Grace in the Wilderness

I spent the weekend with a dear friend with whom I have walked through the wilderness, both hers and mine, many times.  We have grappled with struggles that broke us and nearly drowned us.  Over the many years that we have spent time together, beginning in our college apartment, we have heard from God through His Word and through each other.  And what He has spoken most clearly is this in Jeremiah 31:2: 

      The people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness.  

This, of course, was directed to the people of Israel as Jeremiah was prophesying their restoration after God's judgment on them.  But we, too, have wildernesses and swords, famines and plagues.  We often live in the darkness, unable to see the light at the end of the tunnel.  

But there is grace, always grace, in our wildernesses. My friend and I always find it in our times together.  For us, it has often been a comforting word from the Lord, like the promise that joy comes in the morning after a night of weeping (Psalm 30:5).  It has been one another's tears, and the joy of seeing God in the midst of our turmoil.  We remind each other that we are never outside of God's plans for us.  And while the wildernesses have abounded, the grace of God that we have found has abounded all the more.  

For God through Jeremiah goes on to say:  When Israel sought for rest, the Lord appeared to him from far away.  I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you. (verses 2-3)  

My friend and I call these sorts of verses our "grace in the wilderness" verses.  Where have you found grace in the wildernesses of your life?    

Don't lose your focus

I have a confession.   I hate politics.  And my husband's undergraduate degree is in history!  :) Every four years, during the Presidential Election cycle, we are inundated with political commercials.  The constant slander of one candidate or the other is so discouraging to me.  It is not long before the gloom and doom articles come out which all claim that our country will not last or how certain people want to move to another country if so and so becomes president.   It's easy to get our eyes so focused on hoping in a particular person or political party that we forget who our only Savior is.   No mere man or political party can change the hearts of the American people or any people for that matter.  Even if all the laws in America were changed to reflect biblical morality, it still wouldn't change people's hearts.  Remember in the Old Testament how the Israelites were given the Law?  It was a gift but still did not fix their hearts.  Our only hope is through Jesus Christ.

Almost nine years ago, I had the opportunity to visit my Susu (Kenyan for grandmother) as she was struggling with cancer.  It was the last time I got to see her alive.  I had the privilege of staying with her one Sunday morning while everyone else went to church.  Susu asked me to read her Isaiah 40.      Have you read Isaiah 40 recently?  If not, I would encourage you to do so especially if like me, you struggle with this election season.   Look specifically at verses 22-23

  [22] It is he who sits above the circle of the earth,
and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers;
who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
and spreads them like a tent to dwell in;
[23] who brings princes to nothing,
and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.
(Isaiah 40:22-23 ESV)

On this particular morning nine years ago, the news was just being released that Saddam Hussein had been captured.   Susu wanted to remind me that though our Armed Forces are great and mighty, it was really our Almighty God who brings "princes to nothing and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness".

Look to Christ!   Read the end of Isaiah 40.   He is the Creator and does not grow weary or faint.  Don't put your trust in men (or women).  You will constantly be disappointed if you do.  Put your trust in our Eternal and Everlasting God!


[28] Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable.
[29] He gives power to the faint,
and to him who has no might he increases strength.
[30] Even youths shall faint and be weary,
and young men shall fall exhausted;
[31] but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.
(Isaiah 40:28-31 ESV)

Pouring out

This is somewhere in Nashville, I think. The point being the clouds rolling in, bringing darkness and turmoil in the form of floods and power outages.  This is sometimes how our God operates.  

Remember the Israelites and their promise to obey all that the Lord had commanded them?  That lasted all of thirty seconds.  And yet it was hundreds of years and many judges and kings later that God finally poured out His wrath on His people, who were then carted off to foreign lands from their besieged cities, if they survived the plague, famine and sword.  

And here is what the Lord says about that final blow through the writer of Lamentations:  
              For the Lord will not cast off forever, but, though he cause grief, he will have 
              compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; for he does not
              willingly afflict or grieve the children of men.    (Lam. 3:31-33)

This is not a hateful God who afflicted them, but a God of incredible mercy, kindness and forbearance, a God who disciplines His children for their own good.   And ultimately, a God who poured out His awful wrath on His own Son so as to save us from it (the awful wrath that we deserved).  

And so we can sing with the words of Lamentations:   The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.  The Lord is my portion, says my soul, therefore I will hope in him.  (Lamentations 3:22-24)

This should cause your skin to tingle.  What a great and awesome God we have!

Loving Your Husband

Sarah's words this week (see below) are good ones.  With a birthday tomorrow, it's finally time to admit that I am an "older woman".  And as such, I have the responsibiity and the pleasure of training younger women.  Training them in what?  In loving their husbands, for one thing.  Isn't it easy to love your husband before he becomes your husband, when new love carries you over the minor irritations and issues, when just hearing his voice on the other end of the phone gets your heart pounding faster?  
And then you marry, and you have to learn to live with each other . . . ouch.  Your worst side comes out, and so does his.  

This is where weekly dates come in, a focus on serving this man you've married, and seeing him daily with the eyes of new love.  (I know . . . we're about to become empty nesters!)   

Each of us married a sinner, and so did each of our husbands.  In this vein, we are offering a women's Sunday school class this fall on The Excellent Wife, working through the joys and trials of serving and loving the sinners we live with.  I promise a gossip-free and gripe-free atmosphere in which to discuss the inner workings of our marriages.  

Please join us.  

Being the Older Woman

Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good,  and so train the young women to love their husbands and children,  to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.
(Titus 2:3-5 ESV)


What a wonderful system God instituted for us women to learn to grown in godliness.   And what a difficult command too.   How do we go about doing this?   If you are an older woman (and you are to someone), how do you join in with another woman in this type of relationship?   First you have to get to know a younger woman.   If you haven't noticed yet, our church has a lot of new young women.   This year the women will have many different opportunities to fellowship with one another.   But please look beyond the obvious.   These are not just times to hang out and have fun.   Consider them times to get to know a younger woman.  Take time to make connections that will go beyond the event and invite them to your home.   Pray that God will lay a woman on your heart this year to develop a closer relationship with.  Pray that God will give you the time and energy to pursue another lady.

The MacCreadys in Germany

Here they were in June.  Read Amy's blog at http://bavarianbriefs.blogspot.com/2012/08/im-humblest-person-i-know.html?spref=fb. to see where they are today.   Much food for thought here. 

You might enjoy all of her posts at bavarianbriefs.blogspot.com.  Isn't the cyber-world wonderful for keeping in touch?  

Bread Pans

A few months ago, I saw the perfect bread pans.   They were supposed to cook evenly, clean nicely and produce a wonderful loaf of bread.  I had to have them.   Then my bread would be great.  I thought about them, planned for them and saved for them.   Every time I made bread I kept thinking about how much better life would be with my new bread pans.   Eventually the day came when I had saved to buy these bread pans.  I carefully calculated my order, checked it twice and purchased them online (because shopping with 3 little ones is next to impossible in real stores).   The box arrived!   I couldn't help but imagine my fresh bread that I would make. In fact, I didn't even wait.  I made bread right away.    I don't think I even washed the pans.    That bread was one of the worst batches I have made.   It was dense and heavy.   No one seemed all that excited about eating any of it.  I still have a loaf in the freezer but am hesitant to thaw it out because it was so bad.   Needless to say, I was super disappointed.   Granted I don't think it was the bread pans that caused the bad bread, but they are not the miracle workers that I envisioned them to be.

John Calvin talks about our hearts being idol factories.  Do you see how I made these bread pans my idol?   Did you see the progression from having great bread to a great life?    When my bread pans "failed", I was dissatisfied.  Not just with them but with life.   Why?  Because I had allowed the bread pans to be my desire; that which would give me fulfillment and pleasure.  

Jeremiah says "The heart is deceitful above all things,and desperately sick; who can understand it? (17:9).    I am so thankful though that God does not leave us.  The Holy Spirit is working in me to will and to do what is pleasing to Him.

Have you had any "bread pan" experiences lately?  What is God teaching you about the idols in your life?  Do you need to repent of any idols?  God is merciful and will forgive.  What a gracious God we serve!

Boasting

Old North Church, in Boston.  Paul Revere's lantern church.  Amazing to see.   A reminder of the things that matter most.

I read this famous verse in my reading this morning; there's nothing to add to the wisdom of it.  

Thus says the Lord:  Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth.  For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.  (Jeremiah 9:23, 24) 

Let's skip right to the main point here:  we must understand and know Him.  Who is this God we claim to follow?  Where is He found?  What do we really know of Him?  

We know Him as the Lord of Scripture; read the Word voraciously, like a thirsty traveler looking for water and finally obtaining it, like a dry parched earth finally soaking in the satisfying rain.  Know Him.  

Then, look for Him; He is the God of history.  He practices His righteousness, love, and justice here in this place.  We see signs of it all around us as well as in the Biblical record.  He is not a God far off.  Remind yourself of His mighty acts in your own life.  He sent His Son for your sake, to save you from His own wrath, should you choose to accept that.  The resurrection of His Son is a historic fact, one we do well to understand.  

Why these amazing acts from the King of Kings and Lord of Lords?  Because in these things He delights.  Delights!  His joy is in loving us steadfastly, in doing us good, and in showing His justice and righteousness on the earth.  Imagine!  

Boast in these things, and in nothing else.  

The message of the Bible in 240 words

God is the sovereign, transcendent and personal God who has made the universe, including us, his image-bearers. Our misery lies in our rebellion, our alienation from God, which, despite his forbearance, attracts his implacable wrath.

But God, precisely because love is of the very essence of his character, takes the initiative and prepared for the coming of his own Son by raising up a people who, by covenantal stipulations, temple worship, systems of sacrifice and of priesthood, by kings and by prophets, are taught something of what God is planning and what he expects.

In the fullness of time his Son comes and takes on human nature. He comes not, in the first instance, to judge but to save: he dies the death of his people, rises from the grave and, in returning to his heavenly Father, bequeaths the Holy Spirit as the down payment and guarantee of the ultimate gift he has secured for them—an eternity of bliss in the presence of God himself, in a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.

The only alternative is to be shut out from the presence of this God forever, in the torments of hell. What men and women must do, before it is too late, is repent and trust Christ; the alternative is to disobey the gospel (Romans 10:16;2 Thessalonians 1:8; 1 Peter 4:17). 

— D. A. Carson"The Biblical Gospel" in For Such a Time as This: Perspectives on Evangelicalism, Past, Present and Future, ed. Steve Brady and Harold Rowdon(London: Evangelical Alliance, 1986), 80
How do these words from D.A. Carson encourage you today?    Do you think he covers the message of the Bible in the 240 words?

Speaking of Covenants

The Old Testament prophets, where I have been reading lately, foretold calamity, surely, but were also given glimpses, some ever so small, of future redemption.  And we, most blessed, know what those glimpses looked forward to.  


Consider Jeremiah 31, where God describes through the prophet the new covenant that he was going to make with His people:  "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts."  And while the old covenant was always meant to be more about a relationship than about following rules, the fact that the Israelites found it impossible to keep pointed to the need for a new covenant, a covenant that would deal once and for all with sin.


We now know that covenant to which the prophets were pointing:  the new covenant in Christ's blood, the sacrifice of the final Paschal Lamb to take away the sins of the world, the last high priest offering Himself as the last sacrifice. (For a fuller discussion of this concept, see Michael Williams' Far as the Curse is Found, p. 218.)


What Jeremiah saw through a fog we see in reality--the Holy Spirit given to write God's law on our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.  Christ is the fulfillment of the entire old covenant--all God's promises to us are 'yes' in Christ (see 2 Corinthians 1:20) and our obedience now is possible because Christ by His Spirit lives in us.  Law is not now obsolete as much as fulfilled! and alive in us! because of Jesus.  


So the old covenant pointed forward to Christ, and the new covenant flows out from the perfect life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, which He performed on our behalf. 

And we are able, finally, to love the Lord our God with all our hearts, souls, minds and strength, and our neighbors as ourselves.  Praise God from whom this very blessing flows.

Up a Tree

This is our son-in-law cutting down the tree in our son's front yard.  (He watched YouTube videos to know how.)

This is our daughter watching anxiously as her husband cuts down our son's tree.  Proud but nervous.  



This is the new view from our son and daughter-in-law's new home. 

Worth the risk?  We all think so.  


Pastor Jim spoke on Sunday of the Psalmist's grateful heart in the midst of both good and bad times, the bad including being "surrounded" by nations, distress, severe discipline from God, rejection (see Psalm 118).   I don't know about you, but when I am surrounded by nations, I am anything but grateful.  Nervous, more like.  As for discipline from the Lord, stressed and whiny.  Rejection?  Depressed.  


This is why I need the Scriptures, by way of reminder.  I, for one, need to be reminded that it is "better to take refuge in the Lord" than to call my friends.  That "the Lord is on my side; I will not fear; what can man do to me?"  That "the Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation".  


I need to feed my soul daily with this Word that reminds me of God's faithfulness and promises.  And even then, I need the Holy Spirit throughout the day to remind me of what I've read.  Praise God that we are not in this life alone.  We dwell in the palm of His hand.  We are never out of his care.  


Practice this remembering.  And say with the Psalmist:  You are my God, and I will give thanks to you; you are my God; I will extol you.  Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!  (Psalm 118:28-29)