Week Forty-Two - Ready for the Breeze

Beside the Well

            I came to my Bible reading today and began to wonder, “Why am I reading?”  Am I here only to meet the goal of reading through my Bible again?  I have read it through year by year for several years.  Today, it seemed like a habit. I know I still find things that rejoice my heart, challenge my thoughts, and convict my soul. 

            Why am I reading?  Because every read is an exploration, a digging for nuggets, a practice in consistency, and because this is God speaking to me.  So—back to Ezekiel.

            Read my chapters.  No big sparks there.  Read Burroughs on the Beatitudes.  Interesting as he wrote on why Christians are persecuted in this world.  Okay.  Then, picked up my Spurgeon devotional and, oh, my!

            Ready for the Breeze.  “If I cannot pray, let me read a chapter.  It may be that while I hear God speak to me I shall learn how to speak to Him.  If in my private reading I feel no unction upon the word, let me go forth and attend the meeting of the saints; perhaps God intends to bless me by ear, or in company with others.  If this fails, let me go and visit the sick, or perform some deed of charity.  Perhaps in helping others I may find succor for my own soul!  God has often saved a man from freezing by setting him to rub a brother into warmth and life.  If all this shall not have succeeded let me hold converse with some choice servant of God; and if this should fail me, let me go to my knees again, or begin to sing a psalm, or tell to others what I have experienced of God’s love in time past…Come then, brother, tack about.  Complain not of the want of heavenly wind, rather complain of want of consecrated energy.”

            Now my heart is encouraged.  God spoke—“hang in there, Gail.  Keep your sail pointed toward the breeze, where it comes is not the matter; that it comes make all the difference.”  God speaks in many ways.  He definitely prepared my heart to receive this message!

            So, if you find your Bible reading going flat, read anyway.  But don’t stop there, look to find the wind of the Spirit and set your sail with consecrated energy.

Week Forty-One - Precious Sharing

Beside the Well

            I’ve been learning a lot about sharing on Facebook and social media as I work on my True Story Keepsake project.  Seems sharing is a great way to spread the news about an event or a good quote to encourage friends.  Where we used to write a letter or talk when we shared, we now simply type in words or click a button to circulate a picture. 

            That might be handy, but I much prefer a personal touch.  I shared a book through my Facebook page a few weeks ago that was a blessing to read.  It is Gospel Centered Family, by Tim Chester and Ed Moll.  It was a free EBook to download from The Good Book Company UK.  Absolutely devoured it.  It was full of solid instruction.  Hopefully, many saw it and read or ordered the book.

            I also put up a link to a beautiful blog for younger Christian women 18+, Tirzah.  (tirzahmag.com) I read several of their entries and appreciated the down to earth advice and the lovely manner of the blog/magazine.

            Now, that’s all great, but one of the nicest shares I have had this month was a little book shared with me by a dear friend, a small paperback entitled Love Story, by Glen Scrivener about the Easter story and fairytales. 

            “What?” you ask. 

            Yes, Easter and fairytales.

            The author moves through the Easter story to show the hero, the problem, and the happily ever after.  I think it would be a great book to give out around Easter time as a witnessing tool, but also, it is a good book to read.  Let me share with you a few things that drew my attention.

            Since I have heard lately much about how people perceive God, this paragraph jumped out at me.  “I don’t know how you see God.  If people believe in God today, they tend to think of him as an impersonal Force.  Or he’s a Sergeant Major in the sky who barks out orders.  Or he’s a Heavenly Slave Driver setting us to work.  Or he’s a Moral Policeman, investigating our performance.  Or he’s a Cosmic Headmaster saying, ‘Must try harder.’  But if we’ve inherited any of those ideas about God, it hasn’t been from the Bible.” (p. 14)

            Since God is love and the initiator of it, it is paramount that we get the right perspective for love to blossom.

            The author then went on to examine Jesus saying, “What is Jesus like?  He is a million miles from the God who rearranges stars to make us bow.  He is the God who gets down on his knees to deal with our mess.”  (p. 26) The chapter is entitled, Love Stoops.  God, who created the universe and who loves us completely, stoops to show us the extent of His love.

            And one more tidbit: Love Suffers.  Jesus prayed at Gethsemane for the cup to pass from him if at all possible.  The cup is illustrative of the depth of sin and poison for which we are accountable.  It is not Jesus’ cup; it is ours.  Yet, He is the one lining up to drink it for us.

            “He does not want to drink this cup.  What a different cup this is from the cup of wine which, earlier in the night, Jesus had offered to his disciples.  That cup was full of forgiveness; this cup is full of judgment.  That cup signals life; this cup brings death.  That cup Jesus offers to us; this cup he drinks himself…The truth is that it is not possible for the cup to be taken away unless Jesus drinks it.” (p. 37)

            Thanks, Kate, for sharing such a beautiful book—a true story keepsake.

            

Week Forty - The Provider

Beside the Well

            Being raised on a farm in Southwest Missouri, I grew up without a lot of class or experience in high society.  My only claim to fame is that I am a child of the King!

            As I read Charles Spurgeon’s devotions the other day, he took off on a description that delighted my soul.  Please allow me to share it with you.

            “What, indeed, would most men give if they could say, ‘The Queen herself carved [meat] for me, and was most anxious that I should be well supplied?’  But each believer has the Lord himself for his Provider.  He loads our table and fills our cup.  Providence is no other than God providing.  He measures out our joys, weighs our sorrows, appoints our labours, and selects our trials.  There is no morsel on the saint’s plate which is not of the Lord’s carving, unless he has been so foolish as to put forth his hand unto iniquity…Is it not delightful to know that our Father’s hand broke for us the bread which we have eaten this day: that the Savior’s own fingers mingled our cup and that every blessing has come direct from God’s own table?  A sacred perfume is on my raiment and in my chamber, for thou hast prepared both for me.  And this would be true if I wore rags and lay in a dungeon, in sore sickness. ‘I am poor and needy; yet the LORD thinketh upon me’ (Psalm 40:17) How can he be poor and needy of whom it is said that the LORD thinketh upon him?” (p 251)

            What more need I than to receive from the hand of my heavenly Father that which He would portion to me?  Indeed, He is my portion. (Lamentations 3:24)

            And, how beautiful and humbling is it to consider that our heavenly Father thinketh on us?  Truly, we could recite an abundance of Scriptures confirming his love and care.  Matthew 6:8 “…for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.”  Read on through Matthew 6 and Jesus assures us God will clothe us and feed us.  In Matthew 10 Jesus reveals the Father’s love saying we are of more value than many sparrows and even the hairs of our head are numbered.  Our Creator/Provider is intrinsically interested and involved in our lives.

            As Charles Spurgeon said, “Is it not delightful to know that our Father’s hand broke for us the bread which we have eaten this day: that the Savior’s own fingers mingled our cup and that every blessing has come direct from God’s own table?”

            In the end, it doesn’t matter where I grew up, or how much of a hillbilly I might still be.  For, under the hand of my Father, there is “a sacred perfume is on my raiment and in my chamber, for thou hast prepared both for me.”

Illustrations and Meditations or Flowers from a Puritan’s Garden by C.H. Spurgeon

Week Thirty-Nine - Rules for Peace

Beside the Well

James 3:18  “And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.”

            I am still struck with the correlation between the days of Jeremiah Burroughs and our own.  Truly, man has not changed!  He constantly needs instruction.  As Reverend Burroughs addresses his congregation on the subject Blessed are the Peacemakers, he moves from the philosophy of wider society into the home and the neighborhood.  I’m afraid we, too, are still in need of these admonitions. 

            Let me list them for you.  Here are his rules for peace in the family.

1.     Be considerate – consider the pressures and temper of others as you approach them with requests and comments.

2.     Choose carefully the time to address grievances.  (Never poke a sleeping bear.)

3.     Address incidences individually.  Not everything is wrong or displeasing.  Look for and remember positives and your goal of peace.

4.     Motivate obedience out of love rather than fear.

5.     Address infractions from love and concern instead of anger.

            And here are his rules for peace in the church and community.

1.     Do not entertain gossip.

2.     Do not be quick to judge.

3.     Do not fall out with others before you have gone to God in prayer.

4.     Use private means of reconciliation before public ones. (Matthew 18)

5.     Work together in love.

6.     Put the rights of others first.  Be willing to deny yourself.

7.     Avoid envy – do good yourself and rejoice to see others succeeding.

8.     Strive to create a community where issues can be discussed and resolved amicably.

            All these rules can be supported with Scripture.  They are basic to Christian living and success in life.  However, we are often negligent in applying them.

            I don’t know about you, but I love a peaceful home.  The joy and rest that comes from living in a peaceful haven cannot be valued too highly.  One of my favorite verses on the building and beauty of the home is found in Proverbs 24:3-4.  “Through wisdom is an house builded; and by understanding it is established; and by knowledge shall the chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant riches.”

            A peaceful home doesn’t happen except the members follow the rules about how to make peace.  And a peaceful community is the same.  Oh, for more peacemakers in our homes, communities, and our churches.