What a week

 

 

Somewhere in time, this week, actually it started last week, I have been saying, what a week.  I was reading a magazine once and it said that God never gives us more than we can handle, and then it went on to say, I wish God didn’t have such a good opinion of me.  It was meant to be humorous and I found it so.  

There is a movie that came out a few years ago, called Evan Almighty.  In the story, a man is chosen by God to build an Ark.  Setting out to accomplish what God wants him to has caused him to be suspended from his job.  He is ridiculed by his neighbors.  At the scene where is wife is taking their three sons and leaving because she says her husband needs help, we see him look up to the sky and say: “I know everything you do, you do because you love me”.  After he utters these words, the sprinkler system comes on and he his drenched in water.  He again looks up and says, “Love me less”.

I started to wonder if God really makes sure we don’t get more than we can handle. I’m sure he does and I’m equally sure He knows we can handle more than we think we can. But God never promised us things would be easy. He never promised we would always feel blessed. He promised that He would never leave us of forsake us.

Early this month, I heard that watching Gold Fish swim was a stress reducer.  I had a small one gallon tank containing a pump that would aerate the water.  I cleaned it up, set it up and went to buy four small little fish and some food.  At first things went well and then the smallest fish started to look funny and quickly died.  I worried that I fed them too much or not enough, but I wasn’t sure what went wrong. 

The next day, after church we stopped to pick up some food to take home.  The battery on our car died and we had to get help to leave the restaurant.    

That same day, at home, we had a perimeter wall next to our house that was leaning.  My husband went out to try and fix it.  He tried digging out the other side and pushing it back up to straighten it.  The entire wall crumbled down instead.

This was a week of calling contractors, trying to get someone else to fix the wall.  It was also an expensive week, a new car battery and a contractor bill. 

My stress reducing fish, all died, one at a time, every few days.  If you’re worried, I won’t be buying any more fish, too much stress.

If we feel loved and cherished by God, it has more to do with us, than with Him.  He never moves, but we do.  Sometimes we pull away because we think we can handle things on our own.  Sometimes we draw close because we know we will never make it without Him.  Either way, we are the ones moving. 

Bad things happen, it’s a part of life.  People get sick, pets die, things break.  None of that has any bearing on God’s love for us.

John 3:16-17 “For God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”

 

MercyMe - Move (Official Music Video) from mercymemusic on GodTube.

Standing on the Promises

 

 

Somewhere in time, in 1886, R. Kelso Carter wrote a hymn called “Standing on the Promises”.  I remember singing this as a child and this song has been stuck in my head this week.  I pulled out my book, “Then Sings My Soul” by Robert Morgan and I looked up the song. 

R. Kelso Carter was raised by strong Christians, yet his own faith wavered somewhere between hot and cold, devoted and living to please himself.  It was during this time, he developed a heart disease.  He did everything in his own power to combat the disease and he finally had to give up.  Sometimes faced with eternity, we realize the importance of God in our lives now.  From this experience, he recommitted his life to God completely.  No more on again off again, but complete dedication to Christ.  While reading and studying his Bible he noticed some of God’s promises and this inspired the song.

              Standing on the promises of Christ my King.

Through eternal ages let his praises ring.

Glory in the highest I will shout and sing.

Standing on the promises of God.

 

All of this made me think of some of the promises God made.

Hebrews 13:5(B) “For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.””

Philippians 4:19 “And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”

2 Timothy 1:7 “For God has not given us a spirit us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and a sound mind.”

After thinking of all God’s promises, I found the most amazing one is the promise that God, will take us in His family and call us His children, if we only believe.  John 1:12 “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.”

The greatest promise of all, by believing in Jesus Christ we are transformed into children of God.  All of us who believe are part of God’s family. 

Like R. Kelso Carter, you may be wavering, but today is the day to make your commitment to Christ. Don’t put it off. No one is guaranteed tomorrow.

 

 

 

Sanctus Real - Promises (Official Acoustic Performance) from sanctus-real on GodTube.

Broken

 

 

Somewhere in time, this week, I have been praying for people who are sick.  Not with the cold or flu, but with life threatening illnesses.  My sister’s husband is battling cancer. My cousin just found out she has ALS. My Aunt is suffering with Leukemia.

The question is why. Why do some people get sick, while others stay healthy? Is it in the food or the water or our DNA?  I have been told that ALS is not hereditary yet, my father, two of my uncles and one aunt died from the disease.  Why us?  Does God love other people more than us?

I don’t believe that. I know that God died for each of us the same way.  He loves each of us enough to die for us, so why do bad things happen?

I have known for a long time that the world is broken.  In the Garden of Eden, we didn’t have sickness and disease, we had paradise. Yet humans chose to believe the lie of the serpent and the perfect world God created became broken by our hand.

Sometimes I can get depressed by what is happening around me, to people I love.  It seems hopeless.  Yet I know, deep down, that our hope is not in this broken world, our hope is in Christ.  If he can make the universe and everyone in it, he can take care of us in our distress.

Jesus was speaking in Luke 4: 18-19 (The Message Bible) “God’s spirit is on me; he’s chosen me to preach the Message of good news to the poor,  Sent me to announce pardon to prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, To set the burdened and battered free, to announce, “This is God’s year to act!”

I know he said that several years ago, but I know he is still here to set the burdened and battered free.  He came to give hope to the hopeless and strength to the powerless. My prayer for 2013 is that this will be the year for God to act in miraculous ways in my family.  I pray this for your family also.

Bebo Norman - The Broken (Official Acoustic Performance) from bebo-norman on GodTube.

Forgiveness

 

 

Somewhere in time, May 27^th 2001, Martin and Gracia Burnham went out to dinner to celebrate their 18^th wedding anniversary.  They had been in the Philippines for seventeen years working for New Tribe Missions.  Martin was a pilot that took supplies out to the remote areas of the jungle and he moved medical patients from the jungle into the city to get the help they needed.  The day started out like any other, if only they had known.

The Abu Sayyaf is a militant group in the Philippines. They decided on this same evening to kidnap a group of people from a local island resort.  In this group of people were Martin and Gracia.  This would begin a period of captivity that would last for 376 days.

From November of 2001, all other hostages had either been killed or set free, only Martin and Gracia remained.  What about their kids? They had kissed three children goodbye with the expectation of seeing them again in a few hours, only to be held away for months on end.  They marched through the jungle day after day. Some days they would have food, others they would try eating leaves off the trees to keep up their strength. Praying to God for water and hope, they waited for rescue.  Hope waned as the days drug one into the other and they wondered if they would even survive. 

They had been marching through the jungle for ten days. No food, little water and less rest. The government forces were pursuing the Abu Sayyaf.  The Burnham’s hoped to live to see their rescue, a chance to hold their children and chance to eat and sleep without fear.  The government forces were close and a gun battle erupted, the Burnham’s were caught in the middle.  Weak and exhausted, they tried to flee.  Both were taken down by a bullet.  Would their captivity end in death?  Would they never see their family this side of heaven?  They had questions and no answers.

When the fight ended, Martin had gone home to heaven and Gracia was left alone to return to her family.  The day so long ago that had started out as a celebration, finally ended. It ended over a year later with tragedy.

I was watching news videos online and I saw a video about Gracia Burnham.  I remembered hearing about and praying for them when they were captured and when she was rescued alone.  I clicked on the video and I was surprised to hear her say, she had prayed that God would help her forgive her captors.

I don’t think that would be my first thought.  Gracia asked to forgive, even after so many days of captivity.  So many days suffering with her husband, only to be rescued alone, she prayed to be able to forgive.

Matthew 18:21-22 “The Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him?  Up to seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do no say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.”” 

Personally, I think God wants us to forgive so many times because he knows even when we forgive with all our hearts, there will be times when the hurt will assail us again and then we will need to remember to forgive, again.

Gracia Burnham has a website, if you want to check out her story for yourself.  www.graciaburnham.org

In the interview I was watching, Gracia shared that four of her captors have come to Christ.  I’m sure, that offering them forgiveness paved the way for that decision.

Matthew West - Forgiveness (Official Lyric Video) from matthew-west on GodTube.