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New Year, Same God

Dear sister,

If you’re anything like me, your email box and social media news feed and snail mail box are all full of missives proclaiming messages like “New Year, new you!” and recommended lists of resolutions to make this time around. But let’s not concentrate on who you can be or will be. Let’s concentrate on who you ARE; and more importantly, since you are in Christ, who He is.

If you read through the Bible each year you’ve likely spent the past few days in the book of Hebrews. If you haven’t read it recently, I encourage you to do so because it’s a wonderful reminder as we head toward a new year—a summary of God’s faithfulness to His people. The writer begins by telling us who Jesus is—much greater than the angels, the Son of God who will sit at His right hand. “Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.” (Hebrews 2:1)

Next the writer quotes Psalm 8 (What is man that You are mindful of him?) and talks about how we are one with Christ: “For He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why He is not ashamed to call them brothers.” (2:11) And this is not an earthly sibling who drives you crazy; this Brother shares your pain. “Therefore He had to be made like His brothers in every respect, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because He Himself has suffered when tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted.” (2:17)

And in this New Year theme where we are likely reminded yet again how we fall short in keeping the resolutions we made so boldly in years past, we are told how Jesus is faithful (3:2) and exhorted “For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.” (3:14)

“Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation. For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for His name in serving the saints, as you still do. And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.” (6:9-12)

We fall short, but He does not. In all this talk about the person and character and works of Jesus, remember who you are. He calls us brothers (Hebrews 2:11), adopted sons (Ephesians 1:5), and his beloved bride (Isaiah 54:5). A few pages further on, in Revelation, we see the wedding feast of the Lamb. His Bride, messy and sinful and imperfect as she is, has made herself ready. But when the Book of Life is to be read, who is worthy to open it? Only Jesus, who redeemed us. (Revelation 5:9,12)

In 2017 it likely won’t matter whether you keep 30 resolutions or zero. But your faithfulness in knowing and proclaiming Him does matter. Rest in His finished work and remember He has already accomplished everything you need.

My prayer for you this New Year is “Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by Him without spot or blemish, and at peace. And count the patience of our Lord as salvation… You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.” (2 Peter 3:14-15, 17-18)

Love,

Sarah

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Fall On Your Knees

Dearest Sister,

Christmas is coming–A joyous time for some–a festive time of twinkling lights, abundant decorations, new gowns, parties, and gifts. Christmas cards keep people in touch with friends rarely seen. Buying frenzies, choosing perfect presents for others (or self) are the order of the season. Young men spend hard-earned wages on sparkly gems for their special girls. Young ladies are giddy with anticipation. Children daydream, write lists, beg, try to be good, rub sleepy eyes on Christmas Eve, hoping to hear Rudolph’s stomping on the roof, depositing Santa and his gift bag near the chimney. The elderly remember wistfully of holidays long ago.

Christmas is coming! A miserable time for some. Broken and dysfunctional relationships result in palpable sadness and depression. Poverty, homelessness, mental instability… Unmet expectations, frustration, anger, hopelessness, fear, confusion.  Drunkenness abounds, attempting to drown memories and suffering into oblivion. That spouse or child or mama or daddy who sat at the Christmas table last year will be absent through death, infidelity and divorce, or waywardness of one sort or another. Broken hearts. Rejected hearts. Confused hearts. Inconsolable hearts.

Where are you, dear sister, on this spectrum between happiness and agony?

For a true child of the One whose birth the world pretends to celebrate or tries to obliterate with their Happy Holidays and X-Mas greetings, Christmas is not predominantly  about festivities and gift-giving. It really is about a Person, as clichêd as that may sound to some.  No matter our station in life, our present joy or sorrow, we must remember and retell the Story of this Person to ourselves and others this season: Immanuel. God with us.

The Old Testament told us the Redeemer was coming, the Rescuer of His people. And, indeed He came. God, the Son, “made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore, God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:7-11)

Sister, remember, long after all the lovely festivities are over, the generous gift-giving and receiving has joyfully played out and life resumes its everyday-ness,  remember Jesus said He came to give life and give it more abundantly. (John 10:10) When trials and sorrows and sadness never seem to abate, we can turn to the One who suffered persecution, torture, death, and God’s wrath in our place in order to set us free from our bondage to sin and death. Be mindful that He said His yoke is easy and His burden is light–in view of the eternal bliss He has promised.

Sing this song with me this Christmas season, meditating on and rejoicing in the story set in history long ago. Let it warm and encourage your heart and set your thinking right, dear friend. All else pales in light of this old story–Old, yet new and alive every day. Sing–and fall on your knees.
ONCE IN ROYAL DAVID’S CITY
Written by Cecil F. Alexander (1818-1895

“Once in royal David’s city
Stood a lowly cattle shed,
Where a mother laid her Baby

In a manger for His bed:
Mary was that mother mild,
Jesus Christ her little Child.

He came down to earth from heaven
Who is God and Lord of all,
And His shelter was a stable,
And His cradle was a stall:
With the poor, and mean and lowly
Lived on earth, our Savior holy.

Jesus is our childhood’s pattern,
Day by day like us He grew;
He was little, weak, and helpless,
Tears and smiles like us He knew:
And He feeleth for our sadness,
And He shareth in our gladness.

And our eyes at last shall see Him
Thru His own redeeming love;
For that Child, so dear and gentle,
Is our Lord in heav’n above,
And He leads His children on
To the place where He is gone.

Not in that poor lonely stable,
With the oxen standing by,
We shall see Him, but in heaven,
Set at God’s right hand on high;
When like stars His children crowned
All in white shall wait around.”

Reckon the things from His Word to be true–and therefore, be joyful this season and beyond.  The day of His arrival is coming soon. Look up. It may be today.

May your Christmas be bless-ed, my sister.

With love,
Cherry

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Thanks in All Things?

Dearest Sister,

Don’t you find it easy to be thankful when all is going well? We sit around artfully set tables laden with all the goodies of the season, take our piece of corn, and as we place it into the basket provided we take our turn expressing gratitude for particular good gifts in our lives.  “I’m glad I have a job. I’m thankful for my children. I’m grateful for the bounty God has given me. Good health is a blessing.  God kept me safe on my trip. What a marvel I am His child.”

Who isn’t thankful for these good things from God’s hand? But have you ever sat around a table where God was thanked for a severe trial in which one found herself?  For that baby lost? For that difficult person in life? The wayward child who breaks our hearts? The close friend who became a back-stabber? Our difficult spouse? For the disease that ravages one’s own body or that of a loved one? For financial downturn? For the everyday sorts of trials and sufferings which are inconvenient and discomforting? And the enabling to do so was because of the deep-seated knowledge that God is good, no matter what, that He did not capriciously ordain this difficult situation because He likes to watch His children suffer? Are we are able to give thanks because we know that it is in our weakness His strength is made perfect and complete? (2 Corinthians 12:8-10)

Look at Paul, a man marked for salvation by God, saved from a life of prodigious, dead religiosity and feverish zeal against Christ-lovers. God told His fearful and reluctant servant, Ananias, to receive a newly converted Saul (Paul), God’s chosen vessel, to whom “the Lord would show how many things he must suffer for My name’s sake.” And suffer he did–Mockings and multiple beatings, imprisonments and stonings, shipwrecked three times, sleepless nights, hunger,  thirst, cold and nakedness, persecuted by both Jews and Gentiles.  And yet, it is Paul who tells us of the fruit of the Spirit, contrary to the evil and selfish ambitions of the world…The fruit of the Spirit in light of all his sufferings. Patience? Self-Control? Love? Gentleness? Only one who knows that God is good in His grand sovereignty will exhibit these Spirit-imbued qualities with an appreciative attitude.  Without a heart of thanks in all things in our lives how would we be patient and kind and loving? If we are not grateful for trials we will not be joyful. We will only mumble and grumble or lash out, in essence accusing God of not knowing what He is doing.

During this season designated for Thanksgiving let’s ponder Scriptures on giving thanks.  Here are just a few.

Psalm 106:1. “Praise the Lord! Oh GIVE THANKS to the Lord, for He is good…”

Philippians 4:6. “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with THANKSGIVING let your requests be made known to God.”

COLOSSIANS 3:15. “And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be THANKFUL.”

Philippians 4:4. “REJOICE in the Lord ALWAYS: and again I say, REJOICE” (A rejoicer is one who is thankful.)

And this from Paul, the sufferer:

1 Thessalonians 5-16-18. “Rejoice ALWAYS, pray without ceasing, give THANKS in ALL circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

A mark of the pagan world around us is an ungrateful heart. Paul tells us in Chapter 1 of Romans, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, NOR WERE THEY THANKFUL…”

Dearest sister, we are not like the world. We are Christ’s and bear His likeness. We might say it begins and ends with this verse from 2 Corinthians 9:15.  Let us, together, with Paul, with all the saints in heaven and in earth, no matter our circumstances, shout for all the world to hear:  “THANKS BE TO GOD FOR HIS INDESCRIBABLE GIFT!” This gift is a person, the Lord Jesus, our sin-bearer, our living hope for the life to come where all our tears will be wiped away.

Giving thanks in ALL things with you,
Cherry

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From Fear to Gratitude

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My dear sister,

“When I am afraid, I put my trust in You. In God, Whose Word I praise, In God I trust; I shall not Be afraid. What can flesh do to me?”          Psalm 56:3-4

I’ve always been a bit of a scaredy- cat about many things. As a child it was chickens (that’s a story!) and being zipped up in duffle bags by mean bullies (good reason).  I was also afraid of leprosy (another mission field experience!). I knew I would contract it and would be sent away to a leper colony forever. My childhood fears gave way to big-girl terrors, fueled by more education and endless reading about the various things which were feared. The biggest anxiety in life was contracting a terminal illness, especially cancer. It hung over the head like Cicero’s Sword of Damocles. Most human  odds were against it due to a good diet, exercise, heritage, etc., etc., or so I tried to make myself believe, yet the fears seemed unconquerable.

We are told that most of what we fear never happens, so quit fearing, they say. And yet, God ordained cancer in my body in 2008.  How ironic, I thought…The fear of the getting was gone. It was here, in all it’s terrifying prognosis. The diagnosis was a dual cancer, aggressive, Stage 3.  The odds of survival were given, with and without this treatment or that.  We opted for the plan which included many rounds of chemotherapy and intense external and internal radiation. The risks of the treatments alone were cause for trepidation.

God’s Word says to “be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God which passes all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7) Easier said than done…Yet God takes our greatest fears and transforms them into His teaching tools for all sorts of deficiencies in our lives. “It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn Your statutes. The law of Your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces.” (Psalm 119:71-72)

It would be false to tell you the remedies were easy to endure. The fatigue was unlike any other-immobilizing.  Radiation was worse than the chemotherapy. Exactly fourteen days after chemo started, alone in my bathroom, I began pulling huge clumps of hair from my head.  I wept. Then God reminded me He had numbered the hairs on my head and now He was subtracting them for a season. Scripture came alive to my heart in a new way and I was comforted…More valuable than sparrows…

It has been eight and a half years since that diagnosis–a difficult journey with many more scares and procedures along the way, but God has given gentle mercy in giving life, not death, at this time.  The oncologist pronounced me “cured” last year, adding, “I don’t get to say that often.” (Time will tell.) And I said, “All glory to God.”

The best part of cancer, that fearful friend, is the work of God in the soul. He took away the dread of death and replaced it with a longing to see Jesus. He gave a deep love for Christ not known  before; He gave an overwhelming desire to know Him and to be satisfied with Himself above all healing. He gave a deep and empathetic compassion for others who suffer physically and emotionally. Widows and the depressed and the ill have special places in the heart.

God chose cancer, that greatest dread, to teach the sweetest things about His steadfast love, His patience, His tender care. He placed within the soul a deep longing for His return for us–His special people–those whom He has redeemed from their sin to be His very own possession. The greatest fear became a great gift, not to be traded for any earthly desire. We do not often learn God’s lessons for us in the best of times. Suffering is His hard schoolroom and He is the most excellent teacher…for our good…for His glory.

And so, today, prayers for those who are suffering take up pages in a prayer journal.  And they go something like this:

Oh God of gentle and severe mercies,
Please comfort raw hearts, confused hearts, terrified hearts.
Wrap your arms around those of your children as they sleep, as they wake, as they go through lonely days of missing a spouse or longing for better days.
Lift their faces to Jesus.
Give them purpose outside themselves, to reach out to others who are grieving in various losses.
Dear Father, who understands all our sorrows and anxieties and panics, let these people know how very close You are to us, how You have ordained all things in our lives.
Teach them about Your always goodness.
Grant the desire to know You and love You more deeply than physical, emotional, or mental healing, (but please heal in Your good and perfect will.)
Break cycles of besetting sins.
May thoughts be brought captive to the obedience of Christ.
May Your glory be on display whether You give life or death.
Surround each one with loving, godly and gentle people who will nurture and care for needs, who will pray and encourage in the things of Christ.
And for those who do not belong to Christ, those who are helpless without You, give them Yourself, grant them repentance and faith in the One who alone can satisfy their deepest need for forgiveness of sin and eternal life by knowing Jesus.

A hymn-writer has penned:

“Whate’er my God ordains is right: though now this cup, in drinking,
May bitter seem to my faint heart,
I take it, all unshrinking.
My God is true; each morn anew sweet comfort yet shall fill my heart,
And pain and sorrow shall depart.

Whate’er my God ordains is right:
Here shall my stand be taken;
Though sorrow, need, or death be mine,
Yet am I not forsaken.
My Father’s care is round me there;
He holds me that I shall not fall:
And so to Him I leave it all.”

Job suffered greatly with the loss of his children and his property, yet he was able to say, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord.” During his suffering he was able to avow, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust Him.” And at the end of this great trial, after God took his good health and gave him friends and a spouse who were less than nurturing or encouraging, he affirmed God’s sovereignty over all things and proclaimed, “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear,  but now my eye sees You. Therefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes.” God gave Job the gift of Himself and he was changed.

Jesus tells us in John 16:33. “…In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”

And my prayers end with–“You, O God, are the great King of all kings, the Lord of all lords. You, alone, are worthy to be worshipped and praised. No matter what happens to us, You remain good, always good. ”

Thank you, Lord, for the gift of suffering. To Him alone be glory.

With love,
Cherry

 

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Wrestling, Wandering, Worry or Peace

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Dear Sister,

Our family recently returned from a trip across the eastern half of the United States. We visited Arkansas, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, South Carolina, and Florida. We drove to those states throughout the month of September with 5 kids and a ton of luggage in one van. We survived. We had a great trip. And, I was surprised!

We had planned and prayed for this trip for months prior. We prayed throughout the trip—prayed for safety, for good attitudes, for physical and financial health, for good relationships with family and friends, for good memories. God overwhelmingly blessed us. We arrived home at the end of September without any accidents (only a cracked windshield from an errant stone), all family members are still on speaking terms with us, no one got sick on the trip, the kids did a great job sitting and cooperating on the long drives, and we came home slightly under budget. Above all, we got to spend time with many family members and great friends along the way—fantastic connections.

I mentioned we prayed. God blessed us. So, why was I surprised? Don’t get me wrong, I was grateful. We got home and I breathed a tremendous sigh of relief and disbelief. Then I stopped. I serve a big God. He delights in giving good gifts to His children, and I asked for His blessing; but I was acting as if I anticipated disaster. Oh me of little faith. Granted there is no assurance that a perfect vacation will happen; however, if He loves His children and will work all things for good, then I should rest in His provision. Breathe. Rest.

Paul accomplished his trip to Rome (Acts 27-28) with a shipwreck, snakebite, lives saved, and sharing the Gospel of Jesus. It was more eventful than ours, but full of blessings regardless. The lessons I learned? 1) Never underestimate our great God—both in His ability to give good gifts and in creating unexpected riches in the midst of seeming tragedy. 2) Stop wasting time gnashing my teeth over possibilities. Plan, work hard, and leave the rest in His hands.

Dear sister, how many times I wrestled with this trip and my wrestling was in vain. Events happened, awful or outstanding, nevertheless my wrestling. How many hours I could have chosen to smile instead of wandering around in a frowning fog of worry! Please know His peace is extraordinary and we can experience it if only we allow Him to shower us with it. Rest in Him and in His plans for you, for your family, your town, our nation, and even our world.

“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:4-7

Running with you,

Rebecca