Category: Uncategorized

Posted on

“You are . . .”

 Today is my wedding anniversary….February 27th, 1981….the day I became his wife.  But he is not here…I remember alone.

…and then my Groom came.

Earlier in the day a friend had come to my door, handing me a beautiful bouquet of yellow tulips, and a small note.  She told me of how she had begun her day as usual, in her car driving to her job.  Turning on the radio she had heard the words, “You are….” 

Later that day, she again turned on her car radio, and again the first words were “You are…”  Remembering the morning’s first words, her attention was peaked.   Twice in the same day, the first words out of the radio were exactly the same.  “You are . . .”  Each a different context, but exactly the same two words. She turned off the radio, sensing that God was the one saying those words… she was listening.

As she began her drive back home at the end of her work day, she again turned on the radio.  And  for a third time that day, the first words over the airwaves were, “You are…”   Now, her full attention arrested, she asked God directly….was this something she was being prompted to say to God? Something she needed to consider about His Character, or His Goodness, or…?

Then the sentence that had begun three times that day was completed . . . God finished.    “Tell Janet this message from Me:   

               ‘You are beautiful……You are Loved……You are Mine.’”

She stopped the car, wrote down the words, and bought a sweet bouquet of yellow tulips.  She delivered the flowers….and a simple card with the message.  A warm hug, and she was gone.

I contemplated the message for a while….it was familiar somehow.  I knew I had heard these words before, but…..

Then, it came to me!   Yes!  I had heard these words before….decades earlier.  It was a moment in time when God had shown me a picture of myself as a little girl.  A significant adult in my life  had said words to me that made me feel deeply ashamed for twirling in front of a mirror, delighting in the pretty, flowing dress I had been given.  Then, I’d heard the words, “Tsk, tsk, tsk,….vanity, vanity!”  

God showed me that in that moment, so long ago, it was as if a heavy black curtain had been thrown over me.   I could not see out, and no one could see me through it.  It was a curtain of shame …unjustified shame … that I had unknowingly lived beneath for most of my life.

Then, the “picture” had changed, and I saw Jesus standing at the altar…a wedding altar.  He saw me beneath that thick, black curtain of shame.  Effortlessly, as if it was a piece of tissue, He pulled that heavy black curtain off of me, flinging it over His Shoulder as if it was “nothing”.    Immediately, He held a pure, white veil…a wedding veil….and placed it over me.  It was the most delicate, beautiful, sheer white veil I had ever seen.  I could see through it. . . and He could see me, almost as if it was made of the most transparent crystal fabric.  I felt utterly beautiful beneath it….as a chosen bride. 

As He looked at me, He had said,  “You are beautiful.  

                                                               You are loved.

                                                                       You are mine.”

Today, the day of my 39th wedding anniversary, sitting alone in my living room I read those words again.  Those same words that had been spoken to me years ago by my Heavenly Bridegroom, and were now in writing on a simple notecard. Before me were 3 “timer” candles set around the vase of tulips.  As I repeated the simple words, “You are beautiful….” one of the candles came to light. “You are loved…” the second candle lit.   “You are Mine.” The third candle’s flame sprang to life.

 My Bridegroom had come . . . on this day that was the marker of the earthly bridegroom who had captured my heart for 37 years.  My Heavenly Bridegroom renewed His Promise….His forever Love for me.

 

 

 

Posted on

Coming Near

“Draw near to God,

He will draw near to you.”

James 4:8

She was lovely, sitting on the floor in front of me, quietly coaching me on basic Arabic vocabulary.  Suddenly the room cleared and we were alone.  Leaning in, she quietly asked,  “You know Jesus?”   In this place where Followers were not welcome, I hesitated.  Was it a trap?

“Yes,” I nodded.

“Tell me!”

Without knowing much about her nation’s faith, I began at the beginning….where sin entered the world…distancing us from God. I touched on the many messengers who God had sent throughout time, longing to draw us back to Himself.  And then, choosing to “come Himself…”   She finished those two words along with me.  Tears filled her eyes.      “You speak of God as One so near to you.  We only know of Him as so high above us…so far from us.”

As our time ended, I prayed for her….that God would come near to her, and that she would come to know Him. . .as near.  With tears running down her cheeks, she quickly asked that I write the words I had prayed so that she could pray them herself.

A year later, we saw each other again.  She said,  “I pray this prayer every day, and my mom and dad like this prayer very much, so we all pray it together every day.”

 This world is filled with people who long to experience God coming near to them.  Yet, they have not known how that could be possible.

We who have come to know Him as the One Who Draws Near to us carry the great privilege of knowing Him “near.”   May we live this . . . and share this . . .in our world, to our world, where so many have never known it was possible to be near.

Posted on

Hears = Does

“I love the Lord

because He hears my voice,

my pleas for mercy.

I will call on Him as long as I live

    because He turns His ear toward me.”

Psalm 116:1-2 

In the time this verse was written, the word “hear” included “do something in response.”

It wasn’t just “listen”.  There had to be an action tied to the “listen.”   This writer loves God, and has clearly experienced direct interaction with Him.  There is a story here of talking to God and knowing that God has heard…and has responded.  The response shows that he (the writer) has been truly heard.

What would stand in the way of God “hearing” us?   I can promise this…..it’s not on His end.  His ability to hear is perfect.  There’s something on our end that would have gotten in the way of Him hearing me.

My youngest son had a hearing problem.  Literally, with his ears.  But in his heart/attitude as well.  The physical problem was easily solved with “tubes” when he was 17 months. The other “hearing” problem was not a physical problem….it was much more of a heart thing…even at that young age.  Anyone who has lived with toddlers knows what I mean! 

In the day-to-day, I would often have to get down to his level, face-to-face, take his little face in my hands and say, “Look at me. Look at me!”   His eyeballs were going everywhere except to my eyes.  We’d have to be so close that he had little choice but to be eyeball to eyeball with me.  The proof that he had truly heardme was when he actually didwhat I had told him to do. [NOTE: He hears me now….wonderfully!   Even when I haven’t spoken words. !! ]

It’s easily like that between God and me.   I know….I’ve listened….I’m awareof what He is saying to me…what He may be asking of me.   But without a change – a response – in me, whether an action or an attitude, I haven’t truly heard Him. 

 God hears you.  Not only your words, but what is really in your heart. He is ready to respond to us.  His heart of course is perfect.  Ours is not.  But when He pulls us close, we look in His Eyes, and we truly hear Him, things change as a result

Posted on

Open Hands

“She opens her hands to oppressed people

    and stretches them out to needy people.”

Prov. 31:20

Sitting in front of my laptop this morning, in a clean, comfortable hotel room, my thoughts are still in the desert, from which I am returning home. I still have sand in my suitcase. Clean, hot water coming out of the faucet in the sparkling clean bathroom – including a flush toilet – have become a piece of paradise in my mind.

Such little things we take for granted in our personal worlds. . . take on new meaning and appreciation when Life’s path leads you to a different world.

The richness of these simple things has become profoundly clear in my life, as it is in striking contrast to the world I step into a few times each year in my “other world”. . . the refugee camps in the Sahara. 

This morning, this verse from Proverbs jumped out to me.  It is part of a description of a woman, wife and mother from long, long ago.  I used to dread reading Proverbs 31, because it was full of reminders of how far short I fall in comparison to “Mrs. Perfect.”    But, in the middle of the stellar description of her, this little piece of the chapter seems to have greater depth and significance today.

Open hands. . . not a clenched fist.   What am I holding onto that I need to offer to someone else?  What am I clinging to?  What am I holding back – keeping for myself, that would make a sweet difference in someone else’s life?   Someone who has been “pushed down” in life . . . someone who has lost the things that used to be in their hands?  What have they lost due to the cruel actions of others?  What would it mean to them to be handed something that I have been holding onto? 

Stretched out hands. . . There is a choice to not only open my hands, but to physically move toward someone who has need.  It’s much easier to send a check or support someone who is actively involved with helping people who are in need. . . suffering in some way.  It’s another thing to physically interact and help meet a need – especially of a stranger.  

How do I view the oppressed people in my world?   What am I doing to personally touch the life of someone in need . . . in need of what I have?

Jesus remains our greatest Example. . . He was so often personally giving, serving, opening His Hands to those who were suffering.  Whether it was children, the sick, the rejected, the poor, the dirty, the diseased, the unloved, He opened His Hands to them.  He stretched out His Hands to touch them in a way that touched their personal need….that touched their very souls.

Posted on

Family Resemblance

Family Resemblence

 

“God had Christ, who was sinless,

take our sin

so that we might receive God’s approval

through him.”

2 Cor. 5:21

 

Have you ever met a child or close relative of someone who is/was dear to you, and instantly recognize your dear one in the face of the stranger before you?   When that has happened to me, there is an almost automatic affinity that I feel towards them.  Without even knowing this new person, I immediately am reminded of the person with whom I’d had a relationship, including the emotional joy or delight or sweet reminders of their relative.

It’s a frail human example of what may hint at God’s response when he looks at one of His earthly creations…..anyone who has chosen a personal relationship with Jesus, and God sees His Dearly Beloved’s face in ours. What a thought!  Does His Heart leap in joy…love…delight when He recognizes Jesus in us?

Though we have fallen so far short of who we were created to be, so frail in our earthly, human condition, God’s desire and love for us never changes.  Encountering Jesus, and choosing to walk with Him throughout our days, changes us . . . and changes the way God sees us.  No matter the mud we’ve been splattered with, the darkness we’ve lived with, the dust and rust that has settled on and in us, and the brokenness we carry, our sinless Jesus draws us to Himself.  He dusts us off, washes away the mud, gives us brand new clothes, transforming us inside and out.  And we begin to look like Him.

In the desert, in my early years of being among the people there, the few of us who would come were the first Jesus Followers they had met.   One day, a beautiful young woman who was sitting beside me noticed that the room had cleared of any other people.  It was just the two of us.  She leaned in, and in a hushed voice whispered, “Do you know Jesus?”  I wasn’t sure if this was some sort of “trap” or not, but I nodded in response.  Her eyes immediately lit up, and she whispered, “Tell me!”   What followed was a life-altering hour of telling her stories of Jesus, and of how He had become the most important relationship in my life. How did she know?  Family resemblance, I believe.  Over the years this has happened time and time again. If God has put His thumbprint on every soul He created, it should be no surprise that people can sense that Spirit in one of His Family, even if they don’t know what it is. 

Through the miraculous transformation that only Jesus can bring about in our lives, we begin to reflect Him in the way we live out our days on this earth. We need to hold tightly to His Hand, walk closely, listen carefully, talk with Him daily, and allow His transforming Presence to continue to change us to be more and more like Him.

May the Family resemblance become so evident that we can respond in delight when it is noted by another.  Especially by our Father.

Posted on

Practical Love

“Love is patient.

Love is kind. 

 Love isn’t jealous.

It doesn’t sing its own praises.

Love isn’t arrogant.

 Love isn’t rude.  

Love doesn’t think about itself. 

 Love isn’t irritable.  

Love doesn’t keep track of wrongs.” 

                                                                                                 1 Cor. 13:4-5

Let’s get practical.  Love is practical.   So…..

 

  1. Read each description from Paul’s writing.
  2. Note a person that you know has been difficult for you to Love in each particular way.
  3. Ask God to give you one of His Thoughts toward that person.
  4. What practical action can you take that demonstrates that facet of His Love for him/her?

 

 

 

Posted on

Morning Song

“But I will sing about your strength.

In the morning I will joyfully sing about your mercy.

You have been my stronghold and a place of safety in times of trouble.”  

Psalm 59:16 GW

David was absolutely freaking out.  Although he was destined to be King, he was being viciously targeted by the current King Saul.  Saul wanted David dead, and he had sent his top henchmen to do the job.

Yet, in the midst of David’s panic and well-warranted fear, knowing the absolute reality of what was intended as his physical demise which literally surrounded him, he looked Up.  What is it about those nighttime fears that can send us into a tailspin of hopelessness?   It seems that the Enemy of our souls does his best work in the night.  It’s his primary domain.  He loves the darkness…hates the Light.

BUT, thinking of “morning” literally, it begins at 12:01:01 AM.  It’s the official start of a new day.  Though everything seems to look and feel worse in the darkness of night, it’s all “Light” to God.  And it’s in the midst of that darkness of a new day that God’s Strength, Mercy, Stronghold of Safety and Protection become the most critical place for us to be.

It’s definitely something to sing about, right through the darkness and into the Light.

Posted on

Gentle Reminder

 “Ask, and you will receive.

Search, and you will find.

Knock, and the door will be opened for you.

Everyone who asks will receive.

The one who searches will find,

and for the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”

Matthew 7:7-8

 

I have known this verse since I was a child. Sometimes the most familiar things lose their meaning.  Today, this was one of those moments….

What strikes me today is the gentleness of the tone of the passage.  Yet, there is power behind each phrase….There is a Response following each one-word instruction.  The Response is from God.  There is a tenderness here.  There is a Listening Ear.

It’s the way a child would be spoken to….taught something very simple, very basic.  The simple repetition of each, and the subtle re-wording is as a teacher would use when speaking with a child.

What if it’s this simple?  Uncomplicated?  Clear and straightforward?

There is One on the other side of the Door, ready to open it.   Ready to give what we need.  Ready to reveal what we can’t find.  . . . He’s just on the other side of the Door.

Ask…………       Search………….        Knock