Christ Giveth and Giveth and Giveth Again

After talking with a good friend from seminary days who has been struggling with a bit of discouragement, I was reminded today of an sweet hymn that is laced with the most wonderful Truth-filled encouragement that it is GOD Who provides all we need for our earthly journey.  This is for that precious soul, a true friend who loveth at all times and in whom I know I can confide when my soul needs a place to go.  Hope you all enjoy as well.

He giveth more grace as our burdens grow greater,
He sendeth more strength as our labors increase;
To added afflictions He addeth His mercy,
To multiplied trials He multiplies peace.

When we have exhausted our store of endurance,
When our strength has failed ere the day is half done,
When we reach the end of our hoarded resources
Our Father’s full giving is only begun.

Fear not that thy need shall exceed His provision,
Our God ever yearns His resources to share;
Lean hard on the arm everlasting, availing;
The Father both thee and thy load will upbear.

His love has no limits, His grace has no measure,
His power no boundary known unto men;
For out of His infinite riches in Jesus
He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again.

(by Anne J. Flint)

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Culture Shock "Practical"

I realize I sort of slapped the common “Christian band-aid” over an issue that can really affect a woman’s life: moving.  I didn’t mean to do that at all!  But as soon as I pushed the “publish” button I thought I’d better follow- up with some practical suggestions to aid in the “culture shock” transition time.  Here are 5 {my mom} and I came up with:

 

1)      Acknowledge the hardship of transitioning to a new location/ministry for what it is (number 3 stresser in anyone's life!) and be graceful towards yourself and others.  Situational depression can be a very real result of such a major transition in life.  In recognizing the hardship for what it is, you can aim to recognize when your emotions may be affecting the way you are treating those closest to you and the way they are behaving as well.  Be full of grace towards all in the family!

2)     Use this time (that tends to be not as full schedule-wise) to do something you’ve always wanted to do.  Take a cake-decorating class or an exercise class at a local gym.  Spend more time reading stories to the kids or playing outside.  Have more date nights or try out new recipes.  Eat at local restaurants to learn more about the people and community to which have been called to minister to and alongside.

3)     Pray over church members by going through a church directory.  (This may also help you learn names and faces!)

4)      Cultivate a new spiritual discipline that has been lacking in  your life.

5)     Talk to your husband!  This is an important one (and not one to really go “last” in the list…).  He needs to know what’s going on inside of you to help give you more grace and to help you in objectively looking at your emotions and responses while you go through this time.  As most of us marrieds already know, communication is always vital to a peaceful marriage and home.

Also, Just Moved! is a ministry I came to know about a few years back through a Focus on the Family radio broadcast.  Susan Miller, a woman who has moved over 14 times in her life {she might know a thing or two about it!} founded this ministry to minister directly to the heart of the woman who has just relocated (for whatever reason).  Check out their website if you feel you may need a little more help sorting things out in this area or to aid in understanding those you are serving.

Let me know any tips YOU may have from your life experience on this: I sure could use all the help I can get! =)

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Psalm 73: 16-28 -- A RIGHT Perspective for Self

When we last studied this passage a couple days ago, we left Asaph (and myself) in a quandry over why it seems like the “evil ones” are the ones who always prosper and why it seems like those of us who are living trying to please God are always getting…shafted – or so we think.  Let’s pick it up in very 16: (using the NIV today—I’m not picky, it’s what’s in front of me. And, as always, italics are added by me!=)

16) When I tried to understand all this, it was oppressive to me until I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny.

How do we get perspective?  WE GET IN THE WORD!  We enter into God’s sanctuary and commune with Him.  Only in the presence of God’s RIGHT, TRUE, FAITHFUL Words can we see reality!  Here’s what Asaph found was reality: (v.18-22)

“Surely you place [the evil ones] on slippery ground; you case them down to ruin.  How suddenly are they destroyed, completely swept away by terrors.  As a dream when one awakes, so when you arise, O Lord, you will despise them as fantasies.  When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before you.”

I was studying in James earlier this week  and found something I’d never seen before (gotta LOVE the LIVING and ACTIVE Word!).  Verses 14-16 (Proceed with Caution, these are strong words.)

“But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth.  Such ‘wisdom’ does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, of the devil.  For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.”

WHEW!  This is NOT how I want to be characterized or found before the Lord.  So I confess this sin of envy and ask the Lord to make my heart new again (which He gladly does) and thank Him for his gift of the sacrificially death His Son gave for ME!  For YOU!  And then I am free to do what Asaph did next:  he WORSHIPPED God.  It’s the only right response we can have when brought to the Light of His Word.  Let’s finish out today reading the last of Psalm 73, starting in verse 23.  Here are the truths we can rest in:

“Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand.  You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory. Whom have I in heave 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.  Those who are far from you will perish; you destroy all who are unfaithful to You.  But as for me, it is good to be near God.  I have made the Sovereign Lord my refuge; I will tell of all your deeds.”

 When we take up our right place in the refuge of the Lord, no matter what is happening around us, we will be able to have peace and rest in Him and that will lead us to TELL OTHERS ABOUT CHRIST.  Where are you today?  Outside of His Word and lacking perspective or are you IN HIS WORD gaining perspective, worshipping Him, and telling others about what He’s teaching you?

Just something to “consider”…

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Psalm 73 ~ A Revelation Of Self

I have spent the majority of this year and last resting in the Psalms.  Not only have I felt like I’ve been all over the place with various emotions, I’ve felt a little dry and Psalms has provided the soothing salve needed “in this dry and weary land” in which I’ve been wandering.  So, after starting this blog based out of “Divine Inspiration” given through Psalm 62, I’d been reading and re-reading many of the Psalms, one of which was Psalm 73.  It had been striking me as a little odd…I thought I could MAYBE relate, but then I’d read it again and I thought maybe my personal interpretation wasn’t exactly the RIGHT interpretation so…I kept finishing it really quickly and then I’d move on.  (Of course, YOU’VE never read parts of Scripture like that, have you?! Uhem…) Well, God apparently really wanted to open my eyes to myself through this passage, so he sent a recent quest missionary speaker to our church to preach on THIS VERY PASSAGE!  It was one of those “God’s very hands are reaching down to me and reading this to me Himself” moments.  (Refreshing and convicting at the same time!)

 Before I go any further, let me quote the passage for you.  (And yes, this will be another “2 –Parter” just to hold your attention span – no offense to be taken, please=)

Psalm 73 ¹

73:1 A psalm by Asaph.

Certainly God is good to Israel, ²  and to those whose motives are pure! ³ (2) But as for me, my feet almost slipped; my feet almost slid out from under me. ⁴  (3) For I envied those who are proud,as I observed ⁵ the prosperity ⁶ of the wicked. (4) For they suffer no pain; ⁷ their bodies ⁸ are strong and well-fed. ⁹  (5) They are immune to the trouble common to men; they do not suffer as other men do. ¹⁰  (6)Arrogance is their necklace, ¹¹ and violence their clothing. ¹²  (7) Their prosperity causes them to do wrong; ¹³ their thoughts are sinful. ¹⁴ 8 They mock ¹⁵ and say evil things; ¹⁶ they proudly threaten violence. ¹⁷ 9 They speak as if they rule in heaven,and lay claim to the earth. ¹⁸ 10 Therefore they have more than enough food to eat, and even suck up the water of the sea. ¹⁹ 11 They say, “How does God know what we do? Is the sovereign one aware of what goes on?” ²⁰ 12 Take a good look! This is what the wicked are like, ²¹ those who always have it so easy and get richer and richer. ²² 13 I concluded, ²³ “Surely in vain I have kept my motives ²⁴ pure and maintained a pure lifestyle. ²⁵ 14 I suffer all day long,and am punished every morning.”15 If I had publicized these thoughts, ²⁶ I would have betrayed your loyal followers. ²⁷ 16 When I tried to make sense of this,it was troubling to me. ^{28  (Italics all added, Scripture from NetBible.)}

Read it again now (because we all need several looks at passages we’re really going to “consider”)

Okay, now that you’ve done that: What do you think? 

I have to first say, I LOVE Asaph!  I mean, talk about honesty!  Here it is; Scripture is FULL of honesty!  So, one thing I learn right away in this passage is that IT IS MORE THAN OKAY TO BE HONEST WITH GOD!!!!  { This was NOT one of the preacher's points, but I learned it anyway=) He’s big enough, and He modeled that type of relationship with Him all over in Scriptures.  (But let’s face it, we so easily forget this; one of Satan’s great lies to us, of that I’m sure.)

Second, after reading it again and again, I realized I AM ASAPH!  I do this every day!  Somewhere between rising from bed and falling into it again, I end up thinking thoughts that are so similar to this.   I hear about some successful person who has grown that success through, well, down right evil ways (entertainment industry?—and not ALL entertainment is “evil”, but so much of it is) and I’m truly jealous and envious (v.3) of that success and all that it brings. 

Third, when I dwell on that, I too begin to think that these earthly successful people have it so much better than I.  I, too, begin to list all the good things I do for God and then I begin to think that God really ought to treat me a little better in the wealth and health department than He is.  Like God owes me something.  I think things just like Asaph such as: they “ALWAYS have it so easy” (v12) and that “they are immune to trouble”(v.5).  These type of dwelling thoughts end up messing with reality and I end up just like Asaph, trying to make sense of it all.   

Are you with me, ladies?  Have you ever been there before or are you there now?  Trying to figure out why God has you in this particular “waiting” period or why He doesn’t just give you a few more dollars so you can do “good” things with it (like buy new shoes for this kids?!  I mean, we don’t even necessarily want more to spend on us, right?!) 

No?  Well, I guess it’s just me then… I need perspective. 

And we’ll get it when we tune in next time=)  Until then, enjoy this wonderful clip from Francis Chan that talks about this very problem.  (Thanks, Homeschoolingmomtographer for bringing this one to my attention.)

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An Awesome Example

I wanted to blog about a family that has been an incredible example to me of suffering a trial so unimaginable and yet leaning upon God in even their very difficult trial: meet Steven Curtis Chapman and his wife, Mary Beth.  Yeah, yeah, I know you "know" them (just like I "know" them-- they're on my "people most wanted to meet in life before I pass" list=).  If you are not familiar with them, let me just give a small bio on them:  They met and fell in love in high school. (I've seen pics-- trust me as I say they are a great looking couple NOW, but even though very famous currently, they still have awful high school pics just like we all do!)  He went on to become this famous singer and have an amazingly beautiful wonderful family.  After they were "done" having their own biological children, through a maze of detail which only God can orchestrate, they began adopting and ended up with three beautiful adopted children from China.  They began an amazing organization (am I saying "amazing" too much?  Really, I can't say that enough in this case.) called Show Hope which helps in all avenues related to orphan care and adoption.  Together, SCC and Mary Beth had six children and were making and incredible impact on the entire world for Christ and growing His kingdom through helping to raise awareness of the desperate need for people to open their hearts to Christ -- AND to orphan care.  (All this with a minor "side" of being an highly sought-after and world-wide Christian music artist-- well, anyway, in my very humble opinion the music was just a "side" for a greater work.)

(This picture taken from the People magazine article http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20201819,00.html)

On May 21, 2008 the most unthinkable thing happened: a tragic accident took the life of their youngest girl Maria Sue.  Even writing this stops my breath and I can not even begin to imagine what that must have been like, and continues to be like day in and day out. Last fall my husband and I had the awesome privilege of seeing SCC and his wife in concert-- WOW, what realness, what vulnerability, what incredible FAITH!!!!  Though they have been struck by incredible sadness and tragedy, they have chosen to let God take it and do a work in them and they continue to walk this road the Lord has chosen for them and glorify God through it all. 

I walked away blessed by some music for sure-- but the greater work remains turning over and over and over again in my mind as just about not a week goes by when I ask myself: Do I have that kind of faith?  Faith that says "You are God.  You can be trusted NO MATTER WHAT You bring into my life."  What would I really do, what would I really say about God, should He choose to bring tragedy of this scale into MY life?  I mean, really, right now it's about all I can do to trust that He'll provide the money we need for our monthly bills!  No, instead SCC and Mary Beth have chosen to say "You are faithful." and even  "You are GOOD."  May God grant the Chapman family blessings upon blessings for being in the place like Job and choosing to remain faithful to Him when it would have been so easy to just turn their faces...

If you have any resources to purchase SCCs album released after the death of Maria Sue, PLEASE DO SO!  You will be so blessed when the trials of your own life can be viewed through the music that rests upon the Truth of Scripture and that gives us the ONLY True perspective that God is God and He remains in control of our lives and what He does in us is GOOD, all. the. time.  Below, you will find a few of the lyrics from two of the songs on the CD "Beauty Will Rise" (From Title Track "Beauty Will Rise" and "You are Faithful".

Out of these ashes... beauty will rise
and we will dance among the ruins
We will see Him with our own eyes
Out of these ashes... beauty will rise
For we know, joy is coming in the morning...
in the morning, beauty will rise

Though I cannot have the answer
that I'm wanting to demand,
I'll remember You are God
and everything is in Your hand.
In Your hands you hold the sun, the moon,
the stars up in the sky,
for the sake of Love, You hung Your own Son
on the cross...to die...

You are faithful!
When you give and when You take away,
even then still Your name
is faithful!
You are faithful!
And with everything inside of me,
I am choosing to believe You're faithful.

So faithful...

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God's Design for Suffering

If you listen even a little to Christian radio, you are sure to have already heard the incredibly powerful latest release by Laura Story, “Blessings”.  I mustn’t continue with my thoughts until you read through a few lines of this wonderfully – timed song containing so much Truth.

We pray for blessings, We pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering
All the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love us way too much to give us lesser things

Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

We pray for wisdom, Your voice to hear
And we cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt Your goodness, we doubt Your love
As if every promise from Your Word is not enough
All the while, You hear each desperate plead
And long that we'd have faith to believe

When friends betray us, When darkness seems to win
We know the pain reminds this heart
That this is not, this is not our home

What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can’t satisfy
One cannot escape from reading these words or listening to this precious truth-revealing song without pondering much on what GOD desires to make of our suffering (i.e. waiting).  It is clear that God designed us for living in a perfect world and it is not HIS desire that we wait for His return in suffering, but it is what SIN has done to this world.  Praise God He IS returning to set all things right and to redeem us unto Himself!...one. day. soon.

Hebrews 13:14 grounds us in this Truth saying, “For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come.” 

Therefore…

Verse 15, “Through Him, then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.” (NASB)

In my next post I’m going to talk about an amazing family who has shown the world that through their terrible sufferings and waiting, they can still rest in the arms of the One Who loves them and Who will one. day. soon. bring them unto Himself to comfort them for eternity.

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Learning to Wait

Psalm 62, my “go-to” Psalm when I can’t make sense out of the world, says “For God ALONE my soul waits in silence: from Him comes my salvation.  He ONLY is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken.”  And then there’s me: and I know I don’t truly believe GOD ALONE is my rock—because I falter and question when the money isn’t there, when jobs are lost, when children don’t behave, when the human body fails, when the weather causes me fright.  No, my “rocks” are other things; worldly things.  And I have to constantly confess that I put my trust in so many other things than Christ.  May He forgive this terrible sin and draw me closer to His side. 

So today, after another human life has been lost, after hundreds have lost homes and family members, when there is literally a swirling storm in just about every state of the country I live in, I have come again to my “go-to” Psalm.  And I recognize God for Who He is; Mighty, Just, Holy, Awesome, Powerful, Alpha and Omega…and I recognize myself for who I am: nothing.   I will be waiting until my final breathe to become something, someone; a holy, complete being living in eternal peace with hundreds of thousands of other souls who have waited to become their most complete being, who have endured many hardships greater than I and have claimed, like me, that “from Him (only) comes my salvation.”  And so we wait…

We wait while we suffer physical illnesses…

We wait while we suffer emotional heartbreak…

We wait while we watch our loved ones suffer…

We wait while we search for jobs…

We wait while our children grow up before us…

We wait in all our human limitations and know that God promises us this:  “But they who WAIT for the Lord will renew their strength; They shall mount up with sings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” Isaiah 40:31(ESV)  God designed us to wait—to wait UPON HIM—for we are so in need of Him…so desperately in need.  He alone IS our salvation!

Will you join me in this journey of waiting?  And not just waiting, as in waiting for the next greatest thing to come along (the grass is definitely greener on the other side, right?) but truly waiting UPON THE LORD. 

2 Corinthians 1:9, 10b “Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death.  But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead…on HIM we have set our HOPE that He will deliver us again.” (ESV)

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