Life in Death

On January 6, 2012, my great-grandmother died. I’ve written about her once before specifically for Word for Today, but her life merits more than one day’s worth of contemplation. She went quietly with people who love her surrounding her little bed in the nursing home that she moved to a couple of months ago.

My dad told us around midnight that night when he got home from Abilene. The next morning I was putting laundry away in my 13-year-old sister’s room. I couldn’t help but notice this handwritten letter sitting on her bedside table:

Dear Scrapbook,

    Today was a special and memorable day. Today was the day my great-grandmother died. While I was at school doing things that didn’t hardly amount to anything, Daddy was in the presence of a courageous, strong, elderly lady...Granny. I will never forget this day--the day a sweet soul moved to her true “home, sweet, home.” I love Granny with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength. Granny is not just a regular person, but is now an angel in God’s kingdom.

Blessings Granny,

Kate

Pondering death is disconcerting. When I was very young, I went through a phase when the idea of death was terrifying. I wasn’t afraid of the process of dying. I was afraid of heaven. I was afraid of eternity. I was so afraid of these things that my young self was prepared to do whatever it took to stay alive. Because life was perfect then. This world was an adequate home. I didn’t need heaven. I didn’t need something better because this world was good enough.

Then I grew older. I experienced things that hurt my heart and my spirit. These wounds hurt a little more than the skinned knees that I cried over when I was much younger. This home started to feel uncomfortable.

I grew older still. The more I pursued the Lord, the more this world spit me out. I felt a hunger in myself and could find no satisfactory nourishment. The churning within me continued for years. I turned many places and none of them provided a proper dwelling for my spirit. My spirit always returned to the Lord, sometimes out of desire, sometimes out of necessity. The only thing that could provide snippets of satisfaction, inexpressible joy, and consistent hope was not of this world.

C.S. Lewis says it best in his book, Mere Christianity: “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”

I can’t even begin to convey the atrocities that my great-grandmother experienced in her life. My feeble woes are small potatoes compared to hers. She was faithful to the Lord to the last day of her life. Her spirit transcended the devil’s throes because she remembered that she was made for another world. She knew pieces of that world through God’s blessings in this one. That, coupled with the knowledge of her salvation, kept her going to the very end. I look to her example to live my life in the same way--in pursuit of experiences in this world that draw my spirit closer to the next one. Because Jesus is Lord over both realms.

“Be still, my soul;

the Lord is on thy side.

Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain;

Leave to thy God, to order and provide;

In every change He faithful will remain.

Be still, my soul;

thy best, thy heavenly Friend

through thorny ways

leads to a joyful end.”

Amen.

Erin Daugherty, Abilene Christian University

Kate Daugherty, Stephenville, TX

Faithful God and Provider

But let all who take refuge in you be glad;
       let them ever sing for joy.
Spread your protection over them,
       that those who love your name may rejoice in you.
 For surely, O LORD, you bless the righteous;
       you surround them with your favor as with a shield. – Psalm 5:11-12

Does the story of Noah encourage you?Whatever Noah needed, God provided.  Whatever God commanded, Noah obeyed.
Noah was given a daunting task…to build one of the largest sea-worthy vessels with limited tools and assistance.  God provided the design, the materials, the time and strength to complete it.

I wonder:     

How did he cut the large quantity of wood needed?

Did he chisel tongue and groove to hold the boards together?

Where did he find the volume of pitch to cover inside and out?

Did his wife, his sons and their wives assist or encourage him?

His sons may have been mere babies when he began to build.  

He gathered provisions for his family and the menagerie aboard the ark, BUT how did he know the length of days they would be in the ark?

Thoughts of Noah continue to perplex my mind, yet bolster my spirit. The bittersweet story of Noah and the flood contains many lessons for the generations that follow him.
God has a task for each of His children.
He will provide all we need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3).
He will not ask more of us than we are able.
He is a God of absolute faithfulness, to man and to His every Word-eight survived, all others perished.

Imagine how closely Noah walked with the LORD God.
Is the joy of the LORD where Noah found his strength (Neh. 8:10, Psalm 5:11-12)?
I can almost hear Noah singing joyful praises to his LORD as he built and prepared day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year.
Yet his heart heavy with sorrow for souls that rejected God over and over.  They ignored his preaching about the coming wrath.  Then came the day.  It was too late. The ark was closed up and the rain began to fall. 

Noah was obedient.Twice Genesis records that Noah did all that the LORD commanded.
    Noah did everything just as God commanded him. (Gen. 6:22)

Noah was a man of faith.  He believed, so he obeyed completely. (Gen. 7:5)

And again, after the flood stopped and the water dried up, he did not leave the ark until the LORD God commanded-Gen. 8:15.  He, his family and the animals had been aboard the ark for 1 year and 10 days!  Noah didn’t trust his own judgment but he wholly trusted God. 

Noah was faithful.

By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. (Heb. 11:7)

Noah was compassionate.  He preached righteousness to deaf ears beyond the seven that would embark with him.  If (God) did not spare the ancient world when He brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others;(2 Peter 2:5)

Let us learn the lessons God provides in the story of Noah, may they strengthen our resolve to teach the lost, and build our faith to obey Him completely. 

Wise, Patient and Loving Father ,
How majestic You are. Your love floods over us.  May it also flow through us to a world who knows You not.  Increase our faith and compassion, that we may obey you wholeheartedly and   teach the gospel.  As You patiently wait not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance.  One sorrowful day it will be too late just as in the days of Noah.   Thank you for the way of salvation You gave to us.
In the precious name of Jesus, Amen 

Mischelle Oliver

Stephenville, Texas

A Delightful Land

"Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land, says the Lord Almighty.  Malachi 3:12

 

I used to teach a class called The ABC’s of Behavior Modification.  “A” is for antecedents (what happens before) “B” (the behavior), and “C” is consequences.  The secret to a better life is found in your A’s, B’s and C’s.  

Malachi, the last book in the Old Testament, reads like a behavior modification textbook.  It contains 4 short chapters.  (Its historical context can be studied on your own if you wish).      Through Malachi (“my messenger”), God urges his children to stop their sinful behavior and return to him before it’s too late.  As rebellious children often do, they deflected God’s warnings with a series of disrespectful questions:

• How have you loved us?
• How have we shown contempt for your name?
• How have we defiled you?
• How have we wearied you?
• How are we to return [to you]?
• How do we rob you?
• What have we said against you?

God doesn’t mince words.  His response left no doubt about the consequences awaiting them.  I hope I would be among those who respected God enough to take him at his word.  Malachi 3:16 says, “Then, those who feared the Lord talked with each other, and the Lord listened and heard.”  

What happens when people fear (respect) the Lord?

• They are God’s treasured possession.
• They are spared compassionately as a father spares his son.
• The sun of righteousness rises for them with healing in its wings.
• They are so different from the wicked that the whole world knows it.
• God throws open the flood gates of heaven and deluges them with blessings.
• They leap like calves released from the stall, and trample their enemies.
• The world calls them blessed, “for yours will be a delightful land.”

Almighty God, because you are Love, you’ve never done anything but love us.  You’ve showered us with unending mercy time and time again.  May our faithful obedience reflect our gratitude.  Amen.       

Sandra Milholland

Abilene, Texas 

The War

“For though we live in the world we are not carrying on a worldly war, for the weapons of our warfare are not worldly but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every proud obstacle to the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.”  - 2 Corinthians 10:3-6

When Paul describes our battle, the picture is right out of Revelation. The war is against supernatural forces, yet this battle that is out of this world is fought in our very minds. A battle for who we really are and what we think. Our very thoughts.  

I have always thought of this passage as a discription of evangelism. The truth overcomes arguments, changes hearts and converts people. Darkness is pushed back. All this is true but notice the personal references. “When your obedience is complete”.

When I look at this scripture as a mirror pointed at me instead of a search light pointed at others, I am stunned. Look at it. I am carrying on this war in my mind as well. I have built proud obstacles to the knowledge of God. Proud might not only mean the size of the obstacle but it could also mean the reason for the obstacle. My pride, many times, is the obstacle. It stands between me and the truth. This pride is afraid I will cease to exist; that I will become unimportant. So there is some truth of God I might not want.

This obstacle must be destroyed and this thought must be taken captive. I must die to self. I must realize I am and always have been insignificant. That Christ is EVERYTHING. “For me to live is Christ”.

Dear God, How hard it is for me to be humble or rather to admit how small I have always been. I don’t know why you care about me but I am grateful you do. In this battle in my mind, please destroy the strongholds of sin. Please take down those proud obstacles. Please take every thought captive. Help me, please, to finish my race. Help me, please, complete my obedience. In the name of Your Son, I pray.

Paul Shero

San Angelo, Texas

A Heart Like Jesus

One of my favorite songs is “Open the Eyes of My Heart Lord”.  Many Christian artists have sung it in the Christian music arena and a few years ago it was popularized on the much bigger country music scene whenever country music artist Randy Travis added it to his repertoire.

The first part of the song and that which is most intriguing to me is as follows:
Open the eyes of my heart, Lord
Open the eyes of my heart
I want to see You
I want to see You

My interest lies in the “eyes of my heart” and “I want to see You” part of the song. How do we see with our hearts?  How do we see the Lord here on earth?

The scriptures speak plenty about the heart.   In fact, we are warned that our hearts can become deceitful, hardened, and evil.  Furthermore, the scriptures encourage us to guard, protect, and keep our hearts soft, humble, gentle, and pure.  

So how does the molding and shaping of our hearts come about??  Well…life experiences to be sure, but more specifically life experiences with other people.  I don’t think life can really occur without other people.  Whether it is family, friends, neighbors, enemies, doctors, nurses, grocery store clerks, auto mechanics, telemarketers, politicians, aggressive drivers, or fast food employees, we will encounter people at some point in time during our journey here on earth.  For most folks, that is a daily encounter…good and bad.  The good people encounters are easy.  It is the bad encounters that I struggle with.  Some encounters have hardened my heart to the point that I wonder if there is any good in some folk.  These experiences that have made it difficult for me to see past the sin and brokenness in a person and remember they have a soul.  I guess you could say that for some folks, the eyes of my heart are blurry, maybe even closed.

But from the beginning, God’s plan included people.  In fact, his greatest creation was people.  We learn from Genesis 1:22, that “God created man in his own image….”  We are formed in his “likeness”, meaning somewhere in our being we possess his characteristics or “good nature”.   That’s hard to believe after observing how some folks treat others but its true.

Jesus had a heart for all people.  A heart for people, who loved him, served him, followed him, and even for those who hated him, persecuted him, and killed him.   Some of his last words while he hung on the cross was “Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23: 34).  The eyes of his heart could see past the hurt, anger, shame, evil, deceit, sin and see the good in people that God had originally created.  

As hard as it may be, I think for us to open the eyes of our hearts is to find Christ in people.     
“Rich and poor have this in common:  The Lord is the Maker of them all.”  Proverbs 22:2
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”  Matthew 5:8

Father, Forgive me whenever I’ve failed to see past the sin and see the person.  Help me to be humble and mindful of the mercy that you’ve give me so that I can share your hope with others.

In Christ, Amen.

Todd Adams

Dublin, Texas