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All is Calm, All is Bright

Dear sister,

Are you familiar with the phrase; “the calm before the storm”? That little ditty creates an anticipation of fear doesn’t it?  It tells us to watch out when we experience peace because fury is sure to follow in its steps! How sad for us when we are in the midst of silence and serenity to fear that all hell may break loose at any moment?  This is not how our Heavenly Father works.  Instead, when chaos surrounds us and peace seems to elude us, He speaks and it brings forth order to our messy lives. How sweet and awesome is His grace!

This year as I prepare to celebrate Christ’s first coming, which serves as a reminder to me of His second coming, I want to concentrate on this Truth. Perfect Love has cast out fear!! God has not given us His Son so as to then yank the proverbial rug out from underneath us! He has sent His Son, that those who trust in Him will have peace…everlasting peace…peace that passes all understanding. He delivers us from the tumult of sin and gives us rest in our hearts which guards our hearts and our minds. (Philippians 4:7)

Tis the season that you and I scramble about to prepare for time with family and friends to share in the celebration of this glorious truth.  Yet, the longer our lists grow the more stress and anxiety elevate, until there is no peace of mind and heart to be found. I have decided to take a few minutes each morning before my day begins (somedays before my feet hit the floor next to my bed) to thank God for this costly peace.  For it has come to us through His precious Son Jesus Christ who stepped down from heaven (He stooped or condescended to us) that we might know Him and His peace.  In other words, like the hymn Silent Night says, in the stillness of the night when the world was lurching in the chaotic mess of sinful darkness, Jesus came, and all was calm and all was bright.  Let’s be still and know that He is God, the great giver of ALL that is calm and most definitely ALL that is bright.

“He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.” Hebrews 1:3

Peace Be With You,

Susan

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Faithlessness, Idols, and Such

Dear Sister,

We live in a land of opulence. Look around. Everyone has a cell phone, a car or two or three, houses, yards, food in abundance, leisure time to spare. Look in your closet. Count your shoes.  But wealth is also relative.  I’m wealthy compared to so-and-so but a pauper compared to that one. It is the same with you. And when we in the U.S.A. compare ourselves to billions of people on our earth our personal wealth becomes obvious. So why are we so discontent?

A plethora of people have written about idols of late. I will join the crowd. As painful as it is to admit, we all struggle with idols. Not the stone and wood kinds but the ones in our minds which vie for our affections, the dastardly ones in our hearts which seek to rule us. Even good things…

I’ve read all sorts of definitions of idols/idolatry. The most concise in my mind is this: An idol is anything that rules in my life—apart from God.  To rule means to have authority over, to control. The government of the United States, according to the Declaration of Independence, “rules” us, but only with the consent of the governed.
Idols in our lives rule because we have consented to be ruled or governed by them. It can be good (in theory) in government, but not when it refers to idols and our consent to their rule in our personal lives.

I like to the think of idols in the motif of master and slave. If we meditated in that context about our lack of satisfaction with the Lord and Him alone, of pursuing the things of this world which will burn up in the final analysis and refuse to satisfy for more than a few minutes in the here and now, the insatiable appetite we often have for the perishing ornaments of the domain of the enemy of our souls, of being a groveling slave to trinkets, of how we malign the name of the One we profess to love when we seem to adore other things and people more than Him, when we realize we are grieving the Lord who bought us when we submit to our lusts—perhaps we would repent more quickly of our unfaithfulness to our always faithful God, the One who is faithful to reprove, faithful to convict, faithful to discipline, faithful to forgive, faithful to restore.

A great antidote to our seasons of discontent and yielding to the idols we are prone to worship is thankfulness to our Creator and the lover of our souls. Let’s try it. Make a list of all He is, all He has done for us, all He gives, all the things we would find dreadful that He does NOT give because of His patient mercies, all His promises in Scripture. I could go on. Think on these things. Spend time meditating on them. Give the Father your thanks and praise and worship. Be overwhelmed with this and not the love of the world.  I have found that in the doing of these things, “the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.”

During this season of Thanksgiving, just prior to what can often be an unchecked, obsessive, and unrelenting sprint toward Christmas,  let’s make an effort to slow down, spend time in the Word, spend some extended time in prayer of intentional and genuine thanksgiving to the One to whom we owe our lives, our breath, our eternal souls.

“Incline my heart to Your testimonies and not to selfish gain.
Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in Your ways.”
Psalm 119:36-37

May Christ be put on display in our lives this season in a way we have never known before.

Love,
Cherry

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Kings, Subjects and Faithfulness

Dear Sister,

My Old Testament readings lately have been in the Kings and Chronicles–the recounting of the rise and demise and obituaries of the kings of Judah. It’s easy to think that the longer we walk with the Lord and see His mighty acts and His faithfulness it most certainly ensures that we will be found faithful in the end. Alas, it is not necessarily so…

As I read these stories about the Kings of old my thoughts focus on finishing well. Some started with so much promise, so godly, so obedient, and each time we want the Scriptures to report that this king or this prophet remained faithful to the end, but not always so. There seemed to be that one thing, that one little sin, that one idol that was not torn down completely. I’d rather the report of my life, when I’m dead and gone, state, “She started shaky, but she finished well, all to God’s glory,” not,  “She started well, but her ending crumbled.”

In my Bible Study a while ago, as we broke into small groups, one of my precious sisters, in answer to a question about our greatest fears before God, answered something like, “I’m always concerned I’ll walk away,” and she mentioned someone in her life who had walked away and it frightened her for herself. I have had that same fear. “Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love…”, says the old hymn. How often I have sung those words and sensed the dread of them. Then comes the plea, “Take my heart, O, take and seal it, seal it for Thy courts above.”

It is reassuring and comforting to know that if we are indeed in Christ, true believers, there is no condemnation, but we can still bring shame by our disobedience. We can dishonor our husbands, our children, our friends, our brothers and sisters in the Church. We can bring disgrace upon our once bright testimony and bring untold glory to Satan. Just ask the fallen pastors if they would relish a godly do-over. Would they check their sin in its beginning buds? Would they be more vigilant over their own souls and not just the souls of others? When did they stop consuming the Scriptures for their personal hearts instead of just checking it off a to-do list or to prepare for a sermon or Bible Study? When did that first dishonorable thought refuse to be brought under the Spirit’s control? When did the horror of a particular sin become a thing to cherish in the mind and eventually an action? Rarely, perhaps never, is a grievous sin in a believer who is faithfully walking in love and obedience, a quick thing. It results from a mind and heart continually left unchecked.

Don’t for a minute think that we girls are off the hook because we are not tempted like some pastors or leaders or ordinary men have been tempted because women certainly can fall in like areas also. Adultery, pornography, embezzlement, and the like. But sin is usually more subtle than this. Materialism–just one more unsatisfying item bought. Anger and bitterness–you don’t know what I’ve had to put up with.  Ruining reputations with our tongues–cutting to shreds with our lips those made in His image. Food. Even making idols of good things (children, spouses, grades, jobs, clean houses) so they become our god rather than worshipping our God.

Oh, Father, may my private, inward life match my outward profession. Remind me, as the old Puritan wrote in his prayer, “I have often loved darkness, observed lying vanities, forsaken Thy given mercies, trampled underfoot Thy beloved Son, mocked Thy providences, flattered Thee with my lips, broken Thy covenant. It is of Thy compassion that I am not consumed.” May I hate my sin more than I despise the sin of others, prays my pastor. “Sin is always crouching at the door,” God warns Cain. Peter’s sober admonition is that Satan prowls around like a roaring lion intent on devouring God’s own children. Check that sin. Stop it. Do not allow it to encroach and grow. Wage war against it. That is the battle of the faithful life. Do not fight this war with broken down walls allowing easy entry for the enemy of our souls. Build those walls, not with twigs and sticks and branches but with bricks and mortar and steel, partaking of His ammunition, His building blocks, His means of grace…the Word, prayer, the Lord’s Supper, fellowship with godly people, worship. You must not neglect these or you cannot, will not, stand. You cannot love the world and its things and its friendships and love God at the same time.

We are unable to do this in our own strength. Let God’s Word have its way with you. Pray.  Do not dismiss the promptings of the Holy Spirit. Repent. Hold on to Christ for all you’re worth, and in the clinging, you will discover He is holding you in His strong hands and will not let His very own child go.

“Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.” Look at Jesus daily in His Word and become like Him.

May we finish well, loyal and steadfast to the end of this life, until we are ushered into His presence because of His faithfulness to us. May our epitaphs read, “The faithful God kept her faithful.”

Love,
Cherry

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Faithful In The Storm

Dear Sister,

Hurricanes are not fun and that is an understatement. The constant news coverage for days and days before the storm arrives is enervating. By the time the winds begin to blow, the sapped energy gives way to fear-filled emotions overflowing to bursting. Fear for life. Fear for property.

As our family was undergoing storm preparations for this latest to overwhelm Florida, the relentless Irma, I thought about those tempests which rise suddenly and unexpectedly over the Sea of Galilee, allowing no time at all for preparations.  To be in a small fishing vessel in the black of night, being pitched to and fro with virtually no protection from battering winds and waves, desperately and fruitlessly trying to steer to a haven of safety, the physical and emotional dread must be overwhelming and incapacitating.

We read about a story in that setting in sacred Scripture. The disciples are involved in this scenario, terrified for their lives, desperate to save themselves. And where was the Master? Peacefully sleeping in the same boat. (Matthew 8:23-27)

This story scared me and thrilled me as a child and it thrills me now. I love how Jesus, the Creator of the weather conditions, the Sovereign over all our storms in life, was able to sleep while the little boat was being pummeled to smithereens. His desperate friends had to wake Him! Their plea of desperation was, “Save us Lord, we are perishing.” And what does He say? “O, my dear friends, I’m sorry you have to go through this. I didn’t realize what you were experiencing. I sure don’t want you to have to suffer like this.”  My pastor would say, “No, no, no, no, no!” What Jesus actually said was, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” Sounds very much like scolding. They had just been through the Sermon on the Mount with Him. He had taught about not being anxious for life, about the wise and foolish men building homes on solid or shifting foundations, the observation of the crowds that Jesus had some kind of other-worldly authority, the cleansing/healing of an outcast leper, the centurion’s servant healed, not in person but from a distance, and people being set free from satanic possession and physical diseases. He had given His disciples plenty of evidence that He had all power over the physical and the spiritual. And yet, He has to now chide them about their fear and lack of faith. But Jesus doesn’t leave them in guilt over imperfect trust. “Then He rose (from sleeping) and rebuked the winds and the sea” as if these elements of nature had ears to hear and knees to bow low before the Creator. “And there was a great calm.” Shhh. Immediately the sea became quiet, not a ripple. The disciples did not seem to wonder at the how of His act but at the Who.  Scripture tells us, “And the men marveled, saying, ‘What sort of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?’ ” I was reminded in a recent sermon I read that the parallel passage in Mark says the disciples were “exceedingly afraid”. During the storm they were fearful, but in the aftermath they were really, really fearful as they stood in the presence of God Himself. The Bible does not say they fell on their knees and worshipped. Not here, not yet. But they are beginning to get the picture.

During our hurricane I wish I could tell you I fell asleep in perfect peace like Jesus in the back of the boat. After all, my home is well-built of concrete block and double-paned windows. My Mama and my daughter did sleep through that fierce Irma, seemingly without a care in the world.  My husband kept his watchful eyes and ears on the goings-on. Me? I hid in my closet with my little battery-run radio on full blast to drown out the frightening noises of wind gusts and falling branches and tree trunks ominously thudding.  And I was scared, as I always am during hurricanes.

Dear Sister, I wish we weren’t such fearful creatures, sometimes asking the Lord what He’s doing or if He even cares about us or knows what we’re going through. Like the disciples, we’ve seen our God at work in the Scriptures, in the world, in our lives, but we still falter in our faith when the trials heat up, forgetting that God Himself is with us. Jesus is in our boat, so to speak.  He’s not riled up. He ordains the storms in our lives to teach us lessons about His good and purposeful character and to spur our faith on to higher heights and our love for Christ to deeper depths. He is faithful when we are faithless. Even if the disciples had drowned, Jesus would have remained faithful. They would have immediately been in heaven. He never leaves or forsakes. Even when God does not answer our prayers the way we would like, it does not negate His faithfulness. Some of the worst storms attacking us are our flesh, relationships or circumstances, our own troubled thoughts which are not settled on the truth of God’s Word. All these are as powerful and beyond our control as hurricanes. But not beyond God’s control.

He will keep us safe and for Himself, whether in this world or the next, whichever He pleases. After all, “even the winds and the sea obey Him”.

Love,
Cherry

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Frantic or Faithful

Dear Sister,

I love politics. The back and forth of it.  The reasoning.  The debates. Not the nastiness, to be sure, but honest argumentation and the pursuit and vindication of core values. The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, as they say.

But politics can be an ugly business.  With the onslaught of incredible and immediate technology making the world a smaller place, our politics has become ubiquitous and global. Everyplace and everywhere. It is dumped into our living rooms in great quantities if we allow it. It frustrates. It scares. It can make one feel hopeless. Everyplace we look we see lies exposed and unexposed, promises kept and not kept. Scandals. Slander. Sabotage and suspicion. Corruption abounds. Who is trustworthy? Who is faithful to their promises? Everywhere God is dishonored in word and thought and deed.

Dear Sister, this is where we must get our theology right or we will live in an incessant state of anxiety.  Believe me. I know. We must pray that we, the Church, would learn to pray, as I read somewhere recently, that our hopes for political change would be outstretched by the hope of heaven. This is not our home. We are simply travelers with a true utopia in view, not the marred and unsatisfying dystopia of our earthly experience.  We must believe Psalm 2, knowing that its implications reach to all ungodly governments, for “He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision.”  Men of earth grasp for power and control, but it is elusive, for only the King of Kings is Sovereign.  It is He who puts these men in power and He takes them out as He wills. The Sovereign Lord gives them breath and will take it from them as He pleases. Men cannot thwart His plan for this world and for His people, His chosen ones. Though all seems in disarray to our blurry vision, His eyes are clear, with perfect purpose.

We must not fret or wring our hands in despair or frustration. We are called to trust and obey. Of course, let us be good and obedient citizens, vote, effect change where possible, but not frantic in these pursuits. We must pray Romans 13, preach the gospel to a lost and anxious world and be found faithful to our Christ even as our Savior was and is perfectly faithful on our behalf.

Pray for our leaders. Pray for their salvation. Pray they will enact laws that protect life and biblical values. Pray that corruption will be exposed and evil men intent on destroying all that is good will be brought down from arrogant perches. Pray that many will bow the knee to our great God and King, Jesus Christ. Live in such a way that the world will see we are different, we live with a sure and living hope,  not of this world.

“Fear not, for I am with you;
Be not dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you,
Yes, I will help you,
I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.”
Isaiah 41:10

“All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, but He does according to His will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; And no one can ward off His hand or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’ ”
Daniel 4:35

“Let them be put to shame and dismayed forever; let them perish in disgrace, that they may know that You alone, whose name is the Lord, are the Most High over all the earth.”
Psalm 83:17-18

“Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created.”
Revelation 4:11

Don’t be afraid.

Love in His steadfast and preserving love,

Cherry