Tag: #christianliving

Like a River Glorious

Photo Copyright: www.godponderings.com

Some days I sense God calling me away to a peaceful place. A place without internet service, cellphone signal or traffic noise. A place with minimal human activity. A place where I can focus on the Word, and prayer, and writing – without distractions. One advantage of living in the boondocks is that such places are readily accessible.

A root beer-toned river twists its way around a low island dotted with sneezeweed, goldenrod, fleabane and wild asters. It gurgles as it rushes downhill, stumbling over rocks and bumping haphazardly into a downed tree before going on its merry way. The river’s voice settles my soul as it carries my cares away.

“Like a river glorious, is God’s perfect peace.”

Have you ever been in a situation where you discovered, by necessity, God’s perfect peace? Several years ago my cousin and his son were helping us remodel our house. They were truly God’s gift to us! Ben and I were coming home with a load of lumber when the trailer started swaying. At first, I wasn’t overly concerned. But when the trailer started pulling the truck all over the road, in traffic, I knew we were in trouble.

I should have panicked. I should have been terrified. Instead, an inexplicable, supernatural peace washed over me. Ben was doing everything in his power to get the situation under control. I remember putting my hand on his shoulder and saying, “You’re doing a great job!” Where did that come from? The only possible answer is the Sunday School answer: Jesus.

“Over all victorious in its bright increase.”

In the end, we did a 180 across both lanes of traffic and came to rest on the shoulder – unharmed. Praise God, no one else was harmed either. Surely, God’s angels were encamped around us! Kind drivers stopped and helped us pick up the lumber strewn across the road and we were on our way again, at a slower pace.

“You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You. Trust in the Lord forever. For in Yahweh, the Lord, is everlasting strength.” (Isaiah 26:3-4)

I lose sight of this promise, at times. My mind is on everything but my Peace-Giver. I’m preoccupied with finances and work and household duties and family. I hit the floor running in the morning without pausing to meditate on God and His marvelous works, without committing my daily concerns to my Lord. When I get frazzled and fretful, God reminds my I have neglected the One who gives perfect peace.

“Perfect, yet it floweth fuller every day. Perfect, yet it growth deeper all the way.”

God’s peace is always perfect. It’s never lacking. But the more we put our trust in it, the more we experience it, the deeper and fuller it seems, like a river growing and deepening as it makes its way to the sea.

Whatever has you unsettled today, whatever is eating at you, whatever has you distracted or preoccupied, I pray you will rest in these words from Psalm 46:10;

“Cease striving and know that I am God.”

When you struggle, refocus on the only One who can bring you rest.

“Stayed upon Jehovah, hearts are fully blest; Finding as He promised, perfect peace and rest.”

Be Thou My Vision

Photo Copyright: www.godponderings.com

Our little farm is overrun with critters – cute, but destructive, critters.

It started with one or two rabbits that are now eight to ten rabbits. It’s impossible to keep a garden! They eat everything as quickly as it shoots up.

Then there was a ground hog. She blessed us with three babies who liked the neighborhood enough to stick round. Now there are four or five ground hogs in our yard. They have expanded their tunneling efforts from under the barn to under the granary and the machine shed. Plus, I just discovered a new tunnel in the hill outside our house.

Cute or not the critters have to go before they destroy what’s valuable to us – our property.

I love to have fun – to a fault. I have a couple of pass-times that are much like those critters. They started out small and innocent enough. Ways to entertain myself at the end of a busy day. But they have grown into destructive forces in my life. They eat away precious time. I find myself neglecting to

“Redeem the time because the days are evil…” (Ephesians 5:16)

They are now burrowing in during the day. The snippets of time I used to spend in prayer and thoughtful contemplation, I now fill with fun. They distract my mind from eternal things. They compete for pre-eminence in my life. Bottom line? They burrow into my spiritual foundations and undermine what is most valuable to me: my first love.

“But I hold this one thing against you, you have lost your first love.” (Revelation 2:4)

Maybe wasting time isn’t a sinkhole for you, like it is for me. Maybe you get caught up in the pursuit of wealth or possessions. Gaining a fortune and enjoying the fruits of your labor are not inherently bad things (Abraham, for example, was a very godly, very wealthy man) if the Lord still holds first place in your heart.

Do not lay up your treasures on earth…” (Matthew 6:19-20)

Perhaps you seek a certain level of fame or notoriety – as an influencer on social media or a somebody in your own community or sphere of influence. Again, those are not necessarily bad things. But who you are in Christ must remain more valuable than who you are in the eyes of the world.

               “Thou and thou only first in my heart…”

The writer of this very old hymn had an undivided heart, with one desire, and one desire only – for God to be forever and always first in everything. Fun, fortune and fame all took second place to her true inheritance in Christ. Her longing to let nothing distract her, pull her away from the High King of Heaven is clear in her desperate plea to God:

               Be Thou my vision!

This lovely, ancient hymn touches a place deep inside me. Sometimes I think it’s the tune drawing out my Celtic roots, or the passionate lyrics resonating with my inner writer. Mostly, I believe it expresses the plea of my own, often distracted and divided heart better than I ever could:

               “Heart of my own heart, whatever befall, still be my vision of Ruler of all!”

I Love to Tell the Story

Photo copyright: www.godponderings.com

Do you have a favorite story – one you tell over and over again?

I have one. In fact, I just told it earlier today.

My husband and I come from quite different backgrounds. He’s a city kid. I’m a country kid. His extended family would fit in a large living room. My extended family would need a convention center. He grew up in a home that didn’t prioritize church. I grew up in a home that seldom missed a Sunday.

My husband’s family gathered for a reunion a few years ago. As folks were telling of days gone by, someone told the story of family members who had run liquor during the prohibition. When they finished, I put my hand on my husband’s shoulder and said in a serious tone, “My people were praying for your people.”

We laughed then, and have laughed many times since, over that moment (seriously though, it’s probably true). Maybe your favorite story is funny, like mine. Maybe it’s a cute story about something your child or pet did, an exciting story about something adventurous you did, or an amazing story about something miraculous God has done. We’re eager to relay our stories because of the impact they had on our lives.

Our stories also give others a glimpse of who we are at the core. It can be unnerving to let people see what’s inside us.

I think that’s why I’m sometimes reluctant to tell the story that changed my life. What will people think of me if they know what’s most important to me? It’s THE story. I wanted – needed – to hear it. So, what makes me think other people don’t?

It’s the one about Jesus, and how He died on the cross to pay the penalty for my sin, so I could stand in God’s presence purified and righteous.

He made Him who knew no sin to be sin in our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.  (2 Corinthians 5:21)

It’s the story about how God adopted me and called me His own, even though I’ve never done anything to deserve it.

For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons and daughters by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!”  (Romans 8:15)

And how one day, when I die or Christ returns (whichever comes first), I’ll go and live with Him forever in a place that He’s preparing for me.

In My Father’s house are many rooms; if that were not so, I would have told you, because I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I am coming again and will take you to Myself, so that where I am, there you also will be.  (John 14:2-3)

I hope this is your story, too. And I hope you have more courage to tell it than I sometimes do. It’s a story that can bring hope to people in despair, peace to people wracked by all sorts of conflict, and joy to those who’ve known too much sorrow. It’s a timeless story with the power to transform lives.

I love to tell the story of unseen things above, of Jesus and His glory, of Jesus and His love; I love to tell the story because I know ’tis true, it satisfies my longing as nothing else can do.

(I Love to Tell the Story by A. Catherine Hankey)

Abide with Me

(Photo copyright: www.godponderings.com)

The world is rapidly changing. More accurately, the world is rapidly declining – and the downward spiral is exponential. At every turn, God-honoring values are under attack, as are the people willing to take a stand for Christ.

Persecution is on the rise worldwide. According to the most recent World Watch List from Open Doors at www.opendoors.org, the number of countries where Christians suffer serious to severe persecution has nearly doubled over the past thirty years, from 40 countries in 1993 to 79 countries in 2023. If current trends continue in this country, the day is coming (my guess would be sooner rather than later) when the persecution of the American church will reach beyond antagonism, hatred and verbal attacks.

Creation, an unwitting prisoner of sin’s consequences (Romans 8:20-21), is also in decline. More species face extinction, invasive species are doing untold damage, pollution continually increases, and man’s well-intended attempts to fix the problems are usually counter-productive. There are fewer songbirds, bats and bees, fewer resources, and fewer places to see creation unscathed.

None of this surprises me. It’s all in the Bible. God revealed to us that, in the final days, evil would increase

Then they will hand you over to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name. And at that time many will fall away, and they will betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will rise up and mislead many people. And because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will become cold.  (Matthew 24:9-12)

and that the earth would grow weary and worn.

In time of old You founded the earth,
And the heavens are the work of Your hands.
Even they will perish, but You endure;
All of them will wear out like a garment;
Like clothing You will change them and they will pass away. (Psalm 102:25-26)

It can be discouraging. But God couched these truths with encouraging words. He told us He will return to claim His own

And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet blast, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other. (Matthew 24:30-31)

and even when everything else changes, He will never change.

But You are the same,
And Your years will not come to an end.

The children of Your servants will continue,
And their descendants will be established before You.” (Psalm 102:27-28)

All the ugliness we’re witnessing has its place in God’s greater plan – a plan we’re not entirely privy to. (Matthew 5:18) We’re traveling as sojourners and strangers in a foreign land, living for God’s glory until we reach our heavenly home. (1 Peter 2:11) When we’re embroiled in battles, it’s easy to think the enemy is people who oppose us, but the true enemy is Satan. Our battle is not against our fellow human beings – but dark spiritual forces. (Ephesians 6:12)

Do you ever get tired of fighting the good fight for Christ?

I do. When I’m tired, I’m tempted to hermit away in my home and shake my head at the headlines; bemoaning the demise of objective journalism, wondering at peoples’ irrationality, praying against godless forces, and wondering when God will run out of patience and intervene. I find myself crying out with the psalmist,

“How long, O Lord, will you look on?” (Psalm 35:17)

At those moments, God reminds me He’s closing the door on this world so He can usher in His kingdom. But, because He doesn’t want people to eternally perish, He’s closing the door slowly, patiently (2 Peter 3:9). My job, in the meantime, is to abide with Him, living out each day in humble obedience.

Perhaps that’s why I find the words of Henry Lyte’s hymn, “Abide with Me” so comforting.

Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day. Earth’s joys grow dim; its glories pass away. Change and decay in all around I see; O Thou who changest not, abide with me! (“Abide with Me”, Henry Lyte)