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Joy in Dark Times

Dear sister,

One of our homeschool mom’s stood in front of our group with tears in her eyes as she recounted her time spent comforting her friend whose husband was killed in a helicopter crash off the shores of Hawaii. She described how his extra boots stood watch at the door and how the mechanical smell of the uniforms he left behind laced the house. The widow and her four children grieved deeply, asked why loudly, and some became silent as they turned inward sadly. They were used to having him absent for long spells, but contemplating him never coming home tore their hearts.

Two days later, I listened to an Indian women give her testimony of how her husband broke her neck and spine, smashed her head on railroad tracks, and pulled her sari so hard it stripped her naked in the streets. She managed to run away only to face the condemnation from women who told her she should have stayed with her husband. She told of her reoccurring blackouts as a result of years of beatings and how she was threatened by the mafia to stop trying to free their slave labor children or else.

Both women cried out to God saying that He must have made a mistake! How could this God they loved, allow this guttural sorrow and pain to his child and then say He is the comforter of the widow, father to the fatherless, and head lifter of the broken? As they were sharing this part of the story, through their tears something remarkable appeared: A smile. Not one that declared madness or hilarity, but one that revealed the hope they had that the scripture was true and their hope secure in Christ. This God declares that He will bind up the brokenhearted, never leave or forsake His children, is able to catch all the burdens we throw at Him, and wipes all our tears away forever. The widow clings to the knowledge that she will dance with her husband again in heaven while the abused knows vengeance is the Lord’s. Because of this, she now rescues those from the slavery and bondage she knew well.

After hearing the testimony of the widow’s friend, my daughter declared she wanted to watch “Inside Out”. As I saw Joy and Sadness try and help Riley out of her newfound pain, I realized the cartoon explained to me something simple: sometimes we need sadness to bring joy. We do not realize the pain of sorrow often alerts us (and others) of our need for encouragement and help. Our emotional marbles cannot be parsed. They are not simply red, blue, yellow, green, or purple. They are often mixed. These women experienced this in their own lives; the body of Christ came in their deepest need to sit, listen, pray, and be the hope they needed when they had little. And joy came in the morning.

Now what does this all mean for us sisters? Oh sister, there can be joy in the sorrow when our faith is grounded on the foundation of the Word. The Bible’s narrative is true. There is sin in the world and bad things happen because of the curse of Eden. This world will never be perfect again until Christ returns and takes us home (which is our Blessed Hope). Yet, from the beginning, God promised a deliverer and rescuer to come to save those who trust in Him. The Old Testament points to the coming One, the gospels reveal this Messiah, while the Letters tell us how to live in light of what Christ did on the cross. Christ endured the suffering of the cross for the joy of our salvation. He is our example of going through pain with a solid, sturdy, joy of trusting and obeying His Father. He had joy in His suffering.

What about us sisters? What are we grounded in? Will we have joy when sorrow and pain knock us off our feet? Will this deep joy come from our knowledge of the Word and it’s hope of a Savior? The assured hope that we serve a Savior that was abandoned, spat on, hated, and cursed, yet trusted that His Father had Him and would never forsake Him? That He found joy in the trial of even death itself? Like these sweet, broken women, feed yourself on the truth of the Word so when storms rage, you too can break into a confident smile because you are loved, will never be forsaken, and that joy comes in the morning because his mercies are new every morning and His faithfulness is great.  Our hope comes with joy!

Joyfully Yours,

Colleen

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Eagerly Waiting with Perseverance

Dear sister,

At first ‘hope in troubled times’ sounded like a no-brainer to me. After all, that oh-so-familiar Jeremiah 29:11 says “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” We have hope because we have Christ, right? …Right? I have to be honest: I can quote verses about hope all day, but I have a hard time knowing what that’s supposed to feel like.

Read Romans 8:16-25. We are children and heirs of God if we suffer with Christ in order to be glorified with Him. Paul says our suffering now is “not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (v18). God subjected creation to unwilling futility (pointlessness or uselessness) “in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption” (v21). He says creation and even we who are children of God “groan together in the pains of childbirth” (v22-23) “as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies” (v23). “For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” (v24-25). The NKJV translates verse 24 not just as waiting with patience but says we “eagerly wait for it with perseverance”. That is what hope is.

Okay, eager perseverance, sure. But it’s a lot easier to identify with Proverbs 13:12, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick.” If we’re hoping toward “the glory that is revealed to us” it may be a long time before we get to see the inheritance we have been promised.

In Romans 12:12 Paul tells the church to “rejoice in hope”. Proverbs 10:28 says “The hope of the righteous brings joy” (NKJV “The hope of the righteous will be gladness”). This reminds me of Romans 5:2-5 “[W]e rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” And that parallels James 1, the ”Consider it all joy…” passage. James tells us “the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

Hope—even when it seems like it’s all we can do to hold on by our fingernails, never mind that “eagerly” thing—produces patience, steadfastness, perseverance. And that is the process we are going through, the refiner’s fire, that will make us ready to take the place Jesus bought us as sons and heirs with Himself. And what is that like?

“’Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.’” (Revelation 21:3-4)

My prayer for you this month is with Paul: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.” (Romans 15:13)

 

Rejoicing in hope,
Sarah

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Hope Through Love

Dear sister,

I didn’t think it would be like this. Me sitting on the kitchen floor, head in my hands, and tears filling them up while my 4 ½ year old sits on her bed in timeout, my 19-month old girl is in timeout in her crib (screaming) for refusing to pick up her socks she threw down, and my 19-month old boy crying because he doesn’t want to play. Maybe if this was the first time an episode like this had happened it would be different, but this was the latest in a line of defiance by one or all of them. Let me fill you in a little bit, friend.

We have waited 4 years to finally be paired with boy/girl twins, less than two years old, from Ethiopia. God, our Creator, answered this prayer for our family with (the impossible according to human government and agencies) 18-month boy/girl twins. Yet here they are, fully Craigs now, adopted by us on Thanksgiving Day! They were brought to their forever home a week before Christmas. Although we have longed for this day for years, they have been shaken out of all they have ever known. They have been dropped into our culture, climate, and conversations with no warnings or expectations. Yet, I expected them to bond quickly and to love learning their new environment. That has not been the case. Food is refused, fits are thrown, and cries are constant refrains. My heart aches. I lost site of God’s sweet answer of years of prayers and my thankfulness waned as my guilt rose for this loss of gratitude.

In the midst of this, my oldest refuses to do her 30 minute school work each day and has learned to tell us “No! I don’t love you!” Awesome (said with sarcasm of course). And finally, we are moving from our home of 5 years in Okinawa, Japan to Puerto Rico in less than two months. This is the longest place I have lived since high school. My husband and I have fought and said hurtful things to each other in this adjustment and I have gotten shingles where the sun doesn’t shine, ringworm, and some other unknown rash.

So there I was on the kitchen floor just hours before writing this. Where is my hope in this dark time? What can encourage my sad and broken soul that aches for sin to be eradicated in my own life and my kids? I needed a lifeline. I contacted my faithful friend who reminded me that Satan is a jerk and he is defeated and I don’t need to listen to his lies. My heavenly Father adopted me out of His abounding love when I willingly disobeyed him defiantly. Jesus became fully man to take on my blatant defiance, disobedience, and lying and then died for it. Died for it! He loved me so much; He died for my screaming defiance and hatred of Him. How can I not love and forgive my kids when their account is so small? How can I not love my husband when he hurts me, when I hurt the Creator of the Universe with my words and deeds every day? And then Jesus conquered death! He rose again, dusted off my sin that covered me and clothed me with His righteousness. Now I am right before God because of the Father’s abounding love of me. The guilt I feel for not being good enough, thankful enough, or loving enough is true! I could never be good enough…which is why Jesus’ love at the cross is so sweet, and the hope that it provides is so immense.

Phew. I needed that. My tears are still close to my eyes, but I can face this next minute knowing I am forgiven and right before God. I can love my kids and husband because I have been chosen and adopted with all the rights of my daddy. I can rest knowing that God loves me first and has cast judgment of my sin into the depths of the sea the moment I trusted Christ. Thank you Jesus for your abounding love! Spirit, help me remember this truth when I don’t feel it.

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Blessed Hope in Love

My Dear Sisters,

I lift you up before the Lord, the Most High God, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.  Coming before His throne of grace on your behalf I ask that His love, which was manifested ultimately in the sending of His own Son that you might walk in newness, freedom and peace, would abound in all that you do today.  I ask that His love, which was poured out into your heart through the Holy Spirit, overflow and touch the lives of those He has ordained to enter your busy life this day.  May His love shine the Blessed Hope you have in Christ into a hopeless heart.  May His love wipe away the grief and pain that has taken harbor in the heart of someone you love.  May His love enable you to love the souls of others (even the unlovely) so as to draw them closer to Him and His precious Son the Lord Jesus Christ.  May the hope of Christ as is evident through this Love be made known throughout your sphere of influence (your family, your neighborhood, your place of work, your community, your church) for all of eternity for His Name sake. To Him be the glory!

Because of His Blessed Hope,

Susan

 

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Truth That Does Not Lie

Dear Sister,

These days truth seems to be relative. We live in a world that says truth is defined by how you feel and no one can say we are wrong because his or her truth is not our truth. We act according to what feels good in the circumstance. If we are attracted to the same sex, then it must be OK because it feels good. If we don’t feel like going to work or school we can just skip it. If we fell out of love with our husband than we can divorce him because the Lord wants us to be happy. If we want to be married or have children then the Lord must give them to us because that is what will make our heart happy. If it is that time of the month then we can be curt and short with those we love because we feel like it. After all, we don’t want to lie to others about how we feel.

But this is not truth. Truth does not change and waver with the weather. Unchangeable truth comes from God and His word. That is what we need to base our truth, not our feelings and emotions.

Emotions are a tricky thing. Our creator experiences emotions, but he experiences them without the stain of sin. His feelings do not control him. But we are stained by sin and are often controlled by our emotions. The Father of Lies will tie our emotions to changeable circumstances so we forget to call upon the unchangeable realities of God and His truth to define the truth of our feelings. Instead of saying, “Wow, I feel totally alone right now, yet I know that the Bible says God is always near.” We say, “Wow, I feel totally alone right now, so God must have abandoned me”. Instead of saying, “The Lord has given me this job or husband because He loves and takes care of me”, we say, “Wow, the Lord really blew it when He gave me this job or husband”. Instead of saying, “I know that I have feelings toward this other woman, but I know that the Lord said it is sinful and He will help me through this sexual confusion”, we say, “Wow, this woman makes me feel like no man ever could so it must be right”.

So, how do we know what is truth and what is untruth (lies) as we go through this life of relative truth tied to emotions? Oh sister, it is going to take work. Hard work. We have to prepare for the fight before it happens. We have to study the character of God that is true and right to fight the feelings that come dancing with our circumstances. We have to talk to ourselves with the truth of God’s Word, rather than listen to our feelings. We need to memorize scripture, have a list of people we can call to tell us the truth when we don’t know how to act on our feelings. We need to go to church to hear the Word of God preached. This needs to be an offensive war, not a reactive one. And like everything, it starts with resting in the gospel afresh. Preach to yourself the gospel each morning: which is that as a result of having let your feelings dictate your life instead of God’s word, you deserve the wrath of God. But Jesus in His mercy took the punishment of your misused feelings for you on the cross. Then when He rose again he credited you his righteousness, including his perfect emotions, forever! Your sins are forgiven! These are facts. This is THE truth. Just because you don’t FEEL forgiven doesn’t erase the FACT that you are forgiven in Christ. So sister, fight the changeable lies with the unchangeable truth of the gospel. God and His word can be trusted! His word is reliable. He is good. And no matter what you are facing, despite how you feel, He will never leave or forsake you.

Your Sister,

Colleen