Author: Eerig

Loves You the Most!

Tangled [1]by Disney was a fun animated movie; I confess I liked it, except for one part. After the evil villain bogus “mother” sings her Mother Knows Best song, they have the following exchange:

Evil villain mother: I love you very much dear

Rapunzel: I love you more

Evil villain mother: I love you most

This dialogue offended me greatly coming from the evil villain “mother” since it has always represented an affectionate moment between my children and me. However, since nothing in our family can remain only a pleasant exchange without becoming competitive, each child attempted to find a better superlative to add to the dialogue. The final winning version ran as follows,

“I love you the most of the best to infinity, to googol, ha ha, I win.”

From that point on, the competition became who could still remember this phrase. (Yeah… we are weird) My youngest gave up recently on even attempting and it made me sad.

I have a son who will be graduating this week, barring disaster and unforeseen circumstances. This son is my true middle child, not the oldest, not the first boy. Since that was also my position in my family of origin there is much I can understand about his struggles. However many parts of his personality come straight from his father. He has a tremendous wanderlust. Checking off new countries visited and new stamps in his passport is a game to him. In fact, everything becomes a game or competition to him, also a trait that comes from his father. He also shares his father’s intense love for all things historical. He loves to debate international politics, but you need a degree in geography to follow his conversations. I assume this would explain why, similar to his father, he has an excellent sense of direction. That should serve him well if he continues to tramp the globe.

He is my skeptic and my risk taker, my Mr. Charisma, which explains why I have been much in prayer for him recently as he will very soon be making his own way in the world. As I prayed today I repeated words that I have prayed many times before, “God, I know you love him the most!” However, this time the answer returned in my spirit,

“Yes, I love him the most, I showed that when I died for him

I love him the best, which means I will always do what is “best” for him, even if that seems difficult at the time.

I love him to infinity and beyond! My love for him will never end!

I love him beyond even googol; I will show my love to him in more ways than you can even count!

Yes of course in any competition of love for my boy, I win!”

 So I sit here with tears on my face committing another child, who never in reality was mine to keep, back into the hands of the Father who “loves him the most of the best to infinity, to googol, ha ha, God wins.”

…but I will still cry at his graduation…

[1]

Tangled. Dirs. Nathan Greno and Byron Howard. Disney. 2010. Film

How do you tell your Mom, “thank you”

My mother is an amazing woman, and today just happens to be her birthday. She never wanted to marry or have children, yet somehow managed to raise seven children. When I think realistically about how difficult it was for her; that feat becomes even more incredible to me.

The church my father pastored was small, the congregation was not wealthy.  Dad had to work a full-time secular job as well as pastor. In the early days, my mother would clean house for his boss’s wife. I still do not know how they managed to feed us. I do know we had a garden, we picked berries, my brother and Dad went hunting for small game. She baked bread and stretched everything to the absolute limit. Even now, my family has decided when the apocalypse hits, we are going to Grandma’s; she will be stocked up and ready.

One of my earliest memories is of my grandmother rocking me to sleep in her old wooden rocking chair. The reason is for that memory is that my mother and father were both working in either the shoe factory or the pickle factory at that time. Olfactory memories are also some of the strongest earliest memories. I remember my mother’s hands always smelled like wet tissues because she had been crying. It was hard, and there were conflicts.  Somehow, God enabled my parents to stick together in spite of it all. Perhaps as children, we should have been shielded from the realities of what they were facing, but there was no way for them to do that. It was our reality, and we just had to deal with it.  

Somewhere in the chaos of trying to keep us all together, my mother, out of desperation I believe, came to a place of total dependence on God. If we were going to survive, God was going to have to intervene in our lives. Each of us was given a Biblical name that had a promise connected in some way to it. We were intentionally dedicated to God. She always prayed that if we were not going to follow God as adults, He would take us to heaven as infants when we were still innocent. We are all still alive, so therefore, we had better live up to her, and God’s expectations.

She also learned to pray continually, fervently, and wholeheartedly. Someday, as one of my favorite preachers says, “I want to see the video” of the lives that have been impacted by her prayers. My mother does not tell people lightly that she will pray for them and then forget about it. She carries them on her heart and lifts them to God continually. She also, whenever it is in her power, puts feet to her prayers. She has taken people into her home, fed them, counseled them, nursed them and covered them with prayer– literally, she crochets blankets for people and prays for them while she makes them. She has never been too busy for anyone in need.

How do you thank someone for being this sort of mother? Impossible really.  However, now that I have adult children myself, I feel I have a different perspective. What would make me feel most blessed by my children?  I know my mother would be blessed if her children would do the following:

Surrender our lives to God and actively follow His will, completely.

Live with awareness and compassion for the needy people around us.

Do not whine and complain, recognize that all we have is a gift from God and be thankful.

Accept the mantle to pray for our children with the fervency and faith that she has shown in her prayers for us.

Share our lives with her. So, yeah, call her more often; visit her as often as humanly possible.

Promise her that she will see us in heaven someday.

Proverbs 31:28-31

“28 Her children rise up and call her blessed;
    her husband also, and he praises her:
29 “Many women have done excellently,
    but you surpass them all.”
30 Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain,
    but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.
31 Give her of the fruit of her hands,
    and let her works praise her in the gates.”

Thank you, Mom!

Keeping it Clean

“Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing is like shoveling the sidewalk before it stops snowing.” ― Phyllis Diller

Few tasks are more like the torture of Sisyphus than housework, with its endless repetition: the clean becomes soiled; the soiled is made clean, over and over, day after day. —Simone de Beauvoir

Laundry is, of course a state ,of being never a completed task. The perpetual requirement of housework can be a bit of a grind. No matter how spotless it was five minutes ago, unless you live alone, chances are good it will not remain that way. It seems every time you turn around, chaos theory explodes before your very eyes.  You want to hunt down that bothersome butterfly!

It would seem wise to keep things clean, rather than indulge in sudden manic attacks of OCD. Keeping clean requires a vigilance to detail that does not seem to come naturally to any of the members of my household. Then I face the Shakespearean question- to do (it myself) or not to do (wait for teenage boys to suddenly feel the need for order and cleanliness).

I was thinking of this in a spiritual context today, while I was pondering the futility of cleaning the glass door to the laundry room.  While I was growing up in the church there seemed to be a very great emphasis on initial experiences of salvation, sanctification, total surrender, being filled with the Spirit etc., and precious little on how to maintain and grow in one’s spiritual life. I remember feeling clean on the inside and thinking…what now?  To the best of my remembrance, I was told to read my Bible, pray and share the good news with others. Therefore, I started reading a chapter a day to keep the devil away, prayed until I fell asleep and would have shared with someone if they had asked and I could not find anyone else to help them.

Needless to say, this particular way of Christian living did not lead to overwhelming growth and tremendous spiritual fruit in my life; it also, unfortunately, went on for way too long. Sudden manic attacks of conscience resulting from life pressures would lead me to clean up my spiritual life, but I was not keeping it clean.

Temple cleaning is described in 2 Corinthians 6:16-7:1 (ESV)

For we are the temple of the living God; as God said,

“I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them,
    and I will be their God,
    and they shall be my people.
17 Therefore go out from their midst,
    and be separate from them, says the Lord,
and touch no unclean thing;
    then I will welcome you,
18 and I will be a father to you,
    and you shall be sons and daughters to me,
says the Lord Almighty.”

7:1 Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.

Let me make some suggestions for consideration:

We are more aware of what might be defiling to our body, but what might be defiling to our spirit? What entertainment, fantasies, critical spirit, judgment, prejudices, and plain old mean-spiritedness are putting dark smudges on the windows of our temple?

The other lesson I wish someone had told me is that I was responsible for my spiritual growth, not some other preacher, or teacher. I could be as close to God as I wanted to be, but it was up to me.

James 4:7-9 (ESV) says it well,

7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

You draw near and He will draw near.  Whatever works to challenge you to seek God, do it! I found I needed the discipline and accountability of weekly in-depth Bible study. If I am teaching or facilitating the group, I work even harder.

There are also the footsteps of the great followers who have gone before us. Obviously, they figured something out or we would never have heard of their lives.  I started finding my heroes and putting my little size fives into their big footsteps.  At first, when my children were small, I did not have time to sit down and read, so I listened to audio recordings while I worked and cleaned and cooked and drove (well you get the picture).  My children would probably find the voice of Elizabeth Elliot, Corrie Ten Boom and several others familiar if they heard them today. Challenge yourself with those who make you take big steps not just those who make you feel comfortable. 

Everyone needs discipleship, even if they have grown up in the church and heard the stories all their lives. Matthew 28:19-20 (ESV)

19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

I think we sometimes skip over the fact that we will need to be taught to be able to do what He has commanded us. We need to be taught and we need to teach others. Ahead of us on the path of life, someone’s light is shining that we can follow. Behind us, someone is desperately straining to see our light. Let’s keep the glass clean so we will shine brightly before them.

Putting my face on…

It is time for another confession. I am a Christian woman who uses cosmetics. My Asian friends are scratching their heads wondering why that would be a big deal. The do not understand my conservative western church upbringing where wearing make-up put you in the Jezebel and Delilah category. Although, I would hasten to point out that my biblical namesake used cosmetics to her advantage and managed still to intervene and save her people. (See Esther 2:8-9) It all began when we lived for eight years in Mississippi. In that setting, a woman just did not go to work without putting her face on first.

Now, at my age, it has become a matter of alleviating the concern of others. The few individuals who have seen me makeup-less have remarked that I looked very tired. One even asked me if I was ill. Seriously. Therefore, for the good of humankind and the prevention of Yzma-esque reactions from my fellow human beings (living proof dinosaurs once roamed the earth. Look at those wrinkles! What is holding this woman together?)…I choose to indulge in some relatively harmless forms of image manipulation. Although, I will confess to feeling more than a little deflated when one of my beautiful young Chinese friends felt compelled to present me with a gift of anti-aging transforming eye cream, I did recover after a few hours of mourning my lost youth and skin resiliency. After all, it is pretty good stuff and more expensive than I would buy for myself.

The problem with the makeup prone mindset results if allow we that philosophy to infect us spiritually. If I allow the opinions of others to determine my worth based on the youthfulness, or not, of my face; rather than on the ability of God to use me even in my more mature state.

Take Anna for instance. Luke 2:35-37 36 And there was a prophetess, Anna…She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin, 37 and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day.

At eighty-four, she still found a place to serve in the temple and more importantly, she was still watching for the Lord to come. 38 “38 And coming up at that very hour she began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.”

The other problem is that spiritually if we are never “real”, always putting on a face, we are never willing to be vulnerable and confess our faults, hurts, failures to one another so that others can pray for our healing. (James 5:16) If we never allow others to see us suffering, we miss the support of those around us and deny them the ability to be the hands of Christ to us. (Romans 12:15)

The chief concern would be the idea of presenting a face to God, as if He could not see beyond my pretense of togetherness into the quivering mess of insecurities inside. Hebrews 14:13 says it rather bluntly, “13 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” No amount of make-up will ever hide who I truly am from God.

How much better it is to come before him openly, freely, hiding nothing, and as this scripture states, come unveiled.

2 Corinthians 3:17-18 (ESV)

17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 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.

There is only one way to become more beautiful in an aging body; that is to behold His glory and be transformed into His image. Nothing is more beautiful than looking like Jesus. 

Brothers and Sisters

I once had a conversation with a Chinese Christian friend regarding her frustrations with some other members of our local gathering of believers. Attempting to explain the apparent pettiness of the behavior she was observing, I responded that they were acting like siblings in a family. She looked at me blankly. She had grown up under the one-child policy in mainland China as had most of her acquaintances, and she had no context to understand the behavior of brothers and sisters.

Scripture is abundantly clear about how we should be treating one another as the family of God.

Romans 12:10 (ESV) Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.

2 Corinthians 13:11 Finally, brothers, rejoice. Aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.

Galatians 5:13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

1 Timothy 5:1-2, Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers,older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity.

Unfortunately, many children in the family of God struggle to put into practice the self-sacrifice required to love in this manner, myself included. What prevents us from living this out within our fellowships? I grew up as the middle child in a family of seven children. Often I felt as if I were sitting in the eye of the hurricane as it all swirled around me. However, here are a few observations I have made about siblings that I think could serve as a warning to brothers and sisters in Christ.

  • Siblings can be territorial. If you grow up sharing your room, your clothes, your food, your parents etc., you can long to carve out a space that belongs to you alone.  

Within the fellowship that can mean that, you feel your specific ministry, focus, or cause should have priority when it comes to resources, space, and exposure.

  • Children may bond with one particular sibling at a time. Depending on the child’s needs for a playmate, confidant, defender, or whatever, they may be drawn more closely to one sibling over another. No one could beat my brother Joe for imaginative play, but if I wanted a quiet conversation, he might not have been my first choice.

Within the fellowship, on the positive side, this should mean that we could find someone who will help us with whatever area of struggle we are facing. Negatively, it sometimes means that we only stay close to those who make us feel good about ourselves, which can lead to cliques that exclude and isolate others.

  • Siblings can be brutally honest, even harsh in their criticism of one another while still feeling that they love one another. I am frequently appalled at how harshly my teenage sons can criticize each other’s politics, choices, and ethics (The question last night- who would you be responsible for saving after an apocalypse – nearly developed into one!). Yet how often, privately of course, they express concern about the well-being and future of the other. The philosophy seems to be as follows: I disagree with everything you say, but I love you because you are my brother.

The enemy is determined to divide and conquer our fellowships, by magnifying the minutia to destroy unity.  What we are willing to “die” for, should be the essentials of doctrine and faith, not just our desire to be right and win the arguments. Most importantly, remember, we are blood relatives, by the blood of Christ; we must love one another.

  • Families can develop an isolationist, us against the world, philosophy.  I do remember some epic battles involving swinging purses, battering flute cases, and me ending up with a black eye. While a family may seem to insult one another with abandon, no one from outside the family had better try it! I feel that my own personal family lines were a bit blurry; since we tended to adopt and include others into our clan on a regular basis. There was so much togetherness going on that our friends wanted to join us.

Within our fellowships, yes, we have been called out to be separate from the world; however, there needs to be something that attracts others. The family lines need to be blurry enough to let others into our togetherness regardless of whom, where, or from what they may have come to us.

  • Siblings are forever. At some point, most people will lose their parents, but for the most part, our siblings will be with us throughout our lives.  In these days of social media, it is possible to stay as connected as we are willing to be. Myself, I find great comfort in that fact. Like walking through the wild world, knowing someone’s got your back! Yes, I do realize how blessed I am to have siblings like that.

However, that is exactly my point about the family of God. No matter where you are if you can find another follower of Christ, you have found family. When we first moved overseas, and I was overwhelmed with culture shock, I would find myself weeping whenever I attended church. I know the locals thought I was crazy, but it felt safe; it felt like home.

In spite of the multitude of divisive issues these days, but I found myself wanting to sing this gospel song,

We Will Stand

Sometimes it’s hard for me to understand
Why we pull away from each other so easily
Even though we’re all walking the same road
Yet we build dividing walls between our brothers and ourselves

But I, I don’t care what label you may wear
If you believe in Jesus, you belong with me
The bond we share is all I care to see
And we can change this world forever
If you will join with me, join and sing

Oh you’re my brother, you’re my sister
So take me by the hand
Together we will work until He comes
There’s no foe that can defeat us
When we’re walking side by side
As long as there is love, we will stand

Loneliness or Solitude

Much has been said and written in the last few years regarding the concept of “community” in the family of believers. I do not disagree with the principle involved. We need community, fellowship, and to each use our God-given gifts as parts of the whole that makes up the body of Christ.

Somehow, that teaching seems to overlook the fact that for whatever reason some do not have a community. Some are serving where they do not have access to other believers. There are those who in answering the call of God, or for refusing to compromise their convictions for companionship, feel very alone.

Certainly if at all possible, one should seek out other believers as Hebrews 10:24-25(ESV) states, “24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another”.

In the mean time, while you are searching, here are some suggestions to redeem the time of loneliness.

First, turn your moments of aloneness into a garden of solitude. Let God redeem your alone time as an opportunity to focus on and fellowship with Him. Henri Nouwen suggests,

“To live a spiritual life we must first find the courage to enter into the desert of our loneliness and to change it by gentle and persistent efforts into a garden of solitude. This requires not only courage but also a strong faith.”[i]

The following is an old German Hymn that expresses this so well.

The Paradise of God

Where the heart of God is resting,

I have found my rest;

Christ who found me in the desert,

Laid me on His breast.

There in deep unhindered fullness

Doth my joy flow free—

On through everlasting ages,

Lord, beholding Thee.

There I find a blessed stillness

In His courts of love;

All below but strife and darkness,

Cloudless peace above.

‘Tis a solitary pathway

To that fair retreat—

Where in deep and sweet communion

Sit I at His feet.

In that glorious isolation,

Loneliness how blest,

From the windy storm and tempest

Have I found my rest.

Learning from Thy lips for ever

All the Father’s heart,

Thou hast, in that joy eternal,

Chosen me my part.

There, where Jesus, Jesus only,

Fills each heart and tongue,

Where Himself is all the radiance

And Himself the song.

Here, who follows Him the nearest,

Needs must walk alone;

There like many seas the chorus,

Praise surrounds the throne.

Here a dark and silent pathway;

In those courts so fair

Countless hosts, yet each beholding

Jesus only, there.

By T. P., (this was all that was listed for the author)

Second, realize that ultimately no one will be able to meet your deep emotional needs fully except the One who made you. Trying to meet those needs through another person leads to a grasping type of neediness. Nouwen says,

“No friend or lover, no husband or wife, no community or commune will be able to put to rest our deepest cravings for unity and wholeness. And by burdening others with these divine expectations, of which we ourselves are only partially aware, we might inhibit the expression of free friendship and love and evoke instead feelings of inadequacy and weakness.”[ii]

Christian writer Beth Moore puts it this way, “God is the only One who is not repelled by the depth and length or our needs”.[iii]

Thirdly, truly realize that you are never alone if you are in relationship with God. Hebrews 13:5, “I will never leave you nor forsake you”.

The following is a quote by Elisabeth Elliot relating a thought by Amy Carmichael; both women were well acquainted with loneliness.

“Some of you are perhaps feeling that you are voyaging just now on a moonless sea. Uncertainty surrounds you. There seem to be no signs to follow. Perhaps you feel about to be engulfed by loneliness. There is no one to whom you can speak of your need. Amy Carmichael wrote of such a feeling when, a missionary of 26 (she had to leave where she was and travel to another country). “All along, let us remember, we are not asked to understand, but simply to obey…On July 28, I sailed and as the boat containing my friends moved off from the ship, a chill of loneliness shivered through me. Then like a warm love-clasp came the long-loved lines- ‘And only Heaven is better that to walk with Christ at midnight, over moon-less seas.’ I couldn’t be frightened then. Praise him for the moonless seas- all the better opportunity for proving Him to be indeed the El Shaddai, ‘the God who is Enough.’”

Elisabeth goes on to say, “Let me add my own word of witness to hers and to that of the tens of thousands who have learned that He is indeed Enough. He is not all we would ask for (If we were honest), but it is precisely when we do not have what we would ask for, and only then, that we can perceive His all –sufficiency. It is when the sea is moonless that the Lord has become my Light.”[iv]

God please help me find “Enough” in You today!

[i] Nouwen, Henri J. M. Reaching Out. New York: Doubleday, 1975.

[ii] Ibid.

[iii] Moore, Beth. Breaking Free Updated Edition. Nashville : LifeWay Press, 2009.

[iv] Elliot, Elisabeth. Keep a quiet heart. Manila: OMF Literature Inc., 1995.

Beauty – Does it matter?

Recently my boys, 15 and 17 years old, and I went to see the movie Monument Men. It sparked an interesting debate, which is the only form of communication acceptable to these particular teenage male siblings, regarding whether or not Art is worth someone’s life. Ideas being proposed were as follows:

Art is often symbolic of greater meaning. Much of the art that was being saved in this film was religiously themed, as well as being of great importance to the cultural identity of the people where it was located. They were attempting to preserve someone’s national treasures.

If those who were part of the unit believed that what they were preserving was worth their life, perhaps it was, at least to them.

The opposing position stated that no mere object was worth the sacrifice of a human’s life. Negating any deeper significance, these works of art may contain or inspire.

I always feel moved by the following song by Sara Groves

Why It Matters

Sit with me and tell me once again
Of the story that’s been told us
Of the power that will hold us
Of the beauty, of the beauty
Why it matters

Speak to me until I understand
Why our thinking and creating
Why our efforts of narrating
About the beauty, of the beauty
And why it matters

Surely, when we look at the natural world around us; we understand that beauty matters to our creative God. Not once – but twice, when God gave instructions for the temple he gave an amazing anointing.

Exodus 31:3-5(ESV) and repeated again in Exodus 35:31

3 and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship, 4 to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze, 5 in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, to work in every craft.

The Spirit of God was given for the express purpose of enabling the workmen to devise artistically what God was imaging perfectly. 

Artistic expressions of devotion were affirmed by Jesus, when he rebuked those who criticized the woman who anointed Him as an expression of her love.

6 But Jesus said, “Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me.

He does not call it worthwhile, noble, acceptable, and appropriate or any other uptight word; He just calls it a “beautiful thing”. Such artistic words…

The ultimate expression of all that is beautiful comes in the description of the New Jerusalem given in Revelations 21. The writer of Hebrews 11:10 said that Abraham was looking forward to this city whose “designer and builder is God”. He knows how to do it right! 

Watching the news the last few weeks from Syria, Ukraine, Venezuela, Thailand and the CAR, has brought the last verses of Sara Groves song to mind.

Like the statue in the park
Of this war torn town
And it’s protest of the darkness
And the chaos all around
With its beauty, how it matters
How it matters

Show me the love that never fails
The compassion and attention
Midst confusion and dissention
Like small ramparts for the soul
How it matters

Like a single cup of water
How it matters

Our world so desperately needs the beauty of the love of God! However, we express that beauty, whether by creating the statue or giving the cup of water; it matters!

The Author is Present

Even in the very limited capacity in which I am writer, I find it incredibly frustrating how difficult it is to communicate ideas effectively. Often I long for the ability to represent with greater clarity the thoughts God has laid on my heart. Author Annie Dillard says, “The written word is weak. Many people prefer life to it. Life gets your blood going…Writing is mere writing…It appeals only to the subtlest senses- the imagination’s vision, the imagination’s hearing- and the moral sense, and the intellect. The writing that you do…is barely audible to anyone else.” [1]

It is like a two year old attempting to describe the magnitude of Niagara Falls, or an artist who can never quite reveal visibly the image that rests in her imagination. If only I could say it like I feel it, or better yet sit down with you and explain what I mean. Even then, I fear the words to illustrate the intricacies of the message would fail me. What I can give is only a pale fragment, like a corner torn from one of the multitudinous journals I have scribbled in for a lifetime.

Since the notes that I pass on are filtered through such a limited scribe, let me recommend that you go to the source yourself. John 16:13-14 (ESV) states,

13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

Henry Blackaby describes it as follows:

Because you have the Holy Spirit, He guides you into all truth and teaches you all things. You understand spiritual truth because the Holy Spirit works in your life. You cannot understand God’s Word unless the Spirit of God teaches you. When you read the Word, the Author Himself is present to instruct you. Truth is never discovered, truth is revealed. When the Holy Spirit reveals truth to you, He is not leading you to an encounter with God. That is the encounter with God![2]

How incredible it is to have the Author present to instruct you! He sits down with you to explain what you need to know about God. What is wrong if that is not our experience that when we read the Scriptures? Perhaps we have never turned from our sins and invited the Holy Spirit to dwell within and guide us.

1 Corinthians 2:14-15 states, “The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

Maybe you need to meet the author…

Hebrews 5:9 Amplified Bible

9 And, [His completed experience] making Him perfectly [equipped], He became the Author and Source of eternal salvation to all those who give heed and obey Him,

[1]

Dillard, Annie. The Writing Life. New York: Harper Perennial, 1989.

[2]

Blackaby, Henry, Richard Blackaby and Claude King. Experiencing God. Nashville: Lifeway Press, 2007.

I am not a good parent

     I am actually not a very good parent. There, I confessed it. I said it out in the open for the entire world to hear. My husband is the education commissioner over our denominations colleges, seminaries etc. in Asia. He has a grueling travel schedule and so is seldom home. For the past five years, living overseas I have been in the unique position of being a married single parent to two teenage boys. Beyond the obvious challenges of being a mother and raising boys, the fact is that I have never enjoyed the hard work of character formation.

     You know, all that discipline, correction, reproving, I just wanted them to want to do the right thing without my having to make them. Yes, I understand fallen human nature and the need to instill morals, righteousness, and obedience to God’s commands. I know a child with no boundaries will go up selfish, entitled, and spoiled. However, my intense dislike of being the boundary police has caused my lines to waver and be inconsistent more often than not. I pray God will have mercy and fill the many gaps I left with His grace.

     Now that I have two adult children out on their own, and hopefully another soon to leave the nest; I find my relationship to them much more relaxed. Now that I do not feel compelled to “fix” them, I can enjoy just knowing them. I would so much rather discuss writing and literature with my oldest, enjoy arts and crafts with my second, discuss world politics and social causes with my third, and share music with my youngest; than I would force them to eat right, be polite, do their homework and go to bed on time!

Having spent all my parenting years struggling to find the proper balance between mercy and punishment, I was intrigued recently by this quote from John Stott,

“All parents know the costliness of love, and what it means to be torn apart by conflicting emotions, especially when there is a need to punish the children. Perhaps the boldest of all human models of God in the Scripture is the pain of parenthood which is attributed to him in Hosea, chapter 11.” [i]

In Hosea God speaks of his relationship with his children like a parent.

  11 When Israel was a child, I loved him,
    and out of Egypt I called my son…
3 Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk;
    I took them up by their arms,
    but they did not know that I healed them.
4 I led them with cords of kindness,
    with the bands of love,
and I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws,
    and I bent down to them and fed them.

He then describes their incredible rebellion and disobedience.

“They have refused to return to me”; “My people are bent on turning away from me.” “Ephraim has surrounded me with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit,”

God knows they deserve only judgment, but the father heart of God cries out,

“8 How can I give you up, O Ephraim?
    How can I hand you over, O Israel?
    …My heart recoils within me;
    my compassion grows warm and tender.”

      So I wondered, does God ever long to get beyond the continual discipline, need for constant correction phase of relationship with us? John 15:14 seems to indicate that He does.

“14 You are my friends if you do what I command you.” God as a good parent wants all that he teaches us to become so ingrained in us that it is obvious that He put his law within us, and wrote it on our hearts. (Jeremiah 31:33) It is this internalization of values, which we all long to see in our own children.

     When we love Him, we desire to please Him and do what He commands, and then the best part happens; He starts calling us friends. No longer needing the constant rebuke and correction of children, but having such a desire for unbroken fellowship that we follow His commands so that we do not hurt our friend.

I love being friends with my children! While I realize that I will never get beyond the need for correction from the Father in heaven, I am longing for more moments of sharing friendship.

[i]

Stott, John. The Cross of Christ. 20th anniversary edition. Nottingham: Intervarsity Press, 1986,2006.

I thought I knew the story…


Growing up in a Christian home, school, Bible college, I am constantly amazed that God can continue to teach me from stories I have heard all my life.  Surely, I could not learn something new from the story of Daniel and the lion’s den. Why have I never realized this before? The speaker in the church we attend pointed out that Daniel was obeying a command of God given to Jeremiah the prophet when he prayed. The command was given in Jeremiah 29:4-7,

4 “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce…. 7 But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.

It has been a while since I brushed up on OT prophetical literature, but it is there in Daniel 9:1-2,

In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, by descent a Mede, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans— 2 in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years that, according to the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years.

So yes, it is quite possible that Daniel read and followed the words of Jeremiah to seek the welfare of the city where he was exiled, and that is what he was praying for when he prayed three times a day. 

Feeling only a very small measure of what it is like to live far away from one’s homeland, compare expat to exile, I am convicted that I do not pray for the welfare of the city-state where I live.

However, that was not all I learned. In Daniel chapter 6, the story of the lion’s den, Daniel is shown following his custom of prayer, thanksgiving, petition, and plea (ESV). Yet not once does he receive any reassurance or promise from God- no answer- until he is already face-down in the dust at the bottom of the den and with roaring lions licking their chops over his head. In fact, I think he did not even have an opportunity to apply these “helpful” strategies, and probably was curled up in a fetal position waiting for the fangs until the room started to glow and the guy with wings carrying lion-sized, extra strength, duct tape showed up!

Somehow, Daniel did not need the constant reassurance I seem to demand from God. He knew he would probably die since there was no indication that God promised him deliverance. He just kept on with his normal life of devotion, which may even have included praying for the welfare of the city whose officials were trying to kill him. All day long, he may have waited for the foolishly arrogant, now repentant king to find a loophole in the law. No messenger came with assurance from God he would be delivered, no last minute reprieve arrived, and yet the king gives the greatest testimony, “May your God, whom you serve continually, deliver you!” Whether as the highest counselor in the land, or the man condemned to be torn apart by lions, with no assurance of heavenly intervention he continued to serve.

Wow! Maybe I need to go back to Sunday School…