when tempted to complain, I felt His prompt to choose faith. Yes, faith is the foundation of true gratitude.

I am NOT thankful for days of pain, for the necessity of surgical intervention, or the extended stay in the hospital. My thanks was and is sustained by this – “He is God Almighty.”  Laying in that bed, I was challenged by the familiar opening lines of the Apostle’s Creed:  “I believe in God, the Father Almighty, the Maker of heaven and earth …”  I have recited those words a thousand times or more. During this experience, I remembered them and asked myself  if it were true to me. 

If He is God- FATHER of loving care; and ALMIGHTY – with all things under His direction; then I can be at rest. And so I was, and grateful that He is working in me and through me, in ways that may beyond my understanding in the moment.  There was an interesting side effect of thanking Him.  I  found myself thanking nurses, doctors, and hospital staff for their care with words that were not just polite, but from the heart.

One morning there, around 5 am, a nurse came into my room. I was awake so she asked if she might sit a moment or two. A conversation followed that revealed her soul exhaustion because of struggles in her own life with disappointment and uncertainty. She told me that she sought out my room because ‘there is such a feeling of peace here.’  After praying with her, I thanked God for helping me to be obedient in thanksgiving which allowed His peace to be felt and known. I experienced His word - "Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. If you do this, you will experience God’s peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 4:6-7, NLT)

Beyond a response of humility that allowed me to express thanks to God I found myself humbled by a renewed realization of my place in this world. There is a subtle kind of pride that creeps up on me (you, too, perhaps?) that makes me feel indispensable. “Whatever will the world around me do if I am not functioning at capacity?”  While it is important to be of service to God and others, if that service is done from duty or pride, it is tinged with Self that obscures the Spirit’s work.

Sidelined by weakness, completely at the care and mercy of others, I remembered that life flows on, that others will close the gap, taking up the reins of responsibility. Of course that may seem like common sense to some but I needed that lesson. We all serve best when we lean into our spiritual gifts with joy in the offering of ourselves for God’s glory. So many other times when sidelined by sickness even for a day, I fretted about ‘getting back’ to work and service. This time, God let me experience the Body of Christ in a new way.  During those times someone stepped up to take my place as a Bible teacher in our Vacation Bible School.  My pastor replaced me quickly at a wedding I was to conduct. Another ministered in my place at a funeral that I was to do.

People to whom I have ministered, for whom I have prayed, prayed for me.  The strength of being ‘in the Body of Christ’ became even more evident to me in my weakness.

So, are you in a hard place, a painful situation, a circumstance that is limiting you? 

Let me urge to you trust your Heavenly Father who is ‘God, the Father Almighty.’  

Pray to know the gift of faith and lean into gratitude for His gracious gifts. 

Let the love of the Body surround you, carrying you when you cannot stand alone. Being part of His Church, His family, in life’s great and happy moments, makes it possible to know the ministry of that Body when life turns quickly. Yes it is true that "If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it, and if one part is honored, all the parts are glad. Now all of you together are Christ’s body, and each one of you is a separate and necessary part of it." (1 Corinthians 12:26-27, NLT)

We are all time limited, will all experience weakness, sooner or later, and at some point, oh cheery thought, we will come to the end of our earthly journey. May God grace us with inner beauty, deep faith, and an experience of being loved and loving in those moments.

Join me in this prayer that David prayed so long ago, our word from the Word.

"Look on me and answer, O LORD my God.
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death; my enemy will say,
“I have overcome him,” and my foes will rejoice when I fall.

But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.
I will sing to the LORD, for he has been good to me." (Psalm 13:3-6, NIV)

(Video of this blog at this link)

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Breathe On Me Breath Of God

Breathe on me breath of God

Fill me with life anew

That I may love what Thou dost love

And do what Thou wouldst do

 

Breathe on me breath of God

Until my heart is pure

Until with Thee I will one will

To do and to endure

 

Breathe on me breath of God

So shall I never die

But live with Thee the perfect life

Of Thine eternity

 

Edwin Hatch | Robert Jackson

Words: Public Domain