Fruit Bearing and Pruning

After installing a new wood floor throughout most of my home in 2013, I am now having to tear it out again and replace the whole thing, due to water vapor emission from the slab (which insurance doesn't cover).  In addition, I have a nasty mold situation under the wood flooring. 

Searching for some discipleship materials, I came across the following article that I had written for MTS back in November of 2013.  It fit my current situation so well that I thought I would share the article with you......

So many times reading a verse of Scripture, the Holy Spirit will open up a deeper understanding of the verse than we have had before.  That happened with me a few days ago with John 15:2b:  “He cleanses and repeatedly prunes every branch that continues to bear fruit.” 

The verse doesn’t say “He prunes us so we will bear fruit.”  Rather, it says, basically, that if we are bearing fruit, we will get pruned.

Obviously, you and I want to be in that classification of “fruitbearers”, but…….with that calling comes cleansing and repeated pruning – in other words, suffering, struggles, problems, pain, persecution – repeatedly, continually.

The last part of the verse gives the reason:  “to make me bear more and richer and more excellent fruit.”    It’s like a cycle – suffering and struggles = bear more fruit = more suffering and struggles = bear richer fruit = continued suffering and struggles = bear richer and more excellent fruit……and so on.  We can’t have one without the other.  He says so.

Sunday in church the pastor was talking about the burial of Joseph’s father Jacob and how all the officials of Pharaoh – a huge entourage of nobles and elders and guards – went with Joseph and his family to Canaan to bury Jacob.  There, at the threshing floor of Atad, they mourned loudly for a whole week.  (Genesis 50)  Listening to the pastor talk about mourning in our own lives, I suddenly started to cry and had to really struggle to stop.  Life had been tough for a long time, years and years and years, seeming like an endless barrage of problems and pain and rough situations.  Just the last month alone had included a nasty flood (including a new wood floor) when bathtub plumbing broke, evacuation of my commercial building because of a gas leak, a broken foot, unfixable AC condenser, etc.  Pruning….pruning….and more pruning.

But then came Monday noon.  I had been praying much Sunday about a specific situation, asking God for a very specific thing.  And Monday noon He answered that prayer in an unbelievable,   awesome, truly miraculous way!  And so quickly!!   My mourning turned to dancing as He lifted me up in glorious praise to my God!

And this week has been one of truly unexpected opportunities to witness for Him – opportunities just falling into my lap – and more reason to praise.

As I stopped and thought about the years of tough things, I realized that all during these tough times He has been continually pulling me back up to praise with His love gifts - to show He is there, involved in my life second by second, loving me intensely and totally and unconditionally.

 “I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness (suffering), and I will speak tenderly and to her heart and make the Valley of Achor (troubling) for her a door of hope and expectation.  And she shall sing there….”  Hosea 2:14-15          

 

What have you done with my time?

In our Women’s Bible Study last night, we studied Genesis 2, the awesome account of the creation of man and woman.  We read how God placed them in this unbelievably beautiful garden, where the wild animals were all frolicking around together, weather was perfect, there was no disease, no death, no suffering.  But best of all, God walked in the garden with them!!!   He talked with them FACE TO FACE.  I imagine for Adam and Eve, it must have been like it was for Moses:  “The Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend…”  Exodus 33:11-13.   We  talked about what it really means to “walk with God”, as the Scriptures also say Enoch and Noah and Abraham did, and how we need to determine to make our relationship with God the number one priority in our life.  Following is a poem God gave me 30 or 40 years ago concerning that priority that you might like to think about in your own life.  It still convicts me...….           

            TO MY CHILD
Don’t tell Me you have no time for Me;

Don’t tell Me you have no time to put My Word into your heart.....
  To listen to Me,
  To converse with Me.....              
 FOR THAT IS WHY YOU WERE CREATED!

All of time is given to you to learn to know Me.....

  To receive My love.

If you think you have no time,

  Then there must be one thing.....two things.....
  That you can cut out and discard from your life.

I, an all-wise God, would not create you to love Me

  And learn to know Me
  And then not give you the time to do so.

Search your life and see.....

WHAT HAVE YOU PUT THERE
       IN PLACE OF YOUR TIME WITH ME?        

All your busyness, all your service, all your successes,

  They are as nothing to Me;
  I want YOU.

I want to talk with you and listen to you

  And teach you to love Me
  In preparation for the eternity we’ll spend together.

Don’t tell Me you have no time for Me.

I gave you the time;
It is mine to take back.

You were created to love Me and to receive My love.       

What have you done with my time?

 

                                                    All My love,

                                                    Your Father

jonah

For my time in the Word one morning, I was on my way to Colossians and somehow got stuck in the little book of Jonah.  Reading it through, I noticed an interesting fact:  after they finally chucked Jonah overboard (at Jonah’s insistence), everyone on the ship became a follower of the One True God!  The hour of Jonah’s greatest distress – being dumped into a violent sea with no hope of ever seeing daylight again – was also the hour of salvation for the whole ship!  “So they took Jonah up and cast him into the sea, and the sea ceased its raging.  Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.”  As Jonah finally gave over his will to God’s will, the hearts of those watching the drama also turned to God.

What really struck me was that God actually took Jonah’s SIN (fleeing in the opposite direction instead of preaching to Ninevah as commanded) and used it for Kingdom glory!  In the same way, He uses not only our troubles and trials and tribulations for His glory, but He also uses even our mistakes and, unbelievably, our sins.  THAT is how big and awesome God is and how perfect and interconnected and all-knowing His plans are!

While I was reading Jonah, I got a call about a signature-required delivery coming in a few minutes, with a replacement for a leaky kitchen faucet.  So I prayed that God (as He used Jonah’s disobedience to save a shipful of people) would use the hassle of a leaky faucet for a Holy Spirit work in the heart of the deliveryman.  When he came, I told him how the timing of his delivery was an answer to prayer for me.  He answered with, “Yes, it’s a wonderful world, isn’t it?”  - not the answer I was expecting.  I couldn’t think how to pull the conversation into sharing the Gospel from there.  So I signed the paper, and he went down the steps.  The Lord, however, kept him at the back of the truck for a good 5 minutes rearranging packages, and then gave me a swift kick out the door.  I went tearing down the steps calling out, “One more thing…..it’s a wonderful world if you have Jesus as your Savior!”  That opened the door for a “divine appointment” with the deliveryman, whom God had already brought from being an atheist to believing there probably was a God – but a God Who only deserved his anger and contempt.  Quite a bit later, he left with a “Why Me, God” brochure in his hand and a new understanding.  But you see, the awesome opportunity to meet this man at his point of need in his journey toward God would not have come to me if not for the leaky faucet (a small tribulation).

When Jonah was in the belly of that big fish, He prayed:
…“For You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the floods surrounded me;
all Your waves and Your billows passed over me….
the waters compassed me about….even to the extinction of life,
the abyss surrounded me, the seaweed was wrapped about my head…”

The last 3 years of my life have sometimes felt like that, with one calamity after another after another.  And the 18 years before, dealing with Steven’s TBI, often brought both of us close to despair.  I imagine many of you have felt and still do feel that same way – sometimes every day, day after day.

But listen to the end of that same prayer of Jonah’s – before deliverance - still spoken from the terrifying, stinking belly of the big fish:
“But as for me, I will sacrifice to You with the voice of thanksgiving!
I will pay that which I have vowed.  Salvation and deliverance belong to the Lord!”

As we proceed into 2015, we can go with the assurance that (1) no matter what circumstances God brings into our life or allows to stay in our life, (2) no matter how many times we fail, and (3) even in spite of our sin failures that will come in 2015......... God is still big enough and great enough to not only carry us through each circumstance, but to also use each of those circumstances for our good and His glory.  Like Jonah, we need to remember to give the sacrifice of thanksgiving and praise, right in the middle of those hard times to come.  And we need to try to walk with an air of excited expectancy for how He is going to use those tough situations.

Have a new year daily filled with His peace and the sense of His presence.  

 

 

The Heavenly Choir

Last week a dear, precious friend walked into glory with the Lord, after struggling for over 30 years with numerous kinds of cancer.  A few weeks before the Lord took Bob home, a group of us had gone to Bob and Lillie’s.  Bob wasn’t very strong.  He was struggling to breathe, because the cancer was in his lungs.  But the minute I walked up to him to give him a hug, he pointed to the other room and said, “The piano’s in there.”  After we ate a little food together, we all went in to the piano, and I was told to “play that” – “it’s Bob’s favorite song”.  “That” was “The Lord’s Prayer”, and it was in a very difficult version, with timing changes 3 times and notes all up and down the piano – way out of my capability.  My eyes bugged out.  But Bob desired it; so I played.  We were all singing, and I was struggling through the playing (doing an atrocious job!) when we all heard the most precious sound coming from the corner of the room where Bob sat.  Bob was singing his heart out.  It was hard to keep on singing, because we were all in tears. 

That was the last time that I saw Bob responsive.

For the memorial service, Lillie wanted me to play “In the Garden”, which was no problem since it is a very simple-to-play hymn.  Through various circumstances, I also ended up playing “The Lord’s Prayer” for a soloist and also “I’ll Fly Away” for a family of six little children singing. 

Even though I practiced and practiced “The Lord’s Prayer”, and although it sounded fine when I played it at home – I blew it royally playing for the service.  And I didn’t find the children’s song in the key they needed until just a few hours before I needed to leave for the service, plus I had only the chords and one note of melody, had to play it an octave lower, and hadn’t practiced that version with the kids.  So I kind of blew that one, too.

I was devastated.  All of the rest of the service was so perfect and so beautiful, including the taps played at the end because Bob was a navy veteran.  However, I felt that I had royally ruined my part of it.  There was such a heavy weight on me.  I couldn’t go to sleep until the wee hours of the morning, and then I woke up after just a few hours thinking about my mess-up.  It was two-fold:  I felt so bad for Lillie and her children, for my ruining of the beautiful service that was their last memory of Bob; and I was exceedingly embarrassed.  My pride was stomped on.

The morning of the service, God had so encouraged me by Ephesians 1: 17-23.  There, He talks about “having the eyes of your heart flooded with light, so you can know and understand:
  1.  the hope to which He has called you,
  2.  how rich is His glorious inheritance in the saints, and
  3.  the immeasurable & unlimited & surpassing greatness of His POWER in & for us who believe
as demonstrated when He raised Him from the dead…”

At the time, I thought, “Yes, Lord!  Only your great and awesome POWER is enabling and will enable me to play this extremely intricate song!”

But it didn’t exactly work out that way.

This morning, I cried to the Lord to lift that burden of despair from me.  And you know what?.....He reminded me to get up and go to the piano and sing a praise song for Him.  He also reminded me about “reverse praise” – a little technique God had taught me years ago, as follows: 

  When somebody does or says something that hurts you or angers you or upsets you, or when having a hard time dealing with the regret or shame of your own failures or sins, stop and make a list down the left side the page of everything that’s bothering you.  For example, your boss may have criticized you unfairly, or your grown child may have acted very unwisely, or someone may have lied to you.  Or you may have spouted off to your best friend, hurting her feelings.  Then, on the right side of the page, list the opposite of that characteristic.  For example, the opposite of unfair criticism would be perfect judgement.  The opposite of unwise actions would be acting with total wisdom.  The opposite of telling a lie would be only and always telling absolute truth.  The opposite of thoughtless, hurting words would be carefully thought out responses, full of wisdom and love.  Now look at each of those things on the right side of the page, and you have a list of attributes of God, which you can begin to praise Him for immediately.  Believe me, nothing works better for getting rid of despondency than turning to praise.

So….it was easy to see the opposite of my goof-ups and to begin praising God for His absolute perfection.  Not so easy – but necessary and do-able - to keep on doing it every time Satan brought up the memory of my failure.

When I went to the piano, God took me immediately to an old gospel hymn, “Follow Me”, which talks about how a discouraged Christian says, “the burden on my weary back had bowed me to despair”.  In the song, Christ answers, “My feet were also weary upon the Calvary road, the cross became so heavy, I fell beneath the load.  Be faithful weary pilgrim, the morning I can see – just lift your cross and follow close to Me.”

And then just 2 pages over the song:  “God Can Do Anything But Fail”.

How perfect, when I fail and when I’m discouraged, to fix my eyes on His perfection and on the burdens He carried - for me.  A messed-up piano playing…….so much of a NOTHING aside of what Christ had to deal with for my sake.

Then, I got to thinking about that POWER that God promised me yesterday, and I realized that He HAD “delivered” on His part.  This morning, he had given me the power to overcome despair through praise.  And…He is also able to enable Lillie to remember the good in Bob’s service instead of the mess-ups!

Right now while writing this article, I just got a call from a tenant in my commercial building that I had another flood inside the building.  It’s apparently from a new drain pipe that plumbers put in just two days ago (to correct another problem that they had created by choosing to put in too few downspouts with the newly installed roof).  I’ve just ordered water remediation (for the third time in just a few years), since everything is soaked.

So…..perfect time again to use the POWER that God has given me over despair and anger – power to turn it back into praise to Almighty God – a praise that my friend Bob knows all about right now.  He is praising God FACE TO FACE!  You know, I think that when I was messing up “The Lord’s Prayer”, it didn’t matter to Bob and the heavenly choir.  They were joyously singing along in full harmony, filling in all the notes I missed, adding more to somehow blend and raise up my broken melody in a great symphony of praise to the King of Kings!  And that symphony is still going on today, as I choose to praise Him! 

Over two thousand years ago, the world got a little foretaste of the awesomeness of that great heavenly choir.  Shepherds, living out under the immense open sky, watching over their flocks one night, were treated to an army of heavenly hosts praising God and rapping out, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.” 

Halleluiah!  Lord, in this Christmas season of remembering your birth, grant us the power to keep our eyes focused on joining the heavenly choir in praise to You.  In the turmoil of life, mine keep straying.   

 

Thanks, Lord!

I am thanking the Lord today!  After 6 months of my daughter and her family living with me, they have now been able to actually move into their new home.  There is still a lot to do yet to make their home totally livable, but the extensive mold in their home has been eradicated (as far as we know), we have re-painted every square inch of paintable area, the kitchen sink is resting on an actual cabinet instead of 2x4’s, and they have at least one completely usable bathroom.

Don’t get me wrong; this precious family of seven is extremely easy to get along with, and God has brought much good and much joy out of living on top of each other for an extended period of time.  But…. it is SO nice to be able to have my living room no longer standing in as a bedroom…. to have my Bible and prayer time anytime and anywhere I want without having to worry about  waking up 3 little sweeties sleeping beside me…..to have QUIET, order, peace…..to be able to do what I want, when I want, and fix my own little home the way I want……

But as I remember November 2, the international day of prayer for our brothers and sisters of the persecuted church, God reminds me that many of His beloved children do not have any of these things, or most of the other things that we count as so necessary.  I look at the Christians in Syria and Iraq, those in North Korea, Nigeria, India, and China – and in so many other countries around the world – and I see a different picture.  Here there are families that are thankful for a small tent to house a family of 10 (or more) in a tiny corner of a noisy refuge camp – because they have given up their home and everything in it rather than deny Christ.  I see fathers – and mothers – dying in a cold prison cell, separated from children, hungry, sick, beaten, alone – because they have refused to bow to any other than the Lord.  I see wives and children watching their husbands and fathers or sons and daughters murdered before their eyes – because they have dared to tell another the Good News of Jesus Christ.  And countless other heartbreaking, appalling stories.  And I weep.

But yet, in all of this, they are still thankful!  And we are thankful, whether part of the persecuted family or not, for we still ALL share great blessings:

1.  Our sins are forgiven, covered by the blood of the Lamb, and we stand before Christ clean.

2.  An awesome day IS coming – soon - when we will stand before the very throne of God, and He will welcome us as His beloved children.  We will suffer no more – ever, in any way.  We will never again have to struggle with temptation.  We will forever be filled with total, complete joy and peace.  We will fellowship with the King of Kings, face to face, and worship Him in the fullness of how we were created to worship!

3.  Meanwhile, we have His Word – some of us in numerous Bibles scattered around our homes, in various translations and forms – others of us in only a page here or there of His Word, or what we have stored in the pages of our minds.  But it is the same Word that has lasted down through the ages, never changing, all absolute truth, ever powerful, comforting, challenging, and teaching us Who God is, how much He loves us, and what He desires of us.

4.  And, regardless of our circumstances, He has promised us His Presence, His grace, His hope, His joy, His strength – every day, all day long, all night long – until He calls us to our REAL HOME.

On this thanksgiving day, thank you, Father, thank you.

           

DESIRING TO PLEASE HIM IN ALL THINGS

Paul was unceasingly praying and making request for the Colossians, asking that they would 
“ walk, live, and conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the Lord...”  Colossians 1:10. 
I have read that many times, but it never fully struck me that:

We are HIS, bought with a tremendous price (His own lifeblood).

HIS.  “Family” of..…..

·         The King of all Kings

·         The Creator of every single thing, person, life

·         The Ultimate Conqueror of all

·         The Omnipotent, The Omniscient, The Omnipresent

·         The All-knowing

·         The Ruler & Lord over every kingdom, nation, tribe, man, woman, child

We are the children of the High and Exalted One over all the universe!

Like royalty on earth –
              but a million times more so –
                         we must conduct ourselves in a manner WORTHY of our inheritance.

What we do and say and how we react,
  even how we THINK,
      all reflect on our Father’s name.
We are being watched.
      It is being recorded.

We have been adopted into this unimaginably royal, holy family.

We are under minute by minute, second by second, MILITARY DISCIPLINE,                                                            
                                                voluntary,
                                         but so far-reaching.

The enemy of our Father’s kingdom lurks consistently behind the scenes,
urging a break in the defense line….

·         Self-centeredness

·         Pride

·         Disobedience to the Holy Spirit

·         Flesh walk

·         Discouragement, despair, anger

    Lord, help us to see the battle lines today and stay focused on victory in Christ
(notwithstanding brain injury, financial woes, disease, disappointments, troubles),
          “fully pleasing to You and desiring to please You in all things,
                                 bearing fruit in every good work,
     and steadily growing and increasing in (and by) the knowledge of  You.”   
                                              Colossians 1:10
 
 

 

 

FAULTLESSLY PURE

The Lord’s been working with me on sin areas in my life – kicking out bricks in strongholds that I’ve become comfortable with and accustomed to……and dependent upon.  “Idols” – He calls them – because they fight for a place on the throne with Him.

And I’m not making it an easy job for Him.  Two steps forward and one step back; sometimes one step forward and two steps back.  My flesh fights to have its “fix”.  I hold onto those bricks with my teeth.

Yesterday He showed me I Thessalonians 3:13 again:  “…that He may strengthen and confirm and establish your hearts faultlessly pure and unblamable in holiness in the sight of our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all the saints!”  (Amplified version)

It struck me that what He is pushing and prodding and spurring me toward IS POSSIBLE.  I can get rid of this unholy “stuff” in me – these mind thoughts, these words, these actions and reactions and attitudes, this “self-on-the-throne, dance around me” mindset.

He says He will strengthen the good that is there in my heart – make it stronger, more able to withstand Satan’s attacks.

He will confirm what is good in my heart, so it may not be lost – that Satan may not be able to lie and discourage me into thinking it’s not there at all and bug me into giving up trying.

And He says He will establish my heart.  He will (1) open my eyes to ways I need to change,
(2) grant me the willingness to change, and (3) firmly establish me in this “new” holiness, not letting me backtrack.

He won’t do all the work for me, though.  I have to learn to let him reign – in my mind, in my day, in my heart.  I have to give Him my will.  He’s slowly unclenching “will” from my clutching fingers - through daily nuggets in His precious Word, through glimpses of His glory and His great love for me, through blessings undeserved, through seeing His grace and patience and so unbelievable mercy…and through suffering…and struggles…and hardships…and tough times. 

But look!  Look what He’s heading me toward – and you……….

FAULTLESSLY PURE and UNBLAMABLE IN HOLINESS!!!!
IN THE SIGHT OF OUR GOD and FATHER,
at the COMING of OUR LORD JESUS with ALL THE SAINTS!

TRUST

We went through the book of Genesis in church awhile back.  One of the things we talked about was Eve’s response to Satan’s temptation with the apple.  Thinking about it, it seems to me that the bottom line for Eve was trust.  She didn’t trust that what God said was absolute truth.

Skipping ahead, that was also Noah’s temptation.   And Abraham’s.  I would guess that Abraham had been in “high protective mode” all of Isaac’s life.  After all, he had waited 80 or more  years for this promised child - who finally came when Abraham was 100 years old!  He would take no chances.  A contingent of servants probably followed Isaac everywhere, making sure this answer to a lifetime of prayers was kept safe.  For God to ask such a thing must have been the shock of Abraham’s life.  So he was faced with the question….”Do I trust that what God told me earlier is truth????”   Or Not???

Abraham had already gone through a number of other “trust tests”(paraphrased or implied):
(1)“Leave your country and go to a far place.  Just start walking.  I’ll tell you when to stop.”  PASS 
(2)“Trust me in Egypt with your life.”  FAIL   
(3)“Trust me that I will use you to defeat Lot’s capturerers, but don’t take bounty, lest they not realize I made you rich.” PASS  
(4)“Trust me for your life in Gerar.”  FAIL 
(5)“Trust that I will keep the Promise, without any help from you and Sarah manipulating the circumstances.”  FAIL

Now, it was, “Trust me for the Promise.  Trust me EVEN IN ISAAC’S DEATH.”

Leaving all of his natural instinct behind, literally laying his great love and hope on the altar, ABRAHAM CHOSE TO TRUST GOD AND OBEY.

Ever since Adam and Eve pulled the foundation stone out of their awesome relationship of trust and love with Him, God has been desiring men and women to again walk with Him in trust.  He found it in Abraham and in Noah….and in multitudes of Christians down through the ages who have chosen to trust GOD over circumstances, suffering, persecution, desires, hopes, trials, fears.

And He looks for it in me.  Every time I don’t listen to the Holy Spirit speaking to me, I’m doing the same thing as Eve.  I’m telling God that I don’t trust that what He wants me to do (or not do) is the best choice or will meet my need of the moment (or what I “think” my need of the moment is.)  I let fear or desire or protectiveness or “whatever” rule….because I think my logic is better than God’s.  So I choose to disobey.  And another stone falls out of the bedrock of trust that our love relationship is built on.

But, thankfully, God keeps offering me another stone!

 

NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS:  II Peter 1:5-7

As 2014 begins and we possibly think about resolutions that we want to put into place for the new year – things we want to do differently and better - I’ve been thinking that it would be good for you and me to look at the goals that God wants us to aim for in 2014.  He’s listed them in II Peter 1:5-7, and He has asked us to diligently employ every effort to add these things to our faith.

He starts out with excellence (or “virtue”).  I think He puts this first because it constitutes a “mindset of excellence” – being willing to make Him Lord of every minute of our lives.

We can’t please Him without knowledge – “gnosis” – (the act of) “knowing” Him and His Word.  That means making it #1 priority every day to dig into His Word, ask the Holy Spirit to give us personal application, study diligently for correct interpretation, memorize His Word, pray His Word.  Our goal needs to be full, personal knowledge of Him (“epignosis”, II Peter 1:2, 3, 8; 2:20) – personal relationship with the King of Kings.

We can only do this with self-control – putting aside our personal wants and lusts for the moment and instead following the Holy Spirit’s lead – dying to the “self” within us, kicking out the sin nature that wants to take control.  “Self” controlled by the Holy Spirit – this is the bedrock for a life of obedience.    

But it has to be done with steadfastness – patience and endurance – over and over, until the way of the Spirit becomes our way of life.

This steadfastness of purpose leads to godliness (“eusebeia)” in our lives – growing in the “divine nature” (verse 4), as we begin to reverence and worship God the way He deserves (with all of our life).

As we develop the proper inside attitudes and relationship to God, we then automatically react to those around us with brotherly kindness – fulfilling their needs as the Holy Spirit directs. 

And with this groundwork, the ultimate goal - love (“agapen”), as the Father loves us – begins to take over our heart response to others.  We begin to have their “highest good” as our desire.

These are the “resolutions” that God wants to become “ours” and wants to see “increasingly abound” (verse 8) in us.  Wow!  I have a LONG way to go!  But……He says in verse 3 that “His divine power has bestowed upon us all things that are required for life and godliness, through the full, personal knowledge of Him Who called us to His own glory and excellence.”  So, the power and the ability are there; I just have to start with resolving to let God be Lord, not me, and follow through with “diligently employing every effort” to grow in these virtues He so desires in me.  Likewise with you.     

 Have a blessed New Year, filled with victory.

    

Note to new readers:  To read Steven's story since the TBI, go to the "Our Journey" tab at the top of the page.  To see his life before and after the TBI and to read short sections of Steven's "letters to God", hit the Celebration Service Slideshow.   

My Mother

My mother, Doris Rocke, had the awesome privilege of being called home to her Lord early on the morning of Friday, August 5, 2013.  I would like to share with you some of the amazing ways that God worked during her homegoing and also at the memorial service afterward. 

Mom was in a deep sleep all day Thursday, from which we could not awaken her.  I sang to her, prayed with her, and read the Bible to her, even though she wasn’t responding.  The verse I read to Mom that day (in addition to Revelation 21 and 22) was Psalm 17:15, “As for me, I will behold Thy face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Thy likeness.”  (I had been reading through Psalms consecutively with Mom, and that was where we were in Psalms for that Thursday).  Since mom wasn’t struggling to breathe, we didn’t realize she was close to her homegoing, so late that evening, I left for a little sleep.  About 1:30am, one of the aids, Rhonda, kindly went in and sat with Mom for awhile.  (This was typical of the staff at the Pines Nursing Home.   They were not only unbelievably excellent caregivers to all the residents, but they were also “friends” to mom.  They loved her.)  While Rhonda was sitting quietly beside Mom’s bed, Mom suddenly awakened, looked Rhonda right in the eye, and smiled the biggest smile!  Not too long after that, the Lord called Mom home.  The wonderful thing about the situation is that Mom had not really smiled since her 2^nd stroke, around 3 months previously!  How beautiful of the Lord to have Rhonda sitting beside Mom just at that moment, to be able to see and tell us about that miraculous “homegoing” smile!

The other situation that I’d like to share concerns the memorial service for Mom at the Apostolic Christian Church.  It stormed ferociously during almost all of that service, with lots of thunder and lightning.  The winds blew hard and the rain came down in buckets.  Shortly after the service, we were told that there was a foot of water in the grave, so the burial would have to be delayed.  We postponed the graveside service until after the dinner, but the cemetery road was still badly flooded, and our cars barely made it through without stalling.  Consequently, the graveside service was changed to the mausoleum.  This was a blessing in disguise from the Lord.  We had a little choir of 8 or 10 people (pulled from visitors from up north because the normal funeral choir were mostly out of state that day). When they began to sing (A cappella and with no microphones), we were in for a glorious surprise.  Because of the acoustics of the mausoleum, it sounded like 10,000 angels singing!  The music seemed to be coming from everywhere – above us, below us, and all around us!!  I sat there enthralled, thinking that this must be a little taste of what heaven will sound like! 

What a blessing God gave us, through a storm.  It’s the same way with our lives; sometimes the most fearsome storms of life bring greater spiritual blessings than we could have imagined possible.

       

"I HAVE SET THE LORD ALWAYS BEFORE ME"

A short while back, I was leaving the nursing home (my mother had another stroke), and I passed a thin, little, elderly gentleman (whom I had never met) resting in his wheelchair in the sunshine outside the nursing home door.  Being in a bit of a hurry, I was past him and opening my car door before I fully realized the Holy Spirit was nudging me to talk to that elderly man.  But I was in a hurry, so I climbed into the car, started the engine, and backed out.  Then I remembered a point in our pastor’s sermon that morning, “Be obedient.”  So….I pulled under the portico, popped out of my car, and approached the gentleman with “I noticed you looked a bit lonely, and I wanted to tell you that Jesus loves you.”  The light of a million suns burst forth from his face as he excitedly told me, “Yes, yes, I know!  Jesus loves me!!  And He’s right here beside me!  He goes with me wherever I go!”  For the next 5 minutes, we proceeded to talk together with great joy about the Lord, about the coming rapture, and about the awesome life that awaits us.  I left feeling SO BLESSED and encouraged.  And here I thought it was for the little old man’s sake that God wanted me to stop!

When I got home, I sat down to have a little quiet time with the Lord (since I’d left the house at 7:00am without more than a quick prayer).  I’m currently reading through Acts, and the verses were Acts 2:25-28, talking about when Peter got up and addressed the amazed crowd of onlookers immediately after Pentecost.  Peter is talking about what David says concerning the Lord in Psalm 16:8-11, “I have set the Lord always before me, for He is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken or overthrown or cast down.” 

It brought to mind the little old man in the nursing home; he had given me a picture example of that verse.  In an atmosphere of public noise, lack of normal privacy that we in our home take for granted, dependence on others, and only a part of a room to call his own, he was able to be joyful and expectant and thankful (instead of miserable), because he saw in his mind’s eye the Lord constantly beside him.  It struck me as I studied the verses that it is an act of choice to “set the Lord constantly before us.”

The rest of the verses go on to explain the benefits of doing so:

·         We won’t be shaken or overthrown or cast down, so troubles and problems won’t get to us and Satan won’t defeat us.  Verse 25

·         Our heart will rejoice and our tongue will exult exceedingly (we’ll be speaking and singing praise).  Verse 26

·         Our flesh will dwell in hope (absolute knowing of heaven coming!)  verse 26

·         He will show us the path of life (the way we should go)  verse 28

·         We will be enraptured with and in His Presence (filled exceedingly with joy because of our fellowship with the Lord).  Verse 28

 Which leads back to the other point of my pastor’s sermon:  “Fall in love with God and be satisfied with His fellowship”.  The little old man was even beyond satisfied; he was ENRAPTURED with the Lord.   

Is 41:10  “Fear not, for I am with you; do not look around you in terror and be dismayed, for I am your God.  I will strengthen you and harden you to difficulties, yes, I will help you; yes, I will hold you up and retain you with My right hand of rightness and justice.”

This was one of the verses that the Lord gave me on July 2, 2012, when I was “terrified and dismayed” thinking of the extreme dust and expense in jackhammering all of the satillo tile out of my house.  Little did I know that this would only be the beginning of a barrage of difficulties for the year, coming at approximately one every three days for the past 7 months.  To name a few:

·         3 instances of mold in the house, and another in the rentals, plus an asbestos problem, all causing extreme unexpected expense, in addition to a multitude of crazy plumbing and electrical problems in both places

·       still “temporarily” out of the house after 5 months and still looks barely past demolition stage, drive cracked, ruts in the lawn, dead plants

·         Total of 4 unexpected remodeling projects at the rentals, loss of tenants, angry tenants, upset contractors, threats of lawsuits, furnace fire, seemingly unsolvable problems, all of Steven’s life insurance spent “fixing” and still not finished

Plus a ton of other things.

You know, I was really glad to see 2012 go!

But 2013 “ain’t lookin’ much better”, starting with twenty minutes into the year. 

But then, I look back at that verse, and it says, “I will strengthen and harden you with difficulties.”  And I was thinking…..that’s exactly what these things have all been – difficulties – and that’s exactly what God is doing:  “strengthening and hardening me” with them, just like He promised.  So what is more important to me – a smooth, peaceful life – or that I will become what He desires me to become????

So how are these difficulties strengthening and hardening me?

·         By hammering it into my head that the peace of Christ ruling in me is a command and a choice, regardless of circumstances, and that peace must become the ruling authority rather than fear, uncertainty, despair, or whatever.  Colossians 3:15a  “Let the Peace from Christ rule in your hearts, to which (peace) you were called.”

·         By forcing me to remember that praise and thanks in all circumstances is part of the pathway to that peace.  Colossians 3:15b  “And be thankful always.”  Genesis 13:17, 18  “Arise, walk through the land, the length and the breadth of it” (mentally, walk through and give thanks) “then Abraham…built an altar to the Lord.”

·         By making me doubly aware that “He will send His Angel before you…”  Genesis 24:7 (neither house nor office burned down though potential was high, neither Steven nor I electrocuted when  circumstances should have brought that about, life insurance that we weren’t supposed to have miraculously provided by God preceeding all the need for the money, probable new tenants supplied even before old tenants moved out, place vacated for me to temporarily stay just hours before I needed it)

·         By opening my eyes to the fact that Satan’s first priority would be to distract me (by countless little irritations) from the Kingdom work of the moment and from the Awesome Covenant.  2 Corinthians 3:6  “..Who made us adequate as servants of the New Covenant..”

So, in these ongoing difficulties and problems and troubles (difficulties that will continue on throughout each of our lifetimes),  

Do I…..             
     Lose heart and become overwhelmed?

Or, in them, do I…..
     Hear my Maker calling me?

 

 

 

 

  

 

TEMPTATIONS in 2013

In Genesis 20:6, God is speaking in a dream to the king of Gerar, Abimelech, who had taken Abraham's wife, Sarah, into his harem.  Abimelech knew Sarah was Abraham’s sister, but Abraham and Sarah had neglected to say, out of fear and for the second recorded time (Genesis 12:10-20), that Sarah was also Abraham’s wife.  Surprisingly, Abimelech had not come near Sarah, even though she was part of his harem.  God explains why to Abimelech:  “…it was I Who kept you back and spared you from sinning against Me…” 

I have often looked at Genesis 20:6 rejoicing in how God preserved Sarah’s womb for a miracle – the birth of Isaac to 100 year old Abraham.  I previously missed another obvious fact:  this wasn’t only about Isaac; it was also about God sparing Abimelech from falling into temptation and sinning against God.

Six chapters later, in Genesis 26:6-11, amazingly, the process is repeated with Abimelech and his men, only this time it is with Abraham’s son Isaac and Isaac’s wife Rebekah.  “And the men of the place asked him (Isaac) about his wife, and he said, She is my sister; for he was afraid to say, She is my wife – thinking, Lest the men of the place should kill me for Rebekah, because she is attractive and is beautiful to look upon.”  This time, God has Abimelech look out the window at just the right time to see evidence that Rebekah is Isaac’s wife.

James 1:13 says that God tempts no man.  But the evidence seems to suggest that God goes one step further.  He supernaturally protects/removes his children, in His omniscience (all knowing) and His love, from temptation situations that He knows we are not strong enough to bear without falling into sin against Him. 

 I Corinthians 10:13 says, “But God is faithful not to let you be tempted and tried and assayed beyond your ability and strength of resistance and power to endure.”   (This would include not only temptations of the flesh, like Abimelech, but also temptations of the heart, such as anger, pride, fear, worry, unforgiveness, despair, faithlessness, loss of trust.) 

It goes on to say, “But with the temptation, He will also provide the way out (the means of escape) that you may be capable and strong and powerful to bear up under it patiently.”

In this new year of 2013, we can be confident God will not bring upon us a trial carrying with it a temptation beyond our ability to stand up under.  We can know with assurance neither Satan,  situations, or our flesh will tempt us this new year with anything that we do not have the power to say “no” to.  His love and omniscience and power go before us and clear the way for our own faithfulness, obedience, and faith – another example of God’s intimate involvement in our specific minute-by-minute life.  Thank you, Lord, for all the things that you will keep from our pathway this year because You know that we would not be strong enough to bear up under it.  Thank you for the power from You to be overcomers in everything that will come into our life this year.  Your love is awesome!