Detours

I know that I have posted this gem from Elisabeth Elliot before, but today it just seemed remarkabley applicable.

When Pharaoh let the people go, "God did not guide them by the road towards the Philistines, though that way was the shortest.... God made them go round by way of the wilderness towards the Red Sea" (Ex 13: 17, 18 NEB).
The direct route would save time as well as wear and tear on the people, but God had something infinitely more important than economics in mind--He wanted the people to be able to sing the song of praise of chapter 15--"The Lord is my refuge and my defence...my deliverer. He is my God and I will glorify Him; He is my father's God and I will exalt Him" (Ex 15:2 NEB). They sang this song because they had firsthand experience of God's power and deliverance. Pursued by all the chariots and horses, cavalry and infantry of Egypt, they had passed through the Red Sea in safety and seen the enemy drowned. They would have missed this glorious lesson if they had taken the short road.
When we are puzzled by delays and detours, let us think about the great purpose of life: to glorify God. The lessons He wants to teach us "in the wilderness" are priceless means of providing us with a song we could not otherwise have sung: "In Thy constant love Thou hast led the people!" (Ex 15:13).



 

On Humility

From G.K. Chesterton:

...what we suffer from to-day is humility in the wrong place.... A man was meant to be doubtful about himself, but undoubting about the truth; this has been exactly reversed. Nowadays the part of a man that a man does assert is exactly the part he ought not to assert-himself. The part he doubts is exactly the part he ought not to doubt-the Divine Reason.

Orthodoxy pg. 27

"Heaven is not here..."

Heaven is not here, it's There. If we were given all we wanted here, our hearts would settle for this world rather than the next. God is forever luring us up and away from this one, wooing us to Himself and His still invisible Kingdom, where we will certainly find what we so keenly long for.

-- Elisabeth Eliot

Ah, yes...

"My Own Fault"
Someone who is suffering as a result of his own foolishness or failure may read these words. These griefs are hard indeed to bear, for we feel we might easily have avoided them. We have no one to blame but ourselves, and there isn't much consolation there. Sometimes we imagine that we must bear this kind of trouble alone, but that is a mistake. The Lamb of God, slain for us, has borne all of our griefs and carried all of our sorrows, no matter what their origin. All grief and sorrow is the result of sin somewhere along the line, but Christ received them willingly. It is nothing but pride that keeps me from asking Him to help me to bear the troubles which are my own fault.

- Elisabeth Eliot

NEWS ALERT, NEWS ALERT

Justin Ferguson speaks Spanish. I repeat...Justin Ferguson speaks Spanish.

We really didn't know where he was after all that time in lessons because, frankly, we only speak English with him. But yesterday, after piano lessons with Emmanuel (seated on the couch with his lovely esposa) Justin engaged him and his sweet wife, Sarai in some card games to pass the time while they were waiting to be picked up by her sister for a trip. Sarai taught Justin how to play Suma. They must have played for 30 or 40 minutes. I was just amazed at Justin's conversation ability. Granted, he's not fluent, but he was saying things I didn't even know he knew and he even taught me a few things.

Anyway, just thought everybody should know.

I bet the rest of the kids aren't that far behind.

But they won't speak Spanish with us. It's just kinda weird. :)

Focus

"No my eye is not on the density of the fog, but on the Living God who controls every circumstance of my life." George Mueller

One I keep coming back to...

A friend gave this quote to me several years ago, and I still come back to it for encouragement, comfort, and a reminder of the God who walks with me in the dark. I may have even passed it on to some of you.

God constantly encourages us to trust Him in the dark. I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron: and I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the Lord, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel."

It is heartening to learn how many of God's mighty deeds were done in secret, away from the prying eyes of men or angles.

When God created the heavens and the earth, darkness was upon the face of the deep. When the Eternal Son became flesh, He was carried for a time in the darkness of the sweet virgin's womb. When He died for the life of the world, it was in the darkness, seen by no one at the last. When He arose from the dead, it was, "very early in the morning." No one saw Him rise. It is as if God were saying, "What I am is all that need matter to you, for there lie your hope and your peace. I will do what I will do, and it will all come to light at last, but how I do it is My secret. Trust Me, and be not afraid."

With the goodness of God to desire our highest welfare, the wisdom of God to plan it, and the power of God to achieve it, what do we lack? Surely we are the most favored of all creatures.

from The Knowledge of the Holy by A.W. Tozer

The God who weeps with us

John handed me last week A Sacred Sorrow by Michael Card(singer/songwriter and poet extraordinaire) and it has been amazing. The premise is that we as God's people have lost the "language of lament" and that our worship of God is therefore hindered as a result. Card gives portraits of Job, David , Jeremiah and Jesus in order to convince us that God is a God of loving-kindness, hesed in Hebrew, who desires not only to hear our lamenting cries in our suffering but desires to lament with us as well.

I have been especially moved by the chapters on Jeremiah, the weeping prophet who cried out to his beloved city to repent, but they would not listen and so from a cave, he writes his Lamentations after watching Jerusalem fall into famine and destruction.

From chapter 18, Lamentations: the Destruction of Jeremiah

"It is good," continues Jeremiah, "to wait quietly for Him," "to hope in him," "to seek Him." A man may be left alone in silence, may have to bury his face in the dust or offer his cheek to the one who would strike him, but promises Jeremiah through his tears, "men are not cast off by the Lord forever." And why? Because so great is His hesed(loving-kindness).

"...But Jeremiah also has the assurance of the God who "looks down from heaven and sees." And what does He see? He sees the tears that have flowed in unceasing streams from the prophets tired eyes. Jeremiah wept and God saw. He cried and God heard. He is not the God who waves the magic wand and makes the Babylonians or the cancer go away. He is the God who sees and hears and enters into the suffering with His suffering people in the wilderness. This God, Jeremiah could have never known in the marble palaces of Jerusalem, only from the windy cave that now overlooks the ruined city.

I love my pets...

...and apparently so does C.S. Lewis and Elisabeth Eliot (since she quoted him.) This is why I wasn't coming to Peru without the dog and cat. See, it's legit.

C. S. Lewis had some lovely things to say about animals in his Letters to an American Lady. "I will never laugh at anyone for grieving over a loved beast. I think God wants us to love Him more, not to love creatures (even animals) less. No person, animal, flower, or even pebble, has ever been loved too much--i.e., more than every one of God's works deserves."

A woman I know found her teen-age daughter lying on the living room rug one evening, sobbing into the curly fur of their cocker spaniel. The mother had on many occasions wondered if the dog was worth all the fuss and trouble of training, feeding, cleaning fur off the rugs and furniture. She stopped wondering when she saw that the dog was a refuge and a friend to the child when she would have found it impossible to cry on anyone's shoulder. The mother made up her mind then and there that as long as she had children, at least, she would have a dog. (She has since decided that even she needs him.)

(cat-therapy, dog-therapy - whatever you need in the moment)

In another letter [Lewis] wrote, "We were talking about cats and dogs the other day and decided that both have consciences but the dog, being an honest, humble person, always has a bad one, but the cat is a Pharisee and always has a good one. When he sits and stares you out of countenance he is thanking God that he is not as these dogs, or these humans, or even as these other cats!"

Funny. And very true.

This verse encouraged me

For the Lord will not cast off forever, but though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love;
for he does not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men.

Lamentations 3:32-33

I love this because while it acknowledges God's sovereignty and providence, even in times of grief, sorrow, and trial - it also tells me that his heart is empathetic for us, and that he has compassion for us in the midst of the trials that he brought on. It's through these trials he refines us, and sanctifies us, but it does my heart good to know that he knows how much my heart hurts while in them - and that he knows how weak and frail I am and he comforts me because of the ABUNDANCE of his steadfast love.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Christ the arbiter of our hearts

The peace of God means the absence of conflict with the will of God. It means harmony within, concord with his purpose for our lives...

To make peace with a country or a person or God requires a transaction. To have peace, as people sometimes say, unless it is merely the sense of well-being that commonly goes with getting what you want, must mean that a transaction has taken place. One's will, along with everything else, has been offered up. Peace is the divine answer to our Yes, Lord.

Colossians 3:15 suggests that the peace of Christ is the "arbiter" of our hearts, ruling out all faithless response to trouble, all distress, anxiety, fretfulness, frustration, and resentment. It establishes order. Those who accept the grace of this gift know tranquillity which can withstand all assaults, a stillness unbroken by the world's noise, and a repose in the midst of intense activity--repose which a nerve-racked world cannot possibly give. For only Christ himself, who slept in the boat in the storm and then spoke calm to the wind and waves, can stand beside us when we are in a panic and say to us Peace. It will not be explainable. It transcends human understanding. And there is nothing else like it in the whole wide world.

- Elisabeth Eliot

On entering the New Year

John sent me the following quote from Peter Leithart. It encouragd me.

We begin a New Year on Tuesday. New Year’s Day is a time for assessment and self-evaluation, for reflecting on the past and looking toward the future. It is also a time of uncertainty.

Amid all the uncertainties, we can be completely sure about two things. We can be sure of change. Neither we nor our world will be the same a year from now. For creatures, and creation, change is one of the constants of life.

But in the midst of change, we can also be sure of one thing of absolute stability: Our God is in His heaven and rules over all, our Father loves us in His Son and has given us His Spirit. He is utterly faithful, and He has promised to be our God in all circumstances.

That means that no matter what challenges you face in the coming year, no matter what changes you have to respond to, you can rely on your Father.

Is there a fire of affliction awaiting you? It will not harm you; God only designs your dross to consume and your gold to refine. Are you going to pass through deep waters? Remember Israel and Jonah. Will the Lord lead you by a viper’s den? He says that a weaned child can play by the hole of the cobra. There may be a cross in your future, but remember what our Father did, and does, for the crucified.

Whatever the New Year brings, it will from your Father, and you can trust Him. Whatever comes, it cannot harm you. When the disciples feared the storm, Jesus rebuked them and called them men of little faith. As the New Year begins, confess your little faith and ask the eternal God to help your unbelief.

Amen and amen.

Back online with Madeleine L'Engle

Well, after I posted the info about my Vonage being out, the internet went to pot too and after that the water. But all is well now, with intermittent internet outages, but that has been for everyone, so I can live with that. It's when my house is the only house with the problem that I lose my cool. Misery loves company, I guess.

That said, in all my spare time not stolen from surfing the net and reading everyones blogs, I read all of Madeleine L'Engle's And it Was Good : Reflections on Beginnings,the first from her non-fictional work, the Genesis Trilogy. I love her voice. I don't always love everything she says, but honestly I really don't love everything any mere mortal says. And I really don't love everything I say -but digressing again...

It was a good read. L'Engle sometimes gets labled as a liberal - and maybe she was, but as far as I have read thus far, she is solid on her doctrines of Jesus, the Trinity, and her view of God is large with Him being the Supreme Creator and sustainer of the universe. She may err on the liberal side when it comes to social issues, but I am becoming less and less bothered - not because I agree, because on some of these issues, I don't agree with her at all. But because I hear what she is saying and her voice is a much kinder, gentler and frankly more respectful voice than I hear coming from those in the public eye with whom I would agree. For that I admire her.

So I want to share a few of my favorite quotes. FYI - she does tend to use language in order to shock, like saying she is "agnostic" knowing full well that's going to push people's buttons. I kind of like her spunk. :) So take what you will - and leave the rest.

From the chapter entitled The God Who is Free:
In our own daily lives, in smaller but nevertheless significant ways, how can we tell whose voice it is we are hearing?
Sometimes we can't, for the tempter is extremely clever, and is a superb mimic. but he always slips. If there is even a touch of any of the temptations offered Jesus after the baptism, then it is not the voice of the Holy Spirit we are hearing. If we are gently patted on the back and told that we have a particularly devout and effective prayer group, if we are complimented, ever so gently, on the depth of our spirituality, if we are set apart, even a little, from the rest of creation, then we can make a reasonable guess as to whose voice we are hearing."

From the chapter entitled Paradoxes in Prayer:

...I would like all the answers re:my prayer life, my spiritual life, handed me all tidily wrapped up. But I have learned that if I want neat unconflicting answers, I would have to go to some rigid sect where my free will would be denied. And so I learned to rejoice in questions.

At a church conference recently someone asked, "You have referred to your agnostic period. What happened to get you out of it?"
And I reply, joyfully, that I am still an agnostic, but then I was an unhappy one, seeking finite answers, and now I am a happy one, rejoicing in paradox. Agnostic means only that we do not know, and we finite creatures cannot know, in any intellectual or ultimate way, the infinite Lord, the undivided Trinity. Now I am able to accept my not-knowing- and yet, in a completely different way, in the old biblical way, I also know what I do not understand, and that is what my agnosticism means to me now. It does not mean that I do not believe; it is an acceptance that I am created, that I am asked to bear the light, knowing that this is the most wonderful of all vocations.

And from the chapter The God Who Cannot Fail:

And as long as I have even a small splinter of unlovingness lodged in my heart, how can I look down on or judge anybody else? Jesus says that I must not. I know that I cannot throw the first stone, and I hope that, no matter how many sinful prodigal sons are invited, I will still want to go to the party.

From Madeleine L'Engle

When I am most defensive about something, arguing hotly that I am right, it is time for me to step back and examine whatever it is I am trying to prove.

-And It Was Good, p30

That one got me. Eeek!

Solitude and Community - Finding balance

Richard Foster in his wonderful book Celebration of Discipline, in the chapter entitled "The Discipline of Solitude":

Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Life Together titled one of his chapters "The Day Together" and the following chapter "The Day Alone." Both are essential for spiritual success. He writes, "Let him who cannot be alone beware of community....Let him who is not in community beware of being alone....Each by itself has profound pitfalls and perils. One who wants fellowship without solitude plunges into the void of words and feelings, and one who seeks solitude without fellowship perishes in the abyss of vanity, self-infatuation, and despair."

Therefore, we must seek out the recreating stillness of solitude if we want to be with others meaningfully. We must seek the fellowship and accountability of others if we want to be alone safely. We must cultivate both if we are to live in obedience.

Amen.

The World must be shown

From Elisabeth Elliot today:

The terrible things in the world seem to make a mockery of the love of God, and the question always arises: Why!

There are important clues in the words of Jesus. The disciples' worst fears were about to be realized, yet He commanded (yes, commanded) them to be at peace. All would be well, all manner of things would be well--in the end. In a short time, however, the Prince of this world, Satan himself, was to be permitted to have his way. Not that Satan had any rights over Jesus. Far from it. Nor has he "rights" over any of God's children, including that dear mother. But Satan is permitted to approach. He challenges God, we know from the Book of Job, as to the validity of His children's faith.

God allows him to make a test case from time to time. It had to be proved to Satan, in Job's case, that there is such a thing as obedient faith which does not depend on receiving only benefits. Jesus had to show the world that He loved the Father and would, no matter what happened, do exactly what He said. The servant is not greater than his Lord. When we cry "Why, Lord?" we should ask instead, "Why not, Lord? Shall I not follow my Master in suffering as in everything else?"

Does our faith depend on having every prayer answered as we think it should be answered, or does it rest rather on the character of a sovereign Lord? We can't really tell, can we, until we're in real trouble.

...The world does not want to be told. The world must be shown. Isn't that part of the answer to the great question of why Christians suffer?

When Losing Heart

John sent this to me yesterday from Paul Tripp Ministries blog. It refreshed me. One of my big lessons I am learning right now is that I too much put my hope in my situations and circumstances being peaceful. Therefore when life is not peaceful, I am a wreck - a rudderless ship or maybe even more accurately a hot air balloon with a hole whizzing up and down and all around in an effort to regain control.

Read and be renewed.

"Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord."

What causes a person to lose heart? What makes a person want to give up? Why do we ever entertain fantasies of running away? What causes us to have little enthusiasm for what we once found very motivating?

Your motivation to continue is only as strong as what you've placed your hope in. Perhaps this is why we so easily lose heart in the face of obstacles, opposition, or difficulty. Perhaps what we've unwittingly done is to have tried to build our reason to continue on the shifting sand of flawed and impermanent things that were never meant to be the foundation of our meaning and purpose or inner sense of well-being. No human being is capable of carrying your hope. This side of heaven we're all weak and flawed in some way. No circumstance can carry your hope. Every situation you're in is in someway touched by the brokenness of the fall and isn't under your control. Amassing physical pleasures and possessions won't give you lasting hope. For all of their momentary enjoyment, they fill the sense, but do not satisfy the heart. When you look horizontally for your reason to continue you'll inevitably end up losing hope....

There's only one place where stable and reliable hope can be found. There's only one place of rest for your heart and surety for your soul. There's only one reliable place to find your reason to get up in the morning and continue. There's only one source of motivation that's sturdy enough to weather the storms of life in a fallen world. "Wait for the Lord" really does say it all.

When your hope is in the Lord, when you're getting your inner sense of well-being and security from him, when he's the reason you continue even when things are hard, then you're building your life on something that's reliable and sure. When you're waiting on the Lord, you've placed your hope in One who's the ultimate source of everything that's wise, good and true. When you wait for the Lord, you're placing your safety in the hands of One whose power is unmeasurable. When you wait for the Lord, you're getting your comfort from One whose love is boundless. When you wait for the Lord, you can be secure in the reality that he rules over all things. When you wait for the Lord, you can live with confidence because you know that every one of his promises is true. When you wait for the Lord, you can be hopeful even in weakness because you know that his grace is sufficient.

We lose heart because we tie our hope to the wrong things. What are you waiting for? To what have you tied your hope? "Be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.

Elisabeth Eliot on God's protection

I have more often this year asked the question, "What does it mean to be under God's protection?" It is a mystery, but Mrs. Eliot lends some thoughts on the subject.

How do we reconcile God's promises for protection with the fact that so many evil things do happen in our lives? Can we believe God for protection?

This question comes up often, and no wonder, since there are many promises in the Bible about protection, including (especially in the Old Testament) physical protection. We must be careful to interpret Scripture with Scripture, and if we examine the record we find that God did not by any means always protect His people from harm. He has absolute power to keep us safe, both physically and spiritually, but His engineering of the universe made room for man's freedom to choose--that is, freedom to will to obey or to disobey Him. This is a deep mystery. Man's disobedience brought evil into the world, and all of us are subject to it. God does not cancel out its effects, even for His choicest servants (John the Baptist, Stephen, those nameless victims of Hebrews 11:35-37, for example).

Nevertheless, we have the promises. Romans 8:35-39 is one of my most reread passages. I believe we can rest assured that we are invulnerable so long as God does not give permission for us to be hurt. If He gives that permission, He will not leave us alone. He goes with us through the valley, the deep water, the furnace. He will never, absolutely never, leave us or forsake us.

On the Spiritual Disciplines

When the disciplines degenerate into law, they are used to manipulate and control people. We take explicit commands and use them to imprison others. Such a deterioration of the Spiritual Disciplines results in pride and fear. Pride takes over because we come to believe that we are the right kind of people. Fear takes over because we dread losing control.

If we are to progress in the spiritual walk so that the Disciplines are a blessing and not a curse, we must come to the place in our lives where we can lay down the everlasting burden of always needing to manage others. This drive, more than any single thing, will lead us to turn the Spiritual Disciplines into laws. Once we have made a law, we have an "externalism" by which we judge who is measuring up and who is not. Without laws, the Disciplines are primarily an internal work, and it is impossible to control an internal work. When we genuinely believe that inner transformation is God's work and not ours, we can put to rest our passion to set others straight.

...Our world is genuinely hungry for changed people. Leo Tolstoy observes, "Everybody thinks of changing humanity and nobody thinks of changing himself."
- Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline, pgs 10-11

On prayer in community

Whatever the specific shape of our life together, it is of utmost importance that we pray in community. While prayer is often private and personal, it is never outside the reality of the worshiping, praying fellowship. In fact, we cannot sustain a life of prayer outside the community. Either we will give it up as futile, lacking the support and watchful care of others, or will we will make it into a thing of our own. Without the discerning life of the Christian community we will quickly turn prayer into a face-saving, self-justifying monologue.

Christian community is a gift of God created by the power of the Spirit and based upon our forgiveness in Jesus Christ. We all live under the gracious shadow of the cross, forgiving and being forgiven.

From Richard Foster in his chapter on "Radical Prayer" from Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home.