Author: admin

Do you ever feel like all you ever do is cleanup?  Me too!  Look at that overgrown, weedy, poison-laden, dead-tree patch.  That’s what I’m talking about.  It needs cleaned up, but it didn’t always.

When we moved to our property about nine years ago, most of our yard looked like the above.  The property had been vacant for a period of time and had not been tended to.  We all know what happens when we don’t tend or take care, things become overgrown and out of control, just like in this shot.  Now I like a natural look but I also like it to look half-way neat and cared for.  We’ve worked super hard in our yard to reduce the overgrowth.  We’ve pulled, hacked, drug trees, burned, mowed, rock carried, etc., to try to create a little order out of a lot of chaos.  It’s been a new challenge for us having moved from a postage stamp sized lot in town to one out yonder that takes quite a few more than  7.5 minutes from pull to push to keep up.  But, we just love it.

The part that is a little frustrating to me is that we are in constant cleanup mode.  We finally get rid of the burn pile (after years, no kidding) and then there’s more.  More branches break, more limbs are cut, more brush to burn.  It’s constant.  We try to work in patches and get one patch completely cleaned up to be able to be maintained and then move to a new patch.  The maintenance is the easy part, the cleanup is the hard part, well…not really.  We cleanup a patch, move to the next patch, and before we know it, the cleaned up patch looks like the next patch, like around that tree, and we have to go back and pull, drag, cut, and burn all over again.  If we are not super alert a clean patch can quickly become an overgrown patch again.  It’s a vicious cycle.  Over and over.  It is constant cleanup.  

But, what I have noticed is that if we are able to stay on top of the already cleaned out brush, if we are proactive in our maintenance and not reactive in our cleanup – you know, only pulling the stuff when it becomes overgrown instead of before it’s out of control – it is much easier to tend.  As Barney Fife would say “Andy, you’ve got to nip this thing in the bud, nip it, nip it, nip it!” And Barn is right!  If we handle it when it is a small problem we may avoid the crisis of overgrowth.

So then, let us purify ourselves from everything that makes body or soul unclean, and let us be completely holy by living in awe of God.  2 Corinthians 7:1

Purifying, cleansing, cleaning up, is a two-step process.  Turning away and turning toward.  Getting rid of the brush and overgrowth (sin) in our lives, and turning toward God (becoming holy).  Ripping out the sin in our lives and maintaining the cleanup by living a life set apart, dedicated to God, working on holy by cleaning and controlling.

But let the Lord Jesus Christ take control of you, and don’t think of ways to indulge your evil desires.  Romans 13:14

Run towards Him and run away from sin.  Maintain what is cleaned up.  Let the words of Christ, in all their richness live in our hearts and make us wise.

…for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds. Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him. Colossians 3:9-10

Our wicked deeds are our weeds, and we all got ‘em.  Life is full of brush piles that need to be tended.  If we do not maintain, we will spend our lives cleaning up the same brush piles over and over again.  We cannot control the weeds around the tree on our own.  Only by giving Him complete control are we able to keep the weeds from coming back.  Turn away and turn towards.

Lord, make me as holy as it is possible for a man to be on this side of heaven.

Robert Murray McCheyne

I love my early morning walks.  That’s how I get tuned in to Him.  I prefer the dark – slight dark, because I’m less distracted.  But, this past Sunday, I was a little late getting started.  It was full on sun – shades required. I walked down Poor House to the tractor road between the two fields.  The fields are now planted and I was checking it out.  On one side of this tractor road are the woods, on the other soybeans.

When I’m out walking I’m always on the alert.  That’s just smart, to be on the lookout for the things that could be dangerous and frankly, things I’m afraid of.  Now a couple of my fears in life, things I’m super afraid of, are MRI machines (which I didn’t know until I was in one) and snakes (just yuck!).  On a daily basis I have other fears, but if someone asked me what am I most afraid of right now, those are the two things that top the list.  Since I’m pretty sure there are no MRI machines out in our fields, I’m looking for snakes. Yuck!

I was bebopping along and I saw something that made me start.  I was so scared.  For a minute I was not just breathing the morning air, I was gasping, big gulps and holding.  I leaned in, craned my long neck, did I just see what I thought I saw?  I jumped back.  I did the crane-jump thing a couple of times.  I just wasn’t sure of what I saw.   But what I thought I saw struck cold fear in me.  Then, I took off my shades, and I could clearly see. Ahhhh!  It was this big, ugly, curled up…stick!

As I walked on my muscles relaxing, my heartrate returning to somewhat normal, I started thinking about that stick.  If I hadn’t had my sunglasses on, I would have been able to see it clearly.  I would have known right off the bat that it was not a snake but a stick.  My vision was darkened.  I had put on shades to dim the light.  Taking the shades off allowed me to see clearly what was right in front me.  We’ve all worn shades to keep the sun out.  The problem is those shades actually do dim the Light.  We wear all sorts of stylish shades, things that dim the Light.  The shades of busyness, the shades of attitude, the shades of lack of commitment, the shades of fear, the shades of a hard heart, the shades of pride, the shades of disobedience.  We may have multiple pairs of shades.  All these stylish shades hide the Light and keep us from seeing God clearly.

For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. 1 Corinthians 13:9-12

Only the Light of Heaven, Jesus, can remove all the clouds, the darkness, the shade that hides the Light of God’s face from us.  We know that we will only have perfect clarity, that we will only be able to see things clearly, when we see Him face-to-face.  We know that when He returns all things will be clear, we will be complete, we will be able to see with God’s perspective.  Until then, with God’s help, we shed our shades.  We take those things that are blinding us – blocking out the Light, shading the Light, making the Light dim, obstructing our view and only giving us partial vision – and ask God to heal us.

When they arrived at Bethsaida, some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him.  So He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village. Then He spit on the man’s eyes and placed His hands on him. “Can you see anything?” He asked.

The man looked up and said, “I can see the people, but they look like trees walking around.”

Once again Jesus placed His hands on the man’s eyes, and when he opened them his sight was restored, and he could see everything clearly.  Mark 8:22-25

This is the only healing in the Bible that took place in stages.  Light healing from our life shades, those things that filter the Light, may be instant, but enlightenment may also be gradual, you know, step-by-step.  Just like with the blind man, spiritual truth is not always perceived clearly at first.  The Bible is replete with the truths of the Lord reiterated regularly for our refinement.  His Word repeatedly reminds us of His truths!  As we grow in relationship with Him, the dimness gives way to His Light.  The shades come off little-by-little.  The more we allow the Lord to work in us to remove our stylish shades, the more Light will be revealed. Jesus will give us perfect sight so that we can see.  He will make things abundantly clear.  We just need to remove our shades.

The other night I was reading a book by Alistair Begg, Brave By Faith, God-Sized Confidence in a Post-Christian World.  It’s a book about how Christians should live in the post-Christian era, like right now.  A line jumped out at me.  It was in reference to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, some folks we really have life in common with, and some folks we could learn some valuable lessons from.  The book is enlightening, and I would encourage you to read it, but the line that baited me was:

A dead fish flows with the current; it takes a live fish to swim against the stream.

You’re probably thinking, well right, you didn’t know that?  But I’ve been chewing on it, meditating on it, trying to grasp why it hooked me, the significance of it.  I’ve thought about this statement almost daily since reading it.  I don’t know anything about fish but my grandmother did.  Grandma Frye was a fisherman, from boat to skillet, she did it all.  She’d go out early in the morning by herself and work on a catch.  I’m guessing she was fishing upstream because she didn’t catch dead fish.  She’d then come back when she was done her fishing and load us kids into the boat to work on our catch.  A little sunny here and there was about all we’d get.  You see, in order to catch fish you have to be still and you have to be quiet, neither of which us grandkids could do.  I won’t speak for the others, but I still struggle with both!

Anyway, since I don’t know much about fish and their habits, I did a little investigating.  I learned that it isn’t just dead fish that float with the current.  Salmon migrate upstream to lay their eggs, but only the mature ones.  The immature salmon don’t have the strength to swim great distances so they follow the current downstream. Salmon and some other fish swim upstream to procreate, they swim upstream for future generations.  But, only the mature.

Something more native to West Virginia is the brook trout.  I found out that trout must swim upstream, against the current, in order to breathe.  How interesting is that?  The water enters their mouths and exits their gills as they face upstream, that’s how they breathe.  They die when they go with the flow downstream.  A trout who allows himself to float downstream is self-destructive.

I also discovered that fish must constantly swim, they must constantly move and use their muscles in order to grow in order to be strong enough to swim against the current to avoid being swept downstream.  It’s constant movement.  It’s constant forward motion.  To remain idle would not grow the muscles needed and would land a fish downstream, where the population is more dense, food more scarce, the water murkier, and predators prevail.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this world’s darkness, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.  Ephesians 6:12

There are two forces at war in the heavenly realm – one force headed upstream, one force headed downstream.  One leads to life, one leads to death.  What direction are we headed in?  Are we floating downstream or are we going against the current and moving upstream?  If we are going with the flow, following the current, we will die.  Just ask a trout.  It’s the easy way but it’s the deadliest way.  The salmon return to their place of birth each year to lay the next generation.  It’s a difficult journey against the stream but the journey results in life.  Life for the next generation.

Christians in this world are like fish out of water, or at least we’re supposed to be.  This world isn’t our home, just a temporary layover.  But, while we are here we’re expected to swim upstream.  We can only do that if we have a desire to – do you have the desire to fill that hole in your heart that can only be filled by Jesus?  We can only do that if we are strong enough – have we exercised our muscles in The Word of God or are we so weak that we can do nothing but be washed along by the undercurrent?  We can only do it if we are intentional – do we follow Jesus with our whole heart, mind, soul and strength or are we complacently floating along? So, let’s get swimming!   Choose Christ!  Don’t go along with the flow, exercise your muscles so you will be strong enough for the journey upstream, no matter what, don’t stop swimming, only dead fish don’t swim.

Anyone else struggle with the word “woke?”  I think it’s such an awkward word.  Say it.  See what I mean?  Woke.  What is woke anyway?  Is it a real word?  Yes.  It’s slang for the past tense of awaken. But, that’s not how the world uses it.  If it was we’d say awoke instead of just woke.  Awoke doesn’t sound nearly as harsh as woke.  It’s short, it’s abrupt, it’s pointed for a reason.  One can’t hardly go through a day without hearing the word.  In news, in podcasts, in print, on the street, on the radio, everywhere.  Woke.

The world would tell me that woke means being aware of systemic injustices and prejudices.  The world tells me that if I’m aware of those things then I’m woke — it’s trendy to be woke.  Woke is used as a weapon in politics, in social issues, and in moral issues, and if you aren’t woke you’re ignorant, asleep, unaware. We are expected to be woke to absolutely everything, and it can only be a certain kind of woke – the woke the world is proclaiming.  If we’re not woke, we’re intolerant, we’re bigots, we’re heartless, we’re radical (all harsh sounding and negative).  I’m not being flip, but isn’t it just like us humans to make up words to fit our causes and confuse our issues?  We do that to draw our minds away from the real issues, the real causes, and the real solutions.  We’re really, really good at identifying problems — being woke – in our world and in others.  But, let’s be real, it is so much easier to point out the fault (unwokeness) of others.  It’s much easier to point out the prejudices and injustices of others (publicly) than to take care of our own prejudices and injustices (privately), it’s easier to look without than within and easier to point out someone else’s lack of wokeness than to actually awaken ourselves.

 “A Jewish man was traveling from Jerusalem down to Jericho, and he was attacked by bandits. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him up, and left him half dead beside the road.

 “By chance a priest came along. But when he saw the man lying there, he crossed to the other side of the road and passed him by.  A Temple assistant walked over and looked at him lying there, but he also passed by on the other side.

 “Then a despised Samaritan came along, and when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him.  Going over to him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him.  The next day he handed the innkeeper two silver coins, telling him, ‘Take care of this man. If his bill runs higher than this, I’ll pay you the next time I’m here.’

 “Now which of these three would you say was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by bandits?” Jesus asked.

The man replied, “The one who showed him mercy.”

Then Jesus said, “Yes, now go and do the same.” Luke 10:25-37

You don’t have to be called woke to see the injustices and prejudices in this story.  Can you see it?  Read it again and think about it.  The world would say the Good Samaritan is woke.  The Good Samaritan wasn’t woke because he saw a man along the side of the road who had been subjected to injustice.  The Good Samaritan was woke because he saw a man along the side of the road whose only hope of healing was the compassion and care that could come only from His Heavenly Father.

We need to be woke,  but not to the world’s kind of woke.  You see, in order for each of us to be truly woke, we have to have an awakening – we have to be awakened to Jesus.  Think how woke the world would be if we would all just wake up to Jesus and His message of salvation.  There’s no greater awakening than to know where you will spend eternity. It makes you look at everything completely different, it is life changing!  It changes us from robbers and bandits to Samaritans (following the example of Jesus).  It changes us from those who just talk about woke to those who are truly awake.  It changes us from pointing out the woke or unwoke in others to focusing on the Only One who can awaken us.

You see, the bottom line is that you cannot change the injustices and prejudices of the world and those who live in it without your soul being awakened.  Once our souls are stirred and filled with Jesus Christ, the Samaritan, we can then take on the prejudices and  injustices in the world – that is a natural development to a changed heart.  Any work on injustices, prejudices, or social issues that are not a derivative of a relationship with Jesus Christ are futile and short-lived.  Our actions without Christ at the center are hopeless and the world doesn’t really need any less hope, does it?

Be alert, be aware, be awoke, be awakened to Jesus Christ.  Works without faith is useless.  Woke without Jesus is pointless. Don’t let the world define you.

Crown Him with many crowns

The Lamb upon the throne

Hark How the heav’nly anthems drowns

All music but its own!

Awake, my soul And sing

Of Him Who died for thee

And hail Him as thy matchless King Thru all eternity.

Sometimes we can read something that is so simple yet so profound.  Something that greases the spokes and gets our thoughts moving with squeaks and groans.  A lesson we needed to know, a lesson we already knew but didn’t practice, or a lesson we needed to relearn.  Such is the case:

This life is not for the body, it is for the soul, and man too often chooses the way of life that best suits the body.  Not the way that best suits the soul.  And I permit only what best suits the soul. Accept this and a wonderful molding is the result, reject it and My Purpose is frustrated, your best prayer unanswered, progress (Spiritual progress) delayed, trouble and grief stored up. Two Listeners

When I read this, I was struck.  Struck at how sometimes I completely miss the boat.  As followers of Christ, we know that where our souls and the souls of others spend eternity is what this life is all about.  We know that our physical bodies will eventually fade away – we live in earthenware, temporary pots.  But what’s in those pots, what those pots contain, is not of this world.  Those pots contain the soul.  The soul gives life to the body – what’s in our soul dictates how we live.  The body doesn’t give life to the soul – our bodies don’t dictate what’s in our souls.

All too often I(we?) get caught up in the living of my life in this body.  Work, play, family, busyness, commitments and obligations.  All body living.  No doubt we have to live our lives on this earth in our physical bodies.  But, where our bodies go, so goes our soul.  Think about that, we carry our souls with us, we can’t get away from it.  So, it just makes sense that what’s in our soul is important.  Is the Spirit of the Lord living in our soul?  Or, is the spirit of the world living in our soul?

As we go through each day, think about how different our lives would look if we practiced soul living instead of body living.  If our soul and the souls of others were the top priorities in our lives, think what work the Lord could do in us and through us.  If each step we took each day were taken with the soul in mind and not the body in mind, how would our lives look different?  If each decision we made were made with eternity in mind, how would our lives look different?

And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?  Matthew 16:26

Plowing, tilling, sowing, tending, waiting.  We’ve planted our first official garden in twenty couple years.  Over the years we’ve set out plants here and there trying to get a tomato, pepper or even a pumpkin.  We’ve not been overly successful in the past because we just didn’t have good soil and we just couldn’t get it worked up.  But this year we actually have real rows, a designated worked up space.  We’ve planted tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, squash, spinach, beets and collard greens.  We’ve over planted, but feel certain that if the garden is tended properly, we will reap the fruits of what we’ve sown.  That’s how it works, isn’t it?

Reaping is the fun part, it’s the whole point of the garden, to watch the fruit form, pluck it from the vine and take it in and enjoy is all part of the reaping process.  It brings such satisfaction, such peace.  But, before we can reap, we must sow and before we sow the soil must be prepared to accept the plant.  That’s exactly what you see Tony doing and let me tell you that is such hard work.  Anyone who has prepared a garden before completely understands what I’m talking about.

As a gardener, the first step is picking a good spot.  Gardens need sun and water to grow.  You have to pick a spot that’s open to both.  You can’t plant a garden in the shade, among rocks, where no moisture ever hits.  The garden then needs tilled up.  The gardener decides whether to do it by hand or by tiller.  I’ve not had much experience (and still don’t) with a rototiller, but man, those things are beasts.  They weigh a ton, they never start on the first try, they are loud, and destructive.  Overall, they’re just this huge obnoxious piece of dangerous machinery that rips and tears and beats the ground and beats you to death in the process.  Think about it – this thing has sharp blades that slice and dice the earth.  But, those blades loosen the soil, turn under the grass, reveal the rock so you can pick it out, and expose the beautiful, rich, healthy soil that is now ready to receive life.  The gardener is the one who prepares the garden to receive life.

Loosening the soil, turning under the grass, and picking out the rocks in our hearts is laborious and oft times painful.  Exposing the rich soils of our hearts in order to receive Life can feel like that monster rototiller, can’t it?  Ripping, tearing and exposing our hurts, our pain, our sinful actions and our sinful attitudes – all those things that would choke out the plant Life.  Sometimes after the tiller has gone through we feel like we’ve taken a beaten.  But, the Gardner knows what He is doing.  Cleaning out our garden hearts is simply opening them, and making more space to receive more of Him,  making room for Him to sow rows of seeds that produce the fruits of the Spirit.

Now that Life has been planted in our garden hearts we must tend them.  You see, just like the plants in our vegetable garden, if we do nothing to protect the plants, if we do not weed-and-feed, if we do not stake the plants, if we allow a tree to grow over and shade our garden, if we don’t water, if we don’t throw out the rocks that come to the surface, our plants will die and definitely not produce fruit.  We are the same.  If Life has been planted in our garden hearts and we don’t take care of it, it will die.  Life cannot be planted in the soil of our hearts and stay the same small plant without roots.  If we are not growing, we are dying.  If we are not moving forward with Life, we are moving backwards because life keeps moving forward.   Our hearts are either alive or dead.  There’s no in between.  You can’t be half-pregnant.  You either have Life growing in you, or you don’t.  You can’t be half-alive. God says hey, let me help you get rid of that hard, rocky heart you have.  Let me plant within you eternal Life.  Be wary of weeds and lack of Living Water that will take all sustenance and dry out your heart and make it hard.  He offers a fence around the garden of our souls to keep out those things that would snatch us up by the roots and eat us right down to the ground –it is His Word.  The Sower has sown Life into our hearts.  It is our responsibility, along with His help, to tend that Life.

I was walking with the Worst-Best the other morning, albeit much slower these days, but that’s what happens when the years go by.  It was a predawn morning, a little warmer than some.  As we moved steadily up and down the road that cuts the fields, a shiver ran through me.  We’d hit a cold spot.  You know what I mean, you’re moving along and all at once the air suddenly turns cold.  It’s the gentlest of breezes.  The moving of the air is so subtle it’s almost imperceptible.  But it’s just enough to usher in a chill pocket.  We kept moving and as quickly as it came, the cold spot was gone.  That’s happened to you before, right?  We notice those cold spots particularly in the middle of Summer.  But when we emerge from the cold spot, we recognize it, don’t we?  We notice when we travel through different temperatures, from hot to cold, or from cold to hot and we almost always comment on it and ask our companion, did you feel that?  You see, we’re feeling people, right? 

As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall never cease.  Genesis 8:22

We’re told that as long as the earth endures we’re going to have cold and heat.  We may walk through those cold pockets many times a day.  It may even feel like we’re living in a cold pocket and the warmth will never come.  Or that we’re stuck in a hot pocket and praying for a cold spell with every step. On the inside and outside.  This reminds me of my deep need for Jesus.  When I hit a cold spot and I need Him so desperately or, when I hit a hot spot and need Him so desperately.  He knows what I need in the cold and the heat of life. Just maybe those little spots were put there to remind me of that.

Because it was cold, the servants and officers were standing around a charcoal fire they had made to keep warm. And Peter was also standing with them, warming himself.  John 18:18

We’re just like Peter who hit those spots more than once.  Those spots where we have been made cold by our denial, our pain, our loss, our hurt, our sin.  Those spots where parts of our hearts are just frozen solid.  But what does Jesus do in those places?

“The Lord has really risen! He appeared to Peter!” Luke 24:34

In those cold spots of life when we need Him so much, Jesus is there.  He thaws our frozen hearts, with His presence.

Likewise, with those hot spots of life, you know the ones where we’re tested by the fiery flames of the world – mistreatment, oppression, persecution – followers of Christ have been, will be, or should be in those spots.  Hot spots where our faith is challenged, our beliefs are questioned, our convictions tried.  He protects us from the heat with His presence.

But suddenly, Nebuchadnezzar jumped up in amazement and exclaimed to his advisers, “Didn’t we tie up three men and throw them into the furnace?”  “Yes, Your Majesty, we certainly did,” they replied.  “Look!” Nebuchadnezzar shouted. “I see four men, unbound, walking around in the fire unharmed! And the fourth looks like a divine being!”

Then Nebuchadnezzar came as close as he could to the door of the flaming furnace and shouted: “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out! Come here!”

So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego stepped out of the fire. Then the high officers, officials, governors, and advisers crowded around them and saw that the fire had not touched them. Not a hair on their heads was singed, and their clothing was not scorched. They didn’t even smell of smoke!  Daniel 3:24-25

His presence calls us beyond the cold spots and hot spots of this life.  Being rescued and protected by His presence then requires us to live our lives as rescued and protected people.  If we know Jesus, the cold and hot spots of life are tempered by the presence of the Spirit living inside us and we will emerge warmed and untouched by the flames.  The Lord has really risen!

There’s this little treasure spot on Burke Street, heading east, right before you climb the big hill.  You may know the spot.  I’ve lunched on a bench there a couple of times.  It’s beautiful and peaceful, except when cars are passing, so it’s more beautiful than peaceful.  Anyway, while sitting there the other day listening to the water run through, it dawned on me that this is the very same water that runs through our property at the foot of North Mountain – the Tuscarora Creek.  When I really thought about it, I was like whoa, that’s so cool!  That’s a good four or five miles away, as the crow flies.  To think that the water that I was looking at in town had traveled through my home place really was amazing to me.

Now, it seems perfectly natural for a creek to run through the countryside, doesn’t it?  But for that same water to follow a route of twists and turns and flow right before my eyes in town was a wonder and a comfort to me.  It was the exact same – the exact same water at my house and in town.  The water before my eyes had traveled from its beginning, and there’s great debate in our neck of the woods of the location of those headwaters, to Burke Street and beyond.  Nevertheless, the creek started somewhere, it had a beginning and those same beginning waters were now in town.  I sat there thinking, isn’t that just like Jesus?

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  Hebrews 13:8

Jesus never changes.  Regardless of where He flows, His Living Water is always the same.  He is the same, He is changeless.  He doesn’t roll with the waves of circumstance as we do.  He is not a God of happenings.  He doesn’t ever change.

But You remain the same, and Your years will never end.  Psalm 102:27

Never is forever and that’s when God will change – Never!  No matter how we feel, the promise and the reality is that God never changes.

“I am the Lord, and I do not change…Now return to me and I will return to you”  Malachi 3:6-7

Even when we are disobedient, when we are unloving, unmerciful, un-Godly, He is the same – merciful, loving, Godly God.  His message since the Garden has always been the same – return to me – come to me.  That’s His message to us today – return to me – come to me – I will restore you.

Before the beginning of time He has loved us and prepared to bless us all the while knowing our love for Him would waiver, knowing we would be an unfaithful people.   His love, His mercy, His grace are not based on who we are or what we do.    God is the same today, tomorrow, forever, His promises are the same today, tomorrow, forever, because of who He is.  He always has been and always will be the God of the returners.  Praise the Lord! 

Did you feel that?  You know, that unexpected call, that diagnosis, that accident, that loss, that illness, that broken, that hurt.  You know what I’m talking about.  The things that come out of left field when it’s not even game day.  The things that knock us off our feet and make us thrash like crazy to get our sea legs underneath of us again.   I know you know exactly what I mean because I know so many of you who are going through so many difficult things – you’ve felt the thwack for yourself or for another and you’re a little stunned.

Are any of you suffering hardships? You should pray. Are any of you happy? You should sing praises.  James 5:13

I read something today about this verse in James that was absolutely life changing for me.  No kidding, life changing.  Listen:

When we face stress of all kinds, prayer is not our last chance but our first choice.  James does not promise us that our emotional pain will always go away, but he does guarantee us that God cares about our suffering.  When we cry out to God and bring him into our pain, he is a “friend that sticks closer than a brother.”  When we put our burden in his hands and accept the loving arms of Christ around us, then we experience comfort and gain strength to bear up under the pressure. Jack Graham

Of course, I know in my heart that prayer should be first, but…I italicized the life changing part.  For some reason, I always think I must not be praying right, or must not be praying hard enough, long enough, or, my favorite — I must not be giving my hardship to God because my emotional pain in the midst of my crisis didn’t go away when I prayed. Does anyone else feel like that too?  Oh, good.  You see, in my feeble mind I somehow equated praying about my hardship with immediately “feeling” emotionally pain free.  James says not so.

James’s statement is frankly so simple it’s hard.  James is saying unexpected call-pray, diagnosis-pray, accident-pray, loss-pray, illness-pray, broken-pray, hurt-pray.  Pray through the tears, the shock, the hurt, the pain, the questions, the confusion.  Just pray.  The tears may still flow, we may still feel the gut punch, we may still feel the pain and confusion and our minds may be whirling, but as Jack Graham says, when we pray, that’s when we bring God into our pain.  That’s when we can begin to emotionally heal, be comforted and strengthened when the tough stuff comes our way.

Remember, God knows our hardships before they happen.  He doesn’t need us to pray to Him to tell Him what our hardship is, He knew and knows.  We need to pray to Him for our healing.  Only when we invite God into our tough stuff can we be comforted and be strengthened.  God wants to be an active participant in our burden bearing, not a distance observer.  He enters when invited, by prayer. While relaying yet another devastating prayer request to a friend the other day, she said:   “God must really want to spend time with us because He’s giving us lots of things to talk to Him about.”  So true.

I was hoofin’ it at lunch the other day. It was one of those absolutely beautiful days. You know the ones, when every person you pass is stepping light and smiling bright. The ones that make people shout greetings across the street over the urch of the brakes. A day when joy is palpable.

As I move along, I see two ladies sitting on the stairs of a building along the sidewalk. I yell a hello, how are you, wish them well and keep going.

The next day was exactly like the last joy day, only maybe more so. Once again I see my ladies just a sitting, enjoying the sunshine. I yell a hello and something made me stop. I introduced myself and lo and behold one of them I knew from several years back. She introduced me to her friend, T, and we reacquainted. It was great. As we talked, I learned that She had had a rough couple of years. Within the past two years She had lost two sons and a boyfriend to drugs. My heart turned black for her. Of course there were the formalities, I’m so sorry, can I help you, how are you doing? She said it had been hard but that She was hanging on to the Lord. My black heart was turning toward the light. Am I the only one that feels completely humbled and thankful when those whose lives are much harder than mine comfort me and point me to the Light?

A couple of days later, I ran across She and T in the same spot with the same smiles. You know me, I can’t pass up a chance to chat, so I did. We talked about the world and the craziness going on. We talked about the Lord and how He is the only one who can fix it. We shared the Lord, we shared the Bible, and back to work I went. I’ve been rehashing those conversations with She and T. They too were looking for solutions to a world gone awry. Pain is universal. We live in a world filled with pain, suffering, hate, violence, selfishness, death, meism, corrupt leaderless leaders, godlessness. Unfortunately, we all play some part in that, whether actively or passively, by our actions or by our inaction. Ouch, sorry! Here’s the thing – we as believers also know the solution to it all, don’t we?

For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. Titus 2:11

It just doesn’t get any clearer than that, does it? God gives us something we don’t deserve and could not possibly ever earn. But for His grace, we could not be saved. If we are looking to anything or anyone other than Jesus to save us and the crazy world we live in, we are on a dead end road, literally. Sometimes it is perfectly clear and other times it is as clear as mud. Right? Me, She and T were able to easily identify the problems of the world. I bet you could too. But sometimes we(me) humans spend more time talking about the problems than enacting the solutions, don’t we? Why? Because we’re hand-wringers. It’s easier for us to worry on or complain about something than to do something about something. That’s wrong.

As Christians, what are we supposed to do? Changing the world seems like an insurmountable challenge, doesn’t it? But it also seems an odd question when we look at who we serve, the God of the insurmountable, the God of the Good News – remember the grave? He has given us incredible resources to accomplish His purposes. He has given us every tool we need, but better yet, He has given us the power to use every tool He has given us. Here’s the thing – we must use the tools. Our sole purpose in life is to change the world one lost soul at a time. If we’re living for another purpose, we’re wrong. But, what does changing the world look like?

Jesus traveled through all the towns and villages of that area, teaching in the synagogues and announcing the Good News about the Kingdom. And he healed every kind of disease and illness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were confused and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. He said to his disciples, “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields.” Matthew 9:35-38

That’s what changing the world looks like. Going, telling, teaching the Good News – changing lives, adding workers to the fields.