YOU and GOD

Just Look at Yourself!

“O wretched man that I am!” (Rom. 7:24) Those words, exclaimed in exasperation by the Apostle Paul, followed a deep look into his soul and self after which he exclaimed: “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) there dwelleth no good thing.” (Rom. 7:18)

Every human being has been created in the image of God, that is, with a mind with which to know Him, a heart with which to love Him, and a will with which to serve Him. I call these the mental, volitional, and emotional capacities of man. When Adam and Eve sinned, all of our inner-most being—our capacities cited above—were deadened, darkened, and depraved by the blight of sin’s corruptive influence. (Rom. 1) So we—our core being—cannot, apart from the regenerative power of God through the new birth, know, love, or serve God as we were created to do. In salvation, we receive a “new nature,” being made “a new creature” in Christ Jesus, (2 Cor. 5:17) so that we can know Him, love Him, and serve Him as we were intended to do as originally created.

Therefore, mankind has always had a “self” problem to deal with. Even after our new-birth experience, as Paul writes so graphically in Romans 7, we have a daily struggle between the “old man” and the “new man.” When we were saved by grace through faith, the old, fallen nature was not reformed, nor was it eradicated; we were, though, given a new nature, unspoiled and unspotted by sin. As we yield to the Holy Spirit, walking in the Spirit, we will please God; but whenever we yield to the “flesh/old nature,” we will be walking in the flesh, and in that condition we cannot please God no matter what we do. (Gal. 5:16-26) Paul confessed that, often, what he would not do, he found himself doing; and what he would do, he too often found himself not doing. This self-struggle caused him frustration and exasperation, and he finally cried out: “Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Rom. 7:24) He answered his own question in the next breath by affirming: “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Rom. 7:25)

So, how are you coping with that daily inner warfare of which Paul spake? Victory is possible, but only through the power of the indwelling Spirit of Christ. Struggling to please God in the power of our inner self will prove without exception fruitless.

The Old Testament record of Jacob’s life illustrates this struggle, though he lived before the time when the Holy Spirit was given to indwell every believer. Jacob’s life began in a literal struggle: The Scripture conveys that, at birth, when his elder twin Esau was being delivered from Rebekah’s womb, Jacob grabbed ahold of Esau’s heel. From that point on, for the next many years, there would be self-struggle between these sons of the patriarch, Isaac. Jacob (the name means “supplanter”) would connive to cheat Esau out of his coveted “birthright,” and later his even more coveted first-born blessing. This struggle eventuated in Esau’s vow to kill Jacob; in Jacob’s leaving his home country for 20 years, where he would continue to struggle with his father-in-law, Laban, over women and wages; and his move back to Beer-Sheba, when he would have a tense reunion with Esau and God would, for the second amazing time, appear to Jacob, instructing him that he would be the recipient of incalculable blessings, both material and spiritual, by the grace of God. In this second appearance at Bethel, God told the supplanter that the name change from Jacob to Israel that he had informed Jacob of in Genesis 28 would now “stick,” and that he would be called and known as “Israel-prince with God.” Jacob’s struggle lasted decades before God’s plans and purposes for Jacob’s life were believed and acted upon by this father of 12 sons. (Gen. 35)

The struggle with self is universal and ongoing. Some of the names given for it are: Self-absorbed, self-confident, self-destructive, self-denial, self-abasing, self-pity, and many other names assigned to the abnormal behavioral characteristics rooted in the fruit of self, left to itself.

Ancient philosophers urged disciples to “know thyself,” but the Bible says the heart (core of self) is desperately wicked and “who can know it?” (Jer. 17:9)

Almost every aberrant behavioral trait can be traced to a problem with self; and every problem with self will find its origin in the fall of mankind into sin on one of earth’s earliest days. Subtle Satan deceived Eden’s sole occupants into believing that to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil would make them wise, like God. They bought into that lie, and pride—the sin of which Lucifer, the Devil, was taken down by when he was an archangel—took down our first parents and, along with them, the human race. Satan, centuries later, would pull that same ploy out of his bag of dirty tricks and, in a wilderness, would tempt Jesus, weakened by 40 days and nights of fasting, with the pride factor: “Cast thyself down if you are the Son of God and your Father will ‘give His angels charge concerning Thee: and in their hands they shall bear Thee up, lest at any time Thou dash Thy foot against a stone.’” (Matt. 4:6) Jesus said to Satan: “It is written again, ‘Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.’” Jesus 2, Satan 0. Satan got blanked out, as he could not successfully get Jesus to sin in three tries—failing again when he promised Jesus the kingdoms of the world.

But we deal with this self issue every day. Our young people are struggling, as recent peaks in teen suicides have shown. The whole world lies in the lap of the wicked one (I John 5:19), and if the Devil will succeed in destroying your life here and/or hereafter, he will do so by appealing to your inner self.

Be filled with God’s Holy Spirit. Like our first parents, you are no match for the wicked one. He is the master deceiver. There can be victory over Satan and self—but only by faith and, moment by moment, yielding to God’s Spirit and not to your self.

“So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.” (Romans 8: 8,9)

The Encourager

I am convinced that there is not enough encouraging prevalent in our local churches today. And, there definitely is not enough encouraging in our world at large. Just listen to any newscast today, local or national, and see how uplifting that experience was not!

In the early church, there was a believer, Joses, who was known as a “comforter,” “consoler,” in so much that the apostles changed his name from Joses to Barnabas, which means “The son of consolation.” Do you know of any Barnabas types? There are some in every New Testament assembly, but it is a spiritual gift that is not as commonly exercised today as are most of the other gifts. “He that exhorteth” (Romans 12:8) is one who is an encourager. It is one of the several spiritual gifts the Holy Spirit imparts upon members of His Body, the Church, and one that is desperately needed in today’s world!

But then, there has always been a need. Catherine, the wife of Martin Luther, dealt with a depressed husband in a rather dramatic way. F.W. Herzberger related this incident: “One day when skies loomed blackest, this greatest and bravest of men, lost heart and in an oversad spirit refused to take courage again. Neither eating nor drinking nor speaking to anxious wife, children or friends, till Catherine dons widow garments, and deepest of mourning pretends. Surprised, Luther asked why she sorrowed, ‘Dear Doctor,’ his Katie replied, ‘I have cause for the saddest of weeping, for God in His heaven has died!’ Her gentle rebuke did not fail him; He laughingly kissed his wise spouse, took courage, banished his sorrow, and joy reigned again in the house!”

Mickey Mantle’s bout with discouragement did not turn out so happily. One day, the legendary home-run king of the 50’s, after striking out repeatedly, was obviously depressed. He says, “When I got back to the clubhouse, I just sat down on my stool and held my head in my hands, like I was going to start crying. I heard someone come up to me, and it was little Tommy Berra, Yogi’s boy, standing there next to me. He tapped me on the knee, nice and soft, and I figured he was going to say something nice to me, like ‘You keep hangin’ in there,’ or something like that. But all he did was look at me, and then he said in his little kid’s voice, ‘You stink.’”

Maybe others, at a time when you were especially discouraged, did not say “You stink,” but they may have non-verbally conveyed little Tommy Berra’s message to you. What to do? Well, thankfully we have Paul’s counsel “…that we through patience and comfort (encouragement) of the scriptures might have hope. Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus.” (Romans 15:4,5)

One German writer well spoke when he said, “Correction does much, but encouragement does more.” Correction and encouragement combined, of course, does most. Paul wrote to more than one church words of correction, but as in Galatians 5:10 he would often say something to the effect that “I have confidence in you….” We could learn from Paul that sometimes with difficulty correction must be meted out, but a word of encouragement at the right moment and in the right spirit can go a long way in providing hope as well as help. “Encouragement is like a peanut butter sandwich—the more you spread, the better the sandwich sticks together.”

Charles Plumb was a U.S. Navy jet pilot in Vietnam. After 75 combat missions, his plane was destroyed by a surface-to-air missile. Plumb ejected and parachuted into enemy hands. He was captured and spent six years in a communist Vietnamese prison.

He survived the ordeal and now lectures on lessons he learned from that experience.

One day, Plumb was sitting in a restaurant with his wife when a man from another table came up and said, “You’re Plumb! You flew jet fighters in Vietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. You were shot down!”

“How in the world did you know that?” asked Plumb.

“I packed your parachute,” the man replied.

Plumb gasped in surprise and gratitude. The man pumped his hand and said, “I guess it worked!” Plumb assured him “It sure did. If your chute hadn’t worked, I wouldn’t be here today.”

Plumb lost sleep over that chance meeting, wondering what he might have looked like in a Navy uniform: a white hat, a bib in the back, and bell-bottom trousers. “I wonder how many times I might have seen him and not even said ‘Good Morning, how are you? Or anything—because you see I was a fighter pilot and he was just a sailor.’” Plumb thought of the many hours the sailor had spent on the long wooden table in the bowels of the ship, carefully weaving the shrouds and folding the silks of each chute, holding in his hands each time the fate of someone he didn’t know. (copied)

The pilot now tells his story of survival, and when he does he asks the question, “Who’s packing your parachute?” He wants to create an awareness of how interdependent our lives are and how thankful we ought to be for the “parachute packers” in our lives and how much a simple word of encouragement could make a difference. We cannot all fly high on critical missions; some will be working unseen and unsung in the bowels of the ship, so to speak. But a simple “Good morning, how you doing?” or a word of thanks or a smile can mean the world to someone. Your spiritual gift may not be an “encourager” like Barnabas’ was, but every one of us can find someone today to encourage. It can be inexpensive to do, but costly not to do. Be an encourager now! It is desperately needed in this present darkness.

“A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.” (Provs. 25:11)

The Personal Praise of God’s People (Lamentations, Part 3)

Can you remember a time that you thought was the darkest hour of your life?

Perhaps you had just made a colossal business blunder that had cost you hundreds, maybe thousands of dollars.

Maybe you had just received news that your spouse or child was hopelessly ill.

Or, you might have come home and found your wife or husband had left you for another “lover.”

Maybe you failed a course that you desperately wanted and needed to pass.

It might have been the news that a loved one or dear friend had committed suicide.

Most of us can remember an hour in our lives that seemed all darkness and no light—a time when our heart was broken, our spirit crushed, and our desire to live exhausted. As a pastor, I have suffered a few such times, and I have sat in silence beside scores of men and women whose hearts, figuratively speaking, have been twisted and torn from their breasts. In those times, we can understand something of what Job meant when he said “man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward.” (Job 5:7)

Though most of us have suffered some great personal losses, probably none of us has suffered in a greater way than did the prophet Jeremiah. He suffered not only as a person but as a prophet.

In his third elegy, Lamentations chapter 3, the shades of the soul of this man of God are pulled up so that we can have an internal view of what he, and others like him, endured when God brought judgment upon Judah and Jerusalem. Note here his affliction (3:1-20); his affirmation (3:21-42); his anguish (3:43-54); and, finally, his answer (3:55-66):

(1) The prophet’s Affliction: He suffered physically, relating that his flesh and skin had been made old and his bones had been broken. The trauma had caused him to age prematurely. He had suffered physical abuse at the hands of the enemy.
He suffered emotionally. His innermost being was shot through with pain; it was as though someone loosed the knot that held everything together. Everything fell apart.
He suffered socially. He was mocked, rejected, disbelieved, and “in derision daily.”
He suffered financially. It had been so long since he had enjoyed pleasant days and times, he had forgotten the feeling. (3:17) He suffered mentally. Verses 1-20 of Lamentations 3 are the “grievous soul-suffering of the godly in their cheerless and hopeless misery.”

(2) The prophet’s Affirmation: Jeremiah affirmed God’s mercies, His faithfulness, and His salvation, expressing against the black backdrop of the book to this point that “the Lord is good to them that wait for Him.” (3:25) He affirmed God’s compassion, concluding that God never punishes His own without purpose; that sin brings judgment, and that affliction should cause us to search our hearts, with honest confession being the result.

(3) The prophet’s Anguish: God numbers our hairs, will He not also number our tears? “Little furnaces are for little faith. The greatest compliment God can pay you is to heat the furnace to the utmost.” (Unknown). “He knoweth the way that I take; when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.” (Job 23:10)

(4) The prophet’s Answer: (a) God heard Jeremiah’s prayer; (b) reassured the prophet of His presence; (c) gave Jeremiah assurance of his salvation; and (d) gave the prophet assurance that He would right the wrong.

“When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie,
My grace, all-sufficient, shall be thy supply;
The flame shall not hurt thee—I only design,
Thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine.

The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose,
I will not, I will not desert to his foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I’ll never, no, never, no, never forsake.”
(How Firm a Foundation—Rippon’s Selection of Hymns)

“My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; knowing that the trying of your faith worketh patience.” (James 1:2,3)

Making a Difference

I will call her Amelia though that is not her real name. She was invited to our church in Indianapolis by a friend at her public high school when she was a sophomore. Her life had been rugged, to put it mildly, reared in a “hard” religion household and a life where genuine affection was absent.

That’s when a teenager in our church youth-group invited her to visit our church. She had no time for any kind of church, thinking “religion” was all a sham. But evidently her heart had been prepared by the Holy Spirit, and she accepted the invitation to attend, as a “skeptic.” The mother of the teen who invited Amelia to church was more than happy to provide transportation, as neither her son nor his school friend had a license to drive.

Amelia came, and came back, and could not resist the impact of a church where people took what seemed to be a genuine interest in her as a person. In a matter of a few weeks, the power of the gospel did its wonderful work, and she trusted Christ as her Savior. The change was immediate, visible, and undeniable. She had been inwardly and outwardly converted, and it was evident. She had an appetite for God’s Word, for His Church, and a desire to know more of Christ. She was soon baptized and is now a faithful, committed member of a local, New Testament assembly of believers.

In a recent service at church honoring graduates, Amelia gave her testimony about God’s saving grace. She related her experience last summer at the Wilds Christian camp and the exceptional time she had with hundreds of other Christian teens. She said she plans to attend Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis this fall, remaining close to God and to His Church.

The big-hearted evangelist D.L. Moody pictured a scene on a mountain slope when the risen Lord Jesus commissioned His first disciples to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Moody pictures Peter’s wide-eyed wonder as he asks Jesus if they must go to those who drove the nails through His hands. Again, Peter asks if they must go to the man that drove the spear into the Master’s side, and Jesus says, “Yes, tell him there’s a nearer way to My heart than that.” And those early disciples entered into the compassion of their Savior as His Holy Spirit came upon them and broke down all their little human boundary-walls. (Copied)

Amelia’s transformed life—from despair to desire to grow in grace—left some of us listening again to those words of Jude: “And of some have compassion, making a difference.” (Jude 22) We were all thankful that a Christian teen saw another teen that many might have dismissed as hopeless because of those boundary walls, and invited her to attend a church service. An invitation that changed a young girl’s destiny. All because a teen believer had compassion, making a difference in another teen’s life. To God be the glory.

“And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion toward them, and He healed their sick.” (Matt.14:14)

Congratulations, Graduates!

New York Yankees legend Yogi Berra, addressing graduates, once said, “Your future’s bright, even though the future is not what it used to be.”

The poet Martha Snell Nicholson wrote of the future:

“I stood with God on the edge of the world, and my hand was in His hand. I looked down the road of the past as it stretched away in the dim distance, til it was shrouded in the mists of time. And I knew it had no beginning, and a little chill wind of fear blew about my head. God asked, ‘are you afraid?’ And I said, ‘Yes because I cannot understand how there can be no beginning.’

“So God said, ‘Let us turn and face the other way.’ And I looked into glory, and my heart rejoiced with joy unspeakable. And then my mind went ahead a billion, billion years, and I knew there would be no end, and again that little chill wind of fear began to blow.

“And God asked me again, ‘Are you afraid?’ And I answered, ‘A little, because I cannot understand how there can be no end.’

“So God asked me tenderly, ‘Are you afraid now, today, with your hand in Mine?’

“And I looked up at Him and smiled and replied, ‘O my Father, No!’

“And God said, ‘Every day in eternity will be today.’”

Which begs the question, graduate: Is your hand in His? It’s really the only way to face today, tomorrow, or the future. Salvation now, in time, is the only sure way to look at the future or eternity. And, salvation is by grace through faith. I hope and pray that you have the assurance that only being saved by His grace can give you.

Here’s how it happens: “But as many as received Him (Jesus), to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.” (John 1:12) Do you believe? Have you received? “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

Believe. Receive.

I would like to share with you some salient advice that I penned for a graduating class a few years ago. Longing for your personal success in whatever you put your hands and heart to, from this day forward, I know that each of these axioms will stand you in good stead. You will need an understanding heart

To discern God’s will for your life (vocation, location, education)
To avoid the snare of Satan
To live peaceably with all men
To find the LIFE’S PARTNER God wants you to have
To know how God would use you to edify the Body of Christ
To know how to possess your vessel in sanctification
To protect yourself from the philosophies and vain deceit of the traditions of this world
To learn how to master, under God, your spirit
To cultivate a proper appreciation for God’s Word, and to make it a life’s companion
To be a godly person
To be a good parent
To be a faithful friend
To honor God’s Church by serving Him faithfully in the local church
To know how to counsel well your friends who will seek your advice
To know how to balance the spiritual, material and social demands of life
To know how to handle bitter disappointment and stinging personal defeat
To cultivate a wholesome outlook on death
To learn how to be a citizen of heaven and at the same time a subject of Caesar
To learn how not to take yourself too seriously
To learn how to make a living—while at the same time, a life

And, ABOVE ALL, make a point to remember what the wisest of all mortals said in his conclusion to his search for the purpose and meaning of life:

“Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.” (Eccl.12:13)

The Despair of a Disciplined Nation

Chapter 2 of the book of Lamentations might well be titled, “The Purposeful Punishment of God’s People.” It begins with the same word as chapter 1, “How!” It is a word of utter amazement, the only word the prophet could think of as he surveyed the devastation that God had brought upon His people, His beloved nation, Judah.

The Bible says in Hebrews 10:31 that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God: He is a holy God—an all-knowing, an omni-present, loving God—who invests far too much in His own than to let them self-destruct without purposefully meting out discipline designed to correct their waywardness and restore them to a privileged place of unparalleled blessings.

Sin, unchecked and unconfessed, finally found Judah out. After years of sending messengers and prophets to warn the nation, pleading with her to repent, returning to Him, the longsuffering God at last brought the hammer down, severely judging the nation. Chapter 2 describes that judgment in stark detail:

(1) A description of the punishment as told by an eye-witness, Jeremiah:

The Lord hath covered, v.1
The Lord hath cast down, v. 1
The Lord hath remembered not, v. 1
The Lord swallowed, v. 2
The Lord hath not pitied, v. 2
The Lord hath brought them down in wrath, v. 2
The Lord hath brought them down to the ground, v. 2
The Lord hath polluted the kingdom, v. 2
The Lord hath cut off, v. 3
The Lord hath drawn back, v. 3
The Lord hath burned, v. 3
The Lord hath bent His bow, v. 4
The Lord has stood…as an adversary, v. 4
The Lord slew all that were pleasant, v. 4
The Lord hath poured out His fury like fire, v. 4
The Lord was an enemy, v. 5
The Lord hath swallowed up Israel, v. 5
The Lord hath swallowed up all her palaces, v. 5
The Lord hath destroyed His strong hold, v. 5
The Lord hath increased mourning and lamentation, v. 5
The Lord hath taken away His tabernacle, v. 6
The Lord hath destroyed the places of His assembly, v. 6
The Lord hath caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, v. 6
The Lord hath despised the King and Priest, v. 6
The Lord hath cast off His altar, v. 7
The Lord hath abhorred His sanctuary, v. 7
The Lord hath given up into the hand of her enemy the walls of her palaces, v. 7
The Lord hath purposed to destroy the walls of the daughters of Zion, v. 8
The Lord hath stretched out a line, v. 8
The Lord hath not withdrawn His hand from destroying, v. 8
The Lord hath made the rampart and wall to lament, v. 8
The Lord hath destroyed and broken her bars, v. 9
The Lord hath allowed her kings and princes to be scattered among Gentiles, v. 9
The Law is no more, v. 9
The prophets find no vision from the Lord, v. 9
The elders sit upon the ground and keep silent, v. 10
The virgins hang down their heads to the ground, v. 10

To refresh one’s memory as to the roots of such severity of judgment, 2 Kings records the words of the Lord: “Because they have done that which was evil in my sight, and have provoked me to anger, since the day their fathers came forth out of Egypt, even unto this day.” (2 Kings 21:15) Heading this list of sins would be, of course, idolatry.

(2) The despair of the divinely disciplined people of God is recorded in Jeremiah 2:11-17. He conveys that the children were hungry, literally starving to death, begging their mothers for food, dying in the streets. He then cites the foolish prophets who were still prophesying lies, giving out false visions and denying that the sword and famine were coming. Jeremiah cried out, “My heart within me is broken because of the prophets.” (Jer. 23:9)

There was despair also because of the fallen city (Lam. 2:15), and because of the jubilant enemies who were taking credit for what God had done and who were rejoicing at what had happened to God’s people. (Lam. 2:16). Times could not have been bleaker in Jerusalem.

(3) The last section records the utter depth of the lament. It reads like the prophet, the people and God all chiming in with observations. It is a compassionate cry with tears running down like a river, day and night; a pouring out of their hearts like water. (Lam. 2:18) It is also a continual cry, wherein “day and night” they were to “give thyself no rest,” crying out in the night in the beginning of the watches. (Lam.2:19) Finally, it is am. 2:20a)

With pictures of women eating the fruit of their wombs to keep from starving, and both young and old lying on the ground and in the streets waiting for death, the readers and the hearers of Jeremiah’s lament cannot escape the awful reality of sin’s dreadful consequences.

Sin pawns itself off as a lover but proves in the end to be a loser; it presents itself as pretty but one will discover it to be putrefying; it will make one to believe it is beautiful, but it is beastly; its siren sounds allure, but its sudden clutches asphyxiate. It is a master deceiver. Its first triumph was in the Garden on an untested couple who believed its sugar-coated lies; its last triumph will be at the end of the one-thousand-year rule and reign of Jesus Christ, when a mass-deception of humanity will convince peoples of all nations to believe the Devil’s damnable deceits, following him in one final unsuccessful coup against the Christ.

To see sin in its unmasked final, failed consequences, just reread Lamentations 2.

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.” (Matt.23:37)

Encourage Him

Believe it or not, pastors and those who are in “full-time,” vocational ministry sometimes go through discouraging times and need to be encouraged by others. We who preach to others need to hear preaching; and we who exhort others need to be exhorted!

A Church in Mississippi wanted to encourage its pastor by placing a special article in the church newsletter. The author of the paragraph titled it “Boost the Pastor a Bit.” The article was sent to a print shop, and a typesetter went to work on it (in an era BC, before computers). When it appeared in the weekly church paper, however, the headline read, “Boot the Pastor a Bit.” Not the kind of encouragement needed!

Sometimes we journey through valleys and deep waters before coming to the mountain tops and pleasant plains. I have never often been harassed by discouragement, but there was a time when I did come to a place where the shadows had lengthened and the winds were chilly and the terrain over which I was passing was pretty rough. I was not in the throes of discouragement, but I was at least battle fatigued.

At that very time, I received an email from a pastor in another part of the world. I have never met him; I do not know how he received my email address, but for quite some time he regularly would send me brief messages, usually a scripture verse with a brief word of encouragement.

When I was at a pretty low point, here’s a message I received: “I was praying for my friend and feel God will keep on blessing you. God has designed good things for you. Nothing good shall be withheld from you. But I feel you need to read the below verses. Read them carefully and I am sure these are the days that people are turning from sound doctrine. But please verse four which says you are to be watchful in all things. Endure afflictions. When you get afflictions, do not be discouraged but have endurance. Afflictions of any kind please endure. Keep on doing what God called you to do in His ministry always. Ask God to help you fulfill the purpose of your calling. As you read these verse we pray that God continues to keep you in His grace and love.” 2 Tim.4:3-5: “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned to fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.”

When I began reading that I was skeptical, anticipating some wild prophecy to come forth with a prosperity pot of gold at the end of a rainbow, depending upon my forwarding the proper account numbers for its deposit. Or, I was waiting for a desperate plea for help, but neither of them ever came. The fact is that on a particularly difficult day it would be hard not to believe that God laid that message of encouragement on the heart of a pastor half-way around the world, someone to my knowledge I had never met, to send to a downcast preacher. (By the way, this incident happened years ago and I still do not know that I have ever met this encourager).

Ten days after I received the above exhortation, I received a follow-up. It read, in part: “You say, ‘it’s impossible.’ God says, ‘All things are possible.’ You say, ‘I’m too tired.’ God says, ‘I will give you rest.’ You say, ‘Nobody really loves me.’ God says, ‘I love you.’ You say, ‘I can’t go on.’ God says, ‘My grace is sufficient.’ You say, ‘I can’t figure things out.’ God says, ‘I will direct your paths.’ You say ‘I can’t do it.’ God says, ‘You can do all things.’ You say, ‘I’m not able.’ God says, ‘l am able.’ You say, ‘It’s not worth it.’ God says, ‘It will be worth it.’ You say, ‘I can’t forgive myself.’ God says, ‘I FORGIVE YOU.’ You say, ‘I can’t manage.’ God says, ‘I will supply all your needs.’ You say, ‘I’m afraid.’ God says, ‘I have not given you the spirit of fear.’ You say, ‘I don’t have enough faith.’ God says, ‘I’ve given everyone a measure of faith.’ You say, ‘I’m not smart enough.’ God says, ‘I give you wisdom.’ You say, ‘I feel all alone.’ God says, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’

And, with every one of those admonitions, my foreign friend gave a list of appropriate scripture verses to look up and read. I simply wrote “Thank You” one time, but we never carried on any further correspondence. He never asked for anything. As I mentioned, that has been probably twelve to fifteen years ago, but the fact that I am writing about it today suggests to me that just maybe God has a special message for some one of His servants who may be reading and needing these very words of encouragement today. You may not even be aware of the depth of your need. I pray God will bless you with the encouraging words of a pastor who may speak another tongue but who honors the same Word of God and serves the same Savior as do we here in America.

“But Joshua the son of Nun, which standeth before thee, he shall go thither: encourage him: for he shall cause Israel to inherit it.” (Deut.1:38)

Grief

At some dark corner, life will screech to a halt for just about every one of us, when, like David, we are told that our dearest and best friend or family member has come into the icy clutches of death. It was on the infamous day that Saul and his son, Jonathan, died in battle at the hands of heathen henchmen, the Amalekites, when David received word that his King, and his “blood brother,” Jonathan, were both dead. David lamented sorely: “How are the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle! O Jonathan, thou wast slain in thy high places. I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan: very pleasant hast thou been unto me: thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women.” (2 Sam.1:25,26). Thirty some years later, upon hearing of the gruesome death of his rebellious son, Absalom, David “covered his face and…cried with a loud voice, ‘O my son, Absalom, O Absalom, my son, my son!’” (2 Sam.19:4)

We have all been blind-sided or broad-sided by the ugly and merciless enemy Death. It never visits at a convenient time, is most always unwelcomed, and leaves behind a path of devastation, destruction and despair.

And with death and loss, there is grief. Grief is normal and grief is necessary and there is therapeutic value in working through the process of grieving. There is no short-cut and there are no easy remedies. It takes time and will produce healing, but there is no way to dress it up and make it look more palatable.

First, it is gut-wrenching. Anger, guilt, despair, doubt and a plethora of emotions run the gamut of your soul. Those, in turn, work on your mind and you might think you are going insane. Darkness rather than light is your outlook. Food has lost its appeal. The world news, which might have been something you took a daily dose of, is of no interest to you. The Bible is a book that, though you love it and have been a daily visitor to its pages, is now something you may have to force yourself to pick up. Friends and their well-meaning words seem so superficial. No loss could compare to your loss. Why should you be living and enjoying life when your loved one had to suffer and surrender life? Guilt sets in big time. You could have, should have done something differently. You could have been there more. You could have shown more compassion and given more of yourself.

A pastor, counseling a sad soul recently who was on this jarring journey, said, “You never get over the grief, you just get through it.”

So, with the passing of every day, month, year – you continue to work your way through the process of grieving. No, you will never get over it! Yes, you will get through it! With His help and the counsel and prayers of your family and friends and especially the Comforter, you will be able to once again enjoy sunlight, food, ice-cream, popcorn, the news and chit-chat. It will never be the same; it will never be better; the edge is gone and you will always miss that, but life will be bearable and life will become once again, through the marvelous and matchless grace of our great God, good!

A dear friend who recently lost to death his wife of a lifetime and best friend said, “You know it’s going to be bad, but you could never imagine how bad. It’s something you could never prepare for.”

So, what I am saying is surely not to prepare anyone for the inevitable. Nor is it to console anyone who is going through the steps of grief. It is simply some observations and thoughts for the “what it’s worth” column from the heart and pen of someone who has walked that lonely road before, not only with my dearest family members, but with hundreds of other families who, on some dreaded day, often without forewarning, were thrust into convulsing, confusing, contorting agonies of death’s dark drama as we left that silent city of the dead.

Life here is not, thank God, our final destination. We’re upward bound. We have an upward look! And, in perspective, we are able to cope with life’s harshest realities, including the end of life here as we have known it in time. It’s all part of His master plan, and though we cannot fully prepare for it or by-pass it or cushion its bruising blows, we can and will get through it! For the many who have recently starred into a casket at a lifeless form of a loved one, know that you are not alone and that life will once again be bearable by His never-failing grace and never fading presence.

“Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and God of all comfort; who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.” (2 Cor.1:3,4)

A Mother’s Heart

“Deep within her breast of clay, filled with love from day to day;

All for you from life’s first start, is your mother’s holy heart.

Heart of passion, peace and prayer; heart of mother’s daily care;

For her children one and all, should they stand or should they fall.

Heart endowed with God’s own love, filled with goodness from above;

Heart that cheers and wishes well, when your life has turned pell-mell.

Blessed heart—that gift from God; heart that softens cruelest rod;

Heart that weeps and heart that prays, all her life-long earthly days.”

(Pastor Anthony Slutz)

“An ounce of mother is worth a pound of clergy.” (Spanish Proverb)

“The best academy is a mother’s knee.” (James Russell Lowell)

“A mother understands what a child does not say.” (Jewish Proverb)

“A mother holds her children’s hands for a little while—their hearts forever.” (Unknown)

“Mother never quite leaves her children at home—even when she does not take them along.”

(Margaret Banning)

“All that I am or hope to be I owe to my angel mother.” A. Lincoln

“A gracious woman retaineth honor….” (Proverbs 11:16)

“Get My Mother In”

Dr. Harry Ironside told a story at a conference about a prominent English preacher who, while speaking to a group of fellow-pastors at an association meeting, shared the following incident:

“One evening as he was about to retire, there came a knock at the front door. Upon answering it, he found a poor little girl, drenched with rain. She had come through the storm. As the preacher stood looking into the haggard face, she said, ‘Are you the minister?’

‘Yes, I am’ he replied.

‘Well, won’t you come down and get my mother in?’ she said.

The preacher wisely answered the little inquirer, ‘My dear, it is hardly proper for me to come and get your mother in. If she is drunk a policeman should be summoned. He is dressed for the occasion.’

‘Oh, sir,’ she replied in haste. ‘You don’t understand! My mother isn’t drunk. She’s at home, and she’s afraid to die. She wants to go to heaven, but doesn’t know how. I told her that I would find a minister to get her in. Come quickly, sir, she’s dying!’

The minister could not resist the appeal of the little night caller, so promised to come just as soon as he could get dressed. As he walked with the girl through the night, she led him into the slum district to an old house, up a rickety stairway, along a dark hall, and finally to a lone room where the dying woman lay in a corner.

‘I’ve gotten the preacher for you, Mother. He wasn’t ready to come at first, but he’s here. You just tell him what you want and do what he tells you and he’ll get you in!’

At that, the poor woman raised her feeble voice and asked, ‘Can you do anything for a sinner like me? My life has been lived in sin, and now that I am dying I feel that I am going to Hell, but I don’t want to go there; I want to go to Heaven. What can I do now?’

Upon his own confession the great preacher declared, ‘I stood there looking into that face and thought, what can a tell her? I have been preaching salvation by character, but she hasn’t any. I’ve been proclaiming salvation by culture, but she hasn’t time for that, and, besides, she wouldn’t know what the word meant. Then it came to me. Why not tell her what your mother used to tell you as a lad. She’s dying, and it can’t hurt her even though it does her no good.’

And so bending down beside her, he said, ‘My dear woman, God is very gracious and kind, and in His book, the Bible, He says that ‘God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’

‘Oh,’ she exclaimed, ‘does it say that in the Bible? My! That ought to get me in. But sir, my sins, my sins!’

It was amazing the way the verses came back to him. He said, ‘My dear woman, the Bible says that the ‘blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.’

‘All sin, did you say? Does it really say, ALL sin? That ought to get me in.’

‘Yes,’ answered the kneeling pastor, ‘it says ALL sin. The Bible also says that ‘this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.’

‘Well,’ she said, ‘if the chief got in, I can come. Pray for me, sir!’

With that the old preacher bent down still further and prayed with that poor woman, and GOT HER IN, and in the process, ‘while I was getting her in,’ he confessed, ‘I got MYSELF in. We two sinners, the minister and the harlot, were saved together that night in that little room.’”

“For the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” (Jesus, Luke 19:10)

“For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Romans 10:13)