Thou, whose almighty Word
[or Thou, whose eternal word]
Chaos and darkness heard,
And took their flight;
Hear us, we humbly pray,
And, where the Gospel’s day
Sheds not its glorious ray,
Let there be light!

Thou, who didst come to bring
On Thy redeeming wing
Healing and sight,
Health to the sick in mind,
Sight to the inly blind,
O now, to all mankind,
Let there be light!

Spirit of truth and love,
Life giving, holy Dove,
Speed forth Thy flight;
Move on the water’s face
Bearing the lamp of grace,
And, in earth’s darkest place,
Let there be light!

Blessèd and holy Three,
Glorious Trinity,
Wisdom, love, might!
Boundless as ocean’s tide,
Rolling in fullest pride,
Through the world far and wide,
Let there be light!

HT: Chris Anderson

How sweet and awesome is this place
[originally How sweet and aweful is the place]
With Christ within the doors,
While everlasting love displays
The choicest of her stores!

Here every bowel of our God
With soft compassion rolls;
Here peace and pardon bought with blood
Is food for dying souls.

While all our hearts and all our songs
Join to admire the feast,
Each of us cry, with thankful tongues,
“Lord, why was I a guest?

“Why was I made to hear Thy voice,
And enter while there’s room,
When thousands make a wretched choice,
And rather starve than come?”

’Twas the same love that spread the feast
That sweetly drew us in;
Else we had still refused to taste,
And perished in our sin.

Pity the nations, O our God!
Constrain the earth to come;
Send Thy victorious Word abroad,
And bring the strangers home.

We long to see Thy churches full,
That all the chosen race
May with one voice, and heart and soul,
Sing Thy redeeming grace.

Today, with the new year in mind, I clean out my purse once again. I had discovered something floating around below the lining, and wanted to get to the bottom of it. Investigation revealed a hole in an outside pocket which led to the “basement area”. As I shook the purse sideways so that everything below the lining tumbled toward the hole, I thought how sad it is when a grown woman feels excitement over something like this, then has to write about it. How long had stuff been under there? What would I find? I pulled up my prizes–mints, gum, pennies, gum stuck to pennies, a cough drop, more gum pieces, something in a wrapper with the writing worn off, a small hand sanitizer (so that’s where it was), a thumb drive (I hadn’t even remembered losing it—scary memory thought), some keys…wait—I know I didn’t lose any keys! More investigation revealed another hole, this one in the key section. I was pulling keys from that hole into the first one. Pinning the fabric–the favorite option—was out. This was a needle and thread job.

As I stitched, I thought about my heart and things that could be flopping around in the bottom of it, things that should be immediately dealt with and put in the correct spot. Heavier items could definitely create the “holes”. Anger, bitterness, fear, jealousy–these caustic things, if not confessed and given to the Lord to dispose of, could work their way out of sight until they were forgotten and the urge to deal with them had waned. Then, without daily monitoring, small joys and encouragements might tumble in after them, unappreciated and also lost to sight.

It frustrates me to think that I repeatedly carry those heavy things, especially when I could go easily and often to the Lord during the day to unload them from my heart. How sad that it must take a few sessions of His wise and patient disciplining before I am ready to part with them, time better spent enjoying the glorious riches that He waits to give me. Maybe leaving those holes in my purse would be the best thing; it would remind me to continuously be checking the thoughts and contents of my heart.

Hebrews 4:12

© Ribtickler

Look to Him till the sight endears
The Savior to your heart;
His pierced feet — bedew with tears,
Nor from His cross depart!

Look to Him till His dying love
Your every thought control;
Its vast constraining influence prove,
O’er body, spirit, soul.

Look to him, as the race you run,
Your never failing Friend;
Finish He will, the work begun,
And grace — in glory end!

Excerpted from his book, “Bright Rays and Reviving Showers”.

And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness. (Genesis 15:6 ESV)

This, of course, is speaking of Abraham.  He was given promises more than once that his offspring would outnumber the stars in the sky and the sand on every shore.  At this point, “he believed.”  In the following chapter (however much time transpired between now and then), he blew it.

Did God know Abraham would fail to trust Him when He chalked up righteousness for him on account of this faith?  Of course He did.  He knows our frame; He remembers we are but dust.  How often I cling to that!  God was blessed by this baby step of Abraham’s…to believe Him, seemingly against all (human) “odds.”  It pleased Him.

And was God limited by Abraham’s failure?  When he and Sarah incorporated Hagar into the mix, did God throw His hands in the air in despair because they had meddled in His plan?  Of course not.  He brought to pass what He had promised.  Sarah bore a son, Isaac, and his descendants were very great in number.

We cannot thwart God’s will.  We can reject it.  We can walk away from it and choose our own way.  Sheep are like that. But in spite of the rebellion and wickedness of humans, what God designs will come to pass.

God loves our baby steps of progress, and it is supreme delight to Him when we resign our wills to His because we love Him.  He still loves you when you doubt.  He knows that much of what He is doing is incomprehensible, and that we are limited to our scope…we can’t see His big picture.  It makes us timid and reluctant sometimes.  But, oh, the joy when we step out on faith!

God has a perfect plan for everything because He is sovereign.  He adores when we choose to be part of that plan, looking up to Him for each new step.  Because He is a gentleman, He’ll never tie you up and smuggle you into His will.  He wants you to choose.  That small (but sometimes very large) exercise of the will is the biggest miracle in this magnificent universe.

Do you understand that?  The creation of every star, galaxy, planet, sea, and perfect microbe is a small thing when compared to the choice to bend your will to His.  You know your own stubbornness and pride, so when you stop and really think about this it will come as no surprise.  Christians are the biggest testimony ever to God’s greatness and goodness.  His expectations of us are based upon His having a very good handle on reality, and every shred of faith we possess is joyously added to His heavenly scrap book as a treasure.  He has snap shots of ever so many baby steps in your life.  He loves each one.

Just keep holding your hand out to Him.

“For I, the LORD your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, “Fear not, I am the one who helps you.” ~Isaiah 41:13

“Your words have been hard against me, says the LORD. But you say, ‘How have we spoken against you?’ You have said, ‘It is vain to serve God. What is the profit of our keeping his charge or of walking as in mourning before the LORD of hosts?” (Malachi 3:13-14 ESV)

Be honest.  In your heart of hearts, in the weakness of faithlessness, have you ever uttered something to this effect?

• “It’s just not worth it.”
• “What have I gotten out of this?”
• “This is too hard.”
• “I keep sacrificing, and for what?  This??”

We all have seasons like this, because we are made of dust.  The blessing is that He remembers this.  He knows what was used to craft us.  He knows the frailty that consumes us.

Let’s turn the tables.  What motivated the Savior to sacrifice Himself for us?  It was love.  Love, and the joy that was set before Him (that we would all one day be reunited and be one together with Him–John 17).  He could very easily have said any one of those things I listed above.  We fail.  We fall.  We faint.  But it is love that was the impetus that drove Him to the cross.  It is love that must spur us on as well.  If it is payback, reward, ease…then we will shrink in disappointment, because this world is tainted with the sin of the fall, and we are corrupted along with it.  This life is a series of imperfections.

Cultivate your love for Him, if you sense your spirit sagging, your resolve flagging.  Love can motivate the human heart to otherwise unattainable heights.  Read the word.  Speak with Him.  Get to a quiet place so you can hear His replies.  Remind yourself of His greatness, His goodness, His pity, mercy, and grace.

He remembers.  We need to as well.

Monica, the mother of Augustine, poured massive amounts of time into praying for and training up her rebellious son and NEVER saw fruit of it in this life… Augustine wandered from northern Africa to the Italian peninsula as a terrible prodigal, in search of something that turned out to be Someone whom Anselm, I believe, introduced to him. All along he could not shake the influence of Monica’s words, but especially her prayers for him. As a newborn in Christ [he was converted at age 31], his life burst into flame for His Savior. It was not until he joined his mom in heaven that they were able to reunite after all of those profligate years. I try to imagine something of the conversation that followed after they bumped into one another in glory. All those years of changing stinky diapers (or whatever she used), wiping runny noses, struggling to keep grace and truth balanced in her words toward him, and seeing him live as a God-forsaking rebel seemingly throwing to the wind all she poured into him–never having any visible evidence that she would leave behind a lasting heritage for Christ. What a conversation this might have been as both stood in the presence of the One Who enabled it all!

So, Christian parent, if you are struggling and growing weary of well doing, take heart.  Although it is immensely gratifying to see the fruits of our labor in training up our children in the way they should go, it could be that the petals of those buds will not even begin to unfurl (to the human eye) until after our days are spent.

Be faithful in that for which you are accountable.  The life of Josiah is testimony in itself that God can cultivate godliness in the most fallow soil; but if you know to do good, do it.  Love the Lord.  Lean on Him.  Speak the truth in love.  Pray.  Lay that firm foundation, with Christ as chief cornerstone, so that your children will never doubt that their feet may be firmly planted if they so choose.

“Serenity Prayer”

God, grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time; Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.

• Taking a break from the school day to see the Apollo 8 broadcast
• No color TV, no remote controls
• No VCR, which meant if you missed the Charlie Brown Christmas special, you waited until next year!
• Party lines, and rotary dial telephones
• Terrific old candies like Teaberry gum, Bottle Caps, Razzles, candy dots (you know, on the long strip of paper), and wax soda bottles with “juice” in them
• Playing  with Chinese jump ropes, Clackers, Duncan yo-yo’s, and Malibu Barbies
• The bi-centennial celebration in Philadelphia, complete with tall ships crowding the harbor
• Davey and Goliath, Astro Boy, Ultra Man, Kimba the White Lion, Kukla, Fran and Ollie, Captain Kangaroo…
• New school clothes for school and every Easter (hats and gloves!)
• No computers until I learned BASIC in high school…and we had to dial up to a mainframe at Lehigh University!
• Cell phones were the stuff of Star Trek episodes.  We thought “bag phones” were high tech!
• Pixie, Dorothy Hamill, shag, and Farrah Fawcett hair styles (ugh)
• LP’s and 45′s with those little plastic adapter thingies
• Lava lamps
• Decor fads in the form of mushrooms, smilies, footprints, all things harvest gold, brown, rust and avocado…and later was the country blue and mauve phase, complete with geese (what was up with that?)
• Fashion fads (and I’d be a rich lady if I still had some of this stuff…what goes around comes around, no matter how awful it was on the first go): bell bottoms, hip huggers, peasant blouses, glittery belts and nail polish (well, everything glittered it seemed), clogs and platform shoes, choker necklaces, puka shells, mood rings, maxi skirts, vinyl boots, gauchos, sequined tshirts…oh, those years were replete with disasters!
• TV dinners were sensational!
• We had no microwave (remember the first ones that were half the size of your fridge?) or even a clothes dryer (though such luxuries were available then)
• Brownie cameras, Instamatic cameras, Polaroid cameras with the funny smelling film
• Studebakers and old Chevy station wagons (and drive in movies lying on the top of said wagon)…I remember our first car with a/c…a Monte Carlo
• Saying the “Pledge of Allegiance” in school, with a moment of silent prayer afterwards

Reminisce with me.  What do you remember?