Category Archives: God

Smart Counsel

by

Smart Counsel

Per chance, I found a poignant book called: My Lord and I- Daily Meditations, by Harry Tippett in a thrift store some months back.  I was smitten, given it was a cross-hatched 4.5 by 6 inch thick book, and published in 1948, the year of my birth.  Its entries are nothing of regular nature.  It’s a pearl. I relish each reading, albeit not all entries are just for me.  You know what I mean.

But on my August birthday, I was hoping for a gem.  I wasn’t disappointed. Its title of Jesus Our Counselor was followed by Eccl. 9: 11 “The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.”

To wit, this could mean that no matter how quick, strong, wise or skilled a person, it is not these that God blesses, but rather He bestows in time and through His own choosing what will happen.

And on this note, I’m at peace.  We live in crazy times, a world with crumbling order, terrorism gone wild and denial of its threat thereof, race relations under attack, corruption in highest levels by-passed, it would appear, by our justice department.  Harsh statements, falsehoods, accusations, misleadings are the deluge— how shall we be saved from this state of affairs?

I bewail a lack of integrity in but a few leaders today. Can the Lord intervene and do something miraculous?  Of course!  “Time and chance happeneth to them all.”  Yesterday in a sermon, I learned about Don Piper who was killed in a head-on collision in 1989.  A passing by pastor was directed of the Lord to stop and pray, but was told the driver of the car was dead; they tarped the gruesome car, waiting for authorities to come remove the man.  The pastor went into the car, and prayed for the deceased Mr. Piper. After an hour, he ran out of things to pray and began to sing, ‘What a Friend We Have in Jesus.’  Suddenly, a voice joined him.  Mr. Piper rose to life!

Who in this world would follow such a God directive, to pray for a dead man?  To believe it mattered?  Instead, we gauge the worth or progress of something by outward appearances, or numbers, am I right?

The author Tippett:  This emphasis upon worldly advantage has captured modern thinking…our measurements of value…often gauged by mere bulk or numbers.  Counting noses in God’s work has been frowned upon by Heaven ever since the days of the numbering of Israel against His express command.  We triumph in majorities and hold contempt for minorities.  We honor men who boast, “Is not this great Babylon that I have built…by the might of my power?”  Dan. 4:30.  This veneration of size and truckling to power…{is called} megalomania, the craze for bigness.

But Jesus was never overawed by size or majorities.  The temple of Herod was the greatest pride of the Jewish church.  The priests were dismayed when Christ predicted its destruction.  In the teachings of the Master, mountains of difficulty give way to simple prayer, and “out of the mouths of babies and sucklings” He ordains strength.  End quote.

My former pastor’s young daughter recently took issue with the gender bathroom controversy.  On her own but with her parents’ permission, she gathered signatures and sent them to the state legislature to protest the allowance of the cross gendered to enter the bathrooms at her elementary school. She petitioned for a bathroom of their own.  She sent it to her legislator and now, the legislature is voting on a law that will make all persons use the bathroom of their birth.  This child has been invited to come speak to the legislature about her concerns. Is not this phenomenal? I rejoice to see how the Lord is using this young girl to accomplish His ways on earth. If the bill is passed, this child’s name is going to be on it!

Tippett: “He ordains strength.”  Psalms 8:2.  All through the Bible, greatness in worldly evaluations is in sharp contrast to the humble heart and teachable spirit Christ lauds as Heaven’s true cloth of gold.  [It is}…not the cause with the greatest financial backing nor the leader with the best education, nor the artisan with the swiftest skill—none of these are necessarily signs of favor with Heaven.  “Not by might and not by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord” is the formula.  End quote.

I believe that when we pray, we invite Jesus’ counsel. It doesn’t get any smarter than that.  May’nt this be a way out of the current bungle of politico?  His plans are remarkable; He directed a pastor to stop and pray for a dead man, a child to gather signatures of protest. He directed me to pray for my mom’s rescue from death often.  I prayed with a friend and then on my own as I drove to my sister’s side, not knowing she was having a fibrillation attack.  I called out to Jesus by name when I was nearly hit head on with my babies in the car with me.  He so wants our prayers, prayers for others, prayers for our needy country. Time and “chance” belong to Him. Pray, pray hard.

 

When did Jesus send you a directive to pray and what was the result?

The Gift of Darkness

by

We live in a difficult world. There is darkness all around.

Once years ago, my parents treated my husband and I to an all expenses paid New England bus tour trip with them. It was a blessing beyond belief. We saw sites in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, and Vermont. I remember all of it and developed over a hundred photos.  While in New Hampshire, we were in a place peppered with trees. Every turn in the road revealed something breathtaking.
I asked Mom, “Wouldn’t you like to live here, Mom?”
“No way!” she said without hesitating.
“What? Why not?”
“Because the trees block out the sun. It would be dark all the time.”

There is so much to be said about that.
We moved to Tucson from Michigan when I was twelve.  The doctors at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester said I needed a warm, dry climate to be healed of severe skin eczema.  It was a tremendous sacrifice to do this.  But the frequency of the bright and sunny days were of such benefit.  And in time, we came to love the area.  It is rarely dark in Tucson, rarely gloomy. Even on our rainiest days, usually the sun peeks. I completely recovered from eczema, it is gone, it left in less than two years.

There has to be light in life or darkness takes over.

Following the unforeseen death of my mother this past summer, the absence of her beauty felt like darkness. Varying degrees of depression took me over for months.  But also without warning, on a day in October, I was surprised to find that I could feel the sun again.  Surely it had been there all the time, but just not for me.  Dark Days had come for a spell, and I could not find a way out of them.

“The Lord is my light, and my salvation,” says a Psalm.  The Lord is our sun, our rescue.  Another psalm says, “In Him is no darkness at all.”

Could it be that darkness serves a purpose?

The evil think so.  They love it.  They dwell in darkness and perform their dirty deeds there, thinking they are hidden.    They have abused the darkness, using it to perpetuate and manufacture more sin.   They think they are safe there, unseen.  Are they?  With the Lord God, His vision is unlimited.  He sees without physical light being present.  He sees right into all darkness.  He waits. He will requite all evil.  God’s design for darkness is not to provide sanctuary to the evil.    

But He did create it.  There must be a divine purpose for it.  Maybe multiple ones.  I see two.

Darkness provides a resting place for humans.  In darkness, we are excused from the brightness of the day.  We can sleep, and our eyes and body organs recover their strength, heal. Darkness is a blessed reprieve, a covering, a nest.  Where grief is present, darkness’s gift of sleep nourishes the heart, nerves and emotions.  It’s no wonder those in grief sleep more than usual.

Also, darkness provides a contrast for us, that we might see our need of light.  How would we notice our need of a savior if we did not recognize Him against a backdrop of depravity?  He wants to be noticed.  He wants to “pop” out.  He wants to be distinguished.  He deserves to be distinguished.

Dark Days may occasionally come. But God has not banished us to them.  They are for a season to rest us, give us a reprieve.

Bright Days will return. Happily, the Lord is present in both darkness and light, and He is with us.

Do you see another purpose for darkness?  Please comment.